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"The Elf begins to understand. But too little, too late. Looks
"Such arrogance! You come into our home. Kill without mercy, and get upset that we have plans to make the world safe for ourselves? What a mirror you must see, looking at me." GM:
Bwess: The creature is a KURNUGIAN JACKAL, you remember that they have a weakness to cold iron, but also that they are not inconsequential spell casters, using their third eye it is said they can inflict cruel pain.
The bubear bristles. They raise to their full height visibly angry. "Not homes?" they begin quietly, getting louder. "That doorway you are stood in is Bromela's private quarters. With her bed, and her stuff, and a space she made for her pet! What the hell else could it BE! As the bugbear takes a breath to continue a richly timbral voice comes from behind one of the folding screens. "Rhunk, how many times have I told you not to lean on the altar? And in front of guests, no less. Shame, shame." A large jackal pads out into view, his head held high. Reddish stripes run across his dark brow fur, slaver drips from his mouth, and his pointed ears seem overlarge. A third eye, which opens lazily every so often as he talks, sits at the center of the jackal’s forehead. The thing takes a position at the edge of the dais as the bugbear moves away, chastened. Looking out across the room, the jackal continues, "Welcome to the Scar. You are not the first interlopers to harass the children of the Mother of Monsters, and you will not be the last. We came into this world hated, hunted, and feared. But we will rise up under Lamashtu’s banner and crush your pitiful civilizations."
GM:
Qrik:
They are definitely hiding something..... "Oh, another likely lot of vagrents to clear out of our domain. Them the other week were quite tastey, this could be a good day." The bugbear says. "This here, it's our home, see? And you lot? Well you're trespassing ain't you?"
The door opens easily, and there are no traps A raised dais occupies the northern end of this room, on which a rough-hewn altar of stone appears stained with blood and other liquids. A pair of wooden folding screens stand to either side of the altar, each marked with a painted symbol of a three-eyed jackal. The wall behind the altar has the same icon crudely scrawled on it in red paint. At the edge of the dais, two lit braziers cast fitful light throughout the room. The rest of the chamber looks bare, except for a few tattered mats of varying sizes arranged on the floor in rows. Doors to the east and west provide exits. There are two creatures in the room, a young looking Ogre stood inspecting her hook for rust, and a Bugbear leaning casually on the alter. Neither seems suprised as you appear...
The passage is more if an alcove when you move up to it. The door is closed and locked, but the key is in the lock on this side. The troll liked it's privicy it seems. Listening at the door reveals nothing.
A cursoury look around shows that a sturdy shield leans up against the eastern wall near the troll's bedroll.
The group sends an onslaught of fire, acid, stones and even boar tusks flying at the troll. As much as it manages to avoid most of the missles, a scortching ray and Bwes' acid spell strike home. The troll staggers, and then, as it's skin again begins to bubble from the fire, it tumbles to the ground. You watch for a moment, but even it's regeneration doesn't kick back in. It's dead. And you are safe.
GM:
Qrik's spell finishes off the boar in a roasting, hair burning kind of way. As it collapses in a heap the troll enters a fierce rage. Clearly you just killed it's pet and it is not happy. Bwess again attempts to channel through her whip, but tiems the strike all wrong and the spell discharges into a small puddle. The Troll absorbes some damage fromt he electricity too, but is still standing. It slams into Bwess with it's claws over and over. . To add insult to injury, as you watch, you see it's wounds start to knitt back together!
Elo's first spell misses the troll, but the second hits the boar squarly, if not anywhere particularly damaging. The tough beast keeps fighting for a little while longer. Cev casts a stone at the troll, again hitting it square on, and illiciting a little "umph". GM:
The boar stikes out at Elo again, getting one solid hit in but missing with it's other attacks.
Qrik fires a magical scortching ray at the torll which causes it to writhe in agony. It's skin bubbles and smokes. The spell works far better than you would ever have expected. Bwess moves up and strikes the boar with her whip, the spell released causes it to squeel in rage. GM:
The troll roares with rage. Whatever chance you may have had at negotiating with it is up in smoke, quite literally. It stands and moves as quickly as it can at Qrik, screaming semi coherent rants about small lizards as it goes. Unfortunately that puts Bwess right in it's way. It slams a fist into her, but fails to properly connect.
Yeah, one of the nice things about play by post is you can take time to describe your actions so your TKP verses one from Elo a while back:
So Elo's has in character description, and ooc how many actions are used on which thing, and exactly what foe it's targetted at. Taging your current focus point (assume you started today at Max) in your posts woudl be really helpful too. So, aside out of the way!
GM:
Elo throws his bomb at the troll which elicits a screaech of rage, the splash also catches the boar. Cev throws random debris from the room at the troll causing it to duck for cover. The boar then charges at Elo, tusks flaling, but neither of it's attacks draws blood.
"TKP"??
Elo pushes the door open, and the quiet snuffling turns into a frenzied one, with high piched squeels added in. At the northeast corner of this odd-shaped room, a wooden barrier only a few inches tall keeps a large puddle of muck from spreading. Next to that, a large bedroll with frayed edge has been laid out on the floor. A pile of clothes and other personal possessions sit near the bedroll. Sputtering torches hang from the walls near the doors leading west and south. The unmistakable odor of manure and fresh mud lingers in the air. The "pen" contains a boar, which is in now way constrained by the low fence. The bedroll contains a Troll, which judging from the bleary eyes, has just been woken by the boar.
The door doesn't have any traps that Elo can see. Listening carefully though he can hear a deep snoring sound, and some sort of scurrying/snuffling sounds.
Elo is faced with a corridor, 5ft wide, with another closed door at the end...
A quick listen at the northern door reveals nothing. The fact that it's a single dorr, rather than the other double doors implies it may not be a main thoroughfair though.
As everyone stands ready, Bwess pulls open the door. It's stuck firm at first but eventually comes away with a scatter of dust. Inside is a storeroom, light by a tiny slant of light breaking through the rock above where a steady drop of water also comes in. Random pieces of furniture, crates, and other detritus covered with sheets clutter this chamber. A narrow, albeit clear path runs from the western door to the northern door. Particles of dust hang in the air. Also, there's a rather bedraggled looking Elf.
Cev:
You hear noises outside the door, not enough to make out who, or what, but enough to know it's not the snuffling of the owl bears that have been keeping you in here all this time. You move back through the room with the now dead owlbears. The double doors, although grand, also look, shabby. They don't seem to have been used in a while, but they are firmly closed, but don't look to be secured in any way.
This time your attempt at rest goes well. Witht he ogres bodies dumped int he pit, and the door wedged closed, a quiet "night" passes. In the morning, Val is sleeping peacfully. He looks to be out of trouble and safe to leave here. But he clearly isn't ready to move on.
Remnants of torture devices—a collapsed wooden rack, an iron maiden with no lid, a dunking bucket smashed into splinters, among others—line the walls of this unusually shaped room. Ragged pelts formed into crude bedrolls take up the rest of the floor space around a wide pit that descends into darkness. The air here smells of stale sweat.
GM:
Val moans, clearly not with it despite the healing from Bwess. It's clear that, barring being attacked again, he's safe enough. The Ogre's don't seem to have anything of value, but as he attempts to detect magic, Elo notices something he's seen in shops before. Detect magic confirms, it's a bloodseeker beak.
Bwess' arrow pierces the ogre, and with a groan it falls to the floor. Val lets out a low moan.
GM:
Bwess cracks her whip and strikes the Ogre, imbusing the hit with fire. The smell of burnt flesh and hair fills the room. Val moans slighty, still unconscious, but the bleeding out seems to be stopping. Elo throws a projectile at the creature hitting it square in the head. While Qrik casts his electrical spell at it again. It manages to dodge some of the effect of that though. With Bwess at hand, it strikes out with it's axe. It howls in frustration as the first and second strikes miss, but the third strikes home.
GM:
Elo moves forward and launches a bomb at the creature, hitting it square on. Qrik moves forward and throw electric at it, but it manages to avoid most of the damage. The remaining Ogre moves forward and slams it's axe into Val the force of the hit knocks him to the ground, unmoving.
Val's shield blocks the blow then explodes into shards of wood. Bwess strikes out with her whip, this time with a flame spell attached. The sickened Oger doesn't move out of the way quite fast enough . But her second stike fails to make contact with the foe.
Val lays about him with his sword, slashing at first one Ogre, then the next. After multiple attacks, both Beasts fall.
GM:
Bwess vomits forth a swarm of insects that fly forth and bote and scratch the ogres. They crawl into orifices and sting. Two of the ogres manage to avoid the worst of the damage, but the Northernmost one takes the full brunt. Val Steps forward, and strikes at the beast in front of him, cuting a gash in it's belly. It yelps in pain. Then again as lightning rains out of the claer air at it and the Northnmost Ogre.
The two closest ogres strike out, one moving in to get at Bwess and the other taking on Val. The remaining ogre roars encouragement and slams his axe against his shield. The Northernmost ogre manages to get one solid strike in at Bwess and the other misses Val then grets him on a back stroke. .
GM:
Under the combined assault of magic and sword, the first Ogre goes down. The others move up to take it's place, one moves the body out of the way first, and the other gets a strike in at Val, but his armour takes the hit, not him. It takes Val a moment to realise that the creature is that big, it's striking at him from 10ft away. He'll have to either move forward to strike back, or... what? Moving into the room feels like madness after the Owlbears, perhaps better to keep them contained at the doorway?
While Qrik sets up to defend himself, Elo and Val take the fight to the ogre. Elo's missiles weave through the corridor midding Val even as he surges forward, to slam into the massive creature. Val follows up with a sword thrust give causes the Ogre to grunt in pain. "Oi! Who the hell are you? What d'you do to the Critters?" the beast shouts. Even as Val enguages though he hears more, similar voices from the room behind it. GM:
The Ogre by the door pulls a massive axe from it's belt and swipes at Val, in the confied space it only manages one hit though .
Yeah, it's an interruption. Sorry, should have been clear on that.
Val takes some time to treat his, and Bwesses wounds. The cuts are luckily easy to close and bandage up, and Bwess is back to normal in no time. Val needs a good sleep to but once he has had that a second attempt to fix his cuts and scrapes is also successful. It's just as Val finishes up looking after himself that thr trouble starts. The double doors at the end of the corridor bang open, and an Ogre stands looking quite confused. The creature was clearly in the middle of complaining about something and about to shout something, but seeing you it just stands, mid word, jaw open.
A plan formed you begin to head back to the dungeons nursing your wounds. As you do so, one of the wall sconces gutters and goes out. Whoever's job it is to keep the little reseviours filled with oil hasn't done so recently. You notice that most of them are starting to smoke to one degree or another, a sign none of them will last long.
Listening at the doors doesn't give any idication that htere is anyone beyond them. You do notice though that they are not locked, adn would easily open, for hands small enough to deal with the latches.
Taking a moment to look around after the excitement of the two Owlbears you are in a spacious chamber which has exits to the south, west, and east. Stray feathers litter the ground, along with several fist-sized
Anyone trained in Medecine or Nature notices that the Owlbears has some recently healed wounds. Perhaps that other adventuring group got this far too? There's nothing of value in here. |