Expedition to the Craters.

[jakarta]

It is an early summer evening on the Frontier province, and, along with most of the Town of West Lake, you are knoll just north of town overlooking West Lake awaiting the promised fireworks for the Warden and Baron's son's Name Day Celebration. The best pryo-illusionist in the land, Dolfgand the Singed, has been summoned from the East, and now is out on Mushroom Turtle Isle in the middle of the lake warming up for the evening's show.

Vendor tables baring toasted nuts and other treats are set at the bottom of the hill and the crowd is in a festive mood as the sun sets. The festivities are about to begin.

A few minstrels entertain the crowd as the sky grows dark. Logs are piled for the planed bond fire and dance for after the fireworks. The Baron is on hand and will probably make some speech, but the name day boy and is probably back home with his mother.

Hmmm... is that roast turkey legs you smell?

[ahyangyi]

Durr was standing behind the crowd. He is tall enough to see all the fireworks at that position, and not everyone likes to be standing near a half-orc anyways. That position gives everyone least trouble, or at least so Durr thought.

When Durr smells something resembling roast turkey leg, he rumbles quietly, "I wonder what this smell is and where it comes from. Maybe Starry knows the answer." Durr then tries to feel Starry's reaction to this smell, empathically.

(Starry is the name of his familiar fox.)

[Snowbluff]

Clarity Dhohal Clemens, the White Hawk

Clarity stretches her arms and legs. The trek here was long and tiresome, and all of her limbs are sore. It's been a while since her adoptive father, Aelro, had disappeared, and she has become a knight errant to do good deeds in the name of Shelyn in the time being. Still, the loss of the aging elf, a long retired paladin himself, still bothers her to do this. Clarity contemplates the reasoning for her choice in career. Was she still looking for him, or just merely emulating him to try and deduce the reason for his absence?

Clarity shakes her. Perish the thought! Her mission was the work of good. She had more important things to worry about.

"Is that a fresh meal I smell?" Clarity asks. She had been subsisting on trail rations for days. Some real food would do her some good.

[Athaleon]

Kalis didn't give a damn about the nameday party, but he was curious to see if Dolfgand the pyro-illusionist was all he was cracked up to be. The name implied he added a touch of the Power to heighten the effect, but then again, why would a talented mage spend his time entertaining children and yokels? He pondered all this while he made a beeline towards the food table. If nothing else, it was a good chance to get a decent meal on the road. Most country taverns had far too high an opinion of their own cooking, he'd found so far.

[Othniel]

Mirabelle

Despite the heavenly smell, Mirabelle - she insisted on Mira to most everyone but her parents - stayed put. She'd already filled her stomach with all kinds of tasty treats, and didn't want to give up her carefully-chosen spot. So she sat staring out over the lake, squinting to see the action upon the island. Fireworks were a special treat, and she would rather miss a meal than miss that. Though...perhaps after the show?

[jakarta]

*pop* whirrra-BANG

Spoiler: the first 'attention getter' goes off above the lake.

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https://i.giphy.com/peAFQfg7Ol6IE.webp



(second one's not as nice, but will do.)

[ahyangyi]

Durr

"Ahhh. Heavenly." Duur exclaims.

[jakarta]

The display builds in intensity and variety. Bursts of color mixed with beams of light and branching lightening bolts coming from the island. Balls of light buzzing around is island. Images of fantastic creatures projected on Fog and smoke. The reports and zips grow louder and louder. (spell craft dc 15

Spoiler: peek if passed

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He is combining prestidigitation, Dancing lights, and several illusion effects, tossing in showy conjuration and evocation spells

)

He even has some streaks of light shooting across the sky. (spell craft DC 15

Spoiler: peek if passed.

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That is well out of range from the for it to be a spell of Dolfgand's reputed level.

)

These streaks also intensify, though they aren't as showy as the rest of the display.

Then two of the buzzing lights collide in the air....

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/XJieiKtvblJZu" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/fireworks-XJieiKtvblJZu">via GIPHY</a></p>

(if the image isn't working, here is the page url.

https://giphy.com/gifs/fireworks-XJieiKtvblJZu)

A shower of sparks is released as they collide. They spiral crazily away from each other leaving glowing purple-blue trails. One goes generally upwards as the other starts skipping across the water of the lake, some times returning to the air momentarily before splashing again, the water glowing energetically at every point of contact.

karBOONGGGN! Turing to the sound you see the bell tower disintegrating, the bells bouncing across town towards the lake, small rocks and fragments shooting into buildings and a green fireball crashing into the lake. A multitude of smaller fireballs like green flaming arrows rip across the sky from the same direction, some disappearing harmlessly over the horizon, some hitting the lake, and some piercing rooftops or smashing into green fragments on the town's walls and streets.

Then a Huge fireball, much higher in the sky, trailing flames and accompanied by several smaller fireballs, streaks across the sky from East to west. one of the smaller ones hits the island just as the buzzing light that was skimming the lake also hits. They explode with bolts of lightening sending debris into the air.....

Another of the smaller balls crashes 1/2 way between the lake and the horizon, several miles off. The Giant one and the others disappear over the horizon. A moment later, it is as though the sun has suddenly risen in the West and you feel vibrations from the distant impact....

You don't have time to worry about this, as the remaining buzzing light suddenly zips up, and detonates blindingly. When you can focus a minute later, in it's place in the sky is a glowing fiery eye with lightening shooting from it at random... and the sky around it seems to be fractured.

Shiny, coin sized bits of metal rain down on you, followed by hotly burning larger fragments. As you try to dodge these, rocks and branches and fish and stuff starts hitting you from the direction of the island. Some of these look like candy striped tubes with cones on top and others like red paper covered balls.... both the tubes and the balls have sparkle tails that get shorter.....The rockets ricochet around the crowd and town at random and the small balls erupt into fireworks and illusions of dancing demons. Dolgalf's remaining fireworks have been spread around the entire lake region and are igniting randomly.

The turkey leg stand detonates.

The flock of turkeys that weren't tonight's dinner are flapping around the town on fire. Flaming cattle are stampeding at random. Several buildings are fully ablaze and others have smaller fires.

The town guardsmen nearest you is struck by an actual flaming arrow and falls dead. Torch wielding goblins are attacking the town, singling gleefully as they call out in answer to the One Eye'd God's proclamation of chaos!

It is complete Pandemonium!

Heroes, what do you do?

[Snowbluff]

Clarity draws her glaive, a weapon of the goddess of Shelyn. Her celestial eidolon girds her with divine might! She then casts a spell of mage armor, further protecting herself as she heads to defeat the goblins!

Spoiler

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Clarity casts mage armor!

Clarity moves up while drawing her glaive as her move action. Her glaive has 10 feet of reach while her hawk claws on her feet have 5 feet of reach.

[jakarta]

"Whaa!!! BIRD DEMON FROM THE OUTER PLANE!! KILL IT BEFORE IT SNATCHES AWAY OUR SOULS!!!!"

Clarity looks around for the demon and sees a temple guard from the shine of Kord. His war cry matches the voice who shouted the warning. He has already drawn his mace and is charging......at?......her!?!?

[Snowbluff]

Clarity protests, holding up the silver symbol of Shelyn, in the shape of a songbird, she carries around her neck on a heavy chain. "I am a paladin of a Shelyn, good goddess of beauty, art, and music! Today I am here to return order to this festival!"

Spoiler: Diplomaxy

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(1d20+10)[24]

[jakarta]

He nearly falls over aborting his charge inches from you.

"RALLY TO THE PALADIN!!!" He shouts.

Another Kordite, a Baulder guard, and a a town guard fall into "Let's hope she has a holy avenger " cluster formation around you.

"There's one." Points the other Kordite.

[Othniel]

Mirabelle

"That...that is so not fair!" Mirabelle protested, though nobody seemed to hear the halfling woman's plaintive voice. A perfectly good festival ruined. Then the fireballs came, followed by loud noises, burning shrapnel, and flaming cows. This was definitely not part of the show. Mirabelle's short sword appeared in her hand, and she slipped into the shadows of dusk. There were so many things on fire, but she was a mere halfling, unable to haul the large buckets of water quickly that would be necessary to put out the many blazes cropping up in the area. Spotting the goblins, she decided her talents were better served in stabbing a few of the disgusting creatures. It took a few minutes, but she finally managed to find one that had wandered further from the rest, launching herself from the shadows, she swung her blade at the creature's neck...and missed. Crap.

Spoiler: OOC

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Unsure if I need to for this opening round, but here's a stealth roll: (1d20+8)[22]
Attack: (1d20+7)[8]
Damage: (1d4-1)[3]
Sneak Attack: (1d6)[4]

[jakarta]

"There's one!" Shouts the Kordite as he points to a goblin who is whirling to slice at a halfling woman. The goblin's weapon, composed of jagged rusted shards of metal haphazardly wired to a club looks disgustingly dangerous.

(attack on Miri)

Spoiler: to hit and dam

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(1d20+1)[2]; (1d4)[1]
slashing

The goblin manages to hit itself in the leg.

[jakarta]

(Miri has time to attack the goblin again before Clarity and her ad hock squad arrives to assist.)

[Othniel]

Mirabelle

"Blast it!" The halfling muttered and mentally conjured a flickering duplicate of herself behind the goblin, trying to confuse the creature. Then she slashed at it again.

Spoiler: OOC

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Using False Flanker to creature a momentary duplicate of herself opposite her behind the goblin to gain flanking.
Attack: (1d20+7)[12]
Damage: (1d4-1)[2]
Sneak Attack: (1d6)[3]

[Snowbluff]

Clarity arrives, thrusting her glaive at a nearby goblin!

Spoiler

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Attack (1d20+5)[6]
Damage (1d10+3)[9]

[jakarta]

The halflin slices the hobbling goblin as the palidin misses high.

"Watch our flank, Pretty Boy."
The Baulder guard ignores the Kordite's slight as he shifts nonetheless to rear guard.

The Kordites and the town guard swarm the goblin and finish it off.

"THERE. " points the town guard to another goblin in the distance.

The other guards look to Clarity.

[Athaleon]

Kalis looked over the magical fireworks with a dispassionate eye, but was so lost in thought he was caught unawares by the goblins' attack. He staggered back from the exploding buffet table and once he caught his wits and put up a basic protective spell, he drew his rapier and moved instinctively towards the cluster of guards and other armed citizens.

Spoiler

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Kalis will also cast Mage Armor and move towards the rest of the group.

[ahyangyi]

"KILL THE GOBLINS!" Shouted Durr.
Durr charges at the nearest goblin while also drawing his double axe.

Spoiler: OOC

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Power attack enabled; attack with the double axe held in two hands.
Attack roll (1d20+6)[23].
Damage roll (1d8+7)[13].
AC -2 until start of my next turn.

(Shouldn't have used charge nor power attack on these frail goblins, as a simple standard attack would suffice. But whatever.)

Durr swings his axe. The spectacularly heavy blow is obviously too heavy for a pesky goblin.

[zabbarot]

Two weeks on the road were a pittance to pay for this kind of entertainment. Ansel enjoyed a turkey leg and gawked at the lightshow until it started raining fire on their heads. Before he was able to find cover though he heard shouts and the sound of battle. His blade found it's way into his hand instinctively as he ran after the guards to assist. Seeing the halfling standing over a dead goblin he ran to her side.

"Do not fear, child! Your hero has arrived."

[Othniel]

Mirabelle

"I am not a child!" she practically shouted in response, before running off to stab another goblin. "I am a halfling, you big sack of potatoes."

Spoiler: OOC

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She's making noise now, so I'll use another round of False Flanker.
Attack: (1d20+7)[20]
Damage: (1d4-1)[0] (that defaults to 1 nonlethal)
Sneak Attack: (1d6)[5]

[zabbarot]

Ansel followed quickly and thrust his estoc at the goblin she was fighting.

"My mistake, the gods gave me this beautiful head and didn't see fit to fill it." He flashed his best smile, in hopes of softening her anger. He seemed more focused on her than the goblins really.

Spoiler: dice

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To-hit (1d20+7)[17]
Damage (2d4+5)[9]

[jakarta]

Though it takes another 2 hours or so for the last of the fireworks to cook off (or doused with lake water and tossed into the lake), an effective order of battle soon develops.

The skirmishers rush from goblin to goblin, almost as if they are racing each other, with an ever growing squad of trained or at least armed townsfolk joining Clarity's platoon, which supports and finishes any resistant goblins.

With this organized response apparent, the town rallies, and the smarter goblins fade back into the woods. Everyone then turns to fire fighting and search and rescue.

It is a long night, followed by a long day. When you finally have things under control and have time for some food (well done live stock and tinned biscuits) it is well into the next evening. You all collapse on the straw of the offered barn and sleep until nearly mid morning.

Most of the town has survived, though with extensive damage. The shines are preparing the dead and treating the wounded. Your allies from the night before have all returned to their normal commands.

Under the suspicious eyes of the watch, many gnomes are running around collecting bits of green rock and fragments of silver metal, setting up survey equipment to map the impacts, and aiming sextants and spyglasses at....

The fiery eye in the broken sky now looks like a smoky black eye, with occasional beams of light and bolts of energy emanating from it. It seems high in the sky, though it is difficult to determine the exact height. The gnomes are poring over scrolls and arguing about it. The sky still seems fractured, with fragments being different shades of blue and purple.

When you go to the lake to wash off, you see that small sections of it are boiling, and smoke is coming from the island. There also seems to be fires in the distance beyond the lake.

[ahyangyi]

Now among the temporary band formed against the goblins and fire, Durr introduces himself, "Durr. Shaman of the Lightrover Tribe, believer of Desna, adventurer."

After some short introduction, Durr turns his attention to the ongoing events.

"I can't understand. What had happened? It's like hell, but above us." Durr looks at the smokey black eye in the sky, looking troubled and concerned. Then Durr also look down at some random metal fragment, murmurs "I remeber these were poured from 'that thing'. But what are these thing for?"

Durr then casts detect magic at these metal fragments, hoping to gain insight in how the whole catastrope happened.

Spoiler: OOC

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(to the black eye)
Knowledge (Planes) (1d20+2)[10]

(to the metal fragments)
Casts detect magic.

[jakarta]

Spoiler: skill check and detect magic result.

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Nothing specific on the 'eye', though the fracture and sky color effect would seem to indicate some sort of planer convergence. The metal doesn't seem to be magical itself, but has a mixed aura of lingering evocation, abjuration, and conjuration.

After a meal of scorched buns (they're ok on the inside) a messenger asks you to come to the merchants' house, where the mayor and baron are organizing things. The bell tower was part of city hall it seems....

[Snowbluff]

Clarity walks into the mayors house, introducing herself as a apaldin of Shelyn once more. "Am to understand that by calling me here you think there was more to this goblin attack?" She asks, curious about the circumstances of last night's attack.

Spoiler: Rolls

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(1d20+10)[17] diplomacy
(1d20+6)[13] sense motive

[ahyangyi]

Durr also introduces himself in a short way after other peoples' self-introduction, "I am Durr, Follower of Desna and her Heavens", so as to follow the social convention but to avoid people's attention.
When Clarity asks the major about future tasks, Durr keeps silent but keen on listening what the major is to say.

Spoiler: OOC

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Sense motive on the major
(1d20+11)[26]

[jakarta]

The mayor's butler is rather confused as to why you have walked into his Honor the Mayor's house, and has the groom escort you to the Merchants' (guild) House, where you are introduced to Borin No-Shield, the Guild Master. He is a bit concerned as to why you are with the mayor's groom instead of the messenger he sent, but gets down to business.

The mayor and baron are too busy dealing with (babys crying)

[jakarta]

...with, well, the destruction of the town. They have 12 funerals to arrange, well, 13, but that is why you are here."


"Dolfgand is alive. His familiar made it back early yesterday morning. Poor thing."
He refers to a box on his desk where a black, scorched bird rests, one wing in a sling. It Coos weakly.

"(aside) That's a white dove. (louder) At mid day yesterday we sent a party of 6, led my Nickey, one of our scribes, reputable halfling, to the island to retrieve Dolfgand. This morning one of the group floated back to our shore. Dead. We are sending a more capable party this time. We will give you a week's lodging and 20 gold each to retrieve the initial party and Dolfgand, or their corpses....or at least a reasonably full report of the situation. What say you?"