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

[beowuuf]

There was a crowded moment after the door slammed shut and the other mummy fell back. The sudden realisation of being safe and on the other side of all their foes was quickly assimilated by Haynuus's circlet, and an urgent 'runrunrunrun' was playing in his brain. Or maybe it was Haynuus's brain itself, who knew.

Haynuus urged the cleric to fall back, knowing (because of the circlet's sage advice) that short limbed dwarves and hastily attired half-orcs were probably the weak link in any plan to run away. Ameena had done acrobatic stunts to both close the door, lock the door, and secure the key afterwards. Something mundane such as simply putting her feet together to move very fast was unlikely to be her weak skill.

Deephold moved with reluctance until he saw Ameena was ready and able to run too. Once he was underway though, his moved with a slow, steady pace, torch held high. The group rounded the corner, and started racing down the long stretch of corridor that Ameena had already seen. Ameena easily caught up with her fellows, and the group made their determined way onwards.

Haynuus did not need such lighting as Deephold provided, and could already see the black and white shape of a door at the end of the corrior before Deephold and then Ameena saw it. More importantl,y, they could tell the corridor also turned sharply right. Haynuus knew from his half-awake travelling that through the door was the way to go.

However, perhaps not. ""DOLO! DOLO DAMN YOU, WHERE ARE YOU?"" The shout was coming from the other side of the door, not too far away. The voice was - to Ameena and Haynuus - unmistakeably the voice of Garax Warblade. He did not sound amused. Still, at least with the sound of clanking form presumeably coming him, Garax would be unlikely to hear the group.


Teehee. Blame Raixel not me! Ok, that;s a lie, it's totally me taking advantage of something to mess aroudn with you one last time :p So, choices. I'll need a stealth check first of all, but it will probably be an easy one. Otherwisewill you hang around and try a surprise ambush of Garax while you have the chance, or will you grasp the opportunity to rush down the right hand turn and hope to hide/run while he goes towards where Dolo is.

Choices, choices! Again...

[Ameena]

Before she starts running, Ameena falls back on past experience and follows the habits of both rat and murafu as she first places the key along the blade of the knife, then grips both in her teeth - running away from something whilst trying to carry an object yet having nowhere obvious to put it is a problem rodents the world over have come across at some point or another, she is sure.
This done, she wastes no further time in dashing off after her friends and easily catching up with them as they head along the corridor and leave the mummy, and the cell (and its new occupants), in darkness (not that that will prove much of a hindrance to the undead, she is sure, seeing as they don't really "see" any more). She feels somewhat relieved to have got away from captivity, at least for now, but doesn't get too excited since she is well aware that she has no idea where they are right now (though this problem can, she hopes, be remedied easily enough by way of her nasal abilities) and expects that there are plenty of other unpleasant creaturess somewhere in the relatively nearby vicinity.
Her thoughts are proven right as the group approach a door and hear the loud voice of Garax calling from the other side.
"Uhh-uhh." she mutters, this being the best version of "uh-oh" she can manage wither her mouth currently occupied in the way that it is. Not wanting another encounter with the armoured human, she veers off to the side in order to continue down the corridor and avoid the door, after first slowing her pace a little and taking care to move as softly as she can in case the human should happen to hear her with his poor human hearing over the clanking of his own protective shell. She also attempts to sniff and listen at the area around her as she moves, in case anything of interest should show itself. She half-wishes that they could have perhaps brought the elf with them in order to wake him up somewhere a bit safer and try to get him to remove the Darkstone from her...but then again, he might not ever agree to do so, and besides, having someone like him so close to the group would only put her friends in danger, and she'd never want that.

OOC - So, Ameena attempts to veer away from the group (she will probably have gone slightly ahead of them, being the faster, but will remain within the torch light) in order to bypass the door and the scary-scary human. Stealth roll for the sneaky-sneaky-past-the-door = 23 (9+14), Perception roll for...umm...perceptioning...stuff = 22 (12=10).

[ian_scho]

Haynuus is in the unusual position of fleeing. The orcs he used to associate with would always taunt each other about who would flee first yet they were not completely stupid either. After hearing so much bad language associated with the action a half-orc could feel a little guilty about running away like stoat with it's tail on fire... And then he heard Garax.

Accelerating then, and clutching his arms around his clunking armour in a vain attempt to hide the metallic noise of clinc-clinc-clinc-shiiit (1d20=16) he accelerated. He hardly noticed Ameena skitting by at great speed so he was relieved when he saw her high-tail passed the door to investigate the rest of the corridor. He willingly followed and forgot about his guilt when he was forced to flee a second time. He had a quick look behind for the mummy, at the dwarf to see how his pint-sized legs worked and at the door as he passed (1d20+2=11).

[beowuuf]

The group power along, with Ameena proving Haynuus right by outdistancing the two. With the noise at the other side of the door, Ameena moves down the side of the corridor as stealthily as she can. Behind her Haynuus is making some clattering noise, though he seems to be - hopefully - muffling it well enough for it not to be obvious. Deephold manages to keep relatively quite too, and Haynuus is glad that he doens't need to worry over his companion - and can put all his attention into moving fast and wild and yet slowly and quietly. It is a good trick he pretty much manages to pay off.

However, it takes a moment for Ameena to realise that the clanking of metal is getting louder, not softer as she outdistances the two people behind her. More important, the scent of metal is getting greater too... The light from the other two, as they quickly move to catch up wioth Ameena reveals something that hr sence of smell sudden;y realises. There is something just beyond the turning of the corridor.

An armoured figure clanks forwards, the noise sudden'y louder as it comes aroudn the corner of waht is apparently an open area. Twin blades glisten in the half-light, and the armoured foe moves forward a swift step, blades sweeping wickedly in the air-

And then it stops. For a moment, the armoued foe - dressed in plain and rusting plate metal armour - bents at the waist, as if to see Ameena better. It doesn't seem to be looking at her, so much as her side. There is nothing but darkness in the slit of its faceplate, yet Ameena can feel a gaze upon her.

The figure then straightens, turns on its heel, and steps back into the room again. As Deephold and Haynuus come up behind Ameena, and as the torchlight gets brighter, Ameena at least can see that the footplate of the figure are bound at the back to nothing. The armoured figure is just...armour. And apparently, it doesn't seem interested in the two.

"What in Larethian's name!" hissed Deephold, and then is quiet as the sound of the door back aroudn the corner is heard.

"Dolo! Come here! Stop picking up strays and playing follish games. Gholst has summoned us all - even Dargat. And there's another freak on the loose. We have no time for this!" The angry shouts get quieter as Garax obviously advances down the corridor the party has just came from.

For those listening attentively, there can perhaps be heard another indistinct shout. And then, after a moment, dull thumping sounds - the sound of combat.

"I think we have discovered our confiscated items," whispers Deephold, pointing into the revealed room. There appear to be various tables and benches around, with some glittering white armour and other items in the corner. Of course, the dwarf does not advance. The stalking form of the armour walking in a slow pacing motion backwards and forwards at the other side fo the room is a little off-putting.


Heh, so there you go. You've foudn you stuff, and another nasty critter. Except for some reason a critter that isn't about to attack you! Odd! Anyway, it also sounds as if Garax is either attacking oa door, or if you are lucky, attacking and being attacked by a mummy who owes him no allegence

Do you feel lucky? If not, maybe you want to abandon your stuff, and run through the door Garax just came from to escape. If you do feel lucky, you can always go into the room to recover your stuff. Or hey, if you feel really lucky and brave, you can always rush back and go attack Garax. I'm sure he's not healed all his hit points since last time...not all, anyway :p

[ian_scho]

OOC - http://www.dmjump.net/escape2.jpg is gone, disappeared. I saw it a couple of hours ago.

"Quiet!" Haynuus shouted in a hissed voice... Then realised that it was both foolish and unnecessary. "Garax might turn around as we did, there is not much time. Deephold, do you actually have any items of value that you need?" The emphasis on 'value' was supposed to mean 'useful' and not emotional or religious trinkets. "I might be able to charge into it and push it over the table if I time it right while you all recover our stuff, but I'm not sure if it's worth the risk?" He dwelled on that last statement for a moment. He really wanted his backpack back, it contained his dreams. The problem was that this animated construction could be be super strong or just fall to pieces if he bumped into it... He'd probably just leave the arms waving in the air while he grappled a breastplate, the thought was not good.

"Ameena?"

There was no time for a debate, only orcish-action.

[Ameena]

Ameena instinctively freezes as the armoured figure approaches. She feels some confusion at first, however, when it does not immediately attack but instead bends down to look at her. She stares up into the helmet but is a little disconcerted to see that there seem to be no eyes inside. Yet something is looking at her...or then again...
It's looking at the stone! she thinks to herself, then relaxes a little as the...creature?...walks off and apparently gets back to its job of patrolling the room. Interesting...
Meanwhile, she hears the sound of Garax passing through the door and down the corridor she and her friends have just passed through - it seems they managed to do so just in time. The following sounds of what is probably combat she imagines most likely come from the human's arrival at the door with the mummy outside it. She briefly wonders whom the "freak" is that Garax mentioned in his shouts, and whether it might perhaps be Westian or someone else that she knows, but puts that thought to one side for now as she focuses her attention mainly on her immediate vicinity.
She glances upward at Deephold as he points out the items on the tables in the room. Standing upright, she carefully removes the knife and key from her mouth so that she can speak. Whilst doing so, she also casts her glance around the nearby area for some kind of hole or crack which she can push or drop the key into - it's no use to her, certainly, and seh might as well try to get rid of it as soon as she can, and in some way that it won't be easily retrieved.
Meanwhile, she addresses her friends.
"I think that...umm...armour...creature...was looking at...well, I couldn't see any eyes, but I think it was looking at this...this Darkstone."
She gestures a little uncomfortably toward her side, trying not to let her pvreious fears rear up again now that she doesn't feel in immediate danger of her life (at least, not as much as when facing the mummies or the undead figure of Umgold).
"Maybe, because...because of who put it there, maybe it's got...some of his magic in it, or something, and maybe this armour-creature has been umm...brought to life...by his magic too, and it recognised the same magic-type so it thinks I'm...working for him, perhaps. Maybe I should test it out..."
She starts to measure the distance between herself and the armour-creature, at how fast it can probably move and how quickly she's likely to die if attacked. If this being is just a suit of armour walking around by magic, there'll be no way it can be killed, since it isn't actually alive - presumably whatever magic "woke it up" will need to be stopped in order to make the armour just fall down again.
"I could go over there and try...maybe asking it to do something." she suggests. "Or maybe it won't mind if I try to pick up the items on that table. But that would take a while. It might try to attack me...but then, it might try to attack you too. It hasn't yet, but...well...and umm...I don't think we should spend too long here...

OOC - Perception check for somewhere to dispose of the key = 28 (18+10). Any little crack or something will do - just somewhere she can shove it irretrievably (assuming anyone thinks of looking there in the first place or has some way of locating it ). Maybe a map or something would be good too, to show where everything is in this room?

[beowuuf]

The map is back for me, so that's odd. The tables are in the other corner, against the wall, so no real opportunity to push the armour over. THough Haynuus could ready an action to push the knight away if it advanced towards Deephold or Ameena (or Haynuus). All the items are on a table in the far corner. IT's not really worth me drawing up a detailed plan of the room, as you are either going to move around it (and either get into a fight, need to acrobatic around, or be fine anyway) or leave it all.


Deephold pauses for a moment. "My armour and mace could be left behind if we are attacked before I can use them, but the mace is possibly the only chance Ameena has to be rid of the stone."

Meanwhile, Ameena spots that the walsl are not in the best condition, with dark dirt and filth and many small cracks. There is a perfect one not too far into the room, and the key is gone in the blink of an eye, dropped into a deep recess, and hidden by shadows even under Deephold's torchlight.

Deephold quickly turns to Ameena at the sound. He looks nervously around as Haynuus mentioned the possibility of Garax coming back, but there are more obvious noises of battle, and yells now. Garax, it seems, has fallen foul of the creature left behind. Of course, Ameena and Haynuus have both witnessed Garax's skills first hand. Despite his wounds, Garax is perhaps unlikely to be killed outright by the creature that was causing them problems moments before. However, it would certainly buy them some time. Time that the dwarf obviously realised was important to use to exaplin something.

"Ameena, I am sorry for not telling you the full truth earlier. The stone you have is a conduit. At the moment, I imagine the elf priest could use it to try and take a look into your psych, and attempt to control youe. Although you showed you can resist that. However, its real purpose is as a phylactery - a place to anchor one's soul." Deephold scowled. "Such a darkstone is usally twinned. However, from the way the priest spoke to me, I do not think he is content to simply have the other stone as a quick device to conduct his soul - should his body die - into another. I believe he would implant both into hosts. This way, if he died, he would be able to exist as a pure spirit, anchored in two points. Then, if one host were killed, or were to successfully destroy the darkstone, only then would he be forced to take control of the other host." Deephold sighed. "You might be able to fight off his mind alone, while it is still anchored to his old body, but I fear if his full being - with nothing else to lose and desperate to remain on this plane - tried to take you over you may not be able to stop him." Deephold looked to both. "That is why I tried to stop you. Killing him while Ameena is in this state could be consigning her soul to a terrible fate."

Deephold silently pointed to the mace on the table again. "We have a powerful chance now. The priest is hopefully still unconscious and unable to perceive or react. My mace is blessed by Larethian, and carries His mark. We may be able to shatter the stone and save you from this peril. And if we can find the other half of the darkstone, we can insure this evil hand of Lolth gains no escape from his final reckoning."


Anyway, so that's perhaps explained more of the nature of the stone Ameena was inflicted with. Obviously, while Ameena and Deephold gasbag, Haynuus can probably nip in, beat up the animated armour, then get back out with all the stuff!

Yes, all the items you guys lost - Ameena's pouches, Haynuus's backpack, the OH blade, Deephold's pack, dagger, mace and armour - are all in the corner. There are a few mundane supplies and lesser weapons too. More a case of 'ask if you want anything, and I'll tell you if it's around' sort of items. Easier than me listing stuff.

[Ameena]

OOC - Ahh, I simul-posted with Ian last night - his post wasn't up when I started typing mine .

BIC - After spotting the crack in the wall, Ameena quickly slinks over to it and drops the key inside. Good. That's dealt with. Though she imagines that there are probably plenty of ways the door can be removed. There might be more than one key, as well.
"It would be useful to have somewhere to put this." she puts in quietly, half to herself, in response to Haynuus's comments as she inspects the knife she holds. Though she isn't too sure she agrees with his idea of just barging into the room.
At Deephold's words, she feels somewhat nervous, but the concept he's trying to explain is perhaps a little too extreme for her to consider - someone putting their own spirit into someone else's body when their own body dies? How can such a thing happen?
"But what happens to my spirit if his one takes over?" she asks, then shakes her head. "Umm...actually, I think for now we should probably not stay here too long. If the elf-priest used magic ot make the armour walk about, then maybe it does what he says, so maybe it thinks I'm him, somehow, because part of him is here...or something like that. So..."
Without another word, she places the knife on the floor and moves into the room, stopping far enough away from the patrolling suit of armour that she has half a chance to quickly dance backwards. Recalling that people here don't seem to know how to be polite about anything, she forces herself, with some degree of mental discomfort, to use a rather different tone to her normal one.
"Umm...hey, you there!" she calls over to the armour, though without much tone of authority. "Stop walking around and just stand still for a moment."
She decides that if the armour can do that, then hopefully she can get it to not attack anyone who goes near the objects on the table.

[beowuuf]

Was going to sneak in a reaction to Ameena from Deephold and the armour, though Haynuus is free to do something in parallel of course before then!

[ian_scho]

He watched Ameena bravely step into danger. "We don't know if there is some invisible barrier here, or if it really does detect your darkstone... I'll get ready to charge into it if it comes towards you... Or our way." He turns to Deephold. "And if it does attack, then you really must retrieve your mace and at all cost." He pauses for a second. "And ermmm.... You see that brown pack-pack over there on the right which is actually leaking? That's my future that is." He gave the dwarf his twiddly eyebrow expression that says a thousand words but means nothing.

OOC - Ready an action to either charge it over the table if it gets near Ameena, or simply hit the thing if it moves to attack Haynuus/Deephold... Need a roll or two?

[beowuuf]

Yes please! Just one. Technically you can't ready two separate actions, moving to Ameena's aid is probably the best bet since she's moving into harm';s way

[beowuuf]

Sorry, seem to be in a weird sleep pattern right now - good thing I don't have wo-. Oh, wait SHould have just updated when I came home, Ian's roll won't be needed right away as the actions stand. Or maybe at all, who knows...


Haynuus hadn't spotted the armoured foe actually come almost out of the room to confront Ameena, but Ameena could be reasonably sure there was no barrier that the creature was imatiently waiting to fall. It had definitely broken out of, and then resumed, the holding pattern after reacting to her initial prescence.

"These armours are left from Chaos's time," said Deephold, "The priest did not create them, although why the Grey Lord allows them life still, I do not know. Why it reacted to the stone, I fear it is most likely a work of Chaos's dark magic when he was here, and so the armour instinctively does not attack."

Deephold notably had avoided the first question, and then relented. "I do not know the answer to your first question, Ameena. At best, your own spirit would trapped watching the things the elf would attempt, perhaps free to try and act at at low moments. However, I feat it more likely your spirit would be crushed, or simply ejected into the ethereal plane."

Deephold reacted to Haynuus's words, nodding emphatically about retrieving the mace. Although he gave Haynuus a raised eyebrow with talks of the future connected to the damp backpack visible on the table, smelling fainting of mildrew.

Ameena's uncharacteristic forthrightness was met with the the armour waling forwards. Haynuus tensed...

And then the armour walked at a ninety degree angle sideways, continuing its passage. Still, although Ameena had no apparent powers to command the armour, at least she had not been forced to run away, nor Haynuus engage the thing while still weakened.


Awww, I sometimes wish we could have pictures of some of these scenes - the little murafu commanding the tall armour, or Haynuus winking at pointing at an oozing backpack while a dwarf looks confused and horrified.

Anyway, so nothing attacking you guys yet. Up to you if you want to just leave while you have the chance, or risk grabbing all your stuff. Obviously, Ameena can stay beside the armour if she thinks that would help, though it means she can't rummage for specific stuff, just wnat she can ask the others to find. And obviosuly, Haynuus could stay by her side and just let deephold grab as much as he can for the group.

Will you guys stay in this room for the moment if there is no instant danger, or will you guys make a move for the door and freedom right now?

[ian_scho]

OOC - I'm tempted to ask Ameena to get Deephold's Mace, her rucksack/belt of pockets, and Haynuus' rucksack. Ahhhh, don't know. He might need his OH blade thingy too. I don't want the rest to rush in the room as well though. I think that would be a mistake.

[beowuuf]

Ameena could comfortably grab everything except for Deephold's armour, it just might take a couple of quick trips

[raixel]

Petal tears through the doorway, not bothering to see if she's being chased by the odd armored being still. Learning her lesson about approaching odd clanking sounds, she veers toward the dimmer torchlight and sounds of fighting. Maybe she can lead this stupid armor to some of those humans that chased her around earlier...

[beowuuf]

The distant sound of clanking was ever-present behind Petal as she moved swiftly to escape. Luckily, there was only one set of clanking behind her. The pixie rushed forwards, seeign the corridor split into two. However, the open doorway and flickering light were obviously the way to go, instead of the dead end she could see the other part of the corridor ended.

Through the door, there was another set of split corridors and torch flares, but Petal chose the distant combat to the close clanking mirroring the one she was trying to escape from. Determinedly, she set of towards the firelight, seeing a bend in the corridor ahead.

Approaching cautiously, Petal could see an abandoned torch on the floor. Close to it, weilding a strange set of curved bladed shapes in two hands, the soldier fought a hideous apparition. It was a mummy, a dead creature of white cloth. It seemed different somehow. The solder was being hard pressed, but seemed to rain blow upon blow against the creature. There were many rags, and for some reason puddles of clear liquid, all around.

What was important though, was that this corridor was a dead end. There was a door to the right hand side, but it was clearly locked.


Petal can turn back, yell out to the solder to aid him, or could use the confusion of battle to try some acrobatic flying towwards the door to see if she could get beyond. That third option of course puts her into a dead end though.


Anyway, WOOHOO! Welcome to raixel (and Petal) finally into the main thread. And she bought a present!


As the group in the other room were debating, a strange sound came somewhere down the corridor. It sounded like a second set of the clanking of armour. A moment later, even as the clanking sound grew in volume as if it was not far away, Ameena caught the scent of something in the air. Not armour, and not strong. It was as if some other creature was close, or had just passed by.

Meanwhile, through the door behind the group, a dark metallic figure stalked swiftly forwards. Twin blades were hidden by the darkness, as it moved forward towards the faint light ahead with a dark drive. It strode with purpse through the open doorway. However, with a clank of metal clashing with metal, it paused.

It turned its whole upper body to the left, as if seeing the light in that direction. And then it turned to the right, seeing the continuation of the corridor forwards with a dimmer light in that direction.

For a moment,it swung one way and another, as if testing the air. Twin blades reflected the dim light with menace.


Anyway, so yeah, second animated armour blocking the way out. Nothing to worry about! Well, not yet...

Brings up another wacky choice for the group. Investigate the sound, or make a grab for your stuff first them investigate? Or, you know, you can cower and hope it all goes away :p

[beowuuf]

Map: (combines everyone's experiences)


Haynuus and Ameena (and Deephold) are in the 2 x 3 room, while Petal is currently in the corner of the lower corridor beside the 3 x 3 room.

[Ameena]

OOC - Ooh yay, pixie power hath arrived . Well, sort of . Obviously I don't know when our two groups of characters are actually going to meet, but can you give us an IC description of your character when that happens so we know what we're looking at? And do you want us to do the same or have you been following the story long enough that you already know?

BIC - Ameena hears further clanking, and smells a faint hint of...something else. She recalls Garax's mention of there being something else around here and wonders whether this is it. However, from the sound of things, that creature isn't coming their way...yet.
Meanwhile, Deephold has answered her question even though she had brushed it off in order to get on with present concerns - from the way Deephold describes it, it sounds like her spirit might just end up wherever the spirits of the dead go anyway. So the elf's death would cause her own. Strange way to die, but if it happens, there probably won't be much she can do about it, she decides.
She regards the armour-creature marching about in front of her and then glances momentarily toward the table of things.
"Umm...maybe one of you should try to get our things." she suggests without looking around. "I'll keep between you and umm...this, in case it makes any difference - I mean, the creature...thing...might not want to come past me, perhaps. Then we can take what's important and get away from here and hopefully through that other door..."

OOC - If someone wants to try and move into the room to grab the stuff, Ameena will keep pace with the armour in such a way that she remains always between it and whomever's entered the room. The only possessions she had before were her pouch-belt and everything in it, so unless those things have been removed, all her stuff will be together and easy enough to grab since there's not a lot there and it'll be nice and light. It'll also give her somewhere to put Dolo's knife, which you may remember she left on the floor last post before she stepped forward to face the armour. Deephold's mace would be good since it's probably gonna be some kind of holy weapon, plus there's what he said about it being used to removed the stone from Ameena's side. Finally, I think the Oh-Blade is pretty much a necessity too since...well, it's a cool sword, isn't it? And it probably won't be too heavy either, being basically just a sword-hilt right now. As for anything else...well, Haynuus's backpack would be cool to carry stuff around in (well, you know, apart from the fact he probably won't want to squish the screamer-ick that's in the bottom of it right now ), and I'm sure Deephold wouldn't mind actually having some kind of physical protection. Bleh, basically, if we can get all our stuff back, tha would be best, lol.

[raixel]

Oops. Sorry. Wrong group of 'humans'. Actually I think Beo would be mean enough to do somethin like that, but I wanted to see if he really would. Just kidding (sort of ) No, I intentionally stopped reading all other threads a month ago so that it would be more real when I meet you guys. I cannot wait for Petal to meet Ameena. I kinda hinted towards the end of my thread what Petal might think Ameena's race is, cuz Petal is kinda naive and doesnt know much about the world. Its gonna be great. I will also be posting a background story once she actually meets you guys.

Petal:
She stands just a hair under 3ft (I think thats like a meter) and weighs 40lbs (sorry, im a product of the american public schools, and all i remember is ' a kilogram weighs about as much as an iron', so I cant tell you how many irons is Petal. Needless to say, shes tiny)
She is very pale with an almost blue sheen to her skin. She has long unkempt black hair that hangs around her face and down her back. Her hair has the same iridescent flecks as her eyes. The iris of her eyes shines mixed blue purple green and orange like an opal (very common among pixies). She has a double set of wings similar to a dragonfly on her back, and she usually doesnt walk on the ground. When she flies her wings make a soft hum and move so rapidly they cant be seen. Currently she is wearing a grey dress that sparkles like it has crystal woven flecks in it. It appears to be woven out of some sort of thick silk and is very stained, with a raggedly torn hem and many rips in it. She has a leather satchel slung over one shoulder and is carrying an unlit torch in her left hand and a pixie-sized glowing dagger in her right. The dagger provides enough light to see by.

Beo: Is the human soldier the same one that I saw earlier? Is he wearing the same style of armor or appears to be associated with them?

Petal backwings when she realizes the corridor is a dead end. She watches the battle for a second, trying to determine if she can recognize the man as one with the human she saw earlier. Also, what was that clear goo on the ground? After watching she turns and flits close to the ceiling, hoping to keep the eyes of the armor that may still be following her away and slowly flies back the other direction. She needs to see what is behind her as it wouldnt do to get pinned between two giant battles. She finds it odd that she hasnt seen many signs of Chaos' hand, or the Grey Lord for that matter. How many years did she spend in that mirror? What if Chaos had been defeated by these humans? But no, if that was the case, they wouldnt be fighting. She needed to find an ally, someone who could tell her what was going on in here.

Move silent (I forgot the +4hide) (1d20+4=24)NAT 20
Perception (1d20+4=21)

[beowuuf]

Same impressive soldier!

[beowuuf]

Oh, sorry, meat to say, if someone other than Ameena - especially Haynuus - is grabbing the gear and Ameena is getting in the way of the armour, you guys can definitely grab everything. Obviously, Deephold will make a grab for all the stuff if Haynuus wants to go back to his readied action against the critter and protect Ameena.

[ian_scho]

OOC - lol o lol. Just what we need when we have a mummy, a high level human fighter and two animated armours to fight... A pixie! (think of it as 6 swords and two cold fists versus two pairs of wings.) Welcome!

Haynuus continues wriggling his eyebrows at the dwarf. "YOU get all the stuff, and I get hit, deal?" He doesn't much like the thought of them all barging in there to pick up their bits but Ameena was right. She was no mule. She couldn't carry much.

"Listen, if it approaches you all skeet in the other direction to the back wall, and I'll try and tackle it over the table, ok?" It was his only plan he could think of that would avoid a skewered murafu.

OOC - Here, have a d20 (1d20=9) for the above readied action.

[beowuuf]

If only she was a sorcerer or something like that who could throw magic around and still heal you guys.... since your own cleric and mage are elsewhere right now If only!

[ian_scho]

OOC - OK. OK. Pixies live longer than half-orcs, that's for sure. Oh, and I'd like to ready a "Hurrgghhhh!" as well, please

[beowuuf]

You can ready as many free actions within reason as you like - even for multiple situations

[beowuuf]

Ameena stood in what was a brave position infront of the animated armour. Haynuus stood by her side, creating the first test to see if the armour would react.

Once more, its circuit took it towards the murafu and Haynuus. There was a brief pause... The armour carried onwards, moving in its circuit.

Deephold moved off, with Ameena and Haynuus sidestepping to cover him. Deephold did not seem to warrant a stoppage this time, and the armour carried on oblivious in its circuit. The cleric glanced over, and seeing the danger was mitigated - perhaps only temporarily - he quickly grabbed everything he could from the luckily low table. With an arm filled with items. and his armour stacked precariously, the dwarf was nevertheless stable and seemed happy to keep moving away. A testiment to the sturdiness of dwarves.

However, while the armour in the room had not paused when Deephold moved, the clanking sound that had been growing louder did pause. It was an ominous thing, to be sure.


Meanwhile, Petal raced back from where the combat was happening, eager to race the animated armour to the junction by the door, and find an alternate route to safety. It was disconcerting to realise that the armour obviously moved swiftly - another sign of its magical nature - and already it had stopped by the door, sweeping its gaze left and right.

It had not seen her yet, and Petal could judge the distance well. She should - with some aerial acrobatics - be able to slip passed it while it was distracted.

And then, Petal heard the oddest thing in the temporarily silence. She would swear she could hear a light high pitched voice, though it was impossible to tell the words. And then a much deeper, booming voice seemed ot reply.

"-isten, if... approaches... all skeet ...other direction .. back wall, ...tackle it over ... table, ok?""

Whoever they were, they seemed to be far down the other corridor. Were they aware of the armour?


There we go, Ameena can smell Petal, and Petal can hear Haynuus. It's like you guys are in the same room surrounded by death already

For the guys in the room, all the items have been grabbed and are with Deephold. Of course, now you have to work out why the sound from the corridor - which sounds liek another armour - has sudden;y stopped

[Ameena]

OOC - Heh, from the description of Petal, she's probably not much taller than Ameena - if I could be arsed to go downstairs and get the tape measure, I could finally get an actual numerical measurement of how big Ameena actually is, lol. I'll probably get round to it at some point. And I, too, am looking forward to when the two of them finally meet - I have been for a while, actually...though Ameena might possibly not get as excited as she might otherwise do, having just been through a rather stressful time. Then again, I never really know exactly what I'm gonna write until I write it, so you never know . Oh, and as you say you've not been reading the main thread since you joined, I'll make sure you get a decent description of what you're seeing when murafu and pixie finally meet . Ooh and I thought of one more thing about Petal - does she have pointy ears? Not that it's hugely relevant, but I might include a passing mention to it when Ameena sees her...

BIC - The group's items now reclaimed, Ameena keeps herself between Deephold and the armour-creature as the dwarf makes his way back across the room. She is aware that something else rather unpleasant may be happening soon, since it sounds like another armour-creature is close by, but wonders whether the darkstone might get them past that one as well. Whether it does or not, she still wants the thing out of her as soon as possible.
Having apparently avoided any kind of confrontation with the nearby patrolling armour-creature, Ameena stops once they're back at the edge of the room and patiently waits for Deephold to put down his new burden so they can sort through it and retrieve their things. She also makes sure she picks up the elf's knife again.
Meanwhile, she keeps alert, listening out for any signs of approaching creatures. She sniffs the air carefully, too.
"I think I should probably go first." she says. "It sounds like there's another one of those armour-creatures nearby, so maybe it will ignore me like this one did if it sees me first..."

OOC - Perception check (I figure she's still around the corner from the corridor with Petal and her armour-thingy so sight doesn't really come into this one so much) = 11 (1+10). Umm, d'oh, lol.
Btw, stats on Dolo's knife in case I use it? Heh, I was just looking through my inventory for the damage of the old knife (which I think was 1d3) but only after I couldn't find it did I remember that I left it behind, lol. Since you described the new knife as being "ceremonial", does that mean it has some kind of ornate pattern on the handle, or something? I'm guessing it's the kind of "ceremonial" that would be associated with ritual sacrifices (unlike ceremonial swords, which are normally just for show and therefore very crap for fighting) and...you know...cutting people open in order to insert scary black soulstones into them...?

[raixel]

Ameena: Never really thought about her ears, so im gonna say her hair is more like a mane than hair and is poofy so you cant see her ears at all (she has survived the destruction of her village and wandered for weeks and trapped by Chaos for god knows how long, so she hasnt had much time to comb her hair ).

Also, I have a general idea of what Haynuus and Ameena look like, but if you wanna describe them again, and any new accoutements they may have aquired be my guest cuz then that will be more things Petal can point out about you guys;)

Beo: So the armor is blocking me from the room they are in?
Oh man....I just realized. Petal can speak Common...but not very well. Well enough to be understood, but thats about it(why she kept on sprinkling so many Sylvan words in her speech). Thisis gonna be fun!

Petal stops when she realizes the armor is blocking the room that the odd voices are coming out of. They didnt sound like humans, thats for sure. Petal had never heard of humans with such deep voices, or high ones for that matter. She quickly thinks of all the races she knows of, trying to figure out what made the noises. Centaurs have booming voices. But they dont speak the tradecommon of the humans, only Sylvan. And besides, that voice didnt have the characteristic centaur accent. Well, if they werent humans, maybe they could help her figure out what was going on here. She misses her friends.
"I wonder if Growlgra is alright." she thinks to herself.

Petal sneaks up to within 10 feet of the armor near the doorway and starts casting a spell at it.
She closes her eyes and listens to the Song of the world around her. She can feel some small fire calling FUL, FUL nearby, and taps into that energy. To her eyes, a small fireball blossoms in her hand, hovering in mid air above her palm. She whispers the song of IR to the fire, telling it how wonderful it is to fly free and burn things in its path. The fireball excitedly leaps up off her palm and appears to tremble with the desire to be free.

Petal puts her hand parrallel, one on top of the other in the shape of the rune ON and points them at the armor.
"Ali ha, No'toria!" she yells in Sylvan, trying to get the armor to face her.
When it turns around, she calls "ONFULIR", and the fireball zooms off to strike the armor, growing in size and intensity as it does.

She is trying to aim the fireball at the black spot on the armor. If it was already facing the corridor shes in, let me know and ill edit her yelling at it.

[beowuuf]

@Raixel: Not blocking, the armour is just at the door where you came in from, so you'd draw an AoO going passed it without an acrobatics check - it's basically just through the door, so there is plenty of space to move passed it and upwards towards their 2 x 3 room. Since there are now two 2x3 rooms on the map, I'll just remind you this is the bottom right area everyone is in!

And lol, oh no, Petal just used a fireball - Ameena hates those!

@Ameena: The ceremonial knife will indeed have lots of odd carving on it, but because it is a dark metal they will (luckily) be hard to make out. The knife will be the same 1d3 as your old knife, the fact it's only a knife should make it a suitable dagger for the murafu's smaller hands without a size penalty. And because Dolo is a cleric/paladin, then there won't be any penalty for it being unsuitable for fighting - it's a decently sized nasty thing! Don't worry, the darkstone is likely to be a wibble wobbly magic thingy that doens't require cutting to let it do its thing. Maybe. We'll see if it ever gets extracted, shall we?

[raixel]

Eh, Petal still hovers in the corridor and wings a fireball at it. WEE