GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

Earlier, Hammer
"Well, you certainly do clean up, well." Ary grins, cheekily, as his wounds don't seem all that bad... though the blood is still crusted a bit, so she can see how he'd think it was still not-good.

Laterish

After helping to prepare the food (as in, staying mostly out of Ehren's way), Ary listens to everyone interact.

K(Nature): 1d20 + 4 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 4 - 1 = 12

"Be really careful with the venom. It's the type that makes you easier to digest. And poison as a whole mostly won't work on demons, either. So keep that in mind." she said, being a know-it-all busy-body.

Nowish
"Well... I'm certainly not used to eating snake, either. It's been a very long time. Dad was really big on making sure we used everything, though. Looks like Rocky's dad was, too." she said, either to no one, or Horgus, depending on whether or not he was paying attention to her, as she sat down beside Aravashnial, pulling out her mess kit, and letting him have the plate and utensils, so he could eat more successfully, and without aid. "Here you go, plate, fork, knife, and you're good!" she smiles, waiting for him to finish before she digs in, herself. That bread had gone a long way, it seemed.

"Wait, you can tell time by spell" Ary asked, as Markus spoke. "Well... that's pretty clever, I suppose."

Ehren eats his portion of the snake with a knife, fork, and plate - just another of the amenities that were literally weighing him down. Still, it at least allowed him to have something resembling a dignified meal. Not that he particularly cared about such things.

"Nothing can adequately prepare us for what we will find up there," he remarks quietly, observing the piece of snake on his fork before putting it in his mouth. This could really use some salt.

"I may have over-estimated." explains Markus, setting his food down for a moment. "Or maybe not. The false life spell, based off of Aravashnial's magical power, ought to last about five hours. Yours wore off just an hour or two ago, right? Throw in some spare minutes for fumbling around in the dark and we've got a good estimate of how much time it would have been."

"We can also tell time based off of how many light spells I cast, as long as we keep an actual record. It should be six times per hour that I have to re-cast the spell."

"That's... actually really clever," Valaria manages between bites. "So we actually haven't been down here that long. And that means it's actually getting pretty close to dusk up on the surface, since the festival started around noon."

"Don't act so surprised." says Markus, managing a small grin. "I do actually have some education, even if my magic isn't very useful here."

"This would be a perfect time for prestidigitation," she thought to herself, "On the other hand, if I screw it up..." Li'an looked down at the snake, imagining what terrible flavors might befall her meal. "Right, Lleuad, I'll pass."

She made note of Markus's trick for future reference. "Could come in handy if we need to do something at the same time in different places."

She finished her last bites and then joined the conversation again. "So eight hours we've been down here? At least we managed a good day's travel then, even if we're a little bit slower than we would be on the surface." Still, if they'd traveled that long without any significant changes in depth, it didn't seem to bode well for getting back to the surface anytime soon. "Hopefully tomorrow will bring less bugs and more progress. Although, I suppose we should be thankful that bugs are *all* we've really run into down here besides these two ex-dwarves and our dinner."

Aravashnial was still inside, but no biggie.

Aravashnial allows Ary to guide him to the rest of the group, and offers her a small smile.

"Thank you, Ary."

Horgus wrinkles his nose, but ends up eating the snake meat anyway.

Anevia, already finished, points her fork at Ehren. "So! Ehren! What's it like feeling the wardstone? Does it talk to you? Can you talk to other rocks, or just the big whopping magical ones?" she asks, earnestly.

"No big, Avi." she says, slumping to the ground against the church's wall, before leaning back and crossing her legs.

"As for sleep and watches... they taught us that mages should either sleep first or last in a group, that they shouldn't be given middle watches. For spells and stuff. And you guys were talking about being tapped out, so probably better to let you get to sleep first?" she tilts her head. "I don't mind pulling whichever watch we'd like. We should still try to make Torag happy, while we're down here. Always helps to please the Inheritor's friends, I'd say." she smiles.

"Oh right! About the Harrowing thing." she starts to talk, figuring at least Avi might be interested. "Owl. We both had Owl, I remember that because it was the same lady, who called herself Owl. And Markus got Trumpet, twice. My middle cards had Avalanche and Eclipse... I'm just now getting the irony... and a flipped Forge." she shakes her head. "That's all I really remember. If you don't believe in luck, what about Harrowing and future sight?"

Ehren eats in silence for a bit longer, pondering how to answer Anevia's question.

"Talk? No, not quite. It's more like a feeling. Like putting my ear to the ground and hearing a distant heartbeat. Faint but... there," he pauses and, not entirely unaware of how crazy he must sound to them, adds, "Just the magical ones. Rocks can't talk, that's absurd."

Aravashnial shakes his head at Ary's question. "Harrowers play parlor tricks. They tell you what you want to hear. Individuals with talent for true divination magic are rare, and typically those that are capable of it normally accomplish it through communion with the gods or planar beings. And when you consider the source of such magic, one has to wonder if the spell predicted the future or changed it..." He stops talking when Ehren speaks, interested.

Anevia's eyes widen, and she laughs. "Whatever! Maybe they just don't want to talk to you, you ever think about that, huh?" She grins and looks up at the ceiling of the cavern wistfully. "Still, it's good to know that the wardstone's still kicking up there. I wonder what Irabeth is doing, right now?"

Aravashnial shakes his head, again. "That doesn't make sense. I dont believe it's possible its still intact."

"Why not? Kenabres has stood for what, a hundred eleventy years? The crusaders held them off, obviously," Anevia rolls her eyes.

"No, I'll never forget the last thing I saw. The Kite, caught aflame with that balor's magic. They attacked the wardstone first. The Storm King was there, in Old Kenabres, because that was his target. He chose the day of Armasse because he knew he was not going to fail. He wanted an audience."

Valaria snorts. "You've never been to Varisia have you? I once met a man who could tell the future with rather scary accuracy using Harrow Cards, one of the Varisian fortune tellers. He... knew things. Things that I know he shouldn't have." She sighs, looking a little uncomfortable. "Plenty of Harrowers are fakes I'm sure, but don't write off the art outright."

She chuckles. "Figures that the Storm King is a showman. But I wonder why he attacked so openly when he lost the last time he showed up. What made him so sure he'd succeed? Or maybe he's just that arrogant."

"Perhaps because the wardstone was already damaged," Ehren suggests, seeming to ignore Aravashnial. He was not confident that he could dispel the wizard's doubts. Not now, at least. "Perhaps the Storm King was preparing for this all along."

"I think this is where Avi has the right of it. I don't think he could have done this without help." Ary frowns, trying to be pragmatic in the statement. "We know that the Crusades have been turned on themselves before... my grandfather died as a result... so it's not unlikely that there would be help. And he's had longer than I've been alive to plan all this." Ary says, shaking her head. "So, it just makes sense. That doesn't mean we can go turning on people though; there's a lot we just don't know. There's also a lot of things he couldn't prepare for. Like... Irabeth. Or Horgus's defenses."

While eating the snake and actually enjoying it compared to some meals eaten on the road,

"It would make sense that this was more of an inside job or somehow they had been weakening the wardstone all along. I cant think of anyone that would do such a thing, perhaps they have been possessing people for quite some time to amass some type of inner city army or something."

Horgus doesn't say anything, which is uncharacteristic of him.

Anevia smiles dreamily. "Yeah! Irabeth is amazing. I can't wait for you guys to meet her."

Li'an tried to focus on the present and not let her mind wander, but even so, the mention of possession sent a chill up her spine. "There are certainly those who serve the demons unwillingly... But many do so willingly as well." Li'an said in response to Hrut. "But I don't think they would've had an army of them. It would be too hard to hide for long." she said, shaking her head. "It would be more sensible to have a small amount in the right places. Invading a castle, for instance, you'd be better off replacing the gate guard than a few dozen soldiers inside."

Li'an smiled at Anevia's pining for Irabeth. "Hopefully it won't be too long, Anevia. I'm sure she's quite worried about you."

Valaria shivers slightly, almost unnoticeably. "Demons are tricky, insane, but dangerous. If they really have people inside the city, then this has been planned for ages. And what they might have planned beyond the Wardstone's destruction... I have a bad feeling about what we'll find when we get above ground."

Knowledge Local: 1d20 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (7) + 6 - 1 = 12

She smiles at Anevia, not wanting her own fears to worry the optimistic woman. "Irabeth's one of the crusaders too right?" She remembers Anevia talking about her wife earlier, but she doesn't remember much detail.

Anevia grins. "Yeah, she's a Captain! Um, we're members of the Eagle Watch... that's basically a crusader branch that functions to root out cultist activity after the stuff that happened back in the Third Crusade. She busted Staunton Vhane a little while back, he was this dwarf guy who was working undercover for the demons for several decades... but he got away." She finishes, with a frown. "But she did get promoted for it. Anyway, I'm done bragging about my wife. I'll take first watch. We should have at least two more watches."

You need to decide if you are going to consecrate the temple before or after you rest.

I'd say get it out of the way before sleeping. No sense starting the next day with work and then travel. I'm sure Hrut would sleep better too :p

"I can take the second watch then. But are you sure you shouldn't rest up tonight at least Anevia? Your leg took a beating today, and even with the healing magic some extra rest probably wouldn't hurt. Anyway, between Ary, Hrut, Valaria and I we've got plenty to cover the watches."

"If you'd like, we can go ahead and finish cleaning the temple now, Hrut," Ehren says to the warder, having finished his meal, "It might be safer to rest on hallowed ground."

Make that two definite yesses, then. At worst, we wind up with a slightly-more-defensible place of rest. :)

Ary waited to see how other people decided to spread out watches. "I'll take something in the middle. I'm used to being woken up at odd hours for drills." she stated, grinning a bit from the previous conversation topic. "Maybe even just the second one, if we're only going to run three."

Torag: 1d20 ⇒ 20 :)

"I would say do it before we rest, I do not speak Dwarven but maybe Celestial ? would work, otherwise I seem to recall a prayer or two and a rite I have seen preformed before. It can become quite loud which may draw potential hostile creatures to us, which is the point, we then battle the creature with shouts to Torag, then clean the weapons post battle with more prayers. It doesn't sound too bad does it?"

Finishing with a wide grin on his blood caked face.

"That sounds, ah, elaborate," Ehren offers, paling ever so slightly. What did I just volunteer for? But he was not about to be the first to back out.

"So some chanting and praying, then a lot of loud noise and a skirmish in Torag's name followed by more praying?" She chuckles. "Okay, sounds like a good time. Need us to do anything or just hang out near the door and wait for something to show up?"

"Well if you speak Dwarven that would help, oddly enough I do not speak it, otherwise I was going to use Celestial. You can pray in the church, if someone or something shows up, we invite it to pray, if they are hostile we attack for Torag, then just maintain our weapons with another prayer of dedication to Torag. I would say as far as religious dedications go it seems fairly easy, not that I am familiar with other religious dedications."

Hah! The obedience to Torag. XD Nice. Good thing we aren't dedicating it to Arshea...

K(Religion): 1d20 ⇒ 6 Nope!

"I... Torag just wants us to kill anyone that comes out of the woodwork? That doesn't make much sense.."

Can we assume I said this 7 seconds earlier, so he could have corrected me? :p

And an edit to follow!:

"It's similarly easy to mine." she states, "I place my shield on the ground, symbol pointing in front of me, and hold my sword over my shield as I kneel. I pray to Iomedae to guide me, and promise to follow her. You're welcome to join me for that in the morning, too. You'll need a symbol, though. Maybe prayer circle?" she grins.

Anevia laughs. "Well, I guess you need to get his attention somehow."

Horgus groans, and shuffles off to inside of the temple to sit down. "Ugh... don't take too long making all that noise, I'm exhausted," he says dismissively.

"Yup. We'll get you up bright and early to pray to Iomedae, Horgus! So get all the rest you can!" Ary calls after him.

"Well the noise is me using the warhammer to bang on the anvil for more than 10 minutes, it could get quite loud, I doubt anyone will sleep until it is over." Hrut says with a wide, eager grin on his face ready to get this started and see if he is worthy to get Torag's attention!

Anevia draws her shortsword, and stands. "Well, how are we going to do this?"

Make sure your tokens are where you want them to be on the battlemap. You never know :p

"That's quite the ritual," Li'an said after listening to Hrut's description. "Perhaps Torag could credit us with the two foes we already felled though, instead of sending a fresh batch?" She was obviously not relishing the idea of more combat at the end of the day.

"We need all the help we can get, I suppose, and currying favor with the other gods certainly won't hurt us."

Li'an stood up and drew Lleuad. "Lets get this over with then. Markus, could you do us the favor of tossing a lit pebble down the entry path? That way we can at least see our foes coming if we do attract something."

"Don't worry, Fen'wen. Just stay nearby, and maybe get to either side with Butterfly, and I can watch both of your backsides. Errr... backs." she stuck her tongue out, as she moved more towards the opening in the cavern, but not so far that she couldn't stop something from another direction from posing a threat.

Valaria frowns, then gets a somber look on her face. "I speak elvish, Abyssal, and a bit of Infernal, but no Dwarven," she says, sounding a little morose. "Sorry. I've known some dwarfs, but I never learned their tongue." She sighs. "I don't think I'll be able to perform my own prayers until we're out of here." She shakes herself, to ward off the somber thoughts. "Nevermind, I'll be on hand if anything shows up then."

She looks at Ary. "Aw, people are always looking at me. Maybe I want a chance to watch your backside for once." She winks at the swordswoman.

"Who, me?" Ary tilts her head. "Well, I'm nothing special to look at, but if that's what you want." she shrugs as she turns to face the corridor they came from... and from her movements, one can tell that she's wiggling. But she's also wearing a rather long, and flowing cape. She looks over her sword arm, giving Valaria a wink, accompanying a grin. "Why those languages in particular? Not that I know any of my own, really... just enough to get myself in trouble, eh Fen'wen?"

"I've only learned a few myself. Besides the obvious, Draconic and Sylvan. I also have a knack for Celestial. I've found I enjoy studying languages quite a bit in the past few years though, so I'd love to learn more," she interjected, seeming surprisingly happy that the discussion had turned to linguistics.

Laughing at Val's suggestion that she doesn't get enough watching time, Li'an could only add a "Well, turnabout is fair play...", with a gesture towards Ary.

Nodding at Ary's penchant for learning enough to be dangerous, she said "Yes, whatever you do, don't teach her any new words, it'll only cause trouble. Although she's already chosen her name for you, so it might not be too bad..."

"I don't know," Valaria says with a grin. "I think you'd be rather nice to watch."

She tilts her head slightly. "Well, I learned Common just like everyone I imagine, and Abyssal is... it's like an instinct. I actually spoke Abyssal before I learned Common at all. It's like the language is in my blood. Infernal... well I was born in Cheliax. My father taught me because it's used in official dealings and contract writing. You need to be fluent to avoid getting caught in nasty loopholes. And Elvish I learned from a priest near the border of Kyonin. He's actually the one who officially welcomed me into Desna's church."

She laughs softly at Li'an's comment. "I'll be careful not to encourage her too much."

"Fair warning... I'm all talk, no action." She says, her smile fading slightly. Her voice lowered slightly, as if embarassed. "I'm sorta saving myself. So... don't want to get any hopes up, if I can avoid breaking hearts before it's too late..." She did seem to take the compliment to heart, though.

"Well I figure if I can't make the prayers in the proper Dwarvish at least throw something out there that might be more attention getting I suppose, I am not sure if it is not Dwarvish if it matters which language we choose to be honest. I speak several languages, but mine deal with demons, how to identify, how to kill them, and the ability to research such things. The languages I speak are Common obviously, Celestial, Daemonic, Abyssal, and Infernal."

"I get it," Valaria says, smiling softly. "I must be nice, having someone special to you. Don't worry, I don't get in the way of any existing relationships. It's kind of my one big personal rule with my flirting." Her gaze looks a little distant, but she just sighs and tries to keep a smile on her face.

She pokes her head back in the door. "You said you'd try Celestial earlier. I'd say go for it. That should do for Torag. I think most of the good gods would respond to it actually, but I don't really know for sure."

"Would they?" Ary asked, "I mean, if that's the case, I should probably learn it at some point. Seems like I have plenty of teachers."

Visibly flushing at Val's last statement Hrut puts his helmet back on,

"Well if everyone is ready perhaps we should start so we can get some rest."

With that Hrut begins praying in Celestial to Torag.

"الهدف السامي، تخطط جيدا، وضرب على الحديد وهو ساخن، ليحطم المعادن غير مهيأة من ضربة مطرقة و."

An actual excerpt from the Hammer and Tongs holy book I found!

Continuing to pray he starts smashing his new warhammer into the anvil with great force to bring as much noise and he can.

Perhaps enthusiasm can replace Dwarvish as well!

Valaria shrugs. "Call it an educated guess. Most beings from the Upper Planes speak it, and most good gods are more closely related with the Upper Planes than anything else. It's a better shot than trying in Abyssal at least."

She nods as Hrut gets ready to begin and sets herself up near the entrance. Despite her readiness, the thunderous sound of his hammer hurts her ears and she flinches slightly. "If this doesn't get Torag's attention, nothing will," she deadpans.

"As much as I kid, if you'd like to learn, I'd be happy to help," she said to Ary sincerely.

As Hrut began, she turned to focus on the entrance just in case Hrut's description of the ritual was accurate. "This will be interesting, Lleuad."

Ary, who'd been watching Valaria, certainly noticed the change in demeanor, despite her own earnestness in learning Celestial. But she filed it away to talk to her about when times were better... and it wasn't bringing up someone's love life in the middle of a prayer ceremony to Torag amidst a crowd of strangers.

"How do you say 'Swordmaiden' in Celestial?" Ary asked, quickly trying to make light of the subject, as the clangs began to ring out. It... actually wasn't that bad for her.

Anevia hobbles outside, shortsword drawn, when Hrut started pounding on the anvil. The noise echoed out into the caverns. "Oh, Lady Desna, watch the road ahead," she murmurs. She tries to listen, but the noise drowns out much else.

Something is coming!: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
Anevia listens: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 5 - 4 = 21
Li'an listens: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (5) + 6 - 4 = 7
Ary listens: 1d20 + 4 - 1 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 - 1 - 4 = 8
Valaria listens: 1d20 + 4 - 1 - 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 - 1 - 4 = 11
Ehren listens: 1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 8 - 4 = 22

Initiative Rolls (For the glory of Torag!)
Markus: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9
Valaria: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Hrut: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
Ehren: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Ary: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Li'an: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Aravashnial: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Horgus Gwerm: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16
Anevia Tirablade: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8
Rawr!: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Initiative Order
1. Giant Spider
2. Li'an
3. Ary
4. Ehren
5. Hrut
6. Valaria
7. Markus
8. Anevia

Surprise Round

Ehren and Anevia are in the surprise round.

Ehren is up.

"Guys, hush! I think I hear something..." Anevia tenses.

Valaria mutters several curses under her breath. Nishol'l Del," she groans. "More giant bugs." She raises her voice as much as possible to let her companions hear her over the clamor of Hrut's hammer. "Let it get out in the cavern, then we can surround it and take it down!"

"Sayf-Amira would be the closest pronunciation in common," she called out over the clanging coming from the temple. The time she spent thinking on it before answering, however, was long enough to distract her from her watch of the tunnel.

Despite the deafening clangs of Hrut's hammer, Ehren just barely manages to pick up on telltale sound of skittering legs.

"Perhaps it would like to join us," Ehren says flatly to no one in particular, staring down the dark tunnel. He draws his club, readying it for battle.

Anevia hisses to Ary,

"Brace yourself, soldier, its coming."

Then as the spider approaches, she yells enthusiastically, "For Torag!"

Anevia aid another to Ary: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16 +2 AC to Ary

Round 1

Spider charge at Ary (FF): 1d20 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 + 2 = 18
Spider damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Ary fort save vs poison: 1d20 + 4 - 1 ⇒ (12) + 4 - 1 = 15

The spider charges down through the tunnel at Ary, lunging at her at biting on her neck. Its fangs are surprisingly not long, but she can feel the venom being pumped into her bloodstream. She goes light-headed for a moment, then regains her senses.

Li'an is up

1 damage to Ary