Dungeon Master Forum

OOC - I now have a suspicion, after those GM comments about what Ameena's just said, that possibly it's Garax's job to guard Deephold (and possibly Umgold). However, this encounter could go in one of several directions right now, I think...
Umm, don't forget, Ian, that Ameena's only weapon is her teeth and ickle pathetic claws, unless the butterfly or air elemental can somehow be utilised in combat. I get the impression that the little green butterfly widget is just there to look pretty, but who knows...

BIC - Ameena gives a slight flick of her tail, so that it nudges against Haynuus's legs - this is about all she can do to give him some kind of signal. She doesn't want to stir up a fight - it might be that one will be unavoidable, but since she can't remember much about this Garax fellow, she doesn't know that for sure. And she's sure that mentioning either the priest or Soorec will garner some kind of reaction, but she isn't sure whether it could be a good reaction - Garax, she's pretty sure, is on the side of either Soorec, or the priest, or possibly neither. It may be that he's just been ordered to come down here by someone else - maybe that Gholst fellow, whom she recalls is pretty important in the whole scheme of things.
She then remembers the attitude the soldiers seem to have toward Soorec's grak-graks. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Garax shares that attitude, nor that even if he does, that it extends toward Soorec. But maybe he'd be found nearer Soorec's area of the dungeon if he was on the side of the gnome. Unless he's down here, spying, or something.
She decides to attempt to play along the middle line, and see what happens.
"Well, maybe that's not quite right..." she says, after Haynuus's mention of paper. "That Soorec, you see, he seems to like to get people to do what he wants, doesn't he? Well, I mean, so do a lot of people round here, but...he has those undead...you know, the grak-graks. I suppose lots of people do what he wants, because he has those creatures. But he's not here right now, and neither are they. So we don't have to do what he says. I mean, this clearly isn't an area he spends much time in. We tend to like to avoid trouble, you see."
She pauses briefly, and decides to pick up on something else Garax mentioned - she likes it when people give away free information like that without realising it - sometimes it can be useful...
"You know, I'm not sure I find this too amusing myself." she goes on. "I think I agree with you there. I have heard that people can go a bit...strange...if they get hit on the head too many times..."
She glances up at Haynuus, attempting to catch his eye and rather hoping he'll take the hint.
"What sort of a name is Dolo, anyway?" she asks him, then returns her attention to Garax.
"I hope you're not going to just...poke us really hard with something sharp and horrible. I mean, we haven't actually done anything wrong yet, have we? Well, I suppose, if this is your...umm...territory, then maybe we're intruding. Maybe we woke you up or something? Well, anyway, umm...I suppose you want to know what we're really doing here. Well..."
She pauses here. This could be a rather large gamble, but she decides to take it. She looks intently up at Garax after glancing around as though to make sure they're not overheard.
"I think, sometimes, there are things you're not supposed to mention." she says in a confidential tone. "You know...some things you shouldn't even think about, or people find out about them. Sort of...really secret business that you're not supposed to talk about, or else you'll get in trouble with...someone."
She gives a little shudder, which isn't actually put-on, since she's remembering her little escapade in the waterfall room and what Westian said must have caused it. She really, really hopes that attempting to phrase their business in this way will at least convince Garax not to just try and kill them straight away. Even if he's not on the side of the priest, she realises, he might not want to do anything against him...
Her other hope is that Haynuus will play along too, though she knows he's never exactly been known for his subtlty when it comes to attempting to talk your way through a situation...

OOC - Well, hopefully some of that will actually have some kind of non-violent effect. And hopefully Haynuus won't say the wrong thing (if Ameena hasn't already) . I'm presuming some kind of roll will be in order. Although Ameena hasn'tactually outright stated anything that's directly untrue, I'm guessing it would be a Bluff roll, soooo...Bluff = oops. 3 (1+2). Crapcrapcracrapcracrap . I'll roll Diplomacy as well, in case any of what she said falls under that category...15 (17+8). Damn - I bet it's the Bluff roll that's the relevant one. Bugger it - I thought I had some good ideas there but with that roll, I bet Garax just ignores it all and attacks anyway, or something .
Ooh, I will also roll Sense Motive, to see wtf Garax is making of all this (although if he draws some kind of uber-weapon and attempts to use it, I suppose that's plain enough )...16 (6+10).
I hope that even if it goes into combat (Initiative = 6 (3+3) btw ), we can talk him back down again. Somehow.

Ameena would probably have the vague sense that Garax was somehow more important than the priest, and so not very likely to be the one guarding Deephold unless Deephold was very important.

Garax slowly withdraws a complicated set of linked curved blades from his back, a strange shaped device with is like a few interconnected circles with a set of handles on the inside. A vague memory of Haynuus's reminds him he has tried one of those, almost slicing off both eyebrows before putting it back down. It must be one of the other memories, because he knows he has never seensuch a strange weapon before in his life. Certainly to exotic and strange to be used normally, except Garax holds it with ease, and Haynuus gets an uneasy feeling about it.

Garax raises a bushy eyebrow at the reference to Soorec and pages, still giving Haynuus a strange look. More and more, Haynuus with his new perspective on life can perhaps feel uncomfortable about the look. It reminds him how Arbrut looked at Haynuus. Nothing to do with the half-orc himself, but what the half-orc was.

However, Ameena's voice finally seems ot penetrate the Warblade's concetration, and he looks down at Ameena. There is a neutral look for now, but it is not hard to put Drommal's look of contempt on those features, the man's face is probably very used to looking with derision at those below him. There is a small cuckle. "Soorec's arrogance. The gnome's days number short, if even ones such as you realise it. Still a coward. He dares not come here himself, I see."

Finally the look of disdain appears on Garax's face as Ameena attempts to incratiate herself with the man upon the subject of amusement. Her attempt to indicate Haynuus's unreliability meets with no reaction, and the look Garax flicks at Haynuus is no less calculating than before. Still, Haynuus is at least confident that the man does not know the true function of the blade. Garax does look at it specifically, but does not seem to have tensed up any more than before, even though the blade is now active in Haynuus's hand. Haynuus hoped he hadn't cut off any part of his ear earlier, as it was so much harder to disguise bleeding than hair loss.

Garax's eye flick back to Ameena as she asks the question of Dolo. He looks to Haynuus and then Ameena, and his face breaks into an unpleasant grin buried deep in his facial hair. Ameena carries on speaking, words mostly the man seems to ignore. Once Ameena pauses for breath and reaction, Garax speaks. "Dolo Simtre is elven. It is the name of an elven paladin of Lilith, who became a cleric of the demoness Lolth. He is a powerful ally under my direct command. He controls the undead. Controls life and death. Would you alter your allegence? Forsake Soorec for one of real power? Serve Dolo, and through him, serve me?"

Ameena only spots it eventually, that Garax has actually never addressed the two of them directly before, his previous comments were directed inwards. It is a strange feeling to have the man now eagerly share information directly to the two of them, to ask them to join him - even at one step removed.

"This is Dolo's small corner of the territory we control. I will allow you to await his return with me, if you are ready to serve the real powers here. Otherwise," the man subtly shifts his grip on his strange weapon, and looks to Haynuus with that strange expression again. HE does not finish the sentence, and his grin is no less pleasant.


Can insert the results of your rolls into the previous narrative, Ian!

OOC - sense motive check (1d20+2=10) Reflexes (1d20+2=12)
Need to chat with Ameena whether we bluff this one and go Yeah, love to! or try some other tac.

Haynuus raises his eyebrow at the invitation and sidles a step closer to the warrior conspiratorially. "Soorec always seemed to me to be more..." a quick look left and right "...insane than arrogant." With a dwarven intellect he adds "And besides his days are short because his legs don't carry him as far."

The man was obviously both a veteran of war and of sending others to death with a poker face. He'd seen war-band leaders like this before. He usually just avoided them or said that he was great with a skewer and some marsh-mellows (they never send the chefs to the front line). He was not going to be easy as to be misdirected. The problem for Haynuus was that he was fascinated by the weapon Garax was holding and it was so distracting. Hold on, that blade. It reminded of what Seeroc said once. "Garax Warblade was the one who we're to find, the gnome said. He's in charge with Dolo I think he said. Get the paper he said."

Ameena was right. It was important to show that they were working for him under duress, rather than as allies. "I don't like him, I agree with you there. However he has... Persuaded us to run this errand for us." He looked a little pained. "Those grak graks. I always thought you had to DIE first before he sews the bits together again. Oh it's so horrible." Bluff-o-matic-roll. (1d20-2=8)

He explicitly avoided replying to Garax's final question. He was sure Ameena would help out. Otherwise he'd be learning very quickly as to how to use his new weapon.

OOC - I had a quick read through my last post and noticed that I managed to typo my Diplomacy result - I put 15 instead of 25 (as demonstrated by the fact that the added "17+8" comes to the actual result rather than the one I wrote ). I dunno whether you noticed - whups . Actually, if you didn't notice, that might affect Garax's reaction so I'll wait and see if you change it or whatever...

OOC - Lol okay, I just thought I'd check, in case you only looked at the 15 but not the rest or something .

BIC - At the mention of this "Dolo" peson being elven, or at least having an elven name, Ameena wonders if that means he's the priest, though he's described Dolo as a paladin, when the elven priest is...well, a priest. Though she recalls that paladins and priests can do similar things. She then immediately has to replace those thoughts with something else in case she's right, considering what she's heard of him from both Soorec and Westian. Instead she focuses on the armoured human standing before her, and wonders how she and Haynuus can get through this little...problem.
Almost immediately she comes upon the problem that the direction the conversation has taken means that she's probably going to have to think about this Dol...this elven person anyway. But maybe she can get around it, at least a little.
"Oh, someone else who controls undead things?" she inquires conversationally. "There seem to be a lot of people down here who can do that. Well, alright, maybe just Soorec and this other. We've been down here a while now - I can't fully remember every detail at the moment. Well, you know, there's been a lot to see. And do. And umm...well, as for serving people, we don't really serve anyone. Well, I don't. It's just...well, Soorec has those grak-graks, as I said, and when he wants you to do something...well, they have that way of...hurting you, you know, without even touching you..."
She figures that Garax probably already knows enough about grak-graks for her not to need to elaborate. She eyes his strange-looking blade-weapon thing and hopes he won't decide to use it. She knows there's still a pretty good chance that he will, but doesn't really fancy waiting around with him, as he's asking, for Dolo to return.
"So, if this paladin friend of yours isn't here right now," she goes on, "where's he gone, then? Well, I suppose he's busy doing...paladin...things. Umm...I thought paladins destroy undead? Maybe there's different sorts. Well, I don't think I've met very many. I've met a few priests, though, and I think they're similar. I mean, aren't they? They can do similar things...only priests tend to talk more, while paladins wear big armour and have...swords and...other things..."
She realises she's rather running out of anything relevant to say, and decides to change tack slightly. She perks her ears up and forward and twitches her whiskers in a sudden display of curiosity, and attempts to peer through Garax's legs.
"What's in there?" she asks, as though having temporarily forgotten the previous thread of the conversation. "I mean, is it something important? Well, I suppose if you're in there, maybe it is, because you're important. Can I see it? Maybe it's interesting. I like interesting things! Worth looking into and around, and giving a good sniff. There's lots of interesting smells coming from here. Can I see? Can I see?"
All this time she's been moving around, dropping to all-fours and then standing upright again as she attempts to look past Garax into whatever kind of room he's standing in. The curiosity isn't entirely feigned, as she is interested in what lies beyond. It is somewhat exaggerated, though. She hopes she can give the impression that she can be this easily distracted and has simple thoughts - she has known it to work before, when people then lower their guard and underestimate her, and are then taken completely by surprise when she suddenly makes a run for it, or does something else they weren't expecting.
Knowing she should also probably convince Haynuus to adopt a similar act, she allows herself, in one of her moments on all-fours, to "accidentally" bump into one of his legs. She stands upright and looks up at him.
"Oh! Yes. I'd better tell you too - Look." She points past Garax, speaking in a tone she's heard other species use on people they think are stupid, or at least less intelligent than they are. "See? There's a room there. But I think we need this human let us get past first."
She then gestures toward Haynuus's sword.
"You'd better be careful with that." she says. "You might hurt someone. There's no-one trying to hurt us at the moment, you know. Maybe you can use it later. But look...there's no scary creatures here, just this human person in his big armour. Maybe he'll be nice and let us through."
She gives Haynuus a look which is half-pleading, half-apologetic, and hopes that he'll understand what she's trying to do and won't take offence at the way she's suddenly started speaking to him. Then she turns back toward Garax and looks eagerly past him again.
"I hope so, anyway..." she says, eagerly.

OOC - In case you need more rolls...another Bluff = 5 (3+2), Diplomacy = 21 (13+8), Sense Motive = 20 (10+10).
With that crown on, Haynuus actually has the same Int as Ameena now - I dunno if you'd noticed. Her Int is 12 too . But yeah, in case you hadn't figured, she's hoping she can persuade Garax that the two of them are a bit less...mentally capable than they are. Now if he falls for it and believes her "innocent, easily-distracted child" act and Haynuus's "Duhh, ooh, dat's a nice sword" act, maybe we'll have some kind of advantage if things turn nasty and he isn't expecting either of them to actually show any skill in combat, or whatever. Hopefully it won't come to a fight though, since Ameena's considerably less keen to draw blood from a human than she is to backstab some kind of unthinking, unfeeling undead creature .

Haynuus scratches his head. "Yeahhhh, she's always trying to do that." He inhaled deeply. "I once caught her sniffing a monk's crotch. They got no idea." he smiled and rolled his eyes. "Investigatin' and sucking up air through their noses is all well and good, but there are things that a good nose can't find."

OOC - Can I roll an assist? Bluff (1d20-2=6)
Need a perception check to peek through there too?

OOC - Heh, I do recall that you mentioned the priest's name OOC at some point, but I can't remember wtf it was. So it looks like both Ameena and I guessed lucky there . Will Save = 14 (11+3).

It only dawned on Haynuus a little too late to do anything about it, and even though Ameena realised it, it was hard to do anythign about it while speaking about the priest. Garax was too eager to give Dlo's life story and description. Soorec had warned them earlier to not even think about the man, certainly not to think on his name, for it all had power to the elf. Unfortunately, the name slipped into Haynuus's consciousness before he could clap his hands to his ears (probably for the best, since he still had an invisible blade to remember about) and Ameena found herself in the subtle mental loop of remembering about the priest because she was remembering to not think about him. She found that losing herself in chatter and curiosity at least limited the damage.

Haynuus had met men like Garax before, and started to suspect that familiarity with the man, and worse Ameena's constant talking, might not be such a good idea - even if it was stopping her from thinkking abotu the priest. Haynuus was starting to remember why avoidance or deflection was usually the order of the day with military commanders. Not even the comment about grak-graks seemed to illicit a response from Garax though.

Hyanuus spotted that all of Garax's attention was focused on Ameena. As Ameena keeps speaking, Haynuus realises that the man's attention isn't on what she is saying, or even reacting as if he has heard any of it. Instead, Haynuus spots the subtle shift in weight forward and back is if the man is trying to match her movements. And then, Haynuus spots the man's hands tighten on his weapon...


Ameena happily speaks on and on, even though the man is not actually acknowledging her speech, nor even acknowledging her as a person. The only sop to her speech is when she starts speaking of what is in the room. Very deliberately, Garax turns his back for a moment to shut the door firmly. Ameena only gets to see the contents briefly. It appears to have alot of books on all the walls, which humanoids seem to like to do. Which, of course, explains the papery smell. There appears to be a crackling light - a fire or torch - somewhere in the room. There was a chair the man was probably sitting on, and the awful smell under it all seems to come from a strangely designed flat item just on the edge of sight. If it is a table, it's very twisted and blackened.

The door slams shut, blocking Ameena's view. Ameena's butterfly choses that moment to alight from her, wafting high into the air...

Haynuus is ready for Garax's swing as he spins around. To be fair the man's swing is wild, especially when trying to hit something as small and jittery as a murafu when a bulky hallf-orc is closeby being bodyguard.

However, the wild miss is turned into a vicious blow into Haynuus's sternum. The half-orc has the wind soundly knocled out of him. It takes many moments for Haynuus to realise that there aren't multiple shining butterlies around his head waving bright torches around, and also that his chest isn't ripped open.

Despite the sharp edges on display, the man apparently has enough skill to strik with a dull end.

With Haynuus knocked out of the way, the man tries a backwards smash to where Ameena should have been, but the jittery murafu was already elsewhere.

"Dolo. The things I do for our queen," he muttered to himself close to Ameena. He then swung back up to "Half-orcs. Traits of neither," he says to himself out loud, in derision looking at the weakened half-orc still staggering from the blow.


Yeah, Ameena is a little more protected, at least from wild swings, but sadly Haynuus right now is on a coin flip of being hit, even by wild power attacks. Two handed weapon, +11 power attack, = 34 hit points non-lethal damage. Sorry! The ballsy opening move paid off against Haynuus I guess. Luckily for Ameena, both the strikes against her went wild (plus, as said, it's a harder proposition to hit her)

Haynuus will spot that Garax is in some form of rhythmn right now, so that it's likely Garax will strike out at him next again, then Ameena, then him again.

There's only so much diplomacy, etc can do. The first roll worked well, but of course the more evil a person is, and the higher they are up the chain of command, and more in military mindset instead of one of the hangers on like Soorec, the less likely they are to stand and listen to a stream of consciousness, especially from someone who appears to be like a pain rat, and especially if they try and be too familiar Less was more in this case as Haynuus himself actually spotted, and trying to provoke all that might have worked well on Dolo (and might still work well) but against a military man...well, it's not the firts time the poor murafu has been attacked by a ranked officer for trying to broker some peace!

Still, he's obviously trying to take you alive, so has a penalty to his rolls and won't kill you outright. That's something, right?

Hmm, so you might spot that Garax is quite a bit higher level than you, and dressed in plate mail (at the very least he has a +11 base attack bonus so be level 11, as the three attacks and power attack damage show) However, you might also relaise he can't be too much higher than that (if at all) given the wild swing, and you might suspect he won't continue to swing wildly if he's missed Ameena twice. And, as mentioned, if he's alternating attacks, you know where the blows will land unless you try to draw agro.


So, tactics tactics tactics! I won't draw a grid just yet, simply remember the previous map is a 10 x 10 grid, and usually combat is in 5x5 grids. Garax is attacking from the lower side of the door. I am assuming Ameena is diagnomally up from this, and Haynuus is directly across from this.

So, a few thigns you could do. Run - you both can outdistance an armoured foe, however you might want to ensure your exit is not seen. Also, watch out for AoOs (Ameena and Haynuus can try to acrobatics out of them, but Ameena is the only one likely to succeed). Haynuus can try to draw focus while Ameena does something clever (go for the library to find cool stuff, use elemental, etc). Or Ameena can draw focus allowing Haynuus do to something (Something physical I assume). And, of course, given this man is a highly ranked commander, he's probably not a berzerker. Surrender might actually be an option, or trying intelligent distractions.

Anyway, I've once more put you in harm's way, although to be fair you almost had it under control there :p And it's not too black, right now unless you make it worse for yourself, you're just looking at waking up much later with a headache. Maybe with Deephold! Most likely in the same room as Dolo

Ameena takes in as much detail of the room as she can before Garax pulls the door closed. She realises her mistake in thinking that the paper-smell might be Deephold, but decides that he might still be around here somewhere. As the little petal-dancer flutters up from her shoulder, she feels slightly worried that the tiny creature might get hurt, even as Garax does what she was thinking he might try to do at some point and attacks.
She winces as Haynuus is hit, and immediately wonders what she can do to help. She does notice that despite all his sharp pointy things, Garax has apparently managed to noto actually cut her friend. Considering he's so big and important and therefore probably knows how to use his weapons pretty well, she decides he must have done so on purpose. So maybe he's just trying to hurt them enough that they can't fight, and then he'll take them prisoner or something.
On the plus side, this could mean that they end up finding Deephold by a rather more direct route.
Then again, it would mean herself and Haynuus are most likely locked up somewhere, trapped. And no murafu likes to be trapped.
Which means she needs to do something. But the human, compared to her, is huge, and encased in all that metal - how can she do anything physical to stop him? Talking hasn't worked - if there's something she can say which would get his attention, she has no idea what it is. She could try to trip him up - in that metal armour he'd probably fall over pretty well. But that's assuming her slight weight would even be enough to get him to move.
On an impulse she ducks her head down and addresses the air-filled pouch at her waist.
"I don't know if you can see what's happening," she whispers, "but if you can help in any way, that would be good. Can you blow around his face and distract him or something? Maybe we can make him fall over..."
The bag isn't air-tight - she figures that if the small amount of Air wants to help her, it will do so.
Meanwhile she then looks up at Garax.
"Well, at least you're not trying to really kill us." she says. "But we don't like it. I don't suppose you'll just stop so we'd better try to get you to do that ourselves."
So saying, she decides to aim a bite at one of his hands in an attempt to get him to drop his weapon.

OOC - This last action is dependent on whether or not he's wearing plate gloves - obviously, if he is, I don't imagine Ameena's teeth will get through. But I'm sort of counting on the fact that we caught him by surprise - he doesn't have his helmet on, after all. Sooo, attempted nommage attack = 16 (8+8), damage (choosing to inflict non-lethal) = 1. Woooo .

Haynuus reels in horror at the mess of what his perfect set of 6-pack stomach muscles once were. They appeared once as an engraving on the cover of Orc's Masher Weekly Magazine. What then occurs is a double horror action as Ameena selflessly attempts to disarm Garax by nibbling on his hand. Perhaps she has some arcane knowledge of the weapon that means it is rendered useless when a bloodied sack of fur is hanging off it or something. Either way it didn't matter. She was receiving an assault from Garax and Haynuus had the opportunity to grapple the weapon master to the floor.

He reached out and put his large arms around the warrior, completely soiling the nice bits of gold leaf plating on his armour with his blood.

OOC - Touch Attack; Grapple Check; Unarmed Strike (1d20+10=24, 1d20+14=33, 1d3+4=7) Not sure if there is a -4 penalty applied to the NEXT round to deal unarmed damage or it's this round. He'll probably attempt to shove the contents of an earthy coloured potion into his mouth next round anyway.

Wow, this is all pretty unexpected. I don't usually do this, but here's the wacky dice rolls I drew for Garax this round. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2666745/

Garax's movements wer about to reign down another blow upon Haynuus, and Ameena quickly scrambled into the small pouch to speak to the elemental.

At once, with a high pitched uplifting laugh a powerful gust of wind blew out from the pouch, splitting the poor bag neatly down the seems at one side. If Aurek was with the other two, then he could have perhaps said what light words the elemental said. Perhaps they were angry words, perhaps they were simply joyful words of play.

Either way, the effect was startling. Garax was lifted up bodily as if a rag doll, and after hovering for a fraction of a moment in mid-air, was pitched backwards hard against the door. The double doors didn't seem well suited to have such an assault. The wood aroudn the handles split enough for the door to burst apart. Garax landed painfully on the floor in the doorway, shocked but still grasping his weapon.

Meanwhile, the library was once again revealed for a moment - well, until the elemental gave another laugh and started spinning inside the place. All the books in one corner of the room tumbled from the shelves, and the fire in the room grew bright for one shining moment and was then extinguished. The air eleental continued to laugh, but apparently found a different exit from the room, for its laugh disappeared and the room beyond settled into dark silence once more.

Ameena and Haynuus only had half an eye for it. While the man was down, Ameena sprang into action, seeking to bite one of the ungloved hands and perhaps encourage Garax to drop his weapon while he was indisposed. Garax was possibly winded himself, for he didn't manage to stop Ameena's teeth sinking. Unfortunately, Ameena's small size meant she had to get much closer to the man, and he was already gripping his wepaon tightly in both hands. While the bite hand flinched, he did not let go of the weapon. Still, he could not really do much more than oush her back again from his position, and with her teeth temporarily dug into his hand. The man said somethign course in a language Ameena did not recognise.

Haynuus did not recognise the language either, but the meaning was clear - he was obviously very, very angry and Ameena. And probably Haynuus too, by extension. He'd held on tightly to his weapon, and it was very likely he would start using it properly. Haynuus wasn't goign to allow that, and was alreayd taking advantage of the prone man's precarious position to launch his own attack.

Garax suddenly had a very heavy and determined half-orc to contend with. Graax was easy to get a hold of anyway, but Haynuus was taking no changes and simply threw himself bodily at the man, pinning him well. Haynuus's free hand flew out to pin the man's body down. Although the black armour Garax wore was bulky, Haynuus was surprised to find the man - while strong - wasn't nearly as strong as Haynuus was. Apparently the man relied on skill instead of raw brawn. At the moment though, that wasn't possible, and Garax stiffled a cry as Haynuus's weight cracked some bone as he put pressure on the platemailed body.

Of course, the real question was could he keep the man disoriented and pinned long enough to get that earthy potion of Soorec's!


Really cool round there! Didn't expect that! The air elemental was small but powerful, so certainly worth the knocking prone. That means Garax has -4 to attacks, -4 to AC, and will need to use a move action to stand (which will provoke an AoO)

Can't believe he missed hitting Ameena! He was angry enough for it to be a lethal, precise strike, too, so she should have been scuppered! Anyway, sadly when the dust settled Ameena took too many penalties in terms of being ickle and being unarmed against a skilled opponent handling a weapon they have trained in, which is two handed. Even taking into account the -4 for being prone. If this had been his dagger instead though...different story! Oh well, Ameena still did brilliantly - luck of the dice rewards a gutsy move!

Ok, despite all the flavour text, Haynuus isn't really prone to grapple Garax, and also isn't really pinning him (yet). It's business as usual, with a successful grapple! 7 non-lethal damage! The idea is that a successful grapple check can simply deal non-lethal unarmed damage as a default option. Only if Haynuus wanted to strike with something else would bhe need to make an attack at -4 (and an additional -4 because of being in a grapple too).

Anyway, Garax will be attemtping to break free as his standard action - and rolled a 29 I'm afraid. I'm not sure why you added +14 to Haynuus's attack roll, it should only be +10 (you get no bonuses for him being prone, nor from your weapons, etc).

Assuming he gets free he'll stand up, so Haynuus and Ameena will be allowed a free attack each.

Right, if Garax doens't get up, then he can't threaten Ameena with AoOs for moving around, and he would be vulnerable to sneak attack damage.

Otherwise, the door is a double door, so Ameena is free to use the one not filled with people to get into the library if she wanted to - thought to get passed an upright Garax will need a successful acrobatics check to avoid the AoO (DC15, I don't think I've ever mentioned that)

I'm assuming Haynuus has had to put the torch on the floor he would have held, so the library will be shadowy to see inside.

Ian, I've just realised that while Haynuus doens't have improved grapple, he does have improved bull rush. So you can push Garax around without generating an Attack of opportunity, and as the narrative indicated, Garax is quite strong but he's not obscenely strong like Haynuus. So if it comes to a pushing match, it seems Haynuus actually has the advantage!

Well, that was quite an exciting note to being goign to bed on. Hmm, instead of laughing behind your backs, and commiserating with you to your faces, I'm excied to see if you guys can actually manufacture a chance to take this guy out. You have the advantage of at leats another turn's worth of actions before he can even consider hitting you with his complicated blade thing, and the library is incase it has anything fun inside...

OOC - Wahey - pwnage-by-Air-Elemental . That was groovy, muahahahaa . It's a shame Ameena doesn't have anything hard she can clonk Garax on the head with - I'll leave that to Haynuus, I think . Well, unless there's a rock or something nearby which she can use, but I suppose it would be a Perception check to look for something like that. Well, let's see what I end up posting anyway...

BIC - Ameena is somewhat surprised at the immediacy and the force with which the seemingly small amount of Air responds to her request. She is glad of it, though, and knows that she probably won't have sucha an advantage again. She calls out a brief thanks in case the element is still around, but otherwise focuses (somewhat literally) on the task at hand.
Although she manages to successfully bite Garax's hand, she doesn't manage to persuade him, by doing so, to release his hold on his weapon. It seems he's too strong and skilled for that, though she's not entirely surprised that her effort fails - someone as high-ranking as this human must presumably have had a fair amount of experience and fighting things much bigger and stronger than a murafu.
Haynuus, meanwhile, is having much better luck, and manages to grab hold of the prone soldier to inhibit his movements further. She wonders what she can do - maybe there's something she can use to stop him struggling. Can she attempt to tie him up, perhaps? She recalls that she has a small amount of string in one of her pouches but knows that this will most likely be useless - it would surely be easily snapped by the strong human.
Instead, she moves around so that she'll be behind Garax by the time he gets up (unless he should happen to spin around whilst rising - however, she's counting on Haynuus to be enough of a distraction that his rage wil be focused on the half-orc rather than on herself) and quickly casts about for something she can use. Maybe there's some rope, or something similar, which she can use to entangle Garax's arms or legs, or maybe even something she can (however reluctantly) use to clobber him on the head with in the hopes of knocking him unconscious.
Despite the now semi-darkness of the room, Ameena looks around for anything that might help.

OOC - Figuring that unarmed attacks are a bit too rubbish for now. Move action to get behind Garax, then Standard (I presume) to make a Perception check for anything that might be useful to somehow incapacitate/disarm Garax. So, time to make some rolls...umm...I'm not sure if I can do all of this so, you know, use whatever can be used. First of all, the free AoO for Garax standing up is only a straight attack, isn't it, so I can't try to trip him or or something while he's getting to his feet, can I? I suppose that will just have to be another bite, then. I know mechanically I can't "aim" a bite, but narratively it will be on the same hand, and again non-lethal damage. I'm not sure whether someone generating an AoO also grants combat advantage, nor whether Ameena would have managed to get around and flank him by then to have combat advantage anyway. Here is the attack roll anyway...10 (2+8), though make that 12 (2+10) if I have combat advantage. Damage roll = 2.
In case Garax gets up and I generate an AoO with moving, here's the requested Acrobatics check for dodging that...26 (12+14). And finally, the Perception roll for looking around for anything that can be used against Garax...17 (7+10).
Like I said, if any of those rolls can't be made for whatever reason, then just ignore them - I might as well make them all anyway in case I've done it right and I am allowed to do all that stuff in one turn .

OOC - The +14 included his strength in the grapple check. "Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier"
Brilliant Quote: "focuses (somewhat literally) on the task at hand"

Haynuus was wrestling and tussling with Garax in a vain attempt to stop his onslaught with his insidious weapon. Haynuus' own weapon was tucked conveniently down his trousers which was a cause of concern should someone consider it to be a 'light' weapon (hmmmm). The problem now was what to do? He had two potions jutting out the top of his back pack. A VI friendly one, and Soorec's Earthy brown one. It was 50/50 as to whose mouth would receive which one. However, while continuing to grapple (1d20+14=15) with the warrior Haynuus dexterously popped the cork from the VI Potion off between his fingers, and sucked heartily on the end. It was comical and didn't work properly as his tongue not only got in the way of the stopper, but it actually caused Haynuus to slip on his grip on the back shiney armour. Tongues are slippery beast at the best of times. At least he got a couple of good quaffs off. <<GULP>>> <<<GULP>>>

OOC - second grapple check (1d20+14=18)
UM VI (3d6=16)

Can all of that work? Grapple + Drink from a potion? If you can activate magic items or cast spells while grappling, why not?

OOC - Lol I'm just confused with all this bloody grappling and stuff. I already rolled my AoO in the OOC note at the end of my last post. As for anything else...well, I suppose I'd better wait till the next actual IC update is put up, so I can get a narrative grip on where the smeg everyone is (and whether I can actually find something I can use that's a bit better than a large pair of teeth) .

OOC - Lol well yes, I'm perfectly happy for Haynuus to grab as much agro as he can and generally keep Garax busy while my little, unarmoured murafu tries to think of something to do which won't result in her getting squished .

OOC - OK I forgot that my Strength bonus was already included.

Haynuus had tried to hold down Garax but the slippery warrior had slipped out of his grasp. With all of the excitement Haynuus managed to get a free swing at him, and now threw with all his might the smokey brown flask (1d20+10=16) at his armoured chest. If it missed, and probably will, it'll smash into the wall beside him.

Garax twisted and pushed off Haynuus with a kick and a shove of his strange weapon. Ameena has tried to help as Garax used the momentum to push himself off the ground and back upright, but he had acted too swiftly for her jaws to find purchace, and Ameena turned around to look for items in the room. Haynuus quickly used his invisible blade to good effect. It was an odd effect to move around an empty blade and see your opponent's armour buckle and him cry out. The strangeness of it was not lost on Garax. He shifted away fro mthe door and Ameena at his back, instead putting his back to the wall and spinning his weapon at Haynuus. "I was right. Soorec's assassin's plague us," the man said out loud to himself, shifting his black gaze between Haynuus's weapon and Haynuus's face.

Ah, forgot the weapon description says 'greatsword' in the d20 rules. The greatsword actually does 2d6 damage, not 1d10 (that's the small version damage), however feel free to keep the first damage roll as it seems rather good! If you roll the 2d6 instead, you'll be stuck with it if it's lower

Ok, so that's Garax's previous actions resolved. And yes, he took damage from Haynuus.

Ameena was perhaps used to being overlooked in combat, and so took a moment to look into the revealed room. With Garx having shifted away, there was more light able to enter the room aswell. The thing that caused the horrible smell was a disgusting blackened slab dominating the left hand side of the room. It had what looked like green and purple candles in this dark light, arranged on the far side in various states. There was also a bowl-like shape on the near edge. That, and a head-sized grotesque twisted statue of tentacles and legs seems to be the only items that could be used as bludgeoning impliments. The rest of the room was quite boring. There were books on the walls everywhere, except for a door on the right hand wall opposing the black table-thing. The area that the air elemental had cleared of books was in the opoposite corner, and it was hard to see anything in the empty shelves of that dimly lit illuminated area. There was a padded chair close to this door, with a small table. A few small bottles of something were on that table. The nearness of the chair to the door Ameena was at perhaps explained why Garax had been so quite, and why he had reacted so fast to the movement of Haynuus.

Just as Ameena could be forgiven for giving up, she spotted a small square shape in the darkened left hand corner of the room closest to her. It was hidden in the shadow of the black table-like thing, but there seemed to be a small chest or box tucked into the corner. It was hard to find anythign i nthe room by scent, for the old paper smell was potent, and even more so was the sickening burnt smell from the black table-thing.


Right, so Garax has acted from the previous turn. Ameena's actions have been resolved. Just need Haynuus's amended actions for an upright Garax, and then Garax can act again. And then Ameena and Haynuus can act again! Woohoo!

Aha, double post! Sadly your attack is a ranged attack, so requires dexterity bonus (so only +6 to attack). The good news is that for what you are trying to do, it really only needs to be a touch attack to hit him, and a 12 beats his unarmoured AC


The potion smashes on the edge of the man's armour, spraying shards of glass and brown liquid into his face. He flinches at the assault, although unfortunately is not blinded. He quickly wipes the contents off his face and mouth with an absentminded hand, looking for the trick of it. He makes adetermined move towards Haynuus, and staggers a step. His eyes go wide. "Assassins indeed!" he confirms to himself. His dark eyes then fully focus on Haynuus. "Base creature! Taste the Warblade of Carynassic!"

The man is taking careful steps as if unsure of or affected by the potion. He also seems hesitant to directly engage Haynuus's strange blade. However, he is a skilled warrior, and with a series of spins and turns the curved blade delivers a roundhouse of scything deep cuts. It is quite clear that the man has stopped trying to take Haynuus alive, and also clear the man is by no means out of the fight yet - unless the potion has a delayed effect.


If Haynuus had managed to make Garax drink the potion in a grapple, that would have been cool and gave a more potent effect. Still, the potion is a reverse YA potion that deals non-lethal damage instead of awarding temporary hit points. I like the thoguht of throwing it, so I've only halved the effect which still means 3d6 temporary non-lethal damage.

Unfortunately, Garax connected with all three of his lethal blows - so combined, the damage is 30 hit point! Yeah, might be an idea to stop Garax delivering those full-round triple attacks if you can

Anyway, that's us up to date! Back to you two guys again!

OOC - What I'm about to post will be contingent on whether or not it draws an AoO - since I'm not sure of the layout of the room in terms of where stuff is, square-wise, I don't know...well, where stuff is . So if what I'm about to post means drawing an AoO (it'll be obvious how), let me know and I'll change it. I don't really fancy getting ganked just 'cause I didn't know how far I was moving my character .

BIC - As Haynuus distracts Garax with the potion, Ameena darts for the corner to investigate the box - maybe there's something there she can use. She sniffs around it carefully first, checking it in case there's any chance of something nasty happening when she tries to open it. Then she attempts to do so.

OOC - Well, that was short. I realised I actually don't really have any info to go on - I don't know where exactly the box is, or how big it is, or what it's made of, or what colour it is, or whatever, nor whether it has an obvious catch or anything to open it. A Perception check for traps (or anything else nasty) gives me...26 (16+10). Of course, it might be locked, or something. As for the other stuff in the room, where is that in relation to Ameena and the others? And when you say the statue is "head-sized", do you mean the size of a human head, or some other species? How small are the small bottles on the table, and are they easily accessible? I'm presuming it'd be another Perception check to see the colour of the liquid in them or whatever, since Ameena's not gone right up to them in the dim light to actually have a look yet. Are any of the books of a size that Ameena could comfortably pick up and lob at someone? Are there any loose rocks lying around (:twisted:)? Or was my first Perception check not good enough to reveal any of that?
Assume that Ameena opens the box if she detects nothing dodgy about it, and if she can actually open it (ie if it's not locked).
And as mentioned in the initial OOC note at the start of this post, if her movement away from Garax to wherever the box is is far enough to draw an AoO, let me know and I'll have her do something else instead .