Ameena's BIG (and last?) adventure!

[beowuuf]

Otherwise entitled 'Back, and There Again' to keep with the Tolkien theme of last time


There was a buzz as Helm stepped through the teleporter. The foul stench of the previous room, which had started to get into Ameena's nostrils, was thankfully cut down a fraction after the journey. Helm, perhaps sensing this, walked as far as the blue light of the teleporter allowed to the first bend of the twisting passageways.

Helm then awkwardly dropped Ameena down, as if unsure if he was supposed to, or if she was going to keep clinging to him.

The passageway had an odd feeling. Instead of being an escape from the horror of the teleporter room as previously, this time there was expectation in the air. This was the ominous doorway to escape. There was ther passageways to negotiate, and just as importantly, possible hidden dangers leading to a dangerous end.

"Um...I might need some light," said Helm. Then he cursed. "I don't have flint and tinder! This torch is useless!"

He looked expectantly to Ameena, perhaps hoping she possessed something in her pouches. He took a step away from the teleporter, as if subconsciously reacting to the thought of going back again.


Ok, welcome to your private thread for trying to escape! Will Ameena be successful, will she fail, will she keep Helm alive (and vice versa), will there be light at the end of the tunnel? WHO KNOWS! Let's find out!

[Ameena]

As Helm begins to move down the corridor toward the room of the fight, Ameena buries her head in his shirt, at least, as well as she can, trying to inhale as much unwashed human as she can, and scrunching her eyes tightly shut. She also tries holding her breath as she might when ducking her head underwater to fish for...well, for interesting things that might have fallen in. Fortunately, Helm is moving quite quickly and the ordeal is soon over - she detects their passage through the blue thing by sound and by the slight change that comes in the air around them. Helm walks a little further, and she risks opening her eyes. She can't see much, but manages to descend easily enough when he bends to put her down.
Then Helm mentions needing light. Ah yes...she herself can get around well enough by relying on her other senses, though progress would be slower as she'd be reliant on her whiskers to detect things like walls and pits which might block her way. But she's got around well enough in the dark in other places, she recalls. Helm, however, being human, can have no such confidence in his other senses eyesight is much more a dominant sense in his species.
She looks up at him and puts her head to one side, slightly puzzled.
"Flint and tinder?" she asks. "I may have heard of flint - isn't it some kind of rock?"
She doesn't see how that can help light a torch, but she goes on.
"And tinder...I seem to recall that that's...isn't that what they call big trees that have been cut down but haven't been chopped into smaller logs yet?"
She hunches forward a bit, shifting her weight in order to scratch the back of her head with a hindpaw.
"Sorry. I...suppose you'd rather I didn't start asking...silly questions like that at this time." she says, somewhat apologetically. "Umm...no, I don't think I have anything to light a torch with. Maybe I can help you get through the darkness until we reach somewhere with light. If we carry our own light, anyway, won't people see it and know we're coming?"

[beowuuf]

"Yes, flint is a type of rock that sparks if you strike it violently on some surface. Tinder is, umm, well it's like the left over dried stuff of your last fire. Because it's dried out, you can make it catch fire if you have sparks around it and tend the flame. Then you can light stuff off of it!"

Helm shrugs in the half light, giving a nervous looks around. "It's ok, I guess I don't mind questions, I just usually don't know many answers!" He gives a small smile, then scratches the stubble on his chin. "You might be right about the light, we really don't want to alert anything we are here." He then realises he's speaking at a normal voice, so hunches down and speaks in a hush.

"That might be an idea if you can figure out a way to lead me that ...umm...well, that doens't force me to have a backache hunching over or crawling around!" He seems a little uncomfortable pointing out the ehight difference, but otherwise seems enthusiastic for the idea.

"You can really just...sniff...your way around? Or are you able to see well in the dark too?"

So there we go, some clever way to lead a lanky human around might be needed, but otherwise the dark is probably a good idea

[Ameena]

Ameena listens attentively to Helm's explanation.
"Hmm...flint sounds like the stone we know as sparkstone." she comments. "Murafu do make fire sometimes. But only small fires, to warm ourselves by if it's very cold. Or...sometimes food tastes a little better if it's warmed up. But we never carry fire with us, like other races do - we don't use torches. We get too worried about our fur and whiskers."
She gives her whiskers a twitch as if to lightheartedly emphasise the point.
"As for sniffing my way around - yes, I can do that. My whiskers also help greatly - I think their sense of touch is much better than your fingertips, though I suppose I've never particularly tested it. But I have many, many more whiskers than you have fingers. If something just touches one whisker, I can feel it and know something is there. My eyesight isn't...well, it lets me know what's at a distance, if there's light. I wouldn't want to be blind, but really that's all it's good for - sensing things that I may not be able to hear, smell, or touch."
She ponders for a few moments, then, on the remaining issue.
"Do you have, maybe, a rope of some kind? Something we can attach between us in some way so that you can hold on to it. Then I'll be able to lead you along, but I think it would be a good idea to attach it in such a way that it won't get in my way if I suddenly need to dodge, or jump, or something. And umm...well, I'd be able to lead you along the corridors well enough - I mean, I can keep track of the walls. But if anything from above gets in your way...you know, like maybe something hanging down...well, I wouldn't be able to tell you about it. You might discover such things by umm...well, getting a sudden headache."
She is slightly surprised at how easily she's able to almost make light of the situation, now that she doesn't feel so immediately threatened, intimidated, or terrified by the situation - her normal murafu nature is managing to reassert itself, something which makes her feel encouraged.

[beowuuf]

"My backpack was ...ah...ripped off a while back. I...it wasn't something I could get back. I maybe have some string?" Helm fishes in his baggy shirt, and manages to pull out a forlorn few pieces of string. He ties the ends together to make a respectable length. "Do you think this will do?" he asks, dangling it down fom about chest length to touch the floor.

"I guess when you mention fingers, I could just lift my hand above my head. I'll feel if there is anything weird there before I hit into it."

Helm looks bemused at the string again, but it could work.

You'll need to detail exactly how Ameena is going to 'control' Helm with that sort of attachment - is she going to lightly pull on him, or will she just use it so he can lightly pull it to know where she is?

Glad Ameena is feeling happier. That feeling is bound to continue with nothing evil waiting to happen to her and Helm

[Ameena]

Ameena looks at the string Helm is holding out. She gives it a bit of a sniff and looks up at him.
"Well, we may as well give it a try." she says with a shrug. "I'm better travelling on all four feet than upright. I mean, I am anyway, but in this situation it helps to have my whiskers leading the way. We'd better move fairly slowly...now we just need a way to link this between us."
She puts out a forepaw and lightly touches the string. It would be easy to just lightly loop it around the end of her tail or something, but that could prove disastrous if they're suddenly attacked or something - she doesn't want to risk becoming entangled or having someone step on or pull the string while it's still tied around her.
"You could tie it to me somehow," she suggests, voicing her thoughts, "but would there be a way of doing so which could be quickly and easily undone if we suddenly need to do so? I don't see any other way we can keep in close contact without you having to bend right down, or crawl. You could pick me up again, but then we wouldn't know what we were walking into, and I wouldn't be able to scent out the way."

[beowuuf]

Roll me a d20 please! There's a skill called 'Use Rope' in 3.5 that let's you do exactly that, and it doens't need trained use. So add your dex bonus to your roll and see if you can create such a knot. I'll do the same for Helm. The string could therefore go around Ameena's middle but be instantly yanked free if something happened.

[beowuuf]

The attempt at quickly tying the knot did not go well. Helm couldn't quite get it right, and Ameena's 'aid' saw the thing fall apart. Helm signed, actually lay on his side, and the two spend the next five minutes tyoing and re-tying the string. Then Helm checked to make sure it owuld come loose, and just as importantly wouldn't slip tighter if tugged. Finally Helm had to remember how the knot had been tied and do it again.

Eventually, he stood up, satisfied, and asked Ameena if the string felt ok around her, and if she could walk and reach it quickly.

He then took a look back to the teleporter. While he had been happy to get away from the party as fast as possible, he now seemed to realise they would be well on their way by now. There was, perhaps, a little regret now he'd chosen his course.

"We should probably get a move on," he said with a catch in his voice, and worried looks all around. He picked up the end of the string, looking around the rock walls he could see as if trying to memorise what they looked like for the journey onwards.

[Ameena]

OOC - So the string's tied around her middle, yes?

BIC - Glad to have finally sorted out the string, Ameena gets down on all-fours and moves around a bit, checking that it feels comfortable. Good enough. She notices Helm seems a bit worried.
"It might take us a while to get there," she says, "but there should be plenty of places to hide if we hear someone coming - this tunnel is very rough, with lots of little offshoots and things. I'll have to move slower than I normally would, but I'll stil make sure I don't move so quickly you'll trip over me if I stop suddenly. We might run into another of those strange rock-creatures like the one I met before."
She starts to move forward, sniffing carefully and brushing her whiskers constantly over everything within range.
"I think we'd better try not to make too much noise." she says softly. "I'd prefer to have as much warning as possible if something's coming."
She continues applying her nose to the ground, sniffing for the scent trail the group will have left when they passed this way earlier.

OOC - Presumably a Perception check is required for finding the scent (though I can't see anything major will have caused it to wear away over the course of only an hour or so, or however long it's been), but I was gonna do one anyway for general sensory awareness of stuff - Ameena is on full alert right now for any sign of anything that might catch her (or Helm's) attention. So, Perception check = (woohoo) 27 (19+8) .
I did also consider maybe doing a Move Silently check but Ameena's moving pretty slowly as it is and there's probably no immediate need to deliberately start sneaking unless she detects something that might become aware of them.

[beowuuf]

The surroundings slowly fade into darkness as the blue glow disappears. Although the memory of the passageway did not mark it as that long, the darkness and the need to move slowly makes it feel much, much longer. The unknown does not help.

Helm seems to be able to maintain a general awareness of what he is doing - at least enough to not stand on Ameena's tail, nor bash his head. However, he still seems to be struggling as the light goes. It appears he is trying to trace his way along the wall, and so keeps cursing or reteching as he gets cuts from sharp stones or odd webbing and mold on his hands. The occasional stone is also kicked across the floor or stumbled upon. At least so far he has not falled into a fissure in the wall nor walked the wrong way. And at leats he appears to try and keep his comments and stumbled as quiet as possible.

Ameena has only gone around one major bend, and a gentle curve, when an odd smell starts to reach into her nostrils. For now, the direction isn't apparent. More importantly, her sharp ears catch an odd echo to their movements. As the two of them stop, it is as if there is a small movement along the floor that then ends sharply once their movement is registered as ended.

Of course, that could be imagination. For the moment, the pause is normal and Helm is standing patiently as he usually does.


So there we go. There is definitely an odd smell Ameena could perhaps takea moment to get the direction of. There might be a nosie of something happening. Someone following? Though, of course, I could be just throwing in some odd imagination stuff after secretly rolling against Ameena's will.

Will Ameena do anything asbout it, or ignore it for now but keep her senses alert for more information? And will Ameena say anything to Helm about it?

I think no matter what, a d20 roll would be appropriate!

[Ameena]

Ameena pauses, listening intently and raising her head a little to carefully sniff the air. Did she hear something just then? And what's that strange smell? It's not particularly strong right now - she hasn't yet discerned the direction it's coming from, so she imagines that Helm is probably unlikely to have detected it yet, given the human sense of smell when compared to that of a murafu. She decides not to say anything, in case there is something hostile out there which might be alerted by the sound of her voice - however good her own hearing may be, she has no way of telling how good the hearing of an unknown, unseen creature might be.

OOC - Requested d20 roll = 9 (bleh). Presumably another Perception check is needed to catch anything more of the possible sound and the strange smell. Sooo...Perception check = 16 (8+8). Ameena is for now standing perfectly still (that thing rats do, the way they freeze mid-step when they hear something weird), head raised a bit, ears listening intently and nose working overtime to try and pinpoint the whatever-it-is. What's the smell like, btw? Unpleasant, musty, sweet, rotten, etc?

[beowuuf]

Like a concentrated version of the musty bile-like webbing that's around on parts of the walls. It seems to be coming from behind you.

"Something wrong? Do you still have the scent?" asks Helm quietly, more likely bored by the slightly longer delay and on edge.

[Ameena]

"Ssh..." says Ameena, as quietly as she can yet without being below the human's level of hearing.
She turns toward him and stands upright, reaching out and taking hold of some part of his clothing (most likely his trousers, she decides). She gives a gentle tug downwards, hoping he'll get the idea and bend down so she can talk to him as quietly as possible. All the while she keeps her ears firmly alert for any sounds emanaging from the direction of the smell.

[beowuuf]

Helm jumps at the touch, then realises who is doing it when he realises the string is so slack. After a further moment, he seems to get the meaning, and hunkers down to closer to where Ameena should be.

"What?" he says, as quietly as possible with a tremor in his voice.

[Ameena]

After a couple of seconds of whisker-touch, Ameena locates Helm's nearest ear.
"This...whatever-it-is that's on the walls." she whispers, using her forepaws to lean against him slightly in order to be speaking as close to his ear as possible. "I can smell...a stronger version of it, coming from behind us. I was thinking that perhaps it's whatever made this...mould-looking stuff. I also might have heard a sound, but if I did, I haven't heard anything more. I thought I should let you know. But we'd better keep moving."
She moves her head back but doesn't return to the ground fully just yet, in case Helm wants to say anything more.

[beowuuf]

Helm gives a sharp intake of breath, and then there is a scrambling which corresponds to the lossening of the string. Helm has dropped it. He quickly recovers it, and whispers an 'ok'. However, in the darkness and with the restriction on talking, there is no way to gauge exactly how alright Helm is with the current circumstances.

For now, he probably agreed with Ameena in keeping moving. Just before they started up again,

Lead on! Let me know how you are moving - swift as possible forward, or will you keep pausing to get a sense of what might be behind you? Walking on two legs slowly so your hands are free and head can turn better, or on all fours? Will you keep your senses focused in one direction, or are you spreading yourself thinner maintaining a general awareness.

I'll update to the next decision point once I know that. Helm for now appears to be following your lead.

[Ameena]

Ameena turns and drops down again, continuing onward at a slightly increased pace, but not so much that she won't have time to stop if her whiskers brush up against anything nasty (or, in the case of any pitfalls, nothing at all). She keeps an ear alert for any suggestion of disturbance of pursuit behind them, but mostly focuses on getting herself and Helm onward. She knows Helm would probably prefer an area with more light, but knows that that may not be a good idea with regard to creatures seeing them. Then again, since this place seems to be dark all the time unless some stranger passes by with a torch, anything native to this region is probably perfectly equipped to function well in the dark anyway, which puts she and Helm at a disadvantage. She just hopes that whatever lives here, if hostile, won't be expecting outsider-creatures to be travelling without light -she's sure that the soldiers, evidently no strangers to this area, are probably unlikely to go anywhere if they don't have a lit torch to show them the way. Then again, they don't have whiskers and good enough ears to do the job for them.

OOC - Travelling upright would be a slightly stupid thing for a murafu to do in the dark - whiskers are essential in navigation when their eyes can't see the way . She's moving a bit more quickly but at nowhere near normal speed - on all-fours she'd probably be moving at at least a ratty-style trot if she could see the way. I hope Sneak still applies - they weren't exactly moving quickly before, even if they hadn't invoked the skill.

[beowuuf]

Sadly, the Stealth rolls still apply - your dodgy one, and Helm's downright crappy one. At least it isn't negative


The subtle shuffling continues again behind Ameena, although her swift movements forward make it difficult to tell if the scent from behind is gaining strength or not.

Helm seems to appreciate the need for speed. However, it is obvious he is struggling in the dark. His ability to keep stealthy is still limited as he finds rubble underfoot and catches the edges of craggy walls. The passageways seems to twist, and there is a low curse as he tries to negotiate it.

After the twist in the passageways, the echo of the shuffling seems to disappear. Sadly as Ameena had not looked around previously, the distance to go to the doorway is still unknown.

"What is it, Ameena?" asks Helm quietly out of nowhere. It is at that moment that the string goes tight as if Helm has stopped. There is then an odd muffld noise, and the string goes very loose as if Helm has dropped the string.

There is a low scrapping sound of moving rocks, and a frantic scrambling noise.


DUN DUN DUN!

[Ameena]

Ameena immediately spins around, tugging the string free from herself as she does so - it won't do to be getting caught up in it. She moves forward as quickly as she dares in the direction of the sound. She decides that the best guess to make for now as to what's happening is that there was something following them and it's now made a move on Helm.
"What's happening?" she calls softly, straining forward with nose, ears, and whiskers to try and work out what's going on in the blackness, there being little else she can do lest she risk running straight into something potentially unpleasant.

[beowuuf]

The muffled sound is more urgent, and there are more sounds of scrapping.

[Ameena]

Ameena continues to move toward the noise, wishing she only knew what was causing it. She doesn't want to risk darting forward or jumping at it and landing on something which could cause her great harm. LIkewise, she doesn't want to risk hurting Helm, if he's closer to her, by accidentally leaping onto him or getting under his feet. She keeps low to the ground and moves forward as quickly as she dares. With no way of knowing what exactly is going on, there's little she can do, however.
"Helm!" she calls, more urgently now. "Are you alright? What is it?"
And here she'd been getting hopeful of a possible escape. She can't lose her only friend now...please, no...

[beowuuf]

The scrambling reaches a greater intensity. Ameena could swear something flicked passed her whiskers, and hears a rock move past her as if kicked or pushed along the ground. There are more muffled noises from very close.

There is a small tinkle, of something metal at Ameena's foot. Something flat and sharp - like a dagger. Had Helm drawn it?

No matter what you do next, can you roll me a d20 please?

[Ameena]

OOC - D20 roll = 18. Not really sure what I can do next, for the reasons outlined in the previous post . I'm guessing this roll was to avoid being hit or eaten or decapitated by whatever seems to have got Helm .

BIC - Ameena decides that, with Helm clearly in trouble, no obvious sign of what's happening, and above all, no desire to be left alone here (especially not when she'd know there may be something she could have done), she might as well just try something. Anything.
She reaches out and picks up the thing-that-feels-like-a-dagger, shoving it in her belt for now. Then she crouches and hurls herself at whatever-it-is that's occurring in front of her. She decides that she'll know Helm by his feel and smell, and can get her teeth into whatever's apparently got him. If it isn't wearing armour. Or a shell. Or scales. Or anything else she might not be able to affect in that way.

OOC - Her leap probably puts her at about waist-height on an average-height human. She's leading with her forepaws, intending to grab whatever she lands on and, if that's Helm, scramble over him till she reaches whatever seems to have got him. If it's not Helm, she'll try and find a soft spot to chomp...

[beowuuf]

Ameena's aim is off, because Helm is apparently on the ground. However, she manages to land softly on Helm, even staying upright on his bucking form. However, when jolted forward Ameena's front paws find something round that can't be Helm's head. It has the strong musk smell, it has a hard yet flesh-like feel, and odd ticklish thick hairs.

More importantly, upon the extra weight the muffled sound gets greater, and Ameena can tell it is Helm's voice. Whatever she can feel must be bound around his face.

Ameena's teeth sink into it easily, and there is a screech that makes her ears ring painfully. The round object (about the size of a human head), flies away from her knocking her to the ground. Her mouth is filled with the taste of something slimy and ash-like.

Ameena can hear a set of ragged breaths. "Ameena?" said Helm weakly, coughing. "Ameena, are you ok?" says Helm's voice stronger, and there is a movement too it. "What was that? Are you there? Blast, where's my dagger? Ameena!"

Used the dice roll for dexterity check to stabalise and attack. You've driven off whatever it was and saved Helm from being suffocated...though whether you've driven it off for good, or whether it's still right beside you you can't immediately tell because of the being knocked and the overpowering smell and tase from contact with it!

[Ameena]

OOC - Heh, I'd been thinking "Giant Spider" before (ever since we first saw this "webbing" stuff, ages back). Now I still think that .

After quickly rolling back onto her feet (all four of them), Ameena moves quickly toward the sound of Helm's voice and reaches out to put a forepaw on whichever part of him is right in front of her. She spits out whatever it was she got a bite of - fortunately her natural ratlike mouth means none of it has got past her front teeth due to the flap of skin she can put down behind them for the purpose of avoiding possibly swallowing whatever it is she happens to be gnawing at the time (OOC - I don't know how much you know about actual rats but they do have this - they can nom away on stuff for ages but not worry about accidentally swallowing chunks of it by mistake ). She gives her head a quick shake to aid its recovery from the painfully loud screeching sound. Then she noses closer to Helm, making sure he knows who it is who's next to him.
"I'm here." she says softly. "Are you alright? I'm sorry if I scared you, jumping on top of you like that - I didn't know what else to do and I couldn't see what I was leaping at. Pff-plech...that didn't taste very pleasant..."
It occurs to her, a little belatedly, that perhaps she should mention having picked up Helm's dagger, since he mentioned it. But to her, his immediate wellbeing has a higher priority than whether or not he has a weapon.

[beowuuf]

"I don't think it injured me, it was just wrapped around my head trying to suffocate me. It had four legs....smelled dreadful." Helm shifts to at least a sitting position. "Can you still smell it?" he asks in a whisper. "I think we should get out of here, quickly. Give me the end of the string, I can stand up alright."

The scent of the creature, when Ameena can focus, will seem to be less - safe to assume it isn't right beside the two of them.

[Ameena]

"Four legs..." repeats Ameena, counting up to that number in her head as quickly as she can in order to work out how many that is. The same as her, she works out. "Yes, I can still smell...whatever that was, but I don't think it's too close to us, for now. Oh...here..."
She pulls Helm's dagger out of her belt, finds one of his hands with her other paw, and pushes the dagger's handle into it. Then she starts feeling about on the ground for the string.
"What should we do if we think that creature is coming back?" she asks. "For all we know, climbing onto people's heads is how they communicate and they don't know that it was causing you harm. I mean, they may not be hostile..."
Locating the string, Ameena then locates one of Helm's hands again, with her whiskers, and gives him the string.

[beowuuf]

Helm grabs the dagger and murmers a thanks. There is a swishing sound - Helm is probably waving the dagger around. "It felt hostile to me," says Helm to Ameena's words, still occasionally coughing. "We should move quickly if you have the string handy."

Of course, Ameena had detached the string so the process of recovering it, and retying it in the blackness, wasn't quick. "Can we go now?" asked Helm with panic in his voice. He was obviously paranoid about being attacked again - even if it was just a method of communication!

Worse yet - Ameena could smell the musty smell getting closer again.

Helm advocates moving swiftly, does Ameena comply or is there another idea? I like the idea of a creature wrapping its legs around someone for a method of communication. Head crabs from Half Life were just misunderstood!

[Ameena]

OOC - Well, you know, they might communicate through some kind of physical contact - rubbing antennae together or something. Personally, I'm pretty sure these critters probably don't want to be friends, and it does rather seem that way to Ameena, but she's not one to assume these things, just in case she's wrong - she wouldn't want to accidentally perceive a greeting as an attack and end up causing harm to something unnecessarily .

BIC - Ameena sniffs briefly at the air. Helm certainly seems worried, and she knows that a panicked human can be much, much worse than a panicked murafu - they tend toward violence so much more often. Even if Helm doesn't start lashing out at nothing, he might try and run - needless to say a very dangerous action in their current location.
"It would be best if we try to keep calm." says Ameena, standing upright, as close to Helm as she can get, and talking as quietly as she thinks she can yet still loudly enough so that he can hear her. "I think moving a little more quickly would be a good idea now, but we shouldn't rush - that might lead to more trouble if one of us walks into something unpleasant. If you think that creature might be returning, maybe you should suddenly crouch down, or something - it might miss your head. And you'll be nearer to my head in order for me to try helping you again, if you need it."
She knows Helm wants to get moving again as soon as possible, as does she, but she pauses a moment more to wait for any answer he might decide to give before she turns her full concentration to trying to get them out of here before something worse than a head-clinging, bad-tasting...thing...turns up.

[beowuuf]

Thoguh Ameena coulnd't see it, she can perhaps imagine Helm nodding in the dark. Certainly he takes a deep if still a little ragged breath, and seems calmer when he agrees.

Say if there are any other precautions or methods you want to employ, otherwise next update (some point tomorrow) I'll move you on a little I might even decide to put up the map of the area you've travelled!