Fotíste ti Nýchta: Illuminate the Night

[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Fahalil (Alexander) Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions:

Mood: Exhausted

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Alex nodded as he listened to them before slowly standing up and walking over to the two of them, giving them each three berries "They restore one point of health and we don't have to worry about getting something to eat either" he himself popped three berries into his mouth and stored the last one away for an emergency. A single hit point could really save their lives later. The berries were a mixture of bitter and sweet, it was a very interesting taste, they were even nice and cool as if they'd been pulled out of the fridge.

"You two what to wait about an hour and try to get some rest or do you want to keep going on?" he asked.
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[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Keep in mind that I am the Dungeon Master and if you continue to annoy me, I may have to Destroy you."

Dungeon Master Seraph Darkfire Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions: IAmAlpharius bh18 MagicalSnow07 ArbitraryC W WindCrystal

Mood: Ready to Begin.

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Finrich/Glen
Awaiting Decision

Lia/Ashley
Ashley hears Mourn's warning but has already chosen to pick up the cloak....and nothing happens. It is a simple cloak. Maybe it is special? After examining for a bit, it seems to have some sort of effect but from what she can figure out, the cloak's effects can only be used by a rogue. However, she can also tell that it would be comfortable to wear and, passively, it would make her stealthier.

Requires Attunement by Rogue
+2 to Stealth checks for anyone else.

Damaia/Erin
The curse has done something to Damaia. She is unconscious for the next turn.
Successful Wisdom save can result in early consciousness.

Mourn/Casey
Unfortunately, Lia is too engrossed in what she is doing that she is unable to react quickly towards Casey's warning.

Prenma/Jen
Awaiting Decision.

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[MagicalSnow07]

Ashley flinched when she heard Casey's yell, but already had the cloak in her hands. She looked it over and inspected it, before walking back towards Mourn with the cloak in her hands.

"I'm sorry!" she said softly "I have to learn to be more cautious around here, I don't know many things about Dungeons and Dragons". Ashley had only started playing a few weeks ago, she was the last to join their campaign.

'I wonder if I can sell it?' Ashley thought 'I can't use much of its abilities' she could see the stats and description of the item when she looked at it, knowing certain abilities could only be used by a Rogue.

 

[bh18]

"Oh." Glen said, before eating all three berries at once. He immediately felt all his lost vitality returning to him and felt more than ready to continue onward. "I vote continue. We have to get out of here before more stuff like that," He gestures to the pools of shadow. "Comes along to do worse shit."

3 HP Restored.

 

[ArbitraryC]

Heat flushed across their cheeks as nothing succeeded to happen in spectacular fashion. Tension eased from Mourn's limbs, "Y-You're fine! Um, well, in general it's a good idea to assume everything is out to kill you when you play D&D," Casey could feel confusion welling up from Mourn's side and he struggled to speak around it, "That...mirror restored some of my HP so I'm good to go. Let's see what else there is to see, yeah?" They nodded towards the nearest door and started that way.

 

[WindCrystal]

"Yeah, what Glen says." Jen agreed, after she'd popped down one of the berries. The taste wasn't really up her ally-- the fructose-sweet and the botanical bitter mingled on her tongue in a way that didn't suggest she'd be making these a snack anytime soon. Still, they were refreshing, like the best properties of cold water and caffeine and a nap distilled into bite-size form. She pushed herself up on shaky legs, and ate the second before going on, "We gotta keep looking for the others."

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Fahalil (Alexander) Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions:

Mood: Exhausted

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Alex agreed with them "Finding them is more important" he looked at Glen "Lets try to do this a little more like adventurers, do you want to scout ahead and make sure nothing else is going to come up and kill us?" they hadn't been paying attention and hadn't even heard the shadows until they'd already come around the corner, he'd hate for that to happen again, especially when they were all kind of exhausted. He was aware that he didn't have any more big spells he could use. Cantrips were about the only thing he had left "Here is the thing though, do we want to check every room we come about, or do just a sweep of the hallways and then double back?"

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[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Keep in mind that I am the Dungeon Master and if you continue to annoy me, I may have to Destroy you."

Dungeon Master Seraph Darkfire Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions: IAmAlpharius bh18 MagicalSnow07 ArbitraryC W WindCrystal

Mood: Ready to Begin.

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Finrich/Glen
Deciding to continue on, Glen eats his berries, restoring three points of his health.

Lia/Ashley
With danger avoided, Ashley can now either follow Casey or do her own thing.

Damaia/Erin
With a start, Erin wakes up on the floor. For a second, she doesn't know where she is, but then she remembers touching the book, becoming cursed and then nothing else.

Mourn/Casey
The closest door to Casey would be the far right door, across from the large Torii Gate.

Prenma/Jen
Eating two of her three berries, Jen restores two points of health as she prepares to move on.

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[bh18]

"Double back." Glen voted. "If we check every room, and most of them are locked, we waste a lot of time opening empty rooms when we could just peek through the bars, listen for noises and carry on." While he was explaining, Glen took another look around them for danger. "And yeah, I think I can scout ahead just fine."

Perception: 14

 

[ArbitraryC]

Going to the door closest to where Casey recalled their cell lay, they nudged it open. With shield and warhammer in hand Mourn stepped out, glanced at the empty cell to confirm it was as it had been left, then started down the corridor.

"Call it a crazy hunch," Casey said over their shoulder, "But something tells me we aren't alone here. A dungeon, D&D characters we recognize?" They faltered a bit as confusion swelled, Mourn finding no sense in the words tumbling past their lips, "There's... probably others. Allies, we've just gotta find some before we run into more monsters. Stay close, about ten feet back? Keep an eye behind us and your bow ready."

With that Casey took a right at the intersection and pressed on past the bathhouse door, "if you're stuck in a maze, always turn right and you'll find the exit eventually..."

 

[WindCrystal]

Jen's mouth was full of the third berry, so she could only give a thumbs-up, but she was glad someone knew what they could do in this situation. She really had no idea... Once she swallowed she added, "We're probably not all spread too far about. If we're all close together, it doesn't make sense for everyone else to be like on the other side of the complex..."

 

[MagicalSnow07]

Ashley nodded and kept ten feet back as they said. She took out her bow and strung it with an arrow from her quiver.

When she was fighting or be cautious like they were now, she felt as if the other presence Lia took over. Ashley didn't have a single clue how to fight or aim by herself.

"Keep right, gotcha!" she said quietly, nodding and following them.

 

[IAmAlpharius]

Damaia bolted upright, gripping her own shoulders to make sure they were still there. She had never passed out like that before without some serious injury, and she definitely had never woken up as easily afterward. Erin sighed, removing their hands from their shoulders and began her own, well-practiced, routine. She tested her joints and muscles lightly, moving from her neck down her arms and then down her legs, making sure nothing was locked or injured beyond what had occurred in the fight earlier. Finding no further injuries, she gingerly came to her feet. Now that whatever that book had done seemed to have ended; at least for now, Damaia interjected; Erin could feel her panic from the attack fading into numbness, while Damaia's seemed ever present.

Erin looked down to their hands, a hint of curiosity making its way through the fog. Damaia turned their hands over frantically, seeing the runes that should not be there, and looked toward the book in panic, starting to back away. The tiefling turned and quickly exited the room, heading further down the hallway, away from where she started.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Fahalil (Alexander) Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions:

Mood: Exhausted

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Alex nodded and let Glen take point. He wasn't much use without his more damage dealing spells but he still had his cantrips and until they found a relatively safe place to rest for...the night? Day? He wasn't sure exactly. There were no windows, the only thing he was sure of was that he was beginning to get tired. Not just physically tired, but mentally as well.

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[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Keep in mind that I am the Dungeon Master and if you continue to annoy me, I may have to Destroy you."

Dungeon Master Seraph Darkfire Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions: IAmAlpharius bh18 MagicalSnow07 ArbitraryC W WindCrystal

Mood: Ready to Begin.

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Finrich/Glen
Fortunately, Glen doesn't see anything dangerous as they round the corner heading back towards his cell.

Lia/Ashley
Sticking with Casey, Ashley follows them as they head down the hallway.

Damaia/Erin
Erin's frantic movement down the hallway means she doesn't look where she is going. As she rounds the corner she runs into an armored figure, arms flailing.

Mourn/Casey
Casey is unable to avoid the sudden appearance of another person as they come around a corner they were heading towards. They end up getting hit in the face by an elbow.

2 points of damage

Prenma/Jen
Prenma eats the last of her berries, restoring one point of health.

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[bh18]

Glen mentally sighed in relief that, for now, there weren't any foes in their path. He kept a vigilant eye though and used his high stealth skills to remain out of sight while he stayed ahead of Jen and Alex.

Perception: 13
Stealth: 28

 

[ArbitraryC]

((Part 1 of our mega post. The rest will follow Ashley's response))

The blow came from nowhere. Casey was knocked to the back of their shared mind as the hard impact, enough to bloody their mouth, shocked him. Mourn was made of sterner stuff though. She staggered but a single step back, then braced on the retreating foot and surged forward. A shield lifted to parry the next anticipated blow and the mace began its swing.

All motion froze as Mourn caught sight of the offender stumbling before them. Both Casey and Mourn knew that face. For the latter it was an image wrought in years of quiet love and the occasional sisterly spat. It was home and all the comfort she knew. It was a talisman she'd held dear to her heart in the long years spent at war. Out there somewhere was a sister she loved and sometimes loved to hate, and for whom Mourn would make a safer world. For Casey the realization was slower. As an avalanche began with a single pebble the surge of heart rending relief began with a faint glimmer of recognition. A face, one viewed in an evening spent in mutual sketching, and the name Damaia that accompanied it.

Damaia, made by his sister Erin. The sister who meant more than the world to him and had, by some cruel or kind twist of fate, found her way here as well.

Mace and shield dropped from nerveless fingers. In that brief moment Mourn and Casey found themselves of one mind and voice. Nothing separated the two minds as Mourn flung her arms wide, let out a joyous cry, and surged forward to embrace Damaia, "Sister!"

Erin's stammered apology silenced as she heard the voice, foreign to her but clearly not her host, shout out, and she recognized the horned, black haired tiefling that her sibling had drawn.

"Casey! I mean, Mourn!" she shouted, flinging her arms out to meet them.

The two collided in none too gentle fashion, at least if Mourn had any say in the matter. A shuddering sob escaped their lips as the name met their ears and the embrace, real, warm, tangible, curled in around them.

"You're here," they breathed, "thank the moon maiden you're here..."

The smaller tiefling heaved a great sigh of relief, as Erin was pleased to note that her sibling's athletic build was translated perfectly in the arms of the paladin before her.
"I was so scared," Damaia whispered her voice low and still. "Everything started happening, and there was this spider," Erin continued, "I really hope this is a dream and I'm on the floor, but I don't think it is."

A bitter smile tugged at Mourn's lips. Casey drew the embrace tighter, as if a firm hug could wake her from the nightmare, "I don't think so Sis, because I don't have dreams like this. But, spider? What-" it was about then that they noticed a sticky wet something on their fingertips. Mourn drew a hand away and caught the brownish gleam of blood, "Y-You're hurt. Here, hold still... Mother in the Night, your servant begs this blessing," a rush of cool, pale blue light haloed Mourn and passed into Damaia, searching out and easing the pain of the wounds.

Following the spell a shaky breath drew in then blew out of Mourn. Casey continued, "S-Sorry, um, Mourn is having an existential crisis in here. Selune isn't hearing her, she thinks. Keeps expecting more than a level one paladin can do."

Erin protested as Mourn drew away, though Damaia seemed to be expecting it, shrinking into herself slightly as the blue light washed over her.

Erin let out a sigh of relief as her large wound started to close, though the was still bleeding pretty badly, "That must not be helping your brain now. I was at one hitpoint though, so anything feels amazing right now."

Damaia listened curiously to this conversation, though her confusion was steadily growing. The first time she sees her twin sister in quite some time, and someone else's personality pours out of her mouth? Maybe this was the curse that had hit her... maybe this entity in her head would eventually take over, the same way this 'Casey' had her Mourn.

'One? Jesu-... Selune. Good thing we found you when we did."

They nodded over a shoulder, "Um, you remember Ashley? She's here too. So...maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but if you and I are here and Ashley's here..."

A brief pause as Mourn counted on their fingers, "We've probably three other friends wandering around here somewhere."

A nervous grin spread on the tiefling's face, "I sure hope it's three, and Alex hasn't somehow put us in some VR campaign," Erin said, a twinge of actual fear in her voice, "That guy is one evil DM."

((Lay on Hands for 2 HP to Damaia))

 

[MagicalSnow07]

Ashley saw Mourn getting knocked back by someone. "Are you okay?" she asked running up and tightening her grip on her bow.

That was when she realized who the other person was, from the way Mourn reacted, she slowly realized this must be Damaia, Erin's counterpart she had created for their campaign.

She watched the two interact and reunite, a small smile on her face.

When Mourn/Casey mentioned her and the others, she piped up shyly "hello Erin, or Damaia" she smiled "nice seeing you again" she was really nervous, being the newest to the D&D group, she didn't know everyone as well as they knew eachother. But she did agree with what they were saying, they needed to find the others.

 

[IAmAlpharius]

VR? DM? Hitpoint? Damaia only grew more confused at the conversation, and as that, and her fear that either Mourn had been taken over or was just biding her time, grew, she wrenched herself away from their sibling, her arms coming up to cover her shoulders again. The new runes in her skin seemed, to her, to throb violently, though Erin recognized this as similar to her own panic reactions.

"Mourn, I'm going to get out of here. Are you coming with me?" Or are you going to leave me again? She thought in spite of herself.

Casey flinched, struck more by that gesture than he cared to admit. With this reunion though the woman whose body he shared galvanized as she witness those stirring runes on her sister. Casey saw the beginnings of an episode but so she was still practicing that heretical magic. Why couldn't Damaia just see that this was why people feared and hated tieflings so? Becoming what they expected to see just made it all the worse for every other one of them.

Again Casey flinched, or he thought he did, but Mourn didn't move. Her voice came cool, calm, and unyielding as the steel she wielded, "We're getting out and I'll lead the way," Mourn affirmed, "But I won't ignore the plight of these others."

Damaia could see the judgement in her sister's eyes. She forced herself to pull her hands from her shoulders, letting the runes show, as much as she herself hated them. She stood to her full height, still nearly a head below her sister, and practically dared her to say something.

"Fine. I will follow you in that." Damaia replied stiffly.

They reached a hand out as if to touch a shoulder but Mourn hesitated, "Sister, I-," but what could she say? That she was glad to find her sister here in this deathtrap? Hesitation made the gap yawn wider until Casey found a voice again, "Erin? We'll be okay," he summoned a sheepish grin to Mourn's lips, the sort he always wore after inexplicable victories at the track and field competitions that for so long had been his life, "I'm strong again. We'll be okay."

Mourn cringed, "Forgive me, sister. Whatever this...thing is, it had peculiar insights into this place. I'll keep it in hand until such a time as I can commune with the Moon Maiden and...fix things."

The Moon Maiden, right. A fine replacement for family. Damaia thought, her mouth turning down. "I'm sure there are many things to fix, once we have escaped," Damaia muttered under her breath, turning to glance at Lia, and continue past.

"So it would seem," Mourn stooped to retrieve her discarded mace and shield. It was Casey who stood up after, casting that same little smile back at the little group now assembled behind them, "Sorry about that, Ashley. Let's all stick close though, yeah? Erin, er, Damaia, did you explore every path back the way you came?"

Damaia seemed to frown inwardly at herself as Erin made a deliberate effort to take control for the moment. She proved her success by grinning to her now-present Casey, then closing her eyes to remember.

"Yeah, it was just my cell at the end of a hallway, the spider at a bend past that, then a long hallway with this library where I think I got cursed, and I passed out, and then I elbowed you in the face," Erin summarized.

"Right. Then we go back the way we came and there's just one path left to explore. Stay a few feet back from me and let the 18 AC and d10 hit dice do their work," Casey said as they moved past the other two and took the unexplored path to their current left.

"Ooh, d10's. That's convenient. I'm stuck at d6's," Erin replied, moving to about 5 feet behind the taller tiefling as they moved along the hallway, keeping an eye out as they traveled.

[Perception - Mourn: 2 - Damaia: 8]

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

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"Keep in mind that I am the Dungeon Master and if you continue to annoy me, I may have to Destroy you."

Dungeon Master Seraph Darkfire Location: Dungeon of the Final Keep

Mentions: IAmAlpharius bh18 MagicalSnow07 ArbitraryC W WindCrystal

Mood: Ready to Begin.

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Finrich/Glen
Heading back to his cell, Glen leads them passed his starting point and walks down the hallway. There is a door here to his right but ignoring that, he eventually comes to another path that heads to the left. High perception is his friend at the moment as he notices three figures down the hall though he can't make out exactly who they are. Directly ahead of him is a continuation of the previous hallway, though this time there is a door to the left.

Lia/Ashley
There is only the path to the right to go down so following the other two, Ashley follows them.

Damaia/Erin
Complicated feelings aside, Erin knows that it is better to follow her sibling. Turning around the corner, she sees nothing but the hallway, her vision not great enough to see all the way down the hallway.

Mourn/Casey
Casey doesn't notice anymore than his sister as they head down the hallway. Though as always no news is good news.

Prenma/Jen
Prenma, not having any better ideas of what to do, just quietly follows the other two.

And for Brevity:

Fahalil/Alex
Alex trusts their scout's ability to find danger and follows along as well. Managing to be quite stealthy in his own right, though nowhere near as well as his friend.
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[bh18]

Glen stops staying in stealth and tried to listen to the three and hopefully learn who/what they are. He checks on Alex and Jen behind him and signals an open palm to stop, followed by three fingers and a gesture to the left.

Stealth: 20
Perception: 9