#I might go start the companions or thieves guild missions today

[raksh-writes]

Gosh, Im being such a lazy ass today, with finals just around the corner and an off day to get stuff done and instead I just wanna play Skyrim ffs...

[mellaramendibow]

The Invisible Marks

Hello, I am Mellara the bard and these will be the start of a recount of events from my dingbat memories with the people of Autumn Hill.

5th of Flamerule, 1491 DR

The trading caravan kicked me off of its wagon for being a little boisterous with song. I had to walk the many miles left to Autumn Hill but at least it was not that far. Otherwise, I would have worried about camping alone at night with my beloved dulcimer. Upon arriving at town, I secured lodging at the Halfway Inn & Tavern in exchange for being its nightly entertainment. Some days I am allowed a break yet those are the same days that I have to pay for the room myself.

This morning I found myself playing on the street with a tiny monies box set up in front of me. I don't really the need the money since I am comfortable enough on my own playing for taverns but I just felt like it today and perhaps it would help me get to know the townsfolk. Funny thing because a halfling walked up to me and informed me that I was broke. She continued to insist this so, in jest, I sang a short ditty about being broke and needing money. I eventually learned her name was Haleigh.

Listen, I am perfectly satisfied performing on the streets. However, I really did not have much to do that day. When Haleigh approached me about helping her out with something, I immediately agreed without asking what that something was. I am aware I am not the sharpest knife in a rogue's drawer, yet I could not help but get excited at the thought of being needed.

Little did I know that I would end up this evening with an unwanted mark and memories that I cannot scrub away. Also, a slight liking for bone devils that work for Asmodeus, as messed up as that sounds.

I followed along with Haleigh and met other people, Lamlis, Dom, Jason, Hal, and Nikos. Some of them, like me, are added to the thing that Haleigh and Hal want to accomplish. As a group, we all take a trip to Neverwinter to meet a friend of theirs who, to this evening, I still do not know the name of. I still have no idea what was going on. What I do remember is being inducted into the Xanathar Thieves' Guild which I had no intention of joining, and part of this process is receiving this weird invisible magic mark on my palm. However, I did receive the biggest induction bonus I have ever seen in my life: 2000 gold. I guess it was worth it.

Now newly inducted, we were to complete one task: get an orb from a huge manor and get out. Easy enough, right? Wrong. There's a lot of things in this mansion. It was amusing enough that there were magic words to tell us to 'Keep off the grass' and give us a 'Welcome' at the doorstep. However, that is insignificant compared to the hardship we faced in that manor. It was decked out with traps! A literal trap house! We recklessly made our way through the manor. Several times we were injured heavily, some of us downed, some of us impaled, squished. Even squished and impaled at the same time! I do not know how we even survived. In the middle of it all, I had no more spells to give and was glad for a short rest where I played some song to relieve the party. And now, here's Wonderwall...

After a while, we came to a large circular room at the bottom of a tower which held a bone devil. He looked extremely vicious but I weirdly found it endearing that he wore a woodcarver's apron and was using his tail to carve a chunk of wood in front of him, albeit not very skillfully. I did not really want to fight him so I had the crazy idea to just talk to him. I offered some song and he really hated it so I just shrugged at the response. To each their own. I am pretty used to it.

Eventually, a wood carving contest was suggested but never came to fruition because a loss with the bone devil would mean that our entire group would owe favors to him. Instead, we spent even more time talking and renegotiating, sentencing it down to three people in our party would owe him a favor in exchange for safe passage up and down the tower. I gingerly agreed after quickly warming up to the idea. Haleigh and Lamlis took this offer as well. Hal quickly went up the staircase but misstepped on a false stair so now the stairs were a slide. Making quick work, we were able to get someone up there with rope to disable the trap.

While they were working on hoisting someone up, I spent some time in front of the bone devil watching him whack his wood while Haleigh kept bothering him to chuck her up the stairs. It was not needed and then we headed up the stairs. Getting to the third floor was not fun times. At the top was a green dragon and of all the times we have had in the manor have I never felt so terrified. Luckily, our party was able to move around away from the thing but not without getting burned. I literally had to stop, drop, and roll off the staircase. We injured it enough to uncover that it was actually a huge fire elemental which made it even worse as the third floor was actually a library filled with books, which is pretty flammable stuff.

Fortunately, we were able to defeat the thing but smoke and small fires started to fill the room. Queue in me! I summoned Warding Wind to blow it all away but it made a mess. Moving on from this room, we then encountered another unusually staged room. Inside was a beautiful high elf lady. She would have been pretty nice if it were not for the fact that she made the room dark and tried to kill us. I actually almost died, or I felt like I was dying. However, it was not because of the high elf lady hurling spells at our group. I misstepped on the stage and got ripped by saws. It was okay, though, because the party healed me eventually.

We killed the high elf lady. I kind of regret not saying anything about giving her mercy after a certain portrait we saw in the next room. The attached bedroom's door exploded in bright light when opened and paralyzed everyone except for Haleigh. She went in the room and I got pretty worried about her wellbeing. After all was said and done, we finally found what we were looking for: an ornate chest which held the orb. I did not mind the opulent surroundings of the bedroom and was more excited that we found it. However, a wrenching scream sounded from the bottom of the first level and I panicked, much like a bird tweeting to its companions about danger. As a group, we moved with the ornate chest back to the library's windows and chucked two long ropes over the side with the chest attached at the bottom. Most of us were able to ride the ropes down but in the kerfuffle, I had not seen Haleigh for some time and we saw that Hal was still at the top. The ropes unraveled before he could ride them down.

Desperate, he tried to climb down the 100 foot tower but slipped close to the top and fell. I will tell you now, the post-image of him landing is not for the faint of heart. A heavy thud, and Hal's body was a mangled mess with holes all over where bones stuck out and angles of limbs that would not be possible in normal circumstances. I squeaked in terror as soon as he landed. Luckily, we were able to stabilize and heal him a bit so he wouldn't be such a broken mess on the grass and hauled him out of there. I was worried for Haleigh but near the end when we were stepping over the grass, I saw her right behind us. An unearthly howl came from the manor and I just ran away with everyone until we reached a discreet alley to check our loot.

There were a lot of shiny and cool things. Besides the orb, there were 12,000 gold worth of gems and a magic yet cursed bow. Our contact then suddenly appeared and took most of the gems and the orb and then disappeared. Shrugging, I was at least glad we made it through alive. With my newfound increase in wealth, I stayed at the finest room in a tavern and enjoyed food, drink, and a bath. Then, before I slept, I tried to mentally reach out to the bone devil but received no response. Also, the invisible mark on my palm is still there. I then turned in for the day. Also, I am not excited about dangerous missions like these, but now that I'm inducted into something, I might be forced into doing it.

Mellara the bard, signing off.