stonegod's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Ch. II [IC]

[Stormwind]

Ashlyn shakes her head in disbelief and speaks in a clear ringing voice "I cannot believe this, that you choose to do this now of all times. Now when we stand in a vampire's lair, and no ordinary vampire at that, you all bicker and fight like bitter old women."

Ashlyn then points at Marot, Jarrith, and Janis as she speaks, "The three of you have all been affected by the taint of these lands, and while I have not yet fully determined its nature, I am sure that it is supernatural in origin. Perhaps it is that which is affecting you even now, yet I believed you all stronger than that. I will do all that I can to rid you of the taint, but I need time in which to do so."

Ashlyn then looks at each of them in turn as she speaks, "Many harsh words have been spoken here and whilst they won't soon be forgotten, could you three not put those words that have been spoken aside for now whilst we continue to combat the ills that plague this land?"

Ashlyn then turns to Janis, "Janis, would you not allow Tessa to attempt to remove the Lycan curse once more, for I would not wish to see you become as Jarrith was?"

The lady paladin then waits for her various companions to respond ...

[Ashlyn is using all of her considerable diplomatic skills here to try and convince everyone to stay together]

 

[stonegod]

Khensu looks concerned as Jarrith and Marot begin to storm off, the look clear on his face. He bites his lips a moment, then turns to them and quietly speaks aside. "My Brothers. We are tired. And the Stormhand has too be more snippy of late, but I do see her fears, her distrust. I have seen the look on others who only see you as a danger, and their death---just yesterday. I know you have tried, my Brother Jarrith, but we must persist. We must continue to try, for failure will cost Janis, us, and anyone who gets near. We must listen, and we must not judge---for that just leads to distrust. We must keep strong. We must defend against the darkness, for that it our pledge."

Ireena shakes her head as the group begins to splinter. When Ashlyn has her say, she chimes in. "You---", she points a finger at Janis, "are an insufferable know-it-all who puts her bony nose in everyone's business because you think you know better. It is only fortunate for the rest of us that you are often right, though not in my personal matters." She looks hotly at the others, especially the Flamists. "I have seen the woman tend the dying and sick for hours. The villagers tell me she goes door to door checking on their ills and tending them in her direct if not friendly way. Yes, you fight the wolves at the door, but she tends the wounds the wolves leaves. And this is the way you treat her?" She shakes her head. "The Pale Lady is an insufferable guest at times, and her refusal to get the Curse broken is madness, but I have not seen her tear through her own men in a mad fury or betray her cause due to mental control. She seems to bear your sins; you should be willing to bear hers."

Shen turns her head to the Stormhand again. "But your refusal to break the Curse is folly! You berate me for my supposed dangerous infatuation, but you are wed to the wolf and keep him there! Do you truly need that darkness? Are you so fragile? This is the not the woman of anger and forthright I knew. This is a woman who uses barbs in defense, and thinks danger will keep her safe. You are trading you self-sovereignty to be a slave to the wolf." She looks exasperated. "You once told me you were not being cruel with your tongue, that you wished only to help. Perhaps you too will listen now."

 

[DEFCON 1]

Jarrith spins around and stares at Khensu, then glances at Marot. The two of them stares at each other for a few seconds, then Jarrith turns back to Khensu and his eyes narrow.

"Fine. Whatever. We find the tome, go back to town, get the information we need out of it, and turn the tome over to Ochem. At that point I'm pretty sure Ochem and the caravan will leave at that point, and it's then I'll decide whether or not to go with them."

He begins walking back to the group within the chapel. He crosses his arms and looks one at a time at Ashlyn, Janis, Tessa, and Khensu. "What's the plan?"

 

[stonegod]

The Stormhand looks at Ireena for a moment, inscrutable thoughts going through here head. She then throws up her hands and sighs exasperatedly. Looking at the others with suspicion, she waves Tessa over, and allows the Curse to be broken---or at least the priestess to try.

[remove curse]

But this time, the Host is successful, and Tessa feels the dark coils lift around Janis soul. She also feels something oily and slippery lift from the druidess' mind---a thing of madness and anger. A part of Tessa, deep inside, the part she recognizes as from Khyber, growls away the dark thing, but she then knows the source of it. Taint.

[Taint removed and lycan curse lifted.]

Janis looks at the others, the aggression gone, though the suspicion is only lessened. "A dark madness on my mind may have made my words sharper, and perhaps made the intent less unwilling, but the root cause has not lifted, Flamists. You still bandied about veiled warning of retributions and less hidden threats on my person. I suggest you look to your own house first before disparaging mine." Apparently, that is a Stormhand apology. She turns her pale countenance to the Castle. "But this damned Curse on this place tried to have me, as it has tried to have us all. I will put an end to it, to 'slay' the wolf. I can do no less. Other troubles..."---her face darkens---"will have to wait."

As her words echo the empty halls, the group still had to decide how to move on.

 

[s@squ@tch]

Marot the Deadly

Marot looks on with interest as Tessa makes her plea to the Host to remove the wolf taint from the Stormhand.

As he sees the curse undone, he breathes a sigh of relief.

"At last, we can put this behind us."

He looks around to the other Flamists, then to the others.

"You will hear no more complaints from me -- my quarrel was with the lycan curse, nothing more."

He pauses for a moment.

"Now, where do you suppose they keep the books in this place? Upstairs or downstairs?" His attempt at levity doesn't come out properly, as he is still troubled by the events of the past couple of days. Now, without having to watch his back for a werewolf, Marot hopes to relax his mind as best as could be done in an evil castle.


OOC: from the map, it doesn't look like there are any more doors on this floor that we haven't been through, unless there is one on the SW wall of K9?

Also, is the chapel one floor, or does it have an overhang or balcony above? (looked like it might from the battle map) If so, any idea how high up it is? Marot could d.door himself up there for a quick look-see.

 

[stonegod]

OOC: There are no other doors you see on this level. The Chapel has a balcony 50' up, and stairs going down to the south and up to the north. There is also the large stairway up near the entrance what looks to be stairs down the hall from the dining room (where Sergei exited).

 

[Stormwind]

Ashlyn points towards the balcony upstairs, "I would guess that the library would be found upstairs somewhere. Perhaps the stairs there lead up to the balcony. At least it would be a good place to begin our search."

Ashlyn then collects her stuff and then turns to look at the equipment of the Karrnathi zombie. After contemplating it for a few moments she obviously comes to a decision and carefully places the armor and the amulet into the haversack with the rest of the groups gear. The mace that caused Marot to flinch, she examines without touching it, and frowns. Then she takes out a leather glove and carefully uses it to place the weapon in the haversack.
Finally she looks at her raven, and then at the icon on the altar, and then coming to a decision she reverently takes the icon from the altar and places it in the haversack as well.

 

[pathfinderq1]

Tessa nodded in agreement with Ashlyn's suggestion. "We may as well start at the top and work down. I don't want to spend any more time her than we must- who knows when that vampiric creature will return?" With that she hefted her lantern and moved towards the stairway up- though she stopped at the base of the stairs to allow one of the more "careful" folks to scout the way.

 

[stonegod]

Ashlyn gathers the remains of the dead zombie, and her hand briefly goes numb as she puts away its unwholesome weapon. The icon, however, gives her a different feeling---one of strength, and holiness---that soon disappears as it goes into the sack.

The north room is a small alcove, guarded on both sides by silent statues with thick arms and faces lost in shadow. Beyond is an ancient wooden staircase. Testing it, Jarrith finds the structure creaks loudly despite his best efforts at stealth. Shrugging, the Stalker trudges on, finding the structure strong enough to bear his weight. Soon enough, he signals for the others to join him at the top of the stair.

The party finds themselves at a long balcony that overlooks the vast, rubble-strewn chapel. Two large, ornate thrones stand in the middle of the balcony, facing the altar below. A study set of double doors exit to the west.

 

[Stormwind]

Ashlyn looks around cautiously from the balcony as she moves over towards the double doors. She then concentrates briefly as if she were looking through them, as she uses her abilities to check for the presence of undead.

[Detect undead (in the direction of double doors) 60ft range; penetrates 3ft of wood]