Completed Play-by-Post: In Search of the Sorcerer

[Grimgravy]

OOC

Whatever you'd like to do. I held off on mentioning the date when Ghul asked so I wouldn't be monopolizing things. That didn't work out the way I wanted. If it encourages participation, I'm for it.

Rhenmyr follows Borric's example and holds the other end of the rope out to Marcan. "I'll come too. I'll try to scream if my soul is shredded. Keep your ears open, Ker"

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

on the date thing. My ruling is that you replied before Ghul lost control of Márcan. Ghul: "713? Well then, this Father Inniros you met would have been Hale, healthy and in his mid 30s I should guess. Certainly not some bald pated dottering, bony old man."

Borric cinches the rope about his waist.

 

[Siveon]

"Ah, great plan, Borric. It is well known that rope is resistant against soul tearing magic." Marcán quips. He grabs the rope and hands the rest of it to Ker or Cormac. "I'd love to go, truly, but you'd need a bit of muscle to pull you two meatheads back. Ready when you are."

OOC

Sorry using a dumb app. Can I tie the rope around Ghuls chair (or was it more of a coffin)?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"Friend Ranger, perhaps you can not be heard screaming across this rift, more so if we can hear naught on this side."

OOC

Can I roll a perception or listening check though? See if we can discern anything on the other side of the portal?

 

[nikolokolus]

"Ah, great plan, Borric. It is well known that rope is resistant against soul tearing magic." Marcán quips. He grabs the rope and hands the rest of it to Ker or Cormac. "I'd love to go, truly, but you'd need a bit of muscle to pull you two meatheads back. Ready when you are."

OOC

Sorry using a dumb app. Can I tie the rope around Ghuls chair (or was it more of a coffin)?

OOC

The bier is a kind of raised stone bed. Ghul's still body was just lying on top of it. The bier is about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide so it has a circumference of 22 feet, the distance from the portal to the edge of the bier is about 30 feet. So one fifty foot length of rope isn't going to reach if you 'lasso' the base, but if you all want to join ends of multiple ropes together with a knot, that would be fairly trivial.

"Friend Ranger, perhaps you can not be heard screaming across this rift, more so if we can hear naught on this side."

OOC

Can I roll a perception or listening check though? See if we can discern anything on the other side of the portal?

Standing in front of the wavery, shimmering portal Borric can hear nothing, but when you get very close to the surface of the portal the blurry, hazy greens, grays and blues suddenly resolve into an image. You make out a green patch of turf littered with standing stones under a leaden sky.

 

[Siveon]

"Say Borric, you got anymore rope? I want to fasten this thing on our friend's resting place. However amoral that may be."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"Rope we have enough, Bard. As long you can handle it as well as you can talk, we should be well."

 

[nikolokolus]

Borric hovers at the edge of the portal, rope firmly cinched around his waist. The rest of you mill around, nervously awaiting the outcome of the hulking steppe warrior's plan to cross the threshold into whatever the strange, alien landscape holds.

 

[Siveon]

"But of course."

OOC

Lets pretend Marcán tied the extra rope around the bier. Before the GM's post.

 

[Grimgravy]

"All right large one, lets go." Rhenmyr takes sword and shield in hand, draws a deep breath, and steps through the shimmering portal. He plan the crouch low on the other side.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Borric steps through the portal and scans the area for any immediate threats, and a spot to tether the rope to, in hopes of keeping the portal open.

 

[nikolokolus]

As Borric and Rhenmyr pass through the strange doorway they are filled with queasiness as the strange "fluid" of the door envelops them and seems to permeate every pore of their skin as it slides down their backs like an icy torrent of foul sludge. In the blink of an eye, the sensation passes and you each scan around to take in your surroundings. A stiff breeze whistles through the field of upright stones and a vast rolling moorland stretches out and down before front of you. Scanning to your right you notice that the land rises sharply many leagues away, touching the low scudding clouds. a look to the left and the high moors drop down into a valley. Perhaps dozens of miles beyond that, a vast forest stretches out as far as the eye can see.

More immediately, menhirs up to 20 feet tall rise up out of the ground in irregular intervals, but seem to form a sort of ring about the place you are standing. When you look behind you, you find yourselves standing just outside of a rough stone archway formed by two standing stones of undressed granite, spanned by a horizontal slab of the same sort of stone some 8 feet over your heads. The same wavery, watery membrane from the other side of the portal fills the arch, but when you peer into it, all you see is your reflections. The rope affixed around Borric's waist stretches back and through this membrane.

Borric tugs on the rope and finds that it comes very easily, he walks about fifteen feet away from the archway toward a partly toppled stone and loops a bight over it, ties it off and walks back to the arch.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"Ranger, any tracks here that you see?"

Borric looks around for any trace of these Picts he's heard of.

 

[Grimgravy]

Rhenmyr searches the area for signs of recent occupation. "I'll check for tracks. Keep a look out to the highlands and the forest."

 

[nikolokolus]

It doesn't take much effort to note signs of passage (what with it being mid-Spring in the highlands) the ground is quite muddy and a well-worn track leading up to the ring of stones from the valley is clearly visible. On the track are clear human-shaped footprints and what looks like dog or wolf tracks.

(roll a d100)

 

[Grimgravy]

Checking tracks: d100: [1d100] = 88

 

[nikolokolus]

Rhenmyr spends several minutes examining the tracks in and around the standing stones. During your investigation, you follow the well trod path a short distance down the hill and come to a shallow defile between the rolling mounds of the moors. Four paths branch off from the stem of trail that you are on; three lead to nearby adjacent mounds and the fourth continues down into a nearby wooded valley. Most notable though is a rough stone altar in the center of the junction. A careful examination reveals bits of fur, hair and dark stains (probably blood) on its channeled surface - the channels leading to a spout carved out of the rock on the lip of the front of the altar.

The tracks here seem fairly fresh; no more than a couple of days old. Your best guess is perhaps a score of inviduals, they were barefoot, short-strided and fairly heavy. These human prints terminate around the altar and lead back down into the valley. The wolf or dog prints were laid down at least several hours afterward.

 

[Grimgravy]

OOC

Were the dwarves we saw back are the ferry barefoot?

 

[nikolokolus]

OOC

No

 

[Grimgravy]

Rhenmyr returns to Borric. "This area is used for blood sacrifice. Twenty or so barefoot people were here only a few days ago. A pack of canines came through shortly after them. I don't think this area is particularly safe in the long term."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"They could cause problems if they come back and see this gate open. Bring the others through the gate, I'll see if I can fake a trail to mislead them."
Borric stands at the altar, considers. "They come from the valley, so I shall lead them in the opposite direction." He removes a field ration packet from his bag, and moves in the direction of the rising land. He drops crumbs of the ration along the way to leave a scent for the dogs, and takes every care to make his trail as obvious as possible.
"This might be fool enough to work.", he grumbles. "Ranger, where would you take the others, and how do I get there?"

 

[Grimgravy]

"The Kelts might know more of the area, but Odessos will be to the south. Meet us back here. We may want to explore the barrows. For Ghul's dragon's blood or just to piss off the locals." Rhenmyr returns to the shimmering doorway to get the others.

 

[Siveon]

OOC

Oh, thank god. I thought I was gonna be Side Character-ed.

 

[nikolokolus]

Rhenmyr strides toward the shimmering portal under the dolmen and steps into it . . . literally. You rebound off it's undulating surface and get a bloodied nose for your trouble; its surface is as obdurate and unyielding as the slabs of upright granite that jut out of the earth here.

 

[Grimgravy]

"Bloody hell. No going back it seems." Rhenmyr wipes the blood from his face, and then tries tugging on the rope.