Motteditor's Reign of Winter PBP (Inactive)

Game Master motteditor

All we were able to recover of the man's body was his prosthetic, which I believe we have in the tower from our last attempt to use that horn item to speak with dead.

Malavarius accepts the lantern with a grunt, as Tsin punches it into his chest before storming off toward the center of camp. He turns toward the others, his eyebrows arched in confusion. "Good heavens, what's gotten into Tsin? She's grumpier than someone who finds themself waking up next to Hektir for goodness' sake."

No, his whole -- er, almost whole -- corpse was there.

Zephtyr spits. At least he has woken up to someone in the past...which he recalls fondly. And if he could ever find the time to buy himself a decent wife, that might be keen too.

"Ayep. Now let's go talk to that body, if we can. My guess is that it won't work until we release the soul...but that will mean...uh...yeah...let's go."

Following Tsin's lead.

Knowledge, Planes: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Quinn goes along with Tsin's plan, glad that someone is leading.

Perception on ruined tower: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (7) + 31 = 38

Pems nods, not really excited by the prospect of talking with dead people, but... if that's the worst he sees today, it's a good day.

Not quite sure what you want to do, as it feels like there are two plans going on. Getting to No. 9 (described below, since you can see it from where you are) will involve going out into the alerted camp, barring using Mal's magic to teleport. If Mal wants to try to teleport everyone to the body, you can do that too (or try to sneak across, but you suspect that will be difficult based on the shouts you're hearing).

The ruins of an ancient onion-domed chapel at the center of the camp sit on a small rise. Its charred bricks still smolder like dying embers as fresh flames flicker eerily across their crumbled surface, as they have since you first laid eyes on them -- clearly it's not a natural flame.

Seeking direction, Tsin suggests a jump to the body, so they may immediately put to use the Lantern. The alerted camp requires a time-out.

"Quinn, Mal, or Pems? Are you able to communicate with the dead today? If we seek to consult the Lantern's contents and/or the one-legged man, have you prepared what is required to do so?"

Teleporting into the building with the dead demon's body will at least offer them respite from potential gun hail.

"Well, we can use that horn again to do the talking, but we'll need this madman's body again for it be of any use to us. Otherwise, I think we'd only need the lantern to be honest. But the blasted horn needs lips! Poor design, if you ask me." The old wizard grumbles a bit more as he suddenly whisks the group out of the cluster of tents and back to corpse laden building where they'd found Viktor's presumed corpse earlier.

I'll use a teleport this time, mott. We can spice things up with an on-target roll!

Arriving at the scene, Malavarius produces the trumpet. "Now, before we do this, we only get three questions. So they have to be good! No wasting them!"

Zephtyr spits, thinking of questions.

"One of them should not be about your hat nor when Quinn is going to lose his human virginity. We should focus on real issues, not fake news," Zephtyr speaks.

"Ask how he died. And how to kill that a@@!$!!, Iforgethisname. And what is up with the Tsarina."

Zephtyr looks down at his airy feet that don't exist.

"Oh! Raspy Pudding! How do we kill Raspy Pudding!"

Tsin waits for the thinkers to determine the questions, though she has a singular thought at the outset.

"Perhaps his answer to the first question might guide the formulation of your second and third questions."

For once, Quinn is quiet while the logical people determine the first question.

we don't need to destroy the camp, right, just get the next key from Rasputty?

1d100 ⇒ 24

You arrive at the bunker in a burst of brimstone smoke. Once it clears, you can find the one-legged man's body.

Question 1?

Malavarius shakes his fist at the body as the horn is held up to its lips. "Blast it all, how do we stop the World Engine?!"

Zephtyr shrugs, then spits. He's happy to go with Mal's question.

A disembodied voice, speaking Russian, emanates from the lantern.

"Bring it to the Motherland with the World Anchors."

Tsin listens to the cryptic words translated by those who speak Russian, and finds herself flat-out flummoxed. "This is quickly growing beyond my ken. I think it will grow beyond yours soon, Mal. I suggest you ask the man if he's willing to return to life, and assist us personally. He is, after all, the creator of the Engine and Anchors, correct? Who better to help us undo what appears to have been done with his help."

"Motherland? World Anchors? What does that mean?" Pems stares at the corpse, nodding along to Tsin's concerns.

Malavarius blinks in a mixture of astonishment and bewilderment, not even hearing Tsin's suggestion as his mind tries to make sense of it. After near to half a minute of muffled mumbling into his beard, he blurts at the corpse, "Good! Thank you! That wasn't helpful at all you miserable sack of bones! Alright then, what does Rasputin want with Anastasia?"

The old mage then nods to the others, pleased with his change of tack. Zeno, however, rolls his eyes with an exaggerated sigh and veritably deflates. "We're doomed."

Zephtyr spits again, this time in agreement with Mal's next question. Though the old coot has been good for two questions, doesn't mean that there will be a third good question.

Don't ask about the hat. Don't ask about the hat.

"I do not know," the lantern replies. "We did not discuss things of such earthly matters. Our focus was on my work, on the World Engine and World Anchors."

if Quinn spoke Russian

"The hut is the World Engine! And the items we've collected are the World Anchors!" Quinn thinks fondly of returning to Heldren as a hero.

instead...

Quinn stands cold and silent in the corner, sure that he'll never see summer again, as his comrades talk gibberish to a lantern.

Zephtyr spits into the wind, pondering the next question.

"Maybe how we stop Raspy Pudding?"

Tsin looks on as Mal and Pems sort out the Russian words coming from the Goat's Lantern, and offers little other than a raised eyebrow.

"If you'd like to ask the dead man how to stop the man who likely had him killed, by all means. Seems like a waste of a question. I renew my suggestion that the dead man be restored to life, so that he may redeem himself for his hand in helping Rasputin. Ask him if he knows how we may restore him to life, and we can ask as many questions of him that we'd like."

Tsin looks sideways at Quinn Halfling-Resurrector. "Unless you'd like to step in here, and do the job yourself?"

Your not sure, but your magic doesn't seem to be common here; the man's not likely to have any idea how to bring himself back to life.

Also, just to further clarify, as far as you know, if you break the lantern, it should free the man's soul, and you could then bring him back from the dead as you would anyone else.

And to further help, I'll rule that your comprehend languages lets you understand Motherland meant Russia (i.e. back to this plane). I thought he'd refer to Russia as the Motherland, but that wasn't intended to be confusing/obscuring for you guys.

Zephtyr spits, trying to think more about the big picture.

"Mal, have we seen the world anchors yet? What do they look like? Where are they?" Zephtyr breezes, looking at Pems, then Quinn. "Ain't any of youse seen them? Where are they?"

Zephtyr whorls in stillness for a moment.

"Ask him where they are. That's what I want to know. Or what they are. That's something we need to know."

"The hut is the World Engine! And the items we've collected are the World Anchors!" Quinn proclaims in response to Hektir's question.

resurrection would be the only way to restore the guy due to how long he's been dead, and we need a 10k diamond to do that

"The Motherland is this country, Russia they call it. But I don't know anything about Anchors. Don't they usually belong on ships? Perhaps they have a ship here? It would explain how they move so many men and horse about, since I doubt they can fit in those metal carts that belch death." Pems scratches his head and shrugs, ignoring Hektir's accusing glares. "Quinn, would your god grant you the mercy to raise this man from the dead? I know no magic that can do such things, but your god seems the kind sort. Maybe you can convince him to become a bartender or some sort of distiller in recompense? Surely these people must have liquor, right? Maybe you could teach them to make liquor from some sort of plant they have here, like maybe a root vegetable or something. You could give it a funny name and they'd drink and drink and laugh about it. Like a bunch of clods. You could call it Clod-Quinn liquor. I bet that's the sort of thing your god would like..."

Is this true, GM? Ressurrection the only way to bring Vic back?

I'll rule that Quinn thinks he might be able to raise dead; the body doesn't look *that* decayed yet, other than where it's been gnawed on.

Did the book and notes we found earlier give any indication as to the scale of the engine and the anchors, mott?

"Well, blast it, be helpful you crusty corpse! How do we find the World Engine?!"

"I might be able to raise him from the dead, but he'll be in bad shape. Maybe Hektir can bring him back in a new vessel?"

could we reincarnate?

[b]"The World Engine is safe in the heart of the Akuvskaya Monastery, which hangs suspended between the Material Plane and the some other strange realm of faeries that you could not possibly understand![/ooc]

Looking through the notes in conjunction with his answers, you suspect the monastery he mentions is perhaps the ruined building sheathed in flames in the center of the camp. From what you can tell, the arcane devices of the World Engine likely take up a decent-sized room. If that's true, the anchors might well be the four towers at the corners of the camp that are limned in strange energy.

Further looking at the notes in the wake of this new information, you notice several large warnings in red ink that indicates tampering with the towers is extremely dangerous and potentially reality-altering. To manipulate them, the World Anchors must all be calibrated within 1 hour
of one another or they simultaneously reset. The notes indicate you'll likely need Knowledge (engineering) and Spellcraft checks or a Disable Device check, but they won't be easy, even with the notes' help.

No, he's been dead too long for reincarnate. Why do you think he'll be in bad shape? (Or do you just mean the usual raise dead issues?)

Pems whistles, reading over the complex notes. "I think I can do this, but it's difficult. Having the designer here might be the only way to guarantee we're successful. I vote we bring him back, whatever form you can bring him into. Though I notice a distinct lack of diversity in the ranks of the soldiers. Maybe they only have humans here? What a terrible, terrible waste of resources. I mean, imagine the recipes they don't know! Criminal."

Zephtyr feels a bit of pride in Pems' discovery and confidence. I showed him good how to be confident.

"Oh yeah, that's what them buildings and lights have been. Shoulda been obvious. But it's going to be difficult for us to tackle them things today. Seems like we still ain't dealt with the vampires or the piddlespotting soldiers or anything else yet," Zephtyr spits.

Might be we do some side quests then tackle the anchors tomorrow?

just usual raise dead issues, plus resources for it are 5x reincarnate, but we can go that route and follow it directly with a heal before he dies again a round later

"Oh, the towers are the anchors, right. So, if they work like anchors, what happens to the world engine when it's no longer anchored?"

He wouldn't die again a round later (unless Hektir or someone/something kills him). Are you maybe thinking of an older version of the spell?

It takes Mal a bit of working through the book, but it looks like it's actually being anchored between the planes -- or perhaps in a demiplane of some sort, it's hard to tell -- and stopping the anchors would probably return it to this plane.

Tsin waits until the boys tire themselves out over the Anchors conundrum, and apply themselves with the raising of the expert, hale or no. She imagines the look on the girl's face when they bring back the one-legged man for tea in Mal's Mansion.

Then it occurs to her that they may want to facilitate the dead man's safety, once he returns to life.

"Hektir may be right here. If the camp is secluded to allow Rasputin his activities, corrupt as it is, then we might have worn them down considerably. The vicious little units of soldiers... I suggest we burn them out, so we may cross the camp safely, once Victor is returned."

"I'm tired of worrying when we alarm the camp. Let's slaughter them all."

Pems whistles. "I am going to need to consult with my rabbit if your goal is slaughter. I may have spells that will kill many, but I need to study them. And Quinn will need to drink/pray before he can raise the man from the dead."

Trying to slaughter everyone is fine, but do remember that I think there are still 10 troops, the six tanks outside the cmap, one more dullahan that you've seen and you don't know what else. I've tried to make sure you know the camp is reactive and will respond, but want to make sure it's explicit.

Zephtyr spits, trying to find a path forward.

"Well, again, I suggest we deal with the vampires today and a few other smaller things, then rest up to go after the anchors tomorrow."

Malavarius looks up from Victor's notebook and its esoteric equations and diagrams, his lips still moving as if reading silently. The wizard's mouth goes still and his eyes sharpen and focus on Hektir as he shakes his head. "Hm? What's that? Vampires? Alright, we can deal with the vampires. Where do you think they're hiding during the day like this? Do we mean to do anything with those poor souls Pemsworth froze?"

"yep, those vampires need to be dealt with." Quinn is ready to seek out the blood suckers.

Tsin waits for direction by checking through the windows, and debating the day's hour, and how long it will be for vampires to return to...

"Do you think that Pems' frozen souls discouraged the vampires? Or might they have cracked the ice already?"

If nothing seems evident, Tsin readies to check in on the ice box.

So teleport to the ice box?

Yes, please. Malavarius, master of magical modes of movement lives to serve. I'll use my last dimension door to do so.

"Ah. Well then. This isn't very promising." The wizard frowns at the scene, stroking his beard as he looks over the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

Zephtyr floats up after the telepo-dooring, looking for trouble as he gets his 10 remaining fire seeds ready.

1d20 + 28 ⇒ (15) + 28 = 43 Perception

"What do we have in here?" Zephtyr examines the destruction

It looks like someone's smashes open six of the tombs, though not Dmitri's.

Sorry, I can't remember for sure/tell from the earlier posts -- did you leave the men alive (albeit entombed) or put them out of their apparent misery?

1d30 ⇒ 26

Pems sighs. "I thought I was sparing them from further harm, but... These bastards. They need to die. And we need to put them down for good. " He starts searching around to discover what he can. Perception: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (3) + 21 = 24 We left them entombed, with the idea to come back and help them if we could.

Heads up, I will be traveling from March 12-15. I will probably have some Internet access, but please NPC me as needed during this time!

Zephtyr spits. He doesn't call them being dead or gone when he was last here.