Ghosts of Saltmarsh (cbaer8) - Campaign Thread

Dwal moves over the the yellow robed man, takes out his rope. Dwal will bind the mans hands, behind his back. Dwal will then take out a dagger and cut a piece of the robe off and stuff it in the man's mouth.

"Don't want him yelling out any spells and such." Dwal states.

Once bound Dwal will search the man to relieve him of anything but his robes. Dwal will especially look for any Holy Symbols the man might have.

Gerrard:

Continuing to guard the way out, Gerrard will keep up his blocking maneuver, at least for now.  If everyone comes into the room he will enter as well, closing the door behind him and standing in front of it to clock the elf’s escape.

He also considers who or what this Tharizdun entity may be the old man was ranting about.

History:  10

Peri:

"Hold on just a second -- I gotta retrieve our unconscious friend from up top," he tells Gerrard before slipping past him and up the stairs. He finds the knocked-out card player where he left her and ties her hands. Taking a cue from Dwal he cuts a gag from her clothes and stuffs her mouth. He drags her to the top of the stairs, then remembers to go search Ogmund's body for anything useful. Big tough guy like this might be holdin a key. Then he returns to the woman and begins dragging her back down the stairs and into the room with the others.

Boko silently raises a hand to indicate the door that had just slammed open in the southeast of the room, looking bewilderedly at the party. “We still have unfinished business. Perhaps he will surrender.”

She dispels the faerie fire that she somehow cast in the entirely wrong location despite hearing the fancy man moving elsewhere, and moves to the door, now open. She calls out, nonchalantly, “it is over. You have lost. We have you outnumbered and your choices dwindle. Surrender, become visible, and tell us all we wish to know, and you will live to see another day. Refuse, and your story ends. I sense you want to have more days and more stories, so choose wisely.” If she hears nothing in response, or hears something hostile, she casts faerie fire again on the door, trying to reveal the situation.

Peri and Dwal bind and gag the priest, who is beginning to regain consciousness. 

Slipping by Gerrard's blockade and stepping outside, Peri discovers that the unconscious cards woman, whom he left at the edge of the ruins, has vanished. It is getting dark out, and visibility is limited, but the woman is nowhere to be seen.

Boko hears nothing in response to her terms. The newly opened room, cleaned of debris, features a stone table on the west wall lit by a large iron brazier; the table has been scrubbed and scoured, but it has many odd discolorations and scorch marks. A half-melted statue and two badly damaged candlesticks sit beside the brazier. The thick black velvet draperies hang still. 

Boko conjures a new round of flourescent flames in the area around the newly-opened door. The room lights up with an unearthly glow, but no invisible creatures are revealed.

Gerrard rolls the name "Tharizdun" around in his head but can't make any solid connections. He remembers a local milliner in Seaton who had a name something like that. (Or did it begin with an "S"? He forgets.)

Boko persuasion: 8

Perception for any dangers or traps in the room: 17

Investigation assuming no dangers or traps: 14

Looking a little more thoroughly at the newly opened room, Boko doesn't see anything that suggests danger or a trap, at least on this side of the heavy black curtains which line the walls. The (lit) brazier (iron), candlesticks (gold?), and statue (silver?) were clearly badly damaged in the heat of the fire (the statue unrecognizably melted) but it looks as though this table has been used more recently for some sort of prayers or rituals. A set of old, parallel scratches is seen on the floor in one corner of the chamber, as if something heavy was once repeatedly dragged across it. Everything glows with faerie fire, making the chamber even more alien and unnerving.

There is no response from the invisible man. Nor are any new sounds detected.

"Biscuits!' cries out the yellow priest in a slur, half-conscious. He wears a large, gaudy, golden disk or medallion around his neck, and has an (unused) mace strapped to his hip that looks as ceremonial as it does functional.

Peri scratches his head at the missing woman. It will soon be pitch black outside. A wall of dark clouds approaches from the east.

Peri:

Peri scratches his head in puzzlement over the missing cards woman. She had been completely unconscious only a minute or two earlier, dead weight as he'd dragged her away from the steps. No way she got up on her own, not after getting her skull cracked like that. Which means someone else must have been up here and dragged her away. Or worse, healed her and now they're both up here. As the sky darkens and the weather turns nasty in the east, he is grateful to whichever fey patron granted him his Devil's Sight. The darker the better for me, he thinks. While those he's tracking may or may not be able to see in the dark as well as Dwal, he can like it's broad daylight. Well, out to bowshot range anyway. He goes back to the top of the stairs and says quietly to Gerrard, "That cards woman, the first one we knocked out, she's gone. Someone must've taken her. I'm going to take a quick lookaround to see if I can figure out where they went." He goes to check on Ogmund, to be sure he's still dead and go through his clothes for anything that might be useful. Then he heads back to the spot he left the woman and begins searching the sleet and snow for any trail she might have left behind. He quietly 9Stealth 16) works his way around the spot in widening circles. (Perception 7, second roll just in case the snowy ground gives him Advantage 11)

Gerrard:

Nodding at Peri, Gerrard says, “I will continue to stay alert here and block the door in case the invisible elf is still trapped in here with us.”  They young noble’s weapons are still out and shedding light as he stays alert for danger, seen or unseen.

In the deepening gloom, Peri goes through Ogmund's pockets, but all he finds is a tooth on a string and a handful of dried fish. Then, silently investigating the spot where he left the unconscious cards woman, he soon discovers drag marks in the patchy sleet nearby. Carefully following them around part of the burned foundation, he learns where the now-conscious woman evidently crawled to – behind a low wall and pile of bricks inside the exposed ruins. She cowers, still half-lying on the ground, expecting to die at the hands of her discoverer, and holds her hands in front of her face.

Gerrard continues to try to block the stairwell, insuring that no invisible occupants will attempt to escape. The ten-foot-wide stairwell is a little too wide to completely block at once, so he must maintain an unpredictable dance to try to catch any stray escapees.

Dwal relieves the priest of his golden disk and mace. He also removes a crude iron ring with a spiral insignia similar to the dead acolyte's necklace. He has nothing in his pockets except a comb.

Dwal looks around

"Peri lad," he says when he sees Peri. "Could ya take a look around ta see if'n there is any magic around us. Priests and Wizards are craft folk an' I don't trust yella breeches just randomly callin' out "Biscuits". I am concerned it might be a command word fer somethin'"

Peri:

Peri eyes the woman warily. She looks broken and defeated, but he remembers the "woman" in the dwarven hold looked helpless too. Maybe he should hit her again and knock her out to be safe. On the other hand, he'd feel like a monster clubbing down a defenseless woman. But then, on the other other hand, it might all be moot in the end; if she turned out to be a pirate he'd be fitting anoose around her neck soon anyway. Not sure about cultists, though, whether they deserved hanging or not. He supposed it depended on the cult's actions.

He decides to split the difference; he won't knock her out again, but he's not going to let her walk in untied either. "Get down on the ground, put your hands behind your back, and don't say a word or I'll crack your melon. Some of your friends are dead, but some are still alive and we don't go killin people for the joy of it. So if you don't force our hand, you might walk away from this with a sore head and bad memories." (Assuming she complies) He ties her hands behind her back, watching her like a cat at a mousehole. He has an Unarmed Strike on a hair-trigger, ready to knock her out if she struggles or attempts to speak. He helps her to her feet and guides her back to the stairs. "I found 'er," he calls to Gerrard. "Bringing her down now."

At Dwal's request he uses his Eldritch Sight to look around for any magical auras. He'll make a circuit of the room to be sure he covers everything, and look at each body to see if anything they're carrying looks magical.

Gerrard:

When Peri returns, Gerrard closes the doors behind all of them and remains alert for the invisible foe, but he sheathes his Main Gauche and ceases his weaving back and forth to try and block an invisible foe’s passage.  Leaning against the  closed door, he watches and listen as the others start searching and questioning the captives.  

Taking a deep breath, he asks, “Who is this Tharizdun the crazy old cultist wanted to feed us to?”

Dwal ponders Gerrard's question:

Religion: 20 13

"If'n we need ta, we could move that table ta help block tha door." Dwal suggests.

Gerrard:

”Good thinking, Brother Fiercehammer,” says Gerrard, helping put the table in place.  “Shall we search first or question the cultists?”

Kei 

He leaves his more noble companions to interrogate the prisoners for fear he may not stop at questioning. "There's enough of you to question a few broken bad guys, I'ma checkout these rooms. Peri? Care to join or you feel more like talking?" 

He wanders off to the room where Spidey-Boko crawled under the door. He grasps his Mask medallion as he makes his way across the main chamber and whispers a prayer hoping his god may help is efforts.

Once inside the room he searches for anything of interest - paying particular attention to anything resembling a hidden compartment.

Investigation Unable to parse dice roll.

The battered acolyte complies, allowing Peri to bind her hands in the sleet-covered ruins outside, even as she throws daggers at him with her eyes.

Carefully inspecting the room below with his Eldritch Sight, Peri finds a variety of small magical signatures behind each of the four doorways leading north. In the open room that Kei is interested in, Peri sees magic emanating from a pair of fine boots sitting next to a bed, and something just under the floor nearby. He also detects an Illusion of some kind just behind the south wall, in the extreme southwest corner. But none of the defeated cultists, dead or alive, seem to carry anything arcane.

Gerrard finds that the battered door no longer closes properly, but it should at least alert them of danger should it open again.

Kei examines the open room which Bokospider had visited earlier. Empty weapon racks and several empty bins and shelves line the walls of this room. On the floor is a bedroll of three blankets next to a pair of shiny leather boots. Kei also notices a loose stone in the floor nearby.

Dwal hands everything he finds on the priest to Peri.
"Spoils of war lad," he tells the halfling.
Dwal then starts to pull the table over to the door to brace the sagging, broken door.

Athletics: 15

"If'n we don't find tha last one we'll surely have ta deal with 'em later on." he says.

Peri:

Peri completes his once-over of the room and notices Kei examining a loose stone where he'd seen a magical aura. "Careful -- there's something magical under there. And those boots aren't just nice to look at; they're magical too. You can probably ask your dwarf buddy to give 'em a look and see what they do, but he might make you stop callin him Fiercebeard."

He walks over to the aforementioned Fiercebeard. "Kei's lookin at somethin under the floor over there, and those boots are magic too. Each of those other rooms to the north have somethin magical in 'em, but we'll have to check 'em out to see what's in there. Don't tell Kei, though; you know how he gets when he hears about treasure. He'll run right in without waitin for everyone to get ready first. Other than that the only magic is comin from behind that wall over there." He indicates the area. "It's some kinda illusion, but I can't tell if it's comin from a hidden nook in the wall or somethin in a room on the other side."

He studies the pair of prisoners and decides it's probably best to leave the priest gagged. The woman has so far complied with his order to stay quiet, so maybe she'll answer some questions. Or maybe she's just sullen and doesn't have anything to say. "You can see for yourself most of your people are dead. We don't wanna kill anyone we don't have to, but we do mean to clear this place out. We know about the invisible guy -- he's the one with the fancy sword, but doesn't know how to use it -- real sharp dresser though. Is there anybody else down here? I don't want some fool cook jumpin out with a knife, surprisin us and gettin herself killed."

((Edited to mention the magic items from the other rooms. It pays to read all the words in a description!))

As Gerrard helps him move the makeshift table (burned planks and empty barrels) to barricade the cockeyed doors (and moving the old man's unconscious form out of the way, together with a dead guard's body), Dwal considers what he has heard about Tharizdun. The god of Eternal Darkness, Decay, Entropy, Malign Knowledge, Insanity, and Cold, Tharizdun was said to have been imprisoned long ago in some black plane. Nevertheless, this ancient deity of darkness, sometimes known as "The Chained God", still is said to have ways to reach its half-mad followers in the Material Plane.

The cards woman sits nervously next to the priest, where Peri dragged her; the yellow priest is still only semi-conscious. She initially refuses to answer Peri's questions, and instead looks around nervously. Finally, she speaks with a quiet rasp: "Ozymandius needs medicine. Heal him and he will have answers." She nods with deference to the yellow priest.

(Note to map: Magic was detected by Peri behind all three closed doors to the north, as well as from the boots and under the loose stone in the open room to the north. The illusion is somewhere several feet on the other side of the south wall of the main room, near the door to the black velvet room, behind that pile of rubbish.)