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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sayburr" data-source="post: 1171" data-attributes="member: 92">Nemoren part 2: the Curse, the Girl, the Hobgoblins and the BladeI feel bad about lying to llewiston now that we know he is not out to rob us of our inheritance but how to tell him without damning myself? Ah, well; done is done: spilled milk and all that. I ride up to Amber to tell her how impressed I was with her in the vaults again. She seems a powerful if quiet ally. I ride to Rakis and tell him much the same thing . He seems reserved but nods and asks me how I came to speak Fhokki. We chit chat a while and before I know it I have told him from where I really came. Damn these befuddled senses! I ride over to Llewiston to try to keep an eye on the keys and to learn as much as pertinent about this scene as I can, unlike these others who seem so entranced with this drama. I desperately want to steal those keys from him, but think I will play this out a little further. When we get back to Weston, Llewiston decides to gather all the townspeople together to bring as much information to light as possible. The arrogant bookworm bitch (Pandora) is overjoyed with herself for figuring that there might have been a kidnapping, something any one other than a buffoon has known for some time now. It is noticed that the former Red Cloak is not here even tho Llewiston dispatched guards to tell him to be here. Most of the town loads up and heads toward his home. We see the smoke before we get there. When we arrive, the house has been burned to the ground and the bookworm bitch’s squab lands on her shoulder. Pandora then says something to Amber and they start around to the back of the house. She doesn’t just go around the house tho, she heads straight to a body lying prone 50-75 feet beyond the house. I smell witchcraft. I check the body for a pulse but find none . I see his hand covers a stone marker of some sort and cover it with my foot. I suggest that they go search the house and they nearly do but then decide to search the body better so I have to give up my discovery as if I had just found it. We upturned the marker to find a coffin buried underneath. There was no body but it was filled with Amelia’s personnel effects. Including some love letters between the Red Cloak and Amelia. Everyone seems stunned. Have these people never lived outside a glass jar where everything is perfect? The girl’s attendant reveals that they used to meet at an old cave rumored to be the den of a minotaur. Llewiston and his armed cadre form one group and our party makes the second as we decide to split up to search more area and head out to find this cave.During our search we spot a female figure lying, weeping on the forest floor. We approach her. We find out that she is crying for her tree! Her tree! I begin to wonder if this curse upon the town isn’t one of madness. She asks us to help her tree. I say “Yeah right, after we find the minotaur’s cave we’ll help you and your tree. You just wait right here for us, ok?” and start to leave the crazy woman. Then she says that she can lead us to the minotaur’s cave if we will help her tree. Now she has everybody’s attention. We agree to help her tree. She leads us to an overgrown section of undergrowth and speaks, I guess you would call it. It sounds more like the wind blowing thru the trees but the plants actually move apart to reveal a cave entrance.Inside here we kill a couple of mushrooms and a frog before coming to a large cavern with a strange light at the far side. We go over to get a better look. There are 2 jars floating about waist high with the glow coming from them across an 8 foot chasm. I start to take off my gear to get ready to make the jump. I am looking across for the best place to land when I realize that though I can easily make the running jump to get across to the lights there is no room to run and jump back to this side. In my weakened state the jump back would be iffy at best and with a 20 foot drop in between perhaps a little caution should be observed. Rakis says he can do it and backs up and runs at the chasm. He didn’t even drop his gear. Of course he is more powerful than I and faster despite his massive size but if the curse has affected him as it did me how will he make it? Oh no! he jumped well before he had to! He hits bottom with an ugly splat. I start to lower him my rope but then just yell for him to throw his up to the ledge on the other side. He does and starts to climb.When he reaches the lip he is pulled up onto the ledge by something we cannot see! I fire my bolt hoping to hit whatever has him. He is not moving to protect himself. Not moving at all except as if drifting underwater. His skin is starting to blister. The creature then spans the chasm in one giant step and is upon us. His skin is starting to peel off. We must get him out; but how to do it without suffering the axman’s fate? My rope and grappling hook! Time to go barbarian fishing. I throw my hook high and far over the monstrosity, hoping to drag it back thru the beast hooking Rakis in the process. Our bookish bitch who when we met her admitted her ineptitude with weapons suddenly becomes an expert in them screaming , “Bludgeoning weapons! Bludgeoning weapons!” while doing nothing. My throw is true and I yell for the woodsman to help me pull Rakis free. Just as we start to pull the creature pulls as well – nearly sucking us in with Rakis but we let go first and only suffer some burns from its acidic goo. There is nothing left but hand to hand. “Bludgeoning weapons! Bludgeoning Weapons!” she still shouts. I will give her a bludgeoning weapon after this if she doesn’t shut up. I draw my short sword and wade into it. We all do even prissy britches helps some. Rakis is a mess when we kill it and it spills him back out. He looks like he has been boiled in oil. Amber helps him and me with our wounds somewhat. The priss and Amber study the jars more closely and declare that they are magical. We decide to keep them to ourselves and just as soon as that bitch agrees I know it is the wrong thing to do and begin to plot how to take one to the bishop and frame her for stealing the other. Amber and Rakis save her by telling Llewiston that we found them tho. He sends for the bishop. The bishop agrees that they are magical and opens the blue-green one right there! A minotaur appears from the fog inside, dazed and confused. We take advantage of this by most of us pummeling him with blows to kill him. The bishop obviously affected by the town’s madness curse then opens the second jar! But Amelia appears this time instead of another minotaur. The bishop helped us with our wounds further and removed Rakis’ curse. May be he is not so bad after all. I will stop thinking of his murder, at least. I convinced Llewiston to return our keys. The next day we go to make our third trip into the vaults. Llewiston asks if he needs to post someone at the door to keep it from locking behind us. I pipe up with my cursed senses “ But it doesn’t lock behind us.” Damn this curse. I guess that is one way to reveal my deception but from his look I am pretty sure I am damned in his eyes.We returned without incident to the passage that led to the underground river and the hobgoblin sentry post beyond it. We decided to try for the element of surprise and dowsed our globe and tried to find the log in the dark. It wasn’t there. We decided to ready our bows and pull the light out and barrage the sentry post area , hoping to catch them of guard. Even priss seemed eager to help with the plan. She offered to help by holding the light. Each according to his ability … my fath—Tessin used to say. Just when we were about to set it into motion the stinking hobgoblins attacked us! Priss pulled out the light to reveal 4 hobgoblins along the edge of the river throwing javelins at us. Rakis was hit. The light dazzled half of the hobgoblins and our dimwitted helper too. I was glad I had moved away to avoid just such an event. We ,I, Amber, and Ars dispatched the 4 with our bows and Rakis even pulled the javelin from his own wound to throw it back to kill its owner. With the light shedding its light it was easy to see how we missed the log. It was not there. I decided to shed my gear but for my short sword and make the jump across the river. Rakis offered to hold a rope wrapped around my waist just in case I didn’t jump far enuf . How sweet even if unnecessary, I let him. I clear the river easily and untie the rope and let it fall. Rakis pulls it back to his side out of the river.I figure the first place to look would be behind the wall. I move up quietly with my sword drawn just in case.As I rounded the wall a wave of HG pours out of the passageway behind the wall. I immediately yell for help as I sink my blade into HG flesh! Within seconds Rakis is beside me in the gloom outside the globe’s shine ass deep in HG! I try to hold my ground to help Rakis as much as I can but at the same time lead them back into the light. The giant axman is in fine form today. He reminds me much of Magnus when he is like this. He is actually vibrating in his bloodlust. My survival instincts are on high as well, not only striking true but avoiding there blows at will- everything they do seems in slow motion or as if I know what they are going to try. It must be the hand of Risk or the Watcher touching me. With the aid of our companions on the other side of the river we manage to kill 16 HG and rout the rest into an unconditional retreat. The big man is really shaking now and looks in great need of a rest. We get the log and let our party members across. We search the HG chambers and follow the passage that leads out and mark a nearby tree.We searched the rest of the vault and found little else of value so we set about clearing the room of all he carnage that we suspected to be the source of the curse. We carried our treasures to the door and started to exit but were drawn back to the pool room with the trees and Jaycin’s statue. We puzzled over it and priss said she might be able to figure it out after a good night’s rest, so we locked ourselves in and camped. The next morning she cast some sort of spell over the plaque and revealed!…. it was a trigger to open a door. Well you have got to be kidding me! Powerful magic that! A blind bard by the surname of Charles in my hometown could have told us that! Everyone is just standing around even tho the key is obvious. No one wants to be adventurer that bad evidently. Not even the giant ax man and I didn’t think he would shy away from anything. Here goes. I pull out my silver dagger and lay my finger on the lip of the pool. Risk, watch over me in this, my biggest gamble yet. A quick pressure down and it comes of easily. Oh dear Watcher! The pain ! the blood! I force myself to put it up to the plaque before I am sick. It opens and I go in. There inside is one lone item . A big bastard of a sword that I am not even sure I can carry much less wield. I drag it out and Amber stops my bleeding. I pick up my finger and say let’s go now. We liberate our inheritance and Llewiston liberates his taxes. The town and Amelia gave us a hero’s feast and a weeks room and board and a packhorse with 2 weeks worth of provisions. Perhaps there is some good left in this world. While we rest and recover I will ask Rakis to accompany me into the woods in search of the dryad. I wish to ask her if she will obscure the HG’s entrance to the vaults for us. Also I will ask Rakis and Amber if they will help me practice with my new sword; sparring and the like. I also will pack my finger in some salt to cure it out. Then I will lash it to the hand guard of Flamesinger. I will see if I can’t return some respect to the rogue’s profession or barring that –fear. Time to split up the items found in the vault:The following was out of game, in character e-mailing:Jza tells the other of the group: About the split, don't you think the inheritance should just be split among the 5 heirs? And the rest of the treasure after that? Anything incidental that we picked up sat Laura shouldn't get a part of, but by the same token Pandora was not a key holder. Perhaps the inheritance should be split between the original group and then every thing we found this sat split between the 2nd five.Pandora: You are correct, Jza, I am not an heir. But I did not risk my life to just get a battle axe that we found in the Minotaur's cave. That's the only incidental treasure I can recall. I expect to be compensated for the spells I cast, the time I spent doing this, repayment for injuries incurred, and the overall risk of death that I took.Jza: That is the risk we all took. We will all only increase our purses by the same amount as you and if I remember correctly you were here to repay a debt to the bishop as well as we were.Pandora: how will you increase your purse by the same amount as me? There was no incidental treasure other than the axe Rakis has. Wasn’t everything else in the vault?Jza: we will both profit little in coin but we will both relieve the debt we owe to the bishop. i did not ask for the contents of your purse to be divided when you got here. We had already been to the vault.Pandora: "There are two items that I feel I can choose from. The first is the axe that was found in the minotaur's cave. Sorry Rakis but I may have to take it. No hard feelings. The second is the spell. Now, please, before you start hurling objections, please hear me out. According to the story as related to everyone, the spellbook was considered payment by Darish or whatever her name was for gathering you, the heirs, together to read the will. At this point the book was no longer part of the willed items. The book, when it was found, was given to Darish according to your agreement and summarily became her property. When we re-entered the vault (Pandora included), the book was found again with some pages torn out. I feel that at this point it became incidental treasure."Ars: I don't mind if Pandora gets the spell book as long as she pays back the party for the value.Jza: I cannot agree here---the book did not become Daresh's only to be rediscovered with the pages torn out later Daresh's payment was from the book which she took and left the rest of our book behind not bequeathed from her to charity or anyone else---we agreed to pay her from it, it just so happens that the payment was less than expected---it was still from the original trip into the vaults.Rakis: Rakis listens to Jza and looks at Pandora, "Yes, you went on the quest to find Amelia and rid the town of the curse. But that was mainly to repay whatever debt you owed the church. We have invested much more time and effort claiming the inheritance and it is ours. I don't mind paying you for your services but I can't understand why you act as if you have a claim to the inheritance. Getting rid of the hobgoblins was part of your debt to the church. We will pay you for helping us carry out the inheritance but you have no claim to any of it. Why do expect compensation from us? The bishop told us to take you so that you could repay a debt. Again, I am willing to share some coins but do not demand anything." Rakis finishes, his eyes narrowing.Pandora: I am not trying to take your inheritance. I understand that if I had one I would not want to give it up either. From my perspective I have risked my life for nothing. I haven't even incurred a debt from the church. If I had died during this adventure the church would have been out zero. I am now wondering if I should even adventure with this group again. Trust is not very high at this point.Jza: if that is the way you feel --see ya, Jza says to pandora. The inheritance was ours and is ours. We secured it, we fought for it before you ever showed up. The book is part of the inheritance, it came from the vault. I feel that each should benefit from the treasure division equally based on monetary value, the common thread of treasure. This bull**** about “I could make the party stronger with these spells” (to which you have no claim to begin with) is just that-bull****. Doesn't a fighter with a magic sword make the party stronger but you all would count that as his share of the treasure wouldn't you? Let each pick according to the toss of the bones, those who have earned a toss anyway. If we were to adventure further I would have no qualms about the wench having her share, but she was not here for its winning so I see no reason to reward her with a cut from it. The bard isn't here today but I’m not trying to take her share because she won it with us--she is entitled. As to your helping us get the curse removed speak to the bishop about your recompense. He sent you along . Do you intend to pay us out of your pocket when we travel in search of this man gone missing? Do you think the church would have been out anything if any of us had died? No they would have been that much the better off, getting the job done, not having to pay anyone and not having to remove that persons enchantment. Once again I have no problem with an equal share for those who participate in any adventure but not for those who show up after and demand a share due to their incomparable contribution. And also once again think before you decide to start giving things to people -even ones deserving of a share - because they can use them or because they will make the party stronger. A share is a share. Keep it fair and equal and everyone will get along just fine and understand how things are. Start making gifts of things that don't wholly belong to you and eventually someone’s feelings will get hurt and they will feel cheated or wonder why they don't get these breaks or gifts when it comes to dividing the pot. Give to her from your share if you feel she deserves it but think before you are so free with moneys that are not all yours. The 3 fingered bitch has spoken her piece.Pandora: obviously offended by Jza, and seething with barely controlled anger states, "three fingered bitch, did you cut one too may off. Would make getting that sword difficult then since you needed four. You decide amongst yourselves what you want to do. Then let me know. I know where you stand Jza, as most of your type will always do. Once again, I care not for your damn inheritance. I will continue to contribute to the best of my ability. What I find and what I do on my own will remain on my own, even if it will benefit the party as a whole. This is the feeling I am getting from all of you. So be it then. Outside of our adventures, ask nothing of me, I will ask nothing of you. Once the final task is completed, I will make my decision on whether or not to continue traveling with this group."It was finally agreed the spellbook, since it was 8 volumes, would be split up among the group. Pandora received two sections of it.One morning while everyone else is still sleeping off the partying of the previous night, Jza slips over to Rakis and awakens him. Together they travel back into the woods in search of the dryad. They locate her and then hide and mark the location to the entrance of the Hobgoblin’s lair so they can return to the vaults when it pleases them.While they are gone, Pandora, Ars, and Amber wake up and find them gone. The quickly pack up and head towards Haanex, leaving without them."So they decided to leave without us....." Rakis mutters. "Like they can make it on their own." He turns to see Jza's reaction. Jza scoffs and nods wondering what they were thinking and says, “They might make it, they do have Amber with them.” Rakis looks to Jza, "I wonder if that wizard hexed them and made them leave?" "She might have, I just don't trust her. I had started to believe she had enchanted you back in Weston, the way you went along with everything she suggested." "I said what I felt was fair. My personal feelings aside. I feel she is greedy, like most of this group. Had she pushed me further she would not be here now." Rakis replies. "I am glad to hear you back to yourself, big man. As I said I was concerned for you --- the way you answered her ridiculous demands with such fire at first, but then you seemed to go along with what she said rather than what I remembered the situation to have been. I don't remember her having to dodge 1 single hobgoblin blow beside you but I never wavered at your side. And I don't remember her doing anything to end the curse except hauling some of that filth out of the water room. A peasant could have done that after we had removed the danger and Amber was the one to tell of the significance of the water source itself and the carrion therein. I don't remember her fighting the burrowing monster nor her helping to carry you out after you saved that -----woodsman , the second time we encountered it. I just think of her as taking advantage of our labors...The party meet up with each other again a days ride from Haanex. Ars looks up and says, “About time you showed up.” Pandora asks where they have been while eyeing Jza suspiciously. Jza gives her the bird and reply "****ing --as if it is any of your business----mother" and then turns up her nose to both and rides over to Amber.Pandora then rides over to Jza and says, “Jza, I know that we have not gotten off the best of starts, but I have information that you might consider invaluable. What if it I told you I know of a way to recover the finger that you lost, restoring you back to your original condition? Jza replies by asking, "and what would such information and/or service cost me?" "The cost is negotiable of course, knowing that you are a business woman of a sorts. A mutual agreement to end to the hostilities between us would of course be part of any deal that we reached. I will need time to consider,” says Pandora. Jza says, “consider with the others then for i am talking to my friend Amber” > "As far as I am concerned this is a private matter between the two of us. If you wish to discuss it with others that is your choice. But ultimately the deal will only be between us. Take as much time as you need to consider." Jza angrily spits, “You are such a conceited witch! Not everyone talking is talking about you. I was talking to her before you rode up and approached me with this so called private deal that is so private you have not named any terms and I won't even start on your presumption that I need your permission to talk to anyone else or it being my choice. Ride on whelp or taste steel before I regain control of my temper.”FYI… Out of character e-mails were friendly.</blockquote>

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