HLoM: The Firebird, Chapter 2

[DeepShadow of FoS]

She stared, for a moment, deaf to Vasili's words at first, as if they were far away. "It is grisly work," she finally replied. "I...only have a dagger." She held her bow aloft to light upon the lupine carrion.

Vasili's eyes light upon Richard's fallen greatsword, and he makes an arcane sign before him. "That," he indicates with a nod, "is a magical blade, and we will have to carry it with us at any rate. I cannot wield it in combat, but chopping carrion is not combat. I can lift the blade and let it fall--not unlike chopping wood. How about you? You are trained in weapons. Can you use such a blade in combat?"

Tara replies with one muttered word: "Caught." None of the other three respond at all. From Vasili and Nuray's vague impressions of where Tara, Rojan and Altan fled, they would guess they fled back to the dining hall where you talked with the mercenary Colin and Captain Avard, as the nearest place with light and human companions.

"Tara, in the tower, remember the message of the maiden."*

Nuray did not refuse the enchantment the sorcerer offered, merely nodded. It seemed she was hardly bothered at all by the notion, unlike some of her more superstitious kin.

In deference to Nuray's gender and heritage, Vasili deliberately avoids skin contact, touching her instead on the shoulder.

"We should...regroup," she added. "Find the others, and Freyr, Richard I mean." She glanced back toward the tomb, then forced out a breath and turned the way they had come.

"Wait," Vasili says. "We do need to regroup, but Tara has been captured, and the others are unresponsive. We may need to bargain with the captors, which requires a position of strength. If bargaining is not enough...I fear we will need the strength all the more. If you guard the door, one member of our group will be rejoining us shortly..."

Vasili reaches out and plucks another archon from the air before him, conferring with the creature briefly before sending it out into the night. Once that creature was gone, Vasili would truly be out of angels. With that in mind, he focused on the stone floor of the tomb, willing it to slip away like sand from a relief sculpture, and preparing to trade his last angel for a very loyal hellcat....

* Bluff (Innuendo) check +22 to remind Tara that Vasili can hear anything she says to anyone, as long as it's a whisper. He's being oblique about it in case anyone else on Tara's end can overhear his whispers.
[dice]0[/dice]

[NeoTiamat]

"Good night, Laird ApBlanc." Lena said, looking after him thoughtfully. She tapped her chin, thinking about certain things that were strange. He was clearly lying. He was equally clearly concerned about sunset. Perhaps it was time to find Isolt and ask her a few more questions.

To Isolt!

[Nathan of the FoS]

"My... my lady, you seem ill. Can I-I-I -- can I-I aid...?" Richard asked the other woman quietly. He wondered if she still acted as a ghost, when she looked like flesh and blood, and if a well meaning attempt to heal her body would only cause her more pain.

"No, ah…no," the younger woman replies, moving back slightly and shifting the infant in her arms as if to protect it. "It is only that Tristen is so new."

"You ought to have kept to your bed, Flora ApBlanc," Rual replies sternly.

"Yes, but…" Flora lifts the infant slightly.

"Yes." Rual says. What Richard said earlier about the Shield seems to catch her attention again. Turning back to him, she says, "This shield you found here. May I see it?" She puts out her hand for it in a way that suggests she's willing to insist if Richard hesitates.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Brigit (the serving maid deputized to your service by the laird) leads you back to the Lady Isolt's tapestry room, where she waits to receive you. "Did you have a pleasant talk with my husband?" she asks, her voice showing only the faintest signs of strain.

[Isabella]

"Do-do you recognize it? Look at it if-if you wish," Richard replied, his voice curious. His stance and the stern cast of his face, however, implied she was quite welcome to examine it to her heart's content, while it was in his hands and nowhere else, as he held the shard in a death grip. Helpfully, he moved his lantern down to illuminate the metal shield.

[Nathan of the FoS]

"I don't," Rual says, looking at it skeptically. "Who told you it was here? A priestess of the Queen of Battles*?" Shaking her head, she continues, "If you found it here, you must leave it here, foreigner. This place is sacred, and I will not see it spoiled."

*The Morrigan--presumably Rual asks because it's a sword and shield and she's a battle goddess.

[Isabella]

"A-a priestess of Ezra. A-a goddess of... ah. It is hard to-to explain quickly. A-a shieldbearer, a protector. I-I do not think she is known here." Richard shook his head. "I-I-I found it in a castle in the forest, and it was no-no sacred place. I-I am... not entirely sure how I-I got from there to here."

[Nerit]

Nuray looked up at the arcane being that appeared before it slipped away.

"Very well," she replied slowly. "I will guard the door. You have a plan?" Nuray sidled to the entrance and nocked an arrow.



Readying an action, I guess. Or maybe total defense? Bah.

[NeoTiamat]

"Enlightening, rather." Lena said, in a way that could be interpreted as it being both pleasant and enlightening, or enlightening and far from pleasant. She glanced meaningfully at Brigid the maid, and once Isolt had either dismissed or vouchsafed the servant, continued quietly. "He said some rather intriguing things about religious visions your daughter had. Can you tell us anything more about them?"

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Nuray looked up at the arcane being that appeared before it slipped away.

"Very well," she replied slowly. "I will guard the door. You have a plan?"

Vasili nods. "We need to follow through with the original story of having been bewitched by fey or ghosts. I'll summon Leila, then we will destroy the wolves outside while calling for help. If anyone arrives, we will confess to breaking into the tomb, fighting the ghost, and all the rest, but we will insist that we did at all under the influence of fell powers."

Vasili continues to stare at the floor, a stare so intense that it might actually make a person wonder if there was something there that he could see that they could not.

[Revka et al]

Hands on hips, Cattia surveys the trapdoor, and then looks at the fox.

"I'm going to get something to stand on," she whispers. "Come or stay, as you wish. I'll be back in a moment."

With that, Cattia slinks back down the hall, out the secret door, and back to the guard room below the stairs for a chair.

Cattia is focused on stealth over speed. Taking 10 on Stealth for 22, and a 10 on Perception for 20, to avoid running into anyone on the way there and back.

[Nathan of the FoS]

"I have not heard of such a one as this Ezra," Rual says flatly, her face settling into an expression of angry skepticism. "And there's no castle near this place. You've the look of no Forfarian, either. Give me that relic and depart, and come again by day, like an honest man, and we'll speak of this again. I've other business to attend to this night."

"He has an honest face, Rual," Flora says, almost whispering.

"You are far too quick to trust, girl," Rual snaps back, her eyes narrowing. She gestures with one hand, and Richard can feel the trees around him draw inward toward him, as if the whole grove were a living thing that had breathed in deeply, and then relax away from him again.

Flora flinches at this rebuke, and the babe in her arms wails.

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Brigid has my confidence," Lady Isolt says, in response to Lena's silent question. "Though if we've no need of her here...Brigid, could you look for the laird's sword? Try the north tower. Hurry."

As the maid slips out she turns her attention to Lena's second question. "I suppose I might?" she says, her brow creasing. "Did my husband mention them? That's not much like him. She's had them from when she was a slip of a girl; several of Diancecht, of course, and of Dagda and Belenus as well."

[Nathan of the FoS]

Suddenly Tara's voice, low and distinct, sounds in Vasili's ears, speaking rapidly but clearly. "They think we're here for ApFittle. Took Rojan away. Fear I'll cast spells, watching close. Sticking to ghost story. Nice diversion."

She falls silent again; lightning flickers nearby, and almost immediately thunder rolls overhead.

[Nathan of the FoS]

With a chair to stand on the job becomes fairly straightforward. A few minutes gets the trapdoor open and pushed aside; pulling herself up, she finds herself in a small space, just wider than her outstretched arms in both length and width, occupied mostly by strongboxes and objects wrapped in oilcloth. There may be a good deal of interest here, but the laird's daughter obviously isn't.