The Darkest Tower

[Rhunder]

Amongst the stable, but at times, uneasy alliance amongst the Republic of Nations, a sudden figure appeared in the distance. A large Dark Tower has seemingly been built overnight in a canyon surrounded by Brunt forest. This tower has been called an Ill omen by nearly all religious sectors, while a seldom few have called it a holy place. After a while, many began a pilgrimage to it. Paladins of right and just are heading there to defeat any evil and cleanse the tower. Others are heading there to claim it in their name or their religion's name. All this traffic has created quite a bit of traffic, thus inns and taverns have been built along the Brunt forest as a last haven before a treacherous journey into the woods.

At one such tavern, you find yourself relaxing from the noon's sun. Inside a bard plays a simple harmony on his harp on stage while an older orc brags about his scars to a group of onlookers. The Leaning Branch is a nice single story tavern with plenty of business despite the time of day. A single flyer has just been placed onto the bulletin board, a paladin starts to speak as he places it, "I am looking for a brother of the Order Silver Shield. My young companion was to ride ahead and meet me here two days past." The dark headed paladin looked quite worried as he continued, "Gary may have been to impatient and rode into the woods without me. If anyone finds him, there is a substantial reward for his safe return." Despite his outburst hushing the busy tavern, the paladin headed to the door before anyone could speak to him. "I will be back here for the remainder of the month, but I must ride to the other inns and taverns to post these notices for his return." With that he quickly exited.

In a near instant, the tavern returned to business as usual.

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn, normally ever busy, had finally taken the time to simply take a break, not that she needed it with how her body worked now. Even so, she spent little time socializing, focused more on listening, the people were interesting, and she could learn much through simply listening, rumors, old tales, even exaggerated feats by the locals all drew her interest.

[Twelve.Five]

Anna had walked in just in time to hear the paladin's announcement. Strange. If the other man was a paladin, shouldn't he be out searching for his friend? Anna would be, if someone she knew hadn't turned up to a meeting.

She spotted a sickly pale and thin girl, sitting alone in the corner. Maybe she didn't want company, or maybe the other people in the in thought she looked strange. Regardless, in Anna's experience, people who thought they wanted to be alone rarely really wanted that, they just had experience with it. Anna resolutely sat down at Evelyn's table, and tried to strike up a conversation.

"Hey. You heard that, right? I hope the boy is all right - you can run into so many things in the woods." She smiled. Maybe she shouldn't be smiling, the topic she'd chosen was a serious one. But then, you smiled when you wanted people to feel at ease, right? "Oh, I'm Anna, by the way."

[Tuv]

Just what she needed, more paladins. No, it wasn't really her concern right now. She hadn't seen this 'Gary' and had no intention of starting a search party for him. There were only two things that concerned Catherine at the moment: the two women in the corner that look way out of their depth, and the orc that's been bragging for what feels like hours now. It's probably best to get the fun out of the way first.

Catherine heads over to the orc, a smile on her face. (In Orc) "You've been blabbing for a while, and I don't believe that you're as tough as you say you are. How about you put your money where your mouth is and we settle this like men eh?".

[Rhunder]

The crowd silences after a few oohs and ahhs at the challenge. The orc at first surprised but he quickly jumped up with a smile and spoke confidently, "Let's." He pointed to the door as he walked around the table, "Inside or outside?" The smile was undeniable for this orc, he clearly loved combat.

[Tuv]

(Orc) "I wouldn't want to get your blood on anything, so we'll do it outside" she cracks her knuckles (More Orc) "you lose if you lose consciousness or give up. I reserve the right to loot you when I knock your sorry ass to the floor. Not that you will, but if a miracle happens and you win, you get aaaaalllll my gold. Sound good?"

Catherine cracks into a wide grin that shows more tooth than is strictly speaking normal, then gestures towards the door to the tavern. (Common) "Ladies first."

[Rhunder]

The orc breaks out in a laugh at the sound of Orc. "A man who speaks my language." The orc turns to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have an honorable agreement for the winner to take all that he desires from the loser, on the condition the winner buys the loser a drink to compensate. I ask that no one interferes with the match unless death occurs." The orc's booming voice carried over the crowd who now was excited to see a true fight. He turned back to Cat, (orc)"I'll honor the agreement."

The orc was the first out the door followed by the rush of many excited onlookers. He stopped half way into the road, awaited his opponent and asked, "What is your weapon of choice?"

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn looks up, at the new girl, and returns the smile, though Evelyn's was obviously quite a bit sadder, "it is a delicate situation. The forest here is dangerous, from what I know of paladins though, he'll have enough combat training to at least make it back," she replies, "I'm Evelyn," she continues, offering a hand.

It should be noted that Evelyn does not look sickly, she looks lifeless. If not for her wearing gloves, she'd also be cold to the touch.

[Jacior]

Vulture was sitting in the corner when the paladin came through the door. He'd been bored, with his chair leaning back on two legs and his feet on the table. He was actually considering starting some trouble, probably with that orc who was boasting about his scars, but then the paladin mentioned a substantial reward. That was always something that made his ears perk up. The lithe assassin got to his feet as the paladin was leaving, to go check out the flyer, but then something even more interesting happened.

The woman who went out of her way to make herself unappealing was going to fight the orc. That was much more interesting. Of course, he'd have to remember to come back for the money job later. Following the crowd out, he pushes himself to the front, looking at the orc. He seemed fairly well sized, may be a good match for the ugly girl. That prompted an idea from him. "Please to be placing your bets! Monies three to one on ugly orc and being two to one on ugly girl! No sore losers, only sore winners!" He really hoped that people would be eager to be placing bets on the fight. They were already worked up.

[Tuv]

It had been easy enough to convince the orc to fight, she wasn't all that different really, but he was keeping his head better than she expected. He probably wasn't all talk in that case.

Then someone stepped forward trying to make a quick buck off the fight, her fight, and if she wouldn't be the one taking the crowd's money, nobody would. Time to speed this up a bit.

Catherine takes up a martial arts stance. Left leg only slightly in front of her right, fists up to guard her face with wrists facing her foe and elbows pointing slightly forward instead of to the sides.

"I am the weapon. Now defend yourself, we begin."

[roll0]

It's a little difficult to explain properly in action, but she essentially uses a mix of Muay Thai and practical martial arts where appropriate.

[Rhunder]

The crowd rallies around Vulture placing bets. Many bet on the orc who had been bragging for hours and had the better odds. Only a few dare to bet on the girl.

roughly 20 gp had been placed by 12 people on the orc while only 8 gp by 6 people on the girl.

The orc drops his pack and even takes off his armor. After a brief moment of flexinghe raises his fist and doesn't even hesitate to attack the girl. He dashes to the challenger and throws powerful punch. The hit hits to the gut and rocks Cat hard.

The orc throws an unarmed attack so non lethal damage. 9 non lethal damage.

[Tuv]

His swings were awkward and powerful, dangerous even, but that lack of skill would be his downfall. When the orc's fist landed a heavy blow to Catherine's stomach she could only smile. It hurt, of course, and taking too many hits like that would make her lose, but it opened the orc up to yet more devastating blows.

The first kick went towards his ribs where he'd twisted his body too much on the offense and left himself exposed.

The second kick was a roundhouse to the head, a devastating blow even without Catherine's extensive 'experience'.

The third kick came as an extension of the second, in one fluid motion she switches directions on the follow-through and throws a reverse roundhouse to the orc's head from the other side.

All is non-lethal, and all the fancy fighting moves are for flavor because called shots don't exist. During her actual action, she's using Flurry of Blows on a full-attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[Jacior]

Vulture counts up the coins and frowns. This was not worth the effort it'd take to remember who placed their bets. "Go ugly girl! Feed the ugly orc his own teeth for his dinner!" You better freaking win, he thought to himself. I can't afford to pay these people if you don't.

[Rhunder]

The orc felt his ribs crack under the force of the kick and before he could react, his head rung from another foot. Finally, the orc evades the third kick. Both hits hurt, a lot. The orc reacts appropriately, yelling in a rage and starts to swing harder. This time the wild fist comes down hard into Cat's face.

The naturally barbaric Orc rages. Taking another AoO, The orc swung solid. Again, not counting Cat's DR. The unarmed swing deals another 10 non lethal damage.

[Twelve.Five]

"It's good to meet you, Evelyn." She shook the girl's hand. "Say, would you mind going along outside to watch them fight? They really shouldn't be brawling, but I always learned a lot watching my farther spar. That way, I can also heal one of them if they put each other in danger." But only if they were about to die, she thought. Otherwise, the headache might be good for them, it could teach them not to fight if they didn't want to kill.


"Look at that. The woman is really something - I wonder who taught her those kicks?" The style was a little savage for Anna's tastes, and there really wasn't any good reason for them to be fighting, but she had to grant her that it was still impressive to watch.

Duly noted. I thought 'dead' might be easily confused for sickly, if there isn't any visible necrosis. That's how the confusion came along, at least.

[Tuv]

Another blow she couldn't avoid, not that she was trying particularly hard to dodge them. The only option to take a blow to the head gracefully is to power through, so she rears her head back and meets the fist with a vicious headbutt.

After taking the hit she moves in even further, throwing a knee to the orc's side followed by another hit to his head with the back of her hand.

Catherine is not at her limit yet, but she can feel the aching of the blows. This was a good fight at least.

Same actions as before.

The Attack of Opportunity is lethal damage because that headbutt would absolutely savage his fist, the rest of the flurried hits are non-lethal.

Obviously, just ignore attacks that happen after(if) the orc goes down.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn follows Anna outside, "...I've never been much of a fighter," she says, leaning against a staff of shapesand, "and even I can tell she's the better pugilist..." she watches for a bit longer, "should we look at that listing the paladin put up? May be more productive than watching a fight."

[Rhunder]

The orc's fist shakes weakly from the hit, then his side aches greatly, and finally a hit to the head put him right out. The orc falls hard, his face and side obvious bruised and swelling. Most of the crowd was silenced but a few yelling in anger while a couple exclaims with their winnings.

A man near Evelyn hears her talk of the listing and interrupts, "If that young paladin went into the woods, he is surely dead. There is a witch in those woods that devours man like it's a long hanging apple." He shook his head at the thought.

[Jacior]

Vulture sighs. At least he made some gold. Girl probably didn't even notice what he did for her. Stupid girl. "Come to be getting your winnings people! Stay for another fight maybe?" He says, looking at the pugilist. "You want another fight ugly girl? I put up much better fight than ugly orc!"

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn glances at the man, "more than likely if that is the case, it doesn't mean we can't look at the posting."

[Tuv]

Catherine kneels down to rifle through the orc's belongings. She'll pocket any coin, valuable looking trinkets, and mystery vials or flasks she finds. Once the search is complete, she'll drag the orc and his remaining stuff out of the road, and pay the barkeep for two beers for the unfortunate orc when he wakes up.

While she's doing her impromptu looting, however, there's a nuisance to be dealt with. "You look so weak, I don't think I would have the time to bet on you and then throw the match before you were swallowing your own teeth. Besides, as you can see, I'm a little preoccupied at the moment."

[Jacior]

"Ugly girl, there is no need to call insults if you are cowardly. I know picking on weak orc is easy. I would do it to did you not. But don't call me weakling when you are scared." Vulture says, scowling at the ugly girl. It would either goad her into a fight or she'd slink off after being insulted like that. Either way would be fun for him.

[Rhunder]

Cat scrounging the pockets find a few coins, and an odd necklace within a pocket. The orc only has a couple rations, an greataxe, and his leather armor beside him.

Some of the crowd starts calling for Cat to whoop Vulture like she did the orc. Others start to insult Vulture for calling out a girl who bravely fought not one minute ago. The situation amongst the crowd seems to grow a little more tense.

You find only a 15gp and a weird wood and bone necklace.

[Tuv]

After squaring away everything with the bartender and the unconscious orc, and slipping the spoils of her fight into her pack, Catherine heads back outside to deal with the new challenger. She cracks her neck left and right before continuing.

"Fine, if you want to throw down that badly, we will. Pick your poison, what are the terms?"

[Rhunder]

The crowd erupts with more people willing to bet. But a few others grow more violent even pushing others to get better spots to watch.

[Jacior]

Vulture blinks. He'd half expected her just to go back to drinking. "Poison? Should I have brought poison? This is most not good. I am not sure that I am going to be able to fight if were are needing poison. Did you maybe bring extra so I might use some?" He had run out of poison a while ago, truth be told. There were some in his tribe who would use the energy within to make poisons of the spirit, but he could not do this.

[Rhunder]

The crowd had only grown since the first fight. Some laughed at Vulture's joking manner. Others grew angry and as such some started yelling. The pushing had grown and a man was shoved hard into Evelyn and Anna.

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn, not liking the sudden shift, used her shapesand to put down an anchor that would hold the pusher back, shifting in shape and position to keep between the man and her, "would you mind not pushing? Just go around to the edge, you'll get a better view," some people had no common sense.

[Tuv]

"And a fool to boot. If you're going to fight, then fight. Otherwise, go away."

[Jacior]

Vulture narrows his eyes at Cat. "Do not call for poisons and then call me a fool for having none. I am not always prepared for all situations." He turns and starts walking a fair distance away. At about thirty paces he turns and looks at the mean girl. "I will come at you and you will try very hard not to die now." He nods and draws a blade that looks far better as a show piece. "Those will be acceptable poisons."

Initiative: [roll0]

Entering Norn's Nudge Stance.

Gain 1 Adrenaline (1/5)

[Tuv]

She enters back into he martial arts stance as battle is joined yet again.

[roll0]

[Rhunder]

As the fight starts, a trio of rocks come from the crowd to Vulture. One misses and two bounce off his armor harmlessly. Two men on the edge of the crowd had daggers and are preparing to attack Vulture, who recognizes them as a pair who had lost serious gp in earlier bets.

Make spot checks.

[Rhunder]

http://oi62.tinypic.com/ncikpf.jpg

The spot check was to see the guy grab the orc's greataxe. The two circles with Dag are the two with daggers, the third is the greataxe. You guys have your first three letters. everyone is currently just a bystander.

[Twelve.Five]

As the banter got more heated, Anna had been trying to get into the crowd, but being relunctant to really lay into the other patrons, and wanting to keep together with Evelyn, she was shunted off to the back.

When the knives came out, she took off at speed, runnning around the edge of the crowd to put herself between the pugilist and the con-man. People shouldn't be dying today because of some bravado.

Double move to E7. It's 18 squares of movement, avoiding cat's threathened squares, or 90ft, which is well within the 100ft double move. Then she speaks as a free action.

She vaulted into the space between them, glaring figurative daggers at both the combatants, and the enroaching crowd "Hey! Stop this! You're getting each other killed over some lousy bar fight! Put those weapons down!"

She'd left her manure fork leaned against the wall where she put it before entering, but her body was arranged in a stance that spoke of martial training.

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn sighs, then does something simple, she reshapes her sand into a spear and calls out, "Catch!" to Anna, tossing the spear to land adjacent to her.

Targeting a specific square, AFAIK, is an AC 5 or 10 attack (it's a little inconsistent), a miss putting it 5ft in a random direction.

Aimed to land in E6

AC: [roll0]

Random Directions if it Misses
[roll1]

1 = E5
2 = E7
3 = D6
4 = F6

[Tuv]

"Interfering with one of my fights is punishable by getting your throat crushed. Who wants it first? How about you mister dagger?" She takes a step towards him and to the side, throwing a kick as his aforementioned throat.

Five-foot step towards the closest dagger wielder, then I'm making a Stunning Fist melee attack.

[roll0]
[roll1]

If it does any damage, he has to make a DC 13 Fort save or be stunned for one round.

[Jacior]

Vulture turns around with startling speed, his eyes locking with the one who'd grabbed the greataxe. "I agree with ugly girl. No interfere with fights or else." He takes a step forward and his arm makes a sudden jerking motion as he leans in to the left.

Shift into Dance of Razors Stance

Sudden Slash Attack Roll (Using Oncoming Storm Expertise +2/-4): [roll0]
If it hits, deal two damage instantly

Damage Roll: [roll1] (Minimum 1)

At the start of the round, he takes [roll2] Damage.

Felling Blow: [roll3] If his health is at or below that roll after taking the 3d8 damage, he falls unconscious for [roll4] minutes.

[Rhunder]

The two dagger wielders were shocked by the number of combatants that turned on them. One was dropped in a near instant by Cat. The other dropped the dagger and started to run through the crowd.

The greataxe wielder was hit but was surprised by how little it hurt. His counter attack with an unwieldy weapon made for an easy dodge by Vulture. Suddenly the pain from the previous attack caught up with the greataxe wielder who suddenly fell in agony before dying.

Anna and Evelyn caught the crowd by surprise and manage to disperse any courage in any remaining potential attackers.

Attack of Opportunity for Cat on the former dagger wielder if you wish.

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn blinked, well that was anti-climactic. The sand spear dissolves and works its way back to Evelyn through the crowd, forming back into a staff in her hand. This trick always had an interesting effect on people that didn't know what shapesand was, which was most common folk, Evelyn didn't even know about it until after she started travelling.

[Rhunder]

After a few moments, the orc stood back up holding his side and head. "Well, looks like I missed some excitement." He chuckled before lumbering inside for his promised drink. A lot of the crowd followed or dispersed down the road. Before long the tavern had returned to life but a bit quieter.

[Jacior]

Vulture sheathes his blade after flicking the blood from it and looks at the body of the man who'd grabbed the great axe. "People in this land are not smart." He says, nodding to himself. Before searching the body for valuables, that is. "It is for being his loss. Oh well." He looks around to see who was still around. "Is anyone still be wanting a fight?"

[EdroGrimshell]

Evelyn heads back inside with a wry smile, the people here were so excitable.

[Rhunder]

No one raises up to challenge Vulture. After a few moments, a few paladins show up from a different order than the one before. They see the death of two humans and immediately start to question the Orc. Other than that, nothing new or exciting is going on.

[Rhunder]

After a few moments, the only thing people speak about, besides the exciting and upliftng fight, are the strings of missing people including a wealthy merchant and his wares, a troublesome heavily armored half orc, a traveling mage, and possibly more. Some were worried to travel even closely to the woods for fear of disappearing as well.

I forgot that you searched the pockets. You find the last 2 gold pieces they had, collectively. You also find a promissory note from a Mr. Gerald Allite. Its seems to be for a mount of some sort.

[EdroGrimshell]

A soft strain comes to Evelyn's normal expression, a sign to any that knew her after her death would know to mean she's thinking; if the area was so dangerous, why were so many people still here? Why had there been no talk of it on the road? Why would an inn establish itself in such a dangerous area in the first place? It made Evelyn uneasy, though, with her already being dead, the situation may be different for her, it still meant that the people of the region were being killed off and no one was really willing or able to do anything about it. While not strong or powerful, Evelyn was resourceful, she'd have to wait a day, but after doing so, she could likely investigate into the phenomena a little. She couldn't go out on her own though... it was times like these she wished she hadn't died, or at least had spent more time trying to reclaim herself before coming here, she was too weak on her own to do much of anything to help these people.

Evelyn proceeded back to her previous table to think, absentmindedly manipulating the shapesand she commonly used. The Beginning had a major impact on her ability to manipulate it, it fortified her ability to connect to the sand, allowing her to control it more easily, though anyone with enough talent could likely take it for themselves if they knew what it was. That got her brows knit, this shapesand was one of her more valuable possessions, both in price and in what it offered, she'd need to improve her ability to maintain control of the sand, there were bound to be those that knew of it. For that, she'd need to reclaim more of herself, and for that, she'd need to gather strength and experience. That simple concept was what drove her these days, the promise of reclaiming herself. It was selfish, but it was something to strive for.

That thought in mind, she'd have to talk to that paladin when he returned. Even if he turned her away, she'd be trying. That reminded her, she'd forgotten to check that posting... she stood back up after a few minutes of thinking, and went to the posting the paladin had left behind.

[Tuv]

It was about time she moved on, thought Catherine, since she had enough time to fight, she should have enough time to get on with the trek. The problem was how dangerous it was sounding in the area. It wasn't uncommon for her to join up with other travelers, especially in these dangerous times, but it also wasn't uncommon for her to be seen as the threat. Even being honest about it never helped, even though she was mentally in control after the change it scared folks. Fear usually led to violence and dangerous trips through the wilderness alone.

Lately, Catherine had taken to keeping manacles with her in an attempt to assuage those travelers that did not immediately respond with hatred, and keeping track of the moon on pieces of parchment. She wasn't a threat unless she wanted to be, and there was no reason to make enemies if the possibility of an unwanted transformation wasn't there.

With no desire to rise to any challenges, no desire to drink, and some bruises to nurse, Catherine seeks a secluded spot outside to sit and watch comers and goers. With nothing much else to do, she takes some time to pull out a piece of marked parchment and check how many days have passed since the last full moon.