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, welcome to Midnight in Shackled City

12:53, 19th February 2025 (GMT+0)

IC Thread 3.

Posted by wlake.gmtnFor group 0
Mongo
player, 34 posts
Mongo only pawn in Game
Of Life
Sat 4 May 2024
at 08:22
  • msg #108

IC Thread 3

Mongo grunts. "A drink? Not a good idea for Mongo. Last drink Mongo had was in dwarven bar in Ironmound, drinking Diamonddraught. They made it from squeezing the juice out of diamonds, they said. Next thing Mongo knows, he is here with Red god whispering in his ear. What does Shackleborn mean?" Mongo was fairly confident they might know, as he had already observed that some of the Rangers had the same 'natural' sign on their arms, like a mystic tattoo.
Aranea
player, 76 posts
Sat 4 May 2024
at 12:37
  • msg #109

IC Thread 3

Aranea was taken a bit aback by seeing someone else, particularly one who saw her openly despite her shape change. It was not comforting if you took into account that it was illegal to be a magical creature in the lands controlled or claimed by the Dark Lord maybe it should be reassuring though as it meant they could pull it off too. It would only be the outskirts of Darklands anyhow.

We hope to get bottles specially made for some bitter wine we plan to produce back on the vineyard,” she tried to be subtle. “We also hoped to look through a library to look for techniques that might make our next batch a little better. I also think I might find family a bit distantly related here that I would look for.

Aranea rolled 28 using 1d20+12.  Hide check.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Sat 04 May 2024.
Jack Springhill
player, 106 posts
I am here to help.
What do you need?
Sat 4 May 2024
at 13:29
  • msg #110

IC Thread 3

"Thank you good man, I have only recently arrived in this land at all, and I have business with the  proud as it were."

Obviously yes to  the library as well, but since A already said something..

Jack Shrugs
"A drink sounds nice, when and where do you propose we meet?...I of course cannot make plans for my companions."
Jack Springhill rolled 28 using 1d20+11 ((17)).
This message was last edited by the player at 13:52, Sat 04 May 2024.
Jack Springhill
player, 109 posts
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Wed 8 May 2024
at 23:58
  • msg #111

IC Thread 3

wlake.gmtn:
Bottle:

Carved from obsidian, hewed and halled by dwarves, the bottle works like a way to transport dangerous and potentially toxic fluids, hefting it takes considerable strength and can be charged up at a power nexus. In Cauldron, the central lake was considered a power nexus and your reasons for leaving it behind can be chocked up to power seeping from the divine realms into the ranger's scimitar +1. Jack successfully hides the bottle from him but for some reason the sword seems to temporarily, as though through illusion, vacillate in and out of the visible world. Maybe it's a planar juncture, and they occur when important adventurers spread their seed, as it were, with horses (specifically chargers) huddled against the cold and breath recalling lich's frost from your last encounter. The scimitar has a companion on his other side, but much to the strain of your supernatural eyes, the dusk masks the other blade, suggesting it could be important. At the mention of the Tithe and a beer, the glowing fists of the other rangers suggest they have levels in monk, which is especially potent, seeing as creatures of cold (it is pretty cold here on the lake, see: Chicago) are vulnerable to the holy fire of monks, but also that weapons are hard to come by. So if yours get broken, you can always blame rending on those rogue elves who betrayed their kind.

The grey-eyed attendant at the gate taps his foot impatiently, suggesting boredom. His aloofness also suggests that he is not paying enough attention, or he would have seen the monk's fist dropping a few coins in the cart ritualistically. They rattle around, maybe causing the guard to look the other way from the scimitar. The rapier you have in the cart alongside the other items must be some kind of magic trick by either the monks or the Ferryman, and inspected by the timid guard, they glow red, drawing your eyes from it to the central brazier of the plaza. Ambient town noise reaches your ears, and the grunts of approval from the rangers (now multiclassed with monks, two of the three) means the beer will be highly savoured. The drawbridge is dropped behind you and the one hundred thousand-worth coin that glows the brightest, Icarus, Brett, and Katherine, light the town's central brazier which reserves a charge for you to summon a fire elemental if needed, Summon Monster IV, CL 13. The fire is passably warm, and several itinerants in the village come to warm their hands, looking severe and drawn.

"We are the Striders of Farlaghn, Highwall branch (are they the same as before?) and seek to protect this town against the shadow. If we can successfully hide," and they say this muffling their voices severely, "then we can spring upon them in this holy place." He eyes a cleric who warms his hands and drops holy water on the fire. "Supposedly that stuff is from the lake of Cauldron, Olympos that it is. And we normally don't recommend beer but this variety only warms you up, doesn't get you drunk. It might even be the cleric who made it. "Eh, sir?" He casts a glance at the cleric who smiles wanly.

Mongo
player, 37 posts
Mongo only pawn in Game
Of Life
Fri 10 May 2024
at 00:42
  • msg #112

IC Thread 3

Mongo chuckles. "Not cold at all for me. Feels like home for Mongo, high up in mountains. Beer Mongo can handle." the Goliath smiles, broken teeth a testament to many hard fights.
Jack Springhill
player, 113 posts
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Mon 13 May 2024
at 01:02
  • msg #113

IC Thread 3

Jack walks past the bored looking green eyed guard and offers a greeting to the striders....

"Well met, Striders."

Jack keeps moving forward wanting to be into the city proper, and past the guards to gain his bearings on the places to stay, the library and the pround...and later the power nexus, whatever that is....
Aranea
player, 79 posts
Mon 13 May 2024
at 01:52
  • msg #114

IC Thread 3

Aranea too, moves into the city so as not to hold up anyone at the gate. Trouble invites trouble. Less standing out the better. Her human form was important for that.
wlake.gmtn
GM, 162 posts
Sat 18 May 2024
at 02:00
  • msg #115

IC Thread 3

In the bar, over a beer (which cost 10 cp a piece), the warm visages of the Striders meet you in flickering ambience. Icarus, Brett, and Katherine toss between them their own Ioun Stone and the Stone of Fire Giant Summoning, and the group as a whole would be EL 16 given they are of considerable power in the region and can summon assistance from disparate cities, and the Shadow's blight across the land is such that the port cities register more traffic of the ghost ship variety. With the Striders, in fact, you discuss cities shrouded in green light that bleed into the very horses themselves, which are taxed to the max to augment the Shadow's blightful spread over the land. Thus the bone steed with a ribcage glittering with metallic implants courtesy of the powers of nature (for here the gods start to blend in) and the wind is crisp with blood of the ravens which transport messages far and wide but many in the service of good attempt to waylay the routes of the ravens such that the sepulchres (which is where the Striders want to plan the ambush on the shadow) divvy up the bodies which are summarily burnt to prevent the spread of disease (kind of like the stereotypes about Mao's China). This will test your hide skill and even now Aranea's form seems to flicker as though camouflaged. The rangers are able to hide in plain sight and the very black of their sabretaches means you will be able to use the town's mules with the naive villagers' expectations that their village will undertake a blessing.

The pround walks into the bar and bears a coin purse and a mirror which seems to reflect the katana held by Icarus and create a sort of watery effect akin to a Wedge of Salt, which Brett whittles into his pewter mug that he seemed to bring himself.

One of the bartenders attempts to Erase some magical writings on the wall as if to hastily cover them up (13 vs DC 15). This fails, and with your language skills, you are able to tell it is written in Auran, which you may wish to pursue at the library. Only four hours until the scheduled tithe and many in the bar are groaning about the fallow land. They are like slaves to the shadow. Devouring the Stone of Fire Giant Summoning, water and fire dance against the wall, seen as a cheap trick in this neck of the woods. Some day the wose would allow you to wick a roped village about them and help build up the society.

"Fellow pround, what markings shall precede the demonstrations of the crop? And fellow adventurers, what say you to our initial plans?" Icarus glares at you that you might want to maintain secrecy, for almost all prounds are considered traitors. "The fire and water united will carry us through should we discover Skie in this place."
Jack Springhill
player, 118 posts
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Sat 18 May 2024
at 19:25
  • msg #116

IC Thread 3

Jack notes that the group is very powerful so he has no desire to engage them in the bar, he also sees a message on a chalk board, that he recognizes immediately as Auran, an language he knows and he takes in what it says, hoping for a new nugget of information about the world...

His ears perk up when the new man is addressed as a pround, because he can perhaps destroy the last vestage of the lich.  However he will wait for the pround to not be in conversation with the other group....

He finds a vacant table for him and his companions to sit.
He holds up three fingers and says "Pints of beer."
Mongo
player, 39 posts
Mongo only pawn in Game
Of Life
Sat 18 May 2024
at 19:54
  • msg #117

IC Thread 3

Mongo frowns. "Friend Brett, you use a term Mongo has never heard before. Pround. It is a new word to me. What is its meaning? And what is a scheduled tithe, another term Mongo has never heard before?"
Jack Springhill
player, 123 posts
I am here to help.
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Sun 19 May 2024
at 21:40
  • msg #118

IC Thread 3

Jack also looks around the area for carvings, markings or other sources of secret signals that may be part of the underworld or coded specifics.

in his own world such marking could be useful to get by.  The carving of a shovel meant there was sometimes work there, and two shovels meant there is always work here.  The traveling workers had such signs, to warn of bad places, good places, good water and bad water...he was sure he would see such marks along the way....
Aranea
player, 83 posts
Sun 19 May 2024
at 22:30
  • msg #119

IC Thread 3

Aranea moves quietly and shuffles into a seat by the other two. It was good to have adequate to exceptional guards… it was bad to seem like an unreasonably wealthy itinerant. “Religious form of taxes generally… the tithe that is…
Mongo
player, 41 posts
Mongo only pawn in Game
Of Life
Mon 20 May 2024
at 02:12
  • msg #120

IC Thread 3

Mongo asks "religion Mongo knows about. But what are taxes? Is it related to the hard tack that soldiers sometimes take with them on campaign? We do not carry such things in my mountain home."
Aranea
player, 84 posts
Tue 21 May 2024
at 01:24
  • msg #121

IC Thread 3

Taxes is how money is taken by cities to make walls and roads, and other things. Some places don’t use them that way but it is what they collect treasure for. I’m more than happy to part with some of my coin to smooth things over but if they try to do a detailed search of me or my belongings… then there will probably be problems. As a healer, I keep poison to make antivenin. Poison and herbs to fix other poisons…” she felt like the more she talked the more she would have to explain but she let it trail off there.

She came from a village too but education was important to blend in among more civilized folks best odds for survival. If this was a common thing, she would begin wondering where a village with so little exposure got metallurgy sufficient to silver weapons. It was more apparent Mongo was from a different world.
Jack Springhill
player, 124 posts
I am here to help.
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Tue 21 May 2024
at 01:44
  • msg #122

IC Thread 3

"We may not know but one of my favorite ideas is that, I don't think that word means what we think it means.   Who knows, we are here, the tax or tithe collectors may come and ask us to pay them.  I suppose we will if they ask."

Jack has opened his journal again and waits for service...the three pints to arrive
wlake.gmtn
GM, 163 posts
Mon 27 May 2024
at 13:36
  • msg #123

IC Thread 3

Rare as it was to have someone with extraordinary abilities, it was still something special reflective of the times of Aryth. People sometimes had auras and people could use magic to detect evil, but that tended to be done by the gods. Many claim it is unfair that the Veil and the Sundering [the Veil is the distance between god and man and the Sundering is the distance of Aryth from ever more powerful entities, those whose motives are totally unclear]. The bar gets to see a couple more people file in and arrange their belongings on the floor. The tables are made of mahogany and come from the nearby forest, small as it is.

Some from another table are talking about the drastic reduction of power that Izrador can undertake, a level drain that can drive a man mad. You watch as a man nearby takes on a certain cast, becoming famished and receiving a message from another man, and prepares to tenaciously place a ring on his finger to warm himself against the night. You see it because he makes a big show of it, even asking people nearby if they have seen a traveling salesman that he wanted to identify.

A bard enters the bar, and the flowing garb he wears indicates several past obsessions that had allowed him to wrap his body around some kind of beacon and he thus shines with an inner light. This is the general mood you get from your eyes, now glowing with energy.

He waves his hand in a provocative way, sleeping one of the Striders but does so subtly so that you don't notice. It does stand out like a sore thumb, however. Icarus perks up, "That's the messenger from Erenhead, it's always the same guy. We've spent some time over there and need to deliver something subtly. I noticed that wagon you came in on; is that of the make of Southern Erenland, the home of some of the more provocative Erenlanders. Thieves through and through, but good people. Word has it they have developed a technique to nearly eradicate one's power with a simple gesture. Perhaps we can load some of the goods of the Tithe on the wagon (which now sits in the town square) and take them to Erenhead. But the glassworks is also still burning and the gimmicks they make seem to have a connection to some kind of dreamcatching. The scythe of Jil and the return of the mad Splintershield are like a trademark, sorting through the petty trade as though the whole world had taken notice." He wipes the beer foam from his mouth before proceeding. The water and fire seem to reunite prior to returning through the bard's head as though he were memorizing spells. "This beer's some of the most classical shit around. There's still ample time until the Tithe." He lowers his voice. "We are able to find truths out there in the barrens, so are we able to sort through the treasures that are so few and far between?" The man with the Stone's belly seems to be widening.
Jack Springhill
player, 130 posts
I am here to help.
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Sun 2 Jun 2024
at 10:56
  • msg #124

IC Thread 3

"Eradication of ones power with a simple gesture, are you referring to magical power and like a mage's dysjunction, or do you mean like will power such as when a mindbender dominates the psyche of a person with no defenses, or do you mean physical power like a person in a plane like this one cast into the void?"
Aranea
player, 87 posts
Sun 2 Jun 2024
at 11:39
  • msg #125

IC Thread 3

Nearly eradicate…” she repeats softly, “the bard is suggesting that our wagon can hide magic auras. My sisters had magic that was good for changing minds and hiding auras. I’m not so grown up yet, nor is our magics exactly the same. I think they either want our wagon or think we should offer to take the Tithes of the city somewhere else. All these civilized folk are harder to understand than biggest sister made them seem. She would be frustrated and confused for anyone with half an eye to reading people’s body language.
Jack Springhill
player, 136 posts
I am here to help.
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Thu 6 Jun 2024
at 16:57
  • msg #126

IC Thread 3

"We need to handle our business here and get out as soon as possible.  The wagon from here to Cauldron sounds good, another bit of time with Skie might be a good source of trusted information, getting answers to any questions we have."
Mongo
player, 48 posts
Mongo only pawn in Game
Of Life
Fri 7 Jun 2024
at 07:42
  • msg #127

IC Thread 3

Mongo asks "should I awaken the Strider that the bard put to sleep? Seems a rude gesture to me. I cannot say to the disposition or origins of the cart, you'll have to ask Jack or Ariana. But what purpose is there in putting a portion of the Tithe within, if I may ask? Is there a reason to keep it hidden?"
Aranea
player, 91 posts
Wed 12 Jun 2024
at 18:57
  • msg #128

IC Thread 3

Anyone with significant wealth generally wants to retain it. Just as I imagine you would not want to give up your well practiced weapons to a stranger, or even a comrade who might have no use for them…” the smallest of the adventurers spoke softly and tried to be less exposed.

She nodded to Jack, “I think that we could well offer to ensure the Tithe gets to the appropriate hands and be on our journey with the pround. These are dangerous times on the wild roads. The weak all to often become prey.”
wlake.gmtn
GM, 169 posts
Sat 15 Jun 2024
at 01:33
  • msg #129

IC Thread 3

AC: 20
HP: 100
Acid and fire attacks - Helshem's Kikoichimanji and Mellowtone Pursuit Spike - count as extraordinary attacks
The wall is split up into three sections, some of which are the reinforced steel portals made of wood which cannot be burnt down based on the cryptic messages written nearby in High Elvish, also known as Nomadil. The fire causes, according to the waterfall at the tavern in Highwall, the magnetic adherence of fire to air which settles up the score between the viscousness of acid and the volatility of fire. This wall functions as a trap which can be loaded on your cart and later resold under the guise of magic weaponry, and you suspect that the enemy is on the lookout for pieces such as these. The pround, black and white beard with scaled hands and a death wish, is sapient enough to be considered humanoid but he can also cast Merge (level 3 spell) to gain control of other people's summons.

The extraordinary abilities cause certain highjacking effects, such as language spilling out of the minions of Shadow to indicate their mindset, and these can be ground as per mortar and pestle, these being tangible and intangible effects. Seeds are the most common and many of your influences used ropes made of artificial plants to heighten their climbs. Acid and fire have a hardness of 7, which in this game reduces the damage done by this amount but has no Bulk as in Pathfinder, instead, just a magical overlay similar to a gate, but hovering in midair depending on your angle. The magic is enough on this waterfall-in-a-wall to indicate that the immediacy of power (as per Jack) can channel primal energies and allow a shortcircuit of enemy forces spilling into the tavern to take you unawares, as the nervous glances from the Striders should indicate.

"Maybe we can dip our weapons in the falling 'snow,' divesting the wall of its Shadow Essence. Destroying the wall will collapse the enemies in the channel who are able to inscribe their Tithe upon the unwary villagers (who will upgrade their village by gaining the yarns that are spun in your honor). Several onlookers getting increasingly nervous indicate that they are fellows of the pround, but the fire and acid upon the waterfall suggest that there is a solemnity that you can place in a crenellation in the ruined tower of Wogren Moor. And, in fact, you can hear barking, and as the Striders trounce the magic portal (high magic of the Erunsil, very temporary and unidirectional), you discover that Wogren start to disattach from their mundane selves (CR 4) and take on the elements, transforming the encounter to a CR 8 unless you act quickly and combine forces with the so-aptly named militia of the boardroom. The man who got charmed (see Mongo) starts to spasm and his light begins to be drawn into the portal of fire and acid and if you trust the Striders aren't Shadow agents you can join them to reap the spoils. Otherwise you might encounter some of the good guys are whetting their blades in anticipation of usury.

The Acid and Fire Waterfall: Causes flat-footedness unless entered with magical boots. The energies are Grease spells and the hobnails are clanking in anticipation of the Chinese finger trap-esque portal. The gods might've taken notice. The trap between rooms  has a DR and ER (energy reduction) similar to a cleric but one who is inanimate. The material and ethereal plane are the barrens or central square of the village and the ethereal the magical wall whose relations to the animate remain unknown.
Jack Springhill
player, 143 posts
I am here to help.
What do you need?
Tue 9 Jul 2024
at 00:24
  • msg #130

IC Thread 3

Jack approaches the pround carefully...
"I have defeated a lich and have brought you his phylactery, I will pass it on to you to destroy.  I have no notions of the proper custom or what you may expect in payment or that I may expect in recompense, if I am wrong let me know how this foul thing may be destroyed."
wlake.gmtn
GM, 173 posts
Thu 11 Jul 2024
at 03:08
  • msg #131

IC Thread 3

Lightweather Place, former owner and proprietor of Skie's Treasury, facilitates transfer of power to the lich Byron, whose phylactery (shaped like a ribcage) becomes denatured when placed in a sopping giant plain of acid, which resembles peat. The Test of the Smoking Eye is the text that is hastily scribbled on the air by an unknown god, runic Abyssal that summons yuan-ti from the seas of acid and they as water-dwellers have been fiending away at fire weapons in their underground lairs in Shatterhorn, which is near the Demonskar. The feeling you get when the phylactery disappears signals a broach with the man pround himself, friend of Byron and legendary hopeful monitor of the waves lapping up on the shores of the pureblooded, halfblooded, and aboomination yuan-ti, the abominations being smaller but brighter. One man befriended to Byron and Lightweather notes the passage of Carceri to the feeling dipped in the pool by the pround Aldous who greets you after having sealed up his magic boots with a feeling of archery seeming to surround the acid fields. The magic boots materialize from the fields which align through the cylindrical trap as though shot like so many airdarts. There is a pair present for each one of you, and the pround Aldous' voice bends a ribcage like the phylactery with bone crunching sounds aligning in the waterfall through which bursts Mongo's cold steel dagger which acts like a Blink spell, travelling through the now vertical plane of acid and fire and added to it, water which recalls Wogren Moor's fountain.

You are able to pick up the Mark of the Smoking Eye template by allowing in the sights of the fountain which now collapse back in on themselves, the steam bending around the Striders who have returned to normal following the alignment of the sealing of the trap, which now appears as a mannequin suit of armor, and the ritualizing of the phylactery, causing the grass to magically grow longer, piercing through the windows in the tavern. All in all, an elemental conjunction recalling the bashing of skulls by Cauldron's fire giant, whose ray burst through this terrain in ancient times, fracturing the earth and releasing the spellweavers.

A small lizard-like creature writhes in the pocket chiseled by the vaporous beam generating a mirror effect that is called by the locals a glace. To those in the know that is. The concealed one (one of Pelor's destroyers) has influence in this area and his abyssal remarks show up in your dreams that night as a giant sinful lustbag with beholder's glacey gaze, a basilisk rummaging around in this or that chest, which a detect evil spell cast by the Rangers solidifies in the corner, the sealing of the line of sight to the ethereal plane temporarily fudged.

Another dream you undergo makes you visualize a demon barking commands to an underling, with a Craft Staff spell in Abyssal tearing through matter to settle in one luminous photosynthetic drop upon the wands of control water. Flooding of the land under Cauldron recalls this spot that Wogren Moor embodies, having settled upon a man named Zenith Splintershield whose writings to Alek Tercival appear muddled and dangerous. The Striders bring them up in conversation:

"Now that the lich's pact has been sealed, the gods can ignore this area with their wards. The astirax are afraid of water which is what the spellweavers figured out early but they also hated the Sign of the Smoking Eye despite its lucrative power."

"The pround is none other than Khorophon from Bhal'Hmaghn, disguised and then again as that rogue Vhalantru. He seeks to bring power into the city, forcing the residents' tax worries into a revolution that would cripple the elven kingdoms' monopoly over the forests scattered cold and warm."

"Did you figure with your new boots (which have small divets on them the color of prairie), would lend itself to pastoral nomads in the Shadow's campaign of old-growth forest and woses in abundance? Settlers in Cauldron actually favor Izrador, having seen what the gods' power drained from their life's blood."


OOC: Sorry it took me so long, hope you guys are all still game.
Jack Springhill
player, 147 posts
I am here to help.
What do you need?
Fri 12 Jul 2024
at 02:35
  • msg #132

IC Thread 3

Jack feels himself changing as some magic from an outer plane not good and not evil seeps into him the power does not seem like corruption but it moves from his hands and feet through his entire body, he sees things in a strange way of a moment and finds that one of his eyes has shifted into some sort of living burning ember that smokes from his eye socket....

He watches a similar change come over his companions, as he finds the boots meant for him and he slips them on, moving to the waterfall and the power that seems to come from it, he pulls out an arrow at first, dipping the single arrow in and inspecting the results of the action, he repeats it with the entire quiver and his other weapons as well.


"I believe this change would be hard to undo though the benefit seems to outweigh any harms."

Waiting to see the details of the template (the smoking eye),  the boots and weapons....
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