Mythic 6 - Tar-Baphon's final trap and the world left untouched.

Game Master Davachido

Atenzuki seems deep in thought at what Alþórel has said. She seems she wants to ask or add something but is at a loss for words. Unsure what to make of his theories. She then is surprised by another theory that Nethan has thrown. "You all are saying I'm part... deity?" She stutters a bit "As in actually fragment of gods? I always thought that I was just a descendant."

Daeron does sidestep that issue and goes back to the memory problem that Alþórel brought up. "Do you remember those pools you investigated when you first arrived at the outpost. Do you think that has something to do with the memories? We have only heard of those pools but you were able to come back remembering everything. Unlike us Eldred who seem to forget everything. That might have some significance.

"You may be right, Nethan. Hmmm. At this point we are seeing words when we join the stars - we may simply be seeing patterns that do not exist. Perhaps you are a descendant Atenzuki. Perhaps you are more."

Turning to Daeron
"I believe your dart may have hit the mark, Daeron. I have the blood of the Old Ones - whom you Eldred resemble - and was unaffected. Atenzuki is not Eldred, but has memory problems. I would like to see another of those pools."

Leaving this hang a day to see if anyone wants to ask anything more. If not I'll forward the day :)

not i

Okay forwarding the day then.

After some discussion the group rest for the night. Whomever was last on watch notices that there are many search parties out looking for them, or at least that's their suspicion. One of the parrots flutters down and pecks Alþórel in the head as the sun is beginning to rise. "Group with sniffers approaching!"

The last one on watch notices that despite the long night many of those searching for them are rotating shifts so they don't get tired. One such group seems to have started to employ tracker dogs. It seems that they must've taken a long time to pick up their scent in all the muffled smells of the sewers but they're on their way now. The last one on watch can begin to rouse the others to make their escape.

Okay so the last thing before leveling will be getting away from your pursuers. How you go about this is up to you. At the moment the closest group is 3 Eldred soldiers and 4 dog-like creatures. You suspect like most of the other soldiers these ones can fly on their spears but they are low down at the moment to keep up with the dogs.

do we know of a river around that we could cross through to throw off scent?

I shall make a map! Expect it some time in the morning, there is a small stream leading into a pond nearby leading away from the city.

Map updated

With a yawn, Elise stirs. But once she hears about their pursuers she is quickly wide awake and starts to pack her stuff at a high pace. She keeps her weapon close at all times, in case the hounds were nearer then expected.

"How much time do we have?"

On the map, they appear really close. But it might not be to scale... Otherwise, Dreyyn's idea sound pretty good.

Amelia stirs from her slumbers. It seemed danger was afoot.

Deck of Fate: 3d20 ⇒ (12, 4, 7) = 23

"We'd better move. Anyone know a thing about covering up one's tracks?"

Is that a survival check? If so, Amelia can help. Survival (aid another): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

they may seem close but they haven't spotted you yet, the seem to be meandering on the edge trying to pick up a scent

yeah i tried to look up the rules for covering tracks, couldnt find those rules anymore. anyone know where they went?

I apologize for not posting, work has been very busy with our VPN DMZ infrastructure refresh and PCI (Credit Card Industry) audit.

==Earlier==

"You may be right, Nethan. Hmmm. At this point we are seeing words when we join the stars - we may simply be seeing patterns that do not exist. Perhaps you are a descendant Atenzuki. Perhaps you are more."

Nethan yawns and stretches, "I agree with Alþórel, Atenzuki, you may instead be a descendant of Aroden. Regardless, I strongly believe all of you bloodstones are tied to Aroden some how?" Nethan yawns again, "Let's discuss this some time in the new future? It is now time for me to sleep and regain my strength." Before going to sleep, he replaces his current remembered spells and powers.

==Current==

Nethan stirs when everyone else does and notices everyone is on alert. He quickly readies himself to fight and move out quickly. He manifests his sword, keeps it close, and grabs it every so often so it does not dissipate. Nethan shakes his head at Amelia's covering tracks comment and whispers, ::"They are getting closer, so we need to move out quickly or fight. There is water over there but they may hear us splashing through the water if we don't move through it properly."::

GM Radiance, are we healed too?

Yes people are healed

Amelia knows that by checking the wind at the moment it is blowing away from the tracking group. Which means the party is downwind. Likely that has partially thrown off the scent, the sewer smell on them has also been masking their scent. Though the river does sound like a good plan. They can either draw attention away from their current position or make a distraction some place. Other than the obvious of taking them head on.

The group can see that they don't have much to use as basis for a smell as they don't have an article of clothing or the like so it seems to be slowing them down somewhat. Though they suspect if the dogs find the camp that they'll be able to recognize the scents fairly quickly.

Nethan whispers, ::"It's our last chance and we should either head for the water keeping our feet below the water line to reduce the sounds of treading through water. The water will mask our movement and the dogs will loose our scent at the water's edge. It's either that or prepare to fight. Of course if we fight them, surprise them, and kill them, we will stop our pursuers or significantly slow them down."::

prescience: 1d20 ⇒ 16
"Go!" whispers Al "Take the things. I'll buy time."

Shaking his head for a moment he shimmers once again into the form of one of the sewer creatures, then grabs a blanket.

He drags the blanket through the toilet pit, then walks towards the Eldred, starting as if in surprise when he sees them.

"Dogs!" he exclaims in the creature's strange, broken language "Aah! You are fast!" much more loudly he screams out "Scatter! They have tracked the rags!"
bluff: 16 + 0 = 16 see, a smart and ruthless group would have hired those sewer dwellers to drag items with their scent on through the countryside as a decoy so tracking dogs were useless. We are the decoy!
diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18 Putting his hands up he backs away "They had a cure! We had to help! No need to fight!"

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," whispers Amelia. She begins to move toward the river.

Well, that was certainly a cool idea : )

Elise swears a bit and quickly packages the last of her stuff and follows Amelia. Hopefully, Al wouldn't need their help. Hopefully - since they might not get back in time ...

i dont think we had enough food to convince them to risk it

Dreyyn moves with the group, following Nethan's plan.

Blah all the posts yesterday after I go to bed!

The eldred look confused for a moment before getting a wiff of Alþórel, the recoil in disgust and the dogs bark for a bit. One of them approaches him with a rope, probably with the intent to bind his hands. "What cure, what are you blabbing about?" He asks.

The group continue down and manage to slip by as Alþórel distracts them. Atenzuki asks in a whisper "Does he have a way to get away? I sure hope he does.

foresight: 1d20 ⇒ 13
Al backs away - and away from where he thinks his friend is.
"No, don't touch! I was handsome like you once! The disease changed me! The White Strangers gave us - me - a cure, but I had to drag this rag around for two days! They said someone was tracking with dogs, would not catch up in a few days! You are early."
Al pulls out the wineskin of White, letting a tiny drip spill out.
bluff - the main plan: 13 = 13
bluff - the disease is infectious, stay away!: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Nethan looks to Atenzuki, "I hope he does because if we did not have to leave right then, I would have grabbed him. Too many variables to deal with for a single person to succeed. In the end, this may turn into a rescue."

Al start rolling better! ... lol

The Eldred stifles a laugh "Yea handsome, like anything coming out of the gutter is anything other than filth. I doubt you're diseased, probably just smacked your face too hard on a rock some place. You can either come peacefully for questioning of the.. "strangers" ... or I can Mac and Lucy here to drag you kicking and screaming." The Eldred isn't sure what to make of the blithering wreck of a man in front of him. It seems like he thinks something is up but he's not sure what Al is hiding just yet.

Uh-oh! Gotta give Al a chance to pull this off, otherwise I guess Nethan has the right idea :P

foresight: 1d20 ⇒ 13
Al blinked, unused to the casual cruelty from one who so resembled his kind. It was all so... human.

"No! I go with you and 'questioning' is torture! You have questions, ask - the strangers have betrayed me. Try to take me and I will fight you till I die!"

"I... I know they came from another world! They took the strange human girl! They talked of going many places! Of finding one of the pools that eat people. Of fighting the Ozem of Arazni! They spoke the words: TAR BAPHON! Please - they are dangerous! They said they broke your defences without killing, that the Ozem did that! They pitied you! They spoke of living tens of thousands of years! Of being as gods!"

As he speaks, Al backs away slowly, his voice rising in pitch.
bluff: 13 = 13
"Here! Look! Do you see? " he shouts, throwing an unfurling, obviously fine scroll on the ground and slowly backing away further. going to be a random spell scroll
"Please? Have pity! Will you not just let me be?"

if they do see through it, I suggest noticing he's stopped dropping draconic words... I figured the roll meant he was starting to lose it, so used that as the indicator.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Hearing Al's crypted call for help, he turns to the group, "Well, time to turn this into a rescue mission. I can hear distress and queues in Al's voice that he is in trouble. This is what happens when you try to be creative with too many variables against you." Nethan starts heading back to where Al is having troubles being creative. Before coming into view, he will activate his shield. He checks the Wand of Valor to make sure it is available.

-1 PP

The Eldred is confused by the blithering man. Spouting names and creatures he does not recognize. The Eldred stares at the scroll and leans over to pick it up. Is the scroll in common? I forget what language scrolls are written in.

He walks back and looks at it with the other Eldred trying to make out its contents, they seem huddled around it ignoring Alþórel for the moment.

I've moved people to about where I think they are from the current descriptions.

Scrolls are in Draconic
The whispers plaguing him since he wore the headband start acting up again, and the ancient Alþórel finds himself grinding his teeth in frustration. They were acting so... human.
Memories flash back. Once again he is talking with Eþnui. Learning the new magic she was pioneering. Watching her smile as she destroys a target dummy. Then he is in battle against the savages, using the same spell...

He barely even realises he's doing it as the spell leaves his lips, and the tiny bead falls into the clustered Eldred. He has time for one quick word before it hits, then he runs.

The dogs look at him confused for a moment that he can speak to them before their owners are set on fire. Alþórel runs to rejoin the group at the water so they can shed their smell. At the very least they won't be attracted by scent anymore. They put some distance between them and their pursuers, they do hear a commotion however of other Eldred coming to the site of a large fireball explosion. You think that they might start following your tracks now that scent is out of the question.

Dreyyn want to cover tracks and this point? And does anyone else want to do anything to slow down any would be pursuers?

yes
survival: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

Dreyyn takes a fallen limb, preferably one with many branches and attempts to use it to rake away their footprints off of the opposite bank as they leave into underbrush.

what kind of area are we in on the other side? Forrest?

There is an unaccustomed look of shock on Alþórel's borrowed face as he heads towards the others. People did use the time to gather the camp up, right?

i think that was the general idea. I know i dont have much stuff even, my camping would consist of a bedroll. i don't own a tent or anything complicated to pull down.

We were not establishing a long term camp site, we only rested there for the night, there is no packaging for goods or tents to be concerned with, so there was not much to clean up and we wouldn't leave anything behind. And Nethan, and the group, can wrap up sharp items fast and throw everything in his bag of holding and be out of there quickly.

Nethan smirks at Al as he comes running up, "Next time Al, no more stalling because now you probably gave them more resolve to find us and placed your life at an unnecessary risk." Nethan grabs a branch too and helps Dreyyn by following what he is doing which he is successful at doing.

Survival Assist: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14

@Camp - Yeah, we don't have much and probably deployed even less since we knew we probably needed to leave quickly. Just some of Elise scattered clothes but those are quick to gather and shove someplace safe.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

"What *have* you done, Al?"

Elise asks in a somewhat worried tone. They had heard the explosion, and she thought she had a somewhat decent idea of what that was ... And Al didn't seem too happy about it!

"Whatever it was, it was them or us. And if it was what I think, then they *might* live. Which means that the next few groups will be too busy saving their comrades to chase us."

Accounting for negative Con on death, an average fireball probably won't outright kill someone with a pair of HD or three. Maybe!

@Radiance - Should we roll swim or anything to get across the river?

"Let's just get as much distance as we can from that explosion!"

Amelia helps Dreyyn to cover the tracks as well. Survival (Aid Another): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

It's forest till you hit the outpost again

Getting across the river isn't too arduous for the group of adventurers as the river's flow isn't all that strong at the moment being a relatively clear morning.

Dreyyn is aided by Nethan and Amelia to the best of their ability so they can mask their tracks as they go. The group is moving slowly so as to make sure there are no tracks. Since I'm making lots of opposed checks, I'll let you know I've been rolling stuff in secret so as not to give you too much a clue of what the reactions are going to be. Here is no different.

The group gets about an hour away and they don't hear anything anymore, or at least not their pursuers. They think now is a good time to regain their spells for those that need to take the time.

As they rest however something seems amiss, it isn't their pursuers. However they have a sneaking suspicion someone is messing with them. They can't pin point what yet. The group are nestled inbetween some trees with no clearings, out of the corner of their eyes due north, seemingly out of nowhere a building appears. They are sure they would've spotted it before but it wasn't there one moment and appeared the next.

Okay so like I said getting away from your pursuers was the last thing before leveling up, so go ahead and post changes in the discussion thread. (Casters feel free to fill up your new spells slots if you gained them). Though just because I'm saying you got away doesn't mean they aren't still following, who knows where they might be. :D

There are 11 scrolls, in order, on the sheet so...1d11 ⇒ 6... Magic Aura.

"Yes, Nethan. No more stalling. Just like the old days."

"I hope they do live, Elise. They were just people doing their job. In the wrong place, at the wrong time."

"And, most importantly, for the wrong people ..."
_______________________________________

"Witches or Faë. Not sure what would be worst ..." Elise comments as the building sneaks into view and shudders. Something was off about all this, and she was unhappily certain that it probably couldn't be solved with a good stroke of her axe.

"Maybe it's just our fey friends from the forest. Looking back, it seems they had the right idea keeping the company of knights lost in the woods."

Amelia takes a look at this "building" to see if it is solid and real, and for other interesting tidbits. Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Amelia looks into the building, it is real enough to her. It is a fairly simple building, 3 stories high (ground floor and 2 floors). It is a building roughly made in a plus sign. Fairly bare, except for inside. Inside she can see three mannequins all posed around a table wearing brightly coloured shawls. Hanging from the ceiling of the front room there are more colourful shawls spread and laid bare for viewing. Something is off about the mannequins however, Amelia occasionally sees one jostle just a bit and not from the wind.

Then on the edge of her hearing she can hear music from a harp being played further in the building.

"It's ok Al, if it would have worked, it would have been a glorious plan." Nethan pats Al on the back.

Nethan looks at the building, "Is this building a trap or wizards's tower? Nethan takes out the Bloodstone Compass to see if it still pointing in a distant location or to the building.

"Could be both ..." Elise adds and reluctantly pokes the house with the blunt end of her waraxe. "Want to go in and see for sure?"

The old wizard mutters a few words, and his eyes go as blue as his cloak.
Casting Arcane Sight
Old memories struggle from the morass of the past as he walks to the house, stopping in the threshold and looking inside with Amelia.
"Hail the house. We come in peace, and ask for your Hospitality. Will you give it?"

"The mannequins - I think they move. And there's some music coming from inside. I guess we should check it out." Amelia enters and listens for the direction of the sound.

Atenzuki whispers quietly "Out of the frying pan, and hopefully not into the fire"

As Amelia enters and listens for the sound, the mannequins turn to face her for a brief moment then return to their poses. They however aren't registering as magical from Alþórel arcane sight.

Amelia hears the sounds coming from the further into the building, it's sound is clear and reverberating. It must be coming from a fairly large room, possibly a dining hall or a performance hall.

Alþórel has no verbal reply from his question, however the mannequins again move, but instead wave him in. Then silently return to their poses.

Nethan takes out the compass to be sure, he sees the compass continuously sending signals in many directions. This is what Moretti said had happened to the compass when they got lost in the forest when you found them.

Daeron asks "What are you guys..." At the moment he gets close enough to hear the harp he freezes up and glazes over. You've seen this before a while ago. This is what happened to the Eldred around the lake. Spook holds up his hands and just steps back "What in kaleidoscope happened to him?"

Nethan looks back up, "Hey all, the Bloodstone Compass is going haywire which happened when we ran into Moretti's group. In other words, we are deviating from what we should be doing."

Al grabs at Daeron as soon as he makes the connection, gesturing frantically for Elise to help

"Or we are being intentionally misdirected. Or we are in an extra dimensional space. Intriguing though. Especially as Daeron appears to be under some influence. I would very much like to get to understand how this effect works."
"Spook: stay back. Do you know if any Eldred can manipulate any color? Are there Eldred who cannot? Can non-Eldred learn?"

"On it..." Elise nods and tackles Daeron back away from the music. Hopefully he would snap out of it once he couldn't hear the music no longer ...

"So we can't bring either you Spook or Daeron closer to the house. Anyone wanna bet that if we enter without them, the house will just disappear in a puff again and split us?"