Othniel's Tyrant's Grasp I

[Nefarion Xid]

"Oh? No. Sigla!"

Imbued with glittering azure energy, three cards streaked from the deck.

Spoiler: Rapid Shot + Spellstrike + Point Blank

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(1d20+2)[16]
(1d4+2)[4] damage

(1d20+2)[22]
(1d4+2)[4] damage

(1d20+2)[11]
(1d4+2)[5] damage

Spoiler: For nat 20, see me

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(1d20+2)[7]
(1d4+2)[4] damage

[PepperP.]

Bellas

The elf's expression didn't change as though she'd been expecting this. She stepped forward purposefully and sliced her blade at the nefarious bird.

"I'm afraid I'm not inclined to make your life easier as you are trying to take mine away."

Spoiler: ooc

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Attack the birb!
(1d20+7)[18]
damage
(1d10+5)[7]

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

Confusion played across Gilbert's face. He really didn't know how psycopomps were supposed to handle these things, so he wasn't sure if this was just business as usual. His new found allies seemed to have made their decision though. His mother had always complained that he wasn't decisive enough. So he charged the crow and swung the hammer down.

Spoiler: Attack

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to-hit (1d20+8)[18]
Damage (3d6+7)[17]

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

Gilbert's hammer came crashing down upon the witchcrow, driving it into the grey dirt of the Boneyard, leaving only a grisly stain amidst a pile of feathers and bones.

There was utter silence from the children for a few heartbeats until a round-faced boy stepped forward. "Hey, mister. That crow dropped this," he said, handing Gilbert what appeared to be a marble. "I took it from him, but he don't need it no more."

"Is Mictena still coming to make everything all right?" a small girl asked. She was clutching a ghostly teddybear.

Spoiler: Loot

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You gain a Deep Red Sphere Ioun Stone.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Possibly. Although, honestly, kid, I'm not so sure she has best intentions in mind. I was trying to avoid saying this out loud so that thing wouldn't get the jump on us all, but now that it's dead..." Henrietta nodded to the body of the pulped avian. "That bird you were speaking with? It's a witchcrow. They're a bunch of schemers, liars, and manipulators, who try to hoard knowledge and take magical items. We are in the Boneyard, that much is true, but I'd bet even odds that Mictena has a rather nasty plan."

[CockroachTeaParty]

As violence broke out suddenly, Cotyledon had only one goal on her mind: she dove toward the children, shielding as many as she could with her body; she wasn't sure if their spirits were capable of even being harmed, but before she could even get an answer the strange witch-crow was slain.

What does it mean to die here? she wondered.

She dusted off the few bewildered children she had shielded, whispering a prayer to the spirits for guidance.

"I am so sorry children. I would have hoped this place would only prove helpful to those in your position, but clearly things are as confusing here as they are back home...

It would seem we cannot trust all of the entities that deign to speak with us here. There is a bird wearing a mask, who is friends with a fearsome creature holding a scythe. Though they may look and sound odd, I believe they actually want to help you. Their names are Umble and Thoot.

When you are ready to move on, your parents ought to follow you. You are all young, and have nothing to fear; none could judge you at fault. The life you knew was cut cruelly short, but take heart: you say goodbye to troubles and worries evermore. Just follow the true psychopomps."

Spoiler: OOC

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Diplomacy with some Guidance: (1d20+8)[28]

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Okay!" the small girl said, clutching her ghostly teddybear all the tighter.

The older girl took the younger by the hand and pointed back toward the "town." "We'll be ready to go."

Then, one by one, the children started to move back toward their parents, running, skipping, and jumping as they went. It was, after all, a grand adventure.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta gave Coty a thumbs up as she easily convinced the children. "Nice job. Now we just gotta talk to the whole rest of the town and get them in on it too." She paused. "That was probably more depressing than I meant it to be. Which, well, life can be like that but, I... You talk good."

She turned to the rest of the group. "Anyone have anything they wanna do before we head on over to the hedge thicket and try our luck with the council?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

Seeking out the town council, the travelers discovered them in a hedge thicket. There stood Arbella Tharmethion and three other members of the council along with a ranting ghostly man bearing a striking resemblance to Arbella herself.

Spoiler: OOC

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The ghostly man is likely Garrid Tharmethion, Arbella's ancestor and a distinguished warrior from the Shining Crusade. After listening for a moment, it appears that Garrid is trying to convince Arbella and her compatriots that they aren't really dead, and that greater heroics await Arbella once the “nefarious trickery” that afflicts the town is resolved.

Spoiler: Knowledge (Planes): Henrietta, Vesper, Gilbert, Coty, and Kali

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Garrid appears to be an unfettered phantom. Willful fugitives of the Negative Energy Plane’s dread gravity, phantoms are escaped souls of humanoid creatures in desperate search of a psychically attuned being with whom to merge—such a merger creates a spiritualist.

Every phantom harbors a strong emotion that tears it from the normal path of souls seeking final judgment and reward. This dominant emotion empowers the phantom’s slam attack and can manifest in more potent forms when this creature merges with a spiritualist, but it also serves as a weight that drags the phantom into the Ethereal Plane and toward the Negative Energy Plane. Until an unfettered phantom finds a refuge, it is a frantic and shifting thing, a desperate creature of raw emotion and need.

Unfettered phantoms turn incorporeal while moving and make slam attacks.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Curious, Henrietta approached the group, attempting to get closer so that she could hear whatever the phantom was going on about. Then, when there was next a lull in the conversation, she said, "What's all the fuss about, then?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"You!" the phantom shouted at Henrietta, spinning around and stabbing a finger at the Duskwalker. "You stay out of this! I have come from beyond the grave to convince my wayward descendant to return to the Material Plane."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Expecting trouble as they approached the ghostly commotion, Cotyledon quietly beseeched any spirits that might be listening for guidance.

With the patience of a mother outlasting a child's tantrum, the ghoran made a propitiating gesture with her root-like hands.
"Go softly, Garrid's restless soul. Your passion is wasted on your ancestor here, for she too has followed you into the afterlife. If you seek a champion for your cause, look no farther than my companions and I. We still yet live, somehow, and we seek to return to the Material Plane and discover what foulness caused this tragedy. And avenge it, if we can."

Spoiler: OOC

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Let's try a Diplomacy check with some Guidance. (1d20+8)[13]

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"NO! She cannot be dead!" the phantom shrieked angrily, as a pair of ghostly blades appeared in his hands. "I challenge you all to battle to determine who is right!" Without waiting, the phantom made a move toward Coty.

Spoiler: Initiative!

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You are now in combat! Everyone but Coty wins initiative. No map here. You may consider yourselves close enough for a 5' step if you wish.

[Nefarion Xid]

"Why is the afterlife filled with uncooperative people!?"

Spoiler: Rapid Point Blank Deadly Aim Spellstrike!

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(1d20+2)[19]
(1d4+4)[5]

(1d20+2)[18]
(1d4+4)[6]

(1d20+2)[13]
(1d4+4)[5]

for crit, see me...
(1d20+2)[7]
(1d4+4)[8]

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"You'd be surprised how stubborn people can be!" Henrietta wielded her glaive with expert precision at the phantom. "Hey phantom! You wanna pass on the hard way, your choice, but there's six of us and one of you!"

Spoiler: Actions

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Attack: (1d20+6)[11]
Damage: (1d10+4)[10]

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

"I suppose this is my life now."

Spoiler: Hammer

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(1d20+8)[25]
(3d6+7)[18]

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Wait, no..." Shock momentarily registered in the phantom's eyes, and then it was gone, dissipated into an ectoplasmic mist as Gilbert's hammer put an end to the bothersome soul.

Arbella and the rest of the council, struck speechless when violence commenced, then found their voices. "Was that...really my ancestor?" Arbella asked hesitantly.

Spoiler: Arbella Tharmethion

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Well-known and well-liked in Roslar's Coffer, Arbella sits on the town's council as the local economic advisor.

[zabbarot]

Gilbert

"He may have been, but the kind of fixations that would cause him to be trapped in that form would keep him from offering sound counsel. Hopefully the shock will help push him to pass on properly." Gilbert stared at the spot the phantom had been in while he spoke.

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Pass on? But why would his ghost appear here in Roslar's Coffer?" Arbella asked. "I don't understand."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Recognizing her comparative lack of tact, Henrietta wanted to leave most of the work to Coty - but she couldn't leave without some sort of rejoinder.

"My friend Coty can elaborate further... but before that, take a look at the moon." Henrietta pointed up to where Groetus sat, a seeming eternity away, but looming over the Boneyard like a vulture. "Does anything about it appear... off, so to speak?"

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

Arbella peered up at the ghastly face above and shook her head. "Seems normal to me, I'm afraid."

Spoiler: Bellas, Sense Motive

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Arbella doesn't seem to be lying. It really does look normal to her.

[PepperP.]

Bellas looked up at the strange moon wonderingly, no little perplexed by the dead woman's failure to recognize the foreignness of this place.

"I'm afraid it is not business as usual in town." Despite the words, her tone lacked malice.

"It is not he who had arrived in Rosler's coffer you see, but you who has arrived in the land of ghosts." She spoke as gently as she was able, given that the elf was not wont to gentleness.

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Oh!" Aribella looked at Bellas as if startled. "Oh, dear." She looked up again at the moon and her eyes went wide. "I...begin to see. It was as if a veil was before my eyes. Dead? How...disappointing. I suppose we must tell the mayor now. The people must be informed."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Mayor's already on board. So're some of the kids. If you all get together the rest of the townsfolk should follow, and you can move on to the hereafter."

Henrietta then began ambling back toward where the mayor had been, although not before making sure the others were following.

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

It was a short walk. Roslar's Coffer was a small town, after all, and the ghostly version they walked through now wasn't any bigger. Town council in tow, they found the mayor once more, now surrounded by the group of children the party had encountered shortly before.

"Lady Mayor Grive," Arbella pinched the bridge of her own nose. "An alarming fact has been presented to me: We are dead. I and the council" - here she paused for the council to wag their heads in agreement - "suggest that you call an emergency town meeting at once and inform everyone of our present situation."

"Ah...yes, very well." Lady Grive's eyes opened wide at the suggestion. "Do any of you six wish to address the townsfolk when I call everyone together?" she asked of the party.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon was standing there, very still and quiet, as she often seemed to do. Being a plant, she had an uncanny ability to be motionless, as if she were a statue decorated with green vines and flower petals.

Her mind was racing, countless lives' worth of conflicting thoughts and emotions embattled within whatever passed for a brain in her kind. She seemed to jerk back into motion at Lady Grive's question, apparently sensing the rest of the group's expectations.

"...I am a shaman," she said. "It is my duty to see your spirits begin their great journey. I will speak for them."

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

"Very good." The Mayor seemed relieved.

It took several minutes, but the Mayor and the town council soon gathered up the inhabitants of Roslar's Coffer into a semi-circle surrounding a ghostly gazebo some of the party may have remembered in happier times.

"Listen to me please, everyone!" the Mayor called out. "I have called you all together to hear from a traveler in our midst. Coty, if you will?" she said, stepping aside.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Coty was used to interacting with the more vague spirits of life and nature, subtle things that inhabited animals, small shrines, and quiet places. These wayward souls were something else, something that felt outside of her true jurisdiction. Nervously, she stepped forward.

"People of Roslar's Coffer, as you are coming to understand now, you have all died. We do not know how, or why, but I believe you have all been deeply wronged. I can promise you that my companions and I, if able, will do our best to determine the reason, and if possible right this wrong in some capacity. But that problem is no longer your concern. Do not go forward with resentment and regret, for that is a dangerous path. Rather, proceed with open eyes and willing hearts. Your great reward lies before you. In time, your souls will find a new form, a new purpose, and continue the great cycle of existence.

These words might sound hollow... but know that life goes on, in all manner of forms, even after death. I am sad that your lives were cut so short, but at least you died together, and begin this new journey together. Go in peace, Roslar's Coffer. You will not be forgotten."

Spoiler: OOC

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Not sure if this calls for a Diplomacy roll, but here's one: (1d20+7)[13]

[Othniel]

Valley of the Dead

The people of Roslar’s Coffer stirred and murmured uncomfortably, but a look of placid acceptance began to spread. One by one, the figures in the audience began to exude a warm glow. As her own light slowly brightened, Mayor Grive turned back to speak. “I suppose, at least, there will still be someone on the other side who still remembers us. Just please, promise me that you’ll find out what happened to us when you get back, and that you’ll go to the capital and tell them what killed the people of Roslar’s Coffer.”

And then the town was gone.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

As the townspeople began to glow, and the Mayor made her last request, Henrietta paused. Then, thinking of what Maria would have wanted, she nodded.

"I promise."

When they had vanished completely, she turned to the group, Coty in the middle of her sights. In a rare sight, a smile crossed her face.

"Nice work, everybody. Now, time to see if we can't get what we're owed from those psychopomps. Assuming they haven't run off or anything..."

With that, her face returned to its normal expression, and she began ambling towards where they had first met the psychopomps, calling out once they approached the site. "Umble! Thoot! It's done."