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

[Lord_BoNes]

Feeling that his only path of success lie in his faith of his deity, Aurek started to pray.
"Lord Larethian, I besiege you now, in my time of need. These two fallen comrades have both served your cause. Bless them both with life again." (1d20 = 14, Westian has higher priority if only one of them can be resurrected with this roll)

[ian_scho]

The door satisfyingly rolled down its runners with a CLUNK, albeit narrowly missing the nervously flicking tail of the Murafu.

"How did you get Brighteyes alive again, Ameena? And why?!, to be honest." He replied to Ameena. "We must try to get Westian and the Sir Farel Fellah back. You see?" He pointed to the two corpses on the table.

He was in a strange situation, having danger really close by, yet everyone acting as if in a sort of limbo. The half-orc was a creature of action however, and that was usually a thumping action as well. He'd seen the paladin perform his ceremony... OOC - If nothing happens.... He shifted across the room once more (G4), and pulled Sir Farel off the altar, his body landing unceremoniously on the floor. "Come on Brighteyes! No hard feelings. Just tell us how to get that magic flash-boom-here-comes-da-man table working again, will you?" He had assumed that the gnome was so insane, that he'd be happy to oblige.

[Ameena]

The murafu just blinks and looks up at Haynuus, clearly as confused as ever.
"What...I...that doesn't make sense." she objects. "My eyes aren't dead. I...I don't know what you mean. Are you...are they...I mean...those soldiers..."
Here she points toward Aurek.
"With the souls in their armour. Are you...are they going to...I mean, if they're...if they're dead...I...I mean, we can't die here. I mean, we mustn't. I mean...well, when it happened before...not that I can remember the details at the moment. But...whoever it was...we got them back. But now...at least since Soorec is back, the grak-graks will have calmed down, so one of the other mages hopefully won't come here. I think...I think we need something to deal with them. But...but...I..."
At this point she sort of stammers and tails off. She seems to have hardly noticed the door closing behind her, and keeps looking between Haynuus, Aurek, and the altar (and its grisly contents). She seems even more scared and confused now, along with everything else.

[ian_scho]

It was then Haynuus realised that she either didn't know who the gnome was, or was feigning it. It didn't matter at the moment though. He gestured to the altar, which to the half-orc was a wizard's work-bench and said. "You got me to put the gnome on the table..." instead of his friends, he was about to say. "You said 'Or he'll be back again' and got us to put him on the table and then you resurrected the guy. I know I didn't" then gave a toothy grin.

[Ameena]

The murafu looks somewhat startled at this.
"I didn't know that would happen!" she protests. "I just...I just thought it felt right...somehow. I can't remember what happened last time. It doesn't seem as though any of us can..."
She pauses and gives her head a little shake, as though trying hard to remember something.
"But the grak-graks were...I mean, he controls them. So if he's dead, they'll kill us. Everything. Everything they find. Because they're dead. They don't have minds - Soorec is their mind. If he's dead, there's no-one to tell them what to do, so they all just go...well...like we've already seen. They just try to tear everything apart. And that will make other people notice. One of the other mages we met. They might come down here to see what happened to Soorec. Anyway, since last time I think things were the other way round, and we were trapped, I think...I think this is better. To have it this way. Maybe we can...I don't know..."
She lowers her gaze and scrubs at her face with both her forepaws, hunching her body down a bit in an apparent effort to increase her stability.

[ian_scho]

The conversation was getting a little surreal.

The scorpion was skittering around in circles, trapped and tortured before, and now it was free yet it still chose to stay where the pain was. It could well charge them all soon.

"Dya hear that Brighteyes?! Ameena our Muflooh friend here ate one of your mage allies! Don't worry though, I'll make sure she doesn't get at you... If you're nice." The half-orc gave a wink to Ameena. He was the world's worst bluffer (1d20-2=15), especially when he tended to confuse himself and his friends as well.

"Psst, make it feel right now then?"

He didn't know what to do, so he sidled over to the button to stop any little fingers accidentally getting to it. A potion or two would come in handy now, to be honest.

He really wanted to raise up Westian and get out of here for a curry and a beer.

[money]

Falkor continued to check the alter, looking for more signs, anything that would help, "Aurek, what do you think? Is there anything you have noticed that could help bring them back to life?" Falkor was desperate to get them back, it was important....

Suddenly Haynuus barged through, threw the motionless corpse to the ground and stood back, apparantly looking pleased with himself...

"Ameena, you need to rest and think about what happened before as you seem to be the only one who has any idea. Stop talking, just think and when you have something helpfull to say, speak" It was direct and he knew that Ameena would no doubt be offended, but at the moment she was not helping anyone. If she could recall events then perhaps she could answer just some of the riddles...

Falkor continued his examination of the table, he ran his fingers over the table, closed his eyes for a brief moment and focused his mind on magical symbols (1d20=18). He was convinced that the answer would become clear...

[beowuuf]

Aurek felt drained spiritually, but also felt an intense connection to....something. Haynuus's movements took Farel from the table, but the connection did not break. Had the paladin managed to reach out to Westian? Nothing instantly happened though...


LB, Aurek uses up a 0-level priest effect.


Meanwhile, Falkor had to ignore the insanity of the rest. Ameena was babbling, Haynuus was rushing around knocking thigns aorund and speaking at Seeroc, and Aurek seemed to assume praying would work.

Falkor felt the magical energy of the altar. Concentrating on the VI rune, it was as simple as that it appeared. The halfling was rooted to the spot, mana flowing through him from where he was standing into the altar itself. Hopefully, if something was working, towards Westian. However, the body still seemed inert...


Falkor uses up a 0-level spell effect. I think he still has one, right? So, two good rolls, two people on the case...what could possibly go wrong?


Haynuus moved around dealing with all the people and their lack of focus, trying to pump Ameena for information through her riddles, lending Falkor and Aurek a helping hand, and then trying to tap the one who'd managed to actually use the altar even when dead.


The gnome stopped his game, unravelling the string slowly, putting it into his pocket and then standing up. "Interesting. When you knew me only as Brighteyes you seemed to have no trouble threatening my life, tripping over each other infact to work out the best way to ask me to betray myself. And when you knew me only as Brighteyes, you seemed to have no problem insulting the actual me to my face, as though I had no feelings - which I don't - and pulling me around as if I was your property. Or ordering me around, I suppose because you are so very tall and I am so very small. I assume that is why your halfling friend wishes to betray you. And when you finally realised who I was - or at least, who people knew me as - you instantly declined my hospitality, and sought to throttle me, and hack me apart. And of course, to harm my littles ones. And infact, you slew one of them. Not directly, no, that is far too brave for you, but you certainly forced that deluded yellow creature to do your dirty work for you." Seeroc waved at the scoprion briefly, and in fear the scorpion scuttled back a step, then turned to ensure the grak-grak behind it did not suddenly break free. Falkor, if he was listening, would have only made out half the words the scorpion said now - they seemed to indicate death still, but not as convincingly.

Seeroc continued. "And then, when my little ones finally started giving you a taste of your own medicine, I notice you were suddenly so very eager
to have me back. Although you did need to throw me behind my own bars first. And have ignored all of my requests to speak together until you suspected you might require my assistance. No, wait, there was the threat to murder me again. I forgot about that. No hard feelings?"

The gnome stood regarding Hyanuus for a long moment. "Of course not!" Seeroc gave a very Brighteyes brittle smile. "Certainly removing..." Seeroc waved his hand dismissively at Farel's body. "was a good step. I think just letting your friends carry on with what they are doing should be satisfactory. Hmm, I did so like your friend, despite his believes. I do so hope we can be friends now things have calmed down. I hope we can all be friends soon."

Seeroc stood slowly rocking backwards and forwards, a strange picture of inscuitable happiness. He seemed content to place his hands in his pockets, and hum a tuneless tune. His disguised grak-graks did not stop, at any point in his conversation, pointing towards the gnome.

Infact, the grak-graks only stopped pointing at one time. That time was when Ameena started talking. If anyone was looking towards Seeroc, they would have seen his eyebrow raise, and him trying to look around the corner. He then apparently realised his grak-graks were looking along with him, and the two beside him went back to facing him and pointing. The one furtherest away still tried to look to see Ameena, although only the real Haynuus - not his look alike - could do that for now.

Still, apparently despite the buzzing of the teleporter and Ameena being roudn the corner and quiet, the gnome had heard her. "Indeed!" said Seeroc when Haynuus spoke to him again, "I heard quite clearly. So, Ameena does exist? And eats mages....I see, I see. I did not think the pain rats here had any real spark to them. Interesting, quite, quite interesting! Facinating, even! And alas, poor Fex then. I'm sure he deserved his end." This last the gnome seemed to say to himself, his head bowed.


Seeroc then lifted his head to speak to Haynuus again, only to find the half orc gone. The gnome sighed in exasperation. "I - WAS - SAYING -" started Seeroc, however then a set of explosions distrupted his speech.

Aurek, looking to Westian, felt a warm glow and a ringing in his ear. Falkor, still concentrating on the altar, felt a strange surge. There was a set of explosions just as when Seeroc had been placed on the altar. Westian's torn body, with a series of spasms that seemed to see him become less and less ravaged, was restored. And then, with one final explosion, Westian's body was whole, and more importantly WEstian's eyes flew open.


OB, welcome back to the main thread! Did you miss it? AS long as at least two of you attempted things with good ideas or good rolls or both, it should have worked out well. Whether there was more going on than to have guaranteed an even betetr result remains to be seen...


"IF YOU HAVE QUITE FINISHED," said Seeroc even as the shocked group possibly ignored him, "I WAS SAYING 'I KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR AMEENA FRIEND!' "


Dun dun du-

Actually, will that one even land given Westian's back? Who knows. It's coming up for the weekend, so would I want to drop a bombshell on you guys? Who knows.

But hey! After about two and a half, or three months, the gang's all together again!

Maybe.

[Ameena]

As Haynuus calls loudly across to the gnome mage regarding the murafu's supposed ability to "eat mages", said murafu looks slightly confused but says nothing. After Falkor tells her to basically "sit down and shut up", she hunches down further, scooting back a bit until she's up against the door. Her weight is mainly on her hindquarters, but she rests her forepaws on the ground in front of her, keeping them in close to her and to each other. Then she just sits there, eyes aimlessly wandering over her paws and the ground in front of her. Her ears and whiskers are drooping - one could assume she looks both exhausted and unhappy. She no longer appears to be paying attention to whatever's going on around her.

[ian_scho]

"You did it Ameena!" shout's the half-orc completely ignoring the two others who, in Haynuus' mind, were 'pondering' instead of actually doing anything. "Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!" He glanced over and noted that she looked a little tired from all of the mental exertion, with her ears pointing downwards and her body hunkering down near the floor.

"Only one more to go!" He raced around and pulled a surprised cleric off the table "Come on fella, don't hang around" and threw the next corpse onto the table. Some of the paper flew to the floor, leaving a slight smokey trail behind them. After dropping the knight on top, he returned to his button guarding position.

He really should ask Brighteyes what's the matter with Ameena.... And the rest of them to be honest.

[money]

The flash of light and re-emergence of Westian was a relief, there was more work to do, but while Westian was coming back to life and pulling himself round to the situation Falkor looked at the frustrated mage,

"Ok, ok, settle down. A man who has to use an alias, rather than introduce himself correctly creates suspition. An all powerfull mage is quite happy to sit back and watch everyone be threatend by Stone monsters and spirits also brings his morality into question. I indeed eluded to decieving the group, but whilst I planned with you I informed others of my actions, I would not betray my friends."

Falkor sighed, he was dissapointed now he had a few minutes to think...

"But you are right, we didn't trust you and perhaps were a little quick to react. But given your initial deception, your decision to trap our friends behind the haze, rather than freely introduce yourself beforehand, and don't forget - we were trying to keep a helpless Gnome out of harms way when "man handling" you, had you introduced yourself as a powerfull Mage we surely we have left you to your own devices."

Falkor motioned towards Westian, "Our friend here, for all his faults, is a loyal priest. He has made mistakes, and his choice to exagerate and bluff his way through situations makes him no different to you in that respect, perhaps this experiance will teach him a lesson in honesty."

"Now lets talk... Firstly, How can we help Ameena, can you explain everything that has happened to her and why she is in such a state. Secondly, why did you torture the Scorpian - he has it in for you or your creatures... Lets start with them two and see where we go"

[ian_scho]

"Yeah." agreeing Haynuus to what Falkor had said to the gnome... But didn't understand a word of what was said.

The last comment did sit with the half-orc, however. For the first time he asked the Murafu about her state. "...You okay?.."

[oh_brother]

Westian sat up with a gasp, his eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. He looked around the room quickly, as if he had just woken from a dream and did not recognise his surroundings. The strange situation of Seeroc and his pets locked away did not even seem to register.

He was vigorously helped down from the altar by Haynuus, who then threw Farel's body on top. This seemed to jog something in the cleric's memory, and he shouted out "Ardur! Ardur, come here! Quickly! Come to Sir Farel's body, and call out! He can hear you! Come over here and call him back!"

[ian_scho]

Westian.... Was back!

[Ameena]

The hunched murafu twitches an ear in Ardur's direction and she slowly raises her head a little, though doesn't look all the way up to his face - apparently this is too much effort for her, or perhaps she's just being lazy.
"I'm just...tired." she says quietly, apparently in response to something Ardur said to her. "I'd been hoping that...that us all getting together again would be...happier, somehow. I'm still not used to spending so much time around these other species - they...you...think differently, have different priorities. It's...difficult for me to get used to, despite everything we've all been through together."
She lowers her head again and returns to staring downwards and nothing in particular. She says nothing more, and is apparently oblivious to what's going on around her.

[Lord_BoNes]

"WESTIAN!" yelled Aurek to his now risen comrade, "Glad to have you back! I'm sorry for my current lack of explaination, but I need to work on Farel." he said, helping Westian down from the altar as Haynuus tried to throw him on the floor (this is just for RP sake)

Aurek then went back to work. "Lord Larethian, you have assisted us by giving us one of our fallen back. But, I besiege you further to allow Farel's soul to pass back into his body." (pray 1d20 = 10... Not liking a 10, but it might help)

[beowuuf]

Ameena looks thoroughly miserable. The nervous Ardur seemes to pick up on this, moving across from the other side of the door to whisper something hesitantly to the murafu. Although Hyanuus was lost in his hustling and bustling, he still also took time from throwing around Farel's body to ask after her too.

Seeroc seemed to pick up on this after the spectacle of Westian's return, apparently only listening with half an ear to Falkor's speech. Though one part - mentioning the stone monster - seems to draw his attention back. He seems to smile widely, and nods subtly to Falkor.

Seeroc does not seem to take much of the rest of it serious seriously, chuckling at many parts apparently at random. "Make no mistake, I am glad the ...priest...is well! I don't judge too harshly, unlike others. I value him in a way apparently others do not!" Seeroc grins, rocking back and forth on his toes a little. The scorpion seems to be angered by the dicussion, and clicks and makes a snarling noise. Falkor realises he would have to concentrate to understand it, although the tone seems obvious.

Still, it just took a look and a smile from Seeroc for the scorpion to back off a step. Seeroc then caught the questions. "Perhaps I should answer the questions in reverse. For the second, I have no idea what you mean. I do not torture anything. Why should I take pleasure in anything's misery? I had not even thought it a sentient creature until you began to 'speak' to it. Truly facinating." Seeroc gave a small wave to the scorpion, but if anything the thing backed off even more. "It wandered into my domain, and I had such uses for it. Given how you freed it then cruely drove it to attack my little ones despite its injuries, I am sure even you could understand using lesser creatures, especially those of Chaos."

lol, you might find Seeroc has a little bit of a lack of solidarity ever since Falkor blew him up, despite what he may claim to feel!

"Hmm, as to the first, a very facinating case. I have seen this, once in a while. It would appear your 'friend' Ameena is a seer. No wonder you lied about her prescence, I am sure her abilities are most useful to you too. However, your rebuke to her is probably the most valid help you could give her - shutting up. You see, the future is not a fixed point, the future is a river flowing before us yet downstream. We do anything and the effects are seen right away. It's no wonder she sounds so poorly, I suspect she has not learned the most valuable tool in the seer's arsenal. Do you ever wonder why seers and prophets always speak in riddles, or leave their speech of the future on scrolls for generations? It's to ensure that the moment they speak their truth, the truth does not bend and break. I imagine the headaches and confusion must be almost unbearable. Your friend really needs to take a leaf from your book and learn to lie. Or at the very least heed your advise to stop speaking. I would never usually advocate lying - it's always so...inconvenient.... however I'm sure the truth very much hurts in this case."

Seeroc tries to lean as far into the teleporter as possible, angling himself to yell around the corner. The two grak-graks that had been pointing towards him finally stopped, and instead milled around with their fake faces, apparently bored.

"Hello Ameena! A pleasure to meet you, I am sure! Although I am sure you might already feel you know me? Certainly, I can think of no other way you would know my real name, and know my dealings so well!"

Seeroc turns back to Falkor, shruging but smiling good-naturedly.


Meanwhile, Westian had perhaps ignored part of the exchange, knowing something about their friend Farel and his condition that the others did not. Of course, while the VI altar had broguht Westian back to life, it had not brought him back to full health. He did not feel he was lacking anym vitality he possessed before, but he still had many of the marks that showed the work of the grak-grak. Ardur seemed surprised and confused at being addressed, and perhaps a little horrified at the state of the addresser. When he finally focused on the words though, his eyes widened. "Body?" he asked in a quiet voice, although the shape of his mouth was obvious enough. His eyes widened further, if it was possible, and he suddenly ran across the room.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he said in concern, rushing to the side of the altar. "I'm sorry! Come back! Please! Sir Farel, I'm sorry! Come back! Don't leave me!"

Up close to Westian and Aurek the youth was not all that young, but he had tears in his eyes and he was shaking as he rocked the body of the knight.

Aurek settled down to once again petitioning the aid of the High Lords in ressurecting the fallen knight, an odd measured counterpoint to Ardur's cries.


Hmm...I think I will be nice and not leave you guys with any sort of mind blowing cliffhangers. If you are about over the weekend, we can do another update. So Ameena has some reacting to do (or just lying down crying), Falkor has some reactions and further questions, and Westian has A Plan which I'm sure Aurek is already a part of!


Unnoticed at the end of the room, Haynuus's double - all alone - turned around, and then took a step backwards. Its face shifted. It took another step backwards.


Ok, maybe just one little odd note for a cliffhanger then. Have a good weekend!

[Ameena]

As Ardur rushes over to the altar in response to Westian's request, the lone murafu-creature by the door responds to Soorec's words - as he calls her name, she looks up. Once he's done speaking, she slowly eases her weight forward so that she's properly standing on all-fours, then shuffles along the wall until just her nose is protruding around the corner - even from here, the gnome probably can't see her.
"I don't know what you mean." she replies, calling out in a somewhat tired voice. "Your real name...you mean that you're actually called Soorec while other people, like those soldiers, seem to call you Seeroc? But...we found that out a long time ago."
The she pauses, apparently thinking, before continuing to speak.
"You make it sound as though we've never met before." she says. Another brief pause. "Oh...well, maybe we haven't. I suppose you would remember, yes?"

[ian_scho]

Haynuus listened to the gnome from behind the wall, by the button. He could almost like him for the way he appeared to forgive others and accept easily the situation the way it is... However, they were still in great danger. He exhaled for a moment, and moved around to the shelf (on the right) where the gnome had indicated had held the 'nice' potions. He quickly tied the neck of the two 'evil' one's together in his backpack and searched the shelf for any nice blue ones that emitted a hue of healing or sense of well being (1d20=10). The half-orc had assumed that his little furry friend could do with a 'pick-me-up'. A pitty that there was no real ale around, though - that always worked with his friends.

[money]

Falkor was getting frustrated, the Gnome seemed to pay little attention to his words, still - it didn't matter, there were more pressing matters to deal with. "So, you say she can see the future? She has never mentioned this before and seems only now confused." He turned to Ammena, "Can you recall us meeting in the small room, can you recall the orcs and the mummy? How about the giant wasp?" This was of course a slightly trick question, and being that Ameena was confused she might well remember everything or nothing, but if she picked out the wasp it was just possible she was indeed who she said she was...(Bluff 1d20=1) .

It was at this point that Falkor suddenly jolted, as if being moved like a marionette, he had almost no control and was suddenly flushed with emotions...He wanted to cry, laugh, smile, forwn, pretty much anything, but it was not happening. Then another sense, one of life - perhaps this was from Westian, perhaps actual life was flowing through the room, Falkor had never experianced such emotion and yet as wonderful as it was he was unable to harness it. Just as it was coming to an end, he closed his eyes and two words "Riley James" came into focus, as clear as reading a headline on a paper.

Smash, the magic was broken... Falkor turned quickly to see Haynuus rummaging through all manor of things in the corner. All of his senses returned to normal and although he now felt in control of this body one strange feeling remained, he felt much lighter (about 8.1lb's lighter to be precise)... things... were definitely not what they seemed..

[oh_brother]

Westian accepted the welcomes from his comrades and looked around. It only then really registered with him that Ameena was there. He hoped that she had returned while he was dead, otherwise Westian had been returned to a parallel universe. Leaving such metaphysical speculation behind he looked in her direction and said “welcome back”. He resolved to ask about Helm later, but right now he had more urgent matters. He was glad to see Ardur making an effort at Farel’s body. Aurek had started praying at the altar. Rather than start a prayer of his own, Westian simply joined in and chanted in the background while the paladin spoke.

OOC: d20 roll was 7

[Ameena]

OOC - Out of curiosity, did you mean to say "trolls" instead of "orcs", or was Falkor deliberately using the wrong word?

BIC - The murafu puts her head to one side as Falkor speaks to her. She gives him a slightly confused look at first, but then seems to focus on his questions and appears to be trying to remember something.
"Small room?" she asks. "Well, I expect we went through many of those. Umm...those other things you mentioned...yes, I think I remember those too. Giant wosp...hmm, wasn't that some kind of large, buzzing thing? I can remember...hmm...something to do with buzzing, anyway, and something sharp. That's...that's about all I can remember."
She pauses a moment, then goes on.
"I think it would be best for us all to put our thoughts together and see what we all remember, if the rest of you haven't done that already since you got back together. But...maybe we should do that later..."
She gestures with her head and gives some kind of facial expression, indicating off to her left - immediately beside her, on that side, is the wall, but behind it, of course, is the containment area currently occupied by the gnome and the two grak-graks.

[beowuuf]

Aurek's petitions and Ardur's cries seem to generate some harmonics in the room, especially when Westian adds his voice in rote chanting. Again, the table hums, and sudden'y there is a stream of flashing lights and explosions, leading on a final explosion. Farel's body jerks, and his eyes shoot open, his mouth wide taking in his first gasp of air in the last few minutes.

"Ardur! Ardur!" yells Farel, sitting bolt upright and looking around desperately. "Thank goodness, you're-what?"

Farel has a moment of confusion as Ardur backs away a step. It takes Farel a moment to realise that while he has been ressurected, he - like Westian - still possesses many of the wounds inflicted.

"Ardur, it's ok, just scractes, lad," says Farel, although he winces painfully as he tries to get down. "Your health is the main thing! How are you?" Farel kneels, checking out the burnt clothing of the squire.

"I ran. I didn't know what to do." Ardur sounds sullen and tired, and the young man is obviously shaking.

"There is no shame in that, there are other types of courage. You came back, that is the important thing." Farel tries to reassure his squire, but his eyes then fly wide as he apparently recalls something,. His hand goes to his chest, and he stands quickly looking around. He then shakes his head. "I...must have fallen unconscious. Such strange dreams..." he murmers to himself.

He spots Seeroc behind the haze, and the others standing around. "I see victory is ours. I am sorry for my weakness," the knight says. He then spots Ameena standing at the corner of the room. "Ameena?" Farel seems shocked. "How long was I unconscious. Where is Helm?"


Everyone's attention was, perhaps, momentarily directed to the murafu and her strange movements. While Falkor's comment had been a little obvious to test the murafu, her answer did not seem to acknowledge the false note in the question in the way Falkor might have hoped.

Aurek perhaps spotted that the murafu seemed nervous or reluctant to speak, but her odd head movements and positioning aroudn the corner from Seeroc seemed to indicate that her nervousness might come from the gnome, not the party. Still, he could not tell for sure if she were tellign the truth, she seemed too bewildered and guarded in her answers to determine if this was truly the murafu that they had left behind. Certainyl though, Aurek felt no initial twinges of unease at being in the prescence of anything truly evil.

Haynuus was perhaps the most distracted at the time, paying half a mind to Farel's restoration, and half a mind to Ameena's words. Haynuus's mind was usually not really required for anything important, as his instincts were much sharper. It was hard to tell - in the 'nice' shelf - what anything was. Seeroc obviously knew what things were, or just loved a surprise as much as the next person. All the items on the shelf seemed to be darker of colour than the potions he had grabbed from the other shelf, or the potions Westian had given him.

There seemed to be a few earth brown ones, a few sludge-like green ones, and anything blue Haynuus could find looked liek the blue-green of the ocean. Combined with the bits floating in. Nothing screamed 'healing', or perhaps everything screamed 'healing', since the worse something looked and tasted usually the better it was supposed to be for you.

Seeroc seemd to have been looking around at the antics of the party, his eyebrow arched and a grin. He, perhaps, had spotted Falkor's very obvious bluff regarding wasps. He even seemed to lighten up a little, winking ot the halfling. "Yes, I imagine the wasps of Chaos might something that - at some time - have been encountered." He then directed his next comment at Ameena. "Indeed, I am very much certain I would have recalled meeting such a facinating person such as yourself. I am glad to meet you know!"

The conversation was suddenly stopped as the scoprion snarled. Without warning, it started charging in the general direction of the group - Falkor perhaps in the greatest danger, especially as he seemed to be temporarily distracted by a dizzy spell.

Nothing to do with me as a DM by the way, in the interests of full disclosure!

Falkor perhaps had one moment to see the terrible maw and hidden beady eyes of the terrible creature before they exploded into a gout of fire.

"Enough!" yelled a voice loudy beyond the haze of smoke and steaming ichor.

"Now there's a powerful mage," said Seeroc to the started Falkor.

Through the smoke from the south corner a figure dressed in simple grey robes came forward. His face was youthful, although he looked careworn. "Enough," he said quietly, perhaps to himself, rubbing the arm he had just used to discharge a lightning bolt with. He grimaced at the yellow sticky mess of scorpion.

The youthful man looked around the room, taking in each aspect. His eyesbrows raised as he saw Westian and Aurek around the table with the knight and squire, noting the injuries of Westian.

"Soldier, release Seeroc, if you please," said the man, pointing to Westian and then gesturing to where the red button would be. The man then turned to Seeroc. "Soorec," said the man with some odd distast in his tone, "do you have the matter in hand now? There was an....incident...as I'm sure you know." The man looked nervously at the creature behind him in the haze that had taken his form, and at the two standing by Seeroc - or Soorec- in the other area. "Are your....creatures...alright? "

"My little ones are quite well now. I had a little case of death, but I am quite fine now, thank you for your concern. I'm glad you understood the message afterwards."

The mage grimaced again. "Who are your...guests?" he asked with trepidation.

"Oh, just some interesting people I found walking around. I don't think they respect your privacy, oh my no. I am sure you will be happy to leave them to my care."

The mage did not seem at all enthralled by the prospect, but held his words. Instead, he looked around carefully to Haynuus at first, taking in Farel and Ardur next, and then down to the area with Falkor and-

"Vermin!" screamed the figure, his previous tone of voice gone into a haughty and high yell. His soft, careworn features twisted in anger and hate, and he lifted his hand to point towards the focus of his rage. Everyone in the room suddenly felt a chill and constriction in their chest, a sudden'y wash of evil they had previous felt many floor up and several hours before.

Naturally, Falkor might have expected to look behind him and see something other than Ameena. And naturally everyone would have expected another lightning bolt to fly towards the 'murafu'.

However, only as Falkor felt a slight stiffening in his legs - 'they felt cold and heavy as granite' as someone recantly might attest - did the halfling realise the intended target of the epithet and the magic. Looking back to the grey-clad mage, the halfling could see a strange sight. The mage seemed genuinely surprised , and seemed to be trying to stop himself from focusing his will. However, the human mage seemed as frozen on the spot as Falkor was.

Surprise!

For anyone who needs confirmation (Westian should know right away), this is Theron. Falkor might be pleased to know that feeling himself slowly turn to stone will indeed help him use the wand that can turn people to stone. Sadly, being turned to stone by an archmaster wizard has the downside of requiring a fortitide save so high that you have no mechanical way to shrug it off right now. Luckily, so far your legs are just refusing to move, not actually turned to stone. The process is unpleasantly slow enough that people have some time to help you - and Falkor should know that breaking the cycle of the magic (distractign the caster enough or removing them from the area) would stop the effect. If he catches it in time.

Anyway, there's a specific reason Theron just called Falkor vermin (Not just being a total evil person for the Ameena mis-direct) and I shall go PM a reminder to money right now incase he's forgotten.

Otherwise, it seems you guiys have an archmaster - well, technically archmaster of all the arts - trying to turn your mage into a decoration. Luckily, he doens't seem to really want to do it.

Anyway, so back to you guys. What do you do? Personally, I'd leave the halfling to his fate and ask all your important plot questions now, but that's just me

[ian_scho]

Haynuus was just a bit aggravated. There he was, nose resting on a shelf of potion bottles doing some deep sniffing over them, when some wizardy fella came along and exploded what could have been the biggest scorpion thermidor feast that there ever was. When next came a wave of pure evil which instilled sheer terror into him what he wanted to do was hop over the table and charge the new guy, who he didn't know who he was, into the haze with the rest of the wierdoes.

Instead, he waited for someone else to tell him what to do. "Ehh Westian?..."

Haynuus grabbed a couple of random bottles (three brown one's sound divine) and moved around the table to have a direct line between him and the new dude who looked like he needed a jolly good slapping with his sword... Whatever the cleric told him to do really. What was most disconcerting, however, was the creaking noise the halfling was emitting.

[oh_brother]

"Theron! Theron wait!" Westian eyed the mage, hoping to see a return to a calmer exterior and softer voice. Essentially hoping that he could talk to Theron, and not Gholst.

OOC: The following will only take place if Westian sees some change in the figure's demeanour, back to Theron!

Westian's visor was up, but he removed his helmet anyway to show his face. "We meet briefly once before, I was a junior member of a delegation from the Church of Larethian. I came back to find one of my brethren, a Brother Deephold. But I encountered something else while I wandered these halls. I saw your sister. A spirit, still attached to this plane." Westian proceeded to give a brief description of the girl. "She had a message for you, about what happened when you were children. Let us all stay calm and discuss this."

[money]

Falkor cried out in pain "Why, why are you doing this.... Why are you working for Gholst?" He threw his backpack over his shoulder and rummaged around, pulling out the cloak.. Perhaps this would help in the event of his body and soul parting. He had recalled more since his last check of the cloack and the magic had started to become clearer in his mind.. perhaps understanding it could help him activate it in time... He started to examine it but both the pain and commotion around him made it almost imposible to focus for any length of time(1d20=3)... "Seeroc - please, help me... please"

[ian_scho]

Haynuus was glad that he didn't charge in with his sword this time. What with the fact that the cleric seemed to know what was going on, the half-orc would make sure his newly acquired potions were comfortable in his backpack and waited for the conversationy part of his life to hurry up and finish. The halfling, however, needed some immediate help.

Theron... He'd heard the name before. But then he also knew the SAR rune and didn't know why. And that spirit was his... Sister? Cooh.

[Ameena]

Throughout this new confrontation, the murafu has been sitting in her same position, beside the wall around the corner from Soorec, where he can't see her. She seems confused once more, maybe even afraid. Certainly nervous. And, again, seemingly trying to remember things. Or maybe that's just the confusion and apparent cluelessness as to the severity of the situation.
As Theron points at Falkor and starts to initiate the petrification spell, she pauses a moment more, apparently deliberating over something, then suddenly, without any warning, she moves, suddenly darting forward and running over to stop between Falkor (but outside of his reach) and Theron. She raises herself up on to her hind legs and looks at the (human) mage.
"Stop it!" she cries. "That won't help! I mean..."
Here she pauses, something she seems to be doing quite often. She seems a little unsure of herself, as though she isn't entirely certain of what she's saying. She seems to be constantly struggling to remember...things.
"The other mage might find out!" she finally says. "He got really angry, I think. Something happened...he got really very angry, and..."
At this point she sort of trails off, apparently losing her trail of thought and unable to pick it up again. But she doesn't move from her position, steadfastly (if rather nervously and confusedly) standing between Theron and his target.

[ian_scho]

Haynuus was impressed. The diminutive form of the Murafu commanded the attention of all when she spoke out. What was going on, he had no idea... And it didn't seem exactly too clear to Ameena either. If she was a seer, she was one the only one he knew that would claim not to know exactly what was going, like the rest of them to be honest. For that alone, she deserved respect.

[beowuuf]

Theron was temporarily confused by Westian's shouts. "Who are you?" he demanded, and it was unclear which voice he was using. As Westian tried to explain, Theron looked shocked. "How did you infiltrate Gholst's army?" he asked in a calm if surprised voice, aiming the shout beyond the advancing half-orc. However, then his face twisted and he turned to Aurek. "Seize the imposter!" he barked with a more commanding tone.


Since LB hasn't posted, but I'm assuming he wouldn't have grabbed Westian and pretended to be a shocked soldier, then I can take a chance with this one.


However, as Aurek did not immediately react with shock, nor go for Westian, Theron - or at least Gholst - seemed to realise that something was wrong.

"They are both priests, I'm sure they murdered a few soldiers," said Soorec in reply. "Probably whilst piously praising their god," he added happily, shrugging.

Westian continued his speech, and Theron's eyes were wide with strange emotions as Westian mentioned his sister. However, the surprise turned to anger as Westian spoke of a message.

"No!" said Theron, managing to redirect his own attack against Westian. The lightning bolt was both big and powerful, blowing a small chunk from the altar behind him. Farel didn't hesitate to push Ardur behind him, unsure how else to react.

Ameena had already started moving as the lightning bolt had been fired. Whether she noticed it and decided to defend her friends anyway, or was too confused to appreciate the fireworks happening above her head, she moved forward to stand firm. While her words did not stop Falkor from still feeling the coldness in his legs and the strange numb pain there, at least it otherwise focused the human mage fully on the murafu. "Other mage?" he said in confusion. Theron looked to Ameena, then Falkor, as if an answer might materialise.

"Fex?" asked Soorec behind them, apparently caught up in the narrative.


Falkor's cries then punctuated the chaos. Ameena was close enough to see Theron's hand spasming "We'll leave, I'll let Soorec deal with the priests. The mage does not have long left to live. We'll leave," he said quietly to himself.

There was a strange moment as the mage simply disappeared. It might have taken a moment for all those gathered to realise why the disappearance registered so. The lightof the teleporter hazes had disappeared again.

Sir Farel grinned at himself, and gave a mock bow to his swaying double.

"We have company," said the real Sir Farel loudly to the rest, though they surely did not need confirmation that a new 'little one' of Soorec's had managed to sneak into the room.

"That is better," said Soorec, happy at the dropping of the hazes. He looked around to were Theron had been. "Although a most strange reaction. Who are you people - I do not think I have seen...Theron...so angry and so confused. You certainly are a bewildering collection of people. Perhaps we should talk."

Falkor, perhaps, could be forgiven for not immediately reacting to the gnome mage and the two grak-graks beside him being freed. The first thing to distract him was the fact that the cold feeling in his legs slowly fading. Despite Therons' words, Falkor knew the spell was broken.

However, the second and more important thing were the two words still echoing in his head. They had come in Theron's own voice, directly to his mind. Theron, in his calm voice, had said Invoke 'Librasulus'.


Well, you guys certainly know how to throw some confusing things into a situation. Of course, it probably helps when I've populated the dungeon with some pretty conflicted and confusing characters too. Still, lookit at how Ameena bravely dived in to help you guys. Surely that's your murafu. Umm, except for the fact she seems to be insane. Other than that, I'm sure it's all good. Right...?!

Join me in the OOC thread where we try to unmuddle some muddle, and see where things can go now