As soon as Catina touches the door, she suddenly vanishes, as though sucked in whatever lies beyond the door.
Petals heart nearly stops with Catina's sudden disappearance. Was that... supposed to happen? she asks Faustinia but starts babbling with barely a pause to let the woman answer. She was transported to the Knot, right? tone hopeful. Has to be! said with confidence. They said some kind of mirror takes you there... unless this is all a trap... two mirrors one that takes you there, the other... dread filling her words, eyes wide with horrible possibilities. No... too insane. Um... um... um... she shakes her head in desperate attempts to figure out what to do then stops thinking and exclaims Ugh! Doesn't matter, we're going after her.
Even if it is to the afterlife she adds silently.
Then with a firm grip on her hammer and brilliantly blue defiant eyes set on her target, she reaches out and lays her palm on the mirror.
Varius jumps a little as Faustinia disappears. He looks at a loss for words as Petals works through what just happened.
Grubs and acid grubs and acid... what a little teleportation between friends?
Stepping up, Varius makes a big, showy dance before poking the mirror with his finger.
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"Well, I--" Faustinia begins to respond to Petals when the young bard interrupts her. She opens her mouth several times, but can't seem to get a word in as Petals frantically speculates on Catina's fate. "I don't know for sure, but it's obviously magical," Faustinia manages to add.
She takes a deep breath, then reaches out to touch the mirrored doors as well.
"Well I'm not going to stand around here all by myself." Alessandro says to no one in particular. He touches the mirror as well. I really hope this is teleportation and not disintegration.
As you all touch the door, each of you finds himself catapulted into a whole new realm made of void and darkness, wherein silence reigns undisputedly. It is a kingdom of silent oppression, cold and black. To your minds, virgins to the feelings of extraplanar travel, it is a confusing and overwhelming experience. It seems to last for months, as your bodies travel through the unfathomable depths of time and space.
But eventually, you all land on something hard. A ground, apparently made out of stone. There you see your companions, the expressions on their faces testifying that they experienced your same tribulations.
The walls, floors, and ceilings of the strange and unnerving place you’ve landed into seem to be paneled in polished gray wood in most rooms, but in many places pieces of this paneling have fallen away to reveal smooth, glassy gray stone beneath. In areas with irregular walls, the smooth stone surface is readily apparent. This material is similar to polished marble in feel and strength. Doors are made of stout gray wood.The entire complex is dimly lit by periodic torches in wall sconces whose flames flicker with unsettling slowness.
But let’s turn to the place you’re in in particular. A long corridor extends from a pair of dull metal doors. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this hall are paneled in gray wood, including several empty alcoves along each wall. No source for the dim illumination is apparent. Shadows seem to dance at the corner of the eye in the alcoves, and a soft, barely audible whispering floats in the air of this strange place. What appears to be a slumpedover corpse dressed in tattered robes lies heaped on the floor between the closest alcoves.
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Faustinia inhales, sharp and hard, as her feet touch down on solid stone after so much hurtling darkness and silence. Her eyes dart around the room suspiciously, knuckles white on her staff with tense anticipation of danger. Seeing her companions, apparently unharmed, she allows herself a deep breath, her tense shoulders lowering and her grip relaxing. ”By the gods…” she mutters to herself. Letting her instinct guide her, she drifts to examine the walls of the room. She runs a hand along the gray wood, dipping her fingers into the gaps in the paneling to touch the smooth glassy stone underneath. Her expression becomes more nervous; the wood feels like an inexpertly applied facade to the stone, like this alien place awkwardly wearing a mask in some misguided attempt to disguise itself.
Some of Faustinia’s sense seems to return as she sees Catina, then the corpse. ”Catina! You're safe! What happened to that person? Did you see?” Faustinia cries out as she shakes off the daze of her arrival here. Approaching the corpse slowly, she exhales solemnly at the sight of the figure’s fate. She creases her brow. ”I've never seen an elf so old before…” she mutters as she examines him. ”We might as well take that bag of his. Perhaps there's something within that will help us avoid his fate. Oh, and what's this?” Spotting a bit of something written on the scroll clutched in the dead elf’s hand, she gingerly reaches for it and attempts to slide it out of his grasp.
---
"Thank the Gods you're here," Catina whispers. The atmosphere of the unnerving place make her speak even lower than when they were still in Aberian's Folly. "I was beginning to think maybe I was alone here, and maybe we'd all end up somewhere else. Is everyone all right?" She jumps slightly at Faustinia's words, that feel awfully loud to her ears.
She kneels at the elven corpse, trying to make her voice normal as she answers Faustinia. "He was already like this when I found him. I guess he's been here quite a while actually. He was stabbed, there and there. Do you see?" She points at the man's chest and belly. "Do you think time runs normal here? Or could he have been here for very long?" The man's fingers give her an idea and she shivers. "Do you think this man might have been locked in that closet we found earlier? Maybe something in that bag of his will give an indication of how he was."
--
Varius lands thrashing and wailing in a state of complete, blind panic. It takes him a good minute to finally get his bearings and calm down. Having since scraped off his clown makeup, his face is ghostly pale and beaded with sweat.
"W...where are we? OPh Gods that was awful. Is that what death is like? I don't want to do that again--- IS THAT A BODY?!"
Realizing that he shouldn't be so quiet, Varius tries to clamp his hand over his mouth and nearly stabs himself with a shortsword. Finally he just gives up and collapses on the ground to stare in horror at the corpse.
"That's a bad sign."
Petals barrels into Catina, hugging the tiefling in an inch of her life. Goodness, I'm glad you are not dust. Finally letting go she takes in everything... I don't like this. she says quietly, adopting the ominous need to whisper in the emptiness. No idea where we are. No idea how to get back. A murderer maybe in here with us. We need to find the Knot then... figure something out.
When Catina mentions whether time runs different here, Petals asks How long did it seem like to you before we arrived. For us it was less than a minute If it was different for you, that might tell us.
Not dead. That's good. Alessandro checks his limbs just to make sure.
"A body by the entrance. Was he trying to get out or was he killed when he came in? Or maybe he was here and killed by someone else who came in. Gods!? Can we get back out? Or are we trapped? The door still appears to be behind us." Alessandro tries the door to see if it works in reverse.
Since others are searching the body, Alessandro slowly starts checking the hallway for traps, inching forward a few steps at a time.
While the others focus on the elven corpse, Alessandro teleports back to Aberian’s Folly and back again to the strange place he was in before, exposing himself to the terrific experience of planar travel for two consecutive times. But eventually, he comes back with an answer: there’s a way out!
In the meantime, Catina searches the haversack. Inside, she finds way too many things for an ordinary haversack. The haversack contains a large collection of what appear to be, as Faustinia points out, relatively worthless necromantic spell components, a beautiful pearl, several scrolls and a tattered parchment written in Infernal which looks like a page torn from an unknown book on devilish religion. Written in the margins in Common in a shaky script is the following—“Possible Passwords: Venderbaxis; Vlenderaxits; Vlenkervandis; Vledervaddus… hope one of them works to open the vault!”
Faustinia also takes the scroll from the corpse’s hand.
Varius stares in open wonder as item after item is taken out of the haversack. Forgetting about the body, he starts shoving his arm in and out of the sack, trying to figure out how it works.
"This is amazing! What a time to be alive."
He then looks at the corpse behind him and shudders. As for the contents of the book, although Varius was once carefully schooled in infernal, he failed every lesson and has since done his best to forget the nasty language. After the contents are translated, he frowns.
"So some kind of Vender-sus word. Does that ring a bell for anyone?"
Regardless, Varius heads over to the south doors and listens very, very carefully at them while the group deliberates.
"Can someone see if there's a trap on this thing?"
"Good thinking, Alessandro. It's a relief to know we can go back at any time." Catina then gently scowls at Varius as he starts experimenting with the haversack she's holding. "Varius, that's no way to treat an object like this. I suppose it's magic, to hold so much." With a quick prayer to Shelyn, to let her appreciate objects both for their beauty and function, she casts a spell to detect magical auras. "Hmm, that's interesting."
She can easily read the tattered parchment, but doesn't waste much time on the original text. "I'm not sure, but I do hope we figure it out." Or we may end up just like him. "Maybe we'll find some clue further on. He would have gotten this idea from somewhere..."
--
Thank you Alessandro. Very much. Petals' appreciation lightens her voice. A major concern is gone and everyone is still alive, well... old dead guy doesn't count.
So far so good.
The sack is amazing. Though items like it are abundant in all sorts of ballads, this is the first time to witness one of them. You could carry everything you own all the time... though if anyone snatched it, it would be bad.
The words on the parchment are meaningless to her, so instead she'll go help Varius's with the investigation. Never a dull moment she shares with him, a slight smile teasing up the corner of her cheek, before shutting up so he can listen very, very carefully.
Alessandro shivers after his third trip through the void between planes. "Is this what planar travel is always like? Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to this? And you are welcome, Petals, Catina. I am equally relieved that the exit works."
"That haversack certainly seems useful but the situation is still suspicious. You said his wounds looked like someone stabbed him to death. Why wouldn't the murderer take such a useful item or the scrolls within? And I'm no doctor but someone bleeding out would leave a lot of blood behind. Is there any around where he is laying or any trail of blood in the corridor? But I suppose things could work differently in another dimension."
Alessandro checks the door at the end of the tunnel for traps.
"Well I don't suppose we'll find all the answers immediately. Shall we continue?"
Faustinia identifies the haversack as a magic item, known as handy haversack. The pearl is a pearl of power II, while the scrolls are: a scroll of chill touch, a scroll of command undead, a scroll of ray of exhaustion, a scroll of vampiric touch, and a scroll of false life.
In the meantime, Alessandro and Petals check the room in front of them for traps, but they find none.
Catina idly stares at the parchment while she listens to Faustinia naming off the scrolls she identified. She suddenly slaps her forward. "Of course! How could I be so silly!" She waves the parchment as she explains herself. "The passwords are important to us, obviously. But I thought the page itself was dross, just anything that would have been nearby to write down the passwords. But what if it isn't? From the spells he carried on those scrolls, the book this came for might have been important to him. What if this page contains the clue to the password, but he only managed to decipher it partway?"
With her newfound look on things, she starts to read the parchment and see if it has any bearing on the passwords written in the margin.
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Faustinia wrinkles her nose as she reads through the scrolls. Her expression isn’t quite disgust, but rather vague disappointment that grows as she reads each one. ”Hm. It appears our late friend was some sort of necromancer. I should be able to use these scrolls, but...well, magic is magic I suppose. Necromancy just seems so unsavory and inelegant.” That said, Faustinia places the scrolls into the magical haversack, then starts transferring her own belongings into the various pouches on it. She slings it over her shoulders, enjoying its lightness. She hands the pearl to Catina, saying ”Why don’t you hold on to this? It could prove very useful for us.”
Faustinia glances at the parchment over Catina’s shoulder as she expounds on her hypotheses about the dead man’s purpose. ”Well, it may still be dross, but it’s certainly worth examining. What does the parchment say, Catina? Can you read Infernal?” Faustinia asks, backing off to give Catina some more space to read. She can’t help her eyes from drifting to the strange scars on Catina’s face, with their vulgar ever-shifting infernal meaning.
Petals waits patiently by the door for the two more scholarly of their party to keep investigating the scrolls and parchment. Not planning on opening the door until everyone is ready.
Varius turns away from the door as Catina gets excited about the scrap of paper.
"If we don't find what we want in the parchment, maybe it's further in this place. Chances are if it opens some sort of vault, we're going to encounter the vault anyways."
"My language skills are limited to common. I never had a proper education to teach me anything more than I could learn on the streets." Alessandro waits by the doors as well until everyone is ready.
"I, er, had a proper education but did my best to ignore most of it," says Varius a little bashfully. After a moment he protests.
"Infernal is a really complicated language! I think they conjugate their pronouns or something."
Catina takes the pearl from Faustinia and holds it for a moment, like an egg that might break at any time. She's not sure what it might be worth, but it must a very valuable. She eventually places it, carefully, in her pouch. "Thank you. I'll hang on to it. If you ever think you need it for casting extra spells, just let me know," she defers to the noblewoman that she considers a 'proper' magic user.
She's somewhat embarrassed by Faustinia's question, regarding the parchment. "Yes. I can read it. It's not like I ever studies Infernal, or anything. It just feels... natural." She's aware of how that sounds, and admitting it makes her uncomfortable.
While studying the parchment, Catina realizes something interesting, and at the same time…unnerving. The parchment she’s holding in her hands is not just a random writing support, nor a parchment where random observations in Infernal are written. The parchment is actually a runecurse!
Runecurses are a popular method by which Chelish assassins and conjurers destroy their enemies. While not magic items in and of themselves, a runecurse can be incorporated into any item that bears writing—scrolls are particular favorites, as are spellbooks or treasure maps. In this case, a parchment was used.
A runecurse is a complex pact between a named devil and a spellcaster, created as part of the casting of a planar ally or planar binding spell. If the outsider agrees to take part in the runecurse, it agrees to track down and slay the current owner of the object bearing the runecurse as soon as the spellcaster commands, or as soon as a predetermined event occurs. A runecurse is particularly pleasing to many Chelish spellcasters as it is not only insidious, but is a way to strike at an enemy without the enemy realizing it. By cleverly integrating the runecurse into a gift, a spellcaster can give his enemy the runecurse without the enemy realizing it. Care must be taken not to use a runecurse against one who might be able to recognize the trap, though, for if the owner of a runecursed object can get another creature to accept the item as a gift, ownership is transferred and the devil will slay the new owner instead of the intended target. Tales of spellcasters who are tricked by their would-be victims into accepting re-gifted runecursed objects are quite popular in some circles.
Destroying a runecursed object is the worst thing a victim could do, since this does not lift the pact between devil and original spellcaster, but rather makes it impossible for the target of the runecurse to escape his fate by getting another to freely accept the runecursed object as a gift. (Removing the curse via remove curse or similar effects now becomes the only way for the cursed soul to escape his destiny with the devil.)
Runecurses can be identified for what they are with study. Unfortunately, in most cases, studying a runecurse in this manner is enough to effectively claim “ownership” over the object. An unscrupulous researcher hired to examine the object by its actual owner can, of course, simply pass the object back to the original owner and thus escape impending doom. In order for a runecurse to work, it must be willingly accepted, either as a gift or as part of a gift. The parchment cannot be so hidden inside another object that it can only be noticed with a Perception check, but it can be, for example, put inside a chest or in a jacket pocket where it can be easily noticed with a brief examination. If a creature accepts such a gift without bothering to check the pockets or contents first, he gets what he deserves. Finally, once a character is under the effects of a runecurse, he slowly begins to feel oppressed and nervous, a creeping sense of doom building about him. As the runecurse persists, this sense of doom manifests as growing misfortune and peril. Effects like remove curse or break enchantment can remove a runecurse, but the fact that the cursed individual willingly (if unknowingly) accepts the curse makes it particularly difficult to remove in this manner.
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RUNECURSE
Type curse; Save none to avoid curse, Will DC 22 to avoid effects
Onset 1 day; Frequency 1/day
Effect Target becomes hunted by a specific devil (devil appears to attack and slay cursed victim after the victim fails 3 saving throws) plus 2 points of Wis damage; Cure slay devil or pass runecursed object to another person, who must willingly accept it as a gift (this transfers the curse to the victim, along with the curse’s current “countdown,” so if the original victim had already missed two saving throws, the new victim only need miss one before the devil appears—if the new target of the curse is the same person who originally started the curse, the devil appears in 1d3 rounds to kill the new victim or take its remains with it back to Hell); attempts to remove this curse via remove disease or break enchantment suffer a –5 penalty on the caster level check to remove it (and the cursed individual should take care not to have the runecurse in his possession at this time, because if he does he’ll simply become cursed again by virtue of the fact that he’s still technically the “owner” of the curse).
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To summarize. Since she studied the parchment, Catina is now considered as the new owner of the parchment and, as such, target of the runecurse. Fortunately, she realized the curse, and provided she can find someone to pass the curse in time, she could even escape the effects.
Catina turns deathly pale as she studies the parchment. "This is bad..." she mutters as she turns over the page and continues studying it. "That's horrible. It's... Why would people..."
She snatches away the parchment if anyone approaches, then tries to explain to the others. "The parchment doesn't actually contains any hints to the password. But that's not the bad news. It's... The item is cursed. It acts as a trigger for a devil to come and attack the owner of this item. It's... It's just horrible, but I guess that's to be expected from these horrible diabolists." She shudders, then summons some courage to explain how the item works.
"It's called a runecurse, I think. There's a devil bound to kill the wearer of the item. It's some twisted working as well, because the owner has to actually accept the item of free will - without knowing its true nature of course. I guess this man was lucky to be killed by some other way before the curse triggered." She looks very sad, to call that 'lucky'. "Anyway, the curse seems timed, of a sorts. But we have no way to know how much time has already passed, with the item in the elf's possession." She pauses, then adds the words she's been dreading. "If it wasn't clear, I picked up and studied the parchment, so I'm now its new owner. And no, I'm not going to hand it to any of you willingly. Don't even try! We're just going to have to get through this - quickly - and then I have to go to the temple to ask help from the High Priestess in countering this curse. Right?" She looks braver than she feels. "We have a job to do, and we have to keep going."
Varius stares at Catina in rapt horror.
"There's a devil that's now bound to kill you - and we don't know when it will show up?! That's awful! We'll have to stay by your side in case it shows up until the curse can be removed."
He pulls out his shortswords.
"I really thought this would be more about fencing naer'do'wells on a bridge over a pit of lava or something, not counting down until we get jumped by a cornugon or something. Well, maybe it's a lemure. It could be a lemure, right?"
Done babbling, and with the group having had ample time to check for traps, Varius pushes through the doors and on into the knot.
Petals stomach sinks as Catina tells each and every horrible detail, and even makes a little grab for the parchment, but the cleric is too quick. Catina! You are our healer, we can't risk you getting hurt when we need you most. I'm not nearly as important. AND I'm old, very old, older than maybe all of you put together, so please... Petals pleads but eventually stops realizing her arguments would never sway a good soul like Catina to put another in danger.
Gripping the shaft of her hammer so tight her knuckles turn white, the elf turns striding purposely through the doors with Varius, muttering, I hate this city
"Curses. Diablists continue to get viler each time I learn more about them. But if I'm understanding it correctly, the curse can be handed off to someone else. I am not opposed to passing the curse to a villian deserving of justice that we come across down here. Perhaps the murderer of this elf man here."
"Either way, let's not just sit around here waiting for a devil to spawn. The room beyond is not trapped. Let's see what else lies in wait for us." Alessandro proceeds into the next room beside Varius.
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Faustinia covers her mouth, eyes wide with sadness and shock as Catina describes the runecurse. "Catina..." she starts, before falling silent again. What have we gotten ourselves into? Who was this necromancer to deserve this kind of attention? she can't help but think as the others lend their commiseration to her young friend.
As the others head toward the door that leads deeper into the planescape before them, Faustinia lags behind and catches Catina, putting what she hopes is a comforting hand on her shoulder. In a lowered voice she says, "That could have easily been me, or any of us. I know you won't allow us to receive it from you. But we'll be here with you, and we won't simply allow this curse to happen passively. As soon as we're done here, we'll take you to the temple and see what they can do for you. And if some pointy-tailed fiend shows up with hopes of encountering some soft, sniveling noble, it'll have its work cut out for it when all of us strike it down. I won't let you bear this alone, alright?" That said, Faustinia nods again at Catina and takes another deep breath to prepare to head deeper into wherever they've ended up.
We can't give it to someone else Alessandro, even if they did for some reason deserve to be hunted by a devil. Not that we would mind you, but if we did, what would keep them from figuring it out and giving it to someone else. she shook her head, worried to her core. Let's just get done here quickly.
As soon as you open the door, you discover a room beyond it. This wood-paneled hall rises to a height of twenty feet above, and a single fifteen-foot-high shelf filled sparsely with books runs along the wall. Eerie wisps of shadowy fog coil and writhe on the floor, which unlike the walls seems to be made of polished black stone.
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You don’t even have the time to see the room in its entirety that a series of eerie howls start echoing throughout the hall and beyond. Their source is clear: the howls come from three otherworldly hounds in the hall! The creatures seem clearly aggressive, but Varius and Alessandro realized the danger before an actual attack occurred.
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Howl (Su) All beings other than outsiders within 120 feet of a howling howler must succeed on a Will save or become cursed by the creature’s howl. Once a creature becomes cursed in this way, he suffers no additional penalty for being exposed to additional howlers’ howls until the current curse is lifted. This is a sonic mindaffecting effect.
Abyssal Strike (Ex) A howler’s bite and quills are considered to be chaotically aligned and evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Pain (Ex)Whenever a creature takes damage from a howler’s quill attack or quill defense, he must make a Reflex save or bits of the quills break off in his flesh, causing the target to become sickened until the quill fragments are removed. Removing quill fragments requires a DC 20 Heal check made as a full-round action—on a failed check, the quills are still removed but the process causes 1d4+1 points of damage.
Quill Defense (Su) Any creature that strikes a howler with a non-reach melee weapon, an unarmed strike, or a natural weapon takes 1d4+1 points of piercing damage from the howler’s quills.
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: none
Varius
Alessandro
Blue Howler
Green Howler
Red Howler
Lady Faustinia
Petals
Catina
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Catina makes an effort to put a smile on her face. "Thank you, friends. I am glad that you understand that I can't just pass on this burden. Not to any of you - though I appreciate the offer - and not to anyone who may seem like they've deserved such a fate. I thought about handing it off to a devil, if we met one. But that wouldn't work, for the risk that Petals mentioned. I have faith in the priests in the temple. Surely they can lift this curse. Let's move on."
As brave as she sounds, Catina already seems skittish while she moves through the hall, watching the wisps of fog for fear that they'll come alive. She's so focused on her feet that she doesn't pay attention to what's going on in front of her. "Eek!" Once she's recovered, she does what she can to add her companions on the front against these hideous hounds. "Shelyn, guide us on our quest, and aid us against these foes. As Alessandro dances the blades, and Petals swings her silver-wrought hammer, grant them your blessing."
Varius nods cheerfully to Catina.
"I'm sure your priests can. That's what they're there for, right?"
Once the doors open, he starts at the baleful sound of howling. Seeing he has some monsters to fight, Varius gets his battle face on and swiftly moves southwards, attacking the hound to his south.
Well, no. That's not what they there for, Catina thinks. We're here to make people appreciate beauty, in everything. However, she understands what Varius means, and he seems to mean well. She makes a bit of a face, but doesn't correct him. Her face is softened by the sudden revelation that she thought of herself as one of Shelyn's priests, which she hadn't actually done before then.
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Faustinia stays back in the hallway as the spiny beasts advance. She recalls a sketch of one such creature in an old bestiary, but not much else besides their very apt name. ”Howlers! Dispatch them quickly!” she shouts before starting to draw precise circular movements in the air. She concentrates, muttering the familiar arcane language for summoning.
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Round 1
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Howlers? Petals responds to Faustinia's bark of information. Wait! I've heard of these things, from the saga of Bathus the Slightly Mad... these things made him go mad with their cries... great, that's all we need. Cursed paper, dead elves, and now we'll be loony.
Mother, help us she thinks, then starts to sing, a haunting song of drowning, struggling up and up, and then breaking the surface into the light. A halfling taught it to her one day the fog was extra thick and no one felt safe leaving the bar for sometime.
Countersong (Su): At 1st level, a bard learns to counter magic effects that depend on sound (but not spells that have verbal components). Each round of the countersong he makes a Perform (keyboard, percussion, wind, string, or sing) skill check. Any creature within 30 feet of the bard (including the bard himself) that is affected by a sonic or language-dependent magical attack may use the bard's Perform check result in place of its saving throw if, after the saving throw is rolled, the Perform check result proves to be higher. If a creature within range of the countersong is already under the effect of a noninstantaneous sonic or language-dependent magical attack, it gains another saving throw against the effect each round it hears the countersong, but it must use the bard's Perform skill check result for the save. Countersong does not work on effects that don't allow saves. Countersong relies on audible components.
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Round 1
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"Howler? Never heard of it but I see how it gets its name. Let's focus our attacks. If we hold our ground here, we can bottleneck them."
Alessandro moves up next to Varius and attacks the same howler, .
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Varius opens the fight with a solid hit. The howler roars in fury. Alessandro isn’t as lucky though, and he misses wildly.
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As expected, the howlers…start howling! Their grating, exhausting baying fills your eyes and souls.
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While Lady Faustinia starts to cast her spell, Petals begins her song in order to avoid the howler’s howls from causing more suffering to her companions, while Catina blesses her allies. It’s now time to retaliate!
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: none
Varius
Alessandro
Blue Howler
Green Howler
Red Howler
Lady Faustinia
Petals
Catina
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Catina chooses to focus on Petals' song, instead of the eerie howling. "Have heart, Alessandro," she encourages her companion after his first miss. "I'm right behind you."
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Varius screams as the howlers start howling, but he regains his composure as Petals begins singing. He spins his twin blades before attacking the howler in front of him.
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Even as the howlers’ maddening baying rattles inside her head, Faustinia grits her teeth, spitting the summoning ritual words as she does. Her spell complete, a golden celestial eagle appears, resplendent against the drab gray and black interior of this realm. It shrieks into the air and wastes no time tearing at the howler in front of it.
As the eagle attacks, Faustinia points at the injured creature and a dart of acid leaps from her finger toward it.
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Ugh, that is horrible she hisses inside her head, critiquing the howler's howl. Like screaming rats skittering on the teacher's chalkboard, Loudly! Her song erupts seconds later, filling the hall like a vibrant bell. Almost physically smashing back their own demented music.
One howler being beaten all on all sides by her friends, she doesn't think she has much of a shot wedging in, so she protects their flank for the one approaching from the west.
She swings a glancing blow, concentrating on keeping it back from the others, and singing to hopefully block their poor ears from their horrible shrieks.
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Round 2
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Alessandro clutches his ears when the howlers howl and shakes off the effects of whatever that was. "I'm made of stronger stuff than that.
But, Brrr!, that chilled me to the bone."
He then attacks green howler with attacks from his left and right kukris.
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Varius and Alessandro pounce on the howlers with renewed strength, and each of them manages to hit his opponent at least once. Unfortunately, the quills protecting the howlers’ body causes both Alessandro and Varius to take some damage in the process.
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The wounded howlers let out a roar of rage and immediately retaliate. The howler in the western corridor moves forward and pounces on Varius, but the warrior is able to avoid both the beast’s bite and quills. Another howler, the one which has been wounded several times now, darts to its right and bites at Alessandro. The Chelaxian is not quick enough to dodge, and he gets his arm bitten by the beast!
The last howler roars and howls, but finds no room for an attack. It continues to howl, but Petals’ countersong is enough to shield the party against the terrible barking.
Lady Faustinia’s eagle suddenly appear above the wounded howler, but only one of its attacks actually connects. It deals a significant amount of damage, though.
Petals joins the fray and hits the howler on the party’s left with her hammer. Unfortunately, she had to deal with the beast’s quills.
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Finally, Catina fails to connect with the wounded howler in front of her.
The battle continues!
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⁞⁞⁞⁞ ⁞⁞⁞⁞
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: none
Varius
Alessandro
Blue Howler
Green Howler
Red Howler
Lady Faustinia
Petals
Catina
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