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;
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.