"Well, that does seem to be serious."  Olven Wolf walks back to where Alvin and D'aden are standing.  "So I guess we grind these rocks down to powder?"  Using the butt end of his spear, he jabs down at one of the pieces of rock.

OOC: Try to grind up the rocks.

Olven tried to dust one of the rocks with the butt of his spear, but the rock didn't let him.

Roisin sighed "Look destroying rocks is something we can evaluate at a later date. Let's go back to the library and recover the books so they're safe, at least for the time being until we can properly reopen the lyceum."

"Let's take along a few of these rocks, then.  Perhaps someone can tell us what their purpose is."  Olven also takes the dragon highlord's helm and stuffs it into his pack as well.

Looking at the others, he says, "Let's go retrieve those books and then get the kids back to their father."

OOC:  Return to the library for the books.  Then head back for camp and escort the teenagers home.

Olven picked up some of the rocks and the helmet, found their way out of the winding, confusing corridors going everywhere at once, and back up to the library where they only found books and a dead body, just as they had left it the second time they visited.

Most of the books were still protected by a blue semitransparent force field. But they found seven unprotected books.

In the library, Olven Wolf examines the force field protecting the books.  "Shall we try to disable the field now or leave it for later?"  He loads up the seven books in his pack and then searches for the source for the magical protection.

He rubs his chin.  "I know nothing of magic.  Do we need some spell to disable the field?"

OOC:  Take the seven books.  Look for a way to turn off the force field.

Roisin looked at the wall "Look, let's just take the books we can. The magical force will protect the others for the time being. There's nothing to say that there might be some of the draconians left on our way back to the city. We, or I, could always return here to recover these artifacts....but I'd rather keep a small modicum of magical power, just in case things don't go our way on the return. We can keep some of the rock and run some tests on it....well, after I can buy some tools and take a look." she looked at the forcefield "On the other hand we are here."

OOC:Exactly how exhausted am I?

Olven rubs his chin nods his head.  "Sure, that's fine with me.  We can come back to retrieve the rest of the texts when you come to reopen the Lyceum."  He looks over the books once more.

OOC:  Unless Roisin wants to stick around, Olven will return to camp.

"Especially since we're certain to encounter more draconians; I could have sworn we left a few here." To accompany his statement, D'aden plunks the first bar of "Brave, Brave Draconians" on his mandolin.

The heroes returned to camp. The siblings rejoiced to be reunited and free, even though Garth was the worse for wear. And Alvin was able to help him too. As the others prepared a late evening meal and put their treasure in the wagon.

Lunitari was full and Solinari would be full in another two nights. And the stars dotted the sky, like sprinkles on ice cream.


[OOC: As we're out of combat, we might as well have you rested so that your FP is back. Any HP loss could have been covered by Alvin

As for the draconians in the library, the first time you left, you left some draconians behind just as you remember. When you returned the second time, they were gone. And now the third time, they are still gone. Perhaps there were some in one of the secret corridors, with the other wizard, but I don't recall for certain.]

"Finally." Olven Wolf happily divests himself of the treasure he carried out of the Lyceum and sets about getting the camp ready for evening.  "The dracs that got away may return, so we need to be on our guard," he says, chewing on a piece of dried fruit.

He spends the rest of the evening making sure the two youths are comfortable.  Later, he sits on a rock he has repurposed as a stool and looks up at the two moons.  He feels at peace.  More fighting may wait for them between here and the capital, but he is satisfied in a job well done.

"I'll take first watch," he volunteers.  "First thing in the morning, we can take the kids home."

The heroes ate and rested, spending a quiet and uneventful night in camp. The next morning, the sun rose quietly to the peaceful twittering of small birds. Everyone was well rested and back to normal and full potential.

Well, everyone except Olven.

His things were there, but Olven himself was nowhere to be seen.

Roisin wiped sleep from her eyes as she looked around, figuring that Olven had gone to relieve himself or something similar. It was only after several minutes had passed she began to worry. "No...I'm not sure." she spoke out loud "Hmmm. Ochre... ummm can you tell if Olven is around?"

She looked at Ochre's disdainful baneful look.

"Don't give me that. You've been around him for long enough and he reeks to the high heavens. Is he nearby? Can you lead us to him?"

D'aden heads for a tree, and starts climbing. "I'll try a more mundane approach, perhaps I can spot him, nearby. He's probably just doing what I'll be doing as soon as I get out of the tree and out in some bushes."

Neither of them saw Olven anywhere.

The heroes spent some time looking for Olven to no avail and decided to return the kids to their father before they continued their search.

Having returned the siblings to their home, their father insisted on offering their hospitality. And the heroes stayed for lunch in the family's farm house.

Roisin was pleased for the food. It felt like it had been an extremely long time since she'd eaten and she'd hoped that the meal would provide inspiration in the search for Olven. After the food and seeing the family pleased, she decided to broach the subject with D'aden "So...well, I don't know about you, but my conscience won't let me leave Olven behind. Now that the children have been returned, I will go back to look for Olven. I think I've recovered enough that I should be able to use some of my magic to help find him." she let out the heavy sigh of someone who had eaten well "Assuming of course, I can even stand up."

When they arrived at the farmer's place, the children lost much of the tension they had carried since their rescue. Similarly, D'aden seemed to loosen a little. Strangely, he stopped humming his draconian doggerel and said, quietly, "now, this is familiar."
As they approached the farmer to explain about the children, D'aden stepped right to the trace and helped push the treadwheel as they talked. As the farmer left the treadwheel to hug his children, D'aden kept going as he whistled a little tune to time his footsteps.
After a lunch that left D'aden swamped by childhood memories, he nodded in response to Roisin's announcement. "If we could find any of Jarl's men about perhaps we could convince them to take what we've got so far back to the city. That would give us freer reign in searching for Olven."

Roisin shook her head "We can have Utrecht guard the spoils. He's fairly formidable....and at the moment obfuscation might serve us well. While returning here to leave the children required our presence....I think we need to make haste to try to recover Olven. We can give the parents some coins to keep quiet about Utrecht and our discoveries."

D'aden says, "They won't need coins. We returned them that which is most precious to them. If we ask, they won't give us away. Besides, if we bring their name before the king, they'll be grateful for that, as well."
"Let's send the bulkiest items back and go look for Olven. I think I'll hang onto one of the swords, though. Never know when such a thing could be useful."
D'adne asks the farmer if he could borrow a jug or waterskin of some sort (as his is filled with some elemental stuff that he's loathe to drink).

"Let me quickly check to see if any of things we've retrieved are magical. We can return the coins to the King and quickly head back to find Olven." Roisin asked. "Take a coin or two from my measure and pass it to the parents. It's a hard time for all."

OOC:Detect Magic on all of the gear we discovered in the lyceum.

Roisin spent a substantial amount of time casting spells on all the stuff they had discovered in the Lyceum, resting when she needed to.

Olven walked up the dirt road towards the farm. Dressed like a scarecrow in too small clothes. It may have been the ill-fitting clothes, but he looked stronger than he used to. And there was something different about him, perhaps the way he walked.

Roisin separated the spoils of the venture into the magical and non magical. She nodded towards Da'dens hood, the amulet, the bracers, the cloak, the potions, the knife, the dragonlords armour and the blackened silver tube. "These are all magical. The rest is..mundane...sorry, not magical. Given enough time I can determine the function of each."

***************************

As they watched Olven approach, Roisin frowned, wondering if it was indeed Olven. She whispered to Ochre "Stay hidden and go see if it's really him. Use your smell. Yes, I am being serious. Something is odd here, and I'm not convinced it's really him. He's walking all differently."

OOC::Sorry, had a lot happening in the last few days.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:50, Wed 31 Jan 2018.

Roisin's pseudodragon Ochre flew up to Olven and circled him a couple of times before returning to his master.

[OOC: No worries. We got you all back together.]