Into the Pit

The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

#1 'd20' : 4

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#2 'd20' : 1, 15, 4, 14

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#3 'd10' : 8, 5, 10, 1

Forgot the saving throw vs. the -2 WIS...

The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 2

Mallus wrote:

OOC part 2: I have a request. Instead of Religion, which Yatagan will fail miserably, can he use Diplomacy instead? After all, it's not like he's using mystical knowledge, he's asking the god --politely-- to unleash it's power.

Sure. I had considered that as an option too, and it's more amusing that way.

Rolls...

The member 'shilsen' has done the following action : Dice Roller

#1 'd20' : 19, 6

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#2 'd6' : 5, 5, 4, 1

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#3 'd20' : 20

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#4 'd6' : 2, 5

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#5 'd20' : 18

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#6 'd10' : 1

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#7 'd20' : 11

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#8 'd10' : 1

Emboldened by the favor of the Box-god, Penelope strikes the wounded wraith twice, ignoring the opportunistic attack from one of the wraiths which her armor mostly blocks (2 pts dmg), blasting away more of its shadowy essence. Vox, seizing the opportunity, drives his blade into the center of its shape. Its shadowy form thrashes wildly and then folds into nothingness. Odanais assaults the undead mind of another wraith, rendering it less dangerous.

The two remaining wraiths focus their attacks on Vox, one sinking into the ground and reappearing on the opposite side to him, while the other simply charges him. A shadowy claw sinks deep into the shadar-kai's side (crit; 16 dmg, weakened).

The next attack comes from an unexpected angle. Yatagan, deciding to use the box-god more actively, reaches into his codpiece to produce it, scorching his hands in the process (3 damage). Perhaps realizing what he is doing, or more likely, simply through coincidence, the mad wraith finally manages to sink its claws into the paladin's head (10 dmg). Yatagan feels a surge of rage suffuse him and for just a second, knows the cold deprivation and near mindless hunger which is the entirety of a wraith's "life". There is no light, no future, nothing to ever look forward to, but only the unending hate and hunger for the living who possess something they do not appreciate enough.

With a feral howl, Yatagan turns and rushes across the battlefield, brandishing the god in the box. Nearing a surprised Vox, the paladin smashes him in the face with the box, bludgeoning and burning him at once (10 pts dmg).

The madness disappears as Yatagan strikes Vox and he realizes belatedly what he has done. With a cry of "Behold the Codpiece God!" the paladin raises the box above his head and a blast of radiant energy emanates from it, far more powerful than he has seen when L turns undead. The two wraiths near him shriek as their substance is blasted away and they are hurled backwards. Even the mad wraith, nearly thirty feet away, is shredded partially.

As the blast of light fades, the wraiths flee into the walls of the chamber. The mad wraith too flees hurling itself through one of the tears to the Other Side. The battle, apparently, is over.


OOC: Initiative, status & damage taken - Penelope (8 dmg, weakened), Odanais (30 dmg; weakened), Vox (26 dmg, weakened), Wraiths, Yatagan (42 dmg; -2 to Will)

Odanais says a prayer of thanks to the god in the box, then collapses to the ground to rest, taking in another healing surge.

Once recovered, he cautiously continues his search of the bodies for Pit. Also, he'll check Laurel's body for some piece of jewelry or trinket that he can give to Talia to grant her a tiny bit of closure.

And he'll cast his eye out for anything arcane [28 = 17 + 11] or valuable.

The member 'gridley' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 17

After staring - in a certain degree of disbelief and awe - at the strange turn of events, Penelope brushes off muck and debris from the black material covering her armor. She starts shaking her head and says, "Okay. I'm seriously not willing to press our luck any further. Let's get out of here. Please." The last word comes out in a voice that is more threatening than pleading.

"Oh," the archer adds as an afterthought. "I told you guys that Pit was dead after that first set of zombies attacked us. Just wanted to remind you..."

Penelope wrote:

After staring - in a certain degree of disbelief and awe - at the strange turn of events, Penelope brushes off muck and debris from the black material covering her armor. She starts shaking her head and says, "Okay. I'm seriously not willing to press our luck any further. Let's get out of here. Please." The last word comes out in a voice that is more threatening than pleading.

"Oh," the archer adds as an afterthought. "I told you guys that Pit was dead after that first set of zombies attacked us. Just wanted to remind you..."

"I definitely agree about not pressing our luck further," says Odanais, "but have we any evidence of Pit's demise?"

The search of the bodies confirms Pit's demise, since the adventurers find one which fits the description that they had been given. Or at least the description of his clothing, since the corpse has the remnants of a rich coat and waistcoat, but is mangled and eaten beyond recognition.

Besides a few personal trinkets which Odanais finds on Laurell's body, there are a large number of valuables on the dead dwarves. Besides about 250 gp worth of disposable equipment and money, they carry a couple of healing potions, 2 tanglefoot bags, 2 life shrouds, and 3 potions of resistance. There is also a magical shield, still strapped to a severed and partly-chewed arm, and a belt with a magical bag attached to it, a bag of holding.

It takes some time to find and collect all of these valuables, but there is no sign of more undead. Only the rips to the Other Side still remain, glowing and pulsing right above the heads of the adventurers searching the bodies.


OOC: I'll list the stuff you guys have found so far in the Treasure and XP forum.

"Mr. Cadaveris, are these rifts something we can or need to attend to tonight?" asks Odanais. "Or shall we leave them be for now?"

A little info:

Vox is fairly certain that the rifts are not about to get any worse. It takes a great deal of time or extreme amounts of magical power (and, more rarely, a large number of deaths in a short period at one place) to open or expand links between this world and the Other Side.

He does, however, know that the Bureaucracy would dearly love to know of this location and the rip between the planes. One way to inform them would be to carry the information himself. Another and much quicker, but less precise, method would be to use the ritual he knows which attracts a psychopomp or Spring-Heeled-Jack to this area. Not only would a psychopomp eventually take the information back to the Bureaucracy, but it would likely cleanse this area of some "unlicensed" undead.

"...which is certainly the easier path, and doesn't involve me answering any awkward questions or bringing the rest of you to the further attention of the Bureaucracy. Which could have unfortunate consequences. But if I'm to call a Jack, we should be ready to move as soon as I've done so. None of you want to catch the eye of a Jack, I assure you.

"Did we want to investigate the other tunnel first?"

Rolzup wrote:

"Did we want to investigate the other tunnel first?"

Penelope hangs her head for a moment in frustration, grits her teeth and tries to count to ten. One ... two ... thr ... ah, fuck it! The archer looks up and yells, "Are you all fucking crazy? We almost died! I am getting the hell out of here - whether you guys are coming with me or not!" She takes a deep breath and then adds, her tone lower but no less certain, "I'll wait for you to finish your ritual but that's it!"

Vox looks faintly offended by this. "We were hired to do a job," he says stiffly, "And anything worth doing is worth doing fully and correctly. Besides...I'd like to know what caused this rift. This sort of thing simply can't be allowed to continue unchecked."

With the others waiting, Vox completes his ritual. As he does, everyone in the chamber besides him feels a chill creep over them. And at the very edge of their hearing there is the faintest shadow of a whisper, as if they had walked into a room a second after a bell had been rung, when the echo still hung in the air. Vox, however, clearly hears the ringing sound which will soon attract a Jack here.

In view of the things they have encountered here, it seems likely to the adventurers that this was once the scene of a battle between the tiefling and dragonborn empires. Whether the deaths which occurred here led to the creation of a rift between this world and the Other Side (and the subsequent rising of the dead into undead), or whether that rift was caused by some other cause, is impossible to say at this point.

Rolzup wrote:

Vox looks faintly offended by this. "We were hired to do a job," he says stiffly, "And anything worth doing is worth doing fully and correctly. Besides...I'd like to know what caused this rift. This sort of thing simply can't be allowed to continue unchecked."

"We were hired to find out what happened to Pit," Penelope says in response, crossing her arms somewhat childishly. "And that's precisely what we did. Let's report back to Clarissa and save the rest of our resources for dealing with Clagoff - we have to deal with him today, and look at the bad shape we're already in! Just tell someone else to figure out what the hell's going on with the stupid rifts. We have our own problems to attend to!"

She takes a moment to look at the other members of the group. "What do you two think? Shall we 'explore' some more? Face another batch of undead and hope the box god comes to our rescue again? Personally, I don't think a divinity would reward stupidity. We've pressed our luck enough. It's absolutely not practical to remain down here and explore. And remember, whatever your decision is, I'm not coming along..." The archer trails off, ending the longest speech she has probably ever made.

Odanais sits back, enjoying Penelope's recent talkativeness and, let's face it, enjoying just sitting down, relaxing and recovering from his recent near death experience. He's both unsettled an curious by the unexplored caves, the ringing and the coming of the Jack, but he's willing to yield to the group decision.

A battered Yatagan Fracas sits on a rock, not so much listening to his companions as lost in hiss own thoughts. I am paladin of the Dragon Within, but what does that mean? Is that faith or merely what I am? Can I also serve the box god?

When Penelope finishes speaking, he says in an introspective tone of voice no one has ever heard from him before "Ms. Pindar has been right all along. We should do her the honor of acknowledging that and follow her course of action. There are too many tunnels down here to explore in our current condition. Perhaps the Bureaucracy will grant us permission to continue an investigation later".

The Dragonborn heaves himself to his feet, bows the god-box, then reverently places in back into it's impromptu sanctum sanctorum. That is to say, his codpiece.

"Though instead of retracing our steps, let's take the other bloodstained tunnel we saw in the prior chamber. It seems to lead back to the surface, and that way, we'll see more of this foul warren."

OOC: use 3 Healing Surges (2 remaining)

Slightly surprised and relieved that someone in the group agrees with her, Penelope at first just nods in agreement with Yatagan. "Right," she finally verbalizes, her tone a lot more amiable than before. "If it's that important to any of you to investigate this cave, we can save it for another day. And I'm a little wary about going that way, but using the tunnel is something I can agree to do."

As Yatagan returns the box to his codpiece, he finds it somehow a little heavier than it had been, and feels almost no sense of the god within. He gets the sense that the box-god may have drained itself in some way to aid them moments ago, and has now somehow retreated from the world outside.

With an agreement (or something approximating to it) about what to do next, the four members of the League head back, taking the tunnel which the lone set of blood-drops led to. Penelope is able to track them, quickly picking up that their source was followed by multiple zombies.

The tunnel that they are following twists and turns, joining and diverging from many others. There is, luckily, no sign of more undead, though there is the odd sound or two in the distance. Once the adventurers think they catch a glimpse of a wraith vanishing into a wall down a tunnel they are not taking, but with the shadows it's impossible to be sure.

Eventually, the tunnel joins up with one they had taken before and they reach the spot where there chewed-off hand had been, where the other remains still lie. It is only a few moments more to the "entrance", and soon the waiting guards above are tossing down a rope.

A short time later, all four of the League-members are standing outside the hole, dirty and with bloodied clothing, but at least hale and whole. "Damn," says Talia, as she coils the rope, "You guys look like shit! But that's better than what I expected, to be honest. What did you find?"

Odanais walks up to Talia slowly, letting his grim expression warn her of the words he's about to speak. "I'm afraid it was just as you expected, Talia. We found the body of a young woman dressed as you are."

"She was wearing these." Odanais unwraps a handkerchief to reveal the trinkets he found on the body. "I thought you might want them. They glitter more up here than down there."

He places a hand her on her arm. "I'm sorry."

Assuming she isn't too grief-stricken, he tells her the rest of the story.

Talia's mouth twists slightly but otherwise she takes the news calmly, accepting the little collection of trinkets from Odanais. "Thank you," she says gratefully, her voice a little thicker than earlier. "I'll make sure her family gets them."

Putting the objects away, she listens intently (as do the others) to Odanais' narration. When he finishes, she looks worriedly at the hole and then at the mansion, before turning back to the adventurers. "That's out of our expertise. What do you want us to do? We're not going to have a bunch of undead pop out here, are we?"