Fear and Loathing in the Greenbelt (IC Thread III)

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Beastwoman to the north? I think you're talking about Dame Loris and i wouldn't consider her a beast. Not anymore.
I don't have any more questions. So unless anybody else wants to know something i'm ready to head back to Twylight. "

[stack]

Johan nods. "We seem to be done here and have work to do."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"I suppose. We promised to let you go if you supplied us with some information. Though always keep in mind that there are mortals that can take you down pretty easily if you do anything evil."

Maple walks to Johan and whispers something.

"Only take the magical stuff, leave the common stuff behind. Seeing as we are not killing her, best not leave her with no cloth or something... That would be a bit mean..."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"No Maple. I'm taking it all as payment for the time she controlled my mind.
My time is valuable and there's a price to pay for taking that time.
Alistar swore none of us would harm her, and that's exactly what will happen. She still has the clothes she's wearing, that should be enough."

[SamBurke]

Fermor shrugs. "Seems a li'l 'arsh ta me, bu' I warn't the one that done got 'isself taken over. Don't be a dung heap about it, but do as ye will?"

[Sithis]

Alistar

"Roquan, I know your pride has been hurt, but suck it up. We don't have time for this ****, we need to go."

He turns to the fae. "Thank you for the information, Lady. I think it will be quite helpful. I truly am sorry for the way this turned out. Perhaps if we meet again, we can keep everything more civil. You are free to go, or stay, as you will."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Maple puts a hand on Roqoan's shoulder.

"Caster Roqoan, do you want to remembered as the vindictive king, or a benevolent king?"

She then goes and whispers something to Alistar.

"A little warning. You might want to rinse yourself off pretty well before meeting Wolfy Loris. I don't really understand your relationship with her too much, but I don't think she'd like the smell of women's perfume and scent on you... There might be some misunderstandings."

[stack]

"I'm more concerned about her coming back to make trouble for us later, but it is too late to do anything but free her. Her mundane possessions mean little enough to us, let her keep them if she wishes provided we never see her or any under her power again."

[Sithis]

Alistar

"Dammit Maple, it's not like that..."


*sniff*


...but you're not entirely wrong. Gah, that smell from earlier is still sticking to me too."

Spoiler

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Yah, Alistar is gonna jump in a stream/river/other sufficiently big body of water at the first opportunity on the way back.

[Lost Demiurge]

The lady smirks, and sits on the edge of her bed.

"Go on and leave. I shall abide until you are gone, then fly to another place. The River Kingdoms are full of quiet places, where mortals rarely tread."

"Fear not. You shall never see me again, so long as you abide by your word."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"May our paths never meet."

Maple says, as she begins walking back to the fallen portcullis.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin smirks "May your remaining days be filled with joyous song and laughter with friends." She tosses the butchered fae head towards the woman and stalks off after Maple. She had had way too long of a day and now she needed to deal with ghost balls instead of dragons and trolls.

[SamBurke]

Fermor shakes his head. "Ord'narly, I'd'a said they was bein' unkind, misreprasentin' us dwurves. Bu' ye ain't been tha nicest o wimmin, either... but I da hope ya find peace wi' whatever deity ye claim as "truth," a'ight?" He shrugs, unsure of where else to go with that, bows, and walks behind the others.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Fine we'll leave the non magical stuff for her. The perfume smells horrible anyway. And that neglige wont fit me.... But the money is coming with us, and no Maple not as a personal vendetta. She did some bad things over the years and we'll use the money to do some good things. And that snake statue is coming with us, magical or not, because of......well you all know why. And she doesn't need to know.
Let me just see what is magical here."
Roqoan casts detect magic and takes a good look at the items.

"Oh, and Dancing Lady, are you sure there isn't anything you've forgotten to tell us that can be usefull? Something that seems useless to you can be usefull for us."
Roqoan will also use his mind reader ability to try and peer into her head.

Spoiler

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None of us have so far thought of checking the items for magic and that way it's hard to determine what we're taking with us
Here's the list of what Alistar found as a reminder:

A life size alabaster statue of a nude, dancing elven woman...
A harp, masterworked with excellence...
A small, carved jade statuette of a coiling snake, shot through with black bits... (This one feels WRONG to Alistar.)
And an ancient, filigreed water clock.
There is also a finely carved wardrobe that contains women's clothes. Two royal outfits, three courtier's outfits, and some... interesting looking negligee.
A wooden coffer atop a nearby table hlds three vials of exotic perfume, a gem studded tiara, and a sparkly vial of something or the other.
A nearby chest holds about 420 gp in various coin types and mintings, some of them quite old.

[Lost Demiurge]

The Dancing lady snorts. "I have answered all your questions well and truly. If you didn't ask the right ones, that's on you, not me."

ROQOAN

Spoiler

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Sweet Abadar, her mind is a mess of malice and self-pity. She feels quite annoyed at the entire situation, though she's just glad to be getting out of here alive.

She IS however hoping that you leave here without raiding the northeast tower, where the Quickling (Rigg) kept his stuff. She plans to grab that treasure before she leaves.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Alright, then there's one more thing to do and that is to search the norhteast tower.
There's some nice stuff in there that used to belong to that quick thing that Brin killed. It tried to steal our stuff so i'm betting all the stuff in that tower is stolen as well. It doesn't belong to the Dancing Lady here, so she wont mind if we take that with us."
He smiles at the Dancing Lady.
"You're not the only one that is good with other people's minds, you know.

Oh and Maple, her mind is filled with malice and self-pity. So i don't think you should try to be nice to her, she's only worried about herself here. She's not even thinking about her dead lover or her guardian, the only thing she thinks about is herself. And malice."

Spoiler

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LD, anything on Roqoan's detect magic?

[Lost Demiurge]

Spoiler

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Nothing's magical save for the snake statuette.

The Lady rolls her eyes, and examines her elegantly manicured nails. "Die in a fire," she advises to Roqoan.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin stops at the mention of the tower, grunts and proceeds in that general direction. She did kill the damn thing so should get first look at it's possessions you never know there may be something of use for her there.

Spoiler

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Yeah going to loot the tower, active perception btw
(1d20+14)[33]

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Roqoan watches as Brin walks to the northeast. He knew she would want to claim the rewards of her kill.
"No thanks." He says to the Dancing Lady and sits down for a moment.

"Statue's magical. All the other things aren't. Too bad, i would have liked that clock."
He looks at the Dancing Lady again. "If you want you could donate the rest of the stuff to us. You know, lighten your load so you can travel a bit faster. Unless you need that clock to keep the time obviously, wouldn't want you to be late to wherever you're going."
Roqoan enjoys these little insults he can throw at her.
Alistar's oath may stop him from killing her. And Maple 's actions may be stopping him from taking her stuff. But insulting her is making him feel a little bit better.

[Lost Demiurge]

The Lady yawns elegantly, stretching, and examining her wrist. She touches a dab of perfume to it, and replaces the bottle.

After a long minute, she looks up in mock surprise.

"Oh, are you still here? I thought I heard an insect buzzing around..."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Nobody is stopping you from taking a swing at that insect. Go ahead and see what happens."

[Sithis]

Alistar

"Alright, seriously. That's enough. We're leaving. Things to do, bad things to stop. Come on Roqoan." Alistar grabs Roqoan by the shirt and starts dragging him away.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Fine, fine, i'll come with you.
But i'm going to the northeast tower first to see what Brin found. I think we might need all the help we can get to make sure this druid and the monolith don't kill all of us."
Roqoan follows Alistar out of the building in wich the Dancing Lady is and heads towards the northeast tower.

[Lost Demiurge]

"If your plan was to bore me to death, you are succeeding."

"If on the other hand you are flirting, then no thank you. Your physique is equivalent to a stuffed cabbage, your features are more ill-formed than an ettin who settles his disagreements with himself by head-butting, and your breath could kill pixies at twenty paces. Furthermore, you are going to go bald early."

She smiles and waves as Alistar drags Roqoan out. "Buh-bye."

[SamBurke]

Is it possible? Yes, probably. Fermor is laughing, with the two most obstinate people on the face of the planet head to head. "Och, och! Stop! I cannae keep a strai' face wi' ye two!" He wipes a tear from his eye, and follows the others, repeating first one side's insults, then the others'. "If sha warn't evil, I'd'a kep' 'er, jes for the annoyin' o' Roquan."

[stack]

Johan chuckles, sharing Fermor's mirth to the extent that he tell Roquan that he had checked for magic while he was unconscious before the effort is repeated. Finally collecting himself, he follows to the tower, keeping an eye out for any magic signatures.

"I have heard it said that if you must kill someone, it costs you nothing to be polite. I suppose Roquan believes the inverse is also true, letting someone live and being rude."

[Lost Demiurge]

At first, the Northeast tower seems rather bare. A small hammock, a few sets of clothes, some carved wooden trinkets. (Most of them a bit disturbing.)

But Brin spots the removable floorboard, and uncovers a hoard of coins and gems... This little magpie has been pilfering for quite some time.


APPRAISE CHECK DC 16

Spoiler

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All told the stuff's worth about 1200 GP.

The horses remain where you left them, with Cloud asleep nearby. it's getting quite dark out.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin discovered the tiny hoard with smug satisfaction, it cetainly wasn't worth the trouble but taking into account that they now had a fort that they could use as a rest stop it wasn't so bad... As long as some douchey duke didn't come along and claim it when they didn't earn it.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

While the others are searching the northeast tower, Roqoan does something more important. He goes to the entrance of the castle and to every hole in the wall or other way in he can find.
He uses his magic to create an arcane mark. He marks every entrance with the sign of the Greenbelt Commonwealth. To make sure that everybody knows who this place belongs too.
In the courtyard he places the floorboard Brin removed in sight of everybody that would enter the castle. It reads:

This castle has been cleared of foes by Roqoan, Brinhelda Stormsinger, Alistar Crowley, Maple Leafsinger, Johan Empty-Hand and Fermor Son of Glory.
This castle will soon be populated by settlers from the Greenbelt Commonwealth. If you have entered this keep and wish to settle it yourself, be warned that we will throw you out once we find you.

It is possible to settle this keep with our permission. Inquire at Twylight Hold (ask for Curska) and we will probably find a way to arrange you settling here. But only with our permission.

Have a nice day.
Roqoan

Roqoan feels a lot better now that he arranged that. If Drelev wants to take this castle, he wont be able to say he didn't know who it belonged too.
And he will never take this without a fight.

[Lost Demiurge]

After a while of marking things, the fae lady appears in the upper window of the keep. She looks down, with a somewhat ludicrous expression on her face, that only goes as Roqoan keeps casting, painting, and moving.

Finally she buries her face in her hands for a long minute, as her shoulders shake.

Eventually she looks up and remarks: "What's your next step? Will you perhaps drop your trousers and urinate about the place, to mark your territory properly?"