MTG Salvation

Combat Round 1

Korvat swings his ax. The cleric throws his cloak back, revealing some impressive armor and a shield. He raises the shield, deflecting the barbarian's swing with a smirk. Dieknuh also charges the cleric, swinging her hammer. The billowing cloak throws off her aim, and she misses. The hammer clatters to the floor at her feet. As the cleric sidesteps Dieknuh's swing, a blast of acid, launched by Paravrax, rockets past where he was just standing to strike the back wall.

Strathalmere lets fly a magic arrow. The arrow strikes true, finding a gap in the cleric's armor for 18 damage. Reed shouts, and the cleric begins to make a response, probably a witty quip, only he finds his words cut short. A shimmer of magic fills the room, cloaking it in Silence. Luan, taking advantage of the unnatural quiet, sneaks behind the cleric and jams his knife into the cleric's shin, for 17 damage. Emeryn whispers to herself, then rushes towards the cleric, sword drawn. She strikes him for 13 damage.

The cleric scowls, glaring down at heroes surrounding him. He touches something on his belt, and his wounds begin to close. In the same swift motion, he slams his staff into Luan. The staff glows with a sickly green light, rot and pain radiating from the point of impact, hitting Luan for 31 damage.

End of Round 1

Luan grunts, blacks out, and falls to the floor.

Its a straight d20 roll, if you get 10 or above its a pass, below 10 and its a fail.
20 puts you back on 1 HP and no longer dying.
1 counts as 2 fails

If you make 3 passes you are stabilised and no longer dying
If you fail 3 saves before that point you die.

Paravrax looks over at Lucial, hisses, and launches a ball of thunder at the cleric.

Shoot the bugger.

Reed smiles at the cleric's aborted attempt at a quip, and mockingly puts a finger to his lips. The finger then points at the cleric, followed by the rest of the fingers uncurling as a radiant bolt erupts from Reed's palm at the cleric.


Reed mutters a word that no one can quite understand, and briefly shines with magic. Luan glows and his wounds begin to heal.

Helping Luan up, Dieknuh grabs at the cultist's cloak, attempting to throw the villain off of his balance.

Emeryn, seeing her friend healed, swings again at the cleric with her magic longsword:
To Hit: (adv from vow)

Damage:

Combat Round 2

In the unnatural quiet of the Silence spell, Korvat swings his ax again, slamming the cleric for another 18 damage. Dieknuh recovers from her stumble, and tries to help Luan. Paravrax lets loose a ball of thunder, which is quickly followed by an arrow from Strathalmere. Both strike the cleric, causing him to stagger back just as another spell from Reed whips at him. The spell arcs wide, but Reed manages to utter a word and heal Luan. Before Luan realizes what's happened, Emeryn takes advantage of the chaos to stab the cleric with her sword.

He looks at the blade in his belly, stunned. He says something, but the words are muted by the magical Silence, then falls to the ground, dead.

End of Combat

The cleric's death seems to have no effect on the portal. There is still a gaping rend in the very fabric of the universe.

You can make arcana or religion checks on the portal to see if you can learn anything about it.

Also, Korvat needs to make a perception check (DC10). If you succeed, I'll tell you why.

Finally, everyone needs to make a perception check (easy, DC10) once Reed drops the Silence spell. (This is a separate check from Korvat's check.)

Since I presume you'll be looting the body...

Reed looks at the fallen form of the death cleric. He walks up to the body and kicks away the ebony staff. Then he drops the spell of silence and checks if the room is clear.


Then he examines the portal, wishing he had more formal cleric training for once. Usually, he just fakes it.


The he kneels down and examines the death cleric's body. Curious about the shield, he wracks his brain to see if anything is familiar.


Then, he takes both the symbol of arawan and the mysterious symbol from the cleric's body. "These may prove useful. I'm guessing you were Toriad?"

Reed smiles at the corpse. "I think I'll be Toriad too, when it suits me. Let's see what else I'll need for the disguise." He takes careful note of the cult leader's features, for a possible future illusion.

He takes a close look at the prayer beads and the signet ring, wary of potential traps.


Finally, he points to the ebony staff. "I can't use that, but I'm sure one of you can.

Paravrax cheers for the group, and then looks around, first eyeing the portal, then the rest of the room


He then sees the shield and tries to discern anything valuable from its markings.


Cythare eyes the staff and says "It could be of use to me, but if others could find value from it, I would not mind passing it up."

He then asks if Ger'Cath is able to discern anything about the magical properties of the beads, ring, and staff.

Luan stands up, shakes his head, and brushes off his cloak, overcoming the daze from his prior wound.

He nods at Reed, acknowledging the healing spell. "Your help was appreciated."

Somewhat distracted by the portal, he looks around, and his eyes fall on the skull ring. He stoops down and pockets it wordlessly.

He takes in the room further, in case anything relevant managed to happen in the brief moment he was K.O.'d.

Arcana Checks:That portal is some serious, high-level magic. None of you have ever seen anything like it, but anyone who got over a 15 on their Arcana check can tell that trying to disrupt the runes or the circle would just make things worse. You probably shouldn't touch it.Ger'Caith hops down from his perch with a tinkling mew, and proceeds to tackle the prayer beads, roll onto his back, and play with them.
Perception:
Anyone who got over a 15 (so, everyone but Dieknuh) hears a strange sound, like metal on metal, coming from the door just north of the opening between rooms 14 and 15. Reed and Luan immediately recognize this as a set of lockpicks opening a lock.

Everyone (except Dieknuh) turns and looks at the door, ready for another battle. The door opens, and an unassuming halfling walks through the door. "Eh, it's been a few millenia since I had to actually pick a lock, but I still got it," he says, smiling. "Someone went to a lot of trouble to keep us out of...what in Our Collective Names happened here?" he says, surveying the room full of corpses.

He turns, and Reed and Emeryn immediately recognize him:

You stand in the presence of Finian, God of Trickery.

"Kids, I leave you alone for five minutes, and you wind up knee deep in corpses in a temple we aband...Oh my Me. Is that...?"

He flickers, seeming to melt into the shadows, only to reappear next to the portal.

"Oh, **** me. **** all the gods. Which one you idiots did this? Wait, you know what, don't even bother. I'll deal with you all later."

He vanishes again, and you hear the door in the sanctuary close. You stare at each other awkwardly for a few seconds, wondering whether the last 20 seconds actually just happened or if the cleric cast some sort of collective hallucination spell on you, when the door flies open with a slam. Finian has returned, and this time he's accompanied by an older gnomish woman.

"Oh for Our sakes, Finian, are you sure you aren't just being dramatic? A stable bidirectional portal into the Infernal Prison is practically impossible. Why, the wards we put in place require an eight-point biometic recognition before they'll allow anything through. Oh sure, any wizard with enough time and a lack of good sense can open a unidirectional portal down there, but getting anything back again is nigh..."

She stops, staring at the portal.

"Now who's being dramatic, Roywyn."

Most people count themselves blessed to meet a single god in their lifetime. You're now standing in a room with two: Finian, and Roywyn, God of Knowledge.

They both appear next to the portal, Finian in a flicker of shadows, Roywyn in a flash of brillant blue sparks. "Oh, this is remarkable! Look at this, a circle inscribed in a circle, one to contain and focus the energies of the portal and the other as a barrier to keep anything from coming through uninvited! And the runes!"

"Don't mind her, kids. This is her thing. Now, from the five or six words she's spouted out that I actually understood, I don't think any of you are the ones responsible. Which is good, because I haven't had to smite anyone in a long time and I'd like to keep it that way. That said, would one of you mind explaining exactly what happened here?"

As Finian talks to you, Roywyn continues to natter excitedly in the background, oblivious to the rest of the room.

Oh, these are old, old Dwarven runeforms. I haven't seen these since before the War. But this isn't a Dwarvish spell, is Elvish. Oh! They transliterated the Elvish spell to Dwavish, phonetically, so that the Dwarven runeforms would better contain and focus the magic. And, is that angel's blood! Brilliant! The angel blood would cause the wards to recognize the traveler as Celestial and allow passage through in both directions! But how... Ah! A five-point casting rubric with caster sacrifice! Oh, that's spectacular, using the angel's blood and five corrupt souls to fuel the spell! Terribly inefficient, and in stark violation of at least fifteen of Vicben's rules, oh he's not going to be happy when he hears about this. Oh, but the spellcraft!"

Luan regains his composure the quickest, as he was inclined to do.

"It is an honor to meet you two.

We have been following the trail of what appears to be some kind of cult. They are working to release their god, from what we have discerned, and we ah, cleaned up the mess.

Well, except for that, anyway."

Luan points at the portal.

"I don't suppose there's anything that either of you could do about that? I do not believe we are equipped to handle such magic."

Strathalmere is a lot less awestruck than Luan.

Knocks another arrow but doesn't quite draw it. "Which one of you two is responsible for dragging us here? And if it wasn't you who was it? And Why?" He utters in a voice just above a whisper yet loaded with malice and a barely controlled anger.

Reed snatches up the beads at Ger'Carth's mention of their use. He nods to Emeryn, indicating he'll share. Then he turns and addresses his god.

"Hey Boss, do I have a story for you."

He recounts everything that happened until now, embellishing some of his action (although not by much).

He then adds at the end: "Have you heard from a mutual friend? I'm hoping my gambit paid off with a new agent."

Roywyn continues to study the portal. From seemingly thin air, she's produced a quill and a large tome and is taking copious notes. An abacus hovers nearby to her left, the beads occasionally moving as the performs a staggering number of calculations. A ceramic teapot and cup and saucer hovers to the right. Occasionally she pauses from her work and sips from the cup. The teapot dutifully refills the cup.

Finian smiles at Strathalmere, wanly. "Oh, kiddo. I'm sorry for the trouble, really. I get why you're angry, probably better than you'll ever understand. I truly had no idea what I was sending you into. I'm sure you noticed the spell that was blocking us from seeing Silverwatch properly. I knew something was shrouding the province, and we couldn't directly intervene. There are forces at work here you can't begin to comprehend." He then looks at Korvat. "I'm the last god to stand on protocol, buddy, and Roywyn's just as chill as I am. You stand up, you put the bow away." Finian waves a hand, beckoning you all out into the sanctuary. "This could take a while, kids. Why don't we all step out here and chat while Roywyn does her thing." You notice that he's somehow managed, without anyone seeing him do anything but talk, to take Strathalmere's bow and entire quiver. Reed feels a deep sense of pride at this.

Once out in the sanctuary, Reed explains everything that's happened so far to Finian, with Emeryn correcting some the more egregious exaggerations. At the mention of Vorrix's name, Finian's eyes darken.

"You done good, kids. All of you have. I knew something hinky was going on down here in Silverwatch, but I had no idea it was that bad. The blinding ritual they were using to keep the gods out is some high level forbidden magic. If He's stirring again, and his followers have access to that kind of information...I have to confer with the other gods. If my suspicions are right, things are just going to get worse from here. Now, I may be God of Trickery, but even I'm bound by certain rules. Back when we made this world, the five of us swore an oath, and I can't break that oath. Like, literally am not capable. It was baked into the foundations of the world that no god can even mention His name to a mortal.

"Now, hypothetically, if the gods had created an immortal being, this hypothetical being could know everything about Him, and this hypothetical immortal-but-not-god being wouldn't be bound by the oath...

"But you didn't hear that from me," Finian finishes, winking. For a god of deceit and trickery, Finian's not one for subtlety.

Just as you begin to ponder his words, there's a delighted shout from the altar area. "That's it! Ha! Finian, sweetie, I need you in here. I know how to seal this portal without obliterating this mountain!"

Together with the god, you file back into the altar room. "It's simple balance and harmonics, like a trapped chest, except the treasure is a yawning portal to a hellscape and the trap could level half the province. You just need to apply a little force to the five points where the cultists made their sacrifice, inscribing a line from the outer circle to the inner to ground out the magic, then funnel the blood into the portal." You aren't sure exactly where she managed to procure a large slate board and chalk to diagram this process out, but the abacus and tome are gone.

The teapot is still refilling her cup.

"So can you do it, dear? You'll need to work with perfect precision from all five points simultaneously."

Five identical Finians appear at the five designated points around the altar. "I wouldn't be a very good god of rogues if I couldn't disarm a simple trap," the five halfings say, in perfect harmony. There's a white flash, an odd popping sound, and then suddenly the portal is closed. There's only one Finian left when your eyes readjust to the darkness of the temple. "Well, now that that's fixed, we've got business back in the Mabinogion. I'll fill Roywyn and the other gods in on what we talked about. Remember what I told you, kids." As the gods walk towards the door, Roywyn looks confused. "Wait, how long have you dears been here?"

The door closes, leaving you alone in the darkness of the temple ruins. Without anyone noticing, Finian slipped Strathalmere's bow and quiver back into his pack.

Reed smiles and then turns to the others and shrugs.

"Anyone else ready to leave this place?"

"Not quite. If you recall we initially came here to investigate a bout of hostage taking. Unless they were all used in the creation of that" here Stratalmere gestures towards the portal "We haven't found any trace of them. There is also that Grick infestation that Emeryn wanted to clear out."

Then directly to Reed. "Next time you talk to your boss tell him to leave my gear alone and to be a lot less cryptic"

Quote from Kahedron »

Then directly to Reed. "Next time you talk to your boss tell him to leave my gear alone and to be a lot less cryptic"

Reed snaps his fingers. "Right, you were all here for the hostages. My mistake. Let's find them then, shall we?" He turns to go, then turns back. "Where should we look? I seem to have gotten a bit turned around down here."

Then, seemingly as an afterthought he adds, "Oh and Strathalmere, the fact that he borrowed your gear means he holds you in high esteem. He would have let you shoot him with a few arrows just to be condescending if he didn't respect you."