3.5e Batman Campaign (2.0)

[MrAbdiel]

"Same way," Damien confirms. "I can bypass walls more than half a dozen times this way, before my reserves of energy are drained. If we manage to get all the prisoners together before things get out of hand here, Batwoman can roll up the hole and warp us out. Hmm."

Damien let Oracle do most of the examining - he'd come to terms with the utility of her skillfullness, at this point - but he did pay attention to the drains beside the door... and how small they were.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Search check, as requested: (1d20+13)[20]

Also, how big are these drains beside the door? And how.. full are they? I'm guessing because of the marshy nature of the land they need them just to channel the runoff oozing out of the walls, or something? Probably convenient for tossing effluvia as well?

[Molan]

After a moment of searching the downed guards, Oracle's glowing eyes flashed, as if in sudden recognition.

Burned into the fingertip of one of the guards was an incredibly small rune. The magic had been masked somehow, as if dormant, so as to avoid her initial detection. With a start she recognized what she was looking at.

Nearing the end of her formal regulated apprenticeship at the College, the Diviner in charge of her student cadre had imparted a section of study dedicated to profane and illegal magic. The entire point of the course was to understand what to look out for, and how those dark magics would and did corrupt their users or even people exposed to them.

Most students wound up producing some bland thesis about necromancy or sorcery. The truly dull would present on Eldritch invocations. Oracle wound up (ironically) writing her thesis on corrupted divine casters like the shadow druids. But in her research, there has been a passage in arcana she had briefly perused before getting a couple pages in and seeing/reading some things that turned her stomach and threatened to void her lunch. She'd skipped reading any further, but the chapter head remained burned into her memory.

Blood Magic.

"UGH! This explains a lot. It's a blood magic seal. We might need to burn this place to the ground. Batwoman can you help me?"

Kate helped haul the guard over to the door, and lifted him up enough so that Oracle could place his hand on the door. Before she could press the rune to the correct location, Damien raised an objection -- what if by opening the door, they inadvertently alerted guards inside to their presence? It was a good point. For a moment, Oracle hesitated.

[JbeJ275]

Oracle waits for a moment, then sets the guard back down.

"Okay, if me or Batwoman need to open the door we'll have to subdue a guard. A good option to have definitely. For now though, I think Scion has it right. Let's try his way first, and then consider calling the inquisition in after."

[Molan]

Damien became ethereal, the power of his shadowy ki propelling him through the wall and into the next room. He didn't have a ton of time to survey it on his first way through; but what he could mostly see were mannequins and crates that looked like they might contain bedding or clothing. In the next room over, he discovered the source of the magic auras; several bizarre looking, vaguely humanoid homunculi stood, staring at the door, inert. A quick glance revealed at least four of them, each standing on a runic sigil, and each with nasty looking weapons where their hands ought to be. They were draped in magical looking armor, and Damien could clearly see what looked like a blue glowing ley line carved into the wall next to the door, disappearing through the wall near the ceiling into the next room, presumably the main chamber that Oracle's scrying eyes had discovered. The "trap", if one would call it that, wasn't well hidden, because it didn't need to be -- any unsuspecting intruders who set off an alarm entering the killbox outside the door wouldn't see it until a guard in the main hall tripped the arcane mechanism, presumably activating and releasing it's contents. Damien's passing awareness of arcane mechanisms and thorough League-instilled understanding of traps was all he needed to put together the basic building blocks. As soon as he had taken a glance of the strange automata, he phased back into the previous room.

Material again, Damien now had a much better chance to survey his surroundings. The room was basically just a storage closet, but it was curiously organized. To the left, in one corner, were plenty of thick cloaks, hoods and scarves, just like the guards outside had worn over their armor. However a lot more space had been dedicated to clothing of every apparent shape, size, and origin. Here was an elf-spun jerkin with silver filigree, there, a dwarven made tunic. A noble's outfit draped over one mannequin, and what clearly looked like peasants rags piled on top of a box. Digging around a little further, Damien found more -- stage clay, makeup, fake eyelashes, beards...disguise kits.

"Wouldn't have thought the doppelgangers needed any of this. Suppose it doesn't hurt to be prepared?" he wondered.

[MrAbdiel]

After a moment to be sure this storage room was not itself some kind of trap, he snaps open the portable hole and adheres it to the wall so that Oracle and Batwoman can step out of it again. He gives them a hushed update on the room ahead, and the trap within it.

"A significant obstacle. If we had proceeded straight into the room, we might well have been spotted and the alarm set off immediately. But if it is a manually triggered trap by a circuit to a guard in the other room, I suppose it is too much to hope a simple Dispel would interrupt it."

He rolls up the hole again once his companions are out, and casts another glance over the disguise kits and clothes.

Spoiler: OOC: Reminder

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"That one's so hot I thought I was gonna melt."

"It doesn't matter; you can't touch her. The shifters won't let you. Karlo wants his hostages."

"That guy freaks me the fug out. What's his...deal...anyway?"

"I heard he was human once. Some kind of horrific wizard experiment gone wrong."

"Really? Gone wrong like that? And somehow he cozies up with a bunch of other face-stealing freaks?"

"I don't know where he found them. But you can't tell me they're the same. Something's off with him. He's...different."

"The fug he want these hostages for anyway? Isn't he swapping them permanently?"

"I don't know...but you better keep your hands to yourself. I'm not going down with you."

"A monument to Lord Karlo's much ballyhooed affection for the arts. Some of these clothes may have been useful for spies, too... but would a troupe of dopplegangers have needed these paints, and prostheses? Perhaps the dopplegangers are a late addition to the house. Perhaps... House Karlo was not the originator of this imposter plague, but in fact the first victim of it."

[Molan]

"Are you saying that Lord Karlo is himself an imposter? Or did the dopplegangers do something to him?"

[JbeJ275]

"A monument to Lord Karlo's much ballyhooed affection for the arts. Some of these clothes may have been useful for spies, too... but would a troupe of dopplegangers have needed these paints, and prostheses? Perhaps the dopplegangers are a late addition to the house. Perhaps... House Karlo was not the originator of this imposter plague, but in fact the first victim of it."

"Or perhaps the recent arrival of dopplegangers is no arrival at all, but instead a transformation. Perhaps Karlo has long been working to better his skill at taking the forms of others and recently mastered a previously unknown path towards that ability. The mage and alchemsits guilds have produced stranger stories in their time."

While speaking on this, Oracle attempts to analyse the magic of the trap, seeking perhaps a small gap in the wall to let he divination magic seep through.

[Molan]

Oracle's scans quickly pick apart the magic. She quickly makes several determinations:

1. The trap wasn't really designed to defeat wizards at all; it's mostly there to deter mundane opponents. Strange, given a city packed full of Arcana.
2. The spellcaster (once again) was "sloppy", at best. The room is not warded to defeat spellcraft hitting it. It's only advantage is surprise; the alarm or trigger had to be outside the door where the automata stood, so entries into the room itself where they were stationed wouldn't automatically trigger the trap.
3. The artificial leyline predated the trap -- "Lazlo" may have constructed the homunculi trigger, but the power source was already there for him.
5. Powerful conjuration and transmutation magic was involved.

"Honestly, shoddy work. I'm a little bit surprised given how much arcana they slathered onto this door. I'm beginning to think that either our foes aren't as coordinated and Machiavellian as they seemed at the Opera House, or they're trying to lure us into a false sense of security. Either way with this hole we ought to be able to bypass this barrier entirely and get into the main hall this way."

[MrAbdiel]

Damien grimaces. "The monstrostities in the next room... I have a grim suspicion of why they haven't killed the bards. They might not be hostages, as much as... resources. But we have no time for a comprehensive raid - we need to get them out, and we can double back and purge this madness once the captives are clear." He slaps the portable hole onto the wall again. "One more time. You'll be coming in a few feet off the ground, so mind the step when you emerge. Let's flatten those sentries and try to get the captives rounded up for extraction before the guards at rest notice the active soldiers are down."

Spoiler: OOC: Presuming the team is keen...

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Once the allies are in the hole, he'll roll it up and on a new turn spend his second Ki Point of the day. He's going to ethereal dash through the walls into the main corridor. I'm expecting the guards are usually facing the hallway and the prison, periodically turning to peek back through the windows at what would be in the killzone beyond the door. Damien is going to corner-perch in the doorframe above their heads, and then next turn apply the hole to the wall. Basically, if they notice him, they'll probably be surprised for the turn of the arrival, and in initiative for the turn of the hole deployment. If they don't notice him, they'll probably be surprised for the turn of the hole deployment, giving Barb and Kate a turn to leap out and bash 'em first.

Right above those red dots.

I am the master of my blood.

Damien races through the ethereal again, through the room of haemonculi and then through mud and stone and into the far corridor with its two sentries either side of the door, waiting for a sound beyond it to turn, inspect, and perhaps loose the monstrosities. Weightless but not timeless, Damien snakes unseen through the plane beneath the materiel until he is above and between the guards and, stretching his body out to its extreme, he snaps back into the real world. Silent, shivering with the tension in assassin-trained body, Scion suspends himself at the top of the high doorframe with tiptoes douching one side, and fingertips touching the other.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Using my Skill trick "Corner Perch" to sustain myself up there for one turn.

Move Silently to not trigger the guard's suspicions: (1d20+22)[41]

...And then, with his free hand, unfurls slaps the portable hole against the wall above the guard on the trap-lever side of the door, trusting his allies to burst out and neutralize that threat in short order!

Spoiler: OOC:

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Damien has to drop to the ground at the end of this turn, and I don't think slapping this big hole on the wall is subtle enough that it won't trigger the surprise round. So here we go! Initiative - (1d20+7)[21]

[Molan]

In the main hallway, just before Damien appeared in the stonework above their heads, the two guards Oracle had spotted earlier remained sullenly at their posts, staring away from the metal grated windows at a scene unfolding in the crossway before them. Some of the "upstairs people", as they'd often referred to those dwelling in the keep proper, had descended and were having a serious row. It was tedious, but better entertainment than the guards' usual fare.

"We shouldn't be spending time on this nonsense!" One finely dressed noblewoman argued. "His vanity will be the death of this operation!"

"Calm down," a lanky rake, leaning against the stonework nearby, dragging on a cigar chided. "This is all a part of his process."

She hissed in reply. "Don't forget who you serve! None of this would be happening without us!"

A third man, bulging muscles and a pot belly, rolled his eyes. "Oh, yes, thank you so much for that. We really wouldn't been lost without a vicious psychopath weaving our defenses."

"If he unsettles you, hang out somewhere else. After the Solstice, none of this will matter anymore."

The hole opened. No one had noticed Damien. Batwoman and Oracle dropped out of it, behind the bickering people and directly in between both guards.

Spoiler: OOC

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Surprise Round.

Roll for initiative. We'll keep your results for the rest of this dungeon for ease of use. (Unless you roll something below a natural 5 -- then you can try rerolling next encounter ;) ).

[MrAbdiel]

With the hole set to the wall, Damien drops to the ground with panther grace - between the two guards, just behind the edge of their peripheral vision. As his allies emerge, he gets to work with a thumping blow into the stomach of one!

Spoiler: OOC:

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Surprise round is just one action, so I guess that's just one attack and BAM with the gauntlet! (1d20+18)[35] for (1d6-2)[2] (Minimum 1) and (6d6)[23] Sudden Strike!

[Feathersnow]

The Batwoman decides on a simple trick. She attempts to daze the guard not being attended to by Scion

Spoiler: ooc

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Psionic Daze, augmented to effect a target of 8 HD or lower. DC 14

PP 70/85

Initiative (1d20+1)[11]

[Molan]

One of the guards went down, knocked flat by Damien's subtle assault. The other found himself rapidly stunned by Kate's mind powers.

[JbeJ275]

Oracle condensed the gleaming bolts of starlight orbiting her into electric blue points of light and hurled three of them at the guards before them fanning out from an intial foeand guided towards Critical Strikes.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Bolt 1: (1d20+12)[32] VS flatfooted touch for (1d8)[2]+(5d6)[20] nonlethal
Bolt 2: (1d20+12)[28] VS flatfooted touch for (1d8)[8]+(5d6)[18] nonlethal
Bolt 3: (1d20+12)[15] VS flatfooted touch for (1d8)[6]+(5d6)[17] nonlethal

[Molan]

Three figures in the mail hall collapsed into heaps against the stone, unconscious.

There was one adult male remaining, who pivoted on his heel to turn tail and run away.

Spoiler: OOC

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Surprise round is over, it's Damien's turn. One target left.

[MrAbdiel]

To an observer, Damien's rapid two-step up the wall only to throw himself into quick double sommersault might have seemed unnecessary. But those observers weren't initiated into the mysteries of the League of Assassins, and the magnification of power that came with putting one's whole body into a weapon toss. A pair of shuriken scythe out from Scion's palm at the final fleeing target...

Spoiler: OOC:

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VsFlatfoot - (1d20+18)[37] for (1d2)[2] and (6d6)[24].
(And secondary attack with the +2 shuriken of returning)
VsFlatfoot - (1d20+15)[29] for (1d2)[2] and (6d6)[32].

[Molan]

The last thug in the hallway collapsed into a heap as Damien's attack slammed into him, and for a moment, the hallway hung in sudden silence, as the trio of Dark Knights surveyed the area, there was a pregnant pause as they all quietly waited to see if their lightning ambush had attracted any attention. But the corridors remained draped in stillness.

[MrAbdiel]

The trio have worked and trained together enough by now to know what they are doing. Scion rolls up the hole and keeps watch while Batwoman and Oracle are freed up to drag the incapacitated guards out of the junction and into the mouth of the north passage leading to the cells. It wouldn't fool anyone walking by; but anyone peering down the corridor from the break room or from the stairs at the west and east ends of the junction wouldn't see four crumpled and groaning forms heaped in the way. It was worth a few seconds of investment.

<"The prisoners should all be up ahead. We may yet get these people to safety, and have the freedom to come back and shut the operation down without hostages to worry about.">

He stalks ahead down the corridor to the cells, straining his senses to hear conversation between prisoners, or guards, for any indication of what might be ahead that could yet foul their plans.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Proceed down the corridor as stealthily as one can proceed down a corridor. I beleive the "VIP cells" are up first. If possible, Damien will try to peek into them without, himself, being peeked.

Rolls as appropriate.

Listen - (1d20+20)[37]
Spot - (1d20+5)[15]
Search - (1d20+13)[21]
Hide - (1d20+20)[29]
MoveSilently - (1d20+22)[24]

[Feathersnow]

The Bat Knight waits, her clanking armor not being suited for this part of the job...