The Sandy Man

Venerikine 22nd, 989 IaC

• Ilryn, Lambchop, Kel and Ohrakk Cinderhand took up defenses against the man that attacked Ilryn, getting a better look at him
  • The man wore strange, almost patchwork clothes that appeared to be woven together with no seam
  • He possessed a strange knife that appeared to fade in and out of existence, and sand seemed to lightly fall around his feet
  • He spoke in an angry yet fearful way, and seemed manic and inconsolable
• The group took up arms, with both Cora and Merilann noticing the commotion from across the town square
  • Merilann rushed to join the combat as Cora attempted to run and stop her
• Ilryn managed to strike the man square between the eyes with her Liar, causing him to bloat and pop into a cloud of glittering sand that filled the air
  • After his death, however, the sand coalesced into two more versions of the sandy man, each wearing slightly different clothes and possessing numerous differing scars across their arms
  • Ohrakk and Kel engaged the old creepy men as Lambchop subdued one with a grapple
  • Using the power of Liar's hex, Ilryn attempted to force one of the men to speak; however, he just continued to babble about Ilryn possessing something that did not belong to her, and to give it back
• The group continued to attack the men, the cloud of floating sand growing with each one defeated
  • The old men continued to appear once their numbers were depleted, doubling in count each time
  • They continued to focus their efforts on Ilryn, who eventually used her Invisibility to escape them, running towards the fountain at Lambchop's direction
  • As the men died, the resulting sand from their corpses blew in Ilryn's direction, allowing them to still pursue her
  • More men continued to pop up, their resulting deaths making the sandy air denser
• Ilryn camped out in the fountain, the other group members following suit
  • Merilann continually attacked the old men, shanking quite a few of them, but started to get injured after overextending herself
  • Lambchop attempted to grab Merilann out of harm's way and Kel protected her with Sanctuary, but Merilann refused to back down, slipping out of Lambchop's grasp multiple times and taking the offensive
  • Cora, left fighting a horde of the men, noticed a large, warbling mass had formed in the center of the thick cloud of sand
  • Ohrakk, Kel, Ilryn and Cora continued to fight off the men, luring some into the fountain and melting them
  • Lambchop continued to tussle with Merilann, frustrated with her constant evasions
• The group discovered that the more men that were killed, the more the air filled with the sand, and that more men would appear
  • Ohrakk began distracting the men to lure them into the fountain, which had turned a strange, iridescent hue from all the sand that had fallen into it
  • Ilryn climbed to the top of the fountain, attacking the occasional sand man and attempting to figure out what is was they were looking for
  • The men were mostly unresponsive, still claiming that she had something that didn't belong to her
  • Cora thrust her sword into the warbling mass, and upon removing it, it appeared rusted
• The group decided to quit killing the men in the open air, instead luring them to the fountain to kill
  • The party retreated to the waters of the fountain, which grew more unstable and iridescent as more of the men fell in
  • The sand in the air began to thin, and the warbling mass disappeared 
  • Having escaped from Lambchop numerous times, Merilann started pushing the men into the fountain to destroy them
• Suddenly, both Cora and Ohrakk disappeared into the waters of the fountain
  • Lambchop, thinking quick, attempted to grab Merilann and jump into the fountain with her, but she again dodged him
  • Merilann jumped in later, followed by Kel and Ilryn
• The group then found themselves minutes before, when they first came face to face with the knife-wielding man
  • More erratic than before, the man babbled at Ilryn, stating that "we've been here before" before falling to sand in front of her
  • The party regrouped to discuss what just occurred
  • Lambchop wandered off, disheartened by his inability to restrain a small child, especially after being told by Merilann that he "kinda sucks"
  • Merilann returned to Cloverhall as Ilryn, Kel, Cora and Ohrakk continued on to the Slug Fisher to drink off the trauma
• In the Slugfisher, Ohrakk reminisced with Ilryn about their shared past
  • He spoke briefly about the strange circumstances surrounding the death of their old troupe's matriarch, a halfling nicknamed Momma
  • According to Ohrakk, she had been hale and healthy the day prior to her death, and her corpse revealed no discernable cause
  • The old troupe had disbanded soon after, each of the members taking separate paths
  • Ohrakk revealed his current group was heading down to Midradir to perform, with a high likelihood of coming back the same way if they did not make much money
  • He promised to bring back a famous Midradir honeyed ham if he came back through town
  • Ohrakk bid the group farewell, leaving to move on to the next town with his group
• In the meantime, Lambchop resorted to drinking out of his whiskey flask in the middle of the day, wading around in the central fountain and passing out in the doorway of a house, all while his giant chest eye was on display
  • A man became irate with Lambchop for dirtying the fountain, running off to warning the Bronze Aegis
  • Lambchop was heaved over to the Bronze Aegis outpost by a sympathetic townsperson, where the same female guard the group had worked with before greeted him
  • Sezora Quexley delivered him back to Cloverhall, telling him to get some rest
• Eventually, the party returned to Cloverhall, meeting with Ayla who informed the group that their operation would begin on the 29th
  • Merilann crafted a bracelet of flowers, offering it to Lambchop with a pat on the head
• Ayla Raddock called the group together to inform them that their mission would begin on the 29th, after which she disappeared
• The group engaged in various endeavors
  • Kel retired to her room
  • Ilryn spent the rest of the day conducting research on sand and time magic, wasting much of the day lost in poetry
  • Cora took some of the various objects she had discovered throughout her travels and visited Peransight, meeting the shrine attendants (name) and (name), twins that attempted to speak in unison, but couldn't quite manage it
    • After meeting the twins, Cora offered her knowledge to Unavaranu and then began looking through the shrine libraries, discovering a druidic tome that seemed to be a copy of the one she held with the torn pages
    • The torn pages seemed to detail a ritual that placed power in a special mark that could be applied to animals to control them, with the distinct emphasis being on getting them to calm down
    • Cora speculated that the spell could have been easily manipulated to enrage animals as well
    • She attempted to find texts on necromancy similar to that used by Beetleman, but the library did not appear to carry anything so unsavory
  • Lambchop harrassed Rulan Vinesweep, scaring him with his eye and requesting that he turn the cloak of Batrax he took from Thaloss Zinir into a cape.
    • Rulan acquiesced on the condition that the cape was reversed and the Eye of Batrax have a pocket-like flap sown over it to hide it from view
    • Satisfied, Lambchop ran off and began scheming on how to "get" Merilann
  • Cora decided to name her owl Winky
• In the late evening, the Iron arrived back at the hall, apparently having completed an urgent mission
  • He wordlessly pointed at the bounty board and Adamine Longshallow provided him with his reward, after which he stomped up the stairs to the 2nd floor
• The party went to bed after their strange day, but were awoken in the late night by another slamming of the front door
  • Sneaking around the corner, Ilryn, Cora and Lambchop spotted Eliza rummaging through the front desk, as if looking for something
  • She then began plodding over to the Initiate's Barracks, her breaths heavy
  • Lambchop loudly approached her with a "hi mom," and Eliza turned to face the group, straightening up and attempting to fix up her appearance
  • The group noticed Eliza seemed on edge
  • Eliza complimented Lambchop's new eyeball look, and quickly headed upstairs away from the party
• Curious about Eliza's intentions, the group began searching around where she was
  • Finding nothing of note, the party headed into the Initiate Barracks, waking up Glutagg who threw a potato at Lambchop
  • Glutagg's complaining woke up Oola Cocklehoot, who also began complaining an the party left
  • Still curious, Lambchop headed to the stables to speak with Berdo, using his Beast Sense and directing the owl to fly up and spy on the third floor of the hall
  • Looking through Berdo's eyes, Lambchop saw only one room was lit, a soft blue light behind curtains
  • Berdo approached the window of the room and the curtains suddenly opened, revealing Darrod Lightvane who told Berdo "don't be looking at me."
  • Berdo quickly retreated to Lambchop, who was unnerved that Darrod knew he was there
• Though Ilryn headed back to bed, Cora and Lambchop were STILL curious, so they decided to try and make their way up to the third floor themselves
  • Tamidilly, woken up by all the noise, came out and casted Invisibility on the both of them, telling them to "go wild"
  • Lambchop and Cora snuck up to the third floor, spying Darrod's room down one hallway, prompting Lambchop to head the other way
  • Looking briefly at the third floor bounty board, they found that Darrod was assigned to "investigate the possible trafficking of elves through the region", with the other bounties being the "neutralization of a fort in the Scratchwood being occupied by a number of powerful shadow-like entities" and 
  • The two snuck down a hallway, and Lambchop began to hear shuffling noises from behind the walls
  • Opening an unlocked door, the two entered Eliza's room, sneaking around as the shuffling continued from behind another wall, and a muffled voice could be heard, as if speaking to itself
  • On Eliza's desk were a number of guild related documents as well as letters lined up around the head of the desk as if to be constant reminders
  • The letters were all from a person who only signed the documents "Z", stressing to Eliza the importance of her position as the guild leader in Cloverhall, and putting pressure on her to do a good job, with vague threats to her position if she didn't
  • From behind the wall, which contained a wardrobe, a heavy fur cloak, and a bookshelf, the shuffling subsided in place of a loud scratching noise
  • Unnerved, the Cora and Lambchop began to sneak out, but Cora stepped on a very creaky piece of wood right as their invisibility ended, perhaps as Tamidilly fell asleep
  • The two (quietly) fled the third floor, Cora hearing the sound of crackling wood as she sprinted off

Venerikine 23rd, 989 IaC

• Early in the morning, Lambchop received an intimidating visitation from Darrod, who told him not to look into his room, and provided him with a terrifying warning after shoving a dagger into the door, with the metal melting down onto the floor of the room to spell out "I'm watching you"
• Cora spoke with Adamine in the morning regarding the druidic tome, asking her if she knew about anyone who might've checked it out recently
  • Adamine bemoaned that most of the guild members just took what they wanted whenever they wanted, so she didn't know
  • She pressed Cora as to why, learning from the halfing that she suspects someone in the guild to have ties with the Green Hand
  • Adamine's imagination went wild, blaming everyone in the guild, and saying she'll keep an eagle eye out
• Ilryn continued her research into sand and time magic, eventually learning that sand has a deep metaphorical connection with time-based magic, often used as components in such spells
  • Additionally, she learned that such manipulations were considered highly taboo in the world of magic
  • In a book about counteracting the effects of time magic, Ilryn discovered that the source of the time anomaly, whether it be a power source, a paradox, or something else, is the key to fixing them
  • Fractures in time and space can be exacerbated if simply met with raw destructive power, as evidenced by the previous multiplication of the old man after continually being destroyed
  • A common sentimentality found throughout these texts was "the loop must be closed"