Turn Twelve, Part One: Please insert pre-boss music of choiceTaren:Invoke slow, passive regeneration.
I've never thought of undead in such a way, ma'am. I'm used to seeing death, but only against such if the bodies were manually...desecrated. I apologize if that term gives offense.
"Do you know any white magic that can aid you in this current situation? I know curses attach items to the body like leeches to a wound, but this one seems to be most unusual."
Examine for curses. Especially cursed keys.
Admire room.
(6) Before departing, Taren has stabilized the Paladin's situation even more. Mainly by counteracting the blood loss, it should be at normal levels now. She should be on her own legs in three to four hours or so.
But now, for this zombie... most zombies are mindless and remote controlled, anything beyond limited autonomy was generally not worth the bother. Sentient legions of the dead would probably be far too much of a hassle and no real improvement to just buying a couple of mercenaries. So, whoever did this was out for a) Science, b) Evulz, c) Pretty screwed up compassion or d) any combination of the above.
"I apologize. It's rare that I see a zombie with free will."
"Don't care."
"Actually, you're the first."
"And because of that I always get thrown into the braaaaains crowd. Ugh. But really, no offense taken."
"None intended. Your keys are also pretty a pretty weird kind of curse. Do you know any white magic that could help?"
"White magic? Have you ever heard of an undead cleric? Actually... perhaps because nobody has tried it yet, but sorry, I'm not really versed in any sort of magic. At all. I could muster a few curses, now, the curses on the keys are metaphorically seeping out. But that's about diametrically opposite." That had to be a powerful enchantment if it was seeping out. He asks:
"So, what about those keys, now?"
"Haven't really got the foggiest idea. One moment, I'm down here in the dungeon with a pulse and drunk as a skunk, then, everything goes cold, and second moment I'm here, completely sober and dead with keys in my everywhere. Until that man came... I was basically screwed, heh."
"Wait." That's the second time she mentioned that someone helped her. "You had someone help you out? Who is that man?"
"I don't know." The shrug is genuine. "Blond, white and blue clothing, lots of belts. Oh, and he likes tea."
Strange. Wait. "Why doesn't that man, if he's so nice to you, help you get out here? Have you asked him?"
"I haven't thought of that..." She continues: "But, if it weren't for him, I'd be even worse off..."
Taren decides to not dwell further on that - any further conversation would at this point be harmful. Instead, he focuses on the room. Then, on the keys. They are not really interesting - the dark aura is obvious, but difficult to actually decipher - so he admires the room again.
Elenor:"I am not a paladin, and your situation is cruel. I would never attack anyone without analyzing the situation before."
(2) "Okay, okay, okay. I get it. You don't bother me and I don't bother you, and, really, your question before was justified paranoia. I've seen what else is around here and trusting everything really does not make you much more than a skeleton around these parts."
Helskaya:Helskaya will also agree to help.
(autosuccess) Your offer of help was appreciated and duly noted.
Apollo:"Well, I for one would be delighted to help you. Where is this vampire?"
(2) "Vampire? There's no vampires here, or have you seen one? I can assure you, whatever this large key is, it's not a vampire. He's not wanted to become a bat at least, he's just in for the blood. But, somewhere in that general direction? Perhaps he is there."
At this point everyone sets off for the locked door. Taren decides to drag the paladin along. He wants some answers.
Ratherio:Ratherio Silently mouths the incantation for Costrus! on the girl.
(2) You mutter the incantation. She doesn't seem to notice. And that's precisely the problem - Costrus failed, utterly. You have only met a few undead mentally coherent enough to pass off as youth culture in a bad light, so, Costrus might not work on those undead who still have a free will - or, the keys have interfered, binding her too strongly to her necromancer or the key's enchanter or whatever. Their dark aura is difficult to ignore, whoever created them was very good at his craft.
Remy:Try and find out anything I can about the keys while remaining at a safe distance, taking absolute care not to touch her. Try in particular to discover any way to bind the girl to my will, using the keys.
(3) "...about those keys." This walk is boring you, the zombie girl is far too slow, having to drag that huge key behind her and nobody really wants to help her lift it for rather obvious reasons.
"Yes? What's it? They are keys. They fit into keyholes."
"No, you said they might be cursed or keeping you alive or something like that?" Ratherio's suddenly listening up... hah, knew it.
"I dunno. Do I look like a mighty wizard to you?" Mighty wizards could come in every form, Remy recalls. Most of them were rather huge dicks, and her sarcasm was a match as well.
"Well, I expected you to know something about that which might have caused your sorry state."
"Pfff..." Successful counter-attack! "I don't drag this large one around for fun, if that's your drift. He... would not tolerate any other."
Since she doesn't want to talk anymore, you leave it be, as a victory for you. Go, you!
--
The party arrives at the main room again. There is no more loot there, but nobody really cares about that. There is a door to worry about. After a short consideration, she lifts the key she is chained to and jams it into the door. At first it seems that nothing is going from that, but then, the door starts to disintegrate into gleaming light. After it subsides, there is no more door, but plenty of doorway.
"If that was the way, why did we need you?" Helskaya asks.
"It's a key. It opens doors." That's all the explanation given to her.
After a short walk, you enter the next room. It has a high ceiling and artfully decorated walls. There is a fountain to be found in the middle, clear water flows from it. And on the other side, there is an ornate high door, locked by chains and seven different keyholes.
The zombie points her key menacingly at the door. It creaks.
The door opens unsteadily.
The room the party now enters is completely different from the others. Whereas the other rooms were rock-walled rock-floored drab-looking generic dungeon walls, this looks more like a natural cave. An earth cave, in fact. Grass grows in places, water shines on the cavern floor at some places, and there are several large torches, providing lighting even though the cave is already unusually light. Storage pottery around gives more weight to the thought that this cave is or was used for something once - but the pots are ancient. So, on second inspection, the rest of the place.
It is also unusually large, larger than everything encountered so far, and still very open despite random pillars and clutter - which, you notice, concentrates on the edges. The middle part is grassy and very, very open. There is also a treasure chest there, which was the first thing that caught the party's eyes.
Approximately five seconds later the party is rushing at said treasure chest with rapidly increasing velocity, leaving proteges and captives behind. Just as Ratherio takes the lead, the entire party crashes into an invisible wall. Before anyone can figure out what the hell is going on, a voice adds to the confusion: "Apologies. But while you have shown adaequate investigative and diplomatic skill, I have not seen enough to judge how you fare when combat is unavoidable."
Taren notices that the voice comes from his inventory, which he promptly empties to the ground. He finds it to come from the... dungeon map?! Except that he only recognized it because he had no other parchments. The map he was given certainly was not riddled with arcane runes and did not have a threefold magic circle in its middle.
"Please do not take me wrong. I have been watching you this entire time, and what I have seen, so far, was very satisfying and shows me that you have a lot of the skills required to brave the depths of this dungeon. But there has not been enough combat, so I have to intervene to change that a bit."
That voice... you've heard it. When you signed up for this!
"Explain yourself! Elizabeth Voile!" Elenor bellows.
Instead of an answer, the parchment's radiance suddenly flares up, and after the light dies down, the Chief Minister of Labyrinth Exploration and Magical Artifacts does stand before you, well inside the barrier:
I feel kind of meh about this one
"Oh, what I did with the map? Half an hour of straight work, invisible ink and high-level dimensional magic." She smirks, as she cannot quite help herself from showing off. "Direct feed into the traditional crystal ball, and then I've been sitting there with chips and apple juice watching your misadventures. Anyway. As explained, I'll put you through a combat test now. Don't worry, I'll not be going all out, nor will I aim for killing blows - I'm here to test you, not to cause a total party wipe. We've had enough of these."
"I'm here to help you, really. If you can't handle this, you'll never be able to clear the lower levels. But if you defeat me here, you'll have access to my help from then on to maximize your chances. So, can we start?"
--
We're splitting the turn in half here. There will be no actions allowed except for talking. I've got no time left, put simply.
--
Apart from the way you came in, there is a locked door (now in substantially worse condition), and two other ways. It is to be assumed that the key is somewhere around in those two ways.
At the end of the right hallway, there is a now thoroughly plundered ratman bureau.
At the end of the left hallway, there is an Y intersection. A stench wafts in from the left way, the right one seems unremarkable.
At the end of that left arm of the Y, Apollo and Ratherio find... the bathroom. No wonder it stank to heavens!
Bathroom: Grafitti is everywhere and the entire thing is as disgusting and broke-down as the average public restroom, if a bit more disorderly - random books and comics are all over the place.
Whereas, at the end of the other arm, there is a T intersection.
T-Intersection:
There is an indentation containing an angel statue in the wall opposite to where the party came in. The strange thing about the angel are the wings: The right wing is a normal angel wing, as you would expect it, but the left one is different, as if corrupted, coming apart and having some technology-ish things in it - piping, gears, wires... The angel's expression indicates sorrow. Around the indentation, there is yet more strange writing, indecipherable at a glance, as if part of a long-forgotten tongue.
Overall, the whole thing is totally misplaced in this ratman lair, down to the rock it is made of. Obviously, it is suspicious, as the faint tingle of adventurer senses throughout the party confirms.
Down the left arm of this one... well, this room feels as wrong here as the statue did. It clearly looks like a church, or at least a very sacral room. However, there is no wood, even the benches are made of stone - but polished stone, unlike the rough one you saw at other places. There's also an altar in front of a giant black rock statue at the other end of that room, and there's a secret passage to Zombie Goth's room.
Behind the no-longer locked door, there is a gaudy room. Behind that gaudy room, there's the BOSS ARENA
Character sheets.
Helskaya Arkut (lawastooshort)
Status: Normal.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Pair of knives (one large, one small),
northern white bear jawbone on necklace, northern white bearskin.
Inventory: Wet stone, firestone, pot, spoon, three leather pouches varying in size, pestle and mortar, dried meat rations for several plus more days, filled waterskin, flour, Lesser Herbal Medicine, Lesser Blade Poison, Rusty Axe x2, random precious metal baubles, 0 cp.
Skills: Herbal Medicine; Shamanic Magic; Knowledge (Legends of the North)
Spells:
Shining Shamanic Healing Finger!, Transform: Raging North Bear
Elenor Warsen (Caellath)
Status:
Only sane man.
Injuries: None.
Equipment:
Masterwork Armor, Longsword, Crossbow,
Dragon Crest Shield, small well-crafted crossbow.
Inventory: Medical kit, small supplies bag, 5 cp, Potion of Lesser Healing, Painkiller Potion, Gibberish Paper, Map Shred, Rations Listing, some longbolt ammo.
Skills: Swordsmanship, Dodging, Marksmanship, Medical care.
Spells: None. He's notoriously unmagical.
Apollo Anderson
(Spinal_Taper)Status: Normal.
Injuries: Bruise, right shoulder.
Equipment: Reinforced lab coat, cheap leather armor,
Dagger,
Rudimentary Rifle, Officer's Scimitar,
Inventory: Bullets, Gunpowder, various pouches and bags, Experimental Painkiller (?) Potion, 4 cp.
Skills: Alchemy: Chemistry, Alchemy: Potion brewing, Alchemic Magic: Rudimentary Enchantments (quantum amount +1), Metal Working (quantum amount +1).
Spells: Enchantment: Better wearability!
Taren Creyn (Tiruin)
Status: Normal.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Broadsword, Crossbow, Longbolt ammunition (quantum amount -4), white cloak, grey tunic, belt, solid holey leather boots, buckler.
Inventory: Whet stone, one filled waterskin, Cloth, lots of rations, ratman cloth, 3 cp.
Skills: White Magic: Healing, Anatomy, Swordsmanship, Marksmanship
Spells: Menscur, Fogili, Nonsens, Mendia, Leonic Cleanse.
Ratherio Houston (borno)
Status: The bestest wizard ever just nobody understands
Injuries: Scratches on face. Cut on left leg.
Equipment: Purple robes of death!
TM, Wand of death!
TMStaff of death!
TMDagger of death!
TM Ring of death.
Inventory: 0 cp,
Debt notice, Scrolls of: Leaden, Monovolt, Lesser Silence, Flare Arrow.
Skills: Black Magic: Death Magic, Black Magic: Chaos Magic, Agility
Spells: Kortuch, Leaden.
Remy Maelle (Remaelle)
Status: Good enough to go.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: A spirit talisman, knife, leather armour, traveling clothes, a backpack, Vintage pair of Chain Revolvers, buckler, 14 cp.
Inventory: Bedroll, rope, tinderbox, enough food to last a few days,
Debt notice,
officer's helmet.
Skills: Shamanistic Magic: Elementalism, Agility, Quick Reflexes, Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Spells: MEGA BRAND
Author
Topic: Roll to Explore the Dungeon: Ch.2 T.38: Do you even praise the King? (Read 121661 times)