Detecting magic on the room beyond determines there's a magical prescience, a rather strong prescience of abjuration magic. Takumi can't actually see the ward, but he does get a sense there wouldn't be anything he could do about it if he did get to it.
The party then decides to continue pressing north, and Takumi sends Kizuo scuttuling under the door after Kaya checks it out. The small scorpion sends back a strong sense of contentment, happiness and familial love. There is no sense of Danger. However, the door seems to be locked.
Opening the door sets off a Mass Disintigrate spell and everyone dies reveals a room with bookcases along three of the walls. Among the multitudes of books, little Kizuo scuttles about wih an open book, turning the pages back and forth. Looking at the titles shows a rather extensive collection of materials on demons and the Abyss. The room only has one other door out of it, on the northern end of the east wall.
Looking closely at the selves you recognize that some of the shelves are nearly packed to the bursting with books, but many others have openings and one or two shelves are nearly bare. It almost looks like someone took out a large nubmer of books.
A closer look at the books shows that these are more than just information on and about demons, but seem to specify the rituals and rites that followers of demon lords should perform. They also seem to make up a large percentage of the books in the room.
|
Fresh from their victory in the Outer District, the group of seekers, Candi Payne and her companion Donna the Viper, Obsidean, Sister Ayako, Slimjim Son of House Shady, and Elric promise aid to the Pathfinders, should they need it. The team leaves a token in the hands of the junior Pathfinders in case they should ever need their help!
Opening the door sets off a Mass Disintigrate spell and everyone dies reveals a room with bookcases along three of the walls. Among the multitudes of books, little Kizuo scuttles about wih an open book, turning the pages back and forth. Looking at the titles shows a rather extensive collection of materials on demons and the Abyss. The room only has one other door out of it, on the northern end of the east wall that bears a similr looking lock to the previous door.
Looking closely at the selves you recognize that some of the shelves are nearly packed to the bursting with books, but many others have openings and one or two shelves are nearly bare. It almost looks like someone took out a large nubmer of books.
A closer look at the books shows that these are more than just information on and about demons, but seem to specify the rituals and rites that followers of demon lords should perform. They also seem to make up a large percentage of the books in the room.
|
Despite Kahru's prompting to move on, Eugressia can't resist taking a peek at the books in the room. "Fascinating! This isn't just information on and about demons, but they actually specify the rituals and rites that followers of demon lords should perform. And...oh my.They seem to make up a large percentage of the books in the room."
Kizuo scuttles under the door and along the side of the wall. There's not much of a reaction until a minute or so later, when you get a sense of soft comfort and then a few seconds later a thrilling sense of fun. Nothing dangerous though.
Kaya checks the door over for traps and finds nothing indicating there might be one. Unlocking and opening the door proves there really wasn't one. The room beyond the door is small, mostly contianing a small chest of drawers, a good quality bed and bedside table. On the wall is a painting of a minotaur in an ivory maze.
When the door opened, Little Kizuo was in the middle of jumping up and down on the bed, but as soon as he sees his master the little paper scorpion goes rushing back to home. The chest of drawer is definitely in a state, whoever slept here clearly having gone through things in a hurry, the unmade bed adds further support to this conclusion. On the table is a piece of paper with wax on the edges.
|
Having been trained to pay attention to the smallest details and to try and see the world around her more clearly, even or perhaps especially in times of stress, Zyneste notices something strange about the painting on the wall. "The eyes on that minotaur don't seem right. It looks like someone has drilled them out, making two peep holes into the next room!" Stepping forward, the monk looks through them. "There is another bedroom behind here, one much less personalised than this one...and I would say, by the looks of it, rarely used!"
She then looks around for some sort of door or secret entrance.
Zyneste can't really see any secret passages or doors, but looking thorough the peep holes she can tell that there is a door on the wall of the room.
Kizuo slides underneath the door to the south of the library room. Takumi feels a sense of awe at how bigt the place is. The feeling continues for a moment until a sense of surprise and blind terror comes flying back to the arcanist. The feeling of fleeing in terror slows down and comes to a stop instead getting replaced with curiosity and puzzlement. The feeling of curiosity slowly overpowers the fear. Tepedation. Vigilence. A slow dawning realization follwed by relief, an unfathomable feeling of stupidity, and mortification.
Opening the door reveals a meeting room with a giant table in the center and a large stuffed Vroc in the corner, along with a sheepish looking Kizuo loitering near th base of the clearly dead animal.
You head back onto the streets and head for the underground passages, heading back to the Starrise tower.
Opening the door reveals a meeting room with a giant table in the center and a large stuffed Vrock in the corner, along with a sheepish looking Kizuo loitering near th base of the clearly dead animal.
Along the walls there are many bookshelves filled with an eclectic assortment of tomes and papers, some bound in flesh and other unspeakable substances. Though all of them dealing with demons.
The party gets to looking around the room, but nothing of interest presents itself at first. However, twenty seconds or so the taxidermy vrock gives a shudder and a creak. A silent second later, the beast springs into action, beating its wings and looking about the palce before focusing on the pathfinders.
It is an advanced animated object, not an actual Vrock. Though the construct might prove problematic in it's own right.
The louad creaking noise that the thing gives off alerts the party to the threat and well before the vrock could move the party was in action
++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++
Current Map
"Rrrrrrr-Hoo!"
|
|
"Despite appearances, this is not a vrock, but an advanced animated objected. It is a construct and ..." and he continues to share what he knows of such objects.
Takumi waits until Zyneste had the chance to fire upon the creature before he ties off a piece of paper and flings it at its feet, summoning a patch of grease under it.
Kahru gives Nokka a sign to move ahead before advancing on the vrock with his earthbreaker at the ready. The slow moving creature barely recognizes that he’s in danger before the large and very hard weapon slams into its shoulder causing the thing to creak and bend in an unnatural way. The skin and feathers of the beast tear exposing not flesh but stuffing and the gleam of some sort of metal underneath.
Nokka waddles up to the clearly-not-living vrock and tries to take a chomp out of the tasty looking side of the thing but sadly only clamps down on cottony stuffing that gets caught in her beak.
Takumi instantly recognizes the construct for what it is. “... it is not particularly resistant to anything, but it does have the innate hardness that all objects have. Also anything intended to hurt or affect living things only will likely not work on this!” He then starts to prepare a spell, deferring to Zyneste’s arrows first.
Eugressia takes one look at the thing and fires off another round of magical arrows as she is wont to do. But for the first time in awhile they actually reach the target, slamming into the monster and causing a wing joint to pop out of place.
Kaya rushes in with her rapier and tries to skewer it in the belly of the large construct, and succeeds in burying it in what seems like an oil reservoir the black liquid slowly creeping down her blade, and then seeping from the wound after it is removed.
++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++
Current Map
Zyneste, bow in hand, pulls out as arrow, fit it, draws, takes aim, lets it fly and then pulls out another in rapid succession. The first one goes a little high, but the second slams into the wound that Kaya left and sparks against the metal frame in the body. It catches the oil on fire catching the rest of the stuffing and body on flames. The heat proves enough to melt the central core of the construct, bringing it down in a heap.
|
|
Arrows thud into the construct before Oiur, and they almost lose their balance as they pull back their earth breaker mid-swing.
"Hm." They lift a creaking wing with one boot toe. "None of this is looking good. We should check their entire house before we report."
They move to investigate the room, humming softly while they look for a passage to what they assume is a safe room. They give Nokka's head a pat as they pass by the owlbear.
Despite the Demons attempting to take control once again and arriving in greater numbers, the host of Pathfinders is battering them back as quickly as they arrive. The Pathfinders are delivering victories at an astonishing rate, particularly in the Confluence and Outer districts!
Kizuo skitters under the door and after a minute or so of waiting, a slow building sense of shock over how little is in here and some boredom over the lack of things to do grows. The little paper scorpion scuttles back later having found nothing better to do. A quick check of the door proves it is clear of traps. Opening the door shows a room with a few chairs in it and a couple of magazines along the wall and some pamphlets about what to do in an emergency in Nerosyan and a couple of tourist brochures, dead signs it was a waiting room that Thurl put people he wanted to make wait.
Turning around and checking the door to the previously veiwed bedroom also shows no traps and a quick look around inside proves the place was used for little more than putting up people for a night or two.
With the place scoped out, the party decides to head back to Starrise tower. For once the roads are clear enough that they prove to be faster than the tunnels. Only a few demons still roam about and most of them are pursued by other pathfinders or crusaders and seem to be in no need of help. In fact some of the more brave of the civilian population can be seen here or there, taking stock of the damage, helping to rescue those who were trapped, or even getting the hurt and dead or dying to places to medics. The city seems to be on the mend.
Arriving at the Starrise tower you track down someone, telling them about your need to meet with Jorsal. After a few minutes of waiting in his office the man himself appears with a used scroll in hand. "These have been most handy today! Ah Friends, it's good to see you. I hear you have information about Thurl that I needed to see? "
He listens to your testimonies and read over the letter himself, his face darkening. "Hmm that is distressing news. If Thrul truly has betrayed us, then we might have to send someone to throughly go through his lodge after this is all over and see how much of a breach of information he represents. Thank-you for warning me of this."
Jorsal then looks the group over and adds, "We've been getting reports that a host of demons is attacking the Woundward Tower just norht of here and being a major nuisance to the archers there. Perhaps you could go and help them?"
The tower proves to be right next door to the Starrise and as Jorsal was saying it seems to have a large number of flying demons, wasps in particular hovering about it.
Heading in and up to the top floor, you get accosted by a gnome covered in grease and carrying a giant ballista bolt. "Youre here to help aren't you! Perfect!" He gestures for you to follow him, and hands off the bolt to Kahru, "I can see you’re tried and true soldiers! We can put you to a lot better use than as simple archers." He starts to tour the armaments, going clockwise around the tower, and occasionally shouting a word of encouragement, or telling people to adjust their angles.
After a second he glances back at the party and almsot looks startled you are there. He takes the bolt back from Kahru and continues on. " Ah, thanks, I needed that! Right! The Woundward Tower has stood for years in service of Nerosyan, keeping her skies safe, and we have more than a few tricks up our sleeves." About two thirds of the way around the tower he hands off the bolt to one of the ballistas running low. "Here, Let’s get you up there, fighting off these damned demons.”
He leads you back to a room just off of where he'd run into you. A few people squeze out with ammunition before the gnome leads you to a small cabinet, which he unlocks. Inside is a massive collection of vials and flasks all filled with a soft green glowing liquid. "Here we go! Potions of Fly! We get them in bulk and cheap from a witch in the Confluence district! Lovely woman, though she likes to cackle a little too much for my tastes." He gets lost in thought for a second, before catching an eye and coming back. "But right, there are some demon wasps that are being very problematic to my archers, think you could go hunt them down? We'll provide any and all potions you might need, if you need them, of course..." He takes a moment to answer any questions you might have.
When you seem to be satisfied with everything, he glances behind Zyneste and his eyes light up. "Ah Dingling Fudge Berries! I forgot I needed to re-string Siege Crossbow 17g!" He dives past the monk and grabs a spool of string almost half as big as he is and scurries out of the room with an absent minded "Good luck!"
|
Kaya twitches a bit at the thought of taking flight, but she tries to keep the shuddering to a minimum. There were plenty of animals that took flying for granted after all - surely she could do this?
"Thank you," she says. She tries to convey gratitude, but if it comes out sounding a bit reluctant, well... There wasn't much else in the way of getting her up, up, and away.
"What's worked well on these wasp demons so far?" she asks, fingering the pommel of the new rapier she'd upgraded for.
|
|
"This is respectfully offer my sincerest gratitude for the offer of the magical potions." Then, there is a brief twinkle in Takumi's eyes before he adds, "This one is be rude to ask, but with the stock that is present, might we have more than one, for I understand that each potion has a limited duration."
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Zyneste also accepts a potion with a polite nod and word of thanks. She quietly considers what she is about to do. As a young girl back on the farm, she had often sat daydreaming of what it would be like to soar in the sky like the birds of prey that would circle around over the fields looking for rabbits and rodents on the ground below. A small smile crosses her face as she anticipates the sensation.
"What's worked well on these wasp demons so far?" she asks, fingering the pommel of the new rapier she'd upgraded for.
”Not bloody much! The damn things are highly mobile for something so large! Keep weaving and ducking out the way of our archers and hitting weak points. Though I’d assume the same things that work on a demon.”
"This is respectfully offer my sincerest gratitude for the offer of the magical potions." Then, there is a brief twinkle in Takumi's eyes before he adds, "This one is be rude to ask, but with the stock that is present, might we have more than one, for I understand that each potion has a limited duration."
As the gnome heads out of the room he gives you a nod, ”Take as many as you need. Just try using the ones on the right first, they’re the closest to expiring.”
If appropriate, she tries to remember anything she can about demon wasps.
knowledge(planes)1d20+13
With everyone ready and potions downed, back ups bagged and feeling light as a feather, the party takes to the sky, slowly floating upwards. Nokka gives a small cooing noise as Kahru goes, either sensing somehow that she’s missing a fight or because of the strict orders not to eat anything or anyone.
Not 40 feet up from the tower does a group of large insects with thick black chitins and a hellish glow to their eyes lock their gazes on the group and move to engage, their large stingers at the ready.
The party however is already in motion and more than ready to start attacking the beasts before they even truly figure what to make of the group.
++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++
Current Map