Onyx was getting ready to cast his spell, when Grahl intervened. He was grateful, and prepared to continue, but then noticed Grahl looking toward his leg.
And then Grahl began to search.
His flask-holding hand now empty, Onxy put it on Grahl's shoulder. "What you're probably looking for," he said, "is what I intend to remove. If you hold him for me, we can get it out before it kills him."
Arbon takes a step forward as Grahl continues his interrogation and search of the once captured orc. "What is it, my short-tempered friend? What did you see?" He looks around the room once again, looking for any signs of trouble to come from the birds, or the woman, or the other individual skulking in the back.
The woman doesn't seem to be listening to your conversation, overwhelmed with joy as Urithag struggles violently, to no avail. Onyx and Grahl may do whatever they wish to this defeated former ally. The birds continue grazing and the other at the back of the room moved on back to the rituals after the reevaluation of your intentions.
As Grahl searches he hears Onyx say he wants to get it out of him. Out of.. bwah.Grahl did not expect it to be inside the orc.
(assuming the grapple still holds Urithag) Grahl will hold the orc so Onyx can retrieve the relic. Do it..he says as he leans on Urithag to keep him steady. Grahl can cut out too.
Taking a scrap of torn cloth, Onyx quickly wrapped it around the orc's large toe and tightened it as much as he could, for a makeshift tourniquet. The warlock then quickly cast two more spells, before taking more cloth, and covering his hand and fingers as he picked up the hot scalpel. "I'll try to make it fast," he said apologetically as a spectral hand followed his back over to Urithag. Determined to not waste a second, he dove onto the orc's toe, and immediately began to cut it off.
(( Onyx cast Mage Hand, then Guidance. The mage hand will help him apply downward force on the toe, hopefully giving some sort of bonus on the attempt? The guidance will allow an extra d4 to the ability check. I'm not sure which check is appropriate, but the bonus for a straight STR check, Medicine and Athletics are all the same for Onyx, so if it's one of them, this should do it:
(( That was terrible. I think Onyx till has inspiration (it's on his character sheet at least.) If the DM concurs, I'll go ahead and use it to re-roll that check:11 ))
Onyx's attempt to perform surgery goes about as well as it would in this cave setting. Though the knife is sharp, you're precision is less so, creating many visible tears like trying to cut a piece of paper with a butter knife. Sepsis begins to set in the moment the toe comes free as the limb slips, touching the dirty floor to his ruined foot. The orc then starts to loss color in his face as the blood begins to spill. Grahl also notices the struggle to hold him lessen as the wound spurts like a clogged water fountain coughing from too much pressure with nowhere to go but a small hole.
The orc is dying but the toe, and subsequent treasure within, is free. The oracles and birds continued to watch on in previously stated disinterest or distraction, unaware of the surgery's actual progress.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Quickly pocketing the toe to get it out of the way, Onyx reached for the flask, then opened it, leaving it ready. The spectral hand floated back over to the iron that was still upon the dying flames, lifting it and bringing it to his wrapped hand. Again trying to be swift, Onyx doused the fresh wound with a dose of alcohol from the flask, then immediately pressed the flat of the iron against it to cauterize the wound. "I'm so sorry," he said through clenched teeth as he did his best to not flinch at the orc's sounds, or the smell of burning flesh.
Once the entire wound was closed, the warlock propped the foot up on his own knee. Now having a bit more time, he applied another dose of alcohol, cast another couple of spells, then took the rest of the tougher cloth and began wrapping the toe, and finally the entire foot, as best he could. Finished, he stood back up and wiped his brow. He hadn't realized he'd been sweating.
(( OOC: Onyx cast Prestidigitation to clean up any residue on the toe, then Guidance to help with the final bandaging. Another Medicine Check if needed: 19 ))
"That should about do it," he said. "I honestly can't tell you how long of a recovery you'll have--but you should live now."
He thought of berating the orc for his actions that had led to his current situation, but stopped himself. He just shook his head. He was no priest or cleric, after all--it wasn't HIS place to preach to the warrior, or to judge him, or even to nag him onto the right path. Hopefully the loss of his digit, and the recovery from the surgery, would be enough to temper his more brash instincts.
(( Onyx will wait to see that the orc doesn't suffer further injury; he'll offer him a ration and some water after a bit, presuming he'd want to rest some first. ))
Again trying to be swift, Onyx doused the fresh wound with a dose of alcohol from the flask, then immediately pressed the flat of the iron against it to cauterize the wound. "I'm so-
-The Warrior's screams evolve, rising out of the guttural yell into a pitch higher than thought possible for a male orc. With the shrill cry of steam escaping the world's smallest hole on its largest tea kettle, Urithag passes out. The bleeding is then stopped, Onyx properly banding his toe in the moments after.
The oracle returns from her laughter, aware of Urithag being knocked out. "Well that was entertaining. I'll be taking his body now, you are all free to do whatever you wish so long as it doesn't involve killing any birds or goats." She motions towards him for you to back away from his body so she might approach safely and collect it.
"Because there was something that he had hidden in there that was killing him," sighed Onyx, "And it was either quickly remove it, or waste time trying to be gentle and remove it, while possibly causing more damage. As I'm clearly not a doctor, I figured the speedier route was less likely to wind up with him dead."
As if to illustrate his point, Onyx retrieved the large toe from his pocket. Picking up the scalpel, he began to slice and poke and prod into it, taking his time, and becoming intently focused on finding and dislodging the gemstone hidden inside.
(( When finished, Onyx will clean up the gemstone and hold it up for all to see, before putting it back into his pocket. ))
As he wrapped up the toe in the last of the cloth scraps, the warlock seemed to suddenly remember where they were, and turned to the woman. "Where are you taking him?"he asked, a bit gruffly. "I didn't go through all that just to let you kill him... or torture him for eternity, for that matter."
The oracle pauses, "well deary you've really have no reason to worry about what happens to him..." she thinks for a moment, then offers you a bargain, "Tell me, if I said that i was just going to return him to his clan, would you walk away?"
She's being really calm right now yet you're almost positive she's not going to just let him go.
Like staring out into the ocean and seeing stormclouds, the tension is palatable as her obviously false bargin awaits reply.
The Oracle motions to Grahl and then back to Onyx, "Come now, his closest ally knows what he is, this is what's right after all..."
In the middle of all this, there is a groaning sound from behind the now gate under the glowing orange crystal in the main chamber. It starts low then rises to a full thunderous roar, shaking the rooms in its might once again,
"---OOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoNNN----"
Bookshelves crack and fall, candle holders crash to the floor and several of the birds land on their face. The oracles look back and forth to each other with surprise. The second at the back of the room speaks in nonsense to the three birds receiving ritual marks, one of them responds quickly and the creature gets violently angry, immediately striking it down with an eldritch blast of purple energy. The feathery grease smear on the wall had no time to respond , the others cowering to the floor in fear.
The oracle nearby whips around to first Onyx then Grahl then Arbon then some mad mixture of in-between,
"Well, at least we've sorted how quickly we've got to get this done."
She rushes the orc, and grabs for his unconscious arm, trying to pull him away towards the other as fast as she can.
(If you stop her, roll grapple if you grab her physically and initiative)
The other hurries in its chanting, the ritual atmosphere abandoned. The birds begin to scream in agony as the traditional pace seemed to have been set to prevent cruelty upon the inscribed-and due to the increased speed-you can see that's exactly what it is. Brilliant purple light flows like a map in straight lines down their bodies as they grow taller, seemingly stronger, and their eyes fill with the same glow. A runic symbols carves its way onto their backs, and the magic fades. They drop to the floor, gasping in pain. The four onlookers surround the ritual site, protecting their remaining kin.
Onyx tried to reason through his options as quickly as he could.
Something was going on, and he didn't trust the old witch, or whatever she was, to be truthful about it. The orc warrior was instrumental to stopping it, and trying to stop her from grabbing him would probably lead to an all-out fight between both sides; and whatever created that noise might just join in on the fun.
On the other hand, their hurried ritual hadn't killed the birds; perhaps that's all they needed the orc for, just another ritual to seal up whatever monster was about to break free, and then all would be well? It seemed plausible, but it also seemed like wishful thinking.
He quickly looked to his companions (besides Grahl, who had made his viewpoint perfectly clear,) trying to see what they thought of all this.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Arbon, who has stood reasonably silent up until this point, looks back over his shoulder as he thinks on the glowing gem on the main door. He looks back at the chaos in the room and shakes his head. "No. You can keep the orc, but you'll stop that chanting. Whatever THIS is that you need done quickly stops!" He runs forwards to the second chanting oracle and reaches out to inflict wounds.
Onyx was getting ready to cast his spell, when Grahl intervened. He was grateful, and prepared to continue, but then noticed Grahl looking toward his leg.
And then Grahl began to search.
His flask-holding hand now empty, Onxy put it on Grahl's shoulder. "What you're probably looking for," he said, "is what I intend to remove. If you hold him for me, we can get it out before it kills him."
He waited to see how his companion would respond.
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Arbon takes a step forward as Grahl continues his interrogation and search of the once captured orc. "What is it, my short-tempered friend? What did you see?" He looks around the room once again, looking for any signs of trouble to come from the birds, or the woman, or the other individual skulking in the back.
The woman doesn't seem to be listening to your conversation, overwhelmed with joy as Urithag struggles violently, to no avail. Onyx and Grahl may do whatever they wish to this defeated former ally. The birds continue grazing and the other at the back of the room moved on back to the rituals after the reevaluation of your intentions.
As Grahl searches he hears Onyx say he wants to get it out of him. Out of.. bwah. Grahl did not expect it to be inside the orc.
(assuming the grapple still holds Urithag) Grahl will hold the orc so Onyx can retrieve the relic. Do it.. he says as he leans on Urithag to keep him steady. Grahl can cut out too.
He will wait for Onyx to do his thing.
Taking a scrap of torn cloth, Onyx quickly wrapped it around the orc's large toe and tightened it as much as he could, for a makeshift tourniquet. The warlock then quickly cast two more spells, before taking more cloth, and covering his hand and fingers as he picked up the hot scalpel. "I'll try to make it fast," he said apologetically as a spectral hand followed his back over to Urithag. Determined to not waste a second, he dove onto the orc's toe, and immediately began to cut it off.
(( Onyx cast Mage Hand, then Guidance. The mage hand will help him apply downward force on the toe, hopefully giving some sort of bonus on the attempt? The guidance will allow an extra d4 to the ability check. I'm not sure which check is appropriate, but the bonus for a straight STR check, Medicine and Athletics are all the same for Onyx, so if it's one of them, this should do it:
Straight STR/Athletics/Medicine Check: 7 (if advantage from Mage Hand, 6) + 2 ))
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
(( That was terrible. I think Onyx till has inspiration (it's on his character sheet at least.) If the DM concurs, I'll go ahead and use it to re-roll that check: 11 ))
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Onyx's attempt to perform surgery goes about as well as it would in this cave setting. Though the knife is sharp, you're precision is less so, creating many visible tears like trying to cut a piece of paper with a butter knife. Sepsis begins to set in the moment the toe comes free as the limb slips, touching the dirty floor to his ruined foot. The orc then starts to loss color in his face as the blood begins to spill. Grahl also notices the struggle to hold him lessen as the wound spurts like a clogged water fountain coughing from too much pressure with nowhere to go but a small hole.
The orc is dying but the toe, and subsequent treasure within, is free. The oracles and birds continued to watch on in previously stated disinterest or distraction, unaware of the surgery's actual progress.
Quickly pocketing the toe to get it out of the way, Onyx reached for the flask, then opened it, leaving it ready. The spectral hand floated back over to the iron that was still upon the dying flames, lifting it and bringing it to his wrapped hand. Again trying to be swift, Onyx doused the fresh wound with a dose of alcohol from the flask, then immediately pressed the flat of the iron against it to cauterize the wound. "I'm so sorry," he said through clenched teeth as he did his best to not flinch at the orc's sounds, or the smell of burning flesh.
Once the entire wound was closed, the warlock propped the foot up on his own knee. Now having a bit more time, he applied another dose of alcohol, cast another couple of spells, then took the rest of the tougher cloth and began wrapping the toe, and finally the entire foot, as best he could. Finished, he stood back up and wiped his brow. He hadn't realized he'd been sweating.
(( OOC: Onyx cast Prestidigitation to clean up any residue on the toe, then Guidance to help with the final bandaging. Another Medicine Check if needed: 19 ))
"That should about do it," he said. "I honestly can't tell you how long of a recovery you'll have--but you should live now."
He thought of berating the orc for his actions that had led to his current situation, but stopped himself. He just shook his head. He was no priest or cleric, after all--it wasn't HIS place to preach to the warrior, or to judge him, or even to nag him onto the right path. Hopefully the loss of his digit, and the recovery from the surgery, would be enough to temper his more brash instincts.
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
(( Onyx will wait to see that the orc doesn't suffer further injury; he'll offer him a ration and some water after a bit, presuming he'd want to rest some first. ))
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
-The Warrior's screams evolve, rising out of the guttural yell into a pitch higher than thought possible for a male orc. With the shrill cry of steam escaping the world's smallest hole on its largest tea kettle, Urithag passes out. The bleeding is then stopped, Onyx properly banding his toe in the moments after.
The oracle returns from her laughter, aware of Urithag being knocked out. "Well that was entertaining. I'll be taking his body now, you are all free to do whatever you wish so long as it doesn't involve killing any birds or goats." She motions towards him for you to back away from his body so she might approach safely and collect it.
Arbon looks on, incredulous at what he sees. "Why...? Why did you take his toe?"
Well, it was now or never. No point in hiding it.
"Because there was something that he had hidden in there that was killing him," sighed Onyx, "And it was either quickly remove it, or waste time trying to be gentle and remove it, while possibly causing more damage. As I'm clearly not a doctor, I figured the speedier route was less likely to wind up with him dead."
As if to illustrate his point, Onyx retrieved the large toe from his pocket. Picking up the scalpel, he began to slice and poke and prod into it, taking his time, and becoming intently focused on finding and dislodging the gemstone hidden inside.
(( When finished, Onyx will clean up the gemstone and hold it up for all to see, before putting it back into his pocket. ))
As he wrapped up the toe in the last of the cloth scraps, the warlock seemed to suddenly remember where they were, and turned to the woman. "Where are you taking him?" he asked, a bit gruffly. "I didn't go through all that just to let you kill him... or torture him for eternity, for that matter."
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
The oracle pauses, "well deary you've really have no reason to worry about what happens to him..." she thinks for a moment, then offers you a bargain, "Tell me, if I said that i was just going to return him to his clan, would you walk away?"
She's being really calm right now yet you're almost positive she's not going to just let him go.
Like staring out into the ocean and seeing stormclouds, the tension is palatable as her obviously false bargin awaits reply.
Grahl releases Urithag seeing that he is still bleeding. Yes, give orc to tribe. Orc bring shame on all tribe. Tribe kill orc for go against Gruumsh.
He raises his axe. Orc not worth kill, not grant honor of death by axe. Let orc bleed.
Grahl spits on the ground to visiualize his disgust of the orc.
The Oracle motions to Grahl and then back to Onyx, "Come now, his closest ally knows what he is, this is what's right after all..."
In the middle of all this, there is a groaning sound from behind the now gate under the glowing orange crystal in the main chamber. It starts low then rises to a full thunderous roar, shaking the rooms in its might once again,
"---OOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoNNN----"
Bookshelves crack and fall, candle holders crash to the floor and several of the birds land on their face. The oracles look back and forth to each other with surprise. The second at the back of the room speaks in nonsense to the three birds receiving ritual marks, one of them responds quickly and the creature gets violently angry, immediately striking it down with an eldritch blast of purple energy. The feathery grease smear on the wall had no time to respond , the others cowering to the floor in fear.
The oracle nearby whips around to first Onyx then Grahl then Arbon then some mad mixture of in-between,
"Well, at least we've sorted how quickly we've got to get this done."
She rushes the orc, and grabs for his unconscious arm, trying to pull him away towards the other as fast as she can.
(If you stop her, roll grapple if you grab her physically and initiative)
The other hurries in its chanting, the ritual atmosphere abandoned. The birds begin to scream in agony as the traditional pace seemed to have been set to prevent cruelty upon the inscribed-and due to the increased speed-you can see that's exactly what it is. Brilliant purple light flows like a map in straight lines down their bodies as they grow taller, seemingly stronger, and their eyes fill with the same glow. A runic symbols carves its way onto their backs, and the magic fades. They drop to the floor, gasping in pain. The four onlookers surround the ritual site, protecting their remaining kin.
Onyx tried to reason through his options as quickly as he could.
Something was going on, and he didn't trust the old witch, or whatever she was, to be truthful about it. The orc warrior was instrumental to stopping it, and trying to stop her from grabbing him would probably lead to an all-out fight between both sides; and whatever created that noise might just join in on the fun.
On the other hand, their hurried ritual hadn't killed the birds; perhaps that's all they needed the orc for, just another ritual to seal up whatever monster was about to break free, and then all would be well? It seemed plausible, but it also seemed like wishful thinking.
He quickly looked to his companions (besides Grahl, who had made his viewpoint perfectly clear,) trying to see what they thought of all this.
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Chazrael shrugs. "If there isn't a monster that's gonna escape, then there's nothing to worry about."
I have an intelligence of six, I know what I'm doing.
Arbon, who has stood reasonably silent up until this point, looks back over his shoulder as he thinks on the glowing gem on the main door. He looks back at the chaos in the room and shakes his head. "No. You can keep the orc, but you'll stop that chanting. Whatever THIS is that you need done quickly stops!" He runs forwards to the second chanting oracle and reaches out to inflict wounds.
Inflict Wounds Attack: 25 Damage: 28
"Well, that's that then," thought Onyx as he prepared to cast a spell toward the woman pulling Urithag.
(( Initiative Check: 7 ))
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Arbon's Initiative: 19