#like some guy gets in his head that he wants his Dragonborn to wear short shorts

[lacefuneral]

by the way Arceus is a superior game because I can walk around as a feminine man. I have my cutesy outfit with bows on it and long pink hair  and hot pink short shorts and gogo boots. that fucking rules.  all open world games should let me do this without mods 

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What do you think the Animorphs would be like playing D&D? Not "the Animorphs in a D&D world", but the Animorphs actually sitting down and having a campaign of D&D. Like the classes/races they'd pick, their play styles, wacky shenanigans (because we all know it would happen).

[Credit to Cates for 100% of the character builds, and most of the lore, in this AU.  In case you were wondering, I’m the Jake-style “never read the manual” chaotic-dumbass bard of our campaign; she’s the Marco-style “uses the rules exactly as much or little as needed” DM.]

It was decided almost right away that one on the team had any alignment.  As DM, Marco attempted to start there, only to have Ax begin questioning whether the manual’s explanations of “good” and “evil” truly captured human ethics on a grand scale.  Tobias claimed that Ax was looking at it all wrong, that the moralities were only default behavior types within the game, and that within this particular context morality didn’t matter.  Cassie got very concerned about the idea of context-dependent morality, Rachel declared that the book was stupid and short-sighted for claiming that destroying things was always bad, Jake quietly asked for the fourth or fifth time if this game was actually a good idea…

“Fine!” Marco announced.  “You’re all amoral characters.  Happy?”

“‘Amoral’ implies that we’re immoral, doesn’t it?” Cassie asked.  “Or that we exist outside the spectrum of moralities?”

“Just…”  Marco rolled his eyes.  “Everyone leave that spot on your character sheet blank, okay?  If it ever comes up, we’ll deal with it on a case-by-case basis.”

“Yes,” Ax said, “although you never did answer my question about the implied ethical structure of this universe.”

After that, character creation went fairly smoothly.  Kind of.

“Why does Dennis need a backstory, again?” Jake asked, looking down at his sheet.

“Dennis?” Marco said.  “Dennis?  

“You already said I wasn’t allowed to use ‘Dylan’ or ‘Brad’, so…’”

“C’mon man, this is D’nD.  There are no Dennises in medieval fantasy epics.”

“Fine.”  Jake crossed out and rewrote the name at the top of his character sheet.  “Why does Keith need a backstory?”

“To explain his motivation.”

“You just said that the whole time we’re going to be chased around by orcs and whatnot.  Isn’t not dying enough motivation?”

“You really don’t understand this game, do you?” Rachel said.

“I really don’t understand this game,” Jake agreed.

“My character’s a dragonborn rogue named Joan, and she’s the greatest gymnast of all time.”  Rachel added a Dexterity marker to her sheet with a flourish.

“I thought I was a dragonborn,” Jake said.  “Is that allowed?”

“Yeah, we can have as many dragonborns as you all want.”  Marco shrugged.  “We just can’t have multiple bards.  And since you called dibs on that class, and Rachel wants to be a rogue, we’re fine.”

“Yeah, okay,” Jake said.  “I just want to help out the team.  Or, uh, Keith does?”

“Great.”

“So that’s my backstory, right?  Being a bard?”

“Yes,” Rachel said, at the same time Marco said, “No!”

In the end, Marco declared that if neither Rachel nor Jake could come up with a proper backstory, he was making their characters cousins.  Tobias, who had a better flair for the romantic, declared that said cousins were from an internationally feared family of highwaymen.

“So does that get us any extra skills, coming from a family of pirates?” Rachel asked.

“Maybe it’d explain how good your character is at gymnastics,” Jake said.  “Because of riggings and all.”

“Highwaymen.”  Marco looked up from where he was trying to salvage Keith’s stats from the hopeless tangle of Jake’s incorrect math.  “Tobias said you guys are highwaymen, not pirates.”

“What are pirates but highwaymen of the sea?” Tobias asked, tilting his head in thought.

“Just put us down as jewel thieves.”  Rachel made a note on her own sheet.  “Jewel thieves of diverse methodology.  Wherever jewels can be found, there we are with threats of violence to take them away.”

“By the way, why is Ax now a tiefling?” Tobias asked Marco.

“I told Marco I have no preference for my class and race,” Ax said.  “And the word is most pleasant, tea-fling.  Ffflllling.”

“They’re blue and have tails.”  Marco smirked at Tobias.  “It’s perfect!”

Rachel and Jake might’ve been vague on the idea of backstory, but Ax was quite definite.

“I am Eldrias the tiefling, fffflllling, paladin.  She was raised by cows,” he announced.

“Don’t you mean raised by wolves?” Jake said.  “Isn’t that a thing, raised by wolves?”

“Uh-huh,” Marco said, “since your land-pirates make perfect sense.”

“Wolves are beautiful animals, but they pale in comparison to cows,” Ax said.  “Among other things, wolves’ meat is not so succulent and does not pair nearly as well with french fries.”

“Okay then,” Jake said, “raised by cows.  Got it.”

Becoming a barbarian was Cassie’s idea.  She spun through the manual in a rapid burst of pages, brushing gentle fingertips over the beautifully rendered illustrations, and then pressed it shut.  “Barbarian,” she said.  “That’s the one that can protect the team the best, right?  So I’ll be a barbarian.”

Marco laughed.  “All right then.  Barbarian it is.  Anything else in mind, for this barbarian of yours?”

Cassie tapped a finger against her lower lip, fluttering through the first several pages of the manual once again.  “I could make my character a big, tall guy, right?”

“Sure.”

“But I want pointy ears.”  She grinned at the rest of the table, somewhat sheepish.

“Half-elf barbarian, then?”

“Half-elf barbarian.”  Cassie looked down at the sheet in front of her.  “He can be named Reisgalan Von Schwartzel of the Morsgalath Half-Elves, Lord of the Plains and Wielder of…”  She glanced around.  “What’s that thing with the spiky ball on a stick?”

“Mace,” Rachel provided.

“Mace is that spray you use on bears and muggers,” Jake said.

“And it’s also a spiky ball on a stick.”  Marco glanced at Cassie’s sheet.  “You have a backstory for Reisgalan Von Whatshisface?”

“Hmmmm.  Can I be widowed and have a tragically dead prince I must avenge?”

“Is it me?”  Jake smiled hopefully.

“What?”  Cassie frowned at him.  “No.  That’d be horrible.”  She looked over at Marco.  “Uh, can my character be a guy and also have a dead husband?  Is that allowed?”

“Yeah, sure,” Marco said.  “I’m the ruler of this universe, so I say it’s fine.  And Tobias is the designated rules lawyer, so he’ll probably have some reason that it’s not.”

“I am not rules-lawyering!”

Marco looked at Ax’s character sheet, and then pointedly back up at Tobias.  “Ax, how did you end up as not just a paladin, but a paladin that’s even more overpowered than the standard build?”

“Paladins are allowed.”  Tobias shrugged.  “It’s right there in the manual.”

“Ax, how you have splint armor?” Marco demanded.

“Paladins can wear Heavy armor,” Tobias sing-songed.

Marco growled.

Ax squinted at his character sheet. “Tobias says when I get to Level Three, I will take the Oath of Vengeance and take a Vow of Enmity. I will know the spells Thunderous Smite, Command, and Detect Magic.”

Marco’s face was turning an interesting shade of red.

“Oh, and Eldrias the paladin is taking Great Weapon as her Fighting Style.”  Tobias wasn’t bothering to hide his smirk.  “It’s all perfectly legal.”

Ax frowned at Marco.  “Banging your head against the table with that level of force may have an adverse effect on your brain’s ability to function.” 

“I’m not rules-lawyering for selfish gain,” Tobias said loftily, looking over Marco’s prone form.  “And besides, Ax is new at this.  He needs all the help he can get.”

“You find yourselves in a magical land.”  Marco made a wild gesture in the air.  It was probably meant to look dramatic and mysterious.  “A land known as Falicornia.”

“Marco sucks at naming things,” Rachel whispered loudly.

“Rachel sucks at listening,” Marco whispered more loudly.

“You were saying?” Jake asked.

“This magical land is under threat from the dread god Cthulu!  You must stop him through using the Philosopher’s Stone, which is powerful but cannot be used except by those who do not wish to use it.  It contains many powerful temptations for the bearer.  You must journey across the land, facing many dangers, to bring it to the only magical mirror that can destroy it before Cthulu has the chance to rise from that mirror and take over the world.”

Cassie raised her hand.

“Yes?” Marco said.

“Why does Cthulu want to take over the world?” she asked.  “Does he need it for something?”

Marco sighed.  “He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu.  Any other questions?”

“First question: did you steal more of this plot from The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter?” Rachel said immediately.  “Second question—”  She turned to Ax.  “Have we showed you those movies?”

“He’s reading the books first,” Tobias said.

“I’m reading the books first,” Ax agreed.

“You were saying about Cthulu,” Jake said to Marco.

“Yes.  He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu,” Marco glared at Rachel.  “Just because.“

“Actually,” Tobias said, “the original version of Cthulu was kind of like the Silver Surfer of Norse Mythology, and his motivation—”

“He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu.”  Marco took a deep breath.  “Anyway.  Moving on.”

“Okay, you’re here.”  Marco pointed to the G.I. Joe figure sitting in the middle of their somewhat crudely drawn map.  “The goblins are…”  One after another, he set four white pawns from his mom’s chess set around the G.I. Joe that represented Jake, forming a half-circle that separated him from Ax’s Smurf, Cassie’s My Little Pony miniature, and Tobias’s Precious Moments angel figurine.  “Rachel is, uh…”  He set the teddy bear pencil topper several inches back, between two goblin-pawns.  “There.  So.”  Marco looked up at Jake.  “You’re under attack.  You’re up first in initiative order.  What’re you going to do?”

Jake frowned, surveying the scene in front of him.  “I have magic, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, so I’ll use magic to turn myself into a bird, and then—”

“Yeah, no.”

“Then I’ll turn my teammates into birds, and they can—”

“You cannot turn yourself into a bird, you cannot turn anyone else into a bird, no one is turning into a bird or any other animal at any point in this game.”  Marco glanced over at Tobias.  “No offense.”

“Oh, I totally agree,” Tobias said.  “A Level One bard performing an animal shapes transmutation?  Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Anyway.”  Marco pointed at Jake’s G.I. Joe figurine.  “Assuming we’re sticking to handheld weapons, what else do you want to do?”

“I… shoot the goblin?” Jake suggested.  “With my…”  He flipped over his character sheet, squinting at his own handwriting.  “With my board-sword.”

“Pretty sure you meant ‘broadsword,’” Rachel said.  “Okay, Jake killed the goblin, now what?”

Cassie peered over Jake’s shoulder.  “It could just be a sword made out of boards, you don’t know.”

“Jake only has thirteen out of sixty odds of killing the goblin on one go,” Marco said.

Tobias flipped open his own manual to the entry on goblins.  “Where are you getting these numbers from?”

Marco selected two dice from the pile, handing them both to Jake.  “Oh, I just figure that if the goblin’s got an armor class of seven and five HP, then Jake’s got a thirteen-in-twenty chance of scoring a hit and then a two-in-six chance of it being deadly, given his hit dice.  So if you reduce twenty-six over one-twenty down it’s thirteen in sixty.  Like, point-two-one-seven out of one.  Simple math.”  He gestured at Jake.  “Roll those.”

“You and I have very different definitions of the word ‘simple.’”  Jake looked up.  “Uh, ten and the other one says four?”

“You grievously injured but did not kill the goblin,” Marco said graciously.  “Now it’s the turn for this leftmost goblin, who is going to run and stick a sword through Rachel…” He rolled, and winced.  “That’s fifteen to hit, and two damage?”

“What’s that mean for my little rogue?”  Rachel waved her pencil topper at him.

“You got stabbed,” Marco said.

“Uh-huh.”  Rachel picked up her pen and sheet.  “Where?”

Marco shrugged.  “The leg, let’s say.  Uh, upper thigh?”

“Mm-hmm.”  She wrote that down.

“Okay, then.”  Marco glanced at his sheet.  “Next in initiative order is—”

“I cast psionic blast as a Level One spell, which would cause additional damage to fiends or the undead.  Are they undead goblins?” Tobias asked.

Marco rolled his eyes.  “Nope.”

“Then they each suffer three points of damage and do not have the opportunity to make saving throws for the next minute and a half,” Tobias said.  “That’s my first spell slot today.”

“Okay.”  Marco tipped over one of the goblin pawns.  “That one’s dead.  Cassie?”

“That one’s threatening Ax?”  She pointed at the pawn within the same square as the Smurf figurine.

“Yep.”

She nodded.  “Then I smash its head in with my mace.”  She rolled.  “Eight to hit, eight damage?”

“Oh yeah, you just annihilated that one.”

“Good, good, so now can I mace the one that attacked Rachel?”

“Cool your jets.”  Marco held up both hands.  “You don’t get to do multiple hulk-smashes in one round until several levels up from here.”

Cassie wilted a little.  “Okay.  But I want to run over next to that one to be ready to mace it soon.”

“All right, center goblin is going to try and swing his big old greatsword at Cassie as an attack of opportunity…” Marco rolled.  “And that’s a miss.  Rachel, you’re up.”

“I’m unconscious,” Rachel said.

Marco gave her a blank look.  “No you’re not.”

“Yes she is,” Ax said.  “You just allowed that goblin— gob-blin? Goo-blin? —to stab her.”

“I did not allow— The dice—”  Marco took a deep breath.  “Rachel, you only took two points of damage.  Go ahead and make a turn.”

“Okay, you clearly said…” Rachel glanced at her own notes.  “That the goblin stuck its sword through my upper thigh.  And apparently these are pretty big swords.  No way in hell that misses the artery, not if I’m only about human-sized at the time.  You also said that the goblin has its sword back, which means it pulled the sword out, which means that by now I have definitely lost enough blood to be unconscious.  It’s just basic logic.”

Marco opened his mouth halfway.  “That’s not how damage functions in this game,” he said at last.

“No, she’s right,” Jake said.  “She wouldn’t necessarily be dead from blood loss by now, but on the super-narrow chance she’s still conscious, she’s not going to have the, like, grip strength to be shooting people with arrows or anything.  That’s just how getting stabbed works.”

“Actually…” Tobias looked up from where he was sorting his flash cards of wizard spells.  “In combat time, each turn is six seconds.  So it hasn’t been five minutes of game-time.  It’s been less than three seconds.”

“So this goblin managed to stick its sword all the way through me, pull it loose, and then get back into position to make a different attack in less than a second?” Rachel said.  “And I don’t need to take a second or two to react to having been stabbed?”

“Yes!” Tobias said.

“This game is not closely aligned with the timing and functions of real combat,” Ax pointed out.

Marco let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a shriek.  “No shit, Sherlock!  Can we please just play by the rules?”

“I’m just saying it’s not realistic,” Rachel muttered.  “You get run through the leg with a sword, you bleed to death.  That’s how it goes.”

“Would you please shoot someone already?” Marco said.

“If you insist.”

At Level Two, Tobias’s gnome wizard joined the School of Divination for exactly one game.  “He’s rules-lawyering things that haven’t even happened yet,” Marco cried, throwing out his hands like this was the greatest injustice ever visited upon humanity.   At which point Tobias decided that discretion was the better part of valor and switched to the School of Evocation.  Marco’s eye stopped twitching.

“No, no, no.”  Marco leaned over to look at Jake’s roll.  “You add your charisma modifier to your attack roll, and then your strength modifier to your damage roll.”

“So he adds twelve to his roll?”  Cassie looked at her own sheet.  “I add seventeen to my roll?”

“Modifier.  Not the whole stat.  Mod-if-i-er.”  Marco groaned loudly.  “Is Tobias the only one who even tried to read the manual?”

“C’mon, man.”  Jake shrugged, grinning.  “When have you ever known me to do the assigned reading?”

“I have Tobias here to summarize the manual for me,” Rachel pointed out.  “Why bother?”

“I did attempt to read the manual.  Man.  Well.  It was not the most boring human book ever written, but it was very repetitive.”  Ax glanced around at all of them.  “Not to say that all human books are bad, even if they are all repetitive,” he added quickly.  “Take the books of Harry Potter, which are acceptable in addition to being repetitive.”

“‘Acceptable’?”  Tobias shook his head.  “‘Repetitive’?  You, sir, are wounding my entire species — one of my species — Just don’t diss the Potter.”

“There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ professor,” Ax intoned.

Laughing, Tobias leaned over to bump their shoulders together.  “I take it back.  I love you, Ax-man.  Never change.”

“Anyway,” Cassie said, “we elected Tobias party leader, so he’s the only one who really needs to know how to play, right?”

“‘Elected’ is a pretty strong word for it.  The way I remember it, I was like…”  Marco put on a deeper voice, “‘Who wants to be party leader?’ and Jake yelled ‘NOT IT’ so loud that he probably startled pigeons in the next county over.  And then Tobias was the first one to recover from the shock long enough to volunteer.”

“I didn’t yell it, I said it,” Jake mumbled.  “Said it enthusiastically.”

“And you’re wrong.  We did nose-goes.”  Rachel tapped her own nose to demonstrate.  “Tobias lost.”

Ax’s eyes widened.  “So you and Cassie covering your noses was a primitive selection procedure in the manner of duck-duck-goose?  I thought we were all simply being polite by hiding our hideous human orifices from one another.”

“Anyway,” Tobias said, “as party leader, I’m declaring that we can whine about noses — and bipedalism — at a later time.  For now, let’s play.”

“Ah, yes.”  Ax looked down at the dice, and then back up at Marco.  “Who was attacking whom, again?”

Marco stared around the board, and then back at the dice.  “Like I remember that now!”

It was a small miracle that they all kept showing up after that first week.  Tobias and Marco were the only ones with both the skill and the enthusiasm to be any good at the game.  Cassie and Rachel lacked the necessary motivation: Cassie tended to get lost in long conversations with NPCs and never advanced the plot at all, whereas Rachel was likely to start climbing the walls with impatience after half an hour of sitting still.  Ax and Jake were both reasonably enthusiastic but terrible: Jake paid no attention at all to the math, and Ax paid too much.  They had one set of dice between the six of them, if one was generous and called rolling a d6 twice the same as rolling a d12.  (It wasn’t, but Marco’s and Ax’s attempts to explain this always made everyone else’s eyes glaze over.)

Seriously, though, Marco knew perfectly well why they kept showing up.  And it had nothing to do with everyone getting on board with Tobias’s super-geeky idea.  They’d tried Dungeons and Dragons, and they hadn’t actually started liking it.

It had nothing to do with the storyline.  Or the dice.  Or the characters.  They weren’t here for swords or goblins.  They didn’t drop everything to spend four hours a week in each other’s company because they liked the game.

Duh.

Of course, even their love for each other could be tested, at times, by their sheer incompetence as players.

“We’re still in the undercave?” Jake groaned, looking at the game board.  “We’ve been down here for like six weeks!”

“Yeah, ‘cause we’re stuck.”  Rachel glared around the table.  “Because we keep trying to fight the ooze monster and then almost dying.  Because we suck at this game.”

“Still say there should’ve been illithids,” Tobias muttered.  “We’re in the cave of the illithids, but instead we’ve got apocalyptic ooze where there isn’t supposed to be any.  That’s why we’re stuck.”

Marco sighed into his hands.  “For the last time, man, we’re not having any stupid mind flayers in this game.  There is a way out, I promise you, if you guys would just stop and figure it out.”

“I stab the ooze?” Cassie suggested.

“You take fourteen acid damage and permanently blunt your sword.”  Marco didn’t bother to look up.  “Just like last time.”

“Ugh.”  Cassie wrote down her new HP.  “At least I ruled out repeated stabbing as a way out?”

“Okay, okay.”  Jake stared at the game board, yet again failing to take the this map not to scale memo.  “We can figure this out.  Is it a cave kind of like those caves under Leeran?”

Marco lifted his head, tossing his hair out of his face.  “I got schlooped back to Earth before you guys got to see those, remember?”

“They were very beautiful,” Ax said, “and also full of toxic eels.  So perhaps Prince Jake’s comparison is apt.”

“The real toxic eel is the friends we made along the way.”  Rachel tilted her chair back, picking at her manicure.  “Think we should just call it a day?”

“No, no, Jake’s right.”  Cassie stared at the board.  “I believe in us.”

“It was kinda cool in the Leeran caves, so sorry you missed it,” Jake said to Marco.  “I was dead and missed the Battle of Trafalgar, though, so it all balances out?”

“The Battle of Trafalgar was not cool at all.”  Marco rolled his eyes.  “It was a battle.  It was gross and loud and bloody.  Is no one going to try anything else?”

“I pull out my rope and my flint, I set the rope on fire, we all die of smoke inhalation,” Rachel drawled.  “There, I got us out of the cave.”

“And into the afterlife,” Ax said solemnly.  “If, indeed, this game has an afterlife.  It was designed by humans, so I assume… Soom.  That it must.”

“Look, if we could just fight the mind flayer instead,” Tobias said, “there are clear strategies in place for how to fend off psychic attacks, and even if a few of us end up as mind-witnesses we could still use a handful of different spells—”  He swung his copy of the manual around to face Marco, pointing to a spot low on the open page.  “If you’ll just look at what the book says…”

Marco slammed the book shut, hard.

Tobias had to yank his hand back to avoid smashed fingers.  “Watch it!” he snapped.

“Guys,” Jake said.  “Let’s—”

“Rule.  Zero.”  Marco flattened a hand on top of the closed book.  “I’m the DM here, and I get to say that there are no mind flayers and definitely no mind witnesses, because I say so.  I’m the Ellimist of this little universe, and you don’t get a counter-argument.”

Rachel snorted loudly.  “Bad comparison.  Tobias argues with the real Ellimist all the time.”

“Only when he’s doing something stupid.”  Tobias was looking at Marco, not at her.  “Or breaking the rules of his own game.”

“Tobias…”  Jake inhaled slowly, massaging the bridge of his nose.  “It’s just a game, okay?  Marco… We are kinda stuck, dude, no offense.  Couldn’t we at least try to fight whatever it is Tobias wants, see if that gets us out of here?”

Marco pushed to his feet, face flushed.  “I’m running this game, because you people decided I should.  And I don’t give a fuck how much Bird-Boy complains, this game is not going to involve anyone getting psychically mind-controlled.  It will not feature alien tadpoles that crawl inside people’s brains and take over their bodies.”  He swept a hand across the board.  “There will be no illithids, there will be no brain golems, there will be no controllers—”

Marco snapped his mouth shut.

There was a long silence.  Tobias stared at the floor.

“Mind-witnesses,” Marco said at last.  “I meant mind-witnesses.”

THUNK.

Figurines and dice scattered everywhere.  The play-dough lump of ooze flattened underneath the second game board Cassie had just dropped on top of the first.

“Anyway,” she said, giving everyone an embarrassed smile.  “How about we switch to Monopoly for a while?”

“I call being the little dog piece,” Rachel said, pulling the box open.

“I’m sorry,” Tobias whispered to Marco, as Ax began clattering through the pieces and asking Jake questions.  “I didn’t mean…”

“Yeah.”  Marco pulled the bank toward him and counting out notes.  “Same here, man.  Uh, y’know.  Sorry I…”

“We’re cool.  We’re cool?”

“Yeah.  Yeah.”

“Does this highly successful roll mean I have first chance to stab Income Tax with my—”  Ax squinted at his game piece “—car?  So I’ll be attempting to inflict damage on Income Tax by running it over?”

“Many have tried that strategy,” Rachel intoned.  “None have succeeded so far.”

“You know that your beloved manual lists exactly the same stats for hawks, eagles, and owls, right?” Marco asked, grinning evilly.

“What?  No.”  Tobias frantically flipped toward the back of the book.

“Anyway, is he right?” Cassie asked as Tobias searched.  “Are we all supposed to be dead right now?”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Marco said.  “Yes, the explosion would have done a lot of damage to all of you—”

“Thanks, Jake,” Rachel snarked.

Jake sighed loudly.  “How was I supposed to know you had to throw the hand grenade after you pulled the pin?”

“You mean the part where Ax and Tobias were both yelling ‘toss it, toss it,’ and you were like ‘no, I’m gonna do an investigation check first’?” she said.  “And then we all died?”

“Actually, I believe Cassie was raging at the time when the ceiling fell on us all,” Ax said.  “Therefore, her damage would be halved.”

“Hell yeah!”  Cassie laughed.  “So it’s just…”  She peered at Marco’s roll and winced.  “Everyone else… in the entire party… who automatically failed a death check.  Right, Tobias?”

“No,” Marco said loudly, “because Jake cast Teleportation Circle and got you all out of there before the ceiling fell.”

“But Tobias believes that that would be allowing too many actions on a single turn.  Uurn.  Earn,” Ax said.  “And that Jake wouldn’t have time to set up the circle even if he did have a bonus action left.”

“For fuck’s sake, do you want to end on a total party kill?” Marco demanded.

Rachel smiled sweetly.  “It’s not a TPK if Cassie’s still alive.”

Marco rolled his eyes.  “Oh, in that case—”

“Oh my god, you’re right!”  Tobias sounded outraged.

“Am I dead?”  Rachel pouted.  “Just when this stupid game was starting to grow on me.”

“No, not that.”  Tobias stabbed a finger on the page.  “It says right here.  ‘For hawk, see: eagle.’  It fucking classifies hawks as a fucking subspecies of eagle!”

“What were you just saying about us following the manual at the expense of our lives?” Marco said smugly.

Tobias stared in betrayed horror at the page for another second.  And then he tossed the entire book clear over his shoulder and out of the room.  It clattered loudly in the hall.

“So as I was saying, Jake cast Teleportation Circle,” Marco said.  “And teleported you all out of there.”

“So we’re… not dead?” Cassie asked.

“Given the nature of teleportation, perhaps we are both dead and not, existing in the gap between states,” Ax said.  “Like when our consciousness was trapped in z-space, and yet our matter remained on Earth.  Or we exist in multiple universes at once, some in which we have died and some in which we yet live.”

“Yeah, cool, Schrödinger’s party,” Rachel said.  “Blah, blah.  Anyway, I’m gonna punch Jake in the arm for being a dumbass.  In-game and out-of-game.”

“Good luck with that.”  Marco cackled his evil DM cackle.  “The only universe I care about is the one where the whole lot of you give me an initiative roll.  Because I didn’t say Jake teleported you to a safe location, just a different one.”

[xlucian-hell-cat90x]

Whiterun

Kisara gasps as Ren and Lucien lead her through the gates into the bustling city of Whiterun. She stops at the little bridge and pulls the hood closer to her face, watching all the people go about their day in the walls of the city. The guards patrol the city as the children run past them playing and laughing.

She smiles softly at the sight before her. "Never been in a city before?" Ren asks softly, breaking her trance. "No. I live in the woods." She sighs, feeling a little overwhelmed and homesick. "Come on let's head toward Jorvaskr. I'm sure we can get some answers from my friends there." Ren says, walking ahead of her and Lucien.

Kisara stops at the giant tree in the middle of the Wind Distract. She stares at the tree. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Lucien asks, quietly, standing beside her. "Yes. She is." Kisara says, walking over to the tree. She lays a gentle hand on the tree.

She feels a rush of wind around her as she hears the whispering of the wind through the branches of the trees. She smiles softly as she hears Kyne's peaceful song. Ren turns around at the bottom of the stairs at Jorvaskr when he realizes there is no one behind him.

He stares in amazement as the wind picks up around Kisara. He hears footsteps and looks at the top of the stairs to see a familiar small female much like Kisara appear from Jorvaskr. "Ah, Ren. Good to see you again." She smiles. "You as well, Luna." He smiles, then frowns when he sees Bear behind her. "See you still got that big ogre following you." He teases.

She joins him at the bottom of the stairs. "Yeah. He's the best companion a woman like me could ask for. When he's not being over protective." Luna smiles. Bear just growls in response. Lucien and Kisara make their to Ren's side.

"I see you still got Lucien with you. Who's this?" Luna asks, intrigued. Kisara hides behind Ren. Lucien places a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. They are friends of ours." He assures her. "This is Kisara. We are on our way to see Euroland about getting her some armor. Then later placing an order with Ysolda to get her some clothes that better fit her." Ren explains rather emotionless.

Luna looks him over. "You look exhausted, Ren. When's the last time you've rested?" She asks, worried. "A couple of days ago. Joys of being a hero. You never get to rest." He smiles. "Well, I have some armor and clothes she can have. So if you wanna go put her an order for weapons, I can take care of the rest. Bear, go get my satchel from my horse and meet me at The Bannered Mare." Luna demands in an authoritative tone. He nods and walks off toward the gate.

She walks around Ren and takes a closer look at the woman. Removing the hood, she gasps. "Your eyes looks like Ren's but your hair is beautiful. I love the fiery red." She gushes. She grabs Kisara's hand pulls her away from Ren and smiles happily. She moves her hair.

"You're a halfling too." She says. Kisara just nods, unsure what to think of the woman in front of her. "Are you two brother and sister?" She spews out. "I don't think so?" Kisara says, sounding confused. "That's part of the reason why I'm back in Whiterun. I need to speak Rayne." Ren explains.

"She's not here. She left earlier to investigate the an abandon prison. Something about a man being held captive by the Thalmor." Luna explains. Ren groans and rubs his face under the hood. "Great. We'll are going to need a place to stay." He grumbles. Luna smiles. "Come on. I have a place outside the city, near Loreius farm. You can rest there." Luna smiles, pulling Kisara down the stairs. "I'll meet you at the stables." Ren says. Luna just waves.

He walks up the stairs. He sees Farkas and Vilkas training outside. "Vilkas, can you give Rayne a message for me?" Ren asks, looking at the twins. "I suppose." He says. Lucien pulls a quill and parchment from his bag, handing it to Ren. Ren writes a quick letter briefly explaining the last two days.

He hands it to Vilkas. "Tell her to meet us at the manor near Loreius farm." He says, handing Vilkas the letter. "I will. Anything else?" He asks, in his usual hateful tone. Ren pulls a sack of gold and hands it to him. "Have someone deliver the some weapons there too." He says, walking toward the stairs leading to Euroland's forge.

After placing an order for a bow, two daggers and three big orders of arrows. He paid Euroland well for all of it. Meeting Luna and Kisara at the stables, he got on his horse as Lucien summoned Clive. Luna gets on a solid white horse as Bear gets on a dark brown on. Kisara smiles softly.

Kisara whistles loudly and a black deer runs through the grass and stops her side. She smiles softly as the deer lays his head on her shoulder. "Oh, Auri. I've missed you too." She smiles as she pets him. He licks the side of her face. "We've got to go." She whispers. Auri kneels down and Kisara gets on his back.

"A fucking deer?" Bear says for the first time. "Ren, what is she? The only people that ride deer and elk are Forsworn. Please tell me she's not a a Forsworn." Luna says, worried. "Can we talk about this when we get to the manor?" Ren asks. "I suppose. Let's go." Luna says, taking off. Everyone follows her.

Arriving at the manor, everyone dismounted their steeds and Luna led them around the side of the home to an area where they could sit and talk. Luna leads Kisara in the house as everyone else takes seats around a fire pit.

Luna returns moments later. She sits down on the cushions below Bear. "So explain, Ren." She demands in a serious tone. He sighs as he removes the hood and lets his hair fall loosely around his shoulders. He begins explaining the last two days, leaving out the part where Kisara might be a Dragonborn too.

Luna just nods taking everything in. She remains silent for a moment, processing every little detail. She knew that Ren was Dragonborn. She knew the moment she helped with the Nordic ruin outside Morthal. "So she is Forsworn? Why isn't she wearing the armor?" Bear asks, curiously.

Ren goes to open his mouth to respond but falls silent when she steps out of the house. "Because I was forced to leave my tribe." Kisara says sadly, looking at the ground as she plays with the fabric of the dress.

Lucien blushes taking in her beauty, as she takes a seat between him and Ren. He places a gentle hand on hers. "Why were you kicked from the tribe?" Luna asks. "Because a dragon attacked. When we killed it, I absorbed its power." She explained. Luna's eyes widened. "Wait. What? I thought there was only one Dragonborn. How can she absorb it's power too?" Bear asked confused.

"What's a Dragonborn?" Kisara asked, confused as Bear. She looks between Lucien and Ren for answers. "I am a Dragonborn. By slaying dragons. I can absorb their soul and use it to learn shouts or words of power." Ren explains. "So that means I'm a Dragonborn too? So I'm not cursed." Kisara sighs.

"No. Just means that you will fight dragons and protect people. Also means that we will have to visit the Greybeards too." Lucien says, thoughtfully. Ren nods in agreement. "But that will have to wait a few days." A familiar voice says from the side of the house. Everyone looks that way as a tall, curvy woman appears.

The silver haired woman stood before them with a man with a tattoo over his right eye. "Good to see you, Ren, Luna and Lucien." She smiles. "You as well, Rayne." Ren stands and goes and hugs the woman. She was a couple inches shorter than him.

The man behind her growled. "Easy there, big guy. This is my nephew. Ren, this is Kaidan. Kaidan, this is Ren, Lucien, Luna, and Bear. I don't know the small elven woman. But she looks like Zevran and Kira, so I'm assuming that's their daughter." She smile, as she walks over and looks closely at the woman.

"What?" Ren says, shocked. "So my mother actually was Kira?" Kisara asked confused. "Yes, your father was the famous thief/assassin, Zevran. Ren, your parents were never killed by the Thalmor. Your father and your mother separated after you were born. Realizing that their children were twin halflings meant for something great. They decided to keep you two apart so the Thalmor wouldn't try to kill you. Zevran meet another woman in the Imperial City, who was related to your best friend there. They fell in love.

"Kisara, your mother returned to her tribe where she raised you. They did this to you all safe. Ren, does she know your real name?" Rayne asks. He shakes his head no. "Well, you should tell her. Also, your father is alive. He is currently in Riften. Kisara, dear, I'm gonna call you Kia for short. Your mother is safe. She left the tribe and joined Cael's tribe. I know you remember him." Rayne explains.

"How do you know all this?" Lucien asks. "As the head of my family and being the Harbinger. I have to know this stuff." She says, in confident tone. "What happened to Kodlak?" Luna asks. That was her uncle after all. "He was killed by the Silverhand." Rayne admits sadly. She hugs Luna. "I'm sorry, dear." She says. "It's alright. I'll have to write mother and inform her." Luna says, softly. "I already wrote her and told her everything." Rayne states.

Luna just looks at the older Nord woman. "Thank you." She smiles weakly. "You are welcome. Kodlak would not want you to be bad. He would want you to celebrate." Rayne smiles softly at the small Imperial woman. "Kaidan, how would you like to celebrate a death and the reunion of lost siblings?" She asks the man, that stood at her side in silence.

"I could go for a drink or two." He says. The group traveled back to Whiterun in the company of Rayne and her new companion, Kaidan, who didn't really talk much. Upon returning to Whiterun that night, Rayne informed the Companions that would have the next couple of days off in celebration of a reunion siblings.

[basine]

Chapter 3- Really, Him? (Melona)

I held his hand as we entered the dining hall. This was the man who tripped and fell on me three days ago and she was talking to him… again. All Melona was concerned about was getting the correct answers to the homework that Master Yolinda assigned her class. What was his name again? Oh right, Axan. Axan was such a unique name for someone. Of course there weren't many dragonborn in the world but Axan was so much more mortal than she would have ever imagined. He had a laugh that was actually pretty cute.

Wait… did I just think that? Did I just say a boy’s laugh was cute. Melona, you told yourself do not get attached to anyone here. Everyone you have thought was cute has hurt you so stop it, Melona thought to herself. Melona letting go of Axan’s hand took a seat on the opposite side of her black tabaxi friend Carrie. Of course Carrie’s name wasn’t that short. Her actual name was Carry the Flame due to her parents being forge workers but she had just settled on the name Carrie. Melona patted a seat next to her and Axan willingly took a seat next to her.

“Axan this is Carrie. Carrie this is Axan.” Melona said. “Nice to make your acquaintance tabaxi.” Axan said to Carrie. “Likewise. Master Y wouldn’t shut up about how good you are at defense. As someone who is training to be a monk like my older brother, how do you do it?” Carrie said excitingly to Axan. Axan glanced at Melona and then responded to Carrie. “I’m really not that great at it. I just really focus all of my energy on defending not myself but whoever I would be protecting. I’m a big beefy dragonborn so I can take a few punches before I start to look rough. It is all about protecting something. Nothing else really.” Axan said as he took a sip of water. This dragonborn knew how to speak. He spoke with a specific form of confidence but was never too cocky about anything. He understood a lot about combat training. As the conversation progressed Carrie did most of the talking while Melona just sat there and listened to him speak. He was funny and always made sure to include Melona into the conversation even when she was just listening. After the meals were finished they picked up their trays and headed over toward Eli and their cleaning crew.

“You know Carrie, if you wanted to I could show you some things up in the training room about defense. I know those training in the monk specialty never use shields but you could learn a thing or two from sparring.” Axan said to Carrie. “You would like to spar with me?” Carrie said excitedly. “Of course! It is always nice to spar against someone new. Who knows? You might actually catch me off guard.” “Okay! Let me go back to my room to get my gi and bo staff! I should be ready in like 10 minutes!” Carrie said as she hurriedly rushed off toward her room leaving Melona alone with Axan. “You know you can come too, right? If you would prefer not to that is-” Axan was saying as Melona cut him off. “Oh yes! I would love to watch you spar in your fancy silver armor. You seem like you know what you are doing.” Melona said hurriedly. “You wanna know a secret?” Axan said under his breath. “No one knows what they are doing until you are actually doing it.”

Axan then looked at Melona and winked. Melona then felt a rush of emotions run through her whole body. She felt her whole body warm including her face. She felt like her cheeks must have been as red as the tomato soup she just ate.

Melona, you are feeling this way about a boy? You’ve never liked a boy before why now? Melona thought to herself. “I forgot to ask, what are you training for?” Axan asked and then immediately continued, “No wait don’t tell me… druid? ARE YOU ONE OF THE DRUIDS!?” Axan asked, almost screaming in excitement. Melona’s face got even redder as just nodded her head in agreement.

What are you doing? He is just another person! There is nothing special about him! Melona thought to herself.

“A DRUID! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT DRUIDIC MAGIC! WOULD YOU TEACH ME SOMEDAY!?” Axan said excitedly.

“Uhhhh… yeah sure! I mean I’m not that special there is like… 7 more of us.” Melona said shyly.

“Yeah, but none of them want to share anything about themselves. They just change into little birds and fly away. I was hoping that the next druid to enter the monastery would be willing to talk about their experiences! Would you mind sitting down with me and talking about that?”

“Yeah! Sure it’s a date!”

Melona suddenly felt a rush of warmth running through her body as she realized what she just said. Did she just unintentionally ask this dragonborn on a date to talk about her druidic magic. Oh gods, she needed to fix this quickly.

“What I meant is that, like uhmmm, we can hang out like we did today and I can tell you all the cool things about being a druid. Like changing forms and all of that.” Melona said, embarrassed.

“Sure! Shall we get going to the training room? Carrie might be waiting for us.” Axan said as he started moving towards the steps up the mountain.

Melona followed in silence. She watched him as instead of taking every step as she did, Axan took two at once. After a few steps Melona realized she would have to pick up her pace to keep up with him. She started running up the steps as quickly as she could. She started to think about what would happen if she fell. Would he try and catch her? Would he help her up like he did a few days ago? 

Melona looked up at the back of Axan and saw his tail swishing in the air as he walked up the steps. She knew that some dragonborns have tails but seeing it in person was very interesting. She wondered how it felt to have one all the time. She only ever experienced that when she changed into a cat and it felt super weird. 

Axan turned around and said “Melona, you doing ok? I just realized that I take two steps when you only take one. Would you like me to slow down for you?” “No you go on ahead. I’ll be up there before you guys start.” Melona said between heavy breaths.

“No. I want to make sure you don’t slip or fall.” He held out his hand toward Melona to help steady herself and take a few breaths.

Melona gladly accepted Axan’s hand and took a few deep breaths before continuing up the steps. Axan slowed down just to make sure Melona wasn’t on the brink of passing out which she appreciated, but was still having trouble keeping up. About three minutes later they reached the dojo that sat atop the monastery. This is where all combat training was held to ensure that no one was carrying a weapon on sacred ground unless they were given strict permission. As Axan swung open the door Carrie was tightening her burgundy belt around her turquoise gi. Axan walked over to a locker and opened it. Inside was a shining set of silver armor. Axan quickly put on the armor and picked up his blue, silver and black shield and a wooden longsword. Both of the combatants stood on opposite sides of the dojo, one wearing armor that sparkled like moonlight and one wearing almost nothing.

“Now Carrie, don’t hold back. First to three hits on the other wins.” Axan stated.

“I agree to the terms.” Carrie replied.

“May the music guide you.” Axan said as he entered a defensive stance, ready for Carrie to attack.

[curechocolattymilk]

Skyrim OC Questionnaire

Saw @jessaryss​ ‘s questionnaire in the tes tag & decided to give it a whirl w my current Dovahkiin!

BASICS

Name: Jeer-Tei Perdes

Race: Argonian

Age: 26-28??

Pronouns: He/They

Eyes: Turquoise-ish

Hair: Red feathers

Skin: black/super dark green?? idk i was playing around w a race menu mod w this lad

Height: 5′7″ - 5′8″ (A bit on the short side for an Argonian)

Weight: 153 LBs

General Physique: Probably average? With a bit of beef since they swing around battleaxes/wear heavy armor

Tattoos, WarPaints & Scars? I’m just plopping down a screenshot bcus i suck at explaining em. Can’t see his scars on this one but they have three long ones over their left(?) eye

Yes I went edgy color scheme with him. No, I have no shame

ABOUT

Dragonborn: YES / NO

Werewolf/Bear or Vampire?: Werewolf time (yet to find a good werecroc mod tho :c)

Occupation: Adventurer, Thief, Listener, Arch-Mage, Harbinger, Mercenary, soon to be Legion solider, all-around bastard

Guild Association(s): TG, DBH, Companions, College of Winterhold & I believe that is it bcus i went back a couple saves in hopes to avoid a CW bug & lost a bit of progress in return oof

Favoured Weapon Class / Type: Two-Handed, Battleaxe

Favoured School of Magic / Type: DESTRUCTION. Tei loves himself some Fire n Lightning. The fire shout is his most used lol

Heavy Armor? Light Armor? Robes?: Heavy Armor

Place of Birth: Unsure still but I’m thinking of having them not have a Hist-connection/not hatching in Black Marsh? Seems like an interesting route but who knows

Place Where They Were Raised: Hammerfell till their teens (Tei was adopted), then they wandered around for a bit w a group b4 landing in Skyrim

Current Location: Since last save? Ivarstead I think

Education / Place of Study: He’s well-read/educated! Mostly learned the smithing trade under his family in Hammerfell, but snuck into a few academic courses during their travels in Cyrodil

Any Teachers / Inspirations? Tei has an elder brother who helped teach him the ropes of adventuring/survival. He helped kickstart the Argonian’s adventure drive.

PERSONAL

Patron Deity (if any): Mora & Hircine I’d say? He doesn’t really worship any of the Nine, though he acknowledges all of them.

Political Alliance (if any): They could care less for the warring factions, but the civil war is starting to inconvenience him, so for the sake of choosing a side & getting it over with, they joined the Empire. (The recruiters were closest & Tei really didn’t want to travel aaalll the way to Windhelm...never really liked the place anyway) Don’t expect him to be extremely loyal/treat them or the Dominion w any respect though lol

Strongest Skills: If going off ones that reached 100: Two-handed, Heavy-Armor, Destruction, Smithing, Speech, Archery

Strengths: Can take a hit physically; Pretty stealthy despite their armor type; Pretty much fearless, will take you head on

Weaknesses: Has piss-poor sense of direction when it comes to Dwemer/Nordic ruins; Pretty much fearless, not much of a danger sense so they can get pretty fucked up; Can’t tank spells that well, despite being Arch-Mage; Doesn’t have an issue following their Draconic or Werebeast nature/Can’t control nightly transformations

Spouses? Flings? Lovers?: Rumarin is their hubby. Though Tei & Ru are discussing among themselves about opening their relationship & adding Kaidan to it, if the warrior comfortable with the idea.

Thaneship (and of where?): Yes; Solitude, Whiterun, Dawnstar, & Falkreath. They’re worming their way into every hold they can though

Most Difficult Quest They’ve Been On? The whole Dragonborn quest was definitely a challenge he completed out of spite for Miraak. However, the Blood of Kings (3DNPC-Slight spoiler warning for the end of this quest? Maybe?) quest fucked w them a bit more mentally. Tei likes to act big & tough but having to acknowledge he’s the only one who went through/remembers all that did mess with them a bit. It’s hard to explain those dreams/nightmares.

Jail Time? So far? Just Cidna Mine because of the Forsworn Quest. Tei is pretty good at not getting caught/using his connections to get away with things.

Largest Bounty Held? I want to say around 5000+? Again, it was Markarth, they did not go down w/o a fight after that false accusation.

How Much Gold Are They Typically Carrying? Too much idk what to spend it on

How Do They Get Gold? Stealing, well-paying jobs, selling treasures they looted from tombs or found in dungeons, that sorta deal

Are Werebeings and Vampires Vile Creatures or Simply Misunderstood?: Simply misunderstood! Until you attack him then it’s game over for you. bud.

Do They Actively Hunt Dragons?: Not really, in a turn of events regarding this character. Part of it is because I just can’t find any spawning vanilla-wise post-Alduin, but for an in character explanation, Tei does feel a strong kinship with dragons. They won’t hunt them/kill them unless it’s a well-paying job/they challenge him first. Which...the latter happens often in the form of Assaults (Deadly Dragons is one fun mod). Hell, Tei refused to kill Paarthurnax. He respects the Dovah, even if he disagrees w the passive way of thinking, & goes to them often to meditate or talk. Not that anyone needs to know that.

Goals In Life? Honestly? Probably boost themselves up the ranks/collect more powerful artifacts for his hoard. If there’s a powerful figure he can challenge he will do it Figuring out how to turn into a dragon would be cool too, i guess

Deepest Regret?: Not hanging out with their kids (Ram-ku & Chases-Starlight) as much. They visit when they can but the urge to travel/explore can keep them away from home for a bit. So everytime they head back to Proudspire/Lakeview they have a ton of treats/toys/daggers to give the two.

Greatest Hope?: Not a shared fact with anyone, but deep down Tei does wish to retire comfortably, he jokes with Inigo that such an idea sounds boring but honestly? They wouldn’t mind it.

Most Embarrassing Moment: Rumarin caught him playing with the dog’s rope toys while in Werewolf form once. The High-Elf refuses to let Tei live it down

Flaws: They don’t really pick up on how rude they can be at times, or maybe they do & just don’t care.; Lack of personal danger-sense in battle/thrill of the kill can often lead to Tei getting some serious injuries if he’s not careful, his continued mastering of Restoration is from licking his own wounds. Sorta ironic considering he fusses over close teammates not being careful after opening up some more.

Fears: After the whole Blood of Kings debacle, Tei developed a deep fear of losing the reality they’re in/losing their loved ones. Alduin may have been defeated but the idea that any & all progress or events he went through can just be taken away regardless sticks with him. It may or may not drive his need to take out anything they deem as a big threat/challenge.

What Makes Them Happy?: Playing with their kids is a big one, Tei always makes times for games. Other than that it’s finding new discoveries/techniques about destruction magic or soul gems, reading a good book (or being read to, if he feels like asking Rumarin), being with his family in general, or going out for a hunt in their werebeast form.

Hobbies: Playing the lute, building his hoard some dragon behaviors just stick regardless of the body you’re in, smithing/creating little decorative daggers, treasure diving

Favorite Locations: Throat of the World/Paarthurnax’s Library (Mod), Lake Ilinalta, Apocrypha

Favorite Holds: Falkreath & Solitude

Eating Habits?: They’re not picky, but tend to prefer raw meat. It’s not an uncommon sight to see Tei just up n swallow a salmon whole while he’s swimming to catch the group some dinner.

Can They Cook?: they leave it to Rumarin if at home/the elf is traveling with them, but they can do it decently enough.

Favorite Food: Tei would kill for Ru’s seared-slaughterfish dish

Favorite Drink: Shein/Velvet LeChance

First Thing They Do At A Tavern?: Ask around for bounties/buy some food for the road

Sleeping Habits?: Due to the beastblood, Tei is very restless when they sleep, often tossing & turning. Ru holding them helps a bit, but on days where he travels, Tei just stays awake until he passes out in an inn/at camp from exhaustion seeing as they don’t toss around as much then.

Cities or the wilds?: The wilds

Pet Peeves?: Being stopped for bounties of like...5 gold. Like dude fuck off or he’s going to make that bounty go higher.; Followers bunching up/not letting them pass, Tei has places to be guys; Also really hates being grabbed/touched unless its close friends/family

Describe Their Bedroom or Home: Their bedroom is rather neat & tidy, same as any personal forge or storage room. Alchemy/Enchanting areas, or any place of study you should watch your step. Especially in the Arch-mages quarters, that place is a total mess.

How Would A Stranger Describe This Person?: A short-tempered, apathetic asshole through & through most likely.

Someone Close To Them? A snarky arse who actually is a bit of a softy with some rough edges. Tei’s no goody-two-shoes, & tends to tease, but he’s not cruel either, y’know?

How Do They Deal With Anger?: He tries to avoid lashing out at others unless they caused it. Usually cools off from big episodes by working at the forge, doing a big bounty or two, or using their Thu’um somewhere till their throat hurts.

How Do They Deal With Failure?: Tei gets broody, frustrated & fidgets with his claws/tail/feathers a lot. Over the years of their adventuring they understand failure is a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get upset about it. Don’t take it to heart if they snap at you during this time, they don’t really mean it & just are mad at themselves

How Do They Deal With Loss of a friend or someone close?: Not horribly bad but also not in the best way, they immediately put walls up & avoid conversation for a good while, maybe even leave for a few days. While slowly working with this with the help of Ru & Inigo, Tei doesn’t like being seen in a vulnerable & would most likely brush the event off as “shit happens.” However, it’ll eventually get too much. A good example would be when they lost most of the Brotherhood due to Astrid’s betrayal; Tei would brush it off constantly if it was brought up, pushing it down. One day though, it hit him full force while prepping for a contract, he’s grateful it was just Rumarin there when it happened.

Go Into The Bandit Filled Cave To Retrieve The Lost Amulet For Some Simpleton, or Tell Them Nah Bye?: Depends if they pay well or if Tei can get away w keeping the item, but it’s mostly “Lol that sucks bro”

Opinions on Daedra?: He only respects/likes two (Hircine & Mora), but will shimmy up to the other princes for their artifacts

Companions / Followers

First Follower: Rumarin! Found the dude by accident while running around & immediately fell for the snarky fucker.

Have They Stuck Around?: I mean, the two did get hitched. Rumarin mostly stays at home with their kids now-a-days, as Tei is chasing after more & more dangerous “prey”

Something The Look For In A Follower (or do they hire anyone without question?): Hold their own & does what their told, mostly. The former is the proving factor for him (except in the case of Lucien...but they’re paying to tag along so I guess they can stay)

Followers Over The Years (or whatever amount of time): Rumarin, Zora Fairchild, Gor, Anum-La, Skjarn (but only once), Inigo, Kaidan, Lucien, & Hoth.

Fourth Wall

Any Must Have Mods To Play This Character?: Anything to help boost Argonian experience (Amazing Argonian Traits/Feats, Horns are Forever, Digitigrade Khajiit-Argonian Raptor, Bigger Argonian Tails....We need more Argonian mods), Ordinator, Apocalypse, Wildcat, Deadly Dragons, Real Bosses USSEP, Ultimate Combat SE, TK Dodge, Shout Overhaul. And while you don’t need it to play Jeer-Tei, the Racial Body Morphs SE is fun to help diversify everyone’s height! Until you realize you’re short as hell to most of your party.

Random Screenshot / Drawing: Here’s Kaidan & Rumarin stealing the bed in my bugged saves, gotta redo Kai’s quests again for this tho. F

Level?: 91 I think? First character where I grinded up via Alchemy & Enchantments for perk points for a good while. (Also started out as a light armor build but I quickly decided, “lets become a sneaky tank build!” mid-gameplay) I used to have the People of Skyrim mod on as well, which spawned waaay too many dragons (im talkin about none of them landing even after their hp hit zero bcus the ai got bugged w the amount spawning) & bandit mobs, so that helped too lol. Eventually disabled it though bcus my old laptop was struggling. 

Serious RP or Thomas The Tank Engine Dragons, Fart Shouts, and Kawaii Cat Girl Mods?: Serious RP, though I may add some sillies later

[defendersofaurita]

Title: Converging and Diverting

Author/Artist: AnchoredTether

Rating: M [graphic depictions of violence, major character death, dark themes]

Pairings: Plance [Pikelavar], Kallura [Thunderyun]

Series: Defenders of Aurita

Chapter: 13/?

Summary: Meklavar has a formidable secret. Pike has an objective for which he's willing to kill. Despite their odds, they might have a chance of realizing their seemingly impossible desires if they fight for them together. Revelations are brought to light, quests align, and their hope lies in the power of a common cause.

Aurita is on the brink of desolation and it will require more than courage and sacrifice to save what is left. As the stakes continue to rise, what was once a fight for restoring a broken kingdom turns into a war far more sinister.

CH13 :: CONVERGING AND DIVERTING

"It's been days and we still haven't seen or heard from Meklavar or Pike." Block said when he brought over a tray filled with various meals to their table in the busy tavern.

"They'll know to meet here," Valayun piped hopefully as she grabbed her bowl of soup with an excited grin. "It's the largest tavern and it's in the center of town. It's the most logical place to meet." She shrugged. "Meklavar's short, and Pike's arm was still injured, so maybe they're just taking a while longer to get here."

"Being short doesn't make you that much slower at walking." Thunder deadpanned.

"If they're not here within the next day," Jiro started, "then we'll leave a message with the innkeeper and head north."

"Just one more day?" Block looked at the paladin with concern. "What if they're in trouble? What if the dragon caught up to them? Shouldn't we go looking for them?"

"Shiro doesn't have much time left, it is imperative that I find the sorcerer." His expression was stern. "Whether you choose to accompany me or not is up to your discretion."

"I will come with you," Thunder offered, his gaze hard. "I at least owe Shiro that much."

"I... feel more inclined to stay," Valayun said. "For all we know, Pike or Meklavar could desperately need a healer. If they aren't here by tomorrow evening I will try looking for them."

"I'm with Valayun," Block said. "But if you leave something of yours with us I can use a tracking spell to meet back up with you guys."

Thunder nodded, taking the ring off his index finger and placing it in Block's upturned palm. "Don't lose it, it's important to me."

"I can take something less valuable-"

"No, the stronger the sentiment the stronger the spell. It'll help you find us with greater ease."

"Okay," Block held onto the ring tight before placing it carefully in one of his pockets. "I'll keep it secret, keep it safe."

][ --- ][

It took Pike nearly three days to heal enough that they could start traveling again. Thanks to Korhan's healing salve and various ingredients, Pike's recovery was swift. Meklavar realized Korhan's claim that khaliit were a resilient species held true - the only other species she had seen (aside from herself as dragonborn) with such strength and adaptability were galra.

"Princess, we need to get you a change of clothes! Your previous outfit was completely destroyed aside from the armor…" Korhan distressed. "Unfortunately I have nothing worthy of a princess!!"

"Korhan, we're traveling to Darmuth and finding a sorcerer. It's not like I need to wear a ballgown," Meklavar said impassively. "Besides, I'm trying to keep my identity secret, remember?"

"Well that doesn't mean you can't still do it in style!" Korhan sounded offended. "I got the blood out of Pike's scarf and his pants were salvageable but I'm afraid everything else was too far rent from the dragon's claws. Luckily we're a similar height and build…" He rummaged through a closet, flinging the occasional item of clothing behind him.

Pike glanced over at Meklavar with a dubious expression. He was currently shirtless, his freshly removed stitches leaving ragged scars almost as dark as the crimson markings along his back. "Well, at least I don't need pants, otherwise I'd have to tailor them, and that's always a pain."

"Tailor them, or tail-or them?" She snickered.

"Hey, this is no laughing matter! Do you have any idea how much I chafe down there unless there's a proper hole for my tail?" Pike sighed. "And Aurita doesn't have a large enough population of khaliit to have pants for us readily available."

She frowned as the wheels in her head began to turn. "Huh. I never thought about something like that. I wonder how I would go about making something that's low in demand but at the same time essential for those who need it more available to the populace…"

"I mean, most tailors are willing to alter pants for khaliit, khariit, and argonians, but whew, do they charge a mighty fee… it's easier if I just do it myself." He shrugged.

"Perhaps just a simple regulation that all alterations should be charged as the same price to avoid discrimination…" She held a hand to her lips as she thought. "Or even that such alterations should be free if they don't provide necessary clothing for a certain species' specifications…" She pointed up to his head. "Hoods too, you'd need them altered for your ears."

"Some galra have similar specifications, orcs need three-fingered gloves, you and dwarves need shorter tailored clothes, and I don't even know what centaurs do for clothing and armor for their lower half."

She swatted his head for the jab towards her height. "I'm pretty certain all the centaurs live in Namithir which is not my division. Well, at least... wasn't my division. But, it's still interesting to consider."

"Look at you two," Korhan beamed, "Talking about demographics and politics!" He tossed a shirt at Pike's face, causing his ears to swivel back with a grunt. "Now put on this tight shirt and let's get out there!"

][ --- ][

"How do you know Shiro?" Jiro asked as he, Thunder, and Rover made their way through the crowded streets of Darmuth. It would take them almost half the day just to get out of the city, but Jiro was confident the sorcerer's home would only take them a day or two's journey north.

The ranger was quiet a moment, guarded as always, but decided that the twin brother of Shiro was someone he could probably trust. "Shiro found me after I was exiled from my village. I was only eleven when it happened, but he showed me how to survive. He gave me reason to hope."

"You were exiled? Why?"

"I'm originally from Namithir. And apparently my mother had to have been galran, since my markings started to show once I reached adolescence. The village must have assumed my mother was human since I didn't have any elvish markings but I still looked like all of them." He clearly remembered the day it happened and how some simple purple stripes on his face could cause so much hatred to seep from the hearts of people who he thought were kind and charitable. The true faces of people were hidden deep beneath acceptable facades and Thunder learned that the true intentions of most people were ugly and selfish.

"What about your father?"

"He died when I was five. I have no idea if my mother is alive or dead from what little I could get out of him. But regardless…" He let out a sigh. "I've lived on my own for most of my life." Rover let out a small whine which caused him to gently pet the giant wolf's head. "Well, until I met this guy."

"Hmm… you must have met Shiro when he was traveling to Henat. Did you end up accompanying him there?"

"Yeah… we parted ways when we reached Staerene. But I saw him again many years later, right before the Invasion."

"Huh… and… he never mentioned me?" Jiro almost sounded wounded.

Thunder frowned, uncertain how to address the paladin's hurt. "He never really talked about himself… never about his family, his interests, or personal concerns. It was always about the mission or about helping others."

"I suppose that's just a testament of D'Jahno's training and the seven pillars of knighthood." Jiro paused, his brows lowering in skepticism. "That's hilarious you would say he never talked about himself, because he'd never shut up about his 'bright internal light' and how he was chosen to be a paladin. It's all just because he can use chakra and I can't."

Thunder offered an encouraging smile. "I guess identical twins aren't quite so identical after all. But hey, you're still a paladin, so there's that."

"You're right… and there's nothing more fulfilling than being a paladin."

][ --- ][

"So how does this Castle of Lions thing work??" Pike asked as they headed towards Darmuth on foot, having left the giant tent behind.

"Oh it's super fascinating!" Meklavar started, "It's through a locator spell combined with a warp enchantment if I remember correctly. Korhan can explain it better though."

"So this bracelet here," Korhan held up his wrist and pulled back his sleeve for Pike to see the white band with a cyan colored spell etched into its face, "Works as a locator for the Castle. I can always find the Castle so long as I have this, so it works like a tracking spell. With the bracelet, I can also summon the Castle to wherever I am."

"Wait, so you can teleport the Castle right here if you wanted to??" Pike looked like Korhan just told him he could resurrect the dead. "Even though it's half a mile back that way? And it's huge?"

"Well, relatively speaking, the Castle is quite small. But yes - it takes a couple of doboshes to work, however, and it takes longer the greater the distance."

"But doesn't that mean that anyone could stumble across the Castle and take your stuff?"

"I don't leave my front door unlocked, Pike. And before you say 'there are no doors that cannot be unlocked'  I'll have you know, I have plenty of protective enchantments that keep the Castle hidden from thieving eyes such as yours."

"I'm not a-"

"Besides, the bracelet would alert me if anyone entered. I can always warp the Castle here if that happens because it only transports inanimate objects. Any persons inside would just remain at that location."

"Huh. Neat. I guess we don't have to stress anymore about finding shelter at night."

"Which is good considering Valayun still has our share of the loot," Meklavar added.

"Oh? You're traveling with Valayun?" Korhan asked. "Alfor's daughter?"

"The one and the same." She let out a sigh. "She seemed to recognize me as well, but I don't… I don't remember her at all. Or Alfor. But the name Altair sounds like I should know it."

"As you should - Alfor was the royal Chancellor, arguably the most important person in the kingdom after your father."

"I remember him," Pike offered. "He looks just like Valayun except his markings are light blue. Well, I guess it's Valayun who looks like him. Anyway - he wore armor very similar to Shiro's- I mean Jiro's… well, both of them, really."

"That's great, Pike, but I still don't remember him." Meklavar let out what sounded like a growl. "I think I need to just accept the fact I'm never getting those memories back and move on."

"Hey!" Pike spun in front of her, forcing her to stop. "You remembered the night of the Invasion, or at least part of it, just from me talking to you! We are not giving up on your memories!!"

"My memories are nothing but pain and suffering. I don't exactly care to relive all that."

"I know you have good memories mixed in with the bad. Don't you want to remember your family?"

"My entire family is dead, Pike. I think it'd be easier not to remember them."

"Mek…" He put a hand on her shoulder and saw she was on the verge of tears but she was being so strong despite the turmoil of emotions and confusion that raged inside her. Pike's voice was soft, his eyes pained in understanding. "I don't know anything about my father because he died when I was too young to remember. I would kill to have any kind of good memory of him. Your family would want you to remember them, even if it is painful. It will probably be incredibly painful but it'll be worth it. I know your memories are important to you despite what you're thinking now and I know they're important to everyone who was a part of them, including me."

"I'm sorry about your father… and…" Her eyebrows lowered and her voice shook ever so slightly. "My memories are important to you?  But you said we were just acquaintances."

"Well…" His markings started to turn a bright red but his eyes were sincere. He lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck. "I figured I was just an acquaintance to you… but to me? …You were kind of my only friend."

She blinked a few times, completely baffled. "I… was?"

"Most my childhood I was a slave and even though living in the castle as a servant was phenomenally better it's not like there was anyone my age to interact with. Aside from you, that is. But even that was limited. But outside of my family? You're the only one I could really call a friend." He jabbed his thumb behind him to the elder elf. "Korhan comes close. But he's more like an uncle. Same with Olia I guess, but she's more like an aunt. And her kids were much too young to befriend me. All they would do is chase my tail anyways." He sighed. "Khariit pups are a nuisance."

Korhan giggled. "I remember when that happened. They chased you and your sisters throughout the whole castle."

Pike groaned. "Uhhhgh it was awful. My legs were sore for weeks."

Meklavar gave him a wicked grin before continuing their walk towards the city. "So it was your classic game of dog-chase-cat?"

Pike stood there and pouted a moment as the two elves lengthened the distance from him. "Not a cat," he growled before running up to them and slowing to their pace. His ear rotated when he heard Meklavar whisper something that only he would be able to hear, her amber hues glancing up to him.

"Thank you, Pike."

He offered her a quiet hum.

][ --- ][

"Oh quiznack," Valayun swore as she rummaged through her satchel.

Block raised an eyebrow at her. "Quiznack?"

"I should have given Jiro and Thunder some of our loot!" She threw her head back in a frustrated groan. "I'm a horrible treasurer."

"I don't think there are any towns between here and the sorcerer's place for them to even spend money in, so I think they'll be fine. I do wonder though how Pike and Meklavar are holding up."

"Oh Pike's a thief. I'm certain that if they needed money he'd figure out a way to acquire some."

"Probably." Block frowned. "But then again he said he wasn't a thief."

"He probably just said that to throw off your guard. What kind of thief proudly announces they're such?"

"I dunno, a good one?"

"Exactly," she said decisively as if that explained everything. "We have to make it a priority then to make sure we meet back up with both Pike and Meklavar and Jiro and Thunder, that way we can at least divide up the loot between us if we do part ways again. I am hoping, however, that we stick together. I think we make a great team." She lowered her gaze, her expression nostalgic. "I'd always dreamed of being part of a spectacular group of people, out there fighting the good fight, helping people in need…"

"It is nice to travel with others," Block agreed. "I'm grateful I ran into Meklavar and that she decided to help me, otherwise I don't think I'd ever get past the Wiebian Swamps. Although… it's weird to think she's actually-"

Valayun quickly grabbed the sorcerer's shoulder, giving him a warning look.

"Right. Secrecy." Although the market street was loud with bustling people, there was no knowing what prying ears were listening in to their conversation. "But I think it'd be pretty amazing to help her with her 'quest,' if you know what I mean."

"It would be a noble quest indeed," she concurred, looking around at the various stands and booths selling a wide variety of necessities and luxuries. "I would love to continue what my father has started."

"What your father started?"

"I'll tell everyone all about it as soon as we regroup. And we can discuss Meklavar's 'quest' in greater detail as well." She let out a small exclamation once her eyes found what she was looking for, her face lighting up. "As for right now? I'm going to purchase some lovely arrows."

][ --- ][

][ music ][

The city of Darmuth was visible enough that Pike could see the details of the architecture. The city walls had impressive archways and all the rooftops of the numerous tall buildings were a distinct red. As they drew nearer, Pike's brows lowered and his ears perked forward, straining to make out anything amongst the myriad of noises coming from the town.

Meklavar noticed his change in behavior and tried to look where he was looking but his eyes were darting around too much. "What is it?"

"I'm… hearing something within the city walls. It sounds like screaming." He looked over at her and then Korhan. "And I think I got a whiff of smoke, but it's hard to tell from this distance."

"Perhaps we should enter the city from the western gate?" Korhan asked.

"I dunno… by the time we get on that side of the city whatever's going on inside might have migrated over there anyways." They all started when an explosion sounded from the heart of Darmuth, arcs of purple lightning trailing up above the rooftops. "Whatever's going on inside looks serious." He summoned his lance, the ring on his index finger transforming into the weapon he twirled in his hand. "Our teammates could be in danger."

Meklavar stared at the lance before looking up at him. "Are you sure you're healed enough to fight? It was almost impossible to get you out of bed this morning."

"I'll be fine, that's what my chakra is for," he said dismissively. He didn't actually know how many spells he would be able to cast in his current state but he didn't like the idea of Meklavar fighting without him there to ensure no harm came to her. He knew she was plenty capable and stronger than him in more ways than one, but at some point along their travels, he developed an almost instinctual need to protect her. He wasn't sure if it was his servant sense of duty to her or loyalty from their small but meaningful affinity that urged him to vigilant behavior. He reckoned the seeds of safeguarding were planted as soon as she confided in him her secret of being dragonborn and now the roots were firmly weaved deep within his heart.

"Whatever lies ahead, princess," Korhan started as he unsheathed his rapier, "Know that I shall have your back."

"And I…" Pike made a face. "Your side, I guess."

Meklavar took a deep breath as she looked to both of her comrades and then to the danger that lied ahead. "I wouldn't have it any other way. And no formalities, Korhan."

"Yes prin- ahem. Meklavar."

When they reached the city gates the chaos they were greeted with was worse than they could have imagined. Pike tried to make sense of all the sounds and smells that bombarded his senses but there was too much mayhem to understand the situation entirely. Townspeople ran in fear screaming, others brandished weapons of every variety from swords to frying pans, elvish and galran soldiers under the Empire were attacking with all forms of steel and magic, rebel forces fought against the Empire, city guards were running around shouting orders and helping townspeople while also fighting whoever, and another organization that wore facial masks adorned with the design of a maw full of fangs were included in the fray.

"The Fangtides are here, as well as the Empire," Pike hissed.

"Fangtides?" Meklavar asked.

"Rival assassin group." He started to fight an Empire galran and soon enough Meklavar and Korhan had their hands busy with their own oppressors.

"Rival? Does that mean you're part of an organization?" Meklavar shouted over her shoulder while she swung her axe at an elf.

"Of course I'm part of an organization!" One of the Fangtides was headed towards Meklavar but Pike whipped out his lance in time to cut him off. He narrowly dodged a knife to his throat with a pained grunt. His barely healed wounds were already slowing him down and he feared he would only become a burden to his teammates at this rate. He reared back his weapon and released a blast of lightning through the thrust of his lance, creating a clean line that caused a dozen to collapse to the ground. His eyes found a path for them as a wild idea passed his mind.

"Guys, follow me!" He grabbed Meklavar's arm for good measure before he dashed down the street and into an alleyway, Korhan following closely behind as he parried off some attackers. Pike began jumping and climbing his way up towards the rooftops, turning around to help Meklavar up at the parts where it was too difficult.

"Pike, you know we can't jump like-"

"I know, shut up and I'll remind you to thank me if we live through this." He held down the butt of his lance for her to grab and pulled her up to the next ledge, doing the same for Korhan. With some strained effort, the three of them made it up to the brick red rooftops of the city and overlooked the madness that spread throughout the streets like a flood. "There was no way we would have gotten through those homicidal crowds. Up here we can find our teammates faster." He started running across the rooftops and the two elves followed behind him, looking down into the streets as they passed.

"Oh that's not good," Korhan said somberly as they neared the city's center.

"That's druid magic, right?" Pike asked, staring at the vibrant purple arcs of lightning with dread.

"The one and the same."

"Wait, we have the Empire, rebels, an assassin organization, and the Druids here?!" Meklavar asked.

"Seems like it," Pike said somberly.

"What exactly is going on??"

"Valayun!"

"What?"

"Valayun!" Pike stopped, causing the others to halt as well as he pointed to the archer. "I don't see anyone else nearby, but let's regroup with her."

"How about you get her and bring her back up to the rooftops?" Meklavar suggested. "Korhan and I are safer up here and we'll find everyone else faster this way. You're the one who can get up and down with ease."

Pike wanted to argue that he didn't want to leave her side but she had a point and her plan was logical. "Alright," he answered hesitantly. "You can yell directions to me, I'll try to tune in to your voice over the madness down there."

She nodded. "We'll start to head closer to the center of town."

He took a deep inhale before departing, leaping down to ledges and other precarious lips of architecture until he landed on the ground and ran towards Valayun, slashing at anyone who tried to intervene.

Her brows rose when she saw him. "Pike!"

"Where are the others? Meklavar's on the rooftops with Korhan, we're regrouping there." He took her arm and started towards an alleyway where there were less people.

"Korhan?" Valayun shook her head, realizing now was not the time. "Thunder and Jiro split from us this morning but I saw Jiro only a moment ago. I'm afraid I've lost Block entirely."

"It's alright, follow me." He took the lead climbing up to the roof, giving her a hand when necessary. When they reached the top he looked out at the crowds below for the sorcerer donned in gold and green and the paladin in his armor that reminded him of Alfor's. Sure enough, Jiro wasn't far from where he found Valayun. "I'm going to get Jiro, keep an eye out for Block and Thunder on your way to Meklavar and Korhan."

"I'll try to offer aerial support if you need it," she offered, notching an arrow at the ready.

Pike gave her a nod before running across rooftops until he was closer to the paladin. He made his way down into the masses, striking blows with his lance as he fought his way through. When he called out the paladin's name he turned his head towards him, finishing off the fight with his opponent before striding over. "Jiro, we're regrouping on the roof and we can leave as soon as we find Block and Thunder. Do you know where they are?"

"Leave? We can't leave these people in their time of need!"

"Jiro, I know you mean well," he began but he was cut off with a yelp as an assassin tackled him to the ground. He wrestled with her for a brief moment before an arrow suddenly lodged through her throat. His widened eyes followed the angle of the fletching to see Valayun on a nearby rooftop. "I know you mean well," he continued as he stood up, "but we can't handle these odds. If we stay some of us will die, or worse."

"What's worse than dying?"

"Oh I'm sure you can use your imagination." Pike rolled his eyes before leading the paladin back up to the rooftops and meeting up with the rest of the group. They spread around looking for their sorcerer and ranger, heading closer to the center of the city where the worst of the fight raged, and Pike's heart skipped a beat when he found both of them cornered in an alleyway by a druid. Block was fighting them off the best he could since Thunder's blades were not nearly as effective against magic.

Pike moved quickly, traveling from rooftop to rooftop with ease and jumping his way down to land behind the druid cornering his teammates. He transformed his lance back into the silver band around his index finger and instead made a couple hand signs to summon several magical chains from the ground. They snaked around the druid and arced back into the cobblestone, pinning them down. Thunder rushed forward and swiftly took care of the enemy with one of his blades before they could get back up.

"You're alive," Thunder greeted dully.

"Barely."

"Watch out!" Block shouted before casting a shielding spell that blocked an oncoming attack with a loud clash. Pike's eyes widened when he saw what nearly hit them - a druid's hands were held up, controlling two halves of brightly glowing purple cuffs. He felt his heart fall into his stomach, his muscles tensing into near paralysis when he understood the situation.

Pike barely broke out of his trance in time to cast his own barrier spell that surrounded him and Thunder in pillars of red light before the druid struck again. Block was too far away fighting another druid for Pike to include him in the protective spell. With each blast the barrier weakened, the red light slowly fading from its vibrancy.

"They're surrounding us," Thunder warned from Pike's backside, observing the two additional druids who approached and summoned their own sets of ominously vibrant collars. "Can you teleport us out of here?" "Afraid not," Pike admitted with a terse sigh. "I'm low on chakra - I could probably teleport myself but taking someone else takes a lot of out me. Where's Rover?? Can't he come and grab us?"

"He was badly injured in the fight," he uttered. "I… don't know if he's okay."

"Cheese…" They were running out of options and his protective spell was wearing down fast. "You ready to fight the old fashioned way?"

"It's the only way I know, idiot."

"Oh, right." Pike summoned his lance again before the barrier dissipated, leaving the two of them vulnerable to the druid's attacks. Both of them lunged into the fight, blades fighting against the onslaught of cuffs curving relentlessly towards their necks.

Suddenly he heard Meklavar screaming his name from the rooftops.

And then pain was thrust against the left side of his neck, knocking him to the ground.

Pike hit the cobblestone with a gasp as the magic wrapped and sealed around his neck. He tried to pull himself up to his feet but the collar drained what little energy he had left. He could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears but the nightmare was released from his neck temporarily and he felt like he was gasping for air after breaking the surface of the water he was drowning in.

Thunder was distracted by his comrade's pain and inevitably fell to the same fate. Block kept trying to break the collars but the druids were too many and too persistent. He could no longer help now that two druids were attacking him with elemental spells but the sorcerer continually tried to release the dark magic around his teammates' necks as he fought off his aggressors.

One of the druids conjured a swirling black portal upon the ground as Pike and Thunder struggled against the electrifying surges that left them depleted, gasping and groaning on their hands and knees. In a last attempt before the darkness swallowed them whole, Pike used all his energy to get Block's attention.

"Block!!" When Block's dark brown eyes met his terrified blues, Pike called out his final plea as one of the druids kicked Thunder into the obsidian portal. "Leave us! Please, protect her!"

Do what I can't…

Block's face fell, the horror of the situation setting his stomach into knots. As the druid's foot met Pike's shoulder, Block offered his friend a pained nod as promise before Pike was kicked into the void and swallowed into oblivion.

"I'm so sorry you guys…"

[maniacalmachinist]

Predator/DND (Pt 3)

CHAPTER 3:  INVESTIGATION

Hachende was awoken to the sudden thud of the structure, and a couple of familiar voices.

“Look Lars, you lost the bet with Durgo . . . just go pay the drunken half-pint and suck it up.”

“Sven, we didn’t even get to see the steward . . . they had those guards drag that carcass in, not us.

The one called Sven shook it’s head, “Don’t blame me . . . you know that dwarf doesn’t play fair when he drinks . . . hell, the little fucker doesn’t play fair when he’s sober either.  But the fact remains you made a bet and lost . . . go pay up.”

Lars ooman groaned, “Fuck you . . . you pay the little shit.  You’re the one who insisted on drinking last night.”  Hachende made a mental note to study oomans longer before a hunt . . . their chattering almost sounded ridiculous.  There was then a knocking sound . . .

“Wagh come . . . Wagh here fa’ da guys . . . May’uh says we go back wit dah’ Silvah man. Find Why Vern den . . . but I don’t know no Vern.”  It rubbed it’s head . . . Hachende figured this tusked creature was some kind of leader . . . it definitely has the other two outclassed in size and strength.

“What the hell are you talking about Wagh?” responded Lars.

The tusked one beat it’s chest, clearly asserting it’s authority, “May’uh want us show Silvah Man dah den we found dead t’ing.  May’uh wan ohner-us wit’ helpin him look ‘round.  Wagh important now.”

Sven shook it’s head, “Silver man . . . honestly, you make no sense sometimes Wagh, but let’s go.”

The tusked one grunted, “Yes . . . le’s go . . . uh, you smell some’tin funny?”  It seemed to sniff.

Lars snorted, “Between you and the animals Wagh, I don’t smell anything different.”

******************************************************

Gyremar had slept well that night, even if it was in a room meant for humanoids . . . well, furnished anyway.  The Mayors previous had requisitioned lodging for the Dragon ages past, a hut permanently frozen on the inside with various furnishings crafted out of the enchanted ice.  Each mayor had included a writing desk with stationery and parchment for their draconian guest, as well as paintings of the Mayors lucky enough to have worked with him.  He glanced at the wall the night before, marveling at the detail put into these leaders that had worked closely with him.

There was a knock on the door, diverting his thoughts for a moment, “Enter.”

“Ah, Steward . . . our expedition is almost ready . . . we sent for the four who found the carcass to guide the team, and guard if necessary, and we’ve heard the Druid will be meeting all of you there.” Stated the Mayor, “Will you be needing anything else?”

“Yes . . . if could you spare one magi as well . . . there’s a taste in the chill wind, and it reeks of our visitor.”

Jonas blinked, “You think it’s here?”

“I suspect it’s closer than we think . . . a magi would work well with the team, and perhaps keep everyone alive a bit better than I can alone.”

“Of course . . . any field of magic you would prefer?”

Gyre pondered a moment, “Basic arcane and enchantment would suffice.”

The Mayor nodded, “Hmmmm, young Jessica Sable might do . . . she’s had a few years, but has been good at enhancing equipment as of late, and seems to do pretty well with those magic bolts.”

Gyyre nodded, “She’ll do I suppose . . . though if she’s that young, I’m wary of her safety.”

Jonus chuckled, “Compared to you Steward, everyone is young.”

Gyre couldn’t help but chuff in mild amusement, “Well played . . . “

The group assembled, the humans Lars and Sven were verbally jabbing each other back and forth, being led by the Orc Wagh.  A dwarf named Durgo staggered out of his home later after giving a kiss to his wife and children, and seemed to look at Gyre with an uneasy eye, “Eh laddie, I dunnae be seein’ ya ‘roun’ b’fore . . . “

Gyre decided to have a bit of fun, “Steward Gyremar . . . and you would be?”

“Aside from fucking drunk?!” chirped Lars.

“Ya be watchin’ ya tongue lad . . . Durgo Ironwrought, and nae be tuffer’n in the fiel’ o’ tha mines.”  He hefted his axe with pride, and Gyre could tell the usual dwarf overcompensation in their metalwork.

He inspected the axe, “Hmmmm, Steelforge era from the look of it . . . heirloom from a grandparent I suspect.”  He looked at the axe head and handle, “Oh, a hint of darksteel and enhancement runes.”

“Bloody ‘ell, ya know ya craft’in boy . . . “

“It’s good work . . . though it would be better if it weren’t a fake . . . “

Durgo went red in the face, “Wha’ ya mean, fake!!  I’ve cut down many o’ foe wit’ me Darkslice!?!?”

Gyre snorted, “Oh I don’t doubt it . . . but if you look at the rune imprint on the back of the axe head, it’s wrong . . . the style is Steelforge era, to be sure . . . but the emblem is from the Steamcore clan.  If memory serves, they were exiled from the Steelforge domain a century or two later.”

“Wha?  Ya dunnae be knowin’ . . . “ Durgo glanced at the rune . . . “Well bloody fell . . . I knew me gramps were a LIAR!!”

Wagh points at Gyre, “See . . . Silvah man . . . Wagh say hello to Silvah man!”  Gyre snorts, waving at the Orc.

The two humans start laughing, then look to the Mayor, “So where’s this almighty dragon, Halfpine?”  Gyre turned and smirked at the Mayor, whispering something in another tongue.

Jonus snorted, “He’ll be dropping in later, but will be meeting up with you at the site. Gyremar is the go-to guy for the him though, so if you have a question ask him.  Oh, and there will be a druid waiting at the den as well.”

“HEEEEY wait up!!!” Came a feminine scream several homes down, a young woman carrying a short staff in one hand and wearing caster robes.  She pants heavily when arriving at the carts, “Oooh . . . thanks . . . so sorry.  My rooster didn’t sound the morning call like it usually does. I didn’t even have enough time to check the coop when the mayor knocked on my door.”

Gyre nods, “It’s perfectly fine . . . everyone else had just arrived not too long ago.”

“Oh thank the gods . . . “ She looks at Gyre, eyes wide, “Yo . . . you’re “ He puts up a finger to his lips with a smirk, “Yes, I’m the Dragon’s adjutant.”  She seemed to blush, and snort, “Oh, I had hoped to actually meet him . . . but I guess that will be later.”  Her acting skills would be less than adequate to the trained eye.

“Yes, there were other matters he had to attend to first, but he will arrive at the site eventually.”

She looked at Lars and Sven, “Oh . . . don’t tell me I have to work with you fools again.”

“Awww, don’t be like that . . . we now you loved those artistic expressions to help with your studies.”

Jessica huffed, “I’m sorry, but pictures of your genitals doesn’t exactly help . . . “

“Awww, and here I thought women liked it bigger . . . “ chimed Lars.

“To use your language, don’t fuck with a woman who can accidentally make things smaller while talking in her sleep.”  The two seemed to wince, but Durgo was breaking out in laughter.  

Gyre snorted, “Oh this will be interesting in more ways than one . . . “

**********************************************************

The trip to the Wyvern’s den took a little longer than Sven remembered, but they had several more people, and Jessica had to stop often as the cart induced motion sickness.  He kept glancing at the silver “adjutant” but something felt a bit off . . . like the air itself was colder, but less hostile around him, as if the winds themselves were being diverted.  In a way, he looked like a Dragonborn with those claws and horns, so it made sense that he’d be associated with the steward. But, recalling some of the village history, the Steward never once sent a Dragonborn . . . a notion dawned on him, and his eyes went wide.  The eyes of the “adjutant” moved to his, as if knowing what thoughts went through his mind . . . but he smirked.  He slowly got the feeling that the Steward himself was playing with them.  He just dead-panned his gaze back to the front.

He didn’t see a hand smacking him, “Fuck, Sven . . . snap out of it . . . look like you just saw the damn ghost of the first mayor or something.”

Sven could only grunt at the blow, “Ah, fuck you . . . and you might not be far off that point . . . “

“Ah, just shut up . . . we’re almost to the den.”

Wagh hopped off, and leapt forward, grabbing his favorite club and sniffed around, “Funny smell not here . . . “

Lars face palmed, “Wagh, the wind’s blowing . . . “

Wagh shrugged, “Uh . . . wha?”

Sven snorted, “Just forget it . . . we’ll set up camp while our guests inspect things, no telling how long we’ll be here.”

Gyre dismounted from the cart, helping Jessica out . . . she stumbled a bit, not having fully recovered from her last “purge.”  

“Ugggh . . . get that damn thing fixed . . . I couldn’t hold down breakfast for crying out loud . . . bleeggh!”  Gyre patted her back.

“Don’t think it was the cart’s fault . . . I suggest looking into ways to improve your constitution while traveling . . . perhaps pack a lion’s heart potion next time.”

“Hurgle!  That stuff’s expensive . . . even to craft on my own, half the ingredients don’t grow here.”

Gyre snorted with a smile, “Ah, but in alchemy you just need to combine the traits and mix with the right magic . . . one plant, or even animal, can be substituted for another.  I suggest talking with the village healer on the matter.”

In no mood to argue, Jessica just nodded and grunted.  Gyre looked up, and noticed a woman near the den, waving her stave, “Northmount forest welcomes you, villagers of Lightcross and Steward of Northmount!”

Wagh scratches his head, “Uhhh . . . who Stew’rd?  Not know no Stew’rd.”

There was a huge belly laugh from the Dwarf, “Aye, tha’ ol drag’n be but a myth lass . . . has’na been seen in decades, ‘e has.  Silver boy here is jus’ a del’gate a’ best.”  He clapped Gyre on the shoulder, almost regretting the instant chill in his hand.  “Aye aye ya, Laddie, ya be col’ as fuck . . .”  With a low chuckle, Gyre turned around, smirking at the dwarf as he let his draconic eye become apparent, becoming silver with a dark slit before returning to a more humanoid ocular.  “Well . . . I . . . errr . . . fook me sideways!!”

Sven laughed, though it seemed more expressed out of relief than a result of the comedy playing out before him.

“Yes, I am the Steward . . . now that I’ve had my fun, shall we continue?”  He waved back at the druidess, making his way up to her with Jessica in tow.  The four stooges just stood there, dumbfounded . . . though Wagh most of all.

“Silvah man name is Stew’rd?  Him named aftah meal or somet’in?”  The other three groaned, or laughed.

“Ah, we tellin’ ya later lad . . . le’s just git this camp setup while the brains ‘andle tha scene.”

******************************************************************

The dead wyvern’s cave was at the top of a small hill, the snow lightly packed as Gyre and Jessica made their way the entrance.

“Hail to you, Frostmoon druid, this is my aide Jessica Sable, a Lightcross mage . . . I take it you’ve gleaned something of import?”  Jessica waved simply, with Sedira nodding curtly at the two.

“I’ll show you, but it’s quite confusing . . . oh, and do mind the smell, this wyvern wasn’t keen on keeping it’s den floor tidy.”

Gyre glanced at Jessica, “I’m not sure your stomach can handle this part . . . “

She took a deep breath, and muttered a small spell, “I . . . I don’t have a choice . . . I want to know too what magic was involved here for a lone warrior to do this.”

“Be at your own peril then . . . come . . . “ the druidess guided them to the cave, and Gyre picked up the smell of rotting flesh and refuse instantly,

“Ugh . . . nasty vermin at best . . . my cohort have more manners.”

“Wyverns aren’t as gracious and intelligent as the Dragonkine, Steward . . . this is no exception.  From first glance, it preferred to eat on the ceiling, and let the remains fall . . . probably to mask the scent, or keep competition away.  Maybe even lure certain scavengers when food was scarce.”

Gyre nodded, looking around the cave . . . if he was a lesser creature, the sight of littered bones and rotting flesh, both frozen and semi-fresh would have made his stomach heave.  “Let us see the astral mark then . . . “

The druidess nodded, “Jessica, if you would channel magics into me, it will speed this process along.”  Jessica nodded, if a bit confused

“Don’t worry, young Sable . . . you’ll see it too in your mind’s eye while channeling.  The druid will take care of the rest, so consider this another of your lessons.”  The  young woman nodded, loosening her stance, while taking the posture of focus.  The druidess began her chant, a series of magic circles began to form . . . red, yellow, and blue, all shifting and moving vertically . . . a series of images began to appear.  The wyvern’s image was given a teal color, it’s body clinging to the ceiling as the druidess hypothesized.

“Guessing these are it’s last moments.”

“The rocks and plants felt much going on, great Steward . . . hmmmm, it senses a trespasser.”

Gyre turned his gaze to the creature, it seemed to rustle a bit . . . suddenly a green image emerged. What appeared to be a tall humanoid, it’s body armored, but not in anything he recognized.  It had long tendrils coming from the back of it’s head, each of which seemed adorned in some kind of clamp, all imprinted with some strange markings.  The way it moved was like watching a mountain cat stalking prey, cautious but confident . . . it pulled a small pipe from the small of it’s back.  What surprised him is that with a flick of it’s wrist, the pipe elongated into a rather vicious double ended spear.

“My word . . . that is a gradient of smithing I’ve never seen before . . . this creature seems to be from a race that’s made the hunt an art in and of itself . . . can you hold this image?”

The Druidess nodded, halting the creature just as the wyvern snuck it’s tail from the ceiling. The mask had a degree of similar decoration . . . the symbols from the tendril clamps mirrored along some of the mask’s features.  In a way, it resembled some of the conventional helms that adventurers had used through the ages, but this one stretched up over the creature’s forehead, which was large on it’s own based on the position of the hair-tendrils.  He continued inspecting the image, noticing a disc-like object on both of it’s thighs.  “Fells . . . I would almost call this creature an orc, but those tendrils aren’t like that of any humanoid I’ve encountered . . . “

“If I may Steward . . . I do recall stories of the Northmount Banshee . . . we have a few texts from an era where an unknown creature was beheading certain animals and travelers, while leaving skinned carcasses.  It was said to disappear into the snow, and would playback the voices of the hunted, or make a roar like something never encountered . . . both hollow, and bone chilling.” Jessica recanted, eyes closed while focusing the magics.

Gyre blinked, “I’m not aware of these stories, and I’ve been here a long time.”

“This was some decades before you were recognized as the Steward . . . when the White Wyrm still controlled this territory.”

“Oh her . . . that fallen thing should never have been allowed dominion here . . . glad I was rid of her . . . but there may be some merit to the story.  When I met Carmix’la, she appeared deeply injured, as if some fight had gone awry.  Some of her scales were burned in a way I couldn’t fathom.”

“Yes, that would be the one Steward . . . according to records, the death of the White Wyrm coincided with the end of the skinning and strung up corpses.”

Gyre chuffed, “And my rather unorthodox promotion to Steward.”

[wormy-business]

Neverwinter University; Chapter One

Starting the Semester

Summary:  It's time for the Tres Horny Boys, and the entirety of everyone from The Adventure Zone; Balance to head off to college. new faces abound, relationships are formed and broken, and a Lich just might be hiding out in the staff break room.

Word Count: 2,970

Read on AO3

“Well bro, here we are, the next four to six years of our lives.” Lup chimed as her boyfriend drew their carriage-like wagon to a stop. Taako stared out the window and stretched his arms out.

“Yeah, I mean at least it looks nicer than NHS.”

“Honestly,” came Barry’s voice as he unhooked the covered wagon’s door and let it come open. “Any place looks better than ol’ Neverwinter High.”

Taako surveyed his new, unfamiliar surroundings as he stepped down off the wagon, followed by his twin sister. The main building was massive, and made mostly out of stone. The building had been a castle before it was a university, and thus prided itself on maintaining that aesthetic. The new buildings stood out starkly, however. They were large contemporary dorm buildings that faced each other, neither marked much aside from being labeled the east and west dorms. He could also see the hint of a temple peaking its high pointed roof between the space of the actual university and the western dormitory. Taako was thankful he and Lup would be housed on the same floor, even if they weren’t roommates. He hated being away from his sister for too long, since he’d spent his entire life with her. Barry was going to be on the same floor with them, which wasn’t surprising as he and Lup had become nearly inseparable since they started dating their junior year of highschool. It was going to be somewhat of a relief having familiar faces so close to him, but he knew plenty more were either on their way or had already shambled onto campus; there were only two major universities this side of Faerûn after all. But searching through the crowd could wait, Taako wanted to see what his dorm looked like and figure out who his roommate was going to be. Lup and Barry were carrying two bags each, but Taako scoffed and casted levitate on both of his bags, as to avoid having to do any actual physical labor.

“Oh god!” Taako whined as the three entered through the doors of the eastern dorm. Lup didn’t see immediately what he was whining about, all she saw was that the place looked nicer than she had expected.

“What?” she asked, still unsure of what her brother was complaining about this time.

“Look!” He said in the same tone of voice, pointing his wand  towards an elevator.

“Well I’ll be damned, even this place is getting an upgrade.”

“Uh, if you really wanna call it that. I don’t get the deal with elevators, I can go up without walking too it’s called magic!”

“Taako, I will never understand why you’re so against elevators.” Barry noted, standing behind the twins.

“They’re overrated!” Taako exclaimed as he huffed and marched towards the stairs.

Lup chuckled as she followed her brother up the stairs to the third floor of the building, where they all were going to be situated. Taako glanced over the floor’s room listing, and turned to face Barry.

“You’re the RA?” He asked, a gleeful smile jumping onto his cheeks.

“Oh, uh, yeah! So, I’ll be the one laying down the rules and-” He was cut off by the elf, who in his excitement, dropped the levitation spell he’d been maintaining, causing his bags to drop to the floor.

“This is perfect! Sorry kemosabe but you’re not going to be able to stop me from doing anything I want!” and with that he was off to his dorm, the second room on the left side of the hall. He poked his head in, seeing a bare living area with a small kitchen area, a door to a bathroom, and two closed bedroom doors.

“Uh, hello?” He called out as he set his two bags on the floor that he ha carried in from the hall. He checked both rooms, and both were empty. Taako grinned as he grabbed his bags and marched into the larger of the two rooms. He got there first, so it was his right to take whichever room he wanted. He was about to start moving his clothes from his luggage into the closet when he heard a sound come from the lobby that he recognized immediately as coming from Carey Fangbattle. He got up and walked back out into the hall to watch what was going on.

“Carey? No way!” His sister’s excited voice came from inside a dorm room with an open door, so he moved to allow himself to look inside.

“I knew this was gonna be fun!” The blue dragonborn looked like she could hardly contain her excitement, her feet stomping on the ground and shaking her hands back and forth.

“How touching.” Taako teased when the two girls hugged, gaining the attention of both women.

“Taako! You’re on this floor too?! We are gonna have the best floor parties!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Barry grumbled, now leaning on the doorframe of his dorm room which sat at the end of the hall.

Carey looked at him, grinned, and then looked back at Taako. “Like I said, best floor parties, ever!”

Lup waved her hand, and the door of her dorm shut. She stuck her tongue out at her brother as it closed, an he did the same back. As he was turning to go back into his dorm he saw a half elf who he was pretty sure he recognized from high school, but then again he might have been totally wrong. The guy looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and he was wearing a stupid hat with a feather in it, and a he was carrying a single bag of luggage and a carrying case for some kind of instrument. He walked down the hall, and stopped in front of Barry.

“Hey, I’m Barry, guess we’re gonna be roommates!”

“Yeah, cool. I’m Johann. We, uh, we went to highschool together. You know that, right?”

Barry’s rounded cheeks turned a glaring shade of red, a clear indicator that no, he did not know that. “Oh, yeah! I knew you had a familiar face!”

Johann. Was that name familiar? Who cared. Taako was about to slip back into his room when he heard someone call him from across the hall.

“What’s up, flip wiz?” It was Killian, who was leaning against the doorframe of her dorm, her square frame nearly taking up the entire space.

“Flip wizard” was a nickname that Taako had earned somewhere along the way in high school, mainly due to the fact he was very dextrous and incredibly agile.

“Not much, waiting for someone new to come around. Like I get it, you know? A lot of people I know but can’t there be someone I don’t know for a change?” He complained as he turned to face the orc.

Killian shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me, man. Hey, is Maggie here yet? Carey was talking the whole way about how when she saw him she was totally gonna sneak up on him and jump on his back.”

Taako’s ears picked up and a giddy smile drew across his face. “Now that’s something I need to see!”

“Let’s go find him then!” Taako jumped when he heard Carey’s voice come from behind him, and he whipped around as her girlfriend burst out laughing.

“Okay, never do that to me again, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” He shouted, now hearing Lup’s laughter from behind him as well.

The four of them, five once Barry had caught up, all walked their way out to the field after Taako adamantly refused to take the elevator. He’d be damned if he was about to start telling people about the weird dreams he’d been having lately that included elevators and vines. Even more people were milling about now, which would make it difficult to spot even Magnus. Faces were rushing past an not giving anyone enough time to figure out who they belonged to, but Taako managed to pick out a few that stuck out. Two drow who held a parasol over their heads, shielding their sensitive eyes as they rushed towards the eastern dorm building, a young country-looking girl who appeared overwhelmed, a red headed guy carrying too many books for one person to handle scampering towards the western dorm, and one guy who was standing in the middle of the chaos looking stoned out of his mind with his hand half stuck in a pringles can, and then a voice, broad and chesty, cut through the crowd.

“Jules!” The group followed the sturdy figure of Magnus’s girlfriend as she ran towards him and he picked her up and swung her around, nearly taking out the half elf who was standing a little too close. “I’ve missed you!” Magnus exclaimed as he kissed her, and set both of her feet back on the ground.

“Oh, you know I missed you too, big guy.” Julia teased, pressing her finger lightly to the tip of his nose.

“Gotcha!” Carey exclaimed, having successfully snuck up on her friend and jumped onto his back, though amidst the chaos sneaking wasn’t a particularly difficult feat. Magnus laughed, turning his head to look at her.

“Carey! And Killian, and wow, hey you guys!” Magnus waved to his other friends as the dragonborn hopped off his back. As she was walking away Magnus quickly checked his pockets and then grabbed her wrist. “Carey.” He said in a higher tone. “Give it back.” He extended his other hand and watched as Carey put something into his palm. As he brought his hand a little closer to his face in confusion, the small round object exploded into a cloud of smoke, eliciting laughter from the lizard-like woman, who swung around to drop Magnus’s wallet back into his pocket and then off to her girlfriend’s arms.

“You gotta keep your eye on your stuff, Maggie.” She teased, her tail swishing as she nestled herself under Killian’s arm, leaving Magnus and Julia to wave the smoke away.

Taako and Lup were both snickering, and Lup high-fived the dragonborn when she got back to their small friend circle. Lup was about to compliment Carey when she was cut off by a different familiar voice.

“Fellas! Hey fellas!” A dwarf with a short-ish beard (short as far as dwarven beards go) and a prosthetic arm bounded up to them. “Wow, it’s so great to see you all again!”

“Hi Merle.” Taako spoke and waved as Magnus picked up the smaller man and noogied him once the smoke from Carey’s bomb had cleared

“It’s been too long!” He exclaimed, putting him back down.

“I know, I know. I was doing spiritual stuff all summer so my dad took my stone of farspeech away. But hey, I got it back, and hey guess what else! I get to room with Davenport!”

“Oh, that’s great. You two really mesh well, that’s good.” Taako said, brushing his whitish blonde hair over his shoulder.

“I’m pretty psyched, I’ve got Avi and we’re gonna fucking party dudes!” Magnus gave powerful high-fives to both men. “What about you, T? Who are you with?”

The elf shrugged, playing lazily with his wand. “I don’t know, the dorm was empty when I got there, so I got the good bed.”

“You didn’t check the registry?” Merle asked. In all honesty, Taako hadn’t really thought to check the registry, but it wasn’t like he was about to tell anyone that.

“You gotta keep a little mystery going in your life, you know?”

Lup, who had gotten caught up in conversation with Carey, Killian, and Julia, was now tugging at her brother’s sleeve. “Hey, Taako? It looks like we’ve got competition.”

She lead his gaze towards two stunning elves, dressed in gaudy, flashy clothes who were walking in sync with two animated mannequins carrying their luggage for them towards the center of the school yard. Taako, a fire igniting inside of himself, flipped his hair, straightened out his handmade hat, and began strutting with his sister in sync towards the other two.

“Well, I’ve been asking for new faces all day, thank god they were good looking.” Taako started the conversation as he and his sister stopped in front of the two elves. The pair looked at Lup and Taako, looked at each other, and grinned.

“Well I could definitely say the same thing.” The male elf spoke with a smirk drawn across his face. “Your hat is stunning, I have to say.”

Taako winked, pulling it down slightly to show the way the sun bounced off the rim. “Thank you, I made it myself. And honestly? Your shoes? I’m loving them right now.”

“Thank you, they were expensive.” The foursome shared a laugh, and the female elf extended her hand out to Lup.

“I’m Lydia.” She said with a smile.

“Edward.” The male elf introduced himself to Taako.

Lup shook Lydia’s hand, drawing her own smile. “Lup.”

Taako and Edward’s handshake was a it more refined than the girls’ was. “Taako. We sorta know the place, we’ve been here for like an hour, and you two look lost.”

“Well, we’re both set up in the east dorm, the third floor.” Lydia stated, taking her hand back and shifting her weight to one side.

“No shit? So are we. Come on, we already know most of the people on the floor.” Lup said, already walking towards the building with the other three following behind.

“Edward, tell me, are you in room 33?” Taako asked, which made Edward’s ears face upwards more.

“I am, actually. Why do you ask?”

Taako looked relieved, but was also inwardly somewhat upset. He and Lup had to outfab these two new elves, and now he was sharing a room with one of them?

“Oh that’s crazy! We’re totally roommates!” Taako exclaimed, arms raised out to the sky.

“That’s perfect!” Edward proclaimed, following Taako into the dorm room once they had gotten to the floor.

“So, what are you majoring in?” Taako shouted from across the dorm as he and Edward were both setting up their closets in their respective rooms.

“Fashion design, obv. Lydia and I both are. What about you and your sister?”

“Culinary arts for me.” Taako called back. “And my sister is going for mechanical engineering. Oh, hold on bubeleh my sissy wants to talk.” Taako said as he saw his stone of farspeech light up. He picked it off his bedside table, and raised it up. “You’re go for Taako.”

“Meet us back in the courtyard, it’s Raven!”

“Sorry kemosabe, I gotta blink my high school teacher is here for some reason and I gotta get the tea.” And with that Taako casted Blink, shifting him into the ethereal plane where he could move faster to the courtyard, blinking back into the material plane next to his sister. And sure as hell there she stood, Ms. Raven. She was wearing a long black dress that trailed into the grass behind her, a murder of crows sitting upon tree branches all around her, and in front of her a young man who shared her same dark complexion, his face somewhat broad and very, very handsome.

“Taako.” Lup said, waving her hand in front of her brother’s face. “You’re ogling.”

“I’m not!” He protested as he smacked her hands away, watching as Ms. Raven kneeled next to the young man, looked like she whispered something to him, and with a snap was surrounded by black fog and was gone. The young man picked a large bag off of the ground and began walking, looking down at a paper he was holding. Taako straightened his robes off, dusted off his shorts, and walked right up to him.

“Hi there, handsome.” He started, making the man look up. “I’m Taako. I know your mom, she taught me in high school.”

“O-oh, yeah, she taught at Neverwinter High. Uh, I’m Kravitz, it’s nice to meet you.”

Taako grinned, biting his lip as he shook his hand. It was cold, very cold.

“Oh, boy howdy that is a clammy one. No worries! What’s your dorm? I’ll show you around.”

With a blush creeping onto his face, Kravitz cleared his throat. “Uh, the western dorm, fourth floor.”

“Perfect!” Taako clapped his hands together. “It’s over here. Hey Mags?” He called, now shouting to Magnus, interrupting the conversation he was having with Avi. Magnus excused himself and hustle over to the two.

“Hail and well met!” Magnus grinned, holding his hand out to Kravitz. “My name is Magnus, and your mom scares me!”

Kravitz laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck as he shook hands with Magnus. “Kravitz Raven.” He said, a bit more softer now.

“Maggie he’s sharing a floor with you, I believe. West dorm, fourth floor?” Taako inquired.

“Yeah, that’s us! C’mon bud, we’ll walk you there.”

Kravitz followed the two, Taako smiling at him the whole time.

“And let’s see, looks like this is your room.” Magnus smiled, stopping in front of a dorm, his smile turning down. “Ooh, Taako that’s gotta be awkward.”

Taako looked up and saw what name was labeled next to the door under Kravitz’s, and then he walked out of his room.

“Oh, Sazed, it’s nice to see you.” Taako looked away from him immediately, and Sazed scoffed.

“No it’s not.” He pushed his way past the group, and Taako tensed up, hands curled into fists as his sides.

“I have to go.” Taako blinked back into the ethereal plane and got as far away from Sazed’s dorm as he possibly could until the spell wore off. If his new crush was going to be rooming with his ex-boyfriend, this year was turning out to be a hell of a ride.

[doctor-desi]

Another story for the @kruos-tallo story! This one came from a silly idea... well either me or @meteorito618 had when talking. There is no title I had for this one, and I haven’t really proof-read it, but I really wanted to post it so here it is! Hope you enjoy!

Walking on the dirt road back towards Elenium proved much harder a task for our heroes than when they first went upon it earlier that day. But then, a lot has happened since they left the town that they have been staying in. They had come in the first place after receiving word of a nearby struggle, and after setting themselves up in the local inn, they went to investigate. What they found was a cult that was perfecting their spells on raising the dead, and a fight ensued. Worry not for the heroes won, but they left with many a wound on their bodies, their steps heavy with exhaustion as they head back to town with the sun slowly making its way towards the horizon.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Can you believe that we actually had to break up a cult of necromancers?” Lados, a female tiefling complains, “I mean if you are going to master in the magics, at least have some class with it.” She moves her hand in a waving motion, leaving a small line of frost behind it.

Anakis, a male tiefling and twin to Lados sighs from his point beside her and slings an arm over her shoulders, “I totally agree with you, I mean even my magic can be considered sketchy sometimes, but at least I don’t use it for what they do,” he comments wrinkling his nose. Akra, a smaller, light blue dragonborn nods her head, looking tired.

“Well hey!,” the half-elf known as Darjo exclaims, “at least we made it out alive right? I mean, I could try my hand at some necromancy stuff if any of you went down, but I’d rather not fall down that road.” The twins groan at Darjo as Akra smiles shaking her head and saying, “be careful what you say Dajro, you wouldn’t want us telling Gwen you went rogue on us now would you?” Darjo laughs and waves a dismissive hand in her direction.

Throughout their casual conversation, they fail to notice one of their group falling behind. Blaine a younger green dragonborn has taken to favoring one of her legs, and is steadily falling behind despite her best efforts to keep up. With another step the others hear her cry out in pain as she falls forward to the ground. She pushes herself up on her arms after a moment with a groan of frustration. The others look back at her before coming back to where she fell.

“Woah, you okay there Blaine? Did you get hurt?” Anakis questions scanning her and looking for any injuries. She sighs and turns over onto her back and replies, “Unfortunately. Think one of those necromancers messed up my leg,” she moves her left leg flinching before turning to look to Darjo, “Hey, you have any more healing left in you?”

Darjo thinks for a moment before nodding, “I probably have enough left in me for just one more spell, just give me a second,” they say, moving to pull stuff out of their bag. They get to work setting various materials on the ground and kneel by Blaine’s leg. They hover their hands over her leg and close their eyes, beginning to recite a spell in a voice that does not rise above a whisper.

What happens next happens too fast for any of them to understand. One moment, the Blaine they know is lying on the ground in pain, the next, a much smaller, and younger green dragonborn in a loose short sleeved shirt and pants just a little bigger than needed is in her place. Darjo opens their eyes after finishing and let out a shriek, moving backwards away from the child in front of them. The child sits up and looks around in fascination and curiosity before looking to the other three who are staring at them. Lados lets out a startled laugh before looking at Darjo, “Funny joke there Greeny, bet you and Blaine had that planned right,” the child tilts their head at this and stands up, bouncing on their feet, looking around as Darjo responds, “You think I did this Red?! All I did... was try to heal Blaine because she was hurt!” The child huffs as the two begin arguing back and forth. Anakis joins in after a few rounds of this, and Akra tries to calm the three down. The child looks around, before smiling wide and laughing to herself, she turns away from the group and walks into the forest.

A few minutes later, Akra looks away from the group she is trying to calm. She is admittedly and understandingly a little frustrated, however as she looks around, those feelings turn more worried. “Guys... guys... GUYS!” she ends up yelling in order to get their attention. The three all yell, “WHAT?!” as they look at her before taking in her expression and finally, somewhat, calming down. “Where... did the kid go?” she asks in a hushed, worried tone. They all look around and then back to each other as Darjo whispers, “Fuck.”

Meanwhile, the child is having the time of her life. She runs through the trees, occasionally climbing them and jumping back down, grabbing random sticks and pretending to use them as weapons. Now, she sits in a clearing after wearing herself out, looking around and taking in the new area she found herself in. Soon, she hears the sounds of people shouting and running towards her location. She stands and backs towards the forest again, ready to run if she needs to. Seconds later, Anakis, Lados, Akra, and Darjo rush into the clearing and spot her. They all stop and start trying to catch their breath while the child laughs at them quietly. Darjo picks up on this and stomps over to the child and points in her face, “Do you think this is funny? We don’t know who you are, or how you got here, and you just run off like that?!” The child stares at them with a frown for a while, then shifts their attention to the finger in her face. Darjo is about to speak again, before all of a sudden the child moves forward and bites Darjo’s finger. Darjo yells and pulls their finger back as the child scrambles to run away, however, Darjo quickly recovers and grabs them up from the ground. The child starts thrashing, trying to escape, and screeching as Darjo struggles to keep them in their arms. The other three in the clearing carefully make their way over to stand by the two. The child notices them in their struggle, and slowly they quit their fighting and fall limp in Darjo’s arms. Darjo huffs in annoyance and relief before saying, “So, kid, you ready to talk? Not gonna run on us again?” The kid scowls and turns their head away from the four surrounding her and nods.

Darjo sets her down and she bounces from foot to foot as she looks at anything but the four in front of her. Quietly she says, “You said you don��t know who I am... but you said my name earlier.” After a few moments of silence, the child looks back at them to see four confused expressions. She sighs and looks to Lados before saying in a bad impression of her voice, “Funny joke there Greeny, bet you and Blaine had that planned right?” Recognition showed in her expression and slowly did in the others’ as well. Akra knelt in front of the child and whispered, “You’re Blaine? How old are you?” The child, Blaine, nodded, then frowned in thought before smiling in triumph and holding up 4 fingers. Akra’s expression turned horrified as she looked back at the others who all looked at Blaine with a similar expression.

Anakis coughs, and pulls out a small rock saying, “I’m going to send a message to Gwen. Maybe she’ll know what to do,” before moving away and speaking to it. Lados sighs and comes to kneel next to Akra, “Listen Blaine, I am not sure what happened here, but we’d like you to come with us okay? We are staying at an inn nearby...” Before she can continue Blaine interrupts shaking her head and saying, “No, I don’t know you. Mil said to never go anywhere with strangers.” Darjo moves forward, frowning a little, “Blaine you do know us, you travel with us, for some reason you just don’t know us now. Just come with us okay?” They try to convince Blaine reaching out to grab her, she flinches back and yells, “No! Don’t touch me!” as green fog comes rolling out of her mouth. She looks scared as it rolls toward the three in front of her and they all flinch back from it and her as the bubbling, poison effect causes them some harm. Blaine backs up until she hits a tree and slides down, hiding her head against her knees and whispering repeatedly, “I’m sorry.”

Lados sits back, glancing at Blaine and rubbing the spot at which the poison breath touched her, “I didn’t know she could do something like that. Did either of you?” Darjo sighs, laying back against the grass, “Actually yes, she did it once in front of me. I was basically unconscious though so I don’t really remember it. I totally forgot, and the way she’s actng now I bet this is the first time she thinks she’s used it.” Akra grimaces a bit, and as Anakis rejoins them, having sent a message, she says, “Do you think we should do something? She looks really upset.” Anakis looks over the three before sitting and replying, “I think we should just let her be for now. Gwen is coming from Bjarga and should be here soon. Hopefully she can deal with kids better than we can.” The rest of the group nods, looking over at Blaine before settling in to wait.

Just over an hour later, the sound of wings flapping occurs just over the clearing. Blaine appears to be asleep, but the other four stand and leave a spot for the griffon to land. When it does, Gwen, a halfling woman, jumps off the back. She spares a look at the sleeping dragonborn before going to the other four. She stands with her hands on her hips as they all look at her sheepishly. She waits a moment before speaking in a harsh whisper, “So, Anakis kind of explained what occured, however I am still confused,” she turns to Darjo who grins and looks away, “babe, love, how the hell did you fuck up this bad?” Darjo laughs nervously before responding, “Well you see darling, sweetheart, love of my life..” Gwen glares harder at Darjo who sighs and continues, “I have no idea.” Gwen sighs before going up to Darjo and dragging them down to place a kiss on their cheek, “You better figure it out. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can convince Blaine to come back to the inn.” She turns and walks toward Blaine leaving Darjo with a loving smile and the others shaking their heads.

Gwen carefully approaches Blaine, sitting beside her and gently shaking her arm. Blaine jerks awake and stares with wide eyes at the halfling beside her. Gwen smiles warmly and says quietly pouring a bit of extra charm into her voice, “Hello there. My name is Gwen. Are you okay sweetie?” Blaine looks away and smiles, rubbing at her eyes before nodding slowly. Gwen hums before looking back to the group who is standing over Darjo. They all look like they are talking as Darjo is sifting through their bag. Gwen looks back as she hears Blaine’s younger voice question, “What is that?” Gwen follows her eyes to see her griffon in the clearing. She smiles and responds, “That there is Hypnos. He is a griffon who helped me get here to meet you,” she pushes herself up and offers a hand to Blaine who looks at it questionably, “Would you like to meet him?” Blaine thought for a few moments before taking the offered hand and being pulled up. The two stood at about the same height when upright and Gwen chuckled a bit at that. She slowly took Blaine over and introduced her to Hypnos. As Blaine interacted with the griffon, she began opening up to Gwen, talking more and answering questions. Soon, Gwen tied up Hypnos and led Blaine back to the group.

“So, any luck yet?” Gwen asks, looking at Darjo who has their head in their hands. Anakis is snickering, as Lados leans on him, looking unable to breath. He responds a little breathy, “Stupid here used the wrong components in their healing spell. Apparently instead of healing just the leg wound, they healed Darjo there back into childhood.” Lados let out a bark of laughter before falling to the ground to continue laughing, and even Akra looked like she was hiding her smile behind her hand. Darjo just groaned from behind their hands and said, “It’s not that funny you assholes, cut it out.” Gwen shakes her head and looks to Blaine who has her head tilted in confusion. Gwen says to her, “Don’t worry about them, okay?” before announcing to the rest of the group, “Well get ready, we are going to all head to the inn to wait this out.” Darjo looked up at that in surprise, “Really?”

“Yes,” Gwen says, “I’ve been talking with Blaine and she agrees she doesn’t think her siblings would like her to stay out at night.” After a point to the sky, the others can see that it is quickly approaching sunset at this point. With this, they all gather their materials and bags before setting to go. Blaine yawns a little, and Gwen notices before looking to Darjo, “Hey babe, be a dear and carry Blaine okay?” Darjo looks horrified and says, “What? Why me?” Gwen just smiles darkly and responds in an overly sweet tone, “Because you are the one who messed up the spell, and because I asked you to, okay?” Darjo sighs and nods before going over to Blaine. She arches a brow as they approach and become slightly defensive. Darjo rolls their eyes before kneeling down and saying, “Look, Blaine, I know we got off to a bad start. Sorry for how I’ve been acting to you, but you seem tired. Is it okay if I carry you?” Blaine seems to think for a moment, before gaining a slightly mischievous grin and nodding. Darjo exhales in relief before gathering Blaine in their arms. With everything settled, the group of six head off once again back to the road to town.

Not far from the town, Darjo feels something slightly tugging on their hair. They frown and are about to say something when they feel a harsh tug. They yelp and drop Blaine, however Blaine’s hand are tangled in Darjo’s hair, causing Darjo to awkwardly bend to keep their hair from being torn out. Blaine laughs quietly, with a large smile as the rest of the group stops to look back. Darjo growls out, “Blane sweetie, please don’t play with my hair,” and Blaine slowly unhooks her clawed hands from their hair. Darjo stands back straight with a grumble while Blaine turns around, her shoulders bouncing with laughter. Gwen comes over to the two and asks, “What is going on back here?” Darjo is about to respond, but Blaine turns back to face Gwen and with an innocent face responds with, “I accidentally got my hands stuck in their hair, I tried to get them out but I guess I tugged too hard, I didn’t mean to,” she finishes making a very good impression of puppy-dog eyes. Gwen sighs and says, “It’s alright Blaine. Here, why don’t you walk with me, we are not that far from town.” Blaine happily grabs Gwen’s offered hand and turns just her face to stick her tongue out at Darjo before walking with Gwen. Darjo stands, jaw agape and staring at the back of Blaine. The other three notice, and both Anakis and Lados burst into laughter.

By the time the last rays of sun were disappearing, the group made their way back to Elenium and to their inn. They bought another room, the twins in one, Akra in her own, and Darjo, Gwen, and Blaine in the third. Darjo grumbles as they walk into the room first. They kick off their boots and flop onto their back on the only bed in the room. Gwen soon joins them, and Blaine almost asleep, crawls and lays atop of Darjo. Darjo groans at this while Gwen chuckles and gives them a quick peck on their cheek. Gwen whispers, “Relax, it is only for the night, she will probably turn back in the morning. Besides, isn’t she kind of cute as a kid?” Darjo grumbles as they examine the sleeping dragonborn splayed across their chest, “Maybe, but she’s such a dang pain too,” Gwen only laughs as they quietly talk back and forth before falling asleep as well.

~~~~~In the Morning~~~~

Darjo awakes to the feeling of pressure, well everywhere on their body. They almost feel trapped, and are confused as they open their eyes to figure out why. What they find, is a large dragonborn laying atop of them and completely engulfing their form. They groan, and hear a chuckle from the rest of the room. They look over and see Gwen sitting in a chair by the window. She smiles and waves while Darjo just rolls their eyes. They maneuver one of their hands out from Blaine before poking her between her eyes, “Blaine... Blaine.... BLAINE WAKE UP!” Blaine shoots up, holding herself above Darjo as she looks around for danger. When she doesn’t find any, and only sees Gwen smiling widely, she looks back down to see a slightly annoyed Darjo. Carefully Blaine moves herself to stand next to the bed, and Darjo sits up and stretches. It is quiet for a few moments before Blaine says, “Sooo.... what.... exactly is going on?” Gwen laughs and responds, “Don’t worry. Let’s go get breakfast with everyone else and we’ll tell you all about it.” The three of them go downstairs where they meet the rest of the group who all recall the events of the day before. Blaine very soon in the story hides her head in her arms in embarrassment. But overall, she finds the whole situation funny as well, and well, at least now they all had another interesting story to tell later.

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #13

Characters:

Mirri in the wind, tabaxi "cleric" (of Tempus); rapier, lute, robes

Rysiel "Riceboy", half-elf druid (Circle of the Moon); acid burns, simple clothing (vest w/bare chest) and leather armor, scimitar

Zastu, dragonborn rogue (Thief); white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Introducing...

Kix, ?race? rogue (Arcane Trickster); nice clothes, leather armor, rapier, shortbow

Saying goodbye to...

Teir, tiefling warlock;

Noteable NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Darathra Shendrel, human; Lord protector of Triboar

Narth Tezrin and Alaestra Ulgar, humans; Own and run the Lion's Share trading store

Darz Helgar, human; Groundskeeper for the two large caravan camps in Triboar; squirrelly

Urgala Meltimer, human; ex-adventurer and owner of the Northshield House (inn); her late wife died during an adventure

Ghelryn Foehammer, dwarf; master armorsmith, claim to fame is fashioning armor for the kind and queen

Urlam Stockpool, human; owner of the Triboar Travellers, a caravan escort company; dresses very well and sports a bright red eye patch with the Zhentarim winged serpent

Valken Naspeer, half-elf; Urlam's friend and body guard; dresses almost as suave as Urlam, his posture suggests that he's very dangerous.

Nemyth, tiefling; owner and proprieter of the Triboar Arms tavern

I'm a little late writing this, but notes from Rysiel's player really helped! :D

The adventurers wake up at the Northshield house, in a small two-bed room they decided to share, despite having more than enough gold to get separate rooms. Sydiri paid for her own room. Teir's brain has been spinning all night regarding the issue with upsetting some members of the Lord's Alliance. He decides to buy a horse from one of the stables and travel back to Waterdeep--alone--in order to petition the nobles there for forgiveness on their behalf. (Reminder: Rysiel attacked dwarves loyal to queen Dagnabbet of Mithril hall, at Zephyros' tower without provocation) He tells the others his plan, but doesn't invite them along.

Without her employer, Zastu has a momentary crisis about what to do. Luckily, Rysiel suggests they pay back those snooty guys at the Everwyvern Inn for being so rude. (Sydiri stays behind at the inn to hang out with Urgala, the innkeeper) They decide to break into the wine cellar, but first they head over to the Lion's Share to get servant costumes. Once there, Narth tells them that they don't sell such things. The Everwyvern Inn is an upscale establishment that provides its workers with uniforms. Besides, the Lion's Share isn't that kind of store... But whyever would they want to dress like servants anyway? The three of them visit the Triboar Arms to find something for breakfast, and to talk to Nemyth (the tiefling owner) about the Everwyvern House. The party is mostly upfront about their goal-robbing his 'competitor'. Nemyth balks at the idea, but maintains his suave composure. The Everwyvern Inn has very different clientelle, plus they have rooms, while he does not. "I can't be seen with their wine! I would go out of business. What did you think I would say?" He subtly guides them out back for a more frank conversation. He doesn't like the people who own the place, but if anyone asked him about a robbery there... He would have to pretend like he knew nothing. And no, he's not going to help! Here's what I know, he says... Half the people there are actors, paid to make the place look busy and exclusive. Second, the owner, Draven is a mage, so be careful of any magic, though you probably could tell that just by looking at all the glowing lights and floating plants. Third, he hires thugs to keep the riffraff out (the party had a run-in with them as they were considered riffraff themselves). The party presses him for information, such as how to get into the cellar, but Nemyth frowns at them. He knows nothing. It's uncertain if he's telling the truth or not. They give him a big tip of 100 coppers (1 gold/10 silver) for their meal, and head off to the Triboar Traveller caravan escort service to ask the same questions.

They approach the man wearing a red eyepatch with the Zhentarim serpant emblazoned in black, Urlam. They seem surprised when the immaculately-dressed human (and his suave half-elf bodyguard, Valken) recognizes them. Rysiel asks Valken if he's up for some mischief but doesn't offer context. Valken says he's on the clock, so Rysiel asks "Later?" Valken asks if he's hitting on him, and Rysiel asks in Valken wants him to be. Then they become more upfront about what they're after: "Hey, we want to rob the Everwyvern Inn's wine cellar. Do you want any?" Urlam purses his lips and shares a glance with Valken. He gives them a shit-eating grin. "Their wine is quite good, but I can't be seen with contraband bottles. Wouldn't want to have Darathra on my back." They try to get some information out of them, but all they find out is that the two of them like to eat there occasionally, and are on good terms with the owner, Draven. (I check Urlam's alignment, and roll a d100 to determine whether or not he tips off Draven, with 51-100 being a yes... I roll a 91)

The three adventurers stake out the inn from the trees, for about 40 minutes. They're waiting for a servant to come out of the inn, but grow impatient. They joke that they turn to crime as soon as Teir leaves. Riceboy turns into a cat to go in through a window at the back of the inn and unlock the door for the other two. Rysiel easily finds his way downstairs, but he also finds burly guards in waiting for them in the cellar. They're talking openly about Draven being tipped off, and the dubiousness of the warning. He reports back and they decide to try to steal from the other fancy restaurant instead. Despite the fact that this restaurant wasn't the one that was so rude to them, now they just want some pretentious wine, and to cause some mischief. They move to the trees on the perimeter of the Pleasing Platter, and Rysiel changes into a cat again to scope out the place. it's very busy in the kitchen, as lunch is approaching, but Rysiel is stealthy enough to sneak in. He finds someone (Kix) drinking behind a makeshift wall of barrels, who is happy to see him and offers cat-Rysiel some wine. Rysiel lets out a confused maow and then darts off to report back to his companions.

Rysiel and Mirri start performing out front of the restaurant to distract the workers, so Zastu can sneak in through the kitchen. (Keep in mind that this is a fancy restaurant in the country, not a bar in downtown Waterdeep) Zastu goes around back to the open kitchen door, and tries to convince the cooks to go see the performers, but they're suspicious and uninterested. "Why would we care that our bosses hired musicians out front? That happens all the time, and besides, it's almost lunch." She then tells them she has to go to the cellar and talk to someone who went down there. Somehow she's convincing enough that they go with that. "New Girl" takes Zastu downstairs, but there's no one in sight. The girl notices that the barrels are stacked oddly, and the two of them discover that there's a youngish-looking person in nice clothes wasted and drinking wine. New Girl leaves to get her supervisor. Zastu immediately tries stuffing bottles into this rando's bag, but quickly discovers that the weight and clinking of the bottles is inhibiting. She only has a moment, so she empties the bag again and just grabs one bottle. She also grabs the rando's arm and hauls him out of the cellar. They run into New Girl and Supervisor on the stairs, and somehow Zastu bluffs her way past them.

They collect Mirri and Rysiel--who are playing out front for no audience--and they go to the nearby abandoned house, which has obviously been grafitti'd and carved up by the local teens. New person/Kix is already pretty drunk, so the other three split the sole bottle of nice wine that Zastu stole. I guess they chat or something?

Their short rest is interrupted by a boulder crashing loudly into the building in front of them--the splinters and shrapnel flying everywhere while people start screaming. More boulders fly overhead and more crashes are heard. The field before them dips down to another level, hiding the approaching enemies. Only two heads on two broad sets of shoulders are visible at first, then several large flightless birds with axe-shaped beaks appear from behind the ridge with orcs riding them! They enter the town quickly and start harassing and chasing down townsfolk. They don't seem to be trying to kill anyone, but they aren't pulling their strikes as they ride past either. Lagging behind the axebeak birds are two groups of six goblinoid-shaped creatures, with skin like molten lava, all glowing and sinister. Everything they touch catches on fire, and they like to touch a lot of things! Seconds later, three larger orcs march up wearing heavy platmail, and behind those three another orc on an axebeak, but this one has a single ominously glowing eye...

Roll for initiative! Some of the townsfolk get ready for battle... I hand out character sheets for Darathra the Lord Protector, Ghelryn the orc/giantslayer, Darz the ex-rogue, Narth the wannabe adventurer, and Urgala the retired adventurer. ((Riceboy takes Darathra, Zastu takes Darz, Mirri takes Urgala, and Kix takes Ghelryn; I take control of Narth and Sydiri)) Mirri casts Vicious Mockery at the enemies as they advance. One of the Orogs (large orcs in platemail) is hit with psychic damage and has disadvantage on its next attack. Narth dashes from his store to see what's going on, and to see if he can help. The magmin (goblin-looking things) have fun lighting trees and fences on fire. Darz follows Narth to see what's going on. Urgala leaves her inn and takes out her shortbow. She sticks two arrows in the closest magmin, killing it. Kix takes out his shortbow as well, and sticks another magmin with an arrow, then uses their bonus action to hide around the corner. Sydiri shoots her own shortbow, sticking an orc with an arrow. One of the orogs jumps the fence of the abandoned house's yard, and attacks Zastu. Fortuntely, it misses with both swipes of its axe. Darathra sees Narth and Darz, as well as the advancing enemies. She dashes toward them, but isn't fast enough to engage just yet. The orcs on axebeaks advance. -one goes towards Urgala and Sydiri at the inn -one leeps the fence to attack Zastu, but misses -others continue to harass the townsfolk -three see the dwarf, Ghelryn, and attack their mortal enemy, injuring him greatly The two fire giants move forward, stepping over the fence, seemingly approaching Zastu. Zastu, intimidated, backs up to where Mirri and Rysiel stand. Rysiel casts the Tidal Wave spell, and manages to knock an Orog and one of the Fire Giants to the ground. The second giant is hit, but stays standing. Oddly, that giant only checks on their partner before continuing past the adventurers. The one-eyed orc is Norgra! He sees his sworn foe: Sydiri, and rides toward her on his axebeak, casting Spiritual Weapon as he approaches. The spectral spear attacks Sydiri, but misses. The dwarf Ghelryn manages to escape the three orcs by falling back into his house and barring the door. He dashes through to the other side to get away. --end of round one--

[darkelfshadow]

Session Summary - 34

AKA “Trials and Tribulations”

Adventures in Taggeriell

Session 34 (Date: 4th November 2017)

Players Present:

- Rob (Known as “Oloma”) Human Female.

- Bob (Known as “Sir Krondor”) Dwarf Male.

- Sean (Known as “Seanicus”) Elf Male.

- Paul (Known as “Labarett”) Elf Male.

- Phil (Known as “Nac”) Half-elf Male.

- Arthur (Known as “Gim”) Dwarf Male.

Absent Players

- Travis (Known as “Trenchant”) Human Male. <Played by Paul>

NPC

- (Known as “Naillae”) Elf Female. <Controlled by DM>

Summary

- Wealday, 10th of Kuthona in the year 814 (Second Era). Winter.

- The party begin this session, in the large gladiator stadium of the city of Earthcloak. The game has just ended, with victory going to a Dragonborn gladiator.

- Nac and Gim wander around the open stadium, tired, injured but still conscious, looking up into the upper stadium and the two thousand faces of the shouting fans. They look around the stadium floor and see the injured and unconscious bodies of Sir Krondor and Labarett, along with the unconscious bodies of the downed gladiators, being placed onto canvas and wood litters and carried into a side area that appears to be a healing station. Various attendants are looking over and applying healing ointments and bandages to wounds.

- Nac tries to follow the Dragonborn victor but he walks into a seperate side door and the door closes with a loud bang and a click, indicating it is locked.

- Trenchant and Naillae are not visible, as they have sat down again in the stands and the people in front of them are standing and cheering wildly.

- Oloma is standing alone in another side room, with two angry gladiators berating her for having cheated in the games by using magic. Seanicus is still waiting outside, looking through the entry gate into the lower stadium.

- Six Halflings dressed in leather armour and with a brown shoulder cape going over one shoulder, with a symbol of a sailing boat over a geometric pattern, the crest of Earthcloak, enter the room. These six Halflings are Constables of Earthcloak and the lead officer, a Halfling by the name of Lomi, informs Oloma she is under arrest for magic use.

- Oloma can see that the Halflings Constables are very nervous and scared of a magic user, their voices are shaky and their foreheads are sweating (Successful Insight check). Oloma lowers her weapon and calmly talks to the Constables.

- The conversation goes back and forth. Oloma is very apologetic and accepts that what she did was wrong. This seems to surprise the Constables, who act like Oloma might turn into a demon or beast at any moment, and seem unwilling to even approach the wielder of magic.

- A few minutes later however, the Constables faces suddenly show relief when four more Halflings suddenly arrive. These new Halfings show no fear and confidently walk into the room. They wear bright silver mithril chainmail with a blue tabard hanging over it. On the tabard is a pair of crossed silver swords. Hanging off the sides of these Halflings are a pair of gleaming silver mithril shortswords.

- The lead Constable, Lomi speaks, “Thank Yondalla. The Templars are here. She’s all yours!”

- Behind the Templars walks in the tall and dark muscular form of Awamir who runs the Gladiator stadium, “There she is, like I said. I have fully cooperated with your requests. I don’t want any trouble with the Templars of Arvoreen.”

- At the same time Nac, Gim, and the now somewhat healed and conscious Sir Krondor and Labarett, enter into the room with Oloma from the stadium side. Some of the party recognise the silver crossed swords on the tabard of the Templars, the symbol of the Halfing god Arvoreen, the god of protection, vigilance and war.

- The lead Templar walks forward, “In the name of Lord Conlan of Earthcloak and by the authority given to me by the Lord Protector of Earthcloak, Sir Gonad, I hereby place you under arrest for the use of prohibited magic.”

- A laugh erupts out of Sir Krondor, “Yep, that’ll teach you!”

- Oloma calmly replies, “Yes of course, I am most sorry. I panicked. I was hurt and confused and I lashed out at a friend when I should not have. Forgive me Labarett, I was wrong. I’m glad you’re up again.”

- Labarett simply nods, “What is done is done. Being on the great circle, we make mistakes, we learn, we grow and we become better than we were before.”

- The Elf Barbarian shakes the hand of Oloma and she nods back without speaking.

- The lead Templar speaks, “Enough of this. You are under arrest and coming with us now.”

- Oloma turns back to the Templar, “I am very sorry, would it help to make a public apology to the crowd?”

- The Templar pulls out a pair of silver manacles with an engraving of a pair of crossed swords on them, “No. You can explain yourself to Sir Gonad, it is he who will judge you.”

- Oloma does not resist the Templar when he places the manacles on her. As the manacles click Oloma feels something, like a pressure, move over her. The Templar explains that they will take her to the nearby wall fort, the Harbourwatch Castle. The party arrange with Awamir to collect their belongings, including Oloma’s equipment, which the Templars do not object to.

- Sir Krondor claps his hands and speaks, “Well, looks like we’re not needed here. Let’s get our gear and go.”

- Nac, Labarett, Gim and Sir Krondor turn and walk away. Oloma looks at their retreating backs with a sigh, wishing she had chosen a different course of action.

- After the four companions collect all the gear from the secured room of the gladiators, they exit the stadium, passing through the crowds of people at the main gate and look around for Seanicus. They are unable to find him as he is not there. Not knowing where the Warlock has gotten to, they make the decision to continue on their way to the White Wolf Tavern.

***

- Seanicus stands by the front main gate of the stadium, crowds of people pushing against him. The Warlock had seen the end of the game through the entry tunnel and saw the Dragonborn gladiator waving his sword in triumph. The Warlock whispered, “That guy would be 200 gold coins richer right now. Be a shame if someone was to robbed him.”

- Looking keenly at the Dragonborn gladiator the Warlock saw the tall figure walk into a far side room and door closed behind him. With nothing else to do, Seanicus stood by the main gate and waited. He was unaware of what was transpiring to his companions inside the stadium. After a few minutes he noticed a tall figure wearing a hooded cloak, coming out from a nearby side door in the stadium and walk away into a crowd of people outside. A cold wind blew the side of the hood aside for a second and Seanicus saw the flash of light playing on scales on the face, a Dragonborn.

- Seanicus smiled, “What are the chances that could be the gladiator? Follow him.”

- As the Warlock speaks those final two words a dark shadow appeared, visible only to the Warlock, a hound of pure darkness appeared silently at the feet of Seanicus. It immediately moved, unseen between the crowd and arrived at the tall hooded figure. The dark hound slipped into the shadow of the hooded figure, always following now, and alerting Seanicus to where the figure was at all times provided Seanicus did not fall too far behind.

- Seanicus followed behind the tall hooded figure, out of sight, but thanks to the shadow hound that now followed with the figure’s shadow, always aware of exactly where the man went. Through the crowded street the Warlock followed and then through a series of empty bending, winding and intersection smaller alleyways with tall buildings towering over him until Seanicus had no idea where the he was or which way was north.

- His shadow hound indicated the figure had stopped. Coming around a bend Seanicus saw that this alleyway ended at a dead end about 60’ away. A few closed doors lined the alleyway and windows above, shuttered closed, were visible. The tall hooded figure was standing near one door, slightly open, and appeared to be talking to someone inside. The alleyway was deserted of anyone else.

- Abandoning caution to the wind, Seanicus walked down the alleyway and neared the figure. As he finally got closer, the figure turned and looked at the Warlock, removing the hood, “What the fuck do you want?”

- Now that Seanicus could see the face and build of the figure up close he realised that this could not be the gladiator. The frame and shoulders were too narrow and this Dragonborn was lacking the large muscles he saw on the Dragonborn gladiator. Cursing his bad luck, the Warlock stopped and said, “I’m lost. I thought this was the way to main road. Could you direct me to where that is?”

- The Dragonborn laughed with a bark, “Fucking foreigners! Go back that way, turn right, right, second left, then third right and keep going.”

- Seanicus turned and walked away, whispering under his breath, “Come” and unseen to anyone but Seanicus the dark shape of the shadow hound left the Dragonborn and returned to the Warlock.

- Trying to follow the many bends and intersections and keep in mind what the Dragonborn told him, Seanicus did not at first see the three dark figures, leaning against the wall of one building. As he got nearer the three figures walked out to block the alleyway. The figures were short of height but wide. He couldn’t see there faces as there hoods covered them but he could see long beards protruding out; Dwarves. Warm breath blew out from each hood in the cold air.

- Seanicus turned his head to look behind as the sound of more footsteps alerted him to four more hooded figures now at his rear. The Warlock removed his golden war hammer and whispered to it in Dwarvish, “Tell these Dwarves I am the rightful wielder of you and I am worthy.”

- Seanicus held the war hammer up in the air, the dim light from the cloudy day, glinting off it. A deep voice came from the war hammer, in Dwarvish, “Fellow Dwarves! Honour this man, he is worthy and chosen by me to wield …”

- But one of the hooded figures shouted out, “That’s it! He’s the one the boss told us about. Get the hammer!”

- Seanicus lowered the war hammer, which had now stopped talking. The Warlock walked towards the closest hooded figure, “Oh you want this. Take it,” extending the hammer to within arms reach of the figure handle first.

- The hooded figure reached out with two hands, as another figure from the rear shouted too late, “Don’t grab it you fool!”

- But the warning was too late as the Dwarf did indeed grab the golden hammer and instantly fell over backwards with a thud as lightning arced around his body.

- Seanicus raises both his empty hands and with a spoken word two eldritch beams of energy burst forth towards the hooded Dwarves. Unfortunately for the Warlock, the Dwarves ran towards him and all started to grab at him. Thick, strong Dwarven arms wrapped around Seanicus waist, arms and neck. The warlock looked at two of the figures, and curled his finger to point at them, speaking a word, sending more eldritch beams to shoot forth.

- “Cover his mouth you fools!” shouted a deep voice.

- A dirty hand, smelling of brandy, came from behind the Warlock to cover his mouth. Then two Dwarves came to the front of him and started punching him to the face and stomach, nearly knocking him out.

- The Dwarf on the ground finally managed to release the war hammer (Successful Strength check) and it dropped to the ground. One Dwarf used a long pair of blacksmith tongs to pick it up and place it into a sack held by another Dwarf.

- Seanicus, his eye bloody from a punch to the head, looked up at his attackers. He could see under their dark outer cloaks they wore a white wolf cloak over a chainmail shirts.

- One of the Dwarves spoke, “What do we do with him now?”

- Another voice spoke, “The boss didn’t say to kill him.”

- “Yeah,” replied another voice, “But she didn’t say to not kill him either.”

- The group all burst out laughing now and a single voice says, “Slit his throat and leave him here.”

- Seanicus looked around the Dwarves, unable to do anything to stop this. Just then from down a nearby side alleyway a loud female voice shouted, “City Watch! You’re all under arrest! Stay where you are!”

- The group of Dwarves started to bolt and run down another alleyway, punching Seanicus to the ground as they left.

- As Seanicus hit the ground hard, he turned his head towards some of the fleeing Dwarves and spoke with a mouth filled with blood, “Follow!”

- Again a dark form of shadow appeared, and started to run towards the closest Dwarf, to merge into the figures shadow.

- Slowly the Warlock pushed himself up from the ground and began to jog towards where his shadow beast told him the Dwarves where headed. His head was throbbing and his side ached from the assault he had suffered. Seanicus was finding it difficult to maintain a fast enough pass to follow. Through gritted teeth the Warlock pushed himself, “Must keep up, else I’ll lose the connection.”

- Further and further behind the Warlock was getting, as the Dwarves purposely kept taking alternating paths and bends, until eventually the Warlock stopped to catch his breath, unable to sense the location of his shadow hound anymore.

- Hearing footsteps coming up behind him he quickly turned, expecting to see one of the hooded Dwarves back again to finish the job in killing him, when he saw a female Dwarf with striking orange hair moving towards him looking all around. She wore a brown travelling clock over studded leather armour. Two light throwing hammers hung from her side.

- Approaching the injured Warlock she asks, “Are you ok? You look hurt.”

- Seanicus recognises the voice as same one that called out about the City Watch. He looks her over, “Are you really with the city watch?”

- Again the female Dwarf looks around, “No I just said that to get the Dwarves to flee, but with you casting spells like that around here, you’ve likely attracted the attention of the Templars. Their Habourwatch Castle on the west wall is not far from here. We need to get out of here now if we’re to avoid them and do not use any more magic. Let me take you back to your companions at Rosee’s Inn.”

- “No, I need to follow those Dwarves. If I can get closer I will sense their location,” replied Seanicus wiping blood off his face.

- The female Dwarf replied, looking around, “No need, those Dwarves are the Jagged Blade Gang. I know where they hang out. You can sort them out later but we really need to get out of here before the Templars get here. Quick this way back to Rosee’s”

- Seanicus, with no idea where the Dwarves went, or which way it was to anywhere reluctantly starts to follow her, calling back his Shadow Hound which reappears with his own shadow. Seanicus snaps, “Wait. Wait! How did you know I was staying at Rosee’s and who exactly are you.”

- Without stopping, the female replied, “I’m Kirgrire, a Harper, and I think we need to both do some talking but first let’s get to Rosee’s and out of here.”

- Seanicus looks at her, not quite sure what a Harper is but before he can ask, the sound of running footsteps sound behind them and Kirgrire quickens her pace, “Templars! Run now! Talk later!”

- The pair run off through the alleyways and manage to avoid the Templars, making their way to Rosee’s Inn.

***

- Naillae and Trenchant have been sitting in the upper seats in the gladiator stadium, waiting and looking for the party to return to them. After half an hour Nailae looks over at Trenchant, “They have forgotten about us, haven’t they.”

- Trenchant sighs, “Yep. Let’s go and see if they’re outside. Maybe they’re waiting for us.”

- Naillae looks over at the Bard as they get up to leave the stadium, pushing through the crowds, “You don’t really believe that?”

- “Not for a second,” replies the Bard coldly.

***

- Oloma is taken by the Templars and led via another corridor to come to exit the stadium via a private side door. The four Templars and six Constables form a group around her. The Templars are not overly rough with her and in fact, behalf in a professional and fair manner.

- Oloma speaks to them along the short journey and learns a little of what is happening. She is taken to a large fort built into the west city wall, over looking the harbour entry, the Harbourwatch Castle. In the front of the castle has been built a large monument. There are twenty one life size statues of children, playing and looking happy. A small silver plaque is visible just under the monument but it is too small for Oloma to read as she walks past. She turns to one of the Templars, “What is that monument?”

- The Templar looks at the children and bows his head as he passes, as do all the Templars, “That my lady is why we Templars exist. Never again shall the children of Earthcloak be taken away from us by the evil doing of magic users.”

- But before she can ask anymore questions she is lead into the great fort and down a series of corridors until she finds herself in a large hall. There are many Templars around the Keep, performing various activities or training in weapons.  Standing at attention, on guard, are six more Templars within the hall. The other four Templars that brought Oloma here direct her to a wooden chair and get her to sit down. She waits for a few minutes looking around. On a hunch, she tries to call forth a minor psionic power but nothing happens except for the manacles getting slightly warm.

- Soon a new group arrives at the hall. The two front templars, dressed in mithril chain and gold detail, lead the way for another figure. He too is wearing mithril chain, a grey cloak and dark green pants tucked into thick leather boots. Strapped to his back is a long mithril sword, much larger than what would be expected a Halfling could wield. His face is scared. The symbol of Earthcloak is engraved on his shoulder pauldrons.

- The new figure speaks, “Why is she bleeding?”

- One of the Templars speaks, “She was in the Gladiator games my lord.”

- The figure commands, “Get her a drink and remove the manacles. She is no threat in here with all of us.”

- One of the Templars unlocks the silver manacles whilst another moves over with a mug of water. Oloma takes it and drinks it, “Thank you.”

- The figure speaks, “I am the Lord Protector of Earthcloak, Sir Gonad Jahner, Knight Of The Order Of Arvoreen. You have been charged with using magic in the city of Earthcloak, which is prohibited. How do you plead?”

- Oloma looks up, “I am guilty my Lord, may I offer my sincerest apologies for my momentary loss of judgement and control during the games. I have dishonoured your city, your people, and my travelling companions, though that was never my intention.”

- Sir Gonad nods, “Very good. The Templars tell me you surrendered immediately and did not resist arrest. For that, and as this is your first offence as a visitor to our city, I shall give you the lowest punishment. You shall pay 50 gold coins and spend the day in the public stockade.”

- Oloma speaks, “My lord, I am Oloma Of The Living Blade, a visitor to both this city and these lands. My travelling companions and I are travelling through here on important business for the alliance of the Harpers, Order Of The Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave, and Lord’s Alliance. My Lord, within our group are Wardens Of Tyriba and we have been tasked with an important quest to stop the Dragon Cult from bringing Tiamat back into this world. Time is of the essence.”

- Sir Gonad turns to one of the Templars dressed in mithril and gold, “Does she speak the truth?”

- The Templar nods, “She does my lord, her words are true.”

- Sir Gonad continues, “We had heard the rumours of the Cult raising in the south and of the mercenary armies to the west lead by great Dragon Vorgansharax but we did not believe them. How credible is this threat? Do you believe it is possible that they can bring Tiamat back into this World?”

- Oloma replies, “Yes, from what I have seen and learnt, unless we can stop their plans I believe they will succeed in bringing the Dragon Queen back into our world.”

- Sir Gonad turns to the Templar, “She speaks the truth my lord.”

- “In that case, Oloma Of The Living Blade,” begins Sir Gonad, “Far be it for me to delay you and place our world in peril. I shall release you forthwith, and not subject you to a day in the stockade but I shall insist you still pay the fine of 50 gold coins. All men and women must obey the law, no matter their station.”

- Oloma thanks the Lord Protector for his mercy and then asks him about the monument of children outside this castle. She learns that the Templars of Arvoreen were created after a tragic incident about 150 years ago, in the 664th year of the second era, when 21 children went missing from Earthcloak, including the grand daughter of the Lord of Earthcloak at that time. The Constables of Earthcloak searched the city and eventually found a hidden lair of a wizard in the basement of one of the buildings within the city grounds. There they found the 21 children all dead and drained of their life, the result of vile and twisted acts. The looks on the children’s faces, and the injuries visible on their bodies, showed their final hours were not pleasant. As they searched the lair, a Halfing wizard appeared, the one who had abducted and killed the children. A fight broke out but the Constables were powerless against his great magic. He killed many Constables, laughing as he did so, and destroyed many buildings that day. The wizard fled the city, to where he went no one knowns. Little is known about the wizard except that he was called Yarash and had the accent of someone from the eastern lands of Tikoran. Since that day the Office of Lord Protector of Earthcloak and The Order of Templars Of Arvoreen were created and trained to deal with magic users. All magic has been banned from the city since that day.

- Oloma thanks the Lord for his time and leaves the Habourwatch Castle. There is no one waiting for her outside and she has no idea where anyone is. She decides to walk back to Rosee’s Inn, which will take her past the Gladiator stadium again.

***

- Naillae and Trenchant have now been standing outside the Gladiator stadium for ten minutes.

- Trenchant speaks, “We’ve waited long enough, we’re headed back to Rosee’s Inn.”

- Naillae quickly speaks, “We’re alone. In a strange city. We could go exploring, just you and me. We could have some lunch and then maybe a drink or two, and ….”

- Just then Oloma’s voice calls out, interrupting Naillae, “Hey, over here. Wait up!”

- Trenchant looks relieved to have a third person join them and enthusiastically waves Oloma to join them.

- Oloma comes jogging up to the pair, “I’m not interrupting you too?”

- Naillae says, “Yes” at the same time Trenchant says, “No, please join us.”

- Oloma fills them in what happened at the stadium. All three decide to head back together to Rosee’s Inn as no one is sure where the others are.

***

- At Rosee’s Inn, Seanicus and Kirgrire are seated at a table near the fireplace. The Inn is busy but Geneegin seems to be giving them special treatment, in particular Kirgrire. Kirgrire is trying to get Seanicus to speak to her but is not getting very far as the Warlock is not very talkative.

- The front door to Inn opens, with a blast of cold air, and in walks Trenchant, Naillae and Oloma. They see Seanicus and his new female Dwarf friend and join them at the table. Seanicus updates the new comers as to what happened to him outside the stadium and how he has now lost his war hammer to the Jagged Blade Gang. He introduces Kirgrire to the three.

- Trenchant puts out his hand to Kirgrire to shake and says, “My lady, I am Trenchant Kincaid, the Bearer Of Winfley, Warden Of Tyriba.”

- Kirgrire shakes his hand, and the pair exchange a secret hand signal, each now knowing that the other is also a Harper.

- “And it would appear you have another title as well?” asks Kirgrire looking at Trenchant with a raised eyebrow.

- “Trenchant, Harpshadow of the Harpers,” replies the Bard in a low voice.

- “Well meet Trenchant, I am Kirgrire, Harpshadow of the Harpers,” replies Kirgrire in a low voice and then in a louder voice, “It’s a shame I did not know your identity before. Would have saved me following your group all yesterday, and last night in the cold and today. I’ve been following your group since you visited the stock yards.”

- They learn that Kirgrire is a spy for the Harpers. She has been keeping the Red Scale Transport Company in the stockyards under watch for the last three weeks as there has been a lot of suspicious activities going on. She sent a messenger bird to update the Harper network three weeks ago but due to the very cold weather, there has not been an opportunity to receive a message back yet. Trenchant updates her on the status of the Harpers and alliance and how they have been tasked to join the wagon train and follow it to somewhere called Naerytar which no one knows what or where it is. Kirgrire states she has never heard of it either.

- As Geneegin comes over with more drinks, Kirgrire speaks, “If you ever need me ask Geneegin here. He’s an ex-Harper and was my superior and mentor in the network. Would still be my partner too if you hadn’t fallen in love you dam fool!” though Kirgrire says this with a light hearted smile.

- Geneegin smiles back, “Well, I had to choose between the life of a harper with you, always on the road, eating when I can, or settle down with my love Rosee and help her start up her dream to run an Inn. Which meant always sleeping in a warm bed, good meals and of course, waking up to her face every morning.”

- Geneegin looks back behind him at the bar and at his wife, Rosee standing there, and says warmly, “I made the right decision. I’ve done my part for the realm, it’s time for others now to step up now. Younger others.”

- The conversation moves on to the stolen war hammer of Seanicus, which the Warlock informs the group that he needs to get back or else he will start to lose his powers. They learn from Kirgrire that the Jagged Blade Gang uses one of the ware houses in the south docking district as their head quarters and they also hang out and drink at the White Wolf Tavern which is just around the block from the ware house.

- Seanicus slams the table, anger in his eyes, “The thing I want to know is, how did this gang find out about my war hammer!”

- Trenchant speaks, “Yes that is intriguing. I would also like to know where the rest of our party is.”

- Oloma adds, “Yes and once they get back here we can start planning getting your war hammer back Seanicus. This jagged Blade Gang has picked the wrong group to mess with.”

***

- Meanwhile, over at the White Wolf Tavern, Nac, Gim, Labarett and Sir Krondor have arrived. They enter the tavern and take up a table, The tavern is busy with about a dozen Dwarves seated around tables or at the long bar. There is a lot of drinking going on and some gambling.

- Torroc, the Inn Keep, comes over to the new group and in Dwarvish speaks, “What can I get for you.”

- Nac replies in Common, “I don’t speak Dwarvish. We want drinks. What do you have?”

- Torroc replies in Common, though it is obvious he finds it distasteful to do so, “We have ale for four coppers or brandy for two silvers. No wine, this isn’t some bloody Elvish bar.”

- Labarett the Elvish Barbarian looks at Torroc, “What about Dwarvish brandy? You have any of that?”

- Torroc laughs, “Aye, I’ve got that for ten gold a glass. But I don’t think you could handle that one laddy.”

- Gim immediately says, “Bring a bottle of Dwarvish brandy!”

- Nac adds, “And four glasses!”

- Sir Krondor begins, “I don’t know about this. One of us shouldn’t drink in case we need our wits about us.”

- Nac taunts the Dwarf Knight, “Come on now Krondor, what about your Dwarven pride. The other Dwarves will think you’re weak if you don’t.”

- Sir Krondor looks around the room with concern, “Really? Ok count me in!” putting ten gold coins onto the table.

- Torroc looks at Sir Krondor, “It’s you again Sir Knight. Any more stories you want to tell us. I liked the one you told the fellows here yesterday about the golden war hammer of Sir Krafulim Longshield being found by an Elf.”

- Labarett slams ten gold coins down too, “Me too! I’ll show you an Elf can handle Dwarven sodding brandy!”

- Torroc takes ten gold coins from each of the four and then pours the thick brown liquid into each of their small glasses. The distinctive rich smell of the liquor fills the room and the eyes of the other Dwarves look over.

- All four drink their brandy in one gulp and then place the glass onto the table. Labarett’s and Gim’s faces turn red and each of them starts to sway slightly (Failed Constitution save). Labarett starts blinking his eyes and the room is slowly spinning around.

- Nac and Sir Krondor lick their lips and smile. They have a pleasant warm glow about them (Successful Constitution save - will now have advantage on cold checks for the rest of the day).

- Nac speaks, “Smooth. Another round Torroc! Four more glasses!”

- Sir Krondor speaks, “Wait, I’m not paying for that!”

- Nac puts forty gold coins onto the table, “My shout boys! Drink up!”

- Torroc smiles and starts pouring, “Oh this I’ve got to see!”

- Whilst the Inn Keep is pouring the brandy some of the other Dwarves have moved closer, taking an interest in the drinking and starting to place bets down on who will survive the next round. Nac notices one particular Dwarf, who had been seated by himself in the back, wearing a white wolf cloak, get up quickly and leave in a hurry (Successful Perception check). In Nac’s happy warm state he decides to not worry about it.

- Labarett pushes his refilled glass away, “No thank you. One is my limit.”

- This makes some of the Dwarves around the tavern burst out laughing. Some Dwarvish names and words are spoken, which Labarett can guess are not of the friendly type.

- Gim, still slowly spinning from his first drink, goes to grab for his glass, which takes three attempts as the glass seems to be not where Gim thinks it is.

- Nac smiles at Gim and then grabs his glass, along with Sir Krondor who grabs his glass too.

- Some of the Dwarves throw a handful of gold coins down onto the table and make bets that they won’t make the second round. Nac throws an equal number of coins onto the table to match and takes their bet.

- Nac, Gim and Sir Krondor each drink their glass in one gulp and put it back down onto the table. Nac turns to look at Gim, who is smiling and with his eyes still wide open, slowly starts to fall sideways. Gim falls onto the floor with a heavy thud.

- Nac smirks, “Never could handle his drink that Dwarf” and then grabs all the gold coins on the table, as he has won the bet (Won 9 gp).

- There is still one filled glass of Dwarvish brandy on the table, as Labarett did not drink his.

- Nac turns to Sir Krondor, “Come on, you going to let that drink go to waste? You want these Dwarves to think you’re chicken, or you can’t handle a drink?”

- Sir Krondor picks up the last glass and raises it, “For Fanur!”

- All the Dwarves shout out, “Fanur!”

- Sir Krondor drinks his third Dwarvish brandy and puts the glass down. He looks around the room smiling at the cheers of the other Dwarves for his remarkable feat of fortitude. (All up Sir Krondor rolled 16, 26 and 23 for his Constitution saves).

- As Gim is now unconscious and Labarett is very unbalanced, the group decides to stay in the tavern for some time until they can at least get Gim onto his feet. After an hour, and with the help of a bucket of cold water thrown onto the Dwarf, they wake Gim up. They head out of the Inn and start to make their way back to Rosee’s Inn on the other side of town, having to help Gim walk most of the way.

- Any thoughts about the strange Dwarf in the white wolf cloak that quickly left the Inn earlier are completely forgotten from Nac’s intoxicated mind.

***

- At mid afternoon, the four of them finally arrive back at Rosee’s Inn and rejoin with the rest of the party and meet with the new comer, Kirgrire.

- The companions exchange stories of what they have been up to and all are now up to speed with the outcome of Oloma’s arrest, Seanicus’s war hammer being stolen and finding the Harper contact.

- Sir Krondor speaks in an embarrassed tone, “Seanicus I have an apology to make. I was bragging about your war hammer to the Dwarves in the White Wolf Tavern yesterday. If they hang around there, as Kirgrire says they do, they would have heard about it then. I’m sorry.”

- Seanicus angrily replies, “Your apology won’t bring my war hammer back! Without that hex weapon I will lose my powers!”

- Sir Krondor, emboldened by the three Dwarvish brandies in him, stands and places a hand on his heart, “You’re right! All hear this oath I take now.”

- Trenchant starts, “Bloody hell, let’s not rush …”

- But Sir Krondor cuts him off, “I, Sir Krondor, Knight of The Anvil, Knight of the Gauntlet, Warden of Tyriba, swear on my life to retrieve your war hammer and return it to you. This I make my personal quest.”

- The Knight sits down smiling as the others in the group look around, now committed to attacking the gang.

- Now that the decision to take action against the gang is done, the party decide to eat a meal and then get some sleep to make a midnight raid on the warehouse of the Jagged Blade Gang. Sir Krondor asks Kirgrire if she knows of any Knights Of The Gauntlet in Earthcloak and the Harper advises that the Sherif in town is Captain Kison, and is a member of Gauntlet.

- Sir Krondor excuses himself and heads over to the Sheriff’s Office, which is only a couple of blocks away from Rosee’s Inn. The Dwarf Knight arrives at the solid and well secured building and enters it, asking some of the occupants to see Captain Kison.

- Captain Kison is happy to meet another Gauntlet member and the halfling, who wears a well maintained suit of splint mail with a flail hanging off his side from his belt, leads Sir Krondor into his private office.

- Captain Kison offers Sir Krondor a drink of brandy but the Dwarf Knight, with three brandies down for the day already, turns it down. Sir Krondor informs the Captain what has happened regarding the theft of the legendary war hammer of Sir Krafulim Longshield by the Jagged Blade Gang. Sir Krondor is disappointed to learn the Captain Kison can not take any action unless he has proof, which Sir Krondor does not have.

- Sir Krondor presses Captain Kison for any aid he can give, “I am not asking as a citizen and I am not asking you in your capacity as Sherif of Earthcloak but I am asking you as a fellow member of the Gauntlet, please any help in this matter would make a difference!”

- Captain Kison agrees to pull all the Watch patrols from that area, so that they party will be free to use magic if needed without fear of being arrested. He also informs Sir Krondor that the last Templar patrol on that side of the city will be at 10pm and no more Templar patrols will start until sun rise. Captain Kison also gives some simple floor plans of the warehouse that the Jagged Blade Gang is using, a two story building with an attic and side shed.

- Captain Kison also gives some information on the gang make up, “It comprises about twenty five gang members that we know of. Their leader, Grussebella Bloodchin is a nasty piece of work. She will happily gut you alive and pull your innards whilst you watch, and she’ll laugh the whole time she’s doing it. She’s psychotic. Be careful too, we believe she has an enchanted weapon, not too sure what it is though. And don’t underestimate her. She runs that gang with an iron fist. Those gang members obey her every command without question.”

- Sir Krondor asks, “And if these gang members were to meet an untimely death tonight in our attempt to retrieve the war hammer?”

- Captain Kison replies, “You and I are men of battle Sir Krondor and we each know that in battle there are always casualties. The watch will not care or investigate the deaths of gang members. Earthcloak has many gangs and they are fighting with each other constantly. One less gang is of no concern of mine, in fact, you would be doing me a favour.”

- With this information Sir Krondor returns to Rosee’s Inn and rejoins the party. They all head up to their rooms to get a long sleep in before the coming midnight raid.

***

- The party and Kirgrire awake just before midnight and prepare for the cold night raid. As they leave Rosee’s Inn they look up to see the large blue moon, Athair is nearly full, and the smaller grey moon, Harell, is almost half full. There is plenty of light to see out tonight.

- Gim looks up, “Athair is nearly full tonight, that’s a good omen! Bless us tonight father, let my axe taste blood!” (Athair is Dwarvish for “father”).

- Labarett looks up too, “Yes, let’s hope that the influence of Harell is not strong tonight.” (Harell is Elvish for “The Deceiver”)

- Naillae scoffs, “Bloody superstitious lot! We’ll succeed or fail tonight based on whether you all pull your weight and don’t do anything stupid. We need to sneak in undetected. If it was just me it would be easy but you lot make so much noise I can hear you walking a mile off. Follow my lead and don’t do anything rash!”

- The party walk the long distance to the south of the city. The night is very cold. Kirgrire leads the party to the south dock district and points out the ware house where the gang is. She points out the front door, side shed door, one lit ground floor window and an attic window which though in darkness she tells the party it can almost be guaranteed to have a look out watching the street. The Dwarf Harper can not aid in the raid as her involvement can not be known, as it will compromise her duties as a spy, so she leaves the party and fades into the dark night.

- The party decide to go around the block and approach the warehouse from the far west side as the positioning of the side shed there will help stay out of sight of anyone watching from the from the attic window.

- Trenchant and Naillae sneak forward to the side shed, Naillae using her skills as a trained rogue of the Lington Thief’s Guild to move from shadow to shadow, silently. Whilst Trenchant pulls up the hood of his Elven cloak to make the enchanted cloak change colours to match his surrounding, making it almost impossible to see him.

- They move up to a metal portcullis that has a large padlock on it. Oloma uses her telepathy to pass messages to and from the lead pair and the rest of the party.

- Trenchant and Naillae advise the rest of the party that the side shed has six horses in it and there is an internal side door that leads into the warehouse, that has light coming from the door frame. They can hear a loud group of people inside gambling.

- Labarett moves forward slowly. Whilst waiting for Naillae to unlock the large pad lock, Labarett performs a silent ritual that allows him to talk to animals. He then tells the horses to be silent and not be alarmed by them coming inside. One of the horse replies, “Yes, new friends. Other smaller masters inside.”

- The rest of the party move up into the shed, trying to keep quite, which judging by the sour expression on Naillae’s face, the party did not move as quietly as she would like. Naillae whispers, “Thank your bloody moons the morons inside are playing cards loudly else they would have heard the lot of you!”

- Labarett asks the horse, “Where are most of the small masters?”

- One of the horses bows his head low, “Down. Down. Under.”

- Naillae whispers, “The plans didn’t have anything on it about a basement.”

- Oloma whispers, “Seanicus can you sense you war hammer?”

- Seanicus answers back in a low whisper, “Only if it is near.” The Warlock closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them, pointing a finger downwards, it’s somewhere below us. There must be a basement beneath us.”

- Sir Krondor suggests having himself and Naillae creep forward to the front door and have her unlock that whilst she comes back to unlock the side door and have the party attack the warehouse from two fronts. Nac advises against that in case the two doors open into different rooms, as the building plan they obtained from Captain Kison did not have any details about the internal layout.

- Once Naillae unlocks the side door, she steps aside to let Oloma open the door. The Mystic opens the door slowly to reveal one large open area that covers the entire ground floor. A staircase directly ahead goes up to the second level and a large wooden trap door, with an iron ring handle, is visible near the stairs. To the far left, about 60’ away, is a fireplace and some tables, one of which has six Dwarves, each wearing a white wolf cloak, seated around it playing cards. Most of the light in the large open area is around the Dwarves with the rest of the area, including where the party is, is only dimly lit.

- Nac moves into the door way and casts a Silence spell at the far Dwarves, immediately the loud sound of their talk, laughter and metal mugs thudding against the table cease. The Dwarves turn around and see the open side door with Nac and Oloma in view.

- Combat starts. The party need to quickly take out these Dwarves and do so making as little noise as possible so as not to alert any more Dwarves in the rest of the warehouse.

- The party move in but rather than rush in to attack the Dwarves within the circle of magical silence they make a tactical mistake and instead Trenchant, Oloma and Nac rush in to take of positions of cover behind a nearby table and attack via ranged means whilst Gim moves of to the side and uses his crossbow to attack from afar. Naillae moves to the bottom of the stairs and readies her daggers in case anyone else comes to join the fight. Only Sir Krondor attempts to rush forward towards the foes but his short Dwarven legs can’t get him to the reach them before all six Dwarves pick up their shields and battleaxes and move forward. Most of the Dwarves now out of the area of silence.

- Two of the Dwarf gang members rush towards Sir Krondor and engage him, their weapons silently striking as they are within the magical circle of silence. Two Dwarf gangs members rush towards the three of the party crouching near the table and block them away from the last two members of the gang that are running to get help. One runs towards the stairs at full speed, obviously trying to get help from upstairs and the other moves over to the wooden trap door and begins to lift it up. As Oloma gets hit by two of the gang members she takes one blow before teleporting behind the pair to appear standing on the trap door, her weight now preventing it from being opened.

- Seanicus and Labarett, who are still moving into the warehouse, move in. Seanicus moves off to the side and starts shooting eldritch beams of energy at the gang whilst Labarett rushes in and charges towards the gang member trying to open the trap door. The Elf barbarian hacks at the Dwarf in a Barbaric rage.

- In the confusion of battle Gim misfires his crossbow and nearly breaks it but instead jams the mechanism needing him to spend some time to fix it (Fumble attack roll, that he re-rolled because he used his Inspiration and he again rolled a Fumble). Instead his takes out his great axe and moves towards the gang members and engage them in close combat, joining Oloma and Labarett. The sounds of the battle, metal against metal, and shouts of pain and anger, are loud now as most of the combat is outside of the circle of silence.

- Sir Krondor is battling two of the gang members single handedly and the combat is frantic, with the Dwarf Knight nearly taking a deadly blow to his neck by one of the gang member’s battleaxes but the Knight manages to duck just in time (Critical Hit, forced re-rolled by Sir Krondor using his Inspiration, and turned into a miss).

- The gang member on the trap door doesn’t last long with Labarett and Oloma attacking him in close melee (Oloma cut his tendon reducing his speed with a Critical Hit) and with Seanicus sending Eldritch beams of energy to blast at him.

- Trenchant and Nac remain behind a table using it for cover whilst throwing spells and crossbow bolts at the gang members. Trenchant casts a Sleep spell at three of the gang members and one of them drops to the ground snoring loudly. In response, one of the gang members comes rushing towards the pair crouching at the table and forces them back as the gang member’s battleaxe swings at them. Labarett quickly charges over to help Trenchant and Nac.

- One of the gang members makes a run towards the stairs, running past Gim he swings his great axe into his back as he passed. With a gapping back wound, the gang member sprinted on, past Naillae who was guarding the bottom of the stairs and the Elf Rogue stabs a dagger into the Dwarfs leg, as he ran past up the stairs but Naillae quickly threw two of her daggers into the back of the gang member, killing him. The heavy body of the Dwarf, in armour, falls backwards and rolls down the stairs with a loud crash, his battleaxe and shield clattering down the stairs too.

- Naillae shouts to the party, “Expect company! I can hear footsteps coming from above!” as she starts to move away from the bottom of the stairs and take a position near Seanicus.

- Seeing the sleeping gang member Gim moves over and lifts his great axe high over his head and brings it down with his full force into the sleeping foe’s neck. The blade cuts throw the neck and hits hard against the wooden floor boards, killing the gang member instantly (Critical Hit - Triple Damage).

- Sir Krondor swings into one of the two gang members on him and cuts open the foe’s stomach, killing him. Oloma rushes over to help the Dwarf Knight finish off the remaining foe.

- Gim, Labarett and Nac have surrounded one gang member and Oloma and Sir Krondor are attacking the other remaining gang member,

- From the second level, comes the heavy sound of foot steps running, as four more Dwarf gang members start to run down the stairs. Seanicus and Naillae who had been waiting and covering the stairs to start to hurl eldritch beams and daggers at the new comers.

- Trenchant concentrates on a spell and from around the head of the Dwarf gang member who is leading the charge down the stairs appears a twisted crown of jagged iron. The eyes of the Dwarf are now glowing and his expression appears like a madman. This Dwarf, now under the control of Trenchant, stops running down the stairs, turns around and begins to attack his companion behind him.

- Naillae and Seanicus are attacking the other Dwarves on the upper section of the stairs whilst the bottom two Dwarves on the stairs are now locked in combat with each other. Naillae’s throw is wide and the Dwarf gang member easily knocks it aside and taunts her (Fumble attack - Taunt disadvantage next turn).

- With the last two remaining gang members on the ground floor slain the party are now free to attack the other gang members on the stairs and turn their attention to them. Meanwhile the Dwarves on the stairs, who can’t get down as they are blocked by the possessed gang member attacking them, thanks to Trenchant now controlling him, so they are forced to hurl light throwing hammers down at the party.

- Sir Krondor moves over to the trap door and guards it in case any foes come from below. Gim starts throwing hand axes up at the gang members on the stairs which causes one of them to cower behind the stair railing in terror (Critical Hit - terrify foe). Labarett moves up to the stairs and from the below uses his javelin to poke the gang members through the stair railing.

- Seanicus is hurling Eldritch beams at the foes on the stairs and likewise Naillae is throwing her daggers.

- Gim gets another good throw with one of his hand axes and strikes one of the foes in the groin causing him to bend over in agony (Critical Hit - low blow - miss one turn).

- Sir Krondor moves away from the trap door and takes out his bow to start firing at the foes on the stairs too.

- Oloma, who had gotten up onto a table during the combat below, is also using her mind against the foes on the stairs, forcing one of the Dwarves to question his own mental identity (ID insinuation psionic ability to force disadvantage on their attack rolls).

- Gim throws another well aimed hand axe and inflicts a grievous wound on one of them (Critical Hit - double damage). Not to be outdone by the display of Gim and his deadly hand axes, Nac casts his Chill Touch with such force that it strikes all four gang members on the stairs with deadly force (Spell Critical).

- The gang member under the control of Trenchant kills his companion and them moves up the stairs to engage another of his companions.

- The Dwarves on the stairs, throwing down light hammers, do not last long under this intense barrage from the party. Gim throws another deadly hand axe (Critical Hit giving double damage and allowing another attack against another target). Sir Krondor fumbles his bow and drops an arrow as he lets the string go too early but luckily does not break his bow string (Fumble).

- Eventually only the last remaining gang member, still under the control of Trenchant, is left. Trenchant makes the Dwarf drop his weapon and shield move down the stairs into the centre of the party and lay face down. The party then execute the Dwarf in a simultaneous attack.

<And as the party catch their breath after that hectic battle, having succeeded in entering the hide out of the Jagged Blade Gang Dwarves, that is the end of the session.>

XP Allocation

Group - Combined (This is equally divided by the number of players who were involved)

Quests (Only quests that are completed or rendered undoable, during this session, are shown here)

- Enter the Jagged Blade Hideout undetected = 250 XP

Creatures Overcome

- Jagged Blade Dwarves = 7000

Individual (This is only given to that person and is not divided amongst all players)

Special Bonus (Outstanding Role Playing)

Nil

XP Levels and Player Allocations

Player : Start +  Received = Total  (Notes)

Phil : 25419 + 906 = 26325

Rob : 32217 + 906 = 33123

Arthur : 22121 + 906 = 23027 (Level up to Level 7)

Bob : 21367 + 906 = 22273

Travis : 19383 + 680 = 20063

Paul : 17140 + 1132 = 18272

Sean : 16875 + 906 = 17781

NPC (Naillae) : + (453)

[sleepymarmot]

Skyrim liveblog: Riften, Dawnguard, more house decoration, etc.

"Good luck finding those jazbay grapes, they're very rare" Actually, I'm growing them in my garden...

This poor woman is spending all her time growing this nirnroot and I just come here and steal it.

Also nirnroot makes the same sound as the shards in DAI and it makes me nervous.

I don't want all these mods that let you have an entire army of followers. I just want to improve and charge their equipment without transferring it to my inventory and then back :(

Riften! It's so exciting to finally reach the city after a long journey that mostly consisted of losing my way and sidetracking, and get to see what's inside the walls! Even if it's 2am and there isn't much to see.

Okay, I can see why Mjoll is popular...

Let me guess: the only guy she trusts is secretly part of the guild.

"Last thing the Black-Briars need is some loudmouth meddling in their affairs" Last time I met a family this corrupt, its leader didn't live to tell the tale. Will I have to break the game again for justice?

Why is the argonian bodyguard naked?! Did one of my mods break something?

And the barmaid is naked too... I wonder what's wrong. An argonian bandit I killed a couple of hours before was wearing armor with no problem...

The argonian jeweller in the marketplace is clothed properly. The mystery continues...

"Marsh-friend", aw

Also I like that Argonians are famous for their jewellery. Then it makes sense I crafted so much of it!

An argonian, and an argonian-raised dark elf! I feel at home in this marketplace.

You'd go down to the sewers yourself, but can't? What about me? Is the Dragonborn not good enough for the job?

I like the jarl, she sounds reasonable.

...And believes Maven is a respectable citizen who is trying to destroy the Thieves Guild. Oops.

Ah, okay, that's why I'm supposed to break into Aventus's home? Okay, I'll try it. "Don't bother with the Dark Brotherhood, kiddo, I'll do the job for you myself!"

This writing is stupid. Everyone in the city talks about how shitty the Thieves Guild is, a bunch of pathetic thugs everyone hates, and it totally sounds like a setup for a quest where you clear the city from them... Instead the only option the game gives is to join them. Wut? Why the heck would I want to?

The naked guy in the inn is pretty nice! And handsome. And he asks for my help proposing to the naked lady! How cute. Oh, and his recipes don't just sound good -- apparently he's the only person in this country who can make drinks that don't have negative effects! That woman is damn lucky.

I wanted to propose to my (yet undetermined) future spouse with a ring, like a real Argonian, but if it requires three flawless amethysts... I'll have to make do with a normal amethyst ring I guess. Has anyone made a mod with a proper recipe? Maybe even making it a replacement for the amulet of Mara, if possible.

Shit, I'm an idiot. I gave Uthgerd a Soup Trap weapon but no gems, and was wondering why she's not catching anything!

Is there a mod to turn off friendly fire in this game? Allies can't stop jumping into my arrows. Fought a vampire, shot at her, when the fight was over I found Uthgerd dead. Reloaded, then Frost got in the way, quest failed. Third attempt: the quest giver jumps into my arrow but survives, after the vampire is dead he starts attacking the horse I stole for him, my follower and me.

Okay, I tried it five more times. I can't. That vampire is unbeatable. A dremora summoned by Sanguine Rose does 0 damage to her. If I let her get close she one-shots me with her sword.

I finally did it... Downing like five different potions at once did the trick, I think... I was headed for Fort Dawnguard, but maybe I shouldn't...

What, Convenient Horses considers Frost my horse now?! Where's MY horse?! Did it get lost somewhere? Was it killed by the Black-Briars? Fast travelling doesn't help...

Oh, okay, I fast travelled to Riften again and found it. I'm so relieved... This horse has been with me since the beginning of the game, I bought it just before entering Whiterun for the first time. So even if it's kinda useless and I prefer travelling on foot, I don't want to lose it!

Why is the map marker for Dawnguard so dumb and glitched...

The leader is very cool! I'm going to help rebuilding the fort, right?

Okay, so I think my crafting geek falls instantly in love with the crossbow, even though its damage is lower than her current bow. Can I upgrade it? Enchant it? Craft my own with better materials?

I can upgrade it! And now it has more damage than my legendary dwarven bows!

Okay, I guess the archery trainer that I made this journey for will appear after the fort is upgraded? Ah, that's okay. I have 51k gold saved up. Isran is training Heavy Armor, I need that too.

Aaaand that training leveled me up again so there was no point in saving that level, I still lost one lol.

Holy shit, those vampires are all the way across the map! 

Ah, so now I have a quest to go into the Ratway and kill the thugs in there! Say hello to my newly crafted archery equipment, motherfuckers!

Hm, people in the bar don't seem to care that I broke in and murdered their bodyguards.

"Stay out of trouble, or there's gonna be trouble" says one of these guys as I exit their hideout having killed and looted everything inside.

That's a pretty little garden they have here.

I'm visiting the crafting corner in Riften's keep for probably the third time in this session... Last time I reached 90 alchemy; maybe I'll make it legendary, since it's so easy to level up. Smithing is 86, Enchanting is 81. I finally picked the "Well fitted" perk and made myself a full set of heavy armor with enchantments -- what I was wearing before had light and unenchanted items. It's all steel & dwarven, because I can't afford to spend more perks, but legendary several times over.

I need a new loadout organizer. Every time I upgrade an item, it disappears from the group (because it's renamed, I guess).

Okay, I think I'm ready. Time to travel back to Dawnguard and train Heavy Armor for like the third time in a row... Well at least coursing between Riften and Dawnguard is a welcome change from the cursed Whiterun-Riverwood-Lakeview circle: it's too easy to get stuck there and never leave.

Oh great, another fort full of bandits. I'm starting to just speed past them. I'm not the fucking police!

...Aaaand a blood dragon descends just as I ride past the fort's entrance. Okay, that's my business, can't argue.

(I really should return to the main quest btw...)

Wait, how the fuck did we kill the dragon so fast?! Did the armor help? Or my second-level Marked for Death?

Aaalright, now I have to go back to Riften again. Finish a quest, heal a bone broken by a bear, disenchant something I bought for that purpose and forgot...

Speaking of enchanting: the best thing about being rich is just buying every filled grand soul gem I see, instead of worrying about the need to hunt mammoths or becoming an evil necromancer.

I was already like "haha, let's fill some gems" when the miner complained about spiders, but this is ridiculous! There's like five of them! I don't even think they had a really big one! 

Just as I was about to give up, I finally came across the road to the Northwind Summit! And the dragon I needed to kill is just a dragon, not even frost or blood. His breath barely registered on my healthbar, and I needed like five arrows. What the fuck? Am I just walking around underleveled enemies, or did I grow strong overnight thanks to the armor and training?

Oh my, Black-Briars send mercenaries to deal with me, "the thief"! That's hilarious.

Nah, I'm not that good, a couple of necromancers with puppet draugr killed me.

Seriously, I should make more things for my own use instead of just for sale. I was like 5% away from one-shotting a boss from stealth and cancelling the entire fight. My damage health poisons were too weak. Thankfully, I had one fortify archery poison. One! What if I didn't? Would all of that overpriced multi-effect crap help me?

Btw I'm not using my shiny new crossbows because bolts are in short supply :(

Oh god! I have finally reached 70 speech and can take the Investor perk! Now that's a great excuse to make a tour around Skyrim and invest in everyone!

Aw, why can't I invest in my marsh-friend :(

Windhelm

Ugh, I knew that Blood on the Ice should have re-triggered, and I even saw the victim, but I didn't notice the guard standing next to her, so I had to google what to do. Why couldn't he address you automatically as you approach?

"Patrol Stone Quarter at night" and just as I was leaving the palace at noon and was opening the map to see what the Stone Quarter is, that quest was suddenly marked complete and I was shown a quest mark on the murderer. Yay immersion!

Time to invest in Wuunferth's business as an apology :D

His motive is exactly the same as the necromancer in the dungeon I just did, and in DA2. Can we have some new ideas please?

I completely forgot Lydia lives in my house, she spooked me.

I wonder why some merchants have unique responses to "I want to invest". Windhelm blacksmith and Belethor are arrogant, Arcadia is heartwarming. I really like Investor and the final perk in the tree because I feel like I'm being a positive influence, making rich not only myself but people around me.

Ugh, I accidentally sold Arcadia the wrong thing, reloaded, and all of the free stuff from her shelves disappeared -- what?

Shit, I was satisfied with how I decorated my home and then my stupid follower got in the way, I accidentally selected her, dropped, and wasn't sure she was all right so I had to reload.

And once again, from the start! This time I selected an enchanter and accidentally sent it to its original location, wherever that is.

Binch stand in the corner!! If you refuse to stay outside while I'm redecorating, at least get out of my way!

>walk out of my house at night >get attacked by a frost dragon >he circles overhead, I admire the beautiful starry night sky and his purplish wings against it >dragon flies away >I see his health very rapidly diminish >dragon dies >suddely I get attacked by a bunch of Thalmor Leave me alone...

Shit, I picked up a black soul gem and captured a vampire thrall's soul. Oops.

I notice I'm alone. Maybe I accidentally killed Uthgerd again? I backtrack. Finally meet her. Lead her forward... and at some point she turns around and *sprints* back. WTF?

I'm back in modding hell :(

Tried to copy a rug from a modded Breezehome, accidentally removed it instead, returned to a previous save -- and it was still gone. I guess that removed the asset from the mod entirely? I had to reinstall.

Installed several retextures for Alchemy and enchanting tables -- and like none of them :( Rustic is the most thought out, but I prefer the tables to be made of wood, thank you. It just doesn't make sense that every other shitty inn in the province has this carved black stone monstrosity, and the enchanting mesh somehow applies to all other candles in the game. Why can't people just make higher resolution versions of vanilla design?!

I really like Rugnarok in my house, but finding this perfectly preserved carpet covered in blood under a rack in a Nordic tomb...

I have no idea how to make followers tankier. Uthgerd knows block and has decent enchanted equipment, but she's always on her knees five seconds into the fight.

I'm testing ELFX now, and higher contrast makes my eyes hurt sometimes, and it's very inconvenient in dungeons, but having the dark be darker is kind of fun. This is the first time I had to use my camping mod and just lie down next to a Nordic ruin and some skeletons I just killed because I could see absolutely nothing.

Oh great, I enter this seemingly ordinary house, inside there's a mage who attacks immediately, I have to kill him, but afterwards I can't take any of his stuff, it's all marked "steal". Uh, ordinarily it's fair game in these situations? He has a very nicely designed home btw.

Wizard in Morthal: I'm not evil! *sells black soul gems*

Okay, it's been 111 hours, it's time to retrieve that horn!

This dungeon made me uninstall ELFX. Even with two torches I can't see shit.

Fuck these three stones! I know I need to use Whirlwind Sprint, I just can't do it fast enough!

Ugh, I went all this way for nothing?

Dawnguard

This master vampire can wait, there are so many ingredients here!

"Is that an Elder Scroll?" Good question, I've been playing this game called The Elder Scrolls for 100+ hours and this is my first encounter with the term.

Uh, so is there any reason why I, the fresh Dawnguard recruit, would not kill Serana on sight? I mean obviously I, the player, won't, but...

Like, even if I'm a nice person who doesn't attack unprovoked, why should I help her instead of dragging her to Fort Dawnguard and letting my new boss deal with her?

Aaaand I caught the vampire disease. Great. And of course I'm in the middle of nowhere with no shrines in sight. Alright, I have a stack of potions to burn...

Tried to take her to the fort. "I don't like the feel of this place, I'll wait for you back by the entrance". Oh great.

Well, at least the boss had dialogue for this and gave me approval for this nonsense, so I didn't make a trip across the entire country for nothing.

Unfathomable depths

I didn't even know that Riften had a dock outside the walls until I read about the quest I needed to take there...

This dwarven ruin is a nice opportunity to practice destruction magic, since the automatons can't be soul trapped so there's no reason to waste arrows on them.

Whoa, a health regen amulet!

Good thing Serana is with us, because my magic is severely underpowered.

Should have done this quest sooner, because I've been wearing dwarven armor for so long that by now I want to get rid of it, not bonuses to it.

I just checked -- and my normal set of heavy armor is already at the armor cap. I wonder if the bonus pushed it over the edge or not...

Lol, nah, I was already good. Well I'm having an existential crisis now. What am I supposed to do with my life now? I'm only level 46?

Modding hell

I'm slowly adding more and more HD retextures -- when I fix one thing, the one next to it suddenly looks too ugly... Now that I have Peltapalooza, ordinary beds suddenly look more comfortable, and next to them the blurry and dirty texture on noble beds is just terrible. Why couldn't someone just make a clean HD version of that bed?! Enhanced Noble Furniture 4x _byMike makes the bed red for some reason. Another mod, don't remember which, raises the resolution but doesn't delete the dirt, which you can now see in all HD glory. In the end I settled on Snazzy HD Noble Beds -- green, the closest to canonical, for single and double beds, and blue with drapes for the bed that obviously is supposed to have drapes but doesn't in vanilla. Then HD Noble Furniture, and Furniture and Clutter - HD Retextures for non-noble. The patterned bed and the new carpets are a bit too much together, but what can I do...

Aaaand the bed texture clashes horribly with the rug I placed under it in Lakeview :(

[xlucian-hell-cat90x]

Finding Each Other

Entering Rorikstead as the sun begins to set, Lucien is humming some new song he made up. Ren roll his eyes at the only closest friend he had from his childhood. They step in the Inn and greeted a familiar face of Erik. He smiles as he sees them enter. "Ah, Ren. Good to see you and Lucien back here again. Staying here before another grand adventure?" He asks with a smile.

""Yes and no. We just got out of the tomb Valthume." Ren replies, cutting the story short. He was exhausted. He steps up the counter where Erik's father is. "Can I get two rooms?" He asks, coldly. "Of course. That'll be 10 gold pieces." The man says. "I'm gonna need them for two days." He says dropping a medium size pouch of gold on the counter.

The man eyes him. "This should cover the rooms, food, drinks and care for the horses." Ren says, walking away from the counter and making his way to the room. He changes into a simple pair of trousers and a shirt. Lucien comes in there and looks at him. He sits in the chair and watches as Ren stares at his charred hands.

"You okay?" Lucien asks, unsure what else to say. He knew that Ren was struggling with his calling as Dragonborn. He was worried for his friend. "Just tired. I need some rest. I already paid for the rooms and food. Go eat and entertain the newest guard to Rorikstead with tales from our recent adventures. I'm gonna rest." Ren says, waving his worried friend off with his hand.

Lucien stands and walks out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. He sighs as he sits at the bar. He knows that his best friend is struggling with his calling. Erik comes and joins him at the bar. They eat and talk the night away.

The next morning, Ren wakes up to hearing frightened voices in the bar. He goes to step outside his room but Lucien and Erik push him back in and shut the door behind them. Lucien hands him the armor he wears while slaying dragons near cities.

"There's a dragon flying near one one of the old Forsworn camps. Everyone is startled." Erik explains. "Yeah, kinda figured. Had weird dreams about them all night. How am I suppose to get out of here without them noticing?" Ren asks. "Leave that to me. I've been practicing an invisibility spell. Hurry and change before the dragon makes it way here." Lucien says, turning his back. Erik follows suit.

Ren clears his throat and Lucien nods as he turns around. He mumbles a soft incantation and smiles. "Did it work?" Ren asks. "Look in the mirror." Lucien says, excitedly. Ren turns around and can't see anything. "Damn, I can't believe. Let's go." He says, as he crouches down. He follows Lucien through the crowded, being careful not to step on or bump into people.

Lucien opens the door and leads him to the path on the other side of the hill and they hear the growls of a dragon. Ren pulls out his favorite bow, Mehrune's Talon. It was something given to him from an old friend that worshiped Mehrune Dagon. When he sees the dragon, he starts firing arrows. Lucien stays back using magic. "Lucien, remember these dragons can sap your magic. Better to use your bow." Ren shouts.

Ren notices something down below them as the dragon takes flight. He sees red hair flowing as arrows flies past them, hitting the dragon in the side. The dragon roars, as Ren slides down the hill. He senses something familiar about this person. The woman glares at him as he stands beside her firing arrows at the beast. "Are you trying to take my kill?" She yells angrily. "No, just looked like you needed some help." He says, calmly.

Lucien stumbles down the hill and ducks as the dragon swoops over them, casting a ward to protect them from it's breathe. "Impeccable timing, Lu-Lu." Ren teases through the mask. Lucien just smiles, "Better late than never, right?" He huffs. Ren can clearly see he is exhausted. "Think we can bring this big guy down and finish him off?" Ren ask, looking over at the beautiful female beside. "Yeah, if we aim for the wings. Hope you can handle some heat." She says, still angry with this guy.

"Lu-Lu, you know what to do." Ren smirks. "Right, boss." He smirks, casting fire resistance spells over the three over them. After that, they bring the dragon down. Ren sighs as he hears the whooshing sound. He looks over and sees the woman absorb the soul of the dragon. Lucien goes to say something but Ren cuts him off. "How?" He asks out of astonishment.

The woman looks over at him. Fear fills her eyes. She goes to run but trips and twist her ankle. She cries out in pain. Ren and Lucien go closer to her. She pulls a dagger and aims at them. "You won't kill me. I will kill you both!" She screams. "Whoa, whoa. Put the dagger away. We don't want to harm you." Ren tries to calm her. "Whatever. That didn't stop any of the other people who have seen me." She cries.

"We want to help." Lucien says, putting his weapon to the side. "Can I at least look at your ankle? I'm a healer of sorts." Lucien asks, calmly. She nods, quietly. Lucien sits in front of her as she moves her foot in front of him. Ren sits his weapons to the side too, also removing the mask to reveal his face. She gasps as she looks at his eyes. His left eye was green and his right blue.

He sits down beside Lucien, who is healing her ankle and using a calming spell. "My name is Ren and this lovely fellow here is Lucien. May we ask your name?" Ren asks, softly. She looks around and sighs. "My name is Kisara. I was a Forsworn until a couple of months ago. I was kicked from my home and tribe. Honestly, that's all you need to know. Thanks for the help, but I must get going before the people from the town find me and try to kill me." She says, standing.

Kisara puts her weapon away and starts walking back toward the camp that is destroyed. Ren and Lucien watch as she stands there and stares at the destroyed camp. "Dammit. Fuck, now what am I gonna do?" She says, turning around noticing they are still there. "Come with us. I promise you will have all the gold and food you could ever need. Plus I still have questions." Ren says. "But the town people will attack me." Kisara says, motioning toward her armor.

Ren whistles and a solid black horse runs toward them and stops at Ren's side. He opens one of the saddle bags and rummages through it. He pulls out some black trousers and grey tunic. He hands them to her. "Sorry, I don't have anything else, but once we get to Whiterun. I can talk to Euroland and get you some armor crafted that will better fit you. I'm sure Ysolda can have you some clothes crafted to fit you too." Ren offers. He turns his back. Lucien blushes and quickly turns his back too.

Kisara quickly changes from her armor to the clothes Ren gave her. They were big on her, but she managed to make them fit. She quickly runs her fingers through her hair and braids it down her back, revealing her ears. She taps both the men on their shoulders, making Lucien jump. They both turn around. Ren smiles when he notices her ears. "I thought you were just a Nord dressed up in Forsworn armor." He admits, with a blush.

"I'm half Bosmer/half Nord. I never knew my parents. Kira, the woman who took care of me, said she found me in the woods. So she took me in. She said fell in love with my red hair and uniquely colored eyes." Kisara explains. "Yes, they favor Ren's but yours are the opposite." Lucien says. Ren removes his hood, revealing his ears too. "I'm half Bosmer/half Nord as well. My parents were killed by the Thalmor when I was a teenager. I was forced to live on my own in the Imperial City." He smiles, sadly. "My mom told me I had a sister, but she was kidnapped as a baby." He explains.

Her eyes widen, maybe they were related somehow. She shakes her head. "Let's get back to the village and I will answer all your questions." She says. "Right, Lucien take her on ahead. I'll meet up with you after I change." Ren says, rummaging through the other saddle bag. "Right, Kisara. This way." Lucien says, walking away from Ren and leading her toward the city.

(To anyone reading this: Would you like more of this little? If so comment and let me know. This was kinda fun to write.)

[royvdhel-dnd]

Journal |Sabat| Distractions Part I

Context: Sabat is a grumpy looking ex-soldier, who travels around with a group of “adventurers” to keep himself busy and to find a cure to his problem; His best friend is stuck inside his body and they need to take turns to control it. His group contains 4 members and a bear; "Oskar" a simple-minded but handsome Barbarian, "Thacaen", A half-orc Cleric (Silvanus) who’s appearance could easily be described as; Big, Pink, Loud, ugly and very smelly, Yorek a Human ranger, he is “old”, grumpy and racist towards elves. He is the owner of the bear, who is called "Bronn". As Sabat and Sarus are unaware/in a kind of sleep when the other’s active, these journals are meant to inform the non-active person, of events or “important” information they have missed while they were non-active, when they “awake” again. It’s also a manner of communication.

---- Dear Sarus, Today we would continue traveling to the dwarven city SteadHammer. However, we encountered a man on a horse, who asks us to help him. He seemed to have lost his comrades when their carriage was attacked by bandits. We decided to help him, there might be some gold in it for us, so we followed him. We ended up back on the forest path, searching the empty caravans that lay on the ground. We didn't find much but discovered there was a tower nearby and decided to investigate it as the man's comrades could be held captive in there or simply hiding there. Before we could even try to think of a plan of how to approach such tower, Thacaen decided it would be a good idea to climb the 30ft tower and then proceeded to start hitting it with his Mace to try and break the roof as a way of entering. He somehow managed to blow himself up while doing this, launching himself from the roof, falling the 30 ft he climbed and smacking down on the ground. To make a long story short; Two men came running out of the tower after hearing the racket Thacaen made, we killed them. Inside the tower, after entering through the door..., we found an expensive looking book about gods. On the second floor, we got attacked by a living carpet, an armor and a sword. We also got rid of these eventually, after sustaining some minor burn wounds. I found a glowing helmet, probably enchanted, it's in our bag. It might be a good idea to get it checked out before either of us tries to wear it and possibly sell it. We took a quick rest before we continued to the next floor. Here we got almost immediately hit by a giant fireball and later sprayed with acid, today is going great for us so far. This was, because there was an elf mage called Regar who wasn't too happy with our presence. After he had forcibly calmed down because of a spell, we got ourselves out of there as fast as possible.   We ended up finding another cart containing 130 gp which we split with the guy, who asked us for help. He also wanted to keep the cart with the remaining contents inside, the contents in there seemed to be of no interest to us, just junk, so we let him be. Weird how he seemed to care a lot less about his comrades after we found that cart... We will now continue traveling after we have rested for a bit. Greetings Sabat. --- Dear Sarus, After the whole ordeal with the tower and the elf mage, we started traveling to Steadhammer again. These last two days were a lot less peaceful than I had thought they were going to be. I might have been a little "agitated" because of that. We continued on our journey but had to set up a camp later as it was getting dark. I kept watch part of the night, can't remember who went after me. Not long after waking up we started our travels again, which were rudely disturbed by yet again another creature trying to kill us. This time it was and Owlbear and something that looked like a weird mix between a wolf and a large bird with antlers glued on it's head. (Peryton) This was also one of these days where I didn't fail to be surprised yet again, by the stupidity of our Clerk. Thacaen might actually be retarded. He tried to kick the wolf-bird-thing in the the nuts... without actually knowing if it even had these. He also developed this new gross sound he does after her kills things, it's quite revolting. Eventually, we killed both creatures... well the barbarian did. I skinned the owlbear and kept it's fur, I thought you might like it, if not, feel free to sell it. We continued again after having a short rest. We walked for several hours and encountered two men carrying crossbows. Here is the third time, the Orc brought us in danger by being an impulsive idiot.  I tried stopping him, but he got away. He ran towards the men, to "hug" them and to "say hello" and continued doing this after he was clearly told to stop, by the men. When he didn't, four other men came out of hiding and attacked him and then us. We managed to make it a quick fight. The orc however still wanted to try out his new "technique" and killed a guy by hitting him in the nuts and destroying his pelvis. I don't think i'll ever be able to unsee that. When we searched their remains, we found a "scroll of Telekineses", a letter and an enchanted ring. We got the letter with us, so please read it before continuing to read this. (Letter will be added later as it is currently at my bf's home) Remember that guy we helped the other day? His name was "Vic". I have a strong feeling that this is the guy who wrote the letter. We should have gotten rid him when we still could, I knew their was something fishy about this guys. We also decided to check out this village mentioned, "Vales". Before this I took the ring and inspected it. When putting it on I noticed a voice appearing in my mind. Apparently, this ring contained the soul of a female Dragonborn called "Yggdrasil", who asked us to help her with finding her a new body. If we did, she would help us on our journey and might be able to "thank" us later... whatever that may mean. So don't freak out if are suddenly hearing a voice, also the ring might be invisible at the moment you are wearing it, it's on your middle finger of your left hand. When you are wearing the ring you are immune to magic with the purpose to read our thoughts, determine whenever we are lying, getting to know our alignments or finding out our race. Creatures can telepathically communicate with us, only if we allow them to. If we die while wearing it, when empty, our soul (..souls?) get sucked into it. Maybe just mine, or yours I'm not really sure how it works for us to be honest. Oh,... I might have stabbed the orc, I'm sorry for the violent approach Sarus but he tried to embrace me, while smelling like he hasn't bathed in two years, rubbed himself in fish oil and decided to finish it by using onion rings as an accessory. I warned him, several times. After this, our trip was rather quite, Thacaen being rather upset with me of course, we arrived in the evening. We went to an inn and I decided to go to bed early, it was much too crowded in there to my likings and I still wanted to write to you. I also took the bear with me, it's now sleeping on the ground as he was scaring people. Goodnight Sarus, greetings Sabat.