Re: Incarnation

When the group arrived on the third floor of the tower, they found themselves standing in mud again. This time it is more shallow and closer to marshlands. Partway in is what looks like the wall to a city or castle lit by torches. On the wall are three iron doors with red writing on them, each having a single word in Infernal. Ariagoria looks at the doors. “From left to right they read: Other, Self, Divine.”

Racknar put his hand on his chin and nodded. “In Creatures and Catacombs they kinda fuzed Wrath and Violence when they rearranged Hell so I guess it makes sense. In Dante's Inferno there are three kinds of violence. Each door represents one of them with the third being Violence against God.” Davy asks “How does violence against God work exactly? Vandalizing a church?” Racknar grunted “I guess, but it also included bestiality and sodomy. It was a far different time when Dante wrote the book.”

Mari pointed to the middle door “So far it's always been a middle door to move forward, so let's try that one first.” Racknar tried the handle. “Locked.” Then he tries the Divine door. “Same with this one.” Ariagoria also tried the middle door. “Well that sucks.” Then she tries the Other door. “This one's also locked. Maybe there's a trick to it.” Racknar scratched his head then tried the Other door as well. The moment he turned the knob he vanished in thin air.

“Is the door magically trapped or something!?” Davy shouts before trying all three doors, Ariagoria does the same but nothing happens. Krys then slowly reaches out to the middle door marked Self and tries to open it. She vanishes the same as Racknar did. “Shit, what the hell?!” Mari shouts, unable to open any doors. “I don't get it.” Davy puts his hand on his tendrils and strokes them like a beard. “I think I understand it now. It only lets you through if you committed an act of violence specific to the door.”

Ariagoria then gestured to the first door. “Considering the monsters we've killed, how come we can't enter the first door?” Davy shrugged “Maybe it does count monsters. The doors also don't consider things you've masturbated to otherwise I'd be able to open the last door.” Ariagoria facepalms “I'm not even going to ask because I really don't want to know.”

Davy shrugged again “It's either that or the door doesn't consider furries the same as bestiality.” Ariagoria granny slapped Davy. “Seriously, shut up.” Mari giggled “So I guess we just wait then?” Ariagoria shrugged “Not much else we can do since none of us can open the last door.”

Racknar found himself in an area with a river of boiling blood flowing through it, the area lit by standing torches. Racknar looked around but didn't see a door or other people. Blood red skinned shades crawl from out of the river and start bolting at him. Racknar draws his swords and they light up with blood red fire even though he didn't consciously activate that ability. He swings one sword through two of the shades then follows up by doing that four more times quickly dispatching ten of the shades before they can even attack.

Meanwhile Krys found themselves in a swampy looking area with dark leafless trees all around them. They drew their bow and readied themselves for an attack while looking around. Krys could hear crying from all around them. Then a strange purple fruit flung from one of the trees at Krys, although they dodged the fruit burst on impact letting out a purple mist in a large cloud around where it landed. Krys heard a strange ringing followed by a cacophony of voices. “End it. Kill yourself. Nobody loves you. The world would be better off without you.” Krys clutched their head as the hand holding the arrow gripped it near the tip and started pushing it to their chest. Krys had to fight their own arm that was now trying to stab them in the chest with an arrow.

Back outside the rooms Ariagoria paced. “Are you sure you can't enter the third room, Davy? I mean as a blue illithid with a dick, your very existence is a crime against God.” Davy fake laughs “Very funny Charity, but if the door was going to let me in it would have.” Mari had her head pressed against the first door and moved her hand to rest in it. “This room forced us to break the first rule of adventuring. Don't split the party.”

Back with Racknar and the army of shades slash at him with little effect. Racknar continued to cut them down two at a time with relative ease making it hard for any to get to him and the few that do only manage glancing blows. Racknar just keeps cutting them down like weeds killing another ten but they just keep coming. “I've been killing ten of you every few seconds and I've used all my “flurry of blows” uses that I should have and you just keep coming!”

Krys snapped the arrow they were holding and tossed it. They started dodging the fruit by keeping further distance from them as they moved around. Krys then noticed the trees had what looked like hominid shapes fused into the bark of the tree, its skin like bark, its face an expression of agony unlike any Krys had ever seen before. The trees started uprooting themselves and walking on their roots before turning to face Krys. All the trees had what looked like people fused into them, and they were the source of the wailing sounds. Krys started shooting arrows at the tree demons. Although blows land, it's not enough to kill one since Krys failed to land a headshot.

Racknar continued to clean out Shades in droves, running through them like the protagonist of a hack ‘n slash game. Easily dispatching them two at a time with the dragonbone greatswords. “I shouldn't be able to kill them like this. Cleave lets me move the remaining damage left over from an attack to an adjacent target but to kill two with one attack I'd have to consistently be doing at least twice its health in damage. Average sixteen, max twenty four. Even if I got max damage while raging I couldn't one-hit kill a single shade by the book.”

Krys has to use their shared shift ability to turn into crystal shrapnel to avoid a bunch of the fruit bombs. Then they fire three arrows at one of the three demons. One lands in the creature’s eye and then spikes magically erupt from its body hitting nearby trees before the tree slumps to the ground. “Did I just… cast a spell? Nice, this definitely makes me more useful in combat.”

Racknar huffs and puffs as he finally cuts down the last shade that spawned. He takes a big breath and is suddenly transported back to the main room. “Oh, nice.” He then noticed Krys is missing. “They went through the second door, didn't they? Damn. It sucks that we can't help them. Was no one able to open the third door?” Davy shook his head. “None of us can open it.”

Krys continued to fire arrows, after the third arrow landed on a target the magic thorns hit nearby trees. Krys kept dodging and firing. After five uses of the spell Krys is no longer able to use it. “Out of mana I guess” three more trees fall dead. “At least I made some headway.” Krys then spots a fruit that seems to have fallen without exploding and runs for it. With a slide they crab it off the ground and toss it hard at a tree demon. It stops moving and has to fight back its own sharp branches. It fails to and impales itself and falls dead. “Not immune to your own attacks? What a major flaw. It would be a shame if someone… exploited that.”

Krys aimed for just above the fruit trying to hit the stem or branch holding it. Three fruits drop and four of the trees stop chasing Krys to fight themselves. Two of them fail and impale themselves with branches. “I can work with this. I can't seem to do enough damage to kill them quickly so this is my best bet.” Krys continued to dodge, using the shard movement one more time doing damage to any trees they moved through.

Racknar sat with the group and tapped at his knees. “This sucks. Krys is all alone and we can't do anything to help them. If only these doors weren't sealed magically.” Mari sighs “Let's just hope we don't have to clear all three rooms. I mean we didn't have to before.” Davy does a so-so gesture. “We can't assume every floor will have a consistent thing to it. We should avoid any assumptions honestly. Educated guesses aren't the same thing as an assumption though. We should be prepared to be surprised or caught off guard.”

Krys fires three arrows again on the final tree to drop three of the fruit. The tree impales itself with its branches and hits the floor. After having a short moment to take a breather and plucking five fruits they find themselves in the main room. “Stupid crying trees with suicide fruits.” Racknar tilted his head “You had to fight Weeping Willows on your own and won? That's impressive. Those things can take a solid amount of damage.” Krys nods “I'm glad I have infinite arrows and thankful that those things weren't immune to their own attack.” Racknar seemed a bit surprised by this “They aren't? … Well I guess the stat block never stated it was, it's just something most people figured would be the case. Immune to poison but the fruit isn't actually poisonous in the traditional way.”

Krys nodded and showed the sack of five fruits. “These might come in handy later. I would have grabbed more if I had the time and space.” Racknar grunted “Note to self, invest in bags of holding. We'll have more than enough to get one each. One platinum each is a wild reward. If a silver is a dollar and a gold is a hundo, that makes a platinum coin a ten thousand dollar note.” Mari points out “hey, the other doors are gone now. Only the “Divine” door remains.” Racknar looked at it and slowly walked to it. “Lock hands and form a chain.” After doing so, Racknar turns the knob and opens the door. The group walked in it like a normal door.

Once inside they are in a large room inside the castle. A red carpet on the floor and in the distance a large stairway to a balcony on an upper floor. The roof of the building is missing and small bits of fire are raining into the building. They leave a small burn mark where they land but then the scorch mends itself. Standing at the staircase is a large extremely imposing figure.

The man must have been eight feet tall, and extremely muscular. He wore white full plate that resembled the kind a paladin would wear. A big red cross on the chest like the paladins had but upside down. In place of the gold filigree this armor had blood red accenting it. The helmet looks to be adorned with large horns on the back of the head. The man takes off his helmet revealing that the horns were a natural part of his body. He was a demonblood, but unlike Ariagoria his earthly parent was likely an orc as evidenced by the small tusk-like teeth coming from the bottom set and the pig-like nose. His skin was blood red and his eyes had yellow irises.

The man spoke in a low booming voice “Hello there, half sister. How about you give your older brother a big hug, so he may crush your bones. I will prove to father I am the superior spawn. Looking at you disgusts me. To think father would lower himself to seed a human of all things. If he wanted a strong child using earthly blood, an orc like myself or something from the giant race like the Goliath is obviously the best choice.”

Racknar grumbled “Listen here, I don't care about whatever family feud you have. There are five of us and one of you. Even if you have more experience and are more powerful than us, our teamwork has felled superior foes before.” The demonblood orc then draws two greatswords from his back. The two swords were large, proportional to his body; they fit him well but were larger than Racknar’s swords. They looked like dragonbone but in place of a blade it had dragon teeth between two dragonbone plates. The handles each had little levers that resembled bike brake handles.

The orc let out a growl. “Unfortunately for you, one of you has to beat me in a one-on-one fight to the death to move on to the next floor. So then, tell me, who among you is the strongest?!” Racknar drew his four swords and stepped forward. “I, Racknar Aradae, the Black Knight of Riverside, hereby formally challenge you to a champion’s duel.” The orc steps forward with a hearty laugh as a magic barrier blocks anyone else from entering. Ariagoria tried casting a healing spell through it but couldn't do so. “If you wanted to kill yourself that badly, you should have gone to the swamp of suicide.” The orc then tosses a glowing blue bottle at Racknar. “I want your best runt, so drink this full restoration potion before we start.”

Racknar looked at the potion and then shrugged before downing it. All wounds on his body healed and he even felt his fatigue vanish. He then took a combat pose. “Come at me then.” The orc presses the levers and the swords activate revealing that they are dragon-tooth chainsaws. “I, Gore’ath Wrath, the Bane of Angels, accept your challenge.” With that he charged at Racknar with a surprising amount of speed.

Gore’ath went at Racknar with both his chainsaw swords but Racknar turned his blades to their flats using two of each hand to block the blades, needing all his strength to do so as the blood red flames covered his body. Gore'ath pulls one sword back and it envelopes in blood red flames similar to Racknar’s as he shouts out before the swing. “Wrathful Smite!!!” Then gives the blade a heavy swing. Although Racknar moves two of his blades to block he is pushed back hard and slides across the room as flames lick his body.

Racknar then makes his own charge, he faints an attack before moving behind the orc before making five attacks in quick succession. Although all five land all they seem to do is push the man forward. The orc growls out three words “Rip and tear.” He turns to swing at Racknar again with extreme furocity. “Rip and tear!!” Racknar dodges the strikes but on the third strike the orc shouted “Fiendish Wrathful Smite!!!” Before making another big slash. Again Racknar managed to block, but even with all four blades he's thrown back.

Racknar shakily gets back up to his feet. “I'll hang you with your own intestines!” With a mighty swing both swords of the under arms hit Gore’ath’s ribs and the other two clock the man's helmet and this time Gore’ath is sent flying at the steps but hits the magic barrier before he makes it to the steps. “Then I'll use them as a prophylactic as I fornicate with your skull!” the orc gives a confused “what?” As Racknar makes a second charge. “I'm going to skull fuck you!” This swing misses as the Gore'ath rolls out of the way and back to his feet.

Gore’ath lets out a roar and some laughter “You may be the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but by Dis this is the best fight I've had in ages!” He goes in and makes multiple slashes at Racknar who keeps blocking them but is still looking rough. Despite being able to keep up with Gore’ath for now he doesn't seem to be winning. Racknar goes from a slide into a new set of attacks going on the offense as he gets more aggressive. He makes several solid strikes but his swords might as well be blunt objects as they hardly dent the armor. “I'm just getting warmed up Gore’ath!”

Racknar's chitin begins to turn a brick red like metal heating up as he continues to press the attack. He then begins to roar out as he savagely attacks the orc who returns the blows. Gore’ath gets an open hit on Racknar's ribs leaving a big gash in his body and Racknar’s blood red flames increase in intensity as he gets more aggressive. With another roar he gives it his all and lands a big hit on the helmet again, knocking it off and even cutting off one of the horns. Racknar continued to make body strikes.

The two clashed swords a couple times before Gore’ath pulls back both swords before going for another mighty blow. “Infernal Wrathful Smite!!!” Even with a full block Racknar is then sent back into the barrier. Using his swords to get back up he charges the orc once more but instead of going for slashes he goes for stabs trying to impale him. When the swords impact Gore’ath a magic barrier stops the blades shy of the armor. Racknar runs his sword flats on his fangs before making his own heavy attack with all four blades, two at each side. “Savage reckless strike, Infernal Black Iron Spider’s venom!”

Racknar actually cuts into the armor a bit leaving a new gap and sends Gore’ath backwards again. The orc shakily gets up, the poison taking effect fairly quickly. “You dirty little… no, you are just using all the tools at your disposal and giving me your all.” Gore’ath makes another charge at Racknar “But now you die! Baleful Lightning Smite!” Gore’ath slams his swords down with a crack of lightning. Racknar brings his swords up and is sent backwards. Thankfully bone is not conductive like metal.

Racknar charged forward to strike once more, making five stops consecutive strikes and landing a body blow on the gap he made earlier. This gives Gore’ath a nice gash on his body. “At least I can take some comfort in knowing you can't use my armor if I die.” He goes in for an attack but Racknar side steps it and goes behind Gore'ath before making a new infernal reckless strike hitting him and even burning him a bit. Gore’ath falls to one knee.

Racknar doesn't give him room to breathe and goes in for the kill. Four strikes to the body followed by a strike straight for the head. In a swift move, Racknar decapitated Ariagoria’s half brother. He then stabs the corpse a few times. “Take that you little shit.” Racknar then takes the chainsaw swords off him and finds another restoration potion and downs it, recovering his nearly fatal wounds. “Sorry about your half brother Charity.”

Ariagoria shrugs “I just met the guy today and he was a dick. Only issue I have is we didn't grab a cool item from the second floor. You and Mari both got cool loot. I guess Krys did grab those fruits but still.” Racknar sighs as the door to the next door appears. “It would be nice to get something for each of us during this. I think this place drawing from the same place I do powered me up. On to the sloth circle. Let's go.” Racknar leads the party up the steps to the door that goes to the next floor.