Ms Ravenwinter

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

[Combo-post with @corneredbliss and @Ermine]

“I feel…”

Yvah felt the odd yet familiar sensation of slime underneath her fingernails. Shock painted over her tired expression after she looked down to her bloody hands.

“I,” her voice caught in her throat, her eyes fixated and distressed as if plagued by haunting images, “What did I do?”

Araerys bit down on her lower lip, still completely unsure of what to say. She could see another change happening on the girl’s face; this time, an expression of upset that could’ve broken the bard’s heart. “You, ah…” She cleared her throat, then continued, “You got a little over-excited, dove.” Her gaze trailed over to Daisy and gave her the slightest of eyebrow raises, as if to signal that she should probably take over. Ary didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, and wasn’t even really sure how she could explain the gravity of the situation.

“Don’t do it again, okay? It’s a little...scary. And violent. Very not us.” Daisy took a deep breath, figuring she had to be honest with her friend. “You killed the fishyface. And then...killed her some more. And a little extra for making you expend all that extra effort.”

Yvah turned her head away from her stained fingers and hesitatingly looked behind her. The broken corpse of a small, majestic dragon lay almost directly opposed to them. Her expression grew sour as she pulled her vision away from the scene.

“I see,” she said in muted tone. She seemed to barely compose herself as she said, “I think I need to clear my thoughts.” She could seem to sense the apprehension in her companions as she turned to them with the weakest of smiles. She said, “It’ll be okay. I’ll be strong,” but there was a tremble in her lip.

The frown seemed to deepen on Ary’s face as she watched Yvah turn to look at the corpse, whose blood was still fresh on her hands, and almost reached for her when the girl stood up. She thought better of it, regardless of its good intentions, and simply stood up herself as the feline turned back to them with what was an attempt at reassurance. “Sure you don't need any company?” she suggested in a nonchalantly warm voice, already knowing the answer but figuring it was better to ask, anyway. They were already lacking one member - she was sure the group didn’t need another loss.

“I’ll come back. We’ve a job to do. I just,” she looks down, “Need to talk myself down a bit.”

“Hold on, I know something that should help. Octoboy! Come here, too. You need comforting, too!” With a flourish, Daisy stepped up on one of the pews - one on the seat, one on the back - and began to perform. She gestured toward Yvah and Ulor,

“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

“Also, gonna make you feel a little better, I hope.”

An inner calm seemed to draw upon her as Yvah breathed in deeply. Before the verse ended, she stood and walked away. Her breath held as she walked past the brutalized priestess, refusing to look upon what she had apparently done. Stepping through the back doorway and onto the terrace beyond, Yvah found a shaded area to sit with her back to the wall.

She wept silently. Memories of her brother became vivid in her mind. Her breaths grew ragged and remorseful despite her best efforts to calm herself. Eventually the world around her faded from her perception, and the memories were the last to fade with them. She eased into the silence of mind and space like a cradle, nestling her away from her anxieties.

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

Yvah heard voices. Familiar voices. Pleading voices. Telling her to stop, to calm down. She reached for them, tried to speak, but she couldn't...

...

The smile on the feline's face had faded as her violent swipes ceased. Rage that had just smoldered within her eyes subsided into dim embers. Her shoulders slumped, and getting up was tiresome. The monk's gaze was dull and unresponsive as she turned to Araerys. "Okay," she barely uttered as if the effort of speech was nearly too much to attempt. She seemed to shamble as she joined the bard on the bench. Her head hung low as she rested. Her eye began twitching in her idleness.

After a moment, her body slumped further, her eyes shutting as if in slumber. But only for a moment. Yvah raised her head and fluttered open her eyes. "Wha.." she stumbled on the word, her head in a fog.

"What happened?"

@Ermine@corneredbliss

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

Tiny crunches under Yvah's heel were drowned out by the clatter of combat raging further. Yvah violently turned heel to face the priestess's would-be escape route and chased after her. The priestess fell, and Yvah pushed through the doorway. Her fit didn't falter at this, instead she darted still onwards, twisting Lex's arm as she passed under his shoulder to slide past. Just as the priestess hit the floor, Yvah was upon her, claws bared and teeth set intently on her cheerful facade.

Scrapes, tears, gnashing and blood-soaked gurgles reverberated in the still room, immediately breaking the silence of victory. Yvah viciously struck the grotesquely torn face of the priestess over and over, incessantly. A fresh paint of scarlet coated her freshly changed clothes and stained the bed of her nails. Scraps of flesh sopped onto the floor as Yvah raged against an inert and broken corpse. But there was no emotion in this. No screams of anger, tears of regret or laughs of hysteria. Rage seemed to fill her eyes and joy in her face, but these were designs to a cracking mask.

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

Eliza wasn't often pleased to be awoken when she struggled to sleep and found herself even less pleased to be summoned before the people she was recently humiliated in front of. Appearing before the deck, there were three unfamiliar faces. A petite yet oddly confidently postured Kobold of typically nondescript gender. A thickly armored woman, either too tall to be a Dwarf or too gruff-of-speech to be Human, interrogating the crew about Eliza's tentacled colleague. And an athletic, scantily leather-bound Kor woman with a distinctly embarrassing demeanor. Eliza had no doubt that the latter was another of Koan's disguises. The others were new, but instead of being polite and introducing herself, Eliza proceeded to concentrate on the incantation. She was thoroughly done with the whole affair by now and simply wished to retire for the evening as soon as Jill dismissed her.

- -

Iomedae wouldn't be happy with this, Hana knew it. The cleric already started reciting her reasoning and excuses for tomorrow's prayer. Mostly things about how she had to help them in return for saving her and Askia, and how they've found good in more unscrupulous characters than Beholders before. Debatably. But, what's the worst thing that could happen? If their quest took a turn for the worst and she became their unwitting tool, then Askia and her could just stop it. If Iomedae wants her to strangle evil at its root, then what better way to get there than helping its allies for a time? Hana knew that 'the end justifies the means' didn't always make her goddess happy, but she'd gotten away with it more than she didn't.

As a result of this inner argument about the company she currently kept, Hana remained reticent during the recent exchanges. She was vigilant enough to spring to the Kobold's defense should the guard turn hostile, but the situation calmed soon enough. The Beholder captain seemed to have things handled, and rather diplomatically for one of his kind. She did wonder what a Beholder's purpose in cavorting with and even leading obvious pirates was. The other one wasn't so pragmatic, opting instead to amass an undersea horde comprised of sunken vessels and their treasures. The memory had her clench her fists, wrapped in bronze-gilded gauntlets that she had won during the same encounter. Whatever its motives were, the greeting was certainly much more cordial than the last.

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

With the soothing warmth of Daisy's presence and the magic flowing into Yvah's rapidly closing wounds, the rogue's eyes flicked open with a burning flash of anger. With a motion, Yvah swatted the emptied vial to shatter across the floor and swung her body around. She scrambled to her feet and snatched up her staff. Shoving Daisy aside, Yvah slid around the drake's position. Clutching her staff in both palms, she heaved her body around to prepare for her strike, the weapon swinging in an upward snap and colliding with the drake's underbelly. The scales crunched and the skeleton underneath buckled at the impact and with an adolescent yelp, the drake lifelessly flailed in the air.

The follow-through had Yvah's staff in her off hand. As she saw the drake begin to plummet, she stepped one foot forward into a widened stance and followed it with a punch that sent the tiny draconoid flying sideward. Yvah's staff clattered to the ground as she leaped at the thing, foot lodging itself squarely into the drake's neck.

Things and stuff and lotsa hot-blooded murder

Moved to a diametric flank of the drake, gaining advantage and sneak attack. The drake dies after scoring a nat20 to baseball swing at it with the quarterstaff for 17 bludgeoning damage.

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

The ropes unfurled, almost at the same pace as the glowing orbs appeared to light them. This caused Hana to wonder, but she did not hesitate. Her bronzeclad digits clenched around the hempen weave as she took a moment to turn back, arm outstretching in a gesture for the kobold to join her up the rope. The gesture was met with only air, as Hana glanced up to see Askia mid-flight above her head. After what could've only been a shrug, as her shoulderplates glided over each other, she turned back to the ship and hoisted herself up the side and over the edge onto the deck.

A few moments of clanking and clunking followed as she clumsily dragged her sheathed weapons and heavily armored frame aboard. "Y'know, scaleytits," Hana said with the barest hint of strain in her voice as a heavy boot thunked onto the deck. The same thud followed after as she loungingly sat at the starboard edge of the vessel. "If yoo keep at the act, folks just might believe yoo." Her gloves clasped around her seat, reactively relieving her grip when she felt the wood bend a little underneath her grasp.

"Hana, if yoo cared. Yerself?"

A thinly veiled threat was leveled in her and Askia's direction. Or, by the sounds of it, a pirate's promise. "Yoo've been 'round a while, 'aven't yoo?" She didn't seem the least bit fazed by the gunslinger's gesture. "Might wanna try harder, mate, assuming that was to have me shakin' in my boots."

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

As the door creaked open, the familiar echoes of screaming began. Yvah froze for a second. Not in shock of potentially being seen, but being swiftly taken aback to the bloodier days of her youth. The thought was shaken just as quickly as it appeared, and Yvah pushed her breath calmly outward as inner power surged through her into a blinding sprint. She darted across the empty room and swatted the next door open.

Of all of the things that she witnessed in the split second where she charged into the cathedral proper, one thing immediately burned into her mind. Choking. Strangling. Just like him.

As Yvah reached for the blade at her thigh, a smile struck her. But this was unlike her, as combat was the only time where she didn't smile. She seemed to fight with an intense focus that she otherwise in unable to summon. But in this moment, the battle trance bled away from her eyes, replaced instead with sadistic glee and anger.

Her gaze widened, her mad dash did not relent, and the axe flew from her fingers with disturbing grace. A wet, squishy, cracking sound accompanied her footfalls as the blade buried itself into the base of the thug's skull.
Within a frantic heartbeat, Yvah was already upon the man's fresh corpse. With a crack, she landed an elbow strike against the side of his skull. The same arm extended forward and grabbed him by the face, forcing him to fall backward as a knee darted upward to crush his spine. Her foot padded the ground, pivoted, and she spun as the other leg came to sweep kick the thug's sundered body, now falling violently to the side with a few more broken bones.

Yvah whipped around behind her as she heard approaching footsteps. It was Daisy, who was now fully viewing the disturbing and crazed bastardization of Yvah's chipper grin.

UNLEASH THE meow

Spending 1 Ki to Dash as a bonus action out the door, reaching a flanking position behind the Thug. Just after breaching the door, Yvah throws a Hand Axe at the Thug with a nat20, triggering sneak attack for a total of 18 slashing damage. This is lethal damage, as the Thug is reduced to 0 hp and Yvah scores a nat1 Widsom Save to restrain her violent urges.

Bad kitty!

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

A perfect representation of Yvah's thoughts was emoted with her just her hand as Ceria darted off on her own toward the church. Instinctively, her hand outstretched forward, as if to catch the elf by the scruff. Yvah's mouth opened as her fingers curled, her index finger pointed out in an ignored interjection. That, too, begrudgingly retracted as Yvah stood there for a moment of pause. Her wrist spun around and her thumb extended upward in belated, conflicted approval, the cheery facade returning once control of the situation had been fully taken from her.

Shrugging off the abrupt change of plan, Yvah pressed on alone. In a fluid motion, Yvah stepped into the dim light of night and shifted into a four-legged prowl. Her shoulders seemed to stretch backward to accommodate for the stance, tail outstretched and swaying with her stride. Quickly and carefully, she skulked by the leftside wall of the cathedral. About halfway alongside it, she arched upward, her head darting up to view the nearby window. A candle, but nothing of note. She pulled her head low again and moved below the view of the windows.

A corner was turned. Nobody around. Yvah effortlessly hopped over the railing to the veranda at the backside corner of the church. Her eyes and ears darted to her left, where a stone gazebo lay. Nobody. To her right was another window, through which she peered quickly. Past it lay a study of sorts, with nobody inside. Ahead of her and to the right was a backdoor to the study and beyond that the wall swelled in a semicircular shape that blocked her vision into the other side of the building. As time fell upon her, her companions chances for danger increased. Yvah had no time to dally.

Slipping in front of the doorframe, Yvah pressed her palm into the knob, but failed to turn it. It hitched against a lock with a dull click. Her hand slipped into the billowing folds of her clothing to pull some fine metal tools from a small, cylindrical pack strapped to the small of her back. She put them to the lock, where their movements served to cause some noise despite her best efforts. A moment of metal grinding against metal was followed by a sharp click. The tools were threaded back into their home as Yvah pulled the door open. The thin sheen of yellow light slipping past the cracks widened into her narrow gaze as she peered through the opening doorway.

Stuffs

Stealth of nat20 to sneak along the church wall. Thieves' Tools check of 15 to pick the back door lock with a Stealth of 12 to quietly do so.

D&D 5e - High Seas and Tall Tales

Combo post with @Lauder

---

As conversations and sulking carried on aboard the ship, waves ceased to crash against the bow. After a while, people started to notice one after another that the sky all around them was false. There was no horizon, as for miles outward the air became the sea. It was disorienting, most of the crew and the party watched agape as the air seemed to shift and churn at the edges of an invisible sphere all around them for miles. As people began to peer past their immediate vicinities, they found that the area was barren and empty aside from the gate and its guardian, encapsulated in an endless ocean. Except for a lone, small, wooden boat drifting straight toward them.

The keener members of the crew would be able to pick out yelling as the brown dot slowly became the shape of a tiny paddleboat. They didn’t seem like cries for help, or even demands for surrender, they mostly seemed like arguing.

“Yoo daft bastard, of course they’re alright. Yoo think anyone with a mind to harm us would fall from the sky li’that? I seen meself pirates with better manners than yoo lizard-britches.” A gruff voice, vaguely feminine, broke through the waves easily.

“I have plenty of manners, thank you. Plus it isn't a matter of they will harm us or not, it's if they can be trusted, and you know I don't trust easy,” a lighter, voice stated, granted almost inaudible to those aboard the much larger ship.

“Yer a wee paranoid for a psycho-whatsit, ain’t yoo?”

“Please do not bring my powers into this.”

“Yer just up to high doh.”

“I am perfectly calm, you were the one practically shouting at the top of your lungs,” the lighter voice commented in a more annoyed tone.

“Maybe cause it’s friggin’ baltic here and I’ve not had any food in who knows how long?” The stronger voice seemed equally if not more impatient at this point.

“Why is drunk you so much better to be around?”

“I’m a dwarf, a fighter and a sailor. Get used to it.”

“I could actually choke you right now,” grumbled the lighter voice, “I give in, we’ll go along with what you want to. If we die though, I’m shifting all the blame on you.”

“Yer the one that kept me alive this long, lass.” As she said that, a thunk sounded off their arrival as the dingy collided with the comparatively gigantic vessel behind the surly dwarf. “Oi!” she yelled out to anyone that cared to hear, “Yoo got rope to spare, aye? Be a charitable soul and toss a line or two so we can parley!”

“You know I can fly and float you up there, right?”

“We ain’t boardin’ a ship that ain’t ours, what kind of manners are those?” She turned and yelled up over the ship, “Yer sure takin’ yer time up there!”

“Maybe they're dead,” the other commented, looking up the side of the ship.

The gruff woman made a tsk, tsk noise. “Then we’ll have to see, won’t we?”

“But then we would have to be rude and board the ship,” the lighter voice jibed.

“I know yer young, but yoo can be a little patient, aye?”

A short pause in the noise before an answer came, “Nah.”

Beginner's DnD 5e Game - Group 2

Combo post with @corneredbliss

---

All too absentminded at this point, Yvah had not thought to check the boards before trotting off their rooms. Perhaps it was the aching wound she just recovered from, or it was the drinks swirling through her head in a haze. One more pint of the stuff and Yvah would’ve been too far gone to find the room pointed out to her. And while it would’ve been entertaining to all to see just how terribly she handled her intoxicants, she felt it was best to leave it and fall face-first into bed.

The feline moved up into the second level of the inn and the half-elf followed behind, already being lulled into relaxation by the ale. In her exhaustion, her feet moved of their own accord into the room, and almost in a daze she made sure to wrap her wounds before anything else, not wanting to stain the sheets with blood and have a whole fuss about it when they woke. When it was finished, the lure of sleep was getting to be too much, and Araerys relieved herself of her belongings, depositing them onto the floor beside the vacant bed: fiddle, pack, kick off the boots, sink into the cushion - Ahhh. Almost immediately she fell into slumber, only vaguely aware of the cat somewhere near her.

Yvah’s senses came back to her in meditation. Lively conversations echoed through the halls, one of which sounded like the sleepless flower she had come to enjoy. This contrasted the relative silence in the room, as her bunkmate was quick to bandage up and Yvah herself was quick to fall unconscious. Her awareness grew keen in her meditation like a whetstone for the senses. When they had grown sharp enough that she could feel the inner power being drawn from her breath, she darted suddenly from her rest. She sprang up in little, jaunty steps, suddenly filled with life and vigor.

Eventually, Araerys woke feeling refreshed and in a similar, albeit slightly less springy, fashion to Yvah’s, gathered her things and followed the cat back down to the bar to wait for the rest of their party to arrive before setting the lead. Both of them knew their way around town as intimately as one would prowling or carousing in the streets for most of their lives. They did not take the party through only the main roads, instead veering off into sidepaths and shortcuts. Both for the sake of saving time and to move through the city rarely seen. During the trip, Yvah did her best to make Ary feel welcome and to bring her up to speed on the party’s current mission.

“And there were all these shambling fish people and one big shark ogre thing that smashed his way through a crowd of them to get to us,” she explained, “There was a big, spooky castle out in the middle of the bay,” she continued, “Arthera gave the letter to the guard. It was a lot more convincing than the imaginary paper,” she snickered, “We were walking over to this address and then we heard this big commotion. And then you ran right into us!”

Being one that was absolutely tickled by stories, Araerys listened with rapt attention as Yvah recounted their journey to Bourgund thus far. She enjoyed the girl’s enthusiasm and was more than happy to be included in this new adventure, despite the troubles she’d put them through in the first few minutes of meeting her. Admittedly, she still wasn’t sure of the rest of the group’s sentiments towards her, and realized with a little jolt that introductions still hadn’t been properly made. With a slightly lowered voice, simply so as not to be rude, she leaned into her companion and said, “Huh, in my hurry to sleep I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself... Do you think it the right time to-”

Quickly, Yvah turned heel to face her team mates, likely halting them with a jolt and a couple bumped shoulders. “This is Araerys!” she yelled into the alley, “We’re calling her Ary, say hallo!” She turned to her bardic companion with a dumb, misunderstanding grin.

The half-breed blinked in confusion at the abrupt - and rather loud - presentation. It had taken her completely by surprise, and left her with a reflection of the feline’s expression, only without the grin. Funny as it was, she wasn’t sure if that was the best way to go about it; but at least it was over with now. Ary let out a half-amused, half-embarrassed chuckle as she lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers a little in greeting. “Hello, all,” she sang in a similar tone, addressing whoever decided to acknowledge her or reciprocate the introduction with a nod of her head. When it was over, she took up her stride again, and when she leaned over to Yvah this time, she jokingly nudged the girl’s bicep with her elbow. “You and your cheek will get me in trouble one day, I already know it,” she grumbled, though she flashed a cheerful smile, with an air as if the two had been friends for ages.

They were nearing the church, and it occurred to Araerys that they hadn’t discussed the strategy for whatever it was they were supposed to be doing there. Or if they had, she wasn’t in on it, and for the sake of safety, it was probably good that they all be on the same page. This wasn’t her adventure directly, and would have hated to step on anyone’s toes so soon after doing so a first time; so out of her own curiosity, she glanced back at the group over her shoulder and addressed them all once more. “So. Once at the church, what’s your plan?”

They rounded one more corner, and the church stood over them all in full view, as imposing and grandiose as any cathedral was. Yvah placed her hands at her hips, standing still in a wide stance, and scrunched up her face in a contemplative manner. “They sound busy and loud. And you two look quick and quiet,” she motioned toward to both elves, “Wanna sneak in? Could split off and look for a side entrance, then regroup and all waltz in there.”

Ary nodded her head in agreement, thinking it probably the best way anyway. She looked toward Ceria and waited for her response, as well as the rest of the group’s.

[Mentioned @Mistiel]