View Full Version : [WFRP] The Bloody Crown V
The Bloody Crown - Continued
In that dread desert, beneath the moons pale gaze, dead men walk.
They haunt the shifting dunes of the breathless, windless night, brandishing weapons of bronze in mocking challenge and bitter resentment of the life they no longer possess.
And sometimes, in ghastly dry voices, like the rustling of sun-baked reeds, they whisper the one word they remember from life. The name of the one who cursed them to their existence of more than death but less than life.
They whisper the name, Nagash.
OOC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394884-WFRP-The-Bloody-Crown-OOC-IV)
Not Adelbert
"You said it yourself, Sieghard is the talk of the town." Ludo said simply. "What red-blooded young man wouldn't want to join the beast-slayers? To fight for the soldier who cleaved the warboss's head from his shoulders! The best recruiters will get the best men - you don't want children with pitchforks, I doubt you want children with rifles either. An investment now, and you could have as fearsome a force as the brotherhood or the Danxome."
"Ah, Master Halfling," said Abdul, "that may be, but I have a responsibility to my captain. And fame does not make a commander on its own." He looked to Sieghard. "No-one questions your courage, my friend, but can you lead as well as you fight? I cannot gamble the whole armoury on one man."
He shook his head sadly. "I promised you first choice. If you want the guns, you shall have them. But I will answer to Sforza if I give away the crossbows as well." He gestured around them. "Will you not take some armour instead? Evatt's men left behind some fine leather and padded jacks."
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 12:07 PM
Sieghard
"A good start..." Sieghard muttered to himself as he counted the crossbows. Not nearly enough, however, he thought.
He shook his head when talk turned to the firearms. "We don't need the guns," he said. "There's not nearly enough for a proper unit. Besides, I've never used one myself, I wouldn't know where to begin teaching anyone else how to use one. The armor will do fine, some swords as well after they've mastered the crossbows - I don't want them helpless if the enemy manages to get close. Those can wait until later though."
"What we do need is more crossbows," Sieghard continued, "The weapons here are a good start, but if the captain would prefer more than twenty men, these aren't enough. If more could be found, would the captain be willing to fund their purchase? If it came to that, the money from selling even one of the guns would buy several and crossbows are no less deadly."
Not going for the guns, but rolling haggle anyways in case one is needed for anything else in this.
[roll0] vs 29 (possible bonus for Ludo's charm test?)
[roll1] reroll if needed.
Well... The roll was better. Al-makir's fellowship is probably higher though.
Not Adelbert
"Ah, but who do we sell them to, my friend?" grinned Abdul. "When selling weapons, one must always be careful in whose hands they end up."
"I'm sure I can see to it that your men get enough crossbows for a full complement," he said, looking back to the stock in the armoury. "Why don't you take these twenty for now, and I'll see to the rest. The armour too." He smiled. "As for swords, we will see. You may have to outbid some others in that department." He patted Sieghard amicably on the arm. "These crossbows ought to be enough for now."
"Come! You said you needed some funds for horses? We can see to that too."
The paymaster's chest had been stashed securely somewhere in the castle, but Abdul seemed to have smaller caches in enough places that only he could track them all. Leading them to a small room he had appropriated, he unlocked an iron box and began counting out coins.
"Of course, you understand this is a little irregular... technically, you should not be receiving any money from the Captain until after the proving day." He smiled again. "Fortunately, I have a little set aside, for the assistance of... good friends."
Scooping the gold into a leather pouch, he placed it on the table.
"Here. This ought to be enough for a cart and horses. All I ask in return is that when you are rich and famous, you remember your good friend Abdul." He smiled at Sieghard with an open face. "And what would you say to..." - he shrugged - "...a ten percent stake in your fine regiment?"
OOC: The pouch contains 180 gc.
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 01:27 PM
Sieghard
"An investment," Sieghard replied. "A show of faith in my abilities after my actions defending the caravan and on the bridge. Should my men fail to meet the captain's expectations, the weapons and armor can be given to those more worthy."
"Here. This ought to be enough for a cart and horses. All I ask in return is that when you are rich and famous, you remember your good friend Abdul. And what would you say to... a ten percent stake in your fine regiment?"
Sieghard has been expecting something like this. He didn't care for the thought of being indebted to a man a shrewd as Al-Makir. "Your generosity is appreciated, Herr Al-Makir," he said, eyeing the pouch, "But it won't be necessary. We should have funds enough for our current expenses left from the gold taken from the ruins. I will remember your offer if more gold is needed in the future, though."
"When we first returned from the ruins," he continued after a pause, "I recall that you promised each of us a soldier's share of any more gold the captain's men managed to remove from them. Would I be right in guessing that Herr Valdes was successful?" He didn't expect that a "soldier's share" would be anything large, but every crown would help.
Relevant link about the gold from the ruins. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342019-WFRP-The-Bloody-Crown-III&p=17877594#post17877594)
Once this is sorted out, Sieghard also wants to see Barthold's horse.
Not Adelbert
"Your generosity is appreciated, Herr Al-Makir," he said, eyeing the pouch, "But it won't be necessary. We should have funds enough for our current expenses left from the gold taken from the ruins. I will remember your offer if more gold is needed in the future, though."
"A withdrawal, then," said Abdul. He looked a bit disappointed, but quickly hid it, scribbling down a note of the amount. "Very well. I assume you'll still be wanting the gold? I'll deduct it from your store."
"When we first returned from the ruins," he continued after a pause, "I recall that you promised each of us a soldier's share of any more gold the captain's men managed to remove from them. Would I be right in guessing that Herr Valdes was successful?" He didn't expect that a "soldier's share" would be anything large, but every crown would help.
"Why, you are correct," said Abdul. "That would be... a crown, six schillings and eight pfennigs apiece." He counted out the coins. "Though that is small change for you now, hey? Commander," he grinned.
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 01:58 PM
Sieghard
"A withdrawl," Sieghard confirmed with a nod. "Half of what you have here should be enough for now. If I need more, I will find you again." He turned to Ludo and Viggo "Do either of you need to withdraw any money?"
He waited until Al-Makir had finished counting out the coins before speaking again. "I would also like to see the horse you mentioned. The one that belonged to Barthold."
Not Adelbert
"I believe it's tied up at the mill," said Abdul. "The miller had some designs on it... but if you take this, I think you will be able to take possession without too much trouble." Tearing off a slip of parchment, Abdul wrote out a docket for the horse and passed it to Sieghard. "I will have the arms and armour ready for collection whenever you are ready to take them."
Showing the three of them to the door, Abdul offered his hand one more time. "Best of luck in your endeavour, friend. I am very glad to have you fighting on our side."
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 03:28 PM
Sieghard
"As am I," Sieghard said, grasping Abdul's hand. He was far more concerned about the task before him than he had shown, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
"Viggo, fetch Magnus and meet us at the mill," he said as they left the castle. "After we collect my horse, we'll need to find a cart for the crossbows. Ludo, if you're not too busy with your cannon, you can come with me."
I suppose a cart is probably fine for the time being...
Gossip roll if necessary to find one
[roll0] vs 39 Gossip
[roll1] reroll
Haggle roll for the price
[roll2] vs 29 Haggle
[roll3] reroll
Also a gossip roll to see if Sieghard can find anything better than bales of straw for targets. They'd certainly be usable, but he wouldn't pass on something nicer if it could be found.
[roll4] vs 39 Gossip
[roll5] reroll
Not sure if the reroll from before was needed (or even the initial roll since we passed on the guns), but if it was, Sieghard has 2 rerolls available and if it wasn't, 3.
Once all of that is seen to, he'll ride out west of Manaan's Keep and search for a suitable place to use for target practice. I'm assuming this wont require any rolling.
A few further questions... Does Barthold's horse still have its harness and saddle or will Sieghard need to replace them? Also, does the horse have a name?
LeSwordfish
2015-08-15, 04:18 PM
Not Adelbert
"I'll concentrate on the cannon, if you don't mind." Ludo said. "If there's any powder in town, I want to claim it before I have to ask around for it, which might seem suspicious."
Not Adelbert
They found the horse where Abdul had said it would be, tied up outside the mill. The miller and a bevy of hired hands were hard at work trying to patch up the damage the orcs had done in their attempts to ford the river here - the great water wheel was still standing, but half the roof was broken in and half the building was scorched by fire.
The miller was understandably disgruntled when Sieghard showed up with his docket from the castle, but didn't make too much of a fuss - word got around, and like most of the men helping rebuild his mill he recognised the man who'd killed the Warboss. As Sieghard led the horse away, he turned and asked its name.
"How should I know?" snapped the miller irritably, heading back to his work. One of the labourers lending a hand - a man still wearing the stained and tattered remains of one of Evatt's uniforms - lingered to tell Sieghard the answer. "Wouter," he said. "Sir Barthold called him Wouter."
The big black horse whinnied and flicked his ears, clearly recognising the name.
OOC: Saddle and harness included.
~
Aldo the ostler was more than happy to part with his cart when he saw the shine of Sieghard's gold, though he proved too shrewd to be haggled down below fifty crowns. Harnessing a rather reluctant Magnus to the traces, they brought the cart up to the castle gates, where Abdul men loaded it down with crossbows and leather jacks.
"I'll have the rest for you within the week, Master Sieghard," said Abdul. "Make good use of these now."
The last item of cargo was loaded - a sack full of leather quivers, containing all the crossbow bolts Abdul's men had managed to scrape together from the keep. Snorting and putting his head down, Magnus started the much slower descent from the mound with the fully-laden cart in tow.
Over the next few days, the three companions set to work with a will. Ludo supervised the retrieval of the remaining ammunition from the wreck of the Manann's Blessing, finding a rack of six cannonballs and a small barrel of powder in the bows. Making enquiries around town as to where he could find more, he was quickly pointed to the large workshed by the stream, now vacant. Heading over there the next day, he found himself in what was left of Oberth's little kingdom.
Huge sheets of parchment covered with smudged-ink designs were nailed up on one rough timber wall, showing every detail of the miraculous steam-ship (and on a table in the corner, plans for another twice the size). What looked like a small forge - now cold - had been built in one corner, while the abandoned remains of scaffolding clung around the void where the Manann's Blessing had steamed out of its berth and into the open air.
There were three more barrels of blackpowder in the shed, the same size and with the same maker's mark - Ludo recognised it as a dwarfish rune. By the forge, he found a case of round-shot, twenty-four balls in all. The case was heavy enough that he was unable to move it unaided. Fortunately, they had a cart now, and with the assistance of Sieghard's horse - who bridled a little at being reduced to a draft animal - the heavy shot were brought back to the barracks that had become their base. Ludo also managed to find a local wainwright to have a look at fitting the gun with a proper carriage. The man offered to make one for twenty crowns.
Viggo, meanwhile, headed out into the Thornwood on Magnus. Touring the scattered homesteads and charcoal-burners' huts around the route of what he was calling their glorious march from Mirino, he told increasingly exaggerated stories of the battle for the bridge and his companions' feats of bravery. Though they were scruffy and often smelly, he could tell he had caught the interest of the young men he was talking to - more than the chance to fight for the man who'd killed the beast that burned their homes, he was offering a chance of riches and glory beyond what a humble forester could hope for in their ordinary lives. Playing up the scale and martial reputation of the Captain's army, he was soon sending a steady trickle of impressed recruits back towards Manann's Keep.
OOC: Rolled Storyteller for Viggo and rolled a 7! Viggo recruits [roll0] impressionable young saps in 3 days.
Sieghard had his hands fairly full receiving them, and turning away those obviously unfit for duty. For many of them, encountering the scar-faced mercenary was a shock to the system after Viggo's tall tales of heroism, but the barracks began to steadily fill up. Many of them had brought hunting bows and knives, but Sieghard saw to it that they were issued crossbows and leather jacks from Abdul's stash. Aisha proved invaluable in keeping the place in order, tracking the weapons in and out of the stores and sweeping up after the sometimes rather hapless volunteers.
OOC: Sieghard has to reject [roll1] volunteers as unfit to serve. [roll2] of the recruits bring bows, and almost all of them bring small blades functionally equivalent to a dagger. It's your decision whether you let them keep their personal arms or pool them into the stores. [roll3] of the volunteers are also women - it's your choice whether Sieghard accepts them or tries to keep the regiment all-male.
In his minimal spare time, he rode out into the country south-west of Manann's Keep in search of a good practice ground. He located a high meadow near the edge of the Karst that seemed like a good spot - it was screened by a spur of jagged rocks, which would hopefully stop any stray bolts hitting passers-by. Unfortunately, he could not find anyone to make real archery butts for his troop - improvised targets would have to do for now.
Elsa did her best to keep abreast of her friends' activities, but found her time monopolised by the Captain and his officers. They were drawing up plans to send out patrols to every corner of Sforza's new territory, both to hunt down the remaining greenskins from the rout of Magog's army and to secure the borders against opportunistic neiighbours. By way of these meetings, Elsa learned that another assault on Savonne had been repulsed - apparently the Dwimmulson dwarfs were with the besiegers, and had tried to undermine the walls with mixed success. For now, the elf still held the walls against the alliance of Alvarr, Rorik and Groz.
Having convinced the Captain to add hunting for local hedge wizards to his troops' duties, Elsa spent what little time she did have free trying to master her newly-adopted mount, Bastard. The big destrier bore her only grudgingly, but did at least stop actively trying to kill her after the first two days. Most of the time, at least.
Marktag, 31st Sigmarzeit
It was three days later that Adelbert came riding back into Manann's Keep, on the back of a small bay horse that Ludo hadn't seen before. Viggo had just returned with the last of his recruits, and Sieghard had assembled the whole sorry pack on the open ground beside the stream.
The new recruits had just been issued their kit when a gaggle of men approached the barracks. A good number of them were dressed in the green and blue of Evatt's men, although their uniforms had clearly seen better days - what was notable, however, was that they were armed. Most had swords, daggers or clubs, and six were carrying halberds much like the ones Sieghard had seen in the armoury.
Their leader was a short, stocky man, with a scarred face and a head as bald as an egg. Marching right up to Sieghard, he shouldered his polearm and craned his neck to look down his nose at the taller man.
"What's this then?" he said, his voice the rough bark of a drill sergeant. "Vagabonds and layabouts, squattin' in the Commander's barracks. Shameful, it is."
"This here," he said, turning smartly and gesturing with his halberd towards the gang of men behind him, "is the real army of Manann's Keep. Any of you lads want to learn proper fighting," - he addressed this remark to the recruits, raising his voice to a shout - "you sign up with us, you hear? Sign up with Sergeant Fischwillen's lads." He shouldered the halberd. "Proper marchin' and proper fightin', in proper uniforms, the good old green and blue. You'll not be having with brigands like this."
His impromptu speech concluded, he turned to Sieghard. "Heard you was living in our barracks. People say you stuck some green pig on the bridge, but that don't mean nothing to me and my lads. We was here fightin' before you and your lot decided to get your boots dirty." He spat on the ground. "So you'll be givin' us our barracks back, along with them leather jacks you stole, and we'll call it even."
RossN
2015-08-15, 05:07 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
It had been a tiring three days for man and horse. Adelbert was not an experienced rider and Bella (as he'd named his new mare in what had seemed a wiser decision when Sforza was further away) was not a big horse. Still together the duo had covered the distance from Savonne to Ravenskird to Painford to Mannan's Keep well enough that Adelbert affectionately promised her a fresh apple as a reward.
As the dusty duo trotted into the town Adelbert watched the mass of men with interest. Clearly events had been taking place in his absence. He dismounted more or less successfully and taking Bella by the reins, began leading the bay around the back of the recruits, trying to catch the eyes of his friends.
OOC:
Okay three days mean three Heal Tests.
Heal: [roll0] vs. 46
Heal: [roll1] vs. 46
Heal: [roll2] vs. 46
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 06:07 PM
Sieghard And His New Bestest Buddy
Sieghard matched the other man's stare expressionlessly. "Are you finished?" he asked after letting the silence linger for a moment.
"A lot of good your real army was cowering behind the safety of the walls," he began, raising his voice so the crowd could hear, "While your cravens were hiding from a pack of green savages I was fighting alongside real men. The fact that Commander Evatt ever put his faith in a men like you explains better than anything why Manaan's Keep came so close to falling and why Evatt himself is now dead."
"Captain Sforza doesn't intend to let that happen again and for that he needs soldiers more capable than you. This lot is a bit rough yet, but they didn't fail when their commander needed them most. And as long as they aren't wasted under a man like you, they'll do fine."
"Now leave my sight before I decide there's another pig that needs to be gutted."
Untrained intimidate vs 26
[roll0]
[roll1] Reroll if needed
I suppose I shouldn't be too disappointed... Most of my good rolls went into the battle and that's more important than an occasional intimidate or haggle. :smallannoyed:
Sieghard isn't turning anyone away yet (obvious exception being those clearly unfit like the two mentioned before). He's only got 11 to work with at the moment and he doesn't particularly care that 3 are women. Given the ahosi, he doubts Sforza would either. They've got the same chance prove themselves as any of the other recruits, though he'll be quick to step in if he sees any problems arising from a mixed unit, either caused by them or the men.
He'll allow them to keep ownership of their personal weaponry, though it'll be kept in the barracks for now. For the time being, all of their time is going to be going into marching and crossbow training. He will take note of the four who brought bows though... Both because they're likely to be a bit quicker to learn than the rest and because pre-existing skill with a bow may be useful later on.
Fischwillen spluttered and reddened at the affront.
"You 'ear that lads?" he shouted. "Calls us cowards, does 'e?" He gave Sieghard a dirty stare. "Don't s'pose you'd want to test that now, do ye? Your gang of boys and 'ores against a troop of real soldiers." He spat on the ground at Sieghard's feet.
At that moment, Sieghard heard the rumble of wheels. A heavily-laden wagon was pulling into the square, one of Abdul's Arabyans at the reins. Abdul was standing on the back, a few more of his men with him.
"Master Sieghard!" called the paymaster, cheerily. "The crossbows I promised you." He gestured expansively to the contents of the wagon, before stepping down and approaching the confrontation in front of the barracks as if it were a friendly conversation. "I see you've met Sergeant Fischwillen."
Fischwillen did an about face to face Al-Makir, and snapped off a salute worthy of an Altdorf parade-ground. "Sir! Just talking to these gentlemen about their usin' our barracks, sir!"
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 06:49 PM
Sieghard And His Best Friend Forever
"Ah, Herr Al-Makir. Wonderful timing," Sieghard said in a far more cordial tone than he had been using moments before. He walked over to the wagon and took one of the crossbows.
"As you can see, Herr Fish," he said, "My men will be training with crossbows primarily. If you're volunteering your men as targets, however, I can see no better use for them and would gladly accept your offer." As he spoke, he pointed the crossbow (still unloaded of course) at Fischwillen and motioned as though he had fired it.
"You lot!" he shouted to his recruits, "Get these inside. Herr Al-Makir is a busy man and I'll not take up any more of his time than needed."
"Herr Fish seems to be confused," Sieghard said, turning his attention back to Sforza's paymaster. "It seems he hasn't learned that the barracks belong to my men now. He even went as far as to suggest stealing the captain's armor. Are you sure such a man can be trusted?"
"The good sergeant must have got confused," said Al-Makir, smoothly. Behind him, Sieghard's new recruits began hastily unloading the crossbows from the cart. "Sergeant, we will be billeting your men in the longhouses by the keep. Master Sieghard here has appropriated these barracks for his crossbow troop."
Fischwillen nodded obediently, while still glaring daggers at Sieghard. "Yes sir. Right you are sir." He turned back to his men. "Troop! About face!"
They turned as one, but not all in the same direction. There was a brief period of confusion, punctuated by Fischwillen's barked curses as subjected those who had turned the wrong way to an inventive stream of abuse. Abdul watched them march off towards the keep with a slightly amused look.
"A perfect specimen of the Grand Commander's soldiery," said the paymaster, keeping his voice low. "No, my friend, I wouldn't trust him to do anything but pocket his pay and bully his men. But he'll teach them to march and follow orders, and if we are to rival Alvarr and his alliance we need all the men we can get."
Flashing Sieghard a toothy smile, he raised his voice back to more audible levels. "Good luck with your training, Master Sieghard! I see you have already recruited a fine body of men." He looked over the hurrying recruits. "And women. Well, keep them coming, eh? What is it you say in Reikspiel... the more the merrier."
He turned to leave, then looked down at the cannon sitting incongruously in the yard. Looking back to Sieghard and the others.
"That is a very fine gun," he said, leaving the sentence hanging in the air for a while. "What do you plan to do with it?"
TheSummoner
2015-08-15, 07:39 PM
Sieghard
"A perfect specimen of the Grand Commander's soldiery. No, my friend, I wouldn't trust him to do anything but pocket his pay and bully his men. But he'll teach them to march and follow orders, and if we are to rival Alvarr and his alliance we need all the men we can get."
"Men trained by that oaf are good for little more than catching Alvarr's arrows," Sieghard replied. "But if no one else can be found to train them, I suppose it's better they die than other soldiers." As he watched Fischwillen leave, he was deeply relieved to see his men were no better than Sieghard's own recruits. He had no doubt he would've been able to best the sergeant in a fight one on one, but he didn't have high expectations of men and women who had yet to receive any actual training.
"That is a very fine gun. What do you plan to do with it?"
"Restore it," Sieghard replied, "And aim it at our enemies." He knew Ludo would've preferred to keep quiet about the project, but there was little point when Al-Makir had already seen it. "Evatt's men may have left much to be desired, but his weapons were quite a bit more impressive. It's a side project - the crossbow troop comes first. Still, I would not see such a fine gun wasted."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-16, 02:08 AM
"I was thinking of blowing the doors off Alvarr's keep for starters." Ludo said smartly. "Although Commander Sieghard of course is in command. I was hoping to surprise the Capitano with it on Sondstill, though since you know about it now, I wonder if you know where we could find any of Evatt's old artillerists. Unless sargeant Fischwillen is emblematic of their quality, in which case we might do better just throwing everything together and seeing what happens when we put a match to it."
Ludo and Adelbert
Ludo approached Adelbert as he was stabling his mare, and furnished his friend with an unexpected hug. He helped Adelbert feed the horse before speaking up. "Can we have a conversation? In private?"
Once a suitable place had been found, he turned to Adelbert sombrely, and took a minute before speaking.
"You work for Alvarr. "It wasn't a question. He took a deep breath before speaking, and it came out in a rush.
"I... I think I'd like to help you. I think what Sforza did... Wasn't right."
RossN
2015-08-16, 04:22 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Discretely avoiding Abdul, Adelbert led Bella away to be stabled.
Ludo and Adelbert
The scribe was surprised at the hug, but after a moment returned it happily. "Of course. This is Bella by the way; I'm fairly certain she won't talk even if she overhears us."
Adelbert listens to Ludo in silence, his face growing tight. "Yes... I do work for the Duke. I was in Savonne telling him about the fall of Mannan's Keep, and that I think Sforza cut a deal with the orcs and might have been behind the destruction of Evtt's ship. Not that I can prove it of course but we both know what type of man the captain is."
He brooded for a moment, pulling his beard. "Do you remember Fraulein Faber from Handrich's Cross? She led a merchants caravan to Mirino and I remember her getting very angry over being bbled for gold by Abdul and Sforza. I could be wrong but if anyone around here would have less reason to like Sforza it might be her. I'm planning on setting up shop in Handrich's Cross and finding out; with Bella here I'll be able to stay in touch with Mannan's Keep."
He hesitated, obviously considering another matter. "Ludo... if we do find the book we can't let Sforza have it. I don't even want to give it to Alvarr and I like him. Do you think we can persuade Elsa to return it to the priestess?"
"I was thinking of blowing the doors off Alvarr's keep for starters." Ludo said smartly. "Although Commander Sieghard of course is in command. I was hoping to surprise the Capitano with it on Sondstill, though since you know about it now, I wonder if you know where we could find any of Evatt's old artillerists. Unless sargeant Fischwillen is emblematic of their quality, in which case we might do better just throwing everything together and seeing what happens when we put a match to it."
"Perhaps... far away from town, yes?" said Abdul. He nodded. "Well, that sounds like a fine plan. I'm sure the Captain will look forward to witnessing your demonstration." He scratched his beard. "I wish I could help you, but I think the gun crew died with Evatt and his machine. There might be one or two who weren't on board - you should ask the townspeople. It would be a terrible shame to see them drafted into Fischwillen's company before you could get your hands on them."
Turning back to his now-empty cart, he rattled off rapid orders in Arabyan to his men, who began to turn it around. "Well, good luck my friends," he said. "Oh, Sieghard - how is that other assignment going? The one we discussed at Mitterfruhl. All well, I hope."
TheSummoner
2015-08-16, 08:39 AM
Sieghard
"Better than expected," Sieghard answered. He approached Al-Makir and said something too too quiet to be overheard.
to Al-Makir
"Truthfully, I haven't even seen her talking to any strange men," he said. "It seems she has put her work for the captain above her own desires."
Abdul raised a quizzical eyebrow at whatever Sieghard had whispered to him, and patted the mercenary on the arm.
"Well, keep up the good work, my friend," he said. "I'll look forward to seeing what you have to show us on Sonstill."
With a cheery wave to Sieghard's followers, the paymaster headed back towards the keep.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-16, 02:49 PM
Adelbert And Ludo
Ludo hadn't even thought about the book. "If we give it to Sforza, I think he'll just give it to Elsa... But I don't think we'll be able to persuade her. She's failed him twice already, she wont want to do so again. The priestess wanted us to destroy it, or we could try and find Fassbender. She likes you - see if you can make contact."
"I can stay here and keep an eye out for you, and give you any updates. Sforza has asked the local soldiers to form mercenary groups for him, mustering to be proven by Sondstill - it could be that that's when he intends to move? Though it would be a bit soon. Sieghard's group is already well in Al'Makir's favor, and I think there might be an opportunity to keep my ear to the ground there. I'm putting the cannon from the Manaan's Blessing to use as part of Sieghard's regiment, so I should be kept at least a little bit informed."
RossN
2015-08-16, 02:59 PM
Adelbert and Ludo
Adelbert's eyes widened at news of the mercenary companies - and cannon! - but it made sense of what he had seen when he rode in. He smiled ruefully at the Halfling: "Should we ever leave Sforza's grasp I'd be happy to serve as chaplain of our regiment, but yes until then I'd appreciate your letters. I intend to come to Mannan's Keep once a week or so so I won't be that out of touch, and I'll keep a look out for Fassbender. And for Sigmar's sake be careful my friend - Sforza is no fool and neither are his courtiers. Opposing him is a dangerous game."
He paused looking suddenly tired. "Come on, let's get something to eat and drink. I'll bring Aisha. We don't have to topple the Captain today after all."
On the morning of Backertag the 32nd, Adelbert and Aisha packed up their things and rode out of town on Bella's back. The heavily-laden horse bore the weight well as she stoically plodded out of town, while Aisha waved to Sieghard and the others as they headed over the north bridge.
Handrich's Cross was less than a day's travel north of Manann's Keep, but the change in scenery was quite stark. The tangled edge of the Thornwood fell away to their left, while the imposing rocks of the Black Karst rose up around the green fields and meadows Adelbert and Aisha travelled through. Adelbert could see clearly why the locals called this the Hidden Vale - with the dense forest to the west and the Karst to every other side, this fertile strip seemed cut off from the rest of the world.
The village was situated at a crossroads between the narrow trails that criss-crossed the low country between the rocks, a market cross at its centre. On the rocky flanks of the valley to the east, Adelbert could see mine-workings, much like the ones in Sermena. This town seemed richer than Sermena was, however - the houses were large and well-built, in the Imperial style.
Resting at the local inn - the Tilted Scales - Adelbert made enquiries after Frau Faber, and found her soon enough - she seemed to be a respected figure in the local community. She was busy up at the mine that afternoon, but in the evening both she and the man Adelbert remembered as Pistol turned up in the Scales
Adelbert Only
"Happy? Of course we're not happy," said Faber, surprisingly forthcoming with her dislike for the new ruler in Manann's Keep. "Sforza was always a highwayman in a fancy suit of armour. Now he doesn't even need to get out of bed to dip into our purse."
Sighing, she ordered a drink. "Still, there's bugger all we can do about it. I suppose the downside of a lord who does nothing is eventually they get deposed by those that don't."
They passed the evening quite pleasantly, grousing about the new regime. Pistol jogged Faber's memory about Adelbert's last journey with them, and soon Adelbert felt he had made two new friends.
"Say, you said you were a priest now?" said Pistol. "We could use a priest in these parts. Last feller moved on some years ago." He looked to Faber, who nodded. "There's an old shrine up by Fork Rock, needs looking after. Don't know if you'd be interested."
The next morning, Adelbert headed up to the landmark Pistol had told him of - a spur of stone protruding into the valley that time and weather had split into two precipitous spikes. Sure enough, on the path between the village and the mine, a wooden shrine had been erected. It now looked a little neglected, but the well-worn tracks to its front door showed that the people still came here to make their devotions.
Inside was a space for worship, adorned with simple wooden effigies of the gods - Adelbert recognised Taal and Rhya, along with Shallya and - a little surprisingly - a small totem of Sigmar's hammer. In pride of place was a large gilded disc which Adelbert recognised as the symbol of Handrich, god of merchants and shrewd dealing. In a less prominent corner of the shrine was the forbidding figure of Morr, with a representation of a lean dog lounging at his feet.
There were quarters for a live-in keeper towards the back, considerably more run-down than the front hall - but Aisha seemed to believe it could be restored to livable condition with a day or two's hard work. Together, they set about making it a chapel fit for the glory of Verena.
OOC: Up to you what modifications you want to make to the chapel - the villagers will help, but you'll probably have to pay for materials etc. out of pocket.
Back in Manann's Keep, Viggo's recruiting efforts proved there were more strings to his bow than just getting maimed by orcs. In total he mustered up nineteen more good recruits from the Thornwood, the Vale and Manann's Keep, even stealing a couple of ex-garrison members from under Fischwillen's nose. Four more of the Thornwood recruits brought bows with them, one more being a woman - bringing the regiment's female complement up to four. All the women had come from the Thornwood, and more than one had lost their home, their family both to the orcs - Sieghard found nothing to complain about in the intensity with which they now gave themselves to their training.
The thing that brought Viggo back to Manann's Keep most often was his horsemanship lessons with Elsa, who had established herself with quarters in the castle. The town was no longer such a hive of military activity, with most of Sforza's soldiers now out spreading word to the far-flung towns and hamlets of his new domain, or else hunting down the scattered remnants of Magog's horde. From what she gleaned from her meetings with Sforza and his officers, Elsa knew Savonne still held out against its besiegers. This seemed to please the Captain, but still Elsa got the impression that Sforza knew something about the situation she didn't - from a few unguarded comments, she gathered another assault was expected soon.
Trade with Last Water had now been restored, with the Caerfort road no longer a death sentence for traders travelling alone - wagons and caravans were arriving in Manann's Keep almost daily. It was with one of these caravans that the Lady Irene arrived in Manann's Keep, bringing with her Father Barbaro and a small escort of guards. Elsa found herself unreasonably irritated by the way the townsfolk gathered round to gawp at her arrival, seeming much more bewitched by the beauty of the Captain's wife than by the genuine magic Elsa had done to save them.
For the first few days after Irene's arrival, the atmosphere in the keep seemed harmonious - however, it wasn't long until the fights started again. Elsa was glad to find an excuse to get out of the castle and into the surrounding countryside, joining Makeda and her ahosi in the effort to hunt down the remaining greenskins. At least, that was what she said she was doing - in reality she joined them for no more than a couple of hours a day, spending the rest of her time riding the Thornwood in search of an animal suitable for binding as a familiar. She'd seen the power bound up in Ortolanus, and wanted something like that for herself. Despite the hours she spent searching, all her hunt turned up were a few nasty squirrel-bites, and an alarming encounter with a wild boar that might have been a survivor from the orcish cavalry. Bastard also did his best to scrape Elsa off on any low-hanging branches he could find - so it was good riding practice, at least.
She also managed to pay a discreet visit to the small group of Filomena's girls who had established themselves in town, and who pointed out to her a weed growing locally that, when chewed, was supposed to reduce the chances of pregnancy. They warned her however to be careful - too much, apparently, was poison.
Sieghard, meanwhile, had his time almost entirely occupied by the training of his new regiment. The first week was spent teaching them the fundamentals of marching as a unit. After he deemed their marching skills acceptable, he set them to target practice, shooting at bales of straw he'd bought for the purpose. None of them were outstanding marksmen - even those hunters Viggo had recruited from the Thornwood were more used to shooting with bows than crossbows - but after a little more than two weeks and a great deal of spent bolts, Sieghard had most of them hitting their marks.
Ludo had little time to attend the practice sessions, being busy with his personal project of restoring the cannon. His attempts at badgering Sussman about the whereabouts of Evatt's cannon crew met with little success - Sussman seemed to have integrated into Sforza's court in Manann's Keep with suspicious ease, and now spent most of his days at the castle. On the few occasions that Ludo could collar him, Sussman shrugged his shoulders and professed ignorance, claiming the ship and its cannons had been Oberth's private domain.
Despairing of getting anything useful out of Evatt's old adviser, Ludo instead joined Viggo on one of his recruitment trips out to Handrich's Cross, looking to dig up some information about Oberth himself. Having called in on Adelbert and Aisha, he took a trip up to the mine, to see the miraculous steam pump - still functional - that Oberth had installed there. The locals in Handrich's Cross all seemed to remember Werner as equal parts brilliant and mad - though they were saddened to hear of his death, they didn't seem surprised at the way it had happened.
Following up among those who'd known the man, Ludo found out where he'd sourced his gunpowder. Apparently there were mule trains that traversed the Karst to the Uplands, although the volume of trade they carried was fairly pitiful compared to that on the roads and the river. Their first port of call was Putbad, and Oberth's powder had been purchased from the Dwimmulson dwarfs in exile there.
The cannon itself had apparently been forged in Handrich's Cross by the same smith who had helped Oberth construct the pump. Ludo tracked the man down, and although he'd never seen the cannon fired, he still had the detailed plans Werner had given him to build from. Perusing Oberth's smudged annotations on the old parchments, Ludo reckoned he might have gleaned enough to figure out how to load and fire the cannon himself - if he was brave enough. The blacksmith said he'd let him have the old papers for a schilling.
OOC: You can order gunpowder from the mule traders, at a rate of 15 gc for a small barrel. The price is non-negotiable, as they have to pay the dwarfs as the other end of the trail. It will arrive just in time for Sonstill.
Returning to town, Ludo oversaw the construction of his new gun-carriage, and spent what time he had left playing card games with Sieghard's new recruits. They had a few Thornwood variations on old favourites that he hadn't seen before - and as a result of learning them, he ended up out of pocket to the tune of one gold crown.
In the run-up to Sonstill, the town once again became an anthill of activity. Viggo's enthusiasm had not been dampened by his weeks in the woods, and he now spent every moment when he was not watching the crossbow practice or the firing of the big gun buzzing about town on "important regimental business". Foremost on his mind was the idea of uniforms and a banner for the troop, like he had seen on the state troops of the Elector back in Hochland. Locating the local clothiers who had supplied Evatt's troops with their own gaudy uniforms, he saw about getting a quote.
OOC: Here's a quote for various bits; you decide what you want to buy.
Breeches + jerkins: 1 gc per person.
Boots: 18s per pair. 1gc for hobnailed boots, which will last much longer under intense use.
Jackets: 2gc per person.
Cap/hat: 10s per person.
Woollen cloak: 9s per person. 14s with hood.
Bedroll: 10s per person.
Backpack: 1gc 10s per person
Your recruits did of course bring their own clothes. The average recruit has light boots, breeches and a jerkin (but not matching the others! :smalltongue:), a woollen cloak, a bag/bindle and a waterskin or equivalent. It's up to you what you want to replace with fancy togs and what you want to let them keep. If you want to get them new boots you can trade in their old ones for 6s per recruit. Apart from style (which I'm sure is the first thing on Viggo's mind) the most important thing is to ensure that your troop are prepared for long marches in all weathers.
You can dye your uniforms for a surcharge of 1s per item dyed. However, the following colours are prohibitively expensive and therefore not available:
Purple
Bright red
Dark blue (light blue and blue-grey both fine)
You can pay to have a banner stitched for 10gc, including the pole. The design is for you to decide!
If you're buying items in bulk (>10) you can have a +20 modifier to Haggle checks to reduce the price.
Turning up in town on Festag the 27th, Adelbert was surprised to see the place so full - he was already becoming accustomed to his quiet life in Handrich's Cross with Aisha.
He found Ludo and Viggo at their training-ground, where Ludo handed him a couple of letters - apparently they had come through on a wagon from Mirino, whose driver said they had been given to him by a "horrible old man". Thanking Ludo for holding onto them, Adelbert opened each in turn and read.
The first letter was from Forkbeard. From its contents, Adelbert guessed it had been sent some time ago - perhaps in reply to the letter he'd sent from Savonne.
Anxious to know more of Sforza's informants in Alvarran. Do all you can to discover their identity.
The Duke moves against Savonne soon - do not recommend you stay in the city. Once army arrives, speed of communication should increase - send directly to the siege lines.
That was all Janos had written.
The second letter was quite different. The parchment it was written on was curled and crinkled from damp. Unrolling it, he found it was a long and rather rambling message from Lena Knopf. She had taken him up on his request after all.
Apparently she had sent the letter soon after the besiegers surrounded Savonne, by sealing it in a bottle and dropping it in the river. She mentioned enclosing some coins to pay the people of Ravenskird for delivery to Mirino if it found its way into their hands - evidently the smugglers there were not completely dishonest, since Krucke had evidently received it at Adelbert's old address.
Much of what she'd written Adelbert already knew from his talks with Cezar and the Duke, but there were other parts he wasn't aware of. Apparently the siege had not begun immediately on the arrival of the besieging armies: Alvarr, Rorik and Groz had called a parley, to demand that Belehir step down without bloodshed. The elf had refused, stating that he deemed none of them fit to rule - Knopf believed the negotiations may have been purposefully compromised by the inclusion of the Dwimmulson dwarfs, who would accept no compromises or concessions to the dignity of their ancestral enemy. The priests of the temple had tried subsequently to negotiate on behalf of the city, but by that time Alvarr's siege engines were already going up, and the Duke would accept only one outcome - unconditional surrender. The streets were full of the talk of Hartmut's Fall, and how the people there had been treated when they refused to open the gates of their fortress for Alvarr's army.
Knopf herself seemed strangely optimistic that the besiegers would retreat, saying that the first attack had already been repulsed. Belehir might be a distant ruler, but I do believe he has been the best ruler Savonne has had for many years because of it. Her letter ended with a plea: I know you are established in Last Water, and if you could see your way to convincing Captain Sforza to relieve the city, much needless bloodshed might be averted...
She evidently wasn't aware of Adelbert's current standing with the Captain - or where his true loyalties lay. Folding the letter up more neatly than it had arrived, Adelbert stashed it away inside his robes.
He himself had a delivery to make - the main reason he had come to town this week was that he had finished his copy of Elsa's grimoire. He waited until she made a visit to the training ground to hand it over, preferring to stay away from the castle. When Elsa arrived, she could immediately see there was something different about him. The wind of Hysh clung to the scribe like an old friend, making him seem to stand out brighter than the people around him. Perhaps there had been something to all his godly talk after all.
Adelbert Only Recently, Adelbert has been increasingly aware of a growing itch in his nether regions. It's now got to the stage where it's accompanied by a burning sensation when he urinates.
Sonstill
Sonstill came sooner than Sieghard would have liked. His regiment had been training hard, but they still seemed green to him - meanwhile, Fischwillen's men had not been slacking either, the sound of their halberd drills now a daily occurrence. There was talk of a third company as well, mustering out in the Vale. Adelbert said he'd seen them once or twice - they were led by a local man named Viktor, who had made no attempt as yet to claim weapons or supplies from the stores at the castle.
The solstice celebrations were to be held on the field between the forest and the town, where the battle had taken place. The centre of it all was the wreck of the Blessing, now a little overgrown. A wooden stage for Sforza's seat was set up right in front of it, with tents and tables stretching all around. Adelbert found the Captain's positioning next to the site of Evatt's death a little grotesque - as if he were a hunter, posing with his kill. Flags had been strung from the stump of the Blessing's mast, with wreaths of flowers thrown over the mermaid figurehead's shoulders.
As the crowds began to gather, Sieghard assembled his troops on the proving ground, giving them one last inspection. Fischwillen's men were formed up on his left, in neat ranks of blue and green uniforms. Some distance over to the right, Viktor's Volunteers had finally appeared - a rag-tag gaggle of thirty to forty men, armed with a variety of weapons. Viktor himself was a tall, rangy man, with a long coat and crumpled hat that looked like it had seen better days. He had a black moustache waxed into sharp tips, and a long sabre at his belt.
"Judgement day, eh, Slayer?" came Fischwillen's hoarse voice at Sieghard's side. Looking round, Sieghard saw the sergeant had sidled up to him while he was distracted with the new arrivals. "Your lot ain't going to fare any better than those farm boys over there when the time comes. Best you can 'ope for is the Captain puts you to scrubbin' boots for my lads." He gave the assembled crossbow troop a scornful look. "What a sorry lot. Maybe I'll keep some of those gels of yours around, though." He spat on the ground - Fischwillen always seemed to have a plentiful supply of saliva. "Bit of fun for the boys."
RossN
2015-08-16, 05:50 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
For Adelbert his time in Hadrich's Cross was one of personal spiritual development, and back breaking hard work. The shrine was made suitable for worship again and Adelbert began delivering weekly sermons and attending to the needs of what he fondly imagined was his flock. Handrich was allowed to keep his place (Adelbert wanted no trouble from the locals) but to compensate he sought out a sculptor to make an effigy of the goddess in wood. In the mean time he made do with lavishly inscribing the words of the Hymn of Wisdom - the first devotional to Verena in his book on the walls of her alcove of the shrine.
Caligraphy Test: [roll0] vs. 55
I'm not sure how much a priest can expect to earn but Adelbert will be depending on voluntary alms from the locals. If he absolutely has to he'll do more scriner work to pay the bills but he'd prefer to study matters pastoral.
From the icon Adelbert will be willing to go up to 20GC - he's pious but he can't realistically go much higher at this point.
In his private life he spoke often with Faber and Pistol, happy to listen to their complaints. He freely admitted his feelings about Sforza. He also attended to other matters.
He sought out Viktor, officially in his role as the local priest to try and sound out the man's feelings.
The morning he left for Mannan's Keep and not long after discovering his... ailment... he took Aisha aside in their living quaters and asked her to sit down on the pallet they shared.
"You lied to me. I have the lovers pox and since I have not lain with another woman," he almost added 'ever' but managed to bite his tongue on that admission, "you must have had it all along, and I can't believe you never knew. I never want to see your face again. I am leaving now and when I get back I don't want you to be here."
He swept out of the shrine and saddled Bella, desperate to be on the road before Aisha could see the tears streaking down his face.
It was a tired and oddly downcast Adelbert who arrived in Mannan's Keep. He read the letters he'd recieved in silence, then told Ludo he had other business to attend to but would speak with him at the fair. He said the same as he delivered the manuscript to Elsa.
Adelbert discretely made enquires of any of Filomena's girls to see if they knew of any cures.
Gossip: [roll1] vs. 41
Finally he rode into town on Sonstill and made his way through the crowds looking for his companions. Almost alone amongst the festival goers he dressed down for the occassion, reluctantly leaving his robes at home and donning his old civilian clothes. He could ill afford to stand out.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-16, 05:55 PM
Adelbert himself had a delivery to make - the main reason he had come to town this week was that he had finished his copy of Elsa's grimoire. He waited until she made a visit to the training ground to hand it over, preferring to stay away from the castle. When Elsa arrived, she could immediately see there was something different about him. The wind of Hysh clung to the scribe like an old friend, making him seem to stand out brighter than the people around him. Perhaps there had been something to all his godly talk after all.
Elsa leafed through the copy of the grimoire, seemingly satisfied, and paid Adelbert the rest of what she owed him. She then gave him a long, thoughtful look. "Something's changed about you. I first noticed it just after you nearly died, a few weeks ago. Hysh, the White Wind, was hugging you like... like a mother who's almost lost her son and found him alive and won't stop kissing him and weeping with joy. I thought it'd fade eventually, but it's been growing stronger."
She smirked wryly; Aqshy, the Red Wind, was not nearly that affectionate.
Sonstill
The ongoing campaign of pacification was put on hold for the duration of the Sonstill festival. Elsa sorely needed this leisure time; the game of cat-and-mouse against Greenskins in the wilderness was deeply unsatisfying, and she was growing frustrated with her fruitless attempts to find a suitable animal to turn into a familiar (not to mention her increasingly bitter relationship with the animal she did own). In anticipation of the festival, she had taken the time to collect some of the weeds that Filomena's girls had mentioned to her. Just in case.
She went to the festival in her red dress and sandals rather than the usual leather coat and boots, and with her red hair in a loose braid. Her eyes darted here and there, trying to see whether she had an assigned spot for the ceremony. If not, she would gladly stand next to Sieghard while he introduced his new regiment.
Adelbert, in Handrich's Cross
"You lied to me. I have the lovers pox and since I have not lain with another woman," he almost added 'ever' but managed to bite his tongue on that admission, "you must have had it all along, and I can't believe you never knew. I never want to see your face again. I am leaving now and when I get back I don't want you to be here."
"What?" said Aisha, stunned. "No, I... I didn't, I wouldn't!" Her eyes were reddening. "Filomena said that because she wanted to get rid of me! Why would you believe her? I'm not sick!" She took a gulping breath. "She wanted rid of me, and now - now you want rid of me too..."
Adelbert left her in tears, the sound of her sobbing still circling round in his head on the now-lonely road to Manann's Keep.
Adelbert, in Manann's Keep
Filomena's girls weren't hard to find - they were drawn to an event like the festival like flies to overripe fruit. Finding the one who seemed to be in charge - in this case the oldest - Adelbert made his enquiries as discreetly as he could, and tried to bear the smirking. She couldn't tell if she recognised him, or if it was just his priestly vestments that amused her.
"I wouldn't know about that," she said, affecting a lofty air. "All Filomena's girls are clean, sir. Point of pride." She sniffed. "If a girl did get into that sort of trouble... well, madam's got an arrangement with Doctor Bianco. Very good, he is."
OOC: The baseline duration of the disease is 14 days. Following the rulebook disease rules, you need to take a Toughness test to modify that length: each degree of success shortens it by one day, while each degree of failure lengthens it by one day.
Once every three days, a Heal check can be attempted (by Adelbert or someone else) to check the disease; success shortens the duration by one day.
As long as Adelbert is affected by the disease, he suffers a -10 penalty to Ag and Fel from the constant itching.
RossN
2015-08-16, 06:43 PM
Pre-Sonstill Business
Adelbert nodded vaguely at Elsa and muttered something about speaking with her later. He seemed in a rush to leave.
It was a lonely, sad, humilating ride back to Handrich's Cross. It was obviously unthinkable to visit Bianco and there was no alternate source he could think off. The priest was sorely tempted to abandon going to the festival altogether and inform his flock he was retirng to the Thornwood to commune in private with the goddess for a few days. Eventually he reluctantly overuled it; it would raise more questions than he could answer.
Oh please Verena let Aisha be gone by the time he got back!
'Twas the Week Before Sonstill
Adelbert got back to the village to find an empty shrine. Aisha had gone, taking with her her clothes, some bedding - and half the gold Adelbert had so far collected in donations.
RossN
2015-08-16, 07:00 PM
Week before Sonstill
There was nothing he could do other than burn the rest of the bedding and sleep on the cold floor - he'd have to get new bedding when he returned from Mannan's Keep.
As for Aisha he didn't ask anyone who might have seen where she had gone. They might have answered.
TheSummoner
2015-08-16, 07:02 PM
Sieghard And The Fish: Pals For Life
"Pleasant as always, Herr Fish," Sieghard replied, deadpan. The first thought that came to mind was simply punching the man and though it was tempting, he resisted. "Tell me, have your trout learned to march on dry land yet or do they still flop around on top of each other?"
Elsa had told him in advance that the demonstration would be held in the field where Sforza's men had defeated the greenskins. He had already had his unit's strawmen targets set up some distance ahead. He thought having them painted a crude mockery of Alvarr's colors had been a nice touch. Further ahead, he had placed the bales of straw Ludo had suggested as a target for the cannon, covered by a large cloth - he had a surprise prepared for those that he hoped the captain would enjoy. The cannon itself was still some distance away. He had instructed Viggo to have Magnus pull it up when the time came.
For any uniforms or banners, Sieghard would want Viggo to speak with him about before any purchases are made. Sieghard isn't about to let himself get shown up by Fischwillen so he'd agree to something, though he'd still be concerned with how much more money it's going to cost. The specifics are something Northern Lad and I will need to discuss.
As for colors though, maybe blue-grey and something else? I've always mentally associated Sieghard with wolves as well so if we go for a banner, something incorporating that would work well.
Finally, Sieghard's surprise and the reason the straw bales are covered. I think it'd be reasonable to call the cost of that 4gc for both materials and preparation based on what's listed in the core rules.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-17, 03:25 AM
Ludo had taken a certain pride in the cannon, with a finely-crafted carriage, and polishing the dark metal until it gleamed. The carriage was painted the same color as sieghard's banner, and although the nautical design on the muzzle couldn't be helped, he had had the cannon's name painted on the carriage - Filomena.
"Scariest shout in Sforza's realm." he said, to anyone who would listen. He had considered naming it after Elsa, on much the same basis, but decided against it.
"We'll see who'll be on top of who soon, Slayer," growled Fischwillen out of the corner of his mouth. "Just you wait an' see."
Trumpets were sounding over by the stage, where Sforza and the lady Irene were taking their seats. A reasonably-sized crowd had gathered, either to see the demonstration or to take advantage of the (mostly) free food and drink. A good number of Sforza's soldiers were present too, including the detachment of ahosi with whom Elsa had spent much of the past month. Sieghard spotted Elsa herself taking up position on the stage to Sforza's left.
Father Barbaro was giving a long and rambling speech about the glory of Myrmidia, which Sforza finally curtailed with a pointed cough. As the priest retired, the Captain came to the front.
"People of Manann's Keep," he began, in his strongly-accented Reikspiel. "Of the Thornwood, and of the Vale. You have suffered greatly in the past months." He held up his hands. "I am here to assure you you will suffer no more. My soldiers have delivered you from the orcs - now these brave men and women will join them in defending you from any others who would disturb the peace of these lands." Having said his piece, he nodded to one of the trumpeters. The signal was sounded, and the demonstrations began.
OOC: Each regiment gets to show off a pre-rehearsed demonstration of its own choosing - you guys are up first. After all three have gone, Sforza's men will then stage some tests of their own.
RossN
2015-08-17, 05:39 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Having left Bella in a nice shady spot with sufficent grass to nibble Adelbert took his place amongst the crowds of civilian onlookers clustered around the wreck of the Blessing - it hurt to watch Sforza rubbing in his triumph like that. He was interested in seeing how his friends managed with their new company. He especiallly marveled at the cannon and taking a chance crossed over to greet Ludo. He lowered his voice as he joined the halfling and stared at the restored cannon, clearly surprised and impressed.
"It's impressive... what do you plan to do with it my friend?"
At which point the ceremonies began and Adelbert hastily withdrew to the safety of the watching crowd: "I'll meet you at the Star later," he said as he departed.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-17, 06:03 AM
"Shoot it at things." Ludo said cryptically, and tapped his nose.
Northern Lad
2015-08-17, 10:29 AM
Viggo Hirtzel
It was a proudly beaming Viggo who found himself stood besides Magnus on Sonstill, the day of the troop review. His hard work over the last month had paid off and they now had a nearly full complement of recruits. Seeing them march in their uniforms, the new banner waving in the slight breeze, Viggo couldn't help but give himself a pat on the back. I'm bloody glad Rock Face agreed to let us buy them in the end! He thought eyeing the other two units, At least we don't look a rabble like that Viktor's mob.
He had another reason to be happy, his arm was finally feeling better, allowing him to return to his training. It had occurred to Viggo that he'd been wearing his armour for over a month straight now and that he must be starting to smell like Sieghard. Unwilling to take it off, he'd taken to wearing his bright red cloak and cap to add some much needed colour to his drab appearance.
They had practiced this for weeks now, but upon hearing the trumpets blare, Viggo still felt that nervous excitement which was so familiar. "It's just like any other performance." Viggo reassured Magnus. The big bay horse seemed unperturbed, Magnus had finally settled down to pulling about the cart and cannon, but was still steadfastly refusing to take to his battle training. "All we have to do is wait for our signal." Viggo checked that the cannon carriage was correctly harnessed for what felt like the hundredth time. "It'll all go just fine." He returned his gaze to Sieghard, awaiting his command.
TheSummoner
2015-08-17, 04:39 PM
Sieghard
Sieghard had to admit that he had left himself open to that retort and began to wonder if punching Fischwillen might've been a better decision after all. Had the trumpets not sounded when they did, he may have still done it.
"You should get your men out there," Sieghard said as Barbarro was droning on. "The captain would prefer to see his new marksmen fire on a moving target. No? Well I did know your men were cowards."
At Sforza's signal, he marched his recruits forward in three groups of ten, each group two ranks of five men. He ordered them to halt thirty yards short of where the first fifteen targets stood, arranged similar to how his soldiers now stood. Another thirty yards back, the remaining fifteen targets stood in the same pattern as the first.
"Load! Aim! Fire!" he shouted, "Second rank, aim! Fire!"
The first rank will take a full action to load their crossbows.
Then the first rank take a half-action to aim and a half-action to fire. While they are doing this, the second rank will load.
After firing, the first rank will take a knee and reload while the second rank aims and fires.
This will repeat until each of them has fired five shots at the targets at short range. Once they finish, there will be a brief pause and then they will repeat the same from the beginning for the targets at long range
"Again!" he ordered, "Load! Aim! Fire!"
He signaled to Viggo as his recruits finished firing at the more distant set of strawmen. "You four, load the cannon," he hissed when Viggo had moved it into place. "You two, prepare the target and stand clear." The crossbowmen rushed to obey. Beneath the cloth, the bales of straw Ludo had provided had been arranged into the shape of a rough throne. Sitting on it was a roasted pig with an apple shoved in its mouth and a wooden crown sitting on its head.
Sieghard approached the cannon and took careful aim. He had been looking forward to this part.
Well, moment of truth. Fingers crossed.
First, the rolls for how well the recruits do.
[roll0] vs 59 BS
[roll1] reroll if needed
[roll2] vs 51 Intimidate
[roll3] reroll if needed
And now the cannon.
[roll4] vs 59 BS + 20 Aim (Sharpshooter) = 79
[roll5] reroll if needed
Sieghards heard a laugh from Sforza at the sight of his scarecrow targets, painted in Alvarr's colours. The recruits loaded and loosed with passable accuracy, and commendable timing - Sieghard's punishing training regime had paid off, as they aimed and shot in sharply synchronised volleys. By the time they had finished, each target had sprouted bolts liberally from its chest and lolling sackcloth head. Sforza and his officers applauded as Sieghard's troop shouldered their crossbows, bowing to the Captain and his wife.
When the cannon's target was unveiled, the reaction on the dais was quite different. Irene gave a bubbling laugh, clapping her hands daintily in amusement - Sforza, however, remained absolutely immobile. The Captain's face had become fixed and expressionless, while his eyes - flinty, unblinking like a snake - were fixed on Sieghard. Sieghard imagined Commander Evatt might have missed the significance of at least one look like that.
Perhaps a little hastily, Sieghard touched the taper to the cannon's touchhole. The gun gave a roar like thunder, vomiting a great gout of grey smoke as it rocked back on its carefully-painted wheels - and the pig disappeared as the speeding ball struck it dead-on. The smashed fragments of its mock throne were thrown high in the air, only strands of straw wafting slowly back down.
There was a wet splat as a leg of pork dropped to earth a few feet from the ruins of the straw throne. Barbaro gave a cry of alarm as something else came arcing down from the sky - the cracked wooden crown hit the stage, bounced and rolled, coming to a spinning halt near Sforza's feet. The Captain looked down at it, his face still blank as a mask.
At last, he cracked a smile.
Seeing their commander's mood, the assembled officers applauded again, rather more vigorously this time. As Sieghard's men cleared their quarrel-studded targets away, Fischwillen's company marched forwards to make their own demonstration. Sieghard could already see the black look on the sergeant's face - the firing of Filomena was a hard act to follow.
Nonetheless, Fischwillen's men put on a show, putting on a well-drilled display of marching and counter-marching to the beat of a drum. They crossed halberds in mock-conflict, but Sieghard could see it was all for show - those weapons were real, and Fischwillen didn't look like he was willing to run the risk of his men gutting each other in front of the Captain. At last, they turned to face the stage as one, shouldered their polearms and snapped off a sharp salute. Irene led the polite applause, while Al-Makir leaned over and whispered something in the Captain's ear.
Viktor and his Volunteers were third and last. Marching on to the proving ground in a ragged crowd, they lifted their weapons in salute - swords, hatchets, all manner of blades - and engaged in a vigorous melee. They went at it with more vigour than Fischwillen's lot, which made Sieghard think they might actually have been practicing fighting as well as marching - but they certainly displayed more enthusiasm than skill. When the last duelling partner had been knocked into the mud, Viktor and his standing soldiers turned and bowed to the Captain, while the rest picked themselves up off the ground. The applause was considerably more muted this time.
When the Volunteers had retired from the field, Barbaro stepped forward once more. "We have seen the skills these men bring!" he proclaimed, affecting an oratorical style that Adelbert thought would have been more at home in a grand theatre than a battlefield. "Now, they will be tested against the Captain's own troops - the saviours of Manann's Keep!"
That was the crowd's cue to applaud, and applaud they did. There was a hearty cheer from the mercenaries who had gathered to spectate, and a rather more half-hearted one from the citizens of the town.
The tests proceeded in reverse order. Viktor and four of his best men were given practice swords and defeated in fairly short order by five of Esteban's Estalians, while Esteban watched from the dais. Sieghard heard Elsa stifle a laugh when Viktor was knocked on his back - the commander of the Brotherhood must have cracked a joke. Still, the Brotherhood men honoured their opponents, helping them back up onto their feet and shaking their hands.
Fischwillen's lot were up next. The sergeant harried ten of his men forward and formed them into tight ranks, blustering and haranguing them every step of the way. The Estalians took their halberds and gave them blunt staves instead, while opposite a contingent of ten Iron Company received the same weapons. The halberdiers readied their "weapons" in a stubby spear-wall of staves. The Tileans looked at each other, and advanced.
What followed was the most one-sided fight Sieghard had ever seen, as two of the Iron Company mercenaries rushed forwards and used their staves to prise a wedge-shape gap in the halberdiers' defensive line. The rest of the Tileans came rushing through, jabbing and swinging with their staffs, until the battle dissolved into a melee of one-on-one fights. Those of Fischwillen's men who scrambled back to their feet ran back to escape the rout, where they found the sergeant coming after them like an angry dog. Screaming in their faces, Fischwillen hit and shoved at them to get back into the fight - but the fight was already over.
Elsa Only
On the stage, Irene frowned at the spectacle.
<That man is a fool.> she said.
<That he is,> replied Sforza, raising his chin. <Why do they tolerate him to lead, Abdul?>
<He was sergeant of the guard under Evatt, my captain,> said Al-Makir. <They follow him because they are used to doing so.>
<Well, he teaches them to march well,> said the Captain, turning back to the spectacle on the proving ground. <Perhaps it should be arranged for them to grow some initiative of their own some time soon.>
Abdul nodded, and Elsa wondered at the look that passed between the two of them. Whatever it meant, it couldn't bode well for the sergeant.
Finally, it was the turn of Sieghard's troop. Archery butts were set up, much like the ones they had seen in Mirino - Sieghard wondered where they had been hiding. A line was drawn in the grass at what Sieghard would consider rather long range, and three halflings of the Gamecocks stepped forward to their marks, bows in hand.
"Your best three shots, commander," said one of Esteban's men - Sieghard recognised Arturo from their expedition to Painford. "When you're ready."
RossN
2015-08-17, 05:50 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert had held his breath when the cannon's target was unveiled and whispered a prayer to Verena when it was fired. It was all he could do to keep watching and then he was applauding with the rest, even as part of him had hoped Sforza would have been brained by the flying wooden crown.
He watched the general melee with interest but waited for Viktor and his troops to leave the field. As the priest of Handrich's Cross no doubt some would recognise his face with even a brief meeting so perhaps it would be better to lance the boil and approach them first, admitting he was out of favour with the Captain, which was of course true.
TheSummoner
2015-08-17, 06:15 PM
Sieghard
"I had meant to bring you Alvarr's head, captain. To put next to the orc's," Sieghard announced once his demonstration was finished. "Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find it."
"I wish your trout the best of luck, Herr Fish," Sieghard whispered as they passed eachother. On his face was the smuggest expression any of his friends had ever seen him wear. Seeing Fischwillen's sad display satisfied Sieghard nearly as much as the reaction to his own troops. He reflected that choosing to train his recruits with crossbows had been a wise decision... There was no need for them to hold back and no risk of them injuring themselves.
He nodded with approval at Viktor's troop. They were a rough lot and needed more training of course, but at least they seemed willing to actually use their weapons and given that none of them were maimed in the melee, they also could defend themselves well enough. He couldn't help but think Viktor would do well to arm his men with swords alone rather than whatever sort of blade was available, but he couldn't fault the man for that. It wasn't likely he had the same access to Sforza's weaponry that Sieghard had.
The tests of arms against Sforza's men went about how Sieghard had expected they would. The Brotherhood and the Iron Company were filled with professional soldiers. Men who had spent many years fighting. Recruits with only a month of training stood little chance against even the worst fighters in either company. He liked his odds against the Gamecocks much better. The halflings may have had more training than his own men, but the difference was not nearly as large as it would've been against the Tileans or Estalians
Sieghard's guess proved correct - though his crossbows didn't exactly shine, they managed to best the halflings with three on-target shots on the rightmost target, while most of the shots aimed at the other two went astray. Either the targets had been pitched too far away, or the wind had picked up a little - Sieghard definitely thought the halfling archers were over-correcting a little in the final round.
The final count came to four hits for Sieghard's troop against two for the Gamecocks. Despite the fact that both shots from the halflings had pretty much hit the bullseye, Barbaro was forced to call the contest in favour of the crossbowmen - a pronouncement that drew cheers from the people of Manann's Keep, who were pleased to see the locals win. Ludo definitely saw some dirty looks being exchanged among the ranks of the Gamecocks as the three archers trooped dejectedly back.
Summoned before the dais, the three commanders stood to attention - Sieghard, Fischwillen and Viktor, uncomfortably side-by-side. Descending to meet them, Sforza approached Sieghard first. He shook him by the hand, looking him dead in the eye - Sieghard couldn't help but feel that a trace of the marrow-freezing look he had seen when he unveiled the pig was still lingering in the Captain's gaze.
"Your men have done well today," said the Captain, his voice all warmth and bonhomie. "What do you call them, this regiment of yours?"
TheSummoner
2015-08-17, 06:34 PM
Sieghard
"The Thorns will do, captain," Sieghard answered. It had been Viggo's suggestion - one of the minstrel's better ideas, he was forced to admit..
"The Thorns," echoed Sforza, nodding. "Very good. Welcome to the army of the south."
He snapped his fingers, and Al-Makir descended the stage behind him, pressing a heavy purse of gold into Sieghard's hands. "Your bounty," Abdul said, before leaning and whispering: "By all the gods, be careful with the pig jokes, my friend!"
Sforza had already moved on down the line, shaking the hands of Fischwillen and Viktor in turn. Sieghard wondered how much this had really been about testing the quality of the new recruits - it looked like Sforza was hiring them all. Then again, even Viktor's rabble had seemed able-bodied at least.
"From now on, you are all bound by contract to me," said Sforza, addressing the three of them at once. "You will go where I order you, fight when I tell you, die if I ask you to. In return, I can promise riches and glory enough for all." He flashed a brief, white-toothed smile, which Fischwillen and Viktor nervously returned. "Abdul will discuss with you the specifics of your pay. For now - " - he gestured to the tables and food and drink that had been laid out for the celebration, around which the citizens of Manann's Keep were already beginning to gather - " - please allow your men to take advantage of my hospitality."
First off the mark, Fischwillen swivelled on the spot and barked to his men:
"Three cheers for the Captain, boys!"
Their cheers echoed across the proving field, while Viktor's men - and the less disciplined of Sieghard's Thorns - made a beeline for the food.
~
As Viktor's Volunteers slunk away with their share of meat and ale, to rub their bruises and recount inflated stories of their feats on the training ground to the village girls, Adelbert sought out their leader. Viktor was standing by a barrel of wine, knocking the red stuff back at an alarming rate.
"Yes?" said the commander of the free company, turning as Adelbert approached him from the side. He thumped his chest and burped, before smoothing his moustaches back into place. "What do you want?"
RossN
2015-08-17, 07:14 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
It was not a promising start. Truthfully Adelbert was surprised. Admittedly he was not in his robes but he might have expected anyone from the Handrich's Cross region to have had at least have heard of the new priest.
Then again the man was drinking heavily.
Adelbert walked over and looked the soldier proudly in the eye. "Congrutulations Sergeant, your men did well." It was true enough; Adelbert had been impressed... impressed and worried. "Handrich's Cross and the rest of the Vale will be proud."
Viktor waved a hand with a noticeably inebriated air.
"**** the Vale," he said. "You heard the good Captain, we're going on to bigger things! Today, Manann's Keep, tomorrow," - he made a grand gesture with his goblet, spilling a little wine as he did so - "the world."
Peering at Adelbert, he furrowed his brow. "Say, don't I know you?" he said. "You're that new, that new priest chap. In Handrich's Cross." He nodded. "Yes, that's you. We've got more'n a few boys from the Cross here today, y'know. What'd you think of us out there?"
RossN
2015-08-17, 07:25 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
This was a terrible idea, Adelbert thought to himself.
He looked around as if to check on the boys from the Cross though in fact most of them were probably chasing village girls, a line of thought that made him think of Aisha before he could stop it. "Good and brave... but they won't prosper under Sforza. He's got his precious veterans. Your boys would be better with some experience under their belts." He lowered his voice. "Have you considered heading for Savonne and joining the siege? You'd get a taste of war and earn your names and by the time you come back Sforza would be forced to treat you as well as his Tileans."
Viktor blinked like a stunned fish. "What?!" he said, before lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. "What? Are you mad?" He glanced over his shoulder towards the dais, where Sforza and Irene were now mingling with the burghers of the town. "We've signed on with the Tilean! If we cut and ran now... well, it doesn't bear thinking of what he'd do."
He took a gulp of his wine to banish said unpleasant thoughts.
"All my lads need is a bit of polish. You saw those pikemen on the field out there - " - he hiccuped - " - fine fellowsh. Learn a bit from them and we'll be up to scratch in no time. Siege like that, it's a bloody meat-grinder. Men in one end... mince out the other." He shook his head. "My boys have got the will, but they ain't got the skill, if you catch my meaning. Not yet, anyway."
RossN
2015-08-17, 07:38 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert sighed. "I see. Well the gods go with you my son. A word of advice though; take Sforza's coin if you must, fight his foes if you will, but never, ever trust him."
He turned and walked away, disappointment emblazoned across his face. One more failure for the ledger books.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-17, 08:01 PM
Sieghard's choice of target for the cannon got a smile out of Elsa. She did not especially hate Duke Alvarr, who had treated her decently unlike his lapdog, but after several months in Sforza's army, the us-against-them mentality was starting to rub off on her. Still, Sforza's flinty look at the sight of the crowned pig surprised her; was his hatred of the Duke something personal? Or was he offended for some obscure reason?
Pity about this good meat, thought Elsa as the cannonball blasted the pig sky-high. When Sieghard's eyes briefly paused on her on their way to the Captain, she unthinkingly blew a kiss at the mercenary, then cursed herself for the reckless, public display of love. She risked a glance at the Captain, hoping his gaze was on Sieghard and not on her.
She applauded the Thorns' victory against the Gamecocks, though truth to be told, she was a tad underwhelmed by both teams' performances. On the other hand, the easy victories of the Estalian swordsmen and the Iron Company made her very glad of her choice of sides in this war.
<"It would seem, Captain,"> Elsa remarked after the last trial, <"that Evatt's men were lions led by a sheep. Easier to fix than the other way around, to be sure."> She raised her cup of wine in a toast, and smiled. <"Here's to a lion leading lions.">
She ate and drank at the leaders' table long enough to respect what she thought was proper etiquette, and eventually excused herself: <"I'll go mingle.">
Her third cup of wine in hand, she stepped down the stage to chat with the common people.
TheSummoner
2015-08-17, 10:01 PM
Sieghard
Sieghard accepted the purse gratefully. It pained him to think all that and more would go towards paying his recruits, but after how well they had done, it would be money well spent. Al-Makir's comment about the pig joke had caught him by surprise. He suspected he had touched on something more than simply making a mockery of one of the captain's enemies. He would have to ask about it when he had a chance to speak with the man in private.
"You've done well," Sieghard said, addressing his men - or at least the ones who weren't already distracted with filling their faces. "Each and every one of you has worked hard and should be proud. But there is still much to do. Real foes won't stand in place while you're firing on them. You lot may be better than Herr Fish's trout or Viktor's boys and you even did better than the captain's halflings out there today, but you're still not ready for a real battle. Not yet."
"Tomorrow we'll see to your first month's pay and then it's back to work. But for now, drink and celebrate. You've earned it."
Sieghard + Ludo
When Sieghard had finished speaking to his men, he sought out Ludo.
"Restoring that cannon was a stroke of brillance," he said. "Even without it, the crossbowmen would've done better than the rest, but Filomena -" The name still amused him. He wondered what his former employer would think when she learned of it "- is what really put Herr Fish to shame. Did you see his face after I fired it? I'm in your debt, Ludo."
Sieghard + Viktor
Sieghard approached the stranger, an ale of his own in hand. "Haven't seen you around before," he said. "Your lads did well."
He took a drink. "What part of the Vale are you from? And what made you decide to fight for the captain?"
Sieghard + Elsa
Elsa was, unsurprisingly, near the drinks when Sieghard found her.
"That was careless, earlier," he told her, though he seemed more amused than worried. "What if Sforza had seen? Or Al-Makir? I don't think anyone would blame you for playing favorites. Certainly not for favoring me over those two. Maybe be a bit less direct about it though."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-18, 03:07 AM
Ludo and Sieghard
Ludo tried not to think of that statement in a monetary way, and waved an airy hand (that was holding a chicken leg). "Happy to help!" he said. "I hope you'll let me keep assisting however I can."
He looked over at the Thorns enjoying the food and grinned. "For one thing, i need to win my money back."
He patted Sieghard on the elbow though. "Really, this is your victory, the cannon was just a help. And let me know if there's anything I can do about the big fish."
Ludo and Adelbert
Ludo caught Adelbert briefly in a quiet moment.
"And you were telling me to be cautious?" Ludo hissed. "If Sforza finds out you did that, he'll have you killed. Not that I dont appreciate the sentiment... but be careful!" The last clause was a plea more than an imperative.
RossN
2015-08-18, 04:13 AM
Ludo and Adelbert
Adelbert looked surprised then rueful. He hadn't thought he'd been overheard.
"Yes, I had to try... much good it did me. Viktor's success throws a serious blow to my plans. Now I'll have to watch my step even in Handrich's Cross." He paused, sighing. He had not had a happy month. "If Alvarr can't take Savonne and take it soon that will be that." He hesitated visibly then, finally blurted out: "That cannon... would you be able to see a keg or two of powder go missing?"
The Thorns seemed happy with Sieghard's praise - and more than happy with his instruction to get drinking. Stashing their crossbows, they dispersed into the crowds of people surrounding the booze. Coincidentally, that was also where Sieghard found Viktor.
Sieghard approached the stranger, an ale of his own in hand. "Haven't seen you around before," he said. "Your lads did well."
He took a drink. "What part of the Vale are you from? And what made you decide to fight for the captain?"
"Vale?" said Viktor, who was just watching a robed figure depart - glancing after him, Sieghard wondered what business Adelbert had had with his fellow commander. "Oh, I ain't from the Vale. Just... passing through, you might say. It's a pleasant enough place," he said, before lowering his voice to what he thought was a discreet tone, "even if a few of them are a little, well... inbred."
He raised his glass to Sieghard. "What about your lot, eh? That was some good shooting. Happy to have you on the same side, that's what I say." He knocked it back and filled it again. "What was that other thing you asked? Why fight for the Captain?" He grinned and thumped Sieghard on the arm. "Same reason as you, old boy. Gold! Lots of it, hopefully." He raised his glass again. "Here's to that."
TheSummoner
2015-08-18, 06:01 AM
Sieghard
Sieghard + Ludo
"I've got a few ideas, but that depends on what Herr Fish himself does," Sieghard replied with a mischievous smirk. "It's been nothing but a lot of bluster from him so far. Long as it stays that way, it's not worth doing anything about. Funny as it'd be to, say, buy up a cart full of old fish that had been siting in the sun too long to sell to anyone else and dump it at his longhouses, it's not worth the trouble it'd cause unless he starts something first."
"For now, maybe just help keep an eye on him."
Sieghard + Viktor
That was something Sieghard would gladly drink to. He raised his own cup.
"They're good enough shots when it's just strawmen. Time will tell how they do against Alvarr's men," he said before taking another drink. "If it's not the Vale, where are you from then? The Empire?" he asked, as though that narrowed it down in any meaningful way.
"They're good enough shots when it's just strawmen. Time will tell how they do against Alvarr's men,"
"Here's hoping it doesn't come to that," said Viktor. "Heard the man's a right daemon on the field. Much rather spend time putting down bandits and the like - if the Captain'll let us."
"If it's not the Vale, where are you from then? The Empire?"
"Ostermark," said Viktor. "If there's still enough of it left to be called that. I got out before things got really bad."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-18, 08:24 AM
Ludo and Adelbert
The suggestion sent a chill down Ludo's spine, and for the first time he found himself wondering what, exactly, he'd agreed to.
"When the time is right," he managed.
Northern Lad
2015-08-18, 08:25 AM
Viggo Hirtzel
"We almost looked like we knew what we were doing." Viggo mumbled out of the side of his mouth to Sieghard, before his grizzled friend made his way to the dais, "You did good Rock Face, very good!" His grin was broad and his eyes sparkled cheekily as he led Magnus away, the cannon still in tow. He can't very well go for me now can he!? "I'll get this stowed and come back and join you, grab me an ale!"
Once Viggo was happy everything had been taken care of, he made his way back to the field outside town, more than happy to join in with the festivities. He took especial care to get to know some of the Thorns a little better, sharing the Capitano's bounty with them and swapping tall tales and jokes with the new recruits.
As the evening drew on Viggo took to playing his lute and singing songs to anybody who would listen, he'd even skip a few steps occasionally as he encouraged his audience to take up his offer and join the dance. As always with the young lad, he kept an eye open for any attractive girls, engaging them in flirtatious chat, playing the songs they asked and trying to steal the odd kiss. Deciding that the risk of a slap was not as daunting as it once was. After all, I'm the member of a famous Mercenary band now! He thought to himself. Well not famous yet, but we will be, we will be!
OOC
Viggo will gossip with the Thorns, he wants to get to know personalities (who are the trouble causers, who are the jokers, who are the most professional etc) what do the other men think of the female recruits etc.
Then he'll play his lute in an effort to get the party jumpin' (sorry I'm very old and that's as hip as I can get... hip isn't cool anymore either is it? :smallfrown:)
Then his flirty times... 2 rolls 1: For general wooing of Ladies of Mannan's Keep & 2: If there is an attractive female girl about Viggo's age in the Thorns, a woo at her too! :smallredface:... 'Sorry Sieghard!' Viggo will try to spend the night with whoever his Charm works best on! (That is assuming he doesn't get his ass handed to him again!)
Gossip Test:
FEL 43 +10Mastery - [roll0] - EDIT - rerolled ooc 48
Musician Test: EDIT - rerolled ooc 80
FEL 43 - [roll1]
Charm Test: (Ladies of the Keep)
FEL 43 - [roll2]
RE-ROLL - [roll3]
Charm Test: (Ladies of the Thorns)
FEL 43 - [roll4]
RE-ROLL - [roll5]
-Sentinel-
2015-08-18, 08:34 AM
"That was careless, earlier," he told her, though he seemed more amused than worried. "What if Sforza had seen? Or Al-Makir? I don't think anyone would blame you for playing favorites. Certainly not for favoring me over those two. Maybe be a bit less direct about it though."
"I'm sorry... you're right," Elsa acknowledged with a guilty smile. "I wouldn't get punished for it, but you might. Or they could see you as a distraction and keep us apart."
She pointed discreetly at Fischwillen. "I saw your face when you talked to him. I can tell you don't like him. Well, I heard the Captain and others talk about removing him for incompetence. Thought that'd make you happy. Oh, and good work with the cannon." She paused and hesitated, as if she was about to say something else, but decided against it. She walked away to refill her cup.
RossN
2015-08-18, 08:44 AM
Ludo and Adelbert
"Of course." Adelbert didn't bother keeping the exhaustion and disappointment from his voice... or expression.
"If you'll excuse me I'll be riding early in the morning so I better start eating and drinking." He stood up and wandered off in search of a meal.
Day turned into dusk, and the festival passed through food and drink, to dancing, to more food and drink, and then just more drink. The Thorns had commandeered a row of makeshift tables for themselves, and Viggo was holding them all in thrall with his stories of his and Sieghard's adventures. Perhaps Viggo's role in them was a little exaggerated - Sieghard returned from helping carry away the insensible Viktor to hear the minstrel relating how he personally had cut the head off a skeletal troll.
Joining them for a little while, he drank and sparingly shared stories until the sun had gone down. It wouldn't do to be too chummy with the recruits - not yet, at least. That was Viggo's job. And by the amount of giggling that was going on between Viggo and the fair-haired, fair-featured Hanna, perhaps he was doing it too well.
Getting up to attend a call of nature, Sieghard returned in the dark to try to listen in on what the two of them was saying. He'd just heard the worrying words "but I don't count" come out of Viggo's mouth when a rough hand grabbed him by the elbow. "Evenin', Slayer," came Fischwillen's rasping voice from the shadows.
Sieghard & The Fish, BFFs
The sergeant's pockmarked face was puckered in a sly smile. "Havin' dinner with the lads and lasses, are we? I'n't that nice."
"That was a neat trick you pulled with Commander Evatt's gun. Very sharp. Very flash." Fischwillen snorted. "The Captain's witch was dead impressed, she was. Did you see?" His smile broke into a yellow-toothed grin. "She blew you a kiss."
Fischwillen leaned closer, lowering his voice and treating Sieghard to a waft of halitosis. "I been askin' some questions. Heard some stories." Stepping back, he receded into the shadows. "I'm watchin' you, Slayer. You'd better keep both eyes open."
Whistling to himself with spiteful glee, Fischwillen strutted off into the night.
When Sieghard looked round from his unwelcome distraction, both Viggo and Hanna had slipped off unseen.
TheSummoner
2015-08-18, 08:04 PM
Sieghard + Viktor
Sieghard shook his head. "If it was just bandits, Sforza wouldn't need the likes of us, his own men would be plenty." Certainly it would've been a better use of his gold than paying them to visit the Serpent had been.
"The captain is an ambitious man," he continued. "He will rule all he sets his eyes on or we shall all die in the attempt. More likely than not, it will be Alvarr and his allies next that we face in battle. Train your men hard for when that day comes."
Sieghard + Elsa
"Or they could see me as a distraction and decide you could serve him better if the distraction was removed entirely," Sieghard said, sadly. "Sforza needs you and he needs men, but he doesn't need me. My men may be the best out of any of the new companies, but he could easily get rid of me and put someone else in charge of them." The way he said get rid of didn't sound like he merely meant remove from command.
Her comment about Fischwillen would've brought a smile to his face in any other circumstance, but at the moment it just wasn't enough. He waited to see if she would say more during the silence and was disappointed when she didn't. He was sorely tempted to say something himself, but knew he couldn't.
Sieghard + His Best Friend
"Then I'm sure you've heard that I've known her longer than the captain has and that she owes me a favor," Sieghard replied, hoping that it didn't show on his face just how troubled by this he was. "Bother me again and I'll use it to have her burn you alive. Or maybe I'll just use the cannon instead."
"Yes you bloody do count!" he shouted once he realized Viggo and Hanna had disappeared. He went chasing after the two of them, determined to prevent anything from happening.
OOC - Anyone can read
First off, Sieghard has a singer to stop. I see that the best possible roll on the intimidate test doesn't carry over to the consequences of fooling around. Is any rolling required to find them before anything happens and if so, what skill(s) would be applicable?
Sieghard didn't get a chance to talk to Adelbert. Though he has nothing so important to say that we need to devote time to it, he would still want to see his friend and wish him and Aisha well before they depart again. He also can't resist a bit of gloating about how well his demonstration went.
Tomorrow morning, he'll pay his recruits as promised. 2 crowns regular pay to each of them and a bonus crown for impressing Sforza. Gustaf will get a second bonus crown for single-handedly being the reason the Thorns beat the Gamecocks and Sieghard will be sure the rest know he does and why. It pays to perform well. Hanna may or may not lose her bonus depending on whether or not Sieghard manages to track her and Viggo down and what he sees if he does, though he does blame Viggo for that more than her. "If she ends up pregnant, she's gone and so are you."
After that, the regular training schedule will resume. Once the wooden swords arrive, sword training will also be incorporated into the Thorns routine. Two days training with crossbow and one with sword. He'll ask Ludo to try to keep tabs on Fischwillen for him - he doubts he could do it himself without being found out. He'll also see about drinking with Viktor every so often... He likes the man.
OOC - Private Sieghard stuff
Immediately after dealing with Viggo and Hanna (or failing to find them and giving up), he'll see if any of the girls from the Serpent that he was friendly with went with Sforza's expedition to Manaan's Keep and if he can track one of them down. If they're busy working, he'll wait until morning to speak with them. But he's worried about how much Fischwillen knows and wants to prepare a cover story. Reena would be best, Abelie would work just fine, he'd even take Nuri if he had to. Doesn't have to be one of the three of them, just someone he thinks he can trust (or in the case of Nuri or someone like her, bribe)
[roll0] vs 39 Gossip
[roll1] Reroll if needed
Yeah, Sieghard really needs to work on his social skills. =/
Viggo and Hanna proved frustratingly elusive, but Sieghard was consistent. As the commander of the Thorns quartered the streets of the town, Viggo had got no further than some startlingly enthusiastic kissing before the sound of Sieghard's barking voice spoiled his fun. With an apologetic half-smile, Hanna smoothed her hair partially back into place and slipped away - Viggo heard her dutiful reply as she ran into Sieghard on her way back to the barracks.
Sommerzeit gave way to Vorgeheim, and Viggo felt the full heat of his first summer in the Border Princes. In between the brief summer storms, the sun shone down on Sforza's newly-expanded domain, tanning skin nut-brown and leaving the dogs of the town panting in the shade. The fields to the south turned golden with ripening wheat, the better part of this year's harvest thankfully having been spared from the ravages of the orcs.
In Manann's Keep, Ludo passed his days getting to know their new companions in the Thorns - a name they seemed to take to reasonably well. He lost another crown gambling with the canny Ingwald, who seemed to enjoy talking with Ludo to try and winkle out of him which parts of Viggo's tall tales were really true. As a go-between between them and Sieghard who could be trusted not to break into song, Ludo became quite popular around the barracks.
He tried to track down Al-Makir as well, to enquire what had become of Evatt's handguns, but since Sonstill the Arabyan had become hard to get hold of - he seemed to be very busy for some reason, spending much of his time riding between Manann's Keep and Mirino. At any rate, Ludo didn't see any of the other regiments using them, so he assumed they must still be locked in the armoury.
Meanwhile, Viggo was fraternising with the recruits in quite a different sense, taking every opportunity to flirt shamelessly with Hanna. He was vaguely aware that the way he favoured her was causing some disgruntlement among the others of the troop, but he was too caught up in the excitement of it all to care too much. Sieghard was watching the two of them like a hawk, and seemed to be giving Hanna a particularly hard time on the training field, but Viggo thought he could tell the young widow was still as interested in him as he was in her.
When he wasn't looking for an opportunity to sneak about under Sieghard's nose, he tried his best to keep up his training. He found himself comparing to the Thorns fairly well at their target practice, although some of them were rapidly catching up with him - and some, like the taciturn Gustaf, were already ahead. The man could hit a sparrow in flight - Viggo was convinced he must have been a poacher before he joined up.
Sieghard was keeping up a punishing training regime, close quarters as well as target practice - but after their long practice sessions in Last Water, Viggo felt a little ahead of the Thorns with their wooden swords. He tried to compensate by training with Sforza's veterans. Esteban's Estalians remembered him for his attempt to seize the orcs' banner, and humoured him by letting him attend their practice sessions, though they usually disarmed him in short order. When he asked Makeda's permission to practice with her Southlanders, though, he was brusquely brushed off - the Danxome had their hands full with Sforza's goblin hunt.
Elsa continued accompanying their patrols into the forest, although she spent less and less time actually with them - that seemed fine to her, as most of the greenskins with any sense had fled far into the Iron Claw Hills by now. She spent her time instead continuing her hunt for a familiar, and trying to map out the flow of the Winds around Manann's Keep.
Elsa Only
The curious richness she had observed on her first trip to Manann's Keep was still present - the colours in the forest seemed more vibrant to her than they ought, and she could tell magic was to blame. There was magic in the soil, in the trees. As far north as Painford it was barely noticeable, but closest to Manann's Keep it was hard to miss. It was present outside the forest, too, giving an over-rich hue to the waving fields of grain in the Vale.
The effect seemed strongest around streams and bodies of water, but it didn't seem limited to the Wind of Ghyran - it was a polychromatic glitter in the air, attracting each of the Winds of in equal measure. It was less than nothing compared to the forces that had stained the landscape around Kheneb-Ptra-Urush, or even what she had felt during Fassbender's ritual, but it still aroused her curiosity.
She took the opportunity of her circuits of the Thornwood to check in once or twice on Fassbender's tower. It was still empty, and it looked like the villagers hadn't touched it beyond shoring up the sagging structure of the laboratory with baulks of timber, and covering the ruptured roof with a tarpaulin. Propped up by these makeshift repairs, the empty tower somehow seemed to Elsa to have a melancholy air, like a dog waiting for its master's return. It was an absurd fancy, but it stuck with Elsa all the same.
Finally, she checked back in at the castle once or twice to hear the news from the north. Sforza had converted the uppermost level of the keep into a war room much like the one he had in Mirino, and it was there that she heard the reports of Abdul's scouts.
Secrets from the Officers' Club
There was news of another failed assault on the city walls - apparently Rorik and his hill raiders had tried to scale them by stealth, in a night attack. Somebody had tipped the defenders off, and the infiltrators had been repulsed - once again, Sforza and his advisers showed no trace of surprise at this development. Sforza seemed to have no sympathy for the elf, but was very pleased at any development that bled the besiegers a little more.
There was a lot of talk about logistics in the castle that Elsa wasn't sure she understood - she could hardly understand why the Captain concerned himself with such tedious matters when he had men like Abdul to look after them for him. Meat and grain were being shuttled back and forth between Last Water and the territories of the Vale in a rather confusing way, and there seemed to be a lot of talk of caravans bound for Caerfort. Elsa couldn't see how such a small village could need so many supplies. Nevertheless, Abdul - and strangely, Doctor Bianco - seemed to be riding out to Last Water or Caerfort practically once a week.
On the streets of Manann's Keep, the word about the siege was rather more wild. Viggo heard that the dwarfs had tried to tunnel into where the Prince was sleeping, that Rorik and Belehir had fought a duel on the western wall, and that Alvarr's siege engines had flattened half the Warren. He wasn't sure how much of that was true, but one thing was for sure - against the odds, the city still held.
When he wasn't busy training the Thorns, Sieghard stole a few hours drinking with Viktor, who seemed to be pushing his freshly re-equipped Volunteers equally hard (if in a slightly more disorganised fashion). They listened to the news from the north with interest, speculating with obvious vested interest whether the latest developments might draw Sforza into the war. He also tried to keep an eye on Fischwillen, whose stentorian shouts could be heard from the training grounds outside the castle most days.
Sieghard's Secrets
Searching out the group of Filomena's girls who had come to Manann's Keep, Sieghard found the hard-faced woman he remembered as Serafina in charge. She remembered him well enough, and told him that Fischwillen had become a fairly regular customer, though he was - of course - unpopular with the girls. Exactly what he knew about Sieghard and Elsa, though - she couldn't say - Sieghard had to be careful not to let Serafina know too much by the way he asked the question.
In Handrich's Cross, Adelbert cloistered himself in his shrine for the better part of two weeks. He played his part for any worshippers who came by, but otherwise kept to himself, brooding. Only when he was feeling recovered did he seek out Faber and Pistol.
Secret Conversations
"Herr Schreiber," said Pistol, who Adelbert had found in the common hall of the Scales. "Been a while. Where's your wife?" He scratched his greying beard. "Was talking to Ulli up at the mine the other day, said no-one's seen her in weeks."
After Adelbert had solemnly explained that she wasn't his wife and that she wasn't coming back, the grizzled caravan master hung his head in sympathy.
"Sorry to hear that, friend," he said. "Here, this round's on me."
Faber appeared later, hands still dusty from some business up at the mine. Taking the opportunity while they were both together, Adelbert laid out the beginnings of his plan.
"Support the siege?" said Faber, squinting skeptically at him. "I thought you wanted to get back at Sforza? This just helps Alvarr."
Pistol shook his head. "Groz has got the Dwimmulsons on his side. There's nothing we can give 'em they haven't already got. Ulric's hide, most of the equipment we didn't make here we bought from them, back in the good days."
"I'm sorry, Herr Schreiber," said Faber, shaking his head. "If we can help you make life difficult for Sforza, we will. But we're not soldiers. We can't just stick our heads into the middle of a war."
Returning to his shrine, Adelbert began taking up a more active role as custodian again. In particular, he paid attention to his parishioner's complaints, guiding them into opening up about any small grievance they might have about their new rulers in Manann's Keep. It turned out it wasn't hard for most people to find something. This miner's wife had got airs and graces from seeing the lady Irene at Sonstill; that trader had been hit with excise duties that Evatt's men had always been too slack to collect. The farmers seemed to have it worst - apparently Manann's Keep was taking in food like never before, more than even the hungry mouths of Sforza's army could account for.
They all had petty grievances, much as they'd probably had with Evatt; what they didn't have was a purpose. Adelbert got the feeling that the spark he needed was something that would make them all feel wronged, something to stir them up as one mass. If he could have proved Sforza's involvement in Evatt's death, that might have been something - but then it seemed they'd never particularly loved the Grand Commander either. Collaboration with the orcs, that might be something else.
Festag, 25th Vorgeheim
Adelbert was packing for his weekly trip to Manann's Keep when he heard a heavy knock at the door. It sounded like something heavy, not a hand doing the knocking - overcome with the sudden apprehension that it was the butt of an Iron Company pike, Adelbert crept to the window and peered out.
It wasn't. A single figure stood on his doorstep, wrapped in a dusty cloak. Their face was hidden by a deep hood, and they were leaning on a wooden staff - presumably what had done the knocking. Adelbert felt a twinge of a different kind of trepidation - he could see no bell, but not all lepers and plague-stricken advertised their afflictions. Still, if they had come to the shrine seeking shelter, he was its priest.
Opening the door, he asked how he could help. To his surprise, the gleaming brass head of Ortolanus poked out from one of the strangers' tattered sleeves, looking up at his Adelbert's face and flicking out his metal ribbon of a tongue. Reaching up with her other gloved hand, Beatrix Fassbender pulled back her hood and smiled weakly at him.
She looked terrible. Her face was pale as chalk, the dark rings under her eyes making her look like she'd painted her face to resemble a skull. There was a strange bluish tinge to the whites of her eyes, and Adelbert noticed her hand shook like an old woman's.
"Good morning, Herr Schreiber," she said, still remembering her manners. "Do you mind if I come in?"
~
When she'd been shown inside, given a seat and some water to drink, Fassbender began to speak. She seemed dog-tired, resting one arm heavily on Adelbert's table as Ortolanus slithered about the place with much more energy.
"I was given to understand by Fraulein Holt that you and your... travelling companions are looking for something in these parts." She took a sip from her water. "The Lost Library. Fraulein Holt gave me to understand that it might... it might appear soon."
She gave a heavy sigh. "I can't go to Manann's Keep myself - Sforza's men are still looking for me. I thought, if I might stay with you for the moment - and if you could let her know I'm here - then I might join you on your expedition. When the time comes."
RossN
2015-08-19, 04:11 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
It had been a dispriting month and Adelbert had been of half a mind to simply head for Savonne himself and do what limited work he could before his visitor arrived.
Adelbert frowned, listening to Fassbender speak. When she had said her piece he said:
"No one hates Sforza more than I but you should have been at Mannan's Keep Frau Fassbender, even with your condition. The orcs are the enemy of all and had you been there to use your powers how many brave men and women might yet live?"
Adelbert
Ortolanus sat up on his haunches and hissed like a kettle. Fassbender just seemed surprised.
"I don't know," she said. "How many would have lived if the Supreme Patriarch had come? Would you condemn him as well?" She shrugged one shoulder wearily. "I'm not a soldier, Herr Schreiber. It's not my duty to fight. If the keep had fallen I would have gone north with the rest of the civilians." She gave him an appraising look. "I assume you didn't leap onto the front lines either."
RossN
2015-08-19, 06:16 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert
Ortolanus sat up on his haunches and hissed like a kettle. Fassbender just seemed surprised.
"I don't know," she said. "How many would have lived if the Supreme Patriarch had come? Would you condemn him as well?" She shrugged one shoulder wearily. "I'm not a soldier, Herr Schreiber. It's not my duty to fight. If the keep had fallen I would have gone north with the rest of the civilians." She gave him an appraising look. "I assume you didn't leap onto the front lines either."
In reply Adelbert opened his robes, lifting his shirt to show the scar left from the Snotling attack. "A gift from our greenskin friends. Alas, they were unaware I was a civilian."
Irritably he closed his robes again. "I can perhaps treat your condition and yes you may stay... a while at least." He moved off to his larder to prepare food and drink for the two of them, then paused, looking back.
"Savonne is still under siege." He looked at her meaningfully.
Adelbert
Fassbender seemed a little startled, looking away when Adelbert lifted his shirt. Adelbert considered that she had probably been living on her own in the tower for a very long time.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to... to belittle your courage." She paused. "As for my... condition, I'm afraid you won't be able to treat it. The only thing that might help are the books that may be in that library." She looked him in the eye. "You are going to find it, aren't you? That's what Holt said you'd planned."
"Savonne is still under siege." He looked at her meaningfully.
"So I've seen," she said, taking another sip of water. "If it weren't for that I might have tried getting into the archives there."
She squinted at Adelbert. "You seem... changed, Herr Schreiber. Has something happened since I last saw you?" Clearly Elsa wasn't the only wizard who could see something different about Adelbert these days.
TheSummoner
2015-08-19, 06:45 AM
Sieghard + Viggo
Sieghard only waited long enough to speak with Viggo privately before confronting him. "Don't think I don't know what you've been trying, Viggo. My barracks aren't your personal brothel. If you need a woman so badly, either find a village girl or hire one of Filomena's."
"No more," he said. "It's soldiers that Sforza needs and if you get a child in her, she's got no value as one. And neither do you if I can't trust you. You mighta been the one who talked me into all of this, but that doesn't mean I won't throw you out on your ass if you start being more trouble than you're worth."
Private Matters
Sieghard had to stifle a laugh when he learned that Fischwillen was no more loved among Filomena's girls than he was by anyone else.
"Pleasant man, isn't he," Sieghard said. "As fit to lead as he is popular. I could try helping to get him out of your hair if you like. May need to ask a small favor in return though."
Serafina works. If he can get in contact with Reena or Abelie through her, he will. If the two of them are both still in Mirino, he'll work with her directly. As for helping her with Fischwillen, he'd do that regardless. Messing with Fischwillen is it's own reward.
RossN
2015-08-19, 07:44 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert poured himself some water too. "I have taken the robes as you can see; I am now a priest of Verena and Handrich's Cross is my parish."
He took a thoughtful sip, and looked at the wizardess, his eyes cool and searching. "Frankly I am not sure the books aren't better left lost. I am sorry for your condition Beatrix, I truly am, but what if Sforza gets his hands on them? Or that trained ape that masquerades as a priest of Myrmidia? Or even Elsa? History is not reassuring." He refilled her glass with water.
"I brought up Savonne because I am loyal to Duke Edouard and have been trying, with very limited success, to help him take the town. I am sure you have no kindly feelings towards the Duke but he is better than Sforza and I gave my oath to help him." He leaned in, his eyes glinting. "Could your magic turn the tide?"
Sieghard, Earlier in the Month
"Pleasant man, isn't he," Sieghard said. "As fit to lead as he is popular. I could try helping to get him out of your hair if you like. May need to ask a small favor in return though."
Serafina looked interested. "What kind of favour?" she asked. "You know the girls don't work for free, now."
Adelbert
"My magic can't do anything for anybody if I'm dead," said Fassbender, her tone becoming strained. "Which I will be - quite soon, probably - if I can't get hold of the knowledge in those books." She squinted at Adelbert, leaning forwards. "Do you really believe what you're saying? If it's true - if this place is real - what would your goddess say about leaving all that knowledge to rot?" She said it with a subconscious emphasis on your - perhaps she thought herself above such things as religion.
"You have me at your mercy, Herr Schreiber. Holt told me when the Library is supposed to appear, but not where." She shook her head. "Turn me away if you want. Sell me out to Sforza, sell me to your Duke. If you choose to shut me out of this, you will have killed me as surely as either of them could." She sat back in her chair, too tired to raise her voice. "The decision is yours."
RossN
2015-08-19, 08:23 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
'Your goddess'? Not for the first time Adelbert marveled at the combination of stupidity and intellect that seem to go with being a wizard. Viggo could give this woman tips on knowing your audience.
"Beatrix I am not going to turn you in or sell you, and as I've said you can stay here, but be reasonable. You might have shut yourself off from what is going on around you but I haven't." He paused, then sighed. "Alright, I will write to Elsa, and if you feel strong enough you can accompany us, but keep in mind if Sforza's position continues to grow stronger both of our lives will be in danger. It might could against the grain but you'll have to at least gain the friendship of one of the princes." He stood up, offering her a hand. "Enough talk for the moment, I see you are tired."
Adelbert's living quarters were not large but he tried to keep them clean. Decoration and furnishings were sparse but there was a sleeping pallet, a small table with two chairs, an ancient looking chest were Adelbert kept his clothes, and two shelves, one functioning as the larder and one to hold his books.
"You can take the bed of course, I shall sleep in the shrine." He looked uncertainly at Ortolanus. "Does he eat or drink? Or sleep come to think of it?"
Adelbert
A stubborn expression passed across Beatrix's face, as if she were going to find a way to continue the argument - it was replaced by one of faint gratitude as Adelbert offered his help.
"Thank you," she said. She looked down at his familiar. "No, not really. Sometimes he pretends." She reached down and petted his smooth metal head. The lizard clicked in the same way a cat might purr. "If you have any mice he might try, but there's nowhere for them to go inside." She rapped his brass carapace with a knuckle, making a hollow sound. "I'm afraid he just leaves them around the place after he's given up."
RossN
2015-08-19, 08:48 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
"He is a remarkable beast," Adelbert admitted, some of his earlier coolness fading. "Certainly better than the last animal I lived with." A picture of Manfred wormed it's way into his brain and he shuddered.
"I have a female friend in the village who might be able to loan some clothes if you need. She's no fan of the Captain either but if you prefer I won't reveal who you are." He looked embarrassed and continued. "Services are thrice a week and I won't require you to attend, unless you wish. If you don't some of the surrounding area makes for a pleasant stroll, especially to west and north."
He didn't go for such strolls himself anymore. They reminded him of Aisha.
Northern Lad
2015-08-19, 09:01 AM
Viggo & Sieghard
Viggo was backed against the wall, hoping that the finger Sieghard was using to try and poke a hole through his chest wouldn't turn into a fist. "Alright, All bloody right!" Viggo groused, "Hardly had a chance to put a child in her, with you stood over us every second of the sodding day have I?!" Viggo kicked the wall with his heel, "Wasn't treating it like a brothel," He mumbled sullenly, "Just trying to have little fun is all."
Viggo rolled his shoulders and shrugged, "I'll not stop talking to her or being her friend, but I'll stop.... the other stuff. Yes, yes, yes I know you told me... Sorry Sieghard, it wont happen again." Viggo seemed to brighten somewhat as he and Sieghard made their way back to the barracks, "Besides did you see that other lass at Sonstill Sieghard? The blonde one with the massiv......"
LeSwordfish
2015-08-19, 09:12 AM
Ludo and Elsa Are Getting In On the Spoiler Fun - 26th, Early Afternoon
Ludo caught Elsa as she returned from one of her expeditions, and managed to find a moment of quiet by helping her stable Bastard, which he did from a distance.
"Adelbert and Fassbender will be joining us for the trip to the Lost Library." He said, sotto voice. "I don't know if Sforza is planning to send soldiers with us, but we might need to dissuade him."
Adelbert, Festag the 25th
"I could use some new clothes," said Fassbender, looking regretfully at her travel-stained gear. "I'd prefer it though if no-one else knew I was here. I'll stay out of people's way - I have some work to do before we leave." She indicated her heavy satchel, which looked to Adelbert to be full of books. "I'll try to keep out from under your feet."
RossN
2015-08-19, 09:49 AM
Adelbert, Festag the 25th
"Alright, I'll try and keep things quiet. If anyone asks I'll tell them my girlfriend has returned." He winced. "Ex-girlfriend."
Before leaving to ask Faber if she had any old clothes she could loan he paused.
"Beatrix, I'm sorry I was harsh with you, but this is a stressful time. I've invited you in and you shouldn't have to tiptoe around like a stowaway on a riverboat. You're my guest. I know you probably aren't devout but I am still the village priest and if you need to talk - or just want to - I'll listen."
Adelbert, Festag the 25th
"Alright, I'll try and keep things quiet. If anyone asks I'll tell them my girlfriend has returned." He winced. "Ex-girlfriend."
"Oh," said Fassbender, awkwardly. While easily able to match wits on subjects like mythological libraries and the ethics of intervention, it seemed that on this subject she was painfully out of her depth. "I'm - um - sorry to hear that." She frowned, racking her memory. "Not... not Fraulein Holt?"
"Beatrix, I'm sorry I was harsh with you, but this is a stressful time. I've invited you in and you shouldn't have to tiptoe around like a stowaway on a riverboat. You're my guest. I know you probably aren't devout but I am still the village priest and if you need to talk - or just want to - I'll listen."
Beatrix gave a weak smile. "Thank you," she said. "Right now what I really need is to rest. I hope you don't mind." She paused. "It's nice to know there's at least one person in the Reaches I can trust."
RossN
2015-08-19, 10:13 AM
Adelbert, Festag the 25th
"Oh," said Fassbender, awkwardly. While easily able to match wits on subjects like mythological libraries and the ethics of intervention, it seemed that on this subject she was painfully out of her depth. "I'm - um - sorry to hear that." She frowned, racking her memory. "Not... not Fraulein Holt?"
"Sweet Verena no!" Adelbert exclaimed in horror, then looked embarrassed. "Elsa is a friend, but only that. I mean you've met her. No I was with a girl from Last Water... it... um... did not work out. Forget I'm mentioned it."
Beatrix gave a weak smile. "Thank you," she said. "Right now what I really need is to rest. I hope you don't mind." She paused. "It's nice to know there's at least one person in the Reaches I can trust."
Relieved to have changed the subject Adelbert gave her a sympathetic smile. "Of course. Beatrix I know what it's like to not know where to turn to but I promise I'll try and keep you safe. Now get some sleep; that's an order."
He departed for the village.
TheSummoner
2015-08-19, 11:40 AM
Sieghard + Viggo
"Do whatever you like with the blond one," Sieghard said, unamused. "Just as long as you aren't fooling around with anyone on my pay.."
Just Sieghard, earlier in the month.
"The night after the orcs were driven from Manaan's Keep -" Sieghard began, "- should anyone ask, we spent it together. We gambled and we drank like we did when I worked for Filomena. You won my money but when I wagered the coins I had on me that you hadn't already taken for a night with you, I won. As drunk as I was, it didn't last long," he said, deciding it would be better if he didn't make the tale flattering, "and the two of us fell asleep afterwards. You had already won more of my money than you would've made working."
Sieghard, Earlier in the Month
Serafina shrugged her shoulders in apathetic agreement. "Sure," she said. "If you can get rid of the fish, it's a deal."
Adelbert
Beatrix Fassbender's stay in Adelbert's shrine seemed to Adelbert to pass remarkably quickly. She was stand-offish, tactless, impatient, occasionally condescending - but despite that, she seemed to mean well, and she was possibly the most interesting guest Adelbert had ever had.
She could discuss philosophy as well as any learned priest, without the same expectation of deference to her ideas - and though her answers to questions of theology struck Adelbert as bordering on the blasphemous, they were clearly carefully thought through. In particular, he learned from much from her about the hidden world that Elsa claimed to be able to see. After a few days he began to resent the wizard's illness for the conversations it was costing him, when Beatrix became too tired to continue - or else was lost too deep in her books, searching for a solution.
Her condition was clearly more serious than she would admit. Her right hand trembled so much it was becoming hard for her to hold a glass of water without spilling it, while her left arm seemed almost totally paralysed, putting an odd slouch in her posture. She moved slowly, like a much older woman, and her reflexes were unnaturally sluggish. Occasionally Adelbert would find her doubled over with what looked like agonising cramps - still, she hardly ever made a sound. She accepted the herbal concoctions Adelbert gave her, but steadfastly refused to let him examine her. He never even saw her without her elbow-length gloves.
When the time came to leave, Adelbert did his best to suggest they leave Ortolanus behind. Fassbender was having none of it. "He's easy to hide," she insisted. "It's not as if he needs to breathe." Hissing and croaking in uncomprehending outrage, Ortolanus was scooped up and bundled in a thick layer of rags, which they then bundled into the bottom of Fassbender's satchel.
Dressing herself in Faber's borrowed clothes, Beatrix ran a hand through her silver-grey hair. Even looking as unwell as she currently did, it clearly didn't match her age - it was distinctive. Picking up a knife, she made to shear it off - but her lifeless left hand wasn't up to the task. it seemed to cost her a tremendous effort just to lift it.
"Would you mind?" she asked, turning and offering the knife to Adelbert.
Angestag, 32nd Vorgeheim
The group met in the common hall of the Star, Elsa sitting with Sieghard at an adjacent table to avoid drawing attention to the drab figure in the corner. Head bowed and hood up, Beatrix hadn't drawn a single glance from the guards on the bridge. Elsa would have found something funny about seeing a member of the Gold College looking so down-at-heel, if she didn't look so obviously unwell. She had shaved off her hair, leaving her looking like some Shallyan novice. Only the faint, disgruntled noises occasionally emerging from the satchel at her side - the sounds of a very irritated familiar hidden at the bottom of the bag - might have given away that she was more than she seemed.
Elsa had already made arrangements for the expedition. Four mules would be ready for her in the morning, loaded with eight empty chests appropriated from the Iron Company stores. Sforza had assented to assign Sieghard and a squad of his best marksmen to bodyguard duty - as Elsa had pointed out, who better for this mission than troops who knew the local terrain?
"Fraulein Holt," said Beatrix, giving Elsa a faint smile and keeping her voice low. "Good to see you again." She looked around. "Is everything prepared?"
RossN
2015-08-19, 07:17 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Pre-Mannan's Keep
Adelbert kept having to remind himself that Beatrix was still a young woman, only a few years older than him at most. It hurt to see her so frail and exhausted, givn her obvious intelligence and will power. When she was asleep - he had the feeling she would not have approved had she heard - he had begun to mention her in his evening prayers: 'Sweet Lady Verena help this woman - or let me help her.'
He read to her when she was too weary to talk, largely avoiding the sermons but enthusiastically recounting the tales the previous owner of his book had left.
He'd quite forgotten his initial reaction to her. Even Ortolanus seemed a welcome addition to the household, putting the fear of Morr into any rodent who dared enter.
Upon being offered the knife his eyes had widened and he had at first protested that he was no barber surgeon. Eventuallly he had agreed however and with great care shaved those lustorous silver hairs. Then he'd helped her to Bella. "Don't worry she's stronger than she looks; she's carried two before. Sorry Ortolanus, I guess it is three now."
Mannan's Keep
Adelbert hung around nervously, wearing his armour. He hovered protectively near Beatrix, clearly concerned about her stamina. "I can leave Bella stabled at the inn for a few days, unless you think we'll need her."
He looked meaningfully at the Gold Wizard, in case she needed transportation.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-19, 07:25 PM
"Is everything prepared?"
Elsa, who had been averting her eyes from Beatrix and her increasingly dreadful condition, looked up nervously. "What do you -- oh -- the expedition? Yes!" She nodded vigorously. "We have trustworthy people, I can assure you that. I don't know what to expect inside, but we can deal with it. After Kheneb-Ptra-Urush, we're prepared for the worst."
She forced herself to look more closely at Beatrix, and lowered her voice. "I really hope we can find what you need. You look like you're running out of time. No offense intended."
"And please call me Elsa."
TheSummoner
2015-08-19, 09:57 PM
Sieghard
Sieghard had been speaking with Elsa in hushed tones before Fassbender approached. From the look on his face, something was bothering him.
"Herr Fish may be on to us," he said, "Not sure how much he knows, but he certainly suspects something. He saw you blow that kiss on Sonstill after I fired the cannon."
He sighed. "I think I can explain that away if I need to. Al-Makir already knows you're fond of me and as long as he doesn't think I'm acting on it, it shouldn't be a problem. What worries me is how much more he knows - if someone saw us that night, or heard us."
"I talked to one of the girls I know from when I worked for Filomena and she agreed to say I was with her at the time if it ever comes up. We were never what you'd call close, but I think she can be trusted... Didn't have to tell her why I wanted her to claim that in any case. Thing is, she wants help with something in return. Funny enough, Filomena's girls don't like Fish any more than I do and they don't want to have to deal with him anymore."
"The two of you are the experts on all of this," Sieghard said, "My men will do everything they can, but I fear the worst of what we will face in there is the sort of thing only the two of you will be able to deal with."
OOC:
If anyone is inclined to, you could probably eavesdrop on what Sieghard and Elsa are saying with a successful perception test... Let's say at -10%. Sieghard is trying to keep things hushed, but it's not like we aren't all in the same room if you choose not to respect his privacy. :smalltongue:
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 09:09 AM
Whatever Elsa was telling Sieghard, she seemed quite upset.
Sieghard's news made Elsa more outraged than worried. "Who does Al-Makir think he is -- a gods-damned priest, worried about my immortal soul? Who I f*ck is nobody's concern but mine, as long as it doesn't include the Captain's wife. Sforza's soldiers go in and out of the brothel like it's a bakery, but there's noooo problem with it, clearly. They're men, they have their needs," she said with dripping sarcasm, "but as a woman I have to be all pure and virtuous to keep those self-righteous hypocrites from being embarrassed by my sinful ways." She realized her voice had been rising, and lowered it again. "The least Al-Makir could do is to take it up to me himself. I'll throw it back in his face, of course, but I'd at least appreciate the honesty."
She forced herself to stop talking; if she got started on this particular topic, she could rant until bodily restrained and silenced. Indeed, she had done so, once, in front of half the masters of the Bright College, when summoned for a stern talk about her nightly activities. For some reason, her arguments had failed to sway them, and were not likely to sway al-Makir either.
Elsa took a deep breath. "What did the girl want in return?"
She managed to calm down somewhat, though she was still fuming.
"My men will do everything they can, but I fear the worst of what we will face in there is the sort of thing only the two of you will be able to deal with."
"Or we may find the place perfectly safe," Elsa pointed out. "Knowing our luck, I wouldn't count on it, but it's perfectly possible."
OOC everyone:
Elsa talks louder than Sieghard, so make it Perception +10 to eavesdrop on her. :smalltongue:
She forced herself to look more closely at Beatrix, and lowered her voice. "I really hope we can find what you need. You look like you're running out of time. No offense intended."
"None taken," said Beatrix, with an exhalation approximating a laugh. She looked around. "I suppose I'll stay here for the night. I still have a little of the money I took with me when I left Painford." She patted the satchel, drawing a muffled croak from Ortolanus.
When she discovered they were taking a cart, she politely declined Adelbert's offer of his horse - she'd happily ride with the supplies. "It's good to see you've thought this through so carefully," she said to Sieghard. "I assure you, I'll do everything I can to keep you informed of any... unusual circumstances." The word magic probably wasn't wise to speak openly in the common hall. "I'm sure... Elsa... will too."
Having bought some of the innkeeper's food and left most of it uneaten, Beatrix retired for the night.
Festag, 33rd Vorgeheim
They left early the next morning, setting out through a haze of warm rain. With them marched 6 of Sieghard's Thorns - the boy Florin, Gustaf, Goran, Ingwald, and two brothers from the Vale named Baldo and Petar. Gustaf led the mules, seeming very at home among the mute animals. Cloak drawn in tight against the weather, he told Sieghard he thought a storm was coming.
Magnus had been harnessed to the company cart, with Viggo in the driver's seat. Beatrix sat in the back with their water and equipment, eyes closed, swaying in time with the lurching of the wheels. She didn't seem to mind the rain beading on her bare scalp, and once again the guards paid her little notice as the little convoy left town. Their attention was on Sieghard and Elsa instead. They were men of Fischwillen's company today - though the halberdiers on duty showed proper respect, Sieghard thought he spotted the sergeant giving him a dirty look.
Soon they were out across the fields and heading up into the neck of the Vale, where Griswold's tale had taken place. The jagged rock walls of the Karst closed in to the north, splitting the wheat-fields and meadows into winding ravines. To the south, the tall tops of the Dead Hills were hidden behind the veil of rain, dark smudges in the distance merely hinting at their presence.
As they passed out of the fertile valley and into the rocky borders of the Karst, the terrain became difficult for Viggo and his cart. Mane plastered wetly against his neck, Magnus became agitated when one of the wheels caught on a jagged rock, trapping the horse in place. Fortunately Viggo was there to calm him down - the young man and his horse had a remarkable bond. Sitting on the back of Bastard, who had twice already tried to carry her away from the others to live wild and free, Elsa couldn't help but feel a little jealous.
They made camp in a natural cave in one of the limestone crags, steam rising from the flanks of Magnus and the mules as they huddled together in one horsey-smelling corner. Bastard and Wouter had to be kept separately - Wouter was the only horse Bastard didn't try to bite.
While Gustaf started a small fire and started roasting a couple of rock rabbits he had shot during the journey, Beatrix found a private corner and changed back into her tattered and travel-stained wizard's clothes. She seemed remarkably realistic about her chances of survival - if this was to be her last adventure, she said, she wanted to face it as a wizard of the Gold College. The pride and dignity carried by that statement was a little compromised by the fact that she needed Elsa's help to get her frozen left arm through her sleeve.
Assisting the Gold Wizard in her difficulty, Elsa felt the arm beneath the long gloves she still wore. It was solid lead past the elbow now.
Geheimnistag
The morning of Geheimnistag came with no let-up in the rain - if anything the weather had worsened, the grey clouds growing thicker. The atmosphere was thick and humid, dampening their clothes with sweat even during their brief escapes from the rain.
Under Sieghard's direction, the Thorns spread out, searching for the rocky pinnacle described in Griswold's story. He'd spoken to them about keeping quiet about their guest, and they'd agreed without fuss - loyalty to the regiment and a steady wage was more important to them than a one-off reward. Ingwald was the only one Sieghard was worried about... he might have actually been able to read how much Sforza was offering for Beatrix's capture.
The search proved difficult. It wasn't that they couldn't find the pinnacle - it was that they could hardly tell which one it was. The Karst was full of them. Many had flat tops, and a fair few had ways up the side that might or might not be interpreted as a path. By the time evening was drawing in, they'd only narrowed it down to two or three good candidates - it was impossible to be sure.
The rain was getting heavier. The stunted trees that grew in the cracks in the high rocks swayed as the wind picked up, whistling eerily between the crags. It looked like Gustaf had been right - a storm was coming in. Thankfully the natural maze of the Karst offered plenty of shelter. Elsa and Beatrix were just coming forward to look at the pinnacle Sieghard's men thought the most likely match when there came a shout of alarm from up ahead - Florin jumped back into view, his crossbow pointed at something - or someone - around the corner of a boulder.
<Put that down, boy,> came a voice in strongly-accented Tilean. With a clinking of bronze scales, six armed figures came into view - six of the Danxome, swords and shields at their sides. Beatrix stared in shock, while Adelbert looked down, trying to hide his face - thankfully, Oseye and Etunu didn't seem to be among them.
<Reporting for duty, Signora Hildebrand,> said the lead Southlander, a short woman with scars that put the most intimdating of the Thorns to shame. She looked up at Fassbender on the cart, flashing a smile full of white teeth through the rain. <Is this your prisoner?>
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 09:20 AM
Elsa did not seem the least bit surprised by the arrival of the Ahosi. She even smiled.
<Is this your prisoner?> asked the leader in Tilean.
<"Don't treat her as such, but do keep an eye on her,"> answered Elsa in the same language. <"She's coming with us inside the Library. We may find something in there that can save her life.">
It was no use mincing words about Fassbender's condition; her state was apparent to all.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 09:32 AM
Ludo looked from Elsa to the new arrivals suspiciously. "You didnt tell us you were bringing them."
<Yes, Signora,> said the leader of the Southlanders. Her warriors spread out around the caravan - either falling in or surrounding them, it wasn't clear.
Elsa Only
Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw the wind of Chamon gathering around Beatrix. Elsa tensed, her heart beating faster. She knew she had the overwhelming advantage - but if Fassbender chose to do something foolish, she wasn't sure what would happen. It hadn't been so long ago that Balthasar Gelt had defeated the head of her own order in a duel to become the Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges - clearly the Gold Wizards had some fairly dangerous tricks up their embroidered sleeves.
At last, the magic dissipated as Beatrix let it go, controlling her instincts.
Beatrix fixed Elsa with a stare as cold as a glacier. The only time Ludo had seen anything like it was the encounter he'd witnessed between Filomena and the Captain's wife.
"This was a very roundabout way to drag me before your Captain, Fraulein Holt," she said, returning to the use of Elsa's second name with clipped, precise enunciation. "If you'd turned me in at the Star you could have saved us the journey."
RossN
2015-08-20, 09:36 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert marched with the others, checking back every few hours to see how Beatrix was faring. he'd been debating with himself whether leaving Bella in the inn stables had been the right choice. A few hours experience watching Bastard had confirmed his sweet-natured little bay was far safer there than here!
He'd brought his journal to take notes but was forced to abandon the practice as the weather turned bad. By the second morning he was daydreaming of his home back in Handrich's Cross, only to be abruptly awakened by Florin. He was still fumbling with his crossbow when the warrioresses appeared.
Adelbert turned white as the Ahosi stepped into view. He noticed Elsa's expression and wondered just what else about this expedition had been planned in advance without his knowledge.
Hearing Beatrix speak he hurriedly started speaking to her in Classical: <I don't think is a betrayal. I don't like it either my friend but please let Elsa handle things.>
TheSummoner
2015-08-20, 09:44 AM
Sieghard and Elsa on the 32nd
"If the soldiers make a bastard, it doesn't stop them from being able to fight," Sieghard replied. Given the trouble Viggo had caused, he was a bit sympathetic to the position. "And anything Al-Makir says or does on the subject comes from Sforza." It was nice to see that Elsa was so focused on the important part of the discussion and didn't let herself get tied up with petty details like what Sforza would do to the two of them if the truth got out.
"She wants to be rid of Herr Fish. Still trying to figure that one out. Short of killing him, I'm not sure I could stop him from hiring them."
Geheimnistag
Well, at least he spotted them, Sieghard thought, though he doubted the Southlanders had put much effort into staying hidden.
His feelings were mixed about the new arrivals. He certainly didn't care for the fact that the ahosi had come unannounced, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel some relief that they would have warriors trained for close combat with them when they entered the Lost Library.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 10:11 AM
"If the soldiers make a bastard, it doesn't stop them from being able to fight."
Ah. So that's the matter.
"I talked to Filomena's girls," said Elsa, "and they told me of a weed that prevents conception. I harvested some of it. But you're right, maybe I should at least... try to be more discreet about it all."
She was still somewhat bitter about Sforza trying to control her life. Sieghard's right, I am nothing but a living weapon to them... and I'm no good if they can't use me any time they choose. She seriously wondered if there were ways to make herself barren for life.
"She wants to be rid of Herr Fish. Still trying to figure that one out. Short of killing him, I'm not sure I could stop him from hiring them."
"No killing of course, no matter how much you'd like it. Listen, I'll think about it, but I'm not convinced we need her help all that much."
"And anything Al-Makir says or does on the subject comes from the Sforza."
Is the Sforza like a Border Princes version of the Donald? :smalltongue:
"You didnt tell us you were bringing them."
Elsa shrugged. "Slipped my mind," she said, deadpan.
"This was a very roundabout way to drag me before your Captain, Fraulein Holt," she said, returning to the use of Elsa's second name with clipped, precise enunciation. "If you'd turned me in at the Star you could have saved us the journey."
Elsa met Fassbender's gaze with a neutral face, betraying neither guilt nor harshness. She spoke in a soft but unapologetic tone, as if merely stating the facts: "Ah, but we need you in there with us; you alone know what can save you. Even if we do find something, chances are you'd need your laboratory to use it, and you can't go back there without the Captain learning of it. One way or the other, you couldn't stay on the run forever, so let's put an end to the hassle of hiding from the law, shall we? When you're back home, we'll provide you everything you need to reverse your condition."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 10:16 AM
"This isn't right." Ludo said, as it dawned on him that Fassbender was being taken prisoner. "This isn't fair. You're blackmailing her."
Beatrix said nothing, coldly staring Elsa down. She stepped up to the edge of the cart, clearly mustering some scathing reply - but an onset of severe cramps prevented her from saying it, doubling the older wizard over as she clutched at her abdomen. Sitting down on Sieghard's cask of water, she slowly regained her breath.
"I suppose," she said, in a harsh, ragged voice, "I don't have much choice."
"This isn't right." Ludo said, as it dawned on him that Fassbender was being taken prisoner. "This isn't fair. You're blackmailing her."
"Well spotted, that halfling," said Beatrix quietly. She slid down to sit on the floor of the cart, leaning back to rest her head against the side of the barrel. The ahosi pushed Ludo aside to close in around it, a cross between gaolers and an honour guard.
RossN
2015-08-20, 10:28 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert's confidence slowly drained away as he realised Ludo was right. He looked at Elsa more in horror than in anger before moving as close to Beatrix as her unwanted bodyguard would allow.
<Gods Beatrix... I swear I didn't know.>
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 10:34 AM
"This isn't right." Ludo said, as it dawned on him that Fassbender was being taken prisoner. "This isn't fair. You're blackmailing her."
Elsa threw Ludo a glare. "She's dying. The Captain doesn't want her dead. Now she'll have a whole government helping her instead of hindering her. For now let us concentrate on the task at hand."
She addressed the Ahosi, in Reikspiel so that all could understand: "Give her some space. She's only a prisoner if she chooses to act like one."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 10:37 AM
Ludo looked from the Ahosi to Elsa again, to the thorns and their audience, but there was nothing to be done.
"Well," he said bitterly. I imagine this is how things are done at court."
Northern Lad
2015-08-20, 11:21 AM
Viggo Hirtzel
Viggo was confused and unsure why the appearance of the Ahosi had set his friends against one another, he sidled up next to Sieghard, keeping his voice low. "What are them lot doing here?" he asked nodding in the newcomers direction, "Does this mean we'll be having to split whatever we find with them as well now?" Viggo had spent the last two months daydreaming of the untold riches that were awaiting them in the Lost Library, those dreams had never involved having to split said riches with a load of savages who wouldn't even let you train with them.
Unaware of the reason behind the sudden tension between Elsa and Beatrix, Viggo made no qualms about showing his displeasure at the new escort, "I hope this sodding library is bloody big enough to fit us all in! Why didn't we invite the Maneaters too eh? I know, I know, why don't we just traipse the whole of damn Mannan's Keep out here too?!" He trailed off, disgusted at the rain soaking his cloak and miserable that any reward or praise for recovering this book that might have been coming the Thorns way would probably go to the Ahosi now.
Most of the ahosi didn't seem to understand Elsa's instruction, but the leader did. Giving orders in their own tongue, she got her women to spread out again.
<Gods Beatrix... I swear I didn't know.>
I didn't think you did, said Beatrix. I should have seen this coming... myself.
Finally wriggling out of the satchel, Ortolanus opened his needle-toothed jaws and hissed at the nearest of Elsa's accomplices. The Southlander gripped her sword, but her leader motioned for her not to raise it. Shooting Elsa a spiteful glance, the brass lizard scuttled back to where Beatrix sat, wrapping itself protectively around her ankles.
A forbidding rumble of thunder rolled overhead, echoing between the crags. Magnus whinnied, while the mules bunched into the shelter of the nearest rock. The storm was clearly just getting started.
~
Night fell with no sign of the Library. Sitting shivering on the back of the cart, Adelbert reflected on the poor timing of the weather. It was Geheimnisnacht, the night of mystery, the one night of the year when both moons were full and he could barely see the clouds, let alone the sky beyond them. The air was full of flying water, the wind skirling through the Karst as thunder grumbled and boomed on high.
While most of them huddled in the rain-shadow of one of the largest crags, Sieghard's Thorns were posted in high vantage points, the better to spot the Library should it appear. Adelbert doubted they would find it now in this murk, he could barely see across the nearest ravine between the rocks. Behind him on the cart, Beatrix looked to be asleep he had to look twice to check she was still breathing. He'd seen summer storms before, but for some reason he couldn't shake a creeping sense of dread at the troubled sky. It felt like the gods were angry.
Elsa Only
Unlike Adelbert, Elsa found something exhilarating about the fury of the elements. She could taste the Winds blowing from the north, stronger than she'd felt in months. Azyr and Aqshy rode the lightning, while Ulgu and Ghyran swirled through the wind and rain. It was almost worth getting wet. More than that, it was getting stronger.
Time passed, hard to measure without the moon or stars, and the storm continued to rage. It was perhaps a little before midnight when the sound of the hammering rain changed heavier, more erratic, hitting the ground with splattering slaps.
There was a wet thump in the middle of their little camp, and Bastard reared, the whites of his eyes showing as two of the ahosi raced to restrain him. It wasn't rain it was fish, fish falling from the sky. The trout that had fallen in front of the horse lay crippled on the ground, gasping its last. It had two heads.
Thump. Another fish, splattering its guts all over one of Elsa's empty chests. Thump, another, narrowly missing Ludo. Thump, thump they were falling thick and fast, those few that survived the fall wriggling pathetically towards the puddles of rainwater that still danced with drops of honest rain. Many were mutants, with long spines or strangely-coloured scales. One had the legs of a human infant where its fins should be, grey-skinned and slimy. It wailed like an infant too, until Bastard's stamping hooves crushed its head.
Shouting in alarm, the mercenaries tried to get under cover, Sieghard's lookouts scrambling down from where the rain of fish was now bombarding the rocks above. Lightning flashed and cracked above them, illuminating the nightmarish scene for only an instant at a time. The mules and horses were panicking, their tiny minds unable to cope with what was going on.
There was a tremendous boom of thunder directly overhead, drowning out the shouts of the Thorns and the ahosi as its deafening echoes reverberated through the Karst. The light of the accompanying lightning bolt seemed to fill the world, pink and blue after-images dancing across Sieghard's eyes. When they cleared, however, he knew what he had seen. Silhouetted against the searing flash, on a high pinnacle to the south, had been the outline of a building. Squinting now through the rain, he could still see it a darker shape in the darkness, towers and crumbled walls rearing high above the rocks.
It had not been there before.
OOC: Everyone take a WP test at +10 or gain an Insanity Point. Fish belong in the sea! Not the sky!
As you may have guessed, this storm is not entirely natural. All casting attempts while in it will from now on come with a Chaos Die - an extra d10 that doesn't count towards the casting roll but does count for Tzeentch's Curse.
Those with animal handling skills may want to use them to stop the mules and horses going mental.
TheSummoner
2015-08-20, 11:33 AM
Sieghard and Elsa on the 32nd
"That'd certainly help," Sieghard said, "They can't object to anything they don't learn about."
"As for Herr Fish, I don't think I could get away with killing him even if I wanted to. The man is a pest, but he really hasn't done anything worth killing him over... And it would probably only raise more questions and make things worse if the body of one of Sforza's men - even one as incompetent as him - was to turn up in the river one morning."
Nah, just me originally typing "the captain" and deciding to change it to "Sforza" but forgetting how grammar works.
Geheimnistag
"My cart," Sieghard replied quietly. "We'll probably have to split anything the mules carry and they'd get anything they carry by themselves, but anything on the cart is ours."
RossN
2015-08-20, 11:39 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
This is a terrible idea, Adelbert thought to himself. He shivered and made the sign of the hammer as he watched the sky. He could almost hear divine voices on the wind, and he whispered to his own goddess, his words thumbling away in the weather. His thoughts turned to the idol they had fought in the mansion at Ravenskird. Easy enough for Elsa to claim it the thing of hedge wizards but he knew Taal would call a reckoning yet...
When the fish fell he started to panic and moved to carry Beatrix to cover - under the card if neccessary. "Help me for Verena's sake!"
He tried not to look to hard at some of the fish that were not all fish.
OOC:
Will Power Test: [roll0] vs. 43.
Actually passed with the +10% bonus I forgot, thank Verena!
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 11:46 AM
"As I said at the festival, the Captain wants to remove him," Elsa reminded Sieghard. "If he has no job, he has no money to spare on whores. Just let Filomena's girls think we're responsible for that."
OOC: I'm done if you are.
WP 53 + 10: [roll0] - Eeeep.
Elsa liked to think she was jaded when it came to strange occurrences, but this -- this was new to her. The wailing fish with the legs of a human baby made her recoil in undisguised horror.
"Sigmar's hammer!" she exclaimed, ashen-faced. She was grateful when her horse crushed the abomination.
Shivering, not just from the rain, she stared vacantly at the distance as she tried to regain her composure. "Ah! The Library!"
She could not get in there fast enough. Whatever awaited them, it could not be worse than fish with the voices of babies.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 12:06 PM
Ludo yelped as one of the monstrosities exploded beside him, and struggled away, but gasped, and forgot it as he saw the slhouette of the Library appear on the peak besides them.
"We have to go!" he urged, thoughts of the chaos in the air forgotten. "We don't know how long it will last!"
Hands over his head to protect against the storm, he squinted at the rock, trying to plot a path through the cliffs to the library door.
TheSummoner
2015-08-20, 12:10 PM
Sieghard
"I told you it would appear tonight!" Sieghard shouted, too excited to pay the mutant fish any mind.
He addressed the men he had chosen to come inside with them. "We're heading into the unknown, so keep your wits about you. You're to stay with me or the captain's witch at all times and obey her orders as if they were my own. No questioning orders and no backtalk - you listening, Ingwald? No touching anything unless the captain's witch says it's safe either. Most important, we're all leaving the place before dawn. Anyone still inside when the sun rises won't be able to leave."
"All the two of you have to do is stand guard until the rest return. Find some cover and stay out of sight until you see us come out. There might be weirder things than raining fish about tonight. If so, I don't expect you to fight them on your own, just to keep our things safe." he said to the brothers he had chosen to wait outside.
Northern Lad
2015-08-20, 12:59 PM
Viggo Hirtzel
Viggo let out a yelp of fear as a fish slapped down against his shoulder, bouncing off him in flapping fits. His first thought was to dash for cover beneath the cart, his legs already carrying him in that direction as he took flight. It was only Sieghards shouted commands and the startled whinnies from Magnus that drew him up short. If that rat Ingwald can keep it together so can bloody I! He hoped nobody had heard his scream.
Covering his head with his cloak, as if that'll do any good, he surveyed the scene, what are they all looking at? Then he spotted it, perched across the way, Gods it's there, it's bloody real! "It's there! It's really bloody there!" pulling himself together he moved to calm Magnus taking a firm grip on the big bays reins, talking soothingly into his ear.
Once he'd done his best to settle Magnus he called out "Lads! The mules! Settle them down! Keep the reins tight and their head's low, lets get them out of this.. whatever this is!" Suiting his own words he led Magnus off, "That way! it's bloody hard to miss!" He looked over his shoulder to make sure they'd heard. Fish! Human Fish! Falling from the sodding sky! This is... we're out of our bloody depth is what this is!
OOC
Animal Care Test:
INT 31 - [roll0]
It was all Viggo could do to keep Magnus from bolting as he hung onto the reins. Attempting to follow his orders, the Thorns tried to fence in the panicked mules, holding their hands over their heads to protect their heads. One of the animals saw a gap in their circle and broke through, shedding the two chests harnessed to its back as it galloped off into the stony ravines of the Karst. In moments it had vanished into the rain.
Under the cart, Beatrix gaped up at the sudden appearance of the Library.
"It's real," Adelbert heard her whisper under her breath, "it's actually real."
Heading for the rock as fast as his feet could carry him, Ludo weaved between falling fish, Stoutheart yapping at his heels. It wasn't even one of the crags they had earmarked as a likely candidate for the site of Griswold's story - it was a rain-slick spike of stone, the dim shape of the ruins clinging to its summit like a bird to an undersized perch.
Reaching the foot of the crag, Ludo circled it until he thought he could see a way up. It was little more than a goat-track winding up the side of the rock - the remaining mules might manage it, but Magnus and the cart would have no chance.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 01:08 PM
"Get the cart under cover!" Ludo shouted as a hefty pike exploded beside him. "Stay nearby, we'll find you afterwards."
Northern Lad
2015-08-20, 01:25 PM
Viggo Hirtzel
"Get the cart under cover!" Ludo shouted as a hefty pike exploded beside him. "Stay nearby, we'll find you afterwards."
"Give me a bloody moment!" Viggo replied looking for the nearest cover whilst trying to hold onto his panicked horse, "Let me get him safe and I'll come up!" Finally getting Magnus under control and swearing under his breath over the lost mule, Viggo led Magnus to an over hanging outcrop. Instructing the Thorns left on watch to keep him calm and safe, he moved off to join Ludo and the others.
It was a gruelling climb up the rock spire - the rain had made the path treacherous, and now it was also littered with flopping, slippery-scaled fish. The most sure-footed of the group, Ludo led the way, kicking dead fish down into the dark. The wind swirled around the crag, throwing gusts of rain in his face as it plucked forcefully at his flapping jacket.
Sieghard and Elsa followed close behind, heads down. Viggo followed with the mules and the four Thorns who Sieghard had chosen, with Adelbert and Beatrix behind them. Fassbender needed Adelbert's help to manage the treacherous trail - whatever was wrong with her arm made it difficult for her to balance.
Adelbert Only
Beatrix seemed to be trying to keep her bad arm away from Adelbert, but there was little freedom of movement on the narrow trail. At one point, he caught her when she slipped, and felt the arm through her sleeve. It was hard, heavy and cold - like touching solid metal.
She gave him a look, and carried silently on.
Behind them came the Danxome, shields raised over their heads as if storming a castle gate. Fish bounced and wriggled off the roof of shields, some with dogs' teeth, some with sides covered by rows of glistening eyes. No two were the same; most were mercifully quickly swallowed back up by the wind and rain.
At last, they came to the summit. Scrambling up over the last spur of rock, Ludo looked up at the ruins of the Lost Library, looming through the veil of rain.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/LordChilipepa/Lost_Library_zps6ggsubmh.png
Built of the same sooty limestone as the Karst itself, it was difficult to see how its builders had the got the great slabs of stone that made it up this high. Its architecture seemed at once familiar and foreign, the fashions of Bretonnia and the Empire subtly twisted. Half ruined and silhouetted against the storm, it was an imposing sight. Ludo could swear the storm clouds seemed to be revolving around it. The rain certainly seemed to have lessened now that he'd reached the top.
No light issued from inside - it looked as silent and deserted as a tomb. Great brass gates, scored with strange designs and plated with verdigris, looked to be the only entrance.
TheSummoner
2015-08-20, 02:28 PM
Sieghard
"Let's go," Sieghard said "We only have so much time."
Sieghard will approach the entrance and open the gates. If they're too heavy for him to shift alone, he'll order Goran to lend him a hand. Once inside, he'll offer the use of one of the torches he bought, though he doesn't have anything to light it with, having failed to find matches.
The gates seemed stuck fast. It took Goran and Sieghard pushing together to get them open - slowly, with a squeal of corroded hinges, they swung inwards. Hurrying to be out of the downpour, the group scurried inside.
They found themselves in a high-ceilinged stone hall. No other living thing stirred in the cavernous space - even the hammering of the rain seemed oddly muted. Huddling against the wall, the mules snorted and shook their heads, dripping water onto the dusty flagstones. The drips echoed.
Two rows of bookshelves ran down the left and right of the hall, leaving a broad corridor clear between them. What had once been a fine collection had been thrown into disorder - some books dangled from their shelves on the rusted chains that were supposed to present their theft, while others lay on the floor, loose pages scattered about them like leaves. One drifted in front of the intruders, caught by the breeze from the open door. Pinning it with his foot, Adelbert stooped down and picked it up. Half-eaten by mildew and rot, it was a lovingly-illuminated page from D'Agostini's Wings of the Eagle Unfolded. He'd seen a copy once when he was working in Averheim - it was a rare Myrmidian religious text. To his knowledge the last copy had been produced centuries ago.
A faint circle of bruised moonlight illuminated the centre of the hall, what little could penetrate the storm falling through the great rose window in the front of the building. Though filmed with dust, Ludo could make out human figures in its stained-glass panes - three of them, two men and one woman. The woman wore a fur cloak and carried a spear, a small bird - perhaps a swallow - shown perched on her free arm. The men carried staffs - one was small and bald, while the other, the one in the centre, was tall and bearded, his face half-hidden by a deep hood. Carved on the stone wall below in angular Classical letters, tracing the curve of the window's edge, were three names.
ETHELDRED
NICODEMUS
BALTHASAR
At the opposite end of the hall, a large double door stood alone in the solid stone wall. Lighting their torches, Sieghard and his men approached it, throwing back the shadows that engulfed the archway. The doors were solid, made of old oak with the faded marks of octograms traced across their surface - and firmly shut.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 02:32 PM
Ludo lead the way towards the door, tugging Stoutheart along on his string to keep him away from the fish guts. He paused before the great doors, inspecting the designs. They looked in some ways similar to those in the Nehkeharan temple, and a shiver ran down his spine, which was by now near-permanently shiverred. "They look like the tomb!" he said to the group as a whole.
Before inspecting the room, he pointed at the doors at the other end of the room, and spoke to the wizards in specific "Can you check they're not magically protected?"
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 04:05 PM
Elsa had never cared much for books - the librarian at the Bright Order always gave her an earful for straining the books' spines or earmarking the pages - but the state of disarray of the Lost Library saddened even her. She hoped this would not make the book of necromancy too hard to find.
She extended her witch-sight towards the closed door.
Might as well make it a general test for Elsa's surroundings, in case magic can be felt from another direction.
Magical Sense 63: [roll0] - Nice!
Re-roll: [roll1]
Elsa Only
The air in the library was saturated with magic. Elsa had to use all the techniques she had been taught to control her witchsight just to see what the others were seeing - random patterns seemed to crawl across every surface, knotholes in wooden shelves turning into leering faces when glimpsed from the corner of her eye. She heard ghostly voices whispering in her ears, like the rustling of dry paper.
Forcing down the distractions, she focused on the marks on the doors. They clearly held some power still, though time had weakened the weave of the enchantment they contained. The method of the magic they represented was different from what she had learned in the Bright College, different even from de Montfort's book, but she recognised some familiar elements. There were spells worked into the wood, preserving the doors against decay and physical violence - and more than that, there were wards against magic, designed to isolate the Aethyr on either side of the door from itself. They were clearly greatly weakened - Elsa could feel the Winds leaking through the cracks, spilling into the antechamber they stood in like ink into clear water.
Beatrix came forward down the aisle of despoiled bookshelves, looking closely at the door. Studying it for a minute or two, she looked back to Ludo.
"They are," she said, "but not against us." She nodded to Ludo. "We can pass safely."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 04:56 PM
Ludo stooped to light his lantern, and held it up to cast a larger area into light. The library was fascinating - it was a crime to see so many books in such disorder. He picked one at random from the shelves and flicked through it, chose another and inspected the cover, before forcing himself to stop, with an effort of willpower. More than a part of him wanted to collect all the fallen books up and load them into the mules.
"Once we've found what we want, we should see how much else we can take," he announced. "As much as possible of this should be saved."
"What happened here? The wind can't have knocked them off the shelves by itself."
Deciding to leave that to later, he turned to the door. Deciding also to leave aside the question of who they were warded against, he leaned his weight against them to push the heavy doors open.
The inner doors swung silently open. Beyond, the library was dark - Ludo led the way with his lantern held high.
What the torchlight revealed took his mind a minute to come to grips with. Towering bookshelves loomed on all sides, filled with chained tomes. They intersected at bizarre angles, twisting around each other in a confusion of age-darkened timber. Winding wooden steps wrapped around them like serpents, reaching up to the highest shelves by strangely circuitous routes.
The maze of bookshelves stretched in all directions, vanishing into the dark. It seemed vaster to Ludo than the ruins he had seen from the outside could possibly contain. There was no way to take it all in - trying to do so made him feel seasick, the slanting shelves around him seeming to warp and stretch. The doorway in which they stood was the only constant point in the shifting labyrinth - without it, he felt he could barely tell which direction was up in the corkscrew geometry ahead.
If you listened carefully, you could hear a faint, rhythmic creaking of wood, like the flexing of a ship's hull. At Sieghard's side, Goran shuddered.
"This ain't right," muttered the big man. "It ain't natural."
"Permission to say, sir," said Ingwald to his commander, "that we should lock these doors and go back the way we came."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-20, 05:09 PM
"Do we have some way of finding our way back?" Ludo asked. "You got chalk, yes?"
He stepped carefully forward a few paces, and turned slowly on the spot to inspect the library. "I think it will probably be specially protected. They might have a... a restricted section, or something. We should find that but Beatrix's book could be anywhere here." He checked the shelves, in the hope that there was some kind of system for the books.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 05:26 PM
"Do we have some way of finding our way back?" Ludo asked. "You got chalk, yes?"
"Plenty, yes." Elsa started handing out bits of chalk to any who wanted some.
Like Ludo, her priority was to find some kind of sorting system. The grimoire was more important to her than any book that could help Beatrix, but there was a chance they would find both in the same area.
<"You."> She addressed one of the Ahosi, and handed her the hourglass. <"You're our timekeeper. Your only job is to turn the hourglass every time it needs turning, and to keep track of how many times you turned it. Simple enough, but our lives depend on it. This place needs my undivided attention."> She trusted the Ahosi more than the Thorns for this important task.
To the whole group she said: "If we ever need to split for any reason, no one, no one, is to ever be left alone. Our time is short, but I'd rather we proceed carefully."
There appeared to be no words or letters on the shelves. In places the wood had been scorched in strange patterns, while in others it seemed strangely fused and glassy, as if it had run and set like wax. If there was any meaning to these odd markings, even Elsa couldn't discern them.
Stepping forward, Beatrix ran her gloved fingers down the spines of the nearest books. They were heavy volumes, each tethered to its shelf by a heavy chain. Many of the titles were in Classical, but there were others in Reikspiel, Bretonnian, and the fluid script of Araby. Elsa's eyes strayed over them.
Anima Unnaturale
The True Arte of Levitatione
Spells of Quickening
"These are books of magic," said Beatrix, in hushed tones "A whole magical tradition, a thousand leagues from Altdorf." She looked back to Adelbert. "When did you say this place was founded?"
-Sentinel-
2015-08-20, 06:16 PM
In hushed tones -- this was a library after all! -- Elsa gave her suggestions (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19705050&postcount=43) on the exploration of the library. "If the rest of you have other ideas, let me know. As long as we always stay in groups."
She gingerly removed a book from its shelf, both to test for unseen traps and to have a closer look at how, exactly, the chain secured the book to the shelf.
The chain clanked as Elsa took down the book. It was about two feet long, and fixed to a metal plate that was fixed to the back of the shelf with fat nails. The iron was superficially rusted, but still seemed strong. A heavy blow with an axe or mallet might serve to break the chain, but the weak links were almost certainly the book itself, and the wood of the shelf to which the chain was fixed.
RossN
2015-08-20, 06:59 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert dragged his eyes back from the spines of the books to meet Beatrix's. "The Crusades I believe... though I doubt I could be certain about anything here." He licked dry lips. "Beatrix, I am no magician, I'll need your help to tell me what I'm looking at."
Reverently he touched his owl pendant. "Your's and Hers."
TheSummoner
2015-08-21, 12:32 AM
Sieghard
Goran shuddered. "This ain't right," muttered the big man. "It ain't natural."
"Permission to say, sir," said Ingwald to his commander, "that we should lock these doors and go back the way we came."
As tempted as it was to take Ingwald's advice, he knew they couldn't. "This building appeared out of nowhere while mutant fish rained from the sky," Sieghard replied. "Nothing about this place is natural. But inside there are some books we need to fetch and plenty of others we don't need but should take anyways. If those two think what we're after is in there," he said gesturing to Elsa and Fassbender, "Then we're going in and looking." He knew he was out of his element in a place as saturated with magic as the Lost Library. The best he could do was trust in the two members of their group who actually understood that sort of thing.
"Let me see that," he said, approaching Elsa.
Sieghard will take the chain and try to brute force it free. Chain probably isn't going to break, but maybe he can pull the nails loose or if he pulls hard enough, maybe a bit of the shelf will break off. For obvious reasons, he won't be pulling in such a way that puts strain on the book itself.
[roll0] vs 51 Str
Northern Lad
2015-08-21, 07:07 AM
Viggo Hirtzel
Viggo felt a huge surge of relief to be out of the nightmare downpour, "Sodding fish! A fish with a face!" He shuddered, truly rattled by the unnatural rainstorm. "Who does that?! Why would they do that to a fish?!" Pull yourself together! You can't have Florin and Ingwald thinking you're a coward!
Having lit a torch of his own torch Viggo took some deep steadying breaths as he looked around the large entrance hall. As the others made a beeline for the doors at the far end of the hall Viggo took the opportunity to have a poke about and see if anything interesting other than a load of old books could be found.
Once satisfied he'd looked in every corner he joined the others in the next room. "Ranalds' Teeth!" He cursed, "Well we wanted books, we've sodding got them alright!"
OOC
So I guess that's Viggo using explore in the 1st two rooms if ok?
Untrained Search Test: (Entrance Hall)
INT 15 - [roll0]
Untrained Search Test: (Weird Book Room)
INT 15 - [roll1] - SCRAP THIS!
EDIT: Two 34's?! Totally can happen, but looks odd eh?! :smallconfused:
Wrapping the chain around his hand, Sieghard heaved hard against the bookshelf. There was a rending sound, and the metal plate ripped free of the wood, a few long splinters still adhering where corrosion had bonded it to the shelves.
Unwrapping the chain again, Sieghard looked down at the red imprints of the links pressed into his hand. That hadn't been so difficult.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-21, 07:19 AM
"All fish have faces." Ludo said absently. "And maybe we shouldn't touch things we don't know about. There could be traps anywhere."
Viggo didn't entirely hear Ludo's reply - he was busily rummaging through the antechamber, looking for anything that wasn't a book. There was little to find. In one corner he found a bundle of monastic-looking robes, faded and frayed with age - when he picked them up, they were full of dust. The rotten remnants of some old tapestries clung to the walls here and there, and tall iron candelabras stood around the edges of the hall, beards of dust-covered wax hanging stiff and set from their arms. There was no sign of any golden treasure.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-21, 10:16 AM
"Too much to search," mused Elsa. "Better not count on luck to find the grimoire."
She thought hard about where a book of necromancy would be kept.
Dark magic is magic that stagnates and pools, unlike the Winds, which flow freely. The grimoire of necromancy likely emits or attracts dark magic. Would the grimoire be kept in a low place, in order to contain the dark magic in the lower levels? Or would it be kept in a high place, to keep it from attracting too much dark magic from the bowels of this place?
Does logic even work here?
She shared her thoughts with Beatrix Fassbender, hoping she could shed some light.
Academic Knowledge (Magic), target 55: [roll0]
RossN
2015-08-21, 10:43 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert meanwhile turned inwards to the divine for introspection, settling on his knees and whispering a private paen to Verena for Her wisdom. If the strange, enchanted figure of wood and mud below Gilbertus' manse had been shaped in reverence of Taal then the hedge wizards were likely godly men and women. He tried to recall all he could of the manners and symbols of Taalites, in the hopes that enlightenment would follow.
OOC:
Academic Knowledge (Theology): [roll0] vs 46
"If the grimoire is a source of true Dhar it will be kept somewhere where its influence can be contained," said Beatrix."I would expect thick walls, wards... somewhere far from any doors or windows." She looked around, eyes focused in the middle distance. "If the builders of this place understood such things."
RossN
2015-08-21, 10:52 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert drew Beatrix to the side and spoke quietly to her: "What about you? If there are holy texts of Myrmidia here there are likely those of my own goddess - and Her husband and daughter. Would the Mysteries of Morr or Shallya help you, or do you need...," he paused uncertainly, "your kind of magic?"
TheSummoner
2015-08-21, 11:03 AM
Sieghard
"Too much to search," mused Elsa. "Better not count on luck to find the grimoire."
"If the grimoire is a source of true Dhar it will be kept somewhere where its influence can be contained," said Beatrix."I would expect thick walls, wards... somewhere far from any doors or windows." She looked around, eyes focused in the middle distance. "If the builders of this place understood such things."
"Then perhaps the two of you should scout out likely rooms while the rest look for anything else that might be useful," Sieghard said.
He set the book he had pulled free on the ground, rather less carefully than Adelbert would've liked.
"Is there anything specific we should keep our eyes open for?" he asked Fassbender specifically. "How will we know when we've found something that could help you?"
"Magic is how I did this to myself," said Beatrix, drawing herself up with a grimace. "Magic is how I will have to undo it." She glanced towards Adelbert. "Sorry, Herr Schreiber, but if prayers could solve problems like these, there would be far fewer problems in the world."
"Spells of transmutation are what I am looking for," she said. "If not... there might be something useful in anything on alchemy or herbalism. I expect I will know it if I see it." She gave Elsa a cold glance. "Fraulein Holt might also be able to recognise useful volumes... if she remembers her schooling."
RossN
2015-08-21, 11:34 AM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert frowned but nodded slowly. "Fine. Well let us hurry and investigate then. Who is going where?"
TheSummoner
2015-08-21, 04:02 PM
Sieghard
"You're with me," Sieghard replied. "Florin, Ingwald, the two of you as well. We'll search in here for now, at least until we know of another room that's not magically trapped."
He turned to Elsa. "If you find anything dangerous, come find the rest of us right away. Don't try to deal with it on your own."
-Sentinel-
2015-08-21, 04:05 PM
"If you find anything dangerous, come find the rest of us right away. Don't try to deal with it on your own."
"No worries," said Elsa. "Same goes for you; you have no wizard, so if you find anything that needs one, come back here and wait for either me or Frau Fassbender to report back."
After some time arguing with Sieghard and Ludo over who went with who, Elsa gathered her own team around herself.
"Our priority is the grimoire. Probably thick, ugly, ancient, and with lots of macabre imagery. Likely to be handwritten in Arabyan. Time-keepers, your job may look easy, but you'd better do it like our lives depend on it, because they do depend on it." She then translated in Tilean for the Ahosi.
"My team's heading this way." She pointed at a descending staircase. "Come on. We want to be outside before morning."
OOC
So as I said, forward and down. If we can no longer head down, we keep heading forward; if we can no longer head forward, we keep heading down. This goes on until a point where, as GM, you decide that a decision on my part may be in order.
No complete searches of the rooms, at least at first -- we just see what the room is like and whether the books in it share a common theme.
RossN
2015-08-21, 04:19 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert nodded at Sieghard and directed his attention to the nearest books. Lacking Elsa or Beatrix' training in secular magic he was not sure he'd recognise something useful if he spotted it but he tried. He also kept an eye out for any religious or historical tomes that stood out.
Before she left with her group he smiled reassuringly at Beatrix. "Have faith Fassbender, in the gods if you can, in our skills if you can't, but we will succeed."
OOC:
Untrained Search: [roll0] vs. 23.
Dividing in three, the explorers moved off into the dark. They left two of the ahosi standing in the doorway, a little pool of torchlight illuminating them and the hourglass they had been entrusted with.
Elsa
The shelves of the great repository seemed to spiral in on themselves, the passageways connecting in a spider's web of maddeningly indirect connections. Trying to forge a path through them, Elsa quickly lost her bearings as she sought to reach the other side of the great chamber. Using the chalk markings she had left behind to retrace her steps, she skirted around the outside of the shelves instead, keeping the stone walls - or floors, it became difficult to tell which was which - in sight.
At last, she came to another door. Its sturdy timbers studded with iron nails, it too had once been marked with defensive wards, much like the doors from the antechamber. These ones however had lost their power - that much was evident from the damage the doors had taken. They were gouged and torn as if by blades or claws, or in other places scorched by fire. Charred and broken furniture had been heaped up to block them, an emptied and overturned bookcase forming the backbone of the makeshift barricade. From this side, it would be easy enough to dismantle.
Elsa could sense a turbulence in the Aethyr around them, like the meeting of two ocean currents. The air on both sides was fraught with magic, coloured motes dancing in front of Elsa's eyes, and on both sides it was tinged with darkness. On this side the dark lay treacherously quiet, like still water - on the other, Elsa could feel it roiling like a riptide, a penned predator pacing its cage...
Sieghard & Adelbert
Sieghard's party headed into the maze of bookshelves on the opposite side from Fassbender and the others, seeking to cover more ground. 'Maze' was the only word - the shelves seemed to spiral in on themselves, corkscrewing through oblique connections towards some hidden central point.
Adelbert ran his eyes over the bookshelves as they walked slowly further in, trying to make sense of the titles. He had grown up among books, made them his livelihood, but he could still recognise almost none of the volumes on these shelves. Occasionally he would stop the group, taking down a volume to see if it might fit the categories Beatrix had given. He found two on alchemy, but none on herbalism... and as for spells of transmutation, nothing so far. He had picked up a little insight from transcribing Elsa's book, and more from his week with Beatrix, but he still feared he might not know how to recognise what he was looking for. Sieghard, meanwhile, had spotted three or four tomes which from their binding alone looked like they'd fetch a pretty penny in the outside world. If only the damned things weren't so heavy.
Adelbert Only
As they went further in, Adelbert felt more and more uncomfortable. It wasn't just that his sense of direction had come adrift - that was true, but he knew the chalk marks would guide them back. There was something wrong about this place, something worse than the fact that it was so obviously warped by magic. This was somewhere his goddess could not - or would not - touch.
At the front of the group, Florin lowered his torch and pointed at something up ahead. There was another light, glimmering around the corner of the next shelf. It wasn't the orange glow of firelight - it was an unnatural, lurid blue.
Ludo & Viggo
Fassbender strode into the bookshelves with purpose, heading in the other direction from Sieghard and his search party. Following after with the lantern held high, Ludo and Viggo soon lost sight of the doorway behind them. Ludo made sure to mark their way with the chalk Elsa had given him.
The bookshelves seemed to spiral in on themselves, twisting through maze-like passages towards some hidden central point. Fassbender didn't seem to show much interest in where they were going - her attention was on the books. She browbeat the Danxome warrior that had been assigned to guarding her into taking books down from the shelves so she could read them one-handed, her brass familiar perching on her shoulder as she flicked through the pages.
"Pedestrian work," she said, dismissing the book she was looking at and moving on. "Derivative," to another. "Wrong," to a third, the way she said it making it seem like the most damning indictment imaginable. Her wonder at the library's contents was quickly eroding, as she seemed to examine each book and find it wanting. Moving with more energy than she'd shown in days, she led them deeper into the labyrinth of paper.
Ludo was trying his best to keep up, seeking out any appropriate books that Fassbender hadn't spotted and bringing them to the wizard's attention. She thanked him for his help, but still couldn't seem to find what she was looking for.
Following behind with a careful eye out for any non-literary treasures that might be lying about the place, Viggo noticed something strange. In some places, the tall bookcases seemed to be damaged or missing - and new ones had sprouted up in their place. These were the strangest and most twisted in design, made of some glossy black wood unlike their neighbours, and carved with ornate patterns. The books on them weren't chained down, either.
Fassbender didn't seem to have noticed. Moving heedlessly on, she motioned to the Southlander to take down one of the books from the black shelves - which she dutifully did. It was an expensive-looking volume, bound in red leather with golden clasps. Opening it, Fassbender suddenly stopped and stared.
Quicker than she'd opened it, she slammed it shut. "How did this get here?" she said, half to herself, as she looked around, shaken. She snapped imperiously to her ahosi guard: "Put it back. Now."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-21, 04:38 PM
Ludo and Viggo
"The shelves seem to be coming together." Ludo pointed out. "Heading towards a central point." He didnt mention the "sprouted" shelves or the strangeness of the books on them, and was drawn away from opening one of the unchained tomes at random when Fassbender had such a strong reaction to her own.
"What is it?" Ludo asked, without much hope of a reply.
TheSummoner
2015-08-21, 04:43 PM
Sieghard + Adelbert
"Hold this," Sieghard said, giving his torch to Florin. He reached for his sword and shield and moved forward cautiously.
[roll0] vs 36 perception. Sieghard also has night vision if there's enough light about for that to affect the difficulty of the rest.
If Sieghard sees anything that looks like it might be too much to handle, or if Adelbert warns him to stop, he's stopping.
As for the books Sieghard found, he'll be showing them to Adelbert and if the scribe agrees they're worth taking, they're being taken with regardless of the weight. Ingwald and Florin are with us, it's not like he has to carry it all by himself. :smallbiggrin:
RossN
2015-08-21, 04:44 PM
Sieghard & Adelbert
As they pressed further on Adelbert looked more and more troubled, his skin, never tan turning paler, his eyes widening. His fingers reached uneasily, slipping at one moment to the hilt of his sword, at another to the owl amulet of his goddess.
"We are pilgrims in an unholy land," he murmurred to Sieghard. "Can't you feel the... the wrongness of this place?"
His large eyes flicked to the book Sieghard had taken from the chains. "Perhaps, perhaps I should...?"
Adelbert paused, seeing Florin point - and the blue light ahead. He looked back to Sieghard for a decision.
Ludo & Viggo
"Something that would be very dangerous," said Fassbender, "in the hands of the wrong people."
The Southlander whose hands it was actually in gave the wizard a sideways look before putting it back on the shelf. Fassbender peered in the direction Ludo had pointed.
"You may be right," she said. "Perhaps that is where we'll find what we're looking for..."
Sieghard & Adelbert
Creeping stealthily forwards, Sieghard craned his head around the corner.
In the aisle between the bookshelves ahead, there were other readers in the library. There was no description that would do them justice from one moment to another - the creatures' shapes were in constant flux. Limbs and mouths clambered out of stretching orifices, only to vanish in turn as they were turned inside-out and subsumed back into the things' protean bodies.
One was large, almost the size of a man. Its flowing flesh was an unnatural pink, and it was holding a book in suckered fingers at the end of long, gangly arms. Two smaller ones, no bigger than Ludo and startling shades of blue, were gnawing on the chain that held the book to the shelf. The light was coming from the drools of corrosive flame that dribbled from their needle-toothed mouths.
Burned through, the rusted chain parted. Lifting the book high in glee, the big one gibbered something to the other two in a tongue Sieghard hoped never to understand...
OOC: Fear check please!
Northern Lad
2015-08-21, 04:46 PM
Ludo & Viggo
Viggo had no idea what these odd bookcases could mean, but then that was no surprise, nothing about this place made any sense. He was desperately worried they'd not be able to find their way back. Wherever this place disappears for the rest of the damn year, you can bet its underwater and swarming with those bloody fish... things!
Snapping his mind back to the present madness, he hissed a whisper, he didn't know why it just seemed appropriate, "You don't think it's a bit odd a dangerous book like that would be just left lying about when all the others are chained up?" Viggo asked nervously.
Ludo & Viggo
"Very odd," agreed Fassbender. "But then odd doesn't seem too out of the ordinary here." Her voice became quiet and contemplative. "I only hope it isn't a sign... of what the builders of this place were up to."
Pausing for a moment in thought, she carried, striding deeper into the maze. Their Southlander hurried after her, leaving the book lying on its shelf with its golden clasp gleaming.
Northern Lad
2015-08-21, 05:23 PM
Ludo & Viggo
One of Viggo's eyes lingered on the book. "Ludo. We're here looking for a spooky old book that's dangerous in the wrong hands aren't we?" He tilted his head meaningfully in the books direction, "can't you tell if it's.. You know?"
TheSummoner
2015-08-21, 05:27 PM
Sieghard + Adelbert
All Sieghard could do was stare. The things were like creatures out of a madman's nightmare. They shouldn't exist, he thought, They can't exist. It isn't possible.
RossN
2015-08-21, 06:10 PM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adebert slowly realized that Sieghard had gone rigid with fear. Heart beating wildly in his chest the priest moved forward and took hold of Sieghard's arm, trying to drag him back from whatever horrific sight he'd witnessed.
OOC:
Okay from the previous posts I got the impression that Sieghard is fully isible to Adelbert, just looking around the corner. If not this going to get very ugly, very fast...
-Sentinel-
2015-08-21, 06:17 PM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa seemed frightened by her find. This felt like... raw, uncontrolled Chaos, held back only by the flimsiest of barriers. Opening these doors would be like smashing flood gates with an axe. Whatever was behind, she did not want to know; it certainly was not the stagnant magic she was looking for.
She bent down and drew a skull with chalk on the floor; hopefully even the illiterate would get the hint.
"Do not touch these doors," she instructed her team in a whisper. "Do not even breathe too hard in their direction."
She looked around for a staircase leading down.
Elsa
Retracing her steps to the last place where she had seen a passageway leading down, Elsa headed that way with a torch held high before her. Soon, the walls and ceilings seemed to shift, so that the wall became the floor and the ceiling became a wall - now she was no longer descending a stairway, but walking along a level corridor. The tall shelves stretched away in all directions, intersecting at more angles than she thought were possible.
The door she found at the end of the passage was not scarred and damaged like the last one she had seen. Half-hidden behind a heap of books that had fallen from a leaning bookcase, it was small by comparison, its old timbers marked with a faded triskele. The design was similar to the ones she remembered painted on the stone throne of the effigy in the marsh.
She could not sense the same churning darkness here, though the air was still oily with the touch of Chaos. Spells of the Jade Wind had been worked into the door, and some of them still survived - though what their purpose was she could not immediately tell.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-21, 06:53 PM
Elsabeth Holt
The place's twisted passageways and disorienting angles made Elsa more nervous than she would like to admit. Had this place been made this way by the Illuminated Order, or had it been turned like this by outside influences? She dearly hoped the Library did not mess with time the way it messed with space.
Trying to project confidence, Elsa glanced at the rest of her team to make sure they were not about to desert her. She then turned her attention to the door to try to figure out what the Jade spells were meant to do.
OOC
Magical Sense 63: [roll0]
Elsa
Elsa's followers huddled close to her - she was their talisman, the only one of them with the faintest understanding of the warped landscape around them. Focusing on the door, she tried to unpick the meaning in the hedge wizards' faded daubs.
Elsa was unfamiliar with the technique used to work the enchantments, but they looked to her like wards against intrusion. Those the doorway did not recognise as friends would set them off when they passed through- what the consequences would be, Elsa could only guess.
OOC: Elsa can attune herself to the doorway, making it recognise her & her group as "friends", with a successful Channelling test. This will be a secret test - I will roll it without telling you the result. If you want to FP a failed test, tell me in advance and I'll tell you after the scene is resolved whether your FP is spent or not.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-21, 07:16 PM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa hesitantly reached for the door.
Dare I risk it?
Not yet...
Choosing a Jade spell to ward the room was intriguing. Perhaps the wizard who had wrought the spell simply happened to be druid, but it might also be more meaningful than that. One way or another, Elsa doubted the grimoire was behind this door. She could always return here if she did not find it elsewhere.
With chalk she wrote the word MAYBE on the floor, at the base of the door.
"We'll see about that later, but I don't think we're there. Let's go up."
LeSwordfish
2015-08-22, 04:16 AM
Ludo And Viggo
"She would have told us if it was..." Ludo said uncertainly. "She wants it destroyed, right?" It didn't look like he'd been expecting it to look at all. He marked the shelf under it with a question mark, so they could find it again, and hurried after Fassbender.
RossN
2015-08-22, 04:43 AM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Getting no reaction from his friend Adelbert swallowed and beckoned the accompanying soldiers to follow him. Then his sword in one hand and clutching his owl symbol in the other he stepped around the corner. The sight was horriffic but he kept his wits and ducked back. "There are daemons around the corner, a hideous pink creature the size of a man and two blue abominations akin to halflings. Draw your weapons, keep your minds strong and prepare to attack them."
Adelbert's voice was shaking and his face drawn and pinched, but there was a steel to his eyes as he awaited their response.
Adelbert & Sieghard
Florin paled, but nodded, loading his crossbow. Ingwald looked to the ashen-faced Sieghard for confirmation. Only the Danxome warrior didn't seem shaken by Adelbert's words - she readied her curved sword, her face set and steady.
TheSummoner
2015-08-22, 05:24 AM
Sieghard + Adelbert
"Kill the little ones first," was all Sieghard said.
RossN
2015-08-22, 06:04 AM
Adelbert + Sieghard
Adelbert gave Sieghard a look, but nodded slowly. "Have courage my friends. Our gods are with us."
He lifted his sword and glanced at the Daxome. In spite of everything it was reassuring to have another properly trained warrior with them. "Yours gods with you Southlander. I've seen your sisters fight and it is an honour to fight alongside a daughter of Daxome."
Taking a deep breath he whispered: "For Verena!" and stepped around the corner...
OOC:
Charge Attack on the nearest Blue Horror.
Attack Roll: [roll0] vs. 51
Damage (if it hits): [roll1]
TheSummoner
2015-08-22, 06:09 AM
Sieghard + Adelbert
Sieghard envied the strength of Adelbert's faith. Despite giving the order, he wasn't even sure that the abominations could be killed. Without a word, he charged, prepared to find out.
Charge attack. On the same blue horror as Adelbert if it's still standing or the other one if it isn't.
[roll0] vs 51 WS +10
[roll1] damage
Sieghard & Adelbert
The daemons shrieked and gibbered as Adelbert led the way round the corner, sword held high. The two small ones capered forwards to defend the largest, which clung to the stolen book as tightly as a child with a favourite blanket.
Florin's rush died on its feet as soon as he saw the creatures, the boy's aim faltering. So too did the Southlander's charge, even the hardened mercenary not prepared for what she saw. Only Ingwald followed through - but his shot went wild, shaving a curled sliver of wood from the bookshelves as it sailed over what might loosely be described as his target's head.
Adelbert and Sieghard were more prepared. Adelbert reached the nearest daemon first, his sword slashing deep into its changing flesh. As it wailed and twisted, Sieghard came crashing in on his left, his sword impaling it from front to back. For a moment, an impossible grin stretched itself across the daemon's body, a lolling tongue unrolling from its yawning mouth as it inflated like a balloon around the blade - then it burst with a bang, blue flames fluttering briefly through the air in the wake of its destruction.
The pink one was babbling urgently to the other now, one accusatory finger pointing back towards the attackers as it turned to flee...
TheSummoner
2015-08-22, 06:28 AM
Sieghard + Adelbert
"You're not going anywhere," Sieghard said before swinging at the larger of the two remaining daemons.
"Kill the big one, don't let it get away!"
If it wants to get away, I say we prevent it from doing so. Swift attack on the pink one.
[roll0] vs 51 WS
[roll1] Damage
[roll2] vs 51 WS
[roll3] Damage
Leaving for work now. I only wish I could've left with a better attack. :smallsigh:
RossN
2015-08-22, 06:33 AM
Adelbert + Sieghard
Gods help him but slaying such an abomination was so exhilirating. Was this what the followers of Sigmar and Ulric always spoke of when they spoke of war against the Ruinous Powers with that light in their eyes? 'Goddess keep me from loving this too much!'
He fully agreed with Sieghard. Letting the pink escape seemed a bad idea... yet he stopped his mind from losing control altogether in this fight. He did after all serve the goddess of the mind.
OOC:
Standard Attack on the Pink: [roll0] vs. 41 WS.
Damage (if it hits): [roll1]
Parrying Stance.
Adelbert & Sieghard
Lifting the book above its head, the larger daemon did its best to escape - but Adelbert and Sieghard had it hemmed in from either side, as the the Southlander came charging in from the front. Regrowing limbs and pseudopods to replace the ones that were hacked away as it tried to flee, it finally forced its way past the blocking blades, only to slump into a dissolving puddle on the floor of the hallway, the book still clutched close in its disintegrating claws.
Driven into a manic frenzy, the remaining daemon launched itself at Sieghard, biting and clawing furiously at his shield. Ingwald and Florin held fire, for fear of hitting their leader.
RossN
2015-08-22, 06:57 AM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adelbert, mind reeling, moved desperately to help his comrade, slashing determinedly at the filthy blue thing attacking Sieghard.
OOC:
All Out attack On Blue: [roll0] vs. 41 WS + 20 (All Out Attack) + 20 (outnumbered 3 to 1)
Damage (if he hits): [roll1]
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adelbert's sword struck the daemon with sickeningly little resistance. It seemed to have no bones, no blood, no veins - the blade cleaved it in two like a lump of clay, leaving the separate halves wriggling on the floor. Falling still, they combusted into pink and blue flames, leaving only a scorched mark where the creature had fallen.
Crossbows lowered, Ingwald and Florin came hesitantly forwards. "What were those things?" stammered Florin. "Why - why are they here?"
RossN
2015-08-22, 07:41 AM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adelbert looked up from gingerly cleaning his sword with a spare scrap of parchment.
"Pawns of the Ruinous Powers... as for why they are here clearly it is to steal works on magic for their depraved masters. You saw how the larger tried to flee with a tome? In any case thank Verena we prevailed and slew them; as you see they die like any mortal creature to true steel and true faith. You all showed tremendous courage."
That was a white lie. Only Ingwald's courage had not snapped but it seemed impolitic to bring it up. Very carefully, trying to brush aside the remains of the daemon with tip of his knife, Adelbert examined the book it had attempted to flee with.
Adelbert & Sieghard
The book the daemon had been trying to steal didn't look particularly impressive - a tattered old volume, its pages brown with age. Turning them delicately for fear of damaging it, Adelbert read the title, scrawled in Classical:
The Unbreakable Circle
The following pages were full of magical scrawl. Adelbert couldn't tell its purpose, but it seemed to him rather less intricate and well-organised than the grimoire he had copied for Elsa. There were a few mundane annotations scribbled in the margins - perhaps with careful reading he could tell what the author was about.
Something was nagging at him, something outside the book. Looking up, he realised the blue glow in the air hadn't died with the daemons - clearly it had not just originated from them. He could see it brighter around the next corner, leading deeper into the labyrinth.
RossN
2015-08-22, 07:58 AM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adelbert carefully slid The Unbreakable Circle into his pack and looked at Sieghard. "Do we... should we go further?"
He turned back to the blow glow, ready to move forward.
Northern Lad
2015-08-22, 10:37 AM
Ludo & Viggo
Viggo shrugged as he hurried to follow in Ludo's footsteps, "I hope you're chalking those shelves properly Ludo, we don't want to end up as fish bait because you've forgotten to scratch a mark or two!"
He wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up trailing after Fassbender, but Viggo had an uneasy feeling that she was just as likely to have a knack for finding trouble.
TheSummoner
2015-08-22, 03:46 PM
Sieghard + Adelbert
"Whatever those things wanted that book for, I'm sure it wasn't anything good." Sieghard said. "We'll take a look ahead, but no matter what happens or what we find, we need to keep the book out of their hands."
Elsa
Retracing her steps, Elsa found her way back to the barricaded door, then up a winding flight of steps that crawled snake-like up the side of a tall bookcase. It seemed to stretch as she climbed, its top moving subtly further out of reach with each turn of the stairs. By the time she finally reached the top, the library had once again pulled its sleight-of-hand trick with what was the roof and what was the floor, Elsa's mind taking a minute to adjust to the impossible rotation. Waiting to see that she hadn't lost any of her followers along the way, she steeled herself and continued into the maze.
At the end of the next corridor was another door. This had once borne marks like the others, but they had been wiped away, leaving only chalky smudges between the wood grain. A thin layer of pale dust trailed out from under it, as if blown by a draft from inside.
Sieghard & Adelbert
Florin and Ingwald followed close behind Sieghard as they advanced through the winding passageways, the blue light ahead growing deeper and brighter until it seemed to suffuse the air. At last, they broke out from the narrow avenues between the shelves - and saw its source.
Ludo & Viggo
Fassbender was already strides ahead, forcing the dawdling pair to jog to catch up. As they penetrated deeper into the maze, Ludo became aware of a glimmer of bluish light up ahead, growing stronger by the minute as they advanced. Soon it was bright enough that he hardly needed the lantern.
Turning a corner between two close-packed rows of tall shelves, they stepped out of the labyrinth, and saw where the light was coming from.
Adelbert, Sieghard, Viggo & Ludo
Both groups had emerged into an open space in the centre of the maze. Tiers of shelving sank down into an octagonal pit, like a Nuln lecture theatre. Golden lanterns burned down below, their strange blue flames casting sharp shadows from the twisted architecture of the library.
The pit was full of inhuman figures. Horrors with flesh that flowed and reformed, unfolding new limbs and eyes from within themselves as they capered across the dusty floor. Some large, some small, some pink, some blue, they were pulling books from the shelves, throwing them onto desks. Some sat like scholars at study, poring over the open volumes with hands that had too many fingers, arms that had too many hands. They wrote with iridescent quills on long rolls of suspicious-looking parchment, dipping the nibs in inkpots carried by the small creatures that danced attendance on the readers.
Occasionally, one would seem to find something, exclaiming something in a strange, burbling tongue and bringing it proudly to the figure in the very centre of the pit. Draped in robes of shifting, glittering colours, it was hunched like an old man, leaning arthritically on a silver staff worked with grotesque designs of fish and serpents. Adelbert could almost have believed it was a man - if it weren't for the gnarled beak that protruded from beneath its deep hood.
It was no taller than Adelbert, but it stood on the back of a bizarre creature - a floating disk, ringed with tentacles and shark-like mouths, that hovered above the ground a little below shoulder height. Some of its underlings' offerings it accepted with interest - others it brushed away, sending its amorphous helpers scurrying in circles of recrimination. It was like a madman's parody of scholarly life in the Empire - at least to Adelbert's eyes. The shifting beasts were lowly scribes, the hooded figure on the desk the learned professor who profited from their labour. It seemed to have built up quite a hoard of books on the back of its floating pedestal.
Across the pit, Adelbert could see Fassbender looking down at it, horror written clearly across her face. His gaze was drawn inevitably back to the scene below - and for one heart-stopping moment, he saw the hooded figure look straight back at him. He could swear he saw a smile on that inhuman beak.
It made no sound - it just went back to its work. One of its assistants came prancing up with a new find, which it took in its long clawed fingers, turning the first few pages with avid curiosity. Then its interest seemed to fade - with a croaking cry of indignation, it dropped the book and struck the waiting supplicant with its staff, sending the pink creature tumbling away. Before the daemon could right itself, the others fell upon it, tearing it apart in gouts of many-coloured flame...
OOC: Fear checks for Ludo & Viggo please. If failed, also gain one Insanity Point.
Perception checks for all as well.
RossN
2015-08-22, 04:20 PM
Adelbert & Sieghard
Adelbert smiled ruefully. "You'll get no argument there..."
Sword still firmly grasped in his right hand, his left clutching his owl pendant Adelbert advanced around the next corner, towards the blue glow.
Then they came upon it... and Adelbert's breath caught in his throat. The pink and blue creatures, vile as they looked, made him angry at such mockeries to the gods rather than afraid - it was hard to fear something that had fallen apart under his own sword. The beaked thing on the other hand, that left him shivering and distressed. Even the lesser daemons, the flotsam of the Ruinous Powers were so many...
He looked to Sieghard, gauging the mercenary's actions. Should they fall upon the host, trusting in their weapons to slay the abominations? Or retreat?
-Sentinel-
2015-08-22, 05:10 PM
Elsabeth Holt
I really hate this place.
Elsa knew that, sooner or later, she would have to go deeper into the library, and now may be as good a time as any. With her mind, she gingerly probed at the door and at whatever lay beyond, one hand already reaching for the handle.
Magical Sense 63: [roll0]
Edit: I'll wait for a description of what she feels before she opens the door. If there is nothing alarming, feel free to have her go ahead.
Elsa
Elsa could feel a thin current of Azyr blowing between the cracks in the door, curdling as it mingled with the corrupted atmosphere inside the library. Traces of enchantment clung to the smudged remains of the wards that had been marked on the door, but she could see they had long since lost their power to effect any change on the physical world.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-22, 05:20 PM
Elsabeth Holt
"Here goes nothing."
Making sure her companions were not far behind, Elsa pushed on the door.
Elsa
The door swung open with no resistance.
On the other side was a tall chamber, like the interior of a tower. Stepping over the threshold, Elsa waited a few moments, but the walls did not shift - up stayed up, down stayed down. Perhaps the geometry here was more stable than in the main repository. It certainly hurt the eyes less to look at.
The chamber extended both up and down, a broad flight of squares winding around the interior of its walls. There were bookshelves too, at the same slant as the steps, with iron sconces whose torches had long ago burned out. Elsa could see four other doors on the same level as her, leading left, right and straight ahead. By the looks of things there might be more below as well.
A cold breeze was blowing down past her, bringing the smell of fresh air to banish the mould and dust of the darkened library. Looking up, Elsa saw where it was coming from - a tall arched window, near the very top of the tower. Strangely, sunlight was slanting through it - though she knew when they'd entered this place it had been close to midnight.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-22, 06:25 PM
Elsabeth Holt
Despite the lack of apparent danger, Elsa remained on edge. This place was still as unnatural as the rest of the Lost Library.
"We'll search this room," she declared. "You can spread out a bit, but don't leave the room and don't take too long. You find something that looks interesting, don't touch it; just call me. Might as well put out the torches to save them."
From the look of the place, she supposed this was where lore pertaining to the Heavens was kept. Not her field, but some interesting finds could still be made. She first went up the stairs, eyes skimming the titles in the shelves.
OOC
So now I'll be searching. I rolled some tests earlier that we didn't use - can we use them now, or should I roll anew?
I'm looking not only for books, but also for interesting objects like crystal balls, spyglasses, etc. I trust my companions can help a bit despite being illiterate.
If the window is accessible, I'll peek outside.
Northern Lad
2015-08-22, 06:54 PM
No Elsa's
Skidding to a halt behind the others Viggo looked over Fassbender's shoulder to see what had caught her attention so. The nightmare scene that unfolded before him threatened to drive the young minstrel to turn and flee but instead his terror was so intense that he stood, rooted to the spot, eyes darting from one twisted horror to the next.
The twisted insanity that stood over it all, it's vicious looking beak clacking as it examined the offerings transfixed Viggo so that all he was able to do was utter an abject groan of terror. "Dead, we're all dead. We're dead fools!"
TheSummoner
2015-08-22, 07:22 PM
Everyone but Elsa
"Shallya's merciful teats..." Sieghard muttered, staring at the scene before them. "We have to kill them... Hurry, try to take out their leader!"
Quickdraw crossbow, rapid reload, attack on the lead daemon. Ingwald and Florin would've already had their crossbows out and loaded after the last fight, right? Aim and shoot if so for them.
[roll0] vs 59 BS
[roll1] Damage
RossN
2015-08-22, 07:31 PM
Anti-Elsa
Adelbert scrambled to load his crossbow, cursing under his breath the decision to take such a slow weapon on this mission.
Load Crossbow
Standard Attack: [roll0] vs. 36 BS
Damage if it hits: [roll1]
Sieghard, Adelbert, Ludo & Viggo
Ludo felt his heartbeat quicken as he saw Sieghard lean over the edge of the pit to sight his crossbow. It looked like the others were planning an attack, though Beatrix still seemed frozen in shock at what she was seeing.
A flicker of movement above him made the halfling look up. The ceiling of the library above the daemons' amphitheatre soared to heights far greater than seemed possible from what they'd seen of the place from the outside, its vaulted apex fading into the distance. Circling like sharks in the misty reaches above them were three creatures the size of horses, with flattened bodies and long, whip-like tails. They swam lazily through the air, their fleshy fins making no sound.
Before he could shout a warning, Sieghard pulled the trigger. The crossbow's bolt sped across the pit, missing the cowled figure to bury itself in the cover of a thick book being carried by one of the lesser creatures. As one, the horrors below looked up, an uncountable number and variety of eyes fixing on Sieghard. They began to jabber and babble in excited outrage.
Much more slowly, the hooded head of their leader turned to look at him. It tapped its staff on the back of the floating disk that bore it, and the thing began to rise higher into the air. Up above, the three creatures had stopped their serene circling - instead they arrowed into a dive towards Sieghard and the others.
The speed of their dive seemed to tear the air itself, the rushing sound of their descent rising into a soul-chilling scream. Faces white, Ingwald and Florin dropped their crossbows, crouching to the ground with their hands clapped over their ears. The Danxome warrior with them dropped low, raising her shield over her head. The daemons paid her no attention - the yellow eyes that studded the edge of their fins were all fixed on Sieghard.
Sieghard ducked low as the creatures swooped past him, teeth and horns slashing at his exposed face. Before he could retaliate, they had sped past, buffeting him with the down-draft of their passage. Sailing down the passageway behind, they jack-knifed back up into the higher air, circling back for another pass. Short-lived streaks of unnatural colours glittered in their wake, as if their slashing barbs had opened cuts in reality itself.
Before Sieghard could reload, a shadow fell across him from the direction of the pit. Looking up, he saw the disk rider was on a level with him now, barely six yards away. Turning to face it, he reached for another bolt - it stretched out a hand like a crow's talon, and croaked a single word of command. The crossbow tumbled from Sieghard's hands, invisible bonds pinning his wrists together.
Straightening up, the daemon swept its gaze over the humans before it. Its face was the withered face of a vulture, twisted and elongated to unnatural proportions. As it turned its head, Adelbert could see the left side of its face had two eyes - one yellow like the one on the right, and one shot through with pure black. He could not bear to meet that third eye's gaze.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/LordChilipepa/Cacophrax_zpslxmrh0ph.png
Come, friends, it said, in a voice that seemed to bypass the ears on its way to the brain. Is this any way to introduce yourselves to my library?
Elsa
Elsa's guards split up to search the tower, looking in every corner and shadowed shelf. Their search turned up an iron-bound box full of mirrors and lenses, and a verdigrised astrolabe of exceptional craftsmanship. They regarded these objects with superstitious aversion.
Ascending the stairs towards the top of the tower, Elsa ran her eyes over the books shelved by the staircase, looking for any hint of the grimoire. She could see nothing that seemed to bear on it - those books she took down seemed to be dry charts of the sky or almanacs of vague predictions. Only one really caught her eye as being of interest: a slim volume titled On the Frequency of Starfall in the Reaches of Savonne.
Managing with some effort to separate it from its chain, she had just turned past the first page when she reached the top of the stairs. Setting the book aside, she stepped up to the open window - and stared in wonder at what she saw.
She was looking out of the highest window of the library's tower - the same tower she had seen from outside. She could see the same outline of the library below, the same doors they had come through. Beyond that, nothing was the same.
The library stood in the middle of a walled city of breathtaking size and scale. A citadel that would have put all the castles of the Reaches to shame soared up in its centre, while towers and manors of stunning size and craft packed the narrow streets around it. Beyond that were the walls, and beyond them - nothing. The fortress was floating in the sky.
From the high vantage point of the tower, Elsa could see the clouds scudding beneath the berg of floating rock the city was built upon. Far below them a landscape of tundra and frozen rock was drifting serenely past, trackless, townless and immense. Nevertheless, it seemed tiny compared to the bottomless blue above - the sky, seen from above the clouds. Sharp sunlight lanced down through the roofs of the city, painting crisp shadows onto the cobbled streets.
Elsa looked left and right, drinking in the sight. Everywhere she looked she saw fine buildings, no more than a little touched by age. Pennants fluttered in the high-altitude wind, bearing the arms of noble houses whose sigils she had never seen. But nowhere could she see a living soul. The city was vast, grand, empty and silent.
RossN
2015-08-23, 05:50 AM
Sieghard, Adelbert, Ludo & Viggo
Adelbert didn't reply, he barely heard. The hideous daemonic flying things had shattered his nerve completely, almost mercifully preventing him from engaging with the beaked monstrosity in front of him.
Fear test for next round: [roll0] vs. 43
Adelbert, Sieghard, Ludo & Viggo
The daemon waited expectantly before its cowering audience, eyes turning from face to face. The sky-sharks wailed high overhead, circling back over the pit.
While the Southlander with them stayed crouched under her shield, Ingwald rose to his feet, pulling Florin with him. The two of them took up position flanking Sieghard, pointing their crossbows at the thing in trembling hands.
"Back, monster!" said Florin, his young voice cracking a little. "Leave him alone!"
How rude, came the daemon's unearthly reply. Its disk carried it a little higher, the lamprey-like maws around its rim mouthing silently at the Thorns as it rose. But if you insist...
Its gaze turned back to Adelbert, noticing the book he was carrying. Ah! You found it. How good of you to bring it to me. Drifting down towards the scribe, it leaned over the edge of its bizarre steed and reached down one open claw, waiting for Adelbert to hand it over.
RossN
2015-08-23, 08:00 AM
Adelbert, Sieghard, Ludo & Viggo
Adelbert was still shivering but seemed to have regained control of himself. He reached into his pockect and pulled out something small.
It was a match.
"I...," he swallowed, summoning up whatever courage he could find. "I don't know if you know your history but the Great Fire of Middenheim in the reign of the Emperor Theodahad was caused by a scribe in the royal archives being a little clumsy with a lamp. Nothing burns faster than old books. Nothing catches fire more easily. Now my goddess will never forgive me for destroying a book and I'll never forgive myself... but I think its time we start negotiating."
The hand holding the match is trembling and reams of sweat are pouring down Adelbert's face but he forces himself to look at the daemon.
TheSummoner
2015-08-23, 08:06 AM
The Stupid One
"The two of you get back," Sieghard spat. "You fools aren't allowed to get yourselves killed for me."
He watched Adelbert, unsure if the scribe had lost his mind. That thing wasn't something that could be negotiated with.
Half action was used on the strength test, so the rest of the turn will be quickdrawing his sword and readying his shield.
Adelbert, Sieghard, Ludo & Viggo
The daemon tilted its head to look at Adelbert, like a robin examining a curious-looking worm.
But of course, it said. We are civilised individuals, are we not?
It waved its staff, and the sky-sharks circled higher, receding upwards from the humans crouching down below. In the pit, the shifting horrors still gabbled and pranced, forming tight knots around the books they had already retrieved.
What is it you want?
RossN
2015-08-23, 08:16 AM
Punk Ass Book Jockeys (this doesn't mean you Elsa)
A thin line of sweat dribbled down Adelbert's face, over one of his eyes but he didn't dare wipe it away. "Well, for one thing a friend of ours is a wizardess who is suffering from... well you probably know better than I what she is suffering from. We are searching for a cure."
Sieghard, Adelbert, Viggo & Ludo
"Adelbert!" rang out Fassbender's voice from across the pit. What she had heard had evidently been enough to break her out of her shock. "Enough!"
Half striding, half limping around the circumference of the sunken amphitheatre, she approached Adelbert and the daemon.
"You cannot bargain with this creature. Lying is in its nature, it will twist your words against you."
You all say such hurtful things, purred the daemon, turning to watch the wizard as she approached. But what he says is true, is it not? I see it clearly on you, Magister. It floated closer, circling her. The curse of my master is a heavy thing to bring on one's self.
Drifting back towards Adelbert, it turned its gaze back to the scribe. Yes, I know how she can be healed. But that little book is not worth such a favour. You must offer me something more.
RossN
2015-08-23, 08:50 AM
ASLV
Adelbert's eyes widened at Beatrix's words. He gave her a rueful smile before turning back to the daemon.
"I am a humble man. What would I offer to such as you?"
He sincerely hoped his friends were coming up with a plan or preparing to attack or even fleeing right about now...
SALV
You undervalue yourself, said the daemon. Why, there is as much you can give to me as I can give to you.
It gestured around itself with its staff. Fireflies of pink and blue danced in the air where it passed, zig-zagging to cast a brief light between the tall shelves that crowded in on all sides.
This is my library. But there are places in it where I cannot go. Places the... previous owners... warded against me and my kind. It floated down until it was almost level with Adelbert. You and your friends, however, should have little difficulty. The spells were not cast to keep you out.
Adelbert was doing his best not to stare into that one black eye. It seemed bottomless, as if there were no head behind it, but instead an infinite void.
There is something I want, from their inner sanctum. It is nothing, really. A lead box. Bring it to me, unopened, and I will cure the lady of her affliction.
RossN
2015-08-23, 09:32 AM
SALV
Despite his fear a hint of disdain and contempt passed across Adelbert's face.
"If there are rooms you cannot go, then it is not truly your library. Even the lowliest of scribes knows that." He clutched the book ever tighter. "Look at you; a creature of forms and shadows, mocking us of the mortal world... yet our laws bind you, our words deny you. Oh we both serve wiser masters, daemon, but mine allows me the freedom to come and go as I choose. Unlike you I am not slave."
He took a step back, glancing at Sieghard. "Kill it."
Then he struck the match against his thumbnail.
OOC:
[roll0] vs 50 (chance for match to light)
TheSummoner
2015-08-23, 09:46 AM
We're all going to die
Without hesitation, Sieghard rushed the beaked monster floating ahead.
"Shoot down the flying daemons!" he shouted before thrusting his spear at the herald.
Quickdraw the gilded spear. Charge the herald. Not the scenario I was worried about when I got the thing fixed, but definitely one that warrants its use.
[roll0] vs 51 WS +10
[roll1] Damage
By the rules, vertical leap is M-2 in yards to a minimum of 1. If he's only 3 feet up, it should be an automatic success.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 10:17 AM
Elsa only
Elsa's jaw dropped at the sight of the empty city and the tundra below.
Is this the Chaos wastes?
Her wonder was mixed with mounting dread. Had they been in the Lost Library long enough for it to leave the Vale? If they now chose to leave the building, would they find themselves thousands of miles away from where they started? Or did different rooms simply exist in different places of the world? Elsa decided it was no use worrying about it for now.
Clutching the Frequency of Starfall book, she hurried down the stairs. "You should have a look outside," she breathed to her guards, pointing up at the window. "Be quick; we're moving on soon."
In the meantime, she examined their finds. None of these things seemed magical or unique. They did look valuable; even the astrolabe, in spite of its age, could likely be made good as new with some lime or natron. Elsa had not come to the Lost Library looking for mundane treasure, but there was no harm in taking it anyway.
Eventually she whistled, beckoning her guards to return from the window. "Let's try this door." She jerked her chin at the door leading forward.
OOC
Can the iron box be carried by a lone person without slowing them down too much? If so, Elsa will assign it to a Thorn. If not, Elsa will pick and choose some of the better-looking lenses and mirrors and leave the rest behind.
Then we head forward.
Elsa
Passing them on the stairs, Elsa heard the others' gasps of astonishment and fear as they saw the empty city beyond the window. She didn't have time for their faltering questions - she was already examining the door leading forwards.
The feel of it was familiar. It bore the same warding signs as the door she'd checked before they came to the tower, with the same charge of Jade magic seeping through its timbers. That had been directly below the main repository, though, and this was directly above - they could not possibly connect to the same place.
OOC: The box is bulky but portable.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 10:44 AM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa hesitated. Earlier she had chosen not to take a chance with a very similar door.
Hmmm. No risk, no reward.
"Give me some space. This is going to be dangerous."
Calling the unfamiliar wind of Ghyran to herself, she tried to fool the wards into letting her through.
OOC
What the hell, let's try it. Roll me a secret Channelling test (63) with a Fortune re-roll. Then Elsa tries to go through.
That had been directly below the main repository, though, and this was directly above - they could not possibly connect to the same place.
Indeed, there's no way it leads to the same room; that would be totally unnatural and illogical!
Elsa
Gustaf and the others were more than happy to comply with Elsa's request to stand well back. They were still reeling from what they had seen out the tower window - even the scarred sergeant of the ahosi, who looked as if she had seen some things in her time.
The Jade Wind was the antithesis of the Red. It was cool, calm, liquid. Struggling through barriers of mutual incomprehension, Elsa coaxed it into communicating. This was what her tutors at the College had warned her was witchcraft - the first step on the slippery slope to damnation. It seemed remarkably easy for something they had described as beyond the power of human minds to control.
With a gentle creak, the door swung softly open. Elsa stepped through, lifting her torch high.
The room she now found herself standing in was cylindrical, like the inside of an enormous stone drum. Towering bookshelves ringed the walls, groaning with the weight of knowledge they held - but it was there that the resemblance to a conventional library ended.
The floor was carpeted with a mulch of leaf litter, like a forest floor. The source of it was clear: a great tree grew from a stone well in the centre of the room, twisting up through the confined space towards a shattered window in the ceiling. Strange light slanted through the grimy jags of broken glass, casting long shadows from its contorted branches.
Once it had been tall and noble. Now it was rotten and corrupt, swollen with the twisting power of Chaos. Tumorous growths bulged under its bark, taking the form of bestial, mutated faces. Thorns bristled from its leafless branches, which tangled with the uppermost shelves and crawled like creepers over the ceiling. Simple stone statues of Taal and Rhya stood blistered with moss, leaning at drunken angles where the expanding roots of the tree had tipped them over.
Emerging into the room behind her, Elsa heard Gustaf exclaim in horror at the sight, giving a brief prayer to the gods for their protection.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 11:14 AM
Elsabeth Holt
"Stay close to me and keep an eye out," Elsa ordered quietly. There might be unseen threats lurking in the greenery.
Staying near the walls, as far from the tree as possible, Elsa scanned the bookshelves. The book of necromancy was definitely not here, but perhaps they could find something to save Beatrix Fassbender's life. If not, well... the lore of Life still had its uses, if Sforza's call for hedge wizards reached the ears of a budding druid. Elsa's witch-sight remained wide open, trying to detect both dangers and magical artifacts.
OOC
Search 55: [roll0]
Magical Sense 63: [roll1]
I take it from your description that there are no other exits?
Did I spend a Fortune Point to neutralize the ward?
Elsa
Coils of Ghyran shifted like snakes under the leaf litter as Elsa advanced into the room. They were the room's defences, searching for trespassers - but Elsa had convinced the old wards that she and her party belonged here. Denied a target, the lurking spells lapsed back into dormancy.
The volumes on the shelves here were books of healing and herbalism. Some were hedge wizards' scrawl on crude rolls of vellum, others dry medical treatises from the likes of Gaelen and the Physician's College in Nuln. Elsa wasn't sure how herbs and potions could help Fassbender check the lead creeping up her arm, but she found an old treatise on the treatment of what the author called morbus metallici, among lead miners in Tilea.
The exits to this room were hidden inside its circle of high shelves, recessed doorways leading left, right and ahead. A narrow flight of stone steps led up to a high door half-hidden behind the branches of the tree, while beside the stone well in which the tree grew was a heavy trapdoor, reinforced with bands of iron. Each of them bore the same marks as the one she had entered through, and the one she had left alone. It seems the wizards of the Illuminated Order had taken the protection of this room seriously.
"Frau... Fraulein Hildebrand?" said Goran behind her, his nervous stammer sounding ridiculous from such a big man. "I... I think you should see..."
Elsa saw that Goran and Gustaf were both standing by the tree. Walking up beside them, she saw what they were looking at. One of the faces in the bark was moving.
Half of it was relatively human, the other half swollen into a cankerous knot of rotten wood. It opened and closed its mouth with slow, creaking movements. Only the tiniest sounds escaped, like a mouse whispering into a thimble.
"Don't... don't... don't..."
OOC: Sorry, forgot the exits! Same six again.
No Fortune Point spent.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 11:42 AM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa turned pale, but did not panic. Slowly she walked closer to the speaking face, though she kept a healthy two yards between it and herself.
"Don't what?" she asked the face, softly. "Take books? Use these doors?"
OOC
Do the wards on the doors work both ways?
Elsa
A wooden eye opened in the face's swollen left side, blinking away peeling strips of rotten bark. Its lips writhed, struggling to form sounds.
"Don't... wake... him..."
OOC: As far as Elsa can tell, they only protect this room against intrusion.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 12:08 PM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa turned even paler, and made a hush sign to her guards. Her eyes went back and forth from the face to the tree itself.
Better get out of here.
She gestured to the scarred Ahosi to help her open the heavy trapdoor on the floor as silently as possible. Before leaving the room, she looked at the shelves again for any unsecured scrolls she might grab at random; she hated to leave empty-handed after going all this way.
Would it wake him?
She reached for a scroll, but before touching it, she glanced over her shoulder at the face in the tree for any signs of panic.
OOC
Unless the face has a "No, don't do that!" look, I'll grab some nearby scrolls or loose sheets, provided there are any that are not chained to the shelf (how do you chain a scroll anyway?).
Then I'm going down.
Elsa
The trapdoor was locked. The lock was solid iron, pitted with age - through its narrow keyhole, Elsa could feel a whisper of Shyish leaking into the room, cold and silent as the grave.
There was panic on the faces of her assistants at the sudden shift in her behaviour, but not on the face in the tree. It opened its mouth as if to say something more - then the tree gave a shudder, and the face contorted in pain.
With a sudden, violent jerk, it was sucked back into the body of the tree. Two folds of decaying wood closed like jaws over the place where it had been, and a thin drool of yellow liquid ran from between them, hissing like stomach acid as it dribbled down through the cracks in the rotten bark.
The branches rustled briefly in a breeze that wasn't there, and the tree was still again.
OOC: WP test against another IP for Elsa. She's already seen some weird **** tonight so she gets +10 to resist.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 12:37 PM
Elsabeth Holt
"I hate this place."
Elsa was frustrated about the trapdoor being locked; while the Collegiate wielders of Shyish loathed necromancy, this was the closest she had found to a door that might lead to the grimoire of Kheneb-Ptra-Urush. Perhaps she could break down the trapdoor, but not without making a great deal of noise and possibly damaging something on the other side.
I can get through magical wards, but I am stopped by a stupid lock.
Instead she looked for another exit.
OOC
Trying to go forward again.
This is my last post for the immediate future. I'll be gone for a few hours; it's 1:37 PM over here with a radiant sun, and it seems almost criminal to spend my time on my laptop.
Elsa
The forward door was thankfully unlocked. Opening it as quickly as she could without making too much sound, Elsa rushed through with the others close behind - and found herself back in the paper-choked corridor where she had previously turned back. The perspective-warping passageways of the main repository stretched away ahead of her, while the chalk word "MAYBE" mocked her from where she had scrawled it on the flagstones.
OOC: That's fine by me - we're getting a bit ahead of the others in terms of IC time.
Northern Lad
2015-08-23, 02:19 PM
No Elsa's
He'd been rooted to that same spot, morosely enchanted by the scene of horror before them. It was only when he saw Sieghards launch himself that he finally managed to force himself to action.
Dropping his useless torch he unslung his small shield as fast as he could before setting off in as close to a sprint as he could muster. Viggo knew that he was running to his death, but he'd be dammed if he'd let Sieghard down now when he needed him most. As he brushed passed Fassbender, he looked into the pit and then back to the wizardess, "Can't you do.. Something!? One of those fireball things would be good!"
OOC
Quick Draw: Ready Shield
Full Action: Run
That's 12 squares I think? I'm a bit squiffy and keep losing count of the squares but I reckon that puts Viggo somewhere close to Beatrix? Think it's better to try group us up at this point? Still it will take another 2-3 turns to get anywhere useful!
No Elsas
The daemon shrieked in surprise as Sieghard leapt up onto its floating pedestal, scattering the books and scrolls that were heaped around the edges. The spear's gilded head gleamed brightly in the gloom of the library, slicing through the baggy robes at the side of the daemon's scrawny chest. Ichor dripped from the spearhead as Sieghard drew it back, blue and smouldering with liquid flame. He'd cut it. He'd cut a daemon.
He didn't have long to appreciate the fact - with a sickening lurch, the disk rose up into the air, shooting back out over the pit. Clinging on for dear life, Sieghard saw the hooded daemon raise a taloned hand towards him, chattering out a string of mind-wrenching syllables...
Pink flames rushed from the outstretched claw, engulfing Sieghard in a luminous inferno. The heat seared his skin with no regard for his armour, raising blisters where metal touched flesh - but Sieghard weathered the storm. He thought he saw worry in the daemon's eyes as the flames cleared with him still standing on the back of the disk.
High above, the bone-chilling wail of the screamers sounded out again as the creatures dropped back towards their prey. This time, they were headed straight for Adelbert and the Thorns.
Florin added his scream to theirs as the first of the swooping beasts gashed him, its thorny barbs slashing deep into the meat of his upper arm. Adelbert was knocked reeling as another flashed past him, a razor-edged tusk slicing him across the face. In the next moment, the daemons were gone, soaring past with the speed of an arrow from a bow.
Still recovering from the attack, Adelbert heard Beatrix shouting for them to hold on as the flying monsters circled round for another pass. Raising her good hand, she screwed up her face in an expression of intense concentration, chanting the words of her own spell. Little balls of quicksilver materialised out of the air in front of her, rippling and growing as they extended into metallic arrows. With a word, she sent them slashing through the air towards their targets, intercepting the swift-flying daemons head-on. Two of the beasts keened and wriggled as the bolts of silver ripped into them, nearly knocking them out of the air. The pack aborted their return pass, rising high to circle again as they looked for another opportunity.
Beatrix's intervention had been timely, but it had drawn the attention of the horrors in the pit. Raising many-jointed arms and sucker-fingered hands, they chanted and gibbered in their own arcane language, sparks of pure magic playing over their changing bodies. Three tongues of eldritch fire flashed straight towards the wizard, knocking her back with pastel-coloured flames smouldering in her clothes. She seemed stunned by the impact, Ortolanus anxiously butting at her face to try to get her to come round.
Another of the creatures had turned towards Adelbert and the others who had been beset by the screamers. The others capered and howled in excitement around it as it lifted its two enormous hands high, a ball of many-coloured light swelling into existence between them. With a piping shriek, it hurled it towards them, before exploding in a glowing cloud of pink vapour.
The glittering fireball came arcing in like a shot from a catapult, bursting squarely between the ahosi and the two Thorns. Ingwald and the Southlander staggered out of the flames beating at their clothes. Florin dropped to the ground with a scream of agony, clutching at the horrible burns on his face as he rolled about like a dying animal.
Whipped into a frenzy by the others' feats of magic, the rest of the horrors began flowing towards the stairs leading up out of the pit. A tide of the little blue ones was roiling up the right-hand stairs towards Beatrix, while a cavalcade of pink and blue came bounding up the left towards Adelbert and the Thorns. Picking herself up from where the daemon's blast had thrown her, the ahosi with them blocked the way and set the shield, awaiting the charge.
On the right, the ahosi with Beatrix charged with a terrifying warcry, trying to block the head of the stairs before the horrors could reach her charge. Gritting his teeth, Ingwald lifted his crossbow and put a bolt into one of the circling screamers, drawing a screech of pain from the flying predator. With Florin down and Beatrix stunned, the mortals were looking horribly outnumbered...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/LordChilipepa/LibraryTPK_zpsg6epskdg.png
RossN
2015-08-23, 03:13 PM
No Pressure But Now Would Be A Great Time To Show Up Elsa
Adelbert hissed in pain, at the blow to his face but he had little time else to think of it. Sweet Verena help us!
The fireball had come way to close but as he still clutched the book maybe the daemons wouldn't risk it again. It would certainly be more effective than a match! Slipping the tome into his bag he drew his sword and grimly waited for the next attack.
OOC:
Ready weapon.
Parrying Stance
LeSwordfish
2015-08-23, 03:23 PM
Zoinks
Ludo was frozen, rooted to the spot, watching the creatures work below. He was aware only dimly of the words between the leader and Adelbert, or of Sieghard's attack - until the flames arced up from the pit below and blew beatrix off her feet. That galvanised him into action, and he drew his sling from his pocket, slipped in a stone from his pouch, and began whirling it around his head.
"Stay away from her!" he shouted, letting it fly at one of the nearest creatures.
OOC
Pythagoras puts ludo less than 8 squares from horror #8, so he's going to Ready his sling and standard attack it. [roll0] vs 42 to hit, [roll1] damage.
Northern Lad
2015-08-23, 04:06 PM
Elsa Elsa Doo Where Are You?!
Viggo skidded to a halt as Fassbender launched her missiles at the nightmares attacking Adelbert and the Thorns. "Or those! Those work!" The retaltion for her attack, nearly stunned him insensible again only shaken to his senses as he nearly jumped out of his skin as the Ahosi came screaming passed to engage the freakish horrors trying to get up the stairs.
Sparing a glance towards Adelbert, Viggo barrelled in besides the warrioress striking at the closest blue skinned daemon. If I'm going to die, I'll bloody die fighting!
OOC
Charge Attack Bluey No. 5
WS 42 +10Charge (+10 Outnumbering?) - [roll0]
Damage - [roll1]
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 04:16 PM
Really wish Elsa could be there, guys, wherever you are.
Elsa was somewhat relieved to be back in known territory, though how they had made their way here did not seem to make any sense. She crossed out the MAYBE, then started to follow the other chalk markings they had left on their way here the first time around. This was as good a time as any to check on the people who had stayed near the entrance.
On the way there, she took some time to skim the titles on the shelves. If there was a chance she did not find the grimoire, she would at least bring something back from this expedition.
And if the grimoire is indeed in this gods-forsaken library, perhaps we don't have to worry about someone else finding it anytime soon.
OOC
So we're back in the (particularly) weird room, correct? I'm performing a Search check, but I'm not searching the whole room; merely paying attention to the books that I meet along the way.
Search 55: [roll0]
I'll roll the Strength tests vs. chain after you tell me if I find any interesting books, so that each test can be assigned to a specific book.
Elsa
Elsa's guards stuck close by her as she wandered through the dizzying maze of bookshelves. This room, the first room, was bigger by far than any of the others she had passed through - she wondered if its size could be described by conventional means. Already she had lost her bearings several times over among the weirdly-angled shelves, only the chalk markings she had left behind serving to keep her on course.
On a crumbling stack of shelves not far from her door, she found a book that looked to have some local information - Tales of the Giant's Teeth. Beyond it, she noticed that some of the shelves looked newer than the others - as if they had sprouted up to fill the gaps in the rotten old bookcases. These younger shelves were made of some glossy black wood, marked with intricate patterns and strangely organic in their design. The books on them were not chained in place - another oddity that set them aside.
Taking down one of the nearest, Elsa turned it over. It was a cheaply-printed pamphlet, of the kind you could find from any Altdorf gutter press. She wouldn't have thought to find many volumes printed on a commercial press here - or any at all, for that matter, if this place was supposed to have vanished three centuries ago. The title of the piece was rather grandiose: Riding the Avalanche, by the Marquis Dolmance. It wasn't a name she was familiar with.
Reaching up to take another book, she stopped as her hand brushed something soft and yielding. She drew back as she saw what it was - the book she had reached for was bound in a strange red leather, covered in coarse black hair. It was soft and warm to the touch, like living flesh. She could almost have sworn she felt it move under her fingers.
She was debating what to do with it when she saw a flash of blue light, reflecting off the stone ceiling somewhere above the maze of bookshelves up ahead. It was followed by another, and another, mingling in strange shades of pink and blue. The flashes left strange after-images in her second sight - somewhere up there, powerful magic was being unleashed.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 05:20 PM
Elsabeth Holt
On a crumbling stack of shelves not far from her door, she found a book that looked to have some local information - Tales of the Giant's Teeth.
"Help me with this one," said Elsa, pulling on the chain.
Strength 30: [roll0]
The warm, hairy book caught her interest more than anything else she had found so far. Magical for sure. Possibly dangerous; then again, all magic was dangerous. She was just about to try to tear it off the shelf when she felt magic being unleashed someplace else.
"Something's happening," she said tersely, drawing an X on the ground to mark the location of the hairy book for future reference. "Goran, take our finds back to our timekeepers and wait there. Just follow the chalk. The other three, come with me."
Opening her witch-sight wider, she tried to follow the magic as one might look for the source of a noise.
OOC
Does this require a test, or is the magic "loud" enough?
Magical Sense 63: [roll1]
Fortune: [roll2]
Not bothering to mark my way with chalk now.
TheSummoner
2015-08-23, 06:21 PM
Now I'm Angry
Don't look back, focus on their leader, Sieghard thought when he heard Florin scream the first time. This is all your fault, you led him here, Sieghard thought when he heard Florin scream the second time.
"Over here, you bastards!" he shouted at the daemons circling overhead. "I'm the one hurting your master!"
"Tell me, daemon," he said to the herald, "What happens if I stab this thing we're standing on?" It was a bluff of course. He'd rather kill the daemon standing in front of him.
[roll0] vs 39 WP
One roll at the start lasts for the whole combat.
With that in mind, reroll if needed. [roll1]
[roll2] vs 51 (or 41) WS
[roll3] Damage
[roll4] vs 51 (or 41) WS
[roll5] Damage
Really!? REALLY!? By ONE! by FREAKING ONE with THAT damage. That probably would've been enough to kill him, too! How many wounds can a squishy wizard type even have!?
Not Elsa
You are mistaken in believing I can die, spoke the calm voice of the daemon, neither heard nor thought. It ducked left and right around its silver staff, trying to avoid the jabbing blows of the spear - the gilded spearhead caught it all the same, drawing another thin trickle of flaming ichor. That is a weakness we do not share.
It was trying to keep him talking, Sieghard realised - there were layers of glamour wrapped around its words, insinuating them subtly into his brain. Meeting the daemon's gaze, he saw a spark of azure flame deep in its fathomless eyes, felt its will reaching out to smother his.
Something went wrong with the spell. With a cry more like a crow than a man, the daemon recoiled from Sieghard, a milky film covering its unnatural eyes. The disk yawed uncertainly, rising up away from the fight. Sensing their master's distress, the screamers followed after it with lazy flicks of their tails, swooping up in a wailing rush to fall on Sieghard in a frenzy of fins and fangs.
He brought his shield up to protect himself, but it was no use - they battened onto him like leeches, their sheer mass threatening to pull him from the disk. Rings of teeth cut through the mail of his coif, gashing his cheek - he felt the daemon's cold saliva sting as it seeped into the wound.
Down below, Viggo's charge took him to the head of the stairs and through the creature opposing him, his slashing sword bursting it like a balloon. As he stumbled through the cloud of blue energies left in the wake of its destruction, a volley of witch-fire spat from its larger cousins in the pit. It struck him, it struck the Southlander beside him, it struck Ludo at the amphitheatre's edge - there seemed to be no end to the daemons' sorcery. Taking advantage as their reeled, the little blue ones surged forwards up the steps, forming fish-like jaws bigger than their bodies to bite and tear as they swarmed over the stricken Southlander.
On the left, the larger force of daemons had reached the upper level, and were advancing rapidly on Adelbert's position. Gouts of fire struck the ahosi shielding them as Ingwald frantically reloaded, leaving her stunned by the magical energies coursing through her. Another daemon exploded into pink vapour, overloaded by the power the pack were unleashing. In the vanguard, the blue horrors scuttled forwards, stretching out tentacles and arms ending in huge strangler's hands.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/LordChilipepa/LibraryTPK_zpswx4zap84.png
Elsa
It took some wrenching to get the Tales free, but Goran was as strong as an ox. Pulling the metal plate to which the chain was fixed clean out of the shelves, he offered the book to Elsa.
He looked less happy at being told to find his way back alone, but he wasn't about to countermand Sforza's wizard. Arms piled absurdly high with their finds - the box of lenses, the astrolabe, the books, he headed off after the trail of chalk.
OOC:The magic is "loud" enough to give you a general bearing, but there's no straight path towards it and your chalk markings don't go this way: you'll need an Int test to navigate the maze.
TheSummoner
2015-08-23, 07:41 PM
Sieghard
"I don't believe you," Sieghard said. "I'll kill you and send you to whatever dark god you serve. Bet he won't be pleased with you. Or maybe if you call the rest off I'll think about letting you live."
Swift attack. First attack against the Herald for sure. Second if he's alive or the most wounded screamer if I manage a good hit on him that kills or disables the herald.
[roll0] vs 41 WS
[roll1] Damage
[roll2] vs 41 (or maybe 51?) WS
[roll3] Damage
only relevant if I kill the herald with the first attack, but does Sieghard suffer the WS penalty against all opponents or just the herald?
That's twice I would've killed him if not for the WS penalty... Forgot the dodge again, but I didn't hit so it makes no difference this round anyways
-Sentinel-
2015-08-23, 07:45 PM
Elsabeth Holt
On second thought, Elsa ordered an Ahosi to help Goran with his burden; she had not realized quite how much he had to carry, and she did not want him defenseless on his way back. She kept an Ahosi and Gustaf with her; according to Sieghard, Gustaf was a fairly good shot.
"Quick now."
OOC
Int 55: [roll0]
RossN
2015-08-23, 07:50 PM
Still Without Elsa (!)
Adelbert shuddered at the carnage going around him, but could hardly spare a look at the how the others were doing. Instead, sword drawn he ran to join the Southlander and face the pink and blue horde shoulder to shoulder.
"They dare not using their fire magic against me," he shouted. "That damn book they want would burst into flames like dry straw!"
OOC:
Standard Move to join the ahosi #1
Parrying stance
LeSwordfish
2015-08-24, 02:46 AM
yeah because what we really need is more magic.
Magic coursing through him, ludo howled as his skin blistered. He groped in his pouch for another stone, but decided against it. If they were to have any chance of fighting these things, they would need Beatrix alive and well. Instead he sprinted towards the wizardess, hoping to drag her away from the fight.
OOC
Ludo's Run is 12 squares, and pythagoras suggests that to the square above and to the right of beatrix is 8 squares. If I can use that remaining movement to start pulling her towards the entrance we came in by, I will.
Northern Lad
2015-08-24, 07:43 AM
Now with 100% less Elsa
The shock of his evaporating target and the pain of the magical fire which coursed over his body only strengthened Viggo's resolve. He already knew he was dead, all that was up for debate now was the manner in which he would face it.
He shook his shield arm, the pink flames spluttering out as he moved besides the Danxome onto the head of the stairs, face grim and teeth gritted. "Come on you ugly blue buggers! Come and get us!" He yelled in the face of the oncoming swarm of blue insanity's, he spared a quick glance for the warrioress at his side, "Promise to try and not die and I'll do the same!" He'd meant it to sound as lighthearted as he could, instead it just sounded macabre, striking from around his shield he hacked at the terror before him, hoping to drive it back down the stairs.
OOC
Half Action: Move (next to Ahosi No. 2
Half Action: Standard Attack Blue Horror No. 9
Attack:
WS 42 - [roll0]
Damage - [roll1]
No Elsas
"I don't believe you," Sieghard said. "I'll kill you and send you to whatever dark god you serve. Bet he won't be pleased with you. Or maybe if you call the rest off I'll think about letting you live."
How gracious of you, said the daemon. It stretched out its claw, and searing pink fire filled Sieghard's world.
From the ground, Ludo saw the flash. It lit the library from top to bottom, etching black shadows between the bookshelves and rendering the circling screamers into coal-black silhouettes around it. When the flames had cleared, the flying daemons were peeling away from the disk and its rider, arcing down towards Ludo and Beatrix.
Grabbing Beatrix's hand, Ludo tried to coax her into a run but there was no outrunning the screamers. They swooped from above like wailing thunderbolts, horns and teeth slashing. Ludo felt a jagged tusk tear across the back of his head and fell, blood soaking into his scalp. As his vision faded, he saw the bestial daemons twisting like eels in the air above him, Fassbender's magic sparking and failing as she tried to drive them off.
By the steps behind them, Viggo swung grimly at the horde of diminutive daemons trying to force their way up out of the pit, gritting his teeth with the effort. On his left, the Danxome warrior waded into the fight and screamed as she was caught between two streams of ravening, polychromatic flame. Flesh and armour running together like wax, she toppled forwards into the melee, the smaller daemons swarming over her blazing body with cackles of lunatic glee.
A bolt of flame smashed into Viggo himself, sending droplets of molten steel flying from the sleeve of his mail shirt. Sparks crackled over the metal links, stunning him with the shock just long enough for one of the twisted blur creatures to scamper up onto his shoulder, and unhinge a toothy jaw that split its whole body from side to side. Needle teeth chomped down, and Viggo stared briefly at the blood pouring from bite in his arm before fainting dead away.
Adelbert and the ahosi were fighting off an assault of their own, the majority of the daemons concentrating on the Southlander while one or two of the smaller ones clawed at Adelbert. Firebolts knocked melted scales from the ahosi's mail, but she refused to fall, keeping her shield up. A crossbow bolt from Ingwald lanced into the mob, striking the beast who had cast the spell it kept its feet. Adelbert knew it wouldn't be enough. The knot of fighters around him were the last bastion of resistance, and the tide of daemonkind was closing in around them.
Enough, came the voice of the daemons' master. Descending from on high, it levered something heavy off the edge of its disk with the butt of its staff. Sieghard's charred body dropped listlessly to the ground with a clang of armour plates. No more.
The swarm of horrors ebbed back from their victims, murmuring and shifting as they awaited their leader's command. The screamers spiralled up from their frenzied attack on Beatrix, revealing the wizard still crouched over Ludo with her good arm raised in self-defence.
I have been waiting a long time to snare a mortal... capable of what I require, said the daemon, its voice carrying an edge that had not been present before. Was it angry? You will not deny me what I have worked for. This is my domain. You will not throw your life away unless I allow it.
It had floated down close to Adelbert but this time it was hovering carefully out of reach.
You are beyond the reach of your gods, human. If you die here, my pets will devour your soul long before it can escape this place. The screamers keened and circled, swimming menacingly closer. But there are fates far worse than that, if you care to explore them.
It held out its claw. Give me that book, and let us talk.
RossN
2015-08-24, 11:53 AM
Elsaless
Adelbert let out a sigh that was more of a moan as he took in the disaster around him. His companions were fallen, or dying and it was only moments before the end came.
His eyes went to Beatrix, then back to the daemon, as he clutched his sword in one hand, his other going to his pendant.
"You...," his voice cracked and he had to start again. "You speak of being beyond my gods reach, yet... yet if I betray them now that will be truer then. Perhaps... you can devour my soul but then who will do your work for you? None of the others."
He took a step backwards. "I a servant of the Goddess of Truth and Law and Justice and even if She cannot hear or aid me now I am Hers, as much as you belong to your master. Would you - could you - betray Him?"
Schreiber et al.
My master is the god of knowledge, said the bird-headed thing, floating just a little closer. Its voice had become a sibilant, intimate whisper in Adelbert's head. As is yours. Why should we be enemies, when there is so much to learn? A crooked smile teased at the corners of its vulturine beak. I know many things that would be of interest to you.
Your friends are dying. Give me the book, and I will allow you to save them.
RossN
2015-08-24, 12:14 PM
ASVL
Adelbert hesitated. He could feel his resolve weakening as he listened to that voice in his head. There was something strangely persuasive about the daemon.
He looked at the bird headed creature, obviously wavering. "If I agree to hand over the book... and to do as you ask... would decision rest entirely with me? I... I can't bind my comrades... I don't want them damned too. Could you let them go... would I be enough?"
ASVL
If you will perform the service I asked of you, said the daemon, then I will allow you and your friends to walk out of this place, unharmed. Once that box is in my hands. It leaned down towards Adelbert, extending one scaly claw as if to shake his hand. Do we have a contract?
RossN
2015-08-24, 12:30 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert took one last look at the chaos around him and nodded. "Verena forgive me but yes... you have a contract."
Slipping his sword into its sheathe he removed the tattered book from his back and after a long moment extended his hand to shake the daemon's claw. Then he handed over the book.
ASLV
Cold blue fire rippled around Adelbert's fingers as he shook the daemon's claw. It didn't feel how he had expected it was dry and warm, almost like the hand of an old man.
The bargain is sealed, said the daemon, taking the book with an expression of deep satisfaction. Fassbender hung her head. See to your friends.
Elsa Only
Elsa led her diminished party through the maze of shelves, fighting her way through the twists and turns to try to reach the flares of magical discharge she could sense in the labyrinth's heart. Space stretched and rotated around them, its subtle distortions trying to throw them off track but Elsa had her witchsight to guide her, pointing like a compass needle towards the Aethyric storm that was raging in the library's heart.
The disturbance in the Winds suddenly blazed so bright that Elsa had to shield her eyes the others did too, as a flash of lurid pink light seared the darkness up ahead. Recovering as quickly as she could, Elsa broke into a run.
Covering the last few hundred yards at a sprint, Elsa burst into the centre of the library, Gustaf and the leader of the ahosi close behind her. When she saw what was waiting there, she faltered to a halt.
A great octahedral amphtheatre had been sunk into the library floor, lined with shelves and filled with reading desks. The books on the desks had been scattered and disordered as if by some great struggle a struggle whose participants were still standing in plain sight.
Adelbert stood on one side of the pit, bloodied and battered, with Ingwald and one of the ahosi at his side. At his feet lay Florin, horribly burned and still moaning softly. Close to the boy, a scorched, motionless figure was slumped on the ground only by the fire-blackened armour it wore did Elsa recognise it as Sieghard.
On the opposite side, Fassbender was crouched over the unmoving body of Ludo. Her clothes were torn and she was bleeding from several deep cuts; Ortolanus still crouched hissing on her shoulder. Viggo lay nearby at the head of the steps leading down into the pit, his right arm half-severed and covered in blood. Next to him were the charred remains of what might once have been one of the Southlanders her body had been so totally immolated it was hard to be sure.
Floating above it all was the strangest creature Elsa had ever seen. It wore glittering robes of many colours, a long, withered beak protruding from beneath its deep cowl. In one claw-like hand it held a silver staff, covered with twisted depictions of serpents and strange fish. Strangest of all, it stood on a floating disk of living flesh, yellow eyes blinking from the thing's rim as it hovered in the air.
Standing all around the chamber below, more daemonic horrors turned and stared at the new arrival. They were stunted creatures, with long, many-jointed limbs and faces that bulged directly from their torsos. Some large, some small, some pink, some blue, no two were the same their bodies flowed and inverted, shifting from moment to moment. Elsa could swear she saw one turn itself inside-out as idly as a goblin would pick its nose.
Circling the creature on the disk were three larger daemons. They reminded her of the skate fish the fishermen had used to bring up the Reik from Marienburg but each of these creatures was the size of a small horse. They swam through the air as if it were water, their flat mouths studded with tusks and razor-sharp teeth. Two looked as if they had taken a battering, glowing ichor seeping from deep wounds in their unnatural flesh.
Ah, said the creature on the disk. Elsa heard its voice in her head without passing the medium of her ears; to her it sounded smooth and cultured, like a smug professor. You've finally arrived.
RossN
2015-08-24, 12:59 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert could not bring himself to meet Fassbender's gaze as he hurried over to check on Viggo, before turning to the many other wounded. He barely looked up as Elsa arrived.
"Where were you?" he asked, sounding more exhausted and defeated than angry.
OOC:
Okay Heal Checks:
Viggo: [roll0] vs. 46
Ludo: [roll1] vs. 46
Sieghard: [roll2] vs. 46
Beatrix: [roll3] vs. 46
Ingwald: [roll4] vs. 46
Surviving ahosi: [roll5] vs. 46
Florin: [roll6] vs. 46
Adelbert: [roll7] vs. 46
-Sentinel-
2015-08-24, 01:30 PM
Elsabeth Holt
Elsa took in the corpse-strewn room not with horror or surprise, but with numb weariness. This whole place had been assaulting her mind ever since the rain of mutant fish, and she was sick and tired. For all she knew, she might as well be in a nightmare from which she would wake up any moment. She made a stand down gesture to her Ahosi and Gustaf, though she highly doubted either of them was fool enough to restart the fight. As far as she was concerned, the daemon on the disc was only mildly alarming; if it wanted her dead, it would not waste time talking to her.
Not even acknowledging the daemon, Elsa first swept her gaze over each of her friends, one by one; most of them down and unmoving, some of them hopefully still alive. The sight of Sieghard's burns violently shook her out of her dreamlike state. She was about to reach for the wind of Aqshy to do what, she did not know when, thankfully for her, Adelbert's weak voice caught her attention:
"Where were you?"
Elsa stared at the scribe wordlessly. She did not even have the strength for sarcasm. At last she said in a soft sigh: "What does it matter?"
She paused again.
"Frau Fassbender," she called across the pit to one of the few humans still conscious. "How's Ludo? And what about you?"
All the while, Elsa kept ignoring the daemon, for no reason other than spite. A reckless, self-destructive part of her wanted to know what the creature would do about it.
Elsa Only
Though she did her best not to give the creature on the disk the satisfaction of looking, the daemons were impossible for Elsa to ignore. They burned like beacons in her witchsight, pure magic made flesh. She could feel them even when facing away from them, the backwash of magic from the assembled horrors like the heat of a bonfire on her skin.
"Frau Fassbender," she called across the pit to one of the few humans still conscious. "How's Ludo? And what about you?"
"He's hurt," Beatrix said, stiffly rising back to her feet. "Badly."
Heading over to where the halfling lay, Elsa saw the blood that was streaked down his back. He had been struck from behind - two claw-like gashes ran up the back of his skull, cutting almost to the bone. Looking up at the jagged teeth of the ray-like creatures circling overhead, Elsa could imagine how it had happened. Sieghard was as bad - Elsa had to look away, the mercenary's burns reminding her far too strongly of a fateful night in Altdorf, what seemed now a whole world away.
They were the victims of an... unfortunate misunderstanding, came the voice of the daemon, sliding silently through the air behind her on its floating disk. Elsa kept trying to ignore it as it swung slowly into view, circling the two wizardesses. There is no need for conflict between us. Your friend and I have reached an agreement.
It craned it long neck in, the eyes in its vulture-like head seeking Elsa's. On the left side a third eye had budded from the wrinkled flesh - it was black and fathomless, like the void of the night sky.
I am sure he would appreciate your assistance.
RossN
2015-08-24, 02:52 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert looked ashamed, though whether at his deal with the daemon or his inability to do more for Ludo was unclear. Probably both.
"We... we shouldn't linger." His voice sounded dead. "Most of these will struggle to get back to Mannan's Keep and they'll need a proper doctor."
He looked at the daemon. "Where do I have to go and what do I have to do?"
The thing I want is hidden in the innermost chamber of the library, said the daemon, its attention back on Adelbert. It continued to drift in lazy circles around them, the motion making Adelbert slightly queasy. The Illuminated Order built this place around it. It is beyond the rooms beyond this hall. The bird thing hunched low, leaning on its staff as it studied Adelbert's face. The approaches to it are warded, but the spells are much less dangerous to your kind than to mine. The Order were used to their apprentices becoming... out of control.
A soft smirk twisted its way across the daemon's beak. Reaching into its all-concealing robes, it pulled out a heavy silver key on a chain.
This is the key that will unlock the doors. Find the box and return it to me. The daemon lowered the key into Adelbert's hands, letting its fine chain spool after it. And tread lightly. There is another of my kind in these halls. He is a brute, who hates the learning this library represents. The disk drifted away, the daemon rising back to its full height. He hunts wizards. For your friends' sake, I would advise you do not disturb him.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-24, 03:06 PM
There is no need for conflict between us. Your friend and I have reached an agreement.
Elsa's blood ran cold. She had to force herself not to even look at the daemon.
An agreement with a daemon!
"We... we shouldn't linger. Most of these will struggle to get back to Mannan's Keep and they'll need a proper doctor."
Elsa remained silent for a moment, her face stony, as she made her way around the pit to examine Ludo's injuries. "We'll get them out of here," she said at last, as she reached the halfling. "I didn't find any of what we came for. What about the rest of you?"
I am not getting out of here with so little!
RossN
2015-08-24, 03:13 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert nodded, his face tight. He closed his hand around the key. "Can we at least let the wounded out; they are in no condition to fight through wards of any kind. The wizardess and I can stay here."
"I didn't find any of what we came for. What about the rest of you?"
"Nothing of use," muttered Fassbender, under her breath. She was watching the daemon as if it were an unexploded bomb.
"Can we at least let the wounded out; they are in no condition to fight through wards of any kind. The wizardess and I can stay here."
That was not our agreement, said the daemon, in mock confusion. After you have fulfilled your end of the bargain, they will be free to go. My word, it said, solemnly putting a claw over what passed for its heart, is my bond.
It looked over the wounded. If you wish, you could leave them here with me. They seem like very interesting people. It hovered over to where Ludo lay, unmoving, and looked down at the halfling with a hungry expression. I'm sure we would have much to discuss.
RossN
2015-08-24, 03:32 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
A look of pure anguish crossed Adelbert's face. "No... we will bring them with us." He looked at the others. "Everyone who can still stand carry those who cannot."
The daemon looked disappointed. At least let me heal their wounds, it said, flexing its long claws like an old man's fingers. As a gesture of good faith.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-24, 03:34 PM
Elsa found it harder and harder to ignore the daemon when it threatened her friends.
To Beatrix she whispered through clenched teeth: "If we leave without something that can help you, you're as good as dead... but it's like a needle in a haystack. Wherever they keep books of alchemy, I haven't found it."
RossN
2015-08-24, 03:38 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert shuddered in horror. "Don't you touch them!"
"If we leave without something that can help you, you're as good as dead... but it's like a needle in a haystack. Wherever they keep books of alchemy, I haven't found it."
"We're as good as dead already," Beatrix whispered in reply, still keeping her eyes on the daemon. "One problem at a time."
Still, Elsa could see the problem turning over in the Gold Wizard's mind. "It said it knew the cure," she whispered, after a long pause. "Before... your friend attacked it. That was the inducement it offered... to try to get us to bring it the book."
Adelbert shuddered in horror. "Don't you touch them!"
The daemon cocked its head inquisitively at Adelbert, quite unmoved by his outrage.
It means... very much to me that you succeed, it said, the words slipping through Adelbert's mind like oil on water. It was drifting slowly closer to Ludo, forwards and down. How will you bring me my box if you are dragging your wounded with you? You must admit it lessens your chances of success.
It was so close now that if it chose to it could lean over and touch the halfling where he lay. Now, it began to make a physical sound - strange syllables, hacking and croaking out of its beak like the calls of a crow. To Elsa, trained in the arcane language of the Colleges, it sounded utterly alien - but she could tell magic was being worked.
OOC: The Herald Channels (automatic success) and casts Tzeentch's Blessing on itself:
[roll0]+3 vs. 18
If successful, it wants to roll an even number on this dice: [roll1]
If an even number is rolled, it can nick a spell from any magic lore for one day; it chooses Healing of Hysh from the Lore of Light. If an odd number is rolled it gains another mutation for the collection.
The air around its outstretched hand shimmered with polychromatic lights. There was a moment of tension - and then, six new thin talons unfolded themselves from the scaly flesh of its claw.
Hmm, that did not quite work... permit me to try again.
RossN
2015-08-24, 03:52 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
"We... we'll carry them," Adelbert insited. He looked physically ill as the creature neared Ludo.
No, no, I insist, clucked the daemon, stretching out its hand again. One of its new-grown talons was already rotting and falling from its finger, the side-effect of the raw Chaos it was harnessing.
OOC: Try again!
[roll0]+3 vs. 18
[roll1] - there we go! Spell acquired.
RossN
2015-08-24, 04:02 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
"No!" Adelbert cried out, running to intervene and force himself between the daemon and the halfling. "You've corrupted me, I won't let you do the same to them. Keep your 'gifts'."
Corrupted? said the daemon, all sweetness and light. A simple little arrangement like ours, to safeguard your friends? It reached out, stroking his cheek with a hand that now had far too many fingers. What do they teach you in those temples of yours, to frighten you so?
It leaned in closer. I could show you corruption, Adelbert Schreiber of the Averland. I could grant you the knowledge to see your most powerful enemies grovel at your feet. But I do not think you would accept such a gift. You, it said, tapping him on the chest like a precocious pupil, are a very... principled... man.
No, it said, drifting away, ours is a simple trade. Its gaze fell across Sieghard, seemingly at random. At least let me fix this one. After all, it was I who broke it. It paused, seemingly recognising it had said the wrong word. Him.
RossN
2015-08-24, 04:18 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
With a sigh more felt than heard Adelbert stepped aside and let the creature begin it's work.
White light shimmered around the creature as it stooped down and pressed its hand to the side of Sieghard's head. To Adelbert, it felt like a perversion of his own goddess' presence, the presence he had felt in his dreams and in the temple of Savonne - to Elsa, the weave of the White Wind around the daemon was clear, its pure currents tainted with the glittering, many-coloured madness of Chaos. It took it a while to break the power of Hysh to its will - but break it the creature did.
The livid burns across Sieghard's face began to shrink, drawing back to reveal miraculously clean skin beneath. The mercenary came to with a great gasp of air, the daemon sitting back on its disk with a satisfied smirk. Drifting over to Viggo, it repeated the process, knitting together the sliced flesh of the minstrel's arm. Viggo woke in a drowsy doze, rubbing the wound - it had healed in a strange knot of scar tissue, the shape of a twisting snake.
Florin came next, the boy's moans of pain fading into amazement as the magic flowed through him, making good his ruined skin. Finally, the daemon moved back over to Ludo, the white light melding the bloody gashes in the back of the halfling's head closed. Ludo came round to the incomprehensible sight of the daemon offering him his hat.
-Sentinel-
2015-08-24, 04:38 PM
When the daemon approached Sieghard, Elsa had to break her self-imposed rule to ignore it. She did not move an inch from where she stood, but with her mind she probed at the Winds, ready to lash out with everything she had at the first sign of treachery.
Her boots remained firmly in place when the daemon went to Ludo, passing almost close enough to bump into her. She suppressed a shudder, and turned instead to Adelbert.
"I sent Goran and one of my Ahosi back to the entrance. None of us are hurt. How many did we lose here?"
RossN
2015-08-24, 04:56 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
"I sent Gustaf and one of my Ahosi back to the entrance. None of us are hurt. How many did we lose here?"
"One of the Ahosi... I... I never learnt her name," Adelbert said. He took a deep shuddering breath. "The others might have died but the daemon..."
He waved his hand to indicate everything, the horror and surrealness of the moment and especially the herald. Adelbert felt a bizarre urge to thank the creature.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-24, 04:57 PM
Ludo woke with chaos in his eyes, felt his flesh and bone knitting, and saw the nightmarish thing reaching towards him. His arm was leaden and heavy, and an attempt to grab at his waist for his dagger left his hand slapping uselessly against his belt. He yelped in fear and attempted to struggle backwards - but the grim silence of his companions and the stance of the creature silenced him, and he froze, heart pounding, chest working hard as he drew in breaths that he'd not expected to breathe again.
"What's happening? What's it-"
Memories came back - the library, the warpflame, the screech of the sky-shark as it tore him open. Pain was returning too, blinding boiling pain up his back - but even that seemed more distant and contained than he would expect, like it was happening to someone else. He saw the peacable pose of the creature and - very carefully - took his hat from it.
"What did you do?" It was hard to tell who the question was aimed at.
Only a little magic, said the daemon. It leaned in, peering at Ludo's pale face and making a faint crooning noise in its avian throat. What an interesting creature you are...
It said nothing more, instead drifting sedately away. The scarred leader of the ahosi tensed, gripping the hilt of her sword as she saw it looking down at the remains of her warrior on the steps.
"Esohe," she said to Adelbert in a low voice. "Her name was Esohe." She looked to Elsa. "We cannot leave her body here with these... things."
RossN
2015-08-24, 05:07 PM
Adelbert Schreiber
Adelbert joined the ahosi leader, his face grey and haggard. "She was very brave." A pause. "I am a priest... I do know of your peoples rites but I can speak the prayers... if you need..."
He wasn't altogether sure his goddess would listen to him after he had bound himself to a daemon or whether he could even call himself a priest but he couldn't bring himself to tell the warrioress that.
LeSwordfish
2015-08-24, 05:12 PM
Ludo recoiled from the daemon, getting to his feet and scrambling away. It was fascinating, though, he had to admit it - Sermena had seen so little of Chaos, and here was a manifestation of it in it's purest form. A creature of the warp.
He probed at the back of his head, where he had felt the tusk tear - and found a line of healing scar tissue. The same was the case with his back, though his beloved jacket had been torn clean in two. The insanity of the situation leaving him oddly calm, he slipped the jacket from his shoulders and carefully put the pieces in his pack, which he shouldered again, feeling both absurd and cold in shirtsleeves and braces in this place. He moved towards the group around the fallen Danxome warrior, trying not to look at the creatures in the pit.
"No!" hissed the scarred Southlander, still keeping her voice low. "We have to take her back! Who knows what they will do?"
The disk had moved on once again, and now a few of the small blue daemons were looking sidelong towards the body. For all Adelbert understood of their motivations, they might leave it alone or use it as a set of drums.
"This is a cursed place. I will not leave her body here."
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