Two days ago the six of them had individually been summoned to Lord Toede's Mansion. The latest rumors talked about ships arriving weekly with imported goods from as far as Palanthus. The most interesting rumor claimed that he recently had bought a clutch of amphi dragon eggs from a group of surly Dargonesti. And his Chamberlain confirmed that six such eggs had been stolen from Lord Toede, to his master's great distress, and the bandits had taken them to the ruined village of Micah. It was generally avoided by travelers as it was too creepy. The group agreed to retrieve the eggs and deal with the bandits.

They traveled for a day and a half. Neither Caitlin nor Eucharista ate or drank for the entire trip.

A wide curving wall of pure white stone marked the boundary of the ancient ruined town. The walls, like the ruins themselves, seemed to disappear at the far end into the hill and beneath the ground, as if the land itself was in the process of consuming it. A road paved with bleached flagstones entered through a gate and wound through crumbled buildings. Pieces of once-mighty structures were scattered about like the toy blocks of a giant child. There were no sounds in the ruins. Unless they came from the group.

They followed the road into the hill and when they entered the hill single file, they were about 25 feet underground already. The area beyond might once have been a garden, but now it was merely a bizarre, shadowy remnant of what once was. Spectral images of lush trees, flowering plants, and bushes flickered in and out of sight.

As they looked around the garden, a ghost manifested! Ready to strike.

[OOC: We are in combat time. For simplicity in combat, I will be trying out https://www.owlbear.rodeo/game/7C1AANw_r for our map. On this map, each square is 20 by 20 feet. This is why the square is so much bigger than your tokens. Your token, based on the image you use here, is on the list to the right. As are representations of familiars and animal companions. Place your token(s) where you want to start in the revealed rectangle.]

Moonflute makes good use of the travel time to Micah, feeling out her companions and studying their movements, their weaponry, their demeanour. She notes with interest the apparent fasting of Eucharista and Caitlin, wondering if perhaps it is a ritual preparation for battle.

When the chatter among the group lulls, or in the evening, she takes to playing one of her instruments of choice; a flute, some pan pipes and an ocarina - seemingly oblivious to her environment or the upcoming perils of their quest.

She shivers a touch as the group enters the side of the hill, more out of anxiety than any aversion to the change in temperature. She looks about at what might once have been a well kept entry and sighs.

As they advance, Moonflute takes up a position towards the rear of the group, her senses piquing as they enter a place of danger.

Micah! - Why did it have to be Micah? Caitlin wondered while they traveled to the place she'd call godforsaken first if asked for a word to describe the former city. Athena sensed the tenseness of her human friend and hooted a couple of times as owls do when they wanted to express concern - or any kind of emotion really. "Of course I don't like the thought of going to a place like Micah. Add in the fact that we're going to engage a group of bandits who make their lair at this godforsaken town and don't seem to feel any worry doing so. Something's very wrong, I tell you." the raven haired woman answered with a shudder, causing the feathered friend on her shoulder to flutter briefly. Whatever the hoot meant was only understood by Caitlin and she did not choose to comment further.

And it all had started so nicely, they gathered in the mayor's mansion and he laid out the mission for them. Bandits had taken some stuff from him and he needed it back, in one piece. The group was introduced, luckily the sorceress had met at least some of the people - if in passing, or had heard of what they were said to be capable of. Happily she noticed Dialis, her duett partner, joining the trip as well, but when the destination was given, Caitlin immediately regretted agreeing to the job.

Armed with a sturdy-looking spear and protected by shiny breastplate armor, the woman looked ready for battle and was focused like a rapier's pointed end. Which in turn meant that she was brooding over the potential enemies they would have to engage over paying attention to their surroundings. Which was probably one of the reasons why she did not notice the danger until it got right into their faces. "Damn!" was her only comment when the apparition appeared.

"If they make their lair here, it couldn't be that dangerous.  Any threat we face they'd have already encountered."  Keliantharas mused back, listening for the bandits and admiring the architecture more than he was on guard for supernatural threat.  Somewhat underestimating human visual acuity, he had drawn a flaming strip of cloth from a pocket and bound it to his right wrist.  "There may even be some ruins worth exploring, once the eggs are safely recovered."

The spirit's appearance gave the elf a start.  He raised his staff warningly in his flaming hand, his other poised to loose eldritch wroth on the ghost.  While he had a number of defensive spells at his disposal, the need to start strong pressed aggressively against Keliantharas's mind.  "Stay your path, spirit, as we stay ours."  He cautioned.

OOC: Readying an action to release a [Maximized] Magic Missile if the ghost does anything aggressive (approach, attack, cast a spell, etc)

In just a short time with him, Korzak quickly established that about the only thing bigger than his body was his personality. He would constantly prattle on about half-remembered tales of adventure, both his own supposed deeds as well as those of Lord Toade that seemed far too flattering to be true. But he did seem to forget a lot of details. This meant that his anecdotes often seemed to have no real point, at least not by the time he reached the end.

He took great effort in his appearance to look like some storybook brave knightly hero. Although he seemed either quite naive or quite delusional about how the real world worked. In fact, he takes no time in demonstrating this when the ghost manifests.

Stepping forward to the front of the group, readying his shield, if only to show off the infinity symbol painted upon it, but not drawing his sword he called out to the ghost in as friendly a manner possible.

"Greetings, good spirit! How tragic it is to still dwell beyond the end of one's mortal coil! Might I perform some task to lift the curse that still binds you here and allow you to peacefully pass to your next life?"

One would hope that if they ever reached the bandits he would be a bit more cautious rather than just openly approaching with warm greetings and offers of assistance like this-- but thus far, it seems this is the only way he knows how to approach a situation.

Eucharista knew nothing about dealing with ghosts so she backed away behind the others, gently urging Petra back with her even though Petra was gamely barking and snarling at the ghost like the good terrier she was.

She kept quiet and hoped in the name of all the gods that somebody else knew how to deal with such a creature.

Dialis breathed in the air as they walked to their objective, enjoying the simple most things in life.  When Moonflute played her instrument Dialis would listen intently and ask if she ever wanted to perform together.  Noting that both Dialis and Caitlin were also performers and maybe even the three of them could do so together sometime.    Though she was amazed with one of her cohorts, Korzak was as tall as she was!  The first time in her life she had been side by side with someone else who stood 6'4"  She laughed at how the group must look to anyone they met as her armor clanked along with the progress they made.

When the ghost appeared her hand wrapped around her Medallion of Faith that hang from her head, her thumb tracing the bottom of Branchalas symbol, the harp. As she stood ready for what may come.

OOC: Ready an action to turn undead if the ghost harms any member of the party.

Moonflute, the pale nature child, was the shortest, but not the smallest of them. And calling the Kagonesti elf a child was a misnomer to say the least, as she was three times as old as most of them, but still, she was not the oldest. More graceful than most of them, but not the most graceful. At least she was the most observant. Her leather armor and cloak were clearly of elven design.

Eucharista was smaller and taller and less graceful than Moonflute, making her by comparison seem even slighter than she really was. The weathered human wore no armor and a thin, very unmanly sword. In a group such as this, she was very much the one you didn’t pay attention to. However, when push came to show, both elves could vanish better than this light brown-haired dog owner could. Fortunately, a cute little dog could help out in so many different situations.

Keliantharas was taller and smaller than Eucharista and by comparison, the Silvanesti wizard with stormy eyes and unmistakable voice seemed even slighter than he really was. And being the smallest and the oldest, he had that going for him. And like Eucharista, he didn’t wear armor either. Unless one could call the elven-designed silver bracers he wore armor. But they were way too thin to have any but artistic purpose. And dressed like an explorer, it was only his staff and more importantly his spell component pouch that betrayed his secret.

Caitlin was also a master of the arcane arts, but hers were subtler and most persuasive. And dressed in a silver breastplate, was that mithral, and a sufficient number of weapons, she might just be anything else. Her hair was decorated with a circlet and so was Moonflute’s, while Keliantharas had braided silver beads into his. She was also both the tallest and the largest female in the group. Well, unless you counted Dialis who was in a league of her own. And Caitlin’s owl circled the group.

Dialis, covered in full plate, wore her Branchalan Medallion of Faith with great pride and towered more than a foot over the tiny Moonflute. She was the spokeswoman of the goddess of music, Caitlin had a magnificent singing voice, and Moonflute played the wind instruments as well as Dialis played the strings, well enough to be enjoyable. At least half of them had some skills to fall back upon if adventuring didn’t pan out.

And Korzak. The hobgoblin. While Dialis might be as tall as him, he was twice as big as the others. He had made the controversial choice, for a hobgoblin, to follow Mishakal. Not as a flimsy cleric, but as a well-armed and armored holy warrior in chainmail. Their quite persuasive front-line warrior.


Two of the divine, two of the arcane, and two of nature. It seemed Lord Toede had done something right at least.



[OOC: This is sort of a post to compare the characters to each other, based on what you have seen. Or what I know/think you would have seen. While also tweaking/having fun with some stereotypes. The actual combat post will come next, as soon as I’ve written it…. No offense is intended. And I hope there isn't any.]

The huge ghostly walking tree appeared some distance before them, exuding terror and horror in waves around them.

[
Characters have suffered Ability Damage and they return 1/day.

Caitlin is Str -1, Dex -1, Con -2. Can't be affected by his Horrific Appearance again for 24 hours.
Dialis is is Str -1, Dex -2, Con -2. Can't be affected by his Horrific Appearance again for 24 hours.
Eucharista is Str -2, Dex -3, Con -2.
Keliantharas is Str -1, Dex -3, Con -1.
Korzak is Str -3, Dex -4, Con -4.
Moonflute is Str -1, Dex -2, Con -1. Can't be affected by his Horrific Appearance again for 24 hours.

Petra is Str -1, Dex -1, Con -1. Can't be affected by his Horrific Appearance again for 24 hours.
Athena is Str -2, Dex -3, Con -4.
]

[As they acted first, readied actions have unfortunately no effect. But at least now it is your turn to act.

What do you do?]
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:42, Fri 07 Oct 2022.

Gazing at the horrible presence before her, Caitlin gasped sharply at the physical pain coursing not only through her body but also her mind when she felt Athena nearly dying from the evil spirit's aura. "Go! - Fly away!" the warmage shouted out to her feathered friend, worried sick that she might not survive if her familiar stayed around. The horned owl understood Caitlin's intention through the emotional bond they shared and quickly fled the scene, worried her bipedal friend might get into more trouble than she could handle.

The translucency of the tree told the young arcanist that her weapons were likely to be ineffective against this enemy and in turn her armor would not protect her either. What was she to do? Normally she would have tried to burn this abomination, but somehow that didn't feel right. She had to do something... anything! The woman reached out with her gift, gesturing with her hand as if she was gathering the air when it was actually the arcane energies that surrounded them, then pointed her outstretched fingers at the ghost-tree. Four bullets of bluish glowing energy sped towards the unnatural creature and Caitlin would have held her breath if she hadn't been retreating already...

Eucharista still knows nothing about ghosts but she still has an idea or six.  She looks to the right and notices some rocks.  They should help her with what she has in mind.  She sprints as fast as she can to one of those rocks [OOC: to the rock at the top right hand corner of the square forward and to the right of us - her speed is 50 so sprint speed is 200ft per round, which means it will take her approximately (SQRT (900+400))/200 or between one fifth and one sixth of a round to get there.]