March 2-3: The Old 19th and Events Thereafter

[Mister-Kent]

Certainly sending Poe would be a valid option!

[Grognardsw]

Biblo, Arcanist

"Poe may be of service," Biblo offers.

"We should see success of our mission and secure the artifact. We can return later to gallivant about the ruins."

[Pulpatoon]

Zacharias Tar: "You fellows feel free to scamper off while you've still clear sailing. I can bung up a hole in the ground easily enough, and find my own way out."

[Marullus]

Gul-Marach does not press the issue as Zaent and Biblo advocate a retreat. He considers thoughtfully upon hearing Zachariah Tar's final decision. "I would assist, but I think you have the wisest course. Being a seagull, you can hie away better than I." He accompanies Biblo, pursuing Morgan to inspect the relic which was so desired. "Once we determine what we can of the horn, I'm sure the Church of Vorn would pay a fair price for something so desired by the Regent."

[Fulci]

Ballar Uh, fighter/assassin

Ballar Uh scribbles a few words on a piece of paper: "more soldiers at the gates. Lady Isabelle. Royal Cavalry. ready to go into the ward. Hurry" (the letters are jumpy and childish), and if he has a chance, ties the message to Poe's legs so that the bird can take it to the other half of the team.

"B-barton?" Bartholomew responds to your question weakly. "Oh yes...yes...my brother!" He whimpers, and makes a keening sound, as if crying, but again--no longer possessing the ability to cry as a normal body does.

"I don't know…if I want him to see me like this. Maybe I should've stayed inside the church, or at least inside the ward…"

"The ward - no place for living souls. You belong here," he says. "What did they do to your eye?" He asks.

Ballar Uh finally has the time to examine the poor boy.

[Inferno]

Zaent Darkhand, elvish rogue:

Zaent was glad to go.

Gul-Marach
"I'm sure the Church of Vorn would pay a fair price for something so desired by the Regent."

"Now you're talking," he smiled.

[Pulpatoon]

"Fair winds and following seas, lads." The scrawny old vagrant, all bony limbs and rags, wanders off from the others.

Can Zacharias cast spells while in animal form? If so, he'll become a seagull immediately and fly over to the school, preparing Shape Stone. Otherwise, he'll start walking in that direction, saving his last animal transformation of the day for his exit from the old ward.

[Mister-Kent]

Ballar Uh
You send Poe on his way back to the others with the note about the Cavalry's arrival.

Now having a chance to inspect Bartholomew's face--a thin layer of wax draping his head like a caul, veiling his eyes. "The priest…er, the 'Unanswered' wants his new acolytes alert, he said. Alert and listening, in case Jovah spoke again. I daren't remove this wax, for fear of great damage, but ever since it was applied…I've been able to hear so well. Amazingly well, in fact…sometimes, it's like I can see."

"You're a kind man to say I belong here, though I do doubt it's true. You have no idea what it's like to be so…changed…"

Biblo
Your familiar returns to you with an alarming CAW! It lands on your arm with a note scrawled in atrocious penmanship: "more soldiers at the gates. Lady Isabelle. Royal Cavalry. ready to go into the ward. Hurry"

Zachariah Tar
You wouldn't be able to cast in your "wildshape"…

[Pulpatoon]

Zacharias Tar hurries on his spindly little legs towards the school.

[Marullus]

Gul-Marach frowns as Biblo shares the birds message, falling in with urgency behind Zaent and looking expectantly at him for a plan.

[Inferno]

Zaent Darkhand, elvish rogue:

"Let's make for the wall," Zaent said, headed away from the main gate.
"I can scale it and drop down a rope to help the rest of you. Do our illusionists have any spells left to conceal our getaway?"

[Grognardsw]

Biblo, illusionist

"Alas, I have expended my phantasmal forces," replies Biblo. "I can climb a rope though."

[Inferno]

Zaent Darkhand, elvish rogue:

Zaent's eyes slid to the creature, Mathias. "And you, sir? Any spells left up your sleeve?"

[Mister-Kent]

Zachariah Tar
The old school remains as it was the last time you visited--the front hard scattered with bones, the doors wide open. It seems even more mysterious now, partially obscured by the ash cloud consuming the ward. A shadow stirs within the school, the same scurrying humanlike shape you saw dashing for the stairs before.

The figure pauses--has it sensed your presence, or merely cowering from the smoke? It drops to its haunches and stays low, sinking beneath the mist.

Everyone else
You hear a loud grating--the slow creak as the gates of the Old Nineteenth are cranked open.

[Pulpatoon]

Zacharias Tar peers into the ash cloud, hoping to appear as unthreatening as possible (not a stretch for the haggard beanpole). "Ahoy, there, my friend. What brings you to this derelict quarter?"

[Mister-Kent]

Zachariah Tar
The figure rises to its feet and steps forward. Her skin is mottled and sickly pink, the color of raw chicken gone bad. She has a worn black cloak over her shoulders, which is shredded so badly it only reaches waist-length. On her body just scraps of ragged cloth. She seems about as thin as you, surprisingly emaciated.

Her hair is long and once brown, now graying, and matted down with--of course--dried wax. However, it is not the whitish wax that coated Wax-Face, but the violet-red wax matching some of the Church of Jovah's votives. It clumps her hair into thick locks dangling around her shoulders.

"I am…Olga. Acolyte Olga," the woman says wearily. "I am here--"

"Have I always been here? No, no…" She mutters something else to herself, and moves away from you, then throws her hands out in your general direction. "I had friends once…other hunters, delvers…came inside here so long ago…before the priest made sacrifices of them all…"

The ash cloud begins to coat the surrounding bones with a layer of soot, as a distant call pierces the air. "Huooo"--the wail of a sounder.

"NO--DON'T COME INSIDE!" she calls out, suddenly agitated.

When the wailing stops and Olga is calm once more, she exhales slowly. "What are you doing here? This is no place at all for you, and all who come here die. They die or they change…"

Oh, and here's Bartholomew/Wax-Face whilst I'm at it:

[Inferno]

Nice pictures, Mr. Kent!

Any reply to this? We gotta go.

Zaent Darkhand, elvish rogue:
Zaent's eyes slid to the creature, Mathias. "And you, sir? Any spells left up your sleeve?"

[Pulpatoon]

Great pics! It's lovely to have such a direct visual connection to the world we're playing in!

Zacharias Tar warily keeps his distance from the figure, but tries to broadcast placidity with his body language.

"I be Zacharias Tar, storm-toss'd and salt-lick'd witness to Abyss. I have... met the denizens of this quarter: the brutish Sounders and the priest you speak of—he calls himself the Unanswered, aye? We have closed him off from the surface and set the Sounders ablaze. I am here to see that he has no backdoor from which to continue his mad perfidy.

"I would end the death, end the changes, and, if you wish, take you from this place. What say ye?

"Is there a passage to the caves below? Know ye of any means of egress from below? How far down do yonder stairs go?"

[Mister-Kent]

Zaent, et al
The withered illusionist Mathias raises the hood on his Penitent disguise. "I could make myself invisible, but pity--that wouldn't do much for you all. Or I could raise a wall of vapor to shroud us, but I believe the smoke surrounding us would suffice, as long as we move quickly…"

So Zaent, Mathias, Gul Marach and Biblo aim to ascend the northern wall then? Ballar uh and Morgan have just crossed the southern wall. Zachariah has his own escape plan...

Zachariah
"You…you sealed the Unanswered below?" Olga says, taking a step towards you excitedly, but halting abruptly. She bites her lip, as if she dare not hope to believe you. "I don't know…perhaps those caves connect to the Under City, I cannot guess…"

"But no, no, there is no way to get out, least not from here! The stairs here only lead to the pit."

She leans forward to tap her foot on the place in the floor between you both, the place she would have stepped had she ran to you. A five-by-five foot piece of the floor drops away on a crude hinge made of rope, giving way to darkness below.

"The priest would keep his…sacrifices there until their time. Or sounders, when they became unruly--you've met the sounders, so you know. You know how they are. When I came to the ward, they were dormant, sluggish things. A year ago I heard the bells of the cathedral--the emperor had just died--and ever since then they've been aggressive, even going after the old priest himself! "

"If you think you can get me out of here, I think…I should like to go with you…"

[Inferno]

Zaent, et al
So Zaent, Mathias, Gul Marach and Biblo aim to ascend the northern wall then?

Yes please.