Something Wicked This Way Comes (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

Molasbar considers Xanos's request. He grimaces as he thinks about options.

"Maybe if I altered my shape to, say, a goblin. And then cast a spell to shrink myself. Maybe." Casting reduce person after altering myself (with an alter self spell) to a small creature would make me a tiny creature, same as a cat (based on the familiar statistics).

"Rose, would your Mistress grant you the power to summon an earth elemental? Even a small one? If I recall my readings correctly, it could move through stone like this, pick up the book and carry it back through." I think an earth elemental can use its earth glide ability while carrying up to its carrying capacity; I'm not 100% sure about that though.

Xanos tapped his chin in thought. "There is a book inside the small tunnel. You would need to memorize the size reducing spell twice. Once to get inside the cave, then you would need to dismiss it, pick the book up, and cast it again so the book will shrink with you."

Convoluted, but I think that would work.

Would Earthglide work with carried objects? I'm not sure of that. I think it might be the elemental's body only.

Xanos raised an eyebrow at his severed hand. "If it is too large to fit, we will have to dig the wall out, or shrink the book."

"Molsabar, Rose, do either of you know the magics for reshaping stone or shrinking objects?"

Rose waves away Xanos. "Not now, I need to see if this stupid vision juice does something!" She takes another sip to make sure she's had enough.

Rose can memorize and cast Stone Shape as a level 3 spell.

Pretty sure spells that modify your size don't stack. Don't think earth glide would work. Stone shape work eventually, but will probably take multiple castings. Of course, you could just go buy some picks and have the boggards widen the tunnel. It's not really a time sensitive thing.

1d3 ⇒ 2 @Rose: You are fatigued, take 2 points of WIS damage and make a DC20 fort save.

Fort: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

"Woaaaaaaahhhhh . . ." The world around Rose starts to spin as she sees a set of crazy visions. She does not feel well at all.

Is the effect really like the augury spell? If I can only see ahead 30 minutes, I think it'll be pretty useless since we are resting until night.

Rose tries to focus on what wight be defending the Horn, particularly to understand its strengths and weaknesses.

@Rose: Yup, it's an hour long augury spell. Going to need something a little more specific in terms of a question(s). Zikomo has tons of it and is happy to share.

@all: so the plan is to camp now?

Works for me. While the vamps are getting their beauty sleep the rest of us can canvas this place more thoroughly, do some crafting, make some food and get some rest.

Xanos pocketed the magical gem in one of his many pouches. It undoubtedly had something to do with the mysteries of this place. Time would reveal it's purpose.

Satisfied that the drug Rose had imbibed was not poison or anything significant, he sat in thought for a time.

He had brought two scrolls of Animate Dead. One, he was in the process of meticulously tanscribing into his own spellbook. It would not be long now before he was finished. The other was to use. All he needed were a sufficient number of corpses.

He suspected raising the Treant at this time would be a waste. It was simply too big to aid them in their exploration of the Horn. The Boggards though, they would make satisfactory minions.

"Where do you bury your dead." Xanos asked the Boggard Shaman.

Rose wasn't really capable of focusing at all in her delirium. But Xanos's question to her about shaping stone naturally directed her thoughts in a particular direction.

"If we leave here before digging out the book from the blue slime cave, are we more likely to fail our quest?"

"Doubtful." Xanos replied.

I like that you're asking your Augery questions out loud when the rest of us don't understand that's what's happening. This could get funny.

When it is reasonably discreet to do so, Molasbar will tell Sariana "Perhaps you should have your minions set guards to this lair again. It didn't stop us, but it may warn us of threats less stealthy than you or I."

With talk of settling in for the day to rest, Molasbar regards Rose. His most reliable ally seemed completely out of her mind. He decided to stay close to her while this delirium ran its course.

"Get this purple dog off of me! I'm covered in slobber!"

It seems Rose is quite lost in her own world.

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Sorry for the delay. My free time is currently at an all time low. This will probably continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

@Rose: It's hard to pick much out of the bright colours and vivid imagary that assaults your senses, but you get the impression that there is no immediate need for the tome.

@Xanos: Room C18 contains the bones of every victim ever sacrificed by the boggards. The pile defies an immediate count at numbers, but several dozen would be a conservative guess. Zikomo indicates that the pile predates his tenure as tribe shaman. A cursory examination identifies the remains of human, half-elven, elven and dwarven skeletons.

The caverns are as safe as anywhere and the boggards are as loyal as they every will be. You day of rest passes with little fanfare.

When Xanos visits the room of sacrificial bones he notes the familiar chill of (un)death filling the chamber. The taint of fresh rot is also present - emanating from corpse and entrails of Kumanda, which dress the area.

As he investigates the skeletons, the necromancer becomes acutely aware that somewhere beneath the mantle of piled remains, Albrέkt is nesting...

Rose wakes up from her stupor feeling quite nauseous. "Ugh, remind me not to try that again. Whatever it does, it's not worth it. We should get the boggard tribe to start digging out that book, so by the time we come back we'll have it. But my visions told me it'd be fine to leave it alone for now. If you believe those visions."

After some much needed rest, Rose is ready to tackle the next level of this place.

"Sariana and Albreckt are resting while the sun is up. We can have her order her boggards to do the digging when she is awake. You should rest now, too. The rest of the creatures drawn to this place may not be so easy to push over as the boggards."

Molasbar will show Rose where the vampires are resting, and pick someplace to rest nearby.

"You experienced prophetic visions during your stupor? Interesting." Xanos said while he considered the pile of bones.

Xanos dragged the other two boggard corpses into the bone room, dumping them unceremoniously on top of the chieftain and the sleeping vampire beneath it all. Then he cast a spell potion that glowed with a golden warmth. It spoiled to a necrotic green as he tossed it back.

Next, he punctured his good hand with the spikes on the animated hand in the gauntlet. What began as a splatter quickly became a torrent, like the blood inside his body was pressurized.

Damage: 1d6 + 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (2) + (2) + 4 = 8

Where it splashed it ate away skin and muscle like acid, black smoke rising where flesh had been moments before. It crawled along the bones, clinging to them and caking them in drying and cracking scab.

The bodies twitched and writhed, the three boggards and four other human-looking skeletons lifting into the air like they were possessed and setting themselves back onto their feet. The human bones looked like they had a thin layer of scabrous viscera covering them. Blood seeped from cracks and joints. The boggard bones were similar, but they looked like they had been charred. They steamed with heat. They smelled like cooking meat, and the blood that dripped from them sizzled where it landed.

All seven corpses turned to look at Xanos simultaneously. He looked weaker, but had a small, satisfied smile on his face.

@Xanos: Very cool scene.

The boggard chieftain stood out from the rest of Xanos' creations. It's severed head floated above it's shoulders as a blackened cloud of airborne cinders in a roughly frog-skull shape. Flames flickered in it's eyes. Pale ash swirled through the bones below forming the rough shape of what it's body looked like in life, brawney, wide and powerful.

As the body walked forward with an unnatural fluid grace the head seemed to take an extra moment to move with it. The cinder skull bobbed and floated to catch up. Occasionally it completely discorporated into a cloud of scorching cinders that flared to burning life, swept up the grey ash into a conflagration and churned around the animated body before snapping back into the shape of a skull again moments later.

This thing is technically two creatures. A Flaming Swarm Beheaded floating above a Bloody Burning Skeleton. It's a CR 2 creature and a CR 3 creature. It's also kind of a glass cannon. Super nasty in melee, but will probably go down to the very first blast of AoE we run across.

Very cool indeed. For the sake of my sanity, can you keep a spoiler or something indicating where your undead are and what their orders are, when they are not with you.

Going with the assumption that we are good to move on.

Some more thorough survey of the horn turns up two other potential access points. A narrow and overgrown staircase and a much wider and grander stairway, obviously a main entry. Pick your poison

Once Sariana re-emerges from her hut she joins the rest of the group for a report on what they have found. "I suggest the grand stairkase." She comments. "Having room to maneuver will serve us better than stealth I expekt. The darkness should help us kover ourselves anyway, at least to some degree." She continues, with a small gesture at the armoured hulk that is Albrekt.

Freshly risen from his own torpor, Albrέkt first grins at Xanos' accomplishments, then slowly nods in agreement at Sariana's assessment;

"Ja. Ve fear nicht. Ve are oberherrs of Der Horn now..."

Rose speaks with Zikomo in the evening. "Tell the boggards to go digging for that book. We'll be clearing out the rest of this spire, and once we're done you'll have yourself a much bigger home."

Otherwise, she seems ready to proceed. "Big stairs look good to me."

"Very well." With his falcata at the ready, Molasbar starts up the large staircase. his eyes dart too and fro, looking for any signs of traps or danger.

"I remember this." Xanos said as he looked up at the larger staircase. "There is a... throne. A great hall." his brows knitted in concentration for a few moments, then he scowled in frustration and shook his head. "I feel like I should know more, but the memories do not come."

He began making his way up the stairs, followed closely by his bloody and burning horde.

Sariana slips lightly up the stairs with Molasbar, although faster than the half orc she does not have his gift with traps and chooses not to get too far ahead for that reason.

Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24
Percep: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (2) + 16 = 18

Albrέkt lumbers alongside the other walking dead, allowing Sariana to scout ahead.

The ironclad brute makes no attempt at stealth, merely striding with greatsword drawn as he too eyes the surrounding vistas;

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9 Better now than later... I guess...

Here's a map of the upper levels

You walk up a wide set of stairs a hundred feet and arrive at a landing. Clearly, this area was supposed to be guarded. There are six arrow slits on both the east and west walls. Forty feet into the passage a solid stone half-wall rises that could provide cover to two medium-sized combatants. But all of these defensive preparations are now for naught as any defender that once stood here is long gone. Still, this place has seen much conflict as there are small nicks and traces of long dried blood everywhere in the stonework.

Take a look at the map and let me know how you want to start tackling this. You are in area 1-1

Xanos is the only one in the party without Darkvision, but he has the light cast by his three burning Skeletons.

Xanos moved with his three flaming boggards before him and the other three behind him. His disembodied hand was free of it's chain and scurried along the ground next to Sariana as she scouted.

"I believe I remember the layout to this part of the complex." Xanos said. A little meta to explain how we know the map already.

"No telling what traps are still active or what has taken up home here since Markadian's purge. We should move carefully."

"I recommend scouting the open areas first, then working our way back through to open all the doors."

I'm thining we check out the 1-1 hallway, then go to 1-16 and 1-27 to start.

Do I need to re-cast Mage Armor? It last 5 hours, and I believe I first cast it versus the treant. If so, I will cast it has we walk in.

Haruk nods at Xanos suggestion "I can assist in scouting, by summoning an accuser devil. It's can move about unseen, and can also teleport freely. It will last an hour, and I can have it return right before it departs to relay all it has seen to me."

"Very useful." Xanos said. "Perhaps we should send it ahead, up the other staircase? It can check the other level while we check this one, to give us an advantage when we make our way up."

I am assuming we rested and recovered our spells.

Rose casts her set of protective spells on herself and on Sariana. A boggard femur is seen floating around her, while Sariana's clothing seems more resistant to damage than normal.

Magic Vestment on Sariana; Defending Bone on herself.

"I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good right now with a battalion of undead in tow. Let's do this."

Good with Xanos's plan.

"Certainly." Sariana responds. "If you recall the way Xanos then we should follow your direction." Once again she slips off into the lead, gliding from corner to corner for maiximum cover.

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27

I too think that we rested and recovered resources while the vampires rested during the day.

"That seems perfectly reasonable, scouting two levels at once."

To Xanos, he'll say "Your minions would make a great rear guard for us, trailing behind you. While it may be helpful sending one ahead to trigger traps, I've seen some that unleash fury in such a large area, we may be engulfed as well. Better that Sariana and I lead and seek to avoid such eventualities."

Once Haruk has summoned his infernal minion and sent it on its task, he'll start the scouting of the level. He'll look for traps as they go, and he'll check each door they come to. Once in a while, Molasbar glances back at Xanos to see if he's remembering something that changes the priority for which direction they explore. Otherwise, he'll stick to the right as they go through.

Haruk beings speaking Infernal words of power, creating a swirling pentagram on the floor. Twisting arcane energies spiral upwards, forming a shimmering portal. Moments later, a small devil bearing the combined features of a plump human infant and a gigantic, gore-fattened fly, appears.

The sorcerer commands it to scout the upper levels, returning to him fifty nine minutes later, in order to relay what it finds.

Xanos directs his minions to the rear of the group, giving Molsabar a nod.

The foul creature buzzes off on its mission.

Nothing else to add in 1-1

1-16

This large courtyard is silent and dark. A grand fountain stands in the center, brimming with clear water. The fountain’s centerpiece is carved in the form of Charon on his skiff.

1-27

Passing through an archway you enter into a grand temple with vaulted ceilings. Six huge columns support the place. Upon every surface are carved baroque scenes of daemons and their humanoid allies marching together to conquer in the name of the daemon prince Vetra-Kali.

At the far end sits a large stone throne decorated with scenes of daemonic victory over angels. At its base in small script is the non-sense word ‘Yah’ in Abyssal.

1-1

As Haruk summons his infernal minion, Albrέkt runs his hand and gaze o'er the scars of battle the room bears.

The towering vampyr licks at some of the dried blood;

Perception (Taste): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

but cannot discern naught of who or what spilled the ichor.

1-16

As the group advance through the chambers of The Horn, Albrέkt flashes a smile as he scrutinises the statue of The Boatman of Death;

"I like zhis place. Charon here dvells in Abaddon you know... vhere all bend der knee to minn Mistress..."

1-27

In the throne room Albrέkt points toward the seat of power with his blade;

"Vhat tongue izt zhat?"

"The script is Abyssal. The word is nonsensical." Xanos said, scanning the room with Mage-sight.

Detect magic in all rooms.

Rose can't help herself. As she sees the throne, she decides she ought to sit in it. "Oh how it will feel to rule over this pitiful land once we have overthrown the royal family!" She thought earnestly of the torments she would inflict on the lover that scorned her.

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Haruk will attempt to stop the Aasimar "That might not be the best of ideas. That throne very likely could be trapped, or enspelled."

@Xanos: The fountain has a faint transmutation aura and the throne has a strong conjuration aura.

"The throne is strongly enchanted. Conjuration magic." the tall wizard said. He didn't really have a reason to stop Rose from sitting in the chair. Instead, he walked back to the fountain for a closer analysis.

Knowledge Arcana (identify existing spell effect): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27
If the Fountain is considered a Magic Item, use Spellcraft instead. Xanos' bonuses are the same for both skills.

Haruk will investigate the throne, from a safe distance. Casting Detect Magic and then 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29 K:Aracna. Let me know if Spellcraft is needed instead.

Albrέkt impassively watches as Rose takes the throne, before nonchalantly dismissing Haruk's warning;

"Let her sit. If she dies ve vill add her pretty flesch und gebeine (bones) to Der unsterbliche Wirt (Deathless Host)... Ja?"

The vampyr's eyes glitter at the prospect...

"True, true. Unless the magic on the throne evaporates her. And everyone-" he glances at the vampire as he adds "and everything in the room as well. I wouldn't put it past anyone who would rule here to arrange it so that if they were destroyed, everyone else would be as well."

"Do not be paranoid." Xanos' voice came from the other room. "The goal of the Sons of the Apocalypse was to bring about the end of the world. They did not care much who sat in the special chair. They had a flare for the dramatic, but beyond that they were not terribly creative. Besides which, what Conjuration magic are you aware of which would disintegrate everything in a room this size?"

"None, but it could summon some unpleasant things. We are mighty, true, but not so mighty as to take on an army of fiends."

"Fiends are not unreasonable creatures. Particularly with your presence, I'm sure we could reach some kind of an alliance with any we come across here." Xanos considered for a moment. "A celestial host seems more likely than a fiendish one. Any fiendish defenders this place had were likely destroyed or banished during Markadian's crusade. The Mitran forces may have left behind guardians or enchantments to prevent anyone from doing precisely what we are here to do."

"Conjuration is a versatile school. It may simply summon feasts, or be a teleportive escape route."

The vampyr shrugs his armoured shoulders at the prospect of annihlation;

"If I am zerstört, zhem I am unvorthy of Des Blassen Prinzessin."

Albrέkt sneers at the apparent concern of conjured fiends and their brimstone spawned ilk;

"Feh. All deufel in zheir mongrel formsch pale before Der Unvergänglich."