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Rokgurn prepares himself the night before they reach the site with various long lasting enchantments and the preparation of long lasting magical berries which he distributes to each of the characters. As they near the Necropolis he assumes the form of an Air Elemental and casts further magics upon himself.
He attempts to activate a defensive wand and is fortunate to have it work on his first attempt.
@GM Otha - My character's initiative bonus includes Heightened Awareness which I plan on him using on every initiative roll.
Whisper peeks his head out of his protective Familiar Satchel. He appears the same and yet somehow different as well.
@GM Otha - This familiar's abilities can change on a daily basis due to the fact that he has a Figment archetype. His current abilities will be noted in the spoilers above.
"I am sure that once we get a lay of the land so to speak my master and possibly others will employ further spells. You can never be too careful in the city of the dead."
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Jack and his entourage huddled up and simultaneously counted to three before everybody threw in a hand or claw with one of three gestures. The group looked at Jack's gesture then down at their own. Only the griffin had something similar. The bodyguard and squire grumbled at this, but Ophelia seemed happy.
Jack sighed and handed a scroll to the squire which dropped Ophelia's mood considerably. "Three days wait, then head to Heidmarch's and she'll know what to do." The leshy squire gestured to the comically large heavy pick that it had been carrying. Jack pursed his lips together in thought before finally nodding, swapping the squire's weapon for his pistol to remain armed. "Why not both?"
A little concerning to some who may have watched, Jack practiced swinging both his sword and the pick, Fossilblight, around at the same time, the pick's head emitting a dim light as he did so. Satisfied at not falling over in the attempt, he stowed the secondary weapon behind his back and led the griffin towards the tomb while the other three and the horse sought out some place to hunker down.
Jack turned to the bandolier of wands hanging off the griffin's side and started casting spells as needed before selecting the one for Shield to momentarily keep it in the same hand as his offered up casts of Endure Elements and Mage Armor to those who needed it. "I'll be able to cast Magic Vestment after having slain an evil doer." He stared at the entrance of the tomb and warily went ahead and cast Bestow Grace on Daathiel and himself.
Bestow Grace, Endure Elements, Freedom Of Movement, Mage Armor
Lucky Number 8
Goodberries = 16
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Upon retiring to their room, Vladek and Qadathra conclude their evening in a 'weird' manner: By taking a painted wooden "cuckoo-clock" purchased from a tinker in Oppara, and feeding it to the fireplace of their room. After 10 minutes of silently watching it burn, Vladek looks deep into his familiar's eyes, and asks, "What has become of Cinda and Genelle Manvale, and how best may we secure their return to their father?"
His familiar's eyes glaze over and roll back...and, after a few seconds, it answers in an eery voice...
"Follow the cross-eyed medusa to see them,
Overcome their adoptive mother to free them..."
The familiar's eyes slowly regain their color and he returns to normal about 10 seconds after speaking...
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Qadathra finds that all sections of the wall display the medusa's head...
Daathiel takes an in-depth look at the closest one...
A masterfully wrought iron relief of a medusa’s head, ten feet in diameter, decorates the stone wall between the two nearest towers where the party stands. A circular hole about an inch and a half in diameter sits at the back of the sculpture’s open mouth.
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"Before we go any further," He says with a cryptic smile. "There's no time like the present to offer you each a small gift for the road, of sorts: Allow me a minute of your Time, and from it I can unravel a vision of what may lie down the road...."
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Daathiel approaches Vladek curiously.
"So is this vision gained through careful calculation of current conditions and pertinent variables with extrapolation to likely developments and consequences?
Or is it instead..." the Aasimar sighs, "Mystical? Arbitrary? At the whims of the gods?"
"In any event, very well. I shall receive this vision."
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Vladek gives Daathiel a look of cheeky condescension.
"My friend, have you never heard of 'mystical rationalism'? I admit, my god is *quite* whimsical, it's what I like about Him - but I am no priest. My power is mine."
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Yuri squints suspiciously before slowly lowering himself into the chair before Vladek. "This seems like some sort o' witchery! Ye ain't gonna turn me into a newt, is ye? I'm partial t' bein' a dwarf but so long as we's in 'greement on that crucial point, I spose there ain't no harm in larning me future..." he trails off uncertainly.
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Vladek approaches each of you, in turn, lays his hands aside your head and stares deeply into your eyes for about a minute or so...you feel yourself dozing into a trance-like state, and then see the following...
The vision slowly fades from your mind...and a few seconds later, you come to and see Vladek's grinning face...
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Jack shook his head after the vision and immediately riffled through his belongings so he could etch out what the sword looked like. "Yeah... that is definitely distinctive and doesn't look like a particularly happy sword. It seems likely that my ego is big enough to clash with it if we don't have a way of storing it in a different plane."
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Alie expected something different from her vision. Something happy....and that wasn’t the case. ”Ooo, I didn’t like that at all. I saw a pale dark haired woman with dried blood on her cheeks. She was asking about her daughters, hoping they were okay. She wanted us to rescue her,” Alie says with a shudder.
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"The ghost of some sort of corsair... possibly posing riddles or questions, although in my experience members of the Society at times choose more direct means for dealing with the undead.
I would prefer to answer this ghost's questions if we should encounter him, but if it comes to battle, I can be of assistance."
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As Daathiel inserts the baton in the medusa head's key hole, he finds it fits perfectly and, with a slight turn, each of you finds yourself teleported somewhere...
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You see Daathiel emerge from his sarcophagus about 10 seconds later...you also hear pounding coming from four of the other sarcophagi...
You also see that Yuri is already freed himself from his sarcophagus and swearing loudly in Dwarven...
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Jack found himself cramped in with his companion of choice for this and grumbled quite a bit as he felt around the area. He gave a bit of a push on the walls and found one to actually have some give to it. The griffon was not a fan of being enclosed and was starting to heat up with some heavier breathing. And trying to unfurl its wings.
Jack slightly lifted to let some breeze in and the griffon took the hint, pushing up as well to force the lid off. Once freed, it flapped its wings in the open air in relief before glaring at Jack like it was somehow his fault that they were in there.
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Jack, along with his griffon, and than a few seconds later Alie, burst out of their sarcophagi as well...they see Yuri and Daathiel also free...
A ticked off Yuri quickly frees Rokgurn and Vlaadek from their sarcophagi in short order...
And now the rest of you can see your surroundings as well...
The chamber you are in is octagonal and made of fine, polished white marble. The domed ceiling peaks twenty-five feet overhead, decorated with frescoes of people in billowing robes, hands joined, looking down with pity on those below. Braziers along the base of the dome filled with flickering flames faintly illuminate the chamber. Twelve carved stone sarcophagi lie beneath the dome, surrounding a large carving on the floor of a leering medusa’s face...
The chamber appears to be completely walled in...
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"I said no one puts me in a box 'n I meant it! But now 't seems we've traded our little boxes for a bigger one...? Maybe I should just start smashing the walls? Which one should I start with, unless someone has a better idea..." Yuri hefts his dorn-dergar as he considers where he might be sundering the very room in which they stand...
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As Yuri looks for a place to smash through, Daathiel makes a thorough search...after his rage resides a bit Yuri joins him in his search. While they don't find a secret door, they make a couple of discoveries that might prove fruitful...
At the foot of each occupied sarcophagus is a 9-inch-long funerary baton, similar to that provided by Hanoris, but made of polished brown stone. The recessed floor in the center of the mausoleum is an earth-tone mosaic of complex geometric designs reminiscent of Qadiran artwork, with a scowling medusa’s head in relief at the hub, 15 feet wide and made of iron, a larger version of the vertical head at the entry wall. On the edges of the iron disc, at each of the four compass points, is a circular hole...
Both Daathiel and Yuri think the funerary batons they noticed earlier might be a perfect fit for the circular holes in the iron disc...
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Jack cast detect magic and started to make his own observations about the room. With more unopened sarcophagi in there with them, he sighed and also set about starting to open some of them up to see if anyone else was trapped inside or if the sword was there to make their quest easy. "That was weird. Just want to say that aloud. Hopefully we're where we think we are and not teleported somewhere far away from there."
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Not having found anything of note in the other sarcophagi, Jack headed back over to join the rest of the party with a potential way out. Feeling reasonably cautious in his boldness, he pinged himself with his wand before stowing it away so he could have a hand free. "Power word kill would be kept stored ready on a tomb, right?" Jack simply grabbed hold of the batons and started trying to rotate the disk so that someone else didn't have to deal with a potential trap.
Lucky Number 8
Goodberries = 16