Action Thread 12

[Argennian]

"This is obviously the ghouls' nest. Let's get the stuff worth getting and clear on out of here, shall we?"

Good idea, says Bruard. Yosef and I can check out the scrolls back at our base camp.

Even from where Yosef stands ready with bow and arrow, the stench is overpowering. He smiles at the lucky find and excitedly nods his agreement. "Aye, let us return to the tower and see what Till has found! I need to reequip a few things anyways..."

[Alethan]

Returning to the tower...

[rredmond]

Day 15 – 4:35p


.

Comfortable that the area is pretty well cleared out, and hungry the crew goes back to base.
Everyone relaxes and inspects their loot.

PMs on the scrolls.

HPs: Jeloon - 22/29; Till - 33/36; Yosef - 9/10; Bruard - 15/19; Derek - 32/40
WIH: Till: short sword (15' radius light); Jeloon: Longsword (20' radius light), shield; Derek: Longsword (20' radius light), shield; Yosef: bow and arrow [or long sword]; Bruard: Mace, shield; Van: +1 ogre spear, shield; Eyman: +1 Battle Axe, shield
MO: 1- Jeloon & Derek; 2- Till; 3- Bruard & Eyman; 4- Ancor, Rosin, DAMs; 5- Yosef & Van
Consumables: Lantern - (Till) 2 hours, 25 minutes left (off), 30' radius; Torch, 58 minutes (off), 40' radius; Torch, 60 minutes (off), 40' radius.
--------Spells: Yosef: 1-0/2, 2-1/1; Bruard: 1-3/5, 2-4/4

[Alethan]

OOC: Anyone have any detect magic spells left? Probably could use it on the shield... of course, we could just hold on to it until we have a few more items to check, and cast it then.

We also need to discuss the ring...

[Argennian]

After the party has returned to the tower and completed their makeshift barrier using what they could from the compound to secure the tower opening, Yosef will settle down to investigate the scroll...

.

Comfortable that the area is pretty well cleared out, and hungry the crew goes back to base.
Everyone relaxes and inspects their loot.

PMs on the scrolls.

.

Yosef finishes his examination of the scroll. "Curious. Curious indeed..." He eventually looks up to the others. "It is most definitely a mage scroll. The spell contained upon it, however, is strangely unique and one I have not seen before. It appears that the vocal component is: Iron Blood. I see both a needle and a pinch of iron dust being used as the material components. I might be wrong but I do believe that the spell can increase one's ability to take damage. I could cast it on myself or another by touch. Unfortunetly, I admit the actual specifics of the spell won't be known until I can cast it. Had I magical ink and the proper pen, I would scribe the spell into my spell book. Since I do not, I cannot. Still, it is a valuable find, friends, and could be used at a time when one of us might need it!"

The elf will be sure to look amongst the parties possessions to attain the components needed to cast the spell from memory, but knows without magical ink and pen, it must remain to be read off as a spell scroll.

OOC: Anyone have any detect magic spells left? Probably could use it on the shield... of course, we could just hold on to it until we have a few more items to check, and cast it then.

We also need to discuss the ring...

OOC: Agreed. Yosef doesn't have one ready but can rest and memorize one, which I'm thinking that would be a prudent move regardless at this juncture. Not sure if Bruard has one left at present and need to read up about the differences between the clerical and arcane magics involved.

And yes, the ring!

~ Although Yosef is openly nervous about trying to utilize and therefore identify the ring, he will not attempt to keep it from Till or anyone else, as it is not rightfully his to begin with. (Besides, IC, when was the last time that Yosef could resist Till's secret powers of persuasion? )

[Alethan]

"That does sound like a grand spell, indeed, Yosef. You, in particular, might find it of great use, especially if you can cast it more than once! Why not hold on to it a while and we'll see if we can find you some ink and a pen or two... I'd hate to see such a unique spell go to waste with the one use! Now... weren't there two scrolls?"

OOC: Was that scroll the one in the scroll tube or the one that was loose? If the latter, we should definitely stick it in the map case Till picked up from the dirty dwarves. We probably don't need that map anymore (... have we tried casting read magic on the map? I can't remember) so protecting that scroll would be a higher priority. Did Yosef or Bruard get the second scroll?

[rredmond]

Bruard got the second scroll, and that was the one that was loose.

[Argennian]

"That does sound like a grand spell, indeed, Yosef. You, in particular, might find it of great use, especially if you can cast it more than once! Why not hold on to it a while and we'll see if we can find you some ink and a pen or two... I'd hate to see such a unique spell go to waste with the one use! Now... weren't there two scrolls?"

"Aye," answers Yosef as he removes the other scroll (that was found on the suspected mage's husk in the spider webs) from his bone scroll case. "This is the scroll with three mage spells upon it: Slow(3rd), Teleport(5th) and Antipathy/Sympathy(8th), that was found earlier. I can keep the Iron Blood scroll in this case. Friend Bruard, use this case for the loose scroll, if you would like..." Yosef offers the (leather?) scroll case found to the cleric of Shinare.

He then looks to Till and the others. "Well friends, what shall our plan be on the morrow? I know that Master Bruard has used the Helm of Sight here but perhaps there might be something, something we didn't check? I think we should also check around the outside of the entire compound for a secret entrance or hidey hole. I was hoping to find some clues here that could help us..."

OOC: (... have we tried casting read magic on the map? I can't remember)

OOC: If you're referring to the dwarves' map of the wood giant crypt then yep, Yosef used a Read Magic spell on it, which revealed nothing.

[Alethan]

OOC: Oh, were we using the scroll tube from the map for the other scroll? I guess I'd forgotten that. Dang, we need more scroll tubes! Let's find out what is on the loose scroll before you give up the one, Argennian. We'll have to determine which one is most valuable.

Hey, that dwarven cleric used a scroll on us in that fight... did he have it in a scroll case, Mr. GM? If so, I think it's safe to say we would have picked it off of him.

"That sounds like a good plan, Yosef. What were ya thinkin' we might find here? Clues as to what happened to Rogahn and Zelligar? Or information about the ruined city we're supposed to find past the pass?"

"I think we should rest up in the tower here. Before I hit the sack, though, I'm going to spend a little time examining those four gems we found and see what they're worth. Tonight, we'll barricade ourselves in and set a watch on the tower - two people per shift, with me, Jeloon, and Yosef split up so that we can have someone with night vision and someone using the helm for three of the shifts. The other shift (maybe the earliest or the last) will have to be just one person with the helm and one person without - maybe whoever has the most experience with night watches, like Van. In the morning, we should have someone prepare a detect magic spell, and then cast it on the shield and the two purses."

"And then? Well, then we'll follow your lead around the compound, Yosef, and see what we can find out!"

[ToniXX]

Sorry for my delay... work=busy

Bruard examines the scroll and says It looks like this one contains a Neutralize Poison spell and one for Plane Shift. Wow, the first one could come in handy for sure... Not too sure what we could do with the second one, but we have it.

Bruard agrees to the watch cycle: Put me on whatever shift seems best.

[Alethan]

Sorry for my delay... work=busy

When you're contracted, self-employed, or working for a small company, this is never a bad thing.

Bruard examines the scroll and says It looks like this one contains a Neutralize Poison spell and one for Plane Shift. Wow, the first one could come in handy for sure... Not too sure what we could do with the second one, but we have it.

Bruard agrees to the watch cycle: Put me on whatever shift seems best.

OOC: I need to update the treasure thread. I think I've missed some things somewhere... didn't the scroll we found in the desk have a neutralize poison spell on it, as well? Never bad to have two of those handy!

I'll try to do that tonight.

[ToniXX]

Bruard adds:I don't have detect magic currently available, but should in the morning, provided we get enough sleep.

[Argennian]

Bruard adds:I don't have detect magic currently available, but should in the morning, provided we get enough sleep.

"I agree and will memorize one as well, friend Bruard," offers Yosef to his clerical companion, then also facing Till, Jeloon, Derek and the others. "That is granted that we are agreed in spending at least the day here tomorrow investigating this place and the near surroundings. I have a gut feeling, as Dravic used to say, and feel that we have not yet discovered everything about this place. Having another day to further recuperate and prepare our next move in our quest would be a prudent choice, if I may offer it to be so. I would also like to further research the ring and other items we have recovered. We must be sure that we are not missing something here and that we better understand all that we have found and accomplished to this point."

[Alethan]

"Aye, a day of resting up and exploring the compound sounds like a good idea."

[Alethan]

Expanding on that early-morning thought...

Argennian, I think you have some plans in mind for what else you'd like to do in this area, so Till will follow Yosef's lead here. Just let him know what you want done and he'll get to it.

As an aside, I was thinking it might be a good idea to a) work on repairing the tower doors and then b) figure out an easy way of locking them from the inside (or repairing the bracing/barring mechanism on the inside of the door). Then, when we leave the tower, we can have Till secure the doors from the inside and leave via the top of the tower (using his grappling hook, setting it up so he can disengage it once he's at the bottom). That way, should we need a safe place to come back to, we can return to a hopefully still secure tower (that we'd gain entrance to by having Till once again scale the tower with the grappling hook and go down inside to unsecure the door).

Also, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to set someone up on the tower as a watch throughout the day. Eyman and Van can take turns up there while Rosin works on repairing the door (with Ancor assisting him).

Other than those two things, Till is up for whatever Yosef has in mind!

[rredmond]

Day 16 – 6:00a


.

The night goes peacefully. A happy change in your fortunes. Van muses that if the undead and spiders were lairing here, creatures would quickly learn to stay away.

With materials you have and stuff you can gather around the compound, you could fix up the doors and barricade the tower pretty easily you think.

.

HPs: Jeloon - 22/29; Till - 33/36; Yosef - 9/10; Bruard - 15/19; Derek - 32/40
WIH: Till: short sword (15' radius light); Jeloon: Longsword (20' radius light), shield; Derek: Longsword (20' radius light), shield; Yosef: bow and arrow [or long sword]; Bruard: Mace, shield; Van: +1 ogre spear, shield; Eyman: +1 Battle Axe, shield
MO: 1- Jeloon & Derek; 2- Till; 3- Bruard & Eyman; 4- Ancor, Rosin, DAMs; 5- Yosef & Van
Consumables: Lantern - (Till) 2 hours, 25 minutes left (off), 30' radius; Torch, 58 minutes (off), 40' radius; Torch, 60 minutes (off), 40' radius.
--------Spells: Yosef: 1-0/2, 2-1/1; Bruard: 1-3/5, 2-4/4[/quote]

[Alethan]

With fresh eyes and the morning light, Till examines the four gemstones from the ghouls' nest.

The smaller stones, both excellent examples of light, yellow-green peridot, look to be worth about 50gp each. The larger stones, a dark purple amethyst and a light blue Aquamarine, could fetch 100gp a piece.

"I still think we're better off keeping things like the gems off of the DAMs, just in case. They're more securely kept on our own persons. So, how do you lot want to divide these up? Even split to Derek and Jeloon, because I took the dagger and Yosef and Bruard got two scrolls each? Or something else?"

[Argennian]

"Aye, a day of resting up and exploring the compound sounds like a good idea."

Yosef smiles at Till and turns to the others. "It is settled then friends. I for one, will rest easier with the additional security offered us by the tower and with our initial clearing out of the compound. Let us arrange our watch shifts then and get some rest. As Till stated previous, I agree that we keep two on guard atop the tower at all times. We will hopefully be able to spot any trouble coming from afar."


The elf then looks to the cleric. "Friend Bruard, do you have anymore curative spells remaining before you rest and pray to mighty Shinare? We are almost all of us injured to some extent, even yourself!"

[Argennian]

While on the last shift with Van on the tower, Yosef will take advantage of the view to update his homemade map that he’d been keeping all along. He will dedicate a new piece of parchment to make a detailed sketch of the tower and compound.

(OOC: Ron: having the view from the tower, were any fires or lights visible anywhere in or around the valley?)

With fresh eyes and the morning light, Till examines the four gemstones from the ghouls' nest.

Yosef watches the sunrise from the top of the tower and is excited about what the new day will provide them. He will begin to update his journal and write out a plan of attack for the day!

OOC: Ron, Yosef will memorize two Read Magic spells as his first-level spells.
Q: Not sure if Bruard had any CLWs left to potentially cast before re-praying, but do we all get back 1hp for getting the entire evenings rest? (I would think it to be like @ 6pm - 6am, or so)

The smaller stones, both excellent examples of light, yellow-green peridot, look to be worth about 50gp each. The larger stones, a dark purple amethyst and a light blue Aquamarine, could fetch 100gp a piece.

"I still think we're better off keeping things like the gems off of the DAMs, just in case. They're more securely kept on our own persons. So, how do you lot want to divide these up? Even split to Derek and Jeloon, because I took the dagger and Yosef and Bruard got two scrolls each? Or something else?"

Yosef shakes his head in a serious manner. "Aye, I am agreed in this as well. The scrolls are most valuable indeed, Till! It is only fair and honorable that we all share in what has turned out to be quite a treasure haul to present. I would offer these gems and more of what I have . These scrolls I will not hesitate to use during our expedition. It would be good for us all to know what each spell does and why.

In that regard, I do hope that we will find the clues we need to decipher what transpired here. We know some of the history of this place from our dear departed dwarven... friends, but how much do we really know? It is easy to understand that spiders and such would move in and take refuge here but who was master of this place before they did? We can conclude that the ghouls that attacked our camp hailed from and were living here. But what of those dead adventurers we discovered? Who were they and how long have they been here? They obviously had some very potent items on their persons. There could be clues we have not yet seen. Their armor, their magic, their coin, everything they had, or even any abnormalities in their skeletal features. Perhaps we can compare their coin and jewels to the coin and jewels we already had, and what we have acquired on the journey? Perhaps we can deduce if one is older than another or if it has a particular strike or marking on it we would recognize? There is also the ring and scroll we found in what we suspect to be the old commander’s quarters. I certainly need to study the ring more. It had a stronger magic than the other items and any clues that we can discover about the old commander, or whomever resided there, could help us to know what it might do!”

The elf takes a deep breath and continues in a more businesslike in his demeanor. “We need to further inspect all of the items we have acquired to date and compare them all for correlations or similarities. We need to further investigate the dead for any clues of their origin, heraldry, religion, anything. I want to be sure that they died from the spiders alone, if possible, and not in conjunction with something else. I would also like to do a complete perimeter reconnoiter around the inside and outside of the wall. Outside the walls, we also look for foot trails, any hidden stashes, stores, what have you. Whoever is on guard duty on the tower can cover us as we search. There could be more to the complex, perhaps a way to sneak in and out, like a tunnel or shifting wall, or something that we missed. I also want to reinvestigate every structure of the compound and the guard towers up front for anything we may have missed. We check every piece of frame, board and furniture, smashed or not, for symbols, scratching, markings. We look for hidey holes in the floors and walls, stash spots on the roof, anything, any clue we might have missed. We should use the Helm of Sight again to be sure of things before we move on. But first, let us have some breakfast!”

(I vote we do hot breakfast and go all out here )

During breakfast, Yosef will lay out all the items that he has acquired, including the wand and bracers. He will go through and look for any differences in the coins to start with. The ones from the Caves of Quasqueton that we started with, the ones the hill giant had, the ones on the dwarves, the ones found in the wood giant tomb, those found in the commander’s quarters and the ones on the dead adventurers in the tower.
Next, we look at the armor, weapons, gear and skeletons of the deceased. Looking for any clues as to the age, style and manufacturer of the armor, weapons, gear. Similar to anything we saw in Quasqueton or from around the realm? We’ll also look over the ring, the scrolls and all the magic items again. Looking for any clues or details on the mage scrolls.

~ When all magic is present, vote to have Bruard could cast his Detect Magic spell and confirm the remainder of still-unknown items.
~ Yosef will then cast his first Read Magic spell (duration: 6 rounds). He will first look at the ring to see if he notices anything about it. He’ll then look at the scrolls to see if he can glean anything additional or perhaps notice something that couldn’t be seen without the spell: magical seal, symbol, signatures, hidden codes, map, instructions, whatever. Not sure how long all that would take but Yosef will use his second Read Magic spell if needed.

OOC: Ron, just so that we’re clear moving forward, did Bruard, while wearing the Helm of Sight search the entire compound? Like the front guard towers, every structure, the outer wall, etc? Just want to be sure of what we know at present going forward.

[Alethan]

Till agrees with a hot breakfast.

OOC: I believe Bruard searched the insides of the buildings, Mitch. I don't know if we specified that he was scanning the guard towers or the inside of the exterior wall.

Till is also fine with Yosef spending his time today trying to figure out the ring. By the end of the day, though, it should be doled out to someone - whoever has first dibs (Derek then Jeloon) first, then whoever is willing to try it on.