Down on the ground, Liiros has managed to collect a handful of young parents, mainly fathers, who pass their children to their spouses. Three men without any children underfoot have also stopped to help, making seven total. One of the men is carrying a large blanket-bundle of possessions. He dumps it out on the ground and starts shaking out the blanket. The others start looking at each other uncertainly. It's clear that none of them have any idea how to make a human pyramid.
Four stories up, the trapped mother looks over at Hollister and says, "Okay, okay! What do you need me to do?"
"My magic will allow you to float to the ground, as slow as a down feather." The wizard puts a stern look on his face and wags his finger at her. "But the magics do not last long. When I tell you to jump, you must jump. Otherwise you will burn. Can you do that?"
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
The woman looks down at the people milling about four stories below. "Uh, o-, okay." She tries to prepare herself to jump, but the window is small and the sill is too high for her to comfortably rest on foot on it. "Wait." She ducks back inside, then reappears a few seconds later better positioned. It looks like she moved a chair up to the window. She has one foot on the seat of the chair and the other on the windowsill. She's hunched over and starting to lean out the window, with one hand on the window frame to steady herself and the other on her screaming baby. Hot air rising up from out the windows of the lower burning floors blows her hair about.
ooc
It's now round nine. The woman looks as prepared to jump as she's going to get.
Hollister's window is 20 feet to the woman's right in the adjacent building. It's similarly sized, so jumping out will be similarly difficult.
Korrin, if you want to have reached the room the woman's in by now, you can without needing to make any rolls. Or, you can have reached Hollister over in the adjacent building. (Hollister would have unlocked his building's skybridge door, and Korrin can unlock the skybridge door for his building.)
Hollister quickly casts his spell, whispering the arcane words of power. "JUMP, NOW!" he yells across at the woman.
Cast Feather Fall on the woman AND her baby, just in cast she somehow drops the child. As soon as he sees her drifting to the ground, the wizard will rush back downstairs.
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
The woman starts to step out of the window, but stops suddenly and almost drops her child when she looks down at the ground. She looks back into the room, hugs her child closer, and closes her eyes.
She leaps out of the window.
Hollister sees the woman's face tight with worry and fear. His spellcasting carries over the roaring of the fire.
As the woman falls, and falls ... and falls ... Hollister sees surprise replace her worry.
By the time the people on the ground can see her face, her latent exhaustion is visible.
Standing with her feet on the ground, she hugs her child and cries. The residents of Gate Pass gathered around give the party a brief round of ragged applause.
Feather Fall
I looked up Feather Fall. You can get both the woman and child separately. The spell only targets freefalling creatures, though, so you can't cast it in advance. Casting it is an immediate action, so you don't have to ready an action to cast it or anything.
More generally, the verbal component of a spell has to be spoken in a "strong voice" (my interpretation, anyway), so you can't really whisper it. It doesn't matter in this case, but I don't want the wrong precedent to be set.
No worries, since he can cast it as an immediate action after they jump.
Also, per RAW, all spells with a verebal component are supposed to be cast in a loud commanding voice I believe. I just hate Vancian spell casting.
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
Korrin will rush across the skybridge, seeing that Hollister appears to have convinced the woman to jump to safetly and trusting the wizard to have a plan.
Korrin meets up with Hollister right as he's casting Feather Fall. Looking out the window, Korrin and Hollister see the woman float to the ground. As you watch her, you can both feel the intense heat radiating from the neighboring building.
Plavin wishes he could do something so the party could move on, then feels remorse for such a selfish thought, realizing that the self-importance of others may have led to his current plight.
He looks around for an open path to use after the civilians are safe.
Hollister waits a few seconds to make sure they hit the ground safely and then turns to head back down to the street. "Come on, Korrin. Let's get out of here before this building goes up too."
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
Liiros almost panics when the woman jumps down, his human-and-elf pyramid unready, but sighs when the woman floats down slowly. "Well that was unexpected.... You could have said something, Hollister!"
The elf looks to the people gathered around, and calls out "It appears the woman and her infant are safe! You should get your children to the safer side of town! We will do what we can here!" He goes to check on the woman and her baby, making sure they're in decent shape after whatever smoke they've inhaled, then shows the woman which way she should go now for safety.
Hollister waits a few seconds to make sure they hit the ground safely and then turns to head back down to the street. "Come on, Korrin. Let's get out of here before this building goes up too."
Korrin goes to speak, and instead coughs as the smoke really begins to affect him. He simply nods to Hollister and gestures for the mage to lead the way, doubting his wisdom and brashness in rushing into the building.
Liiros can't find any serious injury on the mother or child. Neither can Torrent, who also checks them both over. "He's right," she says. "You two should get away from the fighting. Go east." She points in the same direction the party's heading.
By the time Hollister and Korrin reach the street, the crowd has already dispersed into the flow of humanity filling the streets. "Good work, guys," Torrent says to Hollister and Korrin. "Now, c'mon. We still need to get to Badgerface."
"Indeed, let us be on our way." The wizard moves to follow Torrent, falling in next to Korrin. Hollister had spent most of his spell power for the day, and wanted someone he trusted nearby should they run into any further issues.
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
"Let's get on with it then. But I do hope this gnome arrives early as we shall, seeing as the city is in turmoil right now and our best chance at leaving may be during this havok," the elf says, walking beside Torrent when she starts toward the meeting place.
Adar pokes his head out from Hollister's pack and sniffs at the smoke in the air, chittering wildly. Hollister smiles and reaches up to pet his familiar's head. "No, this fire is no doing of my own," he says quietly to the weasel.
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
With the party assembled again, Torrent leads you further into the city. Panicked people surround and press against you. The air is filled with smoke and flames, screams and the faint *clank* of warfare. Overhead you can barely make out the leonine winged shapes of Gate Pass's elite griffin riders heading west, towards the assault.
Suddenly the night sky above fills with flickering light as a gout of flame erupts among the griffin riders! The firelight illuminates the griffins and their riders, reflecting off their polished metal armor. Its source is also illuminated: A might red dragon. Directly underneath the dragon, people panic and scatter.
Pushing through the crowds and conflagrations, you squeeze through the gate into the next district. Further away from the attacking scourge, the streets are less crowded, making it easy to reach the depository. It's an eighty foot high tower located in the center of the district and surrounded by a fenced compound. The compound is a square with sides over 100ft long and is ringed by a 20ft high iron fence.
"Badgerface should be inside the tower," Torrent says. "He expects to meet someone named Peppin, but Peppin's dead." She leads you directly to the front gate to the compound. "I have an account here, so they should let us in without a problem."
Torrent confers with one of the guards for a minute. Admitting the entire party appears to be a issue until you hear Torrent explain that, "rioters don't wait patiently to be let in - in fact, they're the opposite of that."
Just inside the entry gate are a pair of beautiful fountains; one depicting four
elemental spirits common to local legends — a dragon, a worm, a kraken, and an eagle — and the other dominated by a statue of Emperor Coaltongue, posing with his torch held high, lit by continual flame. The rest of the compound grounds are well-kept gardens lit by torches.
One of the guards from the main compound gate leads you to the very sturdy door into the depository tower. He leans close to it and whispers what must be a password, because you hear the door unlock. "It's dark inside. I have lanterns for you if you need them," he says. "There are two guards on each floor, in case you can't find your locker. There's also one really ugly-lookin' gnome inside, so you might run into him." Torrent's face brightens at the mention of the gnome. Taking a lantern from the guard, she enters the tower.
The first floor of the tower is one huge room, and though the far side is hidden in shadows, it looks to be about sixty feet in diameter. A broad stone ramp circles clockwise upward to the left of the door, while the interior of the room is filled with aisles of metal lockers, each slightly larger than a coffin propped upright. The ceiling is twenty feet high, supported by squat round columns.
OOC
I've attached a PDF with a map of the depository tower. You may need to zoom in a little to see it clearly. Please say where you are on level 1 when you enter. We don't need to go into initiative order yet, but it's time to be on a battlemat.
Linear Mode
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