Dr. Si's Curse of the Crimson Throne - Seven Days to the Grave

Manachan's mostly silent on the way to the group's chosen haven for the night; he's plainly keeping his eyes open for trouble, but shoots occasional glances at the interaction between Mhairi and Ignatius as well.
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[sblock=Stat Block]MANACHAN AINGEALI CR 4
Male Aasimar (MCP) Monk 2 Sorcerer 3
LG Medium Outsider (Native)
Init +6; Senses Darkvision; Perception +13
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DEFENSE
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AC 21, touch 17, flat-footed 18. . (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +1 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 40 (2d8+3d6+5)
Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +9
Defensive Abilities Evasion; Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee Masterwork Silver Dagger +6 (1d4/19-20/x2) and
. . Nunchaku +5 (1d6+1/20/x2) and
. . Nunchaku +5 (1d6+1/20/x2) and
. . Silver Dagger +5 (1d4/19-20/x2) and
. . Unarmed Strike FoB +4/+4 +5 (1d6+1/20/x2)
Ranged Crossbow, Heavy +5 (1d10+1/19-20/x2)
Special Attacks Flurry of Blows +4/+4 BAB +1, Heavenly Fire (7/day)
Spell-Like Abilities Daylight (1/day)
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 5, +5 melee touch, +5 ranged touch):
1 (7/day) Magic Missile, Mage Armor (DC 16), Bless, Chill Touch (DC 16)
0 (at will) Resistance (DC 15), Read Magic (DC 15), Daze (DC 15), Touch of Fatigue (DC 15), Prestidigitation (DC 15)
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STATISTICS
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Str 11, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 18
Base Atk +2; CMB +4 (+5 Grappling); CMD 19 (21 vs. Grapple)
Feats Arcane Strike, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk Weapon Proficiencies, Stunning Fist (2/day) (DC 15), Weapon Finesse
Traits Magical Knack: Sorcerer
Skills Acrobatics +6, Bluff +8, Diplomacy +6, Escape Artist +6, Heal +7, Intimidate +9, Perception +13, Sense Motive +9, Spellcraft +4, Stealth +6, Use Magic Device +8
Languages Celestial, Common
SQ AC Bonus +3, Celestial, Celestial Sorcery, Ring of Jumping, Stunning Fist (Stun) (Ex), Unarmed Strike (1d6)
Combat Gear Bolts, Crossbow (20), Crossbow, Heavy, Masterwork Silver Dagger, Nunchaku, Nunchaku, Silver Bolts, Crossbow (5), Silver Dagger; Other Gear Grappling hook, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds, Rations, trail (per day) (8), Ring of Jumping, Ring of Protection, +1, Rope, silk (50 ft.), Sack (10 @ 15 lbs), Smokestick (4), Thunderstone (4)
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TRACKED RESOURCES
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Bolts, Crossbow - 0/20
Daylight (1/day) (Sp) - 0/1
Heavenly Fire (7/day) (Sp) - 0/7
Masterwork Silver Dagger - 0/1
Potion of Cure Serious Wounds - 0/1
Rations, trail (per day) - 0/8
Silver Bolts, Crossbow - 0/5
Silver Dagger - 0/1
Smokestick - 0/4
Stunning Fist (2/day) (DC 15) - 2/2
Thunderstone - 0/4
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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AC Bonus +3 The Monk adds his Wisdom bonus to AC and CMD, more at higher levels.
Arcane Strike As a swift action, add +1 damage, +1 per 5 caster levels and your weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Celestial Summoned creatures gain DR 1/evil.
Celestial Sorcery Aasimar sorcerers with the Celestial bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all Sorcerer class abilities.
Damage Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Damage Resistance, Fire (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Fire attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Daylight (1/day) (Sp) Daylight once per day.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials, if component cost is 1 gp or less.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Flurry of Blows +4/+4 BAB +1 (Ex) Make Flurry of Blows attack as a full action.
Heavenly Fire (7/day) (Sp) Ranged touch attack deals 1d4 divine damage/healing
Improved Grapple You grapple at +2, with no attacks of opportunity allowed.
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Magical Knack: Sorcerer +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Ring of Jumping This ring continually allows the wearer to leap about, providing a +5 competence bonus on all his Jump checks.

Faint transmutation; CL 2nd; Forge Ring, creator must have 5 ranks in the Jump skill; Price 2,500 gp.
Stunning Fist (2/day) (DC 15) You can stun an opponent with an unarmed attack.
Stunning Fist (Stun) (Ex) At 1st level, the monk gains Stunning Fist as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. At 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the monk gains the ability to apply a new condition to the target of his Stunning Fist. This conditio
Unarmed Strike (1d6) The Monk does lethal damage with his unarmed strikes.
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Silken hair the color of spun gold; eyes the dark blue of deep ocean but shot through with silver; skin the hue of milk with just a hint of chocolate. Manachan was a sensation among his much darker Varisian clan – plainly proof that their kapenia showed true and that their line was descended from divinity.

The Aingeali clan claims descent in direct line from Irori himself, though the claim has been disputed by many. The birth of Manachan, with his very unusual coloring, has been taken as proof by his parents and others of the clan. In many ways, the young man had a charmed childhood.

However, the pressure on him to live up to his ancestor’s divine example has been tremendous, and has led to great internal conflict between the wild ways of his nationality and the discipline espoused by his perfect ancestry. In an effort to resolve this conflict, Manachan left his clan at the age of 13 to enter a small monastery devoted to Irori. He has spent the last four years there, training relentlessly and learning that the path to perfection requires, for him at least, a balance between freedom and discipline, and carefully maintained contradiction between his clan’s nature and his ancestor’s teachings. Adding to his difficulties, about a year after entering the monastery his sorcerous abilities manifested. The instinctual nature of his magic disrupted even further the strict discipline required by the teachings of the monks.

Now 17 and finished with his studies at the monastery, Manachan has found that balance and been released into the world to continue his struggles toward perfection. A confident, outgoing young man with an easy humor and tremendous ability, he has found it fairly easy thus far to make his way.

Now at loose ends and with no instruction other than to find his own way to pursue his perfection, Manachan resolved to return to Korvosa – he had met a young scholar (Edmond) there on one of his errands for the monastery and they had struck a fast friendship. He was fascinated with the life of the sprawling city and decided that learning more of it would provide him some valuable lessons for his path.

Manachan dresses in dark, smoky oranges and forest greens, typically wearing a narrow kilt like wrap from the waist down and either going bare chested or donning a simple tunic – depending on weather and social requirements of his current location. He keeps his hair tied in a ponytail. Other than eyebrows his body is completely lacking secondary hair. He wears his bata strapped to his back, along with his crossbow. All of his other belongings he carries in a sack – to be dropped at a moment’s notice in case of a need to defend himself.[/sblock]
 
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Mhairi

Mhairi shrugs, and continues the journey in stoic silence - part angry and part amused. Not my fault he can't see the wood for the damn trees. What bloody relationship is he thinking there is?! Definitely going out tonight, too many faces to forget.
 

Edmond drops back and falls in step with Mhairi. He speaks silently, in his usual monotone. First part might be a joke attempt. Might not. But the rest is definitely serious.
"You should have known better then badger the priest, Mhairi. I'm glad to see you're loosing your touch...years accumulating maybe?" the man (whole of 19 years of experience) asks. "Maybe you should sleep with us. I'd hate to loose sleep following you in todays Corvosa as I'm afraid todays night walkers may want more then you're willing to give. It was easier to protect you when everyone could walk around and only occasional drunk got stupid."
 

Mhairi

Mhairi's eyes flashed angrily at Ed for a moment, before she realised she had utterly misinterpreted his comment about sleeping with all of them. She giggled when he finished his pep talk, all the anger and frustration gone. "Oh Ed, I don't think you could keep up with me if I didn't want you to - I'm not some clueless little girl anymore. BesidesI have no desire to go out and sell my body to strangers... What I do feel like though is a dirty great bottle of wine and some good looking men and women around. Is that not a staple of Korvosa anymore?"
 

"I would expect you NOT to try to run from your protection. You never had before. If you didn't notice, staple of Korvosa are sick, vampires and sickos, such as our helpful doctors. If you think you would enjoy such crowd, by all means. I would, however, suggest you wait until we clean the mess. Then there will be many eager young men vying for the hand of heroine of the city."
 

OOC: Been too busy to post recently, but I also didn't want to interrupt the interactions going on, 'cos they're entertaining. However, let's move things on a little:

Next morning, at dawn, the group returns to the Hospice. There they find Taddeus sporting some cuts and bruises, and the nurse-receptionist tied up and gagged.

"This one, she fights like a hellcat," says Taddeus. "She wouldn't accept that the Hospice is under new management. We had a, how you say, frank discussion about it." He grins, revealing a gold tooth. "All the patients have been moved out. No-one has come up from the cellar, and so far no new Maidens have come. They will be a tougher fight, I think."
 

Ignatius looks around frantically and all he sees is the inky darkness of the deep. No, there is something else there. At the edge of his vision he sees the outline of circling beasts. Sharks? His skin crawls, worse than when he was in the Direption.

He is drowning. The ifrit begins flailing his limbs as is propelled upward towards the surface. He can tell the lurking sharks are beginning to close in.

He breaks the surface. Just a short distance away he sees land. Ignatius rushes towards it, dragging himself up onto land just as it seems the sharks are ready to snap at his feet.

Spluttering for a moment, the ifrit looks up. There is nothing around him, just a featureless plain of grey. The sky however is full of clouds, but clouds darker than any he has seen before.

No. There is something. A farmhouse, and it is on fire! Ignatius pulls himself to his feet. He feels compelled to run into the farmhouse, looking for someone that may or may not be there.

There is someone there. A young child, a girl, and she in unconscious. The ifrit picks her up, but then something horrifying happens: spreading from where he touches her she is covered by hallmark signs of Blood Veil. Ignatius looks down; he has it too.

They will not have time to die of sickness if they do not get out of this house. Ignatius makes his way out, beams collapsing behind him all the way. When he stumbles out the door the entire house seems to collapse behind him, but it still burns brightly.

The ifrit puts the girl down. He looks over her, but he does not know how to counteract the Blood Veil. He does not know what to do. He despairs.

Behind him the clouds part, revealing the Sun. A bright ray of golden light envelops Ignatius. He feels like his blood is on fire, suffused with its radiance. He looks down at his arms and sees the Blood Veil draining away.

Ignatius looks down at the girl. Positioned between her and the Sun, his body has cast a shadow over her, preventing the healing rays from touching her. For a moment he panics.

Suddenly the shadows are chased away. The ifrit has not moved, but when he looks down he sees his hand surrounded by a nimbus of soft golden flames. Instinctively he reaches out to the girls, and as his fingers brush her forehead the golden fire washes over her, burning away the Blood Veil.

The girl wakes up, and she smiles. But then she weakly points up towards Ignatius, no toward what is behind him. He turns around and sees the Sun. It is... approaching!?

The Sun gets closer and closer. Ignatius is riveted in place, unable to move away. It looms large, and Ignatius feels like he could be burned to ash, so intense is its warmth.

He raises up his other hand, the one not infused with the golden fire, to put it between his eyes and the approaching Sun. It appears so close that it will crush him, this golden orb. He closes his eyes and awaits the end.

After a moment, nothing has happened. He is not dead. But he feels a heat in his outstretched hand so intense he nearly cannot bear it. He opens his eyes, and there resting just above the palm of his hand is the Sun, miniaturized, an orb of intense swirling fire.

Ignatius draws the orb close to his chest, and then twists his head around to see if the girl is okay. She is, but suddenly she is becoming more distant, but without moving. The ifrit turns back to look at the orb. It is growing brighter again. Brighter, brighter, brighter, until everything fades to white.


Ignatius wakes up...

Back at the Hospice, once the door is safely closed and barred, Ignatius kneels down to remove the gag from the woman. He peers directly into her eyes and says firmly and authoritatively, "I believe it is time you tell us what you are about here." Diplomacy: 1d20+15=24
 
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Mhairi

Mhairi had spent a restless night at their host's house. Edmond had made a lot of sense, but she crept out a window after everyone was asleep - entirely because she couldn't sleep herself. He was right, of course. Korvosa was not the same as she remembered it. The people were suspicious, and there wasn't much going on. Must be the plague,[ she thought. Things will go back to how they were. Otherwise they're all as bad as those creatures behind the glass...only they can't see the glass and don't know they're dead. Dead...dead on the inside is what's happened.[

Without realising where she was going, Mhairi found herself in Lamm's old neighbourhood. The streets and buildings were familiar, though none of the faces were. She kept walking, quickly, having no desire to see the evil place again. Still, the brief visit had brought memories of her mother unbidden to her thoughts.

Mhairi had hated her mother for most of her life. Hated her for being neither human or elven, not fitting in anywhere. Hated her and loved her both for teaching her a "trade"... Mhairi loved the experiences of that work, to a point, and the skills it taught. Hated it because it left nothing intimate to give people that she genuinely cared for and loved. People always assumed things about her too.

Mother...haven't thought about her in a long time. I wonder what happened to her after Lamm's fall? She stopped walking briefly, considering. No...I don't really care. What's done is done in this world. Mhairi resumed walking toward no particular destination, realising after a time that she'd turned for "home" without thinking.

She did the best she could though. It's not like it was easy to get out of that life... And she had that little trick with the bit of wire and whispering in my ear. Mhairi's mouth twisted in a sad smile. Come to think of it, that must've been proper magic. I could hear her wherever I was. Her smile became something of a frown as Mhairi thought the problem through. Although actually fairly clever when she tried, the half-elf tended to seek easy solutions to problems and avoided thinking too deeply about anything - an occupational hazard perhaps.

Mum never told me what she used to do. Before...Lamm. She could've been one of those great elven wizards for all I know... Mhairi giggled out loud at the absurdity of the thought. Of course she wasn't, stupid. Otherwise she would've left long before you were born.

Before long, Mhairi was back where she began and silently climbed back in through the window. Getting into bed - alone - she lay still for a time, letting sleep overtake her. Her last thought for the night was If even Ed can do magic these days, I bet I can too. Gonna try that wire trick tomorrow...

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Standing behind Ignatius in the morning light as he interrogated the poor receptionist, Mhairi put both hands on her hips and put on a friendly smile. "Y'might as well tell us. We'll find out anyway, and things will go SO much quicker if you do. Or should we dig out Davalus' ugly mug? And his boss' too. Can't remember his name...what was it? Ralph or something.

[sblock=ooc]
Sorry for the long, rambling and selfish posts lately. Thought the poor girl could use some character development beyond being the horny bisexual "ninja" that I seem to have painted her as. Thanks for the patience and perseverance. :)[/sblock]
 
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"What do you mean?" says the woman angrily. "I've a good mind to report you to the authorities. This is a house of healing operating under direct authority from Her Majesty the Queen. This is treason!"

OOC: [MENTION=93196]Axel[/MENTION], no worries, it was a good post and meshes well with Kaodi's post for Ignatius too. Feels like the campaign has shifted into a new phase where a character's hopes and beliefs will become more important, so a deepening characterisation for the four works nicely.
 

"You are correct," says Ignatius grimly. "There is treason afoot here. But it is not ours." The ifrit pulls the tied up woman to her feet and carries her towards the the back end of the hospice. He then sets her down so that she can see the two doors.

"You see, that way," he says, pointing to the right, "Is where Davaulus was experimenting on Varisians, cutting them, to see what made them resistant to the Blood Veil. He was treating them like livestock to do with as he pleased. And that way," he adds, pointing to the left door, "Leads to the elevator which goes down into the basement, which turns out is some kind of Temple of the Pallid Princess, Urgathoa. Not only were they experimenting on people down there, but they were also brewing the Blood Veil, under the guidance of the necromancer Rolth."

Ignatius crouches down and looks into the woman's eyes again. "If you insist, we are willing to give you a tour of what we have explored so far," says the ifrit, voice low. "But for your own sanity, it is probably better if we do not. So yes, there is treason done here. But the treason is not ours. It is that of Davaulus, his Queen's Physicians, quite possibly the Grey Maidens and their leader, also Rolth, and while I can only pray it is not true, maybe even the Queen. The question here then is: Do we add you to this list? Are you just an ignorant nurse-receptionist, or are you in on the conspiracy? Think carefully before you answer."
 
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