'I agree Kyras. It will be quite homely without the evil infestation. That is why I bought firewood on the mule to make sure we burn it to the ground.'
'Sure, Solaria, look around but be careful touching things and avoid opening any doors till we can get our feet back under us. Looking for trouble has been the death of more than one group of adventurers.'
Badger starts to go from one patient to the next letting the miracles in a bottle do their work.
Badger finds two potions of cure light wounds tucked into Whisper's belt.
And once on her feet, though the bashes she took from the zombie are only barely healed over, she begins to look around. While a muttered thanks is sent in the direction of Badger, she otherwise acts as if nothing happened, and starts examining the statues and the area where she disintegrated the ghoul with the holy water.
"Gotta say, that stuff's worth the rash it gives me," she remarks as she eyes the pile of ash and broken glass.
You wake in a strange, alien world. Some plane of existance, but not a good one. A stands before you, dressed fully in heavy armour with a hook for a hand. He grabs you with his good hand, squeezing tightly and smirking.
"Ahh, a Moon Elf? Interesting, so many races and so little time. Well...I might as well disperse your energy like you did the cleric's." his eyes show the true dephs of evil. It feels as if you are looking at the apitony of evil and then a holy light shines down and a bolt of lightning strikes into the man's chest, knocking him back and making him cower into the shadows. "Not....strong enough...yet" he murmers before dissappearing and it is then you see a bird siloetted in a cloud, hoping this symbol triggers a memory to you and it then it comes to mind that this is your deity. It transforms into a beautiful and elegant Moon elf, smiling to you lovingly as a mother would to a child and taking you by the hand to steady you on your feet.
"It is not your time, Malstei Alenuath. I will only save you this one time. If you end up taking another blow like that, you will fall within that man's grasp and be lost forever, but now go to the land of the living. There is work to be done and you are to accomplish great things. I must bid you farewell. Next time you come here, I shall not save you and you will be in the hands of that evil man once again." and with that she floats away with a caring smile and dissappears. You feel a positive tug as everything goes black again until you start opening your eyes. You feel as if you have just tried dwarven Ale.
Before Mal awakens his body seems to contort and react violently as if having a horrible dream. Once awake he seems visably paler, if that was even possible.
There are various statues up on the walls of the temple similar to the two crumbled ones in the antechamber on the way in. A few of them have crumbled to dust however there are others that remain standing strong. Ones of a demonic looking female creature, a Dragon and a few other creatures that you're not too sure of. There's even a Goblin one, though is had spores and fungus growing on it unlike the other statues. All of them glow with magic and you can tell it's a ancient, overpowering magic.
You see the various statues, like the ones in the Antechamber some are unaffected by time and some have rotted and crumbled to dust. You even see a Goblin one with fungus and spores on it which looks strange compared to the others. Another is a Dragon and there are various other creatures, however one of these creatures you recognise. It was something described to you as a child by your mother when you asked who your dad was. You're fairly certain that the statue there is of your father, the half-fiend.
The two sets of doors appear to be left well enough alone and you don't see any activity on either of them. You now notice that Ghoul had a knife strapped to his waist. It's a Kukri. Ceremonial in appearence and has aged a bit too.
Mal sits up quickly as if from a horrible dream, "Huhhh"
Coming to his knees he whispers a prayer in elven to Aerdrie. Looking at his companions he asks, "What did I miss?" He stands up shakily quaffing another potion. He bends down and picks up his sword resheathing it.
Potion Cure Light Wounds -
Badger goes to where Whisper is examining the remains of the ghoul. Badger then pulls out a scroll and reads the holy phrases upon it. At the end of the prayer, he lightly touches Whisper transferring the healing energies into Whisper's body.
'That should make you feel a bit better.'
Badger will then lead his dogs around to the double doors that haven't been explored. He mutters a few words to start to provide his dogs clean water to wash them down and allow them to rinse their mouths of the foul taste of zombie.
He also pulled out small chunks of meat to reward them and to discourage them deciding to help themselves to decayed corpse meat.
When he was certain they were settled after the fight, he leaves Hunter and Fox to guard the doors.
He then gets out his grapple and rope. With the help of Victor, he begins to haul anything that remains of the zombies or ghoul out into the sunlight.
Solaria finding magical statues filled with what seems to be ancient auras, fills Solaria with dread at the thought of what may be. She takes time to study the magical aura's of these statues, feeling the evil in this place.
Spellcraft
But these aura's seem to be unknown to her, too old to be magic of this world, or at least none that she is aware of, but she feels the evil of the place from the encounter.
With her voice slightly shaky she turns to the rest of the group,"Umm, I don't want to alarm anybody, but we are surrounded by what I think are ancient evil statues, emanating an overpowering ancient magical aura that I don't recognise. Would anyone else like to see if they can recognise the magics here?"
She continues by describing the magical statues and what she saw,
"There are various statues up on the walls similar to the two crumbled ones outside. A few of them have crumbled to dust however there are others that remain standing. There's a demonic looking female creature, a Dragon and a few other creatures that I'm not too sure of. There's even a Goblin one, though is has spores and fungus growing on it unlike the other statues. All of them glow with an ancient, overpowering magic. Maybe you might know the creature of those I don't?"
She steps back slightly, looking intently from statue to statue, recalling the nightmare from last night to tally the dream with reality. Was that the same Goblin or Hobgoblin she saw in her dream?
Whisper looks at Badger when she thanks him this time, as the magic from the scroll turns the red lesions, bruises, and fractures into a faint memory.
She picks up a blade half buried in the ash remains of the undead and examines it ( ). "Nice little brush-cutter here. Maybe Malstei could use it, once he finishes waking up." She'd normally consider holding onto her findings to sell, but she's liking the idea of other people watching her back at the moment.
She walks around, squinting at the statues as Solari shares her analysis of them. "You know, I'll figure out that 'seeing magical auras' trick some day." She points at the fungus covered goblin. "Kyras should take a looksee at that."
She stops cold at one of the winged figures, a male bearing an evil grin of rows of fangs. She stares at it for several moments, looks at the ground, swallows, then looks up again, but does not lock eyes with any member of the party.
"I've heard of this one. A cambion that specializes in faustian arrangements with mages."
Solaria finding magical statues filled with what seems to be ancient auras, fills Solaria with dread at the thought of what may be. She takes time to study the magical aura's of these statues, feeling the evil in this place.
Spellcraft 1d20+4
But these aura's seem to be unknown to her, too old to be magic of this world, or at least none that she is aware of, but she feels the evil of the place from the encounter.
With her voice slightly shaky she turns to the rest of the group,"Umm, I don't want to alarm anybody, but we are surrounded by what I think are ancient evil statues, emanating an overpowering ancient magical aura that I don't recognise. Would anyone else like to see if they can recognise the magics here?"
She continues by describing the magical statues and what she saw,
"There are various statues up on the walls similar to the two crumbled ones outside. A few of them have crumbled to dust however there are others that remain standing. There's a demonic looking female creature, a Dragon and a few other creatures that I'm not too sure of. There's even a Goblin one, though is has spores and fungus growing on it unlike the other statues. All of them glow with an ancient, overpowering magic. Maybe you might know the creature of those I don't?"She steps back slightly, looking intently from statue to statue, recalling the nightmare from last night to tally the dream with reality. Was that the same Goblin or Hobgoblin she saw in her dream?
Whisper looks at Badger when she thanks him this time, as the magic from the scroll turns the red lesions, bruises, and fractures into a faint memory.
She picks up a blade half buried in the ash remains of the undead and examines it ( 1d20+6). "Nice little brush-cutter here. Maybe Malstei could use it, once he finishes waking up." She'd normally consider holding onto her findings to sell, but she's liking the idea of other people watching her back at the moment.
She walks around, squinting at the statues as Solari shares her analysis of them. "You know, I'll figure out that 'seeing magical auras' trick some day." She points at the fungus covered goblin. "Kyras should take a looksee at that."
She stops cold at one of the winged figures, a male bearing an evil grin of rows of fangs. She stares at it for several moments, looks at the ground, swallows, then looks up again, but does not lock eyes with any member of the party.
"I've heard of this one. A cambion that specializes in faustian arrangements with mages."
You also notice that the expresions on these statues are neutral or as neutral as a look those creatures can make, though the Goblin is the strangest with the fungus on it and none of the other statues have any kind of plant growth on them.
The blade is old but doesn't appear to be masterworked. It can be sold though or even reforged if the blacksmith wanted.
"Did you find a magical blade Whisper?"
Whisper holds the kukri out to Malstei. "Don't think it's forged well enough to take an enchantment, but it looks serviceable. It's not weighted right for the way I fight, but it looks like something you'd use to cut away undergrowth. Since you're the scout type maybe you can find a use for it."
Mal smiles at Whisper, "Not a bad idea if we hit serious forest growth on our journey".
Mal will search the room using more mundane means.
Perception -
'Strange...very strange. In my vision, there was the ghoul and the zombies but the ghoul was talking to something. Something that was more hidden in the shadows. I expected there to be one more in this room as a result.
'I suppose that it is stranger too that only this one statue is covered in fungus. Usually, that would indicate a source of water or some other liquid dripping down on it from above. I don't see any water dripping down. Let me take a closer look and see if I can figure out what type of fungus might be on the statue. It might tell us something.'
Badger gets down from Victor and makes sure he has his shield strapped on firmly and ties a cloth over his mouth and huge nose.
'Never can be too careful with spores. Always need to be careful in the under gardens that rogue fungus don't settle in and start spreading spores through the air.'
Badger then heads over to the goblin statue, ready for trouble, as he checks it for the type of plant.
"Did you find a magical blade Whisper?"
Perking up at the mention of interresting fungy Kyras's face brightens a bit. "Hmm? Fungus? Where? Show me please." he says smiling and heads over to the statues.
knowledge nature
If Mal did not find any secret passages or anything else of interest on his serach he will go out into the antechamber and have another lok at that depiction.
The Fungus you can surmise is a rare type, often associated with growing near areas of planar activity. You aren't sure what it's doing there, but you do know it can be harvested to use for poisons if you wish to make some.
Mal comes back inside. "Are we ready to investigate these double doors?
"Hmm, interesting speciment." says Kyras as he havestes some of the fungi. "These fungi usually grow near planar activity, I see no evidence of it but the fungi still suggest it."
DM:
'Planar activity? I'll have to remember that. It looks like our ghoul friend here likely was talking with someone or getting help from someone outside the Realms.
'I suppose it makes sense as they would need some other body to co-ordinate this plan which seems to have a base in Baldur's Gate to the north. At least to co-ordinate and not have messengers running all day along the roads.
'Well, we still have children to find and if not alive, we need to recover their bodies; so, they can have a decent burial. Perhaps, the gods might even be kind enough to grant a return a few of their souls to the living but that is a question for priests.'
Badger heads over to Victor, mounts up, and heads to the closed double doors that Fox and Hunter have been guarding. He takes a moment to look over the doors and press his ears to the cracks to see if he can hear anything. He looks for any disturbed dust or scraped off rust that might show the doors having been used in the last month.
Badger waves an invitation for the others to join him in forming up before they open the next Pandora's box.
[ooc]Perception [ooc]
'Should we bother oiling the hinges?'
You recognise the man with the hooked hand and he appears to be depicted as a God.
As you remove the fungi you can see that the part of the face that was covered up appears to have rotted and corrupted. You feel as if leaving the fungus on made him better looking.
Whisper gives one last enigmatic glance at the one statue and nods. "Yeah, let's get moving."
She approaches the double doors, giving it another quick glance to be sure it's not rigged to do anything nasty--or even as Badger suggests, might be noisy.
Kyras frowns in disgust as the goblinoids features come to view as he scrapes the fungi off. "Ugh... He's one ugly speciment."
Satisfied he's got all he can from the statue Kyras rights himself and brushing his hands off on his clothes turns to follow the group. "So. Whats next?"
Whisper gives one last enigmatic glance at the one statue and nods. "Yeah, let's get moving."
She approaches the double doors, giving it another quick glance to be sure it's not rigged to do anything nasty--or even as Badger suggests, might be noisy.
1d20+7
So where are you guys going? Door number 1? Door Number 2? Or the stairs.
Solaria goes over to TzeTing patting him on his shoulder and tickling him under his chin. TzeTing's tail swishes in enjoyment. As she does this Solaria looks down the stairs TzeTing is guarding, she says words of magic and sees any auras present.
Perception
Solaria goes over to TzeTing patting him on his shoulder and tickling him under his chin. TzeTing's tail swishes in enjoyment. As she does this Solaria looks down the stairs TzeTing is guarding, she says words of magic and sees any auras present.
Perception 1d20+2
You don't notice any traps, however you can see that these doors havn't been uses in quite some time with dust on the handles with it being left there for so long.
"These are dusty. No one's been through here in awhile. Worth checking out, but unlikely that the kids are this way.
Whisper frowns. "Maybe we should try the stairs. Likely they'd keep prisoners underground."
"These are dusty. No one's been through here in awhile. Worth checking out, but unlikely that the kids are this way.
Whisper frowns. "Maybe we should try the stairs. Likely they'd keep prisoners underground."
The zombies appeared to have one been commoners of the town. You find a mix of 22 gold, 33 silver and 15 copper. Their coin purses appear to be old and worn.
Solaria stops petting her eidolon and turns to the group. "I think these stairs in quite constant use, their are torches glowing down there keeping the passageways lit. I think if you're looking for something, its more likely to be down this way. Those torches would have to be maintained daily to keep it visible."
"The thing is, we also need to find somewhere where we can maybe rest up and be safe, without retreating out of here. Would that room do?"
'I am sure that you are right. Your reasoning is sound and torches do need to be changed every few hours. I just don't like leaving an unexplored door at my back. My mentor always taught me to be thorough when monster hunting.
'"It is the coffin in the closet that will kill ya", he used to say.
'If this door is dusty then hopefully it will be a quick search.'
If Whisper has not yet opened the door then Badger will open the door.
'I am sure that you are right. Your reasoning is sound and torches do need to be changed every few hours. I just don't like leaving an unexplored door at my back. My mentor always taught me to be thorough when monster hunting.
'"It is the coffin in the closet that will kill ya", he used to say.
'If this door is dusty then hopefully it will be a quick search.'
If Whisper has not yet opened the door then Badger will open the door.
You pull on the door and it opens with a loud groan and you see this chamber is unlit. There is a book case to your left with many books, some rotten and some others in really bad conditions. There are also strange markings scrawled on the floor in dark red colour.
"Fair point," Whisper nods to both Solaria and Badger.
Her eyes positively light as she sees the books and she practically prances toward them, though she stops to eye the strange markings on the floor as well.
Intelligence -
Mal walks into the room joining the others. "That statue out there in the antechamber, who is he, I have seen him before...
Mal nocks an arrow as he surveys the room.
Perception -
Badger prepares a scroll of Protection of Evil in case he sees any sign of harm coming from the markings on the floor.
Badger watches for any unusual behaviour coming from Whisper or Mal.
Following the group gingerly from behind, Kyras peeks into the room before entering. Looking at the symbols on the floor he scratches his chin as he muses them over.
You both notice these symbols as a calling. These symbols have lead to calling a powerful demon and you even noticed scorched earth where the creature appeared in the centre. The marks are worn and old. You think they're made from blood. Where ever this creature was, it must've been gone for quite some time.
You havn't known them for that long but you don't see them acting any differently.
You don't notice anything strange about the floor or the bookself, but you do see a few titles of the books that was ledgible:
Predictions of the Oracle by Abbot Cooper
Stealing the Portfolio of a Deity
Blood Rituals of Calling
Time of Troubles
Lesser known Demons of Chaos
There are some other titles written in Abyssal and Infernal. These books appear to be immaculate however and you see evidence of books being removed.
"Well, this is a summoning circle. Worn and old but used some time ago. Used for deamon summoning it appears." Turning from the circle Kyras goes to the shelves and looks over its contents.
"Well, this is a summoning circle. Worn and old but used some time ago. Used for deamon summoning it appears." Turning from the circle Kyras goes to the shelves and looks over its contents.
Solaria hears the words 'summoning circle' and immediately becomes interested in the room. She pats TzeTing and whispers in his ear "Guard here and if you see anything, come to me." She joins the rest of the group in the room, and starts to look around for any interesting texts, saying her own arcane words to find any magical texts that might be present.
Then searches the books on the shelves, but not understanding any of the languages other than common, returns to TzeTing.
Solaria hears the words 'summoning circle' and immediately becomes interested in the room. She pats TzeTing and whispers in his ear "Guard here and if you see anything, come to me." She joins the rest of the group in the room, and starts to look around for any interesting texts, saying her own arcane words to find any magical texts that might be present.
Then searches the books on the shelves, but not understanding any of the languages other than common, returns to TzeTing.
Forgot to mention, there are bloodied bones in the centre of the cirle.
Solaria stares intently at the centre of the summoning circle at the bones there, "Can anyone else see the magics in there, there is something amongst those bones. I can't make out what it is, and in this evil place, should I go in and look?"
Later she removes various books from the shelves, "Can we take these with us, they may contain something useful once I have had time to study them and it might also take the writings away from any evildoers looking for them. If any of you wantto look at them, just ask."
'I agree that we should take these books with us. I don't think that we have time to read large passages of text.
'I'm sorry, I have yet to learn the sight of magical aura.'