Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

Post by beowuuf »

More likely the guards are going to look to see what triggered the switch. It would come down to the roll, but at a penalty since they are very likely to look there first. If he was in the other corner, and there was something to focus their attention forwards, it might work.

"But if I go into the corner and they see me, they'll know I was healthy enough to have moved, and also know I moved away from the door for some reason... I'm...I'm not sure..."

Helm considers the guards. "Well we can't attack them, you won't attack them even if I thought it would help, which I don't think it would. They are too powerful. No..I...I don't think I can risk hiding from them then pretending to be hurt. I think them ignoring me because they think I'm unconscious or dead is the best idea. Help me that the herbs from my back and remove the bandage...I...I think it's healed well enough now, thanks to the cleric aswell as the herbs, but it should still look bad. You...you do the sound, just...maybe try to sound deeper. Maybe try to use the empty flask to add echo?"

Don't look at me, you lost all your PC meatshields / sanityshields when Ameena chose to go off alone! If you will rely on an unstable NPC bandaid to Ameena's emotional problems, then I guess her 'life' as a PC might end without her dying! Let's see how the rolls go!

So anyway, if there are no further ideas, sounds like Helm's plan is going to be the way to go. If Ameena wants to argue for him going to the corner afterwards, give me a diplomacy check. IF Ameena wants to go more into dealing with the guards - ie stories they should tell if captured, or other ways to bypass them, then continue.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena considers this.
"I suppose that would help..." she says. "Showing where you're hurt, I mean. Although I hope it won't cause you pain. And pretending to be...dead...or something. I suppose they may not be too careful with you if they think you're very badly hurt - they might think you won't be able to get very far if you tried to escape. Maybe I can get their attention well enough by squeaking so that they won't try to move you straight away. It might give you a chance to sneak through this door and...hide somewhere. Or get up the stairs. Or something. As for me...well, I'm not sure. I think they might attack me if they see me. I'll try to get past them without them seeing me. If they go through the other door, I'll step on one of the stones and hopefully close it behind them. I suppose they'll know where the switch is, but I'll have a little more time to run while they find it."
She pauses, thinking over their rather shakily-constructed plan. So many ways it could go wrong...
"It's not much of a plan," she says, "but I suppose we don't have many choices at the moment. The way out is through this door, past those soldiers. Our only other choice would be to turn around and just go back, but we don't know of a way out in that direction. I suppose those soldiers could just...well, kill us both. But I think we should try. I'll distract them if I can. I hope you can hide yourself somewhere safely, if you get the chance. I suppose we're about to be split up, but I'll come and find you. I can follow scent trails - these humans can't. Even if they take you somewhere, I'll try and follow."
These last few sentences come out with noticeable determination. Then Ameena brightens a little as another thought occurs to her.
"Maybe they'll want to be rid of you." she says. "Maybe you should just tell them that you want to get out of here - they might agree to just take you to the way out! If that happens, though, I'm still not sure that mentinoing me would be a very good idea - it seemed that Drommal thought I was a creature of this place. Or maybe he just didn't like me..."
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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In the very dim light, Ameena can see Helm nod. "Oh...ok, we'll do that then."

Right, so any last minute things you want Ameena to do or prepare, and that's that. Ameena helps Helm with the bandage (you'll need to decide where that will go) and then Helm can open the door...

A few rolls might be in order - a bluff check for the noise, stealth check for hiding, and a perception check to figure out exactly what's going on.

Good luck!
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Okay...yeah, I figured about the Bluff (for the squeaking) and the Stealth (for legging it as quietly as possible). I'll roll once we actually get to that part, so I can be rolling the right thing at the right time. Let's do this thang (and try not to get killed in the process)! ;)
Oh, if Ameena's helping Helm take the bandage off, presumably that means he's bending/crouching/kneeling down to allow her to do so...

BIC - Ameena helps Helm remove the bandage, then hands it to him. She unties the end of the string from around her waist and shoves it the rest of the way inside the pouch. She is strongly aware that this may be the last time she sees Helm. Alive, anyway. She isn't sure what she'll do if she makes it through this alone, and doesn't want to think about it, so doesn't.
After helping Helm remove the bandage, she puts a paw on his arm before he has a chance to stand up again. She looks at the dark shape that is his face.
"I hope we get through this." she says. "If we don't, what I'm about to say won't matter. But if they take you somewhere, I hope you know I'll come and find you. Murafu don't abandon their friends, and I hope you're my friend. At the moment, you're the only one I've got, and even if they take you away and I have a chance to escape, I won't. Not if it means leaving you down here. I know you didn't trust me much before, with those creatures, but I hope you'll believe this."
She raises her head and rubs her cheek against his, a common murafu gesture but one which she recalls rarely using among other species. A gesture of closeness and friendship. Not that she expects Helm to realise this, but that doesn't matter. It makes her feel a little better, anyway.
"Hopefully this will be very easy, and we'll be seeing the sky again soon." she says, belatedly realising that her whiskers are probably tickling his ear. She draws back, glances once at the door, then drops to all-fours and turns to run around the room, following the wall as before, to position herself for their thoroughly flawed and almost desperate attempt at an escape plan.

OOC - You can retcon anything Helm says to Ameena between these last comments and her running off if you want. She's parked herself in the northeast corner of the puzzle room (that is, if north is the top), which I think is near where the wounded creature was anyway. Hopefully she'll squeak loudly enough that the guards hear her. I don't imagine that will be a problem. Oh, one other random thing I thought of, not really relevant to the current situation but I was just wondering - did Helm ever tell Ameena why the guards were calling him a thief? I can't remember whether he did actually steal something or whether he said they'd just made that up or something, or even if they (he and Ameena) even talked about it...
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Helm stiffens a little, thoguht it might just be because he's realised that this might be the last time the two of them speak together too. "I...I hope so too," he says at Ameena's last comment, having been quiet though shaky for the previous comments.

As Ameena leaves, Helm takes up position at the switch, already in as much of a crouch as he can be. He uses the wet bandage to smeer the switch before stuffing it into his shirt.

With a final breath he reaches out for the switch.

No one ever explained why they called Helm a thief, or if they did they glossed it over. For all Ameena knows, it would be like Drommal calling Ameena a thief or sneak thief just because she stealthed somewhere or did something rogue-like.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Basically if Ameena isn't making noise right away, then the guards are going to spend time on Helm, hence why I needed the rolls. If Ameena would wait, or there's anything else too forward in this update, then I can redo it.

The moment the door starts grating open Helm falls to the ground. Ameena's hearing is such that she can hear the voices again even as scary light spills into the room, even touching the room beyond she is trying to hide in.

The voices are raised, she can heard words such as 'door' and 'open' and 'chain'. It sounds liek there are, infact, three distinct voices. Someone is told to hold still and stay behind.

There is the strong smell of metal, of the soldiers - although only the faintest whiff of Brohur, implying perhaps he is the one being told to hold back.

"No, keep the torches where they are, they'll destroy our vision," says a soldier, the sound and noise of them coming from the door.

Ameena can smell them as they enter, and hear them moving attempting to be stealthy. They are managing it to a reasonable degree, but their clanking mail makes it impossible to be quiet, certainly to her sensative ears.


"Who is this?" said one unrecogniseable voice.

"Quiet, I thought I heard something," the soldiers pause for a moment to listen to any noises. "I think the thief from earlier. The bug Brohur spoke of is gone. Leave him for the animals, but leave the door alone."

There was a sound like the soldiers had lowered the door. "How big was the creature?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Bigger than that crack," said the voice recogniseable as Brohur in the distance.


So there we go, the soldiers have been spooked enough to move back, but apparently want to keep the door open. Perhaps Brohur shut it when he came in and annoyed the soldiers left behind :)

Anyway, the soldiers rolled so poorly for perception I figure they'd react how I had them. Your stealth roll will still be good if you walk up closer to the door... if you think it's good enough for some brave explorations around the door, be my guest :)
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - The door? Ameena's not sitting by a door, she's by the northern wall of the southern area, near the narrow bit separating the bit with the pressure pads from the other bit. She's on the eastern side. Well, that is, if "up" is "north" in that map. I haven't checked the map again since right after you first re-linked it, but I recall that the room in two parts - the southern part has the pads and a door int he south wall which is where Helm and Ameena entered and the creatures have now left, and the northern part with no pads and a door in the north wall which leads to the room where the Mummy fight took place and where the soldiers are. What kind of door was it, again? I gather not a DM-vertical-closing one or they wouldn't have been able to casually pull it half-shut (as I gather they seem to have done). And I gather your referring to Brohur by name is just for player benefit, since I think the only ones mentioned by name, apart from Drommal, were Thinpas and Arbrut. Definitely Arbrut, anyway. So Ameena wouldn't know his name, just that he was the nasty git who poked the Rock Monster with the torch earlier.
So we have two soldiers who came to investigate but are still on the other side of the now half-closed door, and Brohur further back inside their room?

BIC - Crouching behind the wall where no light from the other room can reach, Ameena considers what to do. It seems she's right - not all of the soldiers will come through. At the moment, it seems as though none of them want to come through. Well, for now, she supposes, they don't have any particular reason to do so. Having heard the voices from the room and confirmed one's identity, she also now has a reasonable explanation for how the young creature came by its injuries, remembering how the rock-creature fared when this particular soldier came near it with a torch. This gives her a fairly good idea as to how she's likely to be treated if they find her.
Not for the first time, Ameena wishes she'd never ended up this place. She can see all to clearly how slim her chances are of getting out of here alive. Helm, perhaps. But herself? Very little, she expects, if these soldiers get hold of her. Well, she decides, if that happens, she'll do all she can to talk her way out of it - maybe they'll be less likely to harm her if she can prove her sentience. Then again, Drommal didn't seem to care...
Well, at least she can try. She can try to get Helm out. If one of the guards stays in the room, though, she knows he'll probably have little chance of sneaking past if he decides to try. But she has to at least give this a go. Maybe she can distract the guards long enough for Helm to somehow get past them to safety, then try to make for the nearby door and hide herself in the twisting corridors through there until she gets a chance to escape herself.
Yes, she decides. That's probably about the best thing she can come up with for now. Try to give Helm all the time she can, and all the opportunity to escape that she can manage by leading as many soldiers as she can away from that other room. If seh dies doing this, at least it will have been in an attempt to help her friend.
A friend is for life. Life is for friends.
Ameena carefully, and as quietly as possible, moves along the wall toward the other corner of the room, so that she's now by the wall that has the door. If the guards are going to give chase and probably step on one of the stones that closes it, she wants to be as near as possible in order to hopefully get under it before it shuts. She isn't particularly worried about the screeching creatures that might still be lurking somewhere beyond - she'd gladly deal with them any day given the choice between them and these metal-wearing, sword-wielding humans.
Now, she decides, is the moment where it could all go wrong. She just hopes that she'll be able to run in time, and that Helm will be able to get through, by stealth or by talking his way out. At least where she is, the wall she was hiding behind still helps to block out the light - since she's still near the corner of the room, there isn't a direct line of sight to the distant door, so the soldiers' torchlight shouldn't reach her until they enter this part of the room.
She knows that if they come looking, they'll be looking for the creature from before, which is about her size, so crouching down and trying to make herself look smaller in the hopes they won't notice her probably won't work, but she does it anyway. She remains in a position to spring and bolt for the door, however. She keeps her eyes fixed on the point where the soldiers' feet will be when they enter - the moment she sees one of them step on one of the step-stones, she'll run for the door.
She decides she's as ready she she can ever be. She doesn't really know what will happen, but just hopes that Helm will get out unhurt, and that if she dies, that it won't be painful.
Taking a moment to focus, to concentrate, to remember as exactly as she can what the small screeching creatures sounded like, Ameena starts squeaking loudly.

OOC - So Ameena's now on the far southern wall, a little bit along from the corner, crouching down as low as she can get and with her eyes on the spot the guards will appear, but ready to leg it straight for the nearby door when either they step on a pad or she thinks they'll be about to spot her.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Brohur's name was invoked because it was his name at that situation - if I do anything for player's benefit, it would be in bold :D And I didn't quite make it clear, partially because it was late and partially because there's no reason Ameena would actually see it, but the soldiers haven't stayed in the room, they have walked back out.

Hence why you can use the stealth to go up to Helm's door - I know where you were!


As Ameena waited, it was obvious there was no further sounds of the soldiers movement. Where they waiting in silence, for anything to come to them? From her better position by the door, she could see the light flooding in from the door opened perhaps an eighth of the way. There was a brief appearance of a metal leg at the other side, but it soon disappeared. Otherwise, there was nothing. For whatever reason, the soldiers had abandoned further checks on the room. For now, Helm did not move.

It's up to Ameena what she wants to do now - the soldiers have apparently left you lot alone. IF you want to wait it out and see if anything happens further, you can, but remember HElm is lying there without a clue what's happening in view from the other side.

Torches last an hour, so at some point the torches will either die off, or will be replaced by a soldier.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Oh, I hadn't thought about torch lifetimes...Ameena would have no way of knowing how long a torch lasts, but both she and I figure that the soldiers are used to being in the dungeon and will most likely have plenty of spares on them ;).
Regarding Brohur being referred to by name, I don't recall that he's ever been referred to as such by a character, only in the textual descriptions. I know Drommal introduced himself, and I recall Arbrut being mentioned by name by one of the guards whow as with Drommal when Ameena came running back and collided with them right after the fight started. Thinpas may have been referred to by name at some point but I can't remember, and I think Passin introdued himself when Ameena asked his name (which I'm pretty sure she did) shortly before the rest of the group let him go.

BIC - Ameena listens. There is no apparent response from the guards. So, the plan of acting like one of the screeching creatures doesn't seem as though it will work. Well, then. The guard whose voice she recognises, the unpleasant one who was with Drommal and the others and who seems to like harming other creatures, might recognise her voice in return. And, she considers, if that happens, it might give them even more reason to come after her.
Hoping that her natural murafu abilities will allow her to survive, and that Helm will take any opportunity to get in order to escape, Ameena swiftly decides what she should try next.
"Hello?" she calls, not moving from her current position.

OOC - How quickly did the door shut before, when Ameena and Helm legged it through to escape the big spider widget? Did it just slam straight down, or was it a DM-style kind of shutting which took a few seconds?
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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The door shut reasonably quickly. These things tend to shut at the speed of plot, so can shut in four stages over a round, or four stages in the space of two rounds. Certainly expect an almost shut door to catch you on a third round if not before...

There is a shuffling from outside, and a curse. A pair of feet appear at the door outside. "What did you say?" comes a voice, familiar to Ameena as the one perhaps called Brohur, the man from before. He appears to be levelling a comment at Helm. The door then ratchets up again.

"Hey, there's someone here!" yelled the soldier, who had apparently been standing just off to the side of the door - perhaps looking to attack again the spider creature he had already wounded so badly.

"Who's there?" called the soldier, his sword out, held high. "Was it you? Was it?" said Brohur, and kicked the 'body' of Helm viciously. Helm, of course, cried out in pain as a metal foot caught him in the chest.

"You little bastard, you're not quite so dead as you looked, are you?" said Brohur, placing a swordblade on the thief's neck. "Welcome back, thief. Thought I recognised you."

Brohur then raised himself up a little. "I have your thief friend here, so you best come out, whoever you are!" he yelled. He then looked back to Helm. "Who's out there? Why did you return?" he said. Helm could be seen visibly shaking and stammering. However, then the voice of the soldier took its turn to quiver. "You've not brought the half-orc back with you? I'll kill you if you have!" he said.

Brohur then looked back up, staring at the darkness.

Well, you have the attention of Brohur - who was poised to get anything that appeared. And probably more soldiers in a round or two's time.

What do you want to do?

Oh, and of course, as always in these sort of tense situations, roll me some initiative please. And try to keep your actions to under six seconds, and limited to a move and standard action at most!
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - The reason I asked about the door-shutting speed is for Ameena's knowledge and her reckoning of how close she'd have to be in order to run through it if it started closing, since that's her plan if the soldiers come after her. She knows they will probably know the combination to re-open the door but it would give her time to either talk to them through the door for a bit before running, or to run straight away and hide in all the twisty-turny tunnels that lie beyond.
I find it a little amusing that Brohur could hear the somewhat high-pitched, almost childlike-sounding voice of Ameena calling from noticeably further away than the door he was standing beside and yet think it was Helm ;).

BIC - Ameena listens to the voice of the soldier as he speaks. She isn't entirely surprised that it's the one she knows from before. She realises her rather abrupt action of calling out has now put Helm in danger, but she wonders what would have happened if she'd continued to squeak. Well, she supposes, there's no reason for them to think that she's alone here. She considers squeaking a bit more and making it sound as though she's there with one of the young creatures, but decides that, for now at least, that might be a bad idea since the soldiers might catch on to the fact that only one voice was coming to them at a time.
She also wonders why the soldier seems to sound afraid of Haynuus. Personally, she thinks, she'd be more afraid of Falkor - At least Haynuus's weapons tend to be visible and obvious.
But meanwhile, the soldier is waiting for a response. Well, she decides, she has nothing in particular to hide, and is afraid that the soldiers will hurt Helm if she doesn't try to talk them out of it.
"No, there's no-one else here." calls Ameena. "Just us. We're trying to get out. The others took a different path. We just want to get out, though. Outside, to the open air. That's all. We don't want to fight. Surely you can see my friend is hurt. If you let us pass, you won't see us again. I never want to come back to this place."
Ameena gives a little shudder as she thinks of all the horrible things she's seen here, and fails to keep a faintly fearful note out of her last sentence. Then she listens for a response.

OOC - If I recall, Initiative is a d20 + Dex mod, isn't it? So...Initiative = 13 (10+3). And for that attempted request made by Ameena of the soldiers (more specifically Brohur, I suppose, since he's the one who made the challenge, though Ameena naturally wants all the soldiers to agree to let them pass ;)), a Diplomacy roll of...hmm, 11 (7+4). And if it's allowed, a Sense Motive to detect Brohur's (and anyone else's) reaction to her words...meh, it seems to be Average Night on my rolls tonight...Sense Motive = 13 (5+8).
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Well, she thinks she knows the soldiers know the combination, but have the soldiers really shown they have such intimate knowledge of the dungeon? And the normal call out of a murafu in the diatance could easily be mistaken for the poorly yelps of someone closer by, since BRohur wasn't directly in line of sight of the door. Did I mention how poor people's perception rolls were? :D

"Who's that?" says Brohur to Helm while still looking up trying to see who or what is speaking.

Helm obviously tries his best to bluff, but Brohur really is a fearsome presence standing above - potential instant death. "I...why would I know...no idea...it...I-" Helm then scream as Brohur pushes his sword into the man's shoulder brutally. "It's the rat! From the group!" Helm sobs.

Brohur sneers. "Why should I let you livee so much as escape this place to tell of our presence here? I do not believe you!" says BRohur, and Ameena can sense the soldier is too paranoid to believe her claims.

"We promise not to say anything, but you need us alive because the half-orc is close and if we're dead he won't stop from hunting you down, we can talking to him and-" there is another scream and Brohur obviously applies his sword to quieten Helm's speech, but the sword is clearly not applied hard. Something in Brohur's manner shows he is still nervous with mention of Haynuus.

"For goodness sake, Brohur, let the professionals deal with this," says a voice from outside the door. Brohur flinches and looks around, but says nothing.

"Whoever you are, we have your friend. Come out into the open, unarmed, if you wish to talk. IF you wish tp leave, we can certainly accomodate your re-"

"NO!" says Brohur loudly. "I'll not let you! Drommal will have your head for this!"

"You will remember your place, you smooth-skinned coward," says another voice, with derision.

"Indeed, you have no authority over real soldiers," says the first new voice, "especially not with Sergenant Arbrut dead and his patronage at an end. You'll have to earn your place in our ranks now, and you'd better earn it quickly before the Captain comes back." There is a pause during which Brohur says nothing. "Once again, come out, and we will not hurt you," continues the first voice, this time apparently towards Ameena."On our oaths to Gholst and the Souls. We have need of ones who wish to see the sun again."

And that's that. Brohur isn't biting, but it sounds like Brohur does not call the shots. The other soldiers are barely visible, both apparently just at the edge of the doorway, apparently happy for Brohur to present a tempting target.

Ameena can't really tell if the man is sincere or not .Certainly, he doens't sound insincere, but that's as far as it goes.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Heh, so they describe Brohur as "smooth-skinned". Suddenly I get an image of reptilians in mind.

BIC - Ameena listens, flinching every time Helm reacts in pain. She notes that he refers to her as a "rat", but given his current situation, she supposes she can't really blame him for using a word that's a bit quicker to say than "murafu". And at least she now knows the name of the aggressive soldier - Brohur.Their description of him as "smooth-skinned" doesn't pass her by, and she wonders what these ones look like. She wishes she could trust them, as with any other creature, but doesn't fell that she can. Their mention of oaths to "Gholst and the Souls" means nothing to her - she's only heard the name of Gholst mentioned in connection with horrible, unpleasant connotations, and "the Souls" could be anything.
But they have a point - they have Helm there, at swordpoint, injured.
Wishing that she and Helm could have come up with a better plan, Ameena slowly moves forward, crossing the room and taknig care not to step on any of the step-stones by feeling for them with her whiskers as she goes. She stops when she reaches the narrow part which divides the two sections of the room, then calls out again.
"Stop hurting my friend!" she pleads. "What do you mean, you need us?"
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Well, it could refer to his armour, or it could be a dig at him having no scars, or perhaps the soldiers actually have ritualistic scarring and he doens't. Who knows! :)

Brohur tenses as the murafu comes into view.

"Brohur, take a torch and go investigate behind out new 'friend', won't you?" says the first voice again. Brohur flinches, and stares daggers at both the revealed murafu and somehow the soldiers behind him.

"We are few in number, as you might recall," continues the voice. For some reason, he sounds as if he is getting further away, "We stretch ourselves too thin and cannot properly explore the way out to ensure the main door has been sealed. After all, you all came in here. If you two can be trusted to explore the way outwards - with one of us - then we can be of help to one another. I'm sure your friend - as talented as he is with doors - can help you get out and close the way again afterwards."

Brohur returns after briefly leaving carrying a torch. He walks forward, again glaring daggers, but apparently looking beyond Ameena. It appears his plan is to walk passed Ameena and look behind her.

Will Ameena let him walk towards her? Will she back away, or skirt around him? Or hold her ground? At the moment, Helm is unguarded, as it appears the other soldiers have withdrawn slightly from the door.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena listens to the words of the soldier, not really trusting what he says. She doesn't like his use of the word "friend" in the almost derogatory manner he seems to phrase it. He is no friend to her. Maybe some of these soldiers might have the potential to become such, if they don't all share the same feelings toward creatures like herself, but she doesn't intend to stay around long enough to find out.
She also takes note of some of the other things he says, like the fact that his kind are few in number. He stats it as though it's something she should already be aware of, but she doesn't see how she could have known it. Maybe he assumes that she is aware that these people normally travel in larger numbers, or something. He also refers to Helm as being "talented with doors". True, they must have deduced that it was he who opened this door, but for all they know he could have been trying for a long time before finding the switch. How much do they know about him, and how much are they simply assuming?
Well, she decides, letting people assume things can often be the best way to get what you want from them.
And now Brohur is coming toward her. She realises she only has a few seconds in which to make a decision - she could turn and bolt for the door behind her, or dash past him or out of his way, or simply keep still and hopefully he'll just walk past her. Remembering the rock-creature, however, and the wounded screeching creature, she has no desire to let this human near her.
But then what to do? Run? But Helm is still lying on the ground, injured. The thought of leaving a fellow murafu alone and injured and surrounded by hostile beings would be unthinkable - it wouldn't even come into consideration. And Helm is a friend. It seems theyn're not going to have been apart for long after all...
As Brohur approaches, Ameena darts forward and around to the right, keeping well out of his reach - with the torchlight now illuminating the room, she doesn't need to rely on whiskertouch to find her way. She arrives back at Helm's side and places a paw on his arm, then looks toward the door behind which she knows the other soldiers to be.
"All we want is to get out of here." she repeats. "I don't see how we can help you, and as long as the doors will open, I don't think we'd need your help unless there are any more of you guarding the way out."
Then she pauses, glancing at the wound on Helm's shoulder.
"Well, I suppose if you had any means of healing, that might be useful at this time. But...from my encounters so far with...umm...people who look like you, I'm not really expecting much by way of help. Quite the opposite, really."
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Although Ameena can interpret how she likes, for your benefit as a player - remember Helm possibly opened the door originally for the soldiers, they probably would not have found those switches on their own the first time they met the party. Ameena's nose has already detected the soldiers entered the dungeon through the collpased tunnel.

Also these soldiers are the ones who remained behind. Hence, Ameena would know they are few in number - four walked right passed her to stay behind! Taht's what they meant.



Brohur glares and flinches when the murafu is in range, as if tempted to strike her, but allows her passed. As his torch surveys the room, he seems to snarl that the door is open and quickly strikes his foot on a pad to close the grate again. "The blasted door was open!" he calls back.

"No matter," replies the other soldier, whom Ameena can make out is further back in the room now. By the torchlight flickering further back still, the second soldier is probably making his way to the stairs and their fellows.

"There you are, our new 'friend'," says the first soldier. "The one Brohur said warned the Captain of the dangers of your group. Good to know you knew who to ally yourself with then." He has not removed his skull-faced black helmet, unlike Brohur, and so his voice sounds metalic and strange. Once Ameena makes her admission about the trustiness of the blackskull soldiers, there uis some genuine if cruel laughter. "That is probably wise!" he says. "However, as I have explained, your goal serves us. And besides, you were obviously of help before when you betrayed your group's plan to us. So there is no need to fear us, nor distrust us. You do not even require our help, I think, so much as you require us to not actively hinder you. One rodent and a sneak-thief are hardly our match - do not think our numbers that low. You cannot retreat, and if you run to the door, you serve our cause anyway. Is it worth risking our anger and your death by running from us and being cut down when you first meant an obstacle? Should we not together go to the entrance - as 'friends' - where your egress can provide us with the information we need - information we would rather not risk our lives to find out. After all, you must realise how dangerous this dungeon is, if you wish to leave. What makes you think a trained professionals wish to spread themselves so thin as to link from here to the entrance, or bunch up together at the door and be trapped at the front rooms, fighting in such narrow confines as to ensure our death? No, we have no spare scouts, and you two - duplicitous and cowardly as you no doubt are - seem to be perfect. What harm could it possibly do?"

Helm gratefully accepts Ameena's touch as he listens scared at the words of the soldiers. Ameena can see - in the light - how bad Helm now looks. He has many cuts about his face, and a very, very angry purple bruise around his throat where the creature attacked him before. He looks very pale, certainly not the healthy colour he was before - more like the colour he was when the group first found him after the fight in the teleporter room.

"We...we accept! OF course we accept!" says Helm quickly, looking to Ameena as if daring her to disagree. 'Trust me' he mouths to her.

Heh, obviously Ameena will have something to say about that, but Helm wants out!
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Bleh, typical Helm, lol. Oh, and as to the thing about there being "few" soldiers, I'd sort of assumed he meant as a population in the dungeon in total, not that specific small group who stayed behind. I'd also forgotten about the collapsed path and stuff ;).

BIC - Ameena twitches an ear in slight confusion and looks at Helm with what would probably be a frown if it was on a more human-looking face.
"Do we?" she asks him, then looks back toward the soldier who's been speaking to her. "It's because of the dangers of this place that we want to leave. Had I known I'd be seeing the things I've seen down here, I'd never have come."
She pauses, thinking over what the soldier has said to her.
"So...you want us to leave this place?" she asks. "But you want to come to the entrance with us so you can see what's outside? Why not go yourself?"
She wonders whether the soldier knows how close the entrance actually is - maybe they haven't been upstairs yet, she thinks, and tries to remember whether she smelt the scent of the metal-wearers in the room she first woke up in with the others. She doesn't trust this one who's speaking to her now, but she doesn't understand what he truly wants, or why. She is also building up a picture of his personality in her mind, based on the words he's been using. She doesn't know what "duplicitous" means, but "cowardly" is one she definitely recognises.
On looking at Helm's current state, Ameena immediately decides what her next question will be, once this one is answered, though she doesn't expect the soldier to provide particularly useful or revealing information to anything she might ask. But hopefully that will be alright - if he needs her, as he claims, he will have to do something of what she wants in order to get her to help him.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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The answer is yes, Ameena smelt the metal smell in the room with the alcoves at least after thoroughly sniffing around. So it's very likely they walked in through that way.

"I expect you will be able to grasp what I am about to say - it is not a difficult tactic we employ in situations like this. We call it the chain. In large and twisting spaces such as this, we explore by having a line of soldiers, each within sight of the other. It has done us well to ensure we have warning of what sneaks up behind, or what lies waiting infront. Simply put, five soldiers cannot span the length from the hall down here, to the entrance. We would have to surrender knowledge of what comes in the hall - and as you have shown, it is an easy matter to open this door, perhaps gaining possession of this hall before we would know, cutting us off. And vice versa, any scout we send without eyes on them could disappear, leaving us lesser in number and no clue as to the cause."

There was a pause in which Brohur came back, breathing heavily and apparently wishing nothing more that to antagonise Ameena, but apparently cowed by his fellow soldiers for now. The first soldier continued. "Now, if one of our number were to go with you, but you are the scounts, then we can still control this hall. And to be bruitally honest, if you go to the entrance or outside and are killed by a stray trap in the doors, or arrow from a waiting force, we are not lessened and have warning. Rather than, as said, we lose a precious member of our force and have no idea. Instead, at worse we loose two little sneaks, and our own is forewarned and can fall back safely to tell the rest of us. Do you see? If you are confident of your escape, enough to risk your lives running to it, there seems no harm in taking us up on our generosity. And perhaps, do our reason sound like something you have come to expect from 'our kind'?"

There is a mocking tone to the man's words. And also a questioning. He is, apparently, awaiting the murafu's words - presumably assuming Helm is too wounded to be the better scout anyway.

There we go, Ameena can ask her next question. Remember, we are getting close to my update limit now, so you might want to get Ameena into a cool position that will keep you excited for the next few days :D
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena thinks over this tactic - it sounds as though it makes a kind of sense, to space people out in order to cover a greater distance of sight and sound when standing guard over an area. She still doesn't know why these people are patrolling this dark place, but she supposes that's their business, not hers.
Her business, at this particular moment, is something quite different.
"Do you have a way to heal my friend?" she asks. "We both want to get out, and that might be difficult if he's too badly hurt. If I was a healer, I'd help him myself, but...I'm not...so I can't. If you help him, and if you...all of you...don't do anything to hurt either of us or stop us getting out of here and back to the open air, then I suppose I'd be willing to go along with your suggestion."
If any of these people can help Helm, decides Ameena, she will be very careful how she phrases any agreement she might make with them. Even if these people stick to their word, they might find some way to twist the deal to suit themselves.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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There is an audible hiss from Brohur, but the soldier she is actually speaking to laughs. "Such a mercenery, bargaining from a position of nothing. Why not, anything that saves us effort. Brohur, give the thief your flask."

Brohur pasues. "I...do not have it anymore," he says.

"And yet you did not sustain any injuries in your encounter, from what I recall? Ah, I suppose you opted to boost your stamina instead. To cover inadequecies, and because you do not think ahead." Again Brohur hissed at that staement.

There were more voices, and it appears the other two soldiers had been drawn down.

"Frant, give our guest your flask of serum, he has wounds to heal if he is to be of use." The soldier then gestures to Ameena to come forward. "Please, I have no wish to delay you from leaving a moment longer than necessary." He turns to the soldiers. "Gentlemen, we have to scouts to check help us reconnoitre the way out. I suppgest we avail ourselves of them."

There appears to be no argument from any of the soldiers who have appeared, all of them dressed in similarly jet black armour with faces embossed on them. Only Brohur, it seems, does not possess the fancier version of the armour.

So there you go, Helm will get a healing flask - LO VI, which should cure his wounds - and you now have four soldiers infront waiting for Ameena and Helm to come forward, spread out around the central sarcophigus in the hall, and Brohur behind.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena doesn't move, and keeps her paw on Helm's arm.
"When we're both ready, we'll go." she says. "I don't suppose you can give us any kind of guarantee that you won't turn on us once we've got as far as the doorway to the surface...or at any other time?"
Though she doesn't much like the current situation, Ameena is at least glad that Helm is getting some help. She has no intention of leaving until she's sure he can walk. Then she knows it's just a matter of the two of them getting out, without Brohur or any of the others deciding to turn on them. She wonders why Brohur claims to hate her so much, but then somewhat sadly reminds herself that some people don't seem to need a reason - they just hate others because doing so seems to make them feel good, somehow.
Meanwhile, she doesn't really expect any kind of positive answer to her question - she and Helm probably don't have much choice about what these soldiers choose to do with them. A somewhat frustrating situation, but she decides there's little harm in asking, at least.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Brohur growls from behind Ameena. "I can guarantee if you keep this up much longer I'll drop this torch on you, and get some revenge for Arbrut for what you friend did," the man says, apparently confirming exactly what Brohur had thought of the man. Though in deference to the rest of the soldiers, Brohur did not actually move forward to make good on his threat.

The first soldier laughs. "Oh, I think you suppose correctly. However, as you can see there are things I can guarantee. I can guarantee that Brohur will lose patience with you. Or I can guarantee that it will not bew pleasant if we decide the amusement and opportunity you give us is not worth the effort it causes. Really, when faced with such certainties, is not any gamble worthwhile? "

The soldier perhaps known as Frant walks over the first soldier, but instead of carry on to give the flask to HElm directly, give the flask to the first soldier. The first soldier tuts, but takes the flasks and walks forward to be closer to Helm and Ameena, giving the flask to Helm.

Uncertainly Helm takes it, looking to Ameena and scowling slightly, as if to indicate for the murafu not to antagonise the men more. He mumbles some thanks, which the soldier completely ignores, and then the man quickly splashes a small amount on his neck and then greedily drinks the meagre amount of liquid. He coughs slightly, and then looks up surprised as the soldier quickly takes the flask back out of Helm's hand.

"When you are quite ready, shall we go?" asks the soldier. Despite his gentle words, there is very little civility in his tone.

There we go. Oh, Helm was not actually wounded as such, he was still just playing wounded and winded from Brihur's attentions. Well, I guess he has wounds, but they were the ones he's been labouring under since the first few attacks. Brohur hadn't actually inflicted anythign serious, just painful.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Seeing someone in pain is enough for Ameena to want them to get healed ;).

BIC - Ameena looks up at Brohur, wanting to say something to the effect that she had no intention of causing any kind of harm to Arbrut, nor any idea that Falkor had been planning to initiate an attack, but instead droops her ears and turns away, deciding that he probably won't want to listen anyway. Some people, she's found, will simply refuse to listen to anything outside of their own ideas once they've thought of something. Brohur seems to be such a person.
She is glad that Helm has received some healing - he seems better now, she thinks. Her own injury is minor and though it stings a little and from the feel of it has bled slightly down the back of her neck, she knows it's nothing serious. She hopes the creatures are alright and wonders what they're doing now. It's a shame they aren't the ones guarding the entrance - she's sure she'd have had a much easier time of it and would probably be out of here now, along with Helm.
She places her other paw on Helm's arm and looks at him.
"If you're ready now...?" she asks politely, not quite keeping the faint tone of concern out of her voice - they could still be separated. They still might not make it out of here. She's quite sure he knows this too.
She looks up at the soldier who's been speaking to her, and who is apparently in charge of the group here.
"Err...by the way, I'm Ameena." she says. "Do you have some reason why you'd refuse to give me your name?"

OOC - That last question isn't spoken sarcastically or anything. If anything, she might be a little nervous. Oh, and since no mention has bene made of Helm standing up I've assumed he's still sitting on the floor - you can assume that Ameena will take her paws off him and back up a bit when he tries to stand, but then stay close once he's done ;).
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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No, it's completely in character for Ameena to assume that, given I had to pause a moment to work out of the soldier would be bloody-minded enough to not give him name. He does seem the type!

The soldier shrugs. "Darke. With an 'e'." he says. With that, he moves back, and the other soldiers start assembling. ONe comes to the side of the door, and two move forward towards the stairs.

Helm stands up, wincing a little at his ribs and stomach where he was kicked by Brohur, but manages to move ok. Helm looks around to make sure Ameena is with him, and then looks around to see where the soldiers are, and where Brohur is.

The soldier known as Darke gestures - with a drawn sword - for the tow to make their move onwards.


Ok, so will Ameena willingly walk onwards towards the entrance? If so, what will she be doing - looking to the soldiers, looking to the surroundings, looking to Helm? Will she be trying to engage them in conversation? Will she be attempting to be quiet, or not bothering with the rest of the racket going on with armoured men?

Let me know, and roll check rolls for anything Ameena would attempt along the way. Your next update or two might be light enough I can put you at a better cliffhanger than 'you are going with the soldiers'
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena keeps close to Helm, but not so close that he might accidentally kick her or step on her as they walk. When Dark gives his name, she tilts her head in confusion and looks at his legs. But you have two knees, she wants to say, though remains quiet, figuring that he was probably referring to something else, or perhaps she misheard. Perhaps "Withanee" is his second name, or something - humans and some other species tend to have more than one name, for some reason she hasn't quite managed to fathom. Maybe it's because there are so many of them, and so they start to run out of names that don't sound similar and have to add another name to help identify each other when talking about them.
She starts to move forward, on all-fours so that it's easier to walk, but makes sure that Helm stays within reach. Since she was on his left side from the way he'd been lying (OOC - I assume, anyway), she decides she may as well stay that way, for now.
She glances up at the soldier whose name is Dark...something-or-other...and can't resist a comment.
"I'm not sure that's necessary." she says, meaning his sword. "Do you think I'm going to try and bite you through your metal armour?"
She doesn't really expect any kind of response, nor does she expect Dark to lower is sword or put it away just because she's attempted to point out that trying anything against their wishes would be pointless given their numbers. Still, she keeps her nose and ears alert for anything they might do to herself or to Helm, or indeed anything that might seem suspicious, as well as keeping the usual general level of alertness about their surroundings. Just in case.

OOC - Hehe, sorry, couldn't resist that little misunderstanding of Darke's name - given the illiteracy of the Murafu, the only other way she could have interpreted that would have been if she was familiar with magical runes. Or at least, the Power Runes ;).
And a couple of rolls - Sense Motive against the soldiers. More specifically Darke since Ameena is focused on him. I suppose Brohur is still behind them (is he?), so isn't really applicable for this check since Ameena can't do much more than listen to him. Anyway, Sense Motive = woot! 28 (Nat.20+8). And general Perception for keeping an eye/ear/nose on things, in case anyone tries anything, Helm wants to communicate, or anything outside of the group (weird noises, scary monsters, ghosty-lady, etc) starts to occur = bah, 14 (6+8).
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Just for that I'm going to name the next leg-amputated soldier Withanee. Just you see if I don't.

"Oh, I have no idea what sorts of things you would and would not do, after all you are helping the very people your friends have decrlared war on. Who knows what other evil is just lurking in your dark heart."

There is a pause. "Who knows how you will react moment to moment."

Ameena can sense that the man is possibly just used to insulting people to get them to react - perhaps show what they really want, and what really matters to them.

However, there is something odd about how he says the second part. Some odd humour in his voice. Ameena also spots that the other soldiers around all have weapons drawn too, and keep looking towards the two of them. Would there be some reason they would be afraid of the two of them? Or more likely, some reason to watch out for an adverse reaction when Ameena had promised to go with them?

"Brohur, make sure you don't close the door all the way again," says Darke over his shoulder. There seems to be a pregnant pause before Brohur half-closes the door again, and then falls into step behind Ameena and Helm, at a respectful distance it seems.

More from your really good sense motive roll as it happens. The poorer perception probably reflects paying more attention to what people are saying and why rather than what they are doing moment to moment.

Brohur is behind the two of you, but not directly, Darke is about five or ten feet to the left, another soldier is to the right, and the one called Frant along with the final soldier are up front. They basically for a penagon around you, about five - ten foot distant.
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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Ameena continues to walk forward. She wants to run about more freely, explore the room, check for anything that might be amiss, but with the soldiers all around them she knows that's not going to happen.
"Those people aren't really my friends." she comments quietly. "I was with them, yes, but I didn't know them. Not very well. It was...well, it was mainly because of what happened to Arbrut...and the others...that I chose to leave them. I still don't really see how I'm helping you at the moment."
She pauses, and glances upward and around at all the drawn weapons.
"Is something wrong?" she asks in a slightly bemused tone. "Or do you think that one human and one murafu might be a threat to you?"
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

Post by beowuuf »

If you are still up, roll me a straight charisma check, would you?
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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OOC - Heh, sorry, I went to bed shortly before midnight. I suppose you're not around now but for when you get back, Charisma check = 11 (12-1).
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Re: Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

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"You are helping me just by telling your 'friend' the thief here that if he tries to attack us, you are likely to betray him too, then. Nice to have us all as one compliant group with a common purpose."

At Ameena's second remark, Darke turns his head, looking at Helm and then one of the soldiers. There is a moment's pause, but then he shakes his head and walks on. "Not a threat. After all, if you escaped us, the mage's pets would tear you apart, eventually, just as they surely have already done to your previous companions."

Well, that could have ended badly if your roll had been high. Sometimes, middling rolls are good :)

The group goes up the stairs, with one soldier - Frant - staying at the one-third mark down to observe both the torch-lit hall below and the room above. A second soldier splits off at the doorway, standing there.

Helm looks around in shock at the destruction, and then down at Ameena in silent questioning. Obviously, he has not seen the destroyed storeroom nor destroyed wooden door before.

The group walk down the lit corridor, though for some reason the soldiers each break out more torches. They strike then on the wall hard, and they flare to life. A door that had so solidly blocked the way back before when Falkor has pressed the hand recess now stands open. The door that Falkor had triggered when he had taken the cloak from the alocve - the door that both Ameena and Falkor though, briefly, they had seen a figure through - also stands open. A third soldier stands at this intersection of doors, with a torch help out of his line of sight so as not to blind himself.

Darke and Brohur are left, and the torchlight flickers around the strange alcove room where the signs of the Trolin attack are invisible. It is as if the Trolin Westian talked to non-existance and the Trolin Haynuus smashed with a magical torch were just figments of the group's imagination. Then again, perhaps not - there is a chip in one corner of a wall, where the Trolin's thrown club missed braining Falkor.

The wooden door is also open, even though the chain is still snapped on it. Darke walks over to one of the alcoves closest to the door, takes something, then places it instead into an alcove that is directly across from the wooden door.

Darke then nods to Brohur, who reluctantly takes up position in the middle of the alcove room. Darke meanwhile gestures for Ameena and Helm to walk slightly ahead of him into the final room where - in what seems a lifetime ago, perhaps - Ameena first woke up. It can already be made out that the grate that used to bar the way had been lifted up, meaning the entrance to this place - a large hall filled with painting of poeple - is open to her now. It must have been quite an effort, for there is a sparkling area infront of the door as if from lots of metal slivers. For some reason, Ameena feels a chill at that.

"And so you see, the chain is at an end, were it not for you," says Darke. "I can stand in that room and be a leash for your investigations of the Hall of Champions, and of the way out. You see, you gain your escape, if the way is truly clear, and we are still secure. At a moment's notice my comrades can fall back to the hall should you discover anything untowards, and similarly, we have near instant warning should something be trying to sneak upon us from the direction you first came to us in."

Once more, Darke gestures for Helm and Ameena to go first.

Ok, that's a good set up point. Before we go any further, there's a chnce for you to retcon anything said or done or asked during the trip back to the start.

If nothing changes, then that leaves Helm, Ameena and Darke at the wooden door just before the very first room. If everything is satisfactory, then I'll see if I can post a short continuation to update you on the actual decision point.


http://www.dmjump.net/partymap4a.jpg (incase you've forgotten how it all looks)
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