Meri's mentor said many things. One that came up from time to time was a personification of the craft. It became the god of the detail. Sometimes it sounded like a benevolent teacher, and sometimes it sounded like a capricious trickster. But it was always something to be respected. That the smallest detail could show so much about the finished product for good or ill - a crack, a belmish, a slight discolouration, the right discolouration, a shimmer or gleam in the right light. And sometimes, you had to look past the obvious detail - like shininess - to spot the real detail the god had hidden there.

One could probably rush an item for oneself, and suffer the consequences of a displeased god later. That was just a matter of tinkering and giving the god his due. But for pieces for other people, or for altering something that came from another's magic, it was perhaps always best to pay full respect to the god up front, and take as much time as available to pay attention to the details.

Let me know if this isn't quite in character for your mentor and I can edit it or remove it, I just wanted there to be something for you to read until you made a move back towards the workshop :)

Also, technically your enchant item ritual only takes 1 hour, but narratively that seems a little rushed. So I'm happy to say that you can do that, and any ill effects of 'rushing' rituals are always stuff that needs to be tweaked or tended to at non-critical times, but that you would expect to take longer on special items or items for others. Sound fair?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:02, Thu 06 Apr 2017.

OOC: Sounds about right :)  I'd imagined him as being a bit of a loner and an alternately sullen and sarcastic git a lot of the time, but when it came to his craft, he had all sorts of pearls of Yoda-esque wisdom to dispense :)
So do I start off back at the workshop here?  Anyone else still here?

Indeed!

When Meri came back to the workshop, she found the shutters were half lowered indicating the place was shutting up, but still open enough for her to enter.

Harriet was fussing around, setting up the blankets in one corner and moving a chair to make a more appealing space to half lie in if desired. On a nearby bench had been set up a large jug of drinking water, and a small platter with some bread, cheese, and a few choice fruits.

"Oh, hello again dear, that was quick!" she said in surprised greeting. She stopped folding a spare blanket and moved across to Meri. "I got you a few things for the night." Harriet reaches passed Meri and finishes pulling down the wooden panelling that locks the workshop away from the world, turning it in to a large room. If you need to leave before you see me again, the door here latches fro mthe inside, so just pull it closed." There was a less than hardy looking door with a complicated locking mechanism - though probably still too simply to stop a thief. "Don't let yourself be locked out, of course!"

She pointed to a door in the back. "That's the door to our place, but, well, just to keep Jo happy I'll be locking that. If you need anything, we're probably more likely to hear if you go round to the side of the building and knock on our main door."

Harriet hovered for a moment. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Nothing else" replied Meri, shrugging off her backpack and placing it on a workbench.  "Thanks for the use of the place."
She placed the staff and the cloak next to her backpack as Timur clambered out of it, peering curiously around the room.

"Sorry if Farren bothered you earlier.  He can be a bit...  Odd.  I suppose I've gotten used to odd things over the years."

Harriet looked surprised at the reference to Farren, perhaps compounded by the fact that Farren hadn't given his name. "Your friend with the ... odd eyes?" she said weakly. "He... I am sure he is fine. I suppose I'm not used to someone looking like that and armed so well actively worried about dangers. It makes it sound as if he has something to hide, from a time when he wasn't so worried about avoiding danger..."

She didn't ask the question but didn't quite break off the converation otherwise.

"Maybe he does have something to hide" replied Meri.  "No way of knowing for now.  I said I'd guide him to Fivespears anyway, after that we'll most likely go our separate ways again."

She reached into her backpack and started removing items, examining them and then stacking them to one side.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he won't threaten the town.  If he does, I'll be one of the first ones lining up to take him down."

Meri's reassurance to Harriet perhaps didn't quite reassure the woman, but it seemed the sergeant had some sway, and Harriet simply gave a wan smile. "Well, I shall leave you alone for now. Good luck with your...friend..." she said uncertainly, and then departed.


Way to scare the NPCs :p Anyway, so you have a chest filled with goodies, a backpack filled with goodies, and all the time in the world to play. So, what do you want to do, and with what? Feel free to RP as needed, but otherwise use this thread to firm up what's happening. I can repost the items if needed, though they are all on the magic items thread.

OOC: Funny enough, that was Meri actually trying to be reassuring :)


Meri peered at the door that had closed behind Harriet with a slightly puzzled look, then shrugged and moved to pick up Nym's cloak, hanging it up and peering into one of the pockets.  Then she stuck her hand into the pocket and felt around the interior space for a few seconds before pulling her hand back out and examining it.
"Been a while since we saw something like this, huh?  And we didn't even get to tinker with it back then" she remarked idly, moving back to the bench where she had left her pack.

As she began to remove items from the pack, she glanced towards Timur, who had turned to stare at her.
"No, I wasn't going to get drunk back there" she snapped, as if replying to some silent remark he had made.  "I never drink when I'm working, you know that."

Taking out the Sun Globe, she placed it on the bench and tapped on it to light it, then picked up the ruby lens and peered at it, turning it slowly to see how the light from the globe shone through it at various angles, then she placed it aside again.
"Doesn't matter what I'd have done if I hadn't been about to work on something, because I AM about to work on something, right?  Just drop it" she said, moving over to the chest and unlocking it, pulling out the short sword and the Delver's Light and bringing them over to the bench.

Tugging a small book with numerous loose scraps of parchment tucked into the pages, she opened it up, revealing pages scribbled with more of the strange runic symbols she used on her alchemical ingredients.  These looked more like formulae, with more legible numbers and alchemical symbols mixed in among the runes, as well as drawings of arcane diagrams and even a star chart on one page that quickly flitted past as she turned to a page in the middle of the book, tracing her finger along a couple of lines of barely legible text, then picking up the sword and examining the hilt closely.
"I told you before" she said, clearly carrying on her less silent half of the conversation with Timur.  "I have my own reasons for doing things, nothing at all to do with 'getting fond of' anyone.  Whether or not the Shadow's release had anything to do with the Blight or not, I'm just cleaning up the mess I inadvertently made, that's all.  Not like I care about anything beyond that, I'll be happy when I get back home again!"

Putting the sword down again, she pulled one of the loose scraps of parchment out of the book, studying the complex arcane formulae scrawled on it.
"Nym can look after herself, if she wants to go wandering blindly into danger, that's not my fault, is it?  But if I'm going in the same direction anyway, no harm in helping her out, right?" she muttered.  Then her eyes widened and she looked towards Timur with a nasty glare.
"I told you before, I'm NOT getting fond of them, ok?  Now quit lecturing me and get the equipment out.  We need to reforge this hilt to hold the stone and add in some extra materials to channel the energy."

She tossed the parchment piece she was holding in Timur's direction and moved over to a rack of tools on the opposite wall, studying it for a moment and reaching for some of them, arranging them within easy reach.
Behind her, Timur moved towards the backpack and began dragging out the box containing the small tool kit Meri had brought with her.  As he did, he looked towards Meri's back at the same time as she turned to meet his gaze.
"No, I don't know what the Shadow meant" she said in a more quiet and subdued voice.  "And I suppose that does bother me.  Should I tell her about that?  Try to find out?  But like he said, she probably doesn't even know either..."
She sighed and shook her head, returning to the bench and picking up the sword again.
"We can worry about it in the morning.  For now, just quit distracting me and get the alchemical equipment!"


OOC: Hope no-one is listening in here, or they might think Meri is insane and having an argument with herself, hehe :)
So yeah, how much time do I have to work on stuff?
Planning on making the sword first.  Then linking the cloak with the backpack (still pondering which pack to use).  Then will repair the goggles if possible.  Then if there's time left...  Do I have anything I can use to make that door more thief-proof?  Kind of a favour in return for the use of the room, so to speak :)
After that, if there's any time left, will probably tinker with a few smaller things, while reading through that journal she got from Davius, see what it's actually about...
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Tue 11 Apr 2017.

Lol, yes, possibly a good thing no one is looking in :D  I really love the interaction, nice insight in to the Timur and Meri dynamic. Umm, assuming this is Timur speaking to her, and Meri isn't just going insane...

And yeah, I can see exactly how Meri would think she was being noble and reassuring, but of course all the NPC hears is 'yeah, that guy sure might be a scary murderer or something, but hey, I'm sure I can murder him first so it's aaaaall good, doooooon't worry...' :p


Right, so you have as much plot time as you need for all of that, it's absolutely within your capabilities. At the moment it's only around 8pm or so, and technically you wouldn't need to be doing anything else until 6 - 8am next morning, so you've got tons of time.

Note you can also totally check out the journal too while waiting for magical stuff to get magical, or hot stuff to cool down, so that's cool. So you can work out the rough layout of the surrounding malds (liek the map I showed you), and you'll get a +2 to nature and history checks to do with the region (until you get to Thirdgate, basically).

Not so much the fey lands, nor anything else, unless you explicitly start research for that. That will take more time and will need some rolls, but you could do at least one bout of research too tonight.


Harriet's workshop doens't actually have a forge (she clearly uses her wands for that sort of thing), but you've got forgemaster gloves, so those will work out nicely.


To make the door more thief proof, you have your trapmaking kit that can let you beef up locks or add traps to the lock. To actually succeed in improving things, you'd need a Thievery roll once you tell me the sort of thing you had in mind. I might also require you to lose some gold or possessions or components to achieve your ends. But it's definitely a cool idea!

OOC: No furnace? (O.o)'  Not sure how I missed that one.
Meri isn't really too concerned about anyone breaking in while she's working there (not sure if her light would be visible from outside and would hint that at least one person is there, so might deter any opportunistic sneak thieves).  If anyone does break in, they'll distract Meri from her work, which would be really bad for their health!  (Speaking of which, is there anything she can use to remove bloodstains from the floor/walls/equipment?  Would hate to leave the place in a mess!)
Was thinking more on permanently reinforcing the door and lock to make the place a bit more thief-proof in future.  Doing Harriet and Jo a favour of sorts :)
Might make up for scaring them earlier, hehe.  Meri isn't all that good with "people skills", even when she's trying to be friendly.


Meri continued to pull items out of the pack while Timur busied himself setting up the alchemical equipment on the workbench.
Finally adding the box of reagents and other chemicals to the pile of items, she took out several vials, reading over the piece of parchment with the formula on it and handed three of them, one by one to Timur.
"Ok, two parts of this and three of this one.  Add a single drop of this other one, no more than that though, or it might get too volatile.  It was nice of them to let us use this place, and setting it on fire would probably not be a good way to thank them, so be careful!"

As Timur carried out the instructions, she pulled out the journal Davius had given her, and the silver stag figurine Celindara had given her.
"Ally to the elven gods, eh?" she murmured, looking over the figurine.  "Can't say I've ever been one of them, but..."
She shook her head slightly, placing the figurine on the bench, turning it so it appeared to be looking out over the entire room, then moved her attention back to the journal, glancing at the mixture Timur had just finished adding items to.  It was now fizzing and giving off a faint grey smoke.  Tiny flames played around at the base of the vial where the ingredients appeared to be reacting to each other.
"Ok then, we just give that a few minutes.  May as well check out this book for now" she remarked, pulling the journal towards her and opening it to the first page...


OOC: Okies, will check and see what exactly this thing is.  From what Davius said, I'm thinking some kind of odd collaborative writing effort from everyone who's passed through the town :)
Just skimming it for now, rather than looking for anything in particular.  Might concentrate on searching for more specific stuff later.

Don't think I explicitly called out the lack of furnace before, but Davius did mention Harriet used wands and staves to melt metals :) As I said, just a narrative quirk rather than an impediment, forge gloves will see you ok, and all the other things needed in terms of workbench and tools are around.

The journal is not collaborative, it is just Davius's granduncle.... just, it seems to be his granduncle's thought throughout his life in a cofnused mess!

And my response about the locking was for beefing up Harriet's security, nothing to do with your own security. You should not be interrupted during the night, actually having activity in the workshop overnight would guarantee no one should try anything.

So yeah, feel free to roll some Thievery and I'll let you know what you have to work with, and what you could do to beef stuff up for Harriet. In this case, it's Thievery with your Intelligence bonus not Dexterity, so remember to increase the roll by +4 :)



The journal started off strangely. The first few pages were endearing enough, with what seemed like a young man - clearly Davius's granduncle - documenting his first wagon journey on his own, in terms of no family around. He was part of some small party exploring the nearby hills for some tomb or barrow that seemed important, though the bad handwriting couldn't hide the large readable paragraphs of self-absorption of the youth. One page seemed to have been soaked or ruined, and a page had been glued on top. The glue had made the replacement page brittle, and where it peeled the faded mess of the page under could be seen.

However, some parts of those first pages had been marked with a yellow stain that seemed deliberate. And one of two loose pages at the front seemed to have been produced by a more sober, wiser granduncle who was writing a summary of that first journey, as if he was also doing the journey again truly alone. It seemed the yellow stains tied in to his summary, as he theorised that the barrow might have collapsed, and that the nearby dungeon may well contain the body that was being sought. The second loose page appeared to be utterly unconnected to anything else, and not even written in the same hand. A far neater hand had written a letter detailing the first words of a child, and also had also sketched a small forest scene with a mother with baby and a small child playing. It was likely the grandaunt's letter.

Skipping further on, it seemed that the granduncle began to note the start of journies with the name of the place he travelled from, and an obscure name for what he sought. Unfortunately, the name of the place he left always seemed to be - perhaps deliberately - the name of a village or geographical location that might not be instantly obvious. And the name of the quest were usualy nothing more that something like 'That Blade' or 'Find the Ultimate Source'.

Still, at least these little labels were underlined in a faint purple ink that, once you noticed it, was at leats something to look out for when flicking through the journal.


So there you go, that's sort of the idea of how the journal is. Lots of entries about his travels, with personal stuff mixed in, but will criss cross itself in time. However, at least you've found a method to quickly scan it. If you want info on something or a place, you can always flick though and see if a weird quest name or place name jumps out at you :)

Oh, I liked Meri setting up the stag to watch over he work, that was cool!

OOC: Ah ok, I'd thought he had a habit of passing the journal on to anyone who interested him, then having them send it back by some other route.  Wondered if he was trying to get some record of every adventurer who passed through, since he seemed interested in learning the stories of people and things.

Also, the stag placement might just have been some idle fancy of Meri's.  She's certainly not asking for, or even expecting any help from the elven gods, given her past with the elves, and her own belief that the gods (especially the elven ones) couldn't have cared less about her.
Her whole attitude to religion is sort of "what's the point?  You can only rely on yourself, not sit around and wait for some god to come along and save you!"  :)

Also, Thievery roll is: 28 (14 + 10 + 4).  Nice!  She's probably already figured out how to break into this place several times in one night, using a different way in every time just to show off, hehe.


"Curious" murmured Meri, glancing towards Timur, who had wandered over to sit on the bench top next to her, reading the book as well.  "I wonder if he ever visited the Fey lands.  Or maybe found anything relating to the Chained God or the Shadow.  Have to check for that.  But first..."

Getting up from where she had been leaning on the bench, she moved over to examine the vial where the alchemical concoction was still sizzling away to itself.  The combined ingredients now seemed to have melted down into what looked like liquid fire, glowing a bright orange-yellow and giving off a noticeable shimmer of heat haze directly above the vial.
"That should do nicely.  Ok, just need to modify the hilt...  Get me a couple of those spare crystal shards.  The red ones."

Taking up some tools, she undid the bindings around the sword's grip, and then used the gloves to heat the metal up while working to create a hollow channel through the hilt.
Laying the sword to one side to cool, she picked up a piece of metal and deftly forged it into thin rod-like shape, attaching a structure of red crystal shards around it, similar to the pattern inside her own staff and then fitting this carefully into the now-hollowed out hilt of the sword.  Picking up the Delver's Light, she examined the connection point on it and began heating a piece of metal to form into a cap that it would attach to.

"I wonder if I should ask Many" she mused to herself while working to shape the hilt cap.  "If he's really linked to both of us, maybe he knows what the Shadow meant..."
Pausing to heat the metal again, enough to seal the cap in place, she looked towards Timur, who had been trying to turn a page in the book to read on from where Meri had left it.
He scratched his head, then shrugged, clearly uncertain.

"Maybe" she remarked.  "I suppose it's possible he isn't linked that deeply.  Otherwise he'd have understood what I meant before..."
She sighed and moved back to the workbench, placing the sword down and just standing there for a moment as if lost.  Then she looked back at Timur.
"Yeah, right, I shouldn't think about that, should I?  I'll end up going back to the inn and getting drunk and the work will end up unfinished" she laughed at that.  "Distraction.  I'm good at that!"

She reached for the vial with the glowing fiery mixture in it and added a few grains of a substance that looked like black sand.  Instantly, the glow died away as the mix seemed to cool off again, leaving a faintly smoking thin black liquid in the bottom of the vial.
Placing the sword flat on the bench, she began to empty this onto the blade, using a small object like a paintbrush to spread it out over the whole surface before repeating this procedure on the other side of the blade.

"Ok, best to let that set and dry completely for now.  Let me see that book again, I want to see if there's any mention of a Chained God, or other ruins like that one we found.  Was the Eladrin that Krunluc was rambling about, wasn't it?  Maybe there are more Eladrin ruins around here that might have some connection..."


OOC: Okies, more of Meri arguing with herself :)
(Can PM you the details of Timur's side of the conversation too, if it's unclear exactly what they're "talking" about).
Then taking another look through the book.  Searching for any mention of a Chained God, and any signs that Granduncle there happened to stumble onto any Eladrin-built ruins in the area...

Well, he may well be, but just like Meri probably wont deface the book, other probably wouldn't either so I suspect it has bounced around without being altered. Now, it is a very good idea, though. So, you may well want to ask at the temple of ioun, or ask the librarian, if people who have read the journal before have given any notes or comments regarding the book. That might give you some cool insight (maybe someone's even created a separate guide to decoding it, who knows!) And you could always ask Davius if he personally has asked for or kept notes of people who have borrowed things of his (like the journal).


I presume Meri is wondering about the cryptic mentions about Nym? Anyway, if you want to PM explicit explanations of the conversation, that would be cool :)

The security for the front was basic, which was in some ways a very good thing when one wanted to alter it. The shop front was open, and the sliding cover that closed down simply pulled down to latch in to a very solid piece of wood that extended all the way across the shop floor level with the ground. It would make a very secure anchor for any secondary bolts of fixings. With Meri's abilities in magic, she could ensure that a single lock could magically undo any solid fastenings, ensuring that opening up was not an onerous ritual.

The lock itself seemed remarkably like the lock in the sergeant's chest, in terms of little details in workmanship. It was certainly the same craftsman, and they were definitely deserving of the name a craftsman in the art. However, where the sergeant had gone for a very good lock that would securely fasten the chest, it seemed that Harriet had gone for the plainest and simplest of the craftsman's work. It did the job of holding screen to floor post elegantly, but with only the barest of security.

Can you roll me an Insight check?

Still, the good news was that the combination of simplicity, solidity, and workmanship meant Meri had a very good base to work with.


Ok, very good roll, so good luck and a good eye for detail will let you build whatever you like to the lock and barrier. So it's up to you if you want to go for trapping it, beefing up the secure points, or if you want to try and use the sergeant's lock as a blueprint to make harriet's lock more complex - since they are by the same craftsman, that will work. Obviously once you let me know what you are thinking of, I can start giving you any potential costs.


Also, can you roll me a Nature, History, Dungeoneering, and Religion check please. Eh, and just for the fun of it, a Perception check too (not as important, it will just grant you +2 to all your other rolls if you can beat a DC23) :)

OOC: She probably won't write anything in the book.  Although if she thinks there's something she wants to keep a record of, she might scribble it on a piece of parchment and leave it tucked into the book when she sends it back.  :)

Also hoping Nym manages to talk Samel into joining the team.  She's definitely got the right level of weirdness to fit in with the group :)

I think she'd probably go with upgrading the lock, rather than leaving potentially dangerous traps laying around.  (As amusing as it might be to give the locksmith a nasty surprise if Harriet ever loses her key and locks herself out, hehe).
Curious too if there's any sign of who the craftsman who made the locks was, like any hint of a maker's mark or a signature or something.  Meri is always interested in fellow crafters, especially skilled ones :)

As for the rolls:
Insight: 20 (11 + 9)

Nature: 10 (3 + 7) - Meh...

History: 10 (5 + 5) - Also meh...

Dungeoneering: 23 (11 + 12)

Religion: 23 (16 + 7) - Unusual for Meri perhaps...

Perception: 21 (7 + 14) - Ick!  Fell short.

Forgot if any of them are getting bonuses from earlier though.  Gotta start noting this stuff down :(
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Thu 13 Apr 2017.

Lol, fortunately for your Perception failure, all your rolls either succeeded convincingly on a hard DC, or missed the moderate DC by too great a margin :D

The matter of Harriet buying the 'cheapest' lock seemed odd. Clearly it had been the sergeant's bullying that mad maybe got Harriet to get the lock in the first place. And clearly Harriet needed it - given her lack of forge and one or two other heavier pieces of workshop gear, she must completely rely upon her collection of saves and wands. Items that were far too easy to steal.

Even if Meri couldn't fathom Harriet's reason for not beefing up her security, Meri could both see Harriet needed it, but might have a less than favourable reaction to being presented with it directly. Meri had seen mant odd reactions to her creations from patrons in the past. There was buyer's remorse, even if the item was what they had asked for, or better. And sometimes people had been pushed to get an item they had been told they needed, rather than an item they felt they needed. Many times, presentation or a few simply words smoothed things over.

Or, to put it another way, definitely make this lock better, Harriet need it, and it will also score points with the sergeant, but figure out a way to not be 'I made you a nicer lock because you need it because your old lock is bad, why do you have well crafted but ineffective lock!'


The items did indeed have a maker's mark, it was strange as it seemed to he the maker's initials, but one initial was in dwavish rune and the other was a human rune. So whether it was a dwarf with human influence, or a human with dwarf influence, or perhaps made by a partnership of a dwarf and human was hard to dicern. The craftsman of the locks was too clearly just one person though, though looking at boththe mark and spotting those telltale details showed the less functional lock also included a smaller set of initials - a 'cg' in common - after the main initials. It was most likely an apprentice had made the lesser lock, but still to the exacting standards of their master, hence the craftsman's initials still being present.

It should not be too difficult to simply trust the method of the original craftsman, and simply imitate the sergeant's lock to create a reasonable approximation of the better lock. There was even the space in the lesser lock, showing that clearly the craftsman had made it easy for themselves to produce these locks to whatever standarda customer required.

Ok, so you will only need to spend 20gp to upgrade the lock to a better version, and shouldn't need any further rolls to accomplish it.


When looking to the book and flicking through it again, Meri realised she didn't have enough context regarding the lands nor history of the region to work out many of the starting places. It almost missed her attention that the granduncle had gone north at all - there was reference to going over the 'great stone bridge' and staying at some place called the Golden Crown. It was most likely that the eladrin ruins near Stonebridge had remained buried until the discharge of magic in the conforntation with Lord Fetre. And it seemed it had taken the work of many goblins to dig out the ruins to find the portal for Krunluc.

However, with the various names of The Other than had been dropped, Meri at least could at leats spot some of the odder diety and entity legends the granduncle had encountered. And Meri had enough experience from traveling the wilderness to spot the difference between acave network and exploring the ruins of a place.

The granduncle seemed to have explored south and west, avoiding much of the eastern empires. In the west, many of the ruins sounded fresh, part of the old western empire that had been snagged by the deserts. And much of the south sounded as if humans had made much claim, and any mention of wilder elves were clearly the feyish elves of the fey lands, rather than the eladrin. It was very likely the eladrin had claimed the north, and the forests there.

Still, there were a couple of entries ragarding odd dieties that could be tied to places. One was from one of the island chains in the south, where several tribes of fishmen, and oddly some sailors who had crashed in the region, worshipped some great sea diety that had nothing to do with Melora. The sea being sounded more like an agent of chaos, anddemanded sacrifice - though whether that sacrifice would keep the destcrution of the sea at bay, or was demanded in order to hasten it, seemed to be at odds. The oddly changing robes of the acolytes stood out, simply because they reflected the sea, so could be shimmering blue or green or black at any time.

The second reference was to a cult of maddened followers that had been clinging to a tower of some local significance somewhere on the edges of the hard mountains in the south east, near Fiveknights. It was said they were aiding the destruction of the world, for their god was locked away deep in the world, chained from rising until creation could be broken.

Ok, so one might just be Cthulu, but the other is at least something you might be able to ask about as you go south.

Also, as an OOC comment, the two parchments you have, and now this reference, are actually all quite good for oyur research, you just need the right person to put it all together for you :)

And and the fact you haven't found any more eladrin related stuf should be a reassurance, that the eladrin portal is very likely on in the Stonebridge Falls area, and that the influence of The Other has not been spread b ythe Eladrin elsewhere. They settled very locally in the north, at least hopefully by the fact the granduncle found no signs of them when he was doing his eexplorations in the south.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:17, Fri 14 Apr 2017.

OOC: So we have the option to go tangling with a Cthulhu cult now?  Guessing our INT stat counts as sanity points here? :)  Where's Old Man Henderson when you need him?
Then again, we do have Nym.  Get an Elder God into a conversation with her and we'll see whose mind breaks first! ;)


"Curious" she murmured quietly.  "The details of the cult in the tower refer to an imprisoned or chained deity.  Maybe that's what we're looking for.  Suppose we could stop off there and have a little chat with them, get some answers."
She left the book and moved over to examine the sword, tapping lightly on the blade to check if the alchemical mixture she painted onto it had set properly.

"Well, yeah, I do expect they won't be happy to see us, and may not want to talk to us.  And I suppose we will have to hurt a few of them.  That's up to them, isn't it?" she remarked casually with a glance at Timur.
Reaching out, she picked up the sword and the Delver's Light and pressed the part of the stone where it would have connected to a construct against the modified socket on the sword's hilt, giving it a sharp twist to lock it into place.

"Ok then, let's see..."
She moved back to the bench and tapped on her Sun Globe to put out its light, then gripped the hilt of the short sword and concentrated intently on it.
A faint fiery glow sparked up inside the Delver's Light then immediately went out again, then flickered on and off erratically until Meri banged the hilt against the side of the bench, causing it to suddenly flare up into a bright steady glow, looking as though a flame was burning inside the stone with smaller sparks orbiting around it.
"Should do the trick.  And now..."
She moved away from the bench and adjusted her grip on the sword so that she was wielding it as if about to enter battle.  The glow in the stone went out, but at the same time a rush of flames erupted over the length of the blade as the alchemically-treated metal ignited.
Meri made a few test swings with it, leaving glowing fiery trails as the blade passed through the air, then held it up, mentally commanding the flames to go out again.
"That should do it, right?" she asked Timur with a satisfied grin, retrieving the sword's scabbard from the chest and sheathing it, leaving it on the bench next to the chest and tapping on the Sun Globe to light it again as she passed it.

"Ok, next, we have...  This."
She reached out to pick up the Druid's staff, running her fingers along the wooden surface.
Reaching into her pocket, she took out the crumpled sheet of parchment she had been scribbling on back in the shop and studied what she had written there.
"Ok, we'll need a few things to make this work.  What do you think?  Some of this would work, right?"
Timur peered at the parchment then looked up at Meri and shook his head.
"No?  Really?  I think it would work.  I mean, yeah, it's risky.  But it'll let us release the full power of this thing, and if we open all the windows and the door to let the pressure out, the explosion won't do too much damage.  Nothing I can't repair anyway."
Timur shook his head again, and gestured to the surrounding room.
Meri sighed and tossed the parchment onto the bench.
"Yeah, ok, I know, I know, this isn't my workshop.  Ok then, we'll use the safer method with the regulating mix then.  Boring as that might be!  Get the reagents out."

The two of them spent a few minutes setting up the alchemical apparatus, and adding the contents of several vials, and some pieces cut from the red heart stone into a mixture that was soon fizzling away over a low flame.
"Ok, while that's cooking, I'm going to keep a note of some of this stuff, maybe we can find someone in Thirdgate or Fivespears who can tell us more.  Didn't Davius mention something about a librarian?"
With that, Meri began flicking through the pages of the book she had read before, and copying some details down to a scrap of parchment, occasionally looking up to check the progress of the formula...


OOC: Guessing the great stone bridge referred to the one that used to stand near Stonebridge?  Not sure about the Golden Crown though.  Maybe an inn in New Stonebridge?
Does the book also mention anything about that librarian Davius mentioned?
The stuff about noting down details was kind of an IC note to myself to remember to put this stuff in the Scratchpad so I don't have to hunt through the threads for it later when I've inevitably forgotten where it was mentioned :)
(Of course, then I have to remember to check the Scratchpad too!)

Don't forget to nominate the sacrificial items for the sword enchantment at some point, and do fun stuff with them :)

Also, Davius's Granduncle might have adventurered a while ago... so New Stonebridge would not have existed, since the great stonebridge would have still been in tact :)

OOC: Ah ok, forgot about that.
So, checking back, I need at least 920gp of stuff on top of the sword and the gem?
And any items used will leave behind the base item without the magical effect it had before?  (Like the Magic Rod would just be a plain metal rod, the Songblade would just be a normal sword with a poison storage in it (unless that was actually its power?)).

Also need 20gp for the lock upgrade.

How much for the goggles and the backpack/cloak of holding trick?  May as well get all the costs added up now before I go any further and probably forget them again.  (Yeah, I do have short-term memory problems.  Something that seems to have annoyed Shadow over on the Rebirth of the Kai game on more than one occasion.  Sorry if it gets in the way sometimes).

Indeed, you need 920gp's worth of items/components to complete the sword. Anything you disenchant will be ruined and destroyed. If you only need a partial value of an item, I will say that the base item can be left behind (with no magic left in it).

And yep, 20gp for the lock.


Have you thopugh of which items of the sergeant's you might actually want to keep for yourself?


The linked backpack needs no further costs - the dryad staff is the cost. The additional cost for creating the concealed backpack is part of using the concealed backpack up (Since you're using up one of the rewards for making the sword) :)

Reparing the goggles needs no further costs - it's your treasure, so any components/items you use to repair it can be narrative in nature, and part of Meri's personal stock of stuff. Or you can say you use spare magic left over fro mthe items used in the sword production.

No problem about keeping this all straight, there's a lot of info spread out over lots of time. Nym has a similar problem anyway of recalling stuff, so it's all good :p

OOC: Definitely tempted to figure out some way to colour the replacement lenses for the goggles red 'cos it'll look badass.
Then again maybe electric-blue lenses would be better, since that's kind of Meri's colour theme :)

Is the Magic Rod an implement, or just an off-hand weapon?
Will probably use up the Cursed Dagger, since it doesn't seem to have any really beneficial effect anyway.  And the Sergeant did say she wasn't too fond of the Songblade.
Will most likely try to keep the base items intact though.  Meri doesn't really like destroying items if she doesn't have to.
The red heart stone is worth 500, so will add that in.

As for items to keep.  Probably just the backpack with the concealed pocket actually.  Tempted by the Acrobatic Boots though...

Yeah, red was Mollie, blue is Meri. I'll let you colour them for 'free', since they're your magic item :)

The magic rod is just an impliment, but like orbs and wands can be an off hand item so you can cast spells but still have an actual normal weapon if needed.

If you're going to use the red heart, then a) definitely take the acrobatics boots as well, and b) you'll only need to use up the cursed dagger then. The red heart is like a fiery thingie and a special item so I'll definitely waive the shortfall of 60gp for that :)

Meri carefully folded up the piece of parchment she had been writing on and placed it aside before turning her attention back to the alchemical mix which was now bubbling and giving off colourful sparks which floated upwards from the vial and dissipated into the air after a while.

Picking up the red heart stone, Meri handed it to Timur.
"Ok, you know what to do, but be careful.  Can't be completely sure I've calculated how this thing will react to the other reagents, and if I'm wrong it might turn us both into piles of smouldering ash."
She moved back to the alchemical equipment, picking the vial off the flame and placing it aside to cool.  Then she glanced back at Timur as if he had said something.
"You trust me?  Are you crazy?" she replied with an incredulous grin and a shake of her head.

Going back to the chest, she took out the backpack from it, checking there was nothing left inside.
Then, picking a part of the floor that she judged to be a safe distance from the workbenches or anything else, she placed the backpack down with its open top pointing upwards, using some pieces of scrap metal to prop it up in that position.

Meanwhile, Timur had been pulling some metal rods and pieces of crystal from Meri's toolkit, and had assembled these into a strange rickety looking framework surrounding the red heart stone, which sat on a makeshift stand to keep it in place in the middle of the odd arrangement.
Having finished this, he looked towards Meri and gestured to the stone and then pointed to the pack, shaking his head slightly.

"Hmm, more power?  Yeah, you may be right there.  See, if we hadn't been playing it safe like this, we'd have had more than enough" replied Meri, moving back to the chest.
Timur emitted the metallic equivalent of a sigh and gestured again to the stone.
"Ok, ok, I know, we might also have turned this building and everyone in it into a smoking crater.  I get it, we'll play it safe then" remarked Meri, rolling her eyes.

Reaching into the chest, she drew out the dagger she had looked over earlier and mostly ignored.
"Might be enough power left in this I suppose.  Not like it's doing much good in there anyway.  I mean what idiot crafted this thing?  Maybe it was a practical joke...  Anyway, grab the wire and let's get this done."
While Timur rummaged in the pack and pulled out a small coil of silvery metal shaped into a thick wire, Meri carefully placed the dagger on the framework, surrounding the red heart stone, placing the dagger in a position over the stone, with its blade pointing downwards as if about to fall down and impale the stone.

Taking the coil of wire from Timur, she wound part of it around a piece of the framework, and stretched the rest out towards the backpack on the floor, winding part of the other end around the druid's staff and placing it down next to the pack.
"Ok then, this is where things get interesting" she remarked, tugging off her gloves and placing them on the bench.  "You might want to step back a bit there, buddy".

With that, she picked up the vial which was still fizzing and sparking merrily, then in one movement tipped the contents over the red heart stone.
As the stone began to glow and smoke ominously, she hurried over and picked up the staff, holding it above the pack, pointing downwards as if about to try to fit it inside.
The glow from the stone got steadily brighter, accompanied by more smoke emitting from fiery cracks appearing in its sides.  As the glow became almost blinding, Meri suddenly jabbed the staff downwards into the pack.

At that moment, the stone and the dagger above it both exploded into a blaze of light, sending a crackling wave of energy rushing down the wire connecting them to the staff.
As Meri pushed the staff down into the pack, it suddenly sank all the way in as if the interior of the pack had turned to a bottomless pit.  The last of the staff vanished into the pack, emitting a rush of light and wind that knocked Meri back a few steps.
At the same moment, the blazing light from the stone faded, what was left of the stone crumbling into a fine ash, joined by the dagger falling on top of it as the whole framework fell apart, the weapon now looking a little charred and slightly duller than before.

Meri waved her hands around, blowing on them as if to cool them down.  Then stood up and approached the pack, peering down into it.
"Hmm, boring it may have been.  But at least it worked" she remarked, picking up the smouldering end of the silvery wire where it had been attached to the staff, and returning to the workbench, coiling it up again.
"Now, if my theory about those two items being linked was right..."

Taking another piece of parchment and scribbling a random symbol on it, she scrunched it up into a tight ball, then went back to the pack and dropped it inside.  Then, moving over to Nym's cloak, she dug her hand into one of the pockets and felt around inside, finally pulling out a scrunched ball of parchment and unfolding it to reveal the same symbol.
"There, it worked!  Hah, wish the Old One had been here to see this" remarked Meri with a grin.

She returned to the table and rearranged the alchemical equipment, starting to mix up a new formula.
"I suppose while we have that journal with us, we may as well try and get as much of the whole story here as we can from it" she mused as she worked.  "Where was that place they said those orcs rampaged down from all those years ago?  Shy or Shai or something like that was mentioned, right?  I wonder if it says anything about that..."
She finished mixing up the ingredients and left the mixture to simmer away while she returned to the book.

At Timur's silent inquiry, she looked up at him.
"Whoever or whatever that thing was, he seemed a little relieved when he thought I had killed Krunluc.  I can't help wondering if the orcs knew something about him.  I wonder if we can find out where the Shadow sent Krunluc.  Never thought I'd say this, but I think I need to talk to him again..."


OOC: Things happened! :D
Decided to use up the ingredients in this one, since it seemed to fit with it being a rather major project (considering Meri was effectively warping and altering space itself inside the pack and the cloak, I'd imagined she'd need a lot of arcane energy to reawaken the latent power inside the staff and to make that work, so it kind of fitted).  If that's not allowed for some reason, let me know and I'll edit it.

For now, looking for any mention of encounters with orc clans or tribes in the journal, as well as looking up the name of that place, Shai, I think it was, trying to learn as much as possible about it.
Also wondering if Meri would be able to figure out where the Shadow could have sent Krunluc to.  Said something about a place where he'd be at peace, so not sure if that refers to being back with his family, or some place on another plane or something.  Don't know if Meri knew enough about Krunluc to figure out a place where he might be at peace, and she'd be wary of asking the Shadow again, since she wouldn't actually know if she was really talking to the Shadow himself and might tip Tharizdun off that Krunluc is still alive.
But she's guessing that he knew something that might be a weakness in Tharizdun or his plan, enough to make him relieved to think Krunluc was dead and gone.
Also seems intriguing that Tharizdun either couldn't or wouldn't read her mind or see her memories or anything to know what happened to him.  Might be a weakness there too.  I'd imagine a god would have the power to do that, unless D&D gods aren't all-knowing and all-seeing and all that stuff that gods are traditionally associated with.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:07, Mon 17 Apr 2017.

Fun description!

Well, I did think of an affect for the fiery heart with the sword, but I'm happy to have you use the ingredients how you want, as long as one way or another you pay the mechanical costs :D

Can you roll me a History check to try and get the most out of your search to do with orcs? No bonuses, sadly :(

Consider me excessively curious :)

History: 10 (5 + 5)...  *sighs, makes a mental note to stick that d20 in the microwave later, then goes back to binge-eating easter eggs...*

Oops, meant effect. And it would have been to have the sword always have a dull fire effect to it deep in the blade, even if the daily was used up or it was not currently on fire - which would mean the delver's gem would never have been truly lifeless, and still looked cool, and also the blade would have darkened - which might have been of interest to the sergeant when hiding. Of course, who knows what else I might decide to do with such things, so maybe using it up on the backpack is the wisest course :D

The concealment is magical in nature, so while I'm happy for you to treat it like a pocket, the item concealed can't be found nor retrieved except by the person who put it in, or destroying the pack. So Meri might be in for a little surprise...


When the inside of the pack was looked inside, for a moment there was a deep, fathomless void, with deep red, roiling clouds. And then the clouds disippated and there was a brief scent of fresh forest air.

And then a 'tink'.

Depsite the backpack's concealed pocket having looked empty - and indeed, perhaps that mundane pocket had been - it seemed like there had been an area of magic looping around something inside the pack. Despite Meri's skill, and despite Meri's knowldge that the pack could contain a hidden item, she hadbeen entirely unable to even glean the tiniest shred of a feeling that there had actually been something still inside the pack.

This, upon reflection, was a good thing.

The item itself that had fallen out appeared to be a dark, jagged, star of a thing. At first it looked like the thick, sprawled hand of a creature like a dragonborn, black as coal. However, it glittered like metal, and upon closer examination it could be seen that the 'fingers' were actually five heads, lifted with opon mouths. They were the serpentine heads and fanged maws of dragons. Each head save one had a subtle colouration running lightly in the blackened metal, dull red, faint deep grey, a bluish tone to the black, and a shimmer of dull green. This seemed to be a stylised depiction of the goddess Tiamat.

So yeah, now you know the backpack of concealment works! But since you 'destroyed' it in a way, I figured that you could recover the previous item hidden inside now. Religion would be the best skill to appraise the item with, though Arcana can tell you if it's magical, and Theivery (with int bonus) can maybe tell you its possible worth. If you even want to touch the thing, of course!


The journal still seemed to mostly deal with the granduncle's travels in southern regions, and unfortunately Meri did not have the knowledge of history to perhaps pull any names or dates that may relate to orcs further south.

It seemed that the granduncle's first few excursions had been north to dwarfish regions, ones that boudered on orc lands - most likely Shai, it seemed. Apparently the granduncle had wondered about speaking with orcs, and had been soundly told 'no'. From his initial musings, and occasional recollections and experiences hinted at in the south, it seemed like orcs had once been far more highly regarded as honourable barbarians and misunderstood, at least in tales of old histories. And yet now, it seemed that they were considered to be unreasonable savages and aggressive in nature.

Of course, what this could suggest is that the orcs may well be far more knowledgeable about a great many things than their portayal as primatives would suggest. And yet it would be knowledge that no one sane or civilised would ever have been able to gain. Even a seemingly open-minded traveler such as the granduncle had been quickly disabused of the notion of expecting help and the ability to parley.

There was therefore a chance. The Shadow - or one of them, the one that had seemingly sacrificed himself - had said Krunluc was with his family now. If that was true, then perhaps when Meri finally could return home, she could make one other trip first. Beyond the dwarfs to Shai, where Krunluc might await, and answers may well be held, where all other races were too dismissive to look for them.


One of the Shadows did explicitly say he sent Krunluc back to his family, so presumably that would be in Shai? Or at least the family may have links there...

And yeah, one of the Shadows.... sadly, the other one ... said that only he could read the mind, and so his counterpart would only be able to read the heart. There was a worry that the Thraki'i might have scanned your mind, and so The Other now knows everything, however he did seem to not be aware of Krunluc being alive.

So maybe he isn't all powerful, maybe in his prison he coulnd't connect to his followers, and you killed them all before they could speak with him, and so yes, you have a weakness.

I mean, never rule out he's just messing with you :p

As you may guess by the names regarding gods, perhaps the game is about to move in to the portion where you start learning a little more about them, their mimits, powers, and desires.

Maybe!


Oh, make a note that if you can research known orc history somewhere, you can maybe make sense of some more journal entries for orcs down south. Whether that is useful or not, of course, who knows! :)

OOC: oops, I'd assumed Meri was aware of the concealment due to the fact it was openly mentioned.  Also wasn't too sure if it was a physical pocket, or kind of a "dimensional fold" thing that made it hard to detect normally.
So when you say it was destroyed, does that mean the hiding place is unusable now?  Or just kind of "recreated"?  (Might rework it as a kind of hidden place inside the interior somewhere, like taking the physical form of a partially-invisible box or secret panel or something just going unnoticed among everything else stored in there.  Maybe like an arcane equivalent of a perception filter.  You never really notice it unless you get lucky, or already know it's there) :)


Meri frowned slightly, looking up from the book again.
"Well, that's something to look up later I suppose.  Maybe we can find a library in Fivespears, or maybe...  Huh?"
With her attention finally diverted from the book, she had only just become aware that Timur was gesturing wildly towards the backpack on the floor.

"What is it?  I missed something?  What did I..."
Her voice trailed off as she moved over and looked inside the pack again.
"Hmm, now that's interesting" she murmured.  "Haven't seen one of those hidey hole gimmicks for a while.  Then again, that's probably the idea."
She reached down for the object that had fallen out, then hesitated and returned to the bench, picking up her gloves and pulling them back on.
"Just in case" she muttered quietly, reaching into the pack and cautiously picking up the object between a finger and thumb and peering intently at it...


OOC: Assuming it doesn't explode in her hand or something, making those rolls to try and identify what exactly it is...
Religion: 26 (19 + 7) - Niiiiice :)
Arcana: 24 (10 + 14)
Thievery: Rolled a 13 for that.  Usual skill is 10, did you mean I should add INT to that (so it's +14 instead of the +10 working from DEX?  So this will either be 23 or 27 then.

My guess is it's a holy symbol from a worshipper of Tiamat or something similar.  Not sure if the sergeant took it from someone (or maybe she worships Tiamat herself!)  Or else she bought or stole the backpack from someone and didn't know this was hidden in it.
Also hope we don't now have another god out to get us.  And a dangerous one too!  hehe  (O.o)'

Yeah, it's like the backpack has sort of had its magic rebooted and realigned, so effectively you've 'destroyed' the old backpack enchantment, but copied it to the new backpack. Enough that the item has been freed, and you have a fresh backpack with the same functionality, plus also a linked bag of holding.

Meri can know the backpack is a concealed backpack, and thought the space was empty, and wouldn't have found out about it not being empty until she tried to put in something herself and found it oddly didn't work. As I said, be reassured that if you put an item in here, it's pretty secure. Note that destroying the backpack releases the item, bu as you've now linked the backpack and robe, both items would need to be destroyed to free the item that way. So even if the backpack was stolen and destroyed to find out what was concealed - assuming someone could both identify its nature, and release that it was not empty - they would still not get the item. Meri could then retrieve the item..ok, I'm assuming clear stone - from the robe. But if the dryad backpack is destroyed, the ability to hide new items is gone, that little hidding spot will disappear once the stone is takenout.

And yes, I think of it more like a folded dimensional thingie, but there is also a physical pocket there. Whether it's a double bluff, or just a nice physical interface for the uninitiated, who knows :) And yes, there can also be a perception filter that means a person can also stop thinking about it even if they know about it.

It is possible the sergeant had been hiding something she considered very valuable. It is equally possible she got the pack as loot somewhere, identified what it was  or had it identified, but never realised it was in use. So maybe it's spoils? And maybe she never realsied it wasn't doing its job of concealing stuff for her :D You'll have to ask her, if you want to admit to having this item.

And yeah, for thieivery skills where you are more thinking about things, I'm letting you add intelligence, as per arcane trapsmith, so you get +14 not just +10.


The item was most certainly a relic dedicated to the worship of tiamat. It was not a personal holy symbol, this appeared to be a symbol designed t be displayed in a church or perhaps the figurehead of an army, or cult. It did not seem to have any magic to it, but as a focus of belief it seemed to have soaked up... something. It was possible that a creature of tiamat could have felt this thing. Still, dragons were myths, and kobolds lowly creatures. Which meant she only had to worry about dragonborn. So it should be ok for the moment, until perhaps she had to intereact with one somewhere in one of the southern towns.

Note your arcana roll carried to realising what I said above about how the concealed backpack works now it's linked to the cloak. Also, the fact you can be certain it's not magical, just it will have 'radiance' as it is clearly blessed by tiamat in the most 'mundane' of ways, so dragonborn and kobolds will sense it when they are close.

The symbol itself seemed to be exquisitely made, a work of art. The body was obsidian shaped to have a scaled surface. However, each of the heads appeared to be metal somehow fused in to the body, silver, hued gold, darkened steell - and then the metal tarnished and blackened to almost hide the colour of each head. This was topped off by the eyes of each dragon. Now it could be seen that each of the eyes actually had two tiny gems of the correct colour - ruby, emerald, sapphire, diamond, onyx - in the sockets. They seemed to be good cuts, even if so small. And within the lifted maw, a slightly larger one was fitted deep inside, to sparkle like the breath weapon of the creature in question. The blue dragon had gold inside to represent lightning, and the black another emerald to represent acid.

All in all, this little item would easy fetch five or more likely six hundred gold pieces just for the art of it and the value of the metals and the gems. And by chosing the right collector, the amount could easily double. And if the actual origin of the piece could be established, who knowswhat its true worth as a historical item was?

Your rolls are good, I'm just going to be busy in the next few days. So feel free to ask later about the symbol again if you want firther assurances / info, or more info on Tiamat, etc.

OOC: Hmm, just wondering, is it possible to disenchant that 'radiance' effect without destroying the item?  Would hate to start attracting probably-hostile followers of Tiamat to us, or to whoever wants to buy this thing.  Might ask the sergeant about it though, maybe she looted it from somewhere and wants to keep it as a souvenir...

Not a magical effect I'm afraid, you'd probably need a priest or other religiously inclined person to do something to it, unbless it or whatever. A followe of Baahmut (justic,e good dragons, etc) may well be the most understanding person to give it to.

And wow, just because Tiamat is an evil god, you just go assume all the followers would be hostile. How closed minded! :p Seriously though, it would be during close contact they would sense something, rather than drawing them to you. And it can also be people who aren't followersof hers, and adversely affected. So followers of Bahamut, good dragons (also extinct/mythical), good kobolds/dragonborn, etc.

So don't worry, it's not like it would attract say a horde of dragonborn worshippers of tiamat down on your head. If they came, they would have been going to have attacked you anyway, and this symbol would just then annoy them but give you a fun hook to use with them / against them. Not that I'm planning on attacking you all with a horde of dragonborn.... *Shakes head* *nods head* *shakes head*


Also, I would point out you are up later, but that would draw attention to how stupidly early I am up, so we'll say no more about it!
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:29, Tue 18 Apr 2017.

OOC: Well, I just imagined that Tiamat herself is...  Shall we say "somewhat grumpy"?  And maybe attracts followers who are the same way inclined, personality-wise.
Also they might think Meri and the team had stolen that and want to give us all a very stern talking-to, possibly followed by an epic beat-down and then taking the symbol back and going: "Now let that be a lesson to you, and be more considerate of other people in future!" to our mutilated dismembered corpses.
Especially if they've been up as late as I've been up, 'cos that level of lack of sleep can really shorten your temper a bit! hehe.
(Probably my fault for planning to go to sleep early for once.  I should know by now that just tempts fate to find an excuse for me to stay up!)


Meri turned the symbol over and examined the back before placing it down on the bench.
"Very nicely made, but not too sure about carrying it around with us" she remarked.  "Still, it would probably sell for a nice price if I could do something about that aura on it.  And we'll probably need the money when we get to Fivespears."
She gave the symbol one more look over, then shrugged and returned to her work, examining the alchemical formula she had left to heat, and taking it off the flame, putting it aside.  The mixture in the vial had turned a dark sapphire blue colour.
Pausing to scoop up some of the ash left behind by the red heart stone, she dropped it in the vial and mixed it into the contents for a few seconds before placing it aside again and busying herself with setting up two more mixtures to heat, then picking up the telescope.

"Wonder if I can do something else with this later" she remarked, "would be a shame to simply take out the lenses and just leave it."
She glanced towards Timur who had pointed at the telescope and gestured to Meri herself.
"Well, maybe Davius isn't the only one who likes a well crafted object with a story behind it.  Every object has a story, even that thing."
She pointed towards the symbol of Tiamat to indicate what she meant, then reached for her toolkit and began to disassemble the telescope, taking care not to break anything.
"This isn't Nym you're talking to here.  It doesn't matter if something has magic in it or not.  Like the Old One always said, there is honour in doing one's job properly.  Heart and soul.  Even if you're just patching stuff together with whatever you have to hand.  If you don't care about the work, it won't last..."
She finished extracting two of the lenses and placed them aside, carefully fitting the telescope's case back together.
"Even this.  To anyone else, just a telescope.  But according to Davius, it saved a life once, and was once more than it is now.  It deserves better than to be abandoned like this, especially if I can still find a new purpose for it.  Raat shan gath'kal dor!"

With that, she placed the telescope aside and picked up the goggles and a large empty vial from the toolkit.  Carefully detaching the broken ruby lens and catching the pieces in the vial, she capped it and placed it aside.
"Might see what I can do with that some other time as well.  One broken one, one whole one.  Possibilities."
She picked up the two lenses from the telescope and carefully poured a little of the blue formula onto each one, using a brush to 'paint' it over the surface of each one.
After spending a few minutes reading idly through Davius' journal, she returned to it to find the substance had dried, then flipped each lens over and repeated the procedure with the other side, returning to the book to allow them to dry again.

When she went back to them, both lenses had now been tinted a dark blue shade, and glittered oddly in the light.
Picking up the goggles again, she carefully attached the lenses in place.  Then, taking the remaining two vials of reagents from the flame, she applied these to the smaller 'flip down' lenses before setting all of them aside again and returning to the book to allow the newly-treated lenses to dry.

Several minutes later, she placed the book down and picked up the goggles again.
"Right then.  Let's see if it worked" she remarked, pulling them onto her head and moving the lenses down over her eyes.
Though the blue-tinted glass, the blue luminescence in her eyes looked more subdued, but more vivid, given a faintly sparkling look through the substance in each lens.
Viewed through the lenses, the light in the workshop took on a blue-shifted hue with individual details in every object in sight seeming strangely highlighted.
"Wow, you should try this out" remarked Meri, looking to Timur.  "Then again, they wouldn't fit you, would they?"

Ignoring the look Timur gave her, she turned to examine some of the items she had been working on previously through the goggles.  Then flipped open the journal and read some of the text, before turning her attention to the lock on the door she had examined briefly earlier.
Peering into the keyhole, she flipped down one of the smaller magnifying lenses, grinning in satisfaction as the internal mechanism of the lock suddenly leapt into startlingly clear focus in her view.

"I think we can do something with this now.  Call it returning the favour" she remarked, raising the goggles onto her forehead, then going to gather up some tools, a piece of parchment and writing implements before turning to the chest and setting to work on it, making a quick sketch of the mechanism, together with the maker's mark on it...


OOC: The bits where she's examining the book is mostly just skimming through for anything interesting about Thirdgate and Fivespears, as well as looking for any stories that Many might like to hear, remembering his interest in them before.

Also, if you're curious, the goblin phrase there translates as: "The story stops but never ends." :)
Little insight into Meri's way of thinking there.  Kind of like me in RL, she does have a tendency to empathise with crafted objects, particularly ones that are well made, or have some kind of story or legend to them.  Much of crafting is imagination after all, and she likes anything that captures the imagination, even if Timur is the only one who ever sees that side of her :)
This message was last edited by the player at 13:39, Tue 18 Apr 2017.

It's not that she's grumpy, just she has five heads. So imagine how hard it can be to get two or three people to do things, by the time there's five, it's just a nightmare. So yeah, maaaaybe she gets a little grumpy at times. And so then she maaaaybe takes it out on the priests who start whining about what they need. So then the priests, who didn't get what they want, maaaaybe take it out on their followers. Really, they are all just misunderstood, and in need of some hugs.

Also, while the followers might want to give an epic beatdown, given your group's trackrecord and powers, I think it's safe to say that the beat down will definitely be epic but be far more against the tiamat followers, and while Meri might try to tell what's let of them that they should be more considerate in future, Nym's cackling laughter and explosions might make it hard to get across.


The googles appeared to work perfectly now, allowing the artificer to see the smallest details of the lock, and even provide some low level illumination without the glare of normal light. It made the complicated mechanism of the sergeant's lock easy, and the task of slowly taking small trap making parts and emulating the needed bits far, far easier.

The journal had possessed some nice little stories, and it was easy to bookmark three or four to be able to relate them to Many later.

In terms of solid information about the two towns, the haphazard nature of the journal, and the fact all the towns seemed connected to each other, made it harder to fathom what was what. There were enough references that if Meri could hear a street or area name, she might be able to flick back to that section.

IN general there seemed to be something interesting about the layout of the towns, especially Thridgate and Fivespear that had been the 'gateways'. The towns put their external trade and military sections front and centre against the external connections, and then all the more local trade and benign trade was towards the centre of the spokes that the towns formed. Therefore, to find things like the temples, or library in Fivespears, it might be an idea to head south in the towns.


So later on if you want to pull out a story, I can relate one then that Meri found to tell Many. And I can feed you more insight in to the two twons you are heading towards as we go on. And yay, so feel free to assume you make the lock, if you can just deduct your 20gp. And also, remember to basically give yourself +14 to Theivery in all situations now. The goggles with make practial stuff easier for most tasks, and your arcane trapsmith give you +14 when making any intelligence-like checks.

You also get +4 to perception checks for trap stuff, and I'll also say any small mechanisms, etc.

Alos, I'm really enhoying all these inights in to the chracter, and fun artificing techniques :) Maybe the game will just be you all get home, and Nym and Many pout and look bored as Meri just makes stuff all the time :p

OOC: Hmm, turns out I don't have 20gp.  Does using up reagents count here?

Indeed, though you should have the money you gained from the shopkeeper for your boat. I think that was some coin and some small gems, wasn't it?

The idea narratively being you'd take items from your trap making and tinkering stash right now, and then replenish them at the next opportunity tomorrow morning. So effectively losing 20gp just now :)


Just to give you an idea of the tales from the book, the 'titles' would be the Three Brother Knights, The Bishop in the Well, The Door That Wouldn't Open, and An Inconsiderate Minotaur.


To expand a little further on the vauge layout of the two towns, as gleaned from the journal...

Thirdgate has its external disctractions and main market at the north (when you first enter). It doens't sound like it has as much of a military, unsurprising given the humans and fey do not sound threatening right now.

Fivespears has its military concetrated in the east and north of the city, with its market still in the northern section, but in between those two. It sounds as if the east sideis the 'active' military, and the higher ups are in the north section of the city.

You will enter thirdgate form the north, and leave it from the east. You'll enter Fivespears from the west.

OOC: Ah ok, did I forget to note that down?  Had a lot on my mind over the past months, so might not have been thinking too clearly when things like that came up.

Definitely intrigued by those titles :)
Had an idea for a bard character a while back (Tuathan Skald actually), and I've been trying to think of a few stories and things they could tell in various situations.  Kind of a more creative version of picking out goblin phrases for Meri to use :)

Meant to ask, what does the Encounter power of the goggles do?  Does that count as an extra attempt to disable a trap, or does that just let me use a trap-disabling check in combat?


"Wish I'd tried making something like this years ago" remarked Meri, tapping on the goggles as she worked on reassembling the lock.  "Makes it easier to focus on smaller details."

Carefully, she replaced the lockplate and opened and closed the mechanism a few times to check it was working and securing the door better than before.
Returning to the bench, she pulled the goggles up onto her forehead and began to gather her tools together again, pausing only to pick up the ruby lens and examine it closely.

"It's given me a few other ideas too" she remarked, "but, they'll have to wait until I have more to work with."
Picking up the backpack she had linked to Nym's cloak, she began to carefully transfer the items from her old backpack to the new one.
"Not sure what to do with this old pack.  Wonder if the sergeant would like it?  Considering it's been patched at least twice and had the straps repaired on the journey here, maybe she'd rather not.  Surprised it's still holding together actually."

Picking up the two backpacks and her staff, she moved them over to the rest area Harriet had set up in the corner, returning to pick up the journal and to allow Timur to clamber onto her shoulder.
Settling down, she took off the goggles and hung them on the tip of her staff, then opened up the journal again, looking up the stories she had marked before.
"I think Many might like these.  Maybe stories about adventures will inspire him."

The hint of a smile that had crossed her face with that thought faded quickly as she glanced sideways at Timur.
"Well, at the time I didn't really notice, but I think I did figure out what happened back there with Celindara.  And I still think you were wrong, it didn't matter.  You know what I was thinking, so you understand.  Not even you can possibly be that naive."
She sighed and stared at the journal, without reading the words.
"Maybe one day, he'll understand what it was I was trying to tell him back at the bridge.  That for a time I too was a monster who attacked him, tried to drive him away, not realising what he was.  Maybe one day, he'll understand, and maybe one day he'll come to hate me for that.  I won't blame him if he does.  After all, I hated someone who wished me gone once too.  I suppose, until then, the least I can do is watch out for him, help him grow, teach him how to survive when I'm not there to protect him any more.  That's what parents are supposed to do, right?  I, I wouldn't know..."

She shook her head, dragging her sleeve over her eyes before returning to reading the book...

Yeah, understandable to miss it anyway, especially if stuff is getting you down / distracting you. Luckily your friendly neighbourhood DM is making sure he doens't kill you with lack of money! That's not sporting...



Oddly, it was 20gp and 3pp, didn't mean for that! I guess the gems were in Alynn's pouch (the pouch you nicely didn't take :D  )

You probably need to run a game so you can have all these character ideas running amok with the party!

Theivery checks in combat are possible, and are standard actions. So the goggles also let you make either two checks in a single turn, or a check with a monor then  use your other actions to run or still fight! I think the +4 bonus is the real big deal, still I'm sure someone as resourceful as you in the right situation can start using that ability to do some cool stuff mid combat with traps or devices. Maybe even combine it with fast hands, so you can do cool combplicaed things yet still feel you have your main attacks / defense abilities open.

And awww, poor Meri will never forgive herself, and never belief that Many might just simply forgive her cause he's a sweet kid :D What exactly is Meri speaking about with Timur regarding Celindara? Is that just the misunderstanding about The Ball, or something else?


Reading over the journal, it could be seen some of the problems with it. The journal was clearly the granduncles notes to himself, as an aide memoir. So many times he's starting in the middle of knowledge - such as a major street name without the town or city - and then gives notes on getting to some hidden area, or a reference to a building. It was the same with the stories - the brother knights were clearly a known legend, and the story he related was one in the middle of two larger and clearly known stories. Still, for Many, these sorts of stories would probably be great. They just were less helpful for Meri's fact finding.

It was interesting though to note the difference in writing between the younger and older granduncle. The younger granduncle seemed to be far more likely to note stories, legends, fanciful tales, and so on. The stories for Many were all in the start, and any helpful legends at leats started there, even if later parts would flesh them out.

A more cynical person might think that the granduncle lost the wonder of the world as he got older, but it was equally as likely that after he met the grandaunt, then he shared those sorts of stories and thoughts with her, and his journal became far more used to hold his dry thoughts alone.


Yeah, so you sort of have a better feel for the journal leaving through - solid information you'd probably start from the back and try to follow any linked codes back, and the more obscure things you'd concentrate on the front of the book then see if there were any coded links further in.

Also, are you planning on relaxing now until the sword is ready? I can happily time jumo a little, for absolutely no reason, you understand... :p Just, you know, if it's later at night, Meri is tired, and the sword is ready... maybe there's a post I can make.

No actual rush if there's more you want to play out or do, of course.

OOC: Ah okies.  Added 3 platinum pieces then.  Thanks for keeping me right with stuff :)

[Private to The Altweaver: Yeah, Meri doesn't really need anyone hating her.  She's got enough self-hate for everyone else in the universe!
While she's got her work, and the group's current travels, to distract her sometimes, she still has bad days.  Unlike Swift, she doesn't have someone like Silver Raven keeping her from drifting away into the darkness (and spending most of her life feeling as though she can only ever rely on herself and trust no-one else, she'd probably never openly admit to feeling anything for anyone anyway!  After all, if you can't trust your parents, who can you trust?  No point in getting too close, right?  Conceal, don't feel!  hehe).
But yeah, she is kind of afraid that Many will one day remember that and come to either hate her or fear her, or both.  So her hope is that she can help him grow and learn what he needs to survive so that he'll be ok without her then.  (Ironically enough, she couldn't knowingly hurt Many again now, so if it ever came to a fight between the two of them, she'd probably lose, badly).
She probably also thinks Nym could keep an eye on him while Meri goes her own way.  I mean it's not as if Nym would miss her, right?  Nym would probably forget about her minutes after she left, right? ;)

Yeah, she has some dark thoughts.  Meri acts tough on the outside, but inside, she's broken.  A mess.  Part of that tough act comes from the fact she really doesn't care what happens to her.
Even though I'm playing her, a lot of this stuff is just spontaneous reactions to events and her own inner demons.  So I'm actually not too sure if she'll find her way to a happy ending, or one day just end up letting that inner darkness consume her.  Right now it could go either way really.

The thing about Celindara was the misunderstanding with the Ball, yep.  Meri didn't really realise that Celindara was angry with her about that at the time, but eventually she got the gist of it through the connection with Timur, who did realise.
But she believes he was wrong about that anyway.  The fact that Many's shell was indestructible didn't matter, as she didn't know it would be until she actually tried to damage it in a fit of temper.  In her mind, she's become more like her own parents than she's comfortable with.]

I thought the sword was finished?  (Assuming you meant the glowy fiery one she was making for the sergeant?  Or have I forgotten something else?  *paints target on desktop, along with the words: "Bang Head Here!"*)
Should I do something else with it?

No problem!

And if Meri's finished the sword, that's cool, wasn't sure. All I need from you is an OOC mechanical decision. Are you having it that the daily fire power is powering the delver gem (so once the daily is gone, the light goes out)? Or is the +1 enchantment powering the light.

So the first means the sword is always a magical sword, but the light goes when the daily goes. The second means that when the sergeant needs to use the light, she doens't have a magical sword - but the light power will always be available.

This ability to make the sword blade flame would always be independant of the +1/daily and the light.

Note if you are ever back here, and level 7, you can rework the sword to be both flaming and creating light with no penalty.

OOC: Hmm, would be an easy decision to make for Meri herself.  I know she has plenty of other means of kicking butt, so wouldn't be so reliant on the sword's daily if she needed to keep the light active.  Not too sure whether the sergeant has any other abilities to fall back on.

I'd say the one where the light stays active, although would that make the sword weaker in normal use?

It just means she loses the magical enchantment if she needs light. Then again, no point having a magic sword if you can't see the target :) So just warn her that the light runs on the magic of the sword, ao the sword would be weaker. She's lost nothing really if she doens't use the light, and can make the decision herself otherwise.

OOC: So if the light is on, the "set the blade on fire" free action won't work unless you turn the light off?
Might have to go with that actually, since that's more or less the way I described it working when Meri was testing it, where the energy in the light was channelled into the blade and ignited on the alchemical coating she applied to the metal.

By the way, meant to ask.  Does the vial bandolier take up any equipment slots?  Not sure which book it's from, so wondered if you knew before I spent most of the weekend hunting through all of them...
Trying to separate out the equipment Meri is wearing (goggles, amulet, gloves, and so on) from the stuff she's keeping in the pack, for inventory sharing purposes.

No, it wouldbe the +1 bonus (and the blade being magical) while the light is on. You can make it the free action fire on/off instead if you prefer?

The equipment slot is for magical items, the conceit being that two magical items in the same area would interfer with each other (it's just game balance).

So your normal bandolier would just be across your chest or around your waist, and can be fitted along with any other armour/magical belt.

OOC: Ahh ok, just checking :)  Was looking around the Player's Handbook and it mentioned you can wear multiple magical items in the same slot if they'll reasonably fit there, but you only get the benefits from one of them.
(Unless, like Meri, you just alchemically glued two amulets together so you could use both, hehe).

Yeah, I'll go with the light and the fire effect both drawing from the same power source then, so the +1 is always active.  (Assuming that's +1 to attack and damage caused by it?  At least then it'll still have a bit of bite to it, even without the fire effect).
I think Meri will definitely be interested in upgrading it further though, she might see that as a half-finished job :)

Cool, I'll update the magic items thread to denote the power swapping :)

And yeah, because you are only two players and also two mages, I'm able to houserule a little more about having two magic items be fused like we're doing for multiple effects. Plus it's a fun ability to be able to give a player artificer!

Anyway, so speaking of the sword...

As the night progressed, reading the journal became harder as the mind wanted to shut down. It became what the Old One had once mentioned as 'the dangerous time', when The God would start speaking to you. After going blind looking so closely at the details for so long, you could hear the tiny voices of those details, The God's children.

Yet it was when the mind was at its worst to judge if The God was being a teacher, or a trickster.


The Delver's gem required a power source, and had presumably been attached to its golem for a good long while. It was easy for sympathetic magic to rub off, give something the echoes of life. Worse, if the item needed, then what more could be considered living than that?

And fire, well, fire was very easy to categorise as alive...it breathed or it died, it hungered and fed as it would, it hated...

No, that was probably a tired fancy. Still, a gem that had the echos of magical life, and an enchantment of an element that aped life. Meri had perhaps not fully worked out how to make a weapon that could be animated yet, like the dissassembled dagger she carried, but especially looking to the sword, it was tantalisingly close now. Just a few more experiments with something like this sword, which was a perfect conduit, and she might figure it out. After all, she had some deeper revelations regarding crystals, and souls, and Timur's life now.

She couldn't animate the sword just now, but perhaps she could awaken something in it. Not true life, but an awareness that might be the precursor to animating the sword.


These were tired thoughts, but also inspirations, and the connections tumbled like locks being opened, in a mind that had been working this out in the background, and just waiting for the right thought at the right time - or the right key.

However, that strange little itch that had plagued Meri once, then faded, sudden;y worryingly returned. Barely there at first, but as the thoughts on the sword started tumbling, the itch became more persistent and more distracting. It was like freefalling down a hill, and finding the weed snagged more and more until the fall was arrested.

Eventually, thinking became unbearable, and just as suddenly as it came on, The Itch stopped.


Feel free to roll me an Insight check for no reason, otherwise... just your evil DM doing an evil thing, or something :p

OOC: Hmm, tempted into following the same path as Daedra?  Down that road lies madness.  (Then again, he was a little bit twitchy to start with, so probably wouldn't have been a long road for him...)

Insight: 18 (7 + 9) - Meh...

Also, I actually did get an itch on my head while reading that, so I'll likely be slightly freaked-out for the rest of the day now!  (O.o)'

Oops, did not mean to give you real life itches! Between this and the spiders I'm being quite horrible to you just now!

And eh, animated weapons aren't alive, so that's fine, and giving awareness to something isn't the same as actual life, so I'm sure that's fine too... *cough*

Anyway, your insight check isn't Hard DC breaking, but it's still not bad. Remmebr there's quite a jump between Moderate and Hard. So Meri will be able to feel that this itch doens't feel natural - shock - but also notice that it lagged her own thoughts, as if reacting to them, rather than being the cause of them. So make of that what you will...

OOC: Don't worry, spiders freak me out more than itches :)

...Unless the itch is caused by a spiderweb in my hair!  EEEEK! (;~;)'

https://img.memesuper.com/fc3d...er-meme_625-468.jpeg

Summer months are the worst time for them too.  That's when their invasion forces move in...  Well, I'll be ready for them!  Not going down without a fight!  >:(
*dual-wields cans of Raid...*

Anyways...


Meri idly raised a hand to scratch her head, then paused, looking up from the book and peering around her with a suspicious look.

"That's odd" she muttered to herself.

Closing the book and placing it aside, she closed her eyes, trying to return to the train of thought she had been on before...


OOC: Interesting.  Someone or something trying to stop Meri discovering what she was about to discover there?  Trying to provoke it to reappear and see if she can figure out what might be causing it.  Would mind/psychic stuff be an Arcana check?

We have two people at work who hate spiders and so yeh, I can imagine that response one day as I walk in :) We had a ladybird invasion recently, and I have a white walled south facing building, so certain years I can't have my windows open in summer :(

Meri found that to start with, the itch did not return. Thinking about the concepts in general, the thought of fire being alive, on how to craft lviing items and animated weapons, on aping the flying dagger, none of thos seemed to generate any feeling. Even contemplating experimenting on a flaming sword with such a gem was fine. It was only when specifically starting to think about experimenting with this weapon of the sergeant's now that The Itch reappeared, will all its previous ferocity.

It was as if something - either her mind, or something external - really did not want her to great an awareness in the sword.


Yup, Arcana would be a good one. Even if it doens't let you explicitly know what this is, and stuff about psychic powers, it can give you hints, or let you know what it is not.

Als, never forget you can burn Inspiration and your encounter power to give yourself bonuses/rerolls.

OOC: Hmm, strange.  The first time she felt the Itch, she never even knew the sword existed, let alone was thinking about it, so not sure why it would be reacting so strongly to the sword now.  If it was just the sword, I'd wonder if the ghost of the sergeant's father was being overprotective and trying to keep Meri from possibly experimenting on her weaponry :)

Only other possibility that comes to mind is that there's something significant about that sword that she almost thought about before, though I have no idea what that might be...

Arcana roll: 29 (15 + 14) - ooo, good one :)  Pity I didn't roll that for the lower skill check earlier instead of the higher skill that could probably have scraped through on a lower roll.  The gods of dice mock me once again!

Yup, almost like the sword is not the main or only thing the itch will be bugging you about...

So Meri would know that there are magical and mental compulsion effects but usually they are forcing an action, rather than restricting an action. Or the compulsion masks itself as a person's own thoughts. Celindara's unwillingness to notice the Blight would be an example of one such compulsion effect trying to stop an action. So usually a compulsion would be to make the sword come alive, and the itch should come when Meri tried to force herself to stop. Going the other way around seemed very strange.

So this can't be a normal magical compulsion or restriction, as it's not trying ot mask itself. It's just annoying. And there doens't feel as if there is any external psychic agency to this, The Itch comes perfectly the moment Meri thoguht about something, the lag seems consistent with Meri's thought processes, not with someone monitoring her thought processes then moving to stop them.

It does not seem to be to do with the sword at all, as the first time it was experienced it was in the World Tree, and it did not seem to be anything to do with that. It seems simply to stop her explicit action to further enchant this particular sword with an awareness.

Still, one thing is clear - it is an affliction of some kind, one trying to restrict her. And it does not seem to follow the logic of magic, and does not seem to be psychic or otherwise mortal controlled in nature. That starts to rule out many avenues, and annoyingly points to one potential avenue. The Shadow had warned of the gods' attention being directed to the group, and it seems like a god's method to punish independant actions. Or being charitable, warn a mortal of potentially unwise actions without actually speaking with them and letting them make an informed decision. So perhaps Meri needs to make a point of asking around the temples regarding such occurences, when Farren is asking after his Raven Queen.

Oh, and just to reassure you, the sword you have forged, as it stands, it perfectly good and happy thing that isn't a trick. Indeed it and your actions around making it will turn The Sergeant in to an ally, and your actions and the weapon will have a positive effect on her. XP is incoming regarding this and everything!

Whether the further enchantment experiments were a trap, or whether it was a viable enhancement to build upon, and something is trying to stop your work - that I'll leave up to you to discover / gamble upon :)

Let me know if I can clarify anything for you, since you rolled so well.

OOC: Hmm, maybe from Melora then, since we were in the tree...  Or the Raven Queen, since it was just before we met Farren again.  Both of them might deal with life (in their own unique ways!  One encouraging it through nature and the other dealing with the loss of it!)
Though it wouldn't be "true" life, or "un-life", so I doubt the Raven Queen would care about it.  Melora might consider it unnatural, though if that was the case all the original creators of the Warforged would have been driven insane by itchy heads and surely someone would have noticed that!

Either way though, maybe the gods don't know that trying to prevent Meri from doing something with no explanation is more likely to make her even more determined to break through the restriction and do it anyway, hehe.


Meri sat up, placing Timur down beside her and got up to walk over to the workbench.
Picking up the sword, she examined it for a moment before looking around the room then at the door.

Narrowing her eyes, she peered at the backpack as if considering something inside it, then shrugged and returned to her comfortable rest, taking the sword with her and placing it down beside the Sun Globe which she tapped on to dim the light, then picked up the journal again, clearly intending to read until she felt sleepy...


OOC: Meri is all: "Weird!  But who cares?  I'll figure it out tomorrow!" :)

By the way, I keep thinking I've read that name "Geekaar" somewhere before.  Don't think it was in this game, but maybe in another one?

Yeah, Melora is certain a good guess. Whether it's right is another matter, but it's logical :)

Sounds like you can have a few days to relax IRL while Nym catches up to Meri.


Geekaar the Great was my character in Laughing Shark's own game she started running a few years ago. Hopefully it's not too emersion breaking to have an echo of him cropping up in the periphery here :D

OOC: Ahh ok :)  Can't remember much about that game, think he was a merchant in that one too?  Also I recall Sabre's Rune Star character was in there too.
Yep, just remembered, I had Swift Fox v1.0 as a lurker character :)  Different avatar with similar, less scruffy, appearance, and definitely happier.  (That character was eventually recycled into another of my Kai characters called Star Song.  The one with Frodo as an avatar.  Ahh, memories).

Anyways, what time is it here in-game?
Was tempted to have Meri go for a wander around town at night, although she doesn't have the key to lock the workshop door behind her and unlock it again to get back in, does she?
(Suppose she could just dismantle the lock and manually open the tumblers like she did when testing it, although that could be awkward (and possibly amusing) trying to explain what she's doing if she gets caught picking the lock to get back in again!)
Will probably just have her quietly stewing away in her own emotional mess, figuring out ways to get around the restriction on her thoughts...  She may be slightly...  tense in the morning.  At least slightly more than usual!  :)

Yeha, a merchant or something similar. I think he was a reskinned sage or something, and had access to lots of knowledge.

The time at the moment is flexible right now because I want to have wiggle room to link you and Nym up, and there are some game world events that I don't want to de-sync if both of you keep in separate timezones.

Still, it is certainly late enough to go wandering without many people - if any - being around.

Realise that she could just put the lock on the door without snibbing it, so that it gives the appearance of being locked up? And, of course, put a trap or two on the door to actually stop an intruder while she is gone :) You have one trap you can set 'for free' that I posted in the rules thread. Don't think you've ever rested anywhere to gain the benefit of it, but you can go ahead and set up a 'trip the trap' like effect on the door if you like.

OOC: Hmm, maybe.  Though I'm not sure where I'd have her go anyway, if I had a specific plan for somewhere in town she wanted to go or something she wanted to do then I would, but I think it would just be aimless wandering for now, and Meri doesn't seem the type to bother with aimless wandering just for the pleasure of it.
Pity Meri doesn't know about Geekaar, or she might be tempted to figure out if he knows anything that could be of use :)


Meri didn't move for a while, staring up at the ceiling of the workshop.
Then she suddenly got up and strode over to the backpack, pulling out one of the loose sheets of parchment she had been scribbling alchemical calculations on before and returning to her place.
Thinking a moment, she started to write.

1 - The World Tree.

2 - The Sword.  Fire and Life.

Leaning back again, she closed her eyes and tried to remember every detail about what had happened after she had woken up on the tree branch after returning from the Shadow's domain, focusing intently on trying to recall everything she had been thinking about...


OOC: So yeah, she's trying to remember what was going through her mind then, checking to see if anything brings back the Itch in the hope of narrowing it down to a particular thing and then seeing how that relates to the sword and the "fire and life" thing.
She might have just grabbed some rest, but whatever this is, it's interfering directly with her mind, and she takes that as a challenge ;)  hehe.  First step she's taking is to figure out where the limits are placed...
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Tue 25 Apr 2017.

Just to save you hunting if you din't know exactly where it was:





So basically that was what Meri was thinking about before, and that was then what was said and happening right before. So the thing that happened immediately before was Many looking up to Ryn flying around, but it could also have been a growing reaction to something else mentioned - The Other, the Abyss, naming Thrazidum, mentioning conversations with The Shadow, and mention of Nym trying to interact with the cler stone.

Also, if Meri is thinking about any of these things now, nothing will generate The Itch. That's now including thinking about the sword. Only if Meri actually genuinely tries to think about experimenting with giving awareness to the sword will The Itch return.

Meri sighed as her attempts seemed to bring on no itching sensation, only a headache from trying to concentrate too much.
Scrunching the parchment up into a loose ball, she tossed it towards the pack, only for it to bounce off and roll across the bench top, falling to the floor on the opposite side.

"Awareness, the creation of false life.  Possibly it's that.  Maybe something I said when we were in the tree..." she muttered.  "Whatever this thing is though, it seems almost like a conditional enchantment.  It only activates in response to certain events, so it may not be something 'alive', or something with consciousness..."

She trailed off, glancing towards Timur.
"No, I doubt it's my imagination.  My own mind is too sadistic to content itself with a mere itching" she snapped, before getting up and stalking towards the bench.
"The stone perhaps.  The name of the Chained God and the stone...  We already know he can communicate through the stone, perhaps he can hear through it too, maybe being a part of the portal's mechanism for so long forged a link between it and the portal.  Hope those idiots back at Stonebridge took my suggestion about burying that place seriously enough.  Maybe I should just destroy the stone and be done with it..."


OOC: Yeah, I looked back at them, but was trying to figure out more specifically what it was she said or thought about that triggered the Itch.  Basically looking at it like a techie, treating the Itch as a technical problem, first try to reproduce the problem and thus narrow it down to what's causing it :)

Since it's not helping in that regard though, she's falling back on trying to think what may have changed.  Since she never had the problem before (I'd assume), the first big change in her life was the events leading up to acquiring the Clear Stone.  And that also made her think of the possibility it's forming a remote link of sorts to the portal under Stonebridge, or may simply have picked up enough of the energies active in that place to act as a kind of mini portal itself.  Like the link between the druid's staff and robe she exploited earlier.
This is also leading her to the idea that it might be better to destroy it than to risk carrying something like that around.  Especially since it's already shown some curious coincidental ability to escape her pack on more than one occasion.

Indeed, the problem has only manifest twice, the first time being that evil little comment at the start of Chapter 4.

The clear stone seems to be some form of diamond or crystal, so certainly Meri with her knownledge of crystal magic, and ability to disenchant things, can destroy the Clear Stone if that's what you want to do.

My only cavet would be that it's one of the communication methods to speak with one of The Shadows, but if you think that's the false one, or that neither can be trusted, or it's not worth it, then you can destroy the clear stone right now :)

Picking up the stone, Meri peered at it, turning it slowly to catch the light from the Sun Globe.
Sticking her hand into the void in her pack, she pulled out the toolkit from earlier, opening it one-handed and pulling out a short thick metal rod that appeared to be hollow with what looked like a ruby crystal core, protruding in a narrow spike from one end and glinting a fiery red through rune-shaped gaps cut into the metal with the kind of precision that could only be achieved with magical crafting.
Placing the clear stone on the bench, she gripped the rod tightly in her fist and held it above the stone, as though about to bring it down sharply onto the object below.  A burning red glow seemed to flow down the rod and gather at the crystal tip...

Then she paused and looked towards Timur who was staring at her.  He gestured towards the stone, then pointed to Meri, tapping his own head a few times and then making several other rapid hand-waving gestures, including pointing at the stone again a few times.
Meri looked back at the stone, then slowly relaxed her grip and placed it aside, the red glow fading out slowly as she released it.
"Possibly" she murmured.  "If it is like the link between the staff and the robe..."

She grinned slightly as she returned the rod to the toolkit and packed it away again.
"You know, I find this excess of faith in me a bit disturbing" she remarked, looking to Timur.

Picking up the clear stone, she reached for the pack intending to stash it in the secret compartment...


OOC: While Meri was fully intended to destroy the stone there just to be sure, I (from a player's point of view) thought it might still have some use.  So yeah, got so indecisive I just ended up rolling for it, and the stone very narrowly survived, hehe.
So had Timur suggest something that changed Meri's mind.

And yep, that was a reworked Darth Vader quote, it just popped into my mind as I was writing Meri's reply there when I was going to have her throw that earlier "You trust me, are you crazy?" line back at him ;)
Meri may yet find her way to the Dark Side if she's not careful...

Also, getting into the way of things now, so I left out the bit where she actually puts the clear stone away in case you're thinking of springing something on me there ;)

Don't think there's anything else important she'll want to do tonight, so happy to wait until Nym's thread is done, unless something comes up before morning.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Thu 27 Apr 2017.

Aha, so Timur has been stealing all the faith of the Death Star personnel to feed to Meri? Hence the deficit / surplus? That criminal mastermind! :p

The stone will happily go in to the backpack, in that it will not react. But I'm pleased that you are now scared to do anything without something bad happening. No, wait, despite appearances, that's actually a bad thing! Don't be scared... honest...

Also, Meri will spot that she could later perhaps upggrade tyhe pack to both have the clear stone just locked in to a metaphysical dimension pocket in her back, but also create a magical effect to use the physical pocket to hide a second item. That would make it a level 7 item, so we'll have to come back to that one!


Anmyway, wait to see what Nym is doing with Ryn, but if tht doesn't generate a ton of posts, then I should be able to move you both to morning.

OOC: Well, not so much scared to try it (otherwise I wouldn't have been so indecisive about destroying the stone), but I had an idea of having Meri possibly studying the stone and trying to figure out exactly how it's connection to the portal and the two Shadows works, with the idea of possibly turning it against them if she can work out a way.

Dunno if that's even possible or not, but I had Timur suggest to her that if there is a connection that's working in a similar way to the connection between the staff and the robe (as in, the clear stone has been a part of the portal's 'mechanism' for so long that it's permanently absorbed some of that magic), then perhaps that connection can work both ways too.  Goes back to the idea of perhaps spying on one or both of the Shadows to see how they act when they think they have no-one around to convince of anything :)

Timur was reminding Meri that if anyone is smart enough to figure the stone out, then it's her.  (Whether he actually believes that, or knows that Meri's creative side is the only part of herself she doesn't hate, and thus the only part of her open to possible convincing flattery from someone linked closely enough to her that she can trust their words, I'll leave open to guesswork, hehe).
Hence why Meri was hinting that he probably has too much faith in her abilities, though the comment did cheer her up a little, much as she's pretending it didn't ;)

Hmm, interesting idea.  So then the concealed pocket would become sort of a "mini bag of holding" inside another bag of holding that's linked between two items?  Nothing like a bit of home-made transdimensional engineering to get Meri's interest :)
This message was last edited by the player at 11:58, Fri 28 Apr 2017.

You would probably want to go back to near the portal to properly research, but it would be possible. Also remember that only one of the two Shadows seemed to be connected and contactable through the stone.

Anyway, that seems to be cool research, but for another time - the magical manufacture and journal analysis have probably eaten all your night time brain time.

And yes, fun with backpacks when you get to level up again. It just seems a shame to have a concealed backpack then be forced by common sense to use its one slot to hide the clear stone :(


Anyway, anything else on your mind, or would Meri put the stone away then read the journal until she falls asleep, or try to get some sleep? Nym sounds like she's ready to time jump.

OOC: Ah ok, I thought both Shadows could use it.  At least Tharizdun was supposedly able to contact Meri through it, disguised as the Shadow.  I'd guessed the Shadow would be able to use it too, since it's technically a part of the portal.
Though I'm still not certain if Tharizdun and the Shadow are both the same kind of creature (as in, if both of them are actual gods).  If they were, maybe they can just use the clear stone as a conduit without it having any actual connection to both of them.
And this is Meri's current position on them just now too, she knows she needs more information and more research on this one, hence why Timur was able to convince her to hold off on destroying the stone so easily.

Anyways, yep.  Shall just read over the journal for the rest of the night.  :)

Cool, then join me over on the main thread once again, where I shall wake both you and Nym simulataneously and hope it doens't all go a bit mental getting you both together again :p


As for who spoke to you when and how...


Thrazidum managed to influence you somehow and make you see his name in the book, but otherwise didn't directly speak with you that you know of to start with.

The Shadow spoke to you both of you in the portal room when he was freed.

One Shadow then spoke to you in a dream the first night, saying he was still lingering in the portal room before ascending to his previous position.

The other Shadow then seemed to be manipulating the clear stone until you touched it, and could speak with you. Whether he needed that connection, or was using it as a secure copnnection, he had been unable to speak with you before.


Thrazidun then spoke with you both in some mental or spiritual connection, which only seemed to have needed the distraction of the World Tree's creation to do. Of course, he could have also needed the clear stone and just not told you that


Thrazidum then pushed you in to the realm of the dream Shadow, and that's how you briefly spoke with him before he disappeared.


So the clear stone could be a connection to all of them, through the portal, or just one of them...


As to the power level of the shadow and thrazidum. Well, Thrazidum himself seems to style himself as a god. The dream Shadow theorised that Thrazidum might be a shackle on the gods (like he was a shackle to mortals) and so have the powers of a god. The clear stone Shadow seemed to say that they were two sides of the same coin, and so Thrazidum was more like a deom in power. Thoguh some demons can get god-like status.

The Shadow himself seems to be demi-god powered, given he was created by the gods, and styling himself as Magic. Still, given he seems to have the powers of the wish behind him, he can probably psyphon enough powers from magic and wish granting to basically have demi god to god level powers. Just very shackled.


So depending upon who you believe, they are either a similar aspect but totally different creatures, or different aspects of the same creature :)