(D&D 5e) The Plague of Nightmares IC

[Sariel Vailo]

By vitay i give what strength i can to you zuzu
She will sing using thaumaturgy to ward zuzu.

Spoiler: thaumaturgy effect im using

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Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute

Spoiler: college of cantor ability.

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As an action, you may target a friendly creature that you can see within 60 feet of you and expend a single use of your Bardic Inspiration to bestow a ward upon them. The next time your warded ally is attacked by a hostile creature, the attacker takes radiant damage equal to your Bardic Inspiration die.

Spoiler: song

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Shadows fall
And hope has fled
Steel your heart
The dawn will come

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come

The shepherd's lost
And his home is far
Keep to the stars
The dawn will come

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come

Bare your blade
And raise it high
Stand your ground
The dawn will come

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come

[Awful]

Yvonne glanced back at the brazier as coals were lifted and scattered with a ghostly hand, and an idea struck her.
With several long strides, she took position behind the brazier, stooping to set her shoulder under the hot iron rim. She grunted and straightened, heaving upwards. For a moment, the brazier refused to move, until she let out a further enraged growl at the obstinacy of the furniture.
"Move... you worthless... ironwork!" She roared, overturning the brazier just as the door gave way and the rats began to swarm through. Flaming coals bounced madly off the floor among the swarm.

Yvonne overturns the brazier to scatter the flaming comments among the swarm as it breaks through the door.

[bc56]

Yaotl conjures a new bonfire just inside the doorway, so that once the rats break through, they must run through it.

Spoiler: actions

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Cast Conjure Bonfire so that once the rats run through the door, they must make a DC 12 Dex save or take 1d8 fire damage

[Requilac]

The rats finally tear their way through the door and charge as a shrieking horde towards you. In their bestial fury they entirely forget their sense of self preservation and run right through the coals towards their prey. Several of the rodents become singed and collapse on their sides into more burning coals, screaming in agony. Yoatl's fire forms in their way and yet they still rush through it. The swarm appears to be a live, but the gauntlet it ran through took many of its members.

The rats take a total of 18 fire damage.

Finally they reach Yaotl and circle all around him. They first start out by biting ankles but then they start leaping and climbing on top of each other to bite into his legs and thighs. Yaotl desperately tries to ward them off with his hand but they only continue to surge over him and some have managed to leap up onto his torso and arms and begin gnawing. The experience is excruciating and he struggles to balance but his fighting spirit is not out yet.

Yaotl takes 10 piercing damage.

[Requilac]

Battle Statistics and Map

Anastasia: 14 HP
Yaotl: 9 HP
Yvonne: 22 HP, 5 THP
Zuzu: 18 HP, affected by Song of the Divines (1d6)
Rat Swarm: 13 HP

Spoiler: Rat Swarm Stats

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AC 11, HP 52, saves (STR +2, DEX +3, CON +4, INT -4, WIS +0, CHA -2), resistance to necrotic damage, immunity to poison damage, immunity to being exhausted, grappled, poisoned, prone, restrained and unconscious.

[Zergrinch]

"No, leave Mr. Snakey alone!"

Zuzu maneuvers around the overturned brazier, running between Yvonne and Anastasia's legs. He gulps as he sees the writhing mass of rodentry envelope the druid. Bracing himself, the young wizard taps the ground in front of him with the captured scepter.

Spoiler

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Move: Northeast 1, east 3.
Action: Tap ground in front. Creatures within 5 feet must succeed on DC15 STR save or be pushed back by 10 feet and suffer (d6)[2] thunder damage. Zuzu makes this save with advantage.

Zuzu's saves: (d20-1)[1] (d20-1)[12]. Fail! 2 damage, pushed by 10 feet.
Rat Swarm's save: (d20+2)[17]. Save! No damage, no push.

Darn rats, stronger than Zuzu. *grumble*

A wave of thunder blasts Zuzu off his feet, and he lands hard on his bum. Blinking to remove the stars from his eyes, he is dismayed to see that the maneuver did nothing to blast the rat swarm back towards the burning coal.

[Awful]

Yvonne stepped forward, wafting her hands to disperse the heat from holding the brazier, and began hacking at the swarm.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+5)[24] to hit, (1d8+5)[9] damage
Extra (1d8)[8] if crit

[Requilac]

The rats continue to swarm around Yaotl and nip at him, but the hive of rats appears to be... slowing down? Every time one of the rats bite him they suddenly lurch and fall away, vomiting on the other rats. Their teeth dig into Yaotl's leg multiple times, but they always seem to regret making that decision. The tide of them begins to drop to the ground as they realize that Yaotl doesn't taste very good.

Some of the rats didn't manage to push through the others to make it past the coals and their collapsed corpses merge with the coals. Their number has been drastically reduced and the remaining vermin are writhing now with increasing excitability. They where the aggressors, but the constant onslaught has killed many of them and now they are the ones about to die. The monstrous beast rush away from the coal over towards Yvonne, charging the most threatening enemy in their frantic panic.

[Requilac]

Battle Statistics and Map

Anastasia: 14 HP
Yaotl: 18 HP
Yvonne: 22 HP, 5 THP
Zuzu: 18 HP, affected by Song of the Divines (1d6)
Rat Swarm: 0 HP

Spoiler: Rat Swarm Stats

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AC 11, HP 52, saves (STR +2, DEX +3, CON +4, INT -4, WIS +0, CHA -2), resistance to necrotic damage, immunity to poison damage, immunity to being exhausted, grappled, poisoned, prone, restrained and unconscious.

[Zergrinch]

Zuzu gets shakily to his feet, using the scepter as a crutch. He fishes out his trusty wand, and points it at the rats. He was trying to befriend them, but they left him no choice.

"DEFLAGRO!" he shouts, half-angry at his own rash actions, half-angry at the rats, and possibly angry as well at the scepter.

Spoiler

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Action: Fire Bolt. (d20+5)[21]. Hit: (d10)[10] plus (d10)[10] on a crit. Fire damage, so no halving of damage.

[Sariel Vailo]

Anastasia will look to the rats and prepare the only insult she could think.

Spoiler: the taunt

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when the mice are away the cats shall play.

Spoiler: save and damage

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(1d20+0)[19]
(1d4)[1]

[bc56]

Yaotl lashes out at the rats, a thorny vine extending from his hand to strike at them.

Spoiler: attack

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(1d20+4)[19] to hit
(1d8)[1] piercing damage, halved

[Awful]

Yvonne continued to slash at the tiny furry bodies scuttling about.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+5)[21] to hit, (1d8+5)[13] / 2 damage with the resistance

[Requilac]

Combat has ended.

Yvonne's sword glimmers in the light of the brazier as it cleaves through the hive. The very few rats left from the onslaught scatter in all directions, but most of them lay on the floor scorched by coals or firebolts. Their tiny bodies envelop as if they were kinder, causing smoke to rise and billow. A sea of soulless beady eyes still glare at you from lifeless bodies before they are consumed by the inferno. An awful scent permeates the room that is reminiscent of the worst of physical diseases and plagues. The crackling seems much too quiet and the heat not nearly intense enough for the gravity of the scene you are seeing.

A violent coughing comes from the Northwestern room as Kikeana vomits out some blood. Undoubtedly the smoke and the scent must be getting to her more than you considering how deep in the plague she is.

Only the North room has yet to be explored.

[Zergrinch]

Carefully maneuvering around the spilled coals and crinkling his nose at the stench of cooked rats, Zuzu makes his way into the storeroom where the rats were. He will take a quick inventory of whatever can be salvaged.

Investigation: (1d20+5)[7]

[Requilac]

Carefully maneuvering around the spilled coals and crinkling his nose at the stench of cooked rats, Zuzu makes his way into the storeroom where the rats were. He will take a quick inventory of whatever can be salvaged.

Investigation: [roll0]

The main thing in most of these barrels are food, which you don't dare to touch due to the presence of all the rats in there just a minute ago, and clothing, which have been torn apart by storms of nibbles. There is also a decent supply of what must be 40 simple weapons and 100 pieces of ammunition, but they are all very crudely made and not of much value on the market. This appears to simply be a storage room for mundane items.

Now that you dare to get close enough to the rats, you think you can also see the blue fungus burning up around them. You have little doubt that the reason behind the vermin exhibiting such odd behavior is because they where actually undead. This place seems to be swarming with them after all.

[Sariel Vailo]

Anastasia will breathe heavily place her open palm on her face and sigh she will say.
i believed Human children were a handful,i require a rest and some tea to bad their is no aracana called "unseen tea servant."

[Zergrinch]

Zuzu emerges from the storeroom carrying the following simple weapons:

• A pair of handaxes, four darts, and a mace (to give her a bludgeoning weapon), which he hands to Yvonne.
• A light crossbow with 20 bolts (to give her a ranged weapon), which he palms off to Anastasia.
• A quarterstaff and a pair of daggers, which he keeps for himself.

He looks at the rats, and then says, "Mr. Yaotl, these rats are contaminated with the same blue fungus we saw before. We should burn them and cleanse that room they came from."

The gnome then starts to deflagrate any rat corpses he can see.

OOC: Is the Unseen Servant finished harvesting the venom? Also, were the rats eating someone in there? He didn't have any shiny equipment on him?

[Sariel Vailo]

Anastasia will take the light crossbow and 20 bolts and say to zuzu.
you are a good boy zuzu thank you for the weapon,now to find some tea these damn cultists must have had some.

Spoiler: ooc

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im going to raid the rooms that have been cleared looking for tea.(1d20+1)[21]

[bc56]

Yaotl ignites a new bonfire and aids the young gnome in sweeping the dead rats into it.

[Requilac]

OOC: Is the Unseen Servant finished harvesting the venom? Also, were the rats eating someone in there? He didn't have any shiny equipment on him?

The rats have left the room, revealing the badly gnawed corpse in the storage room. At this point the person is more bone than flesh and whatever identifying features they had were devoured. You can't tell even what gender or race the victim is due to how consumed they are. It reminds you of the grotesque victims of the Wendigo, and you are beginning to sense a recurring theme in regards to the savagery of the monsters you have been pitted against. The corpse may have had something of value on it once, but those must have been chewed through also because the only things you can find are scraps of clothes and a small handax blade (the rats must have chewed through the wood handle).

Anastasia will take the light crossbow and 20 bolts and say to zuzu.
you are a good boy zuzu thank you for the weapon,now to find some tea these damn cultists must have had some.

Spoiler: ooc

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im going to raid the rooms that have been cleared looking for tea.[roll0]

You don't find any in the storage room which you expected to, but once you return to the medicine chamber you actually manage to stumble across some mint tea leaves in an unopened packet. There also appears to be the necessary equipment to make tea with it.

Kikeana recognizes you and speaks through coughing and wheezing. "Magister Lechsinska told us that the tea was included in medicine packs because it was believed to help with congestion and clear out "bad humors", but she claims that in reality its nothing more than a placebo. I am not sure whether that matters to you or not. "

After saying that she tries to get up and staggers towards the door, when the man suddenly sits up and calls out to her. "Wait, don't leave the room. We don't know whats out there!"

Kikeana responds in a mostly desperate and pleading voice, but it is also heaped with scorn. "If I stay in there with that smell I will faint Herrunli. I need to stay conscious right now and I can't do it inside. I would bring Kathilsia with me too if I could, for that smell can't be good for her even if she is unconscious. Now leave me be. "

Yaotl ignites a new bonfire and aids the young gnome in sweeping the dead rats into it.

Once you are a minute into the process you recognize that the smell gets even worst. The potent musty scent reminiscent of urine and ammonia invades your senses and makes the process all the more dreadful. Eventually the scent from the recently killed zombies comes to bear and the smell of the rotting flesh of humans mixes with the rats. This probably doesn't get to Yaotl and Yvonne very much because they are experienced warriors, but Anastasia and Zuzu may be more affected by it.

[Sariel Vailo]

with the strength of vitay, Anastasia finds a window to stick her head out of.

[Zergrinch]

Constitution Save: (d20+2)[12]

The stench of the burning rats suddenly overpower the young gnome. Coughing and fighting to keep any remnants of his last meal in his stomach, Zuzu runs into the idol room and vomits all over the statue of Netopyrkazahn.

[Awful]

Yvonne wrinkled her nose at the terrible stench, but her iron self-control let her swallow the gorge rising in her throat.
"Vitay's blood," she spat. This damn fief had been a parade of foul beasts and fouler stenches. Gods, she'd be glad to leave this land for her own when this was done.

[bc56]

Yaotl doesn't seem bothered by the stench at all. He runs his hands over himself and channels druidic magic into his injuries, causing them to close.

Spoiler: cure wounds

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(1d8+2)[9]

[Requilac]

with the strength of vitay, Anastasia finds a window to stick her head out of.

You have to clear some branches away from the window, but you manage to finally stick your head out. The same foreboding forest you have grown so tired of surrounds you on all edges. Now that you are half outside you can finally hear the symphony of the cicadas at work.

Constitution Save: [roll0]

The stench of the burning rats suddenly overpower the young gnome. Coughing and fighting to keep any remnants of his last meal in his stomach, Zuzu runs into the idol room and vomits all over the statue of Netopyrkazahn.

Luckily the statue of the dark god doesn't seem to react much at all to this. I guess that is to be expected from something made of stone but typically one expects more if such a stone is carved into the shape of an otherworldly monster.

[Awful]

The Knightess waited as the drow and the gnome suffered the worst of the smell.
"We aren't quite done here yet," Yvonne said, looking towards the last door. "Have all your guts stopped churning enough to fight?"

[Zergrinch]

Zuzu totters out of the statue room, a little queasy but the worst of the ammonia behind him.

"Knightess," he gasps out still a little short on breath, "Let's just open this door and see what's behind it. We've gone everywhere else. But maybe we just go to safer positions just in case?"

[bc56]

"Perhapsss we will not need to fight. We could encounter Yig herssself in the next chamber." Yaotl moves forth to open the door. "If ssso, it would be bessst if I ssspeak to her firssst."

[Sariel Vailo]

In between coughs anastasia will say.by the daylight i am as ready as i can be.