Bruce:
You see no archon on this floor, but you hear plodding feet and muttered curses in celestial on the floor above yours.
Bruce:
You see no archon on this floor, but you hear plodding feet and muttered curses in celestial on the floor above yours.
Yurp. You are correct
The devil casts Mage Hand and tries to testily manipulate the trapdoor at a distance, to determine the mechanisms involved in opening it. He uses the telekinetic force to varyingly push, pull, and rotate any parts while noting any reactions.
Noncombatants:
Canzon:
the trapdoor shakes a bit, but you see no indication of any hinges, catches, etc.
Ixa:
Uses telekinesis to move furniture and other flammables around the small fire ha has made so far. He then uses his produce flame ability.
Combatants (round 10):
Penance:
Penance has the same idea as Bruce and teleports to the second floor.
"Have you seen the last one?"
Min: Full round atack scoring one hit. The archon is badly wounded and barely standing. She then uses her telekinesis to lift the archon off the ground and hold her still. (Telekinetic grapple atempt suceeds.)
Canzonzabar extends his telepathy to contact the rest of the group.
“Could one of you violent gentlemen relocate to my position and apply a good deal of… what is the term? … Ah yes, “brute force” upon this trapdoor?”
Bruce turns toward Penance. "I'll handle the last archon, you help Canzonzabar."
Bruce starts walking to see if he can get under the Archon upstairs.
Canzon:
Penance Teleports to your position.
"Yes?"
Bruce:
The archon upstairs currently has his back turned to, he hasn't heard you either.
With a sharp tap of his walking stick upon the trapdoor, Canzonzabar notes his issue.
“There is a hidden cellar in this abode, a likely place to learn more about the connection to these archons. Surely it is a simple task to break open, for one with such fists of steel.”
The falxugon chuckles at his little insinuating pun.
"Very well." Penance punches the trapdoor until it splinters. His fist make a metallic clang each time it strikes. He then tears up the remanents of boards once he has a handhold. Beneath the trapdoor, you see a dark stone room that looks like a wine cellar. Your point of view does not show you much of the room, though.
Canzonzabar takes a while to wait until the cosmic contract that shields falxugons is once again active, since that clause in the Pact Primeval had been left void momentarily when he engaged in battle.
When this precaution is in place once more, he shifts his form to one of the sword archons and carefully heads downstairs, informing allies of his actions telepathically. As a baatezu his gaze pierces any form of darkness and Canzon listens carefully for any sounds in the cellar.
[Refuge of the Damned ability reactives 1 min after Canzon’s last attack.]
OOC: Bruce can attack.
Canzon:
The cellar downstairs is a fairly simple room. There are a few barrels in a rack. You hear the sound of moving water behind the wall opposite the barrels, but you see no door.
Moving slowly and cautiously through the cellar, Canzon taps on the barrels to hear if they really contain liquid. If some seem suspiciously hollow he turns the tap on the barrel, testing if there is any wine inside at all.
Overall he does a careful inspection of the room, finally coming up to the wall from where the rush of water emanates. He taps on the wall here and there, looking high and low for anything out of the ordinary.
Most of the barrels are hollow, those that aren't are filled with what looks like water. The wall also sound hollow, but you can find no hidden doors.
Can we use my favorite power? Please? Please please please ple...
Why not?
OOC: Bruce spends 11 power points to manifest Cranial Deluge. The Archon needs to make a DC 24 fort save, or take (18d6)= 72 points of damage. If this kills him, his head literally explodes.
Canzonzabar contacts all allies within range:
“I request any of you who might feel confident in uncovering hidden mechanisms to join me down here. I suspect another room is connected, yet the means to access it remains elusive.”
OOC: The party has no propper rouge. The shortest distance between two points is a line, though.
Canzon:
You manage to pinpoint the aproximate location of the door by using the sounds of the flowing water. You do not, however find any sign of the door or a way to open it in that area. (rolled your listen and search checks)
Bruce:
You and much of the room are now covered in bone fragments and grey matter.
Min:
Continues to claw at the unfortunate archon, causing more damage and BAB penalties. (OOC: because beating on an unarmed, already wounded, and poisoned archon isn't much of a fight, I'll say that Min wins)
Min fumbles around, trying to remove the archon's armor before bagging her. When she is done, she repeats the process for the other two. All three are in the bag of holding.
OOC: By the way, I use Shemmy's bag of holding rules because they're more fun. You don't run out of air in the bag.
OOC: combat is over for everyone except Drum.
Bruce stands triumphant, a huge smile on his face beneath the rags.
"Ah... Glorious."
Upon hearing Canzon's message, Bruce takes off running down the stairs, head held forward in such a way that he more falls forward than runs.
When he gets there, he takes a look around. "So, what did I miss down here?" He abesentmindedly brushes off a piece of brain.
Bruce:
When you get downstairs, you see the door to the other room open. Penance is standing above what looks like a trapdoor and looking down. Min is telekinetically piling up all the available bodies. Thier armor, weapons, and other valuble-looking things are in a seperate pile. Looking out a window, you can see a house on fire--properly now. You'll need to walk through the blade barrier to get to canzon. This shouldn't be an issue.
“In the absence of more subtle talents, I recommend we give the same treatment to this section of wall as was dealt to the trapdoor. Mr Penance, if you please?”
If the kolyarut agrees to smash through the wall, Canzonzabar stands a good deal back in the cellar while standing ready to act on any surprises.
OOC: It's a stone wall. Smashing with fists won't be easy.
Drum simultaneously slices the necks of both guards in front of him.
As his invisibility dissipates, it's ironic that he is himself from the neck up, but a guard from the neck down.
Anything Wrong... Officers?!!!... HAHAhahahahHAHhahaHAhahhAHAha
Drum makes no attempt to be stealthy, and he also makes no attempt to check his immediate surroundings before looting the corpses.
Drum:
City guard oficers of this rank usually have a few minor magical items of some sort-but you don't have detect magic, so finding one is amatte rof blind luck or determined searching. Taking thier money always works too, and city guard uniforms--especially oficers'--fetch a decent price on the black market, although carrying all the armor may present a problem.
Drum decides to shed his magical disguise, and actually don ONE suit of armor from one of the guards. He also takes all the items they might be carrying (save the second suit of armor). And merrily hops over to the house.
Are you going to bounce on through the blade barrier too?
err.. YES!! why not -
But, if it is physically possible (even if the probability of him successfully doing so is low), Drum will try and jump over the blade barrier.
Reflex: 21
Jump: 46
Drum:
Drum succesfully dodges around the blades and into the room. (see all the descriptions above)
Pokey.
Unless anyone steps up with a better idea, Canzonzabar will take 20 on a Search check to find a mechanism of sorts to open the barrier. [Resulting in a 24]
Bruce walks over to Penance and looks down into the hole.
"Hello, what do we have here?"
Canzon:
You can find no mechanisim of any sort. to open a secret door, even taking 20.
Bruce:
"I think that there is a hidden door here. You seem to enjoy breaking things, perhaps you should assist Canzonzabar.
All:
Min dispells the blade barrier--succesfully this time, and climbs down along with the others (Penance has also). She sets the rug up to cover the trap door and shuts it behind her and everyone else as she steps off the last rung of the ladder.
She also examines the wall and then casts a spell (a succesful spellcraft check identifies it as detect magic).
"I think that this 'door' is not a door. There is a passwall spell on this section of the wall that is set to trigger when a certain condition is met. I do not know what the trigger condition is, though."
Bruce walks up to the wall and taps his finger against it. "Hmmm. I would suggest that we simply try using some of the equipment of the archon's as keys, but it could just as easily be a password."
He turns his head to face the rest of the group.
"Alternatively, I could drill through the rock with a series of sonic pulses. How long this would take is directly related to how much of the room on the other side you want intact. There is also the disadvantage that this could leave me rather drained for several hours. If it takes too much power, I might be rather useless in a fight for the rest of the day."
"The magical trigger consists of several spells--more than would be needed to open a door based on an object or password--it is likely something more complicated. I can't imagine the details would be of much interest to you."
"The room would on the other side would be best left intact, I think. The wall did not sound very thick. I doubt it would take very much to bring it down unless it was somehow reinforced. A large metal object would probably be more than adequate to make a hole, but I see none of those on hand.
“In that case I suggest we rouse one of our new feathered acquaintances and inquire as to the combination to the passage. A mild application of healing should do it… very mild, of course.”
"I will retreive the one who can move, if anyone has a way safely heal it--I have potions, but they are too strong to be safely used on an enemy. I highly doubt the trigger is just verbal in any case. Even if the archon could tell us, we probably couldn't activate it. It is probably based on something more complicated judging from the power of the spells used."
"Really, dislike it as I may, carefully destroying the wall may be the safest method. I can disintegrate the wall myself, which would prevent any debris, but there would be some risk if the wall was very thin. The human's aproach to the problem looks to be the safest at the moment. A broken object on the other side is better than none at all. While we are waiting, it may be wise for someone who isn't busy to search the rest of the room."
"All righty, then." Bruce takes a step back from the wall. "Lets get started, shall we? Minimum impulse."
OOC: Bruce manifests a sonic themed force push. Dealing 5 sonic damage that ignores hardness, and 6 damage from attempting to push the wall back, assuming it doesn't actually move.
The wall is very thin and just collapses backwards, revealing a medium sized room with several crates that also seem to be used as chairs and a table with papers strewn across it. A partially sharpened sword and a sharpening stone sits on the table. The room is lit by a few glowing stones placed in areas that aren't being used.
Bruce looks at the hole in the wall. "Huh." He turns to the rest of the group as he steps into the room. "That was easier then I expected." He spins toward the table, puts his hands behind his back and bends over to inspect the papers.
Bruce:
As you enter the room, you feel feel something tugging at your life force, but easily shrug it off. Looking down, you see that you are standing on a magical rune, which is now burnt out. You didn't notice it before, not that it mattered.
Min telekineticaly overturns the table in the room and moves it to cover the symbol before entering the room herself. She kneels and starts collecting the scattered papers (again, telikinetically).
OOC: You have 148, HP, so nobody else needs to save against the symbol.
“Ah, good show, Maxson. Let us see what we have here…”
The devil teleports besides Min to carefully read through the collected documents.
Canzon:
Many of the pages are written in code. This doesn't seem to influence Min's reading speed in the least. When she is done with each piece, Min hands it to you. You quickly find yourself holding a large and rapidly growing stack of papers, most of which you can't read. A few papers written in un-coded planar trade seem to be of interest. They are financial records of this group. THey have spent a considerable ammount on blades and other weapons as well as more minor magical items. With clowers tudy, you might be able to get an idea of the size of the organizition as well as some of it's other capabilities. Whoever suplied the weapons might also know something.
All:
When Min is done reading, she hands you the last of the papers she uses the partially sharpenned sword to pry open some of the crates. Most are filled with fairly mundane supplies--oil for plate armor, clothes to aid with disguise, etc. Some of the boxes contain other boxes filled with more papers. There are a few that contain nonmagical silver weapons. Others contain potions.
After flipping through the papers to determine if there has been any tampering in relation to their authenticity, the baatezu carefully folds and slides them inside a pocket under his vestment. With sweet dripping allure he prods Min telepathically for her take on them, then turns to read labels on the potions to determine which ones are worthwhile.
“Do tell what you make of these discoveries, dearest. We are all in this together, of course, and I see the glint of cunning in your enthralling eyes to make sense of the greater picture here.”
"Flattery is no way to get information from me, devil, though you speak a truth of sorts. As it stands, our interests are aligned and I will help you so long as they remain so."
Min seems completely unnafected by your charms.
"Most of the letters are rather uninteresting and seem only to be coded only as a formality. All of these letters are marked from someone who calls themself 'Dream.' This person always refers to themself in the third person. The bulk of the letters seem to be sermons. Though they preach on various things, they are dull and full of fanatical rehotoric. If you wish to read them, you are welcome to decode them for yourself. I will not waste my time repeating them for you."
"Those letters that do hold some interest all designate targets. Most are on prime worlds that have caught the eye of some high-up or other in Baator or the Abyss but are not yet fully undier thier sway. All of these attacks have taken place sucessfully withen the past few years. None would merit any special atention on it's own and few have had any apreciable impact on the agendas on these primes. Your superiors may find the connections interesting, however. In all cases, no rationalization is provided for any of the attacks save that they are meant to disrupt fiendish influence on the prime. The attack on the Crossed Daggers seems to be an exception to this rule. No attacks recorded here save for it have taken place in Sigil or the planes. There is no apperent connection between the attacks at the Crossed Daggers and last night's...incident at the Ministry of Immortal Affairs."
"No orders for further attacks were issued to this group, which is, according to the records contained here, has been completely destroyed--several times over in fact. Excluding the archons we have killed here and the other two that are now also dead, there were ten mortals associated with the group. More than thirty took part in the attack on the crossed daggers. I will withhold any theories of my own on this for the time being, but there are several possibilities. None are suppourted by any records here, however."
"All of the codes that are used are at least a century old and no longer in use. All of them have been broken. The ciphers are all available on request to those such as yourself at the Ministry of Intelligence."
"At a cursory glance, the records in the other boxes seem to come from other sources. Most seem to bo copies or paraphrases of records stored elsewhere. Some describe places and individuals that have been targeted by the attacks, while others describe influential fiends--mostly those who work on the prime."
"I will claim these boxes first. The innevitable and yourself can decide jointly what to do with them after that."
"Oh, and if you call me 'dearest' again, devil, I wil make myself a new desk ornament. Take this lightly if you dare.
She says this bluntly and emotionlessly. Much like Bruce would.
Bruce tilts his head to one side for a moment, as if listening to something.
"The really boring one of my wants to have a word." There is a moments pause, followed by a sigh.
"If no one else has any interest in them, I'll take the sermons. While it may be shlock, if they are keeping it in a secret room it is either shlock that they believe, or shlock that they are producing for others to believe. I have a surprising amount of free time, and while these sermons almost certainly provide no tactical information, they might help illuminate the goals of this organization. If nothing else, its reading material."
"You may take them if there are no objections. Mostly, they ramble on about the victory of good at any cost. They aren't especially enlightening. Rather ironic, though."
Being fed up with Min’s arrogant acts and snotty attitude, Canzonzabar drops any attempt at catering to her oversensitive nature.
“Bah! Spare me your threats, I have seen monodrone modrons exhibit greater wit as well as better tact.”
The devil turns to Bruce while extracting both the documents and his Papyrus of Deception, holding them outstretched in each hand and concentrating on manifesting a duplicate of important passages in the magical sheet. He then hands Bruce the original papers and packs away his enchanted copy.
“Be my guest, Maxson, they look suitable for re-sparking a waning fireplace.”
The devil lays claim to his fair share of the piled goods from the archons as well as the discoveries in the hidden chamber, accepting no shortcomings on either end.
Canzon:
You get no response, visible, telepathic or verbal.
OOC: I will say, in order to speed things along and introduce Tyui, I will skip to the next scene where you meet your mystery employer. Any research, etc. you yant to do before then, you can post now. or immediately after I post-ish. I will think of some apropriate excuse to delay Canzon. Expect a long post soon.
In preparation for the long post:
Bruce stuffs the papers in his pack and wanders over to rummage through the silver weapons in search of a silver dagger.
A major priority will be keeping close to the captured celestials, in particular the female that he trapped in a forcecage earlier. At the first oppertunity he will volunteer to interrogate the archons, using the arguement that since he is invulnerable he is clearly the the best choice to be in a room alone with an angry celestial. He sees no reason why these archons should be tortured, and does not particularly trust anyone in the group, especially Min. If he suspects that one of the archons is being tortured, his more excitable half will intervene.
Bruce:
"Absolutely not. I will not harm the one you are trying to protect, but untill you give me something in exchange for her release, I will keep her. The other two will be interrogated by whatever means is nescesary to make them talk. Invincible or not, you are a poor choice to interrogate a prisoner. You should leave that to the devil. No interrogation is taking place here anyway."
"You don't know it yet, but I can cause intense pain in a subject through a telepathic stimulation of their brains. This would allow for an increasing amount of agony, with no physical harm. There would be absolutely no chance of the subject dying prematurely. Can the devil make the same promise?"
"And I realize its not going to happen now, but interrogation was the reason we captured them, was it not? I simply want to offer my unique services."
"That would be satisfactory." Bruce says to Min. He cocks his head to one side.
I don't remember threatening her.
Well, I didn't do it. You did the talking. Speaking of which, now I'm all fired up for a fight. So...
Bruce suddenly vanishes.
OOC:Bruce uses Dimension Slide to teleport up a floor.
Come on, I remember there being another one. Lets show these guys that we aren't the squemish type.