Scene 3, closed but not yet revised: Home again home again jigity jig
Feel free to add bits into the middle as well as onto the end of the following scene. There may be other things you want to ask about before you let this man go. Any discussion of who is going into Sigil to unload things and look for a dealer should happen before you leave the cart, though the actual trip will be a separate scene.
They arrived back at the school tired and sweaty. Their cart came to a rest in the courtyard outside the stables, and their second set of summoned oxen vanished. Gurg was waiting.
"They gone?"
Varian woke when Ionjae answered from beside him. "Yes. They're gone. The farmhouse couldn't be saved though."
"That's fine. Those farmers won't mind, so long as the orcs don't come back to bother them."
A squinty eyed farmer wandered out of the stable, straw in his hair and mud clinging to his stubble. "You sure they ain't commin back?"
"Yes. They're gone. Don't worry."
"Good. My name's Earl, and I'd like to thank you. That was my house they was in. I shoulda burned it like my neighbors did theirs. Keep them damn dirty orcs from gettin anything o'mine. Now me and mine is gonna get back to our farm and away from all the strange things you have here abouts."
"Wait. They burned their farms? I thought the orcs had done that."
"Naw, but they woulda. Them orcs cain't be trusted round civlisation. They ain't made for it, and that's a fact. Thank you kindly, and I'll just round up my blood and get out of your hair. You stop in if you're back out our way and we'll stand you a nice homestyle supper." Calling out that it was safe now, he walked back into the stable.
Gurg had been peering into the cart while the farmer thanked them. "You took their weapons? You killed them, didn't you. I didn't think you were the sort. Did you try talking to them first? No one's likely to miss some orcs around here, but in the future, I'd appreciate a bit more... delicacy when I give you a job."
"We didn't-"
"That's all right. No skin off my nose, but keep this quiet. Particularly from Throg, that sixth year abjuration major. He's figured out some very creative things. I hear he once warded his roommate's lips against food for a day as a joke, and I know he warded his roommate's girlfriend against water for two weeks. She smelled horrible. I think the roommate had made some idle joke about 'stinking orcs.' I'm pretty sure that the chief of this tribe, that's his helmet there with the dragon teeth and ogre tusks, was his uncle, or cousin, or mother's uncle's halfbrother or something. Just keep it quiet, and get all this out of here."
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"Damn, we'll need to keep that knowledge to ourselves then," Ionjae said to Varian in regards to learning of Throg.
"If you think you can find someone who will be interested in these wares, I say we sell them for a reasonable price... no reason to haggle to much as we the coin is more then nothing. But perhaps for safety we should take a few days to see if we can identify any magical items in this cart, what do you think?"
Just in case you're wondering, there would be three ways to find out if an item is magical. Skill in enchantment would do it, if your skill were good enough and the enchanter hadn't tried to hide the effect. Divination will do it. Or, you could try out the item in question and see what happens, but that's not so great if the enchantment has very specific terms, like poison to dragons or something that wouldn't be immediatly obvious. Varian's got the divination to do it with that, or you could try Loannae, or seek out an enchanter. Scrolls of identify exist, but they aren't so common as D&D would lead you to assume, and they aren't really that cost effective most of the time. At some point I'll include a classroom scene and have a professor explain the details on things like this.
If you're going to take a couple days to examine the stuff, where are you going to keep it?
And I will conjure up some type of pocket dimension for it to be in my room.
Illusion won't be a very good solution; you can't do permanant effects, so they'd wear off. The room'll work though, but I suggest you say something to Uzman.
Pocket dimension has the same non-permanant problem as illusion.
As for magical items, everything's mundane except the chief's helmet. It has some sort of abjuration worked into it, but what exactly is beyond Varian's abilities. Something to do with protection from weapons, but he can't tell if there's anything more complicated to it.
"Sadly useless to him, wasn't it? I agree about selling the rest though."
Okay, so you're selling the rest and keeping the helmet, at least for now. Are you trying to sell it immediatly? I figure that Varian had time to examine all of the stuff at leisure on the trip back (should have thought of that earlier), so you could go into Sigil today to try and unload it. The question is do you take it with you, or leave it here? Also, do you go together, or just one of you? Just as soon as you answer that, I'll end this scene and start a trip to Sigil scene.
Maybe the safest thing for us to do would be to itemize everything we're interested in selling, hide everything in our rooms, and then head into Sigil together to see if we can find some buyers. Then we can return with the items that people are interested in purchasing without drawing to much unwanted attention.
"Are you honestly suggesting that one of us don this helmet and undergo attacks from the other to determine what magics are stored in it?" Ionjae asked with sheer bewilderment.
"Allow me to bring this to my sister, she has a very decent skill with divination, perhaps she'll be able to determine a little more about it's benefits," he offered while hefting the helm in his hands.
"If you'd prefer to head into town by yourself with a list, then please do so. Perhaps when you return my sister will have more information available to us about this piece of armor."
To make things a little easier, Ionjae conjures a small pocket dimension just before arriving back at the school grounds, which he places the helm into. Rushing quickly to find his sister, Ionjae presents to her the item of question and asks her to try to discern the magics cast upon it.
"We were able to retrieve this from the group of orcs, we'd like to know more about it's abilities and believe that you may have the skills necessary to unlock its mysteries."
Loannae examined the helm, furrowing her brow in concentration.
"All right. I think I get it. It's mostly just a simple ward against weapons. An arrow shot right at it will tend to veer off to the side, and it would take extra effort to keep a sword aimed right at it. It's not so powerful as to completely protect you, but good for your head. It seems like it's also got some protection against magic, mainly mind reading, but that's even less powerful. Whoever enchanted this was weak, but spent a lot of time doing it.
"It is pretty though. I like all this scrolling on the leather, and the low-relief dragon is nice. I like how they worked the flame into a crest. What are you going to do with it? I don't know what it's worth, but it would make a nice display piece. You could send it to Mom and Dad. I bet they'd like having a memento of our school experience."
"... I suppose, I'll need to speak with Varian before doing anything _that_ rash though. Listen, speaking of Varian, do you think you could keep set up a magic mirror for me? I need it to keep track of him, since he's heading into town this afternoon with our spoils, I just want to make certain he doesn't get himself over his head, ya know? Oh and thanks for the help with this helmet."
@Dan, if I've got a scrying mirror watching over Varian, can I possibly summon something to appear next to him, even though I'm not reall there? So in case something happens and he needs help, is it possible to send him reinforcements?
Only if you actually looked for it.
And I'm undecided on the summoning at a distance thing. I'm leaning towards no. Seems like it would unbalance things too much. Which school does teleportation fall into in the normal d&d rules?
If it doesn't work thats fine, I don't want to push the envelope.
Weird. I'll think on it and get back to you for sure tomorrow. I'll also do my best to get at least one more scene open tomorrow.
All right. Teleportation will be conjuration. An effect at a distance will be basically an effect teleported to a distant location. Anything that requires you to actually see the distant location will also require divination.
Pocket planes, however, I think ought to fall into evocation. Creating something where there was nothing. Ionjae has tried that a couple times, and while he has the ability to make very small temporary planes (I imagine they'd be hard to do), the verb conjure has been used to describe the process, and I just thought I'd like to clarify.
Thanks for the clarification.
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