[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems

[CanadienneBacon]

During the days that Maelicent works to butcher the spider carcasses, Lewit scours the city, familiarizing himself with the different factions of guilds, folk, politics, and districts within Teggest. About Arquesta, Lewit learns much: her favorite hideouts, where she frequents, how long she's been seen around Teggest, and the company she keeps. Lewit learns more of the city's politics and the competing noble houses, less regarding the city's long and storied history, and much about how the Guild system works within the city. Now and then Lewit also catches wind of information regarding the Old Keep, Citadel Teglund. The castle sits perched behind a high curtain wall, its outer battlements visible here and there between shops from the southern reaches of the city. Walking around the perimeter of the keep's outer wall one day, Lewit finds himself at once must have been the citadel's main gate. A high portcullis, wrapped in thick cords of chain, faces east near the guard headquarters. A thick bramble of thorny overgrown foliage shrouds any attempt to view the inside of the citadel's grounds, and despite overlarge locks on three of the lengths of chain right smack in front of the portcullis's exterior, it looks as though no one has attempted to key or pick the locks. To the contrary, the locks, while large, look to be well-maintained, if undisturbed.

[sblock]BRP2, I've asked you to e-mail me on three or four different occasions but haven't heard from you. If I don't hear from you by Tuesday morning (tomorrow), I'm going to drop you from this game. No hard feelings, but you're not posting enough and it's starting to affect the flow of things for the other players. I'd like to disseminate more info to Lewit via e-mail, but if you don't (or aren't able to) follow through on my request, it's not worth my time to bother to type up a bunch of stuff.[/sblock]

 

[Voadam]

Voadam thinks to himself "Scrolls, hopefully soon I'll be able to use such magics again. Patience, it is coming back, start with the basics and build from there. The blank spellbook is a good start, read magic, detect magic, those are old and familiar, it will come back. Charm person would be useful for interviewing prisoners. Ahh, it will come, work at it and give it time. Whatever scrolls she sent might help as well." Voadam heads off to rejoin his companions.

Once he finds them he says "Are any of you familiar with this fist and lightning bolt symbol? Do you know what courier service it represents? The lady Arquesta has procured us some magical aids for our quest."

 

[SlagMortar]

Brakkus comes back in, smiling from the small bits of progress Chop Liver is showing. He's determined that this Rod is the most important thing going on in Teggest and so he had best prepare himself and his beast for the travels that would surely be coming. He also made a circuit some of the more upscale taverns in the city, just to listen. He's not so smooth with words as to be able to convince people to talk without giving anything away himself. "What have we all found out in our rummaging?"

Are any of you familiar with this fist and lightning bolt symbol?

"Nope, I'm don't think I've seen that before."

The lady Arquesta has procured us some magical aids for our quest.

Brakkus's eyes light up, "Like what? A powerful weapon of bane to demon-kind? Oh, I know, a stout shield or suit of armor?"

 

[CanadienneBacon]

When asked about the scroll tube insignia, the barkeep downstairs says, "Fist clutching a lightening rod, that's Coulter's Carriers. Not but a few blocks from here, and reliable enough, though costly. You'd do better with Pollard's. They're just as quick and a third less coin."

 

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

Gamad

Magical aids you say … Let me see those
Gamad asks Voadam for the scrolls.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Lewit visits Maelicent the night of the second day to check on his progress with the spiders, then goes out foraging into the city during the small hours. Early in the morning on the third day, after his butchering is done and he's had a few hours of shuteye, Maelicent is shaken awake by a stumbling Lewit. Something wet drips onto the goblin's cheek, and when Maelicent moves to rub it off his face, he finds the wetness to be sticky blood. A dagger wet with blood drops to the straw on the floor and Lewit clasps at a blood-soaked wound at his side. "They're coming. Up by the keep." The human removes his hand to point vaguely north and when he does, he looses his balance and drops to the straw of the stable, unconscious.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Gamad grabs the tubes from Voadam, saying, "Magical aids you say … Let me see those." Inside the first tube is a coiled sheet of parchment that looks as if it's got four spells written on it. The second tube has one sheet of parchment with hree more spells. Voadam holds the parchment note from Arquesta.

[sblock=Gamad]Gamad didn't roll well enough on his Spellcraft check to be able to identify the scrolls using the skill. +8 to Spellcraft included, Gamad got a check result of 14. He can burn a read magic spell to read the scrolls, if he wants.[/sblock]

 

[Voadam]

"Scrolls." Voadam answers the grasping dwarf and the soon to be disappointed Brakkus. "Now then. Gamad and I have been stymied in our efforts to gain access to the dwarven temple, but other avenues of knowledge still remain to be pursued that may serve us. I have seen no sign of active agents of the Queen so I suggest we continue to try to gain more lore of the forces of Chaos and Law involved before searching out the Second portion of the rod. I intend to see if I can gain access to the library of the Halls of Madriel."

 

[Ambrus]

The Gudwulf warrior is lethargic when first stirred out of his rest. Once he regains his senses enough to feel threatened by the unexpected touch Maelicent draws his own hunting knife, still slick with demon blood, out from under the straw pile he'd been nesting in and rolls over; ready to fend off his looming attacker. Recognizing his quiet giant-kin companion and finally recognizing that he's being bled upon, the goblin slowly rises into a defensive crouch, still bleary eyed and confused by the human's cryptic warning.

When Lewit finally collapses Maelicent moves to ready a defense against the mysterious attackers he expects to enter the stables within the next few moments. Setting his hunting knife down the goblin quickly snatches up his longbow, sets its but into the instep of his left foot, bends it back over his thigh and slides the string into the notch at the weapon's opposite end. Drawing an arrow, the Gudwulf warrior silently sidles up to the front wall of the building to peek through a gap in the wall slats to quickly scan the rear alleyway of the Cockatrice, watching for signs of of Lewit's attackers.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Maelicent crouches down and peers out between the wooden slats of the stable. Several long moments tick by without so much as a thrush beckoning in the morning in the garden. After a full minute of caution, Maelicent neither sees nor hears anything of note other than the distant sounds he's come to expect from a city starting its day. When he returns his attention from watching the alley and the garden back to Lewit, he finds that the palor of death has glazed Lewit's vacant eyes.