Age of Ashes (Team Dahak)

Game Master Delta Arena

"What an extraordinary thought, that I could finally build an aerie worthy of the goddess. Praise be the winged!"

Alak gives his farewell and marches into the distance.

The eagerness of the bumblubrashers comes with dawn as well, as they begin to expand their accomodations into the now empty southern wing, exploring the crypts and cleaning up the bones and the motionless corpses that were undead.

You do have three entrances leading into the finaly wing of the basement. Which are you taking.

I think Mosquito is going to open the one he is standing in front of ;)

Mosquito eagerly eats breakfast, bargains for leftovers, completes his Daily Preparations and bids farewell as he rushes off to continue exploring their castle!
That is correct once everyone is ready...

A splintered table stretches across the center of this room, while broken chairs, moldy books, and general detritus litter the floor. Two frogger bodies lie sprawled on the floor near the center of the room. There are four more doors that provide exits from this room.

Laying on the table, there is a 2-foot-tall doll dressed in Hellknight regalia.

Markus recommends the others wait a while.

He scans the area for magical auras.

Detect Magic

Also, he tries to remember if this doll can be a construct-like creature that could jump up and attack them.

Recall Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Recall Knowledge Occultism: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

There's no magical aura around the doll, but that doesn't negate the possibilty of it having been created and animated through magic. There are arcane traditions of entraping someones soul into an object, which would, in turn, animate the object. Whether the animated contruct acts aggresively or not would depend on the soul that is animating it.

Kiilo's distaste is obvious; strix children do not play with dolls and his association with dolls in general is quite negative: generally evil magic and Chelaxian culture (where they are called poppets which just sounds ridiculous and ignorant) [BRITISH]

Mosquito walks up to the doll and says,
Hi theres! Wees bees da Heroes ov da Breachill! Whose you?

"You could also try lighting it on fire ..."

The doll opens its eyes and screams something in a foreign tongue in reply to Mosquito. Whatever it said, there is no doubt that the doll is angry. It seems like Kiilo's experience with dolls is a common one.

You can all take your turns before the doll.

Markus is now sure that the soul inhabiting the doll is aggressive. Or it is very confused and unhappy to be within a doll. However, the time to discuss is over. A fight is breaking out. He throws his needles at it.

Needle darts and Glass shield

Attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
Damage: 4d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 3) = 13

Oh damn!

◇ Begin raging.

◆ Get out mikazuki.

◆ Stride next to doll

◆ Strike doll: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22for: 1d6 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 3 = 10 bludgeoning damage.

The doll opens its eyes and screams something in a foreign tongue in reply to Mosquito. Whatever it said, there is no doubt that the doll is angry. It seems like Kiilo's experience with dolls is a common one.

You can all take your turns before the doll.

Can we identify the language? What should Kiilo roll?

Mosquito bounces with joy at being able to play with a doll without gobbos laughing at him. He Strides around the table to Flank and he then casts Magic Weapon on his Rapier!
Dis bees funs!

Markus

Unfortunately, the needle darts fly erratically and take several directions, none of which are towards the construct.

The glass bubble, however, does appear around you.

Vrosi

If there is something Vrosi knows, is how to smash things. Vrosi hits the construct, causing it to break off some splinters.

Kiilo

You know you’ve heard it before, back in Cheliax. A language for the elite. The doll is speaking in Diabolic.

Mosquito

Shiny rapier glows with magic as Mosquito imbues it with a blessing from the drunken god.

The doll is moderately injured

Markus can speak Diabolic, and thus can understand it. He'll translate for the folks.

Sorry, totally missed that.

The doll screamed: "منو با خودت ببر!" Which translates to "Take me with you!"

Kiilo still has his three actions before the doll acts.

Mosquito looks at his now magical Rapier. He looks at the doll. He looks at Markus as the Wizard translates.
Oops!

Kiilo, stunned into remembrances he had thought were long forgotten, responds in Diabolic, "We don't travel with minions of Hell."

Kiilo, head clearly clearing, is incensed. With a snap of his fingers, his wing harness falls to the floor and his wings fly forward at the disgusting mockery of a plaything.

Feather after feather of flying force hit the creature dead on ...

*** Force Barrage: 1d4 + 1d4 + 1d4 + 1 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + (1) + (4) + 1 + 1 + 1 = 11

Kiilo

Magical shards fly towards the doll, crashing against it one after the other, making it stumble on the table with each hit.

Soulbound Doll

"منو با خودت ببر!" it yells again. This time, a wave of void energy emanates from it and it is carried along by the sound, expanding and corrupting everyone in its path. Mosquito takes 26 void damage, Vrosi takes 13 void damage and Kiilo takes 13 void damage. Markus is out of range. Mosquito takes the worst of it as he contemplates his actions looking at his rapier.

"منو با خودت ببر!" it continues to yell.

AB: Harm (level 2)***

The souldbound doll is critically injured

You can all take your turns.

Mosquito Raises his Shield, casts Guidance and Strikes!
Melee(T) Rapier, runic weapon, Guidance: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 1 + 1 = 102d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 4) + 3 = 9 Traits P Deadly d8 Disarm Finesse

Youses bees luckys!

As his little friend lunges with his rapier, Kiilo's wings sweep back, and then flap forward again releasing the flying feathers of force.

"ENOUGH!

*** Force Barrage: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 3, 2) + 3 = 10

Mosquito begins to laugh hysterically as Kiilo's forceful barrage beats the little scamp!

◆ Strike doll: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14for: 1d6 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 3 = 11 bludgeoning damage.

◆ Strike doll: 1d20 + 8 - 5 ⇒ (8) + 8 - 5 = 11for: 1d6 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 3 = 7 bludgeoning damage.

◆ Strike doll: 1d20 + 8 - 10 ⇒ (12) + 8 - 10 = 10for: 1d6 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 3 = 12 bludgeoning damage.

Mosquito and Vrosi seem to be having trouble hitting such a small target, but magic doesn’t fail. Magical shards fry from Kiilo’s wings and crash into the doll, sending it tumbling backwards. The doll crashes into the ground and a small gem breaks off of it, the gem glows for a second before fading and cracking into pieces. The splintered doll remains unmoving.

Markus says "Poor creature... It seemed to be asking for help." Unfortunately, he was too slow to ask the others to stop. He collects the black gem and inspects it, with a Detect Magic.

Arcana: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

"Well Diabolic is certainly the language of 'seeming' - to me it seemed like a curse that wanted to attach its malevolence to us, I'm glad it's gone."

There is no magic emanating from the cracked gem.

To make his life easier, Markus decides that Kiilo is right. To force himself to think of something else, Markus gives Cranky a snack. After he's done, he asks the fox to sniff and listen to the doors coming out of this room.

Apologies. We have some RL issues that has taken our full attention.

Mosquito kicks the now broken doll as the goblin begins searching the chamber.

Markus

There are no sounds or particular smells coming from the northwestern or southwestern doors. Top left and top right But the same cannot be said about the northeastern and southeastern doors. Bottom left and bottom right From the northeast, there are two slithering voices talking quietly to each other on the other side. You can’t tell what they are saying. Form the southeast, there is an acrid smell coming, and the gaps under and besides the door are covered in dried green slime.

Mosquito

I hope things are getting better

You find a couple of old torn maps of the region on the floor, as well as twenty carved figurines depicting different members of a hellknight army. Most of the figurines are warriors in full plate armour typical of the order of the nail, but a few of them are wearing spell casting robes.

Markus is slightly interested in the figurines that Mosquito found, that were probably used for strategy meetings. However, he says "We should probably handle these rooms before we delve into whatever war they were discussing at the time."

Still, as the others take their time to talk about which door to open, he thinks a bit hard to see if he remembers what war this was, and how long ago, based on the size of the armies and geographical topography.

Society: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

The map, depicting Isger and focusing on its eastern border (the border close to which Breachill is located), and the precence of the hellknights suggest that it might relate to the goblinblood wars. During these wars, several groups of goblinoids would come from the foothills to raid towns and set them ablaze. The order only moved out of Citadel Altaerein once the wars had ended.

Thank you. We just are taking it a grateful day at a time.

Mosquito is seen playing War with the figurines....

The goblin sighs as the voices are recognized, related to him and the proposal of disposal is given. Standing up, the goblin girds his loins, as he approaches the gutteral speech door.
Don't touch Mees toys.

Smiling, the swashbuckler takes out his Rapier, casts Runic weapon on it on opens the door ....

Assuming we take time to Treat Wounds first

Glad to read that. That is a good way to approach things.

I moved you to the door from where the voices are coming from.

Empty weapon racks line the walls of this room. Repair forges long abandoned and cold sit in a lonely row toward the back, along with a crude lean-to seemingly made from bits of rope and ripped leather. Two creatures of Mosquito’s size rest against the opposite wall. They are covered in scales and they look up at the cleric as he opens the door.

”Your toys?” says the green one of them. ”We are dragons and we don’t wants your toys, we wants your meat!

”That is rights,” says the red one. ”Give us your meats! The dragons must takes an offering!”

Yes, everyone healed and refocused.

Markus looks at the creatures inquisitively. He tries to identify them.

Recall knowledge Arcana for dragon: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22
Recall knowledge Society because these are so obviously kobolds: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

They are in fact Kobolds. They are the ones who wrote “BEWARE: MITEY DRAGONS!” on the walls of the northen wing.

Feel free to ask a Recall Knowledge question besides identifying them, as you already knew they were Kobolds.

In spite of their words, they don’t seem aggressive. They are just desperate.

I'd like to know the thing that would make them desperate in this situation. If that's possible.

I'd like to know the thing that would make them desperate in this situation. If that's possible.

I would have to believe its hunger, given that there isn't anything other than the bear down there to eat. Desparate to eat or desparate to leave.

Mosquito looks quite ready to do battle! The Cleric of Cayden Cailian stands courageously in the opened doorway. His trusty Rapier held at the ready. His blue eyes scan the room. They land on the two blathering kobolds. They pass the two blathering kobolds to search for a real threat....

Blinking his eyelids quite rapidly, the small green goblin sighs.
Youses wants ta eats? Sure. Wees ken go outside ta eats wit da Bumblebashers easy.

Markus

Kiilo is right, they are desperate for some food, as they have run out of the supplies they had when the froggers and the mandrills took over.

Mosquito

Their eyes light up as Mosquito mentions the Bumblebrashers.

"Bumblebrashers? They survive?" asks the green one.

"Oh, I could definitely have some Bumblebrasher stew," says the red one.

"Yes, stew. Let the Bumblebrashers give food offerings to the dragons!"

"Take us to the Bumblebrashers. The mitey dragons commands you."

Markus rummages through his things and produces some snacks as a peace offering.

"Yes, you know how to treat dragons."

"Unlike those stubborn cultists."

”No respect they had.”

”We revere dragons, they say. You are not dragons, they say.”

”They should know better if they know anything about dragons.”

Mosquito approaches both draconians. The smiling Caydenite places an arm about each them.
Wees bees betters den dose utters. Who bees Dem? Where did day come from?

The kobolds scratch their heads at the question.

”We are not sure. I think they came from downstairs.”

”Yes, there was a big ruckus as our dragon cousins wrecked the stairs.”

”They completely blocked the way.”

”They have tried to go back a couple of times.”

”And they should at it, calling for some Malarunk.”

”But removing all that rubble could take weeks.”

”Yes, no way back down.”

Markus is amazed that the citadel has even more construction downward. He asks the kobolds to describe the other rooms in this floor and the floor below.

I’m ignoring the rooms you have already visited.

”The hall besides us has big paintings.”

”Nice paintings of knights fighting all sorts of creatures.”

”And the hall across is the same.”

”But not the room on the other side of this wall.” He points at the south wall where there is no door.

”No, that room is just like this one, but a green pile of goo is there.”

”That thing stinks.”

”And downstairs there’s just a round room.”

”A round room with a big hole in it.”

”Oh yes, broken wall. Connecting to another room.”

”And the door we couldn’t open.”

”Yes, and a sealed door in the round room.”

”Big steel doors.”

”And that is it. Those are all the rooms.”

Mosquito squints his eyes at the two kobolds as they pile information on top of them.
Mees head hurts. How bouts wees goes ta da Bumblebashers, eats, drinks, conversations and wees return in da morning to explore more. Perhaps our Mighty dragon friends will guide and protect us.

"We will eats with you."

"And then we must go back to our hoard."

"We will reclaim our quarters."

"And we will secure them if anyone else comes our way."

They say, referring to the room with the scribble on the wall and the pile of rubble in the middle.

In the meantime, they do accompany you to the bumblebrashers, who serve you roasted rabbit for lunch.