Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows (ALPHA)

[Caulder]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Mekel slumps into a chair, his mask sitting slightly askew on his face as he holds a glass of wine in his hand. "Well. That was an ordeal. I shudder to think what happens next." he says, sliding the mask up enough to quickly down the wine, then putting it back in its proper place, before noticing Elise fiddling with some gear and hefting himself out of the chair. When he turns to see his own pile of gear, he smiles under his mask. "Well, it looks like the boss-man came through for us. I'd toast to a fine employer, but I already drank my wine." he says, walking over to the assorted gear left for him and sifting through it, preparing it for travel before he hefts his breastplate into his arms and begins donning it. "Next time, YOU get to do all the running, Lanric."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Lanric had taken the time to shift his pile into his room, before coming back out and slumping in a chair himself. Even after the enhanced wine, he was still showing signs of his own exhaustion. "We'll just have to see what's next. But I have a feeling that this particular session was designed to both weed out weakness, and see what each of us is capable of. It might be that he's planning on tailoring his next lessons."

 

[Chameon]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Gilfer shakes his head laughing before announcing "Oh goody goody, Santa came early this year, and I got everything I wanted! I knew he didn't actually care if you were good or ate that person...or not." With that, he started sorting out the equipment, looking at it all with childish glee, even the theoretically empty bag of tricks, moving and messing around with the individual pieces, almost ignoring the leftover wineglass as his giddy response to the seemingly trash equipment continued. "Oooh, and he even listened to my request for extra rips and tears in the fabric."

After a moment of needless, perhaps over-enthusiastic wonderment, he focused rather more correctly on the wine, grabbing it and looking unenthusiastically at it before looking slightly sick. After a moment of focusing, he took a sip, stating "Does not taste like what I thought it would taste like, which is good, as the alternative would taste rather poor. So, gentlemen, lady, we appear to have a new employer for life, and probably death and undeath as well, regardless of what we say or do. There's a tradition in my village that such actions are typically celebrated, with much aplomb and pomp and needless, needless shouting of various single-syllabic exclamations of joy. Would anybody here like to help me harass the servants for much additional to copious to excessive quantities of food to mimic such a celebration?"

 

[Caulder]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

"Gil. If I wanted to celebrate, I'd have called the servants to bring up a keg of booze. Right now....All I want to do is make sure this damn armor fits me well enough." Mekel says, adjusting some of the straps on his breastplate, not quite able to get it to rest comfortably, his coat having come off at some point to hang on a nearby piece of furniture. "As for all this talk of what comes next, I just hope he doesn't run us so ragged we're wishing for undeath."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

While the discussion was going on, Lanric's face suddenly took on a puzzled look, and he began shifting slight in his seat, then searching as if he felt something underneath him. After a moment, he pulled out what seemed to be some manner of flat device marked with buttons.

After studying it for a second, his eyes seemed to flare slightly with arcane energy. During the flare-up, he continued to study the object.

 

[Chameon]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Gilfer looks irritated, then laughs a little, then shakes his head, all the while muttering to himself. After a few moments of this behavior he states simply "I would like to speak with the fellow servants of our newest employer who would call himself our master so as to get a tinge of the personality that we can expect from this individual. The food was just a betwitchified nonsensical rubbish that would have matched well my current desire to eat as much as physically possible. On an unrelated note, whatever is that shiny thing that our soldier buddy did find?"

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Lanric studied in for a moment longer. "It appears to have some kind of very minor enchantment on it... Almost a linked type... Perhaps to something in here... A control of some kind?"

 

[Caulder]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

"Looks like......What do they call those magic wands the bartenders keep to turn the big transmission crystals on and off?" Mekel asks, still fiddling with his armor, his voice sounding more and more aggrevated as he kept it up, trying to get the breastplate to settle into place properly. "Heard a few call them 'clickers' for some reason, dunno why."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Lanric shrugged. "Well, there's one way to figure out what it does..." With that, he pressed one of the buttons on it...

...And absolutely nothing happened. Frowning, he tried a different button, this time getting a result. A part of the mantle on the fireplace began glowing, and an image appeared in the air, followed by sound being projected. The image shown seemed to be some kind of seal being shown over a sports field. Although it looked like there'd been a game in progress, some sort of announcement seemed to be interrupting it.

"...ison suffered an unthinkable breakout four days ago. According to reports, an army of undead struck the prison and drew away many of the guards. Reports indicate that a few guards who had remained on post during the attack were found dead, including the officer of the watch, Sergeant Chet Drauwulf, who was found with severe burns over his entire body. Current reports indicate four escapees, with sketches being shown..." At that, very crude sketches of the four were shown.

Lanric chuckled slightly, retrying the first button he'd tested, which caused the image to shift to a different game, this one not being interrupted by the announcement. He proceeded to half-toss the clicker onto a nearby table.

Lanric began singing a slight parody of a winter's festival song. While it wasn't horrible, it would be obvious that he wasn't trained to sing... "Chet's nuts roasting on an open fire..."

 

[Caulder]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Mekel crosses his arms and chuckles behind his mask. "Well, would you look at that. You'd think we were criminal masterminds or something." he says, watching the game until Lanric changed it to a different one. "Shame about poor old Chet. I liked him up until he hit me the first time."

 

[Chameon]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Gilfer looked almost askance at the pictures before stating tiredly "They made an image. Of one that has skin that shifts. One with form without form. Did it form in their mind that this concept might have been poor in form or execution? Or did they just want to amuse me with a poor sketch that didn't even show all the eyes right?"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

"I don't even look like that." Elise added, sounding a little petulant. "Hair's all wrong, and they made me look almost like a man, on top of it."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Lanric chuckled slightly. "Yeah, the sketch of me looks a bit off, too... But perhaps that's a good thing. We won't need quite as much alterations of our appearances."

A soft knock on the door interrupted any further conversation, as a small group of servants brought in a large meal as well as an assortment of drinks. These were set on a large dining table before the servants left the room quietly. Lanric looked at the table, then over to Gilfer, then to the others. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Okay... maybe we should consider being careful about what we say..."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Elise gave a shrug at the comment, finding more wine of a less magical nature to sip from. "I don't think it matters much. We're under geas to aid him, he knows we may not particularly enjoy it. So long as these fringe benefits keep coming though, I'm satisfied enough." She said, pausing a moment before continuing. "I do wonder though, why he keeps us so constrained in this mansion."

 

[Chameon]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Gilfer nods his head boredly before saying "And this was why the lead was being burified and decrepified as well, to better conceal that questions would be asked. Of course, it was entirely plausible that such a thing wouldn't necessarily be unestimated, in any scenario, but now they will be being told how to speak. Not that it should have been necessary." Gilfer shook his head for a moment in idle amusement. "But, such is the dance that will be danced, and the songs that will be sung, and one day, a portrait will be made to commemorate it all, but in whose hall, I cannot see."

 

[Caulder]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

"Better idea, don't say anything about the boss, period." Mekel says, plopping himself into a chair at the dining table and digging in, speaking between bites. "If there's one thing to remember.........About working for someone else........It's that you should never make fun of him or her." he says, digging mostly into whatever meat was on the table, and eating it with all the grace of a hungry predator.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Sense Motive:

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Lanric shrugged, before checking over the drinks made available. He seemed to mix up something before setting back down. "Hard to say... if I'm understanding you correctly. Although, I can't quite place what it is... But something seems off about these servants."

 

[Chameon]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Gilfer nodded in acknowledgement "Yes, the servants seem mute, they seem voiceless, shapeless, without form, like they are incapable or unwilling to respond. Perhaps they are those without vitality, without souls, and with only magic. Either way, it felt useful to at least attempt a questionnaire."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Over the next few days, training went on. While little of it was as intense as the first session, most of it struck home. It seemed that Drakenhof has a talent for teaching.

Any inquiries towards the servants would prove that they were capable of speech, but they seemed quite limited in responses and often directed the group to address questions to their mistress, apparently the vampire.

Little had been seen of Lanric during the individual training over the past days. What time he'd been active otherwise was often spent either adding things to a book he'd apparently requested, or pouring over maps, books, and loose pages. Apparently, those studies seemed directed at certain parts of the kingdom, occasionally practicing the new language that the group had been taught.

Apparently linked to his training, Lanric begun carrying a longer sword than the one he'd appropriated from the dead guard.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Shadowed Path - Into the Shadows

Elise was almost as absent during the days of training. Her own training was a busy mix, and she had to expend energy to heal the creature she fused to herself at day's end as well, so she always looked haggard by rest time in the small area they shared.

In odd contrast, she seemed to move with more grace and surety as their training wore on, but she seemed to grow sickly at the same time, her dusky skin gaining a pallor to it, the woman herself seeming winded sooner. In those times, she shifted training tracks while she recovered, poring over books and practicing her spells, which gained in breadth and power. She tended to stick to the common area during those times, taking a seat near the communal fireplace and stacking tomes near it, which was when the group saw her most.