[D&D 3.5e / IC] Lightning Rails and Whispers of the Vampire's Blade

[TaiLiu]

Sharn, City of Towers.

It is yet another rainy day in Sharn, the City of Towers, the place where your adventuring party has chosen to make their home. Ridiculously tall skyscrapers reach toward the sky, digging into clouds and the Azure Sky, but right now, you are not here for the sights. It is raining, anyway. Instead, you're all greeting a House Orien courier, who has delivered a wax-sealed envelope to you at the tavern where you're staying, and where you are presently breakfasting. Then he departs just as quickly as he came, telling you that he does not know the origin of the letter. Should you choose to open the envelope, you find a folded letter and a sheet of paper with six platinum pieces attached, bound by red wax. The letter reads:

Heard about how you thwarted the Lord of Blades. These coins have many friends who would like to meet you. Come to the Myriad Tower, upper city, at noon. Bring weapons and discretion. - V

P.S. Give this parchment to the guard near the stairs, and he will let you ascend.

Who this "V" is, you have no idea. But you do know that you might have a potential new job, assuming that the letter is not a trap, and that you have free time to kill. It is an hour and a half till noon. What do you do?

[LairdMaon]

The near-feral warforged was the lucky one to receive the missive with the platinum coins. He studies it intently, noting the paper quality, the distribution of the coins within, and the artistry of the handwriting. He sniffs it. He licks it lightly. He holds it up to a light.
He eventually opens it.

He'll be studying it until someone takes it from him.

[Solaris]

"Give me that," Sebastien snapped as he snatched the paper out of the half-forged's hands. Fritz was many things, some of them even admirable, but neither clever nor literate were among them. The rust-haired Cannith artificer skimmed the letter while he muttered about the inadequacies of inferior Houses and why would you even bother handing a letter to someone who looks like they'd just as soon eat it as read it, then looked up at the rest of the group. "So this 'V' character wants to meet us because we beat the uppity 'forged's minions. Says to bring weapons."
He thought for a moment, then slowly smiled. His was not a pleasant smile. "It's a trap. Let's go spring it."

[rax]

Despite the early hour, Quire was already on his second flagon of ale. When the messenger had left, he let out an almighty belch and patted his gut with a satisfied smirk. Stepping up behind Sebastien, he read the note over the artificer's shoulder, grunting noncommitally.

When he had finished reading he held out his hand to Sebastien and Fritz. "Mind if I take a sniff at those?" he asked, indicating the envelope, the letter, and the coins. "And what makes you say it's a trap?" he asked Sebastien. "When I want to trap someone I don't usually tell them to come armed to the meeting."

[Solaris]

"Leaving aside that everything is a trap," Sebastien deadpanned, "the very fact that they told us to come armed suggests it's a trap. Either they expect us to fight something for them, and they haven't bothered to alert us to what we'll be fighting, or they're going to attack us themselves, know our capabilities, and know that they're more than capable of overwhelming them. Simple, really."
If you're bugf*** nuts.

[whoiam]

"Maybe it is a trap. I'm still gonna offer my platinum piece against any of yours that it's just a job offer, though. Maybe with some kind of test of skill to prove we're good enough to do it first. Rich people love that kind of stuff. And not telling hirelings what they need to know. I think they just feel more important whenever they know something we don't."

Still, Mamellek cannot help but sigh. Not over the job-offer-slash-trap - she's quite looking forward to that. Some people just love their work, even if their word is essentially 'We're going to stick you somewhere dangerous, try not to die faster than the enemy'. It's just...

"...Well, there goes my casual clothes day. Who fancies helping me strap on my iron dress this time?"

...Practical as full plate often is, it's neither the height of fashion nor especially comfortable.

[LairdMaon]

Fritz paces over to Mamellek and helps him don his armor.

"Trap? Traps are fun. Traps bring the prey to the predator. Spring is a good season. It is a time of beginnings. I approve. Let's spring the trap."

[rax]

Quire takes another swig of ale and sighs audibly at Sebastien's explanation. "Were you always this way, or did you catch a mace to the head in the war or something? You're obsessive, you are. Anyway - trap or no, who wants a shiny new platinum piece?" Quire grins, jingling the coins in the envelope while carefully pocketing the letter and one coin for himself.

[LairdMaon]

As soon as Fritz finishes helping Mamellek with his armor he bounds over to Quire, "Platinum is good! People overlook things that they shouldn't for platinum!"

He holds out his hands eagerly with a smile across his face.

[Solaris]

A little hint of a smirk tugged at the corners of Sebastien's mouth as he looked to Quire. He ignored the boisterous 'forged helping the other meat-shield get armored up in the rain, although it was distracting to the man who'd spent the better part of his life training as a smith. The chainmail alone was going to be a bitch to clean, at least until he whipped up with that prestidigitator he'd been thinking about making... "I've been told the Karrnathi prison camp did wonders for my temperament, and I should go back soon."

[esorscher]

Don the Dour is as quiet as his name implies, listening pleasantly to the conversation of his fellow party members, and recalling with fondness the strength of their relationship, having all survived the same perilous expedition. A month hence, had someone suggested he would be sharing his breakfast with another person, let alone five, he would have psionically searched them to ensure they were not harboring some possessor that would have driven them insane.

"I'm in," he says, taking a platinum and pocketing it. He takes the final bite of his warm cheese danish and eats it, then looks at the artificer. "Sebastien, if you wish to scout the location before the meeting, I will accompany you."

[TaiLiu]

The Myriad Tower.

If Don the Dour and Sebastien (or other members of the party) scout the place before the meeting:

Spoiler

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Don the Dour and Sebastien get to Myriad Tower with no problems, though the rain soaks them a little. The tower blends in with all the others - were there not a small bronze plaque that read "M.T.," you would never have located it, what with the other similar looking towers nearby. The few windows are high and barred, and so are the stairs nearby: a heavy iron gate blocks the way, locked tight. No guards are nearby.

Should the pair wait about an hour, the rain stops, and Don and Sebastien see the gate raised, and a man in tattered clothing emerges from behind the gate. Then he lowers it again, locks it with a large key, slips it into his pocket, and plops himself down next to the gate.

If the scouting group is in plain sight of the man:

Spoiler

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The man looks up, then holds out a clay bowl.

If the scouting group is hiding behind another tower or something:

Spoiler

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The man pulls out a clay bowl and puts it by his feet.

If no one scouts ahead, and the party arrives at noon:

Spoiler

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The party gets to Myriad Tower with no problems, especially since the rain has stopped. The tower blends in with all the others - were there not a small bronze plaque that read "M.T.," you would never have located it, what with the other similar looking towers nearby. The few windows are high and barred, and so are the stairs nearby: a heavy iron gate blocks the way, locked tight. No guards are close by, but there is a beggar sitting next to the gate. He is wearing tattered clothing, and a clay bowl is by his feet, obviously intended to contain the spare coinage of kindly passersby. He does not react unless the party gets close. Then he silently points to the clay bowl.

[LairdMaon]

Fritz jogs right up to the beggar and drops his platinum coin in the bowl.

"Greasing the palms of those who have need..."

[esorscher]

From his vantage point behind a tower or something, Don witnesses the apparent beggar emerge from and lock the gate. He continues to watch, silent and unmoving, enjoying the light rain and the refreshment it brings, until the party arrives. When they do, he'll ask for whoever has the letter to give it to him.

When they approach, he places the letter in the bowl, as instructed in the missive.

[TaiLiu]

The guard looks at the letter, opens it, reads it, folds it back, slips it into one of his pockets, and then pulls out a large key from his back pocket. He tosses it to his left, and it lands in front of the iron gate. "Go on up," he says. "Subdue, not kill. That's the only rule." Then he goes back to being silent.

[esorscher]

Donharath nods, and awkwardly moves to the back of the party, preparing his focus. He also activates his dorje of Force Screen in preparation for an attack. Once inside the doors, he draws his trademark weapon, the recognizable Deep Crystal crossbow he'd used so effectively in the party's last adventure.

Spoiler

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Reminder, Donharath has a psionic focus stored in his psicrystal, and spent time in the morning achieving psionic focus as well.

[Solaris]

"Don't make this weird," Sebastien muttered to Fritz as he imbued bull's strength into the 'forged's built-in gauntlets. When that was finished, he turned to the aasimar and and imbued shield of faith into Quire's dastana.

"I think this is worse than a trap," he remarked to his companions as he wiped the oils off of his hands. "It's a test. Just remember - if they aren't playing by the same rules, we pop smoke and level everything between us and the exit. Nobody here's getting killed for a job."

[LairdMaon]

Fritz flexes his claws and looks seriously at his friends, "Safe word is bananas?"

[TaiLiu]

Inside Myriad Tower.

The stairs coil around the tower base, eventually ending at a pair of heavy iron doors. The lightning is dim, but the windows provide enough sunlight that illumination is not a problem. Taped to the door is a small piece of paper, with the words:

Knock, then stand back. - V

The handwriting's the same as that of that letter, and Quire notices that the smell is the same.

If someone knocks, and then stands back:

Spoiler

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The knocking echoes on the stairwell, breaking the foreboding silence. For a few seconds, the knock repeats itself as a ghostly reverberation, becoming more and more faint with each repetition. There is no response, and the only sounds you can hear are the sounds of your breathing and the beat of your heart, anxious, either with fear or excitement or some other feeling. Well, except for Fritz, who doesn't have a heart or lungs. But he seemed giddy.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats, a third. Should you knock again? But then, Quire hears something, a faint noise held back behind the hollow iron doors - something like a screech and a hiss and a wingbeat, and then the rest of the party hears it too, as the volume increases, and the noise becomes louder and more evident, more closer - and then the doors fly open, and a duo of hungry giant animals strike the first two frontliners. The first is a black-and-white badger, as long as a human is tall, twice as heavy and twice as mad. It swipes at Quire with intensity.

Meanwhile, Fritz is holding back an angry green dinosaur as it tries to swing its terrible talons in the Warforged's face. It actually doesn't seem all that interested in the wood-and-metal Fritz; instead, it's trying to snap at one of the two more fleshier party members in the middle row.

In the middle of the chaos, a third creature appears, a giant bat, and the staircase is almost too small to contain the mammal's incredible wingspan. It swoops down and tries to take a chomp out of the juicy-looking Sebastien.

None of them are holding back, of course; none of them are "playing by the same rules" of not-killing the party is meant to. Is that the test? That the party be fighting at a disadvantage, in a tight space, on unsteady ground? Well, you haven't got too much time to think. You got three rabid animals attacking you all. What do you do?

If someone knocks, and then doesn't stand back:

Spoiler

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Everything from the above spoiler happens, except the first two members of the party take (1d6)[2] damage from the door whapping you in the face (a reflex save of 15 negates the damage).

If no one knocks:

Spoiler

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Nothing happens until someone knocks.

Spoiler: Mechanics (Open this!)

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You know it's a dire badger if you make a DC 13 Knowledge (Nature) check. The dire badger is attacking Quire:

Attack roll: (1d20+4)[9].
Damage roll: (1d4+2)[3].

You know it's a deinonychus if you make a DC 14 Knowledge (Nature) check. The deinonychus is attacking Fritz:

Attack roll: (1d20+7)[27].
Damage roll: (1d8+4)[6].

You know it's a dire bat if you make a DC 14 Knowledge (Nature) check. The dire bat is attacking Sebastien:

Attack roll: (1d20+5)[22].
Damage roll: (1d8+4)[10].

[rax]

If the doors are unlocked:
Knock and stand back? Well, rules are rules but a test is a test, and sometimes the rules are the test, Quire thinks to himself. Gingerly, he reaches out and tries the door to see if they open.

@TaiLiu: I'm going with the latest posts in the OOC thread here. I was going to try opening the doors in any case, then switch to knocking per the first spoiler box, but now it seems that there's a chance that the doors do open, so let me know how that works out. Assuming the doors open, Quire will take a quick peek inside, and if nothing seems immediately dangerous, he'll step inside the...well, whatever's behind the door.

If the doors are won't open without knocking, then Quire does so and stands back. Cue action sequence:
Quire barely has time notice the raging badger-beast before it's on him, but years of combat training pay off and he reflexively lashes out with his glaive at the grey-black blur that charges him. Subdue, don't kill, you fool! And don't let it crowd you! Quire's subconscious screams at him. He throws himself forward, rolling under the beast's claws, and regains his feet behind his foe. "Mamellek! The badger-beast, help me take it down!" he calls out, his glaive lancing forward butt first, to try and knock the beast out with a blow to the back of its skull.

Various rolls:
Attack of opportunity vs. dire badger: (1d20+12)[19]
I'm assuming an AoO is possible since we're not surprised and Quire has the Combat Reflexes feat.
Damage: (1d10+5)[9]

Move action: Tumble past the dire badger, total 15 feet movement: (1d20+13)[29]
Standard action: Attack the dire badger using Leading the Attack, with flanking bonus from Mamellek and striking for non-lethal damage. If no flanking, deduct 2 from the roll: (1d20+6)[19]
Damage: (1d10+5)[12]

[Solaris]

Right as Quire is reaching up to knock, Sebastien cleared his throat. "It might be a good idea to knock on our terms, not theirs. For all we know, there's a pressure plate on the door connected to some kind of death trap rigged to go off as soon as someone knocks."
Holding up his magitech hand, he produced the finger picks while he brought his goggles down with his meat hand.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

If Quire holds off, Sebastien does his thing.

[roll0] [ROLL="Search"]1d20+11[/ROLL]
[roll1] [ROLL="Disable Device"]1d20+14[/ROLL]
[roll2] [ROLL="Open Lock"]1d20+13[/ROLL]

[Solaris]

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

"Search" - (1d20+11)[19]
"Disable Device" - (1d20+14)[28]
"Open Lock" - (1d20+13)[17]

Ten words ten words ten words ten words ten words ten words ten words ten words

[LairdMaon]

Fritz drops into a combat crouch, ready to react violently to anything that might harm his friends.

He Listens, (1d20+7)[15], at the door for any clues as to what's inside...

[LastCenturion]

Bastoi speaks for the first time since receiving the note as the raptor approaches. "What the hell is this thing? Shall we 'pop smoke', as you say?" he says, curling his lip and raising his blade towards the bat... thing.

Spoiler

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Sorry for staying silent so long. I don't really have a good excuse. Readying an action to stab the first thing to get close to me.

(1d20+3)[20] to hit
(1d4-1)[1] damage

[esorscher]

If this is a test, Donharath reasons, It will be good to display some versatility, he thinks. That thought is tempered by his own paranoia, careful not to reveal more than is necessary. He opts for a conventional tactic, a slightly more advanced variation on a technique he'd had much practice using in the past. Using the narrow space to his advantage, he lashes out psionically at their attackers. Tendrils of psionic energy reach out from his mind to theirs, gripping their brains as a vice on steel with the intent to paralyze them, if only for a moment.

Spoiler

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Mental Disruption, DC 16 Will negates; should be able to target all three enemies if they're as close to the party as I'm imagining.

[Solaris]

"Somebody get this rabid glidewing off of me!" Sebastien shouted as the dire bat mauled him. He drew his short sword and stabbed at it, pummeling the thing with his metal-wood-and-stone composite left hand. He was a bit too caught off-guard by the sudden attack just as he was starting to focus on his usual trapfinding routine that he didn't even try to get into a better tactical position.

In his defense, though, it was a really big bat.

Short Sword Attack - (1d20+3)[5], Damage - (1d6)[5]
Slam Attack - (1d20-5)[13], Damage - (1d4)[2]

[LairdMaon]

Spoiler: Nature Checks

Show

Knowledge (Nature) (mammal) (1d20+3)[8]
Knowledge (Nature) (saurian) (1d20+3)[10]
Knowledge (Nature) (flyer) (1d20+3)[14]

...thrashing...
...flesh-thing...
...no kill...
...HUG...

Fritz accepts the painful bite on the arm from the dino and rolls with it. In fact, he combines his response of taking his arm from it's teeth with a twisting step into it's space.
With his back now pressed up against the animal's underbelly, Fritz reaches behind himself and down with his lower set of arms to hook behind the knees of his assailant while his upper arms reach over and behind his head to grasp the skill of that same critters.
One final effort raises a loud grunt from Fritz when he pulls every arm in front of him, pushed up as hard as he can with his back and legs, and intentionally falls straight back onto the now-grappled creature.

Spoiler: Free Hugs!

Show

To Hit (1d20+6)[20]
Do I need to make an opposed grapple check here? Just in case: (1d20+6)[26]

Oops! Forgot to add in the Bull's Strength! Those numbers should be, um..:
22
and
28

And I got what's likely to be my only crit, lol!

[whoiam]

Mamellek takes a step forward into the spot vacated by Quire, and swings her chain wildly at the monster's snout, trying to buy herself space to let a fourth fighter into the melee...

Spoiler

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5' step forward into contact with the badger, then Tactical Strike to try and give herself another 5' step (which she'll use to slip out of the doorway around the badger, leaving Quire's original spot free for someone else to take).
"Attack" - (1d20+8)[14]
"Damage" - (2d4+4)[9] + "Strike Damage" - (2d6)[5]

[TaiLiu]

Quire's first strike is successful, and the giant badger chitters from his blow. Mamellek follows up Quire's attack with an powerful swing of her spiked chain, and it easily rips through the badger's fur and hide. In pain, it begins foaming at the mouth. Then it suddenly collapses from exhaustion and blood loss. When Quire tumbles into the room, he nearly bumps into an old human man, who is leisurely strolling to take a look at the battle scene. The aasimar can tell immediately from his scent: this man was V.

As the dire bat swoops down and successfully take a bite out of Sebastien, Bastoi manages to pierce the skin of the oversized beast with his dagger. It shrugs it off, ignores the Artificer's attacks, and tries to latch onto Sebastien's face, the better to get a grip with. Fortunately, the powerful psionic pulse Donharath sent out successfully disables the bat, and it stops trying to attack, trying to fight off the psion's mental intrusion instead. It hovers a few inches away from Sebastien, well within range of a melee attack.

Meanwhile, as Fritz tries to grapple-hug the dinosaur, it snaps back and prevents the Warforged from pinning it down. Its razor-sharp teeth manages to rip off significant chunks of livewood from Fritz, and then it leaps onto him, trying to knock him down and get at the more fleshier Bastoi.

Then the party hears a distant clang! of a metal gate being shut, from the base of the tower. It seems as though the man in ragged clothing has shut the gate.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

The dire badger is enraged, and it makes a full attack against Mamellek:

Attacks: Claw - (1d20+6)[10]; Claw - (1d20+6)[21]; Bite - (1d20+1)[18].
Damage: Claw - (1d4+4)[8]; Claw - (1d4+4)[5]; Bite - (1d6+3)[7].

UNCONSCIOUS!

The dire bat is stunned, and cannot take actions until its next turn.

The deinonychus attempts an overrun action:

If Fritz fails to make a successful Attack of Opportunity against the dinosaur, then the dinosaur attempts to knock him prone, via a Strength check: (1d20+4)[13]. If it succeeds, Fritz will be prone, and the dinosaur will attack Bastoi on its next turn.

[LairdMaon]

Oh, no. No, this will not do at all. Fritz' usual happy-golucky demeanor has vanished. Brackish violet spittle is frothing at the corners of his mouth.

With a rage-filled snarl he lashes out at the distracted throwback from a bygone aeon.

Spoiler: Rage Up! Fight On! Still No Kill!

Show

Full Attack, nonlethal -4 to each attack, Rage, Bull's Strength

Primary
Claw
To Hit: (1d20+6)[20]
To Hurt: (1d4+7)[9]

Secondary
Claw
To Hit: (1d20+6)[11]
To Hurt: (1d4+3)[4]

Claw
To Hit: (1d20+6)[14]
To Hurt: (1d4+3)[6]

Claw
To Hit: (1d20+6)[11]
To Hurt: (1d4+3)[7]

Bite
To Hit: (1d20+6)[12]
To Hurt: (1d6+3)[8]

Slam
To Hit: (1d20+6)[19]
To Hurt: (1d4+3)[5]