"Ah yes, the Night of Dissolution has long been debated about when they will occur. You think the Night is near? When can we expect it?"
"Heh. You know that barbarian invasion everyone's worked up about? It's not going to be a problem. Oh, and don't bother saving up to pay your rent this month, either."
It's been a week. What's up?
Tilver leans in and lowers his voice. "It's really time? I've heard rumors, but I wasn't sure. I would love to witness it first hand. Do you know where it will happen?"
Dain turns to the others. "Maybe it's time to try threats? Or...ummm...charm?"
"He seems like he wants to talk. Lets give Tilver some time to get him to monologue. If he can't get it off we will turn to the Charm." Silas says as he patiently listens from outside the room.
Tilver leans in and lowers his voice. "It's really time? I've heard rumors, but I wasn't sure. I would love to witness it first hand. Do you know where it will happen?"
The Chaosite gives Tilver a look that suggest he's not very bright, then just laughs ominously.
Tilver shakes his heads and stands back up and exits the room. He closes the door and then finds the others. "No dice. That one is just a loon. I'm not sure charming him will work either if he's insane."
"No use wasting a good spell slot on a loon. We shall leave him to his fate here." Nigel comments. "Shall we reconvene in the morning? My mind is fatigued from the days work."
Silas nods, "We can ask the paladins to see if they can find out more. Perhaps they will hear him rant about something. Tomorrow we will need to return and see what all the ratmen are up to."
Everyone departs to their homes, agreeing to reconvene the next day at dawn. The streets are abuzz with talk of the impending barbarian invasion, of its immense size and deadly warriors. People are nervous.
Silas goes and has a nice dinner and bath before resting for the night and heading to meet the others.
The next day you gather back at the sewer entrance you know leads down to the secret temple. Are they waiting for you?
What now?
Tilver spends most of the evening maintaining his armor and sword, fixing small dents and cuts and going more general maintenance. Evie is glad to see him back safe, but is pulling a double shift with the growing unrest about the barbarians causing the guard force more work, so she has no time for him.
**************
Tilver inspects around the door, looking for signs for any changes that the ratfolk might have done to the door, as well as traps they might have set up.
Dain gazes at the sewer entrance, bleary eyed. Upon returning to the Warrens last night, he had been restless. Rather than head straight to bed he had decided to make the rounds of some of the slums less fortunates -distributing healing where it was needed, and making note of who needed a charitable donation of food. The work focused him on individuals, and distracted him from the City's overarching presence.
A hint of the foul air below reaches Dain's sharp nose. "Smells worse than yesterday. Oldtown must have had a...ahhh...collectively bad night."
"Just be glad for your weak human nose. And the scent might hide us from the rats for a bit." Silas says with a grimace.
Tilver, you find small runes freshly drawn around the door. They're almost certainly magical.
"Stop, everyone stop!" Tilver peers closer at the runes. "I think this could be a trap. Dain, you're better at this than me. Can you disable it?" Tilver prepares to back away while Dain works.
Dain moves to look at the surface pointed out by Tilver. He calls for the tiny magic spirits to reveal themselves and then considers the runes. He digs into his pack for his tools, selects one, and then leans in to work on the trap. Dain carries on a dialog with the spirits while he tries to figure out which ones he can distract without releasing the energies bound up in the symbols.
Silas stays back and lets his allies trained in such matters to deal with the runes.
Dain disables the rune with quiet efficiency. The atmosphere is heavy with anticipation.
Silas will move into the room once Dain has finished.
Nigel finishes reading the page in the book he was reading and claps it together, tucks it away in his bag and follows the group.
"Excellent job, Dain." He says with a curt nod.
All is quiet as you mount the stairs. You think you may be able to hear voices in the distance, but they're muffled and far off.
As you come back to the entrance hall, it is still empty and the secret door is closed.
Nigel begins to detect magic and starts to circle the perimeter of the room counter-clockwise.
"Seems like someone tidied up in here while we were away. They'll likely expect out return." he comments as he walks.
"So maybe head in a different direction?" Tilver points to the corridor to the left. He walks to the other side of the room, looking for any further traps.
"Bah, something big is coming. I think we just go where we know they are and not waste our time wandering the sewers." Silas says.
Tilver doesn't see any traps.
What do you do?
Dain agrees with Silas, "Let's head back to the...ummm...colorful room. That's clearly the way they don't w-want us going."
Silas will head that way.
As you approach the secret door, you hear a familiar sound coming from the west. Squeaking, rustling, grunting. The ratmen are coming!
What do you do?
Silas moves to the door of the colorful room and readies to smack a ratman that comes too close.
Nigel gestures and coagulates the nastiness of the sewers into a ball which plops in the opening of the western hallway.
A vast horde of ratmen, ratbrutes, ratlords and giant rats comes scuttling around the corner, but as the front rank hits the grease spell, they fall like tenpins, with those behind shoving those in front. Chaos ensues.
Everyone, go!
"Quickly!" Tilver waves them through the door to where they fought the chaos priests and rushes through, hopefully to some safety.
"Rally around me! The magic will help turn their blades and fangs." Nigel shouts as an aura from his staff begins to grow and expand outward.
In his next breath, two rays of fire shoot from his pointed finger toward the front two ratmen.
Uncommon Abjuration Wizard
somatic
Area 5-foot-radius emanation centered on you
Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You emanate a shimmering aura of protective magic. You and any allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to AC. Each time you Sustain the Spell, the emanation's radius increases by 5 feet, to a maximum of 30 feet.
Attack Evocation Fire
somatic, verbal
Range 60 feet; Targets 1 or more creatures
You fire a ray of heat and flame. Make a spell attack roll against a single creature. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 fire damage, and on a critical hit, the target takes double damage.
For each additional action you use when Casting the Spell, you can fire an additional ray at a different target, to a maximum of three rays targeting three different targets for 3 actions. These attacks each increase your multiple attack penalty, but you don't increase your multiple attack penalty until after you make all the spell attack rolls for scorching ray. If you spend 2 or more actions Casting the Spell, the damage increases to 4d6 fire damage on a hit, and it still deals double damage on a critical hit.
Heightened (+1) The damage to each target increases by 1d6 for the 1-action version, or by 2d6 for the 2-action and 3-action versions.
Realizing he is going the wrong way, Silas turns and rushes back the other way to stop just in front of the grease.
Dain moves into Nigel's protective aura, then compels an angry spirit to unleash its rage against the ratmen.
The secret door does not budge at Tilver's touch! It must be locked from the other side. If only you had some sort of rogue!
Nigel and Dain unleash spells that blast many of the ratmen to death, but the others merely swarm into the empty area. Those in the grease continue to struggle to rise, but those behind draw pistols and rifles and blunderbusses and open fire over the heads of their downed comrades! There is a crackling roar, followed by gouts of smoke.
INITIATIVE
Tilver -
Nigel - Protective Aura 5'
Silas -
Dain -
Ratman Pack - 56 damage
Tilver hunches down into his armor as the blast goes off, trying to use it to protect himself. He grabs an alchemist fire from his bag and hurls it at the pack of ratmen.
Dain urges the angry spirit to continue raging as he moves up next to Silas on the front line.
Silas rages and blasts a cone of cold down the hallway.
Nigel slowly proceeds forward as he expands his arcane protections outward, muttering words in rhythm with his steps.
The terrific volume of magical mayhem you unleash into the roiling mass blows gory lanes through the torn bodies of the ratmen and giant rats, slaughtering them close-packed lambs. But those behind press eagerly on, over and around the still writhing bodies of their erstwhile companions. These once again fire a mass of pistols and rifles, though the volume of fire is less.
STATUS
Tilver - 88/96 hp
Nigel - 72/80 hp, Protective Aura 10'
Silas - 107/124 hp
Dain - 79/96 hp
Ratman Pack - 120 damage, 1 pers. fire.
Tilver moves closer, taking out a vial of acid this time, but holding his throw for the moment.
Nigel alters the gravity around the ratmen to sow more chaos.
Silas continues to focus on his inner draconic powers and sends a beam of cold at the ratmen.