"He did it." Then more loudly, Jawn says "He did it!"
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Jawn:
Jawn whatever past life you had once lived your recollection is unsure how to aid Jawn in combating the curse but you know that whatever the Necromancer is doing has definitely drawn the creature from Jak. All of you save Jawn begin coughing, your eyes and lungs burn from the smoke in the room. In the barely lit room a cold spills in from nowhere and you feel your lips and fingers stiffen from sudden drop in temperature. Out of the pool you watch a dark shape rise. It is terrifying sight. A macabre of something that was once human. The creature seems like it is formed from hundreds of writhing tendrils. It opens it's mouth and see swarm of flies pour out into the room. Gilhaut calls upon Acheillius and even as the radiant light cuts through the creature it advances on the Necromancer still holding the dagger in hand. On the table you watch as the coins fall from Jak's face his eyelids open. He tries to open his mouth but moans in pain his mouth sewed tight.
The Necromancer now finished sewing Jak's mouth shut draws forth the black dagger instantly speaking, "The curse is old and cannot be destroyed it must return to where it came from. I do not know what will happen next but prepare yourselves." Reaching down he grabs Jak's hand and opening it he slowly slashes across the young scout's palm. A dark, black substance starts to slowly ebb out of the wounded hand and you watch as the Necromancer catches it into the mortar jar. The black ooze bubbling and frothing as it strikes the jar. From out of Jak's nostrils the same black ooze begins to drain out this time dripping to the floor. As it does so a black, acrid smoke fills the house that burns at your eyes and throat. Jak flails about as you try to hold him down as if seemingly suffocating with nowhere to breath. The room grows cold and you watch on wondering if the boy is about to die! The Necromancer stumbles back tripping and in doing so you watch as the contents of the mortar jar falls onto the ground the substance coalescing into one pool.
The Necromancer nods his head undisturbed by the gruffness of the party's agreement to paying the cost to save Jak. He quickly gets to work grinding down some ingredients in his mortar jar. Setting the jar down he grabs four deep red candles and places two at Jak's head and two at Jak's feet. HOLD HIM DOWN!" his booms through the darkened confines of the cottage. He sets to lighting the candles and places his hand into the jar letting the dust spill into each candle. Each time it does you watch as the light from the hanging lantern and the candles begins to wane leaving the room in almost complete darkness... Producing two coins from his pouch worn around his neck he puts them on Jak's eyes. Wasting no time he pulls a bone needle and thread from a pocket, "Now we determine the true will of your companion," and in shock you watch on as the Necromancer plunges the needle through Jak's lips sewing his mouth tightly shut.
The ogress looks on annoyed at Innis-Ferista stepping forward, "The high priest tell nothing of your coming here. You live only because you are his sister. The others are fodder. They do not come under high priest request. I am part of circle you are NOT. Choose as you wish go but others stay." Even as the ogress shouts this at Innis-Ferista the tension in the chamber begins to feel tense. The faithful of Scythe Mother having now blocked the entrance from where you came. Merelda: In this alcove you see a polished white stone fountain carved to resemble a two-headed vulture protrudes from the wall here. Crystal clear water continuously falls into the fountain’s
basin from a brass pipe several feet above the fountain. The font is radiating the magic.
The large ogress looks down at Innis guised as Ferista. "Yur rentow stay. You may go to see Azrenar. Whatever rival priestess you speak about the Scythe-Mother has chosen yur brother. We fear none. We are with her chosen one in her temple." Merelda:
From your hiding spot you sense strong magical auras from the altar where the ogres stand near. From the two alcoves (where middle yellow triangles point to) a strong magical aura can also be felt. On the ogres the male seems to carry a few magical items and the female only has one aura coming from her
Outside Gilhaut, Nesserin and Jawn watch as the town guard eases up and let them pass by. The lead guard nods her head towards Gilhaut, "Thank you for your honesty. The wilds can bring in terrible sorts of trouble and usually one only finds out about it at the last moment. Go see to your man. If he needs help from the Necromancer things must be terrible indeed." Gilhaut, Nesserin and Jawn rush to the cottage of the Necromancer and watch as a tall lanky man begins to examine Jak. He gives a cursory glance as the three enter but says nothing instead listening to Herrick retell the vague details of what occurred in getting Jak cursed. "You are right he is cursed. That the boy made it here you should are fortunate." Grabbing a heavy tome from a nearby shelf he flips to a page and begins gathering several apparatus - a stained earthen bowl, several glass vials, jars of herbs. "I have everything but will need the dagger." The group passes the Necromancer the dagger now somehow wrapped in Jak's cloak. "Before I proceed and for this to work you will NOT interfere with whatever I am going to do. I will be direct. Your friend is likely to die by day's end. What I will do may or may not work you must be prepared. And what I do is not for charity there is a steep cost to it. Are you willing to pay?"
As Herrick and Malthus rush to where Gutmark is pointing you wa5ch as a lance of ice flies overhead striking one of the shadowlings that the town guard is engaged with. You hear a cheer from one of the guards as the creature dissipates into shadowy smoke. The guards take care of tge last one after some effort with their mundane weapons.
Gutmark pounds on the door and a tall lanky man opens the door. His eyes have dark circles around them and they are swollen and puffy. He is about to say something to Gutmark when he sees Herrick and Malthus carrying Jak. "Quickly bring him in. Put him in the table" he points to a large wooden table that dominates the sitting room. All about are shelves with vials, urns and books. The only light comes from two lanterns that have been slightly shuttered casting the room in shadows. Gutmark stays at the doorway clealy too frightened to enter but curious enough to look in. The tall man speaks in a booming voice as he assesses Jak "What has happened to him. He barely clings to his life? Tell me all that you know or I will be unable to treat him properly." Even as the conversation goes on with man Gilhaut, Nesserin and Jawn begin to head to follow after their companions when the town guard stops them. A tall read headed woman leads the conversation her spear held in a non aggressive position. "What did you bring here? And are there more coming?"
The cultists look surprised as you Innis now guised as Ferista presents herself to them. One of the cultists her heaf shaved like all the others points to the ogres standing before the altar. Feeling confidant that the charade is working you move up to where the ogres stand before you. Atop a three-step dais that allows access to a raised area about 5 feet higher than the rest of the temple stands a large altar made of pale violet marble, on which lies the bloody corpse of a human male with its chest cavity open. Behind the altar stands a towering stone stat-ue of a three-headed woman wielding a golden sickle in one hand and a skull wreathed in green flames in the other. One of the ogres you see is a towering male at least 11 feet tall with sickly gray-green skin, mullet-cut black hjair, coal black pupil-less eyes, and an over-sized maw filled with crooked gold-capped teeth. He wears metal plated armor under a patchwork cloak of animal and humanoid skins and wields an over-sized sickle. The other ogre is a shorter, grotesquely obese female ogre around 9 feet tall, with boil-covered pale gray skin, a waist-long tangle of thick blue-black hair, tiny sunken holes for eyes, and a constantly drooling toothless mouth. She wears an ill-fitting suit of sweat-stained studded leather armor and wields a pair of over-sized sickles. It is her who speaks to you, "You sister of Azrenar. You been blest with touch of Scythe Mother. You survive. Good the Scythe Mother reaps weak keeps strong. Who are they?"
Gilhaut and Jawn drop 4 of the creatures each dissipating into a cloud of shadowy smoke. Nesserin takes a protective stance while summoning upon the silent goddess blessings and closes his wounds. As more of the shadow creatures fall Malthus and Herrick notice that Jak's spasmodic actions seem to calm down allowing him to be carried much easier.
@Innis Should we conserve our fighting strength and directly seek out Azrenar? weal and woe Innis divines should we expect traps in this room after the scythes
1. Are all the enemies just standing in the middle of the room around the goddess' statue? Or are they spread out? Are they mostly all humans? Any dwarves? Are they wandering or are they talking? Or just staring at the corridor we would be coming out of? Are we close enough to determine if the ogres are chained/charmed/illusions or are we too far away to tell or make spellcraft checks?
2. What kind of light sources are we talking here? Where are the lights located? It's a pretty big room and there are some large pillar-like columns that could create multiple overlapping shadows. Are there any obvious exits? Possible traps? Could traps explain that may explain why they are standing the back of the room to begin with?
3. Where is the statue exactly? Is it under the GM 'cover' on the map? If it is, then why can't we show that part yet and see where the enemies are specifically since it has already been described?
4. Can I quickly scout the room's edges invisibly? Look into all the nooks and crannies (covered parts) without leaving? Once I know more of the layout of the room, I may be able to make a distraction to lure the majority of the enemy away.
5. Could I send Cinder to check out the room since it has a really high ceiling and he has a decent stealth? Or would he be automatically noticed/crazy to try? Can anybody else fly? Kirzon, a small bat would not be suspected down here I think and could sneak past pretty much ignored I think. You would not have to be invisible...
Funny thing is this game is still under TPJ I never actually applied for it I will do so and when given permission will close the thread.
lol 9 weeks let's do something about that today.
With Althea last breath you do all that you can to save but her wounds are too grave. Seeing no more coming from the cave you close her eyes and leave her there promising to yourselves to carry her body out once you are finished here. Duncan says a prayer before you all move into the cave. In the cave you find that it contains three bolts of cloth and five small casks in the middle of the floor, resting on a piece of coarse matting. Leaving the chamber you head down the southern passage where you find a cave that opens directly to the sea. The tide is out at present, and there is little water in the cave. but there is an obvious high-water mark three feet above the floor. Pulled up onto the sloping cave floor is a small boat, perhaps large enough for eight people, with oars, a step-down mast, and a neatly furled sail. A rope tied to the bow is being held down by a large boulder
Searching around the chamber you find nothing of interest but you think this boat must be used by Sanbalet and his gang in moving their goods into here. The boat is too small to go out to the deeper sea but you could see this boat being used to transport goods from a larger seaworthy vessel. Duncan lets you all know that the pirate isles of the Sea Princes have been rumored to be using Saltmarsh as part of their operations. With this information you head back to Saltmarsh with your deceased companion. Informing Anders Solmor of your findings he is rather alarmed but relieved that you have uncovered this truth. He pays you each a modest sum of 100 gold coins and thanks you for your services and puts down another 50 coins to pay for the burial of your companion Althea. Duncan inters the her to the sea where it sinks to the bottom after weighing down the wicker casket.
Will answer all this tomorrow night.
Thanks for update Rodalas hope the recovery is speedy
Orym rushes in hoping to end this before his comrades bleed out. Fixing his eyes on the mage he tears into the mage cutting this way and that way. The man is barely able to stand under the slicing blades of Orym but stand he does and Orym braces himself as Sanbalet readies to retaliate when Orym hears Tanya let loose a spell and watches as both the mage and the archer collapse to the ground.
DM screen:
Jawn's magic missiles strike three of the shadow imps and upon impact you watch as each imp explodes into a cloud of black smoke. Nesserin strikes at another imp and while the blade cuts through one of the imps the creature shrieks in terror but remains aloft as wisps of black smoke rise fron the wound. Two of the imps seperate from the pack flying towards Jak, Herrick and Malthus. The guards move to engage them and the skirmish begins as the guards move to get into standard formation. Herrick and Malthus continue to push forward hoping to get Jak to safety. Gutmark curses and tries to encourage them to mive quickly. The remaining imps attack Nesserin and Gilhaut.
Taking precautions to moving following the sweeping scythe trap Merelda takes off scouting ahead with Cassandra following behind both cloaked by Innis' invisibility. Merelda: The tunnel eventually opens into great open hall with a polished floor of black and gray tiles. Eight towering black granite columns, carved to resemble huge moss-draped oak trees, support the ceiling high above. Obviously a shrine of some kind, a great stone altar is visible at the far end of the chamber, standing before a huge statue depicting
The ceiling here is 30 feet high along the walls and gradually extends to 50 feet high near the center of the chamber. Waiting in this room you see that a large group of cultists are expecting your party. By the altar also stand two massive ogres peering down the hall.
DM Screen:
The bandit is cut across the arm by Orym and then battered down by Duncan as the two combine to finish him off. The humanoid creature which you recognize now as a hobgoblin stares with surprise as the bandit goes down only to find itself clutching at its own throat as Orym's deadly scimitar gives the creature a quick if not painful death. Tanya, Althea and Rodalas do not find the same success as they attempt to take out the archer in the cave. You watch as an older balding man moves from behind some stacked casks. "Fine I'll do it myself!" he yells towards the group and then sends a barrage of missiles from his finger tips at Duncan and Althea. Likewise the archer sends two arrows at Althea and Duncan. Each of them then take cover behind the casks.
I'm here but my posting rate has significantly dropped as you can see. I will have a post ready for you this coming Thursday.
DM Screen:
Rodalas' arrow takes the archer in the throat dropping the man before he can let loose another arrow. Rodalas moves finding cover against the wall. Showing no remorse for his fallen companion the man with armed with his sword moves forward to the entrance and swings the blade at Orym. The humanoid creature follows closely behind shouting some broken common curses pushing the first combatant forward and then swings at Rodalas. The remaining archer fires 2 arrows at Duncan. One arrow sinks into Duncan's arm
Gilhaut swings his blade now imbued with the divine power of Archeillus into the shadowy haze surrounding the creature. The result of the blade striking the creature causes the cloud to explode into a swarm of tiny imp-like shadows. The guards immediately halt unsure how to respond to what they are witnessing. One immediately shouts for assistance. With little else to do Malthus and Herrick rush Jak towards the house of the man called Black.
DM Screen:
Malthus rushes to Jak and grabs him tightly doing his best to help Herrick. As they continue to head towards this Dark they feel the struggles with Jak lessen. As the town guard comes into view they all turn their attention to the large cloud of shadow that heads directly for Nesserin. The tiefling swings his blade and you watch the shadow reel back. Jawn bombards the shadow with several missiles. From the cloud of shadow a long claw emerges striking at Nesserin but missing the tiefling. The town guard race to meet this shadow creature while Gutmark points to a building still several. As the first of the guard races by Herrick he shouts out, "What is that thing and why did you lead it in here?!"
Orym's arrow and Althea watery eldritch blast slam into the archer even as Duncan brings a blessing to Orym, Rodalas and himself. Tanya throws a firebolt but the blast goes overhead.
No it's good I've put this off too long so let me post. We got a great group here so don't want people to lose interest. Thanks for check in Helaman *thumbs up* and thanks Malthus this guy always has my back! Look for the post this weekend I'll make time to move this forward.
Rodalas pushes on with the rest of the group determined to finish off Sanbalet and whatever others have aligned themselves with him. Heading down the eastern tunnel you do your best to keep silent but four arrows fly overhead from the cave ahead as you see two men - the one that originally fled from you and another come into view launching arrows from their bows. Quickly you watch as another man brandishing a sword and a tall humanoid figure move to block the cave entrance. DM Screen:
Hello all apologies but my pbp routine has just been thrown off. My schedule at home with work and watching kids leaves me drained so sitting down to post is the last thing I want to do but I am trying to commit myself to this game. I'll have a post up by tomorrow.
Hello all apologies but my pbp routine has just been thrown off. My schedule at home with work and watching kids leaves me drained so sitting down to post is the last thing I want to do but you are right this tunnel has gone on too long I'll post pushing you along if you post great if not then I understand.
Belated Happy Easter all
Herrick holds Jak tight as the young man struggles with whatever entity is within him. Malthus quickly grabs hold of Jak doing his best to help in any way. Nesserin chooses to act as rearguard in hopes of slowing down this creature as it inches towards the group. The shadow creature lurches forward as it does so its wings spread apart and begin to flap, surprisingly it does not fly but instead, you watch as a cloud of shadow covers the creature.
no worries Herrick. Right now it's hard for me to get free time to post as my free time is usually spent trying to keep these two young ones at home entertained or fed or clean...etc.
The man looks up at Orym doing his best to maintain a courageous front, but clearly cowers back at the firbolg's presence "No traps. I have no business to lie to you. I'm a dead man once Sanbalet finds out I'm gone. I've told you all I know. I should live!" Hearing Duncan come to his aid the bandit runshes off. You follow him to see where the tunnel leads to and see that it opens into an uneven, naturally formed cavern is about twenty feet in diameter. From what you can tell it likely meets back up with the initial passage.
We are good to go. Apologies about the delay.
Herrick and Gilhaut it's a struggle at first to stop Jak from hurting himself as lashes about his screams now turning turn to cries of pain, but you maintain your hold on him as you follow Gutmark to whoever this Dark individual is. Given his current state it is likely that it will take two people working in tandem to get Jak to wherever Dark lives.
Yup just really busy eith kids and work. have loaded map will advance this wknd. stay safe all!
The bandit looks at Rodalas trying to hide his contempt, "He's human."
"Down the passage. The one you were headed down. He'll be waiting for you. Same way we were."
Casting a worried look at Orym the man turns his attention to Duncan "He..he won't be giving up. Sanbalet he can do things like that one." the bandit points at Tanya, "Noone is stupid enough to mess with Sanbalet else that be the last thing you do."
"Sanbalet. He's the boss here. What he says goes. No questions asked unless you looking to find yourself floating in the mire. He talks about some hidden treasure here but never seen it with my own eyes." For those looking about the cave it is rather sparse. A few stools are arranged near the wall but nothing else of importance is here.
Gilhaut quickly casts a blessing on Jak hopeful that it will help him and then Herrick and him pick up Jak by the arms and legs. He frantically twists arms flailing and legs kicking. Moving Jak into the light only seems to make him even more crazed.
Gutmark hurries along past his house into the open area of the small village. Several men and women, bearing weapons, can be seen running towards Gutmark who is some ten feet away from you. He turns to point at Jak but he looks past him even more terrified, "What..what is that?" Turning about you see a nimbus of black shadow rise from the boat. The shadow begins to erratically twist and turn until finally it forms into a tall, emaciated humanoid shape. It bends back and you watch as two wings spring forth from its back. Dropping to all fours it slowly strides toward you. A howl rips from Jak's mouth. Nesserin: In infernal the voice from Jak's mouth shouts "I shall be FREE!"
The man begins to blubber out, "Sanbalet and ten of us are here. I don't know how many you went about slaughtering but set me free. The lil wuns don't make them orphans! The house is all Sanbalet's thinking. We scare off people and been smuggling out weapons!"
Take your time Rodalas but I do hope the Doc gives you the A OK!
Jawn:
Quickly weighing if that could be Jak's soul you are still unsure. If it was you think you would need some summoning circle to stop it from getting away. Perhaps this is something evil. Could a protection spell work? Herrick yells at Gutmark. Cursing the ferryman stops just long enough to yell back at you, "Keep your distance! I'll show you...but keep your distance. Hurry now get him away from my house!" Jak cries out in pain once again.
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