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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 1700" data-attributes="member: 202">Keep of the Borderlands -part twenty-one (session 5)A horrible sight awaited the party back at the camp.  The two caravan guards had been slaughtered, their heads and limbs severed from their bodies.  They found the appendages far from the corpses.  Milo was both sickened and furious.He pushed his anger to the back and forced himself to think clearly.  They needed a new campground, which was obvious.  The guards were buried in shallow unmarked graves.  He was sad that more could not be done. Their new campsite was farther up the trail to the gorge, but not so close that the trees had become twisted and black.  They found a small clearing in the forest and began shedding gear.  Mazi needed time to finish her research and meditation before they could begin to identify the items they found.  She immediately went to work, pulling out her spell book and various components.  Milo took Brigit aside and started a conversation about her armor.  She expressed her interest in moving with a little less noise.  Milo showed her some of the secrets he learned in his own training, placement of feet, bits of cloth between plates to muffle the clinking metal, how to pack gear for a minimum of noise.  Brigit was a fast learner, she sneaked up on Jeremiah twice without him hearing a whisper of sound.  Milo was very impressed in his apt pupil.  Brigit mentioned his skill with the lock pick and trap disabling tools.  Milo enjoyed having a student and was glad to teach her the basics.  They used one of the chests they had found.  He would lock it, show her step by step how he used his picks to trip the tumblers, then let her try.  Her hands were amazingly dexterous considering her short fingers and stocky frame.  Milo gave her his backup set of lock picks as a gift when she showed that she was able to pick the lock without any of his help.  He was proud of his student.Disabling traps was much harder to teach, without any complex traps to demonstrate on.  He gave her some basic tips on finding and recognizing different traps.  As well as how to disable said traps.  He also tried to impress upon her the importance of success and the drawback of failure.  He didn't think she'd be able to dodge a sprung trap very well with her heavy armor, but he did know that if there was anyone of them that could take the punishment, it was she.Mazithra had finished her research by the time Milo was done teaching Brigit.  She waved them over excitedly and showed them her discoveries.  She had found much more about the dwarven waraxe than she thought her spell would reveal.  She told her three friends the following:Trollgrater   Description:  Trollgrater is a magic waraxe that inflicts double damage against trolls and other regenerating creatures and in addition, trolls are unable to regenerate limbs severed by Trollgrater.  Trollgrater's blade never dulls and always feels warm and pulsating (like a heartbeat) to the touch.History:  This was the battle-axe used by Mesmira Jericho during the Virago campaign against "Eve of the Poisoned Nails" and the Orcs of Tyr Bannon.  She lost it somewhere on the Astral plane after a brief encounter with minions of the Greater God, Za'adun.  During the Forgotten Isle invasion of Nuria, it was recorded that a great warrior wielded a powerful, magical battle-axe that fits the description of TrollgraterBrigit was in awe.  She vaguely remembered hearing about the Trollgrater when she was younger.  She picked up the axe reverently, with a wide-eyed look on her face.  "Thank ya, Mazi.  Ya don' know how much this means ta me.  This axe served me ancestors well, I'll do it justice by them, I will." She said to Mazi.  Mazi waited for a moment before picking up the staff.  She turned to Milo and told him in hushed tones that it was a powerful healing staff, with multiple magical spells embedded in it.  The staff could cast a great healing spell, it could cure disease, magical blindness or deafness, it could restore weakened minds, bodies, and will.  Mazi carefully handed the staff to Milo before she told him the word to activate the effects.  "Abercromby" she said.  Milo gave her a quizzical look before shrugging his shoulders and looking back down at the staff.  It was as though Mazi's spell had awakened some power within the staff and he could feel a peaceful emanation of power from it.  She warned him that there were eighteen more charges within the staff and to use them wisely.  Milo nodded gravely.The last item Mazi had before her was the rope that tied the orc's bag.  It turned out that the rope was almost sentient.  It would obey simple commands to attach itself to almost anything, releasing only after a command from its wielder.  It would tie knots in itself for climbing as well as hold an impressive load before giving out.  It was indeed a useful little item to have around.While Mazi studying and Milo was training Brigit, Jeremiah had been training himself as well.  He showed Brigit a new maneuver he discovered that could possibly allow him to cleave through not just one enemy, but multiple enemies in one attack.  Brigit was very impressed.  Jeremiah had been practicing in the magic suit of plate mail they had found in the minotaur's cavern.  Though the magic allowed him to move freely, Brigit could tell he was still somewhat clumsy in the hefty armor.  Before een they set up watch she instructed Jeremiah in some of the finer points of fighting in heavy armor.  Jer was a quick learner and was soon moving agilely about in the full plate.  He was considerably louder than Brigit, but he would be much harder to wound.They set up watch, paranoid of midnight visitors after the attack from the dire bat the night before.  None of them slept too soundly, but they were refreshed enough the next morning.  Milo and his friends journeyed back to the gorge and its cursed caverns.  They decided to skip the next cavern down the row.  It was set high up along the gorge, straight back from the entrance.  They figured that the robed man probably entered that cavern during the lightning bolt attack from a few nights ago.  They chose instead to enter the cave set lower and farther over from the entrance in question.Once again, Milo led their way into the darkness.  His hooded lantern shedding light into the rough cavern tunnels.</blockquote>

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