Returning from the Other Side

shilsen wrote:

Sure. You just have to get it back to the mortal side with you.

Yatagan heaves the dark creeper over his shoulder, punching it once in the nose for good measure. "Repent!" he says to it's slack, bloodied face.

"I'm here - you idiots!" shouts Pit, his tone both angry and panicky, as he appears at the entrance to the warehouse. "You have to get me out of here! I can't be found by the Bureaucracy!"

He looks around wildly and then points back inside, at the opening that Molly and her followers left through. "Let's go through there. It must come out somewhere!"

OOC: Is that the only way we can go that doesn't lead to the crowd?

gridley wrote:

OOC: Is that the only way we can go that doesn't lead to the crowd?

You can pop out the alley and head away from the main source of the noise, but considering the fact that the fight has made a lot of noise and you guys are pretty distinctive even here, odds are that you'll run into some people/(un)dead. Plus a number of you are bleeding, which tends to be noticeable far away on the Other Side.

How far are we from our exit point?

And do we have any idea why everything here want to attack us all of a sudden? Is that just to be expected here?

gridley wrote:

How far are we from our exit point?

Not too far. Less than a mile.

Quote :

And do we have any idea why everything here want to attack us all of a sudden? Is that just to be expected here?

Not everything. The majority of the dead wouldn't attack you guys, but some of them (esp. some of the undead, which aren't the same as the dead) would be drawn by the spilling of blood. Plus any Spring-Heeled Jacks in the area would be drawn to it, and you definitely don't want to attract them (esp. with an unmarked dead guy, i.e. Pit, in tow).

Ok, if nobody objects, we might as well try it. At the very least, we should be able to lie low there long enough to catch our breath.

gridley wrote:

Ok, if nobody objects, we might as well try it. At the very least, we should be able to lie low there long enough to catch our breath.

I'm presuming nobody did object, so here goes...

* * * * *

The group proceeds into the warehouse, their steps sped up slightly by the sound of a terrified shriek from around the corner which the dark creepers disappeared around. The scream, sounding like one of the creepers, is cut off suddenly.

Pit, who is literally hopping back and forth in excitement and fear, is the first one into the hole, muttering, "Hurry, hurry!" Beneath is a short drop of a few feet, which leads into a crude tunnel. Pit hurries along it until it opens into a small room with some broken-down furniture and makeshift shelves cut into the walls. Openings are cut into the walls to connect the chamber to two larger, adjoining rooms. More tunnels lead away from each room.

The rooms are unoccupied and Pit says, "Crap! Molly must have taken off!" He looks back at the League-members. "Which direction do we go? You guys promised to get me out of here!"


OOC: If you're taking a short rest and using healing surges to heal up, don't forget to mark them off. Just put an OOC comment in your next post about how many you're using and how many hp (if not fully healed) that puts you at. Not that I expect any more fights today

Quote :

The rooms are unoccupied and Pit says, "Crap! Molly must have taken off!" He looks back at the League-members. "Which direction do we go? You guys promised to get me out of here!"

Irritated, Penelope approaches Pit. She attempts to use her height to intimidate the oddly proportioned man, looking down upon him with a scowl. "You'll be fine!" she shouts, "so grow up and calm down. The only reason we're hurt is because of you. Be grateful, and stop being a nitwit."

OOC: Penelope uses a healing surge. I'm not positive if I used any before in the last encounter, though, so I don't know how many she has left.

"Pit, you're the one who's been down here before. Do you not know you're way around?" Odanais, certain that he's going to get an unsatisfactory answer from Pit, turns to Penelope. "So... left?"

OOC: Healing surge! I believe that puts me down three.

"Hold a moment Mr. Dare... everyone... take a moment to bind your wounds. Let's not leave a trail of blood in the direction we actually choose to go." Yatagan says this in a cheerful, enthusiastic tone of someone suggesting a picnic on a warm, sunny day. He then begins eying the floor with a quizzical look on his face.

"Ms. Pindar, can you discern which way Molly's people fled? Or perhaps scout ahead for a means of egress? Mr. Cadaveris, I assume you're lurking about in some indeterminate state, this goes for you too." Yatagan hands the modest archer a healing drought, then begins sopping his own blood up with strips of cloth, before wrapping them with bandages.

OOC: spend 2 Healing Surges, regain 30 HP (at full), 4 Surges left

"Do as I do. Sop up your blood. We'll mark the passage we don't take to throw off pursuers."

"As aware as I am of your comfort in strategically using your own bodily fluids, Sir Yatagan," says Odanais, "I can perhaps fortify your efforts with magical facsimile."

To demonstrate, Odanais uses prestidigitation to create a trail of bloody-smelling blood drop stains near the entrance.

gridley wrote:

"As aware as I am of your comfort in strategically using your own bodily fluids, Sir Yatagan," says Odanais, "I can perhaps fortify your efforts with magical facsimile."

"It's Dragonborn tradition. But dare I say your magic is quite convincing." Turning to Penelope he says "How's the left look to you?"

Pit ducks away from Penelope as if she were about to strike him and backs away, eyes wide. "You ... you ...," he stammers, but then catches himself before he says something which would get him shot through the head. Instead, he continues to back away, saying petulantly, "It's not my fault! I don't know what those crazy things were!"

Odanais' question provides a welcome distraction and Pit moves towards the mage, trying to keep Odanais between himself and the archer. "I've only been in here. Molly brought me here and she said we'd go to one of her other lairs today, but you guys arrived first. I know the tunnels lead to other hideouts and to places where she can sneak out, but that's it." When Odanais turns his attention to Penelope, Pit hangs around near him, looking uncertain what to do and eying Penelope fearfully.

Vox corroborates what Pit says, but he hasn't been in this area and doesn't know where the tunnels lead. He thinks the one to the right leads in the general direction of the Gossamer Pillow, but that's only at this point, so there's no saying where it ends up.

While Yatagan and Odanais set up a false trail via blood and magic, Penelope checks for tracks and thinks that Molly and her followers did take the one to the right, but it's hard to say. Even if they left in a hurry, they took care to cover their trail.

Heyoka, who has been standing guard near the hole leading up to the warehouse, returns at this point to say, "We need to leave quickly. There's movement out there." He looks down at his wounds and generally bedraggled state. "I'm really tired and won't be much good in a fight, just so you know."

"All signs point to right!" declares Odanais, running off to create a bloodlike trail heading down the passage to the left, then carefully doubling back to take the right way.

shilsen wrote:

"I'm really tired and won't be much good in a fight, just so you know."

"Would a vigorous rub of your tummy help?... no, perhaps not. Let's go."

We take the passage to the right. Yatagan keeps his armor in "agile" mode, in case we need to explore the better part of valor (AC: 22, Speed 6)

The adventurers proceed down the passage, with a grumpy Pit and the unconscious dark creeper along for the ride. It twists and turns as it goes on, and soon there's the faint sound of footsteps above. Many of them. It seems that the tunnel passes under the streets of the Hereafter.

Penelope soon picks up signs of travel through the tunnel. If not used by Molly and her people today, it has been used recently.

The tunnel soon splits into two and the group continues to follow the branch which they estimate leads towards the Gossamer Pillow. After passing a couple more turnings, the branch they are following eventually comes to a dead end. Some of the more keen-eyed members of the group detect a fairly well-concealed trapdoor set into the roof of the tunnel.

There is no sound from directly above, though there are the faint echoes of movement nearby.

"Perhaps someone stealthy should take a peek..." suggests Odanais, his eyes wandering toward Vox. "Perhaps even someone who actually stands a chance of recognizing where we are?"

Vox carefully lifts the trapdoor and peers out. After a few seconds, he lowers it and explains that it opens out into another alley behind a pile of rubble. The streets outside the alley are filled with the dead, as is usual in the Hereafter, but the alley doesn't seem to be occupied at the moment. The precise location is hard to pinpoint from this limited vantage point, but he thinks the group is maybe five minutes walk from the Gossamer Pillow.

OOC: Is there anything I could do with prestidigitation to make us look more like the undead? More like Pit or Molly, for example. Just to more easily slip by the casual examiner. If so, Odanais will do that.

gridley wrote:

OOC: Is there anything I could do with prestidigitation to make us look more like the undead? More like Pit, for example. Just to more easily slip by the casual examiner. If so, Odanais will do that.

In appearance, the group-members don't look that different from the dead (i.e. Pit, Molly Wise, John Sideways, etc), most of whom look fairly normal on this side. You do look different from most undead (i.e. zombies, wraiths, etc). What gives you away is the smell, since the living smell quite rank (and to some, tasty) here. Prestidigitation isn't strong enough to mask the smell for more than a few seconds, esp. for such a large group, but I'll let you try to stunt it. Make an Arcana check and the higher you get, the longer it'll last. Consider Vox as giving Odanais a +2 bonus by aiding him.

After Odanais and Vox finish prestidigitating, Yatagan will climb through the trap door and crouch behind the pile of rubble, setting his prisoner down beside him.

If the coast is clear, he'll motion for the others. If it's not, he'll vault over the rubble and adopt the 'combat martyr' stance, trying to draw any enemies attention to himself (and away from the trapdoor).

Yatagan emerges with no trouble besides the fact that the trapdoor was designed for someone a little smaller. Crouching behind the rubble, he can see people (well, dead people) passing along the street which the alley opens into. There are no obvious enemies in sight.

shilsen wrote:

gridley wrote:

OOC: Is there anything I could do with prestidigitation to make us look more like the undead? More like Pit, for example. Just to more easily slip by the casual examiner. If so, Odanais will do that.

In appearance, the group-members don't look that different from the dead (i.e. Pit, Molly Wise, John Sideways, etc), most of whom look fairly normal on this side. You do look different from most undead (i.e. zombies, wraiths, etc). What gives you away is the smell, since the living smell quite rank (and to some, tasty) here. Prestidigitation isn't strong enough to mask the smell for more than a few seconds, esp. for such a large group, but I'll let you try to stunt it. Make an Arcana check and the higher you get, the longer it'll last. Consider Vox as giving Odanais a +2 bonus by aiding him.

Sweet! Here goes...

Arcane check = 27 [14+11+2]

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

'd20' : 14