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The other grak-grak, currently a Trolin, did not seem inclined to share a plan of action with the group. Instead, it seemed to be focused on the actions of the Trolin below.

The blue skinned creature looked away for a moment, back to where it must have come. It also did something with its wrist, so a device there. Still the prone grak-grak below nor the Trolin grak-grak above did nothing. The real Trolin then picked its companion's club from the floor, and waved it in defiance while firing something into the prone grak-grak.

The creature on the ground below twitches and rolled over with a start. Before the Trolin could even react, it's twin leap away from the party towards the hard ground.

The Trolin's eyes went wide, and it turned its back, running wildly the way it came. As if somehow the sight of the proximity were the thigns that would kill it. One sickening, echoing crunch later, the origins of which Ameena probably turned away from, there were no upright creatures below.

Before the party could get too comfortable, however, the original grak-grak had already sprang to its feet. With a flick of its wrist it sliced at the skin of its fellow, and the second creature stirred again and leapt back to life. The two guides were now down below, and did not seem to care about their charges. They stalked forwards eagerly, and in the distance more Trolin snarls could be heard.


Hope you guys are paying attention, this little episode should have been one of the worst and best thigns you've seen about the grak-graks. There is a way to stop them...and they also, at the moment, have a very powerful means of stopping you in a worse way. Nasty little buggers, aren't they?


While Ameena made her astute observations, and yet had some of the hopes shatters, her gift to Westian distracted him. There was a dizziness, and waves of recollection washed over him. Bro, the rune of companionship, togetherness, and binding. It was one of the most basic building blocks of the priest's abilities. And yet, he had forgotten it all this time until confronted with it. How could such a thing be possible?

All Westian's lessons with healing magics - magics that focused on channelling mana directly from person to person so that they might be temporarily invigorated - made sense now that the missing building block had been placed. And yet, even thiough he knew the building blocks, the more in depths lessons on potions still eluded him. He had taken them, hadn't he? Yes, he recalled them clearly, but somehow, ever instance of their use had - for now - been carefully erased from his mind.

With the disappearance of the grak-graks, the party seemed alone. They certainly had rope, stakes and hammers to attempt a decent. Should they try it to catch up with their guides?

The other alternative, the party seemed agreed, was to carry on with this ledge. It narrowed a little, and there was the minor cascade relatively closeby, but it did seem both the shorter route to the waterfall, and also the most likely route to lead the party back to the normal dungeon.


Heh, so there you go, your guides have gone running off for goodness knows what slaughter. Were you supposed to follwo them, or were they distracted? Sounds liek you've narrowed your options in your heads to two things - follow, or make your own way to the left. Can i suggest you guys roll a d20 roll either way, and perhaps give some optional actions in the OOC depending on the party''s decision?

I will be leaving late afternoon tomorrow, so I should be able to update one last time. Hopefully I can leave you with map and puzzles as promised!

Once Westian has taken the metal object from her, Ameena returns her attention to the actions of the nearby grak-grak and the remaining troll-creature. The latter fires something at the motionless grak-grak lying on the ground, and it suddenly jerks as though coming back to life. Then the other grak-grak uses the same technique as its fellow in order to dispose of the other troll-creature. Ameena flinches slightly and glances away just before the moment of impact, but looks back in time to see the first grak-grak apparently attacking the other one.
"Did you see that?" she asks excitedly, but in a quiet voice that won't carry down to the undead creatures, assuming they can hear and understand such words. She moves forward, gesturing excitedly as she looks between Haynuus, Westian, and the grak-graks.
"I think they died!" she continues. "I mean, that one wasn't moving, then the troll-creature fired something at it and it woke up. Then when the other one looked like it was dead, that first one attacked it and it woke up too! So maybe if one of them is...well, if it's in the shape of something and it dies, then the thing it's in the shape of dies too, but then the grak-grak stays dead as well, until something hurts it. Umm...at least, that's how it looks. I...don't know whether I really want to test it out too much. But...it's something to be thinking about, isn't it?"

Haynuus tried to decipher what Ameena was saying. It wasn't only the fact that the common tongue was not his mother tongue, or that Ameena talked at a velocity at nearly twice of that he was used to, it was just that she was so squeaky and effervescent. His mind replayed the events that had occurred. She may have been right. They kill their mirror images and yet spring back to life after receiving damage. It didn't tell them the party as to how to defeat them, though.

"I'm not sure died is the correct word, but you are right that we should keep that fact in mind."

"We should move along this ledge, then. Would you like to go first again, Ameena? You are going to be the best one to sniff out trouble underfoot."

Ameena is flitting her eyes around the cavern, looking at the walls, the ledges, the water, and the stalking grak-graks. She looks up and around at Haynuus, however, when he suggests she go first.
"I think that might be a good idea." she agrees. "Which way should we go, though?"
She looks up at Westian, noticing he seems somewhat...distracted.
"Westian?" she asks, somewhat hesitantly. "Are you alright? Did that thing I just gave you do something to you?"
She wonders whether she should try to take the strange pendant back - what if it's doing something bad to her friend? But she smelt no magic on it, or any kind of poison...

At the mention of his name Westian snaps out of his daze. "Sorry? Oh, umm, no, it is fine...it just reminded me of something. Well done for finding it, it could be important."

With that he re-focused on the task at hand. Surely the grak-graks had just been distracted, and did not expect the group to follow? If they intended to go to that level they would have gone by a more conventional route, not simply jumping off a cliff. Soorec did not even know that the group had rope or spikes, and so could not have expected them to go down safely without stairs.

"So have we decided to go left then? I do not think we were supposed to go down that cliff, and I for one certainly do not want to try to climb down. We don't know where we are going, but left seems the more likely route, no? If we are ready lets go!"

Ameena is somewhat relieved that Westian seems to be alright - maybe the pendant just returned to him some memories of something...priesty...he used to do before coming to the dungeon. She is about to ask him for further details, but decides against it when she remembers the grak-graks.
"Yes...I think we probably shouldn't get too close to those striped stinging insects - I seem to remember that they can move quite fast. So we're going this way, then? Good."
With these words, Ameena drops down to all-fours and starts to move left, along the ledge, sniffing as she goes and stepping carefully in case there happen to be any loose rocks. She also keeps alert for any sight and sound of anything unusual, as well as the progress of the grak-graks down below as she, Haynuus, and Westian pass by above them. She hopes she can attune herself quickly to the natural sound and sight of the water around and below her, so that she'll more quickly spot anything unusual. It's not as if she's never been in a place like this, though - she remember plenty of caves and waterfalls she's encountered in the past, long before coming to this place. True, none of them had blue-coloured troll-creatures, giant striped stinging insects, and bad-smelling undead creatures roaming around, but still...at least something about this place reminds her of the familiar.

OOC - One of those general, all-purpose Perception checks for checking out the area as described in my narrative above...22 (12+10).

Haynuus followed not far behind Ameena. He was just a little concerned that a light murafu wouldn't cause a rock fall but an overgrown half-orc might. Being as careful as he could (1d20=19), he advanced with a nod to Westian and the darkly brooding paladin. He felt that he could navigate his route with relative ease without the burden of a lot of armour or a heavy back pack. Indeed, the contents of his pack cheered him up no end, and only a trolin or two could knock him out of his happy thoughts at the moment.

Westian followed behind the other two. Once they reached the wet rock beside the small cascade he initially considered removing his boots for extra grip. Still, he did not want to slow the others down with the grak-graks, trollins and wasps so close behind them, so he simply took a deep breath and inched his way across, clinging onto the wall for dear life.

Once beyond that point his confidence began to increase, and he scanned the walls ahead of him for any exits.

OOC: Perception was 9 + 4 = 13.

Since its been quite a long time since we've had to deal with that, I'll just point out that a sharp blow with a weapon wakes up anyone unconscious. Not that undead should be able to fall asleep...

Ameena led the way, although didn't focus on anything specifically, spending time aclimbatising and then taking in the whole area. The waterfall's roar was only getting louder, with the splash of the oncoming cascade not helping matters. The water around, at least, smelt fresh. And there was - more and more- the whiff of real plant life instead of the proto-screamers.

There was the general impression of things moving around without anything being obvious. Occasional scents of insects or things Ameena couldn't quite work out were gone too soon. LIttle black patches would seem to move above and below the party's level on the opposing side. The scent of Trolin was still slightly in the air. More importantly, the whole group could hear the occasional carried sound of a snarl.

And then, at one point, there was an inhuman screeching from the direction of the departed grak-graks. The noise could, in no way, be flavoured as a pained noise. It was too easy to feel the noise resonated with unholy joy.

Haynuus focused all his attentions on his fotting, especially as the cascade grew closer and closer. The rough rocks they had been walking on began to get smoother where the water had been constantly carressing them. It did not help that the shallow ledge was being worn away by water, and also at an uphill inclie. Still, the orc was strong, and it was only the odd looseness of his breastplate that caused any real distractions. The thing seemed to like to get caught on outcrops of rock when he was getting his footing.

Still, the half-orc managed to walk onwards alright.

Meanwhile, Westian had every right to be more concerned. While he was by no means clumsy - his physical training in the order had even meant he had a modicum of strength and muscles to deal with the occasional climb or jump - nevertheless the black armour he and Aurek had taken upon themselves to wear was simply too restrictive to be anything but a concern here. The joints all locked, and the weight of the suit seemed designed to ensure his fall would be swiftt, instead of providing any traction. Westian slowed his movements down, and hugged the corner as much as possible. Although the general atmosphere of the cavern was cool, and although the cold water splashed his armour and face, Westian found he was sweating.

Well, you didn't roll an acrobatics check, sao I'll assume you do a take 10. I will count the perception check as an aid to your navigation aswell as maintaining awareness for exits (because I am nice). Still, with no dexterity, and a -6 armour check penalty... yeah, bad things are now about to happen... I admire your optimism that you'd see the other side without any issue...

Suddenly at a particularly narrow section, Westian found his leg slipping away from him. Luckily he fell forward down the wall instead of backwards, however for some reason an apparently stable third of the ledge just collapsed, and Westian's feet were suddenly left scrambling on what was left. His hands tried to get purchase on roots and nobbly stone alike, while his legs kicked out to stop themselves from sliding off into nothing.

It was, perhaps at this odd moment when the world held its breath and time slowed, that Westian realised something very strange. The water was not striking his helmet from above as all this went on. It was, infact, striking his boots. The cascade was flowing upwards. No wonder the ledge had been worn away from underneath!


And we'll leave it there for now, with Westian dangling on some slippery surfaces. The Balance DCs are here. I set it for DC of 5 for the normal walking across (the 'safe' portion you were staying with I'm guessing would be about 2 - 2 feet wide), boosted to DC12 for the slippery and inclined nature of the area. I would have waived the +2 incline DC for the description of being careful if everything else had been equal, but armour is always going to be an issue. I kinda need to make sure you earn the AC18 with difficulties elsewhere, after all! If I've missed a bonus that means OB would only fail to make DC12 by 4 or less, then I'll update for Westian keeping his footing, and needing to move slowly.

So Westian is tottering on the brink of sliding or falling backwards. Still, he's not going not instantly drop. I'll need a DC15 athletics check to not fall from you, OB. Success means Westian stays upright. Failure means he slips to being hanging onto the edge. Meanwhile, Haynuus and Ameena can scramle to do some standard action to help Westian. Haynuus is right beside Westian, so can do something mundane like a strength check. Ameena is further forward, so would need to do something more unorthadox like jump at him :p

Technicallly Westian has two 'rounds' before pitching downwards, and could luck a check himself (not so much the second round acrobatics check, but perhaps this first round athletic check). So if anyone wants to do somethign that requires a round of set up liek grabbing or removing an item, then go right ahead and risk his poor life! I'll roll aid another checks for Aurek helping the first way he can (either Westian's athletics check, or Haynuus's action being most likely.

Anyway, good luck!

OOC - Heh, somehow, even if she could reach him, I don't think a slightly-smaller-than-a-halfling murafu is gonna be able to do much to help a slipping clanky-in-heavy-plate-armour-and-about-three-times-her-size half-elf .

BIC - Ameena trots carefully along the ledge, navigating on all-fours, naturally. She pauses briefly to pull the hood of her cloak forward as she nears the mini-waterfall, to prevent herself from hopefully getting too wet as she passes beneath it.
With the usual, casual surefootedness of her kind, like their smaller relations, Ameena moves through the water-covered area. She is careful of her footing, of course, and uses her tail for balance. She slows her pace a little, enough that she can take care of each step - despite being small, light, agile, quadrupedal, and possessing a tail to assist balance and four sets of small claws to assist grip, she doesn't want to make a careless mistake and slip into the deep-looking water below. Not that she's afraid of drowning - like rats, murafu are capable swimmers. But it would probably take her some time to climb back up again, and besides, there's something about the water below that she just doesn't like...

OOC - Acrobatics check for passing the wet area. And I really hope this turns out okay, lol...OMFG. You know what I said about rolling a 1...
Where is the crying emoticon? :(:(

Blind fear gripped Westian as his worst fears began to come true. He could not believe what was happening, and began to shout for help. As the ledge gave way under his feet his shouts turned into screams of terror. He could not even manage to form words, it was just the unintelligible cries of a frightened animal.

Somehow the fact that the water was flowing upwards was strange enough to register in his confused mind. The only thing he could think about was using that upward force from the cascade to slow down his descent.

OOC: I don't know if the water is flowing fast enough to have an effect. If I need to do any more rolls let me know!

Haynuus hears the scraping of metal boots on the floor and the falling of rock. It had to be the cleric. Without a thought for himself he unhitched his rucksack and swung it to Westian's direction for him to grab the other end. The precious extra centimeters the straps gave them just might help. He'd murder the cleric if he fell into the abyss with the rucksack and it's precious cargo, however! The half-orc was prepared to perform a semi-crucifix and attempt to hold the cleric in the standing position if he needed to (1d20+4=10).

Westian valiantly struggled, but with only a split second to get his body under control, in such a horrifyingly unfamiliar stuation, his continued fall was inevitable. He painfully knocked the wind from his chest as he actually hit the ledge, and his legs waved in the air. His only coherent thought was to wiggle himself into the water flowing powerfully upwards, while his hands tried to bite down onto the rocky ground.

Instead of rock, one of his hands instead met the strap of Haynuus's backpack. That gave a few precious seconds of resistance. Suddenly a gauntletted hand grabbed Westian's wrist, as the delay allowed Aurek a moment to grab onto his charge. Westian have two helpers, and made a determined effort to pull himself back up, using the push of the water to aid him.

Sadly, it was not enough.

Without warning Westian found his body slipping, and those holding him were pulled forwards. Westian had just a moment to react and grab something before he would slip into the black water below. If, of course, he was lucky enough to land on somethign that soft.


Awww. Haynuus's roll wasn't quite good enough to do anything on its own, but the idea and roll are good enough to give a +2 aid another to Westian's Athletics. Also, I like the water idea, so as mentioned before (I think) that's another +2 Westian gives himself. I figure those combined would give Aurek a chance to try a basic grab too (only an aid another roll, since he's not too mobile either) which he passed, so another +2. So that's 13. So close! We'll see if Ameena can come up with anythign to squeak it through (I'll be nice), but otherwise Westian will need to make a DC15 Acrobatics next go or actually go over. And even if he makes the acrobatics, he'll still be hanging - so you guys will need to figure out a safe or clever way of lifting him up without making him fall.!

I'll let Haynuus's good acrobatic's roll previously ride for this situation, so he's - for the moment - stable enough to aid Westian without further risk. This is how I'll play it for this situation as a whole - once you succees in keepign your balance, you won't need to check again for this encounter at the cascade. Aurek is actually a little borderline with his acrobatics check, so if Westian pitches over then Aurek might be hanging onto the ledge himself!

Anyway, OB, you will keep getting your +2 water bonus for your next check. If Haynuus wants to keep a hold of the pack, then you keep that +2 bonus. Ian, if you want Haynuus to do something new or to actually tug on the pack, you can make a new check, but the gamble will be losing the +2 you are currently granting. Note that Aurek's +2 and current stability is contingent on Westian's rolls, Westian might choose to shrug him loose to save pulling him down And as I said, I'll see if Ameena has any last minute ideas, since the Atherltics check for Westian currently stands on 13. A single +2 for a clever way of helping (backed up by a successful roll) might just save the day. Ish.

Anyway, it''s all very exciting from this side of the game.

OOC - Oh, didn't know I didn't have to make the Acrobatics check. Hehe, glad you're being nice in this game with regards to crit-fails, then - normally rolling a natural 1 is a botch and gives you the worst possible result you could get, as opposed to a natural 20 which does the opposite .
So anyway, what can I do here to help, hmm...

BIC - Ameena stops, hearing the very non-grak-grak screams coming from behind her. She turns around and is somewhat shocked to see Westian dangling off the edge of the precipice.
Without really thinking about it, she darts forward, getting as close to Westian as she can without risking being accidentally stepped on by Haynuus. She puts her head out over the edge and calls out to the flailing half-elf.
"No, no! Don't do that! Don't thrash about! You'll make it worse! Keep still - you need to get your hindpaws to find the rocks. I'll see if I can help you!"
So saying, she looks at the rock wall just below her, attempting to work out whether she can climb down it.* her route decided, she swings herself down, gripping the rock with her forepaws as she traverses the rock toward the nearest of Westian's legs (his right). When she reaches it, she gets to the level of his foot and, with her left forepaw, attempts to guide it into the nearest crevice into which it will fit.


*(OOC) If there is no route and the wall is slick, ignore the rest of the post because she won't be trying this if she doesn't think there's any chance of managing it .

OOC - Rolls for the attempt...Athletics for the climbing down = 15 (1+14, wtf is t with me and 1s today )...umm, what would it be for the guiding-of-the-foot-into-the-gap-whilst-still-hanging-on? Sleight of Hand? Acrobatics? I think I'll just roll another d20 and let you decide...5. Meh. Looks like I am in a mire of crap rolls right now .

Ok, the initial 1 means you can't start to climb, but Ameena should now its within her power to make the climb...on a good day So Westian gets no more help with his Athletics check, and it's on to helping him with his acrobatics... with a roll of 5...

Ameena found the crumbling rock and slick stones made her pause, and she could make no progress in time to help Westian as he scrambled. She only found a reliable place to start her decent once the others had a half-hold of him, and she started moving swiftly just whenhis own footing started slipping.

Unfortunately, the walls were smoother than a cave wall had any right to be, and they were also slick from water that did not fall from above in a parabola, but was sucked upwards by some unknown force.

Ameena just about managed to hang onto the walls beneath Westian, but she did not have the tiem nor purchase to help him further...

Aaaaaww, but it was a good idea too! Cruel dice gods! Cruel DMs not just letting you do that! Anyway, so those bad rolls mean Ameena isn't in a position to help Westian with his rolls For the record, helping Westian as you'd described would have just been part of the athletics/climb check. You can cling to the wall with one hand free once you have gotten into position.

Anyway, so hopefully Westian and Haynuus have better luck. However, if they don't, Ameena is still well placed. In the climbing rules I posted in the OOC thread a person below a falling person can make a touch attack to attempt to try and grab them. Ameena actually has a decent enough strength that, despite her small size, she could at a push have Westian handing from a paw - at least for as long as it took for somethign clever to be done. Or she could at least drop Westian towards some water or somethign soft

So yeah, make me an attack roll and also a climb check roll for next post, just incase Westian does fall. You might be his only hope

Ameena grips the stone, staring for a brief moment at the total bizarreness of upward-falling water. Just as she's wondering how such a thing can be possible, she remembers the existence of magic - of course, anything is possible. Well, almost.
She quickly returns her attention to more pressing matters, however, as one of her friends is still in danger. She continues to move toward Westian in an attempt to carry out her plan, again calling to him so that hopefully he'll hear her voice and won't just blindly kick her in the face and send her plummeting into the water far below.
"I'm down here now, Westian!" she calls. "I'm going to try and get your hindp...I mean, your foot somewhere it can keep a hold of the rock. Well, you know, wedge itself in a crack, or something."
Privately Ameena wonders how these creatures manage without claws, or even their toes free, for gripping. Then again, she reminds herself, they have all those horrible, hard, (mostly) flat, boring surfaces which they seem to like tramping around on all day. Often then complaining that they want to sit down and rest their feet. Well, if they didn't make the ground so hard...
Ameena's chain of thought continues on its rambling course at the back of the mind while the rest of her concentration (that is, most of it) is taken up with attempting to get a good grip on the rock near enough to the half-elf in order to grab him, and then to do so and hopefully not end up performign a quick, involuntary descent into the unpleasant-seeming water far below.

OOC - Sooo, can I do any better with these requested rolls...Attack roll = 23 (15+8...bonus done assuming an unarmed attack - Ameena has "natural weapons" in the shape of her claws so she can use the Wep Finesse thing even though she's not trying to hurt Westy, plus she can choose to make it non-lethal damage anyway since she has Improved Unarmed Strike, though that's all probably irrelevant since all she's trying to do is grab hold of him but if I've still managed to get the bonus wrong there, feel free to point it out and change it ), and Climb roll = 31 (17+14). Phew, looks like I'm out of shitty-roll land for now .

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything, that is, except the force of gravity. Despite the desperate efforts of himself and his friends this looked like it was only going to end one way. That thought brought some relief to the panic, almost as if Westian had seen the worse happening and could accept it. But it could not end it completely - the thought of falling into the water, and the horrible death that would await him, still tormented him.

He tried to pull himself up and to find a foothold, but unsuccessfully. His body inched further down. "Lord Larethian, protect me." He called out those words again and again as he felt himself slipping.


OOC: If Haynuus or, more likely, Aurek are close to falling Westian will let go of them. Especially Aurek, he is in platemail too. Prayer was a 0-level effect.

Haynuus wavered and decided that lifting heavy objects in a cruciform shape is not the most effective way to pick up things. It was then he spied the staff sticking out of the clerics backpack. Yeees, what he needs is leverage. It was only a useless magical artefact anyway and he wasn't actually using it if Haynuus accidentally broke it.

Straining, slipping and sweating the half-orc made a grab with his free hand (1d20+10=22) down to the sticky-out wooden object that he intended to hoist Westian up like a dancing doll on strings (1d20+4=6).

OOC - 1st roll is a grab for a touch attack if we need one? And second is plain old strength.

Westian began falling backwards. Haynuus yanked the strap of his pack once, though not to pull the cleric backwards. No, instead it was to aid Haynuus's own attempt to make a proper grab at Westian.

That part worked perfectly. Haynuus now had a handful of cleric. Of course, the over-reach needed to grasp the half-elf meant he didn't have the same leverage as he had previously with his cross shape. There was a moment of pause as the world tried to pull at both Westian and Haynuus. In that brief pause, Aurek reached out for the half-orc to both steady himself and catch Haynuus.

Westian, apparently selflessly, chose that moment to shrug off his precariously placed rescueres as succumbed to the decent. It stopped the half-orc from falling too, and Haynuus and Aurek steadied themselves, only to watch their charge slip through their fingers and disappear down int othe watery cascade.

Ameena, just above and seeing the sight of the cleric slipping, aimed perfectly to catch the cleric. She might have feared to knock herself from the wall, but he balance and inate murafu talents kept her anchored well. Westian fell close, and with rogue reflexes her hand shot out to grab the first part of Westian that came to her - a foot.

There was, once more, a moment where the world held its breath, and Westian paused in the stream of the water... and then he flipped upside down. It was only as Westian started to move again that Ameena inherently felt that she couldn't take the Westin of Westian. She had only a moment to decide the fat of her friend - should she direct his fall down the cascade so he would fall into the water, or should she push him into the cavern wall, so he would fall onto the firm ground tens of feet below?

In all the excitment, and with the cascade so close, none of the companions had yet heard the odd flapping noise, nore insistant buzzing that was gettign closer to them.


Nice try everyone, just an armoured falling cleric is a hard target to try and keep from falling. Some bad luck in rolls there, and sadly the good rolls seemed to come up at the times when they wouldn't be as effective. I double checked the catching a falling guy rules, and missed that you can only grab up to your heavy load, not a multiple of that. So Ameena can't actually keep a hold of him after all. A nicer DM might have done some rearranging of some of those rolls, especially Haynuus's, but it's level 9 - 11 in DM now, so I'm going to drop Westian on his head and laugh.

Ok, ok, I might just reward him for being the one who ended up being picked on, of course... providing I don't get him killed in the next few days...

Anyway, so I assume Ameena will post last today, so I hope for a final update later to resolve the fall. BAsically, Ameena can choose to let Westian drop towards the cave / cavern floor below - and so he will take falling damage (but much less due to where she has halted his fall), or Ameena can choose to direct Westian towards the water, where he won't take drop damage, but may well drown. Or worse.

Choices, choices. The drop will be about 40 feet, so 4d6 damage if that helps decide. The first 1d6 will be non-lethal thanks to Ameena, and Westian can attempt another acrobatics check (DC 15) to try and avoid some more damage (basically avoid a 1d6 lethal damage).

Also, Haynuus is perhaps better positioned to chuck off his breastplate, grab some items, and go in for the rescue. Or, you know, get ready for potential combat!

Ameena reaches out to try and grab Westian just as he starts to fall. His weight lurches at her, as though the downward force of the world is attempting to wrench her from the wall and pull her down with him, but she manages to keep a firm grip on the rocky surface. Then she has barely half a hearbeat to decide what to do (and murafu heartbeats being generally quite a bit quicker than those of, say, a half-elf, this isn't rally a great deal of time) - she can influence the direction in which he falls, but neither of her apparent choices seem to be too promising.
She can let him drop to the ground below - this will hurt him, she knows. Murafu generally make a point of not causing any kind of harm to come to any creature. Then again, perhaps his armour will absorb some of the impact - she isn't really sure how these things work, her species not generally tending to cover themselves in hunks of metal. She also can't remember whether Westian has any healing potions on hand - then again, maybe that staff can help, somehow - Westian did say it was to do with life, didn't he? Life, growth, trees, something like that. So maybe its magic is that of healing. Then again, if Westian is too badly hurt, he won't be able to use it on himself.
And then there's the other option - the water. Ameena briefly (that is, very briefly) notes that though the water is falling upward, this seems to be having no effect on Westian - he isn't falling upward as well. Normally, were she anywhere else in this kind of situation, she'd drop her friend into the water - even if he can't swim, he'd hopefully be able to not drown in the brief time it would take Ameena herself to drop down after him and help him to the shore. However, there are a couple of things that make her reluctant to follow through with this plan. Firstly, Westian is currently encased in a substantial amount of metal. Though this isn't a substance the Murafu tend to use for anything (or at least, certainly not for wearing), they are aware of its weight - someone wearing a load of it as Westian is doing now probably wouldn't manage to remain on the surface of water for long. And since she has so little information on it right now, Ameena knows it is better to assume that the water is very deep, at least for the purposes of dropping Westian into it. The metal-clothing issue combined with her existing discomfort mainly arising from the fact that a wooden club so obviously didn't float in this liquid means that Ameena has good reason to reject this idea too.
So what to do?
No more time to decide.
Ameena, rather awkwardly, swings Westian, guiding his fall in one direction. As she lets go of him, she calls out to him one more time.
"I'm sorry!"
Then she scrunches her eyes shut, presses her head into the rock face in front of her, and waits for the horrible crunching sound that she knows is likely to follow.

OOC - I hope that last sentence is enough to tell you where she decided to drop him .
I checked Westian's hpin his profile - he has 45. 4d6 damage is only 24 so even if he were to take max damage from the fall (which hopefully he won't), he'd still be on just under half health. Hopefully the landing won't cause all his potion flasks to break or that if they do, someone else has a spare flask (because Ameena doesn't, any more) .

Edit - Btw sorry, OB, for dropping your character off a cliff . Well, he was already going off the cliff, of course, but given the choice between giving him a sudden impact with a hard surface or plopping him, in his plate armour, into water which is probaby both deep and alive/hostile, I think I made the logically-best decision . Oh, apart from the fact it seems like we're all about to be eaten by giant wasps or something .

OOC - Once Westian has erm...landed...I'll make my next post. Then we'll only be spread out over two levels .

Haynuus appreciated Aurek's help and gave him a rather wet nod to his direction. He kind of liked the strong, silent type. He carefully continued and moved out of the moist area of the cascade and looked around him (1d20+2=22) for both Westian's well-being and for a slight buzzing noise he heard when he was within the monotonous drone of falling water earlier. He hoped that he didn't find a broken cleric with an enormous wasp hovering over his head.

Westian tumbled in free fall, with no time to angle his body before he hit the ground. The shock, coupled with the encumbrance of the armour, meant that he hit the ground like a stone.

Acrobatics was 11. Thanks Ameena, I was hoping you would drop me on the ground rather than the water!

OOC - Hehe, well that's good then .

BIC - Ameena cringes as she hears the sound of Westian impacting the hard ground below. Then without further pause she quickly begins to climb down toward him, hoping fervently that he isn't hurt too badly...or worse.

OOC - Climb roll for Ameena's slightly-slower-than-a-half-elf descent to join Westy (in case it's needed) = 28 (14+14) . You can assume that she'll drop the rest of the way to the ground as soon as she considers it safe enough for her to do so, and land on all-fours.

Westian managed to at least not land on his head or break his legs, although he felt sick and dizzy after he crunched into the ground. Perhaps Ameena's aid had cushioned the blow, perhaps the armour had taken the impact, perhaps Westian had simply got lucky, or perhaps Corelon Larethian heard the last words of his faithful servant in prayer and stretched out his hand.

Still, Westian could barely stand for a moment, and his tunnelled vision would swear his legs glowed red with the pain in them, as did his body.

Don't worry, just for flavour, mechanically you have nothing wrong with you that a few moments won't let you shake off, other than the 4 points of non-lethal damage and *cries* only 11 points of lethal damage. In Westian's dizzy state, he might just have some odd thoughts that I will PM to you or put temporarily in the character thread, pertaining to the main mystery...

Ameena quickly made her way down the slick rocks. Luckily, they were jagged and pitted enough to find hand and foot holds in. At around 15 feet, the wall started a sharp curve horizonatally so that there was a miniature cavern that opened up near the bottom. Luckily, Ameena knew she could survive such a fall if she dropped correctly, and so landed perfectly on all fours close to Westian.

Meanwhile, Haynuus looked down then around. While Westian was instantly jumping to his feet, he was definitely moving, and Ameena was already scrambling down. It therefore gave Haynuus the luxury of looking around for the sound of the buzzing. Sure enough, skirting in an out of sight from the right underneath Haynuus was a single giant wasp. It seemed to be making its winding way towards Westian and Ameena.

However, luckily Haynuus also caught movement from across the cave too, and he maaged to make out the shhapes. Out on the water, circling around a tall plant or somehting out that way in the miniature lake, were two more wasps. They had apparently caught sight of (or heard) their fellow buzzing along, and seemed to be moving to investigate too. They were likely to arrive at Ameena and Westian's position a few moments after the other wasp, coming at the two from behind and to the left.


Dun dun dun. While the wasps aren't attacking you lot yet, it's probably safe to say rolling initiative would be a good idea. As would be keeping your movements and actions to roughly the standard combat round's worth

So, just to keep it all straight, Westian and Ameena are on the 'level 11' bottom of the cavern in a wider cavern floor area (I'll put the map up tonight), with a wasp incoming from the right and two more delayed incoming from behind them over the water. Haynuus is still at 'level 10' just beyond the cascade, as is Aurek. Neither are in danger of pitching over the side accidentally.

Westian can move next post, though feel free to play up the fact you've just dropped 30 feet onto probably your shoulder or something

Ameena lands on the lower ledge, near Westian, and immediately goes over to him. She is vastly relieved to see that he's definitely still alive. She sniffs around him biefly, then puts a forepaw on his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry!" she says fervently. "I...couldn't hold on to you - you're so much bigger than I am. I just thought...it might not be a ver good idea to drop you into the water, with your heavy armour and...whatever's in there..."
Meanwhile she starts sniffing around him, wondering where he keeps his potions, or at least an empty flask in order for him to make one.
"Do you have a flask here? Can you make a potion to heal yourself? Can you make yourself better? I wish I could do something, but I'm not..."
She pauses, having caught a sound from somewhere above. Not the sound of water, nor any sound that her friends might be making. She looks upward and freezes still, an instinctive response to seeing a predatory shape in the air.

OOC - Initiative = 10 (7+3). I think her worry over Westian has distracted her somewhat .

Haynuus catches the wasps attempting to perform a pincer movement with their very stingers and shouted down to his fallen comrades below.

"Wasps! Huge ones! Probably not edible either!" He added. "One on the side & two behind you!" He occasionally assayed his enemy as to whether you could eat them afterwards. It was usually better to just turn and run if they weren't comestible as far as he was concerned.

It looked like Westian was ok, and Ameena was one of those who ALWAYS landed on her feet. He looked over to the paladin and decided to do his normal tactics in this situation - as in he didn't know what to do.

"Gahhh!!! Huughh!!! Feeeewk!!!" and waved his arms and sword around menacingly. Either to attract their attention or maybe even to scare one away. He'd re-light a torch next if he thought it would intimidate them, but his falchion was just so convincing at being the best solution to these sort of problems.

OOC - Intimidate check (1d20+3=13), Initiative roll (1d20=6).