Othniel's Tyrant's Grasp I

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

At Coty's urging, Percival led the way back downstairs in search of Roslar's horse. This they found leaning against the western wall in the chamber with the inscription for Abdell. The stone walls of the room were carved to resemble an airy stable with a large stone box at the southern end. The lid of the box was cracked and corroded, as though from powerful acid. An illustration of a lean, regal stallion and the words “No Greater Friend Hath a Man Than His Loyal Steed” were chiseled into the stone above the box. The skeleton seemed intact, but almost as if a child had taken it apart and attempted to put it back together. It was mostly all there. Just not as it should be. By now the six had learned to spot the telltale sign of an ostovite within a skeleton, though the bones surrounding the abyssal scavenger would prevent a direct attack until the skeleton itself were destroyed.

Spoiler: OOC

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You got the drop on this one. Y'all are up. Map updated.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Alright, you little bugger. Get outta there!"

Henrietta moved in and swung her glaive toward the skeleton, intent on forcing the ostovite out into the open.

Spoiler: Actions

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Attack: (1d20+6)[17]
Damage: (1d10+4)[5]

While Henrietta managed to land a direct, blow, there was not enough power behind the swing to penetrate the skeleton, and her glaive bounced off harmlessly.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Seeing the ostovite was piloting a more significant skeletal vessel, Cotyledon produced the prayer bead they had found. She turned it in her strange, green fingers, and eked the blessing within out into the world. Her companions felt their courage bolstered by the wave of divine magic.

Spoiler: OOC

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Coty will activate the bead of blessing.

Everyone gets a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and saves vs. fear for 1 minute.

[zabbarot]

Potato Gilbert

Gilbert moved forward, readied his hammer, and swung at the malformed horse.

"If we were in the coffins where are all these bones coming from?"

Spoiler: Actions

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(1d20+8)[21]
(3d6+6)[18]

[PepperP.]

Bellas pointed to the half-destroyed lid of what has formerly served as the skeleton's coffin.

"He came from his own coffin, those were our coffins. Though I have no idea why anyone would go to the trouble of making us a coffin when we clearly aren't dead." She punctuated her words with a slice at the parasitic pest.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

attack on osto
(1d20+7)[21]
Damage
(1d10+5)[15]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

The troupe made haste to the final chamber of the level they'd awoken on. This turned out to be the planned resting place of the famous Roslar. The room's stone walls were carved to resemble hanging draperies framing a large dais. Upon the dais stood a large sarcophagus, its lid carved to resemble a sleeping knight with long hair and a wide mustache. The room carried a faint nauseating odor, like putrefying meat. Gilbert could see that the lid of the sarcophagus was somewhat askew, as if it had been opened and mostly (but not quite completely) closed.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Blegh, that stench... why do I get the feeling those things probably ate whatever was in here? Although, better question, if everything else so far has been skeletal, what was fresh meat doing here?"

She then focused on the sacophagus. "Anyone else spot anything off about that thing? If something's gonna jump out at us my bet would be it's in there."

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper stood a way back from the sarcophagus and pitched a lit card into the gap.

Spoiler: Attack!

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(1d20+5)[23]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

With a deft flick of his wrist, Vesper sent a card between lid and base of the sarcophagus. Moments later, a soft hiss could be heard, but not from within the sarcophagus. Instead, it came from the other end near the far wall.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Bellas stepped around to get a better look at where the hissing was coming from. Her new angle allowed her to see a skeletal snake. She seemed to catch the creature, if creature it could accurately be called, off guard for a moment.

Spoiler: Initiative

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Bellas, Gilbert, Kali, and Vesper win initiative.

[Jade_Tarem]

"Well, since we're just re-burying everything down here anyway... let's go, Percival!" With a heretofore-unseen reaction speed, the pair rushed the room and attacked the snake.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Percival Attack: (1d20+7)[16]
Damage:(1d8+4)[5]

Kali Attack: (1d20+5)[24]
Damage: (1d4+2)[6]

[Nefarion Xid]

"This is actually a little sad. I sort of expect fiercer undead when I've been stuck in a crypt."

Spoiler: 8 diamonds, jack clubs

Show

5' step, rapid shot, point blank
(1d20+3)[15]
(1d4+2)[3]

(1d20+3)[15]
(1d4+2)[3]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Vesper's cards hit the corner of the sarcophagus and miss the snake by inches, but Gilbert - leaping atop the slightly unstable lid of the sarcophagus - brings down his sledge in an overhead smash and crushes the bone serpent's head. He shifts the lid to expose the interior more and discovers the absence of its intended occupant. He does, however, notice an intricate carving on the interior of the lid of a slender angelic woman with a benevolent gaze surrounded by clouds, looking down as though from a great height. Words around the image read, “O Arazni, the Red Crusader, Watch Over My Eternal Rest.”

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon gently touched the inscription with her bark-covered fingers, her petaled face inscrutable.

"Arazni... It was so long ago... Perhaps it was a mercy Roslar never lived to see her defiled. She haunts Geb still, if I am not mistaken. So close to the cradle of my seed's first germination. The world is a small place."

The ghoran adjusted the straps on her overladen pack.
"Shall we head upwards again? It would be nice to feel the sun today."

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Good idea to me. I believe we've cleared this first floor anyway."

Henrietta took the lead, along with Percival and Gilbert (assuming past patterns kept repeating themselves), and retraced their steps to the exit out of the bust room.

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

This cavernous chamber has two doors to the north and two to the south (you entered through the southeast). The west end of the room contains an altar with a symbol of a winged rapier burning with the bright light of a continual flame spell. Several tiles on the floor in front of the altar bear large symbols. The east end of the room contains a large crack, defacing a mural of armored figures staring resolutely forward, with beams radiating behind them. Most are unremarkable save for one: a bearded man with what appears to be a broken nose. Several corpses of small, bug-eyed blue creatures (mites) slump in three piles throughout this room.

Before the altar is a section of stone tiles arranged into nine two-foot-square stones arranged in a 3x3 grid. The words "Follow Along Roslar's Devotion" are carved around the grid. The nine symbols are arranged as follows. Row 1 is the northernmost row; the tiles in each row are listed from east (closest to the mural) to west (closest to the altar).

Row 1: A mailed fist, a tree, and a tower.
Row 2: A heart, a rapier, and a skull.
Row 3: A horse’s head, a round helm, and a pair of feathery wings.

Spoiler: Bellas and Henrietta

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It might be a trick of the light from the opposite end of the room, but it seems like the corpse piles are moving slightly as if something was underneath.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Looking at the tiles, Henrietta began to think, and to think hard.

"So, obviously, we're supposed to step on these tiles in the correct order. Based on what we've seen so far, my best guess would be 1) The horse's head first, since he had his horse entombed here as well, and then 2) the Rapier, and 3) the Feathery Wings, since there was that mural depicting the angel-type woman holding a rapier with Roslar. Although, there was that one ring that talked about a heart..."

"Also," she gestured with her glaive, "I'm pretty sure there's something alive and trying to hide under that corpse pile at the far end of the room."

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cotyledon hesitated at the entrance to the strange puzzle-room.
"Perhaps we should make sure we're not about to get attacked before we fiddle with this strange puzzle mechanism?"

The ghoran made no motion to approach the perceived signs of life, leaving it up to the clearly more martial members of the group.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Henrietta nodded.

"Get ready, everyone."

Approaching the nearest corpse pile, she then thrust her glaive into the middle where she had seen the twitch coming from.

Spoiler: Actions

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I'm assuming Bless is no longer in effect.

Total Concealment Hit Change (51-100 misses): (1d100)[40]
Attack: (1d20+6)[10]
Damage: (1d10+4)[6]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

Henrietta's actions delivered a predictable result. Scuttling out from the piles of corpses, a half-dozen giant cockroaches appeared, hissing angrily.

Spoiler: Initiative

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You all beat the roaches' pathetic initiative. Map is updated.

I put Bellas, Gilbert, and Vesper close to the alter as they were inspecting that area. Coty and Kali/Percival can be wherever.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

"Well, you've shown yourselves... now to put you down for good."

Henrietta backed up and swung her glaive down again.

Spoiler: Actions

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5-step and swing!

Attack vs R5: (1d20+6)[20]
Damage: (1d10+4)[8]

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper flicks two cards are nearest atomic roach(es) and retreats 5 feet towards the corridor.

Spoiler: Fwip fwip

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(1d20+3)[19]
(1d4+2)[5]

(1d20+3)[19]
(1d4+2)[6]

[CockroachTeaParty]

In the first truly violent action the group has seen the ghoran take, Cotyledon produced a loaded crossbow and fired at one of the giant cockroaches. She missed horribly.

Spoiler: OOC

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Shoosting R4.
Attack: (1d20+1)[2]
Damage: (1d8)[7]

[PepperP.]

"Well at least you hit it this time." Bellas smirked at Vesper as she swiftly strode past and swiped at the roach Coty missed with her crossbow.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Attack on R4
(1d20+6)[23]
Damage
(1d10+5)[6]

[Jade_Tarem]

"I guess this is just how it is now. We'll stomp progressively more disgusting things until we find the exit." Kali followed Percival in. The eidolon, for his part, was having a blast.

Spoiler: OOC

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Flanking and attacking R3. Oth said we could start 'wherever' but it would be a bit cheesy for this to happen without one of the pair provoking an AoO, so that will be Percival.

Percival Attack: (1d20+6)[23]
Percival Damage: (1d8+4)[10]

Kali Attack: (1d20+4)[24]
Kali Damage: (1d4+2)[6]

[zabbarot]

"This is the worst, but maybe best, time I've ever had in a tomb." Gilbert readied to drop the hammer again.

Spoiler: actions

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Attackin a roach
(1d20+7)[12]
(3d6+6)[16]

[Othniel]

Roslar's Tomb

With two of their number dispatched like the vermin they were, the remaining roaches sought out their closest targets. Three completely missed their targets, and one even drew Henrietta's ire, but the fourth managed to find purchase in Bellas' leg.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

R1 takes a bite out of Bellas' leg for 2 damage.

R2 provokes as it scuttles at Henrietta and attacks (it misses).

The others miss.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Henrietta

Spotting an opening as one of the roaches scurried toward her, Henrietta thrust forward...

Spoiler: Attack of Opportunity

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Attack: (1d20+6)[8]
Damage: (1d10+4)[11]

And missed it completely. Swearing, she shifted her grip up on her glaive before swinging down again.

Spoiler: Actions

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Move action to shift glaive to allow me to attack a square immediately adjacent to me, as per the text of Bladed Brush.

For the rolls, see the OOC.

Attack: 24
Damage: 11

[Nefarion Xid]

Vesper hurled two cards at the thing attempting to eat Bellas's ankle.

Spoiler: Fwip fwip

Show

(1d20+3)[10]
(1d4+2)[5]

(1d20+3)[14]
(1d4+2)[5]

[PepperP.]

Bellas

"Ugh, stop eating me you disgusting vermin!" Bellas recoiled in disgust and reflexively swung her sword around again to target the roach directly in front of her.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Attack on R4
(1d20+6)[19]
Damage
(1d10+5)[12]