Travels amongst the Border Princes (WFRP 2e) IC

[Ionbound]

Spoiler: Temple

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Alyssa smiles slyly at Laurens's complement then glares daggers at Severin before nodding, "Right. There appears to be only one way in or out of this complex, so...We just need to secure the branches off if we find any."

[dojango]

Spoiler: Temple

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Leaving the kitchens and store rooms behind, you head back into the western hallway. Passing the lines of broken statues and rubble, you soon find yourself in a small room. Branching off from it are some small corridors lined by what look like monk's cells. A few of them have signs of occupancy, again, rag nests and personal belongings scattered about. The soldiers turn over everything, looking for valuables, but are mostly disappointed. Reaching one of the far corners, one of the soldiers points at a doorway, which has a crude barricade of broken rubble and broken furniture heaped up in the doorway, partially blocking it. "Reckon that's where they're holed up, sir," comments the sergeant. "Hiding like rats. The scum."

[Ionbound]

Spoiler: Temple

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Alyssa grins as she sees the barricade, and replies, "They want to hide like rats, let's treat them like it. Burn 'em out."

[rax]

Spoiler: Temple

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"Not a bad idea, but if we're not careful, we may spoil the air for ourselves in here as well. We are in a tunnel deep inside a cliff," Severin whispers back. "Maybe if we toss something unexpected in there, we can get a reaction out of them if they're lying in wait. Sir Laurens, would you mind parting for a while with the head you took back there?"

[dojango]

Spoiler: Temple

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"We delivering dinner to them or something?" asks Sir Laurens. "Burning them out seems like a better plan, if'n you ask me. We can always run out if it's too smoky... they can't."

[rax]

Spoiler: Temple

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"Of course, Sir Laurens, it's your decision," Severin replies. "I merely thought that the head might garner some reaction if the mutants are actually in there, so that we don't waste our time trying to smoke out an enemy that's moved on."

[dojango]

"True." He thinks for a moment, and shrugs. "Hand me that torch." A servant hands him a torch and he chucks it over the barricade into the room. Light flares briefly in the room, and there are a few sudden noises from out of sight. Then suddenly something scrabbles out, and tries to beat out the torch. In the moments before it flickers out, you see the mutant. Half its face is something like a human woman's, but the other half is made of brown scales, with a serpent's eye. She hisses at you while trying to put out the torch.

[Ionbound]

"Well, I guess they're still in there. Sir Laurens, would you like to do the honors? Or shall I?"

[rax]

Severin's lips curl in disgust and he quickly launches a sling stone at the wretched creature.

Spoiler: Actions

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Edit: Rolled properly in OOC thread - major miss.

Initiative: (1d10+47)[51]
Half Action: Aim (+10 BS)
Half Action: Standard attack with sling [roll]1d100/roll] vs. 58 (BS 48+10)
Damage (1d10+3)[6]

Ulric's Fury if applicable:
Attack with sling [roll]1d100/roll]
Damage (1d10)[5]

Severin has his shield equipped, so ranged attacks against him take a -10 penalty.
Wounds (remaining/total): 10/10
Fortune Points (used/total): 2/3

[dojango]

Severin's shot misses the strange mutant, but it serves to drive it back for a moment. Sir Laurens waves to one of the servants, who lights a torch and places it on the wooden parts of the barricade. The dry wood soon catches and burns with a merry, smoky blaze. Within moments, the smoke drives the party back out of the dormitory and into the central room. Sir Laurens sets an ambush outside the hallway entrance. Within a few moments, six of the mutants stumble out of the smoke, doubled over, letting out rasping, hacking coughs from the acrid smoke. It is over in moments, the dazed mutants being no match for the veteran soldiers, adventurers, and knights. Sir Laurens lets out a loud cheer once it's over. "Good thinking," he says. "Smoked out like rats. I like it."

[Ionbound]

Alyssa smiles at the praise, replying, "Never fight fair when you can seize an advantage...First rule of surviving on the road."

[rs2excelsior]

Torendil has been quiet, checking for tomes, artifacts, or any other items of magical import and growing increasingly frustrated as the search comes up empty. He doesn't respond to the woman's question about the circlet, but he does eye it curiously--there's a chance it's enchanted in some way. She seems intent on carrying it outside, however, so it can be examined more thoroughly later.

He's surprised at the swiftness with which the mutants were dispatched--none of them survived long enough for him to get a spell off. Once the smoke begins dissipating a bit and there's no sign of more mutants stumbling out through the smoke, he speaks for the first time in a while. "So... We press onwards, then?"

[rax]

Severin

Coughing slightly from the smoke, Severin surveys the carnage quietly. Monsters, the lot of 'em, but what an ugly way to go.

"Sir Laurens, as Master Torendil noted, there's still more of the temple to explore. Shall we return to where we found the staircase?"

OOC: I assume from the earlier description that we've found all the rooms in this wing and that the soldiers have already tossed them for valuables? Apart from perhaps the room with the barricade...

[Ionbound]

Alyssa nods, adding, "I don't think there are likely many more mutants in here, if we're lucky. Though...Perhaps we should avoid the kitchens due to their...Diet..."

[dojango]

Pushing back into the smoke filled rooms, the party finds a few more of the mutants dead from smoke inhalation or burns. The barricade is mostly out, and it takes a but a few moments to push the charred wood and rubble out of the way. The mutants probably chose this room for their last stand because it was out of the way, and it had a few rotting bookcases in it for them to turn into the barricade. The books are strewn and scattered across the floor without care.

[rax]

"I wouldn't have taken these mutants for readers," Severin jokes. "Torendil! Any of these tomes look interestin' to you?"

OOC: Severin, of course, can't read, and he's just assuming that no one else except Torendil can either.

[rs2excelsior]

Torendil steps past Severin, the joke missing him completely. He glances over the books for any that stand out, and if none do he picks one up at random and thumbs through it.

Spoiler: OOC

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Torendil will continue this until he either finds an interesting book or he checks several (like 4-5) and none of them are worth looking at.

[dojango]

Spoiler: Anyone literate

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Many of the books are filthy, charred, damaged, or all three. Nevertheless, Torendil is able to make out some things.
The first book he picks up appears to be a ledger; a list of local villages and the tribute they bring to the Temple. "Faucon Pass: 200 bushels grain, 30 head cattle, 10 slaves. Daggerblock: 400 bushels grain, 50 head cattle, 20 hundredweight Iron. Dumai's Wells: 50 slaves, 20 horses. And so forth. There are also ledgers dealing with paying soldiers and loans from a dwarven bank.
There are also a few scroll-cases that are intact. They seem to be proclamations by the local ruler. "By the Order of Magos Valens of the Red Temple. Worship of the false-god Sigmar is hereby banned. All heretical texts and icons of this false religion are to be surrendered to be destroyed immediately. All false priests of that order are hereby condemned to execution. Anyone harboring a priest will be put to death as well. Anyone turning in a priest will be rewarded with 30 pieces of gold." "All villages are required to send double the men for the annual corvee this year. Selected men are to report to the Red Temple no later than 10 Kaldezeit carrying one months rations." "The vile and pernicious race known as the dwarves are hereby expelled from this realm. All debts owed to them are hereby owed to the Red Temple." And so forth. There is another scroll case containing copies of military orders. As near as Torendril can tell, the ruler was warring with the dwarves to the east. One order stands out, the last one chronologically, ordering "Captain Heraklon" to take command of the siege of Khandmark. Attached is a map of the region with troop movements scribbled on it. The last scroll in that case also has a complete map of what you assume is the temple.

[dojango]

Spoiler: Victor & Conrad

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The borderlands can be a desolate and dangerous place for the unwary. Only the bravest or the desperate would face its dangers alone. And so the two companions had faced its dangers together, despite being strangers and not trusting each other wholly. But despite it all, perhaps it was a mistake. The pair had been crossing a desert wasteland for three days now, and they had been out of water for a day. Struggling along in the early summer heat, heading south, hoping against hope to find water and salvation. About midday, in the distance, they see a thick plume of smoke to the south, a little out of their way. Fellow-travelers in the desert, possibly? A settlement? Danger? It is that or a parched death alone in the desert.

[Mada]

Victor would have been quite talkative on the trip. He likes to talk, learn and share ideas. Conrad's religion would have been a topic of interest, though the Bretonnian would be dismissive of any attempts to convert. He was also using this time to try and adjust his accent to be less distinguishable.

Though certainly not of noble birth, Victor was not used to going without. At sight of smoke he exclaims "People! Maybe water! Lets go!" He accelerates his pace to move towards whatever is in the distance.

[rax]

"An armoury, a treasury, and the chambers of the master. I suppose most of it will have been picked clean when your man Heraklon drove out the previous occupants, but they might still be worth looking over. Perhaps these monsters have squirrelled away something of interest," Severin muses.

"As for this 'Hall of Records', if these books are from Heraklon's time, they're surprisingly well preserved. I'm no scholar, but maybe there's something useful about the history of this place in there. Anyway, as soon as we're done here, I suggest we look over the treasury and the armoury first, then move on to the master's chambers."

[DrK]

VConrad

The priest rubs a calloused hand across his bald head and nods to his travelling companion. "Smoke. Maybe water eh?" and nods to the hurried pace. The past few days had been not the most pleasant, the borderlands drier and worse than he'd expected compared to the waterlogged forests of the Empire. His companion, Victor, was a strange one. Conrad only understood maybe one word in three from the thick Breton accent but the man seemed to not have the proper appreciation for the teachings of Sigmar. Still, he couldn't deny that being together was much safer than travelling alone,

He nods, "Aye lets pick up the pace and see what is there." He speeds up, long legs walking fast as the heavy hammer engraved with a crude twin tailed comet swings from his waist.

[Ionbound]

Alyssa's face lights up at the mention of a treasury and she replies, "Ooh, a treasury? That sounds worth loot-I mean exploring. Surely the current inhabitants would have stuffed whatever their possessions were in the same place as the previous owners."

[dojango]

Spoiler: Outside

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Victor and Conrad forge through the dry hills towards the smoke. It is long, thirsty going, and as they approach, the smoke slowly dwindles away. But the position is fixed in their mind. Suddenly, a narrow canyon appears at their feet. Looking down, they see...



At the base of the entrance are a few men milling around. A small campfire burns (not nearly large enough to produce that massive plume of smoke). The people are clustered around the campfire, staring intently at the meal roasting above the fire.

Spoiler: Inside

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Following the map, the party returns to the storerooms. Following the stairs up to the room marked 'treasury', they find... a large room, strewn about with wreckage and rubble. Vulgar graffiti is daubed over the walls. The handiwork of bored soldiers, it seems. Probably from the plundering victors, given the content and insults directed at the Red Temple. The armory has been given similar treatment. Dejected, the party heads back to the throne room. On the way over, Sir Laurens says, "It's strange. This is the Red Temple, the first of the evil sorcerers that Heraklon defeated and killed. And yet those books seemed to say that Heraklon was working for them? That he was attacking the dwarves? The orders were signed by the Magos himself. One of Heraklon's staunchest companions was a dwarf. They say. When he defeated Magos Valens, he would've stripped the place bare, after all. To the victors go the spoils. It is an honor enough to have walked in his footsteps, right?" He doesn't sound entirely convinced.

Once the party reaches the throne room, the door leading to the master's chambers is closed. The soldiers push on it for a bit, but it doesn't budge. One of them picks up a long metal pole, and they try to lever the doors open. One of them points to the door, there are scuff marks and chips knocked out of the stone face. "Seems like they weren't able to get in here," say the sergeant, hopefully. "Course, if they couldn't do it..."

[Mada]

Spoiler: ooc

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I have been contemplating whether or not to type his broken talking with an accent or if that would just be annoying to read.

Victor looks down to the group and scratches his head. "They seem to be eating. That building is ominous though. Maybe we should announce ourselves before approaching to show no ill intent? What do you think, comrade Conrad?" He smiles at his wordplay, Conrad's probably heard that one too many times by now.

[Ionbound]

Spoiler: Temple

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Alyssa hums as she approaches the door, replying, "That's because none of them, or you, are masters at work. Allow me." She pulls an oddly-shaped pin from her hair and fiddles with it a bit as she approaches the door, until it splits in to two and resolves into a rake and tensioner, and examines the door for some kind of keyhole.

[dojango]

Alyssa checks the door several times. Then again. There is no keyhole. The door opens inwards, clearly, since the hinges are on the other side, but there is no visible indication of a door handle or other method of opening the door.

[Ionbound]

Spoiler: Temple

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Alyssa looks at first dumbfounded, then increasingly frustrated as she goes back over the door a few times, then swears, kicks it lightly, and grumbles, "Who the hell makes a door with no hinges, keyhole, or way to open it? This thing could be a slab of rock for all I know."

[rax]

Spoiler: Temple

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To Sir Laurens
"Heraklon was in the Temple's service? It wouldn't be the first time in history a soldier switched sides, Sir Laurens. Maybe he had an epiphany. Maybe he was ordered to do something he just couldn't stomach. Maybe he wanted more loot for himself. Or maybe he saw which way the wind was blowing and decided to join the winning side. It's the victors that get to write history, after all. Don't matter much in the end, as long as he ended up doing the right thing. And from what I've seen of this place so far, I'm pretty sure wiping out this temple was the right thing to do."

In the throne room
"I think we can be certain that there's some method of opening the door, we just haven't worked it out yet," Severin answers soothingly. "Everyone have a look round this room. See if anything seems out of place - a stone that sticks out or is the wrong colour, some place that's worn smooth even though there's no reason it should be. Anything that can be poked, prodded or pressed, try it. Myself, I'm having a closer look at the throne."

Perception test (1d100)[16] vs. 34

[DrK]

Conrad

Conrad looks down at the Temple in the narrow gorge and the few folk standing outside. He glances at the Breton beside him, "Aye, seems to be a plan. We can find out what they want and why they are out in the borders." Making sure to keep his hands free from his weapons and hold them up to look non-threatening he walks down towards the mouth of the temple. "Good day. Blessings of the Comet on you. Would you have news and water to share with weary travellers."