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Academy of Drell, Part III

Ellie

Ellie will wait until the man seems to be done with his prayers, and attempt to strike up a conversation with him.

"Good morning sir, my name is Ellen Merriwether, but everyone calls me ellie. I'm a student in the psionic studies section of the academy. I had been looking for a quiet place to meditate and came out here, I'm not disturbing you am I?"

That's good I didn't even prompt you this time.
I know. I guess you're rubbing off on me....
 
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Rallyn is still very stiff and sore, even after limbering up, he still feels raw from the encounter with the creature from the previous night. Normally a walk to Serbanas's hut would tend to be relaxing, but today the soreness makes it just uncomfortable.

recover 1 point of Strength for the night's rest.

When Rallyn arrives, the cottage door is open, and Serbanas's heavily-muscled form can be seen laboring over a rapier. He has it completely disassembled, with parts strewn all over, working on the tang, while a filing stone rests near the blade on a separate bench.

After a brief exchange of greetings, he expresses concern over Rallyn's apparent injuries. Looking intently down at the far shorter gnome, "Perhaps you should go to the town and visit Agius; tell him what happened and I'm certain he can make you feel a lot better.

As for time off," Serbanas continues, "there's little need of full-time guards and the investigation warrants looking in to. Take as much time as you need. I don't want you on guard duty while you're impaired in any event."

Charlotte wakes up to a lovely repast prepared by Keith. Lucie looks on longingly at a particularly strong-scented morsel of cheese.

Keith admits he got the food from the cafeteria and suggests the two of them go speak to Coles about the events of last night.

Arana politely declines Mailia's offer to decipher the book.

Mialia seems intrigued at the mention of Xargon and the Giants of Jotunland.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any specific recollection of him save for a few tales. I'd always thought he was a legendary figure -- mythical rather than factual. If you find some concrete evidence beyond the existance of this book, please keep me informed."

Arana then leaves to rejoin the others at the library, especially waiting for Maerath.

Ellie waits a few minutes until the man is done with his prayers then introduces herself.

"A pleasure to meet you," the old man says, "I am Emair, a simple holy man. You are not disturbing me, I am merely contemplating the beauty of winter. The grove behind me is sacred and a good place to meditate."

The wind shifts and Ellie is a bit struck by the strong way the man smells. Unwashed and dirty, as if he's been away from civilization for a long time. Upon closer inspection, Ellie can see his nails are broken and splintered, and filthy. His beard is cropped as if by a knife, rather than by scissors. The only clean thing about him is the sharply curved dagger on his belt.

The knife is almost a full crescent, and heavily bejewelled on the pommel. Silver wire mesh wraps the hilt, which seems to be made of bone.
 

Arriving at the library, Sildarin will try to see where the others are and then just drift close to them, watching the points of his boots.
 

Zhure, just a quick note - Lucie is my char's familiar in the Of Sound Mind game, not in the Academy. Sorry if that messed you up.

Oh, yeah... we need to go talk to Coles...

"Right." Charlotte says. "Thanks for the friendliness, Keith, but I don't think that the business that we have with Coles can wait - we should resolve it as soon as possible. Don't worry, if we come back later I can always warm the food up again."

Charlotte rises, collects her rapier from it's shelf, and grabs her shield. "I don't think we'll need any armor, but I'll take my shield - just in case."

She gestures towards the door. "Shall we?"
 

Rallyn Loddry

Rallyn grunts in reply to Serbanas, nods gravely, then heads off in search of Agius before heading to the library to meet up with the others.

I wonder if Agius can tell me anything about the creature we fought from my wounds or ailments...
 

Maerath Iliandil

Maerath gladly pays the 25 gp to Iulius and heads back to the library. There, he gives the book to Arana so that she can ask the teacher to translate it. Maerath then begins studying the new spell and writing it inside his spellbook (2 days and 200 gp).

In-game OOC: I prefer to study the spell so that I can cast it several times. If I use the scroll to cast it, I may not be able to read the entire book since the duration of the spell is only 10 minutes/level (and as the scroll only costed 25 gp, I suppose it was casted at level 1).

OOC: I probably won't have my computer back before Tuesday (Monday's a bank holiday in Belgium), but I should be able to put my hands on an internet connection on Sunday too, so I may be able to post once again this week end... If I can't, there won't probably be much of a problem since this action should have Maerath busy for two days.
 

Sildarin wanders about the library, waiting for everyone else to arrive and finish their various tasks.



Zhure, just a quick note - Lucie is my char's familiar in the Of Sound Mind game, not in the Academy. Sorry if that messed you up.


That'll teach me to be in too many games, lol. Doyle is the psicrystal, got it. Sorry.


Charlotte gathers her things and thanks Keith for the company and breakfast. Together they go to talk to the headmaster, Coles.

The headmaster has a large building in which he lives, that also serves as the administration headquarters for the campus. Primarily his duties seem to be involved with dealing with dignitaries and smoothing the ruffled feathers of the august personages of the Empire whose children study at Drell, which might explain the magnificence of his manse.

The house itself is three impressive stories, but the marble blocks used to make it get smaller and smaller as it gets taller, creating a forced perspective making the building loom even larger over the central plaza of the campus.

When Charlotte and Keith arrive, the windows are all shuttered and no one responds at the knock on the door.

Rallyn leaves Serbanas's cottage and goes in search of Agius.

The stroll down the hill toward the village is uneventful. No guards are about and the townsfolk are quiet. The fishermen are probably already out and no one else is moving much this early.

Agius has a temple right on the waterfront, partway over the water, as if it were part of a pier. It's made of stone and has classical ionic columns around the entrance. Unlike most of the southern temples, it lacks an open air entrance. Drell is far colder than most of the Empire. The entrance is painted in a dark countershaded color to offset the white marble, almost creating the illusion of a cavernous entrance. Two continual flames burn at the entrance and a simple stone fountain filled with copper coins and a smattering of silver coins babbles near the path to the door.

The elf who runs the temple, Agius, is sweeping the marble step when Rallyn approaches. He glances up and smiles. After relating your encounter, Agius doesn't seem nearly so happy.

"Those sound like undead," he says, "Perhaps shades or shadows. It's hard to tell by your description. Later today I will go look on the campus and see if I can find any evil influence. Undead are horrid, blashpemous creatures which must be destroyed."

Maerath pays Iulus the cions and returns to the library to give the book to Arana, to give to Mialia to translate.

Not a lot of action today -- I have to go watch AotC and a horrible workload, so I'm going to catch an early nap. Also short post tomorrow, because I work all morning and have a RL game all day (character creation day; I rolled 18, 18, 17, 17, 15,13 -- can't decide what to play, best rolls EVER).
 

Keith pauses and and takes a few measured steps to look in the window and then knocks on the door again...

Hmm... the place seems vacant enough....

Keith glances over his shoulder to Charlotte, "One of two things may be happening here; one he is not accepting visitors or two, he is not present... both seem rather odd to me..."

Keith thinks for a moment... "But even more strange is how much has happened and no one really seems to be up in arms about it? I wonder if this web is much thicker and twisted then we had first imagined...."

I think Coles may be part of the problem and not the solution...
 

Stupid door...

"I think that you've got it right." Charlotte says, looking the door over. "He's either not here, or not taking visitors. In either case, his home is about to be visited..."

Perhaps a bit too much of a rash action, but I don't feel like being reasonable right now. I want in to this building, and I will get into it.

Charlotte looks around, checking to see if anyone is around.

"Hmm... I'll need a minute or two. In the mean time - see what you can do about the door. If it can be broken down, broken into, or whatnot, or if there is another entrance, like an open window or a backdoor. I really don't want to torch the door if we don't have to, but if that's the only way to get in..."

Charlotte finds a comfortable spot near the doorway, sits down, and focuses her mind upon drawing the psionic energies from deep within herself and priming them for usage.
 

Hmm... perhaps subtlety may be our guide...

"As much as I want to speak with Coles, I doubt torching his door or breaking and entering will ingratiate ourselves into his manner..."

Keith looks at the door... for a moment, "I am no picker of locks... I have no training as a burglar... nor do I desire to be... I think we may have to go this alone without consent of of the staff. We have the book, the knowledge that something is not right... we need to act on this... I fear they may be those in power who may hinder our search for answers..."
 

Into the Woods

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