The Necromancer's Pact VI: Lake of Tears [closed]

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy shrugs abjectly in response to Fizahn as the priest leaves,

"Good as he is at taking care'a himself, I won't feel bad when something eats him later on cause I'm busy somewhere else." With a tired sigh, he glances at the berzerker, then down at himself, "Guess we're on the road again then. Temple'd be nice though. I feel right lousy. Bet our buddy there knows the feeling. No damned sleep either, gonna be a long day."

He turns, moving up beside Lissa as she tends to the Rashemi. For a moment, he does little besides watch distantly, eventually breaking the silence roughly,

"Lemme know when ya think he's good ta be moved and I'll haul him downstairs. Hopefully there's a temple somewhere nearby what don't charge a fortune fer pick-me-ups. Gonna be piss-broke by the time I square all this with the innkeep."

Grumbling softly, he heads back to his room, gathering up his things and carrying them downstairs. If the innkeeper happens to have come back out, Lumpy will start negotiating for damages, etc..

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby watches the departing strangers with a mixture of satisfaction and anxiety. When the disgusting priest leaves, he turns to speak with his friends.

"Well. I don't like the idea of travelling with a few of them above and beyond my opposition for travelling with anyone who doesn't know us. But right now, if they're lending their protection, I won't refuse it. The idiot can get himself lost soon, and we'll see about the others as time goes on. But I'm not giving any of them an invite to join us on our trip to wherever we're heading next.
Any last minute things before we head out?"

[OOC]Er, sorry, DR... do I have a pony at this point in time, or have I lost another one?[/OOC]

[Dr._Bob]

Lissa is able to stabilize the berserker. He will live ... as long as the spectres don't come for him again.

Darius, too, is revived. It seems that he wasn't able to avoid the blast when Callos' explosive runes were triggered by Lissa. He is quickly back to his usual self after a healing potion or two, however.

When the bleary-eyed innkeeper comes upstairs and sees the trashed bedroom, he (predictably) freaks out. He and Lumpy haggle for a while. Eventually, he agrees to forget the whole thing for 40 gp.

[hr]
As Darius learns what happened while he was unconscious, a frown creases his face and looks uncharacteristically thoughtful. "The spectres will be back," he predicts. "None of us will be safe staying here in Telflamm, without powerful protection."

"At the same time, we obviously need to get word to the Rashemi as quickly as possible, but in his condition, the berserker will just slow us down."

Darius volunteers to get the Rashemi berserker to a temple, where he can rest and heal and be protected from any additional spectral threats. "I'll catch up with the rest of you, once I'm sure that he is safe."

You gather downstairs outside the stable. Most of you have mounts of your own (including Achkby's pony named "Betty"). There is room for a few of you in Elthan's cart.

The day starts slowly as the sun rises above the rooftops. Shopkeepers begin shoveling away the snow that fell overnight. There is no sign of the hathran's head outside the inn.

Hardly any caravans are traveling to Mulsantir at this time of the year. You will likely have the road to yourselves, which is fortunate, because the faster you are able to get word to the Iron Lord in Rashemen about Sethra's pact with the tanar'ri, the faster he will be able to raise an army to oppose them.

Since Telflamm and the other provinces of Thesk have hardly any standing militias to speak of, it is clear that (assuming the berserker's words are true) the only hope of stemming the tide of darkness will come from the forests of the North.



OOC: Last chance for any last minute purchases before hitting the road. PM me what you buy and what you spend.

[Ludo]

Nolan

[OOC - This is assuming Kariokie hasn't worked out some other mode of transport with Dr. B.]

Nolan climbs into the wagon and assits Nyssa with securing their packs and gear. Settling in against a wagon wall he looks over the group they've suddenly fallen in with. It was such an odd collection of characters. He was curious to know just how they all met, what it was they were fighting and how it all came to be. He had heard the words of the Rashemi. Something of great import seemed to be happening and he wanted to know all about it.

Finally, Nolan looks up and asks, "..."

Or not. Swallowing his breath he saves his questions for when he can actually put his thoughts into words. It was simply too early for that. Yes, too early for blathering conversation. He sinks further into his seat, scowling at the earliness of it all.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn waits while Lumpy barters with the innkeeper. "Callos should really pay for the damage, but I think he ran out of money. I saw him borrowing some from Elthan. I'll cover part of it because I did shoot a bolt into the wall outside. You might want to remove that." Fizahn produces ten gold and gives it to the innkeeper to cover some of the damages.

Once outside, he finds a place on Elthan's cart and settles onto it. He takes out a package of thieves tools and begins checking that everything is orderly. Every so often, he'll look at his new companions. I really don't trust that priest. He seems like trouble. The others seem fine though, if inarticulate. Fizahn chuckles as Nolan looks up to speak, but doesn't say anything.

OOC: 10 gold has been removed from my character sheet.

[kariokie]

Nyssa

Taking a place in the cart next to her brother, Nyssa settles in comfortably, smoothing her purple robes around her and pulling a heavy cloak over her to help with the cold. A small grey owl sits on the side of the wagon, next to her, and follows her every move.

Nyssa looks at her brother. "I'm sorry about saying you were raised in a circus, earlier. And for snapping at you. And about saying you had the manners of a boar."

"Oh, perhaps I only thought that last part. Very, very loudly." She smiles and nudges Nolan, willing him to get the joke. A joke. Any joke.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy pays the innkeeper the difference with little complaint, laying three platinum pieces on the counter on tope of whatever else he owes for the stay. Swishing around a mug of cold coffee, the last of last night's batch, he downs it unceremoniously, "I'd make good on fixing what we broke, but apparently we're on a schedule and more ghlims will come and what-have-ya. Figure ya'd rather see us gone."

Making sure he has everything he came in with, he heads out front, scowling as he steps into the sunlight. The surly orc eyes Elthan's cart appraisingly, noting that would be no shortage of riders,

"If so many people're planning on sitting pretty up there, we might need ta buy another mule and trade the cart fer a wagon or something. be nice ta have the extra storage, too. Be a tight fit on a two-wheeler. Oh, and something warm ta wear, it'll be a mite cold further north."

But that brought more to his mind. He'd been content to walk before, but haste was growing to be more important, it seemed. As much as he didn't like it, he was going to need a horse; there was no way he'd travel riding in some wagon helplessly, it was equine or bust,

"Either way, I'm gonna find me a horse. I'll be back soon."

((OOC

Lumpy will try to buy:

A Light Warhorse 150gp
Military Saddle, Bit&Bridle, Saddlebags 26gp
5 days of Feed 2sp, 5 cp
Cold Weather Outfit, 8gp

If the others decide to go with the wagon route, Lumpy might buy more feed and store it on there, but he's otherwise loaded up as heavy as possible. He'll also withdraw his deposisted platinum and keep it on him.

Monetary adjustments
-214gp 2sp, 5cp
+30pp
))

[Ludo]

"Oh, perhaps I only thought that last part. Very, very loudly."

Nolan blinks at Nyssa, "I'm sorry, was that a joke? No really, I think I can tell sometimes but I'm no-... Gods it's early."

[swordmaster2000]

Silithos ignores the glances he gets from Fizahn and is now content to ignore pretty much everyone and kneel in the snow praying while his horse nudges away the snow and begins eating the grass underneath.

Silithos is obviously quite cold as he sits there shivering, but then runs off to a shop to purchase a few things returning with some warmer clothes and a thick blanket. Donning the new clothing and muttering "thats better" to himself he then turns to Fizahn grinning

" I see you didn't run away while I was gone, Im suprized" then he turns to the Inn seeing Lumpy still there paying the innkeeper. "Oh so that's why...oh well" With that he returns to praying

OOC: buying a cold weather outfit and a winter blanket

- 8 gp and 5 sp.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Technically I caused nothing. Someone read the paper and caused the explosion, I was merely a catalyst. In the same line of thought all of my money paid for spells so I can actually, you know, help."

The human turned his nose up trying to muster as much diginity as he could from the situation as he walked beside the cart. While Callos was, well, lean for the lack of a better word he planned on staying that way. Too many magic users simply became fat because they where lazy and the exercise would do him good. Then again if he got tired he could always hop in. Something more pressing was on his mind however so he sidled up to Lumpy and asked as softly as possible.

"This may be premature and probaly just paranoia but whats your take on these newcomers? I don't think we can trust any of them yet, I mean how can we be so sure Sethra hasn't already garnered some human contacts? We don't know their motives for wanting to help and more importantly what their capable of."

[Zeal]

Hajih

Hajih sits down for about ten minutes after Darius leaves for the temple.

After a while, he gets up and takes a swig from his new hip flask. With a smile on his face, Hajih turns to the others, “I’m going out to get another cart, so you folk hunker down and don’t leave without me”

OOC: PM sent, can you guess what he's buying?

[dauphinous]

When everyone started filtering out of the inn, Delphinia was already standing there, tending to a very large dog. The dog, in a shaggy grey and black mottled coat, is bigger then she is and wearing a saddle and saddle bags. She leads the dog over to stand near the rest of the group, all the while scritching it's head and ears. She says nothing, but listens carefully.

[Dr._Bob]

After making some last minute preparations, you reconvene outside the stables. The horses and mules stamp their feet, their breath steaming in the chilly morning air.

The mood is serious as everyone mounts up.

Thokk (not to be outdone by Lumpy) has also purchased a warhorse. Both he and Lumpy take the lead. Aeroz and the abrasive green-haired priest ride behind them on light horses.

The brother and sister pair settle into Elthan's cart. Fizahn and Callos jump into Hajih's cart. Callos, the only member of the party not bundled in heavy winter furs, shivers under a donated blanket.

Lissa and the halfling newcomer bring up the rear on their riding dogs, accompanied by Achkby on his pony.

[hr]
Without further ado, you head out through the eastern gates. The guards raise their eyebrows as you leave the city, but say nothing.

Darius takes his leave of you at the gates. "Don't worry about me. I will find you!" He then turns back to be ensure that the berserker finds a safe place to recover.

You have the entire day to put distance between yourselves and Telflamm. A brisk wind is at your back for most of the day, and you are grateful as the snow blows into your tracks, obscuring them.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

"Hells, I don't trust none'a them, fer what it's worth. But I ain't got mind ta kill or beat them off personally, so we'll see how it goes. That halfling might be alright, and the siblings too, but it ain't time fer sure calls yet. The priest, association with Sethra or lack there'a nonwithstanding, ain't gonna get real far, I reckon."

---

Lumpy's horsemanship is quite rusty, but slowly he falls back into the groove of things. He was an infantryman by trade, but he'd dealt with horses in the past as well- he simply preferred to move under his own power when it was possible.

For his part, he seems more than content to take the lead, offering him a chance to think in solitude.

[kariokie]

Nyssa

Nyssa, riding along in the cart in silence, eventually notices Callos is shivering. She hops out of her cart, walks back to his, and drops her blanket on him to add to his pile. She gives a little wave, jogs back to Elthan's cart, and climbs back in with the help of her brother.

She then reaches over and starts trying to annex Nolan's blanket. Nyssa's smiling all the while, completely aware that not only is she going to win, but that she's probably driving her brother quite mad in the process, because she's just given her own blanket away to, as he'd say, "A complete stranger Nyssa. A stranger!"

The two look of the same age, and in general very similar, same grey-blue eyes, and Nolan would probably have thick black hair like Nyssa's if he didn't shave his head.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn looks slightly worried as Darius leaves. "Make sure you find a temple that can protect you if the undead reappear. They'll want you and the berserker dead as well as us." We'll probably never see him again.

Fizahn laughs as Nyssa gives Callos her blanket. "You're lucky those strangers are nice Callos. I would have given you my blanket, but you're far too over sized to use it."

[Ludo]

Nolan

Nolan heaves a sigh and gives Nyssa half of his blanket. "You don't even know him Nyssa," he says as he watches Callos settle into Nyssa's present.

Nolan lowers his voice, "Look, I know we're all traveling together and you want to make friends and hold hands and live in a world full of sunshine and unicorns." He sits a little taller and puffs out his chest, "But as your older brother you'd do well to listen to me. Not everyone in this world wants to be your friend. Better to keep to your own than take unwarranted risks with unproven strangers. If it weren't for the possiblity of going back to a home free of undead horrors after all of this, I wouldn't have allowed you to join these people."

Satisfied with his lecture, Nolan settles back and watches the scenery go by.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Being directly infront of the two siblings, Elthan cannot resist listening in and adding to the conversation. "Untrue sir. If everyone here had set out on thier own in the underdark, I'm quite certian most of them wouldn't be alive, and certaintly none of them here. Sometimes it's better to trust someone; No one ever got anywhere without the help of someone else."

[kariokie]

Nyssa

Nyssa looks at her brother with first faint, then growing, then downright overwhelming amusement. This was exactly what she was hoping for.

"Two... minutes...older!" she chokes out, inbetween laughs. She gives Nolan a hearty poke on the nose. "I love it when you're so easy."

Listening to Elthan, Nyssa asks, "So you all met in the Underdark? That's astonishing. How did it happen?"

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan

Elthan looks up casually and say, "Well, my end got there through a portal, and the others where running from something, I think Drow mybye, while trying to find some assassins, I think. We crashed into each other and decided to help eahc other find a way out. We lost a few down there, but we found them agian later when they, once agian, where lost. It's a long story, but we have more than enough time to tell it all if you'd like to listen."

[Ludo]

Nolan

His retort to Nyssa is lost at the prospect of hearing more about how this group came to be "Yes!" he says too fast, too loudly. He catches himself and glances at his twin, "Er... Yes, please. I'd like to hear the story."

[swordmaster2000]

Silithos continues to ride silently occasionaly he checks his weapons to be sure they are still there. He seems bored as if nothing exciting had happened all day.

His face dosent show excitement, fear, sadness, joy just sheer boredom

[dauphinous]

Delphinia carries a small smile of contentment. She looks over at Lissa several times as they ride, but says nothing. Dammit. Don't even remember how to start a conversation with another of the folk, let alone these other types.

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Ach, and I for one have known the wee lad and the mage since before venturing into the underdark. The name be Thokk, Slayer in the service to Moradin and last of the Mithral Guard."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy seems engrossed with his horse, letting go of his reins to practice steering with his knees. It almost seems as if he's deliberately ignoring the conversation, but after a while, his gruff voice drifts back towards the others, almost aws an afterthought,

"Lumpy, late'a four Dalelands militias, a northern army, a baron's retinue, and most recently a merc company in Velprintalar. Don't say it's a pleasure, cause I ain't gonna and I know ya'd be lying."

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Callos DeTerran, a...er...specilalist mage. No long series of old jobs or honors, none that I'm proud of anyway. And by the way, thanks for the blanket. The world needs more young people like you."

The shivering had stopped. For the moment at least. But Callos seemed uneasy about something else this time, from what he had heard from the two twins they're were as adverse to necromancy as anyone else. Better to simply leave well enough alone. So with a groan he pulled out his spellbook and flipped the pages carefully, a finger to his lips as he puzzled which spells would be the most useful.

((Preparing

0-level
4 Daze Monster

1st
1 Chill Touch
2 Enlarge Person
1 Shield

2nd
1 Scare
1 Shatter
1 Bull's Strength

3rd
Ray of Exhaustion

Either now or at the closest time I can.))

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

"We happened to rescue Callos in the Underdark. It's a perilous place. What you really want to watch out for are gnome-napping driders that serve a drow mummy-queen. The mummy-queens are especially dangerous, right Thokk? Also, it's not a good idea to enter the Underdark with a century old necromancer who possesses your friend and kills the healer. Although stone sentinels in towns linked to the shadow realm are very dangerous also. Sedryn, Thokk, Ssathiya, Trinark, and Djital. All these people died or were lost in the Underdark. That's not counting the deaths directly before and after our journey in the Underdark and any that occurred before we met Aeroz, Achkby, Lumpy, Darius, Hajih and Lissa. In the whole experience, I think there was one good moment." That has to be the shortest summary of the longest Underdark experience ever.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

"Hells, I lost eight before I even met the rest'a them. A whole damned-fool bunch'a sellswords and the women who hired us. not a bit'a sense between them. The moral is, stay the Hell out'a the underdark unless ya know what yer doing."

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Aye, that drow mummy was a bitch, but we got her in the end. And tha blasted nightwing wasnt much fun either, but Im not done on this world yet, and wont be leavin this here world till ive gotten my revenge."

*To Fizahn*

"And untill you and your lass can settle down, thats going on the list"

EDIT:
*To Lumpy*

"Ach, and Im sure you knew what you were doin? I beg to differ, ye smelly half breed"

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy snorts belligeratly,

"Got out'a there in one peice, didn't I? More than ya can say, ain't it?"

With a scowl, the burly orc flicks his reigns impatiently, urging his horse further ahead, away from the argument,

"I'm sure yer real proud'a yer big lucky sacrifice and all, but I did my part too. I gave up a Helluva lot more than ya'd realize, so don't ya dare belittle me."