Porthca Landing II: Lost & Found

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Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Niradnam's expression darkened, "No -- we don't leave because we're targeted. Do you know how much a fullblooded elf is worth? Then how many times you multiply that value for a drow? Even half-bloods can be worth small cities to the right buyer ..." He sighed as he ran a hand through his stark white hair, "I don't know what I'll do ... I just can't stand not doing anything -- I have to consider more than my own wants, like those who came before me ... even those before this me. At least we have a long lifespan ..."

Watching the kobold mess with the small water elemental as it flowed its way back around her chest he added, "... maybe I'll find drow that we never knew were out there. I have to hope for something, otherwise why bother."

Pushing himself off the wall he nodded to the others, "I'm ready whenever the rest are."
 
Magnolia woke well rested as always, she had a knack for being able to sleep anywhere. That and of course she had brought her whole pack down with her... As she looked around she noticed her friends crummies in their tummies...

"So ummhh... Did you guys just not bring snacks with you? Because..." She up ends her backpack, dumping the contents on the floor. Among it were items such as bars of granola, dried fruits, and vegetables... It was a veritable spread of travel foods.
"You guys want any of this?"

well that was nice of you Magnolia,

thanks other me. They just looked so hungry grumpy and sad. Food always makes everything better.

but what if we need that food?

dont worry I'm sure they will pay us back with whatever they left behind.

oh that makes sense. Hey check out how strong we are with these super cool gloves.

seemingly at random Magnolia drops to the ground wearing the ogre gauntlets, and begins doing one handed pushups in her armor.
 
Eliza’s eyes gleamed at the sight of all that food. She regretted leaving all her rations in the cart with the rest of her camping gear. She couldn’t assume that the cart would always be with them. Thankfully, Magnolia more than made up for her short sight.

She grabbed a carrot and some dried fruit with a nod of thanks and took it aside to chew on while she checked up on Faust. She wasn’t worried much about him, he was a resourceful mouse and never quite seemed to need as much food as she expected him to need, most of his diet consisted on junk anyway.
 
Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Seeing the food on offer, Rowanne looked like she would attempt to ignore it, but the rumble of her belly led her to bashfully reach for a few fruits to eat. Banrigg merely shrugged, however Niradnam grabbed at a few things as well, bowing his head in thanks towards Magnolia, even as she seemed distracted with her sudden exercise.

Those who went for the food did so, eventually finishing and their respective stomachs complaining a little less.

Gathering their gear the group continued, guided by the glowing orbs of light that Niradnam commanded. Time and distance down here was very strange -- at one point even after walking for what felt like ten minutes, any who looked back could swear they could still easily see the area they'd rested at over night. Continuing further in, the cavern starts to be lit up by traces of something glowing in the walls, adding more light to the dim dancing lights Niradnam maintains, and allowing better visibility for those without darkvision.

Walking and walking ... how long has it even been at this point? Few of you are used to being underground or away from the sky for so long, where you can't even roughly guess the time from the shadows. The only sounds are footsteps and drips of water echoing through the chamber, breathing and gear shifting as people walk.

Banrigg seems to grind his teeth, the goliath restless from all the mindless travel -- just as he's about to swing at a wall in frustration he pauses, something catching his eye. Holding a hand up he motions for the others to stop, and whispers, "Aye ... I think we got to th' next thing?" Pointing forward a faint glint of gold is visible around the next corner, small coins trailing across the floor.
 
Eliza sends her mage hand to flick at one of the small coins. "I wonder where the thief himself is now. I don't think he would be stupid enough to leave all this magical items, and now gold just laying around...just for anyone's taking."
 
Kneeling down a little, Tyrius put his new quarterstaff in the crook of his right arm while his old quarterstaff was in his left. Saying a quick incantation under his breath in Halfling, Tyrius felt a wave of energy hit him as every magical item lit up with its own unique aura. Tyrius had been expecting to be hit with every item the party had gathered, what he really wanted to tell was whether or not there were additional auras he was not expecting.

A faint trace of magic ahead told Tyrius that there were objects made to appear something they weren't. "Getting a sense of transmutation magic ahead," said Tyrius as he rose back to his feet, his tail coiling around his new quarterstaff a little at its base, "We should be careful how we proceed."
 
Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Seeing the potential threat ahead of them the group attempted to stealth, few managing well at all, and Ander practically walking into a wall, clanging in his new plate, uncomfortable at movement in the dark.

Following the trail of coins, a glorious sight awaits the group -- a whole room of what appeared to be a treasury -- gold, silver, platinum, gems, artworks, equipment, items, jewelry -- a treasure hoard akin to what every child dreamt of finding or was painted in every storybook!
 
Virra had fallen on the breakfast Mags provided and eaten as much as she could stand, and gushed to the halfling about how much she was "her absolute favourite" before they set off once again. The boost it had given her mood soon faded, though, as the cave trek turned into the longest, most boring slog Virra had ever experienced. Even with her racial memory of living in dark caverns like this one, she found the whole thing painfully dull, and she would have quickly become insufferable to the rest of the group if she hadn't had things to think about. Niradnam's story still wouldn't leave her, and there was no better environment for being philosophical than a bleak and empty cave.

When they finally came within reach of the hoard, Virra tiptoed around the corner like the most subtle of thieves, then clapped her hands over her mouth at the sight of the treasure. All the wealth she could ever have wanted and more -- the promise of a life spent pursuing whatever she wanted. Food. Fun. Company. More wealth. The means to squeeze every day for all the pleasure it could produce.

She let herself enjoy it for a moment, then looked over her shoulder. "Ty," she whispered, "if this is all just garbage transmuted to look like riches, please let me know now. This hurts."
 
Eliza was dazzled by the mounds of shiny gold, silver, and bronze that filled the chamber. This was the key to most of her problems. With this much money, she could do anything, learn anything , be anything.

Momentarily struck, Tyrius’ comments burst her daydreams and she reached out a tentative mage hand and flicked one of the small piles causing a cascade of coins tinkling on the ground and echoing throughout the chamber.

She started to look for the pearl in earnest her mage hand a whorl of activity as it pushed around the treasure in search of what they had come all this way for.

After a while, the wizard finally caught a white glimpse amidst all that metal and she plucked it out of the hoard triumphantly. She fished out a more inferior version of the pearl from her pack and started going through the rituals of casting identify on the pearl, “Let’s see what we are dealing with here.”
 
Seeing Eliza fish a pearl out of the mass of gold ahead of them, Tyrius wondered if perhaps he was wrong. He had caught traces of transmutation, that he was sure of. It didn't make sense for a pile of gold to just be left right where anyone could stumble in and help themselves.

'Ah!' thought the currently dragonborn sorcerer to himself as he scraped a claw back and forth, his tail twitching rhythmically up and down as he thought while Eliza set about her ritual, 'But what if that's what the thief wants us to think and this is actually real gold and the traces were off something else? There's bound to be gold here somewhere.'

Tyrius looked to the group, still stuck in their transformed states, 'But any gold that comes easily will leave just as easily.' thought Tyrius, remembering how Baldrus had taught his children the value of money and hard work, 'Though I suppose that's very easy for me to say compared to the others. What would Cate do?' Tyrius grinned as he realised he knew the answer to that - give every last thing she had. 'Hopefully she can be a good influence in Porthca. Wonder if she could ever come up and see Wyford?'

"Sorry to say, I'm fairly sure it's enchanted with transmutation." said Tyrius as he cast the spell a second time and felt his magic suddenly surge in a very familiar way as his head smacked into the ceiling. "Well, that's ill timed." muttered Tyrius as he rubbed his head.
 
Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

A few rocks fell down past the dragonborn's head after his sudden shift in size, Eliza attempting to begin her now very familiar ritual of Identify, however even while focused on the spell something kept nagging at her in the back of her mind.

Niradnam paced off to the side, one hand on his rapier, not seeming to trust the sudden hoard, especially with so many reporting it had transmutation magic hovering around it. He glanced up at the suddenly taller dragonborn with confusion before glanced down at his feet and finding them suddenly surrounded by coins, slithering along the floor. With a yelp he jumped back, Virra noticing the same around her scaled talons and the pair spotting movement within the hoard -- yet not something akin to a creature, but instead the gold and treasures rising themselves!
 
Eliza's suspicions were confirmed when the treasure pile came to life and tried to destroy them. She waved her wand and staff in a continuous spiral and released a flaming sphere from her wand that shot like a bright cannon and smacked the moving gold pile in the face. Seeing her close-up job done, she turned tail and ran as far as possible from the monster occasionally shooting a few magic missiles and ramming the fire ball again into its body slowly whittling away its health.

She crouched behind the southern wall taking cover from the scary thing, but that was soon met with complete silence. She peered around the corner and was glad to see another threat downed by the combined efforts of everyone in the group. She moved closer to it and poked it with mage hand to make sure it was absolutely dead before assisting the clerics in helping heal the downed.

She took out the pearl after everything had settled down somewhat and continued her "identify" ritual to unlock its secrets.
 
Magnolia was passing the time by humming a song native to her homeland.

Stuck in the middle with you,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Stuck in the middle with you.

I'd complain that we had the words wrong, but frankly I don't know them either.

thanks brain let's... Oh hey coins! Now where's the scary monster?

no idea mags, let's throw a rock at it!

taking careful aim with a big pebble she heaved it into the middle of the glittering mass... And nothing happened.

Welp looks like it's not in the coins.

Shrugging to herself, "what do you guys think? Poke it with a stick?"

Then the whole thing came alive and it was a bad time, lots of yelling and shooting magic. At one point a glowing spoon was smacking the pile.. Rowena needed some good vibes so Magnolia helped her out. If course not without a flippant comment. Then she took a nasty blow to the head, saw pretty coins float around her head and fell unconscious.


Waking up a moment or too later, Ander standing over her. His firm hand against her... Warmth radiated from him...

"Aaahhh!" She screamed and attempted to throw the much larger man across the room.
 
Seeing the massive pile of treasure, Valerie's eyes lit up. Oh my gods... this is like something out of a fairy tale! The others seemed to be cautious about the treasure, so the young warlock curbed her enthusiasm just a bit and decided to put away her shield and rapier. She held out a hand and the strong, powerful bow of shifting sands sprung into existence, it's sandy form intermixed with grains of stark salt. She kept it at the ready as Tyrius and Eliza did their investigating of the gold pile, and when the pile sprung to life, her eyes narrowed. "Well. I suspect this will not be pleasant."

Feeling more like an instinct by now than the effort it used to be, Valerie's leathery wings beat powerfully, sending her rocketing upwards. She nocked an arrow, taking careful aim before loosing it, the arrow turning into a powerful bolt of lightning as it travelled. Unfortunately, a shift from the flapping of her wings sent the arrow sailing askew, missing the monster by a foot. She frowned slightly before adjusting her timing slightly, whispering a small prayer, and loosing a second arrow. It shot true, striking the mass of metal dead on and causing a deafening roar of thunder on impact. She giggled excitedly at the strength of the attack before firing off a second volley. Only the first arrow struck true, and though her allies managed to finish off the creature, many of them seemed to be badly hurt. Worried, she quickly descended and dropped the bow to the ground, shattering into salt behind her. "Everyone? Are you alright?" She rushed to the side of her fallen comrades before seeing some sort of struggle going on with Ander.
 
Seeing the pile of gold starting to shift and squirm, Tyrius let go of his old quarterstaff so he could grasp his new magical staff in both hands. Grimacing as he saw his allies taking up a formation that was effectively a wall between the more vulnerable members of the group and the writhing mass of gold, Tyrius carefully angled a Fire Bolt into the mass, seeing the thin streak of red arcane energy slam into the mound making a few coins burst up but it didn't seem to do very much at all. Though Tyrius did notice that a few of the coins that had been blown clear of the mass melted in the air from the heat, falling back into the mass as misshapen coins.

'Heh, guess this new staff is as powerful as Eliza said,' thought Tyrius with a grin as he headed up, deciding to use his new form to his advantage. 'Might only get one chance to do this - unless we can find a way to leave this cave while keeping our new forms.' Using his enlarged form to his advantage, Tyrius took in a big breath and held it, feeling the air in his lungs heating up rapidly. Holding his breath until he felt his throat starting to burn, Tyrius fired a stream of fire straight into the gold, making a rough line of melted coin. As he stepped back the coin mound decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, firing a spray of coins straight into his face that scratched against his scales and hurt his snout most of all. As Eliza fired off a spell, the mound exploded, the melted coins becoming shrapnel which slammed into the dragonborn hard enough he blacked out.

Coming around to find Ander standing over him, Tyrius sat up, feeling the staff digging into his arm a little. 'At least I didn't lose that,' thought the sorcerer.
"Thank you friend," said Tyrius as he stood up, "Anyone else badly hurt?"
 
Ander did his best to defend his friends as the majority of the coins seemed to come to life in order to destroy them. He pulled out his new axe, and though it was much different than Dawnbreaker, he had experience, so he thought he could handle it. He said a prayer that made the axe glow white hot and he swung it into the horde, clanging into a bunch of regular gold pieces. Ok, he thought, oddly long arms and a shorter weapon mean I need to practice aiming, I guess.

He took a beating as gold rained down on him like a giant fist, but his armor did it's part and Ander could feel it bite back against the creature. He went to slash into the being once more, but it was deceptive and seemed to move out of the way mid swing. His friends finished off the beast, which quickly exploded, leaving Ander feeling like he had entire coins embedded in his body.

He surveyed the scene and noticed Tyrius and Magnolia had been brought down behind him. He lost focus on his weapon's burning and went to bring his friends to their feet. He touched the giant dragonborn first and watched as he opened his eyes. He smiled and moved on to the deep gnome, who suddenly tried to flip Ander over her. He stood there, eyebrow raised, as the tiny woman pulled with all her might. Ander didn't even feel it, bit he then tried to walk away, tripping on a stone and nearly crashing down on top of his little friend.
 
Squeezed against the wall by the suddenly enormous Tyrius, Virra almost failed to notice the coins shifting beneath her feet. By the time she wriggled free and nocked an arrow to her glorious new shortbow, they had amassed into a towering monstrosity composed of treasure. Rather than being terrified, Virra was thrilled. With a one-of-a-kind monster befor eher and a full squadron of adventurers behind her, how could she feel any differently?

"Glimmer Shot!" she called out, imbuing her arrow with as much psychic energy as she could muster before letting it fly, after which a deep purple gem set into the bow added a coating of viscous poison to the tip. She corrected its course mid-flight -- hopefully too subtly for the embattled Rowanne to notice -- and whooped as it struck the thick mass of coins that was the monster's body. But there wasn't any sort of meaningful reaction, either to the poison or the psychic damage. It doesn't have a mind, Virra realised to her relief and disappointment. Now she didn't need to feel even a little bad about killing it, but it meant she wouldn't get to put Brainfreeze into action just yet.

Not that she would have had time for it. The monster went down in only a few more seconds thanks to the concentrated efforts of Valerie, the spellcasters and the front-line fighters. Even though she'd only fired one ineffectual arrow, Virra cheered as the thing fell to pieces. Seeing Tyrius and Magnolia unconscious threw cold water on her celebrations, but even as she went running over she could see that Ander had both of them. The scuffle that followed with Mags just made her roll her eyes. "Gosh you two, get it together!" She tilted her head towards Eliza with the pearl, and the enormous pile of gold that lay before her. "We've got bigger things to worry about..."
 
"This thing, though unbelievably powerful, is ultimately useless for all of us." The half-orc said sounding stunned as she lifted the pearl to show the group but still somewhat disappointed, "It allows you to create water elementals and even sirens out of thin air but you would need a lot of power. So much so that most people at Azarad couldn't use it." She tucked it aside and started roughly counting and diving the coins and objects. "I wonder if the thief will find us and murder us one day for stealing all his stuff." She said casually.
 
Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Seeing the gold suddenly rise up to attack, Niradnam muttered under his breath, pointing to a few of his allies and bolstering them then attempted to fling fire towards the hoard, melting a few coins but not seeming to affect the actual "creature". Banrigg and Rowanne stepped up as well, swinging their weapons at the strange attacker and dealing blows, however waves of coins flowed over them in turn, pelting their skin and nearly pushing them off their feet. Seeing the pain Rowanne was in, Niradnam attempted to move forward to heal her, only to find Magnolia had done it instead, and focused his efforts on aiding the large dragonborn, sealing some of his wounds before bolstering the front line once more.

As the hoard exploded into shrapnel upon defeat, he was glad he'd boosted them, however at seeing a few still fall to the ground he moved to heal them, only to be beaten by Ander and Magnolia in turn.

Moving towards the hoard once combat seemed finished, the drow started to dig through, almost appearing to move more gold than he should have with just his hands, wading nearly knee-deep as he started pulling out items, guided by the glow of Detect Magic.

Tossing a few objects from under the gold -- a box of turquoise animal figurines, a brass mug with jade inlay, a bronze crown, two small carved ivory statues, a large tapestry, a ring, a robe, and a rod, muttering, "Magical ... not, Magical ..." after a few of them, the dark elf paused as he held a crystal orb, peering into it with uncertainty. Within the orb a light seemed to flicker, swirling into what looked like an enclosed whirlwind, Niradnam's gaze clouded over as well until he gasped and clutched the object close. Turning to the others he spoke slowly, "... I ... I know you all like magical items, but I need this one. Please."

While he continued to cradle the orb like a fragile treasure, a sound of laughter started to echo within the chamber, a new form rising from the gold, humanoid in its shape as it walked up behind the dark elf, placing a golden hand on his shoulder while Niradnam froze up, unsure what to do. The golden form bowed, "Enjoying the loot are we? The best part of any place, any journey, any quest, any task -- the shinies at the end!" The small water elemental wrapped around Virra started to wriggle, the gold figure waving at it, "Ah, and hello to you little one, seems you got a ride out of here -- apologies for not returning sooner."

A chuckle sounded around the room as the gold turned towards Eliza, "Why murder you? At this point your greed and desire for items almost makes you disciples of mine! Apprentices at the very least," it seemed to think for a moment, "Regardless," it patted Niradnam's shoulder again, smiling at him, "I will not harm you all -- that's not my ... style. Besides, what sort of trickster would I be to be so obvious about it?" Its gaze traveled the room, "No ... I think other things await you all, and eventually those items will return to my collection one way or another."

Jumping in the air it flopped onto the gold, "My people will speak with your people, loot your houses, pilfer your vaults, same old same old ... enjoy your 'shinies', while they last. You'll find the shinier they are the more desired they are."

The form continued to rest on the pile of gold, its shape put together by constantly shifting coins, Eliza called out a spell -- flinging darts of magical energy at it, causing the coins to explode away once more, pelting those gathered around the hoard. The laughter merely rose up again as a humanoid form of coins sat further in the pile, appearing to smile, "Aw, and here I thought we could be friends, Eliza Carabelli. Your parents made such interesting trinkets and baubles, my kind of craftsmen. But if you're going to be that way, I could just leave ..."
 
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Seeing the look on Niradnam's face, Tyrius clapped him on the back lightly, "Don't worry, figure you earned a souvenir of your own just helping us find this place." Looking to the pile, Tyrius wondered how much they could reasonably carry out with them. 'Would go a long way to helping us on the road.' thought Tyrius, mentally spending the money before they'd even got it out of the cave.

As the golden form of the thief rose up from the pile, Tyrius wondered if he had been there all along, part of the mass as they had fought it. "Heh, amusingly enough we didn't come here just to rob you blind." said Tyrius, realising that there was an opportunity here. If the thief had already bested The Sea once, he could do so again. "We were sent to retrieve an item you stole. In exchange for a series of murders ending." With Eliza's sudden spell slamming only to cause the thief to laugh, Tyrius caught the way the thief talked.

'Wait, how does he know Eliza's surname? And why refer to her parents in the past tense?' thought Tyrius. "Why not come with us?" asked Tyrius, figuring the enemy of their enemy might be able to become a friend. 'And also so he doesn't just raid Silverbane Manor and kill everyone inside.' thought Tyrius to himself. "Maybe instead of taking these magical items from you, we could earn them from you?" suggested the sorcerer, trying to keep things as diplomatic as possible.
 
Eliza stared at the figure in silent shock, unable to move...Unable to think. She stared at the creature, this thief, and shook her head in disbelief. "You are lying...you are lying!".

"Keep away from my parents!" She snapped as she tore the cloak and ring off and flung them at the man. "No self-respecting Carabelli would be caught dead using an arcane focus not of their making..." She echoed hollowly, "You can keep your precious toys. I just need the pearl to stop the murders. What do you want for that?"
 
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Morning? of the Seventeenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

During the conversation Niradnam worked his way out of the gold, trying to stand next to Rowanne who had her hand on her sword. The golden thief started juggling coins, tossing them into the air, "Ah, a talker aren't you. Usually the only thing one 'earns' from a thief is a blade between the ribs. Besides," it caught the coins, "it's my fault for allowing one of my collections to be found. You've given me something to do now, which is good, as I was getting awful bored."

Hearing the clatter of the ring and the fabric of the cloak, the figure grinned, "My dear -- my dear! Such assumptions you rush to, that's how feelings get hurt you know, assuming I'm lying." Coins swirled around the seated figure, "I've not said anything that's a lie, but I expect your fears are filling in the blanks. You've found my treasures, and defeated my guards, as a thief I'll merely have to try harder." With a playful gesture it blew a kiss towards Eliza, causing coins to spill out as the form toppled apart, "I hope we meet again sometime, honor among thieves and so on...!"
 
Virra trudged waist-deep through the gold mound after Niradnam, gawking at the individual treasures that were scattered about. Here a bronze crown, there a turquoise elephant. And so many coins -- even divided among ten, they'd make a pretty sum. But it was the magic toys that held her attention most of all, so she followed eagerly as the sometimes-wizard appraised the hoard, and quickly recognised how much the weird crystal ball meant to him. "Sure you can have it," she said on behalf of the group, nodding eagerly as Ty spoke while mentally adding: "So what's it do? Is this gonna help you and the other drow?"

Her telepathic interrogation was cut short as laughter rang out and the gold began to move yet again, though this time not as a dragon but the spirit of a very aggravating thief. Virra only recognised hiim for what he was when the water around her torso began to wave at him, and for a short while she was impressed to be meeting him. But then he started making vengeful comments and taunting them, and her awe melted away. Disciples of mine. Ha!

She almost shot the thing when it touched Niradnam's shoulder, and then Eliza did it for her. But he still kept talking, and taunting. It wasn't until he dissolved for good that Virra finally spoke up, in a sense. "Y'know, I thought you were kind of clever for pulling one over on the Sea," she said into whatever mind was lingering in the treasure. "You're a real disappointment in person."

Turning to roll her eyes to the group, she saw the look on Eliza's face and immediately started talking. "See, that jerk admitted he was trying to get a rise out of you," she said, glaring hard at the spot in the gold where the face had formed. "And you heard what he said, he stole all this stuff. So we've got a right to steal it all back, yeah? And we'll do good things with it -- like stopping the murders, and going to see your parents."

She scurried over to pick up Eliza's discarded cloak and ring. "Here, keep your stuff," she insisted, holding them up for the half-orc-come-angel to take back.
 
oh look a man made of coins!

come on now, we all know it's just a spell.

"You know, if you really were the greatest thief..." a playful grin crossed her face. "I have something I bet you couldn't steal, I hope you're up for a real challenge because my wager is something very dear to me."

what the hell are you doing Magnolia? You can't trade him that!

you know dam well it would be worth it, to see it happen.

you know for an inner monologue we are pretty vague,

oh I know, but for all we know this dude can read minds

true... Fluffy kittens!

And now they are shooting magic at him... And he's gone.

Walking over to the pile or trinkets Magnolia rumages through the things until she found the box of figurines. They were quite pretty and luckily Magnolia had her backpack with her. "Hey guys! I call dibs!"
 
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"He was right though. They haven’t replied to none of my letters in months!" She sat down on the ground and stared at the fortune surrounding her. "I took too long." she muttered to herself.

She grabbed one of the items at random with a shaking hand and and tried to distract herself by identifying them but she wasn't able to focus long enough. Flustered, she brought her knees closer and covered her face with her arms waiting for the group to leave this awful place.
 
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