[pfrpg] follow me into shadows

[fireinthedust]

The watches pass. Each sentry senses the woods moving, but only Jack and Renya note sounds like footsteps just out of sight. Nothing attempts to come near, though.

[sblock=Keepiru only!] Your dreams begin with mists, a grey-purple mist you're flying through. The mist conceals a great darkness, as if the mist were holding the shadowstuff inside of it. You feel yourself tossed and turned, but compelled to go through the shadows, that this is indeep important. When you pass through a large bank of it you find yourself without a body, looking at a blasted plane with a massive barrow mound sticking out of it. Crowning the barrow mound is a great huge rock, like a menhir, surrounded by many smaller rocks. The central rock is a tower of some sort, but you see no windows or doors. There is a fire deep inside the mound, one which you cannot see but can sense all the same, and it has a great power associated with it.
When you wake, your spells are renewed.[/sblock]

 

[fireinthedust]

The night passes, and the party wakes as the light comes. The forest is still cold, and despite the rest your bodies feel more cold lying down than you do when you've gotten moving.

The scholar groans and complains, but when breakfast is made he draws those of you nearby to him. He pulls out and unrolls a map, written on an oiled piece of leather about the size of a halfling, in green ink. The map is of the forest you are in, with lines and points with a strange script for the legend.

Alright, here is where we are, here. We need to get over to there, because this is where the item I've paid you all so much to get, is. This is a ruin, one built by an order of knights called the Knights of the Immortal Blades, who predated the defenders of Lastwall; a ruin called the Keep of Oublié. The knights used to keep watch over a dark creature called the Hundred Mouths, a magical beast created by their sworn enemy, some necromancer or other. Before they'd captured it, however, the Keep had been used to guard a treasure, and from what I've learned, it never left.
Now my gamble, and by extension yours, is that the treasure should still be there, past whatever wards the knights had put in place. The creature, if it did exist, would have died or escaped by now, simply because there are no more knights alive to guard it. If not... well, that would be why you brought weapons and spells, isn't it? And a good pair of boots, of course.
So: get in, get through, get the item, and get out with it. Easy peasy. He gives the trackers in the group a good look at the map (which, despite the slight age, is well drawn and should be easy enough to work from), before rolling it up and putting it away.

 

[grufflehead]

Renya rubs some life into her chilled limbs. Her breath shows in the morning air as she stretches her muscles ready for the day's activities. Once she has helped make breakfast, she sees to the mule, feeding it from the supplies in the wagon, before returning to hear the scholar's briefing. She looks at the map, trying to orient herself.

[sblock=Orientation]
OC - apparently anyone 'trained in Survival can automatically find North'. Handy. Renya will try Survival for navigating, and a Knowledge(Nature) to see what the weather might be doing today.

Survival - DC26
Knowledge(Nature) - DC9

1d20+12, 1d20+7=[14, 12], [2, 7]
[/sblock]

Confident that she recognises a couple of features on the map she points to where the party are currently, then nods to the wagon, and starts to trace a path along the contours until she gets to a location quite close to the destination. She points to a pack, and makes walking motions with her fingers, before tracing the final part of the route. She looks at the group for confirmation, or to see if anyone has another suggestion.

 

[rangerjohn]

Ragnor Drakechild

"Quite the brisk chill we have this morning,Ragnor says upon rising. He moves to make a pot of tea, "This should get us moving." Upon 'listining' to Renya, if needed he will translate. Turning to the Scholar, "Any more information on this beastie, in case he decided he liked the place, after the knights had left?"

 

[fireinthedust]

Nothing more than the name, and that none had ever killed it, whatever it was. The records are fairly ancient, even by my normal standards, so details are few. I can't imagine it would still be there, if only because no knights are left alive to imprison it. If it is, I think you'd better hurry in and out fast.

 

[SelcSilverhand]

The young man spends a fitful night tossing and turning in his bedroll by the fire. When the morning watch comes he rises drowsily and seems to have a hard time coming fully awake. He is glad at least that the cold night has driven away most of the smell of blood and offal from the dead wolves. He suspects that the remains have already been cannibalized by the rest of the ravenous pack.

As the others come awake and talk turns to their destination he manages to shake his lethargy. "You speak of a treasure, what is it? A golden statue? A giant carved gem? An enchanted dragons tooth?"

 

[fireinthedust]

Keepiru notes that the wolves' carcasses are still there. It's cold, though, so there's frost on their bodies. [sblock=Jack?] Unless Jack/half-Jack got to them. Who made breakfast, eh? Anyone enjoy wolf-bacon?[/sblock]

The scholar rolls up the map, though makes it clear to Renya that he can bring it out whenever she needs it.

Um, the treasure? I don't know the final form, but it is very important that I get it. Possibly it will be kept alone or heavily warded, a container of some sort. I must have it for the Pa... patron that I work for.[/sblock] he smiles, shrugs, then grunts and starts helping pack things up. So, enough talking, let's get a move on! Those wolves... I don't like the idea of then ambushing us on the way!

[sblock=Insight/sense motive DC 10] You sense that he's not interested in talking about the treasure itself.
[sblock=sense motive DC 20] he's lying about something, likely that he doesn't know what the treasure is. he obviously wants it really bad. [sblock=Sense Motive DC 25]He has something about the Patron as well, that he's hiding.[/sblock] [/sblock][/sblock]

 

[GlassEye]

Sindri has built up the fire for the morning cooking but hasn't cooked much. He's an abysmal cook and everyone knows it. He listens as the scholar and his companions chat but it doesn't really sink in and he definitely doesn't notice any evasion. He's rather too busy thinking about the sorts of treasure they might find.

Half-Jack, hunched over as if trying to make himself seem less conspicuous, moves about the edges of the camp trying to keep out of eveyone's way. He tries to make himself useful by performing those chores that the others don't find pleasant.

 

[rangerjohn]

Ragnor Drakechild

OOC: Insight, what insight insight 7http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2514172/

 

[ghostcat]

Rising a bit later that the other, Sir Angus stretches and yawns. He Decides that there is no time for his usual morning callisthenics and instead immediately dons his armor. Only when he is safely ensconced does he help himself to a cup of tea and joins the group looking over the map. Unfortunately, Sir Angus has not been this way before and so cannot help much with the route.