We seem split on Fallen Half and the Silent Forge right now, so you’ll have to take the initiative in character. Those in the know, tell the rest of the party what you think about searching everywhere.
I already had Shape Water - do I notice anything different about it now?
Alzav breaks away from the ground, shaking, protected from some dark whisper by Kirina's veil. He sees his beard grown long enough to hang before him as he rises and grabs it, curious. The newly winged eyebrows rise. "Alright."
"I heard chanting. Distant. The knights are sealing the gate, and we cannot afford the time to explore every place. One more stop, then on to the burial grounds. I will change my vote, then, to the fallen half of the tower."
Arthur eyes Alzav, who so easily broke away from the ground just like Kirina. So much magical power...
"Do we have time to stop? Will their chanting take that long?" he looks out onto the paths ahead "If we do, I'm fine with the fallen half of the tower to explore further. I do appreciate everyone following me here."
Arthur eyes Alzav, who so easily broke away from the ground just like Kirina. So much magical power...
"Do we have time to stop? Will their chanting take that long?" he looks out onto the paths ahead "If we do, I'm fine with the fallen half of the tower to explore further. I do appreciate everyone following me here."
Kirina nods. "From what I could tell, their ritual nears it's end, but a quick stop by one other place should be fine."
You stand before the open end of the tower. It seems few have gotten this for, or survived beyond it, for it has much to be taken. Books and scrolls litter one side, furniture upturned onto them. Deep into the tower, riches you can’t quite make out glint against your torchlight.
One of you needs to take point and make a decision. Venture only lightly into the tower: Roll 1d4.
Venture two floors deep: Roll 1d6.
Venture to the middle of the tower: Roll 2d6.
Head right to the top: Roll 3d6.
One of you needs to clear the way. Make an Athletics check.
One of you needs to check for danger. Make a Perception check.
There is no more room for the rest of you to traverse the fallen tower. You cannot help those that go into the tower.
Let's go for it! Kirina will Guidance herself while keeping a lookout. Can she also Guidance the Athletics person? If so, do that, if not, you're on your own
Inside a hidden compartment in a small chest you find a small tubular case. Inside that there is a scroll sealed with wax—it is clearly marked with the symbol of the Wytch-Knights. It is a scroll imbued with the Arcane Eye spell. As an action, anyone may cast the spell. It cannot be copied into a spellbook, and burns away upon use.
Next you find a silver and brass Navigator’s Tools. In addition to aiding in seafaring, they contain separate instruments to aid in navigating rivers, particularly those flowing underground. You do not gain proficiency merely by owning them, but you might well know someone who would be fascinated to see this equipment.
You prize free a figurine of a bygone era; a cracked marble elephant. Its tiny eyes are lifeless orbs.
But alas, as Gruush attempts to lift a fallen cabinet out of the way, the tattered books beneath his feet shift and he falls sideways. One of these fine treasures becomes stuck beneath several heavy, stone furnishings. Gruush! Say which two of the three items the party retrieves.
Suddenly a section of the outer wall collapses inward! But not before Kirina tackles her allies out of the way! Together you escape the fallen tower unscathed!
Finally, along with the two items you retrieve, you have found 9 ordinary books.
1. Maashram & the Lily. A folk tale.
2. Crux of the Earth. A tome of hymns concerning an unknown religion.
3. Iftikask’s Measured Path. A manual of sorcery techniques and methodology.
4. Basics of Architecture. An incredibly verbose and complex manual on building.
5. Chain Law. Part manual, part history of the ball & chain weapon. The Oudru call it a meteor hammer.
6. Passing of the Hammer. A historic account of a rebellion that ended in the formation of the elected masters.
7. A little book without a title. It has some cooking recipes in it.
8. A thin book with only a few pages. “Healing Potion” is scrawled on the front.
9. The Glories of the First Dusk. A book of myths accompanied by extravagant paintings.
Picking up your pace, you head for the castle. To do so, you’ll need to pass through streets lined with houses turned into prisons. You hear creaks. Taps with near minutes between them. Distant noises you dare not name. Ash coats the streets like snow. Fungus, withered and pale, grows where it can from cracks in stone and dark corners.
That might seem vague. I’m really wanting to know how you approach this situation. There is no wrong way to get to the castle. Every consideration has pros and cons. I’ll ask for a suitable check from whoever takes the lead on this. Just go for it!
Anyone can jump in whenever and Alzav will assist, but in the interest of moving things forward: What do we see as far as routes through this place? It seems like stealth could be good, or avoiding the houses - a direct route with the least potential for trouble would be ideal.
Also, I wonder what these Order folks will do or so when we arrive. Maybe we can get the castle open and force them to fight on our side as a matter of necessity?
You stand ahead of your allies and take in the ashen streets.
There are many winding streets lined with tall houses. Underground as you are, it is not uncommon to see sudden drops and high ledges.
Like this, if it was unlit and the windows barred or bricked over.
You can clearly see the castle looming above the houses a mile away, but getting there is through a veritable maze of buildings, roads, alleys and squares.
The buildings are close enough together you could potentially run and jump across them…
There is a simple sewerage system perhaps, or at least you spy the covers to holes of some sort every dozen or more yards.
That might seem vague. I’m really wanting to know how you approach this situation. There is no wrong way to get to the castle. Every consideration has pros and cons. I’ll ask for a suitable check from whoever takes the lead on this. Just go for it!
If we proceeded slowly, how much are we at risk of the ritual finishing based on what we saw earlier? Do we have time to take our time here?
That might seem vague. I’m really wanting to know how you approach this situation. There is no wrong way to get to the castle. Every consideration has pros and cons. I’ll ask for a suitable check from whoever takes the lead on this. Just go for it!
If we proceeded slowly, how much are we at risk of the ritual finishing based on what we saw earlier? Do we have time to take our time here?
Hi there, and welcome to Behind the DM Screen:
My roots are in story games like Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark, so I’ve had a countdown clock going from the moment you decided to go to Oudru. I’ve been filling in a segment whenever I’d deemed you were using up time. There’s four ticks left.
The clock will tick again if you go slow, but you’ve managed to avoid the hardest difficulty of the next encounter.
Solomon takes a moment to survey the area. He is looking for a safe path, trying to find points where they might be ambushed and places where they could divert if attacked,
Perception check to try and find a safe(ish) route to take, using Kirina's Guidance
A whole city died and weren’t allowed to pass on. There are skeletons and fungus covered corpses everywhere, if you really pay attention. Still, most are scraping away behind stone walls. One day… they might all spill out. You think this is probably the worst place in the world.
The rooftops then, are the safest place. As safe as you’re going to get, anyway.
For what it is worth, you also see an ordinary mace nearby. Take it if you please.
Kirina says quietly to the others and Solomon specifically (as he's looking already), "let's look for the best route as we can now, but then move quickly. The knights won't be waiting for us."
She pauses, then adds, "also, stay away from the walls..."
So yeah, my vote on speed over stealth after a quick look at the beginning
Arthur will grab the mace to put into his bag. Someone else can have it, but he’ll request time to study it later to take notes about this place/design/style/etc…
Edit: I’m starting to get a nerdy Indiana Jones vibe from him. Less running from giant boulders, more “It belongs in a museum!”
After returning to the group Simon has been quiet and distant. He's embarrassed and having trouble focusing on the world around him. Yesterday and this upcoming day are very long and busy. I don't want to interupt the scene today so I'll be posting next in about 24 hours. Good luck folks.
Evil-Eyed Gruush looks around the nearby alleyway, and spies a decrepit drainage pipe down the side of one of the buildings. Quickly tracing the pipe up to a roof…which is adjacent to another…leading to yet another of the water pipes…the Mask mentally stitches together a parkour enthusiast’s route up and across the city (taking special care, as he looks, to take note of quietly spying eyes, and random loose lumber or abandoned chains that might be utilized to make the climb easier…)
He clears his throat, and snugs the patrolman’s cloak up over his hair. Rattling the pipe a bit, he addresses the group. “Roof-crawl? Don’t-look-down-or-you’ll-fall?”
Gruush gazes up and over the vertical reaches of the city, nose-twitching beneath the mask. Smacking his lips, he says to the others. “Up-and-over, we move quick and unseen! I’ll take lead here…once I make the line, I’ll look back an’ give a signal…next one follows every ten seconds. Heel-toe, heel-toe, breathe in breathe out! There’s a few straightaways where you’ll be in the open; stoop, hug the wall and move forward, one-two, one-two. We’ll all get through, me and you…”
The Mask digs his feet into the side of the drainage pipe and ascends…
Posts
Alzav breaks away from the ground, shaking, protected from some dark whisper by Kirina's veil. He sees his beard grown long enough to hang before him as he rises and grabs it, curious. The newly winged eyebrows rise. "Alright."
"I heard chanting. Distant. The knights are sealing the gate, and we cannot afford the time to explore every place. One more stop, then on to the burial grounds. I will change my vote, then, to the fallen half of the tower."
"Do we have time to stop? Will their chanting take that long?" he looks out onto the paths ahead "If we do, I'm fine with the fallen half of the tower to explore further. I do appreciate everyone following me here."
Kirina nods. "From what I could tell, their ritual nears it's end, but a quick stop by one other place should be fine."
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Shucks. Give yourself the Transmutation cantrip of your choice.
—
Update to come in about 4 hours.
—Fallen Tower
You stand before the open end of the tower. It seems few have gotten this for, or survived beyond it, for it has much to be taken. Books and scrolls litter one side, furniture upturned onto them. Deep into the tower, riches you can’t quite make out glint against your torchlight.
One of you needs to take point and make a decision.
Venture only lightly into the tower: Roll 1d4.
Venture two floors deep: Roll 1d6.
Venture to the middle of the tower: Roll 2d6.
Head right to the top: Roll 3d6.
One of you needs to clear the way.
Make an Athletics check.
One of you needs to check for danger.
Make a Perception check.
There is no more room for the rest of you to traverse the fallen tower. You cannot help those that go into the tower.
Hope this works for folks and leads to fun and treasure! I'm bad at those skills so
Geth roll 3d6 for deep dive
Geth roll 1d20+3+1d4 for Perception with Guidance
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Geth roll 1d20+2 Athletics (Gruush)
Your courage has earned you three items:
But alas, as Gruush attempts to lift a fallen cabinet out of the way, the tattered books beneath his feet shift and he falls sideways. One of these fine treasures becomes stuck beneath several heavy, stone furnishings. Gruush! Say which two of the three items the party retrieves.
Suddenly a section of the outer wall collapses inward! But not before Kirina tackles her allies out of the way! Together you escape the fallen tower unscathed!
Finally, along with the two items you retrieve, you have found 9 ordinary books.
1. Maashram & the Lily. A folk tale.
2. Crux of the Earth. A tome of hymns concerning an unknown religion.
3. Iftikask’s Measured Path. A manual of sorcery techniques and methodology.
4. Basics of Architecture. An incredibly verbose and complex manual on building.
5. Chain Law. Part manual, part history of the ball & chain weapon. The Oudru call it a meteor hammer.
6. Passing of the Hammer. A historic account of a rebellion that ended in the formation of the elected masters.
7. A little book without a title. It has some cooking recipes in it.
8. A thin book with only a few pages. “Healing Potion” is scrawled on the front.
9. The Glories of the First Dusk. A book of myths accompanied by extravagant paintings.
Geth roll 1d10 for Books
Wait, I did not have it! I was looking at the wrong character's list.
—Burial Homes
Picking up your pace, you head for the castle. To do so, you’ll need to pass through streets lined with houses turned into prisons. You hear creaks. Taps with near minutes between them. Distant noises you dare not name. Ash coats the streets like snow. Fungus, withered and pale, grows where it can from cracks in stone and dark corners.
What do you do?
Your torch goes out.
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Also, I wonder what these Order folks will do or so when we arrive. Maybe we can get the castle open and force them to fight on our side as a matter of necessity?
Alzav reaches his mind out along each of the 8 points of the compass, starting with behind them. "I can see you."
You stand ahead of your allies and take in the ashen streets.
There are many winding streets lined with tall houses. Underground as you are, it is not uncommon to see sudden drops and high ledges.
Like this, if it was unlit and the windows barred or bricked over.
You can clearly see the castle looming above the houses a mile away, but getting there is through a veritable maze of buildings, roads, alleys and squares.
The buildings are close enough together you could potentially run and jump across them…
There is a simple sewerage system perhaps, or at least you spy the covers to holes of some sort every dozen or more yards.
If we proceeded slowly, how much are we at risk of the ritual finishing based on what we saw earlier? Do we have time to take our time here?
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Hi there, and welcome to Behind the DM Screen:
My roots are in story games like Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark, so I’ve had a countdown clock going from the moment you decided to go to Oudru. I’ve been filling in a segment whenever I’d deemed you were using up time. There’s four ticks left.
The clock will tick again if you go slow, but you’ve managed to avoid the hardest difficulty of the next encounter.
Perception check to try and find a safe(ish) route to take, using Kirina's Guidance
Geth roll 1d20+1d4+3 for Perception
Thank you for taking mercy on me, Geth.
He looks around. "I suggest we move as quietly as possible and avoid side streets. Straight to our goal if possible"
Can I perception to find the most direct route?
Geth, roll 1d20+4 for Perception
A whole city died and weren’t allowed to pass on. There are skeletons and fungus covered corpses everywhere, if you really pay attention. Still, most are scraping away behind stone walls. One day… they might all spill out. You think this is probably the worst place in the world.
The rooftops then, are the safest place. As safe as you’re going to get, anyway.
For what it is worth, you also see an ordinary mace nearby. Take it if you please.
She pauses, then adds, "also, stay away from the walls..."
So yeah, my vote on speed over stealth after a quick look at the beginning
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Question: Will Gruush's patrolmen's cloak work in the Burial Mounds area, or not until the Castle?
Oh no, this whole segment and the castle is for that item. There’s a reason the roofs are arbitrarily the safest option.
Together you decide to race across the roofs as quickly and quietly as you can!
For simplicity, the burden of success is on Gruush. No Guidance, no help. Roll whatever serves you best.
Edit: I’m starting to get a nerdy Indiana Jones vibe from him. Less running from giant boulders, more “It belongs in a museum!”
He clears his throat, and snugs the patrolman’s cloak up over his hair. Rattling the pipe a bit, he addresses the group. “Roof-crawl? Don’t-look-down-or-you’ll-fall?”
Gruush gazes up and over the vertical reaches of the city, nose-twitching beneath the mask. Smacking his lips, he says to the others. “Up-and-over, we move quick and unseen! I’ll take lead here…once I make the line, I’ll look back an’ give a signal…next one follows every ten seconds. Heel-toe, heel-toe, breathe in breathe out! There’s a few straightaways where you’ll be in the open; stoop, hug the wall and move forward, one-two, one-two. We’ll all get through, me and you…”
The Mask digs his feet into the side of the drainage pipe and ascends…
Geth roll 2d20+4 Advantaged Stealth (Gruush)
Edit: no? Hmmm I thought I remembered it. Time to look it up again!
Oh right you still have to roll twice. So:
Geth roll 2d20k1+4
Would do it
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