Looking For King (IC)

[Falconknight06]

It's been three days since many of you were given free room and board under the Silver Cliff's Keep. The dungeon rooms come furnished with a small stool, a worn bedroll on the floor, and a bucket in the corner of the room. A small window facing the sea 500 ft below you is your only source of light other than the torches held by the guards outside each of your cells.

All of you pretty quickly found out that there is an antimagic field of no small power completely fills your cell and about ten feet out from your cell. But the fourth night, everything changes.

Some force seemed to compel each of you to be awake, either looking at the stars out your window, or sitting at the table twiddling your thumbs. The guards don't even see what's coming next. A soft *thwip* sound seems to happen five times as each guard falls to the floor, an unnatural green color quickly taking over their faces. A shadowy figure seems to move silently and effortlessly, unlocking each of your cells and motioning you towards a shadowy portal on the floor next to a large chest which you know contains your possessions.

The shadowy figure motions urgently towards the portal, and the sound of footsteps can be heard a ways off, but it is approaching quickly

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All five of you are standing in a very dark room, all of your cell doors have been unlocked. The guards are dead, their torches snuffed out as they fell to the ground. The shadowy figure is motioning towards the portal which seems to be connecting to a field somewhere

[blackjack217]

The instant Aranthe leaves the prison cell he seems to hesitate for an instant, then he continues on to gather his things.

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Casting vigor for 1 point. 19+5 HP. Also, I have low light vision, do I see anything more?

[Aldurin]

Travis wordlessly retrieves his equipment from the chest and equips everything. He takes a moment to make sure his spell pouch and backpack are in order, then he hesitates before deciding that he's best off getting to wherever this portal leads to, jumping right in.

[Falconknight06]

What Aranthe Sees

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Even with your low-light vision, the figures face still seems cloaked in shadows, as if by magic. The figure motions towards the portal again, urging you to enter

Travis

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You emerge in a field, the town lit up a ways away. You figure you're about a mile outside of the gates to town. You see an abandoned cabin, a creature beckoning you in from the doorway

[Aldurin]

Not wasting any time, Travis moves toward the cabin.

[Dancing Shadows]

Rarek quickly gathers his belongings together. He hoists his greatsword onto his shoulder and nods his thanks to the shadowy figure before stepping into the portal.

[TheDivineWind]

Velvet wordlessly waits until last and grabs his few items out of the chest, nods politely to the figure, then steps into the portal.

As he comes out, he finishes adjusting his hat, reattaching the jewelry and his awkwardly large earring, and finally fastens his belt around his waist. His small coin purse tucked deeply into the folds of his clothing.

He idly brushes off a few specks of dirt from his fine clothing as he scans the area and follows the others to the cabin.

[ybot]

Sicarious stands up glaring at the hooded figure. He grabs his belongings but never lets his one eye leave the man until he walks out of the portal. He then turns and follows the others to the cabin.

[blackjack217]

Aranthe walks through the portal and into the cabin.

[Dancing Shadows]

Realizing he has taken too long to get his bearings and all the others have gone forward with out him, Rarek rushes to catch up with them at the cabin.

[Falconknight06]

As the last of the former prisoners enters the cabin, the door closes behind them and the shadowy figure from before steps out of one of the corners of the room, as if made of the shadows themselves.

The figure lowers his hood to reveal the face of a warforged, an unusual sight in these lands, especially a warforged so light on its feet as to be almost silent.

I see everyone is here. I believe we can begin. My employer is offering you a job due to your unique skills and less than moral methods. We need to retrieve an item, by any means necessary. I would recommend subtlety, but that is just my preference.


The warforged moves to the other side of the cabin, eyeing the assembled, reading their faces as best he can. He then continues As for payment, or what the item is, those are up to my employer's discretion. If you're interested, meet him here tomorrow at noon. The warforged tosses six scrolls towards the group, and then marches into another shadow in the corner of the cabin, disappearing into the night as silently as he came.

[Dancing Shadows]

Rarek carefully inspects the scrolls, scratching his head while he does so. I wonder what they are for. Six scrolls, Five men. He grunts to himself before turning to the others.

"I think we should all put some careful thought to this matter. Whoever they are clearly wants us to help them. And they went to the trouble of freeing us from a pretty secure prision. One man took down 5 guards with no trouble. Whether or not they say we have choice, i doubt we do. If we leave then we become a liability and we would be hunted down and killed. I doubt any of us is a challenge for Mr. Silent metal. So fighting back clearly isn't an option. I, for one, am going to comply with their wishes for now and avoid certain doom"

He takes a deep breath and grins at the others "But i guess it's up to you what you want to do"

[ybot]

Sicarius grunts at Rarek. I don't do stuff to "help" people. They pay me and I do what they want. If they pay well enough Ill do, it if not ... then I just hope I can run fast enough. Sicarius looks over the scrolls examining each one to see what it is.

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spell craft check if it is required (d20+8)[25]

[Aldurin]

Reaching for one of the scrolls, Travis says to the others, "This . . . is an opportunity. You may not see it yet, but the fact that a prison break just fell in our laps means that there is someone very powerful behind this. You can either take the opportunity, and strive to get yourself farther, or you can leave it, at best left in paranoia with the burning regret that you never found out what you could have gotten out of this."

[blackjack217]

"A ruthless sort. Unlike the rest of you, I am not so sure that accepting is a great idea. I notice that whoever is behind this hasn't told us who they are, and that they have very capable muscle they aren't relying on to do the job. We're disposable, deniable cats-paws folks. Still, I don't exactly see a choice.

[TheDivineWind]

Velvet's eyes shift from each of the individuals as they speak, listening intently. After they are done, he opens his scroll up and begins reading it to himself.

[Dancing Shadows]

He shrugs at Sicarius "Like, i said, it's your choice"

He then walks behind velvet and reads over his shoulder.

[Falconknight06]

The scroll seems to be in gibberish at first glance, but to those invited into the cabin, the letters morph into a map showing a small camp marked to the east of the town, roughly two miles to the east, along the cliffs overlooking the sea. It says to meet your predictive employer there at noon tomorrow. It also states that you should feel free to stay the night in the cabin, there is food in the cellar and beds upstairs.

[blackjack217]

"Hopefully we will find out what this is all about on the morrow.

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Anyone have any objections to skipping to morning?

[ybot]

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no objection

[Dancing Shadows]

"Yes, tomorrow we shall have the answers we seek. Surely it can't hurt just to show up." Rarek looks around the faces of everyone in the room, trying to get a feel for whether they're in agreement.

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No objection here either. Just as long as everyone in the party is convinced to at least show up tomorrow.

[TheDivineWind]

Velvet shifts his gaze to the man behind him, then to the rest of the group as they speak of spending the night here.

"A night in an abandoned cabin of benefactor prepared for us with a gaggle of people whom only just recently were broken out a prison.

I prefer to reach the meeting point now."

He rolls the scroll back up and heads for the door.

[Aldurin]

Travis rolls his eyes as he watches Velvet leave, "Impatient and foolish. If someone wants to hire us for a job important enough to break us out of prison with such powerful measures, then I doubt we're going to be subject to anything worth the paranoia." He heads down to the cellar to have his first fulfilling meal since his pre-incarceration days.

[blackjack217]

"Agreed. We won't be harmed until we have completed whatever task they brought us out of prison to accomplish. I do not know enough about their MO to guess what they will do after."

[Dancing Shadows]

Rarek follows the smooth-tounged man through the door, grabs his shoulder and hisses at him, "You idiot! do you really think the city's not going to have patrols looking for us?! They're going to be on high alert searching for 5 prisoners that recently broke out of a pretty dam powerful prision. If you go now you'll be on your own. you'll have for to wait for hours outside, visible for as far as the eye can see, cold and wet and hungry. I swear that if you wait no harm will come to you in the cabin."

[ybot]

Sicarius laughs at Velvet and turns to Rarek. Let the fool leave if he wants. turning to Velvet he states I personally don't think any of you would be stupid enough to attack someone else, so I feel pretty safe sleeping right here. Sicarius follows the rest of them into the basement

[TheDivineWind]

Velvet blinks once at the man who tried to persuade him to stay (Rarek), and only smiles. A slight hiss comes from deep in his throat, and if one listened carefully enough they may have sounded like words. As the noise completed his clothes, face, and stature melted into a hunched older man in poor travelling robes.

When Velvet spoke, his own voice came through, "He broke you lot out of prison. Don't assume things."

With that, he begins his walk towards the location on the map.

[Falconknight06]

Velvet

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The trek to the meeting place is long and miserable, and you are forced to hide from a few patrols of guards on your way, but you make it to the spot for the meeting tomorrow. The meeting place seems to just be a pond about five miles outside of the town.

Everyone else

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With the food downstairs, all who would like are able to scrape together a filling meal, a marked improvement over what you were served in the prison

[TheDivineWind]

Having finally reached his destination, Velvet looks for a spot hidden from the open road. After nearly a week surrounded by such mentally loud people, it was nice to finally get some peace and quiet.

He reaches into his pack and pulls out a trail ration from the a small box, then the empty mug. Bringing the mug up to his face, he whispers to it and it suddenly begins filling with a thin wine. Nothing too strong, but just enough to take the edge off of the headache he gets whenever he is stuck next to the same group of people for too long.

Leaning up against a tree, hidden by bushes, Velvet eats his food and closes his eyes, listening to the world around him and the distinct silence of mental activity in the area.

[blackjack217]

"Well early to bed, early to rise and all that." Say Aranthe after he has finished a satisfying, though somewhat bland, meal.