"I Have all that I need Thank you for your services as always Sparel"
"Of course, Sir. I'm aware I can be...shall we say direct. However, I'm aware that I am not the captain. Should you need to countermand anything I say that is, of course, your prerogative and I'll strive not to take it personally."
Sparel interlaces his fingers, flips his hands palm out, and stretches his arms and fingers.
"Righ-O then. Link hands please. We're getting out of this place."
Once everyone has joined hands Sparel takes the closest hand and begins his spell. His fingers movements with is free hand defy what one would think a hand can do. Both strange and fascinating. Completing with a few arcane words
The world falls away. For a moment there is a feeling of falling
Though Sparel aimed for the city we parked the ship in, but the group instead appears in the wilderness.
"Well, It's the prime at least. One more step and we'll be back on the ship. Humm.. " Sparel looks around and notes no doorways."Shame that."
He pulls a rolled strip of cloth from one of his bracers. It seems to unstitch itself as he pulls. With a flick the cloth grows and hardens into a medium sized wooden doorway of plain make, complete with baseboards across the bottom and an actual door that opens and closes.
"In case of emergencies." Sparel says to the curious looks as if that is a complete explanation.
Sparel adjusts the doorway so that it is firmly in the ground, with a slight assist by leaning it against a tree. After checking to make sure the door is fully shut Sparel nods his approval as if the door was waiting for it.
He draws out a small ornate compass and places it on the doorframe. Flicks a switch on the side, then opens the door. You see, not a tree behind it as you'd expect, but a wooden hallway that you may recognize as belonging to Good Intentions. Sparel puts the device back in a pocket, though the portal remains.
Sparel looks at the group expectantly. "Well, Off you go.It wont last forever." He says making a motion at the doorway.
Sparel follows after everyone else is through.
Once safely aboard the ship Sparel looks at the City of Brass emblem with Detect magic. He's curious if it, or any residual magic, is still present.
The City of Brass emblem is indeed still magical, although it is now remove-able.
As for the Good Intentions, the sound of half a dozen people tumbling into Sparel's tiny room draws the attention of Aiesha, who bursts into the room with shortsword drawn in a few moments. When she sees who it is (sans Keiko, who she is hardly cautious of) she sheathes her weapon and calms down.
"So you're back, I see." she says, her voice as hard as ever. "Did you manage to have fun or did you actually get what you went for?"
She appraises each of them. "Not singed, either. And you have a new friend." She walks up to Keiko, extending a large, calloused hand. "I'm Aiesha."
"That and then some." sparel answers. "we've got some ship improvements that you're just going to love."
Tris retrieves a small silver mirror from a pouch in her belt. With one eyebrow raised inquisitively, she looks first at the captain then their newest addition.
"With the sparse description, it is a longshot... Want to try?"
Lu is most pleased by the fact that they wouldn't need to journey hours trough the plane of Fire this time!
"And someone to swab ze decks!" Lu laughs and tips the unconscious efreeti she had been carrying/dragging/pushing at Aiesha's feet. Once free of her warm burden, Lu grimaches and stretches. And she also notices that the ambient temperature is much more comfortable back here at the Prime Material Plane. "Ahhh, much better! Zat one was unwieldy. And much too warm. Bleh."
As if to show that she is actually finished with the plane of fire for a while she follows Spa's suit and takes off the emblem, holding it away from her with only two fingers as if it was unpleasant.
"So, I zink I will put away zis stamp of approval until I need it again. Now, where is Lima?"
She looks around expectantly in the small room, searching for the halfling servant. Whom, most likely, did not expect the party to return magically trough a door in the ship.
dusting himself off Sparel says "Might I suggest we have this, or any further conversation, on the deck. It'll facilitate us letting the crew know we're back. Also, my quarters are a bit cramped. "
As sparel is removing the pin and stowing it in a bag he suddenly blurts out "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" at Kieko in a tone more of concern than anger, but a touch of both. In calmer tones as she complies he adds, "this is not the place to be randomly touching things. All manner of terrible things could happen. alright, everybody, out out. " He literally makes shoo-ING motions as he ushers everyone out of the room. Once everyone is out he closes and locks the door. As he does so there is a very momentary magical sheen across the doorway that quickly fades.
Lima is waiting in Lucrecia's room. The little halfing is ecstatic to see Lucrecia again, and begins regaling the dragon the tale of the week or so spent sailing inside of thunderstorms and rainclouds - of being confined to the inside of the ship for fear of getting soaked.
Radazik's body begins to sear the deck of the ship, and the unconscious efreeti doesn't fit nearly within the dimensions of the room. He stretches out the doorway and the hallway alike. Aiesha scowls and casts a pair of spells upon him - reduce person and hostile levitation, reducing the efreeti in size and forcing him to hover above the deck of the ship. "I'll fix the doorway later. For now, we bring everyone up to the deck and get everybody caught up."
Belor shrugs. "You could get out there on the seas and we could learn more about her - get a picture taken or something. If it doesn't cost anything you might as well cast the spell. If it does...that's what our new friend is for, right?" he says, gesturing towards Elinesha.
"Nothing but time and opportunity." Tris replies and gazes into the mirror. The sorceress starts to whisper barely audible words of some ancient language into the mirror, concentrating hard. The soft chanting lasts for around an hour before the mirror begins to swirl with colours ...
A creature can notice the sensor by making a Perception check with a DC 20 + the spell level. The sensor can be dispelled as if it were an active spell.
Lead sheeting or magical protection blocks a scrying spell, and you sense that the spell is blocked.
Tris spends an hour in that bar, trying to scry Emelia. As she pulls energy into her reflective mirror, it fills with black clouds instead of the image of the person she's looking for.
Prae takes off his emblem and hangs it upon a small hook in his room thinking to himself that he definitely needs more emblems and treasures
"Sparel I recommend we have our ship meeting after sunset, as I prefer not to die again"
leaning close to Sparel and talking quietly
"Sparel tonight I need you to set up a romantic dinner for me and Tris if the weather does not comply ask Aeisha about an artifact my father gave me, it should be able to give us a pleasant evening, also when apropriate I will need Lima for some dancing music, but keep everyone else out of sight I dont want anything ruining my date"
Prae finds Aiesha and hands her the flag with a grin upon his face
"I got this special made for the ship please hang it up, also Sparel might come to you about an assignment I have given him please help him out, also Thank you very much for being great"
"Set up dinner? ... ... ... Do you mean put a table on the deck? Are there not crew members who would be better suited to the task? "
Sparel is legitimately confused about what you want. He has many skills, but romance doesn't strike you as one of the stronger ones.
Changing tone
"I thought we discussed and solved for your sunlight issue. There is a rather simple spell I could incorporate into an item for you. Let me know what item you'd like somenchanted and I'll provide a list of necessary materials.
"Nothing." Tris wrinkles her nose and pockets the mirror. Understandable. Someone hunting a necromancer must have taken some basic precautions against this. Maybe with a better description... "Can try again later, but without a better connection it'll be a slog." Or I could try another approach. Hmm ...
"Yes, one moment." Lu replies to the ship engineer. Drawing her dagger she leans over the miniaturized efreeti and cuts a few strands of his hair/beard. "For later." She explains and heads away to her cabin.
Once back in her room, she greets Lima with a quick nod then gently throws the badge at the halfling. "Catch! Souvenir from the trip. Don't lose it, might need it later yes? And archive these in a vial or something." She adds and hands over the strands of hair.
Lu grabbed a cape and headed right out again, leaving the somewhat perplexed halfling in her wake. The pleasantries could wait. Ahh, good to be back in normal temperatures! she thought to herself and headed up to the deck for the brief.
Sparel
"Make Vimes do it then I dont really care how it gets done I just want it done right"
"Oh s@*% your right I can cast protective penumbra, we can have the meeting whenever then i guess"
Prae Facepalms and a veil falls over him getting darker
"Sparel lets get this meeting under way and Thank God your the Smart one"
"I'll inform Vimes when next I see him."
Sparel joins Praet on the deck, then looks around. "Where is everyone?"
If Eiesha is present he directs the question to her.
Aiesha joins Sparel, Lu and Praetorius on the deck, while Keiko seems to be rather laggardly with her following. "The others have gone down to the town of Bloodcove." She barks a small laugh. "Looking for swabbies and the like."
"Zey are on ze ground? When will zey come back up?"
Lu asks as she heads towards the side of the ship and looks over the edge. She has augmented her lighter hot weather outfit with a cape, now fluttering in the wind. Perhaps Prae was contagious? She squints for a while, as if trying to see trough the cover of clouds, before giving up and turning back.
"No matter, I'm sure zey have fun. Now, catching up yes? We found ze scrolls we were looking for - zrough no small amount of bureaucracy. Bleh. But at least zis one could be appraised appeased with blood! You see ..."
Lu starts to retell the somewhat abridged version of their stay in the City of Brass, focusing on the more important part as well as on poorly impersonating the efreeti's voices.
Some minutes in, Lima appears with a pair of bottles from the hold and a platter of wine glasses. The short halfling servant fill them up expertly and hands them out to all among the crew wanting and actually capable of drinking (wine). She eyes Keiko a couple of times, not sure what to make of her (as Keiko no doubt has assumed her little girl in a dress persona). One thing for sure, that one looked a bit young for a drink! Maybe the vampires found someone to eat? Brrrr!
Lima the halfing is a short halfling woman of indeterminable age. She is wearing a set of finely tailored and cut clothes, but they are clearly some sort of heraldry uniform fit for a servant and not a noble. Her manners are professional but somewhat skitterish around the vampires. She has hair of some sort and colour that I am bloody sure I wrote down somewhere, but I can't find it.
A thing of note is that she now appears to be wearing Lu's badge in a piece of string around her neck, as some sort of necklace or talisman.
Sparel accepts his glass of wine and nods along with Lu's story.
Re City of Brass Bureaucracy: "Theoretically we can go back and purchase whatever else we need with the badges. I'll get started on the demiplane as soon as you're ready. It will take several hours to create, then that much time again to add the portal. Speaking of which, there are some mechanical issues to discuss about that. Where is the doorway in the ship, for instance? "
Speaking of time spent, each of you have been awake for about 21 hours, which means Lucrecia, Keiko and Sparel have fatigue kicking in - Praetorius, as a vampire, doesn't feel anymore.
Sleep is on your minds.
*YAWN*
"Perhaps first thing tomorrow."
"We can talk to the other crew members tonight or tomorrow when you three are a bit more rested and they return"
"Sparel I wont need your service tonight, obviously your too tired to be effective"
"Oh Lima I bring you a Gift"
Prae pulls out two music books from his backpack
"This one is full of piratey music and such shanties Ill need you to learn these and occasionally play them during crew meals and such events"
The other Book is a menacing black tome with a silver skull clasp and and could easily be mistaken for some necromantic artifact
"This one is very special, Its like has not been seen upon the Material plane before. I want you to Master this music, I Wish to use it for whenever I am trying to impress people or intimidate them."
"oh and Lima I know you will make me proud and I will need your music tonight for a romantic dinner with Tris"
After exploring the ship for a good bit, and deciding not to go poking around Sparel's things, Keiko finally joins the others on deck. She quietly listens to the others talk, having had a very long day.
"I believe there was a mention about quarters for me? I think a proper deal needs to be struck as well, but that can wait until after I've got my beauty-sleep."
"We can talk to the other crew members tonight or tomorrow when you three are a bit more rested and they return"
"Sparel I wont need your service tonight, obviously your too tired to be effective"
"ahh, yes. Your date."
*YAWN*
"I suspect my fatigue is not the source of my ineffectiveness in that venture." said with a dry slightly sarcastic tone
"If you had telekinesis or the ability to wisk you and your lady love short distances would that help? "
After exploring the ship for a good bit, and deciding not to go poking around Sparel's things, Keiko finally joins the others on deck. She quietly listens to the others talk, having had a very long day.
"I believe there was a mention about quarters for me? I think a proper deal needs to be struck as well, but that can wait until after I've got my beauty-sleep."
"I'm heading that way momentarily. I'll show you to one of the unused private rooms. It's not fancy or spacious, but we'll be solving for that in tomorrow. "
When SpArel heads down shortly he'll escort Kieko.
A blue streak Comes zooming out of the crows near to land beside Sparel. He pats the elemental creature as he continues his conversation.
It holds onto sparels robe slightly by his leg like a curious, but skittish child.
A blue streak Comes zooming out of the crows near to land beside Sparel. He pats the elemental creature as he continues his conversation.
It holds onto sparels robe slightly by his leg like a curious, but skittish child.
"crows nest"
Once people start yawning and mention sleep Lu takes a suspicious sip of her wine. With a bit of mental backtracking however she does realize that the drink is most likely not the issue.
"Hmph. I suppose ..." She glances towards Spa and Keiko as they leave. "All right zen. Good luck with your evening!" She waves and follows the others down.
____________________________________
Lima swallows and nods once Prae hands her the books, eyeing the second one cautiously. Extra-dimensional tomes have a certain nasty reputation which she hoped hoped hoped! wasn't true.
After collecting all the empty glasses again, she skittered away with all the stuff back to her cabin. While she couldn't really start to practice, she was a bit curious as to see what the second book contained!
The second book is, of course, full of heavy metal music. Difficult to translate to the lute, but not impossible. There's a lot of drum parts and it looks like a lot of the music would be best with four musicians.
Aiesha scoffs at Praetorius' mention of helping him with a date, although she does utilize his weather-altering orb to keep the weather nice for his date.
Vimes, on the other hand, leaps at the chance to help out Praetorius. "I hadn't pegged you for the romantic type!" he jokes, elbowing Prae in the ribs. He then runs to pick up a table, a vase, flowers, candles, plates, and a grill. He even has a apron that says "World's Best Gunslinger" on it. He has several braces of chicken and pork, a bowl of spicy barbecue sauce, and some asparagus to roast.
He begins cooking up something that smells delicious.
As the captain chose not to accept Sparel offer Spre bowed and excused himself seeing that Vimes had things well in order.
Motioning for Kieko to follow he showed her to her chamber. As a door opened at sparels motion he replied.
"This will most likely be yours for awhile should you choose. Decorate as you see fit. "
Then he retired to his rooms for the evening. Small blue humanoid by his side the entire time.
Elinesha stands up and stretches. "Well alright then. I guess that little mirror trick isn't doing any good. I'll fly out and track down that priestess's ship and have a... chat with some of her crew. I'll stop by your ship in a few hours with the information you need. Then we can discuss my... compensation." She winks at the vampire and struts out disappearing with a wave of her hand.
The room that Sparel shows to Keiko is fairly small - perhaps twelve by eight feet, and contains little more than a closet for coats and a bed, the mattress of which is questionably soft. It would be up to you to decorate it.
As for the shenanigans on the deck, Aiesha also sends a whispering wind down to the surface, to where Tris is - she wants the lamia to come up to the ship because its under attack, and something terrible has happened!
Unfortunately, Aiesha's voice is pretty flat and emotionless, and she's obviously not very amused.
She appears a discrete alleyway in Port Peril, figuring that the largest port in the entire country would be a good place to start looking for information. She heads to the docks and taverns, looking for dock workers, sailors, and others who might have recognized the ship and know where it's heading.
Port Peril is in relative chaos, having just experienced an undead attack a couple of days ago from an entire fleet of the draugr-crewed, rotting vessels. Kerdak Bonefist is doing a good job of keeping the city under wraps, being actually at home in his fortress of Lucrehold for once.
Oh yeah, the dockworkers and sailors around here have seen her alright. There are more than a few chuckles and rib-elbows between the men and women that Elinesha talks to. They mention that she helped repel the attacks that faced Port Peril and then sailed off towards the Eye of Abendego with a fleet of ships captained by Tessa Fairwind - one of the more popular Pirate Lords in the Shackles, and the only one daring enough to sail to war against a seemingly-infinite fleet of undead sailing out of the Eye.
Elinesha thanks the men who provided her with the information, but silently curses. Fairwind is one of the more powerful pirate lords and poking at her would be risky, especially considering she's trying to keep a low profile. She finds another empty alley and teleports to Drenchport, hoping the town closer to the Eye will have more information on both the undead and their hunter.
Drenchport is bustling with activity. While the undead of the region seem to be immune to the regular ravages of the Eye of Abendego, the town's ruler, the Master of the Gales, commands magical and powerful druidic storms. As such, the town has mostly been ignored or unscathed by attacks.
Elinesha finds a tavern - the largest, most popular one in town, called The Drowned Dwarf. There, she finds a dockworker who works for the Master of the Gales. This man opens up to her after a few free cups of the famous Black Kelp Beer that just yesterday, Tessa Fairwind's five ships sailed into the port, paid a bribe to the Master of the Gales to stay overnight and sailed out of the port just a few hours ago, headed around the side of the Eye, looking for undead ships to hunt and destroy.
It appears that they're seeking an intelligent captive, something that ought not to be that difficult considering the number of draugr that crew each ship.
Elinesha plays the part of a nervous new sailor, freshly taken the the seas. "Do you think there's something behind these creatures then? Some kind of monster or a necromancer or something?"
The sailor she's talking to furrows his brow. "You know how sometimes, when a zombie bites you, you get sick?" He begins nervously tapping the table between them. "That happens a lot with these attacks, if rumours are ta' be believed. I think tha's where they get their numbers."
He leans in real close. "No one really knows why they come, it's why Fairwind's out there. A lotta people think it's random, but the boss says someone's gotta be sendin' them out, for whatever nefarious purpose he doesn't know."
Elinesha puts on a show of looking horrified. "A zombie plague? This has to be some mortal necromancer with a flair for the dramatic. Really, that's what he came up with?" She frowns slightly. "Do you think Captain Fairwind will make it back in one piece? Or if she'll pass through town again?"
"She's got that undead-fighter with her." says the pirate, leaning back in his chair. "And Fairwind's a fair hand with a sword. And she's lucky to boot - if anyone's gonna be making it back, it's probably going to be her. I doubt all of her ships will, though."
"If she needs repairs or medical care, and still has the money to pay the big boss, it's likely she'll be back in the area."
She laughs. "The day Fairwind runs out of coin will be the day Quent sinks into the sea. You know, I'd like to meet her someday. She's the kind of pirate I'd want to be. Maybe meet the hunter lady too, if she's as good as they say. I bet she'd be able to give me some tips on keeping safe from those undead monsters."
She shakes her head. Flying into the Eye would be madness and trying to find Fairwind's ships in the middle of it all would be near impossible. It would be easier to find information if she waited for them to return from their hunt.
After a most wonderful date Prae retires to his room (Alone?)
and reminisces for like 8 hours
and thinks on how he may improve his dancing
The next morning Sparel heads to the galley for a light breakfast. He writes a series of notes on a stack of parchment as he sips his Kaffka and munches on a piece of toast.
When any crew member enters he waves them over to discuss his notes on the deimplane he's going to propose.
"I propose the following for the field of good intentions."
"I say we mirror a pleasant field on the Prime Material. But with several stone mushroom-like structures spaced intermittently to provide areas of deep shade for our undead friends should their sunlight protections fail. I can establish that on the first casting. For the second I'll create a portal tied to the front of the ship for the cannon placement. We'll want to put a real door on the portal. I propose we have a smaller door on that same portal for use by the crew to enter and exit. Else wise we'll need more scrolls to add additional features, but if you want to get more scrolls we'll have a lot more options."
Aiesha goes to bed late, so she's still sleeping by the time that Sparel is having his little meeting, though Belor (who came up by gyrocopter at Aiesha's word) and Praetorius don't need to sleep, and Vimes got plenty after Praetorius' date.
Belor leans forward. "Do we need a sun in the plane anyway? Why would we make something that could kill a couple of us? Especially if it's taking one of our scrolls - wouldn't a portal inside the ship be a better use of the feature? Or the infinite food thing?"
Aiesha goes to bed late, so she's still sleeping by the time that Sparel is having his little meeting, though Belor (who came up by gyrocopter at Aiesha's word) and Praetorius don't need to sleep, and Vimes got plenty after Praetorius' date.
Belor leans forward. "Do we need a sun in the plane anyway? Why would we make something that could kill a couple of us? Especially if it's taking one of our scrolls - wouldn't a portal inside the ship be a better use of the feature? Or the infinite food thing?"
Thinking a moment
"Good point. I suppose not. It'll be a bit morose, but I suppose that's acceptable."Scratches notes
"It'll be a large cave then. If we make it food producing it'll have to be mushrooms and such. If there was sunlight we could grow plants and such. Fruit trees, etc. I suppose we could make it half shadow and half sun? Literally a line down the middle. Then we'd have the best of both."
The Next Morning, Drenchport
Elinesha takes the night to explore the city more, asking around for more information and trying to discover when Fairwind's ships will return.
With what information she has in hand, she finds a deserted alley and vanishes, reappearing on the ship as the crew is waking from their night's rest. "Good morning everyone."
The Next Morning, Drenchport
Elinesha takes the night to explore the city more, asking around for more information and trying to discover when Fairwind's ships will return.
[dice=Diplomacy] 1d20 + 30
With what information she has in hand, she finds a deserted alley and vanishes, reappearing on the ship as the crew is waking from their night's rest. "Good morning everyone."
Piece of toast half way to his mouth Sparel stares for a moment as the woman appears in front of him.
Quickly recovering and still seated he says. "Are you expected? Who are you? Explain yourself, Demon."
He speaks frankly, but there's an undertone of threat.