Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

For out-of-game events, wrapping up in-game adventures and rumours.
Ostheim
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Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Ostheim » Sun Oct 30, 2016 12:39 am

Six.

Wynna slumps bonelessly upon the bed in her ramshackle apartment, letting out a quiet whimper of pain as she hits the soft sheets. Broken ribs, mended only through magic. Spider bites all over her body. Arrow wounds. Electrical burns, horrific bruises made by the earth itself raging against her presence.

She holds up the gem of spectrolite, studying it with a vacant gaze, appreciating the way it gleamed in the light from the window. Her world was still spinning even now, even as she knew in the back of her mind that the end would soon be upon her.

And an end, hopefully, to the winter.

The Smiling Smoke had delivered, and so had her love. To her, only one of those was the true thing to treasure, the... contentment and light that had returned to that person. The peace of mind.

Still, best not to begrudge good work when it was done. She had half a mind to buy Blackheel a bouquet of roses for the work she had done. The less details she knew, the better; the rumors coming from Drumaire Manor weren't pleasant, but... she could look past those. Sometimes it was best not to think too hard.

All she needed was one more. One more gem and it would soon be over.

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Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

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Obsidian Sea
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Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Obsidian Sea » Mon Oct 31, 2016 7:48 pm

To Wynna Blackwing's mind comes the memory of that old and battered traveling journal that she retrieved on the fringe of the Pilgrim's Road an uncertain number of tendays ago. There had been little time to study it then, and no focus with which to drive any facts gleaned on a cursory level into the scholar's memory. Now in a sudden moment of idleness, the Rogue realises that it is an unexplored source of potential knowledge. How it could be related to the search for spectrolite, however, you have no idea.

And yet could it be? Much is lost from the pages of this notebook, torn in the crude, colossal hands of the Ogre from which it was won, or otherwise weathered by the twin killers, time and travel. From page to page, Wynna would find descriptions of different Impilturan landscapes the likes of which seem like a fantasy compared to the snowy backdrops that Wynna has known since she first reached Impiltur: snowy backdrops growing heavier and more saturated with that substance by the day. How many secrets buried below? More importantly, how many landscapes are being described? It is difficult to tell with half the pages ripped out or apart, and the ink smudged terribly. A wise geographer might know these sites, but Wynna Blackwing unfortunately does not.

Yet she is still a scholar. It appears that the one who penned these entries was seeking valuable mineral deposits that had not yet been excavated by the hearty Dwarven population of Impiltur. With clever discernment of the ink and distinctions between the writer's handwriting, Wynna manages to separate the bruised entries into three distinct locations that the author had discovered.

The author managed to describe the interior of one of the caves he descended into, too. Wynna Blackwing has seen an unwelcome number of them in her Impilturan days. Perhaps knowledge of dungeoneering might help her pinpoint one of the locations that the author has described without having to seek help? Regardless, there is no certainty that these explorations yielded any results for the author, and it seems even less likely that they might for Wynna, given the specialist nature of her search. A scholar would surely consider it an unpromising lead; but a Tymoran scholar..?

//OOC: Requesting that Wynna Blackwing make a Knowledge: Dungeoneering check to get a lock on one of the potential sites outlined in this post if she means to investigate the leads on offer. As a general rule, Knowledge skills are trained skills, so it would require Wynna Blackwing to approach a character that has invested points in Knowledge: Geography before she can try to pinpoint the other two locations.
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Ostheim
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Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Ostheim » Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:52 pm

(OOC: Rolled a 20 total for my dungeoneering check (witnessed by DMs), and will report back when I have found a geographer.)
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

Ostheim
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Worm Research

Postby Ostheim » Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:52 pm

On a typically cold and snowy morning of 19 Uktar (at least the weather was finally appropriate for the month, but it was even colder now), Wynna and her latest friend Rahve Siegersson make their way to the familiar environs of the mountain village of Songhall for a bit of research. Wynna, for her part, seems to take to the diversion with some relief, to finally get back to some traditional research into a matter of interest beyond that which has consumed her thoughts for the last several months.

This time, she is looking into a somewhat disturbing occurrence at the docks that was brought to her attention by Rahve. Seeking to understand the potential threat better, she and the Northerner head up to the mountain town to find out what they can, utilizing Wynna's favored tactic for discovery and knowledge-gathering.

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Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

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Obsidian Sea
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Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Obsidian Sea » Sun Nov 20, 2016 2:05 pm

Of geographical specificities, Wynna Blackwing is no master, although this may be but one of a small few areas in which she is not among the more knowledgeable of folk. Though she has seen her share of danger, and in the continuing search for forgotten lore and old ruins, the scholar can, by degrees, cross-reference fragments of intelligence from the tattered notebook with her own personal experience, and in doing so she might come to the confident understanding that one of the sites mentioned by the author is none other than the winding and countless tunnels stretching down and out from where the land falls downward behind Folly's Forest, into a barren labyrinth known as the Rocky Downs.

Yet almost a year of inevitable experience dungeon delving in order to learn what she seeks to learn is not enough to salvage a complete understanding of the notes left by this author, whose fate one hopes to have been kinder than that of his notebook. It is Aleira Nemesk, a frequent companion of the scholar, who directs Wynna Blackwing back to the place where Celith Galiner first found the notebook: in the old courtyard skirting Pilgrim's Road, whose environs are detailed in a much more positive - and therefore, to Wynna, unrecognisable - light, which was the light of a burning sun one summer evening long before the harrows of constant winter descended onto Impiltur. The reference, Wynna surmises, must therefore be to the tangle of tunnels directly below the courtyard, and perhaps which warranted its construction: or, if the cache she might expect to be there is indeed there, which perhaps warranted its abandonment...
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Ostheim
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Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Ostheim » Tue Jan 03, 2017 1:34 am

Wynna has vanished from Sarshel alongside so many others.
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

Ostheim
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Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:05 am

Settling In

Postby Ostheim » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:25 am

Following a return after the vanquishing of the demonic prince, Wynna's routine seems primarily situated around her acclimation to the business of running the Golden Quill and fashioning it into Sarshel's hub for intellectuals, scholars, and canny-minded adventurers. A good variety of books are its main attraction, usually specialty tomes that allows patrons to peruse for a nominal fee, usually in the interest of aiding their research on certain matters without having to travel all the way to Songhall. Said information tends to be of a broader quality, however, and it will be a long time indeed before her humble store can match the House of Many Tomes in regards to precision knowledge. Naturally, Wynna herself offers her expertise as well, her mind containing a wide variety of knowledge that she will tend to dole out when asked, and provided fair incentive.

For information regarding most noble tasks, however, particularly concerning Impiltur's security, such information is usually given out completely free of charge.

Personally, Wynna has been seen recently in the retinue of the Lady Scion, though her disappearance has somewhat stymied that relationship, presumably. When not at home or at the Quill, she can usually be spotted reading a particular tome that she tends to keep well-concealed from casual inspection. Doubtless some new project of hers, or something more dire considering her previous tasks in the aid of Impiltur's security.

Even more personally, her mood has waxed incredibly dour and bitter lately; with Merney Valroc's well-known crimes on full display, this only grew all the more so from her previous, already-substantial bitterness in the wake of winter's relenting. Something had clearly happened to her in some regard, and Merney's predicament only exacerbated her woes. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see her trudging miserably through Sarshel, hood up and demeanor cold.

Curiously, though, she has been spotted practically skipping through town just the other morning. The smile she sports is cautiously optimistic at best, but it's still a smile.
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

Ostheim
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:05 am

Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Ostheim » Mon Apr 03, 2017 2:07 pm

Even with a new routine, one revolving around the upkeep of her new business and the many hours that took, Wynna was finding new ways to tap Sarshel's intellectual resources to her advantage. On any evening where she was not cooped up in the Quill assembling new book copies, she could reliably be found patronizing the company of fellow scholarly sorts; of particular interest to her seemed to be learning as much as she could about the lands surrounding the Sea of Fallen Stars, such as Chessenta, Aglarond and Mulhorand. Geographically inclined scholars of note quickly become a much sought-after commodity for her efforts, whatever they might be; it was always something new, with her.

On a less savory angle, however, she began putting out feelers to old contacts - some of them less than legal, in the assumption that they too would have vested interests in not dying or being inconvenienced - in regards to sniffing out any current or incoming threats that Sarshel and the country itself might find itself having to deal with soon. Though cults were her self-professed specialty, learning as much as she could about any manner of issue seemed to form a perpetual concern for her.

If there was nothing to be learned, as was often the case, she would content herself on the busy work that the Quill constantly provided, and the fretting over the lives of those close to her. Having gained them both back in a short time, it was with a bordering on obsessive veneer that she held their safety in regard.

She was not terribly keen on being alone again. Delion could only do so much, after all.
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

Ostheim
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:05 am

Lathanderite Research

Postby Ostheim » Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:55 pm

Upon receiving confirmation from Westin Highride, and finished with her more pressing and dire duties to the nation, Wynna launches into the comparatively leisurely task of investigating the history and lore surrounding Sunsong Spire, as well as the long-ruined Demeter Estate nearby. Before tapping into Songhall's expensive and comprehensive library, she first consults the tomes she has at her own disposal at the Golden Quill, particularly A History of Impiltur: Part II, The Interregnum: Impiltur's Lost Histories, and Keeps and Castles of the Easting Coast. Should these tomes fail to contain much of use, she next turns to the Herald's Office to investigate anything concerning the Demeter Estate, reasoning that if it was once owned by a noble family, records would be kept as such.

Finally, after that, she makes the usual trip to Songhall's House of Many Tomes to pore over the many tomes there, as well as confer with her fellow scholars over the matter.
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer

Ostheim
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:05 am

Re: Wynna's Research and Routines - A Hands-on Pursuit

Postby Ostheim » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:50 am

Meeting a Rashemi bard and budding scholar was among the last things Wynna expected when she returned to Sarshel, but by then the city had already proven time and again that she ought to foresee such surprises. She did not begrudge it, both owing to her appreciation for fellow knowledge-seekers, and mostly because his request for aid in his own research represented a lovely chance to re-acclimate herself to the life she had left behind for two years.

She intended, of course, to embrace it full-heartedly.

Talas' description of the curious, unsettling creature within the nearby meadow had been unexpected as well - she had remembered that place well, and the peacefulness it typically embodied. To hear that something unwholesome might be dwelling within was alarming, and to best combat such things, it was prudent to understand them first, as always.

OOC Note: Potential spoilers within for an ongoing plot. Read at your own risk if you'd prefer to learn of such things in-game.

Spoiler:
The bulk of her new research, then, concerned that description - a glow at the water's edge, just below the surface, the translucent and unnerving tendrils rising forth from the pond itself at that spot. The maddening melody that played when the man's mind had been, thankfully temporarily, not his own. It all screamed some sort of fae-creature to Wynna, but she could not be completely certain - whatever this thing was defied any experience she had on matters of creature and monster. Still, it could be a local legend of some sort, and it was in that avenue of research that she primarily focused her efforts regarding this matter. Such a potentially dangerous creature so close to the city could not be permitted for long.
On a more leisurely track, Talas had also proposed another line of research that she found most intriguing - delving into the history of the Tel-quessir of the Easting region. It had been, she was quick to admit, not something she had ever had much reason to pursue, and was a murky spot of her knowledge of the area. As a self-styled historian, she was of course keen to rectify that as much as possible. If it aided Talas with his own pursuits, all the better. He had mentioned aught about Elvish spellsinging, which she had not the faintest idea about, but she would keep an eye open for mentions to such displays of elven song-magic.

As usual, she would first consult her own collection of historical knowledge and documentation at the Golden Quill before seeking out more substantial volumes at Songhall. The trip up there was not something she remembered fondly.

That said, it was good to be back.

(OOC: The spoilered bit refers to a plot ran by DM Holy Rage. Will report back with skill checks as they are needed.)
Wynna Blackwing - Scholar of history, ruin delver, intrigue dabbler
Rannie Marrinson - Knight-Errant, Paladin of Sune
Teobald Grzywacz - Outentown peasant, ranger and adventurer


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