Into Ivy Mansion [IC]

[hend6473]

Seeing that her companions have the girl well in hand, Grass grabs the brass key and does a quick search of the room, avoiding the putrid door for now.

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+3)[23]

However, when Akmenos suggests telling Tristan about the girl, Grass hurries over and says, "This isn't something worth bothering the client with, right? Busy man and all that." Dropping her voice to a whisper, Grass asks, "D'you know if he's spying on us with magic right now?"

[kulanah]

Tathra perks up at the mention of leaving the manor. She seems conflicted between sent away from those that saved her and getting away from this place where she was trapped.

She looks to her new friend, the horned man who was so nice to her, and quietly asks him with a slight pout to her face "Will they be nice to me where you're sending me?"

As the crow appears and lands next to her she utters a small shriek of fear, though after he starts talking, and the group as a whole seems to let it pass she calms down.

When he starts talking she goes from fear to amusement as it starts to talk, and she lets out an exuberant giggle.

"Oh, he wants to hear my song! Miss Elizabeth used to sing it to us at night." Tathra then sings the song in a slow mournful cadence.

"Lock the door, blow out the light,
the hungry Oni haunts the night.
Hide and tremble little one,
the Oni wants to have some fun.

Hear it scratching on the door,
see its shadow cross the floor.
The sun won't rise for quite a while,
til then beware the Oni's smile."

Spoiler: Grass' search

Show

As Grass digs through the room she comes across a small cache of 4 potions that she immediately recognizes as healing potions by the red glimmer throughout them.

[secretandsafe]

Ficus shudders at the girl's warbly singing, more so for the content rather than the quality. Oni... Oni... Where have I heard that before?

Spoiler: ooc

Show

nature check: (1d20+4)[14]

[hend6473]

As Tathra sings, Grass takes a poke at the sticky rope Tathra had been wrapped in.

Spoiler: Investigate Rope

Show

(roll)1d20+3(/roll)

When the song ends, Grass switches to Big Sister mode. She claps and gives Tathra a big smile. In a sweet tone none of the party have heard from Grass before, she tells Tathra, "A lovely performance! I'm sure Miss Elizabeth would be proud. Speaking of..."

Grass drops her voice and puts on a look of concern. "Could you do me a favour? I don't understand how some of the things you mentioned earlier - your parents, Miss Elizabeth, Claude, the rat man, the boogeyman, how you got here - all fit together. Could you explain it again in order? We'd like to know more about you so we can help."

Spoiler: Persuade Tathra to share her backstory

Show

(roll)1d20+4(/roll)

[kulanah]

Spoiler: Ficus' musing

Show

You can think of nothing specific about these Onis, but something is vaguely tickling your brain to tell you that this is not a creature to be messed with.

Spoiler: Grass' rope investigation

Show

You recognize the rope as the silk of a phase spider.

Tathra looks at the short woman saddling up to her, standing right around the same height, Tathra stands just a hair taller and sighs a big childlike overly dramatic sigh. "I guesssss." She stops as a pensive look takes over her face, gathering her thoughts and trying to put it all together in her head.

"Okay. So. Like four years--" she starts and then almost immediately stops, her sense of time not allowing her to decide exactly how long ago her story starts. "A long time ago I got taken to live with Miss Elzabeth, and that was okay. She was nice sometimes but mean other times. There were lotsa other kids there too and that was fun, I had a lotta friends. Claude came there not too long ago, and he's okay sometimes. But he mostly just reads books and hides from the other kids."

"Then the last thing I 'member, I was hiding outside because I was avoiding bedtime, and this GIANT rat man told me was going to take me to meet the boogeyman!" She pauses for a moment before physically shaking her self out of the horrifying memory. She then resumes with some of the childish energy drained from her "then I woke up in stuck in that stuff, until all of you came to save me." At this she beams at the group.

[lordgribbles]

"Well I know Tank is a big cuddly lunk and everything, but we can't take you with us. It will be dangerous, very dangerous and we don't want you to get hurt."

Plus, unless she starts levitating and shoots a beam of magic energy from her forehead, she will be a liability.

"So we're going to send you to the Inn in town. A nice lady will take care of you. They even have a big wooden doll you can play with! It'll be fine. Promise. We'll give you some gold and the empty tin man here will escort you."

Charleston jump back on Akmenos's shoulder and squawks out "beware the Oni, beware the Oni" into his ear.

"Doesn't that sound nice?" Akmenos beams a charming Tiefling smile.

[hend6473]

Grass brightens when Akmenos mentions Clatter in passing. She says, "Good plan, Akmenos. Yes, we should have Clatter walk Tathra back to The Gambling Golem. They can go out the window. Tathra, here, take this cleaver with you, just in case. And we'll give you some money and a letter for the innkeeper, explaining the situation."

Grass gives her companions a look, hoping one of them will take care of the money and letter thing, then moves to the window. She opens it and tries to see if she can make out the inn from this distance.

Spoiler: Perception

Show

(1d20+5)[7]

[lordgribbles]

Akmenos suddenly remembers something.

"And this is the money to keep you fed and sheltered while we're away." He pulls out the money he found in Clatter's boot. "Its a little sticky, but it spends just like clean money."

"Now, Clatter will help you find your way to the inn and we will take care of the ratman and the Oni whatever in the story."

[secretandsafe]

Ficus beckons to Clatter. As the construct approaches, Ficus picks it up and pops it through the window, carefully leaning through and setting it on the ground. As the firbolg brings his torso back through the window, he turns to Tathra and holds his hands out.

“Did you need help? Or can you climb at all?”

[kulanah]

The small child looks confused between the adults with their sudden flurry of activity and thoughts. The confusion is mixed with something else... concern?

The small cleaver handed to her sparks a bit of joy, and she looks it over with a glint of menace in her eye, before trying out a few test swings with the thing. Clearly the idea of protecting her self is more than a little appealing.

She hesitantly accepts the coins offerent to her before setting about wandering around the room. She arrives at a cauldron over the fire, and rinses the coins off in the old water. "You know you can clean things before you give them to little girls, mister horns!" she ways with a slight mocking tone.

"But okay, I'm ready," she says to the tin man who found his way in as if magically summoned by the talk of sending him on a babysitting job.

Clatter takes Tathra's hand in his, and does what looks like finger-snapping, however his metal hands don't really convey the sound you would expect of a flesh and blood human doing so. But as soon as he finishes that action, they both start to fade away in some kind of magic.

Spoiler: Grass looks out a window

Show

You get sidetracked looking at the squalor of the small town. It's surprisingly small and dirty from up here, and more than a little gross. Weird, normally at this distance those sorts of minor details fade away.

[hend6473]

As Clatter and Tathra start to fade away, Grass looks surprised and a little scared. She'd expected them to walk away normally.

Grass looks back and forth between her more magically gifted companions, unsure what's happening or what they should do.

[Tiegh]

Tank is about to cast 'Shield of Faith' on Clank when they disappear. He slowly lowers his hands feeling unsure of the girl's comfortably with a cleaver. Also, Tank was not a fan of her rudeness towards Akmenos.

"Should we take care of this smell now?"

[lordgribbles]

"Elder gods, yes. Unthinkable horrors would be a pleasant change of pace from babysitting strange little girls." Charleston flies to the windowsill and peers longingly at the spot where the sing-song little girl and the metal man disappeared from.

"You'll see her soon enough, Charleston. Right now we have work to do."

Akmenos takes position within range of his finger blaster and prepares to shoot anything gibbering or with too many teeth.

[hend6473]

Grass nods and says, ""By the way, that stuff Tathra been tied up with was phase spider silk. Bear that in mind."

Grass goes over to the door and, without opening it yet, tries to check what's on the other side. She looks through the keyhole, puts an ear to the wood, and tries to place the awful smell. Out of habit, she also does a cursory look-over for traps.

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+5)[10]

[kulanah]

Spoiler: Grass' trap finding

Show

Nothing specific comes to mind, but you're filled with a sense of revulsion and foreboding as you walk up to the door.

[Tiegh]

Tank looks to Ficus, the wisest (and tallest) member of the group as he prepares to potentially breach the door. He trusts Ficus' wisdom and awaits their input before moving further.

"I trust your totems!" Tank yells, not knowing if it's a real Shaman saying, or just nonsense. Tank does not understand the Elements.

[secretandsafe]

Ficus grunts softly at Tank before crouching down to Grass’ level. “Do you mind if I take a look as well?”

The firbolg quietly approaches the door and, seeing, the look of revulsion sweep over Grass’ face, he holds his breath.

Spoiler: perception

Show

perception (looking through keyhole, listening at door): (1d20+3)[23]

[kulanah]

Spoiler: Ficus' perception

Show

As you come to the door the smell launches you into an almost flashback level memory from your childhood. You remember seeing a small sporepod that created a small explosion when anyone or anything agitated it. The smell is identical, only this time it is much more intense.

[Tiegh]

To Ficus, "What do you see?"

[hend6473]

Grass gratefully lets Ficus take over the examination of the door and hides behind Akmenos, taking a moment to breath in the fresher air and clear her head a bit.

[secretandsafe]

“Hmm... A smell not unlike something quite unpleasant from my forest home. Spores, explosive... We should be really careful if we’re planning on going through this door. Maybe we can open it with some sort of magic from afar? Best not to get too close.”

Ficus wrings his hands, brow knit.

[lordgribbles]

Akmenos shrugs helplessly.

"Mage Hand wasn't a spell offered to me by the Elder Gods. I can blast the door... but I think a better idea would be to tie some rope to the door handle and pull it open behind cover."

Akmenos pulls a length of rope from his pack and runs over to put his plan into action.

[hend6473]

Grass frowns and mutters, "A trap I could disable, but a plant? Not sure about that."

As Akmenos takes out the rope and approaches the door, she stops hiding behind him and goes to hide behind a solid bit of furniture on the other side of the room.

[lordgribbles]

Knots, knots, knots. What do I remember about knots?

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+1)[16]
Knot check!

[kulanah]

Spoiler: Knot check

Show

You're pretty confident you could tie a knot around the door and pull it.

[lordgribbles]

"Well, here goes nothing." Akmenos ties a rope to the door; and hides away from the potential blast area. Charleston tucks himself into Akmenos's tunic and hides himself.

"I suggest you all find yourself somewhere to hide."

[kulanah]

Spoiler: Ficus' nature check

Show

You have a moment of insight as you watch your companion begin to tie the rope, you have a flash of insight: you realize that if Akmenos suddenly throws open the door it should disturb the fungus enough to trigger the detonation. Further you know that the safe distance is around 15 feet. As long as everyone is that distance away or farther the group should come away unharmed.

[Tiegh]

Tank is confused (and a little disappointed) about not busting down the door, but does eventually move away near/slightly in front of his companion.

He also offers hold and pull the rope b/c he doesn't have a ranged attack.

[hend6473]

In her hiding place, Grass readies her bow, just in case.

[lordgribbles]

Akmenos checks to see if Ficus is a safe distance away, and jerks the door open. Eyes closed, of course.