Cerebral Paladin's Storyhour (updated 4/22)

[thatdarncat]

Session 4 (cont'd)

Lhovrik sees Ginara's boots projecting from the bottom of her dressing gown and frowns. "You went to the brothel, didn't you?" The disapproval in his voice is palpable.

After a second of trying to seem tired, Ginara perks up. "Yup! It was very educational," she says with glee.

"Could you possibly have said anything worse?"

"I'm sure I could. Would you like me to try?"

Hehe so funny

*gets some pots and pans out of his tent and cooks himself some dinner* Looks like I'll be camping out here a while

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Session 5:

2/16/752

Early the next morning, Dove's captain approaches her. She snaps to attention and he waves for her to relax. "I hope that you have your kit ready for that mission I mentioned."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. We're waiting for the arrival of a ship. It should come in tomorrow late afternoon. Make sure you're ready."

"Yes, sir. I'm ready, sir."

The captain smiles. "Carry on."

Meanwhile, Lhovrik goes to speak with Lady Karina cath Kalissar. "Good morning, Mother."

"Good morning, Lhovrik. I would really appreciate it if you would come home when you say you're going to. I was worried."

"I'm sorry, Mother. We were hoping to see something that would confirm where Balthrin is."

"Were you able to?"

"No. We think he's on a ship, the Lurdana's Luck. But we weren't able to check." Lhovrik thinks for a moment. "Could you do some sort of divination to confirm it? If we knew for sure that he was on that ship, we could rescue him."

Lady cath Kalissar pauses. "If I can get relatively close to the ship, I could attempt to detect Balthrin. Since I know him, that will confirm whether he's on the ship, barring misdirection magic or lead shielding or the like."

"That would be wonderful. I'm very concerned about Balthrin."

"Give me a few minutes to study."

While Lady cath Kalissar pores over a spellbook, Lhovrik and Ginara get ready for a trip to the docks. After a few minutes, their mother puts aside the spellbook. "Are you ready to go?"

Ginara looks at her mother's expensive robes and jewelry. "Ummm... I think that it might be difficult for us to do this discreetly if you wear your normal clothes."

Lady cath Kalissar simply reaches into a small pouch at her belt. She slips on the ring inside and disappears. "I think this will be just fine. Make sure you leave the door open long enough for me to make it out of the house."

Both Lhovrik and Ginara startle. Ginara then starts to smile.

"Don't get any ideas, Ginara," Lady cath Kalissar gently admonishes.

The family heads to the Docks. When they approach the Lurdana's Luck, Lhovrik says, ostensibly to his sister, "That's the ship we think he might be on."

Their mother says quietly, "It would be useful if you could talk moderately loudly, to cover the sound of the spellcasting."

Ginara and Lhovrik proceed to talk about anything and nothing, while their mother quietly chants. After a few seconds, she speaks again. "He's not on the ship. Just a moment while I check the nearby buildings. No, he's neither on board nor near by."

Lhovrik frowns. "I hope he isn't dead. We'll have to try to find other ways of locating him. Thank you for your help."

The cath Kalissars return home. Ginara and Lhovrik both spend the rest of the day training. In the early evening, they meet up with Melania and Dove. After a little discussion, they decide that they should see whether Melania can get Aral away from Malin and press him a little for information.

 

[Yoji-san]

Dead bodies and seaweed! Yum!

I agree with Mr. Cat about the funny, and I like watching the character development. Lhovrik's familiar hasn't been up to much lately, has she? I like her.

Yay everybody! More story please! And maybe a bunny?

 

[thatdarncat]

pulls out a stick and pokes his fire, then gets a coffee pot from his tent and starts boiling water for his morning coffee

Hmmmm

no updates...

 

[anonystu]

I think there will be updates coming soon, and I'm starting to get free enough to continue writing Lhovrik's diary, which I'll just post on here sometime this week.

More cat abuse is imminent!

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Sorry for the update delay... I've been ridiculously busy at work. (Longest...decision...ever....)

Session 5 (cont'd):

Melania heads to the tavern where they met Aral the previous night, hoping that he'll be there again. She's in luck. Aral is at the same corner table, with a group of shipmates. Melania strolls over, while Ginara lurks at a comfortable distance to keep an eye on things. Dove and Lhovrik wait somewhat further away, so Ginara can get them in case of trouble.

"Mind if I join you, Aral?"

"Melania! It's so nice to see you again." Aral quickly motions for one of the sailors next to him to give up his chair so she can sit next to him.

Melania slides in next to him, flashing him a winning smile as she does so. They chat briefly, making smalltalk. After a few minutes, Melania smiles at Aral. "Know a good place where we could get a dinner around here?"

Aral quickly seizes on the opportunity to get a chance to spend some time with Melania without the other sailors around. "Sure, I know a place that makes great roasted fish. Let's go."

Melania and Aral walk along the pier, with Ginara secretly trailing them. They walk close to each other, but without touching, much to Ginara's relief.

"So I bet you've been to lots of interesting places, Aral. Have you ever sailed to the Southern Colonies?"

"No, my ship sticks to the coast. But I've been from one end of the empire to the other, and even to some of the places beyond the empire." Aral begins to tell some very tall tales about the things he's seen and the places he's been. Melania, with her wide knowledge of stories and lore, can tell that some of the stories are simply false, some are inaccurate, and a few, such as the stories about centaurs in the far west of the Empire, probably describe things Aral has actually seen.

"Oh, that sounds really exciting!" Melania gushes, still warming Aral up. She smiles saucily. "I hear that centaurs are hung like horses."

The conversation takes a turn for the bawdy, as Aral shares some sailors' stories.

After a few minutes, "What sort of cargo do you carry? Do you carry special things?"

"Sometimes. We carry all sorts of things really. A lot of foodstuffs and cloths, but we sometimes carry artwork, or special things as well."

"Do you ever carry slaves?"

Aral looks a little surprised. "No, no. You pretty much have to have a special ship for carrying slaves. The trouble is, it's tough to keep slaves alive, and since you can't let the slaves die, it's a problem. Most of the big slave ships are in the South, among the lands that don't care if slaves die." The Empire's form of slavery is significantly more restricted than the chattel slavery practiced in some other lands. "Carrying slaves is even worse than carrying livestock, and let me tell you, once a ship's carried livestock, you wouldn't want anything else in the hold." Aral waves a hand in front of his nose suggestively. "Sometimes we'll have a passenger on board, and sometimes they'll bring slaves. But that's not really cargo."

"Are your trips ever dangerous?"

"Sure, but nothing we can't handle. There are some pirates sometimes, but we just fight 'em off. And sometimes there will be rough storms. But we say our prayers and make our offerings, and the storms aren't too bad."

"Offerings? To Lurdana?"

"No. Only the captain and the owners worship Lurdana. She's a god for the rich. We ask Vergdun for mercy in His storms. But He sends His storms when we're not at sea, because we make the right sacrifices."

"Sacrifices? You mean like goats or sheep?"

"Mostly..." Aral and Melania discuss the sacrifices for a while longer. Melania seems very impressed with how rough and dangerous Aral is, and Aral tries to impress her. He ultimately says that there is a priest who tells them when a sacrifice needs to be made, and that they brought the priest a person who no one would miss. Bingo.

They have been talking for quite some time and walking closer to each other. Aral turns towards Melania. "Is there anywhere we could go?"

Melania thinks for a second. "Sure, my place is this way."

Ginara, who has been shadowing the pair, watches as they head towards the boarding house which she knows is Melania's home. "No...don't...let him just be walking her home..." she mutters to herself as she watches them walk towards the building. But she is bitterly disappointed as they walk inside.

Ginara doubles-back to meet up with Lhovrik. "Let's go home."

"Where's Melania?"

"In her apartment. With the sailor."

Even with Lhovrik's not-so-keen social perception, he can tell Ginara is very unhappy. "You seem upset. I'm not really sure why, but do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine!"

"Look, I'm not really thrilled by the choices Melania is making, either, but you seem more upset by it."

"I said I'm fine, Lhovrik." Ginara's voice belies her words. "Let's just get home. We can talk to Melania in the morning." When they reach their home, Ginara stomps up to her room and slams the door.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Session 5 (cont'd):

2/17/752

Midmorning, Ginara, Lhovrik, and Dove bang on the door to Melania's room in the boarding house. A somewhat bedraggled Melania answers the door after a little while. "Oh. It's you. Come on in." Melania quickly tells the rest of the group about what she found out from Aral.

"Do you know how to find the priest that he mentioned? He must know where the prisoners are kept." Lhovrik is unusually intense as he contemplates the chance to actually rescue his friend.

"Aral didn't say."

"We'll just have to seize him and interrogate him. I'm sure you can get him back here?" Lhovrik asks with disapproval.

"I'm sure I could, but I'm not really thrilled about attacking him here..."

"We don't have a choice! Balthrin could be murdered before we have a chance to rescue him. I have a spell that will probably put him to sleep."

"And if the spell doesn't work, I can hit him in the back of the head with my sap!" Ginara adds, with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm.

"Alright... I don't really like it, but I guess you're right about needing to find Balthrin."

They agree that Melania will try to find Aral in the early evening. In the meantime, Dove goes to the harbormaster's office, where she verifies that the Lurdana's Luck is not scheduled to leave for another several days. If Balthrin's still alive, he's likely got at least that long before they might want another sacrifice.

Dove returns to her barracks, to give her equipment a last review. Her captain walks up. "The ship we're meeting missed the tide. We'll be meeting it before dawn tomorrow. You should be ready two hours before dawn." Dove assures him she'll be ready.

In the early evening, Dove, Lhovrik, and Ginara take up a position near Melania's boarding house. The three are mostly hidden, but casually so, by the stoop to a nearby building.

Melania is pleased to find Aral at the same tavern as on previous nights. She strides up to him and, wasting no time, asks him if he's interested in coming with her. Aral happily jumps up from the table, and the two leave, admits some catcalls and joking from Aral's friends.

The two walked back to Melania's place quickly. As they passed her friends, Aral looked over at Melania. "Isn't that the girl who played cards with us?"

Melania just keeps on walking. "Yeah. But that's not important right now."

Ginara just tightens her grip on her sap as Melania ignores her.

As Melania leads Aral into her room, the rest of the group follows quietly. Melania leaves the door unlatched. Less than a minute after Aral and Melania enter the room, the rest of the group throws the door open. Lhovrik casts a quick spell, and Aral collapses asleep.

When Aral awakens, he's tied to a chair. Lhovrik is waving a rapier menacingly in front of him, while Ginara glares at him and Dove looms. Melania is sitting on her bed, looking uncomfortable.

Lhovrik's interrogation is direct and straightforward. "We know you've been kidnapping people. Where are the prisoners being kept?"

Aral looks at Melania in hurt confusion, then answers, "I don't know. We just brought them to Strath, the priest. I don't know where he takes them."

"Where do you meet the priest?"

Aral hesitates for a moment and Ginara says, "Can I hit him now?"

Aral gulps and says, "He sometimes leads prayers and things in a warehouse." He gives the group directions to the warehouse.

Lhovrik turns to the rest of the group. "The priest must have a hide-out in the warehouse. We'd better go, to make sure that we rescue Balthrin while he's still alive. You can sap him now, Ginara."

Ginara slams her sap into the back of Aral's head, with perhaps a tad more force than was really needed. He slumps unconscious in the chair. Melania winces a little, but there's little that can be done.

The group heads to the warehouse. It's getting into evening and the warehouse seems empty. Ginara easily picks the lock on the back door.

The warehouse is filled with boxes and barrels. The group quickly notices a clear area, which must be what the priest uses as a chapel. They quickly begin searching the area around the clearing. After a few minutes, Ginara finds a concealed trapdoor in the wooden floor.

The group throws open the trapdoor, and quickly starts shimmying down the ladder. They made enough noise coming in that some of the Vergdunians are ready for them. Three humans wait for them at the bottom of the ladder. Two are dressed in light armor and armed with swords, while the third is dressed in heavier armor, wears a holy symbol of Vergdun the Storm Lord, and has a heavy mace at his side. The swordsmen wound some of our heroes as they climb down, but not badly. Dove slams her swords into one of the swordsmen, leaving him in a heap on the ground. The priest responds with a chant that causes her muscles to freeze up. But even with his magic, the Vergdunians are no match for our heroes. Melania distracts the second swordsman, allowing Ginara's attack to skewer him easily, while the priest is quickly reduced to unconsciousness.

Figuring that Dove will regain the ability to move soon enough, the rest of the group hurries deeper into the hide-out, hoping to find Balthrin. Shortly after the other three leave the room, Dove watches in frustration as the guard she downed, badly wounded but not in fact dead, slowly pulls himself to his feet. Carefully and slowly, trying not to strain his wounds, he pulls himself up the ladder while Dove seethes.

Meanwhile, Ginara picks the locks on the remaining doors in the hide-out. Two rooms appear to be cells. One is empty, but the other holds Balthrin and another prisoner. Balthrin is overjoyed to be freed, but tells the group that there were several people in the cell across the hall when he was captured.

When Dove finally regains the ability to move, she hurries up after the swordsman, hoping to track him. Though she can follow the trail of blood out of the warehouse, she quickly loses it outside.

The group sends a messenger to summon Inquisitors to both the warehouse and Melania's place and waits for help to arrive.

End of Session 5

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Long time no update. . . I hope you haven't stopped writing; I've been rather enjoying this story hour.

Anyway. . . bump.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

I'm still definitely writing. I've just been having a busy time recently. With luck, I'll get the next post up sometime around Monday (without luck, it might be the middle of next week).

Thanks for your interest!

 

[thatdarncat]

looks up from his campfire

yay updates

hey Elder-Basilisk, want some breakfast?