Slumbering Tsar: Forward - The Camp (Inactive)

Game Master Lord Manticore

Great suggestions, thanks!

Great suggestions, thanks!

Team, remember the questions for Commune have to be yes or no

"The commune lasts for about a minute. I can take suggestions as I go of questions to ask Her, but make it quick."

Ally settles into a lotus position and assumes a meditative pose. Within moments, you feel a warm, benevolent presence emanating from her, counteracting the darkness surrounding the ship.

Casting Commune, which allows 6 questions and lasts 12 rounds. People can talk and suggest questions for Ally to ask. She is going to start off with one of her own.

"Lady Desna, your humble servant, Alliriyallin, beseeches you. We have been attacked by servants of a being they called the Harbinger. Do you know of this being?"

"Sorry, all lines are currently busy. If this is an actual emergency, please press or say 1." Sorry, couldn't resist.

In dreamy tones, you hear"Please be more specific."

This is question #1 Commune

"We will prepare what defenses we can but it is important we not let this Harbinger turn us from our path. The Ten have trusted this task to us. We cannot fail."

The minotaur turns his attention to the meditating familiar.

"Is the Harbinger's interest in us connected to our mission in Tsar?"

The assumption is that the question is asked as part of the commune spell, if not, then let me know.

"Yes"

This is question #2 Commune

LM, just wanted to remind you when you get caught up with these posts that Elen cast Detect poison on Digory. Any results?

Also, I never explicitly retconned casting 'charm person' -- did you just assume I never did it, or did it happen before he started to fall apart? I never noticed a save against it.

Your results are positive, it was an ingested poison. However, you'll need to roll a Knowledge (nature) to determine what it was. (Hint: roll high) The charm person went off after Digory started retching. He was too far gone for it to have worked on him at that point.

Kallistiel comes up onto the deck after having put on some clothes. She frowns and shakes her head at those who have remained undressed. If any. Didn't have time to read through a hundred+ posts.

"The obvious question is 'Who is the Harbringer?' The answer to that may give us the answer to other questions, such as 'Why is the Harbringer interested in us?'. Another question to ask is perhaps: 'How do we get this Harbringer off our backs?' and 'How can we defeat the Harbringer?' if you want to go that far. Or helpful things like: 'How do we recognize agents of the Harbringer?' and 'If we say the word Harbringer enough times, does it appear and say 'boo'?'"

As a DM, I would say these are probably good questions for the dead Bob...I mean, dead bard.

One question for you that might have been overlooked. When the Hat of Disguise was removed from the bard, did his appearance change? Or was he actually wearing the hat unactiviated?

One question for you that might have been overlooked. When the Hat of Disguise was removed from the bard, did his appearance change? Or was he actually wearing the hat unactiviated?

It was activated, but his features changed only a little, mostly subtle to change just his facial appearance.

At work, need time to compose next post.

Lavinia is still just in a holding phase. She's ready to cast her spell, but is waiting to hear all the answers to Ally's communing first.

Looks like we're waiting on Elen's next post.

Ally briefly summarizes the descriptions of the Harbinger entity that Roondar and Azaurant spoke of, then asks, "Lady Desna, is this being sufficiently known to you that you can provide us with guidance? We are not afraid to break new ground in the name of our Divine Patrons, but we appreciate Your wisdom." Question 2

Assuming the answer is yes, Ally will next ask the question Ruul posed which LM answered in the previous post. Question 3.

Ally will then ask the question suggested by Macavity, "Dearest Goddess, are there agents of the Harbinger at Gundrun?" and then follow it up by asking, "Are there agents of the Harbinger at the Camp that we are heading to?"

That's 5 questions gone. Ally can do this every week at no cost, so it's not tremendously vital to get every question exactly right, and her goddess is probably more patient than Asmodeus. We shouldn't waste Desna's time either though.

"Is the Harbinger trying to take over or otherwise gain power directly through the city of Tsar?"

Kallistiel comes up onto the deck after having put on some clothes. She frowns and shakes her head at those who have remained undressed. If any. Didn't have time to read through a hundred+ posts.

Elen is wearing a kimono and sash, but no shoes. It's far from formal, but it is modest. Ally is nekkid as always.

Kallistiel Illuiadlara wrote:

Kallistiel comes up onto the deck after having put on some clothes. She frowns and shakes her head at those who have remained undressed. If any. Didn't have time to read through a hundred+ posts.

Elen is wearing a kimono and sash, but no shoes. It's far from formal, but it is modest. Ally is nekkid as always.

I think Ally is the only being currently naked upon the deck.

Ally briefly summarizes the descriptions of the Harbinger entity that Roondar and Azaurant spoke of, then asks, "Lady Desna, is this being sufficiently known to you that you can provide us with guidance? We are not afraid to break new ground in the name of our Divine Patrons, but we appreciate Your wisdom."

"Yes and no." Technically, this is Question 3 commune,, but the call center is feeling generous. This is a freebie.

Assuming the answer is yes, Ally will next ask the question Ruul posed which LM answered in the previous post. Question 3.

Ally will then ask the question suggested by Macavity, "Dearest Goddess, are there agents of the Harbinger at Gundrun?"

"Yes" This is Question #3 Commune

"Are there agents of the Harbinger at the Camp that we are heading to?"

"No." This is Question #4 Commune

That's 4 questions gone. Ally can do this every week at no cost, so it's not tremendously vital to get every question exactly right, and her goddess is probably more patient than Asmodeus. We shouldn't waste Desna's time either though.

"Is the Harbinger trying to take over or otherwise gain power directly through the city of Tsar?"

"No, it is insignificant." This is Question #5 Commune

"You have one question left sweetie, no rush, just fifteen seconds."

Elen Emerwen wrote:

LM, just wanted to remind you when you get caught up with these posts that Elen cast Detect poison on Digory. Any results?

Also, I never explicitly retconned casting 'charm person' -- did you just assume I never did it, or did it happen before he started to fall apart? I never noticed a save against it.

Your results are positive, it was an ingested poison. However, you'll need to roll a Knowledge (nature) to determine what it was. (Hint: roll high) The charm person went off after Digory started retching. He was too far gone for it to have worked on him at that point.

knowledge(nature): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29

"Lavinia, I think this is a poison! Can you try to neutralize it? I've got some antitoxin in my bag if needed but that stuff's expensive."

Did the Harbinger or its agents know about our mission before we did?

"Let us not forget that this one was intent on killing us all." Calendir comments with a grave tone.

"I am not one for letting someone die such an horrible death..."

"But isn't he already stable?"

Did the Harbinger or its agents know about our mission before we did?

"Yes."

That was the final question for Commune

Lord Manticore wrote:

Elen Emerwen wrote:

LM, just wanted to remind you when you get caught up with these posts that Elen cast Detect poison on Digory. Any results?

Also, I never explicitly retconned casting 'charm person' -- did you just assume I never did it, or did it happen before he started to fall apart? I never noticed a save against it.

Your results are positive, it was an ingested poison. However, you'll need to roll a Knowledge (nature) to determine what it was. (Hint: roll high) The charm person went off after Digory started retching. He was too far gone for it to have worked on him at that point.

[Dice=knowledge(nature)]1d20+14

[Dice=craft(alchemy) in case that works too]1d20+10

"Lavinia, I think this is a poison! Can you try to neutralize it? I've got some antitoxin in my bag if needed but that stuff's expensive."

It is an acid-based poison, not one that is common, you are sure of that, and it was encapsulated. How it went off in his system, you are not sure. What you do know is that Digory won't be eating solid foods anytime soon, if ever.

Lavinia, are your Speak with Dead questions limited to 'yes', 'no' also? I would really like to know what we or our mission gained the attention of this entity.

Ruul is also clad in his loincloth again.

"Let us not forget that this one was intent on killing us all." Calendir comments with a grave tone.

"I am not one for letting someone die such an horrible death..."

"The Captain has ruled that we spare his life. For now, that is what we will do. Even so, death may have been a kinder fate..."

Alliriyallin wrote:

Did the Harbinger or its agents know about our mission before we did?

"Yes."

That was the final question for Commune

"Thank you, Song of the Spheres!"

I'm convinced there's more he hasn't told us. Perhaps the fact that his employer apparently expected him to fail and implanted some sort of poison capsule in his belly will reduce his loyalty. Perhaps I can charm him. That said, when a person surrenders to you, his welfare becomes your responsibility until you determine that he definitely deserves to die. We've not discussed punishment yet, or whether he gets a trial, or whether we give him to the city watch in Gundrun, or what.

Lavinia will cast Neutralize Poison at Elen's request, though she isn't sure if it will still help she is willing to give it a try.

At Azaraunt's question, Lavinia turns to him as she answers: "The answers I receive may be brief and cryptic, but not limited to yes or no. His spirit may also attempt to resist answering any of my questions at all. I won't know for certain until I make the attempt. Also, the spirit can only speak about what it knew in life, so we need to keep our questions limited to he may have actually known."

Link for spell here.

Ruul slips is massive paw around Lavinia's hand reassuringly.

"Perform your ritual and learn what you can. The sooner this is finished, the sooner we can lay his spirit to rest."

If his spirit is with this Harbenger daemon I fear it will get little rest Ruul. No, it is a mercy that we detain it here for a moment.

We can do this tomorrow as well if you want time to compose yourself, dear.

"Thank you Elen, but I would prefer to go ahead and get this done with so that we may dispose of his body too. For all we know the Harbinger could be capable of animating his body later on."

"Does anyone have any suggestions now that we've heard all of Ally's questions and answers?"

Let's go with these.

Agree with Ruul

That is a total of 6 questions though.

will save dc 20, assuming that his alignment is different from Lavinias. Any chance he was true neutral? :)

Lavinia will cast the spell and see if she can make contact with the dead gnome's spirit.

Use your best judgement. =)

Numair joins the others at Roondar's corpse. He leans against the railing and lets out a weary sigh.

Find out why they killed Niles yet? It still doesn't make sense to me. While finding our mission out ahead of time wouldn't have been that difficult, what could it (the Harbinger) hope to accomplish by attacking us this way? I suppose if one of us had fallen for the gnome's charms, then they would have died, but surely the mission would have continued. For an ancient entity, blatantly tipping us off to its presence accomplishes nothing. Perhaps it seeks to sow fear, uncertainy, and doubt. No matter, I cannot comprehend it yet.

He stands, and bows briefly to the assembled group. "If you'll excuse me, it's been a trying evening, and I still intend to see the sunrise. Wake me if you need me before then." That said, he heads downstairs and collapses in his bunk.

"Niles was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We were the targets", Ruul explains.

"I believe you have the right of it. This Harbinger is powerful but it has its limits. This was an attempt to intimidate us and perhaps keep us from our task."

The bull nods as Numair makes his exit, "Rest well."

I would suggest avoiding open-ended questions like "Who is the Harbinger " because it is easier to prevaricate.

I'm ready with the questions whenever you are.

After the casting of Speak With Dead, assuming no earth-shattering revelations lead us to abandon the voyage:

Elen catches up to Kallistiel on tge way down to the cabins.

Oh, I think we were waiting on if he got a save and if he passed or failed it.

I assume he either didn't get a save or failed it.

Oh, I think we were waiting on if he got a save and if he passed or failed it.

I assume he either didn't get a save or failed it.

He's willing to talk, no save necessary.

Oh ho, he wants to talk with us? Perhaps just to get in a last taunt? I'll ask them one at a time in case an answer would cause me to ask a better question.

"Tell us, 'Why is the Harbringer interested in us?' "

Kallistiel pauses, looking at Elen and replies.

Oh ho, he wants to talk with us? Perhaps just to get in a last taunt? I'll ask them one at a time in case an answer would cause me to ask a better question.

"Tell us, 'Why is the Harbringer interested in us?' "

"Because He thinks you might have a chance to pierce the veil of Tsar."

This is question #1, Speak With Dead

Well, in that case he will likely send more people after us, so... "'How do we recognize agents of the Harbringer?'"

"More often than not, you don't."

This is question #2, Speak With Dead.

"Forget the other questions, ask what the 'veil of Tsar' is!" exclaims Ally excitedly.

Smartass spirit. "What is the veil of Tsar?"

"Seek the temple of Orcus to find the questions you seek."

This is question #3. Speak with Dead

Knowledge roles to see if I've ever heard of that temple before:
history 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29
religion 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (18) + 16 = 34
local 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

Aid Another knowledge (history): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
aid another knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21
aid another knowledge (local): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

"I think VC Tharl told us about the temple in the city?"