Pillars of Creation

[Savannah]

OOC thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182368)

You are standing in a dimly lit corridor. All surfaces are made of a smooth rock, and you cannot determine where the light is coming from. Perhaps it comes from the rock itself.

The walls, floor, and ceiling are carved with strange symbols unlike anything you’ve seen before. They are all smooth curves and graceful lines; no angles anywhere. They almost seem to be alive, or at least they would if it weren’t for the harsh scratches through them. They seem to have been defaced only recently, and without any skill.

Ahead of you, there is a simple door made of the same stone as the corridor. There are no carvings of any sort on the door. You have the feeling that whatever brought you down this corridor lies on the other side of this door.

Looking back, the corridor stretches as far as you can see, although whatever is producing the light seems to be coming from where you are.

[Skeppio]

Talain walks slowly up to the door and taps it lightly with his sword, testing it for traps.

[Savannah]

The dim light seems to move with you as you walk down the corridor to the door. The sound of your sword tapping the door is strangely muffled, but otherwise the door seems perfectly normal.

[Skeppio]

Satisfied that the door is safe, Talain slowly pushes it open and continues walking.

[Savannah]

The door opens easily. Beyond it is a huge circular chamber, easily 80’ across.

In the center, a beam of light illuminates a crouching white figure. From the door, there is a clear path to the figure, but everywhere else, the chamber is fill with darkness to about chest height. It is moving, almost as if it is alive, and tendrils extend towards the white figure in the center.

[Skeppio]

Holding his Everburning Torch towards the darkness, as if to ward it off, Talain slowly approaches the figure.

[Savannah]

When you step into the chamber, you realize where the light was coming from before. It’s coming from you. The darkness seems to shrink back, not bothered by the light of your torch but unwilling to come into the soft glow surrounding you. The white figure stirs from its position, revealing itself to be an almost unbearably beautiful woman. Long, feathered wings flow from her shoulders. She looks towards you, and when you meet her eyes, you feel as if her face has been burned into your memory. She mouthes something silently (Spot check to read lips).

[Skeppio]

Talain leans in and attempts to study the figure's lips.

Spot
[roll0]

[Savannah]

"Help me."

[Skeppio]

"Help you? Are you trapped here, my lady?"

Talain looks at the writhing darkness.

"What....is that?"

[Savannah]

You hadn't stepped more than a few paces into the room before she reacted. Are you going to call across the room or walk over to her?

[Skeppio]

OOC
Oops. :smallredface:
Talain walks up to the figure, then addresses her.

[Savannah]

OOCMy bad for not explaining it better.

The closer you move to the figure, the tighter the darkness seems to press around you, as if it is trying to hold you back. As you are about to step into the beam of light surrounding the figure, something seems to change. The darkness suddenly surges towards you, splitting into long-armed creatures with glowing red eyes! At least a dozen of the things grab at you.

Initiative would be good right about now...
[roll0]

[Skeppio]

"Argh, what is this?" Talain shouts. "I won't let you harm her, shadowy fiends!"

Initiative:
[roll0]

[Savannah]

OOC"Shadowy fiends"? he...hehe...HAHAHAHAHA!

You have a split second to react before the shadows reach you. (Read: you won initiative.)

[Skeppio]

"Take this, monsters!"

Attack:
[roll0]

[Savannah]

Psst, you need to roll damage with your attacks (and it's not really an issue here, but make sure you note what things are if there's any chance the DM will have trouble figureing out what each roll is for). Also, if you opt to use Power Attack, it doesn't hurt to note that when you're rolling. Some (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10158327&postcount=1063) example posts (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10156468&postcount=1061) of combat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10154947&postcount=1057) rounds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10144306&postcount=1047), since there are a lot of different ways to set up the post (the amount of non-lethal damage we're doing there is rather unusual :smallwink:).

[Skeppio]

Oops. :smallredface:

Damage:
[roll0]

[Savannah]

Your sword slices cleanly through one of the shadowy things and it evaporates with an ear-piercing shriek. It is immediately replaced with two more, however. The clawed hands of the creatures seem to reach into you without affecting your armor, and you can feel your life ebbing away as they swarm you. As you feel yourself die, you hear a faint whisper in your ear "Seek below....Seek below....Seek below...."

You wake up in a cold sweat. You've had this dream - or rather, nightmare - every night for the past three weeks. Ever since the plague of rats arrived, swarming through the Imperial City, despite the wards against vermin. Something was different about tonight, though. You'd never heard the command at the end before.

[Skeppio]

"Ah!" "Just a dream...That same dream again."
Talain ponders over the new information this latest dream divulged.
"Seek below... What could it mean?"

[Savannah]

Since you're alone in your room, no one answers.

[Skeppio]

Talain hops out of bed and dresses himself in a fine clean outfit. He leaves the room to find his great-grandfather. "I hope the vermin wards are still working" he mutters to himself.

[Savannah]

At this point, I realize I forgot to mention that it's around 2 am....

[Skeppio]

Oh, in that case, I'd like to jump ahead to morning then. :smallredface:

[Savannah]

You try to return to sleep, but sleep fitfully, if at all, until you hear your great-grandfather rattling the pans in the kitchen as he starts breakfast.

[Skeppio]

Talain drowsily rises from his bed and dresses himself in a simple, yet clean and well-made outfit. He walks out of the room and into the kitchen.

"Good morning." Talain says, his voice reflecting his uneasy slumber.

[Savannah]

"Good morning," your great grandfather (OOC: do we have a name for him? I couldn't find one.) replies. He frowns slightly,"Are you well? You sound troubled."

[Skeppio]

OOC: Oops, forgot to mention his name. :smallredface: His name is 'Teldran'.

Talain sits down on an empty chair and takes his place at the table.

"I had that dream again. The one with the white lady, and shadow creatures. But this one was slightly different. Just before it ended, I heard the words 'seek below' whispered into my ear over and over. What could it mean?"

[Savannah]

Teldran frowns, "You've been having that dream a lot. That's a sign it means something. What it might mean, I wouldn't know; sometimes they're literal and sometimes not. As for this 'seek below'.....Well, it seems to me that that's something you're supposed to figure out, since you're the one having the dreams. Here, have some porridge."

[Skeppio]

"Ah, thank you, great-grandfather."

Talain slowly eats the porridge, his mind still focused on the dream. As he finishes his meal, he asks "Are the rat wards still working properly? I think it's about time I went outside again."

[Savannah]

"Well, I didn't see any in the store room this morning, although since I've taken to storing things in rat-proof containers, that might not mean much."

[Skeppio]

"Good, good."

Talain stands up and faces his great-grandfather.

"I feel I need to discover what this 'seek below' means. Any suggestions on where I should search?"

[Savannah]

"Like I always say, Talain, use your head. Is there anything that could be connected to the dreams? Any sort of clue?"

[Skeppio]

"Hmm, let's see. A corridor, a helpless glowing lady, ghostly shadow monsters, and 'seek below'...."

Talain's eyes widen as he gets an idea.

"Perhaps the sewers? The shadow creatures might be connected to the rat infestation. The corridors may be the sewer system underneath the city. I have no idea who or what the lady could represent though... perhaps that's why the voice told me to 'seek below'!"

[Savannah]

Teldran smiles, "Very good. Now, keep using your head; what are you going to do about it?"

[Skeppio]

"I think I should go down into the sewers and see what I can find. I should probably take one of those wards with me if I do..."

[Savannah]

OOC: The rodent wards are magic symbols drawn around the baseboards of the room you want to keep the rodents out of (basically permanent repel vermin), so taking one with you would be difficult.

[Skeppio]

OOC:Oh, oops. :smallredface:

"Um, could you prepare one of those wards for me to carry along? I'll go grab a small piece of wood."

[Savannah]

OOC: *grumble* dang edit....I'm on so much that I usually see threads right after they're posted and so I miss edits....

Also, the wards aren't exactly like repel vermin, but they're similar in effect. So it's not a radius that's effected, but a room that's protected.

"Sorry? Prepare a ward? You need a priest to cast a ward and the ward just protects the room."

[Skeppio]

"Oh, my mistake. I suppose I'll figure out this magic eventually. In any case, I'm going to head out to see if I'm right. I'll just go and get my armour first."

[Savannah]

OOC: Where do you keep your armor? Your room?

[Skeppio]

OOC: Where do you keep your armor? Your room?

OOC: Yep. Probably somewhere in the closet, amongst his clothes. He tends to keep it clean too.

[Savannah]

Teldran nods, "Be careful."

You're able to get your armor and other gear without incident. Where do you want to go now?

[Skeppio]

"I will, great-grandfather! See you later!" Talain says as he walks into the streets.

[Savannah]

Outside, everything is as it has been for the past couple of weeks. The occasional rat scurries across the open streets, but you know more lurk in the cellars and back alleys. The biggest sign of the current problems are the rat catchers offering their services door to door and the vendors offering (probably useless) anti-vermin charms.

[Skeppio]

Talain walks through the street, keeping to himself as he searches for an entrance to the sewers.

[Savannah]

The streets slope slightly, creating a trough along one side that waste runs down. Following the one in front of your house, you eventually come to a rusty grating through which you can see a shaft down. It is locked with a simple padlock.

[Skeppio]

"Darn, I don't have anything to open that lock with.... I suppose I could always just buy a replacement..."

Talain prepares his sword to destroy the lock.

Attack:
[roll0]
Damage:
[roll1]

[Savannah]

OOC: *blink blink* Just to make sure we're clear on this, you're going to use your nice, shiny, sharp sword on an old rusty lock in the middle of a street with other people around? Not saying you can't, but it might not be the brightest of moves...

[Skeppio]

OOC: Oh, oops. I didn't think anyone was around! :smallredface:

[Savannah]

It's a moderately-busy street in a low-middle class district. Your grandfather's shop is by far the finest in the area, but he's not in a richer district because the richer folk don't like the sounds of a blacksmith working. The people here are just happy for whatever customers he brings in who might look at their goods as well. So there's various residents and some visitors to the (rather shabby) shops wandering the area.

[Skeppio]

Talain continues his search, hoping to find an out-of-the-way entrance to the sewers.

[Savannah]

You turn down one of the little alleys, and are quickly out of sight of the street. Ordinarily, you'd be worried about thieves or worse, but you see no signs of any people, only the occasional rat. Before you get too far in your search for a sewer grate, however, you hear rustling among the piles of debris that are scattered along the alley.

[Skeppio]

Talain stops and stares at the rustling debris.

Spot: [roll0]

[Savannah]

It takes you a moment to pick out the individual forms in the debris, but soon you can see the cause of the noise. The pile is almost more rats than debris, hundreds and hundreds of mangy, flea-bitten, brown rats crawling over the garbage and each other.

You are standing a little ways back from the first pile in the alley. Looking beyond it, you can tell that you will have to pass close by this pile and many more like it to continue down the alley.

[Skeppio]

Disgusted, Talain holds his nose, edges past the pile of garbage and makes his way down the alley.

[Savannah]

A few rats skitter towards you from the pile, but you're able to hurry past them without any more than a few nips at your boots. After dodging a couple more piles, you finally see the sewer grate you've been looking for up ahead.

[Skeppio]

Talain walks up to the sewer grate, grips it and pulls it upwards.

[Skeppio]

OOC: Sorry, screwed up my roll....

Strength check: [roll0]

[Savannah]

This grate seems to be more rusted than the other you'd found, and the lock on it does not prevent you from pulling it free. About 15' below you, you can see sludgy water, moving slowly.

[Skeppio]

Talain slowly descends into the sewers. Upon landing, he glances around the darkness to find the path.

[Savannah]

Er...how exactly are you planning on descending "slowly"?

[Skeppio]

Er...how exactly are you planning on descending "slowly"?

OOC: Um.... edge down a bit until I'm holding onto an edge by my hands, then letting go. Does that make sense? I thought it'd be a tad saner than leaping down.

[Savannah]

Ah, I was wondering if you were trying to use a rope or something. And, yes, it is saner :smalltongue: Hmm....Even though you're not jumping, roll a Jump check to see if you land softly, as it's the closest approximation to what you're doing.

[Skeppio]

OOC: Sure thing.

[roll0]

[Savannah]

You land carefully, managing not to take any damage from the fall. Looking around, you find yourself in a narrow tunnel. You're on a ledge along one side, above the slowly moving sludge. Rats scurry along the ledge, and you're pretty sure you see a couple swimming in the muck. The smell is horrible.

[Skeppio]

Talain continues walking along the ledge into the darkness.

[Savannah]

Downstream or upstream?

[Skeppio]

*flips a coin* Downstream.

[Savannah]

After about 20 minutes of carefully balancing as you walk so you don't fall into the sludge, the tunnel you're in meets up with another, also flowing in the same direction. You can either go back up the way you came, go upstream along this new tunnel, or go downstream along the joined tunnel (but you'd have to jump over or wade through the liquid to get to the ledge to go this route).

Edit: Something like this (not necessarily to scale, you're the x)
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/2989/sewersjoin.png
And I realize I forgot to put the direction it's flowing on there...downstream is towards the top of the picture.

[Skeppio]

Talain decides to leap across to the right ledge of the newly joined tunnel, uttering a magic word as he prepares to jump.

OOC: I choose to activate all three charges of my Acrobat Boots, giving me a 20ft bonus to land speed, which in turn grants me a +4 bonus to this Jump Check.
I also choose to activate one charge of my Brute Gauntlets, granting me a +2 morale bonus to strength-based skill checks (aka: Jump)

Jump: [roll0]

[Savannah]

You jump cleanly across the tunnel, and manage to land on the narrow ledge without falling backwards into the sludge below. You're continuing downstream, right?

[Skeppio]

Talain continues walking downstream.

[Savannah]

It's at least half an hour before you reach another join, fortunately on the far side from you this time so you can continue downstream without jumping, should you wish to. Above you, you can see another grate large enough for a person to fit through, presumably leading to somewhere in the streets of the city. There also seem to be more rats here than there were when you first entered the sewers.

[Skeppio]

After a moment of thought, Talain decides to continue downstream along the same path.

"Hmm, more rats... Wonder what's attracting them here..."

[Savannah]

Make a Wisdom check, please.

[Skeppio]

Wisdom Check: [roll0]

[Savannah]

Based on the direction and time you've been walking, you're probably going to be leaving the city soon. And there don't seem to be an excessive number of rats....In fact, it looks to you (with your limited knowledge of "rat populations under the Imperial City") like this is a normal number of rats and where you came from had a lower number than you'd expect.

[Skeppio]

"At this rate, I'm going to be out of the city.... I'd better turn back."

Talain turns back and heads towards the junction he last passed.

[Savannah]

You can make it back to the junction without incident. Where do you want to do from there?

[Skeppio]

Talain decides to leap across the gap, back to the side he entered the sewer from.

OOC:
I activate the last charge of my Brute Gauntlets, granting me a +2 morale bonus to strength-based skill checks.

Jump: [roll0]

[Savannah]

You teeter a little bit when you land, but manage to keep from falling into the muck. You're now back on the side where you entered the sewers, although you've got a ways to go still if you want to get back to your original grating.

(By the way, you've been passing under a grating every so often, although you don't notice anything particularly interesting about any of them.)

[Skeppio]

Talain edges across the sharp corner and walks into the other path leading out of the junction.

(I hope that makes sense)

[Savannah]

Uh, I think so. Quick and dirty map:


Entered here:
|
| /
|/
|
| /
|/x
|
Downstream

You're the x, going to be heading along the angled branch. Yes?

[Skeppio]

Yeah. That's about right.

[Savannah]

You continue walking along the narrow ledge. Fortunately, after spending so much time here, your nose has become numb to the stink. After a while, you reach yet another junction, similar to the ones you've passed before.


.\/
x|

[Skeppio]

Talain thinks for a moment, then flips a coin. "Tails." He mutters. "So I'm going right then." He says as he walks down the right-hand path.

[Savannah]

I hope you have a plan to get over the muck to the right-hand side :smalltongue:

[Skeppio]

:smalleek:

I think I misread the diagram...

[Savannah]

Think of each line as the flowing....stuff. There's a narrow walkway along each side of each line, and the x shows which side and which branch you're on. That help?

[Skeppio]

Talain looks at the gap between him and the other side. "Oh right... Not gonna risk it this time." He decides, and continues walking down his current path.

[Savannah]

After a ways more, you come to yet another fork in the passages. You notice that the passages seem to be getting a little bit narrower, and you are getting the feeling that they start out as many individual branches before slowly converging to a few main exits from the city.

[Skeppio]

Talain sighs "I think I'm lost..." as he walks down the right path. "Hope I find something soon."

[Savannah]

Further still, another fork.

Wis check, please.

[Skeppio]

Wisdom: [roll0]

[Savannah]

You're walking blindly through the sewers of a ginormous city, and the odds of finding something through sheer luck are rather slim (not saying you won't find something if you keep searching, but it'll be a lot more efficient to either tell me what pattern you're searching in and for how long or to reassess your methodology).

[Skeppio]

Talain decides to follow the leftmost wall, placing his hand upon it as he walks until he finds something, or can no longer follow said wall.

[Savannah]

Now, I'm not saying how long it will take you to find something like this, but how many hours is Talain willing to put into this?

[Skeppio]

Hmm, not sure. How would Talain know how much time he's spent down there, anyway? :smallconfused:

Let's go with two more hours, I guess. Would that be about noonish?

[Savannah]

That would indeed be around noonish.

Before you go that far, however, you notice something odd. You'd guess it's a little over an hour into your walk, and you've started to notice a some rats. That wouldn't be too odd, but they're always heading in the same direction down the tunnel - the same way you're going - and they seems to be hurrying.

[Skeppio]

"What the....? Rats don't normally act like that. Perhaps there is something strange down here after all. They might just lead me to my goal." Talain decides to follow the rats.

[Savannah]

You follow them for a while and notice that more and more seem to be joining in. Now you can see at least five rats at all times, running or swimming the same way. However, that way is across a fork from you, and you'll have to jump to the other side if you want to continue to follow them.

[Skeppio]

Jump: [roll0]

[Savannah]

After making so many jumps today, your luck finally runs out. You attempt to leap across the channel of sewage, but land right in the middle. Fortunately, it only reaches your knees, but the smell is still horrible. Make a Fort save.

[Skeppio]

Fortitude: [roll0]

[Savannah]

Fortunately, you manage to keep a hold of yourself and not become nauseated from landing in sewage. You're still in the middle of the muck, however.

[Skeppio]

Talain shouts out, "Argh, oh, disgusting!". He then trudges for the far wall.

Climb: [roll0]

[Savannah]

You climb easily onto the ledge you've been using, but your shout seems to have frightened the rats -- there are none in sight anymore.

[Skeppio]

Talain mutters, his voice jittery, "Argh, where'd they go?" His eyes dart about for any sign of them.

Search: [roll0]



OOC: Yes, I know the futility of this action, but Talain's not exactly thinking clearly right now. :smalltongue:

[Savannah]

Unless you're getting on your hands and knees and poking around for rats, you're wanting Spot here. (Which is good, given what you rolled :smalltongue:)

[Skeppio]

You know, I always mix those two up...

Spot: [roll0]

[Savannah]

Fortunately, you manage to catch a glimpse of a few rats scurrying away up the tunnel.

[Skeppio]

Talain hurries after the rats.

[Savannah]

You continue on for a short ways before you round a bend in the tunnel and come to a strange sight. Where you had seen a few rats hurrying along, now there are hundreds! They seem to have been resting and even playing, sitting along the sides of the tunnel or swimming in the water, but as you come around the corner they are instantly alert, watching your every move with beady eyes.

[Skeppio]

Talain slowly steps into the crowd of rats, taking care not to tread on one.

[Savannah]

The rats directly underfoot move for you, but the majority don't even twitch when you come near them. All continue to stare at you, noses twitching slightly.

[Skeppio]

Talain presses forward, summoning his courage to withstand the unnatural scene. As he walks, curiosity gets the better of him, and he takes a closer look at the rats.

Spot: [roll0]

[Savannah]

They look....really normal. As you press onward, however, they quickly scamper in front of you in a mass, blocking your path unless you want to step on them.

[Skeppio]

Talain steps back as the rats amass. He waves his hands at the rats, attempting to shoo them away. "Shoo! I need to get past here, you weird critters!"

[Savannah]

They don't seem to be shoo-ing. You notice a few running further up the tunnel the way you want to go, but they don't seem to lessen the number blocking your way as more rats haul themselves out of the water to block your path.

[Skeppio]

"All right, this is not natural. I am going through there one way or another, so if you won't move out of my way, perhaps this will change your minds." Talain draws his longsword.

Intimidate: [roll0]

[Savannah]

The rats surge forward. Initiative [roll0].

[Skeppio]

Initiative: [roll0]

[Savannah]

Yeah, you're going first. The mass of rats is surging towards you with clearly hostile intentions.

[Skeppio]

Talain slashes at the rats with his longsword.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

OOC: Not going to use Power Attack just yet.

[Savannah]

You slash through a number of the rats, but still more pile on, rushing towards you. You get an attack of opportunity as they enter your square before they can attack.

DM rat swarm hit points [roll0] - 5 from attack

[Skeppio]

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Savannah]

You're caught rather off balance by all the rats surrounding you and your sword fails to connect solidly with any of the rats, which are now swarming up your legs and all around you. You take [roll0] damage from them biting and scratching and need to make two Fortitude saves before you act.

[Skeppio]

Fortitude: [roll0]
Fortitude 2: [roll1]

[Savannah]

Fortunately, the writhing of the rats around your legs does not disorient you enough to impair your attacks. You're free to act (but go ahead and roll two Fort saves each round that you're fighting them).

[Skeppio]

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

1st Fortitude: [roll2]
2nd Fortitude: [roll3]

[Savannah]

You hit more rats, although you can tell that you're not damaging them as much as you would if they were a single creature - your sword keeps passing through the empty spaces between the rats as much as through the rats.

The rats scrabbling over you and biting deal another [roll0] damage. Again, however, you're able to continue to fight without difficulties.

As you're fighting the swarm, a group of dog-sized rats come bounding out of the darkness. (They're still a ways away from you, so one of you will have to move to attack the other. And you're still being swarmed.)

[Skeppio]

"Argh, get away! Get off me!" Talain shouts as he takes a wild swing.

OOC: Taking 5 points for Power Attack. The attack roll penalty and damage roll bonus have been added to the respective rolls.

Attack:
Damage: [roll1]

1st Fortitude: [roll]1d20+13)
2nd Fortitude: 1d20+13)

[Skeppio]

....mistyped the Fortitude checks.

1st Fortitude: [roll0]
2nd Fortitude: [roll1]

[Savannah]

This is a "I'm going to go figure out what was going on and hopefully start back up if you're still interested" post.

[Skeppio]

Oh, ok! Sure, I'm still interested, though my posting might be a bit less frequent, since I'm at Uni and all. Makes it a bit harder to figure out my actions, refer to my character sheet, go back here, roll, etc. :smalltongue: