Ameena's new normal sized dungeon crawl!

[beowuuf]

Feel free to post some brief thoughts Ameena might make as she gets flung into the air then falls down and back through time again. Main update tomorrow as to where Ameena lands.

[Ameena]

Ameena feels horribly disoriented, as well as rather uncomfortable, in some amount of pain, and completely terrified. She struggles even as she feels herself flying through the air, wanting to grab hold of something to stop herself falling and at the same time writhing about to try and free herself from whatever magic has hold of her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knows that doing so is of no use, but her actions are largely instinctive and there's little she can do to stop herself from physically trying to escape her current situation.
It is perhaps the lack of sensory input that scares her most of all. She feels as though she is falling, but there is no rush of air past her fur. She can feel nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, even smell nothing. She has never felt so utterly alone and isolated from everything before. But right now it feels as though she is the only thing in the whole of existence.
Apart from the heat. So hot! Some part of her mind wonders whether there's some kind of invisible fire nearby, but then she is unfortunate in that most of the rest of her mind leaps upon the thought and crams the fear of burning into her, alongside all the other variations of terror she's currently feeling.
So maybe she's about to die. She hopes it's quick and doesn't hurt too much. It seems she probably did say the wrong thing and now the Dark One has decided to finally finish her off. Well, she tried. She wonders if this is what death actually feels like. Maybe her body has slammed into the wall, and the sensation of heat is the pain taking over, killing her body as her spirit detaches itself in order to fly free and leave all physical concerns behind. It would explain why she can't sense anything else - if her body is dead, it won't be able to. She hopes that it won't take too long - she can't stand the sensations she's currently experiencing.

OOC - Heh, mechanics aside, I don't think failing the Will save made any difference - Ameena's pretty much in Panic Mode now anyway . Well, I suppose that's settling a bit now since she had those thoughts of the possibility that she's actually in the process of dying. All the above thoughts are basically whizzing through her mind at super-fast speed and probably only take a couple of seconds or so to occur. Does she take any more damage from Chaos grabbing her arm, btw? Oh, on that point, in the post before he threw her, you said he dropped her and staggered back, but in your last reply suddenly he's holding her again - whoopsie . Oh well, now she can whizz back through time and end up somewhere. Maybe she'll come flying out of that portal thing and smack into Darke's head and knock him out or something, and then she and Helm can try and leg it past Brohur .
I suppose if the rift thingy (if I understood Chaos correctly, that is, if he was actually telling the truth ) is only active for those who have been thrown through time (so, the original four party members), in theory anyone else could walk through that spot and not be affected. So hopefully Helm should be able to step through and go back to the surface, and then Ameena should be able to try and get back down on her own to find the others. That is, if she remembers enough of the encounter with Chaos for it to convince her that it wasn't a dream - if she believes it enough, she'll be a murafu with a mission and head down to seek out the rest of the group. If not, she won't have changed much from how she was bfore she stepped through the doorway .
Of course, I suppose she might be teleported through space as well as time, and end up somewhere else. In which case Darke and Helm will be waiting for a while. Unless Darke makes Helm go through after Ameena, in which case I suppose anything could happen to him. I hope he doesn't die, though . And if he does, Ameena had better not find out. Then again, if she's about to regain all memories of her adventures with him, she might well put priority on finding him again if he's not there when seh gets back, since she told him she would if they ever got split up.
But aaaanyway...this is rather a long OOC for an IC thread so I'll leave it. I wonder how things are going over in the other thread - it will be funny if no-one actually figures the Brighteyes thing out until Ameena shows up and suddenly remembers him. I've been reading it with some amusement, the way the guards are clearly kind of "Umm...Seeroc's acting like he's pretending not to be himself, and he's travelling with a group of strangers who don't seem to know who he is...ummmm...oookaaaay...better just let him get on with it, then..." .

[beowuuf]

Suddenly everything comes back with a rush.

And then, another rush as for a moment Ameena can see she has emerged from .... somewhere.... and is temporarily hovering in the air.

Unfortunately, even as Ameena's mind tries to block reality out of memory, Ameena's body has no such ability. She falls, landing awkwardly and taking a minor blow to her head and side. Oddly, even though her left side is the one fallen on, it is her right side, concentrated on her arm, that aches afterwards.

There is an odd glow in the place she has emerged.... with shock, Ameena can see it is centred on her. The glow is slowly flading, but not slowly enough. It is unnerving, but at least illuminates where she is, while she gets her barings. Apparently she is in some strange intersection of a tunnel. She has fallen beside a closed wooden door, one that seems to be firmly barred and braced across its whole surface to keep people out. A corridor seems to go alongside it leading to other features on the wall. Or a tunnel also goes away from the door.

However, the most important feature right now is where Ameena had just fallen. The ceiling seemed strange. While everywhere around was some form of crumbling grey coloured rock, the ceiling above her seemed to have solidified. It was like the moisture had been sucked out of a fruit, and the ceiling had a dessicated, cracked appearance. The tendrils of cracks ran left and right.

It was not that Ameena felt claustropoebic, it was just that foor some reason...some reason that her mind did not want to think about... the crack in the celing terrified her more than anything else. It was an unnatural fear, not originating inside herself, but it tried to control her limbs.

So there we go. You can try one last will save if you want to resist the last part of the frightened effect, but otherwise choose - run alongside the wall the door is set in (note you can't check out the door, it is right beside the crack in the ceiling), or you can run away from the door.

In either case, you don't have to focus on the surroundings too mcuh for now - know that either way features a turning not too far forwards, and that getting out of the immediate area (20 or 30 feet) is enough for now.

Basically, feel free to post where you think Ameena's mind and memories will be at, and lets get you exploring your new surroundings. I'll post a map once I finish altering it for my purposes

[Ameena]

OOC - So I can sort of decide for myself what Ameena remembers for now while she legs it away from the Scary Scary Ceiling? Okay then, let's start typing and see what comes out (because I won't have much of a clue until I do )...

BIC - Ameena vaguely remembers that something really scary has happened. Scarier than what's happening right now. Which is...that ceiling. Something about it. And ouch, why does her right foreleg hurt? What's happening? Something about...a shadow. A dark shadow...coming for her...and...something red...
Ameena gives a muted squeak of fright and bolts in a random direction, limping slightly at the pain in her leg but mostly managing to ignore it through the horrible sensation inside her, the fear that's all around...darkness and shadows and...and...darkness...
She runs until the unnatural fear dies down enough for her to begin to master her panic, at which point she stops and huddles against the wall, making herself as small as possible and shivering with fear.

OOC - If I understood your description correctly (and I probably didn't ), it sounds like the door is set in the wall at a T-junction. If that's the case, say that Ameena has run along the wall in which the door has set, in the direction so that the door-wall is on her left. As described above, she'll run as far as the ("mechanical") fear lasts, then stop and sit there (figratively) crapping herself until her mind can put itself back together again enough to allow a little rational thought. I've given her sod all memories for now except for some kind of big dark scary thing...and something to do with the colour red (ie the red glowing eyes, but she hasn't got that far yet), due to her freaked-out state preventing her from actually focusing on anything other than getting away from the spot she arrived in. Light, I'm guessing, is limited to the weird glow she's giving off right now? As for the Will Save, since I didn't know what the DC would be, I didn't want to try one and then see what you'd tell me the result was before I could post. Anyway, I think Ameena is suitably freaked out that she wouldn't consider trying to stop feeling scared straight away .

[beowuuf]

As Ameena settled down, her midn was twisted. For a moment, it was as if she had ran straight into a mirror, for she was beside a similar door, with a similar lock beside it. The light eminating from her only showed that small area well. Ameena could see something written on the wall beyond... but couldn't make out the ceiling that had terrified her so anymore.

She was an another junction. And now the rest of her senses came back to her, aswell as her mind.

There was a scent, at once familiar and yet not. It smelled like home, like murafu, and yet it was actually unpleasant. And stranger still, she could smell something like earth. Earth and.... decay. Something somewhere stirred in her.

You can make a perception check to hear anything or get a better smelling. More importantly, you can decide if Ameena wants to try and focus on trying to 'remember' the scents in her nose, or even her surroundings. You can either make a safer 'knowledge(local) check that might not give you much if she's just goign to search her memories, or a more dangerous will save if she's goign to try and work out where she knows the scent from.

[Ameena]

OOC - Heh, ever the curious murafu...

BIC - Ameena glances around, her fear starting to abate somewhat. It doesn't seem as though she's in any immediate danger. Now, what just happened? How did she get here? And why's her right foreleg hurting so much? What hurt her? She sniffs at her leg and gives it a bit of a lick, then feels it carefully with her left forepaw to check for any physical changes - something might be out of place inside her leg, where she can only feel but not see it. There's also a faint twinge of pain in the back of her neck but for now she's focused on her foreleg. What happened? Where has she just been? Where has she just come from? What just scared her so much? A few cracks in the ceiling?

OOC - She wants to know where the hell she just came from before she starts poking around where she is . Obviously the twinge in the back of the neck is from the bite she took earlier - I'm not sure if she'd remember that but since the foreleg is a more immediate concern since she's probably feeling that pain more urgently than the earlier injury, I want any memory-searching to be more focused on the Chaos encounter than the stuff with Helm...at least for now . I'm guessing that the "familiar" smell is Giant Rats, which would probably put her not too far from the group, though they (the rats) probably wouldn't smell much like murafu - they'd only be similar in that they'd have the same basic "template" scent of being "rodenty things", as opposed to "human things" or "bird things" or whatever. Still, I suppose any kind of rodent wil be more familiar than what she's met so far down here .
Anyway, Will save trying to remember what the hell just happened = hmm, 12 (9+3). Brain implosion imminent? Perception can wait for now - internal problems first, then she'll check out the scenery .

[beowuuf]

The will save is double purposed actually. When you want to remember something, it's your own ability to break your subconcious. When I want to test you, it can be your own ability to resist your subconscious. Either way, roll high.

Of course, if I think your character's conscious mind would want to know something in your subconscious despite itself, then I'll get you to roll too - but as you might have guessed, in the past you would have wanted to have failed those as they would have been the unhelpful unpleasnt kind of successes

Something in Ameena's subconscious resists the probing. She seems a flash of red, and then a normal pair of eyes, and they a figure in grey looking tall and impressive and then it is gone. She can't even remember how she fell through the ceiling. For a moment there is a yawning wide feelng in her brain as the next logical step would be 'what came before the celing', and the vision of another face, a younger face. And a metal man in black.

Again, her mind shut down the memory.

However, she suddenly remembered three other faces - or was it four? She shouldn't be alone, not in this place, and there were people aroudn with whom she knew she had been with recently.

So yeah, low will roll = not much info. If you are looking for a die roll or plot point to show you which way - past of future - Ameena should go, it will probably fall into how she recalls the rest of the party, or as you guessed whether she encounteres the rats. IF she encounters the ratsd, it's more likely to trigger future memories instead of past memories.

Right, I might just go to bed, leave you to figure out if more probing of the surroundings, or what

[Ameena]

OOC - Would memories of past stuff (that is, before anything to do with the dungeon - past friends and travels and stuff, her past life in general before stuff like her first meeting with Helm and the trip to Viborg and meeting the rest of the group and all that) be accessible, or is everything blocked for the moment?

BIC - Ameena tries to remember. Other people? Well, of course, she's met plenty of other people in the past...but...somehow, these feel more important...
She looks around. Where is she? What's that smell? Where is[ she?
She moves back down the corridor towards the point below the cracked ceiling and sniffs around the floor, intending to follow her scent trail and see where it leads, so she can see where she came from.
But there isn't one.
She looks up at the ceiling again. What's happening?
Whoops. That was certainly a mistake. Terror seizes her mind again the moment the crack comes back into view, and again she bolts for the corner. Hmm.
She cautiously moves forward a little more, but again feels scared as soon as she sees the crack in the ceiling. She eventually decides to just stay put and do some thinking from where she is.
Alone? Well, yes, it seems so. But who was she with? Someone? Many someones? What happened to them?
Nothing seems to make sense. Ameena tries even harder to remember what just happened. She thinks she may have fallen through the ceiling, but...it's just cracks. She'd never fit through there! She must have been somewhere before she...appeared...here. Or whatever happened. What's wrong with her? Why can't she remember?
Hunching up and pressing her forepaws over her face, Ameena tries to remember something. Anything. Anything that will tell her how she got here. What she's doing here. Why her foreleg is hurting.
Why she's alone.

OOC - She can't move on till she knows where she's come from, or so goes her logic . I figured no Perception check would be needed with regards to finding her own scent, since I already know she popped into existence in midair or thereabouts. but I'll roll one anyway, in case she picked up anything weird whilst checking that area...bollocks . 10 (1+9) lol. Oh well, she was only really sniffing for herself anyway, and that's not a scent she'd be likely to miss in an empty stone corridor that she's only just run down . Aaaand, presumably yet another Will save to try and remember wtf just happened...hmm, nice...21 (18+3) .

(Post altered slightly to amend for the Scary Scary Ceiling )

[beowuuf]

Up to you on the memories, but give this is a second go around I think it's more which version of Ameena - rememberign the first time or the second time - is the battle. Either one remembers the events up to Anaias's door perfectly well, so unless you think her mind is that fried, she's allowed to get those memories back very quickly.

And yes, Ameena will feel fear building the more she steps towards it. Actualy seeing the crack will make her feel terrified. For once, not seeing somethign and it being in shadow will be a relief So yeah, you'll need to rewite that a little bit to her retreating again and not sniffing the same area. Her musings can be exactly the same, since she saw the crack ok the firts time before running.

And it's up to you what Ameena remembers liek I said, it was a decision which version of events she did. If you think Ameena won't let go until she remembers something, then she's going to accept her future self's version of events. She'll remmeber the first go around, therefore will have a memory of walking through the Hall of Champion, everything up to the Grey Lord blasting her back, and as far as she'll be concerned that's where her story now continues. That means she won't recall waking up with the others, need to worry about Helm, etc, and it will be will saves if that comes up if she meets the rest. And as before, it's also will saves and weirdness about recallign the Lord Chaos confrontation.

So if you seriously want to let the will save stand as she tries to remember, and have her push more than that (even though she should recall being blasted back and that being a reason for fear) then she'll get a face full of red eyes in her memory and will be unconditionally panicked again, running from the area to cower in the corner again :p

If Ameena wants to start playing with walking to and from the crack, she will basically get within sight, then be forced back by panick, and can keep doing it until the glow aroudn her fades enough to almost be in darkness, in which case the crack will have enough subtle luminescence to be seen and force her right aroudn the corner. If Ameena tries to keep her eyes closed, she will fidn the crack actually appears in her mind liek that (whether or not it's light or not) and she'll be forced back around the corner.

Anyway, that should be enough info, you should be able to make another post based on that. Oh, except the perception roll result. Highly poor. All it buys Ameena is the knowledge that the odd smell of similar rodents - Pain Rats, as she'll recognise if she embraces her future self - is that the scent isn't one that is old.

[Ameena]

OOC - Ah, I was aiming to have her remember that she just met Chaos and got booted back here by him. So she just gets scary red eyes and black shadows and not much else then, but otherwise her future memories are those of the first run of the adventure and end with her and the others getting thrown back and so she will assume that where she is now is where she's been sent as a result of the actions of Grey/Chaos?
Meanwhile, is the crack only scary if she's looking at it, or can she stand near it without fear as long as she keeps it out of her line of sight (not difficult since she's not standing upright )? And which square(s) of the map is/are the crack over?

BIC - Ameena shakes her head. Hmm...yes...something about...someone. A human? A human wearing grey...or was he? Did he have blue eyes, or red? Something was happening to him, and he did something...yes! A magic-user of some kind, she recalls. He did something and threw everyone back. She remembers flying through the air and then...and now she's here? But where are...
The others! Are they alright? Maybe they were...no, she thinks, they must be somewhere. If she's ended up here, maybe they ended up somewhere else - maybe her foreleg hurts because she bashed it against the wall before the magic moved her here. Wherever "here" is. Maybe it's somewhere they've been. Why is it so difficult to remember? Must be some kind of side-effect of the magic. It knocked her full self, body, mind, and spirit, elsewhere, and they haven't all quite landed in the same place. Or something like that, anyway. So her head is a bit strange right now.
She looks around, careful to avoid glancing up at the crack in the ceiling. Maybe she can work out where she is, whether it's some way they came earlier in their travels. She wonders where the glow is coming from - it seems to be following her, almost as though she is glowing. Maybe she is. Maybe it's another aftereffect of the magic, though she doesn't see why something that moves someone to someone else will also make them glow. Then again, magic is one of the many things in the world that she hasn't really got round to properly learning about yet - this might be perfectly normal. Still, it doesn't hurt, and it's helping somewhat since it means she doesn't have to find her way by whiskertouch alone - that would make things a little slower. She notices it seems to be gradually fading, so she supposes she'd better get a look around quickly before it's completely gone.
So she does.
She ensures that she avoids looking in the direction of the crack in the ceiling, though she doesn't understand why she finds it so terrifying - it's just a crack in the ceiling. It doesn't seem as though the place is going to cave in at any moment. She supposes it's magic, but doesn't see much point in it. Then again, she thinks, maybe it's to repel intruders or something - maybe it's a weapon the local predators use against their prey, leaving these cracks lying around as traps to scare them into running away and being caught and eaten, or something.
Local predators? Ameena sniffs the air again. Those rats. The other rats. (OOC - If I get this description wrong, let me know ) Not true rats, but not murafu either. Not sentient, it seems. But hostile. Aggressive. Uncommunicative. Social? Possibly, but only with each other. Hungry? Very, apparently. She recalls trying to communicate with them, using every bit of rodent language, verbal and otherwise, that she knows, but having no luck - all they seemed to know what to do was attack, try to kill. She remembers the others fighting with them. Eating them, even. At least, Haynuus seemed to enjoy it. So many creatures down here, different species, so many aggressive. So many fights, when escape seemed otherwise impossible. Fighting for their lives, and...
Wait.
Who?
Hay-what?
Haynuus! Yes!
She remembers the half-orc, somehow clumsily friendly, often mistakenly believed to be lacking in intelligence, yet having plenty enough to know when to speak and when to stay quiet, how to help a friend, and to be one. How to swing a sword. Or a club. Or a torch. Or...well, anything that could be swung. Swang.
Ameena's whiskers give a faint twitch of amusement as she remembers.
But what about the others?
One was something to do with...the wind? She remembers people talking about...no, directions. North wind? Sou...no...west! West wind! Westy...something. Westy...what? Westy...yan? Westian! Human! No. Elf. No. Wait. Yes. No. Elf. Elf? Human. Half-elf! And half-human. Made potions. Made everyone feel better. Yes, now she remembers. Liked to talk. Liked to talk about things he knew about and other people didn't. Held a few conversations with Ameena herself, she recalls. Well, she talked with them all, of course, during their travels.
And there was another.
Ah yes, of course, the one nearest herself in height - a halfling. Fowcaw. Falk. Falcaw. Kor. Falkor. Yes, that was it - Falkor. Wasn't so bad. LIked to think about things. Similar to Westian, in some ways. Yes, magic, that was it - he used magic too, but in a different way. Ameena well rememebers how much she flinched the first time she saw Falkor throw a ball of fire through the air at something. Someone? She can't remember - that part is still vague. She remembers him doing other things, too, but can't quite focus fully on them at this time. But that's alright - she supposes it will all come back to her when this magic has faded.
She remembers travelling with them. She remembers they were there, with her, in that room, not so long ago, when they were all thrown back by the power of that...mage? Hmm...that will need more thought, she supposes.
But her friends. Where are they now? She supposes they've each ended up in a different location. But where? Nearby? There's no immediate scent of anyone on the air, just that of the large and aggressive rat-creatures. Well, at least it's clear enough what she should be doing. But how? How should she go about looking for them when she has no idea where to start?
Well, no, that's not quite right. SHe has somewhere to start - right here. She's just not sure which direction she should start moving in.
She looks around. Hmm. Doors.
She looks up a bit. Kee-holes.
She looks up a bit more. Oops. Mistake.
She scoots back to the corner to recover for a moment, keeping her eyes on the floor.
Then she slowly moves over to sniff at the base of the nearest door and see what she can detect. Might as well start somewhere...

OOC - Wheee, that ended up being rather long. Think that just ended up being me setting myself as to where Ameena is right now (mentally, I mean), giving her a "base of operations", as it were, so I know where her memories are at present in order to get her thinking processes back up to speed, as well as settign in place her justifications for stuff like her present location and the pain in her foreleg. And now I'll go and alter that previous post to account for the Scary Scary Ceiling .
Oh, no, wait, one more thing...Perception check for the new looking-and-sniffing at the door = 21 (12+9) .

[beowuuf]

Long but good and fun, I added some comments as I was reading it in the OOC thread. Anyway, all you need to alter above is the Pain Rat thing. It would be more they attacked to fast, sadly, for Ameena to try and communicate with them. They usually hunted in packs and aggressively attacked the strongest party members first, never backing down. In that state, they never answered Ameena's calls for attention. Actuyaly, I guess Ameena could assume they weren't sentient in light of that being the reactions.

Ameena scented the doorway, trying to see what she smelled. Sadly, not much. There was an odd scent of age and death, a scent she'd come to think of as possessed by the undead. However, it was also stale under the door - it was as if not much air had moved in the door beyond. Did it lead to a tomb? And if so, a tomb with occupants who still moved around?

Ameena couldn't quite tell, with the door closed, if anything was moving beyond, if the scent was 'alive'.

However, she could tell that the scent of the Pain Rats, as one of her companions had called them - probably Haynuus, with a huge big out of his shoulder at the time - was not stale. It felt like the scent was slightly greater than before, even though she hadn't really moved. As if something was moving in the corridor behind her. Did she hear a scratching sound from somewhere close?

[Ameena]

OOC - Yeah, that was sort of how I pictured them - they would just attack and give no sign of sentience or any kind of understanding or desire to communicate - one on its own would flee, or attack if cornered, while more than one would just attack. Hey, hang on a minute, I just made them sound like Paramites, lol. Well, just as deadly, either way, I suppose .

BIC - Ameena spins around to face the direction in which the sound is coming from, ears up and forward, straining to catch the faintest sound. From the smell of things, one or more of those rat-creatures is approaching.
Lifting her forequarters off the ground and positining herself in a low crouch, she instinctively reaches into a pouch, feeling around inside for a few moments before she pauses and actually looks down at it. Hmm. She doesn't remember having that particular pouch. Or this one. How strange. In fact, all her pouches look different. And she has less of them. And her belt looks somewhat...makeshift. What has happened to all her things?
She looks through the pouches to see what she's carrying. Hmm...not much. Some food. A small bottle with not very much water left inside it. A glass flask, of the type that she can easily picture Westian proudly holding. Only this one is empty. And...what else? Nothing? No, wait. Some string. Well, from the looks of things, several pieces of string tied together. She supposes she must have needed this for something, but can't think what. Aside from a small and rather rough-looking knife at her side, she can find nothing else. Yet she remembers being able to do something to stop creatures attacking, somehow. Making them literally stop. And everyone else. But the details are hazy. More magic?
She frowns at this new development, and in her head she goes through all the strange things that seem to have suddenly happened to her.
She's been thrown to this place, a place she doesn't recognise, by some kind of mage. Her memories are confused and vague. The rest of the group isn't here. There's a crack in the ceiling that she can't even go near without feeling scared. She remembers having quite a lot of pouches and many items, yet now she has hardly anything. She still has her cloak, thank goodness. That hasn't changed. And she's hungry.
Was she this hungry before? Or has the magic made her even more hungry? And she's somewhat thirsty. And tired. So tired.
But there's something coming, probably one or more of those rat-creatures, so there's no time to sit around and eat something, however urgent the desire may be. She considers which way she should try to go. Well, she physcially can't bring herself to get any closer to the crack in the ceiling, so that direction is out. The sound of the approaching rat-creature is coming from behind her, and since she has little means of defence right now, that means that direction is out as well.
So that leaves the door. It's closed, and there's a kee-hole next to it, but that doesn't mean it's locked. And there's some kind of...inscription...on the wall nearby. She glances at it for a few moments, then looks around some more, sniffing. Finally she decides to try and lift up the door - maybe it's one of those ones that opens really smoothly...

OOC - Perception check, first of all, for keeping track of whatever's happening nearby (noises, scents, etc) = 18 (9+9). I gather the rat(s) is/are approaching from the west (that is, if the top of the map is north), rather than south beyond the crack. As for the door, what kind is it? This is purely so I know what image to have in my mind, without being particularly relevant to Ameena's actions in the game. She's not trying particularly hard to lift the door - she's not straining to much she might give herself an injury or whatever (plus her foreleg's probably stil rather uncomfortable ). Still, just in case, a Strength check = 13 (13+0) if there is any chance the door might move at one little murafu trying to lift it . I'm guessing it's probably locked but meh, no point in assuming, eh?
Ohh and one final thing - did you guess what Ameena was assuming she'd find when she reached into her pouch? Well, alright, due to memory smeggage she was more kind of reaching into her pocket out of habit, something she would have done before when nasty things started happening, even though she didn't consciously realise at that moment exactly what it was she was after. That little segment of the post had more than one similarity with a particular scene in a famous Fantasy novel, but I swear that was an accident, lol. I didn't realise until I was halfway through writing that bit .

[beowuuf]

What's Ameena got in her pockets precious.....oh, bugger all, nm then

Heh, I assume Ameena was think of magic boxes. I wonder where Ameena might have discovered her first magic box and experienced them. In Seeroc's when Seeroc used then on the party you say? Quite possible I say


Ameena pushed at the door, and felt an oddly familiar stopping. The door barely lifted, not because she was not strong enough - she now recalled doors like this that could easily push up because of a 'cownter-waite' in the door that let it move up and down easily. But she could feel it stop , jammed by the lock.

While Ameena was distracted by the door, she could still smeel the scent of the faux-rats around here, getting close and closer. The scurrying was getting closer, she could hear it, and she could here the odd squeaking of the creatures.

She's never really heard much of it before - usually the rats had waited silently while the noisy fighters had gotten close, and then attacked the party from nowhere. Shrieks of pain and apparently joy at attacking and the distasteful noise of battle were what Ameena could associate with these things.

Usually their prescence was swift in coming and going - leaving only behind bodies Westian and the rest had respectfully done nothign else with except what Ameena allowed or asked them to, and a lot more injuries in the party to tax Westian's healing skills with.

Ameena looked at the door - just liek the other, solid wood bound by criss-crossed planks all up it - and the cross key hole just out of reach. And again, there was the lack of items except a poor knife.

However, it seemed that her mind would not let her go towards the crack for some reason, and her body could not move the door.

'Choose your way' said the text on the wall. However, it appeared to Ameena that she had no choices at all.


So there we go. Is your evil DM really railroading you with only one choice, to face a rat?

Hmmm....


Anyway, figure out what you wanna do! The door is locked, retreating back further downwards is indeed out of the question I'm afraid, and yes, Ameena can hear something or some things coming form the left.

[Ameena]

OOC - Not a Magic Box, no, hence the further unintended reference to that particular chapter of that particular novel . I figure Magic Boxes might be a bit too big and chunky to fit into one of her little pouches anyway.

BIC - Ameena gives a bit of a heave at the door. Locked. Oh well, it was worth a try. She has no key, and nothing that she can probably try to pick the lock with. Even if she did, there'd be no way of reaching it from here - this is the kind of situation where someone like Haynuus would lift her up.
She pushes the memories of her friends to one side for now, however - already she misses them, misses any kind of friendly company. And she hasn't even been alone that long. Maybe it's the approaching rat-creatures that are making her more nervous. Her she is, alone, sitting in front of a locked door, with rat-creatures approaching from behind and a corridor stretching away to her right that she can't go down because there's a crack in the ceiling that emanates an unbearable level of fear as soon as she even gets near it. Her right foreleg sort of...aches, somehow, and there's that twinge in the back of her neck...
She raises her left hindleg and uses it to feel at the base of her neck. Ouch. It feels as though something's pierced her skin at that point. She feels carefully around with her toes, then withdraws the foot and inspects it closely, sniffing at it. Blood. Her blood. She's been...bitten? Bitten by something that she can't even remember. It's almost as though she's had some whole adventure without even remembering it. But she's only just arrived here after being thrown by that mage person.
Hasn't she?
Ameena gives a small shake of her head. It probably doesn't matter much now, she decides. At least, it most likely matters less than the approaching rat-creatures.
She looks around. A locked door. An area she can't walk past because of the crack in the ceiling. A kee-hole. Some kind of marks carved into the wall...writing, she supposes, but as far as she's concerned the markings could simply be meaningless symbols - she has no way to tell. And some rat-creatures, or maybe just a rat-creature approaching from the one corridor she might otherwise be able to move down.
Moving so that she's next to the wall, Ameena edges as close to the corner as she can without actually going around it, and sniffs. Then, she realises, she's glowing - anything that's coming will see that before they see her, whatever she does right now. Still, she prefers to feel a little safer behind the cover of the wall, so remains whre she is and keeps her senses alert to detect anything she can from whatever's approaching.

OOC - Perception check to work out as much as possible about what's coming - how many of them, how fast they're moving, whether it's just the smell of Giant Rats or whether there's anything else, etc...now my d20 has given me at least three or four natural-20s tonight at club. It also gave me a couple of natural-1s as well so I suppose this roll could go either way...dun dun duuunnnnn...Perception roll = heh heh heh......28 (19+9).
Oh, and just so you know, Ameena is crouched against the left-hand wall of the corridor (on the map), juuuust before the corner. When the critter(s) get(s) close, she might move back a bit but I suppose that depends on what this Perception roll gets her with regard to information on the approaching fuzzle-thingy(s) .

[beowuuf]

Lol, eyes of time? Gotcha!

Ameena settles down, hiding as best she could in the circumstances as her glow carried on. Still, was it her imagination or was it getting dimmer? Still, not dim enough - it was still a signal to whatever was coming that something with a light source was standing there.

Ameena could hear the strange, almost rhythmic squeaking - it was like a call and return, but it wasn't any qords or language such as she could understand, although it did sound like noises a rat would make. The shuffling, too, to her sensative ears just sounded right to only one set - if one large set - or paws moving along the ground. Althoguh was it her imagination, or was there a very faint sound of more shuffling in the distance.

Ameena again just happened to look at her surroundings concerned as the fact she was visible. It was perhaps then something niggling at her was manifest. The wall she was hard up against was the same soft pitted rock as the rest of the surroundings, like rogh bricks had been stacked together to make the walls. However, across the way from her - on the wall that was blocking her carrying on along the wall the door was on - there seemed to be somethign different. In the fading light, Ameena realised the wall across looked very...plain. All the rest of the wall had character, btu the wall threin the corner seemed very uniform.

Memories nagged at Ameena, of strange walls that were there and then not there, or even of walls that were only there to her eyes along - her whiskers and nose could feel nothing, and she'd been able to walk right through them.

Coudl these be one of those walls? Dare she move across to check it out, given how close the rat was that was approaching her area. Or should she be looking for a switch instead?

Lol, not a natural 20, but good enough to get what exactly you have to deal with, and also an alternative means of escape....maybe,....


AS I always say at times like this......goood luck! And roll me a d20 for initiative

[Ameena]

OOC - Heh, yes, an Eye of Time indeedy . That would have been fanatstic, I bet - do a bit of a Hiro Nakamura and freeze everything (since presumably the Eye basically either stops time for all but the wearer, or speeds the wearer up to the extent that it's as though time has stopped for them), then run round and change stuff so that, say, the knife currently making its way through the air toward Westian's head suddenly disappears and clangs on the floor somewhere down the corridor instead . Anyway, ooh yay, a fake wall . I gather the ratty noises were coming from down the visible corridor, though?

BIC - Ameena stares at the wall. Hmm...interesting. A wall, or a not-wall? One of those...ill-something walls. Illuminated? No. Something, anyway. The word doesn't quite come to mind right now.
She wonders what she should do. The rat-creature is definitely much closer, maybe to the extent that he or she would be within view if Ameena chooses to look around the corner. But she'll have to go forward anyway if she wants to go through the wall. She'll be discovered whatever she does, she decides, but swiftly ponders over the choices.
She could remain where she is. Her light is visible, even if it is fading, and so the rat-creatures will find her once one of them gets near enough to see it.
She could step forward to where she'll be in view from around the corner, so that the nearest approaching rat-creature can see her.
Or she could move right forward, and step through what certainly looks to be a not-wall. The approaching rat-creature might see her as she does so, and even if not, she'll be leaving an obvious scent trail which they'd probably follow. But there could be anything behind that wall. An empty corridor. A room, empty or otherwise. More rat-creatures. Some other kind of creature. Another door, locked or not. Maybe even one of her friends - maybe they're all fairly close together, but separated by not-walls. Maybe light and scent can't pass through these not-walls, so that's why she hasn't detected them. Unlikely, she supposes, but trying to go through the not-wall seems the best option for now - if she remains where she is or simply steps around the corner, the rat-creatures will definitely find her, unless for some reason they decide to stop before they get close enough to detect her, and that's if they haven't done so already, which seems unlikely. But passing through the not-wall might lead her to some kind of escape route. And at least it will get her away from that crack in the ceiling.
Accepting this choice as the one with the greatest chance of having a potentially safe path away from here - past experience tells Ameena that interaction with the rat-creatures is unlikely to be particularly pleasant, or painless, for her.
She tenses herself for a moment, wondering whether to approach the wall carefully or simply charge straight for it. It might not be a not-wall, in which case crashing headlong into it would not be a very good idea. Or maybe it is a not-wall, but there's a real wall right behind it, or something else she wouldn't want to run into.
Shrugging slightly, Ameena decides to take the chance anyway, and darts forward, instinctively closing her eyes as the wall looms up before her.

OOC - You can assume that Ameena will stop a few steps after where the wall would be, assuming she does pass through it - she won't just keep going indefinitely .
Oh, you asked for Initiative, didn't you. Wargh I've forgotten my Dex mod again...oh yeah, there it is...right, Initiative = 9 (6+3). Kind of hope I don't need it .

[beowuuf]

Ameena moved swiftly in faith that the wall would just part for her. In some ways, she was lucky, as the wall provided no resistance when she finally moved into it. Ameena passed perfectly into a colder corridor.

Sadly though, her hesitation and luminescence did indeed mark her as a target. Even as she started moving, she saw something brown and furry in the corner of her eye as a fellow rat-like creature charged out of the darkness. The creature snapped in reaction to her movement more than anything else. but annoyingly its reflexes were good enough and Ameena felt teeth scratch her arm. Worse yet, it simply robbed her of inertia and focus anf it was very obvious she was alone with one of those snarling horrors that were a mockery of her murafu kin she missed.

Sorry, it's initiative just beat yours. In combat terms it would only move to a square beside you to work out what you were (even though it would smell a rat-like creature close) but then that means it got an AoO on you as you moved. Ameena takes 4 hit points damage Luckily, she ydoens't get nasty diseases from its bite! Oh, the losing inertia was just my narrative description of the hit point loss... with 13hp still left, Ameena isn't quite bleeding her last yet, it's still superficial scratches and loss of a cushion against worse blows.

Map:


The narrow corridor seems to carry on, I'm just showing what Ameena could just about make out. Note I haven't made the squares 5 foot yet, so the squares are 10 foot. That means the corridor that Ameena can see is 40 foot, so she could double move onwards. The corridor is 5 foot. If any creature blocks the other side, Ameena would need to make an acrobatics check to tumble past, or need to make a strength check to overrun (not a good idea!)

[Ameena]

OOC - Ameena's on 12hp, not 13 - her new max since dinging is 20, and she'd lost four of that already - three to the spider-bite and one to the cold damage from passing through the teleporter (which presumably just managed to tag her current body before she got swapped out to the one that met Chaos ).
How big is the fuzzle-beasty compared to Ameena? Well, actually, I suppose she wouldn't know since she closed her eyes for the charge through the wall...

BIC - Ameena lets out a startled squeak and winces in pain as the creature's teeth make contact with her left foreleg, but she keeps going for a bit, then stops when she decides she must have passed through the wall by now. She opens her eyes. Phew, yes, she has. But ouch - she hadn't realised the rat-creature was quite that close. Now she has another bite mark to worry about, and a sensation of pain in both forelegs.
Now what?
She looks around. Hmm. Not much here except a corridor, continuing onwards. and it feels somewhat colder here - maybe temperature can't pass through the not-walls, then. Odd. Then again, she reasons, magic. Probably anything is possible with magic. So maybe her light and her scent can't pass through. Not that that's much help, since one of the rat-creatures knows where she is now. So what should she do?
Well, she decides, there's little point in staying around here and risking more of the creatures turning up to most likely attack her. If she gets herself cornered, she'll have to think of something else, but for now, staying away seems a good idea - it's what normally works for her. At least, when she has somewhere to go. She wonders how much of this area is the territory of the rat-creatures, and makes a quick sniff about to detect whether this corridor smells of them.
Then she moves on, as quickly as she can, hoping to get away. Her forelegs both hurt, but she tries to ignore the pain as best she can for now, and keeps going. She can't quite remember how fast the creatures could run compared to her, though she recalls that they tended to be larger. That doesn't mean much, though - they may have been bulkier and therefore less able to move quickly.
Either way, she decides, it doesn't matter much - if they can run faster than she can, she'll soon find out. But hopefully she'll be able to get away from them and end up somewhere...better. Safer. In this place? Hmm, unlikely, she supposes. Then again, if she can find the othes, or even one of the others, for now, that will make her feel considerably more secure.

OOC - So Ameena makes a quick Perception check (mainly to sniff for more ratties, whether this corridor is frequented by them a lot)...13 (4+9)...then legs it down the corridor, however far she can move in one turn (provided nothing comes up that might make her want to stop). If she didn't have such bad memories of these guys, her reaction would have been similar to that which she gave the spider-critters - curiosity and an attempt to communicate .

[beowuuf]

40 foot if she's on all fours, so 80 foot if she can't see where she's going/having to dart aroudn things, and 160 foot if she gets a completely flat areas she can see in - never usually the case.

Ameena moved quickly, realising she could hear the scurying feet behind her, but luckily not right behind her. Still keeping up with her.

The dying glow from her body revealed a plain rocky corridor, and the vague scent she could get from moving fast was just of corridor, nor really of any creature.

Hiwever, what was pressign was the wall. Just infront of her was a wall coming up. Was this a dead end? Was there a

Think fast. So as not to cause me pain in drawing a map so late (just off call from mum) then the corridor carries on for another seven squares (70 feet, so 110 in total) from what you've seen already and just ends. Is it a dead end? Is there another illusionary wall?

Your ratty foe is literally on your heels, so stopping to do any standard action like a proper perception check, etc means it will be on her next round. Still, it might be preferable to just deciding to fun full tilt into a wall that's solid

[Ameena]

Ameena continues to run, but makes sure she's within whisker-reach of a wall. She picks the right-hand wall, figuring that any not-walls in the left-hand wall will just lead her through to the same corridor she just left. If her whiskers come upon any more not-walls on that side, she decides she'll just alter course and run through. If not, she hopes that the end wall is a not-wall. If it isn't...well, she'll have to stop, turn, and deal with her pursuer, a course of action she strongly hopes won't result in a fight.

OOC - Yes, naturally she's moving on all-fours. If she tried to run whilst upright she'd probably just fall flat on her face due to not being able to co-ordinate just two legs that way, at that speed. I hope the IC description was enough to let you know what her tactics will be - if the sensation of wall on her right-hand side disappears, she'll dart through it. If the dead-end wall is false, likewise, she'll keep going (but not so fast that she blindly runs and risks falling down a pit or something...though she'd probably instinctively close her eyes for the half-second or so it would take her to get through the wall, so might donk into something if there's anything directly behind it). She'll pause very briefly at the end wall if she gets that far, to check whether it's real. If it is, she'll turn to face the critter so you can tell me exactly what it looks like .

[beowuuf]

Ameena feels no different in the right hand wall, and so makes what is hopefully not a painful plunge into the wall infront of her, closing her eyes a split second before contact.

The murafu bounces off the wall, instantly knowing that the wall before her is quite real, and hard. Still, her carefulness stops her from harm, and she shrugs off the shock and turn to face her attacker.

The rat is not as large as she recalls in her shifting memories, either they seemed larger back then, or more likely this is one of the runts, and that is why it is on it's own.

However, Ameena is not allowed to think on how small the creature really is, for in a moment it is right up upon her, teeth gnashing.

Luckily for you, while you use up all your combat actions reaching the end of the wall, so has the small giant rat following you. It's about 4 feet across, so comparable to Ameena. While she might not swear to it, she would feel this is smaller than some they have dealt with.

Anyway, if Ameena tries to evade by goign the other way, I'll need an acrobatics check to scoot through the rat's square, and another acrobatics check to avoid thee AoO from running out of the next square too if the first succeeds. It's a standard DC check of 15 IIRC.

If Ameena wants to attack the poor demented fuzzle, she can roll a non-lethal blow at a -4 penalty to the attack for her bite, or just use her paws which are automatically non-lethal for her (not so for her opponent)

Note that for Ameena, any unarmed strike will draw an attack of opportunity aswell, since she isn't proficient in unarmed combat. Monster fuzzles, sadly, are quite proficient at lethal damage and attacking with their bites and don't draw the same sorts of penalties

Edit: Edited the above to take into account not running into the wall. Though remember how fast all this is happening. Be too leisurely in thoughts or actions and face the consequences!

[Ameena]

OOC - I presume the fuzzle-beasty looks like a standard DM-style Giant Rat, though slightly smaller?
Oh, and I did say that Ameena would pause slightly when she got to the end wall, to whisker-brush it quickly in order to check whether it was real - she's not silly enough to go charging headfirst at a solid-looking wall .

BIC - Ameena stops and stares in dismay at the very solid wall in front of her. She closes her eyes for a moment, frantically hoping that this won't turn into a fight.
Then she slowly turns round to face the approaching rat-creature. It isn't much larger than herself, which come as a mild surprise - she had been sure these creatures were usually larger. Well, maybe this is one of the smaller ones. It's no murafu, that's for sure.
Still, this is just one creature. Maybe she can communicate. Maybe. Hopefully.
She crouches quite still, keeping her forepaws quite close together on the ground and shifting her weight forward so that it's clear she isn't preparing to pounce forward. She tilts her head forward slightly - while murafu have no hierarchy or concept of dominance amongst themselves, they know from watching rats that the small creatures often playfight with each other, the loser becoming pinned by the other and then frantically groomed on the back of the nack and head. While Ameena doesn't particularly want anyone grooming the back of her neck right now, considering the injury she's found there, she hopes that at least her body language will communicate her non-combatitive stance and desire to avoid conflict. She also lowers her eyes a little, looking just below the rat-creature's nose. Maybe this one will be willing to avoid a fight. And if not, she probably won't stand much chance anyway - where there's one of these rat-creatures, there'll be plenty more on the way. And this is their territory, or close to it - even if she evades this one somehow, she's bound to run into more later. And they may be larger, and more aggressive. Better to try and make peace with them, so that they'll let her pass. Or maybe even show her a route out of this area.
Then again, if these rat-creatures occupy the same territory as the ones she's previously encountered when with Haynuus and the others, any attempts at peaceful communication will probably be useless, unless somehow those the group fought have failed to pass on the message...

OOC - I figure an attempt to make peaceful communication doesn't have to be verbal to count under a Diplomacy roll, so...25 (18+7)...okay so that was a nice roll anyway but I am rather glad I put all those points into that skill when I dinged .

[beowuuf]

Diplomacy is supposed to be a way to have the results of entreating someone to do something, while bargining with them. Really, Ameena isn't offering anything....well, I guess not to attack. Anyway, a good roll, so while it won't have anything liek the effect you might want, it will have an effect!

The rat seems to understand, in some way, Ameena's submissive gestures. UNfortauntely, it seems to be seen as some sign of weakness. Instead of attacking her fully, the rat seems happy to instead settle for grabbing Ameena's leg with its mouth to sweep her off her feet, to drag her through the illusionary wall in the direction she didn't wish to go - there was indeed on the wall leading back to where she had come from.

Lol, so there you go, be a submissive murafu, and the fuzzle wants to drag you to goodness knows where. Still, if Ameena decided to bide her time she;ll only take 2 non-lethal damage for having her leg clamped firmly between the rat's jaws. And not she'll have her hands free(ish) as she's being dragged along. If Ameena wants to break free instead, she actually can and can make actions as normal (this initial round at least).

If Ameena tries any verbal communication with the rat, make me a sense motive check (with the +4 for small mamals

Oh, and yeah, imagine this rat looks like the unkempt DM ones, but about Ameena's size. I imagien the normal DM ones Ameena has encountered are basically man-sized (or at the very least dwarf sized) creatures, and so will be bigger than Ameena.

[Ameena]

OOC - Okay, let me see, I think I had a few things to ask. Firstly, which leg? She has four. Though I gather it's somehow gone round the back and latched onto one of her hind legs. And I'm not sure she'd just let the rat-beasty just grab onto her like that. She'd at least move to the side or something in a kind of "Oi, please don't try to bite me like that" kind of way. But I suppose this is more of a mechanics thing in that it's now the ratty's turn. I did already sort of assume that "proper" DM rats would be definitely larger than her - I'm guessing about waist-height to a human (judging by their apparent size in-game), on all-fours I mean, since you never see them stand upright. Ooh and they make the scary dragon-growl too, don't they, lol. Do these ones do the same, I wonder...
So do I take 2hp damage or was that just if Ameena decides to keep still and let herself get dragged along?

BIC - Ameena emits a loud and somewhat indignant squeak when the rat-creature lunges forward and tries to grab one of her hind legs in its teeth. She belatedly wonders whether she should have at least made sure her cloak covered as much of her as possible, so that it would at least form an albeit rather insubstantial barrier to the rat-creature, but wonders whether doing so might have been interpreted as an attempt to hide a weapon or some such thing.
She edges away from the rat-creature and keeps all five of her limbs out of its reach, but doesn't attempt to run or make any show of hostility or aggression. She gives a few squeaks, making herself sound as though she has a clear objection to the idea of the rat-creature trying to bite or pull her. Because she does. She hopes the rat-creature will realise that she doesn't need to be subdued - she wants to either communicate or go with this creature to meet its fellows. It's not as if she has anywhere else to go at the moment, and trying to get past this one will probably just put her in more trouble if she runs into more of them.
She wonders whether she should try saying anything in Common - would doing so be a bad idea? Common is the language usually used by the kinds of races these creatures probably associate with death and violence. That is, considering what she's seen of them so far - all they did was attack and the group fought them off. Maybe these rat-creatures only attack because they are afraid. Maybe other races have come here and attacked them, long ago when they were as simply curious as any other rat species. Maybe they've only learned to be this aggressive.
Still, she isn't a human, or an elf, or any other such race. Maybe she'll stand a better chance. The fact that she wears a cloak and a belt of pouches, and has a weapon on her, must make it clear that she isn't quite like these creatures. She decides to take the chance.
"I'll come with you." she says quietly, making sure she keeps her voice calm and soft. "You don't need to force me, or hurt me. I don't want to fight, and I won't try to run. I know this must be your territory - I wouldn't stand a chance here alone."
Alone. The word seems to echo inside her mind. Yes, she is alone, isn't she? And these are rats, albeit strange ones. Surely they must have something in common with the rats she knows, and with murafu? One of the dominant traits of those species is the desire to socialise closely with each other. Maybe these creatures will let her join them for a while, help her until she can find her friends.
In case the words in Common have no effect, or a negative one, Ameena gives a few more squeaks for good measure. She keeps herself positioned to dodge any further attempts that might be made to attack or puch her around, but in a way that demonstrates she only wants to remain free and isn't trying to run or fight.

OOC - Requested Sense Motive check = 23 (10+13...or 10+9+4 if you prefer). Ameena figures that she has three options. Two of those (pick a fight or try and leg it) would be rather stupid, she considers, given that she has no idea where in the dungeon she is (indeed, she could even assume that she isn't even in that dungeon any more, but somewhere else, though for now she figures from her surroundings that she must be), is probably surrounded by more Giant Rats in the nearby area as for all she knows she's smack in the middle of their territory (though I suppose the smells would be stronger if that were the case), so there'll be plenty of them to come running if she kicks up a fuss and she also has no clue where any form of safety might be away from them. Her third option is the one she's going with, which is to basically go along with the Giant Rats, maybe try to make friends or at least come up with some form of truce or something, so that she can get out of the area safely. She isn't expecting help from them as such, just to be left alone to get out of their territory and find somewhere (or someone) she knows.

[beowuuf]

Actually, the mechancs are that it needed to make a touch attack, and then hold onto Ameena. Since Ameena was trying to be all eyes down non-threatening, and doing so well, I took it as going flat-footed and hence no dexterity bonus. If Ameena was still trying to be mobile, then the touch attack failed (as she would have dodged out of the way, it rolled a low attack). Similarly, it rolled a low grapple, low enough you just had to declare Ameena wouldn't go along in order for Ameena to break free.

So feel free to edit the ablve post to have her just dodging sideways of the initial attack

[beowuuf]

Oh, and you say Ameena gives a few squeaks - in what way? Just squeaks, or any actual murafu words?

[Ameena]

OOC - Murafu speak in Common - they never really created a language of their own. they're a bit of a mystery race. Well, it's sort of a slighly modified version of Common - they speak quite a bit faster than other races would, and probably miss out a few words in their excitement to get out the rest of whatever it is they're saying (they like to talk, you know? ). She's giving ratty squeaks but of the kind that would (at least, among "normal" rats) say "Oi, get off me, ow, please put me down and stop dragging me along the floor as though I'm a nice big hunk of food you've just discovered" . The squeaks are not saying anything along the lines of "Put me down right now, you dirty scummy bastard, or I'll bite your nose off", or "Oh my god eeeeek heeeeelp, a very big giant ratty thing has just grabbed hold of my foot, noooooo aaaaaaahhh" . Of course, these ratties might well be very different to those Ameena has met before (meaning "normal rats", up on the surface, not her past encounters with this particular species, down here in the dungeon), so she's prepared for the fact that her sounds might be misinterpreted. She didn't want to struggle free too violently in case it comes across that she wants a fight. And I wasn't sure of the mechanics of it with regards to what I was able to do. Oh, and which foot is the ratty holding her by, and how is she being dragged? Is the fuzzle-beasty moving backwards and dragging her along like that, or is it attempting to move down the corridor forwards and drag her sort of alongside? Ohhh, and (sorry) another thing...even though this species isn't quite the same as murafu/surface rats, I would expect that she can tell if this one is male or female? Or at least, she can make an educated guess based on what she knows of ratty-looking species. After all, a human meeting a humanoid-looking species would probably guess/assume the sex of an individual based on what they know someone of that sex to look like.

[beowuuf]

The rat isn't holding Ameena at all if she's dodged out of the way (which you just have to say she has, the attack roll was low), and if Ameena has let herself be grabbed because she was standing still, I assume by being low at the front (avoiding eye contact by keeping her head low) then it would have dived at her side and grab her leg then pull her sideways while it moved backwards. BAckwards throug hthe only wall Ameena chose not to check out

And I dunno, if Ameena could tell the gender of the rat by sight alone, let's say another female grabbed her just to remove any weird dynamics and for some difference

[Ameena]

OOC - Just edited the IC part of that last post to react to the rat-beasty trying to grab her. As for recognising the sex of this one, well, why shouldn't she be able to tell? Unless these rats are vastly different from "normal" ones, she'd be perfectly able to, being of a rat-species herself. Even, say, a human would be able to tell if these rats are similar to others and if said human had been around them long enough to recognise the differences. Apart from the very noticeable...umm..."maleness" of males, they tend to be larger and squidgier anyway, whereas females are usually slimmer and sleeker. But like I say, these rats might be so different from other rats that they bear none of those similarities. Or maybe they do look like other rats, but among themselves they all look the same (so they're all bulky or all slim, and the males keep their...umm...thingys...in such a way that they aren't obvious to a casual glance as they would be on a normal rat...or maybe they don't have any because they dont reproduce - created by Chaos? ), so you can't tell one from another. Although there is the issue of smell - hormones, pheromones, etc. Unless those are different too. But a male and a female will smell different. Oh, plus Ameena's encountered these creatures before, even though she doesn't fully remember all the details. I think she'd be able to recall something as basic as how to tell the difference between the sexes though, surely?
But yeah, woo, long live femmy-rats, let's have this one a girly-fuzzle .

[beowuuf]

The rat keeps the strange squeaking as it has been before, the same sing song. Something catches Ameena's attention given it's still clearly hostile manner. It could almost be litanies of ...fear sounds would be the best way to describe it. Fear. Pain. Death.

FearfearpainfeardeathdeathfearpainfearpaindeathpainfearkfearfearKILL!

Ameena doen't quite recognise the last inflection, although the fact the small rat tries again to attack her - this time more aggressively that before - makes it clearer what is meant. Ameena barely moves out of the range of the snapping jaws, and her cloakis frays by the teeth of the thing as it tries to take a bite.

Perhaps there is no reasoning with these creatures that attacked her group previous without provocation. Or perhaps Ameena simply cannot reason with them using her normal methods, given these creatures are either bred or twisted by Chaos.


Yeah, being submissive meant you were too easy a target to boter with, getting out of the way just makes it made.

It's not quite the senseless critter Ameena might have thought them before, but thta doesn't mean it's going to just roll over if there's no reason for it to back off.

Ameena has the same options as before - acrobatics check to move passed it, non lethal blows at -4. I forgot to mention that she could walk throgu hthe illusionary wall, using slow five foot steps each round, and use the total defense fullround action to gain a +4AC bonus. Perhaps she can wear out the rat or get into a better position to run, etc.

Maybe.