Rybaer
First Post
Session #12.17 - Kladish Epilogue
Nigel spent the better part of the next week recovering from the incredible blood loss associated with the Shadow lopping off his hand. While a priest tended his injuries and Lohna saw to his comfort, Nigel mourned the loss of his friends Rurik and Bommer, and the presumed entrapment of Amblin and Zalman. From Lohna's description of the mirrored spheres, Nigel came to the same conclusion she had - that Mr. North had entrapped them in the same type of magical stasis bubble in which Shadykin had been captured twenty years earlier. The implications of a link to Gils Dralon, infamous member of the Black Hand, were frightening.
Nigel also had plenty of time to stew on the image of the Shadow chopping off his hand and looting his immobile body. The Shadow had just grinned the entire time. Nigel changed the vision in his mind to one he could endure holding on to...one of him with his hands (er, hand) wrapped around the dark elf’s throat, slowly choking the life out of the little vermin. Both the attending priest and Lohna wondered at Nigel's tight grin while he slipped in and out of consciousness.
Rurik, in spite of all the accolades and praise heaped on him by the Taurens, was full of doubt and concern. For starters, he had no idea how his companions had fared. Second, he was worried about the true nature and purpose of Mr. North and his excursion into the deepest parts of the Plane of Shadow. Perhaps the one thing that gnawed on him the most, though, even as he tried his best not to deal with it, was the fact that the dwarves had come to Myrial as a servant race to a world-spanning empire of minotaurs. Granted, the Taurens seemed to be much smarter and more civil than stock minotaurs, but it literally undermined his core beliefs. His ecclesiastical training had taught him that Moradin was the creator of the dwarves. Now the Taurens had given him reason to believe that the dwarves, at some point in far ancient history, may have latched on to the Taurens’ Moraein as a patron deity after becoming assimilated into their Empire.
While meditating on his many concerns, Rurik busied himself by reclaiming his armor and gear (what was left behind), and found enough serviceable tools in the ruins to start the daunting repair job. The Taurens continued to scour the ruins for anything of value or use. They would frequently stop by Rurik to ask questions about what he and his companions had found while exploring. Rurik claimed for himself and his church the bars of mithril and the remnants of holy text they had found. The Taurens could have anything else Kladish offered up as far as he was concerned.
Half a day later, the Taurens came across something that staggered Rurik: Two perfect, mirrored spheres in one of the upper levels. Rurik hurried to the spot in the ogres' lair and knew immediately that these were the same spheres as the one that Gils Dralon had used to trap Shadykin.
Rurik asked a couple Taurens fetch Rublar and Mila. When they arrived at the room, the senior cleric and wizard took in the stasis spheres in complete admiration. They poked and prodded the frictionless surface while Rurik recounted how he and his friends had traveled to the demi-plane of Time to cast Dispel Magic on the previous sphere.
Early the next day, Rublar, Mila, Rurik, and a handful of other Taurens Plane Shifted to the demi-plane of time to cancel out the stasis spheres. Rurik hoped his suspicions were correct and that his friends would be back in time for dinner.
One moment Zalman had been quietly fuming, head buried in a spell book, while Amblin had heard Mr. North casting a spell from the hallway nearby. The smallest fraction of a moment later, half a dozen well-groomed and well-armed minotaurs were standing in front of them.
Amblin spun around a couple times as his mind whirled. Zalman, sensing a change in the room, looked up with a bit of a start. The minotaurs did not appear to be threatening, but rather were looking at them expectantly.
"Uh, what happened?" Amblin said. "Who are you? Where'd everyone else go?"
The minotaurs looked at one another quizzically. One stepped forward and spoke in a heavily accented dwarven that only Zalman, courtesy of his magical crown, could understand with perfect clarity. "Are either of you Nigel, Amblin, Zalman, or Bommer?"
Responding in the minotaurs’ own language, Zalman said, "Who are you and why do you wish to know?"
"Father Rurik sent us to wait here by the reflecting globes," the minotaur. "He and several others had to travel somewhere in order to end the spell that made the globes. Father Rurik thought that some of his companions might be trapped within."
A couple minutes of questioning later, Zalman and Amblin had most of the story. It finally sank in that they'd been trapped in magical stasis bubbles. They got a rough version of the story of Rurik's resurrection and his subsequent rescuing of the Taurens from the dragon. They also told of the dragon's demise at the hands of a couple dozen well-prepared Taurens.
Rurik would be back soon, according to the Taurens. Bommer's body was still on the floor beside Amblin. That just left Nigel's whereabouts in question. The wide pool of dry blood on the floor between Zalman and Amblin didn't look reassuring.
The reunion between Rurik and Amblin and Zalman was not quite a celebratory affair. While they rejoiced at Rurik being alive, they had other concerns. Adding up the evidence, they were fairly sure that the Mage of Many Colors, Mr. North, was either Gils Dralon or someone closely associated with him. That worried them, even if the Taurens were convinced that he was likely trapped deep in the Plane of Shadow. Bommer was dead and Nigel missing. Zalman was also fuming at Hooty's absence...it wasn't the first time that his familiar was out of telepathic range when he was needed.
In gratitude for Rurik’s part in the rescue, the Taurens resurrected Bommer. They also assisted in scrying the location of Nigel, who they found in Lohna's care. Zalman and Amblin traveled there the next day and heard his part of the story - mostly the severing of his hand and theft of his belongings by the Shadow.
Nigel deemed himself fit enough for travel and returned to Kladish with the others the next day. Lohna's other guest, Amill, asked to tag along. He was interested in poking around the ruins. Nigel, in his days of bed rest, had found the psychic warrior’s company to be pleasant. Once at Kladish, the Tauren priests regenerated Nigel's lost hand, simultaneously improving his spirits and his determination for revenge.
While the others had been away at Lohna's, Rurik talked Mila into teleporting him to Mt. Goldforge where he recounted his tale and findings to the Church of Moradin. Rurik was hailed a hero, but like Rurik the Church hierarchy had reservations about some of the religious implications. Rurik negotiated an exchange of religious resources between the Taurens and the dwarves before returning to the ruins of Kladish.
Once again, the five Selmarian Seekers were together and healthy. Rurik's quest was complete and they had no pressing concerns. Amongst themselves, they spoke of what was to come next. Zalman was exhausted physically and emotionally, weary of nearly (or actually) dying every few days, and was ready to retire in Selmar. Nigel was bent upon revenge against the Shadow. Amblin was eager to travel south, to see the great cities along the coast and possibly to one day reach Tet Amir where his monastic order was purportedly based. Rurik felt age beyond his years, but was game for further travel. Bommer, after dying, had found that the adventurous lifestyle had lost a bit of luster...but he was one to quickly forget the rough spots in favor of future opportunity. Amill, the outsider, was just a guy with a sword looking for something to do and somewhere to go.
The Taurens finally wrapped up their looting of Kladish and prepared to depart. They gave Rurik and his companions a healthy amount of gold from Embertongue's hoard and then went about disabling the Adonix. While not completely destroyed, they promised that it would be almost impossible for Mr. North to ever try using that particular Adonix again. Farewells were said and once again Kladish was a quiet, lost ruins.
Back at Lohna's, enjoying her company and hospitality, the after-dinner conversation turned to making a decision on where the group’s future was headed. The debate focused heavily between tracking down the Shadow (which many considered unnecessarily dangerous, even if they did all want to see him dead) and just traveling south with no real goal in mind. Zalman was still on the brink of declaring retirement, but listened anyway.
After several hours of discussion, they decided to try to find the Shadow. If they couldn't track him down, they would then travel south. If they succeeded in finding and killing him, they would then decide from there what course to take next. Zalman had enough harbored hatred for the Shadow that he postponed retirement to see this adventure through.
"How do we go about finding the Shadow, then?" Nigel asked the group.
"We could try to find Kisty's sister in Water Break," Zalman suggested. "She's been known to hire him in the past." It went unspoken that Zalman had a personal vendetta against Misty Goodbread as well.
"Sounds dangerous," Rurik said. "She is the head of a thieves' guild, after all."
"Well," Amblin said. "We were spied on magically. Could we do the same to find the Shadow?"
"Scry him?" Zalman said. "I don't do divinations, but I'll bet you someone at the Thunder Guild can."
"Wouldn't mind trading and buying a few more magic items with them, while we're at it," Bommer said.
"So, to the Thunder Guild then?" Nigel said. Everyone agreed to the plan.
Amill looked around the table, and then chimed in. "Could you use an extra sword?"
Nigel looked at the others and then at the psychic warrior. "Would you hesitate to cut down a dark elf with that sword of yours?"
"No."
"Okay, you're in then."
Next session: The vendetta begins...and a creature on the road.
Nigel spent the better part of the next week recovering from the incredible blood loss associated with the Shadow lopping off his hand. While a priest tended his injuries and Lohna saw to his comfort, Nigel mourned the loss of his friends Rurik and Bommer, and the presumed entrapment of Amblin and Zalman. From Lohna's description of the mirrored spheres, Nigel came to the same conclusion she had - that Mr. North had entrapped them in the same type of magical stasis bubble in which Shadykin had been captured twenty years earlier. The implications of a link to Gils Dralon, infamous member of the Black Hand, were frightening.
Nigel also had plenty of time to stew on the image of the Shadow chopping off his hand and looting his immobile body. The Shadow had just grinned the entire time. Nigel changed the vision in his mind to one he could endure holding on to...one of him with his hands (er, hand) wrapped around the dark elf’s throat, slowly choking the life out of the little vermin. Both the attending priest and Lohna wondered at Nigel's tight grin while he slipped in and out of consciousness.
Rurik, in spite of all the accolades and praise heaped on him by the Taurens, was full of doubt and concern. For starters, he had no idea how his companions had fared. Second, he was worried about the true nature and purpose of Mr. North and his excursion into the deepest parts of the Plane of Shadow. Perhaps the one thing that gnawed on him the most, though, even as he tried his best not to deal with it, was the fact that the dwarves had come to Myrial as a servant race to a world-spanning empire of minotaurs. Granted, the Taurens seemed to be much smarter and more civil than stock minotaurs, but it literally undermined his core beliefs. His ecclesiastical training had taught him that Moradin was the creator of the dwarves. Now the Taurens had given him reason to believe that the dwarves, at some point in far ancient history, may have latched on to the Taurens’ Moraein as a patron deity after becoming assimilated into their Empire.
While meditating on his many concerns, Rurik busied himself by reclaiming his armor and gear (what was left behind), and found enough serviceable tools in the ruins to start the daunting repair job. The Taurens continued to scour the ruins for anything of value or use. They would frequently stop by Rurik to ask questions about what he and his companions had found while exploring. Rurik claimed for himself and his church the bars of mithril and the remnants of holy text they had found. The Taurens could have anything else Kladish offered up as far as he was concerned.
Half a day later, the Taurens came across something that staggered Rurik: Two perfect, mirrored spheres in one of the upper levels. Rurik hurried to the spot in the ogres' lair and knew immediately that these were the same spheres as the one that Gils Dralon had used to trap Shadykin.
Rurik asked a couple Taurens fetch Rublar and Mila. When they arrived at the room, the senior cleric and wizard took in the stasis spheres in complete admiration. They poked and prodded the frictionless surface while Rurik recounted how he and his friends had traveled to the demi-plane of Time to cast Dispel Magic on the previous sphere.
Early the next day, Rublar, Mila, Rurik, and a handful of other Taurens Plane Shifted to the demi-plane of time to cancel out the stasis spheres. Rurik hoped his suspicions were correct and that his friends would be back in time for dinner.
One moment Zalman had been quietly fuming, head buried in a spell book, while Amblin had heard Mr. North casting a spell from the hallway nearby. The smallest fraction of a moment later, half a dozen well-groomed and well-armed minotaurs were standing in front of them.
Amblin spun around a couple times as his mind whirled. Zalman, sensing a change in the room, looked up with a bit of a start. The minotaurs did not appear to be threatening, but rather were looking at them expectantly.
"Uh, what happened?" Amblin said. "Who are you? Where'd everyone else go?"
The minotaurs looked at one another quizzically. One stepped forward and spoke in a heavily accented dwarven that only Zalman, courtesy of his magical crown, could understand with perfect clarity. "Are either of you Nigel, Amblin, Zalman, or Bommer?"
Responding in the minotaurs’ own language, Zalman said, "Who are you and why do you wish to know?"
"Father Rurik sent us to wait here by the reflecting globes," the minotaur. "He and several others had to travel somewhere in order to end the spell that made the globes. Father Rurik thought that some of his companions might be trapped within."
A couple minutes of questioning later, Zalman and Amblin had most of the story. It finally sank in that they'd been trapped in magical stasis bubbles. They got a rough version of the story of Rurik's resurrection and his subsequent rescuing of the Taurens from the dragon. They also told of the dragon's demise at the hands of a couple dozen well-prepared Taurens.
Rurik would be back soon, according to the Taurens. Bommer's body was still on the floor beside Amblin. That just left Nigel's whereabouts in question. The wide pool of dry blood on the floor between Zalman and Amblin didn't look reassuring.
The reunion between Rurik and Amblin and Zalman was not quite a celebratory affair. While they rejoiced at Rurik being alive, they had other concerns. Adding up the evidence, they were fairly sure that the Mage of Many Colors, Mr. North, was either Gils Dralon or someone closely associated with him. That worried them, even if the Taurens were convinced that he was likely trapped deep in the Plane of Shadow. Bommer was dead and Nigel missing. Zalman was also fuming at Hooty's absence...it wasn't the first time that his familiar was out of telepathic range when he was needed.
In gratitude for Rurik’s part in the rescue, the Taurens resurrected Bommer. They also assisted in scrying the location of Nigel, who they found in Lohna's care. Zalman and Amblin traveled there the next day and heard his part of the story - mostly the severing of his hand and theft of his belongings by the Shadow.
Nigel deemed himself fit enough for travel and returned to Kladish with the others the next day. Lohna's other guest, Amill, asked to tag along. He was interested in poking around the ruins. Nigel, in his days of bed rest, had found the psychic warrior’s company to be pleasant. Once at Kladish, the Tauren priests regenerated Nigel's lost hand, simultaneously improving his spirits and his determination for revenge.
While the others had been away at Lohna's, Rurik talked Mila into teleporting him to Mt. Goldforge where he recounted his tale and findings to the Church of Moradin. Rurik was hailed a hero, but like Rurik the Church hierarchy had reservations about some of the religious implications. Rurik negotiated an exchange of religious resources between the Taurens and the dwarves before returning to the ruins of Kladish.
Once again, the five Selmarian Seekers were together and healthy. Rurik's quest was complete and they had no pressing concerns. Amongst themselves, they spoke of what was to come next. Zalman was exhausted physically and emotionally, weary of nearly (or actually) dying every few days, and was ready to retire in Selmar. Nigel was bent upon revenge against the Shadow. Amblin was eager to travel south, to see the great cities along the coast and possibly to one day reach Tet Amir where his monastic order was purportedly based. Rurik felt age beyond his years, but was game for further travel. Bommer, after dying, had found that the adventurous lifestyle had lost a bit of luster...but he was one to quickly forget the rough spots in favor of future opportunity. Amill, the outsider, was just a guy with a sword looking for something to do and somewhere to go.
The Taurens finally wrapped up their looting of Kladish and prepared to depart. They gave Rurik and his companions a healthy amount of gold from Embertongue's hoard and then went about disabling the Adonix. While not completely destroyed, they promised that it would be almost impossible for Mr. North to ever try using that particular Adonix again. Farewells were said and once again Kladish was a quiet, lost ruins.
Back at Lohna's, enjoying her company and hospitality, the after-dinner conversation turned to making a decision on where the group’s future was headed. The debate focused heavily between tracking down the Shadow (which many considered unnecessarily dangerous, even if they did all want to see him dead) and just traveling south with no real goal in mind. Zalman was still on the brink of declaring retirement, but listened anyway.
After several hours of discussion, they decided to try to find the Shadow. If they couldn't track him down, they would then travel south. If they succeeded in finding and killing him, they would then decide from there what course to take next. Zalman had enough harbored hatred for the Shadow that he postponed retirement to see this adventure through.
"How do we go about finding the Shadow, then?" Nigel asked the group.
"We could try to find Kisty's sister in Water Break," Zalman suggested. "She's been known to hire him in the past." It went unspoken that Zalman had a personal vendetta against Misty Goodbread as well.
"Sounds dangerous," Rurik said. "She is the head of a thieves' guild, after all."
"Well," Amblin said. "We were spied on magically. Could we do the same to find the Shadow?"
"Scry him?" Zalman said. "I don't do divinations, but I'll bet you someone at the Thunder Guild can."
"Wouldn't mind trading and buying a few more magic items with them, while we're at it," Bommer said.
"So, to the Thunder Guild then?" Nigel said. Everyone agreed to the plan.
Amill looked around the table, and then chimed in. "Could you use an extra sword?"
Nigel looked at the others and then at the psychic warrior. "Would you hesitate to cut down a dark elf with that sword of yours?"
"No."
"Okay, you're in then."
Next session: The vendetta begins...and a creature on the road.
