#he's in trouble ... the same with long range abilities though when they hit him they're rendered null if they're tangible they ARE going to

[nullfier]

thinking about dazai and fighting now .. hhrrggfff he's so lazy and that translates into a bored effortlessness when engaging with one or multiple enemies. he's quick and agile, flexible though you wouldn't think it with the fact he rarely likes to engage, but he's also incredibly skilled at hitting weak - points, breaking bones and using opponents as shields against others with an ease that pisses people off :p

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Session 6

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Last time, the party, after making their way to the torture wizard's evil torture tower, made a sneaky entrance via the window... into the room full of traps. One would think going in through a window and being immediately attacked by torture robots would teach them to, say, not go in through another window again immediately- but Looseleaf had other ideas, and those ideas got her attacked by several flying knives on the fourth floor.

Does she survive?

Barely! She loses over half her health to the initial onslaught, but manages to drop back down and close the window behind her before the knives can give chase, thanks to her racial ability to have two extra arms- she can shimmy down a rope and close a window in the same turn.

They're not out of the woods yet, though- the knives, frustrated in their assault by a pane of glass, turn around and head down the chimney through the fireplace on each floor. The party's ready for them as they emerge, though, and a couple rounds of combat later, the animated knives meet their ends without doing any further damage.

There's still a couple of beefy animated armors up there, though- so the party spends a tense couple turns waiting at the bottom of the stairs for them to make their way downstairs to the trap room. And they do, but... the translucent barrier blocking the stairway seems to block the armor, too, and they just stand menacingly at the bottom of the stairs.

...Hey, where'd Vayen go?

Luckily, Looseleaf had the foresight to soul-link to the medical kit she provided him earlier, meaning she can detect where he is at all times by sensing its spirit. She notes that he's gone upstairs via the window, and Saelhen follows. She finds him... perusing the torture equipment on the tables on the fourth floor, suspiciously. Vayen's surprised to have been followed, but points out, on the table, a strange weapon with a cross-shaped guard and four thin blades spaced wide- almost certainly the murder weapon used to kill the Nicksickles. He rolls a nat 1 on... something, and then just sort of hands it over to Saelhen without making a fuss. Huh.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Looseleaf tries to knock down the barrier with magic, and we end up making the exact same joke:

They've managed to split the attentions of the torturebots, but they don't have any way to keep the remaining bot occupied- so the rest of the party makes the decision to hurry up the rope and rejoin Saelhen and Vayen before the enemy can regroup.

Saelhen, seeing the bot coming, heads up to the fifth floor to get some distance on it, leaving Vayen behind. When Looseleaf and the others come up through the window, Vayen is gone- but Looseleaf can still sense him in the room via the bugged medkit. It seems he's turned invisible...?

On their way up the stairs, the closest armor slashes at Orluthe with a spiky claw, and- while Orluthe smacks it with an opportunity attack- gets through. The attack hurts, moreso than it should, thanks to some sort of magical pain effect, and Orluthe's Concentration-based buffs immediately expire. The party unloads some attacks on it, but it's a sturdy bastard!

Looseleaf: 16 hits? Benedict I. (GM): It does not. This thing... its spirit is pretty resilient. Apparently its creation was a labor of love. Looseleaf: Damn. Everything in this tower is so resilient. Saelhen du Fishercrown: AC 17, maybe? something brutal Benedict I. (GM):It's a big suit of metal! You want to know its Armor Class? Its class is armor! Looseleaf: i mean, spikes are gauche as fuck it can't be that classy

As they're fending this thing off- and it takes a disturbing number of hits- a third painbot inexplicably pops into existence next to the one attacking Orluthe. As it technically just entered Orluthe's range, and he has the Polearm Master feat, it gets smacked with an opportunity attack... and immediately vanishes. Some kind of illusion- which it doesn't take long for the party to blame on the invisible Vayen.

They keep wailing on it, but it's pretty sturdy.

One of them eventually goes down:

Benedict I. (GM): That hits! You catch the thing's helmet and it goes clean off its nonexistent shoulders. The rest of the armor collapses to the floor. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "There, Yamatake-san! The brain." Oyobi Yamatake: "Wh- that wasn't its- don't be a dick!"

The other one keeps chasing, though, and it's joined by the slow lumbering of some giant coffin-like device that's waddling its way over to join the fray. The party opts to make a fighting retreat up the stairs to the fifth floor. Arrows pepper the thing as it pursues them- and Saelhen and Looseleaf have approximately the same idea.

Remember back in town, they purchased, collectively, six thousand ball bearings?

Well, short story shorter, the stairs are now covered in ball bearings, making it very difficult for the automaton to continue its pursuit. It makes its dex saves, though, and it keeps pursuing them- until the party reaches the top of the stairs, and Zero has Orluthe shove the thing as soon as it catches up.

I believe you can predict the outcome of this shove, considering you saw the image at the start of this post.

Benedict I. (GM): so it's sustained 25 damage now Looseleaf: and it's stuck all the way at the bottom of the stairs again. Looseleaf, now, is thinking that- well, Vayen's not invisible anymore, and now Vayen is pincered between a painbot and a deathcoffin. Maybe we should do something to save him. He could very well die otherwise. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Vayen, how nice to have you back with us, and apparently invisible this entire time without telling anyone!" Vayen: "Gaaaaaagh," he replies. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "We will of course protect you from the results of the decision you made, think nothing of it." Oyobi Yamatake: "Naturally! Because we're a team, right?"

Orluthe- who's a kindhearted soul and has been giving Vayen the benefit of the doubt- rushes downstairs to his aid, and, uh, rolls a natural one on his attempt to not trip on the ball bearings.

After this little snafu, though, the party successfully dispatches the other animated armor- and the coffin thing approaching them is, uh, very slow. It doesn't have legs. And, in fact, it seems incapable of climbing the stairs after them- so they head up to the fifth floor, having more or less won the combat!

The room turns out to be a bedroom, and doesn't seem to feature any sadistic suits of armor or flying knives- so the party stops for a short rest to dress their wounds. During this downtime, they interrogate Vayen regarding his recent behavior. He denies casting the illusion, and claims the invisibility was just a self-defense measure against the torture robots. His sudden disappearance, he claims, was just an attempt to take advantage of the moment the painbots were on the stairs to get around and flank them without being seen- he didn't want to give away his movements by announcing them.

There's no solid proof he was responsible for the illusion, so the party backs off on that- but Saelhen brings up something else. I think I'll paste this whole exchange:

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And while I would be willing to call this an isolated case of awkwardness..." "...Vayen, a lady's bedroom, in the middle of the night, is a place one should not enter without explicit permission." Vayen: He goes stiff for a second. "...I don't know what you mean." Oyobi Yamatake: "Oh, come on! I heard you in there!" Looseleaf: "Heard him in- what?" Oyobi Yamatake: "You banged your leg on something and went 'Ow'!" Vayen: "...Overactive imagination." "Didn't happen." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "You really weren't very subtle. Oyobi heard you open my door, and close your own. I never left my room that night. And I left a few ball bearings by the door, as insurance. Ball bearings which had moved in the morning." Looseleaf: "...Are you saying that Vayen did something to you overnight, while I was asleep?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Would you like to accuse me of sleepwalking?" Looseleaf: "Vayen, is this true?" Vayen: "I never opened your door." Oyobi Yamatake: "Wh- no, I guess not, but-" Vayen: "I never touched her." "Nothing happened that night. I tranced the whole time." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "I'm sure. As for the contents of my bags, and, ah, personal effects... who can say?" Vayen: "I touched nothing of yours. I have no business with you." Oyobi Yamatake: "Oh my god. Seriously?"

Saelhen du Fishercrown: Is he getting worked up at all, or is he maintaining his flat affect? Benedict I. (GM): He's staying calm.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And I imagine you wouldn't want any suspicion to fall on you, yes?" Orluthe Chokorov: "I, uh... I don't think Vayen would do something like that, yeah..." Vayen: "What he said."

Oyobi Yamatake: "I can't believe this." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Having twice acted such that we suspect you, thanks to... let's call it something neutral, for now, like miscommunication?" Looseleaf: "I mean, it could legitimately be miscommunication, possibly," Looseleaf says somewhat lamely. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Perhaps! We are calling it that for a reason." Vayen: "Yes." Looseleaf: "But... I doubt Oyobi and Noeru would both lie about this. Oyobi's convinced that someone opened your door and opened Noeru's door, and that she heard your voice coming from Noeru's room." Vayen: "So what you have is Oyobi's word?" Looseleaf: "What's the alternative explanation here? An unknown party opened both doors, then went into Noeru's room and made a convincing imitation of your voice?" Vayen: "Or Oyobi is lying to make you distrust me." "Pretty standard elf move." Oyobi Yamatake: "Oh, you are not playing that card!" Vayen: He shrugs. Looseleaf: Looseleaf looks at the two of them. She can already see where this is going. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ah, the happy topic of racial politics! Sure to lighten any conversation." Looseleaf: "Okay, yeah, no, we're not playing that card," she says. "If it's deception we're worried about, I invite you to... allow me to perform a soul-read of you. Both of you, that is; you too, Oyobi, just to be fair." Oyobi Yamatake: "What? No, why?" Vayen: "I decline." Looseleaf: "It's not thought reading, but I can read alignment and intentions, if you let me." Vayen: "I decline." Looseleaf: "I mean, the alternative is- it is not fun being in a party cleaved down the middle with two sides that mistrust each other!" "Well... okay, I mean. If you decline, I'm not going to do that on you against your will." Oyobi Yamatake: "But- I mean, we're roommates! Don't you trust me?" "Over him?" Looseleaf:"Yeah, but, like, it's not fair that I only check one side, if I'm checking at all." "Fairness is important." Oyobi Yamatake: "..." Vayen: "Don't you have something else to be doing?"

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Vayen. I would like to believe that this is a misunderstanding. But you understand that as of yet, you have done nothing, at all, that indicates that you have any interest whatsoever in preserving our lives on this trip?" Vayen : "...Correct." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ah." Saelhen blinks... and then chuckles a little. "Ah, ahah, did not think I was going to get that one out of you. That's kind of admirable, honestly." Vayen: He shrugs. "Your well-being is not relevant to my mission statement." "Mine need not be to yours." "Just... pretend I'm not here." Oyobi Yamatake: [I like that, actually. Let's just ditch him in the middle of the night,] Oyobi signs to Saelhen. Looseleaf: "And, what, let you walk into being pinned between spiky magic armor guys again?" "I mean, it's your call, legitimately." Vayen: "I'm fine." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "So you scouted ahead to give us information... despite the fact that you have absolutely no interest in whether we live or die." Vayen: "I scouted ahead to obtain information." "Anything else is your assumption." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Let's say this, for now. Vayen, if you'd like to scout ahead for information, feel free. If you scout ahead for information without telling anyone, and if you return without any information, I will assume you are up to no good. Does that sound fair? Fair-ish?" Vayen: "...Assume what you like." Looseleaf: "...And, if you want us to assume you're not there- well, then, if someone shows up in our rooms at random, that's going to be assumed as an invasion of personal privacy. If Vayen-the-contributing-member-of-the-party doesn't exist, then there's no good reason for you to be in someone else's rooms at night against their will."

Man, what's with this guy? Might as well be wearing a giant neon "I'M EVIL" sign over his head. What a creep-o!

Anyway, in between the interrogation and the wound-dressing, the party searches the bedroom for loot. And loot they find- Looseleaf locates a pillow in an armoire that seems ridiculously comfy. When she naps on it, she finds that she recovers as if taking a long rest during the span of this short rest. It seems too good to be true- so they make some Arcana rolls to see if they can determine the nature of its magic.

Cool! Great! Probably fine!

Looseleaf: well, in that case, i lavishly describe the powerful effects of the best pillow ever, while being all smug about how i got to use it. and then promise that everyone else will get to take turns because i am a good moth. Orluthe Chokorov: "Wow, that's... could I try that next time?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "It was adorable, you realize." "You're like a cloud who's gotten attached to another, puffier cloud." Oyobi Yamatake: "I don't sleep, but that sounds great for you!"

Saelhen, meanwhile, finds in a drawer ~5gp worth of jewelry, and... a rug. Which jumps out, unfurls itself on the floor, and beckons with a tassel to stand on it. Saelhen is by no means willing to fall for whatever trap this is, but Looseleaf...

Looseleaf: If you're not stepping on the obvious flying carpet, Looseleaf will.

But... it's not a flying carpet. It seems to just be a normal carpet, which wants to be stood on more than usual. That's... probably fine, right? Yeah. They opt to take it with them as a pet, because why not?

Looseleaf: "I will name my new pillow Cloudberry, and our new carpet friend Tasselhoff," Looseleaf declares.

They also notice that there's a secret door in the room- it's in the central pillar of the tower, and opens up into a hollow chamber that seems to span the height of the tower. From the inside, with Looseleaf's darkvision, they can spot additional secret doors hidden on the landings to each of the other floors, which were simply missed earlier. There's no obvious way to traverse this shaft, but they keep it in mind. They also keep in mind that there appears to be a basement of the tower, which they didn't notice earlier.

That squared away, the party heads up to the sixth and final floor of the tower.

Benedict I. (GM): This room is... It's large and round, like you might expect, with vaulted ceilings held up by wooden beams built into the central pillar. Right by the stairs is what appears to be a large furnace, with multiple compartments for burning different things. Looseleaf: oh, this isn't the roof. for some reason i was imagining this was the roof itself. i guess the roof is just, like, generic wizard tower shingles? Benedict I. (GM): The roof is sloped and shingled- you can tell there wasn't much up there, and that this appears to be all there is to the interior- no undiscovered attic. There is a large table to the left, a work desk of some description. The main thing of note on that desk- besides a bunch of papers you can't read from here- is a collection of colorful glass bottles with little glowing motes of light inside. There is a very comfy-looking chair by the desk, between the two windows, with a humanoid figure slouched in it. Motionless. Looseleaf: looseleaf would immediately be convinced that these glowing jars are some form of soul-jar- ah, that's probably our wizard Saelhen du Fishercrown: does it look like a corpse? Benedict I. (GM): To the south of you, there's a sort of nice living-room-type area with a rug and two large sofas, which seem excited to have guests. Oh, yeah, looks like a corpse, though you can't tell from this distance for sure. Probably, though. Not visibly breathing. To the very south of the room seems to be... Some sort of sloped basin, sloped down towards drains set into the central pillar. The basin is splashed all over with bloodstains of varying sizes. There is, by the basin, a very large section of the wall and windows that has been smashed open, and rubble and glass has been swept to one side in a pile by the stairs.

The body, on closer inspection, is in fact a corpse. It's not hard to identify him as the wizard who owns the tower, by his age and attire- and it's not hard to identify how he died, by the characteristic pattern of stab wounds in his chest.

The papers on the desk, meanwhile, contain extensive notes on different humanoid nervous systems and their pain responses, much of which is kind of indecipherable just because no one in the party is a neurobiologist. Plus some stuff on various magical interventions and diagrams thereof, which are likewise kind of tough to make sense of. And they're all... about a year old, representing about a month's worth of research. Apparently the archived research is kept somewhere else.

The glowy bottles, as far as they can tell, do some sort of magic with colored light, but the party doesn't experiment with them- they conclude pretty quickly that they have something to do with the nightly magical lightshows visible from outside the tower.

Looseleaf: "So, yeah, this guy definitely died a year ago when he got stabbed with his own four-pronged petard, and since then someone else has been going around and using the petard to assassinate people in Barley," Looseleaf concludes.

Before they do anything else... the couches approach, menacingly. Saelhen volunteers Oyobi as a guinea pig for the "is it safe to sit on the couches", theory- and luckily, that does appear to be the case. The couch she sits on squirms in contentment, much like the rug from earlier.

The other couch flies into a jealous rage and charges.

Quickly enough, Saelhen jumps onto the other couch, sating its sitlust for the time being. So, that potential hazard is nipped in the bud.

Looseleaf gets a 20 on her investigation roll to look around the room, meanwhile. With that, she's able to note that the bloodstains in the basin vary in age, some of them as fresh as a couple weeks old. She also notices there's not much splatter- as if the sources of the bloodstains weren't killed here. Her animism, applied to the floor stones, tells her the same- no echoes of death in the basin.

Also...

Next time: clearing out the rest of the tower!