D&D 4E WW - The Castle of Illusions

[Ramsus]

If we end up short a few people I have experience playing multiple characters at once. (THANKS Leadership + Deck of Many Things granting me a fighter!)

[Eternis]

I am totally in.
This looks awesome.

[bladescape]

Sign ups Close in 24 hours.

We've only three spots left, if any are still free when sign-ups close, then we'll just remove one or two of the roles.(See, foiled that plan, Ramsus.)

[Khal]

Just thought of a rare but potentially absurd use of the druid and sorcerer, but they both have to be evil.

Sorc sacrifices self, having every role target a randomly picked nonevil player.

Druid targets nonevil player.

Learn who the cleric, paladin(maybe, depends on if he targets), warlord, bard, warden, psion, wizard, assassin, warlock, invoker, shaman, and eternal hunter are.

?????

Profit.

They both have to be on team evil, but the potential for abuse is, well, absurd. No one gets any results, the paladin loses 1 or both his charges on the redirect kills, and team evil now has the list of people to murder in exchange for losing one of their own and toning down the power of another by a bit.

This is assuming that I'm reading it right, but it should work.

Oh, and assuming that I'm reading it wrong and that doesn't work, if the NK, and the assassin NK hit the same person, and the paladin redirects to self, does the paladin lose 2 charges of redirect or just 1?

[bladescape]

I have noted that, and I will avoid broken combinations of teammates like that.(Except the Eternal Hunter would avoid it anyways, as the Sorcerer can't redirect his, I think.)

Also, the Paladin can only redirect ONE NK, meaning he would only lose one charge, but the target would still die. The Paladin is told who the two - three NK's are, and then chooses to redirect ONE of them.

[Bunny Earz]

I think I'll join if you still need players

[bladescape]

Thanks Bunny, we do.

That's two spots left now.

[Dr paradox]

whew! I found this just barely under the wire. I'd like to join, if it's not too much trouble.

[bladescape]

One more, then I can send out the Role PMs and work on the Opening Narration.

EDIT:For now:

Sign-ups are closed.

I'm working on the Role-PMs and Starting Narration. We have 21 Players, which is just as well 'cause I realised that there's only 21 roles.

The SwordMage and his piercing powers are no longer available.(I kinda forgot to post him up...>.>)

Opening Narration to be posted when Qwaz or I have written it, and after I've sent out the Role-PMs.(Which will, incidently, be tomorrow morning as it's far too late right now...)

[bladescape]

Role PMs are sent out, Game will start when the Opening Narration is put up.

[bladescape]

Opening Narration:

Excerpts from the diary of Blade, leader of the Band of Light:

Arkfall 3rd, 703:
The illusions are merely annoying, and cause for a couple of embarrassing incidents. It's hard to work out who Qwaz is without asking for him to come to my tent with me, he looks like a different person each day. Probably the most annoying thing about these illusions. The only dangers so far have been pit traps and such concealed by the illusions themselves, but our psychics avoid them easily enough. I wonder what has made this castle so dangerous? It seems that despite the irritation caused by the illusions, we proceed as quickly as we originally planned.

Arkfall 4th, 703:
Something is deadly wrong. When I subtly counted the men, expecting to have lost some I realised something. Something which chills me to the bone. There are more adventurers here. Normally that would be a reason for celebration, but I know that reinforcements couldn't've found us that quickly, and they would've mentioned it to me straight away. No, these are spies, infiltrators. No longer can I trust who I'm talking to to actually be intent on helping my Band. I was sure I saw a Drow yesterday, but we have none of the Shadow Elves amongst us. I fear for not only my sanity, but for the fate of this party as well.

Arkfall 8th, 703:
I'm not sure if I can trust myself any longer. What if the castle twists you around until your no longer the man you once were? I had someone claiming to be my old friend Qwaz, but he was far too insistant to be true, four days have no passed since my last entry, and the illusions are getting worse. Not only that, but there have been deaths. It seems the traitors are everywhere amongst us, hiding in their masters shadows and illusions whilst they slowly pick us off. I'm going to remove one of them tomorrow, I can't be sure how but I'm sure they've removed Qwaz and replaced him so that they can learn our plans.... I go to learn all I can, I only hope I can save something that these beautifully hideous Walls of Azure haven't taken away from me yet...

Arkfall 9th, 703:
They're everywhere! We have lost! I cannot count the number, but it is almost certain that they have not only downed Qwaz, but replaced more than half of our number! How can we succeed like this! I'm going to take down as many with me as possible, starting with the dopellganger that has replaced my old friend. I will destroy as many as I can. Hope isn't enough, we need a Miracle to escape this. And that isn't going to come. Someone, anyone. Please, tell me. What did I do wrong? How could I have failed so badly?

Excerpt end.

Blade skittered forwards, nervous and apprehensive at the same time. And yet, oddly he ... looked forward to when he wouldn't have to look twice. To when he could sink his twin blades into the flesh of the deceiver. He waited, this is where he'd told the one who called himself Qwaz that he would meet him, to talk about what had been happening. Paranoia? No, he was correct, he was never wrong!

The Man who approached now actually looked like Qwaz, that was odd. It was rare that the pretenders actually took the form of those they had replaced. Maybe they wished to kill him while he let down his guard? Didn't they know that he knew of their secret? "Blade, you wanted to talk with me?" There was that slightly surly tone that meant that he'd been left out of the loop. Oh how perfectly they imitated his old friend! Before the larger man could react, Blade had stepped forwards and stabbed him through the heart. No hesitation. He could not afford to hesitate against these imitators.

"This is for all Qwaz did for me. I would never allow an imitation to take his place!" Un apparant to Blade, madness shon in his eyes, insanity smiling greedily as Qwaz only stared down, unable to comprehend what his friend had done before he toppled to the ground. Illusions did not cling to the dead like they did to the living, so now it was time to see what it was that had taken the place of his friend. The illusions melted, slipping off like water over a rock... And left behind exactly what it had looked like. Qwaz. Even for the insanity that hung like a web over the Ninja's mind, he could understand the meaning of this.

"Wait... What? They replaced you! I was killing them for replacing you! ....." He closed his eyes, trying to work out what had happened. Doppelgangers turned back into their true form when dead, there wasn't any Qwaz clones running about... meaning...."No.... I didn't kill him. I can't have killed him!!!!!!!!" Lashing out at the surrounding walls, Blade's mind crumbled back upon itself, even the last vestiges of sanity fleeing the mind of the former leader of the Band of Light. By the time the rest of them found him and Qwaz, he lay dead next to his old friend, unable to take the reality of what he'd just done. It was there that the Mages and other magical users of the group found something that Blade had never suspected.... A curse. Of insanity. Cleverly woven like web across the mind of their leader. Only someone inside the camp could've come close enough to do that.

No longer could they trust each other, for it was now obvious to all that there were traitors amongst them, and not just in the insanity of their former leader. They had to work out who was who behind the barrier of illusions... It was on this day, Arkfall the 9th, 703, that the battle for the Castle of Illusions... Truly began.

Summery:

Spoiler

Show

Qwaz was stabbed, he was Cloud(Narrator)
Bladescape(Blade) commited suicide, he was The Ninja(Narrator)

Day One Begins

[Penguinator]

Clad in the heaviest armor he could find, the dwarf chugged down a special brew he liked to call the Liquifier. It was known to topple lesser men in seconds, experienced drinkers like himself. Whiping his chin to get some meddlesome droplets out of his dark red beard, he sighed heartily before allowing his blade to easily find its place in his hands.

[Eternis]

The human called Eternis looked sullen, his normally cheerful demeanour disturbed by the events of the past week. He turns to the dwarf beside him. "Dwarf man, don't drink so much. We'll need all our wits about us if we're to deal with these illusions that plague us so." He sips his beer thoughtfully, then turns back. "And what should I call you? I know you told me your name before, but I find it entirely unpronounceable."

[Khal]

Internet Flea is above me in the player list.

He's obviously evil.

[Hazzardevil]

Khal is suspicious of Internet Flea, he's affably evil.

[Ramsus]

((Well since I'm player 17 and people are already pointing at Internet Flea......I will make a point not to point at him in preemptive revenge and hope he points at Khal instead! No hard feelings Khal, just me and IF pointing at each other day 1 has been done to death already.))

A Warforged pushed it's way through a thicket of bramble. He looked around and had no idea where he was. Then he looked back and he saw his black beret stuck in the thicket. He grabbed it and put it back on his head.

"Oh thank you for deigning to remember me....eventually. Couldn't have done that before pushing me through a hedge and got burrs lodged in me who knows where could we? Nooooo. Of course not. I'm just a hat after-all. Pay no mind that I'm probably worth more than your entire sorry piece of slag-"

Cutting off the overly animated hat the Warforged interrupted, "It's Dross. I know to you it's not a big difference but, to me my name is important. Not that I'd expect you to understand, what with not having a name."

"Hurumph! It's hardly my fault my creator went and failed that use rope check before naming me. Ick. Look what you've done now. You've made me remember that whole embarrassing debacle of a first day in the world. Well not this one but, anyhow.... organics are so....so....."

"Disgusting."
"Disgusting."

[banjo1985]

Baus double checks his pack before slinging the heavy burden across his shoulders. There had been many dark nights at camp around this godforsaken castle, but this was the worst by a long shot. He spared a glance at the longsword sheathed at his side, and allowed himself a small smile. It was a dull and notched blade, not the kind of elaborate steel many adventurers seemed to favour nowadays, but it cut like a razor.

He feared there'd be reason to wet the blade anew soon enough.

"It seems like there are dopplegangers amonst us, infiltrators and murderers both. We must single them out, before all our lives are forfeit."

Baus turns to Hazzardevil.

"What do you know of this castle? Is a place of such ill repute truly capable of hiding evil amongst our ranks so seamlessly?"

((Mildy odd that the second vote of the day is for the same person as the first. A tenuous reason for my vote, but there you have it.))

[Dr paradox]

a short distance from where the rest of the group has made camp, there sits a crouched figure, clad in ill-fitting chainmail. a tattered banner of Qwaz juts sadly from his backpack as he kneels by the graves of the fallen expedition leaders. at first glance he appears to be a human, but a second quickly picks out the lithe form and pointed ears of a half - elf.

Parad stands from where he had paid his final respects to his charge of seven months, after he was assigned as a sort of illusionist's squire for the duration of the assault against the Lich-Lord's forces. his teachers back at the academy had thought it would be good experience in the chaos of battle, and that someone as practiced and experienced as Qwaz would be able to keep him alive. and now... this. trapped behind an unfathomable wall of traps and illusions, tthe two best and brightest of the band undone by madness...

A few of the others straying near the burial site hear him speak in a low murmur.

"Should a servant's master fall..." Parad quotes from the basic handbook he had been given before setting out from Arkholt seven months ago, "It is the duty of the servant to avenge such crimes, and take up the tasks of his master."
so saying, Parad turn on ihs heel and stalks back to camp.

[Eternis]

Eternis finally finishes his beer and steps to the centre of the camp.
Placing the tip of his sword in the dirt, he glares and speaks.
"Khal and Hazzardevil, do not be too hasty. This is a time of troubles, and a time of fear. We must overcome this by rational thought if we are to get through this alive. Baus, you are right to suspect those that draw blades too easily, but do not cast suspicion upon those that are simply impatient to slay those that murder the righteous. I myself had a moment of blinding anger when Qwaz and Blade fell, slain by simple illusion." He stays silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
"We must stay strong if we are to stay alive."

[Dr paradox]

Parad enters the camp in time to hear Eternis speak.

"oh yes, strength is all well and good, but do you truly expect us to simply sit by and wait to be picked off by these fiends?? or perhaps that is exactly what you want. I didn't see you grieving especially hard at the funeral. how exactly did you join up with this merry band anyway?"

[TigerFang]

Terfan a rather strange and usually talkative Deva that enjoyed talking about his previous lives was silent now... He could feel the tension and knew when to keep his mouth shut and his hand on his mace... funnily enough through his memory of a thousand lifetimes he could recall being through such a situation before so he decided to speak and share a bit of what he learned:

I hate to say this but I doubt there is any chance for a diplomatic solution at this point... Maybe we should just go with our guts and see what happens... All I know for sure is that if we choose inaction the traitors will just kill us off one by one. That is why I feel that Eternis is trying to delude us into thinking that nobody has to die.

[Onime-no-Enishi]

"Ah! Decimal! come back!!" a white chicken hops around the area flapping its wings eratically, "Bukawk!! Bukawwk!!". An elven girl with flowing silky white hair chases after the fowl and manages to catch up to it. She grabbed the chicken and lifted it up, her skin was pale, almost as pale as the white feathers of the poultry she carries on her arm, "Geez, decimal, dont run off like that again, okay?". "Bukawk!!!" decimal clucks in affirmative, "Thats a good boy!" she smiles as she pats the chicken on the comb (Despite it not being possible for a 'chicken' to be male).

"Even in this small group of people, there is conflict..." she sighed. Shernini is a moon elf that lived in the forest alone to avoid the constant conflict in the lands that she hailed from, before she was recruited to join the expedition into the castle of illusions. Alot of angry chirps could be heard from the holes coming from a compartment on her backpack, she reached for the back of her backpack and patted it a little "Sorry about that guys, ill try not to run around too much".

She stood straight and looked ahead of the group, her azure eyes shone a little at the thought of the adventure they are about to have but she was a worried about the dangers of this place, considering the group's leader and his best friend now lay dead, and the remaining people are bickering among themselves.

"Sigh, what are we to do now..."

[Lord Loss]

The old sage sat in the corner, leaning upon a tent. Calmly, he closed his book and put it down. Slowly and deliberately, in a voice that could not be missed, and yet wasn't particularily loud, he spoke.

"Eternis has the right idea. Tigerfang, do not be so hasty to slay your bretheren, lest they turn on you. We don't have the slightest ounce of proof we've been invaded by dopplegangers. The mages will have to cast some scrying magic to figure that out, when they have the time."

The man continued reading, but couldn't concentrate on his book. Despite his defense of Eternis, Tigerfang's words filled his mind with paranoid thoughts.

[Penguinator]

The human called Eternis looked sullen, his normally cheerful demeanour disturbed by the events of the past week. He turns to the dwarf beside him. "Dwarf man, don't drink so much. We'll need all our wits about us if we're to deal with these illusions that plague us so." He sips his beer thoughtfully, then turns back. "And what should I call you? I know you told me your name before, but I find it entirely unpronounceable."

The dwarf gave a thoughtful look at the shimmering liquid. Him drink too much? Ha! He laughed, a hollow, guttural sound. "Dwarves are never drunk. Tolerance is too high. 'Sides, i's bad form to ask someone's name 'fore you give yours."

Eternis finally finishes his beer and steps to the centre of the camp.
Placing the tip of his sword in the dirt, he glares and speaks.
"Khal and Hazzardevil, do not be too hasty. This is a time of troubles, and a time of fear. We must overcome this by rational thought if we are to get through this alive. Baus, you are right to suspect those that draw blades too easily, but do not cast suspicion upon those that are simply impatient to slay those that murder the righteous. I myself had a moment of blinding anger when Qwaz and Blade fell, slain by simple illusion." He stays silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
"We must stay strong if we are to stay alive."

"Yer quick tae judge and slow tae action. I dunnae think I can be trusting ye."

That is why I feel that Eternis is trying to delude us into thinking that nobody has to die.

"Glad to see Ahm nae the onny one tae ken so."

[Dr paradox]

"Eternis has the right idea. Tigerfang, do not be so hasty to slay your bretheren, lest they turn on you. We don't have the slightest ounce of proof we've been invaded by dopplegangers. The mages will have to cast some scrying magic to figure that out, when they have the time."

The man continued reading, but couldn't concentrate on his book. Despite his defense of Eternis, Tigerfang's words filled his mind with paranoid thoughts.

"so what do you propose, old man? that we sit here twiddling our thumbs until the spellcasters can take time out of their busy schedules to keep us all from being murdered? and if there is no foe who lurks among us, then who poisoned the mind of our commander? a passing pixie?

I don't suggest we blindly lash out at people, but time is running out! unless we can make a decision quickly, the chances of losing more worthy allies are far higher. we have to sleep sometime... but until that time, I wouldn't be so quick to trust all of my... 'Fellows.' We have to show these honorless pigs that their actions will not stand!"

[Hazzardevil]

OOC: I was trying to say Khal was evil, not flea, I found it was suspicous he was pointing at IF so fast.
This has been up for less than 24 hours and already everyone is incredibly paranoid.

IC:
A Dark Elf in red and white clothes stands around.

What makes you think I know anymore than you do Baus?
let me see:
We are in a castle of illusions that makes people go mad.
We have lost 2 of our party all ready and theres traitors among us.
Oh yes, and theres a lich-king running around who wants to kill us all.
So let me ask you something. Are you the Lich-King?

[Internet Flea]

OOC: I was trying to say Khal was evil, not flea, I found it was suspicous he was pointing at IF so fast.

((...then why would you follow his point? Hazzardevil.))

Ogremight Breakback not like it here. No brave enemies, just eye tricks. No fun. He had bad mood. Others had bad mood too.

Well, he could fight bad mood at least. He got out his drum, and roared. "Time for music! What people want to hear? Know "Battleaxe of Love", "Grorc's Crush", and "the Waaaah Song".

[Zjoot]

((...then why would you follow his point? Hazzardevil.))

Ogremight Breakback not like it here. No brave enemies, just eye tricks. No fun. He had bad mood. Others had bad mood too.

Well, he could fight bad mood at least. He got out his drum, and roared. "Time for music! What people want to hear? Know "Battleaxe of Love", "Grorc's Crush", and "the Waaaah Song".

The normally cheery young man wasn't feeling so cheery in this dark and evil castle. The loss of fellow party members always made him sad. He had been quietly playing a classic funeral dirge for the fallen leaders, but stopped when he heard the loud voice of Ogremight Breakback. "'The Waaaah Song' is one of my personal favorites." he said with a grin. "You want me to accompany you?"

[Bunny Earz]

Rachael dressed in her leather armor, sighed at the two playing the "Waaaaah Song"
She pulled her light brown hair into a pony tail and proceeded to be annoyed greatly by the two.

"Would you guys quit that!! That is about the worst song ever!!

After they continue to sing Rachael pulls out he handy dandy ear plugs that are conveniently located in her pocket.
Ahhhh, the beautiful sound of silence. She closes her eyes and bumps into TigerFang. How dare he! He must go!

[TsukikoJ]

Damon sat, polishing his white plate armor and humming along to the rendition of "the Waaaah song." He had always been fond of it.

"If Hazzardevil thinks Khal is so evil, why is he voting with him? We should be looking out for the safety of the team, not following the orders of the rogues among us."

"This song reminds me of the ever popular "Warghhh! Song." Do you think we might hear that one next?"