Naeldor - Old Forums

You stand outside the cave of the Lizardfolk, knowing only that the temple ruins lie somewhere to the north. The humid, dank air seems to cling to your clothing, and makes your breath catch in your lungs.

Sissfus breathes in the humid air as you emerge from the cave, he appears to sigh slightly in relief.

"Bloody caves" he mutters, as you begin to move off "Hate the things".

Sissfus looks a little morose as you trudge through the swamp. He mutters quietly to himself about the lurker, and brother rangers, and bloody halflings, though his anger with Skotch seems to be abating somewhat.

Asia watches Sissy mumble to himself as he drudges along. Giving him a little punch in the arm she says "Hey!!! snap out of it. Just because were out of the cave doesn't mean it is safe for you to go all mental and stop paying attention. We need to stay sharp. You can mumble to yourself in discust when we are somewhere safer ok."

*smiles she adds* "though it is sorta fun to see you get all worked up and out of sorts" *giggles and keeps walking alongside in case he needs another punch in the arm*

Sissfus glares at Asia, then shakes his head and smiles wryly.

"Ahh, I know, Asia. I'm fine. It's just Skotch actually stealing from me really broke my trust, it's going to take along time for me to think of him as a friend again. Then that woman in the village, and her child...and then Falmore on top of that..controled by the ravager."

He shakes his head and sighs, but begins to look a little less introverted.

Shakes her head, "don't get to carried away with it. I wouldn't say he stole from you. I mean, he didn't steal your gold, your belongings, your weapons. Though he is a little too obsessesses with that dagger, it is his dagger. Isn't it? "

"From a different standpoint, his dagger was stolen from him a long time ago, and then when the group retrieved it, we have been keeping his dagger from him...now before you defend it, I am not saying you or we are wrong to try and keep that nasty little dagger from him, but it was his. So, I wouldn't say he stole it from you. He is still a friend, just a slightly psychotic friend when it comes to that dagger."

Lindalas sits down near Zap while focusing most of his attention on Skottie and Sissy. "I sure hope the Ravager didn't take control of either of them", he says to Zap. "Having to kill Falmore was a blow. I do not look forward to bringing that news to Gedron. Speaking of Gedron, we really need to figure out how to kill or otherwise get rid of the Ravager. I wonder if Gedron would know. Do you have any way of communicating with him? One other thing, I understand the idea of giving the ashes to one of the weaker members of the group to keep it away from the Ravager, but I don't feel comfortable with that. Look what happened to Alantha. I asked Sissy to take care of her and it didn't take Skottie long to take advantage of that. I trust you old friend, what do you think we should do?"

Having successfully put the burden on Zastaph's shoulders Lindalas turns to his backpack and picks up an item he found in the inner room of the Lizardmen. "Zap, have you seen this bow handle? I'm not sure I ever seen a bow (or part of one) radiate quiet this amount of magic. I would love to find someone who could build a bow around it. Of course he would probably need all the other pieces to be of equal quality and enchantment."

Turning to the rest of the group... "Skottie", he calls out, "I found this part of a bow in there but need a bow string and perhaps a few other pieces in order to make something out of it. Since you have a nose for picking up trinkets, perhaps you could keep your eye out for parts I could use?"

Skotch grins, listening to Asia talk, and opens his mouth to speak a couple times but never gets a chance to interrupt until Lindalas calls to him.

He walks over, pulls a very, very small magic pouch from his belt, and turns it over. Out comes a plethora of notes, keys, a skeleton knuckle, two dice, and a rabbit's foot. He looks up at Lind and asks, "'ny o' these work?"

*Lindalas bursts out laughing* "Skottie, you really are a collector, aren't you? Thanks, but no, I don't think any of these will work. I am sure I'll need a bow string so if you see some particularly fine and strong piece of string that will go a long way. Just like with these dragon scales, I guess you never know what you can do with them."

Miguel tries to wrap his head around the existence of the statue in the swamp.

"If that's me, then I had no choice about coming to this swamp. Nothing I've ever done would have made any difference... Unless there are more half-orcs who look like that statue... or who that statue looks like... or who look like me... or... who I look like?"

"If I fail to clear the path to the temple, then would another me show up? Or would they get a new statue?"

Growing confused, he looks at the other members of the party.

"Any one of them might be the ravager now too. What would it do? What did it want with those ashes? Why were we warned to cover our heads?"

Miguel takes his amulet and meditates on Tiranda's symbol.

"Grant me strength to crush thine enemies and recover Lockarm's heart. I vow I will restore it to the Hall of the Never Forgotten at Karom's Fall. Strengthen my companions, may the infidels fall before them like... like... dead harpies... like... one-legged kobolds."

He meditates some more, trying to come up with a truly fearsome prayer to guarantee victory.

Wilks couldn't help, but overhear Mig.

"Sigh, lucky bastard, has a whole cult devoted to him... Well a evil children sacrificing cult that lives in a swamp, but still there's a few cute ladies there," said Wilks as he rubbed his chin. A thought began to form in his mind.

"Wouldn't it be great to have my own cult... a cult of amazon women! Who only dress in thongs and worshipped a statue of me," said Wilks as he began to get a far away look.

Sissfus narrows his eyes at Asia momentarily, and shakes his head.

"I kept that dagger because Lindalas asked me to. As for it being his dagger...no, it isn't, not really, not when it plays such a vital role in this mess we find outselves in...not when it can save all of us." He pauses and shrugs "Besides, when has the fact that something belonged to someone else ever stopped Skotch from taking it?"

Catching a snatch of what Miguel is saying about kobolds he snickers "Mabey we should see how well Skotch steals from his friends when HE only has one leg?"

Finally, he turns and glares at Lindalas "And I heard what you were saying too....you think that losing that dagger was MY fault? or are you simply calling me the weakest member of the group?" he says, obviously very much in a huff.

Looks back at Sissy,"don't get all bent out of shape. And stop worrying about that thing saving all of us.. Saving all of us from what?...
hmm...from paranoia maybe? We've never depended on any one thing saving all of us from anything. We fight, we live or we die, we do the best we can. Don't get all worked up about something that is pure speculaton now. When are we going to need it? When will it save us all? Next week, next year, five years from now? I am not going to worry about that future event if it does or doesn't come to pass...you shouldn't worry about it either."

*give his shoulder a pat as she walks past* "worry about the present if you must, not the what ifs..."

600 XP for Sissfus, Asia, Lindalas, Skotch, Miguel, and Wilks.

Zas still has 4 hours to post for our 900 exp. pnts *crosses fingers*