5.2 Darian and Aris

The Frostyear Guardians, Book I:

The Heroes of Adrest

11th of Chesi, Morning

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Continued from 5.1 Darian's Arrival

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It is the morning of the 11th of Ches (basically March), and you have the full day before you.
DARIAN: Darian will wake feeling a bit groggy. Nothing ruins a good night of sleep, like waking up in the middle of the night. He puts on his armor and grabs his weapons, and it's ready for a new day. He will head to the inn's main room and grab himself some breakfast
Compared to the night before, the tavern is even more subdued. Mendra the bartender from last night is serving what few patrons the inn has for breakfast, her movements slow as if still half asleep. Marti here as well, sweeping up with a scowl on her face. There are a few patrons, mostly trader types from the look of them.
DARIAN: Offers both of them as well as any patrons around a shy "Good morning". He approaches Mendra
(curious) "Good day, was last night a busy night? You seem...tired"
MENDRA: The portly dwarven woman puts on a weak smile. There are heavy bags under her eyes, and her ruddy skin is perhaps a slight bit paler than last night, though it is hard to tell for sure.
"I have not been sleeping much lately, is all. Nothing to worry your pretty head about, dear. With all that has been going on lately around Ardrest, how can a girl not have bad dreams?"
DARIAN: (friendly) "You got to take care of yourself. Anything on your mind lately? What are these bad dreams like?"
MENDRA: (worried) "Eh, well, normally I'd say not to worry about them, but you seem like the friendly type. I can't say I remember 'em much, but when I do I know I wake up right terrified. It is dark there, and I can't see nothing... but I know something is out there, and it's something that don't have no reason being in this worlds, right? I feel almost like... something's being prepared, you know?"
The dwarven woman, reaches out for a bottle of a strong dark alcohol and pours a drink for herself and one for you.
(brooding) "Some days I just feel like this town is unraveling at the seams, but rightly who would be pulling the threads? It don't make one bit of sense, Ardrest ain't nothing but a stop on the map between proper cities. What could we have done to suffer so much?"
DARIAN: "Some time evil just strikes, with no care about who it hurts. Pure controlling chaos..."
(serious) "We can't let the evil break our spirits. The moment a army looses is not when the lines meet, but when it routs"
MENDRA: "I ain't much of the fighting type... far too round for the armor. But you say it with passion enough that I almost want ta believe it. You'd fit in well with my kin I think. Anyway to keep the spirits up, right, lad?"
The dwarven woman downs her drink without batting an eyelash.
DARIAN: (cheerful) "Cheers"
Raises his glass and tries to follow her example, trying to save face
It is some sort of strong dwarven liquor, it burns going down. Give me a CON save.
Darian: Try to hold your liquor lad: [[1d20+CON Save]]=4+5=9
It burns, enough to leave you red faced and sputtering, but thankfully not enough that you spit it out all over the dwarven woman. She smiles at you, and seems to find it almost endearing as she leans over the bar towards you, pulling a cloth from her ample cleavage and offering it to you.
MENDRA: (affectionate) "Aye, dwarven girls like it rough like that sometimes."
DARIAN: Slams the mug on the counter and looks at Mendra red faced, he takes the cloth and cleans his lips.
(playful) "Rough indeed... but it helps waking up in the morning"
MENDRA: (friendly) "I find good booze makes most everything go a little smoother, eh? What's your plan for today in our lovely little hamlet then?"
MARTI: (admiring) "I'm sure he's out to find and defeat evil, *the young barmaid interjects indicating she has clearly been listening to your conversation this whole time.*"
DARIAN: (confident) "to Marti: Right, you are. Although I have to admit I'm still on the "find" part"
MARTI: "Oh, well that is unfortunate. Give it time I guess, if it is anything like the stories, eventually the evil will be so obvious that it will make itself known and then you can deal with it. That's how heroes work, isn't it?"
DARIAN: (playful) "to Marti: If I ever meet one I will ask for you. But lonely man will poke around some more."
"to Mendra: To whom can I talk about the undead attacks?"
Both women noticeably raise an eyebrow at the lonely comment.
MENDRA: (pensive) "Undead attacks... We haven't seen much of those here in town. Way I hear it, they're somewhere to the south. I heard a rumor that there are some strange people in robes hiding out in the southern forests, maybe the two are related?"
DARIAN: (worried) "So it's far from town then? I don't want to go too far..."
(playful) "I want to keep my eyes on you. *he tries to speak in a manner that it's impossible to which one of the two woman he is talking about *"
MARI: "Oh my, both of us at the same time!? That is very bold, Sir Adventurer. If I were you I'd be careful about that forest, I hear there's all sorts of monsters hiding there. Undead, harpies, trolls, even a group of cultists. I hear that lot do all their rituals... naked. It is much safer to stay here, really."
DARIAN: He chuckles to himself and twirls his spear around in a sign of confidence
(confident) "I will manage it ... and you keep yourself out of trouble"
MENDRA: Mendra gives you a tired look and a weak smile.
"Oh we'll try, but I figure without some sort of trouble, I don't think she'd know what to do with herself. Be safe, adventurer."
As you are preparing to leave the inn for the morning, uncertain of your next move, you casually look around the tavern hall and you catch eyes with a small, pale woman with dark hair. She quickly averts her eyes when she notices you looking and returns them to a small book she has in her hands. She wears a set of dark traveling clothes that seemingly identifies her as a traveling merchant.
DARIAN: It's not like Darian actually has a good plan for today and this does look like divine intervention. He walks to woman, trying to look non threatening despite his weapons and armor
(friendly) "Hello, are you from out of town?"
Give me a perception check as you approach.
Darian rolls [[1d20+Perception (Wis)]]=3+5=8
The woman seemed to be mumbling to herself for a moment, but she stops and looks up at you as you approach and slips her book back into a pocket on her vest.
ARIS AMBERMAW: (surprised) "Yes. Yes. Oh, hello! Yes, I am certainly not from here originally. If I were then I would not be much of a "wandering merchant," would I? My name is Aris. Aris Ambermaw. At your service! And you? Here for the festival?"
DARIAN: (friendly) "Darian Royce, it's a pleasure, m'lady. Yes, I will hang around until the festival."
(curious) "A traveling merchant, hum? It sounds like an interesting life...you must have lot of good stories"
ARIS: (shy) "Stories, hmmm? Are you some sort of collector of tales then? I took you for a warrior from your clothing. I suppose you have heard of the goblin attack, not even a week ago? The first fires started in the market square just outside. And I am sure the stories do not include the fact that a certain beautiful merchant lost half her stock when goblins set fire to her wagon!"
"Long story short, since you seem like the type, if you come across anything unique, I will be happy to take it off your hands. Yes, yes, I know. I will even give you a fair price. *She leans in across the table, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper,* surely a learned man like yourself knows of the Ilyrinar?"
DARIAN: (friendly) "I would say that my vocation is fighting, but collecting stories is becoming a nice hobby."
(seductive) "I'm sure if they mentioned the beautiful merchant, I would have payed more attention to their story"
(curious) "I'm afraid I don't... but why don't you enlighten this fool?"
ARIS: (playful) "Heh, oh dear. Flattery will get you everything but a discount!"
"The Ilyrinar were part of the Neatherese, over a millennia ago until they all up and disappeared overnight. Now people say they left whole cities intact as if no one ever lived there, so we just have to find one of these cities, and I'm sure there will be valuable tickets that I could resell. I figure we must be in the right area."
She gestures to the north of Ardrest, where you would have seen the ancient highroad, that enigmatically extends just north of the small town. It is a single stone causeway, forming a road some 30 feet wide which travels over the swamp to the north some two dozen miles before ending with as little logic as it began.
DARIAN: (pensive) "Part of the Neatherese, hum... a place like this should be full of magical items. I'm sure a entrepreneur like you must have her eyes on them"
(playful) "Good thing that is not a discount what I'm looking for..."
ARIS: (friendly) "*The dark haired woman smiles back at you,* Oho! Well you seem to be the sort that would go in for a bit of danger and glory, at very least you make a dashing figure in all that armor. I think we can come to a handsome sort of agreement, between two interested parties."
DARIAN: He smirks.
(playful) "I do the hard work and you make sure we get out of this rich?"
ARIS: (amused) "Oh, well, that is even better than I was hoping for. I was just going to say find a way into the ruins and I'll join you. I can hold my own in a fight if need be, but if you want to be in all of the danger, go ahead. I happened to have come across a certain trinket, that its former owner - oh, don't worry he was merely bad at dice - which he claimed was of Ilyrian design, might be a chance to make it big. You'd have a fair cut of course."
DARIAN: (amused) "Hey! Don't try to weasel your way out of this! I thought you were just a defenseless maiden. Now that I know that you can hold your own you are coming with me. It's good to have someone watching your back."
ARIS: (annoyed) "Tsk... Well, I suppose that means the djin's out of the bottle, eh? Fine, fine. Since the only old ruins I know of right now are so obvious I assume anything's been plundered long ago, but there's always a chance, right?"
DARIAN: "Sure. I imagine even a small trinket left behind, must be worth a lot"
ARIS: "Yes, that is the idea, if you're not too busy for a small business arrangement that is, Sir Royce. I'm sure it won't take but a few moments of your time."
DARIAN: (curious) "What are your terms, lady Ambermaw?"
ARIS: (serious) "Ahhh, a man after my own heart! Since you seem so insistent on it, I will accompany you. We will go and attempt to explore the ruins. Any trinkets that come of it, we will come to a fair division. It will take me some time to sell anything, so I will be willing to pay your fair share up front."
DARIAN: (serious) "Sounds fair. I will just add that if anyone abandones or otherwise betrays the other their share is relinquished. When we are there we are a team, deal?"
He raises his hand for a handshake, trying to notice if his words resonated with her
Darian looks into her eyes [[1d20+Insight (Wis)!]]=20+5=25
Aris seems like a generally honest, if somewhat greedy person. While you are pretty certain that she would try to skew a deal favorably to herself, you do not think she would try to cheat you. With that roll, you can definitely tell there is something more to her, something she is not openly speaking about, but you do not feel it pertains to the financial arrangement you are discussing.
DARIAN: (curious) "Deal?"
ARIS: "*Aris smiles and extends her hand.* We are in agreement then. Unless you have something else planned, I see no reason to waste, do you?"
DARIAN: (playful) "Ladies first. Lead the way."
He, in a exaggerated manner, bows and offers her passage
The woman stands, smiling at you as she leads you out of the Decrepit Crab and into the morning sun. It does not take you long to locate the nearest stretch of the High Road. It lies just a stone's throw past the north side of Ardrest. Ardrest itself is built on a small hill, the southern side being gently sloped and supporting the Crab and the rest of the town. The northern side of the hill drops off steeply into low farmland that, eventually, if you traveled far enough north would give way to a vast wetland and eventually the sea.
You leave Ardrest, following after Aris and make your way down and around the north face of the hill. You find yourself at the base of one of the heavy pillars that support the High Road. The pillar itself is perhaps 10 feet around, and made of some sort of smooth white stone. It supports a massive flat slab some 20 to 30 feet above you. The road itself collapsed here long ago, but you can make out another similar pylon some 100 yards to the north where the stretch of the high road that runs for miles begins.
DARIAN: Puts his hand on the white stone feeling the surface, while he admires something bigger and older than him.
(admiring) "I was never a scholar, but... it's hard not to imagine how it all was before."
You make a circle around the pillar, it is smooth and featureless, as if it was somehow made from one single piece of stone, it is well beyond the craftsmanship of any modern builder. For her part, Aris produces a single crystal of green quartz, about the length of the finger and then thickness of two. She holds it up to the sunlight, then up to the pillar. Nothing happens.
ARIS: (fascinated) "I heard people say this was just a road back in the old days... can you imagine building something like this just for carts?! Anyway... the wizard I got this from said it was some sort of key; do you see any holes?"
DARIAN: Do i? [[1d20+Perception (Wis)]]=8+5=13
(doubtful) "I don't think it would be that easy."
(tired) "Wizards... often speak in confusing and impractical manners. Nothing is simple with this lot"
The stone is smooth, and there are not keyhole or anything like that. You do notice that the small gem Aris is holding is dull and scuffed, but for a moment does catch the light in a pleasing way as she raises it.
DARIAN: (curious) "Can I look at it for a minute?"
He raises his hand asking for the gem
Aris hands the gem over, though she does keep an eye on you.
DARIAN: Tries to inspect the gem buy using his magic (identify)
Your magic touches the strange stone. It possesses some sort of very old evocation magic within the latticework of the interior of the stone, it almost reminds you of a scroll, but a scroll would disintegrate when drained of its magic like this.
DARIAN: (pensive) "It seems once it held a lot of magic, but now..."
He returns the gem to Aris, letting the silence speak for him
Aris takes the crystal back with a look of disappointment on her pretty features. Dejectedly, she tosses the inert stone at the pillar. As it strikes the white stone, there is a momentary flash, and a strange golden pattern reminiscent of a spiderweb with more right angles flashes through the stone for a moment then fades, as if a spell almost was completed but failed to gather enough energy.
DARIAN: He looks surprised and takes the stone into his hand.
(surprised) "Did you see that?! Come here. Hold the stone"
He will place the stone on her hand, and if she allows he will take her hand into his and guide it to the stone pillar, around the area where she tossed it before. He wants her to feel she is a part of it and they are doing this together.
(pensive) "There was something here..."
When the stone touches the pillar there is a flash of yellow light, spreading like a spiderweb pattern through the white stone, it expands then contracts, attempting to expand again, and then the magic fades back to normal white stone.
Give me an arcana check.
Darian rolls arcana: [[1d20+Arcana (Int)]]=19+0+19
You think back to the earliest days of your magical instruction. Your instructors back then would frequently push the acolytes to their limits, what you are seeing reminds you of an acolyte trying to cast a spell after using up all their power (spell slots), but just not having enough reserves to create the magical effect. The strange little crystal seems to be trying to do something magical.
DARIAN: Darian tries to insert some of his magical energy on the gem. (Trying to allow it to use my spell slots)

That will work. Darian takes hold of the crystal, focusing the power granted to him by the war god Throndar. It takes a few moments, but slowly, the piece of quartz is filled with a steady yellow light that pulses like a soft heartbeat. (Knock off a first level slot for that.)
DARIAN: "Let's try the touching the pillar again"
You reach out, touching the stone pillar with the crystal. The yellow spiderweb lattice flashes for a second, expanding out to a 5x5 square in the pillar's face. The square is so black it seems to absorb the light.
DARIAN: He looks surprised at Aris
(surprised) "We did! What ever this is..."
He throws a small rock on the black square
The stone sails through the air, strikes the dark opening and vanishes. There is no sound as it goes.
DARIAN: (worried) "to Aris: Do you have any idea what is this?"
Ties a torch to his rope throws at the black square and if it vanishes again he will try to pull the rope back.
The torch vanishes the instant it hits the darkness, but is pulled back just fine and still burning. She gives a little shrug.
ARIS: "Ancient magics? I mean... it looks sort of like a door. Do you want to go first?"
DARIAN: (doubtful) "Sure..."
He draws his spear and snaps into his spartan stance. He steps through the portal
You step through the darkness, there is a brief sense of disorientation, and you find yourself in a circular room, perhaps 15 feet in diameter. It is lit by some sort of soft amber glow from the featureless stone walls.
There is a curved bench, about two feel high running along the outer wall. On it you can make out some hammers and chisels, and other things you guess might be tools, but they mostly look like oddly curved rods.
DARIAN: Darian looks back to see if the portal is still there. He looks over the tools curiously. There is an exit out of this room?
There is a black section of the wall, though it is more the size of a normal door. As far as you can tell that is the only exit from this room.
DARIAN: Takes the oddly curved rods. For all he knows these might be some sort of valuable magical tools . Then he observes the glowing wall trying to figure out where the light comes from
The light is omnipresent, and seems to come from the rock itself. The rock is pleasantly warm to the touch. Give me a perception roll as you look around.
DARIAN: Darian rolls [[1d20+Perception (Wis)]]=1+5=6
(admiring) "Hum.... glowy rock..."
Yes, this is definitely some strange magic. Some of the benches are extra wide, maybe uncomfortable beds?
As you are looking about, Aris's head appears in the darkened portal.
ARIS: (curious) "Oh, you're not dead in there! Good job. Any idea what we've found?"
Soon enough the rest of the body of the svelte dark haired woman emerges into the strange room. Like Darian she begins to look around the chamber.
(Fascinated) "Well, this is definitely old and strange... maybe a parlor or a storage room? Still I bet it would be worth plenty to the right buyer!"
DARIAN: (doubtful) "I guess I'm more lost than you are, but I found these. I don't know what they do, but maybe they are valuable"
Shows her the oddly curved rods
(worried) "Do you plan to sell the whole room?"
ARIS: She looks at the rods, then back to you. She next brings her hand to her face, biting on a fingertip as she thinks for several moments.
(pensive) "No... I don't think so... this stone seems to be the key, which means maybe it opens even more valuable places! So I'm not about to sell it off just for a single room. These... tools? Well, they'll probably sell well, though it will take me some time to find the right buyer."
The woman continues to look about the room, exclaiming and stopping when she finds a small, square, stone box about 8 inches to a side. She opens it and finds it full of rotted scraps and 3 cylinders that remind you of potion vials."
"Hmmm, tell you what, since you figured out the trick to the key... you can have 2 of these, and your share of these rods... let's say... 400 gold for now. And I'll take the rest to find a buyer."
DARIAN: Darian literally broke, pretends to think about it. (it's 400 plus two potion vials right?)
((Yes, kinda just so you're not a level 4 character with 15 gold and starting gear, lol))
DARIAN: (doubtful) "That sounds fair"
(cheerful) "Deal!"
ARIS: "We are agreed then. Pleasure working with you. I do not carry that much gold on me of course, so let us return to town. Perhaps we can find another ruin and a reason to work together again."
DARIAN: (affectionate) "I would... like to see you again."
ARIS: It might just be the color of the omnipresent light in the room, but you think you can see the young woman blush before quickly looking away.
(embarrassed) "Ohhh... ummm.. ahhh... well... I mean... I'm always open... I mean my cart! In the marketplace!"
DARIAN: (kind) "I will make sure to visit you."
Maybe it's the beautiful woman in a magic glowing room talking, but he can't happen but to blush a bit. (doubtful) "Maybe next time we see each other... won't be just for business"
ARIS: The woman looks away as she backs her way to the dark shape that serves as the room's entrance.
"Ye- yes, maybe... that would be nice... my wagon is in the center of the marketplace."
DARIAN: Nods to her and starts to make his way through the black shape
"I wouldn't miss it"
You step through the darkened rectangle, there is a moment of disorientation, and then you find yourself at the base of the High Road, just outside of Ardrest. It takes you both an hour or so to make your way back up the hill and into the town proper. At which point Aris will excuse herself to her cart in the marketplace, to inspect the goods from the day's explorations. It is about midday.
You stand in the middle of Ardrest, a warm ray of sunlight breaking through the day's clouds and striking your armor. You feel as if your actions are approved. Now your purse a good deal heavier you stand better prepared to face down whatever evil has this town in its grip. **You've now reached level 4.**
DARIAN: He enjoys the warm sunlight and and smiles. Today has been a good day so far. Darian will head back to the inn with a smile on his face