Post by Dead Greyhawk on Sept 19, 2007 22:17:39 GMT -5
With Dell apprehended by the authorities, the mind of the Company shifts toward jailbreak and escape. Raven and Diego mutter hair-brained ideas to each other about how they will be able to free Dell. Otto takes the more civilized route, talking to anyone who will listen about the positive work the Company has done for the city and explaining that what happened, whatever it was, must have been an accident. Many a dwarven ear is bent by Otto in his pursuit of his goal, but the dwarven stamina is greater than the ranger's. Winthrop, his ear whispered into by Hugh, takes a more subtle approach. He makes massive donations of valuable goods towards the reconstruction of the Pelorite temple.
Raven begins making plans for where to go next. Should the Company take Thomas Louvaine's offer and head north to the Grand March? Should the Company head back to the Yeomanry, or to Sterich, to fight the forces of Tharizdun? What about Adrienne's confused prophecy heard long ago? Raven consults with Winthrop, who may have the mystical means to discern the best route forward.
Winthrop listens to Raven's concerns and thinks about the magical powers at his command. The druid Liato had used pools of water blessed with holy oil to view things at far distances. Winthrop lacks a crystal ball and a magical mirror, but he can send his view far away, to see places and areas remote from the Company. Winthrop agrees with Raven's idea and retires to his chambers to compose his mind.
Winthrop thinks about what he should search for. "Priorities. Need to scry on the most important things first," he mutters to himself. Composing himself and focusing his magical abilities, he sends his mind out to the smugglers' den beneath the Millbrook Manor. "San's got my books. Maybe he's gone home," mumbles Winthrop. The common area where the smugglers once slept comes into focus. Indeed, it is occupied with people, but not those Winthrop searches for! The monks of Serrin and Jasper's order have taken over the Millbrook Manor, converting it into a monastery. Initiates and other monks practice, eat, and sleep in his view. Gnashing his teeth, Winthrop casts his mind elsewhere.
"What's the next most important thing?" mutters Winthrop. "My other floating stones!" Composing his mind, he searches out the pirate lair south of the Hold of the Sea Princes, near the logging town of Wrighters. The strange tunnels where the Company met such an untimely end come into focus, but, unlike under the Millbrook Manor, they are not full of monks. Men dressed in clothing and other sailor garb infrequently pass through Winthrop's vision. It appears that the pirate lair has been reclaimed by more brigands.
The images of the brigands renews Winthrop's interest in the Company's lost ship, the Destroyer, formerly the Sea Ghost. When the Company had traveled to the Pomarj, they had heard rumors in Gradsul that the Sea Ghost again plied the shipping lanes. Winthrop concentrates on the poop deck of the ship, searching for signs of its continued existance. A stormy scene resolves before his eyes. A red-haired captain clad in a chain vest, Siggurd certainly, shouts orders to his crew as the Sea Ghost is lashed by rain and wind. The ship seems to be weathering a storm of some size, and all hands struggle to keep the ship under control. Where the Sea Ghost sails though, that remains a mystery.
Frustrated in his personal goals, he then ponders the Company's options. Deciding, he sends his mind out towards the deep mines under the lost dwarven stronghold of the Mumatandin Clan. The Company left behind the strange amulet they found hidden by illusion and foul creatures. What has happened to it? The stygian darkness surrounds the amulet, but the wards and circles of power surrounding it glow with magical force. Subtle shapes move along the walls, perhaps troglodytes cloaked in their chameleon-like coloration. An amorphous blob of green and black tissues slowly oozes over the wards, consuming and being consumed by them. The wards seem to be weaker than before, but many circles of power still remain.
Winthrop speaks with Raven about his visions. Raven, unsurprisingly, is livid with Winthrop about what he has chosen to spend his magical efforts on. "You should spend more time looking for that floating stone, not your books!" he rages. Raven exhorts Winthrop to spend more time searching out the possible destinations of the Company, not the location of his lost spellbooks.
Raven and Winthrop's set to is interrupted by the arrival of a rather handsome elven man. They look up and stare at him as he enters the Wheat Field, staff in hand. "Excuse me gentlemen, is a warrior named Otto in residence here?" speaks the man in a melodic voice. Raven, who has had dealings with the elves of Aldahuin, and Winthrop find his accent familiar, similar in fashion to that of Eledwhen, the elven priest of Solonor Thelandira that used to travel with the Company. Raven points up the stairs to where Otto struggles with his hangover. The elf thanks them both and springs lithely up the stairs towards Otto's room.
Winthrop turns his attention to other locations the Company might visit. Karmuk's tower, conquered and then abandoned by the Company, comes to his mind. The outline of the tower slowly comes into focus, the insides of the tower resolving into the separate rooms the Company fought through. These halls are not abandoned, but they are filled with men, not orcs and ogres like before. Many of them are clad in tabards that bear an insignia of a white solid triangle with a small square on it, the symbol of the Bergheim mercenaries. Winthrop stares at the men who march militantly by, trying to recognize faces and appearance. As he does so, a robed figure comes into sight and pauses, staring directly at Winthrop's point of view. With a frown and a short gesture, the man waves towards Winthrop, and his vision goes black. Raven is very interested, when Winthrop tells him, and seems to mull heading there.
Winthrop heads back upstairs to perform his last ritual. He composes his mind and sends his vision towards the Silent One's abode, to where those that enter are brought to await the Silent One's meetings.
Otto and the elf come back down to the main room together. Otto introduces the elf as Eig, a druid of the Dreadwood, who has come to join the Company. Cedrus has sent him with a letter and several scrolls for Dell, apparently part of an arrangement he and Dell had. While Herbert and the bear, Eats Salmon, seem willing to follow Otto's lead, Eig has strong opinions on many matters. While Raven explains the current situation the Company finds themselves in, Eig points out several ways that these problems could have been avoided. Raven, under some stress, grinds his teeth, and Otto asks Eig to go talk with Herbert for a while. Eig, wisely, departs.
"He's not a worshiper of Phyton, is he?" asks Raven.
"No, Beory." asserts Otto, cleanly avoiding the issue of Herbert. Otto settles into a chair, a large cup of honeyed tea before him. Raven and Otto are discussing the Company's options when an arrhythmic stomping sound comes from the rooms above. It clearly arises from Winthrop's chamber, and the two warriors waste no time in bashing through the door. Winthrop flops around on the floor like a huge fish; his head smashing into the floorboards and his feet drumming on the floor and walls. The warriors pile on top of him to dampen his seizures and call for the clerics! With Hugh and Adrienne's aid, Winthrop makes a slow recovery, a bad headache his sole injury. He can say nothing about the Silent One's tower, nor about the events of the entire day. They all decide that scrying on the Silent One seems like a bad idea.
Maximilian sits by the bedside of Abernathy Wernack. The fell wound the high priest has suffered seems unable to be healed through divine or magical intervention. Only dutiful care and time serves to mend the wound, though Maximilian's prayers and benisons heal the areas around the horrible wound, keeping the skin healthy and supple. Several of the surviving priests of Pelor stand watch day and night, curing any disease or illness that takes root in their high priest. Many do, the wound seeming to be particularly prone to infection.
Sir Highrider, dealing with his own problems in the city, details several of his less impressive militiamen to serve as guards, liaisons, and fetch-boys for the Pelorites. The militiamen appear a haphazard assortment of those unable to wield their weapons well, or even wear their armor with competency. The one most inept at standing guard, unable to stand at attention or even present his shortsword and shield in a convincingly militant manner, eventually is assigned to Maximilian as a general aide. Unable to simply refer to him as "guard," Maximilian discovers his name, Antonus Sopranus.
Maximilian Sol'Invictus is somewhat startled to hear a name that could easily have come straight out of the free city and over the passing days uncovers Antonus's story. Antonus explains how he comes from further to the interior of Keoland, from near Niole Dra, where he lived in somewhat pampered seclusion with the rest of his family. His brother went off to make his way in the world, leaving Antonus free reign to study the natural and mystical sciences. A quick learner, he was able to master the simplest of magics without significant difficulty, and his family could afford to send him for further training to a local hedge wizard.
Antonus's power grew quickly, and, so says Antonus, his skills quickly were surpassing what he could be easily taught. The hedge wizard, an old man ill-suited to train younger, more vigorous, querulous apprentices, sent him west to Longspear with a letter of introduction to the Silent One. The hedge wizard had done a service for the Silent One, so Antonus claims, and thus could call on the Silent One to train this aspirant in the mystical arts. Antonus had only just arrived in the city and marched up to the Silent One's gate when the tower became enshrouded in the mists, fogs, and eerie sounds that now protect it. Almost penniless and now without a master, he was pressed one night by Sir Highrider's men. Even though he has mastered some magics, his pleas to be separated from the other men and used for his mind rather than his bulk were ignored. Antonus tells of how his unit of the militia, comprised of others with as little skill with weapons as him, were nearly butchered during the battle outside the city walls.
Antonus, for all his chattiness and pretension, is a diligent assistant to Maximilian while caring for Abernathy's wounds. Maximilian begins to feel somewhat sorrowful for the young man. He seems a law-abiding sort and has done as well as he could given the current events. With Abernathy's health improving and the wound finally closed over, Maximilian sends Antonus for Killain Anvilsplitter and Richard Coldheart. The High Priest is able to mumble to the two authorities his recollection of the events in the Temple. While not portraying Dell in the most positive light, he confirms that Dell had no malice toward him and that the Hand acted on its own.
Raven begins making plans for where to go next. Should the Company take Thomas Louvaine's offer and head north to the Grand March? Should the Company head back to the Yeomanry, or to Sterich, to fight the forces of Tharizdun? What about Adrienne's confused prophecy heard long ago? Raven consults with Winthrop, who may have the mystical means to discern the best route forward.
Winthrop listens to Raven's concerns and thinks about the magical powers at his command. The druid Liato had used pools of water blessed with holy oil to view things at far distances. Winthrop lacks a crystal ball and a magical mirror, but he can send his view far away, to see places and areas remote from the Company. Winthrop agrees with Raven's idea and retires to his chambers to compose his mind.
Winthrop thinks about what he should search for. "Priorities. Need to scry on the most important things first," he mutters to himself. Composing himself and focusing his magical abilities, he sends his mind out to the smugglers' den beneath the Millbrook Manor. "San's got my books. Maybe he's gone home," mumbles Winthrop. The common area where the smugglers once slept comes into focus. Indeed, it is occupied with people, but not those Winthrop searches for! The monks of Serrin and Jasper's order have taken over the Millbrook Manor, converting it into a monastery. Initiates and other monks practice, eat, and sleep in his view. Gnashing his teeth, Winthrop casts his mind elsewhere.
"What's the next most important thing?" mutters Winthrop. "My other floating stones!" Composing his mind, he searches out the pirate lair south of the Hold of the Sea Princes, near the logging town of Wrighters. The strange tunnels where the Company met such an untimely end come into focus, but, unlike under the Millbrook Manor, they are not full of monks. Men dressed in clothing and other sailor garb infrequently pass through Winthrop's vision. It appears that the pirate lair has been reclaimed by more brigands.
The images of the brigands renews Winthrop's interest in the Company's lost ship, the Destroyer, formerly the Sea Ghost. When the Company had traveled to the Pomarj, they had heard rumors in Gradsul that the Sea Ghost again plied the shipping lanes. Winthrop concentrates on the poop deck of the ship, searching for signs of its continued existance. A stormy scene resolves before his eyes. A red-haired captain clad in a chain vest, Siggurd certainly, shouts orders to his crew as the Sea Ghost is lashed by rain and wind. The ship seems to be weathering a storm of some size, and all hands struggle to keep the ship under control. Where the Sea Ghost sails though, that remains a mystery.
Frustrated in his personal goals, he then ponders the Company's options. Deciding, he sends his mind out towards the deep mines under the lost dwarven stronghold of the Mumatandin Clan. The Company left behind the strange amulet they found hidden by illusion and foul creatures. What has happened to it? The stygian darkness surrounds the amulet, but the wards and circles of power surrounding it glow with magical force. Subtle shapes move along the walls, perhaps troglodytes cloaked in their chameleon-like coloration. An amorphous blob of green and black tissues slowly oozes over the wards, consuming and being consumed by them. The wards seem to be weaker than before, but many circles of power still remain.
Winthrop speaks with Raven about his visions. Raven, unsurprisingly, is livid with Winthrop about what he has chosen to spend his magical efforts on. "You should spend more time looking for that floating stone, not your books!" he rages. Raven exhorts Winthrop to spend more time searching out the possible destinations of the Company, not the location of his lost spellbooks.
Raven and Winthrop's set to is interrupted by the arrival of a rather handsome elven man. They look up and stare at him as he enters the Wheat Field, staff in hand. "Excuse me gentlemen, is a warrior named Otto in residence here?" speaks the man in a melodic voice. Raven, who has had dealings with the elves of Aldahuin, and Winthrop find his accent familiar, similar in fashion to that of Eledwhen, the elven priest of Solonor Thelandira that used to travel with the Company. Raven points up the stairs to where Otto struggles with his hangover. The elf thanks them both and springs lithely up the stairs towards Otto's room.
Winthrop turns his attention to other locations the Company might visit. Karmuk's tower, conquered and then abandoned by the Company, comes to his mind. The outline of the tower slowly comes into focus, the insides of the tower resolving into the separate rooms the Company fought through. These halls are not abandoned, but they are filled with men, not orcs and ogres like before. Many of them are clad in tabards that bear an insignia of a white solid triangle with a small square on it, the symbol of the Bergheim mercenaries. Winthrop stares at the men who march militantly by, trying to recognize faces and appearance. As he does so, a robed figure comes into sight and pauses, staring directly at Winthrop's point of view. With a frown and a short gesture, the man waves towards Winthrop, and his vision goes black. Raven is very interested, when Winthrop tells him, and seems to mull heading there.
Winthrop heads back upstairs to perform his last ritual. He composes his mind and sends his vision towards the Silent One's abode, to where those that enter are brought to await the Silent One's meetings.
Otto and the elf come back down to the main room together. Otto introduces the elf as Eig, a druid of the Dreadwood, who has come to join the Company. Cedrus has sent him with a letter and several scrolls for Dell, apparently part of an arrangement he and Dell had. While Herbert and the bear, Eats Salmon, seem willing to follow Otto's lead, Eig has strong opinions on many matters. While Raven explains the current situation the Company finds themselves in, Eig points out several ways that these problems could have been avoided. Raven, under some stress, grinds his teeth, and Otto asks Eig to go talk with Herbert for a while. Eig, wisely, departs.
"He's not a worshiper of Phyton, is he?" asks Raven.
"No, Beory." asserts Otto, cleanly avoiding the issue of Herbert. Otto settles into a chair, a large cup of honeyed tea before him. Raven and Otto are discussing the Company's options when an arrhythmic stomping sound comes from the rooms above. It clearly arises from Winthrop's chamber, and the two warriors waste no time in bashing through the door. Winthrop flops around on the floor like a huge fish; his head smashing into the floorboards and his feet drumming on the floor and walls. The warriors pile on top of him to dampen his seizures and call for the clerics! With Hugh and Adrienne's aid, Winthrop makes a slow recovery, a bad headache his sole injury. He can say nothing about the Silent One's tower, nor about the events of the entire day. They all decide that scrying on the Silent One seems like a bad idea.
Maximilian sits by the bedside of Abernathy Wernack. The fell wound the high priest has suffered seems unable to be healed through divine or magical intervention. Only dutiful care and time serves to mend the wound, though Maximilian's prayers and benisons heal the areas around the horrible wound, keeping the skin healthy and supple. Several of the surviving priests of Pelor stand watch day and night, curing any disease or illness that takes root in their high priest. Many do, the wound seeming to be particularly prone to infection.
Sir Highrider, dealing with his own problems in the city, details several of his less impressive militiamen to serve as guards, liaisons, and fetch-boys for the Pelorites. The militiamen appear a haphazard assortment of those unable to wield their weapons well, or even wear their armor with competency. The one most inept at standing guard, unable to stand at attention or even present his shortsword and shield in a convincingly militant manner, eventually is assigned to Maximilian as a general aide. Unable to simply refer to him as "guard," Maximilian discovers his name, Antonus Sopranus.
Maximilian Sol'Invictus is somewhat startled to hear a name that could easily have come straight out of the free city and over the passing days uncovers Antonus's story. Antonus explains how he comes from further to the interior of Keoland, from near Niole Dra, where he lived in somewhat pampered seclusion with the rest of his family. His brother went off to make his way in the world, leaving Antonus free reign to study the natural and mystical sciences. A quick learner, he was able to master the simplest of magics without significant difficulty, and his family could afford to send him for further training to a local hedge wizard.
Antonus's power grew quickly, and, so says Antonus, his skills quickly were surpassing what he could be easily taught. The hedge wizard, an old man ill-suited to train younger, more vigorous, querulous apprentices, sent him west to Longspear with a letter of introduction to the Silent One. The hedge wizard had done a service for the Silent One, so Antonus claims, and thus could call on the Silent One to train this aspirant in the mystical arts. Antonus had only just arrived in the city and marched up to the Silent One's gate when the tower became enshrouded in the mists, fogs, and eerie sounds that now protect it. Almost penniless and now without a master, he was pressed one night by Sir Highrider's men. Even though he has mastered some magics, his pleas to be separated from the other men and used for his mind rather than his bulk were ignored. Antonus tells of how his unit of the militia, comprised of others with as little skill with weapons as him, were nearly butchered during the battle outside the city walls.
Antonus, for all his chattiness and pretension, is a diligent assistant to Maximilian while caring for Abernathy's wounds. Maximilian begins to feel somewhat sorrowful for the young man. He seems a law-abiding sort and has done as well as he could given the current events. With Abernathy's health improving and the wound finally closed over, Maximilian sends Antonus for Killain Anvilsplitter and Richard Coldheart. The High Priest is able to mumble to the two authorities his recollection of the events in the Temple. While not portraying Dell in the most positive light, he confirms that Dell had no malice toward him and that the Hand acted on its own.
