Tyrant's Grasp: The Dead Roads [IC]

[lostsole31]

Camael stands over the kneeling Drake who attends over his fallen brother. Dark wings form in shadows on the walls and floor behind him as if from unseen wings and his eyes glow. He looks to Helena, Grum, and little Gwennid, all of whom feel a thrum of power from here as his eyes and a light around him become almost too hard to focus as he speaks in a voice which resonates even as the three heroes look away from the blinding light and a high-pitched tone that has only been growing in strength,

"I am Camael the seraphim, and I ...
...am an angel of the Lord."

The reverberating background noise of power and high-pitched tone suddenly ends with the faint sound of wings flapping away. Helena, Grum, and Gwennid all open their eyes ... tears having been formed from perhaps looking too long before they had to shut them. They find that there is no trace of Camael, Sal, or Drake .... other than the blood that had been shed.

[DrK]

Grum looks where they were and spits on the floor. ”Aye well balls to us eh? Is that how it be?” He snarls. Looking at Gwen and Helena he gestures at the stairs. “Aye. We be needing a rest, either here or down by the gate seems wise eh?”

Helena looks at the space where they were”Who or what was he? Could he have done that all along?”, then as she looks around “They’ve abandoned us and left us here. What did you know of them Gwen?”

[lostsole31]

Because of her plant-like cap and veil, you only just get a glimpse of Gwen's wet eyes. "They abandoned us!" she cries.

It takes her a minute or two to right herself, but then she says in small, broken sobs. "We should stay here. I doubt the first group of toothers would let us be without molestation."

[lostsole31]

Gwennid's eyes then get wide ... made the more noticeable since her cap and mask cover the rest of her face. "I don't have any food, and I'm hungry. I just realized how hungry I am."

That is when Grum and Helena realize they don't have food, but Helena does have a full waterskin.

Do you do an adventuring "forced march" and carry on to the next, or sleep anyway on empty stomachs?

[DrK]

Grum looks at the open hallway and ancient fountain below and the wide corridors where they stand. "It no be safe to sleep here in the open. I want a door and walls so I be waking up with all o' my teeth." As Helena grabs the stick they look at the corridors stretch to the south. "I be looking round the rest o' the floor here. If ye be thirsty drink up, I can always bring more water."

He'll pause to allow everyone to drink using create water as needed to refill things. "Lets be checking up here. sweep south, follow me and be careful." he utters as he heads down the passage leading south in the SW edge of the building.

[lostsole31]

The hallway heads south for 25' before turning east.

Once at that corner, the hallways cuts all the way across some 45' before heading north again. There is a single door here to the north some 20' down or so.

Once the three of you are at the door ... now what?

[DrK]

Helena pauses by the door and presses her ear against it seeing if she can hear anything on the other side. Grum with blade in hand looks around carefully, "What do we be thinking? Kick it open and head in? Do ye hear anything?"" he asks. Clutching the sword he takes breath, "If there be anything in here we do be missing those strange lads."

If they don't hear anything Grum will ease the door open to allow them to see into the room

[lostsole31]

As you do that, Gwennid looks around at the hallway itself. Arrow slits 2 feet high and 4 inches wide look over the courtyard to the south and the desolate moonlit landscape around the palace to the east and west.

One of the large wooden double doors Helena is listening at is open a crack, probably to allow tooth fairies to easily come and go.

As the grumsy Clum eases the door open, which then seems to be well-oiled enough to continue to swing open, yet not well-oiled to not do so without a slow, long, agonizing creak all the way, the entirety of the room is revealed. Once an elegant study, this room has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves along the walls, a pair of heavy desks, and several overstuffed chairs. Most of the books have been shredded, their pages and covers forming small nests. The chairs have all been sliced open, their stuffing removed and likewise fashioned into small nests. An unsteady chair made of stacked books stands atop the larger of the room’s two desks. Loose teeth are piled on the shelves, affixed to the ceiling, and heaped on the floors in strange, spiky patterns. The only exit from this room is a door leading south that Grum is at. Oh, and there is a larger tooth fairy with a strange type of crown attended by four more normal-looking tooth fairies.

Instead of squeaking and running to attack right away, the tooth fairies look to the obvious leader. This creature on the throne resembles a gaunt humanoid from the waist up and a fleshy insect from the waist down - a child-sized creature with enormous black eyes and a large jaw with a lolling tongue. It wears a crown made of humanoid teeth and clutches a tooth-studded scepter. He(?) holds up the tooth-studded scepter and his other hand separately and then brings then down slowly to symbolize calm among his people. Relaxing his iron scepter back onto his lap, he gestures that Grum come forward.

[DrK]

Helena clutches her blade, "is it some sort of Tooth Fairy leader?" she whispers to Gwen and Grum. The heavy set dwarf tilts his head down, mumbling slightly to not show his teeth. "Aye, ye be a big one" he mutters as he steps into the room cautiously, weapon held in his hand. "We no be wanting trouble, we be tired and just be wanting tae rest." He'll suggest, pausing in the centre of the room and making sure that Gwen and Helena are keeping close.

[lostsole31]

Gwennid actually steps forward after Grum and Helena have said their bit, and speaks to the tooth fairy leader in the language that the late Sal Windchaser had referred to as "French."

Gwennid tends to refer to the more attractive Helena more than Grum, but by the end of things she says to her teammates, "This is Prince Uspid. I asked about acquiring a stamp for the Dead Roads, and he says he has the authority to grant it, but something seemed off to me when he said that. He says that if we each allow a tooth fairy to take one tooth from us as payment, he will continue negotiations."

[DrK]

Helena gasps, instinctively stepping back and covering her mouth with the back of her hand, "No.. he cannot eat my teeth. What a vile creature." she mutters.

Grum is more blunt stepping up closer to the "Prince", before glancing to Gwen. "Nae. Ye tell this creature no. He ain't getting my teeth and I not be happy with. If he winnae help us, we'll find someone else who can aye.". He nods, angrily and gestures to GWen asking her to relay his objections to this Prince.

[lostsole31]

Once Gwennid relays this, the tooth fairy monarch strokes his very long, thin moustache and then holds up a finger. He speaks at length to Gwennid, who in turns relays in chunks what the prince says.

"Since we won't pay him directly, he says we can pay in a 'small task,' instead. He says that his mother, Queen Carnassial, refused to honor his rightful claim as ruler, so the prince confined her to the castle’s upper level. She has been causing problems, however, yet it is not dignified to commit matricide. If the PCs eliminate her instead, the prince will grant us the passage stamp we seek. He will give us the key to the door to that area."

[DrK]

Helena looks worried, but Grum grunts, "Aye, we can be talking to the queen and sort it out. If we dinnae kill her mebbe she can help".. Helen breathes a sigh of relief at Grum's words, "You don't mean to kill her then?". Grum shrugs, "Will be up to her aye lassie. If she be talking we can speak, if se wants a fight we'll no back down."

Looking at the room he gazes back at the door. "Gwen. Can ye be asking the "prince" where we could do with a rest in peace and quiet. Before we head upstairs tae' talk to the mother."

[lostsole31]

After a brief conference, the prince says that he has it on good authority that the diorama on the upper story hallways has recently been destroyed. If the party sleeps there, he'll make sure they are not disturbed by his subjects or the period of one mortal sleep cycle.

[DrK]

Grum grunts, looking at Helena and Gwen. ”Diorama on the gallery. He be joking surely. That did kill Sal.” Then he shakes his head some more. ”I can keep first watch whilst ye sleep.” he offers to Gwen and Helena

Helena nods tiredly. ”thank you Grum. The rest is needed.” she says as she looks at Gwen and then follows Grum towards the diorama seeking a place that is comfortable

[lostsole31]

You are given leave by Prince Uspid and his court.

You try to arrange the diorama as best as possible to suit some form of sleeping section, but it is still going to be terribly difficult. Gorum's blessings make sure nobody wants for water, but everyone is hungry. It is a brutal, tiring, exhausting rest period, as you each do the best you can.

Are you going to set up anything differently on the new day?

[lostsole31]

One thing to note is that Grum and Helena are fatigued (sheets updated). Only Gwennid seems to be somewhat refreshed.

Now what?

[DrK]

Waking in the morning, Grum grunts in pain feeling tired and weary from his night's sleep (or lack there of). He spends some time in quiet comtemplation to Gorum before changing his preparations, instead of seeking strength seeking a way to feel less tired as he channels Gorum's holy power through him to reduce the wearirness.

Spoiler: Spell CHange

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With waking fatigued he'll memorise Lesser Restoration instead of Bulls strength and use the Lesser Rstoration to remove his fatigue

After refreshing himself he pats Helena on the shoulder, "Sorry lass... my powers ain't what they used to" he then pauses and beckons her to sit still. "Gwen lass can ye keep watch fer a while?" he asks before sitting down and concentrating in Helena in mediation for around an hour as he reaches out with Akashic power to channel a tiny bit of his power into her.

Spoiler: Essence Bound Duty

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Essence-Bound Duty (Su)
By infusing a bit of your essence into a person, you can protect them from harm, and punish those who would bring them harm. At 1st level, as a part of a 1 hour ritual, you may designate a creature other than yourself as your charge. You may only have one charge at a time, and may abandon your charge using the same one hour ritual. Creatures attacking your charge, or including them with an area of effect without including you as well have a 10% miss chance and spell failure chance. You must be within close range and have line of sight and effect to your charge for your charge to benefit from this ability. This miss chance and spell failure chance doubles while you are within 15-ft of your charge.

You may invest essence into your charge. Each point of essence invested in your charge increases this ability’s miss chance and spell failure chance by 5%. This miss chance and spell failure chance doubles while you are within 15ft of your charge.

A creature that attacks your charge becomes marked. Once per round as a free action, you may move up to 15ft towards a marked target, plus an additional 5ft for each point of essence invested in your charge. This movement must place you closer towards the marked target. Marks last for 1 minute, or until the marked creature takes damage from you, whichever comes first.

You gain a bonus to attack your veilweaving modifier against marked targets, and your attacks against marked targets deal an additional 1d6 points of damage, plus an additional 1d6 points of damage for every three veilweaving levels you possess. Damage you deal to marked targets is reinforced by an akashic pulse of power, and as such is not reduced by damage reduction, hardness, resistances, or immunities.

At 5th level, as an immediate action whenever your charge is attacked, you may move up to your speed. This movement must place you adjacent to your charge, or this ability fails. After this movement, you may redirect the triggering attack to yourself, as if you were the original recipient of the attack. The triggering creature is then marked. While you are within 15ft of your charge, your charge is immune to fear effects.
At 9th level, your charge gains hardness equal to your veilweaver level. At the start of each of their turns, they gain temporary hit points equal to the amount of essence invested in them, not to exceed twice your veilweaver level. Any effects that would improve your veil’s hardness improve your charge’s hardness, and any effect that would improve your veil’s hit points improves the maximum amount of temporary hit points your charge may gain from this ability.
At 13th level, marks now last for 1 minute, or at the end of any turn in which a marked creature takes damage from you. You are immune to to mind-affecting effects.
At 17th level, your charge becomes immune to death effects. Whenever they would take damage that would reduce them to 1 or fewer hit points, you may instead have them reduced to 1 hit point. If you do, any damage in excess of this is transferred to you. This damage cannot be reduced, redirected, or mitigated in any way.

[lostsole31]

That done .... now what?

[DrK]

Helena thanks Grum as she feels the strange energy settle around her. SIghing she lowly raises to her feet. "Well shall we investigate this Queen in the gate house?" she asks carefully as she looks about. Taking a deep breath she summons forth a glowing cap of semi-translucent coat of scales and draws her sword looking somewhat forlornly at the nearly empty quiver at her hip. "I hope we find some arrows somewhere"

Spoiler: OOC

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Casts mage armour

Grums nods, "Ye ready GWen?" he says before leading them downstairs heading towards the gate house that had the barred gate. There he'll kick at the door until he can shatter the lwood on the door.

Spoiler: Essence

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0 Minor: Gauntlets Lashing Energy
0 Minor: Bangles of Roving Light

1 Veil: Hard light axe
1 Veil: Mountain Plate
1 Veil: Stone Giant Girdle
0 Veil: Lions Heart

1 Non Veil: Chakra Power
1 Non Veil: Helena Essence bound Duty

[lostsole31]

Grum gives only one powerful kick against the door before the other tooth fairy guards at the gatehouse - who steered clear of you this time - then begin screeching. They don't seem hostile, and it takes Gwennid to tell you that they want to warn the PCs that Prince Uspid's mother tried to assassinate him by sending a "bony snake" and they trapped it in there by locking the door (Prince Uspid has the key). They are fine with you breaking down the door, as they can just fly as they please and the door means little to them, but they want to warn you now that you are working for their Prince.

What do you do?

[DrK]

Helen turns to them as Gwen translates and offers a sincere bow. ”Please tell them our thanks Gwen.” she says politely watching the little fluttering monsters carefully.

Grum merely grunts ”Keep an eye on ‘em” before turning back to the door and starting to hack at the door lock with great swings of the Hardlight axes

[lostsole31]

It doesn't take terribly long before Grum hews open the door. There, the soft scrape of bone reveals the long, sinuous skeleton of a large snake, its head a humanoid skull with a snake’s jaws.

Begin Round One ...

R1T21: Helena, what do you do?

[DrK]

Helena stares at in shock, ”wish they’d been more specific” with a glance at the tooth fairies before dancing forward to stand beside Grum and lash out at the creature with her sword as she wonders what it is!

Spoiler: OOC

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Swift: Silver crane waltz stance
Move: to square beside Grum (to the east)
Standard: Silver strike [risky attack] (1d20+5)[24] or (1d20+5)[19] dam (1d8+3)[6]

Current miss chance 30%

[lostsole31]

R1T21: Helena stares at the thing in shock. ”Wish they’d been more specific,” she mutters with a glance at the tooth fairies before dancing forward to stand beside Grum and lash out at the creature with her sword as she wonders what it is! Her sword strikes very accurately, but only a tiny bone splinter falls away (1 mod).

R1T13: Though it reacts as a skeleton might - resisting a hacking weapon like Helena's longsword - given its ridiculous and obviously man-made human skull-on-snake body form, she recognizes it as a "necrophidius," a type of construct. Though little more than that (beyond typical construct immunities and shared abilities) she does not know. The necrophidius begins to sway back and forth in an entrancing manner.

Helena and Grum, roll will saves!

[DrK]

Spoiler: Will Saves

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Grum (1d20+9)[26]
+2 vs Mind affecting, +4 vs spells, Warder aegis +1

Helen (1d20+6)[8]
Spell miss chance 30% if a spell effect

[lostsole31]

R1T12: Grum sees that both Gwennid and Helena seem to be completely taken in by the strange dance of this bone-snake. What does he do?

[DrK]

Grum grumbles, ”i dinnae dance ye beast” as he swings a glowing Hardlight axe with devastating force

Spoiler: OOC

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Swift: regal blade boost
Standard: crippling strike [risky attack]
(1d20+10)[17] dam (2d8+9)[25] + (2d6)[5] (there is 1d3 bleed but may be irrelevant)

New manoeuvre (1d2)[2] 1= crushing blow, 2= scything strike

[lostsole31]

R1T12: ”I dinnae dance, ye beast,” Grum grumbles as he swings a glowing hardlight axe with devastating force that lands for 25 mod.

Gwennid and Helena are dazed.

End Round One, Begin Round 2 ...

R2T13: The bony snake attacks him but he blocks it quickly enough.

R2T12: Grum, what do you do?

[DrK]

Blocking and spinning with the axes he clutches a single Akashic axe in both hands and chops again at the beast. ”Gwen, Helena, snap out o’it.”

Spoiler: OOC

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Swift: enter Valiant keeper stance
Standard: switch to a 2 handed grip [risky attack]
(1d20+8)[17] dam (1d8+13)[20]