It's a Different World (IC)

[dariathalon]

Welcome to It's a Different World IC thread.

Here is a link to the OOC thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?361158-It-s-a-Different-World-(OOC)).
Here is a link to Obsidian Portal (https://it-s-a-different-world.obsidianportal.com/).
Here is a link to the combat map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgxnaHTVUVNPdFBtOW5DUzhkYklackduSklta25wS 1E&usp=drive_web#gid=11).

Here are links to each of the character sheets.
Frog (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=940165)
Fivefold Ficura (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=945841)
Tanuk (http://iplay4e.appspot.com/characters/agdpcGxheTRlchQLEgtDaGFyYWN0ZXJWMhi3i5tJDA)
Hrodebert (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=418188)
Gloria (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=953956)
Adrienne (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=946793)

As a reminder, the big change happened yesterday. So your characters have had one day to come to terms with their new selves and new abilities. The previous day was a very chaotic time. While the majority of the townsfolk did not gain additional powers, like the PCs, it still took some major coming to terms with the new reality. The village's elder, Roger Higgins, was not very effective in guiding the town through that day since as a 10 year old halfling nobody really took him too seriously. His daughter, Elarana, stepped up and at least helped to get people calmed down and through the initial shock.

You woke up to a bright and beautiful morning in Redwater. The sun is shining in through the window. A cool breeze is blowing through village. The birds were chirping… but not the usual seagulls’ calls, rather they sound like the cheery songs of birds usually found further inland. This little detail was your first reminder that things are not how they’ve always been. Looking down reminds you the memories of the change yesterday are more than just a dream. They seem to be here to stay.

*****
Adrienne walked into the small kitchen of her family’s home. Her father, Stephen Carpenter, busily chopped something to put in his breakfast pan with his back to the doorway. Adrienne’s mother was seated at a table staring silently at her crystalline reflection in a cup of water that Stephen had probably placed before her. Adrienne’s father refused to turn to face his daughter as he said, “Adrienne, if that’s you, we got a message that Elder Higgins wants to speak with you. Go.” His voice is more gruff than Adrienne remembered.

*****
A knock rapped on the door of the room that the former frog had been given for the night. “Miss…Uh…? We really need to come up with a name for you, you know that?” A youthful voice said from the other side of the door. She recognized it as the boy that had been introduced to her the day before as the town’s elder. “If you wouldn’t mind coming downstairs when you have gotten yourself ready, I’m having several villagers in. There is a favor I’d like their help with, and perhaps yours as well. Since you’re new to the village, maybe you could earn a place in our town.”

*****
“Gloria! Gloria!” The twins who had looked very much alike up until a few days ago came running up to where she was hanging out some laundry. They didn’t look much alike anymore. Felix had become a goliath overnight, growing over a foot. Diana on the other hand had become a gnome, shrinking by almost as much. Diana had trouble keeping up with her brother’s longer paces, but that only made her pump her little legs twice as hard to keep up. As they skidded to a stop near her they both started talking at once. Despite the obvious physical changes, they still had a tendency to speak almost in unison. “The elder’s daughter was just here. Papa said to come get you. You’re s’posed to go to Elder Higgins’ place right away.”

*****
It takes Hrodebert a moment to recognize that the pounding he feels so acutely in his skull is more than just a hangover. It is someone pounding on his door. “Hrodebert, git yer lazy bum outta that bed! Elder Higgins wants to see you,” shouts his father’s voice through the door. “Wash yerself up and be sure yer lookin’ presentable afore ya go!” His father’s hooves thudded heavily on the ground as he walked away from the door. The aging minotaur innkeeper’s voice can be heard muttering as he walks away, “Don’t know what Elder Higgins wants with that boy…”

*****
Tommy Krass hurried up the road from the next farm on his way to the Abaddon farm. “Fredrich!” he shouted, unsure where he’d find the only remaining member of the Abaddon family. As soon as he rounded the barn, he saw the tattooed man. “There you are! Guess what! I got a shiny copper.” He holds the coin out proudly. “The elder’s daughter came by and gave it to me. She said that all I had to do was run the rest of the way out to your farm and deliver a message to you so she could run some other errands. She said you and your brothers and sisters should go to the Elder’s house as soon as you can. I told her that you were the only one left. She looked a little confused, but said to deliver the message anyway.”

*****
Elarana Higgins wandered the streets of Redwater, not that there were too many of them looking for something. She finally found it near the docks. The old wooden planks would normally have been bustling with people, but now that there was no water beneath them, only dirt. Several large fishing boats were still tied to the docks, sitting upright in the soil. Next to the docks, someone had taken a few pieces of plywood and built a rough lean-to shelter. A tail stuck out from beneath it. She knocked on the plywood politely. “Tanuk, is that you under there. My father wants to see you.”

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Shifting in his sleep, Tanuk's bushy tail acts as both pillow and blanket. A tail? Oh ... right. he thinks to himself, as he stretches and stands. He rubs a paw against his eye, wiping away the sleep from the night before. He rubs a hand against his other eye, as he grows taller, eventually reaching his full height just over five foot tall. Yawning, he scratches at the fur at the back of his neck for a moment, before it gives way to soft skin. "I'm up, I'm up!" he shouts back to the voice, who he guesses is Elarana, though it's hard to tell for sure anymore.

Sliding his dagger into the frog at his belt, Tanuk runs a finger through his hair, perks up the tips of his ears, and walks on out of his ramshackle shelter to greet his guest.

[Nai_Calus]

After a few hours, Adrienne realized she'd gotten all the rest she was going to and got out of bed, dressing herself in the tunic and pants she'd taken from her father's closet the previous day. The clothing was baggy on her, but people frowned on men wearing womens' clothing. She frowned herself. How ridiculous. She was a girl, damn it, not a man, and sh- And she was a man now, whether she liked it or not. Some of it seemed OK, like not having to squat in the outhouse anymore, or the breasts she'd grown the last couple of years no longer being in her way, but it was wrong, and so awkwardly constructed. How, she wondered, did boys even manage to climb trees or fences or anything else without hurting themselves at every turn? No wonder female drow thought males were inferior.

And there was the real problem, the one that made things even worse. Drow. The day before yesterday she'd never even heard of such a thing. Now she was one, and while there were similarities, she wasn't even human anymore. The light hurt her eyes and she could see in the dark, and when night had come last night she'd found herself still not tired for hours past time for bed. Even then she hadn't slept, but had fallen into some sort of waking trance. She'd 'slept' leaned against the wall for only a few hours before coming out of it with the sunrise, but she strangely didn't feel tired. She felt like she'd slept all night. Somehow she knew this was normal, and that was both comforting and worrying. Comforting in that it was supposed to happen, worrying in that she could in any way think of such a thing as normal. Nothing would ever be normal again, unless she could find a way to fix this.

Maybe this strange magic she found herself in possession of could help. Most people hadn't developed powers like she had, so maybe it was up to her. Well, she'd just have to figure it out, then. If not for her sake, then for her mother's. The thought of the expressionless crystalline being her mother had become, the one that hadn't spoken since the change, brought tears to her eyes. And her brother... Nobody had seen Simon, but then again technically nobody had seen her. They'd seen the drow man she'd become, but nobody had seen the fifteen year old girl anyone who'd gone looking for her would have been searching for. That gave her hope. She was worried that he hadn't come home, but maybe he was afraid. Certainly the hostility she'd gotten was enough to give her serious pause about going out among people who didn't already know it was her. Drow were bad, everyone seemed to know that. Maybe Simon had become something similarly unaccepted and was just hiding. She'd have to look more.

She sighed. So much to do. And she didn't even know where to start. She squared her shoulders and headed downstairs to find breakfast. She still ate normally, at least. That was something.

-----

The gruff dismissal caught her off-guard and her mother's dejected form did little to help. She moved to her mother and gave her a reassuring hug. At least she'd gotten out of the corner, so there was that. Definitely an improvement.

"Daddy..." She started to protest her father's dismissal, but cut herself off. He'd come around, but he probably wasn't having any easier a time with things than she was. "OK. I'll go. Just... Keep an eye on mom for me, OK? I'll keep an eye out for Simon." She sighed. "It's still me in here, daddy. I love you. Take care." She grabbed an apple and a slice of bread and ate them as she walked to the Elder's house. She knocked on the door and waited, glancing around to see who else might be coming.

"Oh, I hope he's not going to ask me to leave the village..."

[Haberdashery]

She couldn't sleep. Sleeping hurt. And besides, her head was a-whirr with so many strange thoughts and strange feelings. Yesterday had been the worst day of her life. Within the span of a single day, her life had changed so completely that she could not even recognize it by sight. She could not recognize herself by sight. The one that called herself Elarana had given her a little glittering mirror to look into, and the reflection that came back to her was the most hideous thing she had ever seen. She couldn't shake the sight of herself from her head. It repeated over and over on the backs of her eyelids, and each time she closed her eyes the image twisted into something more horrible.

The elder that was called Higgins, though he looked younger than she did now, had offered her a place in his home, though the elf that had once been a frog had been hard to convince. She had climbed out the window of the room they had put her in, and ran back to the pond, though the diminutive place she found was hardly the world she remembered. The pond was not even big enough to fit her in it. Nothing remained in the water, or in the reeds. The tortoise was gone, and so were the insects, and even the worms. The shallow spawning pool was bare. Her children nowhere. She retraced her footsteps, and soon the Elarana found her again, and she and the Higgins put her back in their spare room.

The frog had watched the sun rise over the horizon, making the darkness gray before it burnt it away altogether. She was sitting on the roof. Somehow she had learned out to climb before she had learned to walk properly. It was quiet up there. Up there she could feel the sky. Inside the little room the air stuck to the stones, and it stuck to her skin. Her skin was hot to the touch all the time now, even when she was out of the sun, and it made the little room unbearable in the humidity of summer. Her flesh had been sticky, but that didn't bother her so much. She was used to sticky. That night she had sat under the stars, watching the heavens above. They seemed closer now, or perhaps she was just taller. The breeze caught her hair now, in the pale light of morning; the green tufts billowed around her like snakes. She almost expected them to hiss. Below she heard the Higgins calling to her, muffled by the roof she was sitting on. The town below her was stirring, and the strange people were waking from their slumber and leaving their little homes. It was strange to watch them.

The frog flopped back into the room through the window; the wooden frame caught her in the stomach as she fell from the roof, and the air in her belly came rushing out. Red pain shot through her, and she tumbled forward to thump against the ground in a heap. Not only was this body huge and hideous, it was so very clumsy. As a frog, she had been the epitome of grace--a little green water dancer atop the lily pads. Now she was a great hulking beast, tripping over her own freakish, gangling limbs. The pain throbbed in her middle, and air refused to come back into her lungs properly, and so she curled up on the floor, wincing, until her breath returned. Unsteadily she stood, gripping the side of the straw bed, and flopped and squirmed until she had her knees under her. And then pushing herself upward with all of the strength her flimsy arms possessed, she managed to flip-flop her feet underneath her. Now she pushed up, knees knocked together tightly, and soon she was standing again, wobbly. The world spun around her as she caught her balance, almost pitching forwards and then backwards. This was the hardest part. It wasn't as bad when she was moving, and so she took a stumbling step forwards, and then another. She gripped the door of the room, pulling it open, and she was moving now, using the sides of the walls to keep her balance.

Soon she came to the stairs, and there she paused. The stairs were things of torture. There were bruises from falling down them multiple times the day before all up and down her legs and ribs. The only way that she could avoid hurting herself on them was by the method she had devised herself. The frog sat herself down on the first step--it was much easier to sit than it was to stand. All she had to do was collapse her legs and fall, though she hadn't gotten the hang of sitting without hurting her butt yet. She then flung her legs forwards down the steps, knees still together, calves and feet splayed out. Her hands gripped the side of the step she sat on, and with a quick shove, she scooted forward and slipped down onto the second step with a rough thump. Thump, thump, thump went the stairs as she descended them one-by-one, until she was on the last step and could properly pull herself up again. This made her butt sore, but it was better than falling all the way down.

As the frog stood, and began her crooked walk down the narrow passage to the house's common room, from where the light of a cooking fire illuminated the hall, she could hear the Higgins humming something in his high voice. She stepped through the threshold, into the uncomfortable warmth from the kitchen, and a voice tinkled from behind her.

"Milady..." The voice began. The voice always began that way. "...you've forgotten your clothing again." A heavy bundle of cloth landed on her head with a thump.

[Rhysandphal]

Waking early was habit for him. Life on a farm starts early. Sometimes well before dawn. The work went easier now, in his new form. He was faster. He was wiser. He could work longer than he ever had before. But it was lonelier, as well. Solitary. He wasn't truly alone, of course. He never would be again. But there was a loneliness to it. A sorrow. The silence of it seemed to carry, to resonate, even if that was one of the few times he could hear his brothers and sisters.

He could feel the influence of his brothers and sisters, even when he couldn't hear their whispers. They fortified him. Reinforced his strengths, compensated for his flaws. They balanced him, brought him peace. It was frightening, at times. The calm they brought. It wasn't a constant, but it wasn't a choice, either. Being stuck in the calm, knowing his new form, his solitude, should terrify him, while still feeling nothing...

He was meditating when Tommy came up the way. He wasn't sure why, to be honest. Nor did he know where he learned the forms he flowed through before hand. But his body knew them. His muscles remembered them. His soul, his souls, required it. The calm didn't unnerve him when he meditated. It didn't worry him when he danced through the forms. He welcomed it with open arms, and the whispers that came with it. Well.... Most of them.

Rising from where he sat, cross-legged on the floor with the backs of his hands on his knees, Fredrich is halfway into a bow by the time he realized what he's doing, left fist in right palm, pausing for a moment as his gaze is filled with the tattoos on the backs of his hands. Letting it pass, he straitens and flashes Tommy a smile, taking care not to expose the fangs that fill his mouth, lest it scare him.

That's quite a catch, Tommy. Fredrich reaches out and rustles Tommy's hair. You brought the message here fast, too, didn't you? You always could run. Fredrich's hand pauses, frozen, as a thought slithers through his head. He knew the thought wasn't his, but it stopped him dead anyway. Shaking the thought away, he gives tommy's hair one last tousle before taking his hand off. You did a good job, Tommy. Thank you. Here, for doing a good job. Fredrich fishes into his pockets, coming out with another copper for the boy, more to spite the though that drifted through his head than anything else. Don't go rubbing it in Samantha's face, now. You've got enough to share. Run along, now. I'm sure you've got some chores to take care of.

Fredrich stared off for a moment, lost in thought, before calling out to the boy. And Tommy. He waited for him to turn back around. Please, call me Ficura from now on. He raises a hand, tattoo in Tommy's direction, and slowly clenches his fist. A letter for each of us. Let your father and aunt Pam know for me, would you? Ficura enters a stance, flowing through a few forms to center himself, before making his way to the elder's place.

[Gospel Noctis]

It was the sound of shouting that once again coaxed Gloria from the depths of slumber. Brushing aside a messy cascade of fine dark hair she stared through sleepy eyes at her siblings, still not accustomed to the changes that they, along with the rest of the world had undergone. Yawning lightly she silently ushers the former twins out as she crawls out of bed and shuffles over to her dresser. Tracing a slender finger along the intricate designs carved into the high quality wood, she was inexorably drawn to the sheathed instrument laying across the dresser top.

'A long sword,' She thought, 'enchanted, with a weight of 3.51 lbs., marked with a stylized sun, the symbol of the great lord, Pelor, God of the Su-' She shook her head violently, as if trying to purge the foreign thoughts and knowledge from her mind. Taking a deep breath and a moment to compose herself Gloria briefly examined the foreign craftsmanship of the weapon before turning her attention to the mirror.

Before the Change, Gloria had possessed a simple, earthly charm. She had richly tanned skin, lightly peppered with freckles, with curly, dark blonde tresses pooling around her shoulders. And while she would not have described herself as petite, she had definitely inherited her mothers curves. Now, however, she could scarcely recognize the figure that stared back at her in the mirror. What she saw there was not a women she would have described as simple nor earthly. Even ignoring the shock of radiantly white feathers that composed her wings, the pale, unblemished skin, the long strands of perfectly straight dark hair, and the almost dainty, picturesque features would be more at home on some story book princess than on a carpenters daughter. And the greatest tragedy of all, she mourned, was the loss of her formerly luscious curves. She was now positively slender, looking all the more like some fictional icon.

With a dejected sigh she tore her eyes away from the mirror and began searching through her wardrobe, looking for something to wear. She quickly discovered that very few of her garments had been altered much. This wasn't necessarily a good thing, seeing as how they no longer quite fit her new figure. The tailors would no doubt make an absolute killing in the coming days. As Gloria threw together an outfit with which she hoped wouldn't slide right off of her a flash of brilliant white material caught her eyes. She had noticed it yesterday, but hadn't had been too preoccupied with everything else that was going on to give it much thought. The actual material was completely foreign to her. She had first thought it to be cloth going purely by looks, but the texture and the sheer weight of the garment quickly dispelled that notion. 'Armor,' her mind supplied, before she could even begin to question the nature of the items before her. With an eerie absolute certainty born of unknown familiarity she knew that this was armor. 'Enchanted armor, weighing a total of 50.3 lbs.' Sighing once more she closed her wardrobe. Taking a pair of scissors, she cut out a pair of wing holes in her chosen shirt before quickly changed into the fresh set of clothes.

Taking one last look at her dresser, she made a note to take the rest of her clothes to a tailor at some point. Again, they would surely make a killing from these changes. After a brief greeting to the rest of her family and a small bite to eat, she headed out, making her way to meet the Elder's daughter.

[dariathalon]

Elarana smiles politely as Tanuk comes out to greet her. “Good, I had hoped you were still living on the docks somewhere. I see there are some things that haven’t changed yet.” She glances around at the nearly empty docks. “The docks are quieter now, more peaceful but still alive.” She takes a deep breath of the air, a hint of the old salty sea air still permeates the wood, but mostly that smell has been replaced by the earthiness of the forest that has grown around them. “If I didn’t have a home already with Father, I might make a home out this way. You have to admit the forest is beautiful.” She looks longingly toward the trees that by all appearances are decades if not centuries old.

After a few seconds of staring into the trees, her attention is taken by a woman with a regal bearing and strikingly white wings approaching from the other side. “Gloria? Oh my goodness. Gloria, Is that you? You look so different!”

*****
Adrienne’s father continues to look away as Adrienne moves about the kitchen gathering a bit of food for the road, even going so far as to avert his eyes as she reaches her hand to the loaf of bread in front of him. As she is about to walk out the door, he says, “Course I will take care of her. She’s hardly in a state to care for herself. And if you find Simon, bring him back safe.”

*****
Tommy’s grin gets even wider when Fredrich hands him the coin. “Gee thanks a lot!” he calls over his shoulder as he begins to run away. When the shifter calls out to him again, Tommy looks back at him. “Ficura?” His face twists in confusion momentarily before he finally makes sense of it. “Oh, Fredrich, Ivan, Cat, Udane, Robert. I get it! But what about the A? Is that for Abaddon?”

A voice hisses in the back of Ficura’s mind, “If that’s what you want to believe, little boy.” Followed by a rasping laugh.

*****
Elder Higgins stands on a stool near the fire thereby gaining the height necessary to look inside a large pot hanging over it. He has a long handled spoon in hand that he is using to stir the contents. Hearing Frog at the door, he turns to greet her. But upon seeing her state of dress – namely lack thereof, he was shocked so much that he almost pitched over backwards off his stool. In an act of surprising grace he managed to regain his balance on the small stool before ending up in the coals.

His cheeks are already slightly red as quickly turns back to face the fire. He picks up the spoon again and begins stirring much more quickly than before. “Oh. I see you are having some difficulty with your clothes. I have breakfast here, but you’ll need to dress properly first. I wish I hadn’t sent Elarana out earlier, we’ll just have to wait until she gets back. Maybe you should wait in your bedroom. Oh no, wait, I remember how much difficulty you had with the stairs. It shouldn’t be long. Just err… try to cover yourself and not be seen by the other guests until you are dressed.”

A knock sounds on the front door a few rooms away. “That might be them now. Please excuse me for a moment. Wait here maybe it will be Gloria or Adrienne, one of them can probably help you dress if they get here before Elarana,” he says as he exits the room, pushing the stool in front of him.

*****
Before the door is opened, a sound of scraping wood can be heard on the opposite side, followed by a wooden clunking and a quiet high-pitched muttering. When the door is opened, Elder Higgins stands atop a stool positioned carefully next to the door. The man who had previously been in his 60’s was now a 10 year old Halfling boy, and needed the stool to even reach the door handle to open it for his guests.

“Ah. Excellent, Fredrich and Adrienne. So glad you could come. There is a favor I was hoping to ask of you, but I’d like to wait until everyone has gathered. Please come in. There are seats just over there,” he points in one direction down the hallway.

His nose wrinkles slightly as Adrienne walks past him. “Oh. I had hoped you’d be able to help my other guest with her outfit, but in your current state, it hardly seems appropriate. Still, I suppose you are probably still acquainted with women’s uh… attire, and I would like her dressed before more guests arrive. There is a young woman in the kitchen,” he points the opposite direction down the hall. “It seems just yesterday that she was a frog, so she isn’t used to clothing yet. You’re the closest thing we have to a female in the house at the moment. Would you mind helping her while we wait for the others?”

[Haberdashery]

The frog stood there blankly, staring back at the Higgins, listening to him speak hurriedly and uncomfortably. At the mention of covering herself, she blinked, not quite understanding what he meant. Pensive, uncertain eyes reached for the bundle of clothes that had tumbled off her head into her hands. She gripped the clothing tightly in both hands, and, arching her back and craning her neck forwards, she pulled the cloth up and draped it over her head. The edges of it became a faux-hood, and a single sleeve fell down her cheek beside her faintly green hair. The rest of the garment became a cape down her back. She blinked again at the Higgins, seeking his approval with her eyes.

"Master Higgins did not mean like that, milady." The stuffy voice came again, after clearing its voice with a light, Hum-HUM.

"But I have covered myself." The frog replied, to the empty air, in an expressionless voice that was deep and throaty.

"Not in the way that Master Higgins intended. Come now, milday, we have been over this thrice since last evening. It is...indecent...to be seen without clothing."

The voice belonged to Cartwright, who had stood himself straight and erect on her shoulder, his hands tightly at his side, trying his very hardest not to look at her nakedness and remain professional in his attendance. Cartwright was the name that he had chosen for himself almost instantaneously, as though he had been born with the name, rather than forged from tin in the likeness of a soldier. The tin soldier had not changed in appearance, though he now moved, and breathed, and spoke in the most proper, dignified away--he spoke with pedigree and authority.

The frog did not understand the point of clothing, and so she said as much. "I do not understand the point of clothing."

The tin soldier named Cartwright cleared his throat again. "If I must repeat myself, it is to keep you warm, to keep you clean, and most important of all, to keep you decent."

"That is what skin does."

"Yes, it is. It is not being demanded that you exchange one for the other."

"Is skin not good enough?"

"To be frank, no."

The frog paused at this. She had never worn clothing a day in her life. Her skin had always been just fine. She did not understand why she should start wearing clothing now. She was not cold. She was not dirty. And she did not know what decency was.

Cartwright made a sigh in the back of his throat. "Come along, milady, before Master Higgin's guests see you. We can have this debate a fourth time in the privacy of the pantry."

The frog retreated to the pantry, stumbling, the clothing still draped over her head and doing nothing to give her even an inch of modesty.

[Gospel Noctis]

"So it would seem." Gloria replies, a shy, uncertain smile on her face. "It's going to take a while to get used to the new me. You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble I had relearning how to get around yesterday morning. I've become a completely different sort of top heavy..." She joked, motioning to her newly acquired plumage. "How are things on your end, Elaine? Or is it Elarana now? Are you and your father handling the changes alright?"

"Ah, and who is this with you?" The newly minted paladin asks, looking to Tanuk. "My apologies, I haven't quite been able to link names with faces yet."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Looking toward Gloria, Tanuk squints his eyes and clenches his body. Slowly, his ears recede, and the downy fur on his skin appears to pull withdraw until it is just hair. "It's me, Tanuk!" he squeaks out through clenched teeth, looking every bit his former self. With big exhale he finally releases, and his fur returns and his ears *pop* back out of his hair. "Sorry, I can't hold it too long. I'm getting better though, made it a whole 30 seconds this time!" He smiles a somewhat toothy grin, and tries not to stare too hard at Gloria's wings. "Have you heard from Serah? I didn't see her yesterday and I got worried."

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne makes a little 'Hmph!' noise.

"I am a girl. Just because this stupid... Whatever it is that did this..." She rolled her eyes. "A frog? Weird. Then again with everything else..." She shrugs and walks down the hall to the kitchen, raising an eyebrow as she hears voices coming from the pantry. Crossing to the door, she opens it, staring for a moment at the naked elf before her with clothing draped on her head, and then eyes widening in surprise at the figure on the elf's shoulder.

"Waitaminuteitcan'tbeyou'rethetinsoldierIlost," she says in confusion, the words spilling out so fast they can barely be understood. She blinks twice and shakes her head, then starts again. "How weird, you look just like it... I was playing by the pond a while ago with some tin soldiers I borrowed from Simon and I lost one, and you..." She blinks and realizes she hasn't actually introduced herself or said anything to the elf she's supposed to be helping.

"Oh, sorry, how rude of me! I'm Adrienne. Elder Higgins asked me to come help you get dressed. I can... Kind of see why. He said you were a frog before? Weird. Well, it's kind of cool, but... Ah, I'm rambling, don't mind me. Anyway, come on, I'll help you get these clothes on. I guess it probably seems silly to you, right? Well, I guess it is a little silly, but elf skin isn't going to be as protective as frog skin, and people are kind of funny about seeing each other without clothing," she chatters on as she starts showing the former frog what to do to put the clothing on.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I told you my name, but what's yours?"

[Haberdashery]

The frog looked back at the dark-skinned man, with his stark white shock of hair, with a pair of wide green doe eyes. The tin soldier, however, bowed crisply.

"Lady Adrienne, I presume." He spoke, at the lowest point of his bow. He straightened himself, adjusting his collar which had become crooked in his movement. "You must forgive me for not recognizing you at first glance. It is good to see you again after so long. I fear we have all been afflicted by some wickedness that has stolen away our proper shapes."

The garment gently slipped off the frog's head as she pulled at one of its errant sleeves. It fell into her arms in a heap, and she clutched it to her ample chest. She didn't know where to begin in answering the man. He spoke so quickly that she had become utterly lost.

"Adrienne is your name?" She asked, those green eyes hovering on Adrienne's face. "Where did you get it?"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

A thump can be heard on the wall near the front door, then an oversized and slightly dazed goat stumbles into the room. Back legs splayed, the goat shakes it's heads, ears flopping comically. The large eyes seem to refocus on the halfing before it, before shaking like it has a shiver running down it's spine. By the time the tick finishes it's journey, in the goat's place, Hrodebert sits. Still somewhat wide-eyed, he squints at the Elder before him."Higgins, ma pa says you want ta see mea. Som't'ing tha matta?"

Mud on his boots, his old leather jacket has more fur trimming than it had previously, and his drinking shirt had changed. One of his favorites, he could simply snap a bottle against his chest and pop. But now, his bottle opener shirt had a more uniform appearance, though it still showed plenty of signs of bar-life. The smell of the bar was not lacking either. Clearly, Hrod had managed to get a drink mostly in his mouth before leaving the tavern.

As his eyes begin to focus own their own, he looks around the room. A small group, that was good. It meant, whatever had happened, it wasn't all his fault. A little furry fellow seemed familiar, but this early in the day, Hrod's brain hadn't fully started working. How did anyone expect to get stuff done, the sun hadn't even reached it's peak yet! Who had business being up this early?

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne smiles at the now-living soldier and giggles.

"I used to pretend my dolls and the soldiers were alive. Never thought I'd turn out to be right! Nice to meet you, too!" She drops into a curtsy that looks somewhat odd, given her lack of wearing a dress at the moment and her male form.

She blinks when the frog asks where she got her name.

"Well, my parents gave it to me when I was born, of course! That's how most people get their names. Er... I guess you might not have one, then, since you aren't... That's awful! We'll have to think of a really neat name for you!" She takes the garments and examines them. Basic bloomers and a simple shift, how dull. She'd simply have to fix that in time. She drapes the shift over her arm and helps the frog with the undergarment, trying not to think about how awkward and wrong this must look. It takes several tries, sitting the frog in a chair, and finally having to manually put it on her, but eventually the first part is done.

"OK, now the dress." She arranges it so it's held out to the frog with the arm and neck holes accessible. "Hold out your arms and put them through the small holes, then we're going to have you bend forward a little so we can get it over your head, then we just need to pull a bit and it'll fall into place."

[Gospel Noctis]

"Oh! Tanuk! I'm happy to see you're doing well after everything that's been happening lately." She replied, looking to the Hengeyokai fondly. "I haven't heard from Serah yet, unfortunately. Though I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Had anything happened to her we would have already heard about it, I can guarantee you that. That said, I do wonder how she's taking everything."

Her eyes dim as her expression turns worried. "Everyone is so out of sorts as of late that it's difficult to tell how people are really taking things. I mean even I'm having a bit of trouble adjusting and look at how well I turned out. How hard must this be for people who weren't so fortunate...?"

[Haberdashery]

"More alive than the both of us would have imagined, milady." Cartwright nodded back, pleased that common courtesy had not changed shape along with everyone else.

The little soldier slipped off the frog-girl's shoulder, landing with the soft patter of rough-soled boots on an empty chair. He turned his back to them and fixed his eyes on a corner of the room, clasping his hands behind his back and standing at gentlemanly attention.

At first, the frog was silent at Adrienne's answer. The more Adrienne spoke, however, the more she felt the need to reply to her. Slowly she swallowed, and in her husky voice replied, "Is Adrienne a male name, or a female name? He called you a lady," the frog pointed at Cartwright's tiny shape, "Which is a female distinction. I am having trouble understanding which is which. Female frogs are much bigger than male frogs. People don't look very different."

She stood stiff and awkward, making Adrienne's job in getting the bloomers on her all the more difficult. This was made worse by the fact that the undergarments had been made for a much more slender figure, and they became stuck as Adrienne tried to pull them up over her hips. With a few aggressive tugs, the bloomers popped up to her waist, though they were a poor fit. They should have been loose on her, but she filled them out until they were mercilessly tight. The gown was no better. The clothing must have once belonged to Elarana, whose change into the graceful body of an elf had done little to change her figure. The body of the girl that the frog had become, though similarly elfin, was nowhere near so modest. 'Pulling a bit' was soon discovered to have been an understatement. The result, after much awkward pulling, was less than suitable, and it was more than apparent that Elarana's hand-me-downs were multiple sizes too small for her.

The frog had begun to wrinkle her nose in discomfort. Clothing chaffed her skin, but now she was having trouble breathing, and even more trouble moving than before. Her green eyes raised from the shift struggling to tame her to Adrienne's face, brimming with new questions. Only one found its way to her tongue.

"Is this right?"

[Rhysandphal]

Slowly opening his eyes and breaking away from the meditative posture he had sat in, Ficura rises to his feet in one fluid motion as the goat transforms back into the man. He waited, standing, until the man was fully aware of his surroundings before speaking, not wanting to put him off balance.
Hrodebert? That you? Ficura leans in for a hand shake, then staggers back a few steps as the scent of alcohol assaults his senses. Yeah. Definitely Hrodebert. Ficura focuses some of his attention on ignoring the scent, which, giving his new enhanced senses, is somewhat difficult. There's not a lot of it left in this face, in fact, i look a bit feral, but it's me, Fredrich. How's the bar doing? Sorry I haven't been there for a while. I"m sure Robert was down there most days, but... It looks like he won't be able to enjoy a drink for a while..... Ficura idly rubs the monkey tattoo adorning his right foot with his left. Maybe I'll come by and have one for him, though. Assuming there's time for drinks after.... Ficura turns to elder Higgans. I assume we'll start once everyone has arrived, and the lady has dressed? Sizing up the 'elder's' new form, he smirks a bit. I guess you'll be the elder for quite a while longer, huh.

[dariathalon]

Elarana waits politely as Elarana and Tanuk reacquaint themselves, but her eyes do drift off toward the forest as they are speaking. At a pause in their conversation, she pulls her attention back to them. "Well, most people seem to be doing okay. There are a few people that are having a great deal of difficulty though. My father is one of them. He really doesn't have it as badly as some, like poor Mrs. Carpenter, but he thinks he does. He's actually the reason that I came looking for you. He's got some big plan that he's had me gathering people up to help with. Please come back to our house with me. He'll want to explain it himself, I think."

*****

Elder Higgins replies to Hrodebert, "Yes, all sorts of things are the matter. Town is in upheaval! I mean you were a goat a moment ago. A GOAT!?! I need to get the town in order if we expect to weather these trying times. I asked you here since I believe that you have the ability to help me do what needs to be done," he says in his usual rapid-paced speech. He pauses for a moment, realizing who he is speaking to and slows himself down. "There's too much trouble in town. I'd like your help fixing it. I'll explain once everyone is here."

Elder Higgins hops down from his stool and leads the way to the sitting room, dragging the stool behind him. When Fredrich talks about his position as Elder, Higgins stops in his tracks for a second. "That is part of what I wanted to talk to you all about. But yes, we'll start once everyone is ready. I think there are only a couple yet to arrive. Now if you'll excuse me for a moment, I have something to check on. Please have a seat."

*****

Once Elarana arrives with the last two guests, she shows them into the sitting room and excuses herself to go find her father.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne frowned at the question, a sad expression coming over her face.

"Adrienne is a female name. I was a girl before the change. Well, I'm still a girl, I guess my body just doesn't agree with me anymore..." She looks down at her male form. "Well, human males are usually taller than human females, and they tend to have more hair on their bodies and sometimes they grow beards. But I guess with other races it can be harder. Elven males don't have facial or body hair any more than the females do, and while I haven't seen any female drow, I guess apparently drow males are supposed to be shorter than females... Well, drow are really messed up in general, from what I seem to know..." She sighs. "It's awful, isn't it? All of this... Not being what you're supposed to be anymore... I've seen you in that pond before, you know. You always seemed so happy there. And I was happy the way I was, but now look at us..." She bites her lip as a tear rolls down her cheek.

Adrienne frowns at the results of dressing the frog and the question.

"No. No it isn't. That's way too small. I don't think even my stuff would fit you..." She frowns. Maybe the oversized stuff she was wearing would fit, but the problem was that she was wearing it. She looked around and spotted some twine and a large folded tablecloth. "I've got an idea. Let's get you out of this stuff, and then just hold still and I'll figure something out with these." A little while and the digging up of a couple of cloak pins later, the frog is adorned in a makeshift chiton, secured at the shoulders with the pins and tied at the waist with the twine.

"There! Much better! I think you're ready for us to go join the others now. The underwear can't be helped, so just be careful with that right side, but that'll do for now until we can get you some clothing that fits. Trust me, it'll feel much better once you're in something the right size."

[Haberdashery]

The frog stood still and doll-like as Adrienne busied herself again with her clothing. Only her eyes moved, following Adrienne as she drank in what she was saying. The talk of elves and drow added a further layer of complication to a menagerie that was already complicated.

"Males are sometimes bigger if they are elves and humans, but smaller if they are drow. Males have more hair unless they are elves or drow. Sometimes males have beards, but sometimes they do not." She spoke it aloud with her eyes closed. Speaking it aloud did not make comprehending it easier. One eye opened a crack to show a sliver of green, finding Adrienne's eyes. "Am I still female?"

She let Adrienne's words swim in her head, repeating them herself in her thoughts. How did she feel? Frightened, most of all. The world had suddenly become terrifying, and everything she thought she knew she knew no longer. "What were you before? Aside from female."

Adrienne swooped about with the tablecloth, all red-and-white checkers, and the frog lifted her arms when she was asked, and watched Adrienne's work with her head tilted in curiosity. Whatever she was doing fit far less snug than the shift. It was rough, and itchy, but she could breathe. The frog reasoned that it was better to be able to breathe than to not be itchy, though she still wondered why she couldn't simply take the thing off and both be able to breathe and not be itchy. It made no sense why it had to be one or the other. Adrienne tied the string tight, and she wobbled on her feet from the motion.

When Adrienne had finished, the frog curled her toes, her legs bowing out slightly as she fought to keep her balance. She felt the roughness of the cloth against her fingers, and pulled at the length of string that was tight around her waist. One of her fingers pricked the tip of a pin, and she immediately shied away, putting the finger into her mouth. As she sucked at the finger, her eyes rose upwards, and found Adrienne again. Her green eyes rested there a moment, and then she tried her first smile--a slight, wisp of a thing.

[Gospel Noctis]

The small group continues onward to Elder Higgins residence, the mood stained slightly with thoughts of new found burdens and future worries. As they came upon the door to their destination Gloria paused for a few moments, taking the time to close her eyes and take a few deep breaths. Giving her head a light shake to clear her thoughts and discard any negative feelings she continued forward, feeling refreshed and empowered by the familiar ritual. She had learned long ago that harboring such emotions, especially when participating in large gatherings, was an excellent way to spoil the mood. It was better to simply free herself of such things and press forward, ready to meet the world and the challenges that lay ahead with a smile and welcoming attitude. This was one of the reasons she made such a good barmaid. Regardless of what happens, she would always meet, greet, and serve all of her patrons cheerfully, come rain or shine.

As Elarana led the small group into the sitting room Gloria took a brief second to scour the room, curiously looking for any strange trinkets that might have been a result of the change. Smiling lightheartedly she turned back to address the other guests currently present. "Good morning, everyone! How are you all doing today? Holding up alright I'd hope."

[Nai_Calus]

"You're still female, yes. Er, that's why those clothes don't fit. Girls tend to have breasts, and yours are kind of big, so they don't fit in the dress because that girl's are smaller."

"Before... I was human. I'm pretty young for a human, I'm 15, I wasn't even fully grown before. Well, I guess now I am, but..." She frowns. "I certainly didn't want to grow up like this." She toys unhappily with a strand of white hair. "It used to be so much prettier... It was golden blonde, and my skin was more like the color yours is, and my eyes were blue. Not... Not this." She gestures to indicate her current appearance and coloring.

Adrienne watches the frog scratch at the tablecloth.

"Yeah, it's too bad it's not linen... That's much nicer, but this'll have to do until we get you some real clothing. OK, we should be good now." She watches her prick a finger and winces.

"Ah, careful! Cloak pins are fairly safe, but you can still poke yourself if you don't watch out." She returns the smile when it comes, hers a cheerful grin as she grabs the frog's hand and pulls her towards the sitting room. "C'mon, the others will start to wonder where we are! We should go meet them, introduce you to some more people! It'll be fun!"

[Haberdashery]

So that's what those things were. The tin soldier was humming to himself loudly for his stature, trying to drown out their conversation.

"I do not think you look bad as you are." The frog had not yet mastered the art of the contraction. "You look prettier than I." There was something that was more appealing about Adrienne's appearance than her own, though she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Last night everyone, including herself, had looked revolting to her eyes. Today, however, somehow the world's new people looked a great deal more palatable to her. And a great deal more familiar.

Adrienne grasped the frog's hand, and she locked her fingers around Adrienne's. The frog followed with her bow-legged gait trying to keep up with Adrienne's much quicker, more graceful steps. Cartwright abandoned his post as they left the room, and slipped back up to her shoulder.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Uncomfortable in the larger group setting, Tanuk tries to find a seat "in the back" away from the center if the room. His tail fidgets a bit as he tries to determine how best to sit without squishing it against the chair back. Tanuk scans the room for exits, then scans the room for valuables. Shaking his head, he tries to dismiss that last instinct and instead just focuses on the others, and trying to figure out why this group has been called together.

[dariathalon]

Elder Higgins re-entered the sitting room, pushing the stool in front of him. Elarana followed closely on his heals carrying a large leather-bound book. She stopped next to the door, leaning against the doorframe, but her father continued into the center of the room. When he finally stopped, he climbed up onto the chair and looked around to the people around him. Even standing on the stool, he was only at eye-level with the sitting people in the room.

He cleared his throat with a little cough. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I asked you here. I guess the time has come for me to tell you..." He paused as if trying to figure out how to start. "As you can obviously see, I've undergone a fairly drastic change, as have all of you. However, my change has proven to be a detriment in leading this town. Yesterday in the initial chaos of people coming to terms with their new selves, I was trying to organize people, but no one would listen to me. I was talked over, pushed aside, almost trampled on, and generally disrespected. Luckily Elarana was willing to act as my surrogate and get things straightened out somewhat, but it is not her responsibility. It is mine. And it is one I am not currently equipped to deal with."

"Along with losing my age, my height, and a good chunk of my memories, I did gain something in the transformation." He gestures to the book Elarana is holding. "I woke up with the knowledge of how to perform some basic rituals. Unfortunately, none of them will help me directly, but a few divinations have led me to believe you lot are the best hope I have, the best hope Redwater has."

"Now I did mention that I'd lost many of my memories. In fact, my memories now match the age of this body. I can't remember anything beyond about 10 years ago. Some of you may remember that was around the time my wife's health was ailing. I've searched my memory and my oldest memory is of a trip I took to visit Maggy Mayfly." He holds up a hand to forestall any questions. "I know what you're thinking. And honestly, at the time I felt the same way. But she helped. Nothing could be done for my poor Eliza, she was already too far down the road to death's door. But Elaine had also started showing some of the same symptoms, so I purchased a magic tonic from her that she claimed would protect my little Elaine from suffering the same fate. It worked! By the gods, both old and new, it worked! The woman actually had some power! I'm not the only one who believes it either. I've heard some stirrings in town about a few people who think she might have caused all this. Who knows what magic that woman got up to in her hut while no one else was around."

"So I was hoping you all would be willing to go out to her hut for me and bring her here so that I can convince her to reverse the magic on me. I'd give anything if she could bring back my memories from before Eliza got sick. And if she could restore my body to what it was before, I'd be able to lead the town much more effectively."

"If you'll agree to do this for me, I'd be willing to pay you in magic. One of the first rituals I found in my book allows me to create a wide variety of potions." He fishes in a pocket and withdraws 2 small vials. "I stayed up late last night making these healing potions. Drink them to close up a few small wounds. This is a down payment. If you agree to go out and find Maggy Mayfly and bring her back here, I'll give you these for now with a promise of more potions of types you'd like when you return." He looks around the room hopefully. "Will you help?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"I'm in. It sounds simple enough, and it sure beats sitting around here all day trying to figure out who's who." Tanuk shrugs his shoulders as he realizes everyone is looking at him, and his features turn slightly more canine for a brief second, as if it were some form of blushing.

[Rhysandphal]

Ficura, head tilted and ears perked up to listen, slowly turns his head back and opens his eyes. One person doing all of this seems...... a stretch. The transformations alone seem impossible, but creating a forest over night? Ficura unfurls his legs from where he sat, cross-legged and balanced on the chair, and leans forward. We..I'm in of course, don't misunderstand. But i'm not sure I feel comfortable with assuming she's the cause of this. Cause it or not, though, she could still know how to help. So, how was she affected by the...

A thought seems to dawn on Ficura and, by the look on his face, it's not one he's particularly happy with. Has.. Has anyone been up to check on her since the change? I mean, most people have had their own issues to deal with, but surely someone thought to see if she's ok.. right? I mean, things outside the town seemed to change geographically. Are we sure her place is even still there?

[dariathalon]

"That's another reason I'm sending the lot of you. It's quite a ways outside of town. Nobody's been out that far yet. Most people stuck pretty close to home yesterday, I think. While she may not be the most popular member of our town, she is one of us. Despite whatever most people around here might say. We ought to at least check on her."

[Gospel Noctis]

"I hate to have to bring this up, but are you sure just wandering into the forest is safe?" Gloria asks, brow creasing with concern. "As you've said, no one in town has been out that far yet, so do we even know what to expect? For all we know the forest could be brimming with all manner or wild animal, and that's not even taking into account the change!"

She stands up, looking to the people gathered around. "Do any of us have any real experience in dealing with this kind of thing? Sure, we may have some helpful memories running through our heads and strange new powers on top of that, but I just can't help but feel that we might be getting in over our heads a bit."

[Haberdashery]

The frog had taken a seat next to Adrienne in the sitting room, keeping close to one of the few people she recognized in a new sea of strange and stranger faces. She took her seat as she had learned to sit, by falling off her legs and thumping down onto what was below her. Chairs were less hard than the floor, but not by a good margin. Here she had sat, her hands awkwardly in her lap, watching the others with her wide green eyes until Elder Higgins began to speak.

It was difficult to listen to him for very long. She began to fidget quickly, her attention diverted by the rustling curtains by the window, the creak of the floorboards, and the appearance of a plump little rat with spectacle markings around its eyes. The frog watched the rat for a short while as it sat and groomed its whiskers and twitched its pink nose. She could her Higgin's high pitched voice droning in the background. The feeling of her eyes on its fur turned the spectacled rat's head, and it stared back up at her briefly, before returning to its whiskers. A funny thought crossed her mind then--if she herself had been a frog a day ago, what had the rat been?

The thought unnerved her enough to snap her eyes away from the rat, and return to Elder Higgins on his stool. He was asking each of them to do something for him, and at first the frog reasoned that he must be asking these new people, who all seemed to know much more than she did. And yet the elder's eyes kept finding hers as well as the others as he addressed them. Each time he rested his eyes on her, the thoughts in her head paused. He meant her too, she was certain of it. She couldn't fathom why. She could barely walk properly.

One bit of information stuck in her ears, and made her blink. A piece of information that easily dis-included her from being part of whatever these strange people were planning. She picked up her head, her legs splayed crooked beneath the chair, and wetted her lips to speak. "I do not think that it would be a good idea for me to go along with you." She began, slowly and plainly and with little expression. "If this person was once a mayfly, I used to eat mayflies. A lot of mayflies. She may not be very happy to see me, and I might have eaten her family."

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne snorts at Gloria's reluctance.

"Oh, come on. There were always woods and I used to go exploring in them all the time. I mean sure there's probably dangerous stuff there, but really, there kind of always was. Bears and wolves and such. I mean OK, there might be worse things now, but if anyone's equipped to handle them, it's gonna be us. We can't just bury our heads in the sand and cower like we're too afraid to go walking around, we're gonna have to leave the village and see what's out there eventually, why not start now? Besides, if there is something dangerous out there, there's no guarantee it'll stay out there. Like, if there's orcs or something, they're not gonna stay in the woods, they're gonna raid the village. We need to know what's out there. Besides, it'll be fun! Where's your sense of adventure? And yeah, we can't just leave her out there, especially if she had nothing to do with it!"

Adrienne giggles when the frog speaks up.

"She's not an actual mayfly. Well, for all I know she is now, but she wasn't before, she was human like I was. I promise you didn't eat her family. Besides, you'll be fine! You've gotta learn sooner or later how to get around and do things, so why not now?"

[dariathalon]

The elder smiles at the former frog's misunderstanding. "It is easy to see why you might be concerned. But no, she was not an insect. It was just part of her name. Probably because she used to gather mayfly wings to use in her elixers. So, I suppose some in the town are as guilty of eating the occasional mayfly as you are. Do not worry about that. If you go, you'll be of great help. And you'll learn much more about the world getting out in it than you will here."

Elder Higgins then turns to Gloria. "While I agree with everything Adrienne said, I'm afraid you do have a point as well. It will likely be dangerous outside of town, but of all the people in town, I think you've gained the most power in the transition." He makes a sweeping gesture to indicate everyone seated in the room. "And we need to go exploring eventually. We've never been a fully independent community. The sea helped, but we had to trade for many of our goods. Now we don't have the sea's bounty to help us. We have food to survive for awhile, but soon we'll have to send people out to find more. And of course we'll eventually need to find a way to re-establish communications with neighboring towns and the rest of the kingdom. If there is still a kindgom... There are just too many questions and too many problems that need solutions for us to sit on our hands here."

[Gospel Noctis]

Gloria gazed around the room at all of those gathered, looking for signs of any others hesitant to partake in the venture. Seeing none she began to go over the Elders reasoning in her mind, searching for any obvious flaws in his logic. "Fine," She relented, sighing forlornly. "I guess we don't have any better options. So what's the plan? Do we just walk into the forest? I've never been to Ms. Mayfly's myself, so I wouldn't know the path to take even before the change, let alone now. I'd also suggest we gear up for the worst."

Hesitating a bit, she turned to Frog. "Also, before we get too far I just have to ask. Forgive me if I'm being rude, but have we met? Even after the change I can recognize most of the townspeople by their habits and mannerisms, but I just can't seem to place you."

[Haberdashery]

Then why is she named after a mayfly? That's dumb. She thought in her head, raising her eyebrows. Though, if she had to be completely honest with herself, she had perked up the slightest bit thinking that there was someone else out there that had experienced a similar change that she had. Even if the person had been a mayfly, and she had gotten quite fat off of mayflies as a frog.

She was about to let the thought sit and resume her silence when the winged woman looked directly at her and addressed her. Slowly, the frog raised her eyes, supporting herself in her seat with her palms on the edge of her chair. Almost timidly, though without expression, she replied, "No, I was a frog."

[Gospel Noctis]

Gloria stared blankly at the young eladrin for several long moments. Slowly, her brows begin to crease as she unconsciously tilts her head sideways, as if trying to solve some great puzzle. "Now when you say frog," The paladin begins in a rather curious tone. "Do you mean a frog-frog, or are you using another usage of the word that isn't immediately coming to my mind?"

[Haberdashery]

As if by way of a mirror, the frog's head starts to tilt with Gloria's, perfectly matching her movement.

"What is a frog-frog?"

[Gospel Noctis]

"You know," She gestures. "An actual frog! Small, green, eats fli-oh, right, well..." Her pale cheeks redden considerably in embarrassment. "So...A frog? What was that like?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Do raccoons eat frogs?" the young one pipes up, realizing a half-second too late that he was thinking out loud. "I mean, well, it doesn't matter who we used to be or who we are now, really. I can change into this," Tanuk holds his breath and squints his eyes, and his human features are replaced with racoon-like ones, until he resembles an actual raccoon, of sorts. "And Hrodebert can change into all sorts of things, even stuff that might eat us. Oh ... I can talk like this? Oh wow! Does my voice sound funny?" Tanuk's eyes go wide as he makes another discovery about his new shape. To everyone else, he's merely chittering away, likely only intelligible by another animal.

"Either way, we have our brains to rely on, not our instincts. So lets use them. Let's go figure out what the witch is up to." Tanuk scampers off the stool and walks around on all fours for a moment, before shaking his head and turning back into a hybrid form. "Too weird" he says, mostly to himself.

[Haberdashery]

"A frog-frog is an actual frog?" Now the frog's eyebrows start to crease. "Then what is just a frog?" Her head tilted further, which caused her to lose her balance, and just about made her topple off the chair she was already precariously sitting in. The chair made a wild, wooden thump as she careened back into relative balance.

She frowned harder as she tried to answer Gloria's second question, which gave her more trouble than she thought. "...what was it like to be a frog..." She repeated, visibly thinking, "...well, I lived in a pond and I ate flies and...I think that is all I ever did." It was becoming harder and harder for her to remember her life as a frog. The days were blending together, becoming foggy and distant. Was that truly all she ever did in the life she had been pining for since yesterday?

Her eyes flitted back up to the woman with the beautiful white feathered wings on her back. "Were you a bird before? I tried to eat a bird once. It did not work very well." The frog paused. "Maybe I should not have told you this.

[Haberdashery]

"Oh…" She said, her eyes going wide as saucers as she recognized the form that Tanuk took. "I saw one of those once…the turtle and I had to hide in the reeds. It made these windy noises, and it gobbled up the garter snake that had been sleeping on the rocks. Like this." The frog puckered her mouth and made a long slurping sound, as if eating spaghetti.

The frog blinked suddenly, in mid slurp. "But if the raccoon had eaten me instead of the garter snake, then I would not be here now. And maybe the garter snake would be sitting here instead. Or maybe if the raccoon had just not come at all, then we would both be sitting here." Excitement was burgeoning inside the frog, and her normal monotone was being replaced with strange giddiness. "And…and maybe if I had not eaten any flies, then the flies would be here too as people. If I had eaten you as a bird," The frog didn’t wait for Gloria’s response to the contrary, "Then you would not be here right now…"

Suddenly the frog leapt up in her seat, standing on it shakily with her feet until she was high above all the others in the room. Imaginary trumpets were playing in her ears, spurring her on with a feeling she had never felt in her two short years of life. Her breath swelled in her throat, and for the first time, she shouted out, "From this day forward, I will never eat another thing that is alive!"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Having followed and found a seat in the corner, Hrodebert had leaned back and fallen into a restless sleep. However, the loud outburst from the former frog awoke him from his hangover induced slumber. In an attempt to reduce the ringing in his ears, he curls into a creature that lacks ears. The long serpent sits coiled in his stool, looking back and forth between the wobbly girl and the bottle wielding halfing. "Yea, rate, you have fun wit' dat girly. T'ings be weird of late, t'at's true. But, if Mayfly has answers, then I'd wager it'ld be good fur us to fig're t'em out. Higgins, if you be offering some kinda fancy drinks fur taking a stroll, t'en I'm yur man. Er." He shivers again, returning to his humanoid shape. However, as he had extended his snake body forwards to look at the potions, his human body falls flat on the floor, his hood falling over his face. With a single finger raised, the drunk finishes his statement. "I'm yur man."

[Haberdashery]

At the appearance of an enormous talking snake, the wobbly girl let out a shriek and tumbled backwards off of the chair.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne lends a steadying hand when the frog nearly tumbles. She remains quiet, an ivory eyebrow cocked, throughout the odd exchange, though her expression turns to one of disgust as she dives to catch the falling frog when Hrodebert scares her.

"HRODEBERT!" She shrieks, managing in her indignancy to achieve a high enough pitch to sound girlish for a moment. "Uuugh, you're horrible! Scaring her like that! Get it together already before I... I... Before I have to do something mean! Ohhh...." She helps the fallen frog back up. "Honestly. He's always like this too." She rolls her eyes. "Are you OK, Fr- We really need to think up a name for you." She sighs. "Sorry for yelling, Hrodebert, but really, now is not the time to be doing this sort of thing and it's time to be serious." She frowns and sits back down, her mind settling on something else that's gone on recently.

"Er... Miss Frog... Um, everything you can eat is alive. Even plants are alive. Um, well, after things stop moving I guess they aren't alive anymore, so you could eat that. Well, most people eat things that aren't alive anymore."

[Rhysandphal]

Sitting in his chair normally still, but leaning back at his ease, a slow smile spreads across Ficura's face. This is turning out to be a very animated group. He takes a moment to consider the changes some of them are capable of undergoing. Very... fluid as well.


So, you were a frog? I'm sure this must be hard on you. I myself only had to deal with an excess of hair. Well, on the outside at least... The smile leaves his face and he's silent for a moment as he stares at the tattoos adorning his hands. It only lasts a moment, however, before he snaps out of it. You probably have a difficult time ahead of you. Human customs and communications, as little as the term human means right now, tend to be a bit complex. But i'm sure we can help you with that. Or at least he says, giving Hrodebart a sidelong glance hold back on the practical jokes for a little while. Ficura lets the smile return to his lips. That is an impressive change. Does it work like the changed that happened to all of us, or is it just cosmetic? I myself do have the potential for a small change within me, but.... he glances down at the short, sharp claws that adorn his fingers. That change is more instinctive than anything else

Ficura tilts his head to the side, ear perked up as if he was listening, before nodding briefly. Frog, or miss Frog if you would prefer. Cat thinks He stops, looking sad for a moment, before retracting his former statement. If my sister, Cat, were still around, I think she would suggest Larana as your new name, though that might be overstepping her... MY bounds by suggesting one. Names are typically given by parents, so it might be a tad presumptuous.

[Nai_Calus]

"Larana? Bor-ing. And kind of weird. Anna maybe? Well I mean it's even more boring but it's not weird. Anna's a nice name. Ooh, ooh, I know, Tiana! Or maybe Elsa. Or Ariel! Ariel is a cool name! Ooh ooh I know, Odette! No, no, that's not right, um, Rapunzel! Wait no way too weird, uh, Eilonwy! Wait that's even weirder, um, Aurora! Or maybe Belle. Or, or..." Adrienne trails off as everyone looks at her.

"What?"

[dariathalon]

Elarana moves from her postion by the door to stand closer to where Adrienne and Ficura are discussing names for the former frog. "If you'll excuse me, I think the name Fredrich suggests is quite lovely. Though even more lovely with an E in front." She draws the capital E in the air with her finger. "Though it could be confusing having both Larana and Elarana living under the same roof. No telling when she'll be ready to get her own place, but it seems likely that she may stay with us here until she gets things figured out a little better."

Elder Higgins watches as seemingly half the occupants of his parlor start talking and/or shouting animatedly while the other half turn into animals. He sighs heavily, realizing he's lost all control over the proceedings. He waves his arms in the air. "Excuse me!" his youthful voice squeaks. "Maybe you all can discuss these things on the road. I don't mean to be rude, but perhaps it would be best if you got on the road. It's a couple hour's walk out to Maggy's place under normal circumstances. It might take you a little longer to find the place now that the landscape seems to have changed some. Here are the healing potions I promised; it will be dangerous out there so you may need them." He hands the two small vials to Gloria since she is seated near his stool. "Distribute them among yourselves as you see fit. Some of you may need to retrieve some gear, I suggest you do that and then meet up on the edge of town to leave."


Elder Higgins isn't going to force you to leave right away, so if you'd like to make another post or two there you can.

Also please decide who is carrying the 2 healing potions (this can be done in OOC if that's quicker and easier).

Next step seems to be posting about any preparations you're taking for the journey and meeting up on the edge of town.

[Gospel Noctis]

"The Elder is right." The paladin concedes, standing up from her chair. "We should get going soon. I have a few things to pick up from home before we go, but once I'm done I'll meet the rest of you at the edge of town, alright?" Passing the potions to their chosen recipient, Gloria politely excuses herself as she makes her way to the door.

"I'll see you all soon! Oh, and Elder," She stops briefly. "You look absolutely adorable!" She calls out, the tinkling sound of laughter cuts out as the door slams shut behind her.

[Haberdashery]

The floor hurt. It had started to become clear that the floor's true purpose was that of some kind of torture device. Stiffly, and with Adrienne's help, the frog managed to untangle herself from the heap she'd fallen in, and peak up over the seat of her chair. Two wide green eyes just rose over the edge, quivering with frightened curiosity, towards where she had seen her natural predator. But instead of a snake, there was just a man in a cloak with his face to the floor, snoring loudly enough that he sounded like a wood saw.

The green eyes narrowed, now flitting about the room, in search of the horrible snake. Satisfied that it was not in her immediate line of sight, the frog properly lifted her head now, whipping it about with wild jerks of green-blonde hair. Snakes were sneaky, and could pop out of anywhere without a moment's notice. They made you think they'd just left, and then BAM! Dead. In her head, this had become a stage-play, only all of the parts were being played by herself. She, obviously, was playing herself, only much smaller and much greener, and yet she was also playing the snake, wearing a felt costume of a snake and creeping about the curtains. When the snake jumped out, the version of herself in the snake costume leapt to her feet and made hissing noises through her teeth, and the other version of herself made an elaborate feinting pantomime and fell over.

The others in the room seemed to not have noticed the snake, and Adrienne was shouting at the sleeping man where the snake had been. The frog crept cautiously up to her chair and crouched atop it, distancing herself from the floor. She was quiet for a long time before responding, making doubly sure that the gigantic snake had left. Only when she was certain that the creature was truly gone did she turn her head back to the others.

"If I must have a name," She said finally, "May I think on it a little first? I am not sure what name I would like."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Tanuk turns quickly into a raccoon-dog and scampers out the door, slipping through before it swings shut. He finds he moves a bit more quickly in this form, and rather appreciates the value of not being noticed. After a few minutes of scampering, he gets back to his lean-to at the docks. Sliding back into a hybrid form, Tanuk scratches behind one of his ears for a moment, lost in thought.

I don't need much since we're not going far, but I also don't want anyone to take my stuff ...

Tanuk hems and haws for a few minutes before shaking his head and sighing. He stuffs all of his worldly possessions into a rucksack and slips it over his shoulder. He double checks the dagger to make sure it's still there, then changes back into his animal form. Instantly, he realizes that his backpack is gone. In a panic, Tanuk runs around, looking for it, sure that someone stole it. He changes back into his hybrid form and finds it on his back. A few more changes from hybrid to animal to hybrid, and Tanuk gets a better idea of how everything works.

Smiling confidently, Tanuk the raccoon-dog scampers back toward the edge of town, eager to head out on an adventure.

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Making is way back to the inn, with more success than he did on his way to Higgins' house. Half way through, he thinks to turn and wait to see if feathered barmaid was coming with him. He didn't have much to gather, a satchel of supplies from the back room, and his trusty walking staff. But Gloria might need something more, Hrodebert had always travelled light, but in his experience, women often needed more.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne smiles.

"Of course you can have more time! Just putting out some suggestions, you probably don't know much about human or elven or anything's names, I bet. Oh! Hey! Yeah, before we leave we have to get you some clothes! And armor and something to fight with, you can't go out like this! Um, Elder Higgins? Frog's gonna need some money to gear up, I don't think frogs really use coins..."

Once resources have been acquired for the frog, Adrienne drags her by the arm out into the village.

"Come on, let's go shopping! It'll be fun!"

-----

Once the frog is suitably attired and geared, Adrienne takes her back to Elder Higgins' place to wait and get ready.

"I've gotta go get home and get my own things ready."

And yet her feet don't carry her to her own home. Instead she finds herself standing nervously outside Phillip's house. She'd been so worried about Simon she hadn't had a chance to check on him yet. She quickly scales the tree by his window but finds the curtain drawn, and her knock goes unanswered.

"Phillip? It's me, Adrienne... Well, I know I don't sound like me anymore... Or look like me... Or anything like me... But..." She trails off as she starts crying. "I can't stay, Elder Higgins wants me and some of the other villagers to go outside the village to check on old Maggie Mayfly and we need to leave soon. I'll come back when we return, OK? At least, I hope we'll return... It might be dangerous. I'm a little scared, actually. But I'll do my best and I'm sure we'll all be fine, and we can talk then."

She climbs back down the tree and heads for her own home, gathering a few supplies for the road. A few things around her room had changed with her, and she gathers those as well. A thick winter coat her mother had made her had become a set of leather armor, and the carved and decorated baton her father had made her that she'd used to play with when she was smaller, pretending it was a wizard's staff from a fairytale, had grown into a full-sized staff that she knew was enchanted for exactly that sort of use. She pulls the necklace Phillip had given her a few months prior from where she kept it hidden in a drawer and puts it on as well, for protection. A wave of sadness comes over her as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. All that remained in her reflection of herself were the tokens of the people who loved her, and even those had changed. The man staring back at her looked at home in the armor, like he knew what to do with the staff in his hands, like he might get into the sort of scrapes that would need the necklace's protection. She breaks down crying again, but forces down the tears. There are things to be done, and she can't just sit around crying all day. She pulls together the last bits of supplies and heads back downstairs. She can't bear to say goodbye to her family and just calls out as she leaves.

"Mom, dad, Elder Higgins is having us go look in on Maggie Mayfly to see if she knows anything about what's going on, I'll be back, don't wait up for me!"

Soon she's back at Elder Higgins' house, to make sure the Frog makes it to the edge of town, and waits there for the others.

[Haberdashery]

The frog had been sitting idly on the front steps of Elder Higgins' house, tracing shapes in the dust with the tips of her shoes. She had shoes now. They were little prisons for the feet. Each was black leather and buckled with a little gold clasp. The cobbler had said that she hadn't seen those before in her life, let alone cobbled them herself, and was glad to have the frog-girl take the devil shoes off her hands. Her legs were now covered by stockings up from her shoes, which were striped white and black all the way up. Adrienne had suggested something plainer, but there was something about the stripes that had drawn the frog to them. Otherwise she had selected a short brown dress that stopped just above the knee and a leather bodice, because all the armor that Adrienne had pointed out had been hot and cramped and uncomfortable. All of this she had complemented with a red hooded cape.

She heard Adrienne's feet against the dusty path up to the Elder's house before she saw her. Squinting against the sun, the frog raised her head from the circles she had been drawing with her shoes, and smiled faintly at her. With all that dark skin, the sun seemed to make her look darker. Like a panther. Though for the life of her, the frog didn't know what a panther was or looked like, or why the word panther had even popped into her head.

The frog rose unsteadily to her feet, though more certain of herself than earlier that morning. Her walk was becoming more fluid and more in control, as though she was rapidly progressing in age. If this morning she had been a toddler, by the early afternoon she had progressed to the locomotion of a six-year-old. She tottered slightly, but stood strong where she would have faltered before. Her shoes should have been dusty from being kicked about in the dust, but for some reason they remained shiny and black and new.

[Gospel Noctis]

"I'll see you in a few, Hrodebert." The winged deva nodded, departing from the drunkards company as she continued down the bustling street.

Arriving at her humble abode shortly thereafter she entered the main room only to be greeted by the familiar sight of her mother, Maria, putting away the dishes. The twins were likely out and about causing no end of trouble, and her father was no doubt already out hard at work trying to improve his craft. Overall the change had done the man few favors. For a craftsman such as Gregory reputation was just as, if not more, important than actual skill. Unfortunately, half-orcs aren't particularly known for their ability to make things so much as their ability to break them. His long time rival, however, had become a dwarf; A race known for their stubbornness, adherence to tradition, and most importantly of their mastery of all things crafting. 'I'll probably need to talk to Hrod and his father about getting more shifts at the inn.'

With a quick explanation of what was happening, as well as several assurances that everything would be fine, Gloria headed to her room to retrieve her things. Heading first to her dresser she dug out the inordinately heavy garments she had previously identified as armor. Taking a second to marvel at the beautiful, if foreign, craftsmanship she set about putting it on. Piece by piece she strapped on the blindingly white vestments, driven by muscle memory built from the countless repetition from all the times she had never done so before. Though as strange as the actions were, and as heavy as she knew the armor to be none of it felt nearly as oppressive as she had assumed it would. On the contrary, the more she gear she strapped on the easier it seemed to be to breathe, as if relieved of some unknown burden she was unaware she was bore.

'Comfort,' She realized with startling clarity. 'I feel extremely comfortable; safe even.' It wasn't until this moment that she became aware of just how uncomfortable she had been up until this very moment. How exposed and unguarded she had felt. With renewed vigor she hastily strapped on the rest of the set. With a sigh of relief she looked upon herself in the mirror. 'I look like the messenger of some god or another.' She mused, before a small frown tugged at her lips. 'No, that's not quite right.' She picked up the sheathed long sword sitting on the dresser, then to the shield laying against the wall beside her. Taking them both in her hands she once again looked the mirror.

'I'm no messenger. I'm a Paladin of Pelor.' And with that she began to make her way to the edge of towns to meet back up with her traveling companions, frown now replaced by a confident grin.

[dariathalon]

The party meets up, as planned, on the edge of town. Before them stands the town's few modest fields of crops. In the past, Redwater hadn't needed too many fields since they'd been able to trade some of their fish supply for vegetables from further inland. Looking out over the plants, maybe only a third of the fields remain as what they were planted. Just like the people in town, many of the crops have changed into things that nobody had heard of before yesterday. Some are known to be edible, a few others might prove to be with some experimentation, but most peculiar are the few that have become dangerous to even approach. Most of those the Krass family has already dispatched, but still a reminder that the world is a more dangerous place now. Tanuk, in particular, takes note of a vine that has a large lump in it, about the size and shape of a raccoon; it is reminiscent of the tales he's heard of large snakes showing lumps after eating animals whole.

As they move beyond the fields, the terrain is still somewhat the way they remember it. Tall grasses, mostly about waist high, covers rolling hills with the occasional tree standing alone. In other areas there are many trees packed together in dense clusters. Small ribbons of fast moving streams carve out gullies in the land that are anywhere from three to ten feet deep. And while these things have always been true, it is still not quite the same. Hills are not in the same place. Streams (and the gullies they've eroded away) have moved miles from where you expect them and in some cases flow the opposite direction. Where normally you'd expect to see tracks of things like deer, there are now tracks of heavier clawed beasts. Large boulders now dot the landscape, where none had existed in this area before. Outcroppings of rock, sometimes thirty feet tall, seem to have forced their way up through the prairie. In short, things are similar, but not similar enough to make finding the grove of trees where Maggy Mayfly's cottage sits as easy as it once would have been.


I'd like everyone to make a post explaining how you are using one of your skills or abilities (if needed make the roll) to help the group find their way safely to Maggy Mayfly's cottage. If you'd rather make an attempt to help someone else, you may attempt that instead.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"I'll scout ahead, make sure nothing too scary is going to sneak up on us. Two, uh, screams, means something scary is up ahead." Tanuk holds his breath again and changes back into the small raccoon dog. He nods to the party, then scampers off through the tall grasses.

Tanuk relies on his past experience as a lookout for the dock thieves to give him an edge at staying out of sight and watching out for trouble. Though, ironically, in the past he was watching out for the good guys. I suppose we're the good guys now? he thinks to himself, as he continues to scout ahead of the party.

Stealth: [roll0] to hide in the tall grasses
Perception: [roll1] to keep an eye/ear/nose open for anything that could help or hurt the party in their journey

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne frowned as the group started into the wilderness. She didn't really know anything that would help here. All her knowledge was of magic, of history, not of the wilderness. She knew how to talk to people, but that was of little use here. Still, she had acquired magic, maybe this Maggie Mayfly had as well. If so, perhaps there would be some items or spells she could detect. So as they traveled she reached out with her mind from time to time, trying to sense any magic she could.


Arcana: [roll0]

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Having gathered his supplies and walking staff, Hrodebert shambles along with the group. After walking along for a while, he looks back and forth between the party, before setting his eyes on the drow walking beside him. "Hey, yar Adrienne, ain't cha? Yo pa ca'ved me here staff. Made it all fanciful like. He's a good man. Ain't I seen you in my bar? You ha' some books er somet'ing, rate?"

Insight: [roll0]

[Gospel Noctis]

"I'll be honest," The paladin started, scanning the altered landscape with her cautious gaze. "I have no idea what we're looking for. I've never been to Ms. Mayfly's nor do I know how to track down the trail to where she lives. Though I guess I'll try to help keep an eye out for trouble."

And with that she continued eyeing the fields around them for any potential threats.


Perception: [roll0]

[Haberdashery]

Clothing had not been the only thing that the frog had acquired before she left. There was a weathered, aged fiddle now cradled under her arm. A single lily pad was etched on either side of the fiddle's neck.

As they walked through the yellow midday, stumbling on uneven new paths, the frog who was now a girl had been whispering back and forth with the little tin soldier that stood on her shoulder. Sharply they twittered back and forth, while the frog gestured with the fiddle's worn, stringy bow. The whispering ceased as she nestled the fiddle under her chin and cradled it with her left arm, a position so well worn and natural that it was though she had been born with a fiddle in her hands. She raised the bow above the instrument, trailing a few errant strings, and sawed at the instrument sharply. Those who held their ears instinctively were not greeted with the sound of screeching fiddle strings, but with a sprightly, earthy melody.

Somehow, despite being a frog only two days ago, the woman knew how to play. And how that frog woman played.

[Rhysandphal]

Walking with the group, his motions graceful and fluid, Ficura attempts to use his honed senses to get a heading for them. He stops occasionally to sniff the air, to feel the dirt, to feel the flow of the place, hoping to pick up on a trail or a direction that animals are avoiding.


[roll0]


Ficura shakes his head slightly. I may have better senses then ever, but relying on this might not be the best. I'm not exactly trained in these senses.... He continues walking as he mutters to himself. Maybe there's something I am trained in. Maybe there's a way to this... A pattern to the change. Just need to spot the clues.. Ficura begins casting his senses out, trying to look at every detail and compare it to his memories of the area to see if he can find a pattern in the layout.


[roll1]
[roll2]

[dariathalon]

Tanuk scouts ahead in the form of a raccoon dog. It does not take him long before he hears something from ahead. He quietly makes his way to the top of a hill and looks down to see what looks like a small pride of lions. This by itself is unusual, while lions are known creatures, they aren’t often seen near Redwater, they have always been creatures of foreign lands. More unusual is that these are not just lions as Tanuk has heard of them. They look much like every picture he’s ever seen, but he’s fairly certain most lions can’t spit acid. But even more surprising than that is the fact that these fearsome leonine creatures appear to be losing! They are under attack by a flock of birds that look most similar to a hawk or an eagle, but whose gigantic razor sharp claws are adeptly tearing large chunks from the lions at each pass. Tanuk hurries back to the party to report his sighting, and the party is immediately changes course to avoid becoming embroiled in this confrontation.

The party finds themselves making very good time, in part due to former frog’s quick paced melody. Their footsteps match themselves to the pace of the music, and the miles seem to pass by quickly.

Adrienne tries to focus on seeking out any magic, but Hrodebert’s questions disturb her concentration to the point she is unsure if there is simply nothing to detect or if she has just missed it.

About an hour into their travels, Gloria is marching near the front of the group as the pass along the edge of one of the wooded areas, when she spots something moving up ahead. Calling the group to a halt, she points to where she thought she’d seen the movement. Ficura looks in the direction she’d indicated, expecting to see an animal or something, but he quickly realizes it is the plant itself she’d seen moving. The party was about to walk directly into a large patch of bloodthorn vine! Ficura didn’t know exactly how he knew what it was, but he easily recognized it for what it was. The vines began creeping toward the party, but having identified them before walking into them, the party was able to rush away before the vines caught up with them.

The big change seems to have made the terrain going this way much more treacherous. It used to be rare to see anything truly dangerous in this area in broad daylight. But now they’d seen two such threats in only two hours. The unexpected dangers made the group feel even more pleased when Ficura finally saw a brambly thicket that looked familiar. The large forested area up ahead had several patches of big thorny bushes. Ficura remembered that Maggy Mayfly’s cottage had always been surrounded by thick briars, to keep the unwanted out, she’d always said.

The group picked their way carefully through narrow trails between the brambles and trees, eventually coming out in a shaded clearing with a cottage in the middle. A tall, thin elf stood leaning against the door frame. He wears leather armor and has a longsword at his hip. He does not appear to have heard the party approach, since there is more noise coming from inside the cottage. As the party approaches he lights a pipe and begins to smoke it.

[Gospel Noctis]

"I wonder if that's the new Ms. Mayfly?" Gloria ponders, looking to the members of her group that had met with the woman previously. "I guess we should go introduce ourselves and find out."

[Rhysandphal]

Taking Gloria's suggestion, Ficura approaches, taking special care to step on a few twigs so that he's not sneaking up on them. Once he's a respectful distance away he bows, left fist in right palm across the chest, then takes a more relaxed pose. Greetings. We are seeking one by the name of Mayfly, for aid in a dire matter. Ficura punctuates his sentence with a closed lipped smile, hoping he asked indirectly enough to not offend if this was, indeed, Maggy Mayfly's new form.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"See Frog? She's not a fly at all!" Tanuk offers playfully, hoping to bring about a smile and keep the encounter lighthearted.

[dariathalon]

The elven man steps out of the doorway, leaving the door open just a few inches behind him. The noises from inside the hut stop. He puffs on his pipe as he approaches. "Mayfly, eh? That must have been the broad's name. I got here this mornin', and she was here packin' up her belongings and what-not. She said she was leavin' and when I commented on how nice the place was she offered me the place for a steal. Didn't say where she was going, neither. So I guess you all came out here for nothin'. Sorry 'bout that." He gestures with his pipe back down the trail you followed to get here. "So you might as well be off."


Your passive insights are high enough to know there is something off about his story. If you have spent much time around Maggy Mayfly before, you are fairly certain he is telling the truth about not being her though.


Between having a high passive perception and low-light vision, you can see a little of the interior through the cracked door. There are at least 2 more medium sized humanoids inside (possibly more), and it looks like the place has been trashed.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne smiles a bit at Hrodbert. "Yes, daddy's work is always wonderful..." She looks at the staff in her hands. "This used to be a toy he made for me when I was little... I guess it grew up along with me." She sighs. "Don't think I've been to the bar much though, no. I'm a little young, and most of the men who hang out there get gross around women..." Still, it's not hard to see she's in a bit higher spirits now.

-----

Adrienne frowns. Something isn't right about this, but she can't quite put her finger on it.

"Oh no, really? That's too bad! I really wanted to see her, she was a dear friend of mine... Oh, do be a dear and let us come inside for a moment at least? I want to see the old place one last time before you get too settled in... And we can get to know each other, too! What with everything as messed up as it is, we definitely want to get to know our new neighbor, and you can get to know us, so you'll know you're in a safe area with friends nearby. Maybe we could even help you unpack! It always goes so much quicker with help, you know?" Adrienne smiles her most winning smile as she chatters, glancing past the man to the slightly open doorway behind him, trying to put him off-guard with her small talk and see if she can see a source for the noise that was heard as the group approached.


C'mon dice roller, play nice.
Bluff: [roll0] (Spewing BS and trying to put him off-guard.)
Perception: [roll1] (I suspect this will result in Adrienne's sensitive drow eyes accidentally staring straight into the sun.)

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert


"Most of the men who hang out there get gross around women."

Hrod hefts his own staff. "And tha's wha I had yo pa make me this her' staff o' mine."


Adrienne smiles her most winning smile as she chatters, glancing past the man to the slightly open doorway behind him, trying to put him off-guard with her small talk and see if she can see a source for the noise that was heard as the group approached.

Taking a peek through the askew door, the slightly sobered half-elf decides something more needs to be done. Pulling out a flask from hip cloak, he takes a hard swig, and begins to stumble slightly, propping himself up poorly with his staff. "An', we haz alco'ol ta share wit' our new frie-hic-nds. But ma feets a'e tired, an' I'd be much oblige' fer a chair ta res' ma dogs." With his sauntering erratic, he makes his best attempt to force his way past the elf and through the door.

[Haberdashery]

The frog still had her fiddle nestled up under her chin as they approached the tiny hut, and they spied the elf beside it. Tanuk was right...he didn't much look like a fly. She squinted at him, making doubly sure. He didn't have wings, and his eyes were the normal kind of eyes. Not that she herself still looked like a frog at all, save for a lingering faint green pigmentation and frog-spot freckles.

But the not-fly's story sounded strange. Not that the frog had ever met Maggy Mayfly, and indeed, she did still half-think that the woman was a fly, and no amount of logic or persuasion could shake the pigheaded assumption, but the way the elf man not-fly was speaking made one of her long elfin ears twitch. Adrienne seemed to pick up on it too--she felt her bristle beside her.

As Adrienne began to speak, bubbly and girlishly, the ex-frog scooted up beside her, lowering her fiddle and her bow. She flashed the elf a beautiful smile--entirely fake, of course, and one that she had been practicing after watching Adrienne smile. She batted her eyelashes too as best as she could, another imitation, this time of what she'd seen the young women in Redwater doing when they made strange faces at the young men in town. "She is very good at helping. Especially with getting into and out of clothing."

As far as the ex-frog was concerned, the statement was earnest and innocent.


Frog will assist Adrienne's Bluff check.
Bluff: [roll0]

[dariathalon]

The elf looks in confusion back and forth between the dark-elf man and the green-skinned female in confusion. "Mess? Nah, there ain't no mess. She didn't leave much of her stuff behind. And I don't got much to unpack anyway..." He pauses for a second looking confused as the frog speaks. "And who is this 'she' that you're saying is good at getting out of her clothes? That Mayfly woman? If she could get you outta that getup I'd be all for it," he says stepping toward her with a lecherous grin.

Adrienne and the frog have distracted the man enough that Hrodebert is easily able to make it to the door before the elf. Hrodebert throws the door open, as the elf also lurches for the handle. Inside the cottage appears to be in a state of mid-ransack. Many cupboards and drawers sit open and household goods have been strewn everywhere. A pile of things that appear to have modest value, a few pieces of jewelry, a couple of books, a bunch of small bottles, etc. is piled up in the center of the table. There are also three more elves inside, all male. As soon as the door is thrown open, one of them drops a drawer he'd been holding and all three draw their weapons (each carry both a longsword and a shortsword).

Hrodebert would have had to win at a contest of Dex against the elf to get to the door first, had he not been sufficiently distracted by Adrienne.

It is still possible to avoid combat, if that's what you choose to do, but it suddenly got much more likely. So in the interest of time, along with whatever else you choose to do in the next few moments, please go ahead and roll initiative.

[Gospel Noctis]

As the brigands draw their blades Gloria suddenly finds herself overcome by a strange unnatural calm, easily smothering out the flicker of fear that had briefly threatened to consume her. With a hand resting on the pommel of her sheathed blade, the paladin steps forward with the confidence of a highly trained warrior.

"Drop your weapons." She commanded, voice ringing with absolute authority. "We haven't come here to fight. All we want is to ensure the safety of Ms. Mayfly. So long as she remains unharmed there is little reason for blood to be spilled this day. So I'll ask you now. Where is she?"

You beat me to it. :smallamused:

Let me remake this post real quick.

Initiative: d20+6

Diplomacy: d20+10

[Rhysandphal]

Ficura slowly drops into a more appropriate battle posture and looks the elf thats still outside in the eye.
It would seem you have two choices here. They are simple choices, but you might not have much time to choose. You could explain what you're doing here, without lying this time, and tell us what you have done with Maggy. Or... Ficura flexes and shifts to a more aggressive stance. You can be the first to fall to Ficura of the Fivefold Fist.

A though drifts across Ficura's head again, slimy and slithering and dark. His first impulse is usually to do the opposite just to spite the voice but, while he would certainly never indulge it, this one might have it's uses.
What? No. Ficura says, facing the empty air. That would give a whole new disgusting meaning to the term overkill. We'd only need to do something that gruesome if he attacks us, and he's clearly going to do this the smart way.. Ficura turns back to face the elf. Aren't you?


[roll0]
[roll1]

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne blushes at the Frog's remark and reminds herself to correct that particular phrasing later.

"Well, now, that's not very neighborly, is it? I'm sure we can all talk this out without any pointless bloodshed. Just tell us what really happened to her, and nobody will have to get hurt. I haven't been a drow for very long, but I understand we're rather good at... Hurting." She gives a meaningful glance to her staff and a wicked smile.


Intimidate: [roll0]
Initiative: [roll1]

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Seeing that this is likely going for a fight, Tanuk does his best to slip out of sight. His only hope is that he can add to Adrienne's intimidation to get the bad guys to back down.

He changes into his raccoon dog form and chirps at the animals. "You all remember Maggie Mayfly? Well these brutes hurt her! Squirrels - throw nuts at them! Birds, drop ... uh, droppings on them! Foxes, bark and chase at them! They are not welcome here, they hurt our friend!"

Stealth: [roll0]
Diplomacy (with the animals): [roll1]

[dariathalon]

The elf who is still outside the house with you puts his hand on his longsword, but does not draw it. "We ain't dropping nothing, lady," he replies to Gloria. When Ficura and Adrienne chime in their threats, he adds, " 'specially with nutjobs like them throwing threats around."

"Alright, here's the deal. We don't know f'sure if she's alive or dead. We was just passing through when we heard something off this way. We came over to investigate, and last we saw her, she was alive and screaming her head off as a bunch of them little kobold buggers carried her off. We was hidden until they left. Then we figured wherever she was headed she didn't need the stuff here no more. So we decided to lay claim to it. No if you got no problem with us takin' whats ours here, we got no problems. You can just be on your merry little way, I'll even point you in the direction we saw them going."

Tanuk steps off under one of the thorn bushes in an attempt to hide. He can't go too deep into the bush for fear of all the sharp thorns. When he calls out to the woodland animals for aid, the only response he gets is from one grumpy sounding opposum perched high up in a tree. <What? Are you nuts? Those big things have scared most of us off. We can't fight them!>

[Haberdashery]

"Well." The ex-frog said, her hands drifting to the edges of her red cloak, and smoothing the fabric of the hood as it fell against her shoulders. "I think I understand why you figured that. Except..." Here she paused, tilting her pretty head just slightly, stirring up the memories of what her new companions had whispered together about the illustrious Maggy Mayfly, who was not actually a fly.

"Maybe that's not such a good thing to figure. Not when Maggy Mayfly is a witch." She smiled a pretty smile--the elves seemed genuine enough at what they were trying to do. Just a little misguided, that's all. "And you know, you must think, there's no such thing as a witch. Right? I didn't even know what a witch was until a little while ago. But I'm not so sure we can all keep thinking there's no such things as witches anymore." Her voice started to drop, becoming throatier and whisper-like. Beneath her hood, out of sight of anyone that was not inside of her hood, the little tin soldier was whispering things into her ear.

"...you know...I've heard that witches are supposed to be able to take off a person's skin just by looking at them. And they have great big ovens in their cellars, which they use to cook the people that wander too close away from town. She had started to bite her lip now, growing increasingly more worried looking. "...I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to cross a witch. I don't think I'd be figuring that this Mayfly witch is going to be stopped by some kobolds...she's going to come back, madder than all heck, and do you think she's going to be so happy to see you and your friends here taking her things?"

The frog started to shake her head, her lower lip quivering. "...I think if I were you, I'd put everything back really quickly so she doesn't know you tried to take them.

[dariathalon]

The elf calls back into the cottage to his comrades in Elven, "Did you guys see any evidence of a cellar, or a big stove for that matter?"

One of the others calls back, responding in kind, "Nope. Haven't checked the whole place thoroughly yet, but I don't think so."

The elf replies to the green-skinned lass, "There you have it, no cellars. She might'a been a witch. Had some of the normal witchy-mojo-trappings from what I saw, but none of the power to back it up. I mean, they were just kobolds carrying her off. She didn't seem to happy about going with them when she left. If she was powerful enough turn 'em inside out with a twitch of her nose or somethin' I think she'd'a done it before they carried her off."

[Haberdashery]

"Of course you didn't find it." The little tin soldier in her hood frowned and took a step back as the ex-frog took off on her own, supplementing what he had been telling her with an overactive imagination. "She's not gonna just stick her secrets in plain sight where anyone could find them. Right where little children can come a-snooping and then run off and tell their parents, who'd come with fire and axes and chop her up?"

She began to rock back and forth on her heels, uneasily. "I think you're underestimating witches... I would feel much better if she'd just killed the kobolds." She looked around, shifty-eyed, to where the trees grew tall and cast long, twisted shadows against the house. "...not for you, anyway, because if you saw her like you claim, then she also saw you. If you'd seen her working her witchcraft, well...she'd-a probably turned it on you next to keep you quiet." The frog turned elf gritted her teeth. "Seems to me like the witch was doing you a little bit of kindness. And, you know, why kill a couple kobolds when you can have them carry you back to their den and you can turn the whole den into your everlasting slaves. That's just common witch sense. A lesser witch would have just killed them on the spot without thinking of what she can get out of it..."

"You're doing awful lots of assuming. D'you think what you're finding in that house is worth being wrong?"

[Gospel Noctis]

"Regardless of who is or isn't a witch, I don't really feel like these men are worth our time at the moment. If what they say is true then I don't think we really have time to fight them over a few trinkets that Ms. Mayfly keeps around her house." 'Besides, if they take anything too valuable we can always just track them down later.' She thought.

"Any objections? I mean sure, we can take these guys out, but then what? We haul them back to town? Drag them along with us? Can Ms. Mayfly really afford for us to dilly-dally here playing cops and robbers? That said," The paladin turned to the thieves. "If it turns out that you're lying to me I'll hunt you down, chop off all of your thumbs, and drag your broken carcasses back to face the full brunt of the law."

[dariathalon]

"If she is such a powerful witch and wants to know where the kobold lair was, she shoulda just killt the ones that grabbed her and read some tea leaves or somethin' to find the others." The elf nods to Gloria as he responds to the green woman. "Heh. Even you're own friend there thinks she's in some trouble. Wanting to go run after her and play the hero and all that. If she was really a powerful witch she wouldn't need you all to come to her rescue. I ain't buying it."

He furtively glances down at his own thumbs which are twitching nervously as he turns to reply to Gloria. "But don't you worry, wing'ed missy. I'll tell you the truth if you'll leave us be here."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Confident that he is hidden, Tanuk scurries around to the rear of the house, hoping to peek in through a window to determine if anyone is hurt or being held captive inside.

Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[Haberdashery]

"Ohkay." She replied with a smile of bubbles. "But don't say I didn't warn you.

[dariathalon]

Tanuk scurries around to the back side of the house in his raccoon dog form. As he rounds the building, under cover of the brush, he notices that he is not alone there. Two more elves stand at the rear of the house with longbows in hand. They seem to be covertly listening to the conversation going on around the front side of the cottage. One of the two notices Tanuk's approach, raising an eyebrow at the curious animal's approach, but does nothing more. Tanuk can't see inside the cottage from where he is; he'd have to return to humanoid form to see inside the window (or come up with something else to get him to a higher vantage point).

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

With new information at his disposal, Tanuk the raccoon dog scurries back to the group, hoping to remain unnoticed. He then changes back into his hybrid form and walks over to Ficura. Leaning in, he whispers "There are two elf archers around back."
[roll0]

[dariathalon]

The elf that had been standing out front, looks over as he notices Tanuk step back out from the brush. "Hey, you, where you been at? You sneakin' round trying to get something past me, huh? That's it, we was gonna just let you walk off and leave you alone, but you go gettin' up to something and now that's not an option. Boys, get 'em!" he shouts. Then more quietly he adds, "They look like they got some good stuff anyway."


Please see the ooc before you react.

Group 1 is up: Ficura, Frog, Adrienne.

[Rhysandphal]

The world rushes into motion as Ficura's mind stills. A calm washes over him and a breeze rushes through his fine fur as he rushes forward, feeling faster and more fluid then he ever had before. Not fast enough for his goal though, not yet. Not being keen at taking an arrow to the ribs, and being one of two with the information, Ficura pushes harder, leaving a furrow in the ground as he more flows through forms than runs. He settles into a single stance as he passes the corner of the house, sliding in on his right foot. He slams his left foot down, planting it firmly, and surging towards the archer's abdomen with a double-fisted strike.


action breakdown:
move to q 12
action point move(open the gates of battle move, speed +2) to q 5. (it says i don't provoke against the first enemy i move away from. not sure if that counts with me moving towards it.)
standard: [roll0] vs reflex.
hit: [roll1] +[roll2] if it's the first damage they've taken.


His blow failing miserably, Ficura flails for a moment before regaining his balance. It's gonna be one of those days, huh....

[Haberdashery]

It was with the utmost perplexity that the frog watched the elf draw a weapon and start shouting. Her eyebrows, faintly green, raised on her head. That is, of course, until Ficura jumped into the fray, and the ex-frog turned her head slightly to whisper into her hood.

"I don't think I know what's going on." She was learning the eccentricities of common speech surprisingly quickly, as if she'd merely forgotten them, rather than was learning them anew. Where at first she spoke every word whole, she was now starting to incorporate contractions, and funny ways of speaking.

The little tin soldier, who was still on her shoulder, whispered back, "The hooligan is going to try and strike you. I would suggest moving out of the way."

"Why?"

"An excellent question. One that you should definitely ask later, as opposed to right this moment."

"Because..."

"He'll strike you with a sword."

"Oh."

"Indeed."

The ex-frog moved out of the way.

In her wake, and outside of her own volition, for it seemed that the tin soldier was acting for her, a trail of shimmering yellow-green motes trailed off her red cloak as she took a step backward, and the cloak swirled about her. The lights because glowing, tinkling, sprite-like orbs that danced away from her towards the elfin thug brandishing his longsword. They began to grasp at his clothing and his air, assailing him with tiny wisp-like hands, trying to tug him and push him about. One of them grabbed his hair and began to yank savagely. As annoying as they tried to make themselves, however, they were largely ineffectual at being nuisances.


Move Action: Shift to M18.

Standard Action: Blunder on the Leader.
Attack vs. Will: [roll0]
Hit: [roll1] and the Leader is slid to O17, and Gloria can make a melee basic attack against him with a +5 power bonus to the roll.

[Nai_Calus]

A word in a language she didn't speak before two days ago comes to Adrienne's mind as the situation dissolves and she blushes, or at least tries to. Drow skin doesn't flush very well. She quickly moves around to the other side of the elf leader, obeying instincts she didn't know she had, and mutters a curse as she strikes out at him with her staff, channeling arcane power through it. The staff slams into the elf with surprising force for its small, seemingly weak origin, and he's forced backwards from the strength of the blow.


Move: N15 via going to L15, M14, then back down to N15, gaining concealment for moving more than 3 squares. This takes me through Hrod's square but does not stop in it. I remember you can move through allies' squares but don't remember if you can move within threatened squares without leaving them without provoking.
Minor: Warlock's Curse on Leader
Standard: Eldritch Strike on the Leader; vs AC.
On hit: damage plus 1d66 curse damage(See OOC for roll). I will slide him to O17 since his turn comes before Gloria's anyway, and he's likely to break our flank on his own.

[dariathalon]

The elven leader's eyes widen as Adrienne's blow hits him with the surprising extra strength of magic. He obviously hadn't expected such a powerful blow from such a slight frame. The leader narrows his eyes and glares at her for a moment before stepping back up to Adrienne and shouting at one of the elves inside the building. "Come on Lavarius, get yer lazy butt out here!" The other elf dashes out the door. The elf turns his sword on the drow, and while Adrienne is nearly able to sidestep the blow, his superior accuracy manages to catch her. He then dances around her and takes a second swing at Hrodebert landing a glancing blow. His longsword doesn't pierce through Hrodebert's chainmail, but the it will probably leave a dark bruise nonetheless.


Leader:

Move: Shift to N16
Minor: Commands Thug 2 to shift up to half its speed to N14.
Standard: Double Dealing Attack on Adrienne (with CA for flank) [roll0] (See next post for Elven Accuracy reroll). If it hits he does [roll1] to Adrienne. He then shifts up to half his speed to L14 and since he ends up with a flank on Hrodebert makes a second attack on him (with CA again) [roll2]. If he hits he does [roll3] to Hrodebert.

I'll handle the enemies one at a time since this has the potential to be a kind of complicated round for them. If you are in the next group please wait for now since the thugs still have to go. I'll tell you when you can go.

[dariathalon]

The elf who is apparently named Lavarius swings at Hrodebert with two weapons in one smooth motion. He swings the longsword high, and as he spins around he thrusts out with his shortsword toward Hrodebert's legs. After his spin he steps back out of the way so more elves can move out of the building. His brutal attacks both hit the drunkard knocking him to the ground. He lands face first in the dirt and begins bleeding out.


Since the leader missed, he'll use his elven accuracy to reroll the attack on Adrienne. [roll0].

Thug 2:
Standard: Two-Weapon Rend. Attacks Hrodebert twice (with CA for flank) [roll1] doing [roll2] plus [roll3] and [roll4] doing [roll5] plus [roll6]. If both attacks hit, there is an extra 4 damage. If either attack misses, he'll use Elven Accuracy to try again. [roll7]. (not needed)

Move: Shift to O15

[dariathalon]

The next of the elven thugs charges at Adrienne, hoping to push her out away from the doorway thereby creating an opening for the last elf to exit. The elf barrels into Adrienne, putting his shoulder in the drow's gut and knocking her back a few steps. He follows through with the push, moving behind her.


Standard: Charging Bull Rush against Adrienne. [roll0] If that misses, he'll use Elven Accuracy [roll1]. (unnecessary) Hit pushes Adrienne to M16. He shifts to follow, ending his charge in N15.

[dariathalon]

The last of the thugs inside the building comes charging out at Adrienne. While the first led with his shoulder to push him back, this elf leads with his weapon. Despite the magical shadows that swirl around her, the elf's sword still manages to drive home, leaving Adrienne with a deep gash in her arm.


Standard: Charge Adrienne with longsword. [roll0]. A hit will do [roll1].

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Hrod! I'm coming!" Tanuk cries out as he sees his friend fall to the ground. Gritting his teeth, he grips his dagger and charges furiously toward the Thugs, hoping to take at least one of them out.

Move: Walk to L15
Standard: Sly Flourish vs Thug 3

Attack: [roll0] vs AC
Hit: [roll1] damage

Action Point

Activate Hero's Armor (Daily Power)
Power: When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you also gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
Effect: You forgo the bonus to all defenses granted by the armor's property. Instead, an ally within 5 squares of you uses his or her second wind as a free action. Hrod - use your second wind as a free action.

Standard: Clever Strike vs Leader (Special: If an ally is adjacent to the target and is able to attack it (Hrodebert is now conscious), you have combat advantage against the target for the attack)

Attack: [roll2] vs AC (11 base, +2 for CA)
Hit: [roll3] (+5 base, +1 for Light Weapon Expertise w CA) damage + Sneak Attack: [roll4] damage

[Gospel Noctis]

For the briefest of moments Gloria found herself paralyzed by the fear and doubt of a simple barmaid thrust into a life and death situation with which she had no experience. That moment was quickly swallowed whole by the sea of righteous indignation that flooded in next. 'I gave them every opportunity to avoid bloodshed, and yet still they dare...?!'

"TO ARMS!!" The paladin screamed, warcry echoing through the clearing.

In a single fluid motion she draws her blade and lunges forward, radiant energy coursing through her. With the fury of a paladin championing her cause, Gloria strikes out at the enemy before her.

Minor Action: Draw longsword
Move Action: Shift up one to N16
Standard Action: Valorous Smite against Thug 3 (I think it's 3, the numbers are kinda small, the one in N15)
Hit: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] and all enemies within 3 squares of me are subject to my divine sanction Till the End of My Next Turn (TEoMNT). So -2 to any attack that doesn't include me, and they then take 7 radiant damage for the first attack they make that turn.

Edit: It's actually Thug 2.

While the blade itself barely managed to bite into the elven thieves flesh, the radiant energy flowing through it proceeded to explode outwards, bathing the area around them in a radiant corona; a deadly promise of divine retribution to any enemy who dared ignore the paladin.

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Feeling rather woozy, Hrodebert coughs up blood. He hadn't taken a beating like that since, well, he couldn't rightly remember when. Looking down at the bodily fluid between his hands, it occurs to him that it looks a bit like an amphibian. Wasn't there a frog or something in this to help? he thought. Suddenly a feeling surge of energy flow through his body and into the staff between his knees. To his surprise, an oversized toad appears off behind his furry friend. It's long tongue lashes out, striking at the elf with the long blade. The toad's tongue striking wide, Hrodebert smacks his fist against the ground, and a surprising burst of sound erupts, slamming into those nearby.

Standard: Summon Giant Toad (J17)
Attack: [roll0] vs Reflex on Leader
Hit: [roll1] damage, and pull 2 squares (K16)
AP: Standard Action: Thunder of Judgement
Attack: [roll2] vs Reflex on Leader
Attack: [roll3] vs Reflex on Thug 1
Attack: [roll4] vs Reflex on Thug 3
Hit: [roll5] thunder damage.
Move: Stand up

[dariathalon]

The archers behind the building jump at the sudden appearance of Ficura, but both are ready. The farthest of the two moves a little closer, trampling across Maggy Mayfly's garden, and unleashes an arrow at the shifter. The closer one takes a cautious step backwards and also fires at Ficura. Both arrows thud into Ficura's chest leaving him badly bloodied after the archer's first volley.


Archer 1:

Move: to K2
Standard: Fire at Ficura [roll0] or (if needed) [roll1]. A hit does [roll2].

Archer 2:

Move: shift to O4
Standard: Fire at Ficura [roll3] or (if needed) [roll4]. A hit does [roll5].

[Haberdashery]

An enormous toad bounded out of the leaves on the ground, and the ex-frog let out a yelp of surprise. She'd never seen a toad so big in her life! She stood there for a moment, gawking at it, her eyes the size of dinner plates, before the tug of the tin soldier at her left ear snapped her awake.

She quickly scrabbled forward, as fast as her wobbling gait would allow. She stumbled once, tripping in the dead leaves, sending them skittering about as she kept herself upright by glancing her fingers against the ground in front of her. As she moved, she felt something bubbling up about her feet as she dragged them through the leaves; something wet and familiar. The ex-frog skittered to a halt, and with eyes a-bulging, she bumbled out, "Move-move-move!" To the drunkard that had only just regained his consciousness. There was another yank at her ear. "...please." She added.

When Hrodbert shifted aside, the water had already begun to puddle around her shiny black shoes. The leaves one by one turned to little green lily pads, and with a sweep of her hands, the water gushed forth into a splashing wave, dotted with green. It rolled across the elven thug and dragged them down with a noisy sploosh.


Move Action: Move to P16.

Minor Action: Majestic Word on Hrodbert, and he's slid into L14.

Standard Action: Buffeting Wave

Attack vs. Thug 1's Fort: [roll0]

Attack vs. Thug 2's Fort: [roll1]

Attack vs. Thug 3's Fort: [roll2]

Hit: [roll3] damage, and the target is knocked prone.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne cries out in pain as the blades of the elves wound her, looking at her own spilled blood in a mixture of shock and relief. Shock that she was bleeding, of course, but relief that her blood was still the same color it had always been. That much, at least, hadn't changed. As the leader goes down she calls on her arcane power and blinks through space away from the elves to try to protect herself and calls forward another attack. It's a little harder because he's on the ground, but she marks him with harmless faerie fire and follows it up with a bolt of searing flames that leave him severely weakened.


Free action off-turn: Teleport to O18
Minor: Warlock's Curse on Thug 2.
Minor: Darkfire on Thug 2: [roll0] vs Ref, on hit he grants CA and can't benefit from invisibility or concealment until the end of my next turn.
Standard: Witchfire, [roll1] vs Ref, on hit [roll2] fire damage and [roll3] regular damage and he takes a -5 penalty to attack rolls until the end of my next turn.

[Rhysandphal]

Ficura braces himself against the arrows, fighting to keep more than a grunt from escaping his lips. He coughs through the pain, spitting out a little blood, as he feels something stir inside him. Calling out to it, hoping to reach a state of mind more suited for these unfortunate odds, his eyes seem to brighten to nearly yellow slits and he starts to sway gently from side to side, the short claws on his fingers lengthening slightly. He draws a slow, ragged breath as he flows through a stance, feet planted firmly but leaning and swaying with the wind as his hands work through a complex, symbolic flow. He pulls in, leaning back as he reaches the end of the movements, then thrusts his open palms outward as he exhales calmly and forcefully, tearing at the grass in front of him with a blast of air that collides with the elf like a well-placed fist.

Having succeeded with this attack, and in hopes that it won't be his last, he surges into motion, moving towards the front of the house nearly as quickly as his trip to the back, with half the effort.

Minor: Razorclaw shifting (+2 move, +1 ac and ref(i think my ac was already set to one too high on the spreadsheet though, now that i look at it))

Standard: Steel Wind attack O and P 4 and 5(elf archer 2)
[roll0] vs refl
[roll1]

move: Steel Wind move: end marks(irrelevant) and move speed +2 (total 10 speed.) move to p14

[dariathalon]

The thugs that had been knocked down by the water-fey's magic stand back up as the third thug that had managed to hold onto his footing carefully sidesteps around Gloria, hoping to get around the woman whose divine aura seems to be holding all of their attentions.

The first thug strikes out with both longsword and shortsword at Gloria, but she deflects the longsword off her shield and the shortsword strike is thrust is a clean miss.


Thug 1:

Move: Stand
Standard: Two-Weapon Rend on Gloria. [roll0], a hit does [roll1]. [roll2], a hit does [roll3]. There is 4 extra damage if both hit. He'll use elven accuracy if either attack misses. [roll4].

[dariathalon]

The second thug swings his longsword at Gloria's legs, but the effects of Adrienne's witchfire turn what might have been a nasty slice into a weak bump that bounces harmlessly of Gloria's greaves.

The third thug uses both of his weapons in a wild attack on Gloria. While the other elves had been nearly harmless in their efforts, this one proves extremely dangerous. His longsword comes down hard on the shoulder of Gloria's sword arm. It doesn't break through the armor, but the impact of the blow nearly knocks her shoulder out of it's joint. At the same time his shortsword finds its way around her shield and into the joint between two plates of armor leaving a nasty cut down her side.


Thug 2:
Move: Stand
Standard: [roll0]. A hit will do [roll1].

Thug 3:
Move: Shift 1 to M16
Standard: Two weapon rend on Gloria. [roll2]. A hit will do [roll3]. [roll4]. A hit will do [roll5]. There is an extra 4 damage if both attacks hit. He'll use elven accuracy on the first attack that misses. [roll6] (not needed, so not used)

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Seeing his ally take such a beating, Hrodebert reaches out towards her in concern. White light erupts from his palm, bathing Gloria in a gentle glow.

Trigger: An ally within 5 squares of you takes damage from an enemy attack.
Target: The triggering ally
Effect: The target regains hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier or Charisma modifier. Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +2 power bonus to your next attack roll against the enemy that damaged the target.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Doing his best to take advantage of the leader being knocked out, Tanuk artfully dodges to the side and attacks the closest thug. As his dagger sinks in to the Elf's back, Tanuk shouts to his allies "Can't one of you magic this place and hit them all at once or something?"

Move: Shift to L16
Standard: Sly Flourish vs Thug 3

Attack: [roll0] vs AC (7 base +2 CA)
Hit: [roll1] damage + [roll2] Sneak Attack damage

[Gospel Noctis]

After deftly deflecting the onslaught of blows from the first two would-be thieves, Gloria finds herself unable to properly react to the dual weapon strike launched by the third. Barely stifling a pained cry from the first strike to her shoulder, the paladin can't help but let out a hiss as the short sword bites into her side. A moment later she finds herself bathed in a soothing light, courtesy of Hrodebert. The healing touch of the light was just the thing she needed to take the edge off the pain.

Steeling herself, Gloria lets loose another battle cry; divine power surging outwards, washing over her foes and subjecting them once more to her radiant sanctions. Again her blade lashes out with a deadly purpose, justice demanding retribution.


Free Action: Dwarven Armor Daily to use my Second Wind, regaining 8hp and gaining +2 to all defenses till the end of my next turn.
Minor Action: Call of Challenge, subjecting all enemies within 3 squares of me to my Divine Sanction again.
Standard Action: Virtuous Strike against Elf Thug 3, with combat advantage from flanking with Tanuk.
Attack vs AC: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] radiant damage

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

His hand still glowing with a strange light, Hrodebert shakes it, trying to get the weird glow off of him. Shards of light fall off his hand, flying over the head of on elf but striking the other two in the chest, knocking one down to the ground. Taking several careful steps to get away from the brawl, he gets in the way of the giant toad's tongue, getting a large lick in the back of his head.

Standard: Hand of Radiance
Attack: [roll0] vs Reflex Thug 1
Attack: [roll1] vs Reflex Thug 2
Attack: [roll2] vs Reflex Thug 3
Hit: [roll3] radiant damage

Trigger Invoker Defense: +2 AC until start of next turn
Move: Walk around Tanuk to J18

Toad-Melee 3; targets one creature (Thug 1); [roll4] vs. Reflex; [roll5] modifier damage, and the target is pulled 2 squares (K17).

[dariathalon]

As Hrodebert's hand-waving somehow manages to knock one of the elves to the ground, you can hear the two archers approaching around the sides of the cottage. One archer isn't close enough to the corner to be visible yet. The other moves up to where the former frog and Ficura are able to see him. Unfortunately, that means he can see them too. He takes quick aim at the green eladrin woman. The string makes a quiet twang as the arrow is set on its path. The arrow knicks her shoulder, leaving a tear in her lovely new outfit and a dribbling red cut in the flesh beneath.



Archer 1:

Double move: to F12.

Archer 2:

Move: to Q10
Standard: Fire longbow at Frog (I'm including cover as a penalty to his roll) [roll0] or [roll1] (if needed). A hit does [roll2].

[Haberdashery]

That arrow hurt. It really hurt! It made her shoulder sting, and it cut her new clothes.

The ex-frog stared back at the archer, incredulous. He shot at her? Why would he do an awful thing like that! She didn't hit him!

Her lower lip quivering, her eyes wide and wet, she leaned forwards. Her shoulders slumped and she balled up her fists. She took in a great intake of breath, and shouted back at the dumb elf.

"YOU'RE RUDE!"


Move Action: Shift to Q16.

Standard Action: Vicious Mockery against Archer 2.

Attack vs. Will: [roll0]

Hit: [roll1] psychic damage and the archer takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls until the end of Frog's next turn.

Minor Action: Majestic Word on either Adrienne or Ficura. I can't decide, so I'm going to roll randomly. Adrienne will be on 1, Ficura on 2. [roll2]
EDIT: Ficura it is. I updated his HP, and he can slide 1 square wherever you like.

[Nai_Calus]

Standard:
Beguiling Strands on Thug 1 and Thug 2.
Thug 1: [roll0] vs Will
Thug 2: [roll1] vs Will
On hit: 3 psychic damage and I can push them up to 3 squares but meh they're fine where they are.

[Rhysandphal]

Dancing on the current of the kind and rejuvenative words, ficura flows to his side, towards more danger instead of away from it. Crouching down, his claws withdrawing and his eyes returning to normal as his wounds heal, Ficura leaps, spinning, into the air, striking out against the two eves within his reach with knee and fist. As he lands, he swings, hoping to catch the second thug with a well placed backhand strike, but the elf has already fallen by the time the strike passes through where his skull was.


slid to O14 by the majestic word.
standard action: five storms attack vs reflex
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
centered flurry of blows on thug 2. 5 damage and slides him to b14 (leaving this here, just in case they had something that prevented this from killing him.)

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Darting to the side, Tanuk brings back his arm and hurls his dagger toward the archer. He bares his teeth in frustration as the toss goes wide, but smiles when he catches his dagger out of the air on the way back.

Move: Walk to R15
Standard: Sly Flourish vs Archer 2

Attack: [roll0] vs AC
Hit: [roll1] damage

[Gospel Noctis]

With the thugs taken care of Gloria sets her sights on the archers who had made themselves known a few moments into the battle. Quickly calculating the distance between herself and the nearest threat she takes the time to check the wound she had had received earlier. With the same surety with which she bound and marked her enemies with her radiant judgement she pressed her armored hand against the gash. Lighting up with a soothing glow, the biting pain in her side was reduced to little more than a dull ache.

With her injury taken care of she again turned her attention to the remaining foes. Without hesitation she was off. Rounding the corner her eyes locked with those of the man who had harmed her companions. In a flurry of snow white feathers and flashing steel she was upon him, her divine power challenging him, daring him to try attacking any of her friends again.

Minor Action: Lay on Hands on myself, regaining another 8 hit points.
Move Action: Move to Q14
Standard Action: Charge to Q11, and use Ardent Strike, which can be used on a charge.
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] And the archer is subject to my divine sanction Till the End of My Next Turn.

[dariathalon]

As soon as Gloria strikes the archer, he hops back away from her. In one smooth motion he draws another arrow, knocks it, and lets it fly at the woman who had just charged him. The arrow finds its way through her armor's neck imbedding itself deeply near her collarbone.


Immediate Reaction: Not So Close! The archer shifts one square (to R9) and makes a longbow attack against Gloria. [roll0] or (if needed) [roll1]. A hit does [roll2].

Edit: Oops. I missed the -2 to attack that Frog had imposed. The attack rolls should have been 2 lower, so that means the first roll was a 20 (miss) so he did need to expend elven accuracy getting 25 (hit).

[Gospel Noctis]

As the deva gazed at the arrow shaft that had found itself lodged just below her collar bone she couldn't help but be impressed with her new found tolerance for pain. While it definitely hurt, in a way that she knew her former barmaid self had never experienced, it wasn't nearly as debilitating as she would have expected. That said, the paladin was really starting to develop a hatred for elvish foes. They were all just so damn accurate!

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Hrod watches as everyone else wanders off to one side of the house, and starts to make his way around the other. If he could get behind them, that would be useful.

Probably.

Stopping to lean on a tree, he spots another darned elf sneaking around the corner of the house. The glow having left his hand, he channels energy into the tree, growing it's roots out towards the house. Some of these attack, others simply block the archer's vision of the sobering man. That doesn't stop him from seeing a giant toad hop into the brambles. It hasn't interacted with the world in many measurable sense, it must be a hallucination.

Move: Walk to H17
Standard: Grasping Tide E11
Attack: [roll0] vs Fortitude
Hit: [roll1] damage. Until the end of your next turn, if the target leaves the burst’s area of effect, you can use an opportunity action to make a secondary attack against it.
Secondary Attack: [roll2] vs. Reflex
Hit: You knock the target prone.
Minor: Verdant Bounty G15
The burst creates a plant-filled zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. The zone is heavily obscured, and you and your allies gain a +5 bonus to Stealth checks while within the zone.

Toad: Move to G14

[dariathalon]

The two remaining elves exchange a few hurried words shouted over the cottage. They speak in a language that nobody spoke up until a few days ago, but has blossomed fully formed in some of your memories. The elf that had shot Gloria then dashes back into the garden behind the house and fires off another arrow at the paladin. This arrow proves much less useful than his last. It deflects harmlessly off her shield, landing somewhere in the briar bushes several feet away.

The other archer, with roots clawing at his ankles also fires a shot his aimed for the giant toad that is hopping menacingly toward him. The toad hunkers down behind the corner of the building, and the arrow misses him as well. The archer then pulls against the tangling roots, also trying to run back into the garden.


The quick conversation goes something like this.

"I think they've got the others already."

"Crap! We need to get out of here, but this one has some magic on me trying to hold me down. Fire a few arrows to cover me as we run."


Archer 1:

Move: to P2.
Standard: Fire at Gloria [roll0]. A hit does [roll1].

Archer 2:
Standard: Fire at the toad (accounts for cover) [roll2]. A hit does [roll3].
Move: Attempts to move to F5, but Hrodebert can take an opportunity attack on him because of his grasping tide. If Hrodebert hits him, he will drop prone in D10. If he Hrodebert does not hit, he'll keep going. I haven't moved him on the map yet; I'll wait until I see what Hrodebert does.

[Haberdashery]

And now the jerk was running away! What a jerk!

The frog gave chase, and told him just how she felt.

"Don't run away, you jerk! I want an apology!"


Move: Move to Q10

Standard: Vicious Mockery on the running jerk.

Attack vs. Will: [roll0]
Hit: [roll1] psychic damage, and he takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls until the end of Frog's next turn. Except that's irrelevant, and Frog instead is going to knock him out with her belligerence.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne notices everyone going after the one archer, but only one person chasing the other. Well, that wasn't going to do at all. She runs to where she can see up the side of the building, her form blurring slightly into the shadows as she does, and sure enough, there's another elf flat on his face. Uttering a curse, she raises her staff and levels it at him, discharging a beam of eldritch light that settles around his eyes, causing him to claw at his eyes in pain and be unable to see her.


Move: Run to F14, gaining concealment for moving more than 3 squares.
Minor: Warlock's Curse
Standard: Eyebite
[roll0] vs Will
On hit: [roll1] psychic damage and [roll2] curse damage and haha you can't see me until the start of my next turn.

[Rhysandphal]

Ficura returns to a centered stance, arms gently stirring the air. He plants his rear foot firmly on the ground, leans back, then he's gone. Rushing across the front of the house like a zephyr, the wind itself making way for him, he continues his trend of going faster than he ever knew he could. The change may have come at a terrible cost. It may turn out to be a world or trickery and crime and bloodshed, but on this day, at this moment, it was worth it for the speed. A sense of elation wells up in Ficura as he plants his feet firmly at the end of his whirlwind sprint, trusting his open palms forward, sending the rest of the energy and momentum forward in another blast of cutting wind. the blunt trauma and minor lacerations lay the archer low, and Feels a strange surge. As the elf falls unconscious, it's as if his final breath grants Ficura even greater speed. In the blink of an eye, he spins from the spot of his attack to a within reach of his downed foe.


move: steel wind movement(speed+2[10]) to E12

standard: steel wind attack. close blast 2.
[roll0] vs ref
[roll1]

final sleep ki focus property. shift 1 whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 or lower. shift to d11

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Seeing that the party has taken care of the archers, Tanuk walks over to the leader, crouching down next to him. He pokes the man with a finger. "He's out cold. Good job guys. Should we tie them up or something?"

[Gospel Noctis]

"This is why I didn't want to bother fighting these guys," The winged woman grumbled, looking around at the unconscious forms of the elven thieves strewn about clearing, trying to ignore the satisfying feeling of zealous retribution. "If we leave them tied up they might end up getting eaten by something in the forest. And even if they don't they're all thieves, so chances are at least one of them knows how to slip out of whatever we tie them up with and will be able to cut the rest free."

Glorias eyes once again catch sight of fletching. "So, uh, do I take it out, or do I leave it in?" She asks nervously, motioning to the arrow still lodged under her collarbone.

[dariathalon]

As soon as the battle ends, a stillness returns to the air. The area feels quieter now than even before the battle, the only sounds breaking it are the distant hum of insects and the quiet caw of a bird as it flies overhead. The elves lay scattered around the area, beaten and bloodied to the point of unconsciousness. The cottage stands open, though to say it looked inviting would be a real stretch of the imagination. It looks as if Maggy did what she could to discourage people from stopping by unless they truly had a reason for it.


You find yourself looking down at the nearest fallen foe. The unfamiliar voice in the back of your mind whispers in it's hissing voice at you. "They injured us. Kill them for their insolence! Why do you wait?"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Truly gathering his wits for the first time in quite a while, Hrodebert leans on his staff, looking at the elves laying before him. He scratches his head, "I say we gather them up, bind them, then break a leg on each. Leave them here till we come back. If Mayfly really was taken before these rogues arrived, then we can heal them with these magics we have. If they did something wrong, well, then we walk them away from this protected house and leave them."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"That's brutal. The only thing we know they've done is attacked us. Maybe we should check out the house first?" Tanuk tentatively steps inside, poking his head about, looking to see what the current state of things is.

Perception: [roll0] for anything particularly unusual

[Gospel Noctis]

"I have to agree with Tanuk." Gloria states, giving Hrod a disapproving look. "Just because they attack us doesn't mean we should sink to their level. Mercy is a virtue, as is forgiveness. They attacked us and paid the price for doing so, there's no need to take it any further. That said, there is little we can do to keep them from looting the house again, save bringing Ms. Mayflys belonging with us, and I'm not quite sure that such as action would be feasible."

[dariathalon]

Tanuk's search of the house doesn't take too long. Many of the belongings are strewn about the three rooms. Items have been torn off shelves and thrown on the floor. Cupboards and cabinets have been emptied of their contents. They don't appear to have found much of value, but there are a few things piled up in the center of the table. The pile has a few trinkets of jewelry, several small bottles of various things (some might be ritual components, others are smell like they are probably perfumes), and a couple of books. It is hard to find anything of real interest in the mess though.

[Haberdashery]

The former frog made her way panting back to her companions as they dragged the unconscious bodies of their foes into a heap. She caught her breath while resting one of her hands against Maggy Mayfly's cottage. Running was a lot harder than it looked. It was a miracle she hadn't flopped over when she had tried.

"Maybe instead of breaking their legs..." She offered, "We tie them up and lock them in one of the rooms until we get back?"

She whistled at the arrow in Gloria's shoulder, bending forward and circling the armor-clad paladin. That look like it hurt. She popped her head up in front of Gloria's and asked as much. "Does it hurt?"


I'm assuming we're taking a short rest here. In which case, add +4 to your surge values due to Frog's Song of Rest. Frog will spend 1 surge to be back up to full hit points.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Of course it hurts!" The paladin exclaimed as she wrenched the projectile out of her chest with a shuddering hiss. "That said, I'm surprised it doesn't hurt more! What in the world is this body of mine made of?! I'm thinner than I was before the change but I know for a fact I was nowhere near this sturdy. I should be on the ground bleeding, crying my eyes out. Pelor knows I've done so from less."

Will spend another healing surge to regain 12 hp, putting me back up to 31. 9 surges left.

[Nai_Calus]

As the battle ends, Adrienne's rush of adrenaline fades and she realizes fully what just happened and looks at the blood dripping from her wounds, her companions, and their enemies. She quickly runs behind a tree and drops to her knees, losing her breakfast. She shudders. She could have died. And nobody healed her... Well, she supposed it made tactical sense to heal people who were closer, but a strange part of her mind snorted and wondered if it was because she was a drow. She shakes it off. That line of thinking was utterly ridiculous.

Adrienne frowns at the unconscious elves. Elves were supposed to be the good guys, weren't they? It was drow that were bad. Or supposed to be. Then again, everyone had been human just a couple of days ago, and everyone knew humans were all over the place in how they acted. Just like how becoming a drow hadn't turned her evil, she supposed it was so that becoming elves hadn't helped these miserable brigands any.

She catches her breath for a moment and then goes into the house to look for clues.

"Er, are any of you guys good at tracking? Um, I'm afraid we've made a mess of the area directly around the cabin, but if she really was carried off by kobolds there should be lots of little tracks around where they went, just in case we can't get anything useful from these guys when we wake them up."

She starts poking around seeing if she can find anything interesting or magical that might give some indication as to what's going on.


Spending two surges to get back to full HP, five left.
Perception for lulz: [roll0]
Arcana: [roll1]

[dariathalon]

Adrienne's search of the house turns up little more than Tanuk's has. Even extending her senses out into the ether to feel the vibrations she knows to associate with magic yields nothing of real interest besides the few enchanted trinkets she and the others brought here.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Anyways," Gloria reasoned. "We're wasting valuable time. Ms. Mayfly is still in trouble, and these guys aren't going to remain unconscious forever. If you all really want to continue the debate over what to do with them then we should at the very least search them and take their weapons so we don't have another fight on our hands as soon as they wake up."

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Pulling a flask from within his cloak, Hrod takes a heavy swing. Corking and stowing his liquid lunch, the shaggy half-elf nods at Gloria's suggestion. "Aye do belief tha' ta be a wi'e idea."

Perception to find anything hidden or of value on them [roll0]

[dariathalon]

Hrodebert finds very little of actual value on the thugs as he searches them. Each has a couple of weapons, but they don't seem to be of exceptional quality. They have a smattering of personal effects, a cheap locket with a lock of rust-colored hair, a wooden holy symbol of Sehanine, a pamphlet entitled "How to serve Flumphs," a set of bone dice, a pipe for smoking, a handkerchief embroidered with the image of a centaur, etc. They also have more basic supplies for camping. The only thing that seems to be of any real value on them is their money pouches which contain an assortment of coins totaling 90 gp in value.

As he finishes searching the last of the elves, they slowly begin to stir. The first to come to is one of the archers. He struggles against his bindings for a few seconds, but quickly realizes what has happened. "Alright, you got us. What ya going to do with us?" he asks to whoever is standing closest.

Since I heard no one actively object to tying them up, and a few suggested it, I'm going to assume it happened even though no one actually said they were doing it. If Hrodebert wishes to have taken their weapons during his search, he easily could have.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Well, that seems to be the problem we've run into." Gloria admits freely. "Personally, I would have liked to have avoided conflict altogether, leaving you to your own devices. Before, I had hoped to convince the rest of my part of the same, but then you forced my hand. So we've now come to the unfortunate issue of deciding what to do with you now."

"I know just tying you up till we get back isn't an option, I've no doubt at least one of you can slip out of these bindings without much of a problem. It has been suggested by one of our number that we break all of your legs, so you can't run away without risk of being eaten by the newly changed wildlife." The paladin stated, steel in her eyes. "I'll admit, it would make things easier on us. But," Her expression softened considerably. "That is an option that I hope to convince my companions out of as well, if at all possible. So I shall ask of you, please, depart from this place peacefully. Leave this old woman her few precious belongings for when she returns. We wish for no more bloodshed. Please, do not force our hand once more."

Kinda went good cop bad cop a bit, but settled on being the good cop.

Diplomacy: [roll0] (Inb4 I roll less than 15 even with a +10 to the roll)

Edit: Is pleasantly surprised.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

The diminutive thief crosses his arms and spits on the ground, punctuating with a slightly-higher-pitch-than-preferable, "Yeah!"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

"I di'n' say break awl t'ey 'egs. Jus' one o' each. Two brok'n 'egs is jus cruel." As he makes his statement, he casually waves the leader's weapon in-front of the main elf's face.

[dariathalon]

The archer tries to shrug his shoulders, but it ends up more of a wince as his wounds still pain him. "Hey, they way I figure it, you beat us fair. You got more right to this stuff than we do. Didn't look like she had a whole lot anyway. You lot don't need to go breaking my legs to get your point across. I'll leave peacefully. I doubt any of the others'll put up much fight either. How can we? You've got our weapons and have already beaten us down once. We'd be fools to try again."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Tanuk asks, "Just for curiosity sake, what were you a week ago? Were you an elf, or something else?" If the others in the party react to this, he'll say, "What? We don't know how far it spread!"

[Haberdashery]

As the prisoners awoke and began uneasy negotiation with her new-found companions, the ex-frog forgot the apology she had demanded at the top of her lungs at the sound of Adrienne vomiting. She turned her head, her eyebrows locked in a frown, and watched her hurry across the glen and bury herself quickly into the house.

The others were speaking, and the elves were cowed and bound before the majesty of Gloria's wings and armor, and the frog slipped away and darted after her new-found friend into the house. The house stunk of strange plants and spices, and things hung low from the ceiling that forced her to duck and twist herself lest something clonk her in the head. She found Adrienne at the back of the cottage, leafing through the piles of witch-clutter. The air in the cottage felt thick and it felt like there was a veil between her and Adrienne. She parted it with her passage, and it was warm against her skin.

"Are you okay?" She called delicately, her voice tinkling off the claustrophobic corners and leaning shelves. Her footsteps creaked on the old floorboards. "They hurt you a lot more than they hurt me. I heard you behind the tree..."

The sleeve of her shirt was stained with blood where the sword had cut through, and between the slit was the gash the blade had left. Before the frog knew what she was doing, or even how she knew to do it, she had gathered up her beautiful scarlet cloak and bunched the end of it together. With her teeth she tore off the bottom edge of the cloak in a long, clean strip that left the cloak's end ragged and torn. She took the strip of red cloth from between her teeth and wrapped it twice and tight around her friend's arm and quickly tied a knot.

[dariathalon]

The elf's brow wrinkles in an expression of confusion. "A week ago? ... I guess I was an elf. ... I think. Must'a been, right? Why?"

The other elves still lay unconscious, though one of the others is starting to make feeble moaning noises and twitch a little. He will probably come around within the next few minutes.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Scratching at his ear, Tanuk looks slightly annoyed. "Well, the world that way is quite mixed up. Sounds like where you were is still quite normal.". Tanuk points back from where the party came.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Wait," Gloria interjected. "You were all elves a week ago? Are you sure? Have you always been elves?"

[Rhysandphal]

Ficura rises from where he sat, listening and meditating. Do you remember the lake? Ficura says, approaching the archer. Or do you only recall the forest that's taken it's place?

[dariathalon]

The elf's confused expression continues to deepen as he is barraged by questions. "Yeah. I think so. I've been an elf as long as I can remember. People don't usually go around changing what they are, unless they're wizards or something. And none of us have any magic like that," he says nodding toward the other elves.

When Ficura asks his question, the elf looks around him. "Yeah, there's lakes around here. Forests too. Not right around here. This is mostly hilly plains with some small patches of woodland, but go far enough and you'll find some."

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne smiles at the Frog's approach, then winces as the Frog tears her cloak to bandage her arm.

"Your cloak... We'll get it hemmed up good as new, don't worry. Thank you." She smiles again.

"I'll be OK, I think. It just hurt a lot... I've never been hurt like that before, or been in a fight past punching a couple of annoying boys when I was younger... Nothing like... Like that. It was horrible. Is... Is this going to be our lives now? Fighting and getting hurt like that, and hurting other people?" She sighs.

"Well, for now it can't be helped... Are you OK? You weren't hurt as bad, but you still took a pretty nasty hit."

[Haberdashery]

"I'm not sure why it happened." She began slowly, fussing over the makeshift bandage until it was tied in the shape of a pretty bow. The ex-frog didn't know why it appealed to her to make the how look pretty, but it did. "Suddenly they wanted to kill us and they didn't want to eat us or anything."

"And...I dunno how I was able to do the things I did. Or how you did the things you did. I've never seen that before, but...I guess weirder things have happened lately."

She gave Adrienne an innocent, childish smile. She was rapidly passing the stage of infancy and had started to become childlike in manner and perception. Rigid adherence to language had given way to immature colloquialisms.

"I'm okay." She said brightly. "I just hope we don't have to do that again."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Poking his head into the house, Tanuk shouts, "You two ok? I think we're heading out to find Ms. Mayfly now." Tanuk fidgets a bit, making sure his pack is ready and his dagger is sheathed. He looks to the others, indicating he's ready to move on with their mission.

[Haberdashery]

"Uh-huh!" She shouted loudly back. She extended one pale hand to her friend, and her smile became brighter. "C'mon."

[Gospel Noctis]

"So as far as you know you've always been elves. Are you familiar with the Great Lake? Or maybe the Serpentine River? Orrince perhaps?" The paladin questions.

[dariathalon]

"Nope, nope, and nope. Don't know what you're talking about lady."

As the elf you've been talking to replies. Two more of the elves stir, groggily coming to. They look around at what's transpired, and after a couple of quick glances at each other, both seem to find their attention firmly fixed away from Gloria's questioning of their companion.

[Gospel Noctis]

"...Oh...Well then..." Glorias eyes glazed over as thoughts and theories clashed erratically in her mind. "You all wouldn't happen to have a map of the surrounding area, would you?"

[dariathalon]

The elf gives a glance to one of their packs that still lays partially open. Then he gives a hard glare at Hrodebert. "Why don't you ask him?" he says with annoyance, leaving the question hang in the air for a few beats before continuing. "Nah, we don't have any maps. Never really needed them before. Beings more powerful than you and I have a way of putting you where they want you to be anyway. Why try to fight it? I just go along for the ride."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Guys, let's just go get Ms. Mayfly." Tanuk pleads, his youth and impatience showing.

[Nai_Calus]

"I hope we won't too."

Adrienne gives the frog a quick hug and goes back outside with her.

"Speaking of which, these guys still haven't told us which way those alleged Kobolds went with her, have they?" She frowns down at the one who's been doing the talking. "You might want to get on that."

[dariathalon]

The elf tries to point, but quickly realizes the futility of the gesture while his hands are tied. He instead nods off in the direction of the rear of the house. "There's a trail back there that they took. They were headed southwest last we saw them."

[Gospel Noctis]

"Then I guess we should head out." She says, expression still somewhat dazed. "So, we cut them loose?"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

"I see no reason to let 'em go. Wha's to keep 'em from goin' righ' back in an' burgla'izing all o'er again?" He lowers the borrowed scimitar, to find a map among the objects he removed from the elves.

[roll0] to look for deception in the elves.

[dariathalon]

The elves are cut loose, on the promise that they will leave the house and it's belongings alone. While they don't seem to be the most trustworthy sort, they seem to be cowed enough by their defeat that they probably won't go back on their word. They run off as fast as their injuries will allow, leaving the dense tangle of woodland and disappear into the hilly plains.

The party leaves Maggy Mayfly's cottage shortly thereafter. They head around the back side of the house, to find the trail the elves had spoken of. It isn't too hard to find, they just have to make their way around the garden, and near the southwest corner of the cleared area, is a trail leading out of the brambles that surround the cottage. They move down the path for about 10 minutes until the trail disappears as you move out of the wooded area and back into the plains. It is at this point that the the keen eyed members of the party begin looking for signs of the kobolds' passage. Tracking over the plains is more difficult than simply following the worn path, but it is still possible.

In a little over an hour's time, Ficura is the first to notice that the trail appears to be heading toward a crevice (about 5 feet across at the base but narrowing toward the top) formed between two large rocks. They hold back the earth of a large hill, creating the entrance to a cave.


Hopefully people don't feel like I've railroaded them here. I went with the viewpoint on the elves that I thought I'd heard most often. If anyone wants to say that they killed them instead, just let me know and I'll edit the post.

I believe Meltheim had talked about maybe relocking the door. If you want to do that, say so. It's within your capability to do, and time is not an immediate concern, so there won't be a roll required at this point. You'd eventually get it, whether it takes you 5 rolls or 15 rolls doesn't matter at the moment.

[Nai_Calus]

"You guys had better be nicer in the future!" Adrienne calls as the elves run off. "I don't like mean people!" She stomps her foot and huffs, folding her arms.

"Jerks."

-----

Adrienne looks at the cave. It seems oddly inviting, the crack in the rock leading into darkness. She tries to shove that down, recognizing it as part of the attitudes brought about by the change.

"You know... Those elves didn't know any of our landmarks, did they? And everything's changed with us... Um. Guys? What... What if we just got switched with somewhere? What if some creepy probably evil drow guy is in my body and..." She cuts off, not even wanting to think about the implications of that.

"I guess we should go in. Scout inside. Um, is anyone good with sneaking? Or the dark? Um, I mean, I'm pretty good with the dark and I guess I'm OK with sneaking but um..." She digs a toe into the dirt.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Sneaking isn't a specialty of mine I'm afraid, or seeing in the dark for that matter. Though I'm still willing to take point. Might as well make use of my new durability, y'know?" The paladin replies, staring into the mouth of the cave. "So, what do you think are the chances that they'll hand Ms. Mayfly back without a fuss?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Probably not good." Tanuk draws his dagger and takes a crouching position, inching closer to the entrance of the cave. To Adrienne, he says, "I am small, sneaky and I can see well enough in the dark. Let me see what I can see." Tanuk takes a few steps closer, clinging to what shadows he can find, making every effort to keep quiet and undetectable.

Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[dariathalon]

Tanuk makes his way over to the entrance to the cave. Dashing and ducking behind what little cover there is leading up to the entrance. He moves just inside the entrance, and looks down the passage. It is a rough passage of earth and stone. In some places it is tall enough for a person to stand at full height, others they might have to duck. Some places are fairly wide, others will require squeezing to get through. Just at the limits of his vision, he can see the passage splits into a Y. The left path quickly turns away and begins to descend, while the right path is sealed off by a makeshift wooden wall. Tanuk can just barely see that there is something written in paint on the wall, but from this distance he can't make out the words.

[Gospel Noctis]

Gloria patiently waited outside of the entrance to the cave, listening closely for any signs of conflict from within. 'Tanuk is resourceful,' The paladin reassured herself. 'He'll be fine. But just in case, I'll be ready. I'll protect him, all of them, for sure.'

Readying an action to charge in to help Tanuk if he gets into any trouble while scouting ahead.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Moving forward slowly and cautiously, Tanuk tries to get close enough to read the writing on the wall. He's scared enough that he will sprint out of there at the slightest hint of danger, but he'll do his best to hold steady until that happens.

[dariathalon]

Tanuk enters the shadows at the mouth of the cave and is quickly out of Gloria's sight. She will have to rely on him to make some sort of noise to signal his distress. But for at least the next few moments she hears nothing but the sound of a few insects flying by.

Tanuk makes his way down the tunnel to near the point where it splits. As he walks, he can see there are a few places where tools have been employed to dig a wider path through the dirt and rock. As he gets closer to the wooden construction, he can see that it is not a wall so much as a large door, hinged on one side, with a couple of sliding wooden bolts embedded in a slot carved in the rock wall to hold it in place. His well-trained eye tells him that a simple flick with the tip of a dagger in the right place could easily release the mechanism that holds it closed. Like the walls of the passage, the wooden door also appears to be scarred with tool and/or claw marks. There is some sort of "paint" whose origins Tanuk is afraid to guess at, smeared across it's surface proclaiming it be the "Entrance to Cave of Mighty Greenthorn Clan."


It looks something like this.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q179/dariathalon/GreenthornClan.png (http://s136.photobucket.com/user/dariathalon/media/GreenthornClan.png.html)

[Haberdashery]

At the cave's mouth, the frog waited impatiently for Tanuk to return. She had sat herself down on an outstretched slab of rock that was smooth enough that it didn't hurt too badly to sit on it. It was just high enough that her feet couldn't touch the ground, and so she kicked them back and forth. To their back the plains stretched out yellow and earthy, and the clouds that passed over them dragged elephantine shadows in their wake. She was watching them intently, following the movement of the clouds with her eyes.

Her new friends were troubled by what they had learned, and by extension so was she, though she understood what they understood significantly less. Though her consciousness was developing, and her wits were sharpening, she was still burdened by what she had been a day ago. The thoughts were turning about in her head, sparked by what Adrienne had said. Her brow was furrowed and she had pursed her lips; she had thrown up her crimson hood over her head, as if it could keep her thoughts in her head.

"So...if there's a man in your body," She finally spoke, "Would that mean there's a pointy-earred girl that's now a frog somewhere?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Backing away slowly, Tanuk quickly turns to half-run half-scamper out of the cave and back to the group. He does his best to relay what he saw, including the split path and the sign on the wall.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne frowns. "I guess so... Well, I mean, there's no way to know for sure, I'm just kind of wondering things..." She sighs. "But yeah, I guess if I were right about that, if we were switched with others, then they're probably just as confused and scared as we are."

She looks at Tanuk as he comes out and listens to his description.

"Scary... But we can't just leave her. We've gotta go in, but do we use the door or the open fork? What do you guys think?"

[Haberdashery]

"What would be wrong with using the door?" She asked, turning her hooded head around to look back at Adrienne and Tanuk. "If we're looking for the fly lady, wouldn't she be behind the door, since the kobolds took her? The tunnel might go someplace else, like to another tribe of kobolds with a different witch they stole." The ex-frog had started to associate kobolds, which she'd never seen nor heard of, with being witchnappers.

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Listening to the conversations unfolding, he takes a good drink from his flask. "I'm still ma. Ma ears ma'be a bit point'er, bu' tha's all. Na', I sa' we hea' inta tha' ther' tunnel, an' see wha' we see."

[Gospel Noctis]

"So how should we proceed?" Gloria inquires. "If we all march into the cave, regardless of which path we take, there's no way we're going to be able to keep a low profile. It'll be best if we go in with a plan. So which path should we take?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Shrugging his shoulders, Tanuk offers, "Well, at least we have an idea what's behind the door. That works for me."

[Nai_Calus]

"Then let's go, then. The longer we stand around debating, the more likely it is that something horrible will have happened."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Nodding his head eagerly, Tanuk pulls a sunrod out of his pack. "It's dark in there. Like, dark dark. I can see a little, but I bet we'll need more light. One of you want to take the lead?" Tanuk cracks his sunrod and holds it in his left hand, while he draws his dagger in the right. "My vote is for the door, for what it's worth."

[Haberdashery]

The ex-frog stopped kicking her feet and hopped down from the rock. The clouds were still lumbering overhead, and one had passed just above her and was blotting out the sun. The golden color on her face was replaced by the deep gray of the cloud's shadow, and the frog looked up at it with her brilliant green eyes. The world looked strange to her now. She couldn't remember what the sky looked like when she had been a frog.

Had I ever seen the sky at all? She asked herself.

The wind tickled her face, and carried with it a dandelion blossom to perch on her nose.

Her hood had started to slip off the crown of her head, and so the frog reached up and tugged it back. There was safety in the recesses of her hood. She smiled a pretty smile at her strange new friends, and peered down into the rocky crag that split the earth. It was very dark inside, and she could hear the drip of moisture echoing from far away. Even the air smelled damp.

"Down, down, down to the kobold town." She hummed.

[Gospel Noctis]

"I'll take the lead." The winged defender volunteered, before lightly knocking on the large shield held in her off hand. "If there are any surprises waiting for us inside I think I've proven that I can take a hit."

She looks again to the dark depths of the cavern. "That said, I can't see in the dark. Anyone have some sort of torch?"

[dariathalon]

Ficura’s injuries from the battle with the elves seems to still be weighing heavily on him. As the day has progressed, he seems to be more and more strained by them, and by the time the party is ready to enter the cave, he can barely walk on his pained leg. “I’ll have to wait for you here. My leg is bothering me too much now. Through meditation, I can probably dull the pain enough to make the return trip, but I wouldn’t do you any good if I were to continue with you. I’ll wait here and try to meditate. Bring Maggy Mayfly back safely,” he says. He moves over to a rock near the cave’s entrance and sits on it closing his eyes and beginning to breathe deeply.

The rest of the party moves forward into the cave with Gloria leading the way. It doesn’t take long before she needs the light provided by Tanuk’s sunrod behind her. The cave is much as he had described. The tunnel is not very straight, and has some areas where ducking or squeezing slightly might be required. There is a definite downward slope to the passage, but it is not enough to make the passage difficult to traverse.

When Gloria reaches the door, she finds it is fairly easy to open. It is not so much locked as merely latched closed. The latch is not situated easy for human hands to maneuver, but Tanuk reaches around her with his dagger, and flips the catch using the narrow blade. Gloria opens pushes the wooden door open and continues through.

Not far beyond the door, the passage starts to widen out into a natural cavern. It is a little more than 50 feet across at its widest point, and about the same length. It appears that there is a tunnel leading out the opposite side, but it bends around a corner so it is difficult to see what may be further down. The majority of this chamber is about 25 feet tall. There are a few areas where stalactites hand down reaching to meet with stalagmites from the floor and other areas where the floor is strewn with rubble.

As Gloria and Tanuk enter the cave, the party comes under attack. Two sticky filaments come shooting out from behind some of the stalactites, on hitting and wrapping itself around Gloria. She is pulled up and away from the group as it begins to constrict around her. As she dangles in mid-air, a few spikes fly at her as well. One hits her in the thigh, the impact from that attack sets the rope she's attached to swinging which luckily takes her out of the way of the second spike. A second rope-like filament appeared to be aimed for Tanuk, but it missed completely.


I made a (admittedly pretty shabby) excuse to pull Ficura out of the game for awhile until I at least hear from Rhysandphal. If I hear from him, he can always come running back in.

Surprise Round:
Attack vs Gloria’s Reflex [roll0]. If hit, she is pulled 15 feet in the air and restrained (save ends) by a mucous covered filament, she also takes [roll1].
Attack vs. Tanuk’s Reflex [roll2]. If hit, he’ll suffer the same effects taking [roll3].
Attack vs. Gloria’s Reflex [roll4]. If hit, she takes [roll5].
Attack vs. Gloria’s Reflex [roll6]. If hit, she takes [roll7].

Please roll initiative. You may post any free action sorts of things that you wish to react to the surprise round, but please hold off on your first round’s actions until we get initiative straightened out. Also please make sure that the hp on the spreadsheet are correct. I've erased everything else, so please reset those to the correct value if you didn't get around to that after the last fight. I'm going to hold off on applying the damage from these attacks until this is taken care of.

Only a couple of enemies are shown on the map right now, since their stealth checks beat passive perceptions, and they have a feature which lets them remain hidden when they miss.

Enemy’s initiatives
[roll8]
[roll9]
[roll10]

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Darting out of the way of the attacks, Tanuk sees his new friend get hoisted into the air. He sets his face with grim determination and chases after her, weaving through the stalagmites until he has a clean shot. He draws back his dagger and flings it at the creature, hoping to knock Gloria loose from its grasp.

Move: Walk to J17-I16-I15-H14-G14-F15 (I have Move Speed of 7)

Standard: Sly Flourish vs Cave Fisher Angler 1

Attack: [roll0] vs AC
Hit: [roll1] damage

[dariathalon]

Two of creatures, nearly the size of a man have revealed themselves hanging from cracks in the rock ceiling of the cave. To some they might look insectoid because of their hard exoskeleton, large eyes, and multiple legs, while others might see more comparison to a crab, due to their large pincers. One of the creatures has a long filament of some kind of sticky substance wrapped around Gloria and seems to be dragging her up to it. The web-like substance appears delicate enough to be hacked through, but must have some strength to lift the heavily armored woman into the air.

The other creature, also hiding among the stalactites, has a different coloration. While the first was a dark green color, this one is a greyish white, which blends into the rock wall it hangs from. Its attacks have consisted of firing short strands of similar substance which have somehow hardened into spikes.

The angler that has Gloria wrapped tightly continues dragging her toward it, tightening it's grip as it pulls her up. She now dangles 20 feet off the ground, just a couple of feet below her grip.

Another similar rope of filament fires from behind the stalactites to the right of the trail, wrapping up Adrienne and pulling her off her feet..

The spike throwing beast hurls another of it's spikes at Tanuk. It strikes into the meat of his arm. While another longer strand is fired at him covering him and holding him painfully to the cave's floor.


Angler 1: Sustains his strangle on Gloria. She takes [roll0] damage and is pulled to 20' off the ground.

Angler 2: Filament Strangle on Adrienne. [roll1]. If hit, he'll take [roll2] and be pulled 3 squares and restrained (save ends).

Spiker 1: Filament Wrap on Tanuk. [roll3]. If hit, Tanuk will be immobilized and take 5 ongoing damage (save ends both).

Spiker 2: Filament Spike on Tanuk. [roll4]. If hit, Tanuk will take [roll5].

[Gospel Noctis]

It happened so quickly. One moment she had been cautiously stalking her way into the cavern and the next she had found herself bound, and suspended up several feet in the air. The blow that hit her next had struck with such force that for a second she had thought it had knocked her loose of her bindings; Pain momentarily righting her inverted vision.

As the stars cleared from her vision she couldn't help but let out a mournful groan at the pain surging through her veins as she desperately sought to tap into some hidden reserve of inner strength to help get through this fight. Forcing her breathing to even out she once again directed the divine might within her, causing it to pulse through her body, quickly mending some of the damage she had suffered.

Gloria glared at the monstrosity before her she as the agony in her gaze was replaced with steel. With a thought she marks the beast as the target of her righteous fury before she attempts to escape her silken prison. Her struggles proved to be fruitless, as the bindings refused to relinquish their grasp.

'I need to tilt my shield slightly this way, while freeing up just enough space to shift my sword arm and..." The still foreign musings she had been experiencing ever since the change once again echoed through her mind, guiding her motions. With seemingly practiced motions she freed up enough space within the wrappings to bring her longsword to bear, easily slicing through the restraints.

And beginning her plummet to the cold cave floor.

Standard Action: Second Wind, regaining 8 hp and gaining +2 to all to defenses until the end of my next turn.
Minor Action: Lay on Hands on myself, regaining another 8 hp bringing me up to 19.
Move action converted to a minor action: Divine Challenge on Cave Fisher Angler 1 (Not sure if timing will force it to end if I make the save though.

Saving Throw: [roll0]

No Action: Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes on failed saving throw, roll is in the OOC thread. Was a 6 so it succeeded.

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Stumbling forwards, Hrodebert sees his friends hanging from mid-air. "Wha' a'e ya' doin' 'n up tha'?" he asks. Swinging his staff around, he fires of bursts of sound, echoing off the cavernous walls.

Move: J16
Standard: [roll0] vs Fortitude Angler 1
[roll1] vs Fortitude Angler 2
[roll2] vs. Fortitude
Hit: [roll3] thunder damage, or 2d6 + Wisdom modifier thunder damage if you target only one creature. In addition, the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.
Covenant of Wrath: You also push the target a number of squares equal to your Constitution modifier. (Each goes two away, then diagonally down so they fall off the ceiling.)

Trigger Invoker Defense, +2 to AC.

Prepare Shield of Devotion. Next person that get's hit, uses it. I need to figure a way to have that permanently readied.

[Haberdashery]

She had looked away for just a second! Really! She got some dirt in her eyes, and rubbed them, and then, okay, fine, her hood fell down over her eyes and she had to pull it back up, and then she did trip, but that was it! And suddenly all heck had busted loose. Her friends were up, then they were down, and Gloria had a big nasty bump on her head, and for the first time the frog felt a wave of fear overcome her. She had experienced fear before, fear had been her constant companion as a tiny amphibian in a world with so many larger predators. But she had never felt fear for anything other than herself, as she had never had the cognitive thought to care for anything other than herself.

The frog rushed forward through the stony passage and began to shout. She didn't exactly know what else to do.

"Stand up, Gloria! You can't fall over now, it was just a bump! You're made of sterner stuff than that!" She cried. "And YOU!" She turned and shrieked at the strange bug holding Adrienne in some sort of sticky strand of glue. "You get down from there this instant!"


Move: To J18

Minor: Majestic Word on Gloria, she regains her surge + 4, and she can slide 1 square wherever she likes.

Standard: Blunder on Cave Angler 2

Attack vs. Will: [roll0]
Hit: [roll1] 17 psychic damage (see OOC), and Frog will slide it 2 squares...straight down. Hopefully that makes plummet to the ground. Also, because it's adjacent to Adrienne, she can make a melee basic attack against it.

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne lands with a bloody thwump. She can't quite get her bearings, but she stands up anyway and brings her staff down on the monster that had attacked her, muttering a curse at it. She means to push it away, but the creature, already beaten up by attacks and its fall, simply splatters at her feet.


Move: Stand from prone
Minor: Curses, foiled again.
Standard: Eldritch Strike on the angler:
[roll0] vs AC
On hit: [roll1] and push it back a square because ew.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"You guys ok?" Tanuk shouts to his allies. Then, after seeing the two larger creatures fall to the ground, Tanuk nods his head to himself, "Hmm, ok." He then flips his dagger once in his hand and hurls it toward the one flinging spikes.



Standard: Sly Flourish vs Spiker 1

Attack: [roll0] vs AC (11 base - 2 for penalty)
Hit: [roll1]

[dariathalon]

As two of the the insectoid beasts fall to the ground, dumping Gloria and Adrienne unceremoniously on their backsides, several more are already pouring around the corner up ahead. The five new monsters appear much smaller than the others, about the size of a dog. They aggressively clack their pincers as they rush toward you. The first two around the corner charge Tanuk, grabbing at him with the surprisingly sharp pincers. The first finds purchase, leaving a large gash in his calf, but the second misses him by just inches.

The first of the two remaining larger ones scuttles along the ceiling and spits a hardened chunk of it's filament at Tanuk. Tanuk, thrown off guard by the creatures attacking his ankles doesn't look up in time to dodge out of the way of the spike, and it pierces his upper arm. The second rounds the corner of one of the stalactites finding a clear shot at Hrodebert, and spits out a long stream of filament, with the likely intention of pinning him to the ground. But Hrodebert's stumbling movements prove too hard to predict and the strings fly past him.


Spawn 1: moves around the corner and then charges at Tanuk [roll0]. If hit, Tanuk takes 6 damage.
Spawn 2: imitates spawn 1. [roll1]. If hit, Tanuk takes 6 damage.
Spawn 3, 4, and 5: Double move to positions shown.

Spiker 1: moves to avoid cover problems, then fires a spike at Tanuk. [roll2]. If hit, Tanuk takes [roll3].
Spiker 2: move to avoid cover problems, then fires a Filament Wrap on Hrodebert. [roll4]. If hit, Hrodebert is immobilized and takes 5 ongoing damage (save ends both).

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne growls at the new arrivals and moves to attack them, seeking to get as many as possible.


Move to K15
Minor: Curse spawn 3
Standard: Beguiling Strands, close blast 5, origin square J14 to extend to J10, and F10 through F14.
vs Spawn 1: [roll0] vs Will
vs Spawn 2: [roll1] vs Will
vs Spawn 3: [roll2] vs Will
vs Spawn 4: [roll3] vs Will
On hit: 3 damage and push up to 3 squares

[Gospel Noctis]

The prone form of the battered paladin lets out an shuddering groan even as the healing magic infused in former frogs words worked to mend the damage done. Straining, Gloria manages to roll her aching body over unto her stomach before lethargically struggling to her feet. Stance shaky and vision tilting to odd angles the armored deva took stock of the situation. Adrienne had taken care of the creatures immediately threatening the group, but poor Tanuk really seemed to be on his last leg, blood gushing from his wounds.

Decision made, Gloria bounded over the piles of shattered rubble littering the cave floor and made her way to the rogues side. "I've got you, Tanuk. We'll beat these things yet." She reassured, placing her hand over her friends wound as blessed light washes over him, mending what damage it could.

Standard Action to Move: Stand up from prone.
Move Action: Move to move to E14.
Minor Action: Use Lay on Hands (last one for the day) on Tanuk, I spend a healing surge and he gains hp equal to his surge value.

[Haberdashery]

The insects were relentless, and the frog was starting to panic. She could see their blood glistening in the dim light of the caves. The frog rushed forwards, singing something foreign to her that she didn't know she knew, and instantly Tanuk's wounds began to knit back together. The first bandage that she had tied around Adrienne's arm was already soaked through, and, knowing little else to do, she tore a strip off Adrienne's sleeve and began to wind it tightly against her fresh wounds. The motions were clumsy and sloppy, but somehow the frog managed. She tied a clean knot a little too tightly, and ripped the excess off with her teeth.


Move: To K16.

Minor: Majestic Word on Tanuk, and he can slide himself 1 square wherever he likes.

Standard: Heal check to allow Adrienne to use her second wind.

Heal: [roll0]

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Bolstered by his allies, Tanuk grips his dagger again and hurls it toward the Spiker.

Standard: Sly Flourish vs Spiker 1

Attack: [roll0] vs AC (11 base - 2)
Hit: [roll1] damage

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Stumbling sideways, Hrodebert raises his hand, light shining from it as he steadies himself.

Move: Shift to I16
Standard: Hand of Radiance
Target: One, two, or three creatures
Attack: [roll0] vs. Reflex Spiker 1
Attack: [roll1] vs. Reflex Spawn 3
Attack: [roll2] vs. Reflex Spawn 5
Hit: [roll3] radiant damage.

[dariathalon]

Several of the young fall down holding their pincers up in front of their face in a last ditch effort to avoid Adrienne's magic. It does little good, and most of them are dispatched by that. The few that his spell doesn't kill are burned by the searing light of Hrodebert's magic.

The spikers shriek with rage as their young are slaughtered. The two remaining beasts continue their attack. The first fires a hardened spike at Gloria. As she has her attention turned to Tanuk, giving him encouragement, she is struck in the back by a solid blow. The other fires another long cable of filament at Hrodebert it wraps itself around him holding him so tightly that it will soon become very painful.



Spiker 1 [roll0]. If hit, she takes [roll1].

Spiker 2 [roll2]. If hit, he is immobilized and takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends both).

[Gospel Noctis]

Once again being pushed to the limits of her endurance and unable to respond in kind to her wall hanging enemies, Gloria raises her shield, taking a defensive stance.

Standard Action: Total Defense

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne moves forward to attack, hurling a blast of eldritch energy at one of the spikers that leaves it reeling and unable to see her for the moment. She follows up with a gout of flame at the other spiker, but it skitters out of the way of her flames in time.


Move: G12
Minor: Curse Spiker 1
Standard: Eyebite
[roll0] vs Will
On hit [roll1] + [roll2] and it can't see me until the start of my next turn
Action point: Witchfire on Spiker 2
[roll3] vs Ref
On hit: [roll4] fire damage and it takes a -5 penalty to attack rolls until the end of my next turn

[Haberdashery]

With Adrienne back on her feet and throwing strange fire from her outstretched hand, the frog's attention was immediately drawn to the burst of illumination on the cave's ceiling. Another insect had just narrowly scuttled out of the way of the blast, but the flash of bright color had revealed its chitinous limbs and glinting eyes. The frog hadn't noticed it at first.

The frog started to dash forward before she knew what she intended to do. They were far out of her reach, not that she had a weapon to strike them with. But the frog was starting to learn that she possessed the strangest of weapons--her voice. It could be so loud that it split the air like thunder, or the tirade of some operatic diva. Not that the frog knew what the latter was.

Knowing no other alternative, and relying on the previous experience of using her voice in such a way, the frog stopped in the center of the cavern and let out a piercing shriek. This time there were no words, or angry commands--she was simply shouting as loudly as she could to stun the blasted things.


Move: To 5 squares within the 2nd spiker.

Standard: Staggering Note vs. Spiker 2

Attack vs. Will: [roll0]
Hit: 4 thunder damage, and the spiker is pushed 2 squares. Hopefully to the ground. No one's in place to get a melee basic attack from this, however.

Action Point (Standard): Vicious Mockery vs. Spiker 1

Attack vs. Will: [roll1]
Hit: [roll2] psychic damage, and it takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls until the end of Frog's next turn.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Tanuk makes a sound somewhere between that of an exasperated teenager and a growl, and aims another dagger throw at the nearby Spiker. It's as if he's forgotten about the crossbow on his back.

Standard: Sly Flourish vs Spiker 1

Attack: [roll0] vs AC (11 base -2 camouflage)
Hit: [roll1] damage

Sorry to just be doing at-wills here, but I only have 2 ranged attacks, and the other is a Daily!

As the creature falls to the ground, Tanuk scurries forward, getting into position to attack the other Spiked critter.

Move: Walk to D9

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

His cloak hood falling over his eyes, Hrodebert fires off another burst of light missiles from his fingertips.

I can't find the map on mobile, but I'm away from my machine for a few days. No mods have been included. Hrod blasts whoever is around and a threat, minions first, anyone that's webbings allies second, and any other bad guys last.

Standard: Hand of Radiance
Target: One, two, or three creatures
Attack: [roll0] vs. Reflex
Attack: [roll1] vs. Reflex
Attack: [roll2] vs. Reflex
Hit: [roll3] radiant damage.

[dariathalon]

All but one of the cave fishers lay in rumpled heaps on the floor of the cavern. But the one that remains is still uninjured. Even still, when most of its colony mates destroyed, this fisher fights on in desperation. He fires an hard spike at the drow who'd tried to burn it. The spike embeds itself in Adrienne's hip.


Standard: Flings a spike at Adrienne [roll0]. If it hits, he'll take [roll1].

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne cries out in pain as the spike hits her. She grits her teeth and wishes she were close enough to simply smack the offending creature from its perch, and lets out a small meep of surprise as she lifts from the floor to hover near it. She tries to illuminate the creature and strike it, but her attempts are unsuccessful, her balance thrown off by finding herself suddenly floating 20 feet above the floor.


Move: Levitation power to hover 4 squares above H11. This puts me one square down and two squares away, within range of Eldritch Strike
Minor: Darkfire on this jerk:
[roll0] vs Reflex, on hit all attacks against have CA and it can't benefit from invisibility or concealment until the end of my next turn.
Standard: Eldritch Strike
[roll1] vs AC, on hit:
[roll2] and I slide this jerk one square straight down unless it saves.
(Attack rolls include -2 penalty; if Darkfire hits ES has +2 to it)

[Gospel Noctis]

Advancing slightly, Gloria continues to hold her ground, shield raised and ready to block any incoming projectiles.

Move Action: Move to G13
Standard Action: Total Defense

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Pulling his hood back, Hrodebert looks around the cave. Finding moss he could exploit, the fresh half-elf waves his hand, increasing the growth of ceiling moss, and he watches with pleasure as the moss engulfs the legs of the skittering beastie. Finding that successful, he channels more energy into the moss near his allies' feet, growing a large area of cover to hide them from any further harassment.

Standard: Grasping Tide
Area burst 1 within 10 squares (G10)
Target: Each creature in the burst
Attack: [roll0] vs. Fortitude
Hit: [roll1] damage. Until the end of your next turn, if the target leaves the burst’s area of effect, you can use an opportunity action to make a secondary attack against it.
Secondary Attack: [roll2] vs. Reflex
Hit: You knock the target prone.

Minor: Verdant Bounty (H12)
Area burst 2 within 10 squares
Effect: The burst creates a plant-filled zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. The zone is heavily obscured, and you and your allies gain a +5 bonus to Stealth checks while within the zone.

Save: [roll3]

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

With his eyes wide and full of wonder as the cave seems to sprout green growth, Tanuk aims his dagger and hopes to take advantage of the situation.

Standard: Sly Flourish vs Spiker 2

Attack: [roll0] vs AC
Hit: [roll1] damage

[Haberdashery]

The frog pushed her way past her companions to stand just below the strange insect. Or was it a crustacean? For that matter, what was a crustacean... She flung her hands upwards towards the ceiling, and as she did so, water beaded on her fingers and rushed upwards in a lily-pad speckled torrent. Though as she turned to look, her hood fell over her eyes, which made her jump. The water went careening off course, and spattered against the cavern ceiling.


Move: to H10.

Standard: Buffeting Wave

Attack vs. Fortitude: [roll0]
Hit: [roll1] damage, and the fisher falls prone.

[dariathalon]

The spiker flings one more spike at Tanuk, hoping to put an end to the barrage of daggers that the hengeyokai has been throwing. The fleet-footed youth is able to dodge out of the way at the last second, and the spike knocks a few stone chips loose from the wall behind him. Then the last cave fisher attempts to fight its way through the tangle of moss and vegetation that Hrodebert had created surrounding it, trying to find a place to take some cover behind a stalactite. Unfortunately, Hrodebert's mossy patches seem to be actively working against it, and it's normally secure footing on the walls and ceiling fail and it plummets to the floor with a crash.

The last beast lays twitching for a few seconds, as all in the cavern returns to silence.


It'll fling one last spike at Tanuk, [roll0]. A hit does [roll1].

Then I'm going to rule the immediate threat by this thing is over. You've got it bloodied, and the whole party is still active, so at this point it's just a matter of time. I'm just going to decide it'll die from the fall, rather than possibly continuing to stay active and force us to stay in combat time any longer.

So, off combat time now. What is the party going to do?

[Gospel Noctis]

"Is, is that all of them?" The bloody and battered paladin asks, weariness slipping into her voice as she stumbled towards one of the stalagmites jutting from the floor beside her, leaning upon it heavily. As she sheathed her blade her legs began to tremble for a few moments before giving out on her completely, drawing out a pained groan from the deva as she sank to the ground.

"Ow. Owwwwwwwww~" The former barmaid whined, somewhat childishly, as the effects of the adrenaline began to taper off. "I got beat by a bunch of bugs. Giant bugs, sure, but they were still just bugs. Please tell me that Ms. Mayfly is currently tied up safely in this room somewhere and I just missed her."

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Looking around, Hrodebert replies "I don't see nuthin', bu' I'll take a looksee."

[roll0]

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne looks around. "I don't think so, but I doubt this is the entirety of this cave."

She moves to the other side of the cavern to see if there's an exit on the far side that might provide access to further chambers.

[dariathalon]

Hrodebert's examination of the cave doesn't turn up much more than he'd seen before. The only new thing he sees in this cavern is that there bones of several varieties of a few varieties of bones piled up in a couple of the corners. Taking a closer look at them, some of them catch his eye as being a little unusual. A few of the easily recognizable bones belong to deer and chickens, which wouldn't normally be found in a cave like this.

Adrienne peeks around the corner. His superior dark vision allows him to see the extent of this area of the cavern. Around the corner, the passage continues back a little farther before trailing off to a dead-end. This area appears to have been used as a hatchery by the cave-fishers. Some of the eggs appear recently hatched, while others are still whole. This area also has a few bones in it, including a half-eaten kobold corpse.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Hmm, maybe the kobolds got eaten? Or, um ... maybe the turned into these things?" Tanuk scratches at his head - investigation was not his strong suit. "But those elves said that kobolds came after the big change, so . . . " he says, mostly to himself. "I don't know what's going on."

Tanuk rubs at his nose while his ears twitch in frustration. He might not be book-smart, but he did know traps, and he did know how to lure a mark into an advantageous position. " Kobolds like traps, right? Maybe this was just a trap they set up? I bet these things," he says, gesturing to the corpses as his eyes light up, "don't care much for treasure. Maybe the kobolds come back in after they've eaten and just pick away the trinkets? Yeah ... maybe we just go the other way?"

[Gospel Noctis]

Letting loose another weary groan, Gloria clambers to her feet. "Alright, alright. Looks like we'll have to go back and try the other path. Lets make sure we haven't missed anything in here first, just in case."

Rolling to see if there is anything of interest hidden in the surrounding area.

Perception: [roll0]

[dariathalon]

The group takes a few minutes to rest up and thoroughly search the lair of the cave fishers. Nothing more interesting than a few piles of bones are found. At Tanuk and Gloria's suggestion the group takes off down the second path.

Gloria leads the way, using the light from Tanuk's sunrod behind her to see. This passage turns away from the original tunnel fairly quick and has a downward slope, so the outside light is lost again very quickly. As the party moves down this passage, it is a little uncomfortable to traverse. You are forced to duck under rocky outcroppings or climb over large rocks, sometimes squeezing through narrow sections where you have to turn sideways and shimmy between the walls for a few paces. It isn't far down this path, and you begin noticing signs of creatures having passed down this tunnel. There are places where patches of lichen have been scuffed off the wall and in a place where rain has poured down the path depositing a large patch of mud. In the mud, there are multiple sets of tracks, some appear to be of children wearing boots other with small clawed feet.

After travelling down this winding path for several minutes, it takes a sharp turn to the left. Almost immediately after the turn, there is a narrow section about 10' long that will take a little bit of maneuvering to get through (squeezing). But then the path widens out and looks like it enters another larger cavern.

Despite being in the back of the group, your keen ears pick up a nearly silent squeaking noise mixed in with a slight rustle of something scraping against the stone up ahead.

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Trying to listen for any further cues, Hrod whispers "Hey folks, I t'ink ther's sumfin 'roun' tha' rock."

[Gospel Noctis]

"Tanuk," Gloria whispered. "Do you think you could take a peek without being seen? I'd like to know what we're getting into before we go charging in. That didn't work so well last time."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Nodding silently, Tanuk takes a deep breath and puffs his cheeks out, as he does, he appears to get more furry and animal like. He shrinks a bit until suddenly he is the size of a small dog, or a large raccoon.

He winks at the group and scurries forward, silently sticking to the shadows, hoping to see what else shares the cave with the party.

Minor: Nature's Mask

Effect: Turn into raccoon dog

Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[dariathalon]

Tanuk's small form creeps forward carefully to the point where the cavern widens out. It is similar to the other cavern. A couple of sections of the cave are filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Other areas seem to have been cleared of such formations, with piles of the resulting rubble pushed off to the two sides of the trail, leaving a large open walkway through the middle. The pathway continues forward through another tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern.

From where he stands now, Tanuk can barely hear the faint scrabbling noises that Hrodebert had referred to, but sees no sign of their source.


Map is updated. Let me know if you want to go farther or wait until for the rest of the party to follow.

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Flattening his ears against his head, Tanuk skulks back to the group, afraid of venturing out too far ahead of the others. Shaking his head, he slowly changes back into his hybrid form. Whispering, he relays to the group what he saw and heard.

"I hear something scratching and scrabbling away up there, but nothing obvious. Could be a beetle, could be kobolds. I suggest we proceed with caution."

[Gospel Noctis]

"Alright then, I'll cover the front." The paladin hefted her shield, preparing herself for the worst. "Is everyone ready?"

[Nai_Calus]

Adrienne nods.

"Let's go."

[dariathalon]

Gloria pushes forward, squeezing through the tight passage way. The rest of the party members continue moving forward right on her heals. She carries her shield in front of her, and moves forward slowly, deliberately, and most of all defensively. It is not far past where the tunnel begins to widen that Gloria feels the ground shift beneath her. Gloria is ready though, and manages to hop back before the door opens completely. The partially open trap door reveals a 10 foot deep pit filled with rats that begin squeaking and chittering more loudly.


Pit Trap: Attack vs Gloria's defensive Reflex (15+2=17) [roll0].
Hit: The target falls 10 feet to the bottom of the pit, taking [roll1] and falling prone.
Miss: The target returns to the last square it occupied and its movement ends immediately.
Effect: The trap is no longer hidden.

Since the trap missed, I'm not going to start combat time yet since it is still possible to get out of this without injury. However, you will need to figure out ways of getting through the passage if you want to continue forward. I have updated the map to show the location of the pit and party's new positions.

[Gospel Noctis]

Several moments pass as Gloria gazes analytically at their surroundings. "They have to have someway to turn this off and keep it shut, or maybe even a short alternate path that goes around it. Check the area for anything out of place."

Perception: [roll0]

[dariathalon]

In her examination of the surrounding area, Gloria notices that near where Tanuk had passed over the pit trap there are some scrape marks on the floor. It looks as if a long plank has been slid across to bridge the pit several times in the past. However, she sees no signs of the plank from where she is now.

[dariathalon]

The water-elf feels movement in her pocket as the Tin Soldier pokes his head out. "Excuse me, Mistress. I have some insight that might be of import to the current situation. I have a little understanding of the ways of traps, and if one is relying on a bridge to get across a pit trap, it would need to be located nearby. Exceptionally so in these surroundings, with these narrow winding passages it would be difficult to carry it far. If such a thing exists, it is probably hidden just out of sight."


Tanuk’s understanding of traps leads him to the realization that he just passed over it with no difficulty, so the weight required to trip the trap must be somewhere between the weight of a raccoon dog and the weight of a fully armored Gloria. If he can somehow reset the trap, then he could move freely from one side to the other.

[Haberdashery]

The frog had been lost in her thoughts for some time now. Ever since they had left the cavern, she had pulled up her hood over her head and slipped away into the velvety red world where her thoughts could be her own. It had taken her some time to understand that she--they--had been lied to. Until recently she hadn't even known what a lie was, let alone that something could attempt to make one. She had stumbled through the door that the kobolds had marked, thinking that of course they were marking their home, for why wouldn't that be the case? But the exact opposite had been true, and it had almost cost them all their lives. This had puzzled the frog, and she had holed herself up in her head to try and comprehend it.

This thought process had continued up until the present moment, where she felt a tugging on the back of her hood, and the low, stately whisper of the little tin soldier in her hood. The frog tilted her head, and finally blinked back the sleepy film of thought. The cold air of the tunnels stung her face, and she blinked into the wall of darkness. Her companions were knelt down by the edge of great black pit, whispering to each other of how to cross it. The frog's brow furrowed. That hadn't been there a moment ago. How long had she been standing there? She focused her eyes on the other side of the trap. It wasn't so very far away, it seemed so silly that they were prevented from moving forwards by a short drop into blackness. Why, it seemed close enough for her to just reach across with her hand. Or just hop forward. As if, if she just kept walking, she'd reach the other side. And as the frog thought this, the wheels in her head turning, she mimed as if to take a step forward. She raised up her foot, pausing in mid air briefly, and moved to step back down. But her foot never touched the ground.

There was a whirl of wind and sound and smells, and the world spun in front of her eyes. Until it reasserted itself into the familiar low-hanging darkness. Only this time her friends had vanished. The frog started, looking both before and around her, until she turned all the way back around, and there, behind her, were her friends, still perched at the mouth of the hole. Only the hole was behind her.

The frog blinked back at them from the other side of the pit trap.

"...how did you..."


Frog used fey step to cross the pit trap. On the other side, she's going to try and find the bridge the kobolds use to cross it. Perception [roll0]

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

"Hmm, I wonder" he says, pulling out his dagger and fiddling with the edges of the trap to see if he can reset it. "It didn't trigger when I went across, so it's possible that I am light enough. If I reset it, then maybe . . . Whoa!" Tanuk says the last suddenly, as Frog appears on the other side. "I'll fiddle with this here, you look for a plank or something we can use. Call if you need help!"

Thievery(?) to reset the trap: [roll0]

[dariathalon]

The tin soldier speaks just loud enough for the former frog to hear. "Very good, mistress. Very good indeed!"

It takes a few minutes of searching, but after a little while the former frog finds a long wooden plank hidden among the rubble on the southwest wall of the cave. After a brief struggle with a few heavy rocks, she can knock off enough of the loose rocks to pull it free.


The bridge was hidden in squares E-F 13. Gloria's perception would have been good enough to spot it, but she did not have line of sight to it. Tanuk's earlier exploration involved a particularly bad check, so he overlooked it.

With the plank, the party can easily cross to the other side of the pit and continue forward. I'll give you all a chance to post if you'd like to here, or else I'll move things along more either late tonight or tomorrow night.

[Gospel Noctis]

With the plank now in place Gloria retakes her position at the head of the pack, shield up and ready. "Lets move out. Be sure to keep an eye behind us, there's no telling just what we're about to walk into and the last thing we need it to get flanked."

Gloria will be moving forward in Total Defense once again.

[dariathalon]

Crossing the bridge over the rat pit is fairly easy once it is in place, and the party is quickly able to continue their trek. Leaving through the passage on the opposite side of the cavern, the party finds another tunnel similar to the last. It twists and turns a few more times before another bend where the passage widens slightly. A small doorway appears off to one side of the trail, and the passage continues on past it. Standing next to the doorway is a small reptilian humanoid with scales a putrid shade of green. He wears a suit of scale armor and a shield. Immediately upon seeing the group turn the corner he jumps to attention (he had been leaning against the wall lazily). His hand moves to the shortsword at his belt and he chitters something in a foreign tongue into the doorway behind him.

[Gospel Noctis]

'Well, seems like surprise isn't an advantage we're going to have. Not that I'm surprised.' The paladin mused, sizing up the would be gatekeeper. 'Let's see if we can get through this without spilling any blood.'

"Guard, do you speak common?" 'Huh, the basic language is called common, why am I just now realizing that? Whatever, I'll think about it later.'

[dariathalon]

A second kobold comes out the doorway to stand next to the first. This one is armed and armored similarly to the first, though when he steps out his shortsword is already in hand. This kobold is a few inches taller than the first and his scales have a slightly browner cast to them. His beady green eyes scan the party for a moment before responding in a raspy snarl that is heavily accented. "He does not, but I speak Common, winged one. What are you doing here, and why should we not cut you to ribbons where you stand? This is not a place for your kind."

[Gospel Noctis]

"I'll get straight to the point. According to our sources a friend of our community was abducted from her home recently by a band of kobolds." Gloria gives the guard a pointed look. "After following the trail of her kidnappers we have found ourselves here at your doorstep. Simply put, we want our friend back. As long as she is returned to us unharmed we are more than willing to overlook this transgression. Furthermore, if cooperation is given, we would potentially be willing to open up trade routes between our two groups in order to foster peaceful negotiations in the future. Now I don't really expect you to have the authority to permit this so I will allow you to take our request to someone who does."

[dariathalon]

The kobold chuckles. It is an odd sound somewhere between a human's snort and a reptilian hiss. "Oh, her. Yeah. I'm sure there's some around here who would love to get rid of her. I hear she's been a real clawful. Glad I got duty here instead of down by her cell. But no, there's no way we'll be giving her up. You all may as well turn around and go back to where you came from."

[Gospel Noctis]

Gloria pauses for a moment, gaze hardening. "May I ask why she was abducted in the first place? What use could you possibly have for her?"

[dariathalon]

"We took her at the command of the Mistress. What the Mistress wants her for is beyond my understanding. We don't question the Mistress, and you should probably learn that lesson as well, unless you want to be bathed in her toxic breath. The Mistress has spoken, we heed her words. We will keep the prisoner safe until the Mistress returns to give us further direction."

The kobold you'd seen first mutters something to the first in a language you don't know. The one you've been talking to responds exchanging a few quick words with the second one, probably relaying the conversation so far in their native tongue.


Parts of his speech seem to be rehearsed, as if repeating snips of religious indoctrination.

[Gospel Noctis]

"My apologies, we did not mean to offend. I am glad to hear that your Mistress is benevolent enough to ensure the safety of her prisoner for even as short a time as it has been." Gloria spoke, words dripping with honey. "Would it at all be possible to seek an audience with your most Great and Powerful Mistress? Maybe we could be of some use to her. After all, even though I was sent her to retrieve the woman who lived in the cottage, my main profession is one of servitude."

[dariathalon]

The kobold's eyes narrow as he considers Gloria's offer of service. "No, the Mistress is not here. She has only graced us with her glorious presence once. Tor-Pik says in ages long past our tribe was blessed with frequent visits from Masters, but the Mistress is new to us. Her first request of us was to bring in the loud one and hold her until the Mistress returns. We will not slack in our duty to the Mistress."

[Gospel Noctis]

"It seems that we're at an impasse." Gloria sighed wearily. "Unfortunately, we cannot leave Ms. Mayfly a captive. I plead with you to let us pass peacefully so that we can reclaim our comrade. Is there nothing we can offer that would convince you to release her?"

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

Whispering to the paladin, "Aye don' t'ink we be gettin' answers from a follower like t'em. Aye 'spect i's eit'er lies o' s'ords to ge' us pas' t'em."

[dariathalon]

The kobold looks at Gloria incredulously. "I doubt you have anything to offer that could compare to the Mistress' pleasure. But even if you could offer something, the decision is not mine to make. Tor-Pik would have me fried in batter and presented as a tasty kobold-morsel to the Mistress upon her return if I gave you the woman."

[Gospel Noctis]

"Then can you lead us to Tor-Pik?" The paladin requested. "I would assume that he would have the authority and in-depth knowledge of your Mistresses desires to negotiate a potential trade?"

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Looking level with one of the kobolds, Tanuk listens to Gloria go back and forth with them, trying to negotiate their passage. "Look, we just need to see our friend to see that she's safe. I know how this works - we can make you look good to your boss or even to this mistress lady." Tanuk speaks in a way that tries to convey he understands the criminal side of things, and how to grease the wheels of society to make things work out in the kobolds' favor in the eyes of their superiors.

Assist: See the critical I rolled in OOC

[dariathalon]

The kobold guard eyes you all over with suspicion for a tense moment. He turns his head and shares a quick conversation with the other guard in their hissing language. "Alright, let's go. But we'll be watching you. ESPECIALLY you spider-lover," he says thrusting a clawed finger at Adrienne. The other guard moves back into the room just off the passage and relays a message on to someone inside there before returning to his post outside the door.

The guard who has spoken common gestures for you to follow him. He leads you down a winding passage with several offshoot passages. It crosses your mind that it could be difficult to find your way back out of here without guidance. Every once in a while you catch a glimpse of another kobold, as soon as they see you the disappear back down one of the side passages until you've passed. Taking a sudden turn around a corner leads you into a large(ish) room filled with tables. Several kobolds are here eating. At one end of the room, sitting at the most elaborately dressed table sits an older looking kobold with a large pot belly and a sour expression.

The kobolds all freeze as you enter the room and sit staring at you and the guard who lead you in. The older kobold speaks in a hoarse but commanding voice. "What is the meaning of this Nikjik? Why do you bring these strangers into our hall?"

"They have requested to speak with you about the woman," your guide turns to you. "That's him, I'd make your case quickly. Tor-Pik is a crotchety old one and doesn't have much patience," Nikjik says in a hushed tone. "And speak up, he's half deaf."

As Nikjik speaks to you, Tor-Pik gestures to one of the guards standing near him. He says something in their hissing draconic tongue and the guard immediately leaves the room walking past where the party is standing and back down the hallway.

[Gospel Noctis]

Gloria steps forward. "My name is Gloria Whittaker, paladin of Pelor and resident of the village of Redwater." She announces. "I have come on behalf of the people of Redwater in order to negotiate the peaceful release of one Ms. Mayfly, of whom you now hold captive."

[dariathalon]

He squints at Gloria as she speaks, appearing to listen carefully. When she finishes, he breaks out into a wheezing laugh, which quickly breaks down into a coughing fit. He takes a drink from a cup on the table before him before responding.

"I fully intend to peacefully release the woman... right into the waiting claws of Mistress Shelugax. What is done with her from there is not my concern. So, what do you intend to give us for this peaceful release? Since we plan to give up the woman anyway, I see no reason to refuse whatever offers you have for us," Tor-Pik says while leering at you.

[Gospel Noctis]

"Unfortunately, we know little of your peoples want's and needs." Gloria replied, face and voice even and calm, betraying little of the annoyance his tone and choice of words have caused. "What is it that you and your mistress desire? What is it that your mistress hopes to gain from our acquaintance? Please, enlighten us."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Watching the interaction back and forth, Tanuk pipes up. "What is it that your Mistress intends to do with this friend of ours? Or rather, what does she need from the witch? If it is an item, we can take it from her. If it is a service," Tanuk gestures toward his friends, "our skills are varied. If it is a snack . . . last I heard witches don't taste too good."

Tanuk knows that he is slight of stature but still does his best to appear large and confident, which is awkward next to the statuesque Gloria.

[dariathalon]

The overweight kobold takes another greasy piece of meat from the table in front of him and tosses it back into his mouth before responding. His manners are awful as you can still see the half-chewed morsel in his mouth as he responds.

"What we want is to make our Mistress happy first and foremost. While we have desires beyond that (gold, jewels, fine food and drink), they pale in comparison to pleasing Shelugax. Any of the other desires we may have would not last for long if the Mistress decides to take them. So unless you have a way to please her more than your with will, then I don't know what you could offer." He shrugs his shoulders before continuing. "I don't know what Shelugax intends for her exactly. The Mistress said she longed for this creature's companionship and that she would be pleased if we could return her to the Mistress. It seemed kind of an odd request to me, but dragons can be fickle in their desires."

[Gospel Noctis]

"I...See..." The deva replied, mind whirling at the implications of the old kobolds statement. Silence claimed the room as she pondered her next move, choosing her actions carefully. Seemingly coming to a decision, Gloria once again focused on Tor-Pik. "May we be permitted to speak with the captive? If all your mistress seeks is companionship, perhaps our friend would be inclined to provide such a service by her own free will? Such would benefit all of us greatly. We would be assured of our friends well being, and your mistress would surely be impressed by your services if you not only managed to obtain the companion she desired, but also managed to convince her to agree with the arrangements beforehand, saving your mistress the time and effort needed to do so herself."

[Meltheim]

Tanuk

Pursing his lips and furrowing his brow, Tanuk asks, "Have you, um, actually met this dragon? I mean, she told you to go get Ms. Mayfly, right? I know sometimes I did things that I thought a girl wanted even though she never told me, and it turns out she didn't even care . . . let alone know who I was . . . "

[Tegu8788]

Hrodebert

"Don' worry ki', we al' done t'at." Shifting slightly to give the younger man a push on the shoulder, he uses the momentum to look around the room, trying to take in as much as he can.

[roll0]

[dariathalon]

"OF COURSE WE'VE MET HER!" the kobold snarls. "She just made herself known to us just recently. How do you think we knew to acquire that woman in particular? If we had our choice in the matter, we would have found someone who didn't kick and scream so much. Shelugax requested her."

He gives Gloria a wary eye. "I suppose speaking to her might not be out of the question. But how do I know you won't try to run off with her as soon as we reveal where we've got her stashed away? You've already proven yourselves very motivated to get her back if you were willing to push far enough into the caves to find our guard post. If you'll keep going after that opposition, what is to say you won't go further?"

Hrodebert's quick look around the cavern doesn't reveal much that isn't immediately obvious. This cavern is fairly large, with several rows of tables. It seems to be a dining room of sorts. There are a total of five passages leading out of this room. Three of them are much like the one you entered through. The other two lead immediately into a room that appears to be a kitchen area. The furnishings in this room are mostly simple chairs and tables, though the table that Tor-Pik sits at looks more elaborate in structure and design than the others, even sporting a table cloth and centerpiece display. There are several kobold men scattered around the room. Some armed and armored, but most appear to be simple workers. Many of the workers even have brought their work-tools to the table, leaving picks and shovels leaning against the table legs or the wall nearby. You seem to have arrived near the end of the meal as most plates are nearly empty.


I'll need another skill check (along with an appropriate IC post) to convince Tor-Pik to let you see Maggy. Diplomacy seems like the most likely choice, although a well-explained bluff or intimidate might work too. There might be other possibilities as well that aren't occuring to me immediately.

[Gospel Noctis]

With a weary sigh, the paladin locks eyes with the kobold leader, her glowing, half-lidded gaze burning itself into his memory. "That should speak for itself, my dear Tor-Pik." Her voice flat, and devoid of emotion, seeming to rattle with the promise of a swift death. "If you do not lead us to her, we will simply seek her out without your blessing. Know this, one way or another, we must speak to this woman; More lives and livelihoods than just ours may depend on it. The only reason we've come as far as we have to speak with you is to avoid needlessly laying waste to your people when the situation could be still be resolved without bloodshed."

"But rest assured," The winged warriors countenance brightened considerably, a soft comforting smile gracing her lips. "We swear to do all that is within our power to make sure this situation resolves itself favorably for both of our peoples. And if that involves convincing a stubborn old woman in a prison cell to go be best friends with a dragon then so be it. We will do all that we can to make sure everyone involved in this situation comes out of it in better states than they went in. That we," She paused a moment, smile brightening. "I, promise you."

Intimidate: [roll0]
Diplomacy: [roll1]

[dariathalon]

Tor-Pik yawns as Gloria lays her threats out in front of him, in an obvious attempt to counter her posturing in front of his underlings. "I would watch that threatening tongue if I were you. Shelugax has given me power to protect my people. And on the off chance that you should escape my breath, I am sure that our Mistress would not be pleased with you're attempts to interrupt our doing her will. You will not escape from her too."

He sighs with a wheezing whistle. "But I suppose her commands have said nothing forbidding us from letting you speak to her. Come along. We will go to her." He hoists himself out of his seat with some effort and begins a waddling walk out one of the other passages. The armed and armored kobolds that were standing near him follow him out the door. Nikjik, the kobold who had led you in, waits for the party to follow Tor-Pik and then continues along as a rear-guard for the group.

After being led down a few more narrow and winding passages, you reach a smaller room with a few cages built into the walls. A human woman with frizzy salt-and-pepper hair sits with her back to her bars. Those members of the party who had previously had contact with Maggy Mayfly recognize her, and by outward appearances, she doesn't seem to have changed.

[Gospel Noctis]

Stepping forward, clearing her throat loudly in an attempt to gain the imprisoned womans attention. "Ms. Mayfly? My name is Gloria Whittaker, of Redwater. We've been sent to make sure you were alright, and also, to ask you a few questions."

She hesitated a moment, glancing briefly at the kobolds currently listening in before turning back to the cell. "Things have been a bit, strange, the last few days. Both the town and the people have gone through a few changes, myself included. We were sent to see how you were handling things yourself, and to see if you might know anything about it."