Lost in Arsuran [PM to Join]

[Deleted]

Arsuran, Grunwald
The 11th Day of Velieaux, AoS 4010

Thread Type: PM to Join
Participants: Ligeia, Alric, Canto, Sancraid

Somewhere in the winding and irregular streets of Arsuran, what appeared to be an unusually petite Irasa¹ dressed in black could be heard cursing fervently in a manner quite uncharacteristic of the graceful pseudoelves.

"Curse your handsome sexy face, Nargel!! Where in the flaming Bowels of Solabren am I?!" Ligeia completely ignored the fact that Nargel was neither the god of (mis)direction nor did he hold dominion over architecture. Irrelevantly (and blasphemously) evoking the Collector's name was simply Ligeia's way of showing her regard for the god of the New Pantheon who had judged her to be unworthy of Caelium. Of course, this regard was of one of contempt; the sort that rebuffed women often held for those who'd spurned them.

The Judged was starting to feel more than just contempt for the builders of Arsuran however; the smoldering annoyance was starting to blaze into an outright declaration that the whole trading port should be burnt down and built anew. And with many rules and line gauges to aid the redesign this time around.

To make things worse, the citizens of Grunwald seemed to be abysmal at giving directions. Or perhaps they're so used to their crooked city, they've got a crooked sense of direction too. Though it makes me wonder, what else of theirs is crooked...

¹ Ligeia had been trying to go for the High-Elf look when she crawled out of the Bowels, but turned out looking like a mini-Irasa who hadn't see the light of day for years.

Edits: Added the other particpants, changed thread type to PM to Join since a party of four is sufficient for a non-combat thread.

[Beast Master]

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Result[/color]
25 (Avg: 25.0)

(Total avg: 25.0)


25) Advanced Epic Item[/color] (You and your party find a major treasure cache. Everyone receives one free Advanced Epic Item. Requires a secondary dice roll on a 20 sided dice of +10 in order to succeed! Player driven.)

Result[/color]
16 (Avg: 16.0)

(Total avg: 16.0)

Congratulations! Your roll was successful! Enjoy your free Advanced Enchanted Item!

**********[/color]

[Deleted]

Alric flipped the coin high into the air and caught it on the back of his palm in a deft movement. He revealed the side with a hatch mark and turned down the righthand street. He had long since given up on trying to make sense of the twisting streets of the city and had given himself over to pure luck. He wandered down yet another nondescript street and came out into yet another confusing intersection. Upon hearing a rather intriguing string of curses coming from one of the side streets he abandoned his coinflip and followed the voice.

After a while he closed in on the foul language and was rather pleased to find an attractive young lady at its source. She almost seemed to radiate annoyance as she stomped down the path, grumbling to herself. He was distracted from the sway of her bare thighs by a blasphemous outburt so humorous he had to burst out laughing. "Isn't it obvious lass? Yer right here."

[Deleted]

"Daddy, daddy, daddy are we there yet" shouted Marabella annoyingly. For the entire journey the little Dresari was filled with energy and would not allow her father a single momment of silence. "We're here child now please stop asking" Canto said in a begging manor, he began rubbing the bridge of his nose trying to stop the headache he could feel coming on. They finally made it to Arsuran much to Canto's relief but once they entered the city gates he realized he had no idea where the market was. The streets were like mazes and every turn Canto made either lead them to a dead end or in a circle, he dreaded asking for directions so he just kept walking and listening to his annoying dauhter sing some annoying song. Only thought that came into his head was if he would he be a bad person if he took his daughter to a forest and left her.

After about 2 hours of walking and shitty singing Canto did something he never did before he asked Marabella which way they should go, "HONEY.... which way do you think is the best to go". After about a minute or two she pointed right and so they went down the street, Pumpi sleeping on Brutus back and Marabella on Canto's shoulder. In the distance Canto heard a woman cursing and a man mocking her, in the back of his mind he wanted to turn around badly but for the child's sake he didn't. When he finally arrived on the seen he saw a small repulsive looking Irasa and an even shorter man thing, and to his better judgement he walked up towards them and said "excuse me do either of you know where the market is", in the most polites tone but of course Marabella added something "look daddy he's short and she is.... well she smells really bad". All Canto did was hang his head and dropped his shoulders

[Deleted]

Despite his preference for colder weather, Zetomar was still an acceptable country as far as Sancraid was concerned. At least it wasn't Asterholm, which was either unbelievably hot or unbelievably humid, or both. It was never cold, but it was never hot. If it wasn't for his personal preference for cold weather, he might spend most of his time here. Alas, Sunderbran was still his home. He could still, however, enjoy himself in this place. Indeed, Asuran was a distorted reflection of his home town, and even if the differences were striking, he could still find comfort in its similarities. It looked similar but it lacked the smell of fish that he grew up with.

Alas, here he was.

"Curse your handsome sexy face, Nargel!! Where in the flaming Bowels of Solabren am I?!"

What.

That was probably the most hilarious blasphemy he had ever heard! Sancraid liked that irasan, whoever she was, already. He did have a map with him, maybe he could give it to her? After thinking about that for a second, Sancraid decided that maybe that was not the best plan in the world. After all, he only had the one map, and the irasan was right, Arsuran was a maze. He'd probably wind up completely lost without it. So he could either ignore it, or lead her around... Well, it wasn't like he and Cu Sith had much else to do today.

Speaking of the barrow hound, her stomach seemed to be growling. Sancraid sighed, and said to the giant beast "Calm down girl, I just fed you this morning." Alas, the great riding dog was staring at him piteously, so as he walked over to irasan girl, he dug into Cu Sith's food sack and gave the dog a large lump of beef, which the hound happily gulped down. It would probably keep her sated until evening at least.

"Isn't it obvious lass? Yer right here."

Ah, looks like a ruffian dwarf was making fun of the poor girl. Well, he'd deal with that as well-

"look daddy he's short and she is.... well she smells really bad."

Ah children. They always called it exactly like they saw it. Poor lass. It seemed everyone was on her case today, eve children. The child's father also seemed to be lost. Well, he could take care of that. Walking up to the small group of various nonhumans while digging out his map, Sancraid interjected.

"Excuse me, you all just sounded a little lost. Well, not the dwarf. But I think I could help you out. Where were you looking to go?"

After this little misadventure, It would probably be time to get food, and visit a leather-worker. Sancraid's armor was still scuffed up and slightly ripped on the left shoulder from highwayman he had to deal with on the road into town.

[Deleted]

Ligeia raised an eyebrow at the dwarf's comment; the other side went up as well when the little Dresari called her smelly. Ligeia's eyes narrowed, but whether it was in annoyance or humour only she knew. Her retort would've have made known her mood, but alas a human interjected.

"Excuse me, you all just sounded a little lost. Well, not the dwarf. But I think I could help you out. Where were you looking to go?"

How amazing; a helpful person! I thought that they all died out already. Looks like we might not all become Judged just yet - Oh wait, not we; I'm already one.

"Hm~ I do believe that a certain pretty little Lovlus told me that there's treasure to be found here in Arsuran — that probably explains the smell, little boy. Anyway, the frog said that amid the many rocks laid down to construct Arsuran's breakwaters so many years ago lies precious items, magical items even. I intend to go have a look. And would you good sir, bless your less sexy but still very charming countenance and your absolutely adorable hound; care to direct me to where the habour may be?"

It was a lie, of course. Ligeia simply wanted to investigate the numerous sunken ships of the breakwater, and the rotting corpses they held. They had been unwitting sacrifices when Arsuran was still in the process of learning how to construct breakwaters. But perhaps there would be treasure, especially at the oldest breakwater where the city had been more concerned with protecting itself than recovering dead bodies and broken wood. And there would always be buyers willing to pay a hefty sum for sunken relics.

PS. I didn't start out this thread for the sake of getting an Adv. Epic, and I'm certainly not going to haphazardly rush and finish the thread just for it. Ligeia's going to have a proper mini adventure, and I'm dragging the lot of you for the ride! ;D
PPS. Yes I know Marabella is a girl and so does Ligeia; Ligeia's just being Ligeia.

Edit: Minor edit.

[Deleted]

Alric frowned at the masked womans words, "Aye lass, there likely are many treasures amid those blasted rocks, or more specifically the ships grave thats sprung up around them." His voice took on a genuinely interested tone as he continued, "Ye see lass, as the breaks were created the workers hauled huge quantities of stones and boulders out into the bay in large barges and dumped them over the side into the sea. A fairly sound strategy for the time it nevertheless had some serious flaws in its execution. You see, the ships were mostly made of low grade inexpensive wood and the larger and most misshapen of the boulder would often twist around upon impact with the water. This would often lead to the rocks impacting the hull as they went down, eventually leading to fractures and hull breaches. Many ships were lost like that as i understand. Secondly, they didn't take into account the ocean currents as the breakers grew and many ships ended up seized and inexorably drawn into the rocks. Even after all these years there are still some unlucky enough to be caught in the snare. Lastly the... er.. results attracted many predatory and scavenger animals and turned the already quite life threatening area into something a lot more dangero-" He noticed he was rambling and cleared his throat in an embarrassed manner.

"So lass, how are you planning to explore such a place?"

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Canto was filled with relief when the human on a large dog stated that he had a map. All Canto did was smile but that quickly changed when the pale Irasa called Marabella a boy and Marabella hated being called a boy. She especially didnt like being insulted by someone who she thought to be hidieous or atleast beneath her in beauty. Marabella's face turned as red as they could get and she exploded with a returning insult, "I'm a boy hidieous freak.... you look pale enough to be dea-", Canto covered her mouth with his massive hand. After stepping away from the group to put Marabella in her place he returned to the talk of treasure.

Treasure was something that interested Canto greatly and he complete forgot his need to reach the market. "If there's trea-"
he was cut off by the dwarf and instead of forcing his sentence in he waited paitiently. But Canto soon regreted being polite, for the dwarf rambled on with a speech that could have crushed his dream of finding treasure if he were weak willed. Immediatly after the dwarf finished Canto spoke excitedly in a hushed voice, "that information was nice but know but I still would be interested in helping find any treasure", he was hoping the dwarf didn't deter the pale Irasa.



PS:I wasn't trying to take advantage of anything, I was just saying lets not get bogged down like other people with their long post.

[Deleted]

"Hm~ I do believe that a certain pretty little Lovlus told me that there's treasure to be found here in Arsuran — that probably explains the smell, little boy. Anyway, the frog said that amid the many rocks laid down to construct Arsuran's breakwaters so many years ago lies precious items, magical items even. I intend to go have a look. And would you good sir, bless your less sexy but still very charming countenance and your absolutely adorable hound; care to direct me to where the habour may be?"

Treasure, eh? Well now, there was something worth his time. He had figured he'd be guiding an odd group of people around for a day, but it looked like there was something to be gotten out of it. Sancraid grinned, before starting to look on the map in order to figure where to go from where they were, allowing him to get an earful of the dwarf's warnings.

"Aye lass, there likely are many treasures amid those blasted rocks, or more specifically the ships grave thats sprung up around them. Ye see lass, as the breaks were created the workers hauled huge quantities of stones and boulders out into the bay in large barges and dumped them over the side into the sea. A fairly sound strategy for the time it nevertheless had some serious flaws in its execution. You see, the ships were mostly made of low grade inexpensive wood and the larger and most misshapen of the boulder would often twist around upon impact with the water. This would often lead to the rocks impacting the hull as they went down, eventually leading to fractures and hull breaches. Many ships were lost like that as i understand. Secondly, they didn't take into account the ocean currents as the breakers grew and many ships ended up seized and inexorably drawn into the rocks. Even after all these years there are still some unlucky enough to be caught in the snare. Lastly the... er.. results attracted many predatory and scavenger animals and turned the already quite life threatening area into something a lot more dangero-"

"So lass, how are you planning to explore such a place?"

By the twelve godlings, such a place was so horrifying. How could he possibly have been thinking of going there? There was no way to survive-

Unless of course you weren't some Ferdanie child who hadn't even picked up a dagger yet. Honestly, who did that dwarf think he was? Sounded like a daytime stroll along the beach. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Aaaaand the kid was yelling again. Something about little Miss Irasan looking pale enough to be dead. It didn't matter that much, but it was starting to add up in Sancraid's head, and there was something to be said for the intuition of children, so before he resumed scnning the map, Sancraid took a closer look at the Irasan lady. Extremely pale? Check. Smelled somewhat mildewy? Check.

...Cu Sith getting a sudden case of the munchies right after seeing her? Check. Yeah, Miss Irasan was really an Ex-Irasan. Judged of Nargel and all that. Sancraid reviewed these facts a couple of times, decided on a course of action, and-

Promptly wrote off the undeath of the Judged woman as insignificant. She seemed nice enough for a dead woman. Best blasphemer he'd met. Just because someone was a walking corpse didn't mean you couldn't get along with them. Besides, there was treasure to be had. He'd worked with more undesirable people in the past. Pits, the walking corpse smelled better than about a fourth of his customers anyway.

"Well, that's all well and good, sounds like a dangerous expedition and all, not for the faint of heart. Anyway, the docks should be that way, so let's get going unless we wanna be looking down there while under the stars."

Barely acknowledging the dwarf's warning of the dangers of their quest, Sancraid simply blew it off.

[Deleted]

"I'm a boy hidieous freak.... you look pale enough to be dea-"

Ligeia watched in amusement as the child's father took her to side from some private talk-time. The child's retort wasn't much of an insult to her. Ligeia worked extensively with the dead as both her job and hobby so it was only natural for her to resemble one herself. Not to mention she was technically dead, except she managed to crawl out of the Bowels, with her mind mostly intact and with a corporeal form to boot, so the more correct term was undead. Small detail the living tended to overlook.

Her mention of treasure seemed to catch everyone's interest. It even prompted the dwarf to give a picturesque narrative, to which she listened appreciatively, of how the ruins at the breakwaters had come about. Ah, what a pity it had been that she was unable to travel to Arsuran during the construction. The newly-formed wreckages would have been such a lovely sight. As for his question, she shrugged her shoulders in an unspoken 'I'll think about it when I get there'. Ligeia had faith in her undead body to withstand a bit of water. pointy rocks, and whatever lay between them.

The moment the man with the hound finished pointing out the way to the docks, Ligeia started walking. Turning around such that she was moving backwards and facing the unusual group of humanoids gathered, she said in a rather cheery voice, "Oh, but why-ever not? Surely none of us are the kind to habour a fear of drowned corpses coming back to life under the light of the moon~ Though if this is where we must part, I do suppose a self-introduction before the fare-well is in order. My name is Ligeia, a wandering bard and sometimes undertaker when times are bad." Not completely untrue, but definitely not an accurate description of where her priorities lay.