DM themed play-by-post D&D game : STORY THREAD

[beowuuf]

Map:

[ian_scho]

Haynuus was happy to be moving again, happy to be in front, happy to be healthy, happy to have a big sword in his hands. This was his lot in life, what he was made for, yet it is guaranteed to be only a short life. This is the how it is the way of a warrior, and for those with orc blood worse still.

"Do you want to practice your speed reading skills?" Haynuus asked Falkor. He didn't know which way to go, so was ready to take orders from anyone. At least it was a dead end down that way, and no nasties would appear from there...

OOC - perception check, -6 armour, + 0 dexterity, +2 wisdom(?) (1d20-4=11)

[beowuuf]

You have me a move silently check for stealth, the perception check is still your wisdom plus ranks. So you actually scored a 15

Haynuus couldn't be certain, but there seemed to be...well...marks on the floor. Looking slightly closer, there seemed to be...red marks.

Hmm, yes, it was blood. Going left and right, though he could not tell where they had originated hence which direction whatever made them was going.

[ian_scho]

Haynuus looked at the floor and pointed it out to the others "Blood... Is it possable that it was from the soldier you guys imprisoned?. It might be worth checking out, but time is of the essence." He hissed that last part, remembering both an old tale he once heard and that they were in stealth mode now.

[oh_brother]

Westian noted Haynuus's mention of the blood, although in the gloomy light he had not noticed it himself.

"I don't know if we should check out the cells or not. Aurek, Sir Farel, did you find anything worth examining down there? If you think it worthwhile Falkor and I could go down and have a quick look, perhaps with somone else as a guard. The other two could wait here and warn us in case of trouble. If you don't think there is any point then we will simply move on down the other corridor."

[money]

I would like to take a look if there is no danger, any objections?

OOC: Falkor: Rolled 1d20 and got 8

[ian_scho]

Haynuus was ready to wait at the cross-section, to warn the more studious of any oncoming danger. He told the others that he would guard here if needed.

[beowuuf]

"I will explore further, I think," said Sir Farel. "I cannot claim any insights in tracking, but I may be able to tell if something went to the left or came from there. Certainly I shall see what lies further on." Farel nods to Westian and Falkor. "Beware that room - it has no other exits. If something bloody entered there, it can come back no other way but through you!"

[beowuuf]

Sir Farel inficated that Aurek had spend as many moments copying scrolls and taking some others, so the library was probably of interest to Westian too.

As Farel went left, and Haynuus stayed at the t-junction, the mage and cleric carried on. As they got closer to Farel and Aurek's old cells, the blood trail became more obvious - certainly something the tow consciously avoided stepping in.

It did not take long for the corridor to open up into a long room. On the left side as they entered was a set of benches with various scrolls in untidy piles, and the shattered remnants of some equipment. On the right dide of the room, dominating the area were two cells doors. Both were open, with levers on the outside. Form the vantage point of the entrance to the room, it could be seen these cells were linked by a metal grate inbetween.

However, the dominant feature of the room was not the scrolls, nor the cells. The domainate feature of the room was blood.

The scrolls and the left side of the room were befouled by it, and it had pooled in the centre of the room, where a set of small shapes still lay. The blood trail seemed to lead from this central devestation, as if something walked away from it out again.

From the entrance to the room, something was also clear - there were still some blind spots, especially the contents of the second cell, and under some of the benches. While something apparently had left here, that did not mean the room was necessarily empty!


Eeew. Ok, sorry, couldn't resist, nasty stuff has been happening while you were resting.

So, I guess I need Aurek's retcon actions and actions for now. If Aurek is in the room LB, it might be useful for hm to describe how he left the place. Everyone in the room will need to give me checks based on what they are doing. Feel free to be broad and list a number of them.

Perception checks might be good to get a sense of what is around, heal checks would certainly be needed to get a sense of the more biological aspects of what you are seeing. If you lot wish to check out the scrolls, they are a little devistated but there is probably something there. Westian should make an initial d20 check, then he can go through his various knolwedge checks in alphabetical order Falkor should have an arcana check, and perhaps dungeoneering for getting a sense of the Grey Lord and tales of him.

Ian, I'm sure you can amuse yourself with musings for a post while standing at the t-junction, but also indicate in which direction you wish to conentrate your focus. Feel free to give me a roll for something like perception too

[ian_scho]

Haynuus dropped to one knee in a diagonal direction to the way they had came and to the empty corridor that loomed ahead of him. Danger could come from where they came or from where they had not been yet he assumed that the others would call him if something came his way from behind.

He amused himself by picking his ears clean of wax once more, while maintaining his vigil (1d20+2=3). The problem was, that he found stuff crawling in the yellow wax. First up was a fascinating small insect with a red chitinous exoskeleton that refused to be intimidated by the half-orc. It waved it's antenaee in the half-orc's face as if in code and Haynuus spent a few moments trying to decipher it's messages. The half-orc was not paying much attention at all to the corridoors, it had to be said!...

Ohh, now what's this he's found in the other ear...

OOC - A sanity check would be required for some you if we were Roleplaying in Call of Cthulu!

[beowuuf]

Lol, I Know I'm trusting people to RP their character's reactions and ability to operate in that room unhinder by any will saves.

[money]

The smell was terrible, even overpowering and Falkor felt weak at the knees. Still, he had opted to come down this route and wanted to check the scrolls quickly. Falkor felt comfortable that Haynuus would be able to at least delay any pending attack and the trail of blood was leading away out the door - so again, this gave him a sense of confidence that there was nothing left alive in here but past experiance had told him not to trust his instincts.

OOC:Falkor's quick Arcana check (1d20 => 16)

He began searching through the scrolls, trying to see what was scribed beneath the blood.

[oh_brother]

Westian found the thought of cold, congealed blood to be even more revolting than the fresh variety that had been readily spilled in the previous battle. The idea of getting that sticky mess on his hands nauseated him, and he took pains to avoid it even touching his boots. His face was contorted in revulsion as he gingerly stepped into the room began examining the shapes that were piled in the middle of the floor. He next looked into any unseen areas, to try and make some sense of what had happened and, more importantly, to see if anything was still happening.

OOC: initial d20 roll was 13, not sure what this is for, perception? Healing check was 2 + 4 = 6.

[beowuuf]

Heh, the unnamed roll was a roll check against your Speak Lanaguage, celestial. I didn't want to pay it off unless you rolled ok. 13 + int bonus + 1 rank gives you a decent enough DC15 check to get the basic idea of what is written. Ish. Kinda

As before, I'll move on without LB, and let him ret-con Aurek's actions whereever he wishes them.

In the room, nothing instantly attacked the two. The cells seemed to be empty, although the second one did have a splash of blood inside too. Westian could tell nothing, however, from the devestation - he daren't look too long at it. Was it one person or several? And what had done this? Nothing in his limited medical training nor his general learning gave him a clue. Frustratingly, while something major had happened, it had passed - and whomever this person was, they had died in vain unable to communicate their end and bane.

Meanwhile, Falkor was too driven to look at the scrolls around to check out the cause of the disturbance. Falkor recognised the layout of many of the scrolls immediately - it was a form of notation he had seen alot. This was reserach of a mage, as if there had been any doubt this was something of the Grey Lord's. Irritatingly, while many of the symbols and pictures were familiar, the language was not.

It took Westian's eye to recognise the language - it was what his order refered to as 'celestrial', the language of the High Lords.

With Falkor's arcane knowledge, and Westian's ability to translate some of the basic words, and few of the less befouled scrolls made sense. Strangely, many were quite banal research - the flight of a bumblebee, the harmonics of a butterfly's wing movement, or in depth research of creature-made structures such as beaver dams.

There were one or two on demons, from the history of the Demon Gate near Anaias to the legends of the older demons in ancient histories. However, nothing more than collections of stories of various people - rulers and apparently sime village elders from many different places.

There was also however, mixed in with these were much more important sounding prose denoting active reeasrch. There seemed to be a diagram that Westian's religeous knowledge spotted as the splitting of the soul. It was couched in symbols and rituals disturbing to Falkor, powerful sounding magical expressions. Worse yet, there seemed to be some innocuous sounding comments on strengthening simple wood and iron agains the magics of High Lords to bind them.

With the smell of the blood, it was hard to spend long concentratng on the scrolls, but one final thing that did stand out was a strange one. There was the picture of a round door, behind which seemed to be indicated a flaming pit. Westian could spot that around the outside where the representation on the four elemental planes - fire, earth, water and air, each with a specific symbol and word attached that seemed to be important.

Falkor could see that somehow these four things were important, that somehow magical items generated from or relating to this seemed to be necessary for some incantation to do with the round door.


Meanwhile, as the two more studious party members were trying to avoid the horror of the room, the more robust half-orc was unsuccessfully avoiding the horror of his ears. Lost in the horrid nature of the contents, he did not realise Farel was back until the knight started speaking.

"The corridor does not go on too much longer to the left," said the knight, not apparnetly noticing any reaction tothis sudden appearance, for the man was looking down the corridor after the others. "It ends at a plain door with no locks nor switches that I can see. However, there was a strange set of pictographs upon the wall beside it."

Farel shuddered for a moment. "The blood trail fades as it goes along, so I think whatever travelled, travelled down this left hand section. There was a slight collection of blood at the door, and a blood stained snear on the wall. However, the trail definitely went straight through the door."

Farel looked uncomfortable, and lowered his voice. "Whatever left the cells was intelligent enough to activate whatever strange puzzle locks that door. And worse yet - I would swear I heard movement on the other side of the door!"

Dun dun dun!

Obviously, Haynuus can decide if he wants to wait, go get the other two, or perhaps investigate himself with Farel.

Westian and Falkor can keep searching scrolls (give me a clue as to any information you'd be actively looking for or looking to expand upon), or you players can pull and LB and ask to try and grab as many scrolls as possible.

If the second, I'll write how it will work in the OOC thread.

[money]

Falkor read the scrolls, it reminded him a little of a game he played as a child, as Westian read each scroll down the line it would come, Falkor recalled that music was played at such games but alas - there was no music to be heard, just mutterings emminating from down the corridor. Many of the scrolls were full of new symbols and language unknown to Falkor, he could understand some of the information but it was not too clear. As they continued to search and read Falkor came across a scroll that got his attention, he couldn't understand it fully but one thing was clear, it was about corbums. He turned to Westian, a little surprised he had not picked up on the importance of the scroll... "Westian, this scroll indicates research on corbums. I think this could be most usefull but I cannot understand it. Can you help shed any light on this?" Falkor passed the scroll to Westian, hoping he could decipher the language, diagrams and symbols.

[ian_scho]

Haynuus fell on his ass with surprise when Lord Farel started talking.

"Wha?... Oh, yes, yes good to know." he was somewhat embarrassed with his lack of attention on the job. He recovered somewhat. "The more academic types can work out the symbols and keep us advancing. It's a pity that we have lost some of the best lock-picking skills, though."

He thought for a moment and suggested "We should wait then, for the others. If danger presents itself we will be better prepared for it as five members rather than two. If you see anything coming down the corridor we should immediately retreat to the others as well."

The half-orc tried to imagine not only what would present itself on the other side of the door but also now that the party make-up had changed what their tactics should be. Of course protecting Westian and Falkor were a priority but this time he felt that they could better hold off a mummy or creatures of lesser numbers than the party.

[oh_brother]

The pleasure of putting his knowledge of the celestial language into use puffed up Westian's self-importance, and he read the words with a sense of gravitas that he felt would suit the occasion. The words that he was unable to read, he simply brushed over, or explained away by saying they were not very commonly used by current authorities on the celestial language.

Not wanting to appear squeamish he accepted the scroll handed to him by Falkor, grabbing it by the cleanest edge. Peering at it intently, he focused on the symbols and words surrounding the circular door. “Corbums, you say?”

[beowuuf]

Despite Westian's approach to listing the words, the scroll became simple enough to read for Falkor. The information on the mineral itself is easy, but there appears to be hints of a story that Westian's translation of the words indicates. And that story is terrifying.

Corbumite seems to be a 'balanced' mineral, mythical because of its properties of being weightless. The main corbum ore at its heart that would otherwise draw mana from the world is naturally trapped by physical detritus that forms around it. This corbomite is therefore equal part physical and ethereal, with enough of a physical form it remains tied to the material plane, and a core that draws in mana and allows it to exist in its weightless state.

Usually energy directed at it would cause a violent reaction that would obliterate the sample. However, it seems that an equally mythical 'Fulya' pit that High Lords were said to be able to construct to forge powerful weapons, could be used to burn away the greater physical impurities. Unfortunately, this corbum ore in its unbalanced state would be extremely powerful but dangerous. The corbum itself would continue to draw mana, burning away the final impurities within itself to finally become raw ephemera - corbum existing in the ethereal plane alone. However, the tie to the mana of the physical world would never be severed, and the corbum would possess no physical impediment from drawing mana from the world. Eventually, any disturbance physical or magical would trigger a shockwave in both the material and ethereal planes.

The disturbing diagrams on the scroll seem to make sense. Two High Lords suddenly seem to be representations of Lord Chaos and Librasulus. They are not fighting each other, they seem to be split off from each other. Somehow the disruption of the barrier of etheral and material planes had allowed Chaos to go free again, as his tie to the physical body of the Grey Lord was ignored while Librasulus's ethereal nature was caught up in the transfer of the corbum. And apparently this plan was masterminded by Chaos himself in times past!

This scroll is disturbing for both the implication that the world had come close to ending again, and the Grey Lord had not mentioned it.

Perhaps too, this scroll makes sense of the previous diagram to do with the round door and the flaming pit. Taht must be a Forge of Fulya, perhaps even the one Chas used. The door has no other real description, and seemed to be a vague pictograph to give the idea of what it would look like. The only hint to the location of it is 'buried deep.'

It could well be that this Fulya pit has been locked and secured by the Grey Lord himself, using some mechanism involving elemental items to seal it. There did not seem to be an order required, but it certainly appeared as if all the items were important.

Meanwhile, Hanyuus and Farel awaiting the rest of the party in - from perhaps Farel's side - awkward silence. Farel eventually tried to break the silence by describing the 'lock' of the door as he had seen it.


Sorry, a little dry reading and poor Haynuus sitting waiting. AS you don't have much in the way of possessions, and many of the scrolls are simple disgusting now, I don't see a problem with taking the best of what's left with you. Sorry, starting to fall asleep, so I'll have to leave some further question answering and scroll mechanics questions for another time!

Again, I've moved the story on without Aurek For the moment, he can be easily in the background wherever.

Anyway, let me know if there are any last things you wish to do regarding the room. Assuming you go back to Haynuus, of course Haynuus might have something he wishes to do.

Figure it out tomorrow, and we'll end the week with the puzzle on the door

[money]

Falkor had seen enough, and the concerns he was to take with him were not resting light on his soul... it had been a tough journey and he feared it would get much... Much worse with time. "Westian, I'm going to head back to the others, are you coming?" Falkor wasn't sure why he had asked, he wasn't about to wait for the cleric - in fact he was very much on his way before an answer had been given..

"Haynuus, we are coming back - whats for lunch" He knew of course that this would no doubt lead to a panic for poor Haynuus, he would probably think he had forgoten that he promised food following their investigations... Falkor chuckled to himself, waiting for poor Haynuus to explain himself

[Lord_BoNes]

When Aurek entered the room, he immediately noticed that the two guards weren't where he left them... and considering one of them DIDN'T even have a head, this was just a little bit concerning. He saw that something had apparently dragged the corpse away. Then he pondered the blood in the second cell, and the guard that he and Farel had put there. There was blood there, but not much. He had perhaps injured himself escaping, and dragged his headless companion with him.

Then when Westian and Falkor went to work on the seemingly half-destroyed scrolls, he spoke to them "They weren't like that before. None of this was... well except THAT bloodpool (pointing to the pool of blood that was the result of the guard's decapition). I'm not too sure about this. Something has been here since. And it sure as hell has made a bloody big mess..."

Aurek stood back and watched Westian and Falkor work over the scrolls (assisting them where possible, but he'd already gone over them, he might be able to recall what some said UNDER the blood, 1d20 = 13 hehehe ).
In an "idle" spot, he goes and investigates the cells. (perception 1d20 = 6, guess not )

After Falkor virtually runs out the door, Aurek follows, although waiting for Westian to catch up. Once they return to the group, Aurek turns to Westian and Falkor... "Farel and I found these in THAT room, before we left there the first time." at that, he pulls the scrolls out of his backpack, and shows the others, "At least they're not all covered in blood, so they should be easier to stomach." he said, passing a quick glace at Falkor (not a glare, it's just because of his running out of there so quick).

OOC: Sorry for not posting for a few days. My future-mother-in-law decided to horde the internet (my missus and I currently live at her mother's house, as crap as that is). Sorry again for my delay, even though you seem to have done fine without me

[ian_scho]

"Wha?!" Haynuus stuttered a second time in 2 minutes, this time to Falkor's apparently innocent request. "Well, I can smoke you a kipper if you can get out of the next room alive! Until then we have some... Iron rations and a tasty puzzle to solve."

"Sir Farel was just explaining it all to me, but neglected to check if we could just bash the door down instead." He then hissed to the halfling. "There are things behind the door. Ssshhhh!"

[oh_brother]

"A mess is right" Westian replied to Aurek. "Perhaps it is for the best that Ameena is not here, I don't think she would have relished the sight of this room" he added with a quick glance around and a shudder.

Happy to be leaving he walked back to Haynuus and Farel. When the paladin produced the extra scrolls Westian held them open so that everyone interested could take a look.

OOC: A quick skim through, followed by a more detailed analysis of anything important looking. Especially anything of relevance to the fulya pit, or references to this dungeon. If I need any more rolls let me know!

[beowuuf]

Ok, I'll be distracted from tomorrow onwards until Monday lunctime, so let's see if I can place you guys at a natural place for that. I assume you guys were all going onwards, right?

Aurek knew the room was not as he had left it. The pool of blood where the beheaded guard had been was indeed disturbed. In the chaos it was still apparent that the armour - and likely the body - of that guard did indeed appear to have been dragged off.

What had happened to the second guard, the one left alive in the second cell, was harder to gauge. Had he escaped or been let out? And if let out, had he then been killed in a gruesome fasion, or was this devistation part of his escape? Or strangely enough, nothing to do with it?


These questions could be left for another time as the group reunited with Haynuus and Farel. Aurek managed to reveal much cleaner scrolls and rough copies of scrolls he had liberated from the room earlier. The fourth corbum page that had been missing was one of the proper scrolls. Falkor realised it clearly indicated the means of recognising a vein of corbomite, and the correct handling of a raw corbum ore. even before the text arround was translated. There seemed to be the indication of an interesting spell related to corbum, some form of plasma, but perhaps to Falkor's frustration the spell itself was not given. Aurek also had taken another scroll that, on closer inspection, Westian realised gave more detail on the odd Fulya door. The location of the door seemed to be "deeper than Mart'a", whatever that meant. Perhaps he had mis-translated? Also, there seemed to be four lines that directly related to the elemental items hinted at earlier. However, these four lines were in a strange language that was not celestrial. It was again with aurprise Westian discovered Aurek could translate three of the four, the paladin knowing the languages of the elementals of air, fire and water well enough to translate the passage.

I'll let you lot hunt for that at your leasure, or bring it up another time. This is getting too expositional as it is

In return Farel tried to relate what he had seen down the corridor, and of course Haynuus's warning on quiet was well taken. The group gathered their old and new possessions, making a note to find a less bloody and less open area to perhaps study further later. For now, a potential enemy was hiding behind a door with a strange puzzle to it.

The party moved forwards, taking appropriate precautions.

Let me know in the OOC thread what they are - half movement and strealth? Either way. roll me d20 checks anyway please. Low or no light? Be aware this leaves Haynuus or Haynuus/Westian whispering to the rest of you to guide you onwards.

If anyone has some individual tactical ideas (staying back, Falkor's magic, etc) then let me know.

Eventually the party came to the door. It was a plain solid wooden door, unusual only because this particular one was banded hotrizontally not vertically as the others had been so far. That, and there was no obvious means of releasing the door other than the scratchings on the wall.

While Haynuus sized up the door for battering it into submission, the rest of the party were able to look to the odd engraving.



There seemed to be engravings of swords, clubs and axes engraved in odd pattersn - or were they even patterns? At the bottom right was an open area of the wall with some soft brown material - it seemed like clay. Gruesomely, there seemed to be blood mixed in with it, and scratched through it that has also carved marks into the wall.

The bloody trail had pettered out, but had intensified a little at the door, then appeared to have gone through. Something powerful enough to scratch into rock, yet intelligent enough to solve or at least manipulate this puzzle, had passed through here. And according to Farel, he had thought he had still heard it on the opposite side of the door!

Dun dun dun! Ok, long post... join me on the OOC thread again for what comes next

[ian_scho]

Haynuus scratches his head, and pretends to be doing mental arithmetic in his head. He gives the indentation a jolly good sniff. We need someone clever, he thinks.

"Psst, what happens if we get it wrong?..." he whispers

OOC - d20 check for tiptoeing... in armour (1d20=7)

[oh_brother]

Asking the torch-bearer to come closer, Westian stood with the others staring at the puzzle. As they sat in silence for a few minutes, Westian offered a suggestion. "I have an idea" he began, and proceeded to explain his reasoning in a low whisper. "What do you think?" he asked the group. "Should we try that? If so, then we better get ready for whatever may be on the other side." Suddenly realising that he had stopped whispering and was now talking at almost a normal level, he caught himself and said "Sorry! We should try and be a bit quiet."

OOC: precautions are stealth and whispering. D20 = 4. Again, Westian shows he is not the quietest.

[ian_scho]

It was obvious that the cleric was clever, yet lacked tact when it came to hiding from salivating monsters on the other side of the door. The man from the holy order was getting a little too enthused with his mission.

"Let's go for it" he whispered. He then put his finger in the air and looked at each character in turn to make sure that they were ready - Haynuus was about to draw a symbol of... A club.

[Lord_BoNes]

Aurek followed along with the group, and given the apparent lack of stealth for the others members, he decided that if there IS a monster on the other side of the door, it would already be aware of the group.

"I say have a crack at it there, Haynuus. I just hope that it doesn't lop off that sword-swinging hand..." smirking a little with the last statement. Hehehe

[ian_scho]

Haynuus breathed in, and pressed his finger into the brown square. It felt clay-like yet obviously of magical nature as it was moist as if it had come directly from the potter's wheel. He drew the club symbol in the depression and withdrew his hand. With both hands resting on his sword now he waited for fate to cast it's die.

[beowuuf]

Will sneak in a quick update


There was a rumble, though not a mechanical one. The wall shook as if alive, at being touched. This luckily distracted Haynuus from the feel of the vague stickiness mess as was inscribing.

Then there wasa rumble, not mechanical nor the wall. It sounded like...a voice.

Knock the answer.

Haynuus was puzzled, but Westian hazarded this was an extra safeguard. The ratios of the items were 1:2:3, and the lcub was worth three. Knocking three times seemed... well, could it hurt? Except to warn anything beyond?

Haynuus tapped three times as gently as he could on the door, and this time the door shuddered. This time, not as if alive, just as if mechanically pulled upwards.

The party tensed and prepared for whatever was beyond them as their torchlight spilled out...

Their torchlight met other light coming the other way and-

"Oh, interesting!" said a small figure. It was a gnome, hands filled with a few pieces of mechanical aparatus and a small lantern, regarding the party with surprise.


There we go, something to think on for today!

No, the gnome is not bloody and carrying a headless corpse aswell. Once the party recover fromthe shock, they will see a small room with alcoves all around and some scrolls and apparatus scattered around, not much furniture, and a gnome. The bloody trail seemed to carry on through the door but had faded, and it's had to tell where it went. Possibly to the left, where there is anotherdoor out of the room.

[ian_scho]

A gnome! Ye gods, this place makes Haynuus' sanity scream. He was anticipating behooved demons and unnatural creations and now this. A gnome who should normally be working in mines or guarding precious underground treasures. He looked so... Jovial.

This was a job for one of the more academic, and so Haynuus put his sword away and took in a wide sweep of the room with the use of his fat neck (OOC - i.e. a perception check! (1d20+2=22)), an action which may well prove to be most informative.

"Ugh... Hi." he replied and stepped inside.