The World of Skara Brae

With his eyes not working, Aaron had to depend on his other senses. He felt that he was being carried, Aaron wondered what was carrying. "What's happened?" Aaron asked.

James was a bit shocked of the medic's sudden recovery. How is this boy recovering so fast, he's being getting more "powerful" lately. "Don't worry everything worked out. Just focus on recovery and I'll tell you what happened later."

Even with the strange feeling in his mouth, Aaron couldn't help but let out a smile. "That's good to hear."

The werewolf did not want point out what happened to Eruantian right now, Aaron needed to recover first.

Cecilia replied to Sam: "Yes, I did hear what you said to Mr. Drek. Or rather, I heard the message you relayed to him from Eruantian. I have been seeking him for a long time. You see, I knew he was my father, which is why I came here. My mother told me the truth when I was a little girl, but she forbade me to leave home until I was of age. I studied the bard-tales and whatever other scraps of information I could find that might point me to father. I found the bard-songs to be inconsistent and full of embellishment, but they all seemed to agree on the names of the companions of my father. When I came of age I left home to seek out my father. I searched long and hard for information that might lead me to my father. To that end I travelled to many towns, even to the homeland of the Gnomes... though that journey proved to be a dead end. Still I pressed on, and many years went past, but finally I found Marcus, a former companion of Eruantian. Marcus had become the king of the Lizzardmen, and so I travelled to the homelands of the Lizzardmen, and to the palace of Marcus. From what I'd already learned, I knew Marcus had known my father. I thought he might know where Eruantian was. However, at first Marcus did not believe me when I told him I was a daughter of Eruantian. Moreover, he did not trust me, for in his old age he had become senile and did not wish to be bothered with other people's problems anymore. I persisted, though, and I eventually proved myself to him. After many tasks and chores I won Marcus' trust by slaying a band of evil hobgoblins and destroying a mad necromancer that was menacing the Lizardmen of Broken Rock Swamp. In gratitude, Marcus told me where to find Micheal. Macrus said that Micheal was the smartest man he knew, and a man of great power; If anyone knew where Eruantian was, Micheal would. Therefore, I travelled here to the town of Targos, and to Micheal's famous tower. Unfortunately, I did not arrive in time to save my father from his fate, nor to speak with him. At least I did get to lay eyes upon him. Tell me, sister... did you know father long?"

Meanwhile Drek had noticed that Aaron was conscious and he said: "Yes, Aaron, listen to James. We're taking you to an Inn so you can rest in a bed."

Just then, the party rounded a corner and there, in the street ahead, were three Giant Spiders. The spiders were attacking two men. These men were armed only with short swords, with only light leather armour and a light metal helm for defence. What's worse, they didn't seem to be particularly skilled swordsmen, for they were running away from the spiders. However, the spiders were faster than the men, and they were gaining on them. It didn't look like the men would get away without at least one of them being caught by the spiders. They seemed to be headed for the open doorway of a large three-storied brick building. The building looked like it was an Inn. It's main door (that two hapless swordsmen were running towards) was a double door, but only one side of the double-door was open.

Drek said: "Dam it, more spiders. Quick, Sam, your bow!" With that Drek ran forwards, drawing his sword in the process. Cecilia followed suit.

Mal said: "Must be leftovers from the battle in the market square. And just when we were close to an inn!" Mal chanted a phrase in Drowish, did a quick little motion with her sword, and cast Bless on the party.

Orren was still carrying Zelph on his back, and Gerrard & Deimos were still carrying Edvin. Thus encumbered, they couldn't rush forward without putting down their passengers.

[GM's Note: Bless Is a mild buff-type spell. It gives all the caster's allies within a 50-foot radius a boost to their morale while engaged in combat. It also gives said allies a boost to their resistance against fear-based attacks, magical or otherwise. Those two NPC swordsmen are not considered allies in this case. That's because they don't know Drek & company, and thus are unsure who your characters are or what their intentions are. And, since Mal is a Drow, and nearly everyone in Skara Brae is racist against Drow, these two men most definitely don't consider her to be an ally.]

edited 9th Jun '12 4:26:00 PM by TheSarge

"Ah, I'll have to... we'll talk later!" says Sam to her sister as she runs right back into action. With the current danger those men were in, Sam would have to wait a little in order to get to know Cecilia. In a way, it was a relief. To the young hunter, events were happening so quickly... And she had so little experience with things like family that she hardly knew how to act.

But battle... the hunt? Those she felt right at home. Her eyes quickly found some crates she could jump on to get a better angle of fire... she grabbed hold of her bow with her left hand and notched as arrow as easy as breathing... Jumped on top of the crates and then let her keen eyes search for a fleshy bit to aim at. Not a moment later an arrow was flying towards her target, with another one in the way a breath later.

Mellara for her part was a bit exhausted to change into an animal form just yet. The druid instead grabbed hold of her staff and prepared to delve into her true specialty. After all, she was a Storm Druid for a reason... and soon she would throw a bolt of lightning towards one of the lumbering beasts.

Aaron sensed the spiders and knew another battle was on the corner. "Are you going to put me down James?"

The werewolf replied "No point, we already are surrounded by people who can handle them." Putting down the team's medic in his current position...yeah, that would just pointlessly risk Aaron's life.

Kalan followed after Drek, pulling out his two long knives from under his shirt, he then jumped to lessen the risk of being bitten while thrusting the knives towards a pair of one of the spiders eyes, all in all it looked like a vaulting motion and he would land on his back ontop of the spider if nothing went wrong

Both of Sam's arrows struck home exactly where she'd wanted them... give or take a millimetre. Unfortunately the spider's backs were towards her, and thus she could not target their eyes, but she did manage to wound them in their lower backs.

Then Kalan neatly double-slashed a spider during his tumbling & lunging attack. When he landed on his back on top of that spider, he stabbed that spider in the head with both of his knives, killing the monster instantly.

Then it was Cecilia's turn to kill a spider. Charging forward with her sword held at an angle by her side, she swiftly cut the second spider completely in half with a single stroke of her flaming sword, all while saying: "God commands you to perish, foul abomination!"

Sam nodded her head slightly as she saw her arrows strike true... however, she was dangerously close to running out of them. Still, there was still one spider to take care of. Given how she did not had a good angle to lethally wound the spiders without wasting too many arrows, the young hunter dropped her bow and then ran towards the remaining spider... Unsheathing the sword of the man who raised her in the wilds for as long as she had memory.

Instead of circling around the spider to strike at it's face, Sam used the momentum of her run to drop to the floor and slide underneath the giant spider... and then used her blade to stab again and again at it's soft underside.

With the three spiders dead, one might think the two inept swordsmen would have stopped and thanked the party for saving their lives. However, this was not the case. Instead, these very same swordsmen just ran into the inn and slammed the door shut behind them.

Drek rolled his eyes and quipped: "You're welcome."

Sklav scowled and said: "Ingrates. Bah, oh well. Come on, let's get these three a bed. Or two."

Drek grinned and said: "Oh, I think I can afford individual beds for everyone. Hells, I can probably buy the whole inn!"

Orren said: "Right, I keep forgetting how rich you are."

Drek smiled and said: "It's the expensive clothing and fine leather armour. This way I can appear only modestly wealthy instead of the truly rich nobleman that they partly conceal."

Orren said: "Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke."

Drek, completly straight-faced, said: "No. No I did not. Now let us never speak of it again."

Orren said: "Riiight...."

Cecilia opened the door and said: "Ewwww.... This place smells of stale beer and cheap wine... and other vulgar smells I care not to describe."

Sklav gave a toothy grin and said: "My kinda place."

Cecilia said: "If you say so... I haven't spent any time in these kinds of places. Why don't we just go pitch a camp outside the walls?"

Drek said: "Well, I suppose we could... after all, we should probably check on our Dragon friends anyways and see if they're alright. We'll need them to get to Zurquan, you know. What say ye, friends? Inn or camp?"

Kalan shrugged as he wiped the spider blood off his knives and resheated them "I have slept in worse places. Its up to you master."

"Hmmg..." Sam slid from underneath the fallen spider, cleaning her blade and sheathing it before Mellara walked over and handed over her discarded bow back.

As for the question of where they would sleep... Sam felt conflicted and it showed in her face. She didn't want to disagree with Cecilia so soon but... "The inn has soft beds..."

Mellara for her part, didn't doubt in giving her opinion "I would sleep with the stars as my roof any night over dead wood"

James responded "It doesn't matter for me but with Aaron, I think it would be overall better for him to be put on a real bed."

Aaron than added "I can actually go with the camp...if we need to check the dragons...otherwise I'd rather sleep at the inn."

Claire said: "Oh papa can we get a bed? I haven't sleep-ed in a real bed for days!"

Drek said: "Slept. The word is slept. And you already have a bed. It's in the tower, in the girl's dorms, remember?"

Claire pouted and said: "But the girls in the dorms are strangers to me and Sam's not there. I wanna stay with Sam. Can I please, Drek? Can I? Huh? Can I? Can I please? I promise I'll be good."

Drek sighed and said: "Alright, alright, you can sleep with us for one last night but you're NOT coming with us to Zurquan, it's way too dangerous.

Claire hugged Sam and said: "Yah! It's a sleepover! We can do each other's hair and take a bath and talk about boys!"

Hearing this, Mal actually smiled a bit before returning her face it's usual serious look, and then she said: "I have to say I do prefer to sleep with a roof over my head if I can. I'm still not completely used to there not being anything but the sky above my head while outdoors. I don't suppose there's a nice, comfy cave around here anywhere?"

Drek said: "Not so much, no."

Mal said: "In that case, I say we sleep in the inn."

Orren said: "You know, I've never slept in an inn. What's it like?"

Sklav said: "Ya mean the beds? Soft. Nice and soft.... but I don't see how we can get you in a bed Centuar, you're too big. Well, maybe if we get an oversized bed and lay you sideways."

Orren looked perplexed and said: "Sideways?! No, I sleep on my knees. Or standing up. I don't lay on my side unless I absolutely have to."

Gerrard said: "I could really use a bed. And an ale. And a nice bowl of stew. And whatever else this place serves."

Deimos said: "Me too. I dunno about the rest of you but fighting large powerful monsters always works up an appetite in me."

Drek said: "I could sleep just fine in a tent, but I suppose we could check this place out, see what the beds are like. Besides, I'm curious as to why those two swordsmen ran away from us like they did. In any case let's see what the inn is actually like before we decide one way or the other. If it's a dump, we'll go pitch camp instead.... if our camping gear is still intact... that is. Oh dear, we left it all on one of the dragons, if I remember correctly. Oops... It might have been destroyed when the black dragons fought our dragons. Oh, and that reminds me, I need to buy camping gear for Cecilia, Mal, Sklav, Mellara, and Kalan. Too bad Targos' marketplace was destroyed. Oh well..."

Cecilia said: "It is kind of you to offer, Baron Drek, but I already have my own camping gear. 'Tis here, inside my Bag Of Holding." Cecilia pointed to a small pouch hanging from her belt. The pouch seemed to be much too small to contain a bedroll, much less a tent or a cooking pot. Drek replied: "Ah, a Bag Of Holding. I remember those. Andrew found one inside The Woods Of Sharp Teeth back when we were adventuring together. I wonder whatever happened to it?" Cecilia said: "Perhaps this bag is one and the same, for I found it while searching for you. But lo, let us proceed into this inn and see what beds has to offer." She then opened the second of the double-doors (so Orren could fit inside) and walked through.

Drek followed her in and said: "Yes, lead on good Angel."

edited 19th Jun '12 12:14:17 PM by TheSarge

Sam felt relieved that they would go Inn hunting and thus was quick to follow Drek and her new relative into the inn.

Mellara for her part was a little disappointed that the plan for camping was taken down. Still she resolved to go with the rest of them. If staying indoors turned up to be too much of a hassle she could still transform one last time and go out of the city.

James still carrying Aaron right now had two things on his mind as he entered the inn. Getting Aaron to a bed for rest and making sure he could get something to eat.

Kalan closely followed Drek into the Inn "I like inns~ You can earn a lot of money and stay safe from the rain."

The rest of the party followed Drek and Cecilia into the inn. The inside of the inn consisted of a large open room with a bar at the far end with six bar-stools in front of it and twelve tables more or less equally spaced about the floor with four chairs at each table. The ceiling was made of brick, and held up by a latticework of metal beams, joists, and crosspieces. This metal latticework, in turn, was supported by six metal pillars were holding up the ceiling, and these pillars were securely bolted to the brick floor at evenly spaced points. All the walls were brick. There were three windows on the west wall of the inn, and on the east side there were four wooden doors and a staircase leading up. The south was wall held the front door that the party had just come through, and at the north wall was the bar.

There were five people on this floor of the inn; Three of them were behind the bar, while the other two were the swordsmen that the party had just saved from three giant spiders. The three behind the bar had their backs turned away from the party, as they were busy looting the bar by grabbing bottles from the liquor cabinet and loading them into a number of burlap sacks. The two swordsmen the party had recently saved from giant spiders were running towards the staircase.

Drek drew his sword and said to James: "Dam, I should have known: Looters! When the big battle in the marketplace happened, most of the townsfolk must have fled the town or hid in basements." He then pointed his sword towards the bar and yelled: "Halt in the name of the law!"

One of the looters dropped his sack and said: "It's the Watch! Run for it!"

Kalan looked at the looters and then at Drek "Shall we kill them or just incapacitate them?"

The boy had already begun reaching into his sleeves to take out some throwing knives

Mellara didn't have much of a reaction to the looters. Their concept was one so disconnected from her usual reality that she didn't move immediately to stop their actions.

Sam on the other hand was quick to take her bow, grab her second to last arrow and then let it fly towards the wall so that it would fly right in front of the path one of the looters was going to use to escape "Stop right there..."

James said to his party "Well you guys can handle it, though I should check on the swordsman."

The werewolf gave Aaron to Orren and went up the stairs to check on what the duo would do.

Aaron could sense it...it seemed like another fight was brewing and this time between humanoids. People are going to be dying again...but he can't do anything...not that he could when he was awake.

Drek said to Kalan: "Tie them up them if they surrender, incapacitate them AND tie them up if they resist; But only kill if absolutely necessary."

Meanwhile the looter who'd been stopped by Sam's arrow dropped his loot, ducked under the arrow, and ran for one of the windows. Seeing this, Mal said: "Oh no you don't." She then took her sword, pointed it directly up, and whirled around quickly while chanting a prayer to her goddess. This cast Helping Hand on the looter. This spell caused a gargantuan & ghostly hand to appear out of thin air, grasp the looter by the torso, and bring him over to Mal.

Undeterred, the other two looters ran for the windows. Orren, Gerrard, and Deimos were encumbered with Aaron, Zelph and Edvin, but Cecilia was not. Hearing Drek's instructions, Cecillia ran forward, hoping to intercept the looters before they reached the windows.

edited 24th Jun '12 4:23:40 PM by TheSarge

Kalan then pulled out a pair of knives and threw them towards the knees of the looters, if it hit it was an almost guarantee that they'd fall and be unable to run, if not it was still a chance the knives would hit the legs

Sam dropped her bow once again and then ran towards the windows with Cecilia, drawing her blade to try and intimidate the looters from trying to get past her.

Mellara for her part, merely stood by the door and saw how event developed.

The looter that Kalan had hit in the knee with his throwing knives fell down, grasping his knee in pain. The last one nearly made it to the window, but had to stop as Sam and Cecilia were blocking his way. He said: "Ok, Ok, I give up. Hey, when did The Watch start hiring women? I could get used to this."

Kalan giggled as he too approaches the looter. "Thank you, but I'm actually a guy~" The boy responds to the looter, not caring whether or not the comment was directed to him or not

Meanwhile, James was chasing the two swordsmen up the stairs. He found that at the top of the stairs were six rooms, two of which had their doors open, and four of which had the doors closed. The two swordsmen ran, separately, into the two rooms with the open doors, slamming the doors shut after them.