Chapter One: Welcome to the Tavern

[Dark Hawk799]

Spoiler

Show

To Valla Lindara saysI would gladly accompany you until I find my friends. To Uthar she just smiles.

[artofregicide]

Enrik scouts about amongst the rubble, but finds little of interest. Returning to behind the door, he magically opens the next one, only to find that the building has largely collapsed there, and there elements run wild in the room beyond. Though even had he stood in the doorway there was no danger of being cut by flying glass, the room beyond likely holds not much more than pain and disappointment.

Gull starts searching the room that he is in, dusting the vanity. Unfortunately, either age or poor position has left the mirror unsettled, and it falls to the ground, shattering, and causing him to jump back. The floor is now covered in glass, but no one is hurt. This distraction interrupts his search.

Liam's sharp eyes scan the room for traps or other dangers, and only the broken mirror is a hazard. He finds that the place holds mostly mundane items expected in a hotel room, that is all but one thing. Carved in the wood at the end of the bed is a strange picture: nine eyes, arranged in three rows of three. He doesn't find any particular significance to this, but something about it disturbs him. It's like looking at a Demon God's banner, or the calling card of an Eldritch Horror.

Azoth catches up, only to see Gull drop the mirror. It seems that the others have searched the room and found little of interest.

Regardless, it seems that all have temporarily given up search for Lindara, their companion.

Lindara:

Spoiler

Show

With that, the two Giants and three massive dogs leave their location, and begin making their way down the ruined hall in which you were dropped by the Gargoyle. It takes considerable effort to keep up, after all, they are twice your size and thus move very quickly. They aren't trying to leave you behind, this just their natural movement speed.

This may or may not be of concern, but you believe that the Giant Uthar finds you attractive. You have no idea if his wife has noticed, but provoking a domestic dispute between two Giants is highly advised against.

You don't know which way they are going, or how far to where you were before, but at least you are moving.

[Gildedragon]

Hey guys! Come take a look at these eyes... he hollers, unable to stop looking at the creepy sigil. Tentatively pokes one of the eyes with the end of his bow; half expecting them to blink.

[Rjanag]

Enrik

"Coming!", Enrik shouts from the other room. He shuts the door, not wanting to leave the rest of the building open to the elements, and then makes his way to the room Liam had been searching.

"This had better turn up something useful," he grumbles as he starts making the now-familiar gestures to cast a spell. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. Magic is no game, you know--if you play with it too much, it turns around and starts to play with you." With his grumbling out of the way, he utters the incantation and starts to look the room over, focusing especially on the sigil.

Spoiler

Show

Casting detect magic (and letting mage hand drop...bye bye, invisible floating hand, it was fun!). If the sigil (or anything else) has a magic aura, here's the Spellcraft check to identify the school or whatever:
Spellcraft: (1d20+6)[23]

[PowerGamer]

Azoth stands in the doorway. Watching everyone else searching the room.

Spoiler

Show

Whoops Forgot to mention moving to O25

[artofregicide]

The marking doesn't blink, or react to physical stimuli. It's probably the scribing of a madman, or at least someone who had too much time and too much imagination.

Under arcane investigation, the room appears to be without much in the way of the supernatural, one way or another.

Again, this room seems to be mostly abandoned like the others. Clearly, the Hotel hasn't seen guests in some time, and quite possibly some of the building itself has been lost the fierce elements.

While you don't find any pirate gold nor portals to another dimension, you do suddenly hear a voice speaking behind the door beyond [I 24]. It's hard to poinpoint, much less comprehend.

[Rjanag]

Enrik

"Nothing," Enrik grumbles, letting the magic fade away as his concentration moves away from the design. "What a waste."

He is startled by the sudden sound of a voice from the next room. He scrambles into the corner of the room. "What's that?" he asks, and waits for one of the others to take the initiative in opening the door.

Spoiler

Show

To M22

[PowerGamer]

"The heck was that?" said Azoth squeezing past his friends to get to the door. "shhhhh..." He says turning his head and putting his ear to the door to try and hear the voice again.

Spoiler

Show

Move J24
Listen Check (1d20+4)[21]

Honestly... why do I get all my good rolls out of battle...

[artofregicide]

Behind the door, you hear a voice: it speaks in a language that you do not recognize. The voice sounds upset, even angry, possibly talking to itself. You only hear one voice, and a strange... sloshing noise, accompanied by a low buzzing sound.

One thing is for sure: this isn't animalistic noises, but some sort of unfamiliar language.

Should you break down the door and charge in, surely you'd surprise whoever is inside. But you currently have no idea who or what it is.

[Rjanag]

Enrik

Feeling eager to find a way out of this inn, the usually cowardly sorceror briefly considers bursting through the door to see if whatever thing is on the other side might have any answers. But before long he notices Liam step up to start looking around, so Enrik hangs back in the corner and waits for the academic to make the first move.

[Gildedragon]

Liam drops to the floor, face against the ground as he tries to get a look at whatever that is beyond the door.

[PowerGamer]

Hearing the thud of a person getting down on the group and then feeling the fabric between his legs shift, Azoth looks down. To his surprise, Liam has made himself comfortable between his legs in order to look though the door.
"Hmhmm... excuse you too" He grumbles as he carefully takes a step to his right to be out of the way.

[artofregicide]

Through the crack, a pair of legs, bare and scabby are visible. They look bloated and hideous, like that of an undead creature or some sort of abomination. As for size, they seem smaller than the average humanoid, slightly so. You can only see one pair of legs in the room, and hear only one voice.

[Rjanag]

Enrik

"Well? What are you waiting for, old man? Open it!" Enrik says to Liam through his teeth, drawing his crossbow and pointing it towards the door.

[Gildedragon]

There's at least one demon on the other side. Probably more. Explosive and caustic. Best to spread out. There's another door around the corner, should lead into the same area whispers Liam. Half of us there, half here... Don't let them touch you. he knew of the suicidal and group-swarming tactics of manes; the lithographs of their methods were unpleasant at best.

[PowerGamer]

Taking a step back from the door, Azoth whispers,I'll go around the other way with another. I'll try to hamper it's movements too keep it from touching any of us. Use that time to take it down.

Spoiler

Show

Move: 5ft step back to K24

[Rjanag]

Enrik

Enrik listens for a moment as Liam Azoth discuss tactics. Then he steps forward and says ominously, "I have a better idea."

Without offering any further explanation, the sorceror stows his crossbow and moves to crouch down next to the door, putting his head against the cold floor. He reaches into his cloak and produces a small square of bright red cloth, which he begins to fold into a triangle and arrange on top of his hands. As he arranges the cloth he shuts his eyes hard and moans and winces, like a child who's just about to go through something painful and is afraid to look. The sorceror had seen nervous when casting spells before, yes, but none of those instances approached the state of agitation he was in now.

"You'd better brace this door," he says to the others after taking a moment to compose himself. "And the other one too. Otherwise..."

He waits a few moments longer, either to give the others time to move into position or just because he is too paralyzed with fear to act yet. Then, he peers under the door and begins uttering an incantation while moving his hands underneath the red cloth. As the incantation unfolds his voice gets louder, faster, and sounds more and more panicked. At the moment he reaches the last word of the spell, the red cloth crumbles into dust, and he throws his hands up over his face and looks away from the door.

OOC: Anyone who looks into the room

Spoiler

Show

After the incantation ends, some squeaking sounds begin to come from the room, and soon rise to a crescendo. Innumerable bats burst out of the shadows in the corner of the room and swirl around throughout the room before congregating into a swarm, which sets itself upon the closest demon and attempts to engulf it.

OOC: Mechanics

Spoiler

Show

Move to J24 and get on the floor, then casting summon swarm into the room; I'll do a bat swarm.

The duration is Concentration+2 and I plan on keeping concentrating on the spell as long as possible; does Enrik need to maintain line of sight into the room to keep the spell up, or can he concentrate without line of sight? Looking away at the end of the post was just some RP; if he needs line of sight to keep the spell up he stay where he can see into the room.

Should I roll the swarm's HP and/or damage, or is that up to you?

[artofregicide]

Enrik casts his spell, as the others either stand back or brace the door. Regardless, the effect is quite spectacular, if not gruesome. You hear the sounds of shrieking bats, and the groaning of the Demon inside the room, as it attempts to fend of the swarm. Luckily, the monster seems little match for the swirling mass of bats, though it tries its hardest to combat them.

After almost a minute of fighting, there is a sudden and terrible explosion. The smell of sulfur and refuse lingers in the air, and the door before you is thrown from its hinges, the interior side coated with acid and studded with a few misshapen bones.

The swarm of bats is gone, bodies disintegrated by the corrosive blast. But the explosion also opened up the next room, burning through the wooden divider. You can see two large trunks on the other side, clearly locked.

In the crater where the Demon once stood, you see a strange round gem, a particularly unappealing color of green.

[Gildedragon]

Fascinating. says Liam, covering his face against the fumes, scooping the gem into the embroidered bag. Quite an impressive display of power. I am curious though, as to the purpose of the red cloth. he asks Enrik as he walks over to the chests, examining them.

Spoiler

Show

Search(traps): (1d20+9)[23]

[Moonwolf727]

"..."

Gull stands still for a moment just looking in at the state of the near-enough demolished room before moving to position himself in front of the crater. Crouching slightly to better examine the wreckage he briefly takes in the scent of acrid demonic remains by accident and almost immediately moves away again, going forward to join Liam near the chests although he does inch away from them ever so slightly upon noticing Liam's caution. "I suppose this turned out quite well in the end, though I would've liked to see the creature before it died..."

Gull twists slightly to see back into the intact bedroom and make a slightly more cheery, though still mild, comment.
"Nevertheless that was impressive spellcraft, Enrik sir. I think we all appreciate that you were willing to use something you displayed such disdain for to help us progress".

[PowerGamer]

Shocked by the force of the explosion, Azoth's eyes open wide. This mage was skilled even if he didn't seem like it. A good ally to have on one's side incase things turned bad. He lends Enrik a hand to help him up. He then dusts some soot off himself end enters the room (avoiding any bodily bits that survived the blast). Noticing the locked chests he searches the remains of the room for anything else.

Spoiler

Show

Sorry for being useless right now.
Search: (1d20+5)[19]

[artofregicide]

Liam finds that neither chest seems to be trapped, but both are locked quite sturdily. Both bear a strange, two-faced insignia, seeming somewhat humanoid. One of the figures appears to be male, the other female. Both seem very young, perhaps infants, and their eyes are closed like they are sleeping. Overall, a very ornate signature, but you are not certain of the importance.

Not at all useless, Azoth finds two things of importance. The first of which is a letter, greasy and half-dissolved by acidic demon blood. It seems to be written in Abyssal. Unless you can read the language, its secrets are beyond you.

The second is the fact that there seems to be something climbing up the hole in the center of the room...

[PowerGamer]

Picking up the letter on a "good" edge, Azoth whips it a little to get some of the acidic blood off. He turns when he does this and sees a movement from the blast hole. "Ummmmm.. Guys... Hole. Thing. Moving!" he says in a worried tone that starts soft and gets louder. With his other hand he starts reaching towards his new dorje.

[Rjanag]

Enrik

Enrik dives behind the bed as the door flies off its hinges. He doesn't move until the others start moving into the next room, at which point he peeks over the bed and sees that the bats--not to mention the demon, are gone.

"Still afraid of your own spells, I see," the raven says, flapping back into the room and alighting on the bed. "Shove it," Enrik replies.

The sorceror follows the others into the room and surveys the carnage. When Gull mentions having wanted to see the creature, Enrik says, "You wanted to be around when this happened?" But he nods his head to acknowledge Gull's compliment.

Coming up behind Liam in the next room, Enrik asks, "So...any guess whose faces those are? Or how to open the ch--" His words are cut off by Azoth's warning. "Again?!" he shouts, in a mixture of disbelief and frustration. He runs to the edge of the hole to see if he can get a glimpse of what is coming. "I say we stop it before it gets here." With that, he conjures a new group of floating lights and sends them down the hole.

Spoiler

Show

Go to G25
Cast dancing lights, then move the lights down the hole to try and see what's coming.

Assuming it's a monster, Enrik will draw his crossbow and prepare to start shooting. (I just didn't want to start firing blindly, in case it's Lindara or something!)

[Gildedragon]

Liam laughs. This night keeps getting more and more exciting. he says, pulling out his lockpicks, working them into the chest. Let me know if you need help. he calls out.

Spoiler

Show

Open lock (taking 10): 20

[artofregicide]

Liam fiddles with the locked chest as Enrik and Azoth notice a long line of strange insect-like creatures climbing up the hole in the center of the room. Illuminated by the Sorcerer's magic, you can a fairly good look at them. They seem to have cream-white carapaces, their softer tissues blood red. Something about them looks incredibly unnatural.

Picture:

Spoiler

Show

In order to identify them, one would need to either possess knowledge of the natural world (roll knowledge nature), or the supernatural (roll knowledge the planes).

Regardless, you can see about a dozen of the creatures, all about the size of a man. They seem to click to each other, in some sort of a pattern as they move.

Lindara:

Spoiler

Show

Having traveled with the Giants for some time, they reach an exterior door, leading out into the glass storm. They wait until it grows calmer before moving on, towards what seems to be the ruins of an old hotel, though the building stands shakily on a jagged precipice, connected to the central plaza by a stone bridge. This whole place looks as though it had been attacked by some overwhelming power, and far below you a shifting see of glass is ominously visible.

[Moonwolf727]

There was no end to all of this, was there? Certainly the short time Gull had spent in the hotel had been eventful, though not neccessarily pleasant in the least. One of the constants in this place seemed to be that no-matter where they were, the group was always in the presence of at least one dangerous creature. Be it Jade the troll, harmless though she may have been, the stone monstrosities from moments earlier, they seemed oddly apologetic before they left with Lindara, or the explosive demon which had only just succumbed to a swarm of bats.

And now these things. He'd quickly moved over to the hole to get a decent look at them, he could've sworn he spaced out briefly near the edge before he caught himself. Gull peered down below to make eye contact with one of the insectoid lifeforms. As it turned out, they looked rather unfriendly.
He quickly moved back to his original position before the sense of vertigo the hole produced had any chance of making him dizzy. He wracked his brains, did he know these things? He'd traveled for a while and fended off a meagre few creatures with his ill-gotten abilities, though none of them neared the calibre of what they had faced here. "Earn the right to speak of me before doing so, wretch"

...Perhaps he had seen them before, although it wasn't likely, maybe even read about them at some point?

Spoiler

Show

Might as well give it a go after all. Knowledge (Nature) check: (1d20+2)[15]

Please excuse the rambling, I do that now and then

[PowerGamer]

Stepping up to the hole and taking a second look down the hole, Azoth realizes they are out of reach of his new toy's power. He quickly decides upon a different course of action, fire! "Sure hope this works." He says taking a breath in. He points his right hand into the hole, palm down. From his hand, 5 flaming missile fly towards the first 5 insects climbing upwards.

Spoiler

Show

Augmented (1) Energy Missile (Fire)
Damage1: (4d6+1)[13] (fire)
Damage2: (4d6+1)[17] (fire)
Damage3: (4d6+1)[13] (fire)
Damage4: (4d6+1)[13] (fire)
Damage5: (4d6+1)[16] (fire)
Reflex: DC 16 for half damage

Spoiler

Show

Like I mentioned earlier I don't normally play casters. If I should have only made 1 damage roll let me know and just use the first one

[Dark Hawk799]

Spoiler

Show

About how far is the Hotel, and are we in the plaza or is it that we can just see it in the distance.

[artofregicide]

Gull, wracking his brain, quickly figures out that whatever these creatures are, they are not natural to any place he's ever seen. Of course, where they are right now isn't particularly familiar, but he wouldn't be surprised if they came from the Planes.

Liam takes a small risk, but for a reward. The lock opens with a click, and the chains holding the trunk shut retract. Inside he finds what seems to be the belongings of a wealthy person: in particular, fine clothing and jewelry, and some elegantly bottled liquid, probably alcoholic. There is more packed underneath.

Unfortunately, his discovery is interrupted by a very loud noise.

Azoth takes a more proactive approach to the creatures below. His burning salvo rushes down the tunnel, exploding with significant force in the confined space. You can hear a bizarre, angry hissing sound, added to the increased clicking noises. The Kineticist sees that his attack, while somewhat effective, has been partially absorbed into the creature's armored carapaces. You can smell the disgusting stench of burnt chitin, but the creatures keep coming, despite being badly burnt.

Azoth:

Spoiler

Show

You did just fine, that's exactly how the Power works. Unfortunately, they seem to be resistant to fire.

Lindara:

Spoiler

Show

You are now standing on the plaza, walking towards the bridge to the Hotel. It's probably about 300-500 feet away.

You hear the sound of an explosion, and a small flash of light in the distance. You're not sure what from, but the Giants and their Hounds pick up the pace, making it a little difficult to keep up.

DM Rolls:

Spoiler

Show

PRIVATE

Spoiler

Show

DC 16 Reflex Half
Oni Reflex 1 (1d20+5)[21] Succeed
Oni Reflex 2 (1d20+5)[9] Fail
Oni Reflex 3 (1d20+5)[23] Succeed
Oni Reflex 4 (1d20+5)[20] Succeed
Oni Reflex 5 (1d20+5)[7] Fail