Tiamat answers, "A few hundred feet along the wall from here is a gate leading inside. We need to go through this strange Hotel Celestia to get to the source of the corruption. Keep your guard up. We have no idea what strangeness awaits us within the hotel."
"I have none," Varn answers. "Now, we have a hotel to burn. Let's move." Now, having rested, Varn is eager to test the magic enhancement from Tiamat's vial.
Light engulfs Tiamat as she transforms in to a female Red Dragonborn warrior for this journey to avoid being noticed by the Golden Emperor's Minions. She wears a heavy Plate Mail and wields a silvered Great Sword. "Lead the way"
following along the walls, the Kobold group travels a few hundred feet. Just like they were told, they find large heavy looking gates made of wood and steel. The gates are 15ft across and 25ft tall. Beside the gate is a sign with text written in some unknown script. Tiamat explains, "The text reads 'Welcome to Hotel Celestia."
Skarro nods, unsure if he should let his goddess lead, or protect her. He puzzles on this for a few moments before deciding that, since she is in disguise, he should try to treat her as just another ... non-kobold ally. He walks forward and tries to open the door.
(( @DM He will also keep an eye out for anything that can function as a quarterstaff -- at least until he gets a few more coins ))
Tiamat responds to Komos' questions, "That is the language used by a world that has long since fallen. Given we are heading into Hotel Celestia, I believe this hotel was at the center of that world's fall to the Emperor. It makes me wonder what went down in the original establishment to cause it to be the epicenter of corruption of its home plane."
Skarro pushes the door and it opens surprisingly easily for its size. Beyond is a massive lobby with a thick red carpet. There are stairs leading up and two more paths on either side going deeper into the hotel. A strange darkness envelops the paths and the stairs past 120ft. A tall, lanky woman about 6 and a half feet tall stands behind the desk waiting for guests. She wears a sleeveless dress of red, jet black curly hair and sunken eyes as if she hadn't slept in ages. She was thin... perhaps a bit too thin to be healthy. She looks human but looking at her, the party is filled with a sense of wrongness.
For those with Passive Insight of 15 or higher:
It takes a moment but you soon realize why the woman feels wrong. While she looks human, her proportions are just a bit off. It's not too enough to be clearly noticeable but those with keen observation skills can notice it. Parts of her body, her neck, her fingers , her forearms... they are just a tad bit too long to be normal. Her nose is a bit too flat. Her eyes have a strange yellow color with a border of black. Her pupils are just slightly more spindly than round. Her waist is a bit too slender... All of these minor oddities add up to produce this sense of unease. This creature looks human... but it isn't.
The woman speaks in a strange tongue that seems to pierce through souls. It sounds like someone speaking common very fast yet it is impossible to identify any proper word or sentence in her speech. The words worm their way into the mind and make their meanings known. "Welcome to the Hotel Celestia. How may I help you tonight?"
"This can't be the emperor, right?" Varn whispers to the others, thinking it is obvious but still a little confused. Despite how huge she is, and that unexplained sense of wrongness, that woman was probably the most normal thing Varn witnessed ever since arriving at Neverwinter. Perhaps, the normalness among all the strangeness is the strangest thing about her.
Then, Varn decides to take the lead and answer. He knew Tiamat could and should lead them, but she asked them to lead the way. Perhaps it was to further mask her true self. "We seek the... ah..." would it be smart to declare exactly who they're searching for? Wouldn't it be suspicious? "Manager." Varn panics and the first word that comes to his mind leaves his mouth. Well, it was a hotel, after all. "We would like to speak to your manager."
The woman continues to stare off in Varn's direction. She looks at him while she talks but... it doesn't feel like she's making eye contact. No, it's more like there's nothing behind her eyes. She looks at him but there seems to be no actual emotion or understanding in the eyes. Her wide, plastic smile remains on her face without change. She says in that damned, twisted language, "The manager? He is in his office. It's right down that way. The door next to the left of the first stairs." She points to the path going to the left from the big stairs going up.
Skarro listens to the exchange, looking a little confused. He glances sidelong at Tiamat to try to determine he reaction. When/if they move off, he whispers to Varn, "Why do we want this manager? She was bad, Manager will be worse."
Also after they move off, when the opportunity presents itself, he asks Tiamat in an embarrased whisper, "How shall we call you, Most Glorious One?"
(( We can't really call her Tiamat or Goddess... ))
"I'm not sure. I just... didn't think it was wise to mention who we're looking for. But the emperor should be the manager too, shouldn't he?" Varn whispers, trying to be so quiet, making sure that the woman at the reception won't hear them, that it's even hard for the others to perfectly understand what he says. "But unless you have a better idea, to me it seems as good as any other guess."
Tiamat is silent. She answers Skarro's question of what to call her with, "I... have not thought about that. You may call me whatever you deem appropriate."
Skarro frowns for a time as they move through the hotel, mulling over names in his mind. The prospect of naming his god, however briefly the name might be used, seems to please and weigh on him greatly. But it needs to be done quickly. "Skarro would suggest Glorificus, or Glory is she prefers something shorter."
Since no one else seemed to argue with the name, Tiamat says, "Glory is a fine name."
Going toward the left passage, the strange darkness shifts. It is clearly not a normal kind of darkness as it is defying the way light works. However it also seems to shift and move, always maintaining a 120ft distance from the party. It's very much like trying to see in pitch black darkness with the Kobold's darkvision where after a certain point, things become impossible to see. Except inside the hotel, they weren't relying on their darkvision. There were lighting fixtures and candles to illuminate the place yet the darkness still remained at the same 120ft distance.
The left passage leads to a hall way with 3 doors on either side for a total of 6. The hall stretches into the darkness.
Skarro walks up to the first door on the left, then listens at the door and glances back to his companions to confirm the choice. If there are no objections, he tries to open the door.
There is a term that any lockpicksmith knows; "Security through obscurity". While Komos could tell that on an objective level, the lock was not very secure, when he went to pick it, he could not make sense of the mechanism. The design of the lock is unlike anything he thought would even be possible. The locks mechanism is otherworldly and it thwarts Komos' attempts to pick it. Perhaps the lock was made with the standards and craftsmanship common to the now fallen world where Hotel Celestia originally stood.
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Tiamat answers, "A few hundred feet along the wall from here is a gate leading inside. We need to go through this strange Hotel Celestia to get to the source of the corruption. Keep your guard up. We have no idea what strangeness awaits us within the hotel."
Skarro nods and packs up, ready to go. He pauses and looks around and at his companions, "Anyone have staff or spear? Skarro needs."
He tries to recall what the Armours wielded, and wonders if a tree branch might be made into a quarterstaff.
"I have none," Varn answers. "Now, we have a hotel to burn. Let's move." Now, having rested, Varn is eager to test the magic enhancement from Tiamat's vial.
Varielky
Light engulfs Tiamat as she transforms in to a female Red Dragonborn warrior for this journey to avoid being noticed by the Golden Emperor's Minions. She wears a heavy Plate Mail and wields a silvered Great Sword. "Lead the way"
following along the walls, the Kobold group travels a few hundred feet. Just like they were told, they find large heavy looking gates made of wood and steel. The gates are 15ft across and 25ft tall. Beside the gate is a sign with text written in some unknown script. Tiamat explains, "The text reads 'Welcome to Hotel Celestia."
Skarro nods, unsure if he should let his goddess lead, or protect her. He puzzles on this for a few moments before deciding that, since she is in disguise, he should try to treat her as just another ... non-kobold ally. He walks forward and tries to open the door.
(( @DM He will also keep an eye out for anything that can function as a quarterstaff -- at least until he gets a few more coins ))
"What text is that?" Komos asks, looking for the entrance.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Tiamat responds to Komos' questions, "That is the language used by a world that has long since fallen. Given we are heading into Hotel Celestia, I believe this hotel was at the center of that world's fall to the Emperor. It makes me wonder what went down in the original establishment to cause it to be the epicenter of corruption of its home plane."
Skarro pushes the door and it opens surprisingly easily for its size. Beyond is a massive lobby with a thick red carpet. There are stairs leading up and two more paths on either side going deeper into the hotel. A strange darkness envelops the paths and the stairs past 120ft. A tall, lanky woman about 6 and a half feet tall stands behind the desk waiting for guests. She wears a sleeveless dress of red, jet black curly hair and sunken eyes as if she hadn't slept in ages. She was thin... perhaps a bit too thin to be healthy. She looks human but looking at her, the party is filled with a sense of wrongness.
For those with Passive Insight of 15 or higher:
It takes a moment but you soon realize why the woman feels wrong. While she looks human, her proportions are just a bit off. It's not too enough to be clearly noticeable but those with keen observation skills can notice it. Parts of her body, her neck, her fingers , her forearms... they are just a tad bit too long to be normal. Her nose is a bit too flat. Her eyes have a strange yellow color with a border of black. Her pupils are just slightly more spindly than round. Her waist is a bit too slender... All of these minor oddities add up to produce this sense of unease. This creature looks human... but it isn't.
The woman speaks in a strange tongue that seems to pierce through souls. It sounds like someone speaking common very fast yet it is impossible to identify any proper word or sentence in her speech. The words worm their way into the mind and make their meanings known. "Welcome to the Hotel Celestia. How may I help you tonight?"
"This can't be the emperor, right?" Varn whispers to the others, thinking it is obvious but still a little confused. Despite how huge she is, and that unexplained sense of wrongness, that woman was probably the most normal thing Varn witnessed ever since arriving at Neverwinter. Perhaps, the normalness among all the strangeness is the strangest thing about her.
Then, Varn decides to take the lead and answer. He knew Tiamat could and should lead them, but she asked them to lead the way. Perhaps it was to further mask her true self. "We seek the... ah..." would it be smart to declare exactly who they're searching for? Wouldn't it be suspicious? "Manager." Varn panics and the first word that comes to his mind leaves his mouth. Well, it was a hotel, after all. "We would like to speak to your manager."
Varielky
The woman continues to stare off in Varn's direction. She looks at him while she talks but... it doesn't feel like she's making eye contact. No, it's more like there's nothing behind her eyes. She looks at him but there seems to be no actual emotion or understanding in the eyes. Her wide, plastic smile remains on her face without change. She says in that damned, twisted language, "The manager? He is in his office. It's right down that way. The door next to the left of the first stairs." She points to the path going to the left from the big stairs going up.
Skarro listens to the exchange, looking a little confused. He glances sidelong at Tiamat to try to determine he reaction. When/if they move off, he whispers to Varn, "Why do we want this manager? She was bad, Manager will be worse."
Also after they move off, when the opportunity presents itself, he asks Tiamat in an embarrased whisper, "How shall we call you, Most Glorious One?"
(( We can't really call her Tiamat or Goddess... ))
"I'm not sure. I just... didn't think it was wise to mention who we're looking for. But the emperor should be the manager too, shouldn't he?" Varn whispers, trying to be so quiet, making sure that the woman at the reception won't hear them, that it's even hard for the others to perfectly understand what he says. "But unless you have a better idea, to me it seems as good as any other guess."
Varielky
"Straight for the top!" Komos says with a grin at his friend, then lowering his voice a bit adds, "So... are we just gonna start blasting?"
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Skarro nods and grins then, after a final glance to Tiamat, follows Varn. "Good thinking. But nothing ever easy. Probably just a troll."
Tiamat is silent. She answers Skarro's question of what to call her with, "I... have not thought about that. You may call me whatever you deem appropriate."
Skarro frowns for a time as they move through the hotel, mulling over names in his mind. The prospect of naming his god, however briefly the name might be used, seems to please and weigh on him greatly. But it needs to be done quickly. "Skarro would suggest Glorificus, or Glory is she prefers something shorter."
Since no one else seemed to argue with the name, Tiamat says, "Glory is a fine name."
Going toward the left passage, the strange darkness shifts. It is clearly not a normal kind of darkness as it is defying the way light works. However it also seems to shift and move, always maintaining a 120ft distance from the party. It's very much like trying to see in pitch black darkness with the Kobold's darkvision where after a certain point, things become impossible to see. Except inside the hotel, they weren't relying on their darkvision. There were lighting fixtures and candles to illuminate the place yet the darkness still remained at the same 120ft distance.
The left passage leads to a hall way with 3 doors on either side for a total of 6. The hall stretches into the darkness.
Skarro walks up to the first door on the left, then listens at the door and glances back to his companions to confirm the choice. If there are no objections, he tries to open the door.
Perception: 20 (in log)
The door is locked. Skarro hears nothing on the other side.
"Oh, time to use my new tool!" Komos says, pulling out a fancy set of lock picks to attempt to open the door. 18
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
There is a term that any lockpicksmith knows; "Security through obscurity". While Komos could tell that on an objective level, the lock was not very secure, when he went to pick it, he could not make sense of the mechanism. The design of the lock is unlike anything he thought would even be possible. The locks mechanism is otherworldly and it thwarts Komos' attempts to pick it. Perhaps the lock was made with the standards and craftsmanship common to the now fallen world where Hotel Celestia originally stood.