The Unseen Servant forums

The Princess

She exits the cave where she has been cleaning to see the commotion. "Damn." She bends down to help the rescue and examine the halfling. She's looking for wounds and such.

"She did, Mr. Maag. My Sister was one of them. It looks like Mayor Daisy, or someone, fashioned a float to keep her from drowning. Anyone know if she could swim? My guess is that she had to leave somewhere quickly and choose the river to do so, making a float to help her chances. Were there any others found?"

"Let's not decide the natives did this quite yet, let's fully examine her to see if she was attacked and by what? The Jungle isn't very friendly, and water attracts things."

At some point, Keyon and Feanol arrive back in Clifftown, looking a bit saddened and with no sign of Elnaerel or Sir Narramore with them.

Keyon lands his carpet and starts shouting about getting a group together to go to the mine to rescue their friends.

With a clearer head, Feanol notices the commotion at the river, seeing a few people pulling the body of Mayor Daisy out of the water and placing her in a nearby shack to rest.

Not a lot has changed in town since the pair had departed earlier, but Liam really looks like he wants to say something important.

PC's in town at the moment:
Liam
Daisy
Maag
Feanol
Princess

(Keyon/NPC'd)

Maag

"If yer lookin' for someone to 'elp yer
knock der Stoneguts around, I'm yer man," says Maag, thumping his chest. "When are we leavin'?"

Liam looks worried. I.... dont want to jump to conclusions... we wont know for sure until Daisy is conscious and can tell us what happened... it could have been an animal attack...

Daisy
Daisy coughs and sputters, spitting out a glob of muddy saliva. It takes her a moment to realize where she is, but when she does, she sits bolt upright.
Help! Ah.. She blinks, suddenly realizing she's safe. Arvoreen be praised! We cain't get help from the natives- Momma wants us for slaves! She don't care about the Stoneguts.... She breaks off, coughing.
Over the next few minutes,(with plenty of pauses for coughing) she tells her story:
We traveled up the trail to the native's village. Three-four times, we came to a wall and a gate, and Ah had to use up our gifts for the natives to bribe our way through. About this time was when the others split off, wanting to see the dragon. Ah'm sorry, Ah don't know what happened to them after that.
At the last wall, Ah met Powstap again. He said that a stranger had come and taken over ruling the local's village. Apparently, a lot of the folks decided they din't want to live with her rules- they were the people we'd bribed to get past the gates.
Ah got to the village- and Ah got taken to see the ruler. They call her Momma- a tall, beautiful woman with very dark skin. Ah reckon she has some powerful magic. She tried to sweet-talk me into bringing all ya'll to the village- but then she admitted she was lookin' to make us slaves. Ah was lucky to escape, an' eventually found mah way to the river. Ah tried to float downriver to make it back here... but Ah lost the log Ah was usin', lost mah gear... Ah thought Ah was dead. Ah kinda remember some of those phanatons- but Ah don't know for sure. Ah reckon they saved mah life.

Feanol

"What about this foul island spouts slavery so readily. I hate to say it, but it looks like we're going to have to unite and take on one of these threats. Lets let poor Daisy rest a bit and then should be able to tell us more. I would think we have more chance of success against this new threat than the stoneguts at this time, but lets weigh our options and work together."

Feanol

"Thinking more on this subject, I wonder if maybe this isn't a good opportunity for us. This settlement seems to have some defenses already built. What if we went there, joined with those that were unhappy with this new Mother. Got rid of her, and then joined them in settlement. They seem to already have food resources and we could add our talents to the mix to provide a more powerful defense. That could give us a stable base to take on the Stoneguts from, as well as getting rid of one more bad actor on this island."

Daisy
*cough-sneeze* Ah wouldn't gamble on findin' allies in the natives. Ah think Momma has most of 'em on her side- an' she's got magic: she was about to bewitch me when Ah made my break for the jungle. Ah'd be glad to join the battle against her- but it's gonna be tough.

Maybe we kin figure a way to pit the dwarves an' Momma's people against each other... but that's it's own kinda problem.

The Princess

"I'm glad you made your escape, Mayor. I'm sure Sophie will make her way back, she seemed capable. A few questions, how many natives are with Momma? And why did you guys split up again?"

She frowns and continues. "How did Momma try to bewitch you, by the way? It may help shed light on her capabilities."

"Feanol. Taking and sharing the camp at the waterfall sounds like a good idea, but we need more information that hopefully, the Mayor can give us. But what is this all about with Sir Narramore being captured? Where are those other adventurers anyway? We don't have enough force to take on the dwarves. I know how Marge feels." She pauses and sighs. "I'm sure my sister would be useful in an infiltration and extraction mission, but she's off canoodling with a Dragon. Such a size Queen." The Princess stops and looks around embarrassed to see who witnessed her off-color remark.

The Princess will make sure some townspeople are keeping an eye on Daisy while she recuperates, she has to turn her attention to the dock problem. Especially now that it's sitting there, unmoored.

Feanol

"Well it was a mess. We got to the Lizards grazing area and there were some beasts out of the pens. Narramore and Elnaerel kept trying to get the beasts to let them herd them. We all just took too long at it, and the Dwarves were all on us I tried to help them breakout with my sleep spells, but it wasn't enough and they were captured. As you can see poor Keyon took several bolts in the action and his carpet was damaged as well. With just the two of us and one damaged and the myself with no weapons we did the only thing that seemed sane, and that was come home."

Maag

"I am not der sort of bloke dat will try an' wrap 'is 'ead around complicated stuff like like makin' a deal wiv der Indijuns. Unless der is money in it, of course. So I will leave dat up to you lot".

"Right now we 'ave got der problem dat der Indijuns an' der dwarves are strong. So we 'ave to be strong too. Which means dat we need to go an rescue dis Narramore an' Elnaerel now. Dey are better off 'ere protectin' us dan diggin' rocks for der dwarves."

"When are we leavin'?"

Daisy
Daisy begins crying at the mention of Sophie. She's... she.. They killed her! She weeps for a while, then lapses into sleep.

The Princess

She hangs her head at the news of poor Sophie, then eventually raises it with a stern look in her eyes. "No, Mr. Maag. We will not go rescue Sir Narramor and Elnaerel right now. This is why they keep winning these battles, we fragment our forces and allow ourselves to be evenly matched or worse. We need a proper force, and that means other adventurers."

"We can gather up any NPC adventures in town, plus any townsfolk who wish to free their kin. Keyon can fly to find where the wandering adventures are, and let them know to return. We must gather our forces and only then can we hope to defeat the Stoneguts."

"If I recall, it takes four hours or so to reach old beachtown on foot, then another six to reach the dwarves. This will not be a jaunty day trip, we must prepare." She addresses Maag again. "In the place of any security force, I need you to gather the townspeople and adventurers. We need to arm them the best we can, I will deal with Nallissa to release her supply of arms."

"Liam? We need that dock secured. You know how to do it better than most, so gather the men you need, and drive those pillars. Use the black trees if you must, I'll pay for their loss."

"Feanol. If you and Keyon think the carpet can hold up, go find some of the others. My sister went to the waterfall, Q went to the marsh, Chauncey went to the dwarves, Luther went north along the cliff wall. See if you can find at least some of them."

"Okay? Any objections?" She looks tired and irritated but still warm.

Feanol

"Good plan, I'll check with Keyon and see if he's willing to make the journey."

Keyon looks up from his holy rug.

"Can this be fixed first? It moves much faster without these holes in it."

Maag

"But, yer 'ighness," says Maag, firmly. "Roundin' up all dese people will take at least a day. Yer don't even know where dey are, except "der dragon" or "der swamp". Yer not gonna find dem."

"But Narramore an' Elnaerel are in trouble right now. An' Keyon knows where dey are. Wot is dat sayin'? 'A bird in der 'and is worth two in der bush."

"Yer tryin' fling all yer darts at der board at der same time instead of just aimin' one at der bull".

Maag turns to Keyon."If yer mates 'ave got any chance at all, it is right now. Otherwise, it is slavery or worse. If yer wanna go and get dem, I am 'wiv yer".

Liam will help round up some help for the expedition as well as the dock work. The news weighing heavy on him, he will pass it along in as controlled a manner as possible to not cause panic and rumor.

Feanol

"Maag, I get your pain, it felt awful pulling out up there. But, the fact is that we're outnumbered by the Dwarves and going in in small groups is just going to get more of us killed or captured. Your two in the hand just winds up being 2 more, you and Keyon, being put in the cage with Narramore and Elnaerel. I want them out, but I realize that we need numbers to get them out. Getting more people gathered, even though it takes more time is the only real chance we have against the Dwarves."

The Princess

She lowers her head again. "I know, Mr. Maag. Believe me, I know." She raises her head and places a hand on his arm. "I can't and won't tell you how to feel or what to do. You don't strike me as a follower anyway. But Feanol is right. A daring carpet rescue sounds romantic and fantastic, a high reward but a high risk. Sometimes a gamble doesn't pay off and you lose everything."

"They were captured hours ago. They're probably at the mine by now. This does remind me, Chauncey went to scout the mine. Maybe taking the carpet to find him would be a compromise. You would feel like you're doing something to help Sir Narramore and Elnaerel, but finding Chauncey to get help would be the goal. Keyon, let's take a look at that carpet."

"We're going to continue gathering forces here, and try to find the others who may be nearby. Plus the dock, plus anything else."

The Princess moves over to the carpet to inspect and try to determine how, if possible, she could repair it a bit.

While preparations are made for a possible rescue, the Princess and Keyon look over his damaged rug.

The flying carpet could be fixed with a Mending spell. (not its magical power, but the cloth itself)

Otherwise it will take a very good seamstress with nearly magical hands.

Work on the other areas, including the dock, continue as these daring plans are discussed.