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The Derro just stands there quivering as the group springs to action around it. Arius and Branahm: Spoiler: a snake-like skeleton with a human skull slithers forth from the trapped room you had just left, attacking Arius Damage You also see another one slithering down the hall from the far side.
Hosk, Liz, and Arius: Spoiler:
While running through the room, you hear a rattling of bones, and notiCe two of the skulls moving away from the wall, one on either side of the room (top and bottom of the room on the map) Wooden tables here are stacked with vials, beakers, and other alchemical gear, although the southern one is heaped with broken vials and leans awkwardly on a hastily repaired leg. Three large cauldrons sit against the east wall, one of them upended. Its foul, rancid contents of rendered fats have spilled over the floor. There is another Derro here, his eyes go wide as you enter and he stands next to the southern-most table, which he was repairing.. he stares at you, stammering in confusion.
Liz: Spoiler: you see that a number of the skulls along the far wall are building up acid in the area where the lower jaw would be on a live human. It looks like you don't have much time before they are full...
The walls and ceiling of this tall hallway are encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls, their mouths open into dark holes in the walls. The floor of this room is a more puckmarked than the other parts of the catacombs you have been in. Arius Spoiler: You notice green spittle leaking out of a few of the skulls, which is the same consistency as the acid Liz shoots when using acid dart
nothing of real value is found in the room, the wooden 'cage' the stirges were in is empty, and the wooden tables are bare except for the one body the other stirges were on. you easily find the blood trail mentioned behind the spoiler above
Between everyone seraching:through, the thigh-deep muck you are rewarded with a few trinkets left over by the otyugh’s meals: an amber necklace worth 350 gp, a silver dagger, and a wax-sealed elixir of vision in a metal flask.
"From what I have read about Shoanti culture, I think . . . ." that for the burial ritual, the body has to be complete, but not nessisarily intact. as long as we find the other pieces, that should be good enough
Arius and anyone else with over a 15 perception: Spoiler:
Among the still-uneaten body parts on the island are the broken legs and hips of a human—legs decorated with bold Shoanti tattoos. These legs once belonged to Gaekhen. They seem to have been cut from the body with a sharp implement. It seems like the legs were dumped with body parts from other bodies, and the rest of the body your are looking for is elsewhere Anyone with a perception over 25: Spoiler: determined searchers are rewarded with a few trinkets left over by the otyugh’s meals: an amber
necklace worth 350 gp, a silver dagger, and a wax-sealed elixir of vision in a metal flask.
The creatures attacks Hoskuld Attacking with both tenticles. Fortunatly, it only hits with one
The projectiles from the wand hit the creature squarely. at the same time the skeleton slashes the beast with it's claw. Liz throws an acid dart, hitting the creature in its foot, Hoskuld steps forward with his deadly weapon, and just misses one of the waving tentacles. Spoiler: 22/35
The majority of this room contains a nasty-looking stretch of mud—a partially collapsed sinkhole—kept damp by rivulets of water seeping from the walls. A patch of solid ground extends into the mud to form an island, on which is heaped a reeking pile of body parts. To the north, a rickety wheelbarrow sits on its side against the wall. perception 15+:
Spoiler:
you hear Erm???? as the door opens perception 27+:
Spoiler:
you see a tentacle moving among the pile of bodies Everyone: After the last person enters the room, you hear a delighted slobbery voice yell as the center 8 feet of the sinkhole raise up and lumber's toward you, mud falling to the ground all around it.
Nope, no relation that you can tell - Derro aren't coherent enough to build real models to scale
The rat doesn't tell you much, other than it's hurt and scared... and it lived in these catecombs all of its life
it appears that this is where the two derro that attacked you came from, and that the thunderstone interrupted their needlessly complex and cruel game using a rat, a maze, handfuls of stones marked with numbers, a hammer, and a pair of pliers.... There is nothing in the staw pallets, and nothing of real value on the table, there is a wounded rat in the maze, and 3 dead ones on the floor next to the table.
Full map
Current location (this is placement before the battle, so this might have changed slightly)
map of what you can see from where you are or through any of the secret entrances.. let me know where you go though..
Nothing shows magic.. The Derro came from the main stairs and not the secret door. ( just as a reminder since I accidentally said they came from the secret door when posting from work without a book in front of me)
Derro1: short sword, metal tongs
No poison can be found on them. There is blood on the hammer and tongs. skeleton can fit in the passage...
As soon as Branahm sheds some light on the Derro, The owlbear and the wolf attack. The owlbear rips apart the first one, as the wolf grabs the second by the throat, shaking his head a few times until it no longer moves
Keth Lunges at the remaining Derro through the darkness with his spear. he misses the creatures jugular by mere inches
I'm back, was going to post when I got home from work today, but you did my job for me... working on an updated map now if maptools will let me today (I've been fighting with it for 2 days) Thanks for picking up my slack during vacation
Rheticus throws the thunderstone down the trap door and into the caverns under the graveyard, which hits the stairs about 20 ft away with a loud BANG . Everyone can hear it loud and clear (even if your dice hate you).
Main group: Spoiler:
Liz easily finds the sides of a secret door facing the same direction as the stairs and pulls it open. on the other side appears to be a crawlspace. Which way do you want to go down the crawlspace or down the main stairwell? New group: Spoiler: With Rheticus' knowledge, it is easy to find the Gray District. Upon searching your third graveyard you find the presence of 5 sets of human sized tracks another man’s tracks along a wheelbarrow trail. More interestingly, several smaller humanoid tracks, each bearing only four toes, clutter the site as well. All of these tracks lead into the mausoleum itself, where a quick Search reveals an open secret trap door in the floor that leads down into the dark. It appears the last group in isn't too far ahead of you.
Hoskuld Wulfson
Spoiler:
upon landing in the city, you see crowds bustling in all directions. None of them very happy there is obvious evidence of recent riots. Buildings are burned, there are blood stains in the street, and people seem to be scared to stay in the street for long periods of time. by sitting in a tavern for a few hours, you easily overhear that the king died about a week ago. Yesterday his wife, the queen, declared that they had found the assassin, a young female artist whom the queen claims poisoned the king in his bed. A local group of citizens working for the guard found her and turned her into the guard. Within ten minutes of them leaving, a woman named Sabina (whom seems to be a bodyguard of the queen) came with a written order from the queen herself, forcing the field marshal to turn over the prisoner.
You also hear rumors that the citizens who found Trina had been looking for a Shoanti boy's body, to prevent the Shoanti tribes from attacking the city... it is said that they headed toward the graveyard district. They seem to be a group who is up to getting information on the man whom attacked your queen.... Rheticus
Spoiler:
You are sitting in the table in the tavern playing towers as an interesting looking man comes in at 6'7" he towers over many in the room, his rust-colored hair starting to gray ever so slightly. Wearing a cape of white seal skin, he sits down and is obviously listening to the talk around him. You pull your hand back, because as you watch him, the harrow card called the betrayal burns your hand. when you look away, you can pick up the card, bt when you look at him again, the card once again burns you.
Liz's acid goes between the ribs of the skeleton she is aiming at, but Keth's aim is a little better, cutting through the skeleton's arm. Anju's stone and Arius' magic missiles hit it in the head at the same time, sending brittle teeth flying in all directions and it goes down. The owlbear skeleton practically lunges onto the skeleton closest to it, turning it to dust.
Round 1:
surprize round:
you want to switch initiatives with the owlbear skeleton, it got a natural 1...
As Liz gets to the center of the room, a great rustling can be heard from the two pits, as you watch the bones get up and start walking towards her - you count 6 human skeletons to the west, and a large animal skeleton to the East
LIZ (and anyone else above 25): Spoiler:
you hear some noises of bone on bone from both pits, and think you feel a slight breeze coming from back wall of the left pit (as you enter) anyone 20-24 Spoiler:
you hear some noises of bone on bone from both pits anyone under 20 Spoiler: you see lots of bones
This large room is supported by four wide pillars of stone. The ceiling above arches in a dome nearly twenty feet high. The walls are lined with skeletons caked into the mud—human bones mostly, but here and there smaller bones might be from halfings, or perhaps children. Fifteen-foot-square pits sit to the east and west, each filled with a large heap of hundreds of bones. To the south, a crude hole has been gouged into the
Korvosa’s vast graveyard, a place known as the Gray District, is a mournful place even by day. No sign of Gaekhen’s body remains in the area. Spoiler:
the presence of a man’s tracks a wheelbarrow trail. More interestingly, several smaller humanoid tracks, each bearing only four toes, clutter the site as well. These tracks lead into the mausoleum itself, wherea quick Search reveals a poorly hidden secret trap door in the floor that leads down into the dark.Make a Knowledge Nature check for those who have it results below: DC 15: Spoiler:
the small tracks are derro footprints. under 15: Spoiler: You think the small tracks are either a big ant or a tiny hippopotamus
I'm going away for the weekend, feel free to roleplay anything you want to while preparing to go after the body
"Who is Rolth?Kroft searches for the right words momentarily He’s long been a thorn in my side. A failed Academae student, Rolth’s a monster of a man whowas expelled after the true nature of his experiments were revealed. He was butchering vagrants, stray animals, and anything else he could get his hands on to try to build some sort of golem from their collected parts. The Academae didn’t press charges because it didn’t want to cause a scene—it just quietly expelled him and the man’s been trouble ever since. We suspect he’s responsible for nearly a dozen slayings, each involving mutilation to the body, but to date we haven’t been able to find him or locate his lair. He might or might not be in the Dead Warrens, but anything you can find there that could lead to his arrest would be greatly appreciated..... Before you ask, Korvosa’s Gray District is riddled with underground chambers,some of these warrens are patrolled and kept clear of monsters by the church of Pharasma, yet the Gray District is a large place and the tunnels below are vast and tangled. The Pharasmen focus on containing the problems with undead and necromancers, but as soon as they wipe out one, it seems as if two are ready to spring up in its place. The problem’s particularly vexing in Potter’s Ward, where the bodies of the poor and homeless are buried. According to Thousand Bones, the Dead Warrens were one of his people’s burial vaults, chambers that lie under Potter’s ward.We have the man who sold Gaekhen’s body to Rolth in custody: a simpleton named Elkaris. He spilled everything when we told him what was going on and how much trouble he was in—in any event, Elkaris says he delivered the body via wheelbarrow to a partially collapsed mausoleum deep in Potter’s Ward, near the southern edge. A toppled and headless statue of a sword-wielding gargoyle lay in the dirt near the mausoleum’s entrance—he was told to leave the body behind the gargoyle. This location matches where Thousand Bones believes the Shoanti burial grounds called the Dead Warrens used to be located, so that’s the best place to start the search. In responce to the cleric's question about the serving girl One of the scribes is bringing the notes on her crimes here for me to review as we speak, I'm told that they took some time to find. I should know more in a day or two.
You get to the garrison un-hassled, and are let into the compound on sight. You notice that the guards seem to be particularly uneasy and agitated as you make you way to Field Marshal Kroft's office. if asked a guard will tell you:
Spoiler:
One of those Shoanti kids went and got himself killed, and now the rest of them are all worked up—if it’s not one riot about to erupt, it’s another! Field Marshal Kroft’s in her office now, trying to talk some sense into the Shoanti ambassador—in fact, she mentioned that she’s looking for you all to help with the situation A tall, rail-thin Shoanti man of 60 winters is in Kroft's office when you approach. He leans heavily on a walking stick, the polished femur of some giant beast crowned with a firepelt cougar’s skull. He wears a
Spoiler:
use the unrest to fuel their own agenda. Tensions between Korvosa and the Shoanti have existed since the city’s foundation some 300 years ago, when Chelish colonists attacked and defeated the Shoanti tribes who dwelt in the region destined to become the largest city in Varisia. Forced to retreat and relocate into the inhospitable Cinderlands northeast of Korvosa, the Shoanti persevered and even flourished, and many among them preach that the time to take back their ancestral homeland is nigh. Yet in Korvosa itself, the Shoanti seek a more peaceful accord. Led by a visionary shaman known as Thousand Bones, a large group of Shoanti have been in talks with the Korvosan government for years now, hoping to find a way their two people can coexist in peace.
Thousand Bones’s mission is anything but easy. A large number of Korvosa’s citizens are prejudiced against the Shoanti and see them as little more than violent barbarians. Curbing and moderating the violence between these racists and the quick-to-anger Shoanti who dwell in and near Korvosa is a constant battle for the ancient shaman. Thousand Bones’s patience reaches its limit when one of his grandsons, a young warrior named Gaekhen, is murdered by a mob that uses the unrest in Korvosa as a feeble excuse for misplaced vigilantism
You get back to the house easily enough.. not sure what you guys want to do.
" Do you remember anything unusual during your sittings with the King? Something that someone might try to silence you for seeing?" No, the king sat with me for hours on end. He was already showing signs of sickness when I first met him. I didn't notice anything extra-ordinary happening. "Have you ever painted portraits of other important figures before the King?" I hoped to make my name with this piece. To be truthful, I'm not even sure why the chamberlin picked me to do the king's portrait, although he did ask me to entertain the king with stories and/or songs while painting him, so maybe they wre looking for someone with more than one art skill.. At this time, you hear a rattling from the your left and turn as Rags lands on the roof next to you The crowd has found this place, it's not safe anymore He tells you. Trina turns to you with pleading eyes and asks
She Sober's up a little at hearing this I don't know whats happening, all I did was paint the king's portrait, just as the Chamberlain paid me to... All I Did was paint the portrait, I Swear!
The hold person works, Trina freezes just before jumping to the next rooftop, and is too worked up to build up the resolve to break the spell's hold. You get there and grab her just before the spell wears off. As soon as Trina can move again she breaks down in tears I'm *sob*
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