This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Aura leaves inside with Winter in her arms, trying to protect the child while dragging the least attention possible to the two of them. She follows the group until they get to the bartender, and then goes upstairs to her room with Ashtear, to help with the search.
Manfred will not follow the more investigatively minded up the stairs, but rather, he will order a tankard of porter and drink it, silently and morosely, as fast as he possibly can.
Albanus nods to the group. "I'll keep watch here with someone until the rest of you are done. Tom - a glass of sweet wine, won't you? Killing trolls is hard work."
Albanus will wait to talk to Tom more after the others have gone upstairs.
Albanus will wait until Manfred's drink is ready, the whole time his eyes trained intensely on Tom. As Tom makes his way back to the bar, Albanus begins to growl, a low rumble as he turns to the Innkeeper's brother. "So, Tom," Albanus begins, voice raspy and guttural. "A few questions about the new....help." His grin belies the gravity and potential violence of the situation.
Albanus walks lazily towards Tom, sharpened claws leaving tiny furrows along the bar top. "Mitne," Albanus whispers, and his eyes turn to black flame, roiling like smoke. (thaumaturgy). "Did you know that the young lass is a succubus?" Albanus asks, lifting a clawed finger up to his eyes to inspect it for damage. He sticks his tongue out and cuts a dark slice down the center. "That she has been controlling your brother, forcing him to serve her...Seen anything strange with your brother lately?" The question hangs in the air, "Maybe..." Albanus slowly pulls back his hood to reveal his crown-of-thorns style horns, a gift of his heritage [[[think Darth Maal, I guess]]] "she makes...you do things as well? Hmmm?" Moving slowly still towards Tom, he continues, "Maybe...she is talking to you right now?"
Albanus slowly, carefully, takes a set of manacles from his pack, "Maybe..." and slams it down on the table. He then takes his holy symbol - until now unseen by the rest - a multicoloured metallic disk and sets it on the table. "...she wants you to" unfastening the daggers he stabs it into the bar with each word, "hurt...us?"
Finally, Albanus takes a hammer and wooden stakes out and tests the points, flinching as one stake breaks the skin. He looks back at Tom, allowing the irritation and anger come to the fore, he says, "I think you better start talking.....now! Ukris! Ordah!" The last two draconic words are used to amplify his voice and shake the ground. The visage of Albanus is terrifying and is meant to be; Albanus, who seems impossibly tall and silhouetted, eyes trailing black smoke, growls again at Tom to answer the questions.
Aura leaves inside with Winter in her arms, trying to protect the child while dragging the least attention possible to the two of them. She follows the group until they get to the bartender, and then goes upstairs to her room with Ashtear, to help with the search.
(Using Ashtear's Investigation): 27
With the two of you looking, thankfully it does not take long to find the missing papers, having been stuffed beneath the mattress. Quickly putting them into place alongside Dain only takes a few extra moments, and suddenly things become very clear for all three of you.
The missing pages elude to the summoning of succubi via a third party, made almost solely for the purpose of summoning them. This creature is extrememly unique, and does not occur naturally, instead being a minor thought experiment of this wizards tome. Once crafted and summoning has begun, the succubi have a powerful connection to the souls that they steal with a kiss. With those souls, if one were so inclined, one could craft them into shadows, turning everyday farmers into killing machines, and continuing to serve the succubi even in death. It goes on a little further giving the details of creating the creature, including two powerful spell books, a hide of a creature none of you have heard of, as well as a Black pudding which you may have at least heard about before.
As Albanus speaks, Tom begins getting smaller and smaller, shrinking back as the Tiefling continues his questioning. He keeps his head hung, as if trying to avoid eye contact with Albanus throughout the exchange, before very slowly bringing his glance up to meet Albanus eyes.
Right, spose I should be. I had a feeling there was something up with them, just couldnt put my finger on it. I might be quite a bit older from my days in the Watch, but I'll have you know, I'm still just as tough now as I was then. And I promise you I aint let any of those demons get to me. Promise ya, still got me wits about me. If what youre saying is true, me brothers in a heap of a mess. I got a feeling something else is a brewing tho, cause if the troll be dead, why is the keeps doors still closed?
Sitting there, drinking his drink, Manfred watches the exchange between Albanus and Tom with apathy, shaking his head with a bit of judgement about how theatrical Albanus's performance is, a glimmer of the old bard shining through.
After hearing Tom's comment about how the keep is locked, though, Manfred sits bolt upright. "Gods! Their machine! Albanus -- we've got to get into that keep. It doesn't matter one damned iota if we give those infernal creatures the journal or not -- they hold all the cards, and they're going to infect the town no matter what we do. We need to free those people before we go anywhere near the succubus's lair."
Before they start investigating, Aura leaves Winter sitting on her bed, so she can be of proper help.
A few minutes later, when all the pages have been found and all the story has been completed for them to see, Aura turns to the ones who were upstairs. "So... I guess this is all we needed, right? There's some kind of a third party who summoned the succubi, I guess? But... It doesn't really tell us anything new to stop them, right?"
As Albanus speaks, Tom begins getting smaller and smaller, shrinking back as the Tiefling continues his questioning. He keeps his head hung, as if trying to avoid eye contact with Albanus throughout the exchange, before very slowly bringing his glance up to meet Albanus eyes.
Right, spose I should be. I had a feeling there was something up with them, just couldnt put my finger on it. I might be quite a bit older from my days in the Watch, but I'll have you know, I'm still just as tough now as I was then. And I promise you I aint let any of those demons get to me. Promise ya, still got me wits about me. If what youre saying is true, me brothers in a heap of a mess. I got a feeling something else is a brewing tho, cause if the troll be dead, why is the keeps doors still closed?
Albanus eases off the halfling as he speaks, nodding at the halfling's reasoning. "Well, I'm not sure you'd really know if she got to you, as you say. They're quite insidious and subtle. Regardless, it's too late to worry about that now. " Putting the items back into their places, Albanus concurs with Manfred's line of thought. "Right. Now, Tom. You have an opportunity to dust off your skills and help us get in that keep. Do you know of a way in?" Albanus quickly outlines what they believe the succubi have planned for the town. "Anything you can do to help, Tom." Albanus pauses for a moment before continuing, "Tom, the shed out back. There's no secret tunnels or anything in there that lead to the keep, by any chance? Or any quick ways to get into that keep? Think!"
He glances upstairs, wondering if his friends were successful in finding Johan's missing pages...
Dain grumbles under his breath as the entirety of the story is shown to him with the pages back in their proper place. "So someone brought these demons here?" He says out loud. "Who would be doing such?" He glances to the one with the journal. "Anything in the journal about a person that might be behind all of this?"
"Yeah... not sure how this helps.. Except for one thing... it makes me trust Johan a little less now." Ashtear states, although she's not entirely sure where to go or how to go about it. However, she leaves it unsaid that she now considers the possiblity that we murdered her family in the barn when we killed the shades. However, she'll never mention that outloud due to Winter. She also now believes that Johan may be a shade as well-
Tom scatches his head, quite obviously deep in thought. He takes a few moments to collect his thoughts, before grabbing a set of keys hanging behind the bar. Nothing in the shed, but thankfully I kept my key to the old emergency escape hatch on the other side of the wall there. Just in case somethin happened to the current watch ya know? Anyway, I'll show you the way, quickly now, time is of the utmost importance.
With that he heads over and opens the main door, nodding to survivor and checking quickly to make sure the coast is clear, before turning back and signaling for you all to follow him.
"Do we trust this man not to be infected?" Dain asks as the group follows. "This could easily be the demons controlling him and a trap you know..." He gives a smile at the idea though, clearly still willing to go along, but wanting to make sure the others knew the score.
Manfred shrugs, seemingly resigned. "To be quite honest, I see nothing but traps at the moment. Janice's house is a trap, the keep is a trap, that troll was a trap. At least the keep offers a chance to stop those creatures. Besides, its one old man. Exactly how tough could he be?" He says with a smirk, even now his slight cattiness showing through.
Albanus follows after the dwarf, following the innkeepers brother. Sparing a glance at the rest of the group [im assuming they’ve come downstairs] , Albanus smirks at Manfred. “I hope you have something special penned, music man, for you and I are about to make this fiend pay dearly...”. The promise of vengeance is unmistakable in Albanus’ voice, and also something else. Something...more. Gravelly and grating, Manfred’s practiced ear would surely hear the ominous tritone laying just under the sorcerer’s words. He is ready to proceed when all others are.
Aura picks Winter back in her arms again and then follows Dain downstairs. Once they're planning on leaving, she'd be walking just in front of Survivor but behind the others.
Manfred will nod at Albanus gravely, twirling his flute through his fingers almost absent-mindedly. "They have taken much from me this past day. I look forward to doing much the same to them."
He will stand in the middle of the group, probably in front of Aura but definitely behind the front line of the group.
As the Halfling leads you all out of the inn and towards one of the far walls away from the keep, he makes several lools around, occasionally making a quiet call for any guards, but only silence is there to answer him. He shakes his head every time and curses under his breath, clearly worried given the information hes been given in the past few minutes.
After a few minutes you all finally arrive at a small, albeit strangely coloured patch of grass, that the former Watch member wastes no time in kicking aside to reveal a hidden trap door. The halfing then takes the set of keys and pulls off a very particular silver key from the key ring and grasps it firmly for a moment.
Knew I might need it one day again, just in case something did happen to the current Watch. Real glad I held onto it now. He says as he bends down and unlocks the trap door before handing the key off to whomever is closest and yanking the old door open. Immediately the old smell of rot and decay hits you. The small opening is barely lit as the sun has begun to just drift behind the wandering hills, and beyond the first few feet, the tunnel is pitch black.
Right then, now its a pretty straight shot there from here, only thing between you and the lowest level of the keep is one door with another lock, and unfortunateIy dont have the key for that one. Sorry bout that. Now I'll stay right here in case the situation changes, or in case someone tries sneaking up on you all from behind, i can inform you all quick as I can! Not only that but this halfing is getting too old to be jumping into dangerous fights against demons and the like.
(The tunnel has no light source, so without darkvision or your own light source, some of you wont be seeing a whole lot.)
Going through the tunnel for just a few minutes you discover the door that the halfing had told you all about. However, where he had described just a simple door, this one looks much more complex, with intricate markings on it. What's more apparent though, is the life like bust carved out of stone and mounted on the door. Perhaps more unsettling is the fact that it looks like a detailed bust of a succubus, with two lines of text written beneath it in some strange and foreign languages. (Does anyone speak Abyssal or Infernal?)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Survivor will remain near the door of the inn, watching the road.
Aura leaves inside with Winter in her arms, trying to protect the child while dragging the least attention possible to the two of them. She follows the group until they get to the bartender, and then goes upstairs to her room with Ashtear, to help with the search.
(Using Ashtear's Investigation): 15
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Dain pulls out the manuscript, ready to piece the missing pages back into it, to get the data in the correct order.
Manfred will not follow the more investigatively minded up the stairs, but rather, he will order a tankard of porter and drink it, silently and morosely, as fast as he possibly can.
Albanus will wait until Manfred's drink is ready, the whole time his eyes trained intensely on Tom. As Tom makes his way back to the bar, Albanus begins to growl, a low rumble as he turns to the Innkeeper's brother. "So, Tom," Albanus begins, voice raspy and guttural. "A few questions about the new....help." His grin belies the gravity and potential violence of the situation.
Albanus walks lazily towards Tom, sharpened claws leaving tiny furrows along the bar top. "Mitne," Albanus whispers, and his eyes turn to black flame, roiling like smoke. (thaumaturgy). "Did you know that the young lass is a succubus?" Albanus asks, lifting a clawed finger up to his eyes to inspect it for damage. He sticks his tongue out and cuts a dark slice down the center. "That she has been controlling your brother, forcing him to serve her...Seen anything strange with your brother lately?" The question hangs in the air, "Maybe..." Albanus slowly pulls back his hood to reveal his crown-of-thorns style horns, a gift of his heritage [[[think Darth Maal, I guess]]] "she makes...you do things as well? Hmmm?" Moving slowly still towards Tom, he continues, "Maybe...she is talking to you right now?"
Albanus slowly, carefully, takes a set of manacles from his pack, "Maybe..." and slams it down on the table. He then takes his holy symbol - until now unseen by the rest - a multicoloured metallic disk and sets it on the table. "...she wants you to" unfastening the daggers he stabs it into the bar with each word, "hurt...us?"
Finally, Albanus takes a hammer and wooden stakes out and tests the points, flinching as one stake breaks the skin. He looks back at Tom, allowing the irritation and anger come to the fore, he says, "I think you better start talking.....now! Ukris! Ordah!" The last two draconic words are used to amplify his voice and shake the ground. The visage of Albanus is terrifying and is meant to be; Albanus, who seems impossibly tall and silhouetted, eyes trailing black smoke, growls again at Tom to answer the questions.
DM - And In The Darkness, Rot: The Sunless Citadel
DM - Our Little Lives Kept In Equipoise: Curse of Strahd
DM - Misprize Thou Not These Shadows That Belong: The Lost Mines of Phandelver
PC - Azzure - Tyranny of Dragons
With the two of you looking, thankfully it does not take long to find the missing papers, having been stuffed beneath the mattress. Quickly putting them into place alongside Dain only takes a few extra moments, and suddenly things become very clear for all three of you.
The missing pages elude to the summoning of succubi via a third party, made almost solely for the purpose of summoning them. This creature is extrememly unique, and does not occur naturally, instead being a minor thought experiment of this wizards tome. Once crafted and summoning has begun, the succubi have a powerful connection to the souls that they steal with a kiss. With those souls, if one were so inclined, one could craft them into shadows, turning everyday farmers into killing machines, and continuing to serve the succubi even in death. It goes on a little further giving the details of creating the creature, including two powerful spell books, a hide of a creature none of you have heard of, as well as a Black pudding which you may have at least heard about before.
As Albanus speaks, Tom begins getting smaller and smaller, shrinking back as the Tiefling continues his questioning. He keeps his head hung, as if trying to avoid eye contact with Albanus throughout the exchange, before very slowly bringing his glance up to meet Albanus eyes.
Right, spose I should be. I had a feeling there was something up with them, just couldnt put my finger on it. I might be quite a bit older from my days in the Watch, but I'll have you know, I'm still just as tough now as I was then. And I promise you I aint let any of those demons get to me. Promise ya, still got me wits about me. If what youre saying is true, me brothers in a heap of a mess. I got a feeling something else is a brewing tho, cause if the troll be dead, why is the keeps doors still closed?
Sitting there, drinking his drink, Manfred watches the exchange between Albanus and Tom with apathy, shaking his head with a bit of judgement about how theatrical Albanus's performance is, a glimmer of the old bard shining through.
After hearing Tom's comment about how the keep is locked, though, Manfred sits bolt upright. "Gods! Their machine! Albanus -- we've got to get into that keep. It doesn't matter one damned iota if we give those infernal creatures the journal or not -- they hold all the cards, and they're going to infect the town no matter what we do. We need to free those people before we go anywhere near the succubus's lair."
Before they start investigating, Aura leaves Winter sitting on her bed, so she can be of proper help.
A few minutes later, when all the pages have been found and all the story has been completed for them to see, Aura turns to the ones who were upstairs. "So... I guess this is all we needed, right? There's some kind of a third party who summoned the succubi, I guess? But... It doesn't really tell us anything new to stop them, right?"
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Albanus eases off the halfling as he speaks, nodding at the halfling's reasoning. "Well, I'm not sure you'd really know if she got to you, as you say. They're quite insidious and subtle. Regardless, it's too late to worry about that now. " Putting the items back into their places, Albanus concurs with Manfred's line of thought. "Right. Now, Tom. You have an opportunity to dust off your skills and help us get in that keep. Do you know of a way in?" Albanus quickly outlines what they believe the succubi have planned for the town. "Anything you can do to help, Tom." Albanus pauses for a moment before continuing, "Tom, the shed out back. There's no secret tunnels or anything in there that lead to the keep, by any chance? Or any quick ways to get into that keep? Think!"
He glances upstairs, wondering if his friends were successful in finding Johan's missing pages...
DM - And In The Darkness, Rot: The Sunless Citadel
DM - Our Little Lives Kept In Equipoise: Curse of Strahd
DM - Misprize Thou Not These Shadows That Belong: The Lost Mines of Phandelver
PC - Azzure - Tyranny of Dragons
Dain grumbles under his breath as the entirety of the story is shown to him with the pages back in their proper place. "So someone brought these demons here?" He says out loud. "Who would be doing such?" He glances to the one with the journal. "Anything in the journal about a person that might be behind all of this?"
"Yeah... not sure how this helps.. Except for one thing... it makes me trust Johan a little less now." Ashtear states, although she's not entirely sure where to go or how to go about it. However, she leaves it unsaid that she now considers the possiblity that we murdered her family in the barn when we killed the shades. However, she'll never mention that outloud due to Winter. She also now believes that Johan may be a shade as well-
Tom scatches his head, quite obviously deep in thought. He takes a few moments to collect his thoughts, before grabbing a set of keys hanging behind the bar. Nothing in the shed, but thankfully I kept my key to the old emergency escape hatch on the other side of the wall there. Just in case somethin happened to the current watch ya know? Anyway, I'll show you the way, quickly now, time is of the utmost importance.
With that he heads over and opens the main door, nodding to survivor and checking quickly to make sure the coast is clear, before turning back and signaling for you all to follow him.
"Do we trust this man not to be infected?" Dain asks as the group follows. "This could easily be the demons controlling him and a trap you know..." He gives a smile at the idea though, clearly still willing to go along, but wanting to make sure the others knew the score.
Manfred shrugs, seemingly resigned. "To be quite honest, I see nothing but traps at the moment. Janice's house is a trap, the keep is a trap, that troll was a trap. At least the keep offers a chance to stop those creatures. Besides, its one old man. Exactly how tough could he be?" He says with a smirk, even now his slight cattiness showing through.
"Hey, I'm all for going." Dain says with a grin. "Just making sure you all were ready for the trap if it is one..." He follows Tom.
Albanus follows after the dwarf, following the innkeepers brother. Sparing a glance at the rest of the group [im assuming they’ve come downstairs] , Albanus smirks at Manfred. “I hope you have something special penned, music man, for you and I are about to make this fiend pay dearly...”. The promise of vengeance is unmistakable in Albanus’ voice, and also something else. Something...more. Gravelly and grating, Manfred’s practiced ear would surely hear the ominous tritone laying just under the sorcerer’s words. He is ready to proceed when all others are.
DM - And In The Darkness, Rot: The Sunless Citadel
DM - Our Little Lives Kept In Equipoise: Curse of Strahd
DM - Misprize Thou Not These Shadows That Belong: The Lost Mines of Phandelver
PC - Azzure - Tyranny of Dragons
Survivor will continue to watch the street while the others prepare, and then follow at the rear of the group.
Aura picks Winter back in her arms again and then follows Dain downstairs. Once they're planning on leaving, she'd be walking just in front of Survivor but behind the others.
(She/Her)
Velmine - Tiefling, Rogue (9), Swashbuckler - Dead in Thay
Riris Swiftwhistle - Halfling, Bard (4), College of Swords - Lost Mines of Phandelver
Rellahne Vanderboren - Half-Elf, Wizard (4), School of Abjuration - The Shackled City
Ann Hidrizo - Human, Fighter (2) - Amphail Adventures
Sha - Firbolg, Cleric (3), Twilight Domain - Hunt for the Wish Dragon
Manfred will nod at Albanus gravely, twirling his flute through his fingers almost absent-mindedly. "They have taken much from me this past day. I look forward to doing much the same to them."
He will stand in the middle of the group, probably in front of Aura but definitely behind the front line of the group.
As the Halfling leads you all out of the inn and towards one of the far walls away from the keep, he makes several lools around, occasionally making a quiet call for any guards, but only silence is there to answer him. He shakes his head every time and curses under his breath, clearly worried given the information hes been given in the past few minutes.
After a few minutes you all finally arrive at a small, albeit strangely coloured patch of grass, that the former Watch member wastes no time in kicking aside to reveal a hidden trap door. The halfing then takes the set of keys and pulls off a very particular silver key from the key ring and grasps it firmly for a moment.
Knew I might need it one day again, just in case something did happen to the current Watch. Real glad I held onto it now. He says as he bends down and unlocks the trap door before handing the key off to whomever is closest and yanking the old door open. Immediately the old smell of rot and decay hits you. The small opening is barely lit as the sun has begun to just drift behind the wandering hills, and beyond the first few feet, the tunnel is pitch black.
Right then, now its a pretty straight shot there from here, only thing between you and the lowest level of the keep is one door with another lock, and unfortunateIy dont have the key for that one. Sorry bout that. Now I'll stay right here in case the situation changes, or in case someone tries sneaking up on you all from behind, i can inform you all quick as I can! Not only that but this halfing is getting too old to be jumping into dangerous fights against demons and the like.
(The tunnel has no light source, so without darkvision or your own light source, some of you wont be seeing a whole lot.)
Going through the tunnel for just a few minutes you discover the door that the halfing had told you all about. However, where he had described just a simple door, this one looks much more complex, with intricate markings on it. What's more apparent though, is the life like bust carved out of stone and mounted on the door. Perhaps more unsettling is the fact that it looks like a detailed bust of a succubus, with two lines of text written beneath it in some strange and foreign languages. (Does anyone speak Abyssal or Infernal?)