"I suspect some of the good folk of Anbury might have sought refuge here. What we see is the aftermath of that." Slane frowned as he glanced around. "This is no doubt an infestation. We'd best be quiet as we move further in, I think."
There's little in the way of cover between you and the city gates, so the best you can hope for is to be quiet as you make your approach. The smell of rotting flesh and extinguished flames emanates from behind the walls, filling the air with a foreboding aroma.
Just as you draw up to the huge wooden gates that make up the entrance to Anbury, they slam shut with an unnatural speed and force. The air around the entrance shimmers and shifts, and then suddenly you see what can only be described as a giant, spectral octopus materialize on top of the wall. Several of its huge tentacles release their grip on the gates and immediately fan out to pick up large pieces of debris from atop the wall, raising them aloft as if it intends to hurl them at you.
I like how the initiatives kinda fit the characters, there. Trebor sees something strange and pauses to examine it. Homil has barely even processed that it's there before he's trying to kill it.
Okay everybody. Big Blue Live is over now and my work schedule is returning to something resembling normality. I'm going to attempt to get a post up today.
I'm gonna guess, based on the word "spectral," that we're up against an incorporeal creature here. Use an action to apply tassen oil to my spear, then move up to K11 and use a bonus action to rage.
As the octopus rose over the wall, Homil dropped to one knee and drew a vial of tassen oil from his pouch. "Wind and sky," he said quickly, pouring the oil over the blade and spreading it thin with his fingertips "guide my blade." His fingers tingled from the oil, and the blade shimmered, from faint purple to gold and green and back again. He glanced over at Karnak as he stood and said "Beast enough for the both of us!" With a great shout, he ran forward, letting the fury of the wild sky take him. The main body of the octopus is on top of the wall, so we'll need to climb up there to attack it, right? About how tall is the wall, and how difficult does it look like it'll be to climb?
Okay, I'm gonna be totally honest. I actually forgot you had that oil. But yeah it will work here.
The wall is 15 feet high. It's DC 15 to climb. For the sake of simplicity, you can get all the way from the ground to being on top of the wall in 30 feet of movement.
I would really like to add one more "finished" to my list of PbPs here, so let's get this thing started back up! I have plans for what I'd like to do with this, which is going to involve NEW CHARACTERS.
@Fuselage, @jdarksun, @PACherrn, @Mongrel Idiot, @Rainfall, I'll give you all priority for rejoining the game. If you'd like to play, say so and start working on a new character (level 6, I'll post other character generation details if I think of them).
I'll give you a few days to think about it and then open things up to everyone else.
One would think that the famous adventurers Kay and Lara--slayers of the demon Clixtithrax, liberators of Maldoon, and founders of the refuge at Longbow Hall--would give rise to a long line of great adventurers and, with one exception, one would be right. Each of their children grew to adulthood, chose a path, and set off to win glory and gold fighting the good fight against the forces of evil. Even Kay's bastard half-elf son Valitar--unwelcome at the Hall--was a great traveler. Whenever one of the kids came home a great feast would be held and songs would be sung of the family's many adventures, whether it was Oak out-wrestling a troll or Willow smiting a vampire.
No songs, though, for the youngest of them, Birch--slightly-built, nervous, with ink-stained fingers and a pair of gnomish spectacles perched on his nose (his eyes are fine, but he worries). From a young age, Birch was the opposite of adventurous. When he took up as a wizard's apprentice the family had brief dreams of fire raining on their enemies, but these were dashed when Birch selected divination as his specialty. He had hoped that glimpsing the future might calm his chronic nerves and constant worry, but it had more or less the opposite effect. And so things stood--his siblings coming and going, and he squirreled away in his study, reading, learning, preparing for things that would never happen.
Then his brother Oak and sister Willow returned from a mighty journey, the former stricken with a terrible illness. Even his mighty constitution combined with Willow's healing magic was no match for it, and the Laughing Man of Longbow Hall succumbed. Not long after, messages began appearing, implying that whatever force had killed Oak would be coming for the rest of the Longbow clan, sooner or later. Willow could tell them little, for their journey had been perilous and strange, with many questions and few clues.
Some stayed behind to prepare, fortifying the Hall and the woodland around it. Beech and Thorn, the most hot-blooded of the pair, set off to seek vengeance. And nobody expected much of Birch. But the scholarly wizard took up his quarterstaff, a bit of money from the family vault, and his spellbook. If courage is measured by how afraid you are to do what you have to do, then leaving his home was the bravest moment of Birch's life. But as Oak lay dying, he'd come to see that his time in Longbow Hall had been bought by the labors of his siblings, and all the other nameless heroes who strove against the dark things of the world. He couldn't sit idle, and he couldn't rest on the family laurels. He had to stand fast against whatever was out there and maybe, in the process, find out what menace was coming for Longbow Hall.
I tried to pick spells that a nervous, over-planning wreck of a man might pick, but I worry I went a bit overboard and won't be of any use. On the plus side, I've got rituals for days, so we'll have plenty of options.
Hm hmm hmmmmm. The character I want to play is objectively worse than the characters I could play. What a hassle. I think I'll do either a Tiefling Vengeance Paladin or a human Fiend Warlock. Gonna devil it up!
Hm hmm hmmmmm. The character I want to play is objectively worse than the characters I could play. What a hassle. I think I'll do either a Tiefling Vengeance Paladin or a human Fiend Warlock. Gonna devil it up!
Hm hmm hmmmmm. The character I want to play is objectively worse than the characters I could play. What a hassle. I think I'll do either a Tiefling Vengeance Paladin or a human Fiend Warlock. Gonna devil it up!
Winged variant? Avenging angel!
Oh yeah, I forgot about the SCAG variants. Okay, Tiefling Vengeance Paladin it is!
The cult stronghold burned, flames rich from the incense and fine fabrics the cult had accumulated in their worship of Mammon. None cared for the screaming devil-child that wept over the bodies of her parents, eyes bright like acid with leathery wings stretching out behind her.
For years, the young tiefling survived in the city of Hammerfast by theft and luck, six-fingered hands barely fast enough to keep her from total starvation, until Bleak found that her hands had another gift - they could heal.
From there, Bleak's purpose was clear. She began stealing to feed the other urchins of the city, mending broken bones and curing potentially fatal illnesses as best she could. She began fighting to defend them, and that was where she made her mistake.
As she sought a better weapon to deter predators that would victimize her charges, Bleak's wings carried her to the chambers of Lord Axyr Broadblade, and six-fingered hands wrapped around the hilt of his ancestral blade at the same time that the dwarven noble returned from his familial duties elsewhere in the house.
Forced to flee south, young Bleak found herself taken in by the Order of the Rose, who had an interest in her gifts and offered to hide her from pursuit in exchange for working with them.
She now protects the abandoned youth of Atex as best she can, when she does not fight for the Order.
"Oh dear," murmured Birch, reading and re-reading the letter in his hand. "Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear..." From atop the dresser he'd pushed in front of the door, Optic raised her head and blinked lazily at him, then settled back into a ball. The door, of course, was bolted--he'd no more dream of renting a room without a bolt than he would of sleeping in an inn's common room, though it had pained him to part with so much coin. Nevertheless, the heavy dresser seemed an appropriate precaution, as did the alarm rituals he'd worked on both door and window. Couldn't be too careful.
"Anbury," he murmured, setting the paper down and digging in his pack. "Anbury, dear dear dear, Anbury, hmmm..." Finally, he found a scroll, unrolled it on the floor--he'd deemed the chair at the small writing desk structurally unsound--and rapidly read through it three times. "Hmm..." He rolled up the scroll, put it back, and rose to his feet, pacing the small room. After a few moments, he stopped next to the dresser to scratch Optic behind her ears. "I don't know anything about Anbury," he said as the cat leaned into his fingers, purring. "Dear dear..." Optic nipped at his finger and he stopped scratching. He pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at her. "I could dismiss you, you know," he said; his familiar, though, was already asleep again.
"Hmm." He sat down again, cross-legged, and laying his hands on his knees he took a deep breath. Anbury, he thought. Dear me, dear me.... But that was the way of it, unfortunately. There wouldn't be time to go home to Longbow Hall and read up on it, or indeed to go anywhere. Uncertainty was the nature of the whole wretched business. He could only hope that whoever he wound up traveling with would know something of the town.
He closed his physical eyes and opened his inner eye, letting the strands of time and fate unravel themselves before him. Likely he would learn little; that was the way of it, for the most part. But better a little than nothing.
Dunno if that fits with where you're headed with the story, Denada, but I figured it was open enough to get worked into whatever happens. Also I wanted to get a jump on Birch's voice. Looking forward to the game!
Yeah that fits well, and is a good prompt for me to give you all a quick blurb about what's going on now:
The game is starting up several weeks (oh, let's say 28) after the first group's failed mission.
Anbury is now a small necropolis, and a horde of undead are making their best attempt to march toward Atex. Military forces are doing a good job holding them back, but a poor job of making progress of their own. Since a war of attrition against things that don't need to eat, breath, or sleep is a losing proposition, the Order has assembled another strike team (you) to get back into Anbury and stop the undead menace at the source.
Oh and before I forget again, if you could all just let me know where to find the info for your PCs (like what book the thing is in, or a link to the UA it's from, or whatever) that would be helpful.
Oh and before I forget again, if you could all just let me know where to find the info for your PCs (like what book the thing is in, or a link to the UA it's from, or whatever) that would be helpful.
Tiefling variant is from the Sword Coast Adventure Guide. Everything else is standard.
Posts
Geth, roll 2#1d20+2 for being stealthy!
Just as you draw up to the huge wooden gates that make up the entrance to Anbury, they slam shut with an unnatural speed and force. The air around the entrance shimmers and shifts, and then suddenly you see what can only be described as a giant, spectral octopus materialize on top of the wall. Several of its huge tentacles release their grip on the gates and immediately fan out to pick up large pieces of debris from atop the wall, raising them aloft as if it intends to hurl them at you.
Roll Initiative!
Geth, roll 1d20+2 for Initiative!
Geth, roll 1d20+4 for initiative!
Geth, roll 1d20+1 for Initiative
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
I haven't forgotten about you!
Nah, but really, no worries. Stuff happens.
Alright folks. You've got a ghoul-filled town to infiltrate, and a spectral octopus guarding the gate. Good luck.
Homil – HP 59/59 | AC 14 | Inspiration | Status: Normal.
Karnak – HP 52/52 | AC 17 | Inspiration | Status: Normal.
Slane – HP 33/33 | AC 14 | Inspiration | Status: Normal.
Spectral Octopus – HP 85/85 | AC 12 | Status: Normal.
Spectral Tentacles – HP 20/20/20/20 | AC 18 | Status: Normal.
Key – HP 38/38 | AC 17 | Inspiration | Status: Normal.
Trebor – HP 50/50 | AC 18 | Inspiration | Status: Normal.
Up First: @Mongrel Idiot
As the octopus rose over the wall, Homil dropped to one knee and drew a vial of tassen oil from his pouch. "Wind and sky," he said quickly, pouring the oil over the blade and spreading it thin with his fingertips "guide my blade." His fingers tingled from the oil, and the blade shimmered, from faint purple to gold and green and back again. He glanced over at Karnak as he stood and said "Beast enough for the both of us!" With a great shout, he ran forward, letting the fury of the wild sky take him.
The main body of the octopus is on top of the wall, so we'll need to climb up there to attack it, right? About how tall is the wall, and how difficult does it look like it'll be to climb?
The wall is 15 feet high. It's DC 15 to climb. For the sake of simplicity, you can get all the way from the ground to being on top of the wall in 30 feet of movement.
The suspense is killing me!
I would really like to add one more "finished" to my list of PbPs here, so let's get this thing started back up! I have plans for what I'd like to do with this, which is going to involve NEW CHARACTERS.
@Fuselage, @jdarksun, @PACherrn, @Mongrel Idiot, @Rainfall, I'll give you all priority for rejoining the game. If you'd like to play, say so and start working on a new character (level 6, I'll post other character generation details if I think of them).
I'll give you a few days to think about it and then open things up to everyone else.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Khunda "Sleazebeard" Barimmug (New Character)
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
No songs, though, for the youngest of them, Birch--slightly-built, nervous, with ink-stained fingers and a pair of gnomish spectacles perched on his nose (his eyes are fine, but he worries). From a young age, Birch was the opposite of adventurous. When he took up as a wizard's apprentice the family had brief dreams of fire raining on their enemies, but these were dashed when Birch selected divination as his specialty. He had hoped that glimpsing the future might calm his chronic nerves and constant worry, but it had more or less the opposite effect. And so things stood--his siblings coming and going, and he squirreled away in his study, reading, learning, preparing for things that would never happen.
Then his brother Oak and sister Willow returned from a mighty journey, the former stricken with a terrible illness. Even his mighty constitution combined with Willow's healing magic was no match for it, and the Laughing Man of Longbow Hall succumbed. Not long after, messages began appearing, implying that whatever force had killed Oak would be coming for the rest of the Longbow clan, sooner or later. Willow could tell them little, for their journey had been perilous and strange, with many questions and few clues.
Some stayed behind to prepare, fortifying the Hall and the woodland around it. Beech and Thorn, the most hot-blooded of the pair, set off to seek vengeance. And nobody expected much of Birch. But the scholarly wizard took up his quarterstaff, a bit of money from the family vault, and his spellbook. If courage is measured by how afraid you are to do what you have to do, then leaving his home was the bravest moment of Birch's life. But as Oak lay dying, he'd come to see that his time in Longbow Hall had been bought by the labors of his siblings, and all the other nameless heroes who strove against the dark things of the world. He couldn't sit idle, and he couldn't rest on the family laurels. He had to stand fast against whatever was out there and maybe, in the process, find out what menace was coming for Longbow Hall.
I tried to pick spells that a nervous, over-planning wreck of a man might pick, but I worry I went a bit overboard and won't be of any use. On the plus side, I've got rituals for days, so we'll have plenty of options.
So yeah, level 6, no race/class restrictions (use UA stuff if you want), I'll give you money and equipment later.
Winged variant? Avenging angel!
Oh yeah, I forgot about the SCAG variants. Okay, Tiefling Vengeance Paladin it is!
Minion, roll 1d4+1 for Bleak's appearance.
...yup, this is going to be fun.
For years, the young tiefling survived in the city of Hammerfast by theft and luck, six-fingered hands barely fast enough to keep her from total starvation, until Bleak found that her hands had another gift - they could heal.
From there, Bleak's purpose was clear. She began stealing to feed the other urchins of the city, mending broken bones and curing potentially fatal illnesses as best she could. She began fighting to defend them, and that was where she made her mistake.
As she sought a better weapon to deter predators that would victimize her charges, Bleak's wings carried her to the chambers of Lord Axyr Broadblade, and six-fingered hands wrapped around the hilt of his ancestral blade at the same time that the dwarven noble returned from his familial duties elsewhere in the house.
Forced to flee south, young Bleak found herself taken in by the Order of the Rose, who had an interest in her gifts and offered to hide her from pursuit in exchange for working with them.
She now protects the abandoned youth of Atex as best she can, when she does not fight for the Order.
"Anbury," he murmured, setting the paper down and digging in his pack. "Anbury, dear dear dear, Anbury, hmmm..." Finally, he found a scroll, unrolled it on the floor--he'd deemed the chair at the small writing desk structurally unsound--and rapidly read through it three times. "Hmm..." He rolled up the scroll, put it back, and rose to his feet, pacing the small room. After a few moments, he stopped next to the dresser to scratch Optic behind her ears. "I don't know anything about Anbury," he said as the cat leaned into his fingers, purring. "Dear dear..." Optic nipped at his finger and he stopped scratching. He pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at her. "I could dismiss you, you know," he said; his familiar, though, was already asleep again.
"Hmm." He sat down again, cross-legged, and laying his hands on his knees he took a deep breath. Anbury, he thought. Dear me, dear me.... But that was the way of it, unfortunately. There wouldn't be time to go home to Longbow Hall and read up on it, or indeed to go anywhere. Uncertainty was the nature of the whole wretched business. He could only hope that whoever he wound up traveling with would know something of the town.
He closed his physical eyes and opened his inner eye, letting the strands of time and fate unravel themselves before him. Likely he would learn little; that was the way of it, for the most part. But better a little than nothing.
Dunno if that fits with where you're headed with the story, Denada, but I figured it was open enough to get worked into whatever happens. Also I wanted to get a jump on Birch's voice. Looking forward to the game!
The game is starting up several weeks (oh, let's say 28) after the first group's failed mission.
Anbury is now a small necropolis, and a horde of undead are making their best attempt to march toward Atex. Military forces are doing a good job holding them back, but a poor job of making progress of their own. Since a war of attrition against things that don't need to eat, breath, or sleep is a losing proposition, the Order has assembled another strike team (you) to get back into Anbury and stop the undead menace at the source.
So we've got a Rogue, a Wizard, and a Paladin? Do we need a Cleric, or what's the best class to roll?
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Sorry for the delay.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Tiefling variant is from the Sword Coast Adventure Guide. Everything else is standard.