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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1272460" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #3: The Spider-Eye goblins. Episode 4 of 12Fox sits with the rest of us, arranged comfortably around a large circular table, while Rian serves another delicious meal. Fox seems gratifyingly impressed with us. Over the meal, we talk more about ourselves. Miriel is a half-elven cleric. She has already told us her story, how she was found wandering the moors near the town of Lave as a small child, with her twin sister. Raised by innkeepers, she was taught to cook and brew ale, and also studied at the temple of Madriel. After her sister left home, she went to stay at the temple for further study. It sounds as though she were training towards an administrative position, and from a few comments she makes, Goldpetal suspects that she was being groomed for high position within the church. With the exception of the elf, she is one of the oldest members of our company. She was on her way to a convention of healers when the caravan was attacked. Paks is a swordswoman, over six feet tall, in her early twenties. She is rather quiet and reserved. She ran away from home at the age of seventeen, and joined a mercenary company, where she was employed for the past two years. She reached the rank of squad leader before she left the company. She was working as a guard on the caravan when it was attacked. She’s still wearing the caravan uniform, but says that she wants to go shopping for new clothes tomorrow, now that we have some money. Stone is a very young half-orc. He’s about five and a half feet tall, perhaps a hundred and sixty pounds, wearing a peasant’s clothes, and carrying a nice sack with a basket on top. He’s got a decent set of boots, which he took from one of the bandits in the tower. He’s an Exemplar of Hedrada, he tells us, though not very accomplished. He enjoys fighting, primarily with his fists, drinking, and eating, in any order. Goldpetal is an elf, and the smallest member of our party.  He is less than five feet tall, and very thin. He looks fragile, almost breakable. He doesn’t say much about himself other than that he is a druid, but from what he has said, he seems to remember parts of the War. We have the impression that his parents might have died in the Titan’s War, or perhaps in the Druid War afterwards.Fergus is the largest member of the party, a big highlander, solidly built and over six feet tall. He wields a two-handed great-sword. His people were nomadic farming people living in a town north of the Blood Basin. His clan was destroyed, he tells us, and though the anger in his voice speaks volumes, he does not tell us by whom, even when Paks asks. He was trying to seek out other members of his family when the caravan was attacked. Chuck the Younger is about five foot eight, of average to slender build. He was an apprentice of Steve, the Vigil, who was traveling with the caravan. His master was killed by the rat men when they attacked the caravan. He doesn’t talk much about himself. He does his own thing, and, as we’ve learned, he’ll search any corpse, any time. Fox, when he learns Chuck’s background, suggests that he might look for Jim, a Vigil who occasionally stops by town.We’re all tired, since we didn't get a good night’s sleep, but we decide to divide up the loot before we go to bed. Saraya had been performing up on the stage, but she comes with us to get her share of the loot. The crowd is clearly sorry to see her go, and the house bard looks quite impressed. Fox accompanies us up to one of our rooms, as we don’t want to show off treasure in the common room.Once we’re in a room, we each spread out the things which we gathered on one of the beds. We brought back: A holy symbol of Enkili (a chaotic neutral god), on a gold chain A dagger 2 parchments 116 gold, 31 silver A bag of gold, with another 50 gold inside An intricately carved rat skull A silver ring A bone scroll case A blue gem As Chuck reaches out towards the stack, Miriel restrains him. “Let me cast detect Magic on everything, first.” she warns. She spends a minute in prayer and meditation. “Nothing seems to be magical,” she concludes. Stone looks at the ring, and sees that the ring is very finely wrought, with rats running around it. The rat skull has the same sort of carving work, old and intricate. Fox, looking over his shoulder, says “The ring and the skull are obviously Slytherin art.”“Slytherin?” asks Stone.“The rat men,” Goldpetal explains.“Oh,” Stone says, in his dull half-orc voice.Miriel looks over the two parchments. One of them is a map, on which we recognize Southport, the coast, the tower, and it shows a path southwards to and into the swamp, the Mourning Marshes. The other has a strange pattern of dashes and X’s.I: -XXX II: X-X- III: --- IV: X-X-It is signed or stamped with a stylized ‘A.’ None of us can make much sense of it, nor can Fox.As Goldpetal and Miriel scratch their heads over the pattern, Chuck grabs the scroll case and opens it. There’s a scroll in it, but he cannot read the writing. “What is this?” he asks.“Here, let me take a look,” Miriel says, and he hands it to her. After she studies it briefly, she says, “This is clearly magic, not very powerful, and divine, not arcane. It is neither good nor evil.”  She studies the scroll, using her years of religious training, and after a few minutes, she says, “It’s a scroll of Bless. Perhaps I should take it.”“But, I want it!” Chuck protests. Miriel looks at him levelly, and points out, “You can’t use it, and I can.”“Fine,” Chuck says. “Can I have the holy symbol?” Nobody objects, and he picks up the symbol of Enkili. Goldpetal selects the empty bag and the blue gem. Stone takes the carved rat skull. Miriel gets the dagger, and that leaves Paks with the silver ring. Saraya is content with the gold. As usual, Fergus declines his share, which leaves twenty seven gold pieces and five silver for each of us.Paks looks at the leftover four gold and a silver, which didn't divide evenly. “Let’s keep the remainder for a slush fund. We can use it for shared expenses, like buying healing potions, or that sort of thing.” Everyone nods in agreement. Miriel says, “That’s a fine idea. Paks, you can hold on to it.” Stone nods in approval, and everyone else also agrees with this suggestion. We retire to bed.</blockquote>

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