D&D 5E The Kalarian Precipice - Chapter Three

[97mg]

Gathering (Metea, Carthum, Annit)

Annit gripped her wound tighter, walking to stand behind her remaining companions, keeping an eye out while Carthum and Metea tried to make sense of the dwarven finds. The rogue hadn’t forgotten of course, that there were more shiny things in here somewhere. It just felt too soon… to loot… when lives were on the line. So Otiroth had dashed down the crevice as well. Probably best not to follow, yet. If it all went quiet, that was when she’d really start to worry.

Taking a little time to think, it probably isn’t so strange to find dwarves here. Metea might recall that yes, most of them prefer mountain dwellings far to the north. The odd unsubstantiated rumor also exists that areas near their home might once have been mined. Ores and gems of course. Had they dared continue this during the days of Dolstian Law? A large majority had not… but there was at least one written account of a demi-human being hung for possession of earth’s magical corruption, right? Was it five years back? His own mountain bred kin had dobbed him in, and it created a great rift in their society for the short years that followed. Were the lawmakers hoping to weaken their kind? Was it jealousy that restricted them from picking such low hanging fruit… or something else? Had someone known in advance that a greater threat would soon be on it's way? There was tension in those hills, undoubtedly.

Where there are mines, there are small people. In order to teach Suru’s patience and deep respect for life, part of Metea’s education would have been about acceptance and the dangers of false judgement. Many dwarves still live in Kalair and its surrounds, the distant relations of miners who had been attracted to Kalair’s cliffs before laws and council’s wills had come down hard upon violators. Back then it was a free for all. Stake your claim, dig, fight, claim your power or sell it on…

So what might bring back a dwarf’s spirit and desire for life? Are the generalizations true, that they are innately attracted to booze, treasures, the safety of solid walls, and good drinking songs before a quick dirty flirt?

 

[Metea]

Metea: Gathering

Hmm, so the miners had met a bad end, perhaps? The dwarf must've been down here quite awhile to waste away like that, but not THAT long. Even a dwarf couldn't live forever on belly-fat.

Hey, she had learned how not to judge people of other races, but it rang kind of hollow sometimes when it seemed nobody had learned the same lesson towards tieflings!

She'd crouch down by the dwarf, and somehow, somehow, resist the urge to poke it with her tail again. "Hey, maybe he needs a safety bauble?" Metea hesitated a bit, a great deal actually- not at Carthum seeing this, but at the idea of giving one of a good set away- and would slip one of the moonstone she had picked up into the dwarf's hand. "See? Just like old times, right?"

She'd think a moment. Scratch her horns. She had seen Otiroth do a lot of mysterious little spells, and he had claimed once that her always smelling fresh porridge from the mess hall when she was working on something onerous to be magic. Nostalgia, maybe?

Well... with was worth a shot... Metea would focus really, really hard.

<Spellcasting: thaumaturgy. Metea is going to try and create the smell of fresh hops.>

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

Carthum One-Tusk: Gathering

It is Carthum's turn to stand idly by as he watches Metea try and help.

Her thoughts are a bit mysterious to him, but then, he is pretty used to that most days. Instead, he is silently pleased- no, delighted- that she would be wiling to give a gemstone away, rather than irritated that she had kept it in the first place.

She would normally not have let another 'borrow' a precious thing if she was even the slightest bit afraid she might not get it back!

 

[97mg]

Gathering (Metea, Carthum, Annit)

You are my minor wonder, so tell me friend, what minor wonder does my minor wonder seek, to bring back this man of minor dimensions?

The words form in Metea’s mind as she concentrates for a moment, remembering the scent of wonderful brewing components. Is the fact she recalls such an aroma a confession of sorts? The effect doesn’t materialize, but maybe her secret patron offers something else?

Annit speaks from a short distance away. “So that’s where they went. Ah, we will have to trade tricks in the subtle use of stealthy hands, you and I.” Metea seems to be somewhere else right now, but the Tiefling probably heard.

Stepping forwards carefully, the rogue wonders if the warlock is onto something. Not many other options available right now. From a pocket she extracts the chipped glass disc and the small uncut hexagonal gem, still stuck to some matrix like a toy soldier on a tiny hilltop.

“Try these perhaps, they may be of far more use to you than they are to me.”

The gem is handed to Carthum if he wishes, and the disc placed gently onto Metea’s hand.

 

[daindarkspring]

Dain- The Hunt

Dain sidestepped slightly as the greatsword swept by him, and he smiled a grim and bloody smile as it found its mark.

"You...strike well." He said, doing a fair job of concealing his pain. "Let me try to match you!"

Images of green meadows that rippled with wind passed through his mind as his sword sang through the air.

<22 to hit, 11 dam>

 

[97mg]

Hunting (Dain, Jeovanna, Otiroth)

Butchery! Where once one tiny horror stood, now there are two… separate pieces. Dain’s final angry swing has torn it clean in two. The meat quivers one last time, and is then still. The battle done, a quiet claustrophobia returns to those within the crevice’s tight embrace. Was the beast always evil and seeking to destroy beauty in the world? Or was it once a mere mortal mine explorer, like Dain, who had come uncomfortably close to an early demise. There will be lasting scars from this.

You sense no more crackling or sounds of footsteps for now, nor screams of ambush from your colleagues behind, in the lair. Maybe for just a few moments everyone is safe.

 

[Otiroth]

Otiroth: The Hunt

Otiroth has arrived a moment too late to help in the battle; but then, the quivering chunks of flesh still bear some scorch marks.

He grimaces at the sight, though more at Dain's injuries than anything. Even if the mound had shed some uncomfortable light on what might have happened here, the fiends were no more the dwarves that had been than the skeleton had been. It was better to put them out of their misery.

"Can you walk? Carthum has been sussing the secrets of these creatures, but he said he has some healing left," Otiroth asked Dain. The man looked savaged! Otiroth could help him back, if he'd like...

 

[Jeovanna]

Jeovanna: The Hunt

Silence falls, until Otiroth speaks.

"It is good you were the one to kill it," Jeovanna said finally, looking at Dain intently. She'd pause for a moment to retrieve her bow, then peers closely at Dain once more. "We are a pack. We fight as a pack."

Solidarity, or admonishment? The pack was stronger when none stood alone.

Jeovanna would not cheapen Dain's victory by offering to help him back to the others. And the ranger had cleaved her arrows as well as the creature; her quiver is not especially large, so she will miss them, but they are easy enough to make.

Well... easy enough to make when there are birds to hunt and tree branches to hone.

Yes... time to get back to the others.

 

[Metea]

Metea: Gathering

Metea accepted the cracked disc, and gave it a curious once-over up close, too. It was damaged, clearly- unless that crack was meant to be part of the item's 'charm', so maybe that was part of what threw off her first look at it.

She'd much prefer a few hours in Suru's library to investigate this item and see what it could really do, but that wasn't what mattered at the moment- just jogging the dwarf's memory, maybe. She was about to look at the dwarf through it, like the moonstone, but paused.

"Are... we sure we want to wake him up?" Metea asked finally. "...down here?" Next to the other dead dwarf? "Maybe it's best if we let him rest until we're above ground."

She would pat the dwarf on the head, though. There, there.

A minor boon for this minor miner, perhaps...

The sweetest of voices...

 

[Carthum One-Tusk]

Carthum One-Tusk: Gathering

"I think it will be some time before he truly awakens, Metea," Carthum replied. "But there is danger in moving him in his current state."

The sunlight and fresh air itself might be a shock to the system too great to handle, as it was. They did not know the true depth of depravity of whatever had been inflicted on these dwarves down here. Or... perhaps they did, and had recently dispatched the remnants.

Carthum had received much tutoring on the meaning and the importance of souls. In his youthful courses, he had been taught that nothing, not even greater gods, could destroy a soul. When he had begun studying the ways of a cleric, he had learned that that might not be... quite true. There were things that could destroy or alter a soul... at least as far as their mortal minds could comprehend the matter.

But the half-orc still held that beyond mortal comprehension did not necessarily hold the finality that his tutors believed... he felt it in his heart.

He'd press the stone into the dwarf's other hand.

The priest was, however, quite prepared to heal Dain when the trio returned from their demon-slaying adventure. It would not be enough to heal all of his injuries, though.

Carthum would suggest that, before they moved on, they needed to make camp for the 'night'.


<Arcana check= 11>
<Healing check= 8 hp for when Dain returns>