A World Torn [IC1]

[dark.sun.druid]

“I can't very well stand by and let this man continue on as he is doing now, can I?” The tall man in the fancy red cloak paced back and forth in front of the small group of adventurers, rubbing his temples with one hand and letting the other swing freely by his side, “He's raising an army to conquer my hold, and I'm supposed to just sit idly by and let it happen? No, no,” The man wore velvet boots that matched his cloak, and they made a soft sound as he moved back and forth across the thin carpet, “And a slave army, to boot! How would my men feel about going into battle to fight slaves? I just cannot abide by this situation,” The man stopped abruptly, whirling to face the quartet. He stood atop a small flight of stairs, so that he as higher than any other person in the room. The way he had stopped, he was framed perfectly by the tall, gold-enameled throne on the pedestal behind him. His long, oiled, black hair shone fiercely in the bright light from the hearth in the center of the room,

“So that's why I need you four. I can't very well march on this upstart. I'm too short on troops, and it would leave my northern borders unguarded. But I've heard tell that the four of you are some of the most fearsome warriors for hire that a body can find on the big isle. Surely you could infiltrate my enemy's hold and put a stop to his plottings. I am sure it would be a trivial task, and I am willing to pay very generously. What say you?” His lips were pulled tight into a thin line that might have been a smile if not for weariness...

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The man is Lord Edding. In the grand scheme of things, he is a relatively minor noble, but he holds a tract of land which controls a choke point through the mountains on the big island, to the eastern side. Recently, another minor Lord (Lord Jacob), with holdings near the Savageland, has decided to expand his reign. He took a large swath of plainsland mostly uncontested, for the men who lived there were unorganized and had no ruler. However, he wants to move further North, into the more populated regions of the island, and he sees Lord Edding's holdings are the perfect entry point. Lord Jacob has been gathering what are in effect slaves from the surrounding area, and planning to mount an assault on Lord Edding. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to enter Lord Jacob's holdings, and to take down his scheme from within. The specifics are left up to you to figure out. Oh, and one more thing: you're to be hired as a group; it's all of you or none of you, so figure it out amongst yourselves.

[J-H]

Match, probably the shortest person in the room, twirls a small flame between his fingers, tossing it from his left hand to his right and back again. Scratching his bandanna-covered scalp, he speaks. "I've no problem with it, as long as you're not looking for it to be neat and clean. What's yer plan on pay?" He produces a whip of fire out of thin air and coils it around one arm. "I've got my weapon of choice, but if ye've magic items to pay us with, I'd rather have 'em in advance; might make the difference between success and a messy failure, and since we're not..." He thinks for a moment, "...subtle or sneaky, a failure'd bounce right back on ya."

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Also, (1d20+12)[17] Intimidate. Most people don't like someone pulling fire out of nowhere and using it as a toy in their throne room.

[Von Krieger]

"What our vertically challenged associate means is that HE is not subtle or sneaky. I, on the other hand, am easily capable of performing whatever deeds require stealth, subtlety, precision, finesse, professionalism, and dozens of other words that my colleague neither knows the definition of, nor can reliably pronounce." The tall woman says politely.

At her six and a half foot height, one might call her Amazonian in stature, where it not for sporting a build that lies on the border between lithe and gaunt, reminiscent of a hunting cat who has missed a few meals, and is all the more dangerous for it.

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(1d20+12)[20] Diplomacy

[Morcleon]

Lambda

Listening absentmindedly to Lord Edding's mission proposal, Lambda shrugs. "Sure. It doesn't seem too bad... We could always assassinate him or something if infiltration fails."

The bored-looking freelancer's black coat contrasts drastically with his white hair and red eyes, while at the same time matching quite well. He appears rather pale and slight, as if the smallest breeze would knock him over, but his blazing eyes speak of one not so easily beaten.

With a slight chuckle at Rose's not-quite-so-veiled insult, he continues, "To help us with aforementioned subtlety, some information about his fortress layout, defenses, and schedules would be nice."

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Moar diplomacy! Use as aid another for Rose if result is 20 or less. (1d20+9)[17]

[Mial]

Molly giggles internally at the flame Match played with. The proposal seems sound in her mind, straightforward even. Indeed, by the looks her companions, this could be cake.

"Sneaky will be possible and effective, but don't doubt we have the firepower to pull it off the old fashioned way if things go south, as they say. We can get this done."

[dark.sun.druid]

Lord Edding looked back and forth with his eyes as each member of the group spoke in turn, keeping his head still. When they were done, he closed his eyes and nodded,
"Good," he said, before looking up again, "If you are in need of any magic items in particular, you can take the matter up with our house Artificer. I'm sure she can accommodate you. Otherwise, I had planned on paying you in other ways: gold and gems, a small plot of land toward the south of my holdings, and access to my personal stores of wine for a feast of celebration. All, of course, conditional on your success." Lord Edding smiled around, taking the time to lock eyes with Match specifically, before saying,
"And I hope it goes without saying that, should something go afoul, the four of you are on your own." He let his smile disappear as he spoke,
"Now, on to business. Lord Jacob holds much land, but most of it is sparsely populated at best. You should have no trouble getting to his main hold near the Savageland, except from the local fauna. When you arrive there, we know little of his defenses. Be prepared to take a variety of approaches. We do know that Lord Jacob has decided to personally take charge of a large portion of his force, so there is a good chance you will run into him personally. He is a tall man with an abundance of bright red facial hair. He won't be hard to recognize. If you do, I wouldn't object to seeing him out of the picture in a more permanent way, but that isn't your primary goal. His armies must be disbanded; if he is simply killed, someone else will take the charge." Lord Edding took a step back, and sat in his throne. As he did, the air around him took on a visible sheen, as if he were being seen through a thin layer of water,
"That is all. You can see yourselves out. If you want to speak with Maria, our Artificer, she has her own outbuilding near the forges. Someone will help you find it."

[Morcleon]

"Very well then." Lambda replies with a slight bow. He glances back to the other three. "Come on Rose, let's go see if the artificer has anything fun for us. You two wanna come?"

Regardless of their responses, he shall head to the outside, and ask the closest NPC for directions to Maria the Artificer.

[J-H]

"Aye." Match's flame vanishes and he turns to follow the others.

[Mial]

"Alright then."

Molly follows the group, but once outside has an idea.
"If his army is primarily slaves we could probably cause a lot of problems by liberating them."

[Von Krieger]

"As you say, beloved." Rose says with a smirk, following behind Lambda. The way she moves is odd and eye-catching, every motion perfectly fluid, graceful, and without the slightest hint of wasted motion. She also seems to be walking at a lazy pace, and yet easily keeping up with Lambda while doing so.

There are other aspects about her that tend to put one on edge, for example the fact that she makes no noise as she moves. Just casually strolling down the hallway and being completely and utterly silent without conscious effort into being quiet.

Her professional reputation is that of a calm, cool, professional who can accomplish nearly any task that she is put to, despite occasionally overwhelming odds, and that she fights exclusively with a bow and arrows. But beyond that stories fracture into dozens of strange tales about her and her abilities. If even a tenth of them are true, Rose is a force to be reckoned with.

The most well-known tale of her skill with a bow is likely one of the reasons Lord Edding has hired her for this mission. An Orcish warlord had managed to gather quite a large warband underneath him, not quite enough to send an army after, too large to be ignored. Rose decapitated the warband and the warlord with one shot. The shot was made from a mile away and went through the head of the warlord's dinosaur mount before it went through his neck. Both were dead before they hit the ground. Though her prowess with her bow is incredible, it's likely that the tale might have become a bit exaggerated in the telling.

"It depends on what nature of slavery we're dealing with. Likely it would be of the magical sort. An army of slaves would be incredibly ineffective from the perspective of resources. Where to even begin? They would have no loyalty or morale to speak of. You can't have them sporting effective weapons or give them combat training, as that would spectacularly backfire. Likely they would live in poor conditions and be fed similarly, resulting in weakened, sickly warriors in comparison to a proper fighting force." Rose says matter-of-factually, the words flowing easily.

"With the cost it would take to feed, clothe, and shelter such a force, it would be more financially viable to just murder them all and raise them as your garden variety undead. Of course unless you are familiar with one of several methods to get around it, the size of the army would be limited entirely by the amount of onyx one could get one's hands on."

"Hopefully the Artificer might have some idea on what sort of enslavement we're looking at, or can direct me to whomever is in charge of keeping Lord Edding appraised on the movements of his fellows and rivals who can answer the question." She pauses for a moment.

"If I am correct, which is usually the way of things, Lord Jacob is more than likely consorting with some rather dark powers. The creatures that come to mind with high capacity for the magical enslavement of a large number of beings are outsiders, typically Erinyes or Succubi, and Illithids."

[Morcleon]

"Rose... I'm not..." Lambda sighs and continues walking towards the artificer's location. It was generally pointless arguing with her about their relationship.

He seems extremely unconcerned about the fact that they just received a rather important mission. However, a careful look shows that he is in fact quite excited, in his own, subtle way. "If it's the illithid, then this is likely just the tip of the iceberg. If it's the Lower Planes, then it may be just a bid for power. He could have a vampire at his side, though. They can make some rather powerful spawn, and I don't believe they have any limit to their control. Or he could have a skilled spellcaster. Or a whole myriad of other possibilities." He mutters, with a look over to Rose.

A concerned expression crosses his face. "...no, you're not always right. You remember the river incident? You may be the best archer I know, but that doesn't make you invincible. Be careful that you don't let hubris get the best of you, okay?"

[Von Krieger]

"That is why I said 'usually,' my love." Rose says with a smirk, "And I will remind you that mounted overland travel was at your insistence. You are well aware of my capacity for flight, and my superior speed to a common land animal. Thus the reason I ended up in that river, dearest, was due to this silly irrational phobia you spot of being alone in my garden, and the fanciful idea that my Mourning Glories want to chew on your eyeballs."

"And perhaps being too caught up in attempting to get a closer look at a rare subspecies of dragonfly to think that an insect that breathes fire as a defense mechanism just might spook the creature upon which I am sitting."

She pauses for a moment, "And the rather surly giant toad encountered as a result of falling off said panicking beast, onto said napping toad."

[Morcleon]

"Your garden is a rather scary place. It's like it's trying to eat me." Lambda replies, with a slight shudder. "More than once, may I remind you, have I woken up wrapped in both your flowers and your arms. The latter keeping me from rising, and the former nibbling on me when I try to move at all."

He chuckles. "Ah, you and your obsessions... They suppress your common sense far too much."

[dark.sun.druid]

The four of you exit through the great oak doors at the front of the hall. They are themselves two stories tall, and the boards are all wider across than a human. Inlaid in the doors is a gold-leaf portrayal of the mountains rising behind a broad farm plain. When the doors are closed, the scene is continuous, but at the moment the doors are open wide to the summer air. The castle is situated on a wide outcropping of rock, with steep cliffs behind and a sheer dropoff ahead. Exiting the front doors leads to a courtyard with low walls, built to a height to allow the casual overlooker to see several miles of plains below the mountain. A cobblestone path leads through a carefully maintained garden filled with plants that would have no place being this far north, if not for the magically treated soil. Even so, nothing here bloomed in the winter. A lone gardener sat at the far end of the courtyard pulling out the weeds that insisted on growing in the palace soil, long black hair not quite hiding the point of an ear. Several clouds drifted lazily overhead, and the sounds of a marketplace could be heard in the distance, along with the scents of baking bread and wet grass drifting in over the flowers. It was a peaceful vista.

As Lambda approaches the gardener to ask where Maria might be found, he notices a yellow and black striped tail flick momentarily off the ground. The elf stood and turned to face him, and as he did a broad-shouldered tiger came into view behind him. It fixed its dark eyes on Lambda, but kept its head resting serenely on its paws. The gardener addressed him,
"Is there anything I can do for you, ma'am?" His voice was light and melodic, and something about the way he held himself reminded Lambda of the the tiger, dangerous but peaceful.

[Morcleon]

Lambda's eye twitches again. He clenches his one gloved hand, and releases it. Why did everyone think he was a girl at first glance? Even Rose had, when they first met. Was it the soft white hair? The delicate cheekbones? Or was the world just suffering from a glitch?

Shaking his head of these almost-angsty notions, he sighs, replying. "First off, I'm not a woman. Second, we're looking for Maria, the artificer. Do you know where we can find her?"

[dark.sun.druid]

The tiger perked up its ears, as if skeptical, but its eyes remained firmly fixed on Lambda. The elf glanced over his shoulder at the animal, and a bit of color rose to his cheeks as he responded,
"I am very sorry, sir. Yes, Maria has a workshop near the smithy. Caltha will show you there, if you like." The elf gestured at the tiger who, despite not moving, seemed to project an air of indignation at being demoted to the level of a guide.

[Morcleon]

"It's fine. People do it all the time." Lambda mutters, nodding his thanks. He turns to the tiger, and smiles softly. "Well then, Caltha. Care to lead us to 5° Maria?"

He twists his head to look over at his companions, and smiles slightly, murmuring, "Come, let's follow the tiger."

OOC:

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Cookie if you get the joke/reference.

[J-H]

Match ***** his head at the tiger, completely ignoring the discussion and the elf. He mumbles to himself.... "Tyger, tiger, almost rhymes with fire. I've heard a poem somewhere about you, haven't I? Something about forests...?"

He keeps mumbling to himself until he realizes that the rest of the party is walking away from him.

[Mial]

Molly shudders at the mention of the otherworldly powers mentioned. She'd read about some of them in books, but confronting them was something else entirely.

While walking along with the tiger, she continues the conversation.
"Considering the price those types of powers usually charge for services of that nature, I'd much rather pay the mundane cost and deal with the hardship."

She stops for a moment and looks thoughtful, then adds wistfully, "Life would be so much easier if we could choose how our enemies did things I suppose."

[Von Krieger]

"Tyger, tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?" Rose recites in a pleasant, musical tone. Add "incredibly good hearing" to the list of creepy things Rose does. "Dwarven poem, unnamed author. Found on a tablet in an abandoned underground city. Relatively remote, little contact with the outside world. Had a quasi-monotheistic culture involving a triune deity. Interestingly enough the same wordmason was in the process of making some exceptionally accurate engravings of various aspects of Baator. Which were never finished due to the seemingly sudden depopulation of the area. Likely due to similar dabblings and investigations into the Nine Hells."

[J-H]

"That's what I was looking for." Match looks sideways at Rose. "You didn't pull that out of my head, did you?"

[Von Krieger]

Rose chuckles, "No, I would think it likely an unpleasant experience investigating your mind. I'm not fond of the scent of charcoal. I have extremely keen senses, and poetry is one of my many areas of interest. Nothing more."

And then she grins, the conversation continuing inside Match's head. "But I am also capable of telepathic communication. I'm only rudimentarily familiar with psionics and the power of the mind in those areas. So as a relatively minor talent in that regard I can only pick up particularly noisy thoughts, and only then if I'm opening myself up to it. I usually don't, since most folk prefer their privacy. However in this case, I merely heard you mumble it under your breath."

[dark.sun.druid]

Everyone:
Caltha lead the four of you along garden paths for a long distance; the garden was immense, and it was difficult to imagine one elf tending to it all by himself, but there were no other people in sight. Caltha's claws made a quiet clicking sound against the cobblestones as you all made your way toward a hedgerow that, presumably, marked the end of the garden. As you moved along, you passed a small mountain stream, running with cold, clear snowmelt. A small chipmunk sat by the stream, warily eyeing the party as they passed. Toward the edge of the garden, the plants started to thin out somewhat, and loose, light-colored gravel could be seen between little islands of green flora. The cobblestone path lead through an arched opening in the hedgerow, supported by a truss of light wood. Just before she passed through it, Caltha looked back, fixing her intense eyes on Atrocity for a moment, before turning and padding on as if nothing had happened.

Outside the garden, the ground was barren. The loose scrabble was everywhere, and only a few hardy weeds managed to grow. The cobblestone path ended, and you all stepped out onto the gravely ground. Before you was a tall cliff, which meant you were now facing the mountain. Indeed, if any of you were to look straight up, you would see the snow capped peak rising high above the keep. Ahead, the forge was clearly visible, a squat building with several smoking holes in the roof and a plethora of steel and iron tools and weapons hanging outside. Next to it, there was a small, squarish building, made all out of the same light orange brick as the forge. The building lacked any windows, and had no doors save for one small steel door set into the near side. It was this door that Caltha padded up to, gravel crunching under her paws. The smell from the forge was oppressive and sulfur-smelling as Caltha turned to face the party and sat down.

Atrocity:

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Out of the corner of your eye, as you were exiting the garden, you noticed a pair of tiny, green faces with bright eyes watching you from behind a dense patch of chrysanthemums. Their features appeared to be woven from grasses and little bits of plant like material. When they noticed you looking at them, they disappeared behind the flowers and were gone from sight. This happened just before Caltha paused to look at you.

[Morcleon]

Lambda shudders. Of course. Rose could reach into people's minds. She hadn't done so to him. Or so he thought...

Sighing, he glances back to Rose with a slightly raised eyebrow as the tiger does so, but then continues to walk along the cobblestone path as it leads onto crunching gravel underfoot. He glances around, coughs a little, then strides up to the steel door.

Knocking lightly, he calls out, "Hello? Is Maria there?"

[Mial]

Molly looks glances at the building ahead, but her gaze switches between the stream behind and the mountain above. Both reminded her of home, and if this simple beauty was what she was going to fight to preserve she'd fight tooth and nail. Spells first of course, but tooth and nail if it came down to it.

"I don't think I need anything from Maria. I'll be at the stream, come and get me when you're done."

She glides to the stream and takes off her gloves. Dabbling a hand in the stream is cold and nice.

[dark.sun.druid]

Molly:

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The cold water running past Molly's hand makes little ripples, reflecting the sky back in distorted wave shapes and making the gravely bottom of the stream take on new shapes in her eyes. Through the rippling water, Molly thought she saw something shining in between the little pieces of gray, water-polished scree that covered the bottom of the stream...

Everyone Else:

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"Just a moment, please," a voice called from inside. The voice was high-pitched, and rang through the metal door. Several minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, and then a panel at eye level, previously invisible for it's seamless fit with the rest of the door, opened, revealing a pair of strangely colored eyes, one violet and one white and blind,
"Can I help you?" The voice asked as the eyes scanned the faces of the visitors. There was a strangeness about those eyes, as if they saw more than they were supposed to.

[J-H]

"The boss said ye'd be able to help us with some magic items to be better equipped for a little 'job' he has us doing. We have a few lists, I think. What can ye do?"

[Von Krieger]

"And I was also wondering whom I should talk to regarding information. Lord Edding has hired us for a job, and I'm sure that there is someone about who can answer a few questions I have regarding the situation." Rose adds.

[Morcleon]

His companions having already stated their primary two goals, Lambda finishes with a soft smile, asking, "May we come in?"

[Mial]

"Curious..." Molly muses as she lifts her head and looks around. She then moves the gravel a bit to expose the shining object.

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OOC: If it's something she can readily identify, she'll just lift it from the stream, but if she gets a clear look at it and can't identify it, she may seek the tiger or grounds keeper.