Spontaneous Combustion
The good news:
You have a job.
The bad news:
The job apparently involves an ongoing spotting of a 'fiery man' who's been spotted at night in the Alexandrian working class districts. Sure, there's no /other/ fire being set by him, but there's been enough reports centered around an area at certain times that you've been assigned by the guild to look into it.
Which is how you're here, in a working class district, in the middle of the night. Looking for a ghost. On patrol.
Lollia mmphs, hugging herself a bit as she walks, having eschewed a warm cloak for style and looking good. Thus, bit chilly for her at the moment. "Goddess, I almost want us to find him setting a fire just so I can get warm..." she grumbles, her bow slung over her back as she walks along, glancing around occasionally for signs of....she doesn't know! Glowing burning footprints? Recently flame broiled rats? Something...
The blue robed cleric adjusts his steel mask. "I am not sure I am cut out for roaming the streets at night looking for a flaming man." Sark pauses and shakes his head. "I think this perhaps is the domain of another God." With a deep inhale and a long sigh, he slides his arms within the sleeves of his robes and girds himself for the evening air. "Perhaps there is motive or a signature to his acts? A trap we can lay or a place that he is most likely to strike?"
Izzy, the crimson lizard is acting oddly tonight. She's moving lethargically through the cold, her yellow eyes casting about more frequently than usual. She blinks several times as the cleric speaks and then gives a faint nod. She clacks her jaw once and then sniffs at the air around them for something. "Many reasons to burn human buildings. Does not matter. He must stop. How will we go about finding what burns next?"
Nervously, a darkly robed figure remains in the back. It's clear that he's a sith-makar, his tail and the snout poking out from the cowl of his hood gives him away as that. He moves just quickly enough to remain at the back of the party, his cowl turning from side to side as he peers about for some sign of the 'ghost' that they are hunting, his right claw holding his cloak tightly about his body. He has said nothing at all thus far, and continues to remain silent even as conversation picks up.
"One supposes he can turn the fire off, or this would have been over quickly." Strike muses, gooseflesh running the length of her exposed limbs, though she's learned to keep the shivering somewhat controllable. She looks at the speaking Sith like she was wearing a gore poncho to a coronation ceremony, but says nothing untoward, yet.
"Well we have come from that way, so we might as well go this way." Sark says simply. His head nodding from the path into the working district towards the street passing down through it. "Perhaps we will be lucky and stand by something exceptionally flammable, or man-able. Whichever is of more interest to our quarry."
"We could start a fire. Perhaps he will get jealous and come to stop us," suggests Izpapalotl. Another blink follows.
"Y'know, /we/ are pretty flammable..." the blond elf grouses, but turns down the path indicated. "I mean, he might not show up if we're all together too. I wouldn't try to jump a group like this. Maybe if we sent someone ahead who looked particularly flammable or helpless first or something."
GAME: Zeke rolls perception: (13)+2: 15 GAME: Sark rolls perception: (18)+5: 23 GAME: Strike rolls perception: (16)+10: 26 GAME: Lollia rolls perception: (12)+6: 18 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls perception: (13)+6: 19
You all hear it, of course.
There's a shriek. It's a panicked shriek followed by jabbering in goblin. Locating the direction it came from in the city is actually harder than you'd think, what with the twisting streets and buildings and alleys and whatnot. Still, with some work and a whole lot of dedication, you're able to locate the source of it. You move between streets and through dirtied alleyways. It definitely sounded like someone needed help..
Strike cants her head a bit, perking an ear as it were and half turns, "Someone's found our bunny. That way!" She points, then she's off to the races.
Lollia mmphs. "Finally!" She starts jogging that direction, then drops back a bit, letting the meat shields...ah, the big, strong, well-armored types lead the way! Yus.
"Oh dear." Sark says, then he's following after, pulling up his robes so they don't trip up his feet as he jogs after those that ran before. "Hopefully no one is injured!"
Zeke is unsurprisingly in the back though he does pick up his pace considerably. He makes an odd noise as he runs, a thud-clink, thud-clink. The sith-makar manages to keep up but there is an odd sway to his gate that seems to make it a touch difficult to do so, and clutching his cloak tightly about his body isn't making him move any faster.
Down the way you go, finding the goblin shouting and gesticulating down the street. A small crowd has gathered as they continue doing so. Your arrival is noted by the crowd and now they're all turning towards you enmasse.
"Are you one of the patrols?" asks one of the gobs in the crowd.
Once this is sorted out, and it is, you're told a story of a 'man on fire' who ran down the street before vanishing into a building. Through the wall.
Itzpapalotl says, "I can also run through walls," Izzy professes. Then she pauses. "Though usually I would leave a hole. Hmmph." She is looking down the street and starts in the apparent direction of the building in question."
Strike nods, "We are, and we've been searching for this man. Return to your homes, or at least get a little distance from here, and we'll see to it." She then looks to her compatriots and gestures toward the indicated building. <goblin-talk>
"Right, well the wall is probably not going to work for us." Sark remarks. "Shall we move around towards the entrance?" Taking his shield from his back he ties it onto his forearm and runs a gloved hand carefully over the symbol of Althea so it glows in the ambient night. "If it is an undead spirit, the grace of Althea shall aid us against its villainous intentions."
There's a mix of people here of different backgrounds and races. The goblins continue to talk.
"Yeah! It rand own the street and just.. through that wall! Right there!" A pointing towards a building. It looks like some kind of normal home, really, though one not in present use if the way its boarded up is any indication.
Instructions received, they're gonna disperse and get in their homes, leaving you to approach the boarded up home in question. It really does look sealed up well. If you want to go in, you're gonna hvae to force the issue somewhere. <goblin-talk>
Lollia eyes the door, then looks back to Izzy. "...sooo...about making a hole...." She points at the door. "How about right there?" She blinks cutely at the towering lizard girl. "Pretty please?"
GAME: Lollia casts Mage Armor. Caster Level: 2 DC: 16 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls strength+2: (13)+3+2: 18
Izpapalotl turns slightly and looks at the blonde elf walking alongside her. She clacks her jaw and closes those large yellow eyes for the first time tonight. Then the lizard leans forward. There's a rumble as the artifice clasping her legs begins to come to life. The groan of pistons firing. Then the lizard shoots foward- and *smashes* through the wall, sending wooden splinters in all directions.
The suggestion that Lollia makes causes Zeke's eyes to widen in alarm. He steps forward, meaning to put an end to this idea and suggest that they find some other means to get inside when... And then it really doesn't matter any more what he was about to say because there's already a hole in the wall. His claw falls and he shakes his head silently.
This should be... interesting. As the Sith uses golem power to smash her way into the building, the hal-mul walks along in her wake, though the previous look of discomfort washes over her features.
THOOM. There is now a hole in the house.
What becomes quickly apparent to you is that this is not the ONLY hole in the house. Only hole in the exterior, maybe, but this whole pace is decrepit and creaky and looks like it needs to be torn down. You've managed to make one good step in that direction with taking out some of that wall, at least.
The second part is the smell. It stinks like sewer in here. Largely because there's a big hole in the floor that seems to lead directly down into it. The smell of smoke and burnt flesh is obvious.
5RLollia grins big, then saunters after Izzy through the newly made hole, then wrinkles her nose, covering her mouth and nose as the stench washes over her. "Nice job Izzy! And oh my GODDESS what stinks and....oh. Oh no." The vain elf gulps. "...nooooo, not the sewers."
"Humans are strange. Do not taste the air," Izzy replies helpfully to the complaints of the stench.
"Why does it always remind me of bacon?" The masked Cleric says as he passes into the house and encounters the burned flesh smell. Tapping his second belt, which glows and leaps into his hand as an elegant rapier. Sark leans forward looking into the hole then trudges on in first. Trusting to his natural ability to see in dark places as he does so.
Strike looks like she sipped from a mug of coffee only to have a cigarette butt bump into her lip. It isn't the smell, though, DAMN, yeah, it's the memory of the last time she was down there, "I hope the otyughs don't still insist on hugging everyone." The cleric's musings prompt her aside of, "I've encountered a few tribes that refer to manflesh as 'long pig'. There could be a correlation, but I've never indulged."
Zeke stops in his tracks, staring at this place around them with interest and confusion. Then at the hole in the ground. "Isss that where the ghossst went?" He sounds uncertain though the scent is certainly headed in that direction. He sniffs the air. Shakes his head and rolls his right shoulder. "Then we ssshould go down yessss?"
"So, that was subtle." says Alaryn to Izzy after the wall is blasted. But she starts striding forward to peer down into the hole. "Well, as long as we're making sure -everyone- knows we're here... why not?" she asks as she starts unwrapping her silk rope.
Izzy shrugs when Alaryn mentions subtlety. "Two metered armoured Sith are rarely subtle." This, it seems, is answer enough to that conundrum for the lizard.
Lollia whines. "But I just got my boots /clean/ from last time!!" She scowls a bit, but grumbles. Only because she doesn't get paid unless she actually solves the issues. Which involves going into the sewers. "...I hate this so much." she proclaims. AS if anyone didn't already know.
"Oh relax." says Alaryn to Lollia, "Prestidigitation can clean them again." That said, she lowers the rope into the hole and moves to tie it off to something nearby. "So, who's going in first?" she asks with a smile.
"Everyone saw us on the way in." Strike reassures the woman, "Except our ghost, hopefully."
Down you go.
A little rope tied to a secure strut and you have a way back up, too.
The smell is stronger here. Interestingly, it looks like the floor collapsed down here, like it just bottomed out. Following the smell of burnt flesh is really your best bet at this point and you're able to track it, moving down the sewer passage and finding it getting much stronger as you go.
"It smells like dinner," Izzy observes. She will continue in the direction of that smell, clacking her jaws as she goes. Would Izzy eat burnt corpses? Well... It isn't cannibalism if you're not human, right? With such questions perhaps being raised the lizard will happily lead the way for now.
Slinking along the tunnel Sark keeps his shield and rapier at the ready. His feet shifting across the tunnel floor with the tread of someone who has been down in sewers entirely too much. "When they ask for priests to aid the Guild they speak of grand battles and adventures. Being a part of amazing deeds and making a name for yourself. Spreading the word of Althea and lending her healing grace to those in need." There is a sigh from the masked cleric. "They pointedly refuse to talk about wandering through the sewer looking for a flesh burning maniac whom can walk through walls. It destroys a bit of the mystique not knowing which smell you dread more, what comes out of people, or how they smell after cooking."
"One means people were able to eat." Strike observes, looking around, though it does sound like her stomach, at least, isn't happy, "In the right circumstances, the other means you won the battle." Silver linings, that's her.
Down the rope she goes. Alaryn isn't the best climber. That's why there are knots in the rope. She works her way down and then leaves it there. "Anyone got a torch?" she asks in a semi-soft-ish voice. "Maybe some nose plugs?"
There's a faint glow at the end of the passage. Like... fire.
But it's got a bluish cast. You could be nearing the source of it.
GAME: Alaryn casts Endure Elements. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15
Seeing the glow, Alaryn shakes her head, "Looks like we may get warm." she mutters as she draws some powdered quartz crystal from a pouch and then pours a bit of prepared oil over it. The mana infusion rolls up her arm and over her body... "Won't protect from fire but... yeah." she admits as she reaches for her dragonspitter and draws it.
GAME: Itzpapalotl casts Magic Weapon. Caster Level: 3 DC: 13
Zeke is the last down the hole, notably well after the last person. He lands in a clamor, making quite a lot of noise. Then follows at a distance from everyone else. Several people cast spells, but he remains silent watching the blue light as they grow closer and closer to it.
Strike takes an everburning torch out of her pack and nods, "I don't think the flames are what we think of as fire." None of her other options are helpful if they're fighting a spirit, but she's here, she has to do something.
Lollia brings up the rear, like a good wizard, reading to cast spells and trying to avoid the worst of the messes on the floor in the flickering torchlight. "So, what, he burned to death and now he looks that way?" she wonders.
So there you have it.
The burning man.
A closer look at him does indeed reveal that he seems to be burning with ethereal fire, his body consumed with it. He is here, pointing towards a gap in the wall. A gap filled with charred bones.
He keeps pointing at it, wordlessly shouting something that you can't quite comprehend through the flames.
...and that's when the bones start moving, melding together
Rising.
... and setting on fire...
Seeing what is going on, Alaryn skids to a stop. "Whatever it is that's happening, he isn't the one doing it." she states softly as she raises her hands, preparing to cast a spell of her own... (when it's her turn)
GAME: Itzpapalotl activates her Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Str GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+2: (14)+8+1+2: 25 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls reflex: (14)+5: 19 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+strength+1: (6)+5+1: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6: (2): 2 GAME: NeverSleepsPool advances the initiative order. GAME: Lollia rolls ranged touch: (14)+ranged touch: 14 GAME: Lollia rolls ranged: (20)+2: 22 (THREAT) GAME: Lollia rolls 1d3: (1): 1 GAME: Lollia rolls ranged: (14)+2: 16 GAME: Lollia rolls 2d3: (5): 5
Lollia blinks at the rising pile of bones. Well. She's...not sure if her scream will work well on this! She really needs to get a fall back. But she does raise a hand and point, mist curling around her fingers as she chants, then a chill blue beam shoots from her fingers to strike the mass of burning bones, playing over its surface as flames hiss and snuff out where it runs over the bones, leaving frost behind. "Yes! Cold hurts it more!"
Seeing things descending into the burning hell of undead, Alaryn steps to one side to clear firing lanes and make sure she has a good angle herself. But she reaches for a pouch and rips it off of her belt. She crushes it in her hand. She's not super strong. It's designed for this.. and magic flows out of the bag, 4 crystal shards floating up to anchor the corners of a translucent rectangle of force before her.
GAME: Lollia casts Ray of Frost. Caster Level: 2 DC: 15 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (8)+5: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (15)+10: 25 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (9)+10: 19 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4+1d6: (5)+4+(3): 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4+1d6: (4)+4+(5): 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool advances the initiative order.
As the skeleton crawls from the wall, it rapidly becomes apparent that though it is a humanoid shape and size, it is not composed of merely human bones. It's a collection, a mish mash of different things belonging to different animals, creatures. yes, some human bones, but some that are plainly not.
For example, one fist is made entirely of charred rat bones and skulls as it crashes, flaming, into Izzy and then Strike.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d6: (8): 8
Zeke does some praying. Lots of praying, actually, and proceeds to close and mend some of the burns that Strike suffered at the hands of the creature, not to mention the bruising. Izzy too seems to be feeling better.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1+1: (5)+unarmed0+1+1: 7 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1+1: (11)+unarmed0+1+1: 13 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1+1-5: (11)+unarmed0+1+1+-5: 8 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (4)+8+1+1: 14 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (4)+8+1+1: 14 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1-5: (6)+8+1+1+-5: 11 GAME: Alaryn rolls ranged+2: (11)+4+2: 17 GAME: Alaryn rolls 2d6+5: (9)+5: 14 GAME: Lollia casts Ray of Frost. Caster Level: 2 DC: 15 GAME: Lollia rolls ranged+1: (19)+2+1: 22 GAME: Lollia rolls 1d3: (2): 2
Shield in place, Alaryn reaches to the back of her belt. She draws out the scepter she keeps there and with an activation of an arcane control stud, she lengthens it to its full six foot size. The crystal at the end sparks and shows an aura of electrical energy about it even as she lowers that tip towards the skeleton. "Hey!" she calls out from about fifteen to twenty feet away. "Facemelter!" That said, she directs mana through the crystal and a lightning-ish blast leaps from it to strike the bones of the burning skeleton...
Lollia holds her fire for a moment, trying to get a clear shot as she keeps her fingers pointed all fingergun (not that she has a gun). The moment Alaryn blasts the skeleton, sending it staggering back, she takes her chance, chanting and sending another icy blue beam past Alaryn's shoulder to slash across the skeleton, puffing out more of its fiery coating!
GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (6)+5: 11 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (7)+5: 12 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (5)+5: 10
Strike is staggered for a moment by the blow from the fiery boneyard, but she responds with a rapid flurry of staff strikes guaranteed to clear her enemy's immediate airspace of all those imaginary butterflies!
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (2)+10: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (20)+10: 30 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (3)+10: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4+1d6: (8)+4+(3): 15 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d6: (3): 3
The skeletal creature seems... not terribly intelligent?
While it's getting blasted, it seems focused on what's right ahead of it. Strike eats a blow that was almost lethal while Izpapalotl is able to duck under its swinging, flaming fist. Still, the spray of blood from the impact doesn't bode well for Strike.
Zeke continues to do their level best to produce ample healing energies. It IS helping.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (13)+8+1+1: 23 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (10)+8+1+1: 20 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1-5: (16)+8+1+1+-5: 21 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+strength+1: (4)+5+1: 10 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+strength+1: (3)+5+1: 9 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+3: (3)+3: 6 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d4+3: (2)+3: 5 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls reflex: (5)+5: 10 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls reflex: (18)+5: 23 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls reflex: (11)+5: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6: (5): 5 GAME: Alaryn rolls ranged: (10)+4: 14 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d6+5: (11)+5: 16 GAME: Lollia casts Ray of Frost. Caster Level: 2 DC: 15 GAME: Lollia rolls ranged+1: (2)+2+1: 5
Another blue ray from Lollia! But this time...well, she misjudges which way the fiery skeleton is going to move after Alaryn zaps it again, the bolt shooting past to hit the wall harmlessly in a spreading snowflake of frost. "Dammit!" the blonde elf squeaks, growling.
The enormous lizard seems to have figured this one out. She dives right into a flaming fist, taking the blow and being enveloped in fire. It doesn't seem to stop the snarling thing, who bowls into it brutally with both claws, slams her shoulder into the thing's body, and then bites down hard on its flaming appendages, fire swirling between her teeth.
GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (14)+5: 19 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (14)+5: 19 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (10)+5: 15 GAME: Strike rolls 1d6+3: (4)+3: 7 GAME: Strike rolls reflex: (20)+5: 25 (CRITICAL SUCCESS) GAME: Strike rolls 1d6+3: (3)+3: 6 GAME: Strike rolls reflex: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d6: (6): 6 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (20)+10: 30 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (18)+10: 28 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+10: (12)+10: 22 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d8+8+1d6: (5)+8+(4): 17 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4+1d6: (6)+4+(3): 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4+1d6: (3)+4+(5): 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool advances the initiative order. GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 3d6: (8): 8 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+8: (15)+8: 23 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+8: (8)+8: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+5: (7)+5: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (12)+4: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 2d6+4: (8)+4: 12 GAME: Lollia casts Ray of Frost. Caster Level: 2 DC: 15
The combined pressure of Strike, Itzpapalotl and Alaryn take quite a bite out of the skeleton. It's looking far more brittle than it was, though it's second blow wounds severely Itzpapalotl and sends Strike hurtling to the ground.
GAME: Lollia rolls ranged+1: (4)+2+1: 7
This time Lollia tries to get clever! She maneuvers to the side, trying to take aim at the more brittle areas her companions have managed to smash up a bit, trying to make it worse! Sudden cold on red hot bones, after all, probably causing some cracking! Alas, she focuses SO much on hitting that spot that she's not paying attention when Alaryn blasts it again and the ray misses a second time, coating part of the floor in frost. "DAMMIT!"
GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (12)+5: 17 GAME: Strike rolls 1d6+3: (2)+3: 5 GAME: Strike rolls reflex: (4)+5: 9 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6: (6): 6
The fist comes in and- darkness. Strike spun, skin smoking at the impact point, to the ground. By some quirk of training or being as hard headed as she was before she died, she still has the staff within her nerveless grip. Infusions of healing energy revive her and she blinks in surprise to find herself still meaty... and still in danger. She glances 'down' her body at the heat standing over her, and she sits up in a rush, thrusting her staff into the spine behind the ribs and apparently seals the deal. As the skeleton shatters, it's residual heat flares to engulf her and nearly take her to screaming oblivion with it. As it is, she collapses to the ground, voice hoarse and panting.
With the creature destroyed, the fiery spirit, who had faded into the background in the immediacy of the conflict, seems relieved. AS if whatever pain it was enduring is...fading?
It smiles towards you, mouths words, and fades away. No doubt it was the spirit of one man's bones incorporated into such a beast.
-End