Wrath of the Righteous IC [3.5, Group B]

[Kish]

For several weeks, excitement has been building in Kenabres—Armasse is coming! Traditionally an opportunity for scholars and priests to come together to study the lessons of history from wars past, since the Worldwound opened, this holy day has become more about training commoners in weaponry, choosing squires, and ordaining new priests. Over time, Armasse has grown to encompass jousting tournaments, mock duels, battle reenactments, and other festival events. In Kenabres, the festival (which takes place on 16 Arodus) is eagerly anticipated, for it provides distractions from the horrors of being on the front line of the war. Smiles on faces normally marred by downcast eyes and furrowed brows do wonders for city morale in the weeks leading up to the event.

Armasse is a citywide celebration, but the majority of the event, including its jousting matches and other entertainments, takes place at Clydwell Plaza, just west of the cathedral. It is here that the campaign begins, with you in attendance near the cathedral’s façade—you’ve been lucky enough to get good spots to observe the opening ceremonies at noon.

Spoiler

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You can describe your characters and what you're doing.

[Yawielas]

Runa Sigridsdottir


A warrior woman in her mid twenties leans against a wall, watching the plaza with wonder. The visit to Torag's temple had lifted her spirit, and now even more splendor and excitement awaited. Runa is glad she was early, seeing all the people gathering to watch the opening seremonies. This spot is close to the action, with nothing to bar her view.

A longsword hangs from her hip, next to a hand axe, and a chain shirt protects her torso. She is blonde, with tight, small braids on the sides of her head to keep the hair away from her face, while the rest falls down her back. She is of average height, strong and athletic, with blue eyes and tanned skin, someone who's spent a lot of time outdoors, in activity. She reaches into her belt pouch and takes out a small cake made from nuts, oats and dried berries, and gets ready to enjoy the show.

[GreyStormcrow]

Rung Soldar

Rung crouched on the top of a building, cloak on his back and rope in his hand. He was careful to stay low to minimize his profile, but he also wanted to be able to spectate.
He had always loved Armasse.

[Ionbound]

Alexia stretches and yawns in her seat, happy to be able to take the day off of duty to attend the opening ceremonies. She's out of armor for once, wearing normal clothes, but is excited for the events, not that the tired look on her face from yet another sleepless night would show it.

[Novabomb]

Tellos

Is the young man in the middle of a trio of would be crusaders. You can tell by the recruit issued armor (scalemail) they wear. They managed to score some front row positions. This was Tellos's idea, he thought it would be easier to get to the event if they did not have to wade through the entire crowd. He is 5'11'', fair of hair, and strangely green on eye. Strapped to his back (Horizontally, just above his backpack) is a Greatsword.
He seems to be having a disscussion with his comrads.
Oakland to his right says, "Do you really think full kit was appropriate for this event? Your scaring off the girls!
Tellos: Shugio (Referring to something Master Clarkson would teach)
Timmy (on his left, who is on the thin side): "You are going to tire yourself out before the melee even starts."
Tellos: Friend, unlike yourself I am not stingy with the water carrying, I could carry this for hours; As we should be able to when the day comes
Both of his fellows eyeroll.

[flat_footed]

Kel

Road weary and despairing, a lone figure strode through the crowds with a determined gait. His face was covered carefully by the hood of a cloak, but mud splatters and small tears showed him as a traveler just arriving in Kenabres. He had always heard of the Armasse celebration, but this was Kel's first time feeling it. Everyone's spirits were high and the conflict was forgotten for a single evening. People everywhere were singing and making merry, making it almost impossible to figure out where he was heading. Kel choked back his frustration and halted his steps, the crowd starting to part around him. Several people jostled Kel, some more roughly than the others, and annoyed voices called out for him to keep moving. After a particularly firm shove, Kel had to clutch at this hood to keep it from dislodging.

Taking a few deep breaths, Kel started to move again, still without direction. Loud cries and the sounds of competition broke through the crowd and he turned towards it. I just need to rest for a little. Refocus my mind. With a destination in mind, Kel quickens his steps and slips through the crowd with ease. Spying a comfortable place to rest, Kel lowers himself against a building, finding a touch of shade from the midday sun. Removing his pack, he takes a long drink from his water skin and turns his eyes to the plaza. He could see the plaza was filling up with other people as well, each trying to get a better spot than the other. Something big must be starting soon, Kel thought.

[JanusJones]

ARROW

He could barely breathe. It stunk of people.

A man stumbled past, and Arrow flinched. They were so close. Smiles, laughter, a curse, a chamberpot emptied out a window. A child in a mask nearly bowled him over.

The squat, scarred man sunk into himself, huddled against the wall.

This was it. The home of the crusades. Where the Guardians started, where Wolf fought.

He could barely stand it.

[Kish]

Armasse officially begins at noon, with the blessing of the festival by Lord Hulrun himself, ruler of Kenabres. The crowd gathered in Clydwell Plaza quiets as the aged cleric takes the stage, clad in shining, resplendent armor. He clears his throat, but just as he is about to speak, a bright light shines from the west, as if the sun were rising from the wrong direction. Hulrun’s shadow falls huge and distorted across the cathedral’s façade. A moment later, the sound of a thunderous explosion rips through the air and earth, along with a violent tremor.

To the west, the fortress known as the Kite—the location of Kenabres’s wardstone—has vanished. In its place, a brilliant plume of red fire, lightning, and smoke erupts into the heavens.

A moment later, a powerful roar accompanies a welcome sight rising from the crowd—Kenabres’s greatest guardian, the ancient silver dragon Terendelev, who was until this moment attending the opening ceremony disguised as a human. Above, another form appears, as nightmarish as the dragon is breathtaking. A humanoid shape three times the size of any human, with skin coated in fire and lightning, grips a flaming sword and whip. The creature’s identity is immediately obvious: Khorramzadeh, the Storm King of the Worldwound, has come to Kenabres!

As the ground shakes and disgorges demons into the streets, the dragon and the balor lord clash above. Timmy lunges away from Tellos; whether he is attempting to escape, to help someone else, or to retrieve his gear will be forever unclear as a marilith slices him in half with a casual brutality. Above you, the fight between Khorramzadeh and Terendelev is over in a few harrowing moments, as the balor cuts deep into the dragon's body, swooping down to strike the dragon and arresting her charge. A few more blows, and the titanic duo spirals downward toward the crowd.

The sight of the dragon smashing into the façade of the Cathedral of St. Clydwell is one no witness will ever forget. At that moment, a titanic demon erupts at the far end of the plaza, reducing several buildings to ruins as it smashes into this world. The roof Rung is standing on is suddenly no longer there and he tumbles toward the ground. The rift the demon created shoots across the plaza, and Rung's fall suddenly looks much farther, but those of you still on the ground also find the ground beneath your feet crumbling.

Even as you fall, you see the dragon stretch out a bleeding talon toward you, uttering arcane words. You feel her magic take hold of you, slowing your plummet into the darkness as if you were feathers falling into a pit. Yet the fall remains as inexorable, and as you drift downward into the depths, the last thing you see is the Storm King standing before the ancient silver dragon, his sword lashing out and cleaving full through her neck. As her severed head falls, the rift above you slams shut, and the light of the world above is gone.

You come back to yourself minutes later. The sounds of coughing, moans of pain, and rocks clattering, as well as the choking smell of dust, become apparent as your senses seem to return, but it remains pitch black. Feeling around in the darkness, you feel rubble all around you and realize that your bodies are covered in dirt. Despite your general aches and pains, you don’t seem to have actual damage.

A male voice speaks arcane words, and a light as bright as a torch flares into existence. The voice speaks the same words again, and again in tones of consternation, and finally says, “Ah…my magic doesn’t seem to be working. Could someone make a light?”

Spoiler

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is the area you've fallen into. The light source is a small rock on the ground near the elf northeast of the other two strangers.

[Novabomb]

Tellos had just drawn his blade, preparing to meet his end with honor, when the floor gave way. Fortunately he somehow keep ahold of it in the fall.

When he recovers from the landing he calls out Oakland, are you still with me? He then tries to stand.

[flat_footed]

Kel

Trying to deny to himself the significance of what just happened, Kel slowly brushes his hands over himself to remove the dirt and focuses on immediate worries. What just happened? Why did the dragon spare me? Has Kenabres been overrun? Eyes and thoughts suddenly blinded by a surge of light, Kel raises a hand to shield his face, though it quickly winks out. Groaning, Kel tosses his cloak to the ground and shakes the dirt from his hair. Without the hood blocking his vision and hearing, Kel slowly moves towards where the light originated and calls out.

"Are there any others alive?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Kel is slowly shuffling towards the man who cast the light, with his arms stretched out in front of him.

[GreyStormcrow]

"The Kite," Rung mumbled, staring up in shock. "It's- it's gone. And Terendelev. And the Cathedral. All gone."
He turned to the others, worry written on his face - all but panicked. "What do we do now?"

[Ionbound]

As the battle begins, Alexia leaps from her seat, all traces of former tiredness having vanished. She scrounges a spear, and charges into battle, psionically blinking forwards to engage the enemy but as it becomes more and more obvious the battle is lost, she begins to fall back. In a desperate, million-to-one chance to change the tide and save Terendelev, takes a javelin from the ground and hurls it at the Balor. Unfortunately, even holy Iomedae herself must bow to the laws of chance, and the javelin flies wide as the ground collapses beneath Alexia and she falls into the pit.

When she comes to, she shakes her head and scrounges around, muttering to herself, "Dammit, Terendelev...You should have survived this, not us. Benevolent to the end, I suppose..." then gasps as she finds her gear with her hands and calls in response to the demand for light, "Hold on, I've got a lantern here! Give me a moment." After hurriedly strapping her armor on, she ignites the hooded lantern and holds it high, hopefully illuminating a slightly more positive scene that what she saw last.

[Yawielas]

Runa

The explosion of the Kite startled Runa, and she watches wide eyed as the dragon ascends to fight the giant demon. She draws her sword and straps her shield to her arm as the ground erupts with more fiends, moving away from the wall she was leaning on just as it begins to crumble. "Noooo!" She sees the dragon fall and tries to make her way there as there's suddenly nothing more to stand on. Tumbling through debris, she desperately grasps for anything to hold on to, before eveything turns dark.

Coughing, she digs herself out of dirt and dust, still clinging to her weapon. At the sound of a voice, Runa realises she's not alone, wherever she is. "Hello? Yes...light....I have a lantern as well, unless it broke in the fall." She searches for her backpack to retrieve her lamp.

[JanusJones]

ARROW

He pulled his scarf higher over his ruined mouth as he staggered up. The bow would be no good in this muck - he clenched his fist, ran fingers over the studs on his knuckles.

Lights glimmered. He kept his back to a wall, and his eyes peeled. The voices could be anyone ... anything.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Perception: [dice]1d20+8[roll]

[Kish]

The voice that cast the light spell turns out to come from a male elf in tattered robes. It's quickly apparent why he didn't realize his spell had worked--you remember seeing him take a glancing blow from Khorramzadeh's flaming whip, and his face where his eyes used to be is a mass of burns. "Who's there? Someone make a light," he says with increasingly urgency.

Oakland does not appear to have fallen into the cavern with you. A young woman in leather armor with a bow has; she looks up at the cavern, most of which is to her east, and calls, "My leg's stuck. Could someone help me out here?"

"Gah! Someone help me up!" bellows a middle-aged human man in what was apparently, a few minutes ago, quite expensive clothing. It looks like his injuries are superficial.

[Novabomb]

Tellos
I pray for your survival friend
He moves over to the trapped woman, and attempts to use his sword as a lever.
Alright miss, drag clear on the count of 3. 1, 2, 3.

Spoiler: OOC

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Strength Check to raise the pinning material
(1d20+3)[14]

[GreyStormcrow]

Rung shakes his head, chasing away the shadows. People are hurting.
He sees that someone has already gone to help the trapped one, so he scurries over to the Wizard. "Sir? Are you alright?"

[Ionbound]

Alexia spares the older man a glance and says, "Get yourself up. You'll heal in a day or two, if that. You're fine, unlike the other two," as she hustles over to the woman with her leg trapped, shaking her head at Tellos and says, "Just lift with me. We don't need the sword. And losing a leg, while better than being stuck down here, is probably not what we're going for." With that, she braces herself and heaves, trying to lift the debris on raw

Spoiler: OOC

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Strength Check: (1d20+3)[8]

[flat_footed]

Kel moves towards where the woman as well, seeing an obvoius need for aid. As they lift together, he bends down to pull the woman to safety. Careful to lift her carefully, he slides her out gently.

Spoiler: Strength Check

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(1d20+2)[13]

[Yawielas]

Runa

Runa brushes off most of the grit and dust, and moves over to the middle aged man to help him up. "Here, sir, take my hand." She looks around to see if anyone else is in need of assistance, as the elven wizard and the trapped woman is being tended to.

[JanusJones]

ARROW

The small man joined the effort to free the pinned woman. He says nothing, and he keeps as far as he can from the others.

Spoiler: Roll

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Strength Check: (1d20+2)[7]

[Kish]

The four of you manage to remove the rock from the woman's leg. "Thank you." She offers you a smile. "I'm Anevia Tirabade, and I'm AAAARGH!" She tries to put weight on her leg and falls to the cavern floor. "It's broken in at least three places, I'd say," she says through clenched teeth.

"Thank you. I'm glad to see someone--" The rest of what the apparent nobleman was going to say to Runa is lost as the blind elf speaks.

"Someone please make a light, if you can. Surely I'm not the only spellcaster here," he says.

"You're blind, you idiot!" the nobleman yells.

"Ah, Horgus Gwerm," Anevia says from the floor of the cavern, not yelling but not speaking particularly quietly either. "Top of the list of people I would have chosen to be stuck with."

[Novabomb]

Tellos
Does anyone here know how to make a splint?

[Ionbound]

Alexia frowns and says, "Sorry, can't help with that...But what I can do is try to find a way out of here." She looks around the cavern, trying to find a way back to the surface.

[Yawielas]

Runa

She helps the man up, and shakes her head apologetically towards Tellos. "Afraid I don't know much about broken bones, other than they hurt. Perhaps we could make a stretcher." She lights her lantern and looks around the debris to find something they could use.

[flat_footed]

Kel

Kel stoops down and assists Anevia to stand again, making sure to stay on the side with the injured leg. "I'm afraid that I don't know much about broken bones.. Perhaps the mage does.

[GreyStormcrow]

Rung puts a hand on the Wizard's shoulder. "Sir. Your spells are working, but the beast above took your sight."
He paused, looking at the mass of burns. Infection could be a problem here. Drawing a starknife, he began slicing his cloak into strips for bandages. "It'll be alright. We'll get aboveground and get you to the church. They can heal you.

[JanusJones]

ARROW

The scoff was barely audible, but it was there. It was clear the little man in the hood thought the idea that the church was still there ridiculous.

Arrow shuffled away from the group. He kept close enough - there was strength in numbers. He scanned the periphery. They'd lit enough of a light - he'd rather keep his hands free. He drew his bow.

Spoiler: Perception

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[roll]1d20+8[roll]

[JanusJones]

Spoiler: Perception:

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[dice]1d20+8[dice] Argh!

[Kish]

"Blind?" the elf repeats. "Oh...how strange, I don't feel...I'm Aravashnial, and even blind I'm probably more experienced at this than anyone else here. Who else is here? Tell me what you can do."

"No one here knows how to splint a broken leg, huh?" Anevia struggles back to a standing position, leaning on the rocks and resting her weight on her good leg. "I'll...manage somehow."

Spoiler: OOC

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Anyone can attempt to splint her leg with a Heal check. Note that while it would take a Regenerate spell, or a lot of time, to heal her leg fully, any healing magic can make it significantly better than it is now. Similarly, Aravashnial will need a Regenerate spell to ever see again, but less powerful healing magic could heal much of the damage he's taken.

A passage leads out of the cavern to the east.

Spoiler: Perception 10

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You hear a distinct sound of chewing.

Spoiler: Perception 15

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You're pretty sure it's coming from the large spider corpse on the east side of the cavern.