Dihek'nir will scan the surroundings and if nobody seems to be observing then will try to ascertain the number of people who have gone up the stairs by the number of footsteps in the dirt.
He will also size up the sides - he's trying to determine if getting up the huge "steps" on the side would also lead to the same entrance.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Let's see if there is a less obvious entrance....knocking on the front door may not be the best way" Gedyr whispers. He will investigate around the temple for secret entrances.
OOC: did ferdinand find a glass eye? Did he find his components? If yes how much did he find (in amounts of casting the spells magic mouth, 10gp per casting, illusory script, 10gp per casting.
OOC: Ferdinand found everything he had asked for, except for the glass eye, as it's a very unconventional item and the quartermaster did not have it readily available. He found the components enough for two spells each.
Dihek'nir can distinctly see at least four different footprints, though there could be more. However, since they are quite spaced out, it is clear, that definitely no more than a dozen people went upstairs. As for going up the sides of the pyramid, that would involve a lot of unnecessary climbing but achieve the same result as going up the stairs, with no visible benefit from it.
Gedyr is certain he has found an alternative entrance. There seems to be a roughly rectangular stain on one of the walls, which he assumes to be a hidden door. However, several minutes of fiddling, a couple of bruised fingers and an annoyed party later, Gedyr realizes, that the builders just used a slightly different rock when building this small patch, but, otherwise, it is just as solid as any other wall. Cranky, but otherwise uninjured, Gedyr returns to the party.
The spell does not produce any real evidence of magic, though, considering that 1 foot of stone is enough to stop the spell working, while the pyramid is likely ten times as thick as that, Ferdinand cannot be certain if there is anything magical within the temple.
However, his investigation check is slightly more useful, as he deduces that the temple has been abandoned for a long time, with the only evidence of activity near its exterior being the footprints that appear on the stairs. And there appear to be not four, but at least five distinct footprints, with maybe another three to five people having walked upstairs.
„There does not seem to be any magic traces to this place, but the stone limits my abilities. But we should be especially carefull about the visitors as there might be 8 to 10 or even more.“ says ferdinand after inspecting the structure.
Dihek'nir says, "I'm especially worried about not spotting any guards. I understand them feeling especially safe in a long abandoned temple, but I would leave at least one person standing watch."
After a brief consideration he continues, "One logical conclusion might be that they are all already dead, killed by whatever resides inside. Which would make our job especially easy."
(OOC: I understand some people have not seen the latest posts, so until they react and if situation doesn't change too much, then the following is what Dihek'nir would plan to do)
He begins to creep up the stairs quietly, following the footprints in the dirt and dust, but also testing each step before putting his full weight on it.
Gedyr's familiar first flies around the Temple, seeing nothing of any real interest. The entrance is not barred in any way, however, so it flies inside for a bit as well. The entrance is a tunnel and goes down, into the bowels of the temple. The familiar goes on for a bit and, after about fifty feet of the tunnel, sees, that there is light inside, likely coming from a fire. With this information, the hawk returns to Gedyr.
OOC: If you decide to go inside, please tell me the marching order.
Dihek'nirpats Bala on the back, "Off you go. Be careful, I'll be 20 feet behind you. I have a plan once we get closer. Let me know what you see and we can possibly lure some of them out and take care of them without anyone noticing."
Once they get to the entrance tunnel Dihek'nir just barely enters it, keeping Bala in his sights, but lets the rogue do his thing.
(Or none of the above if Bala is still prickly :) )
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The Party goes up the stairs, with Bala taking the lead. He enters the dark tunnel, navigating it as silently as possible.
Enemy Perception Roll: 23
Bala rounds a corner and, suddenly, is confronted with a horrifying sight: Instead of the Duke's people, he sees a terrible creature. It is the size of a small horse or a very large dog, with legs like that of a lion, pink skin, body like that of a pig, and where its neck is supposed to be, an open maw instead of a head, and a long, barbed tongue coming out of it. The body is covered with scales, as if it is armored. The creature clearly senses Bala, but is late to react, giving the Rogue time to run back to the party.
This is what the creature looks like:
It is initiative:
Party Initiative: Bonuses - Party average initiative: 2.7, rounded upwards: 3. Plus the bonus of the member with the highest initiative, Gedyr, which is 4.
So, Party Initiative Roll: 16
Enemy Initiative Roll: 12
The Monster has won initiative. From the room, you hear a sound, as if someone was regurgitating something, but the enemy does not appear. Whatever it did, you do not know what it was.
Here's the party's positions. You are not aware where the monster is, as you cannot see him.
Within the room, in the brief moment Bala glimpsed it, he saw two fallen columns, which are at least five feet high and can be used as cover, and cannot be jumped over or walked upon, as well as two large piles of rubble, which are not useful for cover and can be jumped over, but you cannot stand on it (so, no ending the turn on them). Also, in the back of the room Bala saw a circular ladder, going downstairs.
Bala will press his back up on the wall, breathing heavily. "Okay, uh, there's something in there. I saw it. It saw me. There are spiral stairs on the other side of the room." He exhales sharply, pulls out a dagger and moves to E6 to try and get a better view of the monster.
Dihek'nir moves as far into the room as possible, hugging the left wall and readies an insult to be said if the target re-appears (Ready Action Vicious Mockery for 7 damage, 14 WIS save, disadvantage on next attack roll if fails)
Upon entering the tunnel, ferdinand casts mage armor on himself.
As the fight with the creature breaks out, he steps to g7, on the way casting melf‘s minute meteors and shoots to meteors against the creature for 6 and 7 fire damage or half if it beats a DC 14 dex save (spoiler alert: it wont, as the result will be a 3 using ferdinands portent feature) in addition, balas next attack that would have sneak attack applied, will be a natural 20, also through the portent.
Bazhak moves to F5 or 6 to try to take the monsters attention away from the party. He readies an action to attack with his greataxe if the monster moves within range.
Once the party gets into the room, they can see, that the creature is hiding behind one of the fallen columns. It is clearly smart enough to have waited for them and taken cover, though not so smart as to find a cover that would hide him entirely. As a result, the creature only has 3/4 cover (meaning that his AC and DEX save modifier go up by 5).
Bala, Gedyr, Zeng and Bazhak move into the room and are able to see the monster clearly, though cannot reach it so far.
Dihek'nir thinks of the worst insult he can imagine, which, considering how the monster looks, is not hard to do. The Gith does question his own choice of trying to hurt a demonic animal's feelings, but this does not deter him from calling out to it: "Do you practise being this ugly? If so, good job, you must be a professional by now!". Somehow, the animal does seem hurt by such remarks. (WIS SAVE: 17).
Ferdinand's attacks strike the creature's exposed back, with it being strangely unable to resist a relatively straightforward attack.
The monster's body betrays some sense of being saddened by what Dihek'nir has said to him, but he seems to not be as sad as to actually be physically harmed from it. However, it does take 16 damage from the meteors that Ferdinand hurled at him.
Instead of a mindless, rage-filled attack that one would expect from a headless-demonic-dog-pig-lion, the monster chooses a different strategy and the party finds out what the strange sound they heard seconds ago actually was. The creature reappears from behind the fallen column and uses its enormous tongue to spit a huge ball of phlegm from its circular mouth. It strikes Bazhak, dealing 15 damage. Additionally, those within range (Dihek'nir and Bala) are also affected, being dealt 9 damage. All of you can make a CON or DEX save (your choice) with a DC of 14 to either resist or somewhat deflect the strike, halving the damage).
After spitting on the party, the monster returns to its former place behind the fallen column. It is, again, not fully covered, but three quarters of him are still not visible.
Here's the positions after the monster has attacked the party in round 2:
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Dex save for Dihek'nir: 16
He's not a fan of this stuff and getting hurt by it, so he angrily growls at himself, "Fcking slow, are we. Getting hurt, are we. LETS FIGHT!" (and it invigorates him by 6 hit points from Healing Word)
He runs around the rubble, avoiding the trail of spittle the ball left on the ground during its flight and attacks the creature from the side (seems like he can make it to M5):
Attack: 12 Damage: 13
Seeing the attack hit (i'm assuming) and his sword bite deep, he gets so pumped that he moves around the creature, dragging the wound larger, before pulling his blade free from it, dealing an extra 2 damage to it. He's SO READY for it now that his AC also increases by the same amount (using Defensive Flourish).
Dihek'nir will scan the surroundings and if nobody seems to be observing then will try to ascertain the number of people who have gone up the stairs by the number of footsteps in the dirt.
He will also size up the sides - he's trying to determine if getting up the huge "steps" on the side would also lead to the same entrance.
"Let's see if there is a less obvious entrance....knocking on the front door may not be the best way" Gedyr whispers. He will investigate around the temple for secret entrances.
4
OOC: did ferdinand find a glass eye? Did he find his components? If yes how much did he find (in amounts of casting the spells magic mouth, 10gp per casting, illusory script, 10gp per casting.
OOC: Ferdinand found everything he had asked for, except for the glass eye, as it's a very unconventional item and the quartermaster did not have it readily available. He found the components enough for two spells each.
Dihek'nir can distinctly see at least four different footprints, though there could be more. However, since they are quite spaced out, it is clear, that definitely no more than a dozen people went upstairs. As for going up the sides of the pyramid, that would involve a lot of unnecessary climbing but achieve the same result as going up the stairs, with no visible benefit from it.
Gedyr is certain he has found an alternative entrance. There seems to be a roughly rectangular stain on one of the walls, which he assumes to be a hidden door. However, several minutes of fiddling, a couple of bruised fingers and an annoyed party later, Gedyr realizes, that the builders just used a slightly different rock when building this small patch, but, otherwise, it is just as solid as any other wall. Cranky, but otherwise uninjured, Gedyr returns to the party.
Ferdinand casts detect magic and also inspects the temple. Investigation 19
The spell does not produce any real evidence of magic, though, considering that 1 foot of stone is enough to stop the spell working, while the pyramid is likely ten times as thick as that, Ferdinand cannot be certain if there is anything magical within the temple.
However, his investigation check is slightly more useful, as he deduces that the temple has been abandoned for a long time, with the only evidence of activity near its exterior being the footprints that appear on the stairs. And there appear to be not four, but at least five distinct footprints, with maybe another three to five people having walked upstairs.
„There does not seem to be any magic traces to this place, but the stone limits my abilities. But we should be especially carefull about the visitors as there might be 8 to 10 or even more.“ says ferdinand after inspecting the structure.
Dihek'nir says, "I'm especially worried about not spotting any guards. I understand them feeling especially safe in a long abandoned temple, but I would leave at least one person standing watch."
After a brief consideration he continues, "One logical conclusion might be that they are all already dead, killed by whatever resides inside. Which would make our job especially easy."
(OOC: I understand some people have not seen the latest posts, so until they react and if situation doesn't change too much, then the following is what Dihek'nir would plan to do)
He begins to creep up the stairs quietly, following the footprints in the dirt and dust, but also testing each step before putting his full weight on it.
Gedyr will bring forth his familiar, a Hawk
"Let me send him on a fly by of the upper entrance at least....maybe he can spot something first..."
23 Hawk perception
Gedyr's familiar first flies around the Temple, seeing nothing of any real interest. The entrance is not barred in any way, however, so it flies inside for a bit as well. The entrance is a tunnel and goes down, into the bowels of the temple. The familiar goes on for a bit and, after about fifty feet of the tunnel, sees, that there is light inside, likely coming from a fire. With this information, the hawk returns to Gedyr.
OOC: If you decide to go inside, please tell me the marching order.
Dihek'nir pats Bala on the back, "Off you go. Be careful, I'll be 20 feet behind you. I have a plan once we get closer. Let me know what you see and we can possibly lure some of them out and take care of them without anyone noticing."
Once they get to the entrance tunnel Dihek'nir just barely enters it, keeping Bala in his sights, but lets the rogue do his thing.
(Or none of the above if Bala is still prickly :) )
Bala will stretch a little before entering the tunnel. "Alright. Here we go."
Stealth: 17
The Party goes up the stairs, with Bala taking the lead. He enters the dark tunnel, navigating it as silently as possible.
Enemy Perception Roll: 23
Bala rounds a corner and, suddenly, is confronted with a horrifying sight: Instead of the Duke's people, he sees a terrible creature. It is the size of a small horse or a very large dog, with legs like that of a lion, pink skin, body like that of a pig, and where its neck is supposed to be, an open maw instead of a head, and a long, barbed tongue coming out of it. The body is covered with scales, as if it is armored. The creature clearly senses Bala, but is late to react, giving the Rogue time to run back to the party.
This is what the creature looks like:
It is initiative:
Party Initiative: Bonuses - Party average initiative: 2.7, rounded upwards: 3. Plus the bonus of the member with the highest initiative, Gedyr, which is 4.
So, Party Initiative Roll: 16
Enemy Initiative Roll: 12
The Monster has won initiative. From the room, you hear a sound, as if someone was regurgitating something, but the enemy does not appear. Whatever it did, you do not know what it was.
Here's the party's positions. You are not aware where the monster is, as you cannot see him.
Within the room, in the brief moment Bala glimpsed it, he saw two fallen columns, which are at least five feet high and can be used as cover, and cannot be jumped over or walked upon, as well as two large piles of rubble, which are not useful for cover and can be jumped over, but you cannot stand on it (so, no ending the turn on them). Also, in the back of the room Bala saw a circular ladder, going downstairs.
Bala will press his back up on the wall, breathing heavily. "Okay, uh, there's something in there. I saw it. It saw me. There are spiral stairs on the other side of the room." He exhales sharply, pulls out a dagger and moves to E6 to try and get a better view of the monster.
Dihek'nir moves as far into the room as possible, hugging the left wall and readies an insult to be said if the target re-appears (Ready Action Vicious Mockery for 7 damage, 14 WIS save, disadvantage on next attack roll if fails)
Upon entering the tunnel, ferdinand casts mage armor on himself.
As the fight with the creature breaks out, he steps to g7, on the way casting melf‘s minute meteors and shoots to meteors against the creature for 6 and 7 fire damage or half if it beats a DC 14 dex save (spoiler alert: it wont, as the result will be a 3 using ferdinands portent feature) in addition, balas next attack that would have sneak attack applied, will be a natural 20, also through the portent.
Gedyr will advance to C6 or D6 following on other members of the party, taking the dodge action for this turn.
Bazhak moves to F5 or 6 to try to take the monsters attention away from the party. He readies an action to attack with his greataxe if the monster moves within range.
Attack: 24 Damage: 17
Botting Zeng For this round.
Once the party gets into the room, they can see, that the creature is hiding behind one of the fallen columns. It is clearly smart enough to have waited for them and taken cover, though not so smart as to find a cover that would hide him entirely. As a result, the creature only has 3/4 cover (meaning that his AC and DEX save modifier go up by 5).
Bala, Gedyr, Zeng and Bazhak move into the room and are able to see the monster clearly, though cannot reach it so far.
Dihek'nir thinks of the worst insult he can imagine, which, considering how the monster looks, is not hard to do. The Gith does question his own choice of trying to hurt a demonic animal's feelings, but this does not deter him from calling out to it: "Do you practise being this ugly? If so, good job, you must be a professional by now!". Somehow, the animal does seem hurt by such remarks. (WIS SAVE: 17).
Ferdinand's attacks strike the creature's exposed back, with it being strangely unable to resist a relatively straightforward attack.
The monster's body betrays some sense of being saddened by what Dihek'nir has said to him, but he seems to not be as sad as to actually be physically harmed from it. However, it does take 16 damage from the meteors that Ferdinand hurled at him.
Instead of a mindless, rage-filled attack that one would expect from a headless-demonic-dog-pig-lion, the monster chooses a different strategy and the party finds out what the strange sound they heard seconds ago actually was. The creature reappears from behind the fallen column and uses its enormous tongue to spit a huge ball of phlegm from its circular mouth. It strikes Bazhak, dealing 15 damage. Additionally, those within range (Dihek'nir and Bala) are also affected, being dealt 9 damage. All of you can make a CON or DEX save (your choice) with a DC of 14 to either resist or somewhat deflect the strike, halving the damage).
After spitting on the party, the monster returns to its former place behind the fallen column. It is, again, not fully covered, but three quarters of him are still not visible.
Here's the positions after the monster has attacked the party in round 2:
It is the party's turn now.
Dex save for Dihek'nir: 16
He's not a fan of this stuff and getting hurt by it, so he angrily growls at himself, "Fcking slow, are we. Getting hurt, are we. LETS FIGHT!" (and it invigorates him by 6 hit points from Healing Word)
He runs around the rubble, avoiding the trail of spittle the ball left on the ground during its flight and attacks the creature from the side (seems like he can make it to M5):
Attack: 12 Damage: 13
Seeing the attack hit (i'm assuming) and his sword bite deep, he gets so pumped that he moves around the creature, dragging the wound larger, before pulling his blade free from it, dealing an extra 2 damage to it. He's SO READY for it now that his AC also increases by the same amount (using Defensive Flourish).