IC - Episode 2: Air and Fire (everyone else)

[Nick]

Noting the face of disgust as he slips the glass tube back into his backpack, Meepo could only guess what's on that little twit's mind.

"To find information and that skyship, your job is." "To ask about where it is, is what we are asking from you."

[Sohala]

Disgust turns into a slight grin at the memory of the kobold's earlier tirade. Feigning hopelessness, “Was I suppose to do that? I must have completely forgot about that during my willy nilly adventure of looking for subterranean access.”

[Nick]

Shrugging at the childish display, Meepo proceeds to the nearest devil.

"Information about this city, tell us."

[Sohala]

I need to read better clearly, I missed the last half of actions, so nevermind.

Still grinning, "Well the devils seem to have done a wonderful job with the redecoration," Speaking to no one in particular, "I should probably ask who their exterior decorator is..." Then talking to the group again, "Lots of fortifications, troops, and even some lava. The lack of humanoids is disturbing though, as is the destruction of all the churches."

[Mister_Sinister]

The devil that Meepo approaches gives him roughly the same information that was given to Noxatra when she spoke to a devil last, and in more or less the same tone and manner.

In case you missed it: here to here.

[Nick]

"Some clues we will find, into the spire we shall go." Meepo tells the group after the exchange of information.

OOC

If there are no objections we're headed there

[Sohala]

Noxatra just lets out an annoyed sigh.

Oldest building sounds like a good place to start as a group.

[Mister_Sinister]

Soundtrack change (up to 1.43).

As the team moves closer to the spire in the centre of the city, they find that their headaches, which simply would not abate despite their increased distance from the portal, begin to recede a little. Once they are no more than a few dozen feet from the spire, they vanish completely, replaced by a strange humming noise that seems to be coming from everywhere and nowhere in particular.

The spire itself is impossibly tall, rising at least two hundred feet into the air. Its base is covered in scaffolding, and heavy cannon and armour plates are being added to it by a horde of workers, both fiendish and human, with supervision from several winged kobolds, who use the scaffolding as landing places at best. Even though the scaffolding reaches an impressive height, it is only perhaps halfway up the spire, which reaches into the sky like a needle. It doesn't seem to have any doors or windows, being just a solid pillar of some unusual material, bluey-grey in colour and completely smooth on the outside.

As the party observe the obelisk-like structure, they cannot help but feel in awe of it, towering over everything around it, and themselves too, and even the crude attempts to 'improve' it by the hordes of workers at its base do not seem to cut into its majesty at all.

No sooner than they are done admiring the beauty of this incredibly old structure that a devil rushes over to them, holding a stack of papers and sweating profusely. His voice is squeaky and unpleasant, and the amount of sweat that the rather short devil is shedding is causing his clothes to appear soaked and his hair to be truly disgusting. When he speaks, everything appears to tumble out in one long stream of words, making hardly any attempt to separate them.

"No entry this is a restricted area you must leave at once".

[Sohala]

Talking in one of her kinder tones, Noxatra addressed the devil, “Ah, good sir, we were just admiring your excellent work, before we went about business of investigating the Spire. My mistress Shar has taken an interest in its history, and would like what little information we can gain from it before your guests arrive.” She gave a glance to the sky before she continued. “I was assured by the command center that I would be granted access to the Spire and the grounds around it. These are of course my assistants; they will be helping with the research.” She gestured towards her companions.

[Mister_Sinister]

"I need authorisation to prove what you're saying where are your papers you don't look like a devil how did you get permission who are you."

The devil continues to sweat profusely, dripping on the ground, and rubs its hands together constantly while speaking in its horrible squeaky voice.

Hopefully this may explain better

[Sohala]

The devil's voice starting to wear thin on her patience, Noxatra nevertheless continued in the kind tone, "You should be commended for your vigilance, for sadly I do not have any papers. It seems those at the command center must be failing in their duties. No matter, I am Noxatra, humble servant of Shar, and guest of Belial." She gave a slight bow with the introduction and then continued speaking, her tone moving slightly away from kind, "I had hoped that they would have sent word ahead, but seems as if I shall have to go bother them again, though they appeared rather busy." She starts to turn to walk away, but looks back for a moment, "When asked who delayed me, what name shall I give them?"

Now that might require a roll.  

Went and forgot to roll 
1d20+17=36 Bluff

[Mister_Sinister]

The devil would look worried, but the heavy sweating and hand-wringing makes it difficult to tell.

"No need for that you can go through you don't need my name don't take too long I don't need more problems go go go."

With those words, the devil rushes off, still sweating and leaving wet patches on the ground behind it.

[Sohala]

Turning back towards the Spire, "Well, let’s get moving, lots to do," Noxatra said to the group, now with a small smile on her face.

[Awkward Map]

With a small shrug and a smile, Veldor follows along.  "Whatever you say, boss."

[Sohala]

Taking the lead, Noxatra walked forward. She kept her eyes moving, scanning the ground for any clue, big or small, that might help with figuring out the Spire.

As she got close to the Spire, she withdrew her glasses. Avoiding interaction with the workers, she made her way around the base, making a show of examining the stone of the Spire.

That will be a:
(walking up)
Untrained dungeoneering 1d20+4=12
Perception 1d20+20=35
(walking around)
Detect magic & identify.
Untrained dungeoneering 1d20+4=6
Perception 1d20+20=34

How big around are we talking for this thing? Huge is a given.

[Mister_Sinister]

It's a lot huger than Huge - that thing is 40ft in diameter in order to even be structurally sound, and might well be more.

For Nox

Detect magic registers the material as non-magical. No residual auras other than the ones you'd expect from a huge construction site manned by devils and their slaves.

You don't notice anything resembling an entrance anywhere nearby, nor on the building. Nothing nearby seems to indicate any method of entry, nor give any clues as to what the tower did originally.

If you wanna know anything else, just post it in a spoilerblock.

[Sohala]

Bleh, huge instead of big when talking about D&D is bad. 

Marking of any kind, preferably with rough times, like one is ancient, the other is recent cause some idiot can't swing a hammer right.

Is the material actually stone, as the devils claimed?

Oh, how hard is it?

Noxatra subtly pulled her spear out enough to touch the wall, and then carefully, she attempted to make a small scratch on the surface.

[Mister_Sinister]

There's a lot of graffiti on the tower, but none of it seems to have any meaning beyond 'Person X was here' or 'Person Y has large/small/not enough/too many/much cock/balls/tits/ass' etc. The material appears to be stone.

Noxatra easily scratches the tower with her spear.

[Sohala]

Noxatra ponders the situation for awhile, “Let’s see if we can’t delve a little deeper.” With a quick wave of her hands the earth seems to come alive, flowing up to form something that resembled a humanoid. What almost sounds like rocks rubbing against each other passes between the elemental and Noxatra, before it melts into the ground.

It has been instructed to look for a hollow passage within and around the Spire. If it locates such a passage in the Spire, it is to look for some sort of mechanism and use it, before looking for passages under the ground.

Culture for Terran 1d20+11=30, success

Sac Cure Moderate Wounds for a small earth ele

[Mister_Sinister]

The elemental's searches come to naught, as when it returns above ground, its chittering seems to have a negative overtone.

The elemental reports nothing but solid stone all around, except where the foundations are, but the floor is solid stone too.