DMDM's Way of the Wicked: The Devil My Only Master (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

After a few moments, the echoes fade. The mouth recedes back into the pedestal and disappears.

Silence falls.

Ulp goes invisible and wanders back in.

You may or may not have jumped in surprise at the first voice. A moment later, however, a second mouth appears to the right of the crystal dome. It begins to speak... and you definitely jump then. Because you recognize the second voice. It does not roar or bellow; it is low, calm, almost soft, and urbane.

It is the voice of Cardinal Thorn.

"My dear children." Dark Lord, he sounds so close! Like he's right here with you. "In the name of the Holy Church of Mitra, greetings. I salute your bravery in passing many dangers to find this place.

"The vessel before you contains a great danger: a powerful and malicious evil spirit. If you value your lives and your very souls, do not tamper with it. Everything about it is a lie and a deception. The gems you see before you are worthless crystals, shaped by magic to draw the greedy and foolish to their dooms. If the spirit speaks, everything it says will be a lie, calculated to trick you into releasing it.

"Dear children, trust me. Report this to the Church of Mitra, so that they may once again secure this abomination, and you shall be richly rewarded with gold and with honor. Tamper with it, and you will find there is no treasure here... only madness and horror, and the death of your soul itself.

"Be wise, my children." The Cardinal's voice is all sincerity and paternal concern. "Be wise, do not be deceived... and leave this place alive, while you can."

"Good luck, and may the Bright Lord bless you."

And silence falls once again.

Edmin turns to the others and frowns. "Well now I just have to know."

The Judge grins.
Good thing I don't have a soul to lose.

With that, he wanders back over to once more examine the skull.

Spellcraft(first mouth): 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (5) + 23 = 28
Spellcraft(second mouth): 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (12) + 23 = 35

When he sees them, the Judge immediately seeks to interpret exactly what the source of the magic mouthes is. He especially focuses on the origin of the second mouth, trying to determine whether it was some type of an old spell that was activated, or perhaps something that could have been cast from a distance by the present Cardinal, or someone else.

Stop screwing around with that useless old skull...I have learned some more important information from the Havero.
The Phylactery is in this chamber...it may be a heart. If it is not in one of the contaniers or chests we have found then it must be hidden in this room.
I will cast True Seeing on the most keen eyed one in the group and we should look for a hidden chamber or compartment. It is supposed to be protected by a trap.

Dren also goes over what he learned...feel free to read the spoilers now.

The Judge raises his eyebrows at Dren's inquiry.
Who is most keen eyed? I certainly hope that was a rhetorical question my creepy friend.

Cursing and leaping at the booming voice, Jax rolls behind a pile of treasure and pops back to his feet with Brink in hand. He waits for a moment, the point not wavering as Thorn's voice comes from the pillar.

"If the Cardinal didn't want anyone to touch that..thing, then chances are its something important. Also, these keys have to go to something."

Jax did thoroughly search the wardrobe? I can't recall..

Jax slides the headband over his head and makes himself look like the scrawny, watery-eyed scribe not seen since the Tower. With a grin, he tosses the keys up and down in his hand while holding Brink closely at his side. "If you find any traps you need taken care of, let me know."

Hm..feel like we're not being creative enough.

Perception: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (7) + 28 = 35 Jax looks up at the ceiling and flies up there, looking for hidden treasure.

When he sees them, the Judge immediately seeks to interpret exactly what the source of the magic mouthes is. He especially focuses on the origin of the second mouth, trying to determine whether it was some type of an old spell that was activated, or perhaps something that could have been cast from a distance by the present Cardinal, or someone else.

You think it's a fairly straightforward variant on a magic mouth spell, modified to allow a bit longer speech than is typical.

[dice=Perception]1d20+28 Jax looks up at the ceiling and flies up there, looking for hidden treasure.

Oh hey: you remember that faint breeze that was mentioned a couple of times in the flavor text that nobody reads?

There's a second exit up at the top of the chamber -- a crack in the ceiling. Must have been a tight squeeze for the dragon (you can see places where a few of his scales rubbed off) but it looks like you could fly right out.

Jax did thoroughly search the wardrobe? I can't recall..

You checked the wardrobe for traps (found none) and checked the box inside the wardrobe for traps (found a couple).

ahhh...I was too busy trying to figure out the items, how they worked. Its why Ulp put on the robes, thought maybe something from his past life.

"It has to be the wardrobe. That is where he had the potion of gaseouse form. He would need something large enough to hold his whole body while he....reanimated. Then would use the potions to escape. Someone checkout the man's clothes in the wardrobe."

Jax will perform a thorough search of the wardrobe. After that, he'll fly up to take a peak into the breezy area he missed in all of the flavor text with failed perception checks.

Perception (Wardrobe): 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (6) + 28 = 34

Perception(Crack in Wall): 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (18) + 28 = 46

Pointing up, Jax gestures with Brink before sheathing it. "There's a crack up there. I'll check it out."

The Judge heads back over to the wardrobe to get a better view of the contents. He finds it strange that the women's clothes are perfectly preserved, while the males are so weathered. Finding the strange goo and blood to be most odd, he carefully examines it. He also carefully peers into the boots wondering if perhaps the wily Cardinal simply hid his phylactery within his own boots, to forever remain near the clothes of the one he was so infatuated with.

Knowledge(whatever is necessary (goo and blood)): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
--> Knowledge(local) = 33
--> Knowledge(arcana) = 32
--> Knowledge(nobility) = 29
--> Knowledge(history, nature, planes, religion) = 27
--> Knowledge(dungeoneering, engineering, geography) = 26

Perception: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (4) + 31 = 35

Here's a roll. 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

How interesting! Here's another roll. 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (3) + 20 = 23

The Judge never likes things left to chance - especially things like unidentified "DM" rolls.

Jax posted first, so he'll open the wardrobe again and start rummaging while the Judge frowns over his shoulder.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the women's clothes. However, when he opens up the male suit, he finds it's full of a nauseating mass of corruption: some sort of fungal growth fills much of the interior. There's some kind of black jelly, which in turn is covered with a thick growth of beardlike dark red mold. The mold releases a cloud of spores as soon as it's disturbed. The red dust hangs in the air for a long time before slowly dispersing.

There's some sort of lump in the middle of the mass, more or less where the breast pocket would be. It's hidden under the layer of fungal goo, though.

Ulp removes the robes, since they did not do anything useful. Then he too flies up to where Jax is and takes a look at the breezy area and then takes a birds eye view of the room

1d20 + 18 ⇒ (15) + 18 = 33

Getting a little confusing here. Jax spotted the crack, flew up and checked it out, shrugged, flew back and is now searching the wardrobe. Ulp, now you've flown up. You don't see anything new from here. Fly higher up into the crack, or go back down and join the group around the wardrobe, or do something else?

I didn't realize that Jax had gone back to the wardrobe. I think that I started the post, and then spent like an hour getting the kids on the bus, before finishing it. Oh well.

But hey, look at the positive side. With old man Edmin and whatever Jax is about to succumb to, the path to the top looks quite open since Ulp will spend his time chasing his tail, and Dren will spend all the time staring into the void and wondering what is out there.

-------

The Judge, who really does not much care about these things as breathing is something that mere mortals find necessary, but he finds to be more of an inconvenience except for the purpose of smelling fear as he overwhelms an innocent victim's resistances, looks over at Jax.

Might not want to breathe that stuff. It's Barbazu Mold. Fun stuff from Hell. Devils like to give it to mortals as . . . "gifts".

Jax holds his breath before the Judge even speaks, coughing, hoping nothing got into his respiratory system. He'll step back and away from it, pointing to the wardrobe again and grumbling to Judge. "..something under all the goo. Let your undead constitution handle it."

Ulp will fly up higher into the crack taking 10 on percep. He is undetectable

Ulp will fly up higher into the crack taking 10 on percep. He is undetectable

The crack is rooomy but twisty. It reeks of the dragon's passage. Here and there, bits of mold grow on the filth on the walls.

Hmm... the walls. They're made of blocks, but unusually jagged and sharp. Must have poked the dragon uncomfortably.

Any chance of you rolling a 1? 1d20 ⇒ 2 Oooh so close!

Okay, you feel an odd tingling in the part of your brain that processes magical sensation, followed by a rapidly spreading numbness.

You stop dead in midair, then fall halfway back down. Since you just barely made your roll, I'll say your Fly spell coughs and sputters for a few moments before kicking back in, and you let out an undignified screech of alarm.

You've heard of these, but never encountered one before. You have just encountered a dweomersink, a region of damaged magic. Try to fly down into the dragon's lair, and your flight spell or item might cut out in midair, dropping you onto jagged rocks and trapping you in mid passage while the sound of your fall alerted the dragon's exquisitely sensitive ears below.

I have wings dm. Not sure how that will change things

Oh, right! My bad. Well then -- you simply fly back, not wanting to give the dweomersink a chance to affect your buffs.

oh that does remind me, there are some buffs, that have expired by now I am sure, cause we have been here what like an hour?

Magic killing stuff up there.

Ulp says as he turns off his invisibility.

Just to be sure...[.b]

[b]The spores shouldn't bother you and we can make sure there is nothing else to see in the wardrobe or anywhere else.

The tiefling frowns and steps away from Dren, shaking his head. "Hey no! There's no need to be casting any more of your creepy magics on me. Ask or I'll make sure you don't have hands to cast next time."

Shaking his head, he glances around, grumbling under his breath. "..I already had Zoren use see invisibility on me, I don't need any of your help at the moment. And be f~!!ed if I'm poking my head back in that wardrobe."

Edmin raise an eye at Jax's outburst. "Is something wrong Tiefling? More so than usual?

Jax points back to the wardrobe. "Did you see that mold? I'd rather not get infected."[/b]

Jax will return to searching the room, seeing if Dren's cursed magic shows anything new.

Edmin shrugs and looks to the judge. "Does that appear to be what we are after?"

I said magic killing magic up there. Does no one care?

"Yes we care dragon born. We will not extract from here that way, we would be at to much of a disadvantage should Thorn set a trap for us there."

Ulp lashes his tail approvingly.

Ulp sets down and remixes various extracts in his open slots, knowing that others are more observant than he, and jax is better at disarming traps.

The Judge was searching the boots and robes at the same time as Jax. When Jax realized that he was sticking his nose in a place it did not belong, the Judge would have continued on without a care.

-----
The Judge looks at Ulp.
I am not up there. Why would I care if there is some magic spell up there? That is like caring about a Mitran Inquisitor in the next town. Until you get to that town, who cares.

Ulp whips up an extract of detect secret doors and downs it then scans the room and wardrobe, though he does not enter the wardrobe.

The Judge rummages through the mold. The spores burst out again, but he ignores them. The black jelly had an odd tingle to it, but he ignores that too. Yeah, whatever those things do, you have to breathe and/or have a Con score and/or be affected by negative something or other.

Inside the male noble's outfit, under the mold and rot, there is a pocket. There's something small, hard and spiky in the pocket. The Judge reaches in and pulls out...

...a heart. It's small, black and shriveled; it looks burnt. It feels heavy and dense. It's rough but hard to the touch, like stone. And it's pierced with three black iron nails. The nails are inscribed with tiny, precise writing: row after row of magical and necromantic symbols.

The thing radiates powerful necromancy, with an undertone of abjuration.

Knowledge(arcana): 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (6) + 16 = 22

The Judge pulls out the lump and shows it to the others.

Anyone know about lich trinkets? This looks about as shriveled as I would expect the Cardinal's heart to be.

Edmin looks at the item and nods his head. "I would assume that to be the item we are here for. Prepare to exfil. We have to assume Thorn knows we have it now."

Knowledge Religion1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

1d20 + 24 ⇒ (19) + 24 = 43 arcana

That is the lich phylactery. Or the best fake one ever made. Pretty gross, I would make mine out of a statue of gold.

Ulp says as he turns it over a few times.

The Judge looks to Ulp.
So, how do we destroy it? Pound the nails in? Pull them out? Shove it in a living creature? Cast resurrection on it?

"Let us not be rash. What do we know of something ad this? Will it weaken him if we destroy it? Will he need to make another or is it only one ever?