Shattered Star (IC)

[TickleMeTemplar]

"These markings?" Rezah examines his arms, grasping each in turn. The derro! Might they have done this to me?" he asks, offering his arms to the Scribe for further inspection.

[nasus]

Dorit helps the young woman along, humming softly to her.

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She is an imposing 6'4" and 300lb of human woman in plate mail. Along with the impressive physique, she has the telling blonde hair, pale skin and cold blue eyes of the Ulfen people.

[AtomicBanana]

Bessel returns to the female derro's research table and begins frantically looking through the notes, scouring them for lists of test subjects, trying to find if there are further survivors beyond these three.

His tail whaps against the dirty floorstones, one of the many signs of his agitation and anxiety.

[lostsole31]

"Definitely not," the Scribe answers, "these are holy tattoos and brands that .... hello, hold on."

He looks intently at the pectoral mark. "Not a tattoo ... not a brand ... this is a birthmark. This is an auspicious mark, indeed. Just like our insectoid friend, you bear a mark very holy to your faith; and that faith is one of a goddess of healing, redemption, and the sun. Definitely the opposite of what the derro desire ... especially the sun, which is deadly to them. Hmmm, that could be why you, specifically, were captured. Either way, you are a holy warrior for your faith and no doubt at all you are some sort of priest as well, for such markings are for those destined to need Sarenrae to cast spells in the darkest times when no symbol is about them ... like now."

Bessel, as you scan quickly over the notes, the basic idea is that Atalatia's believes that surface-worlder's ability to tolerate the sun without dying is psycho-somatic, and has conducted many psychological experiments in attempting to determine how the unconscious mind manages that resistance.

She also mentions how she will one day displace her magister, Mistres Khrysm, and run her own coven of derro, and lead her people into the sunlit worlds to conquer the world.

[TheCyberwoman]

Natalya, finally gaining some composure feels a pang of guilt over her most recent behavior, but only the closest of observers would notice. Instead, for all intents and purposes, she seems as smiling and calm as a noble caught in a small social foible.

Striding over to Dorit, "My apologies Dorit, how can I be of assistance."

She kneels down to be at eye level with the girl who, while no longer cowering, does not seem to have the strength to stand for very long. Natalya studies her face. Almost to herself,"Well, aren't you just the prettiest little thing. I'm sure there's an angel somewhere under all that muck."
Then more openly, and flashing her warmest smile, "Dorit, here's taking good care of you isn't she, mind if I help her get you all cleaned up and pretty again?

[AtomicBanana]

Bessel continues poring through the notes, trying to wade through Atalatia's preambles and ravings, looking for subjects. He pulls the hood of his poncho low over his head and moves back and forth over the pages, his nose a scant inch from the text. He now mutters absent translations of the words into Gnome as he reads, seemingly unconscious of it.

[nasus]

"I think being pretty is the least of her worries at the moment." Dorit does the classic lick of the thumb and then wipes something off the girl's cheek with it.
"Though we've been in here long enough I'm sure we could all use a bath."

[TickleMeTemplar]

"A holy warrior and priest of Sarenrae..." Rezah says, more to himself than the others. "How would a lost servant of Sarenrae contact his goddess to seek guidance, Scribe?"

[lostsole31]

Natalya

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The cantrip prestidigitation .... which you have ... is perfect for cleanup jobs like this!

In other news. I'll start calling you Ripley, but her name is not likely to be Rebecca/Newt.

The Scribe replies, "By getting out of this den of evil and back to the world of the sun. Then we can figure that stuff out .... after you and the other two are taken to the Arvensoar so they can see who was rescued."

Bessel, what you are finding out is that Atalatia mentions having to answer to Magister Khrysm every week or so. It isn't fair, for surely Atalatia is more beautiful and terrifying, and would make a much better leader for this group that pompous bitch. The author says she would love to get a chance to catch her napping without her "sleepless little pets."

[TickleMeTemplar]

Rezah gestures to the other prisoners and then to the bedroll wrapped around his midsection, "Surely we were not all taken from our baths. There must be something of mine in this infernal place that could at least tell me of my name and my purpose in these lands."

[lostsole31]

"I don't think Fenster there has ever seen a bath. He'd probably melt. Well, friend, what do you suggest? Paxre already mentioned he is damn near out of spells for healing, but we have plenty of consumables."

The Scribe looks at the rest of the group, and calls for Paxre. "Natalya, Ichibod? How are you on spells? Think we're good enough to go looking for their equipment? I have a feeling that the others are only clothes - or in Fenster's case what passes for them. A guy like our half-orc, though, is likely outfitted. Shall we press on and possibly end this? or, do we get them out of here? We'll need someone to stay behind to watch the three of them if we do. That would be Paxre if anyone since he can watch in silence and ambush an ambusher ... and he's out of spells.

"Unless, Green One, you want to come with so you can identify your things? I know we have padded armor in the base camp above, along with a silver flail. Dorit was holding a magical buckler, though she wields that big shield. What say we?"

[Duce]

IC just stands quietly by a wall providing light and keeping a lookout.

[AtomicBanana]

Bessel straightens up from his examination of the documents.
"I vote for continuing if we have the supplies to, even if it's only just enough. When we came down this time I said it was to bring back anyone who was taken; I didn't mean only the first three we happened to come across."

He glances at the girl for a moment. "And if there's anyone else left here that needs rescuing, there's no saying they'd be in just as bad of a condition as her."

Meeting Speckled's eyes, "Or worse."

[TickleMeTemplar]

"I will accompany you and render what assistance I may be able to," Rezah says, rather confidently for one dressed such as he. "Perhaps I will remember something helpful along the way"

[TheCyberwoman]

To Dorit, "I know our priorities might diverge slightly, but never underestimate the power sprucing up has on moral."

To the girl, "This won't hurt turtle dove, and you'll feel a lot better". Feeling a little like a fairy godmother, Natalya casts Prestidigitation on the girl. She's by no means prestine, but the bulk of the grime instantly vanishes, revealing a lovely complexion and a hint of the luster her inky locks might normally shine with. "Not bad."

Natalya smiles at the girl before turning her attention to the Orc.

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Walking over to Rezah, he sees that she's human with long dark hair tied back with a scarf and green eyes. She wears no armor, and more jewelry than is strictly practical for an adventurer, in fact the only utilitarian piece are her finely crafted boots.

"What about you, tall green and...tall? Mind if we pretty you up too?"

[lostsole31]

Stunning. That's pretty much the term one would use for this woman. Now that she's cleaned up, you would say she is about 22 years old or so. And it is likely you have never seen a young woman so beautiful ... to the point and beyond of both heartbreaking and inspiring.

It is enough for a pause as everyone notices ...

"Careful with that cantrip, Natalya. If you use it on Fenster you might just kill..." Speckled suddenly stops as he looks at her. "I do not know your name, but you are the most incredibly beautiful woman I have ever seen.

"Folks, we have definitely saved a noblewoman."

Meanwhile, Paxre is milling about Atlatia's room while Bessel tries to read.

"Hey, guys! Paydirt!" He finds a chest near the bed. Inside the small chest are all sorts of leaves, herbs, and small vials, as well as two larger vials. "These two larger vials are magical!"

Paxre fights his way in through the Fenster's stench, and feeling woozy. He does make one very big gasp, different from the smaller hacking coughs of not handling the stench well. (From training, it is known that he has the weakest Fortitude in the group.) But this gasp is upon seeing the young woman. "Guys, do you know who that IS?!"

Blank stares all around, with the young woman included when she sees a little bug-man. She is too startled and yet somehow intrigued by its cuteness to scream.

"That is Hülya, daughter of Sevda. Well, Sevda - that's her mom's name. Her dad is the incredibly wealthy merchant Izz-al-Din. He's a lesser noble, but an incredibly well-known textile merchant from Katapesh who has a home in Magnimar.


"The young girl's beauty is legendary. Sorry, guys, but she's taken. She's the wife to some guy from Druma - Fathi somesuch. He's some adventurer that conned his way into the family, and brought some exotic woman to live with them. Married rich and brought a lady of his own in ... sounds shadier than me, if you'd ask.

"Listen, I say once we get out of here that we take her to her dad's house for a reward. If we can't get double the amount the mayor is offering - another 500 gp, even more - we can ransom her instead. Obviously, we'd have to work secretly first between her father's house and our group to set up finances. After that, we make a transaction of the money and then drop the other two off. Hey, the mayor will pay his part without question - good for politics in the face of the nobility; and the Avensoar likewise shouldn't bother about any other third offers.

"No one wants Fenster, so that's standard. I don't want to press our luck with the big half-orc and his church, so I think going small with just reward-or-ransom is a pretty sweet deal. She'd be worth a lot, and we'd never harm her.

"So, is that a sound plan? Natalya, I know you could help me pull this off, but what about the rest of you? When you think about it, we really haven't seen a lot of money for all of the trouble this expedition has cost in money and in lives."

[Duce]

We're certainly not holding her or anyone for ransom. We'll take her to her father, and if he rewards us the is great. But we are not kidnappers. Now lets get then to the surface and make sure they are ok. We can come back to finish exploring this level. I know in short of arrows, and in need of rest and recovery. . To the [COLOR="rgb(255, 140, 0)"]I am Ichibod, of the Showanti, at your service.[/COLOR]

[TheCyberwoman]

"Well, isn't that quite the proclamation, Ichabod, sir. It sounds like a plan to me, and I kind of like the idea of getting out of here myself. Though ransom money is awfully...tempting... But, if we're not going to be so crudely practical about things, can we at least send notice to doting husband. He might be grateful, or at least feel the need to put on the airs of gratitude."

[Duce]

I'm certainly not apposed to collecting a reward.

[lostsole31]

Fenster is still naked, and out of his cell he carries some garish, ruddy mass of something fleshy.

"Shush now. Ol' Fenster got y' now," he whsipers.

[AtomicBanana]

Bessel squints at the...fleshy...bundle.

"Fenster, what...is that?"

[lostsole31]

"Once again, Paxre," says Speckled after the others. "I will assume you made a joke. Because if you didn't, that is an attempt to create a conspiracy to commit kidnapping ... of a noblewoman! Need I remind you that we are still in the Crow piling ... of the remains of the old Irespan ... in Magnimar. This means we are subject to the laws of Magnimar. We are lucky to not have too many laws, but kidnapping is definitely one on the books.

"I'm going to say this in the most direct way possible. There is a charm about you, true. You are pretty smart, but I am smarter than you can conceive. That's arrogant, or sounds like it, I know. The thing is, I'm also a lot more far-sighted than yourself. As long as I'm around, nobody is going to fall prey to your little nihilist schemes.

"Yes, I guess we should go with my first instinct and go topside. They cannot stay at Heidmarch Manor, so we should go to the Arvensoar first to find out who this third man is and to give our report."

[Bessel makes comment about Fenster's package...]

"It's miiiine," he sing-song croaks. "Mmiiiiiine. The toiny blueh laydee gave me my very own. Never thought I'd have one. Women just don't take to Ol' Fenster."

Paxre, who is steaming this whole time, breaks this new impasse by rushing forth to check out Fenster's package. "Let's just see!"

He snatches the bundle, but it is slick and goes sailing out of his hands onto the deck with a sickening splat. Paxre stares at it, vomits on himself, and then passes out. Fenster holds his hands to his temples in shock as he goes to his knees, and is about to slosh the thing back into his hands. Hulya gives a bloodcurdling scream and likewise passes out.

I'm not going to roll offline for telling what it is.

It is a small baby fetus.

[AtomicBanana]

Bessel is sickened, but keeps his composure. He slowly walks to the....thing....and examines it for any remaining life.

[lostsole31]

Oh, hell no. It is not fully formed and very, very small. You are nauseated, truly repelled. Flesh in preservatives in a laboratory is one thing, but this is another. Paxre makes his observation and rolls out.

Speckled throws Fenster off of the fetus like a rag doll towards Dorit. "Hold him."

"She miscarried," says Speckled after a quick examination, "likely by her trauma and torture here. And then in further sadism thrown in here and Fenster - just crazy or through some mind altering - made to think it's his own, though he's not fighting too hard right now. Are you, you sick f***? Get him bedrolled."

"Natalya, Ichibod? Torch and light, please. I need good lighting here. Ichibod, since you are a fellow physician, come down here with me and help me with post-mortem. We can't take this thing with us, so it should be done now."

Ichibod is nauseated at first, but his training helps him overcome the initial disgust.

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Holy F-ing wow. Both you AND Speckled get natural 20s on your Heal checks. And I assume you are using surgeon's tools to aid him with the post-mortem. Perfect time for them. With his +11 and your +7 boosted to +9 with your tools, that means 29 on your Aid (sorry, you just aren't good enough yet for a 30 at your best day with tools), giving a +3.

Speckled gets a 31, and then you pop him up to a 34.

Meanwhile, Rezah's mind is totally flooded by memories or the sense of what is happening, and realizes that he has some training, and then shocks everyone with whatever Aid he may give on top, his pure knowledge being quite excellent as well.

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You also give a total of +3 on your Aid, boosting that total to a 37 on the final Heal check.

Speckled Antelope guides the process, please by the puissance of his fellows, including Rezah's own self-discovery.

They point out the forming eyebrows and eyelids, and that the fetus is about 10 inches long with the legs stretched out. Rubbery cartilage turned or turning to bone most of the way through. Subject was male, weighing roughly one pound. Skin is still pretty wrinkly since there is little to no baby fat.

Speckled turns to the others as he gets up. "She - unless there is or was another woman here - was in what we call her third 'trimester,' specifically 23 weeks, with a baby boy. The fetus has been dead a week. It was a miscarriage, and I definitely need to check her health before we move her.

"That, my friends, is the truest face of evil I've seen yet. Poop slung at you? Whatever. Someone trying to kill you? Happens even among supposedly good persons. Even torture? Definitely getting there. But taking a woman's miscarried baby and handing it to the barmy f***er in the cell next to her while convincing him it's his? This is pretty much the worst I have ever seen."

Paxre says, "I'll go get some of the weapons, the padded armor, and the magical buckler from base camp. I'm pretty confident that there's nothing else remaining that we've overlooked. That way, if the Big Green wants to come with us to find his stuff, he'll have some protection."

He looks up to Big Green, "Well, Big Man, I hope you have some sweet moves, because that isn't great protection. So when we return, stay in the back and shoot with the crossbow I'm also fetching."

[TheCyberwoman]

"That's quite a bit for you to carry Pax, why don't we go with with you. Make the new guy carry his own weight, it only seems fair. In fact I insist on it, there will be some food and stuff for him there, he should see our base camp."

[AtomicBanana]

"Shall we just bring everyone to the base camp? Perhaps a drink from that fountain upstairs would help revive the girl, as well as a..." Bessel pauses, glancing around at their grim, laboratory surroundings, "...change in scenery. I also want to peruse these notes more before we leave this place. If there's a chance that the...child was not from the girl, the mother could still be alive somewhere."

[TheCyberwoman]

Natalya studies Bessel's face inquisitively. Not sure if she see's what she's looking for in his foreign features, she nods anyway. "I think that's an excellent idea. If you can't tell I'm ready to put some distance between myself and this room."

[lostsole31]

Paxre nods his head. "I guess that's fair. Once again, I wasn't thinking. Besides, Dorit is the mule."

Speckled looks over at Natalya with the faintest smirk and a slight nod.

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Natalya, you catch the innuendo that he was also suspicious, and he likes the way you handled it.

The notes from all three laboratories are grabbed, not just Atlatia's.

"We'll go back to base camp, but if we're going there," Speckled says, "yes, let's fill and drink the water, but we're going to bivouac there. I am not going to have this lady be trounced all the way upstairs, and then back down, and then down the 1/2-mile sewer tunnel, and then the climb and such into the city."

He takes the Shard of Pride out from somewhere inside his robes, which seems to be in some deep pocket somewherer. He handles it somewhat absent-mindedly, "Besides, perhaps if we spend the night I might be able to hone in on the location of the next shard."

He gives a slight shrug and puts the Shard away into his coin purse, probably for easy access to it later.

Natalya

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Natalya, Speckled gave you the slightest, slightest glance as he did so. Everyone else is oblivious, but you've been around the Scribe long enough that while he has often played absent-minded, he has never seemed that way. Ever. You're pretty sure that there's a hell of a lot better reason for him putting the Shard in a place that's easily pocketed.

Honestly, though, that would only be a factor .... if that was the real Shard of Pride. As he put it away, you just happened to notice something wrong with it .... it is a forgery. A brilliant one he probably had made by someone who had no clue what it was, but you happened to notice with your outstanding senses.

The question, then, is why did Speckled have a fake shard ... take it out from hiding ... and then slip it "absent-mindedly" into his purse?

A sidelong glance at Paxre answers this question when you notice that Paxre seems transfixed by the shard when it's out, and then does what he can (though not obviously so to the others) to not be staring at the purse once it's away.

"We'll go back the way we came so we have no surprises. We'll camp at the cells and post watches. We have torches there for extra light if we need."

Taking the exact path as before, just to be sure, the group goes into the derro hall and down the 10' balcony wall. Then, moving up the winding spiral case to the N-pwy. Then you go up the stairs in the big, god-awful smelling sewer room with the stairs leading up this balcony at all four cardinal directions, and each of the eight medial directions have sewer dumps in them where you fought the cave morays. Then north on that passageway, past the open utility room. You get to that big round room where there is a bridge that goes north, and takes a 90-degree angle to the west. This is the place where the singing and splashing had been heard earlier.

Rezah, a stone bridge supported by stone pillars curves through this cylindrical reservoir. A few feet below the bridge, dark water fills the room. The walls within a few feet of the water’s surface have been painted into a remarkable mural that depicts the skyline of of a large city, complete with numerous ships seeming to float on the waters of the room. The city is large, and it seems like there is a large cliff that cuts the city roughly in two. There is a high section with nicer buildings, and a lower section with everything from moderate to horrible, though this is the place from which the ships are about. There are several curious small monuments that seem somewhat out of place with the architecture of the city; something about them seems fantastic and larger-than-life. Nothing is so like that and magnificent than the ruins of a bridge. Massive pilings just up out of the water, and the magic and technology used for such a feat must have been incredible. It truly seems to be of a long-gone mystic age. The painting is very, very, very good.

There is a voice from the shadows under the bridge. "Good, good. You must have killed some or all four of the derro. But there are more dangers. I am willing to tell you of some of the dangers you'll face to the south, but I ask a favor of you. I am, or was, Captain Lockerbie Brast. I was a fisherman, captain of the Liza Jane. Our ship was attacked by lacedon ghouls. My crew was lost before I could kill the last, but I was already infected by ghoul fever. In my delirium I crashed my ship against the Crow piling."

Everyone except Rezah know that ghouls are icky dead things, though the term "lacedon" ghoul is unfamiliar. Rezah (and Speckled), you recall that you know about such creatures. In fact, you know pretty much all there is to know about the standard lacedon ghoul.

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Lacedon Ghoul
Ghouls in General

"The Liza Jane? That was the name of the sunken trawler we saw in the water when we fought those reefclaws."

[Duce]

And what would you have in return Sir. Ghoul?

[nasus]

Dorit scowls. "Show yourself. I have little patience left today." She draws her sword.