"I can talk my way out of almost any situation, but I did not think these creatures were very talkative. They WERE loud however..."
Derek Clutches his sword arm, looking down in something like a mix of horror and bemusement at the quill sticking out of it.
"Awkward..."
Maddok puts an arm around Appario's shoulder to steady the Taldan (and to hold himself upright). He grimaces in pain as he tries to pull the barbed quills from his flesh.
"What were those things?", he asks through gritted teeth.
Appario looks at Derek and wonder if somehow he got a quill lodged in his ear.
"Not very talkative, Derek? Seems to me they were very talkative! Overly so. I think they tried to drive me mad with their ramblings."
Appario recollects something else.
"In fact, Derek, I was wondering if they were akin to you...they also seemed to ramble on about not much, similar to you when you are 'praying' heavily to your drunken god." Appario winks at the thespian.
"They are called Howlers big brother. Think like large predators from the planes where demons come from. Only they are almost as smart as a man and do not need to eat, so they hunt for sport alone."
Derek chuckles at Appario.
"Nice one. Soldier of Abbadar, merchant, thespian and now comedian? Is there no end to your skills friend Appario?"
Maddok nods as Derek gives his explanation, "Only among demons would predator beasts hunt for sport alone. How did you come to be so learned little brother", the big man asks with a groan.
The Shoanti tugs at his quills a bit before realizing that there is no way to remove them without causing more damage. "This requires a more delicate touch than I can apply. Yahirma, can you help?"
"It's all part and parcel of being a bard big brother. You remember to always keep one ear open so you can hear things, and a finger in the other ear so the information stays inside your head. And once there it rattles around until you need it. All I need to do is shake my skull hard enough."
Derek looks down at the creatures.
"Well, as outsiders they do not have our needs, they do not need to breathe, sleep or even eat. They just love to hunt and kill."
Appario tired of hurting, grabs one of the quills and tries to remove it.
"Think it's better to pull it out? Or push it all the way through?"
Appario pulls, twists, and yanks...
Self-surgery check (heal)
"OUCH! Sonuva-----!!!"
damage
Appario tries to avoid both dripping and shooting blood on the others.
"Maybe someone else wants to help on the last two?" Appario looks sheepishly at the others.
"A bit of help?" Appario holds out his hand.
Maddok ponders for a moment the acts of plugging one's ear to retain information. He dismisses the idea a moment later as his little brother's typical foolishness.
"How do you think creatures like that found their way here?"
As Appario howls in pain Maddok holds him upright.
Appario borrows the party wand of CLW and uses it on Maddok.
healing
healing
healing
He then turns the wand on himself.
healing
Then offers it to Derek before handing it back to Yahirma.
Maddok stands up a bit straighter as Appario uses the wand to treat his wounds.
"Thank you friend", he says.
"How do you think creatures like that found their way here?"
Appario adds to Maddok's questions to the group.
"And where in the 'hell' are we, anyway? Last I remember we were in the attic...now I'm not sure where we are." Appario reaches out and tries to touch a wall, poking the wall/fog with his sword.
Shaking her head as she tries to steady Appario's arm, Yahirma quips back at Derek "Of course they're called Howlers. Didn't you hear me earlier? I know it was loud..."
She trails off as she tries to perform a bit of field surgery. Had they not responded earlier to her pleas for a sharp sound, the mystic might doubt that she could invoke spirits here. Knowing they can reach her, though, she asks for their help in this difficult task.
Appario looks at Yahirma like she's mad.
Is she mad?
Appario speaks tentatively, as if not sure how to broach the subject.
"Uhm, Yahirma...I heard you talking, but it was just gibberish. Was I supposed to understand that? Sometimes you seem to babble...I just assumed it was an affliction, but if you're saying that there is meaning and reason to those words, uhm...yeah."
Appario flexes his hand now that the quills have been removed.
"Thank you."
You might be mad, but you're handy too.
Maddok waits patiently for his turn to recieve treatment despite the crippling pain.
"No, you were speaking another language during the battle", Maddok confirms. "I believe you were doing it during the fight with the bandits a few weeks ago as well".
"Where we are? Well, here is a thought, it is farfetched I know but...you know how there are items that have more space on the inside than they do on the outside? Magical bags used for storing and such? What if...I know it sounds silly...but what if they did it here, but much much MUCH larger?"
Derek looks slightly puzzled at Yahrima for a moment.
"That's right...you did, I didn't think about it since I...uh...speak that language too haha."
"That's a language?! I thought it was gibberish. What's the language called? Is it Skald? Kellic? It's 'Warg', isn't it?"
Appario takes a moment to sort through the items from the Manor and the man outside.
Manor:
Wand 1: CSW 17 charges
Wand 2: (Semenya & Yahirma failed)
Scroll 1: Dispel Magic
Scroll 2: Remove Curse
Potion 1: (Semenya & Yahirma failed)
Potion 2: (Semenya & Yahirma failed)
Man outside:
Scroll 1: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 2: (Semenya failed)
Handy Haversack:
tattered and partially torn piece of parchment
a pearl
Scroll 1:
Scroll 2:
Scroll 3:
Scroll 4:
Scroll 5:
Appario will try to identify the potions via Perception:
Perception on Potion #1
Perception on Potion #2
"Derek and/or Maddok, you want to try your magic hand on any of this?"
Appario reads and examines the torn piece of parchment.
Maddok stares at Appario in confusion for a moment before grasping what the Abaddaran meant, "Magic?".
"My gifts do not work like that", the Shoanti explains. "The tricks you've seen me do are bestowed on me by the spirits and I'm afraid I understand as much about them as you do", he says a bit dejectedly.
"But I have picked up a nose for these potions", he says taking the offered vials, removing the stoppers from each, and breathing in the scent.
#1
#2
Man outside:
Scroll 1: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 2: (Semenya failed)
***
Appario can't figure out what the bittersweet taste of the first potion is, but he determines that the clinical minty taste of the other potion belongs to a potion of remove disease. Maddok's finely-tuned nose identifies the first potion as a potion of lesser restoration.
***
The parchment appears to be a page torn from a book. The writing is in a language Appario doesn't understand, but that he has seen before; the text appears to be in Infernal. In the margins, the following has been writtin in Common in a shaky script.
"Possible passwords: Venderbaxis; Vlenderaxits; Vlenkervandis; Vledervaddus... hope one of them works to open the vault!"
Maddok holds one of the potions aloft, "This one restores strength and removes fatigue. If none of you object I'd like to hold on to this one".
Yahirma kneels to steady herself as she begins working out the quills from Maddok's arm and hand. "I understand that I mumble at times, but I did try to be quite clear about the Howlers. Perhaps the acoustics in here are a little bizarre."
She continues, "Oh, sorry there, Maddok. That one was a bit more jagged than I thought. Even so, I can try to enunciate more in the future. Yes, it must be the acoustics in here, as nothing any of you said made much sense. It may just be the heat of battle," she states as she shifts to manage Derek's wound. "Everything can devolve into chaos in battle, which is exactly where order is most important..."
She smiles to herself and chuckles as she tries to work out Derek's quill.
"All this talk of order and chaos! That's more like the doctrine of-" Her lingering grip on Derek's arms tightens as she eyes him suspiciously. "You said you understood what I said? Was this the devil-tongue?"
Maddok tries to appear stoic and strong as Yahirma's delicate hands work their way across his torn flesh to remove the embedded quills. The first one comes out smoothly. The second one leaves a bleeding wound that causes the big Shoanti to grunt in pain.
"Thank you, Yahirma", he manages while wrapping the injury with a bit of cloth.
"When one is surrounded by Asmodean priests, being able to understand what they say is often quite useful, especially when they think you don't understand the speech of their devilish masters."
She shifts to the language in question: " I had assumed it was simply some clever ruse on your part to lull any Hellknights we'd encountered..."
Spellcraft on pearl
Spellcraft on Scroll 1
Spellcraft on Scroll 2
Spellcraft on Scroll 3
Spellcraft on Scroll 4
Spellcraft on Scroll 5
"As to this place - my spell to keep us talking did not pass through the mirror on our way in here. I am afraid that these notes indicate that the person who's pack we've picked up was worried about getting out and thinking about passwords..."
She looks over the bodies of the Howlers, poking at them with a crossbow bolt. "Maddok, Appario - can you think of anything clever to do with the hides of these things?"
With some effort the big barbarian hoists one of the howler's corpses off the ground and rolls it over taking care not to skewer himself on its quills again.
"We might be able to skin them. Once cured and hardened, their hides would make some fearsome armor", Maddok suggests. "But they are large beasts and I don't think we have time to field dress them".
"As soon as Yahirma has seen to Derek's wound we should keep moving", the Shoanti says.
Maddok begins purusing the books lining the oddly angled walls. Not being much of a reader, their titles hold little meaning for the Shoanti.
"Appario, are these of any value?"
"Let me look at that scrap of paper, I'm good with words, I might be able to figure out what it is all about."
"As for the magical goods, sure, let me have a look."
Semenya is unable to determine the properties of any of the six new items, while Derek identifies the remaining wand as a wand of restoration with 11 charges remaining.
***
Maddok finds most of the books here to be old, although in good shape, and generally focused on torture methods (both torture as interrogation and torture for entertainment), and those he looks through are well illustrated with highly graphic images.
He discovers one book that looks brand new. It bears the title "Drowned Jabe and His Miserable Brothers and Sisters", and recounts the tale of a thief who came into a place called the Asmodean Knot and drowned there, only to live on after death as "Drowned Jabe".
***
After studying the page, which at first glance appears to be a treatise on the history of devilish religions, Derek determines that this page is in fact a runecurse. Runecurses are a popular method for Chelish assassins and conjurers to destroy their enemies, since it gives them a way to strike at their foes without them realizing it. A runecurse can be incorporated into any item that bears writing, and is in truth a complex pact between a spellcaster and a named devil. The outsider in question agrees to track down and slay the current owner of the runecurse as soon as some predetermined event occurs.
However, if the current owner of the runecurse is able to get someone else to accept the object, the curse is transferred to the new owner. Should one be able to transfer the runecurse back to the person who originally started it, the devil appears much faster than normal. Instead of appearing within days, it instead appears within rounds.
For a runecurse to work, it must be willingly accepted (although one doesn't have to know about the curse in advance). Placing it in a chest or in a jacket pocket works, but not hiding it entirely within another object (such as a book). Examining the runecurse sufficiently to determine what it is unfortunately automatically transfers ownership to the examiner. Destroying a runecurse does not lift the pact, and simply ensures that the current owner becomes the final victim when the devil appears.
Once a character is under the effects of a runecurse, he slowly begins to feel oppressed and nervous, with a creeping sense of impending doom. As the runecurse persists, this sense of doom manifests as growing misfortune and peril. Effects like remove curse and break enchantment can remove a runecurse, but it's particularly difficult to remove in this manner since the victim "willingly" accepted the curse.
"Oh goody..."
Derek sighs dejectedly and then pulls out his purse; he empties enough coins into his pockets to make room for the scrap of paper and gently folds the scrap and places it in the purse.
"If I surrender to a foe at some point and tries to buy our lives, trust me and just play along ok? Turns out that scrap of paper is in fact a rather devilish trap. A curse, and I'm now cursed. To get the curse of my back I need to give it to someone else, preferably soon."
"Where is the beauty in a tangled piece of contract law..."
Semenya's smile is bemused.
"We'll see to it that you don't get dragged kicking and screaming to Hell, Derek. There's nothing to drink down there but fire. What of the notes on the margin? Password for the vault and such? Any insight?"
Appario whistles as the details of the contract that Derek has found himself in.
Thinking further on Abadar's position on contracts, Appario slaps Derek on the back with a cheery "Well, good luck with that!" and walks away to the door, whistling, at the end of the right-most hallway.
Take 20 to check it for traps:
20+6+1=27 Perception
* * *
Manor:
Wand 1: CSW 17 charges
Wand 2: Restoration 11 charges
Scroll 1: Dispel Magic
Scroll 2: Remove Curse
Potion 1: Lesser Restoration - Maddok
Potion 2: Remove Disease - Appario
Handy Haversack:
a pearl (Semenya's check was 26...not good enough?)
Scroll 1: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 2: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 3: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 4: (Semenya failed)
Scroll 5: (Semenya failed)
* * *
Appario will make a few appraisal checks on the books
on the books that Maddok points out
on the books that Maddok points out
on the books that Maddok points out
on the books that Maddok points out
I've discussed this with them before? It must have been this past week of preparing for the play that's throwing me off - that, or the spirits. Or a spirit play? I hope it never comes to that.
Yahirma will take a look over the latest scrolls while Appario gives the door a good looking over. Since he'll be taking two minutes, she'll augment with Guidance while considering exactly what to say to console Derek.
Derek shrugs a little at Semenyas question.
"Not sure, could be a trap, could be something the dead man scribbled...I guess if we find anyplace that needs a password we could try it."
He looks bemused at Apparios back, wondering what he would say if he tricked him into taking the contract instead. But after a while he shrugs, Apparios IS a friend after all.
"The dangers of being the leading man...anyway, it seems like when my time is up, some devil will be summoned to take me back to hell. Not sure what kind, but probably nothing easily defeated."
Flexing his arm he nods gratefully at Yahrima.
"If I don't make it back, don't tell Amaya i feel for such a stupid trap ok? She thinks I'm a hero, the poor child. And remember the plan, if I surrender, don't try and stop me."
Yahirma's investigation of the new scrolls reveals that they are a scroll of chill touch, a scroll of command undead, a scroll of false life, a scroll of ray of exhaustion, and a scroll of vampiric touch. The pearl remains resistant to the attempts at identifying it .
***
Appario determines that the book detailing the thief's journey is worth 400 gp alone, while the entire collection of books on torture would be worth about 2400 gp to a collector. The first book grants a +2 competence bonus to knowledge checks relating to undead, and the collection grants a similar +2 bonus to checks relating to torture.
***
After a careful examination of the door, Appario determines that there are no traps or wards on it.
Appario inspects the gilded binding on the first book.
"This one, I like. Who has that magical handysack? Let's put it in there...the rest of this collection is a treatise on torture. It is valuable, but have no use for them, I would feel better if they never existed."
* * *
When people are ready, Appario will open the door.
"Everyone healed, happy, and ready to go?"
* * *
Just my thoughts on the scrolls. Feel free to edit/trade.
Manor:
Wand 1: CSW 17 charges - Yahirma
Wand 2: Restoration 11 charges - Appario
Scroll 1: Dispel Magic - Yahirma?
Scroll 2: Remove Curse - Yahirma?
Potion 1: Lesser Restoration - Maddok
Potion 2: Remove Disease - Appario
Handy Haversack:
a pearl (unidentifiable)
Scroll 1: Chill Touch (Semenya?)
Scroll 2: Command Undead (Yahirma?)
Scroll 3: False Life (Semenya?)
Scroll 4: Ray of Exhaustion (Semenya?)
Scroll 5: Vampiric Touch (Semenya?)
Maddok goes from bored to disgusted as he tosses the various books on the room's floor. At the mention of their value he becomes a little more interested, "Some of what I have seen here should have never been put on parchment but if they are valuable shouldn't we take them with us? Do you think you could find a collector of some sorts that would want them? Would they fit in the magic bag?"
At the mention of the curse Maddok makes a brief sign warding off evil, "Cursed? You look healthy enough now", the Shoanti says looking Derek over. "As soon as we leave this place we should find someone to break the curse".
Still a bit injured, , Maddok lines up behind Appario as he opens the door.
"Well, the curse summons a devil to slay me, so it won't affect me until it appears. As for removing it, first I'm not sure we have that much time, second such a spell cost a lot, and third, I technicly "accepted" the curse since it was bound in an object I picked up, so breaking the curse is much harder than normal.
Best bet is to pass it on to someone deserving, best of all would be to lure whoever started it to accept it back."
***
The door opens to a strange chamber, the features of which boggles the mind. In the center of the chamber, a square shaft that appears to be endless drops away both downwards and upwards to a dimly lit infinity. A spiraling stone staircase winds along the walls, up to the left and down to the right, but following the staircase around with the eyes brings you impossibly right back to where you started.
On the right side of the chamber, there's a landing from where another staircase extends upwards into the distance, while on the left side of the chamber, a third staircase similarly extends downwards. The landing opposite the one you're currently on appears featureless.
The big man staggers a bit as the chamber disorients him. The tattoos along his chest and shoulders glow again briefly.
"More hell-magic", Maddok says. "Before we move on let's see what the eyes of the eagle reveal".
Pantomiming the flapping of a bird's wing with one meaty hand Maddok says something in Shoanti.
Celestial Eagles
As the pair of silver and golden feathered raptors descend (from out of nowhere), Maddok looks to them and points to the flanking landings and their staircases.
The two eagles obey Maddok's orders, and fly away into the staircases to either side of the chamber. As they pass over the shaft, you notice that they seem to fly as if in slow motion, but they return to their normal fast speed when they're past the area.
As the allotted time passes, the eagles have not yet returned. Instead, two shadowy beings with a vaguely humanoid outline suddenly come floating through the wall by the opposite landing, and begin drifting along the staircase towards you. The barely-visible beings writhe with unholy life.
These creatures are known as Shadows. They're incorporeal undead hailing from the Plane of Shadow, and only move by flight.
As above, plus: The Shadow's touch saps the strength from living creatures, which can ultimately lead to a creature's death. A creature that dies from this attack is raised from the dead as a new Shadow shortly after its death. Shadows are resistant to channeling.
Current Initiative order:
20 - Semenya
18 - Maddok
15 - Appario and Derek
8 - Yahirma
5 - Shadows
Maddok curses as the shadowy beings drift into the room.
Pleading for the spirits to guard him the Shoanti readies his hammer.
Knowledge (Religion)
"Blech! Shadows! I think we need magic to hurt them."
On his turn, Appario will sheathe Extortion and pull out his morningstar.
HP: 27/28
AC: 23 (+7 armor, +2 shield, +3 dex, +1 dodge) Touch: 14
Smitten: no
Lay on Hands used: 0/4
Effects: -1 wisdom
Semenya will hold on to the scrolls, and recommend that Appario hold onto the Haversack for the nonce.
She pulls out a scroll of magic weapon "I think with this, Extortion would settle the balance of these creatures, Appario. Maddok, you're next."
Casting on whatever weapon Appario chooses to use, then backing up.
In case I'm away from Internet (getting new computer tomorrow):
Semenya will cast magic weapon on Maddok next, then try to assist with Magic Missile.