The Guild - Game Thread

Devarus would proceed lower, avoiding the triggered step if at all possible. Then, unless he felt confident the trap couldn't rearm itself, decided to investigate the trigger to see if it could be disarmed in any way in some rudimentary fashion. Whether a method comes to mind or not, the others are asked, "Trail seems obvious enough, but we may want to mind our step going forward. It seems there is truly more to our host than to be expected."

Investigation: 4.

DM: Party has now been Synched with Val

Party:

Deva notices that the trap is not capable of automatically re-arming itself. It needs to be rearmed manually, though even that is hard to do. It seems like whoever set this trap was confident it would take out whoever triggered it and they may have underestimated the victim. It seems hard to disarm or dismantle the trap permanently.

Val:

Spider Val has finally managed to get away from the lizard. By this time, a bit more than an hour has passed. Val has 1 and a half hours left on his Wildshape. What do you do?

Runt checks herself over, seeing the cuts and curses a most foul curse in orcish. She resists the urge to smash everything. 

(Sorry, this past week was filled with bad stuff. Gonna try and update when I can.)

Elsara holds her head as the affectus uti causes sharp pains within her mind. "It's here, too..." She tells the others in a pained whisper. "The Affectus Uti, someone's been messing with it here."

She keeps her hand on the hilt of her blade, but still sheathed at the moment.

(Did we managed to bring Deva to the party? If not, I guess Elsara will send them a prompt to come join them.)

Yeah, Deva's in the group. The exact means by which he figured out to join the rest of the party was somewhat hand waved but he's here.

"Then it is as we thought. And to think, I nearly lead us away from this place." Devarus whispered, feeling every bit as guilty and pained as he looked at the moment. He puts back on the tough veneer and asks, "We need to know the extent of it. So, let's check the rooms bit by bit." He gestures over to the blood trail. "Starting with that. Runt? Mind taking point?" He asked of her, assuming the trail led to one of the doors. If not, he heads to the closest one on an eastern wall, and checks it for traps before even considering opening it.

Investigation: 17.

Yeah the trail of blood leads to the East door in the South section of the room.

Runt curses again at the sound of the foul magics name. 

Devarus heads for the eastern door, and after a final breathe and the checking it out for traps, he tries to open it for a wary look inside...

The room beyond this eastern door appears to be a small office. There are some small empty shelves, a chair and a desk. The walls, the ceiling, the furniture and the floor are coated red in fresh blood and chunks of flesh. In the center of the carpeted room is what is left of bill. The only way he can be even identified is the severed head which is missing the lower jaw and the ears. The rest of of body is just a mangled mass of torn up skin and some flesh with some bloody ribs sticking out and pointing haphazardly. The amount of violence is inhuman. It's like someone tore the body to shreds, painting the room with the torn up bits of the body.

As soon as Devarus saw no active threats, he immediately covered the lower half of his face with the back of his forearm. "This is madness." He murmurs. As much as Devarus wished not to enter, he mustered the courage to pick his way around the parts as much as he can, hood up to protect him from any drippage from the ceiling, and eventually try to check the desk. Again he erred on the side of caution, especially leery now of the other former inhabitants true nature. Once satisfied no traps were set, he tries to check inside them, assuming they are unlocked.

Investigation: 21.

Investigating the room further, Deva notices traces of rust on the edges of the torn bits. Something rusty was used to do this. However there is also teeth marks on some of the organ pieces. It looks like whatever did this also messily ate a bit of Bill too. The teeth marks are strange. They seem to have been left by human teeth but if those teeth were deformed and rotted. A set of rotten and missing teeth would not normally be strong enough to tear into raw flesh but these are. There is a stronger presence of Affectus Uti that Elsara can notice on the body. It's like the killer's entire body was oozing this foul magic.

"Enough intelligence to wield a weapon, even if rusted. Old, or at least supernatural aged... but, it should've..." Devarus trailed off, thumbing his chin a few times. Eventually he shakes his head, and goes back to check out the desk drawers for any signs on what the room's original purpose might have been before the incident. Afterwards, he exits and pass along his findings to the others. "What I don't udnerstand is that there was too much... of a mess to not have lead a trail elsewhere? Perhaps there's something we missed, or.. do either of you have any clues?" He asked the group at large.

((Because of Deva's NAT20, I'm also going to give him the 2nd hint as to the trail that led elsewhere))

Deva checks the drawers but unfortunately they are empty. The shelves contain some picture frames but the blood makes the pictures not visible. Stepping out, Deva notices something. There are small red dots of blood going out of the room. The bloody dots don't trail out of the room on the floor, the marks go along the ceiling for a while but then it disappears, having been coated with the heavy dust of the ceiling and no longer leading a trail.

What does the rest of the party and Val do?

Runt will try to see if there are any trap doors or hidden doors in the walls. 

Runt Investigation: 7

Runt doesn't detect any traps.

Elsara will be keeping with the party, using her magic sight to keep an eye out for any active magic in the area.

(If neeeded)

Perception: 5

Elsara: The problem with Detect Magic is that everything is radiating the faint traces of Affectus Uti. This magic being powerful, it makes it hard to detect anything that isn't Affectus Uti. You can however, detect where the magic is strong and where the magic is weaker.

There seems to be strong traces of the magic coming from the west door on the upper section of the room.

(I'm really sorry it's been so long. Looks like I missed a doozy of a discovery.)
Gendan has been quiet, but focused on the bloody mess. She stays by Runt's flank, itching to summon her pact blade.

"I guess Bill's not the monster, then. Perhaps Aron is cursed by the dark magic."