[3.5E] Heretic's Bane Icewind Dale

[Strangie]

Wyatt scratches his head, frustrated, and gets up after delivering his report.

"Poor Arman. We've all been hit hard... and crap, I gotta meet up with Sable and the others. But I'm not really in any shape to be running around. Any more of that poison and I'll be a heap on the floor for sure. Ideas, anybody?"

[mshady]

"Anyone have somethin' to help the halfling out with the poison?" Carmard asks, his back back turned to the group as he puts his leg armor back on after having the bolt extracted. "Otherwise I say he rides on Gore or someth'n"

[bchilders]

Magnum

Magnum watches on as surgery is performed on the elf, downing a few potions to help mend his own wounds.

Taking 2 cure serious
[roll0]
[roll1]

sorry for the short post....in a hurry

[Melody]

I thought Arum and Thordrek were heading along and I was keeping pace with the group. If that is the case I'm going onto the roof with the three guys with crossbows, taking out my sap, and taking three rounds to study the closest one. If they draw a bead on the party I'll sap the closest and take out the other two with subdual damage if possible.. then I'll truss them up like turkeys while they are out.

[thorgrim29]

Yeah, that was the plan actually, sorry if it wasn't clear enough

[Katasi]

I don't have internet atm, hoping to have it back by the end of the month. If anything important comes up before I get it back, please just NPC Arum.

[mshady]

Carmard’s group limps out of the tenement they have taken shelter in. Stepping out first behind his own shield, Carmard looks around and prepares to meet a hail of crossbow fire. None greet him, however and he has mixed feelings about that. At least he would know what to expect. He hefts his magnificent hammer, looking for a target.

Standing boldly in the middle of the street behind his massive shield, which actually provides him considerably cover, Carmard waves the rest of the group forward. The Ironfist cousins, Grathalmor and Nalrak, quickly reach his side and recover their now dusty shields. The rest of the party makes their way out, with Gore bringing up the rear. Arman limps along, his crippled leg slowing his normally brisk pace. Still wounded, Magnum keeps to the rear as well.

“Let’s try to avoid kill’n anyone else” Carmard growls, looking back at the group. His finger points to the crimson stain on the side of one of the adobe buildings, left where Magnum’s spell beheaded one of their attackers. Clearly Carmard is not happy about the situation they find themselves in. Or the irony of it….

Not bothering to tell anyone what he is doing, Carmard takes out a wand without warning. He aims the thin black rod skyward and utters the command words to activate it. A blue ball of light shoots upwards from it into the sky and it explodes in a brilliant yellow, pulsating light. A sound not unlike a bellows can be heard with each pulse of light and it lasts for 30 seconds before fading away to nothingness.

“Good job, Arcanii. You now draw peasants with that like bees to honey. Or bears” Gore sneers from beneath his enormous helmet.

Carmard freezes in place, not moving or reacting but clearly tensing from the rebuke. He halfway turns to face Gore and his head makes the rest of the turn. While his eyes are hidden beneath his helmet and silver Arcanii mask, it is not necessary to see them to know he is glaring at the minotaur.

“Arcanii actions require no justification. Especially to mercenaries” Carmard says, his voice slow, blunt and forceful. “If you or Kerik had a thought, it’d be the only thing that would hurt yer hard heads. Accepting your… mental limitations, I was signaling the others that we are alive and proceeding cautiously.” Carmard finishes and turns back to continue his march. The minotaur is not done, however.

“Hah! Even young calf know not to show charge before charging. Big light great way to invite more bugs! You fight like castratii, not Arcanii!” Gore taunts back, gripping his groin and laughing.

Carmard stops once against, straightens his back and turns on the balls of his feet to face the massive minotaur. He takes two steps towards him. For their part, Grathalmor and Nalrak walk backwards and use their shields to protect Carmard’s rear, but they look at the minotaur to see what is about to happen.

Carmard removes his helmet and looks up at the minotaur, who stands at twice his height four times his mass.

“Ye might be right. If so, guess who’s the biggest target?" he says and pauses, looking Gore right in the eyes. "That be all, aye?” Carmard says coldly. The minotaur looks down at Carmard and takes a step forward as well. The two are now no more than a few paces away.

“They cannot hurt Gore with such puny weapons!” the minotaurs boasts. “No killing now? Hah. Look at that rubble, you –“
Carmard’s hand glows blue for a moment and he flicks his wrist in the minotaur’s direction and a sparking ball of translucent blue force strikes the minotaur in the head. and he is suddenly silent, frozen in place.

Carmard walks over and pushes the minotaur in the abdomen and sends him toppling over in a clatter of metal plate on metal plate, as well as a heavy thud. He turns to the rest of the group and points forward.

“Seen that one comin’, heh” Grathalmor says, and laughs.
“What about Gore?” Nalrak asks, looking back at the fallen minotaur. “He be carryin’ the tack to deal with the Stoneburner…” the dwarf says.

Carmard stalks by them, walking down the street ahead of the group at a brisk pace.

“I told'em that was all. He’ll catch up shortly. I suggest ye do the same” he says as he stalks past them, giving them both a severe looking.

“Those minotaurs are becom’n a problem, Grath” Nalrak says to his cousin.
“Aye. Gonna be problems when he wakes up too” Grathalmor replies, as he tries to catch up with their leader.
“The longbeard shan’t in the mood for much more o’that. Lucky he didn’t try that shat with Glorian. He’d be a dust pile…” Nalrak replies.

They both shiver at THAT thought… No one talked back to Glorian. Hell, you tried to avoid even talking to her…

[mshady]

There was some confusion, but I made the best of it. It's better this way for now... Sorry about that! We'll get the band back together soon.

[mshady]

Carmard leads the group now, striding purposefully down the street. Nalrak and Grathalmor scramble to keep up with him, along with the rest of the group. Arman sticks to the rear for now and Magnum stays with him to help the elf as he gets used to walking with a crippled leg. It is not an easy task and his leg throbs with pain from the unnatural way the bone had been mended.

They walk past the rubble from the building that Carmard had leveled and all but the Arcanii look at it. A hand sticks out of rubble and it looks like it had been flayed to the bone in parts. An shimmering aura of blue energy surrounds the rubble, the remaining traces of a truly powerful magical spell. Several in the party glance back at the fallen Gore, wondering when the powerful minotaur would get back up. The group puts almost a minute’s distance from him before he rolls back to his feet. The big minotaur shakes his head, clearing out the mental cobwebs. His hand reaches back for the enormous two handed sword that Tolrin’s party had captured the week prior from an ogre mage that Bundok had slain, but thinks better of it. His long strides quickly allow him to catch up with the party, but he says nothing but his eyes are red and his lungs heave from anger. His gaze does not leave Carmard’s back.

“He’s gonna be a problem…” Grathalmor says, glancing back at the glaring minotaur. Nalrak nods, but says nothing. Carmard does not even acknowledge the comment as he presses forward, clomping with every step in his metal shod boots.

The group approaches the first actual barricade. One bolt sticks out of the ground. Another bolt sprouts out of the top of the barricade, lodged firmly in a broken adobe block. A blood stain can be seen on a block next to it where Wyatt was hit. Without breaking his stride, Carmard’s hands come alive with a sparkling blue energy and he traces a quick sign in the air. In the blink of an eye, the enormous head of a ram appears and streaks towards the barricade when Carmard thrusts his hand forward. It strikes with a thud and a burst of blue energy as the dweomer disintegrates on impact. Pieces of lumber, discarded ironworks, furniture and adobe fragments fly into the air or are knocked dozens of feet forward as Carmard destroys the barricade.

As pieces of debris land on the ground with a thump and a clatter and the cloud of pulverized adobe clears, the familiar “clunk” of crossbow’s can be heard. Three bolts streak down from a five story tenement. One bolt thumps into Grathalmor’s metal faced shield, where it expends most of its energy but pierces the shield enough to rap the legionnaire on the knuckles painfully, where a heavier crossbow would have easily pinned his hand to his shield painfully. The second bolt hits Carmard’s shield right on the rim and bounces forward to smack the Arcanii’s face mask with a hard clang before dropping to the ground. He winces from the impact, but suffers no ill effect. The third bolt strikes his thick paldrons on his right side, stabbing him painfully in the shoulder but it is hardly a mortal wound…

“Against the side! No shoot'n!” Carmard barks…

Ignoring his order, Gore stands out in the open and whips a throwing axe off his belt. The minotaur sends the throwing axe spiraling through the air at an incredible speed only a creature of his extreme strength could manage. His target is some sort of humanoid looking over the edge of building and he nearly splits the man's head with the axe. The axe soars skyward instead...

"We're on your side dammit!" Grathalmor yells upwards at the shooters.

[mshady]

Sable stands silently, watching the biggest of the three crossbowmen with a lethal patience. Her concentration is not quite disturbed by the sudden thud and explosion of debris from below. A table leg makes a lazy spiral through the air and clatters to the ground right next to her and she smiles to herself. She was pretty sure she just found Carmard, and that was good news. The bad news was also that she had found Carmard, as Carmard had recently leveled a building that also had shooters atop it she imagined. She felt confident that was not how she was going to die, however and bounded forward towards her first victim with her sap in hand.

Two are reaching for extra crossbows, already loaded and sitting on the ground. They sit near a small bucket full of a black oil and several crossbow bolts sat in it. A third crossbowman was leaning over the edge of the building for whatever reason she noticed. Her first victim is not even looking in her direction as the leather bounded sap strikes him on the back of the head with a hard thump as her invisibility fades. He drops to the roof without so much as a grunt, hitting the floor at about the same speed she swung the sap. Indeed the man lands on his forehead and bounces upward a little bit from the impact, leaving a bloody spot on the adobe..

Sable connects on a roll of 18 and knocks the crossbowman out cold with a natural 20 on her sub-dual death attack. Needless to say, it was overkill…

With her cloak of invisibility gone, she wastes no time moving for the next crossbowman like a mountain lion springing at its prey. The humanoid, a slim Genasi with pale skin, swings his crossbow at her like a club but Sable crosses her arms and lets her thick dastana bracers block the overhead swing. Her block is rewarded by a crack as the crossbow’s shaft breaks, leaving her opponent with bent club than pushes back hard to open the distance with her foe. Rocked back by the force of his own momentum and Sable’s push, he is still recovering when Sable draws back her foot and sends it flying hard into the pale genasi’s groin. He howls in pain and doubles over, dropping to one knee.

As she is about to club her second foe into submission, a throwing axe comes flying across over the edge of the building. She has just enough time to combine a side step and a duck to avoid the errant axe, but does not stop to think where that came from.

From below, she can hear one of the dwarves yell something about being all on the same side and she could not agree more with the sentiment. That was the only reason her bow was on her back and rapier in her sheath right now…

Not surprisingly, her foe is still doubled over in pain from her well placed kick. With a quick movement, she draws her hand across her chest and sends the sap on a sweeping downward trajectory where it connects with the genasi’s head. He groans and falls over on his side, holding his head for a moment before lapsing into unconsciousness.

Sable rolls a 15 and hits the second crossbowman. She does 6 pts of damage to the Genasi and knocks him out.

She has just enough time to be satisfied before the last crossbowman comes rushing in at her. Sable swipes at the tiefling with her sap and strikes a bruising blow against the man’s shoulder before he knocks her to the ground in a tackle. He snarls at her and tries to bite her, catching her on the neck and biting down hard with his sharp pointed teeth. It stings badly and blood flows freely from the wounds, but he hardly struck an artery. A shoulder jab dissuades him from trying that again.

Pinned to the ground, Sable ignores any thought of offense for the moment and finds a leverage point and puts all of her strength into just the right spot to allow herself a chance to roll and twist out of the tiefling’s grasp. He tries to grapple her again, but the disguised Sable avoids his grasp and soon both combatants are to their feet again.

The last crossbowman drops to the ground a moment later as Sable beans him on the forehead with her sap faster than he can even think of reacting. His eyes roll back in his head and he drops to his knees, than slumps to the ground.

Sable connected with an AoO, but lost a grapple with the crossbowman. She passed an escape artist check, however and freed herself and finished off her foe.

She pokes him with the toe of her boot to make sure he is down for the count and seems satisfied. Looking around, she tries to spot any other rooftop crossbowman before they can shoot at her. She also tries to see if she can spot that hydra…

Sable rolls a 17 on a spot check. She does not see any other crossbowman. She does see the hydra to the far west however. It is gliding high over the town and its heads are looking down at all directions, looking for something.

[Strangie]

Wyatt shoves most of his spare equipment in his haversack, save for his shortbow and quiver. He normally didn't like using it as much, since it made it hard for him to use the buckler on his arm at the same time, but he certainly couldn't block bolts with his mace ... at least, not yet, he thought to himself.

He proceeds along behind another party member where he can have some cover, preferably NOT the angry minotaur after Carmard just handed his ass to him on a silver platter if it can be avoided. He constantly keeps moving though, shifting around behind allies to keep himself mobile.

He watches attackers rain on their parade, shaking his head. "Why the hell are they shootin' at us!? We ain't ever gonna catch a break from these guys, are we?"

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith
As they head through the town Kelith will walk alongside Arman and watch for any signs of their injuries worsening.

Chuckling to himself as the minotaur gets put into silence he becomes quite serious as more crossbow bolts are sent their way.

As Carmard is struck by the bolt he moves up towards him after he sees the attackers fall, "That bolt wouldn't have happened to break skin would it? Last thing we need is another dose of poison in your veins."

{{I'm assuming I cast a Cure Serious and Cure Moderate Wounds spell for the surgery on Arman (as well as the minor wounds and light spell). If I am incorrect just let me know and i'll adjust my Spells Cast.}}
Spells Cast
0-2
1st-2
2nd-2
3rd-1

[Melody]

Sable removes the hat of disguise and peeks her head over the raised lip of the rooftop. Seeing Carmard she yells down, "All clear up here. Just tying them up! Sorry they got a round off, but I didn't know you were down there till just now!" She bends down and hurriedly ties their wrists to their ankles, bending them backwards in what will be a rather uncomfortable position when they wake up. Touching a fingertip lightly to the bite on her neck she winces and resists the urge to kick the tiefling in the face with her boot. Searching the rooftop she recovers the throwing axe and stuffs it into her backpack along with the hat of disguise and anything of interest she finds on the unconscious crossbowmen.

"Coming down!"

She calls as she vaults off of the side of the building. The ground rushes up to meet her as she casts a quick spell holding the last syllable of the feather fall spell until she is only a few feet from the ground. She lands lightly in a crouch beside the group. "Thordrek and Arum are just around the corner and we left Joh with Harold in a building back towards the block house. I figured I'd scout a bit since Wyatt didn't come back to us." She shoots a grin at Wyatt. "Glad to see you in one unfeathered piece. Though it looks like you all ran into some troubles." She frowns as she takes in their battered condition. "Oh!" She says as she remembers something, "There's a winged hydra flying over the town looking for something. It's a good distance off to the west, but I wouldn't count on it staying there." She digs in her backpack and pulls out the throwing axe. "Does this belong to anyone?"

[mshady]

Carmard groans in response to Kelith's question.

"Aye, it stuck me good. Nay takes a deep wound to poison ye. First one nay bothered me, but this one 'ere hit me hard" he says. The Arcanii's chest heaves and he seems to shake, as if overtaken by a chill. Unable to see his face, it can be only assumed his face has gone as pale as the others did. "Strong stuff..." he groans. He leans against the building more for support now than cover....

When Sable yells down at him, he turns a weary head skyward and smiles under his fearsome Arcanii mask.

"Not surprised ye turned up!" he calls back up to her. "Get down'ere lass and lemme know what be going on, aye?"

He watches as Sable disappears again as she finishes roping their assailants together. When she returns, she announces she was coming down. It was immediately clear she was not taking the steps...

Falling to the ground and suddenly halting her fall with a quick spell, Sable makes an impressive entrance that leaves Carmard shaking his head with appreciation of her skill. He listens to her report and nods his head several times. His reply is forthcoming, but only after a long pause.

"We'll go meet up with Thordek right quick, I be figuring. That bit 'bout a flying hydra? If I didn't know ye were telling the truth I'd call ye a kobold's cousin" he says and pauses again. He taps the chin area of his facemask thoughtfully.

"That's absolutely noth'n I want to get in a tangle with. Not after that last one and our condition. Last shooter there got me good. Poisoned me, and a poison strong enough to poison two dwarfs is no joke. Magnum 'ver there can barely bloody walk. Arman's leg is crippled and the halfing can nary carry a thing. Take the runt and scout ahead" he finishes and gestures towards Wyatt.

"I wish that damned druid was back. Could use a bird..." the Arcanii mutters more to himself than anyone in particular.

[Strangie]

Wyatt shrugs, walking up to Sable.

"This poison is killa on me, Sable. Drains your strength and makes healin' difficult, yeah? Made me waste a potion, too, damnit. I had to shove everything in my Haversack because I feel like I might collapse. Dunno how much use I'll be to ya, but.... I'll do my best for this team, eh?" He stands up straight, brushing his forward hair back a bit. It just falls back down forward.

"You n' me, heh, we seem to be gettin' grouped up a lot together. I just hope I can keep up, I ain't got any of your fancy magic. Tell me what you want me to do and consider it done, long as it ain't suicide."

[Melody]

Sable lays the throwing axe on the ground and rummages around in her pack for a minute before pulling out a vial. Would this help? It's an antitoxin I carry around in case I need it. Figure you'd better take it Carmard since you just got dosed. Won't help with any damage already done, but it might keep it from doing any more damage to you. Didn't see anything on the shooters, so they aren't carrying a cure around with them. Figure their bolts are pretreated. She frowns for a moment and then nods as she comes to the same conclusion Carmard had. Harold. Ah well, if he gave it to them, he'll have a cure for it if it exists. Handing the vial to Carmard she smiles as Wyatt walks up to her and pats him gently on the shoulder.

I can throw your pack in mine until you feel better if you want. And as for my magic, She shrugs and smiles sheepishly, it's all little tricks to help me out. None of them are really strong, but they don't really have to be. A dart can kill a man as fast as a claymore and do it more quietly. You and I Wyatt, we're the darts.

[Strangie]

"Dunno if yours is the same but last I checked putting one of those things in another tears a fabric in reality or somethin' crazy like that, eh?" Wyatt shrugs. "... ya might have to, in any case..."

Wyatt unshoulders his Haversack, holding it up to Sable. "I got alla my stuff in there so don't lose it! I'm countin' on ya, ya know."

The Haversack weighs a whole 5 lbs. :O If you wanna know what's in it, send me off a PM if you plan on pilfering any of Wyatt's stuff. :P

[Melody]

Sable smiles and places the one bag inside of the other without any untoward effects. You're thinking of portable holes. Nah, I've seen this done plenty of times in Waterdeep. Guy in a shop keeps them stored this way.

Don't even think about it Mike.

Extradimensional spaces are notorious for creating spectacular and dangerous effects when placed inside each other; however, the dangers can be somewhat overrated. One bag of holding can be placed safely inside another (of course, the first bag's weight counts against what the second bag can hold). Likewise, one portable hole can be placed safely inside another.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20051101a

From the bag of holding description on page 248 of the Dungeon Master's Guide:

If a bag of holding is placed within a portable hole (page 264), a rift to the Astral Plane is torn in the space: Bag and hole alike are sucked into the void and forever lost. If a portable hole is placed within a bag of holding, it opens a gate to the Astral Plane: The hole, the bag, and any creatures within a 10-foot radius are drawn there, destroying the portable hole and bag of holding in the process.


As far as looting Wyatt's stuff. Nah, too obvious that it would be her doing it. If she's going to steal something she'll wait until he'd think someone or something else did it.

[thorgrim29]

As they see the second column of light. Thordrek and Arum head towards it. As they see the lookouts, Thordrek yells out.

Friendlies approaching

And then, once they are there


So, what happened?

[Strangie]

Not like he really has anything worth stealing, haha. He doesn't even have gold. And then everyone deals with halfling raaaaaaaage. BONK.

Wyatt rubs his chin, nodding and raising an eyebrow.

"Oooh, right... yeah, see, I ain't too keen on all this fancy magic business. I'll hafta remember that, might be handy down the road for carryin' a bunch of crap.

Wyatt sighs, shaking his head. "I almost feel useless like this, just me and my trusty slugger. If we get into a tight spot, I prefer it be up close where they can't shower me in poison bolts effortlessly... in any case. Lead the way, I suppose."

[Melody]

Sable and Wyatt work their way back towards the house where Harold is holed up. She smiles at Thordrek and Arum as she sees them heading towards them. Everyone is over that way. She points towards the rest of the group. Carmard can fill you in, we're heading back towards Harold.

She looks down at Wyatt and speaks to him. The path should be relatively safe since I just checked this way coming, but I'll head up to the rooftops to make certain. Keep heading along on the ground and I'll signal it's clear from up top. Keep behind cover and watch any windows. With that Sable uses a potion inspired spring to bounce to the highest windowsil she can reach and from there she vaults to the lowest rooftop.

She mutters to herself as she jumps. Wierd doing this without being invisible. Feels like I'm running around without clothes on. Once on the roof she watches for any sign of an ambush on the group below with Wyatt doing the same from down below.

[mshady]

Thordek and Arum meet no opposition as they advance into town.

Sable moves back up to the roof tops and spies no opposition. On the roofs at least.

She counts and now sees 7 columns of smoke.

What the hell is going on over there?

[Strangie]

Wyatt does as he's told, moving from corner to corner. This time, he makes absolutely certain of snipers before he pops out of cover, peering around corners quickly and making himself as hard of a target as possible by crouching and laying low whenever he can, until Sable gives him the signal to advance.

"Like hell I'm gonna let one of these bastards hit me twice..." He mutters to himself as he scoots along.

[Melody]

Sable continues until the house Harold holed himself up inside is in sight. Signaling down to Wyatt to hold position they wait for the main group to catch up with them. She has just enough time to walk down the stairs before the group catches up. She steps out of the shadow of the doorway as she and Wyatt greet the rest of the party.

Seven plumes of smoke now, I'm not certain what made them. She shakes her head. I'm beginning to think letting those conscripts go was a bad idea. Anyways, we left Harold in there with Johannes. I figure if anyone can talk him around Joh can. I think I'll stay on guard out here with Arum and maybe Wyatt. Truthfully, I think we're about all out of patience with Harold and we might say some things we shouldn't if we all go in there.

[mshady]

A Programming Note from your Friendly Neighborhood Dungeon Master

We're going to be adding some new players over the next few days. They will be taking over players who has departed or not posted for a long time and I am regrettably forced to replace. As most of you know, I hate losing players but what can we do?

When I posted on the recruiting thread, I was surprised to learn at least a couple of the new players had followed this campaign for awhile. That really flattered me. That we have gone this long and are still going strong is pretty cool around here. Special thanks to Syenna (Arman), BChilders (Magnum) and NoxMagnus (Arum) who have been here since the beginning.

Without further delay, I welcome the following new guys...

WereWhale - Playing Nalrak Ironfist
DJDeMiko - Playing Grathalmor Ironfist
Gordondantess - Playing Johannes Forgeteller
PId6 - Playing Hjalmar Crownshield

An IC note with Hjalmar - I never really wanted to leave that PC behind, but at the time he was one NPC too many for me to run. Please assume he has been here all along and retro-include him. He just did not really do anything and was quiet.

To keep this thread clean though, please post welcomes and all that on the under utilized OOC forum at http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60703&page=7

[mshady]

Sable and Wyatt lead the way through the town. With Sable on the roof tops, Wyatt is able to scale the other two barricades without getting feathered once again. Sable keeps an eye on the plumes of smoke as they curl into the air and wonders what the hell is going on. From her vantage point atop the five story roof, she can see flames boiling out of one of the tenement fires. No signs of catapults shooting balls of flaming pitch can be seen, or anything else to indicate the Blood Company was battering the area.

So what is going on over there? Do I want to know?

The main formation of the party trails far behind her and Wyatt in the streets. They both provide over watch as they deal with the barricades. Rather than using magic this time to pulverize the barricades, Carmard has those that have not been poisoned to simply knock down the barricades. Or knock it down. The rest of the group stays back behind cover, with their crossbows out. For his part, Carmard stands out in the open with his hammer both inviting and watching for trouble. It takes several minutes for each barricade to be torn down, but the streets remain quiet except for the steady work of dwarves. Under a different circumstance, a work song would have been sung perhaps but now only a strung bow or crossbow whistles in the slight wind of the area. No one is much for talking at this point.

Each time, Sable maintains her vigil above. Her bow is half drawn and eyes sharp. The tenements in the area all seem to be abandonment. The only life she sees in the area is a cat sitting in a 3rd story window, who no doubt had the most cause to be paranoid in a starving town and was enjoying the solitude.

The group moves down the main road and finally meets up with Thordek and Arum. Few pleasantries are exchanged initially. Thordek walks side by side with Carmard and the Arcanii listens to a basic report on how things went with Harold; not well. Carmard in turn explains the ambushes on the way to the Block House and why their arrival had been delayed. It is not a happy conversation for either.

Sable continues until the house Harold holed himself up inside is in sight. Signaling down to Wyatt to hold position they wait for the main group to catch up with them. She has just enough time to walk down the stairs before the group catches up. She steps out of the shadow of the doorway as she and Wyatt greet the rest of the party.
Carmard and Thordek stand together at the edge of the debris field. He watches the Block House through a spyglass for several minutes before passing the spy glass over to Thordek. Atop the building, someone who looks like a Lieutenant they had saw before watches them in return. No effort to signal them to approach is made, although both Carmard and Thordek can see a soldier with a banner next to the lieutenant. Sable waits for Carmard to finish what he is doing rather than interrupt him with a report before he wanted it. Eventually he waves the scout over. He looks at her with his usual look of detached analysis and a piercing look that is not quite a glare. With slight two fingered wave of his hand, he indicates to Sable that she begins.

“Seven plumes of smoke now, I'm not certain what made them. She shakes her head. I'm beginning to think letting those conscripts go was a bad idea. Anyways, we left Harold in there with Johannes. I figure if anyone can talk him around Joh can. I think I'll stay on guard out here with Arum and maybe Wyatt. Truthfully, I think we're about all out of patience with Harold and we might say some things we shouldn't if we all go in there”
Carmard listens to that and nods in agreement, but waits before he speaks as he mulls over what to say.

“I think ye may be right, lass. We'll worry about the smoke if its our problem. My own patience wears...thin with him. It be wear’n thin with this whole town. His work has poisoned most of us. A man in his twilight can be a… desperate old thing. Desperate and bound to fits o’paranoia and lack o’sense. I do hope ‘Joh’ can talk him around…” Carmard says, emphasizing the nickname with a slight smile but otherwise has a tone of speculative worry. “Holed up in a building with his protectors and a crossbow for every window, we may well have given Harold a hostage”

Carmard sighs and gestures at the Block House with his thumb and frowns. He now turns to the group and addresses them all.

“Problems in Way Ward just do not end. Thordek and Sable say Harold has holed up in one of the buildings at the edge o yon rubble field. Fact: We cannot advance across that rubble field without the portal key. They’ll shoot otherwise, and no point com’n across without it. Fact: Harold knows that. Fact: Harold wanted us to delay. Fact: Johannes is alone over there. Fact: He’d make a good hostage, thus forcing our delay.”
Carmard frowns deeply at that realization.

“Assuming Harold would do that, of course” Carmard says with a sardonic smile. “I can see why Hextros wants to leave so badly. That turbulent old priest must have driven him to madness. We all go over and we ask for him to join us, as he promised. I want to see Johannes. If they won’t…”

Carmard pauses for effect and frowns. His eyes are hard and eyelids narrowed. That was definitely Carmard’s dangerous look.

“We assault the building” he states flatly. “Johannes will have to fend for his own beard. Moradin protect his soul. As for Harold…” Carmard shrugs. “His fate is his own making. May Moradin forgive the small sin for the greater cause”

[Werewhale]

Nalrak speaks up: "I've little sympathy fer the hound that bites the hand that feeds it, but Sable, if we have ter assault, can't ye do somethin' fer Johannes like ye did when ye rescued the wee ones from the orcs?"

[Melody]

Sable looks at Carmard with a slight frown. Shouldn't we give them the opportunity to turn over Johannes and the portal key without attacking first? They have to know that if they hold him hostage they're gonna have a fight on their hands.

She sighs and runs a hand through her hair brushing a few loose strands back behind an ear and looks at Nalrak. I'm running low on resources, but yes, if it comes down to them holding Joh hostage I'll get him out of there. If nothing else I can make it seem like the building is on fire with some smoke and a little illusion. While they're dealing with that I should be able to get him out of the building.

[mshady]

Carmard nods grimly to Sable. He almost looks hurt for a second by the question. Blink and you'd miss it, though.

"I'm nay gonna assault them before a chance to turn'em over and fulfill his Oath to help us" he says, than pauses. He runs a hand through his beard and frowns. "Bein' amongst the righteous is no help here with Harold. In his mind, he will think we won't do it. He just be wantin' us to stay on a day or two longer. He'll call any bluff we make, because he nay thinks a Holy Order will make good on any threats. In Harold's mind, he has a hold over us now. In Harold's mind, everythin' MUST be his way."

Carmard pauses again and shakes his head, mulling what he is about to say. His tone is calm and quiet when he speaks next.

"Harold does not... understand the gravity of our task. I cannae afford to bluff on this. Pray to Moradin he won't kill Johannes. Pray to Moradin I'm just paranoid"

[thorgrim29]

I hope you're right too. And for what it's worth I'm sorry I wasn't more help with the old coot, but how can you talk sense into someone who won't see sense? And though I understand it might be a necessity, I'm loath to hurt any more of the villagers, they're only victims here. They trust Harold, and he doesn't trust us, doesn't mean they deserve to lose even more then they've already have.... Even so, I guess our mission must take first place in our concerns no matter what.

Thordrek shakes his head sadly, and, more to occupy his hands then anything else, fiddles with his gear, and smooths nonexistent burrs on the shiny black head of his axe with a whetstone.

[Melody]

Sable pulls a battered hat out of her pack and pulls it onto her head. Her form shivers and shrinks leaving a nondescript male dwarf standing among the party. If we have to go in, I'll get Johannes out. I'll be dropping something that smokes a lot along with the illusion of fire. The confusion should make it easier to work.

[Strangie]

"Feh. So basically the crazy old geezer has to cough up Joh or we beat the crap out of him and his flunkies. And accordin' to everybody else this whole Stoneburner business is on the top of the To-Do List. So I say we quit standin' around and go and make our demand. Otherwise..."

Wyatt whirls his mace around his wrist. Despite being weakened, he was still one dexterous little bugger. "... He's gonna meet the business end of our weapons. Sable in her... disguise..." He says with a raised eyebrow, "... is probably only gonna be good if she's not within the thick of us, so... 'dat makes me point man, don't it."

Wyatt sighs, rubbing his head and holding his buckler up in front of himself. "If I go too slow, just nudge me or somethin'. I'm kinda worried about gettin' poisoned again, but I'll deal. Somebody'll have to carry me though if that happens and it gets bad, heh..."

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

"Well, if we plan on going in let me at least finish patching all of you up, no use going in half wounded.

Truth be told I'd rather avoid more bloodshed, but they've already gotten themselves into quite the pit irregardless of the help we've offered; it's only a matter of if they can realize it before they bury themselves in their holes.

{{Can I get a roll-call of wounds? I'd like to cast some spells (from a wand or memory) to heal us up to shape; know we will need it.}}

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[Strangie]

Wyatt's only apparent wound is the bolt wound, which has a bandage around it, and a bruise on his forehead, which he keeps itching at annoyedly every few minutes or so. The effects of the poison are also apparenty, making him slouch whenever he is just standing around.

9 damage, 8 nonlethal damage, 3 STR damage. He's seen better days.

[mshady]

Carmard listens to the impromptu war council, but he occasionally casts an eye towards the Block House and the tenement that Harold has holed himself up in. After Kelith speaks, he talks once more.

“Going in nay means killing Harold’s men, nay that I expect best intentions to their salve or savior if they do” he states, and looks around the group to ensure understanding. “I’m not one to fight with my hammer in a peace bond either, ye understand? Our foes are mainly peasants, led by a stubborn old man hiding behind the mail skirts of a few loyal followers of his faith” Carmard says, and shakes his head with a sad disgust.

“Old Harold’s powerful enough to keep Hextros from battering his head in and robbing him, though. He is of considerable age, travels the planes like any of us stride a trail and a powerful summoner. We all remember the Ice Devil?” Carmard raises a graying, beatle shaped eye brow at that.

“Sable’s plan is sound but flawed in its scale” he proclaims. Taking a black wand that looks like it is made of a foot of obsidian wrapped in runes and gold wire, he starts drawing out symbols on the ground.

“We’re here” he scratches into the ground. “Harold is over yonder” Another square shows Harold’s slum stronghold. “The main group moves straight towards the Harold’s tenement. I call him out and ask for Johannes to come out and for Harold to bring the portal key so we can all go. He’ll blather and be a stubborn old arse again, so I’ll quickly order the assault if he acts like… himself” Carmard snorts.

“He falls back inside with his guards and we eat a hail of crossbow bolts. Good times had by all. Again” he says with a groan and touches his leg. “Harold’s going to head to the roof, where I bet a rough summoning circle has been worked out. I’m sure there are some wands in there and Harold might do some things out a window on the way up. Like a Flame Strike , probably on me” Carmard grimaces at that thought. “Here’s the tough part…”

“We run right into the bolts and throw torches into all the windows, and an Eversmoking bottle into the ground floor. Kelith, seems fitting ye lead the Fire Brigade. Take that shaman’s wand of pyrotechnics and make things… noisy. After the bottle cooks off enough to get things smoky and stuff burning… Gore has a job” Carmard looks over and up at the bored looking Minotaur. His red eyes still blaze with hatred, but he says nothing when his name is called. “Gore is going to drop the Tomb Stone” he pauses for effect from the ominous name assigned to something no one but Carmard understood.

“The Tomb Stone is a big, black rock carved from the heart of a mountain cursed by null magic. I assure ye, that was no easy place to go to and come back. The casing Gore carries it in is forged from lava from the Everfire of Citadel Sundabar in the Silver Marches, than saturated in a furnace of unchained magic. The two cancel each other out enough for Gore and Kerik to carry them” he says, than pauses again.

“The idea was to use them both to contain the Stoneburner. Ye can thank Prince Tolrin for having some measure against those bombs. It should take care of Harold just fine too, I reckon. Now it has to be dropped as close to the tenement as possible. The further back Gore brings that box, the wider the field gets. He just falls back to our line and STAYS there” Carmard says, emphasizing the key point “…and we wait for them to come running out of the smoke. “That leaves… two problems. We have to get Johannes out of the fire. We also have to get Harold out” Carmard pauses again and draws a circle around behind Harold’s building.

“Sable and Wyatt, ye two will move behind the building while we distract them. She’ll jump and climb her way up and send a rope down for Wyatt. Ye two both need to get up top before the parlay starts and capture the look out. Enter from the top and grab Johannes. He’ll be in the upper floors with a few guards shooting at us. Ye two get in there and send those guards running, free Johannes and wait for Harold. That’ll make our lives easier down here”

“When he realizes he’s been shut down, he’ll try to get as high as he can and fight to the last. We HAVE to make sure the field nay gets to the height of the roof. At that point, just thump him on the back of the head. Sable signals us and we move up on the Tomb Stone to cut its effect and use feather fall spells to leap off the roof with Johannes and Harold. Use the smell’n salts in your healing kits to wake up any guards ye thump” Carmard says with a smile and draws some stick figures representing the roof top party.

“Yer other option is to fight downward on the side away ‘rom the fire and try to push everyone out the front where they should all surrender. Yer gonna have to follow the vein of that gold strike and see where it takes ye. We won’t know when to move the Stone though.”

"So... to summarize, we're going to light a building on fire and send people charging into it. Not as brilliant a plan as it sounds, but..." he shrugs again, but with a bit of a smirk.

“So, thoughts? I usually plan far… bigger things” he says with a shrug and a frown. “I want to smoke them out and force them to leave, but we have to get Johannes too”

[PId6]

Hjalmar

The one-eyed paladin shook his head, and spoke in a gruff voice, "I don't like it. Too many things can go wrong." He shook his head again, gave a firm look towards where Harold presumably resides, then sighed. "But it's the best chance we've got to get Johannes out safely." His eyes grew cold as gripped his sword in his hand, "And I certainly hope he'll act like himself."

[Strangie]

Wyatt gives a thumbs-up to Carmard.

"Sounds like a plan. Not like we got many options." He looks over to Sable, thumping his bat (which is his mace and it seems more appropriate to call it that given his nature. BONK.) against his buckler. "Well well well. Looks like it's you and me again. The team of one-and-a-half sneaks goes in for a rescue operation. Ready to go save our comrade?"

[Melody]

Sable smiles and takes the hat off shimmering back to herself as she stuffs it into her pack. Alright Carmard, you're the boss. As Wyatt speaks she breaks out into a soft laugh. One-and-a-half sneaks it is. Reaching down she tousles Wyatt's hair. Let's get moving, we have to go pull Joh's iron out of the fire so to speak. With a parting grin to the group she leads Wyatt off into the shadows of a building to loop around and come at their target from behind.

[thorgrim29]

Works for me, just point me at those who need hurting

[mshady]

Carmard looks at him reproachfully and speaks patiently.

"Levtokuld, with ye rank I be expect'n more from ye than just asking "where to be pointed". So ye have any suggestions? Search for the flaw here. Anyone else?"

[mshady]

OOC - It's time I figured out the RP rewards since the cavern. Would someone be willing to review the posts and give me a tally per character per some guidelines?

Mike

[thorgrim29]

You're right of course sir, that was beneath me. What I meant was the combat part looks good, apart from the obvious conflicts between the anti-magic field and Sable's style of combat. What I,m worried about is that we're dangerously close to sparking an uprising as it is, doing what you suggest has about an even chance of doing just that the way I see it, depending mostly on how we fight. If we smoke them out, then knock them out, we should appear as tough, no nonsense but fair. If we continue killing everyone, we'll just be a new invader, and I don't think they'll accept that without taking arms

[mshady]

Carmard nods in reply to Thordek.

"It was beneath you" he states simply. "Levtokuld are not merely weapons. Ye do not see yerself merely as a tool, do ye?" he says, and looks Thordek right in the eyes.

"When I want to hear 'Aye, Arcaniii!' from ye, ye'll be stand'n at attention. Otherwise, I be wantin' opinions. Our part o'the Crossing of the River Subrin to aid the Battlehammer Clan 'gainst Obould was nay planned by the Patriarch by himself. I gave'em my opinion. Ye might be in my boots 'fore this is done." he states and looks at him for a long moment to ensure understanding.

"Now... yer assessment is sharp. The more we kill, the better the chance we whip up the place against us. So bruises only. That means keep'n Gore outta combat. Ye can handle that one, Thordek. Ye are right 'bout how close" Carmard says with a smile that is answered by Gore's grunt.

"Also right on Sable's style. Most dangerous part. What she likes to do. Only worry is us" he shrugs.

"As for find'n the flaw in the plan... this one's free" Carmard states and holds up a finger. "Lesson - Always allow a foe a path of escape. That way they don't fight ye to the death. Use - set the fire from the back side o'the buidling. Make sure exit is nay blocked by the fire. Now..." he pauses. "Any other questions? I'm ready"

[thorgrim29]

Slightly humbled, Thordrek turns to look at the towering Minotaur.

Right then, Gore, you heard the boss, you're with me. You're to do as you're told, drop the tombstone and come back here, then you will NOT join the fight. You're a formidable warrior, it is true, but you are a bit more lethal then is needed here. Besides, if something goes spectacularly wrong, this way you'll be free to act as backup. Understand me?

[Strangie]

Wyatt grabs the top of his head after Sable messes up his hair, watching her walk off for a moment before straightening his hair back out forward and jogging to catch up with her.

"Hang tight, Joh, we'll getchya outta the grip of that wrinkly old fogey one way or anotha..."

[mshady]

Carmard nods at that.

"Spectacularly wrong defined as Harold summon'n something nasty. Nothin' else"
Gore grunts at that in understanding, but does not bother to look in Carmard's direction.

"'nything else?"

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

Before he runs off Kelith will cast a CLW on Wyatt to help heal him of his wounds, weakened as he is he'll need all the healing he can get.

Turning to Carmard, "If you are that worried about Harold and his magic I can make use of a little silence in more ways than a few... say we allow Gore to wear a silenced shirt and have him grab Harold, or give Sable a silenced object to attach to Harold, or simply wait for him to stick his head out and silence him, or if you are quite certain in some kind of magic being on top of the building it's only a matter of casting a zone of silence up there. Just give the word.

Otherwise, I'm ready as I'll be; I'll start the fires from the back but leave the back exit open."

{{[roll0] - [roll1]}}
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[Strangie]

Wyatt shakes down a bit as he feels the healing, though frowns at its meager effect. Still, he appreciates the thought, and throws a wave at Kelith with a grin as he runs off after Sable.

"'Preciate it, pal! Good luck!"

[mshady]

He listens and nods, smiling slightly.

"I think all who've met Harold wish to silence him" Carmard says with a bit of a wistful smile.

"If the forge goes cold on this one, drop your spell on him. That works, it'd make things easier. Otherwise try to land one on the roof"

[Melody]

Sable stops at the rear of the building and pulls off her boots, replacing them with softer slippers as she waits for Wyatt to show up. Placing the boots in her pack she withdraws a long coil of silken rope. As Wyatt comes around the corner she presses a finger to her lips and begins to fashion a harness around him with the end of the rope. She stops to make certain that it is secure and won't crush any of his important parts when she starts hauling him up before tying the free end to her belt. Kneeling down she wispers in Wyatt's ear, her voice barely a whisper, "Feed the rope out as I go so it doesn't get tangled on anything."

Standing she pauses a minute to judge the easiest way up then begins her climb. Her feet adhere to the side of the building through the power of the slippers. Crawling silently up the side of the building she avoids areas where the rope might dangle past a window and very soon she is at the top. She pauses at the lip of the roof to listen before peering over the edge.

[mshady]

“Time to convene the moot” Carmard says grimly from beneath his Arcanii mask.

He turns and looks towards the tenement. In his hand is a wooden pole with the banner of the Jilker Patriarchate upon it. It is a tan colored image of a mountain with the head of a mountain lion in the center of it with two emerald eyes. The banner is circles by the holy symbols of all of the dwarven gods that the Patriarchate recognized, with an empty space for where Abbathor’s symbol should say. Written below the banner in dethek runes in golden thread are the Words of the Realms for Patriarchate, “The One Hope of the Damned is to Have No Hope.” Below the Patriarchate banner is another square banner of equal size divided into four quarters that make up Carmard’s own personal coat of arms. Only Thordek had ever seen this banner before. It was something that was very precious to Carmard for reasons he did not elaborate upon and kept in a sealed case in his ubiquitous satchel. There is little wind to blow the standards in anything approaching dramatic fashion, but the golden head of a lion sat upon it. With a breeze, the reed in the mouth of the lion would have made a distinctive growling sound.

Carmard steps forward and waves the banner back and forth three times to signal Harold’s group it was time to talk. The scout atop the roof waves Harold’s banner back in recognition to Carmard. That banner is little more than a tattered and fading cloth with a black boot upon a tan background. Satisfied at being acknowledged, Carmard raises it high and drives the spear tipped point deep into the ground with a one armed thrust. Without casting a look back towards the tenement, he strides back to the center of the line and turns around.

“Now we wait” Carmard declares. “Has to show me who’s in control. Harold does love his pleasant fictions… As much as Barauk must be enjoying the Great Foundry now, I’m sure.” The last statement is punctuated with a heavy sigh. “Course, I might have figured that, and gives our flankers time to scale the building”

The waiting last several long minutes before Harold and his guards walk out of the lower floor of the tenament. The group pauses in front of the building. Most of the windows are filled with crossbowmen. No less than a dozen can be seen in the windows now.

"Let's go 'ave a chat, eh? Who's coming?"

[PId6]

Hjalmar

Hjalmar wordlessly stepped forward, with no expression on his face. "Let's see what he has to say for himself," was all he said once he reached Carmard's side. He looked at the greatsword in his hand, eyed the watching crossbowmen for a moment, before slinging it into its sheath on his back and buckling on his heavy shield instead. "Just in case," he muttered under his breath, and stood, ready for 'talking'.

[Strangie]

Wyatt feeds the rope as Sable goes, as instructed, waiting for her to reach the top. He gets ready to scale the side with her aid, giving her the thumbs up sign to indicate he's ready for his ascent.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak

"I'm always at yer side, sir," says Nalrak as he takes up position by Carmard's side, his huge shield at the ready.

[thorgrim29]

Me and Gore are staying here of course, but we're backup, and if needed I can drop some cover. Good luck.

Thordrk seems conflicted about stayin in the backgrund, but will obey.

[mshady]

Carmard and his group stand over 150 feet away from the tenament, at the edge of reasonable crossbow range. They now stand just behind the standard that Carmard had placed into the ground. It flutters slightly. Gore and Thordek stand further back. The minotaur paws at the ground impatiently. His sword is in his hands and leaned against his shoulder.

Harold and his group are no more than 20 feet from the entrance to the tenament, its windows bristling with crossbowmen.

Cupping a hand over his mouth, Carmard calls out across the field.

"Harold the Portalwalker, Harper-friend, I call upon ye! Bring forth Johannes and march with us to the Block House. Lets put an end to this, so both us and those foul, horned mercenaries may quit your town. Our offer of protection still stands. How do ye call this matter? Come with us per your word, or we shall fall upon ye! Our time is limited and I am of weary patience, for your friends have shot at us as we tried to cross your town. How do ye answer!" Carmard demands forcefully.

His voice rumbles now, deep and carrying clearly across the expanse. It was known that some Arcanii helmets had the ability to strengthen their wearer's voices to better command on a battlefield. That much was known. Of course, actual command in battle had proven a contentious issue as the Patriarchate had three primary factions; the Arcanii, the Knights and the supreme Unalloyed Church of the Moradinsamman.

There is a pregnant silence and Harold steps forward as well after a long moment to reply.

"Old friend! Your legate is well and kept inside. We would like him to stay awhile with us, as a guarantor and to assist your forces when they arrive. I would hate to deprive ye of such a capable young lad, but alas I feel it best to have someone who knows of matters here. Agreed? To avoid such tragedy as you faced marching to us." he calls back.

The faint sound of a laugh can be head from across the way as well. It sounds like the hee-haw of a donkey

[Melody]

As Carmard's voice echoes across the rooftop Sable pulls herself up to peer over the edge. She had seen the scout earlier and again he didn't dissapoint her with his sloppiness. All attention was on Carmard. Slipping over the rooftop she moves up behind the single lookout, sap in hand. Harold's reply is punctuated with the soft thunk of a sap connecting with the back of the lookout's skull.

She smiles and tears some cloth from the lookout's shirt, first stuffing his mouth full of fabric before tying it in place with another strip torn from the hem. Untying the rope from her belt she loops it around whatever appears it would hold approximately four hundred pounds without moving, and ties the lookout's hands behind his back securely with rope. The weight of his body would dislocate his arms causing immense pain which is why the gag was necissary. Not so incidentally it would save her from having to deal with him again later. Rolling the lookout over to the edge of the building near Wyatt she pushes him off into empty air and lowers him by hand until the rope is pulled taut. She then lets go of the rope, allowing the lookout's weight to pull Wyatt up towards the rooftop.

I know I'm ahead a bit. I'll edit if things don't go my way. =)

[mshady]

"Windrider Harold, terms NOT acceptable!" Carmard roars back. "Taking a Patriarchate diplomat HOSTAGE is NOT acceptable. Send out Johannes and come with the Portal Key. We SAVED you, and this is how ye repay us! All so we stay and hold yer hand for a day or two? By Moradin's beard, be reasonable! Months back, ye called me friend! There's no time for this!" his voice thunders, emphasizing his frustration.

There is no immediate reply from Harold's group.

"Cowards... cowards are the most dangerous foes. They be dangerous because they're not bloody rational. Fight or flight with'em, always... Lesse which side Harold lands on..." Carmard says to no one in particular, commentating more to himself.

Still, there is no reply. Harold appears to just be standing there, not saying a thing to anyone. A glance at the roof of the building reveals the guard atop it is no longer there.

"Sable found'er mark" he states conversationally. "That part o'the plan worked"

Another minute drags past before Harold replies again.

"Arcanii Carmard! No more demands or parlay. It is time we spoke of what will be. Truth between friends!" Harold yells across, but is hard to hear the old man's voice yet he will not ask for another to speak for him. He pauses for a coughing fit before continuing. "Your short beard stays with me. Is it not custom for wary parties to exchange hostages? You can just leave us to be prostrate before another! How else can I guarantee ye will protect us? How else can I guarantee ye will not just sieze this town? I know what greedy hands your Patriarchate has! Your mere Oath is not enough for me" he finishes, his own voice strained.

"A valid point for a man incapable of being trusted! Hostages are no way to resolve this! Protest further and ye will incur my wrath. We will come in and take Johannes back. Taking hostages to shield ye is nay the path of honor" Carmard voice shoots back across the open field with its supernatural thunder again.

"Attack us and ye lose the town to insurrection!" Harold yells back, his tone irritated and edgy.

"If yer townsfolk shoot at us again, if ye shoot at us none of us will protect ye. Disarm, come out and lets be done with it!"

"Ye wouldn't dare! He stays! It's only a day or two, ye said? Wait, than. That is my judgment upon this matter" Harold replies, his voice with authority in it now, however hard it actually was to hear.

"Wrong answer, Harold" Carmard yells back.

With a wave of the hand, he signals the start of the attack.

[Strangie]

Wyatt watches the body fall after Sable clobbers the poor sap, moving up along the 'automated' pulley and swinging himself up nimbly to his feet once he gets to where he needs to be with Sable. Once he's on the roof, he crouches down, undoing the rope from himself and pulling out his bat as he looks up at Sable for a moment. He seems irritated about something, particularly after Harold's mad ramblings.

"Calls himself a priest of a god of travel, but he holds others hostage and won't grant anybody else passage. How ironic." he mutters lowly, more to himself than Sable or anybody else. He shakes his head, looking up at Sable and waiting for the next part of the plan.

[PId6]

Hjalmar

As soon as the signal's given, Hjalmar raises his shield and charges forward, grabbing his hammer as he runs. It's amazing how fast the dwarf runs, considering the sheer weight of the armor he's wearing. As he charges, he breathes a quick prayer to Moradin, causing the holy symbol around his neck to flash with brilliant light.

His beard starts glowing, growing its way out of his helmet and falling all the way to his chest. The beard sparkles like pure silver, and looks as solidly metallic as the plate armor on his chest. More than one dwarf looked enviously at that magnificent silver beard stemming from his chin as he rushes courageously to battle, charging directly for Harold's party.

Cast Silverbeard.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

Kelith will move towards the back of the building, while saying a short prayer ofprotection to Kossuth. As he prays a faint light in the outline of a shield forms in front of him and seems to move back and forth as if it had a life of its own, before disappearing. After that he turns to his job of starting "fires".

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[mshady]

OOC: How many people would be able to make Sunday night at 8 PM EST to resolve the combat against Harold's forces? Would monday be better?

Mike

[Strangie]

(OOC: Either day works for me. I'm a flexible kinda guy.)

[Melody]

Sable takes the rope from Wyatt and ties it to Harold's banner which she had used as the fulcrum for the pulley. Pulling her water skin out of her pack she washes away the summoning circle inscribed with silver dust on the roof turning it into a blurry gray mess.

She winks at Wyatt and then moves towards the trap door set into the roof. Leaning down she places her ear at the crack and listens before slowly easing the trapdoor open, using the shoddy door as a shield in case the door had been trapped or something was waiting to spring out.





((OOC: I'm not sure which would be better for me. I've got a lot of school work due this week.))

[mshady]

I'll be on MSN as [email protected] on Sunday night. If we cannot get more than half of those involved, we'll reschedule for Monday at the same time (8 PM US EST).

Mike

[mshady]

OOC: Actually, I have to deliver some potted plants to a nice young lady tonight so we'll have to do this monday afterall.

Probably a good thing, as I have to do some paper work before the fight.

Also, in Faitholme you were all given 1 CSW and 3 CMW potions. Did you add them to your sheets as loot?

For those of you using wands of lesser vigor, please adjust the number of charges you think you've used. I figure they are around 1/2 to 2/3rds charge...

Mike

[Strangie]

Wyatt simply just shrugs and grins at Sable, then keeps about 15' of distance away from the door, shuffling around a little to the side and raising his hand with the mace in it, assuming his stance. He uses a potion he received from Faithholme to try and patch himself up as best he can before the ensuing fight to come, knowing he'll need it at this rate, then raises his buckler in front of him and keeps on the ends of his toes, getting ready to break out into his sprint whenever anything comes out of that door...

[roll0]
Poison Reduction, if it still applies: [roll1]

EDIT: Oh, nice. Healed me up right to full HP. I planned for that perfectly. :smallcool:

[mshady]

Monday's cancelled too. I'll be working 7 AM to 10 PM tmw as they are offering triple overtime pay. I'll be farming my employer for lewt tmw :)

How's tuesday work?

Mike

[Melody]

((OOC: I've got a final presentation on thursday so I'm up to my eyeballs till after then. Well.. till then. Thursday night is ok for me, but before that I'd have to say I'm not doing anything more time consuming than an occasional post.))

[mshady]

(OOC - Lets do Thursday night. Please try to get an IC post in before the session, everyone. Thursday 8 PM. Please let me know if you can or cannot attend via PM - thanks!!)

Mike

[thorgrim29]

Well, that went well

Thinks Thordrek as the order to attack is given.

"to gore"

That's your cue big guy, drop the stone as close to the house as you can get, and come back.


I might be late on Thursday, but I'll be there eventually.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak closes his eyes for a moment and grasps the golden symbol of Dumathoin around his neck, uttering a short prayer to the Silent Keeper. The air around the priest suddenly comes alive with a lively flux of colours, almost distorting his figure. Content with the spell, he moves to stand in front of his Arcanii charge, raising his enormous shield to protect him from any snipers. He also keeps an eye on those who charge forward, ready to sprint forth to heal if necessary.

Spell
Cast Entropic Shield: Any ranged attacks that need attack rolls directed against Nalrak have a 20% miss chance.
Duration: 7 minutes (70 rounds)

((Done in MSN)

[Melody]

((This is what happened from Sable’s point of view. I’ll let Mike post what happens to those outside of the building.))


Bending down Sable presses her ear against the rough grain of the trap door. She could hear shuffling and the unmistakable sound of crossbows being winched into position. There were more than two but less than seven. She lifts the trapdoor slightly and risks a glance inside after using the trapdoor as a shield against possible traps. Four assorted humanoids of possible tiefling descent were perched in the windows facing the onrushing dwarves. Johannes was trussed up in the back northern corner of the room, padlocked to a chair by chains. She briefly debates jumping down and attacking before the crossbowmen can use their weapons, but decides against it. Likely they would hit her or Johannes, it was better to wait for them to empty their crossbows and attack while they were defenseless.

The sounds of fighting were getting louder outside and the distinctive sound of thunder preceded a more ominous sound somewhere between a rumbling and roar which filled the space just in front of the building. It sounded like a storm of some kind brewing out there. Suddenly a lightning bolt tore a hole between two of the windows, ripping a giant chunk out of the Adobe wall and crashing into the roof. The roof became a maze of cracks causing a section of it to collapse on the southern end right where Wyatt was standing.

With her mouth hanging open, Sable watched Wyatt leap upon a large piece of falling debris and ride it to the floor, shifting his weight and hopping off at the last moment to land lightly among the rubble of the collapsed roof. Moving as soon as he hit the floor Wyatt was to the southern most crossbowman before he could even turn, swinging his bat with all of the force the Halfling could muster. It encountered the crossbowman’s head with a hollow sounding thud. BONK! Sable winced at a memory of her mother checking melons at the marketplace, and grabs a piece of adobe from the now broken roof and casts a quick spell. A globe of darkness swirled around the rock as she tosses it towards Johannes.

Hopping down she lands in the rubble and moves into the darkness beside the chained dwarf. Casting another spell, her eyes turn completely black. She pulls her lock picks out of the lining of her glove and begins to pick the padlock holding Johannes to his chair. Pushing the tension bar against the mechanism, she puts the lock pick into the padlock and rakes it back and forth against the pins. Outside of the globe of darkness she can hear the sound of Wyatt clobbering another of the crossbowmen and the sound of a body hitting the floor. BOINK! A quick glance with her spell enhanced eyes assures her that Wyatt has everything under control. Everything is chaos in the room as the others are slow to react to Wyatt’s presence in their midst. A loud boom shakes the building and a few pieces of stone and dust rain down from the shattered roof. She forces the last of the pins upward and into alignment then gives the lock pick a twist. The padlock falls open and chain falls into a puddle at Johannes’ feet.

[Strangie]

As Wyatt jumps from one crossbowman to the second, he jumps up to face height - even in his weakened state - and makes a successful face-clobbering. "Boink!"

"Nice dodging there, blockhead," he says as he makes his way to the next one, planting himself near the next target, hoping to catch them off guard if they try to fire their crossbow while he's standing right next to them.

What I'm shooting for here is for Wyatt to gain an AoO on the third crossbowman when he fires off a shot, since I think AoOs are provoked when this occurs. If this is the case, l'll make an attack roll here to speed things along, along with damage. I had a terrible time getting the stupid thing to post correctly, so if you want, go ahead and make the following rolls for me.

Attack: 1d20+13-4 (Nonlethal Attack)
Damage: 1d4-2+2d6 (Skirmish)

[mshady]

It's going to be a couple days until I can get a post from the Thursday chat up. Please bear with me, had an extremely busy weekend including a 3 AM fishing trip today and just getting home at 2 AM today.

It was so awesome to get so many people in chat the other night. That so many people are interested in my DMing is pretty neat. Not sure how many fans Harold and the Air Elemental have, though!

Mike

[mshady]

Initiative

Sable 22
Thordek 21
Hjalmar 20
Magnum 19
Arman 19
Carmard 18
Gore 17
Johannes 17
Grathalmor 14
Wyatt 14
Harold 9
Arum 9
Nalrak 6
Kelith 3

http://img18.imageshack.us/i/haroldmap1.jpg/

Round 1

Sable (Init 22)

Atop the roof, Sable quietly moves up to the trap door leading to the floor below. She leans down to listen and see how many guards she may be facing downstairs. Below, she hears the voices of several humanoids speaking in a language she does not know. The tone muffled tone of the conversation says a lot though. They’re nervous. The sound of a windlass being winded back can be heard, one is disrepair actually. Taking a deep breath, she pokes he head down the trap door to see where everyone is. There are four crossbowmen on the fifth story looking out the window, tracking someone moving. Craning her neck, she sees Johannes chained to a chair with a blocky looking padlock. Standing back up, she gives Wyatt a wily smile and signals there are 4 of them near the windows and that Johannes was down there. The hin gets the general idea…

Thordek (Init 21)

Taking up as defensive a stance as possible, He looks over at the towering minotaur, ostensibly his ally, and gives him a nod. Through his battered helmet, he simply says “Get ready” to the armored bull. The timing here had to be very carefully timed to allow Kelith and Magnum, at least, enough time to get the building burning with their magicked fire. Simply throwing a few fireballs through a window would have sufficed, but he doubted Carmard would approve of that. Then again, he was the one who had leveled a similar structure no more than a couple hours ago… He’d have to remember that about Carmard; he tended to avoid a fight if he could, but responded with extreme prejudice when he really did respond. He wondered which Carmard that Harold was about to meet…

Hjalmar (Init 20)

Far ahead of the rest of the group now, the dwarven paladin is determined to be the first to the building and throw one of his precious smoke sticks through a window. Not that he was even remotely good at throwing or shooting things, but he hoped the smoke would give his travelling companions cover. He would not call them friends quite yet; that one might take a few years. Or not… He gives a wide grin under his beard, the braided silver plaits hanging down to his waist and bouncing with every step. Indeed he seems to fly above the rubble, his feet gracefully avoiding the traps and pitfalls of the ground causes by the debris on the ground he traverses. Moradin had seen fit to grant his servant the ability to not be bothered by such things as footing in times of need, the ‘Step of the Wind’ stance his Order called it before moving to Thuulurn. Considering the often broken and uneven surfaces of the Underdark, it gave him some measure of normal mobility there.

Magnum (Init 19)

The Axebrother of Clangeddin watches Hjalmar charging right into the teeth of a building filled with several levels of crossbows, probably tipped with that frustrating black narin oil and grimaces for his coreligionist. He could not fault the gold dwarf for bravery, indeed he admired the act if not the sense.

“What’s that mad beard up to now? He try’n to be the first one to make it to Moradin’s halls today? Oi, I better get a move on myself!”

Magnum runs out as well, crossing diagonally and taking cover behind a piece of rubble that’s still standing. He signals to Kelith to follow him as the two take on the “fire brigade” aspect of Carmard’s plan to smoke out Harold and the rest.

Carmard (Init 18)

“Huh” Carmard says as he watches the surprisingly light footed paladin bounce over the rubble and debris like it is not even there. It reminds him vaguely of how the presumably late Raltise used to skate around, although he knew it was hardly the same kind of gift. He points his hammer in Hjalmar’s direction and looks back at the rest. Tolrin had told him about how Hjalmar had charged a frost giant by himself just days before and he witnessed the dwarf take on a full square of tanaruk orcs himself, so chastised himself for being surprised by the impetuous charge.

“Get mov’n forward! Ye can’t let a gold dwarf show us all up like that ‘nd catch all them bolts for himself!” Carmard yells out to the rest. He follows Hjalmar into the debris, stumbling and then nearly twisting his ankle on broken masonry. Cursing the axis of attack for extending how long they would be in the open, he thought he would have rather been under a shell of legionnaire shields but he knew this group was better warriors than soldiers. He hoped that would not prove too much of a liability, he thought to himself as he kicked aside a chunk of scorched adobe.

Gore (Init 17)

The minotaur waits, standing next to Thordek. His massive sword was sheathed, but it hardly made the minotaur feel vulnerable. Crossbows in the hands of peasants were little more than an irritation to the massively armored beast.

Grathalmor (Init 14)

The loyal armsman is taken aback by Carmard’s decision to move up, boldly stepping into the killing zone.

“Carmard! Just cuz one fool wants to get himself killed doesn’t mean ye should as well!” he says, calling after his charge. Unlike most Arcanii, Carmard was not much for standing behind his bodyguards, preferring them to join the fight and take care of himself. Since he was often fighting on the wing using a fly spell, a most undwarven approach, he tended to leave them with no other choice. He resolves to stay with Carmard and trying to keep himself between Carmard and any bolts, poisoned or otherwise. Jumping in front of bolts was not what he trained for, but someone had to do it…

Harold (Init 9)

The priest of Shaundakul stands in front of the doorway of the tenement, for the moment at least. He watches the onrushing Hjalmar and shakes his head at what the dwarf’s impetuous was about to cost him. The whole situation was madness and he couldn’t believe the dwarves were attacking him over this. Why couldn’t the stubborn runts, those smelly walking beards with axes just UNDERSTAND? Maybe they really did have somewhere important to be. If it’s a fight they wanted though, he was prepared. He just had to keep them out of the tenement. So he’d show them exactly why Hextros and the Blood Company settled for simply tormenting an old man and why they dared not lay a finger on him…

He raises his trembling hands over his head and calls out his praise to Shaundakul and furiously traces the signs of a powerful spell in the air, empowering them with his faith and completing the spell he had in mind. With a thrust of his hand, he points to the ground in front of the charging dwarf and says the last words of the spell not in celestial, but Auran…

A ball of elemental energy winks into existence in front of the dwarf. It crackles with life and starts drawing the surrounding air to it with great violence. Dirt and debris whip about and the air whistles. The ball of energy strobes brightly with a peal of thunder and the crack of lighting as it draws air towards it and it takes shape. The wind rattles Hjalmar, but he stays on his feet and wonders what the turbulent priest was about to unleash upon him.

With a powerful sound not unlike the most powerful gusts of wind, the cyclonic creature takes a vaguely humanoid shape. One that stands 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide…

“May the Wind be at your back, dwarves!” Harold calls out to his tormentors triumphantly, mocking them with a praise to Shaundakul before stepping into the doorway and out of sight.

The massive air elemental is insubstantial yet terribly large and powerful, looms down at its stunted foe to appraise its intended victim. Hjalmar looks up at it and takes a step back, bringing his big shield to bear. A hammer blow of solid air pounds Hjalmar hard from above. His knees buckle and his head spins from the blow. Another blow follows that one, but he manages to get under his shield this time and he lets it absorb the blow. The bones in his arm ache from the force of the blow and he finds himself on one knee.

Harold has summoned an air elemental of a large size. Hjalmar takes 15 damage from 1 hit.

Arman Madero (Init 19 – Delayed)

Nowhere near close enough to actually counter-spell Harold, something that a more sophisticated plan might have allowed for, he was obliged to wait and see what Harold was going to do. Summoning such a massive elemental was a display of power that Arman had rarely seen and he suddenly realized why Hextros and the rest had not simply killed him. Clearly too old and frail to chase after hydras, he was certainly capable of defending where he resided at least. The strain of such magic for an old man, perhaps in his 70s, must be incredible. Aged wizards and priests were well adjusted to channeling such magic, at least. Academic admiration aside, he actually had to deal with that power now. The throbbing pain in his leg is a reminder to how dangerous this place was. He nearly died here. Nonetheless, he did not want to risk damaging the building behind him, effectively ruling out his most powerful magic for fear of damaging it. Knowing how fast an air elemental was, he sighed at the inadequacy of it and casts a magic missile spell against the elemental. Several blue balls of force streak towards their target , shaped like arrows of force as was his preference. They strobe as they impact the elemental. The elemental shudders from the impact, so he at least knows it did something…

Arman does 9 pts to the Air Elemental

Arum (Init 9)

The sudden appearance of the elemental and the debris whipping about causes his dire badger to snarl in anger. His own reaction is to whistle in appreciation of the powerful display. Clearly the creature was nervous about what it felt and saw, but it does not break into a run. Watching what little impact Arman’s spell had on the creature, he decides to immediately go for the more powerful spells. His admiration for the display rapidly turns into a burning desire to kill it, majestic or not it simply had to go before it hurt someone.

While Arum realizes that if his spell misses, it would strike the tenament he judges it worth the risk. It was just so… big! His hands crackle and spark with electricity as he conjured a powerful bolt of lightning and gestures at the elemental. The long bolt of lightning streaks towards the elemental...

Air Elemental Reflex Save: 24

The elemental senses the spell coming at and morphs its body away from the spell, twisting faster than anything its size had even the slightest right to twist. It dodges Arum's lightning bolt like it was an after-though before turning its simple mind back to Hjalmar, but Arum could swear he got a piece of it...

Arum does 14 points of damage

The lightning bolt continues on its path, however. It blasts into the fifth story of the tenement and blows a hole clean through an adobe wall and slashes through the roof, destroying a crucial support beam in the process. With one long, tortured crack, a third of the roof caves in and drops to the floor below with a thud and a cloud of dust.

“Oops” he says, hoping he did not squash Sable, Wyatt or Johannes…

Nalrak (Init 6)

Nalrak considers what to do for a moment. He could try to turn the elemental away with the power of Dumathion, but that could make him a target for those poisoned bolts that had yet to be loosed. And his charge had charged away ahead of him... At least he was not flying above them all this time. Deciding he was of no help if the crossbowmen simply shot him down from afar, and he did not doubt their intent from what he witnessed in the streets hours before, he grasps his holy symbol and utters a short pray of protection. A cylinder of shifting magic forms around his broad body, thus encapsulating him inside a minor ward. It is translucent and barely visible but constantly shifting in color. That done, he trots forward to catch up with the Arcanii and his cousin.

"Hey, wait for me!"

Kelith (Init 3)

His task clear, Kelith breaks into a run as he tries to take cover behind one of the remaining walls in the debris. He intended to flank the tenement, just as Carmard requested really, and unleash real and magic fire on the building to drive out the defenders. While he did not consider arson to be a proper role for a cleric of Kossuth himself, his fires cleansing an entire building would surely be worth a week or two of burning incense and other symbolic sacrifices. He smiles as he runs over to where Magnum is waiting for him for the more dangerous move across open terrain. He doubted he could avoid being shot, but hopefully they would only get one volley in against the two and hopefully that volley did not prove fatal. Suddenly he envied the dwarven priest his shield…

Tenament Crossbowmen (Init 1)

With five floors, all with at least a few conscripts or townsfolk armed with crossbows, approaching the structure was not going to be a bloodless experience for anyone. While they could not shoot at Hjalmar, in front of the air elemental as he was, each floor chose their own target for lack of any other direction. With a clunk, almost two dozen crossbows fired raggedly at the charging dwarves.

Grathalmor, Nalrak and Carmard are targeted by the shooters. The Ironfist cousins draw 8 shots apiece. Grathalmor takes 3 hits from the crossbow bolts. Two are mere flesh wounds, penetrating the armor but causing no real harm. The last shot sinks into the side of his abdomen and he can feel an incredible pain and the hot feel of blood. Nalrak takes two hits himself, or would have if not for his spell. One of the shots just... disappears into the magicked field around him while the other darts in and wounds his forearm. Carmard takes a hit as well, this time wounding his forearm but hardly badly.

Grathalmor takes 25 pts of damage. Nalrak takes a single 8 point hit. Carmard takes a shot for 5 pts as well

Will post next 2 rounds tonight!

[mshady]

Thordek (Init 21)

Looking over at Thordek and nods to the ferocious beast. Wind whips around the area, blowing dust and bits of debris around the area thanks to the air elemental.

“Time to go, Gore” Thordek says sternly. “If you get close enough to that thing to that… thing and can get the Tombstone out, it should dissipate it. If not… hit it with it I guess?” he shrugs. He holds the Minotaur’s gaze for a moment to make sure it understands.

He turns to assess the situation, remaining a coolness of temperament for now. He wanted to get close enough, but he judged the range to be far too much to hit the creature with his rays of fire so the only thing for it was to close with the creature. He calls out to Gore over his shoulder,

“Follow my lead, bull! Time to move up!” he yells.

Hjalmar (Init 20)

Hjalmar shudders from the elemental's mighty blows, but stands his ground firmly. He closes his eyes for a moment, and calls out a single name, "Tzar!" Suddenly, the air next to him shimmered with heavenly light. An instant later, a mighty boar appeared at his side draped in gleaming chainmail.

He presses his hand onto his mount and whispers a prayer, causing a rush of power to fill the two of them like a surge of adrenaline. His muscles ripple with the new found strength, and so do the boars for that matter but it is harder to tell under all its armor.

This distraction costs Hjalmar his defensive stance, however. The air elemental swings another massive fist down at the dwarf,

He requires no real prompting on Hjalmar’s part, or even be mounted by the dwarf, Tzar raises his tusks in a fury and tosses his head from side to side. A celestial being or not, one does not so much ride a dire boar as hold on and try to guide it. For this task though, it requires no guidance and attacks the thing that dared to hurt his master. The Air Elemental senses the attack and kicks at it with a massive foot. It thumps into the war pig’s side and it grunts from the pain.

Tzar takes 13 pts of damage from the air elemental

This only further enrages it. It rams the leg of the massive elemental, which is solid enough to harm at least. The boar knocks a chunk out of the creature’s left leg, sending its bits flying. They look like little… clouds?

Tzar rolls a 19 (31 total to hit) and does 14 points of damage to the air elemental

Magnum (Init 19)

Magnum moves closer to the building, but also summons another spiritual weapon as he moves. A golden axe appears next to Harold’s summoned elemental, flanking the creature. The weapon takes a quick and deadly swipe at the elemental’s knees, but the massive creature simply… isn’t there as the axe things through empty air where the swirling clouds and wind that made up the creature’s leg used to be.

Arman (Init 19)

Not overly impressed with his last spell, but knowing every little bit counts, he decides to throw another magic missile spell at the creature. Certainly most of his other spells could physically be dodged, so it was the best choice in some ways. His fingers work the familiar incantations and ruby colored arrows streak towards the elemental. Each strobes in turn as they rake the creature, one bolt catching it right in what was presumably the head. The cyclonic creature moans from the impact; a sound that reminds him of wind blowing through a canyon.

Arman does 14 hp to the Air Elemental

Carmard (Init 18)

Resolving that he needed to do something about the elemental and quickly, while cursing himself for underestimating Harold, Carmard decides it’s time to blow the elemental back to the Plane it came from. He had nothing prepared that could do the job with outright damage, but who did really? Instead, he launches into the incantations to cast a Dismissal spell and send the creature packing. He hoped for better results than he had against the Ice Devil in the cavern, but he knew his spellcraft well enough to know the size of both creatures outstripped the capability of the spell. A powerful soul inhabited that air elemental, and he could not be sure if it was a summons or Harold’s companion. Not that it was impossible, if Dugmaren Brightmantle smiled upon him.

He stands at the edge of the range of the magic he is about to work and concentrates on drawing a powerful sign in the air. The air crackles around him as he empowered the runic sign and it rises, taking on an energy of its own. He projects the energy towards the elemental and a sphere forms around it briefly before a pulse of white energy from Carmard’s hands hammer the creature. It buckles under the pressure of the energy, but Carmard maintains his concentration as he tries to force the creature out of this Plane. It writhes about in pain and the air shimmers as the elemental and Carmard’s spell contest the issue of if it will remain. It fades in and out as the Dismissal spell tries to push it back to its home plane...

With a crack of thunder that rolls through the town, the elemental throws off the spell and the magic flashes brightly before the spell ends.

The Air Elemental rolls a will save of 18 v. DC13 – Failed. The Dismissal is dismissed!

Gore (Init 17)

The minotaur follows Thordek’s lead, lugging the heavy pack on his back. It does not limit his speed, but does limit his agility to some extent. He unlimbers his sword as he moves, figuring it may work just as well against the massive creature. Not much intimidated the minotaur, and some angry clouds were hardly going to intimidate him. Not after having faced down a charging hydra…

Grathalmor (Init 14)

Blood trailing from his wounds, Grathalmor decides to close on the air elemental as quick as he could. Not only would its bulk shield him, but facing down a powerful foes like that was exactly what he trained for. He might play the role of a guard, but his specialty was being on the offense…

Harold (Init 9)

The towering elemental roars down at Hjalmar and Tzar, sending a cloud of dust flying all around. The towering giant of air and debris lurches from the effect of the dismissal spell. It takes a step backwards, than forwards and seems to lose shape and form for a moment. Suddenly it reforms in the shape of a 30 foot tornado, right next to Hjalmar and his mount...

“Frak” Hjalmar says below his breath. How do ye even fight a wind twister?

The tornado lurches towards Hjalmar and Tzar, but his surprisingly nimble mount scrambles out of the way. Bits of rubble batter the dwarf, as he is spun about crazily and his limbs wrenches into unnatural positions. His left arm feels like it will explode from the strain of holding his large shield, but he manages to hold on to it. That might not have been the wisest choice, however as the wind gets underneath the shield and lifts him skyward and by that point it is too late to do anything.

Hjalmar disappears into the vortex. Only the howl of the wind can be heard, already enough to nearly deafen those around it. Around the cyclone, a vortex 25 feet high of dust and small debris swirls now. The party cannot see past it to see the tenement at this point, nor can they see the dwarves in front of them.

Arum (Init 9)

Admiring his handiwork, after blowing a hole in the side of the building and knocking off part of the roof... Arum decides on a different tactic.

"Well, lets see how these things work...." Arum says, as he watches Hjalmar be sucked up into the vortex. He withdraws a blast globe from his satchel. The size of a beer stein and made of thick, clouded glass a fire rages inside the rune covered globe. Having studied it in Faitholme, he has a good idea how it works and unhooks it from its silvered holder. The globe is so warm it almost scalds his tough hands, but he rattles off the incantations and the command word to activate the globe in draconic. The globe rises from his hand and streaks towards the top of the elemental before detonating in what has to be the most powerful explosion he has ever seen before. The white flash of fiery energy blinds anyone for a moment who looks at it and the thunderclap of the explosion causes everyone in the vicinity to cringe as the explosion momentarily deafened them. The fire slashes through the elemental, turning a swath of its left side into steam that is refilled immediately with less cloudy air, clearly a nearly clear patch along the creature’s side. It howls from the pain as it is blown backwards, away from Tzar and the tornado falters for a moment from the force. It sends Hjalmar flying out of the tornado and landing hard on his back after a 30 feet fall.

The tenement behind it shutters from the blast. Dust and bits of adobe shower all of its occupants as the building shakes like a dog trying to shake off some water. The wall of air pushed towards it causes the adobe to crack along the sides and the building groans…

“Oi! That was amazing! I really nailed it! Frak its mother, that’s gonna hurt!” Arum says, watching the massive explosion nearly topple the elemental and freeing Hjalmar in a way the paladin would have NEVER hoped for. He decides to wisely put the blast globe away, however.

The elemental takes 18 fire damage, 7 sonic damage and pushed back 15 feet. Hjalmar takes 12 damage from the fire and sonic damage, partially absorbed by the elemental. He also takes 14 damage from falling 30 feet. He is now prone.

Nalrak (Init 6)

Nalrak curses under his breath as the elemental is blown out even further from him, and again, more vehemently, as he sees Hjalmar slam into the ground. He keeps pushing through the rubble as fast as he can. He moves as fast as he can, his thick vanguard treaded boots crunching the small debris beneath his feet. What the heavy, metal shod boots lacked in agility they more than made up for in stability. He is nearly in range of Harold’s creature now and looks forward to showing it the holy wrath of Dumathion, for whom the creature was an elemental opposite.

Kelith (Init 3)

Taking advantage of his longer legs, Kelith outpaces Magnum as he moves up on the building. Rather than attack the elemental, he moves closer to the tenement and hopes he doesn't draw fire. He needed to swing around the building to start the fires away from the doors and he had to do it before Thordek and Gore unlimbered the Tombstone.

Tenement Crossbowmen (Init 1)

With the air elemental blocking their view of the battlefield, they search for targets and zero in on Magnum and Kelith. They are long shots, so the bolts are less effective but one bolt is driven into Magnum’s leg. It is a shallow but painful wound. Kelith avoids the worst of it, his chainmail stopping two hits, three were outright misses and another just missed his head, whistling by his ear. The other six remaining crossbowmen do not have arc on the trio.

Magnum takes 6 damage from a light crossbow that rolled a natural 20. In this round in chat, Grathalmor took 1 hit for 6 pts and Nalrak took 5 pts, but this is damaged as they have total concealment against the crossbowmen due to the elemental's dust cloud and physical size.

[Strangie]

(EDIT: Check the spoiler for the updated damage.)

(OOC: I think I posted this earlier in a seperate post, but I'll just reiterate for the sake of clarity. And damn this thing for not posting my rolls properly. I guess you can't use minuses in the roll formula?)

After Wyatt drops the second crossbowman, he puts his foot on his chest and keeps running, dancing around the third one and lining up for his third strike.

"I told ya to drop your weapon, chucklenut! You don't listen too well, do ya. Oh well. Not my problem now is it."

He jumps up at his target for the swing!

Nonlethal Attack: [roll0]
Damage: 6 Nonlethal damage (See OOC thread for rolls)

(EDIT: Urgh... this thing will just not work properly. The total attack roll is at -4 for nonlethal so it's 23 and the damage should be 1d4+2d6-2 nonlethal damage for skirmishing. I'll try rolling it in the OOC thread or something.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith
HP: 63/63
AC: 25 (22+3 from Shield of Faith)

Still sticking close to the building Kelith will continue his way around the side of the building heading to the back ready to start the distraction as soon as he catches sight of the rear windows.

Spells Cast
0-2
1st-3
2nd-2
3rd-1

[thorgrim29]

Assuming Gore is close enough to charge the elemental next round, Thordrek will help him taking the tombstone out. If not, move action then scorching ray again.

[mshady]

OOC: Gore can either charge or stop to allow the tombstone to come out. To get it into range per carmard's plan though, it would probably need to be dropped closer. Not that it wouldn't still work, but he'd have to back off alot further too

[Melody]

Sable retrives the adobe fragment with the darkness spell on it. In other parts of the room it might have been difficult to find with all of the debris strewn across the floor, but by Johannes it had remained relatively clear. Lucky he hadn't been crushed when part of the roof had collapsed. Sable sends a brief mental thank-you to Tymora. Studying the door for a moment she judges the best place for an ambush. The door is barely taller than Harold making the top of the door the perfect spot to attack. Readying her sap, she climbs the wall and perches over the top of the door waiting for Harold to enter the room.

I've had a really rough week. Husband got a new car on Tuesday and Wedenesday during a rainstorm a guy passed him in a puddle spraying the car with water. Apparently water won't compress and will split the engine block if it gets into the engine. So, our new car is currently not working. On top of that Friday I went to pick up our rental car so that wouldn't have to take my husband into work at 5 AM anymore. When I got home the dogs were on the roof over our porch. (Apparently my daughter, who has a bedroom on the second floor, left the window beside her bed open.) Anyway, my dog saw me and jumped down. I spent the rest of the day at the vets office waiting on a walk in appt. (The dog is alright, he has a soft tissue injury to his right wrist? A chipped lower right canine and a puncture wound on his back leg. He's sore and he limps on his hurt foot, but nothing is broken or seriously injured. We were supposed to go down and visit my dad this weekend, but that's been postponed till next weekend. Hopefully, the car will get fixed and we'll be on our way to Floriday. Anyways, sorry about taking so long to post.

[Rather Dashing]

Jeth, after seeing the roof cleared off lands on top being careful to avoid the wind being created from the elemental. Just appearing as a small bird then changing back to his normal shape once landed.

From flying overhead and seeing the crossbows being fired from the windows, Jeth realizes they need to be stopped. Jeth starts casting over the edge of the roof towards the elemental. Then Jeth's hair starts blowing quickly straight up in the air. The wind wall is cast covering the whole side of the building, so to stop all the bolts.

"Let's see them shoot through that!"



(((OOC: sorry been away for so long, been busy, but should have plenty o' time now)))

[mshady]

OOC - Can we get some posts going to finish the round? :)

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak pushes forth until he is within range. Up close, he could really appreciate the power of the creature he was going to turn away. He could feel the winds tugging at his beard and the forces within it sending vibrations through the ground and up his feet. And he was going to make this beast afraid of him. This was not going to be easy...

He stops, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, filling himself with his faith in Dumathoin and the belief that his patron god would see him through this. When he opens them again, the task before him seems a little more achievable.

"Creature of air!" Nalrak's challenge sounds out clear and loud, and there is a certain solidity about him as he faces the great air elemental, "Behold a servant of Dumathoin, the Mountain Shield, who fears no puny breeze upon his cheeks! By His power I banish you! You have no business here! Begone from this place, or be annihilated!"

Turning Check: [roll0]

Edit: A stray eddy filled with dust slams into Nalrak's throat in the middle of his challenge, turning the rest into an embarrassing coughing fit.

[thorgrim29]

Alright then Gore, here's what we're doing. About how far do you think you can throw that stone of yours? Because I want you to throw it at the elemental, I'll cover you the best I can while you do it. Then, we go back to our position, the defenders shouldn't be a threat to our allies.

[ArmanMadero]

I am sorry that I have been AWOL. Mike is aware of whats going on around me right now.. well most of it. I will have a post later tonight. We have had some tornado warnings here all day, otherwise i would have had it sooner today. I have to work.. so I will post tonight when I get home. Which will also give me time to catch up on the last page... ;)

[Gorgondantess]

Okay, so... firing off my first post here... sorry for taking so long, but I really didn't know what was going on very well; mshady has clued me in as best he can, though I'm still a bit shaky...
Also, I'll be taking Johannes probably in a bit different direction from his original player. Just roll with it.:smallwink::smallbiggrin:
Johannes rubs his wrist, brows furrowed, and follows after Sable. "Much obliged, lass. I'm afriad I haven't prepared any spells to-day, but I can still fight... where's Harold?"

[mshady]

[I]A change in round 1. The elemental beat the reflex save with ease against Arum's lightning bolt, but even passing the reflex save means the creature took 14 pts of damage.

Sable (Init 22)

Sable retrieves the adobe fragment with the darkness spell on it. In other parts of the room it might have been difficult to find with all of the debris strewn across the floor, but by Johannes it had remained relatively clear. Lucky he hadn't been crushed when part of the roof had collapsed. Sable sends a brief mental thank-you to Tymora. Studying the door for a moment she judges the best place for an ambush. The door is barely taller than Harold making the top of the door the perfect spot to attack. Readying her sap, she climbs the wall and perches over the top of the door waiting for Harold to enter the room..

Thordek (Init 21)

He moves within 45 feet of the air elemental and hits it with two scorching ray spells, each doing 4d6 damage for a total of 36 pts against the air elemental.

“Alright then Gore, here's what we're doing” Thordek instructs. “About how far do you think you can throw that stone of yours? Because I want you to throw it at the elemental, I'll cover you the best I can while you do it. Then, we go back to our position, the defenders shouldn't be a threat to our allies”

With that said, he strides forward through the rubble and he closes the range with the Air Elemental. Now within 45 feet of it, he conjures the arcane powers that linger within him. Flames swirl around the blade of his black adamantine axe as he wrestles with the power within his mind. With the fire controlled, he thrusts the axe towards the elemental and twin rays of fire the size of a dwarf’s fist burn holes right through the center of the elemental. Steam rises and wisps of cloudy air stream from the holes. The summoned creature moans from the pain; the sound would have been enough to sting his ear drums if not for that foolish gnome Arum and whatever insane spell he had slung at the elemental.

Hjalmar (Init 20)

Dazed by the brilliant explosion and wincing from the elemental's assault, Hjalmar tries to get a sense of what was happening around him. Slowly, he climbs to his feet and murmurs his prayer to Moradin. A soft light glimmers from his holy symbol and envelops him in holy energy, sealing his wounds and easing his pain.

Finally, he holds up his mighty hammer, preparing to rush at the elemental, calling for his mount as he does. Tzar heeds his master's call and runs to him, making a grazing attack at the elemental once in place.

Move: Stand from prone
Standard: Lay on hands (Heals 28 hp, up to 56 hp now)
Swift: Invoke Law Devotion
Tzar moves to AA14 and attacks - misses!

Magnum (Init 19)

Magnum moves closer to the building. Soon he’ll be close enough to start the fires, but mainly he wanted to guard Kelith. Thankfully they had escaped notice from the elementals. Not that he was ignoring them.

His spiritual weapon, the golden axe of Clangeddin, takes another swing at the air elemental but misses cleanly.

Magnum curses at his bad luck. One clean stroke seemed to be about all the cleric could hope for today…

Arman (Init 19)

What to do? Arman thinks to himself. He had used some of his magic against the hydra and what was left was not very useful against an elemental. He knew a couple of spells that would blast an area, but it could harm anyone on the ground near the elemental.

Actually, that was just what he needed to do.

Arman focuses his thoughts and traces the appropriate signs in the air as he draws the threads of the Weave together. A small, and offensively smelling, ball of sulfur and bat guano glows in his hand and rises into the air. With a mental push, he sends the glowing bead of fire at the elemental, but at an angle. He would have to angle it just right and detonate the fireball at the right moment to do what he needed. Arman was going to airburst the fireball, high enough that the fire would damage the elemental but the blast would miss the rest, primarily Hjalmar.

The fireball is arched perfectly, flying just above the elemental in a perfect plane. Arman times the explosion perfectly as well, as the fireball explodes high in the area and the fire blossoms into a fiery sphere that envelops the elemental. The elemental shifts out of the way of the fireball. Instead of being enveloped by the fire, it is only partially scorched.

Arman rolled a 27 on his ranged touch attack and a 25 on his spellcraft check for the “trick shot” with the fireball. The Air Elemental makes its reflex save, of course, and only takes 19 damage from Arman’s powerful fireball.

Carmard (Init 18)

Carmard debates using magic, but opts to conserve his spells for later and throws his hammer at the elemental. It loops through the air and misses the elemental entirely. It is sucked into the vortex by the elemental and it seems to laugh at the Arcanii. He is shocked when he sees the elemental eject the hammer and send it flying back to him, nearly striking him but instead plowing into the debris strewn ground. He curses his luck and summons the hammer back to his hand, but promptly puts it back on his worn leather belt. He wouldn't try that again...

Gore (Init 17)

The big minotaur grunts in response to Thordek’s orders, once he figures out what to do. He seems to think a moment as he mentally grinds through what he thinks about that and the grunt turns into a growl.

“All your finger wigglers and shamans and you say “Gore, go throw stone”? I saw what happen to last dwarf” he says and harrumphs at the idea, his chest heaving and causing his armor to clank. “Fine, I go but wind demon eat me and you next, short beard”

Gore gives Thordek a frightening glare, his red eyes blazing with intent under his thick metal helmet. He holds the glare long enough to make his point and next he moves forward. Masonry crunches beneath his hooves and it limits how far he can move, and he gets no more than 15 feet and stands at the edge of the swirling cloud of debris around the wounded air elemental. He pushes off one strap from the massive casing off his back, than the other and it drops to the ground with a crunch and a clatter, but the casing remains unblemished.

The rune covered casing sits beside the minotaur as he waits for Thordek to catch up and open the casing.

Gore moves to V16

Johannes (Init 17)

Johannes rubs his wrist, brows furrowed, and follows after Sable. "Much obliged, lass. I'm afraid I haven't prepared any spells to-day, but I can still fight... where's Harold?"

Grathalmor (Init 14)

The broken terrain continues to give Grathalmor problems, but he moves as quickly as he dared and still keep his shield up. Not that he was a fan of shields, but he was less of a fan of getting feathered by more crossbow bolts, and they hurt! He moves over to where Hjalmar stands, who has just laid a healing hand upon himself. It is nearly impossible to tell how badly wounded the paladin is under his enormously thick armored hide, but it must be bad considering the punishment he had suffered. He now finds himself in position to charge at the elemental.

Grathalmor moves to AA12 and takes up a defensive stance.

Wyatt (Init 14)

After Wyatt drops the second crossbowman, he puts his foot on his chest and keeps running, dancing around the third one and lining up for his third strike.

"I told ya to drop your weapon, chucklenut! You don't listen too well, do ya. Oh well. Not my problem now is it."

He jumps up at his target for the swing!

The next crossbowmen falls to a heap on the floor.

Harold (Init 9)

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1930/airelemental.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/airelemental.jpg/)
By mshady (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/mshady)

From the second floor window, the chanting of incantations can be heard once again. The tone is frantic and labored from exertion, but a spell suddenly forms out on the battlefield. A powerful elemental spirit moans to life as it gathers air around it rapidly, taking up a powerful but vaporous form that stands a towering 30 feet tall once again. This one, however, does not stand on the ground. It hovers in the air, 10 feet above and out of the reach of Hjalmar and Grathalmor’s weapons.

Elemental is centered on AB12

The elemental looms over Grathalmor and two fists of solid air come roaring down at him. He had just enough time to think that he was being attacked by an angry thunderstorm as the blows pound into him hard enough that he wonders if he could still stand after the blows.

Air Elemental 2 rolled a 25 and a 29, so he only hits Grathalmor once due to his stance. He takes 17 points of damage.

The first air elemental, now in the form of a powerful cyclone pauses for a moment as Harold instructs its next movement. The cyclone suddenly surges in ferocity and it makes like the cyclone it is and plows forward, directly at most of the group.

Hjalmar’s mount, Tzar, is apparently far more agile or lucky than his bulk indicates as once again the war pig steps aside as the cyclone roars past him.

Gore is the next target in the wake of the cyclone and is sucked up into it. He is battered badly by the wind, whipping back and forth. He roars with a primal rage at his predicament, cutting through the howling winds. The casing for the Tombstone is sucked into the winds.

Gore takes 12 pts of damage and is sucked into the cyclone

It next heads for Nalrak, altering its course slightly. The dwarven cleric is battered by the winds and sucked into the vortex.

Nalrak rolls a 12 and a 4 for reflex saves v. DC22. He takes 12 pts of damage as he is sucked into the wind.

The elemental shifts its rampage northwards, searching for Thordek. He is too much in shock at the sudden reversal of events and is collected into the cyclone as well, with most of his comrades. He has the presence of mind to not let his limbs flail about, so he spares himself the worst of it.

Thordek rolls a 10 and a 4 (natural 1) for a reflex save. He takes 6 pts of damage from the cyclone form air elemental

With Thordek completed, the cycle changes directions with perfect control and barrels towards Carmard. With plenty of time to watch the onrushing elemental, Carmard avoids the finger of the cyclone by dodging to one side. It is barely enough, but it is enough.

Carmard rolls a 24 v. DC22 for the elemental and avoids damage

OOC Note: Rules for being inside an air elemental

Creatures one or more size categories smaller than the elemental might take damage when caught in the whirlwind (see table for details) and may be lifted into the air. An affected creature must succeed on a Reflex save when it comes into contact with the whirlwind or take the indicated damage. It must also succeed on a second Reflex save or be picked up bodily and held suspended in the powerful winds, automatically taking the indicated damage each round. A creature that can fly is allowed a Reflex save each round to escape the whirlwind. The creature still takes damage but can leave if the save is successful. The DC for saves against the whirlwind’s effects varies with the elemental’s size (see the table). The save DC is Strength based.
Creatures trapped in the whirlwind cannot move except to go where the elemental carries them or to escape the whirlwind.

Creatures caught in the whirlwind can otherwise act normally, but must succeed on a Concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell. Creatures caught in the whirlwind take a -4 penalty to Dexterity and a -2 penalty on attack rolls. The elemental can have only as many creatures trapped inside the whirlwind at one time as will fit inside the whirlwind’s volume.

The elemental can eject any carried creatures whenever it wishes, depositing them wherever the whirlwind happens to be. A summoned elemental always ejects trapped creatures before returning to its home plane.

If the whirlwind’s base touches the ground, it creates a swirling cloud of debris. This cloud is centered on the elemental and has a diameter equal to half the whirlwind’s height. The cloud obscures all vision, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. Creatures 5 feet away have concealment, while those farther away have total concealment.

Those caught in the cloud must succeed on a Concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell.

An elemental in whirlwind form cannot make slam attacks and does not threaten the area around it.

Arum (Init 9)

The cyclone roars closer to Arum and Arman, and he knows that he’s likely to be the next target for it. His face goes red in anger as he sees what Harold had done and that he had just summoned another one made his heart pound in fear.

What the hell in the Hells was this shat? He’s a cranking old arse man who smells like the inside of a donkey’s arse! Old by human standards, most o’my stumpy friends here are probably older. Think I’m gonna burn down this damn cloud, methinking!

Arum resolves to stand and fight this time. He holds his fist out and concentrates on drawing forth the fire from the Weave. His fist erupts in flame as his heart pounds in fear at the elemental. He thrusts his fist towards the elemental and twin rays of scorching fire streak from his hand in a fiery roar.

The elemental must have somehow anticipated it as it snakes one way than another to dodge the rays of fire. After being scorched so badly by Thordek’s fires, a feat that Arum could not see as possible, the Elemental must be wise to that…

He casts a look in Arman’s direction. The elf’s crippled leg met that running was not much of an option for him and Arum barely had time to side step the onslaught before he was collected by the cyclone like the others.

“Sorry!” Arum says. He turns and spurs Baurus, trying to get as much space as he could from the Elemental. Fortunately for Arman, the nearest cover were the fragments of a wall and Arum hoped that would prove to be an obstacle to the elemental storm in pursuit of him.

As Baurus and Arum charge by, the gnome sets aside his instinct for self preservation and snatches Arman by his backpack as they ride by. Holding on hard with one hand to the horn of his saddle, he struggles to hold on to the elf as the badger runs behind the remains of the wall. Arman’s protest of surprise and indignation can be heard as he is dragged painfully through the dust.

Bet that made his leg feel good… Arum thinks to himself.

Arum moves to L10 and deposits Arman on his arse at L9

Jeth Harefoot (Init 9)

Jeth, after seeing the roof cleared off lands on top being careful to avoid the wind being created from the elemental. He appears as a small bird and then changing back to his normal shape once landed, that of a small halfling.

From flying overhead and seeing the crossbows being fired from the windows, Jeth realizes they need to be stopped. Jeth starts casting over the edge of the roof towards the elemental. Then Jeth's hair starts blowing quickly straight up in the air. The wind wall is cast covering the whole side of the building, so to stop all the bolts.

"Let's see them shoot through that!" he cries victoriously.

A wall of wind roars next to the building. Jeth has set the wall vertically instead of horizontally, showing a good sense of spellcraft or intuition. It blocks all of the windows facing the party from shooting, as no crossbow bolt can make it past the roaring wind.

Nalrak (Init 6)

Nalrak pushes forth until he is within range. Up close, he could really appreciate the power of the creature he was going to turn away. He could feel the winds tugging at his beard and the forces within it sending vibrations through the ground and up his feet. And he was going to make this beast afraid of him. This was not going to be easy...

Nothing is ever easy is all he has time to think to himself as the air elemental surges right at him. He knew enough about air elementals to know exactly why they were the bane of all earth dwelling creatures. They could sweep even the strongest, steadiest warrior away.

Unable to move well enough to dodge out of the elemental twister’s way, he made only a half-hearted attempt and let himself be swept up into the cyclone. What better place to unleash the faith of the mountains than in the heart of the storm itself?

He stops, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, filling himself with his faith in Dumathion and the belief that his patron god would see him through this. When he opens them again, the task before him seems a little more achievable, as he spins around haphazardly. The weight of him and his equipment give him some measure of stability even.

Did I just see a flying minotaur? he wonders as Gore swirls by just under his feet.

"Creature of Air!" Nalrak's challenge sounds out clear and loud, and there is a certain solidity about him as he faces the great air elemental, "Behold a servant of Dumathion, the Mountain Shield, who fears no puny breeze upon his cheeks! By His power I banish you! You have no business here! Begone from this place, or be annihilated!"

Turning Check: (1d20+3)[4] – Fail

His holy symbol glows as it becomes filled with the temporal power of his faith. The pressure inside him is reaching a boiling point and the final words with on his lips..

Bam!

Metal shrieks against metal as Hjalmar crashes into Nalrak and the two dwarves fall downwards through the cyclone, only to be caught at the base of it and the cyclonic effect moves them back upwards again.
Kelith (Init 3)

Kelith (Init 3)
HP: 63/63
AC: 25 (22+3 from Shield of Faith)

Still sticking close to the building Kelith will continue his way around the side of the building heading to the back ready to start the distraction as soon as he catches sight of the rear windows.

Spells Cast
0-2
1st-3
2nd-2
3rd-1

The Tenement (Init 1)

On the fifth floor, the two remaining crossbowmen look at each other and make a break for the stairs. As Wyatt is unable to stop them as he is too far away, he can only watch as they both run for the stairs in the center of the floor. Sable, Wyatt and Johannes can hear the commotion below as they two survivors yell at the rest. Everyone in earshot can guess the contents of what they are saying. With a thud, the stairs door is slammed shut and the rasp of a bolt being put in place to brace the door can clearly be heard.

The direct way to the 4th floor has been blocked.

The rest of the crossbowmen suddenly have no shot, thanks to Jeth’s well timed wall of wind. Not a one has a shot on the main group. Not that many can really be seen…

[img=http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7060/harold5.jpg] (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/harold5.jpg/)
By mshady (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/mshady)

[ArmanMadero]

Arman held on to Arum as best as he could, but hislanding was painful at best when Arum finally let him go. "I thank you Arum, for at least not landing me on my head..."

Arman swiftly got up and pushed his sleeves up his arms a little. An indication he was getting ready to do casting, and didn't want his clothing in the way of this hands. From one of the pouches at his side, he gathers up a small bag and takes out a candle within it.

He placed the items on the ground, and started to weave his hands into the air, pulling energies towards him. The bag and candle begin to rise as the energies gather, and start to form in front of him into a sort of oval shape. Almost like a mirror, or portal even.

The bag and candle have a faint luminescence at this time, and Arman started to speak softly into the air in front of him, his hands grasping at energies, and his eyes staring at the glowing bag and candle, which now floated in front of his face at eye level.

"Mo cruinnigh tú Spioradálta Iolar Leon." Arman kept repeating this, drawing the energies from the air towards the bag, candle and the strongly glowing oval shape. From it a beak started appearing, followed by the feathers that surrounded it, and then with a "pop" in the air, standing before him was a silver griffon, its tail switching back and forth nervously. Its taloned feet gripped and relaxed the earth beneath it, as if it felt strange to it. Which it probably did. For the ground of the celstial plane, didn't exactly follow the same rules as the plane upon which it now stood

It opened its beak and let out a cry, lowering its front end as though to pounce, its wings folded back. Arman stood without fear in front of the griffon, only holding out a hand to stop it from attacking. "I have one task for you and one task for you only. After which, you may depart or stay as you wish, as long as no harm comes to me or those who I travel with."

The griffon stayed where it was, not shifting at all, other than its tail which switched back and forth like a whip. It seemed to understand, however, that it was bound to the task that was being set before it, because it soon calmed and sat down on its haunches, folding its wings back.

Arman nodded his head at the griffon, and also gave it a slight bow. He stood straight once more, and took something silver from the inside of his collar. "I need for you, to fly up to where the old man is casting spells from, at the second floor window of that building, and give this to him. Make sure that he sees it, and then you may leave." Arman is pointing to Harold at this time, and the griffon turns its head to watch, then looks back at Arman, its head canting to the side just a bit, and its eyes blinking.

The griffon was a little mystified as to why this elf in front of him, had summoned him to do an errand... It supposed it would do this thing. After all, the elf did say it could leave once it was done with the one task, even if he set limits upon it. The griffon jerked its head a bit, giving his assent to this task. He reached out with his beak and took the silver thing in his mouth. It tingled slightly of magical energies, but he paid it no mind. He stood up and with a beat of his wings, headed to where he had been directed...

The griffon made his way over to where the window was with an older man standing in it. Upon reaching the window, he almost flew into it, but pulled short, and jerked his head, tossing the silver thing into the old man, hitting him upon the chest, and watching as it clattered to the floor. He shrieked and buffeted the old man with its wings, and then turned from him. The task being done, he gathered the remains left of the spell that brought him here, and was gone through the oval back to his own plane.

The small bag and candle, which up until this point had been floating... fell to the ground with soft thumps, and Arman sagged. The energies it had taken, were stronger than he was used to. And with his leg like it was, he hoped it was worth it all....

I hope that this post is worth all the waiting from you guys! I apprecaite your patience!

[Strangie]

Wyatt waves off the wimpy crossbowmen as they flee.

"Ah, I knew ya didn't have the freakin' nerve! Ya bunch of sissies." He takes a quick glance out the window, at all the madness happening outside. "Oh, man. Things are gettin' really ugly out there, m'friends. I think I see at least one dwarf learning how to fly, so to speak... any way we're gonna get down from here, Sable? Can't go through door, now can we..."

Actions:
Will delay until Sable comes up with a genius plan. Though what I'm hoping for is that she will use Feather Fall to let us jump from the window so we can progress downward a couple of floors. If this is what happens, then Wyatt will jump from the window and float down to follow the others. If something ELSE happens... well, we'll figure it out.

[PId6]

Hjalmar

Hjalmar spins inside the vortex around and around, his face turning green from the nauseating experience. "A dwarf was ne'er meant ta fly!" He shouted, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the windstorm around him. He silently swore to Moradin that he'll never willingly take his foot off solid ground ever again. In an act of willpower, Hjalmar pushes aside his nausea and takes up his hammer, using it to hit at various pockets of solid-looking air around him, hoping that he doesn't inadvertently strike an ally. All he could think about as he strikes at the elemental is what he would do when he finally caught Harold.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

Tzar looks around for his master and cannot find Hjalmar anywhere. However, the boar has been well trained to handle the chaos of the battlefield, and turns his attention to the current threat floating above him. See it too far out of reach, he backs off a few paces, then charges forward, leaping into the air as he does. Once in the air, he throws his tusks once more at the lump of crazed wind, fighting for his master even when separated from his side. Unfortunately, the boar barely got off the ground before his body surrendered to the pull of the earth, and he failed to leap high enough to attack the elemental. All he can do now is snort in derision and prepare to try again.

[roll4]
[roll5]

Never mind on the attack.

[thorgrim29]

Well, that went well... Tombstone's closed, useless.... Unless.....
Thinks Thordrek as he is flipped head over heels inside a tornado, an idea emerges.

Spot check to spot the tombstone: [roll0]

[Strangie]

(Change of Plans! Since Melody is away on vacation, I am going to come up with my own cunning master plan. I already made all of the rolls in a seperate window with Mike as we were discussing the game, so all of that is all set. Now, onto the most epic thing ever.)

Shaking his head frustratedly and thinking things over, Wyatt peers down the window. He remembers how he felt bad for Harold earlier when he learned of him being stuck in Way Ward, but now the same man he felt bad for is now preventing them from doing the very thing that Shaundakul would smile upon - travelling. In his mind, all of this madness was leading up to something he felt was horribly wrong and backwards. There was no more time for delaying - if he did not act now, the dwarves outside would perish by the hands of Harold, and, owing his life to them, he did not see it fit that they suffer at someone who supposedly shared the same belief as he did.

Wyatt turns his head toward Sable and Joh after contemplating this for a moment. "... I'm going after Harold. Keep up if you can." With that, he turns toward them fully, stepping back and out the window, and jumping out of the window entirely! He lines himself up between the wall of the building and the wind wall Jeth threw up, reaching his buckler hand forward while turning his lower body upward in the air, like a skydiver would.

He suddenly zooms past the crossbowmen on the other floors, grabbing onto the ledge of the third floor window. He swings his legs forward toward the second floor window, right toward a crossbowman who was standing there, likely dumbfounded at not being able to shoot anymore. The last thing he probably expected was Wyatt flying through the window right at him.

Wyatt brings his feet up in mid-swing, zooming past the crossbowman's head and over his shoulder. He brings his mace hand forward, whirling the weapon around his wrist once right before impact, and swings forward on his way by! The last thing the shooter sees is a metal club whizzing toward his face.

"BONK!"

The crossbowman hits the floor, down and out. But his wounds are not lethal. Wyatt took care to avoid a vital injury.

He zooms forward, bringing his feet level with the floor and ducking and rolling on impact. He finds Harold, along with several guards also in the room, but none of that mattered. He points his mace dramatically at Harold, and delivers his speech:

"Harold! I thought you were a priest of the god of travel! What you have done is exactly the OPPOSITE of what you should be doing. Alla 'dis time, you've been holdin' us back. Why? Ain't ya SUPPOSED to allow free travel through the land? Ain't that the POINT of Shaundakul at all? To think I actually felt bad, when ya told us you were stuck here!"

He twirls his bat once more, lowering it for a moment. "I don't wanna fight ya, Harold. I don't wanna kill your men, they don't deserve to die. I took care not to wound them fatally, which is precisely what you ain't doin' for mine. But I don't want MY friends to die, either, y'know...? ... They risked their lives to save me, and now I'm returnin' the favor. I'm askin' ya, as one follower of Shaundakul to anotha'. We gotta stop this, and free up tha' open road once again. Please."

He stares up at Harold, an uncharacteristically serious look in his eyes as he waits for a reply. He gets ready to bolt, though, if he is attacked by any of the guards.

(OOC: Skirmishing + Expeditious Dodge for a total AC of 32. I really hope someone witnessed this IC. :smallbiggrin: )

[thorgrim29]

Taking this to when it would work

Got it, better make sure I don't mess up, Moradin, make this work
He drops his shield in the whirlwind, then starts furiously casting, finishing (I hope) in a mighty two handed blow.

Using quick cast to cast true strike, then arcane channeling dimension hop.

Concentration on true strike, dc 16: [roll0]
Concentration on dimension hop, dc 17 [roll1]
Power attacking for -7, +14 damage: to hit: [roll2]
damage: [roll3]

The elemental has a dc 15 will save to pass or it is teleported 15 feet away from Thordrek, causing him, the tombstone and whoever is there to fall out of it, hopefully without killing themselves.

This is going to hurt

[Melody]

"Harold is downstairs somewhere, we were just coming in to get you." Sable chuckles and hops down to land beside the door. Jogging across the room she steps into a window at the back of the room and then out onto the wall, briefly vertical. Reaching over she grabs the rope dangling past and pulls it inside. She hands the rope to Johannes before walking down the wall to where Wyatt made his dramatic entrance from the front. Slipping the adobe frament out from behind her belt she readies herself to toss it inside and make a dramatic entrance depending on Harold's answer to Wyatt.

Greetings from Florida. I'll try to check postings pretty regularly as my visiting allows. If Harold attacks, refuses, anything other than peacefully surrenders my next actions will be to toss the fragment into the room and come in swinging with the sap. I'll try to help Wyatt by flanking Harold and smacking goons and of course Harold himself as the opportunities arise.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith
HP: 63/63
AC: 25 (22+3 from Shield of Faith)

{{I'm having a little trouble trying to tell where the back of the building is at in location to Kelith, but i'm posting this assuming A) I'm already there, or B) I'll get there with my move action this round.}}

Still sticking close to the walls to fend off archers (assuming the wind wall is at the front of the building) he feels relieved to finally be at the back and able to start his part of the plan. As he starts the "fires" to scare the occupants inside the building he keeps a watchful eye out for Harold trying to make his way to the top of the building.

Spells Cast
0-2
1st-3
2nd-2
3rd-1

[mshady]

Arumfaerwed (Init 9)

The gnome watches Arman step out from behind the wall and summon a griffon, which surprised him as that was bigger than he normally managed. With a harrumph, he watches the elf toss the thing a shiny trinket. Considering the size of the elementals, he was surely not going to out summon Harold. That cranky out priest was a powerful codger, that was for sure!

With a pull of the reigns and a snap, Arum turns the snarling badger as dust and debris cloud the area. Things were getting crazy, Arum thought as he cursed his luck. Mostly his vulgarity had some sort of target; not that he needed justification. Muttering all the way, he swings his badger back out into the open and starts working another spell.

I’m feeling like fire again…

A ball of flame forms in his hand and he raises it towards the elemental. Instead of a fireball, the flame crawls up his hand. The pressure of the magic hurts a bit as he feels his exhaustion building. He thrusts his hand towards the towering elemental that looms in front of him. Twin fists of flame blaze from his hands and burst against the Elemental. The cyclone turns orange and moans as the flames scorch away clouds of smoke.

Arum does 24 pts of damage to the Air Elemental

[bchilders]

Magnum

Magnum watches on as his weapon finally seems to strike something solid, or as solid a part as an air elemental has, but then quickly asseses the best way to get a fire started.

Spiritual Weapon:[roll0]
Damage:[roll1]

I don't know what my options are for a fire and didn't want to make one up if there wasn't so I'll wait your response. I figure if there is a window within reach Magnum will break it and try to set the inside curtains on fire. Or see if there is brush outside to sart a fire from the outside. Curtains are preferable as they would cause more smoke on the inside.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Circling through the air was so horribly out of Nalrak's element that he had to stifle a laugh out of fear that his last meal would burst out as well. Something slammed into him again and he pushed whatever it was with a curse. His nausea was now turning into annoyance and anger. Damn these elementals. Damn Harold. Damn mercenaries. I hate this place...

The winds tugged at his shield, throwing him this way and that. There was no way he could cast any spell in this twister, Nalrak thought as a dark blur, that may or may not have been dwarf-shaped, whizzed by him. The only thing left, then, was to invoke that most ancient of dwarven sayings: When all else fails, hit it really hard with a hammer. And that's what Nalrak did. Taking a moment to assess his trajectory within the storm and targeting some more solid-looking air, he swings his hammer with all of his might as he passes by.

Melee Attack at the Air Elemental
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] +1 fire damage

[Rather Dashing]

Jeth looks off the edge and at the first air elemental. "I've got a gift for you, I think you're gonna like this". Jeth starts casting near the edge of the roof. After a couple intricate movements and specific words, a ball of fire forms right behind the elemental.

Counting on the suction of the air elemental, Jeth watches as the flaming sphere gets sucked into the elemental and flies around inside.

OOC, I cant figure out the damage rolls, can you take care of that for me Mike?

[mshady]

Thordek (Init 21)

Well, that went well... Tombstone's closed, useless.... Unless.....
Thinks Thordrek as he is flipped head over heels inside a tornado, an idea emerges.

Got it, better make sure I don't mess up, Moradin, make this work
He drops his shield in the whirlwind, then starts furiously casting, finishing (I hope) in a mighty two handed blow.

Using quick cast to cast true strike, then arcane channeling dimension hop.

Concentration on true strike, dc 16: (1d20+13)[22]
Concentration on dimension hop, dc 17 (1d20+13)[25]
Power attacking for -7, +14 damage: to hit: (1d20+23)[24]
damage: (1d10+18)[28]

This is going to hurt Thordek thinks just before the swing lands.

That was when he suddenly found himself upside down and snatching for his axe desperately in the air. His perfect strike has been confounded by something beyond his control. Indeed, he was flying and far beyond his own control. That he had a moment of stability was a miracle in and of itself…

Moradin’s influence apparently ended with the ground, he decided.

Hjalmar (Init 20)

Hjalmar spins inside the vortex around and around, his face turning green from the nauseating experience. "A dwarf was ne'er meant ta fly!" He shouted, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the windstorm around him. He silently swore to Moradin that he'll never willingly take his foot off solid ground ever again. In an act of willpower, Hjalmar pushes aside his nausea and takes up his hammer, using it to hit at various pockets of solid-looking air around him, hoping that he doesn't inadvertently strike an ally. All he could think about as he strikes at the elemental is what he would do when he finally caught Harold.

Attack 1 - (1d20+14)[27]
Damage 1 - (1d10+6)[16] – 5 Damage Reduction – 11 Damage
Attack 2 - (1d20+9)[19]
Damage 2 - (1d10+6)[9] – 5 Damage Reduction – 4 Damage

Tzar looks around for his master and cannot find Hjalmar anywhere. However, the boar has been well trained to handle the chaos of the battlefield, and turns his attention to the current threat floating above him. See it too far out of reach, he backs off a few paces, then charges forward, leaping into the air as he does. Once in the air, he throws his tusks once more at the lump of crazed wind, fighting for his master even when separated from his side. Unfortunately, the boar barely got off the ground before his body surrendered to the pull of the earth, and he failed to leap high enough to attack the elemental. All he can do now is snort in derision and prepare to try again.

Magnum (Init 19)

Magnum watches on as his weapon finally seems to strike something solid, or as solid a part as an air elemental has, but then quickly assesses the best way to get a fire started. As he glances back towards the newest Elemental, it recoils from the blow.

Spiritual Weapon:(1d20+8)[26]
Damage:(1d8+2)[9]

Arman (Init 19)

Arman held on to Arum as best as he could, but hislanding was painful at best when Arum finally let him go. "I thank you Arum, for at least not landing me on my head..."

Arman swiftly got up and pushed his sleeves up his arms a little. An indication he was getting ready to do casting, and didn't want his clothing in the way of this hands. From one of the pouches at his side, he gathers up a small bag and takes out a candle within it.

He placed the items on the ground, and started to weave his hands into the air, pulling energies towards him. The bag and candle begin to rise as the energies gather, and start to form in front of him into a sort of oval shape. Almost like a mirror, or portal even.

The bag and candle have a faint luminescence at this time, and Arman started to speak softly into the air in front of him, his hands grasping at energies, and his eyes staring at the glowing bag and candle, which now floated in front of his face at eye level.

"Mo cruinnigh tú Spioradálta Iolar Leon." Arman kept repeating this, drawing the energies from the air towards the bag, candle and the strongly glowing oval shape. From it a beak started appearing, followed by the feathers that surrounded it, and then with a "pop" in the air, standing before him was a silver griffon, its tail switching back and forth nervously. Its taloned feet gripped and relaxed the earth beneath it, as if it felt strange to it. Which it probably did. For the ground of the celstial plane, didn't exactly follow the same rules as the plane upon which it now stood

It opened its beak and let out a cry, lowering its front end as though to pounce, its wings folded back. Arman stood without fear in front of the griffon, only holding out a hand to stop it from attacking. "I have one task for you and one task for you only. After which, you may depart or stay as you wish, as long as no harm comes to me or those who I travel with."

The griffon stayed where it was, not shifting at all, other than its tail which switched back and forth like a whip. It seemed to understand, however, that it was bound to the task that was being set before it, because it soon calmed and sat down on its haunches, folding its wings back.

Arman nodded his head at the griffon, and also gave it a slight bow. He stood straight once more, and took something silver from the inside of his collar. "I need for you, to fly up to where the old man is casting spells from, at the second floor window of that building, and give this to him. Make sure that he sees it, and then you may leave." Arman is pointing to Harold at this time, and the griffon turns its head to watch, then looks back at Arman, its head canting to the side just a bit, and its eyes blinking.

The griffon was a little mystified as to why this elf in front of him, had summoned him to do an errand... It supposed it would do this thing. After all, the elf did say it could leave once it was done with the one task, even if he set limits upon it. The griffon jerked its head a bit, giving his assent to this task. He reached out with his beak and took the silver thing in his mouth. It tingled slightly of magical energies, but he paid it no mind. He stood up and with a beat of his wings, headed to where he had been directed...

The griffon made his way over to where the window was with an older man standing in it. Upon reaching the window, he almost flew into it, but pulled short, and jerked his head, tossing the silver thing into the old man, hitting him upon the chest, and watching as it clattered to the floor. He shrieked and buffeted the old man with its wings, and then turned from him. The task being done, he gathered the remains left of the spell that brought him here, and was gone through the oval back to his own plane.

The small bag and candle, which up until this point had been floating... fell to the ground with soft thumps, and Arman sagged. The energies it had taken, were stronger than he was used to. And with his leg like it was, he hoped it was worth it all....

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3927/griffonk.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/griffonk.jpg/)
By mshady (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/mshady)

Carmard (Init 18)

The Arcanii stands almost by himself, most of his command suddenly swept up by the Elemental. This was not a foe often encountered, so he only knew about it from the summoning that he had seen others perform. That Harold was as powerful as he clearly was surprised Carmard and a part of him feared for the old man straining himself so. A glance at the possessed whirlwind quick made that a very small part of him.

Am I going to have to kill Harold? Carmard wonders.

His eyes suddenly track a golden griffon that appeared out of seemingly nowhere. It streaks like a furious bolt of claws, beak and feathers towards where he had seen Harold.

Where did THAT come from? Carmard’s mind demands and his eyes search the battle ground. Arman stands exhausted from a spell and a hovering votive finishes its decent and rolls to the ground.

Hmm. Skill lad. Hope he does not expect more gold…

The debris swirling around him was incredible, and he could barely stand. That he had been able to see the griffon and catch a glance at Arman was a bit surprising, considering. The only safe thing he could figure on doing was a Magic Missile spell. He steps as far back as he can, away from the cloud of debris and conjures five bolts of ruby red magic energy. The balls of force strake the elemental, striking it hard. For the first time, the elemental seems to recoil from the damage it was taking. The cyclone totters from the damage, not losing velocity but control. The thunderhead with eyes that formed the head of the elemental spirit turns towards Carmard and bellows.

Time to go for a ride… Carmard says to himself. His body stiffens, ready to dodge to the side once again or be swept away with his comrades.

Gore (Init 17)

Caught up in the cyclone, Gore roars in defiance of his circumstance. He is almost mad from the confusion for a moment, his eyes blazing red with rage as his pulse thunders. If he could focus on that rage long enough, he would no doubt launch into a bloody rage which would do his friends fewer favors than his foes at this point. Not caring what he hit, the minotaur lashes out with mighty sweeps of his sword.

The first sweep of the sword is as perfect as it was unintentional. The blade cleaves through the elemental’s head. Thunder rumbles and lightning arcs as it sweeps through the heart of the elemental spirit. Clouds of black vapor coat the blade and Gore is emboldened by the damage he has just done. The cyclone itself slows and sputters, and this probably saves the elemental as Gore falls several feet before the whirlwind sweeps him back up. His greatsword, raised far over his head, bites through nothing but empty air.

Gore rolls a natural 20 with his first attack, doing 19 damage after damage reduction. His second attack is a clear miss. It does not even hit a friend, let alone a foe

Grathalmor (Init 14)

So close to the enormous Air Elemental and by himself, with the exception of Hjalmar’s leaping, there remained little that he could do. Without even a crossbow to shoot at this thrice damned elemental nor battle magic like Thordek’s, he was nearly helpless. This elemental fought smarter than the previous one, or perhaps Harold was behind its mind. It hovered above the battlefield, beyond his ability to strike at it. He was certain its massive fists would have no problem pummeling him again, however. The only way he was going to be able to hurt the thing was if it turned into a cyclone like the other and drew him into itself. From there, he figured he could hit something. Clangeddin be praised, he hoped so! Grathalmor backs away from the elemental, forcing it to move more to attack him and hope fully not his comrades in arms.

Grathalmor takes up a defensive stance and backs away from the elemental

Wyatt (Init 14)

Wyatt waves off the wimpy crossbowmen as they flee.

"Ah, I knew ya didn't have the freakin' nerve! Ya bunch of sissies." He takes a quick glance out the window, at all the madness happening outside. "Oh, man. Things are gettin' really ugly out there, m'friends. I think I see at least one dwarf learning how to fly, so to speak... any way we're gonna get down from here, Sable? Can't go through door, now can we..."

The door slams shut from below and he can hear a dead bolt groan into place as the door is pushed closed and the big bolt forced into place.

Shaking his head in frustration, Wyatt thinks things over and peers down from the window. He remembers how he felt bad for Harold earlier when he learned of him being stuck in Way Ward, but now the same man he felt bad for is now preventing them from doing the very thing that Shaundakul would smile upon - travelling. In his mind, all of this madness was leading up to something he felt was horribly wrong and backwards. There was no more time for delaying - if he did not act now, the dwarves outside would perish by the hands of Harold, and, owing his life to them, he did not see it fit that they suffer at someone who supposedly shared the same belief as he did.

Wyatt turns his head toward Sable and Joh after contemplating this for a moment. "... I'm going after Harold. Keep up if you can." With that, he turns toward them fully, stepping back and out the window, and jumping out of the window entirely! He lines himself up between the wall of the building and the wind wall Jeth threw up, reaching his buckler hand forward while turning his lower body upward in the air, like a skydiver would.

He suddenly zooms past the crossbowmen on the other floors, grabbing onto the ledge of the third floor window. He swings his legs forward toward the second floor window, right toward a crossbowman who was standing there, likely dumbfounded at not being able to shoot anymore. The last thing he probably expected was Wyatt flying through the window right at him.

Wyatt brings his feet up in mid-swing, zooming past the crossbowman's head and over his shoulder. He brings his mace hand forward, whirling the weapon around his wrist once right before impact, and swings forward on his way by! The last thing the shooter sees is a metal club whizzing toward his face.

"BONK!"

The crossbowman hits the floor, down and out. But his wounds are not lethal. Wyatt took care to avoid a vital injury.

He zooms forward, bringing his feet level with the floor and ducking and rolling on impact. He finds Harold, along with several guards also in the room, but none of that mattered. He points his mace dramatically at Harold, and delivers his speech:

"Harold! I thought you were a priest of the god of travel! What you have done is exactly the OPPOSITE of what you should be doing. Alla 'dis time, you've been holdin' us back. Why? Ain't ya SUPPOSED to allow free travel through the land? Ain't that the POINT of Shaundakul at all? To think I actually felt bad, when ya told us you were stuck here!"

He twirls his bat once more, lowering it for a moment. "I don't wanna fight ya, Harold. I don't wanna kill your men, they don't deserve to die. I took care not to wound them fatally, which is precisely what you ain't doin' for mine. But I don't want MY friends to die, either, y'know...? ... They risked their lives to save me, and now I'm returnin' the favor. I'm askin' ya, as one follower of Shaundakul to anotha'. We gotta stop this, and free up tha' open road once again. Please."

He stares up at Harold, an uncharacteristically serious look in his eyes as he waits for a reply. He gets ready to bolt, though, if he is attacked by any of the guards.

Harold (Init 9)

Before Harold and his body guards stands a small halfing he knew as Wyatt . Next to the halfing stands the majestic form of a griffon and it makes Harold’s weak heart bang for a time in his youth when he had the courage to ride such a majestic creature. He looks between the griffon and Wyatt and he hears the words that Wyatt speaks.

None of the words wave his guards a moment, give them the slightest pause. His travelling band was, as always, his loyal protectors on the road or trapped inside a town. Their swords do not waiver. Two face the griffon and two face the halfing. The three remaining crossbowmen have their weapons drawn on the griffon. The summoned beast breaths hard and paces forward. In its beak is something shiny, a piece of jewelry of some sort that Wyatt could not recognize. It was gold, like a pendant. The majestic creature sets down the shiny object and stretches its wings out wide. It flaps them again, as if was about to fly away before it suddenly fades in a cloud of blue smoke.

“Hurm” is all Harold can say in reaction to this. He looks down and his eyes widen at what he sees. Harold turns towards Wyatt next, sparing a last glance at the pendant the griffon had left.

“Fine words, and ye may even be right little halfing. Or are you a kender?” Harold says with a twisted smile but a sad look in his eyes. “I am a priest of the wandering path, young one, so I give you a gift for your bravery. The gift of flight!” Harold states calmly at first, but the stridency in his voice increases with every word.

With a sweep of his hands, Harold conjures a swirling wind around both of his hands. He thrusts them towards the unsuspecting Wyatt. A fierce gust of wind strikes the halfing square in the chest and blows him backwards and sends him tumbling out of the second story window with a scream. His hands flail through the air for a moment, from the shock of being blown out of the window. Wyatt has the presence of mind to get his short feet under him just in time and he lands hard with a roll, throwing himself to the side instead of letting his knees take the shock. Pain stabs through his knees and legs anyways, but he has saved himself from the worse part of the damage.

Wyatt falls 20 feet out of the window, but makes his tumble check and only takes 4 pts of non-lethal damage

Outside, the twin elementals continue to wreck their havoc. The first one is clearly wounded but still dangerous in the extreme. It lurches immediately towards Carmard. He is far too close to it and the elemental is far too fast for him to dodge a second time. Carmard too is swept up into the cyclone. It than alters course, swaying towards Arman and than Arum. Neither can dodge away fast enough from the onrushing cyclone either; Arman in particular has great difficulty due to the pain in his leg. Arum is separated from his badger. It claws the air and hisses in fury.

Whirlwind Damage:

Carmard - 14 dmg
Hjalmar - 10 dmg
Nalrak - 15 dmg
Thordek - 13 dmg
Arman - 11 dmg
Arum - 9 Dmg
Badger - 6 dmg
Gore - 11 dmg

The second air elemental rises into the air and its shape becomes indefinite for a moment, before suddenly reestablishing its form as another powerful cyclone. It immediately surges towards Grathalmor and sweeps the dwarven warrior up into the maelstrom. Similarly, Tzar is not thrice lucky. The war pig is swept up as well…

Whirlwind 2 Damage

Grathalmor - 11 dmg
Tzar - 9 dmg

Sable (Init 22 – Delayed to 9)

"Harold is downstairs somewhere, we were just coming in to get you." Sable chuckles and hops down to land beside the door. Jogging across the room she steps into a window at the back of the room and then out onto the wall, briefly vertical. Reaching over she grabs the rope dangling past and pulls it inside. She hands the rope to Johannes before walking down the wall to where Wyatt made his dramatic entrance from the front. Slipping the adobe fragment out from behind her belt she readies herself to toss it inside and make a dramatic entrance depending on Harold's answer to Wyatt.

Wyatt makes an equally dramatic exit as he is blown out of the door and somehow the winged horse eagle thing, a griffon, must have been slain immediately, as nothing seemed to be happening inside. Certainly not the violence and loud voices of a battle being fought.

Until Jeth and Johannes got to her, it was all going to be on her.

Sap or the rapier?

Arum (Init 9)

The gnome watches Arman step out from behind the wall and summon a griffon, which surprised him as that was bigger than he normally managed. With a harrumph, he watches the elf toss the thing a shiny trinket. Considering the size of the elementals, he was surely not going to out summon Harold! That cranky out priest was a powerful codger, that was for sure!

With a pull of the reigns and a snap, Arum turns the snarling badger as dust and debris cloud the area. Things were getting crazy, Arum thought as he cursed his luck. Mostly his vulgarity had some sort of target; not that he needed justification. Muttering all the way, he swings his badger back out into the open and starts working another spell.

I’m feeling like fire again…

A ball of flame forms in his hand and he raises it towards the elemental. Instead of a fireball, the flame crawls up his hand. The pressure of the magic hurts a bit as he feels his exhaustion building... He thrusts his hand towards the towering elemental that looms in front of him. Before he can complete the spell, he finds himself swept up into the heart of the beast. He spins and tumbles around, but holds his spell and concentration long enough to act. Twin fists of flame blaze from his hands and burst against the Elemental. The cyclone turns orange and moans as the flames scorch away clouds of smoke.

Arum does 24 pts of damage to the Air Elemental

Jeth (Init 7)

Jeth looks off the edge and at the first air elemental. "I've got a gift for you, I think you're gonna like this". Jeth starts casting near the edge of the roof. After a couple intricate movements and specific words, a ball of fire forms right behind the elemental.

Counting on the suction of the air elemental, Jeth watches as the flaming sphere gets sucked into the elemental and flies around inside. Indeed, when the elemental turns into a cycle it sucks the ball of flames right up inside it. It swirls around the inside of the elemental, scorching the elemental as the sphere burns it every moment it is inside it. The elemental moans from the pain of it and wisps of clouds and steam pour from its body…

Jeth uses a Ball of Flame spell on the Air Elemental and the cyclone sucks the ball of sphere inside itself. The Ball of Flame does 41 pts of damage to the Air Elemental, doing 12d6 damage instead of the normal 2d6.

Nalrak (Init 6)

Circling through the air was so horribly out of Nalrak's element that he had to stifle a laugh out of fear that his last meal would burst out as well. Something slammed into him again and he pushed whatever it was with a curse. His nausea was now turning into annoyance and anger. Damn these elementals. Damn Harold. Damn mercenaries. I hate this place...

The winds tugged at his shield, throwing him this way and that. There was no way he could cast any spell in this twister, Nalrak thought as a dark blur, that may or may not have been dwarf-shaped, whizzed by him. The only thing left, then, was to invoke that most ancient of dwarven sayings: When all else fails, hit it really hard with a hammer. And that's what Nalrak did. Taking a moment to assess his trajectory within the storm and targeting some more solid-looking air, he swings his hammer with all of his might as he passes by.

Melee Attack at the Air Elemental
Attack: (1d20+8)[27]
Damage: (2d4+6)[14] +1 fire damage

With a moan of pain that sounds like wind whipped through a canyon, the first air elemental groans and flies apart in wisps of solid air now turned to nothingness and wisps of clouds. The cyclone stops spinning and all in the cyclone fall 30 feet to the ground.

Falling Damage - Avg Height 30 feet

Carmard - 9 dmg
Hjalmar - 8 dmg
Nalrak - 8 dmg
Thordek - 11 dmg
Arman - 9 dmg
Arum - 7 Dmg
Badger - 8 dmg
Gore - 7 dmg[/I]

Kelith (Init 3)

HP: 63/63
AC: 25 (22+3 from Shield of Faith)

Still sticking close to the walls to fend off archers (assuming the wind wall is at the front of the building) he feels relieved to finally be at the back and able to start his part of the plan. As he starts the "fires" to scare the occupants inside the building he keeps a watchful eye out for Harold trying to make his way to the top of the building.

Tenement Crossbowmen (Init 1)

Unable to fire.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9752/harold6.jpg (http://img269.imageshack.us/i/harold6.jpg/)
By mshady (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/mshady)

http://img269.imageshack.us/i/harold6.jpg/

[mshady]

Map and damage from the cyclone coming tomorrow!

[Strangie]

"Priest of wanderin' path my AAAAAAAAAAAAA-" is all he manages to say as he is chucked out the window! He tucks himself in and ducks and rolls upon impact with a grunt, getting to his feet.

"Ow! Damn! 'dat hurt! Freakin'..." He shakes his head, standing up straight quickly and making his way back into the house. "I ain't fightin' those twisters! You shoulda listened to me when ya had the chance!"

Wyatt goes back to the building, trying to find a way back in to confront Harold...

"Sorry, Sable! I tried..."

Wyatt will attempt to get back into the house by any means necessary, without putting himself in danger of getting burned by fires or tossed around from the elementals. If he can go through the door, jump through a 1st floor window, if there is one. If Sable drops him a rope or something, he will take that as well. Either way he will be getting back inside that damn house if he can! Also, if there are any crossbowmen to be bonked on the way, he will gladly bonk them in the head, nonlethally, with a +9 bonus to attack, using Spring Attack whenever possible.

[mshady]

All of the attacking group of dwarves and their allies have either been thrown to the ground and prone or enveloped by the second twister that Harold had summoned, assuming they even had a chance to stand up. They barely have time to get to their feet before the second twister roars in to sweep them up, right after ejecting Jeth’s flaming sphere. The huge air elemental towers 50 feet into the air now, as several dwarves, a minotaur, an elf, a badger and a gnome all spin and flail inside. Carmard and Arman were both able to get of strikes before being swept up into another maelstrom. Arum tries and fails to achieve anything, but frustration and he curses his luck and contemplates using another Blast Globe from inside the elemental.

Magnum and Kelith are in position and Kelith unleashes a spray of fire through a rear entrance, igniting a pile of rags and canvas tossed haphazardly in the back. Magnum waits for the blast of fire from Kelith’s gauntlets to finish igniting the rags before poking the wand of pyrotechnics taken from the orc shaman into the building and touching it off. It only takes a moment for him to drop in the Eversmoking Bottle that Carmard gave him, and the first floor is quickly choked with smoke. He is immediately rewarded by an explosion of light, sound and fury as the fire starts exploding. Bits of rags fly in every direction and explode. The two look at each other with a mischievous as their efforts are rewarded by the surprised screams of the occupants, panicked by the sudden smoke, fire and the pyrotechnic display. Hardened soldiers they were not. The ones of the first floor make a break for it, pushing through the wall of violent wind that Jeth had laid down. The wind it blows mightily into the building itself, rapidly fanning the flames. A real inferno is a possibility…

With an electric sizzle and the sound of powerful magic being broken by an even more powerful spell, the wind wall cast by Jeth disappears in a white and silver sparkle of energy that seems like an explosion of light. Motes of green magical energy float through the air, the last remnants of the druidic spell. The only explanation is that Harold has shattered the wind wall with but a single spell.

The ones inside the remaining cyclone fight and flail about, trying to save their lives by destroying the elemental from the inside of the cyclone but it is too strong to fall quickly, and perhaps not soon enough to save them being they are thrown into unconsciousness or worse.

Smoke chokes the bottom floor of the tenement. Kelith blasts the area again with another cone of flame from his bracers and Magnum hits the burning debris with another blast of the pyrotechnics wand. The building shakes and shudders from the pseudo explosions and screaming noise of the magic. It is almost enough to deafen the two of them. Inside men scream and holler, fighting to get out. Above them on the third story, a man kicks out the barricade and him and a comrade jump to the ground. One rolls and lands painfully, the other lands with a thud and is still, yet breathing. The man who landed somewhat safely takes one look at the two clerics, Magnum and Kelith and runs for his life. Clearly the man has a broken leg, but he makes good time on one foot!

From the fifth floor, Johannes and Jeth look at each other as the building rumbles beneath them. Smoke billows out the windows and they wonder what kind of mad plan their would-be rescuers are mounting here. Real fire quickly envelopes the first floor. Sable looks down and around as she hangs helplessly from the rope, trying to figure out where exactly Harold is so she could spring directly at the old man and end the battle decisively, with either a blow to the head or her rapier through the turbulent priest’s heart or other vital organ.

That was when something quite unexpected happened…

OOC: If you want to post your reactions at this point, please do so. Another post tomorrow...

[Strangie]

As Wyatt tried to devise a way to get back into the building to confront Harold, suddenly the part of the plan where the building goes up in smoke kicks into action, and he thought better of it... the first floor being all choked up with smoke as it was, he wouldn't make it anyway.

Figuring that dealing with Harold is now completely out of the question, he quickly turns and glances toward the air elementals outside... and all of his comrades being swept up into them. He contemplated what might happen if they had all been killed by this thing, facing the very real possibility that only himself, Sable, Joh, Jeth, Magnum and Kelith - or less, if things went even more poorly - might be the only ones walking away from this alive.

Unsure what to do with himself at this point, he glances up and ducks and rolls away from crossbowmen jumping from the tenement and fleeing for their lives as they attempt to escape the burning building. He breaks off and makes his way toward Kelith and Magnum, glancing up at the elementals as they toss his allies around like ragdolls.

"Oh man... oh man... we are SCREWED," he manages to say, rubbing his sore knee from the pitfall he took after Harold chucked him out of the building. He was glad for being as wiry as he was, since the others jumping out of the building seemed to have much less luck on their landing. "I couldn't talk Harold outta his stupid little plan... I don't know what he's lookin' to achieve with this. I can't get back in there to deal with 'em so I'm stickin' with you guys..."

He worriedly looks up at Sable as she dangles there on the side of the building. He really hoped she and his other allies who were stuck on the building had some plan of escape.

Maybe being thrown from the building was a blessing after all...

[thorgrim29]

Flabbergasted and angered by his failure, Thordrek vents his frustration on the cyclone with two chopping blows
(power attack for -2, full attack)
[roll0]
[roll1]
damage 1: [roll]1d10+8[/COLOR]
damage 2: [roll]1d10+8[/COLOR]

[thorgrim29]

lol....
confirm critical:
[roll0]

damage:
[roll1]+[roll2]+[roll3]

= 41

[mshady]

Clouds of air form begin to form around the third story window of the tenement as the remaining crossbowmen run for their lives or jump from the windows as the fire, smoke and terrifying pyrotechnics rattle the building. Anyone able to look in that direction do so with great trepidation, including Sable who hangs poised from her rope waiting for an opening or a better idea than going in alone. Even Wyatt has circled around behind. Having the benefit of knowing the plan and the fire is more a small blaze than an inferno at this point, Sable yells for Johannes to follow her down the rope and away from the building. Whatever Harold was up to, she had to see about saving her comrades and Carmard from the heart of that elemental. What she could do against a 50 foot tall cyclone eluded her, but she fished out a delicate wand of polished bone and bronze wire and aimed it at the elemental. Balls of magicked energy streak towards the elemental and pound into the side of the cyclone, but for all she can tell she may as well have spit at it…

Looking up, she gasps as she sees Harold and his cohort of loyal guards stride out of the building themselves. Not from the floor level below her, but above. They are seemingly walking on thin air, save the faint traces of clouds around their feet. They walk 20 feet away from the burning tenement and stop. In his wind-blown old robes, Harold holds his hands out wide and takes a deep breath. The old man closes his eyes and releases the breath, than turns to face the air elemental. It stops spinning as fast a moment later and then slowly unspools. The main group are tossed from the center of the air elemental, but not from on high as before or as hard. The results are only bruises. For most, but that is on top of the battering they have already received.

Most rise and look about. Carmard lays face down on the ground and his face is splashed with blood. The battered Grathalmor also lays still.

Harold looks down at the group, but makes no threatening actions. His guards each hold finely made crossbows with black tipped bolts; no doubt poisoned ones. They are trained on the group below. After a long pause, Harold smoothes out his flowing robes and speaks.

“See what you made me do?” Harold says with a grave frown. “You didn’t have to attack. By the boots of Shaundakul, I swear to ye I only needed ye to stay on awhile longer!” Harold exclaims with frustration. He then pauses and takes a more considered tone.

“This… this mindless violence must end here. No more squabbles between friends, yes? Tis time for the Road to be opened. I fear what your absence may bring and I am but an old man, but your task must be of great import. You have proven yourselves friends through your deed and message, for that you have your brave kender to blame and thank. Now, lets bygones be bygones and we shalt reopen the Path aye? I am a priest of Shaundakul and too long has the path been closed” he concludes with a beatific smile.

Thrown across the ground and beyond weary or dazed from the experience, those conscience look between each other with astonishment and surprise.

What?

[Strangie]

"... Kender? ... is... is he ... talkin' about me?" Wyatt asks, to nobody in particular. "He mistook me for a kender earlier, after I got all dramatic on him, but, uh, eh heh...?"

Wyatt felt strange, being put on the spot like that. He glanced between Magnum and Kelith for a moment, scratching his head, before turning toward the downed allies on the field.

"Um... h-hey, we gotta go help them out! They're hurtin' out there!" he says, turning on his feet and running for his downed comrades and practically leaving Kelith and Magnum in his dust. For a halfling, he sure was quick. He runs to Carmard first, looking him over. His medical experience was lacking at best, though, and he merely attempted to examine his leader to see how serious his injuries were and if there was anything he could do as he dug around through what little equipment he was still able to carry for a healing potion...

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak wavers on his feet, the world still threatening to spin around him. When he finds his balance again, he brings his shield up again to face Harold, but when the priest makes no threatening gestures and instead proposes a peace, Nalrak relaxes slightly.

The dwarf expects Carmard to respond to Harold, but when he doesn't, he looks around and finds his charge lying on the ground. Startled, he quickly dashes to his side, brushing the halfling away, firmly but not unkindly. "Here, I'll take care of him," he grunts, then examines the Arcanii.

Heal Check: [roll0]

He then mumbles a prayer to Dumathoin to heal the downed mage's wounds, channeling the healing energy through his ring, augmenting the spell.

((Sacrificing one Summon Monster II to spontaneously cast Cure Moderate Wounds, and using up one charge from the Valkyrie Ring for an extra 2d6 points of healing.))

Spells Cast((although I don't know what had been used before I took over)):
1st - Entropic Shield
2nd - Summon Monster II

Turn Undead Left: 5/6

[Werewhale]

((Forgot to roll for healing))

Cure Moderate Wounds: [roll0]
Valkyrie Ring: [roll1]
Narin Oil Damage(if applicable): [roll2]

Total: 24 points of healing

[Strangie]

Wyatt stumbles back a little from the push, normally he would take offense to such a thing, but Nalrak knew what he was doing and Wyatt didn't, as far as healing others was concerned, and this wasn't really a time to begin complaining about that. His weakened state didn't really help him that much, taking a few steps back to avoid being knocked over.

"Oof. Yeah, thanks, Nalrak... wish I coulda stopped this sooner..."

He takes a kneeling position, slowly, rolling over in his mind what had just happened. Those air elementals might still be out here, tossing and turning his teammates and ultimately finishing them all off if something wasn't done. He also realized how much he physically exerted himself over the past few minutes and took the time to catch his breath.

His attention turned to Carmard, concerned and afraid that he may have not have been quick enough - and how much Buna and others would flip out once they found out - and then out of the corner of his eye he caught Grathalmore downed on the ground. He turns his head fully in that direction, pointing over there.

"Damn! Grathalmore's down over 'dere, too. Aw, no... help 'em out too if you can, Nalrak..."

He looked at the potion he had, and recalled that it didn't do him much good earlier, thanks to that stupid poison, and realized it probably wouldn't be enough to help either Carmard or Grathalmore in any case. He sort of goes into a daze, staring at the potion and thinking about everything that just occurred. This also made him think about his faith to Shaundakul, which he has revealed nothing about to the group since he has known them as he does not speak openly about his religious beliefs (or much of anything about him personally) often, preferring to show his devotion through trailblazing and exploration. He mutters, to himself, quietly, twirling the potion between his fingers...

"Aid those in need and trust the Helping Hand..."

[Melody]

Sable watches Harold walk out onto the air and frowns, letting go of the rope for a moment to reach behind her for her bow until Harold begins to speak. A look of frustration and something very close to dissapointment cross her face before she climbs back up to the room she had left Johannes in.

"Looks like he wants to be friends again Joh." She shakes her head as she crosses the room to stand beside Johannes. "Johannes, I'm going to put a featherfall spell on you. Just hop out the window, you can hold onto the rope if it makes you feel safer." She looks at Jeth. "I'm assuming you can get down on your own."

With another shake of her head Sable casts the spell on Johannes and walks around the room, slapping the guys Wyatt had knocked unconscious awake. "The building is on fire. Use the rope to climb down." She points and gestures as she speaks to make herself clear. Walking back to the window with the rope dangling outside she helps everyone get down the wall using the rope and her slippers of spider climbing.

Back from visiting relatives as of 2:40 AM. I'll probably sleep tomorrow. Talk to you again soon.

[bchilders]

Magnum

Magnum hears what Harold said but continues to move towards him as if continuing the battle at hand. When he looks around to see the others of his group, tending to wounded and taking care of themselves, he decides that discontinue hostilities. Before turning around he casts a hard glare at the old priest and moves to administer some healing towards those who were sucked up into the elemental vortex.

Don't really know who needs it most at the moment so I'll look back at the posts and find that out. I'll post the heals I use in the OOC thread.

[mshady]

Carmard groans and has a coughing fit. He painfully removes his helmet and starts another hacking cough, aspirating blood on to his gauntlet. The Arcanii rolls over and sits on his rump, than looks around at the mayhem. Dust and debris still float in the air. Blood is splashed about on the ground. Furrows have been carved into the ground from the tornado.

Oh yes, and Harold's 5 story tenament is aflame. Harold himself floats above the group with his guards, who have crossbows trained on them.

"Frak. That nay went well..." Carmard says simply. He clearly looks dazed and unfocused, perhaps the result of a concussion. Looking at his hands, he frowns. His right index finger in bent at a very unnatural angle and he regards it curiously.

"I reckon that should be straighter" he declares as he examines the crooked digit. "Nalrak lad, ye mind?" he says and offers his hand to the priest.

"Did we get Johannes out?" Carmard says, looking around for but not seeing the party's linguist. "Everyone get out o'the fire? Reckon some got knocked out..."

Carmard looks up at Harold now. He takes a deep breath and his calm Arcanii's demeanor momentarily flashes to something dark and angry.

"Next time I hope for gratitude Harold... I'll look to my dog before you or Way Ward" Carmard says darkly. His tone is sharp enough to cut glass.

From 30 feet in the air, Harold looks down at Carmard and flinches at his words.

"Lets move past that, master dwarf" Harold responds after a moment, a bit testily. "The last debate ended not in your favor, I think. We've both erred, you with your secrets, expectations of consent and your imperious nature and I..." he pauses dramatically to think of something "...and I in standing in the way of dwarf business. You did much already here and I wanted more, on my terms" Harold states, a bit sadly at the last.

"It's been a long time since things were on my terms here"

Carmard nods slowly at that.

"You tried to kill us" he responds, seething. "Words do not make that right. We go on from here, but do not expect this to be forgotten"

The dwarf's tone has a very cold finality to it.

Harold nods at that and turns to his guards.

"Neronian, Remus, check the top floors. See if anyone's left before the fire takes the place down"

The two guards nod, a tall tiefling with a black top knot of hair and the other is a gray skinned and slim, elegant looking Gith although only someone with knowledge of the Planes would know him as such. The stalk off towards the tenament fire, walking on the very air back towards the fire to rescue any of their comrades.

[Strangie]

Wyatt stares at his potion vial for a moment more before he hears Carmard stir, breathing a sigh of relief and standing up, putting the vial away. He listens to Harold and frowns, then turns to Carmard.

"Joh and Sable are okay. She's got it under control over there..." he says, scratching the top of his head. "I, um..." he glances off to the side. "Managed to get him to call 'dis madness off. Somehow. Those air elementals had it in for you guys, I thought..."

He thinks for a moment, and shakes his head. He sorely wanted to be recognized for the craziness he went through to actually pull this off, but bit his tongue for now. Diving off a window, 30 feet to swing into another window and confront Harold...

(EDIT: Will continue with more blathering after Arman's post.)

[ArmanMadero]

Arman felt the magic he had gathered leave him suddenly, and it caused him to sag. He hadn't tried that particular spell, and it had taken its toll. His broken leg didn't help matters.

He felt a breeze pick up and looked just in time to see one of the cyclones bearing down on him and Arum. They couldn't dodge and soon they were all flying.

Arman could feel the raw power in the elemental, and his whole body tingled from the magic, pure and raw, that he was feeling. He was helpless as it griped him and threw him among the currents, both physical and magical.

Then suddenly, the winds slowed, and what was once a visible cyclone of wind and energy, was becoming intangible and he was then falling. He fell hard onto the ground, landing on his shoulder and hip first (thankfully his good side) and followed with the rest of his limbs and his head.

He lay there for a moment, before moving his limbs slowly. Nothing more broken than it was it seemed. He sat up and felt a twinge. A possible broken rib, but nothing else that he could feel.

He got up slowly and looked to see Harold, a seemingly happier Harold, talking about no longer attacking and opening the portal. Arman grinned ruefully to himself, and watched as the halfling looked on in amazement as Harold tells the group, quite loudly so that everyone heard, about what the halfling had done.

Everyone wasn't moving, unsure if Harold was planning something else, or had suddenly changed his mind.

Arman took out one of the wands at his side, and pointed it at himself and said a single word a few times. Each time, a pulse of white energy would flow over him briefly, and then disipate. Arman spoke a total of 4 times and was soon walking towards Carmard and the downed Grathalmore.

Carmard and Harold seemed to be talking to one another, although Carmard was looking a little disgruntled.

[roll0] Charges from cure light wounds wand

[Strangie]

Wyatt scratches his head, thinking of something more useful to say. His attention turns to Arman healing himself with his wand.

"Man. I'm glad you're okay. I thought that elemental was gonna break somethin' else... you alright?" he asks. "We better get everybody else rounded up and figure out what we're doin' here."

[thorgrim29]

Thordrek thuds painfully to the groung in a great CLANG. He looks around with bleary eyes and wonders

Did I do that?

Then, he notices both cyclones are gone and harold is exiting the building.

Guess not.....

He gets up with a groan and pick up his things (sheild and whatever else was thrown in the cyclone. Then, figuring it might be a good idea to secure it, he sets out to find the tombstone, to make sure noone makes away with it.

I hope everyone made it, except maybe Gore, he's going to kill me....

[Melody]

Sable walks around the building from the rear after making sure Johannes got down safely. Reaching the rest of the party she runs a dusty hand through her hair leaving behind a dirty smudge on her face. She sits down in the rubble and removes the slippers, pulling on her usual boots. Banging the slippers against a rock for a moment to knock the majority of the dust off she puts them into her pack.

I'll be happy to get out of here. Shaking her head she looks up at Harold before calling up to him. If you're gonna get that standard off the roof, get my rope while you're at it. The guy tied to the other end is going to need some healing.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

After helping Carmard to his feet, Nalrak examines the bent finger to determine if it's broken or dislocated. A spellcaster's hands needed to be healthy.
Heal Check: [roll0]
Then he picks a moment where Carmard is sufficiently distracted to reset it with an audible crack, casting a minor curative in case it is broken.
"Ah right, maybe I should have warned ye about tha pain. Sorry."

(Casting a Cure Minor Wounds or two if the finger's broken. However much is needed for it to work properly.)

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

Suprised by the abrupt truce that was called Kelith stands in stunned silence for a few seconds before realizing there are more important things to be done than question Harold's sanity. Seeing the rest of his party make it out of the building, and a majority of them wounded he leaves the building to burn and turns to tend to those who need his medical skills first.

{{Not sure who needs healing, but i'll patch up whoever still needs it with my 1st-2nd levels spells. I'll leave it up to our DM to see how many casts will be needed as he knows who is injured how bad.}}

As he walks around healing there is a very evident look of repressed anger on his face, held only in check by his worry over the rest of the party members conditions.

[PId6]

Hjalmar

Not sure what happened, Hjalmar picks himself up from the ground and looks around, trying to construct whether anyone was still fighting anyone. Seeing that the fighting has stopped, he immediately runs over to Tzar to see whether the boar was alright. Feeling relieved when he saw Tzar still standing stalwart and strong, he rushes at his mount. After patting the boar on the head a few times, he says "That'll do, pig, that'll do," and finally returned his loyal mount to the celestial realms to await his call again. Afterward, Hjalmar stumbles after the others, still not sure why they're not skewering Harold yet.

Could use some healing. 38 HP here, someone wanna double that for me?

[Rather Dashing]

Jeth seeing the flames and smoke creep up the building, he decides that its time to leave the roof. He quickly changes into a hawk and takes to the air.

After flying in the air for a second or two he lets loose a couple screeches, louder than normal screeches. Then from the rubble of one of the nearby buildings a large brown bear starts to make his way to the large empty area.

Jeth then lands on the saddle of the bear, and decides that just in case it might be a good idea to stay a hawk. His bear moves toward the gathering and within earshot of the wizard that seemed to have stopped fighting.

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes climbs down the rope, and out of the building slowly. His face is blackened a bit by the ash, but unharmed. He stares stonily at Harold, as he goes on with his rhetoric. Finally, Joh steps forward and looks up at him with a stare that could break glass. "Harold. Why don't you come down to our level so we can settle things properly like two civilized individuals?"

[ArmanMadero]

Arman looks at Wyatt, and smiles. "I will feel a little better after a good Reverie and some food. The wand is helping though. Thank you for your concern. Are you all right?"

[Strangie]

"I-I think I'm okay, just got a bit of a bum knee after falling out of the building, but nothing I can't walk off. Thanks, though..." He says, shrugging. "Everybody looks terribly bitter. Augh, I'm so stupid. I shoulda said something to Harold sooner..."

He frowns, rubbing his forehead and poking at his hair with his fingers. "The path's been opened, yeah, but we nearly died for it. Damn..."

[Melody]

Sable shakes her head as she listens to Wyatt. The only stupid one was Harold. You don't take an ally hostage. Figure if it was someone with less morals than Carmard we wouldn't have been taking it easy on them. The only reason Harold isn't dead is because Carmard didn't want to kill him. It's a heck of a lot harder to take out an opponent without doing any permanent damage.

She reaches back into her pack and pulls out some trail rations and holds some out to Arman. I figure we all need a rest about now. You can gnaw on this until we can get something hot cooked up for everyone. We'll need to move away from this mess before we get settled down. Might end up drawing Hextros or the hydra if we make camp around here. Figure we might as well go back to the temple and camp out there until tomorrow. She sighs and pushes more loose hair back behind her ear leaving another soot streak on her face. I'm rambling so I must be tired. Need someone to lean on Arman? You look like you got drug face down through the abyss.

[Strangie]

"Yeah, I... suppose..."

Wyatt folded his arms, looking up toward the sky. He was obviously having a hard time dealing with this. "Hm. ... Well. Coulda turned out worse. I just want to rest right about now and recover. I still feel like my arms are gonna fall off."

He turns his mace upside down, planting it on the ground and kneeling on the ground as he relaxes there instead. "Lemme know when we're ready to go and I'll be followin', eh?"

[mshady]

The minotaur pushes himself off the ground and rolls on his back. After awhile, the half ton beast stands up and shakes its head wearily. It's armor is battered and plates are ajar from the violent twister he was just part of. As Thordek moves to secure the Tombstone case, which Gore would have to reluctantly carry, he seethes in anger and grips his sword so tightly the weapon's hilt creaks from the strain. With Thordek's back turned and not too far away, he considers making good on his threat. He judged his distance from Carmard and decided he was too closes. Seething again, the minotaur has a seat next to the rubble of the fallen wall and waits, repairing his armor as best he can. The minotaurs were fine enough wearing the armor, but they had very little idea about how it actually worked. Only master dwarven armorers and smiths. None of which had explained a thing to him about the armor.

There were good reasons for that.

[mshady]

Harold listens and watches the scene below him. Two of his guards manage to clear out the rest from the burning tenament, as well as any fallen or left on the ground. They also retrieve his tattered standard. Grathalmor, now up and about, does much the same for Carmard.

He reaches around his neck and holds up a large amulet with a multi-hued stone at its center. A mysterious rogue stone, as they were called. Something about them gave them an affinity for teleportation magic, but none here besides Harold knew more than the reputation. He tests the weight in his hand and smiles slightly.

"So much trouble... such much for so little" he says wistfully. With one last heft in his hand, he turns and tosses the amulet not to Carmard but to Johannes. He lowers himself down to near ground level but stays a reasonable distance from Johannes.

"Have your word with me, master dwarf" he says to Johannes, "but do keep your distance. I can understand your bitterness, but prefer to not... experience it with steel through my old belly. Be quick with your words. I think your leader wants to leave soon as he can" Harold says, with a half smile directed towards Carmard.

"Yes" Carmard says. His wears a very sour expression on his face by this point. "No rest here. We go through the portal and see than. We may nay even have time for that. Straight to the business that took us there"

[Melody]

Sable makes a face as she hears Carmard talk about there being no rest but seems to accept it with as much grace as she can muster. Gonna have to rest soon or we won't be good for anything other than bleeding, but you're the boss. We'll do it however you say. She heaves herself to her feet and walks over to Arman to give him an arm to lean on if necissary.


Edited to change "give him a hand up, to an arm to lean on," since Arman was already standing.

[mshady]

Carmard looks at Sable, studying her for moment and her body language. He takes a deep breath and sighs. The question actually seemed to make him bristle a little and he tries to internally decide if its insubordinate or a fair question. He tensed than relaxed before sighing heavily.

"I'm aware, Sable" he states, than gestures towards the area where he had been layed face down in the ground and the dark blood on the ground there. His nose still dribbles blood from the impact.

"I'd rather quit this place as soon as I can. We'll see which way the vein runs when we get to Sigil. This... matter" he says, his face twists like he just ate a particularly sour lemon, "has delayed us greatly. We'll leave Harold to the tender mercies of the rest of his problems"

To accent that particular point, he points off towards the towering columns of smoke. The hydra circles above it now and dozens of gouts of flame belch forth.

He smiles slightly and looks up at Harold.

"Good luck with that one" he says. He chuckles quietly to himself, a vaguely malicious gleam in his eye.

Harold does not return that smile.

"Indeed..." he replies quietly...

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes sighs, unbuckling his blade and dropping it to the ground, setting his spectacles on. He stares at Harold with the same stare. "Your belly isn't worth my steel, or any other part of you."

[Strangie]

Wyatt cringes at the sight of the hydra.

"Is 'dat one of the freakin' things you guys took down? Daaaamn... we had it easy, apparently."

Wyatt sighs at the chance of no rest. "I can't even carry my own pack. How am I supposed to use my stuff? Unless Sable wants to bring me my bow every time I wanna use it, take my weapon from me, and then put that back in there, right in the middle of a fight, I dun think it's gonna work out, man. But, whateva. I'll roll wit' 'dit I suppose, yeah? Let's just go, anywhere but here is good. 'specially with that freakin' thing flyin' above our heads."

[mshady]

Harold turns to Johannes with the kind of indignation one might give to a someone they considered to be pestering them while they might be doing something else. With a sigh of resignation, he allows the spell to lower himself to ground level. Little whirlwinds of air swirl around his feet as he walks, throwing up dust as he walks over to Johannes. No longer walking on the air itself, he now walks more like an old man; small steps, almost shuffling forward.

Still a tall man at over 6 ft, he stands close to Johannes and draws in deep breath. He looks down at the dwarf, making eye contact and it is a gaze of powerful intensity, befitting not so much an old man but as a powerful cleric flush with the blessing of his God and recently using it.

"Johannes, was it?" he says. His tongue darts out and licks his chapped lips and he frowns slightly. "I understand ye have reason to have words with me, but know I did what I thought best at the time. Speak your mind, but I think its all best for us to just... move on now, yes? If you must say these things to allow yourself to move on... well, I'll listen" he says, than crosses his arms across his slim chest framed by his brown robes.

Carmard stands 10 feet away now, with his own arms crossed and watching intently.

Indeed, everyone is watching now.

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes makes a fist, looking at it, clenching it, then sighs. "Well, I was going to beat you bloody for all the things you put me through- not only me, but the others as well- but I suppose the moment's lost. Do your business, Harold. Do it, and then do your god's work- travel. Travel far away from here. If I ever see you again, I'll make it so that your next journey will be your last." He says this with distaste and resignation, picking up his swordbelt and turning away from the man. "Let's go, lads."

[Melody]

Sable nods at Carmard. I'll be happy to get out of here as well. Can't blame you for wanting to make tracks as fast as possible. It isn't like we've been very welcome in Wayward. She smiles and walks over and pats Johannes on the shoulder. Let's get moving Joh, I'll buy you a drink when we get to the other side.

[ArmanMadero]

PS sable.. Arman is already standing... :)

Arman nodded at the out loud thoughts of Sable and Wyatt.

No rest. Arman wasn't sure how much further he would get without any rest. But, then again he was an elf, and didn't need much.

He still had a matter to attend to however. He looked to where Carmard, Johannes and Harold were all talking, and taking a small breath. Started to make his way over.

He waited until Harold and Johannes were done talking, hearing the threat in Johannes's voice as he told Harold what he should do with his remaining years, and the blood sightly drain from Harold's face. It was hard to tell in the light and smoke though.

Arman walked over to Harold, now that they were done talking and Johannes and Carmard were near, but talking to one another. "A moment Harold?"

When harold looked at him, Arman nodded to him, but didn't state his name. "I think you may have something of mine. It was a reminder from the Lady that I sent with the griffon."

Arman waited, shifting from his bad leg a little so not much pressure was being put on it. He dreaded having it rebroken...

Mike - PM

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

"Righ', everyone! Anyone having difficulty standing and walking, lemme have a look at ye and heal ye quickly before we go." Nalrak announces to the group, and adds in a mutter "With our luck, we'll probably get attacked by zombie dragons as soon as we step out of that portal..." then clears his throat, belts his hammer and grasps his holy symbol, ready to heal his comrades with the power of his god.

((Sacrificing what's left of my 1st and 2nd level spells to heal anyone who needs it.))

Spells Cast so far((As far as I know)):
1st - Entropic Shield
2nd - Summon Monster II

Turn Undead Left: 5/6

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

Turning to Nalrak, "I'll take a zombie dragon over a raving, lunatic, old man drunk on false power any day; but aside from all the verbalization of contempt for the old man, we need rest.

Whether we take it on the other side as Carmard suggests or do it now I care not."

[Rather Dashing]

After seeing everything calmed down and 'some' order restored, Jeth feels safe turning back into his normal halfling form, sitting in his saddle on his brown bear. He sees the people heading toward Nalrak for healing, and rides that direction to help out with some healing as well, using level 1 and 3 healings that can be cast.

****4 lvl 1s (cure light) and 2 lvl 3s (cure moderate)****

[Melody]

Sable reaches into her pack and pulls out a second pack almost identical to the first one. Reaching into it she pulls out a smaller short bow and affixes it to a snaffle so that it hangs just below her own on her back. Rolling her shoulders and giving herself a small shake she tests how the bow lays on her back. Deciding it was unlikely to get into her way or hamper her movements she stows the pack back into her own. Wyatt, if you need the bow, just give it a tug. The closure on that is a snap, so it will open if you tug on it. Otherwise I can just hand it to you. As far as arrows go you can use mine. She chuckles. I might need to bend down so you can get your hand in the quiver, but we'll figure out something.

Sorry you spent all your money by the way. She rubs her hands together in anticipation. Sigil. You don't know how many stories I've heard about that place. Sure a lot of them ended in somebody's gruesome death, but the stuff they have for sale there. She grins. Well worth the risk.

[Strangie]

It takes a moment to register in Wyatt's brain that someone is talking to him, as he stares over at Harold. He looks up at Sable after a moment as she speaks, standing up straight, twirling his mace and putting it away.

"Hmm? Ah, yeah... thanks a bunch, 'preciate it. Once I get my strength back, I should be good, heh, but, ah, yeah, thanks for helpin' me out in the meantime..."

He rests one elbow in his hand, tapping his chin with a finger. "Hmm. Pity I spent my money, yeah. Was worth it for my new weapon, though. Once I get some coin again I know exactly what I wanna get at least, don'tchoo worry about 'dat."

He lowers his hands, putting them in his vests pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels. "Problem is, I don't think I'm gonna be gettin' coin for a while, so there ain't much I can do about 'dat, huh. Unless Buna walks up to me again with a sack of gold like she did in Faithholme."

He thinks back for a moment, and recalls when Sable was talking to him about making the cut back in the orc caves...

(Initiate grey-scale flashback scene!)

Sable stands over Wyatt, checking over her gear after everybody had cleaned out the orc cave."Careful what you volunteer for Wyatt. I'm not saying that you couldn't hack it or anything, but if you're going with us I want to know I can count on you..."

Wyatt listens to her speak as she explains that this will be dangerous work, but merely shrugs and nods. "I might not look like much now but I can assure you that I will repay a debt owed, providing you all let me."

(Actual quotes from previous posts. :smalltongue: End flash back)

Wyatt grins a little, slowly, and looks up at Sable after recalling that event.

"So, Sable. Any doubts I can still hack it or that you can count on me?"

[mshady]

After Harold and Johannes part company, Arman walks up to the old priest. The mage indicates he wanted to speak to Harold about matters of import and is cut off mid-sentence by Harold, who is irritated that someone else wants to have words with him about matters. Arman patiently continues and Harold's mood slips to one of benign tolerance before heatedly replying to Arman about the ethics of summoning elementals and some such.

The two move farther out of ear shot and speak with quiet tension, exchanging verbal salvos. At one point, Harold reaches out and swats Arman's crippled leg and waggles his finger in the elf's face. The conversation continues for a short time after and the tension seems to lower. Now Arman is the one listening intently to Harold's words, nodding his head. The conversation comes to an end with Arman saying something quietly to Harold and placing a hand on the old priest's shoulder. He seems to regard it as an unusual, unexpected gesture. A few more words are exchanged before Arman limps away.

[Conversation RPed out in MSN]

[thorgrim29]

Cringing, his shield back on, Thordrek walks up to the minotaur.

Gore, I know you're angry right now, but I had to make a decision, and it seemed like a good plan at the time. The point is, my plan didn't work and I'm sorry about that, and if you have issues about that bring it up after the mission right now we have a duty. now let me take care of that armor, I'm a fair hand with blacksmith tools

[Melody]

Sable chuckles. You remember that huh? She makes a serious face as if she is giving the matter some thought, stroking her chin in mimicry of an old man with a beard in deep contemplation. Looking over at Wyatt out of the corner of her eye she starts laughing. Nope, no doubts at all. You might not be able to carry your pack around, but you can sure carry your weight. That one guy's head bounced off of the floor so hard it hurt me! She laughs even harder at the thought.

[Strangie]

"Ayup, sure do." Wyatt snickers a little. "I'd go and give Harold another piece of my mind, but I already let loose in the building when I swung myself in there, and Carmard looks like he wants to bail outta here. I hope you saw 'dat. 'dat was probably one of the craziest things I've ever done in my life. 'dere were like eight guys plus Harold in 'dere, too."

Wyatt slowly removes his hands from his pockets, simply shrugging a little. "... But when it comes to what I believe in..." He glances around at his staggering friends a little, as he speaks. "... and when it comes to either us walking away from this in one piece, or potentially losing a lot of our guys, it just..."

Wyatt looks down, scratching the back of his head a little. "I couldn't just stand around, y'know? Had to do somethin'. And I had to do it quick, or else... yeah. Eh... I think I'm startin' to ramble, heh. I say we hit 'da road already before I get all sentimental or somethin'."

[mshady]

The group spends several minutes collecting themselves and pieces of gear and equipment that are strewn around the area. Everyone checks each other's armor from the beating they took in the whirlwind, adjusting it to fit once again.

More than anything else, the ones who survived the twisters are frankly sore beyond belief and the throbbing only gets worse with time and the adrenline wearing off.

Thordek's attempted reapproachment with Gore ends about as well as the meeting could be expected. The massive minotaur listens to the dwarf with barely controlled rage about what he had just went through and his promise of retribution towards Thordek for ordering him forward. Instead of replying verbally, the minotaur stalks off towards the Tombstone casing that lays near the ruined building wall. On his way past, a massively armored fist reaches out and grabs Thordek by the helmet. The minotaur's hand is as big as the helm and pushes down and away from himself, sending Thordek to the ground faster than he can react or thought the minotaur could move. Seeing this, Carmard and several others spring from their resting places, ready to defend their comrade from the mercenary.

Gore continues walking though and takes up his burden once again. He stands apart from the group, his glare not leaving Thordek.

Harold watches the situation from a distance. His guards have all rejoined him now as the tenament has now turned into a blazing inferno at this point. Several of the crossbowmen, the ones that can still walk after exiting the building, make their way to Harold. He tends to the wounds amongst his own people, and appears rather taxed by the effort until he has them all gather in a group around him and he casts a curative spell with some sort of radius.

Clever, most of the priests in the dwarven group may think.

After half an hour, Harold walks out alone towards the edge of the rubble. In his hand is a multi-colored rogue stone set in an ornate amulet. He holds it up in the air for all to see at the Block House. It does not take long for them to see it, but the response takes several minutes. Eventually, a flag starts waving in an unfamilar pattern as a humanoid atop the fortification signals them.

Several more men have joined him, manning the scorpion ballistas and a catapult crew is present now. It is hard to see much else due to the high pallisade, but the sounds of troops marching around in there can be heard as well.

Satisfied it was safe to approach, Harold waves to the dwarven group.

"Safely we can approach now" he says, but he wears a sardonic smirk. "Unless they think to just shoot us down on the approach. It's happened before" Harold says, a trace bitter now. His feeble arm stretches out towards a heretofore unnoticed collection of skeletons. Several iron bolts stick out of the ground, having perforated the dead.

"We should be safe. They only wanted food. We have a key. Hmpf"

[thorgrim29]

That went about as well as my plan earlier

Thordreks gets up, dusts himself and walks towards the group, slightly favouring the leg he landed on. He wants to get a few words in with Carmard before the minotaur is too close.

I figured the tombstone had about even chances of dismissing the elemental, so I ordered Gore towards it but it picked us up before we could take it out of it's casing, and the big guy is none too happy, at least he didn't attack me. I'm pretty sure he's underestimating my skills, but that's still not a fight I'm sure to walk away from. Frankly, that one is about a hair's width away from being uncontrollable, his effectiveness nonwistanding, I suggest he be reasigned to the armies, and I'm not just saying that because he wants to kill me. And I'd appreciate to know what just happened when we get some rest.

He then follows the group to the blockhouse.

Let's just hope they don't forget who they're working for.

((Thordrek is wounded, but less then most, so if anyone has a spare CLW spell he won't say no, if not he'll cope))

[mshady]

Carmard listens to Thordek as he sits on the ground wearily, eating from a bag of nuts and dried fruit he had brought.

When Thordek is done speaking, Carmard continues to munch away on the food stopping only after he had taken a drink from a water skin. No one was really sure WHY Carmard always waited so long to reply to almost everything, if it was his intention to assert himself by making others wait or he simply was thinking things through and speaking carefully.

"Well..." Carmard finally says, with a frown. "I can't assign him back to the Legions. That be where he came from. Gore, and most o'the rest of them... discipline and them fit as well as..." he stops to think of an appropriate metaphor... "elves buggering kobolds" he says, smiling at the extreme metaphor he had chosen. "Buggering" jokes were not something a senior officer really made often. "So no... we cannot do that. He's an extreme example o'why we generally keep them seperate from everyone else we do nay ask them to kill. This..." he gestures absently to the surronding area "...is odd for dwarf business"

"Also... Glorian assigned them to protect the Stoneburner, from everyone including us. The Stoneburner I subsequently lost and sent on a cross-planes flight and killed Tolrin's psion. Even if it be recovered, I may be able to explain it but no one will be... happy with me" Carmard says and sighs at that prospect.

"Now look at things from Gore's perspective? He, Kerrick and the other two all have to answer to Glorian. For losing it, for not fighting hard enough to prevent what I had to do, and so on. Nevermind I gambled with their lives, the weapon nearly killed two of them, trapped them and I almost left them. Gore's also been roasted by a Hydra and not fully treated AND took a spin in the twisters with the rest o'us. Nevermind that he's commited to a near suicide attack followed by one or two more and I rendered him helpless. All this in a week? He is assigned to Glorian, along with the rest. After the assassination, she's had minotaurs with her all the time. No dwarf would help them, and they'd have no support of any dwarf for acting against her. A harsh logic but I cannae fault it" Again, a frown.

"So, I reckon he has cause to be testy and it tis our burden to bear such things. Remember to that he is not a dwarf. Indeed, few o'his race are even intelligent enough to read and that they are a better class of slave to us owing to their defeat and chosing submission instead of eradication. The Patriarch himself knew this when he accepted their services, that they would be nearly as much trouble as they are worth... and yes, I reckon a couple of dwarves or mercenaries have fallen to a minotaur's axe over the years"

Carmard sighs heavily again and take a drink.

"Few even know of such incidents. Rightly so, what three to five hundred of them can offer is more than a few of us may be worth. That we bleed our coffers white supporting them and they are so rarely used makes people wonder about their purpose.

They have honor enough in battle, but if he catches you alone somewhere in a way I cannae prove it was him, you'll be a head shorter. You have about... an even chance against him. So be careful"

"With that pleasant thought, lets go talk to a couple of hundred OTHER mercenaries that want us all dead and be glad that beast is at least not on someone else's side"

[bchilders]

Magnum

Magnum tends to the rest of the wounded, no matter how minor their injury may be and gets ready to begin the next leg of their journey. He hopes their stint in Sigil ends quickly so they can get back to the battle on their world. There is not many fights that Magnum likes walking away from.

I'll cast my 3 cure lights and I have 30 charges left of the wand of lesser vigor. Let me know how many will top off the rest of the party.

[Katasi]

Arum sits quietly to the side and watches.

[thorgrim29]

Right, see the psychopathic overgrown bovine's side of the story....

Mumbles Thordrek under his beard

Clearer


Be fair with yourself, it was a gamble to be sure, and one we're not sure yet we won, but that devil would have torn us apart. Still, regarding this whole business, I have... concerns shall we say? While innovation and practicality are great virtues, when not balanced with temperance and caution they become recklessness and ruthlessness. The Patriarchate is remarkably progressive in most things, and I beleive a force for good, but sometimes this can be a weakness, and so here we are chasing a murderous proto-god with the help of allies who would gladly turn on us at the first occasion. Talking of untrustworthy mercenaries, here we are...

Seeing the mustering of the company, he shouts out to the guards.

I am Arthur, king of the Britons, I wish to speak to your master

Now then, that's no way to greet your new employers

[mshady]

Smiling slightly at Thordek's response, Carmard shakes his head.

"It is one thing to see someone's side of things. A boon to yer own perspective, no doubt. An old dwarf once told sometimes all someone wants is acknowledgement, so at least they know you know. There's really no key to anything with Gore, save having Kerrick around and he be his own kind of problem. Bluster and threats aside, he is a bull after all, he rather enjoys his privledges and he'd keep Gore and the other two in line for his own pride of position" Carmard states as he walks.

"That old dwarf was the Patriarch himself. He has visited Barakbarr a time or two and we feasted with him. It was after the crossing of the Sundabar River with the boys from Feldbarr to help the Battlehammers when Obould invaded. The giants threw stones at the boats as we rowed across that damn river.

We were part of a flanking landing, but I watched two boats of Forgemark, one swamped and one struck directly. Cost us 10 Legionnaires and an Arcanii before we even landed. It was a heavy cost ashore as well, but not as bad as Feldbarr and we have a few priests capable of returning the fallen to life. Well, that and the benefit to a diamond source. I think ye two would enjoy talking philosophy, I fear his love for it parallels his theology. You sound not unlike him."

Carmard starts walking again, across the broken rubble and curses as he twists his ankle a bit.

"How progressive are we though?" he pauses. "We made a Stoneburner. The Patriarch gave it the same conjumen as his very own hammer, and the most of an ancestor who was our most ruthless Crusader, save Taark Shanat the Great Crusader, also his ancestor. They purged the Kingdoms of followers of Diirinka and Dinkarazan. He poured molten metal down their throats and smelted weapons from their ashes.

"A reign name is chosen for one who's legacy most speaks to your purpose. The Patriarch's name, Hignar, has never been so invoked since the time of the first, it is feared so I am told.

The choice is a warning. We made a Stoneburner. Even I do not know to what end. So are we progressive, as you say? Or is it a profound pragmatism? Think on that, Thordek. I may not have the answers, but I have trust and faith. It may not be for us to know a grand purpose.

We hunger to know, but how often are we so burdened by knowing everything? It is wise to only say what someone needs to know. I respect that wisdom. Sometimes even doing right can cause great harm. A truth as spoken and as a paradox"

With that Carmard leaves Thordek to his thoughts and returns to the head of the formation crossing the rubble.

[Strangie]

Wyatt nods to Sable with a knowing grin as he walks along with his group. "Sure did. Bonk! Just like 'dat. Anyway... we gonna go face off against Hextros and his goons now? I'm havin' a hard time keepin' track of what happened with 'dem. Either way, looks like it'll just be more fighting." He rubs the back of his head, wincing an eye and frowning. "Not really lookin' forward to 'dat. But, y'know, guess we gotta do what we gotta do... y'know?"

[Melody]

Sable keeps pace with Wyatt as she speaks to him in a quiet tone making sure that Harold is out of hearing with a covert glance before she speaks.

Hopefully there won't be a fight. Hextros wants to get off of this rock as badly as we do. Right now I'm actually sympathizing with him. If I had to deal with Harold as much as he has I'd probably be tearing people to shreds myself. Odd to feel sympathy for the devils, but there it is. Reminds me of that saying, with friends like Harold who needs enemies? Keep your eyes open, we'll just have to do the best we can and hope it doesn't come down to another fight.

[mshady]

The group walks through the “No-Man’s Land” between the Block House and the remains of Way Ward that had not been razed by the mercenaries as they cleared out the area. The area has been burned and smashed to dust by hammers and catapults. Skeletal remains of man and beast can be found around the area in places. It is a grim reminder of the crimes that the mercenaries had committed in Way Ward. That the situation had perhaps been worsened by Harold’s intransigence was something that made anyone who thought deeply about matters even more bitter about the situation and Harold as well.

As they get closer to the Block House, how it was constructed becomes more apparent. With the lack of building materials in the area, the building had been constructed from the fragments of the buildings that were razed and mortared together. It gives it a very cobbled together appearance.
Any stone mason would weep at such a sight, or perhaps feel compelled to tear the building down as a service to their profession.

The palisades are dotted with skulls and a couple bodies are impaled from the bottom upwards in front of the main gates. It is a grizzly reminder of who they were dealing with; in Carmard’s case a grizzly reminder of who he just hired.

The group stops outside the palisade. A quarter to scorpion ballistae are trained upon them now, so the group makes sure to spread out and form a line instead of a column so no more than one of them might be impaled by a bolt. From the size of them, there is no doubt any wound would be most grievous.

Nothing happens for several minutes, as the mercenaries force them to wait outside. No doubt they are making a point of making them wait, but no one sans Harold complains. The fact that three of the scorpions are trained personally on him now might have something to do with it. He casts an irate glare in their direction.

“What a vile place this be. I’ll spend many a day sanctifying this place to free it of the filth here, or we’ll face a horrid problem from the undead spawned by such savagery. Bloody monsters…” Harold mutters.

Finally, the gates swing open and a tall humanoid with a cloak and a cowl rides forth on another Nightmare. The ground smokes as its fiery hooves scorch the ground below it. Twenty halberd wielding troops march out behind him. Each looks much more burly than the ones seen previously and their armor seems to be in decent repair.

“Now then, that's no way to greet your new employers” Thordek comments sardonically at the display.

“Where’s Hextros?” Carmard demands.
“Dead hopefully” Harold says, his tone bitter. Carmard gives him a withering glare.

The cowled fiend laughs, either at the question itself or the exchange between the two leaders. It’s a chilling, malicious laugh.

“Our... Dear Leader is inside by the portal, waiting for The Great Harold to finally grace us with his presence. So long we’ve waited for you. A pity our preparations for you have gone to waste. Mayhaps we will come back for a visit sometime? Like that, I would...”

It reaches down and touches a stringer of skulls of several races that serves as a grizzly belt for the creature. It seems to pet them.

Harold jaw locks in fury and his brow furrows. He shakes with fury and his eyes become glazed over with a faint golden light as his rage at the devil. With one barb, Harold was already nearly provoked to action.

“Trespass here again and hazard yer life, devil” Carmard replies with cold fury. “It’s not allowed”

The devil roars with laughter. Brilliant orbs of yellow brighten beneath the cowl.

“As if!” he sneers. “We’ve been here quite long enough. Our terms with our dwarven employers forbid it, and thus is so. Catch ye outside of this place, old man, and I promise the most horrible death for your trouble. Even that would nay be compensation for the burden of simply dealing with ye again. May you die old and miserable!”

The Nightmare snorts at his rider’s last words. A tongue of smoke billows from its nostrils. What sort of hell spawn exhaled smoke?

"I am called Volkros and I'm no devil” he states and removes his cowl, revealing a face that is a horror to behold. It is dark skinned and slim with an almost freakish, elongated head. It had bulbous yellow eyes and Volkros's smile reveals sharp, pointed fangs.

Looking upon the creature is like beholding evil and cruelty personified.

“Now you go inside” it says, with its scratchy, dark voice. “We’re been waiting for you. All of you” it purrs. It's snake like tongue licks its lips. It occurs to everyone at that point that the creature had not actually spoken a word.

It was speaking directly into their minds.

It gestures to the crumbled gateway into the barracks and portal room. It looks very dark in there...

[Strangie]

Wyatt frowns deeply at the freakish newcomer He had still been carrying his mace in his other hand, for that he was glad. Holding it gave him at least some sense of security as it was the only real weapon he had at the moment, given his weakened state.

He especially did not like the fact it was speaking to him telepathically. He gazed at the beast, trying to discern what it was. If it wasn't a devil, a half dragon perhaps? He had heard, and encountered, such creatures before. He had worked with one during his career as a mercenary, but even he wasn't as ugly as this guy.

"Feh. Got the feelin' we're just jumpin' out of one firepit into another..."

He peered at the darkened room the creature had gestured to before the team moved on, trying to discern what lay before them with his keen senses. The whole thing made him noticably uneasy, but he kept his cool and move along with his team when they were ready.

[Melody]

Sable's gaze takes in everything though she appears compeletely at ease as she surveys the area. Her movements are relaxed and an amiable expression seems frozen on her face. She looks at Volkros with a smile as it denies being a devil and reveals itself. If its telepathic speech disturbed her you couldn't tell it by her expression.

Well then, we wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting would we? She pulls her goggles out of her pack and places them onto her head without pulling them down over her eyes then brushes ahead of Wyatt and into the darkened entranceway.

Totally bluffing on the nonchalance, but I figure Sable is going by the, "Never let them see you sweat" rule. She's scouting ahead so to speak. She'll pull the goggles down if it is dark enough to need them.

[Strangie]

Wyatt is pushed aside for a moment, shaking his head. He rests his mace on his shoulder, jogging to catch up with Sable to aid in the scouting. Even if he didn't have darkvision, he had some wickedly keen ears, so anything Sable didn't hear, he would.

"H-Hey now, can't have one and a half sneaks without the half, y'know?"

[mshady]

Remaining stoic at the revelation of what the Lieutenant looks like, he leans toward Harold and asks him an obvious question quietly.

"What is that?" Carmard asks in a whisper.
"Not a devil" Harold replies simply.
"Aye, I have ears..." comes the dwarf's tart reply.
"It's a Yugoloth of some kind, and a powerful one at that" comes Harold's reply. "That's worse"

Carmard steps away and mutters something about encountering a whole folio of fiends on this trip and none too happy about it.

Before he can say anything, Sable steps forward and smiles at the Yugoloth.

"Well then, we wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting would we?" comes Sable's reply.

"Brave lass" Carmard says to himself.

"Indeed not" it rasps. It's lips peel back in a smile, revealing the rowers of pointed teeth. "Come into my domain" it says, gesturing inside.

Wyatt and Sable head into the Block House...

[thorgrim29]

A yugoloth, mercenaries in the Blood war right? Fitting.

Thordrek follows the rest in

At least Gore will have other things to think about then creative ways of dismembering me

[Gorgondantess]

“As if!” he sneers. “We’ve been here quite long enough. Our terms with our dwarven employers forbid it, and thus is so. Catch ye outside of this place, old man, and I promise the most horrible death for your trouble. Even that would nay be compensation for the burden of simply dealing with ye again. May you die old and miserable!”


Johannes narrows his eyes at the yugoloth, standing proud towards him. He gives him the same look he gave Harold.
"Now, listen up lad, the only being who's going to be ending that old man is me. The sentient who gives him a horrible death'll get twice what they gave out." He doesn't seem cowed at all by the yugoloth, putting on an air of confidence. Naturally, he was about to soil himself in fear of the thing.

As Sable, walks by, he grins. "The girl speaks true." He walks past the daemon, not giving him another look.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak involuntarily grabs his holy symbol as the yugoloth is revealed, and a prayer to Dumathoin dances on the tip of his tongue before he controls himself. Seeing Carmard's stoic response gives him courage and he releases his symbol, and rests his hand on his hammer instead, tapping it lightly with an armoured finger, producing a small, rhythmic clanking sound.

He sticks close to Carmard, as always, and only enters when he does.

[PId6]

Hjalmar

Upon seeing the fiend, Hjalmar immediately places his hand on his sword, even as his other hand reaches for his Holy Symbol in preparation for a prayer to Moradin. However, he notices with shock that none of the others are attacking this foul abomination. He considers smiting the fiend anyway, but decides that he could not risk the lives of the group just for this. Scowling at the fiend, he follows the rest in, always keeping it in the corner of his eye as he does, his hand never leaving the hilt of his blade.

[Melody]

The corridor is dark and stripped of the torch brackets that used to line the walls, leaving lighter patches where the smoke had not darkened the stone. Beyond the entryway various nefarious looking creatures line the walls giving those in the front an evil glare. Bags and packs stand at the ready and makeshift weapon racks stand empty. This was an army ready to march.

Sable's footsteps are silent as she walks slowly down the hall and further into the building. She keeps one eye closed for the count of three slow heartbeats and then opens it to allow her to see in the faint light from the entrance. The affable expression remains fixed on her face and she nods as Wyatt speaks without turning back to look at him. Hextros and his lieutenants wait at the far end of the corridor standing beside what looks like a fallen down stone arch covered in runes. Even the nightmare is standing there waiting for the party's arrival, a random wisp of smoke rising from its nostril. Her stomach was doing flip flops as she drew closer, but her eyes meet those of Hextros and she smiles and nods to him. At a respectable distance she stops and waits for Carmard to again take the lead turning partially to give him room to pass without being crowded by those lining the corridor.

[Strangie]

Wyatt stares at the fallen stone arch.

"Did they break the portal...? 'dat can't be good if that's true..."he thought to himself.

He stood aside along with Sable to let his commanding officer take the head of the group once again. He brushes his hair aside and gives a sidelong glance up at Hextros as he waits for Carmard to step forward and address him.

He thought to himself. "Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Why is everybody in this damn band of thugs so freakin' ugly. And I thought I had it bad."

[mshady]

The group walks in behind Sable in a line, wary of what they are walking into. They see mercenaries standing about, preparing for their final muster in Way Ward. Busy though they may be, they take the time to let the dwarven company know how welcome they feel.

Harold's five guards stay especially close to the old man, along with Carmard, Grathalmor and Nalrak as he holds the literal key to their exit. The old priest's entrance earns jeers and snarls from the mercenaries, who line the halls to watch Harold's entrance. In the several months in Way Ward, most knew of Harold rather well and often in person. Held in check by the threats to the citizens of Way Ward, it was largely left to those citizens to fight off the mercenaries whenever they could. This often resulted in Harold having to treat both sides. That many left his care alive, but too weakened to fight for some time after caused a great deal of animosity on top of the fact that Harold held the portal key. Given half a chance, any one of the Blood Company mercenaries would rip him to pieces if they could.

Volkros the Yugoloth is the last to enter, followed by his detachment of troops and his Nightmare. When he enters, he dismounts his fiendish steed and rather than hold its reins he lets it walk freely. It's movements are not very equine at all, but more like a massive, sinious cat. It strikes anyone else as frankly unnatural, on top of all of the other reasons to consider it such.

Gore walks between Carmard and Harold's company and the Nightmare and its rider, voluntarily acting as a bodyguard between the two.

Hextros says nothing as the group enters the portal chamber. His arms are crossed along his massively armored chest. The fiend's armor still bears the marks from Sable's arrows and the armor is in a seriously degraded condition. For that matter, Hextros still looks hurt but still quite capable.

Gore's entrance draws a look of interest from Hextros, who smiles at the minotaur now that he has had a closer look at him.

"My, what a specimen you are. A minotaur in service to these dwarves? Do they pay you enough gold to go so against your nature?" Hextros queries.

Gore tips his head to Hextros and grunts.

"Gore serves because he must" is all the minotaur says in reply, his voice rumbling. His tone seems none too pleased with that reality.

"Maybe we make you a better offer? You're a bull, but they must treat you like an oxen or a rothe, yolked to do their work. Think on that before we part. Your ferociousness and lust for battle will find a home here that indulges your nature far better" Hextros says, a broad smile on his face now.

Gore looks at Carmard first than Thordek with a smoldering gaze, than back to Hextros.

"I will, when time is right" comes the minotaur's reply. He grunts again and crosses his arms across his chest, matching Hextros' pose.

Carmard frowns at that answer deeply and he twitches in anger.

"Now Harold... so good to see you" Hextros says with a sarcastic snarl. "You've been.... missed"

The massive half fiend thumps over to the rubble that was once a portal. He taps the rune carved key stone with an armored boot.

"Good that ye brought dwarves. It takes your key and magic and a few good masons to get this working. Oh!" he pauses dramatically, and holds up a finger.

"Did I mention if ye can not fix this, I'll kill all of you? No? Well, now I have. I like to motivate"

Harold looks at him and at the rubble, than blanches as Hextros grins broadly...

[thorgrim29]

Thordrek shares a concerned look with the others when he sees the pile of rubble that was once a portal. he hooks his tumbs on his belt and speaks out.

Now, I may not be an expert on portals, but it seems to me that while hitting people when they do not cooperate can be a valid tactic, that logic might not extend to reducing delicate, ancient magical contructs to rubble because you don't have the key. Destroying things tend to break them you know. Do any of you have any idea of how we might fix this?

[Strangie]

Wyatt simply shakes his head, putting a hand to his face.

"Freakin' unbelievable. 'We broke your crap, now you can fix it for us, or we kill you'? If it wasn't for the fact 'dat the rest of us wanna get 'da hell outta here..." Wyatt shakes his head in frustration again, throwing his hand to his side. "Ugh. Well, last I checked, like our man Thordrek says, usually when magic stuff breaks, it stays broken. Even if ya fix 'da arch, I dunno if that necessarily puts 'da portal itself back together. I ain't 'da magic expert here, though, but 'dere's my two coppers worth."

"Aw, man." He tilts his head back, rubbing his hand down his face in annoyance, muttering. "'dis is so stupid..."

[mshady]

Looking at the rubble, Harold frowns and shakes his head. His frustration is enough to make him twitch.

“So which one of you… idiots thought it was a fine idea to turn your only way out of here into rubble?” Harold states bitterly. He folds his thin arms across his chest and fixes Hextros with a glare.

“Us? Harold! Old friend! Surely you do not think us so daft as to do such a thing! Haha!” comes the reply. Hextros rumbles with laughter at the question. It is enough to make Harold’s face go red.

“Oh? Who else than? Your dinner hydra? Perhaps a field mouse?” Harold snaps back.

“No, no. Nothing like that. It happened when most of us were out fighting a hydra, protecting ourselves if not you at that point. You led an attack here. Do you recall taking the portal key from the aptly named keystone and absconding with it before we could abscond with your dirty little peasants?” Hextros asks. Harold says nothing but glares at Hextros. Carmard looks between the two, yet again surprised at what he was not told… but then again, how could he be at this point?

Hextros waits for Harold’s reply, refusing to continue until he had the petty satisfaction of making the old priest reply to him. The two stare at each other for a full minute before Carmard steps in.

“Enough, both of ye!” he yells. “Harold, ye obviously want everyone gone. Hextros, ye just want to leave and shockingly, I’m with ye on that. So what happened Harold took the portal key?”

With a mockingly half smile directed towards Harold, Hextros finally continues.

“Bereft of its magically heart, why the portal simply collapsed on to itself within a matter of hours" comes Hextros' proclamation.“Frak” Grathalmor says shockingly. Carmard looks at him, surprised by the outburst.

“Frak indeed” is Carmard’s quiet reply. “So can ye fix it, Harold?”

Harold looks at the collapsed stonework of the once freestanding portal and frowns. He seems almost numb. Without a word, he shuffles over to the portal’s remains and starts shifting through the rubble. The weight of the stones are too much for him and his bodyguards start sorting through them with him.

Hextros watches without a word, along with many of the other Blood Guard in the room. He unlimbers his massive falchion and puts the point to the ground and leans on it nonchalantly.

For the better part of half an hour, the rest of the room watches Harold and his attendants sift through the rubble looking for something. No one really speaks during this time as Harold continues his search for… well, no one is really sure.

“Aha!” he exclaims finally. He holds up a rune covered stone in hands, straining with the weight of it. In the center of the stone sits an empty slot where the rogue stone that had driven the portal had sat.

“Now what?” Hextros asks. Harold ignores the fiend and directs the response to Carmard.

“Now we put its heart back in” Harold beams. “The rogue stone, the beautiful stone… it drives the portal. I can put it in and have even built a portal before, but this… this requires someone gifted in the Art now. To put it back together. Someone with a talent for Conjuration” Harold says, looking at Carmard, than to Arman.

“Elf, would you lend me your assistance?” Harold says, before reaching inside his cloak and remove a scroll tube. “I need you to cast this teleportation spell into the rogue stone itself. You’ll have a moment, but you’ll have to have the presence of mind to… teleport the portal back together. Imagine its shape and instead of jumping yourself, you jump it. So close, you can move more than the spell could normally shift” Harold says, his words coming swiftly in his excitement.

On the floor sits several thousand pounds of stone, the pieces of the portal in a random jumble.

“He’s supposed to move all that?” Carmard asks incredulously. “It cannae be done”

Hextros laughs at that.

“Where's that dwarven stoicism? For your sake, I hope so. It occurs to me you came here through a portal, master dwarf. One I don’t know about. If this one does not work, how about we all use yours? You carry a key as well, do you not?”

With a frown, Carmard looks at Arman.

“Make it work, Arman” Carmard says. “The rest of ye, see if ye can lay the portal out on the ground to look like it once did. Harold, help’em with that. I hope some of ye are decent stonemasons…”

[Strangie]

Wyatt simply stares at the blocks of rubble, then holds one arm up, looking at it.

"Um." He starts. "Don't think I'm in much condition to really be pickin' up rubble." He drops his arm down to his side. "I'm kinda stuck spectatin'. But by lookin' at it, ya could probably put the pieces together... kinda like a puzzle, yeah?"

He glances up at Arman, and gives him a thumbs up with a grin."Now it's your turn to be the man, Arman. Let's make this thing work and get out of this no man's land once and fer all, eh?"

[Melody]

Harold, did these runes say something? I've always noticed that people like to write things around their doorways. If the runes spelled something out you should remember the phrase or the order of the runes for the spell. Write down their order and it will save us a lot of searching to figure out the correct sequence. Hextros, would you ask one or two of your troops to find all of the blocks that are cut in a wedge shape? Those will be somewhere on top and the square blocks are the support on the bottom. We'll need help moving everything around to get it organized. Gore would you help me shift some of these so we can start getting it laid out?

So saying Sable starts helping shift the blocks around so that they can be divided, first by shape and then later by markings.

[thorgrim29]

So, they were taking slaves back to Sigil, and you stole the key? That was surprisingly sensible compared to your recent actions Harold.

He takes out a bulging backpack from his backpack.

I'm more a smith then a stonemason, but I reckon we'll need mortar.... I've got sand here, well what passes as sand in this plane, we'll need clay. And if one of our magi could conjure up a few of these floating disks it would help.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

"Well, I have no talent for stoneworking, or crafting for that matter, but I am still in shape to pick and lift stones; just tell me where you want them placed."

Kelith then moves to start separating the stones and placing them in the order told.

[Melody]

Thank you Kelith. Yes that one right there.

She helps move the heavy block to a clear area and to position it where the rune was visible to make it easy to put in order later. Then moving back to the jumbled pile she helps move another block to a clear area. After moving that block she stops and straightens looking at the remaining blocks with a thoughtful frown.

I just had a thought. Harold, couldn't you just draw him a picture for him to teleport the stones? Does he have to see it laid out? Or would a picture be sufficient? After all, most of this is going to be his imagining of what it would look like assembled, and it isn't really held together by mortar, but magic so that's not really an issue is it? She looks from Arman to Harold to Carmard looking for either a confirmation or denial.

[mshady]

Turning to Thordek, Harold looks a bit stunned.

“You think that’s the first thing I’ve done that’s made sense, you stunted little…” Harold says through ground teeth. “Nevermind that I’ve said that how many times? I did what I had to. Maybe this makes sense to you too? Try this thought on for size. I tell you the portal may never work again and you just leave me to these wolves and I did what I could to keep you out of here. Now someone goes and appeals to my better judgment and we all end up here and they kill us, because now that THEY know we have no use for all of us and kill us. Ah my apologies, sir dwarf for no perfect result but at least one of ye have an idea…”

“For once, Harold is right. If he’s right, well… we’re just going to kill all of you. Truthfully this occupation makes us all…bored. I long to do something I’m good at again” Hextros says. He smiles as he spins his sword on the point.

He turns to Sable and nods at her idea.

“You’ve seen portals before? Yes.. a phrase… Yes! We have to arrange it along the words. It’s a phrase in draconic, umm… it’s been several months, but the town takes it name from it. How does it go?” Harold says to himself, pondering the answer.

“Follow this Way to the Wards and into Peril you shall Pass” Harold states, and then pauses. “Tis why the town was known as Way Ward and this as Peril’s Gate. Or maybe it was the other way ‘round? I never really… paid more attention to that aspect… Let’s put the gate back in order and follow the Words. Should make it easier for your mages to do this”

Over the next two hours, the group collectively rearranges the puzzle of the shattered puzzle, one piece of the puzzle at the time. Harold presides over it as the group quickly moves pieces around. Owing to their own understanding of draconic, Arman, Arum, Johannes and Carmard assist with some of the directing as well as assembling pieces. Quite a few times a letter fit, but it was nonetheless the wrong piece and the rubble had to be arranged.

For their part, the Blood Guard stayed out of it. Many of the troops gathered in and around the chamber and the group was working with a very intent audience. They talked amongst themselves quietly and were rather tense. With their numbers and the presence of their officers in these closed quarters, it would be a practical impossibility to fight their way clear.

The only one not assisting the group is Gore. While he was far too big to really be of use with this kind of work, he watched with particular detachment. At one point, Hextros and Gore talked quietly for a few minutes. The minotaur looked at both Thordek and Carmard repeatedly as they talked. This does not go unnoticed by either dwarf, or Sable for that matter.

To add some accompaniment to the work, Grathalmor begins singing some old Ironfist marching and mining songs, along with a more boisterous drinking song. For anyone who does not know dwarven, the meaning is lost but what the songs are for is easy enough to discern. It is hardly the serious Moradanite Religious Chanting commonly heard in the Soulhammer Halls that is piped through most of it calling members to prayer. Prayer three times a day was not the best thing for productivity or drill.

It takes time and patient effort, but the portal is laid out on the ground in the form of a circle once again. The rogue stone pulses dimly in its socket, an echo of its actual power to open a gate between two Planes.

Finally the phrase comes together and the portal was in some semblance of jagged order, on the floor and unconnected instead of standing upright.
Looking over the jumble, Harold sighs.

“I never thought progress would discourage me so…” Harold pronounces, his thin arms on his frail hips. He shuffles over to Arman and passes him the scroll.
“Maybe you can do this?” he says with a tight smile. “You and the gnome? Or maybe your dwarven leader? Such diverse magic, I cannae imagine what such diverse dweomers can do.”

Harold looks between the three and takes a deep breath.

Carmard looks between the two and seems to be lost in thought, but says nothing. Harold watches, knowing that an idea is percolating.

“Circle magic” Carmard says quietly. “Harold’s right, Arman’s right, it’s too much for one of us to do alone. We draw runes around it and pour all the raw magic we can into it and Arman caasts the spell. Might just be enough. Failing that….” Carmard taps his hammer. “It’ll be time we left the way we came in”

Hextros and Volkros laugh at that.

“Yes, dwarf” the yugoloth purrs. “Do so, but know how quickly I would end such a thing”

Harold looks at the three mages and nods sadly.

“No idle boast. I seen him cast death magic of frightening scale into a crowd. Killed thirty souls” Harold says with a frown.

“Souls killed indeed” it says, with what passes for a smile.

“Volkros, Volkros… no need to make them nervous. They are, after all, our ticket out of here and our employers now” Hextros replies, his tone one of malevolent amusement.

Sable refocuses things back to the business at hand, talking about drawing a picture.

Harold nods in confirmation of that.

"A fine an idea as the desperate have. I'll see what I recall"

"The one hope of the damned is no hope" Grathalmor mutters, invoking the grim Words of the Patriarchate.

"You are an optimistic lot, aren't you?" Hextros says with a laugh.
"Oh shut up, you lunk head" Harold snaps back at him, but Hextros only laughs again.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak joined his cousin's singing, replacing his many 'I'm lifting heavy stones'-grunts with something marginally more pleasant. When the stones had all been arranged, he steps aside and holds his holy symbol in both hands, muttering under his breath a prayer to Dumathoin, begging for his assistance in the task the mages were about to perform.

[thorgrim29]

To Harold: You lost every right to act as a victim, along with the moral high ground the instant you sicced elementals at us Harold, you pompous old sack of hot air. Had you not turned on us we would have left with those wolves as you call them and our reinforcements would have surely taken care of the remaining hydra when they arrived. But you did wrong by us, and whatever you'll tell yourself to be able to sleep at night doesn't justify it. But this is no time to argue further, we have a portal to fix.

Thordrek carries stones with the others, and pointedly ignores whatever reply Harold may make. Later, when the circle magic is proposed:


Circle magic? Like the Thayans use? It just might work, not sure how much help I'd be though, I don't have the ability to channel nearly as much raw magic as Arman, Arum or yourself, but I'll do what I can, and I barely used any of my spells today, so maybe I can compensate power with quantity.

[Melody]

Well rune magic isn't anything I can help you with, so I suppose I'll step out of your way for now.

Sable walks over and stands by Hextros. You wanted to talk to me anyway I believe. Is this a good time? Or do you want to wait and see how this turns out? She smiles impishly up at the much taller Hextros as she speaks to him.

[mshady]

Rocking back on his heels, Harold scowls at Thordek.

"I lost your sympathy when I sicced the elementals on ye? You dwarves broke a parlay and attacked! I thought you were trying to kill me" Harold snorts. "Un-bloody believeable" he growls. "Look, what I did was a poorly judged and I wanted to stay out of... this" he gestures at the Blood Guard. "I'm through debating this. What's done is done. You try being me. You try!" Harold screams at Thordek, spittle flying from his mouth. "Oh goodly master dwarf, my bloody apologies for not being a perfect man!"

The Blood Guard jeers and they roar with mocking laughter, Hextros loudest of all. Carmard steps up next to Thordek and places a hand on his shoulder.

"That's enough" Carmard says quietly. "Harold's right in that we did break parlay. It was a sneak attack. We intended not to kill, but he had no way to know such. Lay that blame upon me. I could nay have allowed a stalemate in this one circumstance. Infuriating though what he did to Johannes was, it was only to stall us. So let it be..."

Carmard shakes his head in response to Thordek's next question abotu the Circles. He has a look of mild distaste in response to the mention of the Thayans.

"Not like the Thayans" Carmard says with a frown. "But not unlike it. The Arcanii way" Carmard looks around.

"Arcanii circle magic goes back to the old ways of Shanatar, when there were few of us and of little individual power. The Circle would empower one of us above the others in two forms" he says and holds up two fingers.

"A quick battlefield circle focusing power and meta magic combining the strength of 5 Arcanii plus the circle leader's own or..." he drops one finger...

"...or a second type of circle where we all transfer our power to the circle leader for them to carry around, but its a long and exhausting. In Barakbarr, we do circles like this daily focusing on Glorian for tasks beyond even her power that can be carried with them. I was the center of one before I came here" Carmard states.

"Five Arcanii on a battlefield centered on one like me can throw a fireball five times its normal radius" he pauses for effect "Before meta-magic"

"Of course, none of ye have done this before but a battlefield is never a tidy place. Which means it has to be simple. Wild. But simple. So long as Arman can balance the magic we send into him and what he discharges into the portal. That all has to start the moment he casts the teleportation spell and we throw the magic into him and the center of the circle. That sustains the spell. If he can hold on to it"

Carmard takes a deep breath.

"Of course, if the timing is off and if he cannae control the flow o'the Weave through him... balance demands a heavy tax. If there are ashes left, he'll be lucky"

Looking over at Arman, Carmard shrugs.

"It's a way. You may be able to do this yourself. I know not your limits"

[mshady]

As the group works, Sable has moved over towards Hextros to talk to him and asks what he wanted to talk about.

“Ah yes, that” he says. He gestures around the crowded room full of soldiers waiting for what will happen with the portal. Their weapons are laid across their shoulders or they are leaning against their halberds. Of course, many of them now do not have halberds now. Some of them have fine mail and nasty looking swords as though. It occurs to Sable there are a lot more here than she had seen previously. There must be close to two hundred now. This would be much worse than the cavern fight, and they were short quite a few comrades as well.

“Now’s not a good time, don’t you think?” he looks down at her and flashes her a toothy smile with his freshly scared face. A full half of it has a waxy, scorched look. “Or perhaps it is, for you? If your friends there fail, the deal’s off and we’ll kill them all and Harold, thought I expect you be less concerned about him”

Looking around, Hextros chuckles and taps a meaty finger as an idea percolates.

"Don't think I hold a grudge for maiming me. Well fought" he says as he looks at the group work on arranging the portal stones as Harold directs them in the arrangement. Hextros watches the scene play out and soon Harold and Thordek are screaming at each other, prompting Hextros to laugh and interject. Finally he turns to back to Sable.

“What does a small woman gifted with magic dressed in leathers carrying a sword and bow do for these dwarves?” he looks down at her and licks his lips. “For that matter, why are you here? Mercenary? Rather doubt I can afford you” he says. He looks over her again, this time with a lecherous look.

“Tell you what…”

Taken to PM

[Strangie]

Wyatt watches Sable walk over to Hextros, narrowing his eyes at the half-fiend once they're distracted. Since he's not doing much of anything of importance at the moment, he glances around, then back over at them for a moment. He turns his head to the side away from them, and shuffles sideways slowly and quietly, trying to look inconspicious, but not too close, so they don't think he's eavesdropping. Which he is.

He glances at them out of the corner of his eye every couple of seconds, actually putting his ear toward their conversation so he can attempt to hear them out.

Wheehee. Wyatt is such a bum. Let's see how this pans out.
Move Silently: [roll0]
Listen: [roll1]

Edit: Holy crap. Now only if I rolled that good on stuff that really counted...

Wyatt's ears and eyes tuned into the conversation, as everything else seemed to fade into the background and go into a sort of blur. He caught every word and gesture of the conversation.

He glared over at Hextros out of the corner of his eyes as he listened in. Wyatt was not an exceptionally intimidating person - as hardened an adventurer as he was - but he was passionate about a lot of things. He was completely and utterly silent the entire time, so he likely went unnoticed the whole time and remained totally still, like a statue, almost.

What was being said - and particularly some of the gestures being made - made him angry, and he clenched his fist around his bat-like mace weapon's handle a little. Then, as he hears the second half of the conversation, his tense stance falters a little, and his usual lopsided grin spreads over his face when he hears Sable's rebuke. He turns his head and hides his grin from Hextros as he continues listening. He knows that Hextros might do something in response, given his attitude at the moment, and turns his head back to watch out of the corners of his eyes once his urge to snicker falls away, listening intently the whole way.

[mshady]

Volkros watches Wyatt from a distance. His slender, black arms are folded inside his robes and he looks almost monkish. An 8 foot tall, slender malevolent monk. His yellow eyes smolder under his hood.

I Am Watching Wyatt hears in his mind. It feels like a slippery snake inside his mind, coiled around his consciousness, whispering to him. It is all together very different from anything he has heard before. It's chilling. The mental pressure of the telekenesis is warm breeze.

While Hextros did not notice what he was up to, Volkros certainly noticed. He might not know what they were up to, but his eyes had never left and it was hard to hide in plain sight or blend into a crowd when you are encircled. Although he very nearly pulled that off, too.

Sable finishes her conversation and returns to the group while Carmard makes the preparations for the circle. Hextros watches with a scowl, but says nothing or takes no action against her or the group. Whether he was thinking about one or not would only be known with time.

Carmard slowly walks backwards around the circle with a large powder horn of silver powder. He lays it down thick, with just enough left in the horn to finish the circle. With chalk on the floor, he draws rune in and outside of the circle and sets aside three seperate circles.

The work takes Carmard the better part of an hour to draw the runes around the broken portal, while the rest watch, wait and if the conversation involves Harold, bickering. When he is finished, he ushers Arman and Arum inside the circle as well. Arman stands in the center of the portal where a finely drawn circle of silver has been drawn. Carmard touches the circle and chants a few words in draconic and he pours his magic into the circle. A tall cone of magic suddenly snaps into existence around the portal, an impenetrable barrier of shimmering mana. Carmard has erected a powerful Circle of Protection around the portal to contain and focus the power of the magic about to be cast.

Not that the Blood Guard understood that...

With yells of confusion and panic as the pillar of magic illuminates the room. Carmard looks out of it with a half smile on his face as Hextros roars at his troops to hold. Not the best disciplined, several groups of men have weapons out and halbers lowered before Hextros and Volkros can force him back. From inside the Circle, Carmard waves towards Hextros.

“Tell your lads to nay be so eager. We be ready here” Carmard announces. He turns to Arman now. “Ready when you are, lad”

[Strangie]

Wyatt wasn't really trying to hide from anybody else. He just didn't want Hextros to know he was getting the inside scoop on Hextros' scheme to attempt to convert Wyatt's comrades to the other side.

Still, he raises his eyebrows when Volkros mentally speaks to him, and merely just gives him a sidelong glance for a moment. "Good for you," Wyatt thought. He didn't care if Volkros had caught this or not, somehow. Nobody would do anything if they had any modicum of intelligence, yugoloth or fiend or halfling or whatever.

When Sable walks back to the group, his expression lightens up more. He just grins knowingly and follows her back.

"So. Talk about anythin' interestin'?"

[Melody]

Sable looks at Wyatt with an impish smile. Sure, he said that he thought I was cute and I said I loved men in eyepatches.

[Gorgondantess]

Throughout the whole thing, Johannes does little but offer his expertise in rearranging the stones, and shooting the occasional glare at Harold. He watches intently at the circle magic being performed, all in all considering it to be a learning experience. He dons his spectacles, engrossed as the cone of magic manifests.

[Strangie]

Wyatt breaks out into a wide grin, glances at Hextros for a second, then turns back around and laughs heartily at Sable's comment as he walks along.

"Ah ha ha ha! Oh ho ho... ah, man. 'dat's too funny! Oh, ya crack me up... eyepatches, pffahaha..." He shakes his head, with a snicker. 'dat was good."

[Melody]

I do actually. I dated a bard for almost a year that wore an eyepatch. Her voice grows a little wistful, I'd probably be a baker right now if I hadn't met him.

Anyways, I suppose we had better watch what is going on in case there is someway we can help. Not that I'd be much help with something like this but you know, she shrugs, can't be good at everything. She watches the spell being cast trying to pick out what they were doing by using what she knows of spellcraft as a basis.

Hard to guess exactly what they're doing since I can't read runes. You know, I think that dwarves made runes because there are too many letters in other languages. I mean, figure this, if you're going to be carving your language into a rock wouldn't you want a less is more approach? Figure elves are just the opposite, but they work in wood as often or more than stone right? Much easier to carve something into wood. She talks distractedly as she keeps an eye on everything around her. The nonchalance is still there, but it is strained a bit with everything going on.

[Strangie]

"Oh. Hmm..." Wyatt shrugs at the thought of Sable the baker. "... yeah, well, I'm even less help, heh. I can't lift these stones. I ain't got the arm strength for it, even if I wasn't in the shape I'm in already. Them's the breaks, I guess."

He turns his head, glancing all around the room, nodding slightly. "I'll just do what I do best and keep an eye on stuff... yeah..."

[Melody]

Sable talks quietly to Wyatt to pass the time.

See, usually you use a circle that looks like that in summoning or as a circle of protection, but it looks like they're using it like a lake. If you imagine the edges of that circle to be stone walls and they're pouring the magic in there like water. Seems like it might be dangerous to try to handle that much magical energy all at once though. Reminds me of seeing someone get electrocuted. If you ever see a floor made out of metal look for an electrical trap. Anyways, he twitched for a good fifteen seconds before he burst into flames.

[Strangie]

"Damn. 'dat's brutal. I don't usually get to travel with people who are keen on the magic stuff. Just folk like myself, and Jeth, and less magically inclined people. Like 'dis one time, I knew this guy, was like a half... silver dragon, half human or somethin'. But man, this guy, lemme tell ya, strongest bastard I ever seen."

He holds his mace in front of him with both hands. "Had this huge freakin' hammer, and he'd swing it around like it was nothin'. Think he called it a goliath greathammer or somethin'? I dunno. Anyway, he wasn't too sharp for a draconian, y'know. Talked really weird and his Common wasn't too good. But, he was strong. REAL strong. Like..." He points around him, at the dwarves. "I'd say that the majority of the people in 'dis room wouldn't stand a chance on 'em. He'd break their faces before they could cry for momma. And man, he was real calm when he wasn't fightin', but when he starts swingin', he freaks 'da hell out like somethin' I never seen before. And then he starts hittin' people, and he hits 'em so hard sometimes, they just... explode or somethin'. Tears 'em asunder with one mighty swing of the hammer, and then he keeps going, roaring and a-howlin' 'da whole time, see? He was, ah... whaddya call 'em... Frenzied Berserkers? I dunno."

"And 'dese people, they just all poop themselves at once and run 'da other way but it ain't fast enough, and he just crushes 'em. BAM." Slamming his fist into his open palm. "Flattened like nothin'. Totally brutal." He lowers his hands, and shrugs. "I dunno what happened with that guy, was part of a mercenary group I worked with way back in the day. I dunno if I wanna run into him again. People like that know how to put the fear of the Gods in ya." He shudders a little, rubbing his arm.

[Melody]

Sable nods and rubs her own arm, almost an unconscious mirror of Wyatt. She speaks quietly while everyone else is distracted watching the light show going on by the portal.

Could have used him in Undermountain. Her voice takes on an urbane tone as she mimics someone. I have a map drawn by someone who was there and came back. It will be perfectly safe and I'll be there to protect you.

Her voice reverts to her normal tone. He was the guy that got electrocuted. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Never go in there Wyatt. There may be treasures in there that would make a Sembian go mad with joy, but none of them are worth it. That map. She laughs bitterly. It might have even been accurate, but Undermountain changes. I could go back tomorrow and everything would be different.

She looks around to make sure no one is listening that shouldn't be. I was down there for months before I finally stumbled into the Underdark. So I know what you mean about having the fear of the Gods put in you.

[mshady]

After the long preparation, Carmard’s spell circle is completed. Having been around Arcanii before, no one recalls seeing them erect a Circle of Protection around the circle before. Whether it was necessary to power the spell or to protect everyone else if things went… poorly inside it remained to be seen. Inside, Carmard is giving instructions to Arum and Arman and seem to be practicing. They go over things several times and occasionally consult with Harold. The old priest seems to have some useful input and stands next to the circle most of the time, listening in. Carmard proves to be a good teacher and the practices get better each time. He finally admits that he is not confident Arman would likely kill himself and the others with the spell and decides it is time to begin.

Outside the Circle, the mercenaries grow bored. They have gone from standing in a battle formation to breaking up into groups and sharing rations, with a smaller group standing guard over the dwarven cohort. Hextros quickly becomes bored as well and now converses with three of his lieutenants and chews on mouthfuls of that narcotic weed that everyone seemed to be chewing on around here. Indeed, many of the guards are doing the same, or boiling it for a potent tea. In the confined space, the smell of it becomes overpowering and both a bit nauseating and euphoric at the same time. At one point, Hextros trots over to where Harold’s guards had laid down their packs and equipment on the floor. With gasps and curses, the massive half fiend turns his back on the group and relieves himself on their unguarded equipment. It says Harold into a shrill tirade and the rest of the mercenaries into roaring laughter. The mercenary leader knew how to play to a crowd and keep his men interested.

The nightmares stand over in a corner. No one wants to be near them and they do not prefer the company of anyone but their riders. At some point, a dead stone eating rothe was dragged in for them to feast on and it’s a gruesome site. The carcass is eaten to the very bone. The crunches and sound of wet flesh being torn from the carcass is enough to make anyone in earshot ill from the sound of it. These were no horses. Some said Nightmares were corrupted unicorns banished to Gehanna and shorn of their horn and full of hatred for everything living. Certainly the second part was true…

During the long interlude, Volkros primarily watches Wyatt and Sable’s every move. He says nothing to them, even if they say something directed at him. Yellow eyes smolder under the hood, constantly watching them. The creature remains so still, it is almost unnatural.

Standing inside the circle, Carmard takes his signal whistle in his mouth and blows on it. The shrill sound immediately silences the room, if only out of curiosity. A few hold their hands to their ears, as the whistle is louder than it has any right to be.

“Blessings be upon him, our work is ready for the Forger’s judgment” Carmard declares. “Hopefully not us along with it” he continues, with a slight smirk. It appears the dwarf did have a deeply repressed sense of humor.

He steps into his spot in the circle, with Arum across from him. Both face the elven wizard, Arman Madero. Their positioning forms a triangle, and indeed a runic triangle pattern in glittering silver connects them within the circle, forming a ‘series conduit’, enhancing and focusing the power granted to the circle leader. With the energy channeled through that first before being accepted by the circle leader instead of directly, it allowed Carmard and Arum to better regulate the energy being poured directly into Arman. Four more concentric circles have also been drawn inside the Circle, not including the edge of the barrier. Arman stands in the smallest of them.

The trio prepare for the casting of the spell. Arman stands in the center, holding the teleportation scroll in his hands. His grip on the frail scroll is steady, but he seems to be in a forced state of calm. Elves considered themselves part of the Weave in a sense, but this was more literal than Arman had ever expected. He sets the scroll down on unfurled scroll down on a small stand to free his hands for what comes next.

All eyes are on Arman as he begins a countdown from 10. There is not a sound in the room. Carmard and Arum begin the repeated hand gestures for the spell, working to match the rhythm of their otherwise very disparate arcane styles. In a test of both his craft and dexterity, Arman’s individual hand movements must match the movements of the two individual casters as his left must be in sync with Carmard and right with Arum and maintain that for however long it took to complete the spell.

As the countdown reaches 1, all three casters begin the somatic component of the teleportation spell. The scroll contained a somewhat complex formula, but was broken into five “stanzas” before the actual words to complete the spell are spoken. The first stanza of the formula sets the scroll aglow immediately and the conduit between Arman, Carmard and Arum blazes to life with a brilliant blue glow. The silver circle around Arman blazes far more brightly than the separate conduits to him. Already he seems shrouded by a cloud of shimmering energy.

Joint Spellcraft Check 1– DC 15 = Roll 33 – Success!

Having completed the first stanza of the spell, they begin again with the recital of the first stanza and add the second stanza. The scroll glows more brightly and the second layer of the circle fills with shimmering blue energy, but the cloud is more of a fog now. The second round of the tense casting has been successful, indeed it goes smoother than the first time as they mutually correct any inaccuracies of an individual.

Joint Spellcraft Check 2 – DC 20 = Roll 37 – Success!

The trio now launch into the third round with the same droning recital of the formula as they call out the entire spell and effectively build the power of the spell by empowering its individual components. The very sound of their voices have a deeper, significant ring to them now as they recite in harmony. The magic now flows into the third circle now and from the outside at least, Arman can barely be seen now. The third leg of the recitation goes even smoother now as the spell builds momentum. The third ring fills more rapidly than the previous two. The entire room buzzes with magic now, making hair stand on end and causing many to itch from the power.

Joint Spellcraft Check 3 – DC 25 = Roll 42 – Success!

The trio now break into the forth stanza of the formula, reciting the previous three sections with practiced ease now but the complexity of the formula is rapidly escalating now. Carmard stumbles on a section and three circles shimmer and spark. The error is enough to make the walls of the Circle of Protection shutter. At least that is what everyone thinks happened. In actuality, the Circle stayed exactly in place. It was the building that shuttered. Undaunted, he quickly picks up the flow again and the forth circle is filled with magical energy. The air inside has become an incandescent blue and the fog is so thick the casters inside can actually feel resistance in the air. Outside the circle, they are now shadows in the cloud of crackling magic. Carmard and Arum, standing in a silver lined circles in the forth ring of the spell, have been enveloped now by the magic. Inside, Arman’s very bones hurt and his flesh feels like it is burning from the magic. He can barely read the scroll in front of him, nor really see Arman and Arum any more.

Joint Spellcraft Check 4 – DC 30 = Roll 31 – Success!

The fifth and final stanza of the powerful spell is the most difficult. Perhaps due to the previous error, the three have an easier time of it. This recital is nearly flawless as the three of them work together perfectly on this final, most difficult stage. The final ring is flooded with sizzling arcane energy and all three of them ache terribly from the physical strain. The metaphysical strain is enough to give them all nearly blinding headaches, echoes of the worst migraines they have ever had, or hangovers. For Arman, his leg hurts so badly that he wishes he could amputate it. The pain is distracting in the extreme, but as practiced battle mages who had all taken wounds in battle this was merely equivalent. Pain and magic often went together, especially when dealing with enough power to level a small town….

Joint Spellcraft Check 5 – DC 35 = Roll 42 – Success!

With the fifth stage of the spell complete, it was time to apply the proper preparations for the spell. Each of the three mages knew part of the necessary meta-magic to properly define the spell. Strained nearly beyond endurance, Arman manages to successfully extend the teleportation spell. This would be the most critical part of the preparations, as it would allow the spell to be fully invested with all the power the group had poured into the circle. Carmard follows by using his abilities with Circle magic, an Arcanii trademark really, to maximize and empower the spell, multiplying the effect. For his part, Arum contributes his ability to Still a spell – vital for allowing Arman to actually complete the spell under such challenging conditions.

With the metamagic effects now carefully woven into the powerful formula, it was time to complete the spell. The room outside of the circle feels electric now. The numbing, burning power of the magic bleeding through the Circle is nearly paralyzing. Some of the soldiers howl in protest, unable to resist the magic. For those who in the dwarven party who experienced the charging of the Stoneburner and how it radiated away extra energy, this feels frightfully similar if an order of magnitude less…

Arman counts down once more, than walks out of his central circle, heading towards the edge of the circle. Along the way, he uses his foot to break the interior concentric circles with the exception of the one he stood in and the edge of the Circle of Protection. Each time he does so, the room thunders as the magic barriers fall and the power equalizes now inside the Circle. Each time, the shock of it is almost enough to bowl the crippled elf over. With the last barrier down, he returns to his circle for the meager protection it offers from the outside forces.

Next to his feet sits the keystone of the portal with its powerless rogue stone. Taking a deep breath, Arman places both hands on the stone and with his uninjured leg he breaks the last barrier. The force of all that power filling the relatively lightly charged center feels like it stopped his heart for a moment. He screams out in pain from it.

Catching his breath in ragged gasps, he looks down at the rogue stone in the inky blue, sparking haze. The light is enough to nearly blind him. The dazzling power felt enough to send him into a seizure. He finds his calm center and says the final words of the spell know, completing the teleportation. When the last syllable leaves his tongue, Arman’s next words are an ear splitting scream. He feels like he is being burned alive in a magically pyre.

Indeed he is.

As he completes the spell, the room rocks and shudders. All of that energy, so thick it clouded the circle, now flows through Arman. He alone acts as a conduit now as all of that energy is channeled through his body and into that rogue stone, charging it. In his mind, he tries to focus on what the portal should look like but it is so hard. So very hard at first. The pain is so great, he cannot think at all and his break in concentration nearly allows him to be consumed by what he channels. After a moment of panic, his mind focuses on that image as his refuge and he imagines what the portal would look like together.

It seems an eternity. While it only lasts a few minutes, the processes is narrated by one unbroken scream until there is an ear splitting crack that echoes throughout the room. Indeed, the sound is so loud the entire town must have heard it.

Suddenly, the cloud of magical energy around him was gone. His nerves were still on fire, but he recognized now it was over. With a grin on his face, he looks around to see the now whole portal. The stone blazes with energy now. The runes glow blue. The faint swirl of magic at the center of an active, healthy portal shimmer inside the portal’s circular shape now. All of the stones are tight with one another now they are one unbroken circle.

“I did it!” Arman says with a fist held high, overwhelmed with elation. Arum and Carmard, knocked on to the floor as well smile and wave at him in reply.

Next thing he knows, Arman’s eyes flutter and his eyeballs roll back in his head a moment later and he collapses on the floor, lapsing into unconsciousness.

“Someone help! Nal! Kelith! Harold!” Carmard roars, panic in his voice. The Arcanii rushes over to the fallen elf’s side.

[Strangie]

Wyatt nods at Sable's last words. The fear of the Gods... the thought lingers in his mind for a little bit, but his train of thought is interrupted by Carmard's whistle, as now it is time for Arman and co. to begin putting this damn portal back together.

As the spell progresses, Wyatt wriggles his fingers nervously. He is a nervous wreck, especially as the whole building shudders and the earth seems to vibrate around them. He watches Arman carefully, praying silently to himself that the poor elf doesn't crumple underneath the terrible strain placed upon him.

When the radiation of intense magic energy permeates the room, Wyatt winces and bounces back a little on one foot, using his arms to try and shield himself, but it is all over him, and he wraps himself up in his arms and bends over, gritting his teeth. This was definitely something he had never experienced before in his life. He thought he was going to just erupt into flames along with everything else and it'd be all over.

This had put the fear of the Gods in him.

Finally, it ended, and Wyatt is on his knees, totally dazed from the extreme magical energy abound around him. He shakes his head, rubbing his hand up his face and catching his breath, before pushing himself up slowly, and glancing at Arman. When Arman pumps his fist, Wyatt returns the gesture.

"Yeah... y-yeah! H-he freakin' did it! He ain't dead! Way to..."

Then, Arman is on the floor. Wyatt spazzes out and flails his arms, jumping a little.

"Ah! Arman! Don't go dyin' now, ya just finished! Someone get 'deir asses over 'dere!"

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak's relief at Arman's success was quickly dispersed by his fall and the panicked voice of Carmard. He picks himself up from where he had fallen on his back as the spell completed and untangles his fingers from his holy symbol, which he had clutched desperately while the spell was being cast. He rushes to the downed elf, removes his gauntlet and puts his naked fingers on the elf's throat, hoping he hadn't literally killed himself from exertion.

He casts a weak curative spell, to give the elf's body a little more energy, and then examines him more closely to determine if he was just exhausted or if the spell had taken something from him that would be more sorely missed.

Heal Check: [roll0]

((Sacrificing a Shield of Faith, or if I don't have one, a Protection from Evil, to cast Cure Light Wounds))

[thorgrim29]

As the spell progresses, the usually verbose Duskaxe is at a loss for words, simply watching with almost religious awe and muttering Amazing... A few times.
Then the spell is completed, and as sparks of pure magic dance in the air, the portal is repaired. Then, Arman collapses. Thordrek rushes to his elven friend and, reaching into his seemingly bottomless backpack, bundles a spare shirt and puts it under the elf's head to act as a pillow. Then, he realises the situation

They don't need us anymore....

Seemingly, he gave the healers space, but he actually stands between the vulnerable casters and the devil horde, tough he knows he has little hope of stopping them if it comes to that. He motions to Sable, Wyatt and the others to come near him

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

"I have never treated anything like this before, and I'm not even sure a healing spell would do more good than bad, what with all the magic's that has already gone through him..." Nalrak mutters, glancing at Carmard, "I can't feel a pulse, but I don't think he's dead. I'm sure he's just massively exhausted. He needs more-" he suddenly cuts off, as if getting an idea. Grasping his symbol again, he casts another spell on the elf, but it's not a normal curative spell.

"O Silent Keeper, grant this ally of ours, who has cleared the path ahead for us at such great personal risk and who has already sacrificed so much on the way, the endurance to carry through and continue with us on our perilous road..." he mutters under his breath as the magic of his god pours into the elf.

((Casting Bear's Endurance on Arman))

[Melody]

Sable moves to position herself beside Thordrek though slightly behind and to the side. She rolls her shoulders and gives her arms a shake as she walks over limbering up in case it all went badly. She can feel the muscle strain ease somewhat as she does. It had been a long couple of days and her muscles felt abused. Her eyes find Hextros, knowing that the order will come from him, and she watches him intently waiting for a signal of the impending attack.

She offers up a mental prayer of thanks to Tymora that the spell had worked and resolves to visit a temple and leave an offering if the chance presents itself in Sigil. If she made it to Sigil. Behind her she heard Nalrak treating Arman and took a moment to marvel at his sucess. She really had expected to see him burst into flame like a candle. The fact that he hadn't was a tribute to his ability. Clearly she hadn't given him full credit before. Not that she would tell him now. In her experience mages were altogether too full of themselves to begin with.

She spares a brief glance at Volkros and wonders if he could read her thoughts. Directing thought towards him she thinks. Let's just get through this portal and into Sigil. Any fighting in here might cause the portal to collapse again. There is nothing for either of us here. She looks back to Hextros and waits.

[Strangie]

Wyatt nods to Thordrek, quickly running past Sable even as she moves and turning in place on his feet. He stops beside Thordrek's other side, though like Sable slightly behind him, knowing that he works best when he can move in, strike, and fall back again.

He knows Volkros has been watching him this whole time, which made him slightly uneasy, but he was unusually plucky for a halfling and shrugged off his unease. He figured if he could read his thoughts, he should at least make them less threatening. "Awright, just a precaution. Nobody get any ideas, now."

He glances over his shoulder once, at the other dwarves and Arman. "He's gonna pull through, right? He better, I was just startin' to like the guy!"

[mshady]

Laying on the floor of the portal chamber, Arman lays motionless. His skin is red and blotchy and his hands are swollen and burned significantly from where he had held the rogue stone. Arman’s hair is frazzled and still standing on end. Several members of the group rush to Arman’s aid and look over their fallen comrade with worry. As one of the group’s most experienced healers, Nalrak is the first to rush to Arman’s side who can make a difference. Despite his extensive training with the Silver Knightingales, an Order dedicated to Berronar and the healing arts, not simply the use of magic to heal. He had never seen something like this at Sunderhelme. He doubted anyone had really, and survived at any rate so Nalrak felt justified in improvising.

After his healing spell has little effect, Nalrak decides to try something different. Calling out for guidance and blessing from the Silent Keeper, Dumathion, Nalrak casts a spell of Endurance on the fallen mage. He holds his breath and watches for any effect from the spell, but again nothing happens.
What now?

Nalrak leans back and look around, thinking. If it had simply been extreme exhaustion, the endurance spell should have been enough to stir him. That could only mean Arman’s heart had simply given out from the stress.

Frail little elven hearts… Oi, have to make it go “bump bump” again…

Pushing everyone else aside, Nalrak straddles the elf and puts one meaty hand over the other and pushes down hard on the elf’s heart. He repeats the motion for a total of five repetitions and is almost immediately rewarded the cracking sound of bones before pausing and checking for effect before repeating again and again.

Everyone in the group watches the desperate scene with concern, even the ones forming up to guard the portal entrance, with extreme concern. Nalrak launches into his fifth repetition and glances to his side to see Carmard kneeling next to him now. As he works, Carmard says something to Arman in a low, husky tone.

“Don’t ye go dying for our cause, lad” he says and runs a hand over Arman’s forehead. The elf’s eyes, once opened and frozen with a look of mania, are now closed. Carmard leans back and looks down upon the elf in thought before reaching out with a hand and touching the elf’s neck. He seems lost in thought again and than his eye brows shoot upwards in recognition.

“Harold!” Carmard roars. “Over here!”

It takes several seconds for the old man to rapidly shuffle his way over to where they stand. He places his arms on his hips and looks down at the two dwarves and the elf.

“Something I can do to help?” he asks, his tone almost kindly.
“Arman was poisoned by your Narin Oil. We cannae bring him back from the brink with that impeding us.” Carmard declares and letting Harold draw a conclusion from there.

“You want a curative for it?” he asks Carmard, already knowing the answer. The dwarven leader nods in response. “Here” he says, and reaches into his cloak. A stringer of small silver vials with a brilliant white substance in them hangs off a chain. Not having time to comment on the unusual arrangement, Carmard snatches the stringer and tears a vial out of it. He pulls Nalrak away from the seventh repetition and presses the vial in Nalrak’s hand. The two lock eyes and Carmard nods to him.

“Try it” he says. “Try it, than a spell”

Around the portal room, disorganized knots of soldiers are now standing and forming into groups as their lieutenants roar at them to get ready. One even has a whip out and cracks it over their heads. Hextros walks between the groups, reinforcing his Lieutenants orders and poking the slow ones with the point of his sword or smacking them with the flat of the blade.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak nods, "Aye, sir," he grunts and pours the contents of the vial carefully down Arman's throat. When it is empty, he throws it away and grasps his symbol yet again. This time he casts the most powerful curative he has at his disposal, adding the remaining power of his ring to the spell. This was no time to be conservative.

((Sacrificing Summon Hound Archon to cast Cure Critical Wounds, empowered by two charges from the ring, for a total of 4d8+3d6+7 points of healing.))

[Melody]

Sable watches Hextros with a quick glance at Volkros from time to time.

She can hear Nalrak and Carmard working behind her but she forces the voices to blur into nonsense. Instead she focuses on trying to hear what Hextros is saying from across the room. It's a futile attempt for the most part, only his loudest orders carry across the sound of his army getting ready and the sound of the healers trying to save Arman.

She forces her thoughts away from the elf dying behind her so that she can focus on guarding the group. Like a bird circling a kill she catches herself hearing a word or phrase behind her and has to force herself to attention again. It doesn't matter if he dies. I don't know him, I don't know any of them. She thinks to herself. Somehow the thoughts that were meant to make her feel better only make her feel worse.

"Clangeddin's balls."

The curse spoken in dwarvish supprises her, even more so that she was the one who uttered it. Again, she focuses on Hextros' army; again her thoughts circle back.

[Strangie]

"... Clangeddin's what?" Wyatt says back in Dwarven, raising an eyebrow and passing a glance up at Sable, for a moment.

[ArmanMadero]

Arman wasn't sure what to think about channeling magic. He didn't think he couldn't do it, but he had never done it before either. He discussed wtih Carmard and Arum how they would do it, asking Harold a question or two from time to time. After a bit, everyone nodded their heads in satisfaction. If he could hold and control it, it would work.

Arman had watched Carmard build the circles and was glad of the Protective circle. If he did lose control, that might be the only thing that saves everyone else.

He stepped into the smaller circle in the center, and unrolled the parchment scroll with the spell on it. He set it on a small stand and pulled back the sleeves of his shirt a little bit. He then started the countdown, starting to gather the energies to himself. The scroll was set up a little different than he was used to, and broken up into five different sections. They seems to progress harder as he looked at it.

At the zero mark, they all started to do their seperate hand movements, except Arman, who was copying Carmard and Arum at the same time, a somewhat difficult task as the hand movemements became faster. He started saying the first paragraph, the words also matching the hand movements they were all making. At the end of that, a small burst of light struck all of them as the conduits for power were opened. The circle he stood within, was glowing fiercly.

Arman didn't dare blink. It was taking everything to concetrate on the scroll and combine all the hand movements. They repeated what they had just done and added the second verse. Each words were causeing the air around them to glow a white blue color, and now the power could almost be visibly seen by those outside the circle also. The second circle out from Arman is now glowing brightly.

They begin the third round and power can be seen moving from the first and second rings, to include the third ring. The room was growing bright and everyone could soon see details within it. Armans neck itched where his hair was rising, but he put it to the back of his mind.

The beginning of the fourth was harder. His arms were tried from making the hand motions and from fighting and casting spells. He wanted nothing more than to just stop. He kept going. He heard Carmard stumble a little in the words, and saw the bubble around them ripple as the ward was touched by the magic.

It would have killed them all....

Carmard picked it back up again and soon the fourth ring was glowing brightly, causeing the thick, magic filled air to make it hard to see in the circle, or for that matter, within the circle itself. Arman squinted a little to see the scroll in front of him. He could no longer see Carmard and Arum well, but knew they were there, and knew what hand motions they were making. He could feel it through the weave.

It was glorious... and deadly.

The fifth paragraph amde all the circles glow fiercly. The strain of holding so much power within himself was starting to tell. His leg was hurting very badly and he wanted to do nothing more than let go and collapse. But to do so now, would not only kill those in the room, but possibly the whole town. He had to hold the power just a little longer...

Carmard and Arum add their own spells to the spell that Arman was casting, making the power in the room increase rapidly and frightingly. Those who were used to such power, which wasn't many, stood and tried to deal with the uncomfortable feelings. The rest ranged anywhere from groaning to sheer howling with terror.

He began another countdown quietly and at the right time, stepped out from his circle. This was the tricky part....

His foot broke the first circle outside his and a large boom followed by the shockwave followed. He almost fell over, but held himself up. He broke the next circle with the same effect. And the one after that. Soon, the only full circles remaining, were the protective one, and the one he was standing in. He turns and heads back to that circle now, becoming fully aware of how little in protection it was offereing him.

Standing in the circle once more, he picks up the keystone in his hands, and with his right foot, breaks the circle around him again.

The force of the magic entereing him, made him scream from the shock and the pain. It was something that almost made him lose his concentration. The only thing that kept that from happening, was the thought of all the people that would be killed if he did.

The light aroud him was becoming blinding as he started to shout, then scream the final words of the spell. His nerves felt afire, and he felt warm. The keystone, surprisingly, felt cool within his hands and he held onto it, pouring the energies into that and picturing the portal. He couldn't think of what it looked like... Mystra help me...

Then he knew. The picture was becoming clearer in his mind. The keystone was getting cooler. he was on fire.... His leg hurt, his hands hurt, his head hurt. He could feel everybone in his body straining to not break from the energies flowing through him. He could feel his hair whipping around his head, as the energies flowed around him in the cyclone, and into the keystone, charging it.

A large crack, loud eough to be heard by the town and possibly those outside it, pierced the room and made it shake.

Then there was nothing. His body still hurt, the nerves all super excited and unable to handle nothing when there was so much before. He looks at the stone in his hands, and grins. It was glowing. The circle was glowing too, the runes etched into the stones all glowing slightly blue. They were all together and in order.

Arman let go of the keystone with one hand and pumped his fist into the air. "I did it!"

Then the pain really hit. it suddenly felt like a dagger had been shoved into his chest. He gasped for breath and his eyes rolled towards the back of his head. He felt the earth under him, the gritty sand digging into his burned hands.

Then... nothing...

[Melody]

Sable's response to Wyatt's question was a blush that reached her ears. "Nothing," she says as she continues watching the army around the party.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

Kelith sits back and watches as the closer healers work in haste to revive Arman seeing no reason to interrupt; plus that saying always went, "Too many cooks spoil the meal... and this was not a time for spoil."

As Arman is given the antidote and the men start to make ranks he looks around nervously hoping that it's only to make it easier for them to make way through the portal, and not organization to be prepared for aggression.

[Strangie]

Wyatt frowns, knowing he heard something strange from Sable's lips, but decided to shut up about it, shaking his head. "Eh, whatever you say, 'den."

He notices the conversation going on behind him - Harold giving Nalrak an antidote as a curative for the Narin's oil poison. He made a mental note to himself to make Harold cough up whatever he had left of that stuff.

He glances back at Arman, still concerned. "Boy, we just have everybody putting everything on 'da line today, huh." He pans his eyes across the room at the gathering soldiers. "I just hope Tymora keeps smiling on us, just like you said she would for me, Sable, and we get the hell outta here..."

[mshady]

With the small vial in hand, Nalrak pours the contents of the vial down Arman’s throat and gives the potion a moment to begin to work. Was it a potion or merely an antidote? If it was an antidote, there was no telling how long it would take to work and that would mean he could not save Arman at all. His only alternative was to try it and hope for the best. Pray for the best, even.

Nalrak casts the most powerful spell he has left to him and combines it with the full power of his healing ring from Faitholme and does one last repetition of chest compressions and waits for a result.

Nalrak heals Arman for a total of 40 pts, placing him at 31 HP now

It takes several tense seconds before Arman comes around with a gasp for breath and a wild eyed look around the area as the elf mage tries to get his bearings. His hands still tingle from the energy that had just flowed through them to the point he can barely feel them. Mentally he feels out of sorts, a bit… scrambled by the energy he just channeled. As he is gazing at the ceiling, he is startled to see Carmard’s scared and bearded face over him.

“Fine bit o’work lad” Carmard declares with the briefest of smiles. “Here they said what you just did could nay be done. Now we know it just cannae be done safely. Bet yer Mystra’d be proud o’that one. Now let’s go”

A mailed fist reaches down and grabs a wad of Arman’s shirt and hauls him off the ground and rudely puts him back on his feet. The sudden impact sends a shock wave of pain through his crippled leg. A much shorter Carmard has just lifted the elf by one hand and put him back on his feet – quite a feat for a smaller dwarf. The Arcanii was apparently a little stronger than he thought.

“There ye go, lad” he says, than turns to face the Blood Company as they form into ranks. Carmard’s terrible throwing hammer is in his hand now, angled downward.

“I told you, dwarf!” Harold screeches at Carmard. “They don’t need us anymore. They’ll kill us all!”

The Arcanii slowly turns his head and glares at Harold, giving him a look of absolute contempt.

“Than we die” he retorts with grim resolution.

“You’ll stand and fight? Are you mad?” Harold snaps back at Carmard.

Turning to face Harold, Carmard squares himself and looks up at Harold with contempt.

With a sudden thrust, Carmard punches forward with the tip of his hammer and hits Harold square in the gut. The old priest doubles over in pain and drops to his knees, gagging.

Surprised by the sudden attack, Harold’s guards look at Carmard dumb founded for a moment and then swords are pulled from their sheathes with a metallic ring that hangs in the air. The dwarf looks them over coldly and says nothing. The guards wait from an explanation from Carmard or a sign of hostility before acting. Instead, Carmard waggles his finger at them silently and turns his back on them once again to face the Blood Guard mercenaries as they finish falling into ranks. Harold continues to gag on the ground.

“Hextros! Declare your intent!” Carmard yells across the crowded chamber.

The mercenary captain turns towards the dwarven group as the last ranks fall in. Halberds are raised high in the air now as the forces stand and wait for orders. Hextros crosses his arms and looks at the portal and then back at the dwarven group, then back again. He seems to be judging his choices here. Finally, he speaks.

“My intent? My intent is to follow you through yon portal. How else are we going to paid?” he says and roars with laughter, masking his indecision on where lay the greatest advantage.

“Terms of parlay and contract still hold, yes?” Carmard yells back.

“We will abide” comes the reply. It’s obvious Hextros is saying that through gritted teeth. His soldiers groan in near unison.

Carmard turns back to Harold as one of his guards helps the old man off of the ground. He is clutching his ribs and scowling.

“See Harold? Nay a thing to worry about” he says in a nearly nonchalant tone to Harold.

“You hit me, you bearded savage! I’m on your side! Do you have any idea what they did…” Harold yells at him in a wide eyed rage as he holds his ribs.

“Oi, sorry if that hurt lad. It did make me feel a damn bit better though” comes the reply, punctuated with a bark of laughter.

“I can’t believe..” Harold exclaims, and Carmard cuts him off again.

“Shush” he says, and holds a finger to his lips, much to Harold’s astonishment. “Now ye stay here and be quiet and let the grown ups finish this before you DO get yerself killed. I have children your age who have twice yer bloody sense, human…” Carmard scoffs and turns away.

“Ready when ye are, Hextros” Carmard yells across the chamber, his back turned to a furious Harold.

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

A wave of relief washes over Nalrak as Arman comes around. The emergency had only lasted moments, but Nalrak felt exhausted anyway. He had never gotten entirely desensitized to having a patient die under his care, and this time had felt far too close for comfort. He still gives a small cry of surprise when Carmard unceremoniously rips Arman to his feet. When Carmard turns away, Nalrak reflexively grabs Armans arm to help steady him, rather awkwardly due to the height difference.

"Ye all right, lad? Can ye stand and walk on yer own?" he asks the elf concernedly.

[Melody]

As Sable hears Carmard speaking to Arman she turns briefly to see. The elf was standing with Carmard's fist wadded in his shirt looking bewildered and beaten. She smiles and her shoulder slump as a weight is lifted off of them.

Remembering her purpose she turns and reaches into her pack to grab something. Her body is tensed again and ready for what she believes is to come next.

As Harold screams what she already knew, she watches Hextros. Her hand is wrapped around the neck of a bottle that can just be seen above the edge of her haversack. As Harold grunts in pain she pivots to face the guards that have drawn swords. Silently she dares them to attack with a glare. Things are tense for a moment as both sides eye each other but the guards back down as Harold comes to no further harm.

Turning again Sable faces Hextros to wait for his answer to Carmard. With his reply Sable drops the bottle back into her pack without having ever truely taken it out. One can only wonder what it contained.

[Strangie]

Wyatt sighs with relief at Arman standing on his feet, conscious.

"Alright, Arman! You did it, indeed. Also nearly gave everyone a heart attack, too. How's it feel to be a winner?" He says with a grin. "Thanks to you we can finally get 'da hell outta here. I think it's been way too long, yeah?"

[thorgrim29]

Relieved that Arman is alright, Thordrek allows himself a small laugh as the old windbag doubles over. Just as Sable fingers a potions, he puts a hand on a rod hanging on his belt, ready to drop an iron wall in front of the mercenaries to buy a few moments to retreat through the portal should they attack. But, it seems that will not be needed.

Glad to see you on your feet my friend, lets go.

[mshady]

Looking over at Harold, who stands now but clutches his belly and has a nasty look on his face, Carmard gestures at the portal.

“Get the portal going” Carmard growls to Harold. “Sooner the better”

"For both of us" Harold says and nods his grudging acquiescence to Carmard than moves over to the portal and looks down at it.

“You know it’s on the ground, dwarf” Harold says, pointing out the obvious.
“Yes” comes Carmard’s reply.
“Fine, just so you know…” Harold says with a smirk.

With that, he places a hand on the portal and the arcane runes carved into its side begin to glow with a deep blue glow. He steps back and looks at the portal and waits to see what happens next.

The rogue stone set into the center of the portal’s structure blazes with blue and purple light and a pane of swirl energy lights in the center of the portal. It slows spins and expands, filling the diameter of the portal. When it contacts with the edge of the portal, it sputters and coughs causing the portal’s plane to buckle and shimmer. The stones shake and shudder from the sudden strain and for a moment, it looks like the whole portal would shatter once again. Instead, there is a clap of thunder as the stones compress into each other and the portal appears slightly… smaller now. Well and truly fused together now, the blue and purple opaque haze filling the center of the portal sits there.

Sitting on the floor instead of stand and braced properly, it looks like a kind of pond.

“Well, let’s be off” Carmard declares. He promptly turns and walks through the portal, disappearing from sight…

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Nalrak starts at seeing his charge rush into the unknown alone. He hated when he did that. Quickly making sure Arman could stand on his own, Nalrak leaves him and rushes through the portal after Carmard.

[thorgrim29]

Can't say I'm sad to leave this place.... Lets go!

Holding his breath, Thordrek crosses the portal

[ArmanMadero]

Arman clung to the little thread of his life, but it felt like it was unraveling. He felt strangely calm about it, though he wanted to continue living. He faintly heard the voices of Carmard and Nalrak trying to save him.

His eyes opened suddenly and he took in a ragged breath at the shock of seeing and breathing again. He could feel the course sand along the floor digging into his burns and other wounds. He was more shocked to see the bearded face in front of him, lines in the forehead showing worry and concern. A smile split the beard into two different parts as Carmard spoke to him

“Fine bit o’work lad” Carmard declares with the briefest of smiles. “Here they said what you just did could nay be done. Now we know it just cannae be done safely. Bet yer Mystra’d be proud o’that one. Now let’s go”

He blinked a few times and then was lurched suddenly to his feet by Carmard, who had grabbed the front of his shirt to haul him up. He worked to get his legs under him and felt a hand grab his arm akwardly trying to steady him also. Nalrak and Carmard were both asking him if he was ok and if he could stand. He nodded a little, not sure himself if he could. His leg was aching fiercly, along with his hands. Congratulatories came to him from quite a few different people, and he nodded his thanks tiredly to all of them.

Carmard was standing near the portal at this time, with Harold, who was now acticvating it. The forces contained within the portal swirled and a birght light came from it, flooding the room momentarily. When Arman blinked again, the portal now looked like a pool of water being gently stired by a breeze. The "water" lapped at the edges of the portal like a pool and Arman stepped foreward to take a closer look.

Carmard, turned and looked at all of them before delcaring his intentions. “Well, let’s be off” and stepped into the portal. Nalrak spoke under his breath and making sure Arman could stand on his own, which Arman was managing now, quickly followed him, who was then followed by Thordrek. Arman shrugged a little and looked at Harold again speaking to him before he jumps into the portal himself. "May your journey be filled with grand adventures." he said, then without waiting for a reply, jumped into the portal.

It was disorientating to say the least, not unlike his minutes ago experiance. He could see nothing, but felt the walls of the pathway around him nontheless. He wondered what would be there on the other side...

[Strangie]

Wyatt nods, stepping up to the portal. He gives a glance to Harold, and a simple, slow wave. "Ride 'da wind, and let it take ya whereever it blows, old timer. If we ever meet again, hopefully next time it'll be under better circumstances and not leave a bitter taste in everybody's mouth. Good luck." He glances at Sable for a moment, swinging his buckler arm over in a 'get over here' motion. "Come on, let's go!"

He waits for Arman to pass through, and... gives Volkros a passing glance, before hopping in himself after the others.

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes stares as Arman falls, feeling strangely helpless, out of his element. He keeps the same feeling as Carmard and Harold talk, as Carmard strikes him, as the portal comes back, as Hextros' men intimidate, as they stand down... helplessness.
As the portal is opened, he sighs, shaking his head and casting his gaze aside, and steps through.

[Melody]

Sable waits for a count of ten before she follows Johannes through the portal. Hopefully that would allow everyone to clear the other side. The orientation of the portal makes the entry and exit somewhat problematic, but she falls forward into the portal with one leg extended as if taking a step. Hopefully that would put her upright at the other side. If not, hopefully she'd have a second to tumble rather than faceplant on the other side.

[mshady]

“I just cannot BELIEVE you got us reservations here” the woman says and smiles at the man accompanying her, basking in the ambience of the restaurant. A fine crystal chandelier the size of a small house hangs from the center of the room with dozens of layers of fine crystals and illuminated with the subtle sparkle of enchanted candles that ring it. The finest element of all though is that the price of the chandelier alone would have worth a kingdom. It took an extravagance like that to even stand out in the City of Doors and that was not the only one here.

At the back of the room sits an even more interesting feature.

Made of green stone and covered in several layers of runes stands a towering oval ring. A portal ring. Each of the runes are illuminated with a kind of shimmering blue and yellow fire and it is encrusted in glittering gems.

The restaurant is packed tonight. Over four dozen tables are full of people and more sit in a waiting area at the front of the restaurant. Waiters in fine, but garish, clothing scurry about between the dozens of tables. Complex aromas waft through the air as the dinner hour comes into full swing. Off to the side, an open air galley as rows of cooks slave away. A white clad head chef barks orders and tastes food before letting the waiters and waitresses carry the food off to awaiting dinners. In the center of the room is a raised dais where several musicians play. A string quartet accompanies a finely crafted piano, along with a leggy, but slight, aasamir draped across, singing directly to the pianist but her voice fills the room as she commands the attention of the room.

With a clink of the glass against her companion’s crystal, she smiles that special smile. The one just for him. She delicately touches the bouquet of flowers by her sides and then reaches out for his finely manicured hands. The touch produces a beaming smile from him in reply and she glances at a small, velvet box on the table.

“For you? Anything is possible at my side. One of the advantages of being an advocate with the Harmonium. Not even the Lady could have got a table tonight. But I on the other hand?” he says, smiling at the game he is playing and the notion of the Lady of Pain’s presence. With a wave of the hand, he motions over a waiter standing in the wings and he is accompanied by a brightly dressed violinist. As the waiter serves the meal, small portions on finely trimmed gold plates, as the violinist plays. The woman throws back her head and gasps in surprise, and lets out a hearty laugh as she enjoys the moment. When the server is done and the musician leaves, she beams at him once again.

“Gabe, whatever is the occasion?” she says with a coy smile and a raised eye brow. The man smiles pushes the box forward and runs a finger over it. She smiles again and twirls her curly hair with a finger. The couple lock their eyes together in a soul searching gaze and touch hands again.

“Well, I have something of a proposal for you…” he says with a mischievous grin.
“Oh Gabe, don’t toy with me! You know I hate it when you do that” Her smile says quite the opposite.
“Oh Laurellase, there has been something I’ve been meaning to tell you”“Get on with it than!” she exclaims with a laugh. He laughs as well and motions for the violinist to return as he stands and takes the velvet box in hand. With a gasp of excitement, she covers her smile with her hands and bubbles with excitement.

Ten feet behind the couple, the runes on the portal ring suddenly begin to blaze with a different color. A wave of invisible energy washes across the restaurant, standing hair on end and setting the subtle dweomers illuminating the chandelier ablaze in a wash of color. The sudden kaleidoscope of color draws everyone’s attention to the center of the room and the dinners applaud in appreciation at the beautiful, if unusual and unexpected sight.

The glow of magic forms in the center of the portal now and expands, filling the circle with an opaque blue plane of energy that hardly a soul sees until it is done until it is done. With a flash of incandescent blue light, the portal returns fully to life to the shock of the gathered diners.

With eyes wide in astonishment, Laurellase turns and looks at the plane of swirling magical energy at the center of the portal mere feet away from here.

“It’s beautiful!” she declares with a smile. “You really do know how to make things special! Look at the colors! Oh, if you’re ever the man for me” With that special smile again, she fixes her soon to be fiancé in his chair as he looks at the portal in wide eyed astonishment.

“Dear…” is all he manages to say in an apprehensive stammer.

With a crackle and whoosh, a dwarf falls from the top of the portal and crashes right into their table. The finely crafted table legs bow out and snap under the weight and force of the new arrival. With a second crash, the table collapses on to the floor.

Laurellase is not the only one screaming now. People all over the restaurant are bolting for the doors, screaming in panic.

"Gabe! A… a dustman just crashed into my table! No… its, it’s a fat gnome!!” she exclaims, declaring the obvious. “My dinner! MY NIGHT! It’s ruined! Get away, you dirty thing!”she shrieks and throws the contents of a glass of wine worth more than an average laborer made in a year. Or two. The wine splashes on to the dwarf and the crystal glass is not soon behind it. It breaks in a clatter of fine crystal.

Groaning, the dwarf pushes himself to his feet and stands. He looks around and smoothes out first his beard, than his long, brown leather jacket. Grunting, he places his satchel back into place, followed by his pistol belt. With a grunt, he rudely adjusts his nether regions back into position and rolls his shoulders to his armor back into place. Taking in the scene, he looks around and notices a velvet box at his feet. The top has been smashed open and a ring sits inside with a cluster of diamonds and other gems set upon it. He looks between the two shocked dinners, raises an eyebrow and gives a “harrumph” of understanding. Reaching down, he snatches up the battered box and turns to Laurellase.

“Sorry ‘bout that, lass" he says almost sheepishly. "I’m Carmard and I think this ‘ere trinket belongs to you” he says with a yellow toothed smile.

“Ruined!” she declares and places a hand to her forehead. “It even knows my name!” she exclaims. Carmard raises an eyebrow in confusion as the woman dramatically faints to the ground. Gabe looks at him in shock, still standing in a near paralyzed state of shock.

“Someth’n I said, lass?” Carmard asks, than shrugs his shoulders. The man rushes over to Laurellase and screams an obscenity at Carmard before dragging her away from him as fast as he could.

“The Portal Authority will hear of this! I am NEVER coming back here! YOU pay the bill" he declares as he exits, apparently condeming him to the tab, a far worse fate than death apparently. He throws his fiance over his shoulder and makes for the door.

“Me either!” comes the dwarf’s reply, than he grunts in amusement. “Well, that was subtle" he grouses. "Where are we, this time?" The words are meant only for him as he looks about.

Moments later, the rest begin to arrive. One by one, the dwarves and their allies step through the portal and tumble out the other side on to a slick cobblestone floor. Stepping through a portal laying flat on the Way Ward side into one standing vertically on the Sigil side meant they had a drastically different orientation and they paid for it with painful bruises. With the exception of Sable and Wyatt, who tumbled to the ground and rolled away safely to a chorus of cursing dwarves and, of course, Kelith.

Right on their heels came the Blood Company mercenaries, led by Hextros and Volkros atop their terrible steeds and the other officers. The nightmares do not tumble to the ground but sense they are falling and immediately… stopped. The horses levitated in the air and reoriented themselves and landed softly on the flagstone, flame and smoke marking their every step as they brand the stone. The sulfur smell from the fire and reek of death that accompanied the beasts was nauseating.

The two groups immediately cleared the area around the portal as mercenary foot soldiers started to march through in organized ranks and landed in chaos. Tables are thrown roughly aside to make room for the arriving troops. It takes several minutes for the troops to make it through the portal, tumbling atop each other and rolling out of the way to form into new ranks as their officers bellowed at them. One big bruiser, who no one knew the name of, is particularly loud and violent, cracking a chain whip in the direction of his troops.

Standing aside and watching in silence at the chaos, Carmard watches with his thick arms crossed across his armored chest and brown leather coat.

“If I had nay hired them, I’d almost find the scene comical. May yet be if they just keep on marching” the Arcanii remarks glumly. “Rather it be Forgemark, but I’ll take what I can get at this point”

Looking around, Carmard tries to find Johannes. When he does, he walks over to him.

"Joh!" Carmard growls, clearly unhappy at the situation. "What do you make of this? You're the city dwarf. What just happened? This is gonna be a problem, huh?"

[Strangie]

After Wyatt tumbles across a pile of dwarves and onto safe ground, he laughs hysterically at everybody tripping over themselves and landing on their faces or backsides, doubling over and putting his hands on his knees.

"Ahahaha! Nice landing, guys! Ah, man..." He wipes his eye with one hand, still chuckling. "You guys..."

He glances around at the fancy and probably empty restaraunt, a scene he is wholly unfamiliar with. Being an outdoorsman, this sort of thing was foreign to him. He trails off and his laughter stops as he stares up at the crystal chandelliers and all the other fancy stuff hanging around the place.

"Whoa... where... what is..." He glances around quickly, wondering what this is all about, then turns to Sable when she comes through and orients herself, looking up at her with his hands thrown up over his head.

"Sable! What kinda place is this? Everything's all shiny and expensive. This a tavern or somethin'? For like, rich people?"

[PId6]

Hjalmar

Hjalmar scowls as he looks around the place, finding the rich extravagance of the place overwhelmingly distasteful. The fall certainly didn't help his first impressions, and as he picked himself and his weapons off of the ground, he wondered if the drop counts as breaking his vow of not stepping off solid ground ever again. Scowling some more with disgust at the memory that generated, he checks to make sure his armor is still on tightly, then steps close to Carmard.

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes lays on the ground for a moment, groaning as he gets up. He shakes himself off wearily. "Well... we're probably in the Clerk's Ward, or somewhere around there- the more high brow area of Sigil. Now, considering this, the Hardheads will probably be coming in here any moment, but I figure so long as we're calm and respectful we can probably get away with a fine.
Now, depending on the affableness of the owner of this place... well, if they have guild connections, we may be facing a lot more than a fine. If they're understanding- maybe some kind of retired planeswalker- and they have guild connections, we can probably get out without losing a green.
Beyond that, I don't know... I've been out of town for a long time."

[thorgrim29]

Thordrek is one of the first in the restaurant, and as such avoids anything more then the initial fall. Bemused, and figuring it's not stealing if the nobs are just going to let it waste like that, he picks up a flagon of what looks like brandy and pours an inch into a glass, puts it away, then pours another inch and takes his time drinking it. He watches the show as he thinks.

Looks like we landed in a restaurant, make that an upscale restaurant, this is good stuff, and the decoration might be slightly gaudy, but it wouldn't look out of place in a Pasha's chambers in Calimport... So I'm guessing this isn't where the portal originally led. so while the SGC gate was gone the system defaulted to the Antarctica gate Doesn't look very perilous to me, unless the scorn of few daddy's girls counts as peril. Maybe the one we were supposed to go to has been re purposed since Harold shut it down and Arman's spell activated a dormant portal that was used as decoration, I don't know


((BTW, watched the pilot of SGU yet Mike?:smallbiggrin:))

[Melody]

Sable had hoped to step out of the portal as if taking a step. Unfortunately the portal had other ideas. She hit the ground and rolled, tucking her head and shoulder down. She came up in a crouch beside the laughing halfling and then moved further into the room with Wyatt to give their demonic army some room to get through the portal.

Yeah Wyatt something like that. The real problem is all of this stuff is expensive. She says as she looks around taking in the decor. That means that whoever owns it might have some pull with the local authorities.

Most towns I've seen the law leans towards pleasing the citizens rather than the travelers. I hope that isn't the case, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

[Strangie]

"Well, 'dat's not good..." Wyatt says as he steps back with Sable to give the others space. "Actually, I think authorities might be more worried about a freakin' invasion. We're a huge band of dirty, nasty mercs, from the eyes of 'da people, stampeding through a portal, with weapons and armor all over the damn place. This could be bad..."

[mshady]

The Blood Company’s officers have a terrible time maintaining discipline. Near starving, sans the awful hydra meat, most of the squads break away and fall upon the dining area like a plague of locusts. Most stick to the dining area, devouring the abandoned meals. Fights break out amongst the mercenaries as they plunder the restaurant, stealing silverware and valuable plates. One ambitious fellow is plucking the gold inlaid keys from the piano. As many as twenty mercenaries opt to avoid the dining room rush and head directly into the kitchen and start collecting uncooked food and eating what has yet to be served to waiting customers. The room is in chaos and standing at the center of it stands Hextros, presiding over it all with a rumbling laugh.

“Oi!” Carmard calls out to him. “Get yer arse over here, ye worthless bit o’sandstone!”

Laughing all the way at the chaos, Hextros takes his time to come over to Carmard and it leaves the dwarf fuming. In his hand swings a sack of silverware and other collected valuables he has plundered for himself. He finally arrives and stands before Carmard, his big arms across his barrel shaped chest.

“Ah when the Paymaster calls, it’s best to heed” he says with an infuriating smirk.

“Yes. Paymaster” Carmard growls the reminder. “Ye best get your men under control. This place ‘ere belongs to someone” he states, making an obvious point to the mercenary.

“So?”Hextros replies, with that infuriating smirk again.

“So?” the dwarf snaps back. “I’m nay one to get angry ‘bout things, but yer press’n he. Get’em under control and keep’em on a short leash. You’ve been in Sigil before, aye? Ye think this ‘ere will draw some attention? Think it’ll be easy for us to talk our way outta here? Johannes here thinks this is Clerk’s Ward. All kinds o’ authorities will be here and on us like fleas on a sheep. So bring yer dogs to heel. Now. Or I’ll have Sable put out yer other eye and maybe one o’yer nuts if she feels like try’n a trick shot!” Carmard finishes with barely restrained furor.

“Fine, but know it be easier said than done. These men, it’s best if ye just aim them in the right direction and it be hard to stop the arrow once ye let it fly” Hextros grimaces slightly at the prospect of stopping the plunder. For the difficulty or lost opportunity of plunder, it is hard to tell.

“Ah! A question” Hextros asks. “What are these sheep ye talk of?”

Carmard and several others blink at the question.

“They look like yer mother, and yer father was a flea. They’re real tiny” Grathalmor remarks dryly and everyone in the group laughs, including Hextros at that one.

“Than I shudder to think what one of your sheep looks like, but I assure ye my father was no flea!” he says with a kind of pride. “I’ll bring them back, and they’ll even toss aside the plunder. Little late on the food, but ye can wait for that if ye like”

A stone faced glare from Carmard is the only reply the mercenary gets, as he stalks off. He blows on a horn to get there attention and begins roaring at them, battering the smaller soldiers as he passes with a fist or a kick. It takes him a few minutes, but him and his officers manage to gather everyone back. The officers move about upon their nightmares. It is a scene not unlike watching cattlemen reorganize a herd.

Finally turning to Thordek and Johannes, Carmard finally responds to their counsel.

“Aye, looks like a fine restaurant and I nay think this be where the portal originally was. If it was nay a conversation piece before, it surely is now. I’m nay worried about the threat o’daddy girls and boys, but daddy himself. Reckon it was a decoration though. Bloody hell, the kind o’luck we’re having? If I didn’t have Moradin’s Own Tongs on me balls before with this, this’ll surely crush’em….”

Carmard than turns to Johannes,

“I’m hopin’ yer right there, Johannes. If those Hardheads, they be the Harmonium aye? When they show, best if ye try to talk with them at first. This many boots com'n out all o'sudden, someone may mistake us for an invasion force. Well... reckon that is nay a mistake, but an attack by another Guild. Take Sable with ye. Gonna need yer head here to get us out and on our way. I shudder to think o’what’s going on while we wait…”

[ArmanMadero]

Arman landed on the other side of the gate hard on his wounded side. Of course. Shooting pains went up and down his leg and he lay there for a moment before rolling to the side stiffly. Somehow he managed to not have anything squish him.

He lay on the ground and then painfully got up, his leg throbbing, but not broken again. Thankfully. Haveing to have it rebroken would be bad enough he supposed.

He stood up and looked at the surroundings. Well, its was well lit... People were staring at them all, and at the portal which was now beside him. Arman limped further away, and then sat down in a chair that had become vacant. It would be a few minutes until everyone was through, and no sense on standing when there was a perfectly good chair nearby.

[Strangie]

Wyatt frowns, raising an eyebrow at Carmard's talking. What is it with this group and balls? He starts to silently question the sanity of his group when he spots Arman, walking over and taking a kneeling spot next to him, looking onward at the scene of plundering mercenaries.

"Hope 'dat fall didn't hurt ya too bad. 's why I gave you a second 'fore jumpin' through myself. I didn't wanna have one of these clumsy dwarves crashin' in all on ya. Watchin' them trip over each other, though, heh heh..." He says with a grin as he plants his mace upside down on the ground in his free hand, resting his buckler arm on his knee.

"Pretty crazy what you did back 'dere, my magically inclined elven friend. Ya seem to have a talent for puttin' yourself directly in harm's way more often than any caster normally should. And, on the plus side, you live to tell the tale." He turns his mace upward, twirling it with his fingers and letting it rest on his shoulder instead. "And even did it on a bum leg. Coulda used a guy like you back in my old freelance merc days. How'd you wind up with a buncha armor-clatterin' dwarves, anyway?"

Wyatt felt he needed to occupy himself with other thoughts as he was still bothered about Volkros and being in an area of intense rich snobbiness made him feel awkward. He glanced around nervously while he wasn't talking and made sure nothing troubling was happening, being the twitchy hooligan that he is.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

After falling through the portal, Kelith quickly gets to his feet to take in his new surroundings.

Between the rush of mercenary's trying to loot, and the fearful escape of the patrons, Kelith does the best he can to assist those that are caught in the stampede before returning to the group and waiting on whoever Carmard was most assured would turn up. He chuckled at the thought of their past difficulties since coming through Carmard's portal and only hoped this wasn't to be the fire after the pot, figuratively speaking, real flames didn't bother him.

[mshady]

It takes the better part of ten minutes for the Blood Guard to fall in properly, but fall in they do. A few have bloodied noses, sore rumps or a nasty bite from a Nightmare though. The scorching step of the infernal horses brands the elegant parquet floor, something all of their riders seem to do with glee. One of the Nightmares stop at a roasted pig and the horse feasts on the flesh while its rider dismounts and swings his chain whips at the soldiers.

Kelith spends the time at the exit to the restaurant, dealing with an elderly couple that had trampled by the crowd that fled the restaurant. The man has a fractured leg that Kelith is able to quickly mend, but only after no fair amount of attempts to calm the two. They thank him for the healing and hobble off into the darkness. He follows them to the edge of the door and looks out into the darkness.

The surrounding area is full of people. Some are patrons, some clearly passersby of one sort or another. It would seem a crowd has formed to see what has happened in the restaurant. They point and shout at him in unison, but none dare approach. Nonetheless, crowds have a nasty way of turning into mobs and he certainly did not like his chances against the wave of curious humanity outside. Before he retreats back inside, Kelith has the presence of mind to look around for anything else he can see. The buildings here are tall and finely made; far different than what he had seen in Way Ward. Trees are planted every few feet and the cobblestone road is wide and as flat as can be.

Looking up though, he sees something else of interest. A pillar of smoke and flame rises from an enormous, but distant, smoke stack. The flames are orange and blue and cast their hue across a wide swatch of this near infinite city. The flames illuminate a monolithic structure and several other smoke stacks. It looks like some sort of enormous city. He does not have long to comprehend what that was all about before a piece of masonry comes flying at him from the crowd and smashing through a window pane in a typically elegant door. Taking the hint, Kelith ducks back inside the restaurant but his ears catch a familiar sound. The rapid footfalls of approaching soldiers.

Not a good sound!

Kelith immediately reports this to Carmard, who grimaces at the news and strokes his short beard in thought. He turns and calls across the restaurant to Hextros and Volkros.

“We be gett’n some company. Don’t ye dare provoke a fight with’em. If they demand surrender, than we best be doing it till this can all be explained” Carmard demands. Hextros hears him and snaps the reins on his nightmare and the steed turns to face him. He looks at Carmard curiously and laughs at the request.

“We’re not to be provoking a fight here, but it’ll be a joy if we get one! Hah! Don’t expect a surrender from us either. Not good for our reputation to be surrendering without a fight and all! We be known here, and if it be Mercykillers on the way… well, they don’t be asking for surrender from the likes of us”

With a snap of the reins, Hextros turns his back to Carmard before the dwarf could reply, although it is doubtful Carmard was planning on it.

“Let’s wait and see” Carmard says to his own group. With a serious look, he fixes a stern gaze on Wyatt. “Don’t ye go off being snarky here and provoke them. Yer good in a pinch but yer like sand in my eye at times, so hush or be careful, at least”
Not waiting for a reply, he turns to Johannes and Sable.

“I think it’s best if ye do the talking. Ye seem to know someth’n about Sigil, so I’ll follow yer lead here. Try not to sound too much like a berk and we need an explanation for why we’re here. I’ll leave that one up to ye, but leave out the truth as much as ye can, Moradin forgive me for a falsehood” Carmard states, than touches the holy symbol of Moradin around his neck.

It takes a couple more minutes of patience, but soon troops start to stream into the front of the restaurant. They are dressed in blue and yellow stripped uniforms with finely crafted breast plates. In their hands are razor sharp looking rapiers and large metal shields. A standard bearer and even a musician stand in the front rank. The musician, barely more than a human boy, beats on a snare drum as their officer and sergeants order the troops. They all fall in with an ease that only a well drilled unit would have that gives all the dwarves, at least, a sense of appreciation. With a barked order, the unit forms a shield wall that utterly blocks the only real exit from the building. That there are only 50 soldiers here blocking a door against well over 200 new arrivals seems to leave them utterly unphased. From the side, an officer of some sort steps forward. He wears an overly large, floppy hat with an outrageous feather stuck in it and is bedecked in silver and bears a gem encrusted sword.

“In the name of Rowan Darkwood, Factol of the Fated, I am First Ober Jerious and demand to know who you are and what you are doing at Hesther’s Arms! Your presence is an insult to the reputation of the establishmen!” the man states loudly. He obviously has a preening sense of self importance and speaks with a tone of righteous indignation.

To the side, Hextros laughs.

“Oh master dwarf, mind your purse or The Takers here will have it off you in no time!”

[ArmanMadero]

Arman sat on the chair and looked to Wyatt who had just walked up.

"Hope 'dat fall didn't hurt ya too bad. 's why I gave you a second 'fore jumpin' through myself. I didn't wanna have one of these clumsy dwarves crashin' in all on ya. Watchin' them trip over each other, though, heh heh..."He says with a grin as he plants his mace upside down on the ground in his free hand, resting his buckler arm on his knee.

"Pretty crazy what you did back 'dere, my magically inclined elven friend. Ya seem to have a talent for puttin' yourself directly in harm's way more often than any caster normally should. And, on the plus side, you live to tell the tale." He turns his mace upward, twirling it with his fingers and letting it rest on his shoulder instead. "And even did it on a bum leg. Coulda used a guy like you back in my old freelance merc days. How'd you wind up with a buncha armor-clatterin' dwarves, anyway?"

Arman smiled at the halfling. "I came on as a hired mage. I suppose you could call me a merc that way, but I don't just hire myself out to anyone. As far as putting myself into harms way, its an unfortunate side effect to working with magic. It is not all, point you finger and shoot a missile. Controlling the forces takes considerable will. The last spell almost killed me. I pushed it. Lets hope that I will not have to do anything here that drastic."

Arman looked around, noticing all the looting and such going on, which was being halted, not very well, and everyone was being gathered.

Coming into the room, were a bunch of guards dressed in blue and yellow, and most carrying shields and brandishing rapiers. Not good. Arman stood up and wondered what they had to say... He looked to Wyatt

"You might want to put away your mace. They may see that as a threat."

[Strangie]

Wyatt was way ahead of Arman on that last one. When the troops started filing it, he stood up straight and slid the mace back into its proper holster. "I see 'em. Heeeere come the cavalry. Hooray," he says unenthusiastically. "We'll talk more about this some other time when we're not being interrogated, 'den. I'll go into my 'being a scout is like a death wish' rant later, heh."

[Melody]

First Ober Jerious we oppologize that you had to interrupt your evening to come and deal with this misunderstanding. I'm afraid that this dining establishment was using the portal as a decoration, as this wasn't the termination of our destination the last time we traveled hence.

Sable bows to Jerious. We are very sorry to have disturbed everyone with our arrival, but we would like to travel onward so as not to further disturb your beautiful ward. Would you be so kind as to escort my master dwarf to the foundry? I'm afraid that the longer we stay here the more of a mess our mercenaries will make.

She looks over at one of the nightmares currently leaving blackened hoof prints on the floor. And of course the residents will be grateful to you for such a quick resolution to their problem. Our mercenaries are rather longing for a fight and we would dearly like to be out of your lovely ward before that occured. They can be so very fractuous, I'm certain you understand.

She smiles at Jerious using all the charm she can muster. Shall we chat while you give us escort? How long have you been First Ober? She pauses assuming that he is his own favorite topic. She will do her best to get him talking about himself and then if it looks like he's going along with it she'll walk out to him and walk along with him feeding the conversation to keep him talking about himself until they get where they are going.

[mshady]

OOC: Hey everyone, I have figured out our RP experience for the last couple of months. I'll go into your character sheets and add the experience. Hats off to Wyatt, Sable and Thordek for amount of posting.

Melody, who IS kind of the assistant DM, was kind enough to actually count out all the posts since arriving in Faitholme. Short posts counted as 0.5 points, 1 point for "normal" sized ones (Yeah, its subjective). Some particularly long posts got 2 points. We multiplied the points by 50. I'll be figuring out the combat XP... soon.

As Johannes is coming back as Grathalmor, I'm going to spot him some amount.

Posting a lot keeps the game active and I think I'm going to do RP awards once a month under a similar scheme. I want to get through Sigil in a reasonable period of time. More importantly, I hope everyone is having fun.

You all have made this campaign far more than I ever expected it to be. So thank you.

Lets keep the IC thread clean though and keep any discussion in the OOC forum at: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60703&page=9



Wyatt 77 3850
Sable 52.5 2625
Thordek 42 2100
Arman 31.5 1575
Arum 16.5 825
Johannes 14 700
Kelith 16.5 825
Magnum 19.5 975
Nalrak 12.5 625
Jeth 7 350
Hjalmar 5.5 275

[Gorgondantess]

Joh winks to Sable, brushing her aside to speak to Jerious. He stands tall and proud, staring him in the eye with a cold, hard look. "Do forgive the lady for her simperings; she does not understand the affairs of things as they should be. And I might say something about the establishment; is it not their own fault that they put an item of unknown magic here, amongst their clients? If we should happen to reconstruct a destroyed portal on our own power, do we not deserve to enter through it? I'm sure you do not expect such charities as 'fines' from us, and such will not be given for our damages, truly the fault of whosoever placed the portal in this location. Now, if you will step aside, we must go about our business. There are more pressing matters at hand than these prattlings."
Should I roll a bluff check or a diplomacy check?:smallwink:

[loopy]

Grathamalor Ironfist

He stands there, in the truest tradition of the Dwarven people, weapon unsheathed, lowered, standing in such a way that, to the untrained eye, might even be mistaken for parade-rest.

Grathamalor, still as a mountain, listens to his expedition conversing with the guards. I'll be damned if I start a fight against the constabulary... I'm not going to die in this forsaken place, so far away from the Ironfist halls.

But if they force my hand, I'll protect those I'm charged with lookin' after until Moradin himself drags me home.

[mshady]

The First Ober stands in front of his troops with a gloved hand on a rapier, drumming his fingers on the hilt as he surveys the horde that had arrived in the restaurant. On his other arm, he wears a metal buckler shield that clearly looks enchanted. The black cape on his shoulder, with its gold trim and tassels, is hung off of one shoulder and it occurs to at least Sable, Arman and Johannes it was for more a distraction than a decoration. With the tabard he wears, it is difficult to tell if he even wears armor. The man is not human, but an Air Genasi, particularly agile race that was a mix of humanity and the spirit of element of air. His skin is light blue and he has long white hair that hangs across his shoulder in a braid. The air around him seems to shimmer slightly, as if he is surrounded by a slight breeze. This man was clearly a duelist of some skill and despite being outnumbered four to one, his confidence seems completely unshaken. Indeed, he gives the assembled Blood Company and their officers with a brief but obvious look of contempt.

Haughty and confident though he may be, his lack of aggressive action conveys a willingness to at least wait for an explanation. Or wait for reinforcements.

Sable bows to Jerious and addresses him, apologizing for the disturbance and requests to travel onward to the Great Foundry, saying that delay will only cause more of a mess. When she states that it would be best to get them out of the area before they cause more of a mess or get into a fight and to accompany him on the trip, he raises a hand to silence her.

Sable rolls a 14 for Bluff and a 19 for Diplomacy

“I took the First Ober long enough ago to know berks when I see them” he says with a stern tone in his voice, looking right at Sable. “While any would welcome your company, Clueless or nein, indeed I must escort you all. To the Hall of Records, our Headquarters. Whatever your reasons, you have caused a great disturbance among many, of several factions. Consider yourselves lucky it was I, Ober Jerious, who arrived here before the Mercykillers or Sodkillers.”

Ober Jerious flips his cloak to the other side and gestures at the devastated room. “This… incident here violates many ordinances. At the least, very serious fines must be paid and reparations made. The loss of business, loss of such fine décor for reopening an unlicensed portal?” he clucks his tongue and shakes his head with a grimace. “Very expensive. Very bad for business”

Now it was Carmard’s turn to grimace, and he shifts his satchel out of sight unconsciously.

“Your band of worthless cutters belong in the Lower Ward. The Clueless Ward. NOT the Clerks Ward, where civilized races of the higher planes live” he says, again looking at the Blood Company mercenaries. Hextros returns the glare and snarls something in reply.

“Of course, this is all an issue for the Harmonium as well” he says, as a smile creeps across his arrogant face. “You did mention you brought in mercenaries to Sigil? Do you have a license to do so? Are THEY licensed? With enough time and jink, that can be solved but you want to take them to the Foundry? The Godsmen are no friends of ours” he says, with a look of disdain. “There is already a great commotion over there. For two days now. No doubt those forge monkeys and slave laborers decided to rise up and clear their path to divinity by killing their betters… once again” Jerious continues, than pauses.

“We’ll take what we can get in the chaos afterwards, but who hired you? Their Factol? The upstarts? Or just going to cause trouble?” Ober asks her pointedly. His unspoken message is clear though.

What’s in it for us if we let you go?

Johannes steps forward now, brushing Sable aside and directing the discussion on to him. He stands tall and proud, staring him in the eye with a cold, hard look.

Johannes rolls a 24 for Bluff and a 23 for Diplomacy.

"Do forgive the lady for her simperings; she does not understand the affairs of things as they should be. And I might say something about the establishment; is it not their own fault that they put an item of unknown magic here, amongst their clients? If we should happen to reconstruct a destroyed portal on our own power, do we not deserve to enter through it? I'm sure you do not expect such charities as 'fines' from us, and such will not be given for our damages, truly the fault of whosoever placed the portal in this location. Now, if you will step aside, we must go about our business. There are more pressing matters at hand than these prattlings."

Jerious listens intently to what Johannes has to say and smirks slightly at how he brushed aside Sable. He listens to Johannes argument without interruption and pauses before he replies to it.

“She’s forgiven for being what she is; a pretty, but clueless berk with no business in my Ward” he says. His tone is not one of condemnation. By Sigil standards, it was a statement of fact really.

“I see your point…” Jerious says, with a look sour enough to make one think he had one lemon too many. His hand leaves the hilt of his sword and he strokes a short, black goatee on his chin than laughs for a moment.

“If you Take something, you should know what it is!” he says, and laughs again. “Clearly the proprietor did not. Fortunate for you; it would have been a small matter to disable yon portal. You certainly are the Takers of the portal and deserve its use. Just as we deserve to Take from you a tax for your arrival and proper licensing and I deserve a part of that to begin with. You will find it much easier to move about with the proper licenses, I suspect. Your group seems like it may get… noticed, shall we say? Hardly a charity in my eyes; think of it as a necessary donation to do business here” he says, again with a smile.

“That said, congratulations on what little you have accomplished. It is more than most have taken and the chaos from this will bring about new oppurtunities” he states with a half smile. Surprisingly, he takes off his overly large hat and bows with a sweep of the hat to Johannes before he continues.

“You do make a case though, berk” he says, almost surprised to hear himself saying that. “The damages are not your fault. Indeed myself and many of our clerks will rather enjoy the fines places upon the owners here. They may be one of our own, but such is Fate and they should have known better. Consider yourselves absolved of THAT. Now…” he says and looks between Sable and Johannes.

“Why do you want to visit the Godsmen’s foundry with your rabble army?” he says. His penetrating blue eyes gleam again, pushing the new arrivals back into a corner.

[Melody]

Sable adopts a persona she normaly wouldn't use, she pouts. Very prettily she pouts at First Ober as if admiring his work as Johannes takes up the thread. After the First Ober finishes speaking she makes a quiet interjection. They are dwarves, of course they want to go to the Foundry. It would seem like the most logical place for them. It's like asking a beholder not to look at something, the two inevitably go together. She sighs as she examines her fingernails and buffs them against her leather armor.

But since there is a disturbance there we had better look for somewhere else to go. Perhaps I am a clueless berk First Ober Jerious but I am also a woman and I would dearly love to get a bath and a change of clothes. As for our Army as you put them, it was either fight them or hire them so here we all are. The visit to the Foundry of course can wait till after we find suitable accomodations for all of us.

[mshady]

First Ober Jerious turns his attention back to Sable and can’t hide a smirk as she pouts. When she reflects on how inevitable it was that the dwarves would want to see the largest foundry in the Planes and being dragged along to it. At that point, he actually laughs at her desire to find some real rest and bathe. His soldiers hesitate a moment, unsure of what to do, than laugh along with him as a kind of chorus.

“Yes, they would go there, wouldn’t they?” he says with a smirk. “I doubt they could stand the Godsmen long, though. While it may be their idea of home comforts, I doubt you’d enjoy their work camp hospitality. Women do require their conveniences” Jerious smile sympathetically to her. He turns his gaze towards the mercenaries and clucks his tongue again contemptuously.

“So either hire them or fight them? Interesting choice. Now what? Do you want them?” he says and taps his nose pensively. “Your dwarves may want to visit the foundry, but your mercs? Their equipment is a ruin!” Jerious declares, and it leaves Hextros fuming.

“Served us well enough” Hextros growls from the other side of the room. “Why don’t yours against mine and see how ye fair, blue pixie man”

Jerious looks at Hextros and his hand is on the hilt of his sword in a blink. He draws the rapier half way out of its sheath. The glare at each other for half a minute before Jerious lets his blade slide back into its sheath.

“You have nothing I want” he declares with a sneer. “You might be of use though...”

Jerious stands and drums his fingers on the hilt of his sword again and looks at the group in its entirety, thinking about how to proceed.

“What to do? What to do?” he says repeatedly.

The moment lasts an uncomfortably long time, and the time leaves many shiftless.

“Well than…. I think I know what we’re going to do that makes everyone happy, particularly me” he declares brightly. “We’ll go back to the Hall of Records. You can all take your rest in the dormitories there. Our smiths can see to your vagrants, while I report all this to our Factol and he figures out what to do with you. I’m sure we can ALL work out an accommodation to take care of this matter. I assure you, it DOES have to be taken care of” he says with a smile.

He turns back to Sable with another smile.

“Tonight there will be a test of position at the Rowan Academy of Training and I’ll be participating in a duel. I’d like you to accompany me, as my guest, to the event. After rest and a bath. In exchange, the rest of your dwarves can go visit the foundry or… wherever it is your people go, but don’t be a barmy tourist, eh? Your mercenaries however are not roaming about till we figure things out. We do have a… civic responsibility to keep animals off the streets, after all” he says with a sneer directed at Hextros again. The big fiend’s eyes blaze in hatred at that remark. It does not sit very well with his lieutenants either.

“So, acceptable?” he asks. “You two can ask your actual leader now, if you like”

Towards the back, Carmard stands in silence and drums his fingers on the hilt of his warhammer, weighing his own options.

[Strangie]

Wyatt sort of gives a lopsided frown and a raised eyebrow at Sable's pouting act. He determined this to be strange and bizarre, and added it to the list of strangities he had seen out of her within the past 15 minutes.

"Oooh... 'dat had to sting a little," Wyatt says quietly, mostly to himself, of the animal remark directed at Hextros. He could almost feel his blood boiling from that one.

"Hmm. Guess 'dis ain't endin' as bad as I thought, eh? Looks like we're in 'da clear, to some extent anyway..."

[Werewhale]

Nalrak Ironfist

Listening to Jerious' jabs at Hextros and his band put Nalrak in a light mood. "It sounds like everybody wins..." he muses, eager to get a bit of rest, "Hells," he continues and sniffs his armpit, "Even I wouldn't say no to a bath..."

[thorgrim29]

I agree, sounds like the best possible outcome for us, besides it's not like we have a choice do we? And I wouldn't say no to a bit of R&R myself, I'm getting tired of the smell of burnt beard, and I've got sand in places a dwarf doesn't want sand. What do you say Carmard?

[Gorgondantess]

Johannes steps forwards, shaking his head. "I'm afraid we can't accept your offer, least of all Sable. We will lodge at the Civic Festhall, and you can have your factol inquire there. Good day sir." He speaks forcefully, brooking no argument; he shoots Carmard another look, pensive.

[ArmanMadero]

Arman limped up to Carmard at this point and looks at him, shielding his lips and words from prying eyes and ears, and talks to him in a low voice, so that others cannot listen in. "This may be the best deal. It would keep our friends there under anothers eye, and we can get our things done, without having to worry about them doing something... foolish."

He steps aside and straightens out his clothes a little. He was a little dusty yet from falling on the ground. Like Sable, he thought a bath sounded wonderful.

[Tharar_Greenleaf]

Kelith

"Well, a house arrest and watch is better than cell bars any day. Plus, although I have no particular place of the city I must attend to, I do have the intention of seeing the sights at the least; at least that freedom we will be given, sir?" He turns to face the air gensei at the last part of the sentence.

[mshady]

Johannes and Sable both look towards Carmard in an oblique way to see what their leader wants to do, but he says nothing in response. Instead, he waits for Jerious to reply. The officer clucks his tongue again and laughs in response to Johannes’ demands in the situation this time, seeing through his brittle demands.

Johannes rolls a 17 on diplomacy

“Dwarf, our Factol does not inquire for anyone” he states with a sardonic tone, than winks at Johannes. “Nonetheless, you have spoken not unlike one of the Fated and for that you get a measure of respect”
Jerious stands now and looks over the group and considers matters once again.

“On sooo many levels, you blockheads should not be here but we respect that you managed to reactivate a dead portal. My demands are not unbearable, are they? Your mercenaries will be our guests. You get room and board until our Factol makes a decision. We’ll even grant you one day’s parole, so long as we have your word that you will return.
You can even stay at the Civic Festhall, if you so chose. At the end of that day… I expect your return for an audience with our Factol. My only condition, and indeed insurance of your return, is your pouty lady friend simply accompany me to an event of great importance at the Training Academy. So, what will it be?”

Jerious looks around and smiles smugly as the dwarves consider the choices, but Hextros speaks first from in front of his soldiers.

“We’re looking for work” he growls at Jerious. “We have mercenary licenses for Sigil, paid and current. If my dwarf employers have no use for us, we’ll take your coin. Business, and all…” Hextros states with a smile. Jerious actually nods in return to that statement, but says nothing directly to him.

“You doubt a dwarf’s word and ask I hand over one o’my own to ye? I be insulted by that” Carmard replies. His tone is cold and indignant, but he does not continue.

“Well you seem soo bent on doing whatever it is ye came for, word given under duress does not have the same requirements of honor to, well… honor, yes?” he replies lightly.

“Why don’t you leave it up to the lady? I’m happy to lighten your purses and leave you to the tender mercies of the Harmonium outside. Up to you…” he concludes and looks at Sable.