Storm King's Thunder [CLOSED]

[Baba Luga]

Bell sets off the play with an arrow fired right into the flank of one of the worgs. A brief, chaotic skirmish ensues in which the kenku's target flees around the west side of the stable and proceeds to run through the hamlet shouting something in a shrill, high-pitched language.

Lecuis, Ruth and Aseir rush to the area behind the stable, and are soon contending with not just the second worg, but also a goblin that was up in the stable loft and other goblins taking potshots with their bows from the inn, trading post and the pumpkin patch southeast of the main square. Pursuing the goblin from the loft across the square, Ruth and Aseir can't help but notice huge footprints, easily four times the size of Aseir's shoes, in the muddy earth.

Bell quickly descends the watchtower and kills the second worg with one of his arrows. This leaves Bell and Lecuis outside the west end of the inn, and Ruth and Aseir retreating towards its open main entrance with goblin arrows falling around them.

The area just inside the inn's main door is a mess of broken furniture and splintered wood, with one of those large boulders from the Spine of the World at its center. Daylight comes in though a hole in the ceiling above, with a matching hole in the inn's roof visible directly over that. A bed and dresser from one of the upstairs guest rooms have fallen down here among the other wreckage. The stone must have punched through the roof and broken all the way down to the dining room.

A dead goblin lies on top of the rubble near the boulder. His head and shoulders are badly burned, probably the cause of death.

The rest of the dining room is intact, if a bit disordered. Chairs are pushed back from tables and there are a few cloaks and coats on pegs near the door. One of the tables is set for three, with an oil lamp at its center and bits of ort still on the plates.

While Ruth is picking her way over the rubble inside the front door, the side door opens and Lecuis slips in, witnessing the same scene

 

[Baba Luga]

There's but a moment of peace inside the inn before things go sideways again and everyone is dealing with black-feathered goblin arrows and the worg that Bell first shot from up on the tower. Ruth knocks out a goblin who has been looting the inn and drags her upstairs once you've closed as many points of entry as can be quickly manage. The unconscious goblin's emptied sack of goodies and the dead, burned goblin remain below as everyone retreats to the second floor. The last thing Lecuis hears as he dashes past his companions on the stairs is the kitchen's pantry further collapsing, followed by a muffled yowl from the worg outside.

The staircase takes you up to a wide east-west hallway decorated in a homey dwarven style. There are four doors up here, giving access to the four corners of the building's upstairs. The doors to the northwest (above the collapsed pantry) and southwest are open. The doors to the southeast (above the hole leading down to the dining room) and northeast are closed.

 

[Baba Luga]

Ruth and Aseir lower the unconscious goblin to the floor, then Bell and Ruth approach the open door to the northwest. This also gives them view into the room across the hall, which looks like a guest room that hasn't had a recent occupant—the bed is made and there are no obvious possessions inside.

In the northwest room the sky and sun are visible through the void at the edge of the roof where the boulder, now below in the pantry, punched through. The worg's most recent assault on the compromised corner of the inn seems to have shifted everything; fallen roof beams now fill the northern half of the room. A knotted bedsheet tied to one beam is pinned under another and then buried in the debris. You can hear excited goblin voices, and the worg's gruffer intonations, outside.

Most of the northwest room's furniture seems to have been caught up in the collapse of the roof. All that remains intact is a wall tapestry depicting a mountain landscape and a heavy wooden chest in the corner beneath the open, west-facing window. The yard with the slaughtered pigs and chicken coops is visible through that window.

 

[Baba Luga]

The guest room in the southeast corner of the inn matches the neat, unoccupied one in the southwest, except for the fact that a large boulder has crashed through roof and floor, taking a good amount of the furniture down to the dining room with it. The dead, burned goblin is visible through the hole in the floor. The only articles that stayed behind up here are the desk and chair in front of the east-facing window.

Everyone upstairs in the inn hears horses squealing outside, followed by a brief spurt of galloping hooves.

 

[Baba Luga]

Bell moves over so that he can see down through the hole in the floor. Another goblin is crouched behind one of the dining room tables, apparently waiting to ambush anyone who descends the stairs. Bell kills the goblin with a single arrow and returns to the hall.

The northeast door seems to be barred from the other side; Bell knocks without getting an answer. Meanwhile, Ruth and Aseir use a bed sheet to wrap the unconscious goblin up tight in case she wakes. Glimpses out the southwest window, as well as the sounds that make their way to the inn, tell you that one of the horses has been set loose and at least one of them killed by the worg that's still running around outside. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on, because every look out the window is met with arrows from goblins hiding behind the huge boulders or in the hamlet's fields.

 

[Baba Luga]

After no one responds to the knock at the door, Lecuis speaks, pleading the group's good intentions. After a bit, there's the sound of a soft thud from inside the room, followed by quick footsteps and a woman's voice on the other side of the door. "Who is that? Let me see you your fingers under the door so I know you are no goblins. Wiggle them too. No severed hands!"

Lecuis does as he's told, crouching down to push his fingers under the door. "I'm a tiefling," he says by way of explaining the color of his skin.

Something presses the tips of Lecuis' fingers on the other side of the door. "Hmmm," says the woman's voice, "it appears so. These are not hijiki fingers. Too soft and svelte." Lecuis knows hijiki is a slang word for bigger goblins with deep orange skin and even fiercer dispositions.

The bolt clacks to the side and the door open into the room. The woman standing in the doorway wears simple traveling clothes, but holds a small agate sphere in one hand. She looks out at the motley quartet in the hallway and gestures into the room. "Come on in. I hear them outside still. We should get back to my hiding place." The woman does a double take at Ruth and Aseir. "Why are you playing baby with that goblin? Leave it here in the hall please."

The room's only window is shuttered and barred. There are boots and a cloak by the door, and a few other accouterments that show the woman has been here for at least a little while. A partly-eaten plate of food and a teacup are on the desk, along with an inkpot and quill.

Sticking out among these conventional signs of domesticity is a length of rope that seems to stand straight on end from the floor beside the bed up to the ceiling. "Climb that," the woman says, pointing to the rope to nowhere, "and we will wait out this goblin storm in my inner sanctum. Trust me, it is safe. Magic." She waggles the finger of her free hand to accentuate this last pronouncement, then waits, holding the door for everyone to enter and climb the rope.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"Magic" Aseir repeats, waggling his fingers in the same way as he begins to float upward without touching the rope.

 

[ZombWie]

Bell moves to the open door and turns his head a little bit crooked to get a better view of the woman and the inside of her room. "Who... are you..." The kenku mimics, "Why are you... safe." He then steps into the room and gives it a once over, taking care to avoid the window. Bell has taken his share of arrows today. He approaches the rope and looks up the length to see where it is tethered.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruthenia has just given the swaddled goblin a few slaps to the cheek in attempt to wake it, to no avail, when Lecuis’ knock and plea at the fourth and final locked door produces... a response?! Is this some trick? The door opens and Ruth sees a beautiful, welcome vision of a plainly dressed woman.

The sight of a normal person in this town of wreckage causes Ruth to grasp at her chest, feeling the key hanging beside her Milil pendant. The loss of their traveling gear could be a matter of life or death, and has been her only focus since leaving the horses, though a short two day journey back to Luskan without supplies was still possible. The loss of the gift for Lady Nandar, however, was a matter of famyle honour. If there is still a chance to recover it, she will find a way.

She watches incredulously as her circus companions comply immediately with everything the woman says. At least Bell has the bird brains to be cautious. She picks up her axe and rises to stand beside him in the doorway, and ask with hope, “Yes. Why are you safe? What of the other towns folk, and what of the Lady Nandar? Are they also with you, and safe?”

 

[Theseiroth]

Lecuis steps in to the room and kisses the ladys hand, "Thank you dear lady, the goblin is a prisoner, we hope to gleem some information from it when it wakes. We can leave it if you think you can help us?" Lecuis hears everyone else asking questions as they moved into the room and looks to woman as they all die down "All good questions in their own right, but seeing as this is your space I'm willing to do what you say."

 

[Baba Luga]

The woman seems surprised, then stifles a laugh, when Lecuis takes her hand and kisses it. She stares at him a moment, then grasps his hand and kisses it, before stepping back, making a mock-formal bow and smirking. "I'm sorry to have skimped on the formalities, m'lord, but there are nasty little shooty things outside."

She has not much time for Bell's questions, trying to shoo everyone inside instead. Over by the bed, Aseir concentrates for a moment on levitating himself up the length of rope that magically hangs from a point a foot below the ceiling before realizing that he's unable to conjure up that atavistic power just now. He's still feeling drained from his wild adventures with the Suljack rowdies two nights ago. He'll have to go up the conventional way.

When Ruth steps to the doorway and repeats Bell's questions, the unframiliar woman's expression turns a bit more serious. "The Nightstoners? Oh no, not likely very safe at all. Many perished during the bombard and I've no idea where the rest ran off to, only that they took my good horse Poxy Sue with them. And with the gangway up to the keep knocked out, who knows what's going on up there now?"

"But really, at least come in here and let me lock this door. We don't want..." With the index finger of her free hand she mimes an arrow slamming into her temple, then closes her eyes and sticks her tongue out in a comic death mask.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"You named your horse after a pox?" Aseir questions, giving the woman an uncomfortable look. He approaches the rope, feeling that even if the woman isn't all there her magic is their best bet for safety. "And what is your name?"

 

[Theseiroth]

"A woman with power, beauty and a sense of humor, you are a dream my lady. You're right though, we should hurry." Lecuis turn to the others and sighed, "I believe we can be freed of our goblin burden. Let's unwrap it, drop it in the hall and climb the rope. If we need information again I'm sure we can find another." Lecuis turned back to the magi. "Anything we can do besides hurrying along?"

 

[ZombWie]

Bell looks to the woman with his head cocked to the side. He clearly doesn't appreciate being brushed off. Once everyone is in he turns and shuts and locks the door, checking it with a pull in the handle to make sure that it is secured. Once he is satisfied he turns to watch the others climb the rope and objects with a short shake of his head if the lady asks him to go ahead of her.

"Climb that... Who knows what's... up there."

 

[Baba Luga]

The woman nods in approval as Bell double-checks the door. "Fair enough if you don't want to hide out in the inner sanctum." She looks around the room, at the boots and cloak by the door, the desk, the wardrobe. "Make yourself at home until I get back." She goes over to where Aseir is standing by the rope and takes hold of it. "Shara's the name," she says before starting to climb the rope. About halfway up, some sort of magic takes hold, and she begins to fade from view. As her hand reaches the top of the rope, she vanishes entirely. Unseen, her voice calls down, "All up who's coming up!" The rope bobs and sways.

 

[ramonlimon2]

Aseir shrugs and climbs up.

 

[ZombWie]

As he watches Shara climb the rope to nowhere, Bell is dumbfounded. What are the chances that the one woman left alive in this in is the person they were sent to meet. Bell lightly backhands Ruthenia on the arm to get her attention, "Shara Breakwood..." He mimics in the deep, gruff voice of Rathas Fellwell. He lets out a chuckle and shakes his head. Looking toward Lecuis and Aseir he motions toward the rope and gives an ascending pitch whistle.

 

[Theseiroth]

"What a magnificent lady..." Lecuis watches her climb and disappear into nothing, "I can already hear my newest tune in my head, 'The ballad of Lady Shara'. It will be magnificent" and with that he chases her and Aseir up the rope post haste humming the tune.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruthenia scrambles to remove her shield and stow the gear on her straps and belts. “Thank the gods, we found you alright,” she says as Shara disappears, followed a little too eagerly by the circus performers. “So are you coming?” she says to Bell after he slaps her and chuckles. “Because you can go first.”

Standing on the bed, she tests the rope and the bounce of the mattress. “Climbing up a rope is a lot harder than it looks in picture books,” she laughs at herself as she fumbles her first attempt. Tying a single knot at the bottom for better grip with her feet, she worms her stocky body up into nowhere, coming out and looking around to see....

 

[ZombWie]

With a sigh Bell crosses the room and climbs the rope. If this wasn't the woman they were meant to meet in Nightstone he would prefer to stay and fight.

 

[Baba Luga]

Just as Shara gradually vanished while climbing the rope, the surrounding room slowing fades out as each of you nears the ceiling, replaced by a dim, featureless space that fades to darkness on all sides. The rope itself continues up until it's lost in darkness eight foot overhead. As you fully cross into this dull place, the only hint left of the room at the inn is a window in the floor of the "inner sanctum" that looks down on the bed and rug. Shara is standing nearby to help each of you off the rope. It looks like she has a few pillows from the bed, a backpack and a black, leather-bound book up here.

Once everyone is present, Shara pulls up the rope and coils it on the "floor" next to the window. "Welcome," she says, sitting on the pillows. "There's no way they'll find us in here. So ... what brings you to this ruin formerly known as Nightstone?"

 

[Ellywyck27]

Hoping to beat Lecuis and Aseir to the answer, and to remind them all of the job they were on, Ruthenia quickly answers:

“Bell Damper and myself, Ruthenia Ironfist, are representing Rathas Fellwell of Luskan, answering your... inquiries concerning large quantities of... ah,... rare materials. Which the Zhentarim is able to provide at the discretion you require.

“As we prepared to leave Luskan, we met these two circus folk, traveling toward Mirabar to rejoin the rest of their troop. We travelled these seventy-five miles on the Blackford Road together.

”We Zhenterim were to meet Shara Breakwood— you —here at Nightstone Inn.” Ruthenia hesitates, then decides to add, “I was also asked to discretely deliver a small gift to Lady Velrosa Nandar, High Steward of Nightstone.”

 

[ZombWie]

The hidden black room is remarkable experience for Bell who has seen very little magic of this kind in his travels. His lower beak hangs slack as he bounces a little to test the floor of the black room. He turns in a circle marveling at the the strangeness of it when he realizes that he is in the presence of others and he is supposed to be representing the Zhentarim and Rathas.

The kenku gives Shara a quick once over examining her posture and expression and does his best to mimic her movements. This is a little trick her learned from a traveling merchant. The merchant explained that if you are trying to get someone to trust you that you should do your best to carry yourself like that person, use the same hand gestures when talking or tilt your head in the same direction. He uses this little trick whenever he needs to fit in and blend in.

Standing next to Ruthy, Bell nods along and smiles until she gets to the part about the discreet delivery to Lady Nandar. This is not the kind of information he would be sharing with someone they just met. Regardless, Bell tries to tamp down his objection and continue smiling along with the conversation.

 

[Baba Luga]

Shara Breakwood's mouth falls open in amazement. "No way!" she exclaims. "That is ... wow. What are the odds, huh? That was fast. You folks don't mess around. So, what I've got ..." She reaches for the backpack next to her before thinking better of it. "But we should probably wait until all this craziness is over before we talk business."

"Since we're all snug as bugs up here, I'll tell you what you missed out on. These goblins are just the latest insanity. Yesterday, everyone is just minding their business and, I kid you not, a giant sky castle comes floating over up on a cloud. Cloud giants, right? All these Nightstoners are going crazy, screaming the world's coming to an end. The castle floats over Nightstone and bam, bam, bam, rocks start raining down, smashing houses, smashing people. These Nightstoners, they grab their horses, and my horse too, and just run out of town, leaving the drawbridge down.

"Once the rocks stop falling, sure enough, three big blue giants float down in the town square and they just dig up and take that big stone monument that used to be in the middle of Nightstone, which I believe was the Nightstone that this place is named for. The giants float back up and that's all.

"Seeing as I was all alone here, I went over and messed with the drawbridge, but there was no way I was getting that up alone. I figured the locals would filter back today, but instead we've got these goblins coming in—always the opportunists.

"Now Lady Nander—a real, actualy 'Lady' by the way," she says as an aside to Lecuis, "as far as I know she was in Nightstone yesterday, so she could very well be holed up in her keep, across the broken walkway, waiting for a gallant rescuer. I did see one of her guards out walking the keep wall this morning before the goblins showed up.

"So what's the plan? I don't think we've got too much longer up here before this spell runs out."

 

[ZombWie]

"So what's the plan?" Bell mimics her with large surprised eyes. "Hide out in the inner sanctum... Shara Breakwood." Bell slowly paces back and forth in deep concentration. He stops abruptly and turns to Shara. He cups his hand to his ear and mimics the sound of the church bell that they heard from a distance. He then cocks his head to stare at Share while pointing in the direction of the church. If she doesn't understand Bell looks at the other three for a little help. He continues to make the bonging sound of a church bell just they way they heard it earlier.