Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"Well, they wore green robes, and had wicked daggers of some kind. I assume the whole 'other god' thing was why they were whispering about it. So, how much do you think we can get for it?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shrugs. "Spite, maybe. Or maybe you heard wrong? In any case, does it matter much?" The Mokai woman taps a doeskin boot on the strange purple stone floor. "And you didn't answer my question: Worth our while?"

[Ozzy_G]

Um, well, says Rego, seeming rather unsure, I'd imagine it would be worth a bit to a collector, or a priest of Syra. Did they say if it was the actual thing, or just a copy?

[Lycar]

Akim ponders "Isn't it also being said that each of those books are fairly powerful artifacts in and of themselves ? Except.... of all the 20 books, only one is the real deal, the other 19.... woe onto those who try to summon their powers. Or so i have read. Still, should fetch a good price from a collector. Or from someone foolish enough to try his luck."

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
"And there's scholarly fools aplenty," Livina remarks, without apparent irony. "On the other hand," she adds, "From the sounds of it, we'd have to pry the book from their cold dead fingers. We'd be taking on a lot of risk for only a potential payout. Whereas the dwarf crypt is almost certain, and if we're good enough we don't hafta fight them at all."
She tilts her head to one side, apparently thinking.
"Any chance of ambushing them, Kizima?"

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"Now that you mention it, they did say 'copy'. Okay, if it's worthless, then we should avoid trying for it. As for the cultists, you and I could probably sneak close enough undetected to get the three I saw before they could raise the alarm," she alternates between pointing at herself and at Livina. "And if they sound the alarm, it's not like we'll have lost the element of surprise any more than if we had gone in there charging."

[Lycar]

"A copy you say ? Well, if we should chance upon it, it should be worth some coin to a collector all right. But our first priority is to get past them without them detecting us of course. Right then, do you think you can lead us past them ?"

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Livina looks pointedly at the metal-clad Krashnix and the mule.
"Only if they're deaf or the loudest chanters in the world, I should think." she replies. "Y'know, with the benefit of hindsight, some sort of magic silence-making thingy would've been pretty handy."
She crosses her arms
"And my two coppers is this; Not bloody risking my life for a copy of a text. Artifacts are worth stuff, but my nose tells me that there's better stuff to be found in old dwarven tombs than 'round cultists. The nice thing would be to take out who we can quietly, and try and lure the rest through the portal to be ambushed."

[Lycar]

Akim ponders for a moment.

(Wait a moment.. i think i remember a story....)

"We should avoid a fight if at all possible. Now i can still cast Invisibility two more times. Do you think it would be feasible to hide our party on the other side of the portal, then someone fast alerts the cultists to his or her presence and lures them through the portal ? I shall be waiting on this side under invisibility, waiting to cast the spell on whoever and slip through the gate again, unnoticed. And we make our escape while they will be looking for us this side of the portal ?"

"On the other hand... if they didn't know about the portal before, they certainly will know then. And we still want to get back too...."

Akim ponders some more but doesn't seem to like what is crossing his mind.

Lycar

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"It wouldn't be impossible for them to hear us, though it would be difficult, seeing as they're quite distracted. Still, I think we can get those three without wasting any more spells. If they're just sitting there, I don't think it will be hard for Livina and I to take them out before they have a chance to react. But if you're really hoping to avoid a fight...remember that these guys are just lackeys. There are a lot more cultists here."

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina nods. "Okay. You and I go through and take out just the three?" She reaches back and reties the ribbon in her hair.
She smiles and cracks her knuckles.
"Ready to go?"

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix, up until this point, has been looking with curiosity at the weird architecture of the ruins and not really paying much attention to what has been happening. When he realises they the group is about to travel through the portal he speaks again.

I can cast a spell to make us all silent. However it does not last long and requires us all to stay close together, but it will allow us to sneak past anyone we encounter. I do agree with Akim that it would be better to avoid a fight if possible. Perhaps it would be better to cause a distraction on the other side of the portal away from it, so the cultists are attracted to that. That would mean that they would not discover the portal and we could slip through unnoticed.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina blinks. Leave it to magic to do in six seconds what took a lifetime's study at the school of hard knocks to learn.
"Wait, silent? Like, making no noise? Even you with your clanking and stamping? Damn, that's impressive. How long would it last?"

[Ozzy_G]

Rego raises one hand nervously. Um, if we're silent and invisible, and we all have to keep together, hadn't we better all hold hands or something? Because otherwise we won't know where the others are.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shakes her head.
"I shouldn't think Akim's got enough arcane virility to make us all invisible and silent at once. Quiet should be good enough; We can just murder anyone who sees us quickly."

[Lycar]

Akim quirks an eyebrow at Livinia "Interesting choice of words there.... yes but i am afraid i am sadly not capable of rendering the entire expedition invisible. Also this would be highly impractical, after all, we don't want to bump into each other accidentially."

"Oh and i was NOT refering to the 'arcane virility' thing just now."

"Anyway, the sooner we go, the sooner we will be out of harms way, so, ready when you are ?"

Lycar

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima surpresses a snicker at Livina's phrasing of Akim's magical stores.

"Even if we're quiet, they'll notice us coming. The passages are not too wide, to my recollection, and they have plenty of fighting room. Besides, they'd see us fairly far off if we used a light, as it's dark beyond the fire. I'm not sure why anyone's thinking we really have a chance to avoid combat. This place is swarming with cultists. If we manage to avoid these three, there'll be plenty more. It's just not practical. And believe me, I don't like fighting that much, I'm just trying to be realistic. I do sneak past guards for a living, you know."

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina nods her assent.
"Okay okay, so we'll get our hands dirty. But you and I can probably take out the three by the campfire quietly. Toss their corpses back through the portal and then move on, right? Easy. Hey, Rego; Do you know how to get to the surface from that portal?"

[Ozzy_G]

Rego shakes his head. No, I don't, sorry. I've never been through. The few scholars who went through were mostly killed by the cultists. One guy did escape to the surface, which is how we know where it is, but he just ran blindly. He said he just followed all the stairways that went up, so we could try that.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina kicks at the stone floor glumly.
"Running blind through a cultist-infested temple. Not what I signed up for; I was kinda hoping to take stuff from people who've been dead for hundreds of years. They don't make a fuss or try and sacrifice me to mad old deities."
She squares her shoulders and a determined look enters her brown eyes.
"Fine. I've got some aggression to work out anyways."
Kicking off from the floor with one graceful foot, Livina leaps up into the air. With the speed and accuracy of a swordsman's blade, her other foot scythes through the air in a spinning kick aimed at nothing in particular. Landing once more with barely a sound, Livina begins walking towards the portal. She pauses at the threshhold of the disturbing grey vertical sheet, apparently waiting for some indication that the yet-invisible Kizima is following her.

[Lycar]

"Very well then, just don't expect me to be of much use in a fight and i shall not disappoint." Akim remarks with a sigh.


Lycar

[Regwon]

Krashnix

The silence spell will last about eight minutes. We will all have to stay close together because it has a limited radius. Once we are through the portal I think Kizima should scout ahead slightly. If we encounter any cultists, that we cant possibly avoid then i shall cast the silence spell and we will remove them. I have no qualms about killing followers of Silarthis. They are scum, nothing more can be said. Once the spell has been cast we must move quickly through the ruins. Rego Vel will lead us in the direction he think is best. Hopefully we will be out of cultist territory by the time the spell has ended, or we risk alerting the hornets nest. I have no desire to have to battle an entire cult, and if anyone does they are more then likely to get themselves killed if they attempt such a task. Let us be off.

Krashnix readies he shield and mace and walks over to the portal.

[Ozzy_G]

Krashnix waves his hands and mutters, and you step through the portal, your footsteps... not there. It's slightly disconcerting to move in absolute silence. You cannot even hear the sound of your own breathing.
The room on the other side is pitch black. You eyes slowly adjust, and you see that there is a small amount of light coming from around a corner. You cannot yet make out each other's shapes, nor can you hear each other due to the spell.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina pauses in midstride.
Okay, that's a disadvantage. They can't hear us, but we can't hear them or each other...
The Mokai woman casts her mind back to just a few seconds earlier. How had they been standing? Kizima had been in front, of course, and Livina had been right next to her...Did the slower ones follow behind? Yeah. They must have.
Livina paces slowly forward, counting on the heavy footfalls of Krashnix and the mule to carry through the stone to her feet. Just to know they're there.

[Lycar]

Akim patiently waits for his turn to step to the portal. Just as he is about to walk through it occours to him to end the light spell he cast on his staff.

Wouldn't do to be silent but brightly lit to remain unnoticed after all.

Arriving on the other side, Akim finds himself engulfed by darkness. While he had expected the darness, the sheer enormity of being deprived of all visual and aural stimuli is overwhelming. Fighting a raising panic he can just stop himself from casting Light again, first because it would ruin the Advantage of Not Being Seen, second because he won't be able to complete the verbal component of the spell anyway, thanks to the Silence effect.

As his eyes slowly adjust to the dim glow of illumination, he finally manages to reign in his flight reflex. At least for now. Now to get one's bearings and let's not loose contact with the others.

(Strange) he thought, (i was never aware of how much we actually use our hearing for orientation when our eyes fail us.)

Lycar

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima leads Livina around by hand, hoping Livina will pick up on the idea. She retraces her steps slowly, and peeks around the corner where she could see the cultists from.

Okay...now how do we discuss tactics, exactly? This was the worst plan ever. Maybe we let Big Armored Guy charge in? I'll just get my crossbow out for now.

She unholsters her crossbow and slips a bolt into her other hand, but she does not begin loading.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Feeling the small hand of Kizima leading her along, Livina reaches back blindly and gropes for the nearest person behind as she follows.

As the group reaches the corner, the Mokai woman notes with some relief the presence of a little firelight here in the depths of the Earth.
Phew. That was a little scary.
Livina peeks around the corner and tries to size up the three cultists.
Uh... Now, how are we going to communicate? This was a bad idea...we should've just had the noisemakers walk in the silence.
Livina turns to ensure that everyone has followed behind...

[Ozzy_G]

The three cultists are still chatting away, but you cannot hear what they say. They have daggers on their belts, but no armour as far as you can see.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina thinks for a second, and then reaches out to grasp Krashnix's wrist. She gives it a brief tug, and indicates the cultists with a toss of the head. She holds up a hand, though, and then taps on Kizima's shoulder, gesturing towards the cultists. Towards the other two and the mule, she simply holds up both her hands, and then points at the ground, firmly.
Okay, hopefully they got the message.

[Lycar]

Akim fidgets around with his elven staff nervously, hoping to get done with the violent part soon.

Seeing Lavinia's gestures, he just nods at her and plants his staff firmly on the ground in front of him.

(Like i need any encouragement to stay well out of trouble. As far as this is possible in my situation.. *sigh*)

Lycar