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Taking the better part of valor, the group retreats to the nearest lever and pulls it. The floor shudders and the dungeon is filled with the noise of grinding gears for several long seconds as the room rotates clockwise. The walls of the newly connecting, oddly shaped hallway are decorated in a complex mural depicting a hot, steaming jungle brimming with hungry life. Predators of every sort stalk and maim and feed on dozens of hapless people. In the canopy above, monkeys, snakes, and birds seem to chatter and mock the victims below.
Later that day, the party layed down on the floor in the cabin Gossa, Lachen, and Wreben had commandeered as a library. The ritual materials were all arranged and ready and the spell went off without a hitch. In moments, the group found themselves in another world. The group arrived on the wide, flat branch of an enormous oak tree. High above, sun dappled through leaves as wide as an elephant and there was just the hint of blue sky through the tree cover. Closer up, smaller branches ended in sprays of wide, sturdy leaves and connected to the branches of other trees throughout an entirely arboreal landscape. Accidentally falling from the wide branches all the way to the forest floor looked unlikely; any single giant leaf was more than strong enough to bear even Lachen's full armored weight. Looking down, there might have been the hint of a forest floor hundreds of feet and dozens of branches, each as wide as a well maintained road, far below. This brightly lit, airy space was not the territory of zoogs but dreams were a strange place and this was where Count Lowls had gone looking for them.
As Byron enters the room and heads for the next door along the wall, the sound of hundreds of wings flapping gets everyone's attention. Hundreds if not thousands of ravens roost in the thatch ceiling and as the group enters the great hall they all descend on the strangers.
A man walked up with another clay bottle of wine and a single cup. "Well said! Do you mind if I toast with you? I'm buying," he said, raising the bottle in his hand. "Marthysan of Iomedae," the Avistani half-elf introduced himself.
"Yes," said Idrassa quietly, with a look at Skylar. Idrassa remembered a very old- as in centuries old- scandal. The compound now known as Kolat Towers started out as an old stone manor and a pair of sturdy cottages. Eventually the wizard brothers, Alcedor and Duhlark Kolat, bought the buildings and, much to the chagrin of the local building guilds, stitched the building together using spells such as wall of stone and stone shape, bypassing the city's tradesmen and permitting process altogether. The guilds petitioned to have the building condemned, but were unsuccessful.
I may not get a chance to post today, sorry.
I may not get a chance to post today, sorry.
I may not get a chance to post today, sorry.
A Red Magus of Thay :)Ftw! My bad! I miss the search function working. Now I'm imagining a Red Magus walking into the big Red Wizard high school cafeteria and everybody whispering "ugh there's that magus" and the sorcerers and summoners wave him over and tell him he can sit with them.
Rows of pillars support the forty-foot-high roof of this longhall. Torches set into pillar sconces and two fire pits set with iron spits in the center of the rush-strewn floor give the room a ruddy glow. Several doors open into rooms on either side beneath ten-foot-high balconies lined with feasting tables. At the far end of the hall, a fifteen-foot-high balcony with the master’s high table looks out over all. Smoke holes cut into the roof high above allow in more light and the croaking of the many ravens that roost on the roof’s ridgepole.
Sellen Passage Transit Day 22 A long, unremarkable week passed as Gossa and Wreben and Lachen pored over the pile of books in another effort to chase down one of the gifts for the Mad Poet. One of Lowls's diaries indicated that he wanted to seek the advice of zoogs in his pursuit of a pard's tail. Clues in Monuments of the Forest, Tigers and Flies, and The Wise Harmony revealed that he was going to travel to the Enchanted Wood to make contact. Over breakfast, Gossa revealed she had figured out the ritual to allow them to travel in the Count's footsteps to the magical dream forest.
As the group ate their noodles the balance competition was winnowed down to two- the woman in half-lotus and the nonchalant scholar- as the other man tumbled to the courtyard, falling heavily but jumping to his feet with a curse that was echoed by dozens of people jeering at him or bemoaning their lost bets.
Interesting. I'm surprised Red Wizards weren't mentioned as a faction, as they slot right into 'bad guys who work together but also plan to backstab each other if it's useful' idea. Are you open to a young, adventuring Red Wizard, GM?
Oh damn today's the last day of recruitment. We're in what used to be Cheliax territory so what about a LN Asmodean Advocate Cleric? GM, would you allow that to combine with Herald Caller? I'll do a quick build with those 2 archetypes. Out of combat he's a great face. Combat role he's a back line summoner/buffer/healer (no medium armor for this guy). Quick Background: A tiefling, Tyorl Ebberly's estranged bastard son from Magnimar with a tiefling woman and half of the reason the former watch captain was run out of Magnimar (the other half being that the tiefling woman was a noblewoman's mistress). Raised in Magnimar to be a magistrate but got maneuvered out of his potential appointment by a rival, showed up in Diamond Lake intending to spend a few years biding his time until he can go back and get revenge on the man who screwed him over. Quick Personality: He presents himself as a modest, down on his luck lawyer just out to help people, concealing his affiliation with Asmodeus as a dedication to Abadar. Affable and friendly, he's easy to talk to and a fierce defender of his clients interests. As a Herald Caller, his summons are devils that he plays off as the best possible option because why would you want to summon something to fight for you and possibly die if it wasn't evil? Summoning a good creature seems like an evil act, if you ask him. Quotes: "You really have to read the fine print.", "Well I'm just a simple country lawyer but I do know one thing...", "By the infernal chains of Asmodeus, I summon you!" Point Buy:
Tiefling Devil Spawn (+2 Con/Wis, -2 Cha): Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 14 Race/Class:
Racial Traits
Ability Score Modifiers: Tieflings are quick in body and mind, but are inherently strange and unnerving. Type: Tieflings are outsiders with the native subtype. Size: Tieflings are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size. Speed: Tieflings have a base speed of 30 feet. Languages: Tieflings begin play speaking Common and either Abyssal or Infernal. Tieflings with high intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Infernal, and Orc. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages. Defense Racial Traits
Skilled: Magical Racial Traits
Senses Racial Traits
Fiendish Sorcery: Tiefling sorcerers with the Abyssal or Infernal bloodlines treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer class abilities. Cleric
Asmodean Advocate
This ability alters domains. Serpent (Su)
Devil in the Details (Ex)
Herald Caller
Dedicated Summoner
This ability alters the cleric’s domains and armor proficiencies. Call Heralds (Su)
Divine Heralds (Su)
Because of these summoned monsters’ strong ties to the herald caller’s deity, the herald caller also gains specific benefits with creatures she summons with summon monster spells gained from her cleric spell list. The herald caller and her summoned monsters can understand each other’s spoken words as if they shared a common language (though this doesn’t give summoned monsters the ability to speak if they normally lack it). Whenever the herald caller uses channel energy to heal, she can include all of her summoned monsters, even if they are out of her normal channel energy radius or of a creature type that would not normally be affected. If she channels energy to deal damage, she can exclude any of her summoned monsters that would normally be affected. Skills/Traits/Feats:
Skills: 5 = 4 +Int +FC
Kn: Local +5 1 +0 Int +3 CS +1 trait Kn: Religion +4 = 1 +0 Int +3 CS Kn: Planes +4 = 1 +0 Int +3 CS Perception +6 = 0 +4 Wis +2 familiar Profession (Barrister) +8/+11 = 1 +4 Wis +3 class skill (subs for Bluff and Diplomacy due to archetype so I'm counting it as an adventuring skill, not a background skill) [+3 for Diplomacy use from race, trait] Sense Motive +8 = 0 +4 Wis +2 race +2 familiar Spellcraft +4 = 1 +0 Int +3 CS -- Kn: History +4 = 1 +0 Int +3 CS Linguistics +4 = 1 +0 Int +3 CS Traits:
Feats:
Gear TBD
A short time later the ferry finally landed at New Harbor. The boat was crowded but the dock and town beyond was packed. It was like a parade and a festival and a wedding had all come together and dumped their decorations and attendants into what was normally a small fishing village. Hundreds of onlookers dressed in the clothes of a dozen nations pushed and shoved to get a look at every newcomer. As contestants arrived, townsfolk and visitors showered them with cherry blossoms and handed out ceramic cups filled with warm, pungent liquor. The crowd was a solid wall of flesh and energy that led to the center of town, where a crowded noodle house, Yon Loi’s, served as the hub of all the activity in New Harbor. Yon Loi's was a large, open-air structure centered around a courtyard filled with long, shaded tables for the common folk. Smaller round tables filled the roofed balcony surrounding the courtyard, from which wealthier patrons and the tournament elite could look down on the hoi polloi. The entire place was full of townsfolk, visitors, and potential contestants. The party atmosphere was infectious but even as the group was ushered inside they could see competitors doing what they did best- compete. Two men and a woman were balanced precariously on the second floor railing, the woman on one foot folded into a half-lotus and one man ostentatiously reading a book and looking bored about the potential twenty foot drop to the courtyard. People were yelling advice at them and bets at each other while the wait staff hustled from table to table and to the kitchen and back. The kitchen sat on the ground floor, behind a short partition, and the competitor groups were all ushered to different tables scattered around the second floor, crammed in anywhere there was space. Each competitor received a complimentary bowl of salty noodle soup full of fish and vegetables and each table a free pot of hot rice wine.
Artegall Take 10 Perception check: That said, the left chest seems to be coated in some kind of resin and the right chest appears to be airtight.
Securing the tithes took some time but after a few minutes all the loot had been taken aboard the Sellen Starling. "Let's scuttle that thing and gets the hells out of here," Skywin said.
Byron follows Aiko around and looks for any sign of traps on the doors. Byron found no traps on the door leading to the next room.
Leaving the harmless statue behind, the party ascended the stairs. Spiraling higher up the inside of the tower, the stairs eventually ended at the floor of a small library. One wall was taken up by a tall but mostly empty oak bookshelf containing a few scattered books . Above the bookshelf someone had hung a very nicely made sign that read "ALCEDOR". There was a closed door set into the wall that bisected the circular space.
Artegall finds the door above the symbol unlocked. Inside, the room is empty save for three large wooden chests, their lids decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sit against one wall of this room. Colorful frescoes on the wall opposite the chests depict hundreds of tigers marching in widening circles around a single green gem the size of a fist, set in the wall and carved to resemble a tiger’s head. The three chests are identical in appearance except for a short phrase engraved on each lid. Vudrani: The left chest says, “By gentle caress shall truth be known.” The right chest says, “Breathe deep your salvation.” The middle chest says, “Life within but Death without.”
Byron swings at the same target again. Byron cuts down the thug in front of him Lyraesel continues to maul the prone cook. Remorseless as any predator, Lyraesel rips the prone man's throat out with her teeth. Relentless as the tide, the group kills every last thug in the room almost before they have time to react. Soon they are the only ones still standing.
Hearing a dismissal when she heard one, Risha chuckled. "Alright then, deadeye. I'll see you out there." She gave the rest of the group a deep nod, almost a half bow, before turning to go approach another group of would-be champions.
The captain sank like a stone, eyes locked on Reine's as he went. She couldn't tell if he was angry, frightened, or something else. The look on Skywin's face was one Reine had seen before- a person who was horrified at what had just happened but was trying to hide it so she wouldn't make Reine angry. The Starling's captain shook her head, maybe a little too quickly. "Um, no. Taking a Razmiran tithe ship as prize would make us a target from here to Casmaron. If we try to sell it off somewhere word will get back to Razmir. Better to knock holes in the hold and set fire to it. Maybe they'll spend time trying to recover the loot." She looked in Grimes, Hannah, and Lachen's direction. "There was loot, right?" The halfling sounded somewhat desperate to recover something from this disaster.
Skylar might not remember anything specific about Duhlark Kolat but it didn't look like the mighty wizard was doing anything. For now. The statue remained hovering over its pedestal, wand pointed threateningly at the door.
Aiko makes an annoyed sound and glides in to support Lyraesel from behind her wolf. Bryon takes a moment to observe the man that he can reach before stabbing at him. Stabbing past the doorframe, Byron can't quite find the angle to do any damage. The summoned wolf snaps at the cook in front of it, pressing the attack. The wolf can't manage to get its teeth into the armored man's leg. Lyraesel continues to attack with unrelenting savagery, slicing into one of the enemy, tearing his leg out from under him, before attempting to bite him while he's down. The man screams in pain as he falls to the floor but he doesn't look quite down for the count just yet. DM rolls:
One of his companions chops at Lyraesel and does a little damage but not much.
Wary of the danger of magical runes, Artegall did his best to not look at the writing on the floor as he carefully moved toward the door and got out his tools. He couldn't help noticing it out of the corner of his eye as he maneuvered to obscure the symbols, though, and sudden searing pain washed through him and everyone else.
Want me to try? It is a long shot, even for me...But the good thing is, I have plenty of arrows, and I probably have to hit him once or twice only...And once that coward is down on the bottom of the sea, I consider him free to run as far away as he wants. Lachen had the distance but trying to find his target through the water was difficult and both arrows splashed harmlessly wide of the swimmer's back.
As the group trooped into the tower and onto the first landing, the statue suddenly levitated a foot off its pedestal. "I am Duhlark Kolat, master of this tower!" his voice boomed off the tower's interior walls. "Leave at once or be destroyed by magic beyond your comprehension!"
Risha laughed. "Not that I know of, but the last one was 10 years ago so you never know." "Indeed?" Hiro simply smiled, letting her have her boast. "A wise combatant learns of their foe," he added with a nod. "But be certain what you learn is truth, for deception is afoot." The blonde woman grinned back at Hiro. "I like you! Be certain what you learn is truth," she repeated to herself.
Risha jerked a thumb toward the back of the boat on the other side of the fishing vessel's bridge. "My team! We're all from Avistan. Cost us a pretty penny to travel all this way, let me tell you. Don't let Pirin rope you into playing cards with her, she's been trying to win back the money she lost at the casino for a week." "So you're all here to compete without knowing the prize or anything about the contest?" She looked from one member of the group to the next, burning curiosity clear on her face.
Did the door burn down? From 19 damage? No. But it is Broken.
Lyraesel leaps through the door but in the reeking smoke of the recent fireball is unable to connect. DM rolls:
The thugs swarms Lyraesel, chopping at her from every side. Two axes slam through her bark-tough hide to draw blood.
Westley looked confused but shook his head. "It doesn't matter. My family is in the city and they're dead once He finds out about our failure. Even if you get Jong once we don't put in to port at the end of the day they'll come looking for us. Kill me and at least if they find my body they might not kill my wife and children."
Opening the unlocked door into the smaller tower, the group found a landing just inside with a narrow ledge ringing the inside of the tower. The landing was met by two staircases, one up and one down. The stench of garbage filtered up from the bottom of the tower and those who could see in the dark saw that the base of the tower was full of ankle-deep refuse. Black scorch marks marred the walls for 10 feet up from the ground. Across from the door, the statue of a man leveled a wand at the now open doorway.
Have a good trip!
"We are here to win," he said, simply. He saw no reason to give more context than that. Besides, if form held true, Casimir would do that anyway. The mere thought was enough to bring a slight smile to Yang Jing's face. The woman laughed, not unkindly. "So say we all! Luckily these things aren't to the death so all me and my friends are gonna do is send you away with a few bruises." Honestly? She seemed friendly enough, to Yang Jing.
Risha smiled back at Casimir, not pulling her hand out of his for a few long seconds. "They say it's a mini Abadar's Vault in there. That lady collected one of the best of everything in the world. We're here to get a dose of Sun Orchid Elixir. There must be one in there. If we can take one of those back home we'll be set for life!" She gestured at his starknife. "I've seen those before but never in a fight. How do you even use that?" "Ah, but is that not prize enough? To prove one's skill against others and oneself? Zen is not found in material gain, though the right materials can make the finding a more pleasant journey!" He flashed a grin, but remained on the barrel. The woman laughed again- she had a free, easy laugh. "I find zen in a nice house, a bunch of servants, and enough Carpenden Bubble Wine to float me into retirement." She nodded at Hiro's bow, noticing his lack of any melee weapons. "So you're an archer?" Risha looked over at Yang Jing. "With him up front, eh?" She patted the cased bow on her back and smiled at Hiro. "We've got the same setup." Risha, too, carried no melee weapons. The young blonde woman's everpresent smile turned into a grin. "We'll see who wins the archery competition, though! I'm the quickest bow hand you've ever seen," she boasted. It was obvious that even though she was friendly she was fishing for information on the competition, though it appeared she was willing to exchange information, not sneakily trick it out of them.
The captain shook his head. "I saw Jong jump overboard. He's going to get to shore and report this debacle. If your ship ever enters Razmir's waters again they'll burn it to the waterline for the insult to Razmir's authority." He shrugged at the other question. "You were near the city." He nodded in Skywin's direction. "She insisted she wasn't carrying anything valuable, which is what everyone who doesn't want to tithe says. We would have boarded you, taken the tithe, and left. Instead now you're all dead if you ever come back here."
Thraag will return to where most of the group waits behind the main building once he is sure there is no one else outside.
"So, this competition... Why people take part? Is it just to show who's the best, or is the price what's everybody's after? The vault of this fellow, whatshisname..""Yes." Hiro answered cryptically. From behind them came a woman's voice. "Good answer!" The auburn-haired woman laughed. While she was dressed in the clothes of a Gokan fisherman down to the wide conical hat, her features were unmistakably Avistani, her reddish hair, blue eyes, and fair skin marking her as someone from far to the west. "I'm Risha!" she said, sticking out a hand to shake with the nearest member of the group- that alone would have marked her as a foreigner here. Her Tien was quick and liquid, perfectly fluent but betraying that she had learned it from someone from Xa Hoi, far to the southeast. "From Absalom." She nodded at Casimir. "Me and my team are here the prize. I imagine everybody is. Only an Iroran would go through all this just to prove they're the best." "Are you all not?" From Risha's tone it was clear she could hardly fathom the idea.
Hearing nothing, Artegall opens the door into a room that seems to mostly be a hallway to another door. The long rectangular room leads east to a south-facing door. From here, Artegall can see there is some kind of writing on the floor in front of the door but can't make it out from where he's standing.
The man didn't look up. "Just kill me. My family will die for this failure anyway." He opened his eyes and raised his head, nodding in the Sellen Starling's direction. "Your ship will be proscribed in Razmir's waters from now on. There's nothing I can do to stop that. You're all dead if you ever return here already. You might as well take what you want and sink this boat to the bottom of the lake." He didn't sound boastful now, just tired. Resigned, maybe. He sounded like his life was over and had accepted it.
Grimes did find nasty traps on both chests but determined that if they were opened with the key the traps would not trigger. Since they had the keys there wasn't much in the way of danger to Hannah. Loot: 1,205 gp, 10,450 sp, a bejeweled oil lamp worth 450 gp, a set of ivory dice worth 700 gp, a monk’s robeUE under the effects of a
magic aura spell (CL 9th) to appear nonmagical for the next 5 days, a set of vambraces of defense, and a pair of boots of speed.
DM rolls:
Zaraleva tossed a huge explosion into the middle of the thugs' barracks, killing most of them outright and leaving the other three in dire straits.
The group walked across the steeply pitched roof and lowered themselves down onto the wooden bridge connecting the two towers. The bridge lacked any railings and creaked and groaned under the party's weight but held them just fine. The group found the door to the smaller tower unlocked.
OK opening post is up, feel free to introduce yourselves.
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