Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Aug 29, 2015 5:27 am
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/83/10/c4/8310c458d9cc6a01bff3e8f4f7f0be69.jpg

You awake to find yourself laying on a dingy wood floor, the morning sunlight illuminating the room around you. The tavern. Yes, you remember staying in a tavern. This must be the tavern. As you move to stand up the world shifts a little bit. Too much ale? You don't remember having any ale. A picture flashes in your mind of a small glass vial with something in it, a liquid darker than obsidian.

You feel something on your hand, something wet. You look to your hand and see it coated in blood. You follow the puddle on the ground and see it leads to one of the townsfolk, now nearly decapitated. The world is aglow in a haze as you stagger up to your feet. You see the room is just littered with bodies. All of them dead. Gruesomely. The walls, tables, and floor are covered in blood. The haze is relentless, but your heart is also racing.

As you look around you see three other figures rising out of the sea of corpses. What happened here last night? You remember the strange summons that brought you to this town, the rooms reserved for you in this tavern, after that, just the haze.

[ GM: Feel free to use this to describe not only how your character reacts to the situation and the others, but also if you want to intro what your character would look like. I'll try and keep these GM suggestions to a minimum. ]
Aug 29, 2015 6:02 am
An old man, with a long beard, reaching very nearly to the end of his feet, jerks upright and looks around. He has a now bloodstained robe (which appeared to have once been green) but it looks more for decoration, then actual travel-ware. He also has a strange instrument attached to his belt. After a few minutes of licking his gums (which, as it looks, is all he has) the old man realizes what is around him. For a good couple of seconds he sits upright, shocked. He tries to remember what happened, but to no avail.
As he sees the others begin to get up, he slowly lays back down in the blood and gore, pretending to be dead.

(OOC: The DM already stated that everyone saw him get up, so I doubt any of the other character's are fooled by this...)
Edit: sure, he'd give it a go... He is obviously alive.
Last edited August 29, 2015 2:26 pm

Rolls

Playing Dead - (1d20+5)

(2) + 5 = 7

Aug 29, 2015 6:05 am
[ GM: If you wanted to roll performance vs. the other character's passive perception we could see if you are playing dead well enough to avoid indirect notice. I'm fine to retcon small things for the sake of interesting story. Since you were first to respond I'll consider you first to have started moving. ]
Aug 29, 2015 6:19 am
A young half-elf crawls to his knees, blue eyes wide in shock and disgust at the massacre around him. His long black hair is covered in blood and sticks out at odd angles. He winces and groans as his head pounds, finally he can't take it anymore and he becomes violently sick on the floor. After he is done he feels a bit better and slowly stands as he surveys the carnage, looking for any clue as to what happened.

Rolls

Perception - (1d20+2)

(12) + 2 = 14

Investigation - (1d20+1)

(7) + 1 = 8

Aug 29, 2015 12:11 pm
I wake with a start, muttering curses in orc before I'm able to shake the unnatural fogginess, one that I am not accustomed to, from my mind. Is this what most people feel? Wait a minute! I snap my fingers. "That dark liquid- I knew it was magical" I whip out some parchment and jot down some notes in shorthand as to the properties of the liquid (dark, slightly viscous, possibly causing sleep and/or memory loss. Other affects currently unknown.) Once that is done, I take a look around the room, and then at the sad state of my blood-stained robes. "Well, this is unfortunate." I take a deep breath, and then start to explore the bodies and my surroundings in order to deduce what may have happened here and how.
Last edited August 29, 2015 12:12 pm

Rolls

Investigation - (1d20+4)

(2) + 4 = 6

Perception - (1d20+4)

(9) + 4 = 13

Aug 29, 2015 2:50 pm
"You will find my son, Captain Arc!" the King's order still haunts her dreams as the smell of blood and stale ale slowly wake Ütés from her sleep. Rolling her head to the right she slowly opens her eyes to see mutilated bodies strewn about the room. "The Prince!" she blurts as she shoots straight up to a sitting position. As she struggles to stand she notices an elf that appears to be rummaging through the corpses. "Identify yourself!" she barks and as she reaches for her sword, the blood leaves her face, and she falls to one knee. She stares at the ground for a moment, trying to regain her strength, before looking back up at the elf, "Uh, please!?!"

Rolls

Perception [+4] - (1d20+4)

(4) + 4 = 8

Aug 29, 2015 3:07 pm
Crolwel:
You pretend to play dead in the chair. You are almost certain that you are the epitome of death incarnate. The others, without even much effort can tell you are another living character. Maybe it was your breathing they noticed, or that time you scratched an itch on your leg. Who knows.

Aelar:
You noticed the other three individuals, and that they seem to be in the same state of stupor as you. The room is filled with dead patrons, most look as though they were trying to flee or hide when they were killed. As you shuffle around investigating you kick a small piece of black cloth, maybe torn from a robe, with a small metal dagger pin on it.

The rest of you only see each other and a room full of dead people. No other clues seem to stand out. No other living souls are in this tavern.
Aug 29, 2015 3:50 pm
I turn towards the one speaking, now too distracted to continue my investigation into this strange circumstance I find myself in. "Professor Xadira Liadon of the Academy. You may call me Professor. No, scratch that, 'Xadira' is acceptable as I am here on unofficial business. 'Scratch that'. Is that a common phrase for this locale? Oh dear. I should have done more research on the customs of the area before I agreed to answer the summons but there was no time.
Aug 29, 2015 4:34 pm
Getting to her feet, Ütés attempts to brush herself off, but only manages to smear more blood onto her clothes in the process. "I am called Ütés Arc, Captain in service of King....", she suddenly stops as she notices an old man playing dead amongst the corpses. She gives Xadira an amused look as it's clear to both of them that the man is alive as they are.

"And who might you be, my good, dead, sir?" she asks with a chuckle.
Aug 29, 2015 4:58 pm
Aelar quietly picks up the pin, trying to see if he can figure out what it's supposed to be for. Then, seeing that they're engaged in conversation he will walk over and speak, "My name is Aelar Galanodel, pleasure to meet both of you ladies," he sweeps into a low bow and gives each of them a kiss on the hand, then looks around, "I only wish it were under better circumstances."

He turns to look at Xadira, "You said you are a professor? I was wondering if you recognize this pin at all?"

Rolls

Int check to identify pin (add 2 more if history or arcana will help) - (1d20+1)

(5) + 1 = 6

Aug 29, 2015 5:04 pm
The old man says (with both his eyes tightly shut), "I'm dead, stupid. You can't talk to dead fellers."
Saying that he starts upward, realizing his cover has been blown. As he snaps his eyes open he sees Arc in front of him. His jaw drops open as he scrambles to his feet (it's difficult to see this through the mass of beard). He takes Arc's hand and does a little bow.
"The name's Crolwell, but you can call me Crolly. Most call me 'Old Man', but I ain't sure why." He says, giving Arc a toothless grin.
Turning to Aelar and Xadira he nods, "yep, professor four times running, show me this pin, sir!"
Last edited August 29, 2015 5:15 pm
Aug 29, 2015 5:16 pm
Figuring that there could be no harm in letting to old man take a look at the pin, Aelar will hand it over. He points to the place that he found it, "It was sitting there, among the corpses."

He then turns and surveys the room again, "Anyone have any idea what happened here? I got a letter telling me to meet my troupe leader here because they had come across some sort of trouble... I remember arriving, but that's about all, everything else is fuzzy."
Aug 29, 2015 5:26 pm
Crolwell will turn the pin over in his hands, pretending he is looking deeply at it. He gnaws on it gently (gums it gently...), as if testing its durability. He smacks his lips and nods.
"Ah! It appears to be a pin." Crolwell says with conviction.
Last edited August 29, 2015 5:35 pm

Rolls

Pretending to be Smart - (1d20+5)

(11) + 5 = 16

History Check on Pin - (1d20-2)

(4) - 2 = 2

Aug 29, 2015 5:30 pm
Aelar will raise an eyebrow at Crolwell, "Thank you for your... expert opinion." he will hand the pin to Xadira to take a look. "Why don't you take a look?"
Last edited August 29, 2015 5:31 pm
Aug 29, 2015 7:53 pm
Crolwell and Aelar:
Looking the pin over doesn't seem very familiar at all. It obviously is attached to some sort of black fabric, you guess maybe torn from a robe would be the likely culprit. The dagger symbol doesn't seem to look like anything you've heard of before.

Crolwell:
You feel as though you sounded like you were pretending pretty well at being smart. You think these adventurers definitely know you can tell a pin from something that is not a pin. Quite impressive.
Aug 29, 2015 8:23 pm
Aelar will let Xadira look the pin over for a bit and begin carefully peeking into some of the other rooms in the tavern, being careful not to stray too far from the others. He will also check some of the corpses, to see if there is anything that will help him remember what happened the night before.
Last edited August 29, 2015 8:24 pm

Rolls

Investigation - (1d20+1)

(9) + 1 = 10

Int check for any sort of remembrance - (1d20+1)

(5) + 1 = 6

Perception - (1d20+2)

(13) + 2 = 15

Aug 29, 2015 8:46 pm
Aelar:
As you walk around the tavern you see tables with tankards of ale, you see some that have card games half-played, coin still sits on a few of the tables. Whatever happened here, these people were not expecting this at all. Some of the victims still have daggers in hand, but none of them look like they were ready for any sort of battle or fight. On the floor near the bar you do find a small empty glass vial. That image flashes in your mind again. It is empty now, but this had to have been one of the vials of that stuff.

Looking around you see the main floor of the tavern littered with bodies, a small set of stairs that go up to a second level that overlooks this floor, room doors up there line one of the walls. You remember that you were staying in rooms up on that level. There are some corpses overhanging the railing up there, and some on the stairs.

[ GM: That is a combination of all your rolls. ]
Aug 29, 2015 8:49 pm
Aelar will take any coin he sees, as well as a couple of daggers. Never know when these will come in handy, he thinks. After making his rounds collecting coins on this floor he will go and take a look to see if he can figure out how these people were killed. After his examination he will head back to Xadira, "Have any idea what that pin is for or where it came from?"

If he figures anything out he will let the rest of the group know what he discovered

Going to make a couple of rolls here, since I don't know exactly which skill you'd want me to use for this
Last edited August 29, 2015 8:56 pm

Rolls

Investigation (Try to figure out what caused the wounds) - (1d20+1)

(2) + 1 = 3

Medicine to check wounds - (1d20)

(10) = 10

Aug 29, 2015 8:59 pm
Aelar:
You find 3 basic daggers around the room, and about 8 gold worth of various coin at a few different tables.

Looking over the wounds of the victims it seems to be sword cuts, a few look as though they have been nearly decapitated. Some look as though they were hit with magical force, possibly acid or shock damage.

Your weapons themselves seem to have blood on them. It would seem these were wounds inflicted from your own weapons.
Aug 29, 2015 9:31 pm
Ütés walks about the room slowly, looking at each of the corpses, as if she's looking for someone in particular "I pray that the good prince was not here last night."

OOC: If Ütés notices the stair case, she will go up them and look around. If not she'll slowly scan the room to see if there's anything she's missed. Either way, here's a perception roll. :-)

Rolls

Perception [+4] - (1d20+4)

(6) + 4 = 10

load next

Thread locked