Yasami opens the door as Joran bursts through the other. The new room's flagstones are painted entirely black, and the sprawling and irregularly shaped chamber contains a circular, sunken arena in its middle. The arena’s edges are painted deep crimson, and an ominous crimson pentagram fills the center.
A handsome, dark-haired man in matte black armor, wielding an heirloom great sword, moving with a confident and assured technique, is engaged in
combat against a snickering imp. There is a small religious symbol of Asmodeus imprinted onto the shoulder of his armor. As you enter, you see him drive his blade through the shrieking creature’s heart.
He looks up and sees the lot of you, and opens his mouth to say something just as four more of the little devils hiss and drop down from the rafters. He grumbles, “Great. More bloody hell monkeys,” and gestures toward those of you standing in the doorway. "A little help, I hope?"
Block 1: Caiten, Dario, Cev, Joran
Block 2: Imps 1 & 2
Block 3: Lisi, Hellknight
Block 4: Imps 3 & 4
Block 5: Oren and Yasami
Shrugging, Joran charges straight for one of the imps with his warflail in hand and brings it down hard toward the small creature.
He then makes his way towards the middle, just a step away from the Hellknight. Quickly glancing at him as his attention is more focused on the critters, "Looks like we showed up in the nick of time, buddy. I wonder what that makes us?" he asks with a wry grin.
Shrugging, Joran charges straight for one of the imps with his warflail in hand and brings it down hard toward the small creature.
He then makes his way towards the middle, just a step away from the Hellknight. Quickly glancing at him as his attention is more focused on the critters, "Looks like we showed up in the nick of time, buddy. I wonder what that makes us?" he asks with a wry grin.
"Good question! Probably makes us 'significantly less bloody monkeys the handsome knight isn't sure are from Heaven.'"
Cev raises his Holy Symbol as he prepares to cast Admonishing Ray
Caiten follows Joran into the room a bit more cautiously. He makes a quick assessment of the situation.
"Lisi, I think you could make use of a bit more power for your spells."
Caiten then casts Shield since there is currently no one between himself and a couple of the imps.
Hexes
Stoke the Heart
Phase Familiar
Needle of Vengeance
Cantrips
Shield
Forbidding Ward
Daze
Light
Detect Magic
1st
Phantom Pain
Magic Weapon
Fear
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Joran's flail crunches into one of the little hardy imps, though it seems to resist the blow somewhat. It screeches at him, flapping its wings. A moment later, Cevendyll attempts to batter another of the devil rats with magic, but it hops to the side at the last moment, the attack barely missing.
Dario strides into the room right behind Cev, pistol drawn, and levels it at the one that just dodged a magical punch to the face. "Why Joran, I'd say it makes us big damn heroes...". Dario fires his pistol...
The imp takes the hit in the shoulder and bares its teeth. Dario ◆reloads the weapon and assumes a defensive position in case the creature wants revenge.
-------------------------
The imp Joran hit chases after him. Its poisonous stinger lashes out at the barbarian...
The scorpion-like appendage stabs into Joran and it cackles with wicked glee. It channels its connection to the hells and heals itself...
--------------------------
Imps are craven things, and the one Dario shot does not enjoy the suddenly fair fight it finds itself in. It ◆◆ turns invisible and ◆flies off who knows where, likely seeking some advantage...
--------------------------
The Hellknight ◆closes with the nearest imp and brings down his great sword upon it in a powerful blow. "Can't argue that, friends." His voice has a slight Varisian accent to it.
The Hellknight strikes the creature hard enough to bisect it, sending the two halves across the room to splatter against a wall.
Lisi steps forward and extends a hand. A spark of lightning flies to connect with the nearest imp.
"I think I understand the silvered weapons now," he says calmly. "I thought the Hellknights deserted this place..."
The as-yet-untouched imp to the north stutters a shriek as its body courses with electricity. You can make out its skeleton through his scaly hide momentarily, and they really -do- look a lot like monkeys.
The Hellknight flings blood from his blade and replies, rather calmly for a man in the heat of battle. "They did. I'm here on a personal matter. Happy to tell you about it shortly."
The frazzled, electrified imp finishes twitching and begins, instead, to grunt. Every muscle in its body tenses, and just when you fear it might be about do its business on the floor, it begins to morph into something else. The wings retract into its torso, which fattens. Its gangly limbs shorten and grow hooves. In a remarkably short period of time, the imp has transformed into a hellish looking boar, with the same red, scaly skin and red, glowing eyes.
The boar rushes towards Lisi and attempts to gore him with its tusks.
Lisi should, by all rights, be gored by the hellboar, but instead, in a move that would make a matador jealous, Lisi channels his connection with nature and darts out a hand to bat the tusks to the side harmlessly and sidestep, leaving the boar to overshoot him in utter confusion, skidding to a stop right before colliding with Caiten.
Oren gives Yasami a little bow as she politely invites him to enter the room first and attack. He strides so that he flanks with Joran and brings his maul down upon the imp!
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Boar-ing," says the druid, arching an eyebrow at the transformed imp.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yasami enters the room. Seeing the beef-boys taking care of one of the imps, the decides to carry on and help Caiten and Lisitsei instead. She runs up to the "boar" with her rapier ready.
"Oh... bacon?", she jests as she turns the corner and sees the creature. "If you told me we were having a barbeque, I would bring something to skewer the meat with."
She grins as she lifts up her rapier.
"Oh wait ... I DID!", and strikes at the swimp.
Stride twice (up to 70 ft), then doing a .
You make an incredibly graceful attack, piercing your foe's defenses. Make a Strike with a weapon or unarmed attack that would apply your precise strike damage, with the following failure effect.
Failure You deal half your precise strike damage to the target. This damage type is that of the weapon or unarmed attack you used for the Strike.
So essentially, if the attack hits, in addition to the 1d6 + 1 (rapier + strength) piercing, the attack does extra 2d6 precision damage. Performing a finisher strike causes me to lose panache in any case. It sounds complicated, but is really simple if you boil it down as below:
Critical success: normal Strike damage + 2d6 precision damage, doubled. Lose panache.
Success: normal Strike damage + 2d6 precision damage. Lose panache.
Failure: Edit: You miss, but deal 2d6 precision (weapon type) damage halved. Lose panache.
Critical failure: You miss and deal no damage. Lose panache.
Sulee, peeking through the top flap of her satchel, watches Yasami. "Well, Yasami. You sure do know how to make an entrance."
"Yes, it appears that you have things well in hand here, Yasami and Lisi."
Caiten sustains the spell on Lisi in case there are more enemies.
He walks around the corner of the wall. Looking around the room he notes, "I am seeing three dead Imps, and one nearly dead. Is that all of them?" Then continues walking up to the one remaining Imp and stabs at it with his sword...
while paying more attention to the Hellknight than his targeted foe.
Yasami winks at Sulee as she brandishes her sword. "Oh yes - nowadays, being amazing is basically my job. But thank you, anyway."
Dario strides(free) into the room right behind Cev, pistol drawn, and levels it at the one that just dodged a magical punch to the face. "Why Joran, I'd say it makes us big damn heroes..."
"Ain't it just," he responds, grinning confidently.
He then tries to avoid the stinger of the imp but fails to do so.
Nonchalantly watching the stinger pierce him before cutting his attention to the cackling imp, "You're gonna have to do better than that, bug," he tells it, allowing his anger to take over and swinging his flail hard at the imp in an attempt to obliterate it.
The Hellknight glanced around for a moment. "The one that got away is on borrowed time," he declared, loudly enough for it to hear. " The circle prevents it from leaving this room, and the moment it shows its face again..." he let the threat dangle, then spoke more conversationally as he reached into a pouch and removed a black cloth, cleaning the gore from his sword..
"One should always make sure these nasty things are finished off. It seems my predecessors forgot that fact. I thank you for your assistance, by the way. I suspect you're not looters. Who are you, then, if you please?"
Caiten looks warily at this hellknight noting the religious symbol on display. [i]He does not appear to be actively hostile towards us. That is a benefit.[/b]
"There is still one imp here then?"
"And to answer your question, we are from Breachill. We were given the task to secure this citadel. The city council noticed that the place had an influx of hostile creatures."
The man nodded at Caiten's question about the imp, eyes to the rafters. "There is. But he seems disinclined to return and allow us to reunite him with whichever realm of Hell he originated from."
He glanced around at the group with a measuring look, nodding approvingly. "I've heard good things about Breachill. It would seem they grow them quite large there, " he said, having to look up to meet Joran and Oren's gaze, despite being rather large himself, "And quite competant," he added with a disarming, charming, smile to the group.
“Armiger Alak Stagram of the Order of the Nail, hailing from Citadel Vraid in Varisia.” He gives a formal bow. “How nice to meet you all in this beautiful and well-kept estate.”
"Lisitsei of Crimson Tide Wood...and Breachill." The druid returns the bow, having been trained in the ways of gentility. He waits to see what a member of the Order of the Nail will say, or not say, about a steward of the wild, surrounded as he is by plant creatures and wargs.
Caiten raises an eyebrow at the description of 'beautiful and well-kept', but doesn't say anything.
He instead sheathes his sword, draws his bow, and starts methodically scanning areas of the room.
The imp remains well hidden from Caiten's gaze, but Alak seems to be correct about it not intending to throw its life away for the moment. Probably best not to leave anyone alone in this room until the pest is dealt with, but it seems harmless enough for the moment.
Alak bows his head at Lisi's greeting, and smiles at the pups. "The woods seem to look favorably on you. You can tell a lot about a man by how his dogs act around him." Rocco was currently using Lisi's legs as cover and practicing pouncing on her prey by charging the nearest dead imp over and over. Shadow was sitting obediently at Lisi's heels, taking the warnings of danger to heart and keeping a close eye on her sister. "Yours both look well cared for. As does your...plant." He seemed rather unfamiliar with leshies and was peering at Guba with curious interest.
Caiten finishes his scanning pattern of the area and gives up the attempt. "Sulee, how long does Invisibility last?"
Sulee pops her head out of the satchel. "Well, the spell that you could cast if you could cast Arcane spells - about 10 minutes if you are just using it to hide with. But mystical creatures don't usually cast standard spells. So I really can't say how it is becoming invisible or how long it can stay that way."
Caiten keeps his bow in hand, but relaxes his grip on it.
Turning towards Alak, "I believe you mentioned informing us of your purpose in returning to this citadel alone. Would now be an appropriate time to discuss that?"
"Hi, I am Cevendyl of Iadara, having also adopted Breachill. I am a cleric in service to Yuelral, and my apologies, I should already have asked if you are injured. May I help you?"
Alak waved Cevendyll off politely. "No need, friend, though it's kind of you to offer. I am hale and hearty, as they say. I imagine it's safe to assume I have you lot to thank, for clearing out many of the creatures squatting in this place -- other than the imps, I put down a few restless dead, but they were behind bars and posed no threat. There was a creature in the woods that was rather fearsome, but I've already seen to the scratch it gave me."
He turned his attention to Caiten. "I’ve taken a short leave of absence from the Order of the Nail to attend to some personal business. My father's signet ring. He passed recently, and I found out it was stored 'in a safe place' here, but the old letter that referenced it did not specify where that might be.
"I thought to check this chamber, because my mother administered the test during her later years and she might have locked it away with the other valuables, but no such luck. I planned to check the crypt below as well, since respected members of the order sometimes kept keepsakes in the vault there, but the stairs have collapsed, so I'm not sure how I'll go about finding it now. I hope looters have not absconded with it. Call me sentimental, but with both of them now gone, I find myself wistful for a keepsake."
"We were told by some folks who were there at the time that the stairs collapsed under the weight of those lizard beasts that are currently dead in the courtyard. We are also looking to enter the lower levels because that seems to be where the hostile creatures are coming from."
"What does this signet ring look like? Is it magical in any manner? If it resonates with magical energy, that would also help us find it."
Grinning pleasantly, "Name's Joran Bravestone. Breachill's always been home to me. And don't you worry about that ring, buddy, we'll find it. We're gonna clear this place out."
"We're on the same path, then, Armiger Alak," says Lisi with a nod.
"Please, just Alak is fine. And it's not magical, at least not to my knowledge -- just an heirloom.
"I'd be glad to throw in with you, if you'll have me. It's a shame our old home has been so gutted, and I'd like to at least see it cleared of vermin before I return home. I'm a bit surprised we didn't keep a contingent here, just for tradition’s sake, but the Order of the Nail has queens to serve and law to uphold, and has pretty much washed its hands of this place."
Caiten considers Alak's offer to join the group for a moment. "There are concerns about the Hellknight order generally. And some rather disturbing things I have read in the historical records left here." He looks towards the Warg puppies briefly. "But I try to always make assessment on an individual level instead of based on generalizations. I have no objections to working with you."
Caiten then looks back towards the ceiling. "Do we wait for yonder imp to show itself again before leaving? Or just leave it trapped in this room?"
Yasami cleans her blade in a little less dignifying way. She just wipes the steel into the body of the imp, looks at it, and nods. "That'll do, pig...", she looks at the imp as she speaks. Scanning the room for the invisible critter, she moves closer to the group.
"Hello, mister Stagram. I am Yasamina.", she gives the man a brief glance, then continues looking for the imp. "You may consider me a friend while we are cleaning up this citadel. After that, things might get difficult. We will see. Just giving you a heads up."
"My name is Oren Strelov. Nice to make your acquaintance. As for the missing imp, there are eight of us, vs before when it had three friends to attack Alak with. While I don't know anything about imps, I'm inclined to believe that it's not going to go into a fight that will only end in it getting slaughtered by the eight of us. "
"Excellent. Now that we're past introductions, let's see what we've got left. And if the imp shows itself again then it'll die, no fuss no muss. So, let's take a look at the map." As Yasamina pulls it out and throws it open, Joran scans it. "Okay, it looks like all we have left is this secret hall. The only thing left to do is figure out how to make our way in there. And it looks like we've got a lot of wall to examine for some sort of secret opening. Unless," he looks to the Hellknight, "you know how to get in there, buddy. Do you?"
"Initially I thought it was an error in the recordings of the dimensions and that the area wouldn't actually exist when we got here. But I think I saw a doorway leading to it from the south wall of the training hall - just over there." Caiten points in the general direction. "Do you want to take a few of us and go search that area while the rest wait here for the imp's invisibility to expire? Or is that still too much of a split of the group for your liking? Personally I don't think it would be a problem. And I don't like leaving living hostiles behind us.
Sulee pops her head out of the satchel again. "Also, who has my sword? Did it get left behind somewhere?"
"Joran must have dropped it when he pulled out his massive flail. You can go get it. It should be over by the door in the pantry."
Sulee climbs out of the satchel and jumps down. "Bah, you guys have no respect for my equipment." She then walks off towards the pantry in an obviously fake huff. She returns a short while later holding her glowing sword again.
Smiling, "A doorway, huh? Well that makes it a lot simpler then, doesn't it? Excellent. Yeah I'm not worried about that imp. It's not a concern because it's living on borrowed time anyway. We'll find it and we will end it, I promise you that. Our buddy Alak here said it can't leave this room anyway so we know where to find it."
"Honestly, I'm thinkin' we should all go. Not so much pertaining to splitting the party - although, I always feel like that should be avoided - but more along the lines of if something important pops up, we may very well need all of us to be there. Plus... I think splitting up the party should be avoided," he says, grinning wryly.
Sulee climbs out of the satchel and jumps down. "Bah, you guys have no respect for my equipment." She then walks off towards the pantry in an obviously fake huff. She returns a short while later holding her glowing sword again.
Slightly cringing, "Oh yeah, sorry about that poppet." He looks over at Caiten and shrugs. When Sulee returns with her light, "C'mon, Poppet of light, let's go to that door and check us out a secret hallway." The barbarian then leads the way toward the directions giving by the android.
Caiten mtions to Sulee and they both follow. Caiten giving one last look at the ceiling before leaving.
"Hello, mister Stagram. I am Yasamina.", she gives the man a brief glance, then continues looking for the imp. "You may consider me a friend while we are cleaning up this citadel. After that, things might get difficult. We will see. Just giving you a heads up."
Alak smiled at her affably. "I thank you for the warning, Yasamina. I enjoy a challenge." he winked.
He fell in with the rest of you as you made your way to the secret door Caiten discovered. "I did indeed make use of the passage, but there wasn't much of interest back there. Seems it made a good hidden vantage point for maralictors to observe those being tested. Now that I know it's there, I shall have to look for a similar hidey hole back in Vraid."
Upon investigating for yourselves, you fins Alak's words rang true. The hallway was narrow, with a few well-hidden slats that could be opened to observe the test arena. Peering through them, you saw the imp reappear and cautiously creep towards the exit you all used, but as he neared the doorway, he ran into the boundary of the summoning circle and could go no further. He beat on the invisible wall with his fists for a moment, then stomped his feet and flew back into the rafters.
The larger, southern end of the hall had a few supplies stashed away, once upon a time. Like the rest of the keep, they were in poor shape now, having been picked over by perceptive looters over the years.
Caiten notes with a bit of relief that the imp is indeed not able to leave the room that it is in. He also makes a note of the imp's favorite place in the rafters to perch.
"I'm not seeing anything of use in here. Shall we continue on to the alternate passage to the lower levels mentioned?"
After the quick skirmish, Dario spins his revolver and slips it back into the holster before doing the very same with his shortsword.
"Dario Zuz of Clan Zuz, Dongun Hold Citizen. Pleasure." The wide and dangerous grin stays on the gunslinger's face as he tips the wide-brimmed hat to the man. It seemed the mystery of the man with the large sword may have been solved.
"I agree Caiten. Lets get down there and deal with this place. Can't let the knight embarass us, afterall." The last part is said with a murmur as he travels over the carnage of the quick fight.
"Oh yes, just like your colleagues, I bet you love the challenge of mutilating someone tied to a rack."
Yasamina snaps back through gritted teeth.
She takes a few breaths, muttering something to herself, then looks back at the man, a lot less hate in her eyes. "I would like being proven wrong, but killing a few imps doesn't quite cut it."
She moves into the corridor with Sulee to be near the light, and pulls out her map for any indication of their next step.
"Helba said that the entrance was behind the rear wall of the citadel. It is somewhat hidden but the impression she gave is that it should be easy enough to find. There is a tree with some rocks hiding the entrance. From where she gestured to, it was farther away than where our map extends to, but not by much." Caiten heads out of the hole in the wall of the training hall and begins searching the area for this entrance.
"Oh, mutilating someone tied to a rack is easy. Much harder when they're mobile." He preemptively held up his hands placatingly. "I jest in poor taste. Apologies. I often speak before I think, it's a weakness of mine."
"In seriousness though, I am aware of the reputation of my Order, and in many cases it has been well earned. Some members are incredibly zealous. Overly so. Perhaps it will ease your fears to know that as an armiger, I have not yet attained full rank within the order or been allowed to face the test." He frowned thoughtfully and murmured, glancing in the direction of the room with the imp, "I wonder if that counts?"
The party makes its way outside through the collapsed wall, and within minutes you find the tree Helba spoke of. There is a large flat stone that is easily moved aside to revel a stone staircase down, into darkness.
"In seriousness though, I am aware of the reputation of my Order, and in many cases it has been well earned."
"More concerning to me is the idea that some of the punishments would simply lead to more of the same problem. Detaining a young woman in a compromised position - at a pillowry no less - is likely to lead to more unwanted pregancy."
"Well, sulee, you have the light. Normally the phrase is 'lead the way', but I am not really liking the idea of you being in the front of the group as a target. But, let's head down here and see what we can find."
"Oh yes, just like your colleagues, I bet you love the challenge of mutilating someone tied to a rack."
Yasamina snaps back through gritted teeth.
She takes a few breaths, muttering something to herself, then looks back at the man, a lot less hate in her eyes. "I would like being proven wrong, but killing a few imps doesn't quite cut it."
She moves into the corridor with Sulee to be near the light, and pulls out her map for any indication of their next step.
Joran sighs under his breath. "Yasamina, please," he says, giving her a pleading look. "Please?" he reiterates in his typical friendly-like manner.
"Yes, Joran, I said I am giving the man a chance to prove himself. Relax. For now.", Yasamina ignores Alak's joke with a sigh, and moves on to the exterior. When they find the entrance, she pulls out a torch and lights it. With her weapon in tye other hand, she moves halfway into the doorway, and turns around. "If I scream, they need help.", she winks and disappears into the depths.
Caiten curiously watches Yasami head down the stairs. "I would think that sneaking around would work better when not carrying a light source. Maybe she is just better at it than I am. Or maybe she has a different idea in mind."
"Cevendyll, are you also able to use Detect Magic today? If so, I would like to leave that to you. I would rather investigate anything that we find down here."
Caiten checks his equipment - keeping his bow in hand. He then follows Yasami down the stairs. "Sulee, stay close."