Day 32: Tower of Orian

[Iron Dragoon]

Session Start: Mon Dec 29 12:39:50 2014
Session Ident: #dunes
* Now talking in #dunes
* Topic is 'Veren-Moore(32)>Lucy(31)>Pepo(24))>Hell House(8)>Jetina '
* Set by Kotono on Tue Dec 23 13:39:38
<Kotono>  * Veren again summons a glob of goo, but this time it begins to rapidly expand into a giant ball of goo before launching off towards the house! OOC: Spending an additional 6 PP, 7 total, to up it to gargantuan levels!
<Kotono>  <Veren> roll 1d20+12 GOO BALL OF DOOM!
<Kotono>  <Serith> Veren roll for Serith < 25 > [d20=13]
<Kotono>  OOC: Hit.
<Kotono>  <Veren> OOC: It be entangled for 5 rounds.
<Kotono>  OOC: Okay. Moore?
<Kotono>  <Moore> Moore flies up a bit higher in case it decides to shoot angry teeth bees again, he may be able to avoid it this time! He casts a spell to heal himself for the time being.
<Kotono>  <Moore> roll 1d8+5
<Kotono>  <Serith> Moore roll for Serith < 8 > [d8=3]
<Kotono>  <Moore> OOC: Staying invisible since he can't tell if that actually is helping or not.
<Kotono>  OOC: Go Lucy.
* Lucy fires off a seeking ray at the cabin before moving once more. It doesn't seem to be able to track her all that well, so she has the time to conduct a study of whether it is particularly resistant to electricity.
<Lucy> roll 1d20+10 ranged touch seeking ray
* Hatbot (~Hatbot@cpe-68-203-15-105.austin.res.rr.com) has joined #dunes
<Lucy> roll 1d20+10 ranged touch seeking ray
* Hatbot --> "Lucy rolls 1d20+10 ranged touch seeking ray and gets 25." 12 [1d20=15]
<Lucy> roll 4d6 elec
* Hatbot --> "Lucy rolls 4d6 elec and gets 17." 12 [4d6=3, 4, 5, 5]
<Kotono> A direct hit, the beam hitting the cabin dead on. Electricity crackles through the teethy wood, rippling through the ectoplasm and glitterdust already there. The entire structure is starting to look a bit run down. OOC: Pepo.
<Pepo> Pepo once more attempts to send a chaotic powered ray of fire at the cabin before moving forty feet away from Veren and Jetina, opposite the direction Lucy went.
<Pepo> roll 1d100 5+ wild surge
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d100 5+ wild surge and gets 36." 12 [1d100=36]
<Pepo> roll 1d100 chaotic surge
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d100 chaotic surge and gets 11." 12 [1d100=11]
<Pepo> OOC: halved again :(
<Pepo> roll 1d20+14 ranged touch
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d20+14 ranged touch and gets 21." 12 [1d20=7]
<Pepo> roll 0.5*7d6+7 5pp augmented
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 0.5*7d6+7 5pp augmented and gets 18.5." 12 [7d6=6, 1, 3, 5, 3, 3, 2]
<Kotono> The fire hits head on. The woody cabin bursts into flames, dozens of insect teeth bursting out, already ablaze. A greasy black pall of smoke begins to cover everything as the cabin collapses. The air is thick with choking smoke, mingling with the white, faintly glowing fog. OOC: Free act.
<Moore> "Uh... ...did we get it?" Moore asks as he reappears and comes down closer to the party.
<Pepo> Walking back to the group with an imperious air, Pepo says, 'Let us try and avoid further pointless battles? Otherwise the town will be long gone by the time we retrieve the gem.'
<Veren > "Or we won't have enough strength to fight whatever might be guarding the gem."
<Veren > "Should we look for anything useful?"
* Veren eyes the ruins of the house, still a little unsure about its actual demise.
<Lucy> "The problem, of course," Lucy muses, "is that it is quite difficult to tell what might be a clue and what is a pointless battle."
<Moore> "Well, I'm kind of curious about how something like that actually gets created, but..." Moore casts a Detect Magic just to be sure at the remains of the house of horrors.
<Kotono> OOC: Fort saves, all.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+9
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d20+9 and gets 11." 12 [1d20=2]
<Veren > roll 1d20+6 Fort
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+6 Fort and gets 18." 12 [1d20=12]
<Lucy> roll 1d20+7
* Hatbot --> "Lucy rolls 1d20+7 and gets 22." 12 [1d20=15]
<Moore> roll 1d20+6
* Hatbot --> "Moore rolls 1d20+6 and gets 10." 12 [1d20=4]
<Kotono> roll 1d20+11 Jetina
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d20+11 Jetina and gets 21." 12 [1d20=10]
<Kotono> roll 1d6 damage Pepo and Moore only
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d6 damage Pepo and Moore only and gets 5." 12 [1d6=5]
* Lucy eyes the smoke. "Well, we might as well move on."
<Kotono> As you talk, the thick, cloying smoke makes it hard to breathe. Your lungs begin to burn as coughs follow. Meanwhile, Moore can tell that there's fading magic around the cabin.
* Veren coughs a bit and moves away from the smoke.
<Veren > "Let's leave before anything else shows up. All that noise might have attracted something else.
* Lucy picks a direction and starts walking.
<Pepo> Pepo makes a few cute kitty coughs in lieu of replying and runs out of the smoke.
<Moore> Moore coughs and flies a bit lower to try and avoid any more of it as he follows the others. Whatever's left of the cabin isn't worth choking to death on.
<Kotono> roll 1d4
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d4 and gets 2." 12 [1d4=2]
<Kotono> With coughs the party proceeds on. You stumble through the forest for a few minutes, finding fresher air as the cabin clearing is left behind. Soon enough you come to a foot path, running to your left and right. There's an old, musty and moldy sign near the road.
* Veren moves to scrape the mold off with the blade of his dagger.
* Lucy stays away in case it's explosive runes.
<Kotono> The mold is scraped off. It's black and rather foul-looking.
<Veren > OOC: Is it readable?
<Kotono> OOC: If you look, sure. Are you?
<Veren > OOC: That's a loaded question, but I'd check if I could identify the letters at least.
<Kotono> A careful glance shows Veren that the letters look like the Common alphabet.
<Veren > "Seems like it's in common."
* Veren tries to read the sign.
<Moore> "Well, this place was a regular forest before it got all... er... ...whatever this is, right?" Moore says.
<Kotono> The sign reads as follows. There's an arrow pointing to the left that reads 'Shrine' and an arrow to the right that reads 'Tombland'
<Veren > "Shrine and Tombland. Anyone want to pick our doom?"
<Kotono> Jetina peers over Veren's shoulder after he reads, "I'd ask why there's a sign here, but wizards," she shrugs slightly, then glances at Lucy. "No offense."
<Lucy> "None taken. If anything, this is very sensible for the average wizard."
<Moore> "I mean, the logical place to put something important would be a shrine, but... I don't think that sort of logic really applies here..." Moore says with a frown.
<Pepo> 'No one would want to go to a place called Tombland, surely,' Pepo says.
<Veren > "To the Shrine, then?"
<Moore> "May as well." Moore says.
* Lucy shrugs
* Veren heads towards the Shrine!
<Kotono> Thus the party begins to walk. (More)
<Kotono> roll 1d100
* Hatbot --> "Kotono rolls 1d100 and gets 86." 12 [1d100=86]
<Kotono> The party walks for perhaps ten minutes in this strange wood. Then the wood begins to thin. Ahead you can see a small hill, fewer and fewer trees on it. Atop it sits a stone shrine, a few stories tall. No windows and the door within is shut. It's cold here - and as you watch, snow gently begins to fall from the sky.
* Veren holds out a hand to catch some snow, but inspects the area for anything suspicious. Last building they came across tried to kill them, after all.
<Kotono> OOC: Perception.
<Moore> Moore will cast a Detect Magic just to be on the safe side from where they are right now to see if there's any ambient magic.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+17
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d20+17 and gets 31." 12 [1d20=14]
<Veren > roll 1d20+13 Perception
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+13 Perception and gets 32." 12 [1d20=19]
<Lucy> roll 1d20+21
* Hatbot --> "Lucy rolls 1d20+21 and gets 35." 12 [1d20=14]
<Kotono> The party looks around. There's nothing awry here - no windows and just a single door leading within, made of the same stone as the shrine. The shrine's three stories tall, by the way. Meanwhile, Moore tries to detect magic - but nothing happens here.
<Moore> OOC: As if the magic didn't work, or it didn't find anything?
<Kotono> OOC: Didn't work.
<Moore> "Um..." Moore blinks. "...That's peculiar... Hey, can you others cast anything?"
<Veren > "Well... I can't see anything out of place. Should we investigate further?"
<Lucy> "Trap, or something to explore?" Lucy asks Pepo, to give him a chance to comment.
<Kotono> Jetina murmurs a quick prayer - but nothing happens. "My orison just failed," Jetina announces.
<Veren > "So no magic. Hm."
* Veren holds up his magical dagger for the others to inspect.
> "Does this still work, at least?"
<Pepo> Well there's no danger of running out of magic at least. Pepo slinks into the shadows so he can make the most of what little his physique offers in direct combat.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+34 stealth
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d20+34 stealth and gets 39." 12 [1d20=5]
<Kotono> The dagger looks the same, at least to the naked eye.
<Veren > "Go in then?"
<Moore> "It'd be impossible for us to tell you if it's still going to work the same, since the spell we'd use to identify it isn't... er, working." Moore says. "So if we go in here we should be careful."
<Pepo> 'If the gem is here we can't be put off by its defenses,' Pepo says in resignation.
<Lucy> "We might as well head inside," Lucy decides, refreshing her Shield spell and heading for the door.
* Veren nods and heads up to the door, looking it over for traps before trying to open it.
<Kotono> OOC: {perception, Veren.
<Veren > roll 1d20+13 perception
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+13 perception and gets 28." 12 [1d20=15]
<Kotono> The door isn't trapped. However, it does seem to be firmly locked - it isn't budging to a casual attempt to open it.
* Veren pulls out his thieves' tools and begins to work on the lock.
<Veren > roll 1d20+14+1 Disable Device, MW Tools
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+14+1 Disable Device, MW Tools and gets 29." 12 [1d20=14]
<Kotono> The lock's pretty hard and tight. Veren can't quite get it, though he feels he was close. OOC: You can try again if you want.
<Lucy> "Why not break it?"
<Veren > roll 1d20+14+1+2 Disable Device, MW Tools, Inspiration
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+14+1+2 Disable Device, MW Tools, Inspiration and gets 31." 12 [1d20=14]
<Veren > "If something is inside, some element of surprise would be preferable, I think."
<Veren > OOC: Also, I personally don't have the STR score to knock it down >.>
<Lucy> "I would just use Alarm, but sure," she easily agrees.
<Kotono> Click! The door is now unlocked.
* Lucy pushes it open and peers inside.
* Veren does so as well.
<Kotono> Inside it opens up completely. Here lies dozens and dozens of altars, each with a book on them. In the center is a stairway going up to the second floor. The inside is old and crumbling, as if this place had been forgotten to time.
<Pepo> Pepo sneaks in unseen by all! Except the really observant.
* Lucy drifts to the nearest altar to glance at the book.
<Moore> Once inside, Moore will try a Detect Magic again to see if, perhaps, it was just some sort of ward on the outside.
* Veren follows Pepo's example and tries to enter and disappear stealthily!
<Veren > roll 1d20+14 Stealth
* Hatbot --> "Veren rolls 1d20+14 Stealth and gets 26." 12 [1d20=12]
<Kotono> No good. The detect magic spell simply fails.
<Kotono> The book looks like a thick tome. It's undamaged and dustless, despite the state of the rest of the shrine.
* Lucy reads from it, of course.
<Moore> Moore makes a dissatisfied face and flies over to see what Lucy is doing in case he can read the book.
* Veren moves around the room, inspecting things and looking for items of interest, but not touching anything.
<Kotono> On trying to grasp the book, Lucy finds that her hand can't touch it. It stops a mere millimeter from it. As if there's a tight field of force around it, almost like trying to grasp a magical shield spell.
<Pepo> Pepo just waits near the stairs until the books have been read or he gets bored.
<Kotono> OOC: Make perception, Pepo.
<Lucy> Looking piqued, Lucy leaves the altar with a huff.
<Pepo> roll 1d20+17
* Hatbot --> "Pepo rolls 1d20+17 and gets 23." 12 [1d20=6]
<Kotono> Jetina also pokes a book, failing to do so. "How annoying," she mutters, as meanwhile Pepo can faintly hear something upstairs. Footsteps.
<Moore> Moore tentatively reaches out to try touch the book as well, just to be on the safe side. You never know!
<Pepo> 'Someone is moving around upstairs,' Pepo telepathically informs the others so as to helpfully not give away their presence to whatever's upstairs. Also it's the only way he can talk.
<Kotono> Moore can't touch it, either.
<Lucy> "Isn't it just?" Lucy commiserates quietly with Jetina, before making her way upstairs.
* Veren looks up at the ceiling, but moves towards the stairs with Lucy.
<Moore> Moore will go along, turning invisible along the way. Hopefully that part still works, at least!
<Pepo> Pepo heads up as well if everyone else is.
<Kotono> Going up, the party finds the next floor is much the same as this one. However, near the stairs at a mere 15ft away, is a man. An elf, to be specific. He is as endlessly youthful as any elf, his gaze serene. He wears a loose knit chainmail shirt and a warrior's clothes beneath it. Yet he has the pouches of a wizard hanging from his belt and carries a staff instead of a more traditional weapon.
<Kotono> He brushes aside his long green-haired bangs and says, "Is it time yet? Do you come with the gem?"
<Lucy> "Time for what?"
<Kotono> The elf smiles. "I've been waiting here a long time. One day, someone will obtain the lost gem. Come to me with it and I'll trade you all the knowledge in this shrine for it." He gestures widely, "Do you understand? When that time comes, if you are the ones, come here with the gem."
<Moore> "Um, so that means we wouldn't be getting it back, right...?" Moore asks.
* Lucy smiles back! "And who might you be?"
<Kotono> "Exactly." He nods to Moore, "I am Orian. I've been waiting a long time here."
<Lucy> "A pleasure to meet you, Mister Orian! Could you tell us where to find the gem, please?"
<Kotono> "It's out there somewhere," he waves, "It moves. But I can tell you of the creature that guards it."
<Veren > "Please do.
<Kotono> "It is a wandering knight with four arms and four weapons. It pounces on the unwary and rends them apart, like a hunter. It is immune to magic," A beat here, "However, each effect it ignores momentarily weakens its physical defenses, allowing the brave to rip it apart."
<Lucy> Lucy's smile slips slightly at the mention of something immune to magic.
<Pepo> Pepo is dubious at counting any of their group as brave.
<Moore> "So you mean the more magic you use against it, the more it is hurt by other means?" Moore asks to clarify.
<Lucy> "This is every wizard's dream," Lucy muses. "Walking around a dense forest that blocks divination while seeking a constantly moving golem immune to magic that hunts the unwary."
<Pepo> 'How much do you really want to save that town?' Pepo asks to be sure.
<Lucy> And just like that, Lucy is reminded of her motivations! 'Quite a lot,' she responds to Pepo.
<Pepo> A shame.
<Kotono> "Yes," More is replied to.
<Veren > "Well... No one said anything about letting the town keeping it, did they?"
<Pepo> 'Certainly not.'
<Veren > "After the attack is dealt with, who's to say a trip back here would be out of the question?"
<Kotono> Jetina is quiet for a bit, "But would that be right? It's really not ours," she says.
<Moore> "I wonder if it's immune to something like your wings, Miss Lucy." Moore says. "I suppose we'll have to find out one way or another."
<Pepo> 'It isn't theirs either,' Pepo says.
* Lucy shrugs. "In that case, I believe we'll be going now to look for the gem?" There doesn't seem to be any reason to stay at the shrine any longer, and so she heads out.
<Veren > "Is it really theirs? It's been here so long, I'll bet any true claim to it has been lost. We're the one putting our necks on the line here, to save a city we have no citizenship to. While that might be the right thing to do, how does that entitle them to ownership?"
<Kotono> Jetina follows, "It just feels wrong to sell it out like that," she says.
* Veren shrugs.
<Lucy> "Who is selling what, now?"
<Veren > "He's been here a long time waiting."
<Moore> "For all we know, once we get the gem, we might want to keep it for ourselves anyway." Moore says.
* Lucy gives Veren and Moore a strange look before shrugging again. And once out, asks Pepo mentally, 'Do you think we should take a quiet look at the third floor?'
<Veren > "Perhaps when we return? While I am interested as well, but we're on a bit of a time table."
<Pepo> 'It would be ironic if the gem were up there,' Pepo admits. 'I will have a look.' And so unseen (hopefully), he slinks up the next set of stairs.
<Kotono> OOC: I'll reply to Lucy and resolve Pepo tomorrow.