[PbP] Treasure Hunt - Emerald DMing

[Emerald]

Jarrad: Cid healed you 8 pts. of damage and you are now fully healed.



Cid: You go to sleep easily. In the middle of the night you have a dream:

You are standing in the antechamber where you went to sleep. The doors that lead into the temple open and there is a glowing light from within, in the distance you hear a bell tolling. You walk into the room and see a glowing statue of a goddess. The statue seems to have taken on the semblence of life. Before you stands a beautiful woman with long flowing hear the color of sea foam and eyes the color of the deepest ocean. She addresses you by name

CID, CID, CID

You move closer to her. You smell the crisp salt scent of the sea.

Mortal mad, why are you and your companions come to my temple?

You tell her everything, from your capture, to the appaling conditions on the ship, the wreck, the battle with the Orcs and Goblins and your decision to spend the night here.

You see about you the results of the raid of the Hak-kubra, the pirate orcs. The have defiled my sanctuary.

You see about you debris and broken furniture

When pirates came hither three generations ago, they slew the men of this island, but let my temple be - as is proper. Since then, my sanctuary has been subject to wind and storm, age and rot, but I was not offended, for that is nature's right - to beat down what men have raised.

But the acts of debasement you see about you have offended me. I choose to cleanse this island, all destroy all living upon it; a proper cleansing of the stain made by the Hak-kubra.

I see no reason for you to die for another's offense, however. So I will not cleanse this island this night, as I had planned, but will stay my hand another day, and lay waste to this place at nightfall tomorrow. If you are fled by then, I will adjudge you fit to survive, and the storm which will cleanse this place will do no harm to your craft.

It is a difficult test. I see you have not chosen your adventuresome paths willingly. So this aid will I give you: Seek your escape beneth the manor, the way there lies in my chapel within the manor, there are items of power there as well. Should you find an object of magical power, use it wisely, perhaps it will help you toward you goal.

The glow surrounding the woman slowly fades and with it goes all life. Finally, it is dark again and before you stands a stature.

You awake with a start.

 

[Creamsteak]

"Huh? What an unpleasant nightmare."

"Hey who's up? Who's on watch right now?"

Cid shouts out a bit to see who's around.

"Can I read that note you have, again, please?"

Cid seriously tries to put two and two together, he quotes a few lines from the note to himself.

Thinking to himself: Hurm... apparently this note inspired my sea-sickness to get worse. Condemnable salt water...

He turns to whomever was on watch and states,

"You know what, I think I had a premonition. It's context coincides with this letter, and expands on it. I suppose it's about half true, like most things. Maybe the note inspired the image, but I can't quite be sure. I think we need to get out of here as soon as everyone recovers."

Cid pauses, he looks discontented over everyone -then states, "You know what, I'm seriously crazy, I think. All that time at sea has caused my eyesight to go blury." -pause- "Ok, I'm going to look for some pen and paper, or some chalk."

Cid goes around the temple briefly for a pen and paper, or some chalk. He ponders to himself about making a map, but decides his artistic skills are lacking. He waits till everyone is completely rested, then gathers together the group.

"We have some decisions to make, and I'm afraid that Ra-Pelor is testing me." He thinks, "Without sounding too crazy... um... oh this is hard... well, I had a premonition that the storm noted in the orc's letter is going to become unbearable tonight. I'm not positive about their sleeping habits here, but back home I think I recal goblins and orcs prefering to attack at night. My premonition put us under the manor that we can see from this temple, deep underground. The note mentions treasure, and although I hate the idea of chasing after gold without good reason, the premonition made note of it as well. So, I think we should fulfill that which we can, by breaking into the manor at noon, avoiding the barracks, and trying to use the note to the best of our advantage to flank our enemies. When we get into the manor, there's going to be orkish guards, and as this manor is the seakings manor, it's probably easy to defend."

"So what do you guys think? I'm not an offensive minded person, but I figure that going in when the symbol of Pelor is at it's strongest is an important part of our strategy. If we avoid making too much noise, we can probably barricade ourselves inside, so long as my premonition of a basement proves true. I'm not one to follow false superstitions, and yes, I'm crazy, and yeah, I don't want to kill anyone, but I suppose we can do this with minimal harm at noon."

"Um, um... what do you say folks? I'll conjur up a portion of a lunch before the battle, and we will have to do this quickly, without raising any sorta alarm... oh I'm worried... really worried... this isn't going to be a good day is it?"

(Preparing: Create Water x3, Create Food x2, and Endure Elements as my domain spell)

 

[Emerald]

When you all wake up, you feel extremely rested, fully healed, and ... not the least bit hungry or thirsty.

[COLOR=royal blue] Cid: [/COLOR] You will be able to find some chalk in the piles of debris throughout the temple if you spend long enough looking. You will also realize once that the room directly through the door, looks exactly it did in the dream, except in reality the stature has been broken, an arm is missing, the nose is cracked, and it is covered in dirt and grime.

 

[Krug]

Jarrad looks at Cid. "Well do we have much choice? Let Pelor show the way even if he is not my God."

 

[Poto Knezer]

Reinert

"What do you think is under the manor, Cid? Did your god help you on that? Will it get us out of here? You're clearly in touch with the gods, so if you think that's the best plan, I'll go along. If we're going @noon, then maybe we can look around this temple a bit before we leave. Maybe they wouldn't mind if we took some stuff if it's all going to get blown away anyway."

 

[Creamsteak]

You will be able to find some chalk in the piles of debris throughout the temple if you spend long enough looking. You will also realize once that the room directly through the door, looks exactly it did in the dream, except in reality the stature has been broken, an arm is missing, the nose is cracked, and it is covered in dirt and grime.

Alright, then I use the chalk to write on some stone. I draw a map of the surrounding area, including all the locations that we can see and those mentioned in the note.

"Well do we have much choice? Let Pelor show the way even if he is not my God."

"That's the spirit!"

"What do you think is under the manor, Cid?Did your god help you on that?"

"Well, I'm just guessing, but I suppose that there's a route to the mainland underground. That's sorta what I suppose from my dream, as I was informed that there is a way to safety there."

"Will it get us out of here?

"I'm thinking yes. I'm also thinking that since the note describes it as the sea-kings manor, and orcs are fighting over it now, the sea-king they mentioned is dead. If the looting isn't done, as is noted in that letter, that means there's something protecting it. Maybe you agree with my deduction, maybe not, but I'm just going with logic here. I mean, I was schooled with a half orc who had been raised by his tribe, his father being a human who fell in love with an orc woman. They know how to loot, and fight, and protect each other. I figure, the orcs would have finished with the looting if it was as simple as tearing the place apart. Poor Griff, that's the half-orc's name, I don't know where he is now."

You're clearly in touch with the gods, so if you think that's the best plan, I'll go along. If we're going @noon, then maybe we can look around this temple a bit before we leave. Maybe they wouldn't mind if we took some stuff if it's all going to get blown away anyway."

"Yes, I'll definitely agree with you on that. If you don't mind me ruling on this, don't take anything we won't use. That means that I'd prefer it if you all leave anything valuable and useless, like any jewels or money or symbols, anything that we won't use -leave. Don't be greedy in the face of divinity, generous people are rewarded, greedy people are punished. The 'sun is for everyone' comes to mind."

 

[Poto Knezer]

Reinert

"Sounds good Cid." Reinert will look around this room & the next for anything useful, but will try not to touch anything, if he can help it. Are there more rooms after that? Or doors?

 

[Emerald]

When you go through the door that leads further into temple you enter a chamber:

This chamber is very large, and two stories in height. There is broken furniture all over the tiled floors - it looks like the remains of chairs, tables, and perhaps low couches, Most of the wood lookes aged, but you can see that the breaks are all fresh. Everthing has been smashed recently.

On the east wall, in the middle is a set of double doors closed. On the south wall is the set of double doors by which you entered the chamber. On the north wall, at the east corner, is a very small and inconspicous door. All the doors in the chamber are still hangings on their hinges.

The west wall is actually a flight of three shallow steps leading up to a line of pillars. Between the pillars, you can see that cloths or tapastries had been hung. They have now been torn down and you see what appears to be a stature of a woman in the adjoining chamber.

The walls of the hall of the goddess were once plastered smooth and painted with frescoes of the goddess in all her aspects. Now the paint is curling, the plaster is broken and peeling, and there are large cracks in the plaster - probably from the foundation of the temple settling over the years. Additionally, someone has taken a club to the walls here and there, evidenced by deep gouges and tears in the plaster, and places on the wall have been smeared with filth.

 

[Creamsteak]

"Hurry the inspection, friends. We soon will be required to set out! Noon I call! Noon!"

 

[Krug]

Jarrad tries to make out what the Goddess might be and what sphere of worship she had.

The north door? What say the rest of you?