“Times of great fear lead people to cruelty. You must have an extremely strong will to have made it this far. Hopefully we can find a place where we need not hide our blessings.”
The brass throat rumbles with a softer timbre. “I have no spellbook, no sigils,” Lan says, smoke curling in gentle whorls. “I lend ear to river and root, to the long breath of the mountains, and sometimes they answer through me. Ancient dragon-spirits coil in that same deep current; when I ride it, the world tilts just enough to let a wonder slip through. Call it magic if you wish—to me it is kinship, the earth remembering its own voice.”
He lowers his great head so amber eyes meet Xi’s. “Those who fear such voices have forgotten they, too, are woven of the same cloth. Walk on, golden-blood; the forest knows your scales, just as it knows my own.”
(OOC: I think DM is on break now so I just want to note that Zhang is concentrating on Hunter's Mark for an hour. So when the game starts up again Zhang and Lan have an hour until their abilities end.)
Zhang has a soft smile on his face.
“Bonds forged in fire will always be strengthened. You should never feel the need to hold back what you think or how you feel.”
After a moment Zhang continues speaking.
“The time that my power is active is limited so I do agree that it might be best to move quickly.”
(OOC: Thank you all for waiting! Now that I'm back the campaign can get back underfoot)
You dourly trudge up towards the tower of black stone, wishing nothing but curses upon whichever god first invented the wilds. Both bracken and bramble tear at your clothes, leaving cuts lashed across your arms and legs. Hacking through them makes your journey more bearable, but only just, as it seems as if more spring out of the earth to replace those cut down. Now, no path marks the tangled and twisted woods, so you simply continue forward, hoping strongly that you don't find a fissure opening up before you.
Eventually, as the sun begins to set, you reach the tower. Set atop a hill, it stands around a hundred feet high, dominating the surrounding trees. Ivy grows up around it, giving it the appearance of an ancient building. After a minute of walking around it, you find an entrance - a double door, roughly cut into the dark stone. Flanking the doors, seated on pedestals, are two person-sized, once-majestic statues of dragons. Their sinewy coils, made of the same stone as the tower, curve in intricate shapes. Looking again at the doors, you see no keyhole, and they seem to be closed, although on the inner edge of each rests a small notch in which a knocker sits.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Zhang is glad to be done with the hike. Zhang also looks over the status for anything interesting. As Xi looks over the knockers Zhang gets her attention.
“Xi, I can move objects from a distance. It might be best to not be next to the door when using the knocker.”
Zheng and Xi inspect the dragons from a distance, ensuring that a simple knock on the door won't trigger any traps requisitioned for unwanted visitors. Observing first the dragons, you see nothing out of order, but, looking more closely at the door, you see several small holes dotting the doors. It's easy to see that something will come out once the knocker is rung. Finally, you look around the door area, which is dark and barren of grass. It's no surprise that you didn't see this upon first inspection - it looks similar enough to the tower's stone that it could have been decorative. But now, you realize that the earth is charred - the foliage here has been burned away, and recently. Someone must have come knocking not too long ago.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Feeling a surge of divine energy, Zhang carefully treads around the tower, carefully looking for any signs of human - or other - presence in the area. About halfway around the tower, he discovers something that he hadn't seen before - faint imprints in the ground, modeling the shape of heavy boots. They go all the way to the entrance, pressed against the tower, and carefully make their way around one of the draconic pedestals, but then disappear in the scorch marks.
(OOC: Wow! I certainly need to add guidance to my characters' spellbooks!)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Extended sig here. Send me a PM if you want to chat.
Lan lets the brass in his bones subside, scales dulling to slate skin as Stone-whorl settles once more across his palms. He crouches by the threshold without crossing the scorched margin, eyes tracing the peppering of pin-holes in the doors and the blackened earth fanning out before them. Two fingers dab a soot line and he brings it to his nose—recent. “Old towers teach with fire,” he murmurs to Shí-Guāng, thumb on a prayer-ridge of the staff. “These are dragon-mouth vents, not ornaments.”
He straightens and gestures the others back behind the stone pedestals. “No feet on the burnt ground. If we test the knocker, we do it from cover with a long cord—better yet, with unseen hands as Zhang suggests." He glances up the tower’s flank from all sides walking around it. (Perception: 16+2 from guidance)
"Yes, let us move to safety and I can activate when knocker."
After everyone is at a safe distance Zhang casts Mage Hand and Guidance(Arcana). Zhang uses the mage hand to use the knocker. If there is any magical reaction Zhang will attempt to understand it.
(Assuming Zhang told her about the boot marks that fade in the scorch marks - and if not, she'll ask "Well, whaddid you see?")
Xi thinks it odd that the marks would dissappear in the scorch marks. She says "You all check the traps. I'll make sure we don't have visitors.
She watches for intruders and tries to see if she can pick up the trail from the scorch marks
5
Xi quickly inspects the trail of footprints, but fails to draw any further conclusions from that what Zheng has seen.
As the party backs away, Zheng mutters to himself. Out of nowhere, a spectral, translucent hand appears, severed at the wrist and hovering in front of him at chest level. Slowly, Zheng moves it closer and closer to the door, guiding it slowly over the charred landscape and draconic statues. The hand perches on the door, then pulls. The knocker slams back onto the door with a quiet thud. You wait for a second, and nothing happens.
Suddenly, the two draconic statues rapidly turn their heads towards each other. Plumes of fire erupt from their maws, and Zheng's hand disappears behind a wall of flame. The fire lasts for about a minute, when it abruptly vanishes, leaving no trace - other than the deepening swathes of black in front of the door.
The doors swing steadily open, revealing a dark, unlit room behind. Dust shimmers in the twilight air as you carefully walk towards the entrance. The dragons move back to their original positions, allowing you to pass. You step into the wizard's tower, the doors closing quietly behind you. Although the dark ahead obscures your vision (even those with darkvision, the magic suffusing this place seems to impact your sight as far as you can tell), one lit torch flickers quietly in a sconce, illuminating some of what appears to be a long hallway, made of dank stone.
Do you continue into the dark, braving what may lie beyond? Do you stay where you are, petrified? Or, do you turn and flee, hoping to escape? What do you do?
Lan glances along the line of faces, waits a breath, then shrugs and slips past the threshold. Stone-whorl rides low across his forearms like a blind man’s cane; he tests each flagstone before trusting it, shoulders turned to make a narrower target (action dodge). “Keep the torch high and your steps light,” he murmurs back, more habit than command.
He lays his palm to the chill wall and his heel flat to the floor, drawing a slow breath as his lips shape an old dwarven cant. The tower’s weight settles through bone and sinew; he counts heartbeats—one ridge of the staff per beat—and lets the stone speak. For the next span of minutes he moves by feel rather than sight, hugging the right-hand wall, pausing often, listening with his soles and knuckles for the faintest quiver (bonus: Stonecunning). 'Stone remembers', Shí-Guāng rustles in his thoughts. 'Then let it tell us,' he answers inwardly, edging forward, patient as groundwater.
Stonecunning As a Bonus Action, you gain Tremorsense with a range of 60 feet for 10 minutes. You must be on a stone surface or touching a stone surface to use this Tremorsense. The stone can be natural or worked. You can use this Bonus Action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Xi glares at the mention of the Shangs.
"No, I'm sure they wouldn't
Then she smiles.
"Anyway, I was told my Great Grandmother married a golden dragon. Now I know magic and even have golden scales...
She looks embarrased.
"Though modesty prevents my saying where.
Angry look again.
"My parents threw me in the street when my magic started to appear.
She remains sullen.
Zhang looks at Xi with old but kind eyes.
“Times of great fear lead people to cruelty. You must have an extremely strong will to have made it this far. Hopefully we can find a place where we need not hide our blessings.”
The brass throat rumbles with a softer timbre. “I have no spellbook, no sigils,” Lan says, smoke curling in gentle whorls. “I lend ear to river and root, to the long breath of the mountains, and sometimes they answer through me. Ancient dragon-spirits coil in that same deep current; when I ride it, the world tilts just enough to let a wonder slip through. Call it magic if you wish—to me it is kinship, the earth remembering its own voice.”
He lowers his great head so amber eyes meet Xi’s. “Those who fear such voices have forgotten they, too, are woven of the same cloth. Walk on, golden-blood; the forest knows your scales, just as it knows my own.”
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Yawning Portal || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan Shi - Liquid Swords || Syed - Drakkenheim || Kaelthor - Dragonlance ||
Xi listens to the men, emotions warring on her face. Finally she hugs Lan., with her eyes tightly closed to hold back the tears.
"T-Thank you both. *sniff* I'm s-sorry. I tried to hold it in. Where's that blasted tower?"
(OOC: I think DM is on break now so I just want to note that Zhang is concentrating on Hunter's Mark for an hour. So when the game starts up again Zhang and Lan have an hour until their abilities end.)
Zhang has a soft smile on his face.
“Bonds forged in fire will always be strengthened. You should never feel the need to hold back what you think or how you feel.”
After a moment Zhang continues speaking.
“The time that my power is active is limited so I do agree that it might be best to move quickly.”
Zhang continues towards the tower.
(OOC: Thank you all for waiting! Now that I'm back the campaign can get back underfoot)
You dourly trudge up towards the tower of black stone, wishing nothing but curses upon whichever god first invented the wilds. Both bracken and bramble tear at your clothes, leaving cuts lashed across your arms and legs. Hacking through them makes your journey more bearable, but only just, as it seems as if more spring out of the earth to replace those cut down. Now, no path marks the tangled and twisted woods, so you simply continue forward, hoping strongly that you don't find a fissure opening up before you.
Eventually, as the sun begins to set, you reach the tower. Set atop a hill, it stands around a hundred feet high, dominating the surrounding trees. Ivy grows up around it, giving it the appearance of an ancient building. After a minute of walking around it, you find an entrance - a double door, roughly cut into the dark stone. Flanking the doors, seated on pedestals, are two person-sized, once-majestic statues of dragons. Their sinewy coils, made of the same stone as the tower, curve in intricate shapes. Looking again at the doors, you see no keyhole, and they seem to be closed, although on the inner edge of each rests a small notch in which a knocker sits.
Religious frisbee player, writer, goofball, and nerd. Some may say professional for the latter two.
Extended sig here. Send me a PM if you want to chat.
DM: Liquid Swords - A Historical Wuxia Campaign
Player: Marcus Aquillus Arcade (Quil) - 1st Rogue - Pax Romana
Xi sighs & looks at the dragon statues. When she's satisfied they won't bite her, she examines the recessed knockers. Perception 13
Anything unusual?
Zhang is glad to be done with the hike. Zhang also looks over the status for anything interesting. As Xi looks over the knockers Zhang gets her attention.
“Xi, I can move objects from a distance. It might be best to not be next to the door when using the knocker.”
Perception Roll: 20
"Yes, I was wondering how to detect traps without getting trapped myself."
Zheng and Xi inspect the dragons from a distance, ensuring that a simple knock on the door won't trigger any traps requisitioned for unwanted visitors. Observing first the dragons, you see nothing out of order, but, looking more closely at the door, you see several small holes dotting the doors. It's easy to see that something will come out once the knocker is rung. Finally, you look around the door area, which is dark and barren of grass. It's no surprise that you didn't see this upon first inspection - it looks similar enough to the tower's stone that it could have been decorative. But now, you realize that the earth is charred - the foliage here has been burned away, and recently. Someone must have come knocking not too long ago.
Religious frisbee player, writer, goofball, and nerd. Some may say professional for the latter two.
Extended sig here. Send me a PM if you want to chat.
DM: Liquid Swords - A Historical Wuxia Campaign
Player: Marcus Aquillus Arcade (Quil) - 1st Rogue - Pax Romana
Seeing that there might be someone in the area Zhang will point to the recently burnt ground.
“It seems like we might not be alone. If you will indulge me, I would like to take a moment to scout the area before we proceed.”
Zhang channels his God before searching for tracks in the area.
Survival Roll with guidance: 26
Feeling a surge of divine energy, Zhang carefully treads around the tower, carefully looking for any signs of human - or other - presence in the area. About halfway around the tower, he discovers something that he hadn't seen before - faint imprints in the ground, modeling the shape of heavy boots. They go all the way to the entrance, pressed against the tower, and carefully make their way around one of the draconic pedestals, but then disappear in the scorch marks.
(OOC: Wow! I certainly need to add guidance to my characters' spellbooks!)
Religious frisbee player, writer, goofball, and nerd. Some may say professional for the latter two.
Extended sig here. Send me a PM if you want to chat.
DM: Liquid Swords - A Historical Wuxia Campaign
Player: Marcus Aquillus Arcade (Quil) - 1st Rogue - Pax Romana
Lan lets the brass in his bones subside, scales dulling to slate skin as Stone-whorl settles once more across his palms. He crouches by the threshold without crossing the scorched margin, eyes tracing the peppering of pin-holes in the doors and the blackened earth fanning out before them. Two fingers dab a soot line and he brings it to his nose—recent. “Old towers teach with fire,” he murmurs to Shí-Guāng, thumb on a prayer-ridge of the staff. “These are dragon-mouth vents, not ornaments.”
He straightens and gestures the others back behind the stone pedestals. “No feet on the burnt ground. If we test the knocker, we do it from cover with a long cord—better yet, with unseen hands as Zhang suggests." He glances up the tower’s flank from all sides walking around it. (Perception: 16+2 from guidance)
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Yawning Portal || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan Shi - Liquid Swords || Syed - Drakkenheim || Kaelthor - Dragonlance ||
Zhang nods to Lan.
"Yes, let us move to safety and I can activate when knocker."
After everyone is at a safe distance Zhang casts Mage Hand and Guidance(Arcana). Zhang uses the mage hand to use the knocker. If there is any magical reaction Zhang will attempt to understand it.
Arcana Roll: 19
(Assuming Zhang told her about the boot marks that fade in the scorch marks - and if not, she'll ask "Well, whaddid you see?")
Xi thinks it odd that the marks would dissappear in the scorch marks. She says "You all check the traps. I'll make sure we don't have visitors.
She watches for intruders and tries to see if she can pick up the trail from the scorch marks
5
Xi quickly inspects the trail of footprints, but fails to draw any further conclusions from that what Zheng has seen.
As the party backs away, Zheng mutters to himself. Out of nowhere, a spectral, translucent hand appears, severed at the wrist and hovering in front of him at chest level. Slowly, Zheng moves it closer and closer to the door, guiding it slowly over the charred landscape and draconic statues. The hand perches on the door, then pulls. The knocker slams back onto the door with a quiet thud. You wait for a second, and nothing happens.
Suddenly, the two draconic statues rapidly turn their heads towards each other. Plumes of fire erupt from their maws, and Zheng's hand disappears behind a wall of flame. The fire lasts for about a minute, when it abruptly vanishes, leaving no trace - other than the deepening swathes of black in front of the door.
The doors swing steadily open, revealing a dark, unlit room behind. Dust shimmers in the twilight air as you carefully walk towards the entrance. The dragons move back to their original positions, allowing you to pass. You step into the wizard's tower, the doors closing quietly behind you. Although the dark ahead obscures your vision (even those with darkvision, the magic suffusing this place seems to impact your sight as far as you can tell), one lit torch flickers quietly in a sconce, illuminating some of what appears to be a long hallway, made of dank stone.
Do you continue into the dark, braving what may lie beyond? Do you stay where you are, petrified? Or, do you turn and flee, hoping to escape? What do you do?
Religious frisbee player, writer, goofball, and nerd. Some may say professional for the latter two.
Extended sig here. Send me a PM if you want to chat.
DM: Liquid Swords - A Historical Wuxia Campaign
Player: Marcus Aquillus Arcade (Quil) - 1st Rogue - Pax Romana
Lan glances along the line of faces, waits a breath, then shrugs and slips past the threshold. Stone-whorl rides low across his forearms like a blind man’s cane; he tests each flagstone before trusting it, shoulders turned to make a narrower target (action dodge). “Keep the torch high and your steps light,” he murmurs back, more habit than command.
He lays his palm to the chill wall and his heel flat to the floor, drawing a slow breath as his lips shape an old dwarven cant. The tower’s weight settles through bone and sinew; he counts heartbeats—one ridge of the staff per beat—and lets the stone speak. For the next span of minutes he moves by feel rather than sight, hugging the right-hand wall, pausing often, listening with his soles and knuckles for the faintest quiver (bonus: Stonecunning). 'Stone remembers', Shí-Guāng rustles in his thoughts. 'Then let it tell us,' he answers inwardly, edging forward, patient as groundwater.
Stonecunning
As a Bonus Action, you gain Tremorsense with a range of 60 feet for 10 minutes. You must be on a stone surface or touching a stone surface to use this Tremorsense. The stone can be natural or worked.
You can use this Bonus Action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Yawning Portal || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan Shi - Liquid Swords || Syed - Drakkenheim || Kaelthor - Dragonlance ||