Strange Aeon's

Game Master Freman969

"And maybe we should TRY talking BEFORE attacking? Who knows, it may succeed at some point"

Amy follows the others to the next doorway...

which way are you guys going?

This nearby door to the right. A square or two over from my icon on the map.

The doorway moves a little before stopping. It appears to be barricaded from the other side

Toad kicks the door uselessly.

Str: 1d20 ⇒ 8

He hops on one foot. "Ow! Victor, you think you can force it?"

"I'll try..." Victor attempts to kick it open his foot slamming with a considerable amount of force into the door.

Str: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

"Before you force it, lets just knock!! Maybe somebody would be willing to talk with us"

Toad snorts. "Right." He taps the head of his axe on the now-broken door. "Hello? Anyone in there?"

Amy peers around the others, curious what's in the room despite her terror.

Victor bashes the door open. A long desk, several chairs, a sideboard, and numerous once-stately landscape paintings barricade the door of this somber conference room. A toppled wall opposite the barrier
undermines the room’s defenses, a point driven home by the masked bodies littering the ground.

Victor moves in carefully in case whatever left the bodies is still about. "Well at least no one is trying to kill us immediately."

"Did you HAVE to say that? Did you really HAVE to? You KNOW that the Gods react to statements like that by having everybody suddenly try and kill us, right?"

George stands back, ready to shoot the "dead" monsters as soon as they leap up and try to kill us

Amy waits nervously, for the same thing...

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

Toad eyes the bodies with his keen, animalistic senses, as Toothy sniffs the air suspiciously. Are they really dead, or playing dead like the shapeshifters had done before?

The bodies...are dead. A strange mixture of orderly and patient, these bodies were clearly killed by non-supernatural means. Each body has its face covered, either by a sheet, a grain bag, or a shirt, and the makeshift bags were tied tight around their necks.

Amy shuffles her feet nervously. "What are..? Why are..? What... happened here? I don't understand..."

She slowly creeps into the room and removes a bag from the first one's face.

Do they look normal?

Can we tell if the bags were tied pre or post mortem?

And how did the bodies dies?

heal: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

Victor looks very confused at the scene "Honestly I don't know what to make of it." He keeps his eyes peeled for some odd unseen threat as strange is the only common factor here.

Nearly all of the bodies had been smothered or choked to death, with these bodies having the bags tied pre-mortem. Some, however, were beaten to death by blunt weapons, and these had the bags tied post-motem. All of them appear to human, normal aside from the discolouration of death. They have all been dead a few days and seem to have died around the same time.

"How... sad." Amy remarks. She drops the bag in her hands and crosses her arms. With a final solemn look, Amy backs up out of the room and waits for the others to finish up in there.

"Why would anyone do this?" Toad demands angrily. "Was it those shapeshifters? Like the first one we saw? They seem to enjoy suffering, don't they."

He doubles back out of the room with Amy, feeling sick.

GM, would Toad's spellcraft check for the summoned rat swarms allow him to know if the swarms can be re-summoned in the same day?

"We are definitely dealing with some sick scum here aren't we? I just hope that we can get some revenge on behalf of these poor souls"

"Perhaps this is where they've been storing bodies to keep them out of sight. They might have an ambush site nearby so keep alert." Victor goes to remove the bags from the bodies to let them lie in a more dignified manner.

Lay on Hands: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Victor did you cast lay on hands on the dead bodies? Toad, have you made that check already? I didn't see it. Cause, it would. You'd get a +2 bonus from having your summon swarm ability. Also knowing more about the ratlings would help too. It's a knowledge arcana check.

On himself to remove some of the damage he had taken.

"Maybe we should try the rats again," Toad offers bleakly, the sight of the grizzly murders doing a number on any hope he'd had before. "I mean, how many rats can there be?"

Waiting to see if Toad can say much about the rat summoning magic. Specifically, whether more rats can be summoned in the same day, or if it's a 1/day type deal.

You can't really say. The rat swarms are definitely magical in nature, but you're not sure if they can resummon them this day. The only way to see is to try it and see if they do so. The only thing you can tell for sure is that they use similar magic to your own but that of a level beyond you.

"Let's still check the other areas." Victor moves to the southeastern door in the lobby area, ready to open it when the others have assembled.

Lay on Hands on Himself: 1d6 ⇒ 3

"going somewhere new sounds good to me"

oh s&+*, I totally forgot, while you guys were examining the bodies with the bags over their heads, one of the orderlies had a suit of padded leather armour and a sap that was usable, and Toad found two thunderstones and a gold ring worth 150 gp. Also, Toad does know the rat swarm spell is once per day. If that changes your guy's mind. I'm sorry I'm such a bad DM with this whole play-by-post thing. Clearly not paying attention.

No worries, GM. Just correct and keep it going. You're doing fine.

Amy doesn't need any of the loot, so you guys can take what you like.

I'd like to head back in and take on the ratlings again, once their swarms have vanished.

Yea it's no problem. I'm enjoying our game! Toad will hang on to the thunderstones. I feel like the items we find here must help us, somehow.

"So, come to think of it, I'm almost certain the rat swarms that were summoned can't appear again, not this day, at any rate. Of course, if another rat-thing were able to summon a swarm and hadn't done it, they could still throw one down on us. So, if we go back today we have a better chance of fighting through them. Or, we could go back in tomorrow after we've had a chance to rest. Either way, we need to make sure we have some kind of blunt weapon to fight the rats... Sorry, Toothy, we don't mean you." He adds that last bit apologetically as Toothy squeaks and hides in his pocket.

You'll forget bits, don't worry about it overly much.

"A chance of more effective gear sounds like something worth trying... and now we know to watc out for someone walking around with lots of bags."

"Lets try and talk to the Ratfolk. We DID attack them first. Now that they don't have as many defences to summon maybe they'd be willing to talk. Especially if we apologized really nicely first. Its got to be worth a shot, right? What do we have to lose by it?"

Shaking off her fear long enough to think straight, Amy nods. "I'm not comfortable leaving those rat-things between us and the survivors in the chapel. Let's go back there and finish it, one way or the other."

The library doors has grown quiet. Someone will have to open it to talk to the ratlings.

Victor nods but before they go in heals George and Toad before drawing another pilum. "You're right."

Lay on Hand on Shirin: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Lay on Hand on Malugar: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Shirrin calls out loudly, BEFORE George opens the door
"We just want to talk to you. We didn't really mean to attack you, we were just scared. We're going to open the door just a crack, please don't attack us. Lets talk."

Amy moves up behind the others as they approach the door. Hearing Toad ask about clubs, Amy replies, "Well, grab one. Quick."

Can we scavenge a club from this room, or from the corpse room? or would we have to go back to the chapel first? Toad wants a club.

You could probably gather an improvised club by breaking the chair behind the desk,or from the storage room with the bodies. Just take one.

As George shouts into the room, a series of chitterings and shrieks fire back at him. As Victor opens the door a crack, a heavy tome hits the door just above his head.

George

"They're talking Aklo"

George calls back in Aklo

There's a slight pause before one voice, a female, chirps back in Aklo.

Amy waits nervously as George speaks in a foul language to the rats...

Victor whispers "Maybe they can help us, they might know more about what is going on than we do."

"They are at least willing to talk! They want to know what we want"

Aklo

I think that I'm going to let you make all my diplomacy checks for me. You roll much better than I do :-) :-)

"They say that they used to live underground, in tunnels and caves. But the earthquakes came and they got trapped outside their home. They like magic books and are eating the magic books. I think that we should just leave them alone unless somebody desperately wants the magic books"

diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

I think that I'm going to let you make all my diplomacy checks for me. You roll much better than I do :-) :-)

:-)

"Well saving a few magic books is very far down on my list of priorities. They might even fend off other creatures approaching by that way. Will they let us move through the area if we are at a dead end otherwise?"

Always one to spare living creatures an untimely death if possible, Toad enthusiastically agrees, waiting to hear the rats' response.