[IC] The Cult of Brannulv, Chapter 2

[Fay]

Rose took another step forward and let go of the halberd with one hand. She put this hand up to her mouth and whispered into it. Observant viewers would see a dim violet glow growing between her fingers.

Spoiler: ooc

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Ready action: When the others attack the enemy, Rose will cast Eldritch Blast at the closest enemy (in case there are multiple), moving her hand away from her face and opening it facing the enemy, shooting out a torrent of violet light, petals and spectral butterflies towards the enemy.

Eldritch blast rolled a (1d20+5)[10] to hit, dealing (1d10+3)[13] damage on a hit.

[Valmark]

Ghiso had a magic sword, so he wasn't too worried about scratching the ghost.

He was gonna be more worried of the coffins on the sides in case undeads stood up as soon as they barged in.

Spoiler: Surprise round:

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Ghiso will move to the specter and stab it! With Booming Blade!
(1d20+5)[14] (1d8+5)[11]+(1d4)[2] slashing+cold damage!

As reactions he has Arcane Deflection, which gives him +2 AC against an attack or +4 to a save.

[Xihirli]

Taara ran forward with the other brawlers, opening with a swing of her staff to the leg and then a kick up to the face to capitalize on the lack of balance from her first blow.

Lana waved at the armor.

Spoiler: Surprise Round!

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I don't think this is worth spell slots and Lana doesn't have any other attacks without getting close, so...

Taara! Fight!
Staff! (1d20+5)[9]; (1d8+3)[4]
Kick! (1d20+5)[18]; (1d4+3)[4]

[Izzarra]

The phantom reels in apparent pain from Zarron's spell.

It dodges Rose's blast, and blocks Ghiso's sword with it's spectral shield.

Taara's kick manages to strike true, but her foot passes though the body of the phantom and she feels as if the attack was not terribly effective.

Imrin looses an arrow that passes through the phantom disrupting it slightly.

It swings twice at Ghiso, who is able to easily dodge the first attack and the Arcane Deflection turns aside the second.

Spoiler: OOC

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It crit failed the save vs Mind Sliver.

[Zergrinch]

Noticing the ineffectiveness of physical attacks, Zarron yells out, " Magical attacks hurt it more! Let me light the way!"

He snaps his fingers, and the the dancing lights swiftly move towards the spectre, where they suddenly explode in a paroxysm of color, illuminating the spectre while attempting to avoid both Ghiso and Lana through judicious positioning of the spell.

Zarron then drops back, to prevent a direct line of sight between him and the spectre.

OOC: Cast Faerie Fire, aimed to avoid allies. Spectre must succeed on DC14 Dexterity save or grant disadvantage against all attack rolls. It has a 1d4 penalty to this save.

[Fay]

Rose nods at Zarron's words and gathers violet energy in her hand again before launching another burst of spectral butterflies and petals at the enemy.

After doing so, she asks her unseen servant to hand her the torch it is carrying.

Spoiler: ooc

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Shoot eldritch blast: (1d20+5)[24] to hit (advantage: (1d20+5)[15]), dealing (1d10+3)[5] force damage on a hit.

Asks the unseen servant to pass the torch to her empty hand. (probably can't whack stuff with the halberd one handed but can still carry both temporarily)

[Valmark]

"Well, my shield seems to be working fine" Ghiso noted, blocking one swing and getting forced into blocking the other with a little bit of magic "Less my sword, through no fault of its own" and tried again to stab the specter.

Spoiler: Ooc

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Stab it good. Rolled a 21 on Discord, had rolled there to see wether to add bardic inspiration or not.

(1d8+5)[11]+(1d4)[1] magical s+cold.

Aaaand same thing like before with Arcane Deflection, it's resourceless. But also works against only one attack/save each round.

[Xihirli]

Taara could hypothetically pull off magic damage, but she wanted to save that for later. She kept going with her staff, and followed with a powerful punch.

Spoiler: ATTACKS!

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Staff! (1d20+5)[9] (Advantage 23 in discord); (1d8+3)[11]
Punch! (1d20+5)[11] (Advantage 17 in discord); (1d4+3)[7]

Lana, get something at-will!

"I believe in you all!" Lana shouted to them.

[Izzarra]

The phantom becomes engulfed in the magical flames from Zarron's spell. The barrage of attacks from all sides causes it to loose most of its remaining substance.

It lashes out once more with its remaining strength at Ghiso.

Spoiler: OOC

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23 and 21 to hit Ghiso for 9 and 5 force damage respectively.
One more reasonable hit and it is down.

[Zergrinch]

Emboldened by his party's success, Zarron takes out his trusty crossbow, steps forward to get a straight shot at the phantom, and looses a bolt.

OOC:
Light crossbow attack. (1d20+5)[15] with advantage (1d20+5)[10]. On hit, (1d8+3)[8] plus (1d8)[8] on a crit.

[Xihirli]

Taara, smelling blood in the water, swept a leg and tried to bring her staff down on its head as it crashed.

Spoiler: DIE!

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(1d20+5)[20]/(1d20+5)[21] to sweep the leg! (1d4+3)[7] damage!
(1d20+5)[7]/(1d20+5)[24] for QUARTERSTAFF! (1d8+3)[9]!

[Fay]

Rose walks over to Lana and asks her if she can hold the torch for a moment. If Lana accepts it, Rose then casts another spell at the opponent.

Spoiler: ooc

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So anyway I started blasting: (1d20+5)[10] to hit (advantage: (1d20+5)[23]) to hit, dealing (1d10+3)[12] force damage on a hit.

[Xihirli]

"Of course, Rose!" Lana grabbed the torch. "Don't hold it by the red part," she whispered to herself.

[Izzarra]

The last few hits cause the phantom to dissipate.

Searching the room you find an old set of dice carved from some kind of bone, a sword that is sized for a child, Stabitha is engraved on the blade, and there is a gnarled wooden walking staff in the corner.

Spoiler: OOC

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Everybody that was in melee should be in the room where the Phantom was.
Ghiso knows that the walking staff is the only magical item in the room.

Spoiler: North Doors

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Looking through the doors to the North you find that most of the room has caved in and there is nothing of note.

Spoiler: West Doors

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Looking through the doors to the West in the center of the room there is a pedestal, floating above it is a decanter we water poring out. The water flows down the pedestal and disappears through cracks in the floor. There is a circular pattern of support columns holding up the ceiling.

[Fay]

Rose walks into the room and sees the decanter in the room further to the west.

"Hey, does a floating decanter continuosly pouring out water sound familiar to anyone? Is that an old religious symbol in these lands?" rose asked to no one in particular while studying the object from afar.

Spoiler: ooc

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Moves into the room where the phantom was.

Looks at the floating decanter trying to determine if it's associated with any religion or cult and if so what that might mean.

Religion check: (1d20)[16]

[Xihirli]

"They were using a river for their experiments before," Lana said.
"Maybe they're using the decanter to make an artificial one."

[Valmark]

"I know of similar items, but those have a limit" Ghiso replied to Rose "I doubt it is tied to the cultists, but be in your guard"

With that, he gestures towards the walking cane.
"I believe that is magical" he said, before carefully avoiding touching for the time being.
"Let's first try to understand what's up with the decanter, the staff doesn't seem to be going anywhere and the last magical thing I touched tried to tear me apart"

[Zergrinch]

Zarron curiously pokes at the cane with his ten foot pole.

[Xihirli]

Lana, curious, tried freezing the water inside the decanter to see what would happen.

Spoiler: OOC

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Control Water: Freeze a cork into the Decanter.

[Izzarra]

The decanter doesn't have any apparent religious significance.

Plugging it with ice causes the water to stop pouring out.

Ghiso can see that the decanter is magical.

When Zarron pokes the walking staff it falls over.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron gives the stick a light touch, and if nothing happens, gets bolder and picks it up.

"This staff looks ok, Mr. Ghiso. May I have a look at the lute?"

[Fay]

Rose looks to the room to the north. "There doesn't *seem* to be anything in here but I'm just going to quickly check it out, I'll be back soon!" Rose says as she heads to the small partially caved in room to the north and looks around.

Spoiler: ooc

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Investigation, partially for any items of note and partially to try to determine when the cave-in might have happened and how stable the surrounding area seems to be. (1d20)[7]

Moves north into the partially caved-in room.

[Xihirli]

"Hey, can I use that?" Lana grabbed the staff from Zarron and tried to use it to whack the decanter down to where she could reach it.

[Valmark]

"Sure" Ghiso handed the lute over to Zarron "I don't know the first thing about playing an instrument anyway"

[Zergrinch]

Zarron surrenders the staff and takes the lute. He tries to appraise it as of it were a musical instrument, by examining the materials, make, and timbre of the sound it produces. He also tunes it if it's out of tune, and plays a little melody with it.

[Izzarra]

The lute is made mostly of spruce and maple. When Zarron plays a chord it is perfectly in tune, which is unusual for lutes. It has a rich sound that seams to fill the room regardless of what the acoustics that would be expected and is a perfect compliment to his voice.

---

Imrin helps Rose examine the cave-in and points out that it looks to have been a natural event and it would be best to stay clear. There are no noteworthy items in the room.

---

As Lana runs up to hit the decanter the floor within a 20 ft radius of the pedestal drops down on hidden hinges and she falls 15 ft into dark putrid water.

Before anybody can get to her she feels something brushing up against her legs.

Spoiler: OOC

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If anybody else was in the room with the decanter they might also be in the water.
The torch is doused.
The water is opaque from grime, you cannot see how deep it is.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron is mesmerized by his own playing, until he was rudely brought back to reality by the light going out and the sound of a splash in the next room. He straps the lute to his backpack, snaps his finger, and immediately sends his four dancing lights into the next room to see what happened to Lana.

OOC: Cast Dancing Lights. The lights flood into the decanter room. One goes into the trapdoor, alighting above Lana's head and illuminating her immediate surroundings.

[Xihirli]

Lana kicks her powerful swimmers’ legs to escape the grasping thing! Then surfaces and becomes distressed at the location of solid ground so far above her.
"I don’t wish to be a bother, but could one of you sweet darlings throw me a rope?"

[Valmark]

Seeing Lana fall into the trap, Ghiso pulled out a rope hurrying near the pitfall- he threw one hand for her to grab, then looked for somewhere to tie it to in case he wasn't strong enough to pull her out.

Spoiler: Ooc

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Anything that looks sturdy enough to tie a rope to in case Ghiso isn't strong enough?

[Izzarra]

Ghiso is able to secure the rope to a pillar on the edge of the pit.

As Lana graps the rope and moves to climb out of the water it begins to churn with activity below the suffice as multiple things pound and slash at her.

Spoiler: OOC

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21 to hit Lana for 9 bludgeoning/slashing damage + DC 13 Strength saving throw or be grappled.