Barrel stands as far from the staircase as possible that his sight will still allow him to see what comes down as he tries to slip into the shadows with his crossbow at the ready. 14 Stealth Roll
[DM] You're just hearing sounds from the upper level of this building... The floor above you. It doesn't sound like someone is coming down the stairs! The sounds from the upper level trickles down the staircase and through the slats in the floorboards overhead. I edited my post a tad for clarity. Just took the word "upstairs" out to avoid confusion.
The party takes their positions. Ready to strike at anything that might be descending towards them. A few moments pass by in the darkness of the basement. Then a minute. Still no sounds from upstairs.
Flow leans forward a bit, to gain a line of sight around the corner of the staircase. Flow can see dim light pouring through the cracks of a heavily boarded up door at the top of the stairs, covered in ancient dust.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
What is taking so long for these people to come down a flight of stairs? Barrel thinks as he stands in the shadows. With a sigh, he yells up the stairs."It is I, Barrel Jynx, Dwarven Bard Extraordinaire, I hear you upstairs. Who might you be? I mean you no harm. I'm looking for a graveyard. Do you know where I can find it? Just let my friends and I pass without incident and I will reward you."20 Persuasion roll
You immediately hear shuffling and whispering behind the boarded up door at the top of the stairs. After a moment of argumentative whispering you hear another loud outburst of laughter, cutting through the whispering. A gruff man's voice behind the door says at full volume and with much disdain, "Oh for Tyr's sake you damned nutter! Can't you ever learn to shut your mouth you thrice-damned looney!?"
This outburst causes the laughter to erupt even louder. Whoever is laughing finds this angry voice's ire to be hilarious. The voice continues cursing out the whomever is laughing as another softer man's voice comes through the cracks in the door, directed at Barrel. "Who are you? How did you get in our cellar?" The voice pauses for a second. "How do I know this isn't a trick and you're not a vengeful specter!? We heard the ruckus and the yelling earlier! I know what dwells in this cellar!"
The angry voice seems to finally get the laughing man to stop in the background and a few more "shooshes" come from through the door. Waiting for your reply.
"I can't promise any rewards for you, myself, but I will tell you that I am not a specter, though we've just fought some, ourselves," he calls out smoothly.
"Now, will you open up, or must we shout for the next hour?"
"I can't promise any rewards for you, myself, but I will tell you that I am not a specter, though we've just fought some, ourselves," he calls out smoothly.
"Now, will you open up, or must we shout for the next hour?"
You hear the voice at the other side of the door say, "they killed the specters?" in quiet disbelief. The voice repeats itself with a celebratory tone, this time speaking to the rest of it's companions, "They KILLED the SPECTERS! WAHOO!!!" You can hear excited chattering between multiple people on the other side of the boarded up door.
The chatter calms a bit and the soft voice says, "stand clear for a moment now, and we'll bust down this door!"
The party stands back from the staircase a bit as the blade of a battle axe starts to chip away at the ancient door from the other side. Each swing of the axe lets another blade of dim grayish light into the stairwell. Soon you can see the long, deepset features of a knight wearing tarnished plate armor with a scraggly red beard. As he chops away at the door you can see a bright red sash worn diagonally across his ches plate. After a few moments of chopping, this gaunt-faced man pulls away the last remaining planks and splinters from the jamb, kicking a jagged piece loose with his thick-soled boot.
The moment the man steps to the side, out of the doorjamb, another figure comes busting through the door and down the stairs in a jumble. The pale-faced man tumbling down the stairs shouts "OOOO I'm so glad we can go down here AGAIN!!! I left my FLUTE down here.... AND my sling! It's been SOOOOO long!!" The man bursts past the party into the dark cellar and starts rifling through the stacks of boxes in one corner. The man continues jabbering to himself with a manic tone.
You all get a glimpse of this man as he runs by you. He has elf-like facial features, with short black hair and large black pupils with no iris, giving his eyes a demonic look. His entire face is pierced with rows of small metal bars with balls on the end. These piercings make symmetrical ladders up and down his cheeks, forehead, and collar bones. Large bone disks hang in the stretched lobes of his pointed ears.
The knight with the dark eyesockets and red beard pokes his head back into the door jamb, motioning for you to climb the stairs. He says, "Come on up strangers, we won't bite you", in a gruff voice. The party cautiously climbs the stairs and enters the large L-shaped room beyond, weapons at the ready.
This room has roughly the same layout as the Bowels of the Earth, only mirrored. The dressings of this poorly lit room, however, are that of a makeshift infirmary and a small temple built inside of an abandoned building. The far side of the building is open to the darkness of the alley beyond, due to the back wall crumbling away and a large portion of the ceiling having caved in above it, revealing a black and starless sky. A huge pile of rubble stands in this corner. The rest of this structure's ceiling is still intact and a few planks are haphazardly nailed across the huge gap in the wall.
The infirmary side of the room is lined with hanging lanterns and filthy rows of cots, many of them occupied by bandaged bodied or bloodied, gaunt humanoid forms. The smell of formaldehyde and other herbs used in burials assaults your senses, though the people in the cots seem to be alive.
The other side of the "L" is a mixture of a temple and a tavern. It has a small bar, a few tables, and then a little stage off to one side with a small stone altar atop it, with two pews lined up in front of the stage. A handsome man wearing a hangman's noose around his neck like a necklace sits with a defeated posture at the bar, ignoring the situation entirely by staring intently into his mug. The man's face seems to be covered in scars as if has been burned and cut open over and over again. His skin tone is pale-blue and looks wrinkled like that of a mummified corpse.
As all of you exit the stairwell into the room, you are surrounded by a mosaic of strange faces, watching you with intent curiosity. You see a woman in robes with devil-like horns protruding from her forehead, and large yellow eyes, with reptile-like pupils. Another skin-and-bones human with dark, deep-set features and ragged clothing sits on the floor near the wall, rocking back and forth and giggling to himself. As soon as he sees you enter the room his giggles erupt into laughter. The knight crosses the room and begins whispering to the man, attempting to silence his maniacal laughter. You scan the rest of the dark faces and notice an older man approaching you.
The man's face is VERY familiar, with his clean-shaven head and his frail body draped in a large black priest's habit and cloak. It's Jerub! He speaks to you as you pour into the center of the room. "Welcome welcome! Many apologies! Please forgive our hostility! Please!". The man ushers you to a nearby table, motioning for you to take a seat. "Please introduce yourselves! Tell us how you came to be in our awful cellar!?" You all study Jerub's face with confusion as he speaks to you. He looks at you as though he has never met you before. The tiefling woman with the yellow eyes and the knight both look at you expectantly, waiting for you to answer Jerub's question.
Barrel stands as far from the staircase as possible that his sight will still allow him to see what comes down as he tries to slip into the shadows with his crossbow at the ready. 14 Stealth Roll
DM Tomb of Annihilation X2
DM Curse of Strahd
Redleaf Moutain Dwarf Circle of land(Moutain) Druid
Seeing those around him do the same, Flow steps into the shadows, as well.
Stealth: 17
And that's all I have to say about that.
[DM] You're just hearing sounds from the upper level of this building... The floor above you. It doesn't sound like someone is coming down the stairs! The sounds from the upper level trickles down the staircase and through the slats in the floorboards overhead. I edited my post a tad for clarity. Just took the word "upstairs" out to avoid confusion.
The party takes their positions. Ready to strike at anything that might be descending towards them. A few moments pass by in the darkness of the basement. Then a minute. Still no sounds from upstairs.
Flow leans forward a bit, to gain a line of sight around the corner of the staircase. Flow can see dim light pouring through the cracks of a heavily boarded up door at the top of the stairs, covered in ancient dust.
Dungeon Master - Princes of the Apocalypse PbP
Dungeon Master - Chopshop PbP - ToA
Dungeon Master - Dungeon Squad Live (HotDQ Live Stream)
Magnus Munch - Level 4 Gnome Necromancer - Shadowguard D&D Stream
What is taking so long for these people to come down a flight of stairs? Barrel thinks as he stands in the shadows. With a sigh, he yells up the stairs. "It is I, Barrel Jynx, Dwarven Bard Extraordinaire, I hear you upstairs. Who might you be? I mean you no harm. I'm looking for a graveyard. Do you know where I can find it? Just let my friends and I pass without incident and I will reward you." 20 Persuasion roll
DM Tomb of Annihilation X2
DM Curse of Strahd
Redleaf Moutain Dwarf Circle of land(Moutain) Druid
Flow groans and readies his trident, certain that Barrel has doomed them to another fight.
And that's all I have to say about that.
You immediately hear shuffling and whispering behind the boarded up door at the top of the stairs. After a moment of argumentative whispering you hear another loud outburst of laughter, cutting through the whispering. A gruff man's voice behind the door says at full volume and with much disdain, "Oh for Tyr's sake you damned nutter! Can't you ever learn to shut your mouth you thrice-damned looney!?"
This outburst causes the laughter to erupt even louder. Whoever is laughing finds this angry voice's ire to be hilarious. The voice continues cursing out the whomever is laughing as another softer man's voice comes through the cracks in the door, directed at Barrel. "Who are you? How did you get in our cellar?" The voice pauses for a second. "How do I know this isn't a trick and you're not a vengeful specter!? We heard the ruckus and the yelling earlier! I know what dwells in this cellar!"
The angry voice seems to finally get the laughing man to stop in the background and a few more "shooshes" come from through the door. Waiting for your reply.
Dungeon Master - Princes of the Apocalypse PbP
Dungeon Master - Chopshop PbP - ToA
Dungeon Master - Dungeon Squad Live (HotDQ Live Stream)
Magnus Munch - Level 4 Gnome Necromancer - Shadowguard D&D Stream
Hildigrim looks around the room to see if anyone knows what to do next.
Flow frowns.
"I can't promise any rewards for you, myself, but I will tell you that I am not a specter, though we've just fought some, ourselves," he calls out smoothly.
"Now, will you open up, or must we shout for the next hour?"
Persuasion: 18
And that's all I have to say about that.
"They do not sound as if they intend us harm. Perhaps we even ingratiated ourselves by ridding the cellar of these pests."
Carrow begins to climb the stairs, calling up, "We're coming upstairs, we mean you no harm."
Ryndar Shadowsbane - Lvl 3 Eldarin Fighter | Kassar - Lvl 2 Lizardfolk Druid (Circle of Stars) | Finnegan (Finn) Taggert - Lvl 1 Human Cleric (Peace Domain) |
Verdan Schmidt - Lvl 2 Half-Elf Bard | Grithik - Lvl 5 Deep Gnome Warlock (Celestial)
“Yes. Let’s please get out of this dank yet dusty cellar”
Bran follows after Carrow, lighting the way for the blind human.
Hildi returns his shield to his back, retrieves his torch, and climbs the stairs.
Dungeon Master - Princes of the Apocalypse PbP
Dungeon Master - Chopshop PbP - ToA
Dungeon Master - Dungeon Squad Live (HotDQ Live Stream)
Magnus Munch - Level 4 Gnome Necromancer - Shadowguard D&D Stream
Bran's perception: 6
Flow's Perception check: 11
And that's all I have to say about that.
Carrow Perception: 7
Ryndar Shadowsbane - Lvl 3 Eldarin Fighter | Kassar - Lvl 2 Lizardfolk Druid (Circle of Stars) | Finnegan (Finn) Taggert - Lvl 1 Human Cleric (Peace Domain) |
Verdan Schmidt - Lvl 2 Half-Elf Bard | Grithik - Lvl 5 Deep Gnome Warlock (Celestial)
[DM] Just to be clear... Y'all rolled for your new HP right? We aren't doing max. Your choice of hit dice roll or average.
Dungeon Master - Princes of the Apocalypse PbP
Dungeon Master - Chopshop PbP - ToA
Dungeon Master - Dungeon Squad Live (HotDQ Live Stream)
Magnus Munch - Level 4 Gnome Necromancer - Shadowguard D&D Stream
Perception: 9
OOC: I used average as well
Ryndar Shadowsbane - Lvl 3 Eldarin Fighter | Kassar - Lvl 2 Lizardfolk Druid (Circle of Stars) | Finnegan (Finn) Taggert - Lvl 1 Human Cleric (Peace Domain) |
Verdan Schmidt - Lvl 2 Half-Elf Bard | Grithik - Lvl 5 Deep Gnome Warlock (Celestial)
[DM] Group Perception Check - No outcome..... Barrel might have an outcome, but you all can roleplay as normal for now.
Dungeon Master - Princes of the Apocalypse PbP
Dungeon Master - Chopshop PbP - ToA
Dungeon Master - Dungeon Squad Live (HotDQ Live Stream)
Magnus Munch - Level 4 Gnome Necromancer - Shadowguard D&D Stream