"Fascinating.  Thanks for that enlightening slice of history."

Regarding the magical defenses, Jack laughs.  "I sure hope the spell comes with a loud announcement, 'Stop hitting yourself!' every time it activates.  Fantastic!"

He boggles at Tark's point.  "Wow.  Yeah.  Imagine how many lives could be saved.  I imagine it's too cost-prohibitive for most places of employment, sadly."

Jack sends a telepathic smile and shrug to Zerry.  "Like I said.  I'm kinda hoping the badguy gives us an excuse to kill him."

To Lucy he sends a telepathic grin and wink.  ;D  "Thanks for noticing!"

To the Grandmaster he says, "Now before you object, saying, 'Not my problem,' since the giants would be focused on the Sphinx and not your sanctuary, consider that this Ring of Winter could cause an ice-age so severe that you'll never get any more supplicants."

(( OOC: All this talk of Floating Island makes me think of Knuckles showing up and punching out the devil. ))
This message was last edited by the player at 01:20, Sat 15 Feb 2020.

The Grandmaster suspects a silent communication is going on between the adventurers but is more concerned with how to respond to Zerry's question made regarding how Frost Giants, since no other type of Giant would care, want to get the location of the Ring of Winter from the Enhanced Sphinx which guards the monastery.

The Grand Master responds by saying "Since you all didn't kill the Enhanced Sphinx before coming here, it is clear that you would prefer a solution that avoids that. And the Sphinx has been a good guardian for the Monastery but it would be impossible for me to make it so that the Sphinx could avoid answering without unleashing her which would be bad as then she'd be free to explore the world and take any knowledge she came across that interested her... and I assume you are aware she is capable of literally devouring someone's intellect... so letting her try to become the smartest being on the planet by draining everyone else's minds is not something I could allow. But I can reposition some of the constructs which are bound to be loyal to the Monastery in order to prevent Frost Giants from reaching the Sphinx."

Markus telepaths, 'He must be referring to those constructs which were assisting that group we found on the way here. A group of those might be sufficient as long as they don't encounter a large war party of Frost Giants.'

The Grand Master continues as he addresses Jack's comment, "I know that if the Ring of Winter was used to create an eternal winter, the changes in weather would end up crippling the Monastery and causing it to crash into the ground." The Grand Master then taps a few 'gems' on his throne.

The Grand Master then adds, "And as far as the Teleportation Field Devices, they won't work when removed from the Monastery grounds which would also hinder widespread usage."

  "Well, hopefully such a supposedly smart Sphinx would realize you can't learn everything new if you eat all the differing viewpoints." As much because it would feel incredibly redundant to have to turn around and swat the Sphinx later.

  Then comes the location specific reveal for teleport toys "That's oddly consistent for a magical artifact.  But I'll just be thankful there was a sensible answer regarding it instead of more 'Of course it explodes!'"

Lucy was under the impression the sphynx was neutral, not evil. The way this bone devil tells it makes it sound like the sphynx would indiscriminately go around eating brains like some illithid. But then, this is a bone devil speaking.

Lucy telepaths to the team, "With a bone devil saying such about the sphynx, now I trust her a little more. I can't think of any other questions that this guy would answer us honestly. Can you guys?"

Zerry sure can. Climbing is her next question. But even she is sure she knows the answer and that the devil would immediately take such an act as aggressive and a fight would break out. She'll save climbing the devil for when he's defeated in combat.

Asking about the brains in jars is out. She telepaths to the group, "I'd like to have a look around the city and see where all we can explore. I'm sure he'll probably assign us a new guide or something. But aside from that, I can't think of any other questions."

Jack kinda shrugs.  "Not for lack of trying to get us to kill her.  She's convinced me to be pretty OK with her winding up dead.  Partly due to the whole, 'I'll eat your mind,' thing, yes.  So yeah.  Sparing a few golems to keep an eye on her sounds like a smart move."

He chuckles from Tark's comment.  "Right?"

Jack then gives a smile to the bone devil.  "What a productive conversation this has been!  Considering all we had to go on was the word of the Sphinx, I wasn't expecting so much helpfulness.  Thank you for your kind hospitality.  If I may impose a tiny bit more on your generosity, might my friends and I be permitted to take in a few more sights of your one-of-a-kind Monastery?  I must say, this whole experience has been inspirational, and I'm in the process of putting it to song."

A certain Kender bard would have quite the metal song title by now already.

Markus glances at the two guards with the Grand Master as the bond devil turns to Zerry and Jack and replies to their inquiries, "Only members of the order are permitted to freely wander and explore the Monastery. Even if you don't wish to live here forever, a single year's service within the monastery would be most enlightening."

Varis telepathically comments, 'Somehow I don't think he'd appreciate us saying no... he must need people here for something. Might have to deal with the graffiti that said that service to the monastery is what keeps it aloft. Even if we agreed, I doubt he'd let us go after a year.'

Markus telepathically replies with, 'Your probably right. I do wonder what his goal in all this is.'

  Tark throws his partymembers under the bus wagon, though in a lightly petty way rather than some dramatic betrayal.

  "Considering my current employment, I'll have to confer with my associates on that matter."

Zerry asks with a smile, "What would you want us to do? We don't shy from good, hard work, but at the same time, we like knowing what we're getting into."

Lucy telepaths, "Our business may be self-sustaining, but I would think after 4 months or so, Toothix will assume we died. Not that we have that kind of time. Part of me hopes the bone devil loses patience with us soon."

Is it really throwing your team under the wagon when they are all pretty much raring for a fight anyway? We're sure even if the answer is "yes" the team won't care. And Jack will likely thank Tark for it.

Jack lightly chuckles.  "Quite so!  With how enlightening just this short conversation's been, it's hard to imagine just how much more enlightening a year here would be.

"Currently we run a delivery business.  Recent events hint at our being able to strike upon a mutually profitable arrangement.  In exchange for enlightenment, we deliver more supplicants safely to your doorstep.  Of course, if there's something else you would like delivered to you as well, I'm sure we can procure what it is you may need in a timely manner."

Jack telepaths, "Access to the places we need to get to in exchange for empty promises isn't something I think a devil will fall for, but figured it worth a shot."

The Grand Master appears to be caught slightly off-guard by the party's 'counter offer' and ponders the suggestion the party has brought forth.

After a few moments, the Grand Master responds, "Before you could properly bring others here, you'd need to spend time here to learn about the place and how things are done. That takes time, I'd say at least six months since it also would include learning the answers to common questions potentials often ask through experience."

The Grand Master then looks over to Lean Meimbaol and adds, "Speaking of experience. It is time for you to experience your punishment for your failure to remember the rules about having visitors leave their weapons outside." The Grand Master turns to his two bodyguards and continues, "Kill him." The Grand Master then turns back to the party and resumes, "And now back to the matter at hand, I think that six months here would be ample time to learn what you'd need to for finding and bringing applicants here, and with your abilities, it should not be difficult to keep in contact with your company."

OOC: If the party wishes to interview and save Lean from being killed by the bodyguards, roll initiative.

"Well if you don't want him anymore, I'll gladly take him off your hands."

Jack walks up Lean and gives him a friendly pat on the shoulder, turning the guy invisible!

He then whispers, "Things probably about to get pretty explody.  Might want to back away for the few moments it'll take us to turn him into glue.  To deal with this devil.  To pick a bone with him.  To beat him till he's bone tired... you get the idea."

Lean Meimbaol remains silent after listening to Jack and while faint footsteps can be heard, his exact position is now unknown.

One of the Elder Monks points his force pike at the group but holds off on attacking since he isn't sure what just happened. While three of the monks murmur to each other.

West Wind moves up to try and attack Jack figuring that if he can break Jack's Concentration, that Lean would reappear... however Jack is able to use his cutting words to distract West Wind so that the half-orc misses with his attacks. (OOC: 2 of the 3 attacks missed due to Jack's AC + cloak of displacement, while Jack had to use Cutting words to make the 3rd attack miss (a 1 would succeed at the attempt figured Jack would not want to risk his concentration so soon.)

Varis then moves up and triggers a charge of his assassin touch gloves as he viciously strikes at West Wind with his Booming Blade cantrip, which combined with West Wind succumbing to the Giant Ant Queen Poison nearly keels over dead from the single blow from Varis' Rose Rapier.  Before using cunning action to disengage so he can move to a better position. (OOC: Attack dealt 57 damage total due to poison and sneak attack due to ally also adjacent to West Wind)

Markus quickly follows up with a Synaptic Static spell cast to catch West Wind, East Wind, and the Grand Master who all fail to resist its effects, which drops West Wind. (OOC: All three fail their saves even with the Grand Master having advantage on his save and thus suffer 25 damage and are muddled until they make an Int save at the end of one of their turns OR 10 turns pass.)

Two more monks react to this and look ready to flee with how these visitors just dropped West Wind like he was a rank amateur and even managed to use magic that their Grand Master failed to resist.

The Grand Master's hands and tail move from the rest of his body as the metal rings on each limb seem to actually be a pair of rings that split apart with each claw and the tail stinger moving to strike at Markus, Varis, and Jack, but due to still being muddled by the Synaptic Static, two of those attacks miss while the stinger attack would have missed even without being muddled. (OOC: Grand Master also failed his int save to end being Muddled. Synaptic Static is awesome like that.)

Two of the Elder Monks take potshots at the party with their Force Pikes but miss wildly, possibly due to fear while seven other monks murmur about either wanting to jump in to help or flee for their lives from the balcony.

Felix just hovers out of the way while subtly observing Lean since the Tryssem can detect invisible creatures within 60ft of him, but makes no overt motions that would reveal Lean's position although he telepathically reveals that information to Varis, who passes it along to the rest of the party via their telepathic bond so no one accidentally bumps into him.


East Wind then tries to break Jack's concentration but while muddled manages to miss the first two swings and then on the third swing misses so hard with his Polymorph Blade he ends up Polymorphing HIMSELF into a rat and is still muddled by the Synaptic Static. (OOC: He actually rolled a natural 1 on an attack and to make it even more amusing the -d6 rolled a 6 so the final result was a 0 for the attack, and he failed his Wisdom DC 15 save to resist the effect so he ended up turned into a Rat via the polymorph spell.)


OOC: It is now Jerry's turn, I figure Owlbert will do a flyby to grant advantage on someone, not sure who but will assume it will be the Grand Master as that is the only incapacitated person left to fight right now... after West Wind is defeated and East Wind screwed up so hard he turned himself into a Rat... Although the Grand Master will probably end that effect as soon as he can by attacking the rat to end the Polymorph effect. (But that will eat up one of his three attacks on his part so there is that.)

Owlbert does the flyby thing that grants advantage. OvO

Zerry yells in a stern voice, "Hey!" and stabs the grand master. "No attacking my friends!"

Although Zerry misses two of her three attacks, she would have missed three if not for Owlbert!

She does keep a mental note of Lean's position.

Zerry takes a look around real quick and says, "You are right to hesitate! All who aid the grand master forfeit their lives! As you saw, Lean made one small, innocent mistake and the grand master was going to kill him! The grand master is NOT your friend!"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Mon 16 Mar 2020.

Another of the Elder Monks takes a shot at Zerry with his Force Pike but the shot goes wide.
Meanwhile one of the monks points at the rat that was East Wind and laughs.

OOC: It is now Lucy's turn. Also, Elric is just going to hover out of the way so no need for Tark to wait on a post from Elric.

  Tark steps up to the bone devil with questionable business practices, and slams his several times over enchanted Maul into him.  The Devil easily resists the magical enchantment of the Maul... then falls over anyways due to the caveman logic of 'Half-Orc hit with heavy thing!'.

  We would make some joke about how 'Unlike a Paladin, fighters are just fine with hitting somebody while they are down!' but Zerry has proven to be very sensible about such things where it counts.

  OOC: Took my turn a week ago but then forgot to post about it, duuuuur.  Even with remembering my extra crit dice for once, RNG was detemined to give me as many 1s as possible for damage.  So even using my equivilant of a 'once a short rest' nuke leaves the boss with 15 HP.  But, they are prone. And also Goaded (Disad on any attacks not vs me until end of my next turn).

Lucy hurls her sacred flame at the bone devil, but the bone devil dodges despite being knocked prone by a beefy half-orc. "...not bad." Lucy commends.

Figuring Zerry is better at persuasion, Lucy doesn't try to add to Zerry's commentary. Besides, she is more concerned about keeping track of the battlefield and what is going on.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:45, Mon 30 Mar 2020.

Now a larger group of the monks are murmuring about what is going and how they should respond given that one of the West Wind is dead, East Wind screwed up so bad that the turned himself into a Rat, which has several monks chuckling, and the Grand Master is practically being taken apart without being able to so much as land a blow on these adventurers. The monks realize that to face these adventurers would be to throw away their lives...but to flee right now would risk the Grand Master unleashing something upon them.

OOC: It is now Jack's turn, also remember you are concentrating on the Invsibility spell on Lean, so I'd recommend against casting a spell that requires concentration.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:41, Mon 30 Mar 2020.

Jack snaps his fingers!  The enormous ornate arch that was framing the throne and dais springs to life!  It picks up the throne and crushes the bone devil with it!

"Ladies and Gentlemen.  The Chairman has the floor.  What's that?  Nothing to say now that you're an Arch devil?"

He looks at the monks.  "Your bonehead boss is dead!" Then suddenly switching to a dead-serious tone he adds, "Drop.  Your.  Weapons."

(( Whee!  Animate Objects is so fun!  And deals the most damage out of all my options. ))

The site of the Archway behind the Grand Master being animated and then killing the Grand Master with his own throne has the monks and elder monks dropping their weapons and fleeing in panic at the party's declarations, not caring that Lean is visible once more. With the death of the Grand Master, the three sets of Teleportation-Field Devices that the Grand Master was using to attack from afar reactive leaving the severed tail and hands of the Grand Master falling to the floor.

Lean himself looks lost for words as, within a span of approximately six seconds, this group not only slaughtered the Grand Master in a most humiliating fashion but took out West Wind and have East Wind at their mercy while he's polymorphed into being a Rat.

As the monks and Elder Monks flee, they are too preoccupied to notice that the slain body of the Grand Master is revealed to not be that of a Bone Devil but instead some sort of advanced war machine, presumed to be of Kwalish's design. As those on the balconies flee, not bothering to try and look or revolt for fear of being slaughtered. Movement in the wreckage of what was the Grand Master reveals that it was piloted by a quasit that is now crawling out of the wreckage seemingly dazed from how it was defeated. The Quasit groans and looks up at the party now that other than himself only they, Lean Meimbal, Garret Levistusson, and Gearbox remain in the Central Abbey and holds his hands up, "I surrender... don't kill me."

Lean is quite surprised at the discovery while Gearbox looks confused at the deception, while Garret looks somewhat saddened and disappointed. Garret sighs and asks, "Well if you aren't the Bone Devil that the Sphinx spoke of, what became of that devil? I can't see such a creature being bested by a Quasit, and frankly am disappointed that I didn't realize the Grand Master wasn't a real Bone Devil... the personality wasn't right...but now it makes sense...."

As Gearbox heads over to inspect the ruined war machine, the throne, and the animated archway with a near morbid fascination, or as much as a modron can display, the Quasit answers Garret hoping to placate the group that just ruined everything for him, "He met his demise after forcing Kwalish's exile. It was drawn into the laboratory's machinery while trying to convert the site into the monastery. This rendered the devil into a Brain in a Jar that is now located within the treasury. As a servant of his, I was present when that happened and figured I could take advantage of it. I found Kwalish's war machine designs and managed to build it using the bone devil's exoskeleton and since then I finished the conversion and kept up the guise of being the bone devil to serve as the Grand Master."

Garret tilts his head as he hears the explanation and accepts it as reasonable since he couldn't figure out how a Quasit could defeat a Bone Devil... and fortunately for Garret's brain, the answer is the Quasit didn't.

Markus frowns for a bit and shakes his head, “Garret is right that the behavior unusual for a Bone Devil fits that of a Quasit. I can see why Garret is disappointed, but then again this Quasit has been pulling off this ruse for centuries. So what should we do with this Quasit?”

Varis rubs his chin and says, “Well setting it loose to cause more mischief is definitely out of the question.”

OOC: The Initiative order is paused for the moment until the party decides what to do with the Quasit and East Wind, who is still polymorphed as a Rat.
The fleeing monks and elder monks drop their weapons and are so scared that they don't even notice that their Grand Master wasn't what he appeared to be. This is a good thing as otherwise, they'd start looting and revolting. Instead, they are simply fleeing for their lives and others will probably abandon their work... which might not be a good thing... after all it was said that without work the monastery will fall.
Current loot:
   20 Hooked Polearm: Weight 6lbs. Melee Weapon Attack, reach 5ft, Hit: 1d6+str piercing damage plus if the target is a Medium or smaller creature it is grappled unless it escapes with a DC of 8 + Wielder's Strength bonus + Wielder's proficiency bonus. Until the grapple ends, the wielder cannot use its polearm on another target.
   4 Force Pike: Weight 3lbs. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack, reach 5ft. or range 40/100ft. one creature. This weapon has the Finesse property, so it can be used with Strength or Dexterity. Hit:1d10+Str force damage. The attack has disadvantage against any target with a polished metal armor or shield and has its range halved when firing through smoke or fog. (Uses an energy cell with up to 20 charges)
   The Shards of a Vorpal Sword embedded within the severed claws of the Grand Master. (Also has the ruined remains of the 'war machine'.)
   3 Teleportation-Field Devices (each is a matched pair of rings that will only function in areas configured for their operation such as the area around the Monastery grounds.)
   The West Wind's Blade of the Medusa, effects currently unknown to the party.
East Wind currently polymorphed into a Rat (It is unknown what he'll try to do when the effect ends but if defeated he'll drop the Polymorph Blade, and the party can guess what it is supposed to do and that it is not without risk.)
   The Grand Master's Crown and Scepter, both are crafted from rare metal alloys and set with jeweled crystalline buttons of unknown origins. While their use is currently unknown, as objects of art the crown is worth 500gp and the Scepter is worth 750gp.)

  At lot has happened in spite of the short in character time, so he is trying to remember if the Sphinx still wanted a brain or if they can skip that whole aspect now.

  "Right, we probably should not be letting the devil brain outside... On that note, it sounds a little too convenient for our luck that they are harmlessly tucked away in a vault even with an opportunist underling.  Given all the talk about extracted brains so far is their function in running parts of this place.  Kwhalish was supposedly too want a trophy."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 21:27, Tue 31 Mar 2020.

Lucy says, "Very good job, everyone. Nice use of that spell, Jack. Entertaining as Hell." Pun intended.

Lucy motions to Lean. "Lean... it's OK, the so-called Grand Master won't be putting you to death. So stick with us and remain protected."

She looks at the loot and says, "Markus, if you could, please find a way to safely collect the loot. Be careful since we don't know which items are cursed or flat-out evil. They could be dangerous to handle."

Lucy has no idea what a bone devil or a quasit are supposed to act like, so she figures Markus treating those things like it is common knowledge is just Markus being Markus again.

Lucy then looks to the Quasit. "We will not harm you as long as you cooperate, but you can be sure you are a prisoner."

Zerry is climbing all over the bone devil mech and the portals... "Weeeeeee! Climbing!"

She then zooms over to Jack. "Jack! I loved your puns! LovedemLovedemLovedem!" she holds her fists to her chin while galloping in place at high speeds, her hooves sounding like a machine gun. Then she pauses and says, "You were WAITING to use those ever since you heard he was a bone devil, weren't ya? High five!"

She offers Jack a high five.

Zerry then zooms over to East Wind and says, "Squeak "shave and a haircut" if you surrender!"

She demonstrates by clopping the shave-and-a-haircut ditty while singing "Shave and a haircut; Two bits!"

Jack watches the monks flee in shock.  "Ohmygosh!  Sensible enemies!?"

He has mixed feelings about the quazit revelation.  "On the one hand, neat-o gizmo!  On the other, not many puns are coming to me for this little devil.  Though I suppose he had a hell of a time keeping up the facade, I believe he had a catchphrase for marrowly avoiding suspicion.  Hmmm.  What quazit?

"I'll bet the model name of this unusual apparatus was the quazit-moto!  Just a hunch."

Jack nods to Varis and Tark's points.  "Yes.  Proper heroes don't leave things half done."

He grins at Lucy's pun and gives her a fancy bow.  "Thank you!"

Zerry's antics makes Jack laugh, and he gladly returns the high-five!  "Thank you too!  Yes."

Then he laughs all the more!  "Squeaking a song!  Zerry, you're a genius!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:00, Thu 02 Apr 2020.