Jade Regent, the Unexpected Journey

[Zaraleva]

"Dia-what? Shinobi? Here?"
Zaraleva looks befuddled and hopes one of you can explain.

So now we think the Frozen Shadows set us up? Do they have the sword? All this blood on our hands and we have no sword and more questions than answers. Should we leave the shinobi to burn on the funeral ship?"

[Lyraesel]

"No good reason not to." Lyraesel replies with the shrug, moving towards the edge of the boat. "We should go"

[Byron Vhiski]

"I agree. Leave them here and lets go get some rest. We can try and figure out how to deal with our various problems later." Byron looks at the scout who is with them and says, "Did the undead creature below look like who you were searching for?"

[Zaraleva]

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, Byron. I was assuming luring us here, releasing the monster, setting the ship on fire, and sending the shinobi was all a complicated trap to kill us."

Her Detect Magic picks up the ioun stone, so she plucks it out, wondering what it is. If there are no other magic sources, she will move toward the kayaks. "Byron, ride with me. I'll give you some more healing if nothing else tries to kill us.... Well, even if it does."

[Adrian Liu]

"It would be rough to explain how we came to be like that, yeah." Adrian admitted. "But we should set up camp for the night. I'm tired of getting ambushed."

[karlprosek]

The Varki tracker speaks up. "If you have assassins coming after you, I know a place in Kalsgard we could go where anyone watching your inn wouldn't know to look for you. I stay at the shrine of Shelyn with a friend when I'm in town. There's enough space for you there."

[Zaraleva]

"Let's go there in that case. We should still be wary, though. After we get in the kayaks, maybe start the ship burning to destroy evidence and not have more of those warriors come out to investigate."

Did the shinobi have kayaks too or did they swim here?

[Hattori Aiko]

They probably ran across the water.

"All right, let's go to ground. We'll have to be careful about coming and going so that we don't draw an attack to the shrine if someone spots us."

[Byron Vhiski]

Was the undead guy the person that the tracker was looking for?

Byron gathers the loot and gets in a kayak to go.

[Zaraleva]

Byron Vhiski wrote:

Was the undead guy the person that the tracker was looking for?

Almost positive that he wasn't, based on GM's post about her face, perhaps thinking he's in a shallow grave somewhere. On another note, should we return to Asvig's farm with a Speak With Dead prepared?

[Lyraesel]

Lyraesel turns, for a moment focusing on one of the spots on deck reeking of oil and pitch, and gestures with a whisper, blowing a spark that ignites the oily ground around the body on the pyre. Waiting just long enough to watch thefire begin to build hungrily, she nods as if encouragingthe growing flames, and climbs into one ofthe kayaks.

Cast spark

That's a pretty good idea Zar

[Byron Vhiski]

It doesn't hurt, but I think there is a good chance he put the sword on the boat and whoever sent the ninja's has the sword now. I do want to try and find a cleric to deal with the negative level if I fail the second save.

[karlprosek]

Byron Vhiski wrote:

Was the undead guy the person that the tracker was looking for?

Based on the name of the dead guy "Snorri One Eye" and the fact that the draugr only had 1 eye, Byron is pretty sure the undead he fought was indeed the guy who's supposed to be on the funeral pyre, not the wilderness guide Ukshakka is looking for.

[karlprosek]

Zaraleva wrote:

Almost positive that he wasn't, based on GM's post about her face, perhaps thinking he's in a shallow grave somewhere. On another note, should we return to Asvig's farm with a Speak With Dead prepared?

That's an interesting idea. Do you want to do that now or after you rest?

[Zaraleva]

karlprosek wrote:

Zaraleva wrote:

Almost positive that he wasn't, based on GM's post about her face, perhaps thinking he's in a shallow grave somewhere. On another note, should we return to Asvig's farm with a Speak With Dead prepared?

That's an interesting idea. Do you want to do that now or after you rest?

After we rest and Byron makes his save. (My Heal check was pretty high.)

[Adrian Liu]

Yeah. Let's rest first.

[Byron Vhiski]

Should I make the save with the spells Zaraleva has so we can decide if we need to go find a cleric in town who can assist with a Restoration?

[karlprosek]

The group returns to Ukshakka's dugout where she'd hidden her kayaks. It doesn't make for a very comfortable night but it is enough of a shelter to allow the group to eventually fall asleep and get some rest. Returning to Asvig Longthews' home, they find that while most of the thralls had run away all the non-enslaved servants had stayed and had cleaned up after the massacre. On seeing the murderers return, the workers take shelter in the kitchen, barring the door from the inside.

The bodies could be found piled in the barn, likely awaiting a holy man to sanctify them before they were put on a blazing pyre themselves.

Okiedoke, you're back at the scene of the crime. Who do you pull out of the pile?

Z, how many Speak with Dead spells do you have prepared?

[Byron Vhiski]

Do I need to make a Fortitude save to get rid of the Negative level?

[Zaraleva]

Keeping my domain spell of produce flame, I'll prepare a bear's endurance for Byron for just before he hits the 24-hour mark and three speak with dead.

[Adrian Liu]

What bodies can we see? Do any of them have the sword?

[Zaraleva]

I just found a wrinkle in my "brilliant" plan. Speak With Dead is Cleric 3. GM, have we won enough fights and other things to make 5th level? If not, my friends, I think we need to interrogate the remaining servants. One of them surely must have heard something about the sword and/or the Frozen Shadows. I'm fine with Diplomacy or Intimidate.

Speak with Dead
School necromancy [language-dependent]; Level cleric/oracle 3,

Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S, DF

EFFECT

Range 10 ft.
Target one dead creature
Duration 1 min./level
Saving Throw Will negates; see text; Spell Resistance no

DESCRIPTION

You grant the semblance of life to a corpse, allowing it to answer questions. You may ask one question per two caster levels. The corpse’s knowledge is limited to what it knew during life, including the languages it spoke. Answers are brief, cryptic, or repetitive, especially if the creature would have opposed you in life.

If the dead creature’s alignment was different from yours, the corpse gets a Will save to resist the spell as if it were alive. If successful, the corpse can refuse to answer your questions or attempt to deceive you, using Bluff. The soul can only speak about what it knew in life. It cannot answer any questions that pertain to events that occurred after its death.

If the corpse has been subject to speak with dead within the past week, the new spell fails. You can cast this spell on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, but the body must be mostly intact to be able to respond. A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all. This spell does not affect a corpse that has been turned into an undead creature.

[Zaraleva]

Also, we can't allow the bodies to be burned yet if we're not 5th level yet.

[karlprosek]

Yeah go ahead and level to 5th.

Adrian Liu wrote:

What bodies can we see? Do any of them have the sword?

No, nobody at the farm fought with a sword. The warriors used axes and the chief used a spear. You already looted the bodies, anyway, so you have anything of interest that was on them.