LDDragon

Hmm, wonder if I need to set up a sheets tab or something for the command to work properly, or whether it would work without it.

Kyle looks at the ground to see if there are any tracks leading to or from the craft. He looks around for Astrid to see what her reaction is to all of this, and considers going into the compartment. Kyle ponders whether the purple glow is dangerous, or merely providing illumination. Most likely the latter for the occupants or former occupants, if they have bunks here.

The man squints at the terminal to see if he can find any further details. After deliberating momentarily, he cautiously enters the compartment to examine the terminal and interior of the place, looking and listening for any sign of occupants or recent signs of occupants.

Sorena attempted to rip the door off of its hinges, but despite her hulking size lacked the strength to do so. She looked to Mac and shrugged helplessly, stepping back.

With the clay golem defeated, Mac's impulse is to help Sorena, but Thura is already on it, and the Iruxi woman is as well trained in first aid as himself. So he just nods at the Anadi in gratitute for their help again and helps with the investigation.

Considering what both Sweet Tooth and Banana figure out about the golem, Mac wonders "Yeah okay, but what is a statue like this doing here? I mean, this is a library, not a tomb. Unless...", his thoughts conclude, eyeing the door warily.

With Sorena's injuries patched up at least a bit, the big woman volunteers to try and force the barred door open. But despite her bulk and best effort, the door won't budge. She seems to be despondent about her failure, but Mac won't have none of that.

"Dude, don't give up like that, I'm pretty sure I heard some wood cracking there. But okay, you are still injured, rest now and I'll give it a try myself, okay?"

Feeling a bit more comfortable in his, well, true form, Mac lets his features flow into his lupine hybrid shape (also to give the Anadi a bit of a show, being shape-shifters themselves, they seemed to like watching his own transformation, so why not give them the pleasure).

Considering what little he has learned about wood and magic, Mac tries to determine where the weak points of the door might be, especially since Sorena certainly must have some success at weakening the frame. If only her brush with death did not disheart her so...

"Yeah, I think, like so...", he mutters as he tries to get a grip on how to open the damn door. At first, Mac is somewhat confused about what he finds and can not make head or tail of it. Unwilling to let the cohort be defeated by a dead door of all thigs, Mac rallies his determination and keeps trying to find a weak spot. Until he realises... "Man, now I get it, that door must have been barred from the inside. No wonder just trying to force the latch won't work. But I think... I mean, apart from the whole 'tomb' thing... I think if I slam the thing...", Mac mutters aloud, more to himself then his cohort members. Then, taking a few steps back, Mac charges the door, his furry frame propelled by his comparatively stronger leg muscles and slams his shoulder into the centre of the door, and with a resounding *crack*, something on the other side of the door breaks, and with a bit more prying, he can finally oush it open.

"See Sorena? You did weaken those boards. You just gave up too quickly. Just have a bit more faith into your own abilities, see?", he tells her with a smile and a wagging tail.

But even as he is reassuring Sorena, Sweet Tooth pushes past him and into the room. Ah yes, a cat's curiosity. Oh well, let her have this, as long as the cohort succeeds, it matters not who does what so much.

Still, he follows the catfolk girl closely and starts sniffing around. Both figuratively and literally. This room had been barred from the inside, so unless someone teleported out of it after the fact (a decent possibility given their location), there must be another exit. No visible door, maybe a hidden one?

Sweet Tooth left it to the more rugged of the group to deal with the door. She took the time instead to stretch out in the sun for a short time and left out a yawn as she watched the heavy lifting. When the doorway was cleared, she stepped inside and looked around.

"Someones old lab perhaps? I doubt there is anything to see here, we must delve deeper!"

She moved to the doorway and listened, then pushed the door open quietly. It didn't look like anyone had used this room in a long time, but it pays to be cautious.

Dust and cobwebs coat empty shelves and cabinets. The hard dirt floor is stained with paint and the powder of long-inert reagents. There is a door to the left.

Both Sweet Tooth and Mac, while suspicious, do not find anything of particular note. Whether such things are well hidden or simply not there is another matter.

Trouble dashes in, eager to find new and exciting ways of annoying people. Maybe drawing a dick on a wall that hasn't seen light for decades!

Banana, on the other hand, quickly spits out a spell, illuminating the tip of his staff as he makes his way in.

"Strange. Terracotta isn't exactly a common practice in Mwangi, and those statues normally stay dormant unless their tomb is broken into - not when somebody passes by outside. As for why it didn't attack the anadi...maybe it didn't recognize them in their true form. It probably registered them as unusually large spiders and ignored them, but the moment we folks came in, walking on two legs and having arms, it flipped the little magical switch inside him that said 'kill them all'. Probably won't be able to find out, now that the thing's destroyed, but that's my best guess."

Recalling Amosgarn with a trill, Omalara nocked a new arrow and advanced warily into the room. Where there's one magical guardian there could easily be two, she reflected as she surveyed the dusty storage area. When Sweet Tooth moved to other door and began to jiggle the latch, she drew her bowstring back fully and sighted on the doorway. "Don't be in such a rush!" she chided the catfolk.

Map

POST IN PROGRESS

Wugo flinches as his bold ally gets hacked down. He maintain his concentration to magically send his mace at the foe. Then pleads for healing for Armenga with a hasty prayer
" Meanie, catch this!
Stay down and rest, Wugo helps you.
Big Z. It's Wugo again. Please to help her not be deads yet. A men. Whups, Wugo means A woahmens."

The mace misses, but some of the wounds on Armenga heal up.

Armenga falls beneath the heavy blows of the stone sword. Then, filled with new energy, her hands tightens on her weapon and she pulls herself to her feet to strike at the clay soldier once more. It doesn't matter, she still can't hit it.

The statue, ever evasive, remains untouched.

"Let's try this again... DISARM!" Joseph gathers some of the latent arcane energies that inevitably seep into his cane by sheer virtue of its proximity to the young man's spells and raps the foot of his cane sharply against the stone floor. His voice and the sound of the cane striking are amplified by the spell, the sound reverberating across the grounds. The construct, winding up for another strike against Armie, suddenly hesitates... The arcanist smirks, something telling him that this time, the spell would not be so easy to shake off. "Do try not to destroy it. I would rather like to study it.".

Affected by the magic Joseph called forth, the statue gets ready to drop what it is holding.

"Statues aren't supposed to do this at all! Really, what gall this thing has!" The broad grin plastered across her face make it quite clear she was joking around. It was obvious that this thing was dangerous as swing after swing and attack after attack was unsuccessful. * Quite a difficult target here it seems. Still, guess I'll try my luck as well... *

She called out to the fey once again, "Keep on it!" and then focused on her own actions, trying to join the others in taking down the creature before them. Once again she wove a spell as she pulled a small metal sphere from a pocket. As she finished the sphere streaked towards the statue unerringly and broke off a chunk of the statue before falling to the ground and rolling a bit.

A large crack appears in the statue.

"Which part of 'and run' are you unclear on?". Zyrel groans as Armenga goes down, gets up and keeps trying to go toe to toe with the clearly superior statue. Brave, yes. Necessary? Probably not. Silently, he admits the 'Hit' part isn't working all that well either, though the statue does appear to be battered nearly into submission. "Sorry Joseph, you're probably going to have to make do with studying pieces unless you start right now." Zyrel drops another rain of stones on the statue and fires his bow once more. He seems to have figured out the statue's defensive routine, the arrow strikes with deadly force.

The statue does its best to dodge the rain of stones, but cannot avoid all of them. A large chunk hits its right shoulder, at the same time, Zyrel lines up the perfect shot, shooting it through the head. It falls to the ground, cracking open and breaking into multiple fragments.

Map

Lexandra has bardic inspiration.

Ghouls 1, 3 and 4 are turned for 1 minute or until they take damage. Nine rounds remain.

Everyone may act, in any order. You have several rounds to do things before they can act properly again, so feel free to say what you would like to do, even if it would take 2 or 3 rounds of combat. Partially out of combat, given that they cannot properly do anything for the next nine rounds, though will probably drop back into combat if/when people start attacking them again.

The one non turned one got pulverized.

POST IN PROGRESS

Thinking that both ghouls and dwarves are somewhat hard-of-thinking, Menelaus considers actual words aren't necessarily required to make them doubt themselves. Pointing fingers at the ghoul, he chants:

Nya, nya, ny-nah-nyah! And dances around a bit, to further ridicule the poor, undead creature.

The ghoul momentarily looks at Menelaus, but it appears that it is too focused on trying to attack Rina, and resists the bard's mockery.

"These ghouls must be destroyed if refugees are ever to be safe here!" Lexandra calls out. She brandishes her scimitar like a lightning bolt, invoking her Booming Blade cantrip, and slashes at the ghoul who just tried scratching Rina.

Lexandra slices her blade across the chest of the ghoul, and it flinches back, even as it is sheathed in booming energy.

Despite putting aside her revulsion at the stench of the foul creature, Ylsa still couldn't bear the thought of strikiing it with her bare hands. Scowling, she pulled forth her maul and moved quickly to join Lexandra, sweeping twice at the monstrosity.

Both attacks hit, allowing Ylsa to pulverize the ghoul into a bloodied mess. It twitches once, then stops moving.

The group saw the other ghouls have flee into another room, and those listening closely may be able to hear them moving away.

Map

Kyle approaches both curiously and cautiously, wondering if anyone had been inside and survived. He moves to keep as silent and hidden as possible while still observing the cigar shaped craft from different angles. Curiously will probably win out over caution thoiugh, so if he needs to get closer to inspect things more closely then he does so, looking both and and into the long tear in the side and belly of the shape.

50 minutes ago, Acromos said:

I didn't specify exactly, but the text you're quoting includes 'when you reach Sinkhole'. So yes - you have just shy of 1300 gold each now =)

Ok cool, thanks! 😀

On 4/22/2024 at 8:31 PM, Acromos said:

So .. I hope everyone has updated their character sheets.

Keep in mind, you have 412 gold to share now, but another 4700 will be yours when you reach Sinkhole. For a grand total of 5112 gold pieces. So any gear you feel you desperately need, you can buy there. Propably.

Remember, one of the precepts of this game is that magic items cannot be bought - except for the fact that maybe you can find a broker, and the easiest place to find a broker is Milliwent's Teahouse, in Ghazzad. Didn't I call it Milliwent's? Unclear, I'll have to check.

You should also ID Menthelius' sword, I don't think I've given you a description of it yet, right?

Also, make a not of any drow gear you decide to keep. It will stop being magic the moment it's touched by sunlight.

page nineteen of ooc, 5112 gold pieces divided by 4...?

1,278gp each assuming split 4 ways. Minus whatever you already took, because that includes the 412 from earlier which I recall people taking maybe fifty gold each from.

Can we assume that we have access to that money now? Not sure if I saw an IC post about it.

Draxie got a nat twenty so did critically hit, my bad. I have edited my post to reflect that.

If it didn't hurt so much, Armenga would roll her eyes at getting eviscerated by yet another monster. This was becoming a habit, and certainly not one good for her health.

She takes another swing, but against can't connect, then casts one of her few spells to pound the statue with rocks.

Although it does no take the full brunt of the spell, managing to dodge some of the rocks, though that do hit make a definite impact, with tiny parts of its shoulder crumbling off.

"Nice spell, even with the silly words. Now while it's distracted, pour it on, hit and run." The best way to take advantage of a slowed foe? Make it keep coming to you. Zyrel repeats his spell again, his rain of rocks joining Armenga's as he fires yet another arrow.

Having had some practice, the statue moves impossibly fast, dodging out of the way of the falling rocks Zyrel calls down. It bats the arrow away with its shield.

" Take this again!
And this for you ouchies."
Wugo narrows his eyes in concentration to maintain his spell. Then magically sends a mace again at the foe. Quickly following with a wash of healing energy for his ally (Armenga) next to him. He would very much like to Hit and Run. But would feel shame shame to leave a wounded friend alone against this giant sword swinging giant construct

The statue dodges the mace. Armenga feels her wounds close up and immediately feels better as Wugo sends healing energy her way.

Turning the corner it was clear that she'd stepped into a conflict that needed resolving and she spoke to all of them immediately. "Well met to you all and let my words aid your efforts..." and broke into a chanting, upbeat cadence, her clear voice filling the air, echoing around them all. She grinned as she took in the situation before her, life was always interesting. Kiki didn't know any of the group well but had seen a few of them around a number of times and at least one or two of them at some of her performances of course. * Nothing like getting to jump right in... *

Her bow was gripped firmly in her left hand and with her right she began to form symbols in the air, small traces of energy that hummed along with her voice. Within a few moments a small flying fey appeared in the air above the statue, quite out of reach but close by. "Shoot the statue!" She called out, her brief supporting chant having been completed.

The flying fey shows up and shoots fairly well, but the statue is incredibly defensively, managing to block and evade the first attack. However, the flying fey shoots it in the neck with the second shot.

Vulnerable to mind-effecting spells for some reason. If I disarm it, is it intelligent enough to pick its weapons back up? Joseph inscribes magical runes into the air. A large phantom raven appears, hovering before the arcanist. With a final gesture, he thrusts his hand towards the construct and shouts "DISARM!" The magical raven image animates and swoops down on the pottery, but passes harmlessly through it... "Well, that didn't work... Eh? And who are you?"

Mischief wings over to the newcomer, gravely worried that she might erroneously think that the dumb fey that just appeared are prettier than he is.

The statue appears to resist the command.

Firea didn't look in the best of shape but she continued to lay on the magic. "...lets see how you like this." One of Firea's tails whips about and snaps out towards the Terracotta sending an arc of blue fire from her tail towards it. Then promptly uses more of her innate magic by throwing Daze at the Terracotta, the move making all her tails shimmer.

"Ooo...I like it when you do that!" Auriflamma sounds happy to see Firea using her innate abilities.

Firea rolled her eyes at Auriflamma. "Just, keep firebolting him."

Firea does not manage to get through the defences, but Auriflamma firebolts the creature in the chest.

Goss, the anadi further away from the statue, flings three bolts of force towards it, while the other anadi begins giving advice on weak points to focus on, to disrupt the energy of the statue.

The statue focuses on Armenga, raising its shield and attacking her twice with its longsword.

Map

Her life had flashed before her eyes yet again, and with it her death. How many times was she to be spared? She who had abandoned everything that she was supposed to stand for? Death had come for her a second time, but the healing magic of her companions had saved her. Sorena turned to Thura, she was pretty sure it was Thura who had worked the healing magic, and bowed her head.

"You saved me."

She said bluntly, and then awkwardly left the words hanging.

Thura just shrugs at Sorena and says "You have been helpful to us, so I shall be helpful to you."

"...now, why was that statue attacking us..." she frowns. Was that one of the Magaambya's defenses run amok, or something else? But, with no answer for that, she turns her attention to aiding any others who are wounded.

Sweet Tooth put her blade away and approached the fallen statue. She looks over her shoulder at the spider trio.

"Well done friends, those magic missiles turned the tide!"

Then she stooped down over the broken remains of the statue and tried to see if there was any clues as to why it might have attacked.

Banana gets up from where the statue knocked him to the ground, shaking out his mane.

"I suppose I should learn a few spells that don't require aiming. That statue was exceptionally stubborn. And I agree. Why would a statue on Magaambaya grounds be hostile towards its students? It doesn't make sense."

He goes over to take a closer look at the statue. His expertise is wood, but he might be able to glean something from what he can see and sense as to the nature of this rogue construct.

Both Sweet Tooth and Banana sees and scent lingering traces of a magic dissipating... it seems that the statue was imbued with arcane energy within the past day. Sweet Tooth vaguely has the notion that guardian may have been animated long ago, and the recent burst of energy merely reactivated it. Banana notes that Terra-cotta warriors typically guard the tombs of ancient rulers, where they stand vigil, animating only when intruders break in to pilfer riches or defile the tomb itself. Each warrior is meticulously crafted from clay and given unique features. At its creation, a terra-cotta warrior can be engraved with runes, applying these runes to the weapons it wields. Such runes can’t be removed and engraved on items. The soldier here has only a +1 weapon potency rune and a striking rune, but more powerful versions with more powerful potency and property runes have been known to exist. A single terra-cotta warrior stands 6 feet tall.

"Even for a school of magic, a golem seems wasted guarding a mere storeroom." Omalara remarked."Yet, since it ignored the anadi, that is clearly what it was doing. It doesn't take a sage to reason there's a connection with whatever is calling them."

The anadi nod.

"Once more, you have around to help. We very much appreciate that you were nearby to save us. Trouble seems to be following us... first the griffons, and now the statue!" Goss looks troubled, but gestures expansively, then bows slightly in gratitude.

Sorena's armor fell to pieces about her as Thura drew close, allowing the Iruxi to tend to her wounds. Unlike the slagged Signifer helm, the rest of her mail was not melted into her flesh. She was a large woman, dressed in a threadbare arming jacket, which now had two large tears around her collarbone where the statue's sword had cut deep into the muscles in her pecks and shoulder. It had cut deep into bone as well, but her magic had mended that. It hadn't mended the jacket, and she'd need to have that seen too.

"Lets see what it was guarding."

She said once Thura was done, her armor reforging itself instantly with a searing scream.

Map

Crud, forgot the anadi are meant to be giving advice. Anyone who want to may make use of this action.

Heed Anadi Advice [one-action]
Auditory, Concentrate, Linguistic
You interpret the anadis’ suggestions on how to best assail the terra-cotta soldier’s animating magic. Attempt a DC 19 Arcana or Occultism check, or a DC 24 Perception check.
Critical Success As success, but the status bonus is +2.
Success You gain a +1 status bonus to your attack rolls against the terra-cotta soldier until the end of your turn.
Critical Failure You can’t understand the students’ advice, and the attention you’re paying them causes you to become flat-footed until the start of your next turn.

Round updated, everyone may act, in any order.

When Lexandra opens the door the group encounters a group of 4 ghouls. Rina made a squeak of fright "Ghouls!" She exclaimed. 

She grabbed her staff and charged it with nature magic as she advanced to where Lexandra was then she bared her shield with her fist holy symbol, "by the demand of the angels, be gone from here." She shouted.

Three of the dwarf ghouls immediately look alarmed, turning to run, opening a door further along and disappearing into it. The other ghoul stands staunch, then hisses and moves to Rina, attempting to claw her, but is ineffective.

Yikes!

Ylsa grimaced as the stench of the foul creatures hits her.

"Thank you, Menelaus!" Lexandra says in a low voice. The magical light illuminates far more, but she keeps the lit handle in her left hand anyway, as her attention turns to the ghouls snarling at the door.

Map

Oops I forgot to update yesterday. One moment...

Chaz sent me a message, is dropping out, due to getting too busy. I am wishing you all the best, Chaz!

Kyle inserts the silver coins into the grid. Experimenting with removing the first one, then putting it back, along with all the others. Once all of them are in and the 15 is showing, he muses "Handy" to himself, then puts the bank cards and everything else away, ready to follow Astrid.

"Yes." Kyle ponders whether these are voice activated, but he will say yes out loud and also touch to select the affirmative option if one can be seen.

Ok all good, thanks for letting us know.

Success! Got two healers kits. Now I can actually use the healer feat if needed.

Kelia goes with Panorin and Blueblood, making some purchases

2x healers kit 10 gp

Longbow 50 gp

40 arrows 2gp

2 potions of healing 100 gp

Kyle takes out his bank cards to examine them, keeping an eye on Astrid every now and then to ensure he does not lose sight of her.

Kyver Manyhued Prismat

Race Human

Going to roll randomly for fun, may or may not use these.

Who is this hero?

19 Metropolitan accountant monk

Why are they on the road?

29 Keeping tabs on a rival explorer

What do they carry?

39 Clear crystal heart of a vile, see glossary page 192.

Backstory

A man surrounded by spirits of the dead, who can summon a war lute. He is usually based in Sunset-in-the-East. Having found chaotic journals of someone who travelled and created songs, a lot only partially completed, Taris read the musical notations and began playing them, discovering that it uncovered some hidden talents within himself as he did so. The songs reference a lot of different places, and are signed as Abatoma, but the place most often mentioned is the Black City. Driven by curiousity, Kyver travels to see if he can find out who or what Abatoma is.

Whoever wrote the songs is prolific, though perhaps not a completionist, with many tantalizing fragments hinting at threads of stories only briefly touched on. Sometimes they would intertwine or unravel. Most intriguing to Kyver are the ones that appear to be written as duets, or as one part of a band, though those are much rarer. Interspersed with the songs are random drawings or patterns, as if images serving as inspirations for the songs, or illustrating a particular element of a story.

"Nor sunder through the spectrum of seas

Wandering from the lumin trees

The Great Forgetting loses ties

To where the betting songs reprise

Circle Sea in Rainbowlands

From Communual body to Golden Desert sands

Bardstones fixed, so cannot move

For Long Ago they lost their groove

Biomancy increased wizard arts

Burdenbeasts roam far apart

Art Florists complete plant work unseen

The Forest of Meat for harvested protein

Lacquered chaos of cubes on shore of oily ocean

Patterns ignored in timeless commotion

Toxic dust occasions dead fools to see

Electromagnificent radiation of the Black city"

Having heard that the cat lord Jaya is looking to establish trade between the violet city and the black city, Kyver goes to investigate the opportunity to sign on and be part of the caravan.

Personality

Creative, curious, somewhat oblivious. A bit of a daydreamer, part of his creativity involves tuning into the spirits around him and the atmosphere of an area, leaving him less alert to the other, more mundane nuances. He has studied painting, poetry and song lyrics, as well as calligraphy. Kyver wears a urumi as a belt, and has an enchanted agile breastplate for protection.

From his studies of the obscure journals, he was able to create a variety of small magics, as well as enact works of healing, destruction and light. Having studied both moonlight and sunlight, he can project auras based on those.

Appearance

A man whose eyes change color when he works his magic. Telltale signs that he is invoking his power include things like being surrounded by blazing red or cooling azure. At times he suspects that he experiences synaesthesia, having cross sensory experiences. As a mage of spoken colors, he draws out the colors from fields of possibilities, to heal, attack, or create art.