Lys presumes that her silver sword isn't going to cut it and attempts to retrieve the first sword that Vehemence cast aside.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Aterro lets the maelstrom of battle build around him. He watched the shades move and attack, taking their measure.
With one down and one injured, the frowning cleric steps forward, a miniature orange sun forms in his hands.
"Carry Torm´s will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows."
With that he loses a flaming sphere of light at the gold blob.
Ashlyn watches the creatures, only now realizing she could have used mage hand to have pulled the swords free from a distance. Still, it's neither here nor there. She channels the weave, forming a bolt of fire and launching it at the poison gas.
Can anyone use these damn swords? They're way to big for me, and we probably need them to eliminate the gasses.
Thratch pauses a moment and says, Or, what if we just gave them the swords? Would it really be a bad thing? Live and let live?
At Thratch's suggestion, Tenchi will say "Ronins do not deserve katanas. Ronins who have turned on their lords deserve only death."
As all goes black, Vehemence can only assume that the golden aura embraced him without his consent.
He struggles internally, facing again the truth of his current weakness.
"Somebody... F&c!ing... help me."
He utters with dwindling tenacity.
Combat order: Tenchi, Vehemence, Gasses, Ashlyn, Wan, Thratch, Aterro, Lys
Ashlyn hurls a fire bolt at the green gas being, just missing it.
Wan fires an eldritch blast at the gold creature, doing some severe damage.
Thratch tries to attack the green gas with one of the swords and misses.
Aterro unleashes another bolt on the gold gas and causes more damage. The gold gas creature loses mass and begins to dissipate, moving away from Vehemence.
Lys picks up one of the swords, but does not immediately notice any effects from it.
Combat order: Tenchi, Vehemence, Gasses, Ashlyn, Wan, Thratch, Aterro, Lys
You notice that magic definitely injures the creatures, and you also note that they need to solidify to attack, suggesting that conventional weapons might also harm them.
Vehemence's sight begins to clear as the blinding gas moves away from it.
As his sight returns, Vehemence quickly glances at each of his companions, trying to gauge if they heard him in his second of weakness.
Flustered, he thoughtlessly strikes at the golden shape which so easily harmed his warped sense of dignity.
The furnace king curses aloud in some dead tongue of old as the vapid enemy eludes the vindication of his pride.
"TA KAR'DZAI!"
As his mannerisms unfold, you get the impression that his transition into mortality has been indeed a rough one.
Okay, Okay, Thratch says to Tenchi, we'll do it your way.
He gets up the heavy sword and runs at the gold one. Damn these things are hard to handle! Thratch complains as he swings.
Ashlyn growls in annoyance as she just missed. She channels the weave again, focusing on the accuracy of the spell. "Burn!
Tenchi will move to the less injured one and hit it.
Combat order: Tenchi, Vehemence, Gasses, Ashlyn, Wan, Thratch, Aterro, Lys
-> 14
Tenchi strikes at the green gas creature and scores a critical hit.
Vehemence, still dazed from being blinded, lashes out at the gold gas but misses.
The gold gas strikes back at Vehemence while he's still dazed and hits, again blinding the Furnace King!
The green gas strikes back at Tenchi in the form of a giant fist, and misses.
Ashlyn hurls a fire bolt and critically hits the green gas creature.
Thratch again tries to attack with one of the swords, and narrowly misses the gold gas creature.
Wan dashes to the gold fog with his magical cudgel.
As his vision again recedes, Vehemence this time is not caught off guard.
With a gesture from his wicked claw he summons punishment on it which exposed his true nature.
Combat order: Tenchi, Vehemence, Gasses, Ashlyn, Wan, Thratch, Aterro, Lys
Vehemence reacts to being attacked by casting Hellish Rebuke at the creature.
The creature avoids the brunt of the damage, but not enough to save it. The gold gas dissipates with a long howl.
Wan strikes at the green gas creature and misses.
Aterro takes a swing with his sword and lays waste to the green gaseous creature, which also dissolves with a long howl.
The gas creatures are destroyed, and old Sanguifluus lays dead. The three swords remain.
The events of the last few rooms are finally catching up to you as the adrenaline recedes and exhaustion sets in, and this may be as safe a place as any to take a long rest.
If y'all don't mind I would like to stop for an hour or so before moving on, Wan says looking for a clean place to sit.
Whew! Man, that was rough. Everyone alright?
Thratch sets the long sword in the ground and sits down next to it. Noticing the words, he reads aloud, "I am a heavy burden, but anyone will take me from you." I wonder what that means. Hey, is something written on the other swords?
"I am well." Looking around, Tenchi will say "We should probably rest here, as there may be limited places with which to do so. I would suggest that we have a watch schedule of 2 people, with each schedule lasting about 3 hours. that will give our shugenja time to commune with their spirits and regain their magical power, so those people should be on the last watch."
Vehemence responds to Thratch with one hand rubbing his own forehead as if he had a migraine.
"It was insufferable. All that for the plight of a damned-yet-walking coward."
Vehemence takes a squat near the rest of the squad. He wonders what happened of Lady Capilla.
“My clock keeps years. Not minutes, it says on this one." Lys pipes up, reading from the sword. "Is it a riddle, are they separate phrases, or do they make a larger phrase?"
Does anyone actually need to stop for a full night? I just need to catch my breath, and I don't think anyone is severely injured here.
|
|
Aterro walks over to the third sword and reads it aloud. "'“You’d like to spend the night with me, But if you spend all day with me, We’ll sleep together.'
The only thing I can think of that changes it's lethality betwixt day and night would be a desert. Though I do not see how that answer would interact with the other two phrases.
And I am -always- in favor of taking a hearty rest when there is no cost in taking that over a brief one. If any are injured I could heal us all and after a good respite be again at full vigor, unless any are against that?"
As the WarCleric pauses, this seem like a good time for any who have wounds to make themselves known.
A desert? Thratch asks, incredulously. I'm pretty sure that's dating advice.
On the subject of rest, Thratch says, I'm good either way. Heck, I can keep going right now.
The door in the upper corner (opposite of where you entered) is sealed. It appears to be magically so. You try to open the door and it closes immediately, though you get the merest glimpse of rope bridges.
At the bottom of the left wall, near where you entered the room, is another chamber through an open doorway. In it are three large thrones, each with a small wooden decoration and marks on the armrest that are the same shape as the swords you’ve found. There are no other visible doors or items in the room.
The decorations on each respective throne are,
1. grapes
2. a wooden crown
3. a tree.
Ashlyn wanders the room, idly listening in to the others speak. Upon seeing the thrones, she has a thought. "May I see the swords please, all three. I believe they may be part of a greater magic. If I am wrong they will be returned shortly."
Taking the swords in arm, Ashlyn carries them to the three thrones.Fitting Thratch's blade into its slot on the crown throne, Lys's into the tree, and Attero's into the grape. Once each is in place she will step back and watch for a reaction.
Thratch hands over the sword to Ashlyn.
You know, I can see the tree with the clock thing. And the crown fits the sword I had. But I'm not seeing the last one.
As he speaks, he notches an arrow to his bow, just in case.
Ashlyn places the swords into their respective locations, and from the adjoining room you hear the creaking sound of the locked door opening.
Ashlyn smiles at the halfling, "Trust me, I've seen more than a few men drink too much wine and spend the night with only a bottle in their arms."
Deciding to test the mechanism on the door, you remove one of the swords, and the door closes immediately.
Thratch accepts the cup and drinks the wine. Hey, this is pretty good stuff! Really good, actually. Where'd you score it?
Regarding the swords, Ah well. It's not like any of us use them. Although a magic sword may come in handy. I mean, holding that thing felt empowering, like I could take charge and lead the whole group.
"Well, you're clever as well as pretty.
Nodding in agreement with Thratch, "I know, I felt it too, like all of my magic surged in power just by holding the blade."
Ashlyn offers a sligh blush at the compliment. "Thank you, sweetie, it's nice to be noticed."
Most of your rest period passes without incident, except that the torches in the room keep going out on their own without explanation or gust.
Then, right about 8 hours in those of you on watch see a large group of men, 11 to be exact, wander into the room, exhibiting strange birdlike behavior.
They're all wearing long-beaked bird masks, which resemble crow's heads, and muttering to themselves. They're carrying an assortment of gear and handheld weapons — longswords, daggers, shortswords and short bows.
They see the group and stop dead in their tracks.
"Excuse us," one of them says in a high-pitched voice, "We're on the run from someone we just robbed. We could really use your help!"
Depends, who did you rob and where in the maze did you come from?
"And why you robbed them. And was it a robbery or a burglary,because they are different." Ashlyn chimes in.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hell, Ashlyn, it ain't time to split hairs after getting in here. Let's just try and meet the low bar of "not killing everything that walks in front of us."
Practically at the same time everyone else starts speaking, Thratch's own voice adds to the choir with, Of course. Do you need distraction or extraction? Who's following and how many?
Before it even registers that the others are interrogating the birdmen, Thratch's autopilot starts looking around for an escape the birdmen can slip into.
Got it! Have them slip in the locked door and remove the swords; tell whoever is coming that they came and left and we don't know where they've gone. The locked door is the obvious route, but as no one can get through without the swords, they must have gone a different route.
"In certain moments, laying waste is the only option available."
Vehemence turns from Wan to the bird masked men.
"What impedes you lot from facing and fighting your unwitting benefactor?"
The strange men discuss the questions amongst themselves for a moment. The same one who spoke for the group previously responds,
"You probably won't believe this, but we stole a painting from the gallery!"
"It's quite terrifying and horrible, and we figure we did everyone a favor, but now The Curator is looking for us. We think we lost him either in the gardens or finally in the starlit stones, but we're not sure."
"He's … well, you wouldn't believe us."
"I think we just need a moment to get our wits."
"Thank you for asking though, little fella. And thanks to your scary friend for asking too." he points at Vehemence.
He extends a hand to Thratch.
"We're the Oku. They call me Yarrow. Pleased to meet you!"
He starts pointing to his companions, who wave, hoot and chirp in turn.
"Let's see … we got Tutsan, Agrimony, Dark Mullein, Great Mullein, Black Medrick, Kidney Vetch, Vetchling, Devil-Bit Scabious, Thrift, and finally, Common Dodder. Think that's all of them!" he concludes.
"And who might all of you be? You just visiting?"
During his guard shift, Tenchi sat quietly in apparent meditation. As the men entered the room, Tenchi will stand and turn to meet them, but let the more diplomatic among them speak to the admitted thieves, but keeping his eyes on them.
Well, Yarrow, it's great to meetchya. I'm Thratch, and believe it or not, I'm in the same predicament as you! Snatched a painting from a dude to get here. Which one did you take and how'd you get in? Think we could use it to get back out?