This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Jack too comes closer to the grieving father with the unfortunate name. "If you help us we will do all in our power to bring your daughter back, and trust me, we will find a way."He says, placing a comforting and reassuring hand on the poor man's shoulder.
As the others talk to the man, the illusion God and an apparently invisible girl, Giles is going to go investigate the coffin, avoiding stepping on the seal. But first, he wants to size of this Sue character.
Perched in position, Riven lies still within the mist, one hand holding his longbow, the other pressed to the cold stone for balance. The fractured shimmer of Joy’s aura still flickers faintly above, distorted in the haze, but no sound reaches him, only shifting silhouettes and silence.
He watches.
Movement catches his eye. Giles, steady, deliberate, breaks from the group, skirting the edge of the glowing sigil etched into the stone. Not toward Otbium. Toward something else. The coffin.
The others remain still, or perhaps they speak, but Riven can’t hear. The girl, if she is still present, no longer shows herself. That unsettles him more than the rest.
His jaw sets. No arrows loosed. No spells flared. No blades drawn. Not yet. The pillars remain veiled, untouchable, for now. If they’re to be broken, he’ll need one of the casters to make the first move, to drop those protections.
Giles can sense that Sue is a man well outside of his depth right now. He is overwhelmed by his daughter's death, angry that he was manipulated into killing nearly everyone on the planet, terrified of the Betrayer God before them, betrayed by the little girl who he is sure is actually his child's spirit, and thoroughly exhausted by having walked the pattern several times now.
Otbium watches with passing interest as Giles approaches the coffin. As he approaches, Giles can see that it is a pretty basic child-sized coffin. Oiled wood with some carvings of branches on it. There is no name upon it, but there are contents within the coffin. Too small to be a full body though, and it is wrapped in a death blanket. It looks to be only bones. Giles is having a hard time placing the denomination based on what he sees, if any at all. The little girl sprints at Giles at an impossible speed, stopping just before him, her face close enough to Giles that he can feel the chill of death radiating from her. "HEY! You're not supposed to look at me like that!"
Sue seems extremely tempted to make his way to the pattern, for it is a difficult thing to ignore the pleadings of your own child. However, he embraces Joy and his knees begin to buckle under the weight of his grief. He sobs lightly as he clutches hard to her armor, burying his face in the adamantine plate. He regains his composure and breaks the embrace. "Please bring her back. I never chose a god. I wasn't sure which to choose, so I never did. I thought I had time."
Otbium's attention snaps back from Giles to the group. "Susan." He says, drawing out the name slowly like a sword from its scabbard. "We had a deal."
Sue clutches Joy and pulls her in close so he can whisper in her ear. "Kill me. You must do it right now. If I don't walk the path... He'll..." He looks at Otbium, then back to Jack and Joy. "Do it."
Joy's eyes widen at Sue's heartfelt request, her heart wrenching in her chest. She reaches out desperately to the others through their mental connection, having trouble forming even silent words.
'He says I have to kill him, right now...I...I can't! He made a mistake, but he's sorry...He just wanted his daughter back...But Otbium might try to use him. I don't...'
"if we kill him, are you able to bring him back later? Resurrection? Perhaps killing him stops the waves, then we can bring him back? Obviously just guessing here..." Giles returns, telepathically.
"There will be no more waves as long as no one walks the path of the ritual. We need not kill him to prevent that. But what else Otbium might do to him, I cannot say," Vazo'yn sends through the link.
His gaze turns to the nearest pillar once more, starting to draw on the gifts of the spirits and gather his power.
"We can bring them both back, if we survive and accomplish our task. If we don't, then it won't matter."
Though not his strong suit, Giles is going to check the magic around the pillars next, leaving the coffin for now. He is very tempted to channel all his martial training into punching the magical field around a pillar, not out of frustration, but out of curiosity.
Arcana: 3[tell me everything! :) ]
"Anyone have any issues if I punch one of these?" he'll say, telepathically to keep it from the betrayer god.
The arrow was notched. The string pulled taut. The weight of the moment pressed against his shoulders like a stone slab.
He watched Sue clutch Joy, lips brushing her ear, a final plea made in silence. Joy trembled. She reached out, not with words, but with thought, her mind a flood of indecision and sorrow. And Riven, too far to hear, understood enough.
He wants to die.
His aim calculated, steady. One shot. It would be quick. Clean. He would spare her the burden.
Then, like a bad joke tossed into sacred silence, it dropped.
A ten-foot carrot.
Right into the glowing path.
The absurdity struck first, a foreign shape breaking the tension. But then, the ritual's path, the conduit of power, now obstructed.
Riven’s aim dipped a fraction. His knuckles stayed white on the bowstring.
He holds. The arrow remains, shaking faintly with the tension of the bow.
“Unexpected” he says quietly to himself.
With a breath locked in his chest, Riven waits, the decision no longer his alone.
Though not his strong suit, Giles is going to check the magic around the pillars next, leaving the coffin for now. He is very tempted to channel all his martial training into punching the magical field around a pillar, not out of frustration, but out of curiosity.
Arcana: 3[tell me everything! :) ]
"Anyone have any issues if I punch one of these?" he'll say, telepathically to keep it from the betrayer god.
Giles is reasonably certain that should he punch one of these barriers, there will be a wobbling BOING sound effect.
As Ylis drops a massive carrot onto the start of the path, Otbium's eyes widen in shock and anger. He steps around the barrier to face the group. "You think you can stop me with a little stone? I, who have existed for time immemorial? I, who nearly became the God of Death? I have existed in this mountain long enough to shape the structures here with nothing but wind! Even if you stopped me with it now, it would be a temporary victory. I would blow the carrot away over eons before I realized any time had passed at all."
Sue, at least, looks relieved by the barrier erected over the start of the path.
Much as Randa wants to move in to assist she is starkly aware that she is far more useful at a distance, she abides and waits for orders from those more clever than herself.....
Joy is still frozen in shock, until the crash of stone landing behind her makes her jump slightly and turn to see...a carrot. The sight manages to make her give a smile, wiping the tears away with her free hand quickly. Otbium's reaction is enough to make her giggle. 'He says he'll 'blow the carrot away over eons',she repeats to the others, laughing telepathically. Feeling encouraged by this and the others' answers, she turns to face the god once more.
"Otbium! What are the consequences if Sue refuses to honor your deal? I assume you'll do more than blow a little wind at him."
Giles feels a strange sensation upon pressing his hand to the barrier. A strange pressing back. It is not merely the resistance one feels when pressing on something like stone. No, Giles can feel the barrier press back on him to a noticeable degree. The harder he pushes, the harder it pushes back.
Otbium smirks at Giles' efforts and shakes his head with haughty derision. "Careful. Those are souls. You could kill someone." As Joy's question reaches his ears, Otbium begins to walk forward. "Oh child, you should have taken my offer. It was the best chance you had. What are the consequences? Perhaps I will show you." He answers coyly.
"He'll get my body. He doesn't really exist here. He needs willing vessels. Or... forfeit ones." Sue says urgently.
"Walk the path, Susan. This is the last time I will remind you of your contractual obligation. The moment your friends set foot on my prison, I became aware of them and made other arrangements. You will lose more than you know."
"FATHER!" The little girl screams. Blue, heatless, fire begins to rise around the little girl. "A lost soul is only lost until they select a god to worship. Then, they become property." The fires rise in intensity and the girl screams before she winks out of existence with a dismissive wave of Otbium's hand.
"N-no! Where is she? Where is Jo!?" Sue says as he releases an anguished cry and falls to his knees in despair.
"She is in the very same place I am in right now. A prison meant to be very uncomfortable for a god. What do you think it is doing to her?" Otbium says, leaving the details to our imaginations. "Walk. The. Path."
Sue pounds the dirt with a clenched fist. "If a person can choose a god, they can choose another if they find that god is unworthy. We are not your property." He stands and puffs his chest defiantly. "I refuse to walk the path. Find another fool, Betrayer God." He looks to Joy. "Find a way to undo all this and if you can, find a way to show Jo better gods."
This thing is taking so loooooonng...booooorringg....why do adults spend so much time talking and not doing anything? That Sue guy seems to be a big problem...I know what to do!
Moving to about 10 feet away from the rough lookin guy, she puts her hand on her embroidered Trostenwald ration bag then summons the power of Telemportationing from her hat and shouts "Go Away!"
Teleport Sue from here to Trostenwald using linked object to source location.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Jack too comes closer to the grieving father with the unfortunate name. "If you help us we will do all in our power to bring your daughter back, and trust me, we will find a way." He says, placing a comforting and reassuring hand on the poor man's shoulder.
Persuasion: 33
As the others talk to the man, the illusion God and an apparently invisible girl, Giles is going to go investigate the coffin, avoiding stepping on the seal. But first, he wants to size of this Sue character.
Insight: 18
Some [unimpressive] Coffin Checks:
Perception 15
Investigation 10
Religion 7
Perched in position, Riven lies still within the mist, one hand holding his longbow, the other pressed to the cold stone for balance. The fractured shimmer of Joy’s aura still flickers faintly above, distorted in the haze, but no sound reaches him, only shifting silhouettes and silence.
He watches.
Movement catches his eye. Giles, steady, deliberate, breaks from the group, skirting the edge of the glowing sigil etched into the stone. Not toward Otbium. Toward something else. The coffin.
The others remain still, or perhaps they speak, but Riven can’t hear. The girl, if she is still present, no longer shows herself. That unsettles him more than the rest.
His jaw sets. No arrows loosed. No spells flared. No blades drawn. Not yet. The pillars remain veiled, untouchable, for now. If they’re to be broken, he’ll need one of the casters to make the first move, to drop those protections.
Giles can sense that Sue is a man well outside of his depth right now. He is overwhelmed by his daughter's death, angry that he was manipulated into killing nearly everyone on the planet, terrified of the Betrayer God before them, betrayed by the little girl who he is sure is actually his child's spirit, and thoroughly exhausted by having walked the pattern several times now.
Otbium watches with passing interest as Giles approaches the coffin. As he approaches, Giles can see that it is a pretty basic child-sized coffin. Oiled wood with some carvings of branches on it. There is no name upon it, but there are contents within the coffin. Too small to be a full body though, and it is wrapped in a death blanket. It looks to be only bones. Giles is having a hard time placing the denomination based on what he sees, if any at all. The little girl sprints at Giles at an impossible speed, stopping just before him, her face close enough to Giles that he can feel the chill of death radiating from her. "HEY! You're not supposed to look at me like that!"
Sue seems extremely tempted to make his way to the pattern, for it is a difficult thing to ignore the pleadings of your own child. However, he embraces Joy and his knees begin to buckle under the weight of his grief. He sobs lightly as he clutches hard to her armor, burying his face in the adamantine plate. He regains his composure and breaks the embrace. "Please bring her back. I never chose a god. I wasn't sure which to choose, so I never did. I thought I had time."
Otbium's attention snaps back from Giles to the group. "Susan." He says, drawing out the name slowly like a sword from its scabbard. "We had a deal."
Sue clutches Joy and pulls her in close so he can whisper in her ear. "Kill me. You must do it right now. If I don't walk the path... He'll..." He looks at Otbium, then back to Jack and Joy. "Do it."
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
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Joy's eyes widen at Sue's heartfelt request, her heart wrenching in her chest. She reaches out desperately to the others through their mental connection, having trouble forming even silent words.
'He says I have to kill him, right now...I...I can't! He made a mistake, but he's sorry...He just wanted his daughter back...But Otbium might try to use him. I don't...'
"if we kill him, are you able to bring him back later? Resurrection? Perhaps killing him stops the waves, then we can bring him back? Obviously just guessing here..." Giles returns, telepathically.
"There will be no more waves as long as no one walks the path of the ritual. We need not kill him to prevent that. But what else Otbium might do to him, I cannot say," Vazo'yn sends through the link.
His gaze turns to the nearest pillar once more, starting to draw on the gifts of the spirits and gather his power.
"We can bring them both back, if we survive and accomplish our task. If we don't, then it won't matter."
Well...if needs to walk the path...and the path is blocked....
"A carrot, a carrot, a carrot" chants Ylis and drops a 10 cubic foot [wall of stone] carrot into the pattern blocking the way.
*image not quite right, Ylis is still on her broom*
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Though not his strong suit, Giles is going to check the magic around the pillars next, leaving the coffin for now. He is very tempted to channel all his martial training into punching the magical field around a pillar, not out of frustration, but out of curiosity.
Arcana: 3 [tell me everything! :) ]
"Anyone have any issues if I punch one of these?" he'll say, telepathically to keep it from the betrayer god.
*Maybe poke it first, what if it has a damage reflection feature?*
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Good point Ylis, perhaps I start with a touch..."
Riven’s breath had already stilled.
The arrow was notched. The string pulled taut. The weight of the moment pressed against his shoulders like a stone slab.
He watched Sue clutch Joy, lips brushing her ear, a final plea made in silence. Joy trembled. She reached out, not with words, but with thought, her mind a flood of indecision and sorrow. And Riven, too far to hear, understood enough.
He wants to die.
His aim calculated, steady. One shot. It would be quick. Clean. He would spare her the burden.
Then, like a bad joke tossed into sacred silence, it dropped.
A ten-foot carrot.
Right into the glowing path.
The absurdity struck first, a foreign shape breaking the tension. But then, the ritual's path, the conduit of power, now obstructed.
Riven’s aim dipped a fraction. His knuckles stayed white on the bowstring.
He holds. The arrow remains, shaking faintly with the tension of the bow.
“Unexpected” he says quietly to himself.
With a breath locked in his chest, Riven waits, the decision no longer his alone.
Giles is reasonably certain that should he punch one of these barriers, there will be a wobbling BOING sound effect.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
As Ylis drops a massive carrot onto the start of the path, Otbium's eyes widen in shock and anger. He steps around the barrier to face the group. "You think you can stop me with a little stone? I, who have existed for time immemorial? I, who nearly became the God of Death? I have existed in this mountain long enough to shape the structures here with nothing but wind! Even if you stopped me with it now, it would be a temporary victory. I would blow the carrot away over eons before I realized any time had passed at all."
Sue, at least, looks relieved by the barrier erected over the start of the path.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Much as Randa wants to move in to assist she is starkly aware that she is far more useful at a distance, she abides and waits for orders from those more clever than herself.....
Joy is still frozen in shock, until the crash of stone landing behind her makes her jump slightly and turn to see...a carrot. The sight manages to make her give a smile, wiping the tears away with her free hand quickly. Otbium's reaction is enough to make her giggle. 'He says he'll 'blow the carrot away over eons', she repeats to the others, laughing telepathically. Feeling encouraged by this and the others' answers, she turns to face the god once more.
"Otbium! What are the consequences if Sue refuses to honor your deal? I assume you'll do more than blow a little wind at him."
Giles will press his hand to one of the magic fields...
Giles feels a strange sensation upon pressing his hand to the barrier. A strange pressing back. It is not merely the resistance one feels when pressing on something like stone. No, Giles can feel the barrier press back on him to a noticeable degree. The harder he pushes, the harder it pushes back.
Otbium smirks at Giles' efforts and shakes his head with haughty derision. "Careful. Those are souls. You could kill someone." As Joy's question reaches his ears, Otbium begins to walk forward. "Oh child, you should have taken my offer. It was the best chance you had. What are the consequences? Perhaps I will show you." He answers coyly.
"He'll get my body. He doesn't really exist here. He needs willing vessels. Or... forfeit ones." Sue says urgently.
"Walk the path, Susan. This is the last time I will remind you of your contractual obligation. The moment your friends set foot on my prison, I became aware of them and made other arrangements. You will lose more than you know."
"FATHER!" The little girl screams. Blue, heatless, fire begins to rise around the little girl. "A lost soul is only lost until they select a god to worship. Then, they become property." The fires rise in intensity and the girl screams before she winks out of existence with a dismissive wave of Otbium's hand.
"N-no! Where is she? Where is Jo!?" Sue says as he releases an anguished cry and falls to his knees in despair.
"She is in the very same place I am in right now. A prison meant to be very uncomfortable for a god. What do you think it is doing to her?" Otbium says, leaving the details to our imaginations. "Walk. The. Path."
Sue pounds the dirt with a clenched fist. "If a person can choose a god, they can choose another if they find that god is unworthy. We are not your property." He stands and puffs his chest defiantly. "I refuse to walk the path. Find another fool, Betrayer God." He looks to Joy. "Find a way to undo all this and if you can, find a way to show Jo better gods."
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Ylis hovers on her broom and waits...and waits...
This thing is taking so loooooonng...booooorringg....why do adults spend so much time talking and not doing anything? That Sue guy seems to be a big problem...I know what to do!
Moving to about 10 feet away from the rough lookin guy, she puts her hand on her embroidered Trostenwald ration bag then summons the power of Telemportationing from her hat and shouts "Go Away!"
Teleport Sue from here to Trostenwald using linked object to source location.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Oh...poop. Maybe I should have sent him with a note or something?"
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale