The White Room pt 2

[Provengreil]

FB summary:

We defeated the Dead Priest, and unmasked her only to to find Ignus' old companion Deliah under the mask. He was visibly shaken, unwilling to accept what happened. Even his exploration of the chamber, which revealed a chest full of books crammed with knowledge and a number of gems, was met with a mechanical storage and continuation routine.

Aalem found and took more samples of the warp touch: it appears that the effects did not stack, but instead replaced each other. He went through a couple alarming mutations before getting even luckier than Ignus, receiving a speed increase, and extra wide mouth, and an enlarged head to fit it complete with slightly enlarged brains.

We retired to the lightning room, and Ignus insisted on a quiet, solemn burial of Deliah's body, unwilling or unable to let it go as easily as many of the dead he'd left in his wake. When we last broke, it was right at watch turnover with Ulrik and Aalem going on watch and Ignus retiring to get some rest. He Ignored any questions they had about the contents of the books, which were nowhere to be found...

[lothbrok]

this ocurs when ignus wakes up around noon and if anything is supposed to happen then we can rearrange as necessary

"ho ther ignus my friend whats in those books you've been looking over?"

[Provengreil]

Ignus shakes his head slightly, saying, "Research." Clenching a fist, "Research on us. On you, me, Jikkajak, Lothbrok, Aalem, some guy named Neldor... us. And Deliah... they... got to her somehow. brainwashed her, controlled her, or something. It had to... no, it was. They got to her." His hand falls limp. "Aalem, you'll be interested to know that Jikkajak and Lothbrok ought to fine. Bearing that in mind, we should head out. I've forgotten which way we were headed before, so let's just strike out straight away from that damn cave."

[lothbrok]

"are you sure? there may still be more to see in there."

[Provengreil]

For the first time since you've seen him, Ignus begins to look like he's getting genuinely hot blooded, rather than the calm and calculating curiosity and politeness or cold, commanding efficiency. A very small tongue of flame emits from one side of his mouth. "What, more corpses? Traps, demons? You think you'll know someone in that corpse pile? Or maybe you wanna get to know them, huh? We saw the place, we're leaving it and good riddance."

[lothbrok]

ulrik rises fully and crosses his massive arms across his huge chest. "aye my friend there may be nought but corpses and death, but there may also be a way off this gods forsaken island or a path to endurig glory. are you willing to sacrifice our chance for freedom becuase one of your friends was to weak to stand against these deamonic cultists?" his face siftening slightly ulrik places one hand on ignus's shoulder and continues in a more measured tone "if you choose to abandon the cave my friend i will join you, but be sure that is a path you are willing to follow before we journey down that road. either way my axe is yours"

[Provengreil]

Slapping the hand away, Ignus replies. "Deliah wasn't weak. Our chance for freedom is the same that it's always been: play this game and win. We were down there, Ulrik, there was nothing there. I even cast a detection spell for magic, and the only magic I sensed came from the cup. That place was the bottom of the dark, and to get your freedom you'll have to look up, not down." At this point he gestures to the flying castle, or the sky if the castle is out of sight. "So we kill. We turn around, find some people, and kill without quarter or mercy. And we'll start by heading straight away from the one direction we know the people aren't in. So get that axe ready, and and kill anyone not flanked by a walking rock."

[lothbrok]

ulrik sighs momentarily, before shrugging his massive shoulders and bursting back into his customary grin "well then lad i'll have to take your word for that." he bends down and lifts his axe resting it casually across his shoulder "at least im sure to be able to use this to good affect. now my friend where to?"

[Provengreil]

Pointing in the direction straight away from the cave (North West, I think it is), "That way."

[lothbrok]

"now my friend if we're going to kill our foes lets not blunder through this infernally hot jungle looking for them. in my lands when my tribe goes to war we light a fire or create a challenge mark calling our foes to us and then we wait. when eventually they come upon us we bring our swords and axes againsyt them and baptize the snow with their blood."

[Provengreil]

Ignus gives this a moment's thought. "That's worth a try. We can't stay here though. The blue room is too suspicious, they might not approach. if we march for 5 hours or so in a random direction and carve out a site in the forest it will be a much more tempting target for anyone investigating a smoke signal."

[DuSlaanesh]

Moving northwest, you find a suitable spot in the woods for your preparations.

Aalem asks, "What would you like me to do?"

[Provengreil]

"This spot will do well enough, I think. We should plan on camping here for an extended period of time, so some preparations will have to be made.

Aalem, you can start by pitching a couple of tents. when you're done, see if you can clear out a bit of this brush so our fires don't accidentally spark a forest fire.

Ulrik, see about collecting some firewood. Just pick up some dry stuff for now, and try to focus on the stuff in the middle first. We don't want to be tripping on anything just walking around.

Now that I've got two working hands and a few alchemical substances and bottles, I can get to making something I've been itching to try out since before I came here. I ought to be able to make it with some time and local materials, and a little luck. It might also help us significantly in any number of ways."

In Draconic:

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Kwaiit, I need you to fly up, and see which direction the closest river is, and how far away it is. Also tell me if you see anything else suspicious.

With that, I'll begin to clear out a small section of brush and lay out my makeshift alchemy lab, and, consulting a worn looking journal, begin scrounging around the area for small bits of flora and samples of dirt and clay.

[lothbrok]

i do as asked presuming that lothbrok translates to ulrik.


"ignus you have mentioned that you had friends you could rely on in a fight. as reluctant as i am to share the glory it may be advisable to have some spare sword arms if we should encounter a truly mighty foe."

[Provengreil]

Whoops. fixed that.

Not even looking up from his journal, Ignus says, "I do, but I've no good way to contact them. If Kwaiit sees them he should be able to talk, though it may not occur to him to do so. We'll mostly have to hope they see the fire and come upon us instead. as I said before, the one to look for is a dwarf apparently made of stone. He's a slow mover, but almost as strong as you, and a lot harder to kill."

[lothbrok]

"hhhahha you are a fine jester my friend! no dwarf can hope to match me in strength."

[Provengreil]

"Oh, you're definitely stronger. He, however, was built like an elephant before he drank from this cup here and got turned into a half stone golem. Now his skin itself turns blades."

[DuSlaanesh]

Aalem has pitched the tents and cleared enough of the brush quite quickly.

Ulrik, you've easily gathered plenty of firewood.

Ignus, you've gathered the materials you're looking for. Kwaiit returns to you, letting you know that the nearest river is to the north, about a 15 minute walk away.

[Provengreil]

Well, the materials were really just fluff for beginning crafting, which I'll denote below. Over the next 8 hours, I'll busy myself away with this and that, mixing, boiling, and scribbling, testing different mixes with dirt and river clay, etc. Any other actions for setting up camp that Aalem and Ulrik take are their own to decide on.

Absent further ideas, we'll generally busy ourselves setting up a semipermanent camp before actually setting up any ambush sites. Tents, some firewood, refill all the water skins, and so on.

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Crafting Alchemical item: Shapesand. after this craft checks, 625/1000 SP crafted.

[lothbrok]

i just sort of chill i guess

[DuSlaanesh]

Aalem says:
"I'm going to patrol just around our campsite, and try to detect thoughts in a direction away from it. If I detect presence, I'll let you know. This will make being ambushed much less likely."

[Provengreil]

In that case, I suppose time advances for 8 hours.

We'll get into an 8 hour rotation scheme: 8 hour rest, 16 hours up. One of us will be asleep at any given time, the other two awake. of the two awake, one will be on patrol duty, around the perimeter and in the woods slightly beyond. The second will be doing whatever he likes around camp, be that making it more complete, preparing for our own ambush (which we'll begin setting up soon enough), crafting, training, Foraging for edible animals/vegetables, whatever.

We would ideally want to keep this kind of rotation up for two or three more days, until we have a secure enough living situation and to buy time for me to finish crafting.

Assuming the rotation started at approximately noon, with me on crafting and aalem on watch, the order would go thusly:

noon - 8:00 PM: Ignus on general duty, Aalem on watch
8:00 PM - 4:00 AM: Ignus on watch, Ulrik on general duty
4:00 AM - noon: Aalem on general duty, Ulrik on watch

Some specifics on the next 3 days, assuming no one has issues with such a rotation. I'm doing it this way in the interest of momentum.

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Ignus: first day, finish crafting shapesand. Begins a second batch, 300/1000 SP into it with our sped up craft system. Second day, fails to make significant progress, and third day manages to ruin his materials and more or less gives up on extra batches(I hate natural 2's).

From now on, he has 2 cumbic feet of shapesand, which can be shaped into any material and shape he wants. it's "natural" form will take the shape of an encircling cloak, about a quarter inch thick. Even though it is mimicking fairly thick cloth, it is still recognizable as sand. I also impregnate it with all 5 doses of the poison I have leftover from the cave, ensuring the next 5 close combat targets vulnerable to poison will take damage.

Use poison rolls(a 1 means I've poisoned myself instead with that dose):
1. (1d20)[1](1)
2. (1d20)[13](13)
3. (1d20)[16](16)
4. (1d20)[10](10)
5. (1d20)[17](17)



Ulrik, as the one who had the idea of setting up a challenge site in the first place, will take steps to prepare this during his off hours. It should be a couple minutes away from our camp, and he would mostly clear out a site for a large pyre and gather plenty of smoky woods. Any other location improvements or ideas I leave to him. Ulrik, I do have a couple alchemist's fires still if you'd like to try incorporating them somehow.

Aalem can make survival checks. DC10 survival allows him to find enough food for the party in a lush forest like this for one day. The check takes 4 hours, and cannot be repeated that day. Feel free to modify the check on account of the amount of poisonous plants known to be around. Failure simply results in each of us eating one of our trail rations that day instead. for the other 4 hours each day, I don't know. whatever useful he can do in that time, maybe that, or just let it be downtime.

[Provengreil]

Well, at least it was only once. the poison happens on day 1, meaning that at noon on day 3, I have rested twice and healed 2 points of any damage.

Fort saves:
1. (1d20+4)[21]
2. (1d20+4)[16]

Damage(each number corresponds to the save above):
1. (1d6)[4] Dex
2. (1d6)[5] Dex

[Provengreil]

Facebook sessions repost: We finished setting up camp, and Ignus made 8 acid flasks in the spare time. Aalem's thought detection finally went off, turned out to be some guy called Pth. After a brief fight, Ignus saw him use a 4th level spell and decided to put all the eggs in one basket to try and end it fast, using a pair of sculpted explosive burning hands spells, the second one actually getting him. he was blasted over 100 feet into a tree at the cost of 8 spell slots. the fortress the released oozes at us, 5 gelatinous cubes, which we are now dealing with. They are still in a cluster in front of the room, having been unable to maneuver well (insofar as a mindless cube of goo will maneuver "well") but that'll end soon. we've done moderate damage to each, including a shout from Aalem, a breath weapon from Kwaiit, and an axe shot via Ulrik. Ignus is keeping distance at the moment, and Ulrik has retreated so as not to get hit.


Ignus says, "They can't think, strike, or even move that fast! We can find a way to deal with this without putting ourselves in harm's way."
I'll move over to Ulrik and prepare to breathe fire as soon as 2 of the oozes would be caught by the blast.

[DuSlaanesh]

Aalem steps back and to the side a bit, moving away from the cubes but being sure to keep both of you out of the area between him and the cubes. He unleashes another Shout, holding his sides as a piercing bass note shatters the nearest cube into a puddle of inanimate slime, and shedding some slime off of the others.

The cubes attempt to close with you, oozing across the grass, but come nowhere close.

This movement triggers Ignus' prepared action, so feel free to roll for it. After that, it will be Ulrik's turn.

[Provengreil]

Breath weapon:

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(d8)[8]
Reflex save DC is 15

[Provengreil]

blah, that didn't work right.

[roll0] is the correct damage.

[Provengreil]

f**** y*** ***** ********* you *****!!!


alright alright.

(6d8)[19]

[lothbrok]

well i may as well join the club

assuming the goo are still alive i use my breath weapon targeting as many as possible

(6d8)[28]

[DuSlaanesh]

The two Gelatinous cubes hit by Ignus' breath weapon go down after Ulrik's breath weapon passes over them, also managing to damage one more. Two currently still stand, one more heavily damaged than the other.

Ignus?