CH. 15: There and Back Again

[JadedDM]

Ouragana Stormbride (The Bullring, Thaddeus' cabin)
Ouragana sits down and begins the long, arduous process of trying to copy spells into her own spellbook. Despite her lack of confidence, she manages to transcribe all but one perfectly. Only the mind reading spell evaded her grasp.

===========

Ouragana tries to learn Identify [TN 70%] (1d100): 67, pass.
Ouragana tries to learn ESP [TN 70%] (1d100): 96, fail.
Ouragana tries to learn Knock [TN 70%] (1d100): 64, pass.
Ouragana tries to learn Ray of Enfeeblement [TN 70%] (1d100): 11, pass.
Ouragana tries to learn Hold Person [TN 70%] (1d100): 38, pass.
Ouragana tries to learn Vampiric Touch [TN 70%] (1d100): 27, pass.
Ouragana tries to learn Fireball [TN 70%] (1d100): 9, pass.

(OOC: Crackling Sphere and Lightning Lance are the new spells that Thaddeus mentioned he had never seen before. Crackling Sphere is sort of a lightning based version of Flaming Sphere. It creates a ball of lightning that you direct around the room, and it shocks anyone it touches.

Crackling Sphere (Evocation)
Range: 10 yards
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 round/level
Casting Time: 2
Area of Effect: 3-foot-radius sphere
Saving Throw: Neg.

A crackling globe of electricity flies in whichever direction you point, electrocuting those it strikes. It moves 30 feet per round, though if it enters a space with a creature, it stops moving for the round and deals 1d4 points of electrical damage for every two levels of the spellcaster (maximum 5d4). The subject can negate this damage with a successful save vs spell (which may be modified if there is little or no room to dodge the sphere).

The sphere moves as long as you actively direct it; otherwise, it merely stays at rest and crackles. The surface of the sphere is yielding, so does not cause damage except from the electricity. It cannot push aside unwilling creatures or batter down large obstacles. The sphere winks out if it exceeds the spell's range. It can be dismissed by the caster at will. The material component is an amber, crystal, or glass bead.)

[Nuke]

Val goes to hunnt down Ouragana.

"Oura, I picked up this ring in the temple, I think tou can best use it. What should we do dear?"

[Breila]

Ouragna jumps up when Val bursts into the room. "How can you...!" she starts to shout, being so rudely interrupted in her concentration. Then she realises the half-orc has a gift for her.
She breathes deeply to calm herself down. "Listen, Val" she says. "When I am studying, please do not interrupt me - or any other mage or priest, for that matter. We must learn so we can cast our spells. If you interrupt us, we cannot fight, do you understand?" when she thinks Val has gotten the message, she asks: "Now what do you have there for me?"


OOC: Hey, Crackling sphere is the perfect fighting spell for Ouragana. It can be used as a threat and do harm only to those who won't listen. Thanks, Jaded!

[Chris1234]

Naras listens to Leena and then examines the owl feathers and says, “Thanks for getting the feathers, Leena. Do you think the Barnacle Inn would sell wine?
{OOC: Are they owl feathers?}

***
After hearing Leena’s reply, she acknowledges the views of the nobility and poor with nods and then continues, “With regards what the merchants think, you’ve been dealing with these townsfolk for quite a while, so I’m happy to leave what we say to them, if anything, to your judgement. But you could consider pointing out that the temple is building an armourer’s shop, but for information on the security of the town, they, that is, merchants, could consider asking the wardens. If you get pressed, you could let them force you into revealing that the Kohen has offered to work with the wardens but for any information on that, they would need to ask the wardens. All this is genuinely up to you.
For your information alone, I intend to try to have a word with Lady Ulvorn to see if she wants to try and straighten things out with the wardens. Any thoughts on that? - I’m not intending to accept any obligation from her on it.”

***
After hearing Leena’s reply, the Kohen calls in Otaya who makes her report on tithe payments. Naras responds, “We could put out the word that those who have their tithes up to date will receive preferential treatment if they require healing or curing. Or we can leave it as it is for now and see what happens. After all, the festival approaches. What is your recommendation on this, Otaya?”

***
Otaya then gives her ideas on the soup kitchen and Naras gets Leena to update Otaya on the responses of both the nobility’ and the poor on the soup kitchen concept.
The dwarf then continues, “Thank you, Leena. Now, Otaya, there is quite probably a war coming so we will not be shelving the armourer’s workshop construction. However, I do think that helping the starving is a good idea and that we shall do something. However, you have heard the views of the nobility. Without their tithes this temple will fail. I’m sure you don’t want to feed some of the starving for a short while and cause the temple to fail and then the same people starve again. This effort must be self-supporting and must be capable of being seen to be so. If you can nod to that then we have a chance of succeeding with a modest soup kitchen. Tell me, do you believe Agnas would want to support a soup kitchen? Think carefully before you answer.”

[JadedDM]

Ouragana and Val (The Bullring, Thaddeus' cabin)
Ouragana learns that the ring Val is offering her is a Ring of Wizardry. When worn, it doubles the number of first level spells a wizard may prepare each day.

Naras Stonebreaker (Temple of Gonto)
Naras has no idea if they are owl feathers or not, not being an expert in such things. They look like what she thinks owl feathers would look like. "Doubtful," Leena says. "The scum who patron that bar don't have much of a taste for finer things."

After hearing to Naras long-winded talk, she answers, "I would think Lady Ulvorn could probably apply pressure to the wardens, but she will most likely want something in return for it. That probably applies to asking the merchants for help, as well."

"I do believe Agnas would want that, absolutely," Otaya replies. "She and I thought quite a bit alike."

[Breila]

Ouragana looks at Val with disbelief. "But that is amazing!" she exclaims. "Where did you get this? And" she blushes "Why do you give it to me? I mean, you could sell it for a lot of money."

[chese780]

Drav walks up to the Weaponsmith and asks about the longswords.

[Chris1234]

Naras stows away the owl feathers and nods to Leena, “Thank you, Leena, I will heed your advice and leave the Lady Ulvorn and the merchants to themselves. Don’t forget to keep a look out for books of knowledge suitable for our library for purchase with Ouras donation. You might even find a cookbook for stew recipes.”

The dwarf addresses Otaya, “Otaya, on behalf of Agnas, I award 18 monthly payments to Deanna of 2.5GP, totalling 45GPS and a similar sum of 45GPS in total for a soup kitchen startup. You must keep separate books for these, both to be demonstrably separate from each other, from the armoursmithery and from the temple. Keep the funds separate in the vault too. If and when the armoursmithery shows a profit, after tithes, 1 tenth of the remaining profit will go to Deanna for the duration of her life, 1 tenth to the soup kitchen assuming that it has not already folded and you shall manage how that is used and one tenth to this temple’s funds. The soup kitchen is to enable the starving to eat. It is not free food for the idle. When the 45GP is gone, that’s the end of it. So, you will need to start small and make it more or less self-sustaining. How you do that is up to you, but my guidance is here.” The dwarf hands Otaya a sheet of parchment and continues, “Finally, on behalf of Otaya, 2GPS for you as a token of her friendship; in remembrance of her.”

The parchment says,” ‘Poor’ meals for one person for one day purchased at 1SP, less profit & effort can be done for half that. Potato stews, stone baked bread and so on. Only feed those from the faithful. Any person to be fed must be attend to a 15 minute sermon. Any being fed must provide three hours of willing labour according to their capability. Those not doing so are not to be fed again. The labour may include preparation of the next such meal, gathering firewood, maintaining the temple grounds, digging over temple soil for planting of potatoes and so forth. Start small, feed 5 people, 4 of whom you are to select as capable of providing labour in return. The 5th you may choose as charity, say a young child. Explore whether any of the faithful would donate, or provide at no profit, any excess foodstuffs, soup pans, digging tools and so forth, potentially to be offset against owed tithes.”

Naras lets herself into the vault, taking 5GP from temple funds to cover owl feathers and wine (yet to be procured), leaving 227GP temple money. She then takes the rest of the magical stuff from the mine (ring, grey robes [1 lb], scroll [1 lb], wand [1 lb], Potion of Electrical Resistance [1 lb]), locks up the vault and returns to the acolytes. “I’m going to try and get the things identified by the group that we helped with the curse. I will travel to Mond to look for the Genasai. Keep all this to yourselves, please. Oh, Otaya, I donate any pay due to me to the soup kitchen. Good luck, ladies, I hope we meet again. I'll settle up on coin value of the magical stuff then.” She nods to them both and leaves. En route to the Bullring, Naras tries to buy a bottle of wine in the Paragon for 4GP and on the boat, assuming boarding is allowed, seeks to arrange for Identification by Thaddeus (as directed.) She has the spell components for one casting and has already detected for traps and will offer Auguries at suitable timing to prevent mishap on the Identifier (from Curses or whatever).

[Nuke]

Val turns her eyes to the floor, puts her hands behind her back and her toes play with the dirt on the floor. "I am sorry, i, I ,I didn't mean to interrupt you, I just wanted to take care of this."

[Breila]

Ouragana gets up and smiles fondly at Val. "And this is indeed a wonderful gift. I thank you very much." She makes a movement as if she would like to hug the other woman, but the difference in their build makes that difficult. So she just squeezes Val's arm a little.
"Look, next time you want to talk to me wnen I'm reading, just put one of your fishhooks where I can see it. So I know you want to talk to me and I will come to you when I can?" she offers.

[JadedDM]

The following morning, Sardonx 8th (Seaday), the party boards the Bullring for the journey to Deimos. Naras joins them, but she has never seen a ship of this size and caliber before. It turns out to be one of the new galleon class ships that the Guild recently started building. So far, there are only a couple of them in existence, but rumor is once the Guild begins producing more, they will revolutionize the way trade and travel are done.

The ship at least 130 feet in length and 30 feet wide, with multiple decks and a crew large enough to populate a small hamlet (over 100 people). On the uppermost deck are three catapults (one up front, two in the back) and along the sides of the ship are small windows for smokepowder canons and ballistas. At the very front is a large ram shaped into the design of an angry bull with a large ring in its snout. Up on the forecastle is a very strange looking cannon. It looks ancient, but still in remarkably good condition and is covered in magical runes.



The crew are quite diverse, but most of them are dwarves. This is clearly a Guild sponsored ship. Once aboard, Naras meets the captain and first mate, the Bullring sisters.

The captain, Sierra Bullring, is a dwarven woman with red hair in several braids. She's well-armed and muscular and has a stern expression on her face. Any crewman she walks by gives her plenty of space. She carries herself with a great deal of authority.



Her sister and first mate, Terra Bullring, has short blonde hair with a black cloak pulled over her head and a large crossbow on her back. While Sierra stands straight and at attention, hands behind her back, Terra is much more laid back. She sways her hips as she walks and has a tendency to lean against things when she can. Naras would judge both women to be around 100 years old, maybe a bit older.


"Another one?" asks Sierra upon seeing her. "And a kohen, at that. Pastor, how many people are you going to hire for this job? As if this ship and her crew weren't enough as it is."

"Wait, is this the kohen you talked about last night?" asks Terra, looking her over. "I didn't expect that. Nice banded armor, kid. You should probably get rid of it. We hit a storm or get attacked, and you go overboard, you'll sink right to the bottom."

(OOC: Just a brief introduction of the ship and crew for Naras' sake, then we'll move on to Deimos.)

[HorizonsDream]

"I didn't hire her to take on the pirates," Jocelyn says. "She needed a ride to Mond. Since she helped out with Oura, I figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem."

[JadedDM]

"Is that so?" asks Sierra. She looks Naras over thoughtfully. "I'm not in the habit of giving free rides to people. But I guess if you helped lift Ouragana's curse, I can make an exception this time. Just stay out of the way and don't bother any of my crew. I'm making myself clear, kohen?"

[Chris1234]

Naras pipes up, "Thank you for speaking up for me, Pastor. I would be happy to try and help deal with pirates. I wouldn't need hiring nor food. Just somewhere to sleep. A fair share of any spoils wouldn't go amiss, of course."

The kohen looks at Terra and smiles, "Thank you, I have little experience of ships. I will take your advice."

Responding to the other sister, "Yes, Captain, very clear; thank you. I understand nothing's for free. I will help as I'm able if you require me to, but will keep out of the way otherwise. Your ship looks like a true marvel of crafting."

***
In the balance of the day, Naras will seek Thadeus for Idenification and, when rebuffed, will seek out a place to sleep and try to stow her armour there.
(If advised of other prospects for Idenification, for example, Ouragana, then she will try there... [ Example dialogue: 'I have spell ingredients for one casting, can contribute Auguries, happy to discuss giving away one or two items. Have a scroll with an Arcane spell on it too, so you might want to memorise a Read Magic. Maybe this stuff could be done tomorrow so as to recover from the rigors of Identification on the journey?'])

[HorizonsDream]

"I'm sorry. I should have asked you two first," Jocelyn admits. "This is your ship after all."