[5e] The Unrelenting Night IC

[SeanMcShambles]

Zign and Siett - The air in the room is thick and smells salty. You feel the subtle movement beneath you - like that of a boat on the water - as the wooden floor you're both sitting on creaks and groans and suddenly you feel a jolt of movement from the person behind you and you both immediately open your eyes.

Zign, your eyes take a bit of time to focus on your new surroundings - but Siett you immediately see through the darkness. You both find yourself in a small rectangular room - the walls and floors are made of wood and the room you're in is almost barren, except for the five other humanoids in the room with you. There is a hint of moonlight shining in through small circular windows on either side of the room, as well as through the only door in the room (which is slightly ajar), and you both suddenly realise that your hands are bound together behind your backs. As you struggle to determine whether you can wriggle out of your bonds you both realise that you are sitting back to back to each other.

As the fuzziness in your head wears off you hear a groan as you - Makta - suddenly start opening your eyes. Makta, you instinctively get defensive and move your hands to reach for your greatsword but realise two things... the first is that your hands are also bound behind your back. The second, your greatsword - and, in fact, all of your equipment except the clothes you are wearing - are nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the half-orc looking around frantically at himself for his equipment, Zign - you immediately feel around your own wrists to reach for your Arcane Crystal - but notice that the string has been severed and the crystal is missing. You look downwards at your belt and also see the loose string from the other crystal you had bound to yourself.

It takes you a moment to realise what the other two are fidgeting about, Siett - but eventually you also see that your equipment and pouches have been taken from you.

Looking around at the others who are still unconscious, you notice that they are all also bound - Wit and Torovan sitting back to back with each other and Orion is sitting back to back with another human male. You see that none of them are holding any equipment either.

Your thoughts lead you to the questions: "where am I and how did I get here?"

After a few moments you each gain a little clarity and remember sitting in a tiny road-side tavern somewhere between Rauvinwatch Keep and Silverymoon, enjoying some drinks. You all look around at each other and see some familiarity - realising that each of you was sitting in the tavern - even the others who are still passed out.

And suddenly then there was smoke. There was the sound of glass shattering - possibly a window breaking? And then a thick black smoke filled the entire tavern. It spread fast and you began to choke on it, and some of you even tried to run out of the tavern before you each eventually blacked out.

And now here you are.

Torovan and Wit you both wake up at around this point.

Orion you continue dreaming for a little while longer.

[tbergman92]

A wave of fury rises in Makta as he realizes he has once again been captured. Those watching see his face contort into a visage of pure rage--jaw opening to display his canine teeth, further confirming his orcish heritage--as a low, quiet growl escapes him.

A memory flashes--sitting in a quiet grove, Kara explaining to him that he could find a way to control his anger, to use it when necessary, and not allow it to use him.

Breathe. Breathe. his internal mantra begins. He takes one deep, calming breath, and then takes another.

As he wrests his anger under his control, it is still visible in the set of his body and face--he simply is able to think through the rage and plan. First things first. Free myself from these bonds.

Makta's body relaxes for a moment, anger briefly fading from his expression as his muscles slacken. Suddenly, the muscles across his chest, back, and arms bulge and strain as he flexes them in an attempt to break out of the bonds holding him in place.


[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Makta - the ropes might as well have been made of paper as you easily tear the fibres apart and free yourself.

[tbergman92]

As the ropes give way, Makta's hatred of bindings made his decision of what to do next simple. He slowly and quietly makes his way across the room to where the halfling and gnome were bound. As he approached, he put a finger to his lips, and began to untie them.

Stealth Check: [roll0]
Unskilled Dex for untying the ropes: [roll1]

[SeanMcShambles]

Makta, you move silently over to where the Halfling and Gnome are seated and begin to attempt to untie their ropes. You experience a bit of trouble but after fumbling around for a few minutes you finally manage to untie their bonds.

Siett and Zign, you are both now free.

[tbergman92]

Makta, upon freeing the other two points the halfling towards the bound pair of humans and attempts to indicate to the gnome to keep an eye on the door. He then turns toward the tiefling and human and again attempts to silently approach and untie them.


Stealth: [roll0]
Unskilled Dex: [roll1]

Also, apologies if I seem to be posting a lot at the moment--not trying to dominate the thread, just thought it would be best to free everyone if possible.

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan's mind races to make sense of the situation. Salty air, so not a river, the sea. From Silverymoon? Must've come all the way down through Waterdeep. How long have I been out??

[Either Makta succeeds or Torovan attempts to break his own bonds:]

1d20+1

[Assuming one of those works,] Torovan attempts to sneak to the door and peek out to get a look without being seen by anyone who may be outside.

1d20+5
And if Advantage from the dim light: 1d20+5

[Sierim]

Zign rubs his wrists and gives a slight nod of thanks to the half-orc. He looks at the remains of Matka's bindings, studying them. Instinctively, he reaches for his crystal, only to curse quietly as his hand reminds him of what his eyes already knew. He gathers his own bindings up in his right hand. "One ill turn..." Zign mutters flatly. He reaches his left hand into his boot, searching for his dagger, then follows Matka toward the other two, attempting to keep the half-orc between himself and the door.

[roll0]
Preemptive Lucky roll in case of natural 1 [roll1]

[Stubbazubba]

[OK...I'll try those again...]

[roll0]

[roll1]
And if Advantage from dim light: [roll2]

[GM_3826]

You gauge your surroundings. Your demonic heritage, of course, makes this easiest for you. The darkness is where your kind live. Shady deals, shady character. At least, when it comes to most tieflings.

After attempting to get a proper view of your surroundings, you let the half-orc try his hand at untying you. Best to get this out of the way. You'd rather die than lose your lute forever. Besides, best to put those stealth skills to use.
[roll]1d20+4

[GM_3826]

((This roll thing is really finicky.))
[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Makta - you try to tip toe over to the Tiefling and the human but the floorboard beneath you creaks loudly. Zign, who has been following, winces and you gives you a look. After a few tense moments, and no immediate reactions from outside the room you continue and untie both the tiefling and human.

Wit looks around but doesn't find anything much of value in the immediate vicinity. She notices Orion beginning to stir, though the human behind him has not yet moved.

Orion - you wake up.


Torovan gets up and walks towards the door - the old floorboards beneath him creaking as he does so. As he peers outside the door he notices several things. The first is what he suspected - the party was on a ship. The second was that the ship was moving fast. Torovan could see the ship moving along a coastline - what appeared to be a river bank, possibly. In the background, he could see the lights of a city. The ship was near a port. The third detail Torovan noticed is that the evening air outside is fresh - and it was raining. Hard. The fourth thing was that, from his vantage point, there wasn't a living soul on deck.

Scattered along the main deck of the ship were bodies - up to a dozen as far as Torovan could make out - possibly the crew of the ship. None of them looked alive. Some of them looked like they had their limbs torn off. Some of them looked like they had their heads torn off. In the light of the full moon shining through the storm clouds above, Torovan could see that the deck was covered in fresh blood.

Straight ahead - on the upper deck, at the helm of the ship, Torovan notices the silhouette of a lone figure - wheel in hand.

[Forum Explorer]

Siett nods his thanks to the half-orc, and takes a second to focus and meditate. Remembering his training he called magically to his trusty weapon, hoping to cause his harpoon to appear in his outstretched hand.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion's head was pounding. He opens his eyes and starts to look around through one, bloodshot, squinted eyeball. He groans as he starts to wake up and slow but surely starts to figure out his surroundings. As he looks around he already sees others starting to sneak around and untie themselves and other from bindings. "What in the nine hells happened last night? I've had some doozies, but damn if last night wasn't one of the worst." He starts to try and get the bindings off his hands, and make heads or tails of this place.

Athletics Check [roll0]

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan turns away from the door. "I don't think we need to be overly concerned about being heard. Everyone on the deck is dead, except whoever is at the helm. I haven't a clue as to what's going on, but something killed all the men out there. Are any of you any good in a fight?"

[Irish Musician]

Orion gives a chuckle, smirks, and raises his hand up from behind himself. It starts to glow with and orange-yellow light, "I can hold my own.......anyone got some whiskey."

[Sierim]

Seeing Orion's response, Zign gives a closed lipped smile and raises his right hand, now glowing a pale grey-blue. "A bit." He flips his dagger around in his let hand, holding the blade by its point and offering it to the group, having no immediate need for it. "Anyone?"

[tbergman92]

Makta's rumbling voice responded to the human's question. "I am...experienced in combat." He took a few steps toward the door, and peered outside himself.

"Did you happen to see anything of our equipment outside? I'm not one for little knives." he turned down the halfling's offer of the small dagger.

Specifically looking for anything that could be our equipment.
[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Orion - the ropes feel like they're really digging into your wrists. You feel like someone should really unbind you soon or your hands might go numb.

Makta - you don't manage to spot your equipment, but you see the silhouetted figure stir and the general area where you think its face would be turns to look at the door you're standing at.

Looking behind you, you notice the tied up blonde man and the Halfling taking turns making their hands glow - blue and yellow light is filling the otherwise dark room. You kinda maybe get the feeling your friend at the helm noticed these.

[Sierim]

Zign shrugs at the refusal and moves to cut the remaining bonds.

[Stubbazubba]

In the glowing lights, Torovan notices the other human behind Orion. "All right, enough fireworks. We need a plan. Orc, for now, tell us if anything out there moves."

He goes to undo Orion's bonds.

[roll0]

[Edit: Or, yeah, let's just let Zign do that.]

He also takes a look at the yet unconscious human, and tries to shake him awake. "We need to get out of here, preferably without being seen."

[SeanMcShambles]

Torovan, as you go to shake the man you notice that he is also dead. As he's released from Orion, his body hits the ground with a heavy thud.

He has a gaping hole in his chest where his heart would have been. There is blooding dripping all the way down to the floor and it looks like he was mauled by an animal.

You also notice near where Makta's discarded bindings are another set of ropes - which also look like they were torn apart by someone of immense strength.

[Stubbazubba]

"Something's not right. We need to get out of here, now. Orc, what do you see?"

Torovan turns to the rest of the group.

"We should all get out of here, now. Whatever broke out of these bonds may be the same thing that killed that man in the corner and then killed the crew. And it may be helming this ship now. Now, perhaps the helmsman is friendly, but I'm not willing to risk finding out. We may be able to sneak out to the edge of the ship and jump off, we're along a coast right now. I have a little magic that can help us move undetected. What say you?"

[SeanMcShambles]

Makta - you see the silhouette still "looking" in your direction. You then see it raise its hand as it points to a direction behind and beyond the room you're in. You presume it's pointing to something on the coastline.

You see the figure stir and from its movements you think that maybe it's laughing, though you can't hear any laughter over the roar of the wind and rain.

[Forum Explorer]

Can you see the coastline? Jumping into the sea while a storm is brewing is just as likely to kill us as any beastie. Siett growled, giving his newly summoned harpoon a bit of a twirl. Plus the rest of our gear might be on board. I don't know about the rest of you, but I want my stuff back.

[tbergman92]

Makta sighed and turned slightly toward his fellow captives. "I believe he has seen us."

He returned to watching the figure at the helm.

[Sierim]

"What I wouldn't give for a single copper right now." Zign scans the floors looking for loose change, perhaps dropped during the earlier conflict.

"And I agree with the gnome. I'm in for a copper on this ship, and preferably every moon of my belongings along with it."

[SeanMcShambles]

Zign, you see no coins on the floor. It looks like the last conflict was more of a slaughter than anything else - the bound man didn't seem like he had much of a chance to defend himself.

You're fairly convinced that the dead crew would have some coin about them, though.

[Forum Explorer]

M'name is Siett. Siett says to Zign as he moves to the door to take a look outside as well. Specifically, he's looking to see another door into the boat.

[Sierim]

"Zign." he responds, not looking up. Zign moves slowly toward the doorway, his hand's blue light now snuffed out. Glancing out toward the figure he peers around, searching for the nearest crew member.


If the figure doesn't appear to be facing the group anymore, Zign moves toward the nearest corpse and searches it for copper pieces.
Stealth: [roll0]
If advantage is granted on account of the loud wind and rain: [roll1]
Preemptive Lucky roll: [roll2]

Not sure if this is necessary, but perception investigation (as recommended by the DM) when searching for copper coins:
Perception: Investigation (modifiers are the same) [roll3]
If disadvantage on account of the lighting: [roll4] Doesn't look like that mattered :smallsigh:

[SeanMcShambles]

Siett, across the deck from you (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Ifvb3lMpbpepYjJG9p5MJFzo9JFysMxYfK8fTZPdGKc/edit?usp=sharing), you see the door to the Captain's cabin.

Zign, as you step outside and lean over one of the fallen crew members - the figure who is still looking in the general direction of the cabin you're stepping out is suddenly bathed in light as lightning cracks in the night sky.

You can see that the tall and staunch man is wearing a hood - which is absolutely drenched. He must have been steering the ship for a while.

As more lightning crackles, you get a glimpse of his face and he smiles down at you from behind the wheel.

http://i.imgur.com/5TTwuwy.jpg

His eyes reflect the light in a strange manner - similar to that of a cat - and you can see that his face, mouth and hands are all covered in blood.

He grins widley, and you can see blood on his teeth, as he shouts - his voice booming over the roar of the wind and rain: "I completely forgot about you all. Finally awake, I see."

He motions down by tilting his head to the Captain's cabin underneath him.

"If you're looking for your stuff, I found a bunch of equipment in there. They weren't mine - so they must be yours."

He grins and adds: "But you'd better hurry..."

He then points in the direction behind you, and just beyond the bow of the ship you can see a city, the lights from the windows of various buildings lighting up their silhouettes. And there, in the path of the ship you are on you see a pier - and the ship is hurtling towards it at tremendous speed.

You estimate that there is probably less than 30 seconds before the ship completely collides with the pier.

The hooded man chuckles maniacally to himself as more lightning fills the sky behind him.

Everybody please roll initiative.

Hooded man Initiative: [roll0] - nice.

[Sierim]

"Oh. Joy."

[roll0]

[Forum Explorer]

May Umberlee swallow your soul! Siett cursed, sprinting for the captain's room.

[roll0]

[Stubbazubba]

"Are you out of your mind?!" Torovan exclaims, pushing the door wide open.

[roll0]

[tbergman92]

"Oh, Eldath bless it." Makta made ready.


[roll0]

[GM_3826]

"...."
Wit hasn't spoken for a while now because she felt she couldn't trust whoever was at the helm of the ship. From the looks of it, she was right. She glares and grits her teeth at Torovan.
Listen, spoiled brat. next time before you say something, you better ask me first."
[roll0]

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion looks at the other, then back to the deranged man, then over to where his stuff is, "Son of a...."

Initiative [roll0]

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan looks back at the fast approaching city, then back to the hooded man. He closes his eyes briefly, focusing, then clenches his fists, runs up the stairs and lays into the hooded man with his fists, being sure to keep his feet mobile.

Unarmed Strike: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
Spending 1 Ki on Patient Defense: I take Dodge as a Bonus Action (attacks against me have Disadvantage, I get Advantage on Dex saves)

[SeanMcShambles]

Torovan - The hooded man cops your punches but seems unfazed by your fists colliding with his face.

He grins and you see him attempt to tear the ship's wheel from the pedestal it's attached to.



Unskilled Strength Check:[roll0]

If successful, he'll try to hit you with it (the wheel), Torovan..

Two rolls, at disadvantage:
[roll1]
[roll2]

Damage if it hits: [roll3]


The wheel doesn't seem to budge and he just growls at you, Torovan..

[GM_3826]

....Of course. Of course, of course, of course. Just like that spoiled brat to ignore what's right in front of him. It sucks to be stuck with him.
Wit sprints for the cabin door, making her way down the stairs. She immediately scavenges for her equipment. She doesn't have much time. On the way, she realizes that it's probably best for her to get the others equipment as well. Even IF she didn't exactly like all of them, her conscience was begging her.
After sorting through everything and taking out as much as she can, she runs back out, back to where she was standing.
In other words, I just made a dash action. It seems that there's about 30 feet between Wit and the items, and back over there is another 30 feet more. A dash action allows me to move 60 feet in one round. That's enough for me to both get the items and make it back in time in order to jump off the helm of the ship.
...Did I mention I was going to do that?

[SeanMcShambles]

In other words, I just made a dash action. It seems that there's about 30 feet between Wit and the items, and back over there is another 30 feet more. A dash action allows me to move 60 feet in one round. That's enough for me to both get the items and make it back in time in order to jump off the helm of the ship.
...Did I mention I was going to do that?

Whoa... slow down there, sport. A Dash action takes place of a regular action. You're allowed to interact with one object as a free action on your turn.



Your turn can include a variety of flourishes that require neither your action nor your move.

You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn.

You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.

If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.

The DM might require you to use an action for any of these activities w hen it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.

If the door were closed, you would've interacted with the door as a free action as you moved through its space. If you wanted to pick (just) your equipment up - (there would be a lot of stuff there, btw. Everyone was carrying a lot of equipment.) it would take the entire Standard Action to do so.



Wit, as you barge through the Captain's Cabin's door you see a variety of equipment and weaponry piled onto two tables. After an initial glance you notice that your gear is sitting atop of the table in front of you.

You notice quite a bit of blood lining both the walls and floors of the room. There are bodies (and portions of limbs and flesh) lying all around the cabin. It looks like whatever killed the crew went through this room as well.

As you pick up your stuff, hurriedly, you hear a voice groan and you see a blonde/beared man wearing splint mail stir on the ground behind the desk.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion realizes what the crazy man really means and runs into where his stuff his. He grabs his things and looks at the others in the room with him, "Well, seems like it is time to get off this hay ride before the crazy man up top crashes us into little pieces."

[tbergman92]

"Someone grab my stuff! Makta roared out over the wind and rain, plan forming in his mind--he'd just have to hope that they were willing to grab everything left in the cabin, or that his plan worked. It was time for an all or nothing decision. He was no fan of being captured, and the owner of the ship probably deserved to have it destroyed, but any innocents on the pier did not deserve to have their peace threatened by such as the hooded man.

He began to suppress his rage about his capture, being denied his revenge on his captor, and the apparent wanton destruction of the hooded man actively, allowing it to build until the crucial moment.

Gonna expend my reaction to talk.

[Sierim]

"What do you need?" he shouts to the half-orc above, but doesn't wait for his answer.

Zign scuttles into the room and scrambles for his focus. Nothing else will matter soon.

He reaches out physically and mentally above him, muttering, searching for a mind, one also searching: Makta.


Detect Thoughts, searching for Makta, and hoping his surface thoughts are about any particular item he needs.

[tbergman92]

Makta continued suppressing the rage, condensing it to a small, bright point inside his mind to increase it's eventual intensity. Seeing others enter the room with the equipment, and hoping they would gather his things as well, he charged up the stairs towards the hooded man.

As he approached the hooded man, he allowed his rage to release with an immense roar at the hooded man, and he shot out his hand to grab the hooded man and lift him into the air away from the ship's helm.


Bonus Action: Enter Barbarian Rage. Adv. On Strength ability checks and saves, +2 melee damage, and resist all damage other than psychic.
Move Action: Move (I think) 20-25 ft. to get next to the hooded man.
Action: Grapple Special Attack. Contested Strength (Athletics) vs. Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics)
Strength (Athletics) - W/ advantage: [roll0] OR [roll1]

If the Grapple hits, going to move 2-5 feet away from the helm. If I can, anyway. I couldn't find rulings on the Halving speed of carrying/dragging a grappled creature and how that works if you've used part of the move. If I can't move, I'll, if possible, turn away to pull the Hooded man away from the helm. if that doesn't work, or i miss the grapple, my turn ends.

[Forum Explorer]

Seeing that the hooded man was being dealt with, at least for now, Siett decides to sprint through the open room and begin gathering his gear as quickly as possible.

[SeanMcShambles]

Strength:[roll0]

Makta wraps his arms around the maniac and drags him 2 feet away from the wheel of the ship.


When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.

[Northguard]

[Northguard]

Bits and pieces of a night of revelry flash in and fade out of Urik's mind as he slowly wakes. He groans in response to the harried voices and movements around him in the cabin.
"Ugh, I didn't think I ..." he grimaces, eyes squeezing shut, as he recalls the other, more recent events. A struggle, and binding. A needle and excited voices. A sudden interruption, and screams and blood. "Dented shields and broken blades!" he exhales, as he opens his eyes and comes to his feet. Taking a deep breath, he tightens his chest and arms, straining against his bonds.
[roll0]
With a slight, warm smirk, he looks to those in the cabin, recalling their faces in less turbulent circumstances. "We meet again, I see. We've less time to chat, I expect. Could someone ... ?" he smiles more broadly, wiggling his hands behind his back.

[Stubbazubba]

"Toss him overboard!" Torovan exclaims, grateful to not be facing the mysterious man alone.

Torovan moves to the helm and tries to steer the ship back towards the middle of the river.

I'm assuming this is a Dex check because the examples in Ch. 7 about steering vehicles in difficult circumstances are under Dex. If it's not, let me know and I'll roll something else.
[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Torovan - you grab the wheel and turn it full, attempting to steer the ship towards the starboard side. You look at the distance between the ship and the pier and estimate that you should just be able to clear the path of the pier... provided the ship stays on its new course.

Makta - the man watches Torovan steer the ship and laughs heartily while staring at the sky. As he does so, you feel him squirm under your tight grip.

If you so choose to look at where he's looking, you'll notice a gap in the clouds where the full moon becomes completely visible.

Torovan, you watch his eyes go black and his teeth transform into fangs - his face suddenly growing vast amounts of hair in mere seconds.

Makta, he flexes and you feel his muscles start to enlarge. You hear the cracking of bones and the tearing of flesh as you notice fur sprouting out of his skin. He cackles as his face grows a snout and his body grows to a size that tears the hood he's wearing.

He growls - his voice deep and rumbling - "I'll have your hearts too."

The man transforms into a Large bear-like humanoid hybrid.

[GM_3826]

"..."
Wit... Is absolutely SICK of this.
First, she gets locked up straight with that spoiled brat. Then, she completely fails at performing stealth, one of the many things she spent many hours practicing. Then, she meets this man, who proceeded to hulk out. Finally, she gave up.
But not for long.
'I've never been so petty before... So...
Clearly I'm not as strong as I thought.'
...She picks up her gear. Finally, she takes out her lyre. Recognizing her weakness, she casts Bull's Strength on herself, and walks out in preparation for jumping off.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion gathers his things and heads back outside. He looks and takes note that the man that was once guiding the ship is now turning into some sort of hairy monster thing. "Huh", Orion says to no on in particular, "didn't see that one coming. Well, lets see if we can't hold the angry beast at bay...." Orion raises his hand and attempts to dominate the creature's body, rendering it useless.

After having gathered my things:
Turn
Move - Outside on deck
Action - Hold Person on the beast dude: Choose a humanoid that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration. At the end o f each of its turns, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the spell ends on the target.
Save DC for him to make 13

[SeanMcShambles]

Wisdom:[roll0]

Makta - the creature goes limp in your arms as you hold it tight.

[Irish Musician]

Once he has the creatures motor functions down, he yells out to the others, "I got him held for now. Do what you need to do and hurry!"

If I need to delete this I can, but I didn't know what I might be posting before he did or didn't make his save.

[Sierim]

Zign cuts Urik's bonds and gathers what he can. "A bit of help?" He nods down at himself, as if to emphasize his small size, then over toward the remaining gear, then finally up toward the deck above them. "Battleaxe, maul, stuff." He shrugs and continues to pick up his gear as hastily as possible.

[tbergman92]

Makta felt the body of his opponent fall limp in his arms, and responded to the sudden change and the heads up from the human on the deck of the ship by attempting to shove the creature in his arms over the side of the ship in just the right way to make him fall overboard. Shifting himself into a slightly better position, he exerted his strength on the lycanthrope.


Move: To whatever position is necessary to push him overboard.
Shoving the thing overboard:
Strength (Athletics): [roll0] OR [roll1] If necessary--was unclear from OOC post if the check would be needed.
If he goes overboard, I'll edit the post below this to reflect a move using whatever is left of my movement after the repositioning above to get to the cabin with my gear.
If he doesn't go overboard, I'll just maintain the grapple (Never mind, shoving him away breaks the grapple, duh) and use the rest of my move to position myself between him and the wheel.

[SeanMcShambles]

Motionless, the large lycanthropic humanoid tumbles off the side of the ship, hitting his face on the ship's hull on the way down and SPLOOSH disappears into the dark turbulent waters below.

Thus endeth the encounter.

Everybody receives 400XP each - for both dispatching of the Weredude and for averting the pier collision!

Please update your Obsidian Portal sheets accordingly.

The ship continues its slow turn to the starboard side. At this rate, Torovan and Siett, you believe the ship will miss the pier and continue back towards the centre of the river.

[Sierim]

Hearing the bang on the side of the boat and subsequent splash, Zign hurries out to the deck, focus ready. Seeing their course corrected, and the hooded man nowhere in sight, he leans into the room where Urik is. "Looks like we're not needed after all." Zign flops down in a corner next to the stairs, breathes a sigh, and begins casting a spell. The braids tied to his crystal foci slowly weave themselves back together. He continues this for several minutes, apparently puzzling over the night's events.

[Stubbazubba]

Is anyone a sailor? It'd be nice if we could dock peacefully," Torovan calls out.

"Well done!" Torovan says to Makta. He extends a hand and introduces himself, "The name's Stormsteel, Torovan Stormsteel. And you are?"

[Northguard]

"Good to hear," Urik carefully put down the weapons and other equipment he'd hastily gathered into neat piles. After organizing his own gear and belting on his sword, he turned his attention to the more grisly contents of the cabin.

"I was here, awake, when these men died," he said loudly, so as to have his voice carry outside the cabin. "We were to be tested, at least until they were interrupted by some sort of beast man. I take it he won't be troubling us?" He searched the cabin thoroughly, looking for the syringe and anything else that might indicate what the crew had been up to.

Investigation:
Perception:1d20[/roll]

[SeanMcShambles]

Urik, after scouring the man who was holding the syringe before you passed out - you manage to find it next to the top half of his body under the table.

Examining, the syringe - you notice that it contains a thick and viscous black fluid - and the faint odor was reminiscent of a smell you rememebered when you passed out in the tavern.

Seeing nothing but adventuring equipment and weapons on the table, you move towards the bookshelf in the room and flick through the captain's log. A lot of it is encoded in a nonsense language but from what you can glean from it, you gather that these men were slavers. Though, if they were looking for new slaves in that tavern, it certainly was not documented in the captain's log.

A map falls out of the back of the log. It is a map of the sword coast with a portion of it circled - just off the coast near Trollbark forest.

Looking around the room, you notice the remnants of four... possibly five bodies.

[Forum Explorer]

Is anyone a sailor? It'd be nice if we could dock peacefully," Torovan calls out.

"Well done!" Torovan says to Makta. He extends a hand and introduces himself, "The name's Stormsteel, Torovan Stormsteel. And you are?"

Aye, I am! And I could use some help! The best thing for us to do, is to slow this ship down, and that means bringing these sails down. After we get some distance from where the beastie went into the drink, I say we lower the anchor and take stock. Siett yelled, pulling on the rope that controlled the mainsail.

[roll0]

[tbergman92]

The half-orc took a moment to calm himself, allowing his storm of emotions to dissipate before responding to the Torovan's greeting. "Makta. My name is Makta, of the Leagallow family. By adoption, as you could possibly guess."

He took a look around the ship after the , "I know nothing of sailing, but I do know that strength can be helpful in such endeavors, and I offer my assistance, if someone can direct me. " He paused for a moment before continuing, "But first I need my gear."

He walked down the stairs and into the room with the equipment, and began gathering up his weapons and other items.

[SeanMcShambles]

Siett - you have a bit of trouble getting the sails to budge - but it looks like the sudden sharp turn combined with the change in the wind's direction have been doing their job at slowing the ship down already.

On the boardwalks of the pier, illuminated by lamplight, you see people running towards the edge of the pier to have a look at the ship that almost crashed into it. They begin gawking and pointing. Further in the distance, you see what look to be uniformed soldiers making their way towards the pier with haste also.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion smiles at the man takes a dive off the side of the ship thanks to his newly acquired comrades. He starts to put all the pieces of his gear back together, making sure everything is still there, and putting on his armor and securing his mace on his belt and shield on his arm. "My name is Orion...simple cleric of the Light. I, too, know nothing of sailing, but I am pretty good at drinking the grog!" A large smile comes on his face as he takes a large swig from his jug.

[Northguard]

Urik nods and smiles broadly to each of his companions as they filter in to the cabin to retrieve their equipment.

"Urik Sturmblade, Knight of Summer," he says with a bow and an arm across his breast. He smirks and he straightens, "Though what exactly that means I am still learning."
He carefully lays out the map, log book, and syringe on a clear space on the table. "I found these in this mess. What it all leads to is beyond me."

[Forum Explorer]

Siett allowed himself to relax, now that the ship was mostly under control, and turned his attention to the others. I'm Siett Zrunmber, once a sailor of the poorly named Indestructible Mark IV. he said to the others, keeping one eye on the sails to make sure things stayed under control.

[Sierim]

His foci now tied securely around his belt and hand, Zign stands up. "'M not much with ships either; never had a chance to learn. 'M Zign, by the way." The way he introduces himself almost sounds like nonsense initially, with a vowelless "m" before and the vowelless "n" after "Zig." He pauses for a moment. "Though Zig's fine."

Zign begins going over the corpses, searching for any valuables they might have. Anything he finds he sets in a pile on the deck for all to see, though he makes sure to pocket 2-3 copper pieces, with no attempt to hide this.

If it's needed. I assume we have some time.
[roll0]

While searching the bodies, Zign tilts his head up. "Do we want to stop? Don't expect the guards will ask questions before putting us back in bonds, kidnapped or no." He motions to the corpses around them. "Don't have any spells for cleaning up this mess, either."

"Assuming we don't stop, anyone up for Three-Dragon Ante? I'll provide the cards; our hosts provided the pot."

[SeanMcShambles]

Zign - you manage to scramble together a total of about 80 gold pieces, 130 silver pieces and 300 copper pieces.

Also on the bodies of the deceased you find he following:


3 Shortswords
4 Leather Tunics (Leather Armor)
2 Crossbows and 2 quivers containing 30 bolts each
3 wooden shields
12 Daggers
5 Spears
A recipe book
A dictionary
4 flasks of whiskey
3 lamps
Some circular black badges, outlined with a purple trim.
A shaving razor
2 Smoking pipes
10 pieces of chalk
Cartographer's Tools
A key
A Lyre

[Forum Explorer]

I say we sail on. No need to give up a free ship and potentially get blamed for something we didn't do. Siett said, taking stock of the area around them.

Just looking for some more details about the waterway we're on and the environment around us.

[SeanMcShambles]

Siett - The river itself looks to be almost 100-150 feet wide.

Looking to the portside bank, where the ship was headed to collide with the pier, you see a city. Further in the distance you see many soaring spires and slender, graceful towers lining the skyline. When you focus on the walls surrounding the buildings past the dock - you notice that they are faintly glowing with some sort of magical energy.

Directly ahead of you, possibly a little over 200 feet away, you see a glowing bridge - seemingly constructed of pure silvery energy - that connects the portside bank to the starboard side bank.

On the starboard side bank you see more buildings and spires, built to a similar aesthetic as the portside docks. Though there are fewer buildings to the starboard side, you notice that the buildings on the starboard side seem more modern - though both sides are clearly influenced by High Elven architecture.

You ponder for a moment on the glowing bridge and the towering spires and come to the conclusion that the ship is currently sailing across the River Rauvin, through Silverymoon.

[Forum Explorer]

On second thought, it seems unlikely that we'd be able to sail through Silverymoon without being borded. Best we face the authorities now, rather then after rousing their suspicious. Siett said.

[Sierim]

"Let's get rid of these bodies before we stop. Anchor ourselves a few leagues outside the city, toss them overboard, and wait for the watch. We aren't here by choice, but who will believe us? Explaining the situation after is easy enough, but this?"--Zign motions widely with his hands, so as to indicate chaos of the deck--"This is not. This is suspicious."

[Northguard]

Leaning in the door frame of the Captain's cabin, Urik strokes his beard. "I'm no sailor, but I agree with Siett. Back when I was Neverwinter militia, we could get chains across the river faster than Obould'll gut an elf." He tilts his head in the direction of the shining bridge. "And that's without the magic."

[Forum Explorer]

"Let's get rid of these bodies before we stop. Anchor ourselves a few leagues outside the city, toss them overboard, and wait for the watch. We aren't here by choice, but who will believe us? Explaining the situation after is easy enough, but this?"--Zign motions widely with his hands, so as to indicate chaos of the deck--"This is not. This is suspicious."

We're in sight of the pier. They'd see us toss the bodies over. And we're headed straight into the city, we'd have to turn around first. Siett grunted.

[Stubbazubba]

"I think the Gnome has the right of it. We're already the subject of controversy, we'd probably best just try to explain as best we can," Torovan says. Next time, he thought to himself, think twice before dumping the body off the side of the boat.

[Sierim]

Zign mutters something about "leagues out," "out of league," and "in league now," as well as a irritable quip of "hin made hind," but raises no further objections. Instead, he begins carrying the trove back to the cabin to sort through, starting with the weapons.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion looks around all of the junk they found. He's never been one for stuff, or gold, or jewels. But he does love him some whiskey. He takes one flask and puts it in his boot, and takes another and starts to nip on it. He listens to the others arguments about the dead bodies and the guards. After taking another nip off the flask he speaks up, "Look, we have our bindings, and I'm sure we aren't the first people to have been 'guests' of this ship. These thieves just happened to have grabbed the wrong man....beast.....thing." Orion smiles and continues, "I'm sure once we sail into port and explain everything the Silver Guard will investigate everything and we will be fine. We can even tell them where we dumped Mr. Grumpy Pants and they might be able to go collect him. I'll get their attention so we can just get this over with." Orion goes to the front of the ship and starts to wave his hands in the air. He waves his hand over his throat and his eyes. His eyes start to glow with a silvery, bright light and his voice booms much louder than normal, "Guards of the Silver City. We humbly ask for your help and ask your High Lady for it as well. A threat is just down that river that needs to be known about before he hurts someone else." Orion stays at the front of the ship, hands up in a peaceful gesture, making sure the guards have no problem seeing him.

Cast Thaumaturgy twice, for different eyes and a booming voice.

[SeanMcShambles]

You see the guards on the dock flagging you over towards the pier. Moreover, as soon as Orion's voice starts booming, you all start seeing guards running up and setting up formations on the Moonbridge - seemingly to make sure you don't try to sail the ship any further than that point.

A few more guards jump into several (four) dinghies and begin paddling their way towards the ship.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion sees the guards waving them over and turns back to his comrades, "Alright, so, well.....how do we stop this thing at the pier over there? Let's do that." He waves in acknowledgement of the guards on the pier, trying his best to make gestures indicating they will be stopped at the pier as best they can, "We aren't sailors so we are doing our best to stop at the pier. I swear as a Cleric of the light we mean you no harm." He holds up his holy symbol, just to impress his point.

[SeanMcShambles]

One of the guards gives you the thumbs up, and you see the guards on the dinghies draw closer.

[Sierim]

Seeing the guards, Zign hurries to put the weapons in the cabin, adding his own dagger to the pile. He also stows his focus on his belt, letting both hang loosely by their braids, clearly visible and difficult to remove with a single hand. Finally, he removes his cloak, then walks back out onto the deck. He sits back down next to the door and waits for the guards.

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan does his best to bring the boat in to the pier. "Did someone mention some sailing experience? I've never docked a ship before, and I'm afraid that limited experience may end up little better than our original course," he says.

[Forum Explorer]

Torovan does his best to bring the boat in to the pier. "Did someone mention some sailing experience? I've never docked a ship before, and I'm afraid that limited experience may end up little better than our original course," he says.

Yer doin fine, Siett grunted, throwing a rope to the dingy when it gets close enough.

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan looks at the approaching pier and grimaces. Here goes nothing, then.

[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Torovan you manage to easily steer the ship towards the direction of the pier. With the ship's pace reduced, you feel like you should have no problem docking.

Siett, you hear a thud, the rope moves and then steady thumping on the sides of the ship as guards start scaling to board.

The first man - a rather stocky dwarf - jumps on board, dusts himself off and takes off his kettle hat.

Absent-mindedly he says, while wiping some sweat off his brow, "What seems to be the problem here? We saw your ship veering dangerously towards the pier and then we saw a wild animal get thrown off the-- OH DEAR GOND WHAT THE HELLS HAPPENED HERE?!?!"

He drops his helmet and points at the dismembered corpses.

Some of the other guards start boarding the ship as well. They draw their swords.

"Nobody move! Somebody better start explaining right away!" another guard - a blonde haired half-elf - yells. He motions to some of the other guards to start inspecting the bodies as they hop onto the ship.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion immediately steps forward, hands up, "I can field this one,", but immediately stops talking. He waves his hand over his throat again and starts again. "Apologies for that. My newly found comrades and I woke up on this ship, not too long ago. We were all bound together, our items removed and put in the Captain's cabin. However, when we came to that "beast" you saw thrown off was at the helm and it was in its human form. He seemed to be steering the boat into a pier and seemed to have taken care of the crew all by himself." Orion paused and let that sink in before he continued. "He said to get our stuff quickly, presumably before he wrecked the boat into the pier, and had this awful smile on his face. We attempted to stop him while getting our belongings in case we failed and had to jump off into the water. I was able to cast a Holding spell on him, which allowed my new friend here," he points to Makta, "to toss him overboard. We then just barely got the ship from hitting the pier and now we are here. I have no idea how we got here, as the last thing I remember is drinking in a tavern last night. In fact I've never been on a boat in my life." Orion pauses once again and eyes the dwarf, "Please, I beg you, send out some guards and trap or kill that beast-man. He seemed quite evil and vicious and I am afraid he might hurt someone else. If you absolutely need someone to blame, take me into custody. But I swear by the light we are no threat here, nor have we killed anyone on this boat. Though I can't say we wouldn't have if we found out that some damned slavers had taken us prisoner or something." Orion lets the dwarf process all this information and lets him respond.

[SeanMcShambles]

Orion, can you please make a Wisdom Saving Throw?

[SeanMcShambles]

Orion, you feel a presence digging around your mind but manage to block it out before it peers too deeply.

You look around and notice a lythe, dark-haired man, wearing a loose interpretation of the Silver Guards uniform standing on deck. He has one hand on his temple and is looking intently at you.

His expression softens and he motions to the other guards to lower their swords.

"He's telling the truth, lower your swords. Search the bodies - I saw Shar's symbol in the halfling's mind. These slavers might be of her church." The guards scurry about and start sifting through the corpses - dragging them neatly into piles. Some of them scamper below deck and into the Captain's Cabin.

The dark haired man smiles. "Not many people are adept at blocking me out like that. I'm Pellon. These are the Silver Guard."

He turns to the dwarf. "Signal the men on the pier. There's a werebear in the river."

He turns back to you all and says "You were at the Busy Glass?" He lets that name sink in and you recall that name belonging to the tavern you remember being at last night before the black smoke filled the room.

He scratches his head "If you were... you're probably going find this somewhat of a shock..."

He looks around at all of you solemnly "You've all been missing for the better part of a tenday."

The blonde half-elf moves closer and nudges Pellon. He tries to whisper low but you all still manage to hear his voice. "They probably aren't even aware of The Longest Night yet, sir."

Pellon nods and coughs. "Yes. Well... one thing at a time."

[Forum Explorer]

A tenday eh? Good thing I had no where to be then. Siett said, not really concerned about the lost time. I suppose you should bring up the real bad news now.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion chuckles, "Had you wanted to check my story, you need only asked. Would you like to peer deeper? I don't have many secrets." Orion gives a wink and takes a nip of his flask, "Well met Pellon, and as for my blocking you out....that comes with being what I am. My name is Orion, Cleric of the Light. And that name does seem familiar......but names often do seem familiar to me." He takes another sip of his flask, but when the mention of a tenday comes up, he nearly chokes on the whiskey. "Gone for ten days? I have been on some binders before....but...." Orion trails off and is able to catch what the elf says. "The Longest Night, huh? What is that exactly?"

[SeanMcShambles]

Pellon sits down on a nearby crate and watches his men pile up the corpses. He flags one of them down and says "Just quickly load the dead onto the dinghies and burn the dinghies immediately. We'll take the ship back to the pier."

With a hint of exhaustion in his voice, he turns back to you all and continues "Oh? Hmm. The Longest Night? The usual, I guess. The sun has stopped rising. Never-ending darkness. Creatures from the pits wreaking havoc on the surface and the dead rising from their graves. Ghosts, ghouls, ghast, poltergeists as well as plagues of recently turned vampires and lycanthropes. You know... that old ploy."

He pulls out a pipe from his person and lights it - breathing in deeply.

"It all started about a tenday ago, actually. Coinciding with the disappearances at the tavern - we initially figured that you were all used as a blood or soul sacrifice to summon some sort of greater power or dark God that brought all this about - but seeing that you're standing here right now... this is obviously not the case. So color me stumped." he continues smoking.

The other soldiers start haphazardly tossing the corpses overboard into the dinghies.

The man looks over to you all "That reminds me... none of you were bitten, were you?"

[Sierim]

Zign nods. "The badges." He goes to the pile and recovers them, keeping his hands in full view so as not to worry the guards, then returns and hands them to the dark haired man. "I thought there was something odd about these. Shar symbols, you said?"

"As for being bitten, not as far as I know. Haven't had much a chance to check, though. The killer seemed more interested in stealing hearts than giving love bites."

[Forum Explorer]

Siett frowns. No bites on us, but the monster was not part of whatever plan the owners of this ship had. So who knows what they were trying to do. But why are you burning the dinghies?

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion's usual jovial self turns serious fairly quickly, and almost a little sad as he listens to the man's story. He knows....he knows this is his purpose. To fight the darkness so that the light prevails. He has done it all his life and definitely won't be stopping now. He takes a very large chug from his flask and answers Pellon's question. "I don't think anyone got bit. I was lucky enough to use my powers to hold his being in place, so the others could toss hiim over, before he did any real damage." He pauses for a moment as if the next thing he is going to say needs to be almost pulled out of him. "Please let me know if I can help in any way at all. Being a cleric of the Light I posess skills and powers that could help the city in this time of darkness. I can't speak for my newfound friends, but I will do what I can to help. Though," he looks at the others, "I do hope they are willing to help lead the world back to light."

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan grimaces through the revelations. He responds, "If the good Cleric promises to not turn this into some kind of pilgrimage, then of course I am willing to help. I happen to like daylight and was planning on seeing some more of it."

He approaches Pellon, wary of his thoughts being read, and introduces himself. "I am Lord Torovan Stormsteel of Cormyr. Do you know whether this Longest Night is a regional phenomenon or is it affecting more than the Silver Marches? Any hint of where all these creatures might be coming from? Tell us everything, everything that's been done, everything you've learned, any hunches you might have."

[SeanMcShambles]

Pellon smiles and pulls himself back on his feet.

He addresses Zign first. "Yes, Shar. Goddess of Darkness and Loss. We've been seeing her symbol come up a lot lately. And given.. well... you know," he points up at the darkness, "We figure her followers are most likely behind all this."

"Meanwhile... when I say that the dead have been rising from their graves - I mean it in a literal sense." He turns to Siett. "We are up to our ears in undead, revenants and ghouls. We're trying to cull that situation by leaving no corpses to rise. Fire seems to work a treat."

He turns back to Orion and Torovan.

"It's good to see enthusiasm. As I said, we suspect the followers of Shar are behind this. That or they're just attracted to the darkness - maybe in the hopes that it's a sign from Shar herself.

The darkness itself seems to be centred around the Silver Marches at the moment, but it's is growing. In a month's time it might eventually spread to the Sword Coast. And it's all very unnatural. The morning ends and the night begins abruptly - and the moon in the darkness is constantly full.

Besides the fact that the unrelenting night is drawing forth creatures from the darkest depths of the underdark, it's also starting to effect the local flora and fauna. And it's terrible for my tan."

He puts his hands on his hips as one of the dinghies is set alight.

"So... Cleric of the Light. If you're wanting to help - the Silver Guard is willing to offer what assistance we can - though we, ourselves, are fairly busy trying to put out fires and combat the waves of undead attempting to attack the city... thankfully the city's wards are holding up."

[Stubbazubba]

Torovan is somewhat unnerved at Pellon's flippancy. Perhaps that's just his way of coping with the calamity?

"So if anyone knows anything more about this, it'll be the followers of Shar? The sooner we track them down, the better. Did you find anything at the Busy Glass that might shed light on who our assailants were or where they were based?"

[SeanMcShambles]

Pellon's eyes dart towards Torovan.

"You'll have to excuse the way I'm acting. I'm tired. It's been a very very long night."

He throws you a small vial of black liquid.

"We only found this. It's Giant Wasp venom.

If stung directly by the wasp, it causes an hour long paralysis. The wasp does this because they like to feed victims to their young fresh.

When extracted and prepared, the poison can be used to induce a coma for a day or two.

We found traces of this at the Busy Glass. By the residue it left, we gathered that it was released as a vapour. This would probably explain why you guys were out for an entire tenday.

... you guys must be starving... We'll grab a bite to eat when we dock."

He looks to the pier which is drawing closer.

"In anycase, we know of one organization that uses Giant Wasp poison so freely...

..a group of assassins called the Fire Knives of Westgate."

He nods to the blonde half-elf who makes his way to the Captain's Cabin.

"My men and I will pour through the logs and documents in the Captain's Cabin, and maybe try to trace the origins of this ship. If you all would like to help, any leads you can bring up about either the Fire Knives or Shar's followers would be of great help."

[Forum Explorer]

I have a question. How do we go about claiming this ship as salvage in Silverymoon? Way I see it, the owners are dead, and we've got the best claim out of anyone on it. Siett asked.

[SeanMcShambles]

Siett - Pellan looks down at the ship and raises his eyebrow.

He pauses for a moment then laughs heartily.

"Well said, my Gnome friend.

Tell you what. We were going to impound it, but if you're willing to assist us with this investigation into the darkness, then consider it yours.

Get the blood washed out, head over to the shipwright's office and speak to Malachai, the head stevedore - he's a white dragonborn - he can register your ship ... to either just yourself or to all of you ... and provide you with papers that will allow you to dock here free for the next month while you carry out work on the Silver Guard's behalf."

[Forum Explorer]

Fair enough. Well then, lets get this thing docked so we can get to work, Siett says, starting to go through the preparations needed to dock the ship.

[SeanMcShambles]

The second dinghy loaded with corpses now burning in the middle of the river, the ship comes to a slow halt at the pier as the soldiers on board drop anchor and secure it. The gang plank is lowered and Pellon is the first down to the pier.

He waits for you all to disembark, while the soldiers remain on the ship.

There is a crowd of onlookers watching the ship and its passengers, some of them whispering. They are all staring at you.

Pellon says: "If there's anything else you need from me, you can find me at the Star Court - a large two-story building that somewhat resembles a crown - to the east of town."

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion laughs at Torovan, "Life is my pilgrimage, sir. So do not fear, I won't take us on some trek to some temple high in the mountains or anything." He gives Torovan a sly smile and a wink. Orion listens to all the information about the goings on as of late. He is disturbed by the fact that it always seems to be night here, and that the moon is always full. That won't be good. Shapechangers with access to a full moon at all times is not a wonderful proscept, he thinks to himself.

When the times comes he gets off the ship with the others, and gives a short bow to Pellon. "Many thanks for your hospitality and help. We will do our best to retrieve any information we can on what is going on here. Any suspicious goings on outside the city that may point us in the right direction of the cultists?"

[SeanMcShambles]

As Pellon begins walking away he calls out back to Orion: "Not anything more suspicious than what's already going on. There's a necropolis a mile to the north of the city gates - if I were you, I'd start there."

With that he vanishes past the crowd into the night, followed by the dwarf and the half-elf.

Some soldiers stay behind to continue gathering evidence and such on the ship.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (“https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion”), Cleric of Light
Orion is left standing there, many thoughts swirling around his head. He turns to the other, and takes another large gulp of whiskey, "Well.....shall we get our stuff together and get started? Anyone know of any good pubs around here to grab a bite?"

[Sierim]

Zign returns to the cabin and begins gathering his belongings. He also takes the dictionary and recipe book. Once packed, he returns to the group. "I"ll go with Siett to the stevedore. He may know more about the history of this ship, as well as the former owners."

Shifting his pack on his back, a look sudden realization, as well as mild concern, crosses Zign's face. He bites his lip, then speaks. "I'd also like to find out what happened to my pony. Did any of you have animals or kin at the inn?"

Roll to see what Zign may know about the Fire Knives.
[roll0]

@Sean: Is Zign's chest among the belongings? And if so, is the lock broken/picked?

[SeanMcShambles]

Zign, you're drawing a blank when it comes to the name "Fire Knives". You've heard of a few places at Silverymoon - particularly the Bright Blade Brandished, on Sunset Lane which is known for its hospitality towards magic users, as well as The Dancing Goat, just north of the Moonbridge - renowned for its wild revelry at all hours.

Yep, the chest would be on board the ship and the lock would definitely be broken - but nothing seems to have been removed from it.

Siett, you're very familiar with Silverymoon. You know exactly where both the Shipwright and the Starcourt are. You know of all the major taverns:



The Bright Blade Brandished
The Dancing Goat
The Hammer and Helm
Helmer's Wall
Sorlar's Smiling Satyr (on the southern bank, across the Moonbridge)
The Stagstand


You're also aware of two of the major inns located in Silverymoon:


The Golden Oak - the somewhat more expensive option
Wayword House - while not as lavish as the Golden Oak, still a very respectable establishment.

[Forum Explorer]

Nay, most of my kin is far away from here. But this way to the shipwright, I've been there before. Siett said, walking along, and expecting Zign to follow him.

[Sierim]

Zign hurries after, fiddling with the broken lock from his chest. He stumbles occasionally, either on account of his apparent enthrallment with his lock, or difficulty keeping up even with a gnome with his short legs.

Casting mending on the lock as we travel.

[SeanMcShambles]

Wit, your time in Silverymoon has made you familiar with the local inns and taverns also. Though you're not quite sure of the best places to stock up on gear... but you've certainly seen the Star Court before.

[Sierim]

After finishing with his lock and stowing it in his bag, Zign tips his head toward Siett as they walk. "All right if we stop for a bite before seeing the dragonborn? I think that tenday fast is starting to catch up with me."

[Forum Explorer]

After finishing with his lock and stowing it in his bag, Zign tips his head toward Siett as they walk. "All right if we stop for a bite before seeing the dragonborn? I think that tenday fast is starting to catch up with me."

I suppose. You got a place in mind, or do you want to just grab the first food we see? Siett said, still walking as he talked.

[Sierim]

"The closest I know is the Dancing Goat, but if you know closer, 'm up for anything." Zign's stomach growls noticeably, and the halfling shifts his pack to his other shoulder.

[Irish Musician]

"The closest I know is the Dancing Goat, but if you know closer, 'm up for anything." Zign's stomach growls noticeably, and the halfling shifts his pack to his other shoulder.

"That sounds absolutely perfect to me." Orion starts to walk and follow Zign to the pub. His first two steps aren't quite so good and he stumbles, quickly recovering. He looks at the others, looks at his flask, and then closes it and stuffs it in his other boot. "Hmm, yes. It would seem my empty stomach and lack of drink for 10 days has affected me negatively. Maybe I should get some food in my stomach before anymore whiskey." Orion gives a goofy smile and continues to follow Zign, albeit a little more carefully.

[Northguard]

A ten-day ... has it been so long already? Urik ponders. "Aora...." he whispers. The paladin is silent through much of the interaction with the guards, a half smile on his face as his mind wanders. His companions striding off the ship snaps him from his reverie, and he trots to catch up. "Apologies, I was pre-occupied. I agree, some food in the belly would be wise."

[Forum Explorer]

Fine then, Siett says, changing direction to head towards the Dancing Goat.

[Stubbazubba]

"Agreed. I think all the excitement back there masked what is a suddenly insatiable appetite!" Torovan says, placing a hand on his stomach.

Torovan, noticing Wit alone, steps beside her and says, "I want to apologize; I think you were trying to get my attention earlier, but with all the commotion and the, uh, hairy fellow, I didn't quite hear you." He flashes a smile and extends a hand. "I don't believe we've met. The name's Stormsteel, Torovan Stormsteel, of Cormyr. And you are?"

[GM_3826]

"Agreed. I think all the excitement back there masked what is a suddenly insatiable appetite!" Torovan says, placing a hand on his stomach.

Torovan, noticing Wit alone, steps beside her and says, "I want to apologize; I think you were trying to get my attention earlier, but with all the commotion and the, uh, hairy fellow, I didn't quite hear you." He flashes a smile and extends a hand. "I don't believe we've met. The name's Stormsteel, Torovan Stormsteel, of Cormyr. And you are?"

Wit, noticing Torovan, bites her lip.
"...I'm Wit. I apologize for behaving so rashly." The words that come out of Wit's mouth seems forced, and her attitude seems to indicate she does not want to speak anymore.

[SeanMcShambles]

As you all head towards the Dancing Goat, you notice that the streets are not as lively as a normal city should be. There are few citizens scattered about, but most of them seem malcontent and rather down.

When you enter the Dancing Goat, you're met by sideways glances from the tavern patrons who, almost immediately, turn back to their mugs of alcohol. While the taproom of the Goat boasts over a dozen tables, easily seating seventy or more, you count about as many patrons in the tavern as there are fingers on your hands. You notice that there is a lone bard sitting on a stool by the hearth near the weak fire, but the song he plays on his lute exudes a bittersweet melancholy and he, himself, looks rather forlorn.

The Dragonborn behind the counter, whom you assume to be the barkeep, looks up from the flagon of ale that he's pouring from one of the many variously labelled barrels sitting atop the counter and he nods at you in acknowledgement.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion went right into the Dancing Goat but was immediately surprised at all the downtrodden faces. They must have been hit hard by this awful dark. Hopefully I can bring them some joy, at least for a moment. Orion went straight for the bar, "G'day good sir. My friends and I have a mighty appetite and need some food and drink, if you don't mind." He gives the dragonborn a smile and places 5 gold pieces on the bar, "Let this go to the people's drinks tonight....they are on me." Orion then flicks a gold piece to the bard, "Play something a little more up-tempo. Times may be hard, and dark, but that doesn't mean we should make it worse on ourselves. Let us drink tonight, and remember the good times that will once again have one day." Orion doesn't act overly cheery, but merely wants people's chins to perk up.

[Sierim]

Zign clamors up onto one of the barstools. "Anything special on the menu? Preferably better than trail rations." He leans back a bit in the seat, apparently too far as he scrambles to grab the sides of the stool lest he fall. Once steady, Zign puts both elbows on the bar and leans heavy on them, eyes lulled, with his head tilted to the side, toward the other patrons.


Zign listens for anything noteworthy being discussed by the other patrons.
[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Orion, the bard examines the gold piece and pockets it. He shrugs and says "It's your gold - but this is going to be a long night of drinking, my friend. It's been a long night."

He begins playing a rather upbeat local folk song about a wizard, dwarf and cleric who slayed a dragon.

The bartender takes the five gold pieces and pockets them. He whistles and almost immediately, a dishevelled, lanky boy skips out from the back room - dishcloth resting on his shoulder.

The Dragonborn speaks, and his voice is a lot more softspoken than you had initially expected. "Pour a round for the bar, boy."

The boy, who appears a little more chipper than everyone else, clicks his heels and smiles "Yes Mister Saroth!" and begins pouring a tray full of ales.

Saroth, the Dragonborn, looks over at Zign and says "We got baked lemon-trout with leeks an' taters." He then promptly pours you all flagons of bright amber ale and places them in front of you. "Bronzebottom. We 'ave others if it don't tickle your fancy."

Zign - you hear a few ramblings about the darkness and how the plants in the area are yielding less crops and some are even withering away. You overhear them say that if the crops keep withering, the Silver Marches will starve.

One man is saying that the lack of light has thrown off peoples' sleep patterns and no one knows what day of the week it is anymore which is driving some people mad.

You hear yet another man say that there is now a prevalence of bandits looting and murdering because they have the perpetual darkness to conceal their activities.

[Forum Explorer]

Trout'll be fine for me. Siett said, staying quiet for now.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion takes an ale and starts to nurse it. First time in my life I have taken it slow drinking, he thinks to himself and lets out a small laugh to himself. He waits for his food to come out, at this point it doesn't really matter what it is, and tears into it. Once he is satisfied and full with food, he sits back and listens to the bard and sips on his drink. He hopes his generosity will help those around him feel some joy, if only for a little while.

[Sierim]

"Trout, leeks and potatoes for me--" Zign pulls 10 gold pieces from his chest beneath his cloak, places them on the bar, then speaks more loudly, making sure the others can hear. "--and the same for any of your fine patrons who will have it."

As he eats, slowly and carefully, he continues to listen to the ills of the area, then mutters, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the land of darkness, pray the one leading *is* blind."

[SeanMcShambles]

Some of patrons raise their mugs to you Orion and Zign. As the boy serves you all and the other patrons their dishes, the Dragonborn starts wiping down some mugs and coughs to get your attention.

"Lead? Even Lady Alustriel don't 'ave a clue how to fix this night. No one's leadin' anyone these days. We all just tryin' to survive the dark.

You're all not from around here, I take it. Otherwise you wouldn't be so eager to be flashing your coin around.

Word of advice? Be cautious. Brigands and thieves are becoming more and more prevalent in these parts. Anyone knows you're carrying that much gold is bound to be wanting to 'ave words with you later."

[Sierim]

Zign solemnly nods his thanks for the advice to the barkeep, then leans slightly toward Orion and whispers, "Only trouble 's we're gonna need their notice. Somebody knows something and it's not the 'good folk' who'll know where t' look. Ear t' the ground, nose t' the wind, just mind the feet and poison."

[Stubbazubba]

At the sound of the trout dish Torovan's mouth suddenly began to gush. He orders one and observes the room while sipping at his Bronzebottom. I've seen Drow slaves happier than this lot, he thinks. Is it even really nighttime? You can't even keep track. No wonder everyone's miserable.

He tore into his meal as soon as it was served. He turns to Orion. "So, what's your plan so far? Normally, I'd say we should stay the night and head out in the morning, but it sounds like this'll be the first time we have to wake up the morning instead of vice versa. And I've had my fill of sleep for a while."

"We've got a necropolis to the north, we've got Five Knives assassins who ambushed us. I think that's all I caught from Pellan. To a man of your talents, the necropolis probably sounds positively boring, I'd wager."

[Forum Explorer]

I say we try and track down those Fire Knives, or perhaps some other gangs or seedy individuals. See what the underworld knows about what's going on. Siett said, fidgeting a little.

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion nods to the bartender in thanks. "We shall watch our backs, but if thieves come looking for trouble, I'm afraid that they are going to find more than they might want." Orion raises his hand and it catches fire from out of nowhere. He lets it burn for a moment then puts it out, "The gods have seen fit to grace me with their Holy Fires from above. If the thieves are really looking for a fight, they will receive one, and will not like the heat they unleash." Orion smiles and finishes his beer, grabbing a second as soon as it is poured and starting in on it soon.

At the sound of Torovan's question he sets his drink on the bar and seems to think for a moment. "Not really sure, honestly. Siett may be on to something there. Try for the people that put us to sleep int he first place. I can't say I am not itching to give them a little payback anyway. And I, too, have slept for too long already. We need to finish our food and drinks here and set out immediately. I'm sure the thieves will just be jumping at the chance to try and take out nice, fancy stuff." Orion smiles and goes back to drinking, thoughts weighing heavy on his mind. His thoughts are deep, but his outward appearance is jovial.

[Northguard]

Urik pays only half his attention to much of the discussion with the bartender, preferring instead to take in the bard's performance. He wolfed down his own meal and a mug of Bronzebottom before turning fully back to the group. "Now that's better", he says with a grin. "And I agree, attracting the attention of the local 'characters' in order..." he pauses but a moment, then grins with a mischevious twinkle in his eye. "And I have just the plan."

He turns and stands suddenly, hips swaying ever so slightly. "BARD!" he booms. "One lasht song for me, before I take m' leave!" he says loudly, with a bit of slur. Urik fishes from his coin purse, half-throwing a few silvers to where the bard sits near the bar. A few more silvers are dropped at his feet, causing him to spin awkwardly in place, and bend over to retrieve them. As he does so, he winks at his companions.

Standing, with a bit of a wobble, he breaks in to an old drinking song he grew familiar with as a soldier. Halfway through the second verse, he sways again. "'Scuse me," he slurs, to no one in particular, "Gotta see a an elf about a horse." Urik half stumbles out of the Dancing Goat and in to the street.

[roll0]

[Sierim]

Zign thanks the barkeep quietly for the meal, then half tumbles off his chair. He hurries out the door after man. Once outside he can be heard shouting after him, "Master Urik! You can't go out like this! What'll the captain say?!"

[roll0]

[SeanMcShambles]

Everyone else still in the tavern sees a scraggily-bearded man, sitting on a table near the bard, who coughs audibly as Urik leaves the Dancing Goat. The man clears his throat and then continues sipping his mead and tosses a silver coin into the pile of silver coins at the bard's feet.

Coinciding with the cough, another man across the room gets up, wrapping himself in his cloak and putting his hood on. He drops a copper piece on the table he was sitting at and walks outside.

Once outside, he half-pauses near Urik and then begins walking northwards. When he's about 30 feet away he whistles really loudly, while continuing to walk in a northwardly direction.

At the sound of the whistle, those still in the bar see the scraggily-bearded man finish his mug and stand up - getting ready to move outside.

[Forum Explorer]

Siett tried to hide a grin by gobbling his food as fast as he could. Once the scraggily bearded man leaves, Siett heads out to follow him, trying to be at least some level of subtle about it, and fully expecting Orion and Torovan to follow as well.

[roll0]

[Irish Musician]

Orion (https://the-unrelenting-night.obsidianportal.com/characters/orion), Cleric of Light
Orion watches all the odd little things start to happen at once, and he gets the feeling that the bartender is correct. He finishes his beer, and sets the empty glass on the bar, "We will be back.....keep the good times rolling for us!" Orion waits until the other man has left the tavern to walk out himself. He follow the man out, with a fairly good distance between them, doing his best to keep both the men and Urik in his sights.

If he can see the first guy, Orion will ready an action if they decide to attack Urik or anyone else. As soon as aggression is shown, he will cast Sacred Flame on the cloaked man if the cloaked man is the one attacking. If he doesn't attack, the target will be the second man.