Kingmaker [Stolen Land] (IC)

[lostsole31]

Beltin's answer seems to placate them for the most part, but it is vague enough that van Toder remains suspicious.

During Beltin's evening meditations, he is bothered by the implication of the possibility of something darker with the amulet. After all, Linzi might know what she read in university, but how does that translate to the simple folk who live beyond the realm of civilized interaction? As Beltin tries to meditate on the akashic energies, this dark doubt infects his attempts. He is snapped out of his wandering by faint, disturbing sounds of hissing and scuttling. From his shoulders now warps and waves - like a cloak in the wind - an extremely long cloak. Upon looking at himself in the mirror, the horror of being the center of a swarm makes him want to look away, but instead, the features of the face looking back in the mirror are shrouded as though by a cowl, masking his features. It is very likely if he finds this disturbing, so would somebody trying to attack him.

Spoiler: Unlock

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Pestilence cloak (shoulders) unlocked.

After some time of forcing himself to come to terms with this "veil," as Linzi called these things, Beltin releases it, but not before Sajan walks in on him .... shocking them both. It is time for the monk to retire, after all.

Spoiler: OOC

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This will likely open a conversation, but that can be done ICI.

[lostsole31]

Starday, 6 Pharast ...

Harrim will tell Beltin that he still wants to keep Lini on bedrest, but she should be all healed up by tomorrow. They will talk theology while she heals. Meanwhile, Sajan studies his scripture-manual, and works on various physical actions, but does so in his room so as not to draw attention to himself from the commoners roaming around.

Last night was more than a little disturbing, and the grasping cloak before that was little better. This time, Beltin resolves to focus on he positive, and to help guide him he thinks to his patron Kelumarion and some of the sites he might remember from his dream. It is a good tactic, and he finds the peace, resolve, hope, and even love he felt and was looking to re-instill in his life. He snaps his eyes open from meditation to find runes of white light spiraling out from his navel, encasing his entire body in a language he has never seen before. And yet, Beltin is shocked to find that while he knows he has never seen this language before, yet he can read the bits and pieces of it that he can. Because of its nature of intertwining and wrapping around him, it is difficult to read much, but he knows that the message forming around him is a holy one from what snippets he can catch.

Spoiler: Dual Unlock

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So, not only does he unlock the heaven's blessing veil, but he now realizes he can read Celestial.

There is nothing in his backstory that gives any indication that he would ever have learned to read Celestial (let alone speak it). Mechanically it is simply a function of choosing an aasimar PC. So, this is the in-game "awakening" of that knowledge. In addition, that language is limited, and by carefully concentrating on the strands of the scriptures of the heaven's blessing, he is able to increase his vocabulary in that language, just for RP, though in practical game terms he is not actually limited.

Kesten Garess, a guard captain from Restov, rides into Oleg's with a small contingent of soldiers. He puts up several wanted handbills .... one for Oleg's to keep posted, and others to be passed out to interested parties. Beltin was meditating when he came through, so doesn't meet the guard captain, as he is gone after only a brief stay, but Beltin does see him riding away with his soldiers.

No doubt Beltin will inquire as to who that was. Oleg tells him the above, hands him a wanted handbill looking for a fugitive named Falgrim Sneed, and says that Kesten has been informed of the bandit problem. Kesten insured Oleg that Restov would send soldiers to look into things, though the idea of soldiers looking into things make Oleg's uneasy. "Last thing I want is my piece of freedom being trampled on as some uppity captain demanding provisions and quarters and commandeers my home and place of business, repurposing this place as military fort."

[digiman619]

Beltin breifly considered mentioning that this place was originally a military fort (judging on the no-longer functional ballistae), but decides against it. Instead, he leans over beside him. "Does that include us?"

[lostsole31]

'You ain' taking over," says Oleg. "You're our guests for doing us a service, you don't hurt our business none - happy to pay the cost of feed, rooms and stabling, as gratitude. But a contingent of soldiers come, they don't ask nice. They expect the peasants like us to give them what they want, when they want, and I'm worried if they like it, then they will tell Restov that due to emmy-nant domain, we lose our home and business for good. Or worse, we become serfs in it ... required to stay to work the post, but no longer enjoying the profits.


"So, bout that new handbill ... you gonna look into that?"

[digiman619]

Beltin nods. "Sounds like he might be holed up with the bandits. I'll have to keep an eye out for him. Now if you'll excuse me, I've to talk to Lini and see if we'll head out today." He then excuses himself to find Lini and ask her what weather is coming and if it's safe for them to go out.

[lostsole31]

During Beltin's latter-day meditation, he brings forth a similar cloak-like form from his shoulders as he did for the swarm. This time, however, he concentrates on something a bit less disturbing (possibly) by trying to equalize out the illusion of life, and concentrate instead on darkness. Success brings him a cloak of fine darkness that drapes out his entire form as he will, yet it is made out of a high tensile strength. It should help keep him hidden in darkness while being somewhat protective.

Spoiler: Unlock

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Cloak of darkness

The day ends, and the knowledge is that it will be too cold for tomorrow to travel as well.

[lostsole31]

Sunday, 7 Pharast (Last quarter-moon) ...

Lini is finally restored to full strength! Everyone sees each other at breakfast before breaking for morning routine.

It is damn cold this morning ... -10 F, and with a wind from the northeast at about 15 mph, that is a wind chill of -20 F. Luckily, it is bone dry, though, so precipitation is not a factor. Lini will have a report after morning routine when she regains spells. However, Lini is pretty sure that most of this month is going to be poor for travel and exploration without "significant resource drain." When asked what she means by that, she says that she can prepare a spell called endure elements that completely protects a person from the extremes of weather for 24 hours. She can prep up to three a day, but that means she has no more druidic magic available to her - not even read weather (though the usefulness of that spell is lost with endure elements). When she asks Harrim, Harrim says he could prepare it twice, but that also means that he would have very little of Groetus' blessings for any other tasks.

So, as a recap, both druid and cleric - between the two of them - could cast endure elements twice to protect everyone in the party ... assuming Beltin does that gauntlet thing for himself. The problem is that they are nearly wiped out of divine magic. In Harrim's case, he can only heal at that point via channeling energy, and then why bother even bringing him at that point.

Everyone breaks for morning routine.

Beltin takes care of what he knows first (psionic/martial), and then keeps his schedule open to meditate on akashic mysteries. After an hour of basic meditation, he is absolutely sure to shape the gauntlet of the void. Then, he goes outside to see if there is anything else he can do to tap into, or protect himself from, the cold. He feels the bitter cold coalescing around his feet, likely because of the frozen earth itself, though he is protected from any truly debilitating effects by the gauntlet. He doesn't interrupt his mind and soul from creating as it will, keeping his "head" out of the equation. Before long, he finds that his feet are encased in strange feet ... some type of inhuman talons that make him think of some type of great bug. Though Linzi would normally be the first person to ask, he figures Lini might have the best answer as far as what he shaped, or its similarity to the natural world.

He goes to the "girls' room" (even though Sajan rooms there) to find Sajan balancing in odd poses; Linzi sharpening and polishing the heads of her crossbow bolts; and Lini? Lini's animal Droogami (the snow leopard is no longer about). Instead, there is a brush thylacine similar to the other night, though this time you see it up close and in color. The odd thing is that this thylacine has an eidoletic rune at its forehead as did Droogami from before ... and the same glowing rune at Lini's forehead. The thylacine yips and gets onto its feet when Lini tells Beltin he can enter. She says something in the strange yipping chatter as the thylacine, and the animal answers by lying back down.

Meanwhile, when Lini looks up, waving Beltin in, she is working on a charcoal sketch of a strange creature. The creature has similarities to a man, but with a ridiculously powerful chest, hair all about it, and a bestial face. It is in a partial standing pose - partial meaning it stands on two legs, but in her sketch the sense is there that its hunched nature means it sometimes goes about on four?

When Beltin steps in, everyone shivers. "Geez, bring the cold in why don't you!" says Lini. Then she sees Beltin's feet. "Oh, never mind. You shaped gelugon's talons. But you are wearing the gauntlets, so .... you may not realize this? Especially because it is so cold outside? But it is really cold around you right now. Those talons can debilitate enemies, even stagger them if you learned to bind that veil."

Sajan, listening and understanding the words, but not the implications, just looks to Belting and says, "Hey, can you .... turn those things .... off? You are ruining my warmup."

[digiman619]

Beltin says "Oh, right" and quickly de-powers the talons. He begins to wander next to the bed to relax, but notes Lini's sketch. "Hmm. That thing looks like it could do some real damage. What is it?" he asks her.

[lostsole31]

"There is a whole host of mammals - umm, warm-blooded, backboned creatures like us that usually have live young and whose young are given milk - that are called 'primates,'" Lini begins to explain. "Primates come in a variety of sizes .... from those that you can hold in your palm .... to those much larger than yourself. They are the closest thing that true animals - not magical beasts - come to humanoids in form and general shape. The largest of these, from about my size to just bigger than you, are called 'apes.' The largest of the apes is a species known as the 'go-rilla.' That is what I am drawing. You've probably never seen them because most primates live and thrive in very warm environments."

[digiman619]

Beltin chuckled to himself as he took a seat on the bed. "Heh. I could go for a 'very warm environment' right now." He sighed, his tone now serious. "So from what I'm hearing, you and Harrim could cast some magicks to keep us from getting hit by the cold, but it'd just be on us (so no horses) and it'd tap the both of you on spells to do so. That about cover it?"

[lostsole31]

Lini nods. "I mean, there's a reason that the humans where I am from only go raiding and even following herds a handful of months out of the year. You're from a city, so unless you were poor and living on the street, you never knew what to expect from 'real' cold."

[digiman619]

Beltin put his hand to his chin. "Okay, be honest. With your magic tapped, how much do you have to bear if we get into combat? Would your friend" he gestures to the thylacine "still be around if you're tapped? Or is he tied to your magic?"

[lostsole31]

Lini shakes her head. "Droogami is 'called,' but any spells remaining that I don't use normally as prepared I can use to summon aid in a crisis, and I'm pretty good at it. But I am not a fighter. So, if I don't have spellcasting because I used everything at the beginning of the day ... and Droogami is usually trained more to guard me .... I am really just a liability. I am exposed to the danger, but have little to add. That means Sajan - who prefers to run into the middle of the fray - feels like he has to close ranks to protect me. Without spells to control the battlefield, and drawing a major combatant away, bringing me means the battlefield is controlled .... unwillingly.

"I can't answer for Harrim, though."

[digiman619]

Beltin nods. "I was afraid of that. It's beginning to look like we should hold up until it warms up a bit, but I'm worried if we delay too long, the soldiers from Restov might show up and force Oleg and Svetalana out."

[lostsole31]

Linzi pipes up. "There is another possibility, and believe me .... as one of those not inured to the cold and no means of dealing with it on my own I like this possibility less than you might think..."

[No doubt, Beltin prods for a reply here.]

"... reduce the exploration party for now."

[digiman619]

Beltin puts his hand on his chin. "That... has promise. If I left you and Linzi here, we could probably cover more ground with us going faster." He turned to Linzi "Would you be okay with that?"

[lostsole31]

"No, of course not," says Linzi. "But, I am the one that suggested it, knowing I would be left out. Well, at least it would give me some time to really write out some things now."

Sajan, also not protected from the cold, with no means of doing so himself asks, "Then what about me? I assume I am here to protect Lini?"

[digiman619]

Beltin frowned. "Actually, that's a good point. Sajan, would you be willing to leave Lini here and explore with us until the weather improves, or are you and she a package deal in that one won't go without the other?"

[lostsole31]

"I can explore," he says, "and welcome whatever challenges we find."

"Yeah, no, the problem with that," says Lini, "is that now you are taxing Harrim to have two of his very precious prayers for himself and Sajan. You will need to talk to him about that. And I get where Linzi is coming from, but not one of you have a clue in the wilderness. There is a very even chance you will get lost."

[digiman619]

Beltin sighed. "So I am kind of obliged to include you if we're to go exploring, then. I guess I cut Linzi and Harrim, then? Get him to cast the protection spell on us on the first day and soldier on as best we can on the second day?"

[lostsole31]

"You're not obliged to do anything," quips Lini, and following that in a sing-songy way, "it would be wi-ise. But that sounds reasonable."

[digiman619]

Beltin nods. "I think that's the most reasonable course of action here. I'll talk to Harrim about it, but I think we should plan on heading out in the morning."

[lostsole31]

Harrim considers that a reasonable course of action, and is uncharacteristically supportive of it. When asked why he seems postiively cheerful, his answer is that with fewer people to meet the challenges, that means three people are likely to meet their end sooner!

In the middle of the day, an eccentric and jittery hermit comes to the trading post to sell wares to Oleg, as well as get supplies of his own. Oleg gets Beltin to meet his friend, Bokken [see Discord picture].

Bokken is wearing normal travel clothing ... not cold-weather traveler's clothing when Beltin comes to meet him at the trading post proper. "Happ- to see y' friend," he says in a clipped and quick fashion once Oleg makes introductions. "Tol' you a man wha- has coin and a sharpeye."

[digiman619]

Beltin offers his hand to the man. "Pleased to meet you. I am Beltin Oldiz."

[lostsole31]

He shakes Beltin's hand with his own tremulous, cold, clammy, leathery hands. "Oleg tell me you chass bandit 'way. I come t' pos' t' sell m'potions. I hav' job you want a' you conveniens. Specia' ingredien' for m'potions."

He points to a bunch of handbills Oleg was making, and one that is already posted. Oleg hands you one of the handbills.

[digiman619]

Beltin looks over the notice and consults his map and Lini as to how long that trip would take. Eventually, he comes back to the potionier. "Might be a bit before we can help you with this; it's a bit far out and this cold is not doing us any favors as far as covering ground goes."

[lostsole31]

He smiles a gapped toothy smile and says, "It all goo' Belty, all goo'. Fangburreez make tastee potion'."

So, starting tomorrow, Beltin, Lini, and Sajan will be striking out, with Harrim easing Lini's burden just for tomorrow by casting endure elements on the two comrades. Still, you need to figure .... how many days total do you need to make sure you have what you need for food and supplies? Are there any supplies you need? Then, you need to purchase them from Oleg.

[lostsole31]

With the plan in place, Sajan (who seems best suited to a party accountant, all things considered) purchases the rations from Oleg. In the meantime, Harrim will have Oleg take a look at the stag lord amulet, just to get a sense of the coin value (not its meaning), and they will value the amulet for about 20 gp.

Later in the day, as Harrim helps chop firewood for Oleg, Beltin will almost mirror the movements as he does swordwork in the main yard, focusing on power strikes. Afterwards, when Harrim goes back in and everyone is hiding indoors from the cold, Beltin - protected bya gauntlet of the void bound to his hands - Beltin will put his sword away, but then practice the same types of movements from his martial exercises. He will go slower this time, with a focus on how the energy in his body moves as he does so. Before long, from his wrists Beltin shapes a great scythe - dark, but for a strange rippling of some type of quicksilver that moves along the edge or false edge of the blade. He then meditates with the scythe in hand but without combat movements, and learns of its ties to the destruction of both the living and the dead.

Spoiler: Unlock

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The reaper's scythe [wrists] has been unlocked.

Satisfied with his self-discovery, and wanting to make sure he is well-rested for tomorrow's exploration, he goes to bed relatively early.

[lostsole31]

Moonday, 8 Pharast ...

The next morning, everyone gets up early. Even Linzi drags herself out of bed (though she doesn't need to) to support the three heroes braving the elements to go exploring. She eats breakfast with them and wishes everyone well, but then she goes back to bed instead of waiting two hours after everyone's daily routines.

After breakfast, morning routine is conducted. Beltin learns several of the limitations of the strange ability to form a longsword (or shillelagh). Now that he knows how, he likewise shapes gauntlets of the void and heaven's blessing, and still has time to attempt to focus on more. With his wrists and body already dedicated, he focuses on his life energy as it goes about the rest of his body. Though a fire burns in the room, and though his gauntlets are formed, they only protect him from the ravages of cold .... he still feels it. Instead of trying to block it out, he breathes deeply to feel the cycle of respiration. Up until now, Beltin never really gave much thought to proper breathing - or at least the path of flow of air. So as he finds the brisk air go down his throat, Beltin is awakened to the power that is in his neck. The neck .... seen often as little more than a necessary connection between head and body .... and a vulnerability for swordwork as a result. It never occurred to Beltin that there was so much life energy in the neck .... not for the sake of acting just as a connection point, but as a necessary center of power to itself. As he focuses on breathing, he continues to note the air glide in and out past his neck, feeling refreshed and renewed as a result. Once he is done his discovery, he realizes that there is a very faint amulet (made solidly visible with energy stored there) that looks like five flowing bodies of water.

Spoiler: Unlocked

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Beltin has unlocked his first neck veil .... the five rivers amulet. Since you have E to spare, it will have 2E in it for now until you adjust it out.

As the four heroes (Linzi is sleeping again) gather at the firepit, Lini again has a brush thylacine as her eidolon? .... companion? ... Droogami. As agreed, Harrim casts endure elements on Sajan and Lini, and the shaggy fur of the brush thylacine *should* protect it. Then again, the temperature is about -15 (it got down to -20 before dawn), with winds from the northeast at ~20mph, for a wind chill of ~25 F, so it is possible the Droogami might not make it, but still.

The heroes head out, and take a full day to get to the maximum extent of previous exploration to the south. The warmest it got was -5 F. Brrr. The brush thylacine is designed for this weather, its thick guard hairs, middle coat, and thick overcoat protecting it from wind chill and the base temperature. But it is obviously uncomfortable. Once the party makes camp, Lini "releases" her droogami.

So, what is camp protocol? There are only three of you, so setting any watches is a sure recipe for fatigue the next day.

[digiman619]

Beltin chided himself; he'd been banking on having Lini's summons to keep watch. He turned to the party "Well, since we can't have Lini's friend watch us when we sleep, I guess that leaves us with two options. Either A) each of Sajan and I each take 4 hours shifts, or B) we alternate days keeping watch. Regardless, it's going to be between Sajan and myself, as we need Lini to get a full 8 hours to regain her spells." He shook his head as he weighed the two options. "I think the second one is the better option, as we'd both be fatigued if we went that way" He sighed in a 'this is going to suck' sort of acceptance. "I'll go first; you two get some sleep"