Heavy is the Head - Campaign thread

Spider-lock skitters across the underside of the ledge and around the lip, appearing on the top of it and taking stock of the situation. His eyes focus onto the harpy in melee combat with Saoirse, and he skitters across to a position directly opposite the genasi, trying to use her presence as a distraction.

He darts forward trying to clamp his fangs onto the harpy, and secrete his poison into the wound if he is successful.

Movement: Closes in on the harpy and flanks it with Saoirse
Action: Bite Harpy (advantage for flanking) - To hit: (10, 5)+3= 13, Damage, 2+1=3 [piercing]. DC 11 Con Save or take further 6+5=11 [poison] damage, or 5 [poison] if saved

Sha-gravis pulls the scroll of hold person and reads the magical inscription targeting the Harpy on the outcrop, he will then climb up to his target to be ready to shove the harpy off.

Lam looks up and finds himself unable to get a clear view of everything happening from his position. He hears Saoirse speaking in primordial and then watches in surprise as a harpy begins to plummet. His friends can be downright scary when they want to be. He knows if he wants to join the fray and help more, he has to make it up. He tries this time to climb up to just the outcropping and use the web to help him get a safe footing there.

As the giant wolf spider sinks its fangs into the harpy in front of Saoirse, the feathers bristle and puff up and the harpy reels with the sting. It is woozy, and you can see the poison working, but the creature is still alive.

Sha-Gravis speaks the words of the spell scroll, and as he does, each word glows bright with power and then fades from the parchment, as the magic is consumed. The harpy on the outcropping above appears to slow, and there is a grunt that would have been a shriek if its muscles were moving more freely. The struggle continues for a couple agonizing seconds, until the monster manages to break free of the spell, and a full, blood-curdling shriek pierces the air. It saved, and is ready to attack.

Lam manages to awkwardly climb the rope and get to the outcropping, muscling himself up on a terrain that his body is clearly neither experienced or comfortable with.

The harpy between Saoirse and Spiderlock opens its mouth, but instead of the horrrible shrieking you have heard so far, the unearthly, haunting sounds that come from its throat are strangely beautiful, and you feel a powerful urge to follow the sourse of this sound peacefully and blindly. Nothing evil could come of such a beautiful song, after all. Everyone make a DC 11 wisdom saving throw. If either Saoirse or Spiderlock fail the save, the harpy will take flight and launch into the air 15 feet away from the edge of the ledge.

Saoirse watches as the harpy in front of her opens her mouth to shriek, and as the creature does this she is able to draw her dagger. She begins the motion to swing both weapons at it, but is suddenly stopped by the sweet and beautiful song emanating from it's mouth. Is she dreaming? How can such a horrible creature produce such a beautiful sound? For a moment she lowers both weapons. All she wants is to follow that sound, to never stop listening to it...

...but no, that can't be right, can it? Weren't they in this tower to achieve something? Saoirse closes her flame colored eyes for a moment, shakes her head and suddenly the luring music is gone from her head. The harpy is still singing, but the song isn't that captivating anymore.

With a quick glance the blood hunter sees that both Hemlock and Sha seem to be unaffected by the magical song, but what of Lam and the lizard companion? She doesn't know, but cannot wait to learn how they are faring. Focusing on the harpy with clear mind, Saoirse does a quick cut with the rapier in her forearm and the weapon begins to crackle with lightning. Then she attacks with strength and precision as she says:

- Cut the caterwauling!

As a response, the harpy opens its mouth once again, but the sound it produces this time is one of intense pain.

The lizardfolk is ready to follow that beautiful song wherever it leads him, and Lam feels exactly the same way - for a few confusing seconds. Then they hear Saoirse's shout, a screech of pain, and the sound of feathers and flesh falling onto the stone floor. The harpy had managed to hold on to her song as the rapier pierced its chest, but the dagger followed a moment later and cut its throat. The harpy is dead. A horrible sound from the ground below you rises up, as the other harpy Saoirse had frozen in flight splatters to the ground. It is good that you will not have to fight that one either, but also an all-too-clear reminder that there are rocks below, and you are high off the ground.

The lizardfolk stalks to the next window, and fires two arrows in quick succession across the tower's main room, each of which find their marks and sink into the harpy's flesh. It turns and shrieks, dripping blood and fury.

The harpy above most of you stares malevolently at Sha-Gravis, and pushes herself off of the outcropping and into the sky. Sha can make an opportunity attack, at disadvantage because you're climbing. Hit or miss, she flies a 10-15 feet away from the tower, and she also begins to sing a haunting melody. Everyone roll wisdom saving throws again!

It is Spiderlock's turn, then:

Spiderlock; Sha; Lam; Harpy other side of tower  Saoirse; Lizard; Harpy on Outcropping; 

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

Sha-gravis attacks the harpy as it launches from the outcropping.

 “Wwwait that’s so beautiful what am I doing?...”

Spider-lock hears the haunting melody, his mind struggling to make sense of the allure and the niggling feeling of danger, but eventually shaking free from it. He watches as Saoirse silences the sound for good, and yet another song takes over where the first ended. This time, his mind succumbs and he falls into a deep trance, his eight legs slowly but surely heading towards the sound...

Wis Save: 1+6=7 (Inspiration re-roll: 1+6=7 Fail!!!)

As his first two legs move beyond the ledge and find only air, that niggle in Spider-lock's mind starts to hear that niggling sound again, and as he focusses on it the sound becomes a loud ringing alarm. Fortunately for him, he still has six legs still safely positioned on the ledge, and he stops himself from moving forward just in time as his finally realised where he is and what the he is doing. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he skitters back away from the edge of the ledge.

Looking at the harpy that almost caused him to drop to his death, he chitters frustratedly that he can't get to it. Looking at companions he watches to make sure they have not fallen under the spell well, and if they have he tries to stop them from walking off the ledge.

Wis Save: 7+6=13 (Success!)

Sha’s expression becomes single minded, stone-cold, fearless determination as he succumbs to the song... Sha steps out into nothing!

Sha is falling - within reach of Lam - and gazing at the source of the beautiful song, the harpy that is watching him fall with a satisfied, predatory expression.

First, Lam hears the beautiful song, and all he wants to do is follow it. Then Saoirse’s voice snaps him out of that- he hears her shout followed by the screech of a dying harpy. That’s right- they’re still in a fight. Another harpy- the last one, or not, Lam isn’t sure- begins to sing the tune once again. Despite being the same haunting melody, from a voice just about as clear as the previous one, this tune sounds more dissonant and mocking to Lam. He looks up, and it is hard to even get a good view of the harpy without straining his neck. He doesn’t get very long to try, though, before Sha comes falling his direction- seemingly from an intentional jump! The harpy seems to be using its song to control his friends’ minds, which fills Lam with an emotion that he lets out before he has time to recognize. Lam roars a loud, angry roar and then tries to do the only thing he sees within his control, which is catch his friend and prevent him from taking a nasty fall. As he roars, another blue butterfly appears seemingly out of nowhere just above the ledge, within sight of everyone on the top half of the tower but not near any of them.

Lam catches his falling tabaxi friend in his arms and is able to get a better look at him. Sha’s eyes have a determination that would be normal for him if he wasn’t purely focused on the harpy up above- and if he seemed to recognize Lam. Instead, Sha struggles to get out of Lam’s grasp. Lam is already upset, and his friend squirming to get away from him towards the taunting creature makes him more upset, and holding him in one arm, he slaps his dear friend in the face. “STOP!” he roars.

If any of that seems to get through to Sha, Lam will (try to) gently set his friend down on the outcropping and try to make his way up the web again. If Sha seems to still be paying more attention to the harpy above them than to him, he will stay right where he is and hold Sha tightly in both arms to prevent him from escaping.

Sha falls into the arms of Lam he can’t help but realize how close to death he was, before he has a chance to express his gratitude Lam lays in with a smack down. “WHAT THE HELL!!”  As Lam’s facial expressions and rapid fire apologies dole out it dons on Sha that Lam was trying to knock some sense back into him... but his jaw is throbbing.  “Lam, es ist okay. Du hast mein Leben gerettet. Und ehrlich gesagt glaube ich, ich hätte wirklich eine Tracht Prügel gebraucht, wow.”

 Sha’s hands are furiously messaging his jaw.

end of turn

When it becomes clear that Sha has regained his 'right mind,' Lam gently puts him on down on the outcropping, and muscles his way up to the ledge, climning hand over hand and scrambling over the edge (athletics check: DC13 to start your next turn standing, otherwise start turn prone but above ledge). The harpy on the other side of the tower leaves through their window, diving out of any of your sight. It is out there, airborne, somewhere around the tower from you. Or maybe it has flown away, seeing that the fight is going poorly for its nestmates. Hard to know for sure.

Saoirse; Lizard; Harpy in flight; Spiderlock; Sha; Lam; Harpy out of sight

The fire genasi has just seen the bloody mess of her opponent fall to her feet, and is about to look for a new target when all of a sudden she stops, her body shifting from a fighting stance to a relaxed one. That beautiful song again. If she could just reach it... She turns around to look for its source and sees the harpy singing and beckoning her to fly to its reach. The fact that the creature is flying doesn't pose a problem to Saoirse, who is perfectly confident that the melody will give her the wings she needs to reach the hand that the harpy is extending towards her.

Saoirse walks towards that hand and just as her foot is stepping into the void, something clicks in her mind. The awareness of what she's about to do kicks in, and a rush of vertigo hits her so hard that she almost stumbles back. It is in that moment that she realizes, once again, the real danger these harpies pose. 

With a quick movement, she reaches for her crossbow and tries to hit the flying harpy and help end that cursed song forever.

The Lizard follows with two swift arrows of his own, each of them striking the flying harpy in the center of her mass - the first just a centimeter away from saoirse's crossbow bolt, and the second literally splitting his first arrow (critical hit). As the second sinks in, the song stops, and she begins to fall. "We are not prey today," he says to the rest of the group, tight-lipped, and then strides through a window into the center of the room, tail whipping almost flamboyantly behind him. None of you have eyes on the last surviving harpy. You could leave initiative order... or:

Spiderlock; Sha; Lam; Harpy out of sight; Saoirse; Lizard

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

Spiderlock spins around in place, his eight legs clattering quietly on the stone as he looks for the remaining harpy. Seeing nothing, he moves into the the tower, up the inside wall and onto the ceiling, checking for glyphs as he goes. He then tries to focus his spider vision on the room below him.

Perception: 18+6=24

Sha will quickly get close to Lam, “Danke, Lam, ich verdanke dir mein Leben. Du hast wirklich einige erstaunliche Dinge getan, als wir dich am meisten brauchten.” -goblin

 Sha reaches out and renews Vigilant Blessing, then he heads over to Saoirse and gives her a reassuring pat on the back, “You dropped that harpy, that was amazing.”  

Even though the last harpy appears to be killed and everyone appears to be safe, Lam is still on high alert, with racing eyes and quick, shallow breaths. It is only when Sha, who had been in trouble moments before, comes up to talk to him that he starts to visibly relax- and to blush, recognizing why Sha is still furiously rubbing his jaw. He responds back in Goblin: “Ich bin froh, dass du OK bist. …Es tut mir leid, dass ich hat dich verletzt. Das Harpyielied hat unseren Geist gesteuert. Sehr gefährlich. Sei bitte sicher.”

 He takes a quick look around and, spotting no enemy, begins to follow the lizardfolk into the center of the room cautiously. He takes out one of his javelins and holds onto it tightly as he tries to scan the room for any potential threats, harpy or otherwise.

The lizardfolk follows Hemlock into the large round room, with Lam in tow, and you all see a strange juxtaposition. On the one hand, there are immaculate rows of books and a beautiful blue carpet in the middle of the room which has not lost any of its or colour. A workbench on the other side of the room has notes and tools neatly arrayed, with a few different constructs nearby, which sem to be fully finished, but may still have some exposed innards to tinker with. The cube that approached Lam and Saoirse a couple floors down, in the wevocation room, is humming its way up the spiral staircase to where you are now. On the other hand... three harpy nests in the room are dressed in viscera and smell of urine and guano. Spiderlock even notices an egg in one of them. The floor is scattered with bones from the harpies various meals, possibly stretching back a full decade. There is a construct that lies broken on the ground between the nests - and Hemlock can see that it was destroyed by harpies - but the other ones are strangely untouched. This workshop was in active use - more likely by an artificer than a wizard - just a couple of decades ago; but you also see the sort of reagents and books of arcana that match ARTS wizards sitting on the shelves around the room. 

There's still no obvious sign of the Harpy that flew off - so let's leave initiative for now. 

https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

The lizardfolk gazes around the room, trying to make sense of everything that he sees. After a few moments, he says simply "Artificer isn't here either. Let's keep going up." He points to the spiral staircase where the cubic construct is rising up.