Sorry for the delay folks. Let's wrap this encounter up...
Things seem grim, with Bleak bleeding out on the ground and the gargoyles showing no sign of letting up. Each one opens its maw, readying another volley of fire, when suddenly a shaft of green light erupts from somewhere in the center of town. The gargoyles abruptly cease their attacks and take off in flight, heading straight for the light. You can make out several other flying figures from various parts of the city going towards the light, though the storm makes it hard to judge just how many there are.
For the moment, you are alone at the base of the bell tower (and you are out of combat). What do you do?
"Oh dear dear dear," murmured Birch, running across the courtyard to where Bleak lay on the ground. His mind was hazy and his head was swimming, but there was no time for it now. He dropped down next to the injured tiefling and dug in his belt pouch for a poultice. "Dear me, dear me..." he said.
Let's see if I can medicine better than I can chromatic orb. If anyone has a better option, feel free to preempt me.
Edit: You know what, Geth? You are not invited to my birthday party.
"Eh? Hey! Come back here, ya durned beastie! I ain't done with you yet!" Strom yells, angrily shaking his axe at the retreating gargoyles as Birch's magic faded from his arms. Turning to the others, he seems almost sad..."I was gonna clean his clock, I was..."
He stomps over the few paces to where Birch and Bleak are and gives Bleak a not so gentle kick in the ribs. "Oi! Get up! We ain't done yet!"
Strom is no good at this part, but lets give it a shot anyway!
As you gather around Bleak in a desperate bid to keep her away from death's door, the thunder of pounding footsteps echoes toward you. The layout of this particular area makes it difficult to tell where the sound is coming from, but it is unmistakably a large group of soldiers. Probably skeletons, judging by the extra rattling.
Rather than prowl around to investigate the sound, Optic appears to have found another cat. This cat, in all appearances a lithe little tabby, seems to be in deep feline conversation with Optic. The pair turn towards you, and Birch suddenly gets the distinct impression that you should follow them.
Someone should probably carry Bleak though, because she's still dying.
And whether you follow the cats or go up the tower, you should do so quickly.
"Ah, yes, I understand it may seem strange," said Birch, standing, "but Optic seems to believe that the, ah, other cat will help us." He glanced at his companions. "You see, she's not properly a cat, but a celestial spirit that's taken a cat's form, and... well, we should probably hurry, before poor Bleak... dear me, dear me..." He stopped dead, sudden clarity striking him as surely as a vision. "The healing potion!" he cried, and dug on Bleak's belt, coming up with a small vial of red-gold liquid. Trembling, he popped the cork and emptied the liquid over Bleak's lips.
Completely forgot that we had two potions of superior healing in party treasure. I'll administer one to Bleak before we make a run for it. I forget how much they heal, but it should at least get her stabilized.
Incredulous, Sleaze harshly whispers, "Were ye sittin' on that the whole time?!" After a moment of self-reflection and realizing it had been days since he turned into a bat, he let up. "Let's get where we're going so she doesn't wake up alone."
"I'm so sorry, Sleaze," said Birch as they started off. "The fire, all the monsters... I don't know where my mind was." He knew where it was, of course. The mindless, gnawing fear that had wracked him all of his life had risen up again and put its thumb over the healing potion, blotted it out so perfectly that no clairvoyance could find it. In his mind that fear took the shape of a dark shadow with a gaping red mouth and eyes that clouded out his vision and laughed at his struggles. Every vision, every predication, every throwing of knucklebones or drawing of seer's cards was meant to suppress it, but there it was again, nearly costing his friend her life. The only thing that equaled it in his mind was the shame of having nearly failed her.
"Dear me," he said. "Dear, dear me..." He hurried after Optic, trying to look ahead and not dwell on the fight with the gargoyles.
Strom guffaws at this latest bit of absurdity and gamely leads the way, taking point and keeping one eye on the so called cats and the other watching out for threats.
We're going to hole up somewhere for a short rest, yes? That would be appreciated...
Bleak groaned as the potion touched her lips, and jolted awake, hand scrabbling for her sword.
"The gargoyles! The tower! Press the advantage, we can't stop no-urrgh."
She paused, checking over her body for signs of the damage inflicted in the brawl against the undead knights. "How long was I out?"
Hurray, not dead! Thanks, guys.
Geth, roll 8d8+4 for healing
With Bleak back on her feet and a pair of cats leading you probably out of danger, the four of you take off down a series of dark alleys and side streets.
The lead cat seems to know the city remarkably well. It pauses at all the right points to avoid passing patrols of undead, and takes some unexpected turns that don't lead where you imagine they would. After several minutes Optic and City Cat have led you to a narrow tunnel. The dark passage descends gradually for a few hundred feet, then stops at a dead end. City Cat paces around for a moment, then scratches a particular brick in a particular fashion, which opens a secret passage. It trots inside. The rest of you will have to crawl to fit through the opening.
Bleak blinks as she looks to the others, nonplussed by the turn of events.
"Birch, before we crawl into this hole, could you explain further? These are cats."
"Certainly," he said, adjusting his glasses, "though, well, not completely in the time available, no. Optic, being in cat-form, has adapted something of the speech of cats, and she seems quite confident that this other, er, feline means to lead us to safety. I'm quite sure that she is sure, that is." He glanced around the group, and it didn't take a diviner to guess at what they were thinking. "You're wondering if I'm sure that the strange cat means us no harm. Erm, the answer is no, I'm afraid: I never got on very well with cats." He paused a moment, licked his lips. "Can't read their moods at all. Oh dear..."
Strom grunts as he sits down on the nearest available surface and digs into his pack for some bandages and dwarf spirits. He splashes some spirits on his wounds, growls in equal parts pleasure and pain, and then downs a healthy slug before wrapping some bandages around his wounds.
"I dunno where this cat has led us, but its got me wonderin' two things. Where does it want us ta go...and why is it helpin' us? From what I saw, there ain't nothing in this city that should be helpin' us..."
If this counts as a short rest, Strom will spend 3 Hit Dice to heal up...
Yeah you can go ahead and do Short Rest stuff. Slinking through the city wasn't exactly restful, but it's close enough.
After a few moments, City Cat comes back out of the passageway and seems to give you the cat equivalent of rolling its eyes. It stares at Optic meaningfully, then goes back through the passageway. Optic follows it inside.
"If'n these here cats lead to me death by otyugh or sumthin', do me a favour and lie about it to me sister, yeah?"
Where are we in relation to the tower we were supposed to climb? Did the cat lead us halfway across the city, or a twisty route to get to the back door of the tower?
Sleazebeard snacks on a flavorless ration as he traces their sequence of events and options, "Well, sometimes traps be convenient because they are right where you want to be."
"It's better than being in the open, at least." Bleak ducked down and into the passage, awkwardly maneuvering the bulk of her wings and armor to follow the familiars... wherever they had gone.
The secret passage leads you to a dark room lit by a single oil lamp perched on a small wooden table. There's a bedroll on the floor near the table, and a few dingy crates filled with rations and other equipment. After the last of you makes your way inside, City Cat unceremoniously transforms into a dirty-looking human woman with drab grey clothes and muddy red hair. She looks at you with eyes that might just be a little too wild. "You're with the Order," she says, though you're not sure if it's a statement or a question.
"Dear me," said Birch, adjusting his glasses as Optic purred and rubbed against his leg. "A potent spell, quite potent!" Noticing the look on the woman's face at last, he softened his voice. "Ah, yes, the Order did send us. I take it you are an Order member too? I don't believe we were acquainted." He paused, the woman staring at him. "Ah, not that we would have been acquainted, you seem to have been here for some time." Another pause. Optic stopped purring and looked up at him, all judgment. "Ah. My name is Birch, of Longbow Hall," he said, sheepish. "What may we call you?"
She eyes you for a moment before answering. "You seem... shifty," she says. "My name is Gwendolyn. Yeah I was in the order. Or, am. I'm not sure anymore. I think they think I'm dead. Are you the new batch of heroes they sent in to save the world? The last ones didn't make it. The ones before that didn't make it either."
"Huh." says Strom. "So yer sayin' yer not actually a cat. Thats good. It confirms me view on the world and that Birch here is a tad looney. Alright."
Strom listens to the rest of the story before saying, "Aye, we're indeed the latest batch o' heroes and mebbe without that defeatist attitude we'll succeed this time, eh? What aid can ye give us on our quest and what aid can we give ta you?"
"I hope so," she says. "I can tell you how to get to them. They already know you're here, so you'll have to stay underground. It's not safe outside."
Gewndolyn waves her hand and makes a ghostly map appear on the wall. "We're here," she says, pointing at a nondescript spot on the map. "The tower that you were trying to get to is here. Trying to get to that tower was a mistake, but there's no way you could have known. The gargoyles are kind of new. I guess I should get you caught up on everything..."
Info dump time! Your new ally explains that when the Sleepers first arrived in Anbury, they kept to their ship and used some kind of plague to infect the city and fill it with undead. That was when the Order sent the first group of Hunters, but they failed. Shortly after that the first of the Sleepers awoke and moved their base of operations out of the ship and into the city proper. As the undead began expanding out of the city, another group of Hunters was sent in. Gwendolyn was a part of that group, and she's the only one who survived.
Now you're here, shortly after the second Sleeper has awoken. "They're here," she says, pointing at a temple near the center of the city, "All seven of them."
"Who're the Sleepers again? " Strom asks, with the decency to appear slightly sheepish. "I mebbe was a tad drunk when I signed up ta help the Order. OK. I was a lot o' drunk. But they had me at killing undead and savin' the world, so the details got lost a little."
"So they're in the temple, can we stop this if we take them out? Might be a tall order considering how bad the guard on the tower was, but do we have another option?"
Bleak examined the ghostly map closely,working on committing the streets to memory. Getting backed into a blind alley wasn't a problem for her, but her allies didn't have the option of escaping to the air. And with those gargoyles...
"I don't care who the Sleepers are, as long as we can kill them."
"Well I'm not surprised that the Order didn't tell you, considering no one knows about them. I myself only know what I've been able to glimpse from the minds of a few undead I killed. The Sleepers aren't from this world. They're from ... I don't know. Some ... far realm that I've never even heard of, let alone seen. It seems like none of the undead ever get a good look at them. Or at least the sight doesn't seem to set itself well to memory. I just get flashes. Tentacles mostly."
Gwendolyn is silent for a long moment, then shakes her head slightly as she realizes that Bleak just said something to her. "...Yes. If you destroy them it will end this undead plague. You must destroy them, in fact. It's the only way. They get stronger each time one of them wakes up. So you'd better hope to do it now before there's three Awoken.
"You can't get to the temple using the streets. It's too dangerous. You'll have to stay underground, which is still dangerous, but... well I guess there's a pretty good chance you'll die either way. At least underground you'll be able to get closer before you have to start killing things. Let me show you..."
At this point she basically marks a waypoint on your map and gives you a route through the tunnels to get to the temple.
Strom is fully satisfied with this plan, seeing as how it involves the killing of bad guys while travelling underground...
"Wait...these Sleepers be tentacle monsters? What kind o' tentacle monster? Not vampires or liches or some such necromancer type? What kind o' squishy tentacle thingy controls the undead? Izzat even allowed?"
Sleazebeard had been quiet in the corner for the whole conversation, almost annoyingly so, but when Gwendolyn mentioned tentacles he went ghost white and started breathing heavily. He hastily grabbed charcoal and parchment to sketch out an idea, determined to accurately draw it while increasingly nervous and horrified as he progressed. Shaking and rubbing the back of his head hidden by his mangy hair, he handed the "art" to the magical lady and barely coughed out a sentence.
Gwendolyn looks puzzled. "I didn't know the tentacles would be the most interesting part of that story. Do you know something about this that I don't?"
"Ah," said Birch, "if I may interject, I believe my companions are noting that tentacles are not commonly associated with the undead, but rather with more esoteric foes." He tapped a finger against his chin. "Let me think, let me think... tentacles...." He wracked his brain, searching every book he had read and every story his family had told for what manner of betentacled monster might command legions of the undead.
Edit: I think Birch just gave himself an aneurysm. Good Lord.
Intelligence check to see if tentacles+undead=anything useful at all.
Khunda removed a small glass container from his pack and opened it gingerly. After setting the glass on the ground to breathe he elaborated, albeit reluctantly, "If'n they looked like that, they be mind flayers. Soul suckers. Squid heads. They come from Under. They killed me clan, me friends, and almost me along with them." He felt the back of his head again and took his last shot of Clan Barrimug Brew, a potent whiskey that had been aging along with his belongings ever since the events that led to his greatest loss and battle cowardice. "I've had nightmares every night since I met with them years ago, at least the nights I remember. If we're up against them...I don't know."
I mean, I did set his flaw as 'the monstrous enemy we faced in battle still leaves me quivering with fear (Mind Flayer)'
Birch didn't recognize the feeling at once; after all, he'd rarely felt it. Then it struck him: the dwarf had some breed of fear, too, and Birch had found, for the first time on his journeys, a kindred spirit, albeit only for a moment. He reached out and patted Khunda's arm.
"Ah, dear me," he said. "We'll, ah, manage them. To... together..." Optic, looking up at him from his feet, looked disgusted with the display.
Strom looks on with equal parts disgust, pity and sympathy for his fellow dwarf and his fear. A combinations of those expressions on his face looked so ridiculous that everyone else in the room suddenly wished they knew what a smartphone was.
"I dunno much 'bout Mind Flayers, but they're squishy yeah? If'n we see one we'll pulp his noggin, yeah? You'll have yer vengeance."
"Oh," she says, "that was ... not what I expected. I'm sorry, I don't know more than what I've told you. I just saw flashes. Reading a mind is already difficult. An undead mind is even worse. It's like... trying to remember someone else's remembered dream."
Posts
Things seem grim, with Bleak bleeding out on the ground and the gargoyles showing no sign of letting up. Each one opens its maw, readying another volley of fire, when suddenly a shaft of green light erupts from somewhere in the center of town. The gargoyles abruptly cease their attacks and take off in flight, heading straight for the light. You can make out several other flying figures from various parts of the city going towards the light, though the storm makes it hard to judge just how many there are.
For the moment, you are alone at the base of the bell tower (and you are out of combat). What do you do?
Let's see if I can medicine better than I can chromatic orb. If anyone has a better option, feel free to preempt me.
Edit: You know what, Geth? You are not invited to my birthday party.
Geth, roll 1d20+4 for Medicine check
He stomps over the few paces to where Birch and Bleak are and gives Bleak a not so gentle kick in the ribs. "Oi! Get up! We ain't done yet!"
Strom is no good at this part, but lets give it a shot anyway!
Geth, roll 1d20-1 for Medicine
As you gather around Bleak in a desperate bid to keep her away from death's door, the thunder of pounding footsteps echoes toward you. The layout of this particular area makes it difficult to tell where the sound is coming from, but it is unmistakably a large group of soldiers. Probably skeletons, judging by the extra rattling.
Rather than prowl around to investigate the sound, Optic appears to have found another cat. This cat, in all appearances a lithe little tabby, seems to be in deep feline conversation with Optic. The pair turn towards you, and Birch suddenly gets the distinct impression that you should follow them.
Someone should probably carry Bleak though, because she's still dying.
And whether you follow the cats or go up the tower, you should do so quickly.
Completely forgot that we had two potions of superior healing in party treasure. I'll administer one to Bleak before we make a run for it. I forget how much they heal, but it should at least get her stabilized.
"Dear me," he said. "Dear, dear me..." He hurried after Optic, trying to look ahead and not dwell on the fight with the gargoyles.
We're going to hole up somewhere for a short rest, yes? That would be appreciated...
"The gargoyles! The tower! Press the advantage, we can't stop no-urrgh."
She paused, checking over her body for signs of the damage inflicted in the brawl against the undead knights. "How long was I out?"
Hurray, not dead! Thanks, guys.
Geth, roll 8d8+4 for healing
Geth, roll 8d4+8 for healing
The lead cat seems to know the city remarkably well. It pauses at all the right points to avoid passing patrols of undead, and takes some unexpected turns that don't lead where you imagine they would. After several minutes Optic and City Cat have led you to a narrow tunnel. The dark passage descends gradually for a few hundred feet, then stops at a dead end. City Cat paces around for a moment, then scratches a particular brick in a particular fashion, which opens a secret passage. It trots inside. The rest of you will have to crawl to fit through the opening.
"Birch, before we crawl into this hole, could you explain further? These are cats."
"I dunno where this cat has led us, but its got me wonderin' two things. Where does it want us ta go...and why is it helpin' us? From what I saw, there ain't nothing in this city that should be helpin' us..."
If this counts as a short rest, Strom will spend 3 Hit Dice to heal up...
Geth, roll 3d12+9 to regain HP
After a few moments, City Cat comes back out of the passageway and seems to give you the cat equivalent of rolling its eyes. It stares at Optic meaningfully, then goes back through the passageway. Optic follows it inside.
Where are we in relation to the tower we were supposed to climb? Did the cat lead us halfway across the city, or a twisty route to get to the back door of the tower?
Geth, roll 1d8+2 -1HD
Sleazebeard snacks on a flavorless ration as he traces their sequence of events and options, "Well, sometimes traps be convenient because they are right where you want to be."
Geth, roll 2d10+4 for HD
Gonna use me some hit dice too, on the way in.
Edit: Really?!
Geth, roll 3d6+6 for Healing
Strom listens to the rest of the story before saying, "Aye, we're indeed the latest batch o' heroes and mebbe without that defeatist attitude we'll succeed this time, eh? What aid can ye give us on our quest and what aid can we give ta you?"
Gewndolyn waves her hand and makes a ghostly map appear on the wall. "We're here," she says, pointing at a nondescript spot on the map. "The tower that you were trying to get to is here. Trying to get to that tower was a mistake, but there's no way you could have known. The gargoyles are kind of new. I guess I should get you caught up on everything..."
Info dump time! Your new ally explains that when the Sleepers first arrived in Anbury, they kept to their ship and used some kind of plague to infect the city and fill it with undead. That was when the Order sent the first group of Hunters, but they failed. Shortly after that the first of the Sleepers awoke and moved their base of operations out of the ship and into the city proper. As the undead began expanding out of the city, another group of Hunters was sent in. Gwendolyn was a part of that group, and she's the only one who survived.
Now you're here, shortly after the second Sleeper has awoken. "They're here," she says, pointing at a temple near the center of the city, "All seven of them."
Bleak examined the ghostly map closely,working on committing the streets to memory. Getting backed into a blind alley wasn't a problem for her, but her allies didn't have the option of escaping to the air. And with those gargoyles...
"I don't care who the Sleepers are, as long as we can kill them."
Gwendolyn is silent for a long moment, then shakes her head slightly as she realizes that Bleak just said something to her. "...Yes. If you destroy them it will end this undead plague. You must destroy them, in fact. It's the only way. They get stronger each time one of them wakes up. So you'd better hope to do it now before there's three Awoken.
"You can't get to the temple using the streets. It's too dangerous. You'll have to stay underground, which is still dangerous, but... well I guess there's a pretty good chance you'll die either way. At least underground you'll be able to get closer before you have to start killing things. Let me show you..."
At this point she basically marks a waypoint on your map and gives you a route through the tunnels to get to the temple.
"Wait...these Sleepers be tentacle monsters? What kind o' tentacle monster? Not vampires or liches or some such necromancer type? What kind o' squishy tentacle thingy controls the undead? Izzat even allowed?"
"Did they look like this?"
Edit: I think Birch just gave himself an aneurysm. Good Lord.
Intelligence check to see if tentacles+undead=anything useful at all.
Geth, roll 1d20+4 for an Thinkin'
I mean, I did set his flaw as 'the monstrous enemy we faced in battle still leaves me quivering with fear (Mind Flayer)'
"Ah, dear me," he said. "We'll, ah, manage them. To... together..." Optic, looking up at him from his feet, looked disgusted with the display.
"I dunno much 'bout Mind Flayers, but they're squishy yeah? If'n we see one we'll pulp his noggin, yeah? You'll have yer vengeance."