Rootbeergnome's ARCANA UNEARTHED STORYHOUR!!!
- Thread starter rootbeergnome
- Start date
rootbeergnome
First Post
Alright Berandor, Im gonna try to update this thing once every lunar eclipse or something, just for you. Life is busy and hectic, in fact I havent even gotten to run a session in about 3 weeks, maybe more 
But I tell you what, Ill get to work finishing the rest of what has happened thus far. Might take a while for me to update, but I will try 
Thank you for the appreciation, it was dead until I read your posts
Sincerely,
Mike
But I tell you what, Ill get to work finishing the rest of what has happened thus far. Might take a while for me to update, but I will try Thank you for the appreciation, it was dead until I read your posts
Sincerely,
Mike
rootbeergnome
First Post
ah yes, a hearty thanks to lela as well. Sorry about that, "Bloody favoritism that is!" Hehe, well I am about to finish typing up the third session. I hope to have it posted by tonight or tomorrow.
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rootbeergnome
First Post
2 weeks have passed. Our intrepid students have been called into town to investigate another murder. They have been told the body bears the same strange wounds as the others, with burn marks around the cuts.
The students are coming through the market of RiverBend, on their way to meet with Captain Coby, the captain of the city guard. There are booths crammed together everywhere offering their wares. Fisherman yell about their catch of the day, woodcarvers show off their furniture, fletchers let customers test the bend of their bows. The market is full of people, all bumping past and against each other like fish caught in a net. Performers juggle, tumble and dance while fire-breathers shoot gouts of flame into the air. The air smells of fish and the sea coming from Sandman’s bay. The party makes their way past a line of women and children carrying water from the well when a bright red snake swoops out of the sky and hovers in place before them. The snake is about two feet long, and it’s bright red wings beat impossibly fast, making a humming noise. The party is dumbfounded, watching the snake hover around in front of them, licking the air, they can see a small scroll tube strapped to the snake, with the words “open me” on it.
“Well, is anyone going to grab it and see what it is?” Nerius looks at the others, who are all giving him a look of caution. Nerius reaches out and takes the tube, the snake hums away into the distant sky and disappears over the rooftops.
The party all exchange worried looks while Nerius opens the scroll tube. Inside the tube is a rolled piece of parchment and a glittering orange crystal the size of a thumb with a rough surface. The crystal pulses with light. “It’s warm, I wonder what it is?”
“What doesss the paper sssay?” Sesseress peeks over Nerius shoulder trying to read the parchment as the party crowds around, Nerius reads aloud, “Would you like to play a little game? The little crystal you are holding is actually a Sorcerous Fire Blast spell, frozen in time the instant before it detonates. Unfortunately, the stasis field around it degrades over time—until it explodes! There are seven others just like it planted around the city, set to explode in exactly 3 hours. I assure you that if even one of them is allowed detonate, the lives lost will be staggering. On the back side of this letter are seven clues to the locations of the crystals. If you are clever, you might be able to find them. If you aren’t, I win this game. Take one last look ate the little crystal. Do you feel how warm it is? That’s a sign that the stasis field around it is about to expire. If I were you, I would get rid of it as quickly as possible.”
Nerius finishes reading aloud the note to the rest of the party. As soon as he finishes, Sadune bursts into action. The huge man rushes forward, taking the crystal from Nerius. It is growing warmer, almost hot, and he is looking for a place to take the crystal even as his friends begin to yell for him to get rid of it. He looks around frantically, there are crowds of people as far as he can see, he is determined to not break his oath, Nerius must be safe, and these people will not die today even if it means his own life. He hears the distant noise of the ocean-SANDMAN’S BAY!-if he can only reach it in time.
“MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY! STAND ASIDE!” Sadune yells as he pushes past the throng of people surging through the city streets. He feels as if he is fighting a tide of people, pushing and running, trying to make it to the bay as the crystal flickers and begins to burn his hand.
Behind the party watch as Sadune disappears into the crowd. “Sadune NO!” Nerius tries in vain to reach him, but the crowd is too thick. They push their way through the masses trying to see what has become of their friend when---“BOOOOOOM!!!” An enormous explosion shakes the entire market, people begin running frantically and screaming, nearly trampling each other in a mad rush to leave the area. “Is he….?” The party waits, assuming the worst, but pushing toward them, through the crowd, comes a tall dark man. Sadune is soaking wet, and has bits of wood sticking to his body. He smiles. “I threw it into the bay, it blew up an abandoned old fishing boat.” Sadune, still smiling begins to dust off the wood splinters.
“What is going on here? You there!” Captain Coby and his guards have pushed through the crowd and point out the party. “It is about time!” Korigahn yells. The guards near the party looking serious. Nerius speaks “Captain, it is good you are here. Someone has just tried to blow up the market. We just received this message with a small crystal that exploded. There are seven others around the city.”
Captain Coby looks a bit overwhelmed “This is terrible, I have no idea how we can find the others in time. My commanding officer is on leave to the north, we are short handed as well.” Coby looks defeated, then as if remembering something he looks up “You, you are students of Marquette’s are you not? Aren’t you well trained to help in times of need? I remember when the floods came that students helped then. Would you please help us now?” The party looks a bit reluctant, but a sense of duty comes over them. In the distance can be heard a man lamenting “What happened to my boat?”
“Captain, there are clues on the back of this note, they appear to describe areas around the city, have you a map?” asks Nerius. Coby asks some men to bring a map, and in a short time they return as the party and the captain are going over the clues…
1. Man strives to bend metal to his will and continues to forge still.
2. Search beneath the Mayor’s throne.
3. An imposter alight In the skies at night. Tho’ that be a lie, ‘Tis not really the sky!”
4. Held firmly in the high hand of justice.
5. Underwater, above the sea, Fed by rock and rain. Behind a wall of earth and stone, To keep it all contained.
6. The Wanton Wench at dockside, Her arms are open wide. Beneath her bales of golden hair, her hidden charms reside.
7. Middle of town, look around. What’s to be found? Seek a reflection, Providing direction, To minute confection. Under the flor, Under the floor, Behind the square door.
The party obtains a map brought by one of the guardsmen. They look it over thoroughly, and Coby begins pointing out various places of the city, marking them down. “Clearly the first clue has something to do with a blacksmith of some kind.” Korigahn says. “Yes I think you are right, Coby where are all the blacksmiths in town?” Nerius asks the captain.
The captain’s voice seems to come right out from under his handle-bar mustache as it wiggles when he speaks “Well, there are five smiths, at smith’s corner there are four giantish smiths. And one blacksmith named Joe, he runs Old Joe’s Smithy. I don’t think we have time to search all five, if we only have three hours, and I certainly don’t have enough men to evacuate them all in time.”
“We don’t have to, captain, is Old Joe a man? Sibbeccai? What is his heritage?” Sadune asks.
“He is a man, an excellent smith too, he made most of our weaponry for the guard.”
“I see where you are going, it makes sense. The clue says Man struggles to bend metal.” Nerius smiles at Sadune, who is trying to look modest.
The party rushes across town through crowds of people, the townsfolk are asking captain Coby a lot of questions and he answers them repeatedly with “The situation is under control, be about your business please” They reach the smithy and quickly enter beneath the overhang where the smith is working.
“Can I help you Captain?” The man has yellow flaxen locks, and a matching beard, sweat is runneling down his face as he continues to pound metal into what appears to be a short sword. There are barrels of short swords all around the smithy.
“Yes, we have reason to believe there is some type of magical explosive located within your shop, we request permission to search. You could be in danger.” Captain Coby is very serious and rigid looking, trying to be a man of the law.
“Well, by all means captain, you and your men have free rein of the place, but please, tell me if we need to go upstairs, as my wife is up there, bedridden and I would not wish to disturb her.” Joe is grizzly and serious, and looks somewhat alarmed, they tell him they are looking for an orange crystal, and he immediately begins to help with the search.
The party searches each nook and cranny, they have searched meticulously through a few barrels of short swords when suddenly Nerius speaks up. “Wait, I think I may know where it is!” Nerius goes over to the forge and begins staring into it, searching, some of the others join him. He eventually spots what he is looking for, one of the embers is different, flickering slightly and crystalline. “Joe, may I have your tongs please?” Nerius uses the tongs to pick up the crystal, then he dips it into the water bucket, steam gouts up briefly. Captain Coby has some men fetch a runner.
“Where should we take it?” Asks Coby. The party looks kind of surprised that the captain seems to be deferring to them on such important matters. “We should take it somewhere where we can take it away from the city in a hurry, we should collect all of them into a boat of some kind, near the dock, then just before the three hours has passed, we should row them out to safety away from the docks.” Sadune explains his plan, and the others agree. The runner takes the crystal, with a look of dread on his face, apparently someone told him what the crystals are, then regaining his sense of duty, salutes and runs off toward the docks.
The next clue, “Search beneath the Mayor’s throne” leads the party to the civic offices, where the mayor does business during the day. When the party arrives at the office building, there are several angry men in the lobby, all trying to get an appointment with the mayor. The party with Captain Coby, tries to get up to the front but the men are very pushy and angry. One of the men threatens Korigahn, and that is all it takes. The room becomes a brawl as the secretary ducks behind her desk, there are fists flying.
The man who was threatening Korigahn makes a wild swing at Korigahn. Korigahn grabs the man’s fist in mid air, stopping the blow. He then takes the man’s arm, using his sibbecai strength to turn the man’s hand back on his attacker, Korigahn is literally making the man punch himself screaming “Quit hitting thyself! Quit hitting thyself!!”
Sadune knocks a man out cold with an elbow to the face, and sweep kicks another to the floor, next to him a man draws a knife and takes a swipe at him. “This fight just got out of hand.” Sadune looks a bit worried. Quickly he disarms the man, and gives him a solid kick to the mid-section, sending the man sprawling. He looks across the room for Nerius, and sees him fighting another man, he appears to be holding his own, but then another attacker comes from behind, with a knife upraised ready to kill Nerius! “Nerius behind you!”
Nerius is trading punches with a burly brewer when he hears Sadune call out to him. He turns and comes face to face with a man about to stab him. Nerius’s hands shoot out, grabbing the man’s wrist stopping the downward stab, meant for his heart. The knife is close, and Nerius is barely holding back the man’s arm, for a long moment there is a struggle and just when it seems the knife is inching closer, touching the skin at the base of Nerius’ neck, Sadune steps in behind the man, and brings a solid blow to the man’s head. The man staggers away, then runs out the doorway. With guards hot on his trail. “Thanks. Now let’s find that crystal, we don’t have time to go after him, the guards will find him.” Nerius rubs a small cut near the base of his neck.
The fighting has stopped, and some of the men start to apologize. They are the men from the Brewer’s Union, they have just been told that there may be new taxes on their products so they are a bit outraged. Coby quickly calms everyone down and the search for the crystal begins. The party searches downstairs, in a dining room, Kitchen, two bedrooms, two storage closets and a privy, and nothing turns up. They go upstairs and one of the office clerks upstairs overhears Korigahn mentioning how many people would die if the building wasn’t evacuated in time, and this starts a panic as the clerks run from desk to desk, and they begin running downstairs and presumably out of the building. “Well, you just saved us some work evacuating.” Comments Coby. They knock on the door to the Mayor’s office and are told to come in. When they open the door the mayor is sitting there with a calm smile on his bearded face. “May I help you Captain?”
“Yes sir, there is believed to be an explosive magical device, a crystal, located somewhere in the building. Could we search your office?” The captain asks, even as the party has already started searching.
The mayor chuckles a bit, “Yes by all means, are we in danger?”
“No we don’t believe you are just yet, but by our reckoning we have about 2 hours left before they all detonate, there are 6 left.” Sadune answers.
“Oh I see, well please do hurry.” The party continues to search and finds nothing, they closely inspect the mayor’s chair, expecting it to be his “throne” but it is merely an ordinary chair, much like the rest of the chairs in the offices. They are beginning to lose hope when Nerius perks up “I have an idea! The privy!”
“The privy? That’s not an idea, that is a necessity.” Says Korigahn. They head back downstairs to the privy and Nerius looks inside, the smell is horrendous. He gets lower and looks deep into the hole in the ground, and there, some 7-8 feet down, he sees a tiny flicker, looking like a pinhole of light. The party lowers him down with a rope as Sadune holds him steady. Nerius digs in the foul muck and turns up a crystal. They summon the runner.
It is the same runner as before, the young man looks out of breath and worried at first “You found another then?” then he looks disgusted as Nerius hands him the dung covered crystal, the man gags, then recomposes himself in the face of his captain. He salutes, and runs off toward the docks.
more to come!
The students are coming through the market of RiverBend, on their way to meet with Captain Coby, the captain of the city guard. There are booths crammed together everywhere offering their wares. Fisherman yell about their catch of the day, woodcarvers show off their furniture, fletchers let customers test the bend of their bows. The market is full of people, all bumping past and against each other like fish caught in a net. Performers juggle, tumble and dance while fire-breathers shoot gouts of flame into the air. The air smells of fish and the sea coming from Sandman’s bay. The party makes their way past a line of women and children carrying water from the well when a bright red snake swoops out of the sky and hovers in place before them. The snake is about two feet long, and it’s bright red wings beat impossibly fast, making a humming noise. The party is dumbfounded, watching the snake hover around in front of them, licking the air, they can see a small scroll tube strapped to the snake, with the words “open me” on it.
“Well, is anyone going to grab it and see what it is?” Nerius looks at the others, who are all giving him a look of caution. Nerius reaches out and takes the tube, the snake hums away into the distant sky and disappears over the rooftops.
The party all exchange worried looks while Nerius opens the scroll tube. Inside the tube is a rolled piece of parchment and a glittering orange crystal the size of a thumb with a rough surface. The crystal pulses with light. “It’s warm, I wonder what it is?”
“What doesss the paper sssay?” Sesseress peeks over Nerius shoulder trying to read the parchment as the party crowds around, Nerius reads aloud, “Would you like to play a little game? The little crystal you are holding is actually a Sorcerous Fire Blast spell, frozen in time the instant before it detonates. Unfortunately, the stasis field around it degrades over time—until it explodes! There are seven others just like it planted around the city, set to explode in exactly 3 hours. I assure you that if even one of them is allowed detonate, the lives lost will be staggering. On the back side of this letter are seven clues to the locations of the crystals. If you are clever, you might be able to find them. If you aren’t, I win this game. Take one last look ate the little crystal. Do you feel how warm it is? That’s a sign that the stasis field around it is about to expire. If I were you, I would get rid of it as quickly as possible.”
Nerius finishes reading aloud the note to the rest of the party. As soon as he finishes, Sadune bursts into action. The huge man rushes forward, taking the crystal from Nerius. It is growing warmer, almost hot, and he is looking for a place to take the crystal even as his friends begin to yell for him to get rid of it. He looks around frantically, there are crowds of people as far as he can see, he is determined to not break his oath, Nerius must be safe, and these people will not die today even if it means his own life. He hears the distant noise of the ocean-SANDMAN’S BAY!-if he can only reach it in time.
“MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY! STAND ASIDE!” Sadune yells as he pushes past the throng of people surging through the city streets. He feels as if he is fighting a tide of people, pushing and running, trying to make it to the bay as the crystal flickers and begins to burn his hand.
Behind the party watch as Sadune disappears into the crowd. “Sadune NO!” Nerius tries in vain to reach him, but the crowd is too thick. They push their way through the masses trying to see what has become of their friend when---“BOOOOOOM!!!” An enormous explosion shakes the entire market, people begin running frantically and screaming, nearly trampling each other in a mad rush to leave the area. “Is he….?” The party waits, assuming the worst, but pushing toward them, through the crowd, comes a tall dark man. Sadune is soaking wet, and has bits of wood sticking to his body. He smiles. “I threw it into the bay, it blew up an abandoned old fishing boat.” Sadune, still smiling begins to dust off the wood splinters.
“What is going on here? You there!” Captain Coby and his guards have pushed through the crowd and point out the party. “It is about time!” Korigahn yells. The guards near the party looking serious. Nerius speaks “Captain, it is good you are here. Someone has just tried to blow up the market. We just received this message with a small crystal that exploded. There are seven others around the city.”
Captain Coby looks a bit overwhelmed “This is terrible, I have no idea how we can find the others in time. My commanding officer is on leave to the north, we are short handed as well.” Coby looks defeated, then as if remembering something he looks up “You, you are students of Marquette’s are you not? Aren’t you well trained to help in times of need? I remember when the floods came that students helped then. Would you please help us now?” The party looks a bit reluctant, but a sense of duty comes over them. In the distance can be heard a man lamenting “What happened to my boat?”
“Captain, there are clues on the back of this note, they appear to describe areas around the city, have you a map?” asks Nerius. Coby asks some men to bring a map, and in a short time they return as the party and the captain are going over the clues…
1. Man strives to bend metal to his will and continues to forge still.
2. Search beneath the Mayor’s throne.
3. An imposter alight In the skies at night. Tho’ that be a lie, ‘Tis not really the sky!”
4. Held firmly in the high hand of justice.
5. Underwater, above the sea, Fed by rock and rain. Behind a wall of earth and stone, To keep it all contained.
6. The Wanton Wench at dockside, Her arms are open wide. Beneath her bales of golden hair, her hidden charms reside.
7. Middle of town, look around. What’s to be found? Seek a reflection, Providing direction, To minute confection. Under the flor, Under the floor, Behind the square door.
The party obtains a map brought by one of the guardsmen. They look it over thoroughly, and Coby begins pointing out various places of the city, marking them down. “Clearly the first clue has something to do with a blacksmith of some kind.” Korigahn says. “Yes I think you are right, Coby where are all the blacksmiths in town?” Nerius asks the captain.
The captain’s voice seems to come right out from under his handle-bar mustache as it wiggles when he speaks “Well, there are five smiths, at smith’s corner there are four giantish smiths. And one blacksmith named Joe, he runs Old Joe’s Smithy. I don’t think we have time to search all five, if we only have three hours, and I certainly don’t have enough men to evacuate them all in time.”
“We don’t have to, captain, is Old Joe a man? Sibbeccai? What is his heritage?” Sadune asks.
“He is a man, an excellent smith too, he made most of our weaponry for the guard.”
“I see where you are going, it makes sense. The clue says Man struggles to bend metal.” Nerius smiles at Sadune, who is trying to look modest.
The party rushes across town through crowds of people, the townsfolk are asking captain Coby a lot of questions and he answers them repeatedly with “The situation is under control, be about your business please” They reach the smithy and quickly enter beneath the overhang where the smith is working.
“Can I help you Captain?” The man has yellow flaxen locks, and a matching beard, sweat is runneling down his face as he continues to pound metal into what appears to be a short sword. There are barrels of short swords all around the smithy.
“Yes, we have reason to believe there is some type of magical explosive located within your shop, we request permission to search. You could be in danger.” Captain Coby is very serious and rigid looking, trying to be a man of the law.
“Well, by all means captain, you and your men have free rein of the place, but please, tell me if we need to go upstairs, as my wife is up there, bedridden and I would not wish to disturb her.” Joe is grizzly and serious, and looks somewhat alarmed, they tell him they are looking for an orange crystal, and he immediately begins to help with the search.
The party searches each nook and cranny, they have searched meticulously through a few barrels of short swords when suddenly Nerius speaks up. “Wait, I think I may know where it is!” Nerius goes over to the forge and begins staring into it, searching, some of the others join him. He eventually spots what he is looking for, one of the embers is different, flickering slightly and crystalline. “Joe, may I have your tongs please?” Nerius uses the tongs to pick up the crystal, then he dips it into the water bucket, steam gouts up briefly. Captain Coby has some men fetch a runner.
“Where should we take it?” Asks Coby. The party looks kind of surprised that the captain seems to be deferring to them on such important matters. “We should take it somewhere where we can take it away from the city in a hurry, we should collect all of them into a boat of some kind, near the dock, then just before the three hours has passed, we should row them out to safety away from the docks.” Sadune explains his plan, and the others agree. The runner takes the crystal, with a look of dread on his face, apparently someone told him what the crystals are, then regaining his sense of duty, salutes and runs off toward the docks.
The next clue, “Search beneath the Mayor’s throne” leads the party to the civic offices, where the mayor does business during the day. When the party arrives at the office building, there are several angry men in the lobby, all trying to get an appointment with the mayor. The party with Captain Coby, tries to get up to the front but the men are very pushy and angry. One of the men threatens Korigahn, and that is all it takes. The room becomes a brawl as the secretary ducks behind her desk, there are fists flying.
The man who was threatening Korigahn makes a wild swing at Korigahn. Korigahn grabs the man’s fist in mid air, stopping the blow. He then takes the man’s arm, using his sibbecai strength to turn the man’s hand back on his attacker, Korigahn is literally making the man punch himself screaming “Quit hitting thyself! Quit hitting thyself!!”
Sadune knocks a man out cold with an elbow to the face, and sweep kicks another to the floor, next to him a man draws a knife and takes a swipe at him. “This fight just got out of hand.” Sadune looks a bit worried. Quickly he disarms the man, and gives him a solid kick to the mid-section, sending the man sprawling. He looks across the room for Nerius, and sees him fighting another man, he appears to be holding his own, but then another attacker comes from behind, with a knife upraised ready to kill Nerius! “Nerius behind you!”
Nerius is trading punches with a burly brewer when he hears Sadune call out to him. He turns and comes face to face with a man about to stab him. Nerius’s hands shoot out, grabbing the man’s wrist stopping the downward stab, meant for his heart. The knife is close, and Nerius is barely holding back the man’s arm, for a long moment there is a struggle and just when it seems the knife is inching closer, touching the skin at the base of Nerius’ neck, Sadune steps in behind the man, and brings a solid blow to the man’s head. The man staggers away, then runs out the doorway. With guards hot on his trail. “Thanks. Now let’s find that crystal, we don’t have time to go after him, the guards will find him.” Nerius rubs a small cut near the base of his neck.
The fighting has stopped, and some of the men start to apologize. They are the men from the Brewer’s Union, they have just been told that there may be new taxes on their products so they are a bit outraged. Coby quickly calms everyone down and the search for the crystal begins. The party searches downstairs, in a dining room, Kitchen, two bedrooms, two storage closets and a privy, and nothing turns up. They go upstairs and one of the office clerks upstairs overhears Korigahn mentioning how many people would die if the building wasn’t evacuated in time, and this starts a panic as the clerks run from desk to desk, and they begin running downstairs and presumably out of the building. “Well, you just saved us some work evacuating.” Comments Coby. They knock on the door to the Mayor’s office and are told to come in. When they open the door the mayor is sitting there with a calm smile on his bearded face. “May I help you Captain?”
“Yes sir, there is believed to be an explosive magical device, a crystal, located somewhere in the building. Could we search your office?” The captain asks, even as the party has already started searching.
The mayor chuckles a bit, “Yes by all means, are we in danger?”
“No we don’t believe you are just yet, but by our reckoning we have about 2 hours left before they all detonate, there are 6 left.” Sadune answers.
“Oh I see, well please do hurry.” The party continues to search and finds nothing, they closely inspect the mayor’s chair, expecting it to be his “throne” but it is merely an ordinary chair, much like the rest of the chairs in the offices. They are beginning to lose hope when Nerius perks up “I have an idea! The privy!”
“The privy? That’s not an idea, that is a necessity.” Says Korigahn. They head back downstairs to the privy and Nerius looks inside, the smell is horrendous. He gets lower and looks deep into the hole in the ground, and there, some 7-8 feet down, he sees a tiny flicker, looking like a pinhole of light. The party lowers him down with a rope as Sadune holds him steady. Nerius digs in the foul muck and turns up a crystal. They summon the runner.
It is the same runner as before, the young man looks out of breath and worried at first “You found another then?” then he looks disgusted as Nerius hands him the dung covered crystal, the man gags, then recomposes himself in the face of his captain. He salutes, and runs off toward the docks.
more to come!
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