Ash Falls - A Stronghold Game [IC Thread]

[Whiplord]

Listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmGWPbIH7wQ) to set the right mood


http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5166/articleslibischdanmoonl.jpg


The country of Azsh is a not one that welcomes the casual traveler. In order to reach it, one must travel through some of the harshest desert in Kha’lal to the Barrier Mountains. Once there, one must brave cruel mountain passes, eventually traversing into a region that is almost perpetually bound by winter, braving not only the elements, but also the dangerous wildlife, both alive and undead that lurk in every crevice.

For most travelers though, it does not even come to that. If anything Azsh is a land of rumor and legend. Since few travel there, only bits and pieces of rumor and story make it back out to the rest of the world. The one thing everybody does know however is that Azsh is a land full of the undead. They exist not only in the wild, but are raised and controlled by legions of necromancers, for labor, military use, or anything else that could be thought of. Story tells that the inhabitants of Azsh are the descendants of the Marru who fled The Empire of Shadowed Sands. Thus, few foreigners decide to make the journey.

It is a landscape of desolate peaks, deep valleys filled with snow, and an almost constant winter. Civilization is sparse, and cities are typically spread out, subsisting on only the barest minimum of trade. One such city is called Miserat. It is remote, lying half a day’s journey from the Frostspine mountains, and does nothing to redeem to rumors surrounding the ill nature of the country.


http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/1237/winterlb.jpg


It is morning, and the sun rises on the city of Miserat, though there is little difference between the cold darkness of night, and the bleak, gray light of day. It is winter, and so the days are short and the sun never really penetrates the ever present shield of dark cloud overhead. At night, one could disillusion themselves into seeing some sort of mystery and romance in the cramped dark alleys, and high, crumbling stone buildings. But the day brings only a crushing sense of reality, as the residents can now once again see clearly the filth and decay that defines their city, serving as a reminder that they must live another day in their depressive surroundings. In Miserat, the rich get richer, and the poor die. And even the rich are poor by most standards. It is a city defined by its underworld, and its underworld parallels the rest of the city, collapsing in on itself.

A light snow has begun to fall, but in the grey light it appears more like falling ash, burying the entire city. A few mindless, shambling zombies of burden work their way slowly down the polluted, cramped avenues, off on one job or another, and the odd intelligent undead scurries by occasionally on some mission or another for their employer. Even the guards aren’t alive for the most part. Hanging bits of flesh can be seen under the crisply pressed uniforms. Signs of the living are few and far between at this time of morning, still abed. But for the rest of city, sleep never comes.

Near the edge of town, two individuals wake up in an inn, preparing for a journey they are about to embark on.

[Wertible]

The day finds Nyx the same as all days spent in Azsh's relative wilderness, unbearably cold.

There might as well be no difference between this place and the bottom of a well. Cold, and unbearably bleak. Poor striving to survive, barely subsisting on the fruits of those strong willed folk who choose to surround them.

Nyx made his daily preparations. He prayed to Kellüs and meditated until Garreth awoke, upon which he donned his armor and turned to speak.

"We must make for the ruins soon if we wish to get there before any other. I wouldn't put it past some of the people in this town to outhaste us and scavenge them before we get our fair chance."

[Plasma Snake]

"No problem boss. Just give me a few minutes to prepare and we can be on our way" Garreth says rising from his bed.

He begins stretching to prepare for the days physical toils, while gathering power for later imbuing. After about 20 minutes he finds himself ready. As he dons his heavy clothes and armor, he speaks to a large clay lump in corner of the room.

"Wobbles, be a dear and fetch the bag?"

The lump uncurls to reveal a homonculous shaped like a small child. Like its namesake the homonculous wobbles around the floor breifly then grabs a pack more that twice its size. It hefts the pack and salutes to Garreth.

Garreth turns to Nyx and says, "Ready when you are."

[Wertible]

"Then let us go toward the Frostspines, and find whatever lies in wait in those ruins."

With this brief exchange, Nyx begins to walk toward the ruins, following his tattered map, assuming that Garreth follows.

[Whiplord]

The two leave the city of Miserat behind, even if only for the time. The ruin which Nyx' map depicts is located roughly a half day's journey from the city. The air is cold, but at least it is clear of the stench it contained near and within the city.

The going is slow, as it is necessary to work through the snow on the little traveled road, but finally the men reach their destination.

The Frostspines could be seen from within Miserat, looming on the horizon, but now the travelers are directly in their shadow, when the ruin comes into view.

It is a curious thing, consisting mostly of a huge stone dome, wrecked in several places, with holes in the it's massive roof and sides. It appears as if it was once part of some greater building or monument, but where that structure now is is a mystery. One larger hole can be seen in the side, which looks as if it will serve as an entrance.

[Wertible]

"You should move ahead and scout. I will follow roughly 20 feet back. Remember, anything you find comes directly to me, or else."

Nyx says this as he enchants his armor, weaving magic into his already formidable defenses. (Magic Vestment) He sets his grey ioun stone in orbit around his head, providing a source of continuous light, and gestures for Garreth to lead the way.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth unsheaths his rapier saying,
"Well time to earn my pay."

Before moving, Garreth imbues his armor and weapon. Finishing, Garreth moves toward the entrance holding his glowing rapier aloft to see inside.


Cast Magic Vestment on Breastplate and Weapon Enhancement and Light on Rapier.
+1 to Breastplate AC
+1 Enhancement to rapier

making spot check to see inside, search check to look for traps.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Garreth moves forward, looking inside the opening cautiously while Nyx stays a distance behind.

What Garreth sees:

The inside is quite dark, and while the light from your rapier blade helps some, you are unable to discern any large amount of detail. It sppears that there are large amounts of rubble strewn about inside, high enough to form walls and rough rooms. You can see enough to tell that there is about a 20' x 20' space, and an opening on the far side leading into what is likely another chamber. You can't see well enough to make out more than a slight outline of more walls.

Though you search the ground near and inside the entrance quite carefully, you are unable to find any signs of a trap. It seems the whoever once owned this ruin was not as paranoid as you yourself.

[Plasma Snake]

Paranoia abated, Garreth waves Nyx on and heads down into the room.

[Wertible]

Nyx follows, remembering to persist Bull's Strength on himself as he walks.

[Whiplord]

Inside the dome, you are able to confirm better what you saw from outside, now that you don't have the daylight competing with your night vison. The room is indeed roughly 20 by 20, with rough stone walls made up almost entirely of rubble and collapsed stonework. It seems obvious that some of it must have come from the dome, but it seems like there may be too much for just that if the rest of the enclosure is similar to this.

There appears to be scattered pieces of burnt wood and other odds and ends that suggest the ruin has been used as a camp for various beings over the intervening years.

Neither man can see much into the next chamber. A similar dirt floor can be just made out, but the rest fades out past either of their vision.

[Plasma Snake]

Now on stable ground, Garreth hefts his shield out. Ever aware, ever worrying about traps, he moves on into the next room.

[Wertible]

"We shall have to return to search that rubble."

Nyx draws his Jovar, weighing its peculiarly balanced black blade in both hands, and follows Garreth into the next room.

[Whiplord]

Your mistake is made clear to you as you enter the room, and you see two large skeletal creatures hulking against the back wall of the room, clearly aware of your presence, and waiting for the two intruders to stumble into them. Something which has just happened.


Yay! Roll initiative. There are two large creatures, clearly undead, roughly 20 feet away from you, against the far back wall of the room.

[Plasma Snake]

Not wanting to be any where near a big skeleton, Garreth drops his sword and shield and draws his bow while back pedaling 20 feet


[roll0]

[Wertible]

Nyx laughs slowly as he focuses his mind on the two fresh opponents.

He will attempt to charge the closest skeleton, power attacking at -3/+3 with Sidian, his jovar.


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Whiplord]

Garreth quickly thinks better of attempting to engage two such large foes head on, instead choosing to back off through the doorway, while drawing his bow. Although his own light no longer reaches the monsters, his partners provides just enough illumination for him to be able to make a shot.

Feeling no such similar qualms about a face first encounter, Nyx hefts his large sword before rushing at his foes. Unfortunately, he seemed to have underestimated slightly the reach of the creatures, as they both strike out at him as he gets close.

His armor and speed prove too much for the slow witted creatures however, as one blow glances off his plate, and the other whishes harmlessly over his head.

Undeterred by the attack, Nyx continues his reckless charge forward, swinging his sword at full force, caring little for accuracy against such a large target. His sword connects solidly, and one of the beasts bones gives way with a loud crack. Despite the fact that he lacks what might be the best weapon for such a situation, the warrior priest seems to be making do quite fine.

Enraged at the sudden attack, both skeletons lash out at the target of their ire.

However, his armor proves once again to be too much, and Nyx is left unscathed, minus the new scuffs on his plate.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth sights his arrow at the skeleton Nyx just hit and takes careful aim not to hit his companion .


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Laughing harder, Nyx swings his sword furiously at the skeleton he damaged.


Power Attack at -2/+2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Years of practice make the Garreth's difficult show possible, and his arrow strikes it's target, although barely. It whizzes past Nyx head before striking off the one of the bones of the large skeleton.. And indeed, that is practically all it does, doing little more than take a small chunk off the bone it hits.

Nyx' blow meets with much more success however. His laughter echoes off the close walls of the room, bouncing around and around like some sort of hellish chorus. His sword swings true once again,. and cleaves straight through the creatures ribcage, causing it to collapse with a faintly ringing clatter on the hard packed, frozen dirt ground into a lifeless pile.

The remaining skeleton strikes out once again, but the blow comes too late, as the creature failed to compensate for Nyx' movement during his exuberant sword strike.

[Plasma Snake]

Feeling useless but determined, Garreth aims at the other skeleton and fires again.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Laughing all the while, Nyx manages to spit out a few words after seeing the skeleton fall.

"Do you see this Garreth? Look at how weak they are!"

Nyx refocuses on the undamaged skeleton, driving his sword toward his target, trying to keep his laughter from impairing his swing.


Power Attack at -2/+2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Garreth once again fires true, this time lodging an arrow in one of the skeletons joints, causing it to look down in confusion... Just in time for Nyx sword to come crashing into, cracking several bones, and knocking the arrow loose. That solved that problem.

Stumbling, the skeleton once again lashes out uselessly towards Nyx.

[Wertible]

Nyx aims his sword for what he thinks to be a final blow, bringing it down with full force.


Power Attack at -2/+2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth sends his third arrow off with slightly more confidence.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Garreth's feelings of confidence are crushed as his arrow bounces uselessly off the skull of the skeleton, ricocheting off into a corner somewhere.

Nyx also proves to be slightly overconfident, as although he snaps off several more bones, the skeleton still remains standing, if barely.

The skeleton swings its arm like a club, as if hoping for one lucky blow. But, alas.

[Plasma Snake]

Come on baby! Do me proud!
Garreth lets loose another arrow


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Irritated, Nyx swings once more.


Power Attack at -1/+1
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

In a stroke of rather ironic fate, Garreth's arrow seems to hit just the right spot, cracking one of the few remaining bones holding the skeleton together, causing it to collapse in a similar fate to it's companion.

Not anticipating this, Nyx' sword whooshes harmlessly through midair, and, he is so unbalanced by the blow it leaves his hands and embeds itself quite deeply into one of the rubble walls.

[Wertible]

Nyx sighs angrily and glares at Garreth before attempting to pull his sword from the wall.

"You just had to take the last blow, Garreth. I didn't pay you to steal the glory out from under my fingers, you know."


[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

"DAMN RIGHT SUCK IT!" Garreth shouts in elation that he actually took the skeleton down.

He kisses his longbow and reslings it on his back as he walks over and retrieves his sword and shield.

Noticing the sword in the wall Garreth asks Nyx,

"Need any help with that?"

[Whiplord]

Just as Garreth speaks, Nyx manages to yank his sword out of the wall. Fortunately, although it went quite deep, the rubble moves around with relative ease, allowing him to wiggle the blade free.

[Wertible]

Yanking his sword free, Nyx sets aside his anger for the time being.

"You should investigate more thoroughly, Garreth. I'm not paying you for stupid mistakes."

[Plasma Snake]

"You're not paying me at all, priest. You paid the guild, I just get a share of the loot." Garreth says with a raised eyebrow. Letting out a sigh he continues, "But you're right none the less, I was careless. I shall rectify that."

With a whistle, he waves over his homonculous. Wobbles wobbles its way over to its master and presents the pack to Garreth. The Artificer digs out a small bundle containing his investigation kit. Placing a monocle on his eye Garreth beings to search carefully around the remains of the campsite.


Looking for anything of use or for any information of what was there recently.
[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth stands from his crouched position. "Eh not much of value here. Lets continue on, I'll do better from now on."

The artificer holds his sword alof and advances into the room with the skeletons. He walks slowly around the room examining it as meticulously as before.


[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

Another shrug, "Oh well, let's move"

Assuming Nyx will follow, Garreth moves down the hallway, keeping quiet to avoid too much forewarning to whatever lies beyond and maintaining a constant vigil for any signs of traps.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

The hallway continues on for a distance, winding throughout the space beneath the dome. There are a few small alcoves off to the side of the hall, but nothing that could be considered a room, and you don't see anything besides more rock. There's plenty of that. You do notice that mixed in with what looks like more ordinary rubble, there are chunks of what appears to be worked stone. It's discernible by the smoothness of it compared to the other stone, as well as the occasionally noticeable tool mark. You keep an eye out for anything that may resemble a carving, but don't see any.

The hallway continues like this until it suddenly opens up into a larger room. You see that you seem to have reached one of the other walls of the dome, as the wall is smoothed and curved. A sort of ceiling is formed by what looks to be a large fallen piece of roof, held up by the walls of rubble, so no light can be seen. There also looks to be an actual stone door in the far wall.

These things however are only minor footnotes compared to what else you can see. The first thing to catch your eyes is the glint of light off gold and gems on the floor. The second thing is the 3 small dragons on top of the pile, looking at you curiously. Clearly you weren't quiet enough to avoid their strong sense of hearing.


http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG78.jpg


The brief, almost poignant moment of silence as you both stare into the others eyes is broken when one of the white dragons lets out a roar and lunges toward you.


3 Medium White dragons. They're in the middle of the room about 15 feet from Garreth, who is leading the way. The hallway/entrance is only 5 feet wide, so a charge from Nyx will be impossible unless Garreth moves first.

Roll initiative, don't kill them too fast, etc. Go!

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:34/34 AC:19 Buffs:DF(10),Expansion(50)

Nyx is slightly distressed. Dragons are creatures of great power, after all. He gathers his collective minds and splits his actions into two focuses. He casts a spell of preparation with the overmind, while channeling his psionic power with the other two.



Multitask:
Manifest Augmented Expansion (2pts for longer duration)
Cast Divine Favor.

[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 25/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19

Panicking, Garreth looks behind himself and realizes he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. More accurately a rolling boulder that is Nyx and the hard sharp teeth of dragons.

"Screw it" he says drawing his shield while moving off to the side of the room to engage the dragons.


Garreth move into the room to the right and attacks the nearest dragon
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Whiplord]

Although the dragon lunges swiftly at Garreth, the rogues reflexes prove superior, and he manages to move first, skirting along the room, and making his own attack towards the dragon, which unfortunately misses in his rush to avoid the dragons initial rush.

The dragon turns and attempts to strike out with a claw the moving Garreth, but the blow is turned by his armor.

The second dragon roars like the first before opening it's mouth wide. A cold blast of frozen air rushes out with a sound like the shrieking north wind, hurtling straight for Nyx.

Nyx uses the formidable power of his mind to make preparations for the tough battle ahead.

Seeming to be a bit slower than the others, the third dragon finally comes to its feet and moves in a rush towards Nyx, striking out with its claw. However the suddenly larger Nyx strikes out with his newly increased reach, striking the dragon as it lunges towards him. Undeterred however, the dragon continues forward. Nyx' luck from the earlier battle seems to not be holding up against the more formidable foe, and the claw strikes true, gouging a mark across unprotected skin.


Nyx takes 10 damage from the claw attack.
Nyx must make a reflex save of DC16 to halve the damage from the cone of cold.
Cone of cold damage is 7 in full.

init:
garreth: 21
dragon 2: 21
dragon 1: 16
Nyx: 9
dragon 3: 6

[Plasma Snake]

Slightly disheartened, Garreth tries again.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH


what the dix
[roll=Crit]1d20+8

[Plasma Snake]

gotta love GiTP so much. Just so much I want to die.

[roll0]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:24/34 AC:19 Buffs:DF(9),Expansion(49)

Nyx silently attempts to avoid the cone of cold while swinging his sword down on the dragon who clawed him, completely focused.


Power attack at +3/-3
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:34/34 AC:19 Buffs:DF(10),Expansion(50)


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Both parties continue to attack fiercely.

Garreth strikes out once again, seeing a critical opening in the dragons defenses, but failing to follow through properly, and instead only scoring a minor slash against the creature's scaly hide.

The dragonet quickly retaliates in kind, lashing out with every weapon on it's body. Out of the flurry of attacks though, only three connect with flesh. Regardless, those three are enough to create three bleeding wounds.

The second dragon stands and flaps its wings slightly, as if it doesn't see a good enough opening to move for. Its reptilian nature shows through though as it is obviously eying the battle closely with a sinister gaze.

Nyx desperately attempts to dodge out of the way of the cone of cold, but doing that as well as attempting to deal with the other dragon bearing down on him proves to be too much, and an icy wave washes over him, freezing off parts of his flesh.

He strikes out with all his might, exploiting an opening as the dragon finishes biting him, his Jovar, Sidian, biting deep into the dragon's fless, spraying thick black blood across his body and other surroundings. The dragon is not dead, but still appears severely wounded, as it now has a huge bleeding gash in it's flank, marring the perfect white scales.

It's wounds show true as it fails to land more than a couple cursory hits in it's retaliatory strike on the follower of Kellüs.


Garreth takes 10 damage from a bite, a claw, and a wing.
Nyx takes 8 damage from a bite and a claw.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth lunges with his rapier again


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Yay I crit'd again. I feel happy.
[roll0]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:24/34 AC:19 Buffs:DF(8),Expansion(48)

Nyx swings once more, hoping to silence the beast.


Power Attack at -3/+3
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:16/34 AC:19 Buffs:DF(8),Expansion(48)


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Seeing another opening Garreth knows no hesitation as he lunges forward, jabbing his well used rapier straight into the dragonet's throat, seemingly hitting a major artery, as thick black blood sprays out, pumping steadily with the beat of the reptile's heart. The creature screeches in pain, taking a second to recover while reeling in pain.

Hearing their sibling's cry of pain, the other two dragons, including the one who had been attacking the belabored Nyx, turn away. It seems the second dragon sees a wounded foe in the bleeding Synad. The two creatures of cold breathe out twin blasts of freezing air in Garreth's direction, which pass harmlessly over the third dragon, heading straight for the rogue.

Nyx, clearly not as wounded as the monster thought, gathers his strength, and puts it into a blow straight for the dragons exposed backside. The blow hits, cutting deep into dragon flesh with a sickening thud of parting scale, flesh and bone. It seems the large blade of the Jovar connected with the creature's spine, and it collapses to the ground, holding onto life by only the barest amount, for all purposes dead to the world.

Heartened by this assistance, the last dragon once again attempts to attack Garreth. It strikes with only one claw, but that claw causes a significant amount of damage, raking straight through the armor and into flesh beneath.


Garreth takes 10 damage from a claw.
Eesh. Uh.. Garreth makes two reflex saves versus the following:
Cone of cold 1: 10
Cone of cold 2: 7

DC 16 for both of those.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 5/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19


here goes nothing
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 5/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19

Agilely leaping out of the way of the cold blasts, Garreth realizes the poor condition he and his partner are in.

"A hasty retreat is advised!" He yells running back towards the exit.

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:34/59 AC:19 Buffs:DF(7),Expansion(47),Vigor(50)


Letting his oracle come to the surface, Nyx steps back into the hallway, never turning from the dragons. He draws forth his psionic energy, placing it into his veins in place of the blood he lost. Staring deeply at the dragons from an expressionless face, he breaths out slowly.


Augmented Vigor, dropping 5 power points for 25 temp hp.

[Whiplord]

Agile as a panther, Garreth slinks quickly away, making it to safety behind Nyx.

Enraged at the loss of their victim, the two remaining dragonets turn their attention towards the warrior priest. Both make to rush, but unfortunately only one has room to attack at a time.

The one in the center of the room acts first, rushing Nyx, and thus giving the Synad the opening he needs to attack. The dragon manages to dodge at the last second though, and snaps out with it's cruel jaws, biting deep into Nyx' outstretched arm.


9 damage to Nyx

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:25/59 AC:19 Buffs:DF(6),Expansion(46),Vigor(49)

Showing no pain, Nyx swings his Jovar down upon the Dragon in front of him.


Power Attack -3/+3
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Looking back while running, Garreth skids to a halt when he notices Nyx making a stand. He moves back to Nyx, mumbling under his breath, "Damn it all"

The artificer winces as he squeezes his arm past Nyx's armpit. As fast as he can, Garreth gives the Jovar a hastened rub with a scrap of rabbit's fur, leaving the blade with an unnaturally keen edge. He pulls he arm back, relieved that it wasn't crushed to the man's armor or bitten off by a dragon.

[roll0]
[roll1]
Disregard that I suck.
Using last lvl 1 enhancement for Weapon Augmentation giving keen.

[Whiplord]

Acting quick in thought and action, Garreth works his artifice on Sidian.

The dragon once unleashes an onslaught of attacks against the giant Synad. Connecting with several attacks at various degrees of efficacy.

The other remaining dragonet chooses this moment to unleash another blast of freezing air towards Nyx and Garreth.

Shrugging off the blows from the first attacks, Nyx attacks back with a fury, chopping at the monster, his blade biting deep, adding to the growing amount of blood on the floor. The dragonet stumbles slightly, but beyond that looks to still be in fighting shape.


Reflex save for both of you DC 16
Cold Cone: 9 dmg
12 damage to bill from dragon.

[Wertible]

Nyx takes a strategic retreat by running a long distance away from those dragons.

[Plasma Snake]

We run our asses out of there

[Whiplord]

Feeling that a swift retreat is in this case, the better part of valor, and although with rather extreme reluctance both men turn and run, realizing that, for the time at least they are over-matched. At a run, they backtrack through the ruins. The dragonets give chase for a time, but eventually give up, choosing to stay and guard their hoard.

[Plasma Snake]

Doubled over and catching his breath, Garreth pulls out a wand and hands it to Nyx saying,
"Here I'm sure you know how to use this, it's Lesser Vigor." straightening up he continues, "Meanwhile I have some infusions left that will help us for round two."


Takes 2 charges to heal me.
I infuse Improved cold resist into our armor. Cold Resist 20 for 50min
Also infuse Resistance item +2 to all saves for 50min.
Out of Lvl 1s and Lvl 2s

[Wertible]

Nyx shrinks, coughing up some blood as he does so. He quickly takes the wand of Lesser Vigor, healing Garreth first and himself after.

"Those dragons better be praying right now."


3 Lesser Vigor to heal me. I cast one for kicks.
Wand goes down to 46/50.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth flourishes his rapier, "Indeed they should. Well then, tally ho" and proceeds back into the cave

[Whiplord]

This time proceeding through the ruin at a quicker pace, the two quickly find themselves back at the room of the dragons.


Go ahead and roll init again. This should go pretty fast...

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 25/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19 Cold Resist 20


Here goes my init. Gotta love the required amount of characters.
[roll0]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:34/34 AC:19 Buffs: None


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

I guess no one wants to post actions? Who's in front?
Init:
dragon 1
Nyx
Garreth
dragon 2

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth charges into the room as if to meet the dragon head on, but at the last second tumbles to the right and stabs at the dragon's flank.


move in from of the first dragon then tumble so on the right side of the dragon.
Then attack.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Plasma Snake]

Why do you always do this to me GiTP? Why must you make me angry?
[roll0]
you are forgiven

[Wertible]

Nyx will charge the dragon that attacked him last, swinging his sword down on it.


Power Attack at +3/-3, Reckless Charge
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Garreth prepares to rush past the dragons and perform a flanking maneuver, but the first dragon seems prepared for this, and moves forward faster than the the rogue, striking out with fang. However, the dragon still only manages to do little more than nip the Garreth as he moves past. Escaping with most of his flesh intact, Garreth lashes out in kind, connecting with a loud impact, as the thin blade grates up against a rib, deep in the dragons side.

Nyx, seizing the opening that has showed itself rushes forward in a crazed charge, and swings his sword in an arc down at the second dragon. Unfortunately the power of his swing is enough to throw him off balance, causing his Jovar to throw up a cloud of sparks as it collides with the stone floor of the chamber with a loud clang.

Seeing its own opening, the dragonet attempts to bite Nyx, unfortunately meeting with similar failure, as Nyx' stumbling attempt to regain balance takes him just out of reach of the reptile's snapping jaws.


Garreth takes 4 damage. Fantastic round.

[Plasma Snake]

The pain of the bite only adding to his fury Garreth strikes at the dragonet again.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH
[roll0]

[Wertible]

Nyx raises his sword, regaining his balance after narrowly avoiding the dragonet's strike. He thrusts, hopinhg to exploit the weakness created by the dragonet's inaccuracy.


Power Attack at -2/+2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

The dragonet near Garreth lashes out in a maelstrom of natural weapons, but the naturally agile rogue dodges all but the fangs and one slash of a claw.

Nyx recovers his balance and attempts to break the circle of failed attacks, stabbing out his Jovar, Sidian with a great heave of corded muscles. Nearly missing again, but connecting all the same. The force of his blow sends his blade deep into the side of the dragonet, causing it to roar in pain, and stagger slightly from the continued blood loss.

It seems that Garreth was unfortunately distracted in dodging the three attacks that did not connect, nearly tripping and impaling himself on his own weapon, but managing to catch himself in the nick of time.

In a rage the newly wounded dragonet lashes out at Nyx. In his heavy armor, Nyx does not share the luck of Garreth in dodging the blow, and his armor only succeeds in deflecting one of the enraged young dragons claw strikes, Once again, Nyx is covered in multiple bleeding tears and gashes.


Garreth takes 12 damage. Nyx takes 25.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 9/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19 Cold Resist 20

The Artificer stabs again while cursing himself.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Nyx Acharum
HP:9/34 AC:19 Buffs: None

Heaving heavily under the pain of his wounds, Nyx attempts to finish the dragonet before him, thrusting once more with Sidian.


PA 2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Perhaps remembering the success of the first battle, the first dragon opens its toothy maw and lets loose a shrieking blast of cold wind. Against the new protective spells that Garreth has in place however, there seems to be no effect.

Garreth connects true, although his blow doesn't seem nearly as effecting as those Nyx has landed.

Nyx once again stabs out, but misses, slipping on the blood slick floor, enough so that his blow goes awry.

Striking out once again, the first dragon is visibly weaker from blood loss, striking out more in spasms than with any sort of control, only managing to graze Nyx cheek with a wing tip.


2 damage to Nyx.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth
HP 9/25 AC: 22 T: 13 FF: 19 Cold Resist 20

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?" Garreth continues to stab.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

Nyx continues his rampage


power attack 2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Wertible]

CRI-CRI-CRI-CRITICAL
[roll0]

[Whiplord]

The first dragon lashes out at Garreth, connecting with both claws.

Nyx strikes out with all his might, and stabs the dragonet in it's long neck, apparently hitting a major artery. Thick blood pours out, turning the dark blade of Sidian an even deeper shade of black. The dragonet collapses to the floor, wheezing, apparently unable to fight on any further.

Garreth lunges, inflicting another stab wound in in the flank of the dragon. Black blood runs over white scales, creating a peculiar sort of contrast.


lol 6 damage to Garreth.

[Wertible]

Nyx steps over the dying dragonet to flank the other one with Garreth


Power Attack 2
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth takes advantage of the dragonet's distraction.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Whiplord]

Seeing its sibling go down, the first dragon turns and lets out a shriek of cold air toward Nyx, maybe hoping that this will affect the man, where it didn't his comrade. Unfortunately, no such luck for the dragonet. Nyx appears unharmed.

Rushing over to aid Garreth, Nyx brings down Sidian in once clean sweep, and hacks a huge cleft into the dragon's throat. The dragon collapses from the wound.


Yay.

[Wertible]

Nyx pulls out the want that Garreth gave to him and heals the Artificer and then himself.


4 charges used

[Whiplord]

After healing their wounds, the two warriors examine the dragon's hoard. In it they find 12000SP, 1200GP, a small blue chunk of crystal glowing very faintly from within, and a tattered vellum scroll.


You each get 1256 XP

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth finishes packing all of the loot into Wobbles' bag and says, "Well I suppose we should take one more look around before heading out."


[roll0]
Searching for any secret cache's or anything else hidden in the room

[Plasma Snake]

After searching to no avail, Garreth heads over to the door and in a paranoid manner, checks the door for anything suspicious.


[roll0]
[roll1]
locked?

[Whiplord]

Garreth finds a small trap mechanism as he searches the door.


Roll for disable. You hear nothing.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth wistles for Wobbles to come near and fetches his thieves' tools from the pack and begins to work on the door mechanism.


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Garreth can be seen bending over the door, fiddling with the device. All of a sudden a click is heard, followed by Garreth's loud cursing as many spears shoot out from the door towards him.


Garreth makes a reflex save.

[Plasma Snake]

Again, le sigh.
[roll0]
7 Normal +2 from Item of Resistance

[Whiplord]

Garreth dives out the way just in time, avoiding becoming a pincushion for multiple very large pins. The spears are left, protruding out of the door.

[Plasma Snake]

Dusting himself off with a harumph, Garreth drags himself to his feet. He then examines the door again to check if there are anymore traps and if the door is safe to open now.


[roll0]
[roll1]
DD only needed if more traps are discovered or if the trap resets.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth lets out a sigh of relief and brushes himself off once again. "The way seems clear now." He says whilst carefully opening the door.

[Whiplord]

Although figuring out how to open the door takes a moment, only complicated by the fact that he is trying to avoid stabbing himself on any of the spears, Garreth is finally able to find a grip and pull open the door.

Although the wall of the dragon's chamber seems to be the outside wall of the dome, the door does not lead outside as expected. Rather, it seems to reveal a hallway, descending downward at a gentle gradient, for as far as the eye can see. The blackness inside seems to swallow the light from Garreth's sword, as if the hallway is caught in a perpetual dim, twilight.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth slowly advances into the room, holding his sword aloft. He moves carefully and his eyes dart with cautiousness bordering on paranoia.


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Whiplord]

The hallway is very dim, and although it is possible to see faintly for a distance, any detail is lost past more than a few paces in front of the viewer. The magical light is indeed partially swallowed by the darkness, only extending what seems to be half of the normal range.

The floor and walls appear to be worked stone, in much better condition that that of the dome outside, if clearly very old.


Hallway is about 10 feet wide, and extends past the point you can see. It is definitely descending down at a steady rate, although it cannot be described as steep.

[Plasma Snake]

Squinting, Garreth turns back to Nyx and says, "I can't see much but it seems safe, just a steady slope into a cave. I suggest we keep to the walls and move cautiously down."

To demonstrate, he moves to the wall and starts making his way down the cave.

[Wertible]

Nyx mumbles under his breath before following Garreth.

"Doesn't seem too safe from the spears in that door."

[Whiplord]

The hallway keeps descending, and you walk for what seems to be nearly an hour, still not seeing any change.


I'm stopping here to allow you to tell me what you want to do. Whether to continue, any new preparations, etc.

[Plasma Snake]

As all of Garreth's infusions ends, the Artificers frowns. Then he smacks himself on the forehead remembering something very important. His bond with Wobbles allows him to see what the homonculus sees. Grabbing his assitant by the hand, he says "Wobs lead the way and show me what you see."


Wobbles has 60ft dark vision and can convey what it sees to me telepathically.
pg 284 in the Eberron Campaign Setting

[Wertible]

"My blood stirs, artificer."

Nyx anxiously turns Sidian over in his hands, testing its weight as the two follow Wobbles, scouting ahead.

[Whiplord]

Now setting a slower, if more secure feeling pace, the two adventurers, led the by the homonculus, continue down the path.

The hours are taken up by monotony, and little changes in the scenery. Not too much further after the first time they stopped, Garreth realizes that the worked stone walls have given way to natural rock. Slowly, the surroundings become more and more cave like, with even the occasional rock formation appearing. Small rivulets of water also occasionally appear, flowing thinly for a few paces, before disappearing once again into some minute crack in the floor or wall.

The hall, or cave, as you are coming to view it, continues mostly straight, with no breaks. It takes the occasional gentle turn, but nothing beyond that. Very occasionally a small side chamber can be seen, hardly deserving of the name. Garreth carefully examines each one that is passed, but turns up nothing.

Finally fatigue begins to distract both men to the point where they feel they can walk no more. They look for a spot they can stop, and eventually come to a spot where the ground evens up enough that they won't be sleeping on as much of a slope.


It's difficult to tell exactly how long you've been walking in this environment. You may make a survival check if you want to try and tell exactly. Tell me watch order and such, and feel free to RP a bit if you want (lol fat chance with you two).

[Plasma Snake]

Crawling into his sleeping bag, Garreth says, "My homomculous can keep watch while we sleep tonight. Constructs don't need to sleep" with that he shuts his eyes and tries to sleep.

[Wertible]

Nyx grunts in reply before removing Malach, his armor. He sits in meditative thought for about an hour before passing to sleep.

[Plasma Snake]

+2 from Knowledge (Dungeoneering) Synergy
[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Garreth, despite trying, is entirely unable to come up with an idea of how long they have been traveling underground, finally he gives up and leaves the watch to the homunculus.

Wobbles keeps watch with lifeless eyes, inert, and yet still aware in a primitive way. Time passes, and nothing occurs. The cave is an odd place though, conjuring odd thoughts and feelings. If they slept, would machines dream?

Both Garreth and Nyx, once they finally turn to thoughts of sleep find sleep slow to come at first. Whether it is the hard stone floor, or some greater sense of foreboding is hard to say.

Finally sleep comes though.

[Plasma Snake]

Upon waking Garreth spends some time stretching out the soreness in his muscles. With that out of the way he turns to Nyx.

"Well shall we continue?"

[Wertible]

Nyx finds himself awake and wishing for the basic comforts of an inn. He thanks Kellüs for the safe night's sleep and prays for the power to crush his foes. He then meditates, collecting his three minds as one, taking slow, deep breaths, before turning to Garreth to answer.

"Before we continue, we must prepare to slaughter our enemies without fail. Allow me to assist in such manners."

Nyx calls toward Kellüs, channeling the powers of his faith into the very world around him, and, slamming his fist upon his chest, shouts a prayer.

"Let us go now, Artificer."


Persist Prayer, all Allies in 40ft gain +1 luck bonus to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks. Enemies get -1 on such checks.

Check sheet for new prep.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth nods in agreement, feeling boosted by the priest's prayer. He once again takes Wobbles' hand and and sees through the construct's eyes.

"Let's go"

[Whiplord]

Gathering their things, the two continue their journey. The passage continues on as before, dark and primitive.


Listen to the song in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohTjpUH873E



What must be hours pass before you realize this slope has increased. It has gotten to the point where it has begun to put strain on the knees. The two travelers press on though, journeying still downward. Hours more pass, and right when it seems they may have to stop again for the night, the slope begins to decrease. Not only does this make the walking easier, but it also seems encouraging. If they can't go down any further, perhaps they've reached bottom.

The passage continues to even out, and eventually flattens. When it continues on for another stretch of time in this flat state, discouragement begins to show again. However, soon after, Nyx and Wobbles spot a difference in the blackness ahead, as if it has become larger.

The passage opens up into into an absolutely massive cavern. The ceiling is so high that it can't be seen, disappearing into blackness and shadow far, far above. The dim grey light that filled the passage seems to have lightened somewhat, and as soon as you step out of the passage, the radius of the magical light begins to slowly expand outwards again, until it at least looks closer to normal. Something still seems off about it though, as though even though the magical restriction is gone, all light is simply.. subdued with this chamber.

The floor is surprisingly smooth in most places, as if it was worn to that state my either water, or generations of passing feet. Judging by the nature of the place you're in, you judge it to be the latter. This is confirmed when you Garreth and Nyx both notice several fossil-like imprints in the cavern floor.

It is not the cavern itself that is truly impressive though. Against the far wall, which you can make out just at the edge of your vision through the gray light, seems to be a massive construct, at this distance still wreathed in shadow. From what you can tell, it seems to be a building or structure of some kind though.


I already rolled spot/listen for both of you. Anything is already noted in the description.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth raises his eyebrows.

"I like this place more and more. Shall we?"

He gives his assistant a light boot and presses onward.

[Wertible]

Nyx matches Garreth's enthusiasm with suspicion.

"I don't think 'like' is the term I'd use for such a situation, Artificer. In fact, I'd be even more on guard if we are exploring a place with defenses. For all we know, we step now into a dragon's lair."

Hefting his sword, Nyx follows Garreth toward the looming structure.

[Whiplord]

As you get closer, details become clearer. It is indeed a building, and a fairly large one at that. Very large and very old. It stretches up a fair distance into the air, and the stone is clearly chipped, and even contains signs of what seems to be weather wear.

Curiously, there are large chunks of rubble littering the ground around the structure, and several large cracks in the floor emanate out from the building, which seems almost sunken and crooked. That however is not the strangest part. The fortress seems to be jutting straight out the wall of the cavern. Not as it was built out of the wall, though. In fact it appears quite unnatural. Several windows seem to just disappear halfway into the wall, and the line that the wall of the cavern and the wall of the fortress form isn't straight. Perhaps an eccentric architect?

Though Nyx is on high alert, neither he nor Garreth notice any signs of hostile creatures. In fact, neither see much sign of anything. It looks to have been deserted a very long time. Which begs the question as to what someone built a fortress deep underground for anyway.

There only seems to be one doorway, what looks like a main entrance. Large double steel doors are set into the front of the building, looking to be shut tightly.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth shrugs.
"I suppose caution couldn't hurt."

He gives his armor and sword a rub, infusing them with power.


Magic Vestments on breastplate (+2) lvl 1
Weapon Augmentation, Personal on rapier (+1) lvl 1

[Wertible]

"Indeed, check that door out."

Nyx infuses his armor with power.


Magic Vestment

[Plasma Snake]

The artificer cautiously approaches the door with Wobbles. He removes his kit from the pack and gives the door a thorough look over.


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Whiplord]

Moving carefully, although it seems that if anyone was there to hear they would have heard already, as the two were not taking care to move silently before hand, and indeed, it is almost impossible for the heavily armored priest to move with any stealth.

Looking at the the door, Garreth is unable to discern any traps.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth opens the door slightly and peers inside using Wobbles' eyes

[Plasma Snake]

Leaving Wobs at the door, Garreth moves to Nyx to relay what he has seen.

"Looks to be a large entryway with a double staircase leading to a second floor and a door between the stairs on the ground floor. Suggestions or do we just head in? "

[Wertible]

Nyx grins sharply.

"We should move in and search the premises for anything of value or merit. You lead the search, and don't let me out of your sight."

[Plasma Snake]

"Right boss," Garreth nods. He turns gives Wobbles a pat on the back and enters the room, sword and shield at the ready.


Searches the room, and checks the bottom door first before checking upstairs. Also checks the stairs for traps BEFORE stepping on them.

[Whiplord]

Both Nyx and Garreth immediately notice the plaque on the floor. It's covered with a spiraling design, made up of letters in different languages and scripts. Nyx notices the word "Ash" in both common and Synadian. Garreth sees the same word, or equivalent in all the languages he knows.

After that observance, he moves forward, going to investigate the thing he took to be a door between the stairways. Indeed, it does appear to be a door, but none like has has ever seen before. It looks to be a solid slab of stone set back into the rock, with iron inlaid into what seems to be magical sigils of some sort. peering upstairs, the other doors look quite normal.

[Plasma Snake]

"It seems like this place wasn't originally of the material plane. And this door isn't like anything I've ever seen before. I need a closer look." The artificer pulls out a pair of glasses and concentrates on the door, getting a feel for the magic weaved into it.


[roll0]
pg 31 Eberron Campaign Guide.

[Wertible]

"Not of the material plane? What, you mean this thing originally resided in some sort of otherworldly stasis? Why is it here on the material now?"

Nyx frowns with discomfort as he checks his things, waiting for Garreth to finish working on the door.

[Plasma Snake]

"Beats me, I'm just tellin' you what I notice"

[Wertible]

Nyx sighs, shaking his head.

"I'm just confused. How can something this big transfer between planes. It seems it would take powerful magic."

[Plasma Snake]

"That it would. Still I don't know what could have done this." Garreth says looking at Nyx. Turning his head back to the block, the Artificer double-takes and stares at the plaque again. "Interesting. Where its written in Ignan, the word used for Ash is used to specifically mean being the ash of something that has been long since destroyed."

[Wertible]

"For now, let's finish that door up, Garreth. I want to see what's behind it."

[Whiplord]

Though he examines the door carefully, wracking his brain for any piece of arcane information he might have heard relating to it, Garreth is unable to figure out a way to open it.

[Plasma Snake]

"This thing is far beyond my knowledge." Garreth shakes his head and stands up. "I suggest we search upstairs for now. Maybe we'll find a clue to this door."

Picking up his rapier once again, Garreth moves up the stairs.

[Wertible]

Nyx wordlessly follows, his grin long replaced by an uneasy frown.

[Whiplord]

Choosing a staircase at random Garreth and Nyx both head up to the second floor. The second floor is little more than a narrow balcony overlooking the first floor. There appear to be four doors upstairs, two pairs of two, roughly in front of each staircase. There is a large empty wall running between. The balcony is wide enough for one person to walk comfortably, but not much more. A stone thick carved stone railing, which is a continuation of the stair banisters.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth chooses the left set of double doors and begins his door routine.

[Whiplord]

You check both doors carefully for traps, finding nothing. Both also appear to be unlocked.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth checks both rooms in as much of a paranoid fashion as he did the the entrance way.

[Whiplord]

Moving to open the first door, Garreth is struck rather dumbfounded as he pulls it open and only a few inches past the doorway, reveals a blank wall. Moving to the next door, he repeats this action, and meets with similar results.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth stands back, mouth in a hard-set frown. "Well this isn't what I expected." The Artificer heads to the next pair, "Lets try these." and repeats his previous actions.

[Whiplord]

Walking along the balcony to the other end, Garreth begins his same routine on the second pair of doors. Again, both seem to be unlocked, and untrapped. And, also again, both lead to blank stone walls.

[Wertible]

"Hold it Garreth."

Nyx steps over to the wall and stoops down, inspecting something.

[Whiplord]

Nyx stoops to investigate the glimmer he catches out of the corner of his eye, and upon doing so, sees that it is a ring.

The ring is made of of a silver colored metal, inset with gray stones around its circumference, and finely carved with magical looking patterns.

[Wertible]

Scooping up the ring, Nyx heads over to Garreth.

"Can you identify this ring, artificer?"

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth raises his signature eyebrow. "Well that is interesting. Give it here I can check it out."


Assume Nyx gives it to me Garreth does all of the magic type checks he can (Spellcraft, any of the Knowledges, Decipher Scirpt, and an artificer check)

[Plasma Snake]

"This definetly has something to do with the door downstairs. Let's test it shall we?"

Garreth hops down the stairs and halts in front of the door. He first holds the ring out to touch the door and if nothing happens he places the ring on his and and touches his hand to the door.

[Whiplord]

As soon as Garreth brings the ring up before the door, a loud thunk can be heard within the wall. Right after, sigils on both ring and door begin to glow brightly, and then the door simply disappears, revealing a short staircase leading down.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth grins wolfishly as the door disappears and lets loose his almost-catchphrase. "Interesting" Continuing in his trap-central paranoia, Garreth starts his decent.

[Wertible]

Nyx shrugs, laughing a little.

"Why hire you when I can find these things myself?"

He follows.

[Whiplord]

Down the short stairway is revealed a hallway of medium length, and as soon as you reach the bottom the the stairs you hear another loud thunk, and looking back, the door seems to have reappeared. Sigils identical to the ones on the other side seem to be on this one as well.

The hallway is lined up and down with evenly spaced paintings.

The paintings are large, and magnificent pieces of art. One depicts a what looks to be a massive city, made up almost entirely of towers. Another shows what seems to be a huge mountain range, similar to the familiar Barrier mountains, and yet far more forbidding and high; thye many peaks seem to pierce the sky with their points.

Two paintings across from each other catch the eye of Garreth. One shows a stooped man, skulking in shadow with a mask covering most of his face. The other shows a dark elf, with two scimitars held before him, staring off beyond the frame as if facing off against some great foe.

Another shows a picture of a man who is either dressed entirely in some strange suit of armor, or is made entirely of metal, standing in the middle of what seems to be a magical wasteland.

Both men take these in, as they walk down the hallway. At the far end stands a incredibly ornate door, made of a dark red wood, inlaid with gold, with parts of it covered in yet more paintings.

[Plasma Snake]

Taking care not to be distracted by the pretty objects surrounding him. Garreth repeats the same task he's been doing for the past hour.

[Wertible]

"These look to be valuable, Garreth."

Nyx smiles.

"Quite valuable."

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth pauses his investigation of the door and walks over to the panting of the odd humanoid construct. "Indeed they could be. Such strange subjects though" He says rubbing his chin.

The artificer racks his brains for anything he can divine about any of the pictures.


Roll any Knowledges as well as appraise checks for the paintings. Also if I can remove the paintings with out blowing myself up due to more traps.

[Plasma Snake]

After trying to move the paintings in vain, Garreth turns to Nyx, "Valuable as these paintings are, they aren't going anyway."

He returns his attention to the door and after a while he gives a triumphant, "AHA! Found you." Being the trap-fanatic he is, Garreth examines the trap, marveling at the intricacies of the magic weaved into the door. Finally he pulls out his trap kit and begins to deactivate the trap.


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Garreth pulls out several intricate looking tools and begins working at the door. His fingers slip just slightly though, and he nearly sets off the trap.


You failed by 4 or less. You can retry.

[Plasma Snake]

Cursing, Garreth picks up his tools and tries again.


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

It seems the second time meets with more success, as the nervous Garreth tries once again, and after a few minutes breathes a sigh of relief as the trap discharges harmlessly in a small shower of black sparks.


Also the door seems locked and you see no apparent way to open it.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth pulls out the ring used on the previous door and touches it to this one.

[Whiplord]

Once again, as soon as the ring is brought up near the door, a mechanical click is heard. This time though, instead of the door disappearing, it simply swings open silently.

Revealed is a small circular room. It seems to be lit with silent and heat-less flames of a cool blue color, simply hanging as if they are stuck to the wall. The floor is made of a smoothed black stone, that seems to be of one solid piece. There are concentric arcane looking patterns carved into the floor, emanating from a large looking crystal set into the center of the floor.

More paintings line the walls of the room, depicting the same building in a variety of different landscape settings.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth moves carefully into the room, eyes open in wonder.


Move Silently, Search, Spot, What-Have-You

[Wertible]

Nyx walks into the room.

"This thing's a goddamn vehicle, isn't it Garreth? That crystal is some sort of magical engine no doubt."

Nyx stares at all the different paintings with an almost reverent wonder. His smile widens as the truth of what's happening washes over him.

"This thing's completely abandoned, miles underground, nobody knows about it. I can just take it and no one would ever-"

His eyes rest on Garreth. His grin somewhat deflates.

"Except you."

He paces throughout the circular room.

"So, how about this? You help me figure out how to make this thing move, and I can split it with you. We become partners, as long as you can make this thing move."

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth winces but quickly recover and hopes Nyx didn't see it. He quickly fixes his face with a mask of uncaring.

"Well boss, it seems you hired the right person. I think you have yourself a deal" he says.

He hunkers himself down in front of the crystal and examines it with the entire gamut of his abilities.


Artificer Check, Search, Spellcraft, Knowledges. If those don't bring up anything definitive uses identify (lvl 1)

[Whiplord]

Garreth begins to investigate the crystal, first checking it carefully for traps. When he finds none, he prepares to set to work, laying out all his tools, and preparing to get to work. A wide grin seems permanently affixed to his face. Finally he puts in an eyepiece so that he get a closer look, and bends over, laying a finger on the crystal.

The room begins to shake, at first faintly, but quickly escalating into much more violent tremors. A deep rumbling can be heard, and the doorway into the room collapses. As this happens the crystal begins to glow a brilliant white, and faint arcane symbols appear in the air above it for a split second before fizzling out. The patterns on the floor have also begun to glow with a bright white light. The crystal grows brighter and brighter, to the point where it becomes impossible to look at it. Suddenly a sharp crack is heard, cutting through the low rumbles of the continuing tremors.

Right after that, everything goes white.

When you can finally see again, you see that the crystal now has a huge crack running straight down the middle, and is covered with a thin layer of soot.

[Wertible]

Nyx stares with anger and disbelief.

"That is most certainly NOT making it work!"

Nyx slams his sword into the ground beside him, staring at the crystal.

"You gonna fix this, artificer? Or should I take your loot as payment for the repairs?"

[Plasma Snake]

Wiping the look of shock off his face, Garreth quickly recovers and placing one hand on his rapier and the other points a finger at Nyx. "Don't you even think of blaming this on me." he growls.

He shakes himself off and says in a calmer voice "Anyway I think this might have actually activated the device and moved us from Azch. There might be a different way out now. Maybe."

Hand still on his sword the artificer stands and looks around the room for any chance of exit.

[Wertible]

"Maybe, he says! Maybe I destroyed your transplanar vehicle! Maybe I ruined everything!"

Nyx follows, pulling Sidian from the dirt and heaving it over his shoulder, placing it at the ready.

[Whiplord]

Turning to leave, the two are thwarted when they remember that during the tremors, the doorway into the room collapsed. The exit is blocked by a high pile of rubble. It looks like it will either have to be moved in some way, or, since there seems to be a very small space at the top, one might be able to squeeze through.

[Plasma Snake]

"Unless you want to remove that armor of yours to squeeze through, I'll sent Wobbles through to scout ahead while we try and clear this rubble." he says removing the homunculus' pack

He sends Wobs through the gap then turns to Nyx sneering, "Or do you have a better idea?"

[Wertible]

"You want to play this game, artificer?"

Nyx takes a couple steps back, and gathers both his divine and psionic focus. He then unleashes both, growing to a massive size, almost filling the room. His muscles expand even faster than the growth, outfitting his body with a supreme physique.

"Let's play."

He steps over to the door and kicks with a foot, attempting to force away the rubble


Bull's Strength, Augmented Expansion
Total +8 to Strength

[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

"Wobbles One, Nyx Zero" Garreth laughs

[Wertible]

Seeing no reaction, Nyx kicks again.


[roll0]

[Whiplord]

The small homunculus easily squeezes through the gap at the top of the rubble. You hear a clank as he drops to the ground on the other side. Garreth begins concentrating on seeing through his servant's eyes.

Through Wobbles eyes, the rest of the hallway seems undamaged. Apparently even the door managed to collapse outwards from the fall, avoiding too much damage.

His concentration is however broken as he is shoved flat against one of the rooms curved walls but Nyx' sudden, and explosive growth.

Nyx kicks once, and experiences failure, almost completely whiffing his foot over the pile of rubble. The second kick connects though, and enough rubble is cleared that it should be possible to crawl through.

[Plasma Snake]

Squeezing himself away from Nyx's mass Garreth says, "Well you did manage to clear some away." the Artificer squats down to crawl into the hole. "But how ever will you fit through?" he says with a smirk, then crawls through.

[Wertible]

Nyx waits 18 seconds, scoffs, then crawls through.

"How will I ever get through?"

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth shrugs gives his assistant a boot to get moving, heads back into the main room and tests the upstairs doors.

[Whiplord]

Walking back through the hallway, and reaching the top of the staircase, on a hunch, Garreth simply waves the ring in front of the door. Just like last time, a loud *ka-chunk* is heard in the wall, and the door disappears., back in the first chamber, the first thing that is noticeable is the fact that light is coming in through the windows. It's a dim light, as if the sun either isn't out in full yet, is setting... or where ever you are doesn't have a sun like the one you are used to.

Taking a look around from right outside the door, it's clear that there is much more usable space now within the fortress.

[Plasma Snake]

"See? While the crystal my not be functional for the moment, it's served its purpose for now and moved us." puffing up his chest"I can fix it given enough time. But for now," rubbing his hands together he grins, "Let's just see where we are."

With an excited skip in his step he advances examines the new portions of the room (Which includes the door)

[Wertible]

"Let's hope the front entrance isn't blocked."

Heeding his own words Nyx checks the front entrance, opening the door.

[Whiplord]

While Garreth stands in the center of the room gawking, Nyx advances quickly on the doors, grabbing both handles and throwing them wide. The first thing he notices is that this world does seem to have a normal sun, and it is in fact rising. The next thing, It opens easily, what looks to be a jungle of some sort.

Or more precisely, a ruin in the jungle, in which the fortress seems to be standing in the middle of. Indeed, the building seems to be quite at home in the ruin, with a walkway leading straight to the door, and the ruins of low walls visible, at the edge of apparently a small courtyard and sparring area.

It is though, clearly a ruin, and the surroundings have seen better days. Judging by the extent of which the jungle has encroached, those better days were quite a long time ago. Despite that though, the fortress must have been of good construction, as a surprising amount of architecture is quite intact, as far as things go.

Curiously the main part of the fortress itself seems to look much better than it did before. It could be the lighting, but the outer walls look nicer, and both Garreth and Nyx seem to remember a layer of dust covering much of the floor inside, which is now missing.

Inside, gazing around in wonder, Garreth immediately notices several things. First, the blank stone wall on the second floor is no longer there, and while he can't see much from his vantage on the first, it looks to have turned into an open area of some sort. Next he notices two new doors on the first floor, each located on the wall on the outer side of each staircase. The entire entry hall is brightly lit, at least considering the amount of sunlight there currently is.

Garreth is able to discover the cause of this when he looks straight up and sees a massive stained glass skylight, covering much of the ceiling. It was clearly created by a master artisan, if not several, and depicts a blend of random scenery that blends together. Most of it looks unfamiliar, but some motifs are recognizable, including what appears to be the city of towers from the painting downstairs, as well as another of those metal men. Dragons writhe, and giants with tools are juxtaposed by elves in chains. It travels in a spiral pattern, and presumably tells some sort of story. Most of it however, is lost on you.

[Plasma Snake]

Still staring at the stained glass window while going up the stairs to the pair of doors, Garreth says to Nyx., "These stained glass windows are amazing. They seem to depict some of the same things we saw on the paintings downstairs. If my guess is correct, this glass tells us where we are." Looking down to Nyx he asks, "What's out there?" with out waiting for an answer he turns around and tries the doors, hoping for more than a stone wall this time.

[Wertible]

"Seems as though we rest in a jungle. The crystal seems to have transported us somewhere with lots of preexisting architecture, albeit that the whole place seems aged."

Nyx goes on to describe the rest at his convenience. He will wander about following this until he has a rough idea of the floor plan of the building at this location.

[Whiplord]

Both Nyx and Garreth set off exploring in separate directions.

Garreth's findings.
Since you're upstairs, you commence your exploring around where you are. Before opening any doors, you first look at the center area where the blank stone wall used to be. That's all gone, and has been replaced with a large open area. Seeing as there's no furniture, you're not entirely positive of it's purpose, but it seems as if it may have been a sitting area of some sort, since there's a grate in the wall, that looks as if a fire could be built in it. Curiously, you see nothing resembling a chimney though.

At the back end of the open area are two wooden doors. You also note that many of the interior walls look to be made of a fine, aged wood, rather than stone blocks.

Going back to the doors along the hallway, you open them one by one.

(Moving from left to right, doors 1-4)
Door 1 leads to a small hallway, which turns into a staircase, which looks like it switchbacks up a few floors. You decide to come back to this.

Door 2, opens up into a small empty room. Nothing to see here apparently.

Door 3, opens up into a room of about the same size as the one behind door 2, but there seems to be a large stone basin set into the floor.

Door 4, seems to be a mirror of door 1.


Nyx' findings.
Seeing that Garreth is exploring upstairs, and figuring you can always look later, you start downstairs. As far as you can tell, there are 3 doors on the first level, not including the main entrance. One of these is the door leading to the Hallway of Paintings, and through that the Main Portal Room. The other two are located in the far corners of the room, half hidden behind the two staircases. At random, you choose the one of the right first.

The door is a simple wooden one, of austere but solid construction. It opens soundlessly, revealing a large room, with a floor of a dark stone similar to the stuff in the Main Portal Room. The walls are covered in more lush paintings, similar in nature to the large stained glass in the entry hall. Several alcoves evenly line the two long walls of the room, and in them are statues that seem to also be carved into the wall.

At the far end of the room is another door, almost identical to the one you just went through. Through it reveals a room that is most likely intended to be a kitchen, with a massive fire place, and surfaces which food food could be prepared on. Another door is on the left side of the room from where you entered.

This room seems to be a simple larder, now empty.

You backtrack your way back through the kitchen and dining room, and try the other door. It opens, revealing a narrow hallway, lined in wood paneling. There is a door at the end of the hall, and one on the right side. You open the one on the right first, seeing that it opens directly to a staircase. You leave that for now.

The door at the far end opens into a smaller room of bare stone. A few wooden shelves are on the wall, with nothing on them. Another door is on the opposite wall.

Through the final door is a large rectangular room with wooden walls and a bare stone floor. The purpose seems unclear. You see no further doors, and so backtrack back to the entry hall to decide on your next course of action.



Tell me where each of you want to look next. Also tell me if you investigate anything closer. "I search in detail everywhere" is not a valid answer. I'll show you guys the floor plan after you've explored a bit more.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth places his monocle back on and examines the basin room more thoroughly.

[Whiplord]

Garreth goes back to the room with the stone basin in order to examine it more carefully. The basin itself takes up a large portion of the floor space, sloping downwards smoothly to a point about 5 or so feet deep. Entering the basin itself to look around more, Garreth notices faint carving surrounding the inner edge of the basin. It circles the entire perimeter before coming to one point where the runes form a small circle

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3126/basinengravingsjpg.jpg

In addition he also notices what looks like some other faint carving in one of the walls of the room, but it's too faint to make out from his point in the basin.


Make Decipher Script, and Know:Arc if you have it.

[Plasma Snake]

The artificer racks his brain for any clue of what the markings are.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Checks for the wall markings as well as the extra Spellcraft
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[Plasma Snake]

"Hmmmm water creation eh?" Garreth rubs his chin. He climbs out of the basin and kneels near the edge. The artificer pulls out a a black thread from his pocket and winds it around his left ring finger, weaving magic into the thread. Placing the hand along the rim, the Garreth lets loose a stream of different known command words in hope of blindly activating the basin.


Attempting to blindly activate. UMD DC 25.
Uses Skill Enhancement (Lvl 1) to grant a +4 bonus to UMD for 50 minutes
[roll0]

[Whiplord]

After several minutes of muttering, Garreth finally is rewarded by seeing one of the sigils begin to glow. The glow spreads as a line of light, traveling all around the basin, and going round the circle. As soon as it completes the circuit, water begins flowing from the circle of runes, quickly starting to fill the basin with freezing cold water..

[Plasma Snake]

Eyes widening at the quickly rising water, Garreth beings the same string of command words, starting with the more recently used ones.


another +2 to UMD because Ive already activated it.
[roll0]

[Whiplord]

Garreth finds to his relief that he is able to discover a trigger word to stop the water. Dipping a finger in, the water feels as if it's at least right above freezing, if not slightly lower somehow.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth stands, shaking his finger dry. I wonder if there's a way to drain this thing, he thinks to himself. He exits the room and makes an immediate U-turn to go up the nearest set of stairs.

[Whiplord]

Garreth exits the basin room, and heads up the closest set of stairs. After a climbing for a bit it becomes clear he's ascending up a tower. After climbing what feels like 2 or 3 floors, he comes out into a square room, roughly 35x35. The walls are wood paneling, and the floor a black stone similar to the floor of the main portal room. There are several windows in the wall, looking out over the jungle, and a what looks like a fire grate set into one wall.

Most strange is the door. It seems to be a perfectly normal wooden door, with a handle and a turn latch, but looking out the windows, it looks like the door goes out into empty air.

[Plasma Snake]

Incredibly curious about this, Garreth does his usual search, then opens the door.

[Whiplord]

Garreth searches the room for traps and anything else of interest. He turns up no traps, but he does find more carved runic writing all over the room. Near the fire, around the windows, etc.

Opening the door, he is forced to take a step back as a large gust of wind enters what is indeed a door to the outside. The drop down looks quite far.

As he shuts the door though, he catches by pure chance something on the door. It seems as though inset into the door in wood of an almost exactly identical color are patterns similar to the two early doors.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth ***** an eyebrow and mutters "Interesting." He then turns about and heads back to find Nyx and report his findings.

[Wertible]

Nyx heads back to the door beneath the left staircase, taking the door on the right and following its staircase up.

[Whiplord]

Opening the door once again, Nyx begins descending the stairs. They switch back on themselves once at a landing and then descend the rest of the way. Nyx comes out on side of what looks like a massive open basement area. It extends forward a ways before branching off to the left and right into further extensions of the large chamber, and extends forward beyond that point, so that it looks like the room is forming a cross shape of a kind.


Okay, without a map, which I'm not showing yet, this room is slightly trick to describe. Howver, your best bet is to think of a cathedral. The room is shaped vaguely in the shape of a massive cross.

Tell me if you go left, right, forward, etc.

[Wertible]

Nyx goes left.

[Whiplord]

Left, the room extends quite a distance before it looks like it ends at a wall. It seems mostly empty, although there are alcoves that look as if they might at one time have held statues, but now stand empty. A low stone block that could potentially be an altar stands near the far end. No decorations or carving are visible that you see. In your examinations, you do find the curious addition of what seems to be a line of inset metal in the floor, leading from the far wall back to the far side of the long chamber.

[Wertible]

Nyx perks up, stooping to examine the metal.

[Whiplord]

Nyx bends to get a closer look at the band of metal. It appears to be set into the floor so as to be mostly flush. Following it back to it's nearest point, it seems to pass under the stone altar, and then ends directly at the far wall. It seems to lead to that point from somewhere across the room. Looking as hard as he can, Nyx can see what looks like it might be a lower spot or depression in the floor on the opposite side of the room.

Following the line, it's clear it continues in a straight line all across the room. When Nyx reaches the far side, he sees that there is indeed a depression in the floor. A shallow rectangular pit with stairs leading down into it from either side to be exact. The band of metal continues down the steps, and ends in the pit, where it connects to many others

Within the depression appears to be an incredibly detailed set of inset bands of metal, forming some sort of incredibly complex pattern. It looks important, and you figure it might be protected.

[Wertible]

Leaving that be, Nyx heads to the point of the cross.

[Whiplord]

Looking for a way to navigate past the pit, Nyx sees that he can sidle past the edge of the pit in order to reach the far end of of the room. As far as Nyx can tell though, there is nothing of interest there.

[Wertible]

Nyx returns to the main entrance.

[Whiplord]

Both Nyx and Garreth arrive back from explorations at roughly the same time, converging near the stairs in the entry hall.

[Plasma Snake]

"Ah, boss there you are. I've found some interesting things" Garreth launches into an explanation of what he found, omitting the part where he almost flooded the room. "So what did you find?"

[Wertible]

Nyx similarly relays information to Garreth, sitting as he does so.

"That said, I think we should find out where we are. I can live without food or water, but I don't know if you can say the same."

[Plasma Snake]

"Well this place seems to have the water part down for us, but otherwise you're right." He turns to his homunculus and removes the pack. The artificer takes several of his kits out and hands them to Wobbles. "Wobs you stay here for now. Take these and hide somewhere and don't come out until you hear the okay from me."

Wobbles looks almost sad as it clutches the kits to its chest. Then its resolve stiffens and the construct offers a salute to its master before finding a place to hide.

Shouldering the pack, Garreth turns back to Nyx, "I'm ready when you are. Shall we?"


Removed the Alchemy kit and the Trap Making kit from my pack. lost 10lb now unencumbered with the pack on.

[Wertible]

Nyx strips off his cold weather clothing, revealing his dark red shirt and pants, then dons his armor again.

"Then let's get started. We need to find some sort of waterway, that'll lead us to a town."

Nyx moves outside and surveys the surroundings for any signs of water.


[roll0]

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth follows Nyx outside, shutting the fort behind him. He assists the priest in searching for any signs of a trail or waterway.

Takes 20 on search = 35

[Whiplord]

Stepping outside, Nyx' earlier observations are confirmed. The fortress seems to sit in the middle of some kind of jungle ruins like it belongs there. Although due to the fact that courtyard area was paved with flagstones there seems to be a small clearing in which the ruin rests, the surroundings appear entirely overgrown. Where the ruin stops, the jungle starts, with little in the way of a transition. It seems to become immediately a very deep wilderness.

Both Nyx and Garreth tromp through the surrounding undergrowth, and around the grounds of the fortress ruins, looking for some sort of sign of water, knowing enough to realize that if they can find water and follow it, they should come to some sort of civilization eventually. Unfortunately, neither are able to find any sign of a water source in the area, worrying about venturing off too far into the jungle with their limited knowledge.

Garreth turns to looking for some sort of trail, as perhaps following that would be a better bet. He takes his time, searching carefully, and eventually happens across what he is pretty sure used to be a trail. It looks incredibly overgrown, but could probably be followed, at least near the start. The jungle does look like it becomes even deeper further out though.

[Plasma Snake]

"Oy! Boss! I think I found a trail that we can follow!" Garreth yells over to Nyx and raises his hand to show where he is.

[Wertible]

Nyx walks over to Garreth's location.

"Then let's follow it. Perhaps we can find someone to help us figure out where we are."

Nyx leads the way on the overgrown trail.

[Whiplord]

Going through the thick undergrowth is slow, both due to the thick nature of it, as well as the necessity of constantly trying to make sure that you stay on the trail. You make maybe a couple miles progress before realizing you have lost the trail.


I rolled survival for you guys and you both failed. Go ahead and both roll survival yourselves to see if you can refind the trail.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth rubs his forehead in annoyance. "We should just head back for now boss, the place has a infinite water supply and I can live with the glop that passes for magically created gruel for a little while."

The artificer takes out another fine black thread, this time wrapping it around his belt. He then pulls a small owl's feather out of his component pouch and pins it to his cloak, weaving magic into it. While doing this he says, "That place had some tall enough towers that we might be able to get the lay of the land from up there."


Uses another level 1 for Skill Enhancement, this time for Survival, and a lvl 2 for Owls Wisdom.
[roll0]

[Wertible]

Letting Garreth take care of it, Nyx sighs.

"Looks like we need to spend the night in that fortress, but let's not get sloppy. We will need a watch tonight. Somehow I feel that our arrival in this location is not going to go unnoticed."

[Whiplord]

With the aid of his augmentations, Garreth is easily able to determine the way back to the fortress.

[Plasma Snake]

After opening the doors, the first thing Garreth does is call back his assistant. This takes some time but eventually the construct, true to its name, wobbles its way back to its master. It almost happily takes the pack from Garreth.

"I think there were a couple rooms that we didn't look through. Lets check them out, starting with," he says while bounding up the curved staircase. "these two here." pointing at the two doors at the back and center of the second floor.


Usual door check routine. Open after.

[Whiplord]

Completing his checks and apparently finding nothing, Garreth opens the left door first. It seems to open into another expansive room, and this one the first time you have seen anything resembling furnishings in the fortress. Looking to the right, it's apparent the second door leads into this room as well.

The room is clearly a massive library, filled entirely with shelves and shelves of books. The shelving is made of a dark red wood, and look to be quite solid, which is probably a good thing, judging by how much all those books must weigh. The room has thick carpeting down, the color of a dark, dark, red. The ceiling is painted in a giant mural, of dark roiling reddish clouds, with pinpricks of light almost like stars in it. The room is currently lit by a large amount of sunlight. It's difficult to see to the other side of the room past all the shelves, but it looks like there's several windows over there.

Near the entrance, in a space vacant of shelving, there is a hefty looking table made of the same wood as the shelves. The table has several books stacked haphazardly on it, as well as a pair of old looking reading glasses.


Make Spot checks, Knowledge: Planes. You'll need to walk around the room some if you want to see everything, since the shelves block quite a bit of vision.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth walks into the room with childlike wonder. He slowly makes his way towards the tables while scanning whats on some of the shelves. Reaching the table he extends his senses toward the glasses.


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Plasma Snake]

Looking from the glasses back the mural on the ceiling, Garreth says giddily, "You see those points of light on the mural? They're actual stars. stars, Nyx. I love this place." With a grin and a shrug, he puts on the glasses to see what they do.

[Plasma Snake]

Noticing no change, Garreth shrugs some more and walks around the room. With the glasses still on he continues to scan the shelves and examine the walls.

[Wertible]

Nyx takes a cursory examination of the room before hearing Garreth's comments.

"Actual stars? What do you mean?"


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Plasma Snake]

Looking up from one of the books he was examining, Garreth says, "I mean that that mural is less of a mural and more of a window to the cosmos." Staring at the mural again, "Utterly amazing"

[Whiplord]

Looking at several books, Garreth notices that he is able to read all the books he picks up and leafs through, curiously

Looking at the books that were strewn on the table, you see these titles:

A Treatise on Seasonal Crops in Northern Faerun
Mating Habits of the Denizens of Dal'Quor
Waterdeep: A Tourists Guide
The Coming of Pleach


And one very old looking dark brown leather bound book with no title visible on the binding.

[Plasma Snake]

Of course, Garreth's curiosity is peaked by the old, unnamed book. With care, the artificer pulls the book off the shelf and gently opens it. Before looking at the pages a thought crosses his mind, Pleach, huh? Seems interesting, have to check that out later.

[Whiplord]

Carefully opening the book, Garreth sees the gilt title page, reading Shadows of Amn.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth scans through the book.

[Whiplord]

The book seems to be an incredibly detailed guide on a secret society of thieves based on a city called Amn. It almost seems to have been written from an inside perspective, but reading through about some of the punishments within the society, you find it hard to believe anyone would be crazy enough to do that.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth closes the book and places it back on the shelf. "Interesting enough. Where was the room with all the silver inlay? That sounded like it could have a major purpose here."

[Wertible]

As Garreth turns to Nyx, Nyx's eyes are still locked on the mural.

"Garreth, the clouds are moving."

[Plasma Snake]

Looking up at the mural with Nyx, Garreth says, "Well I'll be damned." the artificer rubs his chin and says, "Interesting, very interesting. I could study this place for a century and not get bored."

He looks around for a second, "I wonder if we could find a ladder or something to get up there."

[Whiplord]

Garreth and Nyx begin exploring around the rest of the room, searching for a ladder. Although they find no ladder, they are able to look at the rest of the room.

At the far end of the room, the wall is lined with many windows, as was suspected. There are also 3 doors along the back wall that look like they lead to a balcony on the back of the fortress.

Additionally on the east wall there is another door.

[Plasma Snake]

Garreth takes a peak out onto the back balcony then heads to the other unchecked door.

[Whiplord]

The balcony seems to be just that, a balcony. A thick carved stone railing surrounds the edge, and it does look to provide an excellent view.

Moving over to check the other door you find that is locked, and appears to be trapped.

[Plasma Snake]

Despite the fact that he always checks, Garreth is surprised to find a trapped and locked door after all the previous doors. Whatever is in there must be good. The artificer, unfurling his thieves' tools, gets to work on the door.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Garreth sets to work on the door, trying to be extremely careful in his work. He hears a click that sounds bad and manages to pull his hands away before anything happens.


You failed. You may try again.

[Plasma Snake]

Frustrated, the artificer tries again.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Whiplord]

Scared into better performance, the artificer meets with success his second try, and disables the trap, and then handily unlocks the door, doing it all in under a minute.

Inside the room appears to be a well appointed study, with carpeting identical to the library, and a hefty wooden desk of wood identical to the shelves, as well as a smaller bookshelf against one wall, and two padded chairs facing each other in the corner.

On the desk is a worn leather bound book with no writing on the binding. On the shelf are three rolled sheets of parchment.


That took you 42 seconds. Legit.

[Plasma Snake]

More wary of a book just laying around this time, Garreth ensures that there is no trap within or around the book, be it mechanical or magical. With his curiosity becoming almost unbearable, the artificer hopes that there are no traps and that he can get right down to investigating the book.

[Whiplord]

Garreth, literally aquiver with excitement, hurrdiely sets about inspecting the book for traps, he easily notices an explosive runes spell inscribed on the cover of the book on close examination, and carefully avoids reading it, while he attempts to disable it. Unfortunately in his excitement he messes up a critical step in the process. A bright flare is seen, and then a high pitched shriek, followed by a roar as the spell activates, enveloping Garreth in a wave of force..

When the figurative smoke clears, the book seems to still be intact, but the desk and a circle of carpet have now clearly seen better days. A very short while ago.


Garreth takes 20 force damage.

[Wertible]

Stepping over slowly, Nyx laughs.

"Second time today, Garreth. This is the second time you've caused something valuable to explode in your face."

His light smile crooks into a smirk as he looks down on the artificer.

"The cost for the refurnishing of this room is coming out of your half of the loot."

[Plasma Snake]

Spread eagle on the floor, Garreth is in a lot of pain. The artificer has had encountered a lot of pain in his life. What just happened is right up there with the time he blew off his left hand during a potion creation lesson with Sul. It grew back with some quick casting on Sul's part.

Rolling his head to the side, Garreth spits a copious amount of blood and what seems to be one of his molars. His head rolls back to stare up at the ceiling and the wounded human coughs out a plea of "Do you think you could help a guy out boss?"

[Wertible]

"Of course, Garreth, I assume you consent to pay for the room then."

Snatching the Wand of Lesser Vigor from storage, Nyx takes time to heal the Artificer's wounds.


2 charges used.

[Plasma Snake]

After all the wounds heal, Garreth pulls himself off the ground. He bends over, picks up the tooth and examines it, "I doubt you'll even use this room, I could lock it up and you'd never know if the rug was repaired or not." Placing the tooth in a pocket he continues, "Besides give me a day to renew my infusions and I can fix this place myself." He shoots a glare at Nyx, "So my half of the loot stays my half"

Breaking the glare, Garreth returns to the book, and reexamines it for traps again. He prays that they're gone and he can finally get to reading the book.

[Wertible]

"Sure, Garreth, I didn't know you were a carpenter! Why, I didn't think I contracted you from the Carpenter's Guild!"

Nyx walks out of the room.

"My mistake. Come talk to me when you've satisfied your curiosity."

Nyx closes the door behind him, and heads back to the main entrance. He begins making camp there, hoping to get some sleep after everything that happened.

[Whiplord]

Opening the book, Garreth is relieved to find that this time it does not explode in his face.

It opens immediately to a sheet of white parchment covered in cramped spidery handwriting. Quickly paging through the rest of the book reveals that the rest seems to be blank.

Diary

That you are so much as reading this means something in regards to your skill. That, or you are extraordinarily lucky. The fortress you are in is known as Ash. I did not name it, nor do I know who did. I was simply one of a long line of owners who have inhabited this place, which you will now join. Each have added their own touch to the place, to the point where many aspects of the fortress are simply hard to discover.

I would warn you away from this place, but I doubt it would do any good. Ash seems to resent giving up it's owners once it finds them. Whether this is due to any sort of design, or simply coincidence I know not. Likely though, you will stay, and it will eventually be the death of you, as it was of me. The fact that you are reading this means that I am long dead.

I choose to leave you with a few pieces of information, although I also choose to withhold some. Feel free to begrudge me this, but it will do little good if you do. These things you will simply have to discover on your own, if you ever do find them. Some, perhaps it would be better you didn't.

The larder will give you food if you request it in elven. It is simple, but edible. I tell you this in hope that you may choose to replenish your supplies and leave.

The stone basin is in fact a bathing room. It will fill the basin with water of whatever temperature you ask in Aquan. It will drain if you ask it to empty in Abyssal. I am unaware of the reason for this particular quirk.

Most of the fireplaces will ignite with a contained flame if it is requested in Ignan.

There is supposedly a vault in Ash, but I doubt you will find it. I know I never did. Perhaps it is only a rumor after all.

This is all I will share, with the exception of this one last thing:

Beware the nonmen.


The last is pressed deep into the page, and looks rushed compared to the rest.

---

Nyx in the meantime heads back down into the entryhall, and begins setting up a meager camp. The floor is hard, but it is still much better compared to camping in the tunnel the previous night.

[Plasma Snake]

"This was definitely worth the loss of a tooth." Garreth says to himself with a smile. He takes out a small notebook and jots down the command words he knows. I'm going to have to pick up Abyssal sometime soon. I hope I can at least look up the word for empty in the library.

Replacing the notebook in his pocket, the artificer turns his attention to the scrolls on the shelf and attempts to discover their purpose.


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Rolling to decipher the scrolls without the use of Read Magic. Able to attempt only once a day per scroll.
DC 20+Spell Level

[Whiplord]

Garreth unfurls all of the scrolls in turn, and is surprised to find he can already read the magic text with no difficulty. The scrolls seem to be a scroll of Summon Monster I, a scroll of protection from evil, and one of spider climb.