"They can if you bash one side flat" retorted Meri without looking back.

From her backpack, Timur glanced back at the others, twitching his shoulders slightly as if shrugging apologetically at them.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Wed 03 June 2015.

"Aaww, that's not very nice." says Nym. "Wouldn't be a ball then, would it? It'd be...a...er...lump...thing? Anyway, I don't think this one'd let you..."

She looks around and gestures to the Ball.

"C'mon, Ball." she says. "Looks like we're going this way."

Lol, I'm going to take Nym's rampant attention deficit disorder as a 'yes' to Meri's indicated direction :D

Edit: Oops, I forgot who I was DMing, and so I missed a whole lot of character interaction. Think it all still works. You lot really are the odd couple. We're in for some fun :)


As Nym flashed more sparks in her hand, The Ball started to bounce up in the air higher and higher around her hand, as if each flash were some effect of it hitting a trampoline. The Ball went crazily high with giddy joy...and then suddenly stopped in mid air. However, then it suddenly rocketed downwards with lethal speed to stop dead on the ground, without one sound of air or impact being made.

The Ball then, worryingly, rolled from just behind Nym's left foot where it had landed, all the way around to the front edge of her right foot. Where it appeared to quiver, just a little.

At Meri's words... and more importantly the implied if not completely serious threat... The Ball reacted. Instead of moving away from Meri though, it instead rolled quickly to the same position on the right hand edge of her boot.

If the positions of the ball could be triangulated, it seemed in each case to be putting itself perfectly at the opposite side of each person compared to where the edge of the forest had been, back along the road.

Since nothing was visible, and nothing could come at them through the thinner wood it seemed, there was not a lot more to be done than move onwards. It was still odd though.

Meri was hindered a little by The Ball managing to perfectly roll along with her footsteps, as if encouraged by Nym's words, but it kept butting in to Meri's foot the moment the artificer set her foot down, no matter where she tried to land her footstep. More worryingly, The Ball had taken on the deep green hue and oddly leafy pattern of the thick trees they had left behind. Somehow, the tightly coiled ball of leaves seemed even more ominous than the unmoving trees they had left behind.

Still, the day was pleasant, the air heating up not uncomfortably, and the woods were thinning leaving the path alone to meander up a slow incline. The land gave one final attempt to raise up with a steeper uphill before giving up to simply coast down towards a wide river.

The gentle slope down to the river actually had the beginnings of white and yellow flowers scatter as the slope closed in on the bank, and in general the ground had a light carpet of grass oddly missing in the woods further back. The woods that seemed to follow them at a very respectful distance though, flanking them in the distance on the left. The Ball let up, growing green like the grass and having the same blade like texture. It even moved a small way from Meri's foot, though made no move to go ahead of her.

The river itself moved across the view from right to left until it disappeared behind the woods once more, though there was some sparkle in the distance to the left that spoke of either a lake or a turning of the river somewhere. To the right the river meandered itself up new slopes and found some green in the far distance.

The splash and play of the river could be heard, but more importantly the 'stone bridge' across it could be seen. Or rather, the two or three sad lumps or solid, square stone that had once spanned the wide water. Each easily as big as the body of either traveler, even now when the stones were worn by the elements, and they retained their artificial shape unmistakeably.

However, only three stones were present on this side of the river, clinging to the bank, one placed far enough from the other two to show how wide the bridge had been in its day. The width could have allowed a large goods wagon, or two horses traveling in opposite directions - to pass each other with ease.

There were a similar collection of stones on the other side, and one large stone in the centre of the river, breaking the waters around it defiantly.

To the left a few hundred yard from the bridge the bank appeared to be eroded equally on the near and the far sides. This must have been the ford, and the impression of a bump of some kind under the water there reinforced this. Oddly only the far side looked worn, as if it were used more by people coming to access the river than to cross it.

What was beyond the river was harder to tell. There were certainly stone shapes littered around, like the outlines of houses - or at least what might have been houses, and were now just short walls. Not everywhere though. There seemed to be some shapes larger and more complete than others. Perhaps a few intact houses in the hazy distance. And two larger blocks near the river. One was at least two storeys tall, a thick black block against the bright day. And a smaller, squatter black shape closest to the opposite bank.

Those two buildings had one thing in common - the tiny yet unmistakeable wafts of smoke that spoke of a controlled fire inside the building coming from a chimney. They were occupied, it seemed.


Welcome to Stonebridge! At least maybe the original entrance? Look around or move forwards, feel free to use any skills you like in any way you like. While fourth edition does delineate combat and non combta powers quite well, never hesitate to suggest a non-combat use for a power if you thin it might do something. I'll try not to spring a battle on you if you use an encounter power this way, or I'll have warned you anyway if it feels like you are in combat style timing :)

Anyway, who's mentioning combat and combat rounds and combat powers? Not me, I'm just letting you see a cool place :p
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Wed 03 June 2015.

Nym surveys theview, then points across at the dark shapes.

"Houses!" she says. "Maybe there's people."

She looks at the ford.

"I hope that's a ford. What if it's a big hungry monster hiding under the water? That'd be a good idea, wouldn't it? If you were a big hungry monster, I mean - sit in the middle of where a ford's supposed to be and then eat anyone who tries to walk on you. I suppose you'd need to hold your breath for a long time..."

Meri continued along the path, pausing only to stomp her boot down hard on the ground near the ball in an attempt to discourage it from nudging at her foot.

Pausing at the edge of the river, she looked over at the houses with smoke coming from them and then towards the remains of the bridge.
She didn't reply to Nym's comment, although her attention did move towards the ford.
A noticeable frown appeared on her face as she peered at it.

"Don't try to cross it anyway" she remarked quietly, looking back at the houses and narrowing her eyes, raising a hand to shade her eyes from the sun as she squinted at them, trying to make out all visible details of the scene.
There was a hint of wariness about her that hadn't been there before...


OOC: Hmmm...

[Private to The Altweaver: Do I need separate Perception rolls to check out the ford and the houses?
Rolled 26 for one, let me know if I need another one :)

Looking for any hints of a trap on the ford (the fact that it only shows activity from one side is suspicious).
And any hints of who or what might be occupying those houses.]

Nym shrugs and returns her attention to the distant houses.

"Wonder who lives there, anyway." she says. "Maybe we can find out! Can you see anything?"

[Private to GM: Perception for noticing...anything much...holy shit I critted :O.]

The Ball ignored the general wariness / inquisitiveness of the group, and suddenly made a dash for the river. Not the ford, nor the area the bridge had been, but somewhere in between.

It leapt at the last minute, spinning around as it dropped deep in to the water with a 'plop'. It popped up and bobbed along happily after a moment, looking like a solid iron ball. Disconcertingly it bobbed happily exactly against the current. It then would plop under the water as it got near the bridge, to reappear downstream near the ford.

It did not seem to be conveying any message, as there was no real pattern to its ducking and diving and bobbing. It just seemed to be happy to play for a few moments.


The houses and rest of the surroundings - for the moment - blissfully remained the same. Getting a little closer and at a better angle from the sun, the two storey building appeared to have many large windows. Intact windows. [Private to Nym: It felt very much like a travel inn, or other dwelling place for for some reason. Perhaps the shape was similar no matter where one walked, or perhaps it was just like another Nym had encountered once.]

The squatter building in front seemed solid and solidly build, but very plain. The brick seemed solid and deliberate and there appeared to be a distinct lack of wood it could be noticed. In some ways it reminded both of the watchers of Meri's own smithy workshop. [Private to Meri:  As the wind caught the air gentle, blowing in her face once or twice, Meri would swear she heard the very distinct sound that a smith hammer made on the anvil. The heavy 'ting' of heavy work, rather than the delicate and insistent chatter that came with shaping, styling or finishing.]


The river itself looked to be quite shallow at the ford, but it could be noticed that the bump under the river seemed quite substantial. It made the water flow much faster across it, speaking of a much deeper river either side. [Private to Meri: The bump looked earthen, but very flat as if artificial. Perhaps the ford had been created, but especially fighting the fast river that spoke of a ford being well maintained by someone skilled. It certainly seemed like a good spot to ambush people, though there wasn't really any vegetation around to hide behind anywhere. The bank itself did not seem to have the scuffing that might have spoken of any pitched battles or attacks. There was some wear on this side, just far far more wear on the other. Given the small amount of travelers they had met on the road, it was not completely unusual. But again, it would therefore speak of this area being well used.][Private to Nym: The ford itself seemed ok, nothing moved that shouldn't. The fast water was interesting though. In nature, where fire or water or air or earth was more malleable or more intense than normal, it sometimes became easier for a wild mage to make strange and exciting things happen. It was as if the world was pleading for the change to be less ordinary.]



Lol, nothing scary to see. No need to feel alarmed. Oh, not that anyone is rolling perception checks, but can you list both the natural roll and your bonus just to save me looking around for them :)
This message was last updated by the player at 21:30, Wed 03 June 2015.

Unless we crit or botch, I suppose ;).

"Looks like an inn or something..." says Nym, looking at the buildings. Then she turns her attention to the ford. "Ooooh..." she mutters.

She walks toward the water, stopping a couple of metres away and crouching down. She stretches out a hand and shoots out a small fountain of coloured sparks, which arcs upward a short distance before falling toward the water.

Prestidigitation has a two-square range so I'm about that far away using it (any minor effects such as these sparks are Prestidigitation - if I use one of my actual proper Sorc powers, you'll know about it ;)).

Meri glanced briefly at the ball with a puzzled look before returning her attention to one of the buildings.
"Sounds like someone is working there.  A blacksmith perhaps."

Moving towards the ford, she reached out with her staff to poke at the lump in the water...


OOC: *poke poke* :)

No crits / botches on skill checks unless I am feeling nice/evil, plus just because you got a natural 20 doesn't mean I'm going to let you succeed on a DC 40 success unless you have +18 or +20 say :p


The lump of earth - or whatever densely packed material it is - does not react to the staff poke nor the minor displays of magical skill presented. The Ball reacts instead, dancing around in the water close to both of them, jumping up higher and diving down happily. The iron of the ball becomes a vibrant violet colour at odds with the blue/green/brown of the river itself, although the surface of The Ball matches the water well.

To Meri's eyes, the lump does seem like an earthen bank created fully by some skill rather than a natural formation that has been added to. Skilled, given it seems quite flat and solid to her pokes, despite the aggressive water. Unless there is something loose further along, they should be reasonably sure footed if they were to walk along. And Meri had her staff, after all, to keep poking aggressively and suspiciously with. They would probably soaked to their knees, but that may be the worst of it.

Meri stopped poking at the object in the water, raising up her staff and examining the end she had been using with a critical eye before looking back at Nym.
"May as well check it out while we're here at least" she remarked before stepping forward cautiously testing each step in front with her staff before trusting her weight to it...


OOC: Okies, heading across :)

Nym watches Meri, then moves forward to the water's edge and sticks her hand in.

On the safe side of the river...

The water was very cold to the touch, perhaps ultimately having come from the freezing hills and mountains of the north west, where dwarves and others dug deep in the hills for treasure and livelihood. The river moved her hand easily if she let it, speaking of strong eddies and currents caused by the dirt bank.

The Ball had taken to bobbing near to her hand, apparently happy to relax and defy the laws of physics by staying in place against the strong current.



On the other side of the river... which was also safe...

Meri's footsteps were occasionally hindered by a protruding stone or packed dirt that had started to come loose. The constant chilly water splashing up at her didn't help.

Still, with nothing more than soaked legs and one heart stopping wobble half way across, she had forded the ford perfectly well.

One the other side, it appeared that the dirt track continued onwards south, seemingly twisting west to snake between the two larger buildings they had seen. The sounds that had identified the smithy to Meri were far clearly now, this side of the river.

There also seemed to be an almost abandoned dirt track that followed the river to where the bridge had been.  An old wooden sign, once broken yet repaired and reinforced, seemed to have been placed closeby on the bank.

'Welcome to Stonebridge' it declared, the faded black writing touched up lovingly and solidly painted in a bold hand. It seemed that on one edge some less loving writing had been added. The shape of it might have been 'Old' making 'Welcome to Old Stonebridge' but it was hard to tell. As well placed blow from something rounded had smashed a giant hole in to that part of the sign.



Lol, see, both sides of the river are safe, honest! :) But I'm glad you all were cautious.  And hey, if you identify all the scary points for an ambush now, who knows if you'll get to use them against someone later...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:30, Wed 03 June 2015.

After feeling the play of the water on her hand for a few moments, Nym gets to her feet and follows Meri across the river, hoisting her robes up a bit so they don't get all soggy at the bottom.

"Wonder who lives there." she says as she catches up with the dark-haired half-elf. "Let's go and say hello!"

"No guarantee whoever that is will be friendly though" muttered Meri with a suspicious look towards the building the sounds were coming from.

Adjusting her grip on the staff to be ready to raise it in a defensive position if needed, she called out towards the building.
"Hello?  Anyone there?"


OOC: May as well see how they're going to react to us while we're still far enough away from them :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Wed 03 June 2015.

Nym stands back a bit to see what will happen, but looks eagerly in the direction of the building to see if anyone will come out.

Ooh, 100 posts! As a reward, Nym won't get shot at first. Ok, I should stop joking about that...to make you worried about why I've stopped joking about it...


The light sound of a ringing anvil - well, comparitively light - was now clearly audible to Nym aswell. At Meri's shout, the 'tink' stopped for one beat....and then resumed once more.

However, there was some other sign that the call had been heard. From high up - a little too high up - at the corner of the smaller smithy building, a shaggy, wide head appeared, peering around.

The head possessed a great shock of white and grey hair so dense it resembled a fur explosion. The knobbly shapes of the head resolved themselves to a vaguely familiar shape at the same time as a pair of squat horns - one snapped close to the head and the other simple tapering quickly to a point - became obvious.

The head seemed to belong to a minotaur, standing around the corner of the building and shooting what was most likely an unfriendly gaze with red eyes towards the two friends.

The minotaur kept staring for a moment. It started for a moment longer. It shifted as if it had turned its body to go away, but then the head twisted to give one last look at the two. The head then disappeared.

The tinking carried on for a moment. Then a moment longer. Then a moment longer still. Whoever was in the smithy did not seem inclined to stop and come out either.


Friendly bunch around here, aren't they? Not immediately violent, though. So, you know, there's that...

"Ooh, fluffy!" says Nym to herself as she sees the minotaur. She looks at Meri. "Let's go and say hello!"

"He probably doesn't want anyone pestering him while he's working" remarked Meri.
"I'm sure our friend back there knows all about that" she added with a sour look back in the direction of the ball.

Turning her attention to the other building, she began to move towards it, watching it warily for any signs of life, hostile or otherwise.


OOC: Figures Meri would understand not hassling someone while they're busy crafting stuff ;)  hehe.
Checking out the other building for now.  Is there only the two of them here?

The other building started to loom over the presumed smithy as they got closer, even though in appearance there was nothing objectionable to it. It had large, inviting winodws, especially on the top floor, though no door was visible intruding on this side of the building.

The road curved around to wind in between the two buildings, following parallel to the river behind them. The brick of the smithy opened up quite quickly with a large roofed open area. There appeared to be a proper building joined on afterwards, with a more reasonable and closed door at the other end of the building. There seemed to be movement in the shadows of the open area, but the fierce glow of a forge fire and the brightness of the day conspired to - for the moment - affect the eyes of those looking inside. It was easy to imagine the large and shaggy form of a minotaur in there somewhere.

Facing across from the smaller door of the smithy was the door of what was clearly an inn. A weathered but well tended sign swung from a wooden hanger above the door, declaring the inn to be 'The Copper Penny Inn'. A round shape under the name might have once been an artistic representation of that penny, but time has worn the details and colour close to the signs own well varnished appearance. Only the red flowing lettering stood out.

The two buildings seemed to be on the edge of a makesift crossroads, though the roads beyond the crossroads still appeared to be more dirt than well tended road.

At various places leading up to the buildings, and visible beyond, were further squares of what had once been buildings. Some of the squares were overgrown, and the brick of the buildings clearly broken and twisted. Other squares seemed to have been whole once, just every brick other than the foundation stones buried in the earth had been taken. There was evidence of complete houses dotted here and there, and the occasional ruined but tall wall, but these were few and far between. Mostly what was here was open space.

Indeed, there didn't seem to be any indication of unpleasantness, except for one curious detail. All the windows of the top floor of the inn appeared to have heavy curtains still drawn despite the relative earliness of the morning. And some of the windows on the ground floor leading up to the small door of the inn showed evidence of wooden boards temporarily filling the gaps of broken windows.

The 'ting' of the blacksmith kept going, and now there was somethng new - underneath the strong smell of a burning forge, was the more appetising smell of cooking food.


Now that the two had travelled a little distance though, what was noticeable was that a small hill was on the left hand side of this area, a reasonable distance away as if very disdainful of what it could overlook. As well as this impressive  three storey brick building across there was evidence of other buidlings behind it, presumeably stretching out back down the hill towards the woods. And presumeably, the village of New Stonebridge?

One last thing to be noted was that the river snaked around behind the ground, flowing towards the hill and around it, continuing onwards it seemed after its detour.


There we go. Currently there's only two buildings beside you, though there are some in this area beyond, and there appears to be a whole village based around the higher ground to the left as you approached this area.

I will try and make a map in the next few days. I warn you though, it will be so realistic that you may think I am just lifting this from real life. Prepare yourself for its artistry!

So it totally won't be a bunch of multi-coloured lines drawn in Paintbrush, then? ;)
A map would be helpful as I'm having trouble picturing where all this stuff is in relation to...erm...stuff.

"Okay, if he's too grumpy for talking, let's go and see what's in there." says Nym, pointing at the inn. "It's an inn. People in inns are normally friendly, right? Otherwise no-one'd want to stay there, would they? I wonder if they built these places out of what's left of that old village over there..."

She looks briefly toward the ruins of Old Stonebridge, then goes on.

"I wonder if that minotaur helpe. He's probably really strong. I wonder if he's friends with the owner of the inn, otherwise why would they live next door to each other like that? I wonder what kind of stuff he makes in there. Maybe I'll ask him at some point, if he's not too grumpy. Maybe he makes all the knives and forks for people to eat their dinner with in the inn...except surely they wouldn't need that many of them. Maybe it's horseshoes, except there's no horses. Maybe it's weapons, except there's no soldiers or anything. Hmm...maybe he just likes to make metal statues or something. You know, decorations or toys or something..."

Meri looked up at the windows, pausing in her stride.
She continued to look the building over, not responding to Nym's chatter.
Although at the mention of metal statues, Timur looked around at her, cocking his head to one side and blinking at her (at least the blue glow in his crystalline eyes blinked off and back on again).

Finally, Meri looked towards the hill in the distance.
She seemed uncertain of what to do next, frowning slightly.
"Something seems wrong" she murmured quietly, under her breath.


OOC: Paranoid Mode: On! :)

[Private to The Altweaver: Perception Check for trying to spot anything "off" about the inn, apart from the obvious thing about the windows: 19 (Perception skill 9 + Die roll of 10)

Getting a definite "Village of the Damned" feel about this place!  Hehe]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Thu 04 June 2015.

"Does it?" asks Nym. "But we've never been here before...or at least I haven't. How do you know what's [i]right[i/]?"
This message was last updated by the player at 18:58, Thu 04 June 2015.

The inn stood resolute unphased by Meri's more intense scrutiny. [Private to Meri: Meri noticed that not all the top windows had the thick curtains. There seemed to be a set of windows on both the left and right hand corners of the top floor of the inn that had no thick curtains. Or if they had such curtains, they were not drawn. Also, Meri spotted the faint trails of smoke again, the chimney seemed to be on the left side. Tying that up to the food smell, she noted that the left hand bottom windows seemed to be quite smeared with internal dirt and moisture. Perhaps some form of kitchen? What the inn did not yield was any obvious signs of wrongness, nor actual life though.

OOC: Hehe, I wonder why you're so paranoid! Who can say...]

As if summoned by Nym's positivity regarding the place and what might be around, The Ball came along the road, taking the corner at speed and happily spinning to be near Nym's feet. The Ball was back to looking like an iron sphere...well, probably. It had not shaken off the water from the river, and so had instead acquired generous lumps of dust and earth all over it. For the moment, this didn't seem to bother it and it sat still and expectantly.

It might have been a coincidence, but the arrival of The Ball led to a small rumbling growl from inside the smithy. The tinking stopped and there was a low mummer as if another voice, then it got a little louder as if in consternation at something.

"Ser? You've dropped your...cannon ball?...on the ground." The voice drifted out form the forge. It seemed gruff but not completely unfriendly. Certainly human, a deep rumble accented with the same common as the humans in the area.

The thump of hammering carried on again. "Bloody stupid idea to walk around with a cannon ball in yer pack, bloody trinket hunters," then came the less friendly muttering that was perhaps louder and more carrying than the owner of the previous voice had meant it to be.

The was another low growling from the dark.

"Yes, 'moving ball', I get it, it fell out. I told them. Y' can speak more 'n two words y' know. And yer can speak to 'em yerself. No one's impressed, y' dour bugger."

The speaker hadn't stopped hammering but the 'tink' took on a more aggressive tone, apparently directed at the growler.


See, totally friendly people around. Helpful and everything :D

Meri peered up at the building some more then shook her head slightly.
"I don't know" she replied to Nym's question, her voice still quiet.  "Just used to bad places I suppose..."

She broke off at the sound of the ball arriving and the voices from the smithy.
"Thanks" she called back.  "It's not a cannon ball though, more of a curse!"

Turning in the direction of the smithy, she moved closer, trying to see into the building.
"It does move.  In fact it's what led us here.  Any of you seen anything like it before?"


OOC: Who knows, maybe they have weird floaty bouncy ball things leading travellers through their village all the time?  They're probably fed up with it in fact, would explain why they're not too friendly! :)