Kvit: They're absolutely nonsensical pseudo-philosophical questions without a proper answer. You think he might be more interested in the way you answer than the answer itself.
Kvit has heard enough utter nonsense and mad ramblings to recognize it. As well as how to utter it right back. "If I'm no one, I'm lost in the sea of consciousness with countless others. Consuming my soul is irrelevant, just another piece of the whole. Consuming one part churns together into one seething mass of essence. It feeds the T̙̟̫͖̱̟̪̺̳ͥ̊̐̍̈́͆ͣ̓ͪ̀̈̓̃̃͑̕_̴̷̭͖̥͐͘ͅh̶̷̗͍̥͉͎̜̟̣̭̠̬̤ͮ̇͐ͯ̀ͪͪ̃͗́ͬ̋͘̕͟͟͟͢e̴̳ͤͮͥ ̛̳͉̲̠̥̺̞͉ͪͬ̃ͭ͒ͤ͋ͪ͌̀̈́ͯ͢ o͙̔̇_̶̶̨̲͚̱̺̠̭̬̳̙̭̳̰͖͇̬̲̆͋͋̉̇̅̌̎ͧͥ̆͌̏͌̚͜͠ͅṋ̷̪̀̄ͦ̏͒́̌ͬ͑è̩̦̫͉͓͙̫̻͎ͩ͞ over and over in an endless cycle."
The skeleton looks impressed at Kvit's answer. "Ah-ha! You clearly understand the unfathomable depths of the universe. You're on your way to gaining entry. Just a few more-"
But then Lough enters the room. Its head swivels in an unnatural way to face Lough.
"This is your last warning. Do. not. set. another. foot. in. this. room." It clearly enunciates each word for emphasis.
"You may enter when I say so, and not a moment sooner, no matter which decree you have. My orders are clear. I decide who goes in and out, and not even Urevian can say otherwise."
Lough and Kka, you take mental damage as you ignore the skeleton's question and your brain twists itself in a knot trying to answer the impossible question.
Kka ignores the meaningless drivel being spewed by the bony creature and gets a headache for her troubles. "C'mon, big maan. Let him haave it before he bores us to death."
Menacingly, Kka steps into the room next to Lough.
Kvit tries to warn his companions, "I really don't think that's a good idea... There's more here to this than just a big skeleton."
Despite Kvit's warning, Kka and Lough choose violence.
"Another trespasser. I have given you plenty warning. I shall use deadly force to keep you from progressing further. Know that retreat is an option, but I will defend myself from attackers."
Boney's scorpion-like stinger lashes out twice, once at Lough, and then at Kka.
plus spirit damage.
plus spirit damage.
The skeleton jabs twice, pumping venom in your bloodstream as it does so. Lough and Kka, please make me a DC 25 Fortitude check versus poison.
Boney then sweeps its tail low at your ankles, trying to knock you over. Lough and Kka, please make me a DC 26 Reflex save or fall prone!
You think the stinger can reach further, but is obstructed by the doorway.
Boney
Lough 69/92
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83
Kvit 48/48
Everyone is up! Lough and Kka both need to make a DC 25 Fortitude save versus poison, and a DC 26 Reflex save versus falling prone.
"Get out of there you idiots!"
Kvit summons an incomprehensible sigil over Kka's head. It changes the more you look at it and starts giving you a headache immediately... A twin appears over the skeleton's head.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I wanted to know what it thought about the answer." Cherry fuses.
◆◆
◆Guidance on Kka
Unsurprisingly, Boney lashes out with its poisoned tail and tries to take Kka down. "Here we go again!"...
...Fortunately, not enough poison made it into her body to make a difference ...
... but she's not fast enough to avoid the flailing tail and she lands hard on her feathered derriere. "Uf!" She hops back onto her feet just as quickly and starts slashing away with her swords.
|
Blackening of blood, Lough keeps his balance, and counterstrikes!
◆) Raise Shield
◆) Life Boost
◆) Snagging Strike
~) Critical Specialization: Brawling
↺) Shield Block
↺) Reactive Strike
□□□□) Life Boost
Spiders begin knitting Lough's skin back together.
Kka gets knocked onto her tail feathers, but resists the venom, while Lough keeps his feet on the ground, but suffers the effect of the poison. He takes poison damage and feels weaker. He's Enfeebled 1.
Kvit boosts Kka's defenses, while Cherry Berry cures Lough of all his injuries.
Kka misses Boney twice, even with Cherry Berry's divine guidance.
Lough, even in his enfeebled state, manages to critically hit Boney! His bones seem to be magically reinforced, as his claw does less damage than usual.
Lough rattles Boney's ribcage, impeding hims movements.
Enraged, he bites back at Lough.
He's too shaken up from the powerful impact of Lough's blows to retaliate properly, and misses both times.
Boney, 14 damage
Lough 92/92, Enfeebled 1, poison stage 1, round 1/6
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83
Kvit 48/48
Everyone is up!
Lough, please make me a DC 25 Fortitude save versus the poison!
Kka is frustated that her blows hadn't landed, but at least the creature had stayed put, not that it had much choice in the matter. With all its legalistic blathering and talk of Urevian, Kka suspects that they're dealing with another devil. She remembers that devils are generally sensitive to silver weapons and that she'd purchased some talismans back in Otari to handle just such an eventuality.
With a quick thought, she activates the Alloy Orb on her main sword. Then, with Lough distracting it, Kka continues to try and find a soft spot in the skeletal scorpion by slashing at it with her newly silvered sword before poking it hard with her off-hand sword.
Kka has a hunch and turns her main weapon to silver before striking twice. As soon as her silver weapon connects with Boney, its bones start to sizzle and Boney howls out in pain.
Then Lough pounds on the bones with his silver arm, and once again, smoke and stench erupt from the place of impact. His first attack hits, his second misses.
Boney is looking pretty injured. Not yet halfway, but getting there. Its main defense is its resistance to physical attacks, apparently.
Boney, 52 damage
Lough 92/92, Life Boost
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83
Kvit 48/48
Cherry Berry and Kvit are up!
Most undead were immune to such things, but if this is an intelligent undead or a devil. Oh, yep, it's smoking now from the silver weapons, definitely devil.
Kvit doesn't have much to attack it directly, but might be able to slow it down. He summons more glyphs but only in the bone creature's mind. Then shields himself against retaliation.
Kvit casts confusion in the skeleton's mind.
Boney's mind becomes foggy, making him slow to react.
With the enemy now distracted, Cherry Berry casts Divine Lance.
Boney yells, "Raaagh! Even you, little one? You had so much promise, and you dare attack me? You'll regret this!"
He casts a spell, provoking from Lough, and casts Phantom Pain at Kvit.
Kvit, please make me a DC 24 Will save! Unless it's a critical success, you take mental damage, and you're Sickened 1 on a fail (and 5d4 persistent mental), Sickened 2 (and 5d4 persistent mental) on a crit fail.
Then he sweeps his tail once more at Kka and Lough in an attempt to knock them over once more.
Kka and Lough, please make me a DC 26 Reflex save or be knocked prone!
Weirdly, magical light bleeds out from the bones where Kka struck him.
Boney, 71 damage, 1d6 bleed
Lough 92/92, Life Boost, DC 26 Reflex or be knocked prone
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83, DC 26 Reflex or be knocked prone
Kvit 22/48, DC 24 Will save vs 5d4 ongoing damage
Everyone is up! Lough can make a Reactive Strike!
"Well, unfortunately for you my friends are- GAHHH!"
Kvit clutches one hand to his head and points the staff somewhat blindly at the huge skeleton creature.
Then he grabs for the kukri.
Kka sees Boney preparing to sweep his tail at them again. "Uh, oh. Not again! ...
... but she is not fooled and perfectly times a small hop to avoid being taken down by the swishing tail.
She then hacks at it twice with her silvered weapon before uttering the words "protect me," throwing up a magical shield to held absorb any attack launched her way.
...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kka jumps over the sweeping tail, but this time it knocks Lough flat on his butt.
Kvit coats Boney's body in ice, freezing him to his core.
Boney resists most of it, but his teeth chitter in his skull.
Kka slashes twice, but misses both times. She activates her shield, just in case.
Lough raises his shield and gets up, provoking from Boney!
plus spirit, plus
Boney cackles with glee as he chomps down on Lough, and he grinds his teeth in Lough's flesh a little bit more.
Then, Lough retaliates by bashing Boney with Borbo!
Boney, 91 damage, 1d6 bleed
Lough 36/92, Life Boost
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83, DC 26 Reflex or be knocked prone
Kvit 22/48
Cherry Berry is up!
"Those injuries are a little much for me to keep up with," Cherry complains as they cast a spell on Lough.
◆◆
◆Guidance on Lough
Cherry Berry heals Lough back up and them blesses him with a bit of luck.
Boney then has had it with Lough. "You, with the mechanical arm. I did not give you permission to enter this room, and you entered anyway. I've poisoned you, knocked you down, and still you managed to resist. I'm gonna drill this lesson into your head so you'll never forget. This. Room. Is. Off. Limits."
He glares at Lough to send his point home.
Lough is Frightened 1.
Boney then bites down on Lough, and thwaps his stinger tail down afterwards.
Luckily, Lough has his shield up and manages to interpose it between himself and the giant skeleton.
Boney, 92 damage, 1d6 bleed
Lough 92/92, Life Boost
Cherry Berry 78/78
Kka 57/83
Kvit 22/48
Everyone is up! Lough heals to exactly full thanks to Life Boost and has Guidance, as but he is also Frightened 1 for 1 round.
Boney is looking pretty bad. A good round might finish him off this turn, you think.
Kka looks over and sees Lough's expression change when the devil tries his intimidation. "Seriously!? C'mon now, you caan't let that big baag of bones get to you." She turns to face Boney. "Is thaat the best you caan do? Pretty saad if you ask me." She shakes her head in mock disappointment, then gets back to the task at hand. Popping up another magical shield, she then takes a couple more cuts at Boney.
|
|
Lough's shield cuts the bone's words short. He grins with mania. Cherry's prayer girds his second strike.
☑☑☑□) Life Boost
◆) Raise Shield
◆◆) Snagging Strike x2
↺) Shield Block
↺) Reactive Strike
Lough and his foe trade ineffectual blows while Kka goes to town.
"Yes. Direct your ire towards me, Bub. I like it"
Kka slices twice, and both attacks hit! She performs a wide swing with her second attack, and it severs whatever it is that's holding the bones together, and the skeleton collapses in a big pile of bones to the ground.
Combat over!
Once the skeleton falls, Kvit takes. He jabs at him with the end of his staff. "What the hell was that about, Lough. We could've got by without nearly getting killed twice in one day."
He pokes at the bones and examines the room a bit, clearly in a foul mood. "Our goal is stopping Belcorra, not getting into a fight with every damn thing under the ground here."
As Kka's second slice hits home perfectly, she can feel the life leave the giant skeletal philosopher looming over her. She stands quietly as the now deaminated bones fall down around her like a gruesome shower of death. "Hey! Look at thaat! I didn't get torn apart this time. Wonders will never cease."
After patching up everyone's wounds, followed by a quick search of the corpse and room in general, she moves over to the doors that Boney was guarding. After listening at them, Kka checks them for locks and traps.
|
|
"The entire dungeon is hostile, Kvit. Do you really think everyone is just waiting in their rooms until we arrive? In order to fight Belcorra, we must fight her army. That means pretty much everyone here!" Lough insists.
"Besides, we are invincible!" he smiles!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kvit examines the room. There's nothing in this room other than a giant pile of bones, but the walls are completely scrawled over with pseudo-philosophical questions, such as "how can a blind man see the truth," and "is the executioner just a guilty as the criminal?"
Boney must've been really bored in this room.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Army? What army!? Most things down here don't even know she's, well, Undead. Let alone in charge of anything. And you're not invincible, you're just an idiot-" Kvit stops, aware he might've gone too far.
He sighs, "Even if we do need to eliminate everything down here, running headlong into everything is going to get us killed. That gug we just killed literally tore Kka in half and we were ready for it! Just- try to have some self control."
"My head's killing me after that bone scorpion thing, I just need a few minutes"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kka raises her hands up and takes a slight step away from Kvit."Whoa there, Kvit. Whaat's with all the agro? Lough here may be an idiot, but if so, he's our idiot." She whispers an aside to Lough. "No offense intended."
Returning her attention to Kvit. "Also, I caan't help but agree with the big maan. This place is clearly in full prep mode for Belcorraa's return, and if thaat haappens, we, and the rest of Otaari, are toast." She waves her hands at the bones around them. "This, this, is just business as usual down here. I'm surprised you haavn't gotten used to it by now."
She shrugs and smiles. "And, the odd bit of tearing apart never killed anyone. yet. <Ark!, ark!>" The adrenaline of the last two fights is still coursing through her veins, and it feels good.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Cherry sighs. ”Regardless of directness or not, we do need to occasionally stop and ask questions. Maybe if we find out what the plans are we can stop them more effectively.”. Cherry point to the injuries, ”Or maybe with less damage to ourselves.”
”Also, while I do have spells left, I am very short of heals.”
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Eh" Lough shrugs "Stops hurtin' so much after awhile. Besides. Only a matter of time till we patch up quick. Then do it again" he scratches his head.
"We are a magic team. Ordinary folks die. But us? We don't. They'd have to kill everyone to kill anyone. And that's not happening while we all stick together" he pats the rat on the pack "But okay. If talking can get 'em to leave, we'll talk. But then again, sometimes we let 'em go and they repay the favor with killing Otarians. So it's risky either way"
"I gotta ask. If you'd'a solved that Bone's word puzzle, what was your next move?"
The question isn't rhetorical.
Cherry sighs again. "As much as I would wish otherwise, I suspect the end result would have been the same. The Isle of Kratos does have a certain history with the undead, after all. It might have been nice to know what it thought was going on, that's all."
Cherry shrugs. "I suspecting that most of our contact with undead at least will be unfriendly, but that should prevent us from trying to talk one down."
Kvit isn't in the mood to argue, or any mood. He answers Lough's direct question, "Obviously we would have been allowed through to the other room without lifting a finger. But that would have been too much trouble apparently."
"Alright, let's get moving."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hero Point to everyone for some cool and interesting RP!
|
|
Lough itches his head with his mechanical finger "I mean, sure. But then what? Let a monster like that live?" his eyebrows animate independently "Unless we could convince him to leave Otari be - doubtful - we'd just have to deal with him anyway. Might as well lift the whole fist now, ya know?"
Seeing the wizard's mood - lest he turn him into a cricket - Lough abandons arguing. He looks at Kka "Where to next?"
And follows him.
"When we bring this whole place down in a heap, nothing left in here will matter."
Kka looks from Lough to Kvit as they argue things out. Generally speaking, she leant more to Lough's view of the situation. This was especially true on this level of the Vaults, which seemed to be in full preparatory mode for an attack on Otari. Nevertheless, she was happy to entertain less violent means to ridding themselves of their enemies if it saved her a fight, particularly one against a dangerous opponent. But, once the violence begins, the talky-talk goes out the window. This creature whose bones now littered the room, had attacked them mentally with its inane philosophical questions, so that was that; it had to go.
"Soooo, we're good then? We caan move on now? Great."
She gets back to checking the door that the boney devil had been so intent of stopping them from entering.
Cherry sighs at Kvit's idea to bring the lighthouse down. "I suspect that would be the best outcome for Otari, but it does feel like a bit of a waste of an excellent building."
After a pretty interesting discussion about your viewpoints, you continue.
A stairway at the room’s south end leads north to a platform overlooking a cylindrical chamber. Half-melted candles cover a stone altar perched on this platform’s edge. Above the altar, water slowly drips from a crack in the ceiling and onto the platform, the droplets rapidly evaporating in the stifling heat. Six heavy chains suspend a wide metal disk above a magma pool that illuminates the chamber with an orange glow. A fiery pentagram features visibly atop the disk.
It is incredibly hot in this room. You think that if you stay here for too long, you might risk getting a heatstroke. You're not in immediate danger, but having, say, an elaborate dinner here would be problematic.
Two winged creatures with black feathers stand next to the altar, futzing with some trinkets on the slab of stone. One looks over as they hear the door opening. "Huh? Who are you? If Iyagian let you through, it's probably okay. Come help us out over here." She waves you over to come inspect the altar.
"What's the job?" Cherry asks.
"Y'see, we're trying to open a portal, so we can get some reinforcements. We managed to open it temporarily, but it keeps snapping shut. We're having trouble calibrating it, I think. Could you help us out getting the planar coordinates right?"
You see several ritual items on the altar that if moved in a certain position and magic is poured through it, would allow the pentagram to function as a summoning circle, or with some more effort, open a gate to a different plane altogether.
When the winged creatures address them, Kka coughs and clears her throat. "Yeah! Well. He took a little persuading, but ol' Iyaagian did let us through in the end."
Starting to sweat from the heat, Kka looks up at the water dripping from the ceiling, then drops her eyes down to the altar before finally settling onto the magma pool below. She tries to figure out what's going on.
When the flying creature describes what they're doing, Kka frowns. "So, let me get this straight... You guys are trying to open up a permaanent portal to Hell and need our help to maake it happen, right? And, once we've succeeded, we'll bring over a bunch more devils to help with the invasion. Do I have thaat right?"
She turns to her friends, and raising an eyebrow, whispers, "I don't know about you guys, but thaat does not sound like a good plaan to me."
Suspecting that the only way to stop this dastardly plan was to cut down these two creatures and then find a way to destroy the altar, she grips her swords tighter and prepares for battle.
For the people who want to roll Knowledge checks:
- Religion on the creatures.
- Religion or Arcana on the portal.
- Crafting or Nature on the magma.
- A Nature check for the ceiling.
Kka examines the creatures and the portal and rakes her memories to see if she can make any sense of what she's seeing.
On the other hand...
...she's pretty sure that falling into molten stone will not improve her life in any way.