Alas, poor Walter and his troubled backstory! Will he ever know peace?
Well, this was a lot of fun anyway.
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Ping me if you'd like to continue sometime, or if you want to try another short scenario.
Lys and Kolthis are up -- and I guess Martine can bot Mihaela?
Buff round: Cast Protection from Evil on myself, from wand. AC is now 19 -- still pretty dismal -- but summoned creatures can't touch me, woo. Move to be adjacent to Crove. Initiative in buff round is now: Lys, Walter, Yelena, Kolthis, Mihaela, Spawn*, Martine, Crove. So, Lys and Kolthis are up.
-- Wait, I'm near the top in initiative? Dang. Okay well, here's initiative ordered for convenience: Lys, Walter, Yelena, Kolthis, Mihaela, Spawn*, Martine, Crove *assumes the Spawn has a lower Dex than Mihaela. BUFF ROUND Everyone cast a buff if you've got one. I already have Mage Armor on --much good may it do me, my AC is now a whopping 17 -- and I can throw a Protection from Evil as well -- -- Ah wait, that gives me an idea.
Knowledge (arcana) "He's speaking the truth about the invisibility. Otherwise... this roomhas been charged with negative energy. It will empower any undead who enter it." Sense Motive Walter is too busy analyzing the spell to pay any further attention to Crove.
Killing him right now? He's blatantly evil and guilty of multiple horrific crimes. I can't imagine anyone would take an alignment hit. Agreeing to let him live and then killing him would be pretty chaotic, so that's a thing.
And: alignment discussion aside, Walter is totally serious about killing Crove. He can't be trusted; he'll try to backstab us or escape the moment he gets a chance; and killing him might banish the monster and will certainly take away its opportunity to get stronger by killing him. Mercy doesn't really enter into it, either. Crove totally deserves to die. If we win, we hand him over to the authorities, and they kill him. Or... let the mass-murdering kidnapper and torturer go free? Is anyone good with that? Probably not, right? So he's dead anyway. Alive, sure he adds some increment of firepower... but is it worth the trouble of keeping an eye on him? The only way I see this making sense is if we can use him as bait somehow. Does anyone have any ideas in that direction? And if not... is there any reason *not* to just whack him?
"A man who will allow the death of hundreds to save his own worthless self is not a man who can be trusted," calls Walter from across the room. "He can't be trusted and he deserves to die. Kill him."
Also, probably Walter should have cast See Invisibility before he entered the asylum... but that gets a little metagamey. Walter wouldn't be thinking "boss fight coming up". He'd be thinking "if I hang on to this, I can inscribe it into my spell book and then it will be mine forever!"
scroll of see invisibility, another of invisibility purge, and a dose of dust of appearance. Pretty good guess the monster is invisible, or can turn invisible. So: See invisibility -- What it says, you can see the invisible stuff, at any range. Duration is 30 minutes! Unfortunately, range is "you", so only a caster can benefit. Invisibility Purge -- Shuts down all invisibility (including most forms of natural invisibility) in a 25' radius from the caster. Duration is 5 minutes. Again, range is "you", so one lucky caster must commit to staying within 25' of the monster. Dust of Appearance -- "a single handful of this substance flung into the air coats objects within a 10-foot radius, making them visible even if they are invisible." Lasts 5 minutes. I think the best play is, we want someone with a nice high AC to get within 10' of the monster and then toss this. A nice high AC and lots of hp, because that thing is pretty big, so I'm pretty sure it has a 10' reach. I don't know how many rounds we have until the Thing turns up, but if it sounds like we have at least two, then I'm thinking Walter's next round action will be to cast See Invisibility on himself and then pass the Dust to... well, Kolthis would be the best choice, but he might be busy with Crove. After him, who is tankiest?
Bump. Hello?
Tactical notes: -- Haste gives everyone +30' movement. Assuming we were within 20' of Crove, he can't be more than 50' away. Killing him is top priority. So, I would suggest that everyone just rush him. -- Crove's a caster, and he's already taken 22 points of damage. One or two good hits should finish him! -- Stinking Cloud is pretty damn brutal if you fail your save: nauseated for d4+1 rounds. The only good things about it are that it's small -- only a 20 x 20 area -- and it targets Fort. It's a 3rd level spell so I would expect the Fort save to be in the range of DC 17-18 or so. An open question is whether the spell forces saves on people who are running through it, or only on people who begin their turn inside it. The former interpretation seems kinda OP for a third level spell -- that basically makes it a Wall of Nausea spell. I dunno. But I'd consider rushing him anyway. Up to you.
"Wait. WAIT!" The note in Walter's voice is not so much command as desperation... but it works just as well.The wizard's hands scrabble an odd, staccato pattern in the air as he hisses a series of ascending syllables. And then -- Everything slows. Sounds lengthen and deepen. The light itself seems to redden slightly. You can hear your heartbeats, and you can jump between them. You can go. Go, go, go.
I can Haste one creature / level, so that's everyone but myself. I think that rather than wait for five players to opt in, maybe make it opt-out? Default to "everyone waits, Walter Hastes everyone (except himself), then everyone takes their Round One action"? Anyone who doesn't want to wait can just say so.
I think you got a surprise round? And then he won initiative in round one?
TEAM: Can I humbly suggest that everyone DELAY INITIATIVE until after Walter, so that Walter can caste Haste on everyone? -- +1 to hit, +1 AC
Also "thunderous footsteps" make me think that we're in a LITERAL RACE to kill this guy before the Creature shows up. So... is everyone good delaying to get that sweet, sweet Haste on?
...thunderous steps? Walter is () very distracted by those thunderous steps. "By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near," mutters the wizard, "but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind..."
My dogs barfed all over two carpets while I was out this morning, and then were super listless, leading me to get really worried that they were seriously sick. Turns out, nope -- I had left the door open to the storage room, and they had slipped in there, torn open the dog food bag, and gorged themselves to barfing and torpor. I only discovered it when I went in there this evening. Labrador retrievers, of course.
Wow, okay. Team: is there any reason NOT to just hit this SOB with everything we've got?
Okay, we MUST have gotten a physical description of Crove, from the elf if nowhere else. Is this him?
Yeah, you don't see a lot of straight Rogues around. Unchained made the Rogue playable, but still not as cool-fun-sexy as all the new classes. They really needed to get a lot more creative with the Talents IMO... I mildly wonder if the 2e Rogue is both balanced and fun.
If no trapfinder, then person with best Perception (and a good Reflex save is also good).
It's hard to keep doors secret from a party of six, at least two of whom are Perception monkeys. Suggestion: Trapfinder examine the door if we have one, otherwise someone with good Init / good Reflex save open it.
Almost too easy...? Well: I say we head straight down.
"I can be quiet," Walter murmurs, turning the wand over in his hands.
Team: a Wand of Suggestion! That could be very useful. Do we have anyone who has high Stealth *and* Use Magic Device? (Or who has Suggestion as a castable spell, better still.) Because if yes, that person could sneak around, find an orderly or someone, zap them with Suggestion, and bring them back for questioning.
Whoa. A wand of Suggestion? Does it have charges left?
Walter is quiet. Is he weary from stress and lack of sleep? Is he composed because he believes he's doing the right thing? Is he febrile and twitchy because his sanity is steadily eroding? Pick one or all three. But for now: he's quiet. He takes his now-accustomed place in the party.
Moved to work-from-home, been distracted for a few days settling into the new routine. Should be back now.
Walter's sleep is restless. The Countess is short, blonde, and wears a very expensive looking sundress with an enormous hat. "Here I am! Are you early? Am I late?" She has one of those singsong voices. She pulls out the last remaining seats herself without asking. "It's been some time! It's... Oh, who is this? Have you taken a new apprentice, then?" The Countess could be -- might be? -- just a silly noblewoman with a very large hat. But this close, she radiates... vitality. Her cheeks glow with health, and energy just seems to bubble off her. She carries a very large handbag. Her eyes are a pale, pale blue. Walter moans softly in his sleep. His mind rebels against itself, struggles to claw a way back up to wakefulness, away from the nightmare that is coming.
I have one good group management spell.
Complete tangent: dang, there are a lot of cheap flights and hotels right now. If I'm going to get coronavirus anyway, maybe I'll enjoy it more in a heavily discounted 5 star hotel in Venice?
Yup! As the Harper fades away, Finraeth strikes once more, again using the flat of his blade to try and drop the man to the ground. You definitely hit him! There's a cry of pain. And then he's gone, falling backwards into the darkness. The music continues. "Stay thy sword and flee like the whipped cur thou in truth art, or stay to fight - and perish, unloved, unremembered and unsung; which is no more than thou deservest, villain!"
Anyway: your swing misses! Dagmar isn't wearing heavy armor, but she's very quick on her feet, and she dodges your blow.
I'm very sorry to hear it!
Briarstone is of course where the Strange Aeons AP gets started. My headcanon is that Walter spent a few weeks there after catastrophically failing a SAN check in the Affair of the Countess and the Orphans. He left well before things got... crazy.
Walter frowns faintly. You're starting to recognize this frown. It's Walter's working-it-out-from-first-principles frown. "This woman may be... upset. So we should... ensure that she is safe... and comfortable... and not a threat to herself or others." Walter stares at the elf a bit longer than is strictly comfortable. (He is very obviously wondering how to politely ask whether she is a threat to herself or others.) Then, after a slightly awkward pause: "Would you... would you like some tea? I can make many sorts of tea. I have... gillyflowers. From Kyonin Forest. Petals and roots both. The tea brush is rosewood, of course, with reed bristles. Cut in the Bright Flower style." Profession: Herbalist Wow well if it comes to it Walter can actually make a MEAN cup of gillyflower tea. Pour it over three times, no animal products in the tea brush, drizzle some crystallized honey harvested from wild bees that nest in an ash tree that's at least 200 years old, he knows just how elves like it. He read it in a book but then he practiced until he got it right.
"An asylum. I was in an asylum for a time," says Walter conversationally. "In Ustalav. Briarstone Home for the Troubled, near Thrushmoor. I hear it closed, later. They had... troubles."
Wait, Walter has ONE (1) rank in Sense Motive! It's his only rank in a social skill, and he just added it recently! Okay, that's probably not high enough for him to realize that Kolthis is deeply suspicious of him.
Loot splitting no, but selling stuff and buying stuff yes. Just scribing another scroll or two could be helpful.
It wouldn't be his first time.
At the door Walter pauses, and seems to brighten for a moment. "Oh, and with the terrible old man gone, I was able to cast out the spirit! Er, well, it entered into a nearby dog and then stalked me for, ah, quite some time actually, seeking to avenge its master... but! It's no longer an issue! Just a, a," he flexes his right hand, "a reflex, let's say. In times of stress. A bit awkward. But not dangerous. I'm sure of that. Mostly quite sure." He turns again to go, then pauses one more time. "And..." he adds under his breath, almost too softly to hear, "I did smash the bottles..."
"He did deserve to die. You did the right thing, by preventing him from taking advantage of anyone else that way. And, and I hope it's not presumptuous of me to say this, but...I'm proud of you. For how much you've changed." Walter's face goes blank, confused, as if he literally does not know how to respond. For a moment, there's a glimpse perhaps of the small colonial boy, proud and lonely, watching the other children play along the river. Then he shakes his head. "Yes... no... no. There's nothing to be, to be proud of. Because there was more. That wasn't the worst. The worst came later. You see, I didn't... learn from that experience. I was pleased with my clever escape. I still thought that... that knowledge was the most important thing. So later that would lead me to... to be a, be a party to..." Walter grimaces, turns away, then turns back. "The housekeeper. She found him. I had... gone away. I admit it. I just wanted to be gone. She wasn't supposed to enter that room. But, you see, the smell. So she did. And, well. There was his head. And a quantity of blue, gelatinous substance of unknown provenance. She... it was a shock, I suppose. "I didn't care, then. Now I do. Later, I came into a little money. Later, I... made arrangements. She's taken care of, now." The wizard puts his hands in front of him, palms up, then moves them up and down. "Balance. You see? Recompense. Restitution. Penance. If you want to be good you have to un-do the bad and," are those tears suddenly standing in his eyes? "some things, oh, some things cannot be undone. You can't wash away that, that stain. That taste." Walter has an odd gesture that he makes sometimes: the heel of his left hand drawn slowly across his mouth. He does that now. "So, there's nothing to be proud of. All you can do is try to... to do good things, elsewhere... or at least, try to stop bad things from happening... and hope that... hope that..." There's a pause. It stretches for a long, awkward moment... and then Walter simply turns to leave.
@Walter, loving it. What a fantastic character. Aw shucks [kicks dirt]. Seriously, I'm having a lot of fun here. Haven't been a player in a long time, so I think poor Walter is getting a lot of pent-up ideas.
Btw, we're now 2/3rds of the way through the module. This might be our last moment of real downtime, so there's no rush. Well then: is anyone tracking our treasure right now? Is there anything we can sell for quick cash? If nothing else, I could scribe a scroll or two...
BTW, Walter is providing some of his horrible backstory. If nothing else, this should provide some context for his raving in this post here and the two after it.
Aw yeah, good catch.
"Eventually, I discovered what my Master was doing with his apprentices. I was able to... distract the spirit. "My Master was engaged in... trade. And he traded for a summoning ritual. A very interesting summoning ritual. One not too different, actually, from what we are dealing with here. Much better containment procedures, of course. Orthogonal along all the vertices, just for starters... yes, well. He detailed me to the extremely tedious work of inscribing the summoning circle. "Knowing what I knew, I made some changes. When he began the ritual, I slipped outside and locked the chamber door behind me. Later I heard him, pounding on the other side, his fists like little withered apples..." Walter trails off for a moment, his eyes unfocused. "...out of the corners of the room, was the last thing he said. Almost the last. 'Like smoke'. 'Their tongues'." There's a pause, and then the wizard seems to collect himself. "You understand," he says, a little severely, "he was a very wicked man, and certainly deserved to die."
A Brief Cut-Scene: Walter and Yelena Walter wakes up with the familiar post-spell hangover. The Visualization of the Mind has departed. His thoughts plod on leaden feet. Everything is so much... murkier. Spell Sage wizards are rare, and Spell Sage wizards who keep their sanity over the long term are even rarer. There are several reasons for that. This is one: a Spell Sage has access to mind-enhancing powers that are normally reserved to the beloved of the gods themselves. For a cleric, these abilities are mildly interesting, occasionally useful. For a wizard, they can become profoundly addictive. Walter won't use the Visualization of the Mind again any time soon. It's useful, so useful, but... no. Still, he remembers everything. Walters sits for a time, remembering. He frowns. This is... awkward. * * * "Yelena!" There's nothing for it but to be clear and direct. "I realize now that I behaved... inappropriately... yesterday. I was not quite myself. Nevertheless. I should," Walter squints like a man trying to remember a complex phrase in a foreign language, "apologize. I am... sorry." There is a pause. "You see. My second master. The terrible old man. He had man apprentices, over the years. But... none of them survived. They all ended up in... in little bottles." Walter raises his right hand. Close up, you can see that it has a number of small white scars. They look like bites. "He was able to entrap so many clever young wizards because he made them commit to an... agreement. To become his apprentice. You had to invite a, a spirit. To reside in your body. An unclean spirit." Walter flexes his hand slowly, clench, relax. You remember that odd clawlike gesture he kept making yesterday, the strange griping strength. "If you thwarted the will of the Master... or pried into things that were none of your business... the spirit would possess a part of your body. And punish you." There is a pause again. "I should add that he was a very remarkable wizard with access to the most amazing library. So it seemed like a reasonable agreement to enter into. At the time." This last is delivered with just a hint of defensiveness.
"I also need some time to recover my spells. And to rest. And to... contemplate. This... this situation. Is interesting." Walter's right hand lifts and twitches for a moment in that odd, clawing gesture. He shakes his head. "Rest. Yes. We should rest."
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