The female demon and the rock man sat across from you in the Golden Goose tavern in the trading town of Soubar, some 250 miles East of Baldur's Gate. Rumor has gone around that the "woman" is only half demon, but with her wingspan of several feet, and her grayish skin, you begin to wonder why the town guard lets her into town. Probably because every child under the age of 10 flocks to her like bees with honey, laughing and having fun the whole time she's around. The large rock man is a complete mystery. He claims he's from the North, in his broken common tongue, and comes from a band of people called Goliaths. Looking at his size, you wouldn't argue with him.

They tell you they need adventurers willing to go into the Forest of Wyrms with them to flush out some enemies. The treasure will be great. You all know the Forest of Wyrms is filled with Green Dragons and seeing two of them just inside the forest is not uncommon. Many of you sitting at this table have seen this while traveling up and down the trade routes. Many of you sitting around this table have had friends and family killed by Green Dragons from this forest.

The pair continue on telling you their "Homebase" is the Wizard tower in the village of Daak, some 45 miles East of Soubar. Several of you have traveled to this village in the past delivering supplies on several occasions. The Giant Black tower is what you all really remember of the place and that people go there to begin their Wizard training...those that were invited anyways. The stories go on about fighting orcs in Lyran's Hold, traveling through magical portals through the forest, fighting undead in the old Dwarven mines... The stories go on and some of you laugh, until a shadow moves from behind the Tiefling and the Goliath. A dark skinned elf comes into the light, smiles for a second and tells you the stories are true.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:36, Sun 20 Mar 2011.

Sister Aliana sat at the table, enraptured by the conversation.   The arrival of the dark elf was very surprising, certainly, and her large almond shaped eyes lit up with delight.
This trip sounds fascinating.   What kind of enemies did you have in mind?   And what did they do?

The blonde elf was looking forward to seeing the deep interior of the forbidding forest.  It had been days since her last adventure and last interesting experience, and she was getting bored.
Perhaps some excitement in the Forest of Wyrms would perk things up.

Silver pulled up his a chair, and sat down next to the Goliath. Looking at each of the accumulated "adventurers", he spoke. "Orcs. Mostly orcs. And some others... The attacked and sacked Daak. And were responsible for several of our comrades' deaths. They will not be allowed to continue, but due to the loss of manpower, we need you."

Silver sat back to hear what the others had to say.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:20, Sun 20 Mar 2011.

Sister Aliana perked up and clapped her hands excitedly.
Oooh!   Orcs!   I really enjoy fighting with orcs.   Very entertaining.    I'm at your service.

She gave a little bow.

Silver smirks at the elven maid's....enthusiasm. "At our service eh... And what services do you provide, hmm? Who are you?"

She was pretty, that was for sure. And elven. So much better. There were so many humans, and others around Soubar, it was heartening to find another Elf. And one who might be joining them at that. Someone else who understood the elven view on life. Someone else to be a companion, who wouldnt just wither and die in a few decades.

The pretty blonde elf blinked in confusion for a second, then her eyes widened in realization.

OH!  I'm so very sorry!  I forgot.     I am Sister Aliana Farwalker, Priestess of Oghma, Father of Knowledge.     I've been studying at the temple at Scornubel for the last 100 years, and I'm ready to explore the world.
I have miracles at my disposal, for healing and for many other things as well, and I'm very skilled with my weapons.

"Orcs.  And walking dead," Swiftstrider adds. "Those be burned."

Pausing a moment in thought the goliath adds grimly, "Four green dragons.  Three live still.  As do we."

The diminutive fellow scruffs the ears of his canine pet who lounges beside him, then stretches his neck up to the table looking for anything resembling a pot of ale. Finally, he stands and smiles at the group. "I am Emerald, Emerald Kegroll, and firmly believe that three green dragons is far too many for one forest. I will gladly accompany you to cull several of them," he adds, searching anxiously for some ale to wet his palate.

Swiftstrider's merry laugh booms off the rafters and causes a stray spider to scurry off her web and into the safety of a dark corner.  He holds four fingers up to Myarra as tears of laughter roll down his cheeks and belly laughs continue, drowning out most conversation in the place!

Finally, gasping for breath and wiping his eyes, Swiftstrider grins at Emerald and finally manages to speak, holding the fingers of both hands spread wide, "Ten tens of dragons!  Even more!  Ranger friend not know. Not four only!"

Then the goliath motions to whoever is closest for another round and points to Emerald as well, to include him in, and says, "So we be busy with... cul-ling?"

Emerald smiles at the big fellow's laughter, and scratches his chin thoughtfully. "Hundreds of dragons? I should probably get some more jerky, then. Slaying that many dragons wlil probably take a while," he says matter of factly, then begins counting on his fingers.

Aliana smiles.
Not to mention that it would make a terrible mess.    And do serious damage to the property values.

"Forest has big trees," Swiftstrider observes.  "Dragons hurt not."

A strong looking common man dressed in workers clothes comes in and walks to the table where Myarra, Swiftstrider and Silver are sitting. He waits for a break in the conversation, bows to the three and tells them their wagon has been loaded.

"Your wagon has been loaded with the supplies headed back for Daak, Mistress." the laborer said to Myarra "The horses have been combed down, watered and hitched. They're ready to go any time you wish."

Swiftstrider finishes his ale in one mighty swig.  Then looking at Sister Aliana and Emerald he says, "We leave in one hour. Get gear.  Meet us at wagon. If join us you wish."

Myarra, the "female demon", does her best to temper the gross exaggerations, if not down-right .... fibs, of her goliath companion, but his overblown enthusiasm is rather contagious.  Several times she has a stories to top his right on her lips, but squelches the impulse, but not without severe difficulty.  These new people are going to be putting themselves in danger.  It wouldn't be right not to make it as clear as possible as to what they might be getting into.

"The most dangerous thing we'll be going after is a medusa." she tells the others, adding to the already long list of orcs and ogres and esoteric beasties.  "A nasty monster with snakes for hair that can turn you to stone if you catch her eyes.  We lost our comrade Trizdan and his wolf companion to her.  One second they're fighting an orc horde, the next they're a thousand pebbles on the floor."

She gives Silver a nod and a smile as he joins them.  He'd been a bit distant the last couple of weeks.  But then she hadn't been easy to live with either, so she supposed she didn't have much right to complain.

She then turned to Emerald, a very strange little man, and again, companioned with a dog.  She wondered what was the problem with these people.  "I don't mean to be rude," she began.  "But what is it with the dogs and the wolves?  In my homeland hunting cats were the norm.  Dogs where just for guarding the camp."  And fattening the stewpot, but she left that bit out since people usually took offense to references to cooking their pets.

Unfortunately, that was when the ostler arrived to tell them the horses were ready.

"Thank you, Harold" she replies, handing him a small bag clinking of silver.  "Your help has been very much appreciated."

Turing back to the newcomers she holds her hand out, pointing towards the door.  "So, Medusas, dragons, orcs, ogres, harpers, and ... ah ... those things that dig through stone.  Other than that, it should be pretty safe.  So, who's interested in joining us?"

"Har-pees," Swiftstider says with a grin.  "Har-pers make music. We fight no music-makers.  Music good and fun!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Tue 22 Mar 2011.

Myarra frowns.  "I'm sure Nolan said they were harpers.  Big half-bird-half-human; filthy; screech a lot; try to tear you apart.  You know, little Maggie's people."

Silver grins to himself for a moment. "Yeah, Myarra, he's right. Harpys. Harpers are different breed alltogether, though not so different in some ways. And the things that dig through stone, that could be any number of creatures. The ones we fought were umber hulks."

Turning to the two people, and more directly looking at Aliana Silver stands from his chair. "If you're going to join us, which I welcome if you do, both of you... You need to know. It's not all the grand adventure the Mountain Man tells. I'm not trying to scare you off, but we lost three companions to death, more to "desertion". Now, I have soemthing to attend before I leave, I hope to see you both at the cart in an hour."

Silver bows to the newbies, and makes for the door.

"Well проклинать! Myarra curses with a chuckle.  "Now I feel like a right идиот.  And you guys just let me go around spouting nonsense for a month?  Господа.  Real Господа."  So saying, she tips back her mug and polishes off her own drink, while giving a friendly wave to Silver as the elf heads out.  Even those who don't know her can tell her tone is joking, not insulting.

Sister Aliana smiles delightedly.
I understand the confusion, certainly.    In Common, especially, Harper and Harpy both sound similar, mostly because they both make music.   I love Harpers, though.    Harpies......well,  not so much..
She looks a little chagrined, as she smiles sheepishly, as if not liking something, even murderous monsters, was an embarrassingly bad habit.

I've always wanted an animal companion, like  a bird or something, but I'm MUCH too absent-minded to care for one.   I had a tropical bird as a pet once.  One of those brightly colored ones from across the sea, and I keep forgetting to feed it because I kept getting lost in books.    The headmaster finally took it away from me because he was tired of hearing it complain.

She shook her head at the memory, rolling her eyes at her own mistakes, but still smiling as if amused by herself.
I can understand why many people choose dogs over cats, though.  They're easier to train and care for.   Cats are notoriously independent, and require more effort.    If you want to concentrate more on your hunting or other duties, that's not always a good thing.

Looking at the man who came to see her new friends, she nodded to them after he left.
I'll be ready and meet you there.  I wish I had the money for a "Stone to Flesh" potion, but I guess it can't be helped.   Still, it sounds like a thrilling adventure.   
This message was last edited by the player at 21:13, Wed 23 Mar 2011.

"Thank you Aliana, I appreciate the attempt." Myarra replies with a smile.  "I'm not really that well traveled.  So the wizard and I managed to duck the green dragon that was chasing us by landing in this strange clearing.  And in the middle of it is an old tower.  The wizard got really excited by it and wanted to check it out.  Unfortunately there was some kind of magical warning thing and this huge multi-headed hydro came after us.  So we flew up onto the tower, which is where the harper ... ies, were nesting, and then they attacked us.  Well with one thing and another, the wizard was pitching one new word after another at me.  I suppose I should be glad I got as close as I did."

She pauses for moment, trying to remember something.  "If you'd like another one of those birds.  And" she pauses and grins a little, "you think you could take proper care of it, one of the portals out of the tower leads to a jungle that has birds like that.  I think Nolan called it Chant.  Or something like that.

But I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on the superiority of dogs over cats.  To me, that's like saying salt is sweet."

"Little Maggie nice," Swiftstrider says with fondness in his voice.  "Daak has many strange people... Maggie, Ashara, Nolan's iron men, ... us."

He waves to the departing Silver, and nods to their new friends. Then he pauses and nods to himself and pulls a small, polished steel mirror from his pouch and says, "These good for snake-haired woman.  You see her here.  You no turn to stone."

Tucking his mirror back in it's pouch, the goliath heads for the door...

"Maggie's a sweetheart." Myarra agreed.  "As is Ashara.  Nolan and his iron men ... not so much.  But yes, we're all a bit strange."

"We'll be along in a just a bit." she calls to Swiftstrider as the big man headed out the door.

"Well, I think that's all." she directs to the newcomers.  "Unless you have any more questions about us or what we're facing?  If not, we should get going.  We can still talk on the way.  It's going to a while to get to Daak with all these supplies."

She waits on the newcomers, but if they have nothing else, she's ready to head for the door herself.

Aliana shrugs, smiling pleasantly.
Dogs vs Cats is a somewhat academic issue, I suppose.    And "superiority" is something that will never get settled, I'm afraid.   Both have their strengths and weaknesses.   I love cats, personally, but I like dogs, too.
I didn't mean to say that you were wrong about cats, m'lady.   Just repeating what I'd learned about some dog owners.

But, I'm ready to go.   I should, perhaps, buy a mirror or two as well, and perhaps something to deal with harpies, like wax earplugs and the like.
But I'm set other than that.

Emerald chuckles at Myarra's observation and pats his companion. "She is much more than a guard dog. She is my friend, and her name is Soxy, or Sox, for short. I am ready to leave as well. I will just go pack up my things and meet you at the wagon," Emerald adds before getting up to go.

Aliana will go buy a few more supplies, then waits for the others at the rendezvous.

"I understand that." Myarra replies to Emerald as Aliana takes her leave.  "Sule was my best friend and hunting companion for many years.  And she was the best hunting cat for a hundred leagues."

She too rises and starts around the table.

"Well, I welcome you, and Soxy.  But time runs against us.  So, I'll see the two of you at the wagon within the hour.  I just have a couple small favors I have to take care of, and then I want to check the supplies to make sure all is in order before we go."

Within the hour, as promised, Myarra is back at the wagon, checking the stays and straps used to hold the cargo in place.  All it takes is one unsecured barrel on a high grade to scatter your cargo all over the road, not to mention doing serious damage to anyone riding behind.

Once she's sure everything is in order, she spends the rest of her time up front talking to and stroking the horses.  After dealing with camels for half her life, the more placid horses are a treat, even if they aren't quite as smart, which is a good thing, most of the time.

Her new purchases in her Haversack, the bouncy elven cleric rode her horse to the meeting place.   She waved enthusiastically to Myarra.
Hi!   I'm ready to go.  Is there anything else we need?

She was feeling giddy with anticipation.

With everything set and ready to go, the group heads out of town and down a trail that leads to the village of Daak. The village is about 45 miles away, which will take you about a day and a half to get there in the wagon full of supplies the village needs. The day is spent getting to know each other...or lying, and the day is peaceful. The weather is nice and you can see for miles in all directions. You all walk for a bit, as well as ride in the wagon, and plan on looking for a place to spend the night when you start to see the first trees off in the distance.

Getting closer, you see a group of village farmers on the trail standing near a tall oak tree, perhaps 30 feet tall (one of many trees you've seen). You can't tell what they're doing, but when they see you off in the distance, they start waving to get your attention. Wondering what was happening, you guys move in closer for a better look. That's when Myarra mentions that she didn't remember the village farmers having horses, let alone 10 of them.

"Is that them, Sergeant?" #10 asked #7

"Yes sir, that's them." #7 said back after looking at the group

Wondering what the hell is going on, the men pull out weapons.

"Kill the she-demon, take the rest alive for interrogation."

Please roll initiatives and state your actions.

Battle Map Created

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This message was last edited by the GM at 00:21, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

Sister Aliana, riding in the wagon to save her poor fanny from hours on her horse, looked at the "she-demon", smiling.
Friends of yours?  Anything you want to share with the class, ma'am?

She casts a spell.
Lord Oghma, Great Binder, unbind the ties that hold Your servant to the earth, so that she might better help her new friends.

OOC:Flying spell.

Not really knowing what was going on, Silver picked up his newest aquisition, the Longbow, and took a quick shot at the closest man. They were obviously out for blood, might as well give it to them.

19 Initiative.
Attacking #9
21 to hit, 7 damage.

"... and having a pillow that purrs is the best part of falling asleep under the desert stars ..."  Myarra paused in her conversation with her new clerical comrade when a bunch of villagers in the middle distance started acting very strange.

Myarra's first thought was to try to placate the humans.  It might just be a mistake that could be smoothed over.  They'd been on pretty good terms with most of the people they'd run into, after all.

Then Silver took a shot at one of them, a shot that looked at first glance to be a pretty good one.  So much for smoothing things over.  She shook her head at what would probably be a slaughter.  Mystra knew she didn't need more blood on her hands, but at least she wasn't the one starting it.

"Demon?  Why is it always demon?  There's no proof that any of my ancestors were demons.  They could have been devils, or daemons, or deevils for all I know.  But humans always jump to demons.  What's up with that?"

Climbing down from the wagon, she slapped her helm over her head, and pulled her sword, holding it at the ready while she summoned up some of the dark energy that fueled her soul.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

Swiftstrider roars out an unintelligibly word, readies his axe, moves forward 30 feet!

Emerald is startled by the apparent order to arrest him, and kill one of his companions. He decides that he could be in great danger, so he gets down off the wagon and jumps up on Sox's back, waiting for the alleged villagers to respond to Silver's arrow.

Move: to K 14 and mount up

Round 1 results----------

Wondering what the hell was going on, the party moves into action. Emerald and Sox are over the side of the wagon quicker than a jack rabbit on a date and mounted for possible combat after hearing the threat from #10. Getting a better look at the man, he appears to be some kind of spell user. Silver confirms that there's going to be a fight, when he shot an arrow at human #9. The arrow strikes the man in the shoulder and metal armor can be heard under the peasant clothing. Swiftstrider, already having his weapon out, yells out something in a foreign language and moves in!

Human 10 casts a spell at Swiftstrider, but doesn't seem to affect the Goliath. The rest of the men pull out weapons. Some move in for the attack, and a couple have crossbows already loaded. They fire at the horses. The horses get hit, which they don't like, and one of them stumbles and falls to the ground....asleep. The other one tries to run, but with being hitched up to the wagon and the other horse asleep, the horse isn't going anywhere.

Aliana casts a spell, and is now floating above the wagon, as Myarra hops down to the ground with her sword, mumbling to herself. Human 4 seems pretty strange standing there taking in the whole situation....

Spot Check DC 25

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Silver            19        33/33
Swiftstrider      19        64/64     Bulls Strength
Human 10          17        ??/??
Human 7           16        ??/??
Human 1           16        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 5           15        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 6           15        ??/??
Human 9           14        ??/07
Human 2           11        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 3           11        ??/??
Human 8           09        ??/??
Aliana            08        ??/??     Fly
Myarra            06        65/65     Protection from Good
Human 4          HOLD       ??/??

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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Silver tries to take a quick veiw of the situation, before jumping off the side of the cart, to give himself cover from two of the three crossbowmen. The other was in clear veiw. He nocked another arrow, and let fly.


Spot 14
Move to O-16
29 to hit, 18 confirm. 5 damage + 5 crit damage.

17:40, Today: Silver rolled 29,5 using d20+9,d8+3. Attack and damage #2.
17:42, Today: Silver rolled 18 using 1d20+9. Confirm crit.
17:43, Today: Silver rolled 5 using 2d8. crit damage .
 **Really....freaking really...I get a crit, and roll FIVE damage, for x3. FML**

EDIT

I've been corrected. Critical damage would be 33. Sorry.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:45, Sun 03 Apr 2011.

Aliana's sensitive ears hear the "clunk" of the fake peasant's armor, and she frowns, pursing her lips.
I usually respect authority figures, but I cannot abide liars.   

She grasps her holy symbol and chants.
Oh Learned One, please sent Your servant assistance, to aid her on her journey.

Appearing out of the air is a Celestial Hippogriff, summoned to aid the pretty blonde elf.  She claps her hands delightedly at its beauty, before sending it to attack the wizard who was targeting Swiftrider.
OOC:I can summon it up to thirty-five feet from me, and its own movement should be sufficient to reach the spellcaster.

07:39, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 12,12,10 using d20+6,d20+6,d20+1 with rolls of 6,6,9. claw, claw, bite, on 10.

Though he probably misses

Emerald hears the unmistakable tink of metal armour as Silver's arrow strikes true and urges Soxy slowly forward. When he reaches Myarra, he casts a spell upon the nearest pair of would-be bandits.

Move: to K18
Standard: Cast Heat Metal on 7 and 9 (will save DC:16)

Upset that the leader gave orders to kill Myarra, Swiftstrider moves forward and swings on one of the men, connecting solidly!
Then he attempts a second attack...

Round 1.5/2.0 results----------

Emerald and Soxy move up next to Myarra and casts a spell on Humans 7 and 9, hoping to heat up any metal the men are using or wearing, while Silver hops off the wagon and shoots Human 5 square in the heart with a well aimed arrow. The man screams, drops his crossbow, grabs at the arrow sticking out of his chest, and slumps to the ground dead. Swiftstrider runs in and attacks Human 6 with his Great axe. The blow starts at the man's left shoulder and ends somewhere near his groin, blood and guts and screaming the whole time until the man slumps to the ground dead.

Human 10 seemed displeased with himself when his spell didn't work on Swiftstrider, so he cast a different spell on Myarra. 3 quick missiles strike Myarra square in the chest! Human 7 runs in and swings his mace, but strikes the sleeping horse instead. Crossbow 1 and 2 shoot their bolts at Aliana, one striking the crazed horse and the other one striking the wagon seat in front of her. Humans 9, 8 and 3 gang up on Swiftstrider, beating on him with their maces. Human 3 manages a good hit to the Goliath's leg. The last human, who was pretty calm during the fight, just stands in front of the "wizard", arms folded and looking at Myarra and Emerald.

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Aliana            24        ??/??     Fly
Myarra            24        54/65     Protection from Good
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Human 4           22        ??/??
Silver            19        33/33
Swiftstrider      19        57/64     Bulls Strength
Human 10          17        ??/??
Human 7           16        ??/??     Heat Metal
Human 1           16        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 9           14        ??/07     Heat Metal
Human 2           11        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 3           11        ??/??
Human 8           09        ??/??
Human 5          DEAD
Human 6          DEAD

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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Aliana's action can go now.....

Aliana's sensitive ears hear the "clunk" of the fake peasant's armor, and she frowns, pursing her lips.
I usually respect authority figures, but I cannot abide liars.   

She grasps her holy symbol and chants.
Oh Learned One, please sent Your servant assistance, to aid her on her journey.

Appearing out of the air is a Celestial Hippogriff, summoned to aid the pretty blonde elf.  She claps her hands delightedly at its beauty, before sending it to attack the wizard who was targeting Swiftrider.
OOC:I can summon it up to thirty-five feet from me, and its own movement should be sufficient to reach the spellcaster.

07:39, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 12,12,10 using d20+6,d20+6,d20+1 with rolls of 6,6,9. claw, claw, bite, on 10.

Though he probably misses

Swiftstrider grunts at the attack from behind, but he ignores it and faces the two men in front of him with a feral grin!

He swings on  the man directly in front of him, feeling his axe cleave bone.  Then he attacks the man just to the right...

Myarra takes the hits to her chest with barely a pause in her humming.  Her new armor absorbed most of the energy, but not all of it, at least not from jabs of pain that now accompany each breath.  She'd told Nolan that she really hated those damable magical darts from her earlier experiences, and this refresher course confirmed every bad memory. "Your wizard is about to die." she told the young man that now stood before her.

Her sword is now spinning, clanking against the man's mace as she gets a feel for his abilities.  Unfortunately, his abilities are pretty good.  She's not going to be able to put him down as easily as she would like, and in fact she almost loses her sword as the human manages to get a near hit in on her fingers.

Recovering from what would have been a major embarrasment, Myarra decides to forgo grace and simply overpower her opponent, knocking his weapon aside and slashing across his midsection.

Smiling as she gets back into the rhythm of combat, her humming turns to Cormyrian battle opera, which she belts out at a volume that rivals Swiftstrider's roars.

Three lethal maids of death are we
Sharp as a viper's fang can be
Filled to the brim with ghoulish glee
Three lethal maids of death

Everyone's death is a source of fun
Nobody's safe, but go ahead and run
Life is a joke, for the battle's won
Three lethal maids of death

...

Myarra was right. The Wizard had to go down. He was well outlined against the trees. Silver moved forward a few feet, and took aim again. He knew closing this much with the enemy was risky, and those men engaged with Swiftstrider might come at him, but the Wizard was a major threat. He was behind another man, but maybe he could still hit him.

He nocked his arrow and loosed, all in one breath.

Move to O-19, Silver shoots at #10.
14 to hit, 4 damage. Don't think I hit, but maybe.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:19, Tue 05 Apr 2011.

Emerald takes a moment to wonder why they would be attacked, out of the blue, by a group of very angry, armed men, but brushes off his daydreaming long enough to ride Soxy towards the nearest bandit who, he deems, should be beginning to burn underneath his horrid metal armour. "Get him, girl!" he cries as he commands Soxy to take a bite.

Move: E
Standard: Soxy attack on bandit 7

11:31, Today: Emerald Kegroll rolled 26 using 1d20+16. Soxy's alternative AC -v- first attack.
11:31, Today: Emerald Kegroll rolled 6 using 1d6+4. Damage.
11:30, Today: Emerald Kegroll rolled 12 using 1d20+6. Soxy attack on bandit 7.
 

Round 3 results----------

Aliana, still hovering above the wagon, casted a spell and summoned forth a Hippogriff to attack the enemy spell-user. The beast quickly flew in under the tree branches and attacked the wizard. This also sent human 4 into action as well with an attack of opportunity. The Hippogriff's attacks were off slightly as Human 4 jumped up and punched the beast on it's side! Myarra, not liking the wizard that just struck her with Magic Missiles, takes her revenge on the warrior in front of her, while yelling a song about the Maids of Death. Her first attack made her look like a rookie with a blade, but her second one made up for the mistake as she practically cripples the man with one blow to his side. Emerald and Soxy move up to join Myarra in the fight versus Human 7, wondering if his spell is effecting them yet. Judging by the look on his face, the man appears to be in a lot of pain as Soxy tries to bite him, but doesn't get much but hot metal.

Human 4 goes into a flurry of fists and kicks as he attacks the Hippogriff to get it away from the wizard. The Hippogriff takes another blow to it's side. Silver takes advantage of the Hippogriff situation to get a shot at the wizard. Moving up on the side of the crazed horse, the rogue fires an arrow and strikes the wizard in the leg! The wizard yells in surprise and pain! Swiftstrider turns his attention to a warrior in front of him who already looks to be in a lot of pain. Wanting to end his suffering, the Goliath chops down with his axe and destroys the man's head; blood, bone and brains going all over his friend next to him! And, to top it off, the man's clothes smolder as the body slumps to the ground! Swiftstrider paid no attention to that, as he attacked the next man who was in shock of having his friend's brain matter all over his face. One good chop to the chest and the man falls to the ground screaming and quickly dies.

The wizard takes a step back to get away from the Hippogriff and casts another Magic Missile, but this time at the magical beast hovering near him! The Hippogriff screeches in pain! Human 7 was about to attack, but falls to the ground as his clothes begin to smolder. Emerald and Myarra would notice that his mace is red from heating up. Human 1 fires his crossbow at Silver and misses. Human 2 fires his crossbow at Swiftstrider and strikes the Goliath's leg! Human 3 takes advantage of the back attack and strikes Swiftstrider's upper back with his mace!

Swiftstrider: Fortitude Save DC 14 or it's nighty night for you!

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Aliana            24        34/34     Fly
Hippogriff        24        05/25
Myarra            24        48/65     Protection from Good
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Human 4           22        ??/??
Silver            19        33/33
Swiftstrider      19        54/64     Bulls Strength
Human 10          17        ??/04
Human 1           16        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 2           11        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 3           11        ??/??
Human 5          DEAD
Human 6          DEAD
Human 9          DEAD
Human 8          DEAD
Human 7           KO

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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Silver nodded in satisfaction at his shot. The mage got a tase of pain, that was good. But the Crossbowmen were still a threat. He took aim, and fired again. The Elf was very glad for his new weapon. "Lay down your arms, and we will show mercy! Continue to fight and you will die!"

He didnt think it would actually work, but it was worth a shot. They weren't monsters...

25 to hit, 9 damage on Human #1

Myarra barely glances at the man who slumps at her feet.  He wasn't the one she was after.

Unfortunately, the wizard was still hiding behind his defender, cowering in fear as his men fell one by one.

Stepping away from Emerald and Soxy, she opened her wings and flew across the ground towards the wizard, landing just in front of his bodyguard, prepare to cut the man in two.  Instead, she nearly caught her blade in the hovering hippogriff, and for the second time in the last ten seconds, nearly lost her sword.  This was not looking good as a way of impressing the newcomers.

Still, she wasn't about to let a few mishaps get her down, and kept up with more of her opera.

Three lethal maids who strike and parry
Come to the fight all grim and scary
Freed from society's demand to marry
Three lethal maids of death
Three lethal maids of death

One lethal maid is a samurai
Two lethal maids at her side they fly
Three lethal maids with swords held high
Three lethal maids of death
Three lethal maids of death

Aliana watches the battlefield with the smile of a chess players watching a strategy come to fruition.   She has no illusions about her skill, but she's having a lovely time.

Hmmmmm.....the wizard is busy at the moment, though I should engage the man sooner rather than later.     The big gray man is......doing VERY well.   Oghma's Book, he's an impressive warrior!    Everyone seems to be doing well, too, but.....those crossbowmen are seriously becoming a problem.     Ah....I know!    Perhaps a bit more "help". 

Flying forward 60', she holds her sword in one hand as she reaches into her Bag of Tricks, and tosses a fuzzy ball to land between the crossbowmen.
Go play with those nice men, my pretty one!

OOC:

20:46, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 88 using 1d100. Bag of tricks.
Black Bear.

20:46, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 22 using 1d20+6. throwing fluff
to land between the crossbowmen.
 

Then her creatures attack.

OOC:
20:53, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 12,22,10 using d20+6,d20+6,d20+1. claw, claw, bite,  bear vs crossbowman (#1).
20:54, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 7 using 1d4+4. 2nd claw damage.

20:51, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 8,14,13 using d20+4,d20+4,d20+1. claw, claw, bite, hippogriff vs wizard.
 20:51, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 5,4 using d4+4,d8+1.
    (possible damage for 14 and 13 to his for 2nd claw and bite)


This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Thu 07 Apr 2011.

Giving a small grunt of pain each from the crossbow bolt and the mace, Swiftstrider turns to the mace-wielder behind him, his gore-spattered face leering at the man over a gore-spattered large axe as he says, "Yield, and I spare you. More fun if you do not."

With the closest bandit down for the count, Emerald prods Soxy with his knees to move closer to the horses to see if they are injured.

Move: E SE E SE S
Standard: Inspecting the horses for signs of injury or distress.

Round 4 results----------

Using her Fly spell to float above the "battle field" (and above the struggling horse trying to get away from the wagon), Aliana pulls forth a fuzzy ball from a bag and throws it between the 2 crossbow men. The ball lands on the ground and turns into a Black Bear! The 2 crossbow men are completely surprised! The Hippogriff and the Black Bear attack their enemies! The Hippogriff flies in and attacks the wizard, scoring a hit with a claw and the bear goes after Crossbow man 1, also scoring a minor claw wound!

Myarra continues her opera singing as she flies up to Human 4 and plans on chopping the man in half. But, the flap of the Hippogriff wings interferes with her attack and she almost loses her weapon...again. Emerald and Soxy move to the front of the wagon and inspect the horses. The horse on the right is out cold with a bolt to the neck. The other horse is still struggling to get away from the fight, but the dead weight of the other horse, plus the wagon "in park" is keeping the wounded horse in place. It has a couple crossbow bolts in it's side and is very frightened.

Human 4, who appeared annoyed by Myarra's bad singing, takes a stance, claps his hands together, and socks Myarra square in the chest! The wind is knocked out of her, but she recovers quickly to annoy him more with her singing. That hurt! With several obstacles in his way, Silver yells for everyone to surrender and shoots an arrow at Human 1 and manages to hit the man! But, for some strange reason (big Black bear), the man isn't listening! Swiftstrider turns to face the man near him and gives the man a chance to surrender. The Wizard takes a step back from the annoying Hippogriff and casts a Magic Missile on the beast, and it disappears in a puff of smoke! Unconscious Human 7 dies from the metal burning his skin and Crossbow man 1 get mauled by the bear while trying to flee the area. This gives Crossbow man 2 the chance he needed to get away! Seeing his friend running from the fight, Human 3 does the same, running to his horse and trying desperately to avoid the Black Bear!

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Aliana            24        34/34     Fly
Black Bear        24        19/19
Myarra            24        39/65     Protection from Good
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Human 4           22        ??/??
Silver            19        33/33
Swiftstrider      19        54/64     Bulls Strength
Human 10          17        ??/09
Human 2           11        ??/??     Crossbow
Human 3           11        ??/??
Human 5          DEAD
Human 6          DEAD
Human 9          DEAD
Human 8          DEAD
Human 7          DEAD
Human 1          DEAD

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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Even the punch to her chest can't prevent the conclusion of her operatic extravaganza.


From three lethal maids, have one strike true
Two lethal maids still have much to do
All form the world's most lethal crew
Three lethal maids of death
Three lethal maids of death


Myarra finishes, although with a bit of a wheeze toward the end, slashing at the human twice, once on each of the concluding lines.

The human's assault added to the pain from the wizard's filthy magic, making her every move and breath twinge with pain.  Besides, as a warrior, she expected better combat technique.

"Really human? Boob assault? That's your master attack plan? Didn't your mother teach you any manners!

And you wizard!  Where are you going?  You're the reason for all this.  Surrender now and you just might get to keep all your bits attached!"

Aliana pouted as her hippogriff vanished from damage.  It always depressed her when her summoned friends were hurt.
She decided that it was time to take a more active role in the attack.
But, it seemed silly not to get her bear friend to help.

Go get the wizard, my Bear-Friend!   I'll help!

She directed her Bear to charge #10 and attack,and it rushes to the wizard and bats at the man's head.

OOC:
23:34, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 22 using 1d20+6. Mmmmm...bearclaw....
23:34, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 6 using 1d4+4. claw damage.
 

Aliana joins in, flying halfway to the wizard as she fires her bow.
OOC:

23:38, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 17 using 1d20+7. bow attack on 10.
23:38, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 6 using 1d8+1. arrow damage.

Running? No, they had the chane to surrender. They weren't going to run, and tell whoever sent them where we were, and our strength. Silver hurried a little closer, and fired another shot at one of the fleeing men.

Move to L-23 (or 22, if my moement is wrong)
15 to hit, 9 damage

Swiftstrider rolls his eyes as the man he told to surrender runs for his horse!  Swiiftstrider runs after and catches up, bellowing at the man, "Surrender or die!"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Sun 17 Apr 2011.

"There, there lad, no need to be running off with sticks in your side," Emerald whispers to the animals in a soothing tone. He considers the pair of stricken horses for a moment, then quietly casts a spell over them, hoping to keep them from doing further harm to themselves.

Standard: Calm Animals over the two horses, affecting up to 9HD worth. No save I believe.

10:40, Today: Emerald Kegroll rolled 9 using 2d4+5. Calm Animals over the two horses HD.
 

Round 5 results----------

Aliana sent her pet bear in to attack the wizard as she too moves in and fires off an arrow. The bear manages a claw on the wizard, but Aliana's arrow falls short with the bear being in the way of her shot. Myarra finishes her song and chastises the monk before delivering 2 massive slashes from her Great Sword, which sends the monk screaming to his death, blood splashing everywhere. Emerald casts a spell to calm the scared horse so it wouldn't continue to hurt itself trying to get away. He wasn't sure what the spell would do to the one that was drugged though. Silver moves closer to the fight and takes aim on human 3, who was trying to flee the area. His aim was off a bit, but he manages to strike the man in the side.

Swiftstrider runs to human 3, easily keeping up with the man and yelling at him to surrender. The man seems pretty scared and is trying to run away. The wizard takes a look at the situation as he takes a step back and then he turns invisible when things look pretty grim. Human 2 makes it to his horse and hops on, attempting to flee the area.

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Aliana            24        34/34     Fly
Black Bear        24        19/19
Myarra            24        39/65     Protection from Good
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Silver            19        33/33
Human 10(Wizard)  17        ??/15     Invisible
Human 2           11        ??/??     Crossbow
Swiftstrider      11        54/64     Bulls Strength
Human 3           11        ??/09
Human 5          DEAD
Human 6          DEAD
Human 9          DEAD
Human 8          DEAD
Human 7          DEAD
Human 1          DEAD
Human 4(Monk)    DEAD

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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The pretty blonde elf yelled for her bear-friend to sniff out the wizard, if he could.
Go get him, boy!!!  I'll be all his wizardly components smell pretty terrible, so you should have no trouble.


Aliana pouted.  She was annoyed that the wizard was fleeing the scene.   Then she remembered that the had one last bit of powerful magic to use.
Not sure which why the wizard had gone, she flew to his position and cast  "Invisibility Purge", which would make a globe 25 feet in all directions, that would make all invisible things visible.

Great Oghma, Celestial Font of Knowledge, please help Your humble servant see that which cannot be seen. 

She would then fly around, trying to find the wizard.

Silver watched as one more of the men started to run away. He moved after him, and took his time to make the shot count. He was getting quite a ways away, but Silver couldn't allow the man to escape. Sighted in on the fleeing man, SIlver loosed his arrow with along with his held breath. "If they don't want to surrender, then don't let them get away!"

I am blessed.

29 to hit Human 2 (That's another crit), 21 confirm. 33 damage.

Emerald lets the bigger folk deal with the fight as he leans over to tend to the injured horse. Having gotten its emotions under control, he now looks to heal it of its wounds.

Standard: Cast Cure Light Wounds on injured horse

05:29, Today: Emerald Kegroll rolled 9 using 1d8+5. CLW. (adjusted for correct modifier)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Fri 15 Apr 2011.

Myarra spares only a moment's notice as the human falls before her, knowing that she needs to get at the wizard as quickly as she can.  She's therefore a bit distressed when the man suddenly disappears from sight.  But she has to smile as her new clerical comrade swoops in, her divine powers wiping away the foul stench of wizardry and bringing the man back into focus.

Using her wings to propel herself forward (not really necessary, but she figures anything that might frighten the wizard is a good thing) she swoops over (avoiding any claw attacks by the bear) and brings her sword around smartly, striking the man in the stomach with the flat of the blade, hoping to knock the wind out of him.

Having caught up with the fleeing man, Swiftstrider raises his axe over his head and bellows, "Surrender or die mean surrender or die! Not run like scared goat!  Now..."

"SURRENDER OR DIE!!!!"

Round 6 results----------

Aliana casts a spell and the wizard becomes visible, attracting the attention of the bear and Myarra. The bear moves in for the attack, as does Myarra, and with combined attacks, they manage to take the wizard down....alive. Emerald soothes the horse after it has calmed down and casts a healing spell on it after removing the crossbow bolts. The other horse is still asleep on the ground. Silver moves up and takes aim on the fleeing human on the horse. The arrow flies and hits the man in the back of the head. The man falls off the horse and doesn't move as the horse runs away. Human 2 and Swiftstrider continue to run to the horses, but Swiftstrider yells at the man to surrender or die and the man stops in his tracks, drops his weapon and puts his hands in the air, practically crying.

Fight is over.

Name          Initiative    Health    Misc.
Aliana            24        34/34     Fly
Black Bear        24        19/19
Myarra            24        39/65     Protection from Good
Emerald           23        45/45
Sox               23        30/30
Silver            19        33/33
Swiftstrider      11        54/64     Bulls Strength
Human 3          SURRENDERED
Human 5          DEAD
Human 6          DEAD
Human 9          DEAD
Human 8          DEAD
Human 7          DEAD
Human 1          DEAD
Human 4(Monk)    DEAD
Human 10(Wizard)  KO
Human 2          DEAD

Map Updated (Be sure to press the F5 key to refresh the map)

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Clapping with delight, Sister Aliana drifted down to land lightly on the back of her summoned bear, as it stood guard over the unconscious wizard.

Well Done, my furry friend!   
She gives him a big hug around the neck and a kiss on his fuzzy head.
I'm so proud of you.    Now, let's secure our new guest.

The elven cleric, still grinning, looked at Myarra.
And a fine job from you as well, Myarra.   I have some rope, unless you'd like to do the honors?

She lay on her stomach on the back of the bear, her small head and torso resting on her bear-friend's large shaggy head.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:20, Mon 18 Apr 2011.

SIlver lowers his bow with a shake of his head. He could have just stopped running. At least one of them did. He shoulders the bow, and grabs his pack from the seat before starting towards Myarra, the new girl, and the downed Wizard. "Ah, I have something that may prove helpful ladies. He reaches in the pack and grabs out a lenths of rope. He points at the wizard on the ground. <green>"Tie him up."

The rope instantly snakes out and wraps the man in loops, effectively tying him up. "There ya go. Good job by the way, I'm glad you were able to take him down alive." Silver nods to the girls, and giving the bear a wide berth heads to Swiftstrider and his prisoner. "Good job Swiftstrider. I'm glad at least YOU could get one to surrender." He gives the big man a pat on the back, and then turns to address the crying man. "Common then, man stop with all that. You surrendered, which means you don't die. Disarm yourself fully, if you will and get rid of the armor too. Slowly, if you don't mind."

Myarra gives the downed wizard a couple of kicks, just to make sure he really is out.  She does manage to resist the urge to spit on him, but it's a close thing.

"Thank you, sister.  And give my thanks to your bear.  I think he and I make a fairly good team." she replies to Aliana, then pauses to strip off her helmet.  She's about to take the cleric up on the offer of rope when Silver comes over and uses some magical cord to do the trick instead.

"I was just going to cut his hands off at the wrists" she tells him. "But I suppose your way works as well.   And, don't let this go to your head, but that last shot of yours was fantastic."

While waiting for Silver and Swiftstrider to take care of the other prisoner, Myarra spends some time searching first the wizard's body, and then that of his bodyguard.

Sister Aliana grins at the winged woman.
Thank you, it was fun. 

She giggled at the joke about cutting off the wizard's hands.   It might have been serious, but she decided to think that the woman was kidding.
It seemed for the best.

My bear will only be around for another couple of minutes, but hopefully we'll see him again.

She rides the bear back with the others, wanting to enjoy her furry friend a little longer.

Silver and Swiftstrider "help" the sobbing man disarm and "help" him remove his armor. The breast plate has a strange symbol on it:

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Swiftstrider and Myarra have no clue what it is.

Aliana sees the odd tattoo.

Oh wow!   That's a neat tattoo!!!  Let me see!  Let me see!

She squats down and looks at the design, nearly putting her nose to the picture.

Then she sat back on her heels, her large eyes narrowed with concentration.
OOC:
23:59, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 17 using 1d20+8. Knowledge religion.



Then she sighs.
Nope.   I got nothing.   I KNOW that I've seen  it before, somewhere.  But I can't remember it.

Silver frowns at the insignia. It looked rather official. But he had no idea what it was. "Me either. Not a clue. Common man, stop with the blubbering. You're not going to die now, you should be relieved. But listen, while WE won't kill you..."

He turns slightly, and points at Myarra, "She might, and she'd likely eat your liver, and wear your guts for garters. Unless of course, you can fill us in on the reasons you and your group had for attacking us. I'd rather not give you over to her, but You saw what she's capable of, I'd be hard pressed to stop her. So tell us, who are you, and why did you attack us?"

Knowledge Religion rolled an 8.

Bah, and an 8 on Intimidate. Maybe someone else can help me intimidate him lol.

Swiftstrider squats beside the sobbing man and says, "It be alright. You surrendered.  I no eat you for dinner..."

Th goliath's gore-spattered face breaks into a grin. "...tonight."

Silver nods along with Swifty. "Ah, that's right. I had almost forgotton that Goliaths often eat the hearts of their fallen enemies. Of course you aren't fallen... Like he said, you surrendered. But they also have been known to sacrifice prisoners, and eat the still beating hearts in honor of their viscious and brutal Gods. I say man, that sounds horrible doesnt it? You should tell us what we wanna know."

Myarra sighs as her marginally good nature is maligned.  Even at her worst, eating people's livers was totally out of character.

She walks up to the captive human and slaps him across the face to get his attention.

"For the love of Tymora, man up already.  You fought, you lost.  Get a grip." she tells him harshly.

"I'm not going to eat any part of you.  But if you don't tell us what we need to know, I will ram this sword through your gizzard without even the slightest twinge of remorse. And I make no promises about the goliath; his brutal pagan rites are his own.

Now let's get this straight.  None of you needed to die.  None of this needed to have happened at all.  But your side started it, and we're going to finish it.  Frankly the best thing for us is to dig a big pit and bury all of you in it and leave no trace.  So I'd suggest you start talking and give us a reason to let you go.

Do you have a family?  Wife?  Children?  Mother?  How important are you to them?  If you want to ever see them again or have them even know your fate, then start talking.

I'll start you off.  As I recall, bound and gagged wizard asked dead guy over there if we were the ones.  Dead guy over there said that we were, and then the bound and gagged wizard ordered you all to murder me, which got all your friends killed.

So, who are you?  Who's the wizard?  Why were you looking for us?  And why attack us without even trying to talk first."

Swiftstrider nods, "Wise thought.  I start digging pit."

The goliath walks over to the wagon and fetches a shovel.  Then speaking to Emerald he quietly says, "My people eat goat, elk, cheese, fruit, and vegetables."

"I dig. You gather horses and maybe tie rag over mouth of wizard.  Then no magic mumbles when we not looking.  You think pit better than graves?"

Sister Aliana sighed mournfully as her summoned bear vanished, then she looked at the goliath and raised her hand.
Oh!  Swiftstrider, I'll help dig if you like.   We'll need lots of graves, after all. 

As she walks to the big man's side, she looks around the group.
Also, is anyone hurt and in need of healing?

She grins at the bound wizard.
Well, except for you, silly.
The elf chuckled a bit.

"Dig the pit off in the trees." Myarra tells Swiftstrider.  "I know the ground is more open here, but the ground will heave here when the bodies start rotting. That just means more extremely disgusting work cleaning up our mess for some honest laborers in a week or so.

She turns to Aliana at the offer of healing. If you don't mind, those cursed magical darts, not to mention that pervert's assaults are making my breathing a bit strained.

The blonde elf walks up to her winged friend.
It would be my pleasure, my dear.

Holding her holy symbol, the cleric prays to her god.
Oh, Oghma, Knower of All, help Your humble servant heal her Traveling Companion, so that she might do more good works in this world.

OOC:10:01, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 13 using 1d8+5. cure light wounds.
(edited to reflect "max healing house rule", so a CLW could be used rather than a CMW)

This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Mon 18 Apr 2011.

Emerald breaths a sigh of relief when Aliana offers to dig instead. "I thank you for that, M'lady. I am a bit squeemish when it comes to dead people," he adds with a shiver, before guiding Soxy over to where the now-unarmed man is trying to compose himself. He tugs gently on Silver's sleeeve. "Pardon me, Mister Silver, but I know that tattoo on the breastplate. It's the Cult of the Dragon."

Silver looks at the man tugging on his sleeve. He had almost forgotton about him. "Ah, Silver is fine. Just Silver. What is the Cult of the Dragon?"

In reply to Emerald Kegroll (msg #80):

No problem, Emerald.   I hoped dig many graves back at the temple.  Many of our best scholars passed away while I was in residence there.

She blinked as she thought about that.
Of course, I lived there for over a hundred years, so I guess that's not very surprising.

The Cult of the Dragon?  They sound like a fun bunch.

Swiftstrider looks down and notices the crossbow bolt stuck in his calf with surprise!  Apparently the stuff rubbed on it to make him sleep had deadened the pain.  He waves to Sister Aliana and says, "This need your help once out."

The pretty cleric blinked her large eyes in surprise at the goliath's nonchalance about a wound that seemed to have must missed a major blood supply.
She'd heard about the resiliance of the large race, but it was impressive to see nonetheless.

Carefully, she knelt down, and, if the big man let her, removed the bolt.  After cleaning the wound, she cast a healing spell on it.

OOC:
16:50, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 22 using 1d20+7. heal to removed crossbow bolt.
Then, CLW for 13 points.

The "cultist" is taken out of his armor and listens to the threats. He may have been scared by the Goliath, but he's not saying a word. When Myarra speaks about a hole, he just spits at her. The wizard is still out cold and probably won't wake up for several hours. Aliana tends to the party's wounds, as Emerald tends to the horses.

Sister Aliana approaches Myarra privately.
As depressing and tedious as I normally find the practice, once I'm able to regain my magical strength on the morrow I'll be able to speak with the dead that we created today.   I'm not sure if they'll be any more helpful, but it's an option. 

Emerald relaxes back into his saddle once he has Silver's attention. "They are a nasty bunch. They kidnap dragons and turn them into undead and dracoliches and all sorts of horrible things. There isn't much point in trying to get anything out of them. They will be far more afraid of their masters than anything we could conjure up. It probably means, though, that they are about again doing their nasty deeds."

Myarra sighs again and wipes away the spittle before nodding understanding to Aliana.  "Well, if your family means nothing to you, and you mean nothing to your family, I suppose I might just as well put you out of our misery.  We'll get the information out of your corpse tomorrow anyway," she tells the cultist.

"But since, between the two of us, I'm apparently the civilized being, would you prefer to have your head removed, or simply be run through the heart?  Your choice, but I'll default to your heart if you won't say one way or the other.  There's less blood spray that way, so less clean up for us.  You have until the count of ten to make a decision or to start cooperating.  One!  Two! ..."

So saying, she draws her sword back and looks the cultist in the eye, giving him the chance to save himself or doom himself ... or for one of her comrades to stop her if that's the kind of people they are.  Some people can't accept the concept of making life easier for everyone, and it's better to find out before it's too late to say "sorry".

Aliana is REALLY hoping that Myarra was bluffing.   She sort of meant for her divine miracle to be used on the men who were already dead.

She wouldn't interfere at first, hoping that the man would blurt out something to save his life.
If it looked like he wouldn't, Aliana would, despite her better judgement, say "Wait!!!" to stop her.

"Thank you," Swiftstrider tell Sister Aliana.

Then he picks up his shovel and heads for the spot Myarra suggested.  Under the circumstances, a pit seems like the better idea.  Swiftstrider begins to dig, singing one of his people's dirges under his breath without realizing it.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Fri 22 Apr 2011.

The cultist just closes his eyes and spits on the ground. He has nothing to say to anybody and looks like he's prepared for the worst. Swiftstrider looks at all the bodies on the ground and knows that the hole needs to be big. Based off what Emerald said about The Cult of the Dragon, Myarra was about to kill the man to get rid of the problem and as she prepared for the final stroke, Aliana yelled out "Wait!" to stop her. Myarra backed down and the cultist chuckled.

"And that's why you will lose."

Myarra was completely, totally, and in all other ways, not bluffing.  And she was just about to strike ... and good riddance to bad garbage, when Aliana called on her to stop.  She wasn't terribly surprised at the cleric's lack of true killer instinct.  Her kind tended to the soft-hearted, which could be both endearing, and irritating.  But the elven woman had earned both some measure of respect, and the right to have her requests honored.   The cultist, on the other hand, had earned nothing.  And being so damn smug about it didn't help his case.

Returning her sword to its place on her back, she moved in close, letting her wings spread a few feet to either side (coincidentally blocking Aliana's direct view) and bending so she and the human were face to face, her lips pulled back in a nasty grin so that her fangs showed clearly.  You are a fool to think I'm weak.  She won't always be around to protect you.  And that pit will be more than deep enough, she hissed.  Then she drove her gauntleted fist into the man's stomach as hard as she could.

Turning, she walked by Aliana, her face carefully neutral.  "Thank you and your Lord Oghma for healing my injuries.  Please help keep an eye on these two," she says in a tone that is also neutral. "I'm going to help Swifty dig.  If you have any trouble, just call.  Neither Silver nor I will have any problem dealing with it."

She lowers her voice and adds a few words just for Aliana.

Being good and merciful was always the better choice, but it was a LOT more effort.   That's why so few people chose to do it.

She nodded to Myarra as the winged woman went to dig the graves.   Then she turned to the cultist.
Sighing like a disappointed schoolmarm, she shook her head.

"Losing"?  Is that what just happened?    I must have learned the wrong definition.      Honestly, I feel sorry for you.    You're a sad, hollow husk of a man, desperate to fill the gaping void that rips at your tattered soul.

You're just a disposable tool to your cult friends, who undoubtedly think less of you than the reading material in a garderobe.   You can pretend to be "part of something greater", but we all know that it's like being "part of" a beautiful garden, just because you're the compost.

Swiftstrider nods as Myarra joins him and continues quietly sing and digging.  The magnitude of what they just did and why they were having to dig had started to settle in on the big guy and put him in a somber mood.

He realized that he had done more killing in the past couple months than the rest of his previous life.  It was one thing to be killing monstrous creatures.  But it was another thing to be killing people.  This needed some deep thought and consideration and mindlessly digging a pit was the perfect background for it...

Emerald listens to the goings on around the prisoner, but when Myarra muscles up to him he decides the hole digging could probably use another pair of hands.

He guides Soxy over to where Swiftstrider is digging and, after pondering thoughtfully for a moment, moves his hands and begins casting a spell. "Best to do this as quickly as we can. Death attracts all sorts of nasties and unnamed beaties," Emerald says quite cheerfully before surveying the results of his spell.

Casting Soften Earth and Stone on the area being excavated to make it easier

Emerald helps with the digging by casting a spell to make the ground softer, while Myarra helped Swiftstrider after searching the wizard and the monk for valuables. Silver had his bow shouldered when Aliana tried to get the Cultist to talk by calling him "compost". It didn't work. In response, the unarmed and unarmored cultist, being untied and making sure the brutes of the group were in the hole digging, runs away again towards the horses!

The only one who really has a chance of doing something right now is Aliana, but the cultist will be at the horses before Silver can get his bow out and shoot an arrow at him!

OOC:  My aplogies.  I'd assumed that we'd tied up the cultists.   I didn't realize that one of them was unarmed.


Sister Aliana frowned at the escaping cultist.   Rolling her eyes, she chucks another bit of fluff twenty feet towards the man, then casts a spell.

Great Binder, please bind my enemy in place, so he might face his justice.

OOC: Casting Hold Person.   I think I should be able to toss a "bag critter" and also cast a spell before he reaches a horse.

23:37, Today: Sister Aliana Farwalker rolled 24 using 1d100. critter-rama.
Whoo Hoo!  Wolverine!!!

The bit-o-fluff becomes a Wolverine.   Sister Aliana grins at the adorable killing machine.

If you please, my fuzzy friend, would you mind killing that gentleman if he keeps moving?

Silver wanted to kill the man outright, when he spat in Myarra's face. If she hadn't been stopped, the Elf wouldn't have batted an eye. As it was, he was considering planting one of his dagers between the mans ribs when he made a break for it. The new Cleric was ahead of him in trying to stop the man, but Silver wasn't far behind. He unslung his bow off his shoulder, and had an arrow nocked and ready as quick as he was able. But he didn't loose, right away. He held the man in his sights, and waited to see if Aliana was able to stop him first.

Hold my action, to see the results of Aliana's stuff, before I see if Silver will fire.

Myarra is far too far away to intervene when the cultist makes his break for freedom.  She almost hopes he makes it.  It will increase their reputation amongst the cult if nothing else.  But all she can really do is pause her digging to watch to see how Aliana handles herself.

If the cleric fails to stop him, Myarra's confident that Silver will get a shot off before the man can get out of range; and the punch she'd given to the cultist should help to slow him down a bit as well.  A little lower and he'd be hobbling.  Pity she hadn't thought of that at the time.

"No offense intended, Emerald," she tells the little man on the dog, "But you humans can be such a trial at times."

Swiftstrider chuckles, brought out of his reverie by the escaping cultist.
He pokes Myarra's shoulder and says, "You more human than Emerald.  You half human. Him half-ling. One come to trade moot with lowlanders.  Four winters gone.  Him good cook!"

"Ling?  What's a ling?" Myarra asks, perplexed.

The cultist doesn't last long. The wolverine that Aliana summoned with her magical bag tears into the man, who was already hurt, and then is frozen by Aliana's spells, which in turn makes the man fall while he was in the middle of striding across to the horses. The wolverine does it's job and finishes the man off, scaring the horses which try to scatter at the site of the beast. Emerald and Sox quickly intercept and calm the animals down before they hurt themselves. Silver has his bow out by then, arrow ready and hoping a cultist will try and flee again. Myarra and Swiftstrider stare in wonder and shake their heads at the stupidity of it all....

"Half-ling," Emerald says to Myarra, trying to enunciate it as much as possible. "And, by the by, we are all good cooks," he adds to the big fellow with a smile before turning his attention to calming down the frightened animals.

Aliana sighs and goes to collect the dead cultist.   Belatedly, she realizes that asking restraint from a wolverine was like keeping a Candlekeep Scholar from being pompous.
She felt chagrined by making such a simple mistake.

The pretty elf maid made a contrite face to the others, then had the wolverine drage the body over by the holes, and had it spend the rest of its time digging.

But first she made sure the wizard was still securely tied.

"Good for you," Myarra tells Emerald.  "Of course I noticed that you're a bit on the short side, but men are usually so sensitive about that, so I didn't think mentioning it would be polite.

I'm really glad that you're able to not only accept it, but really make it a part of you.  But I don't think there's anything half about you.  You're a full ling as far as I'm concerned.  You're people should be proud of you."

She sighs as Aliana has the last cultist's body dragged over to join the rest.  The whole bloody mess had been so unnecessary.  Although it had been fun, she thought with a pang of guilt.

"Well, the dirty work is never done, I suppose.  Let's get back to work."

So saying she digs her shovel back into the significantly softer dirt and does her part to excavate the mass grave.

"We need to thoroughly search the bodies and the horses.  Especially the wizard.  They can have all sorts of nasty things secreted on them.  The most innocent looking bit of clothing might be a devastating weapon.  We should strip him naked and pack everything away for Nolan to look at for us when we get to town.  Then tie him up and stick a bag over his head for good measure."

Aliana nods to the winged woman.
We'll give a thorough search of everyone, then.      Who's Nolan, again?   Did you mention him before and I just forgot?

Having helped with dead bodies back at her temple, Aliana had no problem searching the corpses, or even the live wizard.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:49, Fri 29 Apr 2011.

"Nolan is village wizard.  Him run wizard tower.  And make magic stuff.  Him make Myarra magic hat.  It make her look human when she use it," Swiftstrider says.

The pretty blonde elf smiled at her large friend.
He seems a useful fellow.  I met a number of wizards in my time at the Great Library.  Perhaps we'll have things to talk about.

"And talk and talk and talk and talk." Myarra puts in.  "Getting him to shut up about magic is the trick.

Don't get me wrong, I like the wizard ... about as much as I can like any wizard, perversions of nature that they are." She pauses to give a shudder.  "But that man has a power fixation that's going to get him in trouble one of these days.

Still, he's loyal and brave, and that means a lot.  He made these gauntlets for me, even knowing how much I want to punch him in the face some days.  That proves some bravery for you.  He stands up for himself in a fight; doesn't beg for protection; willing to get bloody when necessary.

Oh, but you should also know he's got this necklace thing that lets him read your mind.  Just make sure he knows you've got a wolverine on standby and you're not afraid to use it.  It's important to get the boundaries set immediately.  Power mad he is, poor fellow."

The hole is dug and the bodies of the cultists are dumped into it (except for the now naked, bloody, bruised, broken and triple gagged and magically tied wizard). Then the hole is buried. The horses of the cultists are collected; all 10 of them and they seem to be in pretty good condition.

10 Light Horses with regular gear

Myarra, Silver and Swiftstrider wonder who these people are and what they want. Emerald and Aliana wonder who Myarra, Silver and Swiftstrider are and what the Cult of the Dragon wanted. Myarra does have a Green Dragon head as a helmet...

Aliana nods, taking in what Myarra said about the wizard.  She could read minds too, to a limited degree.   She didn't always like what she found, of course.

Then something occured to her.  She whispered to the winged woman.
Myarra, you mentioned back in town that some Green Dragons were causing problems in the woods.   You don't suppose these weird fellows are in league with them, do you?

Once the burying of the evidence is finished, Myarra helps repack the shovels and the cultist's belongings that they're taking back to the tower.  The wizard she helps dump unceremoniously into a corner and tosses a tarp over him. Maybe somebody will remember to give him water, maybe not.  Frankly, she's washed her hands of the creep.

After everything is cleaned up, she retakes her position in the wagon with Aliana at her side.  "It's called the Forest of Wyrms for a reason," She tells her clerical friend.  "Place is rotten with green dragons, so for a cult that worships them, I suppose this would be the place to go.

We've had a couple of problems with the greens since we arrived.  Mostly we respect them and stay out of their way.  One pushed the issue, so we pushed back."   She holds out her new helm, formed from the skull of a green dragon.  "Swifty and I took this one down in the dungeon under Lyran's Hold.  Went on and on about how he was going to kill us and eat us.  He's not so vocal anymore.

I don't usually bother with this," she adds with a sigh.  "But Nolan made it for me so that I could fit in.  And right now, I'm thinking standing out is going to be an issue."

She closes her eyes and her body and clothes melt and flow into a new form.  When she reopens her eyes, they've gone from dark gray to a light brown.  Now an attractive young woman sits in her place, wings and horns gone, although her armor and weapons remain.

Aliana nods thoughtfully.
I suppose it's possible that they were getting revenge for that dragon's death, but.....well, I suspect that there's a deeper game of draughts going on than is evident.

Her face lit up as Myarra changed.   The blonde elf clapped her hands and nearly "squeed" with delight.
OOOOH!  Pretty!   That looks like fun.  Perhaps when we have a private moment, you might let me play with that for a while?

Silver lowers his bow after the Wolverine tears the man apart. Gruesome, but no less than he deserved. The others had their work, and he had his. Someone had to keep watch, who knew what else was out this day.

When they finished with the pit, he walked over to the wagon where Sister Aliana was. "Ah, Sister, you may want to heal the spell-flinger, at least a little bit so that he doesn't die on the way home. Myarra, I think we ought to wait to try and question him until we get to the Tower, let Nolan help. I bet he might like to have the man's spellbook too. We are going to take all this stuff home right?"

It was strange. The elf didn't even seem to realize he was reffering to the little town with the big tower as home. But if he didnt realize it, it sounded like he meant it.

"Once we get to Daak, I'll let you play with it as much as you'd like." Myarra tells Aliana with a grin.  "It take some practice, but you can make yourself look pretty much like any creature as long as it's roughly the same size.  I don't use it that much.  It was sweet of Nolan to make it for me, but I've been me too long to worry about other people's opinions."

She listens to Silver's observations once he comes up to the wagon.  "Frankly, live or dead, it's all the same to me.  He ordered his men to murder me.  Can't say mercy is top of my list at the moment.  Most of his damage is just bruises, maybe a couple of broken ribs.  I'm pretty sure he'll survive the trip."

She looks over at Aliana.  "Up to you though.  I've no strong objections."

Then back to Silver.  "Nolan can have the spellbook, it only make sense.  It's worthless to any of us.  And we should take anything we can sell or that would help with the defense of the town.  I'd leave the breastplates, though.  Dump them further back in the woods, or better yet, up in a tree.  That symbol on the front is going to drastically cut on the resale price."

Silver nods along with what Myarra says, letting her finish before he speaks again. "It's not for mercy that I suggest his healing, it's to keep him alive. But if he will survive, then fine. I wasn't certain. Ah, I'd like to keep him alive, I do believe being a Wizard, he'll be more likely to talk to save his skin that some low intellect zealous thug. And about the breastplates...I think they could be altered. We should take them, we have a wagon. They would be useful to the towns people I think. We can rid ourselves of them later if they cant be altered."

"If you think they can be modified, I'll bow to your expertise.  You're probably right that a good grade of grit and a whole lot of scrubbing might just do the trick.

Why don't you get Swifty to give you a hand loading them up." She twists around in the seat trying to get a glimpse of the goliath.  "I though he was stringing the horses to the back.  Anyway, then we can get back on the road.  We've already lost a lot of time on this foolish cult."

She leaves the topic of the unconscious wizard to Aliana.  Speak with the living or speak with the dead.  All things considered, dead would probably be easier and more likely to get truth.  But then she's biased in the matter.  If he's too obnoxious, they could always stick him in the beam of light in the secret lab.

Silver chuckles a bit at Myarra. "Expertise, I'm not so sure about that. But it would seem a waste to just leave them. I agree, we need to get moving soon."

Silver doesn't bother asking Swiftstrider to help him load the gear, he had anough to do at the moment. After he loaded the armor, he went to talk to the Halfling.

"Emerald, is there any chance you're any good at scouting? I'd rather not have something like this happen again. A lone halfling with his dog would scarce be noticed. Myself and Myarra, and the big man are known, aparantly whereas you are not."

Swiftstrider comes up as Silver is talking to Emerald.

"Once we in forest I take the high road.  Not be noticed," declares the goliath proudly.

Silver nods with a grin as Swifty shares his plans. "Agreed. No one ever seems to look up do they? Until then though..."

Silver hoped this group had acted alone, but there was likely little chance of that. Hopefully they wouldnt be missed for a while.

Aliana smiles at her winged friend, and then goes to examine the wizard, to properly evaluate him for travel.
OOC:if Aliana were to "take 10" with her heal skill, she'd have a 17, which should, in theory, be able to provide enough care to see if he needs healing.   He'll be too easy to be "silenced" by other cultists if he's at death's door, after all.

After dealing with the wizard, Aliana will ready herself for travel, probably hitching her horse to the side of the wagon so she can ride on it with the halfling, to better watch the prisoner.
I'd be interested in looking through the other magical trinkets, if no one else wanted them, as well.    Did we have a way to determine their function?

"Yeah," Myarra replies with a grin.  "Nolan.

I figure we'll wait 'til we get back to the tower and have our wizard tell us what they do.  Then we can figure out who would best make use of them.

How are the horses?  Should we swap them out for a couple of the new ones?  Ours were rather badly abused."

Swiftstrider's face took  on a somber expression as he said, "They know much about us.  Maybe have spy in Daak."

Aliana nodded to the winged woman.
Anyone riding horses could certainly switch between the old ones and new ones as they ride, that will save them.   I don't want to get rid of my horse.  I've already named him.   

The cleric pouted a little at the thought of parting with "Bookmark", her trusted steed of the last few days.

Myarra laughs with good humor at Aliana's look of dismay. "I meant the poor horses pulling the wagon.  Being assaulted can't be good for their nerves.  Why don't we give them a rest."

Emerald scratches his head for a bit at Silver's question, then shrugs his tiny shoulders. "I've never been asked to be a scout before. I mean, I can see a dragon as well as the next fellow, but I'm not sure I'd be able to see one coming from a dozen leagues away. And," he adds a bit sheepishly, "I'm not so keen on walking through a dragon-forest by myself."

"No high road for me until Daak," Swiftstrider says.  "Forest just beyond Daak.  From here to Daak all meadows and road."

So, the party manages to capture a cultist from the Cult of the Dragon, find a bunch of useful gear and 10 horses. Not bad for only taking minor wounds during the fight. You load up the wagon of the cultists gear, switch out the tired horses for fresh ones, tie the rest to the cart to walk back to Daak and "load" the wizard in the back of the cart for later interrogation and head on down the road. Emerald mentions that it will be getting dark soon, so looking for a place to make camp would be wise...

Sister Aliana sat on the wagon, keeping an eye on the wagon, the prisoner, and her surroundings.  She grinned as she took in the sights.

She kept an eye on the prisoner as she helped with camp, when they set it up.

After they scout out their campsite, Swiftstrider says, "Me see in dark.  Watch in darkest part of night.  Wake me for my turn.  Me sleep now."  In less than 10 minutes the goliath is sound asleep...

The cleric grins at the sleeping giant, and then looks at everyone else.
I can take first watch.  I'm still very energized and a little giddy from our battle today.   I can watch alone, or  with assistance.  Either is fine.

"I'll stand guard with you." Myarra offers.  "I can also see in the dark.  Then we'll just need either Silver or Emerald to stand with Swifty.

I figure we should be relatively safe until tomorrow morning.  Back during my raiding days, we'd always make sure our base was a fair distance from our target.  It made tracking us back much harder.  So, if there are any others cultists, then they're probably just starting to wonder what happened to these ten little dragonets.  So whether it's tonight or tomorrow, or if ever, depends on how desperate or insane this dragon cult really is.  Traveling quickly at night is pretty risky for your average human.  And who knows if they can even scrounge up more warriors on short notice."

The blonde elf nodded thoughtfully.
That makes sense.   Unless there were another group waiting very close by, there should be some leeway.   After all, they woldn't have been positive exactly when we'd have shown up on the road for their little ambush. 

And the wizard wasn't even sure it was us.  He had to ask for confirmation.  So do they have anyone else who knows us?

The cleric nodded, thinking.
True enough.  It's possible that whomever is looking for you specifically and knows you is safely ensconced somewhere.   I'm sorry I don't know more about these people, to better understand their motives in this matter.

Myarra removes a deceptively delicate-looking circlet from her head and tosses it to Aliana.  "Well, I'll wear this tomorrow so that if they are looking for me, hopefully we'll confuse them.  Of course if they know about me, they probably now about Swifty.  And he's going to be hard to disguise.  And if they do know about us, how do they know?  Swifty may be right, we might have spies in Daac.  It shouldn't be a surprise, the town's a wreck and there are refugees from all over the place, not to mention a bunch of folk from Soubar there to help with the rebuilding.  Picking out a mole isn't going to be easy.

So why don't you try the circle.  Just put it on your head and concentrate on what you want to look like.  As long as it's humanoid and about your size, it should work.  Nolan is a power mad egomaniac, but he does damn good work.  Just don't tell him I said it."

Eyes glittering with child-like wonder, the blonde elf caught the tossed circlet.   She knew that it was magical, and therefore probably very durable, but she couldn't help but handle it as if it were made of glass.
Thank you!   When you want it back, please tell me. 

Grinning like she was about to start squeaking with delight, she turned to the mirror that she'd bought in town.
Concentrating, she was suddenly wearing a delicate looking ballgown, which had been out of fashion for nearly a century.
Her small mouth opened with awe as she passed the mirror around, giggling when it accidentally passed the mirror through the poofy skirt.

At the first mention of a good sleep Emerald looks around for a lumpless part of the ground upon which to rest his diminutive figure. "Somebody please wake me when it is my turn to stand guard. Good night all," he says a little groggily before falling quickly to sleep.

Finding a place to stop several miles up the road, you find a decent camp under another tree similar to the one where the fight took place. But, this one doesn't have a waiting group of cultists wanting to kill you. Guard shifts are set and the wizard captive is secured, but the night is uneventful.

Everyone wakes up in the morning feeling refreshed.

Sister Aliana heals people and horses as best she can before going to sleep herself.   She then plays with the magic disguise cirlet throughout most of her "shift" on guard duty.
Anyone passing by would probably think she was either a wizard suffering from a botched polymorph spell, or else doppleganger with hiccups.

Still, she returns the item to the winged woman when she asks for it, having thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

She gathers her things in the morning, ready for more adventure.

Myarra, when not watching for bad people to sneak up on them, watches Aliana play with the magic circlet.  In a way it reminds her of a friend who receive a crowbar as spoils from a raid.  He'd played with the silly thing for days, trying to find out all the possible uses a simple length of iron could be put to ... which had been quite a few, come to think of it.

But eventually dawn arrived and it was time to set off again.  Retrieving the circlet, she slipped it over her horns and melted back into her mother's form for the remainder of the trip back to Daak.

Breakfasting on a double handful of travel rations, she spent the rest of the time checking the horses and wagon, and making sure the wizard was still properly secured ... tightening each rope (except the magic one) personally to make sure.

Swiftstrider was alert for his shift, snoring when he wasn't on duty, and ready to go when morning came around.  Making quick work of breaking his fast with some dried apples and cheese, the goliath was ready to complete their journey to Daak...

When morning breaks Emerald tends to his faithful friend before wandering over to see how the others are doing. "Does anyone still carry an injury from yeterday's incident? If so, I'd be happy to take a look at it," he offers as his mind turns to breakfast.

Sister Aliana chuckles ruefully.

For me, only my pride is hurt.   Our brave and skilled warriors did a very admirable job protecting me.   

OOC:  Sister Aliana used most of her remaining magic the day before healing, but there might be some left.

"I still have a couple of bruises and scratches, but nothing worth wasting your strength on," Myarra tells Emerald.  "I'll be fit as a camel by tomorrow.  But I appreciate the concern."

Some of you pray in the morning while the rest stretch for the day's travel. Emerald and Aliana are informed that the group will arrive in Daak early in the afternoon, the supplies for the town will be unloaded by the villagers, and the prisoner will be taken to Nolan for interrogation. You all travel a bit more alert this time, looking for anyone that might spring an ambush or dressed up like farmers again. But, the trip back to town is peaceful and uneventful.

Village of Daak overhead map has been added.

link to a message in this game

Once in town, Aliana and Emerald would see lots of construction going on...villagers rebuilding old burnt homes; they welcome all of you with happy smiles at seeing all of you with supplies in the wagon. The wagon is parked in front of the black tower.

Emerald looks around at all the hustle and bustle as he walks through the village and tilts his head slightly. "What burned all of these houses? Was it a dragon, or some more natural cause?"

"Orcs," declares Swiftstrider.

The goliath grins and waves to friends, and scoops up a couple of laughing children, perching one on each shoulder as he bounces around in a large circle before squatting and letting them slide off with hoots and giggles.  It is obvious this is a homecoming and the looming, stony-skinned barbarian is a welcome part of the community.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:11, Tue 17 May 2011.

Aliana looks around with wide-eyed wonder.
If there's anything we can do to help, please let us know.

Silver was glad to be....home. They hadn't been gone that long, but it surprised him how much he mssed being in this place. "I'm sure you could find somerthing to help with, if you really wanted to. But we didn't really bring you back for manual labor Sister. We are going to be tracking the Medusa down, and huntiong orcs, dragons and undead. But if you want to help rebuild homes, and let the aforementioned monsters just roam free to tear it all down again..." Silver had a lopsided grin on his face as he finished talking, showing that he was only kidding.

"I think we should go find Nolan. See what he was up to while we were gone. I wonder if he crafted anything."

Now that they've reached home, Myarra allows herself to resume her normal form.

"Welcome to Daak.  Population unknown, but getting bigger every day."

She looks around, approving at the amount of work that's been done during their absence.  It looks like they're just in time with the supplies.

"Swifty's right, Emerald" she replies to the halfling.  "By what we've been told, the town was invaded by a med-u-sa and a horde of orcs during a celebration when all the wizards were out of their tower.  Turned them into stone or just cut them down where they stood.  Locked a bunch of folks up in the jail ... the less said about that, the better.  Then they set up camp and did there worst to what was left of the town.  Most of them were based out of Lyran's Hold, which is a fair distance off in the woods, so most of them retreated back there.

We took back the town and cleaned out the Hold, but the snake head and a bunch of her followers escaped into the woods.  We've been helping rebuild while we sought people to help us go after the them.  And now you're here."

She jumps down out of the wagon and ambushes one of the kids trying to ambush the goliath, spinning the child around to hoots of glee.  Like Swiftstrider, Myarra feels more at home here than any where else she's been for a long time.

"Oh I hope so. she tells Silver when he ponders Nolan's crafting habits.  "I just need one more gift from him for my set to be complete.

Anyway, we need to get Nolan and see what he can get out of this piece of trash.  If you prefer, why don't you and Swifty wait out here and keep an eye on our guest while I go get his high wizardness?"  She knows full well that Silver would rather drive red hot spikes through his eyeballs than go inside the tower.  But there's no point in bring that up.  Besides, she's not that happy with it herself, but a girl's got to do ...

She pauses and turns to Sister Aliana.

"And now we come to the embarrassing part.   This tower is protected by some of the nastiest spells known.  Only someone with arcane or divine blood can enter by themselves.  The rest of us need to be escorted inside ... and around within.  I'll need you to hold my hand as we pass through the barriers.  Otherwise it's like walking into a wall.  Are you willing to assist me?"

She looks over at Emerald. "You're welcome to come along as well, I can at least give you a shor ... quick tour of the place while we look for Nolan."

Silver looks very much relieved to have Myarra suggest that he stay outside. "Yeah, I think I like that idea just fine. I'll stay out here and watch the Wizard. Go on then, go find Nolan."

Swiftstider nods his agreement, shooing children away from the wagon.  "We have captive in wagon. Him dangerous.  He bites!" Swiftstrider tells them in his best campfire tale voice.  He forms his hands into a toothy maw in front of his mouth, growling and 'snapping' at the most adventuresome before sending them on their way, a couple with a firm swat to their butts and a stern stare to show he is serious.

The pretty blonde elf laughed, a musical sound, as she looked at Silver.
Don't worry, my friend, I wasn't going to forget about the evil that needed to be stopped, in favor of construction work.   There's a nobility in manuel labor that I've always admired, but the orcs and other monsters are a priority.

Looking to Myarra, she nodded.
It would be an honor to join you, m'lady.   I "divine blood" is borrowed from Oghma, so I suppose it doesn't count, eh?
She grinned.

The cleric prepares to join the winged woman.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:55, Thu 19 May 2011.

"Once they get in your blood, you're never free of them, borrowed or not." Myarra says with a pretend shudder.  "Appreciate them from a far, that's my motto.  Respect them, but don't call attention if you can help it.  They'll either set you on fire, or pop you from one place to another and make you go on suicidal quests on behalf of children."

Looking at the entryway into the tower she suddenly flings herself towards it ... only to bounce back as if the air were made of stone.

"It's just wrong, I tell you." she says, rubbing her shoulder.

She holds out her hand for the cleric to take and gestures for Emerald to do likewise if he's so inclined.

"All you have to do is walk in like you own the place." she tells Aliana.  "I'll take you up to Nolan's lab.  That's where he probably is.  We can check the kitchens along the way."

Aliana gives a puzzled but amused look at Myarra.
Don't hurt yourself, please.   I'm sure it's not a slight against you, after all.
If you're talking about gods, then I'm sure I want to admire them "from afar".   I love my patron god and all he stands for.    If you're talking about wizards, then I understand perfectly.   A few very annoying and rude ones have been to the Oghman temple over the years.

She joined Myarra as the walked through, looking at everything like a tourist.

"Oh don't worry, it takes more than a bump to hurt me. Myarra replies with a smile.  And it might not have been a slight against her personally, but it was certainly a slight against anyone wizard's didn't see as worthy.  Which, of course, included her.  Moving forward, Myarra leads Aliana through the door of the reception hall and then north along the vertical corridor until it met the horizontal corridor in the center of the tower.

"Let me show you the basics.  Now the tower is a circle, there's this floor here, one above, and one below.  There's also a roof, but Nolan says it would kill anyone that tried to go up there.

This floor's the most important one from my point of view.  We came in through the reception area at the very southern bit and we're now in the very center.  The tower is broken up with central corridors dividing it into four pieces.  Ahead and to the left is the women's quarters.  Ahead and right is the men's section.  Behind and to the right is for guests.  But since we're all guests at the moment, that one isn't as well defined.  Lastly the area to the left is communal.  That's where the dining room and kitchen are.  The women and men's quarters each have a bath which you will not believe.  I'm forgiving wizard-kind a LOT just for having invented them.

But for now, we need to go right from here.  There's a set of stairs that winds along the outside edge of the tower up to the labs.  Nolan is sure to be up there somewhere.  The stairs also lead down into the basement, but I don't want to try dumping too much on you at once.  And besides, I don't understand half of it.  I'll try to get Nolan to explain it."

So saying she leads the way to the staircase and, with Aliana's help, ascends to the lab area, looking in each one for Nolan.

"And just for completeness, there's another tower like this one out in the forest that Nolan and I discovered, plus there's Lyran's Hold.  The one we found is deserted and a bit crumbly, but otherwise intact.  Lyran's Hold is pretty much just the basement, but that's a lot bigger than what we have here.  I'll show you around there later on."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:06, Tue 24 May 2011.

The pretty cleric gawks around, grinning like a child at Yule.
This is AMAZING!   And...we're spending the night here too?!?    How marvelous!

She gets a little giddy when Myarra describes the baths.
I can't wait to meet this fellow.

Emerald's face lights up at his invitation into a place as exciting-sounding as a wizard's tower. Not knowing what to do with Sox, he rides her over to Myarra and grabs her hand, holding onto it tightly.

When she describes the baths, Emerald can hardly contain himself. "I must say I don't think I've ever had a bath before, unless you could call a dip in a stream one. I wonder if there will be one my size, or whether I will have to swim?" he ponders as he accompanies the others inside.

Myarra grins at Aliana's enthusiasm.  "Yeah, it is pretty amazing, even if I don't approve of a lot of it."  The pressure is already building behind her eyes, giving her a low-level headache.  The tower doesn't like her, and it's not shy about letting her know.  Fortunately, the feeling is mutual, and there's nothing like deep seated spite to get you through a day in a wizard's tower.

"There's plenty of space for you to bunk down here, but I'll be sleeping outside where the air is cleaner.  As to meeting Nolan ... you'll get over it soon enough."

"There's just the two, lad," Myarra then replies to Emerald.  "One in each section.  And they're both so big even I can swim.

They're about 20 feet across and 3 feet deep.  Seats are set all around the edges.  You just need to sit in one of the seats and the water will clean you and your clothes.  Of course, there's not much fun in that.

And you'll love the kitchen as well.  They've got these holes in the wall.  You just ask it for whatever it is you want and it just appears in front of you.

Bunch of decadent power mad perversions, these wizards.  But they've got a snug little place that's not too bad to visit now and again."

So, Myarra guides Aliana and Emerald (With Sox) through the ground level of the tower, explaining things as she goes. Nolan isn't anywhere to be found, as with Ashara. Thinking that they might be in the labs above, Myarra guides them there.

Stairs Up/Down is location F-18 on the Daak Tower Level 1 Map (Message 2):

link to a message in this game

Myarra locates the magical barrier about 1/4 the way up the stairs and Aliana tries and succeeds at getting through. Emerald also gets through with Sox and Myarra is helped through. Walking down the hall, Aliana and Emerald can feel the magic in the air and know exactly how Myarra feels with her distaste of magic.

Not choosing any particular door first, Myarra opens the first door to the North that leads to the Alchemy Lab. Peering inside, all sorts of smells fill your nose, most of them smelling bad in nature, just like most of the magical potions out in the world. There are all sorts of equipment spread out through many tables with many different colored liquids in beakers, bowls, vials, jars and other glass containers. Myarra calls out to Nolan to see if he's in the room, but nobody is in there.

Moving to the door to the South and opening that door, Myarra peers inside the library of scrolls. Book shelves are filled with books and scrolls as are the many tables that fill the room. It would take weeks to sort through all this stuff if you weren't familiar with the place. There are comfortable looking reclining chairs spread out throughout the room, also filled with books and scrolls. Myarra calls out to Nolan here as well, but nobody is there.

Walking across the hallway to F-4, Myarra opens the door to the North and calls out for Nolan again...nothing. Inside is hard to describe. It looks like a Gnome's workshop with pieces of various equipment, weapons, armor, clothes and other various pieces of clothing. Some of the stuff is glowing, one piece of armor is floating around and a short sword is on fire. To one that didn't know what was going on, this room would scare you.

The last room to the South is filled with wands, rods and staves. They are hanging from walls, placed on shelves and tables and a couple are floating in mid-air. They come in various shapes and sizes and if you didn't know what you were doing, you could probably get hurt. That's why the magical barricades are in place to protect the unskilled. Nolan, nor Ashara, is in here.

Sister Aliana's large eyes got positively huge during the semi-guided tour.  She looked at everything, seeming to hurt her neck at one point as she kept glancing in all directions at once.

In the library, she seemed nearly overcome with joy and passion that most people reserve for their wedding night.
She can barely keep from reaching out to touch the scrolls.
.....so....pretty...

Myarra would have to lead her out of the room, as distracted as she was.

I really want one of these towers.   
She spoke almost reverently.
You don't suppose that this Nolan needs a library assistant, do you?

"Nolan .... doesn't play well with others." Myarra says tentatively, recognizing an unquenchable thirst of knowledge when she sees one.

"I really thought we'd find him here."  She stops and thinks for a moment.  "Oh dear, maybe he's trying to go up.  When I said there was the one level above, I really meant that we'd only explored one level up.  I think Nolan said there were eight total, and that nobody had ever gotten above level five.  He's been a somewhat obsessed about gaining power lately, and I wouldn't put it past him to try and force his way through the barriers above to prove himself.

Well, I wouldn't suggest trying to follow him.  He's always going on about how dangerous it is.  Let's go back down and see if anyone in the dining area knows anything.  If not, at least I can introduce you to some of the locals.  If Rufus is around he at least can take charge of our prisoner.  I'll feel better with more eyes watching him."

Reversing direction, Myarra leads Aliana and Emerald back down the stairs, although not without glancing up the winding staircase that disappears into the upper levels.

Aliana looked longingly at the doorways and stairways that they didn't explore, but she followed Myarra.
Yes, I'd feel better with the proper authorities watching the foul human.

Emerald now felt what Silver and Swiftstrider felt while being in the tower. This place is unnatural and totally against nature. He followed the girls down the stairs again while Myarra led you and Aliana into the dining area. Tables and benches line the middle of the room and all sorts of different smells come from the kitchen as villagers take advantage of the magical "oven" in the kitchen. Looking for Rufus, Myarra finds out that Rufus went into the forest several days ago and hasn't come back yet and Nolan and Amara went into the basement several hours ago. Ashara is probably with them.

"Don't worry little sister," says with a gentle laugh at Aliana's longing expressions as they walk past various parts of the tower.  "There will be time enough for you to look to your heart's content."

She's a bit put out when they finally reach the kitchens and find out that Nolan is down in the cellars with that ... that ... Amara ... person.

Leaving word for somebody to tell Nolan about their prisoner, should he arrive back in the kitchen without her, Myarra takes Aliana and Emerald tothe ovens.  "Let me show you how this works, then we'll go root out the wizard and his sl... friend." she tells them, catching herself in mid-slur.  Being a better person is really hard.

"Salted sand lizard, spit cooked, twenty minutes." she tells the magic box and is rewarded with a finely roasted snack.  Picking it up she bites into it, ripping away a chunk of meat with her teeth. Waving the remains with one hand, she gestures for the others to try it.

Emerald looks quizzically at Myarra and the lizard kebab, then at the hole in the wall. He shrugs and turns to face it, clears his throat and closes his eyes tightly. "Lightly toasted damper, spread with honey and crushed almonds," he says as he opens his eyes.

Aliana tries the meat.  It's not really her preference, but it's not bad.

She's curious about what work Myarra was going to use to describe Amara.
Slave?.....Slovenly guest?.....Slated student?.....
She was very curious.

Perhaps the sharing of food was some kind of elven tradition, Myarra really couldn't say.  She certainly didn't mind since the magic box apparently could make an unending supply.  Still, she had meant the gesture to imply that Aliana should try the oven, rather than her lizard, but it's all good. And perhaps she might just be able to get some of these so-called civilized folks to enjoy real food for a change ... although if whatever it was that Emerald had ordered was any indication, it was going to be more of the same endless struggle.

"Okay then, let's try the cellars and see what we find.  I should warn you again that Ashara seems to cause some people distress when they first meet her.  She's a really big cat, dark fur, six legs, and a couple of tentacles on her shoulders.  But she's really a sweetie.  No, the one you need to know about is Amara.  I don't want to speak bad about someone just because of their race, but I just have a problem trusting any of the темные эльфы."

Fully prepared to answer any questions they might have, Myarra moves off back towards the stairs.  The sooner they find Nolan, the better.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:44, Wed 01 June 2011.

Aliana's large eyes light up at the prospect of meeting the strange new creatures.
I love meeting new people!  I.......
She blinked in confusion, looking over at Myarra with a cocked head.
Wait.....what?    A темные эльфы??   Really?

She chewed her lip, not sure if she'd heard the word right.
I've never met one of them before.   What brings her up here?

"You'd have to ask her," Myarra replied.  "But I wouldn't advise it.  Those of us who escaped the Подземья  did so for good reasons.  Most of us don't care to dwell on those memories ... or we're hiding out until we can go back and crush our enemies," she concludes with a shrug.  "Either way, most of us don't like talking about it."

She pauses for a second.  "I'm not the enemy crushing kind, if it makes you feel less concerned."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Fri 03 June 2011.

Yes, if my enemies will stay away, I'm very "uncrushy" as well.     I'd love to ask her about the Underdark, but....I'll try to be subtle, like you said.
Sister Aliana grinned at her friend.

Myarra guides Aliana and Emerald down the stairs to the basement, with Aliana bypassing the magical protection barrier.

Please refer to Basement map Message 2:

link to a message in this game

Once you're down at the bottom,

Area 1 = The room is about 100x100 and along the walls are wooden chairs. There are painted pictures of men and women on the walls throughout the room.

And that's also when a creature materializes about 30 feet away from you. Soxy starts barking at the Displacer Beast.

"A-shar-a miss My-arr-a." the cat-like beast spoke

And then you hear the distinct sounds of the Golems moving from the portal room to the North. (Area 3)

Emerald jumps down off Sox, but holds her very closely to reassure her in the presence of the weird creature. When he hears rumbling he moves closer to their host. "I'm not sure I like this part. Let's go back to the oven," he adds quickly, though with curiosity winning him over he starts to look more closely at the strange talking creature.

Not me, this place is wonderful!

The blonde elf gazed about like a child in a candy store.   The displacer beast, the first she'd ever seen, was a little jarring, but fascinating nonetheless.
The golems were beautiful.  She really, really wanted one.


Looking around, She studied the pictures.
Who are the people in the portraits?

Nolan walked through the portal into his tower and directed the golems to stand guard as he closed the portal door again. He turned to Amara,

We can go back when we're done in the forest locating the medusa, Amara. The rest of the group should be back soon with the new recruits. I'm just hoping they don't run away like the last ones.

Following Nolan she then giggled at hearing his last statement.

"If you don't tell them everything up front, they might be willing to stay a bit later.  You know it is so hard to find good adventures these days.

"Myarra missed Ashara as well," Myarra replied to the displacer beast, giving her a closed-lipped, but still affectionate, smile.

"Oh come on," she adds as an aside to Emerald, trying to keep up with three conversations at once. "She's a cat.  What's the big deal?"

"Bunch of dead wizards, I suppose," she adds off to the other side as an answer to Aliana's question.  "Best kind if you ask me," she finishes in a near-whisper.

She was just about to ask Ashara about Nolan when she hears the wizard's voice, and that of his drow friend.  She almost manages to stifle a groan, even though finding them was the whole purpose of coming down here. The giggling was particularly annoying. It was against the universal order.  Birds don't swim; fish don't fly; and slave trading, back-stabbing, honor-less, drow do not giggle.

"Wizard!" she calls out in the direction of the portal room.  "We have, in fact, already returned.  We have supplies and two people who wish to assist us in removing snake-chick.  Come on in and meet them.  Then we have an enemy wizard tied up outside that needs to be interrogated."

Sister Aliana grinned at Myarra's joke and went back to looking at the portraits, clearly fascinated.

Yea, tell me about it. They know the adventure lies in the forest that has plenty of green dragons. Why prepare for everything and then quit at the last moment? Seems silly to me.

Nolan looked in the direction of where Myarra's voice came from and smiled.

Let's go see who Myarra brought to adventure with us. They're obviously not evil, because they got into the tower.

Walking out of the portal room, Nolan greets the new comers.

Sister Aliana, as distracted as she was by the pictures on the walls, wasn't able to ignore her sensitive elven ears when Nolan and Amara came in.

She had been warned by Myarra that the woman was a drow, but still it took her aback a moment to see one in the flesh.   She was like something out of a children's story, and on a world with dragons and vampires, that was saying something.

Beneath the dark skin, though, Aliana could see the elven grace and beauty, especially with the petite woman smiling like she was.   The only smiles the cleric had ever seen on drow pictures were cruel, crafty smirks.   It was a radically transforming expression, that seemed to erase nearly any trace of "drowness" that one would have expected.
The blonde cleric had spent most of her life with humans, and had never gotten a chance to form any kind of bond with another female elf, and even her friendship with Silver was tentative and fledgling at best.    So Aliana was torn.

Her education, biased as it probably was, as well as some racial instinct, told her to beware of the dark-skinned elf, but another, lonely part of her was intrigued by having an elven "sister".   And Amara's smile made her much more elf than drow, to her mind.

Walking over to the pair, Aliana smiled broadly.
Greetings, Salutations, and other Assorted Pleasantries, my friends.   I am Sister Aliana Farwalker, and it is an honor to meet both of you.....
Ironically, it was the human who made her pause.   Her large blue eyes blinked in confusion as she gazed at his broad face.

Excuse me, sir, but.....have we met?  You look very, very familiar.

Nolan's mind was already on the adventure into the forest and the damage he was going to do to the medusa, once he found her. Normally, he wouldn't have memorized so many destructive spells, but the scaly demon woman had killed many of his friends and deserved his wrath. He was hoping for some big brutes with some magical weapons, but he got a female elf and a halfling with a dog. At least the girl was pretty. Her asking him if she knew him confused Nolan though.

Have we met? I don't think so. I would've remembered a pretty face like yours. Perhaps you saw me in Soubar? I go there from time to time. My name is Nolan.

Even with the confused look on his face, he does offer his hand to Aliana.

Aliana was still smiling, charmed by the human, but her face still had the look of puzzlement, as if she were wracking her memory.

She giggled a bit at his compliment, blushing slightly.
Why, thank you, sir.   Now, though, I'm sure you're not the person I'm thinking of.   I met him at the Oghman Library in Scornubel.   But you couldn't be him.  That human wizard was.....cranky....and was very discourteous to the staff of scribes trying to help him.  He was even snotty with me, too.
The blonde elf chuckled.
And, now that I think about it, THAT human was at the Temple nearly 80 years ago.   Unless you have a VERY healthy lifestyle, it's not possible that you're him.

Nolan's face appeared to be blank when Aliana mentioned the Oghman Library in Scornubel, like he was staring off into space trying to remember something. He'd been in many libraries looking for this and that and he was pretty sure he was rude to at least somebody for being an idiot, but 80 years ago? Not finding anything in his memory, Nolan looked at the elven woman and shook his head, like he thought she was an idiot for even asking.

80 years ago? You've got to be kidding me. Look at me. I'm human. If I was 80 years old, I'd be an old man on his death bed.

Rolling his eyes, Nolan walked past everyone and headed for the stairs.

Let's go see who this wizard prisoner is.

Sister Aliana shrugged and smiled, not offended in the slightest.
I know, it was an unlikely connection at best.   Though wizards have, according to legend at least, been known to stave off death and such for many years.    It's just that this man looked enough like you to be a twin brother, if memory serves. 

She followed along with the wizard and the others.
My apologies if I offended you, sir.   Oghma teaches that information should always be shared, if possible, so sometimes I "overshare". 

"Don't let Nolan get to you, Aliana," Myarra puts in with a snort.  "It's not personal.  He's cranky, discourteous, and snotty to everyone.

Maybe he's forgotten the footlocker upstairs with his face in it.  Or maybe he's forgotten that people sometimes bear a resemblance to their forefathers. Or maybe he's going to get caught in some magical catastrophe and be hurled back across the pages of time so that, in the past, you met his future self.  Once you start messing with the multiverse, all twisted things become possible.

Anyway, to complete the introductions ... you've already met Nolan.  The lady behind him is Amara."  Directing herself to Amara, since Nolan seems more interested in checking out the prisoner, she finishes.  "Aliana, of Oghma's flock, has already announced herself.  And this is Emerald, of the noble Ling, and his companion Sox.

Since we'll all be working together, let me bring you up-to-date on our trip to Soubar."

She then turns and starts following Nolan to the stairs, describing the fight in the woods and what little they knew about the wizard and the dragon cult.

Aliana chuckled.
Don't worry.  I try not to take anything personally.   But crankiness certainly makes him a more likely candidate for being the man I met. 

Her pretty face lit up with delight.
OOOOH!   Time travel?   How exciting!

She looked at the wizard with intense eyes.
If you DO go back in time and meet a younger me, could you please tell me not to eat soup in the scroll room?
The blonde elf grinned sheepishly.
I spilled turnip bisque on an old map of Cormyr, and was scrubbing the floors for a month. 

Myarra's description of "the noble Ling" was a bit confusing, but she didn't correct the woman.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:49, Mon 06 June 2011.

Amara gave a warming smile to all that she saw even that nasty Myarra.

When Sister Aliana walked up to them and introduced herself Amara extends her forearm to be embraced in the Elven custom.

It is a pleasure to meet you Sister Aliana Farwalker, I am Amara she didn't wish to continue with her last name not sure if Aliana would recognize it.

She allowed Nolan and Aliana speak but she did know something that Aliana didn't, and it could be the same man she met 80 years ago.  Nolan was a strange and peculiar one but he did have some good qualities.

Aliana grinned at Amara.
It's an honor to meet you, ma'am.   I love your hair.  It's so silky and shiny.

Emerald looks anxiously at Nolan the whole time he is talking, waiting for him to burst into flame, or to turn someone into a frog. He sighs with relief when he turns and moves off, having thankfully not turned his attention to him. When Amara introduces herself to Aliana, he just smiles nervously. Any sort of greeting that might involve touching her would certainly be a strain for him, and he redoubles the scruffing of Sox's ear, more for self-reassurance than as a sign of affection. The one thing he is grateful for is that the talkative cleric of Oghma is large enough to hide behind and he takes full advantage of it as they move off.

Moving out of the basement and into the main halls of the tower, Nolan leads everyone outside to meet up with Swiftstrider and Silver, who remained by the wagon with their captive. Some of the villagers glace towards the group with smiles on their faces that say "they're happy the group is friendly". A couple of the male villagers give Aliana and Amara appreciative glances.

Emerald and Sox are happy to be outside again, but can see the benefits of the tower...it sure does look a lot smaller outside though.

Nolan approaches the wagon with the unconscious captive and recognizes the symbol on the armor that was collected off the dead.

Seeing Nolan smile is definitely a strange sight to see....

Aliana follows Nolan and the rest of the group.   She waves back at the young men, assuming that they're glad that she and the rest of the group are here to fight the evil in the woods.

Swiftstrider says to Nolan, "You know them?  They attack us.  Him only one left alive.  We bury others.  We bring horses back.  People here need horses."

Oh, yes, I know who they are. They're the Cult of the Dragon. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that their organization is responsible for all our troubles. All of you have done well with capturing this man. When he wakes up, I'll give him a nice, long interrogation. I'm not bringing him into the tower, because I'm pretty sure there's somebody scrying him as we speak and I don't want any enemies knowing what this tower looks like inside. We'll put him in the building where the enemy kept our villager friends. I'm sure our fellow friends would love to keep an eye on him until he wakes.

Nolan waves a couple villagers over to remove the captive wizard from the wagon and gives them specific instructions not to hurt him while they guard him. Looking through the equipment his friends removed from the cultists,

Some of this stuff is magical. I can identify them, if you want.

Silver nods in response to Nolan's offer. "We thought it might be, it'd be great if you could find out what they do." He flicks out a small, wicked looking dagger and starts cleaning his fingernails. "If you want some help with the interrogation, let me know. Him and his freinds did try to kill us unprovoked."

I'll make it easy for you, Silver. You don't like the tower. I don't like the Cult of the Dragon. You think the power of the tower is unnatural. The Cult of the Dragon's power is unnatural. They turn dragons into undead dragons called Dracoliches. These abominations are what destroyed Myth Jannath and Myth Drannor. Cultists are to be killed on sight, but I want information first.

She finally stepped up closer to have a look at the prisoner.

"I will be joining you in this interrogation.  is all she said and it wasn't a question.  She too had her reasoning for finding out something with the Cult and it is best to do it with the protection of the Tower.

"Well, I'll leave the details up to the experts," Myarra tells the three potential interrogators. It's not that she's unfamiliar with getting information out of unwilling sources, but her old methods aren't acceptable in her new Mystra-supported lifestyle.  She suspects ... strongly, that they're the same methods Amara and Silver are contemplating, but it's safer not to inquire.

"Nolan, whenever you get a chance to look at the shinies will be fine.  There's no great rush on that.

I'll go with and see the prisoner made comfortable, just in case he has any fight left in him.  But could you take a closer look at him for a minute with your woo-woo vision?  I know, painfully, that wizards can hide magical what-nots on their bodies that are really hard to find. I'd prefer not to come to check on him later only to find a jail full of dead guards but no wizards.

Amara, maybe you could take a few minutes to tell Aliana and Emerald about the attack on the town.  It will probably make more sense than my rambling and give them a better idea what we're up against."

Talking to a drow as if she were a real person, not a monster from a child's nightmares, was difficult, but for all their sakes, she was going to make it work.

"When you done with important stuff, I hungry," Swiftstrider declares as he imagines a haunch of slow-roasted elk drizzled with blackberry-honey sauce.

Nolan looks over the magical items with his ability and puts the items aside as the villagers pull the captive wizard out of the wagon. Nolan looks him over as well and determines that he has nothing magical on him. Nolan even searches the man just to be safe and finds nothing. The villagers take the man into custody and place him in the holding house for interrogation. The guards will inform the party when he wakes up.

You all go into the tower to get something to eat in the dining hall. If Silver wants to stay outside, he's pretty sure somebody will bring him something. The food creator is a fantastic item and you take advantage of it by ordering what you desire to eat, while discussing future plans of adventure....

Treasure list has been updated to show magical items

link to a message in this game

While everyone was getting their food from the kitchen, Nolan was talking with the group to get them up to date on things. He also wanted to hear about the fight Myarra was in and how the Cult of the Dragon was involved.

I should have known the cult was involved. That explains all the dragons in the forest. Anyways, Amara and I went to Lyran's Hold to go check out the library, but we never got there. I opened the doors in the room the ogres were using as a toilet and we found death and destruction. Neither of us had any way of detecting for traps, so we decided to come back. One room appeared to be some sort of office with a decapitated body. Been there for a long time. Next room appeared to be another library which was heavily burnt with fireball spells and the last one appears to have been caved in. It might take some time to dig out.

But we can come back to that once we come back from the forest. While I was using the scrying crystal, I noted several locations in the forest that I wish to explore to locate the medusa that attacked this village and killed most of my friends. Hopefully some of these locations can give us some information.

Sister Aliana nodded, listening intently.
Indeed.   I have magic spells that can help me look for traps, though removing them is another matter.    Still, I'll help in anyway I can.

She seemed almost mortally offended at a library being treated in such a manner.

Emerald tucks into any number of ordered desires from the food-thing and in the process decides that Nolan doesn't look nearly as scary on a full stomach. After a while he summons up the courage to speak. "Begging your pardon, Mr Nolan, but who is Medusa and how did he kill your friends?

Aliana tried a little bit of everything, but listened to Nolan's answers.

Nolan looked at the halfling like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears. He was just about to call Emerald an idiot, but saw the halfling's some-what fearful expression on his face.

I'm sure you know what a medusa is, Emerald. You probably just call it something else in your tongue. A medusa is a woman-like monster with snakes for hair and reptile-like skin. If you look directly into her face, her gaze will turn you into stone. The one that killed my friends and a group of villagers came to town posing as stage performers. When their eyes were upon her, I guess she unveiled herself and then called her orcs in. I was in the tower doing something. I don't remember what it was though.

Emerald processes the information while scoffing down another piece of damper, then dusts the flour from his hands. "So we need to kill a snake-lady without looking at her, and some filthy orcs. At least she lives in a forest. I feel a lot better under a tree than in a cave," he adds absently as he looks around for a new morsel.

Myarra misses the first part of the conversation, getting one of the local clerical types to escort her back to the front door with a tray of food and a mug of some proper drinkage for Silver.

But she returns in time to see Nolan giving the young Ling the dirty eyeball routine.  She sighs sadly.  It seems the wizard was never going to learn any kind of humility.  We can't all be genius bookeaters she thinks to herself.  You get one thing wrong and wizards get all scoffy and haughty.

She grabs a tray of food ... mostly meat and another mug of gut-rotting grog and joins the others at the table.

"Yep," she replies.  "That's the plan.  Kill the snake-chick and her orcs; and try not to get turned to rock at the same time.  I'm sure Nolan will have a few fine details to add on the where and when, but that's the gist of it."

She lifts a chunk of meat a few inches from her platter and nods towards Sox.  "Is he allowed extras?  This bit's camel roast with root sauce."

Emerald eyes the meat then smiles and gives Sox a scratch. "Most definitely. She will love it," he adds, highlighting the gender reference.

He then turns his attention back to Nolan as he nibbles on some shortbread. "And all the while on the hunt for Mrs Medusa we have to watch out for a flock of marauding dragons and an army of cultists? Boy, this ought to be an adventure!" he says excitedly.

"Now you're getting into the spirit!" Myarra tells Emerald, approvingly.  "I knew you two would have the right mindset for the job."

Putting the chunk of camel in her hand she holds it out for Sox.  "Here you are, girl.  Sorry about that he bit.  Won't happen again."

Aliana chuckled.
Yes, I'll admit that you folks don't take your adventure in moderation.    I'll look forward to ending those evils.

She tried a few of the new foods, making very expressive noises when she liked or disliked something.

Swiftstrider just tore hungrily into his roast elk haunch with berry sauce and a big mug of buttermilk and let the others do the talking.

Yea, you all say that now, but we'll see what happens when there's an adult green dragon chasing us through the forest. Now that the Cult of the Dragon seems to be a problem in the area, things will get worse. I'm pretty sure they know who we all are. But, anyways, there's several sites in the forest that I would like to check out. If the medusa is hiding in one of them, fine. If not, we go to the next one until we find her and dispose of her.

Aliana nodded to the wizard.
My apologies, lord Mage.   I didn't mean to imply that I thought this would be easy.   I will stand by your side, as with all my new friends, to fight this evil.   I will not falter, though it mean my life.

The giggley elf was very serious, as if she'd taken a vow on the subject.

Then, she picked up a small olive, and tossed it into the air, catching it in her mouth.    Her face brightened instantly.
Wow!  That's amazing!  I never make it on the first try!

"Been there, done that." Myarra replied to the mage with a grin, rubbing Sox behind the ears.  "We got a nifty tower in the woods as a reward.  Sure it was mind-numbingly terrifying at the time, what with the dragon and the gigantic multi-headed fire-breathing guardian beastie, but that's life.

And you know what they say about life?  Nobody gets out of it alive.

Yesterday's gone forever and tomorrow will come whether we like it or not." She waved her mug expansively over the table.  "So there's no point worrying over things that have either passed by, or haven't happened yet.  Especially while we have the likes of Nolan to handle the planning.

So I'm going to finish eating, take a bath, get some rest, pack my things, and then follow you wherever you want to go and kill whatever needs killing."

She frowned down into her mug.  "And find a better class of booze. Only six mugs of this stuff and suddenly I'm all full of the wisdom of the ages and crap."

Emerald grabs a juicy piece of fruit from his side plate and takes a bite out of it, then starts to speak with a mouthful of apple. "Don't you worry, Mister Nolan, I have lots of friends in the forest, things will be all just ticketty boo, you'll see, or my name's not Emerald Kegroll," he says as he scans the table for his next morsel.

Swiftstrider finishes stripping most of the meat from his elk and slowly holds the bone out to Sox.  "Here, girl.  You deserve treat.  Fought brave."

Nolan goes on to explain that he used the Crystal of Seeing down in the basement to try and find the Medusa. He rambles off various ruins he saw and figures that the ruins to the North of Lyran's Hold should be checked out first, since that's where the Medusa originally fled to when it escaped into the forest.

Aliana was savoring the salty taste of one meat dish.   She wasn't sure she wanted to know where it had come from.
She smiled at Nolan.
Ruins are a good traditional place to start, and practical, too.
Taking up residence in existing structures is just good sense.  I've got some minor training in outdoor survival and tracking, and such tactics are very common. 

You can track, huh? You're becoming more useful by the second. One word of advice, though. If you start seeing stone statues in the middle of the forest, please tell us silently. I don't want another one added to the forest. So, anyways, does everyone want to journey to these ruins? We'll be going through the portal to Lyran's Hold to save us a couple days road travel, then head into the forest to these ruins. Whatever treasure we find as a group, we divide evenly.

"Ah, Nolan, shouldn't we go talk with the Wizard first? I don't really like having him just hanging around."

In reply to Nolan (msg #219):

Aliana grinned at Nolan.
Well, despite the fact that I know that I would make a truly darling statue, I'll do my best to postpone it as long as possible.   

She giggled at her joke.
Now, I truly would love to have a statue dedicated to me, but I would prefer one that I can enjoy as well.   And while I'm normally against cutting out any part of a journey, but with lives in the line, I understand that time is of the essence.

"You can count me and Mistress Soxy here in for that Master Nolan. I can't wait to go for a run in a forest again. It's been a while," Emerald adds wistfully as he hoes into another dish.

Amara was very quiet during all of this, she was the lucky one that survived the attack of the Medusa and most of her friends were turned to stone.  She would really like to return them back to life if there was a way.

She watched how they ate the food in heaps of plates.  It seemed that they hadn't had a good meal in years by the way they were eating.  She slowly sipped from a goblet filled with Elven wine.

Taking this moment to memorize the names of the folks that she will be traveling with and if possible their mannerism and behaviors.  Being a Drow she was good at such things, so to keep herself safe and the party.

Swiftstrider walks to the kitchen and returns with a bowl of creamy goat cheese smothered in gooseberries and drizzled with honey.  Sitting back down he says, "Can go any time.  All ready."  Then he digs into his bowl of dessert.

"Well, Myarra added, interrupting a fascinating discussion she'd been having with Aliana about eternally flying birds of fire, and holes in the ground that oozed liquid fire ... she really had to hand it to scholars, their imaginations knew no bounds.  They put an old story teller like her to shame.  But back to the point at hand ...

"Well," Myarra added.  "I can almost hear Silver talking like he's right beside me, rather than outside, thanking all the gods not to be in this accursed tower.  And he'd be saying that perhaps we should consider interrogating that murderous wizard first, then get ready to head out?"

She excused herself while the other talked, following Swiftstrider's lead in getting dessert.  She returned with a bowl filled with some frozen dark confection, laced with what looked like thin strips of brown bark.  She also bore two spoons, one of which she handed to Aliana, putting the bowl down between them.

"A year or so back, I was in this rich old lady's house one night ... never mind why.  And in turn for having the paralysis removed ... never mind why ... I agreed to do some chores around the place, heavy lifting kind of stuff, in return for food and a roof over my head for a while.  And it turned out she and I got along fairly well once we got each other's measure.  Well, until her children found out I was there.  You know how it is, words were said, tempers flared, demands were made, and I was back to my carefree ways.

But anyway, she had this room in her house with a magical ball of pure cold.  Kept everything in there frozen solid.  And one of the tubs she had stored in there was full of this stuff.  From what she told me, they take cow's milk and churn it until it turns solid, add some sugar and some exotic beans, and it turns into this frosty stuff.  The beans are also roasted, mashed, and mixed with sugar and milk and ... well, I forget the details, but it turns out to be perfection in solid form, which they mix in with the rest.  You can't buy it for less than a bleeding fortune, but I figured since the tower's got a magic kitchen ... it was worth a shot."

The pretty cleric listened with rapt attention to the tale of magically aided desserts.    They'd experimented with many kinds of confections at the Scornubel Library in their down time, finding recipies and such.
She'd had frozen and shaved ices of various flavors, all sorts of pies, cakes and puddings, and even a gelatinous concoction invented by the gnomes of Lantan.  It was rumored to be made from rendered horse bones, but when flavored correctly, it was divine.   Not quite solid, but not quite liquid.

This stuff, though, was unlike anything else.
With the spoon still in her mouth, she let out a muffled squeal of pleasure.
MMMMM!!!!   It's so YUMMY!   I've had cold puddings, but nothing like this!    It's like a Iced Sweet Curd.    Delicious!

Impulsively, she gave Myarra a hug of gratitude.
Just amazing, like everything else here.  Thank you, my friend.

Nolan looked at everyone in wonderment, like he met them for the first time, while listening to their stories. He thought about digging into Myarra's mind to look for the secret of the old woman, but decided not to. He got up from his seat and walked to the door of the dining hall.

I'm going to see if our guest is awake yet. Have fun with your food experiments. We leave early tomorrow morning for the forest. I'll tell Silver.

Nolan brings a tray of food for Silver to munch on, chuckling to himself to see if he could guess what all the creations were. Half the stuff the group brought out, Nolan wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Myarra accepted the hug with only one small pang.  The last cleric to hug her had been Kimora, and look how that had turned out.  But that was the past and this Oghmanite was a totally different person.  At least she hadn't shown any signs of brain damage by casting wistful looks at the wizard yet.  "You're very welcome." she replied.  "Although I have to disagree with everything here being wonderful."

She pauses as Nolan gets to his feet and starts leaving the hall.

"Take your time, wizard." Myarra calls to him, waving farewell with her spoon.  "Send if you need us for anything, though I'm sure you won't."  Between Nolan and Silver, and especially if Amara also attends, there's little chance that the rest of them could add much to the interrogation.

"So, " she continues, turning back to Aliana and Emerald.  "While we finish this feast, why don't you guys tell me WHY you wanted to join up with our little band of misfits?

Personally, I was down on my luck, feeling really depressed, not in a good place, as they say, with my position in society, when a goddess ... acting on behalf of a couple of children ... showed me two options for the rest of my life.  The one I was heading towards, which was a life of luxury, and this one, which had constant peril and near certain death.  So, of course, I chose this one.  What about you?"

Aliana smiled at Myarra.
The "life of luxury" doesn't sound THAT bad?  What was the catch?
from stories she'd read growing up, the pretty cleric knew about the principle of "TANSTAAFL", or, as the humans sometimes say:
"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch".
Meaning, if one were to speak in more civilized tones, that there was always a price for everything, especially if it seemed too easy.

For me, it wasn't anything so dramatic.   I've lived for the last century in the main Library of Oghma, found as a orphan on the front steps.    I've always wanted to venture out of Scornubal, but never seemed to have the time or ambition.   Or, at least, not at the same time.     
Her smile became a little sad.
But, when the last grandchild of my original human playmates, who were with me as a child, finally died out, I decided it was time, no matter what reservations I had.

I want to see the world after reading about it for so long.   I want to DO something,rather than just recopy stories of other daring deeds. 

She shrugged.
Perhaps that is a selfish reason to want to help, but it's the only one I have at the moment.

She followed Nolan and wanted to join in the interrogation of the Cult member. She heard rumors that some of them might be looking for her for her House or other reasons.  She had to know if they knew of her presence in the area, and if so was that information sent to the Underdark.

She kept quiet while following behind him only allowing her mind to wonder what she will need to do.

Nolan easily caught the thoughts of Amara as the pair walked outside to find Silver. He sometimes hated his amulet, but he knew it would come in handy with the interrogation of the cult wizard.

Sometimes I hate my amulet, Amara, because your feelings right now are really intense that I didn't need to focus on you. If you want to show your face to this wizard, it could cause a problem if your feelings are true. Are you sure you want to do this?

Once outside the front door to the tower, Nolan locates Silver to give him the platter of food with everyone's contribution.

Good luck with that, my friend. Personally, I wouldn't touch half the stuff on this tray. Let's go see if our guest is awake yet.

Swifstrider waves goodbye to Nolan and Amarra as he savors his berries, honey and soft cheese.  Listening to the complex requirements to create the dessert Myarra and Aliana were sharing boggled the goliath's mind.  He glanced at Emerald and shook his head in bewilderment, raising his bowl as if toasting.  "Simple pleasures best," Swiftstrider says with a smile, "Easy to find.  Trust more." He casually wipes off some honey that had escaped down his chin.

She looked at him then at his amulet not liking the fact that he was reading her emotions without asking.

"I am fine, just worry about him.

"The catch?" Myarra responded, after draining her mug and waiting to see if anybody else wanted to share a bit of their lives.  "There's always a price.  And great benefits come with great prices.  And in this case, I wasn't the one paying the price."

"So I'm with Swifty here.  Simple pleasures and good people.  They're much better than luxury.  And I don't see anything selfish about wanting to see the world after spending several lifetimes helping others find knowledge.  Traveling is broadening they say, especially when you have access to this kitchen.  I think I've gained ten pounds since we took up residence."

Rising to her feet, she thumps her mug down solidly on the table.  "Now, I have several days of road dust I need to scrape off.  So I'm heading for the baths.  If you'd like to join me," she adds, looking over at Aliana.  "I'll show you how they work ... and you can help me through the damn barriers.  Then I'm going to take a nap until Nolan gets back to us."

"Emerald, you'll need to get Swifty to show you to the men's area if you're so inclined.  Most of the ladies here have a problem with mixed sex bathing.  The men ... not so much, although they put on a good pretend moral protest.  But it's all in the eyes, you know."

Silver smirks at Nolans lack of culinary adventure. Sure, some of it looked like...well, he wasn't sure but it WAS food. Right? It did come from the kitchen, so it had to be edible. He started picking through the morsles, eating on the way to the "holding cell". "Thanks Nolan. I just wanted to hang outside for a while, befire having to go inside again."

He smiles and nods at Amara as they walk. "Hello sister. Hah. How are you Amara? Maybe you have some tricks to make the Wizard talk eh?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:49, Thu 07 July 2011.

In reply to Myarra (msg #234):

Sister Aliana's eyes light up.
Oh!!!  A bath sounds lovely!   Yes, I'll join you.   Bathing in mixed company had never bothered me, though I've rarely done is, since I've been raised with humans all my life.     

She gets up, ready to follow her friend.

She smiled to Silver
"Trick oh yes, I have a few of them.  But I don't think Nolan will be pleased to watch.

"Male baths. A novel idea indeed! I'm ready for one whenever you are, mister Swifty, if we are getting ready to go out on the road," and Emerald begins to clean up whatever is left on his plate.

Swiftstrider snorts in his bowl of dessert and a couple of berries go flying!  He quickly eats the rest savoring the honey and cheese curds in the bottom.  Then gathers up his bowl and any others lying about and deposits them in the dishes bin of the kitchen.

"Come then, Emerald," Swistrider says, "I show you magic hot springs."  And the goliath leads the way to the baths...

"Not all humans are so embarrassed," Myarra remarks.  "Just most of the so called civilized ones.  I think it's living in such large numbers, so close together, that makes them all go a bit soft in the head."

With Aliana's assistance, Myarra leads the way from the kitchens to the baths in the women's section. As soon as they enter, the room lights up as if under a bright afternoon sun, revealing the magical bathing pool.  It's about 20 feet across, and 3 feet deep, with reclining seats spaced around the edges.

"The heat of the pool is controlled by this thing here."  Stepping over to a pedestal near the edge, Myarra fiddles with two control rocks, one red, and one blue. "If you think the water's too hot or too cold, it can be adjusted easily." As soon as she touches the first, the tub begins to fill with water, the level rising quickly, and then stopping on its own before reaching the top.

"Nolan says you can just get in and it will clean your clothes and belongings.  I'm not sure I fully trust it with anything important, and you'd probably want to be really careful with anything paper." she adds, removing the bags containing her belongings from the tie straps on her belt, and gently setting them on the coping beside the water.  Following them down, she strips off and places her chain armor, boots, gauntlets, and various weapons.

"Now, the next unnatural thing here, is that the water cleans everything all by itself. You don't need scrubsand, or drying cloths, or anything.  You get in, and you're clean.  You step out, and you're dry.  It's weird, but you can get used to it."

Stripping off her shirt and breeches, she drops the filthy, bloodstained things into the water, and then gingerly climbs in after them, settling herself into one of the underwater chairs.  Grabbing her clothes, she gives them a couple good swishes in the water and then pitches the now clean items out onto the side.

"If only it could mend the holes as well, it would be perfect." she says with a sigh of pleasure, leaning back and closing her eyes.

Sister Aliana looked on with wonder at the pool.
How....stupendous!  What a clever fellow it was who made this!

Getting down on her knees, she takes off her gloves and dips a hand into the water, then bringing it out both clean and dry.    She repeats the motion several times, looking at her magiacally dry hand as if it belonged to someone else.
Remarkable......  She whispered.
I wonder if this is what it's like to be a water nymph.....

She did this a dozen more times, before finally realizing that the day was rapidly ending.
Blushing at her silliness, but still grinning, she stripped off her gear, and her clothes, and got gingerly into the water.
She thought about adjusting the temperature, as it was a tad warm, but hesitated, feeling like a bit of a fussbudget, and just settled in.  She dunked her clothes, and marveled at their cleanliness.  She stood up in the water, and sniffed her armpits.   She grinned more widely.
By the Long Road!  I don't think I've ever BEEN this clean!   
She giggled like a schoolgirl.

Myarra watches her new friend's antics with a smile.  She's only known the elf for a day, but Aliana seemed to be the kind of person that would grow on you, given any kind of chance.

"As degenerate and perverted as wizardly magic might be, I find that they are occasionally useful, so long as the wizards are willing to take the soulmark on themselves of their own free will."

Holding her nose, she ducks down below the surface, holding her breath as long as she can, letting the magic waters do their work on the rat's nest her hair's become.  When she comes up, finger combing the knots loose, she finds Aliana already relaxing in the water as well.

"I've always believed that cleanliness was important, but you're right, until I discovered this pool, I only thought that I was clean.  I'm going to miss this one little bit of Nolan's insanity when it comes time to move on.  For some reason, this is the only room in the entire tower that doesn't give me a headache.

So, who are you getting along?  Is this new life what you were expecting when you left your library?  Had you been in a fight before this afternoon?  What do you think of our little band of heroes?  Is Amara what you expected a темные эльфы to be?  Have you had the urge to punch Nolan yet?"

She knows she's being a bit nosy, but then the only way to find out about another person is to either ask them questions, or try to beat the crap out of them.  The former seems to be the effective method in this case.

The perky blonde elf came up from under the water, and sprayed some water from between her teeth, like a cherub statue fountain from a rich human's estate.
She looked at Myarra, giggling wildly.
Wow!!!  Even my mouth is dry!!!   How does it DO that???

She sat down for a soak again, and looked at her winged friend, considering the woman's questions seriously.
Well, I'm not sure if this is what I expected.   I was picturing grand adventures with dramatic battles and grateful local politicians.    So far Real Life has been both less and more exciting.   
Aliana grinned.
But, I'm growing quite fond of all of you.   Oghman clerics tend towards being overly officious and understated.   This eccentric bunch of adventurers is JUST what I was hoping for.   Many of my preconceptions have been challenged, though.   Amara is nothing like any of the dwellers of the Underdark I'd read about.  Nolan is actually pretty bit sweet, though.  I can see that he's a bit tightly-wound, but he's nothing like the man I met years ago at the library.
That man was a total meanie to everyone.  Even I didn't like him.  But Nolan isn't so bad.  It's funny, though, he's a dead ringer for that man I saw 80 years ago.
Do you know if he has a grandfather who might have visited Scornabul back then?
 

Amara, Silver and Nolan walk into the building where the prisoner is kept. The wizard is tied up with ropes and gagged again, but he hasn't been touched like they were ordered to do. The wizard is awake, lying on a bed of straw. One of the guards stands up and informs the three of you that he was about to go out and get you.

You relieve the guards and they exit the building. There's a couple stools for you to sit on if you wish to get comfortable in your interrogation. Even gagged, the wizard looks unimpressed.

Amara, Silver, you two ask the questions. Don't touch him. I'll just be sitting here.

Nolan flipped the hood of his cloak over before they entered the building as he knew the wizard was going to lie or say nothing at all, but if he concentrated with his medallion, he'll get the truth eventually. He just didn't want the prisoner to know what he was doing. Taking a seat on one of the stools, Nolan pulled out some parchment with ink and pen and was prepared for the interrogation.

She nods to the guards as they leave.

Listening to Nolan as she thought he was going to ask question and she was going to use her powers to detect lies.  But it seemed that it was his plan as well.

Walking over to the prisoner she allowed her innate powers to first detect if he had any good within him then she would move closer to remove the gag from his mouth.

"I am warning you now, do not cast any spells once I remove this gag or I will be forced to rip out your tongue and find another way of communication with you. she gazed down at him with a slight bit of rage within her eyes. "Do I make myself clear? she asked

This first question was more of a test so that Nolan will be able to get time to focus upon the prisoners mind.

Amara doesn't detect any "Good" in the man as he tries to spit on her after the gag is removed. His claims of total destruction of this town and making everyone slaves doesn't help, either. Silver stood off to the side, twirling his dagger, while Nolan writes things down on his parchment.

Silver strides over to the man, still holding the wicked looking dagger and twirling it one handed. "See, this is supposed to be the part where we were gonna play good constable, bad constable. But then i realized, none of us are good constables. You tried to kill me and my friends, and well, this woman is a Drow. You can talk, and answer our questions, or you can not talk, and she gets to play with you, and you answer our questions. You really think the scribe can stop us from "touching" you?"

Silver stands there waiting for some kind of response, before continuing.

having him try to spit oh her was enough for the reaction she gave.  With out warning her hand was a crossed his face slapping him with such rage that it brought blood to his lip.

"Don't test my patients.  I will send the both out of this room and have my way with you. as he looked at her he can see that her eyes were giving off a red glow, custom of Drow when they are angered.

"Now answer my question and I will NOT repeat myself ever, male.

It seemed that she still remembered how the female Drow treated the lesser ones.

"Go piss off, you pathetic worm!" the wizard said as he spat at Amara again "I'm not telling you anything!"

It appears that this interrogation might get violent...

She looked over to Silver and nodded her head.

Silver nods at the man bound like a dog. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? Want some privacy to relieve yourself? You can have any of it. Just answer a few questions. Did you specifically target Myarra? Or was it all of our group? Did you target us because of what we are doing here, helping this town? Was it because we killed several of the green dragons here in the forest? What is your affiliation, and why did your group attack us? Answer just a few of those questions, and you can have a little bit in return."

Silver held up a hand to Amara, signaling to wait a few more moments before getting up close and personal with the bound wizard.

Pushing down with her fingers against the submerged chair to partially support her weight,  Myarra let her body sink almost entirely beneath the surface, with just her nose and eyes above the water.  She'd never been a strong swimmer, and unlike the rest of her tribe, didn't seem to have any form of natural buoyancy.  Left to itself, her body like to float about a foot down, making the "dead man's float" particularly well named for her.  Only the constant motion of hands and feet had kept her safe, though that was enough given the small size of your average water-hole.  There was a certain absurdity that only after gaining her wings; large, raft-like objects, that she'd been able to relax in the water without the fear of drowning, and then only here in the wizard's bathing tub, although not with anyone else sharing the small space.  So with her fingertips stretched out below, she just let herself steep in the hot water, Aliana's voice muffled softly but still understandable, a lower rumbling sound that seemed to come from all around.

Slowly, she let her legs drop back to the floor, raising her head from the water, and settling back into her chair, dividing her long strands of hair into two thick braids and sighing contentedly.

"Battles we'll have plenty of, although grateful politicians are nothing more than mythical beasts." she replies.

"I absolutely reject any attempt to label Nolan as sweet, but I'll grant that Amara can seem different from what I remember of her people.  That's probably why I'm such an unrepentant bitch to her.  But I just can't shake the feeling ..." she trails off and gives another sigh, but this one has no trace of contentment.

"I really don't know much about Nolan's past.  He claims to have been raised here, but he really doesn't talk that much about it.  And I wasn't joking completely earlier, we did find a locker in an old abandoned tower that had a picture of a man that looked just like him. For all I know he really does jump around from year to year, or maybe he's an elf in disguise, a thousand years old, and has lost his memory. The man is a mystery; a cranky, grumpy pain in the ass, mystery.

By contrast, Amara is either a banished drow trying to fit in, or a slaver bitch in disguise, waiting for some sign to strike.  Either way, she's a lot easier to understand in so many ways."

Aliana blinked in surprise at stared in fascination at Myarra's theories about Nolan.
Ooooooooooh.......a shapeshifted immortal wizard who lost his memory.......
She pouted, her lower lip quivering a bit.
Oh my goodness.....that's so sad.....He could have a thousand years of knowledge and information, not to mention a thousand years of loves and friendships....and he might have forgotten it all.

The pretty blonde elf sighed.
I'll have to be extra nice to him.  Perhaps that will let his memory recover.     Amara is another story, though.    I mean, I suppose many would say that it's prudent not to trust her, or to assume she might be lying, but.....well, I don't know.
She shrugged, still occasionally standing up out of the water to look at her perfectly dry arms and bosom.
I say that if humans can be good or evil, there's no real reason that drow can't.    I mean, I've heard that their main cities are steeped in evil and whatnot, but surely that can't affect everyone, right?

Nolan wrote down the questions Silver asked, while concentrating with his medallion. Hopefully, he'd be able to get something. Handing the parchment back to Silver to "inspect", Nolan waited for the wizard captive to crack.

"Yeah, you do that," Myarra says with an exasperated sigh.  What is it about Nolan that make everyone ... well, mostly women ... bend over backwards to understand him?

She watches the perky cleric bouncing around the tub like a child.  Somehow, even being a century younger than the elf, Myarra feels like she should be telling Aliana to sit down and eat her tubers.  Just watching was making her feel like she desperately needed a nap.  How had she ever gotten to feel so old?

"As to Amara, it's prudent to never trust anyone, ever.  But that makes for a lonely life.  I have heard of non evil individuals, but my history with the темные эльфы colors my opinion more strongly than third hand tales from strangers.  I encountered many of them in my younger years.  And if you'd ever had one check you over before deciding whether or not to buy you, you'd have nightmares about them too.

So, have you known Emerald long?  It feels like we're picking over poor Nolan and Amara.  We should spread out the gossip to be fair."

Aliana settled down for a nice soak again, nodding to Myarra.
Yes, we've heard rumors of a couple of drow who were roaming the western part of the continent, either working for the dwarves, or maybe working with the coastal patrol in Waterdeep.   
She grinned.
The stories got a little confused.   Most of the priests and sages at Scornubal assumed it was just fanciful tales, like how the Moonshae Islands were once defended by a giant whale and such.

"Sometimes I wonder if we're speaking the same language after all." Myarra replies, with a sad shake of her head.

"Islands?  Those are the bits of rock that stick up in the middle of lakes and rivers, right?  I'm pretty sure I saw one of those when I was in the Dalelands.  But what's a whale?  Another mythological beast like your fire bird that lights up the sky?"

The wizard just laughs at Silver's questions and spits on the ground again, not even having any clue that the information is being plucked out of his head.

"Go ahead and write that on your parchment, scribe!" the wizard yelled at Nolan

Amara and Silver look to Nolan, who has a small smile upon his lips as he continues his writing. The captive wizard isn't stupid and easily catches on and curses you all.

"I guess we'll see who's will is stronger, eh?"

In reply to Myarra (msg #258):

Aliana frowned in confusion at Myarra.
I thought I was speaking in the common tongue of the local humans.   Did I lapse into Elven or Sylvan again?   Sometimes I do that, since I'd studied so many languages.
This one time, during the high holidays at the temple, I once gave an entire "Welcome to the Party" speech to a group of Cormyr dignitaries in Draconic.   They seemed to think I was making a joke at their expense.   I was assigned to privy duty for a week.
The elven cleric nodded apologetically at possibly speaking another language, then smiled.
Yes, a whale is a huge fish, but I'm told it breaths air like we do.  I've been told that some are as large as small ships.
Yes, the ocean is full of wonderous things.

On arriving at the men's bath, Swiftstrider gestures broadly and says to Emerald, "This magic spring. It clean your body and clothes and weapons.  Everything clean and dry when you leave water.  It warm and tingles."  So saying, the goliath enters with all his gear on and settles into the water with a contented sigh.

"No, no." Myarra laughed.  "You're still speaking Common.  It's just that you use the strangest words as if everyone will know what you're talking about ... you're bit like wizards in that respect.

I met this one once.  Shot me with a couple of those wizard dart things.  Then when that didn't stop me ... although between you and me, those things are nasty ... she decided that threatening me with big words might do the trick.  She ... the wizardess ... jumped-up tramp more like ... anyway, threatened me with, and I quote: An arboreal dermatic derived, thermally activated, photonic transmission artifact. Then she grabbed a torch and waved it at me and yelled Back! Back!"  She shook her head and grinned again.  "We left her tied up naked on the slave rack in front of her father's pyramid.  We knew she'd be found in an hour or so, so she wasn't in any real danger ... mores the pity.  But in exchange for keeping her boots ... scorpions, you understand ... I made her teach me her nonsense phrase."

She pauses long enough to slip back under the water briefly.  The water may dry quickly, but the heat is too nice to pass up.

"Anyway, so you're always going on about islands and whales and volcanoes, and it just gets a bit confusing at times.  You say a whale is a fish that's as big as a ship.  Now I do know about ships. They had one on the river north of Ashabenford.  Must have been 15 feet long.  Absolutely huge it was.  A large as fully loaded caravan wagon.  A fish as big as that would be a sight to see.

But for every word you explain, you toss out another.  So ... what's an ocean?  Just be careful what words you use, or we might be here for the next ten-day."

Already getting information from the wizard when he was unsuspecting, Nolan just smiled and stood up when the wizard caught on to his act.

You don't stand a chance, cultist. You might as well give up your secrets now and then flee for Soubar. I know you have a base somewhere and the medusa was there. Why don't you tell me where that is? Silver, Amara? Keep asking him that while pinching and pulling his hair and skin. It's not torture. It's just annoying and distracting.

In reply to Myarra (msg #262):

Hearing about the encyclopedic rendition about burning sticks, Aliana blinked in stunned incomprehension for a moment, as gears clicked into place.   Then she squealed in laughter, collapsing back into the water, overtaken by giggles.
It took a few moments for her to stop.
That....is....ADORABLE!!!   I may have to use that one day.   

Still laughing a bit, and wiping a tear from her large, almond-shaped eye, she shook her head in amusement.
I'll admit that my long years in a libarary had filled my head with more useless knowledge and unusuble vocabularly than most people I'm likely to meet.   But I'd certainly never waste my time calling a torch something else if I didn't have to.


The pretty elf maid settled back in the water.
I'm assuming that she was trying to convince you that the "artifact" was something immensely powerful?
It's a cute bluff, I have to admit.
But my 'wordliness' comes from growing up with books instead of friends, I'm afraid.   I mean, I was friendly with the staff and older priests, but they kept me hidden, for my own safety.

You see, I was left on the doorstep by my parents, who left a note saying that they were fleeing from something, and needed me safe.
Well, they never came back for me, so it was presumed that they were killed by whatever they were running from.   So, I was kept hidden for decades, the assumption being that whatever killed them might want me, too.
To this day I have no idea if they were criminals, or royalty....or both, for that matter.

So, I spent most of my time reading.   I have no regrets, though.   Books are fascinating, after all.   And I loved that world as much as I'm loving this one.  And I hope to have my own stories one day.


An 'ocean', for example, is like a lake, but it's IMMENSE.  So huge that many of the rivers on one side of the continent might empty into it.   And so deep that you can't see the bottom, even on the clearest of days. 

"Go piss off, you pathetic fool. You'll get nothing out of me!" the captive wizard said as he spat on Silver's leg

But, Nolan smiles when he gets visuals of a ruin in the forest...

She walked up to the cultist and slapped him pretty hard across the face.

"You are starting to bore me and when I get bored I then like to see blood.  She grabbed a dagger out of her side hip and jammed it right into his inner thigh.

She knew that deep down this wasn't going to kill him and she had spells ready to heal him if needed.  But it would leave a nasty scar which brought a smirk to her face

Silver takes the papers from Nolan and looks them over. Handing them back to him, he looks back at the captive about to continue with the questioning when he was spat upon. Silver sighed, and shook his head. "Now you see that is going to do nothing but aggravate me. The scribe wants to let you leave here alive. I originally somewhat agreed with him, but if I get more aggravated I may reconsider."

Silver started to ask the same questions again, in the same order when Amara broke in. Silver grimaced a bit when she stabbed him, but had to hide a smile. A woman after his own heart. Sort of.

"Well now you've aggravated the Drow. And theres likely nothing I can do anymore. Sorry pal." Silver turned to leave the room, walking somewhat slowly to see if the captive wizard cried out.

The wizard did cry out in pain and struggled with his bonds, cursing the whole time, but doesn't say a word that would help you guys.

"Go ahead and stab me again. I'm tougher than you think. When I get out of this place, I'm going to tell everyone that this town is hiding a drow elf!"

No, don't stab him. He thinks that if he dies, he won't have to answer questions to give us details.

Nolan looked to the captive wizard again.

She's been living here for quite sometime and you already know that. Do you honestly think the villagers are going to give her up after what you put them through? Why don't I tell them that you're responsible for their friends and family being turned to stone by the medusa and then see if you can run out of town fast enough?

She pouts when she is told not to stab him again.  Giving the wizard a nasty glare she then turns from him shaking her head.

"Oh you will get to live I guess for now.

"Ah, of course." Myarra says, as if she clearly understood.  She knew what incontinent meant, she and her hunting party having had more than one run in with bad water and food during their various raids.  So continent must mean the reverse, someone with full control over their ... um ... waste products.  But what did that have to do with rivers and enormous lakes.  She decided that it was probably not worth asking more about.  Big lake was good enough for her anyway.

"Yeah, the little tramp thought she could bluff her way out her situation.  Even if she'd made it through the door, Hilfar and Sule were guarding the outside.  Stamping her feet and pouting wouldn't have done her any good there either." She gives a little smile and sighs.  "Those were good times.

So, shall we just proclaim you to be a lost princess?  That's got a nice ring to it.  And Nolan's an ear-bobbed elf with memory issues.  Amara's surely got a tale to tell, whether she will or not.  And Silver, who knows what mysterious past he's hiding?  Swifty and I are probably the most normal folks here.  He was a shepherd from what I can gather.  And I was just one of a couple dozen warriors in a little tribe.  Nothing magical or world bending about us.

Well, I'm glad you got out of the library and are getting to see the world.  It's a wide and thoroughly weird place.  Nothing at all like what I was expecting.  There's plenty of stuff here for a thousand stories."

Aliana grinned at her friend.
Oooh...."lost princess"?   I have to admit that I like the sound of that.   It's certainly better than the other two leading theories, which were: "Daughter of Wanted Criminals and/or Traitors", and "Daughter of Two People Who Thought a Child Was Cramping Their Style".

The pretty elf maid shrugged, having had many decades to have gotten over any parental issues.
But, you are certainly correct about the world.  It's MUCH more wonderful and terrifying than any book.   I'm glad I came.

"Well, daughter of the leaders of an infamous crime ring isn't a bad second place.  An honest life of crime isn't necessarily that bad a way to get by.  In fact, I'd heartily suggest you try it someday.

My only problem with it is the company you have to keep.  I know you'll laugh, but I have to say that you really can't trust criminals.  I mean, you might think Silver is a bit shifty.  But I know without a doubt that I can turn my back on him without having to worry about him stabbing me in the back for my purse.  I can't say that about other men I've worked with.  And I have the scar to prove it.

I suppose I also have a problem with prison.  That's an experience I heartily suggest you don't try."

Aliana smiled.
The only real experience I have with criminals were bandits who tried to rob the Temple Library, so they didn't make a good first impression, certainly.    I have to admit, though, that I have no interest in doing anything to inconvenience honest, hard-working folk.    I think using violence on bad guys is about as "non-law-abiding" as I want to be. 

So, over the next hour, several of you take baths to get cleaned up, while Nolan melts the captive wizard's brain with his magical medallion. Nolan gets all sorts of useful information out of the wizard's head and knows exactly where the hidden base is located. As to what to actually do with the wizard, you all can think about that later.

When you all get back together, Nolan goes on to explain that there's ruins in the forest about a days journey to the North of Lyran's Hold. It has an extensive underground complex. As usual, Green Dragons might be encountered while wandering through the forest.

Nolan figures that the group would leave tomorrow morning through the portal, that leads to Lyran's Hold, to save on some travel time and then head out into the forest. Cultists might be encountered again, so if more wizards are encountered, try and take them alive.

"This pool will take the dirt off you in no time," Myarra replied, sensing a bit of disappointment from her new friend.  "Just like it never existed.  But the stain of one's misdeeds can never be removed, and I don't think they should.  My father use to say that all the experiences you gain from all your choices in life make up what you are going to be.  Even the bad choices.  Maybe even especially the bad choices.

In hindsight, my bandit days were definitely one of my worst choices.  But it was my choice, and I think it would be even more dishonest to pretend it didn't happen.  I really thought it was the only way to live.  Raiding was what I was really good at; what made my tribe proud of me.  My tribe raided the other tribes, who in turn raided right back.  There was some fighting involved, but killing was rare, almost always accidental.  The tribes just weren't that big to be able to afford to lose people like that.

When I got over the mountains, I tried to live the same way, although it was a lot harder, being alone.  After I got caught in my very first ten-day, I spent a month in a Daleland's prison, and another month rebuilding a stone bridge.  It was uncomfortable (and again, I would heartily suggest you skip the experience), but I think it was a fair punishment.  My first rule is: never complain about paying the price for your misdeeds.  My second rule is ... or was: never take more than you need, and never take it from someone that needs it too.  I too, have a problem inconveniencing honest, hard working folk.  The extremely rich ... them I had less sympathy for.  I know it's only justifying what I did, but it seemed to make sense at the time.  Anyway, I spent a couple years trying to survive off my skills, sometimes the bandit, sometimes fighting against the bandits.  Sometimes I was successful, sometimes I was a guest of the state, as they call it.

I ended up joining a bandit group.  I thought it would make things easier ... and I missed being with other people.  But my comrades didn't have my principles, meager though I'm sure you think them to be.  So I tried to leave and ended up with a Narfellan dagger in my left kidney.

Anyway, that's what led me to my bad place, which in turn led me to Lady Mystra who, I think you'll be please to hear, also frowns on my former lifestyle.  She gave me this new path.  I'm going to be just as dedicated to this one as I was to the last.  And I think it's going to work out better.

But really, I am what I am today because I did, in fact, make some especially bad choices."

Aliana's eyes were wide as she listened with rapt attention to Myarra's story.
Wow.....you've had such an exciting life.    I think the only "choice" I've made was to leave the Library.    I'm glad you've given up your bandit ways.    Perhaps together we can make a new life protecting people.

Nolan gagged the captive wizard again and knew that justice must be done as he, Silver and Amara left the jail shack. He told one of the guards to assemble the townsfolk, that he needed to talk to them about the prisoner, while he went back into the tower to talk with the rest of his friends.

Silver, I know you don't like this tower, but you might want to be part of this conversation. Amara? You coming?

Once everyone was gathered in the dining hall, Nolan explained tomorrow's plans.

We're going through the portal in this tower to Lyran's Hold. We get out of there and go through the forest about a day. We'll find some ruins where Cultists are hiding out. That is our destination. I've never been in there before, but from what I stole from the wizard's thoughts, the complex below is extensive. He also knew the Medusa was there, but moved on. I'm gathering the townsfolk outside to tell them who the wizard is, then I'm setting the captive free. I think they need some justice of their own.

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit." Myarra replied.

"You chose to leave the library.  You chose to come to Soubar.  You chose to join a ... let's face it ... really weird group of people.  Did you stop to think that maybe we picked people up, killed them on the way back to Daak, took all their belongings, then went back to Soubar with a sad tale of how they met their fate against the evils of the forest?  Fortunately we're not that kind, though the forest certainly is dangerous enough.

But that was another choice you made, and it could just as easily have been a bad one.  That's what make life interesting."

She'd been thinking of getting out and going to take a nap.  Now it seemed like too much effort.  If she closed her eyes, she'd probably fall asleep right here.  Damn Nolan to the nine layers for being right again! she thought to herself with a smile.

She started telling Aliana of the fight over Grapthar's Hammer Oasis, on a day so hot that both sides called a break at high sun for a co-tribal swim, snack, and snooze, before picking up the battle again in the late afternoon.  She had just started the good, and fairly racy, part about the co-tribal feast and party in the evening when a messenger arrive to summon them back to the dining hall.

Sighing, she hauled herself out, feeling like she'd gained a hundred pounds in the process ... and dressing added fifty more, and made her way back to listen to what the interrogators had to say.

Aliana blinked in confusion at Myarra's tale of them robbing and killing innocent travelers in the forest.   She was pretty sure that something else had happened, but the relaxing bath made it hard to think.  And Aliana certainly had trouble with details and such.
The friendly winged woman might be being metaphorical or something, and might be trying to make a point, perhaps about all things being relative.
For all her book smarts, Aliana was a bit of a literal thinker, and
For now, though, she'd just keep assuming that they were attacked and had killed their assailants, until she saw empirical evidence to the contrary.

Myarra's story about the "heated battle" was very interesting, though, and she was riveted to her every word.   The pretty cleric had always loved stories.

She was readying a story of her own when the messenger arrived.   Somewhat reluctantly, she got out of the bathing pool.   Giggling a bit, she still spent some time patting her magically dry body, looking for all the world like she was feeling herself up.
This is just...amazing.   I hope we can stay here a bit longer.   This was fun. 

Dressng quickly, she joined her new friend as they headed out.

Nodding her head as to following Nolan to the others.  Once there she sat and listened to what he was able to get out of the mind of the cultist but she didn't like the fact that he was willing to hand him over to the people.  They would surely kill him without thought and it is not the right thing to do.

"Are you sure you want his death upon your consciences Nolan.  The people will not hesitate to kill him once they know he was part of the attack upon their families.

Myarra was a bit surprised to hear Amara speak up like she did.  Furthermore, she had to admit that the drow had a very good point.

"I'm not as worried about the wizard, or my own conscience." she adds to the conversation.  "People should be allowed to pay for their mistakes, provided they're willing to admit to them.  But the cultist isn't guilty of making a mistake.  He has no intention of ever changing his ways, and he's an active threat to the community.  As my old owner liked to say, I think he just plain needs killing; before he takes more innocents with him.

Personally, I have no problem just killing him out of hand.  My soul's dark enough, one more won't make a difference one way or the other.  But I agree that we should be concerned about the villagers.  It's one thing to kill defending your home.  It's quite another to kill for revenge, especially as part of ugly mob.  Do we really want his death to be on their consciences?

Why don't we let them decide his fate, and I'll chop off his head.  They'll get justice without having to become killers.

Then we can get going and take care of the rest of his friends in the woods."

Swiftstrider leads Emerald back out to the common room after a long, relaxing bath.  Finding Nolan and the others their, he listens to what is being said.  Then the goliath responds, "Not question of right or wrong.  It is question of justice."

I don't have any problems with it at all, Amara. You were there. You witnessed first hand what happened here. This village was almost exterminated. I think the villagers need some justice and this is their chance. I plan on ridding this world of the cult of the dragon, one member at a time. It's Mystra's will. If you don't want to see it, stay here in the tower. This, in my opinion, will bring the villager's spirits up and they'll finally get a piece of mind. After that, we'll prepare for our trip tomorrow. I'm going outside now. Anybody who wants to follow, follow.

Nolan gets up from his seat and goes outside to let the villagers pass judgement on the cult wizard.

Silver had followed into the tower, with only a little hesitation this time. He seemed to be getting used to it, but it was still...off somehow. If he got seperated from someone, there was a good chance he could get stuck somewhere inside and not be able to get out.

Silver stayed silent throught the conversation about letting the townsfolk dispense justice. If it was up to him he'd have killed the wizard when they were done interrogating him. But it wasn't, so he just tagged along behind Nolan.

Emerald stares at Nolan as he explains he is about to execute the prisoner. When he is finished, Emerald sighs painfully. "I did not join up to murder people. If you take that man outside and kill him in front of the villagers, I will leave and go home. I am not a murderer. I didn't know you were those kinds of people."

Nolan stops, turns around, and looks at Emerald with a look of confusion on his face that says 100% condescending.

I know you may be short on stature, but are you short on brains? I never said I was going out there to murder anybody. I just told all of you that I'm going to inform the village who the wizard is and let them decide his fate. If they want him dead because of his crimes, then they will also decide how it's going to be done.

Nolan turns back around again and walks away.

It gives me a migraine headache thinking down to everyone's level.

she coughed loud enough for Nolan to hear, when she heard his last comment.

Aliana blinked in surprise at the wizard's comment

Are you SURE you weren't in Scornubal 80 years ago?   The wizard back then used to say the exact same thing.

Perplexed, the blonde elf maid cocked her head to look at Nolan, as if he were a particularly fascinating puzzle.