While Gooterat is looking at the safe, Alaric has moved to keep an eye on the painting. He turns his sword into a pike, and uses it to hold the painting in a partially open position (perpendicular to the wall) so that Gooterat can work on the lock, but that he can also make sure that nothing is moving that shouldn't be while he does that.
Boff meanwhile does a quick scan of the room, including a sideways scowl at the painting, and then moves to cover the door at the far side of the room. If Gooterat isn't making too much noise, the dwarf listens at the door while he waits...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
The lock gave a reluctant click beneath Gooterat's careful hands, and the door swung open. Inside lay a small velvet pouch, untouched by the years.
When the gnome tipped it open, ten valuable pieces of fine silver jewelry spilled into his palm. Nine of them were unremarkable, rings, brooches, and chains, each one a treasure unto itself.
The tenth and final piece, however, stood apart. It was an amulet of polished silver, shaped into a raven mid-flight. Its wings swept downward into a pattern of curling feathers. The bird's eye was a small black gem, faintly reflective, as if it drank in the light.
Though it carried no magical aura, the amulet radiated quiet significance, as if it had once been blessed or worn with purpose.
Scooping up the newly found treasures, Gooterat turns to the others to show them what was found and to share the spoils of their efforts. "Let's keep that raven necklace handy. Something tells me that we may find a use for it."
When everyone is ready to move to the next door Gooterat recasts blade ward. He mutters something under his breath about cant be to careful as the magic settles over him.
***OoC : magic action blade ward 1 min concentration-d4 to incoming attacks***
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Satisfied that the picture was just a picture, Alaric will move out of the room, but backwards, keeping his eye on the painting and anything else in the room, only turning around once the door is shut again. He will then go and let Gooterat open the next door with mage hand
The heroes stepped cautiously into the next room. A children's nursery.
What must once have been a bright, cheerful room now lay in ruins. Fragments of small chairs and toy chests littered the floor. Cracked shelves leaned against the wall, spilling yellowed picture books whose pages curled like old leaves. If you didn't know better ... you would say that someone had torn this room apart ... looking for something.
Near the far wall stood another door. Unlike every other door in this accursed place ... its wood was smoother and not decayed at all, the paint upon it was fresh and vibrant ... as though the years had somehow spared it.
Gooterat follows Boff into the room, peeking out around his armored form. There was a sadness about this room, once a place of joyful.play, now torn apart and left in ruin.
"If someone were looking for something in here, perhaps they didn't find it..." he says glancing around. When he was sure nothing was about to leap at him from the shadows he began to look more closely for a secret hidey hole, pulling pictures away from the wall and tapping on the shelves.
***OoC: perception: 15. ***
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
"Or maybe they were looking in the wrong room?" and he gestures in the general vicinity of the painting in the other room. "I'm more interested in this out of place door." and Alaric tries to investigate if there is magic around it. Specifically if it's like the other room and a "memory" of the castle and illusionary magic. Or some form of preserving magic. Arcana 21 (don't want to spend 10 minutes ritual casting detect magic, or waste one of my spell slots)
Alaric stepped closer to the strange door and a shimmer of pale light rippled through the grain.
A glowing kite shield appeared, blocking Alaric's inspection of the door. Beautifully wrought but incomplete, its center bearing the faint outline of a missing object, like a flower once pressed into wax and later torn free. The symbol hung in the air for a heartbeat before fading.
The door was magically protected by an Arcane Lock!
From across the playroom came a slow, deliberate creak, followed by the soft patter of small feet moving across the broken floorboards. A porcelain doll, its painted smile cracked and flaking, sat up among the splinters of a toy chest.
Then a jester marionette twitched to life, its tangled strings writhing as it rose on awkward, jerking limbs.
Both held slender silver needles, glinting wickedly in the dim light.
Then came the sound of tearing cloth. From the far corner, the heap of stuffed animals began to writhe. First a twitch, then a shudder, then a pain wracked convulsion. The mass rose and took shape. An amalgamation of all the stuffed animals, impossibly conjoined and man-sized now, roughly in the shape of a bear. The impossible thing fixed the heroes with the glass-eyed gaze of its many constituent parts and bared dozens of mouths lined with all-too-real teeth.
Its voice was a low growl that rattled the air.
"Halvhrests ..." The bear-shaped-thing snarled, stuffing and buttons quivering . "We smell Halvhrests!"
I'm assuming that at least one of you had a light source. This encounter will be dark other than the light you provide. Any or all of you (including Gooterat's mage hand) may begin this encounter equipped with a torch or lantern. Just let me know with your first post if you have a torch or lantern lit or not.
The table and chairs in the center of the room will count as difficult terrain.
The bear-like thing is medium sized. The two dolls are small.
These creatures rolled an 18 for initiative. Please roll init. If you beat an 18 ... you may declare actions now.
In addition to Alaric's and Gooterat's Mage Armor, Gooterat will begin the encounter with an instance of Blade Ward already cast with one round of its duration already spent. Alaric will begin the encounter already having cast a maximized False Life as well.
(if Alaric has chance to speak before initiative he blurts this out, if not it will be said on his turn) "Seeing as none of us are local, I assume no Halvhrests are here. So either they mean living people, or that raven might carry their scent!"
The nursery erupted into chaos! The lumbering patchwork monstrosity lunged first, its clawed paw tearing through the air with shocking force.
The blow struck Alaric squarely and the warlock felt his false vitality draining away. As the fearsome claw connected, the horror before him seemed to swell larger in his vision as well. Stuffing bursting out of every seam, glass eyes gleaming, each of its many mouths frozen in the cruel rictus of an evil grin.
A wave of unnatural dread seized Alaric ...
Across the room, the smaller toys joined in. The marionette jester danced forward on jerking strings, silver needle flashing toward Boff’s midsection, but the dwarf twisted aside just in time.
Gooterat was next, facing the porcelain doll. Its painted face cracked wider as it thrust its own needle toward Gooterat. It missed!
Init - Character [HP]; Conditions & Effects; Actions 18 — Haunted Toys — Bear; Move, Fearsome Claw vs Alaric, a critical hit! (9hp slashing) — Alaric is Frightened until the end of the Bear's next turn — Doll [Doll1]; Silver Needle vs Gooterat, a miss! — Jester [Doll2]; Silver Needle vs Boff, a miss! — Midpoint of Round 1 — 07 — Gooterat [12/12 hp]; 06 — Boff [24/24 hp]; 05 — Alaric [19/21 hp, 3 temp hp] Frightened;
As the bear attacks Alaric, it gets swarmed by fire (hellish rebuke). Dc13 dex save or 9 fire damage (half on success).
Alaric then hexes the bear (dis on str) and takes an attack (at disadvantage from frightened) against it (assuming for now that Alaric is holding a torch until confirmation of the mage hand holding one so rolling 1 handed damage. Not that it matters when I roll a 1 and a 2). The fear grips him tightly though and his swing goes massively wide.
Gooterat's helping hand held the torch, keeping his friends' hands free as they explored the upper level of the house. His own eyes worked well in the dark, but Aleric's did not, besides, he found the light comforting.
His feeling of comfort came to a screeching halt when the creepy toys came to life and attacked. He threw back his hips, narrowly avoiding the sting of the horrid little doll's pointy weapon. He began this battle like all aspiring heroes, with a high pitched shriek. His battle cry, such as it was, was part terror and part fearsome aggression (mostly terror).
When the initial shock of the attack wore off, Gooterat sprang into action. A quick survey of the battlefield offered nothing good; the party was all over the place! He needed to do something! With another shriek, this time in anger and frustration, he felt the power surge through him. Risking a poke, Gooteret backed up. He retreated to the wall, then darted south along the wall. Stopping and turning with simmering rage in his big, round eyes, the little Gnome summoned his witchbolt.
With a primal scream and a final arcane gesture, lightening exploded from Gooterat's hands, slamming into the the doll. The surge of power that coursed through his veins was staggering. His body quivered, as if his cells were trying to hold together against the shockwaves of the energy surge.
***OoC: move W then S along the wall full movement unless it gets him into melee with doll 2. Magic action: witchbolt. Attack doll 1: 16 lightning damage: 19 concentration drops on blade ward and goes to witchbolt. Concentration 1 min, sustained arc of energy -- if 16 misses Gooterat will use a sorcery point and have another go at it***
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
There were no primal screams or funky gestures from Boff. It was simply time to go to work. But even Boff could hardly believe he was fighting a puppet. He was starting to miss the relative simplicity of lopping the heads off goblins. Wondering whether slicing through the strings would disable the marionette, the dwarf swung his axe in a broad horizontal arc...
Battleaxe v Doll2: 24 to hit, 7 damage plus Topple (DC 14 CON save or Prone)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Gooterat thrust out his hand, and a jagged bolt of blue lightning snapped across the room! The doll convulsed, smoke curling from the cracks in its porcelain face.
Boff's battleaxe came down hard, biting into the marionette jester’s wooden frame!
Alaric lashed out in fury. His Hellish Rebuke engulfed the stuffed abomination and setting its stuffing alight. The creature shrieked and writhed ... for it burned far too easily. The creature was vulnerable to fire!
Then Alaric's hex settled upon the abomination, dark energy coiling like smoke, but the warlock's follow-up sword strike went wide.
The dolls darted in again, needles flashing, but both missed their marks.
The towering bear, charred but enraged, roared and slammed a massive paw into Alaric once more. Another brutal hit! Then, growling, it lurched toward the others, leaving the warlock frozen, unable to force himself to follow.
Init - Character [HP]; Conditions & Effects; Actions 07 — Gooterat [12/12 hp]; Move - This movement provokes an Opportunity Attack from D1 — D1, Silver Needle vs Gooterat, a miss! — Gooterat, Witch Bolt vs D1, a hit! (19hp Lightning) 06 — Boff [24/24 hp]; Battleaxe vs D2, a hit! (7hp Slashing & Topple) — D2, Con save vs DC13, a pass! 05 — Alaric [10/21 hp] Frightened; Reaction from last round: Hellish Rebuke (9hp fire damage) — Bear, Dex save vs DC13, a pass! — Bear takes 9hp fire damage due to vulnerability: fire — Alaric, BA: Hex vs Bear, Longsword vs Bear, a miss! — End of Round 1, Beginning of Round 2 — 18 — Haunted Toys — Bear [9hp inflicted] AC11; Fearsome Claw vs Alaric, a critical hit! (12hp Slashing), Move — Alaric Frightened until end of Bear's next turn — This movement provokes an Opportunity Attack from Alaric — Doll (D1) [19hp inflicted] AC15; Move, Silver Needle vs Gooterat, a miss! — Jester (D2) [7hp inflicted] AC 15; Silver Needle vs Boff, a miss! — Midpoint of Round 2 —
While Gooterat is looking at the safe, Alaric has moved to keep an eye on the painting. He turns his sword into a pike, and uses it to hold the painting in a partially open position (perpendicular to the wall) so that Gooterat can work on the lock, but that he can also make sure that nothing is moving that shouldn't be while he does that.
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Boff meanwhile does a quick scan of the room, including a sideways scowl at the painting, and then moves to cover the door at the far side of the room. If Gooterat isn't making too much noise, the dwarf listens at the door while he waits...
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
The lock gave a reluctant click beneath Gooterat's careful hands, and the door swung open. Inside lay a small velvet pouch, untouched by the years.
When the gnome tipped it open, ten valuable pieces of fine silver jewelry spilled into his palm. Nine of them were unremarkable, rings, brooches, and chains, each one a treasure unto itself.
The tenth and final piece, however, stood apart. It was an amulet of polished silver, shaped into a raven mid-flight. Its wings swept downward into a pattern of curling feathers. The bird's eye was a small black gem, faintly reflective, as if it drank in the light.
Though it carried no magical aura, the amulet radiated quiet significance, as if it had once been blessed or worn with purpose.
Gooterat
Scooping up the newly found treasures, Gooterat turns to the others to show them what was found and to share the spoils of their efforts. "Let's keep that raven necklace handy. Something tells me that we may find a use for it."
When everyone is ready to move to the next door Gooterat recasts blade ward. He mutters something under his breath about cant be to careful as the magic settles over him.
***OoC : magic action blade ward 1 min concentration-d4 to incoming attacks***
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Satisfied that the picture was just a picture, Alaric will move out of the room, but backwards, keeping his eye on the painting and anything else in the room, only turning around once the door is shut again. He will then go and let Gooterat open the next door with mage hand
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
The heroes stepped cautiously into the next room. A children's nursery.
What must once have been a bright, cheerful room now lay in ruins. Fragments of small chairs and toy chests littered the floor. Cracked shelves leaned against the wall, spilling yellowed picture books whose pages curled like old leaves. If you didn't know better ... you would say that someone had torn this room apart ... looking for something.
Near the far wall stood another door. Unlike every other door in this accursed place ... its wood was smoother and not decayed at all, the paint upon it was fresh and vibrant ... as though the years had somehow spared it.
Gooterat
Gooterat follows Boff into the room, peeking out around his armored form. There was a sadness about this room, once a place of joyful.play, now torn apart and left in ruin.
"If someone were looking for something in here, perhaps they didn't find it..." he says glancing around. When he was sure nothing was about to leap at him from the shadows he began to look more closely for a secret hidey hole, pulling pictures away from the wall and tapping on the shelves.
***OoC: perception: 15. ***
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
"Or maybe they were looking in the wrong room?" and he gestures in the general vicinity of the painting in the other room. "I'm more interested in this out of place door." and Alaric tries to investigate if there is magic around it. Specifically if it's like the other room and a "memory" of the castle and illusionary magic. Or some form of preserving magic. Arcana 21 (don't want to spend 10 minutes ritual casting detect magic, or waste one of my spell slots)
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Alaric stepped closer to the strange door and a shimmer of pale light rippled through the grain.
A glowing kite shield appeared, blocking Alaric's inspection of the door. Beautifully wrought but incomplete, its center bearing the faint outline of a missing object, like a flower once pressed into wax and later torn free. The symbol hung in the air for a heartbeat before fading.
The door was magically protected by an Arcane Lock!
From across the playroom came a slow, deliberate creak, followed by the soft patter of small feet moving across the broken floorboards. A porcelain doll, its painted smile cracked and flaking, sat up among the splinters of a toy chest.
Then a jester marionette twitched to life, its tangled strings writhing as it rose on awkward, jerking limbs.
Both held slender silver needles, glinting wickedly in the dim light.
Then came the sound of tearing cloth. From the far corner, the heap of stuffed animals began to writhe. First a twitch, then a shudder, then a pain wracked convulsion. The mass rose and took shape. An amalgamation of all the stuffed animals, impossibly conjoined and man-sized now, roughly in the shape of a bear. The impossible thing fixed the heroes with the glass-eyed gaze of its many constituent parts and bared dozens of mouths lined with all-too-real teeth.
Its voice was a low growl that rattled the air.
"Halvhrests ..." The bear-shaped-thing snarled, stuffing and buttons quivering . "We smell Halvhrests!"
I'm assuming that at least one of you had a light source. This encounter will be dark other than the light you provide. Any or all of you (including Gooterat's mage hand) may begin this encounter equipped with a torch or lantern. Just let me know with your first post if you have a torch or lantern lit or not.
The table and chairs in the center of the room will count as difficult terrain.
The bear-like thing is medium sized. The two dolls are small.
These creatures rolled an 18 for initiative. Please roll init. If you beat an 18 ... you may declare actions now.
In addition to Alaric's and Gooterat's Mage Armor, Gooterat will begin the encounter with an instance of Blade Ward already cast with one round of its duration already spent. Alaric will begin the encounter already having cast a maximized False Life as well.
OoC: INI : 7 for Gooterat
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
Init: 5.
(if Alaric has chance to speak before initiative he blurts this out, if not it will be said on his turn) "Seeing as none of us are local, I assume no Halvhrests are here. So either they mean living people, or that raven might carry their scent!"
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Boff initiative: 6
No light source. Relying on darkvision.
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
The nursery erupted into chaos! The lumbering patchwork monstrosity lunged first, its clawed paw tearing through the air with shocking force.
The blow struck Alaric squarely and the warlock felt his false vitality draining away. As the fearsome claw connected, the horror before him seemed to swell larger in his vision as well. Stuffing bursting out of every seam, glass eyes gleaming, each of its many mouths frozen in the cruel rictus of an evil grin.
A wave of unnatural dread seized Alaric ...
Across the room, the smaller toys joined in. The marionette jester danced forward on jerking strings, silver needle flashing toward Boff’s midsection, but the dwarf twisted aside just in time.
Gooterat was next, facing the porcelain doll. Its painted face cracked wider as it thrust its own needle toward Gooterat. It missed!
This encounter will be dark other than the light you provide.
The table and chairs in the center of the room will count as difficult terrain.
The bear-like thing is medium sized. The two dolls are small.
As the bear attacks Alaric, it gets swarmed by fire (hellish rebuke). Dc13 dex save or 9 fire damage (half on success).
Alaric then hexes the bear (dis on str) and takes an attack (at disadvantage from frightened) against it (assuming for now that Alaric is holding a torch until confirmation of the mage hand holding one so rolling 1 handed damage. Not that it matters when I roll a 1 and a 2). The fear grips him tightly though and his swing goes massively wide.
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)
Gooterat
Gooterat's helping hand held the torch, keeping his friends' hands free as they explored the upper level of the house. His own eyes worked well in the dark, but Aleric's did not, besides, he found the light comforting.
His feeling of comfort came to a screeching halt when the creepy toys came to life and attacked. He threw back his hips, narrowly avoiding the sting of the horrid little doll's pointy weapon. He began this battle like all aspiring heroes, with a high pitched shriek. His battle cry, such as it was, was part terror and part fearsome aggression (mostly terror).
When the initial shock of the attack wore off, Gooterat sprang into action. A quick survey of the battlefield offered nothing good; the party was all over the place! He needed to do something! With another shriek, this time in anger and frustration, he felt the power surge through him. Risking a poke, Gooteret backed up. He retreated to the wall, then darted south along the wall. Stopping and turning with simmering rage in his big, round eyes, the little Gnome summoned his witchbolt.
With a primal scream and a final arcane gesture, lightening exploded from Gooterat's hands, slamming into the the doll. The surge of power that coursed through his veins was staggering. His body quivered, as if his cells were trying to hold together against the shockwaves of the energy surge.
***OoC: move W then S along the wall full movement unless it gets him into melee with doll 2. Magic action: witchbolt. Attack doll 1: 16 lightning damage: 19 concentration drops on blade ward and goes to witchbolt. Concentration 1 min, sustained arc of energy -- if 16 misses Gooterat will use a sorcery point and have another go at it***
“Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” — Elrond
There were no primal screams or funky gestures from Boff. It was simply time to go to work. But even Boff could hardly believe he was fighting a puppet. He was starting to miss the relative simplicity of lopping the heads off goblins. Wondering whether slicing through the strings would disable the marionette, the dwarf swung his axe in a broad horizontal arc...
Battleaxe v Doll2: 24 to hit, 7 damage plus Topple (DC 14 CON save or Prone)
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Gooterat thrust out his hand, and a jagged bolt of blue lightning snapped across the room! The doll convulsed, smoke curling from the cracks in its porcelain face.
Boff's battleaxe came down hard, biting into the marionette jester’s wooden frame!
Alaric lashed out in fury. His Hellish Rebuke engulfed the stuffed abomination and setting its stuffing alight. The creature shrieked and writhed ... for it burned far too easily. The creature was vulnerable to fire!
Then Alaric's hex settled upon the abomination, dark energy coiling like smoke, but the warlock's follow-up sword strike went wide.
The dolls darted in again, needles flashing, but both missed their marks.
The towering bear, charred but enraged, roared and slammed a massive paw into Alaric once more. Another brutal hit! Then, growling, it lurched toward the others, leaving the warlock frozen, unable to force himself to follow.