Nailo jingles his coin purse, much lighter now, with a small frown. It had taken him months guarding caravans from Amn to raise so much. It was as brother Timmon had said;
"Easier spent than made." Nailo said the words aloud as he thought them almost without noticing.
Filani collects the gold and places it in a small pouch, which she tucks away in her robe.
"A pleasure doing business with you," she smiles. "Now...let us get down to work."
The sage begins by painstakingly copying the runes onto a sheet of vellum in blue ink.
"As I said," she explains, "From what I know about such things, I think it would be rather imprudent to perform divination on the runes themselves. I use this as a proxy to prevent anything unfortunate from happening to any of us."
Once the sketch is complete, the sage fetches a thumbnail-sized bit of amber and a small handful of rose petals. She spreads the rose petals around the image of the tattoo and begins to chant the words of a spell.
The casting takes some time and seems to require a great deal of concentration on Filani's part. Sweat gathers at her furrowed brow, and some force, like a gust of wind centered around her, seems to pull and tug at her, distorting her words and sending the red petals swirling. She clutches the table with both hands to steady herself as she continues her incantation. Finally, Filani draws a small silver hammer from somewhere in her robes, and still chanting, brings it down on the piece of amber. A small explosion of light flashes brightly. The rose petals, which now seem illuminated from within, swarm suddenly together and fly into Filani's open mouth. Her eyes close abruptly. When they open, they glow as well, a warm gold. She stands and walks trancelike through her library, brushing her fingers against scrolls and books, nodding and murmuring something unintelligible.
"Amin elea", she whispers in Elven. She blinks. Her eyes return to normal. She seems exhausted, drained.
"The meaning of the symbols has been revealed to me," she says.
"The first symbol is that of the Fire Knives, great enemies of King Azuon. They were once the most powerful thieves' guild in Cormyr--before Azuon exterminated them like rats. Now, few would know of them. They have been driven deep into the shadows, though they still lurk in the underbelly of Tilverton."
"The second symbol is a mark of great evil." She shudders. "A gaping mouth within a hand...the sigil of Moander, the one who is called the jawed god. His worshippers died out nearly a thousand years ago, when elven archmages destroyed their temple and captured Moander himself. But there are rumors that he has broken free, and some worship him again. A great beast has awakened in an ancient temple beneath the dead city of Yulash, by the river Tesh. It has broken free. It crushes the forces of Hillsfar and Zhentil Keep in its yawning maw."
"As you may have deduced, the third symbol is that of the Zhentarim. They gather forces in Zhentil Keep, growing stronger, hatching some nefarious plot. Their current leader is a man named Lord Manshoon, a powerful wizard. At his right hand sits an evil cleric of Bane, Fzoul Chembryl. They have some connection to these other groups...some common purpose, though I cannot say what it is."
"The fourth symbol...it is less clear than the others, but I believe it is a symbol of the Red Wizards of Thay, from across the Sea of Fallen Stars. They are powerful--their agents are everywhere, perhaps even here in Tilverton--but they are divided by petty infighting."
"The final symbol....another evil monster who is in some way connected with Moander. Tyranthraxus, the creature is called. It was thought that he had been destroyed, but some have begun to whisper his name again in dark places, and there are rumors that he has returned stronger than before."
"How the bonds have been created, I cannot tell you for certain. No doubt some form of powerful alteration--though I would wager some abjuration has been used as well to prevent them from being easily removed and to block any divination that might be performed directly on the runes. The priests in the Temple of Gond may have some way of removing them, but I would advise you to be wary of tampering with them too much."
"So," Filani says finally. "That is all I know. I hope it has been helpful. Perhaps I can provide you with something else that will be of worth to you...free of charge. There is a renowned sage who lives on the road to Zhentil Keep. Elminster the Wise is his name. I can give you a letter of introduction, if you would like."
And spoiler tags work again for me too! @Heindrich, you can still have your familiar. No need to reduce your CON.
"There are of course much things you can do for us without the 'need' of a payment, more things that you could imagine..." he says lowering the tone of his voice, and grinning, he starts to speak again; "Starting to tell us, about yourself."
OOC: I feel like I should have made Crevs to be Chaotic Neutral, but I'm going to stick with the CG Crevs and (try to) role play him.
"About myself?" Filani asks @CrevsDaak with an arched brow. "I assure you, I am ever so boring. And if there were anything interesting enough about me that you might want to know it, that information would have a price just like anything else."
She takes another sip of her tea, and strokes Celebrin, who has found his way onto her lap.
"I have a terrible amount of work to do," she says. "But perhaps you could drop by some other day for a cup of tea and tell me some rousing story about that time when you crushed some evil priest with your little finger."
Crevs drops back his hood and talks to Filani "I could came one day." he say as he looks at his hands "I've got other stories of great interest too." He looks at her and grins "If you want to hear them." OOC: too lazy to add the dark red with html, plus it looks horrid
Nona had stopped hearing everything after the name "Elminster." Elminster the Wise, the Chosen of Mystra himself! She'd shamelessly admitted more than once that she was a fan, an admirer even. With the bite of her lip and bounce of her heels, she fought hard to contain her excitement, though she couldn't resist flashing a giddy smile to Lulu ( @booinyoureyes ). The kind florist had plenty of experience with Nona's fangirlish rants.
"You can give us a letter to see Elminster??" she asked Filani, a little too loudly. She flushed, coughed once, and struggled to lower her voice. "In that case, I would like to humbly accept."
"Indeed I can," Filani smiles. "Whether or not that will be enough to get you an audience is a different matter. It will help, but I can guarantee nothing. Elminster is only seen when he wants to be, and more often than not he's off gallivanting about the planes. But I shall write you a letter, and we'll have to see what comes of it."
She produces a sheet of parchment and begins to scribe the letter in graceful script.
Jin watches intently as the elf went to work with her incantations. He briefly regretted not studying such magic himself, but his arcane tutelage had been specifically focused on spells that would combine well with his swordcraft.
Jin ponders her words carefully, not knowing whether she could be trusted entirely, and still seething at being ripped off by her, even if her services were genuine.
"There is a renowned sage who lives on the road to Zhentil Keep. Elminster the Wise is his name. I can give you a letter of introduction, if you would like."
Like Nona ( @Nonnahswriter ), Jin's eyes lit up at the name.
A chance to meet the great Elminster himself?! Really?! Who is this elf to have such esteemed contacts?...
It took some force of will, but Jin quickly suppressed any outward display of excitement and his face once more betrayed no emotion as he pondered his options.
@Heindrich (and anyone else who wants a familiar), yes, we will use BG2 familiars. The familiars in AD&D are usually rather boring. Additionally, I will say that any mage can also choose to have any of the three "neutral" familiars (ferret, rabbit or cat). You may have noticed that Filani's familiar talked. This isn't normal...usually there's just a telepathic bond and the familiar can only communicate with the mage. My imagination got the better of my common sense, I suppose. Maybe it's a werecat or a polymorphed apprentice or something. Who knows. Not super important anyway. I just wanted there to be a talking cat. :P
Wait... familiars don't normally talk?! But... in BG... u can talk to them! T_T lol
Also I assumed that you can see what your familiar can see... In NWN, I watched some LPs where the player actually controlled a familiar in first person and used it as a scout, as well as a fairly powerful fighter.
"If you're in Tilverton for a bit, stop by sometime," she smiles. He's not sure if she means it...she has an easy cheer about her that sometimes feels like insincerity. But you never know.
In AD&D, they're pretty much just normal animals but have 1 more INT than usual and a telepathic bond with the caster. The spell description there states that you can't see through their eyes, and must rely on what they communicate to you...which can be difficult at times, given their limited intelligence, possible lack of familiarity with human-related stuff or specific terms for different kinds of monsters, inability to count past 3, etc. However, the low INT and no talking thing really only goes for "normal" familiars. Imps and dragons have human-level intelligence (Faerie Dragons are genius-level), so they should be able to talk to you. I will stick with not being able to directly see through their eyes (since that's not possible in AD&D and not explicitly allowed in BG), but in the vein of the generally enhanced familiars in BG, we could say that the animal familiars are far smarter than usual and can talk. That allows me to have talking cats all over the place, so I'm down with that. :P
Hopping on the balls of her toes, Nona gratefully takes the letter with a nod at Filani. She grips the edges of the paper with tight fingers, as if it were more precious than gold.
"Well, what does everyone else think?" she asked, "Elminster will prove a powerful ally if we could garner an audience with him."
It was obvious what she wanted to do next. It looked as if gravity was the only thing keeping her from leaping into the air and bursting through Filani's roof.
Nailo looks at the others and shrugs, having no idea who this Elminster might be, apparently some sort of powerful mage. Nailo had more faith in his sword than he did in magic, but if the others thought this wizard could help, he would go along with them.
Nona ( @Nonnahswriter ) seemed as if she might explode with excitement, and Nailo attempted to give her an encouraging smile, though it came out looking more like a grimace.
Just so you know, Shadowdale (where Elminster lives) is about 150 miles away. That's about 6 days on foot or perhaps 5 on horseback. Your characters will need time to prepare for such a journey.
Jin breaks his silence for the first time since agree to pay the fee. Addressing Nona ( @Nonnahswriter ) and Falagrim ( @mlnevese )
"You are both right. If we can truly be granted an audience with Elminster, then this ... incident... will have been a gift of Heaven, but the Temple is just across the road, so we might as well try there first."
As Jin speaks, there is movement in the pack slung across his back. It was clearly important to him, and he was not comfortable enough in such unfamiliar company and territory to put it down all the time the group has been inside Filani's house.
Unalarmed, Jin slipped the pack off his shoulders and settled it on the floor, and untied the lightly enchanted knot that sealed it shut. From within a reptilian head the size of a man's fist emerged.
Jin speaks in a language alien to most of the group.
OOC:
From now on, I will use purple to denote when Jin is speaking in Shou, and you can decide if your characters can realistically understand.
If no one understands, he might start to insult people in Shou.
ps: his familiar is called Long'er (龍兒), which is just an endearing term for 'dragon', or 'little dragon'.
"Long'er! You're awake! I was worried about you! I am so glad that you are okay!"
The creature flies out of Jin's pack... Yes it flies, even though its long serpentine body has no visible wings, and circles above his head before resting on his shoulder. The creature is clearly Jin's familiar, a small Celestial Dragon about 5 feet long, which apparently took up almost half the space in Jin's pack, which now looked much lighter. It replied its master's questions with something that sounded in-between a hiss and a roar, which apparently Jin understood perfectly well.
"Good to have you back and flying again!"
Jin had momentarily forgotten where he was and who he was with as he played with Long'er, stroking her head gently.
OOC: Meet Longer!
It is just a pseudo-dragon in terms of game stats.
Celebrin hisses violently, arching his back with a hateful grimace in the dragon's direction. His tail quivers like a rattlesnake's. He slowly backs away, bumps into the leg of Filani's desk, then turns tail and runs at full speed out of the room.
"Don't be such a scaredy cat!" Filani taunts.
Celebrin growls menacingly from wherever he's hiding. "Filthy snake. I ought to bite its nasty head off."
"Be nice," Filani calls in a singsong voice, as if speaking to a child. "If you're a good kitty, maybe we can schedule a playdate for the two of you sometime."
"Bite me," the cat snarls.
"No thanks," the elf replies airily. "I'd rather not get those hideous hairballs that you're so fond of hacking up on my rug."
She turns back to the adventurers.
"Is there something else I can help you fine folk with? I love the company, but if you keep me from my research for much longer I shall have to start charging you for my time."
She walks over to the door and holds it open.
"The temple is right there," she says, pointing to the imposing building across the street.
Smoke gazes at Long'er with a stupid grin on his face. 'Oh you are Byootiful' he said, holding his hand out to be sniffed. Then he starts, looks guiltily at Jin, and says 'right, temple of Gond, Elminster, got it. How far is this Elminster?'
Lulu is very impressed with Jin's ( @Heindrich 's) dragon, and decides to summon Richie to keep her company. At first people are taken aback by the big beast, thinking he will cause havoc in a place full of books and delicate furniture, but he just yawns, shakes his mane, and lies down. Lulu sits on his body, comfortably, inviting Nona to come join her.
"I think we should try and visit the temple first. While this Elminster does seem like quite the character, he must also be very busy. What if he is not even home? If it takes us six weeks to see him just for nothing, we may never find out what has happened to us!"
Nonna thinks for a moment...
"We should vote. I vote for the temple"
ooc
I think Nona would be able to speak Shou, since of course she thinks the "Noble Four" flowers are the most awesome
Smoke was already half-way out the door, but he turns around, and looks at Nonna in astonishment. 'Vote? Vote whether we should cross the street? Um, OK, well if you need me, I'll be across the street.' Smoke leaves, and enters the temple of Gond.
Though Nailo had been about to turn and follow Smoke ( @The_Potty_1 ) he paused as Lulu ( @booinyoureyes ) spoke up. Voting was foolish, and he almost told the girl so. Then he caught sight of her eyes and he could not get the words out.
"Yes I vote that way as well." He barely managed to stammer out, feeling very foolish now himself.
Falagrim yells already on the other side of the street "Are you guys coming or what?"
"I'm going, just let me put on my hood." *drops the hood over his face* "Well, looks like it's time to leave, farewell Filani" he says as he smiles under the hood.
OOC: If we are really going to met with elminster maybe @elminster can make a cameo :P
Comments
It was as brother Timmon had said;
"Easier spent than made." Nailo said the words aloud as he thought them almost without noticing.
He looked to the witch.
"This had best be worth it."
"A pleasure doing business with you," she smiles. "Now...let us get down to work."
The sage begins by painstakingly copying the runes onto a sheet of vellum in blue ink.
"As I said," she explains, "From what I know about such things, I think it would be rather imprudent to perform divination on the runes themselves. I use this as a proxy to prevent anything unfortunate from happening to any of us."
Once the sketch is complete, the sage fetches a thumbnail-sized bit of amber and a small handful of rose petals. She spreads the rose petals around the image of the tattoo and begins to chant the words of a spell.
The casting takes some time and seems to require a great deal of concentration on Filani's part. Sweat gathers at her furrowed brow, and some force, like a gust of wind centered around her, seems to pull and tug at her, distorting her words and sending the red petals swirling. She clutches the table with both hands to steady herself as she continues her incantation. Finally, Filani draws a small silver hammer from somewhere in her robes, and still chanting, brings it down on the piece of amber. A small explosion of light flashes brightly. The rose petals, which now seem illuminated from within, swarm suddenly together and fly into Filani's open mouth. Her eyes close abruptly. When they open, they glow as well, a warm gold. She stands and walks trancelike through her library, brushing her fingers against scrolls and books, nodding and murmuring something unintelligible.
"Amin elea", she whispers in Elven. She blinks. Her eyes return to normal. She seems exhausted, drained.
"The meaning of the symbols has been revealed to me," she says.
"The first symbol is that of the Fire Knives, great enemies of King Azuon. They were once the most powerful thieves' guild in Cormyr--before Azuon exterminated them like rats. Now, few would know of them. They have been driven deep into the shadows, though they still lurk in the underbelly of Tilverton."
"The second symbol is a mark of great evil." She shudders. "A gaping mouth within a hand...the sigil of Moander, the one who is called the jawed god. His worshippers died out nearly a thousand years ago, when elven archmages destroyed their temple and captured Moander himself. But there are rumors that he has broken free, and some worship him again. A great beast has awakened in an ancient temple beneath the dead city of Yulash, by the river Tesh. It has broken free. It crushes the forces of Hillsfar and Zhentil Keep in its yawning maw."
"As you may have deduced, the third symbol is that of the Zhentarim. They gather forces in Zhentil Keep, growing stronger, hatching some nefarious plot. Their current leader is a man named Lord Manshoon, a powerful wizard. At his right hand sits an evil cleric of Bane, Fzoul Chembryl. They have some connection to these other groups...some common purpose, though I cannot say what it is."
"The fourth symbol...it is less clear than the others, but I believe it is a symbol of the Red Wizards of Thay, from across the Sea of Fallen Stars. They are powerful--their agents are everywhere, perhaps even here in Tilverton--but they are divided by petty infighting."
"The final symbol....another evil monster who is in some way connected with Moander. Tyranthraxus, the creature is called. It was thought that he had been destroyed, but some have begun to whisper his name again in dark places, and there are rumors that he has returned stronger than before."
"How the bonds have been created, I cannot tell you for certain. No doubt some form of powerful alteration--though I would wager some abjuration has been used as well to prevent them from being easily removed and to block any divination that might be performed directly on the runes. The priests in the Temple of Gond may have some way of removing them, but I would advise you to be wary of tampering with them too much."
"So," Filani says finally. "That is all I know. I hope it has been helpful. Perhaps I can provide you with something else that will be of worth to you...free of charge. There is a renowned sage who lives on the road to Zhentil Keep. Elminster the Wise is his name. I can give you a letter of introduction, if you would like."
"What is the meaning of 'Wheel Heads'?"
She takes another sip of her tea, and strokes Celebrin, who has found his way onto her lap.
"I have a terrible amount of work to do," she says. "But perhaps you could drop by some other day for a cup of tea and tell me some rousing story about that time when you crushed some evil priest with your little finger."
"Just my kind way to refer to priests who like to tinker with things that usually explode in your face..."
The dwarf starts to carefully close his helmet with a worried expression in his face...
OOC: too lazy to add the dark red with html, plus it looks horrid
"You can give us a letter to see Elminster??" she asked Filani, a little too loudly. She flushed, coughed once, and struggled to lower her voice. "In that case, I would like to humbly accept."
She produces a sheet of parchment and begins to scribe the letter in graceful script.
Jin ponders her words carefully, not knowing whether she could be trusted entirely, and still seething at being ripped off by her, even if her services were genuine.
"There is a renowned sage who lives on the road to Zhentil Keep. Elminster the Wise is his name. I can give you a letter of introduction, if you would like."
Like Nona ( @Nonnahswriter ), Jin's eyes lit up at the name.
A chance to meet the great Elminster himself?! Really?! Who is this elf to have such esteemed contacts?...
It took some force of will, but Jin quickly suppressed any outward display of excitement and his face once more betrayed no emotion as he pondered his options.
OOC:
@Kalesra
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/familiars.php
Is this the stats of our familiars? Also the stats I showed in my screenshot did not include a familiar, so presumably Jin gets +12 actual hp?
Wait... familiars don't normally talk?! But... in BG... u can talk to them! T_T lol
Also I assumed that you can see what your familiar can see... In NWN, I watched some LPs where the player actually controlled a familiar in first person and used it as a scout, as well as a fairly powerful fighter.
"Here you are. Perhaps it will get the old crank to talk to you."
She turns to Crevs ( @CrevsDaak).
"If you're in Tilverton for a bit, stop by sometime," she smiles. He's not sure if she means it...she has an easy cheer about her that sometimes feels like insincerity. But you never know.
"Well, what does everyone else think?" she asked, "Elminster will prove a powerful ally if we could garner an audience with him."
It was obvious what she wanted to do next. It looked as if gravity was the only thing keeping her from leaping into the air and bursting through Filani's roof.
Nona ( @Nonnahswriter ) seemed as if she might explode with excitement, and Nailo attempted to give her an encouraging smile, though it came out looking more like a grimace.
"You are both right. If we can truly be granted an audience with Elminster, then this ... incident... will have been a gift of Heaven, but the Temple is just across the road, so we might as well try there first."
As Jin speaks, there is movement in the pack slung across his back. It was clearly important to him, and he was not comfortable enough in such unfamiliar company and territory to put it down all the time the group has been inside Filani's house.
Unalarmed, Jin slipped the pack off his shoulders and settled it on the floor, and untied the lightly enchanted knot that sealed it shut. From within a reptilian head the size of a man's fist emerged.
Jin speaks in a language alien to most of the group.
OOC:
From now on, I will use purple to denote when Jin is speaking in Shou, and you can decide if your characters can realistically understand.
If no one understands, he might start to insult people in Shou.
ps: his familiar is called Long'er (龍兒), which is just an endearing term for 'dragon', or 'little dragon'.
"Long'er! You're awake! I was worried about you! I am so glad that you are okay!"
The creature flies out of Jin's pack... Yes it flies, even though its long serpentine body has no visible wings, and circles above his head before resting on his shoulder. The creature is clearly Jin's familiar, a small Celestial Dragon about 5 feet long, which apparently took up almost half the space in Jin's pack, which now looked much lighter. It replied its master's questions with something that sounded in-between a hiss and a roar, which apparently Jin understood perfectly well.
"Good to have you back and flying again!"
Jin had momentarily forgotten where he was and who he was with as he played with Long'er, stroking her head gently.
OOC:
Meet Longer!
It is just a pseudo-dragon in terms of game stats.
Celebrin hisses violently, arching his back with a hateful grimace in the dragon's direction. His tail quivers like a rattlesnake's. He slowly backs away, bumps into the leg of Filani's desk, then turns tail and runs at full speed out of the room.
"Don't be such a scaredy cat!" Filani taunts.
Celebrin growls menacingly from wherever he's hiding. "Filthy snake. I ought to bite its nasty head off."
"Be nice," Filani calls in a singsong voice, as if speaking to a child. "If you're a good kitty, maybe we can schedule a playdate for the two of you sometime."
"Bite me," the cat snarls.
"No thanks," the elf replies airily. "I'd rather not get those hideous hairballs that you're so fond of hacking up on my rug."
She turns back to the adventurers.
"Is there something else I can help you fine folk with? I love the company, but if you keep me from my research for much longer I shall have to start charging you for my time."
She walks over to the door and holds it open.
"The temple is right there," she says, pointing to the imposing building across the street.
"I think we should try and visit the temple first. While this Elminster does seem like quite the character, he must also be very busy. What if he is not even home? If it takes us six weeks to see him just for nothing, we may never find out what has happened to us!"
Nonna thinks for a moment...
"We should vote. I vote for the temple"
ooc
"Yes I vote that way as well." He barely managed to stammer out, feeling very foolish now himself.
OOC: If we are really going to met with elminster maybe @elminster can make a cameo :P