[IC] TotM:DC "Terraria: A fresh start"

[Yours Truly]

Jun slowly and carefully tries to walk up to the hole that Leo had fallen in and tries to tie a length of rope to frostbrute and throws the rest of the rope in to see if it would be enough to let the man hoist himself up with the help of his golem.

"Can you see the rope? And can you tell your golem to lift it and you up? Also what does IMOK mean?".

[Projeck]

Calvera hadn't initially responded to the creatures popping up and slamming into people, seemingly distracted by something. Then, Leo fell. It all happened so quickly, all she could muster was a noise of confusion. "Wha-?"

[Endlessblaze]

"Yeah! no worries!"

As leo is pulled up he hears the vibrations growing louder, more intense. Damn it! There was barely enough time!
Leo, grumbling angrily, hops out and grabs the stone from frostbrute before darting out of the area, while he has frostbrute hurriedly gather branches, thorns, the monster corpses and other remaining loot. Leo himself grabs the now empty sack in hopes of using it to hold the acidic saliva.
 

The ground is  practically shaking now. 

 

Spoiler

Frostbrute gets [2] bundles of Ebonwood branches and [4] bundles of Ebonthorns.

 

[StormLord]

Corruption Border:
As the group makes their hasty retreat Lucille and the others(though mostly Lucille) can hear the creature approach, whatever it was.  As they come to the top of the hill which they first saw the Corruption from they heard a crash as the vibrations suddenly stopped, looking can they could see a large brown worm-like monster with a maw of long pointed teeth.  It seemed to be blind as it scanned the ground and inspected things by shifting it's "head" along the surface.

As soon as Lucille sent her empathic message the worm turned to the direction of the group and paused for a second before whipping it's head around and diving back into the earth, the vibrations slow became more and more distant.

 

Due to the Corruption not panning out quite like the group expected they started moving towards snowy mountain region in search of a castle the Guide told Lucille about.

 

Luck: 73,

 

With some luck(and an hour of walking) they managed to find a bit of a narrow pass from this forest into colder mountainous region.

 

Luck: 92,

 

A lack of underbrush and little snow makes this easy walking, after following the trail a ways the group comes to a huge flat plane covered in snow.  On the other side of the frozen lake they can see the ruins of some once great keep, on their side close to the banks they see a small hunting or fishing cabin.  It appears to be abandoned judging by the large hole in the roof and sagging porch.

 

Severe Cold Saves(Con):
Jun: 5 vs 7,

Toshiro: 11 vs 13,

Lucille 20 vs 13,

Leo: 10 vs 14,

Calvera: 14 vs 9,

 

Jun, Toshiro, and Leo are feeling a little cold, if they fail another save before getting warm they might be in trouble.

 

Sleep Deprivation Save(Con):

Leo: 10 vs 15,

 

Leo is feeling the lack of sleep, he now suffers -2 on checks the require significant focus(such as crafting).

[kj1225]

Arminius squeezes by Satomi and Kusuke before quickly speaking to the Blacksmith.

"Do you still have the copper armor from last night?"

He looks around as he waits for a response before noticing the two he previously ignored. He seems to think for a moment before speaking.

"If you're going to be around the wall, watch out. I put in a shallow moat and spikes at the southern one."

[Endlessblaze]

leo rubs his eyes a bit as he test the mana type of his samples and...Oooo

 

Spoiler

(11 vs 17) Thaum > Ebonwood: Creates a thick stringy purple mana that acts very similar to Plant mana, when used to restore a living thing the resulting growth is always of a twisted and Corrupt wooden nature.

(17 vs 14) Thaum > Ebonthorn: Causes rampant growth in plants and accelerates mutations that make the plant more aggressive and malicous.  Over exposure may cause the plant to become parasitic in nature, feeding on the life force of competition plants.

(20 vs 3) Thaum > Ebonstone: This mana type can be used to infuse the energy of the Corruption into objects, converting stone into Ebonstone, sand into Ebonsand, etc.
Channeling enough into one object may have...interesting effects.

 

 

"Wow this stuff is nasty. But also really interesting. The things i could do with this stuff..."

"We're going to need something to contain this stuff. When we aren't working with it"

"Yeah..."

Leo looks to the group.

"Hey lets take a break here to get warm, while i prep containment for this stuff."

 

[Projeck]

"Oh uh... Here, I think I can help with that."

Calvera closes her eyes and focuses, before the air around her looks blurry. Suddenly, an aura of heat radiates from her body, warming those around her, and begins melting the snow beneath their feet.

"Everyone warm?"

[Endlessblaze]

Leo gives a thumbs up
"Perfect. Thanks"

 

After a bit of time, leo has made a sleigh by shaping branches from nearby trees together, And piled loot into a box on the back

"That dosent seem like a very good containment measure"

"I don't fully understand how this stuff works and spreads. What it can effect and what it cant. This should do until i can ask the guide."

"Don't blame me if something happens"

 

Next leo tries to extract some acid from the monster corpses, but its all dripped away or dried up now. He does get some bone spikes though, which he looks over.

 

Spoiler

Int Craft: 15 vs 20,
Quality: 75,

Leo attempts to squeeze the acid drool out of the EoS corpses, but he just can't quite scrape what little there is left that hasn't either dripped out or dried up.
He does however manage to harvest 2 more bone spikes while he's working.

 

"What to do with you....?"

 

He sits down on the sleh, which looks big enough for the whole party, and thinks a bit, before turning to the others.

"What do you guys think of this trip so far?"

 

[Sutoratosu]

Whilst the others warmed themselves, Lucille was off near the ruined cabin. Her beast had scoured the place top to bottom, feeding her report after report of the quite frankly bizarre scene they'd found inside...

Spoiler

Roll: 9 vs 3,

Luck: 35,

 

Lucille's beasts send back honestly unexpected news. Upon inspecting the inside of the cabin they find that almost everything is covered in a thick layer of ice growing out from where the hole in the roof is and a hole in the floor that lines up this it. Amoung the frozen things they find a boby preserved in the ice for who knows how long, two more copper bows that seem to have corroded, five gel arrows, and a boxy glass bottle full of a thick dark grey liquid.

"What could even do that to someone...?" well, the most obvious answer was some form of magic... but there was something else bothering her, the hole in the roof that sunk deep into the frigid earth, how from the description it seems he didn't put up much of a fight, the way whatever did it to him didn't even bother to eat the corpse... sighing, she walked into the ruined structure herself "Alright, thats enough. Vera, bring me that bottle. Do, help me clear some of the snow from this body...."

 

The two eagerly leapt at the commands, glaring at each other. 5 minutes later, Lucille was crouched over the dead man with the potion in hand, letting her senses recede as the last of the divination flowed forth...

Lucille Scried the Body and the Potion!

Spoiler

Potion:

Scry: 59,

Endurance potion:  Reduce damage taken by the drinker by 10% for the rest of the encounter, three total uses, three uses remaining, effect doesn't stack with itself.

 

Dead Joe:

Scry: 100,

Joe, 23, had been living on the island in the village for a couple years occasionally coming up here the this cabin with his wife to hunt, because apparently the deer in this forest get huge.  After being trapped in the cabin for three day because of a snow storm they left together to get more firewood and saw something massive rooming around in the storm and out on the lake.  Whatever it was followed them and was large and tall enough to put one of its spike-like legs through the roof of the cabin and freeze the inside.  His wife escaped into the storm.  This was at least three weeks ago.

"....Damn it." She rose and left the structure, calling out to the others "Well, it seems we might have even more company. There's something big roaming around these parts- enough to dwarf that cabin... and whatever it was radiated some type of freezing magic. Killed a man too, name was Joe, around 23. Body's perfectly preserved in the cabin, he apparently came up here with his wife to hunt, but they got snowed in for a few days, and when it finally lifted a little and they left to go get more firewood... well, that's when the thing spotted them. Going back inside and hiding didn't help, obviously. His wife's long gone, ran off into the blizzard, and that was at least several weeks ago. Oh, and here, found this stuff on him,"

 

She tossed the bows, arrows, and the potion into the snow for the others to collect

Spoiler

-Corroded Copper Bow x2

-Gel Arrow x5

-Endurance potion x1:  Reduce damage taken by the drinker by 10% for the rest of the encounter, three total uses, three uses remaining, effect doesn't stack with itself.

"The stuff in the bottle apparently makes you tougher for a little bit. From the looks of it, Joe didn't even so much as break the seal before he died."

[Endlessblaze]

 

Leo steps into the threshold of the door. He holds out his hand and mutters something under his breath, as the ice in the room starts to shimmer and shift as the spell takes hold.

 

"You said his name was joe right?"

The ice slides down the walls and pulls up from the floor. Wrapping around the mans body like translucent clay. Until a coffin shaped slab of ice sits on the floor with the body in the middle. A slanted section jutting out above the chest is inscribed simply with his name and age.

 

Another spell, and a shimmer passes though the ice, as the slab is transmuted into Eternal ice. The very atoms being altered with magic. Not even the heat of the sun would melt it now.

 

"If coming up here to hunt is viable, His wife might still be alive somewhere. Given that level detail I assume you have some sort of divination magic. Do you think you can locate her?"

[Sutoratosu]

"I probably could..." She answered "though in all honesty, after nearly a month out here at the very least, and given the context of everything else that happened, I didn't really expect her to still be alive. But well, since we're already out here and already found one, might as well find the other body. At least they can be together in death that way..."

 

And with that said, she found a spot on the ground and took a seat, closing her eyes (despite it being nothing but a formality for one such as her). Again, she let her senses expand outwards away from her physical body, beyond the boundaries of the physical world, but unlike with Joe and the cabin, she did not stop at what was immediately around her. Now, like a dying star going supernova, she took a breath, and in the next minute the entire world fell away from her in a burst or noise and countless other sensations. Her mind knew the restrictions of no worlds, nor the boundaries of time, as she wondered the sea of the timeless. The waves were choppy, as they were always, but to her surprise, not only was Joe's Wife relatively easy to lock onto in time, but her condition was far from what Lucille had expected...

 

Lucille scries the current location and status of Joe's Wife!

Spoiler

Scry: 19 vs 16

Quality: 63

 

Lucille finds out that while the monster was distracted freezing Joe alive, his's wife did infact escape. She got a head start and ran across the lake to the ruins of the castle where she has since been trapped, each time she tries to escape the monster finds her and chases her back to the castle. It never tries to get into the castle though.

"Found her..." She said, slowly closing off her extrasensory state and rising from the frigid earth. She clicked her tongue a few times to reorient (going that deep always did make one a bit... unsteady once they were back in their body) herself, before finally pointing in the general direction of the ruins "The Castle. After Joe got frozen, she ran across the lake and into the castle. Been stuck there ever since, though certainly not for lack of trying- whenever she makes an escape attempt, the damn frost strider finds her and chases her right back inside. It hasn't seem interested in going in itself, though..."

     With that bit out of the way, she withdrew her cane, pearly white fire erupting along its length, casting her face in dancing shadow and light... "I suggest everyone get ready for a fight. Whatever this thing is, it's definitely patrolling this place. I think Joe's wife could do with some visitors who won't try to murder her just for trying to go home."

[Endlessblaze]

Leo nods, then looks back to the others.

"This is now a rescue mission. We should try and get her back to town before nightfall. If the monster is using ice, fire and heat might be a good countermeasure...."

He holds his hand out to jun

"Could i have that ring you found for the time being. I can use it to change my spells into something more effective in this sort of environment." 

[Aurorix]

Toshiro gets close to Calvera to warm himself up. How long has it been since he last was in the freezing depths of the sea? He shouldn't be getting this cold from snow. Oh well, his body will adjust soon enough. Then he heard talk of a dangerous monster lurking on the frozen lake and the opportunity to fight the beast. He bursted into laughter unable to contain his excitement,  "This is great! Not only will we be able to test out steel against this beast but we'll get to save that lady too. Talk about a win-win am I right?" His eyes shift to the vile filled with the potion and then points to it,  "Also, anyone interested in that potion? If not I may have use for it."

[Endlessblaze]

"Oh i would like to test its mana type, if you don't mind"

 

Then without waiting for a response, he goes right to it, popping off the lid and doing a quick check.

Spoiler

(2 vs 6) Thaum > Endurance potion: This mana type minorly enhances the effects of adrenaline.

"Not the worst.... Here" he puts the lid back on and give it to toshiro. I wana try something when we get back to town, so do me a favor and don't use all of it."

[Aurorix]

Toshiro takes the potion and stores it away,  "I doubt anyone could use up all of this in one day so no need to worry about that." Toshiro chuckled.

 

Toshrio takes the Endurance Potion

[Yours Truly]

1 hour ago, Endlessblaze said:

Leo nods, then looks back to the others.

"This is now a rescue mission. We should try and get her back to town before nightfall. If the monster is using ice, fire and heat might be a good countermeasure...."

He holds his hand out to jun

"Could i have that ring you found for the time being. I can use it to change my spells into something more effective in this sort of environment." 

Jun rummaged around to look for the ring as she said "Sure, I don't really have a use for it anyway," before she handed it over to Leo and said "Just try not to get yourself killed with it alright?".

[Endlessblaze]

"Right, thanks"
He takes and pockets the ring

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke deposits his ore in the barrel.

 

Free of his load, he continued to speak with Satomi. "Sounds like a plan. I ran into a place that was basically carpeted with living slime, looked like. Is anyone else around, or did they all find some hole to fall into or something? I don't actually know how dangerous those things are." He thought about the conversation she was having as he arrived. They needed stone, right? There was probably some way he could help this process, just had to figure out a good way to rig something up. . . The wheels turning in Kusuke's head were almost audible through his expression.

[StormLord]

Snow Biome(Jun, Toshiro, Lucille, Leo, Calvera):

 

Luck: 80,

 

After collecting up their spoils the party heads out around the bank of the lake towards the castle.  The walk is boring and slow, though not long after starting they find a number of pale blue flowers that look almost like they're made of ice poking up through the snow at the base of a tree.

Whether or not the flowers are a distraction the party eventually continues.

 

Luck: 5,

 

Upon nearing the castle the party is stopped by what they find, two "rows" of generally circular impressions in the snow, they're about a foot across, and lead from the lake into the forest or vice versa.

 

Luck: 59,

 

The party has now reached the gated entrance of the castle town, or whats left of it.  One of the doors is completely missing, and the other is rotting off it's hinges, the walls around the town are crumbling in places, and the skeletons of buildings litter the inside.

The path to the castle proper is relatively clear, though it looks like it might take some maneuvering to get past the guardhouse, most of which is collapsed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Mines(Kusuke and Satomi):

Kusuke and Satomi make their way to the bottom of the mine and on their way down.....

 

Luck: 94,

 

....One of them kills a bat, nothing exciting normally, but this bat seems to have some sort of chain wrapped around it.

 

Spoiler

Chain Knife: a long iron chain with a surprisingly sharp blade on one end, throws well.

Deal 2d6+Dex damage to one target as a ranged or melee attack, 50% to restrain the target making them unable to use some actions until they beat the user at a Str check or the weapon is used again.

They eventually reach the same cliff that Kusuke had before, and unsurprisingly there were still a bunch of slimes bobbing around in the water below.

[Sutoratosu]

Lucille kept her ears peeled as they walked the ruined roads of the town. Despite the large indents she'd (quite gracelessly) fallen into outside, it seemed the creature was not near... for now. She clicked her tongue even more as they reached the guardhouse, touching the largest of the stones. The dragons flew overhead, feeding her a rough idea of how large the blockage was- it was going to take a fair bit of force to clear a navigable path... 

    "I think I have an idea to get through here" she called to the party "but any help to clear it out would be useful... and uh, those of you who can't, you should really stand back."

 

2 minutes. It was all it took to silently revise her main spell, as One of the others seemed to be doing... something to lift some of the smaller stones out of the way.

 

Edge of Silence gains a trick level!

Spoiler

Trick training: 17 vs 9,
Quality: 77,

 

Level 4(Trick): Lucille can choose to cast the EoS as a single concussive blast that causes the target to be thrown violently away

and once she had, she gave the warning to back away, doing the same herself. Taking in a massive breath, she uttered the incantation in so rapid a fashion it blurred into a single, violent syllable. She could feel something stir deep in her gut, rising from up to the back of her throat. A vibration of great force that she knew full well was not from the Thaumaturgy she was weaving, yet could not identify. It was almost as though her head was swimming, alien sounds filtering in, sounds she knew should not be there, could not be there... As she finished the chant though, the sensation became lost in chaos and noise as raw power escaped her lips and was made manifest into this world...

 

Spoiler

Luck: 68,

 

Lucille's newly modified spell does the job just fine, perhaps even a little too well. As she fires the blast of sound it throws the rocks aside like paper weights, clearing out most of the small rubble and shifting the large pieces enough to get past. At the same time one of the leaning towers at the back of the castle takes her spell as its cue to seperate the rest of the way from the wall and fall down into the lake, judging by the crash, cracking sound, and following smaller splashes. Jun....moves a few of the smaller rocks out of the way.

"I...how? What?" She shook her head, dazed as ever as the dust cleared and the ruined tower settled. It was made quickly apparent that the results of her spell were not what perplexed her though, given how she turned in all directions, listening for something, but failing to find it. "Did... anyone else hear that just now? Not the crash, before it? Actually... nevermind, if none of my beasts heard it, neither would any of you. Um... let's just keep going, okay? Hopefully she wasn't hiding in whatever part I just accidentally destroyed..."

[Endlessblaze]

Leo had made sure to grab some of the interesting flowers, picking a few and digging one up entirely

Spoiler

Leo gains [3] Shiverthorns and [1] Rooted Shiverthorn.

 

A quick mana test reveals something veryyy interesting.

Spoiler

(19 vs 4) Thaum > Shiverthorn: This mana type can be combined with other mana types to bring out hidden or additional effects or enhance those already present.

"Oh yeah. That's good."

Leo then blends together reflect mana and shiverthorn mana as a test

Spoiler

Mana blend: 15 vs 6,
Quality: 49,

When Leo combines the two mana types they create a sort of "Augmenting" Reflect mana that draws from the ambience to boost the power of magic it reflects.

And then spends the rest of the trip mulling over ideas until Lucile blows away the rubble.

[StormLord]

Ruined Castle(Jun, Toshiro, Lucille, Leo, Calvera):

Continuing through past the gatehouse the group finds themselves in the outer courtyard, small bits of rubble strewn about from Lucille's blast of sound and force.

 

Luck: 74,

 

Several human skeletons lay resting in one of the corners, judging by their appearance they've been here a while.  The group faces a large pair of doors(somehow not falling apart) that lead into main keep of the castle, off to the left there is a small set of steps leading down to a secondary door that is only slightly worse for wear, and to the right they see a collapsed archway that would've led into other side chambers.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tavern(Alyssa):

 

Diplomacy: 2 vs 11,

Luck: 98,

 

Alyssa could see the anger building behind the man's eyes, clearly sarcasm and flowery words wouldn't get through to him.

"Look.  I don't know what you think you were doing, but I didn't ask you to help, and I didn't ask you to 'make this place better'."

He stopped and sighed.

"Did you at least do what I did ask you to do?"

[Yours Truly]

Jun quietly followed the rest of the group inside of the skeleton covered room, and she waited as they all milled about and talked among themselves and inspected pretty much every single corner of the room they were in to try and find any hidden surprises. She rolled her eyes at Toshiro underneath her helmet when the man inexplicably decided to stab a skeleton as she quietly walked towards the stairway, and she activated her cloaking device before she started to make her way down to gingerly open the door.

Revealing a relatively empty storage room with what appeared to be almost everything a single woman would need to survive in relative comfort when away from her home...except for a washroom of course, but the ambassador decided to worry about where the woman did her business as she carefully walked towards an unopened, that upon closer inspection seemed a bit...odd somehow, although she couldn't quite figure out why. And after a moment of deliberation she decided to walk back to where the others were standing and practically drag the fishman down to the storage room.

Just in case everything went horribly wrong when she cut the door's hinges with her plasma sword, sending the door crashing down on the floor...and a wickedly sharp looking stick to get slammed into the exact place her head would have been if she was just a tiny bit less cautious. She then turned to look at Toshiro to make damn sure that the man was still in one piece before she turned off her cloaking device and said "You should go back to the rest of the group and tell them about what we have found here, I'll just...try to scout ahead some more," and she gingerly inspected the room beyond the trap to try and find and disable/preemptively trigger from a safe distance any more traps she might find inside.

[Chevaleresse]

"So, I need to get over that pond, which is a problem because it's full of what I'm assuming are dangerous slimes. Any ideas, Satomi?" She was pretty damned smart, maybe she could come up with something to crush them with rocks without causing a cave-in or something similar. "I can't really explain it, but I feel like there's something just on the other side of it that I could get to in short order."

[Irbsandcheese]

Alyssa's face goes blank for a second at the Barkeep's question. Asked me to do. He asked me to... something. Alyssa starts slowly backing towards the door as she talks, no longer wanting to be in this conversation. "Uh, of course I did! What do you take me for? A person who cannot follow one simple task while doing plenty extra to refurbish your lovely place? You know, I think it looked lovely before, but now it has more... je ne sais quoi. I am quite sure you will learn to love it and your customers certainly will, it might attract all of the business in the town. Well, it probably did that anyway since this is the only place to get a drink and a meal, but now it might even attract outsiders. Like us. Nice chat, I will see you later and we can-"

 

Reaching the doorway, she quickly walks away and heads towards the Arms Dealer with a plan. She saunters towards him, hoping to analyze the weapons that he has.

 

"Hello there! I noticed that fine piece of weaponry that you kindly lent us during that fight yesterday. Do you think I could maybe take a look at it? It is quite an elegant contraption." Her voice exudes charm as she delicately tries to acquire what she wants.
 

"Unless you're buying, it's "look, but don't touch.'" The arms dealer seems gruff and unwelcoming as he dissuades Alyssa from getting much closer.

Her smile melts into a slightly disappointed frown that almost looks like a pout. "What a shame. I suppose I can admire your handiwork from here then." She bends over with her hands clasped behind her back and tries to pick apart the functions and mechanisms of the gun with little luck. Maybe buying it would not be such a bad option. But she will leave it alone for now.

 

Spoiler

Trick training: 2 vs 10,
Luck: 76,

The Arms Dealer isn't exactly keen on letting Alyssa do anything more than look at the guns from a few steps away with her first buying one, though she thinks she might've gotten something useful out of the interaction.

Alyssa gets +1 on her next roll involving guns.

 

"Thank you very much, sir. I just might have to come back and inquire about purchasing one another time." With a wink and a spin, she leaves to find the supposed 'Dye Trader' that the Guide mentioned.