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Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)
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<blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3157937" data-attributes="member: 198"><p>After the excitement of the last few minutes, the trip deeper into the Wastes is comparatively uneventful. Though the environment becomes no more hospitable, nothing actually attacks the Angels. Three large lizards, each the size of a horse, make an attempt to do so, but are left gaping in surprise as the magical mounts race by them.</p><p></p><p>The Angels head north, bearing slightly to the west, following the direction of their link to the Key. It is clear to them, however, that the link is growing less precise, though none of them could say exactly how they know that. Nevertheless, it remains as strong, letting them know they are heading towards its general area.</p><p></p><p>After a little over two hours of traveling, the Angels catch sight of smoke against the sky ahead, and shortly afterwards, see its source, a small settlement a few miles ahead. They circle around to approach it undetected from behind a nearby hill, about a mile away, and carefully study it, lying low and peering over a ridge. </p><p></p><p>The settlement is a small, fairly innocuous-seeming village, which makes it look significantly out of place here, in the middle of the Demon Wastes. The houses, all consisting of one level, appear ramshackle but sturdy, and are apparently all made of stone. The boundary of the village is marked by a circle of widely placed, large, menhir-like stones, each at least eight feet tall and at least half as wide. They stand about five hundred feet from the closest of the houses. The area between the boundary stones and the houses are mostly full of surprisingly thick fields of the tough lichens that they have seen in the area, with a path leading through them every so often. Though it is difficult to make out details at this distance, the watchers can see a number of people moving around the village. They seem to be of human size, with a fair number of much smaller shapes, which stand about waist-high to them.</p><p></p><p>After a few minutes of watching, the Angels pull back below the ridge to discuss what they have seen.</p><p></p><p>“This is probably that place called Rotting Blade,” says Nameless.</p><p></p><p>Korm shakes his head. “No place whose name starts with ‘Rotting’ can be any good.”</p><p></p><p>“Yes,” continues Nameless, “And I’m really suspicious of such a normal-looking place in the middle of the Wastes.”</p><p></p><p>Luna shrugs. “So, do we go in there or what? We know the Key’s somewhere around this area, so maybe we’ll know where it is once we’re closer.”</p><p></p><p>“I’m not too sure of that,” says Nameless. “And I really don’t like the idea of just walking in there. If the rakshasas are in there, I don’t think we could take them, with all the spells we’ve used, and especially not if those people in there serve them.” He looks around uncertainly. “Maybe we should go look for the Lake of Fire and the Burning Keep.”</p><p></p><p>“I think we should go in there,” comments Gareth. “Maybe we could get some information.”</p><p></p><p>“Information? This is the Wastes. They’re liable to be evil demon-worshippers, more than anything else.”</p><p></p><p>“When did <em>you</em> have problems with evil demon-worshippers?” asks Gareth. “And it’s better than just sitting around wondering what to do.”</p><p></p><p>“True,” says Six, before adding, with a metallic chuckle, “But they might have sticks and rocks too.”</p><p></p><p>Luna laughs and says, “Tell you what – I’ll fly around the area and see what I can find.” She looks around the area, looking for a bird that she could take the form of, without attracting attention. There is nothing in the immediate vicinity, and the few birds in the sky are circling high above, so she settles for a hawk.</p><p></p><p>Taking wing, she heads towards the west, pausing every once in a while to depict a long circular sweep of the area. After a couple of miles, she catches sight of more smoke to the southwest, and a short detour lets her see that it comes from what seem to be fires around which a small collection of tents are pitched. The site is quite far away, so the druid decides not to detour to investigate and keeps going.</p><p></p><p>When Luna is just over five miles from where she left her companions, she feels the link to the Key begin to fade. She begins to fly in a wide circle, trying to work out where the feeling fades, and, almost simultaneously, catches sight of a ruined structure a couple of miles to the northwest. Luna flies over, trying not to be too obvious and staying behind cover where she can.</p><p></p><p>The structure was probably a short and thick watchtower of the kind that would be utterly unremarkable in most other parts of Khorvaire, but here in the Wastes, even with most of its top half reduced to rubble, it is still the highest artificial structure that Luna has seen. Lichen and a tough vine crawl up its sides, and once she has dropped down to the roof (formerly the bottom of the second level), Luna uses them as cover to peer in the windows of the main remaining room.</p><p></p><p>She immediately sees the light of a flame, which comes from an <em>everburning torch</em> propped up against a pair of backpacks that lie in the middle of the floor. Near them is an opening in the floor, revealing badly worn stone steps leading into darkness. The murmur of voices floats up, as does the barest hint of flickering light.</p><p></p><p>Luna flaps as quietly as possible into the room and lands near the steps. Now that she is closer, she hears the murmuring as words. The language is Draconic, and Luna hears the voice ask, “…will not be disturbed?” And then it moves away.</p><p></p><p>Turning to the backpacks, the ever-curious druid casts a spell and <em>detect</em>s a few magical auras. After listening again to ensure that the voices can no longer be heard, she pecks and claws at the haversack till it opens. A quick search reveals that the magical auras emanate from a scroll tube. Also of interest to Luna is the traveling spellbook she finds beside it.</p><p></p><p>Luna listens carefully, and hearing no sounds, changes back to a shifter. She then quickly sticks the scroll tube and spellbook in her backpack, changes back to a bird, and flies out the window.</p><p></p><p>*****</p><p>Two hours later, Luna is explaining what happened to her companions, whose reactions range from amusement to minor disapproval.</p><p></p><p>“So you just took their things?” asks Gareth.</p><p></p><p>“Well,” Luna replies defensively, “They shouldn’t just leave it lying around.”</p><p></p><p>Gareth looks at her, then turns and walks away. Korm comments, “What – you’re not going to lecture her for dishonesty?”</p><p></p><p>The paladin shrugs. “Nameless keeps telling me that anyone in the Wastes would be evil. I’m presuming he’s right, so what do I care?” Gareth looks over at Nameless, who’s already going through the spellbook Luna brought. “Looks like he’s not exactly concerned about it either.”</p><p></p><p>Nameless puts down the spellbook, saying disappointedly, “Nothing new. Only spells up to the third valence, so the user couldn’t be too proficient.” He opens up the scroll tube and produces a couple of rolls of parchment. After using a <em>read magic</em>, he says, “Nice selection. A <em>dimension door</em>, a <em>create food and water</em>, and a <em>sending</em>.”</p><p></p><p>“So,” says Six, looking at Luna, “You managed to make it impossible for someone to travel out of a dangerous situation, obtain food and water, and contact someone to say that he’s in trouble? Oh yes – and prepare his spells too.”</p><p></p><p>“Yeah,” grins Luna. “It’s a <em>good</em> day.”</p><p></p><p>Six just shakes his head and looks over at Nameless. “So, what’s next? Do we go into town?”</p><p></p><p>“I really don’t want to do that until we have all our spells back,” says Nameless. The rakshasas might be in there. I think we should camp here and wait till tomorrow.”</p><p></p><p>“I did feel that link to the Key fade once I got about five miles away,” says Luna. “Anyway, if we’re staying here, let me fly over and check out the place.”</p><p></p><p>Korm, who has moved up to a ridge to watch the village, says, “They’ve got something looking like pigeons over there. A couple of people are working in one of the fields, and there are a few of those flying around.”</p><p></p><p>“Pigeons in the Wastes? Don’t get close, Luna,” says Nameless. “They’ll probably try to eat you.” </p><p></p><p>Luckily for Luna, he is wrong. The pigeons do have scales intermixed with feathers and a forked, featherless, ratlike tail, but none of them makes any attempt to eat her when she reaches them. A couple of them hiss at her, but that is all.</p><p></p><p>Luna flies into the village, perching on a rooftop here and there, carefully studying the place and its inhabitants. She sees that, just as the Ghaash’kala had said, they are mostly humans and orcs, though there are a small number of kobolds. There are about equal quantities of men and women, with a few children present. While their clothing is a little drab and shows less variety than might be seen in a similar village in Breland, the inhabitants otherwise look quite normal. There are no signs that Luna notices of the ailments affecting the Angels.</p><p></p><p>The houses that make up the buildings are all of stone. None of them are made of brick, but rather are of rough pieces of stone, held together by mortar. All have a single level, even the largest, which stands in the center of the village. It is about twice as large as any of the others, and also has the largest collection of people around it, some sitting outside on rough chairs around a table, some walking in and out from what is apparently a store of some kind, while others visit the large well that stands near the building. Luna listens to some of those sitting around there, but they speak mainly in a language she does not speak. There are some words that she understands, but the conversation is innocuous, seemingly about the crops and the weather.</p><p></p><p>After a while, Luna heads back to the others. When she tells them what she saw and heard, Nameless frowns. “That doesn’t make me feel any the better. It sounds too normal – or apparently normal – for this place.”</p><p></p><p>Six, who is getting a little bored of waiting, says, “Yes, but it’s our best bet for information about the area. We can find out tomorrow whether there’s something hidden under the normal appearance.”</p><p></p><p>The Angels settle down for the evening and the night, using the <em>Staff of Survival</em> from the island, which creates a <em>tiny hut</em> for them. Not only does it provide shelter but, after dark, it is difficult to see at a distance against the rock of the hill. </p><p></p><p>Whether that is the reason or not, the night passes uneventfully. One of the large lizards they had seen does come sniffing around the hut, apparently confused by being able to smell them but not see anything beyond the opaque hemisphere created by the spell. Its confusion is briefly heightened as Korm’s fist comes through the hemisphere and smacks it in the nose, causing it to squeal in terror and flee, though not before it drops its three foot long tail as a distraction. Distraction or not, the tail is quickly collected, to be added to a future menu.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p>In the morning, the Angels arise to find that the ailment, whatever it may be, that seems to be affecting all of them, is now stronger. Joints are more painful, skin feels even more greasy, eyelids are clearly swollen (except for Six, who has none), and so on. They also feel slightly weak and a little foggy-headed, a feeling that does not subside, or improve after a <em>lesser restoration</em>. Luna, who feels slightly better than the others*, notices that the symbiont on her arm has now turned gray, though it seems otherwise well. </p><p></p><p>It may have something to do with feeling unwell, but they all individually find themselves a little irritable. Gareth, especially irritated with this feeling of sickness, since he has spent years not having to suffer the slightest cough or cold, feels the slickness of the skin of his face and says, “Looks like someone’s screwing with the Shard.” </p><p></p><p>Then he gives Nameless a look and continues, “Or maybe sitting around in the Wastes for most of a day waiting to prepare spells wasn’t that brilliant an idea.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>* Everyone has a -2 penalty to Con and Wis that <em>lesser restoration</em> did not cure. Luna has a -1 to each.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="shilsen, post: 3157937, member: 198"] After the excitement of the last few minutes, the trip deeper into the Wastes is comparatively uneventful. Though the environment becomes no more hospitable, nothing actually attacks the Angels. Three large lizards, each the size of a horse, make an attempt to do so, but are left gaping in surprise as the magical mounts race by them. The Angels head north, bearing slightly to the west, following the direction of their link to the Key. It is clear to them, however, that the link is growing less precise, though none of them could say exactly how they know that. Nevertheless, it remains as strong, letting them know they are heading towards its general area. After a little over two hours of traveling, the Angels catch sight of smoke against the sky ahead, and shortly afterwards, see its source, a small settlement a few miles ahead. They circle around to approach it undetected from behind a nearby hill, about a mile away, and carefully study it, lying low and peering over a ridge. The settlement is a small, fairly innocuous-seeming village, which makes it look significantly out of place here, in the middle of the Demon Wastes. The houses, all consisting of one level, appear ramshackle but sturdy, and are apparently all made of stone. The boundary of the village is marked by a circle of widely placed, large, menhir-like stones, each at least eight feet tall and at least half as wide. They stand about five hundred feet from the closest of the houses. The area between the boundary stones and the houses are mostly full of surprisingly thick fields of the tough lichens that they have seen in the area, with a path leading through them every so often. Though it is difficult to make out details at this distance, the watchers can see a number of people moving around the village. They seem to be of human size, with a fair number of much smaller shapes, which stand about waist-high to them. After a few minutes of watching, the Angels pull back below the ridge to discuss what they have seen. “This is probably that place called Rotting Blade,” says Nameless. Korm shakes his head. “No place whose name starts with ‘Rotting’ can be any good.” “Yes,” continues Nameless, “And I’m really suspicious of such a normal-looking place in the middle of the Wastes.” Luna shrugs. “So, do we go in there or what? We know the Key’s somewhere around this area, so maybe we’ll know where it is once we’re closer.” “I’m not too sure of that,” says Nameless. “And I really don’t like the idea of just walking in there. If the rakshasas are in there, I don’t think we could take them, with all the spells we’ve used, and especially not if those people in there serve them.” He looks around uncertainly. “Maybe we should go look for the Lake of Fire and the Burning Keep.” “I think we should go in there,” comments Gareth. “Maybe we could get some information.” “Information? This is the Wastes. They’re liable to be evil demon-worshippers, more than anything else.” “When did [i]you[/i] have problems with evil demon-worshippers?” asks Gareth. “And it’s better than just sitting around wondering what to do.” “True,” says Six, before adding, with a metallic chuckle, “But they might have sticks and rocks too.” Luna laughs and says, “Tell you what – I’ll fly around the area and see what I can find.” She looks around the area, looking for a bird that she could take the form of, without attracting attention. There is nothing in the immediate vicinity, and the few birds in the sky are circling high above, so she settles for a hawk. Taking wing, she heads towards the west, pausing every once in a while to depict a long circular sweep of the area. After a couple of miles, she catches sight of more smoke to the southwest, and a short detour lets her see that it comes from what seem to be fires around which a small collection of tents are pitched. The site is quite far away, so the druid decides not to detour to investigate and keeps going. When Luna is just over five miles from where she left her companions, she feels the link to the Key begin to fade. She begins to fly in a wide circle, trying to work out where the feeling fades, and, almost simultaneously, catches sight of a ruined structure a couple of miles to the northwest. Luna flies over, trying not to be too obvious and staying behind cover where she can. The structure was probably a short and thick watchtower of the kind that would be utterly unremarkable in most other parts of Khorvaire, but here in the Wastes, even with most of its top half reduced to rubble, it is still the highest artificial structure that Luna has seen. Lichen and a tough vine crawl up its sides, and once she has dropped down to the roof (formerly the bottom of the second level), Luna uses them as cover to peer in the windows of the main remaining room. She immediately sees the light of a flame, which comes from an [i]everburning torch[/i] propped up against a pair of backpacks that lie in the middle of the floor. Near them is an opening in the floor, revealing badly worn stone steps leading into darkness. The murmur of voices floats up, as does the barest hint of flickering light. Luna flaps as quietly as possible into the room and lands near the steps. Now that she is closer, she hears the murmuring as words. The language is Draconic, and Luna hears the voice ask, “…will not be disturbed?” And then it moves away. Turning to the backpacks, the ever-curious druid casts a spell and [i]detect[/i]s a few magical auras. After listening again to ensure that the voices can no longer be heard, she pecks and claws at the haversack till it opens. A quick search reveals that the magical auras emanate from a scroll tube. Also of interest to Luna is the traveling spellbook she finds beside it. Luna listens carefully, and hearing no sounds, changes back to a shifter. She then quickly sticks the scroll tube and spellbook in her backpack, changes back to a bird, and flies out the window. ***** Two hours later, Luna is explaining what happened to her companions, whose reactions range from amusement to minor disapproval. “So you just took their things?” asks Gareth. “Well,” Luna replies defensively, “They shouldn’t just leave it lying around.” Gareth looks at her, then turns and walks away. Korm comments, “What – you’re not going to lecture her for dishonesty?” The paladin shrugs. “Nameless keeps telling me that anyone in the Wastes would be evil. I’m presuming he’s right, so what do I care?” Gareth looks over at Nameless, who’s already going through the spellbook Luna brought. “Looks like he’s not exactly concerned about it either.” Nameless puts down the spellbook, saying disappointedly, “Nothing new. Only spells up to the third valence, so the user couldn’t be too proficient.” He opens up the scroll tube and produces a couple of rolls of parchment. After using a [i]read magic[/i], he says, “Nice selection. A [i]dimension door[/i], a [i]create food and water[/i], and a [i]sending[/i].” “So,” says Six, looking at Luna, “You managed to make it impossible for someone to travel out of a dangerous situation, obtain food and water, and contact someone to say that he’s in trouble? Oh yes – and prepare his spells too.” “Yeah,” grins Luna. “It’s a [i]good[/i] day.” Six just shakes his head and looks over at Nameless. “So, what’s next? Do we go into town?” “I really don’t want to do that until we have all our spells back,” says Nameless. The rakshasas might be in there. I think we should camp here and wait till tomorrow.” “I did feel that link to the Key fade once I got about five miles away,” says Luna. “Anyway, if we’re staying here, let me fly over and check out the place.” Korm, who has moved up to a ridge to watch the village, says, “They’ve got something looking like pigeons over there. A couple of people are working in one of the fields, and there are a few of those flying around.” “Pigeons in the Wastes? Don’t get close, Luna,” says Nameless. “They’ll probably try to eat you.” Luckily for Luna, he is wrong. The pigeons do have scales intermixed with feathers and a forked, featherless, ratlike tail, but none of them makes any attempt to eat her when she reaches them. A couple of them hiss at her, but that is all. Luna flies into the village, perching on a rooftop here and there, carefully studying the place and its inhabitants. She sees that, just as the Ghaash’kala had said, they are mostly humans and orcs, though there are a small number of kobolds. There are about equal quantities of men and women, with a few children present. While their clothing is a little drab and shows less variety than might be seen in a similar village in Breland, the inhabitants otherwise look quite normal. There are no signs that Luna notices of the ailments affecting the Angels. The houses that make up the buildings are all of stone. None of them are made of brick, but rather are of rough pieces of stone, held together by mortar. All have a single level, even the largest, which stands in the center of the village. It is about twice as large as any of the others, and also has the largest collection of people around it, some sitting outside on rough chairs around a table, some walking in and out from what is apparently a store of some kind, while others visit the large well that stands near the building. Luna listens to some of those sitting around there, but they speak mainly in a language she does not speak. There are some words that she understands, but the conversation is innocuous, seemingly about the crops and the weather. After a while, Luna heads back to the others. When she tells them what she saw and heard, Nameless frowns. “That doesn’t make me feel any the better. It sounds too normal – or apparently normal – for this place.” Six, who is getting a little bored of waiting, says, “Yes, but it’s our best bet for information about the area. We can find out tomorrow whether there’s something hidden under the normal appearance.” The Angels settle down for the evening and the night, using the [i]Staff of Survival[/i] from the island, which creates a [i]tiny hut[/i] for them. Not only does it provide shelter but, after dark, it is difficult to see at a distance against the rock of the hill. Whether that is the reason or not, the night passes uneventfully. One of the large lizards they had seen does come sniffing around the hut, apparently confused by being able to smell them but not see anything beyond the opaque hemisphere created by the spell. Its confusion is briefly heightened as Korm’s fist comes through the hemisphere and smacks it in the nose, causing it to squeal in terror and flee, though not before it drops its three foot long tail as a distraction. Distraction or not, the tail is quickly collected, to be added to a future menu. *** In the morning, the Angels arise to find that the ailment, whatever it may be, that seems to be affecting all of them, is now stronger. Joints are more painful, skin feels even more greasy, eyelids are clearly swollen (except for Six, who has none), and so on. They also feel slightly weak and a little foggy-headed, a feeling that does not subside, or improve after a [i]lesser restoration[/i]. Luna, who feels slightly better than the others*, notices that the symbiont on her arm has now turned gray, though it seems otherwise well. It may have something to do with feeling unwell, but they all individually find themselves a little irritable. Gareth, especially irritated with this feeling of sickness, since he has spent years not having to suffer the slightest cough or cold, feels the slickness of the skin of his face and says, “Looks like someone’s screwing with the Shard.” Then he gives Nameless a look and continues, “Or maybe sitting around in the Wastes for most of a day waiting to prepare spells wasn’t that brilliant an idea.” * Everyone has a -2 penalty to Con and Wis that [i]lesser restoration[/i] did not cure. Luna has a -1 to each. [/QUOTE]
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