Ferrous Bueller's Day(s) Off - Six Dragons Walk Into a Tavern... [IC]

[Dimers]

"About how far away?" Brill asks in a cool tone (caught between vague unease at the idea of letting evil maybe-bandits continue pestering travelers and vague unease at the idea of chomping people who haven't out-and-out proven harmful yet). "If you can't figure the answer in standard gold dragon flight time, just go with, like, 'past eight hills and a stream' kinda thing."

[Feathersnow]

^d"These guys have strong auras and lots of items. I think they might be like, real adventurers."

[Balthanon]

"Hmm... as far as the distance goes, honestly not sure. I haven't been up that way for some time and last time I was there it was by ship." The woman shrugs, holding out her arms in a gesture of apology. "Shouldn't be that far though."

[Eurus]

"Kintam Leluun... I wonder if there are any remnants of the warriors who lived there. Or ghosts..."

Shadowsoul tries not to get too excited, but he really wants to see a ghost.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Amber lands and just sort of stands around for most of the conversation.

"Where have I heard that before?" she quietly asks to no one in particular. "An appeal to philosophy is a valid political option when one cannot lie nor give a straight answer, but this one philosophy specifically..."

You can almost hear the gears in her head grinding away as she tries to figure something out, to no avail. Soon enough, she gives up. "At any rate, thank you for the directions. I apologize for, 'giving you the third degree.'" She turns to her comrades. "Shall we get going, team?"

[thethird]

Bob gives a nod to the little dragon while keeping an eye on the woman.

[Dimers]

^d"These guys have strong auras and lots of items. I think they might be like, real adventurers."

Brilliance looks offended, at least to those present who have experience with draconic facial expressions. ^d"Hey! I'm -- I mean, we're real adventurers too!"

"Hmm... as far as the distance goes, honestly not sure. I haven't been up that way for some time and last time I was there it was by ship." The woman shrugs, holding out her arms in a gesture of apology. "Shouldn't be that far though."

Having come down on the side of not chasing and eating the maybe-bandits, Brill decides to be magnanimous ... without actually leaving her default paradigm of 'lesser beings should inherently want to give me things (like information)'. "Oh, it's fine, really, I'm sure you can't help not knowing."

"Shall we get going, team?"

"Yeah. Let's saddle up our horses and fly. Wait, what's that thing you do with horses? Besides eat them? Ride, right. Saddle up and ride."

[Balthanon]

Looking around, the woman raises an eyebrow, apparently noting the complete lack of horses. As the various dragons and transfigured dragons head off into the forest, she does add, "Ahh, you might want to just keep heading down the road here-- turn left at the next junction, it will take you were you're aiming."

Amber also notes her tapping a finger on her lips while she speculates about her philosophy and a slight hint of a frown flashes over her lips for a moment, then she is back to all smiles by the time she tenders her apology.

Spoiler: OOC

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Unless there's something else, I'll go ahead and move things ahead.

[Balthanon]

Making their farewells, the party heads on down the road past the men staring at them and the jauntily waving woman, then moves on to follow the directions that she provided. Several hours later, they find the road getting progressively more overgrown until they are basically picking their way through the forest with only broken pavement marking the path they should be taking. Another hour or two of this and the forest lets out on a large building with a clearly martial bent; though it also has some notable decay-- not so much that it would truly be called ruined, but it has been abandoned for some time.

The salt tang of the air and the blue shimmer of water in the distance indicates that they are fairly close to the inner sea in this area as well, which probably doesn't help.

Spoiler: OOC

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Roll me some Perception checks.

[thethird]

Bob is quite taken aback by such a large building. ¿Perhaps they could repurpose it, if the locals thought it was abandoned and cursed? Anyways wanting to take a closer look Bob transform back into Voovtharovom and suddenly remembers he is wearing human clothes. Fortunately they aren't broken beyond repair, given that he is still not a very big dragon, but he transforms back into human form and drops the clothes and stuff inside his portable hole before rolling it back and securing it under his armor.

Then he extends his stiffened wings and raises to the air with gusto. Flying is much nicer than walking. He circles around the castle, flying fast, very fast. Ah, the wind on the face, such a nice feeling. Then he remembers what he is supposed to be doing and looks at the castle.

OoC: Perception (1d20+16)[33]

[Feathersnow]

Sketh looks curiously at the building, taking it all in as they were tsught.

[Eurus]

Now this... this is what he's here for. Shadowsoul practically vibrates with restrained excitement as they approach the castle, though he keeps trying to cover it by grooming his wings and adjusting his cloak. But it's a big castle! There could have been all sorts of humanoid warriors here, practicing their exotic fighting styles with ten different kinds of polearms. Maybe their ghosts are still wandering, tormented by guilt. Maybe he can get one of the ghosts to sign an autograph.

[Balthanon]

Flying around the castle, Bob sees any number of openings into the building, shadows slowly growing as night approaches after the day of travel. Or... perhaps, shadows just growing, as the interior of the building actually seems darker than the setting sun really explains and the darkness encroaches upon the light in some respects. The more perceptive of those on the ground also note some of the same effects beyond the gates that are hanging off the hinges, just over the small bridge that leads into the entrance. The vegetation that grows upon the castle walls also seems to move slightly out of sync with the breeze coming off of the sea.

Spoiler: OOC

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DC 30 and above Perceptions are catching the oddities, as they are quite subtle

[Dimers]

Brilliance looks to Amber for direction. "So ... do adventurers always storm the gates from ground level? Is that where we start?"

[thethird]

Bob comes down from his overflight.

"Shadows are acting funny in there.^D" He is having trouble expressing what he actually witnessed. "Well more stuff is acting weirdly there, the grass doesn't move like the grass outside. It's strange.^D"

He scratches his chin and looks at the others.

"I would go with extreme caution once inside. That reminds me, come closer.^D"

Starting with Amber he exhales some smoke and casts a quick rune in the air in front of the fellow party member.

"This should protect you from most of my breath weapons. I'll help me not worry about you being in the line of fire, if something funny happens.^D"

And turning towards Brilliance.

"I rather be from above as a dragon, I'm a dragon first an adventurer second after all... But using the gate as a potential chokepoint doesn't sound like a bad idea.^D"

[Eurus]

"Ghosts! I mean..." Shadowsoul clears his throat and suppresses his enthusiasm, "...it could be anything. Maybe even ghosts."

He studies the castle from a distance, claws kneading the ground underneath him while he studies the strange place. "...Try not to breathe on the walls, if you can?"

He'll feel very bad if they end up razing this historically-significant ruin to the ground.

[Feathersnow]

Let me check for traps! I've only done it for product testing or training!

Spoiler: check for traps!!

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(1d20+16)[20]

Spoiler: disable hypothetical traps!

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(1d20+15)[21]

[Balthanon]

Sketh examines the area carefully, but doesn't identify anything that looks like a trap to him. As he gets closer to the gate and his shadow stretches inside though, he does notice some very odd behavior by it, where it sort of... expands, as it touches the shadows in the archway which aren't quite where they're supposed to be.

[Dimers]

"Shadows are acting funny in there.^D" He is having trouble expressing what he actually witnessed. "Well more stuff is acting weirdly there, the grass doesn't move like the grass outside. It's strange.^D"

^d"Yep, sounds haunted all right," Brilliance replies without a lot of concern. She touches the magic crystal attached to her armor as if to reassure herself it's still there.

"I rather be from above as a dragon, I'm a dragon first an adventurer second after all... But using the gate as a potential chokepoint doesn't sound like a bad idea.^D"

^d"Sounds good." The little gold moves along the ground toward the gate.

[Balthanon]

As Brilliance approaches the gate, something similar to what happened to Sketh happens-- the minute her shadow touches the shade inside of the castle, it subtly expands and appears to move slightly out of sync with the little gold dragon.

[Eurus]

Shadowsoul gives Sketh the chance to move first, as their leader, but once Brill goes in, he moves as well. He surely can't let that pipsqueak get too far ahead of him...

[thethird]

Bob flies over the gate, giving ample space, but otherwise follows the party, keeping his eyes peeled and wary of literally any shadow.

[Balthanon]

With everyone more or less in agreement, the group heads through the gate and finds themselves in a narrow tunnel to start, filled with plenty of holes in the ceiling and walls that are too small for any other than maybe Amber. And even then, it would likely be a tight fit.

The light from the waning sun outside stretches shadows long and thin against the pale stone the Inspired liked to build with and they waver and dance as if the sun were a flickering candle until they reach the darker depths of the hall ahead. Upon passing that inner gate, a rusted portcullis hanging above their heads, they find themselves in a chamber that stretches to the edge of their darkvision in a mostly rounded chamber with six exits at regular intervals and thick, weathering columns forming an extension of the hall they just passed through down the center.

To either side are what appear to be the training grounds you might expect to find in a courtyard in other keeps. The last of the light from the sun illuminates perhaps 10-20 feet into the chamber and those in the lead see their shadows seem to separate from their feet and get sucked into the deeper darkness when they get within a few feet of the last of the light.

[Eurus]

Shadowsoul stares at the ground, where his shadow was a moment before. "...Um."

He takes a few steps backward, out into the light, to see if his shadow comes back.

[Balthanon]

It does not.

[Eurus]

Shadowsoul slowly trots forward again, mentally panicking. Did something eat his shadow? Is he going to die? Can you die from shadowlessness? Wait, if he doesn't have a shadow... experimentally, he pulls his cloak around himself and shimmies the hood up so that it should cast his intimidating draconic visage in dramatic darkness. Except for the snout sticking out.

"Guys. Guys. Can you see my face?"

If he can't even cast a dramatic shadow anymore... it doesn't even bear thinking about.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"It is okay, Shadowsoul! We can all still see you!" Amber reassures him. "In fact, it doesn't appear to have any ill effects so far... But, that's strange, isn't it? If it isn't a trap to keep us out, why would this castle be stealing shadows?"

She stares inquiringly into the darkness ahead. She's let the rest of the team take the lead since getting here; she has no experience with ruins like this, but to her understanding, it's the kind of place most dragons call home.

"Ooo-oo-ooo-oo-oooo~"

With a flick of her little claw, four small soft silver-blue lights spark into existence and float into the supernatural shade, hoping to light the path to get our shadows back.

Spoiler

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Casting dancing lights for science!

Bardic knowledge! (1d20+11)[25] regarding legendary shadow-thieving beasts or devices!

Also, I'm back! Sorry to have been MIA for so long.

[Balthanon]

The lights dancing around the group are markedly less bright than Amber is used to and she notes they do not, in fact cause them to cast any shadows. She is at least correct about Shadowsoul though, his face is perfectly visible in the hood, not a hint of obstruction that she can see.

As for legends of stolen shadows, those are not in particularly short supply, though few enough that she would expect to run into here-- most live upon the plane of shadow. Though there are a few greater fey that are rumored to do something similar and a few artifacts or magic items of particular potence. In many cases, those who have their shadows stolen wither away and die over the course of weeks as their shadows are used to fuel fell sorceries, while in other tales they gradually fall under the sway of the one who stole them, and in others yet, are killed by essence draining copies of themselves as the shadows come to life and attack.

For some reason, none of the stories end particularly well for those who don't manage to get their shadows back...

Spoiler

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Welcome back!

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Shadows can symbolize a lot of things, you know," Amber continues after a slight pause. "Vampires don't cast them anymore because their soul's substance already passed on. Pupa Pan's shadow took his chaotic spirit, leaving him listless and cowardly. Sato Chie's shadow turned feral and tried to kill all her friends. Who knows what story this castle is taking after..."

She directs the dancing lights into the hallway ahead.

"Let's keep going! Whoever did this is stealing a part of us, and we need to get it back!"

[thethird]

When Bob follows the team he makes certain not to touch the ground keeping himself mobile with his wings. And is all the same dumbfounded when the shadows are taken. Annoyed at the shadows he opens his eyes widely, ready to spot any movement or anything out of the ordinary. Then he throws a gout of flame illuminating the corridor.

OoC: using the dragonfire breath (the party is immune), modified with entangling exhalation, clinging breath, recover breath, and power surge (augmented duration).

It's a line (30ft) and deals 5d6/2 (5d6)[19] (i.e. 9) fire damage, reflex for half: DC 22, damaged creatures are entangled for 1d4*1.5 (1d4)[2] (i
e. 3r), it also takes half damage (i.e. 4) of what it took originally for 2 additional rounds.