Even Newer Tavern Thread: The Hanged Man

[Mal Malenkirk]

-''Ah! All right! There is a lot of mystic talk about darkness and bat shrieks that I can't understand! Excellent. Yep, hopefully you will do.'' nods the dragonborn enthusiastically. ''Okay, gather around if you are interested.''
He clears his throat.

-''I will try to go for the short version. A short while ago, a bunch of adventurers - now that I think about it, I bet they were recruited here too! - beat the crap out of a powerful undeadish gang leader named Rinch and dismantled his organization of zombie loving maniacs. Quite heroic, they got medal and all. The only downside is that it triggered a power struggle in the commons.

Then, suddenly, a bunch of warrior monks calling themselves 'Sons of The Sword' show up and start mopping up the mess. Sounds good right? Too good. I wondered what the hell was their angle. So I came here - oh, four hours ago, I'd say - and recruited five talented people to help me investigate. We go inside their HQ. They look polite enough, they give us the tour and it seems kind of all right even though something about them gives me the creep.

Then BOOM! The HQ is attacked by some kind of giant tentacled monster of shadow and a bunch of other undead and darkness themed asses. That would be the remains of the gang of that Rinch dead guy I talked about earlier. Still following? Good, because it's about to get stupid!

We are inside the HQ when that happens and so the alarm is given. The giant shadow squid was about to break through when, get this, a DEVIL shows up! No a little one either. A big guy, all red, with a very weird beard and a wicked magic halberd.

Of course, at that point, even I knows there is something wrong! The 'Sons of the Sword' are in fact a devil worshipping cult dedicated to Asmodeus and were trying to steal ressources from that Rinch dead guy that apparently also worked for a epic sized jackass nicknamed 'The Usurper'. Major clusterf*ck, let me tell you!

Anyway, we saw the devil so we couldn't be allowed to leave. But we could not leave through the front door because, you know, there was a giant squid monsters and devils so... Oh, didn't I say the HQ was dug in flank of Monkhill? Well, yeah, it's basically a cave system. So the front door was the ONLY door!

Sparing you a lot of fighting and girl screaming - the later from me, mostly - we ended up finding a teleportation circle that was - so I have been told - wired directly to Gehenna. You know, the Nine Hells, Baator, whatever you want to call it. We even saw a big pitfiend head and all. Pretty cool in a soil-your-pants kinda way, hey? But I had some talented magic people with me and so we used that circle and tried to hijack it to get back to safety.

That's when I lose the plot a bit. When we entered the circle, we were like swallowed by light. That light turned ruby red and then I saw the inside of a devil's manor. Lots of artistic crap with evil looking horned guys, basically. Before it all became fully solid, though, light changed to some kind of sick purple. Then I heard maniacal laughter. You know: Mwhahahaha! Yeah. Don't know where it came from. I was kinda in my head. Then I heard another voice saying: This is opportune. Then the maniacal voice shouted that the other voice was dead and couldn't do this. The not maniacal voice said something to the effect that the other was a loser and he could do whatever he wanted. Then everything started turning green instead of purple.

And that's when the circle broke apart. One guy - a girl actually - fainted and the others tried to grab her before she drifted away. Me I was hanging on to another one of the magic people on the crew and he dragged us back to daunton with some withcy stuff.

Uh, still following?

Anyway, I just came back and I got an army to raise and a devil lair to raze.

But the four missing guys were very brave and I owe them to find what the hell happened to them. I am guessing they landed elsewhere. I want you to find where and bring them home. We leave no men behind in the Daunton's guard!

You are looking for a human girl named Haruka, a sparkly genasi named Ashir - These two are the magic people who helped with the ritual, aside from Sheng, but that guy is, uh, creepy. His cousin was the head of the frigging cult! And he's not lost, he's right here in the tavern. He's the one who brought me home but I kinda don't trust him... - There is also two warriors; Raiko, a proud dragon born, and Max, a really brave fellow.

So, that's about it. I think the colored light we were seeing when we were bouncing left and right in that teleporting circle means something, but I have no clue what. I ain't no magic man.''



[sblock=Arcana 15]The color of the lights does matter.

Ruby Red is the color of Gehenna's portals (9 hells, home of Asmodeus)
'Sick' Purlple is the color of Tartarus (The Abyss).
Emerald Green is the color of Arcadia (The Feywild)

So despite their best efforts, they were first dragged toward Gehenna, the portals intended destination. Then something happened and they were dragged toward Tartarus but a second unforseen event redirected them a third time toward Arcadia.

Patrin did not see the end of the drama, but unless a 4th change of direction occured, Ashir, Haruka, Raiko and Max are somewhere in Arcadia.[/sblock]

 

[Iron Sky]

At mention of devils, Dante becomes very alert and even Virgil stops his playing around briefly checks on his master.

"If these ones will have the chance to kill devils - or the umbara'savok that make cults to them - then this one will go. When do these ones leave for Arcadia and how will they get to the Feywild?"

[sblock=Arcana check]1d20+1 = 17[/sblock]

 

[Wik]

Abigail leans forward, listening with interest. She gets less and less interested as the story goes on, and pours herself another strong drink.

When Dante starts to speak, though, Azuras perks up and starts skittering around the table, as if to say "if they go, we need to go, too!"

Abigail takes one long look at the dragonling, and just says "Are you kidding me? I highly doubt sis has gone to hell. And don't say anything... don't say a word!"

Azuras still skitters, looking anxiously at Virgil and dancing frantically. Finally, Abigail sighs. "Fine. I'll put my sword in on the hunt. But this is your birthday present, got it?"

Abigail gets up, stands behind Dante, and says quietly "I'm in, if you'll have me. Not sure what we can do in a rescue mission, but 'wings' here knows a bit about magic... when he isn't busy chomping on peanuts."

[sblock=ooc]Rescue mission!? Sounds fun. For what it's worth, Abby is a defender that has a bit of striker in her. I haven't levelled her up, yet, but I can tell you right now her level 2 feat is in rapier proficiency (so she can use her sneak attack without drawing a new blade). She's also resistant to fire now, which might come handy in any hell-raising that needs to be done.

For what it's worth, I post maybe twice a week, three times if it's been slow at work.
[/sblock]

 

[FourMonos]

Renquist's upper lip curls into a snarl at the talk of undead. He steps forward as well.

"Aye, I will join you. I will help fine your missing companions. However, I can feel the weight of the larger picture. A clash of demons and undead lies before us. Will we decide the outcome.... or destroy them both?"

 

[Wik]

Abigail looks over at Renquist, exchanges a long and knowing look with Azuras, and then says slowly "rrrrrrrriiiiiiight."

She then shrugs carelessly, and says "Undead are like most anything else... hit them with enough fire, and they'll burn."

Azuras scampers down to the floor, and brings to run more circles around Virgil. Abby, meanwhile, slaps Dante on the back. "Looks like it's the two of us, reuinted! Gotta tell you, this rescue mission seems a bit more grand than our last one! Unless we're going to wind up fighting devilfish, or something."

 

[Neurotic]

"I'm all for killing undead! And if there are devils to destroy, well, I don't mind. You should have said that earlier! When (and where) do we start?"

OOC: I'm having rough spot at work so can probably post from home 1/day. Otherwise I post about 3/day. Covering All games, that means on average 1 per game per day.

 

[Iron Sky]

Dante bows to Abigail. "It would be an honor for this one to fight again along with the ioloth'savokin... battle-sister?"

He turns to the others.

"From what little Dante knows, it sounds like the portal was to take them to this ones umbara'anolos... devil-place, then to the embara'anolos... demon place?

Dante thinks for a moment. "Last green color, from what little this one knows, sounds like fey'anolos... fey place? Dante once heard umbara speak of green portals and some place of name Arcadia in this fey'anolos. This one does not know how these ones would get to this Arcadia, if that is where the umbara'savok we hunt are."

 

[MetaVoid]

"Feywild, what you call, fey-place, is where I'm from. It is wild place, full of life, where even plants can be active and dangerous. You'd make a mistake to rest in a peacefull meadow or near the lake when it's actualy home to leprechaunts or kelpies. You could awake centuries hence or find yourself serving for life as a slave to fey spirits.

But it's also place of beauty and peace, of good people and inteligent beasts. If one respects the nature it is good place to be. And missing crew won't die of hunger or thirst.

I've heard there is a place in the city where it connects to Feywild. Can anyone take us there?

Ah, but we shouldn't go without finding the portal first so we now WHERE in The Wilds to look for them."

 

[FourMonos]

"Dragonborn. Was there anything that you could see when the circle started coming apart in the green area? Something unusual in the background? This young lady from the Feywild sounds like she could guide us if we had some kind of mark that would be an indication of a location."

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

-''Uh... killing undead and devils? Sure, you see one, knock yourself out. I killed a spined devil and two imps myself back the cult's HQ before teleporting away.''

Ah, but we shouldn't go without finding the portal first so we now WHERE in The Wilds to look for them."

-''Ah, see, as I said, the original circle is in the cultist lair. It's gonna be a tough nut to crack. I will work on it but it'll take a while to raise a proper army. I expect you to get underway before that. Anyway, the circle led to hell, as far as I can tell. Better leave it alone.''

This young lady from the Feywild sounds like she could guide us if we had some kind of mark that would be an indication of a location."

-''Well, I kinda though the markings on the teleporter where shifting toward the end. Looked a bit like an eagle, if you ask me. Hope that help. If you think they are in Arcadia, the tree lady is right, it connects near daunton in a few place. I heard it currently does so so right the Five's Memorial park, pretty much in the center of the city. It's causing the warden no end of trouble!''