Summoned!

[Aenon]

Cyra easily managed to find her way with the help of the map. Not that it was very hard, with the Claw Peak itself visible in the distance...

After four more hours, she had reached the base of the mountain. It would probably take her around three hours to reach the top, if things went as expected. The peak of the mountain looked impossible to climb from the south side - from there, it really looked like a solid rock shaped like a claw, devoid of any plants. Maybe, once upon a time, it was really the claw of an enormous primordial beast? A giantic claw trying to reach the heavens, to angrily rip them apart...

But a closer inspection would reveal that it was really just an oddly shaped mountain. The north side of the mountain was filled with green, and it should be easy to climb up from there. In fact, right after the last tree Cyra noticed a dark spot on the mountain face...it should be a big cave.

 

[Pervy]

Cyra took in the large claw, thinking, wondering.. had she been here in her prior life it was quite easy to memorize, but no random flashes of insight seemed to come.. at least she had been used to wildernis travel.

She climbed up the cave, noticing the cave.. yes, that was always dangerous, a bear, more goblins, worst case, more murder-trees.. but! On the other hand, perhaps she could find the trail of the holy knight that had made this path before there.. it was forth the risk, she decided..

And thus, she climbed up by the mountainside, a curious glance peering into the cave.. without risking to explore it deeply without need, of course.. she was happy to continue on if it was filled with disapproving bats or worse dangers, to continue on on her path.. at least, if the map was to be believed, she was halfway to the rough area of her destination...

 

[Aenon]

Approaching the cave, Cyra took a look at the entrance. No angry bats flew out, and she couldn't hear a bear snoring or anything like that.

However, she could smell something dirty. Not really smell it...she was actually smelling pleasant smell of the rain. It was a dirty smell she could sense with some other, sixth sense. More like a feeling that something that shouldn't be was in the cave?

The mouth of the cave was silent...and she could see that the cave went deeper than the light could reach.

 

[Pervy]

Cyra .. narrowed her eyes, before focusing using her divine Sense for evil... this cave gave her some bad vibes... and usually, she was more neutral towards caves... and focused.. and narrowed her eyes.. she could sense, but not see something.. likely, a disgusting shadow.. this place had not just been desecrated a little, bad news for a few days, but defiled.. fun for the whole undead family, to attract creatures such as this. Considering it was daylight she could try and strike at it and retreat..

She wandered into the cave, making sure to act as if she hadn't noticed the shadow.. only to draw her pike and strike at it as soon as she was in range, mumbling. "Burn in moonlight, wicked thing!" As her hand wandered down along her pike with determination.

(Knowledge Religion 18,
Moving in to challenge it, whilest also pretending to not have noticed it.. - 21
Initiative: 16
Attack the thing - 15
Damage on hit: 11 physical, and a smite for 11, cause I feel shadows could be nasty!)

 

[Aenon]

Cyra's sudden charge is enough to bring the creature to the light...its form revealed to be a shadow on the floor...a shadow that belonged to no one, and it became clearly defined under Cyra's torch-light.

The paladin managed to strike the unholy creature. Her divine power should easily destroy the creature...however, there was something unholy in the cave...something that made her own holy powers less effective. The pike almost made the shadow lose it's form...but it survived.

And then it charged forward, it's hand clawing at the paladin, striking true.

Cyra felt the shadows cold touch...it left no visible mark, but she could feel her vitality and her strength draining away...

The shadowy then rushed away, narrowly dodging Cyra's pike, seeking shelter in the shadows deeper in the cave...however, Cyra could still make out it's shape, standing just barely out of the torch light.

[Cyra takes 12 necrotic damage, and he strength is reduced by 4 ]

 

[Pervy]

"Graaah..." Cyra wince, her pike suddenly feeling a lot heavier.. yes, this was a shadow, alright.. still she would not let the creature be like this!
"Haah.. Haah..." She panted, before kicking the torch a little closer to the shadow.. and pursuing it, striking at the creature again.. considering how much she'd weakened it earlier, she could perhaps keep her divine powers in reserve, this time... She rushed forward and sought to impale the shadowy undead upon her pike, growling triumphantly.. if a little drained.

Next, she took a few steps backwards, warily picking up the torch before examining the inner parts of the cave, using her divine sense as well...

 

[Aenon]

The shadow dissipated into nothingness with Cyra's strike, dying without the slightest sound.

The cave was just a seemingly normal cave. However, in one corner Cyra found a dirty bedroll, and a backpack next to it. At the feet of the bedroll plates of a black armor were carefully stacked on a small pile. A small fire pit was nearby.

Looking a bit further, Cyra found something strange...one of the walls of the cave, had actually a secret door, that was now open ajar. It seemed that the unholy spell originated from there...

 

[Pervy]

Cyra nodded with satisfaction after dispersing the undead. She still got it..
She picked up one of the dark armor plates.. briefly pondering.. could this have been the holy knight? In that case, who had assaulted him?

Luckily for her, her divine senses had warned her.. she approached the door, lifting her torch and, deciding that with the light she'd not manage to sneak through anyway, clearing her throat to shout out:
"Whats up you filthy undead! Which one of you dried up husks knows how to party!" Whilest readying her pike in one hand, and the door (for the slamming shut if she noticed she was likely outclassed) in the other.

She was not afraid of some low-class undead.! .. she assured herself.

 

[Aenon]

The armor was an adamantine full plate...it was jet black, but when lit by the torchlight it reflected a dull, silvery shine...almost making it look white.

No sound came from the other side of the door.

The silence went on for a few moments....only to be interrupted by the a while flash of lighting, and the deafening sound of a thunder striking with all it's might on the peak above...

After shouting and opening the door, the torchlight lit the room behind. A round cave, with a black, ominous looking altar in the back. A figure kneeling in front of it, his back turned towards Cyra. The shape of a greatsword could be seen on the ground nearby.

 

[Pervy]

Her eyes widened slightly when she realized the armor-plates she was holding and their true nature.. this had to have been the knights resting place, such a suit of armor was vastly expensive.. that would take care of her armor-needs for good! She smiled.. and hesitated.. she still had to figure out what got the knight.. likely a nightly suprise assault, without his armor.. good news for her, as she could handle whatever had to so cowarldy attack, even in her weakened state.

She was briefly tempted with picking up the plates and armoring up... but hesitated.. perhaps some undead-juices were still clinging to the place and the weaknening of her abilities concerned her.. she had to at least learn more before she retreated with the armor.

And then, she heard the cracking of lightning and thunder and hesitated more... it could have been a bad-weather coincidence.
Could have.

She stared at the altar and figure. She smacked her lips. "You know what.. I'll just.. .. take my leave yes?" She decided, tip-toeying pointlessly towards the greatsword, trying to snatch it up for herself.
"You just do your thing over there, no need to turn around and give me a startle..." She suggested. "Heck, I'm propably not even here.. just a figment of your imagination. Ignoreee meee" She recommended.

(deception 24. Nat 20. Uwah!.. I types all the above out before rolling, I swear! ^^)

 

[Aenon]

The figure really did ignore her. She approached the greatsword, and reached her hand to grab it....but as she touched it, she saw an eye opening, right on the center of the guard. The eye immediately turned towards her, and their gazes locked.

Spoiler: Do Open This!

(no sound can be heard)

She was in the previous room, lying on the floor. A figure was sleeping next to her. He looked like a seasoned war veteran. She closed her eye. Suddenly, something fet off. She opened her eye, and saw a dozen shadows rushing out of the secret door. Immediately, she send a mental singal to the man, who readily woke up. He grabbed Cyra...who was a greatsword? and got up to fight the shadows. He fought them, and finally managed to finish them, even without his armor.

He then rushed through the door, where he found a hooded figure, who pointed an evil looking amulet towards him. Nothing happened, and the man rushed forward to slash the figure, who turned to dust, leaving only the amulet on the floor. The man looked at the altar - it was almost black from all the dried blood that had been spilt on it over the years. The man picked the amulet from the floor, but immediatly vomited blood, letting it fall down again. He looked in horror at the amulet, thinking about what he should do.

At the end, he picked it up, and quickly placed it on the altar, now looking even more exhausted. He went back to his backpack, and picked up two potions to drink...that seemed to make him feel a bit better. He stood in front of the altar, and raised Cyra to strike the evil looking amulet...

The eye blinked, and Cyra found herself coming back to her senses. Yes, the vision she had seen was if she was in the place of the greatsword. The eye blinked again, and then it closed.

Spoiler: The amulet on the altar, now lying broken in two pieces.

 

[Pervy]

She stared at the sword. Which... stared back at her. And blinked, opening her mouth to whisper a 'Hello sword' or something.

Instead, there was a moment of vertigo as she found herself.. in the next room? No, the room before.. this was weird...

"Woah..." She made, swaying slightly, steadying herself before looking over to the twisted shrine. and looking back to the greatsword.

"So.. question one, if he downed the robed one before..." She glanced over to the figure, seeming to ponder.. wait was he the man from the vision? "Well, breaking the amulet did not fix things." She noted, keeping a wary eye on the kneeling form... before, still holding the sword, focusing her senses.

Someone should propably cleanse that shrine. Perhaps with a cave-in. She felt a strong urge to just leave the place, she got a ncie armor, she got a potentially nice sword.. but she couldn't help but feel like this place would be trouble, down the line. Plus, she had to try and help, right? For starters...
"Why even place that thing on it... I wouldn't have touched it again, just smacked it." She nodded, making a mental note not to touch that thing.

"What do you think, creepy kneeling fallen hero guy.. Bucket of water to scrub the shrine? I feel I should mess with things here a little just so no one can get any bad ideas." She hesitated.

"I think I know what this is.. a perpetuating curse.. whoever tries to end it, becomes the next. You realized it and tried to end it but you couldn't save yourself.. welp.. guess I got to help you..."

(Divine Sense on the figure and the shrine.. then.)

 

[Aenon]

Cyra's divine sense would reveal that the desecrate was originating from both of the pieces of the talishman...as if they were still one, even if broken. It gave her a feeling that it wasn't really broken...just a bit weakened. As if she just pushed the pieces together, the amulet would regain its full power...

The corpse of them man didn't show as anything more than a corpse. If Cyra excamined it closer, she would see that his skin was darkened, and he looked dried up.

 

[Pervy]

Cyra seemed thoughtful, pulling out her stick, first poking the corpse of the man, literally watching her stick go through, raising a brow.. before approaching the amulet and poking it in turn.. cautiously.. the stick seemed just fine and not.. rotting way, still she didn't feel like giving the thing a touching. Again she had the urge to just collapse the entire cave, but if this thing spawned shadows, that would just worsen the problem..

After a few pokings, she picked up half of the amulet, heading out and grabbing the adamantine armor as well. Heading out, she armored up, removing in the chainshirt in the overhang of the cave, for it was properly raining now, before girding herself in adamantine armor.. as much as she pitied the mans fate.. now this was a proper armor...
Finally, she checked out the backpack left behind.. deciding to keep the two amulet-halves seperated. it was no sollution, but it was a good start.

 

[Aenon]

The backpack had a 50ft rope strapped to the side, and a light crossbow on top of it. Next to the backpack there was a small lantern.
Inside the Backpack there was a pack of 8 torches, some trail rations that probably weren't edible any more, a waterskin, flint and steel, 4 flasks of oil, and a scroll case. On a side pocket, where she remembered from the vision, Cyra would find three glass vials with a deep-red fluid inside, and one more that had a fluid that looked like snow. On the pocket right next to those, she would find a small bronze hand, that looked exactly like the popular design of a door knocker, along with a small coin pouch.

The coin pouch contained 8 gold pieces, and a small string.

The scroll case had a rolled up map that was considerably larger than the one Sera had provided, and a rolled up stack of letters and other papers. It would take some time to go through them.

 

[Pervy]

"Oooh.. this is all the stuff I was supposed to take to proper adventuring!" She nodded, before putting on the backpack.. minus the spoiled food, feeling like a proper adventurer...
"Sorry for the pilfering, but you don't neet it eh? I'll go fix up the weird evil amulet for you!" She shouted over to the secret room.. before exhaling.. she certainly got lucky.. she couldn't have dealt with that many shadows aside from running..

She'd get some distance between herself and the cave, before trying to find a resting spot where she could avoid most of the rain, to recover form the nasty effects of the shadow-strike.
(Also, investing 1 HD to recover if I can do a short rest.)

 

[Aenon]

Cyra runs out in the rain trying to find a shelter from the rain. After a while she only manages to find a tree big enough to block the rain, and luckily it doesn't look like it would try to eat her.

With nothing better to do, Cyra decided first to sip some of the potions, to maybe try to guess what they were.
The red potions smelled like alcohol, and they had a cherry-like taste. She felt the tingling of healing magic on her tongue, but it wouldn't be enough to actually heal her unless she drunk the whole potion.
The snow-like potion had no smell. She felt her tongue turning cold...no, not exactly cold. It was just that she couldn't feel the heat of her own mouth, any more.

Taking a closer look at the sword, she would notice the eye was closed...but it she stared at it, it would open and look back to her. As if...as if it was challenging her to a silent, staring contest!

 

[Pervy]

"Healing potions, no suprise.. but better I test it now than find out they are raspberry schnaps later..
.. also who are you looking at.. " She stared at the sword.
"Listen, I don't know what you were trying to tell me, I am taking half the amulet and getting it figured out or molten into extra kinky belly piercings or something. Best I can do. If that necklace was part of evil magic, it's hampered now. Better than me vomiting blood too, no one's helped by that.

And you're my sword now. I am Cyra. Hello!" She enthused, staring at the sword

(staring contest and resting for 12 charisma check!)

 

[Aenon]

".. also who are you looking at.. "

The eye kept staring at her, unmoving. It had a green-blue iris, and it felt like it could see right through her...it felt creepy, and finally Cyra had to look away as she explained her motives. The eye, looked at her...smugly? or maybe it was her idea...

The second staring contest started with an eye-roll when Cyra mentioned that it was her sword now....however Cyra managed to out-stare the eye, making it close first. She felt that the sword had now accepted her as it's owner/ally, maybe even friend.

'Greetings, Cyra. I am the All-Seeing-Eye. Don't call me sword. I will help you, as long as you take me to see interesting things. Now, if you excuse me, I will close my eye for a bit. And no, I am not sleeping.'


[The greatsword is a +1 greatsword of warning...however Cyra has a feeling that maybe there is more to it than what meets the eye....]

 

[Pervy]

".. take you to see interesting things huh.. you know.. I kinda was hoping for a more.. noble sword.. I feel like I once had one that could seal away evil and things.. buuut! Not gonna complain at all, so err.. I am an interesting thing, kinda, been alive again for like.. 2 days.." Cyra would tell a bit of her story on the way back, make camp, and return to the little village, now clad in dark Adamantine armor -very stylish- and with a voyeur sword -could be a lot worse!-

She checked on if Ozrog was doing well, but primarly was curious on meeting up with Sera, stepping in and placing pike and chain-shirt on the table, explaining:
"Can give that back to the hunters, but first.. Have you ever seen something like.. this.." She carefully unrolled the chain-shirt, before raising a hand.
"Careful, don't touch it." She nodded, recounting what she'd seen to the best of her abilities.

"So yeah, I didn't find any or -my- holy sword, but I had to kind of get a good lookin at this before I headed onwards for that. Plus this all-seeing eye.. .. doesn't like if I call it a sword lies pretty nicely in the hand... anyway.
Evil amulet.. any ideas? My first insctinct would be to have the smith melt it down, but gut instinct is that the forges fire wont do anything to it.." She shrugged.