[Game Thread] The Miyamakoori Monastery

[Lightened]

Lanaya sighed softly when her thoughts yielded no conclusions on what to do or what she should talk about with the tiefling to make the atmosphere any less awkward. She wasn't exactly great at such situations in the first place, and while she was content about having found someone with similar goals, smalltalk was not one of the areas she excelled at - in fact, the magus considered herself well below average in that regard, at best. Figuring that laying in bed brooding over things would not help things at all, she finally decided that she might as well use the first real bed she had seen in weeks for it's intended design, and go sleep where she felt relatively safe, although the cautious girl couldn't refrain from making a note to wake up at least every hour, if just as a safety precaution. Keeping her scimitar at her belt and the soft, almost comfortable silken armor on her body, she muttered a small "Good night, Zariel... we will see what we can do tomorrow." before drifting off into a light sleep, if the succubus-woman would let her.

[DMDracoMoondragon]

Zariel nodded to the elf woman, acknowledging that sleep was indeed necessary. She lay on her side facing away from Lanaya. She sighed as she let slumber slowly take her for the night. This Lanaya seems friendly enough. I get the feeling she knows what I am, too. At least she doesn't appear afraid of me.

[Aerandor]

Act 1: Death and the Quest for Fire

御迎ひの鐘の鳴也冬篭
omukai no kane no naru nari fuyugomori

the death bell
tolls at the temple...
winter seclusion

-Haiku, Kobayashi Issa, circa 1803

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Koyamata Ito, the Abbot of Miyamakoori Monastery, waited in his room, nervously tapping his fingers on the low table he sat behind. It had not yet been half an hour since he had received the knowledge that the woman of his visions would be visiting him tonight. It seemed that the kami favored auspicious moments to reveal themselves in the world. By Koyamata's reckoning, it had been exactly fifty years to the day since he had awoken in this very same crevice in the mountains. As Koyamata lost himself in recollections of the past, he felt a cold breeze graze the back of his neck.

Turning around, the abbot saw that the door to his private balcony was ajar. Standing, Koyamata made his way to the door. He glanced out from the door on the grounds of his beloved monastery. A light falling of snow continued as the night wore on, but all was now silent within the monastery. Koyamata observed the last of his disciples still awake, moving towards the monastery's bell to sound the final peel, signalling those who were still awake that the time for slumber was at hand. The bell peeled. As the ringing faded in Koyamata's ear, he heard a soft, lilting laugh from behind him.

"Hisashiburi, Ito-kun..." Koyamata turned around once again. In front of him he saw a ravishingly beautiful young woman, with long raven hair, palest skin, and blood-red lips. She wore a white winter kimono of surpassing elegance, and her whole form radiated with white light. The bell peeled a second time. Koyamata fell to his knees in front of the woman. Had anyone been standing on the far side of the room, they would not have missed the resemblance of the scene depicted in the large painting that hung in the room, a young man kneeling in the snow in front of a woman in white, with the scene that was now playing out.

Though Koyamata did not smile, his voice betrayed the joy he felt, "You came, you really came! Oh my lady! How I had hoped to see you one last time before I died. Thank you for such kindness." The woman smiled at Koyamata, and using the tip of her finger under his chin, raised Koyamata's gaze to meet her own. "Do you remember, Ito-kun, when we first met?" Koyamata did indeed smile now. "Yes, my lady. I remember well. I remember that you saved me from death when I was lost in a storm in these mountains, and I have honored you ever since." The woman's smile widened and she placed her hands on Koyamata's shoulders, drawing her face closer to his. "And do you remember, Ito-kun, what you promised me when I saved you?" The bell peeled for the third time. Koyamata's brow creased slightly, trying to remember if he had promised her something all that time ago. "My lady, forgive my rudeness, but... what was it that I had promised you?" The woman's smile was ear to ear now, and Koyamata noticed that some of her teeth were actually small fangs. "Why, you promised me this. All of this... and more..." The woman brought her face so close to Koyamata's own that their noses were now touching. As the woman slid her hands up onto Koyamata's bald head, Koyamata felt a numbing cold spread through him from anywhere the woman was touching him. "And more?" Koyamata croaked out, an uncertain fear seeping into his heart. "Why, yes, Ito-kun. You also promised me your life, and the lives of all those who have served you..." Koyamata's eyes widened, and his mouth fell open at the same time. A scream caught in his throat, as the woman kissed him, and the cold spread throughout his body. His vision darkening, he reached his hands around the woman, giving in to her embrace. The bell did not peel again...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sagota awoke to the sounds of screaming. The air was now quite chill. Looking over, Sagota saw Shikigawa-san, the young monk with whom Sagota had been sharing his room, yelling in pain, writhing and twisting on his bed. The sounds of screaming can be heard echoing from outside of the room as well. Suddenly, Shikigawa-san stops moving. His body seems to relax, and Sagota sees frost forming on the man's lips. Similarly, Talhoffer, Lanaya, and Zariel all awaken to the sounds of screaming and feel coldness seeping into their rooms. Shinobi, though awake, is surprised when the screaming begins. Glancing at Talhoffer, the two men's eyes meet.

 

Everyone act as you wish to the events. For reference, your rooms are all located on the same corridor within 20 feet of one another.

[brann miekka]

"No students!" screamed Talhoffer as he shot up from his sleeping position, sweat drenching his bald head and face, his beard ice cold with sweat. The sound took a moment to register in his mind and he immediately reached for his cane, its surprising warmth even in the cold always comforting him, and slowly walked to his bag, pain shooting through his leg as it always did when he awoke. He threw on a warm, fur hemmed black cloak and grabbed his hat before pulling open the door of his room and

Dice Perception:

1d20+4

(1)+4

Total = 5

looking around.

"Nine hells whats going on here?" he muttered to himself, teeth clattering together due to the cold, before coming back inside and putting on thick woolen socks and his sturdy traveling boots. Just remembering he shared a room with another traveler, he looked over to the man and said, "did you hear that too?"

[ShinobiMaster123]

Shinobi was preparing to leave when the screams occurred. He was about to place his haversack when the screams occurred. He is standing as they occur and throws the covers off the bed/mat as Talhoffer awakens reaching under the pillow for his shortsword.

"I do not know what is going on, but I'm not going to check this out unprepared.", he slings his haversack on his back and with sword in hand heads out into the corridor.

[brann miekka]

Talhoffer moved with haste to follow behind Toshi, and as he did he rummaged through his bag for one of the many scrolls he kept in there. Finding what he wanted he said, "Wait a moment, if you would be so kind," before unrolling the scroll and saying, "Vita alios confirmandos vos," and letting the necrotic power seep through his fingers into Toshi, empowering him and granting him

Dice False life temp HP:

1d10+5

(7)+5

Total = 12

extra vigor. "I hope that helps." He said before following the man outside and retrieving his wand from his bag.

OOC so 12 temp hp to you shinobi.

[PopCultureBard]

Isaru was somewhere else, some place warm and calm. Some place he had never been but always wanted to go. The comfort of his dreams were shattered by the cries of the man in the other bed and he was on his feet in moments, training taking over his motions. The haft of the naginata is in his hand and he braces the weapon under one arm, blade ready. There was nothing, at least nothing he could see. Just a writhing, screaming man in the opposite bunk.

He clears the distance between his bed and the entryway in a couple steps, throwing the door open and shouting into the hallway. "We have a sick man here!" It becomes clear to him then that the screaming is not isolated to his room. Whatever was happening, it was happening everywhere. There would be no help coming. Cautiously, he approaches Shikigawa-san and

Dice Heal:

1d20

2

studies the man from a foot away, hoping to notice some signs of what would cause such a reaction.

Frost on the lips, and this unnatural cold in the room. There is power at work here.

"Emperor be with me." He flips the weapon around, using the blunt end to prod the man on the shoulder and check for movement or breathing.

[Aerandor]

The screams that have been echoing through the corridor suddenly cease, and an eerie silence takes it's place. Looking into the corridor outside your rooms, you see no signs of life, nor any signs of intrusion or struggle, and yet all of the braziers that had been lit to heat the building seem to have gone out. If anything, it feels like it is getting colder...

[Lightened]

Lanaya woke from her dreamless sleep as soon as the screams came - her being a light sleeper was usually bothersome, but it helped in emergencies like those. Only seconds passed before she was fully awake and ready for anything the world might throw at her - she slept in her armor and with weapons on her side, another safety precaution that worked out in her favour as she felt the sudden coldness creep through her body slowly. Another few seconds later she was over at Zariel's bed, shaking her body and trying to get the tiefling to wake up - something was obviously wrong here, and although she wasn't afraid, the elf woman felt it was better to get as much potential help as possible, especially when the cold got even harsher and she heard a man shouting from what seemed to be a room close to theirs.

[brann miekka]

"We have a sick man here!" was the first thing Talhoffer heard in the silence, and he made his way quickly to the room he heard the call from. As he crossed the hallway and threw open the door he noticed the man as one of the other travellers who had also wound up here. He shook his head and moved over to where the man lay on the ground and

Dice Heal check:

1d20+2

(18)+2

Total = 20

looked him over. "What happened?" Talhoffer said as he tried to Detect magic, three roundsdetect any magical trace in the room.

[PopCultureBard]

"He woke screaming. Then...this." A shiver cuts through the samurai and he quickly steps back to his bed, pulling his boots on in hopes that the magic will fight back this strange chill. His head tilts to the side as he strains to pick up any noise from the hallway. The sudden lack of screaming is almost more frightening than the cacophony that preceded it. Isaru sets to work pulling on sections of the O-Yoroi with practiced ease.

"Listen to that silence." He pauses, slipping a segment of armor over his thigh. "Or...don't listen? Does one hear silence or does one not hear noise? A question for a wiser man, perhaps." Shaking off the moment's confusion, he reaches for his katana.

"This is wrong. We must see who survives."

[ShinobiMaster123]

Shinobi follows him into Sagota's room.

Shinobi has a bad feeling about this, but he needs to see if his mission has been taken care of for him. "Abbot Koyamata-sama we need to check and see if he is ok. He was ok when I left him, what about you, Talhoffer-san?" .

Shinobi feels the biting cold and reaches into his haversack drawing out his boots from the center pouch and listens to Talhoffer's response.

[brann miekka]

Talhoffer hesitates for a moment, then with a wince says, "Last I left him, he was going to meet that very same elemental he met years ago. He had a mirror, the object he wanted me to identify, that was, for the sake of time, temple a portal into the elemental plane of ice and one of its many uses was to summon the matron of this monastery." Looking down with a distraught look upon his face he off handedly pointed at the corpse. "I can only come to assume there is some correlation between her and the deaths and the cold. I am sorry, I....I had no idea this would happen." The professor stumbles back against the wall, hands shaking as the memories of his torn and dead students flashed vividly through his mind and a single tear streaked down his face as he could only continue to look on in horror at what his hands had wrought again.

[DMDracoMoondragon]

Zariel was normally a heavy sleeper. However, when Lanaya shook her, she woke up almost immediately. "What is it? Is something wrong, Lanaya? She then realized it was much colder than it had been last night. "What in the world is going on here?"

[ShinobiMaster123]

Shinobi goes to Talhoffer and pulls him off the wall, shakes him and slaps him back to reality. "Talhoffer-san, no one is blaming you at this time. You did not kill these men, something else did. You are powerful as I feel invigorated by your spell, but we will need you with all your wits. You can mourn later if you need to."