alexandraerin | Episode 2 Prelude

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Episode 2 Prelude

The Situation:

The group, having returned to the inn with the last reality shard, is now left to its own devices for the time being. You can seek out and question the tavern staff, explore the inn, describe what you're doing in your room, or socialize with each other.

Notes:

No skill rolls are necessary explore the inn. If it becomes relevant I'll use passive Perception scores.

If you're looking for something in particular in the inn's interior, please wait for a response before going all out in describing what you do when you get there. A little player collaboration is not a bad thing, but I dislike having to overrule/retcon whole paragraphs that rely on elements that aren't actually there for a reason.

Feel free to add useful furnishings to your inn rooms. (Useful furnishings like a chest of drawers or a vanity table, not useful furnishings like a magic item or platinum coin dispenser.) The idea is that they were prepared for your character's use.

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Tessa, having finished her mopping, has left the tavern. The half-elven youths sit together at a table, eating a supper of cold meat, hard bread, and cheese. A dwarf whose face is a maze of scars from which a scraggly beard sprouts like weeds breaking out of rocky soil is at work building a chair to replace the one the marauder broke.

Gallifreya opens her eyes to a unfamiliar room

((Optima, I'm gonna take some liberties with your room here. Feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong.))

Toben opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. His mild concern at the strange surroundings was somewhat mitigated by the thick feather mattress beneath him. It began to grow again when he noticed that the bed was wide enough to sleep a dozen comfortably. His apprehension spiked when he noticed the nightstand of holding beside it.

The last time he'd woke in a strange bedchamber with one of those had turned into an unmitigated disaster. The day and a half preceding that particular sleep weren't something he could bring himself to regret, but to say things had ended poorly was beyond understatement.

Crossing a luxuriously thick rug, Toben plucks his staff from an large, eccentric, and otherwise empty weapon rack before making his way to the door. As he opens the door, he notes the nameplate on it and blinks. After another moment, he smiles and shake his head ruefully before heading down to the common room. He resolved to ask her why she thought he needed such a large bed to himself while he found out what happened at the rift, and after.

((To clarify the timeframe, is this a supper that they're having soon after the majority of the party went up to their rooms?))

Not long after. They finished the cleaning they were doing then, and now they're having their supper.

Upon entering the common room, Toben notices, in addition to the half-elves having their supper, and the dwarf working on a chair, Spectre standing motionless beside a table not far from the bar. After a few seconds, Spectre seems to notice him as well. He turns his head and raises his arm in greeting.

"Hello, Toben. Good to see you conscious. How are you feeling?"

Carrog's easy to find, albeit not terribly sociable: he's presently passed out in the hallway just outside his room. His upper body leans against the doorframe and keeps the door itself partially open, while his legs are sprawled across the hall floor, making it (at best) entertaining to get past him.

Toben pulls up a chair at Spectre's table and leans his staff against it.

"I've a hangover fit for a victory celebration, though I don't seem to recall one. The fact that I'm talking to you as opposed to spiraling in tiny pieces across the Elemental Chaos implies that things at the rift didn't turn out too badly. Carrog's state in the hallway was rather less informative. Did you make it in time to help the boy? Was it a triumphal toast or a wake that I missed?"

"The boy was cured, thanks to Janus and Harlan's expert ministrations. As for the rift, you would have to ask Optima for the details. The drinking, I judged, to be a mix of triumph and stress," Spectre replies curtly, in his usual deep, monotone. Without stopping for breath, or anything else, he continues.

"The inn has departed Malrovia for parts unknown. Tessa, the human female denizen of the inn- you met her when we first arrived- has informed us that we have been pressed into her service for the purpose of collecting small green crystals, like those found in the quarry, and bringing them into the inn. Tessa calls the crystals 'reality shards' and believes that they are 'really sort of dangerous'." Spectre pauses briefly. "I believe those are the salient facts," he concludes.

"Perhaps you should have a drink of water. I have heard that can help hangovers, perhaps even those caused by rift-sealing accidents."

Gallifreya stubbles out of the room she was occuping looking fuzzly around noticing Carrog on the floor she prodes him with her foot.

Murmuring a wordless complaint, Carrog slowly opens his eyes, staring upwards. Then he shuts them again, tilts his head towards Gallifreya, and opens the nearest one to stare at her inquiringly.

"Are we still alive?" Gallifreya asks

"Mnh." The goliath manages to get both eyes open, swallows once, and then sighs deeply. Then he manages a puzzled look. "Actually- I don't know. We can't leave, the world disappeared, and they won't take our money. But the drinks are free. I've never died before. Maybe this is what it's like."

Edited 2010-08-24 18:02 (UTC)

Harlan explores the bookcase, gently touching the spine of each book as he mumbles the title to himself. His hand stops on one particularly large volume and he laughs in delight.

“Optima! Look, my favorite! It’s Alberich’s Dwarven Ring Saga! It’s about this ring that Alberich makes at of stolen gold. It’s supposed to grant the wearer the ability to rule the world , so of course the gods don’t want him it. And there is this epic struggle and…”

Harlan stops, realizing he’s been babbling, and turns around to face Optima.

“…And it’s a long book. Well, one of four really long books…”

Opti is sitting on the floor, legs splayed out, head resting the small bed. She lifts her head and chuckles. "I never read that. We only had a few books that I read over and over, and nearly all of them were about war."

"... are there any battle scenes in this ring saga thing?" she asks.

Optima is nowhere to be seen right now; she's off in Harlan's room hearing about his favorite books.

Blinking back surprise, Harlan smiles at her. "Yeah, of course!" He gestures towards the bookcase proudly and says, "These where where I learned everything I know about battle."

She gives him a little smile and sits up straight. "Come read me something," she says, patting the bed behind her. "Something with a big fight scene."

Harlin sits beside Optima, his knee slightly pressed against hers, and reads to her the big battle Alberich and the other have against the gods.

Optima listens intently. She seems to really get into these war stories of battles and warriors and weapons and armor and blood and sweat and and and "...is it getting warm in here?"

Harlan looks at Optima with a mixture of caution and curiosity.

".... Possibly? Would you like me to open a window?"

(( Do we even have windows? HEY AE, WHAT'S OUT THE WINDOW? ))

((I have no idea. And I doubt Har does either. He's been a tad bit focused on the books and Opti))

((The inn rooms are all interior rooms - Janus's notwithstanding - and do not have windows.))

"well in generally it tends to hurt about as much as my head does right now, and the world does dissappear, the drinks thing is new." Looks around "which way to the bar then?"

Carrog lifts one arm, thinks for a few moments, then points down the hallway towards the stairs. "Should be that way. Take the stairs."

nods her thanks and walks unsteadyly towards the stairs

"If there were one, yeah, that would be nice. But really, I think I need to get out of this heavy armor. Maybe take a nice warm bath. Don't you agree?" she says with a sly smile.

“I, well, um, I…yes?” Harlan says, turning crimson and looking at Optima as if he is suddenly not sure what he’s gotten into.

Edited 2010-08-25 08:51 (UTC)

She stands up. "Now... where's there a room with a bath around here?" Opti asks, and goes out the door to the hallway, to explore -- and nearly trips over Carrog. "Have you seen a bath tub?" she asks him.

Harlan rubs his eyes, shakes his head, and then curls up in his bed and returns to reading.

(( Carrog, your presence is requested in this subthread! ))

Having just about prepared himself for the strenuous task of drifting back into unconsciousness, the question earns a sound vaguely resembling a zombie gargling gravel. Then his eyes open, and Carrog stares at the wall opposite. Then glances at Optima. Then back to the wall, as if making a choice.

He rolls his head around to look into his room, managing a detailed perusal of one corner of a desk, the curled edges of some parchment, and the promising suggestion of a goliath-sized chair.

"Maybe in there. Otherwise, no."

She peers into Carrog's room then steps inside to look around and see if there's a bath tub somewhere.

There is, in fact, a tub therein. It's a large metal thing that spans the width of the room (which is remarkably small given the height, almost as if someone had tilted it over on its side) that sits upon four squat legs. One end of it has been covered with a series of wooden boards laid edge to edge, akin to a writing desk, but there's easily enough room to get in at the other end.

Getting to it is another matter: the room is filled with furniture. The desk sweeps around in an L shape, while the opposite wall is home to a bookshelf and a wardrobe. Just past the wardrobe is a small iron stove, with a large bucket resting precariously atop it. Opposite between the desk and the bath is an armor stand, along with a sword rack. Occupying the center of the room is a footstool.

Beyond this, there's a number of scrolls set strategically around the room, as well as filling the bookcase. A set of dinnerware lays claim to one corner of the desk, next to a candlestick (which is curiously screwed down to the desk). And a boot rack keeps the door from completely meeting the wall.

Scarlet used the shadows in the inn to hide her movements from her allies. She had used a trick one of her uncle's taught her about appearing to have become drunk, but instead slipped the strong stuff into your empty stein. That way you could act and carry on with the best of them, yet keep your wits about you. Sometimes your quarry would make a fatal mistake when they thought you were too weak to defend yourself. Yet none of this had yielded fruit.

She slipped quietly past the giant sleeping in the hall and dipped into her room. Gallifreya was gone, which suited Scarlet just fine. She removed her leathers off and cleaned up in the wash basin, which was strangely warm still. She brushed her long, tawny hair and slipped into her well worn and comfortable linen tunic and pants.

As she curled up to sleep, tears welled up in her eyes at the knowledge that she was far from home with strangers; that her family would write her off as gone; and the thought of her brother's blood that still stained her hands.

She passed the night in dreamless sleep.

(( Oh wait I read it wrong. ))

Opti blinks, considers the obstacle course. She looks back at Carrog. "... you sure you're not just trying to get me naked in your room?" she asks the goliath.

I have no internet in my place that I just moved into so I won't be able to make this week's session. Hopefully our internet will be installed by next Thursday but it may not be.

Okay. Just to let you know, I'll be traveling next Thursday for a family wedding and so there won't be a session next week.

He responds with a frown, cocking an eyebrow at the warrior woman. "Why would I try to do that?"

"Well, because I'm a woman and you're a ... oh. OHHH. A thespian. Ne-ver-mind!"

Carrog looks no less confused by this response. But as it looks as if it will settle the matter, he re-settles himself against the doorframe and proceeds to drift back off to sleep.

Optima turns and heads back into HER room. Maybe there's a bathtub there that she overlooked!

Yes, in fact, there is a curtained alcove with a large bathtub of beated copper in it.

"Hooray!" says Opti, who goes to take a bath.

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Episode 2 Prelude

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