DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder 1 - Highharvestide in Phandelin

Zhuirentel Elendaril

Now mounted, she glances at Davroar. "I'd be interested in knowing how the land fares, now that it is no longer ruled by Demonic Bloodpacts. Have the people, and the land, recovered?"

Ryssa


Accompanied by Sister Gareale, Ryssa accepted the use of a horse but, at least for the moment she took hold of the steed's reins and led the horse, intending to walk at least for a while.

Davroar

He shakes his head and says, "Some. Not much though, Zhuirentel. My tribe and others like mine, we survive, but there are places where evil spirits and demons still lurk. Ruins of cities and forts are rife with them."

Tales of the bigger tribes sometimes foray into the ruins for old weapons or treasure, but his tribes elders and a few others have taken it upon themselves to attack any who would dare to venture into them. The fear of unleashing a demon is still there even after all this time.

Zhuirentel Elendaril

She nods to Davroar, musing in her mind how much time has passed on this plane since the time of the Bloodpacts and on his phrase 'we survive'.

"Not surprising", she says of his comment that ancient cities and forts are still rife with evil spirits. "Such entities can linger for ages. Most prudent to let them lay."

Jaliera

She listens to the talk of the giants, wondering just how big they really are. In some ways she would like to see one if only at a safe distance.

She elects to walk, figuring that she can always ride on the cart later if she gets tired. More of a habit - though one well grained in precautions necessary to travel - she sends Whisper aloft to watch for any movement in their vicinity or heading their way.

DM
The trek up to the mines took several uneventful hours. It would need to be a quick tour of the mines if they had hope of getting back to Phandelin before nightfall. It was a little over a ten mile hike up into the the foothills of the Sword Mountains. As they traveled it became clear that much of the work that had been done was not inside the mines themselves, but to the path that they were taking there. It had been flattened and cleared so that wagons could make their way between Phandalin and the Wave Echo Cave.

As they climbed the last leg of the trail, now more of a road than the overgrown path they had taken when they first found the place, they saw that the cave mouth was bustling with activity. Nearly a dozen miners were outside the entrance to the mines going about their work. A large clearing had been created and a several small huts and two larger structures which looked like barracks had been built. A water tower had been erected and there was a long hitching pole where horses could be tethered and a nearby was a small corral and other structures that looked like barn and tool sheds. It looked very different than the last time the absentee partial owners had been here.

Gundren and Nundro step forward and when they are identified by the miners, one of them puts down a crate of equipment he was carrying and approached the two dwarves and simply says "Misters Rockseekers," and seems to await directions.

Nundro replies, "We're going to do the ribbon cutting very shortly. Is it all ready?" and when he sees the affirmative nod, he adds "These are the liberators of the mine. You've heard their names before. Bern, Jaliera, Kriv, Davroar, Ryssa and Luminmorn." Before he could say any more, the man said "He was here just last week". He was looking at Bern.

<Bern>

He really didn't need ... or want ... all this. But there didn't seem to be any way to avoid it. He did his best to keep it all 'inside' ... smiling and waving and shaking hands, wishing them success and all. But it couldn't be done soon enough for him.

Kriv

He looked askance of the brothers: This was their show, after all, and it would ill-behoove him to castigate someone for interrupting when protocol dictated their priority.

Jaliera

"You were hear last week Bern? Thought you were with Davroar.."

She looks puzzled.

<Bern>

He looked puzzled as well. "Not unless I have an undiscovered twin or something", he said. "Who saw the 'other me' here? I would like to talk to those that saw him."

DM

Gundren replied before anyone else could, "This is Oren, he's our foreman."

He turns to the man and said, "What are talking about? He just arrived in Phandelver and was in Neverwinter until then. Are you sure it was him?"

The man looked somewhat confused for a moment. He looked Bern up and down and shook his head. "I'm sorry. If it wasn't you, it was your twin. You ... or your twin, was here with two other men, big guys. And not for long, just a short visit and you...I mean whoever it was, said his name was Bern."

Kriv

With a thought, the Dragonborn noble’s maul was in his hands.

“Everyone, on alert. Oren, you have done your duty well enough, but right now everything here is under threat and there may have been sabotage or theft. When we did battle here there was a shapeshifter that got out alive. I suspect it heard our names in the battle, and saw us well enough to copy us. It knows where this place is and is no stranger to unsavoury allies. We will need everyone here to be checked, it could be anyone if it remained behind.”

<Bern>

Kriv's analysis made a lot of sense to him. He got his bow ready.

Zhuirentel Elendaril

Having reached the mine she dismounts and casually moves around, examining the activity and the entrance. She noted all of the recent work that had been done to the approach and can see that the mine is looking closer to a 'going' concern than she'd thought.

At the conversation between the foreman and the group, she looks around more carefully, adding to Kriv's comment. "If it was a Doppleganger you encountered it had no need to hear your names. Those creatures can read the minds of those they focus upon to help them better impersonate their targets. Luckily only recent thoughts can be obtained."

She knows some think they can ask a question that only the true person might know as a way to detect such Shapeshifters, but the Doppelganger's ability to read thoughts can foil such a plan as it can pick the answer out of the mind of the questioner.

Ryssa


The cleric nodded and smiled, then lifted her icon of Lathandar and spoke to the miners, "The blessings of the Morninglord be given up to you."

Before anything else could be said, however, the possibility of the shapeshifter's return was shared among them. Ryssa pulled her shield and her enchanted mace from their holding places and turned slowly, studying their periphery.

Davroar

He is momentarily puzzled too when the foreman says Bern was already here until Kriv mentions the shapeshifter.

Since Kriv mentioned the possibility of theft or sabotage, Davroar asks the foreman, "So, sir. Bern's twin, how long exactly was here then? Did you see him leave the same day or longer, and did they bring anything down or out of the mines?"

The more time that shapeshifter had been down there will give Davroar a lot more pause as to what it was doing.

DM

At Kriv's mention of the shapeshifter a general uneasiness befell the assembly. The miners that had traveled from Phandelin here started to look at each other like the others were devils. Whether or not there was trouble, now the miners were on edge and they started to mumble. One of the miners that just arrived here asked, out loud, "When are you going back to Phandelin?" as if wondering if he could bail on the work and return to safety. This had the potential to spread to the other miners like a demoralizing epidemic.

Oren listened to Davroar's question and said, "Like I said, he was here with those two big men and he walked around here like he knew the place. He went down into the mines but I didn't see where. They weren't here long and did not stay the night."

He paused and added, "I don't think they took anything but the two big men seemed very happy and made quite a spectacle when they left the mine. They were slashing and hacking at every tree and rock and kept looking at their blades to see if the blades got nicked or something."

Zhuirentel Elendaril

"I don't suppose you noticed which way they headed when they left?" She asks. From the actions described, she presumes they did something to their weapons with one of the magical effects she'd been told existed in the mine.

Kriv

“Well, at least we can deduce what they did.” Mused the Dragonborn. The Forge of Spells would likely have been open to its finders or those capable of replicating them, and the witness testimony lent credence to that.

“It seems likely they genuinely left, then. Sabotage remains a possibility, particularly pertaining to that which they used.”

Oren
He took a long, hard look at the strange elf. He had never seen one that looked so pale, so frail. "They went the same way that you came, up the only trail here."

Sildar

He expected nothing less from Kriv.

"Yes. It seems that this other Bern came and left. We should find out where exactly the trio went but this is not the time and place to discuss what to do about it." he said, responding to Kriv. "We need to check things out, talk to miners to and see if, indeed, anything was sabotaged or trapped. Otherwise, we best be getting on with the matters at hand."

It was clear by the way he glanced over to the gathering of miners that was starting to murmur that he didn't think discussing this in front of the laborers was prudent.

<Bern>

While he was listening and watching, he was also thinking. "Is there some 'recognition sign' that we can come up with that the changeling won't know", he asked the group.

Zhuirentel Elendaril

She shakes her head at the Ranger's question, and motions the group off to one side a bit for privacy as the other miners seem unnerved by the conversation.

"It would be able to pick the needed counter-sign out of your mind as soon as you tried it."

She glances from one to the other. "One thing I've seen work is a multi-layered process. I tell one of you a secret sign to give to others but I tell no one else what it is. When someone suspects you may not be the 'real' you, I must leave the area. They ask that person for the sign, and since they do not know what it is the Doppelganger cannot Mind-Read it from them. They then come to me and I confirm whether the correct sign was given or not. With a large group it can get a bit convoluted, though, with all the combinations."

"For now, though, perhaps it is best to check on the mine and we can discuss this in privacy later"

Davroar

"I could turn into a bear now, get a good sniff from everyone. I doubt the shapeshifter can copy scents?"

That determination would then solely lie upon him, so he is not sure how everyone would feel about that. At any rate, he quickly adds, "Anyways, yes. Let's just get down there to take a look..."

Jaliera

"That's a good idea Davroar.. but I don't know enough about shape-shifters to know if that would work."

She frowns, thinking hard.

"Maybe we could mark our Bern with something.. maybe like one of Davroar's markings.. in a place it could not be seen. Then at least we would know the real one!"

She grins at Bern as likely he wouldn't like the idea.

<Bern>

He listened to the discussion and considered Jaliera's question for a moment before responding.

After a moment, he replied. "Maybe 'tagging' me with a specific scent is the answer. Not something someone could see ... something =one= of us could 'track' if needed. But will that work in this situation", he asked.