Last week I didn't do a post because our usual DM (Jaro) was unable to make it. Talna ran a one-shot adventure for us in which Elle, Max, Sadun and Cass were transported to another world, their memories wiped and they were forced to fight each other (and a level 10 Warforged Paladin run by a player from a different group). Sadun began to figure something was up when memories of Elle flashed through her mind as Max stabbed the gnome, and laughter echoed through everyone's mind as Sadun stopped trying to kill the others. Soon after, everyone was returned to the exact positions they had been in before the session, with no memories except a voice saying "that was entertaining, I may call upon you again..."
I didn't take any notes or record the session, I thought it would be a good opportunity to just play it straight for a change. This week we were back to normal.
We picked up where the session from two weeks ago ended. Max had just blasted the lake with his magic dice energy, and the party had all heard a roaring sound coming from the center of the lake.
"Max, what did you do?!" Talna shouts above the roar of water.
"It wasn't me!" Max squeals.
"There's an aberration in the lake!" Elle shouts from the mouth of the stream where she and Sadun stood, staring at the devastation.
Slowly, behind Max, a gargantuan head reared above the water. Elle and Sadun quickly dive for cover in the nearby trees. Talna, Fei and Cassian take several steps away from the water's edge and away from Max.
Turning around, Max looks up at the massive water dragon staring down at him. "She did it!" he shouts, pointing towards where Elle had been standing. The dragon looks in the direction, sees nothing, and returns its baleful glare to the goblin. The crystal spikes on its back begin to glow, and electricity crackles about its mouth. "Today has not been my day," Max grumbles, as a ball of electricity descends from the dragon onto the goblin's head. Max doesn't even try to dodge, simply stares at incoming death with wide, fascinated eyes.
As Max's blackened body hits the ground, the dragon recedes into the slowly refilling lake, apparently satisfied. "Hold on employer!" Cassian says, rushing to Max's side and attempting to sooth the burns with lake water. Elle emerges from the trees and begins running towards Max as well. Her intentions are made clear as she reaches for her dagger, however the motion draws the dragon's attention, and Elle quickly turns and runs back to the treeline.
Finding the water only seems to exacerbate Max's wounds, and worrying that the dragon will return, Cass lifts the goblin's body onto his shoulders. As he does so, one of Max's ribs, weakened still from the time shifting shenanigans of the morning, pierces the goblin's heart, and the goblin expires on Cass's shoulder. "Oh no!" Cass says, flashing back to the deaths of his previous comrades, "it's happening again!"
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Watching the scene stands the spirit of Maximiliano de Forza II. "Huh," he says.
The god of gambling appears behind the goblin.
"Can I have my arm back?" Max asks, turning around.
"This? Sure," the god says, removing Max's arm from the deity's own and reattaching it to Max's spiritual shoulder. "Is there anything else you'd like from me?"
"I don't know, this seems like it for me," the goblin replies.
"You know," the deity says, "you still have those two wishes you gambled for. Considering you will be unable to use them if you die here, I'd be willing to offer you another chance in exchange, if you roll high enough..." Max doesn't wait for the god to finish the sentence, and rolls his dice. "Oh dear, a seven. You needed over ten," the god says, crushing the glowing ball of one of Max's two wishes in its hand. "Would you like to try again?" But Max is already rolling. "I do like you Max, you always take risks," the god continues. "But again, an eight is not high enough." The second wish disappears. "There is... one more thing you could wager... Your very soul. Lose this roll, and that's it."
Max rolls the dice.
They turn up three.
"Oh, that's too bad. Maybe next incarnation!" The god laughs, reaching into Max's image and extracting the goblin's soul before devouring it whole.
And with that, Maximiliano de Forza II is no more.
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I feel I should note at this time the series of events that happened here. First (and fortunately), Max's player had expressed interest in playing someone new, so this is not a bad thing for him at least. Max was initially able to deceive the dragon into looking at Elle, but Elle was hidden too well for the dragon to see. Then Max rolled a natural 1 on his dodge against the dragon's breath weapon. Then Cassian rolled a natural 1 on his medicine check trying to stabilize Max, which resulted in an automatic failure on the three death saves Max had before actual death occurred. Then Max rolled a natural 1 on his next death save, which resulted in two automatic failures... and Max was dead. The DM offered him the gambler's way back into the game... but that happened as I have written. At least Elle will be happy though, right?
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The void at Max's shoulder presses against Cassian's back. As Cassian walks, he feels the cold of the void as a circle through his armor. The circle begins to grow. "Everyone get back!" Cassian shouts, and begins running further into the woods.
Talna, uncertain what has happened, follows behind him, shouting "Max, get up! I don't want to have to raise you from the dead!" and attempting to infuse the words with healing power, but the goblin remains motionless.
Elle follows as well, keeping a little distance from the half-orc and the goblin.
Cassian feels the circle of void grow larger again, and suddenly feels the urge to stop running. As he slows to a halt without quite understanding why, he has the pretense of mind to throw Max's body away from him. As he does, Elle fires an arrow at the goblin's corpse. The arrow hits the enlarged void, disappears from view, and then reappears, heading directly back at Elle. The arrow impacts the gnome with a heavy thunk, and she topples over, unconscious.
Talna shakes her head, and leans over to cast Cure Wounds on Elle, but the spell fizzles in her hands. She casts Spare the Dying, and again the spell fizzles. Beginning to feel desperate and very confused, Talna channels all her strength into another Cure Wounds spell. Finally, the gnome opens her eyes. She immediately stands up and draws another arrow, but Talna stops her. "I'm not getting you up again," the cleric warns.
Further away, Max's body has fallen to the ground, but the void has now detached from his body and floats in the air, an orb of inky blackness. It appears to be absorbing something from the surroundings, but nothing is being pulled from the ground towards it. Cassian, staring at the orb, feels a strange desire to walk closer, so he begins to step forward. Talna sees this, grabs Elle by the collar and tosses the gnome to Sadun. "Keep her out of trouble a moment!" Talna shouts, running towards Cassian. As she gets closer to the orb, she feels something probing at her mind, trying to overcome her mental defenses, but Talna is made of stern stuff and she fights through it. She reaches Cassian, and drags his unresisting body away from the orb. As she reaches the place where Sadun stands, holding Elle in her arms, she feels the pressure on her mind dissipate. Cassian shakes his head and comes to his senses.
Turning to face the orb, Talna attempts to dispel it, but the spell again fizzles as it leaves her mouth. "I think we need to run," she says to the rest of the group.
"I agree, there is an unnatural feeling emanating from that orb," Few says, coming up behind them. "As though it is pulling everything towards it." As the druid speaks, a flock of birds fly lazily into the orb and disappear.
"I tried to dispel it, but something is interfering with my spells," Talna says.
"This is beyond my strength," Sadun agrees. "We must seek advice and return when we have a plan to destroy this thing."
The group turns to go, Elle riding on Sadun's shoulder. She grins happily at the unmoving body of Maximiliano the goblin behind her. Cassian lingers a moment as the others depart, and pours out his waterski for his fallen comrade. If it were around to see this, the spirit of Maximiliano would surely roll over in its resting place that it was water and not wine.
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The group walks wearily back to the campsite. The fire has burned out, and the area is cleared of gear thanks to Talna's efforts before heading to find Sadun and Elle. As they pass the embers of the fireplace on their way to the road to the next town, Elle spots Max's petrified rat in the fire. She hops down from Sadun, who merely makes sure she is not heading back to desecrate Max's corpse further. Elle picks up the stone rat, but soon discovers a problem as the rat does not leave her hand when she tries to drop it in her pack.
"It's stuck!" Elle complains.
Fei walks over. "Hmm, it is a stone," she mutters, and chants a spell. Magic Stone infuses the rat and causes it to attempt to fly sixty feet away from Elle, but the glue-like magic keeping the rat on Elle's hand only sees Elle's shoulder to dislocate.
"Ow, that hurts!" Elle says, popping her shoulder back into place. Using her other arm, Elle discovers while the rat will not detach from her person, she is able to move it onto her shoulder where it does not interfere with her combat abilities.
"Elle, o you have an ounce of common sense? What makes you think that a petrified rat that we knew Max had on his person-" Talna begins. Elle interrupts.
"Exactly, it's a memorial to Max, who is gone forever," the gnome grins.
"No, listen to me, it was on Max's person back at the lake, and suddenly it's here in the middle of the fire." Talna finishes.
"To be fair, Max won't be needing the rat anymore," Fei says gravely.
"Yeah, because he's dead!" Elle says gleefully. As she laughs at the thought, she suddenly noticed her shoulder under the stone rat is turning to stone. Talna and Cass notice this too. "Something just happened!" Elle says in alarm.
"What have we learned?" Talna asks.
"What's happening?" Sadun asks, walking up.
"Elle is turning to stone when she says bad things about Max," Talna explains. "I'm not sure I can keep this group alive," she mutters under her breath.
"Oh no," Sadun says.
"I can't do anything about this," Talna adds. Cass taps on the stone shoulder.
"I am still wondering, do you hate goblins? Is that the reason for your hostility?" Cass asks.
"Goblins are pretty petty creatures," Fey points out.
"They are, but we're the champions. We're supposed to defeat the beholders as a team," Cass says stubbornly.
"I don't team up with goblins," Elle says quietly.
"What did goblins ever do to you?" Cass asks, as more of Elle's arm becomes stone. "I know that goblins are creatures that are disliked amongst the races, but Max was a champion like we are."
"I have a personal vendetta," Elle says sulkily.
"That is the biggest flaw in my world. Everyone worships the champions, but they continually fail, the champions are no different than anyone else. So what if he was a champion?" Fei asks. "So what that any of you are champions?"
"We are just people," Talna says.
"We never chose to be champions," Elle says.
"But we were sent here for a task, we should do our best to accomplish it!" Cassian says passionately.
"We will try our best, but that doesn't mean we'll get along. We're not perfect," Talna says.
"Does trying our best mean to shoot each other in cold blood?" Cass asks.
Elle looks at Sadun. "Goblins destroyed her village, killing many of her friends and their families," Sadun volunteers.
"Do you know who is killing families? Those beholders out there," Cass says. "They are the ones we need to attack. Yes he was a goblin, he was terrible, but we are champions. We are supposed to direct our anger and suffering at the beholders, not at each other."
"I will let you in on something Cass. You too Fei. Our group worked in a way- we tease each other. We kid each other. Most of the time we don't let each other die though. Max was the newcomer. We hadn't been with him but a day or two before coming here. I don't trust new people, or like new people. I don't like people generally. I'm still not sure about the two of you! I only knew enough about Max to know that I didn't trust him. And his actions in this world endangered us all. I trust Balazar to a point, but not with my life. I would not trust Elle with my life." Talna pauses a moment, breathing hard after the exposition.
"So you trust no one?" Fei asks.
"I trust Sadun," Talna admits.
Elle coughs in protest. "Elle! Rat." Talna says, by way of explanation.
"But I saved you in Barovia!" Ell protests.
"Yes, and I appreciate it, but consider the decisions you have made recently. Point one: Rat."
"One thing, that's all you're going to point out?"
"Remember the vampires who used you as a wineskin? Shooting at Izek?"
"But everybody hated Izek!"
"Yes, but you agitated him against us! You're not a bad person-"
"Well you're painting me as a bad person," Elle says, stomping away. The further she gets the more her arm petrifies, so she stops and stares in frustration at the sky.
"Listen, our arguing is all in the past now," Cassian says. "What I want to know is that we can band together now and fight the beholders, not each other."
"I don't doubt we can work together to defeat them," Talna sighs. "I know we can do it, we're just not a cohesive group."
"I want to go home!" Elle shouts.
"We all want to go home Elle," Talna sighs again. "And the only way we can go home is to defeat the beholders."
"Then let us continue with what needs to be done and put this behind us," Cassian suggests. "Someone decided you were worthy." He walks to Elle, places his hand on the rat, and attempts to pull it off. While the rat moves up and down her arm (taking its petrification spot with it) it does not come off.
"I will prepare a spell for tomorrow that might get the rat off you," Talna says. "I have exhausted my high level spells for the day. And we should move away from here, that orb was doing something to my magic. It took three spells to heal you earlier Elle."
"Well, to make up for lost time," Fei says, conjuring a number of wild horses for the group to ride on, "these should get us to the next town in good time today."
Cassian hands Elle one of the griffin beaks he harvested earlier that morning. "You were chosen for a reason to join our fight. You are worthy," he says. Elle braids the beak into her hair next to the magic rings.
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The journey to the next town is uneventful from there. The group arrives as the sun is setting upon a well kept down, although this town does not have a bellower in the middle the way the rest of the towns have had so far. In the distance, a giant tower looms over the landscape.
Elle strikes immediately for the large building presumably the inn. The rest of the group notes there are no people outside as she does, then follows her to an equally empty and quiet inn. Dust has gathered on some of the drink bottles behind the bar. Elle goes upstairs, peeking into the various rooms, finding some in good order, while other rooms appear to have been ransacked. Despite the ransacked rooms, there is no sign of struggle, nor of breaking and entering any of the rooms.
Cassian walks outside, looking for footprints, but he doesn't see anything in particular. Just becoming aware of a deathly silence.
"This is wrong," Talna observes. "I don't want to stay here, I'd rather sleep in the woods." Fei nods in agreement.
"This town feels unnatural," Cassian says, returning from his excursion. "There is nobody here."
"I don't want to stay here," Talna repeats, "I don't feel comfortable at all."
"Whatever happened though happened not long ago, I think," Cassian says, readying his great sword. "We should investigate."
"I agree with Cassian, we should investigate what happened here. I also agree with Talna, that we should not stay here tonight. We should come back in the morning, when we have daylight," Sadun says.
Fei walks outside, followed by the rest of the group. She finds a patch of grass, and chants a spell. One of the grass blades shivers to attention in front of her, earning a startled gasp from Elle. "Hello little one," Fei begins.
"How can I help you?!" The grass blade asks in a high pitched squeak.
"Where did everyone go?" Fei asks.
"There was no-one here!" the grass says.
"Not for the past day?"
"Well, there were a couple humanoids, I think, but yeah, otherwise nobody here!"
"Can you tell us about the humanoids?"
"They come out every now and then, do some things, and then leave," the grass explains. "That is what they did today."
"What direction do they go?"
"Every direction!" The grass says happily.
"Have there been any other creatures aside from eat humanoids?" Cass asks.
"No!" the grass replies.
"Can you give me a recollection of the past day?" Fei asks.
"Sure! I was sitting here, the sun has been very nice, I got watered once, it has been a good day!"
"You were watered once, but it didn't rain today," Fei ponders.
"That's right!"
"What watered you?" Fei inquires.
"One of the humanoids did!"
"Could you describe their appearance?"
"Like the lizard one behind you, but smaller," the grass says, motioning towards Sadun.
"Would it be safe to sleep in the village?" Cassian asks.
"Yeah, nothing dangerous happens here!" The grass replies.
"Thank you for your help," Fei says. "So how are you?" Fei carries into a normal conversation with the grass, while using her Druidcraft to tend to it.
Once she is done, Cassian asks "Do you believe it, that it is safe to stay here tonight?"
"As far as the grass is concerned, it is perfectly safe," Fei says. "Other than a griffin flying around, the humanoids were the only ones here."
"Maybe we can fortify a house and take cover in it," Cass says thoughtfully. "We could split up so that we're less vulnerable to group attacks..."
"I am uncomfortable splitting up here," Talna says decisively. "Bad things happen when we split up."
"Hmm, I want to check on something in the inn," Cassian says, returning to the inn to look for a cellar.
"I'm going with him!" Elle says.
After a short while searching, Cassian and Elle find the door to the cellar behind the bar. The stairs are dark and lead steeply down. The cellar is empty save for several barrels, one of which is full of something fermenting. Cassian looks around, determining the cellar to be large enough to hold the entire group he heads upstairs to gather the others.
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Meanwhile, a hooded figure finds itself in a closed prison cell. The door had swung shut behind the figure as it walked into the darkened room looking for things to scavenge. Suspecting a trap, the figure leapt onto the cell door and began gnawing on the bars with rodent like teeth. The door swung slowly open, the figure still clinging to the bars.
"I did it!" the figure squeaked triumphantly, looking up and down the row of quiet, empty cells. After satisfying itself that there was no treasure to be had, the figure walked to a spot on the wall and pulled a lever. The wall swings quietly open, spinning around and depositing the figure on the other side. "Odd," the figure thinks, "there was no light at the top of the stairs before..."
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As Elle moves to follow Cassian up the stairs, she hears a noise behind her towards the back of the cellar. "Cass," she whispers, "I heard something!"
"What is it?" Cass asks.
"I don't know!" Elle whispers urgently. She turns around. Behind her is a humanoid figure in a dark cloak, a rat's nose poking out rom the hood, attempting to sneak around next to the wall. As she looks at it, the rat person freezes still, trying to hide against the wall.
Cassian, following behind Elle, spots the rat person as well. Leveling his sword at the rat, Cassian asks "Are you friend or foe?"
"That depends?" the rat says cautiously. "What are you doing here?"
"Did it just talk?" Elle says, slightly horrified.
"I think the real question is, where in the seven hells did you just come from?" Cass asks.
"Well, I used to live in the caves, if that's what you mean," the rat offers.
"We were just in this cellar," Cassian clarifies.
"Oh, I'm not from here," the rat says, sounding relieved. "I wasn't born in the cellar."
"I mean, we were just down here, how did you get here without us seeing you?" Cassian says again.
"Uh," the rat says, grabbing the lever on the wall with its tail. The wall flips again, and the rat disappears.
"The wall just moved!" Elle exclaims.
"Go get the others," Cass says, staring at the wall where the rat disappeared, sword at the ready.
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The rat person sprinted through the hall of jail cells, looking for an exit from the room other than the known lever. On the far wall, the rat finds another lever, and pulls it its panic. The wall flips around, pulling the rat into another section of the underground. Looking around, the rat sees a hall lined with doors. Opening doors at random, it sees rooms full of barrels, weaponry, armor, cots, but no exit to the area. "Well, I found the loot, but I didn't want to be chased today!" the rat says to itself.
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Elle ran up to the group outside the inn, gesturing wildly.
"Sadun, can you interpret?" Talna asks, observing Elle's motions. "A mind flayer?"
"They found something in the basement, we should probably go take a look," Sadun says calmly.
"How did you get that?" Talna asks, as Elle imitates gnawing on something.
"The fact that she is back and Cass is not," Sadun says.
"Ah, that makes sense," Talna says.
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"Cass, what is going on?" Talna asks, as they descend into the cellar.
"There was a giant rat-like humanoid here," Cass replies, "it disappeared. But Elle and I were just down here, and it was not here, then it was, then it disappeared again!"
"Where did it disappear?" Talna asks. Cassian indicates the spot on the wall. Looking it over, Talna sees a lever. She pulls the lever, and the wall flips her around to the other side. Satisfied, she pulls the lever again, and returns to the rest of the surprised company.
"Anyone else want to join me? Looks like we're going on a rat-hunt," the cleric says. Fei casts Darkvision on Sadun.
The group gathers around, and Talna pulls the lever again. The wall moves much more slowly with all of them traversing it. The party finds themselves in a hall lined with what appear to be prison cells. Talna marks the wall where the lever is, while the others look for the rat.
"I see footprints in the dust," Sadun says. "They disappear at that wall there."
Talna walks over to the wall and looks for another lever.
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The rat person continues looking desperately for another switch to get out. Instead, it finds a barrel full of water. The rat dumps the water out, moves the barrel into another room and hides in the barrel.
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Talna finds a lever, and the group moves to the next area. They find themselves in a sort of hidden barracks, full of armor, weapons, and bedding. One room appears to be a treasury.
"Don't touch anything, we don't know if it's cursed or not," Talna warns.
"Why is the floor wet over here?" Fei asks, looking at a large puddle. A series of smaller puddles leads away, ending near three doors. The group is unable to determine which door the puddles lead to.
"Is the giant rat intelligent?" Fei asks.
"It spoke common, but that is all we know," Cass says, moving to the left room behind Elle.
Talna opens the rightmost door, seeing a fancy looking bedroom with a very nice bed and writing desk. "Mister Rat, whoever you are, I don't even care, I don't think we're planning to hurt you unless you hurt us first. We just want to talk." There is no response.
Fei opens the middle door, finding a very nice room, which may have been officer quarters. A desk covered in papers sits against one wall, opposite a large four-poster bed. A map hangs on the wall behind the desk. Fei walks behind the desk and swiftly peers around it, saying "Aha!" as she does so. Nothing is there, although a shiny dagger sits half buried under the paperwork. Fei pulls the dagger off the desk, and begins rummaging through the desk.
Cassian and Elle enter the room on the left. Inside is a common area, a desk sits against one wall, and several cots on another. A group of barrels sit in one corner. Elle looks around for anything to knock over.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" Cass asks. Elle knocks on the wall, echoing Cass's question. They investigate the room. The only thing that stands out to them is that the dust is disturbed near some of the barrels. Cassian taps on the barrels with his great sword, and then Elle stabs one of the barrels, which leaks water.
"It's just water," the gnome says.
"The echo is different on this one, it sounds empty," Cass says.
As Cass speaks, the rat person pops out of the barrel. "Oh good, you're here! My backup, I've been waiting all day for you!" the rat squeaks excitedly.
Elle kicks the barrel. Cass points his sword at the rat. "Tell me rat-thing, why did you run from us?"
"What would you do if random people came down with their weapons drawn?" the rat asks.
"I asked if you were friend or foe, and you ran, so that makes you seem like a foe," Cass says.
"I didn't run, I pulled a lever," the rat pouts.
"Fei, Thalia, we found it!" Cass calls out.
Fei enters the room, holding a bundle of papers she found. Sadun enters after Fei, observing the rat-folk holding its hands and tail up in surrender.
"Didn't the flower thing say there was a lizard?" Elle whispers to Cass. "Do you know any lizards?!" Elle shouts at the rat.
"Do you see any lizards?" the rat responds.
"I'm asking if you know any lizards." Elle clarifies.
"No! At least, I don't think so," the rat says. "What's a lizard?"
"He doesn't know what a lizard is," Elle whispers to Cass.
Talna enters the room, and the group looks the rat-person over. It has black fur and red eyes peaking out from underneath a dingy hooded cloak. A strange device hangs around the rat's neck into an odd mask. A green gas leaks from the front of the mask. A longsword hangs at the rat's side. The rat wears a number of bracelets made of bone poking out from the cloak's sleeves.
"What is your name?" Talna asks.
"Can I get some of yours first? I'm a little surrounded here and I don't know if we're playing friendly yet," the rat hedges.
"I have no plans for killing you," Talna says.
"Hand me your sword please," Cass says.
"I would prefer not to," the rat responds.
"We're not going to hurt you, I just want to be cautious," Cass says, holding his own sword against the rat as he takes the sword. Once the rat is disarmed, Cass lowers his blade. "We've been through some tough times, we can never be too careful."
"How long have you been here?" Talna asks.
"Not long, I've just been scavenging." The rat says, then tosses a ball on the floor. The ball breaks on the floor. "That was supposed to blind you! I was supposed to be gone!" A dead firefly in powder lies in the balls remains.
"What is your name?" Talna repeats.
"Pip Squeak," Pip Squeak says, finally allowing me to name our new player. "The one hundred thirty eighth."
"I'm Talna," Talna says.
"Gods bless you," Pip says.
"My name. I'm Talna."
"Oh."
"You came here a day ago? Have you noticed anything unusual?"
"I'm just scavenging for things to make those better," Pip says, pointing at the broken ball on the floor.
"Wait, what is that around your neck?" Cass asks.
"This? It's gas that I use for fun things that you don't want to inhale, so stay back," Pip says.
"So are you friend or foe?" Cass asks.
"I don't know mister holding swords to my neck, what am I?"
"I just want to know we'll be safe if we let you be," Cass says, slowly handing the sword back to Pip. "As long as you don't try to harm us, you'll be alright."
At that moment, Fei who had been distracted by the dagger she found, throws the dagger across the room. The dagger shatters against the stone.
"I could have used that! You broke it!" Pip protests.
"You didn't say anything sooner," Fei points out.
"I didn't know you had it!"
"I'm bored," Elle says walking away.
"I've never heard of rat-folk being residents of this world, were you sent here?" Fei asks.
"No. I've never seen you before either. I've lived underground my whole life," Pip says.
"We need to sleep," Talna says. "Is there a good place we can hole up?"
"One of these bedrooms should be safe enough," Sadun says.
"Good enough. Can I look at those papers Fei?" Talna asks. Fei hands them over. "Hmm, there's dates on these. What's the date Fei?"
Fei stares at Talna. "The fourth night of moon crest?"
"What's the date Pip Squeak?" Talna asks.
"Date?" Pip answers.
"Well, that doesn't help me figure out if it's safe here," Talna mutters. "Were you planning to start a fight with us Pip Squeak?"
"Are you awake or asleep?"
"One of us is always awake."
"Then no."
"Look, this town above makes me uneasy. It might be safer down here but people may also come here."
"Pip Squeak, sometimes it is better for the entire group if we simply cooperate. If you promise to protect us, we will promise to protect you," Sadun says. "Does that sound like a fair deal? At least for tonight?"
"Sure," Pip Squeak says, cautiously. "Can I get out of the barrel now?"
"Yes. See, this is how a society works," Sadun says, half to herself.
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Cassian and Elle head to search the treasury. Inside the treasury, Cass sees bags full of copper, silver and gold coins, piles of coins spilling out of them, as well as an intriguing lockbox. "Elle, look at this lockbox over here."
"Talna's going to say we should get some rest because we're all injured and check it in the morning," Elle points out.
"I think we should check it out though, because I don't know if I trust that Pip Squeak yet."
"Well, Talna has a thing to take off Magical effects, we should at least have her look at the box."
"That's a good idea. Let me just cover up all these coins," Cass says, draping blankets over the exposed coins.
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"Talna, could you come here a moment?" Cass calls, as Elle wanders back into the room with the others. Talna walks over to where he waits in the hallway outside the treasury. "I want you to know, first we haven't touched anything, but also I don't know if I trust Pip Squeak, so I thought you should look at this first." He leads the cleric into the treasury and shows her the lockbox and piles of coin.
"I'm glad you didn't touch the chest, it is definitely magical."
"Can you do anything about that?"
"I can dispel magic once more today. I was planning to use it on Elle, but we can do this instead."
"What about Elle?" Cass asks.
"Did you notice the rat?"
"Oh, that, yeah that's really neat."
"What if the stone shatters?"
"Well you can help her in the morning, right?"
"Fine." Talna casts dispel magic on the chest.
Cassian bashes the chest with his gauntlets, but nothing happens except for a reverberation winding its way up Cass's arm. As Cass attempts to subdue the chest, Talna investigates the piles of coins, looking for traps. She finds none, although as she looks up towards the ceiling she sees holes pointing in the direction of the lockbox.
"Duck!" Talna calls, just as Cass lands a telling blow on the chest. Five arrows plunge directly into the half-orc, dripping poison as they land. Cass grins. "I think I got it!"
Talna begins shoveling coins into her bag as Cass attempts to pick up the lock box. As he moves the lockbox out of its position, Cass fails to notice the chest is tethered to something with a rope. More arrows slam into Cass's back. "Could you cut these ropes?" Cass asks Talna.
"I'm worried you'll get hit again when I do."
"It's ok, I can take it."
"Ok, but as soon as I do, dodge away from those holes in the ceiling!"
Talna cuts the rope as Cass drops the box and dodges away. Five arrows deflect off of Cass's armor. The half-orc collects the arrows, still dripping poison, to give to Elle. Talna carefully extracts the other arrows, and then the two turn to the chest.
"Talna, do you want to go to bed?" Elle calls into the hallway. "It's getting... you're doing something with Cass!" she realizes mid sentence, and runs to the treasury.
As Elle enters the room, Talna and Cass crack the chest open. They see a mechanism inside, attached to what may be a large harpoon. "Elle! Help us with this!" Talna calls to the gnome. "You're good with your hands!"
"Um..." Elle says.
"This chest has a trap in it!" Cass points out.
"Oh, ok."
"Wait, before you try anything, I have an idea," Talna says. She gathers the group along one wall, casts Mage Hand, and opens the chest with the magical hand. A harpoon with a tip the size of Elle's head fires across the room and slams into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. Elle squeals in terror.
"You were going to make me do that?" Elle gasps.
Sadun, Pip Squeak and Fei come out to see what the sound was. Sadun sees the harpoon in the wall and shakes her head.
"What are you guys doing in here?" Pip demands.
"Hang on a moment," Cass says. A chain connected to the harpoon is slowly winding itself back. Cass chops the chain in half, and grabs the harpoon.
"You don't know how to disarm traps do you?" Pip asks.
"Do you?" Talna asks.
"I'm very good at it," Pip says smugly.
"Let's go to bed," Talna says.
"I got you a present," Cass says, pulling out his batch of bloody and poisoned arrows. "Ten normal arrows with my blood on them, and these pristine poisoned arrows."
"Thank you!" Elle says.
"These are the weirded people I've ever met," Pip says, returning to his empty barrel. He curls up inside and goes to sleep.
"I'm going to use that spell to set up an alarm, so if anyone leaves we'll know about it," Fei says with exaggerated care as Pip leaves, winking at the rest of the group.
"I'll take first watch," Cass says.
"I will too," Elle says dreamily.
"I'll take third," Talna says.
"I should take first watch, because my dark vision will wear off soon from Fez's spell," Sadun says.
"Ok, then I'll take second," Cass says.
Elle sits happily on Cass's lap as the rest of the group heads to sleep, while Sadun stands guard i the hallway.
The night goes by uneventfully, except for voices in Elle's head.
"Tsk tsk tsk. You hated my owner, and now look where you are." The voice seems to come from the stone rat on her shoulder.
"Oh gods," Elle mutters.
"Yeah, just don't insult things anymore, and I won't have to turn you to stone."
"Don't insult Max? Or..."
"Don't insult anyone. I've seen how you acted."
"But Max... he was your owner? How..."
"He saved me from a ship."
"But you're a petrified rat!"
"Yeah, curses are terrible."
"Oh, it's a curse!"
"Yeah, if you break it it will be good for me."
"Oh I know someone! Just don't do that thing to my arm and I can help."
"Oh no. I can't leave you be that easily. Who shoots at someone who is already dead?"
"Me? Obviously?" Elle says.
"If you don't change, you will just be a statue," the rat warns.
TO BE CONTINUED!
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