Aikane mimics a hawk's screech! Waits. Holds up hand to tell party to stop. Slinks ahead and around danger to see what else is waiting.
sliding cooly into the scene, looking a little disappointed, Aikane keeps his hands in his belt. He says, "She told us we could save you." "Well, You as in you-whole crew and like. Seems we might could still help your lot on this little plane, though. What do you say?"
Morti gets a round reply of shrugs and uncertain murmuring. The staff is passed around quickly. "Wolves?" a familiar tall man reluctantly adds.
"......... Pass."
"Isn't there supposed to be an ?"
"Werewolves?"
Sense motive DC... None of the villagers seem to know who is responsible... but Caramir might have a few ideas. Kaerl takes you all aside as the conversation continues.
Kaerl gestures out the kirk and to the north. "Since we've come here, he's the only real enemy I've known. Sure, we've faced our starving time, but that's the same with any new outpost. Before he came along, our only enemies were the chores and work of Levoca. I still say it must be some druid, some wanderer what has come across us." He nods respectfully to Mikka, "present company excluded of course."
I kid you not, the woman tried dancing with them. It was as straight laid a back-alley stab-em-up as any after that.
Caramir & Shade:
As you pass into a clearing on the other side of the trees, you notice Shade perched atop a low branch. He licks his paw calmly, then turns to face ahead of you, hackles raised. HISSSSSSSSSS!. From his pointed tail, a small ball of red light springs into the midnight air. It provides just enough light for your elven eyes to see by, as the spark floats gently forward into the darkness of the forest. Caramir What Happens Next:
Shade looks down into the clearing from overhead. The smell of decay is rich & pervasive. Blighted grounds surround the darkened glade and fungi of various shapes and sizes are everywhere, fairly blocking out the sight of thousands of crawling things beneath their bulbous caps.
The air is thick with a fog of flies and buzzing insects. Here in the center is the pitiful wreckage of a once magnificent tree. Towering overhead, the kinked thing is riddled with polypores and sick fungal growths; its thorny boughs hang wasted, swaying in the wind leafless. The tree's once great girth withered to little more than a black, lightning-tortured canker swollen by disease. A number of human heads leer from this monstrosity, the meeting point of plant and flesh a riot of lesions and puss for one and each of the heads. You hear a strange whisper on the wind...Ahshapramaaaas Overhead, among the midnight black shadows of the branches, you hear purposeful movement. Later on, in the village of Levoca...
"If the Baron Montepierre and the rest of your company were slain by this monster, then we should send for help. We can not wait for any more of you fools to die!" He finishes, holding the staff back out for anyone to take. From the crowd, you all hear a generally supportive murmur. You hear a whisper nearby, two old-ish boys, barely of age whisper to one another, "You don't think the Baron's dead, do you?" "Don't be stupid, these lot are worse than the Guilds, they probably killed the Baron Montepierre themselves!"
Aikane engages via crossbow
Nobody hits anything. The Hollow Man exits.
As everything settles down, you all realize that Mak is missing, and has been absent for some time. In the barn, you find a note addressed to Karl. Karl: Look Cove,
I've almost been gutted by this monnie three times now. You fool millers can keep the crimson I've spit. Want nothing of this half-penny port. I have enough tiggly tales. Its not my bargain to become the victim in one. Watch your feet brother,
Why don't we scale the cliffs as it were?
Trained in the ways of the wilderness, keen of eye and quick with spell, Mikka will notice. Mikka knows and notices. Mikka watches as the Hollow man carries his scythe into a tree. The golem she stalks will walk into the tree and disappear inside of it. It is almost as if he has merged within it.
The wood ward that skittered inside skitters back outside quietly, returning to the feet of the crooked Wood Golem. A quick idiot wail escapes the Hollow Man, and he begins to walk east towards the woods. The wood wards continue to watch your party closely as it departs. They set themselves between your group and the Hollow Man. As the Hollow Man gets ready to go, he holds his bone-white wooden scythe up to the stars above. This picture is a pretty good example of the type of Dugout home Baca's family would have lived in.
apparently levoca is pronounced Luh voh cha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%86
Fun things to know and tell before midnight. Polish, very slavic letter to have in your village name.
the little Menehune bellows out with all his lungs. Aikane sounds the alarm.
It was at this time that I again reached a familiar conclusion. That it was a terrible mistake to ever purchase this wretched ship.
High above the revelry, Aikane sits in the rigging. He draws his bow across the fiddle's strings, and begins to play a calming song.
it's not great.
Well, I did spoiler my original post, and included a pre-spoiler of "Yes, this means just the DM." ...Oren, YMMV
You hire on a thief, even a neutral good one, I should say you should expect a certain level of "thievery in good measure". I'm not just here to check for traps and play cards, you know.
Nearby, Aikane puts away his weapons. He crosses over to the Rita. Now the cards stay where they lie. The colors stain and streak in a puddle of vomit, on a slave ship, in the sun. If this revolution crap is just around the corner, it's been there for a damn long time. I wish I knew just which corner that son of a fish is hiding behind. The resistance is here now. There may not be room for a revolution. If there is a future for any of us.
From the deck, Aikane waves for Oren to bring the ship along side if possible.
Aikane does not take much notice or shape up at all, despite Jacinth's orderly attitude. He Slips around behind the mates of the ship.
And then he pulls out his deck of cards, offering one face up to the mates.
Aikane looks wedjat in the eyes. "Claws. Just be dainty. Not so dainty, you drop me though."
UGH
Valia pulls himself up to a sitting position against the wall. Then he gives Ayla an appraising look. It has not escaped his notice that she passed through the fight unharmed. "Thank you Sharae," he bows his blood-soaked head. Then uses a corner of his sleeve to wipe himself down. Then, he turns to Criek, patting him on the little furry shoulder. "We were prepared Criek. ugh. We were well suited to the task, but now... Without Ardash, we will all have our work cut out for us." "Let me watch the door while you check inside. Come and get me if I'm needed inside." Valia sets up where he is to watch toward the entrance to the cave.
I haven't had that much fun since the forest that one night.
Aikane tips his head from side to side, then says, "Let's live dangerously"
"The ace's face, and his friend the-"
Aikane frowns pensively, "-King. You win this round, Oren!
BUT VALIA IS TOTALLY DEVOTED TO KEEPING CRIEK ALIVE. just as soon as he stands up again, hah.
So lets hire a bunch of elves then. Cut back on our sleep concerns. Or y'know, liberate some slaves. They'll be thankful, right? Seriously though, Aikane with a blank expression on his face: "I'm a nice guy, but tell me again what you did with my share of the advance"
A number of other patrons join the crowd while Trig and Laurentii sit with Ameiko at the bar. One seems the part of a woman caravaner, perhaps a merchant?
They each place orders with a lady halfling who sits atop a high stool behind the bar, then go to their respective tables. locals know that: The bearded man in plate is Julen Brelade, a swordsman and one of the heroes of Sandpoint.
The others are new in town. Lastly, the halfling behind the bar is Bethana, Ameiko's assistant-manager for the Dragon. Bethana is a superb tap-master.
"The proper authorities? Shirley, you are joking?" righteous be their will, the tides and gods.
"Flamable indeed.
"You okay, big fella?"
During my rest period, I want to search the cargo hold for anything out of the ordinary.
Aikane is hardly bothered by rolling deck below.
“It is time, for the zenith of the Regent’s power grows near.” One spot is reserved. I am currently looking for a party of five.
In order to offset the point-buy restrictions, you GM will have a few nice rewards along the way. 15 point buy & First Level.
Your role-play and good name on these boards is more important to me than your build.
I would also like to see a brief statement of concept for any characters submitted. This should be in the style of Numenera, or in other words “ JOE THE BAKER is an ADJECTIVE NOUN who VERBs.”
Strange, distorted shards of glass.
Isn’t that what you used to say, old man? I forget how it went. So much you forget when your back is aching and the sun dives low through the blue sky. We were half fools then to leave, but it would have been a murderously stupid thing to stay. All the Jade on Mulberry Street couldn’t anchor me to shore.
"More than some I know, and frankly I find your offer flattering in light of others I've seen. You know, I had hoped we could have been of more use to you and your crew, but the Rita is in no place to make demands of any Captain". "Your terms are met and agreed. May the wind be at your back, and mine too. For fortune favors the daring."
Aikane doesn't open the scroll case just yet, preferring to scan the docks for onlookers.
Aikane walks up a number of boxes and stands on the ship's bannister. Catching hold of the rigging, he waves to the minotaur, then balances along the edge of the Rita as he makes his way down the gang plank amd across to the dock. He sits atop one of the posts at the pier, and looks the minotaur in the eye warmly. "Good to see you. Shall I invite you on board? I don't want to keep your captain waiting."
Aikane removes his hand quickly and puts both his hands in his pockets. He prickles at the suggestion. And wouldn’t you know, I think all the promise of gold had gone right into her head. It was clear that she was shaping up to draw a lot of attention. Attention we didn’t need, and I wanted nothing to do with. Even with several thousand gold on the table, she almost unsold me of the entire voyage with her notion. “I want nothing of the blue men, and less of His eye.” He turns away “As for the elfette, she will never speak the truth. Only her actions will speak to us.” He paces shaking his head.
“This is why we wear our weapons: That we may trust everyone and watch like hell. Meanwhile the story of McFarrows is on each street corner, every alley door, the tongues of barkeeps and lips of maids.”
"We've been wondering what kind of dumb b£¥€# goes on an archaeological expedition to Dolentia £¥€^% island," Aikane says crassly.
"Not that it was Genevieve's idea, of course. We have had a hard time following the logic of it all, I mean."
ze monologue:
Serve the woman? No, not serve the woman, I reflected. Meet her at the end.
Hard spies, terrible lies, and more angles on the average street corner than colors you can find in the rainbow. The woman asked me if the Tulita spy. If your average fishmonger doesn’t spy on the rest of the market row, then he is more likely to wind up in a bed of sewage than one lined in feathers at the end of the night. I need that question like I need second log between my legs. Well it certainly doesn’t comfort my flaming hide. Of course after that it was all politics on the way back… Humans and their politics. I took a dim view of it all. If they just moved away from it, then the cancerous shaw would have no hold on them. The jungle is their true home and their best liberation. Instead they’ve taken their fates and shackled it to fields of shame and filthy bars. What is another shared project that isn’t a shackle at the leg. You remember the aqueducts, old man? Remember too, then, how we left them behind.
Aikane doesn't get too intense with the chilly bathwater. He poses as a gritty sailor in a blue and white striped bandana.
to check for tails.
"My notes are copious and without error." Aikane keeps a notepad of many leaves upon him at all times, a well-chewed piece of volcanic coal is firmly tucked behind one ear... and yet he never shares his scribblings with anyone.
Aikane can't shake the feeling: but what if it's not whale...
In Tulita, Aikane says "Maika`i `ole?" Terrible? Old man, I've been quite honest to you up until this point, haven't I? Well, the matter of the truth is, well, I love the smell of the outskirts. Dirt and dung and driftwood, but on the wind the smell of Taro. And carried with Taro's scent is jungle, and the thought of afternoon rains on the caldera. The memories of water hissing in smoke-filled stone pockets. The song of Pele. The hum of earth and echo of drumbeats swell within my heart. I will never understand how they can be so downtrodden. The humans--Tulita-- they swelter in the heat and fear monsters in the night. Pele has blessed them with life, and they do not have the sight to live it well. Her children were meant to suckle dew and waste with fire and swim with speed. One of these days..., I remember thinking, Her Fire will come here before it ever touches the Jade District. Hope for our lady was in short supply. "Containing the outlanders, this is not so Terrible." he shrugs off the sacrifice. "Good fishing not far from here. They must work for gold, yes? Or do they actually labor for food?" I always wonder."
Hey Rata, A bucket of paint and a nondistinct figurehead would do in a pinch.Having a page from the dragoons recordbook might lend it authenticity. Have you ever seen Lord of War? Same principles. For best results, gather names of ships lost at sea which match your vessel's description. Just sayin, "if I was a pirate"-style
Hey, since it looks like we are going all nautical on this, I would like to refer everyone to my favorite historical figure of all time, Thomas Cochrane, the 10th Earl Dundonald.
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