Army of PCs Against the Giants

[perovskite]

Finally! Actually got to play.

Interlude XXVIII, Still somewhere in Ravenloft, Day 212

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The party makes it through the night without much issue.  However when they wake Leroy is missing and Arvin and Boots have appeared in their tent.

Clifford looks like this: [some smallish breed of dog called an affenpinscher]

Brak- “it never ceases to amaze me how that happens.” Brak allows everyone enough time to wake up and do whatever it is they do every morning. He then decides which spells he wants to cast for the day.

Niobe makes sure the Mad Kisser isn’t around, and breathes a sigh of relief. Then she proceeds to pray to...whomever she prays to and gets some paladin spells.

Derek is, as always impeccably dressed and groomed, and looking slightly bored with the world.

Eli settles into a corner munching on breakfast.

Arvin appears from nowhere. She looks a little frazzled. “I really really hate this place.”

Derek “Welcome back, Mistress Arvin.” She manages a smile for him.


Clifford streeeeeeeetches, shakes, and stands up. His tongue is sticking out as he pants, looking at each of the party members he thinks might pet him if he stares hard enough.

Derek looks over the party and takes inventory. “It appears that the Captain is absent again. We can depart whenever everyone else is ready.”

Eli starts to pet Clifford, and nods towards Derek giving him a thumbs up. Clifford leans toward Eli, enjoying this immensely.

After a hour, both Brak and Niobe are ready to go. Brak grabs his bow and Niobe has Fjorhaefur and her shield set to Nonthreatening.


Arvin picks up boots.  “What benighted landlocked hellhole are we headed to today?”

Derek “A mountain, of some sort.”

“Bah.”

As the party starts moving along the road it fades away under a covering of snow, as the snow starts to complete cover the road the temperature seems to drop unnaturally fast.  Each ten feet closer to the temp they get the temperature appears to drop significantly.  The temple carved into the sheer mountainside.  The front of the structure is fifty feet high and has six alcoves containing twenty-foot-tall statues.  Each statue is carved from a single block of amber and depicts a faceless, hooded figure, its hands pressed together in a gesture of prayer.  Between the two innermost statues is a twenty-foot-tall archway with a staircase leading down.  By the time the party arrives at the staircase it is almost unbearably cold.

Niobe doesn’t mind, cause she has natural cold resistance.

“F-f-f-fantastic.” Derek shivers. “This will do wonders for my aim.”

Arvin sighs deeply. “All right, everyone gather round.” She casts Mass Resist Energy 30 on the party, upping everyone’s cold resistance. She also casts luminous armor and primal instinct on herself, and wraps her shadow cloak tightly around her to hide the light.

Eli nods his thanks to Arvin as he stops shaking.

Derek sighs “Mistress Arvin, thank you.”

Clifford stops whining each time he puts his paws on the ground.

Derek steps to the top of the stairs and hides himself in plain sight  to scout the way down.

Brak manifests fly on himself and goes to look at the various giant faceless praying statues. There are no symbols on the statues that give any clues as to who they might have been or who they might worship.

Clifford shrinks to Medium and follows the party.

As Derek starts to go down the stairs he notices two arrow slits carved into the wall on either side of the hall.  Beyond the hall lies a vast, sepulchral darkness.

Derek calls back quietly “Beware the arrow slits in the walls.” He proceeds, being careful to duck under any possible wall mounted murder-holes.

Arvin turns herself into a bat and follows him, landing on his shoulderl,  in case he needs help. Boots stay shrunken and with clifford. Clifford picks up the mini-Boots by the harness straps and brings up the rear.

Niobe risks a migraine and detects evil.  The evil here seams on par with the death house.  Though somehow not seeping through all the walls.  It doesn’t make it any easier for Niobe to determine exactly where the evil is coming from though.

Niobe grimaces again and shakes her head, and then follows Derek down the hall. She sets her armament to Kill if Required (light shield and longspear).

When Derek reaches the end of the hall he crouches, bow at the ready, and looks around as far as he  can see.

Brak floats down the hallway after everybody else, aaaand he’ll have the staff of power out, cause he was burning through the staff of transmutation too fast last time.

Brak fill float as far as the intersection, about 10’ above Derek’s head.

Eli pulls out a Sunrod and lights it to give himself some light to see as they enter the dark temple.

As they clear the hall they find themselves on a twenty-foot-wide balcony of black marble with a shattered railing overlooking a vast temple.  Black marble staircases at each end of the balcony descend thirty feet to the temple floor.  The vaulted ceiling is thirty feet above the balcony.  The walls and ceiling are covered in an amber glaze, lending the gloom a golden sheen.  A set of amber doors stands closed at the west end of the balcony.  A similar pair stands open to the east.

Brak mumbles to himself. “Why the obsession with amber?” The back of his brain works on this problem. He also floats past the threshold and around the corner a little ways.

Derek saunters over to the western doors and examines them  Neither Derek or Arvin find anything on the door they are looking at.

Brak flies over to the doors opposite the ones Derek is looking at and peers down the hall.  He sees into what appears to be a featureless room except for the edge of a 10-foot-diameter half circle he can see on the floor.

Niobe muses that this is really where they should have fought the giant gorilla. She flaps her wings and flies far enough to see the far side of the main room.  She black marble columns support the vaulted ceiling of the temple, at the north end of which stands a forty-foot-tall statue of a cowled figure in flowing robes.  The statue’s stony hands are outstretched as if in the midst of casting a spell.  Its face is a void of utter blackness.  The ominous statue stands between two black marble balconies, one of which has partially collapsed and fallen on the temple’s black marble floor, in front of an open doorway.  The walls of the temple are sheathed in amber, and the doors leading from it are made of amber as well.  Arched hallways coated with amber lead away from the temple to the west and east.  Flanking these exits are alcoves that hold white marble statues of robed human wizards with pointed hats and golden staffs.  One of them has toppled over and lies shattered on the floor.  She also notes that there are more arrow slits in the walls.  There is a figure dressed in a black cloak standing in front of the large statue staring at a black orb that rests on the floor at the feet of the statue. The figure appears to be unmoving.

Clifford licks the amber on the wall near him. It tastes like cold dirt. Clifford is disappointed it doesn’t taste like honey or some other orange-y substance.

Niobe makes a u-turn and heads back to where Derek is. She tries to make just enough noise to alert the friendlies at this end of the room to huddle up.

Niobe tells everyone about what she saw as the other end of the room, especially the possibly not a statue guy with the black orb. Also the arrow slits.

Clifford is excited that he might get to take a black ball after all.

As Niobe describes the figure she and Derek start to think they recognized that description.  Niobe is not sure where she recognizes it from, and Derek remembers Talon being dressed that way.

Derek “Like Talon. Could this place be related to the cult in the house?” He rolls his shoulders. Arvin makes a displeased bat squeak. ”Perhaps we should check the side rooms, first.”

Niobe- “Works for me.” She scoots back to let Derek do rogue things to the door.

Derek attempts to open the door, examining it for potential traps, of course.  No traps and the door opens easily. Torches in sconces light this bare stone room.  Six bed-rolls made of stitched animal furs cover the floor.  Cold air enters through a fissure in the southwest wall.

Derek quickly searches the bedrolls.  He doesn’t find anything in any of the bedrolls.  He does notice something off about the south wall by the bedroll closest to the door he entered through.

Derek examines the fissure.  He can see that the fissure appears to go all the way through the wall outside of the temple.  It doesn’t appear to be big enough to squeeze through.

Derek says ”Mistress Arvin, would you mind exploring this, while I check the wall?” Arvin nods ,flutters over to the fissure and pokes her head in, using her blindsight. When nothing dangerous appears, she slowly pulls herself forward using her wee little claws.

Arvin doesn’t find anything dangerous in the fissure so far. She stops to listen. She only hears her own party. She crawls forward again, slowly.  As Arvin comes to the end of the fissure she finds herself back towards the front of the temple again.

Before she leaves the fissure, she stops to look and listen. She doesn’t hear or see anything. She crawls back to the party and flies back to derek.

Brak floats into the room, and Niobe stays just outside the door, still on the lookout for undead and/or eldritch abominations sneaking up on the party. And also in case that is Talon standing moodily in the lower level for some reason.

Derek, meanwhile examines the odd bit of wall more closely. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary he sneers at it and addresses his companions. “Master Brak, Mistress Niobe, there was something odd about this wall, and now I can’t find it. Would you look?” He gestures to it and steps back.

Niobe gives Clifford scritches, since she hasn’t yet today. Clifford pants happily while somehow managing not to drop Boots, who just dangles resignedly.

Brak floats over and searches for anything strange. Brak finds what appears to be a secret door.  He is not sure how to get it open though.

Brak- “Ah, here it is.” He points out the location and dimensions of the door to Derek. He searches again for some kind of latch, glyph, or anything else that might open in.

Derek examines the area Brak has outlined.  After a closer look Derek is able to find a mechanism that will operate the door, and it only takes a minute for Derek to get the door to swing open.  This leads into a small room with the south wall covered in small cylindrical holes fit for scrolls or maps.

Derek examines the cubbies or scrolls.  There is lots of dust in the holes.  Appears likely that any scrolls that were in the holes have long since disintegrated.

Derek returns to the sleeping room and reports his findings.

Brak- “Odd that there are sleeping mats and dusty scroll holes. What is behind this door behind Eli, then?”

Arvin yawns. “Could be a new group trying to revive an ancient cult maybe.”

Eli looks over his shoulder then back at Brak and shrugs.

Derek walks over to the other door and, checking for traps, opens it. “Let’s find out.”  He doesn’t find any traps and is able to open the door.  This leads to a hall twenty-foot-wide, seventy-foot-long arched and sheathed in amber.  The southern half of the hall is scorched by fire, and a charred corpse lies on the floor here, under a burned fur cloak.  Several amber doors lead from this hall, and three arrow slits are cut into the east wall.  The same ones that Niobe reported earlier.

Brak- “Shall we come back to this area later?”

“I can always send in a small elemental or something to try and trigger traps if you want.” Arvin offers. “But might be better to wait until we’re sure enemies are defeated.”

Derek examines the scene. “It doesn’t look like the result of a trap. It should be reasonably safe to proceed.” He cautiously steps into the hall.

“Someone take care of Boots if I die,” Arvin grumbles, but stays on Derek’s shoulder.
Derek snorts “Perils of the advance guard, Mistress Arvin.”

Brak floats into the hallway as well, but makes sure to be about 10’ off the floor.

Niobe steps into the room of bedrolls, and then into the scorched end of the hall.

Derek checks the nearest side door for traps.  He doesn’t find any traps. He  cautiously opens the door.  The door opens to reveal a small room with stone blocks resembling tables standing in the center of the room covered in dust.  Carved into the stone walls are niches filled with hundreds of dusty bottles.  Cobwebs hang from wooden ladders that lean against the walls.

Niobe espys the dead body and tries to lift up the edge of the burned cloak using her spear tip.  The cloak lifts easily then falls to ashes with small parts slipping to the ground that were not quite burnt to ashes.

Derek calls out into the hall. “Master Brak, this might be more of your specialty.” He exits the room and proceeds to the second door. Same procedure.  No traps and the door opens easily.  This leads to a twenty-foot-long, ten-foot-high hallway of bare stone with an amber door at the end of the hall. “Hm”

Brak floats back down the hallway into the room Derek is examining. “Huh.” Brak searches the stone tables for anything that looks out of place or unusual, making knowledge checks as he goes. If he finds nothing, he checks to see if there are any bottles that actually have potions in them.

Niobe goes back to examine the dead body closely. She doesn’t touch it, just looks for anything odd.  She doesn't not find anything odd, she does find a staff still in the dead body's hand that is undamaged.

Derek moves on to the third room. Same procedure.  No traps, door opens easily.  There is a twelve-foot-tall model of a dark castle with high walls and tall spires dominating this room.  Behind it, tucked in a corner, are some ruined furnishings and a wooden chest.

“What kind of ever loving demented toy shop is this world?” Arvin mutters. “Look it’s a creepy house, look it’s a model of a creepy house, ohhhhhhh. Look, it’s a creepy castle….”

Derek laughs shortly. “Some of the other students liked to tell stories of such places, to frighten themselves and each other in the dormitories. I’m not sure why. The bards’ tales of things that actually happened were much better.”

Niobe gingerly moves the corpses’s hand off the staff, uttering a short prayer as she does so, and picks up the staff, trusting that her paladin saving throws and many, many hit points will suffice.  A voice reverberates inside Niobe's head, “I crave power above all else, and will do anything to obtain more of it.”  This voice repeats itself slowly getting quieter until it disappears.  She manages to push off the sudden impulse to do exactly what the voice says.

Brak exits the potion room into the hallway. “Robbing corpses now, are we?” He sneers, in route to the next room Derek is examining.

Niobe- “This staff just tried to possess me and force me to do it’s bidding. We should either leave it behind or destroy it.”

Clifford - “Can I play fetch with it? I still haven’t found a good stick and I’ve been searching for DAYS.” Boots bites him just firmly enough to make a point. Clifford stares in confusion at having the thing in his mouth bite him. He is able to stare Boots down because his snout is very short today.

Derek pokes his head into the hall. “We’ve found another model.” He then starts to search the room other than the table.  He finds nothing in the furniture, but does find a false bottom in the chest.  A book is hidden in that compartment.

Niobe gives Clifford a slightly pained look. “Sorry Clifford, you do not want to use this as a toy. It is not friendly in the least.”

Clifford sighs a big doggy sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to keep searching for the perfect stick…..” He looks sad.

She keeps the staff in hand and walks down the hall. “What’s your name?” She attempts to communicate with it mentally.  There is no response from the staff.

Niobe- “Ugh, headache time.” She detects evil on the staff specifically.  No evil from the staff.  Same feeling from everything else.

Niobe- “Aaaaaaahhhh!” She pauses a moment to let the headache subside. “It’s not evil, and does not respond to me.”

Brak flies up to inspect the model very, very thoroughly, and looks for any latches that allow the model to open.

Derek pulls the book out of the compartment and examines it, checking the inside of the cover, leafing through it, etc.  The book is titled ‘Tome of Understanding’

Brak, distractedly- “Maybe it was just a magic trap, and the thing is now a stick.”

Niobe- “Does anyone have detect magic prepared?”

“I’ve got one,” Arvin says.

Brak, again distractedly- “I have it twice.” He turns away from the model, slightly irritated, and casts detect magic. He examines the staff, the book Derek just found, the model, and is likely blinded by the laser light shows that are all of his companions.

The book and staff are magical.  The model is also magical, along with all the stuff the party is carrying.  There is also a spot in the shape of a door on the wall that is magical.

Brak- ”The book is magical, the staff also radiates magic, and so does this model, curiously. And a magically concealed door...right over there.”

Derek stows the book in his vest pocket and examines the location indicated.  Derek finds and is able to figure out how to open the secret door. He does so.

Brak concentrates on the staff long enough to determine what school of magic the new staff radiates.  Evocation.

Brak- “It radiates evocation magic. Odd.”

Derek, having opened the hidden door, and wedged a piece of furniture in to keep it open, returns to the party. “Mistress Niobe, if you would prefer to not carry that staff, I have room for one more in my quiver.” He holds open the appropriate compartment of his Quiver of Ehlonna.

Niobe- “That is definitely a good idea. Let me know if you have sudden impulses for world domination.” She drops the staff into his quiver, making sure he doesn’t touch it.

Derek stows the quiver away. “Of course.”

Clifford peeks into the room, contemplating if he could get small enough to run around in the model as if he were his current size in the real one.  He is pretty sure he cannot get that small.

Brak returns to examining the model, trying to memorize every detail, and looks for ways to open it to examine the innards.  There is no need to open it, the model is a detailed representation of the castle, including the inside of it.  Brak feels that if he spends at least a few more minutes studying the model he might be able to memorize a good portion of the details of the area.

Brak does so.  He manages to get a really good idea of the castle.  If he ever gets into the castle he will have a +10 to any checks with regard to moving around the castle and remembering where they are.

Derek, meanwhile, goes back to the hidden door and heads into whatever area was behind it.  He finds stairs leading down farther into the temple. He realizes that he’s at the end of the hallway that the middle door led to, and tries to open the door to that hallway..  The door opens easily.

Brak- “Same question as before. Stay on this level, go talk to the mysterious cloaked man in the main hall, or what?”

Derek shakes his head at the apparent pointlessness of the doors, amd says “There was another set of doors on the other side wasn’t there?”

Brak- “Yes. An empty hallway with some kind of pit, I think, on one side.

Niobe- I vote we see who the cloaked man is.”

Derek grins “I am inclined to stay on this level and not see who the cloaked man is.”

Brak- “There’s another set of doors at the end of the hall.” Brak adjourns to the hallway and peers through an arrow slit to see if the Cloaked Man is still there.  He can see the cloaked man still there, apparently unmoving.  From the angle that Brak is at he cannot tell what the figure is doing facing the small orb on the floor.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXIX, Fun With Decks of Many Things

(click to show/hide)

Day 212.

While everyone is moving around checking out rooms the rod of security starts to glow briefly before suddenly shooting Leroy out of it, causing him to collapse in a pile on the ground.

Clifford has mysteriously elongated into this- (picture of a Rhodesian ridgeback)


Derek, in whose possession the rod is, says “Welcome back, Captain. That’s a new method of rejoining the party.”

Leroy falls onto his bottom, legs sprawled out in front of him, a bewildered look on his face. He looks to Derek “Me thanks first mate.” he gets up and brushes himself off “Ye should have seen where me came from.”

“Different from the normal inside of the security rod?” Derek queries suspiciously.

Brak mumbles something about always making an entrance.

Niobe smirks at Leroy and his pratfalls.

Leroy sees Niobe smirk and turns to Derek “Aye, first mate,” Leroy says calmly, “Let me just say it was a void with colors all around me with blue light rushing into me face. Tis a weird scene to see.”

Niobe heads over to the door at the end of the hall.

Eli cocks his head watching Leroy as he makes his explanation of where he has been.

Brak, who has stopped flying at this point- “Derek, are you doing the honors?” He indicates the next door.

“Oh, of course, Master Brak. One moment.” Derek, Arvin still on his shoulder, moves to the double door at the end of the hall and checks it for traps and being locked.  No traps and the door is not locked.

Derek cautiously opens it and slips into the next room

He finds a room with torches in sconces that illuminate a dining table in the center of the room.  Covering the table is a magnificent feast that fills the hall with the rich smells of cooked meat, sweet vegetables, piping hot gravy, and wine.  The ceiling in this room is 20 feet high.  There are Amber doors leading to the east of the room.

Niobe follows them into the room, sees the feast, and immediately disbelieves the illusion.

Derek is very suspicious of a feast that is still hot. Arvin is also not convinced. They, too, disbelieve.

Leroy walks towards Derek and Niobe. He joins them in the room.

Niobe and Arvin see the lights and food fade away.  Derek still sees it there as hot and enticing.  He is still suspicious, as a matter of professional ethics. In the center of the table Niobe and Arvin see what appears to be a green copper ewer embossed with images of dancing bears, elks, and wolves.

Clifford walks in and his doggy eyes light up,

“Fake!” Arvin chirps. “Fake as an anglerfish’s bait light.”

Leroy looks to Arvin “What ye be talkin about lass?” then looks to where she is talking about.

As Arvin mentions that the food is fake everyone sees it fading away and the light also goes out for them as well.

Clifford makes a sad sound.

Brak walks in after everyone else, and since his detect magic is still running, eyeballs the ewer suspiciously.  The Ewer is magical.

Derek surreptitiously wipes drool from his mouth, and begins to search the walls in the rest of the room. Arvin pretends not to see. Derek doesn’t find anything in his search of the room.

Brak- “The ewer is magical, and it radiates transmutation. So don’t drink out of it.”

Derek, finishing his search of the walls “Is it likely to transmute one who picks it up?”

Brak thinks for a moment. “I can’t tell.”

Derek shrugs and picks up the ewer anyway and drops it into one of his vest pockets.  He has a sudden urge to drink from the Ewer.   Though he can just barely keep himself from drinking from it.  As soon as the Ewere gets into his vest pocket he still feels very thirsty.

Niobe starts to say something just a second too late, and moves over to Derek to try and wrestle the Ewer out of his hands if needed.

Derek muttering to himself once the Ewer is put away. “I could really use a drink, but it’s magic and I can’t test it for poison, and drinking would be unprofessional and stupid.” He keeps murmuring the last two phrases like a mantra as he approaches the next set of doors at the end of the banquet room. He checks this door for lockedness and traps as well.  He doesn’t find any traps.

Arvin bites him on the ear, hard enough to try and knock him out of his almost trance, but not hard enough to permanently damage him.

Derek swears and barely refrains from swatting Arvin. “Mistess Arvin, please do not bite me when I’m concentrating.” He opens the door, radiating aggravation.

“Sorry, next time I’ll wait until you’re done concentrating,” Arvin says.

Niobe follows closely behind, ready to tackle him if he pulls the ewer out again.

This black marble balcony overhangs the northwest corner of the temple, the floor of which lies thirty feet below.  Nearly half of the balcony has fallen away, and obvious cracks have formed near its ragged edge.

Niobe looks through the door and then over at the Mysterious Hooded Figure to see what he or she is doing. Then she looks straight across to see if there is a landing spot along the north wall, like another section of balcony.  She can see the movement of his chest as the figure is still breathing.  The figure from this angle is easily recognizable as Talon.  He is not moving at all and steams to be staring straight into the black orb.

Leroy scoots up to Niobe and peeks through the door to see whats going on.

Niobe- “Eli, you were right, that is Talon.” She squeezes through the door and flies over to the ledge on the far side of the giant statue behind Talon.  The balcony is the same as the one she was just on, with the exception that it is not broken.

Eli nods.  Cocking his head to look down at the figure.

For those with darkvision, Niobe points at Talon and shrugs, as if to say, “Do we talk to him, or what?”

Derek shakes his head, and makes gestures toward the double doors at the top of the balcony. He carefully sidles along the wall and examines the doors for traps and lockage.  No traps or locks. He opens the doors and slips into the next room, leaving them open for anyone who might want to follow.  This bare stone room consists of a foyer to the east and a shrine to the west.  Candlesticks draped in cobwebs stand in the four corners of the foyer.  In the shrine, a faceless obsidian statue stands in a raised alcove at the western end of the chamber.  Slumped before the statue are two desiccated corpses in tattered garments.  Two pairs of alcoves line the north and south walls of the shrine.
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Leroy looks to the group “If ye want, me can go talk to him first.”

Niobe turns and looks through the open double doors to her north.  This bare stone room consists of a foyer to the west and a shrine to the east.  Four candlesticks lie on the dusty floor of the foyer.  In the shrine, fragments of a shattered obsidian statue are scattered in a raised alcove at the eastern end of the chamber.  Two pairs of empty alcoves line the north and south walls of the shrine.

Niobe examine the alcove without approaching it to see what she can figure out.  She is not able to determine any religious affiliation with the alcove.
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Brak follows Derek and Arvin.

Clifford sits down on the balcony, watching Talon.  As he watches Talon, he starts to notice tiny signs of Talons body twitching as if he is trying to pull away from something invisible.

Derek Ignores the statue, and checks the doors on the east wall for traps and or locks.  He doesn’t find any traps or locks.

Derek opens the door and proceeds into the next room.  He finds a narrow room that has an arrow slit in the center of the southwall. He looks around for another door, and if there is none, searches the east wall for secrets.  Nothing of interest to be found.

He pokes his head into the previous room. “Master Brak, would you examine this room for passages?”

Brak walks in and examines whatever areas Derek indicates.  Brak doesn’t find anything of interest.

While Brak finds nothing, Derek peers through the arrow slit to see what is to be seen. He is not able to see anything interesting as he searches through the arrow slit.
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Niobe, two rooms away, searches the door on the west wall of the room for traps. She used to be a rogue, after all.  No traps. She opens them doors! She finds a narrow room that has an arrow slit in the center of the south wall. If this room looks completely uninteresting, she turns around and searches the room with alcoves and candlesticks.  Niobe finds what appears to be a secret door on the north wall.

Brak searches the two desiccated corpses in the northwest shrine room.  There is nothing on the bodies except their clothing.
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Derek returns to the broken balcony, Arvin on his shoulder.

When the others get near him, Clifford says, “I think the guy down there might be stuck.”

Derek frowns.

Brak heads out to the balcony as well.

Leroy has an idea and runs into the room where the feast once was.

Niobe searches for a switch to open the secret door.  She is able to figure out how to open the door. She opens it, wedges the door open with one of the giant candle sticks, and then goes to the first corner.  This door leads to a dusty corridor heads north, then bends to the east, descending a dark staircase.  The air is thin, but heavy with the stench of death.

Leroy turns to see the group, makes sure no one is paying attention, pulls out a certain deck from his bag, gives it 7 shuffles, and draws a card out. Leroy feels dumb, but redraws again.  The second card that he draws gives him the feeling that he will be able to know the answer to his next dilemma.

Niobe decides she has wandered far enough from everyone else, and so turns around and heads back to see what everyone else is up to.

Clifford looks away from Talon to Niobe when she reappears and wags his tail.

Niobe gives Clifford a friendly wave, and-

Leroy realizes the card he drew runs out to the balcony and screams to Talon “I WANT ME ANSWER NOW, IF WE COME TO YOU, WILL ME AND ME CREW BE GETTIN INTO A FIGHT!?”  A voice in Leroy's head says, “every path you take inside this temple leads to you getting into a fight with demons and devils.”

Derek is startled and alarmed at Leroy’s actions “Captain, what are you doing?”

Leroy calls to his first mate, “first mate Derek, anywhere we be goin into this here temple will lead to a fight with demons and devils! Me heard it in me head.”

Derek pinches the bridge of his nose and mutters “Of Course you did.” Aloud he says “Captain, given the lord of this land and the decor of the temple, that was almost inevitable.” Still feeling a powerful thirst, he mumbles to himself. “I am master of my desires, they shall not be master of me.”

“Just let me know if you need me to bite you again,” Arvin says helpfully.

Derek snorts “You are too kind, Mistress Arvin.”

Clifford looks at both of them, his head tilted. “Should we maybe help the guy down there, then? He doesn’t look like a demo or a devil to me.”

Niobe, loudly enough for everyone to hear- “Well now that we’re not sneaking, I found a secret passage through one of the rooms over here. It heads downstairs, and it smells like death. Who wants to talk to Talon?”

Clifford - “I think he’s stuck, he might not be able to talk.”

Derek points to the opposite side of the entrance balcony. “We haven’t yet explored that side.”

Eli points to the two balconies, then writes the word “symmetry” on his paper and shows it to everyone, then points to the room Brak is still in.

Brak- “Eli has a point. Niobe, can you see what is in the room behind you? We’ll look for another secret passage over here.”

Niobe- “Yes, just a second.” She turns around and looks into the room directly behind her.”  The walls and ceiling in the eastern portion of this bare stone room have collapsed. To the south is are open amber doors.  In the center of the room is a ten-foot-tall statue of a jackal-headed warrior made of cracked amber.  It turns to face you and clenches its fists.

Brak does a thorough search of the walls of the room to the north.

Though Leroy sees the group searching around and everything, he still feels dumb for some reason, and in plain sight of everyone without thinking, ala Caboose, draws one more card without realizing it, because its still in his hand. 
Niobe makes a knowledge religion check as she backs out of the room, shield and spear set to Kill.  Not able to get anything from the knowledge check.

Niobe, loudly enough for everyone to hear- “Hey! I have a 10’ tall statue that doesn’t like me!”

Derek sprints back down the corridor toward the entrance, Arvin clinging to his collar.

Round 1!

Niobe is too close for missiles, so to speak, and so withdraws to the full extent of her speed! She takes off from the balcony and gets in the air to see what the statue does.

Derek makes it to the door of the sleeping room by the end of the first round.

Clifford manifests claws and waits to see if the thing chasing Niobe goes down or stays on the balcony across from him.

The Golem comes rushing out onto the balcony, then screams in rage at Niobe floating in the air in front of him.

Round 2!

Niobe executes a flying Guided Missile! She uses her swift action to cast rhino rush and then charges, using an awesome charging power attacking smite, with divine might. She focuses her divine power and smashes into the golem as hard as she can!

Leroy, looks onto Niobe as she attacks the Golem, is in aw. “I have to help her.” he looks into his hand, “Me Gots it!” and draws a card.  Leroy feels suddenly like he could make two wishes.

Leroy feels the wishes and screams on top of his lungs “I WISH FOR ME AND ME MATEYS TO BE FAR FROM HERE ON A TROPIC BEACH!” Then he shouts “I WISH FOR NIOBE TO BE ME WIFE FOREVER!”  Leroy feels a weird tugging sensation, then the rest of the party also feels it.  They briefly see a beautiful tropic beach, just before returning to exactly where they were prior to being moved away.  At the same time there is suddenly a mirror image of Niobe standing next to Leroy.  She has a wedding ring on her ring finger, there is now also a ring around Leroys finger.

The golem shatters into a bazillion pieces!

Derek bursts through the door of the balcony above and skids to a stop just in time to see the Golem disintegrate. “Well.” He brushes himself off “No need to run, then I suppose.”

Eli looks from Niobe next to Derek towards the Niobe that just destroyed the Golem before glaring at Leroy. Leroy smiles and gives Eli two thumbs up.

Clifford quickly shifts his stance from ATTACK to “bwuh?” and says, “Wow you are amazing, Niobe! And I mean how good you are in a fight, not just because you’re good at giving belly rubs!”

Imposter Niobe, “thank you Clifford.”  Though she is not taking her eyes off Leroy at this moment.

Clifford looks at the new Niobe and sniffs at her, confused.  Imposter Niobe almost smells exactly the same as Niobe.

@realniobe goes “Pfft!” at the golem dust that she is now covered in and turns around. “Everyone okay…..what?” She sees her duplicate standing near Leroy.

Clifford looks at real Niobe, and back at new Niobe. He says “Um we have two Niobes now?” He squints suspiciously at new Niobe, trying to decide the chances that this will lead to twice the belly rubs and not horrible death.

Imposter Niobe, “have you never heard of time travel?”

“Time travel from where?’ Arvin says. She flutters down to IN and examines her. “Future? Past? Alternate Weird Timestream?”

Brak, having heard the sound of a whole bunch of rock shattering, investigates….and also discovers Imposter Niobe, hanging all over Leroy.

Leroy stands there awkwardly and just smiles. “Well… at least we didnt die.” he says meekly

Derek calls from the entry balcony “Captain… you didn’t use the deck again…did you?”

Leroy looks to his first mate, knowing he wouldnt dare lie to him, and confesses “Aye, first mate,” droops his head “I did use the deck. I wanted to help out.”

Eli just shakes his head and writes out, powerful magic waisted in a moment of thoughtless action.

Derek looks pained. “A second paladin is likely to be helpful in a cursed place like this, but really…”

Imposter Niobe, “The future.  We get married of course.  Though I am not sure why I am back here now.”

@realniobe is….suspicious, after she recovers from a moment of shock. She does glance at her left hand, though...you never know.

Niobe and Eli can tell that the imposter is lying, everyone else believes the story completely.

Arvin flutters over to Niobe’s shoulder. “This is weird. Are you all right?”

Brak- “Do we then succeed in escaping this place?”

Imposter Niobe, “Yes, though if I give details about how this all goes it could change things significantly.  Even just saying yes could change that.”

Brak- “Hmmmmm good point.”

@realniobe, very quietly- “I’mmm not sure. Strange things happen all the time, but she is lying through her teeth.”

Arvin nods and resolves to keep an eye on the imposter as well. She didn’t pick up any lie, but she trusts Original Niobe more than Suddenly Married to Leroy Niobe.

Clifford relaxes a bit and settles back. “Yay, two Niobe’s worth of belly rubs!”

Derek rubs his forehead and proceeds to the other side of the entry balcony to check the rooms there.

Eli crosses his arms and continues to watch the exchange between the party and this newly arrived Niobe.  He manifests missive towards the real Niobe, She lies.  Though he is not looking in her direction.

Leroy looks at his new ring “Neat.” he says.

@realniobe nods at the message from Eli, but says nothing. “Hmmmm……” Niobe uses her hat of disguise to change her hair color to something different than what the imposter has. Lets say….strawberry blonde and wavy, instead of auburn and curly.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXX

Soooo the party is between a bunch of baatezu on one side and tanar'ri on the other, which is not the direction I expected this to take, frankly.

(click to show/hide)

Day 212, still.

The party is still standing around staring at the newly arrived Niobe, apparently without an idea of what to say to her or each other.
----------------------------------------------------
Derek, ignoring everyone, goes through the doors that lead to the rooms to the east of the main chamber. Arvin flutters back to his shoulder to give him backup. She also whispers what Niobe said about red Niobe lying and told him not to tell Leroy.   The room they are in is featureless except for a rough-edged, 10-foot-diameter circular hole in the floor to the east and empty torch scones along the walls.  Double doors of amber to the north stand open.  A single closed door lies just south of the western set of double doors.

Derek nods “Fair enough.” He pokes his head into the rooms beyond the double doors to the north. Glazed amber covers the walls of this twenty-foot-wide, seventy-foot-long arched corridor.  The amber doors at both ends of the hall stand open. A closed door is in the middle of the east wall, and three arrow slits are cut into the wall across from it.  Cracks in the black marble floor run the length of the hall.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
@realniobe- “I….wow.”

Leroy looks at the new Niobe and the old Niobe. He rubs his eyes and says in amazement “Me can’t believe the wish worked.”

Niobe looks at Leroy- “And why is that, my dear?” She plants a kiss on his cheek.

Leroy feels a little light head after the kiss.

Leroy heart flutters for a second “Me love, that be some kiss ye have!” he presses his hand to his cheek. “Me loves you so much!” and smiles at Niobe.

Niobe- “And I love you!” She grabs his hand and shows him their matching rings.

Eli cocks his head slightly and looks from the group and then back over his shoulder to where the real Niobe stands after hearing her comment.  He steps up to the edge looking to see if there is a way to get across.

Leroy looks at the matching rings and smiles to no end. “Lass, me love, where after this do ye want to spend our honeymoon?” he asks glowingly

Niobe considers this- “Oooh, have you ever been to the elemental plane of Air? It’s just lovely this time of year!”

Leroy looks to Niobe “Alas me love, Me has not been there. We can travel there by me big pirate ship that I have me love.” He offers with hope. “We can sail the seven seas, chase the horizon to see it rise. All for you, me love.” his words dripping with intoxicating love.

@realniobe, quietly to Arvin- “I am honestly at a loss for what to think or feel or say.” She watches the teenage drama across the way for a second and then turns her heel and walks after Derek.

Niobe clings to his every word.

Leroy looks around for the rest of the group, “Me love,” grabbing her by the hand, “We must catch up with me crew and first mate. Surely they will need their Captain’s help.” he says with confidence.
-----------------------------------
@realniobe catches up. “I cannot believe this,” she says, to no one in particular.

Derek considers the cracked floor.  He is sure the floor will support his weight.

Out of an abundance of caution, he stays at the edge of the wall anyway, and proceeds to the door in the east wall.  There are no locks or traps that he can find. He opens the door, and looks through the doorway.  He finds a brightly lit chamber.  Red copper lanthorns hang from the ceiling.  The walls are sheathed in amber that has been shaped into bas-reliefs of wizards with spellbooks.  Stairs to the north and south descend twenty feet to an obsidian lectern, behind which a slab of black slate hangs from chains.  Between the stairs are ascending rows of red marble benches.

Derek shivers a little, memories of his schooling flooding his mind. “I had hoped to never again see the inside of a lecture hall.”

Arvin frowns, though it ‘s hard to tell because she is still a bat. “I wonder what they were lecturing about. Doesn’t look like a place that teaches maths.”

Derek heads down to the lectern. “Are you coming with us Mistress Niobe?” To Arvin, he says “By the carvings, I’d say magic.” He examines the lectern and slate board.


-------------------------------------------------
Niobe- “Lead on, my captain? Shall we fly over to the other ledge?”

Leroy looks to Niobe, curls his moustache ends upwards and says in a suave voice “Aye, love.” and then gives her a small squint, smirk face of love to her.

Niobe grabs him around the waist, and flaps her wings. They fly majestically across the gap and alight gently on the other ledge.

Eli writes a note attempting to show it to Imposter Niobe and Leroy before they leave, this place is a mirror, they will have to come back over here.  Then signs as they fly away and just looks at Brak.

Brak- “I got nothing, man.” When the other two are safely across the gap, he whispers, “Strangest wish I’ve ever heard of.”

Eli nods and writes, you found something?  He manifests to Brak, Not sure, she is lying about something though.

Brak- “Is she now? I’ll use true seeing in a minute. Need help getting across the ledge? I can use levitate on other people.”

Eli writes, please, I would prefer to save the celestial powers I have for when we are in a fight.

Once Leroy and Niobe get to the other side, Leroy kisses Niobe on her cheek “Another reason to spend the rest of this life with ye, me love.”

Niobe keeps an arm wrapped around Leroy, and starts walking as if it’s a lovely evening stroll in a park. “Tell me about your pirate ship, my dear.”

Leroy, completely gets lost in the moment, grabs her hand and sits her down on the edge of the ledge. “Aye, love, she’s a grand ship as she is. All ships are shes. She is 30 feet wide, 100 feet long, she has three masts with sails as large as a field. She is a fast ship, whips through the sea as if butter. She can take a beating and is marvelous. Oh she’s an amazing ship, aye that she be. We can watch the sun rise and sunset each day, look to the stars, look at the constellations, and kiss everyday. Aye, love, that is the ship I command.” He says this with oozing confidence and chipperness in is voice, pitching from high to low tones as he tells about his ship.

Brak manifests fly on himself and levitate on Eli, and then pushes Eli across the gap. He cuts off levitate once they’re across, but keeps fly active.

He goes back to repeat the process with Clifford and Boots, who he assumes is still dressed as a handbag.

Eli nods thanks to Brak then starts to followly Imposter Niobe and Leroy.

Brak flies by both of them and heads into the lecture room with the burned guy (who he doesn’t know about quite yet.)

Niobe watches everyone go past. “We should stay here for a bit of privacy…”

Leroy looks to the group passing them, then back to Niobe. “Aye, love. We can sit here a bit longer. See the stars above us?” he gently puts his hand on her chin, points it up, whispering into her ear “what does ye see, me love?”

Niobe- “ A deep blue sky with a million points of light…”

Leroy chuckles a bit at this answer. “Aye, a million points of light.”

Niobe- “Mmmmm lets go back a room, shall we?”

Leroy begins to turn red in the face and says meekly “Aye, love. That we can.”

Niobe leads him past the next set of doors, making out ensues, but when Brak sticks his head into the hall, he can clearly see Leroy standing in the doorway, with Niobe behind the door.

Leroy is caught up in his thirst of lust.

-------------------------------
@realniobe walks through the doors and jumps off the balcony, landing solidly near Arvin and Derek. “I’m just going to try to ignore her for the moment.”

Derek nods as he examines things. “A reasonable course of action.”

Behind the lectern it is easy to find a small man cowering.  He is in scorched robes and his unkempt hair is half burned away.  His face and arms are covered with blisters from fire.  There is nothing else of interest to be found or seen.

“She’s probably some kind of extraplanar creature looking for a mate,” Arvin says. “Or a snack. Or both! Maybe she’ll shrink Leroy and attach him to her hip like an anglerfish.”

Derek, briefly distracted, “An anglerfish?”

@realniobe just watches the door for the inevitable grand entrance of her doppleganger and Leroy. Fjolhaefur and her shield are definitely set to Kill.

“Deep water fish,” Arvin says. “The females are large and round with HUGE teeth, and the males are just small little things that attach themselves to females for life, and become part of their bodies forever. So the females can basically fertilize themselves and don’t have to wander around the deep ocean looking for a mate when they want one.”

Derek blinks. “How… disturbing.” He examines the man, without touching him, to see if he’s alive.  He is alive, and looking up at Derek with fear in his eyes.

Clifford has wandered over to the lecture hall with Boots in tow. He now looks like this:



Derek, being diplomatic “Good evening sir. May I know your name?”

@realniobe finally notices the Burning Man. “By Moradin!”

The man still looking around in almost abject terror says, “I...no, no names.  How did you survive the flameskulls.  They burnt my master to a crisp.  I have been hiding here for days.”

@realniobe risks the pounding headache from detecting evil on this guy. “Aaaaghhhhhh……” the dude pings for evil.

Derek pulls out the healing staff and hands it to Niobe. “We have encountered no flameskulls as yet. Are they perchance in the basement?”

The man shakes his head.

Clifford walks down the stairs and put Boots down long enough to sniff the guy. “Flameskulls sound fun to crunch.”

Derek “Do you know anything about what has happened to the dark elf who stands in the main hall in front of the statue?”

Clifford looks at Derek - “It is not nice to ask questions without helping him with his wounds. I could lick him, if you don’t want to use the staff.”

The man blinks, “there are now drow here too.  Please just let me leave.”

Derek “You have no need to be afraid of the drow. He is unable to harm anyone currently.”

The man snorts, “I don’t believe you.”

Derek smiles reassuringly “You’ll see for yourself on the way out. Tell us about this place, if you would. We will heal you.”

@realniobe uses a couple of charges of cure serious wounds on Burned Man.

The man is not reassured.  “There is great knowledge here.  I came with my master searching for it.  He was burned to death by the flaming skulls.  I have been hiding here after barely escaping with my life.”

Brak, now in this room as well, manifests true seeing, but stays put for the moment.

Derek “What great knowledge is here?”

The man, “I don’t know.  It was forbidden and would lead to great power.  I was hoping that we would get it and it didn’t work.  Now I just want to leave.”

Derek “Patience, Sir Mage, patience. What lies downstairs?”

The man, “I have not been downstairs.  Remember the part where I said the skulls almost killed me.”

Derek “And where did the skulls come from? What happened leading up to the attack that killed your master?”

The man, “they were already here.  They were still in the hall when I got here to hide.”

Derek hums thoughtfully. “What do you know about the giant statue in the main hall?”

The man blinks, “It is a statue, probably of one of the wizards that founded this place.”

Derek helps the man to his feet and keeps hold of his elbow, escorting him up the stairs and out of the room. “Let’s go have a look at it shall we?”

The man lets him get him as far as the door before jerking his arm away and attempting to run away.  However the man trips over his own feet and falls over still being held by Derek.

Derek says jovially “Now, now Sir Mage. Don’t attempt to run in your weakened state. Let me help you.” He drags the man to his feet again.

Brak floats back in, cause Leroy is not obviously getting his soul removed, sees the invisible bat thingy on the guys shoulder, and makes several knowledge checks to identify it.  He is pretty sure it is a quasit, and most likely the mans familiar.

The man, “Please just let me go and let me leave.”  The man is very intimidated.

Derek “All in good time!” He drags the man out to the main balcony and down toward Talon and the statue.

Brak precedes them out the door down the hallway, but doesn’t follow the rest of the crowd; he waits for Niobe and Leroy to finish up.

@realniobe follows Derek and dry heaves once as she realizes what Leroy is doing down the hall.

Clifford picks up Boots again and follows Derek. He pauses to go walk up to Leroy and Niobe, sticking his nose in between them awkwardly (complete with swinging Boots) and says, “Hi, what’s up? You should come with the rest of us.”

Eli goes down the hall and writes a note and drops it into the room with Leroy and other Niobe, we are going downstairs, you should probably join us and the man we found.  About to find out what is up with Talon.

Leroy short of breath, and sweating alot, looks to the group and feels fuzzy about things. “Aye.” looks to Niobe and says “well love, lets join them.”

Niobe, also frazzled and out of breath, readjusts her clothing and gets presentable to the public. “Lead on, my love.”

Eli just shakes his head and goes to join everyone else.

Since Leroy is apparently alive, Brak turns away when Eli passes by him.

Leroy grabs Niobe by the hand and rushes down with her in tow to the rest of the group.

Derek pushes the mage forward until they are about fifteen feet behind Talon and to his right.. “So Sir Mage, in your professional opinion, what is happening with the drow in front of the statue?”

Niobe- “Lets not get too close to everyone else, my dear, especially that little blue goblin.”

Leroy looks to Niobe and frowns, “Love, what blue goblin ye speak of?” he looks around. “There be no blue goblin,and me crew will need me with them if a fight breaks out.” He smiles to her “Besides we can fight side by side, as ye husband and wife.” Then Leroy backs up a few paces towards the flight of stairs with Niobe because she said so.

Arvin casts Mass Owls Wisdom on everyone Except fake Niobe, since the group is finally back together.

The man, “I have no idea.  He appears to just be standing there.”

Clifford volunteers from the back “I think he’s stuck in the orb. He keeps staring at it.”

Derek grumbles “Sir Mage, you are a singularly useless human. However, as we promised, we will let you leave this place.” He manhandles the fellow up the stairs and to the entrance, and shoves him out into the snow. “Kindly flee for your life.” Derek shuts the door between them.

The man does just that.  Running as fast as he can.  Shortly after the door is shut Derek hears a blood curdling scream then silence.

Derek “Huh. No wonder his master died.” He returns to the main hall.

Brak has floated over to look at Presumably Talon with his True Seeing.  He can only see the back of Talon from here and his cloak is covering everything.  There is nothing else to be seen except the small black orb in front of him on the floor.

@realniobe approaches from the other side. “Talon? Can you hear me?”

Slowly the figure turns his head towards Niobe.  For the first time since she has known him can see slight emotion on his face.  A smile with a little sadness mixed in it, “I can.”  He seems to be working hard to say the words.

From Braks new vantage point he can see a small cube held in Talons right hand.  Everything else is under his cloak.

Brak- “Niobe, can you see the item in his right hand? It should look like a cube.”

@realniobe looks for what Brak is pointing out.

She cannot see much more of it, but before they can say anything else Talon says, “it is a cube of force.  It will keep you and them away from me while I try to finish destroying this orb.”

Brak- “Can you activate it yourself?”

Leroy looks onto the group squinting to see what is going on. His arm wrapped around Niobe’s waist holding her left hand with his.

Talon, “I activated it before I started to work on the orb.  There is a presence here pitting its will against mine.  Keeping the orb safe.”

Derek “Ah, then I suppose we should seek it out and destroy it..” He readies his bow and finds a convenient plain sight to hide in. He also moves back toward the stairs.

@realniobe- “Let’s get going then.”

Eli, Imposter Niobe, Leroy all hear might be footsteps.  But they are not sure from where.

Talon, “It will most likely be here soon.”

Brak- “What approaches?” He considers which of his staves to use for this.

Talon, “I am not omniscient.  I don’t know.”

Eli cocks his head as he listens and decides this is the time to manifest Planar Embrace, becoming a half-celestial and growing wings.  Then also manifest mass missive, “I hear steps.  Does someone want to use my skin of celestial embrace?”

Leroy looks around him and Niobe, trying to determine where the footsteps are coming from. “Love, do ye hear the steps?”

Niobe- “Yes, I do.” She gently extricates herself from his arms and pulls a small disc off her arm, which turns into a large, floating shield. She readies her longspear as well. “Something is coming from down both hallways.”

@realniobe activates law devotion, although no one can see this. She moves down so she has a straight line of attack down the hallway.


Clifford suddenly pops into huge size. He also enhances his bite.

Leroy watches Niobe, then pulls his rapier out, “aye love, then to arms we be having now.”

Brak keeps out the staff of power for now, and just gains some altitude until he’s about 40’ off the floor.

Leroy ponders for a moment, “Love,” he says to Niobe, “Ye have to tell the others about whats coming.” he says in all seriousness in his voice.

Niobe, loudly enough for all to hear- “There are things approaching from both sides!”

As soon as Niobe says this, he turns to her and gives her a kiss on her lips. “One for the road love?” and gives her a smile looking into her eyes.

Niobe smiles right back. She casts a spell on herself. “I’ve picked up a few things in the last couple years.”

Eli, Niobe, imposter Niobe, Clifford, Arvin, Derek all hear the footsteps, and they seem to be louder now and are coming from both hallways.

Clifford puts Boots down behind him, and engages his shield.

Arvin transforms back into herself, Casts Primal instinct on herself, pulls her weapon and throws her cloak back to show her luminous armor. She also takes off Boot’s shrink collar so he’s his normal huge size, and gives him his healing collar.

Leroy puts his back to Niobe’s, and says to her “I’ll protect ye love, See you on the other side of this fight.”

Eli uses his psicrown to manifest precognition defence, using full wild surge.  Manages to not daize himself.  Adding seven to his AC and Saving throws.

Just as they finish last minute preparations dozens of monsters coming running in from the west corridor

Niobe gets an “Oh, shit” look on her face...which no one has ever seen @realniobe do.

Round 1!

Derek goes into a whirling frenzy, and shoots arrows from his electric quiver at the four nearest creatures. Three hit, killing the beasts, one misses.

Brak observes the creatures and tries to figure out what they are. “Here are all the demons we were looking for!” He starts shouting out the known powers and weaknesses of various types of tanar’ri. “Use cold iron weapons if you have them, and don’t hit them with electricity!”

Derek curses at the “no electricity” instruction, even though it appears to have not affected his kills.

Arvin casts Impeding stones, trying to slow the flood of demons from the corridor  All the Dretch’s in the area go prone.  The Marilith’s make their saves on the way through.

Blue and Green Marilith attack Niobe.

Balor moves.

Hezrou also start moving.

So does Pit Fiend.

Niobe casts righteous might. She immediately doubles in size.

Clifford grins at her and says “You could pet my head now!”

Leroy looks behind him and see Niobe has doubled in size.

Eli manifests Disintegrate, Psionic with full wild and chaotic surge on the Blue Marilith.  He manages to not daze himself.  And adds 50% to his damage.  It fails its save.  The Marilith is still there, not looking happy.

The Erinyes move into the room.

Brak identifies these creatures as well. He starts shouting out the various weaknesses for the devils- “Use silver weapons! They’re immune to fire! They hate the demons on the other side for the room!”

The Dretch mostly roll on the ground, expect a few.  Two of them run into a wall of force heading towards Talon.  The last free one moves after Arvin.  And it misses Arvin.

Leroy does a 180 turn, sees the devil women coming into the room, and runs towards them, then attacks the red demon lady.  The attack doesn’t seem to be as effective as it should have been.

Barbed and Horned devils move towards the room.

Brak, seeing the real Niobe in a heap of trouble, manifests dimension swap with himself and her. Then, as his swift action, he manifests dimension hop, right back into the air.

Clifford uses Hustle to move in front of some of the devils. He then takes some big chomps out of them. He bites and claws one of them to death, and throws it toward the other one, but misses.

@realniobe executes the Guided Missile at the uninjured marilith. She includes awesome smite and rhino rush, so as to bypass the thing’s DR. With a shout, she drops like a bolt of lightning across the room and drives her spear into the demon’s chest. She slams it across the impeding stones and right into another marilith.

@realniobe- “Brak! Do that again!”

Round 2!

Derek fires three arrows from his other quiver, one at the beastie attacking Arvin and the others at the beastie between him and the blue marilith. He kills both beasties.

Arvin ignores the beast trying to attack her, and casts Entangled, overlaying it mostly with her Impeding Stones circle, but moving it forward to try and catch the Marilths.  Boots moves up to back up clifford

Blue Marilith charges Niobe, making its saves. 

The other two Marilith’s continue trying to work their way through the spells that are trying to keep them stuck.

Balor uses greater dispel magic and removes the first of Arvin’s two spells.

The Herzou start moving forward.

Pit fiend casts a fireball on the party close to him.

Fake Niobe takes a flying hop over the giant dog and crocodile, and then stabs at whatever baatezu is between 10 and 20’ away from her, so the green barbed devil. It doesn’t die.

Eli manifests a full wild surge Death Urge on the pink Hezrou.  He manages not to daze himself.  It fails its save, but doesn’t do anything more at this moment.

Red Erinyes attacks Leroy, and misses badly.

“Ha! Ye will have to try harder to hit me, demon!” Leroy shouts

All the Dretch still prone and cannot get up.

After dodging the attacks of the red demon lady of hell, Leroy throws three attacks her way for respite!

Barbed demons move forward and red and Orange attack Imposter Niobe.  They both miss.

Blue and Green Barbed devils charge toward Clifford.

The two Horned devils fly over the huge animals and land behind them and attack.

Red Horned devil attacks Clifford, hitting him but not managing to stun him.

Blue Horned devil attacks Boots, hits and stuns boots.

Brak is going to pull the same trick with Arvin he just did with Niobe: dimension hop to a safe location, and then dimension swap with Arvin.  “We should really not be in the middle of both demons and devils! I’m going to start moving people to the doors on the south wall!”

Clifford switches his teeth to silver, and attempts to maul the horned devil who attacked him, but only hits him once.

@realniobe takes a 5’ step back and then full attacks the nearest marilith, killing it with her first stab.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXI

Something that didn't show up in the log is that the baatezu and tanar'ri were ignoring each other for Reasons...to be revealed.

Also, I'm probably dating myself pretty severely by referring to the various fiends as baatezu and tanar'ri. But that's more interesting to me than devils and demons. (Steps off soapbox.)

Day 212,  The fight Continues.

(click to show/hide)

Round 3!

Derek takes aim at the green Marilith and two of the frog demons behind her, and fires four arrows. He misses the marilith and kills the two hezrou, hitting each of them in critically important spots.

Arvin casts her last entangle again, perfectly overlaid with Impeding stones, just to fuck withe the other spellcaster.

Green and Red Marilith’s both charge towards Niobe.  However because of the cube of force in the way the red one hits the wall and cannot keep moving. 

The Balor curses Arvin as he again dispels the entangle that she cast.

Pink Hezrou is suicidal and thus attacks himself.  Easily killing himself.

Orange Hezrou moves forward more as he struggles through the area that Arvin has turned into a mind field.

Red, Blue and Purple Hezrou use teleport without error to help block the party's escape route.

Pit Fiend drops another fireball on the party.

Niobe the impostor looks around and sighs. She briefly disappears from view...and reappears directly behind Leroy the love of her life. Or so it seems. She drops her spear and draws a rapier, ready to fight the hezrou at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m right behind you, my love!”

Eli seeing the Horned Devil Landing next to him manifest a full chaotic wild surge mind thrust.  He makes his concentration check, manages to not daze himself, the Horned Devil fails its save and the chaotic part of the surge causes the damage to be doubled.  The horned devils head seems to explode.

Erinyes starts her attacks on Leroy.  She hits him, but it is not a hard hit.

The Dretches are all still either prone or trying to fight through a wall of force that they don’t understand why it is there.

Leroy deciding he wants to be special about his movements takes out a card from his deck.  Managing to do it one handed.  The card disappears and suddenly in his hand he is holding a book.

Barbed Devils all move in after Clifford.  Only one of them manages to hit Clifford. Clifford manages to shrug off the fear effect.

Horned Devil attacks Clifford.  Hitting once with his Spiked chain and once with a bite.  Clifford shrugs off the stun effects of the Horned Devils attack.

Brak focuses his psionic energies, and manifests temporal acceleration. Anyone who happens to be looking at him sees him very briefly appear to speed way, way up. He disappears from where he’s at, very briefly reappears close to Arvin. Then he dimension swaps himself and boots, and finally flies straight up into the air 40 feet.

Clifford mauls the horned devil next to him, but it unfortunately survives. He also takes a tactical step back, since imposter Niobe isn’t in danger anymore.

@realniobe decides to eat a possible attack of opportunity and flies up and over 40’ to a point more or less over top of Eli and Boots, but only about 10’ off the ground. Once she is overtop of them, she casts holy aura on herself and anyone within 20’ of her. Boots, Eli, Niobe, Arvin, Derek and Clifford are affected.

Round 4!

Derek whirls around and fires three arrows at the hezrou guarding the doors under the entry platform. He’s hiding in plain sight still, and it doesn’t notice him, so he gets a sneak attack. Two arrows hit, but he doesn’t kill it.

Arvin evaluates the situation and who is doing the most damage, and then lunges at Derek, touching him on the shoulder and casting Stoneskin.

Green Marilith charges Eli and attacks him, and misses.

Red Marilith charges the real Niobe, hitting her once.  When hitting her the flash of light blinds her.

Balor, still cursing, casts another dispel on Arvin’s spells, removing the last spell.

Orange Hezrou casts Chaos Hammer on Niobe.  But doesn’t make it through her Spell resistance.

Blue Hezrou also cast Chaos Hammer, but on Arvin.  The creature gets through Arvin’s spell resistance and hits her with the full spell and slows her.

Purple Hezrou now does see Derek and charges him, and misses.

Red Hezrou uses his reach and full attack on Imposter Niobe, and misses completely.

Pit fiend drops another fireball on Clifford, also hitting Eli, Brak, Leroy and Imposter Niobe.

Niobe the Imposter starts stabbing furiously at the hezrou in front of her, connecting four times. With the fourth stab, a spray of prismatic light cascades down her rapier’s blade and….spews a blast of magic poison into the hezrou’s face. Too bad he’s immune to poison.

Eli Repeats his previous manifest on the Marilith in front of him.  He manages to make his concentration check.  Manages to not daze himself, does double damage.  The Marilith fails its save and dies.

Erinyes attacks Leroy again, but fails to hit him.

The Dretch’s all spend this turn getting up from the floor.

Leroy attacks the Erinyes in front of him and just manages to kill it.

Barbed Devils all attack Clifford again.  Two of them hit Clifford three times. Failing to get through his SR, the two that hit Clifford are now Blind. He’s starting to look pretty rough.

The Horned Devil attacks Clifford.  He manages to hit Clifford twice, but the stun effect does not take hold.

Brak executes another Battlefield Rearrangement. He dimension swaps himself and Niobe, and then dimension hops 20’ straight up. This leaves Niobe 40’ in the air above Clifford.

Clifford attacks the Horned devil once more, and manages to kill it this time. He whips around to claw the closest barbed devil, then takes one more step back, growling in triumph.

Niobe, now in the air with a clear line of attack to the last marilith, executes a Guided missile (awesome charging power attacking smite with law devotion, divine might, and rhino rush). She bolts through the air and rams Fjolhaefur straight through the blind and defenseless marilith’s chest, killing her instantly. She crumples around Niobe’s spear briefly and her corpse is then punted across the room, landing with a thud.

Niobe looks over at the hezrou near the dretches.

Round 5!

Derek takes a 5’ step back, and attempts to hide. Then he fires four arrows at the hezrou that attacked him. All but the last miss, and the hezrou dies, not knowing where the attack that killed it came from. Derek drops his bow and pulls out the elemental summoning bowl and five of his flasks of salt water. He turns to face the horde of dretch and kneels on the ground with the items.

Arvin casts her second Impeding Stones, to knock the dretches over and keep the spellcaster busy. Boots wakes up very angry and stomps over to take a bite of the Hezrou on the stairs to the right.

Balor starts to curse even louder, and again dispels Arvins spell.

Orange Hezrou charges and attacks Eli.  Missing horribly.

Pit Fiend disappears.

Niobe the Impostor decides to risk getting hit by the hezrou. She picks up the spear she just dropped, and says, “Dance.” The spear floats out of her hand and prepares to stab the hezrou.

Hezrou misses its attack of opportunity.

Eli just glares at the Hezrou.  Manifesting a Chaotic Breach between the party and the Balor, putting the Balor at the edge of the breach.  1 round until it fully manifests.

Hezrou misses its attack of opportunity on Eli.

Dretch’s all turn and start to crawl away.

Leroy moves forward and attacks the Barbed Devil in front of him to minimal effect.

Three of the Barbed Devils all move in to attack Clifford.  Two of them blindly stumble.  Giving Clifford attacks of opportunity on three of them.  All three of them miss horribly. Clifford bites each of them in turn.

Green Barbed Devil attacks Leroy and also misses horribly.

Brak does something he’s been meaning to do this entire fight, but just didn’t have the time (even with temporal acceleration): he uses the staff of power to drop a fireball on all the dretches. They die in a crispy manner. “Ugh, finally.”

Clifford tries to maul the same horned devil, but he only gets a couple strikes in.

Niobe takes a step back from the Hezrou and full attacks, buffing herself with law devotion, divine might, and power attack. She stabs the demon three times, the first just missing being a critical hit by a hair.

Round 6!

Derek, suddenly having no target for the elemental he was going to summon, grabs his bow off the ground, pivots on his knees, and fires an arrow at the hezrou on the stairs to his left.

Arvin summons a unicorn next to clifford, which casts Cure Wounds medium on him. Clffford barks a thank you.

Balor seeing that they are starting to lose this fight casts power word Stun on Niobe.  Being inside the Chaotic Breach he fails his spell caster check to get the spell off.  The spell does nothing.

Orange Herzou attacks Eli.  It misses Eli with each attack.

Blue Hezrou uses Chaos Hammer on Derrek.  Fails to bypass his SR.

Red Hezrou attacks Boots.  And misses completely.

Pit Find appears flying in front of Imposter Niobe and attacks once.  Missing her.

Impostor Niobe shouts in anger at the pit fiend. Her longspear stabs at it, and she stabs with her rapier as well. All eight attacks miss.

Eli manifest a full chaotic wild surge psychic crush on the Pit Fiend.  Letting the Hezrou take its attack of opportunity on him.  Manages not to daze himself.  Does an additional 50% damage.  Manages to bypass its SR.  It saves but still takes a lot of damage.

Leroy Attacs the Barbed Devil in front of him again, missing this time.

Barbed Devils start their attacks.  The two attacking Clifford all miss.  The one attacking Leroy hits once for some damage and manages to affect him with the fear effect.

Brak wishes he didn’t have to do this and swaps the staff of power for the staff of transmutation. He flies over to have a clearer line of sight to the remaining fiends.

Clifford attacks the barbed devils again, killing one and injuring another.

Niobe tries to full attack the hezrou with the normal complement of boosts, but digs Fjolhaefur’s tip into the stone instead.

Impostor Niobe laughs out loud, ruefully, at something.

At the laugh the Pit Fiend seems to glower more at Imposter Niobe.

Round 7!

Derek, seeing the pit fiend reappear, growls and drops his bow again, dumps one of the flasks of salt water into the bowl and summons a huge water elemental.

A huge water thing appears in front of the hezrou closest to Derek, and slams it twice. The hezrou dodges one, but not the other.

Derek picks his bow back up.

Arvin, seeing that the others have things well in hand, turns her attention to the caster she knows is down the hall. Concentrating, she summons a greater storm elemental, which rushes down the hall and attacks the balrog with a thunder and lightning attack. He’s immune to the lighting, but the thunder is sonic damage, and the storm elemental is now blocking his path.

The unicorn heals clifford for 8 hps

Boots bites the herzru

The Balor attacks the Storm Elemental, hitting it all seven times.

Blue Hezrou attacks the Water Elemental in front of it. 

Orange Hezrou attacks Eli, and misses with each attack.  The Hezrou is starting to look increasingly angry that it cannot hit the magic user that is practically ignoring it.

Red Hezrou attacks Boots. 

Pit Fiend attacks Imposter Niobe, still glaring at her.  Hitting her twice but not that effectively.

Impostor Niobe attacks, spear and rapier flailing away at the pit fiend, but only the spear connects a single time in all eight attacks.

Eli lets the Hezrou take another attack of Oppertunity on him, manifesting another full chaotic wild surge Psychic Crush on the pit fiend.  Manages to not Daze himself.  Bypasses the Pit Fiends SR.  It saves.  Chaotic Effect adds 50% damage.  The Pit Fiend looks as if it is starting to get mad.

Leroy actually manages to kill the Barbed Devil in front of him.

The Barbed Devil by Clifford attacks, but fails to hit as it is blind.

Brak points the staff of transmutation at the pit fiend and uses a disintegrate on him. The green ray springs from the staff and hits the pit fiend squarely, but doesn’t get past his spell resistance.

Brak growls and swaps back to the staff of power.

Clifford attacks the remaining barbed devil but it’s still alive. He takes a step back to prepare for it actually dying.

Verified Niobe growls and attacks the hezrou again, with her normal complement of boosts. She gets in a good stab, followed by a hezrou-killing stab, which over-balances her a bit and she nearly stabs the floor again.

Round 8!

Derek makes sure he’s hidden, and fires three arrows at the hezrou fighting the water elemental on the stairs. He hits it twice and kills it.
The water elemental, suddenly deprived of its target, blinks (probably). Derek directs it to the other side of the stairs where the pit fiend and last hezrou are still fighting. It flows up  the stairs and onto the balcony.

Arvin summons 3 huge earth elemetals, dropping one behind the balrog, two blockings it’s exits, and one behind that, just to fuck with the balor.

All elements full melee attack!

Arvin yells: “Hey no one go over by that hall, okay? I think there might be an explosion or something.”

Brak- “Yeah, Balors will do that when they’re killed!”

Verified Niobe- “Arvin, can you have Boots scoot back? He’s hurt, and kind of in my way!”

Boots moves back, unicorn heals clifford for 11hp

Balor starts to attack the Storm Elemental, but after hitting once messes up his attacks.

Red Hezrou attacks Imposter Niobe.  Missing with each attach.

Pit Fiend continues to attack Imposter Niobe.  Hitting her three times.  Imposter Niobe shakes off the Pit Fiends bit.

Imposter Niobe does the same thing again: a pair of full attacks, spear and rapier! Again, she only connects with a single spear strike. She’s starting to get a little worried.

Eli Manifests his same round off attacks again.  Manages not to daze himself, but fails to get past the SR of the Pit Fiend.

Leroy attacks and manages to just barely kill the last Barbed Devil.

Arvin sees the others fighting the pit fiend. “Do you need help?” she yells?”

Eli shrugs, not able to spend the energy to answer her right now.

Brak, having swapped which staff he is using again, flies over to where he can see the balor, or at least the pile of elementals fighting the balor. He manifests fire adaption on himself.

Clifford harumphs, “Finally only these two left. And the one down the hall.” He turns around to attack the hezrou after switching his teeth to cold iron. It goes down!

Niobe executes a Guided Missile at the pit fiend, but it cleverly dodges out of the way.

Round 9!

Derek makes sure he’s hidden and rapidly fires arrows at the pit fiend. All three miss, and Derek curses.

The water elemental advances along the balcony and down the other set of stairs.

Arvin casts Mass Snake Swiftness, centered on clifford, and both Niobies

Unicorn heals Clifford for 10hp then vanishes

Elementals attack again!

Clifford bites the Pit Fiend.

Balor Attacks the Storm Elemental Again.  Getting 5 attacks off before fumbling his last two.  The Storm elemental remains unbothered

Impostor Niobe takes a stab at the pit fiend with her rapier, and misses terribly.

Verified Niobe takes her free melee attack, and adds on divine might, law devotion, awesome smite for good measure.

Pit Fiend continues his attacks on Imposter Niobe.  Only hitting her Once.

Impostor executes two full attacks again, just after snake’s swiftness fades. She once each with the rapier and spear.

Eli manifest the same routine again.  Manages to not daze himself.  Bypasses the SR.  Pit Fiend Saves.  Chaotic Surge causes double damage.  Just managing to end the Pit Fiend.

Leroy just kind of stands and watches.

Brak, having nothing better to do, uses the staff of power to cast hold monster on the balor. You never know. The spell gets through both the chaotic breach and the balor’s spell resistance, but it still is not affected.

Clifford moves up behind Brak to watch the Belor vs elemental battle, and decides it’s better to stay out of that one. He digs up a dog treat from his bag and starts munching on it, occasionally glancing at the hooded guy.

Niobe burns yet another turn undead to activate sacred healing. Everyone gets fast healing 3 for the next nine rounds

Round 10!

Derek moves to where he can see the remaining fight and looses an arrow at the balor.

The water elemental also moves toward the battle.

Arvin summons another huge earth elemental to stand behind the storm one, both as backup and barrier.

The elementals attack again  The back up elemental holds it’s attack in case the Balor gets past the storm elemental. The Balor Saves.  Chaotic Surge cause additional 50% damage.

Balor continues to attack the storm Element.  Hitting once before fumbling the rest of its attacks.

Impostor Niobe casts mass cure light wounds on everyone.

Eli moves up and does the same round of manifestations on the Balor as he was the Pit Fiend.  Manages not to daze himself.  Bypasses the Balor’s SR. 

Leroy watches.

Brak lands and uses the staff of power to cast wall of force. A shimmering dome 20’ wide appears over him, Derek, and Eli.

Niobe’s law devotion expires, having used all of it for the first time ever. Everyone gains 3 hp.

Clifford continues to sit, and paws at the wall of force in front of him for the fun of it.

Round 11!

Derek eyes the dome. “Master Brak, is your spell going to prevent me from shooting the demon?”

Brak- “Yes it will. But balor are known to explode when killed, and we’re close enough in this room to be killed by it. The wall of force will protect us.”

Derek nods “Very well.” He then snarls “Damn, I left the summoning bowl over there.” He directs the water elemental to pick the bowl up and move back.

The water elemental picks up the bowl and moves back until it’s standing between the hall and Arvin and Niobe.


Elementals attack!
Back-up elemental holds it’s full attack again.

Impostor moves over to Leroy and casts cure critical wounds on him, being all obnoxiously schmoopy as she does so.

Niobe the Impostor shrinks down to normal size as her buff spells expire.

It takes another two rounds and the Storm elemental dies, but the Balor finally goes down and the huge explosion it leaves in its wake takes out the remaining elementals.

Arvin does a little aquatic fist pump but doesn’t gloat like her player does. (She might say some crude things in aquatic to herself, but no one hears her)

After the explosion, Clifford peeks over the force dome, with his front paws sitting on top of it. “Wow.” He settles in this position, and glances down and the smols under the dome he’s leaning on. He drools on the dome a bit and cackles, his tongue hanging out.

Brak looks up at him and grins.

As soon as Brak releases his wall of force, Derek collects the summoning bowl from the water elemental and dismisses it. Then he collects his four flasks of salt water. Assuming they weren’t destroyed in the explosion.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXII

Let nothing stop your games, not even Christmas...but low batteries can't be overcome, apparently.

Day 212

(click to show/hide)

The bodies all disappeared...being demon bodies and all.

Leroy seeing all the dead bodies, quickly goes to wife Niobe and plants a kiss on her lips. He sighs heavily “Are ye alright me lass?” he asks worryingly.

Imposter Niobe gives Leroy a smile and returns the kiss.  Then shakes her head, “No need to worry about me, You are the one struggling.”

Leroy smiles at Niobe, “my beautiful wife, Dont need to worry about me. Me is tough, and can handle anything ye devils can muster and throw at me. For I did not become captain by bein a yeller belly slog.” he says with a smile.

Verified Niobe, mouth half agape, can say nothing. She shakes her head and turns her attention to whatever is left after the various fiends fade away.

Imposter Niobe raises a disbelieving eyebrow and just watches Leroy.

While this conversation is going on and the Demon and Devil bodies are slowly fading away, Talon starts moving freely.  He waves his hands in a quick gesture before he stomps hard on the black orb below his feet.  A thick black cloud envelops the Cube that Talon is in.  There is a slight purple light coming from the center of the cube. 

Brak turns off the wall of force backs away from the cube of force.

Clifford jumps away, and yawns. As his mouth is open, he turns into this:

<picture of a spaniel or something>

Leroy looks around and looks for his first mate. “First Mate Derek, ye be safe?” he says with a raised voice.

Derek retreats as soon as Brak’s wall of force dissipates. “I am unharmed Captain, thank you for asking.”

Leroy smiles heartly and clasps his hand on the forearm of Derek. “ye are a wonderful warrior and fighter Master Derek. Ye are truly a good man. I would wish the pits of Davey Jones’ locker to the scoundrel who ever try to fell ye in battle.” Leroy with joy in his heart.

Derek smile slightly. “Very kind, Captain.”

Slowly the smoke that filled the cube is pulled into what appears to be a small glowing purple crystal in Talon’s hand.  He puts the crystal away before cutting off the cube of force and turning to look at the group, he looks straight at Leroy, “I am surprised you all manage to get anywhere with the way He banters on.”

Clifford tilts his head as he stares at the crystal, then Talon.

Leroy gives a quick smirk to Talon and cooly says “it be part of our charm and how we function. We kill, I provide the bantar. entertainment lad. Thats why I be here for.” Then winks.

Brak- “What’s the crystal? And what who are you?”

Talon looks at Brak, “I am Talon, I am complicated, so is the crystal.  We don’t have a lot of time.  Would you like to know what the items are?”

Derek interjects, to Brak. “Master Talon is the one who sent us on our ...trip through time and space.”

Leroy sheaths his rapier on his side, raises an eyebrow to Derek.

Talon shakes his head, “I think Leroy sent you on that trip with his map, I just sent you on the first adventure that led to that.”

Leroy raises his eyebrow now to Talon “How did ye know of me map?” he asks with puzzlement in his voice.

Clifford - “I want to know what the treasures are!”

Talon, “We do not have a lot of time.  I believe Brak found a secret door on the upper level.  I can give you the answers to the treasures you found and maybe a few more answers, then we all need to leave before the master of those devils and demons arrive.”

“Who is the master?” Arvin asks.

Verified Niobe exhales quickly and looks down the hall in both directions.

Brak- “Yes. It smelled like death.”

Talon looks at Arvin, “The creature that created Strahd.”

“Oh Goody,” Arvin says. “Yes let’s go before that guy shows up.”

Talon waves for the items to be brought over to him, and pulls out the same book that Akara had when the party met her.

Leroy helps brings over items to Talon.

Brak looks at Talon curiously, but helps drag stuff over. In between trips, he says- “Tell us about this creature that created Strahd.”

Clifford also helps, picking stuff up in his mouth and piling it in the middle

Talon, “that I need you to stay away from that creature and worry about Strahd.  The black orbs belong to him.  If you find another one of them,” he points to Imposter Niobe, “she should be able to destroy it.”

“Why her specifically?” Arvin asks.

Leroy looks to Niobe then to Talon “Aye, Mate, why me wife specifically to destroy the orbs.” he asks concerned.

Talon shakes his head at Leroy, “That is her answer to give, if she figures out how to do it.”

Imposter Niobe has a confused look on her face as she listens to Talon, “I am not sure I know exactly what you are talking about.”

Clifford - “We saw one of those in the house, but the house is gone now.” He also grumbles under his breath “Shoulda taken the ball. Always take the ball, that’s a dog’s motto.”

Leroy walks to wife Niobe and hold her legs in his hands, concerned written on his face. “Lass, me love, what is he talkin about? Are you not tellin me something me love?” his eyes become heavy with sadness.

Imposter Niobe looks down at Leroy and then just shakes her head slowly but not saying anything.  A slightly annoyed look crossing her face.

Leroy looks up to her face, and then slowly backs away from her, then hangs his head to the ground. he is not happy to not receive an answer from his love.

Talon shakes his head looking to Clifford, “That would have been bad.  I will go back to the house and find it if it is still there.  You need to continue working towards the fight against Strahd.  Trust me that is important.  You might be able to free this land.”

Brak- “We couldn’t move the orb that was under the house.”

Talon, “There is still the item you seek in this temple.  This temple is not in service to Strahd.   There were old mages that used this place at first fought dark magic, then fell to that darkness.  None of them survived the darkness that destroyed this temple.”

Verified Niobe just stands there, a beacon of light and goodness in a dark place. Her wings glow just enough to notice.

Derek cleans dirt from under his fingernails. “Master Talon, what good will it do for us to rid this place of Strahd if the creature that made him is still here?”

Talon looks to Derek, “I hope that you getting rid of Strahd will give me an opportunity to get rid of his master.”

Derek raises his eyebrows “Ah.”

Talon, “Be ready, this is no small thing I ask of you.  As you can see, much more dangerous than dealing with Pirate Ogres.”

Leroy shoots a look to Talon “Should ye be offending me with the term pirate? or just ogres?” he seems a bit annoyed while asking.

Talon cocks his head as he looks at Leroy, “You literally fought pirate ogres in a tower before you opened your map and got yourself sent into a fight to save werewolves.” a puzzled looked on his face.

Leroy takes a moment to ponder this and it snaps to his brain “Okay. Just wanted to make sure ye was not callin me an ugly Ogre.” he squeaks a weak smile on his face.

Talon just shakes his head, “I can answer maybe another question or two, but we need to get the rest of this packed up and you all need to move out.”

Brak- “Do you know where in here the object we’re searching for is?”

Talon shakes his head, “No, the enemy will not stay long once they find no one here.  Once through the passage it should be safe to come out in an hour or so.  I didn’t make it out of this room.  I came to destroy the orb and was stuck in a battle of wills with the Pit Fiend and Balor.”

Brak- “Then second question: is the being that created Strahd responsible for the pit fiend and balor not instinctively attacking each other instead of us?”

Talon nods, “He brought them here and has been forcing them to serve him.  They did not have wills of their own.”

Brak drums his fingers on his staff.

Talon closes his eyes for a second then looks back to Brak and then the party, “One more question, quickly, I have to go.”

Leroy feels a need to ask a question, but keeps it to his heart. He is afraid to ask the question.

Talon sighs and looks at Leroy, “ask.”

Leroy looks to the group, to Wife Niobe, back down the ground and says “me has nothing to ask Master Talon.”

“I have something. If we get rid of Straud, can we go home and stop running your errands?” Arvin asks. Her tone is very polite.

Talon, “Depends on if you want to go home to your own time or not.”

Imposter Niobe curses, “damn time travel.”

Arvin sighs and mutters something in Aquatic that no one understands.

Talon, “good luck and thank you.” before stepping back into a shadow and disappearing.

Brak- “Hmm. This is a good a time as any to tell you all the New Niobe is not a copy of our friend the paladin, but merely a succubus in the look and shape of Niobe.”

Leroy Looks up to brak. Anger and bewilderment on his face “What ye say just now master Brak!?” his eyes begin to fill with tears. he tears away from Brak to New Niobe “Say it is a lie me wife!?” he shouts to her.

Imposter Niobe looks at Brak before taking a few steps back from everyone, “Maybe would should listen to the strange dark man and not have this discussion here.”  Cautiously watching everyone.

Verified Niobe grips her spear tightly. “So why are you here?”

Arvin shakes her head and summons a couple of low level helpers to gather everything up and throw it in whoever’s bag is available, just while everyone talks.

Clifford - “The guy who said the balls are important said she could help. And maybe she also gives good pets, I’m willing to let her stay.”

Leroy pulls out his rapier, it hangs on his side, and says through clenched teeth and a tear streaming down his cheek “We be havin this conversation. and it happens now.” staring down New Niobe.

“Look,” Arvin says. ‘You got your wife, she’s basically Niobe but like SUPER SEXY, and she’s useful, I don’t see the problem here, and I really don’t want to be here when the bad guy shows up. We can cast a spell or something to find out if she really loves you when we’re out of danger.”

Niobe thinks “BUT super sexy?” And then feels weird for having that thought.

Eli uses mass Missive, if we have the conversation now, it might still be happening when the others show up.

Brak- “We should know who we’re working with, Eli.”

Derek “Master Eli is correct, Captain. If you wish to converse with the succubus you wished for, you may do so as we walk.” 

Leroy, still enraged and rapier in hand stares at his wife. He looks dead into her eyes and walks up to her face. “tell me they be lyin. Tell me my  crew is not right.”

Imposter Niobe flaps her wings a few times and floats up above them keeping her distance, “I will answer that, but I am not here because I chose to be married to him.” pointing to Leroy.

Eli again uses mass missive, agreed, just not done here.

Niobe, veeeery slightly irritated- “They why are you here?”

Leroy watches the wife niobe fly up. He stares right at the wall and then says with a monotone voice “Master Derek.”

Derek “Yes, Captain?”

Leroy sheaths his rapier and looks to the first mate. “find me something to stab soon please. I wish not to talk until that time.” his voice dead of all emotions and his face devoid of any color.

Derek nods “Very well, Captain. I expect there will be things to kill on our way to find our objective here.”

Clifford walks up to Leroy and lays down next to him to lean on him, with a concerned face. “Don’t be so sad, Captain.”

Brak- “Now that the truth is out we should get going.”

Imposter Niobe, “I promise to do nothing and just go to a better place to have this conversation.”

Verified Niobe- “Yes, you do. What’s your real name?”

Imposter Niobe, “My name is Tinyra.”

“Let’s make like the West Wing and walk and talk people.” Arvin says, dismissing the helpers. (the west wing is a popular play about dragons in the aquatic humanoid community, No one knows why there is so much walking when the dragons have wings, but it’s a good play so no one cares.)

Brak flies up to the westernmost ledge. “The passageway is through here. I’m not exaggerating that is smells like death, so prepare yourselves.”

Niobe flaps her own wings and heads up to the ledge. “Thank you.”


Leroy nods to Derek and says no more.

Clifford shrinks again, and picks up the shrunken boots.

The floor-bound part of the group proceeds up the stairs, and through the halls to the secret passage entrance.

Tinyra moves quietly with the group.  Looking slightly dejected.

Derek searches the wall that Brak has identified as the entrance to the western secret passage.  Derek easily finds the secret door and can determine there are no traps.

He opens it and carefully slips through, readying his bow.

As the door opens hundreds of skulls fall out from the room and flood into their room.

Derek curls his lips. “Charming. Master Brak, are you sure there is a passage here?” He peers into the chamber.

Clifford sniffs one of the skulls, and smacks it around a bit with his paws, since his mouth is full of Boots. He then starts trying to find the one that rolls the best. Once he does, he uses far hand to put it in his bag. He also selects a nice long jawed one for chewing on.

Once the skulls have mostly fallen in it is clear that there is a small room, with a thirty foot high ceiling.

Derek wades through the skulls, and checks the walls of the chamber. Assuming he can reach them.  He finds a secret door on the north wall and doesn’t find any traps.

Brak- “Derek, I can lift you up the shaft to check it if you don’t want to climb.”

Derek replies, “Thank you but no. There is another secret door on the back wall.” He opens it carefully, mindful of other potential bone-alanches.

Enough of the skulls have fallen into the room behind the party that none really go forward.  The room the party finds has a fifteen foot high ceiling containing the trappings of royalty: ornate furniture, exquisite rugs and tapestries, and decorative statuary.  Everywhere you look are lit candelabras atop small tables.  The beauty of the decor is undone by thick dust and cobwebs.

Arvin, Eli, Tinyra, Brak, Niobe, Clifford, and Leroy all hear the sounds of creatures moving around in the area they just left, then a voice says to start searching the immediate area.

“Shut the door!” Arvin hisses.

Leroy quickly pulls his rapier out and faces towards the room behind them. He runs into the new room backwards.

Eli quickly moves into the new room.

Tinyra is not far behind.

Derek, not noticing the commotion, searches the room.  He finds two more secret doors.  One on the North wall close to the east wall.  The second is in the middle of the east wall.  He also finds a book titled ‘The Incants of Exethanter’. He puts the book in a pocket of his vest.

Brak tries to pull the outer door shut as he flies through, presuming that everyone else is already in the room. He also kicks a few skulls out of the way enough to close it.  A few skulls prevent Brak from closing the outer door.

Brak hisses- “Niobe! Get over here!”

Niobe runs over and attempts to pull the door shut, but another skull wedges itself in the way.

Arvin curses summons a small earth elemental to shut the door as quietly as possible.

Tinyra finds a corner to stand in and lowers her head concentrating for a few seconds.  Her image slowly changes from Niobe’s to that of a beautiful white skinned woman with dark purple hair that almost looks black and blue almost white eyes.  She is wears armor that almost looks almost angelic, and her wings look covered in dark feathers, though there are still spots that have a leather look to them.

Arvin looks her over and mutters something that almost sounds like “see, super sexy, don’t know why this is a problem, not like Niobe was interested...”

Derek opens the secret door on the north wall, cautiously.  It doesn’t open. He checks it for locks and other mechanisms.  He is not able to find any locks or mechanisms that operate the door. He curses softly.

Leroy only looks to the door where the sounds came from. His rapier still in his hand.

Tinyra looking over to Arvin, “Thank you.”  Giving Arvin a dazzling smile.  The smile fades quickly with the rest of Arvin’s comment.

Niobe again, mouth half agape, Has No Words.

Derek checks the other secret door, attempting to open it, and failing that, checking for locks and mechanisms.  He doesn’t find any traps and is easily able to get the door open.  It leads to a dusty room filled with nothing but cobwebs. He fights the temptation to set the cobwebs on fire to clean them out.

“Okay so now that we’re sort of safe…” Arvin says. “Let me see if I get this right. Leroy wishes to be married to Niobe forever and ever, without asking first, which is kind of creepy, and then you show up pretending to be Niobe. How does that work exactly?”

Niobe crosses her arms in solidarity with Arvin. “Yeah Leroy, without asking first.” she mutters.

Leroy shoots Arvin a nasty look, sheaths the rapier and just goes to the book shelf without a word.

Tinyra, “Well as far as I was able to guess is that we made a wish at the same time.  He wished to be married to Niobe forever, and I wished to get out of the temple I was working in.  I heard his wish, and appeared standing next to Leroy now wearing this,” holds her hand up to show the ring on her finger, “I mirror to the ring he wears.  I was in the guise of Niobe.  Not by my choice.  I figure it would be better to try and see if I could work my way out of this before you decided to just kill me for what I am.”

Derek snorts in amusement “See? Match made in Heaven. Does anyone have a tinderbox?”

Leroy just stares at the books. Shaking with anger, fists clenched in balls, and just has tears forming in his eyes.

“What did you wish on?” Arvin asks. “Becuase if it’s another deck of those terrible card decks, I might just disintegrate right here.”

Tinyra shakes her head, “I do not have a deck of cards.  I used a ring I stole from my former master.”  Then looks to Derek, “Match made in Heaven, I didn’t ask to be married to someone I have never met.”

Niobe- “I have some alchemist’s fire, but no tinderbox.”

Derek shrugs “Wishes have consequences and escape is escape. Tell us about that master, if you would, Mistress Tinyra.” To Brak he says, “That would probably work, I just want to clear the cobwebs from this next room.”

Clifford, bored with everyone’s searching, walks up to Tinyra and sits down in front of her, staring into her eyes. “You helped us, even if it also helped you.” He pauses. “Do you also like to rub dog’s heads?”

Tinyra, “I think time travel has something to do with this.  He was dead, killed by an Angel.  Allowed me to escape.  Though he might be alive at this time.  I could still be here as a younger self and his slave.”

Clifford stares harder. He tilts his head toward Tinyra.

Tinyra looks at Clifford uncertainty then offers a small rub of Cliffords head before backing off again.

Clifford wags his tail and sticks his tongue out to pant. “I like her. She seems like she came from a land of no pets and yet she petted me. She is a good puppy.”

Tinyra blinks a few times, “thank you, I think.”

Leroy grabs his deck of cards, walks to Derek, slides them into his pocket, and whispers only in Derek’s ear that he can hear “Burn these wretched things with the webs.” walks from Derek back to the book case looking at the books.  Everyone hears what Leroy says when he gives the cards to Derek.

Brak gives a sigh of relief.

Arvin decides the kindest thing to do is pretend not to notice, but she too is relieved,

Niobe hands the flask of alchemist’s fire to Derek. “Go wild.”

Derek blinks, surprised. “As you like, Captain.” He places the deck of cards as far inside the room as he can reach without getting cobwebs in his hair, and then splashes a small amount of the alchemist’s fire into the room.  The room goes up and burns away all the cobwebs, the deck of cards are there unharmed.

Derek huffs refully “I should have expected that.” He pockets the deck again and returns the flask to Niobe.

Niobe- “Hmmmmm.”

Derek peers into the now cleared room.  Still looks the same, but without cobwebs. Derek nods in satisfaction. Cobwebs are a pain to remove from clothing. He enters the room and searches it for doors, secret passages, traps, etc.   He finds a secret door on the east wall next to the northern wall.  He doesn’t find any traps.

Brak internally questions the need for a stack of secret doors.

Niobe goes over to the second secret door and listens to see if whoever is looking for them has found the room full of skulls yet.  She cannot hear anything outside the door.

Tinyra looks over to Niobe, “I can go out there and watch.  I am pretty sure I can keep them from seeing me and get back to warn you if they find...us.”  She seems a little uncertain when she adds the last comment in.

Niobe stares at her intently, sensing motives.  She is pretty sure Tinyra is being honest with her.

Clifford stares at Niobe and reminds her, “She is a good puppy.”

Leroy chooses to ignore the exchange and stares at the books.

Niobe- “....go.”

Clifford walks up to Niobe and bumps against her in a doggily manner. He smiles at her.

Tinyra disappears from the room.

Eli writes a note, Leroy has never been this quite, probably in his whole life.

Niobe scratches Clifford’s head and sighs. “I give everyone else a fair shot, I shouldn’t treat her any differently.”

Derek, still in the side room, cautiously opens the secret door.  There is the smell of the ancient dead in this room.  Stone niches along the walls of the catacombs hold human shaped amber husks, bones, and tattered shrouds.

Brak grumbles under his breath. “Smells like home.”

Leroy crosses his arms, walks to where the smell is coming from, and stands next to Derek. He says nothing and looks to him.

Eli moves to join Niobe and writes another note, she is only partially guilty for what happened.  Leroy didn’t help the situation.  There was only one thing done that was horrible and that should be something that can be fixed.

Niobe nods. “She’s with us until she’s against us, I suppose.”

Eli shrugs and nods.

Derek calls back into the sitting room “I believe this may be the way down.” He enters the large room and begins searching things.  As he enters the room tall, iron candlesticks standing in alcoves all ignite and cast flickering light upon the walls and cause the shattered amber to glitter.

Leroy waits a moment, then enters the room behind Derek. “What ye make of this room, first mate?” he asks meekly.

Derek makes a disgusted noise in this throat. “Truly a place made by magicians, Captain.”

Leroy looks around the room and takes notice of the details of what Derek says.  He sees what Derek points out, but there is nothing else of note. “Aye,” Leroy says “I see what ye means.”

Brak floats into the room and looks around. He also floats over and looks down to see what is at the bottom of the staircase.  He sees a similar room at the bottom of the stairs and a few objects that he cannot quite make out.

Niobe decides to follow the explorers, having had enough drama for the day. She notes the locations of any obvious doors.

Arvin follows.

Clifford sniffs around the new room.

Derek also proceeds down the stairs and searches this lower room.  He doesn’t find anything of interest.

Leroy steps off down the stairs and joins Derek in the lower room.

Niobe, avoiding looking at Leroy, mentions the Tinyra offered to go reconnoiter the voices in the main area. “So, er, keep a look out.”

Clifford - “Should one of us remain here to wait for her?”

As the party descents the stairs they find themselves in a room with amber-covered walls.  Sculpted to look like tentacles that entwine around marble bas-reliefs of kings, queens, pharohs, and sultans attended by myriad slaves.  The west, south, and east walls contain alcoves, and standing in each alcove is a tall, rough block of amber.  Two wide cracks have opened up in the south wall, spilling rubble and shattered pieces of amber onto the floor in the southeast corner of the room.

Derek, carefully and quietly goes to the cracks and peers through them.  The opensing are roughly three feet wide, eight feet high and 10 feet deep and lead into another room.

Brak- “I don’t think we need to. She can teleport as she sees fit, and so can find us quickly. Plus we’re not hiding the trail of opened doors or dusty footprints behind us.”

Clifford grumbles a bit, but stays with the party. He keeps an eye on the rear.

Derek hides himself, and silently edges through one of the cracks.  He finds a room with piles of treasure heaped against the walls on either side of the room.

Brak- “Also, I should tell you all that we’re only on the same level as the big room where we fought the Blood War, not any deeper.”

Leroy goes to the crack where Derek entered and waits for his first mate.

Brak floats over to Leroy and looks down the cracks to see what Derek is up to. “Leroy, I’ve been thinking about the deck. I think that a carefully worded wish will restore the intelligence you lost during one of your card draws.”

Leroy looks to Brak, thinks about what he says and says low enough only brak can hear, “There is no wish I want to make. After this I am leaving. I wish that deck never came to my possession.” He is moody and is depressed in his voice.

At about this time Tinyra comes somewhat loudly down the stairs.

Niobe, somewhat more friendly...or at least not hostile. “What is there?” She continues to sense motive, though.  She believes Tinyra is being honest with her.

Tinyra, “there were easily twice as many demons and devils then we faced in the fight.  They searched for a short time, then turned and left with what looked like a black cloud.  I tried to follow them, but after about a mile I ran into an invisible wall.  I tried to teleport farther and was stuck.  Then I came back here.”

Niobe- “Was this black cloud small and handheld?”

Tinyra, “It looked slightly larger than a normal person.”

Brak, a little stunned at Leroy’s response, leaves him alone, and goes to listen to Tinyra. “Can you describe the black cloud in any more detail?”

Tinyra, “I think the cloud was hiding something inside of it.”

Brak wracks his brain for anything that might hide inside a black cloud.  He is not sure what it could be.

Derek searches the room for the item that we seek.  He finds the following:

Pile 1
1,750 SP
30 gemstones (50gp Each)
Child-Sized sarcophagus made of black wood inlaid with gold (250gp)

Pile 2
12,000 SP
A gilded Chariot (750gp)

Pile 3
3,300 gp (stamped with the visage of Strahd)
Trunk with six fine dressed and gowns (35gp each)
Ten pieces of jewelry (250 gp each) and 500 gp in a rotted wooden chest
Eight painted ceramic statues of saints (250 gp each, 50 lbs each)
The hilt of a sword - Matches the description they have of the sunsword

Pile 4
30 Holy symbols (5gp each) of various gods from various worlds
12 copper chalices with silver filigree (25 gp each)
Gilded skull with red garrnets in the eye sockets (250gp)

Pile 5
6 Non magical crystal balls (20 gp each)
A bronze crown with tiny gem-eyed dragons for spires (750gp)
9,000 sp
A life-sized wooden pony (25gp)
Six marble vases (100gp each, 100lbs each)

Pile 6
1,500sp
An obsidian scepter with gold filigree (2,500gp)

Derek runs a hand over his face and lets out a silent sigh of annoyance.
He takes the gemstones, the jewelry, the sword hilt, the holy symbols, the skull,  the crown, all six of the crystal balls, and the scepter, slipping them into various pockets, haversacks or quivers as appropriate.

Then he slips back through the cracks to rejoin the group.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXIII

Day 212- Drama

(click to show/hide)

Leroy stands next to the gap that Derek has crawled through, waiting for him to return.

Tinyra continues to stand a little farther away from the group.  Watching them closely.

Niobe executes a sense motive on Tinyra. Cause she’s prolly up to something.  She gets the impression that Tinyra is being cautious of what the party might do to her, and that there is more that she has not told them yet.

Derek, having spent several minutes searching the room through the cracks, rejoins the group.

Derek “The room through the cracks is a treasury of sorts. I left the coin,  but I have everything small and valuable that could be picked up.” He spreads the items out before the group.

Leroy, coming out of a bit of a dreary mood, looks to Derek and has a bit more excitement in his voice “Good job First mate. Me loves the idea of collecting booty on an adventure.” he picks up one skull and looks at it in his hand. Then a lower tone and depressed “seems to be the only thing me loves these days.” he chucks the skull back into the rest of the treasure

Derek smiles slightly “There is more treasure here than we can carry unfortunately, Captain. We must be judicious. There is also a door on the other end of the treasure room. I suspect it leads to the chamber in which we fought.” He holds the sword’s hilt up. “This appears to resemble the item we seek.” A voice in Derek’s head says “I am complete.”

Brak- “Yes, it would. And that’s disappointing. Hopefully the rest of the sword is not in too many pieces.”

Leroy nods to his first mate. “Aye that be a good call on your part. Cant take everything. Could of been cursed.” Leroy shudders at the thought of cursed treasure.

Derek blinks and looks suspiciously at the sword hilt. He steps well back from the group and holds the hilt in a guard position. “Are you now.”  “I am,” respondes the sword in Derek’s head, “I can also do this.”  Suddenly a blade of light appears from the hilt of the sword.

There is a sudden general increase in interest in the sword from the peanut gallery.

Derek says, concentrating on the sword. “Good news, Master Brak. The sword claims  - and proves, apparently - that there are no other pieces to find.” He addresses the sword ‘And how does one sheathe you?”  The blade disappears, “you ask.” it tells Derek.

Leroy looks at the sword and is amazed at what is going on. “Blimey, aint that something else Matey.”

Brak- “Derek, does it have a name?”

Derek shrugs and speaks “Do you, by any chance, have a name by which we should address you, Master Sword? Or Mistress Sword, perhaps?’ “I do not have a name.  I have been called the sunsword.” It answers telepathically.

Derek answers “Very well, Sunsword. We are glad to have you.”

Leroy looks to Derek and asks “What do ye think the purpose of the sunsword is?”

Brak- “We should get out of here. Talon has said our mission is Strahd, not this place, which he apparently has under control somehow.”

Eli nods and writes, We have what we need to go back to Rictavio.  He said with them he would take us to the third item we seek.

Niobe- “We can come back if we have to help Talon.”

Derek is slightly at a loss for how to carry a sword with no blade, but eventually decides to just put it in a vest pocket, for the moment.

Eli also writes, Almost all of us have some kind of bag of holding, we should be able to get the rest of the treasure before we leave.

Derek remarks “It is mostly silver coins. The gold all has the face of, I presume, Strahd.”

Leroy ponders this thought for a moment, and thinks. “We have what we want, lets leave the rest behind and move one. The sooner, the better.” he says with deadness in his voice.

Niobe feels a pang of sympathy for Leroy...but sure doesn’t say anything.

Tinyra just narrows her eyes watching Leroy.

Derek notices her reaction. “Mistress Tinyra, would you like to accompany us, or be on your way? I know that you are still bound to the Captain, here, but unless you wish to help us with the black orb there is not much reason for you to stay with us.”

Brak- “We have three ways to leave: we can walk, we can use this scroll of greater teleport we found, or we can have Tinyra teleport us. However, only eight creatures at a time can ride one teleport spell….unless someone rides in bags of holding.”

Leroy looks to the ring and grimances at hearing the words “Bound to the Captain”

Tinyra, “Did I mention the fact that I got a mile or so away from you all and ran into something that prevented me from going any farther.  I somehow doubt I have a choice in the matter.”  She takes a deep breath then continues, “I am more than willing to help destroy any more black orbs we run into.” Then she looks at Brak, “I am afraid that unless you make the entire party weight less than fifty pounds I can only teleport myself.”

Brak- “I’m curious what particular ability a succubus has that would help destroy the orbs. Then we’re down to two methods.”

Leroy says under his breath so he is not heard “She can frickin die, that would help.” with venom dripping from his lips. Niobe, Eli, Tinyra all still hear what Leroy says.

Brak doesn’t care if Tinyra lives or dies, and so does nothing but glance at Leroy.

Niobe grows a bit concerned.

Derek hums and gives Leroy a disapproving look. “Be polite, Captain, your wish is the only reason she is stuck with us. And you did say ‘forever’ so even death may not part you.”

Leroy grabs Derek by his arm and drags him to the treasure room, anger overcoming him (arvin turns into a rat and follows unseen) kj“First mate,” leroy says angrily “I know what me wished for,” tears coming into his eyes “but she lied who she was and lied about lovin me.” he hangs his head in shame “I am sorry Derek. I should have not gotten angry with me first mate like this.”

Derek does his best neutral face and disengages Leroy’s hands from his lapels, brushing the wrinkles out of them before answering. “Quite correct. I don’t know very well how wishes work. My instructors … said they were best avoided, as they tend to be answered in the worst ways possible.”

Leroy looks to Derek and nods “Aye, and looks to be that way.”

Derek continues “However, since it was your wish that bound the two of you together, it would behoove you to be kind to her. Even if her appearance was a lie - as that might have been done by the wish - and even if you think it was a lie when she said she loved you. That might either be part of the wish, or part of her nature as a succubus.”

Leroy nods to Derek “Aye, you speak truth, I will try to be better. Though she has still broken me heart with that hideous lie of hers.” He looks to the hole. “Though i will not trust her for this.” Leroy begins to grind his teeth. “You are a good first mate, maybe one day even be a better captain than meself.”

Derek pats Leroy on the shoulder. “That is kind of you to say, Captain. You should apologise for your comment, and at least be polite to her. No one is asking you to trust or even like her.”

Leroy thinks about it for second or two and looks to Derek “that i will say then.” Leroy gathers himself up and puts his arm around his first mate. “Let us go, and i will fulfill me end of the bargain.”

Derek, neutral society face on.  “I am glad to hear it, Captain.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tinyra just sighs and continues to address Brak, “I don’t know.  I would have to look at the orb and find out.  I did not see the one destroyed by Talon.  It might be my abilities as a Favored Soul.”

This provokes a raised eyebrow from both Brak and Niobe. “A favored soul of who, may I ask?” ask Niobe.

Tinyra shrugs, “I don’t know.  I served in a temple of Trithereon before I made my wish to leave there and ended up here.  I have not yet found out what god has chosen to give me these gifts.”

Niobe, thoughtfully- “I was a murderer and a thief in a previous life….hmmm. And Trithereon is a god of good and freedom.”

Tinyra, “All I want is the freedom to choose my path.  The church of Trithereon was alright, but still restrictive and wouldn’t accept me for who I am.  I want to find who the deity is that chose me.  Maybe there I can find the freedom to be me.”

Brak- “I’ll examine the rings later. There are few curses that can’t be broken somehow.”

Derek and Leroy re-enter from the treasure room. “Your pardon for the interruption.” Derek says to the room at large. Arvin comes back too and changes back behind someone tall so Leroy doesn’t see she was a rat.

Leroy nods to Derek, takes his Captain hat off and looks at Tinyra “Lass, I would like to say what i said about ye was wrong. I was angry and hurt, but not an excuse to say what me said. I apologize.” He gives a curt little bow to her. He says again “On me life, me crew, and me ship, i swear me words be true.”

Tinyra watches Leroy for a minute then nods, “I also apologize, I did not know the situation and was trying to work through it.”  She takes a sharp breath, “I do need to cast a spell on you.”

Leroy tips his hat towards Tinyra and puts it on his hat “Apology accepted.” while fixing his hat he hears what she said about the spell and screams “YE WANT TO DO WHAT!?” in sheer panic.

Derek rolls his eyes “Captain…. What spell, if you please Mistress Tinyra?”

Tinyra, “Restoration.  To restore the energy I took when I first got here.”

Leroy looks confused, jumps in the air two times, then looks at his hands, “me no feel like me lost energy.”

Tinyra, “I must eat like anyone else.  I just feed in a way similar to vampires.”  She looks from Leroy to Niobe and keeping half an eye on the rest of the party for their reactions.

Brak manages to keep a poker face, cause he already knows the answer.

Niobe narrows her eyes, but doesn’t attack.

Leroy looks to Tinyra “What do ye mean, feed like a vampire?” his hand twitches on the hilt of his sword. “How”

Derek thinks for a moment and says “Ah, when you were kissing the Captain, perhaps?”

Tinyra, “Vampires feed on blood, Succubus feed on life-energy.  We must have physical contact with a willing person usually.  It can be forced, but not ideal.”

Leroy looks at Tinyra with more concern on his face “Me life energy? Like ye took days of me life away?”

Tinyra shakes her head, “It doesn’t work like that.  You would likely recover it all without noticing it happened.  If I took more than you might have noticed, but I must take a lot before you would be in any danger of dying.  Far more than what I need to survive.”

Leroy eyes get wide eyed at the sound of being killed from kissing

Arvin mutters. “I volunteer as tribute.”  Everyone still hears this.

Derek slides her an amused glance. “That shouldn’t be at all necessary, Mistress Arvin. I am told that it is a husband’s duty to provide for his wife.”

Arvin grimaces. “Would you believe i did not mean to say that out loud?” She straightens up. “Anyway offer stands. I like a good cuddle.” She grins.

Leroy looks at Tinya, removes his hand from the rapier, calmly stating as much as he can “If ye took what ye needed, and ye said ill recover, then a spell shoudl not be needed.”

Brak- “You should let her cast restoration on you, Leroy. It is the safer course of action.”

Tinyra, “I said most likely, the spell guarantees it.”

Leroy still looks to Tinyra and is not feeling convinced of this plan “Well, Me is not like others, as ye should know.”

Tinyra places her hands behind her back and just waits.

Derek, sounding light and jovial. “Can this spell be cast later, Mistress Tinyra? We should leave posthaste. Perhaps it would be better for you and the Captain to get to know each other better before casting spells on each other.”

Eli spends this entire time relaxed in a corner munching on field rations waiting.

Clifford, not seeing why biped social relationships have to be so complex, is devouring a dog biscuit also.

Tinyra nods to Derek, “it can, but it shouldn’t be put off forever.  If his constitution fails him, then the spell will no longer help.”

Leroy thinks of what Tinyra says then states “well matey’s, just done let ye captain die then.” he tries to smile but its weak. He gives a prayer hand sign to derek in gratitude.

Derek says blandly “Excellent, I’m glad that’s been resolved. Let us be off.”

Niobe sighs, hangs her head for a moment, and walks over to Leroy as everyone else starts to head back up the stairs. Despite a narrow escape from a being magically married forever to a lust-addled crazy person, Niobe can’t in good conscience not tell Leroy she has a solution to one of his problems.

“Leroy, I have scrolls of the spell restoration, if you would like me to use it on you. It was supposed to be for emergencies, but if Tinyra can cast restoration on us, we can probably use one of them now.”

Leroy does not look at Niobe, just the feeling of pent up awkwardness. he takes a big gulp and says slowly “Lass, I will be fine. No spell be needed.” He looks at her finally and he conceals a face of pain, knowing what he had done.

Niobe, more than a little relieved, says nothing. She just nods and flaps her wings once to get back up a flight of stairs, and decides to studiously avoid Leroy unless it’s to save his life or something.

Leroy lets out a sigh of relief after he watches Niobe fly off.

Eli writes a note, maybe find a safe place to rest and recover before we continue the trip to find Rictavio.

Brak, who is reduced to walking like a peasant for the time being- “We need to get out of the temple first.”

Eli nods agreement.

Presuming nothing jump scares us and tries to eat the party, we trace our steps back to the front door, avoiding the main hall.

The party is able to make it to the exit without issue and have no problem getting out of the temple.  Despite having gone into the temple during the day it is somehow almost night already.  Even though the party was only in the temple for a little over two hours.

Brak looks for a giant blood smear near the door, in case there’s anything left of the wizard guy they found. Then it’s off to get a ridge away from the front door of this place.  While looking around he sees the body of the wizard plastered to the side of the mountain above the temple. 

Brak manifests fly and heads up to see what’s left of him and/or if there are any magic items on what’s left of his body.  There is nothing on the body of value.  He can determine there is also a blood stain from where the wizards familiar was plastered against the wall as well.

Brak mumbles “Interesting” and returns to the party.

It is simple to find the location where the party rested the night before they went into the temple.

Leroy takes a deep breath of fresh air, happy to be out of the temple.

Brak- “Once we’re past this next ridgeline I’ll make a psychoportive shelter for us to rest in.”

“Gesundheit,” Arvin says.

Aaaand once the party is across the ridge, right where they rested last time, Brak does exactly that. A shimmering pane of air seven feet tall appears in front of Brak, who walks into it and disappears.

Niobe follows and visibly relaxes upon entering the shelter. Her spear and shield remain set to Kill, though.

Tinyra offers to use her remaining healing spells to heal everyone before they sleep.

Leroy, still leery about spells and his health, nods to Tinyra for the healing.

Derek thanks her but declines as he is not at all injured. Arvin accepts for Boots.

Niobe and Brak both take Tinyra up on her offer.

Tinyra uses three cure light wounds, Mass for 19, 15 and 16 HP healed.

Clifford says to Tinyra, “I could use a bit more healing, if you have it. Also I am interested in volunteering for cuddles. I am very sturdy, lots of life force!”

Tinyra, “I think I will skip out on the cuddles.  As for life force, I am ok.  I don’t need anything more today.”  And casts cure critical wounds on Clifford, “anymore?”

Clifford, a bit disappointed, but smiles in thank you, “No more healing needed! I also volunteer for later for lifeforce cuddles. If you need it.”

Tinyra offers a smile to Clifford, “thank you for the offer.  I promise to make sure it will not effect you to negatively.”  Then she looks to Leroy, “are you sure you do not want a Restoration spell before you rest?”

Leroy looks to Tinyra and shakes his head “I will be fine fer now. I thank ye for the offer.” He says as politely as he can.

Once everyone is inside the shelter, Brak makes the door completely invisible from the outside.

Leroy sets up a place next to the door, “Captain Leroy shall be on first watch, in case there be an unexpected attack.” he says

Brak- “Good, cause I need some sleep.” He lays flat and covers his head with his broad-brimmed hat.

Niobe- “I’ll take second watch.”

Eli writes, I need some as well.

Derek volunteers for third. He spends his watch fashioning a strap for the sun sword.

Clifford takes up his space sleeping across the threshold.

During his shift, Leroy sits next to the door, head in his right hand, but twirling the ring in his left finger over and over. Every once in awhile he looks towards where Niobe is, and where Tinyra is. He then looks back at the ring and twirls it some more.

Clifford keeps one eye on Leroy, occasionally attempting to move his head into the captain’s lap while pretending to be asleep.

It takes Niobe a while to get to sleep, and she has to give Arvin some crap about volunteering to make out with Tinyra, but eventually she conks out.


Tinyra covers her head with her wings in an attempt to get a little farther away from the group.

---------------------
After the party figures out watches they are able to get sleep without interruption and complete their initial preparation when they wake up in the morning.  At about an hour after dawn the party is ready to move.

Day 213

Brak takes a few minutes to let everyone know what spells he has readied, which tend toward anti-vampire and anti-wizard.

Niobe takes some time to braid her hair so as to be extra cushioning in her helmet, makes sure her holy symbol of Moradin (yes, Moradin) is present and is ready to go.

Leroy grimmances a bit, grabs at his chest, shakes it off and continues on.

Clifford now looks like this:<picture of a giant sheltie>

Derek finishes brushing the lint off his jacket. “Captain, are you well?”

Leroy looks to Derek “Aye I am,” He says convincingly, “felt something but i be fine.”

Brak ends the shelter, unceremoniously dumping everyone out onto the mountainside.

Eli just gives Brak a look.

Brak adjusts his hat.

Leroy walks to Tinyra, gently placing his right hand on her back, “Lass,” he begins to ask, “What will happen if ye dont cast yer spell ye talked about yesterday to me?”

Tinyra looks over her shoulder at Leroy and then to his hand, “There is a chance that you will not be able to recover the lost energy.  You look as though you came out ok.”

Leroy looks to her eyes “Will i feel this pain yet again? or will it come back tomorrow ?”

Tinyra, “no more pain, unless you get energy drained again.”

Leroy gives Tinyra a full smile, “told ya,” he says with a smirk now “Im not just any ordinary person. I am captain Leroy Sparrow.” He tips his captain hat to Tinyra and joins the rest of the group.

Tinyra nods, “You are far from ordinary.”

Clifford says to himself, “Hmm, this much fur is cushion-y, I like it.”

Niobe- “You’re so fluffy!” And scratches him under his chin.

Clifford smiles happily at Niobe’s attention and leans into the scritches. He then switches to huge size and offer a ride to anyone small. He takes his cloak off because FUR!

Brak takes him up on his offer.. He cackles to himself a little bit with giant sheltie fur up to his chin.

Derek watches for any approaching enemies.

And we’re off! Back to  Vallaki.  The party is able to make easy headway.  However when they get within a mile of the city they can see more smoke than what would be expected from  normal chimney fires.

Niobe- “....dammit.” She launches herself into the air to get a good view and do some high speed scouting from like 1000 feet up.

Derek sighs and continues to walk along the road. He makes no effort to hurry.

Eli uses mass Missive, again, does anyone want my skin of celestial embrace.  I no longer need it.

Arvin looks intrigued. “What does it do and how do you wear it?”

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXIV

Day 213. More Drama. Also significantly edited, cause I forgot that we did a bunch of one-hour sessions the week between Christmas and New Years, so there is a two-session buffer between what just happened and what I'm supposed to be posting. So please reread this one, it's now totally different.

(click to show/hide)

Niobe flies over Vallaki to get a general idea of what’s going on, hopefully high up enough that she doesn’t attract swarms of vampires.  Niobe does in fact see swarms of Vampires, rather Vampire Spawn and werewolves.  They are running all over the village and appear to just be causing chaos.  No specific plan.

While Niobe is taking her flight, Clifford, Derek, Arvin and Boots seem to have disappeared.

Brak tucks and rolls when Clifford disappears out from beneath him.

Tinyra looks around and blinks a few times, “what?”

Brak- “Yeah, that happens all the time. We’ve stopped wondering about it.”

Tinyra raises a hand and opens her mouth to say something then stops, looking around at the remaining party members realizing none of them seem phased by this disappearance at all.

Brak dusts himself off and keeps heading to Vallaki, picking up the pace just a bit.

Eli moves next to Brak and then looks at Leroy and waves for him to take point.

Leroy takes up his rapier and charges to the front “Where be me first mate when me needs him?” Leroy says

Brak- “They’ll return shortly, Leroy, I’m sure. Let’s get moving.”

“Aye lad, we shall move on.” Leroy says to Brak, then chuckles a bit.

Once she has a reasonable idea of what is going on, Niobe returns to where she left the group and then follows them up the road.

Niobe lands solidly, and sees that half the party has disappeared….again. She makes some strangled sounds that would be swear words, coming from someone else. She takes a breath to compose herself.

Niobe- “The town is under attack by werewolves and what appear to be vampires or their spawn. They don’t look organized, just pillaging and, I assume, turning as many people as they can into more of them. Also the gate to the city is down- burned- and the vampires and werewolves aren’t guarding anything.”

Leroy raises an eyebrow to Niobe, very much intrigued and angsty about going to a village of fighting super beings. “So if we have a village of mongers and bitey people, what say ye to this? get a good view of the mayhem from the edge of the field? or dive in and cause certain death for all of us?” he ask Niobe

Niobe- “There were dozens of them. Charging in is certainly an invitation for a quick death. And then we can’t fight Strahd.”

Eli writes, Maybe just search our way through to find Rictavio and try to get out.

Leroy nods to Niobe. “Well if manage to go for Rictavio, we still have to wait for the blood frenzy to end.” he says then ponders. “we could always take the edge of the forest and cover and hide. Wait things out.”

Tinyra, “I am game for whatever you want to try.”

Brak stands there, pondering. After a moment he speaks up. “If we can get within 1000 feet of the room Rictavio was in when we spoke to him, I can transport all- five- of us in there.”

Leroy ponders at this thought, he looks to the sky, then to Niobe. “Lass,” he says “Ye captain has a favor to ask ye of ya.” and then smiles “It will help with the plan i have.”

Niobe, not hostilely- “What favor is that?”

Leroy says, “like the crow nest, with a spotter with a scope, we need be needing a layout of the town and the edge of the woods around it, if the plan be successful. Can ye fly up and get a good idea of the layout?”

Niobe- “So you want me to orbit the town while you all dimension door in and out?”

“Nay lass,” Leroy says, “Captain needin to know the layout so we all can do door thingy you say safely.” He turns and points to all maties. “I see the layout, we make a plan to move, and avoid death.” he says calmly.

Brak- “I wouldn’t be able to bring all six of us back, but Tinyra can transport herself back out.”

Tinyra nods, “I can.”

Niobe gives Leroy an odd look, and sketches the town in the dirt from what she just saw, pointing out particularly important buildings, the gate, and what’s on fire and what’s not.

Leroy gathers the crew around the drawing. “aye lass, this be a very good drawing.”

Eli cocks his head and watches Leroy’s brief.

Brak stands and waits for Leroy’s plan.

Leroy points to the building where they met Ric. “here be the tavern of ale where we met Mr. R.” he then points to the woods around the buildings. “If we sweep around the backside, stick to the woods, and get close for master Brak to cast us in, we be safe, and no bad teeth or doggy bites for anyone.” He says. He looks to the crew “what say ye to me plan?”

Eli shrugs.
Niobe shrugs as well.

Brak- “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Tinyra nods.

“Excellent,” Leroy exclaims, “Only wish me first mate was here. Then me wouldnt have to do all this planning or work. Thats why me pays him for.” Then smiles.

Niobe Has No Words. She opens her mouth to say something, and then closes it.

Brak- “Let’s go then, time is doing nothing but wasting.”

Leroy then scatters the drawing and motions everyone to follow him.

Eli shakes his head.

The party is able to move into the village easily.  The Path Leroy layed out happens to be mostly free of anyone good or bad.  Then when the party is halfway to the Inn they see a few women huddled against a building holding small children close to themselves.  Standing between the women and three vampire spawn is a man dressed in white clothing.  A white hood is pulled over his head and he wields a double sword clubsily as the vampire spawn seem to just be toying with him and the women and children he is trying to protect.

Leroy sees this and looks to everyone “I wanna help them, but we must keep to the course.” he looks worried.

Niobe is standing still, looking like she’s preparing to charge the vampire spawn.

Leroy grabs her by the arm, preparing to get hit, “Ye can not save them. youll endanger the crew. There be three now, but more will show.” he says.

Tinyra, “We can’t leave them to die if we can help.”

Niobe, very quietly- “I will not pass by and let these people be turned into vampires. You and Brak can go to the inn and find Rictavio and be back here in a few moments.” She has activated Law devotion at this point.

Leroy grimances at the thought, and ponders. “We can save, but puts us into a bad spot.” he says.

Brak- “Once stealth is gone, you must rely on speed. I will start dimension door-ing us closer to the inn.

Everyone except Niobe notices that there are no other people or monsters within sight of them right now

Brak disbelieves the illusion before him.  They are still there, he doesn’t believe it is an illusion.

Leroy lets go of Niobe’s arm, “If ye are very certain, I see no other bitey people around. We can save them.” he states

While this conversation is happening one of the vampire spawn turns and sees the party.  He says something low and sharp that sounds of surprise.  Then the three turn into gas and fly away.  At the same time the man in white swings at them again and falls on his face.

Niobe turns off law devotion, but keeps a look out. She turns on detect evil, cause presumably gaseous vampires would still show up under that.  Tinyra is the only evil she detects close by outside of the ravenloft normal detection.  She does also get the same feeling she got when looking at Akara, when Niobe had used detect evil in that situation.

Brak walks over. “Who are you?” And why, he wonders, not out loud, why everyone around here wears hoods all the time. He stays about 15’ away from the guy.

Slowly the man gets to his hands and knees, “My name is Erlan.”  His head moving around looking for his weapon.

Everyone but Tinyra recognize the voice.  Brak and Niobe are positive it is Talon’s voice.

Leroy walks after Brak and joins in during the conversation.

Eli cocks his head watching the man.

Erlan fumbles around a little longer before picking up his weapon and getting to his feet.

Brak looks at him closely. “That doesn’t tell me anything. Who are you?”

Erlan steps back slightly and lowers his head a little more, “I am not sure I understand what you are asking.” his voice sounds very nervous now.

While the party is having this conversation the women behind Erlan get up and start running off.

Leroy looks to the women “Why they be running?” caution in his words.

Tinyra, “maybe from the vampires?”

Niobe does a WTF shrug and arm drop at this.

Brak- “Take off your hood, Erlan.”

Erlan starts to shake slightly but does as Brak says.  They see what appears to be a young drow with black hair down to his shoulders.  He must be in his early 20s.  Obviously a young Talon.

“Just wanted to make sure we werent bout to be kraken food” leroy says to Niobe and Tinyra.

Tinyra watches the women run, “Not us, they might end up food for vampires still despite this young elf’s attempts.”  Cocking her head slightly watching him.

Brak- “Curious.”

Niobe- “That actually answers some questions.”

Eli takes a step closer looking at Erlan, standing no closer than the rest of the party.

Erlan looks nervously around, “I...Curious?”

Brak- “We’ll tell you when we have more time. Come with us, we’re trying to rescue someone.”

Erlan shakes his head, “I have to find my parents.  They will kill me if they find me far away from our cart.”  He pulls his hood back over his head.

Brak- “Do you know Rictavio?”

Leroy give him a puzzling look.

Erlan shakes his head, “I do not.”  At that time there is a loud shout as someone calls Erlan’s name.  Erlan’s whole body shakes when he hears the shout.

Brak- “Your parents?”

Erlan, “yes, my parents.  We are traveling to another temple to try and remove my curse.”  He looks around and sees the approach of two elves, neither of them covering their heads and both with fair skin.

Niobe, as kindly as she can muster- “What curse?”

Erlan, “my skin color.  I am not a drow.”

Leroy gives an Ahh face.

Niobe- “Get your parents and get away from town. If you haven’t noticed there are vampires about.”

Erlan nods and turns to head towards his parents.

Brak, smugly- “See you later.”

The parents get close enough that the party can see them clearly.  Everyone is pretty sure that they are the parents of Erlan.  Features are too close to be otherwise, with the exception of skin color.

Niobe- “We don’t have time for more pleasantries.”

Leroy nods “ We best be get to sailin to the ale.” he says

Eli looks around slowly, then to the rest of the party and makes a motion to move again.  He does it in a way that makes it look like it is a question.

Niobe is still looking around for flying clouds of evil vampire gas, but nods.

Brak- “Yes, we need to move.”

Tinyra is still watching Erlan and his family move away and misses the non verbal gestures.  Looks to Brak and the rest ready to follow once she hears that comment.

Leroy nods and says “aye, best we be movin on.”

The party makes it a few more blocks before they see Rictavio in an alley finishing a fight with a few werewolves.

Brak- “I guess we don’t need to find him, then.”

Rictavio looks over to the party as the last werewolf goes down and nods to them, starting to move towards them, “I am glad you are back.  Have you found the items?”

Brak- “The sword and the holy symbol, yes. We have them.” Neglecting to mention that Derek has them both. He’ll probably show up again.

Rictavio, “Please let me see them.” (you have them for this purpose.)

Niobe, who would be the next most obvious candidate, draws the Sun Blade and the holy symbol. “Good enough?”

Rictavio comes over and looks at them, then nods, “yes.  Let's get out of here and go somewhere that we can talk.”

We sneak back out the way we came!

The party has no issues getting out.  Most of the village is in chaos right now and not paying close attention to anything.

Leroy feels very confident and proud in his ablility to keep the group from getting jumped and killed.

Niobe is just baaareeely able to keep from running off and attacking anything evil in sight, and her hackles are UP.

Leroy takes notice of Niobe, “Lass, Ye be okay?”

Niobe- “No, there are a lot of innocent people dying and we’re not doing anything about it. I get that there’s more at stake here.”

Eli writes a note, there have been a lot of innocent people dying here for years.  I don’t think we could do anything even if there was not more at stake.

Leroy shakes his head and walks up to Niobe but maintains distance from her hitting him. “Aye it is sad, but we cant be savin them, we aint got the crew to do so. Even if ye saved one, or two, they be 20 biteys to come and rip ye flesh from ye bones. So dont be pullin a me.” as soon as he says that he jumps back an extra 10 feet from her.

Niobe does not look convinced, but also doesn’t fly off to go kill whatever she sees.

Tinyra, “hopefully the death of Stradh will free this land.”

Leroy shrugs and gives a look to Tinyra “Maybe it do, and maybe it dont. Wont know till we kill him.”

Brak, to Rictavio- “Well? What about this book?”

Rictavo looks cautiously at Tinyra and then at the party, “she was not with you when you started out.”

Tinyra takes a few steps back and folds her wings in tighter to her body.

Leroy quickly smiles and shows Rictavo the ring on his fiinger “Well just say careful what ye wish for.”

Brak- “Our interests align for the moment. She helps us get rid of Strahd and leaves when we do. Then shes not your concern.”

Tinyra shakes her head.

Eli snorts at Leroy’s comment.

Niobe, attempting the diplomatic route- “Rictavio, we need all the help we can get. We know she’s not a spy of his.”

Rictavio raises an eyebrow, “demon help?”

Leroy shakes his head up and down, “aye, demon help.” calmly

Niobe- “Strahd’s not a demon, he’s a vampire.”

Leroy points to Tinyra while looking at Niobe “He meant her.”

Tinyra, “Niobe means that as a demon I am most likely not on the vampire’s side.”

Rictavio shakes his head, “well I will not be taking that risk.”  He pulls a book out of a bag.  Hands the book towards Niobe, “I hope she works with you long enough to finish off Strahd.  That is the Tome of Strahd.  It has some of his history in there.”

Niobe takes the book. “Thank you. I presume that you mean you will not accompany us. Where will you go?”

Brak- “He probably shouldn’t tell us.”

Rictavio, “Nope.  I will try and find somewhere to hide.  The Castle should be your next stop after you look through the Tome.  I am sure Strahd is ready for you.  I believe the woman you escorted here was taken to the castle.  I wouldn’t wait too long if you want to keep her safe.”

Leroy is not pleased to hear that his life is being risked for a coward.

Niobe- “We won’t.”

Rictavio looks around and then turns to leave.  Looking over his shoulder, “good luck.” and then he starts away into the woods.

Tinyra watches him leave and then looks to the party, “I am sorry.  I can change my appearance again to something that will be less likely to push people away.”

Leroy watches Rictavio leave and then spits in his direction, arms folded over his chest, “Yeller belly scurvy dog.” Then turns to Tinyra, but saying in a more calmer voice “change into whatever ye like Lass.”

Brak- “We need to read that book.”

Eli writes, we might want to use the tent we have and a place a little more hidden.

Brak- “No, we can hide better than that.” He manifests psychoportive shelter with room for nine. “Come on in.”

Leroy walks into the shelter, taking his captain hat off as he enters.

Eli follows.

Tinyra enters as well.

Niobe enters last.


A lot of the Tome is ineligible.  After some time the following is what the party is able to read.

Tome of Strahd:

I am The Ancient, I am The Land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I was the warrior, I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.

All goodness slipped from my life; I found my youth and strength gone and all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god’s grace or justice.

I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of mine, Sergei. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.

From the families of the valley, one spirit shone above all others. A rare beauty, who was called “perfection,” “joy,” and “treasure.” Her name was Tatyana and I longed for her to be mine.

I loved her with all my heart. I loved her for her youth. I loved her for her joy. But she spurned me! “Old One” was my name to her – “elder” and “brother” also. Her heart went to Sergei. They were betrothed. The date was set.

With words she called me “brother,” but when I looked into her eyes they reflected another name – “death.” It was the death of the aged that she saw in me. She loved her youth and enjoyed it. But I had squandered mine.

The death she saw in me turned her from me. And so I came to hate death, my death. My hate is very strong: I would not be called “death” so soon. I made a pact with Vol, a pact of Blood. On the day of the wedding, I killed Sergei, my brother. My pact was sealed with his blood.

I found Taryana weeping in the garden east of the Chapel. She fled from me. She would not let me explain, and a great anger swelled within me. She had to understand the pact I made for her! I pursued her. Finally, in despair, she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft and I watched everything I ever wanted fall from my grasp forever.

It was a thousand feet through the mists. No trace of her was ever found. Not even I know her final fate. Arrows from the castle guards pierced me to my soul, but I did not die. Nor did I live. I became undead, forever.

I have studied much since then. “Vampyr” is my new name. I still lust for life and youth, and I curse the living that took them from me. Even the sun is against me. it is the sun and light I fear the most. But little else can harm me now. Even a stake through my heart does not kill me, though it holds me from movement. But the sword, that cursed sword that Sergei brought! I must dispose of that awful tool! I fear and hate it as much as the sun.

I have learned much, too, about this land of Barovia. Ancient are its ways, ancient beyond the knowledge of the simple folk of the valley. A ancient saints dwelt in this valley long before my coming, and three hidden fanes still give tribute to their memories. I visited the Swamp Fane, the Forest Fane, and the Mountain Fane, and claimed their power for my own. Their servants now serve me, and thus I have become the Land.

I have often hunted for Tatyana. I have even felt her within my grasp, but she escapes me! She taunts me! She taunts me! What will it take to bend her love to me?

I now reside far helow Ravenloft. I live among the dead and sleep beneath the very stones of this hollow castle of despair. I shall seal shut the walls of the stairs that none may disturb me.

That ends the legible parts of the tome.

Something tickles the back of Niobe’s brain upon reading the second paragraph. Presumably.

Brak- “I wonder if we can visit these Fanes and weaken Strahd piecemeal before assaulting the castle. Although we may have already visited the Mountain Fane.”

Leroy looks to Brak and stupidly says “I say we take the sword, and we hack and slassh at Stradh.”

Niobe has a passing thought about Leroy and Strahd trading woman-capturing techniques. “I wonder if there is a way to contact Tatyana.”

Leroy looks up confused “How? she flun herself from a tower or somethin. Lass, She dead. Dead men tell no tales.”

Brak- “With the right magic, they do.”

Eli writes, Strahd believes the women we escored to be her reborn.  Do you remember Rictavio saying that everyone’s souls are reborn again and again trapped to live here forever.

Niobe- “Then he’s gone through this capture-and-kill game dozens of times….bastard.”

Leroy begins to become pale. and then turns slowly to Tinyra and asks her quietly “ Ye wouldnt be this mans long dead lost lover, would ye lass?”

Tinyra cocks his head looking at Leroy, “I am a Succubus.  I have been alive longer then this place has existed.”  Then nods to Niobe, “I would agree.”

Leroy lets out a sigh of relief. “It just be me luck if ye were her and had to fight a man possessed with love chasin her. Only me luck.” he looks to the roof.

Tinyra, “Strahd loves her like you love Niobe.  It is not love, it is lust.”

Leroy jumps up and draws his sword, anger on his face “What ye just say?”

Niobe gets a slightly smug look on her face, although she tries not to.

Brak, being socially inept, ignores this and continues to examine the book.

Eli watches closely wondering if there is anyway he can stop blood from being spilled.

Tinyra raises her arms wide baring her chest to him, “that your feelings for Niobe are based in lust not love.  If you loved her you wouldn’t have much such a callous wish.”

Leroy temple begins to throb “If I were to lust for her, then why didnt i try to do sexual things with ye when ye first appear lass?” he takes a step to the door “and if ye really thinks i lusted for her, then why did i talk about sailing on me ship for the horizons?” he puts his sword away and steps outside for fresh air.

Tinyra lowers her arms and watches him leave, “he is young.”

Niobe picks her jaw up off the floor. “Uhhh. Thanks. I’m glad someone said that.”

Tinyra, “Hopefully he will learn, or he is a true pirate and then I think his path might be dark in deed.”

Brak, still ignoring the Drama, makes mental notes to visit the garden to the east of the Chapel once the party gets to the castle. And he’ll have Derek talk extensively with the Sun Sword as well.

Tinyra looks to Brak and back to Niobe, “thank you for giving me a chance and not killing me out right.”

Brak is busy. He makes note of the line about “close the walls of the stairs”.

Niobe sighs. “Given my background I make it a point not to kill every evil thing I see on sight, as the same mercy was extended to me by those who trained me to be a paladin. Your story is different enough from your sisters- and how you arrived- make me think you’re not a normal succubus.”

Tinyra, “I was like most of my sisters.  We all tend to have mostly the same story.  With the exception of the Angel that spared my life.  It gave me freedom, and I try to live up to some of the virtues that I saw on the battlefield that day.”

Niobe- “An Angel saved your life?”

Tinyra, “My master had all of us on the field.  We were fighting some other demon army.  My master was trying to expand his land.  In the process of the fight an army of Angels showed up.  They killed Demons on both sides.  A small group of the Angels attacked my master and his guard.  One of the Angels looked straight at me and then turned and left me on the field.  I Stole my master ring and left.  I did not know why she let me live.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eli steps outside and looks to Leroy, manifest missive to him, will you be alright?

Leroy is sitting behind a tree, arms crossed and mad. He hears the voice in his head and jumps up, “whoa, that be a bit loud, but yes i will be alright.” He looks and sees Eli.

Eli manifests again, might have been more harsh then needed to be.

Leroy looks a bit glum, “She is not right, not in me heart.” he looks up into the sky “I had me share of wenches when i was a young lad. Now that be behind me.”

Eli manifests, how do you think Niobe saw your wish as?

Leroy kicks a rock not towards any direction Eli is near. “Selfish” He says

Eli nods and manifest, how do you change that perception?

Leroy looks up to Eli and says “Well to be honest, I told Master Derek affter this I be takin me leave,” Leroy then shrugs, “I need to feel the sea wind on me skin again.”

Eli manifest, that is running from the problem, it won’t help fix it.

“give me a bottle of rum and that will fix it.” Leroy says jokingly.

Eli seems shake slightly like his laughing and manifest, I would give you one if I had one.  Then manifests a second time, we are a crew.  You should try and fix this.

Leroy realizes what Eli is sayin “aye, Ye be right. Just wish it were me first mate here with me havin this speech.” He smiles a bit “Ill be back in to talk to the crew in just moment.”

Eli nods and gives Leroy’s shoulder a squeeze before going back inside.

Leroy watches as Eli goes back into the shleter then whispers under his breath really fast, “dangidangitdangitdangitdangitdanit What will i be sayin to me crew?” he paces back and forth “Alright me matey’s, whatever what was said, we will not speak of again.” he stops and frowns “no, Master Derek and Master Eli would not like that.” he paces some more he says to himself “I could just say what was said is said and we have a mission to fulfill.” he frowns some more “no Master Brak and Niobe would think im scurttin the issue like a yeller belly scurvy dog.” he gets mad and spits into the woods. “And Captain Leroy Sparrow be no yeller’ bellyin liver chop fooey scuvry dog at all.” he begins to pace some more “No, I be a live by me mast of the ship, strenght from me back, heart for plunderin and sailin the seven seas.” He gets full of himself before he realizses he is now walking back into the shelter with no idea what to say to anyone.

---------------------------------
At this moment Leroy walks into the tent after Eli.

Eli sits in the corner relaxing and eating field rations.

Niobe and Tinyra appear to be bonding as BFFs.

Brak looks up from the book.

“Alright me crew,” Leroy says, “Me has no idea how to make this seetiation better, or prove i have no lust for Niobe.” He takes a step and puts on his Captain hat “All I can say to ye is that I have no ill will towards any of ye and no wants to do anything with ye in a lustful way.” takes another step “But I tell ye this, we have a mission, we shall kill the bitey one, and be ah okay no more tryin to kill others or make otehrs mad wheteher ye be right or wrong. For me name is Captain Leroy Sparrow,” and gets a bit huffy and loud “AND I BE NO YELLER BELLY SCURVY DOG!” He pumps his chest twice with his fist and puts one leg on top of his bunk with a hand in his upper pirate coat.

Tinyra smiles slightly at the speech.

Niobe, quietly, and slightly confused as to what Leroy was trying to accomplish- “No one accused you of being a yellow bellied scurvy dog.”

Eli shakes his head slowly and just keeps eating.

Leroy fixes his hat, “Aye, I am not a yeller belly scurvy dog.” and he feels a pain in his stomach. “Now me needs to go use the head. Nature calls.” he rushes outside and goes deep into the woods for privacy.

Niobe, ever more baffled by Leroy, has No Words.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXV

And this sessions happened two weeks ago. We should be all organized now.

Day 213

(click to show/hide)

Leroy comes back from heading nature’s call and opens his mouth to continue his previous dialog.  Before he can say anything a black smoke seems to envelop him and when it clears he is no longer standing there.  Right after the smoke clears Derek, Arvin, Boots and Clifford appear in the dimensional space.

Tinyra blinks and looks at Niobe, Eli and Brak, “this is normal?”

Eli shrugs and nods to Tinyra.

Derek waves smoke away from his face. “Regrettably so, Mistress Tinyra. We have no idea why it happens, or what causes it to.” He turns to the rest of the party. “How long was I gone and where are we?” He seems uncharacteristically irritated.

Brak- “Like an hour, tops. We’re outside the village of Vallaki. We met with Rictavio, got the book”- he proffers an enormous tome that looks super Goth- “and have learned that the woman we rescued when we got here has been taken captive by Strahd.”

“Not surprising” mutters Derek

Niobe- “And met a 20-year old version of Talon.”

Eli writes out, huge tome, hardly any of it legible.

Derek narrows his eyes at Niobe’s comment. “He is from here?”

Niobe, to Derek- “I think so. It would give him a vested interest in coming back and wrecking whoever runs the place.”

Brak reads this- “Yeah, there’s just enough in the book to be tantalizing. I’ve noted a couple of areas we should visit in Strahd’s castle. We suspect that Strahd has a habit of finding whoever Tatyana has reincarnated into and getting her killed.”

Eli writes, maybe, though he said his name was Erlan.  Don’t forget what he said about his parents trying to remove a curse from him.

Brak- “Strange place to try that, in my opinion.”

Eli writes, do we want to try and head to the castle, get there at a time where we could camp the night and try to approach it during the day?

Brak- “We definitely want to approach during the day. There are some sections in the tome that give clues on what to do and not do against Strahd, although it’s not a lot. We should invest in some stakes.”

Derek “And what was the fire that we saw from Vallaki.”

Niobe- “A horde of werewolves and vampire spawn attacked the town and torched it. I would have preferred to go fight them now, but there are bigger fish to fry.”

Derek frowns “Strahd’s spawn?”

Niobe- “We don’t know. The only ones we even got close to ran for it.”

Tinyra, “If not, they probably work for him in some way.”

Derek brushes off his lapel. “If that’s so, it might behoove us to destroy some of them, so that we don’t find ourselves fighting them in the seat of their master’s power.” He looks disgruntled. “Though that might be best accomplished by my skills rather than as a group.”

Clifford shakes out his entire body, which now looks like this:



He looks a little disappointed he’s not super fluffy anymore.

Tinyra, “should you go alone?”

Clifford stares at Derek and says “Not against werewolves and vampires. I will go with you.”

Tinyra, “I can be stealthy if necessary, and help you escape also.”

Niobe- “You’re not going alone, although I am basically the opposite of stealthy anymore.”

Brak- “I don’t know why we would split up at all. If the point was to go looking for a fight, you want all the help you can get.”

Derek “The point is not to look for a fight, the point is to kill the enemy from the shadows before it knows you’re there.” He bows his head, tapping his fingers on his arm, and mutters. “...but does it count as part of the job we’re being paid to do…”

Brak- “Pay or not, you’re attempting to ambush things that can turn into vapor and see better in the dark than any of us.”

Clifford - “We can split up, you and Tinyra out front to attack from the side as they come for the rest of us.” He sticks his tongue out in a doggy-laugh. “They won’t miss my presence.”

Derek nods

Brak- “If the spawn and werewolves are still in town, and we head straight to the castle, that is fewer things to fight between us and Strahd, improving our chances against him. An attack on the castle will likely draw them away from town.”

Derek shrugs. “That’s fine, then. Through the woods or to the road?”

Brak- “I can dimension door most of us to the east gate of town and avoid them altogether.”

Tinyra, “I can get myself there.  But can’t take anyone with me.”

Clifford is waiting for a decision while messing with the magic items assigned to him. He puts the boots on his back paws and watches them switch to dog booties. “Huh, never worn shoes before….” He also sticks a crystal on his forehead, and sets his ioun stone around his head, and polishes his red stone broach, admiring all the sparkly things he had now.

Tinyra smiles watching Clifford then turns serious looking back to the party, “I do have another problem.  I have not eaten anything today.”

Clifford’s ears perk up at that. “Is it cuddle time!?!?” he says, not succeeding at sounding nonchalant.

Tinyra shrugs, “I just need a kiss, and I will use my spell to restore the damage.”

Derek sighs. “And of course the Captain is absent.”

Clifford bounds over to Tinyra, his tongue sticking out. “I’m ready for a kiss!!”

Tinyra cannot help but smile and leans forward to kiss Clifford.  Just before her lips come into contact with Clifford she screams in pain and falls to her knees clutching her head.

Clifford hops back, worried that he hurt her. He gets close to the ground and crawls close. ‘Tinyra?”

Derek looks almost alarmed. “Mistress Tinyra?”

Brak starts paying attention to what’s happening again. “What happened?”

After a minute Tinyra lets go of her head and slowly stands up.  Looking at the ring on her finger.  “I ...I think it doesn’t like me kissing anyone else.”  She lowers her head, “I a simple, selfish miss worded wish.”

Clifford looks indignant. “Doggy kisses are not against marriage rules. That ring is RUDE.”

Derek snorts “I suppose we should have expected that. Will you be able to hold on until the Captain reappears?”

Tinyra shrugs, “Probably, it is no different than you going without food.  I have a spell that I might be able to use in the right circumstances.”

Niobe just lost another notch of respect for Leroy. The jerk.

Derek nods. “Very well. Would it be better if we walked, rather than expending the energy to teleport?”

Tinyra shakes her head, “It will not change anything.”

Derek “Then let us be off.”

The party starts to move through the woods towards the Castle.  While traveling. Eli, Tinyra, Arvin, and Clifford notice that there appears to be no more fighting happening inside the village.  It takes most of the day for the party to travel, but they get within a mile of the castle just before the sun starts to go down again.

Clifford takes anyone who is small and therefore slow moving on his back.

Brak- “Ok, time to hide again.” He manifests psychoportive shelter with room for nine (in case Leroy shows up), and ushers everyone inside.

Arvin casts Festival Feast for fun and so everyone gets a good meal

Clifford thanks Arvin profusely and leeeeeeans on her for a while.

Derek volunteers for first watch and spends most of it reading Strahd’s book, and trying to decipher the illegible parts.  There are words that Derek can make out, but nothing close enough to actually make sense of anything. He gives up with a headache from eyestrain after the fourth hour.

Brak has only spent a few power points and cast no spells, and so takes the second shift. He also tries to do some reading.  He runs into the same problem that Derek did.

The party is able to get through the night without any issues.  Arvin hosts a Heroes Feast, to provide extra hit points and immunity to fear effects and poison. The day starts with less than a mile to the castle and can make the trip in less than an hour.

Tinyra casts Magic Weapon Greater on her spear, and Magic vestment on herself.  She also partakes of the Heroes Feast even though she doesn’t need all the benefits.

Once they get to the castle, Arvin Casts Luminous Armor and Primal instinct on herself and Stoneskin on boots.

Brak’s buffs don’t last long enough to cast them 12 hours ahead of time. Oh well.

Derek hides himself and glides silently into the castle’s maw. He keeps an eye out for such handy traps as murderholes in the tunnel past the drawbridge.

Clifford uses claws of the beast and metaphysical claws (on his teeth). “Brak, are vampires weak to silver? Or some other metal?”

Brak selects the staff of power to start with, although anything that can cast disintegrate has many uses around the house.

Brak- “Weaponry needs to be both silver and magical to bypass their resistances.”

Clifford nods and concentrates. You see his teeth get a silvery metallic sheen. He grins.

Brak grins back. “I have Blood Wind prepared twice today for when we meet them as well.”

Niobe sets her equipment to Kill.

Thick, cold fog swirls in this courtyard.  Sporadic flashes of lightning lance the weeping clouds overhead as thunder shakes the ground.  Through the drizzle, you see torch flames fluttering on each side of the keep’s open main doors.  Warm light spills out of the entrance, flooding the courtyard.  High above the entrance is a round window with shards of broken glass lodged in its iron frame.

Brak- “I’m not inclined to enter via the inviting opened front door.” He attempts to recall the model of the castle from the Temple o’ Evil, looking for side entrances.  Not one that he can remember.

Clifford takes up the rear, carrying Boots. He keeps one eye behind them.

Derek slips forward to the end of the tunnel through the wall, so he can see more of the courtyard.

Arvin shrinks down into a rat and follows Niobe.

Niobe moves up fairly close behind Derek, but not close enough to ruin his sneaking.

Brak- “Should we fly up to that ominous broken window up there? Anyone?”

Eli writes, we don’t know enough about the inside to go there.  It could be as bad as the main entrance.

Derek steps into the courtyard. If nothing blows up or triggers a cutscene, he makes his way south along the wall to the inside corner of the courtyard.  As he moves he sees a massive wall juts out to connect the outer walls of the castle with the keep.  A twenty-foot-wide, twenty-foot-tall archway offers passage through the connecting wall but is blocked by a rusting iron portcullis.

Niobe stares into the well-lit, large, inviting, open doorway to see what there is.

Derek returns to the main gate, and quietly relays the information about the rusty second gate. He then sneaks north along the castle wall, to look on the other side of the keep.  He sees the same thing. He returns to the group and reports this as well. “...so, we don’t have to go in by the front door. We can go around the back.”

Eli, Tinyra, Arvin, Brak, and Clifford hear the faint sound of breathing.

Brak manifests true seeing and takes a look around.  Brak sees four red dragons a split second before they become visible at the same time they try to roast the part of the party standing out front.

Arvin activates her Shadow Cloak in response to the attack and teleports her almost dead self back around the corner.


Round 1!

Clifford snaps to huge size, dropping Boots before he does so. He then charges to the front, attempting to bite one of the dragons, using Hustle to get there. He bites one, and tries to drag it out of the sky. It crashes to the ground. Clifford tries to attack again, but is too disoriented himself.

Tinyra flies up into melee range with the green dragon and tosses her spear out to dance. She also draws her rapier, but between those she can’t actually attack anything this round.

Eli manifests a full wild chaotic surge at the Green Red Dragon.  He manages to not daze himself and does normal damage.  The Dragon fails it save.  Which screams in pain and dies.

Derek, toasted, but unseen somehow, runs underneath and behind the dragon to the south and pulls out the bowl and flask to summon a water elemental. The huge creature appears behind the southern dragons.

The water elemental reaches up to slam the nearest dragon.

Orange Red Dragon attacks Clifford from its back on the ground and misses horribly.

Red Red Dragon attacks the water Elemental. 

Blue Red Dragon also attacks the water elemental
The water elemental roars, waterily, greatly damaged, not that it’s easy to tell.

Arvin presses herself against the wall and casts Fire Resistance 30 on everyone. She also summons boots over and takes off his shrink collar, then inches down the wall a little.

Boots becomes huge and moves in such a way that he’s between Arvin and Eli and the dragons. He growls protectively.

Brak just uses a charge from the staff of power to cast magic missile at the red dragon with the orange marker.

Niobe launches herself into the air at the red dragon with the red marker. She doesn’t attempt to smite it, but does use all the other components of a Guided Missile. She rams her spear through its lower abdomen, and Fjolhaefur’s tip punches through its shoulder. The lump of lizard meat drags her down to the ground.

Round 2!

Clifford leaps on the orange dragon, and mauls it to death.

Tinyra, seeing that she is not needed in the killing business, swoops over to where the rat may have teleported to, and casts cure critical wounds on her. The rat squeaks in appreciation.

Eli turns to see that the blue one is all that is left and just stands by.

Derek fires two arrows at the remaining dragon, and hits it in a vital spot, but doesn’t quite kill it.

The water elemental reaches for it, but only hits it once. This brings it to the ground but not killing it.

Tinyra comes around and looks at the dragons, “does it bother anyone if I use my spell to feed on that one that is not quite dead yet?”

Niobe draws Fjolhaefur from the dead body of the one she killed. “It’s dead either way.”

Derek, sounding strained, answers “Please do.”

Tinyra moves to the dragon and casts Death Knell.  Dragon fails its will save.  Tinyra stands as the dragon dies, “better than nothing.”

Derek dismisses the elemental and puts away the bowl and empty flask. He pulls the staff of healing from his quiver. “If anyone capable would like to use this to heal...”

Niobe steps over quickly. “Yes, hand it here.” She uses three charges on Derek.

He straightens up, “My thanks Mistress Niobe.” He rubs the edge of his burnt jacket between his fingers. “That’ll be another  trip to the tailor,” he growls.

Niobe- “Would you like more?

Derek shakes his head “No, thank you, I am fully restored.”

Clifford moves to the center of the party, still alert for more attacks, and his eyes dart to each of the party members to make sure they haven’t moved anywhere. He growls real low.

Brak- “There is no surprise to be had here, which means speed and violence are our friends.”

He manifests fly.

Arvin summons a unicorn which casts cure moderate wounds on her once, and cure light wounds 3 times after the battle is over for 52 hp total. She turns back into herself and shakes her cloak out.

“Can’t wait until I can be a dragon, then I’ll show you,” she mutters to no one in particular.

Eli manifests +4 wild surge body adjustment on himself.  Manages not to daze himself.

Arvin casts Extended Mass Owl’s wisdom on the party. It will now last 32 minutes

Clifford says, still growling a bit, “Where to?”

Niobe- “We have a staff of healing, so everyone should conserve their own resources.”

Derek answers Clifford “I think to the back of the courtyard, through one of the portcullises.”
He casts a dark look at the inviting open door and heads for the south portcullis.

Clifford - “Lead the way, I’ll take the back again.”

Niobe is doing flying hops toward the south portcullis.

Brak is about 10 off the ground, flying slowly.

When he reaches the gate, Derek activates his boots of swift passage and teleports himself to the other side of the gate, and looks for a mechanism to open it. He cannot find anything that would open it on this side.  He can tell it is not locked and thinks it might be able to lift it up.

 callsNiobe flies over the wall, doing a Fosbury flop over the top so as to present the lowest profile target. Then she lands and watches Derek’s back.

Derek rolls his eyes at the gate. “I think this can be lifted.”

Niobe- “Oh. Silly of us.” She helps with the lifting.

Derek gets himself into lifting position. “It is always worthwhile to search for a switch.”

Brak- “Anyone taller than three feet should help.”

Eli goes to help.

Clifford scoots closer but keeps an eye on the way the group came from and the sky.

Derek, seeing that Clifford would have difficulty helping in his current shape, has an idea. He pulls out Gnarlpaw’s Amulet and passes it to Clifford through the portcullis. Clifford takes it, his head tilted in confusion.

Derek explains. “It turns a person into the wolf-man form of a werewolf. If it works for you, you might gain a two legged form. It would be easier for you to help lift the gate that way. Try it, see if it does anything.”

Clifford uses Far Hand to take off his collar, and puts on the amulet. He tries activating it, and turns into an 18 foot tall werewolf lord. He stands up and looks down at everyone. “Whoa, two legs are weird.” He kneels down to help with lifting the gate.

Gnarlpaw Amulet for refresher:

Anyone wearing this talisman gains the ability to transform into Gnarlpaw as a full-round action, choosing either his dire wolf or his hybrid form (use the Werewolf Lord statistics in the lycanthrope entry of the Monster Manual as a base). While in one of these two forms, the wearer of this talisman gains the use of all of Gnarlpaw s special qualities, special attacks, feats, and skills, though he may also continue to make use of his own feats and any of his own skill modifiers that are better than the werewolf lord s. Normally, a lycanthrope has a single recognizable scent, no matter what form it takes. But since the wearer actually becomes Gnarlpaw for a time, he smells like Gnarlpaw when in wolf or hybrid form, and like his humanoid self when in humanoid form. Thus, scent does not betray the wearer s identity when he is in humanoid form, the way it would a real werewolf. Every person who wears Gnarlpaw’s fang becomes exactly the same creature when the talisman is activated and thus looks and smells like Gnarlpaw. The wearer has full control over his form when wearing the talisman and can activate it or dismiss the effect whenever he chooses. Wearing Gnarlpaw’s fang does not necessitate a change of form during full moon.

Clifford bends down to go through the portcullis.  He then stands up and looks around. “Much better for keeping watch!”

Tinyra, “there are lots of benefits to being able to move on two legs and have hands.”

The group proceeds to the door on the north end of this part of the

At the back of the keep, behind the towering buttresses and tall, boarded-up stained-class windows, a small garden struggles to survive.  Small flowers press skyward against the gloom.  A pair of large iron gates block the way to some kind of overlook.

Derek asks Brak “Is this perhaps the garden mentioned in the book?”

Brak- “I would presume so.” He flies over the gate and gets to a couple of feet above the stone path, and then heads out to the end of the overlook. He peers over, and looks around for anything that stands out. Also he gauges the distance to the bottom of the cliff.

Dark clouds overhead drizzle constantly.  A flagstone avenue passes between empty outbuildings, leading to a stone-paved overlook.  The overlook has a low stone wall adorned with outward-facing gargoyle carvings.

Arvin, feeling paranoid, summons a huge earth elemental and tells it to follow them underground, unseen.

A flash of lighting illuminates the dismal village of Barovia, its rooftops visible above a smothering blanket of fog one thousand feet below.

Underneath the platform on which you stand, about one hundred feet down, a stone construction protrudes from the cliff face.  Three dirt-cacked windows are set into it.

Clifford puts up his hood and comments to himself “This works way better in this from to keep rain off.”

Brak flies back to the group and tells them what he saw. “I’m inclined to go look and see what’s on the other side of the windows.”

Eli writes, who all can fly? Arvin raises a hand.

Brak- “Once I get in there, I can dimension door anyone who can’t.”

Eli writes, I can fly, using a power.  Clifford?

Clifford hangs his head. “Not yet.”

Derek shrugs “I could climb down, if it came to that.”

(click to show/hide)

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXVI

Day 213.

(click to show/hide)

There is a sudden black smoke in the middle of the party.  When the smoke clears Leroy is standing there, with blood streaming down his face from his eyes.  He staggers slightly but this time there is no significant damage from the vision he had.

Leroy stumbles around, wipes his eyes a quick second and becomes frightened. He says nothing.

Derek sees Leroy’s reappearance “Welcome back, Captain.” He also proffers a flask of salt water. For rinsing his face off.

Niobe- “By Moradin, what happened to you?!”

Tinyra narrows her eyes but just watches.

Eli shakes his head.

Leroy takes the water and pours it on his face to clean off the blood. Leroy wipes his face off and says “Lets just say ye captain had a very unpleasant visit from a certain person.” He then turns to Niobe. “Lass,” he says, shaken a bit from his encounter, “Ye remember the thing i was after that i was after and you said not to go for the thing and me said okay to not going to the thing anymore? Well that thing may need me attention and wanting soon.

Niobe doesn’t level her spear at him, but she looks like it crossed her mind. “I thought you understood that I’m not interested.”

Leroy explodes in anger “THAT’S NOT WHAT ME IS TALKIN ABOUT!” he shouts at her.

Tinyra crosses her arms, “That doesn’t seem like a productive way to go about treating your allies.”

Brak, having heard Leroy shouting, flies back over, saying something about how any surprise they had by not going into the inviting front door is gone...again.

Leroy is fuming and glares to Tinyra “Not now, There be a bigger issue me needs to address that me can not come out and say without drawing the ire of someone big and dark.” Leroy stutters out while angered.

Eli starts to shake slightly with his silent laughter as he listens to Leroy’s comment.

Tinyra raises an eyebrow, and looks to Niobe, “what did I do that let you dodge that arrow?  Also, are we not in the castle grounds of a powerful vampire with little time left before we lose the life reborn soul?”

Leroy just glares again at Tinyra and all Leroy can do is point to his eye “Ye should know what im talkin about now lass,” he says when turning to Niobe. “Thats where me was.”

It takes Niobe a second to get what Leroy is alluding to. “I won’t discuss it now, Leroy. We have a vampire to deal with first.”

“Good,” Leroy says sternly “Hope my torture and not tellin where or who has it was worth that trip.”

Clifford is looking around, keeping watch from his new 15’ tall biped form. He is also ignoring the human drama.

Derek takes the empty flask back from Leroy. “Captain… does this have anything to do with your threats to the alderman in that werewolf village?”

Leroy’s face becomes pale and looks to his first mate “Aye, that they do.” Leroy looks to him in the eye “That is the reason for me comings and goings.”

Eli shakes his head and points to Brak and then gives a waving motion, attempting to convey that Brak’s information might be more important right now.

Derek frowns in distaste. “Understood. However, at the moment we should perhaps listen to Master Brak’s report. There are also some other matters that must be attended to, fairly soon.”

Leroy nods and looks to Brak.

Brak- “We should not stand here arguing about other issues at the moment. There is a window about 100’ down the cliff face we can attempt to break into, which, presumably the residents are not anticipating invaders to use that to access the castle. Most of us can fly, and those who can’t I can dimension door into the local as soon as we establish a foothold. Shall we at least get indoors?”

Clifford hangs his head a little at “those who can’t” and shrinks himself to be a medium sized wolf lord.

Derek nods “A sensible plan. I can climb down, if that affect the calculations for your spell.”

Brak- “It’s a thousand feet to the bottom.”

Derek smirks “That’s why they invented Spider Climb.”

Eli nods agreement.

Tinyra shrugs, “I will follow with the group.”

Arvin turns into something very basic with wings and flies down.

Brak- “Then let’s not waste time.” He flies back over the gate, and then over the edge of the cliff. He slows just before the window and then looks inside, cause if it;s full of undead monstrosities, he’ll advise a change of plans.

Derek casts spider climb on himself and proceeds carefully over the edge and down to the window.  He has no issues getting to the windows.  The windows are so dirty that Derek cannot see anything inside. He checks them for traps and locks.  There are no traps or locks that he can find.

Niobe gives Leroy a Look, and flies off after Brak.

Leroy just shakes his head after seeing Niobe flying off. He looks at his ring, and tries to take it off.  The ring is stuck in place and does not come off.

Niobe hovers just above the line of sight of the window as well.

Derek attempts to open the window.  He can tell he is pushing the right direction, but is not able to get the window to budge.

Niobe- “Should we just hit it?”

Brak- “Or disintegrate it?”

Derek sounds mildly horrified when he mutters “That's rather inelegant.” Aloud he says. “Master Brak are you able to tell if this window is magically held? I didn’t push very hard. It may just be rusted.” He tries again. There is a sharp cracking sound as the window swings in.

Derek “There.” He peers over the sill, pushing the window open wider.

Inside Derek can see a tomb.

He shrugs and enters the room, climbing onto the ceiling, because why not? He moves out of the way of anyone else entering the place.

This tomb rest in hushed silence.  Tall, stained glass windows dominate the eastern walls.  Two coffins rest atop white marble slabs.  The one against the north wall is marked King Barov von Zarovich, and the one against the south wall is marked Queen Ravenovia van Roeyen.  The vaulted ceiling thirty feet overhead is inlaid with a beautiful gold mosaic.

Niobe- “Can you open the window wider?”

Derek “Of course.” He returns to the floor, opens the window as wide as it will go without falling off, and if there is another half of the window, opens that too.

Once there’s space, Niobe does some kind of wing-folding dive bombing maneuver to fly through the window, and skids to a stop across the room.

Brak flies through, gets a really smug look on his face, and then executes the two dimension doors necessary to get Leroy, Clifford, Boots, Eli, and Arvin down to the same room. At both ends, anyone taking it just has to walk into the sphere of utter blackness that Brak conjures out of nothing. Cause that’s how it works.

Tinyra flies herself down.

Eli nods his thanks to Brak after going through the dimension door.

Leroy has a sulky face, but walks through the dimension door.

Derek examines the mosaic on the ceiling.

Brak resumes being smug. “If we’re going to be thorough about this, we need to destroy all the coffins we encounter. Otherwise the vampires can regenerate from nothing.” He swaps his staff of power for his staff of transmutation.

Derek raises his eyebrows. “Even if the crypts are sealed?”

Eli writes, we should be careful about desecrating all the coffins.

Leroy speaks harshly “We not need to bash and smash everything Master Brak.” He says “Doin so will unnecessarily bring our crew to harms way.”

Clifford, who is now carrying Boots in one paw, sniffs around the room.

Derek frowns “You learned this when you were away, Captain?”

Leroy says only “All me has done is for savin me crew. Nothin else!” and storms off down the room.

Brak is a little surprised. “The one time I would have thought bringing some Acheronian tactics would have met with approval….”

Eli reaches up and places a hand on Leroy’s shoulder as he goes by him and shakes his head slowly.

Derek shrugs “I will examine the tombs. If they are properly sealed, I see no reason to disturb them.”  After looking over the tombs he is able to determine that they are sealed and probably have not been opened since originally sealed.

Brak- “Fine, just don’t complain to me the fourth time we have to fight the same vampire.”

“In my professional opinion, Master Brak, nothing has gone in or out of these tombs since the occupants’ mortal remains were interred.” Derek brushes dust off his hands.

Brak- “Well then lucky us.”


Leroy look down the hallway he is walking from the room.  He sees a large room that appears to be ancient catacombs, with arched ceilings supported by wide columns.  Cobwebs hang limp in the musty air.  A thick fog clings to the floor, which is covered in putrid waste.  The black ceiling is moving.

Niobe heads down the hallway as well, although she definitely keeps her distance from Leroy. She also flies, cause why walk through putrid waste when you don’t have to?

Arvin’s bat form flutters to her shoulder.

Leroy goes to the edge of the room, but doesn enter it. He keeps touching his face where the blood was and keeps thinking of the voices he heard in his head. “Why did that other voice say i dont have to obey..” He mumbles to himself.


Leroy sees a large spiraling staircase leading up around a twenty-foot-wide stone core.  Cobwebs fill the staircase, making it difficult to see even the ceiling.  Heavy beams sag overhead from the centuries of supporting weight.

Derek again looks at the mosaic on the ceiling, to see if there is anything to be learned from it.  There are beautiful images of the country, but nothing that can really give any information about the castle or Strahd.

Niobe- “Are those a bunch of bats on the ceiling, or some undead monstrosity?” she inquires, quietly, of Bat Arvin. Bat arvin looks up with her darkvision and blindsense,. She sees what looks like hundreds of sleeping bats.  They move from time to time, but it appears to just be moving in their sleep.

“Bats,” Arvin whispers. “Hundreds of them. I suggest given where we are that we not wake them up.”

Niobe whispers- “Agreed.” She floats around the room inspecting all these interesting stone boxes and seeing what the edges look like.

Clifford moves into the room, muttering something about “never thought I’d been glad I put on the boots…” while wrinkling his snout.

Derek goes back and closes the window.  Never advertise where you broke in and entered from, after all.

Brak also floats into the Bat Capitol, decides that not disturbing them is wise, and also inspects the stone boxes.

Niobe, noticing some candle light at the north end of the Bat Capitol, flies over to get some additional information.

Derek follows everyone else, and joins them in examining the seals on the crypts.  The crypt Derek is looking at has his name on it.  The crypt is sealed.

Brak joins in on checking for unsealed crypts. Like the one Leroy is standing next to. He also checks for names on each of them.  The stone door of this crypt has been carefully laid to one side.  Through the swirly mists of the perpetual fog, freshly engraved letters spell out the words “Ireena Kolyana: Wife.”  The crypt is empty and has been swept clean.

Leroy is off in his own world, not paying attention to the group but focused on his trip to the land of horrible blackness and dread.  A voice that Leroy recognizes as the one telling him he did not have to obey suddenly sounds off in his head, “Doing nothing guarantees a bad ending.  While one lives one can fight.” Leroy becomes startled at the voice in his head “I dont understand though,” he says loudly “How can me fight when i signed up to join him to help destroy the one who took me crew?”

Niobe and Arvin head over to the candle lights to see what’s up. Niobe peeks around the corner of a column and looks at the candles.  They can see into another tomb that looks like it might be similar in size to the one they originally came into the castle of.

Niobe looks hard at the alcove past the coffin.  She can make out a statue of some kind, but nothing more.

Brak notes that this is the name of the woman whom they earlier saved from Strahd’s minions. He suspects that most or all of these crypts hold the bodies of reincarnated Tatyanas. Ugh.

Brak works his way north, inspecting each column in turn, and probably becoming increasingly full of dread as he does so.  A skeleton draped in rags lies atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt.  Lying abid the bones is a stoppered drinking horn, a fat bouch, and a weird-looking scepter made of metal and wood.  Above the bones, hanging from the domed ceiling by wires, is a wooden flying contraption that looks like a set of folding dragon wings fitted with leather straps, metal buckles, and taut leather wing flaps.

Brak inspects the scepter, and notes the pouch, but doesn’t touch anything before moving to the next one north. He makes knowledge checks as appropriate.  Brak thinks the scepter is similar to the small hand held firearm that he is carrying.  The pouch and drinking horn seem to be needed to help make the weapon work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Derek hears Leroy speak and works his way over to him. “Quietly, Captain, please.”

Leroy is still startled but tries to calm down “First mate, did ye not hear the voice?” he grabs Derek by the shoulders, “please tell yer captain you heard the voice too.” he looks desperate like his mind is slowly losing it.

Derek places his hands over Leroy’s and removes them from his shoulders. “I heard no voice but yours Captain. What did it say to you?”

Leroy’s face is becoming pale “The voice said Doing nothing guarantees a bad ending.  While one lives one can fight,” he says “But me does not understand, how can the voice say for me to fight when everythin me has done has turned bad?”

Derek sighs “... Captain, if everything you have done has turned bad, then it would be wise to examine why they went bad. If you don’t know why things went wrong, it is more difficult to make them right.”

Leroy nods to Derek and removes his hands “Master Derek, me was like you, a first mate when i was forced the captain role. Me has downs everythin to save me crew from hell. Me is tryin so hard to make it right.” Tears begin to well in his eyes. “Me can not let them rot in hell, thats why i need to collect more money wished to be married to Mistress Niobe forever. I had to. Its the only way to save them.”

Derek frowns “A previous crew?”

Leroy nods “Aye, me captain’s crew, who me was first mate to.” he says

Derek rubs his forehead. “I don’t understand, Captain. If you need money to save your crew, how could marrying Mistress Niobe advance your goal?”

Leroy looks to Derek “That’s what he said to do, 100 men before the mass, 1000 gold dabloons per head and to bring me first love to him. Then he let them all go.” Leroy shakes his head “Ye have to believe me matey, Me would not lie to ye about this.” he pulls out a bit of his gold, “I have nearly the treasure, only need 20 thousand more to go.” he puts the gold away.

“Only twenty thousand, he says “ Derek mutters. “Captain, I can’t help but think that it would be better for your first love to not have been a person. Is there nothing you loved before you met Mistress Niobe?”

Leroy shakes his head, “A man can love the sea, love to plunder and loot, love his ship, but he said me first love. A woman. He said it had to be a woman.” Leroy shakes in anger “I cant let them be in hell for much longer, thats why me must save them.” He looks towards where Niobe is “Thats why i fell for her, she be sumthin else.” he says.

Derek shakes his head and is lost for words.

Eli walks up to Derek and hands him a note that reads, We are in the future, unless we get back to our time, they will have been in hell for a very long time.

Derek gives Eli a look and shrugs.

Leroy looks to Derek and Eli, and says “if something to happen to me, get me gold and go to a port and get the gold to a sea bearer and say Captain Leroy Sparrow sent ye.” He looks towards to Niobe “She shall not be harmed. Me promises” he turns to join them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brak flies up to the next column (the one with an open side), and inspects it.  The stone door of this crypt lies on the floor, its inscription obscured by fog.  The crypt gapes open.  A skull, some bones, and a few bits of rusted armor lie atop a marble slab with a leering stone gargoyle squatting at each end.

Brak looks for a name.  As he looks closer he can make out the entire inscription, “Endorovich: What the blood of a hundred wars did not do, the spurn of a woman accomplished.”

Brak mutters- “Well. I think we found him.”

Clifford is doing his best to keep everyone in view as they wander separately.

Now close enough to see the candlelight, Brak can also espy Niobe, who is probably halfway hanging on to a column. He flies over.

Brak, quietly- “I may have found a crypt reserved for that woman Ireena, as well as possibly Strahd’s original body.”

Niobe turns and looks at him. “There’s another coffin down that hallway, behind the candles, and a statue behind that, but I can’t really see much of it.”

Brak- “Looking through lights is not something I’m good at. Shall we head back and see where everyone else is?”

Niobe- “Sure.”

Brak, Niobe and presumably Arvin fly back to the main hall, and see Derek trying to keep Leroy from collapsing into bubbling hysterics.

They can see Eli and Tinyra standing a little ways away.  Tinyra seems to have a dark look on her face.

Niobe decides to get her boots covered in bat guano. She lands and listens.

Brak remains floating.

Tinyra looks over her shoulder at Niobe and then takes a few steps back, attempting to talk low enough to not disturb Derek and Leroy’s conversation.  “He wanted you...and by proxy me, as a sacrifice to save his old crew.”

Niobe’s mouth opens…..and she again has nothing to say. She closes her mouth and clenches her jaw. She feels some amount of solidarity with Tinyra all of a sudden.

Derek suddenly looks around to see who is listening. And sees the entire rest of the party. He throws up his hands. “Captain, I have no advice for you. Mistress Niobe is a paladin and she will likely kill you for wanting to sacrifice her to … whatever being you have made a deal with. I know it cannot be a good being.” He turns to Niobe. “I hope, Mistress Niobe, that you will spare him at least until we have rid this land of the vampire that plagues it. We need all the help we can get.”

Niobe- “No, I wouldn’t kill him unless he actually tried to sacrifice me. So he’s safe until then. From me.”

Tinyra, “I would love to know more about this, but is this the best place to be worrying about all this.  Or the best time?”

Leroy looks shocked at who all heard, “Me is not sacrificing you to any god if ye is wonderin, I was promised ye would have been safe and the crew. I would be sacrificed.”

As Brak is looking at the stairs behind Leroy he remembers the model of the castle.  He knows that the stairs are not the ones they want to get to the highest point of the castle.  He cannot quite remember the direction that would lead to the highest point, but is pretty sure he would remember it if he saw it now.

Brak, oblivious to awkward situations- “To the north is another coffin that has a statue behind it. I recommend we inspect it closely, both to see whose it might be, and in case there is another staircase. This one will take us nowhere.”

Derek nods, slaps Leroy’s shoulder, and heads for the statue Brak mentioned.

Brak floats ahead, and Niobe follows parallel to them, trying very hard not to stare daggers at Leroy.

Leroy doesn’t move and mutters to himself lowly “It doesnt matter if me fights or not, no one believe me.” he is certain the voice in his head wont understand.

Niobe- “Shall we just try and lift it?”

Derek inspects it for traps and mechanisms “One moment, Mistress Niobe.”  Derek is able to tell the portcullis is not trapped and not locked. ”Yes, we should try to lift it.” He gets out of the way in favor of Clifford and Niobe.


Niobe waves Clifford up. “I don’t know how much help I’ll actually be…”

The door to the west of where Brak is standing leads towards where he remembers a stairway that will take them to the tower they are trying to get to for the tallest portion of the castle.

Brak snaps his fingers. “There’s a staircase behind us, as well.” He points to the wall to their west.

Clifford embiggens himself to huge.

Derek examines his fingernails “This might be that coffin that we need to destroy, Master Brak.”

Brak- “I hope so.”

Niobe gives Clifford pointers on lifting with his legs, not his back, and in three attempts they lift the portcullis.

Brak scoots by them as soon as he can to go look at the coffin. He flies.

Clifford shrinks again.

White marble steps descend to a tomb that has a vaulted ceiling thirty feet overhead.  A stillness, a calm amid the storm, is felt here.  In the center of the tomb, a white marble slab supports an intricately inlaid coffin.  Chiseled into the slap is a name: Sergei von Zarovich.  To the north, behind the coffin, are three alcoves.  A beautifully carved statue stands in each alcove, a stunning young man flanked by two angels, looking as polished and new as the day each was placed there.  An iron lever protrudes from the south wall, west of the tomb’s entrance.  As the party enters the area the oppressive feeling they have felt ever since entering Raveloft lifts.  Like they can suddenly breathe normally.

Derek: “Ah, the younger brother.“

Brak- “Would you all like to come in here before I pull this iron lever?”

Niobe sighs in relief at the lack of background Evil in the room.

Brak checks the coffin to make sure it’s sealed….just in case.  The coffin appears to be sealed and as far as he can tell it has never been opened since originally sealed.

The portcullis closes right after Clifford lets go of it and enters with everyone.

Brak- “His coffin looks sealed….which makes sense.”

Niobe goes to look at the statues.  She doesn’t recognize any of the people portrayed by the statues.

Leroy has now sulked into the room with everyone, he crosses his arms and leans against the wall.

Brak- “Shall I pull the lever?”

Eli shrugs.

“Pull the damn thing.” Leroy says dead of tone.

Brak pulls the damn thing.

The portcullis opens.

Brak- “Anticlimactic.”

Eli shrugs again.

Tinyra, “eventually something bad has to not happen.”

Leroy snorts at this.

We search the room thoroughly! Also Brak still has true seeing turned on.

Leroy just walks out the room in disgust with the situation.

Brak, Niobe, and Arvin are not able to find anything while searching the room..

To the staircase!

Niobe makes sure to stay at charging distance from the door….and also from Leroy.

Derek searches the door for traps and lockedness.  He doesn’t find any traps and no locks.

Once it’s searched, Brak opens the door, assuming Derek doesn’t. He stares down the long hallway before them for a moment.

This tunnel is cut into the Pillarstone of Ravenloft itself.  Its surface is slick, and its ceiling is barely 6 feet height.  A lingering fog limits visibility to a few feet.  Brak remembers this area and knows there is a trapdoor hidden under the fog 55 feet in front of them.  The door leads to a slide that goes to a  small prison area which has the next stairwell they need to get up towards where he believes the tarot card is sending them.

Brak relays this information to everyone else. And since his fly power is about to run out anyway, he lands and walks. He stops two steps (so one step for anyone not three feet tall) away from the trapdoor. “It should be right around here…”

Brak finds the slide in front of him, the door is open anyone that steps into that area would fall into the slide and be on their way.

Brak- “This is the way we’re supposed to go, if memory serves.”

Niobe- “I’ll go first.” She folds her wings and gives Arvin a chance to hop off, if she wants. Down the greasy slide!

The chute is constructed of polished black marble and slides into the darkness.  She comes to an end in an area with a mold-covered ceiling, hanging three feet above the still, black water that fills this dungeon.  The water is five feet deep, Ten-foot-square cells, their entrances blocked by iron bars, line both sides of the hall.

Niobe slides to wherever it ends and makes whatever saving throws she needs to. She looks and listens around.  She doesn’t hear, see or notice anything in the area. Arvin peers around as well, both with her darvision and her 20ft circle of blindsense.

Niobe, standing on her tip toes- “There’s neck-deep water down here...and it’s a cell big enough for about three of us. We need to unlock a door before anyone tries to pile down here.”

Eli moves and joins her.

Derek “Be right down.” He spider-climbs down the shaft and gags at the mold. “Where is the lock?” He is easily able to find the lock, under the water. He picks it.  He easily gets it opened.

Eli looks at the cell and thinks he should have waited.

Brak re-activates fly and floats down there gently. He attempts to stay between the water and the mold without touching either. You never know when it will eat you.

Derek opens the door and piles into the hallway, spidermanning as best he can between the mold and the water.

Niobe follows.

Leroy slides down the chute and joins the group. He is acts very intimidated seeing water and mold with cells.

Derek advances to the next door. Checks it as normal, and opens it if he can.  No traps or locks that he can find.

Brak remembers that the party needs to go through the door Derek is in front of then turn left and go up the stairs there.

Clifford slides down and follows them through the door, Boots held above the water.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXVII

Day 213. Approaching the End

(click to show/hide)

While moving through the water Arvin and boots somehow disappear.  Niobe and Brak saw Arvin disappear between blinks of the eye.

Brak just shakes his head in frustration.

Derek, concentrating on opening the door, doesn’t notice this. He opens the door and scuttles through on the wall, still trying to stay between the water and the mold.

Tinyra sighs and shakes her head.

Derek sees stairs ascending to a four way intersection.  Straight leads to descending stairs.  There are halls to the left and right.  One hall leads to a large room, the other leads to a spiral stairway.

Derek proceeds on the wall to look into the large room. He is grateful for the larger gap between the water surface and the ceiling.

The Room Derek enters has dark, low shapes thrust up out of the still, brackish water that fills this fifty-foot-square room, the ceiling of which is festooned with hanging chains that look like thick, black web strands.  A balcony set into the north wall overlooks the room and has two large thrones atop it, with a red velvet curtain behind them.  The dark shapes in the water are racks, iron maidens, stocks, and other instruments of torture.  The skeletons of their last victims lie within them, their jaws seemingly frozen open in silent screams.

Brak checks out his surroundings to make sure he knows where the party needs to go, even if they decide to look around first.  Brak knows they need to go up the spiral staircase behind them to get to the spire they are looking for.

Niobe sloshes in after Derek.

Derek “There is likely nothing we need in here, unless we want to check the balcony for doors.”

Brak- “That’s not the way we need to go, but if we can find some coffins to destroy before we fight any vampires, I’m all for it.”

Niobe- “It’s worth a look.”

Leroy stands in the back and waits. He is still paranoid about seeing an octopus face dude.

Derek nods and climbs along the wall to the balcony. He pulls the curtain all the way back., and checks the doors like normal.  On the balcony he finds two large, wooden thrones resting there.  Behind the thrones hangs a red velvet curtain thirty feet long.  The ceiling here is ten feet high.  Once through the curtain he finds a wall with a door in the center of it.  No traps or locks on the door.

Niobe walks far enough into the room to spread her wings, and then takes off out of the water. Once Derek has crossed the room, she swoops over, lands, and holds the curtain open so that no one is out of sight.

Brak has floated over and is in the middle of the room.

Derek opens the door, cautiously, and peeks through.

Leroy slowly has slipped into the torture room.

Derek sees a room that is thirty feet square, rising to a twenty-foot-tall flat ceiling.  A stone brazier burns fiercely in the center of the room, but its tall white flame produces no heat.  The rim of the brazier is carved with seven cup-shaped indentations spaced evenly around the circumference.  Within each indentation is a spherical stone, twice the diameter of a human eyeball and made of a colored crystal.  No two stones are the same color.  Overhead, a wood-framed hourglass as tall and wide as a dwarf hangs ten feet above the brazier, suspended from the ceiling by thick iron chains.  All the sand is stuck in the upper portion of the hourglass, seemingly unable to run down into the bottom.  Written in glowing script on the base of the hourglass is a verse in common.  Two nine-foot-tall iron statues of knights on horseback, poised to charge with swords drawn, stand in deep alcoves facing each other.  The brazier sits between them.

Leroy slowly walks to the torture rack and looks at it. He still has the heebie jeebies about the place.

Derek reports his finding to the rest of the group. “Master Brak, Mistress Niobe, Captain, if you’d be so kind so lend your expertise. Mistress Tinyra, too.”

Leroy walks to his first mate “Aye MAster Derek, what be needed from yer captain?” Leroy asks.

Derek: “Come look at this.”

Brak floats in, and without touching anything, looks at the inscription on the hourglass. Then he casts detect magic, just to see what happens. And wracks his brain for the significance of it all.

Leroy jaunts over and looks at what Derek has found and looks to take everything in that he sees. He looks at the script in common. “Do not read this,” Leroy says to Derek. “Me has a bad feelin that readin it will make the hour glass turn and we sure to die.”

Brak- You think that the sand would start flowing up?”

Leroy nods to Brak “Aye, me thinks the sand will flow and we will be in a bad situation. Me prefers that we be in no bad situation,” then he smirks a bit “Unless it be by me hands.” then flashes a smile.

The flame is magical, as is the hourglass.  The letters of the inscription also appear magical.  There is no significance that anyone can place with the hourglass, it could possible be a trap or a means of transportation.

Brak- “Perhaps it is the magical device that prevents the passage of time here.”

Leroy shrugs to Brak “Or it may begin our death timers and we die horrible deaths.”

Brak reads all but the last two words silently.

Brak reads the following:

Cast a stone into the fire:
Violet leads to the mountain spire
Orange to the castle’s peak
Red if lore is what you seek
Green to where the coffins hide
Indigo to the master’s bride
Blue to ancient magic’s womb
Yellow to the master’s tomb

Brak- Well. I’m glad we came in here. This divide will transport us to seven different places within the castle.” He tells everyone what the inscription said and what the options are.

“So,” Leroy says, as he looks to the fire, “Me guess we want the yellow stone then to fight our vampire.” he scratches his chin and twirls his beard in his hand

Eli writes, our fortune said that we would find Strahd at the highest portion of the castle.  Orange would seem to be where we want to go if that is our aim.

Niobe- “I want to fight the vampires piecemeal, rather than all at once, so not straight to Strahd, is my preference.”

Brak- “And we need to make sure they can’t regenerate themselves, so going to where the coffins are is where I think we should start.”

Derek “Agreed.”

Brak- “But we can see what’s behind these doors first.” He gestures to the doors behind him.

Derek nods and checks each door for traps and locks.  He doesn’t find any traps or locks.
“Open the doors as you please.” he says to whoever is nearby. He himself opens the door in the middle.  He finds a staircase that leads up and to the right.

Niobe opens the door on the left.  She finds a long stairway leading up and then turning right.

Brak takes the door on the right.  He finds a spiral staircase.

Brak- “Huh. We can either wander aimlessly or go break some coffins. Who wants me to grab the green gem?”

Leroy shakes his head “Lets not grab any gems, fer we are sure to send us to our deaths master Brak.”

Brak- “Or save us hours of wandering the trapped halls of a vampire lord.”

Leroy “Or we not have any magical adventures with actual magic, and explore like real explorers.” he says

Derek raises an eyebrow at this.

Tinyra, “you can teleport us back here if it goes wrong, well more you can teleport everyone else correct?  I can get myself back here.”

Brak- “If we’re within 1000 feet and I have a rough idea where I’m going, yes. Otherwise not really.”

Tinyra nods and shrugs.

Leroy shakes his head up and down “So lets go up some stairs, punch some dead things in the face, and call it day mateys.”

Niobe- “If we have to do some walking first, that will give us an advantage if we have to escape fast later.”

Leroy exclaims “That be the spirit lass!” he walks to the door Niobe is in front of “See mateys? A set of stairs, so lets climb this and me will lead the way.” Leroy then puffs his chest out “See? Me leads the way.” and he begins to climb up the stairs while scanning the staircase.  Leroy doesn’t see anything.

Derek shrugs and follows.

Brak grumbles a bit, and makes sure to note where they are in relation to the fastest route. He places himself in the middle of the party. “Although I don’t might not heading straight for Strahd without Arvin and Boots,” he mumbles.

Niobe follows Derek and Leroy.

Leroy gets to the top of stairs and then sprawls out in a prone position, he waives for Derek to lay next to him “Lets scout this here hallway out first mate.” Leroy searches the hallway. He cups his hands into circles and uses them as if they were long range opticals. 

Derek peeks around the corner.  They see farther up and more stairs.

As soon as they move onto the landing in front of them halfway up the stairs appears Strahd,  “You have worn out your welcome.  Whatever gods you believe in cannot save you now!”

Leroy freezes in place “DO NOT CALL FOR THE ONE ME HAS LED TO BELIEVE IN!” he freaks out and screams “ME DO NOT WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!”

Derek: “Retreat!”

Round 1!

Brak flies around the corner far enough to see what the ruckus is, decides Strahd wouldn’t fight them in a rando hallway and disbelieves the illusion.   Strahd is still there in front of him.

Brak manifests time hop on Strahd, but it doesn’t work.

Tinyra takes flight and comes around to see what is happening, not able to do more.

Niobe casts Holy Aura on herself, Derek, Brak, Clifford and Tinyra. Eli is too far away. Everyone else gets…+4 deflection to AC, +4 on all saves, SR 25 vs spells and SLA from evil creatures, blocks possession and mental influence, and blinds a melee attacker if they fail a fort save.

Derek fires two arrows at Strahd, missing both. He retreats down the hall and hides.

Leroy grabs himself in the groin “Me is shuttin up, and nuttin up!” He screams and runs up to Strahd and stabs him.  The amazing stab passes right through Strahd.  After stabbing the illusion Strahd chuckles and melts away like a wax doll in a bonfire.

Leroy shrugs to the group and says “See? Captain Leroy always leads the charge. And ye were all scared for nothin.” and tries to smile.

Derek curses from the shadows “...takes years of my life. I could do with fewer surprises, Captain.”

Brak- “I shouldn’t have let true seeing run out.”

Niobe grumbles a bit. “They’ll just whittle us away with illusions if we’re not careful.”

Derek, still hiding in plain sight, slips back up the stairs, this time clinging to the wall 10 feet above everyone’s heads “Shall we proceed?” His voice is tense and acerbic.

Niobe, a touch grimly. “Yes, lets.”

Leroy continues up the stairs past where the Strahd illusion was.

Clifford - “Brak, do you know if my teeth should be silver for a vampire like Stradh?”

Brak- “Yes, they should be, and they would need to be magical as well, if they weren’t already.” Brak knows that this also leads to the stairwell that leads up to where the tarot cards suggest they would run into the real Strahd.

Clifford - “I’ll just keep them that way from now on then….” he says, harrumphing in the general direction of where the illusion was. He shows his teeth, and they are indeed quite silvery.

Leroy continues up the stairs, hugging the walls as much as he can.  Leroy sees the door at the end of the stairway, nothing else.

Niobe will walk up the middle of the staircase, confident in her ability to obliterate a very large percentage of possible opponents. Also, she’s immune to fear.

“I am heading to the door,” Leroy says to the group and scoots up to the door. He puts his hand on the door, “Shall we go through?” he asks the group.

Niobe- “Let’s do it.”

Leroy rocks backward, then rams his shoulder into the door to bust it open!  Leroy hits the door hard, and nothing happens.  Except his shoulder is starting to hurt.

Leroy hits it again.  This time he hits much harder, and still does nothing except cause his shoulder to hurt even more.

Leroy and Derek hear someone moving around on the other side and a low cursing sound.

“Captain… if I may?” Derek climbs down from the ceiling. He motions for everyone behind them to be ready, and checks for locks and traps.

Leroy curses under his breath about his shoulder. “Aye your up Master Derek.” Leroy moves out of the way so Derek can get to the door.

Derek finds no traps, but did find the mechanism to make the door open.  He realizes this is probably a secret door meant to be hidden from the other side.

“First mate, Did ye hear that?” Leroy asks.

Derek “I did. Be ready.” He works the mechanism to open the door.

The door opens to a shadowy room in perfect order.  A great table stands here with its chair, inkwell, and quill set carefully in place.  Lances, swords, and shields that bear the barovian crest are hung neatly on the dark, oak-paneled walls.  In front of the party stands a vampire with a sword held ready and teeth barred at them.

Round 1!

Tinyra flys up and attempts to get a little closer.

Derek fires an arrow at the vampire, and then dashes into the room, up the wall and around to the door on the south side.

Niobe takes a step forward and then stabs at this guy four times. Too close for missiles, so switching to guns. She stabs him mightily, and on the fourth hit he collapses and….turns into a gas and floats out of the room.

Derek returns to the floor and checks the door for locks. No traps or locks.

Leroy enters the room and watches the gas float out the window.

Brak- “It will return to it’s coffin post haste, where it will be helpless for approximately one hour, but then it will be able to act again. Perhaps we should go downstairs and use the green gem.”

Eli writes, and probably die just as fast if he comes back.

Leroy nods “Or we not use magic. Period.”

Derek growls “Captain, crippling ourselves by not using magic is suicidal.”

Brak read’s Eli’s note. “But it will distract one of us for a few moments, and that may be enough for its allies.”

Leroy turns to Derek “Aye, but at least our crew wont be sucked into a black hole of despair and hear voices.” He offers to his first mate.

Derek, sarcastically. “No, we’ll just be trapped in this land for the rest of our unnatural lives.”

Eli writes, and born again to do the same.

Leroy “thats better than the locker, first mate, way better than the locker.” says

Brak flips on detect magic to see what there is in this room.  Nothing magical to be found in the room. Then he does a normal search of the room.  He finds nothing of interest.

Derek stares at Leroy. “I fear the gravestones we read when we arrived here more.” He turns his back and opens the door, peeking carefully out into the probable hall. 

Derek see a thirty-foot-square room in shambles.  Scattered furniture lies in heaps near the walls.  Broken bones lie scattered amid crumpled and crushed plate armor.  Shields and swords jut from the walls as if driven into them by some tremendous force.  Two doors stand opposite one another in the center of the north wall and the south wall.  A dark archway leads out through the east wall.

“Ye fear the gravestone, me fear dark voices and a locker. Potato, Poh ta toe, first mate, but me fears the magic will get us all killed when the sand runs out.”

Derek snorts and moves into the next room, bow at the ready. He heads for the door on the opposite wall, and checks it as normal.  No traps or locks

Niobe heads into the next room, and orients herself down the hallway to the east.  She sees a dark passage running for twenty feet, connecting an archway to the east with an ascending stone staircase.  To the north and south are four ten-foot-square alcoves cluttered with rotting cots and dirty rags.  The ceilings hre are covered with yellow lichen.

Leroy hangs his head and follows his first mate into the next room.

Brak follows everyone else after searching the room where the killed the lone vampire. Entering the next room, he says, “I have no memory of this place.”  He has the nagging felling that he should remember something but is missing it right now.

Brak- “There’s something I’m forgetting about this room, and maybe this area. We need to take our time looking around.”

 Derek opens the door in the south wall.  He finds an area with dark stains covering the floor.  Large oak tables, scarred and beaten, lay scattered like toys about the room, their wood crushed and splintered.  Replacing them are furnishings made entirely of human bones.  The walls and the twenty-foot-high faulted ceiling are a sickly yellow color, not because of fade or timeworn plaster but because they are adorned with bones and skulls arranged in a morbidly decorative fashion, giving the room a cathedral-like quality.  Four enormous mounds of bones occupy the corners of this ossuary, and garlands of skulls extend from these mounds to a chandelier of bones that hangs from the ceiling above a long table constructed of bones in the center of the room.  Ten chairs made of bones are festooned with decorative skulls surround the table, resting atop which is an ornate, bowl-shaped vessel made of yet more bones.  The doors to the north and south are sheathed in bone, but the steel-banded double doors in the center of the east wall are not.  Above the eastern door is mounted the skull of a dragon.

Niobe points out the yellow lichen to everyone not looking at the Paris underground.

Clifford sniffs the lichen, which looks way more awkward when he’s in wolflord form.

Brak notes the locations of the piles of stuff and says, “Lets not stay in this room too long. And don’t touch anything.”

Niobe nods, and heads into the Room of Bones.

Leroy walks into the rooms of Bones with Derek and Niobe.

Brak heads into the next room and looks around. “Reminds me of home.”  As Brak walks past the hall with the stair well he remembers what he forgot.  Those stairs lead up to the point the cards talk about.

Brak snaps his fingers. “That hallway leads to the ‘beating heart of the castle’, where we will find the Marionette. We should pass by the yellow mold as fast as we can.”

Derek looks over the Bone Room once more. “Very well. How hazardous is the mold?”

Brak looks back and examines the mold from a distance. “Nevermind, it’s not the heat-absorbing type. Or the yellow musk zombie creating type.”

Brak- “Well, shall we?”

Derek nods, and returns to the armory. He holds his breath as he glides past the mold alcoves, and heads up to the curve in the stairs.  He sees the stairs leading up to an area that looks to have a slight red glow to it. He sighs, and hides himself.

Niobe goes with Derek, looking into each alcove as she goes by.

Derek proceeds cautiously around the corner.

As Derek moves up the stairs he can see a room with a mosaic floor that adds a touch of color to the otherwise dark, cold, empty tower that rises above you.  A spiral staircase rises slowly into the darkness, hugging the outer wall.  In the center of the room, are the stairs that Derek stands on.  As you step into the room you can see the reddish light glowing brighter.  Pulsing slightly.  You can now see the full immensity of this tower.  The spiral staircase circles up the tower’s full height.  The tower, sixty feet wide at its base, becomes narrower as it climbs.  At the pinnacle of the hollow tower, a large crystal heart pulsates with the red light bathing the party.  Above the heart, the stairs continue upward.

Niobe, coming into the hallway behind Derek, “I didn’t expect it to be that literal.” She scoots away from everyone else and spreads her wings to take flight, but doesn’t quite yet.

Leroy walks into the room and looks up, “Thats really tall.” he says

“Brak walks into the room. “Well.”

Everyone hears faint voices coming from up the tower.  Brak is the only one that can not tell they are arguing over something and they are somewhere above the heart.

Derek murmurs “Be prepared to fight at a moment’s notice.” He starts up the stairs still hidden in the shadows, and as silent as one too.

Niobe flies straight up to the landing above them and looks down the hallway to the northwest.  She sees a hallway leading to a circular room with what looks like arrow slits on the walls.

Brak decides to manifest fly again, instead of using his stubby little goblin legs to climb a billion stairs.

Clifford starts climbing the stairs, changing into a Dire Wolf. He shakes himself out and says “Whew, finally on all four paws again.” He starts up the stairs, after checking to see that Brak is finding his own way up.

Leroy begins to climb up the stairs.

Brak floats gently straight up the middle of the tower, keeping in the middle of the whole group.

Niobe flies up to each hallway entrance she can see and checks down it. She waits for Leroy and Derek to pass by, and then heads to the next hallway.

Niobe is able to clear all the way up the tower until they are close to the heart.  Once there she can hear the voices more clearly as they continue to argue.

Niobe looks around to see if she can find sources for those voices. Since that fails miserably, she’ll just listen to what they’re arguing about.

From where the party gets too the heart appears to be right below another level.  The stairs continue up until they are above floor above the party's current location.  While Niobe cannot see anything the party can hear Strahd talking to someone else.

Strahd, “They are somewhere in the castle.  I will deal with them soon.”

Voice, “Yes, but they are most likely a distraction.  You should have killed them as soon as they arrived here.”

Strahd, “This is my land, I do as I please.”

The party doesn’t recognize the second voice.

(click to show/hide)

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXVIII

Day 213. Still Approaching the End, but More So.

(click to show/hide)

Niobe, Brak, Derek, Arvin, Clifford, Boots, Eli, Tinyra  all have Hero’s Feast: 12 hours immunity to poison and fear; +1 morale bonus to attack rolls and will saves; 13 temporary hp

Everyone also has Owl’s Wisdom again for 16 min, so +4 to your wisdom stat, which should help with mind stuff.

Suddenly Arvin and Boots are standing at the landing just below where everything is happening.  The conversation is still going on above the party as the two argue about what to do with the party.  At one point the unknown voice talks about the party being minions of Talon.

Niobe waits for everyone to catch up, and once they do she enacts some theatrical hand motions indicating “vampire”, “Strahd”, “next floor up”, “kill them with extreme prejudice”.

Arvin shakes off her last odd journey, checks to make sure heroes feast is still active on the party and casts another round of Mass Owl’s wisdom.  She then wildshapes into a unicorn.

Eli writes out, maybe back down a little way so we can quietly buff before going up and trying to attack.  Also anyone need paper to write on?  He then moves slightly off to start manifesting abilities on himself.  First Precognition, Defensive, managing not to daze himself as he use full wild surge to increase his AC.  Second is Biofeedback, manage to not daze himself and increase his DR.  Eli waits and manifests Planar Embrace just before they head up as well.

Tinyra cast Magic weapon Greater on her rapier to get it ready for the fight.  Then waits till the party is ready to move up to cast Divine power. So it will last long enough for the fight

Brak studies the architecture so that he can try and dimension door everyone up there without putting them in a wall or something. He also makes his concentration check to psionically focus. Brak can easily determine a location based of his knowledge of dungeons, and remembering the way the castle is layed out.  He also has an idea of where everyone is above the next floor after listening to them discuss ways to kill the party.

Derek, despite being hidden in the shadows, activates his invisibility ring and ghosts further up the stairs.  As far as he can tell none of the enemy has noticed him.

Niobe activates law devotion and casts holy aura on everyone, giving them +4 deflection to AC, +4 resistance bonus to saves. SR 25 vs spells cast by evil creatures. Blocks mental influence and possession. Melee attacks by evil creatures force fort save or permanent blindness (fort DC 26).

Brak manifests Vigor, giving himself 40 temporary hp, and motions everyone to gather ‘round for some dimension dooring.

Leroy slowly pulls out his sword and readies it for a fight.

Derek counts the creatures in the room and slips back down the stairs to the group. When he rejoins them he murmurs “Ten creatures, the main target included. Six that resemble the one we fought earlier, two that look stronger, and the one we heard talking with the primary target.”

Brak, very quietly- “Going and destroying all the minions’ coffins would be fine, but if we destroy Strahd’s, he can likely use the land itself as a coffin, and so he could hide anywhere. We leave his coffin until we kill him once? We can find that fairly quickly.”

Leroy thinks about this, he whispers “Well matey’s that means one thing, we must hard charge and show Strahd we mean business.”

Derek raises his eyebrows. “Master Brak, how long does it take a vampire to regenerate once it returns to its coffin?”

Brak manifests fly on himself.

Eli writes, the lesser vampires will probably be easier for the local population to deal with if we remove Strahd.  Also let me set a Chaotic Breach before we go up.  I could limit their ability to cast spells on us.

Leroy reads Eli’s note and nods “Aye, if we get the best of the blood sucker, the rest will tuck and run like yellow belly scurvy dogs. We surprise them, we knock them down.” then he says “and me wants to know who is the unknown voice belongs to.”

Brak- “about an hour. ‘Killing’ one forces it into its gaseous form, and then it has about two hours to find it’s coffin. Then it starts to regenerate, and after an hour it can take physical form again, although it is not at full strength.”

Derek “Surely then we could find the coffins after we kill the creatures.”

Arvin sighs, and takes off Boot’s collar, replacing it with the collar of healing

Brak- “Indeed, and we would need to hurry.”

Leroy nods to all this and looks to Eli “Master Eli,” he whispers, “Set the breach.”

Derek “If we are to attack, I will go up on my own. Shall we proceed or shall we retreat?”

Eli looks to the rest of the party for the go ahead.

Niobe- “Let’s just do it.”

Brak- “I will create a dimension door so that we don’t have to run up the stairs.”

“Master Derek, prepare to board the room on yer own, take lead,” Leroy says, her turns to Brak, “Master brak start the dimension door,” he nods, “the rest of ye, follow yer Captain into battle.” he says with confidence in his abilities.

Eli manifests the chaotic breach centered on the outer wall to prevent it from effecting the party's spells.  Then writes, 12 seconds it will be in effect.  Then we should get up there quickly because surprise will be lost.

As soon as that’s done, Brak has everyone from a being chain and manifests dimension door, moving himself, Niobe, Eli, Arvin, Boots, Clifford, and Tinyra up to the next floor.

Derek “Very well.” He glides, silently and invisibly up the stairs, bow at the ready.

Surprise round is the party getting into place.

As the party gets into place there is a sudden surge of energy.  The vampire that was talking to Strahd curses, “He is here.” before a black streak flashes through the room, slams into it and then there is the sound of crashing bodies falling down the stairs to the bottom of the tower.  Eli and Brak recognize the power as Dimensional Anchor, Psionic.

“Fucking MAGES,” Arvin growls, which sounds very funny coming from a unicorn.

Round 1!

Red Vampire Mage Cast Prismatic Spray on the party.  Inside the Chaotic breach it unexpectedly rebounds on him, catching both Strahd and the Blue Vampire mage in its blast.  Red Fails his save and turns into stone.  Blue fails his save and takes Acid damage.  Strahd saves and takes electricity Damage, only he seems like the damage went through him somehow.

Derek fires three arrows rapidly at the unstoned mage. Two hit, one misses, and his invisibility is deactivated, but he remains hidden in the shadows.  Both hit and the Vampire looks a little worse for wear.

Brak- “Haha nerd.”

“Hey Brak,” arvin yells. “Tell us everything about vampires!!”

Brak- “Vampires drain energy by touch, can turn into bats, have fast healing, turn into gas when killed, you need magical silver weapons to damage them, they’re immune to poison, death effects, paralyzation, basically anything that would hurt something that is alive they’re resistant to.”

Blue Vampire mage casts Waves of Exhaustion on Derek.  The spell fails as a circular pit opens up under the Vampire.  It falls for a second before turning into gas.

Leroy runs up to Pink vampire and attacks it.

Tinyra throws her spear up and has it start fighting on her own, draws and prepares to use the rapier and attacks the purple Vampire.  The spear attacks the purple Vampire.

Eli attempts a mind thrust on Strahd.  He uses a full chaotic and wild surge.  Manages to not daze himself.  Strahd saves and there is no effect on him from the Power.

Green Vampire Fighter attacks Clifford.  Clifford is barely injured, and grins silverly at the vampire.

Pink Vampire attacks Leroy.

Orange vampire moves to attack Eli.

Purple moves to attack Arvin.

Red and Blue attack Tinyra.

Strahd seeing that none of the magic is working moves away until he feels himself getting out of the chaotic breach.  As soon as he is out of the breach he whistles loudly.

Brak observes this and decides that Niobe is not in a good position to do anything useful.

Brak- “Niobe, I’m going to move you over...there!” He points.

Niobe- “Uh, okay!”

Brak- “Spread your wings.” He concentrates, briefly appears on the fars side of boots. Then, just as quickly, he and Niobe swap spaces.

Niobe- “Perfect!”

Clifford chews on a vampire! It is still solid though.

Niobe executes a guided missile maneuver at Strahd, growling as she does so. It is an awesome charging power attacking smite, with rhino rush, law devotion, divine might, and driving attack added on for extra fun. She slams him into the wall like a meteor from the heavens, and his little rag doll body skids around the wall back into the chaotic breach.  As Niobe hits Strahd the red light that has been illuminating the area goes out.  There is a loud crashing sound as what sounds like crystal shards fall to the ground.  Strahd glares daggers at Niobe as he lays on the ground before suddenly turning into gas.  Tinirya, Brak, Eli, Arvin all believe that it was the heart that shattered when Niobe hit Strahd so hard.

Arvin casts Mass snake swiftness. Everyone in a 20 foot radius gets another immediate melee attack, which looks like basically everyone.

Brak- “We have an hour to find his coffin!”

Leroy shouts out “We can use the crystals!”

Derek fires an arrow from his electric quiver at the blue vampire. It hits.

Niobe takes a quick stab at the vampire fighting Tinyra. (The red one.)

Leroy stabs at Pink Vampire again. Leroy grumbles for the vampire not dying.

Clifford bites Pink as well.

Tinyra Swings with her rapier at the same time the spear attacks the red vampire fighter.  Missing with the rapier and hitting with the spear. 

Round 2!

Derek activates his boots of swift passage, relocating himself in front of and to the right of Brak, and fires two arrows from his electric quiver at the vampire with the green employee badge, missing both times.

Blue vampire in gaseous form moves up to where he can be out of the breach before becoming solid again.

Leroy goes full out on Pink Vampire, determined to kill it.

Tinyra starts her attacks using both her spear and rapier to attack.  She only manages to hit once.

Eli glares at the orange vampire in front of him and manifests a full wild surge mind thrust.  Manages to not daze himself.  It fails its save.  Hitting the Vampire hard, but it is still standing.

Green Vampire Attacks Clifford.  Hitting three times.

Pink Vampire attacks Leroy.  Hitting once.

Read and Blue attack Tinyra. Missing Completely

Orange attacks Eli.  Missing Completely.

Purple attacks Arvin. 

Freddy appears behind Niobe and attacks her.

Brak surveys the room, and seeing Freddy has reappeared and is stabbing Niobe, decides to attempt something hilarious on him. He manifests augmented dimension twister on Freddy, and teleports him straight down about 30 feet….thus placing him about 190 feet in the air.

Jason appears in front of Niobe and attacks. 

Clifford attacks vampire pink, mostly missing, but finally bites him into mist.

Niobe takes a five foot step back and goes full ham on Jason, stabbing him four times, but, because he’s Jason, doesn’t kill him.

Arvin, seeing the number of enemies increasing and also that niobe is in trouble, casts wall of thorns, carefully shaping it to provide protection for Niobe while also basically dropping it on Jason and several vampires

“Sorry about the crowding,” she yells.

Two Chucky appear.  One attacking Eli, the other attacking Clifford.

Round 3!

Derek hides himself in plain sight and steps 5’ to his right. He then rapidly fires arrows from his electric quiver at Green Badge Vampire.  Green Vampire doesn’t see Derek, Blue Chucky does though. The first arrow gasifies the vampire, so Derek aims the second at the vampire in front of Leroy.

Blue Vampire mage casts Chain Lighting on Clifford.  The secondary bolts jump to hit Leroy, Tinyra, Arvin, Eli and Derek.

Leroy turns to the blue vampire and give him hell!

Tinyra attacks Red Vampire with her spear and Rapier again.  Hitting it four times and turning it into gas.

Eli turns to look at chucky and manifest a full wild surge mind thrust at him.  Manages to not daze himself.  Chucky fails the will save.  Killing that chucky.

Blue Vampire shifts its attack to Leroy. 

Purple attacks Arvin.  He misses the first attack so badly he can’t take anymore.

Orange attacks Eli.  He misses with each attack.

Freddy is doing something far below the group.

Brak decides to drop a Chucky onto Freddy’s head. He manifests dimension twister (not augmented, cause that was surprisingly expensive) on the Chucky nearest him to throw him through the floor.

Jason marches through the thorns to attack Niobe.

Clifford attacks the one in front of Arvin. It takes several hits and turns to gas.

Niobe takes another step back and stabs at Jason four more times. She huffs, offended that she had to take steps back like a damsel in distress.

Arvin slings hammer of righteousness at Blue Mage dude with the lightning.

Round 4!

Derek, seeing no nearby targets, makes sure he’s hidden and moves to his left. He fires a couple arrows at the vampire fighting Leroy. One hits, and kills it..

Leroy runs to the orange vampire and attacks him but swings and misses.

Arvin yells. “Eli, can you see our other guests on the stairs yet?”

Tinyra moves forward and helps to attack the remaining Orange Vampire.  Manages to hit and kill it.

Eli looks down the stairs then shakes his head not seeing anything coming up.

Brak- “The other two creatures I only dropped down to the bottom of the tower. They may still be alive. We should search this area quickly and head down. And see what shattered and exploded below.”

Arvin goes over to Niobe, and casts cure moderate wounds on her once, and cure light wounds three times.

Niobe- “Wow, thank you. I have not been hit that hard in a long time.”

“You’re welcome,” Arvin says. “Nice hit on Straud btw.”

Leroy nods to Brak, “Aye, me agrees Master Brak, but we must go to the gem room, and use one of them gems ye saw from the poem.”

Looking around the party easily sees the only thing that might be of interest is a small chest sitting on a pillow on the bed.

Derek goes over and checks the chest for traps

Eli manifests a full Body Adjustment on himself.  Managing to overcome the cursed wound and heal himself.

Tinyra looks to Leroy and Clifford, “I can heal you two.”

Leroy looks to Tinyra, “Id appreciate the heals lass, took a hit or two.” he says.

Niobe uses lay on hands on herself, and then uses a turn undead to give everyone fast healing 3 for 9 rounds.

Tinyra cast cure Critical wounds on Leroy.

“Thank ye lass,” Leroy says, “How are ye holding up?” he asks Tinyra

Tinyra shrugs, “I am fine.”  Then looks to Clifford to see if he needs healing still.

Clifford scratches restlessly. “I think I have some of that cursed injury thing going on.”

Tinyra attempts to use a cure critical wounds on Clifford.  Beats the curse and manages to heal Clifford.

Clifford smiles. “Thanks!” He attempts to lean on Tinyra, but since he is now two legged, he misses and stumbles a bit. He shakes himself out and looks like nothing happened.

Niobe heads over to look at the small chest on the bed. She pokes it with her spear.

Nothing happens.

Derek opens the chest. Cautiously.  Inside he finds a bejeweled gold crown. Derek shrugs and puts crown and chest both into one of his vest pockets.

Niobe- “Hmmmmm….one should be cautious about crowns...putting on one without knowing what it was is what started me on being a paladin.” She smirks, and heads over to the stairs.

Arvin moves to the head of the stairs and stands watch. She also summons a large earth elemental, and gives it careful instructions to break the stone vampire into pieces and then, moving through walls and earth to avoid being stopped, to take the vampire to a river, stand by the river and throw him in.

Leroy crosses his arms and heads towards the stairs where Niobe is.

Derek also moves to the stairs and proceeds down. “Let us search for coffins, before their occupants wake up annoyed.”

Brak- “Yes, we need to hurry.” He flies down the stairs to the level below, and looks for signs of Chucky and Freddie.

Leroy watches Brak fly by and then begins to run after him.

It takes the party a little while to get down the stairs.  They find multiple places where entire chunks of stair are missing from where things have impacted the stairs.  When they arrive they see Talon with his double longswords both sheathed in flame locked in combat with the vampire they had seen before.  On the ground lay both chucky and freddy cut in half and slowly disappearing.  In the middle of the fight Talon tosses his sword behind him sending it sliding across the floor and pulling out a small cub hitting a button.  At the same time the vampire takes advantage of him being unarmed and attacks harder.  Arvin’s hammer of righteousness hits a wall of force, just as Talon drops the cube and draws and quickly throws daggers at the vampire.  It turns into gaseous form and attempts to float away, but is blocked by the cube.  Talon pulls out a small iron bottle and pulls out the stopper, speaking a command word the gas is sucked into the bottle and then Talon stops it up.  Reaching down he picks up and deactivates the cube before looking at the party, “why did you drop them on my head?”  Talon clearly has multiple wounds, though they appear to be healing fast on their own.

Brak breaks into a nasty little grin and says nothing.

Derek replies blandly. “Didn’t know you were down here, Master Talon”

Talon nods to Derek, “point.  Strahd?”  Putting away both the Iron Flask and his cube, and retrieving his weapon from where he dropped it on the ground.  Twisting the hilt the double sword splits in the middle leaving him with two longswords that have longer than normal hilts.  He then sheathes his swords.

Derek “Escaped, probably. Maybe returned to his coffin. We’re on our way to find the resting places for him and his minions so we can destroy them in one go. Any suggestions?”

Talon, “Strahd will take more than just destroying him, do to him what I did to Dracula.  Then bring me the bottle.  I have a place that he can stay for eternity.”  Talon gets a far off look on his face, staring towards the sky.

Derek is unimpressed. “The bottle? What is it?”

Talon looks  back to Derek, “Do you all still have an iron flask?”

Derek “I have no idea. We’ve gathered so many items, we’d have to look through all of it.”

Brak- “I think we do, I recall seeing something like one the day we all met.”

Talon nods, “if you don’t still have it then it could be a problem.  I can’t stay.”

Derek “Hm. Well, I suppose if we don’t, we’ll come up with something else. We can look for it after we finish off all the minions.”

Talon nods and steps into a shadow before disappearing.

Leroy looks shocked as watching Talon disappear before them.

Derek ignores the disappearing act, since everyone he went to school with can do exactly the same thing, “Master Brak, you memorized the model, where to?”

Brak- “Back down this staircase, hang a right, down the next staircase, hand a left, and that should put us back into the room with the gems.”

(click to show/hide)

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXIX

Day 213- Yet more closer to the End

(click to show/hide)

Eli writes, we might want to deal with whatever is in our Iron Flask before going too far if we plan to use it again.  I remember someone mentioning something was inside it when we identified it.  There is the balcony we were on before coming down here.  Just below where we fought the vampires.  Might be big enough.

Niobe shrugs and uses detect evil on the flask  No evil from the flask, it also seems to prevent Niobe from detecting what is inside it to know if it is evil or not.  Also there is a blinding amount of evil around her now.  The castles permeates with it.

Niobe groans with a splitting headache. “The flask has some non-detection thing on it, so I get nothing at all. Ahhh, ow.”

Tinyra, “Ouch?” looking at Niobe, “do you need healing now?”

Niobe, doubled over and just about to barf, “No, the evil in here is overwhelming, give me a minute.”

Tinyra nods, “this place is as evil as my homeland.”

Brak- “Moreso than mine, though.”

Niobe, still mostly doubled over, “Sounds like giving whatever it is not enough room to do whatever it wants would be a good idea. Or we take it down to the torture chamber and open it.”

Tinyra, “I think I can manage to place myself between the party and it.  Then you all can hit it hard so that it doesn’t have time to do anything.”

Brak- “You sound like you know what’s in it.”

Tinyra shakes her head, “I don’t.  But do you really think it will be something good?”

Brak snorts.

Tinyra shrugs, “and if it is good then we are just being over cautious.”

Leroy looks to Niobe, he wants to help her but doesnt want to upset Tinyra, so he folds his arms over his chest and looks concerned.

Niobe ignores him. “So torture chamber? I don’t want to head back up to the top of the tower.”

Tinyra nods agreement.

Eli shrugs.

“Master Brak,” Leroy says, “do ye think we should head to the room with the goblet and hour glass to use the magic to transport to Stradh?” he asks.

Derek stands guard at the edge of the group.

Brak- “I say we go find Strahd’s coffin first.”

Leroy nods to Brak “Then lets get all of our arses to the goblet of magic, then.” he says. “The poem said the one stone to the master’s lair thingy.”

Eli writes, what if he left before he was forced to turn to gas?

Leroy walks to Eli and reads his note “Thar be only one thing to do to find out, go there and pray for the best?”

The party is able to get back to the goblet and torture chamber realatively easily and don’t run into anyone on the way.

Leroy looks to the goblet and then looks to Brak, “Master Brak, Can ye read the poem again?”

Tinyra, “do we want to make sure the flask is ready before we go to Strahd’s coffin?”

Leroy looks to Tinyra “Lass, we can do that when we get there, if it not be for an hour past since we smoked him, then we will have time to asses it.”

Brak goes to read the poem again.

Cast a stone into the fire:
Violet leads to the mountain spire
Orange to the castle’s peak
Red if lore is what you seek
Green to where the coffins hide
Indigo to the master’s bride
Blue to ancient magic’s womb
Yellow to the master’s tomb


Brak- “We did see Talon capture the other elder vampire with his Iron Flask, we could do worse than have that handy as well. And perhaps we should head to the library as well. We need better information.

Eli nods agreement.

Derek examines the tip of his bow “If we are to release what’s in it, we should do so soon, in case it can’t be negotiated with.”

Leroy strokes his beard and then says “What it be me crew? Yellow or Green stone we cast?”

Derek opines “Minions’ coffins first, and the library.”

Brak- “Let’s empty the Iron Flask, first.”

Tinyra, “where do we want to do it?”

Niobe- “The next room, it was plenty large.”

Leroy shakes his head, “Aye then, we will open the flask in the torture room then,” he says “but our time be runnin short on the matter.”


We all pile into the torture chamber!

Niobe flies off to the far corner to ready a Guided Missile, while Brak flies up and prepares to turn whatever it is inside out, or something.

Tinyra offers to be the one to open it, and cast righteous might on herself.

“No lass,” Leroy says to Tinyra “if anyone to be the one to open this flask, it be Captain Leroy,” then snorts, “besides im sure some of ye wish for me to die.”

Niobe says nothing, but she also says nothing.

Tinyra shakes her head, “it is more a matter of wishing you would think things through.  Who has the flask?”

Leroy shakes his head “i dont have to think, I’m Captain” he smirks. “ First Mate Derek, hand me the flask.” he says and holds his hand out.

Derek pulls the  flask out of one of his vest pockets and hands it to Leroy. He joins Eli away from where Leroy is opening the flask.


Leroy looks to Derek “If the worse is to happen, ye be captain, take me money and head for a seaport. Ask for a captain to continue Captain Leroy’s mission.”

Tinyra narrows her eyes but does nothing waiting for the bottle to be opened.

Leroy turns his head from Derek to Tinyra “Lass ye be happy if i die. Dont lie.” he doesnt smile or anything. “Are ye ready for this?” he asks the group.

Niobe says nothing, but activates Law Devotion.

Leroy says “Well then, lets see if this works,” he pulls the stopper from the flask and turns it upside down.

Smoke comes out of the bottle and coalesse into the form of a beautiful woman with wings.  The moment she completely takes form she locks eyes with Tinyra, “daughter.  What are you doing here.”

Tinyra just freezes.  Here eyes locked with the womans and a look of fear crossing her face.

Leroy just mouths oh fuck.

Niobe is caught between collapsing in laughter and figuring out whether to charge.

Leroy spats out in complete shock and fear “DAUGHTER!?”

The woman snaps her fingers and behind her three more demons appear.

Derek calls from the balcony “Excuse me, madam, are we to understand that you are related to our companion?”

Clifford perks his ears and looks at Tinyra, “Are we fighting your mom? Or is she joining our pack too?”

Round 1!

Arvin yells. “Tinyra, get as far away from them as you can! The hallway would be best.”

Tinyra shakes her head and throws her spear up to start it fighting on its own, “Kill her clifford, fast.”  Fear coming from her voice as she draws her rapier and attempts to attack.  She misses completely.

Derek calls “Now, Mistress Tinyra, let’s not be hasty.”

“NOT A WORD FIRST MATE!” Leroy screams, wanting nothing to be revealed.

Derek answers “Captain, we’ve just done the lady a favor, surely this doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”

Brak eyeballs the various demons who have just arrived, as well as the one who referred to a known succubus as her daughter, and makes a knowledge the planes check.  Brak recognizes Tinyra’s mother as malcanthet.  The queen of Succubi and the patron of hedonists and those who use their charmes to control and ruin those around them.  Her beauty is so perversely intense that it can drain the life from good creatures that try to attack or touch her.  She can control a creature’s will in a few ways; she possesses many enchantment spell-like abilities, her sting drains wisdom and results in domination, and even her gaze can wipe away free will and make a person her eternal thrall.  He is not able to recall anything about the Lilitu, not even sure he knows their names.

Malcanthet returns the favor and starts to attack her daughter, “well well well, not that I am surprised you turned on your own kind.”  Hitting Tinyra three times.  The electricity from her whip attacks plays uselessly across Tinyra despite the rest of the attacks being effective.  Tinyra’s DR helps her stave off some of it.

Leroy shouts back to Derek “I Just dont want her to find out her daughter is married!” in pure terror, then realizes what he just said and winces.

A pained expression crosses Derek’s face and he mutters “Brilliant, Captain.”

“Too scared First mate!” Leroy says out loud.

Arvin casts Rain of Roses on the room. Malcanthet is not effected.  Tinyra and the Lilitu are effected.  The Lilitu are sickened also, but Tinyra avoids those effects.

Brak- “Clifford, I’m going to move you closer, hold still!” He manifests Dimension Swap on himself and Clifford, and they, indeed, swap places teleportationally, placing Clifford in convenient chewing distance of the lilitu. Clifford barks “Thank you!”

Red Lilitu turns and attacks Clifford. Clifford is completely unharmed by the attack, and grins silverly. Clifford says, “Brak, silver or cold iron for these ones?”

Green Lilitu moves forward and attacks Leroy.

Blue Lilitu moves to attack Boots.

Brak- “Cold iron!”

Niobe, being in totally the wrong place for this, flies up and over the melee to get herself set up to nuke Malcanthet next round. She gets set up above the stage on the north side of the torture chamber.

Leroy looks to Malcanthet and says “Stop your attack on your daughter and me wife and me crew!” he says to her.  Malcanthet ignores Leroy.

Leroy attacks Malchanthet!

Eli manifests Death Urge with a +2 wild surge.  Manages not to daze himself.  It fails its save and gets a glazed look in its eyes.

Derek hides himself in the shadows, and rapidly fires three arrows from his electric quiver at Tinyra’s mother. But somehow misses all of them.

Clifford’s teeth change to a duller color, and he attacks the Lilitu in front of him fiercely.

Round 2!

Tinyra attempts to attack her mother again.  An still misses.

Malchanthet continues to attack her daughter.  Only hitting twice and Tinyra’s DR helps to prevent her from taking much damage.

“HIT YOUR MOM LIKE YOU MEAN IT!” Leroy says to Tinyra

Arvin drops a 500lb  Elder Tojanida right on top of Mal. It bites and claws her, but misses 

Brak considers what’s going on. “Derek, you want to stay there, or move over here?”

Derek “I will stay here, Master Brak, thank you.”

Red Lilitu continues to attack Clifford.

Brak uses the Staff of Power to cast heightened hold monster on the green lilitu.

Green Lilitu is held fast and does not move.

Blue Lilitu attacks itself six times, hits and kills itself.

Niobe, seeing no opportunity to nuke Malcanthet, takes a five foot step and attacks the red lilitu four times. She power attacks and uses divine might.

Leroy turns from mother in law to green Lilitu and attacks it four times!

Eli manifests Psychic Crush on Malcanthet.  Using a +4 wild surge.  Manages not to daze himself.  Fails to get past Malcanthet’s SR and does nothing to her.

Derek rapidly fires three electric arrows at the green lilitu. Since she’s immobile, all hit, and she is suddenly and thoroughly dead.

“Excellent shot first mate!” leroy shouts to Derek

Clifford steps over the fallen creature and attacks Melchanthet. He stumbles on the body, though, and isn’t able to attack.

Round 3!

Tinyra again attempts to attack her mother and still misses with each attack.

Malcanthet changes her attacks to the Tojanda. 

Arvin casts Mass Snake’s Swiftness, everybody gets an immediate melee/ranged attack. The Tojanda moves back at her command, leaving a path for Niobe. It also takes a bite out of the succubus. The wisdom damage is too much for it however and it falls unconscious. Arvin unsummons it. She also stops the rain of roses.

Derek fires arrows, but misses both shots.

Leroy lunges his rapier at his mother in law, but misses completely

Niobe is too far away to do anything, tragically.

Brak is busy focusing on using a psionic power, and so doesn’t do anything either.

Clifford attempts to bite, but misses.

Brak, seeing that Niobe is in the worst possible place: too close to charge, but too far away to full attack, does a dimensional reshuffle to place her where she needs to be. He also sighs at getting involved in Leroy’s family drama.

Brak- “Sorry Boots, this’ll be a surprise…” He swaps Boots and Niobe...giving her a short, but clear line of charge.

Niobe flaps her wings hard to get just out of the water and charges Malcanthet. She slams into the demon queen like a titan, who, having wound up hard, swings and hits a golf ball with all it’s might, and causes the golf ball to fly over the horizon.

She bounces off of Clifford in passing and slams into the far wall.

Leroy watches his mother in law fly through the air and strolls after her, shrugging along the way, he walks to her and tries to hiut her but misses.

Eli again attempts a psychic crush on Malcanthet.  Manages to not daze himself.  This time gets past her SR.  Malcanthet saves.  The ability still causes some damage.

Niobe- “Clifford, you’re in my way, doggo!”

Derek fires another two electric arrows at the demoness, but misses.

Clifford glances back at Niobe, and then moves himself out of the way. He manages to bite her once.

Round 4!

Tinyra casts restoration on herself since her attacks have been useless this entire time.

Malcanthet looks around at the party and then at Tinyra, “this is not done daughter.  I know to which god you have turned to.  You will pay for turning your back on the family.” then teleports away.

Leroy lets a sigh out, “That was close.” he mutters.

Tinyra glares at where Malcanthet was and then slowly looks around at the room, “not at all who I expected to be in there.”

Leroy looks to Tinyra “Well she seems lovely,” he says sarcastically

Brak snorts.

Tinyra shakes her head.

Leroy ponders a second and then ask Tinyra “What did she mean by god you turned to?”

Clifford yawns. “Didn’t Tinyra say she doesn’t know what god picked her?”

Tinyra shrugs, “I don’t know.  I don’t know what god has blessed me with the abilities I have.  I was chosen and I am trying to find out by who.”

Niobe flaps her wings and gets out of the water. She flies over and lands on the stage.

Derek snorts “Well, nothing like having yet another powerful demon out for our blood. Let’s get to those coffins, now, before we run out of time.”

Tinyra, “Strahd’s first, or the others?”

Derek “The others if we don’t want to be mobbed by vampire underlings.”

Leroy shakes his head then walks up to Tinyra “Are ye at least okay Lass?” he asks her with genuine concern

Brak- “The library. We still have about 45 minutes until any of the vampires will be corporeal again. We need to know if the land itself can host Strahd as his coffin, in which case destroying his actual coffin is irrelevant, or if not.”

Tinyra, “If he is in his coffin will that matter if we put him in the bottle?”

Brak shrugs. “Then we can check his coffin first. But if he can just use the land, why would he go back there?”

Clifford - “Can we put the coffin and Stradh in the bottle?”

Tinyra, “comfort?”

Leroy sloshes through the water to the goblet. “Let me ask ye all the question, Green or yellow stone?”

Niobe is more disgusted at having sloshed around in waist deep, probably corpse-filled water then she would have been, say, a year ago.

Tinyra flies over and then squeezes through the door.  Wanting to not get small if this ends up bad.

Clifford follows, shaking off the water on him onto everyone else.

Derek enters the room as well, and plants himself in the corner, waiting for some one to pick a gem.

Once everyone is in the room, and properly situated, prepared, armed, and whatever else they want to be, they Brak floats up and grabs….the yellow gem.  He figures that the gem needs to be thrown into the brazier and once dones so everyone needs to touch the brazier to teleport.

“Master Brak, Are ye sure yellow?” Leroy asks

Brak- “No.” Brak instructs the party on what to do. Waiting for everyone to grab on, he tosses the yellow gem into the brazier.

As the flame in the brazier changes color the party feels a shift.  Suddenly they are in a tomb that looks the same as the tomb of Strahd’s brother, only the feeling of evil is worse.  In front of them stands Strahd on the opposite side of his Coffin, staring back at them, “I have been waiting for you.”  To either side of Strahd stand two Horned Devils and behind them are Three Erinyes.

[perovskite]

Interlude Foureks

Day 213

(click to show/hide)

Derek activates his ring of invisibility, and hides in the shadows for good measure. He sneaks to his right and studies his targets.

Clifford switches his teeth to silver, and attacks the devil right in front of him. He hits several times, and howls at his opponent.

Green Erinyes fires her bow at Tinyra.  Missing with both shots.

Blue Erinyes fires her bow at Niobe.  She misses, but not by much.

Red Erinyes fires at Leroy.  Hitting him with a single arrow that burns.

Niobe blows three uses of turn undead to regain the ability to use law devotion, and starts stabbing ferociously at the cornugon in front of her, but she only connects twice, and both attacks are partly mitigated by the devil’s devilly hide.

Brak wracks is brain for information on Vampires and devils (ie, makes knowledge checks for knowledge devotion).

Strahd starts to speak and casts a spell.  As soon as Strahd finishes casting his spell a second Strahd appears next to the first.  Everyone feels like the moisture is being pulled from their body.

Tinyra tosses her spear in the air and has it start dancing and attack the Red horned devil, also drawing her rapier and starts to act it as well.

Blue Horned Devil attacks Niobe.  Hitting her three times and leaving a nasty wound that keeps bleeding.

Niobe grins as her DR comes through again.

Red Horned devil uses its spiked chain to attack Clifford and its bite and tail attack on Tinyra.  Hitting Clifford hard and only barely affecting Tinyra.

Brak uses his swift action to manifest temporal acceleration. Anyone looking at hims sees him very briefly speed up to a blur. During that blur, he swaps out his two staves (from the staff of power to the staff of transmutation. Then a wall of ectoplasm appears, sealing off the back part of the room where Strahd, Strahd’s Evil Twin, and the Erinyes are standing. Then he slows to down to normal speed, points the staff at the nearest Cornugon, and attempts to disintegrate it.

The roiling wall of ectoplasm blocks the view both directions for everyone. The cornugon avoids the worst against the little green ray o’ death.

Arvin summons a greater storm elemental behind the ectoplasm wall, floating above the Strauds. It does two slam attacks on original straud as well as shocking original straud as a free action. The image of Strahd that Arvin’s elemental attacked disappears.

Leroy, feeling like death, walks up to the blue horned devil and attacks it. Leroy misses them all because the man is barely hanging on for his life.

Eli attempts to manifest a full wild surge death urge on the blue horned devil.  Fails to prevent himself from becoming dazed and is suddenly just standing there staring blanking.

Round 2!

Derek uses his knowledge devotion to learn something about the blue horned devil’s weakness, and continues observing it for vulnerable spots. He fires two arrows at it. One hits and does damage.

Clifford concentrates and puts up a shield. He then steps in between the devils to attempt to distract them from Leroy.

All three Erinyes teleport past the wall ready to continue their efforts against the group.

Niobe stabs at the cornugon again, adding on divine might to give her attacks some extra oomph.

The cornugon collapses and fades away, back to Baator from whence it was summoned.

Niobe- “Leroy, get out of my way!”

Strahd casts a spell and reaches up to touch the elemental above him. The elemental disappears as the spell takes effect.

Tinyra continues her attacks on the red horned devil.  Hitting twice and doing decent damage.

Red horned devil returns Tinyra’s attacks.  Hitting Tinyra once and stunning her.

Brak points his staff of transmutation at the red erinyes and fires off another Green Lazor of Death at her.

She gets an odd look on her face and poofs into dust!

Arvin growls, and summons 3 storm elementals to replace the one straud vanished. The three elementals attack, shock and then move back up to the ceiling, out of touch range.

Leroy limps over to the blue Erinyes and attempts to attack it.

Eli stands still as he slowly overcomes his daze.

Round 3!

Derek continues to observe the horned devil and fires two arrows at it. Again, one hits and damages it.

Clifford attacks the remaining horned devil, but can’t seem to connect.

Blue Erinyes drops her bow and draws a longsword taking one swing at Leroy.  Missing him

Green Erinyes fires her bow at Tinyra and misses both attacks.

Niobe grumbles a touch as all the remaining opponents on this side of the wall are too far to full attack and too close to use Guided Missile...so she takes a few steps and stabs at the erinyes fighting Leroy.

Strahd curse’s looking up and casting another spell, the area affecting all three Elementals and the wall that Brak put up.  Disrupting the magic that keeps the storm elementals and ectoplasm wall there, cause all of it to disappear.

Tinyra continues her attacks on Horned Devil.  Hitting and killing it.

Brak, seeing the battlefield has opened up significantly, swaps himself and Niobe, and then teleports himself to safety, giving her a clear line of charge for Strahd.

Arvin summons 3 large earth elementals, which land with a crash and start punching straud, though she’s careful not to get in Niobe’s way

Leroy looks at Blue Erinyas and gives her all his might!

Eli manifests a full wild surge death urge on green Erinyes.  He manages to not daze himself and the Erinyes fails its save.

Round 4!

Derek fires arrows at Strahd. The first one hits, surprising Derek and possibly Strahd as well.

Clifford attacks the blue Erinyes, killing it.

Green Erinyes drops its bow and pulls out a sword attacking itself.  Doing enough damage to kill itself.

Arvin, seeing Niobe prepare to move, casts Instant of Power on her.

Niobe launches a somewhat reduced Guided Missile at Strahd (no divine might), and includes rhino rush. She drives her spear into him (prolly goes right through him, cause vampire, and also slams him into the earth elemental behind him.

Strahd turns and attempts to cast a spell on Niobe.  He fails to concentrate past the pain he just received.

Tinyra watches, but hold back.

Brak, rather stunned and impressed that the One Hit Wonder didn’t kill Strahd, repeats his action from last round, moving Niobe back into the corner.Okay.

Arvin casts mass snakes Swiftness. Everyone gets a melee or ranged attack again. The elementals use their extra attacks to try and grapple straud. Two succeed in grabbing him.

Derek fires another couple arrows at Strahd. One hits strongly.

Leroy drops his rapier and attempts to grapple Strahd.

Eli manifests a full wild surge Psychic Crush on Strahd.  He manages to not daze himself and bypasses Strahds SR.  Strahd saves but still takes damage from the spell.

Between Eli’s psionic power and Derek’s attack Strahd turns into gas and starts to move towards the entrance of the tomb.

Clifford growls at the cloud.

“Get out of the way!” Derek drops his bow and pulls out the iron flask and the sword as he runs toward the Strahd-cloud and aims the flask at it, speaking the command word.  There seems to be a slight resistance before the cloud is sucked into the bottle.  As that happens, an Amulet, two rings, Bracers, and a belt fall to the ground where the cloud was.  As soon as the flask seals itself with the stopper there is a feeling as if something has released from the building around them.  A pressure that was on the party from the start of being in Ravenloft seems to have left, slowly pressing away.  After a few seconds there is a massive shaking sensation as if the castle suddenly moves before everything goes still.

Clifford has un-wolfifed himself, and has made himself huge. He’s already crouching down to let everyone get on while he eyes the walls suspiciously, his ears flat to his head.

Arvin takes a breath. “To the minions coffins?”

Niobe- “Lets get rid of this one first.” She swaps her spear for the giant sledgehammer she carried around to tunnel through the House of Horrors and smashes Strahd’s coffin to tiny bits.

Leroy slowly picks his sword up and walks to Derek, he places his hand on his shoulder “Excellent First Mate!” he says weakly, forcing a weak smile.

Derek nods “And yourself as well, Captain.” He looks Leroy over.

Leroy just giggles “Eh, not as much as you Master Derek. Today you have done more than me. Ye are a true hero.”

Derek rolls his eyes. “And you are so wounded as to be delusional. Mistress Niobe, Mistress Arvin, do you have any healing available?”

Leroy shakes his head “Tis a flesh wound me matey.” he says to Derek. Arvin casts cure light wounds on him 3 times.

Niobe, pretty satisfied with the work they’ve all done, says, “Oh yeah, hang on.” She concentrates for a moment and expends a turn undead to heal everyone.

Clifford is still eyeing the walls, but his ears have perked up a bit.

If the rumbling stops and it doesn’t look like the plane is collapsing on itself, Brak eventually looks into the three alcoves on the south side.

Eli manifests a full wild surge Body Adjustment on himself.  Manages to not daze himself.  Finishing healing himself.

Leroy feeling a bit better now from healing “Aye, me feels a bit better.”

Tinyra, “I can help to heal anyone that needs it still.”

Leroy walks to Tinyra and hugs her. “Lass me could use the heals, but me wants to ask, are ye okay?”

Tinyra pushes Leroy away, “I would be better without the random hugs.” she then casts cure critical wounds on him.  Shakes her head and looks around, “anyone else?”

“I’ll take some if it’s available,” arvin says.

Leroy sighs “Fine.” He flips her the bird and says sarcastically “Better?”

Niobe also puts her hand on Dereks shoulder and focuses for a minute. She uses the rest on herself.

Derek “My thanks Mistress Niobe.” He stretches and works his arms. “I am all healed.” He goes back to pick up his bow.

Brak, who absorbed all the damage from the fight with temporary hit points, is perfectly healthy, and so having looked into the alcoves.  While looking through the Alcoves Brak finds a gold tiara, ten gold bracelets, a black and crimson silk head scarf sewn with precious jewels, a platinum necklace with a black opal pendant, a platinum mask shaped vaguely like a skull and ten platinum rings set with gemstones.  He also finds the two large spiked chains the Horned devils were using and the three swords and longbows the Erinyes had.

Brak gives general descriptions of all of this as he collects it, so as to be aboveboard and all that.

Derek “Well, at least we won’t come out of this penniless.”

Clifford has slowly untensed from his ready to grab everyone and go pose, and says to Tinyra, “I could use some healing if you have extra, but it’s not urgent.”

Niobe, hearing this- “Oh, Clifford.” She casts cure serious wounds on him and gives him some scritches.

He leans into the scrtiches on his currently very skinny greyhound body.

Tinyra cast a cure moderate wounds on Clifford.

Clifford looks at them both with his tongue hanging out. “Thank you, I am good now!” WIth one more suspicious glance at the walls, he shrinks back to Large.

Tinyra cast a cure moderate wounds on Arvin.

Derek picks up the items that the cloud dropped, and distributes them among his vest pockets.

Leroy sheaths his rapier away.

Brak flies across the room and opens the doors to the Giant Hall of Bat Guano, as far as the main passageway. He looks east through the windows.

Leroy walks from the room where they fought Stradh and strolls into the hall.

Derek, still in Strahd’s tomb, looks at the sword and asks it. “So… what should we do with you, and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind?”  The sword gives Derek the impression that it would just like to continue being useful.

Niobe does a general Detect Evil to see what happens.  No longer as oppressive.  However the Evil is still there, just slowly fading away.

Niobe walks through the doorway and flies out to the main thoroughfare in Bat Guano Cave as well.

Tinyra cast a few healing spells on herself.  Then moves out with the rest of the party.

Derek shakes his head, and heads over to Sergei’s tomb. When he reaches the rest of the party, he says “I think I will leave the holy symbol on the younger brother’s tomb. The sword wants to be useful.”

Eli moves to the center of the area with the party.

Niobe- “Lets see if we need to go kill all the minion vampires first.”

Brak flies over to the east entrance (the one with the two coffins) and looks out the window.  As he looks out he can see the sun in the distance.  Slowly setting.  It appears they have spent most of the day in the castle fighting against Strahd and his monsters.  Now however he can tell the fog is gone and the light appears brighter now than it did at high noon when they first arrived.

Brak flies back to the party. “The sun looks a lot more friendly than it has the past few days.”

Leroy raises his eyebrow “Master Brak, has it been that long?”

Brak does a few calculations. “We’ve only been in Ravenloft for six days, actually.”

Leroy shakes his head “It has not felt that short to be honest.”

Derek mutters agreement “It feels like weeks…” He shakes himself. “Shall we rest first, or shall we hunt minions”

Niobe- “Definitely rest first.”

Brak- “Agreed. I’m exhausted.”

Leroy agrees as well “Captain needs some shut eye. Me almost died back there.”

Derek nods “Let us rest in the brother’s tomb, then, in case it still has some lingering good aura.”

The party adjourns to the Brother’s Tomb, where Brak creates a psychoportive shelter big enough for everyone to get into.

Clifford flops the flop of a very tired dog across the shelter entrance.

Derek gives Arvin the Tome of Understanding. She reads some before bed.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXXI

Day 214

(click to show/hide)

The party makes it through the night without incident.  When they wake and after completing their morning rituals and preparations for the day they hear sounds coming from the main crypt area.  As the party moves they can see Ismark and Ireena move around with one other man they have not met before.  They appear to be looking for something when they see the party they start to move their direction.  The three of them greet the party and thank them profusely for helping save them and the kingdom of Ravenloft from Strahd.  They explain that everyone is starting to remember who they were before ravenloft was first pulled into the dimensional pocket.  Ireena notes that it is eerie remembering so many lives that have passed in this tortured place.  They introduce the third member of the group as Sergei.  He asks the party to join them outside of his Tomb as it just feels weird being inside the Tomb where he was buried.  Once outside they inform the party that there are villagers from Vallaki who have come to the castle in order to find some relief and have been combing through the castle all night.  None have come down here afraid of the crypts, despite having seen multiple vampires and werewolves fleeing from the area now that the mist and Strahd is no longer keeping them here.  They hand the party a small bundle containing items from the castle that might be of value to them.  Stating to be careful with the wrapped book because they are sure it is Strahd’s spell book and that there are traps on it.  There is also a Crystal ball, and six more Bracers and Amulets that look identical to each other.  Once they have explained all this they ask the party if they have questions or need anything.

Derek takes the items and carefully chucks them into whatever pocket of his vest still has room.

Brak’s morning ritual now includes manifesting mind blank, personal on himself.

Derek holds out the sword and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to Sergei, and pulls out the crown as well. “I believe, Master Sergei, that these belong to you.”

Sergei looks to the items Derek is offering him before shaking his head, “You have done much for this kingdom.  Keep them, I hope that they will help you in your future journeys as they have here.”

Derek carefully doesn’t mention that they’ve been no use at all. “Very well, if you insist.” He puts the sword and crown away. “To what god is the holy symbol devoted?”

Leroy mutters under his breath “I could tell you which god it isnt.”

Sergei, “It actually predates any established churches in Barovia.  Legend has it was delivered to a paladin named Lugdana by a giant raven - or an angel in the form of a giant raven.  Lugdana used the holy symbol to root out and destroy nests of vampires until her death.  The high priests of Ravenloft kept and wore the holy symbol after her passing.”

Brak had one eyebrow going up at the beginning of Sergei’s comment, but then drops said eyebrow when he says “in Barovia”. “Hence the name, Ravenloft,” he mutters.

“A raven drops off a holy symbol to a paladin, then flies away to be seen… nevermore.” Leroy says.

Derek regards the holy symbol. “Hm. That seems like a treasure that should not leave the land.” Under his breath he mutters “... though a holy symbol that doesn’t involve a god would be useful. If contradictory...”

Niobe- “I agree. A place like this is ripe for one of Strahd’s minions to try and re-establish the same domination over Barovia that he did. Are there any priest of Ravenloft left to give it to?” She has her spear and shield set to “inoffensive”.

Sergei, “I am not sure if it doesn’t represent a god, it could just be so old that no one really remembers the god that it is from.  If you insist I think we can find a priest of faith here still to get to hold it, or maybe now that we are free of the demi-plane we can get another paladin to come act as defender of our faith there.”

Ismark and Ireena nod agreement to the statement.

Derek nods and hands over the holy symbol. “Do your best, Master Sergei.”

Sergei, “I will.  This land deserves the best that we can give it.  There is much to do.  Is there anything we can do for you all, something that will help to thank you for freeing us?”

Niobe- “I require nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done. I can’t speak for my compatriots, though.”

Derek  “Some place to rest and take stock of what we have would benefit us all, I think.”

Sergei waives a hand around them, “well my home is yours.  As my brother is gone, it is now mine in truth.  As long as I live here you are free to come and stay whenever you are here.  It may be awhile before the castle is truly ready to have guests, but let's try not to use the crypts as an inn anymore.”

Derek snorts “As you wish, milord. But truly, yours was the only place in the land that felt uncontaminated with evil. You’ll have to excuse us for wanting that much respite.”

Sergei, “I hold no ill will for that.  I am glad that it was a good respite.  Hopefully the land will no longer be a harbor for such evils.  When you are ready we can move on from here.”

Niobe- “Lead on, good sir.”


Clifford has become very fluffy.

As Sergei escorts the party through the castle they come to the room where Talon fought against Strahd’s master and find three men looking around the room.  When they enter the men all look at Sergei and the party.  At the same time all three men ask “Where is he, where did he go?”  They share annoyed looks with each other before looking back to the party waiting for answers. One steps forward while the other two move to a more supportive role.  The one that stepped to the front is dressed in dark clothing wearing a wide-brimmed hat that casts a shadow over his face making it impossible to make out his features.  Another stands tall with his arms crossed over his chest.  He wears a vest and pants and has a sword strapped at his waist.  His red hair and beard go down to his waist.  The last man looks almost the same as the second except for the hammer that he holds at his side and being dressed in just a loin cloth.

Niobe- “Lord Sergei, do you know these men?” Her weapons remain set to “inoffensive”.

Sergei shakes his head, “I do not.”

Niobe shrugs- “I am Niobe, a paladin. Well met, and who might you be?” She hazards a detect evil as she says this, as a convenient time to test drive it.  No evil...from anyone except Tinyra. Niobe is rather pleased not to get a headache from using that.

The man in the wide-brimmed hat starts to tap his foot, “Talon, where is he.  We know he was here.”

Derek, blandly “Who are you again?”

Niobe says nothing.

Bra, who also wears a broad-brimmed hat, but to keep the sun out of his eyes, stares at them a little sideways, and examines them closely for telltale signs of their identities.  He is not able to spot anything that helps identify them.

Clifford, who is currently large size, selects the guy with a hammer to trot up to and sit in front of, wagging his tail and sniffing.

Leroy eyes the man, then rests his hand on his rapier “Lad, we have not seen Talon in awhile, disappeared before me eyes. What be ye business with him?” he asks the man.

Tinyra cocks her head watching the three thinking there is something she should know about them, but cannot place it.

The hammer wielding man watches Clifford with a slightly surprised look on his face before reaching out and petting him. Clifford smiles and leans into the pets.

The sword wielding man looks to the leader and says, “I am not sure we made it here as fast as we thought.  I can not sense him anywhere close to us.  Not sure he is still on this plane.”

Leroy looks to the man that spoke, “Me did not lie, he vanished before me eyes.”

The man with the hat shakes his head slowly, “It is important that we find him.  He is meddling with things that are better left untouched.”

Clifford then trots over to the man with that hat, grabs at the hat with his teeth and bounces backward, clearly playing.

Derek raises an eyebrow. “Is that so? Like what, for example?”

The man steps back suddenly able to keep from getting his hat removed. Clifford bounces around him, barking playfully and wagging his tail, pausing every so often to lean forward in doggy-play-ready position.

Leroy, Eli, Tinyra and Clifford all notice that the man only has one eye.  The other appears to be an empty socket.

Brak, listening intently- “As it happens, we are fairly accomplished adventurers, and so speaking plainly may be more helpful than being coy.”

The man holding the hammer, “he speaks the truth.  It wouldn’t hurt to give them a little more information.”

The man with the hat lowers his head and then raises it far enough that everyone can see that he only has one eye.  The other is an empty socket, “Talon thinks to meddle in the affairs of gods.  His intentions could lead to a war that no one wants.”

Clifford stops bothering him and moves on to sword dude for attention.

Leroy motions to Eli to come to him.

Eli moves over and stands next to Leroy offering a slight nod and listening.

Leroy leans to Eli and says “He is not the evil guy me thought he would be, he has both of his hands.” and then nods to Eli

Derek mutters “Who wants a war.” Out loud he says “I see. Well, best of luck with that.”

Eli looks to the man with the hat then back to Leroy and writes, I don’t know much about religious figures.  Ask Niobe or Tinyra who he is.

Tinyra still seems to be looking at them like she should know them, but doesn’t.

The man in the hat nods to the group, “if he is gone we will not keep you longer.”  Turning to his two minions and looking at the one with the sword, “outside, summon the Bifrost, we return home.”

Leroy reads the note then nods “Now be the time for that.” he looks at Tinyra and Niobe “They be still mad with yer captain.”

Niobe looks like she wants to offer to help, without committing everyone to another epic planes-spanning quest. At least not until next weekend. “Gentlemen, if later we learn of Talon’s whereabouts, if you tell us who you are we may be able to let you know.”

The man looks back to Niobe as they start to leave, “I am Odin.  Pray to me, and I will hear.”  They start to make their way out.

Niobe is nonplussed.

Leroy jaw drops at the sound of Odin’s name.

Brak- “I need a drink.”

Derek makes a face. “Hells no.” He looks at the group. “Shall we leave?”

Tinyra snaps her fingers, “I should have put that together.”  then looks to Brak, “might need a few drinks.”

Brak- “It’s not like the gods send one avatar to any one place often, much less three of them.”

“Aye, at least it be a god we didnt have to fight or deal with.” Leroy stutters out

“Yet,” Arvin says darkly. “And what was with that one guy in no clothes? Land people are so strange.”

Eli nods agreement with Derek.

We make our way out of Castle Ravenloft! The party walks and talks at the same time, guided by Sergei.

Clifford - “Isn’t that a human deity?”

“Not one of mine,” Arvin grumbles.

Brak- “Yes, all of them were, and from the same pantheon.”

Clifford looks perplexed. “Do human deities often show up?”

Brak- “Not ever. You could go several lifetimes without seeing one, unless you went to them; their abodes are on the plane of Ysgard.”

Leroy states “Not if things are to be get real messed up Clifford.”

Derek sneers. “Same as any other deity; usually only if they are summoned. They must have come on their own, though, as the entire area wasn’t obliterated.”

Tinyra, “That is not comforting at all.”

Clifford scratches his neck. “So… Talon must be pretty important himself. Is he a deity?”

Brak considers this- “That is not something I had considered before, but it would explain a great many things about him. Although his presence at Vallaki in the guise of a hapless youth several days ago would then be...odd.”

Leroy sarcastically says “Maybe we should pray to Talon and have him show up?” while shrugging to the group.

Eli writes, you think that is why Talon left so fast each time he did anything.

Clifford - “Because it makes his deity-ness obvious? At least to other deities?”

“Or because he’s on the run,” Arvin says.

Derek “It doesn’t matter. Let us leave.”

Niobe- “I’m with Derek. We can deal with the Norsemen if we run into Talon again.”

Eli nods his agreement again.

Clifford shrugs, leaving it up to the party.

Leroy folds his hands into a prayer motion, then says loudly “Talon, hear my prayers, please come to me and give me guidance.”  Nothing appears to happen.

Brak makes sure to keep at least 20’ between him and Leroy.

Niobe keeps at least 20’ between her and Leroy all the time anyway.

Leroy looks to the group, “well me tried.”

Eli just shakes his head.

After the party finishes their conversations and leave the castle they find Akara waiting for them.  She offers them a smile, “I am glad to see that you were successful.”  Then holds her hand out to the party, “If you would join me, I will take you to the Hall of Shadows.  There we can help you with just about anything you need.”

Niobe, unusually tactless- “Akara, what god do you serve?”

Akara makes a face at the question and then says, “he is not a god.”  She takes a deep breath, “though I guess that also depends on your description of a god.  I work with more than serve Talon.”

Niobe- “Who is he, really? Did he grant you your wings?”

Akara, “What do you mean by really?”  then she nods slowly, “he did.  Though it was more casting a very powerful spell in order to help in a time of need.”

Niobe- “When we left the Prime Material plane, I had a strange vision, and a voice telling me about some spark of divinity inside me. At first I thought it might be pregnancy- which would have been uncomfortable- but turned out to be transforming from a human into a half-celestial. I have yet to figure out who granted it to me.”

Akara shrugs, “those might be questions better asked of Talon.  I don’t know if he did the same for you that he did for me.”

Niobe bristles a little bit. “Well. Now I want to go find him.”

Akara, “where do you think I would take you?  He lives in the Hall of Shadows.  If he is not there when we get there he will return at some point.”

Brak- “Where is the Hall of Shadows?”

Akara, “It was built in a city in Undermountain.  It however is not just there.  It shifts between planes and demi-planes.  You cannot easily get there unless you have the right means of travel.”  She pulls out a small red crystal skull and shows it to the party, “though you already have the item you need to help you get there.”

Derek shakes his head. “Then let us go.”

Akara waves for everyone to come close, “I can teleport us there.”

Brak grumbles a bit at not being able to do it himself, but holds on for the ride.

As the party arrives in a large cavern that has a huge tree in the middle of it.  The tree reaches up almost to the ceiling where there is a huge spider web strung across the ceiling just above the tip of the tree.  From around the spiderweb small areas give off light that is as bright as a noon day sun and gives off the same level of warmth.  It appears that this light is probably what keeps the tree alive.  Akara leads the party to a side room that has a very heavy looking vault door that currently hangs open.  Once inside the party sees Talon standing in front of a glass display that holds a single eye floating in the middle suspended by magic.  Talon stands next to a tall elven looking woman wearing a gold-trimmed gown that looks as if it is the height of fashion.
 
Talon, “No, Lashonna, I don’t understand how it is still out there and we continue to run into wielders of the eye.”
 
Lashonna, “You have had the eye here for years now, and yet it seems that there are two.  As far as I know there should only be one.”
 
Talon shakes his head slowly and looks back to Lashonna, “we have this conversation every time you come here.  I understand, there is nothing we can do and if we ever manage to get the second one then maybe I can figure out what is going on.  What really brings you here today.”
 
Lashonna sighs, “You know that Vecna and the cult of the Kyuss are pushing harder in the last few years.  We are in danger.”
 
Talon, “there is always some danger.  What specifically are you worried about?”
 
Akara motions for the party to stay with her and wait for the conversation to finish.
 
Lashonna, “Dragotha intends to release Kyuss from his prison.  He wants to usher in the Age of Worms.  It has taken Dragotha nearly 1,500 years to reach this point.  If he is removed now it will be centuries before anything has another chance to try and release the Worm god again.  The problem is that Dragotha does not know where his phylactery is.  It must be destroyed so that he can be destroyed.  I have a servant, Balakarde, that left for the Wormcrawl Fisure, against my advice, intending to learn more about Dragotha.  He never returned, but at least he had the foresight to leave his journal fragments with me.  His journal and his disappearance have become something of a minor obsession of mine, I must confess.  I have spent the last sixteen years, on and off, studying the lore of Kyuss, of Dragotha, and associated matters.  And while I have not managed to determine where Dragotha’s phylactery is hidden, I do believe I know where that information might be found
           As Balakarde mentions in his journal, the Age of Worms and Kyuss’ resurrection was stopped fifteen centuries ago by the Order of the Storm.  Historians believe that the Order died out not long after this victory, hunted down and destroyed by the last surviving members of the cult of Kyuss.  These records are incorrect.  The Order instead retreated to their stronghold on a romote island in the Nyr Dyv called Tilagos.
           On this island there is a library of sorts, a repository of the Order’s lore.  It has been sought for centuries by wizards, scholars, and explorers, for it is said to be filled with hundreds of years of history, memories, dreams, and of course secrets.  Secrets are so valuable and seems the longer they are kept, the more they are worth.  If a written account of the secret of what happened to Dragotha’s phylactery exists, it must certainly be there.
           Of course, there are complications” she pauses briefly, “there always are, right?” and before Talon can stay anything she continues.  “Before they built this library, the Order of the Storm drove a lasting bargain with primal elemental forces.  They sacrificed their lives to whisk the island’s interior off the Material Plane.  In its place is a barren rock surrounded by an ever-raging storm of such intensity that ships that approach within ten miles are invariably lost.  The island itself appears on no maps, but the stories hint that the druids left a way for those in need to reach their secrets while at the same time warding the place away from the prying eyes of Kyuss’ undead fanatics.
           Worse, I am afraid others have learned this as well, in part as an unfortunate result of my own research.  I have a fair amount of competition in the area of gathering and keeping secrets,” at this comment Talon cocks his head to the side, though he remains patient.  “and invariably word gets out that I’ve made a discovery.  My enemies are always quick to nip at my heels.  I speak, in particular, of a simpering dog of a man name Heskin who once served me.  I am afraid Heskin has been wooed from my side with promises of wealth and power and has taken word of this discovery to a disreputable man indeed, a powerful priest of Vecna named Darl Quethos.”
 
As Lashonna finishes Talon sighs, “I will look into this.  I must see if we have any agents available to go to this library.  Go back to the waiting room.” Talon looks over at the party from Lashonna, “I have some other business I need to attend to now and will see about getting someone to follow Darl as soon as possible.”
 
Lashonna growls, “Why not go yourself, if this waits too long then it could mean disaster for more than just my home kingdom.  You will not be safe here in your underground domain.”
 
Talon, “I cannot act directly without consequence.  Any more than you can act directly without consequence to your interests.  This must be approached carefully.  I know people I trust that might take this up.  Go back to the waiting room.  I will be with you shortly.
 
Lashonna curses and turns walking briskly past the party, hardly giving them a glance as she moves.  After she is gone Talon moves forward to the party, “I am glad to see you ok, were you able to capture Strahd?”

Leroy quickly looks to Niobe and mouths the words “Do not mention the eye.”

Niobe pointedly ignores Leroy.

Arvin says nothing and says it very loudly in Leroy’s direction. If “shut up” were a posture, that’s what she would be doing.

Derek holds up the Iron Flask. “In here. Some gods from another plane were looking for you.”

Talon looks at Leroy and then back at the eye in his display case.  Shakes his head slowly and then looks to Derek, “May I have the flask?” Nodding slowly, “Yes I suspected there would be.  Did they cause you problems and do you know which gods they were?”

Derek hands over the flask. “The leader called himself ‘Odin’. Brak recognized their home plane.”

Brak- “In appearance, there were Odin All Father, Thor, the Norsemen’s god of thunder, and Heimdall, controller of the Bifrost bridge. Beings that powerful can mask their own shapes with ease, though.”

Talon takes the flask and starts to move towards a wall of bookshelves, “True enough Brak.  In this case I believe that was probably correct.  They are not likely to pretend to be someone else, and few would pretend to be them.”  At the shelf he places the flask in a place marked ‘Strahd’ next to another flask marked ‘Dracula’  There are easily a few dozen other flasks with various names under them.

“Thor could have pretended to have some clothes,” Arvin mutters.

Derek looks amused “Maybe he swims frequently and finds it more convenient.

Brak- “They seemed keen to find you. Are you Loki, their god of mischief?”

Talon shakes his head, “I am not Loki.  I am not a god.”

Niobe- “Then who -or what- are you?” She’s sensing motives on Talon.

Leroy folds his hands into a prayer stance. Then mutters under his breath “Odin here my prayer, I have found Talon.”

Talon looks at Leroy and then to the party, “he thinks that will work?”  Then shakes his head slowly, “of course he does.”

Derek shrugs “That god invited us to do so.”

Talon, “I more meant he thinks it will work here.  This place is disguised in such a way that the gods will not be able to find it.  Your prayers will not leave here to their ears.”

Niobe- “And what is this place? The Hall of Shadows, yes, Akara told us.”

Talon looks to Niobe, “I am sorry for not answering your first question.  I am Talon.  You might have to be more specific with your question, but I think you want to know what I am if I am not a god.  I am someone that is in the middle of doing things that a few gods do not like.  This place is protected simply.  I have lined all the walls with lead.  Divine scrying cannot see inside, and an added benefit it helps to prevent your words from reaching divine ears. Simple but expensive solution.  Yes this is the Hall of Shadows.”

Derek, in an aside to Leroy, “Captain, don’t be rude. It is not done to betray one’s employer, especially if the other party hasn’t offered a better deal.”

Leroy looks to Derek and tips his captain hat at him, “Pirate.” then winks then glances at Talon “besides, he hasnt made payment to us for this nonsense. I like me booty large.”

Derek rolls his eyes. “Not for the vampire, yet, but he did equip us quite generously.”

Niobe- “What kind of task have you put yourself to that three different gods- all from one pantheon- are looking for you?”

Talon, “They might be looking for me because I stole a piece of Nerull’s divinity.”

“That would do it,” Arvin mutters.

“Well he might have equipped us, but still booty be botty first mate, and i like to make sure we all get paid.” Leroy says.

Niobe, nonplussed, thinks “That’s not the answer I was expecting.”

Leroy looks to Talon and asks “So if ye lined this thing with lead, and no gods can hear prayers, that means all dietys and gods?”

Brak- “Why would the Norse care? Nerull has nothing to do with them.”

Talon nods to Leroy and looks to Brak, “because they don’t know what I am going to do next.”

Derek looks like he’s realized something “Ah, a case of if you could do it to one of them you could do it to any of them?”

Brak- “What do you plan to do in the long term? Stealing pieces of divinity isn’t actually a good retirement plan.”

Talon, “I plan to.  Though slowly and with care.  There is a balance that could be destroyed.  I don’t have a retirement plan.”

Niobe, who is not into “balance” but more into The Ultimate Victory of Good Over Evil- “What balance are you talking about?”

Talon, “Let’s say I manage to completely remove Nerull as a deity.  There will be a void there that will be filled by the other gods.  It is more likely that an evil god will fill that void.  Do it too often and suddenly there is an evil god with enough power to completely overthrow a good one.  Now the worlds and planes will suffer more because of it.  There cannot be Good without Evil, or Chaos without Law.  Though it is more complicated than simply saying that.”

Derek suddenly looks more like a sulky teenager than he ever has this entire time. “This may be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. What’s the point?’

Talon, “Currently, My goal is to prevent Demons and Devils from having free access to all planes of existence.  They do enough damage on their own planes.”

Brak, quietly- “The Blood War keeps them occupied.” More loudly, “And who is that elf you were talking to? And what is this eye you have here?”

Talon, “That is the eye of Vecna.  Or at least one of them.  There seems to be two of them currently.  Not sure how that is yet.  She is someone concerned with a cult that is trying to bring back an ancient god.  If they succeed, it could be bad.”

Brak- “According to legend, Vecna lost only one of his eyes when Kas attacked him.” Brak flagrantly says the word “Vecna” as if he’s some rando wizard no one’s ever heard of.

Leroy begins to sweat, and does nothing or says nothing about the eye.

Clifford tilts his head at Niobe, but says nothing.

Talon nods to Brak, “yes and that is why I am confused.  Just a week ago we ran into someone using the eye.  He escaped.  I came back here and checked.  The eye was still here. No one has been able to remove it from my stronghold.”

Leroy laughs very nervously and then looks for a corner to hide in.

Talon looks to Leroy, “Vecna cannot see or touch you here.”

“I DONT WANT TO HEAR HIS NAME! I DONT WANT TO HEAR ANY TALK OF HIS EYE OR ANYTHING! MAKE IT STOP!” Leroy goes into the fetal position and rocks back and forth.

Arvin gives a heavy sigh, then takes a blanket out of her pack and throws it over Leroy, it covers his curled up form completely.

Clifford goes to sit next to Leroy and leans on him.

Eli blinks watching Leroy’s reaction.

Niobe stares at Leroy, mouth agape.

Brak- “What year was it when you all left your planet on the Prime Material Plane, and what year is it now, as far as you know?”

Derek looks like he has a headache. “By whose calendar? Every city has a different one, as do the various tribes.”

Talon, “as far as I can tell you have all been missing for about two hundred years.  I spent a year after coming back from the giant wars trying to figure out what happened to you all.  I found the village where you fought the werewolves and a small statue of a white rabbit that had been burned out.  From there I couldn’t find out what happened to you.”

Niobe exhales at this.

Brak- “Time did strange things in Dungeonland….on the plus side, that means anyone who would have any reason to dislike me is dead. Which is nice.”

Talon nods slowly, “I have been trying to look into that as well.  Time travel is hard on people.  Time moves in a straight line.  But only for the person experiencing it.  The first time I met all of you was not the first time you all met me.”

Leroy continues to rock back and forth muttering out words little by little as if he has gone mad “two.. Hundred… they… been… in.. locker… for… two… hundred..”

Brak- “Yes, we met a much younger version of you outside Vallaki, a couple of days before we attacked Strahd’s castle.”

Talon nods, “Yes.  That was the first time I saw your group.  Years later I recognized Leroy, Niobe, Eli and Derek.  I assumed that since I saw you all trying to help in that village you might help the city I could not help.  Thank you for that.  I hope you were able to get sufficient reward from them.”  He then looks at Leroy, “I might have a way to get you back to your time.  There might be no need for anyone to spend two hundred years in a locker.”  At this Talon looks a little confused.

Leroy stops rocking and looks to Talon, “Meanin, me crew can be saved from him and the Locker?”

Talon shrugs, “meaning you can go back and try instead of try now some two hundred years later.”

Leroy looks to Talon, “send me now. Me has the gold, and the woman. He must honor the deal he made with me when he spared me life that day.” he sounds frantic and desperate.

Talon, “I cannot send you back right now.  There is however a possibility.  You all heard my conversation with Lashonna?” asked almost as a statement.

Leroy grabs Talon by his shoulders and looks at him with despair in his eyes “If we did, what are ye askin for from us?”

Talon side steps Leroy’s attempt to grab him.

Derek “We did.”

Brak- “Talon, can you give us a few moments? We need to discuss this.”

Talon nods to Brak, “also if you would,” raises a hand to point to a table down the way from them, “place anything you need identified there.  I will have a few mages start working on that for you.”  He looks to Derek, “consider it payment for the effort you have put in so far.”  Give him a slight smile before stepping away to give them space, leaving them alone in the room they are in.

Brak manifests fly so that when the party makes an American football-style huddle he’s up at shoulder level.

Niobe spreads her wings wide so that there will be no lip reading from across the room.

Niobe, quietly- “First things first. Leroy, calmly, tell us what this is about lockers and two hundred years. More details than forcing me and Tinyra into marriage.”

Tinyra, “I still want to be done with this marriage.”

Eli settles back and looks through his bags to see if he has anything good to much on while listening to Leroy.

Leroy looks to the group and then sighs “Talon said we be gone for two hundred years, meaning for two hundred years me first crew me served with as first mate was killed with me captain in front of me eyes by Davey Jones. He sent them there with promise to release them souls at 1,000gp a head, a total of 100,000 gp. I have 68,000 gp so far. Then he said me must find me first love and bring her with me to make payment. The woman and crew go free, me goes to the locker to free them all and me captain. Me was drunk when a dark priest met me, made me sign a blood letter pact with you know who and was promised you know who would destroy Davey Jones. You know who visited me twice saying to deliver him you know what to him or else. Some voice said me doesnt have to and so here we be at.”

Niobe’s face is unreadable.

Brak cause he’s a little cruel- “ ‘You know who being Vecna. And you know what being his Eye.”

Leroy shoots an evil look at Brak “Yes, master smart ass.”

Clifford - “I don’t know much about blood pacts. What are the consequences of not holding up your end?”

Eli writes, we have the eye from one point in time, Talon has the eye from another.  Do we know which is the older eye?  Or even how to determine which is the older eye.

Brak- “Not yet.”

Leroy shrugs “Me dont know. It was never told me. The second vision when he came to me with blood out the eyes said me was his play thing and me was his to destroy with the other voice saying me didnt have to do that.”

Clifford scratches his neck. “ We could ask Talon when he got the eye. Ours is from 200 years ago, yes?”

Eli, you remember when he came to us in the cave.  He said we were further in the future than just 200 years.  We have already started to come back in time again.

Brak- “One thing at a time. Leroy, if we kill Davey Jones, whoever he is, instead of Vecna doing it, the blood pact is null and void. Yes?”

Leroy shrugs “More of the blood pact letter the priest for you know who said was for the eye. Me needs to kill Davey Jones to save me other crew.”

Brak- “So you signed a blood pact for nothing. You get nothing out of the bargain.”

“In fairness me was drunk, and it was forced upon me at that point.” Leroy adds

Tinyra, “You seem to be drunk a lot.” in a dead flat tone.

Leroy shoots her a look “If ye lost yer only father figure in this world and friends at the time, ye would drink too. Besides its pirate code to drink.”

Brak- “So kill Davey Jones is task number one. Task number zero is figure out how to uncurse Tinyra and Leroy, yes?”

Tinyra, “Thank you.  Though getting back to the time when Leroy was sent to the future might be better then doing it now.  Better to not leave those souls to suffer all that time.”

Clifford says, “So… we don’t need the eye at all?”

Brak- “No, unless we have to leave it somewhere for Talon to find a hundred years ago. Or from now. Or something. We’ll ask him next. Do we need to go find and kill the priest with whom you signed the blood pact? Like make him sign it as complete, on pain of lots and lots of pain?”

Leroy looks to Brak “Me has not seen him since that night in that inn room. He disappeared.”

Derek “Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”

Leroy nods to Derek “Of course first mate!”

Derek “Then be alert for him wherever we go. Killing a priest will not be difficult, especially if he does not expect it.”

Eli, especially if we can get the drop on him.

Derek raises his eyebrows at Eli, as if to say “have you forgotten what I do” but realizes that he's been careful to never say what he does, even though everyone can probably tell. He ends up looking slightly embarrassed.

Eli offers Derek a shrug.

Leroy nods “Aye, it will be since the time me has joined you all, it been bout a year since that night, and year after the crew was taken from Davey Jones.”

Brak- “Then if we can control when and where we reappear, we can all get a look at him, if not ambush him 15 minutes after he walks away with the signed pact. How do we get to Davey Jones to get your crew?”

“Or just go early and pull Leroy out of the bar so he doesn’t make it?” Arvin suggests.

Brak- “Then we’re causing paradoxes for no reason. Maybe.”

Leroy looks to Arvin and Brak “To get to Davey Jones, I have the coordinates on a map to where he makes break on surface. We need a ship to get there. For the bar, me knows the bar and can tell you when it happens.”

Niobe- “Coordinates on your oh-so-interesting map?”

Leroy shakes his head to Niobe “mistress Niobe not that map. That map be as helpful as a potato fighting a dragon. Different map.”

Eli snorts.

Niobe- “Good.” She actually smiles at him a bit.

Derek “Let us ask Talon if he has any idea how to break the bond between Mistress Tinyra and the Captain. If we have to we can make it part of the price for helping him with his god-theiving. Let us also get all of the treasure we acquired identified, appraised, distributed as it will be of the most advantage, and whatever we decide we don’t need, sold.”

Tinyra, “I would like that.”

Leroy nods and agrees “Me seconds that.”

Brak- “Then item two: do we tell Talon we have the Eye? I say yes.”

Eli writes, Might be the best way to determine which is the older eye.  I doubt we'll ever be able to destroy the younger one.

Niobe- “I’m not leaving it with him, whatever happens. I’m taking it to Mount Celestia and handing it over to the Archons there.”

Leroy says “Me is with the lass on this.”

Derek “We are agreed then.” He looks over at the table Talon indicated “I will begin setting out our unidentified items.”

Niobe- “I’ll tell Talon, then.”

There are a few mages standing there waiting, carefully not looking at the party.

Derek strolls over and starts piling things higher and higher on the table.

Eli nods.

Niobe goes over to the table and dumps out whatever it is she carries that is unidentified.

Tinyra takes a seat by the table, watching the mages work on the items.  Trusting Niobe to handle the getting her uncursed part.

Niobe goes to find Talon. “

She minds Talon a room over waiting and reading.  He looks up at Niobe as she enters, looking behind her to see if anyone else comes with her.

Niobe- “We have several things to tell you. First, I carry the Eye of Vecna. If there is a way to figure out whether mine is older than yours or younger, we would like to know, but we will leave here with it and place it with the Archons on Mount Celestia.”

Talon looks thoughtful, “That could explain a few things.”  he closes his book and stands up, “I can see some reasons for doing that.  I think you might want to go check the eye yourself.  I cannot open the case it is in.”  He stands and waves for her to come over, “you helped me seal it in its place.”

Niobe crunches her eyes shut. “How long ago?”

Talon, “around 200 years ago.”  as they reach the case he touches it.  His hand seems to be pushed back before he can even touch it, “It was a nice spell that you used.  It also has remained very well hidden here.”  waves for her to attempt to open the case.

Niobe- “I don’t think I should, in case the presence of both Eyes causes some reaction.”

She sighs. “So I either have to carry the Eye until we loop back to meeting centuries ago, or I will find it again later.”

Talon, “If this is the younger eye, you should take it back.  At some point it gets lose again.  If you leave the older one here in this field it will be safe until you come for it again.”  He points to a nearby room, “we can have them examined separately to determine which is older.”

Niobe- “Something happens in the future to make me believe this is the safest place to keep the Eye, but now I do not. So I’ll pass. As part of our payment for helping you, we need your help in removing the curse that binds Tinyra to Leroy.”

Talon nods, “done.”

Niobe- “Thank you. I see your assistants are identifying all of our stuff, so I’ll see what we have.”

Talon, “Are you still interested in getting sent back to your timeline?”

Niobe- “Yes. I think we have to be.”

Talon nods, “The library that Lashonna talked of has answers that I need to help with that.  It also might have answers that you need about the eye, and maybe other questions you or your group have.”

Niobe- “I’m sure we’ll have plenty. And Brak will probably have lots of research he wants to do.”

Talon nods, “I will talk to Lashonna.  She can wait for a while longer.  You work with your party and let me know what else you need after everything is identified.  Almost everything you need from a normal large city is available within these walls.  Ask for me again when you are ready to talk with Lashonna and we can find out where you need to go to find this Library.”

Niobe- “Thank you.” She head over to see what is coming of the identifications.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXXII

Day 214- Mostly borderline OOC treasure divvying and magic item upgrades.

(click to show/hide)

They party watches as a whole bunch of stuff gets identified and some low level wizards get absolutely shitfaced.

Niobe picks through the piles of jewelry and, although things like the 11,000 gp platinum tiara are appealing, she sighs and picks out some stuff that’s a bit more subdued...but still shiny. She decides that she’ll mostly just upgrade her existing equipment, rather than picking up new stuff. Niobe deposits the Tome of Strahd in Talon’s library.

Brak espies Strahd’s spellbooks and is on it like Tony Montoya on a torso-sized pile of coca-aine. He also finds some minion wizard and divests himself of the following: the map of Ravenloft, the Yellow Spell Book, the book on fiend summoning, the book on the Cult of Osybus, and the Derringer.

Arvin spends some time in a rod of security, enjoying the quiet and gets +2 wisdom from her Tome. She also acquires beastskin armor and the Amulet of Tears. She comes back in a much better mood, though she still desperately misses the ocean.

Derek picks out some nice equipment, including the dagger of Venom, one of the Amulets of natural armor +5 (swapping it for his +4 amulet) (Derek can get 20K for the +4 amulet), and the body feeder longbow. His current bow is perfectly adapted for what he needs, but it’s always good to have a backup. He also takes a couple of pieces of black jewelry - the pearl ,and th black opal platinum necklace - because they match his color scheme. He grabs one of the Tomes of Gainful Exercise, and the Amulet of proof against detection and location.
 
Leroy looks for the amulet of natural armor, chain shirt and the rapier. He knows a good upgrade when he sees one.

Eli offers his Skin of Celestial Embrace to the party if anyone wants to have it. Eli takes the +6 belt and offers his +2 belt to the party if no one wants it will sell it.  Eli Sells his +4 Amulet of Natural armor once it is replaced with a +5 Amulet.

Brak claims Strahd’s spellbook, the staff of frost (once it’s de-cursified), the crystal ball (as party treasure).

Brak also offers up his boots of striding and springing, cause he either walks or flies.

Leroy takes up Braks offer, flings his boots off, and puts them on. They are comfy, and thanks Brak. “Me can now jump higher and faster, master Brak.”

Brak smirks. “Glad to be of service, oh captain my captain.”

Leroy smiles at this.

Clifford will take Eli’s old belt and the remaining tome. He’s hoping the nice lady who enchanted his existing equipment before will be able to improve it now. He also decides to take the ring of fire resistance, because it’s red and all his other stuff is red too.

Brak disappears into a rod of security for a minute, but what is probably several months on the inside. He returns a more powerful wizard and knows a crapload more spells (thanks, Strahd! You’re the best.)

Leroy walks over to Tinyra and looks to her “Lass,” he says “Me has something to say to you, got a minute?”

Tinyra gives Leroy a wary look and doesn’t say anything.

Leroy gives her a smirk look “Me promises its worth ye while to talk.” he croons to her.

Arvin hears the crooning and frowns, she goes to stand by Niobe and gives Tinyra a reassuring smile.

Niobe hears it as well, and goes to watch, although she just stands at a distance with a Look of Disapproval at Leroy, and her arms akimbo. She figures it’s faster to disapprove to begin with.

Tinyra continues to stare at Leroy, starting to look a little impatient.

Leroy stares at her and glares a bit “Ye want this ring removed?” then flashes his ring up to her

Tinyra nods.

Leroy smiles “Excellent lass, After speaking to Master Talon, he agreed to undo the wish me made and ye be free forever from this party and can move on.”

Tinyra, “I was there.  I heard that part of the conversation.”

Leroy looks at her “well me didnt know if ye heard or not, so me asks this question, will ye divorce me?”

Tinyra, “The first chance I get to divorce you I will.”

Leroy claps his hands together “Alrighty then, me and you can move on then. Master Talon,” Leroy calls out, “Can ye undo the magic spell now?” Leroy hears no response then yells really loudly “OH MASTER TAAAAAAALLLLOOOOON”

Tinyra shakes her head and turns to go to one of the mages identify items, “would it be possible for one of you to go find Talon and ask him to come back before he screams the building down on us.”

Leroy shakes his head at this and mutters “Me wouldnt scream the building down.”

Tinyra just gives Leroy a look as the one of the mages staggers off slightly intoxicated.  It takes another ten minutes before a few new mages come by to join the ones working on identifying items and Talon comes with them looking at Leroy, “I hear you are shouting for me.”

Leroy smiles slyly “Well Master Talon, me was not sure if you were near or far, me apologizes for that, but Me would like you to officiate the ceremony of divorceness between me and Tinyra the succubus please.”

Talon looks around for a second then back to Leroy, “If I didn’t explain it well enough before my apologies, but I can do nothing yet.  We will have mages come to look at the rings and then see what we can figure out.  We cannot just do it right now.”

Leroy’s face goes from happy to shock and sad “oh..” he says. He looks down at his feet for a second and then looks up “Look me is not trying to be married to her anymore, me would like her to leave, no money for her, and me go on with me life and forget this ever happened.” he says.

Talon cocks his head slightly to the side, “I think forgetting that this ever happened would be a bad idea.”

Tinyra just glares at Leroy.

Leroy looks determined “Me will forget it, on purpose, because this marriage will be non canon. Never happened. Didn’t exist. Was omitted from history. Ye can pick yer favorite saying and place it there.” His gaze is on Talon and no one else.

Talon just shakes his head, “You don’t learn from your mistakes do you?”  Then turns and walks out of the room again.

Leroy looks toward where Talon walks out, waits a minute, and says loudly “Me has a slow learning curve!” with his hand to his mouth to project his voice.

Niobe watches this whole thing, and although she approves of Leroy trying to set Tinyra free, disapproves of everything else on principle.

Tinyra goes back to a corner with a book she found reading again.

Leroy shrugs his shoulders, goes to a table, sits down and pulls out his new sword. He begins to inspect it and clean it.

The party spends the rest of the day divvying up things, while Derek displays his mastery of the occult science of Accountancy. All are impressed, as what he does is damn near Magick.

Clifford watches the Accountancy and then has a very pensive look on his face. He looks at his bags, and pulls out a dog biscuit to eat. As he is chewing, he suddenly gets a far away look in his eyes. He snarfs down the rest of the biscuit and then waits, but his feet are tapping in anticipation. He looks around to see if Akara is nearby.

Akara happens to be in another corner reading also.  She appears to be waiting for the party if they need anything.

Clifford bounds over to her. “Akara, Akara!” he says excitedly. “You remember how you had that magic bag, and we bought stuff from you? And you sold me dog biscuits?!”

Akara laughs and nods, “I did, though I don’t have that bag with me now.  We can likely get you what you want though.”

Clifford has started to look very deflated at the first part of what she said, but then perks up even more at the end. “Can you!! Get me!! SOME JERKY!!! FOR MY BAG!!!”

Akara nods seriously to Clifford, “How much do you need?”  There is a slight twitch to her lip as she tries not to laugh at his excitement.

Clifford looks very serious as he thinks about this. “How about ten dog biscuits’ worth? I think I have that much space in my bag.” He smiles huge, and then tilts his head. “Oh, I guess I should ask about enchanting my items further too. That would be good. And also JEEEEERKY” the last word turns into almost a howl of excitement.

Akara nods, “just let me know what you need and we will get it worked out.”

Clifford bounces up and leans on Akara. “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!”

Leroy looks to his cut and smiles, he counts out the 100,000 gp he needs and separates it from the rest of the gold he has. “Me has enough now.” a small tear forms in the corner of his eye “hang on me brothers, me will save ye soon.”

Niobe disappears into a rod of security for a week (on the inside) to study the manual of leadership and influence. She then stays inside to do some personal retraining, praying and meditation. And also gets Fjolhaefur, her belt of draconic might, and her breastplate all upgraded.

When Brak returns he pays a bunch of money to get his bow upgraded, even though he never uses it.  Everything that needs to be upgraded is taken into a rod of security by a mage who comes out a second later with the work done.

Arvin buys some gloves of dexterity +6 and another tome of wisdom, this one +3, she disappears again into the rod of security

Derek gets his armor, short sword, and gloves upgraded, (adding nimbleness and an AC bonus to the first, curse-spewing and hit bonuses to the second and making the third +6) , and buys a +2 Ring of Protection. He spends a couple weeks in a rod of security researching a couple of new spells to make his aim better, and studying his manual of gainful exercise. And he buys new clothes to replace the ones that the last three adventures ruined.

Eli sells his Skin of Celestial Embrace and his Elven Chain.  Then purchases  a +5 tome of leadership and influence, celestial armor that he upgrades to +5, and upgrades his bow to +3.  He then enters a rod to read his book as well.

Clifford asks to have his bracers upgraded to work on his claws as well, and to be more effective (+2). He also buys a ring of protection +5. He then takes his jerky and disappears into the rod for a while, mostly to run around, but also to use the tome he has.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXXIII

Day 214, still despite all the things they have managed to learn and experience.

(click to show/hide)

Brak emerges from the Rod of Security, having become a much more powerful wizard through who knows how much retraining, and is yet more intelligent, having acquired a tome of clear thought. He also considers that the group has really, really long days.

Eli comes out of his rod, now more irresistible then he was before.  Strong presence with no voice still.

Derek, Leroy and Arvin are off trying to figure out exactly what they want to purchase with all their new wealth.  Though Leroy might be spending the time trying to get someone to remove his curse despite being told there is nothing that can be done right now.

Brak considers that that is something that Leroy would definitely do.

Niobe emerges from her rod, also with a yet more magnetic personality, not quite blazing with holy power. She says she lost some skills with her spear, but is better all around at being a paladin.

Off to a corner of the large vault Talon and Akara sit talking while looking over a few books.

Niobe and Brak head over there and have a seat

Eli moves with them.

Tinyra comes and joins the group also.

Talon waves for them to sit as he looks to Akara, “Odin might be reasonable, if we can talk to them at the right time.  I think it would require finding neutral ground for the conversation.”  Then looks the party, “Everything working out so far?”

Akara just offers Talon a nod, gen gives a nod to the part as well before looking back into her book.

Niobe- “So far, yes. Talon, you started us on this journey, so you tell me: why and how did we end up in Dungeonland?”

Talon, “You touched a magic item that was connected to dungeonland.  There are more than one of those little white rabbit statues and other mirrors littered throughout time that can drag a person to dungeonland.  It is how the wizard there keeps his strength.  Without fresh bodies he would die.”

Brak- “A white rabbit statue is how I wound up there as well. The place appeared to implode when we killed the wizard. Is that not the case?”

Talon, “It might be destroyed.  The problem is Dungeonland doesn’t move through time at the same rate the rest of the planes do.  So it is destroyed at one point in the future, or possibly the past.  There are other points in time where it is still there.”

Brak mumbles “Perfect...”

Niobe- “Hmmm. Actually, why did you recruit us in the first place?”

Talon, “I recognized you.  When you helped Erlan.  That was the first time I ever saw you.  I believe the first time you saw me was when I asked you to help with the light house.”

Brak- “And so you knew, or at least had some idea, that they would meet Leroy, get to Dungeonland, meet me, travel to Ravenloft, and wind up here.”

Talon shakes his head slowly, “I knew nothing of Dungeonland then.  I knew that at some point you would end up in Ravenloft.  I did not know when or how.  I also could tell that you didn’t recognize me and did not want to change how you would do things in the future.  It was important for Erlan to survive that encounter.  If I said something you might not have ended up there.”

Niobe looks around to make sure that Leroy isn’t within earshot- “We actually found the Eye of Vecna in Dungeonland, right when we met Brak. Does that fact mean anything to you?”

Talon, “No.  Knowing that you found it lets me know that somehow either the eye here, or the one in your possession will get back to followers of Vecna.  If it doesn’t then I would not be running into people who possess it now.”

Niobe- “Was the Wizard in Dungeonland a follower of Vecna?”

Talon, “I don’t know.  I have never been to Dungeonland.  As far as I can tell you end up there in the future.  You would probably be able to answer that question better than I can.”

Brak- “You’re not missing anything.”

Niobe- “How many years away, and in what direction are we, from when you recruited us for the lighthouse?”

Talon, “We are far to the west.  On the sword coast.  Practically the opposite side of the continent from where I met you.  Nearly 100 years ago.”

Niobe- “So we’re 100 years in the future, compared to the war against the giants.”

Talon nods, “but I can get you back to your time, or at least close to it.”

Niobe- “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would like to go back at some point.”

Eli nods agreement.

Talon, “Of course.  I need more information to do.  If you go to the library and bring me back,”  he pulls out a small glass vial and sets it on the table, “that filled with the liquid you will find there, I think I will be able to get what I need to finish helping you.”  Talon gets a far off look before looking back to Niobe, “I have looked into this library a little bit.  It is not a traditional library in the normal sense, but it can give you knowledge you need.  I think that will help me finish figuring out what I need to get you home.”

Niobe- “Where is this library? Here?”

Talon, “for that you will need to talk with Lashonna.  There is some more information she can give you as well.  I will be there with you to help if you feel she doesn’t give you enough to get you there.  I believe she said the island of Tilagos is where you will have to get too.  We can go talk to her after this if you want.”

Brak- “Let’s do that later, we need more contextual information.”

Niobe nods. “I have some other nagging questions as well. Are you responsible for me turning into a half-celestial?”

Talon, “I believe that I am.  I can feel a connection to you.  So can Akara.  The same magic used to change Akara was used to change you.  So I figure that at some point I will change you with that magic.”

Niobe- “You said you’re not Loki, but are you divine or semi-divine in any way that you know of? Or maybe will you be?”

Talon, “I am now.  I stole a piece of Nerull’s divinity.  I have taken up a few dominions.”

Brak sneers, but in an amused way. “I can see why the Aesir would be nervous. If you can do it to Nerull, why not to them?”

Clifford wandered over a while ago, and looks like he is trying to concentrate very hard, tilting his head back and forth.

Talon nods, “I could, but at the same time it would not be easy.  I believe they fear that I might.”

Clifford - “So…. we are 100 years in future of where most of the pack came from, but you talked to us from this time while we were in dungeonland? How long ago was that from your perspective?”

Talon, “I have not talked to you in dungeonland yet.”

Clifford - “oh, should I not have said that?” he looks chagrined.

Brak- “Now he knows that he will need to. Us telling him that he will could just as well be what lets him know to look for the place and find us.”

Talon, “I have been looking for dungeonland for quite some time.  I will continue to look.  Even though I have you here now, and know that I will get you back to the past.  I will continue to work towards the same goals so as not to destroy time.”

Clifford looks a bit concerned at “destroy time” but continues. “So, we just met you in Ravenloft, but you’re now a bunch older, is Ravenloft in a different time than we are now? Or have you come back to this era from the future?”

Talon, “There are ways to get to Ravenloft in the pocket dimension it was in from different times.  Erlan was there at the same time I was.  I was there at the same time as you.  So it was the present for me.  For Erlan and his parents they were in his future.  You all were in your future, but had come back in time from farther in the future.”

Clifford- “What time was it when you got out of Ravenloft?”

Talon, “Yesterday morning.  I came back here shortly after you beat Strahd.  You all stayed another night before returning.”

Clifford - “I meant young you. Wait, that means you got trapped in Ravenloft twice from different time periods, and both versions of you returned when we beat Stradh?”

Talon, “Erlan was kind of trapped in Ravenloft.  He and his parents were able to escape using magic that brought them there.  Magic that I don’t know.  I was trapped there, I went there hunting Dracula.  I knew you would be there and hoped that you would be able to beat Strahd.”

Clifford - “So when Erlan and his parents left, they went back to when? More than 100 years ago, so that you could meet us in the lighthouse some time after you went back?”

Talon, “yes, Erlan and his parents left Ravenloft and ended up back in their present time.  It was more than 100 years ago.”

Clifford looks excited. “Okay okay, so the Talon the pack met at the lighthouse was the Talon from that time, and you’re the Talon from 100 years in the future where we are now, and the Talon we talked to in dungeonland is you from further in the future.”

Talon, “Yes, I will eventually figure out how to reach out to dungeonland and talk to your past selves.”

Clifford - “Okay so, that means that the eye we got in dungeonland…. It could have come from any time period. And we gave you the eye… at some point before now.”

Niobe- “Which means we must travel back in time again first so that we CAN give it to someone. And whoever we give it to must lose it so that we can find it again and decide to give it to Talon.”

Clifford - “Not necessarily. If the Eye we have is from far in the future, they could just be using the present’s eye.”

Talon, “I am not exactly sure how the eye thing is going to work out.  Something will happen, and there will be a time where two eyes exist for the same time.”

Brak- “We can’t leave the Eye here, because it’s already in the next room.”

Talon, “and right now there are three eyes in existence here.”

Brak- “The one Niobe carries, which is -presumably- the one from the far future, brought back. The one in the next room-”

Niobe- “Which I’m supposed to give to you 100 years ago, from your perspective,”

Brak- “And the other one you have seen.”

Talon looks down, “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”  shakes his head slowly, “Time travel is a pain.”  Takes a deep breath, “this is my assumption right now.  There is a young eye, a middle aged eye and an old eye.  The old eye should be put in the cage here.  The middle aged eye should be send to find its way to dungeonland, the youngest eyes should go back with you.  That doesn’t mean it will work.  Then you should return here after you go through time the proper way and take this eye to wherever you think it needs to go to be destroyed.  If there is a way we can destroy it.”

Clifford - ‘That’s if the eye we have is from probably the past, and we lose it at some point… then the cultists are using it in the present, and it goes to dungeonland… hmmm”

Talon, “I think you could take the youngest eye to the past and use that to save Leroy’s life from Vecna.”

Niobe- “Wait, you mean trade the eye to someone in exchange for Leroy’s life? This is an artifact of great evil.”

Talon nods and looks to Niobe, “But what is more important, saving the lives you can, or worrying about what has already happened.”  he shakes his head slowly, “I don’t know the easy answer here.  Leroy made some bad choices, but the eye will move and be free.  With or without the eye, those that would get it will still do evil, I am not sure that they will do more or less evil without it.  I am not even sure it will be necessary to trade it to save Leroy.  It could get lost before that comes to a head.”

Niobe- “I will certainly not trade it to save Leroy. His troubles with Davy Jones are separate from his troubles with the cultists of Vecna.

Clifford - “So both our eye and the one in the cage are post dungeonland. The one the cultists have could either be post cage, or pre dungeonland. Or potentially, if we lose and regain it, post dungeonland and pre-cage. If the one the cultist have is post-cage, we failed to destroy it, lost it, and it got tossed back in time somehow. Perhaps by giving it to Vecna in the past. Also there is presumably a 4th Eye somewhere in this present that we have no idea where it is.”

Talon, “No reason you cannot use it as a trap for a cultist of Vecna.  Might not save Leroy, or could lead you to taking down an entire cell of Vecna cultists.”

It’s Niobe’s turn to sneer. “What, we walk around shouting, ‘Hey, Cultists of Vecna, here’s the Eye, come and get it!’ ?”

Talon, “No, I am sure they will come to you.  It will draw them to you.”

Clifford continues, mostly ignoring them as he concentrates very hard trying to figure this out. “If it’s pre-dungeonland, the cultists probably just have the present’s eye, and they will lose it to dungeonland at some point without our interference, most likely.”

Brak- “Then, perhaps to reduce the various quantum instabilities inherent in this, we keep hold of the Eye, regardless what else happens. That eliminates some possibilities, at least those that can be foreseen.”

Eli sits writing in his book, drawing graphs as he tries to chart possible timelines.

Clifford - ‘I hope they have the present eye, that seems the easiest to understand. But it does mean we probably can’t get it from them, unless we lose it to dungeonland later.”

Clifford continues, “Last possibility, they have the post- dungeonland, pre-cage eye, which means we lose it somehow in the past, and regain it, then bring it here to stay. That might makes sense for a reason that Niobe decides we can’t hang onto it, maybe if we tried to send it to the angels but we couldn’t and it got stolen at that point? In that case, I think the present’s eye is still out there, and no one knows where it is.”

Niobe is now fully paying attention to Clifford. “So with no way of really knowing  which eye we have, the only thing we can do is what makes the most sense, without trying to fulfill some pre-determined timeline. Kind of overwhelming.”

Talon, “we should trust that what will happen in this regard is what will happen.  If not we could spend the rest of our lives discussing it.” looking to Niobe, “it is overwhelming and to easy to overthink it.”

Niobe- “And so we’re right back to where we started. I’m taking the eye to Mount Celestia, hopefully for safe keeping. And whether that works out or not, we must stay on the lookout for the Eye again.”

Clifford - “If the ones the cultists have is post-cage, someone needs to take it from them. If it’s pre dungeonland, we can try to take it but it will just end up in dungeonland somehow, so probably no reason to go take it from them. If it’s post dungeonland, pre cage, we’ll lose it and need to take it back from them, but no action is needed until we lose it. So two out of three possibilities mean we leave the cultist’s eye alone. And the post cage possibility, while someone needs to act on it, we can wait until we actually know if it’s the post cage one first. So we don’t need to take the eye from the cultists until we’re sure which eye it is.”

Brak- “What we actually do next, whether intentionally or not, will reveal most of that. And if
Niobe insists on depositing the eye on Mount Celestia, the reaction of the archons there will tell us much. If they display no knowledge, then that is when we lose the eye ‘properly’. If they tell us to come back twenty years ago, or twenty years from now, or anything else, we know to hold on to it for the moment.”

Talon, “As good a plan as any.”

Clifford sighs. “Also two out of three options mean we’ll lose the eye, and two out of three mean we’ll need to regain it.”

Brak- “And that pits us against the cult of a god of secrets and wizardry. I happen to specialize in fighting wizards.”

Talon, “You can always find assistance in that fight here.”

Akara, “I will always help to put an evil god and their minions in check.”

Brak- “I suspect that two out of three of your options mean we will regain the eye whether we mean to or not. We’ll either seek it out and therefore find it, or, already knowing that we need to find it will seek it out.”

Clifford lays down and covers his head with his paws. “I really hope it’s the simple option, that the cultists have the present eye, will lose it to dungeonland, we hang onto it until we go back to the past and then put it in the cage. I’d rather there not be a 4th one in this time period.”

Brak looks like he wishes he had a cigar to puff on.

Talon pulls out a cigar and offers it to Brak.

Brak’s eyebrows jump, but he takes the offered cigar. “You read my mind. Perhaps I should have protected against that.” He smirks.

Talon nods slowly, “I suppress it most times, some thoughts still get through from time to time.”

Niobe- “So for simpler matters. Is there a physical door we can use to enter and exit the Hall of Shadows? If so, where and when will it put us?”

Talon looks to Niobe, “We own a warehouse in Abyssal way.  It is a city in the Undermountain.  That is the only physical entrance and exit to the Hall of Shadows.”

Niobe- “And if I walked through that door, would I be 100 years in the future, relative to when you recruit us for the lighthouse?”

Talon, “yes, the pocket dimension we created for the hall of shadows is anchored in time.  It is dangerous to create a pocket dimension that is not anchored in time.  The white rabbit and Strahd had to use very powerful magic artifacts and spells to cause their pocket dimensions to become free floating in time for no better term.”

Clifford - “How long in the past did you build this place? As in, if we end up in the past again, could we come here?”

Talon, “the hall was just starting when I left deepwater to go to assassinate the giant king during the giant wars.  We did not have the power to make a pocket dimension, but we did own the warehouse in Abyssal Way.”

Clifford - “So assuming we go back to any time after the pack met you at the light house, this place exists.”

Talon, “yes in one form or another.”

Brak- “We should avoid coming here just to relax, and should only do so if we need to do something like drop of an Eye of Vecna.”

Talon shrugs, “You will always be welcome in the Hall.  It is your choice to come or not as you feel necessary.”

Brak- “Thank you, but that isn’t the issue, it is complicating what is already a complicated set of problems. I presume that we will run into you else where...and else when...during our travels, and so we should either give you an object or establish some phrase or know some questions to ask so we can determine when in your own timeline you are.”

Niobe- “And also to avoid running into ourselves.”

Talon, “I have traveled in a straight line up to this point.  So if you determine what year you are in, the version of me you meet there will be from that point in history.”

Niobe- “Talon, what happened to you that made you change your name? You talk about your youthful self as if he is a different person.”

Talon takes on a thoughtful look, “What do you know of mental disorders?”

Niobe gives a look of “Not a bit”.

Talon nods, “do you remember when you were a child?”

Niobe- “Some, but since I was killed and reincarnated many of my memories before are hazier than they used to be. I remember enough, though. It was not pleasant.”

Talon looks to the whole party, “do any of you remember as children having friends that you invented in your own mind?”

Clifford - “Ooooh totally, Greyguts the Snarley was such a great pal!”

Brak- “I certainly did. Blues are outcasts among goblins.”

Eli nods and looks at Talon curiously.

Talon, “Erlan’s parents were high elves.  They were the oldest children of two very powerful family lines.  They were married in hopes of bringing those families together and unite the powerful families.  It was a scandal when they gave birth to a black skin child.  As Erlan grew it was obvious that he was the child of both parents and not a half-drow.  The thought was that the union was cursed.  Erlan’s parents and their family spent their fortune trying to figure out what curse caused this to happen.  There was no curse.  It just happened.  Erlan had a friend he created in his mind.  Me.  His parents got tired of trying to fix him and one day nearly beat him to death.  He died that day.  I did not.  His parents didn’t survive long after.  That is why I talk of him as a different person.”

Niobe- “That’s terrible.”

Brak- “All the more reason not to like elves.”

Clifford finally removes his paws from his face and goes to lean on Talon, looking at him with sad eyes.

Talon offers Clifford a gentle pat on his head, “It is a fact of my life, I am very different from Erlan.  I don’t have much feelings in regard to those events except a dull anger from the day I took control.  I could simply be a mental disorder, but it seems perminate to me.”

Niobe sits quietly for a respectful length of time before continuing. “So we’ll at least try to drop off the Eye with the Archons, then off to solve all of Leroy’s personal problems, and then what? What of this worm god and Dregotha?”

Talon, “The worm god is a very low level deity.  However if the cult succeeds in bringing him back it will be bad.  The goal of going to the library is for them to get knowledge that they can use to secure their power before bringing him back to this world.  That is part of why I would like you to go to the library.  If when you get back you feel that you need to go back to the past I will send you back straight away.  If you are willing I would like to have you help finish off the threat of the worm god.”

Brak- “What library is this, and where is it?”

Talon, “for that I think we should go and continue this conversation with Lashonna. I expect that after the library you will want to discuss further dealings with the worm god amongst your party.  Know that if you don’t want to stay to deal with it I can get others to help in that fight if necessary.”

Brak stands up and stretches his legs. “I don’t mind talking to her.”

Talon, “are there any other questions you would like answered before we go talk to her?”

Niobe- “Yeah, I have one. How does keeping Strahd in a flask help with keeping various lower planar creatures off the Prime Material plane?”

Brak- “I have wondered why they baatezu and tanar’ri did not immediately attack each other in the temple in Ravenloft. They’ve been immortal enemies since before there were mortals.”

Talon answering Niobe’s question first, “It does nothing for keeping them off the Prime Material plane.  They are evil creatures that if not kept in some way will come back and bother the world again.  I have killed Dracula at least two other times.  The first time he got away to his coffin.  The second time I destroyed all his coffins and thought he had nowhere to go.  I devised the iron flask plan after that to keep him from regenerating.  When a vampire gets old and powerful enough they somehow can still regenerate after death without being in their coffin.”  Looking to Brak, “as for the baatezu and tanar’ri, they were summoned by Dracula to protect his orbs.  They worked together because Dracula’s will was strong enough to make them work together.”

Brak- “Strong enough to simultaneously dominate a balor and a pit fiend, plus all their minions? That’s respectable, I suppose. What were you doing with the orb when we saw you?”

Talon, “I was locked in a battle of wills with the orb.  The more orbs that Dracula had operating, the easier it was for him to dominate multiple other creatures and gave him more power.  Once I was able to break his will on the orb I could destroy it.  After that it destroyed some of his power.  Made it a little easier to keep him from escaping when we were fighting.”

Brak- “Was this possible because of the divine power you stole from Nerull? I can see Dracula’s will being spread thinner, and therefore easier to break, the more orbs and the more summoned minions he has, but still it would be supreme of necessity.”

Talon, “No, though Nerull’s divinity helped.  I could have done it without it.  Though I think it would have been a lot harder.  I was stuck unable to move.  Not sure I would have been able to activate the cube if I had not had the divinity.  Which would have changed the tactics I used.”

Brak- “Hmm.”

Talon, “The fight of wills at the orbs and the fight against Dracula are what alerted Odin to my presence.  If I had not done all that they would not have come there looking for me.”

Clifford - “You said Tinyra can break the orbs too, right? Why is she able to, and will doing so get their attention too? Or are there no more orbs?””

Talon, “Dracula summoned those monsters after I started attacking the orb.  There was one orb left when I faced Dracula.  If you had found it, Tinyra could have used her doom spell that she can do at will.  It would have locked her into a contest of wills with the orb.  Dracula would have sensed it and probably summoned more demons and devils to fight you, but I doubt he could have summoned enough that you would not have been able to defend Tinyra while she contested the orb.”

Clifford - “So trapping the vampires in flasks and your goal of letting fewer lower planar folks into the prime material aren’t related?”

Talon, “They are related.  We all live in this world.  If something is not done to prevent these evils from running rampant there will be no world to live in.  We are the shadow that stands against the darkness.”

Clifford - “So the flasks are for trapping summoners, or just for any powerful being who is causing trouble?”

Brak- “An iron flask can trap almost any summoned creature.”

Talon nods to Brak, and looks to Clifford, “to trap any being that cannot be simply destroyed.  I wish there had been a way to trap Strahd without letting Tinyra’s mother free, but there were no other iron flasks available.”

Niobe- “Yes, she was...interesting to meet.”

Clifford -”Oh, I was confused because I didn’t think vampires counted as demons or devils, and also she seemed pretty powerful too. That makes sense.”

Talon, “she can get captured again, and she is not one who will actively keep thousands of souls trapped in an eternal damnation.”

Brak- “It just has to be a creature not on it’s native plane.”

Clifford - “Uh, should we take some flasks with us when we go?”

Talon, “I can arrange for you to have a few empty flasks.”

Niobe- “Do you, Tinyra, or you, Talon, have any idea if Malcanthet will come after us? Or is she going to be busy in the Abyss?”

Tinyra, “I was never around my mother much.  I am sure she will be angry and want revenge.”

Niobe- “Revenge for releasing her? Or….do we have to go put her in the flask in the first place? Ugh.”

Talon, “It depends on how long until you go back to the past.  I am sure if you live long enough to get here again, you will run into her again.”  Talon looks to Niobe, “I am not sure who put her in the flask, but I promise, not everything that happens to you is because of you.”

Niobe chuckles mirthlessly. “Maybe we can get the cult of Vecna to trap her in the past. That would be a good way for them to lose the Eye.”

Talon looks thoughtful and slowly nods, “that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.  Any more questions now, or should we go talk with Lashonna.”

Brak- “Lets go talk with Lashonna.”

Talon nods and stands, “I promise you can come back with any more questions you have after that conversation.  We will also make sure that you are fully equipped with what you might need for your journey before you leave.”

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXXIV

Day 214 yet still. The event toward the end of this session has actually been one of the most interesting as a player so far.

(click to show/hide)

As the party walks through the halls to meet with Lashonna, Leroy and Derek catch up to join them.

Leroy looks to Derek, “First mate,” Leroy says, “If me seems quiet me is taking in the whole time travel craziness.” then gives him a nod.

Derek nods back “I think I would need a much better headband of intellect to make heads or tails of it, myself, Captain.”

Brak- “Clifford did a much better job than any of us determining the various permutations of what could or could have happened.”

Talon stops as he arrives at a set of doors and turns to the party, “The waiting area I sent Lashonna to is behind here.  Are you ready?”

Brak look around in case anyone starts waving their arms that theyr’e not. “Yes, let’s proceed.”

Talon opens the door and leads the party in.  Looking to Lashonna he says, “these are the people I would send to the Library to help resolve the problems you see coming.”

Polite greetings all around from the Party.

Lashonna, “I have a fragment from Balakarde’s journal.  I can also use a piece of hair I have from Heskin to give you a look at what he is doing right now.”

Brak- “That is as good a place to start as any.”

Lashonna pulls out a small lock of hair tied with a gold wire on a fine gold chain.  She also pulls out a scroll and starts to cast a spell.  A small bowl of water on the table starts to shimmer as the surface ripples.
   A tumultuous scene fades into view, along with the howling sound of an oceanic tempest.  The image clears to show a deathly pale man lashed to a ship’s mast with several coils of rope.  Although details beyond a ten-foot-radius around Heskin are hazy and unclear, it is obvious that the ship is caught in a tremendous storm-the decks are awash in foamy water as both waves and driving sheets of rain torment the terrified man.  Sounds of gruff sailors shouting commands and curses in Orc can be heard under the raging tumult of the storm, and now and then, frantic orc sailors move quickly into view and then back into obscurity as they busy themselves at securing the ship.  At one point, two lithe, cloaked figures drop to the deck from the rigging on either side of Heskin.  They are identically dressed in tightly wrapped silken scarves, small devilish horns sprouting from their heads.  The cloaked figures spare condescending glances at Heskin, their eyes glowing faintly with infernal fire before they move out of sight toward the ship’s unseen bow.  Soon thereafter, a blazing red-skinned humanoid with an immense, bulging frame strides almost casually through the scene.  The rain sizzles into steam as it strikes his burning skin.  As he reaches Heskin, he looks down at the man and then looks toward the bow, crying out, “Darl!  It looks like your pet might be taking on water!”  With that, the creature explodes into a tremendous belly laugh.  A few moments later, another two figures step into view.  The smaller of the two is a shifty-eyed humanoid bird who wears a hooded cloak and carries a repeating crossbow.  The other is a towering man clothed in flowing blue robes trimmed with eye designs.  His cowl protects his face from the wind and his hands are obscured by long, rain soaked sleeves.  He squats before Heskin and speaks to him in a low voice, “Only a few hours more, Heskin, and we shall see if you live or die.”
   Suddenly, the blue-robed man’s head whips around to look directly into the scrying sensor.  His face is pale but commanding, and twists into a snarl as he stands.  “It seems we have guests, my friends,” he says.  “Perhaps allies of this cur?”  He turns back to the bound man, and as he does he pulls back his left sleeve, revealing a rotten, black-nailed appendage that seems to writhe and twitch with its own life.  “We can’t have your friends watching us, so it seems your journey comes to an early end, Hesken!”  The putrid hand unfurls and reaches out to caress Heskin’s brow.  Heskin shrieks in mortal pain as the fingertip freezes the skin it touches into an angry black scar.  The blue-robed man then makes a fist and utters a single unintelligible word.  As he utters the word, Hesken’s eyes bulge, the cords in his neck throb, and he slumps against his bonds, dead.  The scrying link is broken , and the water boils away to nothing.

Brak recognizes the bird as a Kenku, the red skinned humanoid as an efreeti, and the two horned humanoids as tieflings.  He recognizes the hand as the hand of Vecna.  At this time Arvin and boots are led into the room as well.  Lashonna takes a seat, heavily.  Looking disturbed.  Leroy feels that he should know the man in the blue-robes, but cannot quite place the face.

Brak waxes encyclopedic for everyone’s benefit: “If you don’t know what they are, that bird- man is a creature called a kenku. It’s a people who tend to be rogues and assassins, living on the edges of what most of you would consider civilized society.”

Brak continues- “The large red humanoid was an efreet, a type of genie (from the inner planes), and the horned humanoids are tieflings, which I’m sure Niobe can tell you all about, and, most importantly, the pale man with the rotten left hand wields the Hand of Vecna, companion to our own artifact. The Hand and Eye were torn from Vecna when his lieutenant Kas betrayed and attacked him. They killed each other in the ensuing combat- for a given value of killed when speaking of the most powerful lich wizard ever known and a vampire warlord- but Kas cut out Vecna’s eye and cut off his hand. We would be wise not to let the Hand’s wielder get ahold of the Eye.”

He pauses. “On the one hand, we now know that Hesken is dead, and so can’t scry on him ourselves, but we have several other targets to scry on. Which will be useful. Lashonna, are you familiar with anyone else we saw?”

Lashonna, “I know a little about Darl Quethos.  The one with the hand.  I don’t know enough to scry any of them.”

Brak- “Please tell us.”

Lashonna, “he is a powerful priest of Vecna.  I am not sure why he seeks the library, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he is working with Dragotha to return his phylactery.”

Brak- “Based on the storm they were sailing through, could you tell if they were trying to find the island in the Nyr Dyr you spoke of to Talon?”

Lashonna, “I believe they were.  There is a permanent storm around that island.  It takes a talented seaman to make it through that storm.”

Leroy perks up to this comment “Lass, me is Captain Leroy Sparrow. If any storm can be sailed through, it be me to steer and command such a vessel.” he says boastly and puffing his chest out.

Brak- “Presumably we would have some catching up to do were we to start chasing them.”

Talon, “I have Leroy’s boat from your pirate adventure in a dock close by, if you want that.”

Leroy looks to Talon with eyes wide and a smile on his face “AYE LAD,” he screams in pure excitement and joy “ME SHIP IS NEEDIN HER CAPTAIN, ME WILL SAIL WITH ME CREW” he then makes a fist pump in the air.

Eli writes, It might be easier to teleport then just use your ship Leroy.

Leroy looks to the note and shakes his head, “No we can sail Master Eli, trust in yer captain.”

“It would seem,” Arvin says carefully. “That since they know someone was spying on them, it would be a good idea to get there as soon as possible.”

Leroy shoots her a glare, “I. Want. Me. Boat. Mistriss. Arvin.” Leroy hisses

“More than you want the success of the mission?” Arvin snarks.

Leroy retorts back “Aye, At least with me doin the sailin, we can guarantee safe passage through any storm. No teleport magic thingy can change me mind.”

Eli raises an eyebrow and just watches Leroy.

Brak ignores yet another Leroy-induced drama. “Lashonna, do you have a map indicating where the Nyr Dyv is relative to where we will be upon exiting the Hall of Shadows?”

Lashonna, “I don’t know where this boat is at, but I can show you on a map where you need to go.”

Talon, “I can get you where you need to go for the boat, or show you to a location you can travel from by other means if you chose to get to Nyr Dyv.”

Brak- “Show us all of it.”

Talon waves at a wall, and slowly a map of the world appears.  On the map there is a point marked Nyr Dyv for the part.  Then there is also a city marked Deepwater on the map with the words ‘Leroy’s boat’ written under the name of the city.  “That is the city where I will take you all to start this journey when you are ready.”

Leroy raises his hand and looks at everyone “yer captain be ready.” he says gleefully.

Brak examines the map to check the distances between Deepwater and Nyr Dyv, and also if there looks to be a navigable route from one to the other.  He finds the route to be rather straightforward.  Also he can determine that at most it would take them two days to get there.

Brak notes that it is within teleportation distance, if it comes to that. He sincerely hopes that they don’t run into any kraken in route, as he’s heard that’s a thing on the Prime Material Plane.

Arvin thinks they will 100% run into a Kraken en route.

Leroy is shaking from excitement. The thought of sailing brings him great happiness in his soul.

Brak- “Anything else you can tell us about anyone we saw, Lashonna?”

Lashonna shakes her head, “I am not sure about any of them, except that they are dangerous and will be working hard to get to the island and to the source of knowledge locked away in the library as quickly as possible.  Might lead them to make mistakes.”

Niobe- “Then the question is- again- where to first?”

“Lass the only place we be goin is to the ship.” Leroy states with confidence. “Ye will all be safe, me has sailed more times around the seven seas than me can remember, me has sailed through storms, hurricanes, battles, and more. We will be fine.” Leroy says witha  smile.

Niobe gives him a Look. “What about your crew? Remember? Davy Jones and all that?”

Leroy looks to her and gets really serious “Aye, Me crew can be saved still, but if me new crew needs to help on the storm, then yer captain is here to serve.” he bows to her.

Arvin manages to Very Loudly roll her eyes.

Brak- “If we can time travel, the question is irrelevant. We can choose.”

Eli silently sighs.

Derek looks over the rims of his spellsight spectacles. “Captain, didn’t you say that once we rescue your other crew, you’ll have to stay behind?”

Leroy looks to Derek “Aye,” he says sadly, “Me has told Davey Jones, in order to save me ol captain and me crew from the locker, 100k gold pieces, proof that me found love in this world, and me would take their places.” he looks to the floor.

Talon looks to the group, “I will not be able to return you to your time without information from the library.”

Derek snorts softly. “Then we must go to the island first, else we won’t be able to get there at all.” He pushes the spectacles back up his nose and then runs his hand through this hair.

Arvin sighs, “Well that’s fair. Do you have any information about this ocean I could look at?”

Leroy claps his hands together and rubs them “Welp, looks like we are sailing.” he says.

Lashonna, “I don’t know much about oceans or sea travel.”

Talon, “we have books you can look through and take with you if you need.”

Brak- “The more information, the better, so yes, please.”

Talon steps off to the side and talks with Akara in a quiet tone for a few seconds.  After which, Akara heads out of the room.

Derek quietly goes to buy a couple more items that he thinks will be useful: a greater fiendslaying crystal and a ring of water walking.

Lashonna, “so you will go to the island and get the information about Dragotha’s phylactery?”

Brak- “Yes, plus whatever Talon needs. And speaking of, tell us about Dragotha. Obviously a lich, if he has a phylactery. But what else?”

Lashonna, “Dragotha is a Gargantuan wyrm red dragon dracolich.  He has been alive for over 1,500 years and was Kyuss’ right hand minion.  If he gets his phylactery back he will surely increase his efforts to bring Kyuss back.”

Brak- “Fantastic. As in, he was alive for over 1500 years and then became a dracolich? Or he’s been a dracolich for over 1500 years?”

Lashonna, “He has been a dracolich for over 1,500 years.  1,500 years ago was when his phylactery was taken and hidden.”

Brak- “Ah. And he serves Kyuss because….why? I would think a dracolich that powerful would be unwilling to serve anyone.”

Lashonna, “I don’t know why.  Just that he does.”

Brak smirks. “Maybe we’ll ask. And who is Kyuss? I’ve never heard of him. Or it.”

Lashonna, “Kyuss is known as the worm that walks.  He is the god of worms, or the worm god.  He was believed to exist in a time of great evil, when humanity dabbled with the blasphemous arts and served the dark gods.  He was either a mortal necromancer of considerable talent or an evil god’s ranking priest.  Before he became a god himself.”

Derek has returned just in time to hear this last part. “So we should prevent this. Alright, sure. Or does Talon want this god in an iron flask as well?”

Talon, “I would prefer less gods in the world.  I will not say no to your assistance in stopping him from being returned if you are willing.”

Derek tilts his head, considering. “Well. We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it. I’d rather not commit to such an enterprise before we’ve finished the tasks we have in front of us.”

He looks around to the rest of the group. “Do you think we have enough information at this point? The proper supplies?”

Brak- “I am as prepared as I can be for the moment.”

Niobe flexes her wings a bit- “So am I.”

Leroy shakes his head “Aye, Me is always ready.”

Lashonna looks to Talon, “I am leaving then.  I have spent enough time here.”  she gives a side long look at first Niobe then to Tinyra before leaving the room.”

Niobe raises an eyebrow, but says nothing.

Talon watches Lashonna leave and then looks to the party, “anything more, where would you like to be sent?”

Tinyra narrows her eyes staring at the door that Lashonna left out of.

Niobe- “I wonder what her problem is.”

Derek answers Talon “A close as is reasonable to the location of the ship. I think”

Talon looks to Niobe, “You are a Paladin, she is a vampire dragon.  She will never be comfortable around you.”  Then looking at Derek, “we can get you to the port where the ship is docked.”

Niobe- “Well. That certainly changes some things.” She feels a bit silly for not having detected evil on everything as soon as they walked in. She would blame the week they spent in Ravenloft for getting her out of the habit, but being a paladin, she knows deep down that that is just an excuse, and resolves to do better.

Talon, “Just be cautious when interacting with her.  She does still want to prevent the coming of the worm god as far as I can tell.  She runs her city, and that could be bad for her city if the worm god returns.”

Niobe- “What city? Deepwater?”

Talon, “Alhaster.  It is another coastal city.”

Niobe- “I’ll be sure to avoid it.”

Derek taps one finger on the opposite arm. “Alright then, if we are all prepared, let’s go.”  He is emphatically not bouncing with impatience.

Brak- “Agreed. I’m keen to see a sailing ship. Not the boat we had in Dungeonland.”

Leroy is getting more excited about sailing again. “Aye me ship is grand and sailable, we will be fine.”

Eli raises an eyebrow looking at Leroy.

Akara comes back with a few followers.  They have a few handfuls of books that they offer to Arvin.

Talon, “If you would all get in close I can teleport you all to the docks.”

Leroy is the first one near Talon.

Everyone squeezes in, pretending that they like each other. Clifford loves this.

Niobe doesn’t mind Derek, Eli and Tinyra, likes Clifford and Arvin, is ambivalent about Brak and Boots, and makes sure to be on the opposite side as Leroy.

Talon pulls out a small coin and tosses it to Leroy.

Leroy catches the coin and then asks “Whats this?”

Just as Leroy catches the coin the entire party disappears and is now standing in front of a familiar boat with the ocean behind it.

Arvin immediately goes to the shoreline, puts her feet in the water and bends down to take a little sip. Boots stands behind her protectively. (Arvin rolls 30 on knowledge nature as to the kind of ocean, potential creatures, etc) Then she reluctantly boards the boat. She doesn’t find much that could qualify as threats for the area they are heading to.  At least no animal or monster threats.

Leroy shouts like an excited female high pitch toned. He rushes to his boat, runs up the gangplank, and runs to the wheel. He runs his hand over it and feels the rush in his body. He smiles.

Brak, despite wearing a broad-brimmed hat, shades his eyes and looks around the area to see what’s what.

Clifford looks around, and runs straight off the dock into the water. SPLASH!

Leroy begins a mad dash about his ship, checking every deck, for supplies, cannons, cannon balls, everything that they will need for sailing the sea.  He finds a fully supplied ship.

Niobe stretches in the sunlight a bit, enjoying being on the Prime Material again.

Derek looks around alertly, seeing if their sudden appearance had caused any alarm. He takes a deep breath and makes a face at the smell of sea wrack and dead fish. He gets on the ship anyway.

Eli casually strolls up onto the ship and looks around.

Tinyra makes her way onto the ship and finds a corner of the deck to relax at.  She has changed form to look like a human.  Same face and build, just no wings or other signs to identify her as demon.

Niobe flaps her wings and flies up to do an orbit of the area, and then lands on the boat. She sets her shield and Fjolhaefur to Nonthreatening.

Brak eventually climbs aboard as well.

Leroy runs back up to the main deck to find the crew and begins to give out orders “all hands hoy! Bring up the gangplank, set the main sail, pull the starboard ropes, pull the port ropes, weigh in the anchor, lets go!” and starts grabbing the ropes and begins to loosen the sails.

Niobe- “Which one is the main sail?”

Arvin is still staring at the sea, taking in as much information as she can, and enjoying the familiar smell

Derek  looks around with interest.“I’m afraid you’ll have to teach us captain. Or we’ll have to hire actual sailors.”

Leroy in the span of minutes points to the ship parts, the ropes that control the main sail in the middle, the ropes from the right and left side of the ship, shows them how to tie knots for the sails not to come loose, everything.

After the few comments from the party the sails, ropes and anchor all start moving on their own. Magically obeying Leroy’s commands.

Derek blinks  “Convenient”

Brak- “Did the ship do that last time you had it?”

Eli shakes his head.

Leroy is not paying attention, is making sure everything is going to schedule and preparations are made before set sailing. “First mate, make sure the ropes are tight, Master Brak, to the crows nest to spot for storms and ships, Mistress Tinyra check the cannons, Mistress Niobe, check the sails for rips, Master Eli, help with the sails.” He walks to the wheel with the compass out.

Clifford swims over to the ship and pulls himself onto the deck. He then shakes out his coat, probably soaking half the party.

Derek shrugs and goes over to the nearest rope, smacking it to see how well it vibrates.

Tinyra ignores Leroy.

Eli watches the sails do their own thing and shrugs.

Leroy looks to the crew, “avast mateys!” he walks to the main deck and calls for them to gather, “are all preparations made and this crew set to sail for our island?” he asks.

Derek salutes lazily “The ship seems to have done all the preparations for us, Captain.”

“Excellent report first mate!” Leroy exclaims. “The wind is to our backs and the tide is favorable. TIME TO SET SAIL!”

Leroy is able to get the ship going. The first day goes by without incident.  They are well underway and appear to be making good time.

Niobe flies up to the crow’s nest and spreads her wings. She later steals some rope, ties it around her waist, and tries to see if she can be a kite, just based off the ship’s speed. She occasionally looks out for pirates and krakens and dragon turtles and such.

Arvin turns into a water elemental for a while and swims underneath the ship. Later below decks where no one can see, she spends some time casting Detect Magic to see what is propelling it.

Leroy is at the wheel of the ship and looks amongst the crew and sea. His heart is filled with love again and pain. 

Brak claims a berth for himself and spends most of his time belowdecks, cause it is BRIGHT outside.

Leroy assigns the night watches: first shift is Leroy and Eli, second is Niobe and Clifford, Third is Brak and Tinyra, Fourth is Derek and Arvin

Brak swaps shifts with Derek and doesn’t tell the Captain, because that’s how things are done.

Eli just sighs.

Clifford turns into a werewolf lord to climb up to the crow’s nest, and then turns himself into a small size dog so he can sit in Niobe’s lap. He also now looks like a corgi.

Niobe gives him skritches! And she thinks corgis are adorable. She also detects evil on the boat, just in case.  No evil.

The night goes by with no incident or anyone noticing anything until half way through the third shift.  Then it is almost too late when Tinyra and Derek realize they have almost entered the storm that is supposed to be surrounding the island they are going to.  Within two minutes of noticing the edge of the storm the ship is starting to rock.

Derek shouts for everyone to wake up, and then gets the bright idea to frantically ring the ship’s bell.

Niobe, Boots, and Leroy sleep through the start of the storm.  Arvin and Brak wake up from the violent shaking of the ship.  Eli falls off what he is sleeping on and crashes to the deck and wakes up.\

Arvin gets up to the deck and attempts to cast control winds.

Brak- “Ahh hell.” He casts overland flight, but doesn’t take off, and then makes sure all his stuff is secured to his person, with the staff of power in hand.

Eli finds a place to grip onto the ship as hard as he can.

It takes a minute of Derek shouting for those that sleep through the initial thrusts of the storm.  At this point it is starting to violently rock the ship.

Leroy rolls out and hears yelling “What in the name of blimey is going on!?” he gets his boots on races up to the deck.

Niobe buckles her belt and grabs her spear and shield and makes her way to the deck, although they’re still set to non-threatening. She clenches her wings close so as not to get blown off the ship.

Clifford is already on the deck, as a medium corgi. He doesn’t want to fall off, so he becomes a Huge Corgi.

Leroy gets to the main deck and sees the storm “Oh Bloody Hell!” he screams and runs to the wheel to hold it steady. He tries to shout out orders to everyone “TIGHTEN THE ROPES, HOLD ONTO SOMETHING AND DONT LET GO!”

Derek finds the safety ropes that Leroy totally told them about and ties one around his waist. He tosses other ropes to other people. Clifford goes over to sit with Derek, and uses Far Hand to tie the rope around himself.

Tinyra secures herself to ship as well.

Brak gets as far as a doorway, sees that going outside would be foolish, and so grabs a wall.

Leroy begins to steer the ship and fights hard against the winds and the sea. The battle begins!

Leroy is able to steer the ship for an hour through the storm.  Keeping the ship on track as the storm starts to get worse.

After an hour Leroy starts to lose control and the ship starts to tip violently. 

Arvin grabs her belongings, and dives overboard and turns into a water elemental to try and help steady the ship from below.

Leroy feels the ship pulling against him “OH HOLD ON SHIP, CAPTAIN CANT LOSE YE NOW!” he screams. “KEEPING HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING STURDY MATEYS!!!” He bellows

Niobe- “Leroy, do you need help!?” She plants Fjolhaefur in a safe spot, tip buried in the deck, and clambers up toward the till.

Leroy looks to Niobe and shouts “Aye! Get up here and help hold the wheel!”

Niobe gets to the deck, hair dramatically rain-soaked and wind-blown, and tries to help Leroy right the ship, but she can’t get a good grip on the till and isn’t too helpful at first.

Derek makes his way up as well and tries, but fails to add his strength to the mix

Clifford decides to shrink, run down to the bottom of the boat, and then make himself as large as possible to act as ballast. He also barks encouragement at Arvin, who is on the other side of the hull from him.

Since he can’t think of anything better to do, Brak runs and flies around the ship, looking for hull breaches and such. If there is a bilge pump he operates it.

Despite everyone's effort there are multiple loud crashing sounds.  The ship is moving mostly in a straight line but at this point has hit several rocks.  There are now four huge gaping holes in the ship's hull.  Water is fast rushing into the ship.

“FUCKING HELL! MY SHIP!” Leroy screams in rage. “FIRST MATE CHECK THE DECKS BELOW! YOU TOO MASTER BRAK!”

Brak attempts to seal the breaches with walls of ectoplasm.  He is able to get two of the breaches sealed. 
Derek goes below and finds the bilge pump. He darts working it to remove the water that came in.

Clifford barks “There are 4 holes down here! It’s very wet!”  He leans against as many of the holes as he can cover with his furry fluff.

The ship hits a few more rocks and now has no bottom hull left and has stopped forward momentum.  The ship is sinking quickly and breaking apart in the shores.

Leroy mutters under his breath “no shit its wet, its water.” and then says “EXCELLENT REPORT CLIFFORD GOOD DOG!”

Brak flies and swims over to Clifford (propelled by overland flight) and dimension doors both of them up to the main deck. Once up there he looks around for a landing place on solid ground. Clifford manifests Freedom of Movement.

Leroy continues his best to control the ship.

Boots slips into the water, and he and arvin start trying to catch anyone they can to put on Boot’s back.

Derek makes his way up, using his new ring to walk on top of the water. “Sorry Captain, it's time to abandon ship!”

“ALL HANDS! ABANDON SHIP! First mate, make sure the crew gets off first then i'll jump off!” Leroy shouts.

Niobe, wings still, uhh, furled, attempts to climb down and at least grab Fjolhaefur. Then it’s back through the berthings to her gear. She grabs as much as she can carry, making sure to get the metal bottle that holds the Eye, and heads back up to the main deck.

Leroy, Derek, Brak, Niobe, Boots, and clifford all lose their footing as the deck shifts violently under them.  Leroy and Tinyra lose consciousness when they hit the water from the violence of their fall.

Arvin starts looking for them both.

Clifford jumps/rolls into the water, then starts paddling around like a furry buoy. “Grab on!” He says to… everyone. He paddles toward Leroy and Tinyra, looking for them.

Brak just off the deck just enough to not get hit by anything, and flies over to Boots. Boots plucks him out of the water.

Niobe trips, drops everything but Fjolhaefur, her shield, and the bottle with the Eye, and heads outside. She takes a running leap, propelled with her wings, off the ship.

Eli manages to keep up and swimming, but barely able to keep above water. Arvin swims over to him and tosses him onto boot’s back.

Derek jumps down to the water and fights to get to the nearest struggling person.

Brak- “Who’s missing?” He keeps looking around for a landing spot on stable ground.

No one is able to see Tinyra or Leroy. ARvin dives again

Niobe gets over to Boots, Clifford, and the conscious types. She latches onto whoever is handy.

Brak manifests adapt body, so now he can breathe underwater.

The party tries desperately to get out of the storm.  Arvin and Boots are able to maintain consciousness but lose everyone else, including each other.  Brak manages to not drown, but hits enough rocks that he goes unconscious.  Niobe and Eli both lose their fight with staying above water and lose consciousness before seeing where they are.  Clifford and Derek manage to maintain their bearing and actually get to the island.

Niobe, Eli, Tinyra, Brak, Leroy all wake up tied up.  Still in their clothing and armor, they see what looks like a pile of all their other belongings stacked in a corner. 

“Welp,” Leroy says weakly “At least me got us to the island.” he smiles weakly.

Brak looks at him for a moment, and then pukes sea water on Leroy’s shoes.

Niobe looks around to see if there are any guards in the area.

It is easy for Niobe to find the guards.  There are nine Orcs standing around the party looking at them.  Eli and Tinyra are already glaring back at the Orcs.

Niobe detects evil on the orcs long enough to get a sense of how powerfully evil they are.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Derek, Clifford, Arvin and Boots are on a separate part of the island. Clifford runs around looking for the others, and howls sadly when he can’t find them.

Derek is hacking storm surge out of his lungs. “Clifford, hush. We can’t let any enemies know we’re here.” He looks around “Mistress Arvin, are you well?”

Arvin has turned back into human and is slumped against Boots. “I think so. You?”

Derek sits back and pats the ground beside him in an invitation to Cliffird. “Well enough. I should have gotten a ring of water breathing instead.” Clifford shrinks down to medium size and flops sadly by Derek. Derek pats his head.

Arvin nods. “We need to find a safe place to recover, and then we need to look for the others. If they’re not around here, they’re either in the ocean or far enough away we can’t help them right now. “

Derek coughs again. “Agreed. In a moment.”

Arvin pats his shoulder sympathetically. “Hell of a way to finally get back in the ocean,” she sighs.

[perovskite]

Interlude XXXXV

Day 215. We didn't actually have a game this week, but that's the upside of getting ahead.

(click to show/hide)

Niobe, quietly, and in common, hoping that the orcs don’t understand common, “Guys, don’t attack yet, I have something for this.”

Tinyra looks out of it.  Her eyes are glazed over as she stares hungrily at Leroy.

Leroy looks towards Tinyra and stares at her weirdly. He is still waking up from the ship crashing. “What’s the matter lass?”

Eli shakes his head and just glares at Leroy before giving Niobe a slight nod.

The Orcs stand there in a circle around the party and a separate one that looks like it could be the leaders stands a little outside the circle stands one that looks like it could be the leader of the group.

Niobe, having assessed the relative power of the group via concentrating on detect evil for more than five seconds, uses a spell-like ability she has never used before: mass charm monster. She also puts on her winningest, “I’m an attractive woman and therefore helpless” look, hoping they ignore the large spear, shield, wings, and palpable aura of holy power.

Niobe focuses her attention on the leader of the orcs and the next two most important looking ones. She gives them a big smile. “Hi, do you understand me?”  Red and Purple seem to be amenable to her.  The leader looks annoyed as he answers, “we be pirates.  You be waiting here till the bird gets back their leader.  They are curious about you.”

Niobe, as earnestly as she can- “The bird? Who’s that?”

Turning to the two charmed orcs, she wiggles a bit and says, “Hey, could you untie us? These are pretty uncomfortable.”

The two orcs start to move forward before the leader yells at them, “do not move.”  They stand there struggling with what they should do.  Then start to move forward again before Green and red/blue charge them and tackle them to the ground.  The four start wrestling around.

Leroy looks from whats going on and trying to get his senses right, “Matey,” he calls to the leader, “Ye be pirates aye?”

Eli manifests psychic crush on the orange Orc.  The orc collapses on the ground.

Niobe, to the party- “That didn’t work as well as I hoped. What are you all up for?”

Leroy, waiting for the leader to respond, looks to Niobe “Lass, let me try to see if they will let a fellow pirate free.” he says to her.

Brak eyeballs the leader guy for signs of what he might do for a living.  The whole group is obviously dressed like pirates.

Leader, “what is going on with you all.  They are tied up and our prisoners.  Stop fighting with each other.”  Then looks to Niobe and Leroy, “what have the two of you done.”

Leroy looks to the leader “Me did nothing, me is just a humble pirate like yerself, Captain i be too.” He says.

Niobe exudes an air of shocked innocence, but says nothing.

The leader stomps towards Tinyra and pulls a Knife, putting it to her throat.  Tinyra looks as if she is trying to do something to the leader mentally, but then her eyes flash with shock and pain.

Leroy becomes angry “YE WILL NOT LAY A HAND ON ME WIFE!” Leroy shouts at the leader. “Ye be a pirate, and me be a pirate captain. We obey the pirate code. So let me go so we can barter a deal.” he says

Leader, “If another one of my men goes down, be damned with the bird and his master, I will slit all your throats.”  Leroy’s words are not working to calm down the pirate leader.

Leroy looks to the leader again and says “If ye let me go, we barter a deal, me promises no other men get hurt, captains word.” he says

Eli looks over to the leader and holds waiting for an opportunity.

Brak prepares to manifest mindwipe on the leader, but holds off a moment.

Leader shakes his head, “You don’t have enough money to pay for what we want.  Certainly not enough to cross a cultist of Vecna.”

Niobe raises an eyebrow, but says nothing.

Leroy looks at the leader “Ye are not our enemy, we are here to stop cultists of Vecna.” He says with a smile.

Leader, “ye are my enemy.  I will enjoy watching the cultist slit all your throats.”  as this continues the orcs rolling on the ground free up with one that was charmed and one not charmed still standing.  They immediately start wrestling.

“Ye would sell out a fellow pirate captain and his crew to cultists?” Leroy says annoyed. “Ye will have a special place in the locker for yerself.”

Leader laughs, “In a heartbeat.”

Leroy looks to him and shakes his head “Ye are no pirate. Ye are a yellow belly scruvy dog. May Davey Jones bury ye in the deepest part of the locker.”

Leader snorts, “There is no honor among pirates.  Especially us with a human pretending to be a pirate.”

Leroy narrows his eyes “Me is captain Leroy Sparrow. This be me crew. Me owes a debt to Davey Jones. Ye will hold yer tongue.” glaring hardcore at the leader.

Leader laughs again, “that just shows how horrible of a pirate you are.”  He slackens with his knife hand slightly.  Pulling the knife away from Tinyra’s throat slightly.

Leroy laughs at the leader “Still better pirate then ye will ever be.”

Niobe, trying again- “Do you work for the bird willingly?”

Leader, “Of course, they are paying us a lot of money to help them bring back the worm god.”

Eli manifests missive to Brak, I can drop him before he can do anything.

Brak mumbles- “Let him talk a bit.”

Eli nods.

Leroy scoffs at the leader “Ye are a sad pirate to help them bring back a worm god. Instead of sailing the seven seas and pillaging port cities.”

Niobe, attempting to be the Good, or at least non-insulting cop- “Have they told you what they’re doing in any more detail?”

Leader shrugs, “don’t care to get anymore details.  They pay really well.”  he then looks to Leroy, “and after we are done here we get to take your stuff, and pillage all the cities and villages we want to after the worm god is returned.”

Leroy scoffs at him again. “Ye wont live to see that happen.” he shakes his head “Ye are a terrible pirate.”

Niobe- “How are you going to get off the island with this storm?” Which is presumably still raging easily within sight of the shoreline.

The leader shrugs, “The cultists are not worried, I am sure they will have a way off.  They are coming back here now.  You can ask them before you all die.”

Niobe- “That’s a lot of trust you’re placing in people you just met. Can you tell us about any of them? The bird, who else?”

The leader shakes his head, “I will not be telling you anything more.”  At that the other charmed orc is down and the remaining orc stands looking a little worse for wear.

Niobe, very politely, says, “If that’s all the talking there is, then I guess it’s down to business then.”

Leader presses his knife closer to Tinyra’s throat again, “do nothing else or I will slit her throat.”

Niobe- “You say that, but I think you might be wrong.”

Leroy looks at the leader. “If ye are gonna slit anyone’s throat, slit mine. Or be a spineless bitch and kill a woman.”

The leader smiles at Leroy, “You are next.”  and presses the knife in against Tinyra’s skin enough to draw a little blood.  Tinyra glares back at the leader but says nothing.

Leroy looks at the leader “Ye won’t do nothing to me. Ye are a coward and a bitch. Ive seen children with more guts than yerself.”

Eli glares at the leader, still waiting.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arvin does a quick scan around, using listen, spot and knowledge nature checks. 28, 19 and 32 respectively.  She is not able to notice anything of importance.  Also her knowledge of nature makes her sure that the storm shouldn’t be going on and that the ruins are not in as advanced a state of decay as she might have expected for as long as this place has been in ruin.

Derek does the same, once he’s finally stood up and brushed himself off.  He gets the same impression that Arvin got.

Clifford has shifted to look like this:

 
He stares sadly out at the water.
 
“Okay,” Arvin says, since someone has to say something. “We’ve got two choices. Either explore the ruins and go along the coastline that way looking for our friends, or go up the coastline the other way to also look for our friends. What do you think, Derek?”
 
Clifford looks left and right - “Does the current flow more one way?”
 
Arvin looks about a bit. “I think it just flows straight at the island. But it seems to be more open to the west. Let me send a small wind elemental to check the east side and we can start going towards the ruins. I think we’ll need to check them to prevent nasty surprises. What do you two think?”
 
Derek shrugs “Check the ruins, of course.” He check his bow, and other equipment. “Ready when you are, Mistress Arvin.”
 
“Love to be in charge,” Arvin mutters sarcastically in aquatic to herself. “Just want I wanted.” She switches out Boot’s collar so he is huge again, sends the smallest wind elemental she can to look up the east coast, checks her backpack, and gestures to Derek to lead the way.
 
Derek nods and trudges toward the ruins. Because it is really difficult to glide gracefully across sand. Once the ground firms up, he resumes his usual stalk.
 
Clifford - “Do either of you want a ride?” 
 
We search all the things along the way. Arvin rolls a 1 because of course she does. (she’s distracted by the weird storm, it bothers her druid/aquatic human brain.) Since she’s clearly useless in the search department, she jumps on Clifford’s back.
 
Clifford looks like having someone to take care of makes him feel better. He follows Derek.
 
Derek gets 25 on his spot check, as he heads for what might be the entrance to the ruins. He also quietly asks the sun sword to check for anything Sun sword spot 11, listen 10. He himself listens 20
 
Arvin gets 36 on her spot check, presumably because now she’s higher up.
 
No one is higher than the wall.  They don’t see anything out of the ordinary.  Arvin and Derek can hear something going on farther down the beach.  They cannot quite make out voices yet.
 
Derek, quietly, “We should check out the noise.” He swaps his ring of water walking for his ring of invisibility.
 
“I agree,” Arvin says. She casts Pass without trace on him, so he won’t leave footsteps or make smells.
 
Derek “My thanks, mistress.” He activates his ring and dashes toward the noise. He runs until he can see the source of the voices.
 
Clifford can’t exactly hide given his size, so he moves toward the sounds, attempting to not mess up Derek’s sneaking.
 
Arvin summons back her tiny wind elemental, and sends it after Derek, making sure it knows to stay a good distance away from him. If  the near shore current allows, Boots slips into the water to do his best log impression.
 
The wind elemental returns and tells Arvin about the orcs and the captive crew. She tells Clifford  and they booth sneak forward a bit, prepared to run if necessary.
 
Eli manifests a full wild surge Microcosm on the leader.  He manages barely to keep from dazing himself.  The leader’s eyes take on a vacant look right before Derek takes his action.
 
Derek sneaks closer until he’s within 30 feet, then aims for the one menacing Tinyra, and looses two arrows. One hits close to a vital area.
 
The arrows sink in and hit the leader hard.  His arm drops to his side letting the knife slip away from Tinyra’s neck without causing damage.  He just stands there with his eyes glazed over, just before they roll up into his head and he falls back dead.  The orcs following him looks shocked as they just stand there.
 
Brak, seeing that Mr. Leader Guy is no longer a threat, changed his plan, and manifests time hop on the rope binding him. It leaps 18 rounds into the future, enabling him to fly straight up about 40 feet, unhindered.
 
They are even more shocked when  Boots crashes out of the water with a terrifying megafauna roar. Arvin and Clifford hear the roar and start moving.
 
Niobe attempts to just burst the ropes through sheer deltoid action. It works! The ropes snap with what, in another place and time, would be described as a gunshot.
 
Leroy just stays tied up like a slug, it is his only defense.
 
Tinyra closes her eyes and lowers her head.  She appears to be trying to slip herself out of her bonds.  She manages to slip out of them and stands up stretching out her wings.
 
Clifford moves forward as quickly as he can, and uses a power to move even further, which means he leaps over the ship rubble near the orcs and lands, snarling.
 
Arvin somewhat ruins the dramatic effect by waving from his back. “Thank god we saved you,” she says, referencing the MST3k movie for some unknown reason. Fortunately she says it quietly and no one can hear her.
 
Round 1!
 
Eli holds his action, watching the Orcs.
 
Derek fires two arrows at the closest orc. It dies.
 
Brak manifests baleful teleport at orc blue red red blue. He’s briefly obscured in a red mist. He doesn’t die, but he is completely covered in pockmarks from where little bits of him were teleported elsewhere, and the ground around him has a fine layer of blood on it as well.
 
Boots bites an orc, probably pink, AND SWALLOWS HIM UP MONCH MONCH.
 
Niobe rushes toward orc red blue, grabbing a greataxe off the ground in route, and bashes him with it. The orc crumples to the ground.
 
Leroy begins to struggle out of the ropes he is in.
 
Tinyra ignores everything going on around them and flys over to orange.  Dropping to her knees next to him.
 
Clifford charges the last living orc, using a power to move toward it. He mauls the orc thoroughly.
 
Arvin slides off Clifford with a very cool action hero move, and ends up next to Leroy, where she cuts him free.  “Did you miss us?” she says.
 
“Mistress Arvin, ye are very much a help, and yes me missed ya.” Leroy says with a smile. “Who else would me rather have threatin to hit me all the time if ye didnt come rescue us?”
 
Arvin, inclined to be relieved and not grumpy, smiles back. “If anyone gets to hit you, it should totally be me, so I can’t let the orcs do it.”
 
Derek saunters up and frees anyone else who is still tied up. “I am glad to see you all alive.”
 
Brak lands after looking around.
 
Clifford bounces from person to person, sniffing them over thoroughly to make sure they’re okay.
 
Niobe tosses the greataxe aside and trudges over to their pile of stuff, picking through it for all her weapons.  Niobe notices a certain bottle missing when she is going through the pile of stuff.
 
Niobe doesn’t curse, but only cause she’s a paladin. “Hey, the, uh, the really important thing is missing!”
 
Clifford suddenly stops to concentrate. “So… that means….”
 
Brak has walked over to retrieve his various staves and bow and books and kukri and whatever else was missing.
 
Leroy goes to the pile of stuff and gets his belongings. Then counts all his money to make sure none of it went missing.
 
Eli nods his thanks to Derek before going to retrieve his belongings.
 
Eli blinks and looks to Niobe.  Then he shutters.
 
Tinyra casts death knell on two of the orcs that are not quite dead.  Feeding of the energy she needs in order to not starve.  She looks visibly better after feeding.  Then joins everyone else to get her things back.
 
Leroy begins to panic “We lost the thing?” he says to Niobe
 
Derek snorts “Oh, good. That means that time is doing what it’s supposed to. Or something. There are ruins back the way we came from.”
 
Niobe to Leroy- “Yes we did.”
 
Brak, more or less unconcerned. “We had to at some point.”
 
Clifford - “It’s not the simplest path, then….”
 
Leroy looks dead at Niobe “Welp, no one can blame ye captain for this then.” he smiles and shrugs “Or say me had plans to turn it over to the cultists. Rather have seen that thing destroyed.” he adds
 
Niobe pinches the bridge of her nose, both believing and not that Leroy would have tried to turn it over to the cultists. “You’re unbelievable.” She stalks a few paces away and stares at the storm.
 
Clifford - “... We need to get it back, if we can.”
 
Tinyra walks over to stand next to Niobe.  Placing a hand on her shoulder.
 
Niobe sighs. “I don’t mind not carrying it around, I will say that.” She shakes her head. “Okay, doesn’t matter, we had to lose it like Brak said, so we just keep going.”
 
Tinyra, “maybe, I think it is more likely they will use it against us as we try to stop them.”
 
“We probably can’t,” Arvin says, then sighs. “But time will be mad at us if we don’t try, I suppose.
 
Eli watches the situation then turns to start looking through the equipment the orcs had.
 
Leroy just watches Tinyra and Niobe. He says nothing. Then walks over to the water and washes his face.
 
Derek rolls his eyes. “As I said, there are ruins to explore. We may very well find the cultists and the item in question.”
 
“Aye first mate. Let us venture to the ruins then.” Leroy exclaims. He then walks over to the dead leader’s body and kicks him in the nuts. “Pathetic excuse of a pirate.” Leroy says with distastefulness and wrath in his voice. He spits on the dead pirate leader’s face and walks off.
 
The party that searches the bodies find the following:
 
Non Magical
32 masterwork javelins
15 adamantine arrows
15 silver arrows
15 cold iron arrows
15 arrows
 
Magical
8 greataxes
8 hide armor
Oil of align weapon
Potion of Barkskin +4
Potion of cure serious wounds x2
Potion of cure moderate wounds x8
Potion of protection from good- Brak
Studded leather armor
+1 Animated Heavy steel shield- Clifford
+1 Adamantine greataxe- Niobe interested
+1 speed Composite longbow (+6 Str)- Niobe interested, even though she just flies up and stabs things. Unless someone who actually would use it wants it. Then it’s theirs.
Quiver of Ehlonna
Belt of giant Str +4
Gloves of Dex +2- Arvin is interested!
Amulet of health +2
Cloak of resistance +2- Brak
 
 
Brak- “Derek, how many of those arrows do you want? I already have some of all those types, but I’ll take what you don’t want.” Although he never uses it these days, Brak does carry a bow.
 
Eli forgets that he has a bow.
 
Derek considers “All of the normal ones. Which of the others do you already carry?”
 
Brak- “Some of all of them. I only have 10 adamantine arrows, but you use your bow far more than I use mine.”
 
Derek nods “I am inclined to take all of them, if no one objects. I don’t have any specialized arrows.”
 
Brak- “Do it.”
 
Derek claims all of the arrows, and pulls out the wand of identification to get the skinny on the loot.
 
Brak- “May I do the honors?”
 
Derek “Of course, Master Brak!” He hands over the wand.
 
Brak identifies the cloak, amulet, gloves, belt, quiver, adamantine greataxe, bow and steel shield. He’ll leave the normal greataxes, studded leather. Then he focuses his spellcraft skill to identify the potions.
 
Clifford is now chasing around the steel shield, which always remains a tiny bit out of his reach, since he’s the one that activated the animation.
 
Niobe considers both the bow and the adamantine battle axe, cause you can’t carry too many large weapons.
 
Eli feels that he is the weapon, everything else he cannot use.
 
Anything that no one claims immediately goes into Derek’s vest to be sold later.
 
After some (but not all) divvying of the latest round of treasures, the party starts heading toward the ruins.

[perovskite]

Day 215. Interlude XXXXVI

I think these days will also be exceedingly long.

(click to show/hide)

The party is still sitting around their found treasure, when suddenly Derek and Leroy are no longer standing around.
 
If Niobe was sitting at a table, she would have placed her utensils carefully down on the table and sighed heavily.
 
Brak stands up quickly. “Not here too.”
 
Eli looks around slowly.
 
Tinyra, “seriously.  Are we cursed...wait don’t answer that.”
 
Niobe mumbles- “Well, YOU are.”
 
Brak- “This begs the question of why we should fix Leroy’s problems for him. He’s probably speaking to Vecna now.”
 
Tinyra nods to Niobe, “unfortunately.”
 
Brak checks the weather to see if he will be blown out to see if he pops up to do some looking around.  There is amazingly no weather effects one the island.  Like the eye of the storm is stuck centered on the island.
 
Brak thus rises up a few dozen feet to see what he can see inland.  Brak can clearly make out the entire island.  He notices a pool, An area that has numerous spindly stone stalagmites, an area that looks like it used to be a camp that someone might have been staying at, an area with a collection of what might have once been impressive statues, and a circular disc lays in the ground to the north.  Near the statues there appears to be a pedestal.  He cannot make out much detail of it, but it could be of interest.
 
Niobe stands around and lets a breeze rustle her hair and feathers. She considers the utility of an adamantine greataxe as a backup weapon.
 
Brak notes that the eye of the storm isn’t circular, but he attributes it to magical influence. He floats down to the others, and describes what he saw.
 
Niobe- “The old camp sounds like as good a place to start as any.”
 
Eli shrugs.
 
Tinyra, “I am a little interested in the pedestal.”
 
Brak- “Agreed. Those tend to be places of power.”
 
Niobe and Brak head north to the closest item of interest.
 
The party comes to an area where the ruins are complicated with a new feature; numerous spindly stone stalagmites fill the area.  The rocky growths are carved with strange slash-like glyphs along vertical lines, but seem to have no other purpose.  A small tangle of green glowing crystal grows from the base of a stalagmite near the center of this area.
 
Niobe detect evil. There is evil coming from some of the stalagmites. Niobe points these out to the party.
 
Brak examines the slash marks via decipher script, and then the crystals via spellcraft.  He believes they are druidic writings, but cannot make any of them out.
 
Brak- “Arvin, can you read any of this?”
 
Arvin starts to read, but the DM decides to be a goober.
 
Surprise round !
 
Stalagmites suddenly have strands that spring from the ground and start to streak out towards the party.
 
Pink Roper attempts to grapple Niobe.  Four of the stands take hold of Niobe and the Roper starts to pull on her.
 
Blue Roper also attempts to grapple Niobe.  Five strands take hold of Niobe and that one also starts to pull on Niobe.  Blue Roper wins and pulls Niobe ten feet closer.
 
“What in the infernal landlocked hell is THIS?” Arvin yells at Brak.
 
Red and Red Blue Roper attempt to catch hold of Boots.  All of the strands catch boots and start to tug on him.  Boots is able to stand his ground.
 
Purple and Yellow Roper attempt to catch hold of Clifford.  All of the strands catch Clifford and he manages to stand his ground as they pull on him.
 
Orange Roper attempts to catch hold of Arvin. All catching hold of Arvin.  She manages to hold her ground.
 
Green attempts to catch hold of Eli.  All catch Eli, but he manages to hold his ground.
 
Brak summons knowledge of ropers from the depths of his brain and starts shouting things at the party. “They’re called ropers, and all they do is what they’re doing now!”
 
 
Round 1!
 
Tinyra flaps over to the blue Roper and attempts to touch it, casting Slay Living.  The Roper attaches one strand on Tinyra right before it dies.  The strands from Blue Roper drop off Tinyra and Niobe.
 
Niobe- “Ha! Nice.”
 
Clifford mauls the roper to his left, tearing it to bits. He flips around and starts in on the one behind him too.
 
“Oh hell no,” Arvin says, and turns INTO A DIRE BEAR.  She rears up and roars, then swipes at Orange Roper, whacking him once.
 
Boots rips around and bites red twice.
 
Brak dimension hops straight up 40’ to get out of the green roper’s tendril range, and then uses his staff of transmutation to try and disintegrate (via LAZOR) the other roper grappling Niobe. It poofs out of existence, into a tiny pile of dust.
 
Eli manifests Psychic Crush on Green Roper.  It fails its save and falls unconscious.
 
Purple Roper attempts to pull on Clifford more.
 
Red and Red Blue Roper attempt to continue to pull on Boots.  Both manage to pull Boots in close enough to attempt to bite boots.
 
Orange Roper attempts to pull Arvin closer and manages to pull her 10 feet closer.
 
Niobe takes a couple of steps to get around Tinyra and then attacks the red roper (red roper). She uses law devotion and divine might, but has to stand on the corpse of blue roper to get a good stab in, and thus slips on the second thrust of Fjolhaefur.
 
Round 2!
 
Tinyra draws her spear and attempts to attack the Red Roper.  Managing to kill the already almost dead Roper.
 
Clifford shreds the roper in front of him and turns to the one attacking Arvin, hitting it s few times.
 
Arvin figures what the heck, if you’re going to be a bear, be a bear, and full attacks the roper again.
 
Boots tail slaps red blue once
 
Brak, seeing that the orange roper is about to be torn to pieces, turns around to see what the last roper is up to. Doesn’t matter what it is, he disapproves. He swaps out his staff of transmutation for his staff of power and then fires some magic missiles at the red-blue roper.
 
Eli performs another Psychic Crush, this time on Orange.  It fails and falls unconscious.
 
Red Blue Roper continues to try pulling on boots.
 
Niobe executes a beautiful wing assisted flying leap up and over Tinyra and Boots to land on Boot’s far side. Then she stabs the roper.
 
Round 3!
 
Tinyra moves forward to attack the remaining Roper.  Hitting it for very little damage.
 
Clifford squeezes past Niobe and bites the remaining roper. It dies.
 
Brak lands and swaps the staff of power for the staff of frost. “Let’s be a bit more careful, shall we?”
 
Eli writes out, How do we be more careful?  They were pretty well camouflaged.  Will Arvin still be able to read some of the glyphs on them?
 
“I’ll give it a shot,” Arvin says, and does so. Still in bear form, which looks extremely silly.  She is able to determine that the glyphs cover several different topics.  Some of the eating habits of sharks, and others are simply gibberish.  The outer stalagmites have narratives like chapters in an ongoing history book.  The closer to the center she gets the more chaotic and nonsensical the patterns get.  She is also able to determine that all the Stalagmites were once Ropers.  The ones they faced are the only ones that were still alive.  There are also green crystals growing at the base of the central most stalagmite.
 
Brak takes another look at the green crystals.  He can determine there is a magical property to the crystals.  They appear to be connected with conjuration magic, similar to a teleport spell.
 
Brak mentions this to everyone.
 
Tinyra takes a look at the crystals and then points, “look there, it looks like one of the crystals has been removed from here.”
 
Brak- “Let’s explore the rest of the island before we start pulling crystals and travelling to other planes. Again.”
 
Tinyra, “traveling to other plans again?  You mean like you all going to dungeonland?”
 
Brak- “Precisely.”
 
Eli shutters.
 
Niobe flaps up onto a convenient wall and looks around. “Let’s inspect the pool, if we’re done here.”
 
Brak- “I think we’ve learned as much as we can from here for the moment.”
 
The party doesn’t run into anything of interest on their movement through the ruins to the pool.
 
Niobe flaps from wall to wall cause it’s amusing, and then keeps a lookout once they arrive.
 
Brak floats over the pool and looks to see what’s in it, hoping that what’s in it is not a kraken.
 
The party comes up on a murky tidal pool thick with moldering driftwood and clumps of seaweed filling the bowl shaped opening in the ruins.  Growing from this tangle of wood and water is an immense black plant.  Its roots coil out through the surrounding water and its twisted trunks support eight rubbery-looking dark branches that sway gently in the wind.  Everyone is able to notice that there appear to be red glowing crystals growing in the bottom of the pool.
 
Arvin keeps her distance, as she tries to figure out what the plant is
 
Niobe detects evil….and also stays at guided missile range.    There is evil coming from the plant.
 
Surprise round !
 
The Tentacles suddenly shoot out and attack Niobe, Tinyra, Eli and Brak.
 
Brak- “Why do we always go to the worst places? Ow! Crap!” He curses as he’s bludgeoned thoroughly by the tentacles.
 
Round 1!
 
Tinyra flaps her wings and flys back watching the monster holding off.
 
Eli manifests a full mind thrust without using his wild surge ability.  The Tree fails its save and shutters slightly from being hit.
 
Niobe has had it with these weird tentacle plant things in this weird little island, and so executes a Guided Missile Mk 3 (awesome charging smiting power attack with law devotion, divine might, and rhino rush and valorous spear). She rams Fjolhaefur through the tree and blasts a hole from one side to the other, the sound of shattering wood echoing across the island.
 
Eli claps.
 
Arvin lets out a low respectful whistle. “Niobe, you really need a catch phrase for situations like this.”
 
Clifford shakes off his fear, and whistle-howls at Niobe’s hole-in-the-monster.
 
Niobe takes a breath and grabs onto a splintered bit of wood so as to avoid falling in the water. She flaps her wings once and lands on the shore, trying to suppress a grin.
 
Niobe breaks into a smile- “Thanks. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”
 
As the party looks around they notice there are bodies of Sailors, pirates, and explorers all around the area.
 
Brak, a little disappointed on the inside that he didn’t get to cast cone of cold, looks around for what might be nearby. “We should search some of these poor souls. To see what clues they may have for us.”
 
Brak floats down to look at the red crystals.  He gets the same impression from these crystals that he got from the other crystals.
 
Brak manifests body adjustment on himself and heals 44 hp.
 
Arvin notices that one of these crystals has been removed as well.  While searching the bodies she finds a longsword in a scabbard that both look in excellent condition for the area.  There is also a set of clothing, slippers and a strand of beads.  All in excellent condition, probably magical.
 
Brak, to Arvin- “My impression is that these crystals have largely the same function as the green ones. Perhaps just the other direction.”
 
“Red ones make you alive and evil and green ones make you dead?” Arvin says. “That was a lot of dead rock back there.”
 
Brak- “I mean perhaps one crystal takes you to wherever you go, and one will bring you back.”
 
“Oh that makes sense,” Arvin says. “Yes I think you are right. What was up with that creepy tree though?”
 
Clifford - “We should be sure to take both with us, then. Don’t want to get trapped. Again.”
 
Brak- “The hell if I know.” He wracks all of his brain, not just the knowledge- nature part of his brain, about what the tree might have been.  He is still not sure what it was.  He knows of something called an Octopus Tree, but this one was very different from the ones he heard about.

[perovskite]

Day 215, again no game, but we were a week ahead.

Interlude XXXXVII

(click to show/hide)

There is a sudden sharp popping sound and Derek appears where Arvin was just standing.  Now Arvin and Boots are nowhere to be seen.  Leroy is still missing.
 
Derek looks around and grimaces “I almost feel as though I should apologise for being absent during combat.”
 
Brak- “This one didn’t last long.”
 
Eli shrugs and gives a dismissive wave.
 
Derek rolls his shoulders.“So… did I miss anything important?”
 
Brak- “We’re across the island from where you disappeared, and on our quick journey across we fought about ten ropers, several of whom had been fossilized with a green crystal of some kind, similar to the red ones you see growing at the base of this octopus tree”- Brak gestures at the tree, which looks a lot like it’s a victim of a lightning strike. “Our best theory so far is that one type of crystal or the other transports a person...somewhere. Haven’t tried it yet, though.”
 
Derek nods “What’s next?”
 
Brak- “I suppose finish stomping around the island until we’ve found what there is to find, and then start experimenting with the crystals.”
 
“Lead on, then” Derek readies his bow
 
Brak pops up high enough to look for anything else that’s interesting, while avoiding going so high that he gets swept out into the storm again.
 
There is still the camp to the west, an area just a few feet north of Clifford that has lots of rubble, and a circular disk to the north practically at the edge of the storm and centered on the highest portion of the island.
 
To that place we go! Ten steps later…
 
The party finds what once may have been a collection of four impressive statues of marble and basalt has been reduced to a pile of shattered rubble.  Fragments of the statues lie in heaps throughout this area.
 
Niobe hops down from the wall and pokes through the remains of one of the statues, looking for things other people could read, and hoping they don’t animate into stone golems or something.  She doesn’t find anything of interest.
 
Derek glides in and does likewise, searching for recognizable symbols and stuff.  He finds an area that is sheltered from the drizzling rain.  There appears to be traces of blood.  After a few seconds of looking at the area he is able to determine that something that bleeds fought against the statues here.
 
Brak floats over and looks around as well. He catches sight of a flickering blue glow coming from below the fallen torso of one of the statues.
 
Brak- “There’s a flickering blue glow below the torso of this statue...anyone want to lift it up?” He backs off and points his staff of frost at it.
 
Derek calls over Clifford: “There is blood spoor here.” He then goes over to where Brak is, and works on determining the best way to move  the heavy rock.
 
Clifford sniffs it thoroughly, and starts tracking where the person the blood belongs to went.  He can determine the owner of the blood went off to the north west.
 
Clifford - ‘The trail goes northwest!”he is very excited to report.
 
Niobe heads over to help Derek lift heavy things. Or at least push heavy things. Niobe hopes there’s not an eldritch abomination under there, but she wouldn’t be surprised.  They find a pile of blue crystals that look similar to the red and green they have found up to this point.  All of these have been broken however.
 
Brak- “Hmmmmm….collect the whole set. We likely need several of each crystal. Clifford, can you pick up a crystal with your telekinetic abilities?”
 
Niobe- “I’ll just give it a try.” She picks up one of the blue bits o’ crystal.  She has a blue bit of crystal.
 
Niobe gives Brak a “This wasn’t that dangerous” look.
 
Eli raises an eyebrow then writes, do we want to go back for the other crystals?
 
Clifford trots back to grab a green crystal with Far Hand. “I’ve got this one!”  He has no issue getting the green crystal. He grabs a second just in case.
 
Derek dashes off and tries for a red crystal.  He also has no issues. He returns to the group.
 
Niobe picks through the pile of blue crystals and finds the biggest one while the others are grabbing the red and green ones.  She is unable to find any that are more than a quarter of the size of the other crystals.  They all look broken beyond use.
 
Brak- “Now we can follow the trail of blood.”
 
Clifford hops out in front and starts following the trail.  It doesn’t take long before the party is a circular disk hewn from obsidian lying in the ground.  This seems to be where the trail ends.  There are strange runes decorating the rim.  At three points around the disc’s circumference, stylized eyes have been carved, each with a shallow hollow carved within to represent the pupil.  In each hollow there is what appears to be a burned out crystal.
 
Brak mumbles something about knowing evil is at work here cause only evil spellcasters use obsidian for anything. He attempts to read the runes without his soul getting sucked out.  He feels that with some more work he might be able to make out the ruins.
 
Derek comes up and peers at the crystals in the hollows, to see if he can figure out the color of each one.  He is not able to determine if there is a specific color to any of them.
 
Niobe detects evil, totally expecting a pounding headache.  No evil. “Odd…”
 
Brak bemoans not knowing a spell that would let him reassemble the blue crystals, and casts detect magic instead. He focuses on the obsidian disc for starters.  It is magical, the same magic as the crystals.
 
Brak- “I would need some study to figure out what the runes mean, but the obvious thing to do is stand on the obsidian and start shoving crystals into the eyes.”
 
Niobe- “And then hope Leroy, Boots and Arvin wind up wherever we do.”
 
Tinyra, “it might be worth trying to figure out what it says.”  Then she goes up and casts read magic.  She is able to read the runes.  “It says “Return my eyes to me, and I shall gaze through the storm.”
 
Clifford - “I can’t read it.” He goes to sit in the middle of it to wait for the indecisive two-leggers.
 
Brak thinks for a moment- “So either an epic journey to retrieve the three Eyes of Vecna we think are floating around presently, or we use these colored crystals,” he says, more than a little bit sarcastic.  He is able to determine that they need the crystals, and will need to figure out how to repair one of the blue crystals if they want to get it to work. “As I thought, we need to reassemble the blue crystal.”
 
Derek picks lint off his lapel. “In either case it appears to be a way out of this place.”
 
Clifford tilts his head “Don’t we need to find the library first? Or maybe this goes to the library?”
 
Tinyra, “the priest of Vecna that is ahead of us is going to the library.  My guess is they are the ones that recently used crystals to get through this device.  We are probably playing catch up.”
 
Niobe heads back to the pile of blue crystals to see if she can find pieces that fit together.
 
Tinyra goes to help Niobe.
 
Between Niobe and Tinyra they are able to puzzle together a full crystal.  Tinyra then attempts to cast mending on it.  The spell holds and they now have a complete blue crystal.
 
Niobe- “Nice work. Let’s go give this a try.”
 
Tinyra, “thank you.  Lets.” and goes back to the group with Niobe.
 
Clifford is still waiting in the circle, with one crystal in his mouth (he put the other in his haversack.)
 
Derek is lightly bouncing his crystal off his shoulder.
 
Niobe and Tinyrea return. Niobe says- “We reassembled one, hopefully it’ll hold up.”
 
Derek stops playing with his.  “Do you think it matters which crystal goes where?”
 
Brak- “I doubt it.” He floats over to land on the platform.
 
Derek shrugs and steps up onto the platform with Clifford. He swaps his fresh crystal for one of the burnt out ones, and pockets the burnt one.
 
Niobe steps on the platform and gingerly places the blue crystal into one slot.
 
Clifford walks over to the last plinth, and stares at it, then back at the party, then back at the plinth, until someone comes to take the burnt one out for him. Then he puts the green one in.
 
Once the crystals are in place the ring starts to glow faintly.
 
Brak is able to determine that it is going to take some work to get the device to go.  With guidance he thinks he could talk someone into activating each of the crystals.
 
Brak- “Lets try this: Niobe, you withdraw the green crystal, Derek, you the blue, and Tinyrea, you the red. Then replace the crystal once they’re all out.”
 
Tinyra does as asked.
 
Niobe do-see-dos with Derek to the green crystal and pulls it out. It’s only somewhat wet.
 
Derek, once in position, pulls the blue crystal. Carefully.
 
Brak- “And replace them on three. One, two, three, replace!”
 
All the crystals get put back in their slots, and nothing happens.
 
Brak- “Huh. Niobe, you and Derek switch crystals, and try again.”
 
Derek and Niobe switch again, and pull their crystals.
 
When Derek attempts to get green crystal activated using his skills he manages to get it to click and suddenly the crystal he was working on glows bright and a third of the ring is now glowing as well.
 
Niobe- “What did you do?” She wipes dog slobber on her leg.
 
Derek - “Gave it a half twist, widdershins.”
 
Niobe gives the crystal a half widdershins twist.  Nothing happens. She twists it back. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, want to give it a try?”
 
Derek nods and tries the same thing with the blue crystal as he did with the green.  There is a snap hiss and the blue crystal lights up along with a third of the ring.  Only the red one remains dim.
 
Niobe- “Look at you! Must be in the wrist.”
 
Derek “Or something…” He looks pleased with himself. And looks over to Tinyra and the red crystal. “Mistress Tinyra, if I may?”
 
Tinyra steps to the side to make space for Derek.
 
The last crystal starts to glow then there is suddenly a bright flash of light and a portal appears in the middle of the ring.  Everyone is caught in the portan and suddenly they are transported away.  The sudden shift in environment is shocking and overwhelming for a moment.  The sound of the raging tempest is gone, replaced by a gentle wind carrying birdsongs and the drone of buzzing insects.  The sky above is overcast, yet it doesn’t seem ready to storm.
   The edge of a sprawling black forest, dense and overgrown, fills the view in one direction.  Tall trees sag with prances heavy with moss, their dark eaves dropping to the ground in some places.  From within comes a cacophony of insects and singing birds.  Now and then, a ghostly green glow appears within, only to fade moments later as if whatever creature was generating the light was afraid to be seen.
   In the other directions grassy hills rise.  Opposite the forest, the hills eventually become a range of rocky, barren mountains.  A flash of brilliant lightning ignites the sky above the mountains for a moment, and the distant peal of muted thunder echoes down the slopes a few moments after.
 
Derek sniffs the air a little and murmurs “Mistress Arvin will be terribly disappointed.”
 
Niobe detects evil.  No evil.
 
Brak observes all this and tries to figure out what plane of existence they’re on.  He is pretty sure they are on another demi plane.
 
Brak- “Fucking shit. We’re on another demiplane.”
 
Tinyra sighs.
 
Niobe- “It’s not inherently evil, though. Which is nice. Probably.”
 
Clifford - “Smells nice.” He flips over to roll on the ground for a while.
 
Derek looks around to see if there is a transport array under them to match the one they got here on, or if they are just in a bare clearing.
 
While standing there discussing their location a group of four fey step out of trees and come walking up to the party.
 
Tylanthros, “I am Tylanthros, guardian of this realm.  We are the Last Resort, as surely as the trees and stones and sea and air around you.  We protect the secrets of this island from all trespassers.  You have mastered the portal of storms, and therefore must be brave, but it remains to be seen if you belong here at all.  Why have you come to Last Resort?”
 
Niobe detects evil as soon as they’re within sixty feet.  No evil.
 
Derek steps forward “Greetings, Guardian Tylanthros. We … actually have no idea where we are. We seek a library.”
 
Tylanthros, “You seek the Fountain, although you do not yet realize it.  The Fountain of Dreams is linked to all things in Last Resort.  The earth, the dark trees of the Doomshroud, the clouds above, my life and that of my brothers are part of it.  If the waters are consumed, the Order of the Storm’s rte is undone.  The secrets kept from the world will be released, and the great creatures of legend imprisoned here on this isle shall be unleashed upon the Material Plane once more.  You say you are heroes?  This remains to be seen.  Accomplish four tasks and prove yourselves to be the heroes of old returned.  The Fountain shall not be despoiled lightly.”
   The strange creature looks at his four brothers, then back to you.  “The Fountain of Dreams shall know those destined for its gifts in but one way.  It will know them by the Trials of Tilagos.  Survive these trials, and you may slake your thirst on what you seek.  Fail, and Last Resort shall be your grave.  I am Tylanthros, and the first trial is the Claiming of Krathanos’s Golden Belt.”
   A second of the quartet of creatures speaks up next.  “I am Beskawahn, and the second trial is the Silence of the Doomshroud’s Mournful Song.”
   The third speaks, “I am Thadimar, and the third trial is the Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare.”
   Finally, the last creature speaks.  “I am Sayren-Lei, and the final trial is the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King.”
   Tylanthros speaks again.  “These trials complete, return here and we shall show you the Fountain of Dreams.  Until then we shall watch, and wait.”
 
Derek is suspicious because this all seems like rather sensitive information to just hand out to random people who succeed on their use magical device checks. “Heroes? We’ve said no such thing. What are you talking about?”
 
Clifford - “Wait, we can’t just get a bit of info without releasing the creatures of legends imprisoned upon the whatsit?”
 
Brak- “Has anyone else come through here recently?”
 
Niobe- “Is there anyone else who is attempting these trials?”
 
Brak checks to make sure these guys aren’t illusions.  They are really there as far as he is concerned.
 
They ignore all the questions except for Niobe’s.  Tylanthros looks at Niobe, “You speak of the Hand of the Lich-Lord.  He has come to Tilagos with his flock, seeking knowledge as you do.  Even as you linger, they seek to complete the tasks we have named.  If they outspeed you, then the secrets of the Fountain are theirs.  Who claims the secrets of the Fountain matter little to us, for once these secrets are claimed our role in Last Resort has come to an end.”  With that the guardians all shift into the plants around them and are gone.
 
Derek bares his teeth. “How uninformative.”
 
Derek, Brak, Niobe, and Clifford all see a piece of paper on the ground where one of the guardians was just standing.
 
Niobe grabs it and reads it.  It is a map.
 
Brak- “We should see about ambushing the hand and eye bearers.”
 
Niobe- “Oh, looky, a map.” She examines it for clues about where to go.
 
Brak pulls out his crystal ball with true seeing and attempts to scry their opposition.  He gets nothing but blackness.
 
Brak- “Well scrying isn’t working. Niobe, they talk to you, ask them which trial the opposition went to first.”
 
Niobe talks to the trees he guardians disappeared into. “Where did the Hand-bearer go, and which trial are they at presently?”
 
No answers are forthcoming from the trees.
 
Derek sighs “Does the map show the location of the trials? If so, we could just pick one and go.”
 
Niobe- “Makes sense to me.” We examine the Map!  Brak is able to determine that the party is on the west edge of the Doomshroud Forest.  Probably somewhere in the middle of the area.
 
Brak points out the party’s location. “You know what….” He attempts to scry the location of Krathanos Golden Belt. And then zooms out repeatedly so that he can get a general direction from where the party is to where the Belt is.  He is able to determine that the belt is where the map says the Keep of the Shackled Conqueror is at.
 
Brak points this out to everyone. “I assume that the locations of the other three trials are fairly obvious by their names.”
 
To Do List
Claiming of Krathanos’s Golden Belt.
the Silence of the Doomshroud’s Mournful Song.
The Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare.
the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King.
 
Derek mutters “It would serve them right if we brought back the whole Roc.”
 
Brak smirks. “We do have to bring the feather back alive. Hopefully Arvin returns by then.”
 
Niobe has been measuring distances. “It looks like about 40 miles straight line from here to the place where the belt is...or 65-ish if we go around the forest.”
 
Eli writes, maybe it means we have to retrieve the feather from a living Roc and not a dead one.  Would be more of a challenge to pluck the feather while it is alive.
 
Derek considers. “One of those creatures said this forest was the Doomshroud, did he not? Perhaps we will run into the mournful song on our way.”
 
Tinyra nods, “they did.  It could be worth going through the forest and see if we do run into it on the way.”
 
Clifford starts trying to walk through the forest, to see if he can do so at his size, and the potential of people being able to ride on him.  He doesn’t have a problem staying his large size as they move through the forest. “Looks like I can take passengers!” He offers a ride to anyone who wants it, to help everyone move faster.
 
After about an hour of walking through the woods the party starts to hear low quiet sounds.  Almost hypnotically in its melody.
 
Niobe sets her spear and shield to Kill, and proceeds through the trees.
 
Derek glides forward, bow at the ready, seeking out the sound and examining the surrounding through his spellsight spectacles.
 
Brak floats above everyone else, assuming he can do so without smacking into branches constantly. Otherwise he floats at head level.
 
Another twenty minutes in and the sounds start to get more intense.  Derek, Brak, and Clifford starts to feel the uncontrollable urge to go to the sound and a feeling of crushing despair coming over them.
 
Brak- “I think I’m gonna head that way….” He says distractedly.
 
Derek nods “It’s very pleasant. I should like to hear it better.”
 
Eli gives Niobe a concerned look.
 
Clifford just turns and starts heading in that direction.