IC Age of Monsters 1

[Mishkov]

You have been living in a haze for some time now. You can't tell for sure after your capture or in some cases really remember the method of your capture. You are chained to a table, your body aches all over, no distinct pain. You can't really move. You can't use your abilities. There's something blocking, something....drifting...


http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs42/i/2009/058/8/6/La_Tortura_III_by_Daiquiriglass.jpg

You see yourself--quite literally, it is as if you can look all around from somewhere else. Though, also chained to the table, there are scars on your body. You can see a worm boring into your side. A man walks by and examines you; you watch as he opens your eyes, taps on your chest. A psicrystal whizzes by, he looks to it and moves away. You see tentacles from his face as his moves--a mind flayer? You try to scream...but you're not even you...drifting...

You wake up again, the smell of the place is something you'll never get used to, the rot, the blood, another strange man with batlike wings....drifting again....

There is a sudden sharp pain and you are jarred back awake, it is if your blood is on fire. You cannot move, it feels as though your arm moves on its own, the pain intensifies and you drift off again.

Again you awake. This time to noises. You hear the man yelling something incoherent. The crystal hums in response. You arch your neck and can see the mind flayer magically sealing a door. A roar emanates and the door pulses as something assaults it. Cursing the man says to his crystal We can't leave the subjects...yes....I know, we must, but they've come so far. They're not yet complete. She has found us again...No, I know we cannot fight her. There is a sudden boom on the door and it begins to buckle. Dragonfire rips through the room as the man and monster teleports away. You hear a loud snorting and then hear the beast move away.

Your bonds relax, your magics come back to you. You feel...release. Looking around you find yourself in a horrifying room. Others are also now up and looking around. The room probably has around 30 tables. Races seem paired together in small clusters, but no other pattern can really be seen, and there seems to be a smattering of many different races on the tables as if it was important to have many represented. Several still have worms attached to them. Most are dead and rotting. A couple seem to have thrown up worms or the worms perhaps are just devouring them from the inside out post-mordim. Many resemble you almost exactly. You wonder if they were making copies of you or what the motives were. It's impossible to tell. Avaria is at first startled by seeing Azaela dead next to her, but the body is too far gone by wounds and bruises...she decides upon closer inspection that they just bears a strange resemblance. Strange crystals line the room as well. It's impossible to what sort of horrifying magic occurred here. The mind flayers are things of legend, you did not know they roamed back above the underdark and in the prime in general, but the stitching had unleashed all sorts of horrors to this world.

Your bonds relax further, you can move, and you sit upright. Waves of nausea overwhelm you, and most of you find yourself face down on the dirty floor, dry heaving until it passes.

All
DC 35 fort save or nauseated for 5 minutes
Then DC 30 for another 15 minutes
Then DC 25 fro another 5 minutes
Then DC10 will save for 30 minutes until you make it
...nothing will attack, mostly just for effect.
You have no spells memorized if they require any sort of preparation, you have no items, you have are fatigued
Roll a d3, if you roll a 1, you still have a worm attached to you. DC15 STR, or DC20 heal to remove it
DC35 arcana or DC30 nature to ID it
You can talk about your captures, they happened a variety of ways, but all end with you in the company (sold or immediately) of the winged man with the psi crystal and passing out.
When you're ready to move on, let me know. You see only one doorway.

Picture source http://daiquiriglass.deviantart.com/art/La-Tortura-III-114334874

Ranulf
As you awake, you find a crystal raises from the ground and begins to hover around you. It seems harmless and does not communicate with you, but follows you.

Faye
The creatures around you are a random assortment. Some changlings, some mongrelfolk, some you do not recognize. You have strange symbols burned into your body.

Soma
+8 STR, +8 DEX, +2 CON temporary score changes. After the puking subsides, you feel stronger and more powerful. Then you realize: you are now male, and a strong one at that.

Aliana
Moon cycle days [roll0] 15 is full moon.
You feel twitchy, it's as if not the same beast that is typically unleashed is riding with you. Like there's another presence clouding your mind. You worried what the worms have done to you and if their presence still clouds your mind.


Halred
+3 STR, +4 DEX, +2 CON temp bonus. You also feel stronger from the rituals.
You temporarily lose your tentacle and bonuses from that (Illithid grapple feat)

Avaria
Your feet and wrists are burned from the iron.
You had vivid nightmares the entire time that you were captured. You are exhausted and not just fatigued.

[J-H]

Aliana

DC 35 fort save or nauseated for 5 minutes
Then DC 30 for another 15 minutes [roll1]
Then DC 25 fro another 5 minutes [roll2]
Then DC10 will save for 30 minutes until you make it [roll3]
...nothing will attack, mostly just for effect.
You have no spells memorized if they require any sort of preparation, you have no items, you have are fatigued
Roll a d3, if you roll a 1, you still have a worm attached to you. [roll4]
DC15 STR, or DC20 heal to remove it Str [roll5] Heal [roll6]
DC35 arcana or DC30 nature to ID it K:nature [roll7]


Alaina vomits on the floor,rolling away from it. She grits her teeth and tries to push up, but ends up nearly blacking out as the room spins about her, and her stomach spins within her. Frustrated, she sees the hand laying on the ground in front of her start to sprout fur and claws. She forces it back, and that same force of will eventually steadies her stomach. She sits, then pulls herself up on the table. Seeing the worms attached to a few, she has a faint memory; tearing a hole in the rags that barely protect her modesty, she's relieved (sort of) to find only a red, puckered round scar.

She looks at the table; one of the levers used to rotate and pull is about 3 feet long, made of iron, and is only held in place by a simple cross-pin, so that it can be removed if it gets in the way. She pulls it out, hefts it thoughtfully, and SMASHES all the wooden pieces and delicate machinery on the table, hitting it repeatedly until there's nothing left to break. Barely breathing harder, she looks around.

"Well, that's a bit better." There are a couple of corpses nearby that look like they could be related to her, but she has no sisters or female cousins, so they obviously aren't. Her "bed" is near the wall, just a few feet from a large crystal.


She has a club, and the crystal might be related to what happened to her. No need for an attack roll- it's not dodging.
Smash! Damage [roll]1d6+3

[Magikeeper]

Current effective Str: 0 (5 - 6)
Fort: [roll0]
Fort: [roll1]
Fort: [roll2]
Until it is made: Fort: [roll3]

Worm: [roll4]
Nature: [roll5]
Arcana: [roll6]

Hopeless Strength Che... no wait, Avaria actually can't move while exhausted (Effective Strength 0, heh.) I'll assume she woke up with her head looking the right direction to notice the not-her-niece (Azalea's mother) and some worms. [As noted in the OOC, Azalea was born long after Avaria got stuck in quintessence but she looks like her mother so it still works.

**It wasn't Avena, it wasn't Avena. But how many fey like her were there? Maybe they'd taken her first! Maybe.. gha!

The pained fairy tries to look down at her body, but finds the motion to be mostly beyond her exhausted muscles. The flittering of the little creature in the corner of her eye, however, is more than enough to remind her of the worm that was still burrowing into her body. She had to get it out. She-she had to get it out. The small woman tries her hardest to move an arm towards the creature but fails. She tries wielding her powers, but only manages to wield the contents of her stomach out onto her bench.

Moaning for help. She tries moaning for help.**

[Breitheamh]

Halred

Finding himself able to speak for the first time since his capture, Halred screams, "Aereck!" before rolling off the table and convulsing with nausea.

After retching a few more times and collapsing on the floor, he slowly gets up, trying to find his bearings. As he just gets his head above a table, he sees what looks like a copy of himself, tentacle and all. He screams again, crawling vigorously back away from the horrifying sight. He leans his head against the side of another table and closes his eyes.

He tries to steady himself and his breathing as tears well up behind his eyes. No, he tells himself. You control your fears, they do not control you. Finally he stands up and takes stock of his surroundings.

Everything was a blur. The last thing he remembered before the nightmarish moments of waking was Overlight. But what was it? The man with the bat wings said he knew, and something about Halred's parents. Oh, why did he have to be so naive? Aereck would never have been so stupid.

He shakes his head a couple times to clear it and heads over to inspect the crystals lining the walls.

Fort [roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
Will [roll3]
Worm [roll4]
Heal (nevermind)[roll5]
Str (nevermind)[roll6]

[Nettlekid]

DC 35 fort save or nauseated for 5 minutes [roll0]
Then DC 30 for another 15 minutes [roll1]
Then DC 25 fro another 5 minutes [roll2]
Then DC10 will save for 30 minutes until you make it [roll3]

Roll for worm. [roll4]
Remove worm (if I have one) (Can I do both? Strength check: [roll5] Heal check: [roll6]
ID worm (if I have one) (Can't make the check but I'll roll anyway) Knowledge: Arcana: [roll7]


EDIT: Urgh, fairly poor show all around.

Head aching and vision foggy, Faye begins to reawaken. But she can hardly tell she isn't dreaming. No...no, this has to be a dream, this can't be happening for real! This...this disgusting place, these horrible people! Those things she can barely remember, seen from outside her own eyes as she lay defenseless on a table to be butchered. She immediately tried to remove the thought from her mind. A sharp pain in her stomach causes her to double over, and her vision swims as she retches. If there was anything in her stomach, she'd throw it up, but all she coughs up is a trickle of bile. She spits, wipes her mouth with her arm, and recoils at the sight of a disgusting worm burrowing into her flesh on her side. Frantically she tries first to yank it out, and then more carefully dig underneath it to pry it out from her skin, but to no avail. This...this is the worst thing in the world. Here she sat, powerless, at the mercy of anyone who came in and...again, no, she didn't want to think about it. It's the kind of thing that happens to other people, right? The people you don't actually know but you hear about from time to time, and you think 'Oh that's so sad' but you soon put it out of your mind because it's not you. It's never you! Why is it her now?!

No. No, now isn't the time to wallow in self-pity. This is a terrible situation, one that never should have happened, but the fact is that it IS happening. And that means she's got to pull herself out of it. It would be a lie to say she's dealt with worse before, but there have been dark situations that she's twisted and risen out of in the past. I need a plan she decided. Well, the long-term plan is to buy a Restoration, a Remove Disease, and get a lovely little Bard to cast Modify Memory as many times as it takes to wipe this entire event from my head. It'll be like it never happened. Hold onto that. Remember that you'll never remember this. You just need to live through it now.

Taking a few uneasy breaths to steady herself, Faye began to take in the room around her, as well as the state of her own body. Wincing, she touched the strange symbols that were now adorning her body. Why are these here? she wondered. To mark Changelings, maybe? No matter the form we take, the marks will still show? She tried to change shape, to see if the markings would vanish under a new skin, but she still felt too sick to her stomach to focus even on this simplest of biological abilities. Failing that, she turned her gaze to the others beginning to stand and move amongst the dead, and took a sharp inhale as one of them violently attacked a crystal. Barbarians? Marauders? Cutthroats and criminals? Whatever gods are left, have mercy on me... Too nervous to speak aloud, Faye reached into her mind and extended her Telepathy out to see who was alive and who was not. The patterns of thought resonated in her mind like an echoing sonar, and she connected herself to a nearby figure who seemed in an even worse shape than herself, a small fairy figure burned at the limbs, moaning in pain and seeming unable to move.

Hey. Hey, fairy girl. Over here, to your right. The name's Faye. You look like I feel, which means you gotta feel even worse than me. I don't want to speak, in case we're being listened to, and I'm a little worried about who else got thrown in here with us. But you look pretty harmless, and I think I need all the help I can get. You can talk to me just by thinking towards me. Who are you? Why are you here? Can you remember anything about how you got here, because I sure can't.

[Magikeeper]

**Avaria focuses on the voice in her head, fighting through her nausea to attempt a reply. **

Avaria - <I'm Avaria! Can you remove the bedworm from me? I'm too tired to move my body and if it forces me back to sleep... please help me! I don't know who exactly brought me here but I can help you find out!>

[JBarca]

DC 35 fort save or nauseated for 5 minutes [roll0]
Then DC 30 for another 15 minutes [roll1]
Then DC 25 fro another 5 minutes [roll2]
Then DC10 will save for 30 minutes until you make it [roll3] (If needed) [roll4]
You have no spells memorized if they require any sort of preparation, you have no items, you have are fatigued
Roll a d3, if you roll a 1, you still have a worm attached to you. [roll5]
DC15 STR, or DC20 heal to remove it (If needed) Str [roll6]
DC35 arcana or DC30 nature to ID it (Can't succeed)

EDIT: Wow. Good rolls.

A large-ish Dwarf rolls off of his table and groans. He heaves, then coughs. Heaves, then coughs. Finally, vomit bursts forth from his mouth, dirtying his beard, clothes, and the floor. He groans again and immediately sets to cleaning his facial hair, to no real result. Before he can even contemplate another action, though, he coughs again, leaving spittle and strings of internal fluids hanging from his lips. He alternates between heaving and cleaning for nearly half an hour before finally getting a hold of himself. He rolls over and groans loudly.

After a moment, he rolls again and stands shakily. He looks around for a moment, then grabs his crotch in confusion.
"What in the name of Boccob's Blessed Buttocks is going on here?" He stumbles backward and bumps into a table, almost falling in the process. He quickly, and gracefully (for a Dwarf, especially), catches himself, looking surprised the whole while.

"What is this? Someone speak up!" Noticing that the others are all in similar states of disarray, he stops for a moment.

"What's the problem, here? Someone should get to talking!" Glaring angrily about, especially at those who seems to have not yet fully recovered, the Dwarf waits.

[Mishkov]

I was hoping to catch the first few posts earlier, oh well! The effect will stand.


It wasn't Avena, it wasn't Avena. But how many fey like her were there? Maybe they'd taken her first! Maybe.. gha!
You control your fears, they do not control you
Well, the long-term plan is to buy a Restoration, a Remove Disease, and get a lovely little Bard to cast Modify Memory as many times as it takes to wipe this entire event from my head. It'll be like it never happened. Hold onto that. Remember that you'll never remember this. You just need to live through it now

The thoughts rip through your head. Intrusive and loud. Your own mind being flooded with the thoughts of others, all screaming out in pain together as your bodies are wracked by the effects of the worms.

You are all linked telepathically...you currently do not have much discipline. If you have psionic background, you can hide thoughts from others with a DC10 autohyponsis check. Otherwise you're all yell thinking at each other.

You see the barbarous looking woman smashing a crystal a club. Aliana moves to break the crystal. It retreats back humming and then moves back closer to her. You have the distinct reminder of a scene where a puppy who was just kicked returns to its master.

Halred
That's clearly a psicrystal that Aliana is beating on. Why someone would beat on a psicrystal that seems to be following them immediately after awakening in this dungeon seems odd.

I was unclear. There are no tentacles on your body.

Avaria
The worms are worms known in the underdark as bedworms. They sap your strength and put you to sleep. It takes a long time, but eventually they breed within you and their young consume you form the inside out. The sleep worms often take a week or so before their young begin to infest you. These seem to be a different species though, like they somehow are giving and taking nutrients from you, extending their cycle. The worms in rare instances have animated people and controlled their actions.

What you do know, however, is that you are feeling drowsy again. If the worms are not removed soon, everyone will drift back into unconsciousness.

[J-H]

Aliana
Aliana staggers as voices rip through her head. She abandons her plan to smash the large crystals in favor of looking at the others.
As if this mess couldn't get any worse than the Gruumsh-vomit cathole it already...


(aloud and also as thought)

"Hey, you've still got one of those worms on you! Don't move!"

The tall, muscular scarred woman, with white streaks in her hair, wearing rags and carrying a crude iron bar, half-jogs to Avaria, casually vaulting a table with one hand in the process despite the bags under her eyes.

She looks at the worm, then grasps it behind the head and pulls. If that doesn't work, she grabs both ends of the iron bar and places the middle across the worm, bearing down with her weight and muscle to crush its neck area.


Strength check to pull it off [roll0] (accounting for fatigue).
Not sure what kind of check (if any) is needed to crush it. It can't dodge or fight back, and that sort of pressure would do serious damage to a human neck.

[Mishkov]

The worm is slippery and wrangles out of her hands, but the muscular woman easily manages to smash it with the iron bar. It pops and the gunk flies everywhere. Bits of worm are still attached to Avaria. You can see how it slides its tendrils into flesh. She bleeds from the wound, but manages the strength to move again.

Avaria gains +1 temporary strength so she can move around and stuff :smallsmile:

[Magikeeper]

Avaria gargles out a "thank you", meekly looking upward at the.. looking upward!? "I can move again! We- *BLARPH* *Cough* *Cough*"

[J-H]

Aliana
Hah! I wonder if I can find a few more to do that to! Aliana pulls the head out and puts pressure on the wound until the bleeding slows.

"Here, let me give you a hand up. I'm Aliana." She extends her hand toward Avaria to help her sit up.

Aliana looks around at the others. "I think those things might be in some of us, still, or something, since I think I heard someone's thoughts. She spits on the floor. "My head is crowded enough already, I don't want some freak worm in me. We need to get out of here and find a shaman or godsman to get them out of us."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria tried her best to calm down as the kind, rather tough-looking woman firmly presses against the wound. Things might still turn out ok.


She graciously accepts the offered hand, finally managing to send a glance Faye's way once she's been helped up. A glance that reveals the worm! still wriggling in the the scarred woman.


"I'm Avaria. She has a bedworm stuck in her." *points to Faye* "If we don't get rid of them they're going to put us back to sleep. Soon."

[Breitheamh]

Halred winces and holds his head as the echoing thoughts rattle through his brain. He tries to form a coherent statement to try and quiet everyone down, struggling to keep his thoughts soft as he does.

Whoa! Everyone, please, calm down. Easy with the yelling.

Exasperated, he concentrates for a moment and pushes the thoughts of the others to one side of his mind and focuses on the crystals.

Hmm... psicrystals, he thinks quietly. He strokes his chin for a moment in thought, then suddenly notices, No tentacle! Huh! Look at that!

[JBarca]

Glaring around at everyone equally, the Dwarf shouts, "Get out of my head! What's in there belongs to me and Boccob!"

After a moment, he walks toward the nearest creature with a worm still attached, inadvertently sending out his thoughts as he does so. Well, I suppose if I get rid of these leeches, this lot'll be more likely to discuss things calmly.

She takes hold of the beast and gives a sharp yank.

Strength check to forcefully remove the worm from the creature: [roll0]

[Nettlekid]

Strength check to forcefully remove the worm from the creature: [roll0]

(I think the nearest creature with a worm is me?)

Faye recoils and clutches her head as telepathic feedback screeches in her mind, which is actually a good thing because her distraction makes her far less afraid of the gruff Dwarf stomping over and ripping the worm out of her. She cries out in pain and repeats her not-quite-vomit retch.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND, IF WE-
"Screw this, I'll just try to speak aloud," she panted. "I've used Telepthy before, and something around here seems to be amplifying it so that our every thought is projected toward one another. For the sake of volume if nothing else I'm going to do my best to speak my thoughts the moment they come and not actually think them toward one another.

She staggered to her feet, trying her best to keep her mind clear for the sake of the others, but it was harder than she hoped and half-formed fragments of thoughts echoed out from her.
SHE CALLED THIS A-DAMN IT I'M THINKING
"You, fairy girl. You called the thing a 'bedworm.' How do you know what it is? I've seen nothing like it. What do you know of this place? What do ANY of you know of this place, these vermin, and...whatever it was that I saw while I slept? Was it only me that saw it? The...the..."
HOW DO I DESCRIBE THAT TENTACLED CREATURE? IT LOOKED LIKE, WHAT WERE THOSE THINGS, MIND FLAYERS? BUT IT-OH MY GOD I'M THINKING, I HATE THIS! I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS!

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Sitting up just made the world spin. Falling over, he tries to retreat into a trance while his body expelled what didn't belong. Once it finishes trying to retch out his innards, he stays on the floor, eyes closed, trying to breath slowly until the quivering stops. Only then does he start making sense of whatever was around him. So that wasn't hell... The noise disguised it well.

Once again he retreats, this wasn't unfamiliar. Never to this degree of madness, but he'd heard voices before. Block them out, they would not help now. With deep breaths, he concentrates filtering out the panicked cries from actual telepathy.

Eyes still closed, his goes to his knees and senses what he can. One step at a time. How many living were there? He takes his time here, not because of difficulty, but because it was familiar. He needed to get his bearing first, then maybe he could come to terms to what he'd just lived through. Remaining here would help no one though. He concentrates, one last thing before taking in the color of the current world, and sustains his body. He had no idea how long it had been, but whatever they'd done to him, however they'd kept him alive despite their best efforts to do the opposite, it stopped now. He was his own again, it would stay so.

He opens his eyes and raises, a hand going to where he'd seen the holes. This was not a welcoming sight, though his eyes land on the floating crystal, anything that had a hint of familiar. "Chisel?" Puzzled, he extends a hand and invites it closer, if it doesn't move, he tries to snatch it from the air. No... The elder's could make their's float, but she's said she wasn't there yet... unless. He finally moves, going over the other nearby bodies, looking for his teacher.

Autohypnosis [roll0] (+7 on sheet, +2 Synergy from Concentration) to get a hold of the telepathy lowering the volume and moving it to background noise unless it was direct.

Move action for Earth Sense, counting how many creatures there are within 20ft that are touching the ground. He'll try to discern creatures from carcasses, if possible.

1pp for Elan Repletion, no need for food or water for 24 hours.

Lastly, he'll try to interact with the crystal, and look over the others of his race.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria had started to answer Faye, only to end up clutching her head as the woman's mental shouts bored into her consciousness. "Please.. stop.. I just.. know a lot about animals and magic. These bedworms have been modified, I think."

[J-H]

Aliana
"How do we get them OUT? I can probably get mine out, but... the consequences might not be so good."

[Mishkov]

You are the only ones alive, there are beds for around 35 others, all dead upon closer inspection. Some of them have different parasites attached. There are a variety of crystals and other symbols drawn underneath. There were runes glowing when you awoke, but now you realize they are fading fast. They do not look dwarvish or elvish or anything you would expect from runes. The entire place feels alien. Again a wave of the stentch of the place hits you. There are no windows, you are clearly underground.

DC25 nature OR DC25 dungeoneering, PLUS DC 15 spot or search
You notice other parasites in the mix now that you have looked closely. Others have been attached to. You recognize one as a cerebral hood and another as a gutworm.

Avaria

You'd know that generally you remove them with a remove disease spell if you are infested though it's possible that people were not infested and it was just draining and putting them to sleep. It depends on how long enough people were abducted and how fast these move. They can be removed with mundane (surgical) ways, but it takes someone incredibly skilled to do so (DC35 heal check).

Ranulf

The crystal moves over into your hand. It hums with familiarity I'm glad you're awake master, you suddenly hear in your mind. They did strange things in this place. I hid, others were not so lucky.

[Nettlekid]

Faye was having trouble staying on her feet, her stomach doing somersaults and her fatigue exacerbated by the trauma. She drew herself up and managed to balance on stiffened legs.
We were restrained before but now we're free. Whoever did this wants us to leave. Are we to spread the parasitic infection, or are we forced to be agents of-I'M THINKING AGAIN!
"Okay, you all just heard what I thought, but there's no use dwelling on it for right now. The only choice pertaining to it is if we want to stay alive or die, and I want to stay alive. We need to get out of here, but we have to be smart about it. There's only one door, unless there are secret passages. If any of you think themselves sharp-eyed enough to find one be my guest, but I think it's a fool's errand in these dark, dank, debilitating conditions. If any of you have teleportation magic then I would be glad to hear it, though I don't know how well it would fare without a node, and in all probability this dungeon is dimensionally sealed. Our best choice is likely the obvious path, which could very well be a trap, except that we were already at our most vulnerable and there's nothing they could gain from a trap that they couldn't have taken already. You, Sir Dwarf, your kind is innately able to tell depth underground, is it not? How deep are we? It might be a clue as to if this is a jail beneath a castle, a tomb or catacombs, some subterranean passage beneath a mountain, or who knows what else?

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Introductions are in order. My name is Faye, and I'm in the business of making miracles happen. It's been a while since I've had to work my magic to serve myself, but desperate times and all that. I'd appreciate us being able to work together, and I'd like for you to trust that I'll be acting in all our best interests as long as I can figure out what they are. I'd like to hear more about yourselves, so I know exactly who I'm dealing with and how each of you can help us all get out of here, okay?"

Not really sure if a roll means anything, but since Faye's trying to paint herself as the charismatic leader type, Diplomacy [roll0]

[Ryuuk]

But I never... He runs his thumb over the crystal and answers its message. I'm still a bit lost... was Liecia among the lucky? In the back of his mind he tries to remember Chisel, that little trinket she cared for so much. Was this her psicrystal?

The the runes begin to fade, he notes the ones closest to where he woke and commits them to memory. They made no sense, not to him at least, but they might help piece things together latter.

I don't suppose you can see the worms, can you? They seemed to be causing a mess for the others, but it seemed he was lucky.

Autohypnosis to try to memorize the exact shapes of the three closest runes. He'll take ten if possible, if not, he'll make checks until he succeeds in three. [roll0], [roll1], [roll2], [roll3], [roll4]

[Breitheamh]

Halred grasps his head again as the telepathic sounds come rushing in once more. He grits his teeth for a moment and concentrates. When he has gotten the noise under control and processed the conversation happening near the tables, he walks back over and curiously examines the worms.

"Avaria, was it? These aren't all the same worm. Some are cerebral hoods or gutworms as well as the bedworms you mentioned."

He pauses for a bit and largely ignores Faye's speech, not out of spite, but just because he'd found something more interesting to concentrate. He tries to piece together their situation and thinks aloud for everyone to hear clearly, Ok, we're in a room with tables covered in corpses and various parasites. We all woke up sick, some of us with worms. There are psicyrstals lining the walls, and apparently following some of us, he nods at Ranulf and Aliana, and I think there was an Illithid here. Do we have anything else to go on?

While he waits for a coherent response, he smiles courteously at Faye and holds out his hand, "Nice to meet you Faye. I'm Halred. I control my fears. What do you do?"

Autohypnosis [roll0]
Kn Nature [roll1]
Kn Dungeoneering [roll2]
Spot [roll3]
Search take 20 for a result of 23 if the Spot doesn't work.

[Magikeeper]

**Avaria had started to respond during Faye's speech, but had paused to let the woman finish talking. Having to talk so fast you can't think sounded really difficult, it was actually pretty impressive the way she kept pouring it out!

It was still a bad situation, but the endless parade of horrors- psicrystals!?**

ENLA!

The fairy frantically gazes about the room and even below her bench for any sign of her own companion. She stretches her mind outward as well, hoping to tap the mental link between the two.

"Did anyone see a psycrystal that couldn't fly? Mostly clear with a few pinkish veins? I can teleport us out if we find a darknode but I don't want to leave-"

The psion starts coughing again, but the nausea had already emptied her stomach. The rest of the horror parade would have to go without.

Knowledge Nature: [roll0]
Knowledge Dung: [roll1]
Spot: [roll2]
Search [roll3]

Psicrystal and master have a 1 mile telepathic link. If the crystal is in that area there are a number of reasons I could use to explain why it wouldn't have said anything yet (At some point you just stop or at least take a break from trying to talk to your delirious master), although there is probably some other reason.

[Nettlekid]

There is absolutely no way I'm going to keep track of all these psicrystals. How does this party have so many of them?

I also don't have any ranks in Decipher Script, but I want to make an Int check to see if I can spot any patterns between the symbols found on survivors versus the similar dead, like "what is it that had these ones survive that the dead ones lacked" or something like that?
Int check [roll0]

Faye nodded to Halred, but did not take his hand. "Control your fears? No wonder you're so calm. And me, well, it's hard to say, but people come to me with their problems and I fix their lives in whatever way I can. I weave new realities and change peoples' lives for the better. In this time where the gods are dead, the wayward spirit needs guidance when confronting a dangerous world. I provide that guidance."

And I should start putting my money where my mouth is. I need to think of everything I can to fix whatever this is. Well to start, we seem to be missing some. Everyone's thinking about people they're missing. Have they...argh, you can still hear me. I HATE THIS.
"Everyone, please, we need to calm our minds. For one I'm sick of hearing everyone shouting in my head, and I'm sure you're the same. But more importantly, we're not getting anything done if we don't think clearly. It sounds like you're all missing someone, or at least were with someone when you were taken. Faerie Avaria, earlier you thought the name 'Avena,' and you thought Enla just now. You there, young man with the dark hair, you thought 'Liecia.' Who are these people to you? Perhaps it's not us these people want after all, but those close to us.

And speaking of 'others,' I'm also concerned as I daresay you should be, about these...well, corpses. Corpses are concerning enough, but there is something deeply unnatural about these. My face isn't easy to capture, and yet I see it half-devoured a dozen times over!"
One more thing to erase. One more thing I never want to see in my mind's eye again. Just hold out, remember that your mind can be massaged, hold onto the idea of that Modify...Memory...
Faye's eyes widened, suddenly feeling even less sure of herself than she did before.
"How much of this can we even trust? We know literally NOTHING of what has happened to us. This could be an aftereffect of poison, vivid hallucinations or even a direct illusion spell. Some of us may not even be here, or as we seem. What if we're not even ourselves, but undead or constructs crafted by dark magic with the ghastly mirror of our old minds? If we truly are hearing one another's thoughts then we should know if any of us are false, but we can't be sure that's even true or if it's a lie these crystals surrounding us are concocting!

No, no, no, I can't start thinking like that. Getting held up on 'what ifs' and 'how coulds' leads to stagnatio, and the last thing any of us should want is to be inactive. Avaria, you said you had teleportation magic, and although I'm skeptical as to how well it may work against whatever preparations our captors have set up, it's a better way out than any other we have available to us. But even yet, we have barriers in our way. If you feel anything like I do having that worm ripped out, you probably don't feel up to the mental exertion of casting a spell, aye? Not to mention we'll probably have to find a darknode for a decent chance. But most importantly, how could I call myself a miracle-worker if I couldn't find your friends in need? There are more than us here, and whoever remains may hold clues to the reason we were all taken. At least we can kill two birds with one stone, because if some of us need to recover from the ordeal we can take the time to do so while searching for answers (and a darknode). If there's nothing more to do in this torture room of carcasses, worms, and mysterious crystals, I say we leave it behind us. It'll be hard to regain composure with the stench of death all around us."
And maybe if we get away from it, we'll have the privacy of our thoughts back. Argh, you all heard that. Well come on, can you blame me, you want to keep your thoughts private as much as I do.

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Ranulf closes his hand over the crystal, closing his eyes to lower the volume once again. Another questions for the crystal, as it stood, it knew more then those that were up. A clear psicrystal with pink veins, did you ever catch sight of one like that?

Once Halred and Faye point him out though, his attention goes to them but not before closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. He keeps his thoughts to himself for now or tries to, let those who are still recovering do so free from his own. "My name is Ranulf, I'm a psionicist, though one of a martial bend." He bows his head slightly. "Pardon my intrusion, I'll try to stop transmitting mine."

"Liecia? She's my teacher, we've been travelling together for the last year or so. She was with me when we got ambushed. I... didn't win." Once again, his thumb goes over the crystal. "I do not know were she is now though, just that she's not among the dead. Probably best to leave the smell behind though, you're right, can everyone stand?"

He moves to the doorway, but does not cross it. Instead, his free hand goes to the wall as he shifts his stance. Better then nothing. He extends his senses to the earth, trying to see if anything is waiting on the other side.

Autohypnosis to stop transmitting [roll0]

Using the Earth Sense feat as a move action to detect anyone within 20ft of his position by the doorway.

[Mishkov]

You don't sense anything past the doorway though a sense of apprehension touches you though also desperation for leaving this room.

No one can locate a psicrystal of that description.

Ryuuk

Of course Liecia was among the lucky, master. Gladly so.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria had spent a few minutes longer attempting to locate Enla, pushing off her bench and flying about the room. Each time she stopped her flight the fairy winced at the pain shooting up her burnt feat but she didn't let her tears slow her down.

There was a few points where she was about to respond to Faye, but the larger woman kept talking so Avaria simply continued her search until the speech was over; politely looking towards the larger woman and nodding whenever referenced by name. But there was simply no sign of her crystalline friend to be had....

The despairing psion managed, at least, to promptly respond during the later pause. "Enla wa-IS my psicrystal. She must be farther than a mile away, or maybe something is blocking our connection. I can try using correspond once we've escaped. Avena was my niece, she looked a bit younger than that when I was trapped in qui- liquid time. I think she died years ago, I can contact anyone I've touched or mentally contacted with before and no one in my family has ever responded."

The fey looks to the door, but doesn't say anything about it. Intentionally, that is.

Shouldn't we wait until we can use our powers? If something sees us like this-

[J-H]

Aliana
"So nobody knows how to get these things out? Fine. Let's go."

She stalks through the door, club at the ready.

[Magikeeper]

"Oh! Remove disease or surgery will remove the worms if we're infested with them. The surgery is really difficult though, I don't know how to do it."

Avaria tries her best to quickly overcome her nausea before Aliana finishes opening the door, silently (or perhaps VERY LOUDLY) praying that nothing is on the other side.

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Yes, she would be... Were you able to keep track of her? He continues to communicate with the crystal. If you're here, she must be here somewhere too.

"I'm not sure if we would be able to recover here, the air must be fresher beyond the room... I can't say for certain that its safe, but I couldn't sense anyone beyond the doorway, at least." The barbarous woman was advancing, so they'd find out one way or another. As she passes, he follows.

[Mishkov]

There is nothing on the other side of the door except a long hallway. You find yourself in a winding cavern of rooms and hallways. There are rooms completely empty except with slime on the walls. One room houses another chamber much like your own except it is filled with members of the same races being stitched together in various ways. Some are stitched together at their heads, others at hands, others somewhere in their trunks. The room is completely infested with parasites and the stench is entirely similar to the room you just left.

A second room houses a inglorious pile of weapons and equipment. You recognize some of it as your own, some of it as another's, and you realize some of your items are missing. The gear is covered in cobwebs and the occasional worm, and your hands stick to the equipment as you go through it.

A third room is relatively clear. It houses a few what can only be assumed are sleeping pods as well as a mat on the floor. There are journals with strange diagrams in it. Diagrams that indicate some of the stitching together. Other strange ones that indicate the room with crystals that you have seen in your own captive room. The strange symbols that Ranulf memorized earlier appear here too. The writing is not so much language as...math. There are several boxes in this room lined in a strange metal that are locked in some way.

Ranulf

...of course I can sense her master. Can you...not?

Reminder you have no spells or powers unless they do not have to be prepared. You have a chance to rest or meditate though that could be extremely dangerous too.

Loots (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_Q-EbIDJ_YfnWuOINpBwYetLrQHDqeavXhOQ0b_Q80Y/edit?usp=sharing) Edit your name by what you want?

[Nettlekid]

Any word on the Int check to recognize patterns in the symbols? Also, is the telepathic effect any weaker than it was?

"Thank goodness, some of my gear. Does any of this belong to you all? We should start by figuring out what was ours, what we're missing, and then give the remainder of unowned equipment to who is best served by it. I wonder, if we're missing some, does that mean people have been through here already and took it? But why leave what's left? Why would whoever left this here separate it at all?"

Faye eagerly rifles through the pile of gear. She tries to use Detect Magic to take a closer look at the gear, but her stomach is still too unsettled to focus.
"Hm, most of my things are here. I'm definitely glad to have my Shapesand for tools, and my sword for defense. Huh, there's more Shapesand here than just mine. I'm just missing a pair of silk gloves, an Eternal Wand, my bedroll, and...I don't think this Mithril Shirt is mine, I think this one is magically enchanted. This buckler looks like mine, but if anyone else is missing a Mithril Buckler let me know because it might not be. Gods, why are there so many crystals here? Are these the same as the crystals in the other room?" she wonders aloud, holding up some of the Dorjes.
"And what is..." she mutters, her face going pale as she grabs the Vestige Phylactery.
Faust is here?
"I know who this belongs to. It's an uncommon object but I've seen it before. I'm not happy to see it now. There are items here which belong to others taken down here, probably the people you're missing. But if we were so close, maybe they are too?"

Just a reminder that I have 100 ft of Telepathy and Mindsight, so if any thinking creature is near 100 ft I should pick it up.

[Breitheamh]

"Sounds like an excellent plan, Faye."

Halred drops to his knees and begins searching through the pile. He tucks a few things away, throws a beautiful cloak over his shoulders, and, closing his eyes, places a plain headband firmly on his crown.

"Aaah..." he sighs. "I feel much better."

He turns as Faye holds up an elongated crystal in her hand with a confused expression on her face.

"Let me see that," he says as he gently takes it from her. "Yep, that's mine. It's a dorje. It's different from the crystals back there. Kind of like a wand, actually. Anyway, who's Faust?"

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

He wasn't sure how to respond to that. It felt like they were speaking about different things.

The other chamber makes him wince. "What kind of sadist would do something like this?" He holds his breath and checks through the earth, but the amount of worms and vermin does little to clear up matters. Shaking his head, he opens he leans into the room and hollers out. "Anyone in there?" He keeps his thoughts out of the community link, he wasn't proud of the options he arrived to to help any of these stitched together if they still lived.

He moves on, to the room with the equipment. His armor was there at least. He gathers the shirt, vest and gauntlets, along with one of the crystals Faye held. He nods to Halred. "Yeah, they hold power, I think that one is mine." Once Faust is thrown into the link and he runs into the Torc, he puts two and two together. The he starts separating her gear as well. Running into the amulet, he almost takes it until he notices the crystal it held. Either his eyes lied to him, or it wasn't his...

Too many doubts now. He communicates the the crystal, holding his closed palm before him, and keeping his own muddled thoughts from the link with the others. No... she helped make me, but not like she made you Chisel... Where is she, the link you have with her is much stronger then mine.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria had likewise focused on the sickening stitching room at first, but if none of them responded to Ranulf she moved on to the loot room for now; she had no way to determine if they were alive or not. She hop-flies on, wincing each time she lands on her feet.

One of the first things Avaria notices in the other room is her sack. They removed that from my personal space? Or.. they had me remove it? They were controlling.. "our minds, I think."

She leaves the sack where it was - she lacked the strength of concentration to move it right now - and pores over the other objects. "The anklet is mine, I think this healing belt is mine, and I can't carry the sack and the regular mirror but I think those are mine too. Oh - those crossbow bolts might be mine but I don't see anything to use them with so someone else can have them. That's all that's mi- what's that?"

The psion flutters over to a group of poorly-drawn pictures piled off to the side and begins looking through them. She doesn't say anything, but the link is soon filled with the fey's surprised and somewhat worried assessment that second of these pictures included an.. idealized rendition of her own grove...

[Nettlekid]

"Personal space, what, like a secret chest? I daresay whoever's doing this knows enough about us that they can affect us in various aspects of our life. But yes, I agree, I think we may have been under some kind of control. Maybe we were used as Dominated pawns, committing crimes while a cackling caster keeps his hands clean, and this is what happens when he wants to dispose of us? No, there are still some holes in that..." Faye mused, responding to Avaria.

What's a 'dorje'? Is that a psionic tool? I've heard of psionic abilities, but never seen them. If these people deal in psychic powers, no wonder I'm at a loss for what's going on...Oh wait, you're still listening to me. And argh, you heard me think 'Faust.'
"Faust is this guy from my hometown who I haven't seen for maybe a year, but he somehow keeps turning up. I'll admit, for a moment I wondered if his influence brought me here, since he's one of very few enemies I have, but seeing this box here tells me he's just as much a prisoner as I am since he'd never part with it. But the two of us are entirely dissimilar, in mindset, motives, and capabilities. It just adds more confusion, why would we both be taken like this?"

[Magikeeper]

”My personal space is an extraplanar pocket I access with my powers. I don’t know how else they could have taken” Avaria’s voice trails off as her interest shifts back to the first of the pictures – one consisting of two older stick-figurish people and a little one living underground. There is an upper level in the drawing as well, one labeled “houmans”, although it seems to just be filled with the moving feet of giants? Whoever drew this hadn’t seen much of the world.

Regardless, the smaller figures were definitely fey and both the child and one of the larger ones had red hair and blue wings… Avaria starts to squint to determine if the little eyes are blue too, only pull herself away when she notices a tear falling onto the picture. That wouldn’t do. But this drawing.. ”She was her daughter, wasn’t she? The dead fairy was *sob* her daughter. Even the family members I didn’t know I had are dead. And I could have saved this one! She was still alive! I-I failed again. Avena’s dead, Avena’s daughter’s dead, Enla’s dead, everyone’s dead! Everyone’s dead…”

Avaria kneels over, mumble-crying something about wanting the nightmare to end. She's sorry. She's so sorry.

[J-H]

Aliana
Aliana is sickened at the sights in the other rooms, but keeps it to herself as they search for a way out. The worm grates on her perceptions.

"Ah, weapons!" She's happy to see those, and ignores the goo as she sorts through the piles.

She picks up an enchanted hairclip of belladonna, spits on it, and rubs it on her clothes to clean it before she places it carefully in her hair with a sigh of relief. Finding her clothing, she steps into the hallway and changes out of sight of the others before returning. Over it she places her armor, and an amulet.
This is like my amulet, but... she puts it on Weaker. Great. I'll take it but I'll have to find another wizard to bribe, or put up with some godsman's preaching. Of course they stole my prize from slaying that hag...

She sorts through the weapons in disgust, finding none that work comfortably with her tall frame and long arms. She hefts a shield, then discards it as an obstruction. Finally, she settles on a scythe. Although short and difficult to wield compared to her spear, its long haft is at least reasonably comfortable in her hands.

She sets it near the door, and examines the metal boxes. Grabbing a nearby warhammer, she strikes the locks of a couple of them, trying to break the locks open.

Damage rolls? 1d8+2 (warhammer, +1 magic, +1 strength)
1d8+2
1d8+2
1d8+2

[JBarca]

As the group passes by the room with the stitched creatures, Soma looks in with nothing more than vague curiosity. She shrugs when the party moves on, and enters the equipment room. As Aliana settles on the scythe, Soma stops.

"Lady, that there's my Scythe. Made it myself. You'll be handing that over, or there'll be trouble." She glares, holding her hand out, waiting.

Assuming the weapon is handed over, she grabs a bag, a couple of crystals, a mug and bag, a scroll, and a tunic. The wearable items are put on, the other placed in the bag.

"Cursed monsters stole my armor! If I don't get that back, someone'll pay. I'll have that back or I will be a very angry wo-... Er, man! And my scrolls! And my own, handcrafted cloak!
"For now... Does any of this armor lack an owner? I'd like to have something for protection..."

She glares around at the group. "And we'll need to see about fixing my, er, current predicament. Eventually. Bah. This is a load of nonsense."

[J-H]

Aliana
"Fine." She hands the scythe back to Soma, a little more forcefully than needed. "Enjoy having your weapon of choice."

Aliana picks up a greatsword, swings it around a few times, and decides that it's better than nothing. "Can anyone open these boxes? If not, let's haul them out of here and get moving."

[Mishkov]

The telepathic bond between you all continues to be as strong as ever. Maybe it is only this place that creates the bond, maybe the creatures who have delved deeply into your mind have forged a permanent link, but still others thoughts ring through your mind as strong as ever.

You all gain autohypnosis as a class skill.

Faye
There is a creature lurking in a room you have not explored yet. It seems to just travel in a circle around something in that room far ahead.

Ranulf

Your words simply echo into the chamber. No one remains, at least no one alive.

I...I'm confused master. Here. You're not talking straight or thinking straight. For that matter, you're not looking good either. What can I do to help? The crystal responds.

Avaria

You have a flashback of being controlled and them exploring your space through your body. A wash of memories flood back over you. You remember pushing small nail-like items into your flesh, one by one, as another watched. Temporarily giving you control as you panicked and tried to push the nails away, pull them out of your body, but then they took control and repeated it over and over again until you gave up even when you could control your own body. Looking down, you see no evidence of these nails or the marks they left.

In good news, Aliana manages to open one of the boxes, and a clear crystal with pinkish veins scuttles out of the box. MASTER! the crystal calls out. The other boxes remain firmly shut. Avaria has found her psicrystal.

[Nettlekid]

"Everyone, keep your voices down. And your, uh, psychic communication, in case it's not just us that can hear one another. There's another creature here, less than a hundred feet ahead, pacing around a room or two forward. I'd prefer not to meet it if we have the chance not to.

As for those chests, I can cast Knock to get them open, but I'm feeling drained. I won't have enough magical energy until I get a good night's sleep, and that'll be hard in this place. We have too few to stand a reliable guard, and while we could all do with the rest about half of us need it to be any use at all. And considering much of the torment our captors have inflicted on us so far is based in the mind, I'm loathe to be unconscious and subject myself to it. I don't trust anything down here, least of all something that seems so inviting as a clean room and beds. If we need to rest, we might be better off disguising ourselves among the dead."

Faye walks over the the clean room, keeping an eye out for traps or signs of alarm.
Search [roll0]
She puts all the journals and any other papers in the room into her Handy Haversack, in case the diagrams within can later be used to identify the journals' author.

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Here? He projects that louder then he would have liked, before taking a deep breath and closing the links again. You saw what they did to me Chisel, I think I have the right to be confused. You may be able to help me though...

Faye's words jump back, he'd discarded them as doomsaying and bewilderment, but there may be truth in them. To start, why do you call me Master? I don't recall crafting you, quite the opposite, if you are hers, then you were there when my body changed... Am I your master now? Can that link be given away like that? If not, then when did I craft you? He pauses, placing the crystal down as he puts on his gauntlets, then slipping it between the glove and the back of his hand. Take your time, if I am your master, I'd like answers. I want to understand this.

The way the fey's breakdown was disheartening. Discipline, that was first though. He was beyond that now, he had to be, even if her plight sounded too familiar. She's 'Here' at least, there is still someone. He silently puts on the chain shirt, his vest, and uses his teacher's cloak as a makeshift sack for her belongings. Lastly, he picks up the longsword. His pool was practically depleted, if it came to it, best to be armed.

[Magikeeper]

The vision would surely give Avaria nightmares later; another traumatic image to add to the ever increasing pile. Moments of happiness were much rarer as of late.

"ENLA!"

The fairy dashes across the room with a mixture of tired hops and flights until finally getting close enough to hug the crystal, something she does with enough ferocity to knock the empty box to the ground.

"You're alive! What happened? Are you okay? When did they put you in the box? Did they do anything bad to you? How-"

(The psion apparently missed Faye's comment on the importance of silence.)

[Mishkov]

None of you find a better place to rest than the clean room with journals. There is only the doorway which you have been warned of a creature stirring past...

Ranulf

I'm sorry master, I don't really understand. She's still here. She's just sleeping. I don't understand how it works. How they changed your body again is something that I just don't understand all of it. But I think you're my master too now, right? I was hoping you'd understand. You'd had your body changed once. I thought this time when the man with wings and the man with tentacles changed your body, and her body too, and now...I thought you'd understand. I don't understand what they did. Tell me if I'm doing something wrong.

Faye

No traps or alarms are set that you see. The creature seems to be an aberration, but you're somewhat confused. You sometimes sense one creature with an int score of 8, but sometimes other creatures with an extremely low int score, but sometimes not. Your mindsight has been acting strange since you awoke. Perhaps it's the telepathic links, but you are also sometimes detecting all of you as one creature and sometimes multiple people where one person is. You worry that your mindsight might be off and there may only be one creature there or up to four. You're not sure if the crystals in the region are somehow affecting it too.

Avaria

I'm ok. They captured us and put us in a box right after they teleported us in. I don't think they did anything bad to me. I couldn't hear or think or see anything in the box. It was very scary.

[Magikeeper]

"It's going to be okay. I'm going to get us out of here." Avaria gently sets the psicrystal on her shoulder and flies back towards the pile of gear with renewed determination.

Maybe she could carry that sack. *Heaves*. Yes, she could! And these gloves look like they were last worn by.. no. She could cry about that later. With Enla. Avaria puts on the gloves. She picks up two rings and a little lens as well. The drawings she carefully rolls up and puts in the sack along with her mirror and a little book with an odd bookmark (little tools?).

"We should use as much of this stuff as possible! I think we should break all the locks as well. I think that crystal over there can make a weapon acidic?"

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Ranulf stays silent while he finishes with his equipment. He watches the crests and peaks in Avaria's mood, smiling as she hits a contagious high note. Its fine Chisel. I fear those two men were not as kind as the Elders. They explained nothing, and whatever they did, I didn't ask for it, nor did the dead, I think... We'll figure this out. Call me Ranulf if you wish though, ounce I understand what being your Master entails, I'll gladly take the title. Still many questions, but interrogating the crystal may not be the best way. It seemed as lost as he was.

"Faye, I don't know how restful the rooms with the dead would be..." He stands, testing the makeshift cloak-sack. "The two men who did this to us left, but everything is still strange. If even half of what I remember really happened, then I wouldn't place sick mind games past them. These two rooms look too good to be true. Do we have a choice though? If this is all some kind of trick, well, I'd prefer to rest away from the worms and dead."

At the mention of the chests and acid crystal, Ranulf rummages through the stack and places it on the longsword. "I'll give it a try." If the boxes have a lock, he'll try to place the sword's tip in the loop and pry it open. If not, he'll try to slide it through the opening and do the same. He looks for the symbol he memorized, and starts there.

[Nettlekid]

"You mean to say that if this is a trick, you'd prefer to play straight into it." Faye retorted, still keeping to a whisper and keeping her mental lock on the creature(s?) ahead. "Yes, of course a soft bed looks more comfortable than a cold stained stone floor. But if you think it's safer? You're deluding yourself. You shouldn't be getting a nice sleep, we should be giving ourselves no greater a luxury than we need to stay alive. We don't know why, but we were tortured, and torture can strike deep on many levels. It breaks minds to think that you're free, that you're on the path to safety and comfort, to find that ripped away from you. That could very well be what we're experiencing now. Either we play into it, enjoying the illusion of freedom for the short while we have it, or we take a chance that whoever is orchestrating this either has or will soon make a mistake, and we capitalize on that mistake."

She pauses, trying to make out the signals that she's receiving ahead of her, explaining it as best as she can for the party.
"I can't quite figure out what I'm hearing ahead of us, in my mind's eye. I think it's an aberration, which if memory serves is what they call Mind Flayers? And Aboleths? I'd prefer not to meet a creature like that. Though then again, it's also what they call your kind, is it not?" she looks toward Ranulf. "But the strange thing is, because of all this telepathic static, it might be more than one creature. I'm seeing our group as one creature sometimes too, so whatever's ahead may be the same. Whenever it looks like one creature it looks to be fairly unintelligent, at Orcish levels, but when I see several the others are extremely unintelligent, barely sentient. I've never experienced that before, but I'm willing to believe that these telepathic links are somehow pooling the minds of the creatures I sense. I wouldn't be surprised if the Aberration is highly intelligent but that intelligence is being muted by the vapid minds of the lowly creatures around it. I do NOT want to test out that theory."

Now that the nausea's worn off, Faye's going to try Changing Shape just slightly, like the skin on one arm, to see if the burn marks vanish when the skin changes or not. She does so subtly so no one notices, though who would notice the equivalent of a light tan fading in anyway?

[Breitheamh]

Halred adjusts his gear, pulls more clothes on over his rags, and listens quietly while the others discuss their predicament.

"All due respect, Faye, but I agree with..." he looks at Ranulf, "Um, what was your name? Anyway, I agree with him; we don't have much choice but to rest. I'm really not much good with this spear of mine, I just keep it around because I don't always have a choice but to use it. If I could get some rest, I can help quite a bit more. Now, let me see those boxes."

After speaking his piece, he examines the boxes closely to figure out what kind of metal it is, as well as if there are any weak points.

I'll throw every knowledge I've got for the metal, and take 20 on a search check. Halred might be unavailable for a while. :smallwink:
Kn Psionics [roll0]
Kn Arcana [roll1]
Kn Dungeoneering [roll2]
Kn Nature [roll3]
Kn the Planes [roll4]
Kn Religion [roll5]
Kn Local [roll6]
Search take 20 for 23

[Nettlekid]

Faye began to get exasperated.
How can these people be so dense as to still be alive today? They're milling around without guidance but they have no ability to construct a coherent plan. This is exactly why people need order after the Gods. How have they not-You can still hear me. Let me talk out loud. No, screw it, I'll THINK it at you, because it's effing loud and we can't seem to stop anyway.

I am all for the resting. Resting is a good idea. Gaining magic power is better than stumbling on without magic power. We should absolutely rest. I think that no one is calling that into question. What I am arguing is that of the locations in which it would be best to fortify ourselves, we have the option of any one of these dark, dismal, horrible rooms of death, or the nice fluffy clean and cozy bed room. And the bed room is obviously a trap.

Look, we do not have freedom right now. We do not have the luxury of autonomy. Everything that we are doing right now we are allowed to do because our captors are allowing us to do it. If we go to sleep there, we continue to do what is most expected of us, continuing to play into their plans, and putting ourselves at their mercy should they come along to torture us again. Maybe those beds are Mimics, for all we know. Maybe they're stuffed with psychoactive crystal dust. Maybe they're keyed to teleport us to an even worse lair. I would not trust them for a moment. Instead, unpleasant though it may be, I suggest we return to the room we started out in, the room that as far as we could tell has only a single entrance that we can more thoroughly defends than this labyrinthine complex of hallways and closed-off rooms, and set up a defensible position there.

The way you're all talking, it's like you don't fully realize that we are going to have to do horrible things if we are to survive. There's not an option, it's either do it or die. Like, look at this. We're lucky this pile of stuff is here, (though it might very well be another trap and it's laced with scrying beacons, I don't know) but it has an Everfull Mug and Everlasting Rations in it, so we'll be able to eat. Had we not found that, we probably would have had to either hunt down rats crawling around here, crush and eat the various worms that have been infesting us, or cannibalize the bodies. No, it's NOT nice, but it would be do that or DIE. We need to avoid any dangerous situations, and I favor the unpleasant known over the soft and comfortable unknown.

[Breitheamh]

Halred listens as much as he can while scrutinizing the boxes, and then smiles when she finishes her mental rant. He looks at her and calmly says, "Ah, I see where the confusion was. Ok, let's go with your plan, Faye. By the way, when I'm done with these boxes, can I take a look at those journals?"

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

He answers through the network. I... When Faye's mindsight comes up he lowers the longsword from the container. Aberrations, I suppose I am among the Illithids now, yes. They’re… we’re beings with bodies that do not function normally, or came about naturally. I don’t eat brains like they do, I just don’t eat at all. I can sustain myself. I am… was human, now I’m an Elan. He turns to Halred and answers. Ranulf.

He listens to Faye's points. We won't be safe until we get out of here, and even then, He rubs his hands together, still wondering how. they did something to us that will be haunting us until we understand it. I'm not against caution, or prissy enough to fear getting my hands dirty. What I'm wondering is if we can even truly rest in that room. The bodies are still rotting, possibly disease ridden, the air was nauseating and the worms are thriving there. I don't know how much of our current state was because of whatever it was they were doing to us, or because of a how long we were in there. Can one really clear their mind there?

If its the beds and mats that seem too good, then ignore them and take the floor. If its the room, then the hall even... If you feel those circumstances can be ignored though, then it may be good to avoid a possible trap. We need to clear an area from bodies and worms though. That's my view, at least. I don't sleep anymore, I'll gladly stand watch, all I need is ground, a wall and a few hours to meditate.

[Mishkov]

Opening the remaining boxes with the acidic weapon crystal reveals little in the way of useful items. There is a shattered psicrystal, an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, an Amulet of intellect +1, and several organs which come spilling out, mostly rotten in a soup of bile. The metal itself is mysterious. It does not seem strong like iron but does not seem to have aged like bronze. It clearly is not a stronger rare metal that is known such as cold iron or adamantite, but it appears to have blocked telepathy which is interesting. There are more scrolls stuffed into yet another metal box that was discovered as you searched your surroundings.

The search does not reveal much except scorch marks on the wall and a trail of different colored blood heading towards the doorway with the aberration. You're not sure what happened, but it seems apparent that your captors left in a hurry. Or at least wanted it to appear that way.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria picks up one of the empty boxes - one that wasn't used to hold any body parts (or destroyed psicrystal bits) - to get a feel for its weight. "Maybe can use these to hide from whatever ability Faye has? They might have it too. Also, maybe we could hide in the weapon room and make it look like we are in the beds?"

The fairy ends her suggestion with a concerned gaze back towards the initial chamber at the far end of the hall. She did not.. want to go back there.

[J-H]

Aliana
Aliana picks up another one of the empty (clean) boxes, opens the lid all the way, and puts the box over her head upside down. Can you hear me now?

"Okay, so we have to rest here for one of you to be able to teleport us away. Does anyone think they have the hallway trapped? If not, let's just rest there, and whoever is on watch will be able to see them coming. I don't want to go to sleep now, so I'll take the middle or last watch."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria smiled at the sight of Aliana putting her head in the box. This wasn't a bad group to be in, all in all. "But if we rest in the hallway they'd see us when we see them. Wouldn't hiding in the weapon room and setting a trap in the bedroom be better?"

[J-H]

Aliana
"You may sleep on slime if you want. I will not. Whoever is keeping watch will be out in the hallway, anyway."

[JBarca]

"What's all this about sleeping on slime? Let's just clear a spot and sleep. No need to be so particular!"

Soma huffs and walks over to the scrolls that fell out of one of the boxes. Maybe these'll be the rest of my scrolls? Boccob bless me, I know we could do with them...

[Nettlekid]

"Let's start setting up decoys..." Faye mutters, rummaging through the pile of equipment.
"There's a lot of rope here. Like 200 feet of it, I'd say, broken into easily knottable ten-foot segments. We can take a lot of it and bundle it up, putting it in the beds to look like sleeping people, at least from afar and underneath covers. Whoever's on guard first should stand far enough down the hall that you have us guarded in the weapon room, but can see anyone who might walk into the bedding room. Take my Hand of the Mage, the minor telekinesis offered by Mage Hand might prove useful if you need to lure an intruder somewhere that you're not. We also need alarms of some sort. Ah, and I have an idea."

She rummages through the pile and pulls out two urns, as well as the unclaimed +1 Buckler.
"This is Shapesand. This jar is mine, and I don't know who this one belongs to. But it's probably Faust, since our hometown is frequented by desert nomads looking to trade. Here, I'll set this up at the end of the corridor."

She heads beyond the bedding room, keeping her faulty Mindsight tuned in case anyone should approach. Calming herself and attuning her mental frequency to the psychic resonance of the Shapesand (taking 20 on the Wisdom check) she shapes it into a tall, narrow column with bars extending to the sides of the hallway wall. She shapes a small ledge outward, and into this she jams the buckler before returning to the party.

"It's nothing fancy, but it should do in a pinch. The Shapesand bars will block the path of anything trying to get through. If they use brute force or take mental control of the Shapesand, it'll dissolve as they reshape it. That will make the buckler fall, and we should hear the clattering echo through the hall, just to give us all a heads up that something's coming."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria watched the various plans out of a sense of duty; she should be awake for this regardless of how much she wanted to prepare a hiding spot and rest as soon as possible.

"Shouldn't we make that alarm in front of the bedroom, Faye? That would lead them to think we must be in there for sure."

[Breitheamh]

Halred's head bounces from person to person as each offers suggestions, some more gruff and practical than others, some very finesseful and clever.

"Fascinating," he comments studiously as he examines Faye's makeshift alarm. He gives the buckler a gentle tug. "Very interesting." He tries to reshape some of the sand to more easily pull out the small shield, but it won't budge beneath his hands.

He thinks for a moment, rubbing his chin. "Fascinating, indeed. How did you--" he cuts himself off as he smiles and snaps his fingers. You can almost see a light go on over his head. He concentrates, taking his time to do this right, and grasps the buckler with one hand as he shapes the sound around it with the other, then pulls it out easily.

He spins the shield in his hand and chuckles. "I knew I'd read about that somewhere. Shapesand," he tastes the word in his mouth. "I like it." Then he turns to Faye. "Anyway, what if they do that?"

Taking 20 on the Wisdom check for a total of 21, which beats Faye's 19.

[Nettlekid]

"You picked it up because you saw the shield and were on the same side as it, so you could pull it free. From the other side of these bars, someone coming along wouldn't know that there was a trap waiting to be dropped, nor would they be able to reach the buckler before breaking down the wall. Don't be pedantic. You might as well ask 'why wouldn't someone just take the spring out of a dart trap so they don't get shot at while walking through a temple?' If you have a better idea then hop to it and set it up, or else I'll stick in one of your useless crystals as the alarm rather than the shield. Put it back and back off." Faye snapped, the frustration of working on her own without her preferred tools getting to her.
The last thing I need is someone who thinks they're clever.

[Magikeeper]

We shouldn't fight!

"I mean, if it doesn't work it doesn't work, right? We're just doing everything we can to give us an advantage. I think once we finish with the beds we should rest though, we've already spent a bunch of time." Avaria pauses to look around at those gathered. "Whose resting first? I'm not useful like this so I should probably sleep as soon as possible."

[Breitheamh]

"Easy," Halred says defensively. "I'll put it back together, just give me a minute. You said there's something on the other side of this door, right? Well, let's see if we can use my 'useless' crystal to get slightly more specific as to what, and while I'm at it, I may as well examine our own telepathic link."

He chuckles as he pulls out his Dorje and uses it to manifest Detect Psionics while standing in front of the door, and thinks, You know I can hear you in here, right Faye?

[Mishkov]

As Halred scoffs and uses the dorje, time seems to slow for him. He sees a bright light from behind him towards the area where they were capture and smaller lights from the other rooms. The light intensifies, suddenly coming from all areas and the aura strength is beyond anything you have seen before. It begins to shriek as the light blinds you. The noise begins to deafen you. As this intensifies, so the sensations pass through the mindlink you all share. You all have this mounting overwhelming feeling of all your senses becoming overloaded. You stumble and attempt to stand still as the overwhelming aura dazes you all. The scope of power that your captures unleashed was surprising to several of you and not to others.

Discussions were had.

Traps were set.

The party successfully rests the night. The creature that stirred in the other room continues to scuffle about, but it makes no move to approach the party nor do any of your captors return. The hallway leading up to the creature's room is 15 feet wide that leads to the double doors which are 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall. The geography of the place is more cavernous as if a lair was forged in a small cave underground.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria quietly yawns as she stirs beneath the pile of gear. Time to get ready.

A few moments spent bolstering her and Enla's defenses, a few more putting her sack and it's contents back in her personal space, and then several uneventful hours on watch to mentally chat with anyone willing to talk to her. She didn't want to be left to her own thoughts right now..

Avaria spent 7pp to cast an augmented, extended inertial armor on herself (sharing the effect with Enla). +6 armor for 14 hours. After doing all of this (including the personal space stuff) she regained her psionic focus one more time.

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

Legs crossed and with his back to a wall, Ranulf tries to visualize what his teacher could do with the sand while in the deep trance, something calm and entertaining while he maintained. Once renewed, he lets other subjects to wander in. 'Here.', new masters, distant cousins, stitched remains, the rune that may be his and those he may be bound to now, with a link of a strength that proved outright obscene; he tries to keep look at each with cold care and at a distance. When there is times, he looks over the journals, focusing on the pages that held his rune and those with diagrams of the patchwork fate that could have been theirs. Given time, he memorizes them and leaves his own conclusions locked away, to be used later.

He tries to limit the communication to two and asks Avaria about psicrystals, how one works with them and how the link is meant to work. He confesses at least some of his doubts about Chisel. I didn't craft it and the owner is still alive, it says it can sense her. Yet, I'm its Master now... Should something like that be possible?

Later, he opens a similar channel with Halred, asking his opinion on whatever it was they Detected and what the consequences of their mind link may be. Whatever it was, we all felt it. Do you think there any way we could avoid an attack propagating like that? Psicraft was still something he needed to progress in further.

[Magikeeper]

I've never heard anything about transferring psicrystals. Um.. based one what Chisel said, maybe, I think this is a stretch, but maybe they somehow.. okay, this is a stretch, but maybe you used to be your master and your master used to be you and the experiment made you into each other? Then Chisel would be really confused? Avaria asked Enla how she would feel in such a situation, letting the crystal explain the answer to Ranulf for comparison's sake before continuing.

This could be completely wrong though! I don't know a way to transfer a psicrystal by any means, even double mind seeding combined with some kind of physical surgery wouldn't do this right... unless you are much weaker than you should be right now?

Avaria also peruses the tome of worldly memory to see if it has anything on this subject.

Taking 10 on the psicraft checks involved, with psicrystal using aid another:
Aid Another Roll: [roll0]
Total Psicraft Check: 10+14+2 = 26. Since identifying a power being cast is only 15+spell level I think 26 is enough to know about mind seed (8th level power, albeit of a different discipline).

Attempting a Know(Arcana/Psionics) on regarding this transfer thing, using the Tome of Worldly Memory for a +5 bonus. The psicrystal will aid another as well; it can't fail so factoring in +2 more (It has its masters 10 ranks, so +9 on the aid roll for 1 = success).
[roll1]

Also, DM mentioned in the recruiting thread that Know(Arcana) was combined with Know(Psionics) [and psicraft with spellcraft], so some PCs have more skill points open than they think.

[J-H]

Aliana
Aliana goes back to the equipment room and picks up several other magical items, all small ones that could be valuable or useful. When she turns around to leave, she sees the a crystal (the same one she tried to smash originally) hovering in the doorway like it's watching her.

There's that same crystal thing! Does anyone know what it is? It looks like the ones a couple of you psionics have.

[Mishkov]

In discussing with others, you come to a few conclusions on how that could be done. Most of this is somewhat beyond your powers and the discussion is purely "academic" in a sense though it has very apparent consequences. There would be ways of moving the link perhaps even using mind-link as an epic seed. Alternatively, there could be ways of linking the crystal to both of you while maintaining her link with the original owner. This could create the correct sort of bond. You heard once about how two psions had used the fusion power and when they were split the psicrystal bond had switched. There was another story about a psion who managed to use fission on another's psicrystal to create a separate one that then bonded to him.

Alternatively, psicrystals are not difficult to create. It's possible that for whatever a second crystal that was a copy was created. Then they would simply infuse it with the memories of their old master but since the bond was formed with another, they would call the new person master and seem to still have the connection with the crystal they copied.

Given the nature of the place as well, it's possible that if a crystal was created, there seems to be a penchant for mindlinks forming, so it wouldn't be entirely impossible for a crystal to form a link with another person in this place.

The idea of consulting the journals and scrolls is discussed though no one yet has looked through them for information about psicrystals.

[Ryuuk]

It did says she's 'here', only... sleeping. It was as lost as I am though, thought it best not to pry further. He aids however he can, Avaria seemed to be the only one to have more then secondhand knowledge with them. After seeing that other room though, it may be something along those lines. Those remains were joined physically... maybe they tried another way with us?

He smiles, remembering the beast and the ambush that brought him here. Were that the case... No, I'm afraid I feel as strong as I remember, with still much to improve on.

"The crystal?" Ranulf turns to Aliana. "If its what I think it is, it may be a small part of you that now sees you as its master. A psicrystal." He tries to explains what he can about them.

[J-H]

Aliana
"Okay, so now I have a mind-link, a worm, a crystal, and an..." angry Badger "Other." Oops Argh I hate this my head's too crowded STOP LISTENING "Save the books for later, let's get out of here. We've wasted too much time resting already."

[Nettlekid]

"Come on you guys, take your pet rocks and let's get a move on. It's a miracle that nothing came across us in the middle of the night, but the longer we're here the worse our chances get. I still sense something traipsing about ahead of us, and we'll probably have to go past it. We're refreshed, but we still should be careful about the resources we spend. Take everything easy enough to carry, especially anything that'll fit into the Haversacks, but we may have to leave the armor and some weapons behind if they'd weigh us down. I'm going to help myself to anything no one claimed, and store the rest of what we can bring along. Anything I've got in here from the pile is open for anyone to use, just let me know if you want it. For instance, I've got those journals if you wanted to look through them, though there seems to be a lot which is illegible.

Let's keep going. Dwarf, you never answered my question about how deep we were underground. Depending on the answer, it may be more reasonable to look for stairs or even start digging with the Adamantine Dagger rather than finding a Darknode. But we'll probably have to go into the next room and face whatever's in there anyway, so ready yourselves."

[Magikeeper]

"Right!" Avaria gathers what little remains that she can carry/wear. Still a lot of stuff.. ahah!

The fairy heads back to the bedroom, takes one of the sheets, puts/drags all the remaining mundane armor/weapons on the sheet, wraps the sheet up into a sack and tries to shrink the whole thing into a little cloth representation. This still leaves a number of magical weapons and armor, and the little boxes if no one has taken those yet.

Casting shrink item (psionic) on the bedsheet sack (5pp, effects up to 14 cubic feet, lasts 7 days). If the sheets are magical the effect fails. Any hidden poison and such wouldn't have effect in cloth form, the spell mentions being able to transport stuff that is on fire via the cloth transformation.

[J-H]

Aliana
Sword in hand, Aliana shoulders the door open and steps through.

[Breitheamh]

While the others discuss, Halred manifests a protective personal force field and then meditates for a moment to regain his focus. He keeps his thoughts to himself about the mysterious psicrystal issue, being somewhat embarrassed about his blunder the night before, but still tries to figure out what's going on.

When Avaria shrinks several items down and then walks away, he thinks aloud, Does anyone want to carry some of these weapons and armor? When it seems that the others are heading for the door, he grumbles a bit, but fills his arms and back with as much of it as he can carry and then follows his companions.

Manifesting augmented, extended Inertial Armor, using 7 PP for a 14 hour AC bonus of 6.

Taking 10 for a total of 26 on the Psicraft checks to determine the psionic disciplines involved in the overwhelming aura(s) last night, as well as the power or discipline involved in our telepathic bond, and anything having to do with the psicrystals.

Kn Psionics/Arcana [roll0] to figure out the same things as Avaria
And more knowledge checks once we get into the room to identify whatever's going on in there.
Kn Psionics/Arcana [roll1]
Kn Dungeoneering [roll2]
Kn Nature [roll3]
Kn the Planes [roll4]
Kn Religion [roll5]
Kn Local [roll6]

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

As everyone moves on, Ranulf takes one of the amulets found in the chests and puts it on. If the other aberration proved hostile, or Faye's theories proved true, he might need it. He follows.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria follows behind the others while mentally debating whether or not the pain of her burned feet justifies spending the energy to hover via levitate...

[Mishkov]

The party gathers up the remaining items, prepares for whatever may lie ahead and moves on. You hear a scurrying about in the next room and strange gurgling noises. Opening the door you behold a strange horror. A creature that seems composed of many creatures stitched together. The different parts seem to move independently of each other, but the blob approaches you at an alarming rate...


http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs14/i/2007/058/2/4/ABOMINATION_by_crippleterrapin.jpg

Faye and Avaria react quickly, the rest of you are surprised at the speed at which the creature moves. The creatures lair seems to be a messy pile of bones and bile. It must have some strange sort of digestive process which leaves its prey in pools of acid or muck that you see on the ground.

Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit?usp=sharing)
Faye & Avaria to act. Then monster. Then whole party. People have two days to act and then the round just progresses without them.

If you want to reposition yourself before the monster acts, you may do so at any point that is not behind the entry to the room.

Edit: picture source (http://crippleterrapin.deviantart.com/art/ABOMINATION-49762787)

[Magikeeper]

Avaria casts grease on the floor beneath the horrific monster's ?feet? almost as soon as she sees it. Did it have feet?

...the fey silently hoped it wouldn't come close enough for her to determine that.

I can't alter the map (It isn't letting me)?
Anyway, Avaria spends 1pp to cast Grease(Psionic), centered on where the monster is [covering all of its squares]. Reflex DC 15, and on its turn it needs to make a DC 10 balance check to move (and even then at half speed until it's out of the grease. Yay for large sized foes?).

Knowledge Checks to identify (With Collector of Stories)
Know(Dungeoneering): [roll0]
Know(Arcana/Psionics): [roll1] +5 more if CoS can apply to it as well.
Know(Religion): [roll2] +5 more if CoS..., +3 more because I forgot her Know(Religion) was +9 base instead of +6. Whoops.

Edit: Should probably have made a Know(Planes) check as well.

[Nettlekid]

I had said in the OoC thread that Faye would be second after Aliana, and I assumed that was enough since we'd been doing a lot of planning OoC, but I guess not? Doesn't really matter since she'd want to move back to where she's positioned now anyway.

Allllll aboard the train to Nopetown!


Faye hurries back to a safer area to gain distance from the monster, then whirls around to face it from a distance.
"Not that I don't think you capable, but there's no need for you to come to blows with that creature if you can avoid it. And I bring my own army."

With a whisper and the faintest twirling of fingers, Faye works her magic. Shimmering like holograms, armored warriors appear surrounding the towering monstrosity and even overlapping its from from within.

Sleight of Hand check to be secretive about spellcasting, as per Races of Stone: [roll0]

She's cast Legion of Sentinels, centered on the monster (the point between W/X and 16/17 on the map), which creates an illusory soldier in every square in a 10 foot radius, putting one at W 15-18, X 15-18, V 16-17, and Y 16-17. Arguably, because the spell specifies that it's a 10 foot radius effect which should take shape like a Fireball or Antimagic Field, it should create a soldier floating in the air and poking out of the ground above and below those spaces too, but that's the DM's call.

The soldier have twice my CL in HP (14), AC 25, are incorporeal, make saves and checks with a bonus equal to my CL (+7), make attacks with a bonus equal to my CL (+7, +9 if they're flanking with each other), can only make Attacks of Opportunity (if it moves out of this space, or if it stands up after falling for example), and deal 1d8+2 points of slashing damage with a successful hit, subject to DR.

[Mishkov]

The creature has some intelligence and assumes the ethereal soldiers are simply illusions. It shuffles forward slowly barely navigating the greased floor take spear hits as it moves. In your mind you feel the creatures hunger. It seems to emanate its thoughts and feelings and with its hunger, so you too become hungry. It leaves behind a small splash of acid.

DC20 K. Dungeoneering or DC 30 K. Nature
You don't recognize the creature, but you recognize the digestion. The creature probably paralyzes its foe in some way and then proceeds to devour them. You worry that the other bodies attached are its previous victims fed by your captors.

As some predicted, you feel your mind shaking and body weakening as the creature unleashes a horrifying psionic attack.

Mind blast, DC 16 will vs paralysis for [roll0] rounds

Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit?usp=sharing)

Roll Faye's damage from the spears.

[Nettlekid]

Since the monster moved out of ALL the threatened squares, all the soldiers get an attack of opportunity. And they're all flanking.
Soldier 1 to hit: [roll0] Damage: [roll1]
Soldier 2 to hit: [roll2] Damage: [roll3]
Soldier 3 to hit: [roll4] Damage: [roll5]
Soldier 4 to hit: [roll6] Damage: [roll7]
Soldier 5 to hit: [roll8] Damage: [roll9]
Soldier 6 to hit: [roll10] Damage: [roll11]
Soldier 7 to hit: [roll12] Damage: [roll13]
Soldier 8 to hit: [roll14] Damage: [roll15]
Soldier 9 to hit: [roll16] Damage: [roll17]
Soldier 10 to hit: [roll18] Damage: [roll19]
Soldier 11 to hit: [roll20] Damage: [roll21]
Soldier 12 to hit: [roll22] Damage: [roll23]


Air Soldier 1 to hit: [roll24] Damage: [roll25]
Air Soldier 2 to hit: [roll26] Damage: [roll27]
Air Soldier 3 to hit: [roll28] Damage: [roll29]
Air Soldier 4 to hit: [roll30] Damage: [roll31]
Air Soldier 5 to hit: [roll32] Damage: [roll33]
Air Soldier 6 to hit: [roll34] Damage: [roll35]
Air Soldier 7 to hit: [roll36] Damage: [roll37]
Air Soldier 8 to hit: [roll38] Damage: [roll39]
Air Soldier 9 to hit: [roll40] Damage: [roll41]
Air Soldier 10 to hit: [roll42] Damage: [roll43]
Air Soldier 11 to hit: [roll44] Damage: [roll45]
Air Soldier 12 to hit: [roll46] Damage: [roll47]
-----------------------------------------------------------
Underground Soldier 1 to hit: [roll48] Damage: [roll49]
Underground Soldier 2 to hit: [roll50] Damage: [roll51]
Underground Soldier 3 to hit: [roll52] Damage: [roll53]
Underground Soldier 4 to hit: [roll54] Damage: [roll55]
Underground Soldier 5 to hit: [roll56] Damage: [roll57]
Underground Soldier 6 to hit: [roll58] Damage: [roll59]
Underground Soldier 7 to hit: [roll60] Damage: [roll61]
Underground Soldier 8 to hit: [roll62] Damage: [roll63]
Underground Soldier 9 to hit: [roll64] Damage: [roll65]
Underground Soldier 10 to hit: [roll66] Damage: [roll67]
Underground Soldier 11 to hit: [roll68] Damage: [roll69]
Underground Soldier 12 to hit: [roll70] Damage: [roll71]


And, in case that doesn't kill it and it moves anyway and does its attack, Faye's Will save is [roll72]

[J-H]

Aliana
The mind blast hits Aliana hard, and she freezes in place, motionless and unable to move.

[Breitheamh]

Halred shakes off the blast of telepathic energy, feeling the primal instincts of hunger emanating from the beast. Normally, he would have tried to read its mind, but he got the feeling it wouldn't have made any difference.

Pity.

To study this creature would surely help them understand why they were here and what had happened, but he was afraid he would not be able to go deep enough to discover its memories.

These thoughts race through his mind as he attempts to change the monster's view of him and his companions. He makes Soma look like the man with the bat wings and makes himself and the others look like Illithids. Then he steps forward and orders the beast to stand down in Undercommon, changing its hearing so he sounds like a mind flayer. At the same time, he keeps himself ready to book it if this doesn't work.

Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit#gid=0)

5 foot step to X22
Manifesting False Sensory Input (Will DC 17 negates), making the monster think Soma is the man with the bat wings and the rest of us are Mind Flayers.
Ordering it to stop in Undercommon, making my voice sound like a mind flayer.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria withstands the mental assault. If only the monster had not withstood her own attack..

The psion attempts another casting of grease, once again centered on the monster. Wait, did Aliana just get paralyzed? Oh no!

Will: 1d20+7
bah. Phone posting. Rolled properly in the ooc thread.

[Ryuuk]

So he now had more in common with this monstrosity then with those behind him. Very well. Ranulf takes a deep breath as it comes forward, but can't quite resist whatever it was that creature willed. He should have been faster, his body stops responding.

For now, he notes the acid that surrounds it and braces himself. He draws power from the earth and tries to protect himself.

Standard: Specified Energy Adaptation (Acid) for 2pp (Earth Power)

He's paralyzed, so I'm not sure if he can manifest defensively. If he can, then Concentration DC 17 [roll0].

If he can't manifest defensively, then he'll take the AoO if it attacks, possibly reducing the damage with Elan Resilience.

[Nettlekid]

Faye grinned as her shadow sentinels struck the monster with deadly precision, moving in uniformity. If her allies could get it to move back into the area guarded by the sentinels, they could get another attack in. Moving anywhere from here would get at least a few more in, if they could pull the paralyzed Aliana and Ranulf back. But that might not be too easy.

"Alright you damnalgamation, you should have a taste of how frustrating it is to be unable to think around here."
Faye faced the beast and took a deep breath.
"PAIN!"

Using Power Word: Pain. Deals 1d6 damage for a variable number of turns based on the target's HP: 4d4 if under 50 HP, 2d4 if under 51-75, and 1d4 if 76-100. I'll let you roll damage and the duration, since I don't know how much HP it has.
Also CL check to beat its SR: [roll0]

[Mishkov]

The ethereal soldiers slash and wound the monster greatly. It sloshes past the grease however only to find itself in yet another pool of grease. While its body is horrifying, its mind seems strong, and it resists the magical attacks from Faye and Halred.

One awkwardly large arm strikes out at Ryuuk as he manifests his powers.

[roll0] for [roll1] damage


The creature attempts to bludgeon Aliana with its arms to soften her up and then attempts to devour her with a huge mouth that opens suddenly from the middle of the conglomeration of its bodies.

[roll2] for [roll3] damage
[roll4] for [roll5] damage
[roll6] for [roll]2d6+5[roll] damage (bite)

Edit: Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit#gid=0)

In your minds you hear the roar of the creature HUNGRY and wonder how many others had met a fate where that was the last thing they had heard...

[Ryuuk]

This was frustrating. Ranulf takes a moment to focus and finish manifesting, but beyond that there's little he else he can do.

To finish manifesting, Ranulf will expend Psionic Focus to take 15 on the concentration check (28), vs DC 10+9+2 I think.

[Breitheamh]

"Ugh, I hate brute force," Halred says tersely, trying to hide his growing terror. Of course, with the others telepathically linked, it's not like he could anyway.

He sucks in a breath and focuses his mind, preparing a blast of telekinetic energy and then releasing it at its peak, smashing the monster with the force of his mind. Then he retreats to a safer distance.

Using Concussion Blast and augmenting it for a total of [roll0] force damage, costing 7 PP.

Then move action to Y24

[Magikeeper]

Avaria watched in horror at the one-sided beatdown. This had to end! How could she make sure..

"ALIANA! DON'T RESIST THIS!"

Avaria wills Aliana into the future. She leaves Ranulf where he is, it looked like he was still acting mentally and maybe he could recover soon. If someone protected him.

The fey takes a deep breath and flies within range of the horrifying monster. It didn't have iron. It didn't have iron. It-

"I am small and delicious! Right here, delicious fairy!"

Oh gods, she was going to die why did she do that.

Another save vs the grease! (DC 15). Without 5 ranks in balance the monster is flat-footed while balancing (so no AoO).

Avaria spends 5pp to cast time hop on Aliana, sending her up to 7 rounds into the future (DC 17 Will if she resists). She could make wisdom checks to return sooner.

She flies within the monster's attack range (I'm editting map..)

[Nettlekid]

Well, not bad, except the warrior is gone now. Trade one target for another smaller, softer target.

I'd like to hit it with something heavier, but there's too much a chance that it'll shake off whatever I throw at it and waste my stronger tricks. I guess I'll still have to work with damage over time. Avaria, if you do whatever you just did again, this time to Ranulf, and then get out of there that'll tip the tide to our favor. If this works, all we need to do is stall.

"I said...PAIN!"
Check against spell resistance: [roll0]

[Mishkov]

Bleeding and battered, the creature had a few last attacks in it. However, the glob of bodies succumbs to the mental attacks from Halred and Faye. It dies in a messy explosion of acid and bile. Initially popping like a pimple, and then oozing out in a strange acid deflation...

[roll0] acid damage to all except Aliana dc 14 ref for half.

You're right, the creature can't make AoOs. I forgot about that part of being flat footed! Ranulf does not take damage.


Aliana blinks out of sight. When she arrives back she is still paraylzed. Her body is in a strange series of contortions when she returns into view. Once the paralysis wears off, her body transforms...

So, I think it would work like this. You are paralyzed. Then you take damage which triggers the change, but you can't transform because you're paralyzed, so when it wears off, the change still occurs because your body is waiting to initiate it.

Oh! 1080 exp awarded for the fight.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria reflexively defends Enla from the blast, an act of casting that happens to defend herself as well.

She then flies over to Ranulf and the others to see if they are okay.

Avaria casts Energy Adaption, Specified [Acid] as an immediate action for 7pp (70 minutes) and shares it with her psicrystal. Acid ignores hardness so Enla would be in quite a bit of danger otherwise.
Saves:
Avaria - [roll0]
Enla - [roll1], has improved evasion.

Aaaaaaand Enla takes no damage anyway. Well, it's the thought that counts.

[J-H]

Aliana
As the paralysis wears off, Aliana's sword falls to the ground as her grip slackens. She follows it to the ground, landing on all fours as her body and everything on it shifts. Her armor disappears, subsumed into a growth of tough black and white hair that covers everything.

She makes a noise somewhere between an angry growl and a roar, and the rest of the party sees that she is now around the size of a medium-sized bear, standing 4' high at the shoulder and looking something like this:
http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/170010/honey_badger___ratel_2.jpg

[Magikeeper]

It turned her into an.. animal!? Confused tears start to flow from Avaria's face. Failing to save Aliana from being turned into an animal was terrible, but why?

Wait, what if it hadn't transformed Aliana? She could just be...

"A Were-DireBadger?"


Know(Nature) Check to know what animal Aliana turned into:
[roll0]
^Includes Enla aid another (+9, can't fail).

Know(Nature) Check to know she is a lycanthrope:
[roll1]
^Includes Enla and Collector of Stories. (The +5 might also apply to the above roll).

Edit: OOC thread noted this is enough to know about the affliction and even the damage thing, yay! No party panic. Hopefully.

[Nettlekid]

Faye braced herself as the creature convulsed and exploded, hoping that her distance down the hall would be far enough from the blast, but alas she was wrong. She screamed through both mouth and mind as the acid splashed against her skin, melting her skin and burning her flesh. Panting, she puts her hand to the wall to steady herself.
"C...can anyone...use healing magic...?" she winces between shuddering breaths. "I need the aid..."

Hopefully she'd be able to cover up any scars from this acid, and honestly these burned symbols were more worrisome than the acid burns anyway. God, at this rate she might have to get her limbs cut off and Regenerated to heal these scars rather than just getting her wounds cured. One more thing to remove from her memory...

After the better part of a minute when Aliana returns, and then after another few seconds leading up to her transformation, Faye stares at the creature.
"Werewhat? I don't think that kind of creature exists in nature. This looks far more like a forced mutation caused by our captors. We were experimented upon after all, maybe she was infused. Perhaps the creature in this room was designed to inject a catalyst designed to activate latent modifications. She was the only one struck by it after all. I hope this acid doesn't have a similar effect...though as I haven't changed yet, if it does it's a delayed reaction. Maybe a direct strike is faster. I recommend we be on our guards; this monster might not even remember its lost humanity."

Hey, I asked before but I think it got missed, before we slept I tried to change my skin to see if the burn marks could disappear when I changed shape. How did that go?

[Ryuuk]

Once the paralysis wears off, Ranulf checks to make sure it had happened as he saw it. Little of the bile had reached him and most of that had been dissipated harmlessly. Little joy to be had though, some of the others weren't so lucky. "Thank you, and well met." Had they not been there though, luck would have meant little.

He drops the sack and rummages through it, the other one might be needed. He grabs the second healing belt. "I have a small amount, let me have a look."

Faye and Halred each took 23 damage, right? Faye first, then Halred, once 12 HP are healed or two charges are spent, he moves on. He'll save the last two charges for Aliana, who took a beating before the time hop.

Healing Belt (Ranulf)
Charge 1 of 3 [roll0]
Charge 2 of 3 [roll1]
Charge 3 of 3 [roll2]

Healing Belt (Liecia's)
Charge 1 of 3 [roll3]

He saves the remaining charges, there was one more after all. Once Aliana returns, and suffers the transformation, he seems extremely interest. He keeps his thought hidden, but there a clear curiosity and even admiration in the way he watches. He listens to Faye, and works the mental link again. Aliana? Are you alright? Are you with us?

[Mishkov]

Faye

You were able to change your skin as normal. You can cover up these marks too. There's nothing inhibiting your changeling abilities.

Aliana

In shifting, you still feel the other beast within you. You believe you can pinpoint it a little better though. It seems to be wrapped around your brain not so much in your gut. This is not a worm that you saw. You worry that the others have similar bugs infecting them...

[Breitheamh]

Halred yells in pain as the acid leaves severe burns on his body. He grits his teeth, however, and accepts the healing from Ranulf. "Thank you."

"Hmm, you may have a point, Faye, though I think Avaria probably knows what she's talking about. I know how to find out, though." he turns to the badger and says very slowly, as if talking to a child, "Aaliiaana, iif yoou caan heeear mee, dooo not resiist thiis."

Kn Nature on Aliana [roll0]
Kn Nature on Lycanthropes [roll1]

If those don't succeed, I'll manifest Read Thoughts on Aliana to determine if its still her.

[J-H]

Aliana

Aliana pads over to Avaria, her claws clicking on the floor. She nuzzles the pixie, and then starts to lick her face before suddenly stopping.

Agh! Stupid badger instincts!

Yes, I'm here, and thanks. I thought that thing was going to eat me.


She sniffs a bit out of instinct, trying to find anything interesting in the room, and then chokes and coughs at the smell.


Control shape [roll0] vs DC 25 or stuck in badger form until sunrise.


Aliana arches her back and shivers before relaxing.

I'm stuck like this for now. I guess you all know why I am not at home with my people and why I'm always so angry.

I hoped turning into my other self would get the worm out of me, but it's not a worm, not like what you have. She claws at her head lightly. It's some kind of bug and it's in my skull.

She moves back to where her sword is and taps it with a claw, looking for someone to pick it up and carry it. She then checks the room for any dropped equipment, and sniffs the exit passage on the far side.
Aliana-badger stays as far as possible away from the acid puddles.

Search skill is a +2, Spot is at a +6 if you want to roll

[Ryuuk]

Suppose its a matter of perspective. He concentrates, bare feet drawing power from the earth, and grows a lithe, dragonlike tail. If it helps, I'm actively trying to be more... beast-like. Let me carry that. He takes the longsword that had seen more use as a crowbar and Aliana's greatsword, holding them both closer to how someone would carry firewood then a readied weapon. The tail was quite the opposite though. I'm not sure what we can do about the worm though.

The second belt had two charges left, he offers them to Aliana before moving into the room. I should be able to avoid the acid's burn, at least for now. I'll have a look around.

Figured some free hands might be good. Manifesting at 3pp (2 with Earth Power)

Last two charges of the healing belt for Aliana [roll0], [roll1]

+0 to Search from Ranulf, but +5 Search (4 Ranks, 9 in Int, +2 from Psymbiot) from the Psicrystal if it is Chisel.

Resistance 10 to Acid for 70 minutes, affecting his equipment, so he'll look into the pools as thoroughly as he can without taking damage.

[Nettlekid]

Faye sighs with relief as the harsh pain of the acid is soothed by healing magic. Hearing that Aliana's state isn't an issue, she decides not to press the irrelevant matter.
"Those of you who are unharmed by the acid, could you do something about the pools in the room? We'll need a path through, and I don't want to touch it. Also, I expect you've thought of it already too, but we'd best check the monster's corpse and see what or who is left inside it. It may have preyed upon the people we were hoping to find before we came across it, and if it did, at least we'll know that they're a lost cause. Alternatively, maybe it's eaten something that'll help us in our escape, like more Adamantine or one of your weird crystals, if acid doesn't destroy it. Again, I suggest the people resistant to acid check that out."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria definitely had NOT thought about checking the horrible monster's corpse. "I guess I could do that, but couldn't everyone just walk around the acid pools? They aren't blocking the path."

Still, the fairy joins Ranulf in looking around the room/disgusting monster remains. She repeatably flies over the monster when looking at it, never landing in the horrible body. The pools she interacts with as much as she is safely capable of.


Search Check: [roll0]+2 Aid = 31
Enla attempt to aid: [roll1]

[Mishkov]

The room is fairly unremarkable. It seems the creature roamed it and ate what it got. You wonder if this was used as a feeding room to dispose of the bodies. The acid made good work of all and you barely notice any remnants of bone. The party moves on past the room, and your fears are largely confirmed. You see several skeletons and half eaten bodies in your way as you move on including some trails of blood or gore leading towards the room. They were cleaner on the other side apparently or the creature had not been fed from your wing.

The stench of death follows you through the cavern. The next stretch of the cavern is much more natural. You see several rooms that are clearly artificial, but the major of the pathway seems to be mostly cave structure. You see several rooms much like your own except you find no survivors, just tables with some bodily fluids lining them. The rooms seem slightly different with the bodies revealing some of the strangeness you have seen in the journals. However many rooms have a smaller room attached with what looks to be a feeding room--similar markings on the door, similar pathway, and similar sounds coming from within. One of which had no sounds so you explored and found a dead creature in it, decomposing in its own acid. Other paths are open, and you don't see a reason to go into the feeding rooms, so you move on. Most of the bodies are gone from the rooms, but a few remain strangely enough. Several of these bodies are stitched together, but a few seem completely unremarkable to you. On some tables with the bodies still intact, you see the strange runes as well. There are different runes and combinations of crystals that you find in each holding chamber as well.

You are welcome to challenge the creatures if you would like. You found 2 separate feeding rooms, but they are not along the main path and you suspect they lead nowhere.

You hear a chattering sound throughout the caverns that most of you can't identify. Faye senses two creatures moving around, but they come and go quickly. They also appear to be undead with low to moderate intelligence (int between 6 and 10).

(Dungeoneering 20 or Survival 25) with listen 10
It seems like there is a tunneling creature around. The likely culprit would be an umbral hulk--possibly an undead one??

You find another room with a pile of other items presumably from other people.

Gloves of Dex +4
Masterwork spear
Studded leather armor +1
Ring of protection +2
Composite longbow +1
Arrows (200)
Light crossbow +1
Bolts (200)
Potion of Invis
Arcane Scroll (identify)x2
Power Stone (Elfsight)
Heavy Mace +1
Heavy Steel Shield (medium)
Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic
Monk's belt

Metagaming note: some of this is clearly for the new party member we just got. Someone add it to the spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_Q-EbIDJ_YfnWuOINpBwYetLrQHDqeavXhOQ0b_Q80Y/edit#gid=0) and whatever Soma had is also now up for grabs. For simplicity's sake, I will let you know that you will find Rana, so XIII, please claim the gear you want for her.

There is one room that seems much more recent, much more like your room. Parasites similar to the ones you find in your room line the floor except the floor is literally layered in the creatures. There is no feeding room and the bodies are all decomposing. One of you notices an aasimar with two worms attached. Their chest moves though barely--the one survivor. The rest are all corpses.

[J-H]

Aliana
(as they explore) There's something up ahead, it sounds like it digs like me, we should kill it!

Seeing the worms attached to a living being, the badger-woman is filled with disgust and rips them off.

[Breitheamh]

Halred chuckles as Aliana's voice echoes clearly through the link. "See, nothing to worry about."

When they come to the room with the Aasimar, the psychic immediately rushes to his side and touches his forehead. He attempts to form a Mindlink with the survivor to establish communication. At the same time, he says back to the group, "Can someone take out those w--?" He is cut off as Aliana viciously rips the parasites out of the survivor's body. "Oh," he blinks at the ferocity and smiles awkwardly, "Thank you, Aliana."

Manifesting Mindlink with the Aasimar. I don't know if unconscious counts as willing, or if the Aasimar is even unconscious. If s/he's not willing, I'll use 4 extra PP to force a Will save to negate, and if s/he's unconscious, I don't know if s/he can make a Will save.

[Mishkov]

With the worms gone, the aasimar stirs back to life. He looks incredibly weak, but alive much as you were just a night ago. He throws up. The scene all looks familiar.

As Halred attempts the mindlink with the planetouched, you feel a presence assault your mind. A memory from childhood, but not your own. The aasimar is now mindlinked with you all much the same as you all were upon awakening.

Rana is that aasimar. Feel free to post IC. Much like the others, there are a few penalties and bonuses! First, you are nauseated for about 30 minutes, second Rana is now male. Third +4 STR, -2 Dex. Fourth, you are dehydrated (and therefore fatigued)!

[Magikeeper]

Avaria had exchanged her gloves for the slightly better pair the group had found before continuing on, the pause resulting in her reaching the newcomer after her companions.

"Is he okay?"

[Ryuuk]

As the group explores, Ranulf can do little but shake his head. How many had been trapped, toyed with and disposed of? An exit, or some clue as to the purpose of all of this and what was done, best to focus on that. One step at a time.

Chattering. It was little more than an announcement of something for him. He watches the others react, maybe they knew more. Once they get to the equipment, he gets his hands on the helmet. If he can recognize what it is then he stops guarding his thoughts as the possibilities dawn. The runes and gibberish... this could let the journals make sense!

He leaves the sack and swords to the side. Faye, can I see the notes? He waits with the helmet ready and starts looking through them as soon as he gets the chance. First he goes back to the pages with rune he had memorized, hoping the helmet can translate them and shed some light into all of this.

[Nettlekid]

"Ah, not a bad idea. Go ahead. If those symbols are some kind of language this'll do, but if they represent abstract notions then we're out of luck." Faye mused. She reached back and grabbed the journals from the Haversack, passing them over the Ranulf.
"Be on your guard everyone, there are a couple of creatures lurking around. Undead, not unintelligent. Maybe like a Wight or something? And I don't know if there are any mindless creatures, so if there are undead then there may be skeletons and zombies I can't see.

These acid creatures are so weird. I can't decide, are they just byproducts of something kept around to dispose of waste, or are they the intended result? Those stitched corpses remind me of them, but that thing was an Aberration and not Undead, which is what I would imagine a stitched corpse monster would be.

I'm also getting frustrated with these caves. We have no idea how deep we are or how far into a mountainside we might be. These could go on for miles, rooms upon rooms of similar acid monsters and tombs. How do we even find a Darknode? How do we get out of here?"

[Magikeeper]

"Oh! The tunnels looked like they were made by umberhulks. So, maybe we're dealing with undead umberhulks? They're sorta like beetles crossed with giant gorillas. Maybe our captors used them to help build the halls..."

Avaria kept a concerned eye on their new companion as she spoke. She'd like to find a faster way out of this place as well; if they all had things in their heads.. wait, maybe there was a faster way!

"Tunnels! Can anyone here control undead?"

[Mishkov]

Ranulf

In putting on the helmet, you find the writings to be very confusing. You had not expected this to be a cookbook, but so it seems to be. Next to a gruesome drawing of someone's arm being removed and stitched to the middle of their stomach you read If you’re going to eat the dwarves at room temperature, try this simple deep-frying method. The meat will stay crispy longer. Lard is traditional, but you can use peanut oil. I’m not about to say how many people one little dwarf will feed, but if you fry only one, you’ll not have leftovers. What many people do not know about fried dwarves (and other fried foods) is that the finished dish can be wrapped well, frozen, and refried to heat it up later. For refrying, use a vegetable oil with a high smoke point, such as peanut oil. Preheat the oil over a nice campfire. Then carefully lower the pieces into the oil, frying them until just warmed through, 1 or 2 minutes. Don’t let fire die out and keep it hot.

The runes on the tables and in the chambers are actually just ingredients. Next to the aasimar, the rune reads Oregano.

There is another drawing of two people being stitched together attaching at their backs you read Add the elves, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the elves are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the elves are dry, about 5 minutes.

You also find yourself not wanting to take the helmet off, and you're rather hungry all of a sudden...

[XIII]

The Aasimar's eyes glow along with a symbol on his forehead. "Ugghhh.... What? Where am I? Where's my brother? Wha..."

[Ryuuk]

Oregano. This had to be some sort of joke, but the words were there, plain as day. Were those things picky eaters of something? Deep fried dw-elf? He expected revulsion at the idea, but... More in common with them than humans now. He continues to look through the pages, dropping any guard he had on his thoughts.

The hunger was strange, and felt almost foreign. Has it really been a day already? He concentrates, repleting his body again. A taste though, would wine still...? He puts that particular journal down, and shakes his head, as if trying to shake something off.

Another survivor, the answer to his questions might be in the notes though. He picks up a different one, the helmet and key writings might hold the key.

[Nettlekid]

"Well, we did sleep for about half a day, and we waking about an hour before and after that. Besides, who knows when the last time we ate was, or if our captors force-fed us anything with nutrition? Or anything at all besides worms presumably." Faye replied to Ranulf's thoughts, now that the latter had lowered his mental barrier.
"Actually, that's an issue we need to think about. We found an Everfull Mug and a pack of Everlasting Rations, but that's hardly enough to sustain us. If memory serves, the mug can make about 36 ounces of liquid in a day, and the rations can sustain one average-sized creature. Not nearly enough for the six of us. We either need to get out of here as soon as we can, or start thinking about food. Presumably our captors needed to eat something too, right? Maybe if we can find where they stationed themselves we'll find their reserves. Or a way out."
Faye paused, something on her mind. She eyes Ranulf suspiciously.
"Hang on. I didn't realize until now, but I haven't heard anything out of you for a while before this, Ranulf. Maybe mutterings like the rest of us as we were first waking up, and you very directly spoke telepathically to Aliana, but while I've been trying to speak everything I think so we don't get feedback and while others like Avaria and Aliana have let their minds been bursting out, I don't remember hearing your unintentional telepathic chatter for quite some time now. Exactly how did you manage that? Because I doubt you've just had a blank slate of a mind. Do you know something else about this that we don't?"

[Ryuuk]

If they were putting these notes to use, then there may be spices and such somewhere in the complex. He continues to look over the journal as Faye moves on to the problem with nourishment. I shou- don't need to eat, but finding their storage would be a priority. Some introspection, making sure his body was sated.

Once the suspicion arises, he puts the journals down. "I did it consciously. It's... discipline I'd say. When I became what I am now, I was shown just how much the body is subservient to the mind. There's a step further though, both, mind and body, are subservient to will. Its just another limb. The link took some getting used to, I'd never felt something so intrusive, but it was the body's doing, all the same. As we are now, our minds seem to be acting on their own accord, but it was similar enough, even easier, actually, to what I have had to work through before. My mind wanted to project, I didn't. It took a sort of... auto-hypnosis to over rule it, but it obeyed." Would that do? It works something like this- He wasn't sure how to explain it, but mentally tries to describe each step as best he can.

"If we can't find a way to break the mindlink, then maybe I can teach you how to do this. It's a lot of being aware of ones self, meditation helps with that."

He goes back to the journals, while speaking through the network, directing his thought to the Aasimar.I'm afraid there's little we can answer. Take it easy, the nausea should pass soon, those that did all of this seem to have fled. What's your name?

65/66 HP
19/24 PP
Manifested since waking, all with Earth Power when possible
2pp - Specified Energy Adaptation: Acid
2pp - Tail of the Dragon (7 hours)
1pp - Elan Replenish

We should all have Autohypnosis as a class skill now, so according this might be a good way to justify the rank once we level and someone takes it.

[Magikeeper]

Avaria almost sits on the Aasimar's bench, then thinks better of it. She was still afraid of there being parasites.. she lands on the bench standing instead and has Enla watch her feet. The ceiling as well.

"We're getting out of this place. Some illithid took us here, it's really bad and full of monsters but we're pretty strong so things should be okay I think! How do you feel internally?"

[XIII]

What's wrong with my body, my voice? Rana starts feeling her throat and then the rest of herself. Confusion followed by screaming is what happens, "WHAT!? WHY?! WHERE IS MY BODY!?!? I'M A MAN!"

[Magikeeper]

"Yes! You are!" responds the confused fairy. "Wait, does that mean you used to be a woman?" Avaria turns back towards Ranulf "Maybe they were switching bodies!"

[XIII]

"I am Rana, and I was a woman last I checked. Clearly that has changed...." The Aasimar looks horrified. Her movements are clumsy, she was not accustomed to this body. "My idiot brother is here somewhere, we should find him."

[Mishkov]

Moving on, you see something that looks like a darknode at the end of the long cavern. Rana staggers in her new body, still dehydrated and haggard. The chittering echoes throughout the cavern and two creatures burst through the walls. They look hostile, and the chains swirl around and cling which must have been the sound similar to the umber hulks.

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/314/b/8/big_zombie_monster_by_lordnetsua-dyzasa.jpg


Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit#gid=0)

Party wins the init
K. Rel to ID, it's clearly undead though with standard undead immunities.

Image ref http://lordnetsua.deviantart.com/art/Big-Zombie-Monster-58753882

[Magikeeper]

"Eep!"

Avaria reflexively greases the ground beneath the nearest monster.

She almost used something else, but grease would be both more effective at this point in time AND cheaper, so might as well cast that, eh?

The grease is centered on the monster, DC 15 reflex to not fall down each round and DC 10 balance to move.
SR = No

[J-H]

Aliana
Get oouuutt of here! The mindlink doesn't translate the rest as words, but an impression of blood-heating fury comes through quite clearly as Aliana charges the closest undead.


Entering Rage, duration is 11 rounds (high enough that I won't track it unless this drags out.
Between rage and the dire badger form, Aliana's got a lot of HP now (69, a boost of 30 from previous).

Charge to J17 and claw the thing once (sadly, no Pounce)
Attack [roll0]
Damage [roll1] plus [roll2] cold. Damage is magic an slash/pierce

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf

As the creatures burst forth, Ranulf puts the journals and weapons aside. To charge or to let it come... He takes a step back and begins to change, hands becoming deadly claws and his body growing in size. Hunching over with tail poised to strike, he watches the monster to the south carefully.

Swift: Claws of the Beast (2pp, Earth Power)
Standard: Expansion with a Linked Bite of the Wolf (2pp, lost focus)
Move: Recover Focus [roll0] DC 20, +3 if Chisel's Singleminded personality applies
Free: 5ft Step North, from L28 to L26-L27-M26-M27

65/66 HP
15/24 PP

AC 15 after size modifiers

[Nettlekid]

Faye eyed the two creatures on either side of the party. Undead, but not unintelligent. How problematic.
Not a lot I have will be much good against them. I can use Legion of Sentinels again, but unless we can get some distance we'll still be pinned in. I'm tempted to give us the cover of Obscuring Mist, but these things found us even while they were in the walls and I wouldn't be surprised if they can sense us without seeing us. That makes Invisibility Sphere equally unhelpful.

"I think our best chance is to make a break for it. Avaria, are you confident that you can get us out of here if we reach that Darknode? If so, I say we just run for it. If it doesn't work, at least we'll have them on one side rather than surrounding us. With that said...make Haste!

Casting Haste on all nearby party members, which may or may not include Aliana based on my question in the OoC thread. You now have +1 to your attack rolls, AC, and Reflex save, and +30 to all your speeds up to a max of double your original speed from this. I will then move to N20.

[XIII]

Rana tries to stand, clutching her stomach, "G-give me a bow! I can fight!"

[Mishkov]

The monster by the badger slips and falls to the greasy surface with an angry gigantic badger standing over him scratching at him.

As the others posture and prepare for battle with buffs and spells, the second monster makes a gruesome display of using the chains to pull on the remains of his own blood and spray them across the isle. The blood congeals and sticks to you slowing your movements.

DC 17 Ref save to everyone except Aliana vs Slow effects

[Magikeeper]

"What if there are more- AAH" **Dodges the blood splatter** "-of them hiding in the walls? Are they intelligent?"

Avaria hop-flies to the side, the movement serving the dual purposes of getting within greasing range of the second monster and lining up a path to dash forward should things come down to it.


Avaria got a 27 on her Know(Religion) check [see OOC thread page 3]

w/Haste:
Reflex Save: [roll0]
Psicystal Reflex: [roll1]

Avaira spends another PP to cast a grease centered on the other monster. She moves a bit as well (changed on the map).

Current HP: 39/40
Current PP: 31/60
Hasted AC: 24

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf does what he can to cover himself from the blood. It starts solidifying, but Faye's magic may be enough to counteract it. He guards his thoughts, he would not run here. He forces his legs to move while pouncing with claws and lashing tail. As he slashes into the monster, his face deforms into a muzzle and he finishes by trying to sink his fangs into its throat.

Swift: Hustle (3pp, or 2pp if the Psicrystal does grant Ranulf a +3 to COncentration)
- Move: 10 feet towards the monster to the south
Full: Full Attack

Large Size, Power Attack for 2, original haste canceled by the slow.

IIRC, this guy should be balancing and considered flatfooted. If it failed the save against Grease, it should be prone for an addiional +4 on these attack rolls.

If Faye decides to cast Haste again and Ranulf is still in range, then these get an additional +1 on the attack roll

Claw: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
Claw: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]
Tail: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]
Bite: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7] + [roll8] (Psy War 5)

[Nettlekid]

Faye groans, disgusted by the congealing blood and feeling the fibers of her magic dissolving.
"And here I was not wanting to waste any more spells. It looks like you two want to stay and fight, and the monsters want that as well. If that's the case, I won't disappoint."

Making another swift gesture, Faye creates the illusions of the Legion of Sentinels surrounding the monster Aliana is engaged with, on the ground. She smirks, knowing that if the monster seeks to right itself on its greasy legs it'll be leaving itself wide open for the warrior's strikes. Not only will the flanking position of the illusions aid Aliana's accuracy, but because all opportunistic strikes will come before the monster has righted itself they'll benefit from its prone position.

Casting Legion of Sentinels centered on the upper monster, which presumably extend into the hole it came out of? Twelve on the ground level (overlapping with the monster and Aliana) and twelve hovering in the squares above. All flanking with each other, a few flanking with Aliana. Because the monster's prone it takes a -4 penalty to AC against melee attacks. Can't wait until it stands up. I just hope it doesn't have DR.

[Breitheamh]

When the monsters appear, Halred wracks his brain trying to think through any weaknesses they might have and what they are called.

In the midst of this, he throws himself out of the way of the creature's gruesome attack. Then, thinking quickly, he sidesteps to get a clear shot, drops the armor and weapons he's carrying and looks forlornly at the rest of them tucked into his belt. I hope my pants can stay up on their own, he thinks through the mindlink, then sucks in a breath and releases a telekinetic surge of flying weapons toward the monster fighting Ranulf.

Kn Religion [roll0]
Reflex save [roll1]
Using Telekinetic Thrust on all the weapons I'm carrying. (apply Int instead of Dex mod to ranged attack roll, and weapons deal regular damage, no Str mod. Non weapons deal 1 dmg per 25 pounds for less dangerous objects, or 1d6 per 25 pounds for denser objects)
+1 Shortspear attack [roll2] (+1 from haste) piercing damage [roll3]
Mwk Dagger attack [roll4] (+1 from haste) slashing damage [roll5]
+1 Bastard Sword attack [roll6] (+1 from haste) slashing damage [roll7]
+1 Dwarven Waraxe attack [roll8] (+1 from haste) slashing damage [roll9]
+1 Longsword attack [roll10] (+1 from haste) slashing damage [roll11] edit: +1 acid damage (almost forgot)
+1 Warhammer attack [roll12] (+1 from haste) bludgeoning damage [roll13]
Heavy Steel Shield attack [roll14] (+1 from haste) bludgeoning damage [roll15]
Breastplate attack [roll16] (+1 from haste) bludgeoning damage 1 or [roll17] if considered more dangerous.

[XIII]

Still in pain and groggy, Rana stands to see the blood spray coming her way. Her instincts take over and she dodges the spray, watching in horror as is congeals rapidly on her new allies. "Unholy monster! Affront to nature!" With that, she readies an arrow with her hands still shaking. She was having trouble handling anything, let alone an arrow, with her new thick and clumsy fingers. No matter, she didn't need to be nimble; She needed to focus. Find her center. Block out the rest. Fire.

She (He) inhales, and takes off running. She pulls back and fires the arrow at the creature fighting Ranulf, continues running, and fires another arrow at the beast. She stops then breathes out, standing behind Ranulf's right flank.

Mutishot - Skirmish - Undead = Favored Enemy - Point Blank Shot
Hit - [roll0]
Dmg - [roll1] + [roll2] +2

2nd Shot
Hit - [roll3]
Dmg - [roll4]+ [roll5] +2

Precise Shot - No penalty for firing at engaged enemies/allies

[J-H]

Aliana

Just realized that the blood-flinging was the monster turn and that I get to go again.

Aliana claws at the undead, slashing at it while trying to also bit and tear one of its limbs off.


All attacks have +1 ab from Haste included in the rolls. Full attack, no need to move. Rar.
The monster thing probably has -4 AC due to being prone and Greased.

Claw attack [roll0]
Claw damage [roll1] plus [roll2] cold
Crit confirm [roll3] damage [roll4] plus [roll5] cold

Claw attack [roll6]
Claw damage [roll7] plus [roll8] cold
Crit confirm [roll9] damage [roll10] plus [roll11] cold

Bite attack [roll12]
Claw damage [roll13] plus [roll14] cold
Crit confirm [roll15] damage [roll16] plus [roll17] cold

[Mishkov]

The other monster likewise falls to the floor. One is assaulted by the badger, psywarrior, and arrows, it sprays blood again clinging to their skin. It stands up and is subsequently stabbed to death by illusions.

The remaining monster is quickly mobbed by the party and destroyed on the floor.

1400 exp gained. I don't see a point in continuing the fight. You've won pretty handily with one dead and one disabled! I need to tune this up for this many PCs...

Among the remains you find 1,010 gold between their guts and carcass. Their blood quickly hardens. Exploring the tunnels from which they came, you find a strange rug with intricate symbols on it.

The darknode now in sight, all remains is what preparations you wish to use it and if you dare...

The darknode would give you three clear paths one to an Elvish city of Lothrandirium known for being a peaceful nation though mostly lives in the canopies, so they often trade for food
The second being a town of men known as Roth. Roth is a small place with a solitary protective bubble that is completely unremarkable for many reasons.
The third being a shady area known to traffic dark magics and a black market. It's name is the Culdisash Bazaar.

Teleportation to the above seems almost guaranteed.

All three are protected from the wandering planes and attached to roads. Geographically it seems strange. They are in very distant locations. There is a 35% chance of success in teleporting anywhere your heart desires--though players would construct this place :smallsmile:

[XIII]

Rana sits down on the ground, completely exhausted. She hugs her knees and waits, staring at the node.

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf returns to normal size. His snout shrinks away as he spits out a piece of of the monster's flesh. The claws remain though, and he uses them to scrap the congealed blood off his person. In the back of his mind, he wishes the monster had pounced, just to see if there was anything salvageable from its form.

If he got everything on the mindlink right though, there were a few things he had to do. He reaches under into his gauntlet and pulls Chisel out, holding it tight in his clawed hand. Chisel, you have seen more of the winged man and this place then I have. We may be leaving soon... regardless of how nonsensical it seems, I need to know what you meant by 'Here'. We can't leave her behind.

He helps gather the mess of coin and blades. This other question, he asks more privately. ...and beyond Rana, are you aware of any other survivors?

He gathers the notes and his master's things. When the rug is discovered a hand goes to his helmet and he tries to make sense of the symbols.

[Mishkov]

The symbols at first seem too abstract for the helmet to read but then they start to organize and form a picture. It's a rug with a list of wine flights embroidered into the side and the middle is a chart of their cheese pairings.

I don't know of anyone else. I didn't know about Rana or some of the others either though. I think we're all here. But, I'm confused master, if we all leave, I'm sure she'll come with us. Why would she stay here? Unless you know something I don't...

[XIII]

With no hope of finding her brother here, and sick of being a pariah, the large man that is Rana sits hugging his knees and starting into space. Mouth slightly ajar.

[Nettlekid]

"The sooner we leave this place, the better. Preferably to somewhere comfortable and nonthreatening? I plan to get every memory of this ordeal erased from my mind, and that could take weeks. Plus if what Aliana described about being infested is true of all of us, it may take repeated purging of Remove Disease or something similar to remove the stain. A Bard's College and a Paladin's Guild, those are the places I want to go right now.

Incidentally, we should probably tell someone about this place. So whoever did this doesn't just keep perpetrating their evil?"

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf stares at the rug and slowly shakes his head. "They were obsessed with fine dining..." The symbols were clear as day though. A claw goes to the helmet. These creatures were insane.

He opens his palm and looks over the psicrystal. ...because as far as I'm aware, she isn't here. At least, I can't sense her like you can, and leaving her behind would be... I'm still trying to piece together what happened to us, I'm still a novice. You've seen how much I'm missing, and the level of what happened here is still... leagues ahead of me. He places two clawed fingers over the crystal, wondering if it would work.

If it does, it sprouts a few spider-like limbs. Just stay on me. If you say she'll follow, she will. He helps gather what equipment he can while they prepare to use the darknode.

Ranulf nods in agreement, though can do little to help decide on a safe haven. The one he knew was gone afterall.

"Rana, right? Do you remember anything from before?" He moves about, gathering and clearing what congealed blood he can from the Telekinetic Thrusted blades and armor. "We woke up almost a day ago, and all that seems clear is that we were being... modified or prepared for something." He pushes back the thoughts of the cookbook. Hopefully we'll get out of here soon, and with proper rest and help, we can figure this out, but if something happens... We've found a lot of equipment laying around, have a look, there may be something you can use.

[Breitheamh]

Halred rips a strip of cloth from his shirt to act as a makeshift belt to hold up his pants. He struggles with it for a moment, and then finally gets it tied, making him look even more raggedy than he did already.

"Well, if we're all settled here, I'd like to get somewhere with a good library, if at all possible. If there's more to learn about this place and the man with the bat wings, I'd like to know it."

[Magikeeper]

"We've checked all the tunnels we could find, though, right? I don't know what more we could do here without help."

Avaria studies the darknode for a few moments before speaking up once more.

"It looks like we have three options, but I've never been to the third one so I can only teleport us to the first two. Those options are an Elven city - they're friendly but kinda poor? - and a more middle-of-the-road bubble city. Lothrandirium and Roth, respectively."

[Breitheamh]

"Oh, Lothrandirium! Lovely place. A little scant on food, but peaceful. If memory serves me correctly, there are also a good number of things to be learned there. My vote's for the elves."

[XIII]

Ranulf stares at the rug and slowly shakes his head. "They were obsessed with fine dining..." The symbols were clear as day though. A claw goes to the helmet. These creatures were insane.

He opens his palm and looks over the psicrystal. ...because as far as I'm aware, she isn't here. At least, I can't sense her like you can, and leaving her behind would be... I'm still trying to piece together what happened to us, I'm still a novice. You've seen how much I'm missing, and the level of what happened here is still... leagues ahead of me. He places two clawed fingers over the crystal, wondering if it would work.

If it does, it sprouts a few spider-like limbs. Just stay on me. If you say she'll follow, she will. He helps gather what equipment he can while they prepare to use the darknode.

Ranulf nods in agreement, though can do little to help decide on a safe haven. The one he knew was gone afterall.

"Rana, right? Do you remember anything from before?" He moves about, gathering and clearing what congealed blood he can from the Telekinetic Thrusted blades and armor. "We woke up almost a day ago, and all that seems clear is that we were being... modified or prepared for something." He pushes back the thoughts of the cookbook. Hopefully we'll get out of here soon, and with proper rest and help, we can figure this out, but if something happens... We've found a lot of equipment laying around, have a look, there may be something you can use.

"I-... I was arguing with my brother, we had just met for the first time. He came out of nowhere and I didn't know how to handle it, my tribe did not handle it well.. He was strange... He claimed to be a paladin, but dressed as a monk would with none of the armor that those kinds usually wear. He had the same symbol on his forehead that I do, his eyes glow as mine do. We were ambushed while arguing... I shot many arrows, he fought like a demon possessed, I'd never seen anything like it. Then, I woke up here with you people... I'd like to find him, my last words were not kind. Rana looks distressed, he clearly has deep guilt about how she treated her newly found brother.

[Magikeeper]

"Lothrandirium will probably be more willing to help, but I think Roth would be more able?" Having thus exhausted her travel advice, Avaria turns from Halred and hops closer to Rana. "I know how you feel. I.. I really do. I'll help you as much as I can to find your brother, but I don't think staying here is going to help us accomplish that. I should be able to teleport us back here later, I think, if we figure out a new area to check."

[XIII]

Rana responds, forlorn and crestfallen, "Very well... I have no more home or purpose beyond this. I am with you people if you'll have me."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria hugs Rana.


Well, she mostly hugs Rana's shoulder, given the size difference.

[XIII]

Avaria hugs Rana.


Well, she mostly hugs Rana's shoulder, given the size difference.

Shocked at first at the contact, Rana allows it to happen. She leans into Avaria as much as her new large form allows.

[J-H]

Aliana

"The Bazaar has people who can help us, but only the strong are safe there. It's probably bad with us in this...condition."

[Magikeeper]

Avaria maintains the hug for awhile longer before moving closer to the center of the darknode. Her face is slightly wet with tears.

"I can't teleport to the Bazaar unless we can scy it somehow; I have to have been wherever we go. I think we're okay with teleporting to the elven city? It might still go wrong, but we have a good chance of teleporting directly there without issue. Lets go!"

If Avaria has to roll for mishaps and general failure:Campaign-Specific Bad Things(TM) chance:
[roll0] <- 30 or lower is failure/mishap

General Teleport Mishap chance
[roll1] <- 89+ is some sort of error.

[Mishkov]

The world spins. At first you think there is something wrong with the darknode, or maybe simply the teleportation magics have been erratic ever since the stitching, but you arrive in a forest and not at the elvish city. The trees go high and the canopy blocks most of the sun. The vegetation seems pure, and the plants are likely safe to eat. You notice a node bearing elvish runes that you teleported too, but the rune seems dead. Something has happened here. There is some discussion that perhaps this is what is known as a defensive node. At times when cities are under attack or need to block entry, they place dead proxy nodes around the city.

You determine a direction and head towards where you think the city still lies, and head off. You find some plants to eat and there is plentiful water, but the animals are strangely missing.

You hear a scuffle from the bushes. Looking closer, you make out a small camaflouged form. It moves away, but a few moments later you hear more. A dwarf steps out in front of you with crossbow drawn, "Who goes ere? An wat bussiness ye have ere?" he shouts challengingly. Other dwarves close in on you crossbows drawn. You notice others in the trees.

The scene would seem odd had you lived pre-stitching, but in this world, it's not uncommon to see a race in an atypical environment. The dwarves may not be as strong as you, but being that there are around twenty of them, they could pose a threat.

[Breitheamh]

Halred looks around him at the angry dwarves pointing crossbows at him and puts his hands straight in the air.

"Um, we'd like to visit the elves of Lothrandirium...please." He smiles uncomfortably and tries to look as nonthreatening as possible.

[Magikeeper]

Proxy nodes? Did the illithids escape to here!? Avaria's train of thought would have continued if not for the dwarven distraction. She also tries to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"We were captured by some horrible batwinged man, tortured by mindflayers, and only just escaped by using a darknode that was linked to this place and a few others. Is the city okay?!"

Avaria's eyes dart around the dwarves with genuine concern for their well-being. Were any of them injured..? Her equally genuine fear of having a few dozen crossbows pointed at her hopefully help the dwarves feel at ease.

[Mishkov]

The dwarves said nothing for what seems to be an eternity and then simply "Aye, city's fine." One dwarf poked the talker and then more silence.

Another dwarf finally hobbled forward. He seemed old and more than a bit gaunt. "Aye...city's fine." He said coughing and panting. "No Ilithids here, no damn food either. Just rovers and creepers." Obviously the leader he starting to make a motion and then hesitate. "Wait, what be yer intentions here?"

[Magikeeper]

Avaria breathed a sigh of relief when the dwarves kept talking instead of shooting.

"There are others who were captured we are trying to find, so we just wanted to sell some stuff, find a healer, resupply, warn you about the illithid, get any information we can, and then go back after them."

[Nettlekid]

Hey, I want to point out that Faye's Mindsight would have picked up the Dwarves well in advance.

Also, are we still telepathically linked? I assume so.

Faye catches her breath after the teleportation, still winded and not entirely with it. She comes to while Avaria is explaining the situation.
Shattered gods above Avaria, when something like this happens you never tell people the TRUTH. Read the situation, something's wrong here. There's a small military force here, why? You saw the rune, the city needed to defend itself. The world is in shambles and power struggles turn control of resources from splinter group to splinter group constantly. We don't know whether these are potential allies or barbarians and slavers, and I would have thought our recent experience would encourage you to err on the side of caution.

Faye stays quiet for the time being, trying to look nonthreatening but eyes darting to all the Dwarves she can see. She starts going over her options, be it to cast Invisibility or Invisibility Sphere to try to sneak away or Glibness to turn the situation to her favor.
Sense Motive check: Do the Dwarves believe Avaria about what happened to us? And do they seem curious but generally innocuous, or do they look like they're aggressive? [roll0]

[Ryuuk]

Ranulf watches the situation unfold, mostly wondering the pros and cons of dismissing his claws and tail. He moves slowly, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible. There were some points to Faye's mental scolding, he had to agree, but finding a way to have less crossbows aimed at them would probably be more important.

"As she said, we are just looking for a place to rest. We mean no harm."

[Mishkov]

They were shuffling around you and then closed in. You kinda picked up one and then another but they were far away and then you saw the one and then the others circled in. I didn't wanna slow things down significantly by giving you the play by play. Sense motive tells you they're telling you the truth, and they're maybe not the most competent.

Sprrrrrrng. A crossbow bolt fires off hitting a nearby tree. The dwarven leader turns and yells at the one who fired for wasting resources.

"Ilithids nasty buggers pity on ye. Aye, there's a healer in town. Yer welcome to stay with us, but we don't have much in the way of supplies. If ye hunt with us in the morning for yer keep, you can help us resupply and take yer share."

The dwarf that had shot his crossbow piped up again and asked "Er...but where'll they stay?"

"Oh uh..." playing with his overdone moustache the leader replied, "That's a good point, Pip. We only have time to get back to the outpost. It's covered, but ye'll have to stay in the barracks with the rest of us." He makes a motion to leave. "Ye coming? Cause creepers be coming soon"

Covered means it has planar shielding. You don't understand the creeper and rover comments nor why they'd be lacking food necessarily.

[XIII]

Rana's eyes widen a bit at the mention of hunting, "Hunt? I can hunt!"

[J-H]

Aliana

A sense of relief comes through the mindlink as Aliana relaxes upon returning to the natural world. Even the arrival of the dwarves doesn't bother her.

Somebody ask him what he means about creepers

[Breitheamh]

Halred smiles nervously. "Well, that sounds wonderful. Thank you. Um, what exactly did you mean by creepers?"

[Nettlekid]

That Sense Motive was actually more to see if they believed our story. About being captured by Illithids and all. Because that's a pretty wacky event that he seems to be taking in stride.

Also, for no reason except paranoia, Sense Motive (normally against DC 15 unless you up it for any reason) to see if he seems to be under mental control or compulsion from some source. [roll0]

Faye flinches as the crossbow bolt pierces the tree. Accident or not that could have seriously injured someone, and this Dwarf leader didn't seem concerned about their safety as much as a waste of a bolt. This was the type of group to trip you if they were being chased and get away while they scurried to safety on their stubby Dwarven legs. She takes another breath to calm herself, and listens to Aliana's mental request.
Why don't you ask yourself? Oh yeah, you're a badger. When does that wear off, anyway? Because none of us pull off the Druid look well enough to pass you as a companion. Faye mentally jabbed.
"Pardon my ignorance, sir, but you mentioned 'rovers' and 'creepers.' I'm unfamiliar with the terms. We're clearly not from around here, and we've been...out of commission for a while, so please forgive us for being uninformed. Exactly what kind of creatures are we talking about? What do they look like, and what do they do? I pray we don't encounter any if they have you shaken, but forewarned is forearmed."

[Mishkov]

"Err...what do they look like?" The dwarf asks, scratching his head. "Well they're big and have 6 arms and walk on all fours and..."

"No, they have three arms!" another yells from the back, "And teeth the size of of my hand."

"I thought they had two arms with three hands on each arm!"

"That's clearly absurd...but we may have lost track of how many hands and arms they have."

"But they're fast and sneaky and hunt in packs."

"But not in the day. That's why we leave at night. They kill our patrols and eat them...they eat everything."

"...and three tails."

"The details aren't important. The creepers are the ones that travel in packs. The rovers roam at night. Big heads, big arms, smash us all...eat all the game."

"And the creepers sometimes!"

"Sometimes...but the game's all spooked, and we can't farm. So hunting's hard if you have a hunter, we'll be happy." his voice trails off. Maybe there was more to the story, but the dwarves did seem genuinely spooked by the fading light as you head back with them to the garrison.

[XIII]

"Err...what do they look like?" The dwarf asks, scratching his head. "Well they're big and have 6 arms and walk on all fours and..."

"No, they have three arms!" another yells from the back, "And teeth the size of of my hand."

"I thought they had two arms with three hands on each arm!"

"That's clearly absurd...but we may have lost track of how many hands and arms they have."

"But they're fast and sneaky and hunt in packs."

"But not in the day. That's why we leave at night. They kill our patrols and eat them...they eat everything."

"...and three tails."

"The details aren't important. The creepers are the ones that travel in packs. The rovers roam at night. Big heads, big arms, smash us all...eat all the game."

"And the creepers sometimes!"

"Sometimes...but the game's all spooked, and we can't farm. So hunting's hard if you have a hunter, we'll be happy." his voice trails off. Maybe there was more to the story, but the dwarves did seem genuinely spooked by the fading light as you head back with them to the garrison.

"Huntint at night is hard... But I've done it before, and I have light too. A lot of it if the things come and we cannot kill them."

[Mishkov]

You hear snickering from a few dwarves at the comment on hunting. One even says to another in a low tone, "Isn't that what Raylink said? And a greater axe thrower had never lived..."

The leader hushes them. "We'll take you hunting in the morning. The creepers and rovers live in caves though if you want to smoke them out. They are beyond deadly, especially at night...it's their world then."

DC20 K. Planes or DC25 K. Nat
You suspect these creatures might be something native to the plane of shadows that have migrated to this forest and devour it at night. Though the dwarves descriptions are especially unhelpful...

[J-H]

Aliana

This should wear off at dawn...and I can most definitely hunt

[Mishkov]

A dwarf eyed the badger and pointed at it. "So...is that yer pet or are we roasting badger tonight, mates?"

[Magikeeper]

"Her badger-ness is a temporary condition." The fairy turns a bit red shortly after the words pass her lips; Faye had JUST told her to stop doing that. Sorry.

[Ryuuk]

Teeth and tail... The description was nonsensical, but those features seemed clear at least. "Thank you for your help. If you wish to go at dawn, I'll gladly aid in the hunt in return."

[Mishkov]

"Temporarily badger...that's odd"

"Temporarily badger until permanently dinner," a dwarf muttered in the background.

The dwarves escort you back to the outpost. The forest along the way does show tracks of both a large creature and also packs of smaller creatures. The forest is eerily silent, devoid of animal life including the birds. The dwarves make offcolor comments throughout the way and develop a song about badger soup they begin singing.

You come to the outpost. The city is setup very much like the elvish city you had intended on visiting. You climb a ladder that is let down from the trees and the city mostly resides in the canopy. It is a beautiful place and you notice the planar wardings around it as well. You do not notice a node here, but those of you versed in teleportation magics recognize disruptors blocking spells to and from. They had barrels of vegetables and other fruits that they had gathered from the forest. There is some sort of troll system for the foods and you imagine that they lead into the city itself.

The sun had begun to set and you hear strange chattering sounds in the distance. At times you think you see movement from the shadows, but nothing you distinctly can pinpoint. The dwarves get nervous as they hear that, but once in the canopy, they seem to relax. The leader turns to you and says "We have empty rooms in the barracks for sleeping, ye can have some plants to eat if ye agree to go hunting in the morning. Agreeable?"

[Ryuuk]

He hears the chattering and watches the dwarfs' reactions. Seems whatever the creepers or rovers are, they've left an impression. At the back of his mind, he decides he needs to kill one. A small goal, a distraction, but one that he would succeed in or fail a matter of hours. That was manageable.

Ranulf nods. "Agreeable, though jokes and songs aside, I urge your men to stay away from the Badger." He takes in the settlement. It was strange, to say the least. Very different from any he had seen before, but rather pleasing. Plants... if anyone wishes you can take my share.

[Magikeeper]

"Agreed! I second what Ranulf said about the badger."

Avaria quickly eats her plants and curls up in whatever defensible location exists within the rooms. Enla stands guard throughout the night, both for Avaria and the apparently delicious Aliana.

The fairy was still worried about the insects that may be inside her, but at least the continued danger stopped her from thinking too much about the great-niece she hadn't known existed until it was already too late. She..she had failed her sister again..

[Mishkov]

The party settles into their new accommodations. It's a rather bare room off the mess hall with a couple cots for you to sleep on. The place clearly has not been in the best state of repair though it has planar shielding and a place for you to sleep. The vegetables are not filling, but provide some sort of nutrition, and the dwarves are pleasant enough--at least they don't try to eat Aliana...

You drift off to sleep or begin to meditate during the night. Aliana tosses and turns, feeling another beast within her stir. You all feel especially drowsy though you worry about the nightmares to come from your captivity. Even Ranulf feels drowsy for the first time since his transformation. Perhaps it was the worms that had a lasting sleeping effect, perhaps it was something that the man with wings did--Ranulf even consider that it was something the dwarves did since this sort of sleep seems unnatural to him, but you all find yourselves sleeping shortly.

I'm going to sort of shorthand this because the players know what happened in captivity though it's a little different for party two.

Party 2

You remember being taken. Taken and strapped to a table. You remember not being able to move. You remember seeing others all in the same room then drifting in and out of consciousness.

There was a man with bat wings. There were a least 1 if not more illithids. There were worms, parasites attached to you. There were things done to you, to your body, horrible things.

You remember waking up to the stench and the rot of the place. You remember seeing outside yourself. You remember others much like yourself.

There was pain. There was suffering. Then there was moving. You don't remember being marched, but in the haze there is a remembering of the distinct impression of being moved around. Being marched or taken somewhere. There was a memory...but then it's gone.

You awake with others around you. The cell does not look especially secure nor does it look especially dirty, and you're strangely rested though very hungry. You wonder if the sleep magics have worn off or if you were simply taken somewhere. The prison is a small room with several of you in it and baren walls. The floor is mildly dirty and there is some moss (or is it mold? DC15 nature--it's mold!) on the walls, and a few plants scattered on the floor, but no blood no pain like you remember. You are also armed though what you are armed with does not necessarily make any sense.

Stuff (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o0IcilvdzOQAEiEniTXBjLiGkuiqYBV0LFVPDAcNeiw/edit#gid=0)

There are noises from the outside. Voices that do not sound like mindflayers, deeper voices, less terrifying though you can't see out of the door.

Liecia
You have memories of the eating chambers described to party 1. You have the distinct memory of being eaten by one of those things while helpless--then back to the chained tables. You remember seeing Ranulf while chained to the table, but he was incapacitated like you.

You are now male. Temporary stat changes: +11 STR, -2 DEX, +2 CON. Chisel is here with you. You are wearing a helmet that burns you when you try to take it off.

Azalea
You have the distinct memory of your legs being broken though you see no scars on your body. You do feel like you are uncomfortable in your skin however.

Temporary stat changes -4 STR, -2 Dex. You have a psicrystal following you.


Reynald
You remember a distinct burning that the others do not. Like fire had caught upon your entire being.

You are now female. Temporary stat changes -1 STR, -4 DEX +10 movement speed. You do not have your warhorse with you.

Faust
You are especially hazy. Everything seems very dream-like. You worry that your touch on reality is fading. At first you feel like your face itself is different...molded into something other than it was but as you continue to touch it, it begins to feel right. Your hair is longer and slightly darker than it once was.

Temporary stat changes -4 STR, +3 DEX, -3 CON.

Aereck Tarrinsen
You are aware of the mindlink as you awaken.

You have an additional psicrystal following you.

Uyarak the Abandoned
You are also especially groggy. It takes you a longer time to wake up. It feels as though you have maybe eaten once in days.


All
Similar to the other situation, you all are mindlinked. Though you are clearly not in the same location.

[Magikeeper]

Azalea


Initiative: [roll0] <-Yeah! Azalea gets to hiding before you even know what's going on. :P
Hide: [roll1]
Move Silently: [roll2] <- Although maybe she was a bit too hasty. ;)
Know(Nature): [roll3]
Know(Arcana/Psionics): [roll4] +5 CoS to identify psicrystal
Know(Dungeonneering): [roll5] +5 CoS to have identified mindflayers
Spot: [roll6]

Edit: I think she can still use maneuvers, they are encounter-based and I don't see a way to 'un-ready' them, only a way to change them. In that case she uses Cloak of Deception for 1-round invisibility as a swift action.

The fairy's first reaction, of course, is to immediately turn invisible, locate a hiding spot (beneath unclaimed gear or behind somone's back if need be), and proceed to take cover from the humans. A reflex honed for eight years is not so easily broken. Well, horrific torture could hardly be consider "easily", but the point stands.

Hiding spot! Get bearings. Where am I? 5 humans; psicrystal following me; stuff outside; monsters everywhere; why did they leave us gear, how can I use-

[XIII]

Uyarak awakens slowly and in a haze. Have I been drugged? The flashing memories and state of this place brings alarm to Uyarak, he prays for the strength to overcome and his powers restored to him through great and merciful Ilmater. As he slowly comes to, his stomach reminds him of it's neglect. I haven't been this hungry since the trials. Wait.... RANA! The lean man groans as he rises quickly in his cell and takes in his surroundings, dazed but filling with a righteous fury.

If I'm bound or anything - Escape Artist -
Know. Religion - Could this be the work of our nemesis, the Loviatans, followers of the goddess of pain?! If not, who?! - [roll1d20+9
Listen - [roll1]
Search - [roll2]
Spot - [roll3]

[Ryuuk]

"Ugh..." As Liecia stirs, there was a single thought repeating over and over. You stupid child. You had to make a stand didn't you? Why didn't you just run... Why didn't I just leave you there? She felt her arms clench with anger at the urge to beat him senseless. It felt wrong. Clumsier, stronger, heavier. This isn't right, these aren't- She looks over her arms, then to the rest of her body. "What in hell is this!?"

No, not mine this isn't- She shakes her head, only then finding the weight. She tries to remove it only to feel the burn, dropping it instantly. From there she realizes the aching in her gut. Nononono, they said I'd never- No, never again!

She tries to slow things down. One thing at a time, this isn't helping.

She concentrates, she was rested, that was good, that was all she needed. She takes a deep breath as her power pool is restored, immediately spending a tiny fraction of it to sate her aching hunger. Never again...

Full Round action to concentrate and recover PP, immediately spend one in Elan Repletion

You're next She moves her arms to the sides of her head and grabs the helmet. She concentrates, generating a loud mental hum and a silver sheen on the headgear. If it works, the helmet vanishes, and she quickly moves away from where it once was.

Manifesting Time Hop (5pp) on the Helmet, then moving away from that square, expecting it to return to the same spot and fall to the ground.

This was a start, but she needed to gather her bearings. She concentrates on the psicrystal, making it sprout spiderlike limbs. Chisel, stay hidden, but go outside and find out what's out there. Go. For now, she moves next to to a wall, sits and waits for the helmet to fall.

[Nettlekid]

Can we understand the language being spoken outside the door? Also what are the walls and floor of the room made of?

Faust too begins to stir, tired and aching and with little memory of anything that's happened recently.
Where am I? How did I get here? I feel so drained...but surprisingly spry. I can't even remember what I was doing before I got...taken? I assume. That's probably what happened.
This was...unusual to say the least. He takes a passing glance at the rest of the creatures sprawled out around him. Hopefully they'll be of use, and strong enough to get him out of here. But they look just as out of it as he feels.
Who can help me right now? Agares and his Earth Elemental or Malphas' bird could prove useful to look around, since I certainly don't want to. I need to look through that pile of stuff, but I bet some of it's gone, and Andromalius could help with that. Of course, we all seem to be a bad shape, and Buer's healing could aid us. Especially if we've picked up something, she can purge it from me. If I can't fine my weapons or armor, Eurynome or Savnok could prove helpful. Oh, decisions, decisions...

[Mishkov]

Examining things further, you notice the door is made of wood and the walls are a higher quality wood, some of you can recongize it as ironwood.

Your world is slightly dizzying as you realize that you can hear each other's thoughts entirely.

The stuff isn't really in a pile. Some of it is beside a few of you, some of you are wearing armors and things that don't make any sense for you, but we can handwave through who is wearing what and etc.

Remember dealing with the newness of the mindlink again.

You can ID the language with a DC20 listen check and familiarity with the language. So if you know it, you can ID it. If not, I'll determine based on your background if you would know it or not. You'll need a 25 listen check to hear what they're saying.

Liecia
The helmet falls as you would expect. No burning or otherwise scarring on your head.

Chisel squeaks under the door. I see 6 armed guards, master. Bows and knives. They're eating breakfast.

[Nettlekid]

Oh, my head is aching...I wish they weren't talking so loudly...
"Hey, everyone waking up? Deepest apologies, but could we try to be a bit quiet? I don't mean to impose, but my head's in agony and everyone shouting isn't the best thing for it. And I don't want to be heard by whatever captured us."
Good, that ought to take care of it. Now let's see what we've got scattered around here. My phylactery, how fortunate, wouldn't have wanted to lose that. I think this is my rope, and oh, my Shapesand! And there's some more, great. Trusty haversack, put that stuff in...I don't see my scimitar, but I can do without. Or my armor, but hey, this one's even better than my old set! And...
He paused, his eyes lighting on a curved, lightweight sword. Near it was an ornate fountain pen, and a pair of worn boots.
THAT WOMAN is here? This is her sword, no mistake about it. She's the one who did this to me! She's pulled her strings and finally worked up the stones to get me locked up. I'll get out. And oh by the dead gods in the ground she'll regret the things she'll make me do to her... he fumes telepathically.

I took some of the stuff I recognized as his and as Faye's. I suppose we'll go over it more when more people post.

[Magikeeper]

Azalea had ended up hiding behind Faust during her knee-jerk bout of invisibility.

-and this dagger will work, I guess. I- !!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

The fey tries to contain her thoughts but doesn't quite manage to pull it off, the failure leading to the link becoming flooded with anxiety and frantic planning.

Autohypnosis result was an 8.

Uyarak's initial spot check beat Azalea's hide (25), fyi. I'll presume she didn't have the gloves on yet.

[Ryuuk]

6 with Bows and knives, that does not sound like more mindflayers, what race are they? If you don't know, describe them.

That was part of the problem, the other was more personal. She wasn't in her body Or at least- No, this is not it. There was that memory, the gibbering horror, the way it came over her and... No. That could not have been real. But the child was there two, wasn't he?

She places her hands on her head and sits against a wall. The racket was of no help, that one had to be next. This is emotion, confusion... Train of thought? Its everything we think, isn't it? The noise is not going to stop unless we stop thinking. She shakes her head slowly, as she watches those around the room. "What in hell did they do to us?"

[Mishkov]

Dwarves, master. Mindflayers are known to have lackeys of all races. I'm sorry I didn't specify. I'm going to come back before they notice me. Chisel replies to Liecia.

[Breitheamh]

Aereck wakes in vicious anger, the kind of anger that only appears in the eyes of a cornered predator. In one motion, he is off of the slab of a bed he awoke on and halfway to punching the nearest Illithid before realizing that there are none.

A tingling in his head and the sound of thoughts alert him that he is mindlinked, and he quickly concentrates on keeping his own thoughts private while still learning what he can about the others around him. No one was getting their evil, Illithid-pawn eyes on his thoughts.

He digs through the gear, picking up some new things and dropping the random crap these monsters had stuck him with, tapping into the power of his mind to throw up some long lasting protection, and then listens with his ear at the door. He would need to be ready for whatever trick those monsters were trying to pull on him. He knew he shouldn't have gone hunting alone.

In the blur of his preparation, he barely registered that there was a small psicrystal following him. He looked around, trying to find its master, then walked backwards, to the left, to the right, watching it follow him.

He thinks privately to his new psicrystal, Are you following me? Where's your master?

Manifesting Extended Inertial Armor, Aereck doesn't care about identifying the mold, he takes whatever he thinks will help him, and doesn't worry about his second Mwk dagger since he found a nicer one (adamantine).

If anyone needs/wants anything he took, just ask.

Made a Listen check of 25 in the OOC, so do I know what they are saying?

[XIII]

"Who is there? Who is in my mind?" severely confused at the mental link and still groggy, Uyarak feels like it's time to leave this cell.

[Magikeeper]

Okay. It's okay. They haven't seen me. GAH! Thoughts! I can do this...

Azalea calms herself down and tries once more to control her emanations. Success!

There we go. Alright, how do I get out of this... 5, no, 4 humans and an Aasimar in here, and a pack of dwarves outside talking about..uh....food! Yeah, something about food... Azalea does her best to match the sounds to words, her primary sources being memories of skimming through that old cookbook she'd found among her mother's things (and its phonetic spellings of regional dishes) and this one time a group of the creatures had met with the humans above. She wished she had read the former more thoroughly, but reading the tome had always made her really hungry...

*Stomach growl*

Oh crap.

Autohypnosis: [roll0]. Other stuff rolled/determined in OOC thread.

[Ryuuk]

Liecia's hands go to her/his face, shortly after she takes her head, removes the gauntlets and lets them fall to her side. That was better In a similar way, she stands and takes off the mithral shirt she finds herself wearing, and a vest if needed, leaving it on the ground. She stops, watching them laying there, while she thinks, opening and closing her hands. Are those... If not, they had the same effect as the Newmade's. Very well, come to me Chisel

She finds the cloak and if she recognize it, sits down and unties it. Chisel likely finds her sitting cross legged with the cloak on her lap, with the dorjes, torc and headband over it. If its on her neck, one of her hands is caressing an amulet of mighty fists, the other goes to the floor for the psicrystal to mount. Chisel, where is he?

She watches some of the others. If her thoughts weren't lying to her, it seemed all were as lost as he/she was. Her eyes brighten when she sees the madman manifest the armor though. Another Psion She turns to Aereck and speaks out. "This telepathy is out of control, do you happen to know what's going on."

[Breitheamh]

Aereck looks the stranger up and down, trying to gauge his threat level before responding, "No. All I know is I was captured by Illithids and now I've woken up in this room with people outside speaking Dwarvish. Probably Flayer pawns."

He makes a point of turning back toward the door to listen, but then stops mid-spin. He looks at the man who'd spoken with squinty eyes and head slightly cocked. "Why would they leave prisoners in a place where they could easily reach weapons and equipment." His eyes widen as he jumps headlong into a conclusion.

He immediately starts examining the walls, the ceiling, the doors, the people, the beds, everything, wracking his memory for any information that might give it away, trying to find the flaw in this clearly illusory world.

I'm assuming he won't find anything out of the ordinary, but here are the rolls anyway. He might learn something, at least.

Spot [roll0]
Search [roll1]
Kn Psionics [roll2]
Kn Dungeoneering [roll3]
Kn Nature [roll4]
Kn Planes [roll5]
Kn Religion [roll6]
Kn Local [roll7]
Kn Architecture & Engineering [roll8]
Sense Motive (on the other party members and any other intelligent creatures he can see) [roll9]

Wow! Those are terrible! I really hope that means I'll have good rolls when I actually need them.

[Mishkov]

Aereck

The psicrystal replies He died on the tables in the chambers. He said you'd be my master now, so I transferred the bond. This seems strange to you as psicrystals usually do not possess this sort of power, but so is the mindlinked situation.

People seem confused. The architecture here doesn't make any sense. This is a very natural setting, something like elves or druids would have made. It isn't consistent with mindflayers typically being underground though it's not unheard of for them to use strange holding cells or have taken over other places.

Liecia

He's here, master. Chisel replies.

[Breitheamh]

Aereck smiles sideways at his new psicrystal. Uh-huh. Suuuurre. That certainly sounds plausible, given that there are dwarves in a clearly elven city! You Illithids think you're so clever. Well, I'm on to you! Alright, who are you, really?!

[J-H]

Reynald
Ugghhh... I feel terrible.

Wait, what? I - I must have been body-switched! This is insane!

After one of the others points out that they are in a mindlink, Reynald calms...slightly.

This isn't me... His arms shake as he tries to draw his bow. I can't even use my bow, my horse is nowhere nearby, this is all wrong.

Seeing others arming themselves, Reynald eventually begins to do so as well, finding some items missing and others replaced with things more useful. HeShe finds a corner to meditate and pray to Phaulkon.

Rising later, his heart is set and his mind is clear. "Clearly, we have been experimented on by some demented scheme - I believe one of you said mind flayers? We must find them, and stop them, before they do this to anyone else. We must escape from this place, and then seek to end them."


Not attempting listen checks, stats are too low. Memorizing spells, will put up another post shortly.

[J-H]

Reynald
"Here, let's be healthy and refreshed when we fight." Reynald conjures a nutritious, although bland, meal to feed everyone.

Create food & water, feeds everyone

This should heal my weakness
Casting Lesser Restoration to remove the strength & dexterity penalties

Reynald picks up his bow, but his muscles are still weak. "This is bad.". He finds another bow that will work, but it lacks the strength of his old one, and he knows its arrows will be less effective.

Before they walk through the door, Reynald will cast Protection From Evil on him/herself.

[Mishkov]

Reynald

Strangely, a lesser restoration did not remove your weaknesses nor did it change your new found womanhood. Your spell seems to have "worked" though as in it cast. The rest of your magic is unaffected, especially as evidenced by the meal in front of you.

[Magikeeper]

Azalea had remained hidden while the cleric prepared his spells. At first she silently focused on preparing another bout of invisibility - both because she was going to need it and because she needed to NOT think about eating, but soon settled into a pattern of trying to keep her thoughts to herself, only daring to think when she felt fairly sure she could not be overheard. It was.. slow.

The fairy had been about ready to make a break for the dwarf area when food suddenly appeared all over the room. She was versed enough in magic to know the spell looked like legitimate food and water creation - no 'summon fairy poison' here - and knowledgeable enough in the area of being extremely hungry to know it was better to fight on a full stomach. Alright, dwarves could wait a little longer.

Azalea does her best to make sure no one is looking before going invisible, flying out from behind Faust, and snagging some precious sustenance mid-flight before reaching a new hiding spot behind Reynald.

Readied Cloak of Deception once more.

She later spent it, using flyby attack (much less restrictive than spring attack) to grab some stuff to consume en route to a new (apparently much better!) hiding spot.

Spellcraft: [roll0]
She might need these, depending on spellcraft:
Hide: [roll1]
Move Silently: [roll2]
Slight of Hand: 33 (See OOC thread) Feel free to oppose! Really, I'm not trying to run a solo adventure but Azalea [and her dice friends] are not cooperating. :P
She passed her autohypnosis check in the OOC thread.

[XIII]

"Indeed," the groggy, well built and lean Uyarak steps forward stumbling a bit. "Have you seen fairy in here as well, seems there are all types of captives. Does anyone require aid?"

[Nettlekid]

So wait, you're hearing my thoughts? The things I'm thinking? Damn, what did I think? I don't know what I thought that you heard. And I'm still thinking now. But I know you're listening now. Dead gods in the ground, this is difficult.

"Well look everyone, first things first," Faust starts off, grabbing a piece of food and swallowing it while barely chewing. "We've got to get out of here. Who knows how long we've been imprisoned and tortured, but I can hardly think straight. Repeated mental attacks, probably. Now, for some reason they've released our bonds and left us an assortment of weird tools, probably from other captives they have. Captives who we do not want to meet if we can avoid it. I don't know why we aren't in chains right now, but it's probably a trick to let us get cocky and then crush us. Let's do the first, and not do the second. We take advantage of this, and storm them. There are Mind Flayer lackeys out there but about our same number, we can take them. We slaughter them all and force our way out of this hellhole. Don't let them Charm you or try to use weird Mind Flayer Thrall tricks, which I bet they have. There's nothing for it now but a show of force, we reclaim what's been taken from us. Come on, who's with me?"

[Breitheamh]

"Wait!" Aereck shouts, realizing that the woman is about to burst through the door without a plan. "I agree that we need to get out of here, and we can probably take out the guards. It doesn't sound like there are many. But pay close attention to what you see and feel and hear. There is no guarantee that any of this is real. Think about it: the last thing I remember is being captured by Illithids and some guy with bat-like wings. Next thing I know, I wake up in what appears to be an Elven building, with people speaking in Dwarvish outside. I am not bound or gagged. I'm not even that tired. I've been able to use my psionics, and that woman managed to use some kind of magic. We have enough equipment here to escape and make a small fortune off the extra.

Now, it's possible that the Mind Flayers actually did bring us to an Elven city and left us mostly free with all this stuff, and have Dwarven thralls guarding us. Personally, I think we're in some kind of fake world, a dream state, if you will, and they are doing some kind of wicked experiment on us. That doesn't necessarily change our actions while we are still in this world, but just be warned: do not trust anything, not even each other."

After speaking, he turns back to the psicrystal and glares at it. How do you like that, Flayer scum? I'm getting out of this dream, and when I do, I'm coming for you. While attempting to stare down the little stone, he grabs a handful of food without looking and chews it pointedly.

[J-H]

Reynald
Let's see what's around
Reynald uses Detect Evil, first on the group and then to sense through the door and in the surrounding area.

At-Will Paladin ability
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectEvil.htm

[Ryuuk]

Here? Good. Once these others start moving, you will lead me to him.

She watches the other psion look over the room while mulling over his conclusion. No, it would be madness to leave a prisoner armed and without restraints. They moved us too, somehow. She leaves him to his work, while he gathers her belongings. The headband would help, though the torc felt more like a choker now.

Body switched? Well clearly, but... Oh nonono. She holds the amulet and looks over the gauntlets. If... no, he'd better not try to fight something with it, if he scars it... No, that doesn't... no. Why would her things be here too if that were the case. No, she was jumping to conclusions.

Liecia does not partake in the meal, simply sitting aside with a hand on his forehead in thought. She listens though. "I'm afraid I do not agree with that, there is one captive that's missing that I need to find." and make sure he learns from this.. "Starting a fight seems foolish though, more so if they are thralls to something greater."

She remembers the creature that drew closer. Watching helplessly as it finally reached her. It had felt so real. He shivers. A dream state, they were capable of that, that could be it.

[XIII]

"Dream or not, idleness is our enemy. If we are to storm the room, I volunteer to be out front." Uyarak holds himself up against a wall "As soon as my senses fully return, that is."

This man was slim, but lean. His dusky skin seemed to be stretched across his muscles. His eyes glowed golden, with a matching symbol on his forehead. He wore simple but elegant robes and cords of red silk wrapped around his wrists and ankles, his feet bare.

[Magikeeper]

'Fairy'? He'd seen her! Had seen her. Her thoughts were her own now, and the other captives definitely didn't know her current location. Hrm. Other captives. Maybe she... nah, it'd be better to hang back for now. She could heroically jump in and save them later if she felt like it. Or just escape.

The fairy tensed a bit during the dream commentary, but as usual consoled herself with a plan. She'd try to will herself out of the dream; hadn't she read about there being some technique for that (which book had that been again..)?!

Azalea calmly focuses on her sorta-maybe-remembered technique and meditates. Wake up..wake up..

She continues the meditation until her attempts to wake up nearly put her to sleep. Bah! There wasn't any rush. Being in a dream would mean nothing else mattered, so it'd be better to just discard the notion for now and practice escaping dream worlds later. Yeah, that was the way to go. Although she might as well let the others storm the dwarves first.

She meditates once more, this time for the more routine task of refocusing her powers.

Autohypnosis: [roll0] .. wow, Azalea is the queen of rolls that make sense for her but I don't actually want her to pass.

Azalea spends a full-round action to refresh Cloak of Deception once more.

[Mishkov]

The dream world theory is actually extremely smart. I wouldn't have thought of it, but it's very likely for the characters to think IC. It's a bad time to be Faust...:smallbiggrin:

Aereck

Uhh...what, master? I'm not a flayer.. the psicrystal replies.

Reynald

There is no evil outside the door yet this does not exclude the possibility of good or neutral thralls being used against their will. However one of the party members emits a faint evil aura, the one who has yet to identify himself as Faust.

[J-H]

Reynald
"Or perhaps they have a spy in here." Reynald puts an arrow to his/her bow, but doesn't draw it yet. He turns to [Faust, not sure how to describe you].

[Nettlekid]

Faust blinks.
"Well yeah, probably, right? If it is a dream world then it would only make sense to have some kind of agent monitoring the dream. Or wait, is that exactly wrong, and in a dream world there's no need for a spy in order to know what's going on because whoever's making the dream knows what's happening anyway? Yeah, I think that one's it. Either way, what's your problem, why are you looking at me?"

[Breitheamh]

Aereck continues to stare accusingly at the psicrystal. Alright then, what's your name? How many Flayers are watching us? What was your previous master's name? How many brains have you eaten? What can you do? He thinks rapidly through the questions, trying to trip up the crystal on its answers.

Still glaring at the crystal, he comments to the rest of the group, "Yeah, at least one."

[Magikeeper]

Azalea felt increasingly justified in her actions as she watched the tension building amongst the large creatures. Although the (mentally) silent one that kept glaring at ?his? psicrystal was kinda funny.

Speaking of crystals, the one that had been on her earlier was still sitting where she'd left it. Why was it just sitting there.. well, she could talk to it without revealing her position. She definitely remembered reading about that. Mental speech or somesuch. Heh, maybe she could mentally talk to anyone now..

<Psicrystal, who are you and why are you here?>

Autohypnosis: [roll0] .. welp, looks like she still isn't openly sharing anything. Fear the mighty +1!

[J-H]

Reynald
"I am looking at you because you are the only evil creature I can detect in here or out there. Mind flayers and their tools are evil, so you may be one of them. Only the fact that you seemed as unhealthy as the rest of us is keeping you alive."

[XIII]

Uyarak looks up at the mention of an evil person within their little group. "Are you sure? Uyarak looks into the people around him and finds the evil aura, "So it's true, you are an agent of evil. What say you in your defense? Uyarak faces Faust, squaring his body.

[Nettlekid]

Faust rolls his eyes and sighs with the exhausted patience of someone who's explained something a thousand time.
"You're one of those people then. Ugh. Listen, you've got to get over your prejudices. What do you even mean by evil, huh? What you call evil, I call self-interest. That's the defining factor of quote evil unquote, that a quote evil unquote person will act in their own best interest above all others. The defining factor of a good person is the opposite, altruism. Now, why does our society value altruism above self-interest? Because our society is greedy. Every person in society is self-interested, and they like good people because the good people give them stuff. They don't like the evil people because the evil people take stuff. Stuff that they want to take.

Are you gonna call all of society evil? I doubt it, because those labels suit you only when you feel like it. Look, yeah, I'll readily admit that I'm looking out for myself first and foremost. Aren't all of you? You don't know each other, and I'm willing to bet that you'd let each other die if it means you get out alive. Are you gonna draw a bow on them too? Let's look at the things you're planning to do right now. You look like you're prepared to murder in cold blood a man who's never wronged you, and then murder a bunch of Dwarves who have. You'll steal their stuff and go to unspeakable means to get what you want. That sounds like evil to me. If it's okay to do that, what's the harm in stealing when you're in need? In killing when you're threatened? In binding your soul to spirits of a void realm when you're weak? The only reason you'd want to down me is because you're worried I'd be a threat to you. Um, I'm not the one holding a weapon right now. Evil means that I want what's best for me, which means I'm the LAST person you need to worry about, because I can't get out of this on my own and I'm going to need you guys to help me. And I'm going to help you so I can rely on you to help me later. That's what you're going to call evil. Now, those freaks out there? You're saying they don't even register as evil by your biased standard? Then those are the ones you need to be afraid of, because they'll be willing to give everything they've got to their Mind Flayer bosses. If they were evil, you could win them over with bribery and protection, and fighting against them they'll scatter when the going's rough. Not evil? They'll fight to the last man because they're willing to. Think about it."
Faust snorts, content with his argument.

[Breitheamh]

Still staring down his crystal, trying to break it with concentration, Aereck tosses his two cents into the conversation. "As much as I disagree with the lady on the nature of evil, I don't think she's a spy. She's spent this whole time ranting about some other woman who did this to her, and she's gonna make her pay, and blah, blah, blah. Kind of tedious, actually. Evil? Yes. Unpleasant? Seems so. A spy? I doubt it. Maybe she's a really good actor, but do you think an Illithid would put themselves in a dream state to study us and not even bother hiding its evil nature?"

[Mishkov]

Aereck

I saw three flayers, master, but there might be more. I don't know that they were in charge either. It might have been the man. My old master's name was Eratheador. I don't eat, master. I can do a lot of things. What do you want me to do?

Azalea

Uhh...it's Enla? How do you not know that? Why wouldn't I be here? It's not like I would have just stayed in the dungeon.

[XIII]

Faust rolls his eyes and sighs with the exhausted patience of someone who's explained something a thousand time.
"You're one of those people then. Ugh. Listen, you've got to get over your prejudices. What do you even mean by evil, huh? What you call evil, I call self-interest. That's the defining factor of quote evil unquote, that a quote evil unquote person will act in their own best interest above all others. The defining factor of a good person is the opposite, altruism. Now, why does our society value altruism above self-interest? Because our society is greedy. Every person in society is self-interested, and they like good people because the good people give them stuff. They don't like the evil people because the evil people take stuff. Stuff that they want to take.

Are you gonna call all of society evil? I doubt it, because those labels suit you only when you feel like it. Look, yeah, I'll readily admit that I'm looking out for myself first and foremost. Aren't all of you? You don't know each other, and I'm willing to bet that you'd let each other die if it means you get out alive. Are you gonna draw a bow on them too? Let's look at the things you're planning to do right now. You look like you're prepared to murder in cold blood a man who's never wronged you, and then murder a bunch of Dwarves who have. You'll steal their stuff and go to unspeakable means to get what you want. That sounds like evil to me. If it's okay to do that, what's the harm in stealing when you're in need? In killing when you're threatened? In binding your soul to spirits of a void realm when you're weak? The only reason you'd want to down me is because you're worried I'd be a threat to you. Um, I'm not the one holding a weapon right now. Evil means that I want what's best for me, which means I'm the LAST person you need to worry about, because I can't get out of this on my own and I'm going to need you guys to help me. And I'm going to help you so I can rely on you to help me later. That's what you're going to call evil. Now, those freaks out there? You're saying they don't even register as evil by your biased standard? Then those are the ones you need to be afraid of, because they'll be willing to give everything they've got to their Mind Flayer bosses. If they were evil, you could win them over with bribery and protection, and fighting against them they'll scatter when the going's rough. Not evil? They'll fight to the last man because they're willing to. Think about it."
Faust snorts, content with his argument.


Uyarak gives a very quiet and polite clap, "Bravo! You've made this argument many times, yes? Seems you've dedicated a good amount of time to defend your pragmatism. For me, evil is a force of nature, and you carry it within you. It is simple as that, you are antithesis to what I am, you cannot hide it from my holy eyes. But, fear not! Unless I see you cause undue suffering or it's like, you have nothing to fear from me. And on the other foot, if altruistic is what we are, how can you blame us for our position when you take such offense to your being questioned? After all, I'm just looking out for me and the rest of the world. Uyarak is amused, chuckling at himself. "Alas, I believe in redemption and baptism by fire, maybe your soul will be saved yet! Hahaha!"

Uyarak turns to the others, "So we have others who follow the light here? I believe proper introductions are in order, all around. Build some familiarity with each other so we may best utilize each other for our escape, no?"

[Magikeeper]

Azalea (Still hiding thoughts from group link)

<Why would I know that? What- Wait, remember her interaction courses (I.E., spying on the humans). Get to the heart of the matter. <You think I should know who you are. So you think I know something I don't know, which means you think I have knowledge I don't. There are gaps in my memory, so we- no, I shouldn't feed you answers - there are gaps in my memory so help me fill them. Tell me everything you know about me. How we met, how we're connected, anyone else I should know about, stuff like that.>

Ah, wait, there was something else she was supposed to add to that.. what was it again..something magic...gah..she definitely knew this..hrm..aha!

<Please.>



Autohypnosis: [roll0]

[Ryuuk]

"If we are talking philosophy, I'm afraid I must side with the accused. Any semblance of safety or order died with The Leveling. Even before that, many monstrous deeds were done in the name of the greater good. To condemn someone because their thoughts differ, because the grand cosmic scales mark them to be sent to the fires below, is rather self-righteous, isn't it?" He speaks in a coy, almost demure manner, out of place coming from the man. "If this is all a dream though," He looks at his palm, opening and closing it while slowly shaking his head. "a twisted joke of a dream, then I suppose this hardly matters." What gods remain seem to care little either way.

The man picks up the gauntlets and puts them back on. This will take some getting used to, so... clunky. He signals her psicrystal into one of her vest's pockets. "Introductions? Why not? My name is Liecia. I'm a psionisist, a shaper, and it seems whoever brought us here saw fit to give me tha body of a large oaf." He smiles, mockingly, as he continues to awkwardly move his arms and hands. There is a certain allure to this though.

Azalea seems to be a master of autohyponosis and stealth.

[Mishkov]

Azalea

Uh...well, so you were brought to the table in the dungeon by one of the chain guys and had worms attached to you. Then there was that weird spell thing that lets me hear everyone's thoughts including yours, and uh...what else? Oh, then everyone was moving, so I figured I'd follow along, and some stuff happened and uhh...you ended up in this room, and then you woke up! Avaria's been looking for you, well for most any family for a while, so I feel like I can trust you. Umm...what else? Well I think that's the start of things. The start of me was a tear filled event that no one needs to get into... The crystal pauses for a moment. Maybe I've said too much...

[Breitheamh]

Aereck squints suspiciously at his crystal. Tell me how we got here.

[Mishkov]

Aereck

The dwarves brought you here, it answered succinctly.

[Mishkov]

While deep in the middle of the philosophical discussion and the general freak-out from the mental messages being passed between you, the door swings open. A large dwarf, well large for a dwarf, saunters in and throws a bushel of plants onto the ground in front of you. "That's all ye get for food today lest we find something while hunting." He looks around suspiciously and turns to leave. He mutters something incoherent under his breath as he turns to leave.

DC20 listen
He said "Bastards must have eaten their badger. Not even a bone left..."

Init 20
If you beat that, you can act before the dwarf shuts the door on the way out.

The dwarf slams the door shut behind him.

[Breitheamh]

Aereck dives at the dwarf attempting to wrestle him to the ground and interrogate the living the daylights out of him.

A slight blip in his mind registers the oddity of the dwarf muttering about eating badgers, but he decides to pin first and ask questions later.

Grapple initiation (is the Dwarf armed or does he have improved unarmed strike? If so AoO might cancel this all out.)
Touch attack [roll0]
Grapple check [roll1]
Damage (nonlethal) [roll2]

[Magikeeper]

Avaria? She.. dwarf in the room! Change focus!

Azalea waits until the dwarf starts leaving to continue her conversation with Enla. Aaaaand the funny guy just jumped the dwarf. She kinda hoped he survived this. Enla too, the crystal was cute like a.. a.. lost puppy? Was that the adage? She'd have to compare it to an actual dog if she ever saw one.

<Enla, hide now. I want to know more about this Avaria person but first you need to tell me what you're capable of doing so we can get out of this.>

Despite all the distractions, Azalea still manages to keep her thoughts private somehow.


Not sure what Enla's hide check should be (Azalea or Avaria's ranks?)
[roll0]+14 if Avaria's ranks or +24 if Azalea's ranks
Move Silently:
[roll1]+6 (Via Min ranks for a psicrystal) or +12 (If Azalea's ranks)

Know(Nature) Check to see what she knows about puppies: [roll2] (Applying CoS).

Azalea Autohypnosis: [roll3]

[Mishkov]

As Aereck grabs the dwarf and begins to wrestle him to the ground, he shouts out "Ey! The vegetables are all ye get. Let go of me." Dwarves are a steady race and while Aereck maintained the grasp, he has not been able to knock him to the ground.

You hear the other dwarves begin to move to investigate.

Azalea

Well apparently I'm capable of hiding, the crystal replies as it scurries behind a rock. I don't know? I can move around and tell you about things. What do you want me to do?

[Ryuuk]

Dream or not, it looked like the time to think was over. The others are coming. To hell with it, Chisel, where is he? Lets grab him and get out of here before this gets out of hand. She watches the dwarf and the man from her spot, and prepares to leave. Give me distances, as accurate as you can, I want to as close as possible in a single jump.

[Magikeeper]

More dwarves incoming.. running out of time.. Azalea's grip over her thoughts falters as she quickly continues "speaking", unintentionally addressing all present.

<Enla, I'm hiding behind the woman that made the food appear, sneak over here as quick as you can. I'll fly us away from the dwarves but we need to act FAST.>


Listen: [roll0]
Autohypnosis: [roll1] Oh wow, she finally failed an autohypnois roll! Pretty interesting one to fail on as well!

[XIII]

"I suppose the time for talk is over?" The lean man walks towards the doorway and avoids the current grapple-fest going on, waiting for the other dwarves to arrive. He takes an odd fighting stance, twisting his limbs in an odd pose as he exhales loudly. "For the fallen, Ilmater grant me strength." Uyarak is prepared to strike.

[Mishkov]

Enla scurries over to where the Azalea is hiding while the others posture around the dwarf. The sounds of dwarves approaching become more pronounced...

Liecia

Chisel replies What, master? I'm confused. If you teleport us away, he'll follow. I'm not worried about that. I think he's sleeping now.

[J-H]

Reynald
Here's our chance to find out if they are working for the mind flayers..not how I would have chosen.
He steps past the dwarf and out the door with an arrow nocked.

[Nettlekid]

"See, and you were acting like we shouldn't just murder them all and walk out of here." Faust remarks as the dwarf is tackled to the ground.
Now, whose strength do I call upon? This is a time for combat. Hm. Well, I don't entirely know how I came into possession of this short sword, but I know who knows how to use it.
Faust claps his hands together and hurriedly focuses on the image of a seal in his mind, a far less effective manner of conjuring a spirit but one that would save time in a pinch. A whirling figure appears like a tornado in human form, with forelimbs replaced by lethal blades.
"Paimon the Dancer, a pleasure as always. I'm afraid my body's not in the top quality condition that you've become accustomed to, but please, make yourself at home. I'll need to rely on your elegance and speed. Let's turn heads before we make them roll."

The blade-handed figure fades into Faust's body, and the right side of Faust's mouth stretches out disturbingly. He tests his newfound agility by flipping the lightweight short sword in his hand a couple of times, before turning to face the door in anticipation of the oncoming enemies.

Binding check against DC 20: [roll0]

[Breitheamh]

"Oh, shut up, you self-righteous prick!" Aereck shouts at Faust in between grunts as he attempts to pin the dwarf to the ground and draw a dagger.

Grapple to pin [roll0] (attack action)
Grapple to draw dagger [roll1] (move action)

Edit: Wow, those are terrible. It's a good thing the Dwarf has no grapple bonuses.

[Mishkov]

The party is suddenly aware of a fairy whose intentions it seems is to flee...

The dwarf breaks free of Aereck and pushes him back "What the hell do ye think yer doin?" The dwarf looks angry and draws a sword.

Reynald pushes through the dwarves with arrow notched only to see several dwarves scrambling to draw their crossbows at him. "What is going on here?" a dwarf yells. "Do ye really wanna test how good dwarven craftmanship is with a mechanism such as this?" Reynald sees a large chamber with barrels of food and other random items on the side. Weapons, clothes, trinkets and general junk hugging the walls. The chamber is large with an imposing double door on the northern side and several doors leading out of the chamber hall on the inside. There is no overt sign of supernatural or otherwise evil activities within the chamber though it does seem like the mess hall and not a central area of...whatever this place is.

Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1np29g33M7rh8T7LNvqfD5SswhgWFhpN8wrelN62suy0/edit#gid=0)

The dwarf has a modifier. Sometimes I will roll the d20 and just add the modifier to hide the roll in its entirety. Since the dwarf was the next to act, I used your roll as an opposed roll. He broke the grapple as his action for the round.

I wouldn't say violence is entirely unavoidable at this point, but since it looks like that's the way we're heading, I've made a map and would prefer you act within the confines of a round for your post at least. Feel free to tweak where exactly you started on the map for this round only if you feel it should be different.

[J-H]

Reynald
"I fear nothing. We have been tortured by mind flayers and things and now we awaken from that to find ourselves half-crippled and here amongst you. How do we know that you are not working for the flayers? You don't detect as evil, but could be enthralled.

If you wish to avoid bloodshed, bring me a priest or paladin - they would not be able to channel magic while serving evil."

[Magikeeper]

Azalea manages to help Enla hide in her things, and resume concealing her thoughts from the others, by the time Reynald finishes speaking. It sounded like a fight was about to happen... maybe she she should wait? Yeah, if she flew out now and the dwarves noticed the shimmer she'd become the center of attention; that wouldn't be good at all.

The fairy settles for moving to a new hiding spot near her last location while pondering if the dwarves even had a priest or a paladin. Were they that common? She'd definitely read a lot about priests, and they were all over the history books; maybe the encampment above her tunnels had just been usually priest-less (or perhaps the priest was in the northeastern section she'd never managed sneak get into?).

Autohypnosis: Hiding thoughts and hopefully location from all but Enla.
New hide: [roll]1d20+24[ She rolled 34 in the OOC thread.
Enla's hide-on-Azalea check: [roll1]
Move Silently: [roll2]
Edit: Had her move 5', hopefully stayed hidden during the entire motion.

[Nettlekid]

Seeing the Dwarf break out of the grapple, Faust makes a bloodthirsty lunge forward.
"Oh no, you're not getting out of here in any less than five pieces," he snarls, Paimon's grace lightening his steps, as he lashes out with the lightweight short sword.
Charge to AB 15
Attack Dwarf [roll0]
If it hits [roll1]
Hm, it looks like I won't be able to do all that much damage no matter what.

[Breitheamh]

"Whoa, there!" Aereck shouts as he jumps out of the way of Faust's graceful attack. "Easy! What are you doing? Don't kill him, just keep him in the room!"

He draws his massive sword with magical speed and holds it between the dwarf and Faust, glaring at Faust. As he does so, the muscles on his arms and bare torso ripple and expand, and an extremely thin layer of golden fur grows out of his skin, and thickens around his neck.

He turns back to the dwarf and says, "We would prefer not to kill you, and I, at least, am certain that if we were to do so, your friends out there would avenge you. However, I am also pretty certain that this is a dream state, and you are figments our Illithid captors have created to populate the dream world, so you have two choices: tell us where we are, and what exactly is going on, or we kill you right here, right now. And trust me, we can do that before your friends even have time to get here."

Drawing greatsword
Manifesting Animal Affinity for a +4 enhancement to Str

[Ryuuk]

Liecia watches as the scene plays out, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Chisel, that makes no sense. How would he come with us? He doesn't sleep, as I don't or you don't- She takes a step back, let the others handle the dwarves and whatever master they served.

You don't sleep. You don't meditate, you are always watching... As are the other crystals. The stories should match, if pushed. If this was a dream state, then the mess outside did not matter. If it was not, then its answer was insane. I remember surrendering to them after the Newmade fell. I remember the smell, the dungeon, the stone slabs... I remember that creature and what it did... She stops here and it takes her a moment to continue. Still my memories are disjointed and stitched together. You were there though. Tell me, in detail. What happened to me, why am I a male now? Where is Ranulf and why are you so certain he will follow? Why are the stone slabs and bindings gone, replaced with a wooden cell and weapons?

What have I missed Chisel?

Her gaze is fixed on the crystal. If the fight spills into the cell, she's ready to put a wall between them. This came first.

Ready an action to cast Wall of Ectoplasm in a sphere around herself if anything that would deal damage is directed towards her.

[Nettlekid]

"Are you mad? Or perhaps you're in league with them. Maybe both. But let me straighten things out for you. Do you remember being kidnapped? Because I do. Do you remember being tortured? Because I do. Do you remember the unspeakable things that happened to us? Because I do. We are given the slightest chance of freedom, and we need to capitalize on it. And you want to show, what, mercy? To the creatures that enslaved us and tormented us? I don't care that whatever evil-sense he has doesn't call these guys evil, they're still the reason we're here. They're with the enemy. And they are the first step on a long path to revenge and taking down the threat once and for all. Don't kill them? No, kill them all before they get the chance to finish their job on us!"

[Mishkov]

Faust charges forward and slashes at the dwarf in the chamber. The dwarf recoils with a shout and the others immediately begin to close in. He draws a shield and pulls a battleaxe from his back. The second dwarf yells for one to go get help and the ninth dwarf of the bunch scurries off towards a hallway.

The others begin to open fire on the party, Reynold unfortunately taking most of the attack though the dwarves were clearly aiming at the one who had injured their companion. In response to his attempt at peace and bringing them a priest, one dwarf yells, "Ye'll need a priest after we're done with ye." Another one yells, "No one is torturing ye, ye mad bastid!" to Faust.

Vs Faust:
Dwarf 2: [roll0] for [roll1] damage
Dwarf 3: [roll2] for [roll3] damage
Dwarf 4: [roll4] for [roll5] damage

Vs Reynold
Dwarf 5: [roll6] for [roll7] damage
Dwarf 6: [roll8] for [roll9] damage
Dwarf 7: [roll10] for [roll11] damage
Dwarf 8: [roll12] for [roll13] damage


Liecia

You moved to this cell, master. The dwarves took you here. You were sleeping before him; I don't know how else to describe it. He's sleeping now even if you say he doesn't sleep, he's sleeping and won't respond to me like you were before you woke up in the cell the dwarves brought you to. They did something to you two, to the pairs. I don't understand it all, but they changed your bodies, but there's obviously more pressing matters the psicrystal exclaimed as a stray crossbow bolt whizzes past her direction and hits the wall.

[Breitheamh]

Aereck continues to glare at Faust and lowers his mental defenses just for a moment to yell at her in his mind. Moron! In case you hadn't noticed, the ones just outside outnumber us by a fair margin, and they have untold more numbers elsewhere in this place. Our only choice is to bargain our way out, and get as much information as we can while we're at it. If I'm right, and this is a dream state, killing them will change nothing, and if I'm wrong, and this isn't a dream state, they will kill us all or recapture us easily with sheer superiority of numbers, and we will be in the same, or possibly a worse situation. You want to go down fighting, be my guest. If worse comes to worst, I'm surrendering.

Now, LET THE DWARF SPEAK!!

Turning back to the dwarf, he stares him down and says, "I'm giving you one more chance: tell your friends to back off, and explain to us what the hell is going on, or I will help this psychopath dismember you."

[Ryuuk]

Eyes open wide, Liecia keeps her distance from the bolt and moves away from the line of fire. Yes, this first.

"Supposedly, they brought us here." As he moves, she concentrates, and manifests a wall. She was not sure of how large the room was, but as long as the bolts stopped coming ,it was better then nothing. The ectoplasm forms quickly, starting at what bit she could see in front of Reynald. His plea had done little to aid stop them, perhaps this would do more. The dwarf was held and threatened with steel. She wondered if there was a point in asking him, about this. Regardless. "My friend says we were brought here while we slept. After what we lived through, I need more answers then that." She directs her words to the dwarf, but expects little from the answer.

"You others, grab my hand if you want to get out of here. It'll be a short, blind jump, but there won't be a dozen crossbows aimed at us there."

Move: Move to AB12
Standard: Manifest Wall of Ectoplasm, between Y and Z, 7 to 20

Next turn I can Dimension Door. I would head 680 feet straight [roll0] (1 - North, 2 - East, 3 - South, 4 - West)

[J-H]

Reynald
Reynald backs up to touch Liecia's hand. "Remaining here is pointless, I'll go with you."

[Magikeeper]

Azalea (Hiding Thoughts)

Azalea's planning came to a sudden halt at the mention of teleporting out. Seconds to spare. Teleporting. Pros: Not near dwarves. Could be better location Cons: Could be worse location. Would put her next to the group. Could she hide from dwarves? Probably. Would others... no. They were more likely to draw everything to them (or attack her!) than escape is silence. And if they hit solid they may well end up in the same spot, only with her revealed.

The fairy lets out a mental sigh, but stays where she is.

<Enla, what is the layout of this place? You were conscious when we came here, right?>

Autohypnosis: [roll0]
Know(Arcana/Psionics): [roll1]
Spellcraft/Psicraft: [roll2]

[Breitheamh]

"Can I take the dwarf with me?" Aereck asks Liecia, still staring down the dwarf.

[Mishkov]

In the chaos, Liecia's voice remains steady calling for a magical way out of this strange situation. Teleportation seems like a better option than dealing with psychotic, potentially enthralled, dwarves filling you with crossbow bolts. Aereck holds on tight to the dwarf attempting to drag him with him through the wormhole. The world spins around you as Liecia picks a random direction north and you blink away.

You see the tops of trees, a cool breeze, yet a sudden sensation of...you look behind you and see walls as you begin to fall. It seems as if the pison had overshot the distance, not knowing how large the dwarven compound was. You fall 30 feet and land in the middle of a forest.

[roll0] fall damage I believe.

The compound above you almost looks elvish instead of dwarvish with the traditional elvish architecture and design with the tree tops. Strange though not unheard of in this time...though also not unheard of for a mind flayer to infiltrate an area and bring their own thralls. The forest around you looks strange with large grooves and tracks though also a number of smaller tracks as if there were large animals and also small ones traveling in packs. The forest is eerily quiet for this type of environment. You have no idea where you are exactly and need to get your bearings. There is a small possibility that a watchtower in the fort may spot you still...

Azalea

Still hearing the thoughts of the others, you know that they are out and in a forest. The dwarves mutter about the crazies and the runner returns with beefier looking dwarves in full plate with impressive axes. They talk of hunting, but also to summon the arbiter to investigate what had happened...

It's a small place, master. You kinda go up a rope ladder and then there's some hallways that lead you here. I think there's some other ladders that go to watchtowers. We were brought right here, did not do a lot of exploring elsewhere. I'm still hiding, right?

[Breitheamh]

Seeing the ground suddenly three stories below him, Aereck reacts on instinct, landing lightly on his feet without a scratch.

"Nice shot. I hate teleporting. Now where is that dwarf?"

Manifesting Catfall at 3 power point cost.

[Magikeeper]

Azalea (Still hiding thoughts)

Hrm, so she was definatly only connected to them. Some kind of experiment?

<Yes, we're still hiding Enla. I think we have some time to talk now, maybe try leaving tonight. The dwarves are talking about an 'arbiter', do you know who that is? And why are they callin- Wait, better question: what connection do these dwarves have to the mind- wait! Gah, that was a leading question. Okay, just tell me everything you know about these dwarves, starting with anything about their ability to sense and capture us and ending with literally every little scrap of information you have on them. We have time.>

Autohypnosis: [roll0]

[Ryuuk]

As the forest speeds towards her, Liecia crosses his arms before his head and braces for impact. She absorbs the shock and prevents any wounds or scarring. Above the ground? What kind of dwarf lives above the ground? Damn it. Liecia get himself off the ground, shaking his head, but unscathed. A warning would have been nice.

"Afraid he wasn't willing to come, nor was the other one... The sixth who stayed out of sight." Standing, she takes in the surroundings. "They should not know were we ended up, but... think they'll pursue?"

Elan Resilience, spending 6pp to negate 12 damage.

[Mishkov]

Uh...they're slow and dumb and a bit smelly? They pointed crossbows at us and took us up the stairs and through some halls to this room. They were talking about something about hunting and not having enough food. I don't know who that person or thing is though.

Several dwarves are rummaging around the room at this point, a few are off in the corner talking about how this makes no damn sense. The others are talking about how the arbiter will figure things out.

[Breitheamh]

"Aagh! ****in' ****, damn it! Stupid!" Aereck yells, cursing incoherently as he berates himself. "Why didn't I just close the door?!

"Alright. I'm good. What now? We're out. They may very well pursue us, so I suggest we get moving."

[J-H]

Reynald
Reynald lands hard, falling to the ground as he is unable to balance in his unfamiliar body.

He stands, checking his weapons to ensure that they are unharmed.

"We're now in an elven forest? Strange that they are so close to a dwarven city. We must find the mind flayer, and its ally, and destroy them."