Battle & Breeding

[Tassadar]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Charsheet

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Still successful at opening the jewelry box though!

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but don't know if that'd even be allowed in one post.

Looking over the spartan quarters and the concessions made to make them even more uncomfortable, Arkeia frowned and sighed heavily. "Bloody hell... Didn't go for the luxuries, did she?" the piratess remarked, before heading over to the desk and giving it a once over. She suspected that the jewelry box on it wouldn't offer much, but she opted to open it anyway once she had finished looking over the area around the seldom used desk.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Alia's face twisted in disgust as she surveyed the trophies. Some of them, like dumb and aggressive wild beasts, she could understand. They were like hunting trophies, just bigger. The demons... Not too pleasant, but somewhat understandable as non-evil demons were exceptions to the rule. The rest, however... "Butchery." She growled, watching the remains of the slain. "Plain and disgusting. For all the evil that happened here, those nuns aren't exactly making it easy to sympathize with them." Still displeased, she began to search through the tomes on the bookshelf, taking the mother superior's book and searching through the rest in order to pick out the most valuable ones, continuing the group's previous tradition of looting all in sight.

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, passed but with no bonus, sadly.

 

[Zilrax]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Butcher. There was a word that Alia had picked perfectly for this. Faeyna snarled angrily, stomping up over to the trophies. While there was no real harm to the soul done here, the dead were just meat after all, it spoke of a far deeper disrespect and hatred of other life. She could not undo the deaths of others. But she could destroy this monument to hatred and spite.

"I'm sure someones going to talk about the value of these things, but there is a point where bad taste becomes excessive. While many may frown upon taking from the dead, It's another thing to be trying to trade to others the heads of sentients murdered.," says Faeyna in disgust as she reached up to try and pry the damn things down.

(

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Pass)

Faeyna yanked the heads down, grimacing at each in turn. Dead were dead. But monuments to acts of butchery of sentients, to the destruction of life not out of honoring it but to be shown as a sign of spite. It was utterly atrocious, and she had no desire to meet someone who would place value on these things in the future.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Battle & Breeding

"Half of me's worried the spiritual ungi is going to know you're all pilfering her place of solitude." Karaz said as seemingly everyone went to looting the place. "It's all going back to the church anywho. Just worried my job of keepin' her calm will get harder if not impossible." she shrugged. Still, if their minds were set, damage was done. Might as well join them, while grabbing the book and shoving it into Alia's hands. "Find the code word, then let us hurry back to the trapped girl."

(

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)

Karaz raises her axe, and slams it down onto the wardrobe, aiming to shatter the locking mechanism and swing open the doors to find whatever's inside to stash it with the other valuable she obtained. The church might be happy with all they've recovered.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Having finished going through the bookshelf and stashing away all the valuable tomes she managed to pick out, Alia took the book Karaz gave her and flipped it open, scanning for the bookmark in an effort to find the passphrase. "Probably going to be something cryptic if I were to make a guess..." She muttered idly, thinking out loud. "Those religious types are always fond of words. Especially since their power base is built on them, basically." After all, faith was spread by preaching, which typically involved passionate and impressively-sounding speeches to impress the crowd. That tendency usually bled into literature as well.

 

[arivia]

Re: Battle & Breeding

(I'm going to let Grifbo use his action to let Arkeia find the secret switch as his action, since everyone succeeded)

The jewelry box was a larger prize than Arkeia expected, given the room. Gleaming beautifully a specially crafted case of black velvet, a thin golden circlet, set at the brow with a fire opal. Probably some sort of vestment for senior clerics of Saale. The church might want it back, but then again, it was very valuable, and might be worth more to a jeweler. Arkeia knew just the fence who dealt with such good too...

[Worth 150 gp plus the priestess' gratitude to return to the church, or 350 gp to fence]

Alia poured over the books briefly. It would be a terrible shame to leave any of these books behind, but alas, they could only care so much. Best to save the irreplaceable volumes at least. Hopefully, the church would offer a decent price for the books, but even if they skimped, saving the books was probably worth it. Besides, she had a few days to skim over the most interesting volumes, and maybe keep one or two. They probably wouldn't notice anyway.

[Worth 250 gp]

The smashed wardrobe was mostly full of the identical and utterly boring white and yellow habits of the nuns of Saale. Karaz tossed them aside; unless she suddenly became desperate for fabric, or she found some pervert who had a thing for nuns, she couldn't really see the value. Then again, poor Alia was still going around with her tits all but hanging out. Maybe she could use one. As Karaz was about to be fed up with searching, she spotted something out of place: a pair of black leather shoes, the seams woven with white thread in some sort of arcane runes. They felt lighter. Very light. So light they made the dwarf feel like she was holding less, not more.

[Leaping Slippers: The wearer gains an extra in or out of combat Heroism use once per dungeon, even if they cannot normally use Heroism. The action being enhanced with Heroism must involve some form of jumping.]

The last of the trophies were wrenched free and stuffed into a heavy sack. Faeyna knew she could sell them for quiet a bit of money, but the idea galled her. She resolved to dispose of them with respect, and hopefully appease their spirits.

[Faeyna will gain a permanent -2 cost to the Speak with Animal spell (which will become useful, promise!) from knowledge imparted by the spirits of the trophies]

Alia flipped the book to the marked page. Underlined in yellow ink, she read the marked passage: "Let us cultivate the light within ourselves, that we may carry it into the darkness, and banish the shadows there." Seemed simple enough.

The girls were turning to go when they heard a rumbling behind them. They turned, where they saw Grifbo frozen in the act of stealing a dagger from a stand in the heavy desk. Behind him, the wall had slid open by some mechanism, revealing a shadowy alcove, in which hung a set of the assassin sisters' leather armor on a stand. Silvery threads of enchantment hung on the powerful armor, but on the other hand, intelligent monsters would recognize the distinctive outfit, and it would surely drive them to fury.

[Night Guard Armor: Cursed; Grants immunity to Arousal, but makes diplomacy with some creatures impossible. (This doesn't replace your armor, you can work it into any set you please)]

Party Actions:
---Go rescue nun jr.
---Go somewhere else.
---Search thoroughly
---Rest

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Alia shook her head, reading the passphrase out loud for everybody to hear. "Lovely. Am I the only one here who notices the irony here?" The contrast between their chosen password and the way those nuns acted in secret was like day and night. The mage herself saw it as a form of hypocrisy. Rather than cultivate their light, the nuns only added to the number of shadows. Shaking her head, she closed the book and put it in her bag along with the rest, then jumped as Grifbo managed to uncover the hidden outfit. Tervin eyed it with distaste. "Personally, I'd recommend leaving that one. Or getting rid of it. I don't think wearing that is gonna help us find any friends." Not to mention, she was starting to strongly dislike that outfit herself. "Let's go grab the novice, it's about time someone pulled her out."

(Go save the junior.)

 

[Zilrax]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Faeyna blinked at the discovery of the armor, shaking her head. "While arousal can be used as a weapon, it itself is a natural thing. It shouldn't be rejected as a whole. Even if it did not represent an order built on hate and spite. Perhaps instead I will dispose of it along with these monuments of disgust in fact." She stuffed it in the bag.

With that done and the catch phrase evidently in hand, she nodded firmly. "Two codephrases we have no. Let's go help the girl. I can fix any starvation or dehydration she has if she still lives. It will tax me further but I consider it worth the cost of helping her survive."

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Finding the slippers, Karaz cheered. "Huzzah! This shall be useful!" she declared, before thinking for a moment. "If'n I'm seen wearin' this, I'm liable to be burned by the mother superior. I'll just hold 'em in me pack." she declared, pocketing them.

(Karaz opts to put the shoes in with the other relics to avoid being seen wearing them by Mother Superior.)

(Also go save the little nun.)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Battle & Breeding

"Well, this oughta be worth some coin. Now lets go get that girl so we can finish this up n' get outta here!" Arkeia said, before starting at the sound of stone scraping. Looking into the revealed alcove, Arkeia grimaced but then glanced at Faeyna. "Ehhh... Well... It ain't exactly likely to make any friends, but if nothing else it might be useful if I ever gotta do some night work. Especially with... Well, it'd come in handy under certain circumstances, and it's not like I'm lookin to live up to its legacy. Assuming you ain't set to take it n' burn it, I'll pack that in for now, and figure out a way to change the looks up a bit to be more acceptable later."

(Nun saving is best plan. Also... Daaaat outfit and its basic negation of the negative of the crown. Get Arkeia a ring of invisibility or some method of disguising it and damn would that be a nice combo. I'll throw it into my inventory unless someone else wants it or Faeyna is dead set on taking it and burning it with the trophies.)

 

[arivia]

Re: Battle & Breeding

The door of the stone hermitage shuddered and rumbled as the Alia spoke the key to the enchanted lock. Inside, the novice screamed with joy and relief as sunlight poured into the tiny, stale room for the first time in weeks. Darla, as the pregnant nun had called her, was a tall, skinny girl, fair skinned and freckled. Even beneath the formless white of her novice robes, there was no disguising her coltish form: only the faintest suggestion of hips and breasts, while ribs featured prominently, exacerbated by the weeks of insufficient food. The girl tossed herself to the girls' feet, her enormous green eyes filled with tears of relief and her frizzy, fiery red pigtails bouncing as she prostrated herself, unable to do anything but gush her thanks to the adverturesses.

"I... I don't have anything to pay you with, but... I'll work for you! I can pay my debt that way! I... I don't want to be a nun anymore, not if they're going to be so cruel..." the girl sobbed out.

The young novice's stomach growled loudly. Now might be as good a time as ever to have a rest and a small meal.

[Now that you have two followers: you can, as a party, have one active follower at a time. You can switch them out any time you Rest. They're only very rarely in any danger.]

[Darla is more a liability than asset in combat, but she's a talented young healer and seamstress. While she's active, your Rests heal 50% more HP.]

[Grifbo is a bit of a jack of all trades. He might periodically assist in combat, but mostly will skulk around trying to stay out of danger. When he's active, one character may add +3 to a Room Action test in each room.]

Party Actions:
---Back to the Chapel
---To the Garden or Hospital
---Back somewhere else
---Rest (+50% effect if you want to make Darla active instead of Grifbo)

 

[Zilrax]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Faeyna blinked at seeing the poor girl as she prostrated herself before them. She blinked and moved over, crouching and helping her up. "There there. Relax, dear. we can talk about such things later. For now, here, let's feed you."

Faeyna called up some good berries, wincing at the pain it caused her, but offered their filling and healing magic to her. Starvation, a horrible way to go... She relaxed on the ground by her, making sure she eats her fill, and making sure nothing else was harmed on her.

(Back to the chapel after I guess)

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

"We should probably consider resting somewhere." Alia said, helping Faeyna get Darla on her feet, keeping the novice steady while the lizardwoman fed her. "Our friend here could use some food and we're all in rather sorry shape." Considering how their last battle went, they all could use a recovery period. Question only was, where would they rest? Back in the guest tower? Some other place? "What do you girls think? Should we try and recover that statue first, or sit down for a while and get our strenght back?"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Essentially ignoring the prostrate nun and letting Faeyna deal with it, Arkeia shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, we might want to take a bit of a relax before we go exploring any more," Arkeia agreed, "I'd rather not deal with any shenanigans that this lot had ready in case someone tries to steal their stuff while I still feel like I'm gonna vomit again."

(Take ze nap with nun-like assistance. Then back to the chapel! To finish off looting the things!)

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Battle & Breeding

When the girl got out, Karaz took out her rations and water and gave it to her. "Consume, ungi. Do not eat too fast or you will choke and die in a most ironic manner! Hehehe!" she chuckled. "Glad to have ya on board, ungi. If'n you don't mind, I'm sure you have some healin' magiks on you. How's about you use that to heal us up, eh?" she inquires.

(Take a rest while feeding the nun, use her ability to heal 50% more.)

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

"That's probably a good idea." Alia nodded, agreeing with Karaz and Arkeia. "Could catch my breath here, don't have much strenght left for casting spells right now."

(Rest and use Darla's ability.)

 

[arivia]

Re: Battle & Breeding

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: 1d4+4 6 1d4+4 8 1d4+4 7 1d4+4 6

[Arkeia 15/15]
[Alia 17/20]
[Faeyna 11/26; 12/13 DEX]
[Karaz 25/25]

Darla was uncomfortable about Grifbo at first, but she turned out to be a sweet, if naive girl, and quickly warmed up to him. With a bit of prompting, the skinny girl told her life story: she was the illegitimate daughter of a Imperial Graf and a chambermaid, who was forced to become a nun to avoid the Graf's wife's wrath. Darla had grown up in the monastery, and began her novicehood as soon as was permitted, despite her mother's objections. Darla was eventually granted the great honor of serving in a border convent, and was in the process of performing her final meditation of her novicehood here when she ended up being locked inside for weeks. She was already unhappy living at this convent, since so many of the sisters were quiet cruel to her, and after being locked in a tiny, dark room for almost three weeks, Darla was ready to consider other careers.

"Are you going to help rescue the other sisters though?" the girl asked, quiet worried. "I'd hate for them to be in the clutches of horrible monsters! I don't know if I could forgive myself if I didn't try to help them..."


-------------------------------------------------------------------------


It was late afternoon by the time the girls returned to the chapel, Darla in tow. The ex-nun gasped with fear as she saw the chapel, and worse, the Mother Superior's corpse draped across the altar. The the head nun's specter was nowhere to be found, but as Darla pointed with tears in her eyes, the altar slowly slid backwards of it's own accord, revealing a stairway into a dark undercroft.

"That's never been there before!" the girl said, her voice wavering with fear.

[Descend y/n? Somewhere else?]


Lore:
---The Heartland Empire is the large state that rules much of the lands to the west of Raothland. It was founded by a great conqueror, and became quiet large, but now locked in a series of low intensity civil wars, and its in a slow decline.

[Life I said, if you want to make something up for a lorepost like this, feel free. Zilrax has been good about telling us how lizardfolk live; I'd like to hear about dwarves too, and the cities/kingdoms Alia and Arkeia hail from.]

 

[Zilrax]

Re: Battle & Breeding

(I've spent inordinate amount of time thinking about Faeyna's background. That said, maybe one these times can describe it in a less piecemeal method heh.)

"We will. We have helped one already. She's reconsidering her time as well. Perhaps she can teach you some useful things before we all move on.," nods Faeyna, "You seem skilled in the healing arts, even without magic. Perhaps you could become a Sekar. Erm, that is to say, One who Heals with Claws would be the translation. Someone who heals with herbs and tinctures instead of the light of the god/dess like myself."

------------------------

When they arrived, the spirit elected to not manifest itself, instead manifesting it's malevolence abilities and manipulating the environment directly. It would seem it was good enough.

"We require your assistance, Darla, before we can finish up here. A sacred relic may still be below. We were tasked to retrieve it. But we can only get by with the aid of someone of the faith. We've been lead to believe you can help here. Will you assist us? Rest assured we'll do everything in our power to defend you."

They needed to get the relic in order for Faeyna to put her theory to the test. Things the imp and the fallen nun had said had been bothering her. But there would be only one way to be certain on the matter that she could see as feasible. Of course, she'd need to ensure they lived long enough to see it done and tell the others her suspicions.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Battle & Breeding

Charsheet

(Arkeia is from some chump village that she no longer cares for, located somewhere on the coastline. I suppose having it be part of the empire would be as good as anywhere. Most of her backstory revolves around her life as a pirate girl. I've been letting that come out in a piecemeal manner, much like Zilrax has been doing, it's just maybe a little less noticeable because it's not as powerful a contrast.)

"You, uhhh, don't know 'bout this place then eh... It's... Probably a good thing you weren't plannin on staying regardless then!" Arkeia said awkwardly, not prodding too intensely at worming the girl's backstory out of her but letting one of the others pry her secrets out of her if they so wished. "We'll try, I suppose, but we'll have to see if we have any luck on that front," she added, in regards to rescuing the other sisters.

She glanced across her companions searchingly, hoping that they caught on to the silent question she asked; Should they tell Darla what had really been going on here?

~~~~~~~~~​

"Hasn't it?" Arkeia answered in a bemused manner in response to Darla's surprise at the sight of the secret stairs. "Aye, Faeyna's got the long and short of it going on. We'll cover you, but the church wants us to return... Whatever's down there."

Stepping up to the stairs, Arkeia examined the path leading downwards, "I'll head in first and look around... See if there's anything dangerous. Assuming it lets me." Unless barred, either by her companions or some other force, Arkeia would cautiously start down the steps, eyes flitting over every step and every surface in search of potential traps or other dangers.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Battle & Breeding

"I don't know." Alia shook her head in response to Darla's question as the group settled down to rest. "The four of us alone aren't enough to take on the forces that conspired to bring this temple down. We're looking at a well-organized warband with a powerful leader and a host of dark elves, so it'd be very challenging to say the least." The mage explained bluntly. "Still, if efforts are going to be made to rescue them, it's possible we'll find ourselves participating. Who knows what the future will bring, though." With that, the mage fell silent, musing as she rested to recover her strenght.

As the group returned to the chapel, Alia was a bit suprised to see that the head nun's undead form was gone, her corpse returning to it's previous state. It seemed she hasn't left this place completely, as a pathway opened before the group, leading underground. "Oh, it was there all right. It was merely hidden well." The mage remarked, eyeing the entrance to the underground with distrust. "Tread carefully. If this serves as a hiding place for the temple's most sacred treasures, there's a good chance it's been booby-trapped. We need to move carefully and ensure that the way is clear."

(Alia's backstory is kinda similiar to Arkeia's: born in some shit village in the boonies, not really fitting in, picked up by a wandering mage who thought she showed enough talent to make an apprentice and assistant. They parted on amicable enough terms when their respective ambitions began to draw them towards different things: his was to learn, hers to get rich and do whatever she felt like once she secured a life of luxury for herself.)