Tempting Fate [IC]

[ylvathrall]

Deep within Grungir Forest, legends tell of a city that straddles the boundary between the First World and the Material Plane. In the City of the Moon, they say, you might find anything your heart desires, if you're prepared to pay the price. Dreams come true, miracles happen, souls are bought and sold, and things wondrous and terrible are lost and found. This is a doorway into another world, a world where anything at all might happen.

But like all things of the fey, the city is fickle. Where it might be, who it might appear to, is impossible for anyone to predict. It might show itself to a random traveler lost in the woods, and not to a dedicated explorer who's hunted for it for his whole life. Many people who go looking for it spend their whole lives searching without finding a thing, or else meet their end at the hands of one of the forest's other residents.

But now, in a clearing deep within the forest, on the night of the new moon, you see it. A city rises among the trees, gleaming and perfect. The outer walls are seventy feet high; inside, you can see slender towers that rise even higher. All of the buildings are made of a pale stone, the same color as the moon that doesn't shine tonight. The gentle snow that falls elsewhere in the woods doesn't seem to touch this clearing, as though it stands apart from the weather of the normal world.

Only one feature mars the smooth perfection of the wall. In front of you, an archway leads to a large stone door covered in delicate script.

As you start out into the clearing, you see a few other people emerge from the forest as well, drawn by chance or fate or some attraction exerted by the city itself to the same place and time as you.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni stalked through the forest, an umbrella floating serenely above her head to keep the snow off, light shining down from it to illuminate the area. She was growing frustrated with the search. It was still too early in the night for that to be entirely reasonable, but last month had been a failure and she'd burned through a large portion of the money she had on-hand simply waiting out another month. She wouldn't starve- couldn't, in fact- if she had to do it again, but it would mean a considerable drop in the quality of her accommodations, to say nothing of the money it took to get any sort of worthwhile diversion this far north.

She drew herself up short, her search paying off at last. There the city stood, centered in a clearing that she was reasonably certain wouldn't be there tomorrow morning. Nor would she. She gestured absently, and the umbrella shook itself off before folding up and securing itself to her satchel. As it was doing so, she was already striding towards the archway. There were others present as well, although whether by destiny or by their own making remained to be seen. At the moment, she was more concerned with what the writing on the archway said. It would be embarrassing to not be able to enter for something like neglecting clear instructions to wipe her shoes first.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e87/neesboy/kyonitheliar_zps9435a0b4.png
Kyoni secretly casts False Life on herself while gesturing at the umbrella using Cunning Caster.
Temporary hitpoints: [roll0]

[Bhaakon]

A cold glow proceeds Tove, the stark glare of her platinum halo providing definition to her surroundings while robbing them of hue. The search had been interminable, but she's come prepared. The ring had done its job, obviating the need to carry rations, and her celestial blood made the northern chill bearable--if not comfortable. She'd needed both, and her weapons besides, to find this place. Grungir Forest didn't give up its secrets to those lacking resolve, and the three previous new moons had proven as much. But the fourth...

Tove flashes the barest sliver of her ivory-white teeth. A wan smile, but a smile nonetheless. The city wasn't perfect. The walls were immaculate, yes, but the proportions of the towers were ever so slightly lacking, and the inscription above the archway, whatever it said, was an unfortunate intrusion. Magic could do much, but this place had at least one foot in the material plan, and the laws of nature and practicality yet asserted themselves in limiting ways. Still...it was close. As close as she'd seen. There was hope here.

Then there were the others. She does her best to ignore them at first. There were any number of reasons to seek this place, but there was no denying that many were unsavory. Tove's own motives are, if not questionable, at least rather selfish, and the last thing she wants is the moral obligation to start a brawl on the very doorstep of her goal. Shelyn might grant a certain insight into the motives of others, but there was no directive to use it constantly. So Tove refrains. Some things, she well knows, are better left unwitnessed.

But the message the rulers of this place saw fit to mar their seemless wall with isn't one of those things. Tove walks up alongside the woman already considering the words. A spellcaster of some stripe, judging by the lack of weapons and the rather handy umbrella trick. "You've any idea what it says?" She asks, as pleasantly as she can manage--which is say merely cool instead of acerbic.

[Tuvarkz]

The moment the city entered his sight, the half-orc stopped moving, and just as a precaution, slapped himself in the face. He seemed to be fully awake-and the city was real. Storing his weapon, Darruk started moving towards the city with a cheerful pace, until he noticed the two strangers looking at an inscription in the wall. Common sense made him stop by them, to see what was written in there.

He couldn't wait to bring his wife back, but his eagerness was tempered by the fact that, more than likely, there were many risks and trials ahead.

[Segrain]

It was a long way. In a certain sense, it took a lifetime - and however relatively short that time actually was, the rest of that life was going to change one way or another.

But, even with metaphors being set aside, - not that his mind could devise such an idea, - it was a long way. Not many people dared to venture deep in the Gungnir Forest, and even those few who did were not eager to give him any directions. It did not matter: just going further and further into the forest was a direction enough. There were no manmade roads on his way, and even the paths of local dwellers were not leading whither he needed to go. It did not matter: following backwards the same set of instructions that another man of his age once was given was a path enough. Few stories were ever told about men going so deep, and even in fewer they succeeded. It did not matter: he was a man enough to take the risk. And a man was not everything that he was - just like the place that he sought was more than a mere part of a forest, as much as anything in it could be called "mere".

A city between two worlds - no, in both worlds at once. A fitting place for somebody like him, even though he did not intend to stay in it for long. All that he needed was a passway, a door to be opened. Of course, doors only existed within walls, and it was not surprising that such a place would be fortified against unwelcome intruders. Nor was it surprising to find other visitors, brought by the same nonexistent moon to the same twice existing place. There were three of them at the door, and it was only a fitting number. Adding himself to the count was going to break it, and it could be a bad omen; but even that did not matter. There were three of them - two women and a man, and that was a sign good enough. Being an odd one out was nothing new, after all.

Neither was anything new in the written word. There was power in words, and even greater one in those worthy enough to be scribed; at a threshold like that, they demanded attention, and only a fool would not heed them. He was no fool. Neither was he impolite. "Hail", - a voice, clear and strong, announced his presence with a single word in Skald, as the man himself stepped into the clearing and approached the other travellers. Giving a short look to each of them one by one, he then turned to the door, eyeing it with much greater attention.

[ylvathrall]

When you look at it more closely, you see that the city seems...odd. The walls appear to be smooth, as though carved from a single piece of stone rather than fitted together. The buildings inside seem slightly hazy and indistinct, almost as though they're too far away to see clearly, though there shouldn't be nearly enough space in this clearing for that.

When you first look at it, the door is covered in indecipherable script, something you can only barely recognize as writing. After a moment, though, the lines writhe and twist into a language you're familiar with. The text reads:


No way back but three ways through,

seven sorrows wait for you.
What you find you also bring,

never forget how to sing.
Door the first is also worst,

drinking 'til you're fit to burst.
Door number two it follows you,

silent though it screams with you.
Door the third is seldom heard,

opens only for ten words.

As soon as you've finished reading the cryptic (and rather bad, but clearly artistry isn't the point here) poem, the door slides smoothly into the wall, leaving the surface utterly smooth with no indication that a door was ever there at all.

The room thus revealed is a perfect, nearly featureless cube. The walls are the same blank white stone as the exterior of the city, unmarked in any way; they seem slightly luminescent, leaving the room dimly lit without any clear light source. The only distinctive feature is a pool of water in the floor, a perfect circle thirteen feet across. It's hard to say how deep it is; the water is perfectly clear, and the bottom might be anywhere from within reach to a hundred feet down.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni considered the poem, glancing briefly at the others. "Well, there's no indication that there's any problem working this out together, so any theories are welcome," she said. A piece of paper and a bit of charcoal floated up out of her satchel, and she went over to the wall to write down the words while they were clear in her mind. "Hmm.
'No way back but three ways through,' is pretty clear. This is one-way only, and there are three methods to get through.
'seven sorrows wait for you' is less so. Trials of some sort? The first door ties to gluttony, so maybe something with the Thassilonian sins. That's a stretch at best. Suffice it to say there's plenty of unpleasantness on the other side, and it comes in sevens.
'What you find you also bring,' is a line that can be consigned to an obscure shelf in Stygia. Maybe a reference to the malleable nature of the First World- inhabitants shape their surroundings, meaning you will find whatever you bring to the table in a sense. Equally likely it's poetic fluff.
'never forget how to sing' is… well, I don't know what." She stopped, clearing her throat, and sang a few experimental lines of "The Dirty Dragon". While no bardic masterpiece, it was passable. "Well, I'm not planning on forgetting, but I suppose it's worth staying in practice if they mention it here.
'Door the first is also worst,' is where things get interesting. Of the three options, this is the worst. Just in terms of enacting it, or are there consequences for taking a simple entrance?
'drinking 'til you're fit to burst' is clear, at least. Drink a lot of the water.
'Door number two it follows you,' is probably a shadow. I mean, it's a riddle, and there's something following. Usually a shadow. Do we need to make a shadow?
'silent though it screams with you' is… unhelpful. Shadows are silent, but do they scream with you? I'll get to that one, I suppose. Also, rhyming a word with itself. Wonder if that's important?
'Door the third is seldom heard,' fails to narrow things down.
'opens only for ten words' isn't really narrowing it much further. There are ten lines, though. 'No seven what never door drinking door silent door opens.' 'Through you bring sing worst burst you you heard words.'" She sang the last part, reading off the first word of each line and then last of each experimentally.

"All right. Well, shadows." A few glowing blue wisps appeared floating near her. "Still a lot of ambient lighting," she said, frowning as she considered whether the contrasting colors of light constituted a shadow.

[Bhaakon]

Tove listens to the woman puzzle through the lines of doggerel without seeming to get anywhere and sighs. It was bad. It was probably supposed to be bad. She turns her attention back to the walls themselves and the towers beyond. They weren't right. Fuzzy and distant. Perhaps she'd been wrong about the city having one foot in the material plane. Maybe it was only a toe. There was no way something following the laws of nature could fit in this clearing. Either the First world was even closer than she'd hoped, or...

"It could be an illusion." She reaches out to the touch the wall.

[Tuvarkz]

"What if it's not a shadow but a reflection? You'd need a large enough mirror or enough mirrors for your reflection to follow you, however. So, anyone got a mirror?" commented Darruk, who approached the pool of water and looked into his reflection.

[ylvathrall]

The walls feel very solid, and cool to the touch. You don't see or feel any contradiction or sensory glitch that would suggest things aren't entirely real. If this is an illusion, it's an astonishingly thorough one.

The water is very clear, and the surface is smooth and still as glass. You don't see a reflection in it.

The balls of light are brighter than the ambient light, but not enough so to produce a distinct shadow. What shadows they do cast are blurry and poorly defined.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni considered the ruggedly handsome half-orc's suggestion. "The screaming bit does make more sense for a reflection. Like you said, though, it's not exactly following you. No mirror, unfortunately." She checked her satchel just to make sure, then shook her head to confirm it. "But I'm being uncivil. I'm Kyoni," she said, giving the others a warm smile. "And, worst case, we simply take the worst option and drink from the pool. Did anybody bring some sort of cup, bowl, goblet, or water skin?"

[Bhaakon]

"Tove." The armored woman tosses out her name as she finished inspecting the wall. It certainly seemed real...which was both promising and disquieting. "I've both a small mirror and a cup, if you think they'll be of help." She says, retrieving the items from her grooming supplies and mess kit.

"I'm more inclined to dive in, myself." Tove says. She doesn't quite do that, but she does reach a hand into the pool.

[QuidEst]

"A pleasure," Kyoni replied, and gratefully took the cup. "You might want some rope if you're going to try diving in," she added, looking down at the pool and noting the lack of a reflection. "Just in case. It's certainly not normal water, so I wouldn't count on being able to swim in it necessarily."

[ylvathrall]

The liquid seems to be normal water, and feels comfortably cool to the touch. If it has any odd properties, they aren't readily apparent.

[Tuvarkz]

"My name's Darruk. If you'll be needing rope, here it is." he says as he takes out the rope from his fighter's kit. The half-orc then accepted the mirror, and after checking if merely looking at his reflection in it did anything, he then tried submerging his hand with the mirror into the water and looking at his reflection through it.

[Bhaakon]

Pulling her hand from the pool, Tove frowns. "Feels like water." She murmurs as she watches the surface to see if it lacks ripples as well as reflection.

She considers her options as she watches. She'd have to leave behind her gear and armor to go for a swim, even with a rope, and that didn't seem particularly wise with seven dangers lurking. Neither did drinking until bursting. The second door...what followed you and screamed in silence? A shadow was a good guess, but the room seemed to be constructed to prevent it. Maybe something less tangible, like fear?

Then the final line. 'Opens only for ten words'. Oh, my...it couldn't be that simple, could it? That would be incredibly hackneyed. But then the fey can be pretty cliched. Dare I attempt it and risk ridicule? Oh well, nothing to lose...

"Ten Words." Tove declares.

[ylvathrall]

The mirror shows Darruk's reflection normally, though it doesn't have any obvious effect. Once submerged, the image is slightly warped, as would be expected from something seen through water. Beyond that, it doesn't seem any different.

Tove's declaration echoes for a moment, and...has no apparent effect within the room.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk commented: "I guess the ten words are meant for repeat visitors that have cleared this trial already.", pulling out the mirror back from the water and returning it to its owner. "Of course then, if we have to bruteforce this, I suggest I should try and do it-as long as you three help me out while I recover from drinking until I am about to burst."
Saying those words, the half-orc took out his waterskin and filled it with the pool's water, and took a sip to see if it had any immediate effects.

[QuidEst]

"Hold on," Kyoni said, stopping Darruk before he drank. "Just let me check something first." She looked at the water, casting a few simple spells to at least rule out a few unpleasant possibilities. "Also, do you care for wine?

Detect Poison, followed by Detect Magic. No effort to conceal the casting. If Darruk says he likes wine, might as well Prestigitate the water's flavor to make the experience a little more enjoyable, even if it lacks the aroma.

[Tuvarkz]

"Thanks, but I've never been found it particularly enjoyable." commented Darruk as he awaited to see if the woman detected anything in the water.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded at him. "All right, go ahead. If there's anything wrong with it, it's nothing I can detect."

[Bhaakon]

They can't seriously be considering drinking it already? Tove frowns. She was as motivated to get inside as anyone, but the idea of gorging herself until she was bloated was distasteful to say the least.

"Let me try one more thing." She concentrates on the head of her glaive, limning it in a beaming aura of radiance that's painful even to look at. If that couldn't summon up a proper shadow in here, nothing short of plucking the sun from the sky was likely to work.

Standard action Glow on my glaive. It casts Bright Light in a 35' radius for as long as I concentrate

[ylvathrall]

The light from the glaive is finally bright enough to overwhelm the ambient light, and cast a clearly-defined shadow. Where your shadows fall, the stone walls seem to waver, and then grow indistinct.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni grinned broadly. "Excellent! It's almost always shadows when it comes to riddles." She followed her shadow away from the light to the wall, pushing into the indistinct area. She tossed the cup back to Tove. "Saves a lot of trouble, that does."

[Bhaakon]

After catching the cup, Tove waves it with a shooing motion at the two laggards. "Well, get going! The shadows will die as soon as I leave the room, so I'll have to be last." She says, then changes her mind. "No, wait...give me back my mirror first. Then haul your laggardly arses through the shadows."

Once they've followed instructions, Tove makes her own exit, holding her glaive over her shoulder so that the incandescent head of the weapon casts a shadow in front of her. The last thing she needed was to blunder into trouble walking backwards.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk emptied the waterskin back into the pool, returned the mirror, and started walking towards his shadow in the wall.

[ylvathrall]

Okay, for pacing reasons I'm just going to assume that Hakon follows the rest through the shadow.

Walking into the shadowed patch of stone, you feel a sensation of cold, and a faint tingling across your skin. You almost think you smell almonds, for no obvious reason.

The space on the other side is dark, and empty. The light from Tove's glaive, bright though it is, doesn't penetrate more than a handful of inches, not even far enough for her to see her hand in front of her face. The surface you're walking on is odd, not quite like any material you're familiar with. It gives under your feet, like walking on a sponge. You can't see anything, but you can hear what sounds like wailing. It's a high, agonized sound, piercing and warbling, the kind of noise that seems to skip the ears and go straight to the guts. You're sure a scream like that couldn't have come from a humanoid throat. You're fairly sure. You certainly hope so, at least.

Finally, after what could have been a moment or a lifetime, it ends. You're standing in another stone hall, without any trace of whatever dark path you just walked. In front of you, another door stands, blocking the hall completely. As before, the writing on the wall writhes for a moment before resolving into a familiar language. The inscription on the door reads:


No way back but three ways through,

seven secrets hide from you.
You live behind the mask you wear,

buried creatures long for air.
First way for you is open, true,

close it so that you'll fit through.
Second door is in the floor,

climbing higher slow but sure.
Third door is what it can be,

question everything you see.

Once again, as soon as you've finished reading the poem, the door slides open, revealing another room in front of you.


This room is much larger, a hall fifty feet across and a hundred long, with the ceiling lost in shadows overhead. All of the walls are more of the smooth, faintly luminescent white stone. This room has more features than the last, though. To your left, the wall is occupied by a sculpture in the shape of a snarling fox's head, easily taller than you. Its eyes gleam crimson rather than white, looking like huge rubies that burn with lambent light. The floor is more stone, with an elaborate design drawn on it in black stone that seems to devour the light. The center of the design is a large, circular patch of black.

Further along, the floor drops away sharply, leaving a thirty-foot gap. At the other side, the floor is ten feet higher than where you're standing. On the other side of the chasm, you can see a very simple, mundane wooden door in the wall.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk placed his weapon back in his holster, and changed his footing, approaching the right wall. His psionic power allowing him to adhere to the wall, without much issue, the half-orc asked: "Anyone need help getting past the chasm? I can still carry about another three hundred pounds worth of weight."

Change from Elemental Flux Stance to Unbroken Stride Stance, granting Darruk the benefits of Spider Climb ((And the capability to walk on water or other similar fluids as if they were solid ground)), and get onto the right wall.

[Bhaakon]

Tove crinkles her nose at the idea of being carried across. "Perhaps." There had to be a better way. She looks back at the poem, reading it a second and third time, focusing on each line individually. On the last line.


She smirks, but it quickly collapses back into her normal sliver of a frown as she recalls her last attempt to be clever. Ten Words...idiot. Still, this time Tove was confident. Well, more confident. She approaches the fox statue and asks. "What is the best way forward?"

[QuidEst]

" 'Some more weight'," Kyoni corrected Darruk absent-mindedly. "At least to be tactful. If somebody can't be carried, then you can delicately assign the blame to your abilities rather than them. Not likely to be an issue in this case, but just something to keep in mind if there are any nymphs we run into that you'd rather not offend. I'll certainly take you up on the offer," she said, climbing onto his back. She didn't mention her suspicions that the chasm, or at least the lack of bridges, were illusory in nature, as suggested by 'question everything'. That could be tested later if necessary.

[Tuvarkz]

"Well, if someone weighted more than three hundred without armor and equipment, I could've always taken off my armor and weapon and made space for another hundred pounds." commented Darruk, who had meant no offense. "I can sustain my wall climbing almost indefinitively."

[QuidEst]

"Really? I've met plenty of mages who'd love to be able to keep it up for so long," Kyoni said, clearly impressed. "And thank you for the ride. I'm no sorcerer, bending physical laws to my whims. I prefer a… gentler touch. Which doesn't do me much good when faced with something like that."

As they crossed over, she silently conjured a small pebble, dropping it down into the apparent void.

Prestidigitation solves everything!

[Tuvarkz]

"Well, those like me who dedicate whatever little supernatural power we have to combat and martial techniques train ourselves to go all day long." The half-orc started climbing through the wall, approaching the chasm's sides, and continued with: "Actually, I believe those amongst us that came back from the dead or are outsiders could theoretically go on forever."

[ylvathrall]

The fox statue doesn't move. From its direction, though, you clearly hear a voice say, "This one."

As you focus more specifically on the sculpture, you notice that the wall at the back looks a little odd, with a slight seam or irregularity of some sort. A moment later, that section of stone fades out of view entirely, revealing what looks like the start of a hallway; it fades to darkness around ten feet in.

You'd have to squeeze a bit to get through the stone teeth to the opening, but you think it should be doable.

As you drop the pebble, it falls gently down to the floor...and then straight through it. A moment later, you hear a quiet click as it hits an unseen surface some distance lower.

As you focus on it, you realize that the entire floor below you looks odd, the stone not quite as smooth and luminescent as the rest of this room. A moment later, it fades out of view entirely, having seemingly been some enormous illusion.

The actual floor is ten feet lower, but otherwise looks the same as the illusionary floor, with two notable exceptions. First, the pebble you dropped is lying on the stone directly underneath you. Second, there's a small, ornate chest in the middle of the floor.

[Bhaakon]

"Shoddy craftsmanship." Tove comments as the obvious seam in the wall betrays the illusion cast over an entire section. She is about to turn and tell all the others what she has heard and seen when Kyoni and Darruk's shameless flirting drifts back over the chasm. Silver-gray eyes roll as Tove decides to let them continue down her chosen path. With the Rose's grace, they'd find a private room there.

She turns to the blond-haired man instead. "I've found another way, if you don't care for the indignity of piggy-back ride." She indicates the fox's mouth with her glaive before summoning up her moonlight halo and crawling through the stone maw.

[Bhaakon]

Part way into the fox's mouth, Tove stops. "Oh? What have we here..." She reaches for one of the statue's teeth, where a seem is clearly visible. Some sort of compartment, perhaps. She pries it open.

Secret compartment in the tooth was mentioned in the chat

[ylvathrall]

The bit of stone yields easily to your touch, revealing a small compartment inside the stone tooth. In it, you see a wand of dark wood covered in elegant silver script.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni was forced to let the comment about 'going all day' pass untouched given the circumstances. "Hold on," Kyoni said, both in answer to Tove and as a request to Darruk. "I think I've found something as well. Darruk, would you mind climbing down to the floor? Don't get off, just keep climbing down. I think the floor itself is false in this area."

[Bhaakon]

"A wand, I believe." Tove says flatly as she extracts the silver-inscribed length of dark wood from the hollow tooth. She she crawls back out of the passage and gets a look at the thing in a better light. "Passable calligraphy, perhaps well crafted enough to hold an enchantment. Barely. Are any of you attuned to that sort of thing?" She hands over the wand to whoever can divine its properties, then turns back to the fox's head.

"There are seven secrets in this room. Where are the ones we've not yet discovered?" She asks the head. It might not be a particularly inspired piece of sculpture, but at least it had proven useful.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk nodded and started climbing the wall downwards, to see whether the spellcaster's suspicions were real.

[ylvathrall]

"I only know the one I see," the same disembodied voice says. The statue continues not to move.

Climbing down, you find that Kyoni's suspicions were correct. Darruk's foot passes through the "floor" with no resistance whatsoever. Passing through it, you feel nothing but a faint, tingling chill, emerging moments later into clear space below.

The actual floor is ten feet lower, seemingly in this entire area. It looks about the same as the illusionary floor above it, with two notable exceptions. First, there's a pebble directly underneath you. Second, a small, ornate chest sits in the middle of the space.

[Bhaakon]

The one I see? Tove chew her lip for a moment. There were two obvious anwers. The direction the statue's eyes pointed, or the eyes themselves.

She tries the second option first, searching carefully for a seem or catch in each of the eyes.

I'll take 20 on the perception for 21, if possible. If not: [roll0]

[QuidEst]

"A wand?" Kyoni called back up. "Yes, I'll take a look. Just a moment- I want to check this first." She slid off Darruk's back, hurrying over to the chest. She gestured at it, unseen force going to open it.

[ylvathrall]

The eyes of the statue seem to just be more stone, indistinguishable from the rest except by glowing red rather than white. Even if you climb up to look in detail or physically manipulate the eyes, there doesn't seem to be any seam or trigger.

Inside the chest, you see a ring nestled into a bed of black crushed velvet. The ring is silver, carved with an extremely fine, elaborate pattern of feathers and clouds.

A moment's magical examination reveals it to be a ring of feather falling.

[Bhaakon]

With a sigh and her typical slight frown, Tove gives up examine the eyes. There was nothing there, clearly, so it had to be the direction they are staring. Her next move is clear, she traces it gaze and begins searching once more.

Take 20 again on perception for 21

[QuidEst]

"Found a magic ring," Kyoni called back up. "Good for falling long distances without dying at the end. It's a nice box, too- black velvet and everything. If you toss the wand down, I'll have a look."

[Bhaakon]

Tove interrupts her search long enough to toss Kyoni the wand. There wasn't much she could do with it, anyway.

[QuidEst]

"Thanks." Kyoni took a look at the wand, examining it with a pass of her magic.

Just a take-ten for 21. If that's not enough, somebody else will need to take a look, or she can try again tomorrow.

[ylvathrall]

After examining the patch of wall across from the sculpture for a moment, you notice that there's a grid drawn on the wall in a slightly brighter stone that stands out slightly against the background. A few seconds later, more lines draw themselves on the grid. After a moment you recognize it as a chessboard.

One of the "pieces" slides forward, the pattern of light slipping across the stone. It pauses a moment later, seemingly waiting for you to make a move.

Chess game! That'll be a flat Int check, unless you want to make a case for something else.

After a few moments' examination, you identify the item as a fully-charged wand of locate object..

[QuidEst]

Kyoni turned the wand around, examining it. "It's got a spell for finding things," she called back at last. "These might be tools for future challenges. In any case, I can use the wand just fine if we need, and it doesn't seem to be low on magical energy."

The riddle had mentioned something about a way forward in the floor, so she started to look around for anything else.

Take 20 on Perception for 29.
Kyoni might start doing a Detect Magic sweep if you don't mind those. I usually ban 'em, but that's because they're a pain to figure out answers to in a live game. If you do mind them, no problem.

[ylvathrall]

You aren't terribly familiar with the game, but you do remember the rules, and after a few minutes you get the hang of it again. Whoever or whatever you're playing against is skilled, but also predictable, and you manage to catch it by surprise often enough to balance out your relative lack of skill. Finally, after a prolonged midgame in which most of the pieces on both sides are taken, and a long, tense endgame, you manage a checkmate. A moment later, that section of the wall slides down into the floor, leaving not even a seam between the two pieces of stone.

Behind it is a small recess in the wall, barely large enough to stand in. Hanging on the wall opposite the opening is a narrow banner of shimmering crimson silk, with an intricate image of a fox's head embroidered on it in black thread.

You don't notice anything else of particular interest down on the lower level. It seems like the box and the ring were the only things of note under the illusion.

Detect magic sweeps are fine with me, just let me know when you're doing one so that I know what information to provide. You don't detect any other magic down here if you do look.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni looked over at Darruk. "Do you mind giving me a lift out of here? If there are any more magical items lying around, it'll be easiest if I look for them." She slipped the ring on. Where there was one illusory floor, there might be another.

[Bhaakon]

Chess...it was almost as if the creators of this place had picked out the very worst match for Tove. A test of strategy and foresight...and she'd well proven how little she possessed of the later. So it was most fortunate that her magical opponent was equally lacking. It knew how to play the odds well enough--always making the smart move--but creativity was entirely beyond it. No master would watch that match and consider it well-played, but the barest flicker of pride sparks in Tove's heart as she makes the final move. It nearly blossoms into a proper flame before being stamped down by reason. It's just some elemental mindlessly executing a long list of instructions, after all. No great feat. Embarrassing that it took more than four moves, really.

But the prize...oh, the prize. It was almost impressive. Acceptable, even. She reaches out and takes the strip of crimson silk in hand, allowing herself to savor the liquid caress of the fabric. Most certainly the finest craftsmanship I've encountered since...

"I've found another." She calls out with reluctance, a hair's breadth from folding the foxy bandana and hiding it away for herself alone. This was promising. More than promising. She won't dare let it out of her sight. She holds it out for magical examination, but won't hand it over.

[Tuvarkz]

The half-orc simply said: "No problem."

[QuidEst]

Assisted by the half-orc, Kyoni returned to the edge. She could afford to be a little cavalier with the places she went. If Darruk decided to simply leave her there, she'd wait out the night, meditating on the appropriate spell to get her out of the situation. "Another?" Kyoni walked over, observing the sash up close. "Mmm. Nice design. I think I'll try it on." Rather than taking the scarf, however, she simply uttered a strange word. The belt around her waist was immediately replaced by an exact copy of what Tove was holding, the embroidered fox head hanging down a little off center in the front. The rest of her outfit changed to accommodate the substitution, reds and blacks switching places. "What do you think?" she asked, turning a little. "Of course, if you're going to be wearing it, I wouldn't want to spoil that with one of my own. It'll look lovely on you, although you might need to do something so the colors won't clash." She said the command once more, and her outfit returned to how it had been, the black three-part with a golden eye-like clasp returning. "Now, let's see what it does. Oh, and here's your wand back."

Sleeves of Many Garments to play dress-up.
Examining the sash for magic, etc.

[ylvathrall]

You identify the banner as a knight's pennon of battle.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni let go of the sash, nodding towards Tove's glaive. "As fashionable as it is, you'll get better results putting it on there. A little cloth courage, as it were."

[Bhaakon]

Taking the suggestion--and quite glad that the item seemed of use to her over the others--Tove ties the crimson strip just below the head of her glaive, positioning it to highlight the fox embroidery.

"You're right." She answers Kyoni after a few practice swings of the weapon, a bit surprised that the cloth didn't cause any noticeable drag. "It almost seems quicker in my hands."

[Tuvarkz]

The items identified, Darruk commented: "Perhaps we should keep going onwards now?"

[QuidEst]

"Well, they did mention seven secrets- and considering what we've found so far, I'd like to take a little time to make sure there isn't something else. Might need some help if there are any more pits, but the ring will keep me from hurting myself at least. Since everything else has been magical, I'll see if I can't find it a little more directly," Kyoni answered. She started at the back corner, moving along the hall's edge, keeping her mind open to sense the telltale traces of magic.

If there's no background magic or anything, she can move along at thirty feet per round. If she has to pick things out, it'll be an average of around half that. Her Knowledge Arcana is good enough to pick out the school for 7th level and under without any trouble, or 14th CL for non-school things. If there's an CL checks vs. Nondetection type stuff, you can roll that secretly for me. Just the flat +6, no weird modifiers on it.

[Bhaakon]

"Hmm" Tove replies absently as she concentrates on some additional investigation of her own. It was strange that the dim glow of the wall didn't illuminate the ceiling. Perhaps her own light would do a better job. She sets a bolt in her crossbow and calls upon Shelyn to make it beam as brightly as daylight before firing it upwards, aiming just long enough to be sure it won't fall back down on someone's head.

[ylvathrall]

Most of the room doesn't seem to be particularly magical, but you notice a few interesting things as you make the circuit around the room. First, directly behind the door you came in (or rather, the wall where the door was), you detect a magical aura which you identify as a hat of disguise. Second, directly across the chasm from you, there's a minor image covering a section of the wall, midway up the wall.

The bright light reveals the ceiling a hundred feet over your head. The upper sections of stone are pitch black rather than white, and seem to consume the light instead of casting it. Other than that, you only notice one feature of particular interest, a hole five feet in diameter in the ceiling that continues up as far as you can see. You note that the hole is directly above the black circle in the floor.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni smiled as she pulled out the hat from its hiding place, trying it on. She spoke a command a few times, appearing to shift through several different forms and outfits. She pulled it off again, returning to her human self. "Handy little thing, although I've never cared for that sort of spell. Too easy to spot as fake." She held it out towards the others. "Who feels like being able to live the lies they've always dreamt of? Speaking of lies- Darruk, it seems like part of that wall over on the other side of that chasm isn't actually there. Do you mind terribly?" she asked, moving up behind him again.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk once more carried the spellcaster over to where she was indicating, hoping that they were done inspecting the room.

[ylvathrall]

Right where Kyoni indicated, the wall becomes insubstantial, seemingly nothing more than a faint mist. Behind it, you find a small alcove, barely large enough for both of you to stand in. A small stone table holds a pair of delicate leather sandals, each seemingly a single length of leather cord woven into an extremely intricate shape.

The sandals are clearly magical, but you can't identify them with your take 10 result.

[Bhaakon]

Door in the floor, climbing higher... Tove fishes another bolt from her quiver, sets it glowing with daylight, and tosses it down the hole in the floor. She looks up expectantly as she concentrates on holding the spell.

[ylvathrall]

The glowing pebble hits the ground, and...nothing. It simply lies on the ground, glowing.

You note, though, that it didn't sound quite like you would expect. Rather than the sharp click of stone on stone, there's a quiet crunching, almost like it landed in...dirt?

[QuidEst]

Kyoni took the sandals, placing them in her pack. "Definitely magical, and it seems like something strong. I'll have to have a better look at them tomorrow, though. Don't want to just try them on only to find out that they compel dancing," she explained. "Well, I think that's probably good enough." She slipped onto Darruk's back and called out, "Any luck out there, Tove?"

[Bhaakon]

Head tilted askance, Tove considers the dark circle in the floor. "Dirt?" She mutters to no one. A habit she should probably break herself of. No doubt a byproduct of a month alone in the forest waiting for the city to appear. She reaches into her pack and retrieves a hinged and flanged bar of iron, bending and twisting it until it takes on the form of a spade.

"Excuse me, I didn't catch your name. Would you terribly mind digging here for me?" She pokes at the pitch black circle with the butt of her glaive. "'Buried creatures long for air.'" She adds, aiming a waning crescent of a smile towards Hakon.

[ylvathrall]

The man is slow to react, but after a few seconds blinks and looks at Tove. "I am Hakon," he says, taking the spade. "And I will do what must be done." He then falls silent again as he begins shoveling out the dirt. Utterly black, and unusually smooth, it otherwise seems like normal soil. As each grain hits the stone floor, though, it begins sinking through the surface, leaving the floor as clear as before in a matter of moments. The result is that while Hakon shovels at a fairly impressive speed, there is no matching pile of dirt above, just a steadily increasing hole.

After several minutes, when Hakon's head is just barely visible above the floor, something odd happens. As the spade removes another load of dirt, you see what looks like a seedling, green and lively despite having been buried under hundreds of pounds of dirt. When the light of the room falls on it the seedling starts to grow, slowly at first, but picking up speed rapidly. Not only does it grow straight up, but the stalk becomes thicker, as well, and it sprouts leaves that are soon the size of your head.

As one of the leaves spirals slowly past you, you notice what looks like a seed pod of some sort attached to the underside of the leaf.

Not only is the plant itself magical, but you also note a magical aura localized to one of the passing leaves.

[Bhaakon]

"Uuuuugh." Tove groans as the giant beanstalk corkscrews it way up to the hole in the ceiling, her eyes rolling so violently that she braces her pole-arm against the resulting dizzy spell.

When she has a hold of her disdain--and it had avoided the standard tropes so well to this point--she turns to Darruk. "I believe there's another of the secrets in that seed pod up there." Tove limns it with a cool glow. "You were quite enamored of your climbing magic, yes? Hopefully it weighs something less than twenty-one stones."

[Tuvarkz]

"It's not magic, but psionic power applied to combat." comments Darruk as he starts climbing the newly-grown plant.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni smiled as the beanstalk began growing. "Nice to see some classics. I'd hate to find out that the fey have no appreciation for fairy tales. Oh, and there's a magic bean up there," she added, pointing it out. "Hold on, no, there are a few. Throw them on the ground, and they basically make this. One last thing I'd like to check out- I think I know where the last of the seven things is hidden, just not how to get at it."

She headed over to the spot on the floor that showed up as magical, and commanded in an imperious tone, "Open sesame!"

Kyoni attempts standing on it, stamping her foot, and ordering the unseen servant to try digging here.

Perception on the spot: [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

The pod contains five bean-shaped objects made of some odd, gleaming silvery metal.

None of Kyoni's actions have much of an effect, though you think you hear a faint chortle from the fox statue when she says "Open sesame."

It appears to be a completely normal section of floor. If there is a trapdoor here, it's too well concealed for you to directly see it.

[QuidEst]

"Hey, it was worth a try. I don't suppose you'd mind giving a hint?" Kyoni said to the fox statue. She bent down to examine the area more thoroughly, but without any indication of what the magic's trigger was, there was only so much she could do.

Taking twenty on perception- also to see if there's anything unusual about the area apart from the magic. If asking the statue and looking around doesn't do anything, then she'll just leave it be and move on.

[ylvathrall]

You don't see a seam or catch in that area of the floor, or any indication of how to open it. Looking around a bit, though, you note that the pattern of lines drawn on the floor ends with a pair of lines pointing straight at where you're standing.

The gap between the two lines looks just about large enough to stand in, and on the opposite side of the hole in the center, you see a similar opening. That seems a little too neat to be entirely coincidental.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni stared at the floor trying to make sense of the pattern on the floor. Shaking her head, she decided to consider a more holistic view. A brief concealed spell expanded her thoughts, drawing on more than the immediate knowledge she had on hand. She staggered where she stood briefly as her mind shifted her view from where she stood to above. She gave a laugh at how simple it was. A maze, of course. She started along the path, making sure to only touch each square once.

Int check: [roll0]
Int check: [roll1]
Int check: [roll2]
Int check: [roll3]
Int check: [roll4]

[ylvathrall]

Kyoni very nearly slips up towards the end of the maze on her first attempt, but catches herself just in time and makes it through without error. As she steps out at the far end, a small hole in the floor slides open directly in front of her. The movement is incredibly smooth, leaving a hole that seems a natural and seamless as the floor did previously.

Inside, she sees what looks like some sort of sculpture. A delicate golden cage holds a transparent glass bird which catches the light and throws it back in a lovely, sparkling display. The construction is magnificent; the cage is wrought in delicate patterns which never quite seem to repeat, and the bird is impossibly realistic, down to individual feathers of glass. It's not clear how it was made, since the bird is too large to fit through the cage, and there seems to be no way to open the cage and place the bird inside.

Though not apparently magical, the thing is undeniably beautiful. Between the high degree of craftsmanship and the inherent value of the gold, it's likely worth a fair amount.

"Magnificent!" the fox statue says in a booming voice, still without moving. "And on her very first try. A round of applause for Kyoni, everyone!" This is followed by what does, indeed, sound like applause, complete with people cheering, chanting Kyoni's name and whistling. "Now that our contestants have found all seven of the treasures hidden in this room, they should probably move on to the next room and face their final challenge. Particularly since they now have only one minute, that's right, only one minute, before this room fills with lava!"

The cheering does not diminish appreciably as it says this.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni held up the cage to admire it, then looked over at the others. "Reasonably confident that the room doesn't have that kind of magic, but we should probably move on anyway. Just in case." She strode over to the beanstalk with the others.

[Bhaakon]

Tove looks up the beanstalk and her frown deepens. Climbing was undignified, and her armor made it difficult in the extreme. Crawling through the fox's mouth wasn't particularly dignified either, but at least she could do it without worrying about falling down into a heap of broken bones and clamoring steel on the floor.

And a gullet full of Shelynite it might have the added benefit of shutting up the suddenly loquacious fox face. The choice is made.

"I'll take this route." Tove moves towards the fox's jaws, her halo casting its moonlight glow to light the way down its throat.

[QuidEst]

Considering the two routes and the possibility of a genuine time limit, Kyoni decided to follow along behind Tove rather than trouble Darruk with climbing down to carry her. Besides, she didn't want Tove to feel like she wasn't worth some attention too. Although at the moment, Kyoni was somewhat preoccupied with studying the intricacies of the ornate bird cage. It would be good practice for her illusions, she'd decided. The detail was considerable, after all. Actually, a glass case to enclose the illusion in wouldn't be a bad idea. "So, what brings you to the City of the Moon?" she asked, somewhat absent-mindedly. "Didn't get a chance to ask earlier."

[ylvathrall]

Hakon follows silently into the fox's mouth.

Climbing through the fox's teeth into its mouth, your surroundings once again grow dark and tight, the air pressing heavy and humid on your skin. It smells foul here, the rank, fetid stench of a predator's gullet with an ominous acidic undertone. It's hot, very hot; you're sure that you're sweating, but you can't feel it through the humidity. It seems to be getting more and more humid, until you're almost expecting to step in puddles.

Climbing up the vine, you soon enter the hole in the ceiling. It rapidly becomes dark once again, the tunnel closing in until there's barely enough room to move. The beanstalk grows and grows until it's taking up almost the entire space, and you're no longer certain whether you're climbing or the plant is simply carrying you along as it grows. You can smell it now, the sharp, pungent odor of cut grass. Tendrils slip beneath your armor and wrap around you, squeezing tightly.

And then, quite suddenly, you're standing in a hallway once again, dry, free, and seemingly precisely as you were when you entered the darkness. Once again, you're surrounded by perfect, unmarked white stone, with a door in front of you. On that door is written another stanza of poetry, which writhes into a familiar language after a moment. It reads:


No way back but three ways through,

seven bloodhounds follow you.
Left or right or straight ahead,

there's no way out, you're dead.
First is bold, do as you're told,


and you'll be found long dead and cold.
Door number two, it flows through you,

hot and sweet as sunlit dew.
Final door is but a word,

often spoken, never heard.

As you finish reading it, the door slides open to reveal a small, cubical stone room. There are three open arches on the other side, revealing three hallways that branch and continue out of sight.

Behind you, you can hear the distant echoes of howling. Looking that way, you see a long hallway, which ends in a sharp left turn. There are no hounds in sight.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni snapped to attention as soon as she got to the second line of the poem, and began reading intensely. "Often spoken, never heard. That's 'silence'," she stated. She stopped, looking around to see if anything happened. She also paid particular attention to the howling. A false sense of urgency was a common enough trick, and the sound of bloodhounds wasn't a guarantee there actually were any. "The only thing flowing through you under most circumstances is blood. Hakon, could I borrow that dagger?"

Kyoni is a little suspicious that the 'bloodhounds' might be illusory. Her will save modifier is +7 against illusions, but that should probably be rolled in secret so I don't see the result.

[ylvathrall]

Nothing of obvious note happens as Kyoni discusses the poem. Hakon merely bows his head silently and hands over a silver dagger to her.

The howling noise sounds real, even to such details as slight variations in tone and volume. It seems to be getting louder, suggesting that the source might be approaching.

If the sound is an illusion, it's a very thorough one.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni took the knife and pricked her finger. "Well, if it isn't the word silence, and if this doesn't work-" She paused, letting a drop of blood fall to the floor. "Then we're going to have to kill the hounds to shut them up and the keep quiet ourselves." Another pause. "Well, that or get killed. That one's definitely mentioned as a distinct possibility."

[Tuvarkz]

Feeling the plants tendrils coil around him was a rather unpleasant sensation-Had he lost control of his own movement, he would've lost the effects of his stance, and possibly fallen to his doom. Regardless, Darruk, upon hearing the sound of hounds, drew his polearm, his feet positioning looking far more agile, and his weapon crackling with lightning.
"I guess a fight might be incoming if we take too long. One of my abilities involve redirecting damage dealt to others to myself, which I can then mitigate. However, it requires for me to link our minds first, which would also let us speak telepathically. Of course, if you don't like the sensation, you are free to close the mental connection at any time."
((Back to Elemental Flux Stance, and adding both Tove and Kyoni to the Collective, if they are willing.))

[Bhaakon]

"I prefer to be alone with my thoughts. If I've something to say, you'll hear it." Tove answers curtly, severing the connection before it can properly form.

"Besides. You read the words. Death lies in running. It didn't mention anything about dying in a stand-up fight." She grips her weapon and levels it in the direction of the howls. "I'll take my chances."

[ylvathrall]

The droplet of blood falls from Kyoni's finger to the floor, where it leaves a small crimson stain on the stone. That section of stone starts to waver indistinctly a moment later, seeming to fade in and out.

[QuidEst]

"No objections," Kyoni answered Darruk. She had plenty of experience mucking about with people's minds that a little telepathy wasn't going to be an issue. "It looks like blood is an answer. In case this goes south, I'm preparing an extradimensional pocket for us to retreat to." As she spoke, she pulled out a five-foot piece of rope. One end began rising up, fixing itself to a point in midair. "Climb that to get to it. Anything in your own extradimensional pockets will be inaccessible, so if you're counting on anything , get it out first." Overly cautious, but she could easily see this plan going poorly. With that, she handed the knife back and waved the spot of her blood away. Not the sort of thing it was wise to leave lying around if it could be helped.

Rope Trick and Prestidigitation if there's time. Then ready the ol' Magic Missile.

[Bhaakon]

Seeing the stone waver at the touch of the woman's blood, Tove reaches a similar conclusion. "Hopefully these hounds bleed enough to make a sufficient passage. I'd rather not paint the floor crimson with my own supply."

[ylvathrall]

Kyoni's magic easily wipes her blood away; as it fades, the stone returns to its former, solid state. The sound of howling continues to get stronger, and less than a minute later, the source appears around the corner.

True to form, there are seven of the creatures, and they do resemble canines, with a lean, hungry-looking build. Something about them seems unusually intense, though; the grey of their fur is a little more vivid, the light reflecting from their eyes a little brighter, their teeth a little sharper than is entirely natural. The howling stops as they come within sight of you, replaced with snarls and growls.

The beasts are clearly canine, but contrary to the poem's wording, you think they're wolves, not hounds. Aside from this, you also note a clear fey influence, suggesting that these animals are strongly influenced by the First World. Such creatures tend to be far more intelligent than the beasts they resemble, and exceedingly quick. Like the fey (which they are; fey animals only resemble the creatures of the Material Plane), they can often shrug off both mundane attacks and magic. Some of the stronger ones even have rudimentary spells themselves.

The most unusual quality they possess, though, is more reactive in nature. The fey claim that such animals are well-loved by the First World, and the plane itself reacts poorly to those who kill one. What is known without any doubt is that anyone who kills a fey animal is subject to an unpleasant curse; those who slay numerous such beasts can easily become debilitated.

Okay, we have a map now! Here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bFwqzkhTRYwYCKW3GZGyZAodQwqRLRsGBnWla3cSSrk/edit?usp=sharing) is the link, and I'll add one to the OP of the OOC thread as well.

Tove and Darruk beat the wolves on initiative. Kyoni did not, but she does have that magic missile readied if she'd like to cast it. They're all well within her range, so I wasn't sure which she would target.

[Bhaakon]

"Let us hold the line." Tove instructs Darruk. Without waiting for a replay she mutters a prayer braces her weapon against the oncoming canines. As she does so, the halo around her head brightens and stretches to encompass her entire frame, right out to the tip of her weapon. Then it reaches out even farther, a blade of cool brilliance extending out half again as long as the glaive's original size.

Standard action to case Encompassing Light on herself, increasing reach by 5' and damage dice by one step. She will use Power Attack on any AoO for a +9 to hit and 3d8+12 damage.

[Tuvarkz]

"Sounds like a plan." commented Darruk, assuming a battle style, and readying himself for the incoming enemies.

(Attack Bonus +12, 1d10+10 Piercing Damage+2d6 electric)
Enter Sleeping Goddess Style as a swift action, then ready a standard action to use Elemental Strike on the first enemy that gets within his reach (Dealing another 2d6 electric damage, the enemy having to make a DC 18 Reflex save or be knocked prone)
As soon as enemies get within 20 feet of him, Darruk will activate the Intruder's End counter, increasing the amount of attacks of opportunity he has (from 5 to 9) and adding a +2 circumstance bonus to the attack rolls made during said AoOs. In addition, his reach increases to 20 feet, Darruk teleporting into a range where he can strike with his weapon when the enemy provokes and teleporting back to his starting position after the AoO.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni, already waiting for the wolves to round the corner, launched a salvo of shimmering blue wisps at the three foremost of the dogs. "Don't kill, just injure! Unless you don't mind eating a curse over it." she instructed the others.

Magic Missile
CL check J34: [roll0]
Damage J34: [roll1]
CL check M33: [roll2]
Damage M33: [roll3]
CL check N35: [roll4]
Damage N35: [roll5]

[ylvathrall]

Kyoni's magic lands home, and seems to sting the fey wolves. The creatures charge wildly in all the same, though, seeming intent on pursuing their quarry. None of them get anywhere close, though, as Darruk appears and disappears throughout the hall, his presence noticeable primarily through the sight of flashing crystal, sparking electricity, and spraying blood. Only one of the creatures makes it past him as he fumbles an attack, and Tove smashes it to the ground a moment later.

For a heartbeat, as the last of the wolves falls to the ground, all is silent. The wolves' blood, which liberally coats the walls, floor, and even ceiling, soaks rapidly into the stone, leaving it smooth, luminescent white stone again.

Then the moment passes, and you hear howling echoing down the halls again, the same as before.

Save time! You did enough damage on all of those attacks to kill the wolves, which means you're making Will saves against all of those death curses. It's a DC 12 Will save or take a -2 penalty on all attacks, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws. Note that this penalty is applied instantly (i.e., if you fail one, the penalty applies on subsequent saves in the same round), and it stacks with itself.

Darruk has to make six saves, Tove has to make one.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk, looking terribly weakened from the curses, looked at the other two and said: "I guess we are the ones that need to bleed, and I've been rendered to being of little use from killing the hounds. I guess I'll help with my blood, then."
The half-orc then removed one of his gauntlets, and pressed the point of his weapon against his wrist, spilling his blood onto the ground.

[ylvathrall]

As the howling gets steadily louder, Darruk's blood flows out onto the floor, staining it a brilliant crimson. As when Kyoni bled on the stone, it seems to waver and grow indistinct. This is far more impressive in scale, though, the pool of blood rapidly spreading until the area of wavering, indistinct stone is large enough to fit through. Naturally, you do just that, just as the wolves once again come around the corner.

The passage this time feels like falling, through a space that's dark and red and hot. It smells like blood and salt and steel, and it presses hungrily in around you, a feeling of pressure and of tingling.

And then it's over.

When you become aware of your surroundings again a moment later, everything is different. You're standing on a broad street running through a city unlike anything you've seen before. Impossibly tall towers stand next to squat, gloomy fortresses; narrow bridges and skywalks pass between buildings or over the street, gossamer arches that seem as graceful and as inexplicably sturdy as a spider's web. Much, though not all, of the construction is made of the same pale, gleaming stone you've seen thus far. Narrow, crooked alleys lead between the buildings off into the city. Overhead, the full moon hangs in a twilit sky, larger and brighter than it has any right to be.

The residents of the city continue about their business, not seeming perturbed in the least by your sudden appearance. Those residents are a wildly diverse lot. There are many animals, walking on two legs or four, some of them wearing clothing and some content with fur; they talk and gesture animatedly, and the distinction between predator and prey seems not to matter to them in the slightest. Trolls amble along, ranging in size from barely larger than a man to towering creatures the size of buildings. There are some few humanoids in the crowd, some of which move through the streets with the same assurance as the other residents, while others seem bewildered, lost, or dazed.

And, of course, there are the fey. Every sort of fey, from sprites the size of mice that flit about on dragonfly wings to bogeymen that stalk about in their oversized coats, faces seen only as a glimpse of fangs and horror out of the corner of your eye. They, too, simply continue about their business, paying no more attention to your arrival than to the stone under their feet.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk, having grown amongst barbarian tribes, wasn't as distracted by many of the more exotic inhabitants of the city-Orcs waged war against many a different race-the fey were definitively a new sight, however. Yet, the half-orc would've taken a better time to appreciate the beauty of the city had his senses not felt terribly dulled by the curses from the hounds; and thus he simply chose to put his weapon back in the holster.

[Bhaakon]

The passage through the blood portal was about as stomach-churning as one might expect. Oppressive, metallic, and ravenous. Not sanguine in the least. Briefly Tove wonders if any blood would have left similar impression, or if the passage was uniquely flavored by Darruk's essence. I'll have to keep an eye on that one.

Then they're through it, onto the street crowded with...well, just about everything and anything. Seeing the disoriented mortals embarrassing themselves, Tove straightens and composes herself instantly, summoning up her halo and cleaning whatever scuffs or blood stains might have besmirched her arms and armor. She'd be damned if she was going to play the lost lamb in the land of the imperious fey...even if she had no idea where she was going next. Well, asking for aid was out of the question. Not until she'd tried herself first.

This was a city of beauty--oppressive in its magnificence, really--and that was a step in the right direction. But it would have to do better. Tove scans her surroundings with a haughty glare, seeking out the best of the best among the buildings and creatures. The most brilliant jewel among this collection of gemstone. That would be the best place to start.

Perception? [roll0]

[QuidEst]

Kyoni groaned, putting her hand to her forehead for a moment. Darruk was already opening the blood portal, though, so she kept her mouth shut for the moment. The next instant, they were being swallowed, surrounded by heat and the smell of blood.

The psychic shook her head to clear it after the sudden transition. The First World! This was it. Her face spread into a broad grin, and she turned about to take in all the sights. There were shops for illuminators who illuminated with luminous ink, pet shops selling all manner of odd creatures, cafés serving… well, moving on, a street performer made of fire showing off to a crowd by swallowing water, and more. She threw her arms around the shoulders of Darruk and Tove in a show of camaraderie. Well, around Tove's shoulder at any rate. Darruk was well over a foot taller than her, so it just ended up somewhere between a shoulder-clasp and a side-hug. "Well, we did it! Incidentally, if we need a place to sleep now or later tonight, I can prepare another extradimensional space for us. I know it's not the most comfortable, but it'll do until we can get the lay of the land. Hmm, maybe we can meet up with some other new arrivals as well."

Perception for an attractive person who seems to have just arrived: [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

You can't seem to find a landmark. Or, rather, you can find a great many, each more wondrous than the last; they just don't stay the same for very long. You quickly realize that the city is in a state of constant flux around you. Buildings appear and disappear, streets fading in and out of sight unpredictably. You blink, or look away for a moment, and the skyline changes subtly, structures seeming to shift position or be replaced entirely.

If there's a method to the chaos, or a point of stability that you could aim for, it's not obvious what it might be.

There are plenty of humanoids in the crowd, many of whom are attractive. Most of them, though, don't seem to be quite aware of what's going on or who's around them. Others are too far in the other direction, clearly aware of what's going on and confident enough you're sure they've been here for some time.

Eventually, though, you spot one that seems more viable. The half-elf seems more present, mentally, while lacking the assurance of those who have been in the city longer. His build is slender, but not repulsive.

It's not until you look more closely that you see the silver collar around his throat, or the silver bands around his ankles, connected by a chain so fine it's barely visible. None of the restraints have an obvious latch, or any apparent means of removal.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni scanned the area, seeing if there was any promising-looking new arrivals that they could work with. There were some potential good fits, but one in particular caught her attention. She took a steadying breath. Well, that confirmed that simply asking for help was probably a very bad idea. She silently established a simple communication spell to speak to the others without attracting too much attention. Her voice whispered next to each of the group at the same time. "Be careful. There's a man over there in silver chains, and I'm-" She stopped herself. She'd been about to say she was willing to bet that he'd agreed to it, but it seemed like the sort of thing to avoid saying. "That is to say, it seems likely that he made some agreement resulting in it."

Well, forewarned was forearmed. She approached the half-elf with the silver collar and anklets connected by a fine silver chain. "Uh, sir? I couldn't help but notice that you've got something there," she said, gesturing on her neck where his collar was.

Kyoni uses Cunning Casting to cast Message without drawing attention.

[Tuvarkz]

"Alright, be careful as well" sent Darruk to Kyoni through the mind link, as he readied himself to assist her if things took a turn for the wrong.
((Readying an action to use Aid Another on Kyoni to boost her AC should any offensive action be initiated against her.))

[ylvathrall]

The half-elf glances at Kyoni, and then smiles. The expression is oddly calm, oddly angled, and just plain odd. "It doesn't belong to me," he says, brushing his fingertips over the metal of the collar. "I am only wearing it for a time. My collar doesn't fit so tight, and my leash isn't so terribly short. It chafes at times, but there are worse things than to be chained."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni smiled back at the man, somewhat reassured that it was 'for a time'. The worst case scenario was slightly improved, after all. "I'm glad to hear you do not find it too disagreeable. If you have the time and inclination, I would be interested to hear how you came about it, but I don't wish to trouble you if you're busy."

[ylvathrall]

"I have no obligations at present," the man says obligingly. The crowd adjusts its flow, passing around the group as easily as water flows around a stone.

"When I was a boy," the half-elf says, "I wandered too far from my mother's home, into the hills. A lady of the fey saw me, and decided that she wanted to own me. She challenged me to a game of riddles, and I lost. Now I wear her collar and serve her until the stars fall from the sky in a year without a summer."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded. Well, that removed any previously held optimism she had concerning the worst case scenario. At best there, was some comfort in the fact that the road wasn't populated entirely by people in silver shackles. It would be important to watch what she said, naturally. "Thank you. Do you know where we could find a place to stay that wouldn't entail obligation for staying there?" she asked. She wasn't sure how far the city extended, since scale of things could be very odd on other planes. Less so for the First World than, say, Axis.

[Bhaakon]

A slave then? I'm not sure why I am surprised Tove considers the half-elf in his gossamer chains. "What year were you taken?" She asks the slave. "And from where?"

[Tuvarkz]

While not keen on the existence of slavery, Darruk shook his head, thinking Don't get involved in things that aren't directly related to your objective, Darruk-You cannot afford to take the risks, and awaited for the half-elf to answer Kyoni's question.

[ylvathrall]

"This happened in the four thousand, seven hundred, and twelfth year, Absalom Reckoning," the half-elf says. "In the forest, in Taldor. And...you want somewhere to stay? Oh, you mean like an inn!" He beams, seeming inordinately pleased with this realization. "I think I know a place," he says. "Follow me." He starts off briskly down the street, bobbing and weaving through the crowd.

The half-elf follows a meandering, illogical sort of route through the streets. It seems like he knows where he's going, but the route makes no sense. He takes corners in a pattern that should lead back to the starting place, goes up and down staircases, and ducks through alleys that look like dead ends until you reach the end of the alley and realize that there's a branch you couldn't see from the entrance. At one point, he insists that you all walk backwards.

Possibly even more frustrating is that this approach to navigation seems to work. Though it seems like you should be traveling in circles, you don't actually seem to pass the same spot twice. The things you do pass are wildly varied; squat castles that seem to breathe on their own, a tree the size of a building with silver bark and black leaves, a crystal-clear lake dotted with boats and artificial islands.

Finally, your guide comes to a halt in front of a large wooden building. The first floor is largely open to the air, and you can see activity inside. It looks like a fairly normal inn; food is being served, drinks are being poured, and people wander up and down the stairs.

A sign over the door reads Halfway House in an odd language. It looks something like a blend of Sylvan and Aklo, and it's readable if you understand either, but at the same time it seems slightly off from both.

[Tuvarkz]

His senses dulled, the zealot decided to trust the half-elf and follow him. Deciding not to think too much on the logic-breaking paths, upon reaching the inn, Darruk started walking towards it, eager to get a meal and a good rest. Perhaps with some luck the curse would expire while he slept.

[Bhaakon]

The answer wasn't exactly what she'd hoped, but Tove nods in reply and switches to lightly accented Taldane. "I hope your wait isn't too much longer, then. Though I question whether a child's folly should bind a man." At least whatever being enslaved the man hadn't also cheated him, so far as she could tell, and there wasn't much she could do to contest his indenture without learning more of the place's rules.

In fact, she couldn't do much of anything without learning more of the place's rules. The bizarre journey the slave led them on proved that beyond question. The books she'd read and the 'experts' she'd consulted before making this trip hadn't prepared her for such blatant illogic. It was clear evidence that the magic of the place made virtually anything possible, and but the fact that it was squandered it on such absurdity turned her stomach.

"Halfway House?" Tove sounds out the name, unsure of the translation given the confusion of tongues that she was only half familiar with. "Halfway to what, I wonder."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni followed along, increasingly glad to have a guide through the city as it became apparent that spatial relations weren't quite as definitive as she was used to. Arbitrary, but not capricious, she reminded herself. Somebody who had been here for four years could navigate without much apparent difficulty, so the area was stable enough that pathways could be learned. They reached the promised inn, the sign on it declaring in a blend of the Sylvan and Aklo she was used to that it was the Halfway House. "Halfway between this realm and the mortal realm, if I had to guess," Kyoni answered. "Would you care to join us, Mr. -?" she asked, turning to face their guide.

[Segrain]

"Halfway anywhither, of course."

Perhaps, his voice sounded strange to his companions - no, to the strangers, all brought together by an accident of time, their paths crossed at the capriciously rare existence of the door between the worlds and ready to disperse again in this realm of infinite possibilities. It did not matter much - they were bound to each other no more than to any other wayfarers in the aptly named inn. What was much worse was how unexpected his own voice sounded to himself - or, rather, how long it remained quiet to even become so unexpected to be heard at all. Words had weight, and he knew to use them carefully; yet they had power, and if there ever was a time to use them, it was during the first real trial of his journey. What good is a skald who stands silent before a simple riddle?

Yet, silent he was staying. There was time to hear stories being repeated and to retell them again - the normal life of any normal skald, the one left behind in a normal world of mortal men. There was place to see stories being born and to shape them into words - the everchanging world of everliving fey, the fabled existence that only people of fables were ever meant to enter. But betwixt and between them, no story of somebody else's deeds was of any use to carve an own pathway, and no sound of his own name was going to open for him the doors of anyone's city. Neither where he was raised to be, nor where he belonged by birth, between the two equally inapplicable ways he had to find a third one - and if it so happened that somebody else was walking it already, he was not going to complain. He was not saying a lot at all.

And yet it had to change. Words had power, and if there were any words that he could offer in answer, it was only fair to give them; and in this world, being fair was an important part of being at all. At least for somebody intended to stay in it - and to stay, despite its everchanging nature. Speaking of which, he should had actually being speaking of it, rather than merely implying what seemed already obvious - after all, it was a world where what something seemed and what something was had no obligation to be in any manner related.

"If the way that you walked so far has confused you, expect the other half to be confusing just as well. If finding this place was trying, expect another trial to come upon you. But, whencesoever and whithersoever does your path lie..." - Hakon shrugged, making a wide gesture towards the city around them, - "...you are between your provenance and your destination, and thus you are halfway. Measures of distance have no use here."

[ylvathrall]

The half-elf seems confused by Hakon's words for a moment, then smiles. The expression is vaguely pitying. "Of course, of course," he says to the skald, then looks at Kyoni. "I don't have a name anymore, miss," he says. "I traded it for services rendered some time ago. But people sometimes call me Lackland, which is like a name. And I don't have to be anywhere for a while yet, so I might as well be here."

[QuidEst]

"Well, Lackland, we would be happy to have your company," Kyoni said, making a note of his mononym. Either a reference to not owning land, or else to his in-between nature. She made her way towards the innkeeper, settling on speaking in Sylvan rather than Aklo. She'd have to pick up how exactly the two languages came together here in time. "<Greetings. How much is it for a room for the night?>" she asked. She silently hoped that not everything was a matter of haggling, or it would be impossible to get anything done.

[Bhaakon]

"You traded it to your master as part of your bargain, or someone else?" Tove asks Lackland as Kyoni enquires after lodging. She'd have to secure her own room, eventually, but not any time soon. She required precious little sleep thanks to the ring.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk simply awaited for the other two to gather information, as he felt his senses too dulled for him to be able to do so reliably. The half-orc did make a note to pick up on Sylvan, as it seemed to be the local tongue of choice.

[ylvathrall]

Hakon nods stiffly outside the inn. "Good fortune," he says. "As for me, I know where my path leads, and I think that I have walked nearly to its end. Farewell." He walks away, losing himself quickly in the crowd.

"Oh, that was for another deal," Lackland says to Tove. "I needed a favor, and I...well, I don't have a great deal to trade. So I sold that. It was worth it."

Meanwhile, the innkeeper looks at Kyoni and sniffs. He appears to be a satyr, wearing a great deal of flashy jewelry and smelling strongly of liquor. "You came from the other side?" he says. "Of course you are, I can see it on you. Three of your golden coins and the room is yours for a day and a night, then. Three golden, three silver, and three copper, and you can eat and drink as you please from what we serve in that time."

[Bhaakon]

It take all her mental fortitude to keep her nose from scrunching up in disgust at the man's story, yet Tove can't help but continue the questioning. It was the same morbid curiosity that would lead a person to sit and watch a neighbor's home burn to ashes, or spectate at bear baiting. What could possibly lead a slave to trade away his name? The one thing left to him, and Lackland had given it up.

"What could possibly be worth your very identity...and who would even buy such a thing?" Tove asks, carefully holding her tone neutral.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni considered the price. It room price was steep for mortal prices, and she didn't have a great deal of petty cash on her, but she hadn't really expected it to be worth a great deal over here. She could maintain a meager lifestyle indefinitely with her magic and what she had with her, so she didn't mind running out. A reward for getting here, then. She nodded, handing over the three gold, three silver, and three copper. She turned back to Tove, who was still busy interrogating their new companion. "I can think of at least one possibility off the top of my head," she said, stepping in for Lackland. "But if it was worth it, do you need to know what it was? All three of us were willing to give up an entire life to come here just for the hope of something, which entailed giving up our identity. 'Tove' means no more to anybody here than 'Lackland', and probably less. Now, is anybody sharing a room with me? You should both take care of your board, at least."

[Tuvarkz]

"Room and food for me as well," requested Darruk, as he handed the appropriate amount to the satyr, going for some food immediately afterwards.

[ylvathrall]

"I needed a favor," Lackland repeats. "There was...I needed a favor. Needed to pay a debt. You can sell anything here, if you want to, and I...it was worth it. I needed to do it."

He then falls silent, focusing on the food instead. He hasn't spoken with the bartender that you can see, or paid for it, but no one seems upset when he eats; considering that he brought you here, it seems plausible that he has some arrangement with the inn already.

The food in question is excellent, if unconventional. There doesn't seem to be much of a consistent order to it: thinly sliced meats that melt in your mouth, delicate pastries flavored with fruits not found on the continent you came from, a cold soup that smells vaguely like juniper and tastes like nothing you could name. The dishes are carried seemingly at random through the crowd by servers, creatures that look like beautiful human women at first glance. Looking more closely, you occasionally glimpse a vulpine tail hidden in their skirts, or see them from behind at the right angle to look past the long hair and dress and see nothing but a hollow, bark-lined cavity underneath.

The servers are huldra. Though they resemble constructs, these fey creatures are genuinely alive. Aside from the typical abilities of the fey, they have a limited ability to bend luck to suit them, as well as the ability to maim the features and deaden the personality of those they attack. Huldra are generally fairly good-natured, though, and seldom look to start a fight. They tend to be upset by people drawing attention to the oddities of their appearance, as they think of these as normal and don't care to make a fuss about it. They also usually don't care for any suggestion that their race was made by trolls, a common legend among humanoids which they find vastly insulting.

[Bhaakon]

Tove picks at the food, taking a nibble of each out of politeness, though her sampling hardly adds up to more than a few mouthfuls in total.

"So you can't get it back, then? You never told me who would even trade in such a thing. Maybe everything is for sale here, but I can't imagine that everyone is buying everything." She asks Lackland, partly from curiosity, partly to stretch out the time between bites.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni took a plate of food and a glass of wine offered by one of the waitresses, thanking her politely. "Really, there's no need to go prying if Lackland doesn't want to talk about it," she chided Tove. "If you're that curious, names are useful in a few bits of magic- the old sort, generally. As such, they've probably got a certain amount of trade value from that alone." She sets into the food, a smile spreading across her face. "Mmm! Even leaving aside how long it's been since I've had something more than 'decent', this is excellent. Thank you for the recommendation, Lackland."

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, you're very kind," Lackland says to Kyoni, flushing slightly. "But I don't really know what bought it, actually. I think it might have been some kind of demon, but I don't really know what to call it or anything. I don't know what they wanted with it, either. It doesn't really matter. I gave it up, and I'm not sorry I did."

[Tuvarkz]

The half-orc listened as he kept eating some pastries. He preferred his meat in big cuts for him to chew on, and the soup's flavor was something he wasn't quite used to, nor was particularly intent on.

[Bhaakon]

Eventually if becomes clear that Lackland either can't help himself or doesn't wish to. Nothing much Tove can do to make the man help himself. Maybe it had been the slavery, or maybe it had been losing his name, but clearly he lacked something important inside of him. She wonders if freeing him would even be in his best interest, given his current state of...emptiness.

When she tired of pretending to eat, Tove makes her way over to the front desk and acquires a room of her own.

[QuidEst]

"Oh, not at all. You've been very helpful," Kyoni replied, giving him a warm smile. Conversation continued at a somewhat leisurely pace, kept in check by the freely available food and drink that she was all too happy to avail herself of. "It's quite generous of you to use your free time helping us get settled in and comfortable." There was some particular emphasis on the last word, and her warm smile returned. "I still haven't seen to my room yet. If there's nothing pressing, perhaps you'd care to accompany me?"

[ylvathrall]

"I have a little time still," Lackland says to Kyoni, with that same odd, slightly vacant smile. When she goes upstairs to her room, he follows her, carrying one last pastry with him.

Upon looking more closely at Lackland (who doesn't exhibit any particular reaction to the observation, and still seems quite passive as he follows you), you see that the collar he wears is actually enchanted to make the wearer more compliant. The collar is mostly intended to make him more subject to the orders and magic of the person who placed the collar, but also renders the wearer generally obedient, and might account for much of his passivity.

Looking into his mind, his surface thoughts are placid and calm, matching his outward demeanor. You get the impression that he is interested in your offer and would likely have agreed regardless, however, and while these thoughts are blanketed with a layer of agreeable apathy, they don't seem artificial. If anything the collar's influence seems more responsible for the listless manner in which he agreed than with the agreement itself.

The item is a variant collar of obedience (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/collar-of-obedience), which applies the bonus and penalty on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks rather than Handle Animal.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni gave the room a quick glance, unslinging her pack and gesturing for it to move itself over to the corner before turning back to Lackland. "Hmm. That collar really is quite the bit of work, isn't it?" she said, examining it a little closer. She smiled at him, tracing the collar and chains. "Oh, do tell me if you're uncomfortable with anything. I wonder… will it let you show a little more enthusiasm if I ask nicely?"

We can probably skip ahead- Kyoni will enjoy having a new friend who is very open to suggestions.

[ylvathrall]

The inn's accommodations are as satisfactory as the food, with large rooms, oversized beds that are softer than a featherbed, and expansive windows. It doesn't seem quite as surreal as the dining, but the windows do look out over a sunlit grove quite unlike the Halfway House's exterior surroundings, and even a casual examination suggests that there isn't nearly enough space between doors off the hallway to fit rooms of this size.

Lackland is gone when you wake, presumably back to whatever it is he does for his mistress. In fact he only stayed for a little less than an hour after you retired to your rooms, which time passed quite enjoyably for him and Kyoni (luckily, one of the unusual features of the rooms here is very high-quality soundproofing).

The next morning, things seem largely unchanged. The fey servers continue to carry food and drink through the crowd, and outside the walls of the inn the activity of the city continues. If anything is different in the pace or nature of that activity, you aren't able to identify it.

Though fey politics are difficult or impossible to really grasp, the basic power structure of Nithveil is relatively simple. There are three Moonlit Thrones, each with its own set of powers and responsibilities. Decisions affecting the whole of the city are made by vote among the three, but for anything less significant they have broad individual authority.

At present the three rulers are Moonchaser, a fey wolf; Grommiskalt, a troll with divine magic and great facility with crafting things; and Thun-Canas, a powerful undead wizard.

Moonchaser has a reputation for being mischievous, but ultimately relatively benign. She governs travel within the city, and has the final say on where any given path leads. She's the most recent of the city's rulers to take her post, having arrived in the city around fifty years earlier. It's not clear where she might have been or what she was doing before that. She can be impressed with daring acts and a willingness to stray from the beaten path, and tends to be repelled by pointless cruelty.

Grommiskalt is an extremely skilled maker, and had a reputation as such even before becoming one of the rulers of the city. Fairly solid rumor has it that he actually created a race, having made the first huldra. He's in charge of the public spaces and maintenance of the city, and particularly of the city's libraries; he has almost total control over what information visitors to the city are able to access. He can be impressed with acts of making and intelligent questions, and tends to be repelled by stupidity, obvious ignorance, and actions which fail to accomplish their goals.

Thun-Canas is the eldest of the city's rulers, having held her Throne far longer than the others; it's possible she's been in her position since the city's founding, in prehistoric times. In addition to her considerable arcane powers, she has control over the passage of time within the city. She has a reputation for being cruel to those who earn her wrath, and her creativity extends well past just killing them; rumor has it that she has a garden filled with statues and animals, all of which were once people who annoyed her, all of which are still entirely aware. She usually keeps to herself, though, and isn't likely to go out of her way to cause trouble. She can be impressed with cunning, magical knowledge, and sacrifice, and is repelled by any suggestion of sentimentality.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni joined the others in the main room in high spirits, and didn't stint herself on her breakfast. "Well, I believe our first order of business is having somebody take a look at Darruk here. He hasn't been looking too good since those dogs, and I'd rather not have him stuck like this." She pushed some food over to him so he would actually eat something, shaking her head. "Excuse me- do you have a moment?" she asked one of the passing huldra servers. "Do you know of a good place to have a curse removed? My friend here has run into a little trouble on that front."

[ylvathrall]

The huldra barely even spares a glance for Kyoni. "Look at the market," she says. "Someone there can cast the spell for you." She then continues briskly about her work.

[QuidEst]

"Thank you!" Kyoni called after her, turning back to the others with a smile. "Well, that doesn't seem too bad. I don't know how to get to the market, but I don't think any of us are in a rush. We can get there without knowing the way, it's just going to take a while. If we can't find our way back here, that's all right- I can prepare some simple accommodations for us."

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk had still felt his senses dulled after a night's sleep, but had managed to get his armor on, training drills done, and gear in place before joining the others. Muttering his thanks for the food to Kyoni, he nodded to her decision as he ate. Getting rid of the curse was definitively a good idea.

[Bhaakon]

The accommodations were beyond reproach, and while she'd never admit it, Tove was somewhat relieved to rest on an actual mattress for the first time in weeks. The illusion out the windows and the clearly arcane construction of the building were all good signs. She'd seen very little but promising signs since entering the city. Now she just had to find something more concrete. It wasn't going to be east to get Grommiskalt's attention, but she'd have to think of something.

At breakfast, Tove picks at the meal again as she ponders the problem. When Kyoni suggests finding the market to help Darruk, Tove nods. "Yes...he did gain that unfortunate condition while holding the line for us. I suppose I have a debt to discharge. Besides, the sooner we figure out how to navigate this place, the better. I see no reason not to leave immediately." she pushes away from the table, her portion virtually untouched.

[ylvathrall]

Leaving the Halfway House, you immediately find yourself in the chaotic flow of Nithveil's streets once again. Things seem much the same, though you note that there are slightly fewer dazed-looking humanoids in the crowd; presumably, many of those foreign to the city returned to their homes as Nithveil passed out of phase with the material plane. This leaves the crowds even more visibly exotic, with a strong preponderance of fey creatures and entities from other planes.

Navigation, though, is as difficult as before. Lacking someone more acquainted with the city to guide you, you're forced to stumble through on your own. It feels a bit like walking in a dream; streets loop in on themselves, staircases lead from the ground level up to the ground level, and following a single street in a straight line leads you in close to a dozen directions. At one point you end up walking upside-down on the underside of glass staircase, looking down at an equally bustling crowd going the other way on the other side. If any of it follows logical rules, they're rules that you can't readily grasp.

Eventually, though, Kyoni proves correct. After close to half an hour of wandering, you find the market. It isn't immediately obvious when you reach it; one moment you're walking through an enclosed viaduct, the next it has disgorged you into an enormous field. The grass, reaching almost to your knees, swirls gently in a nonexistent breeze, disturbing a thin layer of mist that hugs the ground. In this field, which seems rather implausibly large, is the market.

If the rest of Nithveil is cosmopolitan, the marketplace takes that to another level entirely. The variety of wares, and vendors, on display is incredible: here a daemon buying and selling souls, there a robed skeleton with blazing eyes in front of a shelf of books, across the path from a gleaming silver construct with a table covered in intricate clockwork mechanisms.

After looking for a few minutes, though, you find something more immediately promising. What looks to be a slender young woman with slightly elfin features is wandering through the irregular paths of the market, carrying a simple canvas banner. The cloth is covered in writing, ranging from Skald, Sylvan, and Aklo to far more outlandish languages, some of which you don't recognize at all. In every language, however, the same word is painted on the canvas: SPELLS.

[Tuvarkz]

While normally a so clearly exposed trade in souls would disgust the zealot, Darruk's current incapacity to really focus on anything for long make ignoring it easier. Instead, the half-orc made his way to the banner-carrying elf (Or half? He probably couldn't tell with his senses scrambled like this) trying his best to not accidentally push anyone around as he moved. Approaching her, the half-orc asked as if he was trying his best to focus on each word to not accidentally vocalize it wrong: "Got something to help with curses?"

[ylvathrall]

The woman scrutinizes Darruk intensely for a moment, then grins. "Oh, you did slip up, didn't you?" she says, in a rather unsympathetic tone. "It should be a fairly straightforward thing to fix. And as it happens I have just the spell."

[Tuvarkz]

"Perfect." commented Darruk, before adding "The price is?" As he said these words, he once more restarted the Collective link with Kyoni, and through it he sent mentally "Mind making sure her wording doesn't hold a double meaning for me? Wouldn't like to end up giving something I can't afford to lose." Like his speech, the mental message holds the same paced tone, as to not scramble the meaning.

[QuidEst]

"We do have a magic bean we can trade," Kyoni said, stepping up and pulling out one of the beans for the woman to examine. She preferred to head off starting things with any intangibles. Likely a bit generous on her part, but it was difficult to get much finesse in the prices. "It's not far off from one of those feather tokens that grows a tree."

[Bhaakon]

Tove watches the exchange with forced interest. Haggling had always struck her as an...inelegant means of dispersing resources. Clearly Darruk was in need of the spell, and casting it upon him couldn't possibly cost the vendor much more than a bit of time and inconvenience. The kind of prices these things commanded had always struck Tove as extortion of the basest sort.

But at least is a kind of extortion Tove was familiar with. What had been done to Lackland was leagues worse, and not terribly uncommon here. At least Tove suspected it wasn't uncommon. That it was even possible was enough, really. So she watches carefully, determined that neither she nor the others with her would accidentally fall into a similar trap.

[ylvathrall]

"You do?" the woman says. "Let me see it." She takes the bean and examines it for a moment, then nods, apparently satisfied. "That's a fair trade," she says. "You give me the bean, and I'll take those nasty death curses off of him."

The deal thus neatly arranged, she recites a quick chant and twists her fingers through a series of gestures, letting the canvas banner dangle from her other hand. That done, she steps closer and trails her fingers over Darruk's face in a long, lingering caress. An angry-looking red light pulls away from his head to follow her hand, leaving it outlined in a harsh crimson glow.

After a few moments she pulls her hand away, and the light dissipates. She grimaces, looking slightly pained, then smiles slyly. "Feeling better?" she asks, not stepping away from Darruk.

That was a remove curse spell.

Darruk does, indeed, feel better, since that's all of the curses removed.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk's senses returned to normal, his muscles loosing that numbed feeling and the buzz in his head disappearing, letting his mind work freely. "Much better" the half-orc commented in a rather relieved tone. Through the collective, he then sent to Kyoni: "Thanks for the help- I seem to be at my full capacity now."

[QuidEst]

"Thank you," Kyoni said to the woman managing the spell shop. "A pleasure doing business." At any rate, it was a pleasure having Darruk in a functional state of mind again. "You're welcome. I'm glad to have that bit of business taken care of," she replied mentally. That did leave the question of what to do with the remainder of the day. At some point, finding some way to make "money" would be important. Securing a longer-term arrangement for living quarters was also high on the list. "Any other business you'd need to take care of now that you're in full possession of your faculties?"

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, I think we can all be pleased with how this turned out," the woman says, slipping the magical trinket into her sleeve. "You feel free to come back any time you need something. I'm sure we can strike a deal." She gives Darruk a last, lingering smile, grabs her banner again, and resumes wandering through the markets.

As you consider other options, what you might hunt for in the markets or the city at large, you find your attention caught by one of the merchants, one which you're quite sure wasn't there a few moments earlier. There's a rather large open space around this one, making it stand out against the bustle of the market.

You aren't entirely sure who or what this particular merchant is. Its figure is vaguely humanoid, but beyond that it's hard to tell what it might be, since there's nothing visible of it beneath a grey cloak. Even its face is too heavily shadowed by the cowl to make out even the vaguest impression of its features. The cloak itself seems to look different depending on how you look at it, rippling from the palest grey of the sky before the snow to the almost-black of charcoal. The effect is something like taffeta, but far more smooth and subtle.

The stall that vendor sits at is similarly minimal. Where others have extensive displays of wares, or barkers, anything at all to attract customers, this is a simple, unmarked table of black wood. The only thing on the table is a card, on which is written What you need.

That cowl is turned in your direction, and while that could obviously be a coincidence, you feel inexplicably certain that it isn't. This person, or thing, is looking at you, personally.

[Bhaakon]

While she can't actually see the eyes beneath the cowl--or anything, really--Tove returns the merchant's stare.

'What You Need'? The narrows her eyes suspiciously, be doesn't leave. Quite the opposite. Her leads are few and her curiosity piqued. A placard like that was like honeycomb to a bear emerging from hibernation. Or a a bonfire to a moth. Whichever metaphor is appropriate, the sign does its job.

"And what is it that you think I need?" She asks the vendor, tilting her head--with its attendant glowing halo--to get a better look under his hood.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni stared at the card for some time. It was almost certainly a lie in some sense. What you need was not what you want, and her magic accounted for her needs in the strictest sense. Given that it would be a very dramatic way to describe food or water, that required a looser sense. She was here for a reason, as must be the others. Something worth leaving the world for. Her own interests had a certain economic infeasibility about them that had led her here in the first place. She would be surprised if the asking price for that sort of thing would be agreeable, though.

Still, that left the question of the mysterious figure. She'd at least find out if they were present. A simple sweep to see what minds were around without touching any of them too closely would suffice.

Detect Thoughts SLA, concentrating for two rounds. Aiming the cone to include the figure and Tove, with Darruk included if possible.
First round- presumably there are minds in the cone's area.
Second round- Int scores of everybody present. If anybody is rocking a 30 Int, Kyoni is dazed for a round.
Dropping concentration after that.

[ylvathrall]

The entity's voice, when it speaks, is as uninformative as its appearance. A melodious tone that could be either male or female, speaking Skald with no discernible accent, it conveys no obvious information about its owner. "What you need," it says to Tove, "is subjectivity. A perspective which can take pleasure in subjective beauty rather than comparing it to an objectively perfect standard which nothing else can fully equal."

The light from Tove's halo should by all rights drive away the shadows under that cowl. It does not. The darkness lingers, seeming completely unaffected by the light; even this close, whatever is under that hood is completely obscured. For the shadows to be that thick, and to ignore the light of the halo so completely, would surely require it to be magical in nature.

Meanwhile, Kyoni casts her spell. She detects the presence of thinking minds in front of her, Tove and Darruk seeming the same as ever. For a moment she thinks this is all, but then she brushes against the edges of another intellect. This one is larger than the rest, in the same way a mountain is larger than an anthill. It feels qualitatively different than the other minds she can feel, as though it operates on an entirely different level.

Kyoni barely touches on the outer edges of that mind, but what she sees is still enough to leave her incoherent for a moment as she struggles to adjust to this glimpse of an entity so far beyond her usual conception of the world.

Kyoni is stunned for a round due to mental backlash. She detects one mind in the area other than Tove and Darruk, which has an Intelligence score of "high."

[Tuvarkz]

If anything, it seemed like the cloaked entity knew what Tove was looking for, based on the words used by it. Darruk was considering talking about his objective here in the city with the other two, but it wasn't a particularly urgent manner.
Suspicious of the entity, Darruk noticed Kyoni's unfocused appearance, and quickly sent through the mind link: "Are you alright?"

[QuidEst]

Kyoni had just afforded herself a little smirk as she registered the relatively pedestrian intellects of her companions when the third mind brushed up against her spell. The spell tried to compensate, and the sensation was terrifyingly unpleasant. It was as if something had been held unpleasantly close to her face, such that it was blurry and out of focus. Only upon pulling away, it just revealed more of itself- a sweeping horizon where she had expected a discrete object. She staggered back physically, her hands flying to her head before she forced them back down. The spell terminated itself, protecting her from any more than the briefest of contacts with the mind. She almost snapped at Darruk when he suddenly spoke in her mind, but instead drew herself up and took a deep breath.

"My apologies; I'm fine," she said, speaking out loud rather than replying mentally. She struggled for a moment with how to convey what she'd discovered, but discarded the idea. "Our new acquaintance is a great deal more than they seem." She had the presence of mind to file away Tove's apparent interest in beauty for future consideration. That was certainly intriguing. She didn't care to have her own ambitions laid so bare, but given what she'd found out about the figure, it would be foolish to pass up their advice. "And what would you say that I need, then?" she said, approaching the figure with as much deference as she could manage.

[ylvathrall]

"You're something of a special case," the cloaked figure says to Kyoni, a very slight amusement in its voice suggesting that it knows quite well what just happened to her. "What you need, I think, is opportunity. A blank canvas that you can shape to your will, the chance to do so without interference."

[Bhaakon]

"Ignorance is bliss, then? Just return to the time before and pretend I never saw those things? Heard them? Tasted and touched them?" Tove chortles in derision at the idea. Kyoni was very clearly right that the speaker was ever so much more than it seemed, but being potent and inscrutable hardly meany it had her or any of their best interests at heart "I'll not give up that easily. Not yet. I've barely begun here. I will see it again. Posses it. Make it my own. I will not settle."

[ylvathrall]

"Say, then, that you require a perspective which allows you to find that again," the figure says to Tove, not seeming particularly offended by her reaction. "The difference is semantic. Either way, what is required in your case is an alteration in viewpoint, in the frame of reference within which you perceive the world."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded, glad to not be told that the goal itself was somehow fundamentally flawed or unachievable. Tove didn't seem to care much for the sage's answer, after all. She considered mentioning that pretending wasn't necessary; there were spells to clear away particular memories. Certainly, one could sell a memory here, that much was clear, but it seemed like the sort of thing that was likely to result in a perpetual feeling of missing something without ever quite being able to put one's finger on it.

Kyoni glanced over at Darruk. "Well, are you going to inquire?" She was curious what the sage's interest was in all this, but it seemed more proper for everybody to have asked before broaching another subject.

[Tuvarkz]

Sending a mental negative to Kyoni, Darruk addressed the cloaked figure: "My apologies if I sound rude, but I've been told far too many times that I need to let go. However, I will not give up on this. I will recover what I've lost."

[ylvathrall]

"Let go?" the cloaked figure says. "Hardly. There are losses that must be accepted gracefully, but yours is hardly one of them. No, what you need is rather the opposite of that. You need a way to hold on, to bring her back from beyond the brink."

It then leans forward slightly, gloved hands resting lightly on the table. "You see that I am well informed as to your circumstances," it said. "And it is not a coincidence that we are having this conversation in the marketplace. I am able and willing to provide each of you with these things. All I would ask in return is a single deed. It's a small favor, a triviality really; for individuals of your talents it should be a relatively straightforward task."

[QuidEst]

… And now the other shoe fell. "Please pardon my caution," Kyoni replied, stepping up as she spoke, "but what task did you have in mind? From what I've seen so far, I grasp at how a straightforward matter for us could be anything but the simplest of matters for you. Being newly arrived, it would be foolish of us to take credit. If the task exceeds our capacity- or our assessment of the payment- then we should not find ourselves indebted and thereby obligated beyond our means to repay. I'd certainly wish to have the nature of our payment clarified. Meaning no disrespect, but with our limited knowledge of you, we can't say the payment wouldn't be twisted- his payment made into an obsession," she said, gesturing to Darruk, "hers to an alteration of who she is, and my own to some sort of prison. In any case, knowing that even what I want might be to my detriment, I would also personally feel more comfortable having the option to forgo my payment at any point, having it undone without further compensation." She took a steadying breath. It was frightening doing business with somebody in such a clearly superior power, especially having seen Lackland's current state of affairs. Still, she had yet to agree to anything, and the whole matter wasn't worth forming an opinion on without further information.

[ylvathrall]

"Oh, this would typically be an exceedingly simple thing for me to accomplish," the hooded figure says. "But certain agreements I've made currently prohibit me from doing so myself, and thus I find myself in need of agents to do this favor for me. What I want you to do is retrieve samples of the water from three primeval springs and bring them to me. You will find one spring at the heart of the Riftwood, one at the summit of Crystal Peak, and one beneath Malthruse Monastery." As the figure names each of the locations it places a vial on the table, seemingly producing them from thin air. Each of the vials is small, barely the size of your finger, and made of black glass so dark that you can hardly see into the vials at all.

"Do this," it says, "and I will provide for you the things I've promised. Should you find them unsatisfactory, all you need to do is say so, and I will take them away again."

The Riftwood is an immense forest, even by the standards of the First World. Notably, the trees grow exponentially larger as one continues in, soon becoming huge beyond any remote possibility of the Material plane. Most of those who reside this deep in the wood seldom, if ever, see the ground, instead living entirely among the branches.

Crystal Peak is one of the mountains within the Frostcap mountain range. Though the mountain is one of the more accessible ones within that range, few people visit it, as Crystal Peak itself is quite inhospitable. Its name is somewhat misleading; rather than crystal, the mountain is a single, vast piece of ice.

Malthruse Monastery is an ancient facility which has housed numerous groups in its time, most recently a sect of monks. Rumors abound regarding what these monks might have believed, and the details seem quite vague, but there seems to be general agreement that it was an unpleasant sect; outsiders were frequently (and usually unwillingly) taken in by the monks, but never seemed to leave.

In any case, the monastery is now within the Quickening, an area where the mutable nature of the First World is far more intense than elsewhere. As very few people willingly venture into the Quickening, and fewer return, the current state of the monastery is unknown.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni considered, not altogether pleased with the vague answer to some of her questions. "And we will retain both the ability and free will to say so?" she pressed. "I would not want to disrespect you by taking the bargain lightly." She considered pressing for more information on the exact nature of the rewards, but ultimately, she was content enough with what she'd been offered so long as it came with the ability to return it. Not knowing what the others actually sought, she couldn't really speak to their rewards. She considered the three locations. One wasn't familiar, although she did know of the mountain. The last almost eluded her, but she wove a bit of magic to dig for the answer within her memories. It left her momentarily stunned, although not so bad as the brief contact with the figure's consciousness had. "One other small condition, as much for your benefit as ours. We should have a second set of vials to carry with us. Better to have a backup for each in case something happens on the return journey." She didn't know if the vials themselves were important, but there was no reason not to be careful. Since she wasn't sure what the exact value of the waters were, then if nothing happened that lost them a vial, they would have the other to keep. She made a mental note to have each of the two vials for a single water source filled by two different members of their party, just as a precaution.

[Bhaakon]

Still not entirely sure of the proffered reward, Tove holds her tongue as Kyoni negotiates with the man. At least she seemed aware of the various pitfalls in play. Who couldn't, after meeting with Lackland?

But the way she brushed past the three places was troubling. She might haveheard of them, but Tove certainly had not. "Wait. What are these places, and who controls them? Filling a vial with water may be simple, but I'm guessing that we'll be crossing beings of great power to do so. Beings who, through force or trickery, managed to extract pledges from you. If we're to make such enemies in your service, I'd know who they are."

[ylvathrall]

"You misunderstand," the figure says to Tove, silently producing another set of vials and placing them on the table. "These agreements were not made with the residents of these locations. Rather, they're broad agreements which happen to prohibit this action as part of much more general terms. I don't expect any of the people you see along your journey to even know of them, let alone be party to them. Nor will you necessarily make enemies by doing as I've asked; it's possible, your behavior may earn you enemies, but the action which I've requested shouldn't inherently alienate them. Nor do I intend to restrict your ability to object to your rewards."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni looked at the others inquiringly. "The terms seem agreeable enough to me, if you two are interested." They weren't being paid until the end, after all, so failure remained an option. It was difficult to place the value of the payment versus the work, but the spare vials might mitigate that. And practically speaking, it seemed like the most direct way towards her objectives, at least until she learned more about how this place worked.

[Tuvarkz]

"I'm definitively interested", agreed Darruk. The job, at least on the surface, appeared simple enough to the half-orc. After all, he'd already been asked once or twice to go retrieve a specific material from somewhere as a mercenary.

[Bhaakon]

She flashes her typical frown, but Tove can't see how she has a better lead. Or any lead. But the fact that this man was offering a boon without exacting specificity was an indication of his desperate. Such vague terms were, she things--perhaps naively-- one of the most powerful currencies in this place.

"I agree, then." She says, reluctantly.

[ylvathrall]

"Excellent," the cloaked figure says. "I believe you know what you need to do, then. Return to this location when you have all three samples and I will give you your rewards."

It then vanishes, instantly, leaving behind the table and the six small vials.

[Bhaakon]

"Could have a left a map." Tove mutters under her breath as she scoops up two of the vials and stores them securely in her pack. "I don't suppose either of you has any idea where these places are?" She asks, turning to Kyoni and Darruk.

[QuidEst]

"I know the last two from some of the research I did beforehand. We can look the first one up in one of the city's libraries, I think. Unless you're familiar with it?" Kyoni asked, looking over at Darruk to check. "Crystal Peak is in the Frostcap mountain range. It's more of an iceberg than a mountain, really, but it's not as bad as many of the other mountains in the range. The monastery is probably the most challenging, although I couldn't say for sure without knowing more about the Riftwood. In any case, the monastery has been engulfed by the Quickening, making it far more mutable than the First World is. The original inhabitants didn't have a very pleasant reputation, either."

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk shook his head at Kyoni's question and commented: "Indeed, looking the place up in the libraries seems like the better idea."

[Bhaakon]

Libraries were really her strong suit, but Tove couldn't argue with the logic of the suggestion. "Why don't you handle that, then. I can..." She hesitates, sighs, and powers through the unpleasant suggestion. "I can ask around to see if anyone knows more about them."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni raised an eyebrow. "We're new to the plane and the city, both of which don't follow conventional rules of space. We have no permanent residence. We have substantially conversed with two people so far; one of them was tricked into life-long slavery and the other bargained a piece of our heart's desire against a task whose full significance we don't yet know. It might a little cautious of me, but we should probably stick together." She flashed Tove a smile. "Besides, you're too interesting to lose. Would you rather start with a library or asking around?"

[Bhaakon]

Tove's eye twitches a little bit at the dressing down, all the more-so because Kyoni was right. Still, there was one minor point remaining by which Tove could stitch together her tattered dignity.

"Well that question answers itself, doesn't it?" She snaps a little too smartly. "Unless you know where a library is and how to get there, we're going to have to ask around first anyway."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni shrugged. "Oh, that's easy. It's that way," she said, pointing in one direction, the changing to point in another, "Or that way. Within the city, walk with intent, and you'll arrive if you walk long enough. We'll learn shortcuts eventually, but even those are dependent on good favor. So we might as well start walking." True to her word, she started off in the most immediately promising direction.

[Tuvarkz]

Preferring to follow the woman rather than get lost on his own, Darruk moved after Kyoni.

[ylvathrall]

Kyoni's optimism might seem to be hopelessly naive in a city where geography seems to have taken a break from its usual routine of consistent logic. And, at first, it is. An open path through the stalls of the market leads into a graveyard, where the stones all bear familiar names and dates which make no sense. The headstones give way to trees and the graveyard fades into an idyllic forest, before the path segues into a glass bridge over a crystal-clear lake. Finally, the path descends a set of stairs which, somehow, lead out onto a city street much like the one you first saw within the city of Nithveil. Though the stairs led underground, here it seems you're at surface level again, with no sign of the area you just passed through.

Directly across the street you see a tall, narrow tower which seems to be constructed entirely of silver. The doorway is an open arch in the wall, which doesn't seem as though it can be closed. Over the door the words ENTER AND LEARN IN PEACE are written in a blend of Sylvan and Aklo. Inside, you can see what appears to be another of the huldra sitting at a massive wooden desk. Behind her rows of shelves extend considerably further than the building looks, from the outside, to contain.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni looked quite pleased with herself for arriving at a library. It was a little unreasonable, since she hadn't found it particularly quickly and almost anybody could get where they were going with time. Still, it was a pleasingly self-sufficient method for getting about. It did raise questions about walking in a group- could somebody sabotage your destination? If you had two destinations in the group, it seemed like the group would just get separated. That could be saved for another time, though.

She walked up to the huldra who seemed to be the librarian or receptionist. "Hello. The three of us are looking for information on the Riftwood. Would you be the proper person to talk to about that?" she asked. She wasn't entirely sure how libraries worked here, but given that one of the city "officials" presided over them, she was certainly expecting them to be well managed. The inscription over the entrance was certainly encouraging.

[ylvathrall]

"Possibly," the huldra says. "Do you have a more specific query? A comprehensive catalogue of available information on the Riftwood would be lengthy."

[QuidEst]

Very promising. "Yes- we are more specifically looking for information on the spring at its heart, how to get to the Riftwood, and useful information for anybody traveling there- any particular dangers of the Riftwood, for instance," Kyoni clarified.

[ylvathrall]

"That would be the geography section, then," the huldra says. "Follow."

She leads you into the library and down the aisle, then turns off on a narrower aisle between the shelves. A small open space with a few couches and tables is apparently your destination, since the huldra stops there. "That shelf should have what you're looking for," she says, pointing at one of the bookshelves at the edge of this space. "Find me if you have other queries. It can be dangerous to wander the stacks without guidance." She then heads back towards the desk at the entrance.

A quick examination of the books (and scrolls, and folios, and runestones) on that shelf suggests that the attendant didn't lead you astray. These documents do contain a wealth of geographical information regarding the Riftwood. Apparently this area is a rather prominent forest located not so far away from Nithveil; following the Blackwater Rush away from the city will lead one to the forest rapidly. Within the boundaries of the Riftwood the trees rapidly begin increasing in size, and soon they're far in excess of anything on the Mortal Plane, to the point that whole villages can be constructed on the swathes of moss between branches. Most travel and activity within the Riftwood's depths takes place in the trees, as the ground becomes increasingly steep as one progresses further into it; actually traveling on the dirt is simply impractical.

Mentions of the spring are vague at best, but one book does mention a spring within the forest, the water of which has properties of healing and growth; it seems very probable that this is the spring you're looking for. According to this text the spring is at ground level at the center of the Riftwood, among the roots of the largest tree in the forest. The same text mentions that the shady depths of the forest's heart are home to aggressive and feral fey which shun the light of day; apparently these beings are why relatively few people make the trek in to collect the spring's water.

[Bhaakon]

Not being particularly bookish herself, Tove leaves the deciphering of obscure tomes to the expert. Well, presumably expert. She had no way to prove Kyoni's expertise, but the woman certainly seemed to know hat she was doing. Enough that Tove couldn't find fault--rare praise indeed.

So instead of reading, Tove looks for people. Well, not just people. This was Nithveil, after all. A nosy mouse or curious centipede could be a spy. Probably even stranger things, truth be told. Still, it was worth making an effort to see if they were being observed, if only to make Tove feel useful.

Perception too look for suspicious figures, animals...anything: [roll0]

[Tuvarkz]

Deciding to try and make the most use of the available time, Darruk looked amongst the nearby documents for traces of Common, Orcish or Giant language and started reading through them to find any details that documents in other languages might have missed, sharing the information he got through the collective to speed up getting the pieces of knowledge together.

[ylvathrall]

You don't see anyone paying an undue amount of attention to you so far. In fact, you don't see anyone at all. As far as you can tell, this part of the library is deserted except for your group.

You notice...something, though, coming from deeper in the stacks. It sounds like a voice, just barely too quiet to hear, whispering to you. You can't quite make out the words, but you're sure that if you got a little closer you could.

Most of the texts are written in the same blend of languages as the inscription over the door, but there are a handful in the languages you're familiar with. These contain the same general information as the rest, though there's slightly more detail for those who are accustomed to the Material. In particular, there's mention of travel by means other than through the trees (generally not feasible), the inhabitants of the forest (pleasant in the upper canopy and increasingly hostile and dangerous as one descends), and navigation (tricky at best).

[Bhaakon]

Stifling a yawn, Tove turns from Kyoni and her studies to head deeper into the stacks. "Some of these might be worth looking at...for other things." She mumbles by way of a vague explanation before she slips away in pursuit of that nagging little voice she'd heard.

[Tuvarkz]

Looking at the documents he could comprehend, Darruk mentioned: "Apparently the occupants of the upper canopy are rather pleasant folks. Perhaps it would be a good plan to travel through there until reaching the heart of the forest, descending to gather the water sample, and then immediately make our way to the upper canopy."

[QuidEst]

"Oh?" Kyoni says, looking over as Darruk inspected the parchment. "That's useful. I've got directions to the forest itself and some details on the fountain. Once we get to the fountain, you can climb, I can fly, and Tove–" she looked up to see Tove wandering off. "Tove should stick with us or consult the librarian instead of wandering the stacks alone as we were told was dangerous," she said, putting a bit of magical force behind the words.

Kyoni is actually casting Suggestion. Drop two points from the phrenic pool for increased DC, since it'd be a little awkward to get caught.
Kyoni secretly cast Suggestion. DC 18, probably with a -1 or -2 for being particularly reasonable.

[Bhaakon]

"I'm not going far." Tove answers without even looking back at Kyoni. "I'm sure I can handle some books." She continues towards the source of the voice.

[ylvathrall]

Tove ignores the spell seemingly without even being aware of it, and continues to wander deeper into the stacks. It's not immediately apparent what, if anything, she's looking for.

The voice seems to retreat as you approach, staying at the same volume. You think it's pulling away from you at the same rate as you approach, so as to stay just at the edge of audibility. You still think that you could hear it clearly if you get closer, though. Perhaps it's leading you somewhere?

DC 10 Will save or be compelled to continue moving towards the voice, as suggestion.

[Bhaakon]

Curiosity only goes so far, it turns out, and in this case that far isn't very. "Quit playing games." Tove says, digging her heels in before she disappears entirely into the maze of shelves. "If you've something to say, let's hear it plainly. I'm not interested in a game of hide and seek."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni kept an eye on Tove, setting her book down. She couldn't risk another attempt at forceful persuasion, but at least the woman hadn't wandered off yet.

Kyoni swore under her breath, looking back at Darruk. It would be much easier to just go off after Tove, but that would just get them all lost. "Come on. We should get the librarian," she said, making a note of the direction Tove had wandered. If no objections were forthcoming, Kyoni started towards the front desk at a brisk pace. "Our friend suddenly wandered off. I tried to stop her, but she insisted. I came here rather than getting the two of us lost as well."

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk nodded, quickly putting the books and other materials back in place before following Kyoni.

[ylvathrall]

The voice doesn't get any clearer, but you think you can detect a slight change in the whisper's tone. A sort of frustration, perhaps, or urgency. There's something almost enticing about it, something that makes you want to track it down and figure out just what it is it's saying.

DC 11 Will save this time.

[Bhaakon]

As annoyed as she was with the other's all but ordering her back, Tove isn't fool enough to just play hide-and-seek in the stacks with whatever was babbling. "Get out here if you've something to say." She orders, her normal tone all but a shout in the hush of the library. "I'll not be chasing you another step."

[ylvathrall]

The whispers pause, then resume with a slightly different tone. You still can't make out words, but something about it conveys a sense of pleading, an almost plaintive sound. It's starting to sound almost desperate.

DC 13 Will save or be compelled to follow.

[Bhaakon]

She tries to hold her ground for a moment, but even Tove can't resist the shear patheticness of the inarticulate mewling. Or the magic behind it.

"By all the muses, I'll tan your hide if this is a game." She growls, summons up glow around her fist nearly bright enough to bleach the more delicate tomes, and stomps off after the noise.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni swore under her breath, looking back at Darruk. It would be much easier to just go off after Tove, but that would just get them all lost. "Come on. We should get the librarian," she said, making a note of the direction Tove had wandered. If no objections were forthcoming, Kyoni started towards the front desk at a brisk pace. "Our friend suddenly wandered off. I tried to stop her, but she insisted. I came here rather than getting the two of us lost as well."

[ylvathrall]

The librarian looks distinctly irritated. "That was a good choice," she says, standing and stepping away from her desk. She stalks off into the stacks, beckoning for you to follow. As she goes she mutters what sounds suspiciously like a Sylvan curse on the ignorance of fools.

The librarian turns down one of the aisles well before where you stopped earlier, then takes another turn between two shelves that are just barely far enough apart to squeeze through. Apparently this detour takes you rather farther than it should have, because on the other side you're far into the midst of the stacks, and you can see Tove in front of you. She looks quite enraptured with something, though you aren't sure what it might be.
The whispered call brings Tove to a wrought iron fence of sorts deep within the stacks. The iron is twisted in such a way as to spell the word RESTRICTED over and over, in numerous languages. The bars are just barely wide enough to reach through, though, and the gate seems to just be latched rather than locked.

On the other side of the fence is another section of the library, though one which doesn't seem to be arranged in the same way as the rest. There are no shelves here, no system for mass storage. Each work is set out individually. Most of them are books resting on tables, but there are a number of more exotic things as well: scrolls and standing runestones, glittering crystal lattices, slowly shifting patterns of color that just hang unsupported in the air. There are books that are chained to the tables they sit on, books in cages of iron and silver; one table has a white circle painted on the floor around it, and a skull and crossbones marked inside the circle.

Most notably, though, there's a slim black volume resting on a table just inside the fence. It looks normal compared to most of what you can see in there, but something about it is...oddly compelling. It draws the eye. It looks like there's just enough of a gap that you could reach through and touch it, too.

DC 22 Will save or be compelled to reach through and open the black book, as per suggestion.

[Bhaakon]

It was stupid, of course, reaching through the wrought-iron barricade to touch that books. Catching the edge of the cover on the very tip her fingers and flipping it open. These were clearly objects marked as dangerous, and dangerous by the standards of the First World, where the prick of a rose bush or the fleeting glance of an alluring dancer could spell one's doom as surely as a rampaging dragon. Only a fool would open that tome.

A fool like Tove.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni swore under her breath again, trying to decide what manner of magic to subject Tove to for making her go to all this trouble. It appeared that she had something, which was a nuisance. "Drop it!" she commanded, backing her instruction with some magical force. She really didn't have much hope of getting through given stronger magic had failed, but after this it was peppering the woman with magical force until she passed out. Hopefully the librarian was better suited to handling this sort of thing.

Two points of focus to raise Command to DC 17.
"On its turn, the subject drops whatever it is holding. It can't pick up any dropped item until its next turn."

Not concealing the casting of the spell.

[Tuvarkz]

As Kyoni's attempt to stop Tove seemed to fail, Darruk decided to take action, charging Tove as he used his polearm to trip her!
Trip attempt check
[roll0]

[ylvathrall]

Tove shrugs off the effect of Kyoni's enchantment, and flips open the cover of the book. Inside, the pages are black; not the color most people think of when they think of black, but absolute, in-a-cave-without-a-light black. The page she flipped the book open to is covered in fine lines that blaze with silver light, giving it a harsh, monochromatic appearance.

She feels an intense surge of satisfaction as she opens the book. On some level, she's aware that the emotion isn't her own, but that awareness is distant at best; most of her attention is fixated on the book. The lines are arranged in a way that seems chaotic, and seems like it should be meaningless, but somehow isn't. The patterns the light makes seem to have a terrible significance, something that lurks just outside the realm of understanding and urges her to follow it down. THe fractal images seem to swim before her eyes, pulling her focus ever more strongly into them.

And then Darruk trips her, and she falls to the floor. The librarian calmly reaches in and flips the book closed again a moment later, and the urge to keep reading fades. Tove can still hear the whispered voice on the edge of meaning urging her towards the book, though it now conveys a sense of smug satiation rather than pitiful need.

You take [roll0] points of Wisdom damage.

[Bhaakon]

Tove lands hard on her rear. Somewhere inside she knows what has happened. The damnably self-satisfied murmur flitting around the edge of perceptions was proof of that, as were the nausea-inducing waves of agony prorogation across her brain-pan.

But that wasn't terribly important. The utter nothingness of the black, the the glowing silver of the ink, infinitely intricate fractal patterns. A level of artistry and craftsmanship that demanded attention like only one thing she'd seen before.

"That book." She gasps, staggering to her feet. "What is it? Who made it?"

[ylvathrall]

"That's one of the volumes of Magister Aleron's personal journal," the library attendant says. "There's a consistent rumor that it's a log of his contacts with the Outer Gods and that a sufficiently strong-willed person can learn their secrets from it. Thus far, none of them have demonstrated any actual knowledge, however, and the book doesn't seem to contain any actual information at all. As far as we can determine he wrote it as a prank."

She then narrows her eyes slightly. "It is also in the restricted section of this library, which you accessed without permission and against my instruction. Your access to this facility is revoked. You have one minute to vacate these premises before you are evicted."

[Bhaakon]

"Perhaps if you'd stored your magically beguiling, obviously intelligent tome behind some sort of wards instead of a wrought-iron fence that couldn't protect a vegetable garden from hungry rabbits..." Tove seethes as she turns from the forbidden section and marches towards the exit.

The rules were the rules, after all. This city seemed to break enough strictures of decency, common sense, and physics on its own. No need for Tove to add to the list by defying a legitimate authority, however incompetent.

"Look into this Magister, if you don't mind." She whispers To Kyoni and Darruk as she walks past them, towards the exit.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk sighed, saying: "Duly noted." before starting to make his way out. Well, at least they had gotten some good information out of the whole thing.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni bristled at Tove's cavalier attitude at the whole situation, and bowed her head to the librarian after Tove had left. "I can only apologize for the foolishness of my companion, and that it put you to this trouble."

Knowledge (probably Arcana, but whatever is most relevant) to know about Magister Aleron: [roll0]

[ylvathrall]

"That's quite all right," the librarian says to Kyoni, her frosty tone softening considerably as the others leave. "There's one in every crowd, it seems. You're welcome to stay if there's anything else you would like to research, though if you want to keep those two it might be best not to leave them alone overlong. Your associate might sell her soul for a shiny rock, otherwise."

You dimly recall having heard of a Magister Aleron in your studies of magical history. He was a wizard in the late Thassilonian empire who was noted for his crafting skills. Though he was a powerful wizard, he wasn't strong enough to attain the title of Runelord himself, instead serving as an adjunct and manager for several of those who did. It was an open secret that he was spiteful and jealous of those who held higher title than himself, and generally took it out on those who were beneath him.

You haven't heard of him making trapped books as a destructive prank, but it would be in keeping with what you know of his personality.

[ylvathrall]

The road to Nithveil was a relatively easy one, to the extent that any trip to the remote forest which it appears in can be easy. You initially thought that it wouldn't appear to you, but just a few hours before dawn you stumbled across the gleaming moonlit walls of the fey city.

Actually gaining entrance to the city was considerably more difficult, though. Just inside the wall, you found a talking statue of a cat which challenged you to a riddling contest; any wrong answer was met with derisive laughter and an electric shock. In the next room you had to navigate a maze of shifting walls and illusions in the dark to find the door. Finally, a dozen pixies played a game of keep-away with the key to a cage while it became gradually colder, threatening to freeze you to death if you didn't find the exit fast enough.

Finally, though, you overcame all of these tests and found yourselves in Nithveil proper. It was everything you might have hoped for it to be, a riotous city of the fey where the usual rules of reality seemed to be suspended, inhabited by seemingly every creature imaginable.

You'd barely had a chance to rest and start inquiring where you might find someone who could find Gil's family when you saw a figure in a grey cloak, offering to sell you what you need. For Gil, the cloaked figure offered the precise location of his wife and daughter; to Finn, it offered to provide access to the fey storm which he was once enthralled by. All it asks in return is that you provide it with water from three primeval springs. Additionally, it told you that there was another group of people carrying out a similar bargain, and suggested that you might find it helpful to work with them.

The path to the edge of the city is both harder and easier than other routes within Nithveil seem to have been. You know you're getting close when the constant fluctuations of the city around you start to cease; buildings and streets stay where they are when you blink, walking in a straight line takes you forward, and the distance you walk is the same as the distance you travel. This does, however, mean that you have to actually walk the distance rather than taking a shortcut the way you've done earlier within the city.

Eventually, though, you find yourself at the edge of Nithveil. Much like when you were looking at it from the outside, a wall of luminescent silver-white stone looms over you. From this side, though, the wall doesn't pretend to be a normal physical object; it extends out of sight to either side, and the wall itself seems to fade in and out of reality. Sometimes it's a stone wall, sometimes just a curtain of moonlight. When it becomes insubstantial you can see through it, to what looks like a verdant plain. It looks like it's broad daylight out there, compared to the perpetual twilight of Nithveil.

You also see another group of mortals approaching the wall. From how they're moving, you don't think they're here by coincidence.

Obviously I'm glossing over a lot of stuff that happened to Finn and Gil. If you want to specify something you did at any point in that just let me know, and I can work it in. You do pretty much have to have taken the cloaked figure's deal, though, since otherwise there's really no reason for you to be traveling with the group.

[The Hellbug]

Water from three primeval springs? A strange request, to be sure, but after Finn's description of Nithveil and truly seeing it for himself, Gil is willing to conclude, helped along by the promised reward, that such a price may be entirely sane compared to the general atmosphere of the city he has recently found himself in. That said, finding someone who could help him so easily and who had in fact seemed to have sought he and Finn out has the former spy on guard. While the thought that something could be 'too easy' is an idea that Gil has scoffed at in the past, the current situation does reek of a set-up, and Gil has no intention of dancing to a stranger's strings right now.

It is then, though, that Gil spots the three people matching the description that the hooded figure had given. He puts a hand on his companion's shoulder to slow him down for a moment. "Alright, Finn, listen," he whispers to the half-elf, "I think I've found them, over there, by the wall. We don't know anything about them so I--stop staring! you'll give them cold feet--where was I? Yes, I want you ready for anything. After all the nonsense in this city, neither of us know what to expect. Understand?"

As soon as Finn affirms what Gil has said, the kitsune begins making his way towards the three travelers, purpose in his stride. Back where he was from, they would have made for a motley group, but their relative normalcy is actually something of a relief in this dream-world. Noting the armor of two of the three, he begins his introduction as he approaches. "Sirs," he begins, pulling the hat from his head and giving a short bow, "my companion and I have been directed to find three who were searching for a trio of primeval springs. Might that be you? If not, have you heard of such a group?"

"Oh, and you can call me Gil," he adds as he straightens his back.

[TheOneHawk]

Finn awkwardly dips into a bow a moment after seeing Gil do the same, but leaves most of the talking to him, contributing only a quick "And I'm Finn Clearthorne!"

[Tuvarkz]

"Greetings. I am Darruk Hammerbreaker." Pondering for a moment, the half-orc recalled their meeting with their contractor had been in an open place. "If I may dare ask, what purpose did you have in looking for us?"

[The Hellbug]

"May I presume, then, that you are the group searching for the springs?" Gil asks, just to clarify things, "if so, then to accompany you on your journey. I can only guess that the way will not be easy, and we, too, seek to bring back water from them. It would only make sense to work together."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni looked the new arrivals over, giving a short bow of her own. They were a little wirey- the half-elf was downright scrawny- but setting that aside, they weren't bad-looking. "I go by Kyoni," she replied. "We are indeed they. I certainly have no objection to the company, and I'm sure my companions could be persuaded at the very least. So what brings you here? Or is that too personal?" Her smile was warm and relaxed.

[The Hellbug]

"Pleased to meet both of you. We were sent by another, promising a trade for our services," Gil states simply, "I was under the impression, however, that our sender knew you. They did, after all, seem well versed concerning your whereabouts."

[TheOneHawk]

Finn's ever present grin grows even wider at Kyoni's question and gestures he at the city behind them. "I dunno about you, but I never seen a place like that back home. Regular old world seems awful boring in comparison, y'know? Why wouldn't I want to be here? Plus, I can do fun things like this out here!" He flourishes his hand and suddenly a bouquet of vividly violet roses appear in his hand, which he offers to Kyoni. "Magic's always been fun, but this place takes it to a whole new level. Just wait 'til you see what I can do with a storm."

Shaping to create the bouquet. Diminutive object, 10 minutes, simple (?) so DC 20 which he cannot fail with a +19 modifier.

[Bhaakon]

"Make it rain chocolates, no doubt." Tove mutters to herself at the sight of the gaunt half-elf's shameless flirting. Probably suggestive chocolates.

She bow formally--if every so slightly-- and introduces herself in a more clearly audible tone. "Tove. And if you were sent by the same being, then it should have presented you with containers for the water?" Some sort of test was in order. Presenting matching vials wouldn't prove anything--yet--but at least asking for them would remind everyone that the First World wasn't the place for trust to be handed out like conjured bouquets.

[TheOneHawk]

Finn turns to Tove as though about to reply, then pauses and considers her for a moment before grinning again. "Y'know, that ain't a bad idea. Just cause it don't rain chocolate back home don't mean it can't here." He makes a grand, sweeping gesture above Tove's head and suddenly a bright pink raincloud appears several feet above her and begins throwing down a wide variety of chocolates. Finn laughs and steps forward to snag one out of the air and pop it in his mouth. "Mint! My favourite! Good idea miss, I'll have to keep that one in mind."

Shaping check vs DC 20 [roll0]

[QuidEst]

Kyoni accepted the bouquet graciously. He hadn't met Lackland, so he probably hadn't had the risks quite sink in. As for the bouquet, that would be useful for a first test of shaping duration. "A fellow practitioner, then. I enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, and what better than one I make for myself?" She stepped back as Tove introduced herself, though, and was glad enough of it when Finn decided to make a point. She took a quick look Finn's hands after he ate the candy. "I'd be careful about that if I were you. At least keep it in mind- shaped food will leave you less hungry, but doesn't truly sustain. Eating it is a bad habit to get in without certain precautions."

[Bhaakon]

Tove narrows her eyes as the first wave of the half-elf's confections drum against her helm. Her right hand grabs a chocolate from the air and cuts across her throat in a curt motion, and the pink cloud shreds like a solstice dance dress tossed into a pen of ravening goblins. The chocolates melt away to nothing. All except one in her gauntlet, which she crushes and drops to the earth.

"Mint? The fey may be cruel, capricious, and utterly ruthless...but at least they have taste."

[TheOneHawk]

Finn rolls his eyes at the over-caution and general lack of lightheartedness. "You lot aren't any fun at all, are you? Anyways, I don't know about you, but I'm rather excited to get these vials filled. Ready to go?"

[QuidEst]

Kyoni shrugged. "I've only just met you, so I don't know much about you. One of the first things you do is eat shaped food, so it's entirely possible that you didn't make the connection between some of the stories of fey food and eating shaped food. But a month from now, I don't want you to start starving because your meals have started expiring." Entertaining as that would be, she didn't know how long the quests would take, and he was presumably on this for a reason. "Don't get me wrong- I plan on feasting on the stuff," she added, waving her hand with the ring on it. "But I took some precautions. That said, I'm happy to assume you know what you're doing until you disabuse me of the notion." She glanced at Tove on that one. On returning her attention to Finn, her smile widened. "Much easier to have a good time when you aren't concerned with somebody else's life, right? Oh, and don't mind Tove too much. She may seem stand-offish, but we've recently learned that she'll do anything for a good book. But yes, I'm ready to get going."

[The Hellbug]

"A little melodramatic, don't you think?"Gil remarks at Tove's chocolate-crushing act. In truth, his own companion's childishness grates on him, too, from time to time, but it is an easy price to pay, given the young sorcerer's abilities--Gil would have been happy to call him a friend even when he had a larger supply of confidantes. In fact, the two would not have even made it this far if not for Finn's knowledge and own brand of resourcefulness, more than enough reason for the kitsune to jump to his defense.

"As far as the vials are concerned," Gil continues to the discerning aasimar, "we weren't told anything about any special vessels for the water. I had assumed any old container would be fine. If some sort of magical container is needed...wait. Don't tell me you don't have them, either."

[Tuvarkz]

"We were given special containers for the water. Of course, if your employer didn't give you those, then said employer won't mind you bringing the water to him in common vials." said Darruk, as he briefly showed the container he'd been given before safely storing it back. "Although I'll have to disagree-I find that mint only disrupts the flavor of chocolate. In the meantime, I'm also ready to go."

[The Hellbug]

"Surely," Gil agrees, "and yes, we should get moving. This whole errand is really of the 'the sooner done the better' category for me. Lead on."

Not actually knowing where these primeval springs are (the cloaked figure had merely implicated that the other group would know where they would be going) Gil waits for the three who are surely more well-versed in the area's geography to lead the way. However, as they begin to actually make some progress, a worrying thing Kyoni had said bothers him enough for him to speak up.

"Kyoni it was, right?" Gil addresses the elegantly-dressed woman as he speeds up to walk at her side, "you mentioned something about fey food and your own set of precautions. Forgive my ignorance, but why would there be any reason to worry about eating it?" His own line of work only points him towards only one potential conclusion about it. "Poison?"

[QuidEst]

"Yes, that's right. It's nothing so immediate as poison. Usually. Certainly not if it's something that you made. But shaped food isn't permanent- suppose you're hungry and you eat shaped food, or worse, thirsty and drink shaped water. You'll feel better. But when time expires, it's no different then having had nothing at all," Kyoni explained. "So there's no harm in simply eating a chocolate, but you could kill a guest of a few days by giving them shaped drinks. Even living on shaped food that won't ever disappear has its own dangers- outside the First World, that sustenance disappears. That's where you get the stories about somebody spending a year with the fey and returning only to age one hundred years in an instant. Having all your meals rescinded isn't pleasant." She flourished her hand, producing a small tart, which she bit into. After she finished, she looked back at Gil. "But like I said, I've taken my own precautions. I could live on nothing but shaped pastries and wine if I felt like it." She had been planning on testing things outside the city, but under the circumstances it seemed worthwhile to establish that the rules were different for her.

Diminutive pastry is probably still within the realm of "simple". With a one-minute duration, that's only DC 15, so Kyoni automatically succeeds.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk nodded in aknowledgement of the information Kyoni had laid out, and then said: "Then, since we're now all introduced and ready to go, shall we make our way?"

[Bhaakon]

"The sooner, the better." Tove nods, ignoring Kyoni's quip about the book. The lack of vessels was suspicious...the man she'd met had seemed insistent on using his vials. Could they be working for some rival fey?

Bah. These machinations will give me a migraine. If they were somehow opposed, keeping them close would likely be better than letting them wander off where they couldn't be observed.

"Did we ever decide which of the fonts to visit first?"

[TheOneHawk]

Finn shrugs and flips a curious, three sided coin that hadn't been in his hand a moment earlier. He catches it and opens his palm to reveal a picture of a mountain on the upward face. "Looks like Crystal Peak. Let's go then!"

[Tuvarkz]

"We'd already decided on going to Riftwood first, Tove, don't you remember? It appears to be the easiest one to reach and thus it's only logical to go to it first, and it's the one we've researched how to get to in the library, unlike the other two ones."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded. "It's not certain that it will be the easiest, but from what we found, it did seem likely. It would be better to tackle the others with more experience in the area." She started walking with a confident stride. "As far as getting out of town, we just need to proceed with our destination in mind, and that should set us in the right direction. Although, before we leave, is everybody well supplied with at least food and water?" she asked.

[Tuvarkz]

"Got rations for five days. I assume that if the populations are as friendly as the information we attained described them as, we should manage to trader or barter for any further we may need." The half-orc then adds. "If they prove to be hostile, then I guess we can make use of their supplies after dealing with them."

[The Hellbug]

Hmm...perhaps I'll have to look into what kind of 'precautions' are worth taking However, he mocks disgust in his reply--as gruesome as aging into dust sounds, he has personally witnessed things at least as brutal in his profession. "How awful! Certainly something my friend and expert should have been sure to warn me about. Thank you, though, better to look the fool now than on my deathbed."

As the others discuss setting off, Gil merely nods that he is ready and steps in behind the leader.

[ylvathrall]

Stepping out of the gate is a disorienting experience, not unlike the sudden transitions you went through getting into the city. The world spins around you, light and darkness flickering rapidly before your eyes, and you have a sudden, intense feeling of vertigo.

And then, very suddenly, you're through. Behind you, Nithveil looks much the same as it did from the Material side of things. The pale, perfect wall towers over you, circling a city that seems far too small to hold a fraction of what you saw inside of it. Notably, there doesn't seem to be a gate or door from this side; the wall is perfect and unbroken for as far as you can see.

In front of you, though, is something very different. A broad plain stretches out to the horizon, basking in the light of an afternoon sun. The thigh-high grass is a rich emerald color that seems just a touch too vibrant to be real; it sways in patterns that have nothing to do with the wind, but which you'd swear are following the beat of some music you can't hear.

The plain is cut by a broad, black river which flows to your right. Probably close to a hundred feet across, it looks deep enough to swallow a small ship, and it's moving fast enough that only a very confident swimmer would be comfortable with swimming in it. Based on your reading, this is the Blackwater Rush, a notable landmark within this section of the First World. While geography is more art than science here, the books were very clear that following the course of this river downstream will lead you from Nithveil to the Riftwood.

A simple path of silvery gravel runs beside the water out of sight. Alternatively, it looks like a group of water fey near the city walls have some sort of barge, and are offering to carry passengers for a fee.

[TheOneHawk]

Finn seems entirely unphased by his suggestion as to a destination being overruled, and in fact is whistling a marching tune from the Molthune army as he walks out of the city and towards the river. He frowns at it for a moment, as if considering an idea, then shakes his head and wanders back to the group. "Not sure I can hold a raft long enough to get us down that a ways. Them folks over there might be willing, but it's a nice day for a walk and we're not in enough of a hurry as to pay for what we don't need I think."

[Tuvarkz]

"Indeed, there is no hurry, but there's no reason to waste time either. Let's get moving." said Darruk.

[The Hellbug]

"No hurry?" Gil disagrees, "surely it'd at least be worth it to ask their price?"

Eager to speed this journey up in any way possible, he doesn't wait for an answer before approaching the river-fey with a wave. "Excuse me," he opens, "but my companions and I were looking for passage to the Riftwood. What would that cost us?"

[TheOneHawk]

Finn gazes absently after Gil for a moment as he walks away, before a look of realization appears on his face. "Oh right. He's in a hurry. Something about some woman or something, I wasn't really paying attention, but he seemed pretty adamant about finding her soon." He shrugs and wanders off towards Gil at a leisurely pace.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni considered the options without much concern. "I'm not in any particular rush, so one way's as good as the other so long as we can find a sustainable way to pay for things. My magic isn't much for dealing with physical problems on short notice, but a night's rest can solve all manner of difficulties if something's ever too much trouble."

[ylvathrall]

The group of fey doesn't seem particularly perturbed by Gil's presence, continuing to work on loading the barge with what appear to be crates of some kind. After a moment one of them approaches him. She appears to be a beautiful human woman, with piercing blue eyes and long white hair which serves as the only covering on her body. As she steps out of the river, though, you can see that her legs aren't simply appearing from the water; they're actually forming out of the water, as pillars of water flow into the form of flesh and bone.

"We're carrying a load in that direction already," she says to Gil, with a sharp smile. "But I suppose that room could be found for more. What do you have to trade?" Without waiting for an answer she seems to focus on his ring, and her smile widens slightly. "That's pretty," she says. "Will you give it to me?"

You recognize the woman as an oceanid. These fey are associated with bodies of water, over which they have an enormous amount of control; they can move, shape, and sense water very precisely. Though they can survive outside water, they're uncomfortable doing so, losing much of their magic, and eventually they will wither and die without it.

In temperament oceanids are typical fey, being capricious, careless, and mercurial. Though usually easy to please, they can become angry with little provocation. Most oceanids are extremely vain, and can be won over easily with flattery; however, care must be taken with this, as if they become too pleased with a mortal they can grow possessive and even try to abduct the mortal in question.

[TheOneHawk]

Finn perks up at the fey's words, calling out towards her, "Just a moment miss! It just so happens I'm the jeweler who made that ring and I believe I have another just like it in my pack. He sets his pack down and rummages in it for a minute or so before pulling out a golden ring. "Here we are! Would this be an acceptable substitute? It would be a great pleasure for me to see my humble work upon the hand of so beautiful a woman."

Ok, taking 20 on a shaping check while Finn's rummaging in the pack to make the ring for a total of 42, which should be a one day lasting golden ring.

Craft: Jewelry for the ring [roll0] I don't think I actually stated this anywhere but I plan on refreshing Crafter's Fortune every time it's not up, which would currently be once every six days or after use unless I'm down to only a couple of first level spells left. Since I didn't expressly state that, though, I'm fine with it not being up which would make this a +12 instead.

[roll1] Bluff for the lie

[roll2] Diplomacy in case it's needed.

[The Hellbug]

Gil shoots a quick glare at Finn as the sorcerer mentions his wife. Looks like one of these days we'll have to have another talk about those loose lips of yours.

Meanwhile, the water-fey's request catches the spy off guard. "Impossible..." Gil begins to reply tersely while noticeably drawing his hand back protectively, but it is then that Finn jumps into the conversation. What's he doing? And then the realization, ah! Excellent!

"That will certainly be a suitable replacement, will it not?"

[QuidEst]

Kyoni sighed to herself at Finn's handling of the situation. Well, it was better than it could have been, and if the ring wasn't actually being given as payment, then there was no obligation that it be the genuine article. She listened in, waiting to see how the fey took things before trying to intervene. With something like an oceanid, it seemed more sensible to keep out of it rather than strike the fine balance of pleasant-but-not-overly-desirable. Still, best to ensure that Finn at least didn't over-ingratiate himself and Gil understood the situation. With a magical whisper, she informed him of what she knew, couched as best she could to avoid trouble if overheard. "A little poetry goes a long way. Too much poetry, and you go into the river with her. On a more material note, that was only payment if she magnanimously decides it was."

DC 27 Perception to detect casting of Message. DC 25 Perception to overhear the message itself.

[ylvathrall]

"It's not the same," the oceanid says, pouting. A moment later, however, that expression changes to a smile, and she even giggles. "But that one is pretty, too," she says. "And your words are very sweet. I couldn't possibly deny you the chance to see it being worn." She reaches out with rather remarkable speed and plucks the ring from Finn's fingers, quickly slipping it onto one of her own. She holds her hand up to admire the golden ring for a moment, and then sighs happily.

"So what do you have to pay for passage?" she asks brightly, twining a length of hair through her fingers. "A poem, perhaps?" She shoots Kyoni with a knowing look that makes it clear the choice of word wasn't just a coincidence, though her expression is still a pleased smile and she doesn't seem offended.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded solemnly, then thought for a few moments as she silently counted off meter with slight twitches of her fingers. "That sounds reasonable, with 'passage' referring to safe passage across the river for our group here, with their possessions, in reasonably short order, and with 'a poem' referring to non-exclusive rights to a poem you were not previously familiar with, shown before the agreement. I verify that as the author of the poem, I'm in a position to trade it. Is this agreeable?" she asked, and waved at her invisible servitor to get out paper and pen, and to hold the inkwell. She conjured a small piece of smooth wood to write against, and jotted the poem down.

A Brief Guide to Casual Trade in the First World
Something for nothing,
That's what I'll give.
I'll give you nothing,
And you'll help me live.
I never said nothing
Of who's getting what,
But still you'll do nothing,
Since you've got no gut.

"A tad cynical, I suppose, but it's easier to write things that way," Kyoni said as she showed it to the oceanid to read.

[ylvathrall]

The oceanid considers the poem for a moment, her expression severe. Then, suddenly, she bursts out giggling. "I like it," she announces, giving the statement the sort of weight that's more commonly associated with solemn oaths and declarations of war. "Safe passage to the Riftwood for you and yours in trade for this poem, then. Bargain struck."

Her tone is unusually serious as she says this, but afterwards she goes right back to the careless grin which is clearly her more common expression. "Shall we leave, then?" she asks, gesturing at the barge. "They should have that loaded in a handful of minutes, so if you and yours are ready, there's no need to wait."

[Bhaakon]

Cynical? Mocking, more like. If these fey are going to do what we ask for insulting drivel, then we'll own this plane within the fortnight. She bites her tongue, though, an exaggerate eye-roll the only outward sign of her critique of the piece.

"Let's get on board, then." She says curtly, stepping onto the barge. Before she realizes what a terrible deal she's made.

[TheOneHawk]

Finn smiles beatifically at the oceanid wearing his ring, showing no sign of having expected it to be payment and lowers his head slightly, saying "Truly that ring could have found no more fitting a home than your finger. I am glad to see it there." With that, he steps onto the barge after Tove and watches the fey finish their work.

[The Hellbug]

The oceanid appeased, Gil repositions his packs straps on his shoulders and follows the others onto the boat, trying to keep a careful eye on their host while not making eye contact with her. Her mercurial temperament just doesn't sit well with the spy, and something about being called 'yours' of a complete stranger sets him on edge. That said, this turn of events should make the journey go much faster than walking so he takes the good luck in stride and decides it'll be fine as long as he keeps his head down until the ride is over.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni smiled back at the oceanid, a little relieved that the poem went over well. "I'm glad you like it, and hope you have good use of it."

Catching Tove's eye-roll, Kyoni shrugged. "I'm not a devotee of Shelyn, but I can't imagine that the Eternal Rose would object much to barter with art, especially if a song or poem, as they live through being shared. If it's the quality or subject you're unimpressed with, as I said, I'm not a devotee of Shelyn. It's more an exercise of the mind than an outpouring of the soul. I will of course defer to expertise if you- or any of the others- have a more practiced art that you'd would to use when we barter," she said diplomatically as she boarded.

[Tuvarkz]

Darruk mentally chuckled, speaking telepathically to Kyoni: "That was a funny one, and even moreso that you got away with it." as the half-orc boarded as well.