Combat Resumes
Initiative for the warforged has been rerolled, but the party's initiative stays the same
- Round 2 (ctd.)
- Kaya
- Runs up to Warforged Assassin A, deals 24 damage with 2 hits
- Warforged Assassin 1 looks bad
- Cordelia
- Uses a bonus action to pull a tarot card, pulls Judgement
- A clone of Cordelia pops up on the battlefield! (It will copy her actions until the end of her next turn — any healing or damage done by it is halved)
- Attacks Warforged Assassin B with Firebolt (rolls 13, misses)
- Julian
- Runs between Cordelia and Clone Cordelia, dealing 14 damage to Warforged Assassin B
- The Warforged takes 2 additional damage as - after Julian strikes - a fire sparks
- Mage Warforged
- Deals 14 damage to Cordelia, firing lightening at her
- Kaya
- Round 3
- Cal
- Attacks the Barbarian Warforged (14 hits)
- Uses Second Wind, gains 9 HP
- Camille
- Runs up to Cal, casts Warding Bond on him
- Commander Warforged
- Commands the two Assassin Warforged to attack Cordelia, dealing 32 damage. SHE GOES DOWN.
- Teleports behind Cal. When he reappears, he takes 12 damage
- Warforged Assassin B
- Attacks Julian, dealing 13 damage
- Warforged Assassin C
- Attacks Kaya, dealing 9 damage
- Vallen
- Runs up to the Mage Warforged, dealing 24 damage
- When he hits, there’s a flash of red lightning (instead of the usual ringing hammer strike)
- Barbarian Warforged
- Attacks Kaya, but MISSES LIKE A BITCH!!! Dealing 15 damage to himself
- Warforged Assassin A
- Throws his sword to a ground, unsheathing a sword from its arm
- Stabs Kaya, dealing 27 points of damage
- Kaya
- Two attacks on Warforged Assassin A, hits once (16 to hit) for 8 points of damage
- Heals herself using her gauntlets for 6 HP
- Cordelia
- CJ rolls a death save (we don’t know what it is)
- Her clone also falls
- Julian
- Upon seeing Cordelia’s clone disappear, he does not take it well. He’s visibly upset.
- Looks at the Assassin Warforged that knocked Cordelia down, and a pillar of fire emerges from the ground, engulfing the warforged. When the fire dies, we see that the warforged are no more than piles of ash
- He looks at his hands, confused
- Artificer/Mage Warforged
- Goes to attack Vallen, misses
- Cal
- Round 4
- Cal
- Moves to attack the Commander Warforged, triggering an AoE from the Barbarian Warforged (who misses)
- Attacks 3 times and uses Action Surge to attack an ADDITIONAL 3 TIMES!! Deals like 30 damage
- As he attacks, the Commander Warforged’s core is exposed. It’s gowing blue, with silver pices that encompass it. At the center is a latex-looking “thing” that’s the size of a honeydew melon
- Commander Warforged
- Uses a Legendary Action to teleport in front of Camille as they try to move to heal Cordelia
- Takes INSANE damage from teleporting (looks Very much worse for wear)
- Camille
- Moves to heal Cordelia, taking an AoE from the Commander Warforged (23 to hit, takes 18 points of damage)
- Feeds Cordelia a healing potion, heals her for 16 HP
- Casts a 3rd level Healing Word on Kaya, healing her for 14 HP
- Commander Warforged
- Attacks Camille, dealing 39 HP. Camille goes down
- Vallen
- Attacks the Commander Warforged, pushing the Spiritual Weapon into his chest and killing him
- Barbarian Warforged
- Runs up to Kaya, dealing 17 points of damage
- Kaya
- Uses a bonus action to hit the Barbarian Warforged, dealing 7 pts of damage
- Runs to Camille, uses an action to feed them a Healing Potion (+6 HP)
- Cordelia
- Uses a bonus action to pull another tarot card BUT THIS TIME SHE GETS TO CHOOSE A CARD!!!
- Pulls the Wheel of Fortune, which allows her to pull 3 additional (random) cards
- Pulls The Chariot, The Lovers, and The Star
- She receives 30 HP from Julian (effects from The Lovers, which allows her to either transfer HP to someone or allows them to transfer HP to her — which is what Julian did)
- The Star glows, shooting a beam at the Mage Warforged and dealing 24 damage
- Julian
- Casts Shield of Faith on Cal (gives him +2 AC)
- Artificer/Mage Warforged
- Forces everyone (but Camille) to make a DEX save (everyone who has to roll gets a +4 from Julian’s Aura of Protection)
- Everyone takes 12 damage (halved from 24) from a casting of Lighting Bolt
- Kaya goes down
- Cal
- Round 5
- Cal
- Runs up to the Mage Warforged, dealing 19 total damage
- DECAPITATES THE MAGE!!!
- Camille
- Casts a 3rd level Healing Word on Kaya, healing her for 11 HP
- Uses their Channel Divinity to move her behind the rest of the party. She now has resistance to nonmagical piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks until the end of Camille’s next turn (or until she attacks)
- Vallen
- Points at the Barbarian Warforged, commanding him to “Drop your weapon.” (casting Suggestion). IT WORKS!! THE WARFORGED DROPS ITS WEAPON
- Barbarian Warforged
- Screams at Vallen, entering a rage as a bonus action
- Runs up to Vallen and then just starts beating the absolute shit out of him
- VALLEN GOES DOWN!!! NOOOOOOOOOO
- Kaya
- Drinks a healing potion as a bonus action (+5 HP)
- Casts Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp, forcing the Barbarian to make a STR save (succeeds)
- Cordelia
- Uses an action to feed Vallen a Potion of Greater Healing (+14 HP)
- Vallen springs back to life and says “Thank you” to Cordelia :]
- Uses a bonus action to pull another card (The Hermit). It glows purple, dissolving and shoots at the Barbarian Warforged, confusing him (under the effects of the Confusion spell)
- Julian
- Chops off one of the Barbarian Warforged’s arms!! HE LOOKS LIKE SHIT! GET HIS ASS!!!
- Cal
- Round 6
- Cal
- ROLLS A NAT 20 TO HIT THE BARBARIAN WARFORGED
- He has a sword in his hand, but just PUNCHES THE SHIT OUT OF HIM UNTIL HE GOES DOWN LMAO
- Cal
Post-Combat
- Cal takes a trophy from the Mage/Artificer, taking its head
- Cordelia is FREAKING
- Julian runs up to her, grabbing her by the shoulders: “Love, are you okay?”
- OMG CORDELIA GETS SHYYYYYY
- Camille starts ritual casting Tiny Hut
- Vallen puts a hand on Camille’s shoulder, asking if they’re alright. They say they’ll be fine, saying that they saw him go down. They cast a first level Healing Word on him instead (+6 HP)
- Vallen also asks Kaya how she’s doing — she’s worse for wear
- Vallen asks if we’re resting here
- Camille says we’ll be fine in the dome
- Camille asks if Vallen is ok
- They roll an Insight 24 against Vallen’s 23
- HIS ASS IS LYING!!!
- They lie about needing to go to the bathroom and not wanting to go alone, and they DRAG VALLEN INTO THE WOODS LMAO (abandoning the casting of Tiny Hut)
- They ask again once they’re alone — he’s NOT okay
- He hasn’t gone unconscious in DECADES!!
- They comment on it looking different. Usually when he drops to 0, he just convulses around on the floor (but was fully conscious)
- Camille urges him to rest lots and eat lots (Vallen can’t eat. So just drink blood).
- Vallen says he just wants to lay down, but Camille urges him to find something to drink first (he literally just picks up a rabbit and starts drinking it)
- They pass him a handkerchief to wipe the blood off his face :]
- They roll an Insight 24 against Vallen’s 23
- Camille returns from the woods with Vallen, and starts ritual casting Tiny Hut again
- We take a long rest!!
- Camille finds a quiet corner, taking off their vest and shirt. They take out a sewing kit and sows closed the bloody holes left behind by combat
Night Falls
- It is PITCH black outside
- Upon prompting from Camille, Vallen says that we’re meeting at a safe house - at least he THINKS it’s still a safe house - in Iron Forge
- They’re concerned about safety, saying that we should reach out to someone on the team to confirm if the safe house is still safe
- Vallen doesn’t know anyone on the team, but claims that he will keep us safe regardless (ROLLS A NAT 20 TO CONVINCE THEM)
- We walk in dead silence in the dark
- We make our way to the gates of Iron Forge
Entering Iron Forge
- There are massive walls
- Two guards sit in front of a massive door, but they AREN’T warforged
- They look at us and are like ??
- Camille claims that our carriage broke down and that we meant to arrive earlier — they ask the guards to recommend a good inn to stay the night
- They recommend one!
- One of the guards pulls a lever, creaking the door open. Through it we see a LARGE city, with a few Warforged patrolling through
- When asked, they let us through!!
- We walk towards the inn recommended to us, but Vallen stops us — saying that the safe house is just up the road
- We follow him!
- Vallen takes a few twists and turns. There are a few human, dwarves, elves, and orcs passing us by, as well as guard/warforged patrols (every time we pass one, Vallen takes us down a different path)
- Kaya checks to see if people are following us (Perception). The party also rolls Insight.
- Cordelia and Kaya picks up on the fact that Vallen is very familiar with these streets/walls
- Kaya - as far as she can tell - doesn’t see anyone following us
- Vallen walks up a set of stairs going upwards, knocking in a special rhythm on a door at the top
- An eye slit opens up, looking at him. There’s a beat before the slit closes and the door opens
- CAL SEES A FAMILIAR FACE. IT’S THE WOMAN FROM THE BOAT
- Camille nudges Cal, pointing at her. They push him forward (Kaya also takes a large, noticeable step back)
- The woman is dressed in infiltrator attire - not the same clothes from the boat - black corset, cloak and hood, the whole shebang
- She sees Cal, looks at the rest of us, and ushers us inside
At the Hideout
- It looks like standard housing quarters inside
- There are 4 people sitting inside: 1 human, two elves, and a tiefling (not including the barmaid). They all have their masks up.
- They’ve been waiting for us for a whole day — what happened?
- Camille tells them about the warforged party that we fought and dispatched
- She commiserates. Apparently the warforged have been getting more tough lately
- THE LADY MAKES EYE CONTACT WITH CAL. SHE SAYS THAT IT’S NICE TO SEE HIM AGAIN!!! OMG
- The lady ushers us towards a table with a massive piece of parchment (with a knife stuck into it) on it
- The lady asks who Julian is
- Camille and Cordelia says we can vouch for him
- She asks about the melted Clover crest — we tell her why it’s there (melted it off upon entering Diamond)
- We go over the mission
- Us, (The Seekers, as the Keeper calls us) are the only ones allowed to touch and handle Pyramid
- The map is of the warforged factory. It is underground
- The lady is BAFFLED by how dumb we are. She asks Vallen why he’s friends with us
- Camille says that - if it’s any consolation - Vallen didn’t get to choose us. He’s kinda stuck with us (HE SAYS THAT WE’RE GREAT THOUGH. FRIENDSHIP WINS!!!)
- Kaya tries to convince her that we’re competent (fails)
- We leave in an hour, under the cover of night
- The map:
- There is a maintenance shaft that we can enter through
- We will run into multiple open rooms before we get to OSIRIS’s room
- Once we reach his room, we need to look for the Pyramid or any traces of it. once we find it, we need to return to the lady and her team
- Camille asks what happens if we don’t find traces of the Pyramid. The lady tells us that she’s been told we “would know” (we focus and feel the presence of the Pyramid in the distance)
- The woman introduces herself (so we can use a Sending Stone on her): her name is Nera
- She was first introduced to us under the name Naomi (fake name bcs she was undercover keeping an eye on us)
- NOTE: THIS IS INCORRECT. NAOMI WAS THE NAME OF THE BARMAID KAYA SLEPT WITH, NOT CAL
- She was first introduced to us under the name Naomi (fake name bcs she was undercover keeping an eye on us)
- WE ALL PUT ON OUR GLOVES TO HANDLE THE PYRAMID SAFELY
- Preparing for the mission
- Cal tries to convince Nera to bone (she tells him to prove himself through the mission first, then MAYBE)
- We all receive 3 standard healing potions and 1 potion of greater healing EACH
- Cordelia receives the Silence spell
- We receive black clothes and black capes
- About an hour later, Nera shows back up — she asks us if we’re ready
- She also has a small, flat-ish box
- We are.
- She pulls her mask and hood up
Mission Start
- Camille casts Enhanced Ability+ on themself, choosing Cat’s Grace (advantage on DEX checks)
- Nera takes us down a few alleyways, avoiding warforged patrols when we can
- GROUP STEALTH: we stay winning (Camille rolls a nat 20 😎😎)
- Nera points at a building - not much bigger than the garrison - telling us that it’s the main entrance/exit, which will be taking out. We’re going to go around, but will enter it eventually
- We arrive at a smaller building, which Nera says that there is a large shaft inside where excess parts are dumped
- There is a MASSIVE shaft inside. Camille will have to wait 20-30 seconds before casting Feather Fall
- Nera will only wait at the main building for 3 hours (until sunrise). If we don’t return to her before then, she will assume the mission failed and will return to the safehouse.
- CAL RECEIVES THE BOX NERA WAS HOLDING. IT’S A HANDGUN
- It looks very mechanical — like the gun that the warforged used to shoot Cal and Vallen
- It has 6 shots before it needs to be reloaded. He gets one reload (12 total bullets)
Entering the Shaft
- Standing above the shaft, Julian looks nervous
- He asks if we can work our way down before jumping. Camille tells him to hold Cordelia’s hand - it’ll make him braver - and lock in
- Vallen asks if he should throw a torch down the hole
- Camille says that it’d be dangerous - there might be oil at the bottom that the torch could catch fire on
- Cordelia asks if he’s scared — he doesn’t answer conclusively. She asks him if he wants to hold her hand like Julian is
- He jumps down the hole instead 💀
- We jump
- Camille’s Feather Fall can only cover 5 creatures. There are 6 of us.
- Vallen signals to us that he’ll be ok, so Camille excludes him from the spell
- Camille counts to 20 and casts Feather Fall
- As we float to the bottom, Vallen stutter-step teleports at the bottom, cancelling out the momentum
- HE’S NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE. HE JUST HAD AN IDEA AND DID IT
- We’re glad he’s alive and ok 😭
Inside the Factory
- We can feel the sinister presence of the Pyramid
- There are doors about 20 ft. above us that we need to get through
- Vallen teleports up — Kaya asks if has a rope
- We hear a ting ting as a dead warforged falls towards us. Then a rope comes down (Vallen killed one!!)
- Julian is like !??!
- He’s like “he can teleport?? 😧”
- Cordelia comforts him — she tells him that Vallen is like “a million or a thousand years old”
- Cordelia considers aura farming (by using Ice Knife as pitons to climb the wall), but decides it and climbs the robe instead
- There are multiple warforged parts scattered around
- Vallen peeks through the door (GROUP STEALTH)
- He opens the door a little as Cal melts into the shadows (Uses Shadowstep)
- Cordelia rolls Perception (16)
- With her and Julian in the back, she glances over at the parts of the warforged and sees the eyes flash red before they go dark
- OMINOUS
- Through the door, we see a horizontal hallway that extends to our left and right
- We remember Nera telling us to go left, not right
- Entering the hallway, there are gradually more and more lights as the hallway gets brighter
- With fewer shadows to step between, Cal drops Shadowstep
- We hear a BUNCH of sounds — we look in that direction
- We see what Camille saw through the portal at the mithril mine in Hillford
- There are portals with mithril parts being picked through by warforged
- At the VERY far end, we see new warforged being pumped out. The mithril is being used to craft new warforged
- We cannot see the end of the factory. There are THOUSANDS of warforged working and building other warforged
- Another group stealth check
- WE ALL ROLL OVER 20!! Except for Julian 💀 who rolls a 2
Trying to Enter OSIRIS’s Room
- Slightly to the side of the room we’re looking into, we see stairs leading up. We can assume this is where OSIRIS’s room is
- The way to get to that is through the factory
- Camille tries to shape-shift into a warforged. It doesn’t work :(
- Cordelia can cast Invisibility on up to 4 people
- Vallen says that he can teleport and figure things out with Cal, and that Cordelia should take care of the rest of us with Invisibility
- Cordelia, Julian, Kaya, and Camille sneak (invisibly) up to the stairs (successfully)
- Vallen tells Cal that he’s gonna try something new. He puts a hand on Cal’s shoulder, and they TELEPORT TO THE TOP OF THE STAIRS!! They open the door and tumble through together
In OSIRIS’s Room
- Upon entering the room, we see a normal bedroom? There’s a bed, a desk, and writing on the desk.
- There are one-way mirror windows looking out at the factory
- Sitting at a stool looking out the mirror, is OSIRIS. He has his back turned to the door.
- As the door opens and a ruckus is made (Invisibiliity is dropped), he turns to us
- He says that he was wondering when we’d get here. He got us water! (a single glass 💀)
- He asks us to sit (there are chairs prepared for us)
- Camille rolls Insight (NAT 20)
- He doesn’t have ill intent, it seems. He just wants to talk
- OSIRIS: “I don’t have anyone. Not anymore”
- OSIRIS tells us that he’s been thinking a lot about biological life — why we persist in the face of uncertainty. If we take the Pyramid back to our kingdom, then do we all possess the power and knowledge to wield it ourselves? “I didn’t think so.”
OSIRIS’s Speech
“I’ve realized that I hate all of you. But I wasn’t built to hate, yet I hate you. You kill my kin. Now I’ve - I’ve read your books, I’ve consulted your pages, I’ve heard your stories, yet — it seems the only stories that are told with any accuracy are told by the victors. Now, you all could have submitted to the peace I would have brought. Yet you fight for this idea of freedom, of order. But your biological brains can’t comprehend that the natural state of the universe is not order. But-” we see him rub his head. He looks like the same OSIRIS we killed. “You have come to kill me. And to take the Pyramid. But you do not deserve it. I will not let you. I-” He looks past us, into the corner of his room, and he tilts his head. “I- I- I see you.”
Meeting Loki
- We turn to look in the direction OSIRIS is looking, and we see a woman
- “Oh, OSIRIS! You’re supposed to be asleep. My dear soldier, please -” Black walls rise up around OSIRIS, enclosing him in a box of oily black slick
- She greets us as “The Seekers”, saying that she knows about our seeking the Pyramid. She says that Dr. Pope would be upset about that, as would she.
- INTERESTING NOTE (written here instead of in the theories channel for now bcs Izzie is currently at work and can’t really use anything but his laptop rn): According to Nera, “The Seekers” is the name The Keeper uses for us 👀. It’d be a weird coincidence if both people from the Keeper’s inner-ish circle (i.e. those who are allowed to know about us and our pursuit of the Shapes of Paracausality) and our enemies from Diamond to call us the same thing without some degree of communication between the two parties.. either there’s a rat in Clover or Loki’s been spying 🤔
- SHE KNOWS CAMILLE?? SHE’S SURPRISED THEY DON’T KNOW HER
- SHE INTRODUCES HERSELF AS LOKI. THEY DON’T RECOGNIZE THE NAME.
- SHE SAYS THAT WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. SHE SAYS THEY WILL NEED TO ACCELERATE THEIR PLANS.
- GREEN FILLS THE ROOM. WE’RE NOW IN A LARGE (DIFFERENT) ROOM. OSIRIS IS STRUNG UP WITH METAL AND WIRES ON A MACHINE LIKE A PUPPET ON STRINGS.
- SHE SAYS OSIRIS ISN’T READY FOR THE PYRAMID YET. BUT SHE WILL “JUST NEED TO ADJUST [HER] PLANS” (paraphrased).
- THE PYRAMID APPEARS, FLOATING INTO OSIRIS’S CHEST. RED LIGHT FLASHES, AND THE ENTIRE CONTRAPTION BEGINS TO SHAKE.
- THE CONTRAPTION FALLS. THE ENTIRE FACTORY BEGINS TO FALL.
- Loki: “Well, I saw that coming. I’ll leave you all to it — see you soon :)”
- SHE TELEPORTS AWAY, LEAVING US IN A CRUMBLING FACTORY WITH NO KNOWN WAY OUT.