RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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While Owai and Deaglan miss the badger, Shilyn swoops in with a well-placed strike. The badger then disappears, one last snarl coming from its snout as it vanishes.
The badger gone, Owai moves up and opens the door, exposing Crove once again.
Crove, his invisibility blown, does the last thing he can do: he closes the door again, then opens another adjacent door.
Init Order (bold = up)
Crove (35 damage, glittery!)
Owai (19 damage, expeditiously retreated)
Deaglan
Varian (14 damage)
Mahasi
Shilyn
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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Owai opens the door and swings again at Crove.
Unfortunately his blade hits a magical barrier.
He narrowly misses the evil man while trying to avoid hurting Owai.
At first he gets his footing, but the grease's slipperiness doesn't relent, causing Crove to fall to the ground!
A panicked Crove tries to cast a spell while on the ground...
A blast of colors and sparkles shoot from Crove's fingers, causing a sensory overload for most of the party!
Amazingly, the entire party resists it in their steadfast resolve to bring down the wizard!
On Crove are:
A dagger
pearl of power 1st level
potion of fly
scroll of binding
amulet of natural armor +1
bracers of armor +1
wand of lesser restoration with 8 charges on it!
575 gp
signet ring
iron unholy symbol comprised of interweaving writhing tentacles
On him, there is little of notes, but of course there is an opened door that appears to be supposed to blend into the wall as well as another passage to the west. The door to the south of Crove reveals stairs returning to the top floor.
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Shilyn takes her time, at Varian's suggestion, to ensure that Crove is properly bound, gagged, and uncomfortable. Relying on her own abilities to escape such things, she double-checks her work before giving a nod of approval.
"There, I don't think he's going anywhere soon and shouldn't be able to slip the gag and do that finger wavy thing," she says with a mischievous grin. "Now, we could always make it more foolproof by breaking a few of his fingers.. Just offering that up, you know."
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"That doesn't seem like it would be necessary, but if you're going to do it, best do it while he's already unconscious... I see no reason to cause him undue pain... unless he refuses to cooperate, of course." He gives Shilyn a little wink and a smile.
"Perhaps we should give the other rooms here a quick once over before we try to get out of this place."
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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@Deaglan: The unholy symbol relates to something from the Dark Tapestry, where madness and forbidden knowledge reign supreme. You cannot identify which one of the so-called Great Old Ones this relates to, but you know in either case, it isn't good.
The party makes its way through several of the room beyond the secret hallway. First thing that comes up is a large study with a circular table that is cluttered with scrolls, books, and an eclectic mix of strange devices that could be surgical tools, weapons, or writing instruments. A human skull bearing a horn-like protrusion one its left side and a malformed jaw sits on a corner of the desk.
The papers bear translations from a book of unusual, crazed writing... Mahasi recognizes this as a Common version of some portion of the Pnakotic Manuscripts.
From that room, you come across a bedchamber with a canopied bed taking up the majority of the space. A quaint writing desk sits next to the bed and there are three footlockers tucked underneath the bed.
The footlockers are unlocked and bear several items.
The first has a rusty iron keyring with over a dozen keys, a leather bag with 300 platinum coins, and a crude map of tunnels; the drawing looks similar to the tunnels you explored earlier in the day.
The second and third footlockers contain hundreds of fragments of sculptures, tiles, and pottery. They all have been cleaned, and appear to be historic relics that feature stylized, twisted creatures of things that writhe or are formless horrors. This may be worth some coin to the right collector.
The next chamber is a musty-smelling library that has two large bookshelves in opposing corners. A third corner features a cluttered reading desk heaped with papers, scrolls, and books. The room is lit by a floating globe of fire near the ceiling that also emits a soothing warmth.
Amid the research notes and blasphemous limericks on the desk are a scroll of contact other plane, scroll of planar binding, scroll of restoration, and a scroll of scrying.
The books are in good shape and contain what appears to be many rare tomes. Amongst them are a pair of spellbooks
The final room is a simple office with a large desk. Rifling through the papers and notes in the desk bear nothing of interest.
Exiting the office, the party makes its way down the western hallway. To the left [ooc]south[/I] are a number of small rooms that, if explored, show a peephole to look into the adjacent cell.
At the end of the hallway is a large pair of double doors that is locked. Using the keyring, access is easily granted. A long metal table dominates the center of this austere room with spots of dried blood marring its polished surface. Two wooden cabinets stand to one corner while on the opposite side are a pair of empty cells.
The large cabinet contains a number of surgical tools of exceptional quality that count as masterwork tools for Heal checks.
There are also 8 vials of cure light wounds potions and 8 vials of oil of taggit.
[ooc] map updated!
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The Vudrani sorcerer looks up from poring over the notes. "It is obvious from the paperwork that Crone is indeed master of these plans. Perhaps the magistrate's servants can extract further detail on the nature of Keeper Croves' crimes against the right order of the universe. Then we can locate this "Keeper Hyve". I will take charge of these magical artifacts and guard them for the moment. He gathers up the scrolls in his arms and proceeds to tuck them away in cases.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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The party heads to the last door. Ploog, hearing the party return asks, "Didya get him?"
The door at the end, unlike the others, is made of iron, with bars to peer in. Shilyn finds that it is locked, but she finds the key on Crove's keyring.
Just as Shilyn is about to get the door unlocked, a mass slams against the door on the other side. A clawed tentacles slithers from the opening and tries to strike at the half-elf!
Shilyn narrowly dodges the claw, startled by the near miss!
This is a chaos beast, an amorphous mass that only seeks to rid the living of their rigid shapes. They have SR 17, more hit points than any two party members combined, and their touch can curse the victim with corporeal instability, draining the Victim's wisdom and forcing them to make DC 15 Will saves or slowly become an amorphous blob (-4 to Dex, unable to hold/use items, cast spells, and the victim will lash out at any nearby creature blindly.
This is a CR 7 creature.
Init Order: (bold = up)
Owai
Mahasi
Varian
Deaglan
Shilyn
Thing
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Seeing a set of claws miss her face by a bare margin, Shilyn quickly throws her weight against the door to keep it close while grabbing for the key to re-lock the door. "Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed and leave the inn," she mutters as her fingers try to turn the key and pull it from the lock.
Trapped behind the webbing, Shilyn relocks the door and backs up.
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Varian holds his ground in case the amorphous creature can ooze through webbing and bars, but makes no move to intentionally engage it. "Shall we just leave it here then? Hopefully it will return to its own plane in time... I don't suppose any of those scrolls we found were designed to banish a creature back to its home?"
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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Leaving the alien monstrosity alone, the party lets Ploog out, who gives Shilyn a bear hug that lasts an uncomfortably long time that is made worse by the fact he obviously hasn't been bathed in some time.
"Ploog dank you!", he smiles.
Waking Crove up, he slowly wakes up. His eyes immediately dart towards the party and as he fails to escape his binds, he realizes what has happened. "You... you... do you realize what you have done? I am the only one who can control that beast! You've now ruined my bait... it is only time before it comes, and it'll feast on all of our-". Crove is cut off as Ploog, grabbing a table leg, smashes Crove in the head.
The man lies unconscious and bleeding from his wound, Ploog smiling happily. "Dat's what you get! Let's see how you like gettin' ya head cut open!" He then grabs a rusty blade and moves towards the unconscious man.
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Muttering very softly under her breath, Shilyn soliloquies, "You try hugging me like that again, and you're going to get hurt.. really bad. Gah, now I need a nice long, hot bath."
Turning to the others, she raises her voice enough to be heard. "Ok, so do we take this guy to the guard?" she asks, pointing to Crove with the tip of her rapier. "Personally, I say we throw him in the room with that monstrosity.. without removing his bindings. Poetic justice and all."
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Mahasi finally finishes poring over notes and comes over to the unconscious crove.
"I will rouse him now. I have questions regarding his magical crimes."
The sorcerer applies, perhaps appropriately, a wand of infernal healing to Keeper Crove (after stripping him of his magical trappings, of course).
"Keeper Crove, you have trafficked with terrible creatures, and summoned monstrosities in the name of something called Yog-Sothoth. What is it you summoned; what purpose did you set it to?"
He does his best to turn his high-pitched, snidish voice to one of menace.
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Casting a quick wink at Varian, Shilyn walks over to where Crove lays to assist Mahasi. Tapping the wizard with the flat side of her rapier's tip, she glances at the trussed up mage and sighs deeply. "You know, you really should be paying attention to what he's asking and I would strongly suggest answering true."
Pausing to tap her lip with her fingertip, she glances at the others. "So.. what's a wrong answer worth these days? Toes? Fingers? Little cuts wherever?"
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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Mahasi and Shilyn stir the vile Crove and try to interrogate him. Despite the headwound and inability to cast spells currently, the man is still defiant and arrogant. "Ha! As if you could understand the machinations at play. You should question what you were doing: I was going to bind the beast, control the beast! And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids and your dumb lackey, too!" Crove stares directly at Mahasi, before ending with a final outspoken thought. "Now, instead of tapping into its wealth of knowledge, it will instead devour us all. That is what you have brought upon us all. You shall forever be remembered as the ones that tried to stop the savior, the true villains of our now interwoven tale."
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Raising an eyebrow, Shilyn glares at Crove and her temper flares at his accusations. "Let's see if I have this straight," she growls, "YOU summon a creature from another plane that kills an entire town block, and WE are the villians because we stopped you? Give one good reason why we shouldn't lop off your hands and leave the rest of you to your inmates?"
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"Knowledge without self-realization is meaningless, fool; suckling from the teats of mad powers. You should take a cue from those who have truly mastered the art." The Vudrani scoffs arrogantly.
"According to your own book of summoning, to satiate the beast requires the blood of those who called it. It is your blood that calls to it. What do you say to that? Did you have an answer to escape such a fate?"
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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At Shilyn's question, Crove shakes his head. "Little I imagine; you have probably bested them all, and even if so, they will be mere obstacles, a bump in the road for the beast of Yog-Sothoth. Much like you, with my blood on their hands, they will be fodder for the spawn of madness!"
"Once bound, its power and knowledge would have been mine!", Crove defiant against Mahasi's retort. "The others, they ran, fled like cowards... but I prepared. I would be ready. I WAS ready. And now... we are doomed. It will feast on my blood now, but only seconds before yours'!", the asylum director laughing as madly as some of his 'patients'.
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Shilyn looks inquisitively at Mahasi and asks, "Do you think you can send that thing back? And um.. how much blood of his we talking?"
Casting a quick glance at Varian and Deaglan, she shrugs and adds, "I really don't like the idea of killing him all trussed up like a holiday hen, but if it's his blood or half the town.."
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"Send it back? It's trivial: simply open a portal to the Dark Tapestry and push it through." He pauses, and looks up at a random corner of the wall, holding his chin high. "It would unfortunately take some number of months for me to master the necessary magics to open such a portal. Destroying it or satiating it would be more efficient.".
He pauses and coughs uncomfortably. "It is unclear to me how blood sacrifices will accomplish returning the beast, short of calling the attention of the Outer Gods. Sacrifice without proper ritual does nothing to facilitate magic. And do recall the source of such advice - that tome of summoning is hardly to be trusted at face value."