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.