AT THE TEMPLE KITCHENS:
The sound of an ancient dragon’s roar triggers the onset of absolute chaos breaking out inside the kitchen. Sees-Death blasts a devastating note of sound at the head chef, knocking him off his stool and toppling him to the ground. Suddenly, a vision swims before her eyes – an instant of Tallest-Silver’s face, followed by being knocked to the ground. In the vision, you look up at the kitchen counter overhead and see a butcher’s knife, balanced on the edge of the countertop, getting knocked over by your fall and landing blade-first down onto your head. The weight of the knife drives the blade between your eyes and you gurgle and die, watching Tanard leave your lifeless corpse to ride on another’s shoulders.
You shake your head, clearing the vision away. You know that the sight was only one possible future, not destiny – but the vision still shakes you to your core. Take a -1 the rest of this combat to all rolls due to your failed Through Death’s Eyes roll.
Smoog the tinkerer darts in after the bard’s massive attack, glancing around the kitchen. For the most part, the kitchen staff appear to be undead – visible bones and signs of rot and decay are abundant. You also see a goblin and a kobold – the goblin was stirring some stew in a big pot by standing on a tall stepladder, the kobold – a blue-scaled male – is beating eggs in a bowl. Or rather, was. Both have now dropped their kitchen tools and are staring in awe and terror at the attack that’s taking everyone in the kitchen completely by surprise.
After seeing that the staff are either unable or unwilling to interfere with you, you focus on the sputtering head chef. When he fell to the ground, the wedding cake was knocked over and fell onto him, covering him in confection. He’s wiping his eyes and glaring angrily at his undead servants, and you see him open his mouth to shout a command or maybe just to shout in surprise. One eye is closed shut from the bruise Gorlaug’s Wrath inflicted on him. He’s unable to speak, though, as your eye-laser burrows a tiny, neat hole directly between his eyes. His mouth hangs open, goes slack, and he falls backward, landing on a pile of floor-cake. Smoke rises from the hole in his forehead.
Meanwhile, Retzack’s crocolisk-dwarf-human abomination has entered the fray. Not differentiating between species, all members of the kitchens staff are fair game. The few living cook staff remaining, including the goblin and the kobold, scream in terror and flee toward the double doors leading deeper into the Time Temple. A few of the shambling undead staff are moving out of the abomination’s way, not from fear – they feel none – but from previous commands that ordered them to get out of the way of obstacles that came at them. Some of the zombies jostle closely to Sees-Death, Oadir, Eats-Bugs and Tallest-Silver too, driving them further into the kitchen with their mass of shoving. The abomination, meanwhile, is giving chase to the living cook staff…at least four zombie chefs have already been annihilated by its rampage, but when prey runs, it makes itself a more desirable target, even to the almost-dead instincts of the resurrected crocolisk. The abomination is too large for the double doors that the living cooks fled through but begins to push hard against them anyway, gradually starting to force its horrible body through. Screams can be heard from deeper within the temple.
While Sees and Oadir are pushed by the mass of zombies trying to get out of the abomination’s way, one of the sous-chefs zombies sees Tanard and mistakes her for an exotic ingredient for a soup. The zombie reaches for the dragon and almost grasps her when an icicle over 3 feet long suddenly stakes it through the skull, killing it instantly. Oadir lowers the hand that he had fired the icicle from casually, having saved the dragon from being grappled, and downs the rest of his mug of ale that he grabbed with his other hand. What do you all do now?
Meanwhile, at the front of the Temple:
Greas, in your estimation, the heavy chains and hooks made of iron and steel holding the chandeliers aloft would probably hold the Deathclaw. However, you’re uncertain exactly how much a Deathclaw weighs, so there’s still risk.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Down below, at what appears to be a raucous and happy wedding reception, you see valuables of all kinds. Rings, jewels, necklaces, bustier broaches, corsets inlaid with shimmering diamonds – the crowd’s collective wealth below you is enough to make a Dragon drool.
What should I be on the lookout for?
Near the doors are a minimal guard detail, but the majority of the swords in the crowd below look more decorative and ceremonial than useful. However, one of the reception guests below makes you look twice. He’s dressed very differently from the rest of the guests in their silks and doublets. He’s a Halfling, wearing what looks to be a crown made of plain brown sticks, and holding a staff of twisted oak. A bird rests on his shoulder, looking around at the guests. He’s near enough to the wall you’re standing on to hear his voice, clear and confident. He’s speaking to a crowd of people that have gathered around him, including, it appears, the groom and bride. Both humans, wearing formal wedding dress, they listen raptly as the Halfling speaks.
”Yes, it’s definitely not what I’m used to…adventuring was not my way for much of my life, until Immanuel found me and commanded my services. My feathers were ruffled at his presumptuousness, but he’s a dragonborn, after all! You know how the ‘chosen race’ can be sometimes,” he says, making finger-quotes around the words “chosen race” as he speaks. His small audience, none of whom are dragonborn themselves, laugh merrily at his humor.
What here is not what it appears to be?
Though the Halfling is dressed oddly, in clothes of humble and natural make, he’s no simple bumpkin. You sense power coming from him, tremendous power that makes your scales on your neck tighten. The deathclaw you ride looks uneasy and shifts on its feet.
The longer you linger, the more risk you take that someone will glance up and see a massive monster in the windowsills above. You’re high overhead but still within visual range if anyone looked in the right spot.
Just then, you hear the singularly recognizable sound of Gorlaug's Wrath, blowing wildly from somewhere deeper inside the Temple. It's muffled by the stone walls of the temple, but it carries well for all that. You hear screams coming from the kitchen. The dragon's roar shatters the calm and happy atmosphere of the wedding reception, causing instant panic as the head guardsman tries to raise his voice over the commotion and calm everyone down. What do you all do?
Sees-Death stays near Oadir, practically gripping his leg. Her claws are shaking, and her vision is obscured by held-back tears. She buckles her horn at her belt and grips the iron dagger in both hands.
Yes, Thunk. The last time you saw this halfling, he was smirking at you while a giant desert rhino beetle under his command pinned you to the ground under one of its huge feet. He left you to deal with his animal companion and proceeded to unleash lightning from his fingertips, frying fifteen of your kobold brothers in one blast. You eventually escaped the rhino beetle's crushing foot on your chest, and killed it, but the battle took hours before you eventually prevailed, and by the time your battle rage had cleared, the druid and his adventuring party had moved on.
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Thunk looks down at the halfling from his high perch
Thunk thump stupid kill zap shrimp! Kill Thunk friend! Now Thunk kill you!
Defy Danger Dex
Thunk leaps from the window gliding down like a diver, before landing on the person that the halfling is talking to, whilst
bringing the club down on the halfling's head
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The scene was laid out before him. The area was abound with riches, and there was no pretence that things were as they were. The fight had started. The guards would be in motion, but they were few, and of the rest only one was a threat. The halfling.
He recalled back to that day. The day he ran. That accursed race-traitor had led quite the group that slew Gorlaug. And with him was a varied group indeed. While that blasted necromancer was still the foremost figure in his mind, there had been a halfling amongst their midst. He seemed indistinct comparatively, but he more than proved himself capable of slaughtering his kin. And now, there was a powerful halfling, speaking of working with a dragonborn. He had no doubts they were one and the same. And now, he had his chance.
Once more, the bloodlust rises within Greas. It seemed it had taken Thunk too. His only desire was to make them bleed. He takes his rapier in his right hand and the dagger in the left. Anger and sadistic glee cover his face. "Take the guards. Kill the guests. That halfling will die by my hand."
With that, he takes after Thunk, flying across the chandeliers and through the air to the halfling's blind spot, out of immediate notice by the bastard and his bird.
His rapier goes for the heart. His knife, his neck, and the bird along the way. Even if he wouldn't land a killing blow on the pig-runt, that bird would fall, and with it any avenues of calling for help.
Greas' blades leave arcs of violet plasma that rises like smoke as the blades slice through the air. Wounds inflicted steam and hiss.
Smoog follows Retzack's monstrosity and pursues the fleeing staff, sure the main wedding party has been alerted to their attack.
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"We've started up again so no holding back.
Send the smoothskin pigs to the grave before they can mount a counteroffensive or rally others from the town.
I will make my way to the main doors and seal them off!"
Krish urges the deathclaw in through the window to leap onto the chandelier. He brandishes a totem as they leap inside shouting nonsense, Arman! Hold the guards immobile!
With a howl, Arman surges forth to do Krish's bidding, but its link to the spirit-catcher totem is sundered and the spirit loudly announces its freedom.
Then the deathclaw lands on the chandelier, jarring the heavy chain. With a snarl of excitement, the deathclaw jerks on the chandelier trying to break the chain and aim the chandelier at the guards beneath.
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Inspired by Sees' reaction Oadir is ready to rumble. The alcohol is messing with his inhibitions, he's ready to unleash an unholy wrath upon any that have scared the subject of his affections.
As Oadir stands firm, he swings around massive shards of Ice. His mind taking in all the heat this Ice is draining.
The Ice shatters on hit, revealing Oadir's Bõ Staff inside.
With Ice proving ineffective in this blow, it's time to switch back to his most familiar element, Unlight.
Oadir unleashes a blasted elemental from his form.
You called me an abomination, time you see what that will MEAN!
At this page Oadir is rampaging around, with Kreng and him maneuvering recklessly.
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Retzack calmly walks into the carrion-scene of the kitchen. Eats-Bugs follows meekly, with a massive grin taking form on his young face.
The Necromancer idly allows his reptilian nightmare to continue his pursuit, happy that it's found something to do. 'Mmmm, he loves it when they run.'
As Retzack comes across the remains of the head chef, he pulls out his knife and slowly works it in to the skull, using Sees' laser-hole as a fulcrum to wedge open the frontal lobe.
He reaches in two fingers and extracts a helping of brain. He puts it into his mouth and chews, slowly, relishing the carnal, visceral taste of human, allowing the memories and knowledge contained to mingle with the exotic taste and effuse his whole being.
'Boy is being a necromancer great! Man, why doesn't EVERYONE do this? Think of how great the world would be if everyone got over their stupid inane prejudices and became as I am. I think this is the highest calling one can take on. Truly the Necromancers are the only really civilized people.'
The woman that Thunk lands on screams as the kobold maneuvers carefully to stay balanced atop her head. Immediately, the bird on the halfling's shoulder flees skyward, a flash of light glinting briefly on its chest. Krish, you see the bird fly high up to the ceiling and alight on one of the chandeliers far from you. The druid himself, meanwhile, has raised one hand up high in time to meet the barbarian's dragonbone club. The overhead swing breaks the halfling's hand, but the halfling doesn't fall or get clubbed in the head. You see the druid's face, gritting his teeth as a bear spirit infuses his limbs with powerful strength that belies his small size. The strength of the bear spirit boosting the druid gives him the strength to grab hold of your club, hurling it aside! The weapon clatters to the ground several yards away.
The halfling is left clutching his hand that Thunk broke. Thus, he's unprepared for Greas the thief's follow-up strike. The black-scaled kobold lands silently behind the halfling and stabs, hard and deep. Spirit-spines, like that of a colossal hedgehog, sprout from the halfling's back and stab you, thief, in the face, neck, and chest. Take 1d8 damage.
The halfling looks over his shoulder at you, and you see...a glimpse of straw? What?
Just then, the long-dormant magic that Sees-Death infused in the thief's weapons triggers. The rapier, deep in the halfling's back, explodes with arcane force! The body flies forward, colliding with the face of the woman that Thunk landed on and knocking her headlong. Thunk, both hands free now that his club has been yanked out of his hands, catches the body and looks at it when he recovers from his hard landing on the floor.
The body he's holding isn't actually a halfling at all, but a dummy made from sticks and straw. The magical trickery that gave it life is destroyed by the combined attacks of you and Greas. The real druid is nowhere to be seen.
Overhead, Krish unleashes the magic within his totem. The Deathclaw he rides licks his lips in hunger as the spirit is released, causing Arman's ghost to recoil in fear. "I'll not return to that totem! Be chained and begone!" the ghost cries. He unleashes the spiritual chains that he used to bind others in life...arresting everyone below in ghostly links of iron, causing widespread panic. However, the ghost also chains you, Krish, binding you to the Deathclaw's back! The Deathclaw is unaware of this, and slashes at the iron chain holding up the chandelier! The weight on the chain, combined with the sharpness of the Spirit-Eater's claws, snaps the chandelier very quickly and causes it to come crashing down to the reception below, landing on a table and crushing several townspeople that had been eating at it and were struggling to escape their chains.
Smoog, with all this noise and commotion, you have no difficulty whatsoever finding where the abomination is going or where the reception hall is. It's just down a hallway from the kitchens area anyway. Much of the hallway is already destroyed by Retzack's monster.
Oadir, meanwhile, is rampaging through the kitchen, making sure none of the undead servants that were cooking could threaten Sees-Death. He fights recklessly, summoning his Unlight Elemental in the same way. For a time, the kitchen is shrouded in darkness as the Blast Elemental erupts in shadow in all different directions, playing hell with your vision. Still, as a kobold and a dragon, Sees-Death and Tanard can hold their own in the darkness.
By the time the intense kitchen melee is done, which takes about 45 seconds of intense combat, the only major injury was a deep cut that Oadir almost took on his arm from an attacking ghoul. It would have done 1d8 damage to him, but Sees was there to defend, and she redirects the attack to her while simultaneously halving its damage and killing the attacker with a lash of her tail.
Sees, take 1d8 damage (mitigated by armor) and then cut it in half due to your Defense roll. Your counter-attack damage destroyed the attacking zombie. The kitchen is clear, and you see Tanard greedily devouring some rabbit meat that was hung from hooks near the walk-in cold storage room.
Also, Retzack's monster is bursting onto the scene in the main reception hall by now. His entrance is marked by the death of three guards, scooped up in its claws before they regain their movement from Krish's spell. Chomp, chomp, chomp, and the abomination bites off the helpless guards' heads, dropping their lifeless and squirming bodies to the ground after it does so. As the crowd is beginning to regain their movement, they universally are trying to flee the massive undead thing, as this formerly happy event is turned to one of horror and death.
Retzack, you learn from the chef that:
This Time Temple serves as a general-purpose monastery and temple building for Estr and has for many years, its original purpose and owners being long absent;
Today's wedding was between Iris Fontaine and Bartholomew Harris, two upper class humans native to Estr;
The cake was gluten free due to the bride's request;
The pocketwatch in the chef's pocket was an old Sumerian artifact, one that allowed a necromancer to keep zombie servants indefinitely and without limit, provided they signed a contract agreeing to serve as a zombie after death, while the artifact bore witness. Thus, every zombie in here was a willing recipient of the gift of undeath.
The zombies in this kitchen, in fact, were terminally ill hospital patients that used to work for the chef. He had been working with these same zombies for years.
The knowledge comes to you just as Oadir and Sees finish up destroying all of them. The kobold and goblin cooks are nowhere to be seen.
Thunk flings the straw body into the woman he landed on and grabs his club, then he looks about, seeing the people brandishing weapons Thunk attacks the closest.
H and S for
Greas, if you spend a moment looking for it, you could find where it went. However, the humans, elves, and dwarves nearest you are beginning to shake free of their chains and glare at you angrily! Some flee in terror, others draw their fancy, mostly-ceremonial weapons and brandish them. You'll have to defy danger to avoid getting attacked while you're searching for the bird.
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Krish switches his spirit catcher for another totem, and looks in the direction of the bird, softly hissing the name of the spirit in the totem, Hassai, strike true!
A powerful bolt of lightning lances out at the bird.
A powerful dragon spirit, seemingly covered in iron scales, appears around Krish and assists in directing the lightning. When it vanishes a moment later, Krish's scales glint with a metallic sheen.
That bird. That damn bird. THAT BIRD WAS THE TARGET. He didn't even care about his wounds. He would pay his price to make them pay theirs. Greas screams out at the top of his voice in Draconic, his voice filled with deep, primal fury. "THAT BIRD BROUGHT US OUR RUIN! FIND IT NOW, AND EXACT OUR PRICE!"
There is no place for subtleties here now. Taking a lesson from the Thunk school of action, Greas uses the nearby bodies as a springboard to somersault through the air, out of the reach of their faux armaments. They should know better than to think they were useful anyway.
Above the crowd, he stows his rapier, and uses the hand to make a show of the totem of Joszinnnix as he watches for the bird. Surely even the druid would know the value of the spirit of a dragon.
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The dagger drops from Retzack's limp hands as realization hits him like a hammer dropped by an angry gawd. All of reality---the wedding, the chaos, the death, the monster, the gluten-free-cake-good-for-them, all of it fades to as nothing as he drops to his knees.
"Is it here? Is...does he have it with him?" the goblin thinks as he checks the chef's pockets looking for the watch.
As Smoog enters the Wedding Hall, he takes in the entire scene with a sweeping gaze.
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Thunk and Greas working together have their side of the battle boiling.
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Retzack's Monstrosity tears into the main team of guards in the hall.
Apparently they were more for pomp and circumstance than actual muscle and protection.
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Then he sees Krish RIDING A DEATHCLAW!!!
Lightening and Spirit energy dance around him and seem to be targeting ... a bird?!>?!?
"Well this is quite a scene.
We can't have reinforcements arriving so where is that main gate?"
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On his way to seal the Gates, Smoog cuts down a few chandeliers with his eye-beam laser hoping to crush some guests or at least add more turmoil to the
"Life is an abomination- an unstable, temporary state which we cling to only because we fear any wholly new experience. The immortals, eternals, and elementals must be largely annoyed by our fleeting and futile struggles for persistence in a cosmos we can hardly fathom, let alone presume to impact in any meaningful way." The speech invokes Sees' magic, but she's not focusing enough to effect Oadir. The magic fixes its threads on the nearest affiliated target.
Any knives the dirge sees in the kitchen she stops to grab and throw in the wash basin. This may leave her as the last to exit the kitchen, pacing back and forth to the wash basin.
Thunk brandishes his brightly-glowing dragonbone club and charges at the guests threatening Greas. With their legs rooted in place by Krish's magic, they are unable to flee and thus stand their ground. Thunk attacks an old man wielding a rapier, his club making no sounds as it swings through the air. BWA-SHWING! and the rapier makes contact with the club in midair. It's unable to completely block your swing, barbarian, but the subtle twist of the old swordsman redirects your attack down and to the left. Instead of coming down on the old man, you shatter a flagstone in the floor next to him. The old man rubs his wrist from the force of the impact, but still stands. He readies himself in a defensive posture, readying for your next strike, and taunts you. "Come, slave! I'll teach you some respect!" he shouts. You now have a -2 to attack anyone but the old swordsman.
Overhead, Krish is blasting the bird with lightning. The bird had dropped a seed from a tiny pouch on its wing onto the chandelier it was standing on, and the seed was spreading with uncanny speed. In moments, the entire chandelier is webbed with thick, protective ironwood roots. Much of the lightning strikes the wood without harming the druid, blackening it like when lightning strikes a tree.
However, the dragon spirit guides the lightning true. At that exact moment, Greas down below is flashing his totem, trying to get the druid's attention. The druid glances down for just an instant, which is just enough time for a fork of lightning to strike. The magic is funneled into a tiny jewel on the bird's chest, causing a bright flare of light that quickly fades. The druid seems to possess some kind of shield against magic - but Krish, you saw enough weakness in the broach that you're sure its protection could be overwhelmed with repeated attacks.
Stormclouds are beginning to gather on interior of the vaulted ceilings above.
Greas isn't out of the woods yet. Though he successfully eluded the guests nearest to him and he's standing above them all, his Wealth and Taste attempt attracted more attention to him than he bargained for. A young woman who looks to be in her mid-twenties shrieks in capricious joy, throwing her voluminous dress up and over the kobold. The black-scale kobold, and the tall elven man he's standing on, are covered in dress! The dress has a train over 20 feet long - customary in Estrian weddings for the bridesmaids...suddenly, Greas, you're unable to see and you're tangled up in silken dress-fabric!
Retzack, the first pocket you reach into contains the pocketwatch. It still carries the warmth of its prior owner's clutches on it. Down the hall, your abomination is wading through the reception area and devouring people left and right. You hear it hooting and howling in triumph, the sounds it makes almost as horrifying as its appearance.
You still feel a little twinge of anxiety when you pick up the knives...especially a big butcher knife that is sitting near the edge of a countertop. It's not enough, though, to negatively affect your rolls anymore.
Smoog, you judge the distance up to the chandelier chains and determine that your eye-beam doesn't have the proper laser cohesion to effectively cut steel at that distance. I'll allow you to use that roll to las-weld the door shut, though.
It seems he attracted too much attention. No doubt the pig only saw it as a bauble, but it's still enough to turn them into an annoyance. With practised ease and a knife on to hand, Greas wriggles and cuts his way out of the silken mass that binds him.
The moment he can he stows the totem again and begins to bound off the people, the walls, anything that works attempting to get back up to the chandeliers - the now root covered one in particular.
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Retzack rejoices! At last he had an item of true power. If only he could find a use for it!
Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE RETZACK GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
"I know just what to do!" The Retzack laughed in his throat.
He picked up his dagger. He picked up his coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Retzy trick!"
"But they'll call me mad! They'll call me sick!"
He lept to his feet and flew out of the room,
"We must save the bride! We must save the groom!"
"Oh no, is he going to do what I think he is? I mean pigskins are awful but that's a fate I wouldn't wish upon my worst of enemies."
Oadir rushes after the mad necromancer, hoping to stop this atrocity. Though when he reaches the main hall, quickly glancing about and witnessing the commotion, his attention shifts to Greas primarily, but he seems alright. Then Thunk, who seems to be in a 1-on-1, best not disturb that. The best alternative... Smoog.
"Smoog, what can I do to aid?" Oadir says as he takes up a defensive stance on the little tinkerer.
" Well yes Mr. Oadir, it seems we are once again pitted against a mob in the middle of a hostile city.
Although we are making great use of guerrilla warfare tactics,
these humans have a knack for swelling their numbers at inopportune moments.
I think it best if we two make for the main Temple doors and seal it off from reinforcements.
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You there! Take me to the Temple Entrance!"
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Thunk grins, as this man is the first person to ever deflect his club, he salutes the man, then tries to kill him
Thunk smacks the man, but frowns as he realizes the rapier is faster than he expects
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Sees-Death finds her way to the back service door of the main hall and spends a few seconds assesses the battleground, as Oadir and Smoog rush the front door, and Retzack flails his way to the bride and groom. She's not particularly surprised to find Greas, Thunk and the others, and honestly, she's relieved Krish actually managed to secure the soul-devouring beast. She'd have had to kill him otherwise.
Many of the Dirge's allies are attacking a small bird, and the chandelier is covered in brambles that don't look like an intended feature. Dim recollection slides into recognition, and Sees prepares to perform her first magnum opus.
Sees heads for the plinth, the auditory focus of the room.
Look... We just have... One shot, one good opportunity
To strike back against fate itself. In one moment.
Can we capture it, or will it just slip?
What?
Sees gains the plinth, ducking between longlegs. Her voice fills the room.
His cause is petty, alone now, spells are ready,
There's piggletts that are dying already--blood confetti
He's nervous, trying hard to keep us out of the bevy to save lives,
But he's already forgetting why we came down-
A race that won't be cowed
He opens his mouth, but the words can't come out!
He's choking, how? All the pigglets croaking now
Your spell's run out, time's up, over, ciao!
Tugging the invisible net over the bird, the dirge spots Smoog struggling with a device.
Snap'd back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Smoog, tool invoked,
It's so sad, but I won't let him off
the hook, no
I won't have it, he knows his whole back's to these ropes
It won't matter, I've spoke
We know now that it's broke
Let's not leave his mind to flow
We all know the last time he did though, that's why I'm
Back at the podium,
Bel-ting out rhapsody.
Better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him.
You better- lose yourself in the melee, the moment
You hit home, you better never let him go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
You better- lose yourself in the melee, the moment
You hit home, you better never let him go!
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime!
Oh my god...this party...
Oh my god...this party...
Oadir is enraptured with the style of song from Sees, when the second round of the chorus comes along he can't help but sing along, hoping it's the same.
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Firstly, Sees-Death's voice cracks a little as she finishes her rap to Krish and Smoog... unfortunately the distraction of such whack endings to a good flow causes both kobolds to deal MINUS 2d4 damage the next time they do damage!
At least, that's ALMOST what happened.
Oadir jumps in and takes all the attention to himself, successfully distracting the other kobolds from Sees' unfortunate slip-up. He "succeeds" at drawing the negative attention from the bad performance ending. Smoog and Krish are NOT debuffed, but Oadir is instead! And instead of a -2d4 it's only -1d4 to his next damage strike, due to his supreme confidence at stealing the limelight.
While this was all happening, the petty damage that Greas sustained from the groping and grabbing hands of the humans all around him, is instantly healed by the inspiring effects of the words of the bard.
Thus freed, the kobold thief makes his way across the crowd, surfing across their heads and shoulders with many a complaint or yelp from below. Hearing a sound makes him glance up at the chandelier where the druid has been hiding.
"ASTIR, MENDOLOTH!" you hear the druid cry, in the secret language, Druidic. A green bolt of energy zaps forth from the chandelier lair, striking the fallen wood golem that had been "killed" in the first strike by the party. When the green energy strikes the golem, the golem animates itself and begins to float upward! Its head, which had been smote by a club, nevertheless conveys malevolence at you. Its arms begin to elongate, stretching out toward you in an attempt to bind you fast! What do you do?
It's at about this time that Retzack arrives at the scene. You have no trouble distinguishing the bride and groom from the others, goblin; but the root spell cast by Krish is beginning to fade, and the crowd is beginning to scatter, scream, and disperse toward exits not covered by kobolds.
Smoog and Oadir stand near the exit door. Immediately after Oadir aids in Sees' roll, Smoog barely manages to succeed in mind controlling a nearby guard. However, as he dumbly begins to lead you off, presumably in the direction of the Temple entrance, his partner breaks free of the ghostly chains and charges you! The one you've mindcontrolled won't leap to your defense, since you just rolled a 7-9. He only obeys direct commands.
Thunk's silent club swings laterally at the old swordsman facing him down. The impact breaks his ribs - you're sure of it - but unlike most enemies you've struck with the club, he doesn't go flying. Instead, he skids a few feet on the flagstone floor, his slippered feet regaining his footing quickly - and he closes his arm down over the club, holding you fast! He transfers the momentum from your attack and whirls around! His larger body allows him to lift you off the ground itself as you hold on to your club and he holds on to the other end. When he stops whirling in circles, another two younger humans have freed their feet and are grabbing you from behind! Do you keep hold of your club and make it easy to grab you or do you let go to escape the grapplers?
Never being one to do what the Dm suggests Thunk tightens his grip on his club, and slowly at first, but picking up speed begins to spin like a top, he moves about the room crashing the three men into chairs and tables and other party guests trying to know them off
defy danger dex as he tries to keep his feet
defy danger STR to get them all in the air
smash and smash to maybe hurt them also a bit for , not adding my d8 cause this is not about destruction, it's about surivival.
Thump, thump, thump, thump,thump, thump, thump,thumpthump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUUUMMMP!
The bird talks. But all its chirping isn't about to save it.
If he attempted to hijack the golem, it would likely contort or detonate. It did however, make a good next stepping stone, given its comparative height above everything else. Up goes Greas, rising above the golem's grip to land atop it.
As he comes close to the golem's body, he uses his free hand to grip onto the thing and hack at the point where the its arm meets its body with his knife.
Having little luck damaging it, he pushes off and makes one last leap for the chandeliers above. There he'd find his real target.
His eyes alight with sudden possibilities, Krish tries to meld his mind more closely with the Spirit-Eater, to perceive through its senses. His one burning question: Is the force animating the golem a spirit?!
Smoog swings around to confront the guard approaching him.
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The little blue techno-wizard slashes his eye-beam across the path of the advancing city guard; piercing a series of neat holes across his torso and completely severing his left arm.
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"Come no closer or I will start removing your legs next!"
Amazing rolls Thunk. Your club is a bone-shaped green aura now, with so many humans about, and you successfully elude their clumsy attempts to restrain you. The old swordsman looks on in growing shock and anger, clenching his fist in rage as he's suddenly the one who has gone airborne. In seconds, you've completely turned the tables on the three men, swordsmen included, and and are whirling them overhead. You toss them up in the air with a mighty heave of your koboldian muscles, and they come down in such an order that you can knock them right out of the park with your Forceful club. So successful are you at knocking them away that you shock and dismay the rest of the room; those that aren't already fleeing Retzack's abomination, that is.
Meanwhile, up above, an aerial fight is ensuing. As Krish looks on from the chandelier crashed on the ground, studying the spirits and murmuring under his breath to them, Greas bounds and leaps across the wood golem's arms to its torso. Unbeknownst to the thief, who has other concerns at the moment, subtle vines are making their way up the thief's clothes - they're the only part of the golem's arms quick enough to catch the thief as he runs.
True, his stab doesn't do much damage by itself, but it's enough to trigger Sees-Death's rap-magic. With a BUH-BOW! sound, the arcane spell triggered by her dope rhymes ignites in the socket of the golem, dealing an additional damage. This is enough to disrupt the green energies holding the golem together, and the arm is severed, falling lifelessly to the ground as a twig!
This is all the confirmation Krish needed. This creature is animated by spirit magic, you are certain. And you can influence spirit magic. Take +1 in addition to your normal +1 from Discern Realities when you attempt to do so.
You also sense something troubling from the spirit world. The spirit of an owlbear is being called to the druid in the chandelier! He's shapeshifting, and Greas hasn't seen it yet!
Nearby, a tree root tendril has grown out of the wood-covered chandelier and attached itself to a wall. With the deathclaw's help, you can easily get up there at speed.
The guard charging Smoog nearby sees the blast of energy from the strange blue creature's eyeball and feels the burning pain across his arm, and decides that he's not being paid well enough for this. He bolts and runs, and his mind-controlled partner doesn't even look in his direction as he goes.
"OK NOW, take me to the Front Gate,"
Smoog says to his Guard guide.
Thunk looks about for the nearest threat,
He roars Run or get Thump! then he charges said threat.
for
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Retzack seems in a sur-real trance, going peaceably amidst the chaos. He steps gingerly amidst the gore, roots, and running and screaming throng of humans. "'Scuse me . Pardon me."
He has no attention except for two figures. He stoops to pick up a book from the floor and a pen nearby. He doesn't notice the words "Guest Register" on the cover.
At last he comes to the guests of honor, the tendrils of Krish quickly thinning and releasing their grips on them...but then his undead horror grabs them both and hugs them close. Three powerful quasi-reptilian hold each figure while it balances on two legs in a cruel pantomime of the humans.
Retzack is oblivious to either screams or pleading. He approaches them like a used-car salesman anxious to land a good deal.
He approaches the pair.
"Hey, hi there. Look, sorry about all this, but I've got a deal for you. Well, a choice, really. But the good news is you get to prove your love for each other. It's a win-win really!"
He turns to the groom first. "Okay, so, it's like this. You can sign this agreement where both of you get to exist forever, but you owe me TWO favors. Or I can kill her now. And then I may kill you, not sure yet, but she gets squeezed to death right now, in front of you. Your call."
If he signs, he turns to the bride. "Alright, cool, we're getting stuff done here. Your turn, same deal. Both of you exist forever, and owe me TWO favors, or -he- dies right here, right now, in front of you. You might also die too but I haven't really made up my mind about that, so don't think that the sweet, sweet embrace of death will end your crushing guilt over letting your true love die just because you couldn't sign your name on some stupid piece of paper.
And, if you could hurry, that'd be great. Not sure how long I can guarantee your safety."