The Shopping List of the Dead
Log Info
- Title: The Shopping List of the Dead
- Emitter: Delilah
- Characters: Donna, Delilah, Ashes, Elyanna
- Place: Barren surroundings, Illithid Territory
- Time: Monday, May 10, 2021, 8:41 PM
- Summary: The Valethor Gang are led to the place where Lerethil would meet Magus N'garra's messenger. It is a ruined castle. Unsure how to proceed, they linger into the dark hours at which point they notice a skeleton bearing a note on a gold plate. The note is Ectra's last shopping list. Believing the note might be cursed, but also the way to get 'Reginald' to lead them to the manse, Delilah takes it. The skeletone leaves and the gang follows.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Donna 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A black-haired human girl in black robes. Delilah 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A golden haired human girl in white robes. Ashes 5'11" 177 Lb Hobgoblin Female A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face Elyanna 5'11" 153 Lb Half-Orc Female A grim, Arvek-blooded woman in raven feathers. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lerethil Half-elf Female A trader with questionable connections. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Delilah 5'4" 106 Lb Human Female A golden haired human girl in white robes. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
It's late evening; the sun has already set, and a small band of heroes are in the middle of Illithid territory.
Not that you'd know it.
The surroundings are quite barren; there aren't really any trees nearby, though the hills are overgrown with grasses, weeds, and prairie flowers. Rising up out of the windswept foliage is what was once a fortified citadel, but is now largely a pile of stones. There are a few towers still standing, none with intact roofs; there are a few walkways and half of a great hall. Everything wooden has long since rotted away, and anything valuable (except perhaps as building materials) has likely been gone even longer.
Ghosts of the dead, one might imply, still remain; discarded under a bush in one former courtyard, the observant might spot a large, bearded axe blade, having long since surrendered its sharpness to layers of rust.
"Alright, so, what're we supposed to do again?" Delilah stands in the ruins of the hall, arms folded beneath her breasts, watching as Lerethil meanders around the place like she's trying to find something saleable that previous explorers might've missed. "Just standing here waiting for our brains to be forfeit to squiddy-chops doesn't sound like much of a plan."
"Dunno." Lerethil shrugs her shoulders. "I *used* to wait here for Ectra's.... servant to show up, but I never went to her manse personally. But I know it's not terribly far from here."
Ashes fingers the strap of her satchel. She examines the ruins and finds them pleasing. It is nice to see how structures return to nature, following their own routes of decay. She points, "We could look around from a tall tower."
She's picked the tallest, who knows how safe it is inside. Her fingers twitch a second time, then a third, "I could have a smoke, or lay out some cards."
Elyanna, for her part, makes some rounds in picking at the lingering detritus, trying to find heraldry or weapon patterns of note as signs of who set this place to it's path toward entropy.
She whistles the intricate melody of her prestidigitation cantrip to try and sift the soiling of time from some of her random seeming bits. Her eyes swivel toward Ashes on her observations but, as her lips are currently busy elsewhere, she shakes her head, holding her hand out, but pointed downward, wagging her index and middle fingers as she moves the hand downward at a diagonal. Then, her eyes return to her investigative scraps.
"So wait," Donna says from a pile of stone that might once have been a tower wall. "This was just a meetin' point?" The brawler sweeps her gaze left, then right, then in the direction they'd come. "...When was the last time you made this trip, anyway? Feels like we shoulda brought a Kulthian scholar."
"Yes, this is a meeting point," Lerethil confirms. "I used to come here, Ectra's messenger would show up to either pay for what I'd brought or provide a request for something she wanted, money and goods would usually change hands, and I'd be on my way. And, no, I really had no idea how she always knew when I was here. I try not to think about that part." She pauses. "The money was always good enough to to be worried, anyway."
"You're lucky you still have a brain," Delilah mumbles, idly kicking a stone ahead of her, until she catches up to it in her wandering around and kicks it again. And then once more, at which point it rattles down between a couple of stones.
And so some time passes; the dieing light goes to its nightly grave, to be replaced by a sunrod Lerethil cracks open and holds loosely at her side. And so, in the dim light, one might be forgiven for not immediately noticing the latest... being, of corts, to arrive on the scene. A skeleton clad in decaying livery has arrived in the doorway, but doesn't appear to be making any hostile movies; it's just standing there, holding a gold plate with a curiously well preserved piece of partchment on it.
The ashen Arvec reaches into her satchel and takes out a small packet of cigarellos. Chippen comes down to inspect them, and she holds it for her familiar to select the desired stick. He does so, and she makes sure he is a safe distance before she lights it.
She inhales deeply, then exhales, blowing a long stream of smoke. She closes her eyes and imagines she is in the Grey Halls again. Standing in water. Warm, comfortable water. Such an afterlife! Exhaling again, she turns her head from side to side, gazing across a wide arc that covers the directions they didn't come.
"Which way will be best? A mindless servant would go... where." Ashlee watches the smoke for clues, and also, just has a smoke.
"Wild guess," Donna murmurs, coming up behind Ashes, "but if I were a mindless servant, might be as I'd be carryin' a gold tray with a paper onnit?"
A gauntletted hand points over the Mourner's left shoulder, pointing out the oncoming undead.
Elyanna stands as the sound of rattling bones in the doorway, and her whip, still coiled, is plucked from her belt. Hrm. She glances at Ashes to note her take on this particular endeavor, but moves between the boneyard and her companions. On the upside, it indicates, "There is probably a spell effect that warns the servants that someone has arrived. I find it likely there is some... underground access close at hand."
"Well you wouldn't be having a smoke." Ashlee says, tossing the cigarello down and stepping on it. A clearer demonstration of the futility of the practice couldn't be arranged. "Let's see what the note says."
The Skeleton just stands there, allowing Ashes to take the note and examine it.
"Oh! That's Reginald." Lerethil looks the skeleton up and down. "If Ectra didn't have a... live servant to send when I arrived, she sent Reginald. I actually don't know if that's his name, one of my guards just started calling him that. Actually, I don't know if it's a him, how do you tell with a skeleton? It's not like they have... you know."
She meanders up to the undead creation, to stand near Ashes. The note, it turns out, is written in common, albeit with a practiced and careful hand. It reads like a bit of a shopping list; a few herbs not native to the area, a bar of silver with a particular enchantment, and a line that simply says 'as discussed'.
"You named the skeleton?" Delilah inquires, adopting a flat tone of voice. "I mean... who does that?"
Lerethil ignores the sorceress. "That was the last list that Ectra ever had me bring her. Paid me well for it, too, but she was murdered by the time I next arrived."
"The angle between the inferior pubic rami is acute in men, but obtuse in women for most humanoid species." Ashlee says in monotone, also reading the note. There's a slow, meaningful glance towards Lerethil with her eyes dark in the skull sockets of her face, "What was discussed?"
Delilah gets a look next, "they all have names, even if we don't know them."
The Grey Lady likely wants these remains too. "We should follow her, then there's a ceremony I need to do."
Elyanna folds her arms, the coils of Maidenhead tucked under her arm and she suggest, "Perhaps take the note, and this will make it return, then we can follow." She nods and looks to Ashes as she elaborates more... fluently than she can. How the Keeper knows is probably best left to the imagination.
"Hrn," Donna grunts. "Well she was makin' *somethin'* with that grocery list. Coulda been a few things... THinkin' as Elyanna's got the right of it, but question is; who wants to take th' note?"
"Well, I ain't touchin' it," Lerethil declares, taking a step back from the skeleton. "As you all pointed out yesterday, I'm not an adventurer, and I don't think I'm equipped to be risking a curse, yes?"
As she takes a step back, Delilah clears her throat. "I'll take it," she murmurs. "I mean... you've all taken more than enough risks on my behalf so far, and I'd be in possession of one less head than I currently have if it weren't for all of you, so... I'll take that risk." She pauses, and glances sideways at Lerethil. "It's probably not cursed, you know. Donna's right, It's a shopping list, and I expect Ectra *wanted* it to be read."
"The... servants didn't follow any pattern of behaviour," Lerethil adds, completely ignorning Delilah as she focuses on Elyanna. "Taking the note, leaving something, I... think they got recalled differently. But you could try it." She pauses. "So... it's a girl skeleton? Weird. Oh well, she'll always be Reginald to me."
Elyanna gives the merchant an odd look before shaking her head and turning toward Delilah, "Wait." she says quickly. She affixes her buckler in place, then lets Maidenhead uncoil, "Someone with the ability to detect magic should get that ready. It may be useless if she teleports, but if she marches into a tunnel covered by an illusion, we will have found our entrance. It would also warn us about mystical traps."
Ashlee nods, to both Delilah and Elyanna. She takes out her small holy symbol, "Feiu of the Tears, let me see things." Her eyes glow with an eerie dark light. She watches 'Reginald', and the note. "Okay, I'm ready."
"Someone grab the note." Ashlee says, "Also, we could try tracking her footprints."
Not that she has any survival skills, but someone might. Oh where is Gallata now. Hopefully still far away.
"Looks like we're ready, D," Donna says, nodding to the platter. "Do it."
Looking over her shoulder, she raises an eyebrow toward Lerethil. "Guess your vacation starts now. Keep some food for us?"
"Alright, I'm ready." Delilah reaches out with one hand, standing at arm's length back from the skeleton. She pauses, gingerly touching the note with one fingertip; and then she pinches it between thumb and forefinger, and pulls it off the side of the plate, to hold it up in front of her.
And then she stands there, staring at the skeleton, which stares pretty much... unblinkingly back at her. (Delilah does, in fact, blink.)
"Okay," Delilah muses, staring at the skeleton. "What now, then?"
"I have no idea," Lerethil muses. "But none of Ectra's servants ever teleported, at least, not that I ever saw. So there's that."
And then, abruptly, the Skeleton spins on its heel and walks back the way it came.
Elyanna, for lack of more need for exposition, beckons welcomingly after their new guide before taking up the pursuit. She idly starts to recoil the whip, though, just to keep it clean and out from under foot.
Ashlee falls into step, following behind Elyanna, mindful of Ectra's warnings about the traps on the direct entrance, and the side entrance. She's even careful to note where the skeleton places her feet, and match hers to the step.
And she clears her mind, letting thoughts drift in and out with none really lingering. Almost the technique she used when getting ready to cross the veil. She lets her mind go, in the hopes that it won't register as easily as if she's concentrating on a thing.
She also creeps, like only she can.
Following behind the Arvek, Donna claps Delilah on the shoulder. "Mind if I lookit that note a lil' more, D? Might be as I could figure out if it's trinkets for our buddy, or shit that needs burning."
The moment she notices Ashes trying to match the skeleton pace for pace, the brawler begins to do the same. Larger feet might be a handicap, but, at least this way it's less likely to step on anything that doesn't like being stepped on.
"Step in her steps, Keeper," Ashlee says quietly, still maintaining the formality. Perhaps it comes easier in the Mourner mental-state. The necessary warning is given, and the ashen Arvec keeps gazing around for magical mishaps waiting to hap.
Elyanna keeps her ears straining to hear, a displaced rustle, an ill synched grind of sand, anything that would tip the Keeper that something was amiss, even as her eyes turn toward the skeleton's feet. She can't not have heard the Mourner's words, and the distance there, and so she starts to obey without rebuff. They may not be friends, anymore, but they are still a unit.
And so, once again they walk with the dead.
