Knowledge (Planes):
Alaric shouts for assistance, trying to avoid being assumed to be the killer should anyone come upon the scene "Help! Someone has killed this man! Help!" He will continue until either someone comes or he feels confident that no one is coming at which point he will search the body.
As Alaric stands by the body and shouts, the buzzing rumble goes quiet and a large, earthen tentacle scythes out of the floor at him. Striking the witch from below with a solid slam , the tentacle scythes back into the floor. It leaves no trace of its presence - no tunnel or hole, not even a bit of displaced earth.
Initiative Order:
Martin (21)
Hascya (14)
DM (13)
Alaric (0)
While resting, Martin will also use 2 charges from his healing belt,
Heals:
Seeing Alaric rush away, Martin slowly stands up, patting off the dirt and soot, and starts to follow to see what he commotion is about.
Upon seeing the tentacle reach for Alaric, Martin will rush forward (double move)
Hascya will move to the edge of the cavern (30 feet due east of his current position) and cast detect magic.
Careful! There may be some kind of trap.
Also, I don't have the linguistics skill but I understand all spoken languages. Can I read the check?
Martin rushes toward the sounds of violence, and Hascya follows, looking for magic as he does so.
The tentacle emerges from the floor and lashes out twice at Alaric, striking him hard with its first blow and narrowly missing with the second. It then whips away into the ground once again. As before, it leaves no trace of its passage.
HP: 19/57
Castiel speaks using truespeech "We wish you no harm! We only wish to pass through this passage. We will leave your meal to you if you allow us to pass. If not, we shall put up more of a fight than your previous prey."
Diplomacy:
Alaric, alarmed at how quickly his hit points are falling, and certain that a 5 foot shift would still leave him in attack range, opts to run for it (single move action) and, if he is still standing, he casts cure moderate wounds.
Cure Moderate Wounds:
Apparently unimpressed by Castiel's attempts at diplomacy, the tentacle lashes out at Alaric as he flees. Luckily for the witch, the tentacle fails to connect and vanishes beneath the ground once more.
Martin will move next to alaric, and ready an action to attack if the tentacle emerges within his reach.
Spellcraft
Hascya delays.
The tentacle emerges, lashing out at Martin, who counters it with his shield. Forced backwards, the tentacle remains visible above the ground.
Alaric steps to the side and looses a Burning Hands spell at the now-visible tentacle, charring the earthen projection.
Knw. Dung.:
knw. Nature:
Edit: Oh wow, nice rolls on that knowledge.
Seeing the creature emerge Martin will charge it, letting out a low growl as he thrusts his sword.
Atk:
Dmg:
As Martin charges, the tentacle lashes out at him . It narrowly misses as he charges in and strikes the tentacle.
Hascya will run up to the tentacle, drawing his greatsword of binding as he goes. He swings wildly at the tentacle and misses.
The tentacle flails around at Martin and Hascya, missing both. It flicks away beneath the ground , once more leaving no trace of its passage.
Alaric shouts, "Look out! That thing will be back!"
Martin will ready an action to attack (shield) the tentacle when it emerges
Hascya will also make ready to strike at the tentacle when it re-appears. It fully emerges next to Alaric, revealing itself to be an enormous snake-like creature of earth and stone with glowing rubies for eyes. Martin and Hascya step closer and attack the creature. Martin connects with his strike, whereas Hascya does not. Unperturbed by the blow of Martin's shield, the creature lashes out with its tail, but misses the armored warrior.
Alaric quickly backs off and attempts to use his slumber hex on the creature, to no visible effect.
Martin will 5ft step up, giving alaric some cover.
Sword:
Shield1:
Shield2:
Dmg1:
Dmg2:
Dmg3:
Martin continues to chip away at the creature's dense body, connecting with each blow. Hascya begins frothing at the mouth as he joins in, swinging his blade as hard as he can. His first strike misses, and his second strike misses so badly that he not only fails to connect with the creature, he gets caught on his own momentum and tumbles to the ground, bashing his face in the process .
The creature lashes out at Martin and Hascya. It's tail slam is harmlessly turned away by Martin's shield, but it lands a heavy blow on the prone Hascya .
Alaric uses the cover provided by Martin to carefully release another burning hands spell at the creature, charring it badly.
Alaric continues to take advantage of the cover provided by Martin to let off another Burning Hands.
Cast defensively:
Damage:
Refusing to back down, Martin will continue to pummel the beast
Sword:
Board:
Board2:
Dmg:
1:
2:
3:
Despite missing with his first shield strike, Martin manages to finally defeat the beast. It slumps to the ground, nearly landing on top of Hascya as the ashlander blindly attempts to get to his feet.
Earth elementals are not mindless, but they are immune to many mind-affecting spells and abilities.
Knowledge (Planes):
Alaric turns to Martin and Hascya, "How are you both doing? Do you need healing? Normally I would just heal you but we don't have much juice left with the wand. I can just use spells though if you want to be healed."
Alaric will also take the opportunity to search the dead forms of both the snake and the dwarf.
The snake is made entirely out of earth and stones, with two rubies as its eyes. The dwarf carried a flaming spear and wore red-hued leather armor.
Alaric prizes the rubies from the eyes of the snake. With no one calling for healing, and himself at the lowest hit points of the group, Alaric heals himself.
Heal:
HP: 54/57
Hascya groans and rubs his eyes clean of the dirt. "I could use your aid, Friend Alaric." He will walk over to the corpse of the flaming dwarf and look around. "Even without Twohey, I can follow a trail. Fellows, let us learn where this dwarf came from!"
Alaric will follow Hascya and heal him using 3 of the remaining charges in the wand.
Heal:
[ooc] Also super hectic here, sorry about my absence[ooc]
Martin will recover the rubies and the dwarf's gear.
"The snake creature didn't get any hits on me, but I think Hascya is right and we should follow the trail."
"Sounds good to me. Let's go."
Alaric pauses to allow the bulky warrior Martin to lead the troupe walking a little ways behind by about 15 feet.
You follow the dwarf's trail through twisting, branching caverns. Every so often, you hear a faint buzzing rumble for a moment before all goes quiet once again. Eventually, you emerge upwards into an immense cavern. The windless expanse is a sandy desert dotted with rubble. Much of the rubble appears to be worked stone, and a deep chasm mars the landscape, but these details aren't the main feature in this harsh landscape. In the middle of the chamber stands a great stone ziggurat. The structure is made of weathered brown stone, and is decorated with large stone statues of snakes. There is no movement from the ziggurat or from the desert around it. The tracks end here, at the entrance to this cavern.
"Castiel, go scout it for us. Fly high and try to avoid being seen."
Stealth:
Castiel flies up to the ceiling of the cavern (about 80 feet up. The ziggurat stands about 60 feet tall at its peak). You spot no movement from the ziggurat as he does so.
Castiel comes back to explain.
"There are footprints in the sand around the structure, suggesting that the area is inhabited, but smooth stone walls seal off both the main and lower entrances," Castiel explains. "I would expect masonry walls if a person built them to block off the building."
[b]"I wonder if a spell caster made them. They may be similar to the walls thrown up in our realm that nearly trapped us inside with the almost Bodak that had almost been animated. I suppose since there doesn't seem to be a threat we should go on."[b]
With that he continues.
"It looks like snakes adorn the walls. Maybe it's not people who built this place, bu some kind of serpents. We are in a strange place. Who knows what other mysteries lie ahead. By the same token, they could even be friendly."
Navigating the sandy terrain, you approach the ziggurat. As you reach the base of the stairway, the serpent statues turn their heads to look at you. A voice in your head demands, Who comes?
Martin Addresses the snake people, "Hello I am Martin Stillwaters. Me and my companions are travelers from a far distant land. We come in peace, and mean your group no harm. We simply seek some directions, as we have recently lost our way."
We reward those willing to serve. Venture into the crystal rift and seek out the Gloomstone tribe. They are beholden to use, yet we have not received their tributes for some time. Investigate their tardiness and retrieve the tribute. Bring it here, and you may make a request of us. One of the snake statues turns and stretches its tail to the east, where you can see a tunnel leading out of this cavern.
"How did you make them beholden to you?"
"We allow them to dwell nearby and to live without interference. In exchange, they pay us tribute from the treasures they make within the rift."
The party, suspicious of the voice's intent, said they would go to the crystal rift to investigate, while really planning to look for help elsewhere. They ventured through some tunnels, eventually emerging at the bottom of a canyon whose walls were lines with crystalline growths. More of the flaming dwarves were present, chipping away at the growths with their hammers and rushing down side passageways. Despite being challenged, the party was able to convince the dwarves to take them to their leader. They learned that they served someone called Malik Janus, and that the nearby peoples were now under his dominion.
Inside the village, the party found many corpses of small, gangly creatures. Martin recognized the creatures for what they were, but refused to go into great detail to his comrades, saying that they were only "miners." More of the dwarves were around, searching the bodies of the creatures. Standing atop one of the hollowed crystals that appeared to serve as the creatures' homes was a fiery haired, scaly, horned humanoid man in a black robe. The man shouted in a strange tongue at a shimmering blue barrier, behind which a number of the small miner creatures had taken refuge. According to Castiel, the man was threatening them and attempting to convince them to lower the barrier and surrender to him. Martin tested the barrier by poking it, and found that it did not budge.
The party addressed the man, who brusquely demanded to know who they were and why they were here. The party said they needed to get home, and that they could help for the right price. The man replied that he would let them keep their lives if they aided in his assault. The mining creatures, now identified as Pechs, offered the party crystals in exchange for help driving off the invaders. Castiel realized that the man and the dwarves were evil, and could not get a reading on the Pechs. In a flash of inspiration, Martin promised the man that they would get the aid of someone who could bring down the barrier. Suspicious, the man sent four of his dwarves with the party as they headed back towards the ziggurat.
Once the group was well into the tunnels, Martin turned and struck at the dwarves escorting the party. Martin and Hascya slew three of their escorts while Alaric put the fourth to sleep. Chaining up the last dwarf, Martin explained his plan to the party. He planned to offer the dwarf as tribute to the ziggurat people, called Shaitan, in exchange for transport or directions back to Silverkeep. The party then took the captive dwarf to the ziggurat, and reached the following deal: the party drives off or eliminates the attacking force and retrieves the Pechs' tribute, and the Shaitan will send them home.
With a promise of aid thus obtained, the party let the dwarf be pulled underground by an earthen tentacle and made their way back to the crystal rift. They pushed past the dwarves outside the village and approached the leader inside, who was still flinging invective at the Pechs. Claiming that he had something to show the man, Martin convinced the leader to come down to the ground, whereupon he promptly grabbed the man. The dwarves attacked, and Hascya and Alaric fended them off while Martin struggled to pin and restrain the leader. The flaming man was unable to break free or cast a spell, and was eventually restrained by Martin.
Once the battle was over, Martin took the captured leader outside and showed him to the remaining dwarves. The dwarves fled, and the party returned to the village. With the threat gone, the Pechs lowered the barrier and thanked the party for saving them. Each person was given a sack full of gemstones, and a pair of Pechs carried a much larger sack of gems to the Ziggurat, accompanying the party as they went. The Shaitan was pleased, accepting the tribute from the Pechs and the leader of the interlopers from the party. He emerged through the stone steps of the ziggurat and offered the party the opportunity to continue to serve him. They declined, although Alaric expressed interest in working with him again in the future, and he told the party that all they had to do was to declare "I wish I were home." Alaric did so, and the Shaitan waved his hands.
With a flash of light, the party found themselves in front of a dilapidated cottage in the middle of a forest at late afternoon. Realizing that the Shaitan had sent them to Alaric's home instead of to Silverkeep, the party decided to rest there and return to Silverkeep the next day, when Alaric could summon mounts to hasten their journey. Entering the cottage, Alaric realized that it had been ransacked. The lock on the door was smashed, and inside everything had been torn apart by someone searching the building. Recovering three damaged bedrolls from inside a mangled cupboard, the party bunked down for the night.
Headband of Charisma +2
1x Scroll of Fly (CL 5)
2x Potion of Cure Critical Wounds
15,000 gp worth of gems
Martin will wake up early in the morning, walk out into the forest to releave himself. Coming back, he will start putting on his armor, getting ready for the day.
He will also check on Alaric's disease, making sure that he seems to be feeling better, making him another poultice of dried herbs.
Heal:
The morning is cold, and frost covers the ground. Winter is coming.
Discussion between Alaric and Castiel (By the way I am going into this assuming that prior to a celestial familiar being paired with someone they are given a basic biography of anything of note by their deities.)
Most of the way through the night Hascya wakes Alaric for his shift at guard. Alaric stumbles to his feet and rubs the sleep from his eyes. Castiel whispers to him, “we need to talk.”
Alaric, confused, asks “What about?”
“I think you know”
Alaric goes out of earshot and into the woods outside the cabin as they speak, “I really don’t.”
“You don’t see what’s wrong with anything you have done in the last day?”
“Nope. We fought against the undead infecting Silverkeep, I opposed slaughtering a goblin tribe, we protected the Pechs, and we fought against an evil in another realm. And I’ve managed to do much of it nonviolently. All in all I would say it has been a pretty good last couple of days.”
“Well that’s one way of looking at it-”
“That is the way to look at it. You have been watching all this have you not? That’s what happened.”
“Yes, that and more. It is the more that is the problem. The way I remember it you, upon meeting your new companions, tried to put one to sleep for nothing more than being rude. Using your abilities for power. What was your plan if you had succeeded anyway? He would have woken up in less than a minute very angry and the situation could only have escalated.”
“I was drunk I wasn’t thinking. I was angry about Leto and drunk and they started messing with you”
“No.”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend that being drunk removes responsibility from you. A man as smart as you cannot be excused with something as flimsy as that. And don’t pretend that this had anything to do with me. I was in little real danger and you barely spoke to them. You could have told them not to touch me or used any other tactic. But you didn’t. You wanted to use your power and so you did.”
“Now hold on-“
“No. I don’t empower you every morning so that you can use those powers to exert your power over others. So that you can show the world how powerful you are.”
“I don’t do that.”
“Yes you do. But more than that I think you do it to show yourself how powerful you are.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.”
“No? Remember that I feel what you feel. Because I also remember the way you felt walking into that jail. The way you strode through the corridors.”
“And put them to sleep? And then manacled them? Leaving them alive in spite of their infections?”
“Don’t you dare try to pretend that that had anything to do with goodness. As you strode through those corridors you felt at home. You felt more at home exerting your powers over them than you felt even in your own home. And as for the goblins, I could feel how much you agreed with Martin. He is perhaps the worst influence someone like you could have. The only reason that you did not kill them all and been done with it is I was there. Remember, not wanting to lose your powers is not the same thing as being good.”
“What do you want from me! Does it matter why I am doing good? Doesn’t it matter that instead I am doing good?”
“I will acknowledge that you have been helping to stop the undead within Silverkeep. And I am pleased to see you using your powers for that cause. But this is about using them. Not helping Silverkeep. You are only here to help you. To get them to bring Leto back, because you know you can’t do it yourself. And just because you aren’t doing bad does not mean you are doing good or that you aren’t trying to do bad.”
“Really? Because it could have fooled me.”
“That is the problem Alaric. You don’t see the difference. But more to the point, you proposed to kill sleeping people. You would have done it yourself but you lack the physical ability. You are supposed to be encouraging others to do good! And you told them to kill every elf on sight? How did you think I would react to that?”
“Both were the safest ways for us!”
“No, they weren’t. Stop telling yourself that you have to do these things. You never have. A man as smart as you can think of ways out. In the dwarves’ case you knew that without their leader they were little threat.”
“But still a threat!”
“Little threat and would likely run at the first sight of their leader tied up.”
“But what if they had stayed?”
“Then you could have dealt with them with one spell. There was no reason to kill unnecessarily.”
“I was only being practical! What do you think I have been doing all this time? Why do you think I chose you as a familiar?”
“I think you have always confused an eagerness for power over others with practicality. What happened again to trigger this curse?”
“…That’s not fair”
“It is entirely fair. I had been giving you your spells for a week. And within that week you used them to kill.”
“They wanted to find Leto. They had a knife out and were threatening me!”
“A knife that you could have easily handled even before we ever met and without any bloodshed. That’s the problem. You keep saying that you only do what is practical. You try to explain away every action you take. Remember what you said about torture? That it was justified because it would save lives? How did that work?”
“That isn’t fair. The moment I learned that it was not saving lives I left. I turned myself in.”
“That’s not quite how it happened. Before you turned yourself in you had to attack the noble, didn’t you? You could have gone to him and convinced him to turn himself in as well rather than attempting to kill him.”
“I had to make it right.”
“Did anything you do during that battle strike you as right? The men you killed, the number you maimed? All of it was justified?”
“Yes. All to undo evil”
“No, you did evil while fighting. Which you did for you. All of this has been because you were willing to do evil for you. Every step along the way has been because you have chosen the paths of power and ease. Remember, you made Raderryn what he became. Before meeting you he was only an ambitious elven noble. That’s it. Together you chose evil over good every time. However much you want to dress it up, you became monsters together. That is still what you feel most at home being. A monster on the battlefield. A monster raging against the shrinking cage of this curse. That is how you are behaving. And if you stay on this course I will leave. The only reason that I am sticking around is that I hope I am wrong. I will not continue to empower a monster, no matter how much it tries to dress up its actions.”
Alaric stares at Castiel a furious look on his face. Looking as though he had been slapped.
“How dare you!”
“Do you deny it? You have always chosen power in the end.”
Alaric looks horrified and uncertain how to respond.
“How do you suggest I become good if I wanted to?”
“That’s up to you. If and how you do it is all up to you. But honesty is a good place to start. Honesty with yourself, and honesty with your companions. Accept and admit what you are doing, why you do what you do, and what you want from it. From there it is up to you, but try making at least that first step. At least you would have made one step in the right direction.”
With that the two companions fall quiet for the night, staring out at the stars leaving them with their own thoughts.