The Greatest Game of All

[Cyrix]

Ren (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=245029) played by Joseph Silver

Ivan Yaromir (http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=41620) played by Quietus

Kanzairyn Tytharual (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=245251) played by goken04

Traig N'dar (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=244988) played by Senrath

Teflon (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=245538) played by abadguy

Bungo Underhill (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=245461) played by ForzaFiori

[Cyrix]

WALL OF TEXT
I'm mildly dyslexic so I have a hard-time proof reading things I write, also there is a ton of it here so I apologize if I've screwed something up.

The din of a large group of people fills the air. The sun hangs precariously on the horizon, ready to plunge into night at any moment. You find yourself signing the last bit of you name on the dotted line. You've sworn allegiance to Vermitha a young Brass Dragon in the game of Xorvintaal. Though you expect only to be one of her pawns it seems to be paying off well enough already. A gruff half brass-dragon presses a large golden coin into your hand and shouts “Next” behind you. You tuck the dragon-head coin into your person and make your way through the rest of the ques. Vermitha's cadre has graciously bought out a few local inns for their new recruits to sleep in for the night. You are to leave in the morning and start your service. Before you head to bed you decide to purchase supplies you think you may need. The local merchants are all too accommodating; apparently smelling the large concentration of gold they've set up shop near-by.

You walk into the swarm of stalls purchasing things you might need along your way. You pass a tent that has a large wooden sign over the door. Scrawled in fresh red paint is “Mysticale Magickz”. Your skin feels greasy and a tinny smell saturates the air. You step inside, the tent looks much larger on the inside the the outside would lead one to believe. A large brown man sits behind the corner and turns to you as you enter. “Welcome to my shop! I am Akbar! Please buy what you will! All items are of the finest quality!” He says throwing his arms wide as the cavalcade of gold and silver bangles rattle in protest. You begin to look around inspecting several objects that you can't afford but one day hope to acquire one way or the other. Akbar seems to pop up out of no where to explain the functions and different qualities of the items you browse and then quietly returns to his desk. You select some items in more in your price range and bring them to the counter. He smiles while taking your money and hands you your change and gives you a friendly “Thank you come again” as you walk out the tent flap.
You make your way to your assigned inn room and bed down for the night.

You wake up in the morning to the peel of a battle horn. You gather up your things in hurry outside. You make your way to your assigned caravan and take your place in the formation. You are in the rear of large ornate wagon filled with various weapons of war. You are handed a small dragon pendant on the end of a necklace and are told to put it on. Apparently this will let Vermitha know where you are and if you are alive if something were to happen. Somehow this doesn't make you feel very safe. You and the hodgepodge of other mercenaries don your pendants and march off along a trail headed north. Every race you've ever heard of are represented here; Dwarfs, half-orcs, half-dragons, humans, elves, halflings, hobgoblins, gnomes even and orc or two. You all eye each other suspiciously and destinctly remember a line of the contract explicitly explain to you. “In-fighting among Vermitha's chosen is strictly forbidden. Doing so will revoke any and all privileges, pay, equipment, and may result in loss of life.” The local hive-mind seems to recall this in unison and tensions ease a bit.

The night blankets the country side and the caravan stops for the night. The men, and women, sit around small fires and get to know each other. You socialize for a while and learn that this group is headed for Vermithra's lair. For the most part racial tension has all but disappeared. The promise of coin and death does a lot to dissolve any racism. You slowly drift off to sleep under the stars in the company of your new 'friends.'

The march of your now synchronized boots shakes the dew from the branches of the trees overhead. Your shoulders pleasantly dampened by the drizzle. The cold dew gives you temporary relieve from the summer morning's heat. These last three weeks together have done a lot to form a more cohesive group of warriors. Several days ago the careers of a half dozen highwaymen were ended prematurely with hardly any effort. A lot of the man have broken off into little cliches, yourself included. There is a half-elf, two humans, two elves, and a halfling, including yourself. Certainly a motley crew but you get on well enough.

Another two weeks pass and you come out of the forest and are facing the mouth of a very large cave. The cave seems to have taken ill with a small city's worth of buildings spewed out before it. Large buildings line the sides of the cave and a wall crosses the front, studded with watch towers giving the cave the look of a yawning bulldog. You are told to break up into groups to be taken on a quick tour and to get your first assignment. You join up with your cliche and shown around the city.

You're shown various bars, inns, and eateries all run by Vermithra along with blacksmiths, enchanters, alchemist's and so on. You are then taken to the barracks and assigned some beds. You are told you wont be seeing much of them as you'll be on the road a lot but they are here if you need them. “Being in service to Vermitha is one of the best jobs I can think of.” The man says; “You're pretty much left on your own to go and be useful and that's never hard. You're paid well and everyone treats each other nicely. Differently better then working for a king or some such thing.”

You're taken in through a set of large doors that are set into the wall that blocks off the cave entrance. “The higher ranked live here.” The man says as he gestures towards large townhouses and a few villas all carved into the side of the cave. You walk further down the back of a cave and come to a large fortress. Each of the two large towers carved with brass dragons fighting other dragons, and winning of course. The large valves open and you a taken into the fortress proper. The facade of a tradition fortress melts away as the inside is just one large open space. A large table sits int eh middle of the room and several impressive looking people stand around it. At the head of the table stands a beautiful women with brown hair haloed with a large brass collar. The bronze frill of her long black dress kicks up dusts as she leans forward and uses a long stick to push some piece along on the board and waves her hand. The people around the table disperse obviously gaining what they needed from her action.

The women sits down in her large, you guessed it, brass throne at the head of the table and motions for you all to come over. Before you do so your guide leans in and says “She appears in human form for convenience, she hate's when people ask her just so you know.” He bids you fair well and walks off. You approach the throne and twist you face in thought on trying to figure out weather to bow or not. She waves a hand and says “I'm a dragon not a queen.” and continues “Welcome to my service, I am Vermitha. You're the first group through so I have a special assignment for you. I have something that needs to be picked up from a wizard near-by. He isn't used to having visitors so you'll have an hard time getting to see him. We'll see how you handle this and I might have something more interesting for you in the future.” She stands up and grabs the stick she used early and points it toward a large structure int eh middle of the map. “This is where we are.” She takes the pointer towards the North West “And this is where the wizard Kalthis lives. He doesn't have a doorbell so you'll have to let yourself in.”

She looks at you expectantly waiting for your acknowledgment and possibly any questions you have.

[Aron Times]

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/Joseph_Silver/Dungeons%20and%20Dragons/Xanos_Messarmos.jpg

A tall and well-dressed half-orc in blue steps forward. He wears a dragon pendant similar to the ones the others wear, but it is colored blue instead of brass. "Greetings, milady," he says with a bow. "I am Ren the Negotiator. Lord Zerus sends his regards. I have been sent to assist you in matters of negotiation, arbitration, and the law."

"I have two questions about Kalthis. First, has he seen your human form, and second, will he react positively if he sees someone who looks exactly like you knocking on his front door?"

[Cyrix]

Vermitha smiles; "If you can find a door to knock on I doubt he would answer. Kalthis is a funny man and he has his funny ways. He hasn't seen this form and if he had it wouldn't make him any friendlier. Do you think I would send six people if the task was so easily accomplished? I do appreciate your spirit."

[abadguy]

((OOC thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9504716#post9504716)))

Teflon slinks out of the shadows. He is a rather short elf, with jet black hair cropped close to his scalp and piercing green eyes. From his forest green cloak, numerous pointy objects jut out, ready to fly into an eye at a moment's notice. He has the look of a practiced killer.

He eyes the half-orc levelly before turning to Vermitha and saying,"What exactly are we retrieving? What does Kalthis look like, what kind of 'butlers' should we be expecting and would the state of health Kalthis ends up in matter to you?"

[Cyrix]

Vermitha looks Teflon up and down as he slinks up to her. "A bronze orb, it's very valuable to me. His outside looks much like the inside of his head I would image. Old, dusty, and covered in cobwebs. Last I knew he didn't have any servants, magically or otherwise. I can't say that his tower will be unprotected as such. I would be very surprised if you managed to kill the old man. Death himself has had a hard time of that, let along a half dozen green adventurers. I wouldn't expect things to come to blows, with him at least."

[Quietus]

((Closest I could find for an image to represent Ivan : http://butterfrog.deviantart.com/art/Derinogen-114271883

Lose the smug look, though.. clothes are in silver and black, and anyone who knows their way around a sword can tell that the sword itself is merely ornamental. Pretty, but useless for combat. For game purposes, Cyrix, I'm counting that as part of the 100 GP worth of "jewelry" that goes with a Noble's outfit.))


To the untrained eye, Ivan appears to be exactly the last type of person that might be selected for business such as this; Riding atop his horse to save his own feet whenever possible (left outside the cave, or wherever space is accomodated for it), wearing unusually fine clothing, and with his horse left behind, he is unarmed aside from a pointlessly fancy sword hanging from his hip. The more observant, however, would note that while he does have weaponry stowed with his horse, a small pouch hangs opposite his sword, appearing to bulge with any number of odds and ends; A spell component pouch, hidden behind the folds of his clothes, in easy reach just in case it's needed. Vermitha's comments cause Ivan to raise an eyebrow, wondering at the usefulness of a location without a door. "This should be interesting...", he muses aloud, before asking, "Is Kalthis the type to try and give us a dummy object to trick us into just going away?"

[senrath]

Traig sat hunched, remaining silent, his thin frame rather awkward compared to the large weaponry he was carrying. He figured that what they were going to do was dangerous, and he wanted to think over all that could go wrong. "Well, I think I understand what we need to do."

[goken04]

http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderCompanion/PZO9401-ElvenRanger_180.jpeg

(except he has a longsword instead of an ax and he wears a dark green cloak)

Kanzairyn, tall for an elf, steps up. He nods at each of the others' questions and finally takes his turn to speak. "As difficult as this task may be, m'lady, I expect to accomplish it with great aplomb in your name."

[Cyrix]

The women gives a faint smile. "Just as the blade of a sword doesn't know who it's cutting or for what reason, his safe guards don't know who their safeguarding against. He is a kind enough man, though he spends most of his time in a room shielded with a special material that insulates him form any and all magic studying. I would let him know you all are coming but that simply isn't an option. You wont have to trick or fight him for my orb, just ask him for it and he should oblige."

She looks behind you all. A differnt group of new members has gathered just inside the door. "If that is all gentlemen I have other groups to see."

[abadguy]

"A moment if you please. Would he give you a fake orb? Anyway of verifying what he is giving us is what you ask for? A detector of sorts if you will," says Selfent.

He also looks expectantly at the halfling cleric if he has anything to add.

[Cyrix]

She shakes her head "He has no reason to do so and even he knows better then to get on my bad side. If you were to bring back a fake orb I would have to send someone to... audit his loyalties."

Her smile fades into a grimace. "You would do well to remember your loyalties. Don't make me regret being too kind to those in my service."

[ForzaFiori]

((It's not the best, but this is kinda close. Pic (http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/halfling.jpg) only lighter, almost blond, hair; less pointy things, and a mace in their place; and dressed in vestments of Yondalla or a breastplate/shield))

From the back of the room, a small halflng slowly maneuvers around everyone's lets to get to a point where everyone can see him. He's dressed in the full vestments of Yondalla, with a ornate silver symbol around his neck in addition to the brass dragon. He speaks to the room fairly quickly. "This sounds simple enough to understand, though most things are easier to say than do. I suggest that unless we have any more question, we quit wasting the good lady's time, and our own, and start working on what she's actually paying us to do." He looks around expectantly at the others in the room.

[Quietus]

"Not a particularly nice first impression...", Ivan thinks to himself. "Then again, if I were a creature as powerful and long-lived as a dragon, I suppose I wouldn't want to waste my time on such comparatively weak creatures either."

With a polite bow of his head to Vermitha, he excuses himself from the room, waiting for his companions to join him. While he waits, he mentally runs over the list of effects he's capable of producing with his spells, guessing at which would be useful in this situation, and which would not. Once he's joined by his companions and they're on their way out of the cave complex, he elaborates, "My more powerful magics tend more toward combat uses, but I've got a strong grasp of magical knowledge. If this Kalthis is unlikely to have servants, then we should expect magical traps. I should be able to help detect them as we encounter them, and if he truly has no door to enter his tower, then perhaps he'll have some magical method of entering that I can assist in finding. What are all your thoughts on the matter?", he asks, looking at each in turn.

[senrath]

Traig shrugged, glancing around at the others. He didn't want to reveal what he was just yet, or what exactly what his talents were. "Thinking's not my thing. Just point me at something you want either dead or broken, and I can do that."

[abadguy]

Teflons laughs at Traig's comment and says, "Good! Looks like we do complement each other very well. I prefer to strike from the shadows, and traps, well, I do like to collect them." He squints in the direction of the sun and gets his bearings.

Right, let us be off once everyone is out"

[Aron Times]

"Didn't think it would be that easy," replied Ren, returning the dragon's smile. "But I had to ask."

A formal bow. "We shall leave immediately, milady." Ren turns to his companions. "Gentlemen, let's go."

[Cyrix]

Vermitha out stretches her arm towards you all and a small rolled up piece of parchment materializes in her hand. You open it and see that is a map of the surrounding area with several landmarks notated on the way to the mage's tower. You all pass back through the cave and find yourselves back toward the entrance of town. You gather up you horse (where applicable) and head off to the North West following the map to the best of your abilities. A four days pass uneventfully as the tree line gives way to a craggy mountain pass. The only life around is the weird fungi that cling to rocks and they too thin out as you rise in altitude.

You seem to reach to apex and start on your way back down rather more quickly then the way up. You reach a large rock outcropping that's shaped like an elvish ear. You consult the map and it lets you know that you'll be on rougher terrain. As a group you convince the horse onto the steep terrain lest it be left to any passers by and in this area one can assume they would be hungry.

You reach a mesa of sorts and the going gets much easier. The flat, dry, red-rock is even easier the the path your recently left. The horizon steadily gets closer as you soon come to a steep slope that bottoms out into a picturesque mountain valley. The slope turns green as it approaches the bowl of the valley and starts to sprout trees. A large, smooth, stone tower rises up some 300 feet above the valley floor like a proud needle standing on it's head.

You make your way down into the valley and come upon a river which was hidden by the trees. It's apparent source is a loud waterfall just to your east which is close enough to make the air feel cool and damp. You follow the river for some time and find yourself in a large open space at the base of the tower. No doors or windows are apparent at this level. The only openings seem to be some small windows toward the top of the tower.

[Aron Times]

"Mr. Yaromir," he calls out to his fellow sorcerer. "Would you kindly help me scan the area for any magical wards?" Ren goes around the tower using a Detect Magic or three.

[goken04]

"Huh. This is strange. I hope we can find some magical means of egress, as I don't think I brought enough rope to climb a window that high." Kanzairyn says, chuckling nervously to himself. He follows Ren around the tower, with his bow out and an arrow notched in readiness for any possible surprise assault.

[Quietus]

"It would be my pleasure.", Ivan answers, hopping down off of his horse and casting Detect Magic. Circling the tower in the opposite manner to Ren, he takes the time to examine any auras he does find, unless they're clearly attached to his companions. While he does this, he spends any time circling the tower looking for auras attempting to comb his thoughts for any key suggestions regarding mage's towers in general, or if he's heard of it previously, this tower in particular. If he finds an aura that he fails to identify, he calls Ren over to take a look himself.

If it happens to be needed, spellcraft results : [roll0], if you need more, feel free to roll them yourself.

If there's any chance of it getting useful information, a Knowledge : Arcana with regard to this situation; [roll1]

[Cyrix]

The two spell casters go about using their keen magic senses to detect any magic in the area. They are nearly blinded by the magic light coming for the top of the tower but their magical irises narrow and their vision adjusts. You notice that around the tower and the tower it selfs seems to be perfectly normal. At first glance at least, you'd expect to see some sort of back-ground magic int eh area or some sort of radiation for the intense source above you. Your regular eyes tell you that this tower is most likely magically created so it's even more strange.

Minutes pass as you see more of the same. Your magical vision becomes more sensitive as time go on and you notice a strange flow of magic headed up the tower like a backwards waterfall. The tower seems to be siphoning magic from the surrounding area and pushing it to the top. You walk almost the entire circumference as you can hear your magical cohort's foots steps just out of sight. You notice the outline of a rectangle with an eye above it radiating a wispy purple light.

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/600/doorway.jpg (http://img580.imageshack.us/i/doorway.jpg/)

[Quietus]

"Well, Ren, I think we've found the entrance. Hey guys, you might want to come over here!", Ivan says, calling to the rest of the group. While he waits for them to arrive, he examines the strange magical effects happening; The backward waterfall of magic fascinates him, and he pays enough attention to describe it later in his book, but for the time being the door itself is what has him most intrigued. On the off chance that the eye is somehow feeding information back to the Wizard of the tower, Ivan presents the pendant given to him by his patron, and says, "Kalthis, if you can see us, we're here on behalf of Vermitha, to collect a bronze orb that was promised to her.", waiting for a response while he waits on his companions to catch up.

[Cyrix]

As you address the wall the eye blinks. You hear a disembodied voice say:
"What bends without creases,
And flies without wings?
It's always tied up,
Yet soars, ready to sting."

[goken04]

"Oh great." Kanzairyn laments. "A riddle. I'm not very good at these."

[abadguy]

Teflon thinks for a moment. "I think I've heard this before. One of my childhood amusements was posing riddles amongst our peers. Good times."

He steps up near the door and says clearly "A bow and arrow."

[Cyrix]

Those with the ability to see magics auras notice that the eye squints as if it need to take a close look at something it couldn't quite see. The eye sits about 2 feet above the 10 foot door.

[Quietus]

"Glad one of us is good with riddles, I think too literally for that sort of thing.", Ivan says, raising an eyebrow when the eye squints. Glancing around, he asks, "Does anyone have a bow and arrow on them? There's.. it looks like a door here, with an eye over it. I think the riddle might need to be solved by showing it the answer, not just saying it, because the eye is.. squinting."

Keeping concentration on Detect Magic as long as it will allow, Ivan digs out a broken piece of chalk from his adventurer's kit (or other temporary marking tool, if chalk isn't included), and draws a rough outline around the door, and an oval around the eye, so that those who can't see what he and Ren are capable of picking up on at least have a general idea of what they're looking at. Reaching the eye is more difficult, but he manages by having someone hold him steady while he climbs onto his horse's back and steadies himself against the wall - unless showing the bow and arrow does the job, at least.

[Cyrix]

You coordinate you efforts and get a fairly accurate drawing of the door and eye done in chalk. As a bow is produced the eye squints even harder, seeing what it wants to see but not close enough it seems.

[abadguy]

"Humph." Teflon grudgingly pulls out his longbow and an arrow from his quiver before presenting it before the outline of the eye in chalk Ivan had thoughtfully outlined.

[Aron Times]

"If this doesn't work, I'm going to try knocking on the door outline and announce ourselves. You know, just to be polite."

[Cyrix]

(Oh close enough, I'm being silly. You were meant to shoot it but you had no way of knowing that. Things are obvious when you already know the answer :smallbiggrin:)

The eye squints so much it nearly closes as the bow and arrow are presented to it. The eye suddenly snaps open into a perfect circle and disappears. The doorway slowly dematerializes revealing a short passage into a large, open room.

As clichéd as it is this room seems much too big for it's outside walls. You figured that the tower was about 50 foot wide but this rooms seems to be about 100. You all step into the room and the door reappears behind you.

You approach the middles of the room when all of the sudden there is a bright flash that seems to come from everywhere. (I'll go ahead and roll you're reflex saves here on my table since I don't know how dice rolls work on these forums heh.) Further description will be sent in a PM.

[abadguy]

Use the forum roller: for e.g
[roll0]

((I'll roll mine as an example))
Reflex save


[roll1]

[Cyrix]

Test

[roll0]

[Quietus]

((I'm going to assume it's fair to have grabbed my weaponry off my horse, just in case it was needed?))

"Woah, woah, woah guys - hold on here. That wasn't me, I swear! NONE of my spells can create light like that!", holding his hands up in defense and backing away from Traig, Teflon, and Ren slowly. Concerned about the possibility of that being a charm - or worse, dominate - effect, Ivan scans his companion's eyes for clues to anything like that. As he does so, he brings some of his magic to his mind, ready to cast Mage Armor if his companions have been turned against him.

Sense Motive check vs. enchantment effects on friends : [roll0]

[Cyrix]

It would makes sense to have grabbed your things yes. Also you do not sense and enchantment effects on your fellow party members.

Ren does, however, begin to growl quite fiercely.

[Cyrix]

Ren ***** back his arms tosses a dagger directly at the rest of the party. It seems to slip out of his grip as it lands harmlessly at your feet. The dagger is closely followed by a crossbow. Clearly he's lost his mind.

[Quietus]

"What.. confusion, maybe? That's no charm I've heard of..", Ivan thinks to himself, as he launches himself at Ren, attempting to grab hold of his fellow caster, and halt the hail of objects before someone gets hurt. As he struggles to immobilize Ren, he shouts, "Ren, snap out of it! This is no time to be losing control, get hold of yourself! It's just some magic effect, you can beat it!"

Making a grapple check, hoping that with Ren throwing things, he's effectively disarming himself, so won't get an AoO. If he does, my AC is an awesome 12 right now.

Touch attack : [roll0]
Grapple check : [roll1]

[goken04]

"Curses... And I almost bought blunt arrows for just this sort of occassion..." Kanzairyn says. He readies an action to shoot Ren if he attempts to attack again.

Rolls for my granted maneuvers.
[roll0]
[roll1]

[goken04]

Have to reroll that last one...
[roll0]

[Cyrix]

Kanzairyn's will save [roll0]
Bungo's will save [roll1]
Ivan's will save [roll2]

[Cyrix]

As Ivan run toward the enraged man Ren waves his hands quickly sending a spell over Ivan, Bungo, and Kanzairyn.

Kanzairyn and Ivan shake off the spell whatever if was and Ivan continues his run. The seemingly possessed Ren side steps Ivan who misses his grapple attempt.

Kanzairyn notices that Bungo wasn't so lucky. He skin is pale and sticky looking, he was apparently killed instantly.

Alright we'll wait here for a bit.

[goken04]

For future reference, I have a maneuver that allows me to make Concentration checks in place of Will saves if I don't roll my will save first. So I would like to use that in the future, when its available (it is now).

Kanzairyn, seeing Ren fire and Bungo apparently die, releases two arrows at Ren.

Attack, with a Dragonsbreath arrow, 1: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]+1 point of fire damage, +1 if he is within 30'. If it hit, he needs to make a reflex save DC 15 or catch on fire.

[goken04]

Second attack:
Attack 2, with regular arrow: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[goken04]

Next maneuver granted: [roll0]

[Aron Times]

Round 1
Will Save [roll0]
HP: 14/14

Round 2
Will Save [roll1]
Reflex Save [roll2]
HP 7/14

Edit: Ren is on fire, and possibly back to normal. Waiting for the DM to adjudicate the results.

[Cyrix]

It's nearly the end of the first round, I'll need will saves from everyone. We're just waiting on a few players and we'll move on.

[senrath]

Glancing around at the others, Traig took up a defensive posture, sword in hand, and began edging away. Fighting five others was not what he had planned upon doing, and if he could get out of this situation without having to actually fight, that was preferable.

Take total defense, move away from the others.

[roll0]

HP: 28/28
AC: 22

[Quietus]

Will save : [roll0]

[abadguy]

"Damned wizards." Teflon mutters under his breath. He can't tell if its magic or betrayal but it always pays to make sure. "Best to take him down without killing him." He draws a javelin and flings it at Ren.

Attack and damage rolls

Attack roll: [roll0]
Damage if hit: [roll1]


Will save: [roll2]

[goken04]

Using Moment of Perfect Mind to make a Concentration check instead of a will save:

[roll0]

[Cyrix]

(Everyone passed their will save)

The images of the kobolds, for those who are seeing them at least, fade away into your companions. Bungo snores loudly obviously not dead, just in a deep sleep.

It's fairly clear that there was some sort illusion cast over the party. And the temperature in the room goes down considerably, well except for Ren because he's on fire. You all help Ren stop, drop, and roll and manage to extinguish the fire before it did any real damage.

There is a pathway on the opposite side of the room from where you came into that seems to have some stairs leading up.

[goken04]

"What was that?" Kanzairyn exclaims. "My apologies for setting you on fire, Ren, but it had appeared that you killed Bungo in a fit of madness. I see now that he is only sleeping. Perhaps we should wake him before continuing on in this mysterious and dangerous tower."

[abadguy]

Retrieving his javelin, Teflon agreed. "Won't come to blows she said. Not with him but with each other! Better be on the look out, this wizard seems to be found of tricks and illusions!"

Teflon will move on ahead of the party when they are ready to go.

[Quietus]

While the others discuss things, Ivan shakes Bungo back to the world of the waking, remaining careful in case he's still under the effects of the illusion. Once everyone is awake, he clears his throat, saying, "So, it would seem we've all been subject to some spell effect, making us look like enemies to one another. I suggest that we take a strict approach of non-aggression; We make no pre-emptive attacks against anything at all, so that if we encounter another charm, or illusion, that makes us think we are all enemies, we won't attack one another. Agreed?"

Once that proposition is considered, and we head toward the next room, Ivan calls upon the magic in his blood, pulling it forth and wrapping himself in tendrils of inky darkness. Once they wrap around his entire torso, they solidify into scales of pure black, accompanied by a wrinkling of Ivan's nose, as though their appearance disgusted him, despite their clear protective qualities.

((Mage Armor, reflavored slightly to fit with Ivan's character. If we're in here for two hours or more, please let me know? =P))

[Aron Times]

Ren is relieved to find out that his choice of spell didn't result in any casualties. He had chosen to incapacitate the "kobolds" with Sleep instead of outright killing them with Pain. "We could have killed each other and not known better," cried Ren. "The master of the tower is good at Enchantment, just like me."

((OOC: How much HP do I have now? Do I snap out of it before the next attack? Otherwise, I'm at 0 HP and limping, and could use some healing.))

[senrath]

"I find no problems with that plan." Traig said, inwardly glad that he'd decided to hold off attacking the kobolds, which apparently were his companions under an illusion.

[Cyrix]

I hate my stupid computer sometimes...

The round ended before the javelin got thrown so you're okay.

Taking the pathway leading up or healing first?

[Aron Times]

((1 Cure Light Wounds = 1 Standard Action, so it doesn't really delay us. After searching this level for anything that might hint at whatever is up ahead, we go up the tower.))

[Cyrix]

Alright.

You head up the stairs and enter a long hallway. There are no torches on the walls but the walls seems to be emanating a pale omnipresent light. Sitting plainly in the middle of the hallway is a 5 foot pit about 20 foot deep.

[goken04]

"This is a curious trap, indeed," Kanzairyn says. He gives the pit a wide birth as he carefully walks around it.

[ForzaFiori]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't pit traps usually have some sort of covering over them? This is just shoddy work. Bungo comments, as he follows Kanzairyn around the pit.

[senrath]

Silently watching, Traig hung back at the entrance to the room. There was no way things were this simple. There had to be a trick to things. So he'd wait to see if anything happened to the others, first.

[Cyrix]

Reflex saves for Kanzairyn and Bungo please.

[goken04]

Reflex Save: [roll0]

Edit: Uh-oh!

[Quietus]

Ivan's spellcasting wastes precious seconds, and he arrives just in time to see Kan and Bungo caught in the trap, leaving him wondering, and making a mental note - once this situation is solved, find out if anyone in the party has any knowledge of mechanical traps.

[ForzaFiori]

Reflex Save: [roll0]

[Cyrix]

Kanzairyn seems to make it on the other side of the pit and jumps to solid ground with a celebratory leap. It seems as though the ground isn't as solid as it appeared as Kanzairyn reels around and tries to grab onto Bungo for support. Bungo is pulled into the apparent pit by Kanzairyn's desperate tugs. Kanzairyn disappears into the apparent solid floor shortly followed by Bungo running across the open space of the pit trying to keep his balance.

Bungo and Kanzairyn fall 20 feet into the concealed pit.

[roll0]
[roll1]

You can both roll a tumble to mitigate this damage.

[Aron Times]

((Does Ren fall into the disguised pit trap? If not, then he's going to throw a rope to the ones that fell. Otherwise, he's going to try and find something to throw a rope at so they can all climb out.))

[Cyrix]

Ren's spell casting put you a few seconds behind.

You tentatively test out the surface of the apparent pit. You can definitely feel a hard floor there. You throw the end of the rope towards the far side of the pit and watch it drop right through the floor. Bungo and Kanzairyn get an unceremoniously smacked in the face by Ren's rope.

REn and the other up top haul Bungo and Kanzairyn to the top. They seem to spout out of the ground like some sort of crazy Elf/Halfing plant.

[ForzaFiori]

Kanzairyn, why would you grab me to hold you up? I weigh 34 pounds! Bungo asks sarcastically, as he brushes his self off

[Aron Times]

"Illusion and Enchantment. Quite a nice welcome Mr. Kalthis has for his guests." So far, so good, thought Ren. Although Ren wasn't a stranger to magic, he was more comfortable trading words with his opponents than actually facing down a fellow mage. "Let's move on."

[Quietus]

"Hold on- let's be a little more careful here. He wants to keep us on our toes, let's oblige. Is there anyone here that's got any experience with avoiding traps like these? It might be a bit safer if we have someone who knows what they're looking for leading the way.", Ivan asks, looking around those gathered. If no one speaks up, he weaves the fingers of one hand through the air, again casting Detect Magic, and this time using it to find the magic auras of the illusions on the floor. Where auras appear, he assumes that the ground is the opposite of what he can see - solid ground assumed to be a pit, and pits to be solid ground. As he moves, he tests his theory with taps from the butt end of his spear, to be sure.

[Cyrix]

You activate your magic sight once again. At first you don't see anything in the space you'd expect the magic to be. After a few moments you can detect the faintest of glows coming from a rectangular area that generally transcribes the edges of the illusion. You probe with the butt of your spear confirming what you eyes see. Indeed the area with the rough circular pit is mealy an illusion. However the area just beyond this facade is the large perfectly square pit that goes from wall to wall and is about 5 foot wide.

You trace a line at the front boundary of the image with the aforementioned famous chalk (I forgot who had it but lets just say you borrowed it if it wasn't your's). Confidant in your magic ability you bound over the disguised pit and trace another line on the far boundary. The others jump over and you continue on.

You come upon another passageway with stairs leading up and take them. You find yourselves in a room with a bed set up in the middle. The bed looks quite comfortable though it's only large enough for about 2 people. There is a nightstand with a flickering candelabra on it which is apparently made of gold.
Past the bed on the opposite side of the room is a door set into the wall obviously the way further on.

The whole rooms seems to glow with magic. On the surface at least (I'll need a spell craft check) you can tell that the bed makes it self, the candelabra is ever burning, and the nightstand seems to have extra-dimensional storage in it's drawers.

[Aron Times]

Spellcraft [roll0]

[goken04]

"Well, this was awfully considerate of the old codger." Kanzairyn says. "Any of you magic types notice anything dangerous?"

[Quietus]

((Yup, that was me with the chalk - seemed to fit Ivan's character, given that he at least considers himself to be scholarly. Even if he does kinda cheat for it.. heh.))

"Give us a minute, it'll take a little bit to sort it all out.", Ivan explains, blinking a few times as he examines the auras in the room. It seems odd to him, that there would be such an outright nice place right after a couple of deadly traps, but when one knows what to expect, it probably wouldn't be so hard to get past those rooms. Clearing his mind of those thoughts, he turns his attention back to the study of the room, and shares any insights he discovers with the party.

Spellcraft : [roll0]

[Cyrix]

You two do not detect any magic other then I've mentioned.

[senrath]

Traig hung towards the back once again. There had to be some sort of trap in this room, and he wasn't going to be the one to trigger it. He also wasn't sure if they should just move on or not, and he didn't want to appear to be as smart as he really was.

[Quietus]

"That would be too easy.", Ivan mutters, frowning at his inability to decode any additional information. Retaining concentration on his spell, he says, "The whole room is magical. I can see a couple of simple enchantments, which make it look like this room was made to be more comfortable, and it's possible that there's nothing more to it. My gut says that's unlikely, though; We should avoid touching anything, and move forward, I think. Just stay on our toes, in case there's more going on than there appears."

[goken04]

Kanzairyn eyes up the room and then looks around at the other party members. "Well, I do believe it is someone else's turn to take point, if someone would oblige me."

[ForzaFiori]

Bungo says a small prayer to Yondalla, asking her to grant him the ability to see magic, then walks forward to take the point.


casts detect magic. one use left today.

[Cyrix]

Bungo decides that it's his turn to take point and takes a courageous step forward. The flames on the candelabra go out making it apparent that it was the only light in the room. A peel of sound like nails on a chalkboard comes out from the room ahead. Followed by a steady ominous thud and a high metallic ping once in a while.

Someone manages to get a torch lit just in time to see the bed looming over Bungo ready to crash down on him, which it does.

[roll0]
and damage in case he hits...
[roll1]

[Cyrix]

Bungo raises up his shield and deflects the crushing weight of the bed off to the side as the desk bounds off the bed and tries to catch Bungo with a corner in the head.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Cyrix]

Bungo's helmet takes the whole of the desk's impact with a ping and a hollow wooden sound. The desk turns the deflection into an awkward flip and lands on the left side of the room in a defensive posture. Well as much of a posture as a table can manage.

The candelabra doesn't seem to have enough room to attack so it waves it's candlesticks menacingly at the rest of the party letting you know that's it's ready to give someone a right good waxing.

Do I take initiative rolls for the dice pools? Not everyone has rolled a pool so I guess until everyone does we'll just roll it all together for my sake.

So yes initiative rolls everyone!

Oh yes, in case there was any misunderstanding both the bed and the table missed you Bungo; you take no damage.

[ForzaFiori]

Initiative: [roll0]

[ForzaFiori]

My bad. Let's try that again.
Initiative: [roll0]

[goken04]

Initiative: [roll0]

[senrath]

[roll0]

C'mon, gimme something good.

[goken04]

Rolls for maneuvers granted:
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Quietus]

((Any advantage for my having Darksight, when the light went out? I'm assuming not, currently. As to the dice pools, the idea behind them is that once you have a pool from everyone, any time you would have to ask "Give me a roll for X", you can fill it in from that pool. That way we know that we're making our own rolls, you're just filling in modifiers as situations come up. So in general, reflexive spot/listen checks, saves we shouldn't know about, and initiative tend to be under those, while saves vs. opponent's spells would not, so long as play can continue without knowing the result until that player posts.))


Initiative : [roll0]

[Aron Times]

((OOC: Sorry for not prerolling, but I'd rather have moar control over my actions. I'll preroll if you insist.))

Initiative: [roll0]

Actions
Standard: Power Word Pain (Races of the Dragon, p. 116) on the largest animated object.
Move: None.
Swift: None.

[roll1] damage now and 1d6 for each round the spell lasts.

{table]HP|Duration
50 or less|[roll2] rounds
51–75|[roll3] rounds
76–100|[roll4] rounds[/table]

[Cyrix]

(Posting by handle because I can't be bothered to look up your character names :D)

senrath 22
goken04 20
ForzaFiori 18
Quietus 12
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8

Quietus; the light went out for a second and your eyes didn't have time to adjust. These things obviously don't have eyes so they don't have that problem.

Joseph Silver; I do agree that having a pool of dice is nice and keeps things moving along. I think it's silly us to have us wait on a perception check to see if you guys see goblins waiting in ambush. It's much easier just to describe you as seeing it or spoiling it out or PMing something to someone straight away.

I would never dream of assuming actions of characters that have some sort of detriment or effect other then the want. Like the whole lighting a torch thing in the description is about as far as I'll go. Doesn't take up and resources or time in any way. If, for any reason, I describe something that you don't want to happen and you have control over let me know. I'll just simply undo it and change it the way you wanted to do it. Being God in an imaginary world is fun!:smallcool:

Also you'd know that Power Word: Pain would not work on these things so I'll remiss that action.

[senrath]

Grinning, Traig stepped forwards, drawing his guisarme as he did so. With a mighty cry, he swung the weapon down, intent on cutting the bed in two.

Step forwards and draw the guisarme as a move action, attack the bed as a standard action. Taking a -1 attack penalty to trigger Power Attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[abadguy]

Teflon also moves in to attack the bed, drawing his greatsword to smash the animated furniture to smithereens.


Attack Roll
[roll0]

Damage if hit
[roll1]
The above takes into accout skirmish damage. If it doesn't apply, take away last d6 roll

[Quietus]

Seeing the bed already engaged in melee, Ivan decides against trying to aim safely past his friends, and instead eyes the ambulatory desk. Knowing his crossbow would be useless, and his shortspear not a whole lot better, he lifts one hand, sighting down his arm as a sparkling ray of light streaks from his finger, draining the desk's strength if it connects.

((Casting Ray of enfeeblement, attack roll [roll0], for [roll1] strength penalty, which lasts 2 minutes))

[Cyrix]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typessubtypes.htm
"Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects."

It is also immune to sneak attack and skirmish damage.

I didn't see a initiative roll from abadguy so I'll take one from your pool.

Traig takes a mighty swing and cleaves the mattress nearly in two. It's fluffy entrails fly out all over the place out of the gruesome wound in some Dark Paintings era Goya and Jackson Pollock offspring's idea of a good time.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 <--waiting here
ForzaFiori 18
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8

Damage:
Bed: 9 (11)
Desk:
Candle:

[Aron Times]

((Ren can't do anything as his only attack spells are Enchantments and he has no weapon.))

[Quietus]

((This is why I'm glad Ray of Enfeeblement is a penalty, not damage/drain. Technically, constructs aren't immune to it. If they're being houseruled to be, though, I wouldn't mind getting a Knowledge roll against that to know such things, so I can feebly whack at the candelabra or something with my spear :smalltongue:))

[Cyrix]

While that is true it isn't the reason they are immune to it. It says they are immune to Necromantic effects which i would assume are spells from the Necromancy school.

[ForzaFiori]

Bungo draws his mace and smashes the desk with it.


attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Cyrix]

Bungo take a whack at the desk but all he receives in an unsatisfying thud and no obvious damage to the desk.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 <--waiting here
ForzaFiori 18 *
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 * (holding his action I suppose?)

Damage:
Bed: 9 (11)
Desk:
Candle:

[goken04]

Kanzairyn notches a Dragonfire arrow and takes aim at the bed. With a moment of focus, he wreathes his bow in pure force energy.

Attack: [roll0] (+1 if its within 30')
Damage: [roll1]+1 fire damage + [roll2] force damage (+1 if its within 30'. It needs to make a Ref save DC15 or catch on fire)

Seeing the bed struggle with the fire, Kanzairyn takes his next shot at the desk

Attack: [roll3] (+1 if its within 30')
Damage: [roll4]+1 fire damage + [roll5] force damage (+1 if its within 30'. It needs to make a Ref save DC15 or catch on fire)

[goken04]

Next maneuver granted:

[roll0]

[Cyrix]

Kanzairyn sends forth two flaming arrows toward the execrable bed. The first arrow bounces harmlessly off one of the hard wood banisters and hits the floor on the far side of the room intact (retrievable). The second hit it's mark; it plunges deeply into one of the pillows making a sicking squishing sound. A gout of flames shoots up from the pillow and starts to consume the rest of the bed. (that's 1d6 points of damage per round correct?)

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 *
ForzaFiori 18 *
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12 <--waiting here
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 * (holding his action I suppose?)

Damage:
Bed: 18
Desk:
Candle:

[goken04]

Correct on 1d6 fire/round, and dragonfire arrows are not retrievable, as they shatter on impact.

[Quietus]

Drawing a vial from one of the pockets that line the inside of his cloak, Ivan considers the risks, and looks at the fight going on before him; Giving a prayer that his aim is true, he rears his arm back, and throws the small vial of reddish liquid as hard as he can at the desk, making sure that it would smash on impact.

((Alchemist's fire, attack roll [roll0], [roll1] for first round's damage and [roll2] for second round's.))

[abadguy]

((OOC: Posting ahead of initiative, in case the action goes round again and I'm not online to post. Barring any special moves on the part of the furniture, Teflon will continue swinging at the bed, desk, candle, in that order))

Bunch of attack and damage rolls

Attack Roll 1 [roll0]
Damage Roll 1 [roll1]

Attack Roll 2 [roll2]
Damage Roll 2 [roll3]

Attack Roll 3 [roll4]
Damage Roll 3 [roll5]

Attack Roll 4 [roll6]
Damage Roll 4 [roll7]

[Cyrix]

Ivan tosses the vial at the desk and is dismayed at the sight of the bottle bouncing harmlessly off the desk. Luckily for Ivan (and not so luck for the table) it crashes down at the feet of the table igniting the legs!

senrath 22 <--waiting here
goken04 20
ForzaFiori 18
abadguy 14
Quietus 12 *
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8

Damage:
Bed: 19
Desk: 1
Candle:

The bed, now aflame, tries to crush Bungo once agian under it's fluffy down of doom.

[roll0]

The table tries to even the odds for his comrade in arms the bed (well mostly legs) and charges Traig and his big assed piece of sharp metal on stick.

[roll1]

Finally, the candelabra, jealous of Kanzairyn's mastery of fire bounds forward through the flames of compatriot the bed. He alights the wicks on the end of his candles and attempts to spray searing hot wax all over Kanzairyn!

[roll2]

[senrath]

As the table charged at him, Traig quickly whipped his weapon around to intercept it. Easily dodging its attack, he took a step back and struck once more.

Since the Guisarme is a reach weapon, unless the table has reach its charge triggers an AoO. If it does have reach, disregard the first attack and damage.

My turn is to take a 5-Foot step back, then attack again. Both attacks are with Power Attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

HP: 28/28
AC: 18 (13 touch, 15 flat-footed)

[Cyrix]

This furniture seems to lack the soul of the warrior, most likely any soul at all.

Bungo again deflects the bed's flaming goose feather stench.

Traig simply sides steps the table as it charges past him.

It seems the poor wretched candlestick, with all it's impudent rage, has misjudged the distance between itself and it's target. It lands with a swirling ring, like that of a coin slowly falling flat, and splashes a good amount of wax on the floor a good 10 feet in front of Kanzairyn.

[Cyrix]

The desk foolish leaves itself open in it's charge against Traig. He strikes forth but the ancient oak holds strong against the blade of his weapon. The table then runs past him and pauses to start another charge. Traig takes the oppertunity to take a whack at the table. He breaks off a nice chuck off the side of the nightstand and sends a crack down the middle of it. Badly wounded and on fire; things are looking grim for the table.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 <--waiting here
ForzaFiori 18
abadguy 14
Quietus 12 *
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8

Damage:
Bed: 19
Desk: 9
Candle:

As a note, remind me to add in any compounded damage you've caused on your turn. That's for fire, acid, poison, or any other effect that happens later.

[ForzaFiori]

Turning to the bed that has attacked him again, bungo swings his morning star onto the mattress of the bed, poking holes in it with his strike.


attack: [roll0]
damage: [roll1]

[goken04]

Fire damage for the bed (Hope you don't mind if I roll it) [roll0]

Seeing the candelabra attack him, Kanzairyn notches another arrow and, with a moment of concentration, wreathes his bow in electricity. He fires one dragonbreath arrow at the Candelabra.

Attack: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] +1 fire damage + [roll3] electricity damage and it needs to make a ref. save DC 15 or catch on fire.

If that attack hits, his next dragonsbreath arrow goes in the table. If not, it goes in the Candelabra again.

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5] +1 fire damage + [roll6] electricity damage and it needs to make a ref. save DC 15 or catch on fire.

[goken04]

Next granted maneuver: [roll0]

[Cyrix]

Kanzairyn's first shot misses the candelabra but the second strikes the golden base with a ping sharp zap as the electricity surges though the object.

Bungo gives the bed a good whack and hears his morning star make contact with the bed's frame. The force of the impact sends flaming bits in the air. It falls gently to the ground again like some sort of anti-snow.

Teflon also gives the bed a good whack at the opposite side of the bed as Bungo creating a sort of resonance which cracks the bed's frame in two. The bed folds in on it self in a big flaming mass and the magic that was animating it leaves.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 *
ForzaFiori 18 *
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12 <--waiting here
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 *

Damage:
Bed: 35 X_X
TABLE: 9
Candle: 3

[Quietus]

Drawing a different alchemical device from within his hidden pockets, Ivan steps forward, swinging the stick through the air, and attempting to strike it hard against the table, in the hopes that he can set it alight. The fires that others are setting have so far appeared useful, and so he hopes that a little more would only help.

Attack vs. table with tindertwig (includes -4 for improvised weapon) : [roll0] - if any further rolls are necessary for this, feel free to roll them for me, 'cause I have no idea how you'll want to handle it otherwise.

[Cyrix]

A touch attack at your bab would be fine so you actually got a 15 which hits.

[roll0]

Ivan strikes the tinder twig against the rough surface of the table hoping to ignite the table. Sadly the fire doesn't catch.

However I forgot to roll for the alchemist's fire so lets try that.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 *
ForzaFiori 18 *
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12 <--waiting here
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 *

Damage:
Bed: 35 X_X
TABLE: 11
Candle: 3

[Cyrix]

I guess I can't add new rolls to old posts
[roll0]

The alchemist's fire still attached to the tale go out but it seems that it was enough to get the old wood to light.

It already took fire damage this round for that but it'll keep happening.

[Cyrix]

senrath 22 <--waiting here
goken04 20
ForzaFiori 18
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 *

Damage:
Bed: 35 X_X
TABLE: 11
Candle: 3

The table tries once again to charge Traig hoping it's flaming legs hold true.
[roll0]
Again the bed rushes past it's target being very ineffective in general. In it's defense it was made to sit there, hold things, and look nice.

The candle rushes Kanzairyn maddened at the dent he placed in it's pristine base.
[roll1]
The candelabra beats Kanzairyn's boot with each one of it's candle sticks. It get's molten wax all over the place effectively making his boots waterproof.

[senrath]

Sweeping his blade around, Traig struck out twice at the charging table, intent on destroying it.

Provokes another AoO, so attack. Same as last turn.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]


HP: 28/28
AC: 18 (13 touch, 15 flat-footed)

[Cyrix]

Everyone suddenly remember that Ren had been shooting the table with his crossbow instead of standing there uselessly. You all seem to recall him shooting the thing three times. The of the bolts barely stick in and are shaken loose during it's various charges but the first bolt he fired shot right through the table top.

The table looks shaken with the the temporal disturbance and leaves it self wide open for Traig's counter attack. Traig comes down hard with his vaguely oriental pole arm and strikes to table near Ren's time traveling bolt. Traig widens the crack that Ren started and the table spits entirely in two and falls to the floor.

senrath 22 *
goken04 20 <--waiting here
ForzaFiori 18
abadguy 14 *
Quietus 12
Lumiere & Pals 11
Joseph Silver 8 *

Damage:
Bed: 35 X_X
TABLE: 22 X_X
Candle: 3

[goken04]

Kanzairyn takes a 5' step back from the angry candelabra and attempts to plant two more arrows in it. With a moment of concentration, his bow erupts in flames that travel down the length of his arrows and carry with them to the candelabra.

Attack 1: [roll0]
Damage 1: [roll1]+[roll2] fire damage

Attack 2: [roll3]
Damage 2: [roll4]+[roll5] fire damage

[Cyrix]

Kanzairyn sends forth two arrows they both ping loudly and bounce of the candelabra knocking it down. It lays there motionless apparently now lacking the magic that gave it life.

The table and the bed slowly burn out. You notice something glinting on the floor under the beds ashes. It appears to be a puddle of melted gold, apparently someone liked to keep their money 'safe'. There is about 1500g worth.

The door still stands on the far side of the room. The light of the fire reflects off the polished brass hinges and ornamentations.

[Aron Times]

"So much for negotiation. I doubt Kalthis will hand over what we came here for peacefully now that we've destroyed his property." Ren sighs. "Ah well, that's life."

Ren casts Detect Magic to check for any other magical wards. They will not be taken by surprise anymore.

Spells Remaining:
Level 0: 4/6
Level 1: 4/5

[Cyrix]

However had detect magic cast still has it up. I forget if you had it up Joe but if you did you don't need it again.

Magic fills this room like the smoke from the bed and table. Did I mention the smoke? I guess not. You all begin to cough as the acrid smoke fills your lungs. Nothing life threatening but definitely uncomfortable. The seems to be a slightly bright magical light coming from the door. Inspection from Ren tells him that it is a simple enchantment that allows someone to open and close the door with a command word.

[ForzaFiori]

Bungo picks up the mass of gold. Anyone feel like carrying this around? It's a bit heavy for me.

[Aron Times]

Ren examines the door. Is it activated by touch, or will merely speaking the command word open it? Is there anything in the ransacked room that might be a clue towards opening the door, maybe a piece of paper/parchment with the command word written down?

[Cyrix]

Before you act you think back to when you were young. To when your grandpa sat you on his knee and imparted nuggets of wisdom that smelled of strong herbs. You file through everything you can possibly remember him telling you searching out any information on doors. After I few seconds of sifting through childhood memories an image of your beloved grandfather appears in your mind. He casts you a benevolent grin and says "Try the knob." His image quickly fades away, he had always been a simple man.

Sure enough the wisdom of the ancients prevail. You turn the shining brass knob and the door yields open to you to reveal... me, sitting at my computer waiting for a response to a PM.

[Aron Times]

((I don't have anything in my inbox.))

[Cyrix]

((I didn't say the Pm was to you :smallcool:))

[senrath]

Bending down, Traig sifted through the remains of the table, trying to find what had caught his eye.

((I assume it was the one to me. Sorry for the wait.))

[Cyrix]

Traig produces a ring from the dust of the dresser. It's a finely crafted gold ring with an eagle's head on the top bit with it's wings forming the band.

Not sure how items are generally done here or otherwise but I always assume if someone is a spell caster magic items are just identified. Unless it's some sort of crazy artifact or the item's abilities are masked.

Anyway Traig's ring is a ring of feather falling.

I'll post the next bit of story when I get into work tomorrow morning.

[senrath]

Shrugging, Traig slipped the ring onto his finger. He found it, and he'd keep it unless someone else wished to lay claim to it.

"I'll be keeping this, for now. Unless someone else feels that they deserve it more."

[abadguy]

"No problem with me. Dibs on anything that improves my sneakiness though" Teflon said with a grin. He then turns to see where the door leads to.

[Cyrix]

So the door opens easily as Traig picks up his new shiny ring. The potent stink of alchemical doings wafts out of the room. Several arcane looking glass instrument take up the entirety of a 100 foot bench lining the far wall. Retorts, calcinators, alembics, beakers, burets, closures, condensers, crucibles, and several other thing I vaguely remember from AP Biology are connected together with a large sprawling glass network. A inconspicuous door rests just left of jungle of glass with a sign on it that says "Quite please; test in progress."

On the left side seems to be row upon row of shelves which hold magical looking grimoires, octavos, lexicons, and other magical texts. You can here the pages rustle nervously as the magic within the books tries to escape. A few of the books seem to be chained to their shelves. You wonder why and you curiosity is sated as on of the books fly from the shelves toward you all.

To the east are a grouping of of strange stones curved with ruins. Those of you with magic sight are nearly blinded by the magic they give off. You assume that they are piece of some huge gate to who knows where. You're guessing it might be better of in piece judging by the doubious Barloweesque ruins etched into the black stone. (yeah... (http://www.waynebarlowe.com/barlowe_image_pages/inferno_3_eyebrick.htm)) Summoning circles are drawn in silver and gold on the floor near these cyclopean structures. And piles of research notes are on a large lectern near by.

The wall that the door is set in have various magic apparati built into it. It looks like he has built some sort of magical item forge here. Dozens of different blades and bows sick on racks juxtaposed with suits o various armor.
Most of the armor and weapons sit under a sign carved into the wall up towards the ceiling that reads "In". A grouping of mostly empty racks sit under a similar sign that reads "out". A dagger, a great sword, and a chain shirt are the other things that are populating these racks.

You finally notice a large assembly in the middle of the room that your eyes seemed to have subconsciously passed over. A three large teardrop shaped crystals have their points aimed a a small blue sphere. The crystals begin to glow and the smell of ozone permeates the air. A peel of blue lightning shoots forth from each crystal smashing into the ball. Your vision and hearing gradually return and you see that the crystals are quite spent and the orb lays there in pristine condition.

[Quietus]

Curious, Ivan steps closer to the three teardrop-shaped objects and the orb in the center, examining them more closely. The process intrigues him, and while he would equally love to take a look at some of those shelved books, the flashiness here has gained his attention, for the time being. "An assembly line? Really? I wonder...", he says quietly, mostly to himself, as his magically-enhanced sight wanders over the strange setup, trying to figure out how it works.

[Cyrix]

Upon further inspection the cyrstal experiment seems to be independent of the alchemy bench. Although you had guessed right in assuming it's some sort of assembly line.

You follow all the twists and turns through different devices and notice different things being added automatically from hoppers stationed over beakers. You make it all the way to the end and notice a very small potion vial with about two drips of a unimpressive clear liquid sitting in it. As you watch a third drop falls from the buret above the vial. It's slow falling speed at first appears to be a dramatic effect your mind plays on the scene but in actuality the drop is falling at a snail's pace down to the vial.

You hear a commotion coming from the door about 10 feet to your left. You blink and the slow drop seems to instantly move into the vial skipping all that nonsense of the space in between. You here a few dull thuds and a grizzled old voice say "Damnable thing!" and a few more thuds.

[Quietus]

Knowing that such exclamations usually accompany a pause in work, Ivan raises his voice, calling out, "Kalthis? If that's you, we're here on behalf of Vermitha, could we have a word?"

[Cyrix]

You hear a pause in the violence as the person checks to see if he heard what he actually heard. You hear a few more thuds and the door before you opens. An old man in a blue robe it's smacking a large toothy mouth with a gnarled wooden staff. He slips out of the door and tries to force it close. He waves you over and you help him close the door. The door rattles on it's hinges a bows out a bit from the force of whatever is behind it. The old man waves his hand and the door disappears with a yelp of pain.

"Who" the man says while walking toward the metallic sphere in the middle of the room. He begins to scribe some notes looking disappointed.

[Aron Times]

"Hello, Mr. Kalthis. I am Ren the Negotiator, and my companions and I are here on behalf of Lady Vermitha the Brass, to pick up a brass orb. We apologize for the damage to your animated defenders; we would've knocked, but there didn't seem to be anyone here."

[Cyrix]

DAMMIT! I hit refresh and it cleared what I had typed :smallfurious:

Anyway lets try that again.

While Ren talks Kalthis directs some of the others to turn knobs and adjust dials and so forth on the large crystal device. He nods in approve and opens the door that you all had just left revealing a different room then you remember leaving. He throws some things around and comes out of the room shutting the door behind him. He produces a small silvery ball and hands it to Ren.

Before Ren can say anything he waves his hand again making the laboratory door appear again. He holds out his hand and sends for a large icicle. You hear a yelp come from inside the room and he then enters with a satisfied look on his face. The room flashes blue once again and as your sight returns you notice Kalthis is already examining the now purple orb sitting on the target pillar with a broad smile on his face.

He heads over to Ren and takes the small silver ball out of his hand and tosses it over his shoulder. "That's not it." he says and heads over to the alchemical production line. He stairs at the vial as beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead. The next drip struggles out and is followed by several more. The drips turn into a stream and the vial fills up all the way. He takes the vial and pours it over the purple orb and heads back into his lab.

Again the room goes white, you sure hope this isn't doing anything permanent. You see him staring with his eyes wide at the now floating white orb. It gives off an iridescent blue glow that fills the room. He tosses Ren a melon sized bronze orb which he catches easily. "You can take what weapons are ready as well. it's not much but I've been working lately." He gestures to the weapons and armor on the "out" rack. He stares at the orb with a large smile on his face deeply proud of whatever he's done here.

[Aron Times]

"So you're not going to use your ultimate arcane power to smite us intruders for destroying your property?" Ren looks at the orb in his hands. So smooth and shiny... "If I may impose on you a little bit longer, what exactly is this? What are you working on exactly?"

While waiting for Kalthis to answer, Ren scans the orb and the magic items the mage offered with his magical senses.

[Cyrix]

"Smite what now?" Kalthis seems to come to the realization that you are all here.

"I am Kalthis Lord of The Doors, Guardian of the Seven Portals, Master of the Ancient Kethian Ways! Who dares enter my domain uninvited!"

He throws out his cloak for effect and managers to look very menacing. It is somehow less intimating that one would think mostly because of the look of confusion on his face.

"Oh, yes, Vermitha, right.

He pauses for a moment straining his brain to remember what you asked.
"Well I'm not sure about Vermitha's orb, it's definitely brass and perfectly round. I was going to take a look at it soon but I'm a little absent minded f you couldn't tell and I seemed to have forgotten about it. And never mind the furniture they'll put themselves back together."

The old man chuckles to himself a bit and holds out the glowing orb. "This, this is my life's work! I've unlocked the secrets to the most mysterious material in the Multivers! Dendrel a metal that is immune to all magic influences. Or so people assumed, but I've done it I've enchanted a ball of it oh yes!"

The old man chuckles again in victory and notices your blank stares.

"Er, I uh, used distilled time to exponentially increase the exposure time of the magical field! What was a flash of lightning to us was several thousands of years of constant magical bombardment to this orb. I figured that if it was so hard to get magic to stick inside a piece of dendrel that if you could it would be stuck there forever. I manage to put thousands of years of magic power inside this ball here. An practically unlimited magical battery!"

The wizard suddenly looks dejected.

"Er, well, the only problem now is getting it out in safe measured amounts..."

[goken04]

"Well, if you're offering good sir, I think I'll take this Chain Shirt. What exactly does it do?" Kanzairyn asks eagerly. Adding, "It isn't made of Mithral, by any chance, is it?"

[abadguy]

"Spellcasters, if you would be kind as to identify the weapons here so that we lowly fighters can protect you better." Teflon says with a sardonic grin as he hefts the greatsword and offers it to one of the casters.

[Quietus]

Tilting his head slightly, Ivan gazes at the ball of Dendrel, considering. "So it's like concentrated cold iron, then? But.. what's the point? Enchanting something resistant to magic is an interesting idea, in theory, but wouldn't that magical power be more easily stored in something that didn't.. well, resist it being placed there in the first place?" The tone of Ivan's question is that of a student, rather than someone nitpicking - he honestly is curious about the Dendrel, and would love to know if there was an actual meaningful application of this process, rather than just as an extremely powerful oddity. The information seems to have caught his attention far more than the greatsword and dagger remaining in the "out" pile, for now - a fact made clear by a general wave of his hand in Teflon's direction, when asked about identifying the sword in his hands. After all, Kalthis would be far better suited to doing so anyway, since he was presumably the one that made it.

[Cyrix]

The greatsword is a Great Sword of Wounding. The blade is serrated like a saw, each serration has a channel that leads to the main part of the part. This channel leads down to the hand guard which is capped by two open mouth gargoyle. The visual effect when the blade cuts someone the gargoyles appear to spit blood out of their mouths. (It's masterwork obviously and I believe wounds does 1 extra damage a round that stacks. IE hit something and you do 1 extra damage a round hit it again and you do 2 and so on.)

The dagger is a Dagger of Injecting. Any liquid can be placed int he hilt as a move action and on a successful attack that does at least one damage the liquid is injected inside. This increases the DC of any toxin/poison by 2 and maximizes any healing/beneficial effect from a potion. For the maximization the subject has to be willing and it takes a move action to find a vein and inject the liquid inside. A large ruby sits atop the pummel of the dagger where you can see a seam where the cap folds back. The handle has a snake motif that curls around to the blade of the dagger. The snakes' mouths are open in such a way as to give the appearance that the blade is coming out of them. The blade itself is much more thin then usually and nestled between the two blades is a small blue glass tube. The tube is sharpen but is inset from the end of the blades to protect it.

The chain shirt is a +1 Mithral Chain Shirt of Reinforcement (I think int he book invulnerability is the name but I forgot the increments.) It gives damage reduction 1/-. The links in the chain shirt are reinforced with small mithral leaves. The leaves overlap each other in such a way that the holes int he chain mail are mostly protected.

[Cyrix]

Kalthis smiles at Ivan; "Oh no no no sonny. You see every magic slowly fades from reality when it is forgotten. The longer an item goes without being used the less magical it becomes. This takes hundreds of year of course and the really powerful stuff uses it self. If you were to find my staff here in the bottom of a well in a few thousand year it wouldn't be anything by a slimey old stick."

Kalthis hands the white orb to Ivan

"You should be dead right now you see. This item should be giving off magically radiation at such a rate to be deadly, but it does not give of any. This magical decay is what you see when you use magic detection spells."

You look to the orb and you concentrate on looking just at the magic aura. Sure enough it's a black spot of nothingness in the room.

"I theorized that instead of being immune to magical effects Dendrel just radiates magic almost instantly. Normally trying to enchant Dendrel is like trying to fit a bunch of boxes in an overstuffed closet. You put one at a time in and it just tumbles out. With my time dilation potion it was like jamming them all at once and slamming the door shut before anything could get out."

He pauses.

"This means now that it's in there it'll never get out. And because of the strange properties of the metal combined with the intense magical field this little orb will slowly fill with background magic. I suppose you can say I reversed the polarity on it. That process is the one that took me so long to figure out. It only draws in energy slowly so it doesn't reach critical mass and explode like some of the tests before it."

The man comes down from his high of explaining his life's work.

"The only use for it now is cleaning up wild magic... very slowly. I guess if you could crack it open it would do as a nice explosive. Most likely enough magic energy in this little ball to level a mountain or a very large city."

Kathis walks into his laboratory and comes back out holding a shard of blue metal.

"This is all I have left."

He pressed a hand sized chunk in Ivan's palm and takes back the orb.

"Maybe you could find a use for it."

[abadguy]

Teflon admires the gargoyle carvings in the blade. Mmmm would like to carve up some flesh with this, he thinks wickedly.

"Many thanks for this Kalthis. I believe we have gotten what we came for. You mentioned you were a 'Master of Doorways'. Could you conjure up one near to Vemitha's to save some time? Thanks."

[Cyrix]

"Er? Doorways? Did I say that? Oh yes, I did."

Kalthis waves his hand towards the door you all walked out of just a while ago.

"That should take you close enough. Very observant by the way."

[Quietus]

Ivan looks at the chunk of dendrel in his palm, turning it over several times in his hand. The comparison between this harmless shard and the apparently ridiculously powerful orb consumes his thoughts, and he knows that despite not having nearly the same access to resources as Kalthis has, he'd love to see if he can find other uses for the material.

"Thank you Kalthis, I'll see what I can do. Perhaps if I stumble across anything interesting, I could come back and compare notes? Is there an easier way to reach you, rather than trekking through your rather unwelcoming tower and its various defenses?" Once Ivan has his answer, he thanks Kalthis again, and will accompany the others once the dagger is claimed (or will carry it himself if no one else does), on their way back to Vermitha's.

[Cyrix]

The man smiles, obviously taken with your interest in his research. You feel a weight in your pocket and stick your hand to check what it is. It seems to be a metallic key of some sort.

Ivan:
You hear a voice in your head."You that key in any lock and the door will open into this room here. It only works once and if you abuse it I might not give you another one."

The old man winks and says "You'll be recognized next time you come to my tower. When you open the front door you'll be brought to this room here."

[Aron Times]

"Thank you very much, kind sir." Ren places the smaller chunk of dendrel into another pouch. "Well, I guess we've taken enough of your time. It's time to go back to Lady Vermitha, don't you agree, gentlemen?"

[Cyrix]

Sorry Joe, Ivan is actually the one who received the shard of metal.

Quietus pretended to be you.

[Quietus]

With a bow of his head, Ivan says, "Thank you, Kalthis - I'm sure we will meet again, and perhaps by that time, you may be able to consider me a colleague. I can only hope. Unfortunately, I agree with Ren; As much as I'd love to stay and study with you, I believe the lady Vermitha is waiting on our return. Good luck with your studies, hopefully you can find a way to put your dendrel to good use."

((Sorry Ren, I used your name instead of my own for some reason.. I think that most of that post was intended for me, though perhaps Cyrix would be willing to retcon a second leftover shard for you? That whole mixup is my bad. x.x))

[Cyrix]

Moving along, if anyone has any question for the mage either PM me or place it in the OOC thread and we'll do the time warp again.

(Ah cool it seems color tags use HTML color names. The yellow down there is "gold")

The party says their goodbyes to the wizard and passes through the door. This find themselves inside a ruined fortress nearby Vermitha's lair. They passed by this place on their way to the wizard's tower so finding their way back isn't a problem.

You make your way into town looking proud of yourselves. You are quickly ushered into her main chamber. You see her sitting next to a tall, bald old man in a simple gold robe, well as simple as a golden robe can be.

"Ah, seems you have visitors." he says and stands up and bows to you all. "I am Secrendrath, your king, as it were."

He walks over to each of you, asks your name and shakes your hand with a bright smile on his face.

"Ah very good, nice to meet you all. Vermitha tells me she sent you to go see Kalthis. Good man that one, a little scatter brained but a faithful retainer. I see you all made it back alive. Would you happen to be successful as well?"

You produce the brass ball and he looks back to Vermitha. She walks up to you all smiling wildly and takes the brass orb.

"You got what I asked, came back alive, and did it quickly. These are all things I value highly, thank you."

She walks away down one of the corridors going back further into the cave.

Secrendrath walks over to the tactical observation table (couldn't think of anything else to call it) and picks up a piece. It seems to resemble you all in stunning bronze detail.

"Like it?" He asks and sets the piece back on the table.

"Hum, where should be move this piece here." He says sliding it around the table. "Should we send it along with this cart filled with treasure on a boring escort mission?"
He says placing the piece next to a bronze cart "No no, maybe we should place this piece in a more interesting place." He slides the piece over to a very large onyx black dragon figure along with several other bronze, copper, gold, and silver pieces.

He laughs to himself. "I say we send you into Gereethrox's lair to retrieve something. A similar object to the one you just delivered but jet black. We'll send in a large number of forces to make it look like we're assaulting the place. Gereethrox will be force to defend his realm leaving you all a nice opening."

He looks up at all your doubtful faces.

"You see, you're just strong enough not to instantly die but just weak enough magically to sneak past undetected. Besides your encounter with Kalthis should have you prepared for pretty much anything."

Secrendrath looks at the board with a look of satisfaction.

"Go into town and buy whatever you need and come back here in three hours and tell me what you've decided."

He reaches into his robe and takes out 6 large dragon head coins, worth 1000 gold each, and gives them to you.

"Good work." He says and turns his full attention to the table.

__________________________________________________ _______________
END OF CHAPTER 1
__________________________________________________ _______________

[Cyrix]

Exp time
~I've given bonus exp based on total number of "relevant" posts, giving a bonus 'post' depending on the length or amount of interesting content. (lvlx10exp per post)
~I've also given bonus based on doing helpful things or making suggestions that makes the game move along better etc. (Varies)
~I've give 50 bonus exp to those with a back story/detailed character description (Ren's needs to be moved to the OOC thread, I almost missed it Joe)

Anyway here is the break down. I don't usually do exp so I'm not going to bother to calculate exp base on encounters and such.

1900 exp for finishing the mission.

~Ren is awarded 300 exp for his post count, 100 from misc things, and 50 for a backstory.

~Teflon is awarded 300 exp for his post count and 125 from misc things (Did you write a backstory/character concept?)

~Ivan is awarded a whooping 460 (this chapter's winner I guess) exp for his post count, 150 from misc things, and 50 for a backstory.

~Traig is awarded 220 exp for his post count and 50 for a backstory.

~Kanzaryn is awarded 260 exp for his post count, 50 from misc things, and 50 for a backstory.

~Bungo is awarded 140 exp for his post count and 50 for a backstory.

What do you guys think of the adventure so far? Any suggestions for my DMing? Anything to ask me? Post away on the OOC forums please and thank you. Your feedback will make me suck less.

[Cyrix]

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CHAPTER TWO:
Of Mice And Men And Elves And Changlings And Halflings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Quietus]

"This... is by far the most foolhardy plan I've ever been involved in.", Ivan says, once the group is reasonably far enough from the planning room to not be immediately overheard. He'd kept himself in control, and maintained a cool head while they'd listened to the plan, but really.. sending a ragtag group into the lair of an opposing dragon? REALLY? It was enough to make his head spin, and in order to combat that, Ivan withdraws his journal and inkpen, and starts writing down everything he'd learnt that day, focusing on the dendrel. The chunk of strange metal still sat heavy in his pocket, but with the revelation of Vermitha and Secrendrath's plans, he hadn't really thought much about what to do with it.

"I don't know. I think they're insane, this is likely to get us killed. What do you guys think?", he asks, glancing up for a moment from his journal to look his companions in the eye.

[Cyrix]

As you all are strolling around town discussing things you come across a familiar tent with a hand painted sign that reads "Mysticale Magickz"

[goken04]

"Foolhardy indeed. But it should be exciting. And besides, it's a chance to stick it to a Black dragon, which is always good in my book." Kanzairyn says as he heads into the Mysticale Magickz tent.

"At the same time, this is almost certain to get us killed, if not badly injured. Which reminds me, I hope we get a chance to rest before heading out there. I'm still reeling a bit from my fall."

[Quietus]

"Mm.", comes Ivan's reply, half agreement, half in thought. He wonders if his own strange heritage had a hand in changing their patron's mind, with regard to what mission to send them on; regardless, his resolve was steeled, prepared to show what he was capable of doing, even with his blood tainted as it was.

Just before they enter the tent, Ivan lays a hand on Kanzairyn's shoulder. "Listen, next time Secrendrath is there, remind me that I have a question for him, would you? I got a little wrapped up in things, and kind of forgot. In the meantime though, our current situation is more important; we might be little more than pawns in their game, but you're right. Sticking it to a Black would feel pretty good.", he admits, giving a grin as they enter the tent.

[abadguy]

Teflon follows close behind the pair, motioning for the wierd shapeshifting "negotiator" fellow to come along. Changing from orc to comely female has certainly shaken up his notions of gender. He vows to check carefully next time.

"Hey guys, I'm totally for killing stuff, but we need to remember we're mercenaries after all. We should be getting some sort of bonus danger pay. Black dragon indeed! Heck, looks like this damn game is all those dragons care about!" he fumes.

[senrath]

"That would be because that is all they care about. And we knowingly hired ourselves out as pawns. Well, I did, anyway. Dunno about the rest of you." Traig said as he ducked into the tent.

[abadguy]

"Yeah I'm a pawn but on the premise of being a well paid pawn. Honour, glory and 2 copper pieces gets me a chicken." Teflon grumbles as he looks around the tent. He spies a chair and promptly slumps down on it, the weariness of the day's events finally catching up with him. He sits up with a start.

"Wait a sec, why did we come in here?"

[Cyrix]

As you walk into the tent you noticed that someone has overheard your talk of 'sticking it to the blacks'. A half-black dragon narrows his eyes at you and shoulders you out of the way as he leaves the tent.

Akbar welcomes you all with a warm "welcome back".

As a side note pretty much everything is available for purchase here. Save most major magic items and artifacts of course.

[Quietus]

At the sight of the half-black, Ivan's eyes narrow as well, and he refuses to budge when shouldered past - though the half-dragon's (presumably) much greater strength means he's pushed out of the way, regardless. Deep within his heart, he can feel long-strangled emotions bubble to the surface, and has to bite down on his tongue to prevent himself from allowing arcane phrases past his lips.

"We're here because we've got a bit of money to spend, before we head off to take care of other business. And after that, I'm wondering if we wouldn't be better off not openly talking about said business. Akbar, any chance you happen to carry potions, my friend? Cure Light Wounds and Magic Weapon in particular?"

[Cyrix]

"Ah, yes I do. I keep them in the back you see, because of the smell. Just head through the door there my friend."

The jolly fat man gestures towards a door to your left.

You enter it and sure enough the smell is quite strong. Alchemical produces, witches brews, tinctures, elixirs, salves, exacts, powers, and you don't know what line the walls. The potions are in approximate alphabetic order and you find you two potions nestled in between such dubious things as "Curtis' Curious Contagion." and "Miracle Maggots".

[senrath]

Traig contented himself to just browse the available wares. There wasn't anything in particular he wished to buy at the moment, but it would be rather odd to enter the tent and not at least look.

[Quietus]

"Miracle maggots?", Ivan thinks to himself, tilting his head at the odd concoction. For a time, he considers taking it out and asking Akbar, but finally decides he doesn't want to know. Picking up three vials of Cure Light Wounds, a single Magic Weapon, and two flasks of Alchemist's Fire, he returns to the counter, laying them out and letting Akbar tally up his total while he counts out 240 gold worth of coin and passes it across the counter. While he does so, however, his curiosity overcomes him, and he asks, "....Miracle maggots?"

[Cyrix]

"Er yes, little magic glowing green worms that are good for healing old and rotten wounds. They are able to heal wounds that are not able to be healed by natural or magical means as well"

(Don't have the books in front of my, just charge yourself whatever it says that potions cost in the book.)

[Aron Times]

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/Joseph_Silver/Dungeons%20and%20Dragons/Sharwyn.jpg

Changelings love the finer things in life, and Ren is no exception. A nice, hot bath helps soothe aching muscles, followed by a nice, comfy bed in his quarters. They would have much to do tomorrow, and he wanted to enjoy the luxuries offered by this place until the group absolutely had to leave.

The next morning, Ren stands in front of a full-size mirror, trying on different forms and outfits, losing about an hour to his changeling vanity. He finally settles on an attractive female human redhead in a slightly-revealing outfit, the type that would be the Damsel in Distress in the Big Bad Dragon's lair.

That dilemma settled, Ren goes to work on a Sending for Zerus.

"Party obtained enchanted brass dendrel orb from Kalthis for Vermitha. Vermitha and Secrendrath sends party to infiltrate Gereethrox's territory to steal enchanted black dendrel orb."

Now to find someone willing to cast Sending for her and keep his mouth shut or perhaps a Scroll of Sending so she can cast it herself.

[Cyrix]

(As a clarification the brass orb and dendral orb are two different items.)

[Quietus]

"Interesting. I wasn't aware that there were wounds magic couldn't affect, I suppose in that case those maggots would be.. useful.", Ivan says with a shudder, piling his newly purchased items into various pockets about his clothing. The alchemist's fire, of course, he's extra careful with, knowing how dangerous those can be. If Akbar hasn't collected the coinage by the time he's done, Ivan makes a point of pushing it toward him, then steps out of the way and rejoins his group.

"Anyone else have anything they're interested in here?", he asks, pulling out his journal and making a few quick notes on the 'Miracle Maggots'.

[Cyrix]

"They're a right bit expensive, you can reuse them you see. I had a druid named Neran stop their turning into flies business. When you put them back in their case they go dormant so they're practically ageless. They heal normal wounds too, for 2000 gold a piece."

He says while scraping the coins into a large jar.

[abadguy]

"Say Akbar, do you happen to have anything 'special' for someone who is say, trying to be more sneaky?" asks Selfent as he discards the usual boots made by his bretheren.

[Cyrix]

"I have your standard boots and cloak of Elvin kind, various potions that make you silent or invisible, any number of things. I even have a device here made by a fabled psion that simply removes you from the conscious mind of those who look at you. The only limit is your purse."

He holds up the various items as he mentions them. The last one being a small mirrors disc on a simple red rope necklace.

[goken04]

"How about weapon crystals, good sir? Could you point me in their direction?"

[Cyrix]

"As yes just on the left there."
Akbar gestures towards a grouping of shelves.

[abadguy]

"Hail Akbar, that looks interesting. Tell me more about it and price." Teflon said pointing to the red rope necklace.

[Cyrix]

(Damn you making my type!:smallfurious:... heh)

"Ah well the great Psionist, at least thats how I think you say it, Mazerin produced a few of these few me on special order. He said it works on some sort of psychic principle where the mind only sees what it wants to. He had a name for it, phycophotometrics or some thing. The mirror reflects some sort of deep personal flaw back into a person's mind when they try to look at the person wearing it. Or if they don't have any feelings strong enough it shows them something impossible or paradoxical, like frozen lava, or dark light. The mind refuses to see what is there and replaces that image with something more pleasant. The effect makes the wearer invisible to anything that isn't an object basically. Even some constructs and undead are effected by it. here I'll show you."

Akbar places the mirror on his neck and disappears and it replaced by a general feeling of repulsion. Your stomach knots up a bit and you feel as if you could do with a good lay down.

He takes the mirror off and smiles.

"Very effective you see. The only thing he said is immune to it are very powerful psions that are specifically trained to see through such things. Even powerful wizards who cast who can magically give themselves true vision are unable to see them. All that for... 50,000 gold."

Akbar says and smiles weakly placing the item back behind the counter.

[goken04]

Kanzairyn takes a least crystal of acid assault and hands Akbar his dragon coin and patiently awaits his change.

"This will be a sweet little addition to my arsenal." Kanzairyn grins, before going about affixing it to his bow.

[abadguy]

"Interesting. When I do have the resources, I'll be sure to pick it up from you Akbar." Teflon says with a wink. He finishes attaching his new anklets and stands up, admiring at his new gear in the mirror.

"You guys done?"

[Cyrix]

You gather what all you need and head to sleep for the next. The next day you come back into the planning room to see a large number of important looking humanoids, most likely other vassal dragons. You are instructed to wait until the meeting ends. It doesn't take too long to finish up and then most of the figured teleport away. A haughty looking human dressed in silver platemail remains.

"This is Zemeron, he be your transport and your command for this mission. He'll explain things further. We have to go. Good luck" Secrendrath says gesturing to the human. He heads over to Vermithra who doesn't look to pleased. You assume, selfishly, and correctly, it's because he's decided to take you all away from her.

(In "LightGray")
"Yes, well, it seems we'll be spending some times together. As he said I am Zemeron a silver dragon and one of Secrendrath's vassal. Though I have no land or army of my own. He uses me as a sort of knight I guess you could say. I sort of do special clandestine missions and sneak around on my own. Not really in my nature but he says I'm good at it.

He walks over to the table and picks up a figure of a silver dragon.

"Okay so here is the plan." He says.
"Gereethrox's main lair is in the face of a sort of half-moon shaped mountain. The 'inside' of the moon is a vertical cliff as if someone took a bite out of a whole mountain. He's built all the entrances on the cliff face so it's very hard to get to them. When they all attack we believe that he'll basically empty the place of all it's defenders and that's where we come in."

A doubtful look crosses his face "So I um, fly up as high as you all can stand with you on my back, above Gereethrox's lair. So they wont be able to see me or detect me magically you see? Then you all, sort of, jump off of me."

He gives you all a nervous smile

"I was given these." He holds out ten feathers. "I was told to give them to you and say that they will automatically activate before you hit the ground. And then you are to 'will' yourself into on of the entrances."

He gives you each two feathers.
"They are suppose to act like something in between feather fall and levitate. You are being given two in case one doesn't work."

A look crosses his face like he just said something he shouldn't have.

"It's all very safe I can assure you, and I'm very good at flight... Unlike chromatic dragons we don't like to sacrifice out pieces I promise."

[senrath]

"Well, as long as we get paid well, I'll risk pretty much everything. That's what I signed up for, after all." Traig said, looking at the dragon, then to his fellows. He spoke the truth as he knew it. He didn't have anything better to do, so he had sold his services out to the highest bidder. And he would be loyal until someone else offered him more.

[abadguy]

Teflon stared what the feathers. What in the ... we're mercenaries, not bloody commandos! he thought.

"Hmmm pardon me just a second. To clarify we're about to leap off a dragon's back, drift in strong winds more than 300ft down, fight the terror of free fall and somehow "will" ourselves in an entrance, hoping we don't smack into a cliff wall, get blown out of the sky by defensive magic or the arrows of any surviving defenders who may or may not be there. Not forgetting the what-if of the feathers NOT working at all."

"I'm sorry but this really justifies more than just more of your fancy dragon-head coins!" Teflon huffed.

[Quietus]

Ivan's hand tightens around the two unusual coins still sitting in his pocket, as the plan is revealed. He'd missed another chance to speak with Secrendrath, which was annoying, but after the stunts they were expected to pull now? He'd have a lot more bargaining power, after this. Setting his jaw, Ivan steels his determination, and takes the two feathers from Zemeron.

"If something does go wrong, we've also got some backup in the form of me. I.. had, bare traces of silver blood in me. I still have some small vestige of that remaining, so I can still produce an effect like Feather Fall, and with my current strength, should be able to affect three people with it, just in case. I do have a few questions, however. First - how are we to know where to find Gereethrox's hoard, or wherever he's hiding his orb? Second, when we find it, are we to only take the orb, or can we take anything we can carry? And third, getting in seems to be the easy part. How are we to get out?"

[goken04]

Kanzairyn looks at Ivan as he asks his questions. This was going to be a troublesome mission, no doubt.

"Yeah, what he said." Kanzairyn says, gesturing to Ivan.

[Cyrix]

Zemeron was obviously expecting this reaction. A blend of shame and anger shows on his expression. His bosses have delegated all the hard management duties to him. He wished he could relay the importance of this mission. He wished he could tell them how much value the item held. But he couldn't tell them why, it would be so much easier if he could.

"Look" he said he impotent rage mostly directed towards Ivan and anyone else with a doubtful look.
"I'm not in charge here and I have my orders. I intend to carrying them out with the best of my abilities which includes getting you and the orb back here safely. If you wanted a safe job you would have signed up to be a farm hand and would have been plowing fields right now. You would be most likely too poor to buy the corps you've been growing and would never even see the color gold unless it was the rings on your Lord's hand as he knocks you to the ground just because he feels like it."

Some of the wind flows out of his sails.

"There is no risk without reward working for us. Yes, you can take what you can carry but I highly suggest you don't so much you can no longer run and try to stay away from things too magically powerful. He'll be able to see us coming so he'll be able to teleport away a good chunk of it. But not our target, that cannot be teleported. I'll be able to pick you up, because after you have the thing we'll no longer need the element of surprise. We are suspecting little resistance at the lair itself because as you can see we are launching quite a large force as a mere distraction."

He gestures to the hundreds of pieces lined up in front of the target lair. Several of which you assume are 'squad' pieces much like your own.

"They are at a higher risk then you, I can assure that a large number of them might not make it back. You all have a very large chance of making it all back largely unscathed. If you are too worried about the chance of something going wrong I could assign you to the assault force and make that chance a guarantee."

[Aron Times]

"Oh, I am not worried," replied Ren, long, red hair billowing in the wind. "Working for our benevolent overlords is a high-risk, high-reward venture. Besides, whatever would I do if everyone got along just fine? I am not called the Negotiator for nothing, you know." She pulls a mirror and a comb out of her bag. "So, do you think the "handsome" men working for Gereethrox prefer blondes, brunettes, or redheads? Or should I be asking you gentlemen what you prefer?"

[Quietus]

If he stopped to think, perhaps Ivan would have been in a better mind - much of what Zemeron had said was, in many ways, an overreaction. He'd only been looking for tactical information, after all, not questioning orders. However, despite the traces of draconic blood in his veins, Ivan was only human, and the dragon's response managed to set him off. His jaw clenching, Ivan retorts, "Yes, we signed up for this, knowing there'd be danger. We all have our reasons, and quite frankly, I think that minimizing my chance of dying is the best way to make sure that I, and Secrendrath, get what we want, don't you? You're asking us to dive-bomb the lair of an extremely powerful dragon, to steal what I can only assume is a very important item, either for your game or in general, with little to no foreknowledge of what we're going into, and no information on how we're to escape. Given the fact that we've seen what, at least a half dozen other dragons in here with Secrendrath and Vermitha, I think it's probably safe to assume that Gereethrox has his own vassals and knights and whatever the hell the rest of you are, which means there's likely a good chance he's got one of them protecting things of value - like, say, an orb that Secrendrath is likely to try and steal. So yeah, I signed up for danger, but I didn't sign up to run into that danger with no knowledge of what to expect and some idea of how to get back out."

Finally taking a breath, Ivan realizes that while Zemenoth might have the appearance of a human, he's in truth just told off a full-on dragon, and one who might possibly share his parent's lineage, at that. Abruptly cowed, his face would go red if it wasn't already from his angry outburst, and he refuses to meet the dragon's gaze. He does not, however, give in to the abrupt desire to apologize, knowing that while his words were harsh, they did carry the ring of truth.

[goken04]

Kanzairyn is not much for arguing. Finding Zemeron's answers rather satisfying, he tries to play the peacemaker.

"Oh come on. I think he's given us all the information he has. If he had some means of locating the orb, I think he'd have given us that information by now. As it is, I guess we're flying--or should I say feather-falling--blind. I say we get on with it. I'm itching to get my hands on this orb and maybe a chance to really get into it with one of the Black's vassals." Kanzairyn draws his bow.

"I say we go for it!"

[Cyrix]

Zemenoth sighs and reaches into a leather pouch on his side. He produces a piece of parchment and hands it to Ivan.

"I understand what you must feel. Trust me when I say that Secrendrath is possibly the strongest tactical mind on this planet. He would not choose to send you in there unless he was almost certain of your success. I am limited to what I can tell you, Secrendrath does not like to give out details."

He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, his cold breath creates a fog in the air.

"I shouldn't be telling you this but you will not be alone in the lair. Secrendrath has a large spy network and has the second largest horde. He is also one of the kindest players in this game. Such things buy loyalty. As you may have noticed he is the only dragon that has cross-type pieces. That is some of his mercenaries are chromatic dragons."

He finishes saying this as you unroll the map and examine it. It seems to be a map of Gereethrox's lair at least most of it. The deeper parts of the map isn't marked.

"There are plenty of ways in, I would avoid the main entrance. There are only three tunnels we couldn't get access to. We assume that the orb is down one of them."

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9222/lairside.th.jpg (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/lairside.jpg/)

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8069/lair.th.jpg (http://img264.imageshack.us/i/lair.jpg/)

Drawing a multi-layer cave-system is a pain in the ass. If you need an clarification just ask. The "lair" file is a top view with the top of the map being north. The "lairside" is the side view of the lair. It has the different slopes, elevations, and orientations of the different passageways. The top of the map is "up".

[abadguy]

Second largest horde? Teflon thinks, maybe I should be working for whoever has the largest horde then!

Teflon makes up his mind. "All right. I'll bite on this rotten meatstick. You said there were 3 tunnels. Does it mean we should split up? That would be most unwise, all things considered."

[senrath]

"I assume we're to go through each tunnel in turn, since splitting up would be suicidal." Traig said, studying the maps that were unfurled. As much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to get excited about the coming job. Despite the appearance he put forwards to the world, he wasn't half-bad at infiltration.

[Quietus]

"Thank you, Zemenoth - perhaps I was a bit hasty in my annoyance, I can't imagine this is any easier on you than it is on us. Secrendrath has little reason to trust us thus far, I suppose.. a shame, as this should help us to succeed at our mission faster, and hopefully save the lives of some of his followers.", Ivan says, tapping the map he's been handed. Still somewhat embarassed over his outburst, he forces that reaction away, and looks back up at Zemenoth.

"You said that you would be there to help us escape; Does that mean that you'll be hanging about at the cave entrances waiting for us, or will we need to contact you somehow?"

[Cyrix]

"Splitting up is ill advised. I'd just head to the closest tunnel to where ever you land. I'll most likely stick to the clouds but I may join the distraction force if they need me. As far as contacting me goes..."

He pulls on a chain around his neck and takes out a large golden pendant with a dragon's head on it.

"I'll be able to sense where you are using this. If I detect that you're traveling at speed towards one of the entrances I'll know that I'm needed."

He gives you all a weak smile.

"Secrendrath made them because he was sick of loosing pieces to friendly breath weapons. He lost a lot of sleep over it. We've found that they have other interesting uses like that board over there."

He gestures towards the tactical map on the table where the piece seem to move themselves.

"I'll be staying with you until the operation seeing as I've given you more details then Secrendrath would like. Just in case..."

[Quietus]

Ivan nods. "I appreciate your help, I get nervous when I don't have all the information I think I need. By the way, is it a strictly Dragon-related thing that you are able to sense the location of other 'pieces'? I've.. recently acquired a breath weapon of my own, of sorts, and while its range is shorter than that of a true dragons, it would be nice to ensure I don't catch allies in it if someone is outside of the range of my various senses."

[Cyrix]

"I don't see why you couldn't do it. Dragons aren't the only ones who can attune to the amulets. I'm not sure how the magic works but I'm pretty sure Secrendrath has to turn that function 'on' as it were. Knowing the location of all of his pieces would be very valuable information. Besides, none of our other piece inside the lair will be wearing an amulet."

[Quietus]

"Perhaps I should have given warning, then, that acidic breath weapons aren't necessarily from the opposition...", Ivan considers, feeling bile rising in the back of his throat with the word acidic. "That makes two things I need to ask Secrendrath when I get the opportunity. For now, however, I believe my curiosity is sated, and I'm ready to attempt this suicide-drop into extremely dangerous enemy territory.", he says, hiding his own twinge of fear behind a sarcastic smile.

[Cyrix]

"If there are no further questions I believe we can head out and prepare. The assault is this evening."

[senrath]

"I'm good." Traig said, taking one last look at the maps. Good thing there weren't any marks on the map, otherwise he'd have to ask what they meant. Not being able to read certainly was a pain, sometimes. So much so that he'd been working on learning it in his spare time.

[Cyrix]

(The game will progress to the next part at around 5:30pm tonight before I leave work. Everyone should have had plenty of time to buy whatever you all needed.)

[Aron Times]

"One last thing... Do you know if Gereethrox's men have some sort of uniform to identify each other? Perhaps a pendant similar to the one we're wearing?" Ren smiles as she experiences an epiphany. "Yes... Yes, we can sneak in and steal uniforms to disguise ourselves with. It'll be fun!" Female Ren's playful personality is quite different from Male Ren's.

[Cyrix]

"They usually wear a tabard but they don't move around a lot so they tend to recognize each other. There are quite a number of different creatures so it might be a viable option. I wouldn't expect you to be able to spark up any friendly conversations or get you into high-security areas. Just be sure to be careful who you wear it around, you may be mistaken by our forces as one of Gereethrox's"

[Cyrix]

(****, I forgot it was my anniversary today :smalleek:. More accurately I remembered all about it just forgot to get her a gift! I'll try and post later tonight, sorry guys!)

[Quietus]

((I'm assuming we've already been informed of the fact that Girl-Ren = Ren.. if not, then feel free to ignore the following!))

"Ren, really.. you're starting to creep me out. In that weird 'you were a man yesterday' sort of way. Is this going to be the standard?", Ivan asks, raising an eyebrow in his ally's direction. He didn't remember Ren being this playful when they'd been traveling, but then again, there had been that one girl that'd shown up every now and again, and now that he thought about it, he didn't think he'd seen Ren and her together at any point in time..

"Either way, if we're going after this orb, I'm willing to bet 'We're new recruits' won't cut it. If you can impersonate someone we can take out, great - though you'd have to explain why we're with you. You call yourself the Negotiator, but I don't know how good you are at lying. Then again, I suppose that's the point, isn't it?"

[Cyrix]

(Assume Ren gives his response before you all leave or 'on the way')

Zemenoth sighs with relief as he finally gains everyone confidence. He knew that he was given a tall order and he's surprised it wasn't harder then it was. He understands the situation and doesn't think he would act differently.

He advises that you all get a little rest before you head out. "When we leave they'll launch the assault and try to time times so when we get there I can drop you right off."

You all follow him out to a large open section of 'town' right outside of Vermitha's lair. He shifts into his natural form, his armor shifting with him growing bristling spikes and a long steel blade at his tail. His armor and weapons shine just as brightly as his silver scales. The whole effect is intensely intimidating. A 'naked' dragon is bad enough but one that is fully armed and armored is very imposing. You would have a hard time musting up the courage to argue an order coming from him in this form. He is just large enough to fit the five of you on his back safety. If Bungo was still with you he might have had to sit of the tail.

You all secure your selves into the saddle-like indentations on his back with ropes to various spikes and protrusions.

"You might want to make sure you'll be secure if I have to fly upside-down."

You make a sort of web of rope around you. You figure something that you can kind of hop into for the return trip that'll keep you mostly safe while you tie yourself in better for the return trip would be a good idea.

"Are you all ready?" he booms. You all make one more check of everything and give him confirmation. He gets a running start which jostles your brains about a bit and then takes off gracefully with some hard wing beats. He is obviously used to carrying extra weight as he soars high up into the cloud with little effort. You and your equipment is nothing compared to the tons of metal that must make up his armor.

You travel quite quickly; even at this altitude the horizon comes up to meet you in a few minutes. The thick forest that surrounds Vermitha's lair that took the better part of 3 days to march though disappears over the curvature of the planet in a half hour. The affore-mentioned forest dissolves into grassland and the grassland into dessert. The dessert turns into a large icy mountain range which briefly fills your entire vision.

"These mountains are called 'The Impassable Reaches'" he yells back to you all. "I guess the people who named them couldn't fly." He chuckles and you more feel it then hear it.

"Gereethrox's swamp is just on the other side of these mountains." He says and begins to climb higher into the sky.

The air begins to thin and grow cold. The land below is clouded in a blue mist but you can still make out that you are flying over a fast swamp. You can see a chain of brown dots up ahead, that must be the lair.

He drifts southward of the lair and seems to be aiming for a bank of clouds. You close distance with a large stack of Cumulus clouds on which the dragon lands. You stare in disbelief as this creature that must weight many ton stands on some puff clouds as if they were solid ground.

"I would advise you to not try the same, at least for now. I figured that the clouds would serve as a way for you to deal with heights and add extra cover for the trip down. The winds should push us closer to the lair. When we're close I'll let you know to jump, for now enjoy the view."

(I will keep going here in a bit, I don't want to loose what all I typed by being stupid like I usually do.)

[Cyrix]

(Okay picking things up.)

You slowly drift over to the liar, you only assume that the assault has started because you can't really make anything out from this height. You see a line of lightning stream out from just above the ground and explode in an electrical discharge. You catch the specular highlight off of something metallic that could only be Vermithra. You feel Zemenoth grow antsy as you approach closer still to the lair.

"Get ready to jump." He says taking a deep breath. He blows ice down into the cloud stimulating to rain. "That should give you some extra cover, well worth being a little wet I think. Whenever you all are ready go ahead and jump."

[Cyrix]

Pain in the butt!

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]

[Quietus]

((Oh boy, is that damage for everyone?))

During the course of the flight, Ivan is uncharacteristically silent, his brown eyes focused far in the distance, his jaw set. In his mind, he attempts to prepare himself for what's to come, but only finds himself distracted by the thought of riding atop a silver dragon - which further distracts him, as it leads him to think about his perceived failing, his tainted blood. On rare occasions when he forces himself to think about what's going on around him, he spends a great deal of time examining Zemenoth, as if somehow finding the differences between a true dragon and himself would offer some insight into how to reverse the taint. Unconsciously, his hand wraps around the chunk of dendrel in his pocket, as if its cool metal surface could drain his anger from him.

By the time they come to a stop atop a cloud, Ivan has come to a decision; There might be no way to fix his problems now, but if nothing else, he can prove himself an enemy of Gereethrox today, and he focuses his anger toward that end. While they're stopped momentarily, he twists his hands through the air and utters arcane syllables, his lips tightly knit in a grimace as he feels the oily texture of his black scale mage armor sprout from his shoulders and cover his body. Taking hold of the feathers they were given in one hand and undoing his bonds with the other, Ivan digs deep into his soul, gripping the last fleeting bonds of silvery power there, just in case the feathers fail them. "See you on the ground!", he shouts, leaping from Zemenoth's back in a swan dive, and into the falling rain.

[goken04]

"There's no time like the present." Kanzairyn says as he bravely jumps off of Zemenoth and begins his free fall. The rush is at first terrifying, but it quickly becomes exhilarating as Kanzairyn enjoys the sensation of the ground rushing up towards him. Thank god for the feathers.

[senrath]

With a nod, Traig pushed himself over the side and began to fall. He was glad for both his ring and the feathers as he did. Heights had never really bothered him in the past, but he'd also never jumped off of a dragon that was several hundred feet up in the air.

As he fell, he did his best to stay near the others.

[Aron Times]

Before the paradrop:

Ren smiles and pulls a deck of cards from her pack. She shuffles it in mid-air and draws a card: The Queen of Diamonds, with Ren's current form depicted on it. Cards fly in all directions, each one bearing the likeness of a different individual, and they vanish into puffs of smoke when they touch the ground.

Prestidigitation, ho!

[Cyrix]

(Alright I assume Teflon will be a-jumpin')

You hop off the dragons and plunge through the mists of the cloud. You can't seem to see any of your fellows even though you all jumped in the span of second seconds. You plunge as the temperature rises almost as fast. The small ice crystals that smacked into on their way up the cloud now fall around you at about the same speed. You become a little wet as the ice that stuck to you melts.

You come out of the bottom of the cloud with a poof. Suddenly the ground is a lot closer then you remember. You look to your sides and you can see everyone else made it. At least gravity is reliable. To the south of you you can see the rear lines of Gereethrox's defense force along with Gereethrox himself. You see him tumble through the sky talons locked with another dragon. He seems to be dueling with Vermithra and they are evenly matched for now.

You turn your attention back the ground below. It has grown disturbingly close and it seems that the wind has pushed you closer to the lair. You seem to be headed for the top of a rather jagged rock cliff. Just before you start to panic about 200 feet from the top of the cliff you decelerate suddenly with a force that could have torn body parts. It seems the magic of the feathers were strong enough to decelerate every part of your body at the same rate avoiding injury.

You spend about the next 150 feet learning how to steer yourself. Though you've drifted away from each other a bit. Ivan and Teflon, Kanzairyn and Traig, and Ren by his lonesome. You recall the map of the caves and it seems like your drifting toward the grouping on the west side of the lair. You do your best to land in the same entrance but are just too spread apart. Luckily you do remember that this part of the caves all connect up at large cavern deeper into the cliff face.

X = Ivan and Teflon
ß = Kanzairyn and Traig
♥ = Ren

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3963/lairside1.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/i/lairside1.jpg/)

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/7797/lair1.th.jpg (http://img576.imageshack.us/i/lair1.jpg/)

[Cyrix]

X

You both land safety and gather yourselves. You look down the corridor and see that like on the map is branch off to the right twice just up ahead. The first one is an alternate entrance and the other you cannot tell. You do however both hear something coming from that passage. Teflon can tell that it's 2 different small draconic voices arguing about something.
(For me: 14-14-4-1-5-6)


ß

You both land safety and gather yourselves. You looks down the long corridor and notice two creatures wrestling with each other. They are small, green, reptilian, and seem to be armed and armed relatively well.
I also didn't see and languages picked out for either of you.
(For me: 14-14-4-1-4-8)


♥

You land kind of roughly but uninjured, you flip your hair out of your eyes and get your bearings. You don't seem to hear anything up ahead so you head forward, perhaps pausing to cast some spells?

You head forward and round and bend and come upon a three hunched black reptilian figures with their backs to you. You just barely notice a hooded figure standing facing you, he seems to blend in naturally with his background. You can just barely make out that he has dragon blood like the others.

One of the figures on the ground says in draconic;

(Don't bother recording this in the occ as far as colors go.)

"Why must we wait here? This is boring!"

The hooded figure responds simply
"We have our orders."

You shift slightly knocking some small pebbles with your boot. The sound is barely audible but the hooded figure looks up and makes eye contact with you. His yellow eyes narrow and a smile crosses his face. He looks back down and places a hand on the hilt of his sword.

"It's time to go on patrol." He says as they all stand up groaning. They all seem to see you and freeze with surprise. You hear a metal-on-metal grind as the black dragon spawn in charge draws his long sharp blade. 'This is it, so much for negotiators.' you think to yourself.

The hooded figured blade flashes out as he quickly dispatches his three subordinates. He reshealths his blade and walks calmly up to you.

"Ah, you're here, I thought there would be more. And I definitely didn't expect someone so pretty." You see a white toothy grin appear under his hood.

"I have an interesting position it seems. I think having a lonely defenseless female human in my clutches should do well as leverage for better payment. Or shall we negotiate just between you and me?"

(For me: 14-14-4-1-3-1)

[Cyrix]

(Those rolls I made worked out really well I must say. Fun for everyone!)

[Aron Times]

Time for some world-class acting. "Ah, good, you found me before they did." Ren raises her hands to show that she is no threat. "I saw a silver dragon drop off a strike force over there." She points towards the general direction where she saw the others float to the ground. "If we hurry, we can take them by surprise and capture them."

Ren intends on leading the draconic guards to the rest of the party. When they go off to attack, she will turn on her "allies" so they can be taken out and their uniforms "borrowed" for the mission.
Edit: Misread my scene, was sleepy when I posted this. Will post correction later.

[goken04]

ß
My bad, Kanzairyn knows Common, Elven, and Draconic.

I'm going to draw my bow and make a Perception check to see if I can tell what these creatures are/which one would be on Gereethrox's side.
Perception: [roll0]

Granted Maneuvers:
[roll1]
[roll2]

[goken04]

ß
Assuming I can tell which one I should be aiming at, I'll make an attack. Using the Flaming Arrow maneuver.

Attack 1: [roll0]+1 if they're w/in 30 feet.
Damage: [roll1]+ [roll2] Fire damage, +1 acid damage, +1 regular damage if they're w/in 30 feet. Ref 15 or catch fire.

Attack 2: [roll3]+1 if they're w/in 30 feet.
Damage: [roll4]+ [roll5] Fire damage, +1 acid damage, +1 regular damage if they're w/in 30 feet. Ref 15 or catch fire.

[Quietus]

X

After making sure that Teflon is unharmed, Ivan draws his shortspear, his eyes adjusting quickly to the inside of the cave. Stretching out with all of his senses, he practice the use of his recently-developed blindsense, unaware that as his eyes shift to darkvision, his pupils dilate into vertical slits, which glimmer softly in the dark.

Remaining careful, he does his best to remain stealthy, knowing his lack of training hinders him in that respect, but at least trying to avoid scattering loose rubble. Slowly, he tracks forward, spear at the ready, keeping a look out for any unwelcome surprises.

Stealth : [roll0]

[abadguy]

X

Heh! As I predicted, we got separated.

I forget, the top map is the top down and the bottom one (where I'm at that looks like a birth canal) is the side view?

Anyways, I tap Ivan on the shoulder, put a finger to my lips, point to the direction of the noise, hold up 2 fingers, pause, then hold up my hand palm facing him, then point to my pointy elven ears and concentrate reeeeeally hard on hearing what the voices say.

Perception
[roll0]

Edit: I just read Ren's reply, LOL

[Quietus]

X
At the tap on his shoulder, Ivan halts, nodding to Teflon; He keeps his spear at the ready, and does his best to remain silent and sticking to the shadows, but trusts in Teflon's superior perception, and will wait for a signal before moving forward.

[Cyrix]

X

37 to Perception huh? I think a one snuck in front of your 8. 27 is still plenty high to hear that they are arguing over some sort of shiny bauble.
"I found it first"
"It's too pretty for you"
*the sound of bodies hitting the floor and various curse words*
Whatever it is they are really going at it.

[senrath]

ß
Frowning, Traig pulled his guisarme free from its harness, brandishing it in-front of him. He had hoped they would land together, so as to avoid unnecessary risk. He should've known that wouldn't happen. Glancing over at Kanzairyn, he began to slowly advance upon the wrestling figures.

Since it looks like combat is immanent, Traig is drawing his weapon, taking a Total Defense action (+4 dodge bonus to AC), and slowly moving forwards. Also, a Perception check to see if he can tell anything more about the two wrestling figures.

[roll0]

[abadguy]

X

((:redface: Ooops I didn't notice that! I thought it was 27. Good thing the rolls are pretty transparent. :redface:))

Teflon realises this would be a great chance to enter. He turns to Ivan, points in the direction of the arguing, holds up 2 fingers, crosses his neck in a slitting motion, draws his newly acquired Greatsword and begins moving cautiously forward, motioning for Ivan to follow.

Finally some action, thinks Teflon, time for this blade to drink deep!

[Quietus]

X
On Teflon's signal, Ivan advances, remaining a step behind with his shortspeared readied in one hand. He can still feel his spells thrumming within him, and while he hopes not to have to unload too much power this early in the assault, he is prepared to cast at a moment's notice. As they approach, he takes care to watch and listen for any sign of what sorts of creatures they're sneaking up on, allowing whispers of knowledge to enter his mind once he picks up on any clues.

Knowledge roll : [roll0], adding 14 if it's Arcana, 7 for History or Nature, and 6 for anything else.

[Cyrix]

A natural 20 is always a good thing. Even if you are not trained in a skill and get a natural 20 it happens. Unless it's something stupid like swimming up a water fall that is.

X

You realize that the creatures are a pair of white dragon spawn I think hoardlings or something? I'll post the details when I get home if they make it. But they tend to be pretty weak and stupid.

[Cyrix]

ß

I'll have to resolve combat at home tonight for Kanzairyn. Traig you see the two scaly, green creatures wrestling have a pair of short swords and studded leather armor. Obviously some sort of dragon-blooded creatures but you aren't sure which one. One has a small pouch on his left side and the other seems to be wearing a large gold earing.

[Quietus]

X
((Nice, if they're dragon-related that probably means that Arcana applies.. which would mean a nice solid 34. And yeah, I'm currently trained in Arcana, History, and Nature; The slew of knowledge skills that fall under "everything else" are the ones I'm untrained in, and I'll be slowly filling in that list as we progress.))

[Aron Times]

How... Convenient. Ren almost panicked when she saw that she had to face four of them at once, but this gentleman just made it all too easy for her. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. "Pain." The Power Word reverberated in the air, sounding unnaturally loud despite being spoken softly.

Ren casts Power Word: Pain right after the soldier takes out his companions. She will then maintain her distance while the spell cripples the enemy with pain, casting Grease if he catches up.

[roll0] damage now and 1d6 for each round the spell lasts.

{table]HP|Duration
50 or less|[roll1] rounds
51–75|[roll2] rounds
76–100|[roll3] rounds[/table]

[Cyrix]

X

I recalled correctly, you see two white spawn hoardlings wrestling about. They are quite weak and are too stupid to move out of the way of a sword. This leaves their lackluster scaly hide to stop the force of impact. They aren't bad with a sword though and they have a chill breathe much like their true-dragon uncles but not nearly as deadly and they tend deploy it without much thought.


ß

I missed your spot check to see which one was on your side or not. They both seem to be on the same side. They have sword but aren't using them to fight each other. It seems as if they are having a 'friendly disagreement' or at least that's what they'd say when someone shows up to ask them what the hell they are doing. For your natural 20 I will give you a +1 to hit which means...
Both of your attacks hit would you like to shoot one twice or both of them once?


♥

Ah, much like the gender he now occupies he says one thing and does another. Ren the Negotiator makes his point clear much like the way my girlfriend does, with great pain.

(The whole Power Word: Pain thing doesn't seem to have a disabling effect attached to it, just a damaging one. Just so you know.)

"You fool" The dragon spawn says through clenched teeth. "I am on your side!" He draws out his long sharp blade and points it at you. "I suggest you not do that again!"

[Quietus]

X
Placing a hand on Teflon's shoulder, Ivan leans in and gives a brief rundown of what he knows. "They should be slow to react, but expect the same from them as you would a true White; Protective scales, some martial skill, and a cold-based breath weapon.", he whispers quietly, before readying his spear. He remains a step behind Teflon, since martial combat isn't exactly his strong point, hoping to conserve spell slots but willing to drop them as needed, if these hoardlings proved difficult or more crafty than they appeared.

[goken04]

ß
Shoot each once, please! :smallbiggrin:

[abadguy]

X

Teflon nods with the knowledge. "Well not much I can do about that, just have to take them down fast and by surprise!" he whispers back. "Do you have any protective magic?"

((Whether he does or doesn't, Teflon will just do the below anyway))

Teflon will creep up until they are within 60ft then charges the nearer one
Attack [roll0]
Dmg [roll1] (including skirmish)

If there is a surprise round, I will just swing again
Attack [roll2]
Dmg [roll3] + 1 bleeding dmg if above hits

Edit: D'oh!

[Cyrix]

(give me another attack roll at your highest BAB)

[abadguy]

((Yessir))

[roll0]

[Cyrix]

X

Teflon comes running out of no where towards the two dragon spawn. Weather or not he has a battle cry or not he doesn't have much of a choice. He gives a terrifying yelp as he stubs his big toe on a large immobile rock which sends him flying. He does a surprising good job turning it into a roll and making it look like he did it on purpose. He exchanged a bewildered look with one of the white dragon spawn that is now only 5 feet away as he pops up from his roll. The dragon spawn can do nothing but watch the large serrated sword travel back and swing down upon him being paralyzed with slap-stick-surprise. He watches with the same mask of shock as his arm is severed clean off. Well not so clean actually, the serrated blade makes a disgusting jagged wound that bleeds heavily.
A 11 (bleeding I)
B 0


ß

Kanzairyn effectively breaks up the fight between the two dragon spawn. His arrows send them both sprawling on the ground. They both slowly stand up and look at the advancing Traig and then to each other seeming to come to an agreement on their argument. They draw their swords in unison, their resolve steeled by they new pact of cooperation and the the pain hits them. Their slow reptilian brains finally let them now they had been seriously injured. They redouble their efforts and await the end of Traig's advance ready for him. (It's essentially the top of the round for you all, they take a full defense and neither of them get catch on fire.)
A 14
B 18

[goken04]

Granted maneuver: [roll0]

[goken04]

ß
If Kanzairyn can move within 30' of them for PBS, he will. Using Phantom Arrow and Rapid shot, firing an arrow at each creature.
Attack 1: [roll0] +1 if w/in 30'.
Damage 1: [roll1]+1 acid damage +[roll2] force damage +1 if w/in 30'.

Attack 2: [roll3] +1 if w/in 30'.
Damage 2: [roll4]+1 acid damage +[roll5] force damage +1 if w/in 30'.

[senrath]

ß
Throwing caution to the wind, Traig lunged forwards, bringing his polearm down in a wicked arc, attempting to cut one of the lizards in half, shoulder to hip. As he did so, he let his inner rage take over, driving him forwards in a powerful, albeit reckless manner.

Rage, then charge attack on the one on the left.

[roll0]
[roll1]

HP: 48/48
AC: 14
Rage: 8/8 rounds

[Quietus]

X
Stepping into the room behind Teflon, Ivan watches the trip-turned slash, and gauges the situation, making careful use of his spells to assist Teflon's attack.

If the two white dragonspawn are close enough to catch both in its area, he thrusts his hand forward, chanting difficult-to-pronounce syllables, causing a bubbling, frothing slime to sprout from the ground beneath them, filling a ten-foot square beneath the two of them and making it difficult for them to keep their footing (DC 14 reflex save vs. Grease spell, and they're considered balancing, forcing balance checks whenever they try and move, or when they take damage).

If they aren't, and are in position to safely maneuver into place to catch both in a line, Ivan does so, taking in a deep breath and filling it with the arcane power from one of his spell slots, breathing it out forcefully and tasting bile in his mouth, feeling his throat burn as a sixty-foot long line of acid bursts forth, dealing [roll0] damage, reflex DC 14 for half.

If neither of those are the case, he instead draws his power forth in the form of a black ray of energy, dark words spilling from his lips as he aims it at the uninjured creature in the hopes of evening the fight somewhat; [roll1] ranged touch, for [roll2] strength penalty. No "shooting into melee" penalty on this one because the dragonspawn he's targeting isn't in melee yet.

((And yes, those are three different actions, listed in order of preference. Rather than asking for a map so I can choose one, I'm hoping laying it out like this speeds things along without getting too confusing))

[Cyrix]

X

A grease spell will work just fine in this situation.
One goes down right away and the other tries to shakily attack Teflon who falls with the effort. They both spend their time trying to get up, so choose which one you'll get an AoO on Teflon and then it's your turn. DAMN YOU MAGES! :D
A 11 (bleeding I)
B 0

[Cyrix]

ß

Can't forget about you guys.

Kanzairyn sent forth two more arrows knocking into both the dragon spawn. The acid part of your attack are clearly not causing the gruesome wounds they should be. They are at least partially resistant to acid.

Traig's rage fills his muscles and also cloud his thinking a bit. He throws a powerful swing wide and the little green dragon spawn easily dodges it. He and his partner both take the opportunity to attack while Traig is open. They move to his sides and strike quickly with their strange swords.

(This may sting a bit)
A
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]+[roll3] sneak attack. (Flanking)
[roll4]+[roll5] sneak attack.

B
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]+[roll9] sneak attack. (Flanking)
[roll10]+[roll11] sneak attack.

A 23
B 25

[Cyrix]

ß

Welp... 28 damage so far, I don't mess with massive damage so at least you have that going for you. As far the possible crit...

[roll0]

[Cyrix]

ß

Good for you, I guess, only 31 damage.

Traig get stabbed several times in the mid section, blood and other body fluids spill out from his torso. He tightens his abdominals so his entrails don't get squeezed out of the wounds and grits his teeth obviously in great pain.

[senrath]

ß
As the reptiles approached, Traig lashed out twice in anger. They hurt him, and they would pay.

Moving to flank would provoke an AoO, so two attacks on the guy that moved around me.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

HP: 27/48
AC: 16
Rage: 7/8 rounds

[senrath]

Oh, come on!
[roll0]

[abadguy]

X

His stubbed toe still throbbing from the fumble, Teflon almost bursts out laughing when he sees the two reptiles slip and slide, thanks to Ivan's timely spell. As the one he chopped down earlier tries to get up, he seizes the chance to land another resounding blow

((Could you add +2 dmg to earlier post? Forgot to add the 1.5x dmg from wielding the greatsword two-handed))

AoO on A
Attack [roll0] (+4 from his being prone)
If Crit [roll1]
Dmg [roll2]
Crit Dmg [roll3]

If that lizard is not dead yet, Teflon will continue to swing Bloodfang against its bloodied scaly hide.

He tumbles 10ft diagonally to get a better angle on his opponent.
Tumble DC 15 to avoid AoO [roll4]

Attack [roll5] <-Crit!
If Crit [roll6] <-Crit on a Crit (-_-)
Dmg [roll7] +1 Bleeding
Skirmish [roll8]
Crit Dmg [roll9] +1 Bleeding?