Quest #21 "Island Hopping"

[OGRE MAGE]

Welcome, To The Cave, On Minotaur Island
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Damp

Maag pokes around at the rags with his pole. They are not in a pile on the floor like he thought, but all hanging neatly on hooks and rods around the walls of this chamber. They appear to be normal rags one might use for cleaning, and he finds nothing sinister about them.

Gramble warns about the pulsating gem as Alordan peers at the dead female. He contends that the woman has changed somehow since they killed her, but the others didn't notice any of that. She looks exactly the same as she did with her hood up.

Saracen opens the journal that Maag discovered, finding a soft female hand written script inside. The first few pages detail the life of a young woman from Saltmarsh named Cora who joined the priesthood so she could spend the rest of her life devoted to her god, Athena. There appear to be several notes written about her recent travels inside the book.

Actions?

map:

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Sir Crestbrook 11/11
Saracen 30/30 2/4 1st 1/1 2nd
Maag 9/12 (torch:40'r/2.9T)
Lerrick 11/11 1/4 1st
Gramble 13/16
Alordan 12/18

[Storm11]

Saracen continues to read the journal, especially the last part of the book with handwriting inside. Curious to discover why a good priestess of the goddess of Wisdom would turn to an evil snake god of a completely different pantheon. He eyes the glowing gem suspiciously.

[wolfpack]

paladin, concentrate on that amulet, I have a feeling it is a source of evil.

[Jernau35]

Maag

Leaving the pit, and whatever dangerous beast is lurking quietly at the bottom, to the heavily-armored types, Maag spots the chest across the room.

He walks over to it and gives it a couple of pokes with his 10' pole. If nothing explodes or swings out from the wall and decapitates him, he moves in closer and gives the chest a good look-over. Rooting through his beltpouches, Maag eventually comes up with a smaller pouch filled with bits of wire and small tools. "'oo's got der torch?" he grunts. "Give us a bit a light over 'ere. Professional at work".

Maag starts gently poking, prodding and levering at various points on the chest. He fears that it's now-dead owner might have been one of those crazy, murderous types who leave nasty, vicious, and highly dangerous traps lying around to injure the innocently curious such as himself. Once he's satisfied that he's probably not going to get killed, he starts to work on opening the chest.

[kruk]

occ: sorry for not posting the last couple days. I was out of town. I'm back though.

Sir Crestbrook the Mighty

The paladin detects evil on the book as requested by one of his comrades.


Lerrick:

The cleric eyes the weapon that the fallen foe had in her hand. Hmmm I've always wanted a mace. She waits though to assist Maag if his potential trap disarming goes wrong.

[ravenn4544]

Alordan uses his knife to take the amulet off the girl. Still keeping the body face down or covered to avert seeing the face.

[OGRE MAGE]

Welcome, To The Cave, On Minotaur Island
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Damp

Gramble suggests the paladin test the amulet for evil, with the concerns of the group mounting the longer they look upon it. Crestbrook concentrates on the journal instead, but doesn’t sense any evil coming from it. Wisely flipping to the final pages, Saracen keeps reading.

He learns that this Cora came to the island much like everyone else, arriving almost 3 months ago now. She was hoping to make a name for herself while spreading the teachings of Athena wherever she went. However, when Beachtowns leader wouldn't abide by her attempts to convert the people, she revolted against him, eventually being banished to this small island away from the others.

The last passages read as follows.

"The trees and plants on this island seem to have a life of their own. I wonder if these things are in the treant family or something. They move of their own accord and have eventually herded me into this strange ring of standing stones."

"The minotaur tried to kill me once it spotted me, but it didn't follow me very far once I entered the cave."

"Well now, it seems that I have found a safe haven in here after all. This small series of rooms should work great for my starter shrine to Athena. There is already an altar and fresh water too. I will need to do something about all these hideous statues, but I think I could make this place work pretty well."

"I have found a hidden hollow in the altar, and even figured out how to open it. Inside was something I dare not even think about. But.....the amulet calls to me for some reason."

“I have decided to try it on, since I can’t get it out of my mind anyway. Athena, please make me strong so I can continue to spread your word.”

The rest of the page and the remainder of the journal is blank. The final entry was made over three weeks ago.

Maag gravitates towards the chest next, poking and prodding at it with his long pole. He calls for a torch, even though the room is well lit, making quite the production over opening a chest that already sits wide open on the floor. There is normal clothing folded neatly at the top of the chest. He sees a light indentation in the cloth from the heavy mace that Cora just grabbed out of it.

Lerrick spots the dropped mace and covets it. It appears finely crafted, the head carved into an intricate image of an owls face.

Alordan carefully retrieves the bright blue snake amulet from around the dead girls neck with his dagger. It stops pulsating once he removes it, but is still breathtaking to behold. He looks upon it with curiosity and great interest, staring at it with intense focus. (see private thread)

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Actions?

Sir Crestbrook 11/11 (torch:40'r/2.8T)
Saracen 30/30 2/4 1st 1/1 2nd
Maag 9/12
Lerrick 11/11 1/4 1st
Gramble 13/16
Alordan 12/18

[kruk]

Gramble suggests the paladin test the amulet for evil, with the concerns of the group mounting the longer they look upon it. Crestbrook concentrates on the journal instead, but doesn’t sense any evil coming from it.\

My bad...misread the post.

Sir Crestbrook

As Alordan lifts the amulet with his dagger, Sir Crestbrook quickly switches his attention from the book to the amulet.
(detect evil on the amulet)


Lerrick

The cleric continues to observe and support Maag and his investigation of the chest.

[ravenn4544]

Alordan stares at the amulet with a small shake of his head. "It's talking to me - and not in a good way." From the trials and realities that he has faced recently, of course the amulet is evil and cursed. Why would something useful be found lying around in a dark cave guarded by a mysterious cloaked woman with a fetish for Minotaur statues? Without touching it, he wraps it up in some rags and stuffs it away and will toss it out to sea when they get back to the boat....

After that, he'll take a look at this dark pit. How deep does it appear to be?

[Storm11]

Saracen looks sadly at the woman’s corpse as he closes the Journal. Alas a poor priestess of the goodness of wisdom bewitched by evil. We might have saved her. Could the amulet be crushed and destroyed ranger do you think? Is it brittle or sturdy do you estimate?

The orange robed half-orc moves over to the body and performs the last rites of Pholtus.

If it is sentient we may be able to get some answers from it perhaps? Someone with a strong resistance to magical forces if there is someone amongst us.

[wolfpack]

Everyone needs to just stay the hell away form it. throw it in the ocean of bury it in a chasm but don;t dare touch it.

[Jernau35]

Maag

"I'm not messin' around wiv dat," states Maag flatly, still sitting next to the chest. "All it does is make you want to walk around wiv snakes in yer pockets, and den yer get yer 'ead lopped off by Cresty before yer can say 'Excuse me, does anybody know 'ow to remove evil necklaces?'

"Talkin' of which..." Maag rummages around in the bottom of the chest and draws out some kind of charm or symbol. "What about dis? Anybody know what it is?"

[OGRE MAGE]

Welcome, To The Cave, On Minotaur Island
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Damp

Crestbrook concentrates on the amulet next. He wracks his mind for the truth, but no emanations come to him. He finds this very odd, certain that the thing must have an evil bent. Alordan mentions that it is attempting to communicate with him telepathically, so he wraps it up in a cloth rag so he can toss it into the sea when he gets the chance. Big Gramble just shakes his head, making sure nobody touches the thing.

Lerrick moves over to Maag who is still investigating the contents of the chest. The half-orc produces what looks like a necklace of some kind. Lerrick recognizes it immediately as a clerics holy symbol. The symbol is in the shape of a beautiful owl and carved from what appears to be ivory.

Saracen preforms a few simple prayers over the murdered Cora, suggesting that someone with a strong enough will might be able to learn from the magic of the amulet, though he doesn't offer to try it himself.

Alordan grabs a torch from the wall and peers into the pit in the floor. It is only about 5 feet deep, but the rocky bottom is nearly covered with snakes of all kinds, writhing and hissing as the light source reveals tiny holes and cracks in the bottom of the pit, likely the snakes ingress.

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Sir Crestbrook 11/11 (torch:40'r/2.7T)
Saracen 30/30 2/4 1st 1/1 2nd
Maag 9/12
Lerrick 11/11 1/4 1st
Gramble 13/16
Alordan 12/18

[ravenn4544]

Alordan peers into the pit and asks "So anyone want to search down there?" If there are no takers, he'll examine the pool next.

He suddenly remembers, "What about the 'Brutus' she mentioned? We need to be prepared for that. And a minotaur that lives on the island somewhere also!"

[Jernau35]

Maag

"We did chop up dat Minotaur at der entrance", Maag points out. "But yeah, der might be others too".

"I don't know what Brutus is but it's bound to be sumfin' nasty. I've never 'ad der arse ripped out of me trousers by a pitbull called Mr Fluffy"

[wolfpack]

maybe we should pour oil into the pit and burn the bastard snakes.

[kruk]

Sir Crestbrook the Mighty

The paladin looks at the fallen cleric. I...I don't understand. How could I have been so wrong about her. He collapses to his knees and pulls out his sword. I am not worthy to live after what I've done. He puts the hilt of his sword against against the wall and the tip of his sword against his chest, then thrust himself forward with all of his might into the blade, which impales him. He grunts as the blade passes through his midsection, then collapses to the floor.



Lerrick

Lerrick drops her staff in a state of total shock. Oh dear heavens...

[OGRE MAGE]

Welcome, To The Cave, On Minotaur Island
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Damp

Alordan moves to the pool next, finding it filled with a cool clean water.

As the group discuss how to handle the snakes, the minotaur, and something named Brutus, Sir Crestbrook sets down his torch and begins undoing the straps on his coat of chainmail. He then places his sword hilt on the wall and positions himself over the blade. Proclaiming that he doesn't deserve to live anymore, he trusts himself upon his own sword, promptly falling over and bleeding copious amounts of his own blood upon the stone floor of the cavern. He doesn't actually die from the act, but he begins to understand the pain that Alordan and Gramble caused the poor dead woman, now lying next to him on the cold stone. Gasping for air and coughing up bubbling blood, Crestbrook suddenly remembers that suicide, much like murder, is highly frowned upon in the eyes of his church.

The rest of the group seems a bit startled by this act, but none of them appear overly surprised.

Actions?

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Sir Crestbrook 4/11 (torch:40'r/2.6T)
Saracen 30/30 2/4 1st 1/1 2nd
Maag 9/12
Lerrick 11/11 1/4 1st
Gramble 13/16
Alordan 12/18

On the bright side, Sir C has finally caused damage to something.

[ravenn4544]

"What the hell?!"

Alordan shakes his head and tries to help the poor bastard. "Look, it had evil about it don't mistake that. It's a trick and it's still continuing to work it's evil. Pull yourself together man! We have dangers still about us that need tending to!"

[wolfpack]

He has lost his damn mind

the woman was tainted by evil we could not take a chance. Unfortunate but collateral damage happens when facing evil.

We must destroy the snakes and the amulet