Everasil - Game thread

Ember's eyes flick back and forth over the text as she absorbs the information. Much like her grandfather's books, she understands little of it, but commits it to memory anyways. She knows enough of the schools of magic, at least, having been taught their names and purposes in a nursery rhyme when she was small. 

Hopping to her feet and scooping Aggie up as she goes, Ember looks one last time at Bart--this image, too, of death and blood, etched into her memory--before scurrying after the others to continue. "Got it," she chirps, waving the page triumphantly like a flag. Passing it to the others to read over, she explains, "Says how to close the door," then continues on her way without ceremony. 

The massive blonde bearded warrior follows the small but brave adventurer back to the dismembered corpse of Bart the farmer, although still keeping a wary eye on the corridor as the girl searches the bodyparts and then reads the folded up paper she finds.

"Close the door?" Thurodim mutters, having no intention to read all those words, but he was used to not grasping the finer details of plans and agendas, instead pressing on once more together with Ember.

Quote from MissAbyss >>

"'Books give us everything but ask nothing more than to be taken care of.'" 

Ozyre slowly nods in agreeance with the impression of the sagely gnome. "So true, so true."

Studying the piece of paper intensely, Ozyre starts to plan. "Divine magic, primal magic, conjuration, and abjuration? So... just about everything that we don't have. Well, I say that, but..." He inspects the script on the head of his hammer. "...some of the runes that I have are largely abjuration-based, which may or may not be any help at all because they're a quite-a-bit-different source of magic compared to your traditional spellcasting and might not be applicable to the situation at all. And anyways, the little words are all tuckered out at the moment. But maybe!"

Ozyre ponders his hammer some more. "There's also a chance that hitting it will make it go away. The perspective of a warrior is one that treatises like these can all-too-often fail to account for, so it's possible that nobody ever bothered trying to whack the thing real good and a manual reboot of the fabric of reality is all that's needed. Probably not, but hey, y'never know. Like the wise words of the page say, trial and error is what we've got, and the first step of trial and error, as I remember it, is trial, so what say we waltz over to this thing and throw a bunch of spaghetti at it until we discover a spaghetto that has sufficient adhesion to linger where so many of its kind fell?"

Cork huddles close as they examine the page.  He shakes his head with a blank expression when the different schools of magic are discussed.

When Ozyre suggests trial and error, [Sound of Cork Popping] taps the end of his beak in agreement, then points at Ozyre's hammer and makes a swinging motion with his own longsword.

With this new knowledge in hand, the party ventures forward in the dank corridor. They walk for another couple of minutes. They advance carefully, aware that they could be assaulted at any time. As they reach a junction heading to their right, they notice a soft strange glow coming from down in that corridor.

The massive blonde bearded warrior cautiously and quietly advances towards the soft strange glow.

Stealth: 9
Perception: 17

It’s difficult for such a big guy to remain subtle, but luckily, there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the vacinity to hear him. Continuing towards the strange light, Thurodim can begin to feel and hear a light draft of air. To him, this can mean one of two things: either there is another exit up ahead, or something odd is happening.

Motioning for the small but quite brave adventurers to follow him, Thurodim would warily and quietly continue towards the soft strange glow.

Not too worried about being quiet since Big Man's feet are so loud anyways, the little wizard gets a running start and hops up onto his back, climbing her way up until she can see over his shoulder. As he walks forward, she keeps an eye out for any funny business. 


((Ember will check for traps as they go, with help from Ozyre who might point anything out she misses. Investigation: 14+5 19 (or if the way she's doing it is more Perception: 14+2 16)))

Cork falls into place at the rear, alternating between trying to peek past the barbarian ahead, and nervously glancing back down the dark hall behind them.

The massive blonde bearded warrior's eyes goes wide with surprise as something pounces on him from behind, but he quickly realizes it is the girl with a squirrel's nest for hair that is going for a better view, so he lets a hand go to his back, helping her in place. "Just don't set my beard on fire now little one." He says with a real hint of worry in his voice. He had seen the the destructive force of the littkle one's wild fire at work many times now and he hoped to keep his beard a while longer still.

At the end of the corridor, the party reaches a derelict frame in the stone walls where a door used to stand. It lies on the ground, its hinges having worn off over time or perhaps ripped off by something. 

As you approach the doorframe, the glow gets brighter and brighter. Entering the room, it looks like a vast chamber being held up by four pillars. A fine layer of dust and cobwebs has formed here. All long the walls, there are large niches in which rest various small boxes and vases. Above each niche, you see a worn placard written in the same indecipherable language you’ve seen earlier. But what immediately catches your attention is what you see near the center of the chamber.

Emitting a dancing vivid red light bright enough to light the entire chamber, you see what can only be described as a tear. It reminds you of a hole in that could form in a burlap sack if it what ripped. Except in this case, it looks like the very fabric of space as been torn open. You feel a hot wind blowing from out of this portal and with it, a terrible stench reminiscent of a mix of rotten eggs and burned wood.

As you begin exploring the chamber, make a perception check.

(You can describe what your character would do before rolling the perception check) 

Not quite sure what he should be looking for to close the sinister tear in the fabric of reality, the blonde bearded warrior would follow the directions of the little one on his shoulders.

Perception: 10

Ozyre's eyes go wide as he hops over the door and into the room. "Ooooh," he says, as he observes the strange inconsistency in the fabric of the universe. "OoooOOoOoOOOooh," he says, as he spots the new scraps of unknown language in the niches of the walls. All too forgetful, the little scholar starts jotting down all the new letters that he sees, despite the brimstone portal still afflicting the very room he's in. As he goes about his task, he posits to Ember, "D'y'think you could use that handy scroll you got for reading everything? If someone or something left messages here, they probably meant for them to be read, and I won't understand any of this until I get about a hundred times this in samples. They could tell us about why this tear decided to pop up here, of all places. Or lead to treasure in the boxes! And anyways, I could jot down all the translations to learn more of the script, so understanding these words is immediately applicable and contributes to the overall wealth of knowledge!"

Perception: 8 (9 - 1)

[Sound of Cork Popping] steps into the room and slowly lowers his longsword to his side, staring in beady-eyed wonder at the breach in space at the center of the room.  He absentmindedly reaches for his spectacles and places them on his beak, peering at the rift, trying to get a closer look at what wonders lie beyond....

Perception:  20

You begin to scatter across the chamber, some taking interest in the tear, others looking at this strange language. 

Approaching the tear, [Sound of Cork Popping] begins to feel heat emanating from it, like an open campfire. Peering inside, it’s difficult to make out specific details, but something about it feels vile and perverse. It radiates with corrupt energy. In fact, you’re not perfectly sure, but you think you even hear screaming from the other side, pained and desperate.

It’s at this moment that, Thurodim, you hear sounds coming from the corridor you just arrived from. A sound that you have become quite familiar with. More of those damned shadow creatures appear to be coming your way. They are still some distance away, and it’ll take time for them to reach you, but you will have company soon. 

Almost at the same time, something begins to "leak" out of the tear. Like ooze, it slips out of whatever vile dimension it came from and begins to take form. The liquid parts into 2 distinct mass that grow and begin to grow appendages. The slimy exterior begins to fade, leaving behind the twisted form of horrifying monsters. It looks like a warped parody of a malnourished human with one side of its body horribly atrophied and the other seemingly compensating for that. They look at all of you with hostile intent.

(We will be entering, what I’m hoping is, the last encounter of this one-shot. You will have one round before the shadow creatures reach your location. In the meantime, you can also try to close the tear. For that, we will be relying on a skill challenge. It’s a little idea I’ve picked up from other people where you think of ways that you can help accomplish a certain task based on what you think your character can contribute. I will then ask that you make a certain kind of roll, based on the action you want to make. Like for a death save, you will need three successes to pass the skill challenge. You are allowed to roll the same skill more than once, but repeated use of the same skill will result in higher DC every time. If this all works for you, then please roll for initiative.)

Thurodim initiative: 3

Ozyre's distracted ramble is cut off by the oncoming threat. A transformation happens as he gets up from where he was hastily taking notes; where once sat a scholar now stands a warrior. All the runes on the warrior's body and weapons begin to hum and glow softly, and he pulls his weapon off his back with a look of confident, perhaps cocky, determination on his face.

Initiative: 21 (20 + 1)

Cork initiative:  9

He draws his longsword and charges toward the two encroaching fiends.  It is impossible to gauge emotion from his black, beady eyes and the voices he mimics.  At times he has seemed nervous, even cowardly.  Now, he opens his beak and a charismatic young voice cries out, "... Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up...".

When he has time to act, [Sound of Cork Popping] will try to shove one of these monsters back into the void from whence it came... Athletics:  13

Having hopped down from Big Man's shoulders to inspect the writing alongside Ozyre, Ember holds the Scroll of Comprehend Languages half-unfurled as the threats emerge around them. Aggie's high-pitched chirps signal the danger behind her as fiendish creatures form from the tear and she tucks in close next to her gnomish companion, her own mettle feeding off his confidence as her scarred hands begin to smolder.


((Initiative: 2+3 5))