[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems
- Thread starter CanadienneBacon
- Start date
SlagMortar
First Post
Brakkus checks on Chop Liver and readies him for the road while Voadam is away purchasing his backpack. Then he heads up to Gamad's room.
CanadienneBacon
Explorer
Gamad holds the matte black metal tip of the Rod and, closing his eyes, calls forth the will to summon where the next piece lies. As Gamad concentrates, the others see the air surrounding the black segment waver with heat.
[sblock=Gamad]The next segment is in the city, underground somewhere to the northeast. The sensation of direction continues as long as Gamad holds the segment and concentrates. If Gamad turns to face a different direction while concentrating, the sense of where the next segment is remains unerring. Gamad has a mental flash of mushrooms and then he grows very hot, as if stumbling naked in a desert with the fierce sun beating down on him, scorching his skin.[/sblock]
[sblock=Gamad]The next segment is in the city, underground somewhere to the northeast. The sensation of direction continues as long as Gamad holds the segment and concentrates. If Gamad turns to face a different direction while concentrating, the sense of where the next segment is remains unerring. Gamad has a mental flash of mushrooms and then he grows very hot, as if stumbling naked in a desert with the fierce sun beating down on him, scorching his skin.[/sblock]
Strahd_Von_Zarovich
First Post
Gamad
Bah!
Gamad drops the wand on the floor.
I feel like in a dwarven furnace.
He turns around to the window and points to the north east.
We must hurry, it is in the city, somewhere underground … mushrooms, I saw mushrooms, perhaps a cave …
He wraps the wand with a pillowcase and tuck it in his pack.
Let us move, my donkey is ready, we must not stay here.
Bah!
Gamad drops the wand on the floor.
I feel like in a dwarven furnace.
He turns around to the window and points to the north east.
We must hurry, it is in the city, somewhere underground … mushrooms, I saw mushrooms, perhaps a cave …
He wraps the wand with a pillowcase and tuck it in his pack.
Let us move, my donkey is ready, we must not stay here.
CanadienneBacon
Explorer
At Gamad's suggestion, the companions quit the Sniffing Pig and begin their trek north through the city. Brakkus, atop Chop Liver, leads the way toward Citadel Teglund's nearly 50-foot-high old stone curtain wall. A relic of the city that harkens back to ancient times and has long stood abandoned and unused, the Citadel's upper bailey can be seen from nearly any location inside Teggest's outer city walls.
The party first treks north through the Guild District, an area of the city notoriously well-guarded by the River Lord's Guard, even at night. As is by now well known to the party members, days in the southern reaches of the Guild District closer to the Rivermark are a jumble of wagons, crates, and all manner of folk busy with commerce. Walking along Overtegyrn Byway north, to the west of the Citadel's curtain wall, the companions attract little attention even with Maelicent swelling their ranks. The Guild District houses all manner of Teggest's guild houses, both grand and insubstantial. Located twixt the Plaza of Gold where the city's wealthiest members parade in a perpetual day and night showcase of their finery, and the Old Wall of Citadel Teglund, the Guild District is nearly the heart of the city, full of bustle at all hours.
From Nickleby Bar at the southernmost section of the city's outer protective wall, Overtegyrn Byway leads directly to and past both the Guild District and the western border of the Plaza of Gold. An open space diamond in shape, the Plaza is bordered on all four sides by grass (a rarity in cramped Teggest), small fruit-bearing trees, benches, and minute suites of table and chairs. The square itself is inlaid with red brick paving stone imported from Daroln. A font in the center of the Plaza sprays water from a statue of Michel Edain, the founder of ancient Edaesmyd. The stomping ground of Teggest's nobility and of those associated with the finer pursuits of life (music, art, epicurean delights, theatre, shopping, and the like), the Plaza of Gold is the place in Teggest to see and to be seen.
The ancient throne of Michel Edaesmyd now long since abandoned, Citadel Teglund is a massive stone castle, only its upper bailey visible from the streets of Teggest. While the lower bailey is below eyesight, at least to the layperson, rumor has it that a forest has overgrown the grounds twixt the castle's curtain wall and the old palisade surrounding the lower bailey. The Citadel rests upon a natural motte and has resisted sinking into the earth due to the striated rock beneath the structure's foundation; the rock of the motte is visible from the castle's front gatekeep and barbicans on the east side of the city. The curtain wall itself is a masterpiece of fortified defense. Easily as tall as the nearby rafters of the Temple of Stone, the citadel's outer wall is made of granite blocks, each the size of a small wagon. A series of watch towers connects each segment of the outer bailey wall, with room atop for armed soldiers to defend the keep not only through arrow slits, but also an overhanging merlon which itself is latticed with murder holes and machiolations. Additional curtain wall defenses include a series of brattices and hoardings, all meant to keep invading armies from sapping the wall or otherwise undermine the wall's integrity.
Odd that the folk of the city so little discuss that which looms so large through nearly every window of every residence and shop. The few who now speak of the citadel do so under their breath and mutter of haunted things that waft and wander at night through not only the empty halls of the keep, but also the forest beyond. The Old City Forest, as Maelicent has heard rumor, is home to any number of interesting creatures, natural and unnatural.
The party walks all the way around the western and northern perimeter of the curtain wall. The walk is a long one and the sun mounts high in the sky ere the group reaches the old keep's main gate on the curtain wall's far eastern side. Rings of thick chain lay in a jumbled tumult of a heap to the side of the the keep's broken iron portcullis. A large crowd has gathered in front of the gate, and a series of pikemen garbed in the official yellow, blue, and white of the Admiralty ring the broken gate in ranks two deep. A wagon painted black with a team of two draft horses is parked to the side of the gate, opposite the mounds of chain. Despite the heat of the day and the angry cries of the thick crowd of onlookers, four black-cassocked priests steadily work to load bodies onto the back of the wagon. From the look of things, there are three bodies already on the wagon, and eleven more lying littering the street. The pikemen face the broken gate and watch nervously over their shoulder, as if worried that the crowd behind them will grow unruly. The guards seem more interested in keeping something inside the keep than in preventing anyone from entering. The bodies being loaded onto the black wagon have all been mutilated and, from their dress, are city folk. Merchants lie dead next to fishwives, with the occasional child tossed as a lifeless rag into the mix. Of the fourteen dead, but two are guardsmen, and both of them are missing heads.
Time: 11 am.
The party first treks north through the Guild District, an area of the city notoriously well-guarded by the River Lord's Guard, even at night. As is by now well known to the party members, days in the southern reaches of the Guild District closer to the Rivermark are a jumble of wagons, crates, and all manner of folk busy with commerce. Walking along Overtegyrn Byway north, to the west of the Citadel's curtain wall, the companions attract little attention even with Maelicent swelling their ranks. The Guild District houses all manner of Teggest's guild houses, both grand and insubstantial. Located twixt the Plaza of Gold where the city's wealthiest members parade in a perpetual day and night showcase of their finery, and the Old Wall of Citadel Teglund, the Guild District is nearly the heart of the city, full of bustle at all hours.
From Nickleby Bar at the southernmost section of the city's outer protective wall, Overtegyrn Byway leads directly to and past both the Guild District and the western border of the Plaza of Gold. An open space diamond in shape, the Plaza is bordered on all four sides by grass (a rarity in cramped Teggest), small fruit-bearing trees, benches, and minute suites of table and chairs. The square itself is inlaid with red brick paving stone imported from Daroln. A font in the center of the Plaza sprays water from a statue of Michel Edain, the founder of ancient Edaesmyd. The stomping ground of Teggest's nobility and of those associated with the finer pursuits of life (music, art, epicurean delights, theatre, shopping, and the like), the Plaza of Gold is the place in Teggest to see and to be seen.
The ancient throne of Michel Edaesmyd now long since abandoned, Citadel Teglund is a massive stone castle, only its upper bailey visible from the streets of Teggest. While the lower bailey is below eyesight, at least to the layperson, rumor has it that a forest has overgrown the grounds twixt the castle's curtain wall and the old palisade surrounding the lower bailey. The Citadel rests upon a natural motte and has resisted sinking into the earth due to the striated rock beneath the structure's foundation; the rock of the motte is visible from the castle's front gatekeep and barbicans on the east side of the city. The curtain wall itself is a masterpiece of fortified defense. Easily as tall as the nearby rafters of the Temple of Stone, the citadel's outer wall is made of granite blocks, each the size of a small wagon. A series of watch towers connects each segment of the outer bailey wall, with room atop for armed soldiers to defend the keep not only through arrow slits, but also an overhanging merlon which itself is latticed with murder holes and machiolations. Additional curtain wall defenses include a series of brattices and hoardings, all meant to keep invading armies from sapping the wall or otherwise undermine the wall's integrity.
Odd that the folk of the city so little discuss that which looms so large through nearly every window of every residence and shop. The few who now speak of the citadel do so under their breath and mutter of haunted things that waft and wander at night through not only the empty halls of the keep, but also the forest beyond. The Old City Forest, as Maelicent has heard rumor, is home to any number of interesting creatures, natural and unnatural.
The party walks all the way around the western and northern perimeter of the curtain wall. The walk is a long one and the sun mounts high in the sky ere the group reaches the old keep's main gate on the curtain wall's far eastern side. Rings of thick chain lay in a jumbled tumult of a heap to the side of the the keep's broken iron portcullis. A large crowd has gathered in front of the gate, and a series of pikemen garbed in the official yellow, blue, and white of the Admiralty ring the broken gate in ranks two deep. A wagon painted black with a team of two draft horses is parked to the side of the gate, opposite the mounds of chain. Despite the heat of the day and the angry cries of the thick crowd of onlookers, four black-cassocked priests steadily work to load bodies onto the back of the wagon. From the look of things, there are three bodies already on the wagon, and eleven more lying littering the street. The pikemen face the broken gate and watch nervously over their shoulder, as if worried that the crowd behind them will grow unruly. The guards seem more interested in keeping something inside the keep than in preventing anyone from entering. The bodies being loaded onto the black wagon have all been mutilated and, from their dress, are city folk. Merchants lie dead next to fishwives, with the occasional child tossed as a lifeless rag into the mix. Of the fourteen dead, but two are guardsmen, and both of them are missing heads.
Time: 11 am.
CanadienneBacon
Explorer
The man shrugs and says, "Dunno. Just got here a few minutes ago. Them guards're actin' funny. Why're they facin' the gate, and not the crowd?" A woman carrying a basket of vegetables leans across the man and says, "Been here 'bout an hour now. I heard one of the priests say that these twelve just up and turned on one another, but if you're asking me, that don't explain why them two," and the woman points at the dead guards, "are missing their heads. Can't no mortal do that with their bare hands."
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