The Long Way Home

[tomcat]

Esgalwen stood for a moment, her mind trying to comprehend the situation. Nimronyn was still tightly held and poised to stave off an attack or to deliver one. Were they saved? Was it over?

It took the heavy slump of Grimbeorn to bring her back to the moment and she looked around, her eyes falling upon the torch. The Ranger, with her blade still held in her right hand, picked it up and slewed it around to see if there were anymore immediate threats - and there were none. Tyulqin's abode was for her solely and no other spiders were permitted.

Taking the moment, Esgalwen slid Nimronyn into its scabbard and reached into her own pack to draw forth another torch. She lit the one from the other and now the light was doubled. The sight was one of nightmares. Skulls and bones of long dead animals and people adorned the floor, walls, and some hung in macabre patterns from silken drapes, as if in homage to the monster that lived here. All had been tortured and consumed by the Weaver.

"Here," she said to Arbogast, as she handed him a torch. "Check on Hathcyn... your skills of leechcraft will serve better. I will see to Grimbeorn and try to find our wizard."

Arbogast nodded slowly - his own face a mask of disbelief.

"We must hurry!" Esgalwen whispered. "There is no knowing who will win between the two, and there is no trust that we will not be betrayed. Once done with our companions, we must seek out the River Maiden. If she is here, then we can hopefully free her from her nightmare. If not, then Tauler may have betrayed us in this - Duskwater will still be held under the enchantment of Tyulqin, even if the beast is slain, and the spiders have played a cruel joke."

She immediately moved to Grimbeorn to find the man was merely wearied from the strain of the combat and the corruption of the lair. He nodded to her, "Look for the wizard... I will be fine." And so she bent her will to locating Radagast and whether he lived.

[tomcat]

Actually, Esgalwen's skill matches Arbogast in rank and favour, so if you want to change my narrative up, Paul, feel free.

[Eclecticon]

Oh Esgalwen, always so self-effacing!

EDIT: Arbogast will try a Healing roll to see whether he can do anything for Hathcyn:

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 4d6 : 4, 3, 2, 3, total 12

Doug, feel free to do the same for Esgalwen and Radagast - I'll have some narration up in a sec.

[Eclecticon]

Crouching by Hathcyn's still form, Arbogast bends himself to the task at hand: staunching the bleeding and making certain that his friend yet draws breath.  Having done what he can, he finds Esgalwen examining Radagast by the light of a flickering torch.  The Wizard is deathly pale, but his eyes flicker rapidly behind their lids.  Esgalwen, her own face caked with sweat, grime and spider ichor, meets the Fire-watcher's gaze.  "He lives," she says, "but I know not whether to try to wake him." 

"You think some ill fate may befall him if you do?"

"I think a foe greater than that which we faced came upon this place, and might follow him if we draw him back." 

Arbogast heaves a great but silent sigh.  "I have not the wit to know such things, but I do know that we shall want for his light if we are forced to make our way without it.  Grimbeorn," he calls over his shoulder, "of us all, you are wisest in spider-lore.  If we go abroad from here without the Wizard's protection, will they pursue us?" 

"Ah!" grunts the son of Beorn as he finds new bruises and aches.  "Nay, I would wager.  The greater part of them will be chittering away in argument until one of them bends the rest to their way of thinking.  Or if not, for a few days yet at least.  Even moving as they do, they will be slow to find us if we go with care." 

"Then we should move as soon as we are able."  To Esgalwen, the Fire-watcher simply says "wake him if you will, and you can, for I would sooner he carry himself." 


Doug, I'll do a Healing roll for Esgalwen to see whether she can bring Radagast around.  If you'd rather she didn't make the attempt, just ignore it. 

1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 3d6 : 3, 2, 6, total 11

[Eclecticon]

That's a success, if you want it.  Provisionally . 

Matt, I'm going to assume that you wait for the half-hour necessary to regain Endurance equal to your Heart score (bringing it up to 8).  Tom, Hathcyn doesn't get to do that 'cause he's Wounded. 

The captured soul of Duskwater is still, somehow, sitting on its plinth in the centre of the chamber, though now spattered with blood and lightly dusted with crud that's fallen from the ripped-away ceiling.  The web-sacs holding... something or other are dangling limply from between the severed anchor-strands. 

And in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I'm going to make you walk all the way home.

[tomcat]

Yea, I am good with the Healing roll to wake Radagast.

Esgalwen is at a loss, though, as to what we need to do for Duskwater. I can see her looking to craft a bier for Hathcyn.

[Eclecticon]

There's certainly plenty of deadfall about.  I'm not going to ask for a Craft roll, though you can make one if you can think of something interesting to happen if she fails. 

[Telcontar]

  i thought i was unconscious for six days? Either way I think one of the conscious characters should poke around a bit. We'll never find anything interesting if we never make any treasure rolls. 

[Eclecticon]

He's Wounded on top of that.  Poor guy's been through a lot.

[Telcontar]

  Yeah, wounded and unconscious.

As such and 'ex personum ludum' I invoke the ancestral right as established in 1977. LOOT THE ROOM!

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Yes I agree with sticking around for a bit to rest, I mean Arbogast's ministrations won't be short.

We have need to addressing Duskwater's essence -- taking it back or trying to figure out how to release it, etc. -- and we would be remiss to investigating this lair while we are not otherwise engaged.

[Eclecticon]

Esgalwen cradles the Wizard's head, her hands seeking for, and finding, bleeding.  His copious and wild hair, in which tiny things still scurry and hide, appears to have cushioned his skull however, and she finds no broken bones.  So close and helpless, he looks so very old, his tanned skin spotted like stained parchment, his hair and beard streaked with the grey of granite peaks beneath the filth of long travel.  Still, though, he lives, and she ministers to him as she would a warrior of Gondor whose helm has shielded him from an otherwise-mortal blow.  Slowly, his eyes still, and finally open.  "Why, it's you!" he says. 

As Esgalwen goes about his work, and Arbogast his, Grimbeorn, his hands still shaking from the terror of battle, sets to ripping apart the web-sacs to reveal the no-doubt stolen treasures within. 


Okay, here's how the treasures work.  There's four of them, and each is equivalent to having rolled a when finding a hoard of Treasure.  That means that each PC (including Hathcyn - even though he's unconscious, destiny can work its will for him) gets to roll a number of d6 equal to their unspent XP, to a maximum of six. 

If you don't roll a , your share of the treasure is a precious object, and we'll work out what kind of jewel has tumbled out. 

If you roll a single , you can choose to find either a precious object as above or a wondrous artefact (in which case, you'll need to spend XP equal to half the dice you rolled). 

If you roll two or more -es, you have the option above, or you can spend XP equal to the number of dice rolled to find a more powerful wondrous artefact or an enchanted piece of wargear. 

In the case of anything enchanted, I'll let you know what you've found.

[tomcat]

Esgalwen has 2 unspent XP and so...

Rolled 2d6 : 1, 1, total 2

[tomcat]

Hahahhahhaaa! This seems typical for her this adventure.

[Telcontar]

  This seems as good a time as any He will get to bad ass swag.
7 XP

Rolled 7d6 : 6, 6, 6, 2, 4, 2, 2, total 28