Daystor (Nine Hells) IC

[Tyrael]

Tom grins. "Nope," he answers cheerfully. "I'm actually a farmer, and I've lived outside a little village named Melrode all my life. I never was no kind of warrior or knight. Things just..." he looks down at his heavy armor and tabard and shrugs helplessly. "...worked out that way, I suppose."

He begins to warm to his tale with the tone of an old storyteller who loves a good yarn. "Melrode's this quiet little place tucked up in the hills, as pretty and beautiful as you can imagine. Watching the sunrise over the lake and town with the birds chirping and a hot breakfast waiting, there's just nothing like it in the whole world! No sir, nothing like it. I live a little bit outside town, dealing in livestock mostly with a few herbs here and there, medicinal stuff. Every Sunday morning I go into town with eggs and milk and maybe a truffle or two or some bacon, folks are always real happy to see me. Once I'm done at the market, I nip into our local church for the noonday service.

It's nothing much like the grand soaring cathedrals like most city folk have. Just a little lecturn, a few benches, an old priest, not much else. All dedicated to Our Lord Michael Bindar II, the God o' Courage showing that humble folks can rise up and be something great in the world, don't need money or expensive schooling to do it, either."

Tom reaches into his backpack and pulls out a humble pewter mug. Grasping the handle and shaking it a bit, he smiles to himself as a faint glow rises from the contents for a moment, then fades away. Raising his mug, Tom takes a draught before resettling himself and continuing his tale.

"Right. So one day when I go into market, I hear tell that there's a magician come to town with a wagon of tricks and illusions and spells to wow the kiddies. O'course, nobody's ever seen something like that before, me included, so nearly the whole town shows up at the inn where he sets his stuff up.

The act starts off slow. He does a few card tricks, pulls little critters like rabbits and badgers out of an old grey bag, waves his hands to make wine stains disappear, all sorts of wonderful and amazing things. Everyone's hooked. Then he gets up again and pulls out a steel cage and announces that right before our very eyes, yes sir, he's going to summon a real live Imp! Perfectly safe in the cage, he said, but he told us not to try it at home. As if we could!

So he waves his hands and says the Magic Words. Then all of a sudden, some sort of....I guess you'd call it a hole opens up in the middle of the air, as real as I'm sitting in front of you. Wouldn't you know it, this little red creature with horns comes out of the hole and real fast the man shuts him up tight in the box. Oh, it was ferocious! A few of the ladies fainted. We all applauded, it was all wonderful stuff, the kids were just loving it!

The man starts taking his bows, thank you folks, that's all for tonight, thank you thank you... then he looks all confused all of a sudden. That hole that the red thing came out of is still there. In fact, as everyone watches, it starts getting bigger! Everyone watches, thinking the man's going to do something else. Well, the man does something else, all right... He drops the cage and runs off like a whipped dog!

Then these horrible things start coming out of the hole. Devils of every shape and kind, big ones, small ones, spiky ones, tentacle ones, everything like some crazy jumbled-up nightmare! I look at Nighteyes and he looks at me and we look at all the devils coming out and we know something's gotta stop them before they destroys the whole village!

Now," Tom continues, "I went to church every Sunday, but I wasn't a particularly religious man before all this happened. Right then, though, our Lord Bindar touched me somehow, I think. I stopped being scared and I started getting mad and desperate. And let me tell you, when a man gets mad and when a man gets desperate, there's no telling what he'll do.

Me and Nighteyes, we didn't stop to think, we just ran right up and jumped into the hole trying to plug it up. Instead, we fall THROUGH it like an open door! Devils everywhere all trying to crowd in and get through the hole, they just stop and they stare at us, like they can't quite believe a man and his mutt would be so darn stupid."

Tom takes another swig. "Michael Bindar must've been watching over me from that moment on. We jumped in and fought like animals, slowing them down. I don't know how long we lasted, but it was a good while. Bindar must've done something, because I know no dumb farmer and his wolf would survive more than six seconds out there. Well, whatever it was, we managed to get away, and lucky for us the devils were more concerned with getting through the hole than with ripping us apart.

So then Nighteyes and I start wandering through the Hells, jus' the two of us. I hadn't been a religious man before all that, but I sure was now! Did a lot of talking with Nighteyes and Milord Michael. He didn't always answer back, but whenever he did it was in the form of stuff that'd help me be more courageous. Weapons and equipment off dead adventurers for the most part, or some devil's shiny horde of baubles. Everything you see on me, all this metal ruckus was delivered by the grace of Our Lord Bindar, as real as I'm sitting before you all."

Tom finishes his mug. "Not much to tell beyond that, really," he says reflectively. "Still not sure how I got here, but it's sure nice to hear another voice after so long."

[sacreddeamon]

"Well, if you've got experience fightin' devils, that's all I could want from you. The name's Thokk, nice to meet you. I take it you and I will be sitting on the front lines most of the time, helping to protect the more fragiles."

[Savannah]

"Are we ready to go, then? Anyone else want this?" Kiera waves the first scroll around.

Spoiler

Show

If no one objects and no one offers to take the scroll, UMD (1d20+17)[22] to activate the scroll.

[Tyrael]

Tom reaches into his pack and fishes out an enormous raw slab of meat, which he tosses to Nighteyes. The huge wolf snaps it down in two bites, his tail wagging happily. Tom finishes off the last of his mug and puts it away as he stands up. "I suppose there's no time like the present," he agrees with Kiera.

[nolispe]

"Wait, do we actually have a plan? I suggest some form of disguise for a start. It would be so much easier if we did not get attacked on sight by all the devils."

[sacreddeamon]

What kind of disguise are you talking about? Physically altering our appearances or merely hiding from sight? Personally, I don't like either of those ideas; they leave us vulnerable if we are detected. And trust me, all things evil they are, stupid they are not. Especially if we have the means to jump into the thick of it, we might as well use that to our advantage. Jump in, buffed to the teeth, and just pound any opposition we find before they can alert the next group. In this way, we are ready for the inevitable fight, yet prevent alerting the entire fortress. Perhaps somebody has an ability to dampen sound or the like?

[Savannah]

"I'm not sure I like that idea. Wouldn't it be less dangerous to bluff our way in disguised as devils? That way we don't have to risk a fight, especially if we aren't sure that we will appear in the vicinity of the jewel."

[senrath]

"Possibly. Or it could backfire immensely and get us all wounded or killed. It's hard to tell with devils." Olffder said, examining his nails as he did so.

[Tyrael]

Tom shrugs and tries to think about how well the devils he's interacted with would react to such a ploy.
KnowPlanes - (1d20+17)[34]

[MikelaC1]

For Tom

Spoiler

Show

Tom knows that the devils are VERY organized and militaristic in the way they do things. Attempting to bluff past them, without any appearant "orders" or authority to do so rarely works out well. At best, the devil you attempt to bluff merely calls up to superiors for clarification

[Tyrael]

Tom shakes his head. "Sorry, folks," he tells them. "That ain't got a snowball's chance in Hell of working. Devils are smart bastards, all regimented and orderly. If we try to bluff past them, they'll just call in other devils to double-check us."

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk happily rubs his hands together

"Ha, so it will be fightin' then! So again, anyone have any ability to mask at least some amount of sound or block other signals?"