PlanetADnD.com

"It looks like we are going to be here for awhile," Jocelyn says as she makes herself comfortable in a corner. "So I guess I'm going to try to get some rest."

Ouragna digs into her pack. "How many rations do we have left, and how much water?" she asks. "I myself have 13 meals and a full waterskin."

Everyone goes through their food and water supplies. When it's dinner time, Brock shares some of his food with Jocelyn. Izana returns with some water for those who don't have any, then returns to her duties again.

When night falls, a standard watch is set. Jocelyn, Baeros, Granite, and Thaddeus sleep on their bedrolls. Everyone else must sleep on the hard floor. Still, at least the room they are in is dry and protected from the elements.

When morning arrives, the casters begin preparing their new spells. Just as they finish, the door opens and the elder oni steps in. He gestures for the party to follow him back into the main room. The other four oni wait for them there.

Once there, he casts his translation spell again and begins speaking right away. "Listen well," he begins. "Centuries ago, there lived a powerful wizard who was ruthless and cruel. One day, he lost his hand. How, I cannot say. This story has been passed down from generation to generation, and some of it has been lost. In any case, he became obsessed with regrowing his lost appendage. In the interim, he replaced his missing hand with a metal claw, which he often coated in poison. Thus did he earn the nickname, 'The Wyvern.'"

The old oni continues, "The Wyvern scoured the world for creatures that could regenerate, so he could experiment on and learn from them. He collected a tribe of trolls. He also kidnapped an entire tribe of my own people, the Oni. We lived in a land far to the east called Mushin. It is so far, it was beyond the reach of the Eonian Empire. I can tell you little about it, if it even still exists." He draws a small knife from his belt and cuts the palm of his hand. He then shows it to the party. Within moments, the cut begins to heal. "But our people can also heal quickly, which made us of use to him."

He uses an old rag to clean the blade and sheathe it, then wipes the blood from his hand. "The Wyvern died before he could finish his work. And his experiments managed to escape after a time. A war raged between the Oni and the Trolls. But our magic and our superior intelligence gave us an edge, despite the fact they outnumbered us. We drove them from the mansion, forcing them to live off the island wilderness. And we have remained here, for several generations, until now."

He looks to the four younger oni and sighs. "Nobody who has ventured to the second floor has ever returned to tell of it. It is full of dangerous traps, magical automatons that never eat or sleep, and even creatures from other dimensions. Although we tamed the hellhounds that once guarded the mansion, whatever creatures dwell above cannot be cowed. We have spoken through the night. Some of us believe you are sincere, some of us believe you are attempting to deceive us. But we have come to a decision. We will allow you to proceed to the second floor. On the off-chance you are successful, we expect you to honor your word and bring us with you to your ship. Should you be killed--or force us to kill you by attempting to betray us--we will board your ship without you, taking your places. Izana has learned enough from you that we believe we can impersonate you for a brief time--long enough to get us back to civilization, at any rate." He gestures to one of the female oni, the one with the green hair. At a nod from the old man, she shapeshifts into the human woman they met yesterday, then shapeshifts back into her true oni form.

"You will be allowed a little time to make preparations, then we will escort you to the stairs of the second floor," he finishes.

==========

(OOC: If you have no food, you'll have to eat the troll arm for dinner--unless someone else volunteers to share. The exception is Granite--because he's so small, he only needs one meal a day, so he's good. So that includes Val, Baeros and Drav.

Val and Thaddeus are no longer suffering from near death fatigue.

Casters can choose new spells.)

OOC:( Jocelyn will pray for the same spells that she used. She'll then use a Cure Light on Thaddeus, a Cure Light on Drav, Cure Mod on Val, and Cure Light on herself).

IC: "It looks like we get our wish," Jocelyn says. "Let's try to be a little more careful this time around?"

Val has no qualms eating troll.....

Ouragana will share food if someone asks her, that was the reason for her question.

The next morning, she will renew her WEB spell.

"So that's where they're from" she whispers to herself when the oni leader explains. Upon seeing that Izani was really an oni, she invardly curses herself for revealing so much. But since they weren't planning to deceive the oni, there was relatively little harm done, she consoles herself.

(OOC: Ouragana's inventory includes a bedroll, so I suppose you simply missed to add her to the list of comfort sleepers.)

Drav also has no issue eating the meat...

"You wouldn't happen to have anything we can use to aid us on the second floor, would you?" Drav asks the elder.

(OOC:I said absolutely nothing and did nothing when the Oni was there, so they shouldn't know much about me from that... Btw, kindof suspicious that until now, they hadn't seen another human, so where'd the servant come from )

"Mind if I check your regeneration skills too?" Baeros grumbles, but doesn't make any threatening move. "Why would you wait for us if you can board the ship? Do you want something from the other floors too?"

Jocelyn does some light healing on the group. Her spells barely help Thaddeus or Val at all. She does manage to fully heal Drav, and cure the whip wounds on her own back, but little else.

Drav wrote:"You wouldn't happen to have anything we can use to aid us on the second floor, would you?"

"We do not," replies the elder. "You are on your own."

Baeros wrote:"Mind if I check your regeneration skills too? Why would you wait for us if you can board the ship? Do you want something from the other floors too?"

"You can try. Any wound you inflict we will return. If you take a limb, it will grow back. Can you say the same, human? As for waiting for you, that is simply easier. But if that option is not available, we can make ourselves invisible and hide on your ship or take your appearances and pretend to be you. Regardless, we are leaving this island, one way or another."

==========

Jocelyn casts Cure Light Wounds on Thaddeus, restoring (1d8): 1 HP.
Jocelyn casts Cure Light Wounds on Drav, restoring (1d8): 8 HP. Drav is now fully healed.
Jocelyn casts Cure Moderate Wounds on Val, restoring (1d10+1): 4+1 = 5 HP.
Jocelyn casts Cure Light Wounds on herself, restoring (1d8): 6 HP. Jocelyn's condition improves from seriously wounded (50% HP) to moderately wounded (75% HP).

(OOC: That's what happens when you make me roll for you, Horizon. I have awful luck.

Breila, yeah, I suppose I missed it.

chese, would that matter? Nobody on the ship knows who Drav is, so if an Oni impersonates him, nobody will be able to tell as they have no basis of comparison.)

"How big is this second floor, or do you know?" Jocelyn asks.

"I imagine it's the same size as the first floor, unless magic has somehow altered the laws of physics. Which is possible," the elder admits. The Oni lead the party back into the hallway, but instead of heading to the pantry, they go to the large double doors in the center of the hall.

The elder removes a key from his pouch to unlock it. He also disables a couple of traps. Then he pushes the doors open to reveal a large room that is completely empty, save for a stone spiral staircase in the center, leading up to the next floor. A thick layer of dust lies on the ground and on the steps. Those with sharper eyes will notice very old blood stains on the steps.

"When you get up there, I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for traps," the elder says. "The fire trap we set on the front door is piddling in comparison to what's up there. If we do not hear any word from you by the morning, we will assume you did not survive."

Before Dahn goes to sleep he will cast mage armor on himself. When he wakes up, he will prepare shocking grasp and keep all previous spells, except mage armor.

"All right," Jocelyn says. "Then we need those that can disable traps and such in the front," she says.

The five oni leave the room, closing the double doors behind them. The party is now left alone, the stone stairs looking rather ominous.

"I'll take the lead," Brock volunteers, grasping his axe tightly while looking up at the stairs.

"I will certainly stay in the back," Thaddeus says weakly, his body still covered in rather nasty burns.

==========

Dahn cast Armor on himself and replaced it with Shocking Grasp.

Before the oni leave Baeros calls after the leader, "Wait! How many of you failed searching the second floor? And what was the largest group size?" after hearing the answer and seeing the oni turns to leave Baeros struggles for words for a moment but then calls again after the oni, "Tell me one thing! Are you ogres?"