Threads of Entropy IC

[Grymmheart]

Players selected by SomethingElse.

Cyrkinn, halfling ranger, CG, Threeshades
Skeye D'Kannith, human ranger/cyre scout, N, Grymmheart
Mellisandra, changeling rogue, CN, kemmotar
Kythian, (grey) elf [need a PM on this] cloistered cleric, N, Gnarnia
Iosef, human barbarian/cleric, CG, Maurkov
Valzoa, human cleric/exorcist of the silver flame, LG, Voth

[SomethingElse]

It was nearly sunset in Rekkenmark, and the Tower stood high, reaching almost to the setting sun itself. The shadow the idol of military power seemed to cast over the path into the hamlet was an ominous one indeed to the makeshift adventuring party that approached.

As they moved along gradually, the sounds of chatter could be heard from the village. Adventurers came fairly frequently to Rekkenmark, so that was nothing unusual... but this party did not fit the usual cliché, being made up of several individuals of a priestly nature, yet none who understood the arcane arts. This was uncommon in Karrnath, because even though the undead-obsessed culture had a great use for priests, the airship that floated near the tower was a stark reminder to the layman that wizardry was the art of the land.

As the party approached the tanner's shop where they had been told to meet their mysterious employer, a man flung himself before them. He was ragged, and his ears seemed to show a slight point - a half-elf, perhaps?

"How many albatrosses have you slain today, adventurer?" he declared to the leader of the party, and although the adventurer might have been inclined to dismiss this as everday cliché from a townsperson who was excited at the sight of an adventuring party, in this case the beggar's plea seemed a bit more authentic. In the distance, a crow screamed...

[kemmotar]

Belinda (as the party knows melissandra) steps forward and faces the beggar quickly sizing him up and says in a sweet kindly voice, barely audible above the hubbubb of the streets. The language is elven and she has a feeling the beggar in front of hehr may understand it.

Many greetings my friend, where do you come from and what do you want? We have no reason to slay anyone lest the pay be good and the reason just.

[Maurkov]

Iosef

The large priest furrowed his brow and said, "Don't be rude. Speak plain, both of you."

((The past tense looks really weird to me, but I'll try to get used to it.))

[SomethingElse]

The beggar glares at Iosef, as if the idea of speaking plain had been brought up be his mother at the same time she was teaching him to eat his broccoli +1. Then, he turns to Mellisandra and raises his eyebrows.

"Justice and pay generally go together when you want it to," he says. He opens his mouth to say more, but suddenly a young woman comes up behind him, her eyes wide.

"I'm really sorry!" she exclaims. "Uncle Thoris isn't supposed to be out today... it's just that he got really excited." She begins to drag him away, but before she can get him far, he cries out in the most dramatic voice he can muster, "He's not your true master! Don't trust the wizard!" Then, he ceases to give resistance, and allows himself to be pulled away, presumably to his hut.

The door to the tanners' store beckons...

[kemmotar]

Melissandra-Belinda, marks the location where the old man was taken by the young woman, she then smiles at Iosef and says:

It appears this man was the perfect mix of crazy and wise. He knows much and perhaps it drove him mad. Shall we then trust his word or not? If we meet a wizard that is...What do all of you say?

When she finishes talking she looks expectantly at her fellow co-travellers.

[Grymmheart]

Skeye looked on as her companions spoke to the beggar Thoris and his niece. She had only been in the area a few weeks after delivering the information secured from the Mournlands to nobleman Henrik. Her knew companions intrigued her and also offered a diversion from the morbid life she had been living trailing the whispers of the past.

Not one to speak often, Skeye held her tongue and waited to see how things played out. At the opening of the door, she peered into the store.

Spoiler

Show

spot - (1d20+12)[30]

hope to reserve BLue as Skeye dialogue color

[Threeshades]

Cyrkin having trouble to hide that she is not quite happy with her current location, pats the side of the neck of Karom, her clawfoot-steed who kept making steps on the spot like a nervous horse.

Internal thoughts:
Okay, Cyrri - as she likes others to call her - don't let them know that you feel like a paladin in a horde of Hobgoblin-Blackguards.
She straightens her mental shirt Okay, I'm a halfling, I'm supposed to be jolly. Yes I'm jolly!

She sets up a big grin and turns to her companions: "So...!"

[Grymmheart]

Since meeting Cyrkin, Skeye had been most confortable interacting with the diminutive halfling.

"So, let's keep moving," she answered the shortened question. "All wizard are mad if you ask me," she continued in a hushed voice. Thinking back on the Day of Mourning, Skeye continued to hold her reservations on the arcane, as that was the likely cause of the disaster in her mind.

[Threeshades]

Cyrkin felt relieved at the words of her old friend and she knew Karom would appreciate it too.
"The wisest words I heard this day." she replied, "let's go to some other place."
With the index finger of her right hand she poshes up her black headband and scratches her forehead with her middle finger.
"So where are we going to spend the night? Personally I like camping. Especially when it's on politcally neutral grounds."

Only now it appears to her that the others had just been speaking to an inhabitant of the city and she did hardly get a bit of the conversation as she was focused on nervously examining the surroundings.

[kemmotar]

okay, let's just not forget the man we're meeting here. If you want I can go ahead and meet him and I can tell you all what he wants from us when I come back. Belinda says thinking to herself that it would be much easier to learn more from this mysterious contact if she were alone.

If that's okay with all of you, we can arrange a meeting in 2 hours right here so you can show me the way to the place you've decided we should all sleep...and if you don't mind I'd like a room to myself...a woman needs her space she says all the while smiling that beguiling smile she always wore as belinda.

So do we have an agreement?

[Maurkov]

Iosef

It appears this man was the perfect mix of crazy and wise. He knows much and perhaps it drove him mad. Shall we then trust his word or not? If we meet a wizard that is...What do all of you say?

Iosef watches the old man go. "If you ask me, the right amount of crazy to mix with wisdom would be none. None crazy.

"And as for trust, I judge a man by his works not his words. Suppose we meet a wizard who tells us, 'don't trust crazy beggars,' then where would we be? Uncle Thoris doesn't get the benefit of my doubt just because he found us first."

"...Personally I like camping..."

"Nothing wrong with camping, but I do like a bed and a roof when one's available. First, though, the Job."

He ducks as he passes through the door.

[Grymmheart]

"Nothing wrong with camping, but I do like a bed and a roof when one's available. First, though, the Job."

Skeye nodded in agreement and followed Iosef through the doorway. She would let Belinda and Iosef speak, but felt the need to enter in case trouble arose.

[Threeshades]

"Alright... I'm fine with that. No problems at all. It's not like I had something like deep seated emotional problems related to anything that goes on her in Karrnath", Cyrkin resignates and looks around for the stables. "Could one of you ask for the stables? I'm not actually comfortable with leaving Karom alone outside. I'm not exactly sure if it's wise to tell them that we need to get a roof for a six feet long carnivorous reptile though."

[Grymmheart]

Skeye remained hard pressed in not smiling around their smallest companion. She longingly remembers her youth filled with such banter. With a sigh she let's regret wash over her.

[SomethingElse]

As Skeye prepares to enter, she suddenly notices a shadowy figure to the edge of the door. She leaps to the side, then notices that it's rather immobile - and rather inhuman.

"Ooh, fleshy," the Warforged says in an eerily feminine voice. "Many fleshies. My master will be with you shortly." Skeye's pulse seems to lower a bit as it becomes apparent that the Warforged does not plan to attack - and then raises again as "she" steps into the light and reveals that her Mithril-plated body is covered in scars and pockmarks, and her right arm is deeply mangled, a blade from some other warrior wedged in it. The Warforged's eyes seem strange, not asking for pity, but certainly not seeming happy with its lot, either.

[Threeshades]

Internal Thoughts
Okay maybe I should just tell them at some time or the other.

Cyrkin slides off her saddle leads Karom to turn and starts walking around the building looking for a nearby stable.
"Okay, sorry, I will look for the stables myself."

This is like sitting on big giant delicious cake, just that if you try to eat it, it will eat you too. Just much quicker.

[kemmotar]

Belinda-Melissandra

Regretting the fact that she was unable to see this man alone and make the most out of the situation...the hopes of getting in bed with a young beautiful woman always got men talking...and most of the time they tell you more than they ever intended...Nevertheless she smiles thinking if this comes to the worst case scenario at least she has someone to back her up...With these thoughts she warily enters the shop after Iosef...

[Voth]

Valzoa

Taking in her surroundings, Valzoa leaned against a near by wall, her eyes constantly on the move looking for any sort of trouble. She keeps her eyes on the warforge, never fully letting it leave her sight.

[SomethingElse]

The tanner's hut is musty and seems as if it must have been unoccupied for some time. The feeling that this is just a setup for the kind of ambush that adventurers are supposed to be too smart to fall for grows, but nothing happens as the Warforged's mysterious eyes follow the party as they take their places in the room, either standing or sitting on spartan wooden chairs.

In the room above, a clattering can be heard, and then a man comes down the stairs, dressed in brown robes. Liden is an elf, slight but lithe in his movements.

"The adventurers!" he exclaims, as if his best friend from sorcerer college had suddenly reappeared. "You're here, and ahead of schedule, too. What can I do for you all?" The color seems flushed from his face suddenly when the Warforged catches his eye, and he nods at "her." She walks into a back room and begins rummaging, and he is suddenly more solemn.

[SomethingElse]

Cyrkin lead his mount only a few steps before catching site of an inn with stables. Generally innkeepers are fine with horses being stabled for a small fee, and the Talenta are not unheard of in Rekkenmark, since the Last War. Cyrkin began to make his way down the hill and reached the inn door. Above him, the airship began to depart from the Tower and move over the town. Children looked up in awe, far less disinterested than in the adventurers' arrival.

((Sorry folks, I wasn't used to the past tense at first.))

[Maurkov]

Iosef

"What can I do for you all?"

Iosef sat. Leaning forward he said, "Why don't we start with an outline of the problem?"

[SomethingElse]

"It's pretty simple, actually," Liden said. "Silver, you want to show me?" The elf gestured to the warforged, who ambled over. Ambled was the right term, because it became rapidly apparent that she was limping terribly, and Valzoa noticed a dagger lodged near the Warforged's thigh area, sparking as her legs rubbed against one another. Whatever had happened to this Warforged, either "she" had been through a terrible battle, or she had a very kinky sense of fashion.

The answer, sadly, was the more tragic one.

"Something is hunting the Warforged in this town, and the Karrnathi government is involved." The Warforged's declaration was simple and blunt. "Another month, and there won't be any of us left."

"You see," the sorceror said in a sad, yet oddly authentic voice, "I need you to hunt the people responsible. We need you to -"

Liden was suddenly cut off by a loud boom.

Outdoors...

Cyrkin was interrupted in his approach to the inn by a sudden noise - he jerked his head upward reflexively, just in time to catch the airship in flames, smashing into the side of the Tower and then descending toward the town. Screams of children at play turned from joy to terror, Cyrkin's dinosaur emitted a screech - and then the inn caught fire.

[Voth]

Valzoa

"What in the name of the Silver Flame, was that?" yelled Valzoa, suddenly very alert and reaching for her bow.

[Grymmheart]

Skeye listened intently to the man's words. When the warforged approached the group and spoke of being hunted are part of her recoiled in anger. It had been her parent's life's work creating warforged, to hear of such an act brought fury to her.

As the loud boom penetrated her focus, she acted with the others of her group and ran outside to investigate.

[Threeshades]

"What in the nine hells could have done that?!"

Internal Thoughts
Like them or not, you have to help here Cyrri!

Cyrkin leaped back into the saddle to push Karom forward back to where she left the rest of the party hastily while readying her bow.

Spoiler

Show

Ride check for fast mounting up: (1d20+14)[24]

Cyrkin is a she by the way.

[kemmotar]

Belinda-Melisandra

Reflexively upon hearing the explosion she rushed out of the hut and looked for the source of the sound. Seeing the danger to be far away she returned to the hut to inform her companions.

An airship blew up pretty far off...i guess that will be our first lead...but we need some information first. First of all, what's the pay? Second, what authority do you have? Any connection with local law enforcement? Could help a lot with our investigation...and more importantly...why would a tanner care for the warforged?

After hearing the tanner's answer she glanced at the warforged, then at the dagger and said:

May i see that please? Might give us some kind of clue at to who it was that was hunting you...and maybe you can tell us all the details of how you came to be attacked...

[Grymmheart]

While Belinda probed the tanner for added information, Skeye moved off at a slow trot while securing her gear. As more items appeared well in place, her speed picked up until she was running towards the crashed skyship.

"Another tragedy to witness," she said between breaths as she closed in on the scene.

[Gnarnia]

"Albatrosses... albatrosses... why does that sound so important. There's meaning there.

a l b a t r o s s e s... if the letters are moved... hmm... no...

balors seats, of course! Portentious words to be spoken at the seat of power in this dark empire."

The elf's eyes worked their way up the dark tower, lingering on the airship floating next to it.

"Portentious words indeed. We should be wary..."

The elf stopped his words mid sentence, noticing just now that his companions had left him some time ago, standing in the middle of the street outside the tanner's, as though he had about as much use to them as the beggar.

Pushing his disheveled silver hair back behind his ears, he strode into the tanner's hut.

[Threeshades]

"Could you see what happened?"
A familiar voice like that of a very young woman came from behind Skeye becoming louder with every word.
Cyrkin was catching up on her easily with the help of her dinosaur. The halfling had her bow at the ready for any unexpected conflicts.
"How could the airship hit the tower?"