Rats darted forward, Silver Spark flashing in his hands, but the attack found no purchase.
Gooterat withdrew, creating a safe distance between the gnome and the glasswork blades. He then conjured a pulse of raw sorcerous force. The cantrip burst against the golem with the concussive crack of thunder. Shards rattled loose from its body, and for the first time the creature staggered ... its wounds failing to knit together!
The gnome’s sharp eye caught the detail at once: thunder disrupted the magic that bound this creature together, leaving the construct unable to regenerate!
Across the hearth, Alaric followed suit, a crimson bolt of eldritch power blasting from his palm. The shot struck the glasswork knight squarely in the chest!
The knight raised its crystalline blade and lashed out, striking first at Boff, then at Rats. Both blows whistled through empty air, however, and the heroes held their ground!
Init - Character [HP]; Conditions & Effects; Actions 21 — Rats [12/20hp]; [Being NPC'd for now]; BA: Hunter's Mark, Silver Spark vs MK, a miss! 16 - Gooterat [12/12hp]; Sorcerous Burst, a hit! (2hp thunder damage), Witch Bolt (4hp lightning damage) 13 - Boff [24/24hp]; No action* 07 - Alaric [08/21hp, 06 Temp HP]; Bloodied; Eldritch Blast vs MK (w/ disadv due to unseen target), a hit! (8hp force damage) 07 - Mirror Knight; AC13, [20hp inflicted] Bloodied; Dazzling Light recharge? No; Regeneration (+0hp, regeneration was blocked due to lightning damage) --> Glass Sword vs Boff and Rats, both miss!
*Boff did not take an action this round and may take two actions during the next round.
Magic Fireplace Trap - Anyone entering this square or beginning their turn in it must roll a Dex saving throw (DC12). Failure = 1d10 fire damage. Success = half damage.
Light sources — The shared fireplace is causing each room to be lit with bright light. Gooterat (Mage Hand w/ torch), Rats (dropped torch)
"In case of emergency, break glass!" Gooterat recalled an amusing large glass jug which contained a smaller bottle of some sort of potent spirits. He wondered at the time how they got that little bottle in there, but in this instant he just remembered the small, tarnished plaque that sat below it. With a small smirk he opened his hand again, summoning another small storm cloud. With a flick of his wrist he flung it at the glass knight. If the first small cloud was a spring shower, the second was the shockwave from one of Zeus's own bolts. The cloud seemed to swell as it flew, exploding in a thunderous burst of raw elemental power.
Almost as an afterthought Gooterat send another pulse of lightening energy right behind the thunder. For the briefest of moments, the little gnome stood on the threshold of the gods own doorstep. Never had such power been his to command. Never had he experienced such a feeling. His hair flew wildly around him, as if he were in the eye of some mighty storm. For a brief moment, the tiny gnome was a storm giant in his heart.
***OoC: sorcerous burst 25 (natty 20) - thunder damage 20 (crit plus a bonus d8 or rolling an 8) - witch bolt 9 lightening damage -
You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 damage of a type you choose: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder.
If you roll an 8 on a d8 for this spell, you can roll another d8, and add it to the damage. When you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d8s you can add to the spell’s damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier.***
***
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Alaric only has one thing he can do if he doesn't want to risk killing himself passing through the fire. So he blindly does another eldritch blast, just missing (12 to hit)
^^Alaric is not at risk of death. The trap is 1d10 damage, half that on a save.
He currently has 8 hit points and 6 temporary hit points. In order to be brought to 0hp remaining, Alaric would have to take 14 hit points' worth of damage.
The chamber shook with the thunder crack of Gooterat’s magic. His hands blazed with power as he unleashed a final sorcerous burst.
The spell struck true and the mirror knight convulsed. Fractures raced across its body, and in the same instant another jolt of lightning surged through the construct, splintering it apart in a violent cascade of sparks and glass and magical power.
The jagged knight staggered forward once, then collapsed into a heap of glittering shards.
At the same moment, the unnatural blue fire in the hearth guttered, and then went out in a final hiss.
Silence followed. Thick and absolute. For a moment, it seemed the nightmare had finished.
Then, without warning, a pair of grotesque, many-jointed arms shot downward, out of the hearth! Pale and impossibly long. They seized Rats before anyone could react, and hoisted the halfling back up into the sooty black. His screams echoed through the room as he vanished, dropping his enchanted dagger, and was dragged into the dark throat of the chimney ... never to be seen again.
After a moment had passed in stunned silence, from the hearth’s shadow, a small, battered cockroach emerged. The insect — believed by Rats to been a physical embodiment of life itself — miraculously crawled free of the chimney’s edge. It paused there for a heartbeat, antennae twitching, then scuttled away into a crack in the wall.
Encounter complete. Rats dropped his magical dagger, Silver Spark, on his way out of the tale.
Alaric was about to go through the fireplace but thinks better of it after witnessing another member of the group suffer a horrifying end, one that no one could prevent. He goes and tried the door instead and if it's unlocked again, joins the others in their room. "We can spend a minute in silence for him once we are safe. I don't feel safe here and I need a rest. Gooterat can you grab that dagger with your magic? It's the safest option in case those hands come back again."
After that, and refreshing his false life back to 12 thp, he heads back to the palor for a long rest
Boff stands still for several long moments, his white knuckles still gripping his hammer, his leg shaking, staring into the fireplace where the kender-type creature disappeared. Alaric's voice finally breaks him away, and he stomps out silently behind the others, eyes still wide and unblinking. Reorx's Beard! What I am doing here?!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
His brief moment of extacy crashed into a heap mere moments after it manifested. He saw the hands reach out, the clawlike appendages snatching Rats from right under their nose! Gooterat cried out. He called once more on his newly discovered power, hands reaching out, but the arcane energy would not answer his summons. He stumbled, banging his knee painfully on the floor. His hands found Boff's sturdy frame and barely avoided face planting. The young gnome was clearly exhausted, and would call his most potent magic no more this day.
Stumbling along silently, he glanced back at the fireplace. Poor Rats he thought. The bits of humanity needed to cry had died within him long ago, the streets afforded no such frailty. Almost as an afterthought, he moved the mage hand to the fireplace. He summoned what was left of his focus and conjured a new mage hand, the torch falling harmlessly onto the blackened brick. The spectral fingers picked up silver spark and carried it behind him safety to their base camp. The wretched looking gnome followed the party to the relative safety of their base camp. Wordlessly he collapsed into a miserable heap, too exhausted to even discuss guard duty. He just assumed someone would kick him when he had to wake up.
The parlor was still as the party settled into uneasy sleep, the air heavy with lingering smoke and the memory of shattered glass. Laurie and Gennifer had listened quietly to the report of the mirror fight, the sisters exchanging grave looks before agreeing that a night of rest was sorely needed. Cassian remained where he had been, seated stiffly in his chair, eyes unfocused and body rigid. Catatonic. Unreachable.
Sleep came, but it was not kind.
Boff
For Boff, the night was filled with wandering. In his dream, he drifted through the corridors of the House, though they were wrong ... too long, too crooked, every doorway familiar yet also somehow misplaced.
Then he saw him. A boy—no older than ten—darting just out of reach. Pale-faced, slight of frame, he slipped through the corridors with a strange calm, as if he belonged here. No matter how fast Boff moved, the boy always stayed just ahead, turning corners, vanishing, reappearing at the far end of a hallway.
Finally, the dwarf caught up. The boy stopped and turned.
"You’d better wake up now..." The boy whispered, voice echoing strangely in the dreamlike quiet."... Before you forget how to."
Alaric and Gooterat
Alaric and Gooterat both shook awake with a start. The faint memories of nightmares faded as they woke ... but as with most dreams upon waking ... they could not remember the details. Hearts hammered, breaths came ragged, and sweat clung to their brows. The parlor looked the same ... except Boff was nowhere to be found.
His bedroll lay where he had left it, undisturbed. His pack and axe remained close at hand. But the dwarf himself had vanished. Without a sound ... without a trace.
A long rest has occurred. Boff will be without his pack and his axe until either a) someone brings him his gear, or b) he returns to the parlor to get it himself.
After casting his false life and mage armour, barely even giving them a thought with how naturally those magics came, Alaric looks around. "Once Boff gets back from the toilet we can head off again."
He then remembers what happened To Rats, and sounds visibly more concerned "Wait, are we sure he left of his own accord and wasn't dragged?" and he starts looking for any signs of a struggle around the bedroll.
The gnome woke with a start, bangs clinging to a face damp with sweat. The memories were fleeting, he could reach for them, but it was like trying to grasp smoke.
He sat up and immediately noticed Boff's absence. "Where is Boff? He wouldn't just leave in this place without his axe. Ladies, did you see or hear anything? he asked Laurie and Gennifer.
He searches the area for any clues about Boff's disappearance.
***OoC: perception with luck point for ADV 14***
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Alaric crouched beside the dwarf’s bedroll, scanning the floorboards for scuffs or signs of a struggle. There was nothing. No footprints, no drag marks, not even a splinter out of place.
Meanwhile, Gooterat turned to the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters and asked if they had seen or heard anything.
Laurie shook her head. "Nothing."
Gennifer’s expression stayed grim. "It’s as if he was never here at all."
There are no clues to be found in the parlor (Gooterat may keep the luck point he spent).
The dream solidified in that way that only dreams could. He found that he was in a study ... probably upstairs since the heroes had not found any rooms like this downstairs during their explorations yesterday.
The room smelled of dust and candlewax. Sturdy shelves sagged under the weight of forgotten tomes, and a desk carved with reclining satyrs loomed near the center of the room, its surface covered in yellowed papers no one had touched for years.
Boff was sitting in a high-backed chair at the desk.
"You’re not supposed to be here." The boy said softly. "Not yet."
He stood, facing the dwarf sitting at the desk.
"My name’s Vastion. I'd like to leave this place." He said. "But I cannot ... not without her."
The sound of approaching footsteps in the hall. Low. Ominous. Vastion's gaze flicked toward the door, then back to Boff.
The boy’s expression tightened suddenly, as though he’d remembered something dreadful. He stepped closer, voice urgent now.
Alaric hears them say it was like he was never here. The gears start turning in his head. "His arrival was convenient. We all arrived together, he was here later. But what if he wasn't. This isn't a place you stumble across. Could he have been here all along, just another spectre? Did anyone ever have a physical interaction with him? Anyone hold his hand in the seance? Do we have any proof he was alive when we met him?"
(At the sound of footsteps in the hall, Boff stands up sharply from the desk, his hand going reflexively for his axe... which isn't there. Why isn't his axe there? It's always there... His eyes flick up to the door as he searches for a weapon, uncertain if he really is asleep or if the house is playing tricks on him. Again he tries to wake up, this time slapping himself on the face.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Rats darted forward, Silver Spark flashing in his hands, but the attack found no purchase.
Gooterat withdrew, creating a safe distance between the gnome and the glasswork blades. He then conjured a pulse of raw sorcerous force. The cantrip burst against the golem with the concussive crack of thunder. Shards rattled loose from its body, and for the first time the creature staggered ... its wounds failing to knit together!
The gnome’s sharp eye caught the detail at once: thunder disrupted the magic that bound this creature together, leaving the construct unable to regenerate!
Across the hearth, Alaric followed suit, a crimson bolt of eldritch power blasting from his palm. The shot struck the glasswork knight squarely in the chest!
The knight raised its crystalline blade and lashed out, striking first at Boff, then at Rats. Both blows whistled through empty air, however, and the heroes held their ground!
Magic Fireplace Trap - Anyone entering this square or beginning their turn in it must roll a Dex saving throw (DC12). Failure = 1d10 fire damage. Success = half damage.
Light sources — The shared fireplace is causing each room to be lit with bright light. Gooterat (Mage Hand w/ torch), Rats (dropped torch)
Gooterat
"In case of emergency, break glass!" Gooterat recalled an amusing large glass jug which contained a smaller bottle of some sort of potent spirits. He wondered at the time how they got that little bottle in there, but in this instant he just remembered the small, tarnished plaque that sat below it. With a small smirk he opened his hand again, summoning another small storm cloud. With a flick of his wrist he flung it at the glass knight. If the first small cloud was a spring shower, the second was the shockwave from one of Zeus's own bolts. The cloud seemed to swell as it flew, exploding in a thunderous burst of raw elemental power.
Almost as an afterthought Gooterat send another pulse of lightening energy right behind the thunder. For the briefest of moments, the little gnome stood on the threshold of the gods own doorstep. Never had such power been his to command. Never had he experienced such a feeling. His hair flew wildly around him, as if he were in the eye of some mighty storm. For a brief moment, the tiny gnome was a storm giant in his heart.
***OoC: sorcerous burst 25 (natty 20) - thunder damage 20 (crit plus a bonus d8 or rolling an 8) - witch bolt 9 lightening damage -
You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 damage of a type you choose: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder.
If you roll an 8 on a d8 for this spell, you can roll another d8, and add it to the damage. When you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d8s you can add to the spell’s damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier.***
***
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Alaric only has one thing he can do if he doesn't want to risk killing himself passing through the fire. So he blindly does another eldritch blast, just missing (12 to hit)
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
^^Alaric is not at risk of death. The trap is 1d10 damage, half that on a save.
He currently has 8 hit points and 6 temporary hit points. In order to be brought to 0hp remaining, Alaric would have to take 14 hit points' worth of damage.
(although the fire won't kill him, it will leave him very low in striking reach of a powerful foe. That is the risk of death)
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
The chamber shook with the thunder crack of Gooterat’s magic. His hands blazed with power as he unleashed a final sorcerous burst.
The spell struck true and the mirror knight convulsed. Fractures raced across its body, and in the same instant another jolt of lightning surged through the construct, splintering it apart in a violent cascade of sparks and glass and magical power.
The jagged knight staggered forward once, then collapsed into a heap of glittering shards.
At the same moment, the unnatural blue fire in the hearth guttered, and then went out in a final hiss.
Silence followed. Thick and absolute. For a moment, it seemed the nightmare had finished.
Then, without warning, a pair of grotesque, many-jointed arms shot downward, out of the hearth! Pale and impossibly long. They seized Rats before anyone could react, and hoisted the halfling back up into the sooty black. His screams echoed through the room as he vanished, dropping his enchanted dagger, and was dragged into the dark throat of the chimney ... never to be seen again.
After a moment had passed in stunned silence, from the hearth’s shadow, a small, battered cockroach emerged. The insect — believed by Rats to been a physical embodiment of life itself — miraculously crawled free of the chimney’s edge. It paused there for a heartbeat, antennae twitching, then scuttled away into a crack in the wall.
Encounter complete. Rats dropped his magical dagger, Silver Spark, on his way out of the tale.
Alaric was about to go through the fireplace but thinks better of it after witnessing another member of the group suffer a horrifying end, one that no one could prevent. He goes and tried the door instead and if it's unlocked again, joins the others in their room. "We can spend a minute in silence for him once we are safe. I don't feel safe here and I need a rest. Gooterat can you grab that dagger with your magic? It's the safest option in case those hands come back again."
After that, and refreshing his false life back to 12 thp, he heads back to the palor for a long rest
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Boff stands still for several long moments, his white knuckles still gripping his hammer, his leg shaking, staring into the fireplace where the kender-type creature disappeared. Alaric's voice finally breaks him away, and he stomps out silently behind the others, eyes still wide and unblinking. Reorx's Beard! What I am doing here?!
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Gooterat
His brief moment of extacy crashed into a heap mere moments after it manifested. He saw the hands reach out, the clawlike appendages snatching Rats from right under their nose! Gooterat cried out. He called once more on his newly discovered power, hands reaching out, but the arcane energy would not answer his summons. He stumbled, banging his knee painfully on the floor. His hands found Boff's sturdy frame and barely avoided face planting. The young gnome was clearly exhausted, and would call his most potent magic no more this day.
Stumbling along silently, he glanced back at the fireplace. Poor Rats he thought. The bits of humanity needed to cry had died within him long ago, the streets afforded no such frailty. Almost as an afterthought, he moved the mage hand to the fireplace. He summoned what was left of his focus and conjured a new mage hand, the torch falling harmlessly onto the blackened brick. The spectral fingers picked up silver spark and carried it behind him safety to their base camp. The wretched looking gnome followed the party to the relative safety of their base camp. Wordlessly he collapsed into a miserable heap, too exhausted to even discuss guard duty. He just assumed someone would kick him when he had to wake up.
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
The parlor was still as the party settled into uneasy sleep, the air heavy with lingering smoke and the memory of shattered glass. Laurie and Gennifer had listened quietly to the report of the mirror fight, the sisters exchanging grave looks before agreeing that a night of rest was sorely needed. Cassian remained where he had been, seated stiffly in his chair, eyes unfocused and body rigid. Catatonic. Unreachable.
Sleep came, but it was not kind.
Boff
For Boff, the night was filled with wandering. In his dream, he drifted through the corridors of the House, though they were wrong ... too long, too crooked, every doorway familiar yet also somehow misplaced.
Then he saw him. A boy—no older than ten—darting just out of reach. Pale-faced, slight of frame, he slipped through the corridors with a strange calm, as if he belonged here. No matter how fast Boff moved, the boy always stayed just ahead, turning corners, vanishing, reappearing at the far end of a hallway.
Finally, the dwarf caught up. The boy stopped and turned.
"You’d better wake up now..." The boy whispered, voice echoing strangely in the dreamlike quiet. "... Before you forget how to."
Alaric and Gooterat
Alaric and Gooterat both shook awake with a start. The faint memories of nightmares faded as they woke ... but as with most dreams upon waking ... they could not remember the details. Hearts hammered, breaths came ragged, and sweat clung to their brows. The parlor looked the same ... except Boff was nowhere to be found.
His bedroll lay where he had left it, undisturbed. His pack and axe remained close at hand. But the dwarf himself had vanished. Without a sound ... without a trace.
A long rest has occurred. Boff will be without his pack and his axe until either a) someone brings him his gear, or b) he returns to the parlor to get it himself.
After casting his false life and mage armour, barely even giving them a thought with how naturally those magics came, Alaric looks around. "Once Boff gets back from the toilet we can head off again."
He then remembers what happened To Rats, and sounds visibly more concerned "Wait, are we sure he left of his own accord and wasn't dragged?" and he starts looking for any signs of a struggle around the bedroll.
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Gooterat
The gnome woke with a start, bangs clinging to a face damp with sweat. The memories were fleeting, he could reach for them, but it was like trying to grasp smoke.
He sat up and immediately noticed Boff's absence. "Where is Boff? He wouldn't just leave in this place without his axe. Ladies, did you see or hear anything? he asked Laurie and Gennifer.
He searches the area for any clues about Boff's disappearance.
***OoC: perception with luck point for ADV 14***
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Alaric & Gooterat
Alaric crouched beside the dwarf’s bedroll, scanning the floorboards for scuffs or signs of a struggle. There was nothing. No footprints, no drag marks, not even a splinter out of place.
Meanwhile, Gooterat turned to the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters and asked if they had seen or heard anything.
Laurie shook her head. "Nothing."
Gennifer’s expression stayed grim. "It’s as if he was never here at all."
There are no clues to be found in the parlor (Gooterat may keep the luck point he spent).
(Boff stares blankly at the boy for a moment before realising that he must be dreaming. He tries to... wake up... before he forgets how...)
((OOC: Did Boff dream of going up or down any stairs?))
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Boff
Try as he might, Boff did not wake up.
The dream solidified in that way that only dreams could. He found that he was in a study ... probably upstairs since the heroes had not found any rooms like this downstairs during their explorations yesterday.
The room smelled of dust and candlewax. Sturdy shelves sagged under the weight of forgotten tomes, and a desk carved with reclining satyrs loomed near the center of the room, its surface covered in yellowed papers no one had touched for years.
Boff was sitting in a high-backed chair at the desk.
"You’re not supposed to be here." The boy said softly. "Not yet."
He stood, facing the dwarf sitting at the desk.
"My name’s Vastion. I'd like to leave this place." He said. "But I cannot ... not without her."
The sound of approaching footsteps in the hall. Low. Ominous. Vastion's gaze flicked toward the door, then back to Boff.
The boy’s expression tightened suddenly, as though he’d remembered something dreadful. He stepped closer, voice urgent now.
"You really should wake up."
Alaric hears them say it was like he was never here. The gears start turning in his head. "His arrival was convenient. We all arrived together, he was here later. But what if he wasn't. This isn't a place you stumble across. Could he have been here all along, just another spectre? Did anyone ever have a physical interaction with him? Anyone hold his hand in the seance? Do we have any proof he was alive when we met him?"
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
(At the sound of footsteps in the hall, Boff stands up sharply from the desk, his hand going reflexively for his axe... which isn't there. Why isn't his axe there? It's always there... His eyes flick up to the door as he searches for a weapon, uncertain if he really is asleep or if the house is playing tricks on him. Again he tries to wake up, this time slapping himself on the face.)
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?