DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm HHE8: Renn and Caeric

Zoltan

He was about to suggest he join the others and leave Jex and D to search, if they both felt so strongly about it. Having three stay behind was far too many, and weakened the main group too much. Even two he had had trouble with.

And, if only one should stay, he felt he was the best one, as he could defend himself, knew how to search, and could find the others easily later. But now if they were all going to camp here so they could all search, the point became moot.

"While we do need to scout, and may not have time to search here and to scout later, I don't think we can pass this up. There could be clues here that will help us."

"That is why, after most said to press on, I suggested we do both and I stay behind alone. But if we're all to stay here now to look around then lets get to it."

<Weston>

He shrugged. "I agree that we should not split up, so it seems we will be staying put for now. I don't know much about what we should be looking for though. Anyone want to offer suggestions? The more eyes we have looking the faster we can get this done."

D

"Let's break the area up into sections. Then we can search it, swap and search again. The double checking of each other's work will take time, but would be more thorough."

[Recruiting for this player character. Send PM for details]

Nestaron

He pondered while everyone spoke. Although there was some disagreement, it wasn't as if there was a good idea and a bad idea under discussion.

In fact, it was the surfeit of good ideas that caused the momentary dallying.

"We should camp upwind and uphill of this reek. Seyja, let's continue on a ways and find a spot." He said.

He hoped to find somewhere with even, solid ground. Trying to camp on a steep slope, with loose footing and surrounded by a stench like an alchemist's chimney did not appeal.

"We'll leave the rest of you to your search, but won't stray out of shouting distance.

"Sergeant, keep your eyes out."

Jex

He started searching the area immediately. He had a nose for treasure [treasure hunter +2] and worked his way around the bones of the dragon with surprising agility, hoping from here to there as he spotted something worth looking at [court jester +6] in his search. He focused his search first on the areas near the claws and mouth of the dragon. If it carried something it might be in either place.

[So it's CSI: D&D time, peeps. Give us a short scene of your character doing something terribly involving, searching the site for clues and treasure, and relate it to a Background skill. Seyja and Nestaron can do the same further uphill if they're searching for a camp site.]

Zoltan

He watches as the others search the immediate area. While Jex dives right in looking around the dragon bones, Zoltan moves back and uphill. Finding a good spot where he can take in the whole scene he replays the crash in his mind, tracking the dragon's first strike of the ground and the following tumbling and skidding it did after it hit.

He glances back uphill, finding it's flight path and moves in that direction. Then starting there, he moves along that path, searching back towards the bones. In his mind, if the dragon or rider were carrying anything there is a better chance it was dropped right before impact or right at the spot where it first hit the ground, then at the spot where it came to rest.

[Tracker +4]

<Weston>

He was not sure what he could contribute the search, but he was there and he would help as best he could. The question that seemed to be something he was most able to answer was the rider. He knew travel, riding and the like. He started with the saddle. There might be saddle bags or similar. But it would also have been the starting point for rider's launch at the crash.

[[ rover +2 ]]

[Here you go, I've scored the scene for you. In true CSI style, rarely has eyeballing a shred of unidentified material been so epic. Adam Berlin's Power of Will]

[[ Don't know if it really helps, but at least I =feel= inspired <g> ]]

Seyja


Standing there scowling and slowly shaking her head, Seyja finally shrugged, muttering something along the lines of whatever.

Then she turned, nodded to the cleric and headed upwind, searching for a combination camp site and lookout post where she could stand as lookout for the group.

D

The dark elf moved around the devastation. With this many people searching, he felt it was more important to pick hus place to search well. He even went so far as to climb a tall tree to survey the area. While he knew how to search quickly and we'll because of his recent memories. He also knew how to plan to take down such a creature. He also can envision reasons to muzzle it.

From his vantage point he used those pieces of information to pick the best place to search and unravel a piece of this mystery.

[OOC Master Villain or Thief]

Tindarien

In elven style he picks his way carefully through the area, studying the angles, bending, crouching, peering but try to disrupt things as little as possible. He is looking to see if he could see what might have happened here and also if there are any items of interest. These of course are of particular interest (Relic Hunter +5, Wilderness Survivor +1)

GM

If somehow the scene were to be sped up, as if from a god's eye view, it would appear that the party scurried around the site, to and fro, bending, straightening, fidgeting and fussing around the wreckage and farther afield.

Some of these frenetic figures criss-crossed the dragon's remains, others spiralled outwards, creating an unintentional and fascinating dance. All the while the shadows under the trees shifted, growing longer and deeper as the amber light gained a more fiery hue.

***

Zoltan dropped the canvas pack amidst the other equipment salvaged from the site. It had burst at the seams from the crash and the contents bulged from inside.

D, Jex, and Weston stood around, having gathered their findings in the same spot. Tindarien meanwhile, was sat on his haunches inside the dragon's ribcage and examining the backbone with the beam of his lantern.

They were overlooked by Sergeant Almador, whilst Nestaron and Seyja had left to scout uphill for a camp site.

The dragon rider's saddle appeared to have been ripped from the back of the mount, the tack was high quality leather but had snapped. Not only did Dragon Knights of the Empire wear the Imperial livery, but their saddles were said to be made from bulette hide, crafted in the First Age. This was not of the same ancient design. It was also well cushioned with a sloped back and wooden armrests. It had the look of a comfy chair and wasn't greatly suited to mounted combat.

Embossed on the seat, however, was a crest. A spiked gauntlet holding a wand and a sheathed sword in the same fist.

Inside the pack Zoltan had found was a suit of armour. Cold blackened steel with electrum trim and a fluted plackart, evidently to be worn without a surcoat. Hardly noticeable at a glance, but the armour was almost devoid of rivets, with the plates being fused together. By hellfire. It was fine workmanship, a merging of human and demonic craft that could come from only one place, the smithees of First Triumph, Fortress of the Crusader.

Weston unrolled the bundle he'd found lashed to the saddle. A sturdy quilted blanket, in the middle a scimitar and scabbard. It had engraved quillons and a long, wire-wrapped handle with room a wide range of one or two handed grips. The blade was marvellous, curved and single-egded for the most part, but on the backside it flicked up into a spike and then down into a sharpened, clipped point at the tip. Most remarkable was its length, maybe three and a half feet long in all. A heavy cutting blade on one side, for unarmoured foes, and then a spike on the reverse, if needing to hook or bludgeon an armoured foe.

Jex could roughly translate the Draconic pictograms, etched into the blade. They read Fusillade.

The bard had made his own interesting discovery. The claws and teeth of the dragon had also petrified, reducing their value (though they were still more valuable than say, a rib). However, a leather bandolier was caught in one claw, once stuffed with glass vials. Most of the loops were empty or the vials cracked, but he finds one still contains an irridescent fluid that seems to glow beneath the surface. Enchanter's oil. Also, three saccharine, syrupy potions, a classic halfing recipe for healing.

Nothing around the dragon's mouth, except the muzzle, which had intrigued D. After all, a muzzle might stop a dragon biting, but not clawing, so what was achieved? It wouldn't stop it belching death and destruction from its nose either. So the only thing it would achieve was to stop the dragon speaking. Dragons were legendary for their cunning words, worming their way into your mind, and some could evoke powerful geas.

D might have been pondering this when he found a pair of saddlebags twisted in a tree. The buckles had torn off, so most of the contents had spilled out across the valley. But he did find papers, quills and ink, an old grimoire written in Giantish, and a rune shard. These shards were raw magical energy, somehow captured in a mundane material and then inscribed with a crafting rune. This one looked like a piece of quartz crystal, mined from the earth.

What did any of this tell you?

• That the dragon rider travelled in comfort
• Their sword and armour were packed, not worn
• They didn't trust their mount to speak
• They knew some magic
• They had some connection to the Crusader

Zoltan and Jex had a sound idea that these were the remains of Caeric, dragon mount of the swordmage, Renn of Quagglen. Notable rival of Sir Edward the Red, he was an agent of the Crusader, procuring magical artefacts for the counter-invasion. Red Ed on the other hand procured magical artefacts to turn into gold coin, gift to fashionable causes or noblewomen, or hang on his wall and boast about. The two had crossed paths (and swords) before, once famously leading to Renn's incarceration in the floating prison of Darkskye.

It seemed he'd gotten out....

Tindarien overheard the discussions and having blown out his lantern, he rolled nimbly out from the dragon's ribcage and to his feet. His examination of the remains made him certain that 'Caeric' had either been killed in flight, or mortally wounded, such that it couldn't control its descent or landing. The pectoral girdle and the vertebra around the wing joint were crumbling like old masonry. The high elf wasn't an expert on dragon physiology, but he'd survived enough treacherous ruins to recognise fractures. Caeric must have been struck by a heavy impact to the shoulder or across the back. It was tempting to imagine a boulder, not so tempting to imagine what might've hurled it.

Still, if it was the Beast of the Titan's Elbow that slew the dragon rider, Tindarien felt he had a better grasp of its size and strength.

Then Nestaron appeared on the slope above them.

"We've found the rider!" He said.

***

Nestaron stood at the precipice and pointed with an outstretched hand. D, Jex, Tindarien, Weston and Zoltan were beside him. Sergeant Almador had gone to link up with Seyja.

They were several hundred of feet uphill from the wreckage, where the ground hardened and became rocky, and the trees thinned. It was a narrow defile between two foothills that dropped even further when it joined the river gorge.

There was a dark stain on one of the rocks below. Light was failing, so at first it looked like someone had swotted a large and juicy fly but a moment later it resolved into the shape of a mangled humanoid, possibly wearing shredded robes. The splatter pattern suggested he'd fallen from greater height than the precipice and been carrying speed. He'd hit the rocks face first. If it was Renn of Quagglen, he'd fared no better (and probably worse) than his mount.

The light really was failing though. Where was Seyja?

You saw her on the hillside above you, standing on an outcrop, silhouetted against the sky.

***

It was the last light of the day as the sun set on the Sword Point. The horizon was fierce vermillion and the sky above it had turned magenta. It was a breathtaking spectacle.

Seyja watched it, with the Titan's Elbow looming behind her. Whatever she was thinking, she had survived another day and for the first time in a long time, she'd not fled, but stood and fought and won.

It may be a furtive moment, but the barbarian woman had already scouted two viable camp sites.

One was a low-roofed cave, bone dry with a carpet of soft pine needles. She stood at the second. It was level ground, a glade with the bedrock close to the surface. There were some trees, but mostly bare earth and green moss, with one aspect terminating in a lumpy rock outcrop and steep drop. It was somewhat open, which had its own set of cons, but so did the restrictiveness of a cave.

It would soon be nightfall.

[Descriptions of the magic items, so you can decide how to distribute.

Enchanter's Oil. A magic oil for coating weapon or armour (quick action). Effect lasts until end of battle. Adventurer-tier. +1 to attack and damage on weapons, or +1 to AC on armour.

Renn's Armour. Heavy armour. +1 to AC and +1 to MD. Quirk: Prone to abstract speculation.

Fusillade the Angry. Scimitar/heavy martial weapon. +1 to attack and damage. Deals +2d6 damage with the first attack with this weapon each battle. Quirk: Blurts obscenities.

Rune Shard. Adventurer-tier. As Enchanter's Oil, but also gains random magical effect (always beneficial).

Potion of Healing, 3 of. Adventurers-tier. Can use recovery (as standard action) to heal +1d8 hit points.

Tindarien. Gypsy gains chit. Cash it in for +1 to attack and damage vs the Beast of Titan's Elbow.

Seyja. Exeter gains chit. Cash it in to spend recovery as a quick action. (This allows you to recover and attack in the same round, without even needing to rally.)]

Seyja


For the first time in longer than she could remember, Seyja felt she had accomplished something worthwhile, even though they had lost Heilbutt to the goblins and orcs. She stood uphill from the others and watched the sunset and, as the reddening orb settled from sight, she muttered a prayer to all those she'd lost in the last year.

When the others glanced in her direction, she gestured for them to join her so she could point out the two equally satisfactory campsites she'd discovered.

D

He felt more alive than he had in serval days. It might have been the life and death struggle earlier today and the majestic damage spread out before him.

He listened and watched others when not actively searching. For him death was satisfaction in so many ways, but not so for many of the rest. It made him think and to contemplate though possibly not as much as the barbarian woman.

When beckoned he bent to carry a portion of the finds. He was not attached to any of the new treasures yet he wouldn't make others carry his share.

<Weston>

"Since the rider was not in armor and had his scimitar packed ... that makes me think he was more about traveling than heading into a dangerous situation, so it could have been just a coincidence", he said once they were all back together and discussing the results of the search.

Zoltan

He eyes the demonic made armour and the heavy scimitar with clear interest, though he waits until everyone is together to discuss what is best for the group.

He nods at Weston's comment. "Yes. And the timing of the death to be around the same time as Red Ed is interesting as they were both competitors. Did Ed take down the dragon? Did the dragon kill Ed? Or did the same foe kill them both?"

Looking at the two campsites Seyja had located he grunts. "Good choices. I like the cave myself. Easily defended, and while it has no 'back door', so to speak, I think we're not likely to be running from trouble."

Tindarien

"The main detriment to the cave is whether it is likely to be is use by another but if there are no recent tracks, it does better hide our presence."

"And although it is unlikely to be connected, there is something around here that could kill a dragon and its rider.. plus a knight."

He looks back at the items they had gathered from the two areas.

"Given my propensity to take damage, I would be happy to carry one of those healing potions."

Jex

Although he felt this validated his choice to stay back and investigate the site more carefully, the bard simply went about his business of keeping the morale of the group high.

"Providence! By all rights these artifacts should have been buried with time. Can we say we stumbled upon them? What if we had gone a different way, only a few paces over? We would not have found them. Maybe there are forces out there that are looking to provide us with every advantage! We are not just lucky. We are being watched over and protected by powerful forces that want us to succeed!"

He was downright giddy about the findings and it could be seen in his gait which was more of a skip than a walk. He bounded over bones and tree stumps from place to place with great agility during the search.

"Yes. The cave is a good idea. Easy to defend ... once it is cleared out."

<Weston>

"We haven't seen any 'local wildlife' ... at least not alive. So I don't think that will be much of a risk", he offered.

D

Dank and dark both suit his chosen moniker. He nodded his assent to the cave as a choice.

[Recruiting for this player character. Send PM for details]

Nestaron

"My main concern with the cave is no escape route. I wouldn't want to be trapped by whatever it is that knocks dragons out of the sky.

"Having said that, Seyja and I scouted the cave out earlier and it looked pleasant. Dry and airy."

As the sun disappeared over the horizon, the cleric was growing more and more uneasy. He hadn't known what to expect when he arrived at the Titan's Elbow. Unholy, dark magic, or some nefarious enterprise maybe. But could it be exactly as described? The Beast of folklore, that had haunted this peak for centuries, was simply put, a big scary monster.

The reason it disturbed Nestaron, was that as much faith as he had in himself and his companions, this monster had been tackled by mighty men of this age. Gorulon Gorehound, Sir Edward the Red, Renn of Quagglen. How had it bested them? Did they all have some common weakness?

Sergeant Almador

Nothing about the Titan's Elbow felt safe to him, and they'd be camping right under its eaves. So the man-at-arms ventured no opinion on the matter, and only hoped that they decided soon.

"Do you think we will have a campfire tonight?" He asked everyone, though looked at Weston for reassurance.