The Necromancer's Pact VII: Lake of Tears II

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Can't you see I'm busy? Just use it like you would a dagger until I dismiss the spell." He called back to the warrior woman, still in the throes of his arcane spellcasting at the moment.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

WIth a muted groan, Lumpy drags himself upright again. He was broken up something fierce, but there were always things to do. The dwarf was hacking away at the troll with his wholy useless sword, the mages were trying to burn it out. He eyes the still-giant Tiriel and registers her complaint, then settles on her sword. Perfect. He wondered idly if she'd mind him borrowing it, but decided he didn't overly care.

He limps silently over to the giant. He makes a game attempt to dislodge the sword with his right arm, which hangs limply, before jerking it out with his left. He crosses over to where Thokk is chopping at the troll's heads. He applies the flaming blade to the stumps without fanfare, explaining simply,

"Chop 'em off all day, they grow back. Kinda like a hydra that way. Gotta cook them afterwords."

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Elthan relaxes and strides confidently up to the now unconscious troll. "Sure, cut 'em off, every little bit if your want," he states sarcastically, "Just be sure to leave me an arm to ask where he picked up our Gnome. Honestly, I don't any of you even paid attention to word it said. Aeroz, you must understand I what I mean; you were the first to respond to the fable."

He clears his throat as he recounts his thoughts. "Your all giving in too easily to try and kill it and forgetting what we need to do. Get some rope out and start hauling it against a tree. By the time it awakes, I'll drain it fully of it's strength, and it will be nice and incapacitated while we get what we need."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy continues to burn away at the troll,

"See now, that's where yer wrong. Might be this thing can help us find the guide, but yer wrong in saying it'll get us what we need. If it'd been a matter'a finding them at all costs, I could'a started tracking them from the moment we came across that campsite with ya in it. Could'a wandered all over the place looking fer the the missing. But I didn't, and there's a reason."

He jerks a thumb back at Lissa,

"And as great as it is that we got one back. . . Well, it ain't easy ta say, but I'll say it. We ain't got the luxury'a the time needed tha chase down strays. As little or as much as any'a us might wanna try and save him, we ain't gonna. Or, I ain't gonna.

"Besides, who's gonna move this Gods damned thing ta tie it up? I can barely move period. That's another risk we don't gotta take."

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"I recognized the fable because I heard it a million times from some damn thief. It was him or us, and we should probably burn the remains and leave as soon as possible. Try to avoid any other conflicts too. We need to go to the Iron Lord, warn him about the undead and demons headed for him and move on to our next destination. I doubt that all of the people who really want us dead will wait for us to succeed in our current task." Aeroz states astutely as he grabs a healing potion from his bag.

[OOC: Potion of Cure moderate wounds: 2d8+3=10hp cured]

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel smolders in silence. She vaguely register's that Lumpy has picked up her sword and is joining Thokk in hacking the troll to pieces. Now, normally she'd be mad about that. She likes her sword and she'd just gotten it repaired, but right now all she can think about is how much Callos has been annoying the beans* out of her. You know, while it's fun being huge to rough people up, it's kind of embarrassing otherwise...I hate that wizard.

Tiriel also vaguely realizes that she still doesn't feel well, though she can't pinpoint the reason.

*horrible word substitution to keep the Teen rating
[When Tiriel's Aid wears off in a few minutes she'll be at a lovely 2 hp.]

[Phasm]

Lissa

"'That one' does have a name, you know." Lissa rolls her eyes at Lumpy. "You're welcome for the healing, by the way. C'mere, Tiriel, it looks like that thing did a number on you." She puts a hand on Tiriel's leg (that being the highest she can currently reach) and chants the now-familiar syllables of the healing spell. White light pours into the fighter's gaping wounds, but as with the druid and Lumpy, it only manages to partially heal them. "Thanks for the rescue, everyone. I honestly wasn't expecting to ever see you again, after..." Lissa's voice falters, and she looks down. "After the vampires."

OOC: Burn deific vengeance for cure moderate wounds on Tiriel: heal - (2d8+3)[14] hp

[runehawk]

Lizardkin Druid
The druid limps to stand beside Elthan as he explains his point to Aeroz.

Gods knew he wanted the troll alive. They needed answers. To find Hajih. Especially with Lissa so close, it'd lead them straight to him.

It also nearly killed him and any number of his companions. Growling he summons a fire elemental and then another.
Chanting the spells, he avoids looking at Elthan or any of the other party members.

He oversees the burning of the comatose troll. It was NOT getting up again.

He resigns himself that with a party with so many injured, subduing a live troll or tracking down a captured Hajih would be unwise.


OOC:Convert Level 2 spells to small fire elementals.

[Dark_Stalion]

Evendur

Evendur had heard the stories, how only fire could stop a troll, acid stop a hydra, and so on. Well, if these people believed in it strongly enough to keep on attacking the thing while it was down he wasn't going to take any chances either. He starts to look for a tree or copse thereof to aquire wood to build a fire with.

The druid might not like it, but it's nessesary.

[namo]

Stocky man

His hand was reaching for the next arrow, but he stopped when the huge beast fell down. For a second, it felt like his body whole was vibrating, and then it was gone. So soon ? But so late, also... Sadness in his eyes, he took a moment to survey the battlefield. To his surprise and relief, all the prone forms were getting up one by one. No casualty ? That is extraordinary.

Shaking himself, he remembered his own advice. It's not dead, yet.

He started to approach the few people that were already busying themselves with hacking and burning the troll. He stopped, suddenly shy. What should I say ?
These people saved me.
And they're doing a good job out of killing this monster. Not much more I can do here.

To everyone :
"If somebody needs healing, I can help a bit. It's the least I can do. Thanks for rescuing me !"
It feels awkward.

Something's nagging him. He is bemused at the interaction between those people, but it's not that.

And then the elf mentions the unthinkable. They know ? How ? I know I have been fast ! His mind is racing. And it only gets worse when the gnome mentions vampires. All of this, almost... casually !
- Who are these people ?
- Wait, do vampires even exist ?
- No time, you fool, hurry !

And then it comes back, something he had seen at the corner of his eye... A Drow ! Here ! But, it is traveling with humans, and it seems they are also racing against the advancing army.

Giving in to a complex blend of emotions, he strides to Aeroz : "What do you know about the approaching army ? How ? Who are you people, and why do you travel with a Drow, er, Drow ?"

Realizing it is all coming out too rushed, he tries to soften his manner and his voice. "Apologies, but I am really on my nerves. I'm Adalmar, a ranger of the Great Dale. I am on a mission of vital importance."

[OOC: I picked a random color for Damaran, his dialect.
edit: he spoke fairly loud... so if you want an excuse to jump in...]

[Koji]

Man With Feathers in His Hair

As the troll smolders into nonexistence, he looks up from its corpse and asks,

"Anyone have any tobacco?"

[blackfox]

Katrin

Katrin waits around until the mages have finished killing off the troll, or until some agreement is reached on what to do with it. She wouldn't be useful in either way, being neither exceptionally strong or able to do magic. After the troll has been taken care of, she looks around for her horse, hoping it didn't run too far away.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Once the druid's elementals have gotten into the action, Lumpy gives up on adding Tiriel's sword to the conflagration. He was too tried to keep hacking anyway. He waves the sword around a few times, as if trying to snuff the flames running down the blade, "Off.. off." before giving up and leaving it to hang loosely in his grip.

He turns his attention to Adelmar, as if truly noticing him for the first time now that the danger has passed. He answers brusquely, in a no-nonsense tone,

"The drow's given good account fer himself, and I won't stand ta see ya judge him otherwise."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel thanks Lissa for healing her and converses with the gnome while the various enchantments wear off. Tiriel inhales sharply with a hiss when Lissa mentions vampires.
"Valentine. It was her wasn't it? Damnit. Do they still have Hajih?"

[runehawk]

Lizardkin Druid

The reptilian druid busies himself with the burning. He casts detect magic to help identify any bits of the troll he could use but fails to find anything of use.
He finds a tooth off to one side that isn't burning and takes that as a trophy.

When Lissa presses his potion into his palm, he considers immediately gulping it down but decides to save it for another day instead. He wonders what the troll was reading and moves forward to read the signpost.

He didn't pay much attention to the newcomers. They'd fought beside them and would either join them in a conflict that wasn't theirs or stick with them til the next human settlement and then split off

Bowman.. magic-user
was all he thought before turing away.

[Spaz]

Yix

Yix walks to where everyone is busy hacking apart the troll and plops himself down. He slowly begins taking off his armor, as hoping not to hit any of his bruises. "Is everyone going to make it?"

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"I suggest you actually start calling that Drow by his name. He's shown his value and loyalty several times over, so I wouldn't go basing assumptions on the colour of his skin."

[Koji]

Man With Feathers in His Hair

Seeing his question fall on deaf ears, he whips a flat piece of polished steel out of a pocket inside his short black jacket and holds it up to his face. Cursing in several languages, he rubs at his eyeliner until the smudge is gone and the kohl is once again simply lining his lower eyelids. When he's satisfied with his appearance, he smiles and returns it to the pocket.

An eyebrow shoots up when he notices the drow, but he says nothing.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Elthan attempts to speak out a counter-argument, but finds himself at a loss of a point. After three tries at lipping a rebuttal, he accepts defeat to the point; They really didn't need the Troll, and rescuing Hajih was a secondary priority.

"Still," he brings himself about to saying, "If we are to be heading off in such a rush, why do we need to finish off our combatant? Gods know, we've giving him a sound trouncing that'll will keep him off his feet for more than a while. We made a fair exchange, and got what we needed, so why not leave him be now and head along on our way?"

[Dr._Bob]

Thick, oily black smoke rises from the fell troll's corpse as the fire elementals, burning hands, and acid do their work. In a perverse way, the cremation of the troll reminds you of Si'rene's funeral pyre.

The flat alluvial plain offers little in the way of trees or firewood. Evendur gives up on his futile search and instead hops on his warhorse and retrieves the other scattered horses and pony.

...

Everyone talks at once, hardly anyone listening to one another. Though temporarily united in battle with the fell troll, the party quickly falls back into its usual pattern of individual self-absorption.

Adalmar's introduction goes almost completely unacknowledged. The man with the feathers in his hair is similarly more or less ignored by the party members.

Trinark lowers his hood, revealing himself for the first time to the strangers. Squinting against the painful daylight, he offers his hand in the surface custom to both of the newly freed men. "I am Trinark of the House Tel'von. Well met Adalmar and ... ?" He raises an eyebrow right back at the dark-haired spellcaster.

...

Elthan watches Thokk with mild disgust as he hacks away with his bastard sword, mutilating the burning troll's body, sparks flying, his face blackened by soot. The parable of the swan and the scorpion still fresh in his mind, Elthan wonders who was the true 'scorpion', the fell troll or zealots like Thokk.

As Elthan watches the others rise ghost-like from the cold earth, using magic spells or potions to heal themselves and each other, he thinks of the fleeting ecstacy of true power flowing through his veins. He closes his eyes and remembers ...

[Koji]

Man With Feathers in His Hair

He gives a casual nod to the drow, and speaks,

"I'm Khazrael, and I'd like to thank you all for getting that troll off my back."

He glances to the west.

"I sure hope you people are going east, because the demons and dark elves are moving very quickly in this direction and they're not here to make friends."

He adds, a little sheepishly, "If you ARE headed east, I'd love to come with. I don't think any of us wants to run into another one of these trolls without all the backup we can get."

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

As the others try to burn the Troll, Achkby stands just behind them, his lips and fingers harboring the final components of the spell he used just a moment ago.

When the troll is finished, he relaxes, and buries his head in the snow.

I ALMOST LET THEM BE KILLED. I FROZE UP... AND THEY ALMOST DIED.

[Phasm]

Lissa

People still need healing. People are asking questions about the vampires. The two newcomers look really confused, and somebody should introduce them around. And Achkby looks like he's having a panic attack. Lissa closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, rubbing her temples. One thing at a time. Nobody's in immediate danger of dying, and Trinark has more power than me anyway, so questions are first up. "Trinark, would you mind finishing up on Lumpy and the druid? I'll join you as soon as I've told the group what I know about the vampires and Hajih."

Trusting Trinark to take care of their wounded friends, Lissa turns back to Tiriel. "Okay... just a second. ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT VAMPIRES, I'M TELLING THE STORY NOW! I hate telling the same story five times. So, I assume you found our camp..." Despite all the stereotypes about long-winded gnomes, Lissa's report is short and to the point. Evidently Si'rene was on watch when she spotted nightmares approaching and awakened Lissa and Hajih. There were three nightmares, each being ridden by a vampire- or vampire spawn, Lissa can't say for sure which. She did notice that two of the vampires followed the orders of the third, a female matching the description of Lady Valentine.

The outmatched group fought back as best they could, Si'rene especially, but the vampires were simply too powerful. Lady Valentine killed Si'rene; the other two managed to capture Lissa and Hajih, and took them underground before sunrise. Both captives were tortured, but the vampires quickly lost interest in Lissa. Hajih was tortured much more, apparently to determine the larger group's planned route. (Lissa thinks they gave up on her because she has absolutely no sense of direction outside a city.)

Lissa was surprised to see that vampires evidently need to sleep, or enter a dormant state. Either the vampires were confident in the power of locked manacles, fatigued from combat, or both, since all three 'slept' at the same time. Lissa managed to slip her own bonds, but one of the vampires 'woke' just as she started picking the locks on Hajih's manacles. She was forced to flee without him.

Upon reaching the surface, Lissa stayed under cover or in an invisibility spell as much as possible, hoping to find the river and avoid any fights. Unfortunately, she happened across the fell troll on a flat, snow-covered plain... and the smart head figured out what footprints appearing out of nowhere meant.

[namo]

Adalmar

He blinks at the elf's answer.
"Admitting he is trustworthy - which I'd like to decide for myself - how could I call him by his name ? I don't know it. Nor do I know anyone's here for that matter."

He is taken aback when the drow steps forward. Somewhat reluctantly, he gives the extended hand a firm shake. "I will give you the benefit of doubt. I have nothing against you personally, but your kin has started to invade and ravage my homeland, aided by demons, and that I cannot forget."

He then proceeds to gape at Khazrael's offhand remark. "Does everybody already knows about the invasion ? The main ranger station in Lethyr was overrun but a few days ago. I thought I had gone as fast as possible..."
It ends up in a mutter : "I did send animal messengers, but did they make it ? No, I have to make sure by myself."

Lissa's retelling does little to alleviate his confusion. Too much prior information needed that he doesn't possess. Still, he can only feel compassion for the little woman's sufferings.

[Dark_Stalion]

Evendur

Evendur listens with half an ear to Lissa's story as he checks the horses for hurt, deteched as he was that day they found the camp. Suffering happened and he did his best to aleviate it, but there was a greater suffering, more pressing, that needed to be prevented, that of the dark tide from the west. He could not feal for haju's plight. If he did he would go mad.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn lowers his crossbow as his final bolt flies over the slumped body of the troll. He then listens to the people talking. Adalmar. He directs an exasperated look at Elthan when he suggests not killing the troll. Fizahn respends, his voice full of sarchasm. "Oh yes. Excellent plan. I'm sure the troll wouldn't pursue us if he knew that our spells were depleted, he practically killed us already, and we don't regenerate like he does. I'm sure he'd just leave us alone. Plus, if he does decide to folllow us, that's just what we need! A troll trying to kill us in addition to Sethra. Excellent plan! Hey! Let's not kill the troll everyone. Our grand high troll-itarian requires that the definately not evil troll be interrogated." Fizahn looks at Elthan. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" Khazrael. How long will these two last?

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

After a moment, the cold brings Achkby to his senses, and he stands up, brushing flakes from his overcoat and shaking his arms to get the blood moving.

I can't blast myself for what's happened. But next time, I'll be there. And in the mean time, we have to regroup and recuperate...
But they almost died!

They didn't, though... and we have to keep moving, or more people than just Thokk and Lumpy might lose their lives.
I'm always worry about moving on, always putting behind me what I've done wrong, what's been done wrong by anybody. Does it make sense to just forget the past? I forget the past, and resolve to do better in the future... but do I ever do better? Do I just keep making mistakes, keep putting others in danger, letting baby dragons be abducted by cruel forces, and then forget it?
Achkby's efforts to dry himself slow to a distracted wiping of his hands on his cloak as he is lost in thought.

After a moment, scowling deeply, he comes out of his reverie and circles about Lissa with the others, slipping between his taller companions to push to the front of the group.

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

She retrieves her sword from Lumpy and watches the troll's body burn with mixed emotions. She feels some guilt, but mostly frustration and anger. Her ire is not directed to the recently deceased troll, but at lady Valentine and her cronies. After a few moments she turns her back on the pyre - Lissa's story reaffirming her decision to see this "mission" through to the end. She walks over to where she'd tossed her pack. She bends down and retrieves it, nodding to Adalmar.
"You said your name was Adalamr, didn't you? My name's Tiriel and you're welcome to borrow my bow until you find a replacement." She reaches into her pack and pulls out two more quivers of arrows which she hands to the man.
Finding her horse, one of the few who didn't flee the battlefield, Tiriel leads it over to the rest of the group.

"I think we'd better do the rest of our talking on the road. That's something we all agree with, right?"

[Koji]

Khazrael

"Absolutely. Let's get the hells away from this fire before someone spots it."

He gives himself a once-over, apparently satisfied after a moment, and moves to follow the wagon.

[runehawk]

Lizardman Druid
The druid finishes reading the signpost and returns to hear Lissa talk about 'vampires'.

"Vam-pyress?"
Trinark was talking to the strangers so he asks Elthan. When Elthan explains what a vampire was, he exclaims
"BLOOD-DRINKERS!!" loudly.

He looks agitated and with his severe wounds his pacing only amounts to an aggravated limp.

Looking at the wilderness the troll had come thru, he surmises he could easily track the troll back but with snow and bad weather, the gnomes footprints were probably lost. But surely they couldn't leave one of their own at the mercy of the vampires

"Find Blue-hat?"

He forces himself to think about their situation. Almost all the fighters were badly wounded.They'd need rest.
If they are looking for us, we may not need to go to them