Ed's Rusthenge (Inactive)

Game Master fine_young_misanthrope

"Agreed. The whole island is threatened by what is happening here," Caleb says. "We can't just retreat home."

You get a full rest and are ready for the next day. After breakfast, you head back to the lowest level. The last room is down a short and winding tunnel, ancient and artificial, leads to a natural pocket in the stone. A large number of what appear to be ruined pieces of furniture lie in heaps along the northern side of the cave, and what appears to be a nest has been built in the middle of the mess. A creature emerges from the next and looks hungerly at you, then demands Hand over you pretty belongings for me to wreck! I promises to tell you about the others if you do!

I've included a picture of the creature on the map

"And who are you?" Thalassa asks the creature. "And what are you doing with those?' she adds, referring to the pile of ruined things.

"Sure?" Kazmuk has no idea why this creature is doing this, but decides to play along. He drops 5 pieces of chalk onto the ground for the creature to break.

As Kazmuk drops the items, the demon grabs the chalk with a quick swipe and begins to smash it to dusk. he shrieks and giggles with delight as the items break.

It looks at Thalassa, I've here for the reason your here-the cult! Do you worship or do you fight them? I've been summoned. Give me more and Ill tell you more!

Kazmuk drops all of his chalk and takes a nervous step back, clearly unnerved by the whole situation.

"Okay...can you tell us about why the cult is here?"

It jumps at the chance to destroy! After a furry of smashes and powder in the air, it looks at you all, I was summoned here to help destroy. The men and women are broken and look to break metal, to rot it to its core. Their new lord Xar-Azmak will drive all to dust then parts of dust till nothing remains. It will be glorious! they abondon the lord of iron and hope that they too will be ground to dust eventually as Xar-Azmak will consume himself. The cult sees that Gorum will not be long for this world and he will be broken soon!

you all listen to his crazy story. Caleb doesnt trust him, but the rest of you dont get those vibes. What do you do?

"So you are telling me that all this metal rusting is caused by your new lord, is that what you are telling us?" Thalassa wants to confirm all that they have learned is somewhat connected to this destroyer here. Or at least they can point to them their lead.

"Tell us where this one who summoned you is." She draws out more chalk from her back and gently throws it at the creature, hoping it will talk more.

The demon grins and replies, Yes the master will bring and end to all! All of you will fall one day and decay to dust. All will be dust and then the lord of destruction will destroy himself and true entropy will reign! The person who summoned me is below. Go to him and be destroyed! JOIN WITH THE ENTROPY! Either you or he will be destroyed and the true master will be served! Go behind the statue and advance the lords work! He pants with excitement.

Thalassa looks at her allies if they need to face this lord of destruction.

"Maybe this lord can be the answer that we are looking for."

Kazmuk crosses his arms, his face furrowed with uncertainty.

"I don't like this either, but I think we need to stop whoever is summoning demons in this town." He gives his opinion.

He turns to the demon and waves goodbye.

"Farewell, ye compulsive chalk-hating cultist. Don't go stabbing us in the back or you'll be sent screaming back into the depths."

He turns to move on.

Off to the basement? Any last things before the last floor? Otherwise this is what you see on the last floor

A vertical shaft of rectangular stone rises to the ceiling of this cavern, and is the second most impressive sight in this natural-looking cave. The most impressive is the remnant of an ancient bridge that once crossed a vast chasm to the north. The chasm fluctuates between thirty and forty feet across, growing larger to the west and narrower to the
east. Three passages exit this chamber to the east, west, and south. A curious ring of stones has been placed at the entrance to the southern passage.

The map is the last one that I messed up and put down before. You're all currently in F1.

Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Looking around Kazmuk sees that the path to the south is trapped with a spike pit. Its faint, but a hide covered by gravel is hiding the pit.

Kazmuk holds out a hand to halt the group before pointing to the spike pit.

"We need to disable it - or go another way. Can anyone else assist with this?"

Thalassa has untrained Thievery +2. Maybe others can try?

Thalassa shakes her head. She is not skilled in disabling traps.

Forgot that I'm trained!

Caleb attempts to disarm the trap. "Well spotted. Stand back, everyone."

thievery: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

You attempt to trigger the trap. It goes, but leave a hole. Its open and you can cross, but you see a body in the bottom. You can pass by by jumping or acrobatics to be nimble around the edge. What happens next?

"Walk carefully, this place has already claimed a life," Caleb warns.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

Kazmuk paces back, gets a running start and tries to jump over the hole.

Athletics: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14

Hero pointed Athletics: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19

Thalassa carefully nimble around the edge of the hole.
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Peat looks into the hole, and says, "Can someone lower me down with a rope so I can check to see who that body is?" He eyes the body to make sure it isn't moving but, just to be on the safe side, tries to target the body with a quick disrupt undead cantrip. Assuming the spell has no effect, Peat nods. "Yup, that body isn't planning to kill me."

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

They hold out the rope for someone heavier to hold the other end, assuming they agree, and then goes down to investigate the body, careful to avoid the spikes. "Slow ... slow... okay, hold."

You all make it to the other side of the hole. In the hole Peat finds a pair of dead dero stalkers lie at the bottom of the pit trap, their bodies rotting and waterlogged. In addition to their gear (2 aklyses, 2 hand crossbows with 40 bolts, and 8 doses of giant centipede poison), one of the deros wears a hand of the mage on their belt.

On the other side you find a dead-end cavern smells faintly of refuse and wet fur. A crude fire pit sits in the center, and three bedrolls surround
the fire. The only exit to the cavern is northwest, up a muddy slope. in the area you see three twitchy man sized batmen. They are twitchy and eye you with suspicion...

Kazmuk thumbs his hand in the direction of the batmen.

"I got nothin. Anyone speak bat?"

Peat offers polite greetings in common, fey, draconic, and gnomish ... then, just for good measure, in elven. "We mean you no harm, friends. Just passing through."

The batmen look at you with leery eyes and say, we speak you surface tongue!

Roll diplo!

Thalassa, not being a friendly person, looks at her allies to see if they wish to communicate with them.

But she tries to speak to them.

"We are not hear for a fight, we are looking for somebody that causes all of the rusting we witnessed here."
Diplomacy: 1d20 ⇒ 19

They eye you with suspicion, but the leader says, We will not harm you. What do you want? Speak or go.

Want to ask some questions or GTFO?

Kazmuk asks the batmen; "We want to stop the person causing all the rusting. Do you know who they are?"

If they do not answer, Kazmuk starts to make his way past them.

DIPLO: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

"Truth be told, we need your help. We need to stop this demonic invasion of our lands and homes. So do you. There is no way that this is good for any of us. Please, lead us to the place where we can vanquish this abomination and restore peace."

The batmen listen,then say, We care not for your quest. Kill our foes and we will give you a gift. We will bother you longer if you kill the deros to the west.

Kazmuk turns to the party. "Do we really need to get involved with another hostile party? What have the deros done to us?"

The bats just sit there and listen. They seem like they dont want a fight, but they are ready for you to try to kill them.

Make some friends, leave, or kill them? What would you like to do?

"Well, we were attacked by one on our way into town ... so it's possible that one was associated with this group." He holds his hand crossbow up to the bat folks and says, "Do you know the dero who wielded this? We killed him."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

The bat looks back and says, We killed him. The Dero come here and make trouble. The men make trouble. The Dero and the men make trouble together. They dont kill each other after they talk and they both attempt to kill us. We kill them both. We care not for their way, just that they die and go away. The sense of hate for both the cultists and the Dero is something you feel radiate off the batman.

Peat looks a little confused, since they're pretty sure that they killed this one along the road, but doesn't want to get into an argument with the bat people. They nod at the bats, then turns back to the group of allies.

"So we already know these Duros are bad, cause they attacked us with no provocation. If they're working with the cultists, then we should probably take care of them, so they can't call them in as reinforcements."

"Right. They certainly don't belong anywhere near humans," Caleb agrees. "Let's take them out."

Thalassa nods at their reasoning, though she's not inclined to take them out. But if the cultists are later revealed to be working with them, and reinforcements are called in, they’ll need to eliminate them first.

"Let's do it then."

Deciding on a path, you head toward the Deros. the bats watch you leave. They dont like you, but you know they wont attack you. You head toward F3.
A flat-topped rock covered in fungus sits almost like a table in this cave. Two flat boulders sit to either side, functioning as chairs.
As you approach two Deros stand up and see you...
What do you do?
Map updated.

Checking in. You want to sneak up, kill from afar, or talk? What happens next?

Also, have a hero point. havent done that in a bit and you just didnt kill somebody, so FRIENDS!

Kazmuk looks at the Deros and tries to talk to them.

"Look 'ere mate, we 'ave a problem with you working with the demon summoners. You got to cut that out now." He states matter-of-factly, fully expecting them to resort to violence.

Peat listens to the explanation of the bats and finds it intriguing that the men and the Deros are working together, so decides to open an investigation into this in place of investigating Mietremar, who I believe we have found dead.

Peat loads up the hand crossbow with a bolt treated with the giant centipede venom he got off the Dero they encountered earlier, holding it in one hand and the cold iron light hammer in the other, standing near Kazmuk at the ready ... idly wondering why they made the barbarian the spokesman of the group.

If Kazmuk or anyone else is attempting a Diplomacy or Intimidation check to get these guys to talk or surrender instead of fighting, I would throw my "Clue In" bonus toward it for an additional +1 on the check.

The deros look at each other and then back to you. Then in a dark tongue one says something to the other, the other nods, and then both pull weapons!

Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18
Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
dero creature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage
dero creature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Post when you can!

Thalassa provides guidance to some of her allies.
◆ Guidance to Caleb - +1 status bonus to one attack roll, Perception check, saving throw, or skill check before the duration ends.
◆ Guidance to Kazmuk - +1 status bonus to one attack roll, Perception check, saving throw, or skill check before the duration ends.
◆ Guidance to Jacen - +1 status bonus to one attack roll, Perception check, saving throw, or skill check before the duration ends.

ROUND 1, FIGHT!
Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18 BOOST!
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage
dero creature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Thalassa springs into action by helping as many friends as she can!

Post when you can

Kazmuk moves up and decides to stand in the intersection to prevent flanking from taking place.

With a strong punch, he puts on his scary face with an Intimidating Strike.

Strike: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Hero pointed Strike: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Lmao.

Kazmuk completely biffs it.

ROUND 1, FIGHT!
Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18 BOOST!
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage SWING and a MISS!
dero creature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Kazmuk runs up and swings hard. So hard it misses the dero completely.

Post when you can!

Monday I will post the dero. Feel free to post your actions and ill change how things happen!

ROUND 1, FIGHT!
Peat perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Thalassa perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18 BOOST!
Kazmuk perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18, Quick-Tempered for Free action Rage SWING and a MISS!
dero creature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 attack!
Jacen perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Caleb perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

the Dero advance on Kazmuk! It tries to grab Kazmuk ad jab him with a hook! If it hits, you are grabbed and cant speak
dero grab: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 301d6 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
It tries again!
dero grab: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 231d6 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
The second dero casts darkness around itself and then put a poison on a dagger!

Post when you can!