Carina Viera |
Carina strokes her owletcub's head. "It sounds to me like we both find such a deed... distasteful at best, and outright vile at worst. I don't believe Filge had any right to ask you to do such a thing... if nothing else, he's proven that he considered you expendable."
She looks at Kullen. "This Filge sounds like the one we should speak to. You don't owe him anything anymore, and it seems to me that he owes you a lot. Could you perhaps tell us where he lives?"
Dungeon Kobold |
Kullen exchanges looks with the others of his gang.
He turns back. "Alright. He's in the old observatory on the bluff overlookin' the town." He pauses, considering. "We got 'im seven corpses an' the owlbear's mate, so don't get cocky. That bastard's got a few coffin nails loose, if ya take my meanin'."
"It sounds to me like we both find such a deed... distasteful at best, and outright vile at worst."
"Damn right," Navius mutters. "Graverobbing's for the laypeople."
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Tanith stretches his sore jaw and nods. "Sounds like a plan. Let's check out that observatory."
Carina Viera |
Carina nods. "Thank you, sirs."
If the barkeep is still here...
Carina walks over to the bartender, an apologetic look in her eye.
"Sorry about the mess. What do we owe you for the damage?"
Diplomacy (If Needed): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Otherwise...
Carina turns and leaves the Feral Dog.
Astraden Limhaare |
Astraden climbs off the table and dusts off her knees. "Sounds good to me, Tanith." When the party is halfway out the door, she grips her holy symbol again, saying, "Lord of Thieves, could you heal these louts?" and a wave of positive energy courses through the room.
Channel positive energy (healing): 1d6 ⇒ 1; not specifically avoiding healing Kullen, but aiming for Tanith.
e: Just glad that didn't happen in combat. Channel positive energy (healing): 1d6 ⇒ 1.
ee: pshhhhh
When we get to the Observatory, and if Farrukh plans to scout, Astraden will cast hide from undead on him.
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
His jaw feeling just a little less sore, Tanith smiles at the cleric. "Thanks Astraden."
The big Kordite gives Kullen a nod of respect, drops a couple silvers on one of the splintered tables, and then leaves alongside Carina.
Dungeon Kobold |
Carina nods. "Thank you, sirs."
If the barkeep is still here...
The bartender is still hiding in his kitchen.
"Creed!" Kullen calls as the group departs. "Do me a 'professional courtesy'."
He gives a broken-toothed grin. "Bring me back that thin bastard's eyes."
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
Farrukh picks himself up, and dusts himself off, walking out with the rest.
"You know, I was just joking about an undead army." he sighs deeply.
"We'll probably need to be a bit more careful than usual on this one. Spellcasters are such slippery bastards."
He pauses for a second.
"No offense."
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Tanith grins and nods at the ugly half-orc. ”I’m no butcher but I’ll bring you a keepsake of some kind”, he explains with another laugh.
***
While the party is traveling:
”What’d you have in mind Farrukh?”
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
"If at all possible, we want this to be an ambush. Take him out before he can cast a spell. Or at least do our best to prevent him from doing so."
"Maybe me and Robin both sneak in. I try to hit him hard before he knows I'm there and Robin can nock an arrow and shoot him if he tries to cast something, throwing him off."
"The rest of you being on 'save our asses from any undead hordes he has' duty or something."
"It's not perfect but you get the general idea. It might work if you, Carina, and Astraden distract him while Robin and I do our thing, but that leads to the danger of you guys getting hit with something mean."
Carina Viera |
Carina cuddles her owletcub as the party walks.
"I like the sound of that plan..."
Maybe I can feed my cub this necromancer's corpse...
Carina looks her owletcub over, wondering if its a boy or a girl.
Knowledge (Nature): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Tanith frowns. ”There’s not a whole lot of glory in sneaking up on a man and stabbing him in the back but we’ll follow your lead.”
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Tanith laughs again. "You worry too much buddy. We need to get you a hard drink and some soft company after this is done."
Carina Viera |
Carina looks up at Robin. "I suppose we could ask for directions..."
Astraden Limhaare |
"It's up on Elmshire Road, by the menhirs." Astraden waves towards a crumbling tower on the hill above town. "Maybe we can climb up behind it?"
Assuming the Diamond Lake map is fair game for the general location.
Dungeon Kobold |
Carina cuddles her owletcub as the party walks.
"I like the sound of that plan..."
Maybe I can feed my cub this necromancer's corpse...
Carina looks her owletcub over, wondering if its a boy or a girl.
1d20+7
1d2 ⇒ 1
It's a boy.
Five minutes north of Diamond Lake,on a bluff overlooking an abandoned mine, a crumbling old observatory casts its gaze to the heavens. A wide slit bisects its domed tower, where surely a great telescope once peered into eternity.
Now the place bears a dark character, like a sagging tenement broken under the weight of decades of inhabitants.
A slim stairway cut into the steep hillside leads to the structure's only door, on the side of the attached one-story outbuilding. Flickering light filters through the observatory's only windows, along the tower's second and third floors.
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Tanith studies the structure briefly and then looks to Farrukh. "Alright. If we're the distraction, where'd you want us to come from?"
Cuetzpalli |
"Sounds like he's going to have eight zombies, and an owlbear zombie. Unless we're incredibly lucky and he hasn't gotten to work yet," Cuetzpalli comments as he follows the others on their way to the observatory. "We do have the element of surprise though. Farrukh's right, we should use it if we can."
Someone with knowledge (religion) make the check to know we need slashing weapons for zombies, not bows.
Astraden Limhaare |
Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Other thoughts: Do we want to try to use the scroll of invisibility? We could try to get Farrukh (hidden from undead and invisible) up in position in some crevice on the tower, then a) have Robin (who is also hidden from undead) climb up and start shooting at the caster while Farrukh charges in through the window, or b) have Tanith (hidden from undead) barrel up the stairs and start fighting the caster with Farrukh, who would burst through the windows (meanwhile the rest of us bomb, claw, and channel the hell out of the zombies and skeletons). If Robin wants to use his animal aspect thing (climbing) that'd doubtless come in handy.
"I just hope he doesn't have a big telescope trained on us right now."
Carina Viera |
Carina eyes the observatory warily.
I was hoping to scribe the invisibility scroll into my formula book, but I suppose we can use it to make this work.
Astraden Limhaare |
Of course Tanith would say that. Who are we waiting on, though? Farrukh?
And I can make a scroll of it next level, Carina. Can alchemists copy divine magical writings?
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
I was just letting you guys hash it out for a bit.
Farrukh listens to the others talk while he thinks for a minute.
Tanith studies the structure briefly and then looks to Farrukh. "Alright. If we're the distraction, where'd you want us to come from?"
"Hm. Going through the opposite window from where I want to come through would be great, but I don't see that happening with Carina and Astraden along, unless you want to risk tossing a grappling hook up there. Which, sadly, I think I forgot to pack."
"So, that leaves the obvious. The front door. Maybe if you knock real loud he'll answer it."
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
"Front door. Got it!" Tanith says as he heads for the building's front.
Carina Viera |
Carina sets her boy owletcub down carefully.
Let's hope this works...
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
"Well, there are two windows. I figure we have a better chance if we're coming from opposite directions. Unless he's got eyes in the back of his head-Not ruling anything out for a Necromancer-, it should at least make sure that if he sees one of us he doesn't necessarily see the other coming from the opposite way."
Dungeon Kobold |
The stairway rises to a wide landing an two huge wooden doors. Shot through with dark blue mold, the doors form an enormous round moon carved with a lunatic's jabbering face.
Beneath the landing, an unremarkable wooden door appears to lead to a tool closet under the stairs.
Dungeon Kobold |
Climbing is fairly easy—Climb DC 15. Sneaking may b another matter.
There are six windows on the first story, and six on the second (three on the south side overlooking Diamond Lake, three on the north).
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
The good book of Kord teaches us that, with the exception of a locker room ambush, an opponent must be confronted head-on.
Robin O'Haranson |
Robin takes the window furthest from the door, on the second floor, overlooking the lake. Sneak down and shoot. Simple as.
Robin thinks long and hard about a climbing technique he learned watching monkeys.
(Climb): 1d20 + 4 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 4 = 18
(Stealth): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Robin looks around the room he finds himself in.
(Perception): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Carina Viera |
After telling her owlbear to stay put, Carina follows Tanith up the stairs, standing about 5 feet back from him.
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
Farrukh begins climbing up the window opposite Robin.
Climb: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
Once there, he looks around and tries to stay hidden below the window ledge.
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Dungeon Kobold |
Robin scales the wall like a spider, and peeks through the bottom left window.
Alright, brace yourselves.
Robin finds himself staring into a massive bedchamber that fills an entire floor of the observatory tower. Light filtering in from the tall windows ringing the chamber catches motes of dust in the calm air. A fine bed with plump red linen sheets squats upon a dais along the southeast cradle of the tower's arc.
A nightstand next to the bed holds a wax-choked candlestick and a black book bound with brown and red leather.
At the midpoint of the eastern wall a strange form stands rigid atop a short wooden stool, as tall as a halfling and clothed in a fine black suit and tophat. Clean cloth bandages wrap every inch of the sentry's skin. A pair of ash-tinted spectacles rests upon a long skinny nose. The diminutive dandy holds a silver platter as if presenting a meal, and upon the tray rests the freshly preserved severed head of a middle-aged human woman.
A platinum piece sits upon her outstretched, purple tongue.
A messy desk rests against the opposite wall, piled high with loose papers. An apparatus holding four long tubes filled with colored liquid peeks out from the clutter.
Doors on the north and west walls appear to lead to small closets. Wide stairs lead above and below.
A massive white stone statue of a thin human man with outstretched angelic wings and a beatific look upon his idealized face looms large in the northwest arc of the tower wall. The angel holds a sword in one hand and cradles a harp with the other.
The presentation conjures thoughts of mausoleum peaks or the graves or important men. Tall letters etched upon the statue's base spell out a single word:
"Filge."
Dungeon Kobold |
Robin notices a large rug of golden-brown fur. It looks high-quality.
Farrukh makes it up just fine.
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Dungeon Kobold |
I'm not sure Tanith actually is knocking. I'm going to wait for him to actually say as much.
Also, just FYI, the map's being actively updated. I'm probably not going to re-link it in a post, but the link'll always be in the profile.
Tanith 'Kordson' Creed |
Sorry, I thought my quote from the Good Book was enough. Yes, Tanith is knocking.
Dungeon Kobold |
Just wanted to be sure. Knocking might have some consequences. ;)
Tanith knocks loudly. There's a moment's pause.
Farrukh and Robin hear swearing from above.
An owl hoots in reply.
You two have one standard or move action to act before something happens.
Farrukh Al'Khatel |
*Farrukh and Robin dangle from window ledges, holding in screams, as Tanith stares at the door without movement*