Always Ascending

[Alice]

The box cracks open at the key revealing..a significant horde!

coins and gems that add up to  500 gp.

A wand with a motif of spiders webs and fangs..

A small brown bag with several oddly shaped objects inside.

As you look over your loot the last gnoll makes her appearance.. standing with a shocked look on her face and water bucket in hands.

[darlingng01]

Oric:

I immediately look to her and point, trying to startle her into listening "Sit!"

If she starts to run or doesn't listen I prepare to cast command on her.

[Ordos]

The lack of bodies still unnerved Naethra.  As much as she disliked corpses, she found this vanishing act... unnerving. 

"I'd guess it happens when they're not real enough anymore.  Spending time here, being affected by this magic, bit by bit you would be, well, less of what you were before, a being of Escain, and more a thing of this place.  Half the creatures we've faced were probably people once.  I wonder if we'd leave corpses or just... poof away."

She turned her attention to the haul and Red's new change. "We really could use someone to interrogate.  We're stumbling around blind right now.   And good idea, Red, but I can't help but think it would have worked better on a male."  Before she could muse on the condition the last gnoll appeared.

(I'm not 100 % sure if it works this way, but I'd like for Naethra to grab the wand from the hoard and use it on the gnoll.  She'd guess it's a webbing wand and she remembers the dancer that escaped yesterday,cans is keen not to repeat it.  But I don't know what I'd have to roll to do that.)

[Alice]

((It is an arcana roll to figure out how to use a magic item on the fly))

You swiftly grab the wand as the rest of the group looks up from the horde..

She makes a whimpering sound.. "I...I surrender.. please don't banish me!!!"

[Roselli]

"Well, that worked well." Gwyn comments looking at the gnoll. "Well listen to the dwarf and have a seat. I want you to tell us about the queen. How can we get to her?

[Ordos]

(Because I am committed to bad ideas: 7 + 2 not modifier + 2 from arcana being a tagged skill = 11)

[Alice]

Naethra wiggles the magic stick around.. Nothing much happens but her looking silly..

The gnoll however meekly sits at the  what was once their campfire. "She's.. really powerful.. She rules this entire area holding down others with an iron paw.. " She shudders, "I...I'm about her least favorite subject."

She ponders, "Well.. even if you could fight her entire army of gnolls, there is still getting past her fortress walls.." She takes a deep breath, "If my magic wasn't useless I'd have brought you to her and gotten glory and honor.. As it is.. No one here can beat her. Her position is too good.. Unless you plan to somehow sneak those.."She points to the the dwarf and the Dragonborn "Through her gates without anyone noticing somehow."

[Roselli]

"But you still want Glory and Honor. You can bring us in through the gates right to her. She praises you. We get rid of the queen. EVERYONE then praises you. It's a win-Win-WIN"

[Dichotomy]

Curiously, I reach for the spidery wand, trying to take it from Naertha and analyze it myself. ((my roll totaled a 12... yay.))

"Magic seems so much more common here than anywhere else I've ever heard of..." It takes me several moments to realize that we have obtained a prisoner just like I had described. Hoping to strike a different tone, I take hold of the magic I am weaving about myself and alter it, taking on gnollish features- still masculine, and approach. Maybe that'll make her less skittish and more willing to help. "Can you describe for me precisely how she manages to keep everyone under her paw?"

[Alice]

The wand continues to stubbornly do nothing as you mess with it.

She holds up her hands, "She's a strong fighter and a powerful magic user... The rest of us are divided into two. We are either fighters or magic users.. and... my magic is pathetic..and since she's the alpha.. we all crawl on our bellies for her."

She looks at Gwyn.. "No one is ever going to believe I overpowered you.. My magic doesn't even work if you resist it."

[Roselli]

"What if it was you and the other 2 gnolls? Two of us can change our appearances. We can stand in as them. A powerful trio taking out a bunch of newbs."

[darlingng01]

Oric:

I huff a bit at her earlier comment "I assure you I will not be a problem when sneaking in." but her comment about her magic causes me look at her curiously "What exactly is your magic? Magic that can only work on willing targets is quite rare."

[Nihtgenga]

"Th.. there has to be some way we can fix this."

"Heahe." Retiaria nodded.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the loot inside, but she immediately snapped it shut when the third gnoll appeared. Shoving the box into her satchel, she squared up ready to fight. Thankfully she surrendered, and she opened the box again.


She frowned when the gnoll prisoner said they'd have to sneak Duran and Oric in but didn't seem to include her or any of the others. Did the queen have something against dwarves and dragonborn? Then she realised- both had divine magic, maybe that was it. She would have liked to confirm that theory, but with her mouth as it was she doubted she could make herself understood. Still, she did have one demand.
"Ey! Oo hoh hih mahih, uh oo wehheh hy ah hih ay hahe."
She pointed to her distorted face with an angry frown to try and emphasise what she meant.

[Alice]

She looks at Gwyn, "You can... alter your bodies, duplicate their scents, and assume their mannerisms?... Ok.. Maybe you do have a shot at a frontal assault."

She looks at Oric, "I'm a mutant. My magic should be powerful. I'm a transmuter you see. But..almost every living thing I try to make comes out.... Very wrong.." I shake my head, "I tried to enhance a goblin... She ended up with her mouth where her ass was supposed to be.." She giggles, "I can do objects just great though.. I even enchanted a few chocolate drops I left in the town, but since my magic is so weak basic anti venom undid them.." She shrugs..

She looks at Retaria, "I can try to do something about your face... but.. like I said.. I'm not very good."

[Nihtgenga]

Retiaria's eyebrow rose. "Huh ouh weh huh ahh shu we? Uhh..." She paused, obviously conflicted- on the one hand this was infuriating, but on the other this bitch might make it worse. "Ah oo hahe ih ah if ih coeh wom?"