Drama Under Sandpoint

[Tahlvin]

[Tahlvin]

Eldthor was compelled by a suggestion spell, and thanks to a poor Will save roll, to believe his friends were planning to sacrifice him to Lamashtu.

After transforming into a badger, he dug about ten feet into the western wall, then turned north. After a short way, he collapsed the tunnel behind him, to keep his former friends from following him. He dug around to the northern end of the tunnel and broke through the collapsed rubble in order to create another source of fresh air. Glancing out into the hallway, he saw Illian staring at a door. "Witless halfling," he thought to himself, "you always think you're so perceptive! But not this time!" Then he tunneled northward and upward, heading for the level above him.

When he broke through into the next level, he collapsed the tunnel behind him, and then scrambled for the surface. Once in sight of the outdoors, he used his wildshape ability to transform into a eagle. He contacted Kethel, his hawk familiar, and together they headed off towards Thistletop, where he hoped to hide out from his former friends, until he could figure out where to go.

As they are flying northeast, he notices Anna following him at a distance. He tells Kethel to meet him at Thistletop, and he turns towards the ocean, hoping to lose Anna there. As he neared the ocean surface, he transformed into a shark, diving under the waves. He headed out to sea a ways, in case Anna was still trying to follow him from up above, diving down low, then turned to head towards Thistletop.

As he reached Thistletop, he found a cave underwater, in the cliff across from the island of Thistletop, that contained some unexpected treasure. It appears the goblins who once lived at Thistletop threw treasure down there as a sacrifice. Unfortunately, Eldthor was unable to retrieve the treasure while in the form of a shark, so he figured he would devise a way to retrieve it later.

Swimming up under Thistletop, he emerged in the chamber where the party previously fought the giant lobster creature. Transforming back into his human form, he decided to first go up on top of Thistletop to find Kethel, and to pull in the bridge to prevent access to the isle from the mainland. He finds Kethel and gives the bird a quick, loving ruffle of the feathers. He then turns his attention back to the bridge. As he is pulling the bridge over, he spots a flying figure approaching in the distance: Anna! "Damnit!" he thinks to himself. "I forgot to tell Kethel to lay a false trail before heading to Thistletop, so he headed straight here and led her to me!" Immediately dropping what he was doing, he tells Kethel to flee to someplace close by and wait until Eldthor contacts him and tells him it is safe to return. He then sprints for the entrance to the underground portion of Thistletop, readying his bow to confront Anna...

[Tahlvin]

FYI, on Roll20, Eldthor transformed into a hawk rather than an eagle. However, he currently can only transform into medium or small animals, not tiny or diminutive. As such, he is able to transform into an eagle (small), but not a hawk (tiny). So I have corrected that in the post above.

[Bluedevyl]

After following the trail underground and emerging to see the raptors flying off, Anna sends a brief message to the group below, casts Overland Flight upon herself, and heads off in pursuit.

As the three near Thistletop, she sees Kethel break off towards the ramparts of Thistletop, and sees Eldthor arrow towards the water, becoming a large shark before he hits the surface.

She lingers nearby for a while, cognizant of the threat of giant sharks leaping out of the water. She then realizes that, in the state he appeared to be in, Eldthor would never risk the well-being of Kethel if he could possibly prevent him from coming to harm. She decides to head back the way she came, intending to hide near Kethel and await Eldthor's return.

As Anna approaches the entrance of Thistletop, she sees Eldthor standing, bow aimed at her, his aim unwavering. He yells out to her "I don't know why you're here, but you're not going to sacrifice ME to Lamashtu without a fight!"

Anna lands within a comfortable conversational range to Eldthor, arms held out wide, and says "El, if you think you need to fight me, then just go ahead and shoot. I won't harm you, even if you force my hand."

She stares back at him, waiting for his response...

[Tahlvin]

After the long flight from the party, tunneling under Sandpoint and then fleeing to Thistletop, the enchantment that afflicted Eldthor is beginning to wear off, leaving Eldthor feeling a little dizzy.

"I don't WANT to fight you, it's just that you all were going to sacrifice me to Lamashtu! I can't let that happen... Can I?"

Eldthor leans against the wall, lowering his bow, holding his head with his other hand and trying to remain on his feet.

"Weren't you... weren't you guys going to sacrifice me? I swear you were...."

Anna takes a few tentative steps towards Eldthor, holding out her arms towards him. "Of course we would NEVER sacrifice you, nor ANY of the other members of our party. We are fighting against the evil of Lamashtu and these Runelords, we are not joining with them! We would never do that. Think of your wife, Kailiana. She loves you, and would never think of hurting you."

Eldthor's mind clears, the dizziness passes, and he slowly sinks to the ground, back against the wall and head in his hands. "How.. what... why on earth did I ever think you guys were trying to sacrifice me? That's just ridiculous!"

"I'm not sure... If I had to guess, I'd say it was some kind of enchantment spell set to cast in case the spellcaster we took down was killed," Anna responds, coming closer and putting a hand on Eldthor's shoulder.

Looking up at Anna, he takes a deep breath and then let's it out, releasing all of the tension he's held onto for most of the day during his flight. "I'm sorry to put you guys through that. I'm just glad I didn't end up hurting someone. I'd never be able to forgive myself if I harmed any of you guys. Although... Kay is going to be PISSED at me!" And with that, Eldthor lets out a chuckle and stands up.

"Hey, before we head back to Sandpoint, there's something I need your help with..."

[Tahlvin]

[I'll reserve space here for Anna to include any other things she wants to cover at Thistletop. Obviously, he won't be able to insert a post, unless Mike has some admin magic that allows him to change the order of posts. But just so you know, things may get a little mixed up from here on out in terms of chronology and order of posts.]

[Tahlvin]

Back at the Rusty Dragon, after their reunion with the party and while catching up on what each group was doing...

"So to recover the treasure, I transformed into an octopus, while Anna transformed into a water elemental. We went down into the cave and loaded all of the treasure into a chest and some bags I found in the goblin's old lair. And then we were able to bring it all back up. And let me tell you something, it took me a little while to figure out how to work those octopus tentacles! Thankfully, Anna still had a teleport spell available to get us back home to Sandpoint, because I wasn't going to be able to wildshape anymore today."

[I'll let DMDarcs post the details on the treasure we recovered from the cave underneath Thistletop, since we didn't get that info on Roll20 last night. At least not that I noticed.]

[Zen]

[When first meeting Eldthor and Anna outside the Rusty Dragon]
Kailiana darts forward as if she were attacking, wraps her arms around Eldthors neck, and kisses her husband. After a long, passionate kiss, she stands back, less than a foot from Eldthor, draws her Keen Dagger, places it in her husbands hand, and pulls it between her breasts, holding it in his hand firmly with both of hers.

"Next time you decide I've betrayed you, do it like this. It hurts less, my love! Do you understand me?"

A small drop of blood drips down from the tip of the dagger as she glares into his eyes.

Eldthor pulls the blade away from his wife, lowering his head in shame. "I'm sorry I... my will was weak... I won't let it happen again."

Kay sheaths her dagger and smiles, Strangely, you can't quite tell where she put it, despite the fact that her clothes don't seem to have many places to hide things. She reaches up and caresses Eldthor's rough, unshaven cheek.

"El... You have the strongest will of anyone I've ever known. I trust you."

[After hearing the story of how they found the treasure.]
Kay sighs contentedly, slipping her arm around Eldthor's and snuggling close to his side. It is clear that her little dramatic moment earlier was either merely for dramatic effect, making sure her husband understood how much she cares, or her natural flair for the dramatic coming out. In any event, no one would be able to tell she had been so upset just a short time ago.

"Even when he's not thinking clearly my husband manages to do amazing things! That was quite a find!" She kisses his cheek and drops her head onto his shoulder, closing her eyes and smiling like a silly-love struck girl...

"Well," she thinks, "I'm a 22 year-old half-elf who's in love... For a half-elf, that really is a girl, so why shouldn't I look like a silly, love-struck girl... Other than the silly part... I should probably avoid looking silly... But if I try for anything else I'll probably just fail right now, so to hell with it! I might as well tell him why I'm acting like this... then maybe I'll stop feeling so giddy and foolish..."

Kay pushes a little closer to Eldthor, turns, and lifts her head up. From other people's perspective, it might look like she is just flirting and she expects some of them are turning away and wondering when she'll drag him up to their room. The thought does send a little flutter through her chest... well... it starts there...

Knowing she has his attention, she whispers, so only he can hear, "You have no idea how happy it made me to hear you casually say the words, 'back home to Sandpoint', my love!" She nibbles his earlobe. "I know you don't really like cities, but the fact that you've adopted this one as your... no OUR home... it means so much to me." She tightens her grip on his arm and kisses him behind his ear, dropping her head back to his shoulder with a contented sigh.

[Tahlvin]

[Mike]

Laid low by Suggestion.

[Tahlvin]

I have to say, it was fun figuring out how I could get away from you guys and where I would run to. And the fact that you guys just openly discussed how you would pursue me, it was like I was the badger behind the wall eavesdropping on your planning.

[Zen]

Any particular reason you chose a "Badger"? LOL!

[Tahlvin]

I was in a dead-end hallway with 4 of my former party members blocking the only entrance, with a compulsion to do everything in my power to defend myself by finding a safe place to escape you guys, or to fight back against you if you tried to restrain me. In my toolbox was my wildshape ability, and the ability to shape into a small or medium animal. The quickest way to get away from you from this deadend hallway was therefore to wildshape into an animal that could burrow. The two animals I quickly found that would work, size-wise, were either a badger (size=small) or wolverine (size=medium). The burrow speed was the same for both of them, and I figured I would be less likely to be followed by one of you if I went with the small animal rather than the medium animal. With a burrow speed of only 10 feet per round, Illian might have been able to catch me if he came after me right away; and if Anna had been in that area when I first fled, rather than being all the way on the other side of the dungeon, then she probably would have caught me. But Illian opting not to pursue me himself (all because I went with the badger rather than the wolverine, which meant he could only pursue if he removed his armor, etc.), and the delay in Anna getting to the point where she assumed gaseous form and pursued me (after traveling across the dungeon, discussing/casting the message spell, etc.), gave me the extra time I needed to reach the surface before Anna. And I would have gotten away clean if the tunnels I collapsed behind me had been blocked off enough that she couldn't get through in her gaseous form. Lesson learned for the next time I have to flee someone in a situation like that!

You're lucky I wasn't 2 levels higher! At that point, I will have taken the Shaping Focus feat, which will allow me to shift into animals as large as Huge or as small as Diminutive, or a small or medium elemental, or a small or medium plant creature. So I could have shaped into a burrowing mouse and Illian never would have known where I went, or even into an earth elemental, which can move through dirt and stone like a fish swims through water, and left no possibility for Anna to follow me at all.

[Phoebe]

This whole episode was awesome and hilarious.

[Tahlvin]

Yes, it was a nice little break in the action, so to speak. And a good warning about the level of stuff we're starting to face.

And don't expect the found treasure to be too large; after all, we faced the goblins of Thistletop back in the first book, when we were pretty low level, so I don't expect it to be any sort of windfall for characters of our level. But still, it's something to make up for my absence.

[Tahlvin]

Wow, it seems !

[Zen]