Stranded in 1650: IC

[Thundercracker]

Samuel

“If they try to take our weapons, or send us to a dungeon, we’re fighting our way out,” Samuel said, “I don’t intend to be murdered here.”

He keeps his expression and tone neutral as he talks, stowing his pouch and putting his hands up. He starts moving in the direction indicated, activating his detect magic ability again.

Spoiler

Show

detect magic is at will for warlocks, and he would at least be able to detect it on his gloves if it’s active.

[Dimers]

"I agree, though even then I'd urge an attempt to not cause murder either. That's tactical as well as moral -- we're heavily outnumbered here, and lethal attacks might preclude fair treatment for us if we fail to escape." Emlin's brow says he's troubled, but his voice is as calm as ever.

[Thundercracker]

"I agree, though even then I'd urge an attempt to not cause murder either. That's tactical as well as moral -- we're heavily outnumbered here, and lethal attacks might preclude fair treatment for us if we fail to escape." Emlin's brow says he's troubled, but his voice is as calm as ever.

Samuel Arvandor

"Agreed," Samuel said, "something interesting to note, I don't see any magic here. At all. Just ours."

[Evoker]

That's unusual. How have they survived this long without healing spells, protective magic, that sort of thing?

We're all going in the same direction now, so that's better at least. I don't like that we're being treated as hostile though.

I'll follow Samuel's lead, and attempt to seem non-threatening, keeping my hands away from my sword, as well as walking in the indicated direction.

[Thundercracker]

That's unusual. How have they survived this long without healing spells, protective magic, that sort of thing?

We're all going in the same direction now, so that's better at least. I don't like that we're being treated as hostile though.

I'll follow Samuel's lead, and attempt to seem non-threatening, keeping my hands away from my sword, as well as walking in the indicated direction.

Samuel Arvandor

"Hopefully we can find out tomorrow morning when we'll be able to understand them," Samuel replied.

[Toliudar]

Mama

Mama glances around nervously. Suddenly, she wished that she'd taken the time to visit her husband before they'd left.

"If we make it to morning. D'ya see the way the regular folk look at these jokers? Their own people don't trust em. Maybe we try to all stay in the same room tonight. Assuming we GET to tonight."

[Thundercracker]

Mama

Mama glances around nervously. Suddenly, she wished that she'd taken the time to visit her husband before they'd left.

"If we make it to morning. D'ya see the way the regular folk look at these jokers? Their own people don't trust em. Maybe we try to all stay in the same room tonight. Assuming we GET to tonight."

Samuel

“Aye, we’re not going to separate,” Samuel said.

[JbeJ275]

All

Your new hosts herd you down another corridor, through busier parts of the castle and across to a room richer in decorations than the previous rooms. The books, treasures and repeated symbols as well as the general reverence everyone seems to have for this place suggests it serves some sort of religious purpose, and it seems either extraordinarily well maintained or very recently built. Four of the men along with the guards remain just outside, keeping a close eye on you while two others seem to begin some sort of ritual. One begins a melodic chant while clasping his hands together, eyes open and focused intently upon you. The other performs a series of hand gestures in front of you all, then looks expectantly at all of you. Especially Emlin and Ontor.

Samuel

You remain unable to pick up any spells or magic items, but something happens at the beginning of this ritual. It's to weak to match even an apprentices first cantrip, but without disturbances from anything but you the tiny tiny wisps of magic being pulled towards the praying man are noticeable. This also pulls your attention to the background magical field itself, which seemed to be weak in this area and while it remains so it is growing very slightly stronger with each passing minute. Still a desert compared to your home but slowly getting stronger nonetheless.

[Evoker]

It's a bit of a long shot, but I'll try to Spellcraft the ritual performed. Between hand gestures and chanting, they seem to be trying to create a magical effect, and Spellcraft works on both arcane and divine magic, so I might be able to get the gist of what it is they are trying to accomplish with this "spell", even if there seems to have been no actual effect.

Spoiler: Spellcraft

Show

(d20+7)[26]

[Thundercracker]

Samuel

“There is some magic here, very faint, not even a cantrip’s worth,” Samuel muttered.

He picked up on the hand gesture the men performed.

“Think it’s some kind of greeting or welcoming ritual?” he asked.

He attempted to copy the hand gesture.

[JbeJ275]

Ontor

You note parts from the gestures for your healing magic, parts from Samuels gestures to attune themselves to magic and then a bunch of gestures indicating... expanding? exploding? maybe glowing? At the end he makes a circle with his hand, maybe asking you to repeat the earlier magic?

[Evoker]

It's... almost as if they're trying to learn our magic. Doing it extremely quickly too.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel

“Well... I can use detect magic without growing weary, shall I demonstrate for them again?” Samuel asked.

[Evoker]

That's up to you, sir. It would seem to be fairly harmless. According to what you said, there might not be enough magic for them to pull it off, and even if they did, what would they detect? They already know we're not like them.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel repeats the activation of his ability to detect magic, then gauges their hosts' response.

Spoiler

Show

sense motive take 10 for 15.

[Toliudar]

Mama

Mama is trying her best to maintain a sanguine good cheer about their constrained situation, but is finding it hard to maintain a cheerful disposition.

"Let's not teach em too much magic, eh? It might be the only sleeved ace we've got in this mess."

[Dimers]

Emlin shakes his head. "Surely no one could learn a cantrip so quickly? It took me years of devotion to get to where I am now ... Well," he laughs, "perhaps they're just more talented. Samuel, I wish I could see what you're seeing now. You look fascinated."

[Thundercracker]

Emlin shakes his head. "Surely no one could learn a cantrip so quickly? It took me years of devotion to get to where I am now ... Well," he laughs, "perhaps they're just more talented. Samuel, I wish I could see what you're seeing now. You look fascinated."

“It’s just that I’ve never seen this little magic before,” Samuel replied.

[JbeJ275]

Samuel

The waves of magic surrounding the chanting man seem... formless and random in school. If he's trying to do magic he's not achieving that by copying you. You know magic can be channelled by sheer force of will, with gestures and speech necessary to properly shape it. This is formless, showing some capacity for and belief in magic but no expertise or skill, and the one disrupting the magic fields is different to the one crudely imitating your gestures. As for their reaction, they seem un-nerved when you again perform magic, then five look to the one engaged in ritual chanting. They seem... confused, either by the result or the lack of one.

Emlin

You can tell that your hosts are totally blindsided, they're holding it in well, all clearly people not unused to hiding away doubts but they seem out of their depth when dealing with your party and scrambling to gain any useful understanding without showing obvious weakness. They looked expectantly at the chanting one when Samuel repeated his magic, likely expecting some result that did not emerge. At this point, beneath the surface it seems these people are trying to find a way to explain what they've seen so far but without speech or any familiarity with what you've been doing they are failing and becoming panicky. You also think this means they are beholden to others rather than running the whole show here. From the ritual, it seems like they intended it to be a prayer to prevent bad things, a common enough sort and they were beckoning you to repeat your magics to check if it was something blocked by the spell. However, if Samuel was right that it had no magical presence then they must have relied on something else entirely to have that effect. With your showing of magic occurring but being less obvious than last time you believe they may be attempting to decide whether or not it was their attempts to prevent evil magic that led to Ontor not casting as he did earlier, while your glow and Samuels spell might be seen as an affirmation that your magic is not a threat or as an indication that you are powerful indeed.

All

After some time, the gesturing man at the front stops and soon after the chanting man stops chanting. They quickly leave the room to have just the four guards watching you. Then time passes, perhaps half an hour. The guards let you move around the room, and there are wooden benches to be seated on but take a dim view of you approaching th
em or looking to closely at some of the items in the room. There is a chance to run now should you take it, with large windows dropping down around ten feet onto the street outside this fort, though it's inside the city walls.

Spoiler: If you stay

Show

If you stay, eventually the men return with two more guards, and escort you towards a room with four beds, a large table and chairs, but few other fittings. The table is dominated by a platter of rice, a dish full of some cuts of meat and a large bowl of hot soup with small loaves on smaller plates. They make no attempt to disarm you, but do leave the door closed and station two gaurds to keep watch.

[Evoker]

So, what should we do? They don't seem about to kill us, so that's good, at least. On the other hand, these guards are keeping us here for some reason, presumably.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel

“We rest,” Samuel said, “we take it in turns sleeping like we’re out in the field and tomorrow we’ll have comprehend languages so at least we’ll know what they’re saying. It should make communicating a bit easier. Then if it makes sense, I think we should invite a few of them to come with us and we can host them in our town. They’ll get a good look at the border too.”

He tested out some of the meat.

“We’re not in a dungeon, that’s a start,” he said.

[Toliudar]

Mama Masala

Mama was uncharacteristically quiet, settling in a corner of the room. She was thinking about her children, and their children, and the world that they would wake up to if the four of them somehow started some kind of major conflict with these strange, magic-less benighted souls.

"Yup. If we run now, they'll just chase us down, and it ain't like we can hide the whole town. They'll find us. But you saw them when Ontor and Samuel worked their magic. I swear, I could see erections on two of em.

"I vote we tell them nothing here, but offer to host a small number back in our town, coupla days from now. Give us home advantage, a bit."

[Evoker]

Mrs. Masala, I hate to question your wisdom, but how would we invite them? Comprehend Language is one-way only, and only affects myself. They won't know what we're saying any more than they did today, unless you have some plan.

[Dimers]

“We’re not in a dungeon, that’s a start,” Samuel said.

"And a bit shaken but unharmed," Emlin concurs. "These people seem almost like children ... curious about how the world works, possessed of unorthodox theories to explain it, trying not to show that they're scared and ill-equipped. Hopefully they'll show a child's respect for life rather than a child's lack of temper."

They won't know what we're saying any more than they did today, unless you have some plan.

"Perhaps they just need time to drum up a talented linguist? One may hope." The young man stands and stretches. "I'll take the final watch, if I may. I'll need to be up for dawn devotions in any case. Would one of you do me the kindness of helping me out of this armor?"

[Toliudar]

Mama Masala

Mama smiles, happy at being able to distract herself with logistic details instead of existential dread.

"Simple ideas, I think we can get across with gestures."

To demonstrate, she gestures a circle that includes the four of them, and uses her finger to show walking. She then points to an imaginary figure in the room. She holds up her hands

Then holds up two fingers, and makes this gesture twice.



Points back to the invisible figure, makes the walking sign again, and then gestures to herself.

She shrugs.

"Or we just point to the words in a book to spell out what we want them to do. We can do this, guys."

[Thundercracker]

Mama Masala

Mama smiles, happy at being able to distract herself with logistic details instead of existential dread.

"Simple ideas, I think we can get across with gestures."

To demonstrate, she gestures a circle that includes the four of them, and uses her finger to show walking. She then points to an imaginary figure in the room. She holds up her hands

Then holds up two fingers, and makes this gesture twice.



Points back to the invisible figure, makes the walking sign again, and then gestures to herself.

She shrugs.

"Or we just point to the words in a book to spell out what we want them to do. We can do this, guys."

“We can always draw pictures,” Samuel added.

[JbeJ275]

Soon enough, night comes and with it sleep giving you all a blessed chance to rest and refill any spent magics, your minds no doubt turning over the mystery of these lands and the plight of those left behind in Citallon while you were here.

Shortly after dawn one of the men from last night comes and fetches you again, this time with twelve soldiers at his back. The gaurds bring in some sort of porridge for your breakfast then escort you out of the door one more. This time they escort you to a carriage drawn by horses and motion for you to enter. Then if you comply they take the carriage out of the fortress, then out of the city. They are travelling further westwards away from the city.

At any point do you refuse to be escorted or try to use further magics to engage with them in some capacity?

[Evoker]

I'll cast Comprehend Languages at the beginning of the day. How should I approach this? Just touch someone and try to get them to talk? Or does anyone have a better idea.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel

While eating breakfast, Samuel motions for the well heeled man from the night before to get his attention.

He pats his chest a couple of times.

"Samuel," he said.

He points to Ontor.

"Ontor," he said, and hopefully Ontor turns his head.

Then Samuel pointed at the gentleman.

He then repeats the gesture.
"Samuel," he said, pointing to himself.
"Ontor," he said, pointing to Ontor, and then he points at the gentleman.

Assuming the gentleman says his name, Samuel will say
"<name>, talk talk talk talk talk," while making a talking motion with his hand.
He then points at Ontor and puts a hand to his ear.
"Ontor," he said, putting a hand to his ear.
"Ahhh," he said, nodding his head as if in understanding.

He'll repeat this if necessary until the man says something, and then ask Ontor to share whatever he said.

[JbeJ275]

The man perks up at your words, and begins paying close attention. He calls one of the guards, seemingly the captain, to the table with parchment a pen and a pot of ink. He scribbles down something in a script unfamiliar to you as you talk. When you first beckon to him he says Sunbul as his name.

He sees your gesture and while he misses the intent a little it still serves to proompt him into speech.

Sorry no. He says shaking his head. I ate before dawn and it would be most improper for me to do so now. He waves his hands in between him and the food and leans away to indicate his unwillingness to eat with you.