The Necromancer's Pact VII: Lake of Tears II

[kuja.girl]

ooc: I swear I posted a response earlier today... I even had to rewrite it, so where is it?

[Dr._Bob]

Callos asks Tiriel why she needs an invisibility spell. He listens with interest as Tiriel offers to slip into the city invisibly to contact the rest of the group. Glancing uncomfortably at the others, she is a little bit vague on the details of how she plans to get over the walls of the city, but Callos (having been with her during the encounter with the werewolves in the Forest of Lethyr) has some idea of what she has in mind.

He reminds her that the spell has a finite duration and that if she attacks anyone, the magic will be broken. He starts describing in intricate detail some of the arcane structure behind the spell and segues into the history behind its development.

Tiriel clears her throat interrupting him. "So ... could you cast the spell now, before we freeze to death out here in the open?"

Callos picks absent-mindedly at a hangnail. "Umm, actually, no. I don't know that one."

Tiriel flushes, and for a moment it looks like she is considering strangling the necromancer with her bare hands ...

[runehawk]

Lizardkin Druid

Ssathiya had gasped in surprise when Evandur placed his hands on him. His shock only increased when after a sensation of warmth, the heaviness in his chest was gone and his breathing was much easier now.

It looked that all Evandur was going to get was a grateful look but the words,
"I thank you" are uttered after a short pause.

The lizardman is mostly silent on the ride.

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel continues to stare in a mixture of shock and anger at Callos before berating the wizard for wasting her time - thus not comprehending Aeroz's words.

[ooc: someone else (Evendur or Lumpy perhaps?) should respond to Aeroz since Tiriel and Callos are too busy arguing. I imagine they will keep themselves busy for sometime in this fashion until someone else does something . (tell me if I'm wrong Callos)]

[Spaz]

Yix


Still confused and in shock at how the situation unfolded, Yix looks around at everyone questioningly "Well?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

The necromancer made a point of picking at his hang nail while Tiriel ranted and raved at him. Once she finished, looking up with a bored look.

"So?"

If she wants to play the blame game I can just as easily! He thought to himself before launching into a tirade of his own. About how someone shouldn't ask about something unless they were willing to hear it all out, about how it was her fault they were out here in the first place since she couldn't keep an eye on the contents of her own wagon, and lastly of how, if she was so smart and prepared, that she should have thought of a contingency plan in case he hadn't prepared the spell.

(Yes. Yes they will. n.n)

[blackfox]

Katrin
Still keeping silent, Katrin slowly walks towards the door, motioning Fizahn, Ackhby, and Yix to come outside with her. She makes sure not to let the armorer out of her sight until everyone is outside and the door is closed behind the four of them.

[Dr._Bob]

It was supposed to be a simple smash and grab operation, but you've discovered that the mysterious package seems to be at the center of a much more complicated intrigue than you had anticipated. Some of you had heard of the mysterious extraplanar githyanki, but none of you expected to encounter one here in the East, much less in a backwater like Tammar.

What exactly was in the package? Could it really contain a baby dragon, as Achkby suspects? And who was that cowled woman in red? What is the connection between the transaction in the back room and the drow and grimlock unit Katrin and the others encountered in the Underdark?

It seems as though no answers are forthcoming tonight. Uncharacteristically silent and indecisive, the four of you stand frozen in inaction until Katrin gently leads you out of the shop, back into the cold winter air. The armorer watches you go, his features blurring momentarily, then resolving back into his human-appearing disguise.

A thin gray light from behind the rooftops alerts you to approaching dawn. You consider trying to chase down the woman in red, but you know that the others will be waiting for you back at the inn, and you decide it might be best to let this one go for now.

...

While Tiriel and Callos bicker, Lumpy sighs and turns to Aeroz. They quickly agree upon a plan. Aeroz will enter the city at first light and collect the others. The rest of you will give Tammar a wide berth, and will meet the others outside the east gate.

...

Aeroz slips through the gate before it's been opened all the way. The guards pay him no mind, assuming that the elf is part of one of the caravans. He rides quickly through the town until he arrives at the Owl and Pussycat.

He hails Fizahn, Achkby, Katrin and Yix, who are just arriving at the door themselves. They look bleary-eyed and irritable. Aeroz explains the plan, and reluctantly, they agree to gather their possessions and hit the road rather than catching up on some much needed sleep.

Upon entering the inn, the keep informs them that their friends have just left, perhaps two hours ago. She passes Aeroz a brief note from Si'rene, written in elegant longhand. He passes it around for everyone to read.

"Not knowing when, or indeed if, each of you would be returning, it occurred to me that at least some of us needed to press onward if we had any hope of alerting the northerners of the necromancer's pact with the tanar'ri and the threat to the entire East, which I think that we can all agree is woefully lacking in the resources and resolve to defend itself against such an invasion even if it had an inkling of the impending threat, in a timely fashion, and considering the new information shared with us by Elthan regarding his vision and the increasingly likelihood that we may at any moment be set upon by Lady Valentine and her undead cohorts, I felt it necessary to press forward toward the River Mulsantir, with the full hope and expectation that you, my friends, will soon catch up with us, but also with the knowledge that if you can not, then we have not squandered any more time than was absolutely necessary."

After verifying that Si'rene, Lissa, Hajih and Elthan have left, leaving the remaining cart behind, the rest of you quickly pack up and leave Tammar while the other caravans are just beginning to get organized.

...

A mile or two outside the city, Aeroz, Katrin, Fizahn, Achkby, and Yix rendezvous, as planned, with Lumpy, Tiriel, Evendur, Trinark, and the druid. It only takes a few minutes to fill each other in on your respective adventures in the middle of the night, and to inform everyone of Si'rene's decision.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

It took him a few tries to get up onto his horse- part of the reson he disliked horses was because they were so high off the ground, and he was hardly in the best shape. But he'd managed it without help and that was important to him.

Lumpy merely exists on his saddle, hardly anything you could call riding. One hand grips the reigns, traces looped several times to keep it from slipping free, while the other is wedged under the straps securing his saddle. His armor seems to hang upon him, no longer a comforting presence, merely a burden. The night had been trying, and his preternatural determination was at it's limit.

"That's good, the elfess's got some sense in her. Leastaways if someone catches up with us now, all our eggs ain't in one basket."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel is still bitter from the argument with Callos last night, or was it this morning? Anyhow, she doesn't understand how Callos can possibly blame her, personally, for their detour. It wasn't her wagon, a misunderstanding she'd cleared up right away. It was Hajih's, but that was beside the point. The point was, as far as she was concerned, it wasn't her fault and she'd tried to handle it the best she could.

The fact that she really didn't get a chance to clean her armour or sleep doesn't add to her mood. She expends a good part of her energy trying to stay alert but after a few hours she ends up spacing out and thinking about the "demons" that she'd fought the night before and the news that Lady Valentine was after them.

[runehawk]

Ssathiya, Lizardkin Druid

Ssathiya squints up at the sky on hearing the news that the undead woman they'd met beneath Teflamn would be after them.

"I'll try and keep an eye out for that thing. It owes us a blood debt."
, he promises Tiriel.

He looks worried when he hears about Si'rene's rashness.
In hearing Lumpy's comment,
"Not true. Remember the creatures we have met on our quest north. They go into danger without the strength of numbers. The warriors are all here.", he grumbles in a low tone shaking his head.

If his words are any indication of his intent; It is quite clear that the druid would pursue after them and hurry northwards. He stamps on the slush by the road, rubbing his palms as his hot breath mists before his face.

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Aye, well put lad. We might as well press on and just be on our way"

[HempRope]

Ooh, we're speeding up.

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

As they trudge back to the inn, effectively defeated, Achkby expels a constant stream of curses, tri-lingual profanities, and insults aimed not only at himself, but also his companions, the dragon-dealers, Sethra and the Gods. It's mostly a guttural torrent of anger muttered violently below his breath, but he occasionally explodes into much louder, nigh-incomprehensible diatribes, ejaculating short phrases of fury that clatter off the cobblestones and buildings.

By the time they meet with Aeroz, Achkby has simmered down towards disappointment, but is still walking a bit apart from the others and whispering to himself. When he sees the note, instead of his usual resignation to uninformed following, Achkby demands to know what's going on, when Elthan had a vision, and who "Lady Valentine" is. He pesters the others until they divulge most of this, at which point he storms off, unhappy with his petulance.

They've just up and left? What is this? Sirene was one of the few level-headed ones of us left, and Haji, godsdamn his useless self, was actually nice. And then Elthan, Elthan I could respect, and he and his twin gave me the scale and claw. Not to mention Lissa... what the hells is this?!!

When they've finally met up with the others, the sleepless night has caught up with Achkby, and he rides silently behind Aeroz, reimagining their midnight confrontation and what he might have could have should have done.

[[There I go getting even more emo...]]

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"Further and further out of my element we go..." Aeroz says to no one in particular. As he sits on his horse, he reflects on all the significant moments that had brought him here, to this strange land that had no sand, no searing hot sun, and no exploding alchemical labs that took away 50 years of his life. He'd never thought of himself as an adventurer, but here he was, riding on a horse to a land he had never seen or heard of, trying to stop an army of undead and fiends.

Hells, he even had a sword telling him what he can and should do. It seemed like something out of a bard's song, something a child would be told of before he went to sleep. Aeroz wondered how that tale might end, him surviving petrification, starvation, rat plague, a psychotic necromancer who loved to fry dogs, a psychotic necromancer inhabiting a little girl and a host of his own issues, only to meet his end by some necromatically enhanced demon pheasant. Or better yet, tripping and falling on a spike as he reached the end of this adventure.

"So, does anyone know what we are supposed to expect in the north there? Cold? Zombies? Frozen undead? Necromatically enhanced demon pheasants?"

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Well lad, if it would be enhanced demon pheasants, I doubt they would be necromatically enhanced, being that they dont take well to mortal additions."

[Dr._Bob]

On the long, cold road to Two Stars, each of you exchange as much information about Rashemen as you know. Most of it is hearsay, however, as none of you have been to that part of the East before.

Some say that the Rashemi have existed since the collapse of the ancient Narfell and Raumanthar empires. Fierce and independent, the Rashemi tribes have successfully defended their borders against the Mulhorandi, demons, and orcs for over 700 years.

The Rashemi are legendary as fearsome warriors and berserkers. Their villages are led by a fyrra or 'warlord'. The village warriors are organized into various fangs or 'lodges', each with a different fighting style. The fyrras of each village are united beneath the huhrong, the Iron Lord.

The spiritual guides of the Rashemi are the hathrans, also known as the 'Witches of Rashemen' or collectively as the wychlaran. The hathran sent by the wychlaran to Thesk may have failed in her attempt to prevent Sethra's resurrection, but there is still a chance that you, following one of her last wishes, might be able to thwart his plans to conquer the East.

The Rashemi believe that their region is inhabited by spirits - from the rocks and trees to the waters of their lakes and rivers - that protect the land. The Rashemi both fear and love these guardian spirits, called telthors.

...

Despite your best efforts, you do not manage to catch up with Si'rene, Elthan, Lissa, and Hajih that first day.

On the morning of the second day after leaving Tammar, the druid points out circling vultures on the horizon. When Trinark, huddled inside one of the cart tents to escape the daylight, is informed, he says what everyone else is obviously thinking, "That is not a good sign."

[Dark_Stalion]

Evendur

Evendur speaks uf for the first time since suggesting avoiding the city.

"Should we investigate?"

He had not stayed riled up by the appearance of the demonic scouts for long, sinking after a few hours into a state of quiet meditation, he becamelost to the world untill the appearance of the vultures.

"They usualy circle the dead," he says, "We shouldn't leave them out in the open like that."

[blackfox]

Katrin
"It could just be a dead necromatically enhanced demon pheasant or something, but let's not take any chances. I'm for taking a look at what's over there."
Katrin waits for the input of the other party members while trying not to consider the possibility of the vultures' prey being Si'rene, Hajih, Elthan, and Lissa.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn becomes quiet and incohesive. He talks little and has some trouble connecting thoughts. One thought, however, sticks out in his mind. My days without sleep are catching up to me. I need to sleep for a year or just the winter. Has any gnome tried hibernating before? His train of thought is interrupted as Evendur talks about the vultures."No, pretty boy. We're not investigating... I don't want to get over there to see corpses... And then, when we go to bury them... They jump up at us... And once we cut them apart... They'll just come back together again... Bigger, you know?" No they don't know. Well, Thokk knows and the druid. Stay awaaay from the vultures... Ugly vultures. I hate them.

[Spaz]

Yix

Yix looks at Fizahn incredulously, he had no idea what he was talking about. However, he put it down to the fact that he was just rousing from his slumber, which had gone on quite a bit since the traveling began. He took a moment to stretch himself and his wings out before joining the world of the living.

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

"It might just be a dead animal. Still, I guess we should at least check."

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, and I may very well be, but aren't vultures more acclimated to warmer areas?" Aeroz points out as the group debates over whether to investigate or not. "And maybe we should consider getting the drow some shaders when we get to the next village. It would help a ton with that whole light aversion deal he has."

[Dr._Bob]

A few of you with horses or ponies trot forward ahead of the rest of the party snuggled into the two wagons. After a couple of hours, the circling vultures lead you away from the main road to a small knoll.

The first to arrive on the scene discover a gory scene. It looks a small group of travelers had camped here for the night. Though the location was reasonably defensible, it would appear that they were set upon in the middle of the night. Hoofprints, footprints, and blood are everywhere among scattered and torn canvas tenting and fur blankets.

Two bodies lie face down in the snow. A pair of the more bold vultures have started pecking at one. A gaudy, floppy hat lies undisturbed on a patch of undisturbed snow, adding an inconguous splotch of purple and yellow color to the otherwise gray, brown, and crimson palette.

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"Oh no, you stupid, stupid worthless tracker of an idiot." Aeroz remarks as he sees the floppy hat. He picks it up and brushes it off, trying to see if it is 100% certain that this is the ranger's hat.

[blackfox]

Katrin
With her face set in a grim mask, Katrin walks up to the nearer of the two bodies. She shooes away the vultures, cursing at them and waving her arms. She breathes in deeply several times, in an obvious effort to control her emotions. Then she rolls over one of the bodies to get a good look at the face.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Katrin approaches the closet body, its head slightly to the side in the snow and covered in winter furs. Around his neck is a blanket, clearly torn from a bedroll in an attempt to strangle him. You flip him over,

Elthan

Elthans face appears slightly blue, not from being suffocated, but from the cold. It is quite apparent he is alive, and he gives a slight moan and a wheeze as he is turned onto his back. It can be seen that one of his arms is caught inbetween the blanket and his neck, popping up in a limp and disgraceful manner infront of his face.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Upon seeing the intial scene, Lumpy lets the others head straight in. He suspected what they might find, and he was less interested for the moment WHO was dead than he was in who killed them and where they'd gone.

Instead, he directs his horse around the edge of the knoll, looking to make a slow circle around the carnage. Thankful for the previous night's rest, he scans his route for tracks leading in and out through clearer eyes. Whatever had done this had to had come in and gone out somewhere.

[Dr._Bob]

There can be no doubt that the hat is Hajih's. Aeroz stands holding it in both hands, his face an emotionless mask.

Katrin kneels beside Elthan. He is only semiconscious, suffering from hypothermia. He can't have been lying like this for more than several hours, she thinks to herself. The attack must have happened shortly before dawn ...

Lumpy circles the campsite, eyes scouring the ground for any clues as to what happened. His eyes spot hoofprints leading away from the campsite in different directions. They scattered the horses, he decides.

A different set of hoofprints catch his attention. The prints spiral inward toward the center of the camp. Something unusual catches his eye about these other prints - they appear to have left imprints in the packed snow and ice, almost as if the hoofprints were melted into the earth. He counts the separate sets - one, two ... no, three sets, definitely three sets.

The center of the campground is a mess, if the riders dismounted and left tracks, Lumpy can't make them out. Lumpy finds himself looking down at the other body. The body is too large to be Lissa and not colorfully dressed enough to be Hajih. He doesn't need to turn her over to know who it is.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

"Gods damn it. . ."

Lumpy slings himself from his horse, taking a knee beside Si'rene's body. It was surprising how little he'd picked up on first aid in his time afield. It had always fallen on someone else to handle that particular aspect of combat management. He wished he hadn't skipped it.

As he turns the elfess over, he throws flitting glances around, speaking to the others without making eye contact,

"Something nasty afoot. Hot-hoof horses. Three, with riders. Demons, without bothering ta check."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

stupid stupid stupid, she thinks to herself, they should have known better than to try this alone and I should have made sure this wouldn't have happened.
She quickly dismounts, almost stumbling into a run to where Lumpy has revealed Si'rene's body.

Tiriel quickly tears off her gloves and places her fingers to her friend's neck, hoping beyound hope, that she finds a pulse.
"Damn it you're too stubborn to be dead. You can't be dead..." Tiriel mutters to her friend.
Tiriel will first check to see if Si'rene's still alive.
(I don't need to roll for that right?)
If so, then she'll attempt to stabilze her and Tiriel will force a potion of CLW into her for good measure.
Heal check:1d20+5=23