The Gardens of Evenswald

[Idea]

​

~The Nothwing Chase: Continuation III~​

Ysarir, not only do you fail to hear anything you were searching for, a baby starts crying out next to you, which is rather distracting.

As the healers took away Corkbeard, Samoan was left staring at the bloodied grass. There were too many healers, he couldn’t be sure they had reached Corkbeard on time. However, it was certain that he would no longer have a chance to compete, if not forever then at least today. Samoan bit his lower lip and stood up gradually.

“I wanted to show you today, but I guess I won’t be able to, will I? But I will still do my best today, that’s the least I can do. There’s still gotta be time.”

With one last group at the group of healers heading off, Samoan turned around and took off running. He pressed some patterns on his armor which glowed a light blue for the moment his fingers landed upon them, and sparks began flying out of the cylinder on his back. Eventually, those sparks became lightning and Samoan reached with his gloves towards the lightning, causing it to flow through the armor. He brought the bright glowing fingers down to his legs were he inserted the holed fingers into the tubes on the legs. The electricity flowed into the legs, which suddenly seemed far more agitated, and as they would prove to be once he removed the fingers from there, speedy. As he ran, he spotted a few loose fragments of philocerite he could use.

It was hard enough not finding any more than that little bit of phylocerite, but all the rattle out back was pretty distracting too. Raruir kept searching over and over, but ultimately saw no results for his efforts, until finally he gave up on ignoring what was happening with his subordinates and decided to walk back towards them, finding the group two-thirds empty-handed and staring at some part of the forest. Raruir immediately raised his staff and began waving it and grumbling loudly in their direction for slacking off on the job.

Having grown tired of wasting his time searching in vain, Raruir planted his staff on the ground and began channeling the words into it. Shadows flowed around the staff like a pair of snakes circling around it, and seemed to spread shadowy tendrils hidden amongst the leaves and grass, splitting apart into dark embers that disappeared from sight.


So, what had had happened? The makeshift knight meanwhile had been getting pretty damn tired of those goblins and their nasty little antics. His hand reached for his blade, thinking maybe he could scare them off this time (and if he couldn’t, then perhaps he could slice off a ear or two. However, it was also true he could not simply start hacking and slashing at them like that, he had no way of “fixing it” afterwards, which meant one strike and he could be out of the running. He growled behind that rusty old helmet.

“Alright you little t*rds, watch this!” He raised his arm and swung it forward, pretending as though he was throwing the blade. He held on to instead, however, using their flinch as a chance to turn to his right and start sprinting away from that dangerous place and those nasty goblins.

Said goblins, on the other hand, weren’t super happy about the trickery nor the man’s attempt to run away. The one closest to the edge of direction in which the knight had ran attempted to swing their club in the knight’s direction, but was unable to reach him on time. The other two opted instead for throwing their weapons at the makeshift knight, but second verse same as the first one knife fell flat on the grass while the other stung into a tree and there it stayed.

The goblins grumbled out complains towards where the knight had ran, but they didn’t give chase. One at least still considered it, until their boss arrived and began scolding them, that was.


So that was a black rune huh? It had been a bit of a struggle after Zest had pulled it out of the small crater his landing made, but now it was still as, well, a rock. Which it was, by all appearances. Zest bounced the rock a bit in his arms, spun it, tried getting a feel of it, but nothing really came to mind about how he told find more of them. Well, it was essentially still a bag of money in his eyes though. The tiefling put it away in his bag, then moved on to searching for philocerite again. He sniffed some smoke.

“Ah, this is why I hate the woods! They start burning too quickly! It’s inconvenient, and it’s no fun!” He shouted, before stomping his way forward and gathered what little fragments of philocerite he could track with the naked eye amongst his crater.

_

Some OOC Information
Initiative Order:
I-Raruir Am-Skullface (21) (NPC)
Zarig (21) (NPC)
Raruir's Followers (19) (NPCs)
Est (15) (NPC)
Skessa (12)
Giselle (12)
Aurelios (10)
Corkbeard (10) (NPC) (out)
Ladybird (8)
Ranger Duo (7) (NPCs) (out)
Samoan (4) (NPC)

Spoiler: NPC OOC Actions

Samoan uses the spell longstrider and moves from I13 to I10
Samoan Investigates and finds a few fragments of philocerite
Raruir investigates and finds no philocerite.
Raruir begins casting Detect Magic as a ritual.
Zarig disengage, then move from F15 to F13
Raruir's followers attempt to attack Zarig and all miss.
Zest continues to investigate and finds some scraps of philocerite.

Tags: Lucius Cypher Sambews Spiderheart glooomycinnamonroll Felix pbtenchi

 

[Lucius Cypher]

Things were quiet. Perhaps too quiet. So far it seems like most of the others were still meandering about the starting area, or at least that's how it seemed to be. Skessa hasn't seen anyone else since she had started and ideally it'll stay that way. She's had tremendous luck with the Black Runes so far but not so much with the Philocerite. While she was certain that the runes would give her an edge to win this competition she didn't want to rely solely on them and get careless, so she would continue to look around as she moved westward. Using her ken badger senses she'd try to sniff and dig out anything useful, be it runes or ore, though soon she took a sharp turn northbound. "Useful as it is for me to stay on the edge of the competing grounds, I'm almost certain there's more to find the more center I am. But I'll have to be careful of others who are thinking the same." Skessa thought to herself. Were this a conventional competition, it would only make sense that the hosts would leave some prize somewhere that would be hotly contested for the sake of a good show. But the more Skessa had been rooting through the ground, the more she had a feeling that today's festivities were just a cover to have outsiders and peasants labor on behalf of the mayor and his investors.

It was a clever scheme, Skessa had to admit. Certainly, the host of this little race would have to pay the winners a hefty sum, but that was likely a drop in the bucket compared to how much he would normally have to pay a team of miners, their equipment, lodging, and so forth. Whereas with this competition pretty much everyone from children to elderly took part in what basically amounted to excavating a future mining operation for bits and baubles. It reminded Skessa a lot of her youth, when she and her school mates would go to the fields to learn about farming as well as get volunteered to do a day's labor. "Focus Skessa. Now is not the time to be day dreaming." Shaking these nostalgic thoughts away Skessa continued to look for Black Runes and Philocerite. She'd also keep an ear out for any danger should it be sneaking up upon her.

Spoiler: Rolls and Info

Health: 34/34 (13/13)
Hit Dice: 1d12, 2d8
Spell and Slots:
1st Level (2/3) - Hunter's Mark (1/day), Absorb Elements, Create/Destroy Water, Detect Magic, Entangle, Longstrider, Goodberry, Speak with Animal
2nd Level (0/0) - Locate Object (1/day)
40 ft Movement, 20 ft Burrow

Skessa west 40ft from K9 to K6, and then moves north another 40 ft as an action to H6.

 

[Idea]

​

~The Nothwing Chase: Continuation IV~​

Gizelle continued her persuit with the black stone in hand. She dived deeper towards the center, or as much as she could anyway. As she searched, she noticed an bump near a tree. It was probably nothing some would think, or maybe it was a root, despite them clearly going around that place if one just paid attention, which also made the initial supposition less likely. Above all though, this was a competition to hunt for philocerite in an area already controlled by the lord of the region, naturally the crystal would be hiding in such strange places, wouldn't it?

Gizelle practically dived towards it, only taking the time to store away the black runestone and what little philocerite she had found so far, before she began digging with her bare hands until eventually she stumbled on something hard of familiar texture. She uncovered it from the dirt, finding this massive cluster of philocerite, easily almost twice the size of her head.

_

Some OOC Information
Initiative Order:
I-Raruir Am-Skullface (21) (NPC)
Zarig (21) (NPC)
Raruir's Followers (19) (NPCs)
Est (15) (NPC)
Skessa (12)
Giselle (12) <-----------------
Aurelios (10)
Corkbeard (10) (NPC) (out)
Ladybird (8)
Ranger Duo (7) (NPCs) (out)
Samoan (4) (NPC)

Spoiler: Giselle Info and Actions

HP: 28
Hit Dice: 3d10
AC: 17
Speed: 30ft
Medicinal Packs Remaining: 3

Continues searching for philocerite having gotten her hands on a black rune.

Tags: Lucius Cypher Sambews Spiderheart glooomycinnamonroll Felix pbtenchi

 

[pbtenchi]

Aurelius Asterio & Ladybird
[Collab post with@Felix]
Did you have any luck?" she asked.
"Indeed I did." He said, drawing out his bag of Philocerite. "And as proof of our new cooperation, you can hold on to it." he said tossing her the bag. 'The first rule to building trust is to trust the other. If they do steal it I just get to play the tragic hero and win sympathy from the crowd.' he thought to himself.

Ladybird felt a little awkward holding onto the piece of rock. It did not have the vibe she was expecting from it, but it also did not make her head-ache worse. "Thank you. I cannot really do much to prove my trustworthiness. Do you need some healing or anything like that?"

"Nope, not just yet. Just watch my back and help search for more and I'll do the same" he said with a jovial smirk. "Judging by that light just now, you're a spell caster, right? That's a good skill to have. You don't happen to have a spell for finding philocerite do you?" he said with a warm chuckle.

"hmmm, not specifically. I can see magical aura's for a little while, but I don't know if that does anything"

"Why not give it a try? Philocerite is magical, and I'm pretty sure the runes must be too."

Ladybird closed her eyes reached deep inside. When she opened them she saw the world in a different spectrum, mostly greys with some vibrant and lurking magical energy. It was quite overwhelming as energy was all around them from the different fields of philocrite and runes. Aurelius had a really big and powerful aura around him, but then again, so did she.

"From here I can see a lot of different caches, just nothing in specific. Maybe we should move so I can have a closer look."

Ladybird walked into the direction of a huge aura, nudging her new companion to follow her. The aura looked like a vein or a big heart, pulsing with immense power. She unearthed a huge chunk. "Looks like this strategy is paying off."

Looking where Ladybird directed, Aurelius uncovered several decent chunks work of philocerite, he looked back to her to announce his discovery only to see her break free a lump of philocerite the size of his head. He gave a beaming smile.

Spoiler: rolls and info

Actions: Aurelius gives Ladybird his philocerite fragments. Ladybird casts Detect Magic. Move from K12 to K10. Investigate, Aurelius finds chunks of Philocerite, Ladybird finds big chunks of Philocerite.

Aurelius
Health: 16/16
Hit Dice: 2d8+1d10
Ac: 14
Speed: 30ft Movement
Expendables: 20 Arrows, 2 Oil flasks, 5 rations, 1 set of Ball Bearings

Ladybird
24/25 hp (1/1 d8 and 2/2 d6 hitdice left)
AC 16
30 ft walking speed

3/4 1st-level spells 2/2 2nd-level spells
Spell save DC 15

consumables: 1 flask of holy water, 13 torches, 20 bolts, 10 rations of food

 

[Idea]

​

~The Nothwing Chase: Conclusion~​

While most of the participants still wrestled through the woods, the sound of a horn blew from the watchtower in which the Lord sat, announcing the end of the race. Skessa was still digging with her badger's claws, Ladybird and Aurelios kept collecting philocerite tracked with their spell, the goblins kicked around branches and flung rocks around at random attempt to hit something which might be hiding philocerite, or getting any sort of clue. Giselle headed further deeper into the woods, but stopped as soon as she heard the horn and began making her way back before there was even an announcement.

"Ladi- Excuse me." The lord coughed into the microphone, then the clearing of his throat was broadcasted all around, followed by a single moment of silence. During this time, the large dome-shaped magical white net around the chase grounds began to dissipate as the rods on the walls ceased producing the spell. "As I was saying, ladies and gentleman today's chase is complete! I was informed there was an unfortunate accident during the event, and as such, I would like to wish a swift and hopeful recovery for mister Corkbeard. The infractors, I assure you, will be punished for what happened today. However, we mustn't forget that despite that misfortune, the various other participants also gave their all today in finding the precious philocerite and black runes today, and now it is time to see what fruits their talents, ingenuity and quick wits brought them today. I request that all participants head to the Northwest part of the chase grounds. My men will open the gate there so you can present your findings! We will have you line side by side in the location in which you will showcase your philocerite and black runes once your name is called. Of course, you are welcome to add more philocerite you find on the way to fatten your final count, but do remember as well that delays will, in fact, be penalized. Thank you."

With those words having been spoken, volunteer soldiers climbed up to the public's stands and began examining that audience. Then, they began moving everyone to the location where they would see the final part of the event, even aiding people carry things down the stairs while shouting:

"Everyone, gather down, gather down! Come on, down to gather around the throne! Anyone who wants to see the reward attribution, gather down! Through here, only through the Nothwest stairs!"

Some among the crowd left through the other side to go home instead, but even so a crowd formed around the wooden platform built at the edge of the chase ground opposite from the entrance. Upon the platform sat a single long purple carpet, spread all the way from the back of the platform, past the knock-off throne and even the stairs. The tip of the carpet rested on the ground near the participants who were lined side by side in front of the open stone gates from which they exited, with the Nothwing Chase Grounds still behind them. Hallard moved to the front of the stage while holding a piece of paper.

"I shall now begin to call your names. You are to advance only when called upon and only if and when the previous person has already fully returned to their place. I hope this was properly understood. First one called will be... Samoan Kalis!"

The water genasi advanced, climbing onto the stairs with a somber look. He lowered himself onto one knee, and opened the bag in front of lord Nothwing, who was sitting on the "throne", with only a few fragments of philocerite in his bag. The simple difference in size almost made that precious crystal seem like fragmented bread crumbs. He then got up, and turned around. Lord Nothwing raised a hand in his direction, but seeing the genasi walking away, he lowered it again and sighed.

"Well, it is unfortunate, but it is also natural that in this chase some wouldn't fair as well. There is always a next year though!" He said, even though the addressee was probably not paying attention. the lord glanced at Hallard, who once again looked at the list.

"I-Raruir Am-Skullface!" Hallard quickly scrambled for a napkin, which he put in front of his mouth as his facial expression contorted. Raruir himself seemed to pay it no mind, jiggling a sack much more filled than Samoan's like a rich man jiggling his favorite coin purse. Like Samoan before him, the goblin climbed onto the platform and got on one knee, opening the sack in front of lord Nothwing. The lord grinned, and the goblin grinned back.

"Well done Raruir! As expected of one who was once a champion of a chase."

"Est!"

The tiefling waited for Raruir to leave the stairs, yes, but not a blink more. He lept to the stage with his philocerite, and tossed the bag at the lord's feet, crossing his arms as he awaited a response. Hallard stared in disbelief, but the lord himself chuckled instead.

"What a spirit! There is in fact no rule saying you have to kneel, is there? More of a traditions. I can't say I'm not fond of traditions though. Whether you are for or against such things, the fact is you did a great job from what I'm seeing here. That thing wrapped up in there, is it...?"

"A black rune!" Hallard turned to one of the servants waiting near the platform and gestured for the young elf to get up and take the rune. He then gestured for the tiefling to leave, and Est obliged with a leap off the stage.

Hallard looked at his paper, and called on the next name.

_

Tags: Lucius Cypher Sambews Spiderheart glooomycinnamonroll Felix pbtenchi

 

[Lucius Cypher]

Skessa continued to scrounge around for any more philocerite, finding only a single finger length piece. It wasn't much but every bit would help. She was seriously considering trying to rob others of their finds when she heard the horn from a nearby watchtower followed by an announcement that the chase was over. Skessa continued to look for philocerite as she returned to the starting area but alas found nothing of note. Most of the area near the start had already been picked clean. Skessa would drop out of wild shape before she would join with the other contestants, hiding her ability from the public eye. Once everyone had gathered together she kept her bag close to her chest, less any pickpocket think they can snatch victory from her. A few people came up to the stage to present their findings. Only one seemed to have found a Black Rune, and with any luck, Skessa would be the only one who had found two.

Soon her name would be called up. Once the stage was cleared the orc woman confidently strode up. As she stood in front of Hallard, Skessa reached both hands into her bag. In one of her large hands was a few scraps of philocerite. A disappointing find, but likely offset by the two blackrunes that Skessa was holding tightly in her other hand. Skessa had no words to say, but maintained a look of silent smugness. While everyone else was likely tearing each other apart for scraps, Skessa had found what she expects to be quite a bounty. Once Hallard and his aids verified Skessa's find she would give them what she had found and leave the stage, her bag slug over her shoulder.

Spoiler: Rolls and Info

Health: 34/34
Hit Dice: 1d12, 2d8
Spell and Slots:
1st Level (2/3) - Hunter's Mark (1/day), Absorb Elements, Create/Destroy Water, Detect Magic, Entangle, Longstrider, Goodberry, Speak with Animal
2nd Level (0/0) - Locate Object (1/day)
40 ft Movement

Skessa drops her Wild Shape form and presents her findings: 2 Black Runes and a small amount of philocerite.

 

[glooomycinnamonroll]

Standing there, with the crying echoing in his ears, the sound of the horn above the Chase Grounds was a relief to Ysarir. He listened to the short bits of information, most of it not being his business. He was happy though that the figure he saw laying on the field earlier was at least alive. Seeing the pool of blood, he was expecting worse.

He hasn’t decided about staying or making his way out yet when the volunteers were already guiding the people down through the Northwest stairs, and he was not sure if it would be polite to walk against the current and bump into several spectators along the way, so he took the easy way, and followed the voices telling the directions.

Arriving to the bottom of the “throne” on which the lord was sitting, he was grateful for his height, as there was quite a large group of people in front of him. He did not miss the genasi walk up the stairs and lower himself in front of the lord. He took a mental note of that sign of respect. The blue-skinned competitor seemed quite unhappy with his performance, and seeing how he wasted his time trying to help the fallen Gnome, Ysarir couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. He stayed silent, and meticulously payed attention to how the crowd was reacting – as he had no idea what he was supposed to do -, while also following the events around Lord Nothwing’s platform.

After the Goblin, with a rather telling name, and a successful Tiefling individual, a poorly dressed half-orc stepped forward. However, her appearance seemed like a minor factor next to the black runes in one of her hands.

As much as he felt the urge to do something useful, the recent events – the subtle interactions before Lord Nothwing’s elevated chair, and a chance to look at these arcane materials – were catching his attention. He looked and listened, but a strange feeling started to grow in his stomach. This Chase had a lot of fragments off about it, and now, standing relatively close to Hallard, Ysarir caught himself anxiously glancing around. He knew exactly how he had a tendency to be more fearful than the situation demanded, yet he could not resist focusing on his surroundings for a brief moment.

Spoiler: Additional information

Current HP: 21
Hit Die remaining: 3d8
Speed: 50 ft
AC: 16

Ysarir just makes a quick glance around, see if anything looks really off or threatening.

 

[Sambews]

As everybody start leaving the woods, Anastacia felt somebody tap on her shoulder. Exiting her familiar's senses, she looked around and blinked. Swapping between senses was always a little disorienting for her. Looking around, she saw that one tattooed person walking away, and felt a little embarrassed. She should have remembered he was there, and come back with Ash. Why did she care though? Thoughts that could use some exploring another time. She reentered Ash, and had him land on her shoulder.

"Everybody is leaving," Minx said.

"The chase is probably over", Lily added. "We should go"

"Alright you two," Anastacia grumbled, "I'm headed back to Gavilar. You guys can do... whatever I guess."
She then wandered away, maybe a little rudely.

"So..." Minx said. "Do you want to go... get a drink?"

Lily walked off in the direction of the ending ceremony.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anastacia sat in Gavilar's carriage, watching the ceremony through Ash, and trying to identify what was making her uneasy. Was it her lying to that tattooed guy? She ruled that out pretty quickly. So what was it? The black runes, she realized. Why where there black runes just laying in the ground? And why this year, and not previous ones? Entertaining a bit of a theory, she had Ash follow that person who got two black runes, and directed Gavilar to follow. Something weird was going on with those black runes, and she wanted to know what.

Spoiler: Spells and Other

HP: 17/17
Spells cast: Disguise self [1]
1rst level slots: 3/4
Prepared Spells: Disguise Self, Grease, Detect Thoughts, Blindness/Deafness

 

[Idea]

​

~ ~​

The participants continued to present their findings one by one, some more impressive than others, until at last every last one had placed the philocerite and those few black runes that were found, all of which were quickly collected by Hallard's assistants and quickly wrapped up in cloths like the one displayed before the Chase. A pair of cheap rusted trumpets blew on each side of Lord Nothgwing's platform.

[color=rgb(17, 108, 212)"We shall now announce the winner of this year's chase! After measuring the amount of philocerite, and factoring in not a single, but in fact two black runes for a value of three large Nemurian crates of philocerite, please step forward, miss Skessa Ogarlul!"[/color]

The trumpets blew again, and the fellow participants nearest to Skessa gave way to her.

"To think you managed to find not one, but two of these black runes! To keep them so close together, that must have been quite a struggle. They have a tendency to repel one another, and escape from any living being that comes close, you see. Though, Hallard has developed something of a solution for it, if somewhat forceful. Is that not true, Hallard?" Lord Nothwing's smiling face turned from the orc in front of him to the Vedalken, who cleared his throat.

[color=rgb(17, 108, 212)"Indeed, but if your lordship wouldn't mind, I believe it would be best to keep the remainder of that information to ourselves. I do not wish to see some copy-cat lay claim to my research. I hope your lordship understands..."[/color]

Lord Nothwing nodded, and gestured at his attendants before facing Skessa once more.

"Now, Skessa, you may choose. The traditional prize for the victory in the chase is the amount of 70 gold pieces. However, as you have brought us multiple black runes, you may instead receive an amount of 110 gold pieces, or...." As he spoke, the attendants brought fourth bags of gold, almost shaped like pumpkins from how full they looked. Another set of servants carried a crate filled to the brim with fragments of philocerite. "You may have this crate instead of the additional gold. I shall declare you the winner once you have made your choice."

..............................................................................................​

And so, the ceremony ended, and with it the main event of the Nothwing Chase. After Skessa's prize, she was given a small wooden statue shaped as a dear from whose antlers sprung wings. It was mainly painted in shades of green stripes, so as to resemble some kind of peridot, and asked to wave to the public a bit as the crowd dispersed or returned to their seats to watch the family-oriented part of the event. As everything proceeded, the Sun gradually set down, and everyone was allowed to go their separate ways in Riverstick.

_

OOC Information:
It is currently nighttime, feel free to treat this as a timeskip so we can move again, when you folks are ready. I recommend using the info on Riverstick in the discord to decide what you want to do, but of course feel free to talk to me if you feel lost or want to do something specific that the info there doesn't help you figure out.

Tags: Lucius Cypher Sambews glooomycinnamonroll Felix pbtenchi