Kingbreaker (IC)

[The Glyphstone]

Kingbreaker

No one is quite certain where the Overlord originally came from - even you, his longest-serving retainers, only encountered him after he had grown powerful. His voice has hints of a Keleshiite accent, indicating an origin somewhere to the east within the Keleshiite Empire, but he has never spoken of his past and no one has dared ask.

Wherever he's from, he spent that time amassing a phenomenal amount of arcane knowledge and power. Now he hungers to take the next step and begin his conquest of the lesser peoples, to make the world kneel at his feet and submit to his will. He has recruited his legions of terror, readied his war-beasts and siege engines, prepared his magical artifacts. Except...he's still not quite ready. That doomsday device needs a bit more tinkering before it's ready to use upon the feeble armies who will defy his might. His grandiose speech to be given to conquered kings and queens just doesn't have a strong enough ring to it in the latest revision. His armies could use just a few months more training before they can annihilate their foes. Of course, none of this is his fault - it's because of inferior materials that his weapon needs more work, no one can appreciate the peak of his literary genius, and if the hordes don't perform adequately it will be they who suffer as well. In his generous magnanimity though, he'll wait just a little bit longer until the moment to strike is perfect…

Enter you, his loyal Lieutenants. Left to his own devices, the Overlord will be dead of old age long before he ever actually starts conquering the world. And having hitched your stars to his, it's up to you to actually put the wheels in motion. You'll conquer the world in his name, using his resources, and in the process ensure your own success as well. And the less he knows about the whole thing, the harder it'll be for him to derail it all with indecision.

Rules: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?533285-Kingbreaker-(Rules-Evil-Kingdom-Building-Game-Variant)&p=22287953#post22287953

OOC: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?533292-Kingbreaker-(OOC)&p=22288050#post22288050


http://i.imgur.com/wJGOl3j.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/iboJ5AL.jpg


(Emissary) Mellisara Starspark: The rejected tiefling daughter of a renowned Mendevian paladin, who at times seems less interested in conquering the world so much as seeing it all burnt to ash. Serving the Overlord gives her the best possibility of realizing this nihilistic revenge, small as it might be, and so she does. She sports a pair of tiny vestigial wings and a masterful usage of rhetoric, hinting strongly at a succubi being the ancestor responsible for her planetouched blood.

(Hordemaster): Haluk Mal: This grim, humorless hobgoblin is a fervent believer in the theory that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He further believes that the degree of strength gained is inversely proportionate to the margin by which you avoided dying, and employs this philosophy in his training exercises. Surviving Haluk's training to join the hordes is a distinct accomplishment, and his troops are fiercely devoted to proving that effort was not in vain.

(Heirarch) Lillian Chai: A halfling woman who carefully cultivates the appearance of a human child, for extra effect when the knives come out. She takes a starry-eyed glee in torture and pain, keeping the normally fractious priests and cultists under the Overlord's banner quiescent in terror of being invited to 'play' with her.

(Magister) Kaeldros Xosch: Exiled from his underground home for experiments even the other drow considered 'a bit excessive', Kaeldros is obsessed with the mutable properties of flesh and spends as much time as he can get away with in his laboratories experimenting. He fails more often than he succeeds, but the fleshwarped monstrosities he occasionally produces are powerful enough to warrant the Overlord keeping him around.

(Saboteur) Nobody: A doppleganger of indeterminate age and unknown origin. Nobody attributes the origin of its self-applied nickname to ego and the joy of hearing how 'nobody could have known' or 'nobody will be able to do this'. That might be true, or it might be the doppleganger's eccentric sense of humor at work. It excels at infiltration and intrigue, but at the same time has a deep-set devotion to pranks and practical jokes that are usually harmless but tap-dance along the edge of malice, or occasionally take a flying leap over the side.




Month 1
Might: 5
Stability: 5
Security: 5
Infamy: 5
Attention: 0


Deep within the semi-tamed wilderness of the Stolen Lands, the grim shape of the Sanctum looms above the treeline. Its foreboding black lines cast a ever-present shadow over the cleared lands surrounding it where the Overlord's loyal legions camp as they await their first orders of the campaign.

On the training grounds, Haluk Mul bellows threats and abuse at two squads of mixed goblinoid soldiers as they engage in war-games against each other with wooden clubs, several already nursing concussions and broken bones. The other members of the Inner Council are nowhere to be seen, likely sealed away in their personal quarters on personal interests. At the very top of the Sanctum, flickering light and the occasional puff of evil-colored smoke indicate the Overlord is in residence but otherwise occupied.

Your troops are restless, eager to begin the conquest. It's time to do what you do every night - TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni reclined on the sofa, golden fox eyes watching as needle after needle plucked itself from Sakura and floated over to drop into a box. She occasionally waved her hand over it, getting rid of any blood as a sensible precaution against it being used for divinations. She licked her teeth to take care of the blood there. She'd kept her formal robes of red, black, and gold- a favorite of hers for their little sessions- spotless, of course. "A pleasure, as always. Once the room has finished putting everything back, I've got an appointment set up with the some of the other lieutenants. I think you'll like the work I have in mind for you." She stretched languidly, her attire shifting to the more professional outfit she usually wore on the job. Her form remained the same, though- mostly that of an attractive woman, but distinguished by the head of a black fox and hands that were transposed with one another, marking her as a minor rakshasa.

The room was officially for interrogations, and if she had to justify it to anybody (she didn't), Kyoni would have called this practice. For a torture chamber, it was surprisingly clean and unthreatening. The very air had an invigorating feel to it- which was what made it so useful for interrogation, as the room worked to repair any injury sustained within its walls. The couch she'd just had brought in for the hour; it wouldn't do to be overly casual with any actual prisoners.

[ylvathrall]

Sakura purrs as the last of the needles slides out of her back with a quick twist that sends a jolt of sensation through her and leaves blood seeping out from the torn skin. "Good," she says, her voice quiet and satiated. "It's been too long since I got my hands wet. What's it going to be?" She doesn't reach up to take out the needles holding her eyelids closed, not yet. Those can come out once the room is done with its work.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill is in his lab in front of a large, complicated set of alchemical equipment, watching a beaker he has held over a flame intently when a tentative knock comes at the door. He ignores it completely, the liquid he's heating needs to have three drops of mercury added just as it turns a specific shade of green and whoever it was at the door would simply have to wait. The knocking, however, does not go away when ignored. Instead it grows louder and more rapid, almost sounding panicked until Kirill finally shouts "What do you want?!"

This brings the knocking to a stop, and a timid looking young gnome woman opens the door though she doesn't actually enter the room. "Master Kirill, sir, you asked me to remind you for the meeting with the other lieutenants?"

"What of it? That's not for another four hours."

"The meeting is scheduled for, um... about ten minutes from now sir."

"What are you talking about? I was just talking to Kyoni, she said the meeting was at midday today, it's still early morning, see?" Kirill reaches over to the window and raises the blinds, squinting as far more sunlight than expected streams in. "Oh. Right. Of course it's midday. You, girl, come here and watch this beaker. When it turns green add three drops of mercury and take it off the heat immediately. I'll return after the meeting. Don't touch anything else."

The gnomes eyes widen, but she slowly enters the room and stands in front of the beaker, holding the dropper Kirill hands her over the bubbling liquid with a shaking hand while Kirill heads out to the meeting, grumbling all the way about interrupted experiments.

[Ilorin Lorati]

A peculiar situation requires peculiar ingenuity. (Red)

Running an inventory management operation that kept an army fed, armored, and armed was by no means a small task. On the busiest of days, thousand or even tens of thousands of gold worth of each may need to be catalogued, organized, prepared, packed, unpacked, sent to mess or sent to front, and even on the quietest there were still tasks that need be done. A normal Quartermaster might need an entire company of well-trained and loyal soldiers to keep everything in top shape... Red promised to make do with a mere squadron. And a squadron he kept an army running with. Well, a squadron and several dozen tireless, mindless servants.

Red's warehouse was built from the ground up to manage this, the mindless nature of undead requiring special preparations to keep it running smoothly; Each of underlings needed to be able to keep an eye on the undead, give them orders, get down quickly if a mistake were made, and get back up to safety. To this end, each storage building was designed with three levels in mind: the first, where everything was stored, was a pit some ten meters deep, where everything currently not in use was stored and criss-crossed with hallways and paths that allowed everything to move. The second held the catwalks, where each living member of the quartermaster squadron could make their patrols, send each skeleton or zombie along its chosen path, and make corrections with their voice when something went awry.

To facilitate this movement, each servant was fitted with a letter and number on the top of their head, as well a small ring of cloth that could be slipped around their neck and removed just as easily. Color coded, these were swapped out at each checkpoint, with the zombies told to follow the path towards the color they currently wore. When they reached their destination, they would wait and be given more specific instructions. The colors were:



Yellow: Magical items were stored here.
White: Nonmagical Weapons and Armor were stored in this part of the storage facility
Green: Nonmagical treasure was stored here. Gems, jewelry, art, precious metals. Anything that could be sold on the black market at a later point.
Red, light to dark: Food was stored here. Water, ice, and salt kept everything packed away cleanly. The darker the color, the more climate controlled (read: colder) it needed to be.
Blue: Any equipment that was not considered in the above categories.



Furthermore, there were multiple lifts and pullies around the edges, and each of Red's living underlings were given ripe and a grappling hook to slide down and be able to climb back up at a moment's notice.

The third level, aka Red's "Hanging Garden", was Red's office. From here he could see all the current happenings and pass instructions down below, receive visitors, and defend their storage house. This was where Red currently stood, calling out below at a minor... mishap currently unfolding on the storage room floor. "Delay Delta-Four; doctrine dictates a delay for detachments!" As he spoke, Red waves an active dancing lights spell, pointing out a skeleton that had lost its foot to an unattended wooden pallet and was trying to jump its way to its destination.

The half-drow cursed under his breath. "I must meet momentarily. Recover rapidly; Regular reports require remarks regarding requisites! Obedience obviates the Overlord's observation!" With his command to his underlings out of the way, Red made his way down to the ground level and towards the meeting hall, where the other Lieutenants were bound to be heading towards soon enough.

[QuidEst]

"Do you want me to spoil the surprise? Well, you did just go through a lot," Kyoni said, in mock sympathy. "So I suppose I can spare you a little privileged information. I thought some of the troops could use a livelier step… as long as you can promise me you'll try optimize the overall strength of the forces." Giving the room a little longer to work, she eventually leaned over and plucked out the remaining needles herself before running her hands along the various former-wounds, magically cleaning up the remaining blood. "Well then, shall we?" she added, as she collected her parchmentwork and waited for Sakura to get properly dressed.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera had arrived early, coming in directly after returning from Pitax, She was glad to see Red had also arrived early. She approaches the dark skinned necromancer, her usually gleaming armor still reeking of the swamp and covered in muck. Her hair is likewise a disaster, with clumps of mud and strands of river detritus filling it. Her blue eyes, however, are alight with glee.
"Just the man I wanted to see. I managed to track down the nest of a hydra. If you don't mind, I'd like to borrow that ogre I brought you last month to help in retrieving the beast. Should make for a potent assault beast when the time comes to bring down Pitax."

[Ilorin Lorati]

It's not Ogre until I say it's Ogre. (Red, the Blue)

Red perks up when he's spoken to, before he replies to the woman's request he scrunches his nose at the sight of her and replies, "Salmeera, something stinks. Slipped in the swamp and saved a shower for sometime else, yes?" He didn't let her get in any sort of reply, beaming and nodding at the ogre request. "A heavy, hellacious hydra? Of course! Ogres ought to be outside; small spaces stop sizable skeletons. I'll remove the requisition requirement; simply seek me out in storage and I'll see about standing it straight."

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera shrugs, running a hand through her hair, catching a couple times on some of the drier clumps.
"I don't plan to stay in town long, and the swamp smell takes a while to sink in for proper camouflage. I'll need to speak to Haluk too, of course. Get a few miscreants to help run interference. But I'll bring your toy back. Shouldn't take more than a week, even with the plodding pace the zombie will set."

[ylvathrall]

Kara smiles and rolls her neck, arching her back to test the new skin there. Once she finishes she sits up, flesh melting and flowing into her natural form. In seconds a black-furred kitsune sits on the floor, her two tails tipped with white. Her fur is, of course, immaculate; she wouldn't have it any other way. "Good," she says, a hint of a purr still lingering in her voice. "They could use some discipline. I'll be gentle with them, of course. It wouldn't do to lose too many in the process." She pulls her clothing on, loose black silk sliding over silky black fur, and then the armor, form-fitting black leather that provides a degree of protection while still allowing her to move freely. The black cloak, sleeves tipped with silver needles that scratch lightly at her skin as she moves, comes next, followed by the silver mask that hides all facial expression from view.

"Shall we?" she says, once she's ready, offering her arm to Kyoni with a sardonic smile behind the mask. They're perfectly on time, of course. Kara is always on time.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni made no effort to hide her gaze as she watched Kara shift and get dressed. While the assassin chased new extremes, Kyoni never ceased to enjoy comfortably familiar lechery. "I appreciate it. It makes my job that much easier," she replied as they headed out.

Once they arrived, Kyoni slid into her seat at the table. The papers settled themselves in front of her. "Thank you all-" she glanced at the empty seat awaiting Kirill. "- most of you for joining me. I'm pleased to announce that we can now consider the campaign in the Stolen Lands officially completed. The last major pocket of resistance has been crushed, preliminary deployments around the area are complete, and our Dark Master has deemed matters sufficiently under control to entrust them to our humble stewardship while he advances his unholy craft." She smiled warmly, pausing before she continued. "This is not to say that there isn't a great deal of work still to be done here- we must consolidate this power, and do so without prematurely drawing too much attention from our new neighbors. Premature conflict would be unwise- I'm sure none of us wish to trouble our Dark Master so soon after he's put such trust in us." Superfluous look around the room for effect.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill stalks into the room and lets the door bang shut behind him. He glances sourly around at the gathered lieutenants before slumping into his chair. Noting Kyoni's pause as he enters, he grumbles, "Oh don't look at me like that, keep talking about whatever it is we're here talking about so I can get back to work."

[The Glyphstone]

The remaining members of the Overlord's inner circle arrive at various points before Kyoni begins speaking. Kaeldros shows up first, his nose buried in a thick tome with runes emblazoned on the cover, and takes a seat to one side without ever looking up from it. Melisandra drifts in looking attentively bored with Lillian on her heels chattering away about her latest 'playmate', in turn apparently oblivious to the studious disinterest of the taller woman. Haluk arrives shortly before Kiril, still glistening with sweat from the training session and sporting partially dried bloodstains on his tunic.

[TheOneHawk]

A few moments after Kirill makes his grumpy entrance into the room, the door opens once again and in walks Kirill. He glares at Kyoni and mutters something to himself as he stalks over to his seat, only to find it occupied by, apparently, himself. "Nobody, get the hell out of my seat," he barks. "Unless you'd prefer I set off the bomb I planted under it three weeks ago in case of impersonation. Go on, git!"

[The Glyphstone]

The seated Kirill cackles hollowly, yielding his place to the newly arrived Kirill even as he stretche and dissolves into Nobody's grey melted-wax visage."You diiiiid say nobody was allowed to sit there besides you, howwww could i refuse such an offer?"

[TheOneHawk]

"Hilarious, as usual." Kirill deadpans. "If I ever see you in my chair again, wearing my face or any other, I will be setting that bomb off without bothering to tell you to move first." He takes his seat and taps his claws on the table. "Now that that's over, you gather us here for something in particular, Kyoni, or were we all just brought here for Nobody to put on a magic show."

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red the Orange

The Occultist rolls his eyes at Kirill's annoyance, sharply interjecting with his own complaints; "Alternatively, arrive at appointments aptly? Decimating dopplegangers damages our devious dreadnought."

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera chuckles.
"Relax, Kiril. It's not like anyone would miss the shapechanger anyways. He's Nobody."
She turns back to Kyoni.
"As I was just discussing with Red, I've tracked down a hydra's lair in Pitax. If Haluk is willing to spare a few soldiers, I should be able to do some preparatory raids while I recover the beast. Force them to spread their defenses thin, while bringing in a new assault beast for the armies. Kiril, if you have any acid to spare, fire tends to be ineffective against the larvae when they start swarming. Too wet from the swamps."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni nodded, somewhat generally, at the assembly, straightening up to make her pronouncements. "In order to bolster our position, we'll be launching two major initiatives, as well as testing the waters with a third, smaller initiative. Haluk's work shaping up new recruits and keeping the horde in line are admirable, but we don't want the troops to think that surviving their welcome means that things will get easier. Kara will be assigned to carry out an enhanced training regimen for the troops. I suspect Haluk's work in the future will be smoother if they're aware of less pleasant alternatives." She passed one of the sheets of parchment over to Kara, following it with a copy for Haluk before she turned her attention further along the table.

"Meanwhile, Kirill will supervise a major effort to improve the border's security, entrenching our position further so we have less to worry about from outside threats. I know we can't put bombs everywhere, but people start moving a lot slower once they've found two." Kirill also received a sheet.

Kyoni nodded to the quartermaster, passing the sheet right away rather than waiting. "Red will put additional resources at their disposal in order to carry things out. That means increased alchemical allotments for Kirill to work with, along with some stronger fire abjurations for his assistants. Kara… well, I can't speculate as to what the training will entail precisely, but at the very least Red can provide some time allotments with some of the disposable carpenters and blacksmiths. I will be helping to coordinate both efforts, so please inform me of any impediments I can resolve."

"Our remaining initiative is more overt, and will receive less support to avoid raising tensions too quickly. Salmeera will lead a small group of bannerless troops to loot and pillage some of the areas that were troublesome while we moved in. Best to kick them while they're down. It needn't interfere with regular beastmaster tasks too much, however." The sheet of parchment passed over was simply list of villages that had been troublesome.

"As for the remainder. Mellisara and Nobody, we are avoiding playing out hand too early, and minimizing contact with our neighbors. It will be expected, I think. That will give you time to study up on Pitax and Mivon to make memorable first impressions later. Lillian and Kaeldros, we won't be interrupting your work, except to borrow subordinates for the aforementioned fire-proofing abjurations.
If either of asks her nicely, you might convince Kara to let you have some of the regimen dropouts to provide a variety of motivation, but that falls to her discretion." She settled back comfortably in her chair, looking pleased. "Questions?"

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill shrugs at his assignment. "That'll interfere with my research, but I suppose I can spare some time to set explosives. That said, I take offence to the idea that I cannot, in fact, put bombs everywhere. I have a lot of bombs." He smiles a wide, toothy grin at the thought before turning to Salmeera. "Of course I have acid, I've got a lot of different acids, you'll have to be a lot more specific than just 'acid', half the things in my lab are technically acid. You want something that will interfere with a hydra's regenerative abilities, I'm guessing. Stop by the lab before you leave and I'll find something."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni shrugged. "Cannot in the timespan with which you have to work, then, and should not, as we will want to, say for example, invade at some point."

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill rolls his eyes and stands up. "That it, then? Can I get back to work? I was right in the middle of a rather delicate experiment, you know. Don't see why you couldn't have just sent a note if that's all you needed to tell me," he grumbles.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera scoffs
"You guessed at my intent well enough, Rat. the details are what you're paid for, isn't it?"
Her use of the name Rat seems more like friendly ribbing than an intended insult.
"I should probably come with you, I intend to leave before the day is out."

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill nods and waves Salmeera towards him as he walks out the door. He remains silent the entire trip down to his lab, grumpily banging open the door once he reaches it. Rather than enter, however, he stares in shocked silence at the scene before him, the set of equipment he'd been working on has seemingly exploded and the gnome girl is covered in blood laying against the wall, crying and clutching the stump of her ruined arm. After a moment, he shrieks in frustration and runs over to the beakers, frantically checking one after another and growing more frustrated at each ruined reagent or elixir. "Stupid girl! She's ruined a week of work! Ridiculous!" After he's checked everything on the table he finally turns to her and yells, "Out! Get OUT!" She seems to make an effort, but doesn't actually manage to get to her feet before Kirill is bodily dragging her to the door and throwing her into the hall, slamming the door behind her.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera looks around at the exploded lab.
"Well, this certainly looks messy. Might want to get the blood cleaned up before it attracts stirges. Pesky things, and hard to get rid of once the move in."
She moves carefully around ground zero.
"So, about that acid..."

[TheOneHawk]

"Eh?" Kirill asks, looking curiously at Salmeera. "Oh, right, that. Yeah, come with me. And don't touch anything." He heads deeper into the lab, past shelves upon shelves of strange and exotic items which seem to have little to no actual organization to them. In spite of the apparent chaos, however, he finds what he's looking for fairly quickly, a massive glass vessel filled with red liquid. "This here should do what you need done, though you'll probably want it in rather smaller doses than this. Wait here." He scurries off for a moment, then returns with an armful of glass vials. "These are designed to be thrown at things and break on contact. Obviously, this means that if you're an idiot when you store them they'll break before you throw them. Don't be an idiot, put them somewhere secure. Now, how many do you need?"

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera considers for a minute, calculating.
"Probably one each for the troops I'll be getting from Haluk. No sense in wasting them completely on the first larvae pool they encounter. I'll take half a dozen, to use with my own discretion, if you don't mind. So call it around a score."

[TheOneHawk]

"Twenty vials of acid, gah. That'll drain half this tank and I'll need to do up a whole new batch.
Fine, but you owe me." Kirill gripes as he dons a pair of thick leather gloves and starts pouring out the acid into the vials. He has to make a second trip to get enough, but within a few minutes there are twenty vials full of the red liquid ready for Salmeera. "There," he says, "Now take them and go, I've got a lot of work to catch up on, now. Shoo."

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

"I'm sure you'll find something useful to do with the hydra's byproducts. There must be something in that blood that is alchemically significant with their healing abilities, and you'll be welcome to take samples."
Salmeera stows the acid in her bags and heads off to locate Haluk and get a fresh crop of expendables.

[The Glyphstone]

Haluk is not difficult to locate, being currently seated on the other side of the conference room.

"Hydra hunting? Sounds like a perfect opportunity to exercise pack-tactics training - I'll give you a dozen kobolds and half that many handlers to keep them in line during the hike."

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red the White

The Occultist listens intently to the conversation, giving no real indications over his opinion of the matter. "Alchemical allocation is always available to allies, amount allowing. Send subordinates to fill form gamma-three. Make sure minions mark 'Majordomo mission'. Skilled subordinates... slightly slippier. Workable with week-long withdrawal from mithral mines."

[QuidEst]

"Well, I think that's the important matters taken care of. I think we can finish there," Kyoni concluded. "Do let me know if I can be of any assistance, and good luck everyone." With that, she stood up to leave, her papers collecting themselves and floating over to her hand.

[ylvathrall]

Kara nods, once, and turns to Haluk. "Have the troops assemble," she says. "I'll address them so as to...inform them of the enhanced training they're going to be undergoing."

Once the Legions are assembled, she stands in front of them, looking over the ranks. An actor's trick makes her voice carry even to the back, without sounding like she's shouting - rather, she sounds to be speaking in an authoritative but calm voice. "Some of you may know who I am," she says, her lips twitching into a smile behind the mask at the understatement. "For those of you who may not, I am Sakura, one of the Overlord's assassins. The Lord's voice has asked me to serve in a different capacity for the time being. She has lost her patience with your lack of diligence and dedication to your work. I have been assigned to correct this situation. For this month, you will answer to me. I, and not your usual director, will be in charge of your training regimen. I will be directing your drill; I will be gauging your performance."

Sakura takes a moment to look over the troops, her eyes cold. "You may be expecting this to be a token measure which will not have any direct effect on you. You would be wrong. I will be meeting daily with your squad leaders to assess your performance, and those who lag behind my expectations will be given punishment duty. I will warn you that my expectations of you are high. You will be pushed harder than you are used to being pushed, and you will find yourself performing beyond what you think yourself capable of. By the end of the month I expect these Legions to be a finely honed weapon, dedicated to the Overlord's service. Are there any questions?"

Going to roll an intimidate check just because: [roll0]

[The Glyphstone]

An ogre from one of the smaller tribes, heavily tattooed and carrying a club the size of a small tree slung over one shoulder, wobbles forward and peers blearily at Sakura. "Yeah, what kind of punishment?"

Even the other (smarter) ogres in the band shuffle away from him a few steps in silent reaction.

[ylvathrall]

"You," Sakura says, gesturing to the ogre. Her eyes flicker over the ogre, taking in the details of its equipment, looking for weak points. "Come forward.

She continues to watch as he approaches, and then once he is in reach suddenly draws her wakizashi and lashes out with it in a single smooth motion, aiming for a nerve bundle in his thigh. "Punishment will vary based on your infraction. Some of you will only be assigned extra work detail, while others will be killed or turned over to the Lord for use in his laboratories. Questioning my authority, or that of the Overlord, will result in more intense punishments. Dismissed."

[The Glyphstone]

The ogre yelps as the blade slashes into his leg, stumbling and clutching at the wound. "Ow! That hurt!" For a moment, his meaty hands twitch towards the sheathed club before visibly pulling away, and a glimmer in his dull eyes indicates he might be on the verge of realizing he made a mistake. Instead, he silently turns and limps sullenly back into the shelter of his band.

[ylvathrall]

Sakura turns and leaves without another word, pausing by Haluk's office. "Get me a list of the squad leaders, please," she says. "And assign one of the troops as my assistant - the last one misspelled guillotine. An injured one is fine." With that said, Kara heads back to her own office, already pondering how to go about training the motley Legions into a dedicated fighting force.

[The Glyphstone]

Home Territory - Sakura, Red, Kyoni

The legions set to work with a will, caught neatly between the hammer of Sakura's strict discipline and the anvil of Haluk's harsh expectations. After the first few object demonstrations of the consequences of slacking off or simply not measuring up, the troops visibly start to exercise in a more coherent fashion than their previous state of semi-organized mobs. The unfortunates who succumb in the process get rerouted to their untimely ends with a few swift strokes of Kyoni's pen, with their final fates meticulously marked for accurate accounting in Red's records.


Territorial Borders - Kirill

The expedition to secure and fortify the perimeters of the Overlord's domain goes smoothly and without significant incident for the majority of the patrol. Traps are repaired and replaced, sentry posts are inspected for diligence and attentiveness.

Towards the end of the inspection tour, along the southern flank and the small segment of border shared with the eastern badlands of Embeth Forest, Kirill and his guards discover something interesting. Nestled into the flank of a hill under an overhang, what appears to be a recent rockslide has exposed a massive, heavy stone door. Dwarven runes are inscribed along the edges, proclaiming it to be the tomb of the Dwarven king Halmar Ironbeard and promising the most dire of punishments for anyone daring to defile the sanctity of his resting place.


Interspersed between the runes are several Glyphs of Warding. Without the ability to read magic, you cannot identify them with more specificity.


Eastern Pitax - Salmeera

The handful of isolated hamlets and villages that Salmeera and accompanying troops pass through on her way to the hydra's lair are practically defenseless, and easy prey. A number of useful slaves get sent back burdened under the weight of what little treasures their pitiful lives once contained, with a substantial escort. At one point, only Salmeera's keen senses and familiarity with the waterways saves the force from blundering straight into the middle of a Pitax military formation engaged in swamp-combat drills, but she works out a safe route around their staging area.

Eventually, she reaches the region where the hydra was reported - the forward scouts confirm the presence of a large cave ideal for a hydra to lair in.


The area is strangely deficient in small game - the snakes, small rodents, and ground-dwelling birds that would normally populate a swamp are nowhere to be seen. Since creatures of that size are generally too small for a hydra to bother hunting, something else must be preying on them.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

As they approach the hydra's den, Salmeera motions for her kobolds to spread out around the entrance and give her about 30 seconds to slip in. She also indicates to be wary of a smaller threat.

As she slips into the cave and begins moving around the side, however, she hits a deadfall and a pile of brush collapses around her, making a great deal of noise. Noise that is likely heard by the cave's inhabitant.

[The Glyphstone]

Eastern Pitax - Salmeera

Her approach is indeed heard by the cave's inhabitant. Or as it turns out, inhabitants.

At the sound of the deadfall collapsing, the mature hydra charges out of the gloomy depths of the cave, all seven heads spread wide and roaring challenge at the intruder. Around its feet, with a hissing like the sound of a churning waterfall, flows a tide of miniature hydralings - any one of them no larger than a good-sized rat, but present in the dozens with two or three heads each.

Hydraling swarm initiatives: 15, 12
Hydra initiative: 4

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera curses, extricating herself from the deadfall and sprinting back towards the entrance.
"Ready to throw, aim low, it has spawn and they'll swarm over us."
As she speaks she turns rapidly pulls one of the flasks and readies to throw it.

Move out of the cave, quickdraw an acid flask, ready to throw when a swarm comes in range
Attack: [roll0]
Crit: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]
Crit: [roll3]

[The Glyphstone]

Part of the skittering swarm of baby hydralings, apparently most of the larger and more aggressive spawn, charge forward out of the cave and into the waiting flurry of alchemical acid flasks. Salmeera's throw is, naturally, spot-on, and dozens of the tiny beasts scream as they are doused in caustic slime, with a half-dozen more throws from the kobolds landing in or around them to finish the job. The handful of wounded or dying survivors scatter in all directions or retreat into the cave.

The mature hydra is the next to emerge from the cave. Fourteen eyes blink briefly in the sudden sunlight, seven heads snapping in all directions at the semicircle of kobolds before apparently coming to a consensus and lumbering towards the right side of the arc. More hissing and snapping can be heard from the shadows inside the cave, but the remaining spawn seem hesitant to leave its shelter.


Once they grow out of the tadpole stage, hydraspawn tend to cluster around their parent and scavenge scraps from the adult's meals. Eventually they get large enough to hunt their own appropriately sized prey.


(Salmeera is within charge range of the hydra, who is within charge range of the righmost pair of kobolds in your arc, but no one is engaged in melee yet.)

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

"The young are driven back. Move up on its left and draw its attention, or I'll see to it that Kyoni has some fun with you."
Her orders given, Salmeera darts around to the hydra's right, pulling her blade free and making two rapid slices at its flanks.

Wait for kobolds to move to where i can flank, let them eat the AoOs. Move into flanking and initiate Dual Crash.
Attack 1: [roll0]
Crit (15+): [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]
Crit:[roll3]

Attack 2: [roll4]
Crit (15+): [roll5]
Damage: [roll6]
Crit:[roll7]

If it tries to full attack Salmeera, counter with Calm the Storm
Attack:[roll8]
If this beats the first attack roll (that isn't a natural 20), it has to make a DC 16 Reflex save or be unable to target Salmeera with any attacks for the rest of it's turn (it can still eat kobolds)

[The Glyphstone]

The kobolds obediently brandish their spears and charge the hydra with yipping battlecries, or approach to circle around it and engage as ordered. The hydra looks unexpectedly pleased, but the sheer number of approaching meals seems to overwhelm its already-limited cognitive ability. One unfortunate kobold is caught up in gnashing jaws and eaten, but the other five swarm in and under its guard. They start jabbing at the beast's scaly hide with almost universal ineffectiveness, but succeed in thoroughly confusing the swaying heads. Salmeera easily darts in and carves two deep gouges into its flank, causing all seven heads to whip around and fixate on her.

Hungry maws descend to rend her apart, but her flashing sword is an impenetrable wall of mithril that the hydra's fangs can find no way past. Furious, it rounds on the annoying pests flanking it instead - in a flurry of chomps and tears the five kobolds are down. Three are conscious but clutching at deep wounds, the other two bleeding out badly into the swamp muck.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, The Sellen Scourge

"Fall back, I have it right where I want it!"
Salmeera barks a fresh order and her blade dances before her in a deadly arc.
"Come and get some, you overgrown tadpole."

Recover maneuvers. And prepare for the slaughterhouse.

Attack:[roll0]
Crit:[roll1]
Damage: [roll2]
Crit: [roll3]

Attack:[roll4]
Crit:[roll5]
Damage: [roll6]
Crit: [roll7]

Attack:[roll8]
Crit:[roll9]
Damage: [roll10]
Crit: [roll11]

Attack:[roll12]
Crit:[roll13]
Damage: [roll14]
Crit: [roll15]

Attack:[roll16]
Crit:[roll17]
Damage: [roll18]
Crit: [roll19]

Attack:[roll20]
Crit:[roll21]
Damage: [roll22]
Crit: [roll23]

Attack:[roll24]
Crit:[roll25]
Damage: [roll26]
Crit: [roll27]

[The Glyphstone]

The beast rounds on her in utter rage, but Salmeera's serpentine agility and gleaming mithril armor fend off its teeth again and again as she delivers resounding blows to its heads with the flat of her blade. Twice she lands a brutal dazing blow right between a beady pair of eyes, until the entire body abruptly goes shudderingly limp and collapses from the beating inflicted.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera sends a pair of kobolds to retrieve the zombie as she walks up to the hyrda, slicing all but one neck from the body and sealing the wound with the mark of Besmara.
"Gather your comrades. If they die, they die, but no sense in wasting the bodies. You fought well, and obeyed orders well. Keep it up, and perhaps I'll even request that you be transferred to my command instead of Haluk's. I can assure you, I pay better."

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill is still in a rather foul mood all through the day, snapping at subordinates for minor errors and generally being rather unpleasant to be around. His mood brightens significantly when news of the door is brought to him, though, and he scampers off to see it himself. One he arrives he quickly scans the writing and says, King Halmar Ironbeard, eh? No idea who he was, but Dwarven kings are generally too greedy to let anyone have their riches even when they die. Everyone get away from the door. Unless you want to die, anyways, I won't stop you if that's the case." Stepping forward, he pulls several vials out of his bag and mixes them together into a large round container which he stoppers then rolls towards the door. It comes to rest right at the foot of the entryway and, several seconds later, explodes violently.



Bomb damage [roll0] Ignores four points of hardness

[The Glyphstone]

The Citadel - Salmeera

The journey back to the fortress is uneventful, with the incapitated and quiescent hydra carried by the ogre zombie.

Kirill

The bomb goes off with the expected loud noise, and when the smoke clears a noticable crater has been carved several inches deep into the door. Small cracks spiderweb out from the detonation point, but the door itself remains intact.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirills eyes widen and he squeaks angrily before pulling out several more vials and throwing them at the door one after another, growing ever more upset as the door refuses to break, until finally after the fourth explosion the door lays in ruin.

[The Glyphstone]

Eventually, Kirill's alchemical fury manages to breach a hole through the massive stone door wide enough to fit through. The interior is lightless except for what leaks through the entryway, though Kirill's darkvision pierces a bit further. Just beyond the door, a wall blocks off any further progress, with passages apparently splitting off to the left and right.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera,the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera directs the ogre to deposit the unconscious hydra in one of her monster pits, after cutting the final head to allow a second to grow back. Then she orders the ogre to return to Red's warehouses, and heads off to have a chat with the local magister.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill lets out a short, triumphant laugh as the door finally breaks, then runs down towards it, pulling up just short with a thoughtful expression before turning around and pointing at the ogre remaining in his retinue. "You there! Get down here and take point, we're taking the right hand tunnel. Rest of you lot, file in behind me. Keep your wits about you, expect traps. If you see one, or something that looks like one, or something that looks like it could maybe be one, or even something that looks like it could maybe be something that you don't know what it is, you tell me right away. Understood?"

[The Glyphstone]

The retinue obediently falls into place - the ogre takes the head, confidently striding up to the hole blasted into the thick stone door. As he draws close, several of the runes embedded around the intact doorframe flare with brilliant light and explode. Dust fills the air, taking almost a minute to clear. When it does, the horribly blasted and burnt corpse of the ogre is scattered in chunks across the immediate area.

[ylvathrall]

Kara sits in her office, a dark and cavernous space which has been meticulously arranged to suit her. Everything, from the position of the desk within the room to the lighting to the bouquet of paper blossoms in a glass vase on her desk, has been positioned just so. Everything is perfectly clean - the cleaning staff knows too well the consequences of falling short to ever slack off.

"Boris," she calls. She doesn't bother to raise her voice; her assistant has grown adept at coming to her calls, even when they're soft. A short time of enhanced training had been enough to accomplish that, which Kara called a success. It wasn't as if an assistant really needed all of her toes. "Bring me the list of squad leaders for the day's meetings." A pang of hunger reminds her that she hasn't eaten today, and she licks her lips, her tongue dragging over the fresh scars there. "And something to eat," she adds. The food will, of course, be prepared by someone else. Boris is far too busy to be bothered with cooking. And the cooks need someone to keep them sharp, which Kara's demanding expectations accomplish.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill takes a moment looking at the obliterated corpse of the ogre, then turns to his suddenly rather worried looking hobgoblins and snaps out another order. "Change of plans, you six are now reassigned to defend this tomb at all costs. I'll return with more... durable reinforcements shortly."

[The Glyphstone]

The Citadel - Salmeera

The subbasement level claimed by Magister Kaeldros Xosch is separated and rather overbuilt, closer to the fortified cells of the prison chambers than the more conventional arcane laboratories. It's a necessary precaution in the event of one of his more...energetic...experiments getting loosed, and preferable to them running amok through the Citadel. The adamantine-plated door is closed, with a overmuscled brute standing guard. It looks to have been an ogre once, but its leathery skin now sports a thick coat of overlapping scales and its fingertips end in razor-boned claws. Dull red eyes glare at him beneath a furrowed, scaly brow.

"Whatcho want?"

- The Citadel - Kara

Boris scuttles away to obey her mistress's orders, returning a short while later. She holds a tray of Kara's preferred snacks carefully balanced in her left hand, with the rubbery tentacled appendage Kaeldos grafted in place of the missing right arm curled around the requested documents. The missing toes give her a small stumble in gait, but the gnome has learned to compensate for the injuries as well as she can.

- Territorial Borders - Kirill

Visibly relieved at not being ordered to follow up the deep-fried ogre, the squad's sergeant organizes a guard over the exposed tomb door.

[TheOneHawk]

Once Kirill arrives back at the stronghold he quickly seeks out Kyoni in her office. Not bothering with pleasantries, he simply walks into her office and explains the situation. "Found a dwarf king's tomb out on patrol. Trapped up enough to blow an ogre into little bits on the first step inside. Very little bits. Left a squad there to keep watch but I need some reinforcements to actually get in there without being blown into the aforementioned little bits. You know how the dwarves are, probably a fortune in there. Who's available?"

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera glares at the guard.
"I am here to see Magister Kaeldros. Open the door. Before I grow impatient."

[QuidEst]

Kyoni looked up from her work as Kirill walked in. "Hmm. Good of you to come back rather than just pressing on and wasting the troops you have. Dwarven traps, then." Kyoni considered for a moment, then pulled out a chart, looking over it. "I'll see if you can requisition two or three bloody skeletons. They'll come back from just about anything, but keep them clear of any holy energies. Since it takes an hour for them to reform, you'll need at least two to make any real progress, rotating in a new one while another pulls itself together. Now, dwarves being who they are, they will be some traps the skeletons just won't set off. I can see about getting you a caster to summon a small horse for a few hours on-site. Send the horse after a skeleton, but do make sure the caster comes back. No need to bring them into the tomb itself. I'll leave any other details, like having the skeletons drag a weight along to trigger pressure traps and so on, up to you. Will that be sufficient?" she asked, starting to write out a requisition order to pass on to the quartermaster.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill shrugs and grabs the requisition order from the desk as soon as Kyoni's finished writing it. "Whether I think it's sufficient or not isn't generally relevant. I'll make it work." He says before heading out the door, not waiting for a reply. He heads down to Red's office and yells out across the scaffolds while waving the paperwork in the air, "Red! Requisition from Kyoni! Going graverobbing and need some bodies that can die repeatedly for me!"

[The Glyphstone]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera glares at the guard.
"I am here to see Magister Kaeldros. Open the door. Before I grow impatient."

The fleshgrafted ogre peers at her again, then turns to the door and hammers a heavy fist against it several times. "Someone to see you, Master."

No answer comes at first, and the ogre turns back to glare at Salmeera. After a minute or so, several heavy locks disengage and the door swings open. Kaeldros is framed in the doorway, wearing his usual outfit of leathers stained by assorted unidentifiable substances and a pair of oversized thick gloves.

"Aaaaah, Salmeera. Always a pleasure to see you, did you bring something fun for me to play with? AGO-35, stand down and permit her entry."

He gestures invitingly towards the interior of the gloomy chamber.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red the Red

Before Kirill came in, Red has basically nothing to do; the shop was running as smoothly as mindless zombies and skeletons could run, there had been little in the way of new loot or gear finished in the last few days that required storage, and even his subordinates were being marginally less obstinare than usual. In fact, everything was going smoothly enough that he was about to go down and look through everything to make sure there was nothing being hidden from him.

As he listened to the rat's statement, Red quirked a brow and wordlessly took the requisition form. Mumbling wordlessly to himself as he read over it, he looked for anything out of place, but although he couldn't find anything for this particular form he knew that the request itself was in error, as it was simply asking for a pair of Bloodied Skeletons. At least there would be some way for him to relieve his boredom. Walking over to his desk, the half-drow pulled out his quill and marked a large, red X along the location his signature would normally be required for an accepted form. "Requisition request refused. Trapped tombs are troublesome, they take tenacity and talent, not twin unthinking twits. A singular skilled sapper and several stupid skeletons shant simply strut inside."

As he gave his reasons, Red walked over to the cabinet he kept his parchment forms in, pulling one out and holding it out to Kirill. "Fill this form fully. I'll attend, as appropriate for an entrada, allowing archival of any abundances. We can call a caravan to carry any cache back to camp."

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera enters, looking around the lab with a degree of interest.
"Indeed. I've brought you something extra fun today, though it may take some time before we can safely reap the benefits. A freshly captured hydra, which I intend to tame. A bit of pain from harvesting should help as a...motivational tool. And of course, it will give you an endless supply of spare flesh and a steady supply of dangerous, tooth filled mouths."

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill throws his hands up in frustration. "Fill out your own damn paperwork. If you'd rather come yourself I don't care, just be quick about it. I haven't got all day."

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red the Orange

Looking at Kirill plainly, the occultist shrugged and slipped the parchment under his arm before walking, at a leisurely pace, past the rat and towards Kyoni's office. Presuming he wasn't stopped at some point along the way, he'd knock on the Majordomo's office and enter when allowed inside.

~~~

Not delaying at all, the drow gave his full explanation for his visit upfront, doing his best to make sure she understood everything.
"Madam, misallocation of meager materials must be mentioned! Tomb trips take teams of technicians, simple skeletons shant suffice!"

[The Glyphstone]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera enters, looking around the lab with a degree of interest.
"Indeed. I've brought you something extra fun today, though it may take some time before we can safely reap the benefits. A freshly captured hydra, which I intend to tame. A bit of pain from harvesting should help as a...motivational tool. And of course, it will give you an endless supply of spare flesh and a steady supply of dangerous, tooth filled mouths."

The interior of the lab is a fever-dream's cross between a nightmarish chirurgeon's office and an alchemist's lab. Bloodstained tables and benches with heavy straps and chains lay dangling next to tables and benches sporting assorted colorful liquids that bubble and hiss in their flasks. In the gloom of the far wall, doors leading to the secure storage cells sport bars and warded locks every bit as tough as the main door.

"Oh my dear, you always do know how to make me happy! Hydra blood will be a priceless reagent for regenerative elixirs, and there's all sorts of fun things you can do with grafts that regrow on their own. The trick is going to be figuring out how to restrain them from overpowering the host, hydras have a powerful survival reflex coded down to the tiniest scraps of flesh, even worse than trolls. I'll need to requisition a whole new batch of experimental subjects just to reduce the lethality index of the fusion before selecting for tractability...oh, are you still here? Since you came to visit anyways, just make yourself comfortable on that bench there and I'll fetch something I cooked up last week after dealing with those eyekin that wandered in from the depths. It'll be so much easier for you to hunt when your eyes are mounted on prehensile stalks, I promise..."

Muttering, Kaeldros scuttles away into the darkness towards one of the smaller sub-laboratories.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera considers the choice before her. Her body had proven to be insufficient to overthrow her mother in the past. If she was to return to the sea, she would need not only a stronger crew, but a stronger body.

She makes herself comfortable to wait.

[The Glyphstone]

Kaeldros is more than a bit surprised to find Salmeera actually still there when he returns - experimental subjects that don't need to be dragged in and pinned down are a distinct rarity in his line of work. He puts her on a workbench, and after being reminded, hunts up some drow sleep poison to anesthetize his patient while he carves out her eyeballs.

Some hours later...

Salmeera awakens, immediately struck with a stabbing pain in her head and an overwhelming nauseous disorientation. The world in front of and around her is a chaotically spinning whirlwind of images, panoramic around to a far greater degree and only occasionally overlapping to produce a single coherent stereoscopic picture. Kaeldros is somewhere close - in front or beside or behind her, visible but not stationary, yelling about focus and control. After a few minutes, she figures out how to exert control over the new appendages, stabilizing both eyes to point where she tells them to. Her eye sockets now sprout a pair of foot-long fleshy tentacles, with an eyeball - her eyeball - mounted at the tip inside some manner of transparent chitin or resin. They point where she wants to look, but letting her focus lapse returns them to apparently random movement, and an almost subliminal sense of agitation and curiosity lingers at the edge of her thoughts.


You gain the All-Round Vision ability, and a +1 bonus to Perception checks. You lose 2 HP (permanent) and have a -1 penalty to Will saves.

[QuidEst]

Kyoni didn't look terribly impressed with Red's outburst. "It's an efficient way to deal with traps, which, as I understand it, constituted the bulk of the problem. The other stuff is more easily dealt with. You are the quartermaster, so you are free to assign additional resources above and beyond what I've written a requisition order for. What did you have in mind?" she asked.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

The coal-skinned "human" shakes his head; Kyoni was clearly misunderstanding him, a better explanation was in order. That said, the poor Occultist was incredibly frustrated with this turn of events, and he was unable to to build the words he wanted to into anything that could be considered cohesive; instead, after holding his breath and looking as if he was about to pop a blood vessel, Red bursts out into a string of words that at least someone resembled a sentence. "YouneedtosendmysubordinatesorItocataloguethetreasu re!"

This seemed to stress Red out even further, nearly hyperventilating out of an obviously oncoming panic attack until he closed his eyes and took a breath in, adding "Additional allocated assistance allowed. Loaned Lieutenants less legal."

[QuidEst]

" 'Or me', since you're the direct object of the sending," Kyoni said absent-mindedly before nodding. "That's certainly reasonable; feel free to send whomever amongst your subordinates or yourself, as you see fit, so long as the work gets done. Personally, I find it sufficient to interrogate those involved under compulsion afterward. You get a lot of valuable information that way too. But that's just me," she concluded with a shrug. "Is that sufficient? Feel free to nod or shake your head."

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

Biting his tongue, the quartermaster returns the question with a nod. With nothing further to say, and embarrassed enough at his outburst to not wish to push further, he stays silent for the moment.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill glances back and forth between Kyoni and Red with an exasperated expression before finally piping up, "Is that it, then? Are we done? No more dithering? Let's go then, come on." With that, he turns and stalks out of the office.

[The Glyphstone]

With a pair of Bloody Skeletons and a few under-clerks in tow, plus a fresh squad of bodyguards, Kirill and Red return to the entrance of the dwarven tomb in the south. The soldiers left there to guard it are still present, having made themselves as comfortable as they can with a rough semicircle of field tents surrounding the gaping and apparently untouched hole in the entrance.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

Without skipping a beat or wasting time talking to the guards, Red begins looking over and mentally noting every detail he can see in regards to the entrance of the tomb. Clues outside may prevent destruction of property inside, after all.As a part of the process, he presses his hands together and touched them to his forehead, focusing the power from his headband into a wordless spell.


Cast Detect Magic. Taking 20 on Perception for 37.

[ylvathrall]

"Good," Kara says, scanning the list and cross-referencing it with the week's records. "Send for Warchief Snashrak at his earliest convenience."

[The Glyphstone]

Red

Without skipping a beat or wasting time talking to the guards, Red begins looking over and mentally noting every detail he can see in regards to the entrance of the tomb. Clues outside may prevent destruction of property inside, after all.As a part of the process, he presses his hands together and touched them to his forehead, focusing the power from his headband into a wordless spell.


Cast Detect Magic. Taking 20 on Perception for 37.


A few traces of lingering magic show where the now-discharged blast runes had protected the entrance, but it seems the unfortunate ogre managed to set them all off at once, and the doorway is now devoid of magical defenses. No auras are visible from within the tomb.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

As Salmeera departs from the Magister's labs, she is still growing accustomed to controlling her new eyes. It would probably be best to hold off on the training of the hydra until she had better control. One of the eyes notes a set of tracks leaving the camp, and she decides to follow. It would be a good exercise and practice in how flexible her new sight was, in any case.

It doesn't take her long to catch up to Red and Kiril's party, and she continues following from the outskirts until they arrive at the tomb before she reveals herself as she simply walks into the camp.
"Well well well, what have we hear? Exploring lost ruins, and you didn't even think to invite me for a share of the loot?"
One eye trains on Kiril while the other focuses on Red. Salmeera has gotten a solid amount of practice with them, and while it isn't quite subconscious yet, her control has become strong.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

The coal-skinned necromancer gives Salmeera a bored look, not bothering to response to the obviously rhetorical question. Instead, he looks in the direction of his two bloody skeletons, motioning for one of them to enter the tomb first. "Shamble on, silent soldier."

Keeping a distance of approximately 10 feet back from the slow moving tool, he scans for any traps that may exist out ahead of the both of them.


Taking 10 on Perception checks for 27. Red has both low light vision and dark vision out to 60'. Unless he sees something interesting, he lets Detect Magic fall off.

[The Glyphstone]

Behind the door, the passageway immediately turns to the right, then back to the left again in a switchback path. As the skeleton pathfinde turns the second corner, Red hears sudden noises from ahead. Looking ahead, he sees a small square chamber, no more than thirty feet across, with another heavy stone door on the other side. On the floor in the center of the room is a rune that glows faintly green. Standing atop that rune, but already beginning to move towards the skeleton, is an immense humanoid figure that resembles a giant dwarf sculpted from clay.

(Initiative for Red and the Skeleton here.)

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red and Co

Panicking With feigned disinterest, Red turns and runs walks briskly the way he came. "Skeletal subordinate, shadow your superior; follow" he speaks back to his minion before calling ahead: "Attending allies, attackers advance; assistance is appreciated!"

The exact actions will depend on how far he is from the door; he either double moves to it or, if he's close enough to get to the entrance or following allies without doing so, he moves once and then casts dancing lights at the closest corner.

[The Glyphstone]

Red briskly and leisurely, without any particular haste, returns to the door only a short distance away. Behind him, the heavy footsteps of the golem pause as soon as he and the skeleton retreat around the corner, thumping (presumably) back into the middle of the room and stopping.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill shoves past Red as he retreats, walking forward into the room until the golem starts closing in, then stepping back around the corner once it does. "I can take care of this one.
Simple pattern, easy to break." He says once he's confident of the golem's habits.

[The Glyphstone]

It's easy enough to confirm that the golem is set to attack anything that enters the chamber, but will not pursue outside that area.

[Vhaidara]

Salmeera, the Sellen Scourge

Salmeera's eyes scan the tomb, keeping watch for any other traps.
"Just be careful not to blow up the treasure Rat."

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill rolls his eyes at Salmeera, muttering "Whatever you say, Eyes," before downing a potion and fading from view. He pokes his head around the corner and cautiously steps into the golem's field of view, but remains ready to step back to safety if it somehow manages to react to his presence. Once he's certain it is not, in fact, doing so, he begins laying out an array of trip mines in front of the creature's expected path. Once they're laid he scampers back behind the wall and taps Red sharply on the arm with an invisible, but horribly overgrown claw. "Well? Send out your skeleton before I die of old age!"

Going to lay as many bombs as possible between the golem and where it will likely go with a bloody skeleton baiting it.
Maximum 7, space depending.

[The Glyphstone]

Kirill successfully lays a string of traps from the corner of the passageway almost right up to the golem's feet. At no point during his work does it so much as twitch in his presence, merely standing silently and patiently atop the glowing green rune in the center of the chamber.


Your best path is the left side, where you can fit 3 bombs in a row between the golem and where it will need to stand to attack a skeleton.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

The Occultist walks over and gently pushes the bloody skeleton back in the direction of the golem. "March, minion." Once it has begun its task, he looks at his hand and wipes the bloody mess off on his pants leg. Following a short distance behind the skeleton, he watches for it to get into position, calling out "Stop, skeleton." when it reaches the corner and is visible to the golem.

He then retreats once more, leaving the poor creation to its fate.

[The Glyphstone]

As before, the golem activates upon seeing an intruder within its field of view. Out of sight to Red and Kirill, but still audible, they hear its heavy footsteps move across the chamber. One after the other, huge clay feet trod on the bombs set in its path and detonate them with loud bangs. Finally, the golem reaches the skeleton and swings a sledgehammer fist into it. A brief glimpse of the golem's hand is visible through the cloud of blood-soaked bone fragments that fly back and alternately stick to the wall or fall onto the floor, before the rhythmic tread of the golem's feet resume its pathing back to the center of the room.


A very faint click-hiss can be heard from the golem's room. If no one reacts immediately, it repeats itself every few seconds at regular intervals.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

"Well," the necromancer says simply before walking up and peeking around the corner. "weird. It rapidly repairs on the rune. The sound suggests..." He pauses and makes the same hissing sound as the golem itself. "Acid, actually?"



My Perception roll was 30 in the OOC.

From chat:


"if he peeks around the corner, he'll see the golem standing on the previously mentioned green rune in the center of the room. Every few seconds, it flashes and chunks of the damaged golem knit themselves together"

[The Glyphstone]

"Good," Kara says, scanning the list and cross-referencing it with the week's records. "Send for Warchief Snashrak at his earliest convenience."

A few hours pass before Snashrak appears. An entirely typical specimen of his kind, denoted as a leader only by the assorted grisly trophies tied to parts of his leather armor. He smells of cheap beer and has food stains on his armor, apparently having just come from dinner.

"Oi. Little gnome girl said ya wanted to talk to me?"

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill fumes silently as he watches the golem repair itself for a moment, before pulling out several beakers and mixing them together into a larger charge. He sneaks right up to the golem and places the explosive on top of the rune, then bolts before it explodes a few seconds later.

Placing a timed detonation bomb under the golem set to explode the round after it's placed,
then moving away from it. Hoping to blast that rune into uselessness, if that's what's doing the healing.

[ylvathrall]

Yes," Kara says crisply, "and your punctuality has been noted. Your warband has not been meeting my expectations, Warchief. Their performance this week has been...lackluster at best. And I don't remember assigning you to feuding with Garshuk. Explain."

[The Glyphstone]

Kirill, Red, Salmeera

Another deafening explosion shakes the guardian golem's room, sending a cloud of dust and stone chips into the tomb's air. When it settles, the rune is visibly defaced by a substantial crater in its center, and it has ceased to glow. The golem appears slightly marred by the shrapnel, but otherwise has no reaction to the destruction of its rune.


Kara

Snashrak manages to look mildly affronted, standing up a little straighter in the process.

"Ey, Gashrak started that! He and his boys were dissing my band, ya know? Like that ogre ya stuck in front of all of us, you can't just let someone talk back to ya or nobody respects ya after. Dey was going to jump us during the games, so we got sneaky like and jumped them first. Whupped them good, too, now my boys are all hyped up for the next set of games and Gashrak ain't gonna dare mess with us again."

[ylvathrall]

"I see," Kara says, somehow making the short phrase speak volumes of disapproval. "I approve of your thinking, warchief. I can respect the importance of image. I know well the value of appearing to be in a position of strength. But I, warchief, know something that you apparently do not. It is not enough to win. You have to dominate. You must win so thoroughly, and so easily, that everyone knows that it was the only possible outcome."

She pauses before continuing, her tone deceptively sweet now. "And that is what you failed to do, warchief. Because you failed to meet my standards this week. You may have won your contest with Garshuk, but you lost the greater battle. I'm going to discipline your band for failing, and everyone knows it. And that, warchief, is why your band will be working double guard duty this week. You will continue to work double guard duty until you not only meet my standards, but ensure that Garshuk's band does not. As thoroughly and publicly as possible. Succeed, and your ability to function under pressure will be noted in my reports. Fail and...well, there are always positions open for those who can't meet the standards to be in the main body of troops. Am I clear, warchief?"

Intimidate? [roll0]

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill lets out a crooked, toothy smile at the destruction of the rune, though as he's invisible nobody manages to catch a glimpse of the rare sight. He allows himself only a quick moment, though, before getting back to laying bombs in front of the golem's expected path. Once they're laid, he scampers back behind the wall and says "Send the next one, then. Hurry up."

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Ilorin Lorati]

Red

"Affirmative," Red replied to Kirill, sending out his other skeleton then telling it to stop when it reached its destination.


Profusely sorry, busy with work, holiday, etc, etc, etc. Still not in a state for a proper post, but will do my best to move things forward.

[The Glyphstone]

Sakura

Clearly cowed, Snashrak bows and retreats out of the room before his punishment can get any worse.

Kirill, Red, Salmeera

Three bombs detonate in succession, and another bloody skeleton is hammered into pulpy shards. When Kirill peeks out again, he can see the golem is heavily damaged, particularly around the feet and legs where it absorbed the brunt of the explosions. It returns to stand atop the gutted rune after destroying the 'intruder', giving no recognition of the fact that it no longer receives repairs from doing so.

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill glares at the somehow still standing golem for a moment, then spins around and grumps at Red and Salmeera, completely ignoring the fact that he's still invisible. "Construct is still standing, and my explosives are exhausted. I'll need about eight hours to prepare more, unless perhaps one of you two would like to contribute at some point."

[The Glyphstone]

With nothing left to do but wait, everyone withdraws outside to the camp set up by the troops, who naturally are saddled with watch duty while their superiors get to rest comfortably.

The next day, the golem is still damaged and remaining exactly where it had been left. A repeat of Kirill's trick with demolition mines reduces the construct to rubble, revealing a large silver-plated key concealed within its body that matches the silver-trimmed lock on the door beyond.

(3 bombs and a 2nd level extract.)

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill lets out a gleeful, grating laugh as the construct is finally reduced to rubble, then runs up and dances (invisibly) on its corpse for a moment, before regaining his composure. Once he's done so, he pulls the key out of the golem's remains and steps towards the door before pausing. "Red!" He yells, "Make one of your skeleton things unlock the door. Quickly now!" He then tosses the key at the necromancer's feet.

[The Glyphstone]

Kirill and Salmeera

Red's skeletal servant, now reconstituted from a puddle of gore and bone shards, unlocks the door without incident. The passageway beyond is as dark and lightless as the initial chamber, and slopes down deep into the hillside for a short distance before leveling off. The hallway ahead is long and narrow, with a perfectly featureless floor stretching all the way - roughly a hundred feet - to another door at the far end. It could not have been a more obvious trap of some kind if the dwarven designers had inscribed 'trapped hallway' at the entrance in giant glowing runes.

Kara

Kara is in her office looking over the latest set of training efficiency reports when Lillian appears, neatly ducking past Boris and her futile attempts to intercept the halfling. She is carrying a box in her hands, roughly two feet square, and waves it at Kara with a bubbly cheer.

"Hey Kara! I got something really cool to show you. Guess what's in the box here, guess!"

[ylvathrall]

Kara smiles as Lillian walks into her office. It's always a pleasure to see the fellow Kuthonite, especially when she has something to show off. Kara makes a mental note to share her next piece with Lillian as well - it is, after all, only fair to return a kindness.

"Tea for our guest, Boris," she says conversationally, casually inspecting the box. "And would you like something to eat as well?"

As she waits for the answer she continues to examine the box. Only after Boris is on her way does she offer a guess, saying "Is it a fresh pelt?"

[TheOneHawk]

Kirill waits less than a second of the skeleton standing still after opening the door before losing patience and giving it a quick shove towards the hall. "Come on! We haven't got all day! Ominous hallway, disposable minion, this isn't alchemy, make it move!"

[The Glyphstone]

Kara smiles as Lillian walks into her office. It's always a pleasure to see the fellow Kuthonite, especially when she has something to show off. Kara makes a mental note to share her next piece with Lillian as well - it is, after all, only fair to return a kindness.

"Tea for our guest, Boris," she says conversationally, casually inspecting the box. "And would you like something to eat as well?"

As she waits for the answer she continues to examine the box. Only after Boris is on her way does she offer a guess, saying "Is it a fresh pelt?"

"Nope, way better! I've been working on this project for weeks!"

The box's contents emit a muffled, raspy scream before falling silent, and Lillian frowns at it. "I told Big Boy to go easy on the pokers, I hope he didn't forget..." Apparently unwilling to wait any longer, she opens the top of the box to reveal a man's severed head. Scars and burn marks cover the face, the eyes half-lidded in exhaustion. They open slightly as the head gives another choked scream, and Kara can see veins pulsing in its forehead.

"It's been over an hour, and he's still alive! Isn't that so cool?"


Kirill waits less than a second of the skeleton standing still after opening the door before losing patience and giving it a quick shove towards the hall. "Come on! We haven't got all day! Ominous hallway, disposable minion, this isn't alchemy, make it move!"

The bloody skeleton obediently shuffles forward into the innocuous and unadorned hallway. Roughly twenty feet in, there is a loud 'click', and ten square feet of floor become a stone pillar shooting upward. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the undead minion is instantly rendered into a fine bony paste. More clicks and the grinding of gears are audible as the pillar slowly begins to retract back into the floor.