Dungeon Master Forum

Dur. Thats what I get for posting half asleep. Edited.

Petal is confused by the ugly human's words. The use of the word 'halfling' confuses her as well. She has read about halfings, a small race that looked human. The mage she met seemed a normal sized human. But the burly human was huge. Maybe he thought all smaller humans were halflings.

"Falkor you know?" she asks. At the big man's comment about insanity, she nods. " Ma'hali that one, yes. Friends, with him are you? The passageway nearby I found him in. Heard him yell word or name 'Dolo'. Friends with Dolo are you, also?" The pixie watches the big man's face, not wanting to give anything away. Her hand creeps slowly toward her dagger, then she thinks the better of it. If it turned out these beings were friends with Falkor, at least she could play along. Maybe she could find out where Chaos was. She would have to be careful, though.

Don't worry, you have an excuse. And you get to return the favour with this Falkor stuff

"Sorcen?" says Deephold distracted during the combat. "I have not heard of the order." The attack on Ameena and the subsequent defeat of the armour stops further conversation for that moment.

Hyanuus's urgings does send Deephold temporarily towards Ameena to offer the potion he has provided, although he sees that she still has Umgold's flask.

"We appear to have made a pixie friend," says Deephold to the others. "Usually from far lands, and also usually noble of purpose in regards to their surroundings"

He listens to the question. "Falkor, Falkor.... I recognise the name. A halfling mage?" He looks to the group. "A friend of Westian's? IS that why I know the name?"

Deephold's face contorts when the pixie mentions Dolo Smitre. "Please, do not say that name. The name is for an evil creature, and no friend of ours. He imprisoned us, and he has powers over those who know whom he is." Deephold points to Ameena's side. "He has inflicted this poor creature with an evil item, one we must get to safety to remove."

Deephold looks to Haynuus. "Do you have an escape route?" He looks to the others. "Do you need to find this Falkor first?"


Deephold's reactions, leave you guys alone again for a moment. Though feel free to roll me a d20 when you have a minute

OOC - Umgold's flask? Ooh shit he did have one, didn't he? Umm...I have no clue wtf happened to that. I remember that she took it...maybe I completely forgot about it or maybe she left it on the floor in the room...
Okay, I just re-read that battle and as far as I can tell, ths is what happened with Umgold's flask - first Ameena yoinked it off his arm, retreated and handed it to Deephold, who conjured a potion which Ameena took straight over to Haynuus who'd just been downed. She used the potion on him and then, after a quick attempt at biting Mr Zmobie Man, withdrew and put the flask on the floor temporarily while she moved in and dragged the sword away while Haynuus was grappling on the floor. Once Deephold had come over and picked it up in order to give it Haynuus, she picked up the flask again and waited for Deephold to come back in order to once again hand it to him so he could make another potion - this one he told her to drink, so she did. Around this time, Haynuus finished off "Umgold", at which point Ameena handed Deephold the flask yet again and said he should probably heal himself. After that, she had time for a quick check around the room before Dolo came back and she did the whole furry-ninja-jump-grapple thing onto his head. Sooo, basically, I think Deephold has that flask for now . She has a potion given to her by Westian before they parted in the waterfall cave, but there's no way Deephold could know that since it's hidden away in a pouch somewhere .

"Falkor the half-mage? Friends? Oh yes. Or at least I think I am. The evil gnome called him even more evil than his is but he seemed only half bad to me. We all errm. Ameena..." he starts pointing to the murafu "a cleric called Westian, Falkor and I all woke up in this dungeon together. We didn't know each other but then memories keep floating into my head that we might have known each other before. Most strange..." His mind wanders somewhat. "Oh Dolo?! The elf is horrible and cruel. Anyone that works with the dead deserves to become of his own creations." He tried to cast him out of his mind as if a wizard hurling a fireball.

Next he looks down to the dwarf who looks as if he's good with straps and bondage, if you know what I mean(+). "Escape?! Wow. I've not thought of that. I'm on a mission from God, you see. Or at least I'm helping Mister Westian to find... You." A dirty and grubby forefinger points in the Deephold's direction, albeit a bit over his head. "After that I reckon if we could either get out of here or fix this place with a couple of swings with a sword." His arm action doesn't relay the fact that they still don't know what's wrong, and Westian should really find out.

"Excuse me miss... Er Pitchie? My name is Haynuus and yours?... And Falkor? Is he close to us now and pick-upable?" He could only assume that the halfling was lying half conscious somewhere. This was no place for a halfling on his own.

(+) Can put armour on while on the move.

OOC - Okay, I'll just retcon that Deephold let her use his flask then, yeah? Fortunately the potion I already have is also an Um-level one, so I know that it returns 3d6hp...which I'll roll at the end...ohh bum-buggers, why do I always find I need to roll stuff on Mondays or Thursdays after I've put my dice box in my bag downstairs, lol. Okay, on this occasion I can't be arsed to go get it so I'll try and remember to roll that tonight .
As for Ameena smelling blood...well, I'm not sure a bit more will make her any more nervous - she's more or less completely covered in the stuff by now, after all .

BIC - Ameena gratefully accepts the potion from Deephold, sitting back as she normally does to drink some of it and managing to crane around to tip some more over her hind leg, which suddenly feels rather a lot better - she can certainly now walk on it again, that's for sure. Then she hands the flask back.
"Thank you." she says, carefully stretching out her right hind leg to see how much it hurts.
Since she already knows the group should be moving onward, she trots along behind Haynuus as he takes the lead in doing so, and concentrates mainly on just moving along quickly - she's been through rather too much during the immediate past to really stay particularly focused on anything right now. She is aware that the creature she thought looked a little like a blue-water-dancer is having a conversation with Haynuus and immediately feels some of her natural curiosity returning, though not quite enough to barrage the creature with questions just yet. For one thing, she (Ameena thinks of the creature as female for some reason - maybe it's the voice) is travelling some distance above Ameena's head, somewhere she can't really look right now while she's moving.
She is also aware that plenty of names are being mentioned...including Falkor's! She wants to inquire further, but soon enough another name comes up.
"Don't say that!" she says in alarm. "Don't say that person's name, Haynuus - remember what can happen! He...he might be awake now, and that means he might hear you, and...do things..."
She casts a worried glance along at her left side as she says so, leaving the sentence to trail away unfinished. She recalls she should be distracting herself by thinking of pleasant things, but it doesn't seem to be working too well at the moment - all she can smell is blood, her body still aches all over, and she's well aware that they're still in the middle of a very dangerous place. Matters surely aren't being helped by the addition of names being casually thrown about all over the place. She vaguely wonders whether it's possible to become so scared you just stop feeling fear any more.

Ameena: If Ameena has ever seen a female human, halfling dwarf, ect. Petal is VERY obviously female. Shes rather...well endowed... for a small thing.

Petal stops. She seems really really confused and also a bit afraid.

"No. No. Falkor friends with name you say evil. Falkor bad." She seemes like she doesnt know what to think of the people she is walking with. "Good beings, you all. Falkor trick you? Trick me, Falkor tried to do. Not know I name Westian. This person he is?" She describes a human in armor. Beo: The one that was hanging around with Falkor, the guy that looks like there was some symbol or decor removed on his armor.

She looks confusedly at Deephold. "Sorcen order not. Sorcen young sorcerer, not yet test taken. Has ability to sorcerer be, taken test not yet. Need training."

Petal looks at the 'dwarf' (Ameena). She closes her eyes or a second, then opens them. She flies down near the being's head and says quietly. "Not be scared, you. If enemies see scared you, they can be happy. Nothing to be afraid of, here. Be afraid later, but not show fear to enemy. Is natural to be sacred. But not let fear control you." So saying, she smiles at Ameena.

It's Haynuus's turn to be a little confused now. "That's what Brighteyes said... He said that he was bad. And if Brighteyes was evil, he must have been a very bad little halfling. I..." He absentmindedly scratches the circlet on his head. "...Don't know."

"Oh Westian had black armour on. We could follow you to find him! Can you take us to him? We could go to see him or would it be better to head back to the water fall and wait?" He looked to the others with a smile. He was an action half-man and wanted to go immediately, but they needed to rest too. Then he realised something else. "Of course, there are lots of bad men waiting to hurt us who wear black armour as well. It's a little confusing I know. But Westian is a half-elf, and the rest are humans."

"You'll have to tell us more of how you got here, errr. Miss Pickie."

Petal looks to the big man. She looks even more confused now.
"Name Petal is. Not Pickie. No. Man Falkor with human is. Half-elf he is not. Half elf I have not seen here. Waterfall I have not seen. How get here I, do not know. Fight I Chaos, then here I am. Seen you Growlgra, bika?" She describes a being a little taller than her that appears to be a reddish-furred doglike being.

OOC - Ameena hasn't seen too much of Petal right now to see that she's female - she had that first brief glimpse from down the corridor but right now, as mentioned above, since Petal's flying somewhere above Ameena, who's moving along on all-fours and concentrating on doing so, there's not much more to see at this particular moment .
Also, didn't Westian remove the nasty black armour before the party split? I seem to recall that he did but might be getting confused with Haynuus, but if Westy did remove his armour, Haynuus would probably remember to describe him as wearing...whatever he was wearing underneath/instead of it, I think?
And for the healing potion...ahh okay, I didn't know about the bonus thingy...sooo 2d6 = 10 (6+4), putting Ameena up to 15hp.

BIC - Ameena looks up at the fluttery creature as it...she...comes down nearer her head height and tells her not to be afraid. She's feeling more and more interested in this creature now, but sees that she is in conversation with Haynuus - normally murafu would have no problems with joining in each other's conversations as soon as they thought of something they wanted to say, but she has learnt, as do most murafu who travel, that most other races don't seem to like being interrupted.
At Petal's mention of Chaos, she feels a slight shudder go through her and her right foreleg gives a slight, involuntary twitch. However, she's been through so much lately that this doesn't have much more of an effect on her, and anyway she's just found an easy distraction in the shape of Petal's description of this being called "Growlgra".
"Some kind of dog-race?" she asks, ears perking up as she trots along. "Maybe the way we're related to rats, perhaps? I mean, we're rather like rats and we're not too sure where we came from so maybe some rats got hit by some kind of magic which turned them into the first murafu...so maybe the same thing happened to some dogs once. Maybe they were chasing the rats and that's why they weren't looking where they were going and they ran right into it. Not that that's what happened, but...well, it could have done. Hmm...maybe a dog-race wouldn't be so good to meet. They are predators, after all...."
Then her curiosity starts to get the better of her somewhat and she attempts to both peer up at Petal and concentrate on not walking into a wall or Haynuus's feet.
"Anyway, you seem really interesting. What are you? Where do you come from? What's it like there? Are there lots of you? Can you all use magic like that? Idontlike all magic becausesomeofit is throwingfire at people, and Idon'treallylikefire because it burnsandI'mcovered in fur. But Ilike healingmagicbecauseitmakesyoufeelbetter. Andyouhavewingstoowhat'sthatlikethen? ItmustbefuntoflyisitfuntoflyIbettheAirwemetinthatcavewouldbereallyinterestedtomeetyouandoohIthinkwemightbegoingbacktheresoonbecausewesaidwe'dmeetWestianandAurektherewhenweweredonelookingforDeepholdandwearebecausewefoundhimsoIthinkweshouldgetbacktherenowreallyfastandmaybetheAirandWaterwillhelpussomemorebecausethere'ssomethingreallyimportantwehavetodobutI'mnotsurewhatitisreallyandanywayIwanttofindoutmoreaboutwhateveryouarebecauseyoulookreallyinterestingandI'venevermetayoubeforewhateveryouare..."
So she goes on, not really having noticed quite how fast she's speaking. It just feels good to be able to talk about something that doesn't involve any immediate chance of horrible amounts of death or pain being dished out in all directions by nasty, unpleasant creatures who seem to want nothing more than to...well, to dish out horrible amounts of death or pain to other people.

OOC - Hmm...I suppose even those fluent in Common might have some trouble understanding what Ameena just said...but, you know, she can't just keep her murafu nature contained forever - it's gotta leak out occasionally or she might explode or something .

Petal looks confused at the rat-like being. She tries to answer as many questions as she can before the flood becomes too great.

Pixie am I. Very common race in the home forest. Come I my village from, home forest called in your language. Once, lots of villagers were. Only one now, is I. No. Sorcen only pixie that magic using like I. Training they need, become sorcerer, like I. Other pixie Way of NETA, DAIN, ROS, KU follow. Sorcen different, that way born sorcen. Nature of magic, inside. Not like others. Choose to walk Way others do, personal choice. Sorcen become sorcerer they must, learn NETA, DAIN, Song of Mana. At least power learn use they must, if not full sorcerer strong enough to become. Or, die they. Go ma'hali. Power inside, burn them away."

The pixie looks very uncomfortable by the continuing flood of questions. Her lips are compressed into a thin line and her eyes seem haunted by reliving memories. She pauses before each sentence often looking away or closing her eyes as she answers, but she also appears to be trying to fit in with the group. As soon as the murafu's speech becomes unintelligible, she waits for the flood to stop, then holds up both hands in a supplicating gesture.

"Sorry am I, your language not I speak. Common, speak I little bit. Sylvan speak I. Perhaps language yours, teach me later? Too am I, interested in your people. Never have I met dwarf like you, before. Did not know related to rat, dwarf is. Had pet moon-rat once, I did. Very nice." She gives the murafu a friendly smile and a nod and flits back up to the roof of the passage. She constantly flits a few feet ahead of the group appearing to be on the lookout for anything they might cross.

Perception (1d20+4=13)

So, yeah. Ameena. She thinks you're a dwarf because all she knows of dwarves is that they are hairy and live in burrows. And you are hairy and (she presumes) would live in a burrow.

I think I've been confusing Ameena - Westian's potions give 1d6 more to anyone who drinks them, I was just warning you that drinking any other potion will be level = no of d6s. So since that is Westian's potion (right?) then it is still 3d6 healing. Also, no perception roll, so I'll just give you the basics....there's a good reason for Ameena getting distracted.

Deephold seemed interested in Petal's explanations of the branches of magic, although mention of sorcery seemed to cloud his vision a little. Similarly, he seemed interested and surprised that there had been a village so close, and saddened at the apparent loss.

As the group moved forwards, Ameena's nose started getting wind of something alarming that reminded her of some of the darker times in the dungeon - it was blood.

Petal, trying ot move on ahead, was equally distracted from looking around by the memories of being chased. She kept trying to listen out for the clank of armour, and the shouts of soldiers, and so noticed quite late the thin red trail coming from the corridor she was leadign the group to.

"Blood!" said Deephold unnecessarily, or at least unneccessarily for all but Haynuus, who had distractions of his own. The dwarf moved forwards with his mace held up, apparently using his darksight to aid in seeing around the corner. The dwarf gave a gasp, and paused for a second as somethign seemed to register. He then rushed forwards.

"A few things begin to come together," he said grimly as he briefly checked what turned out to be a body, and shook his head. The corpse was a human male with a disfigured face, dressed in plain robes. Blood was coming from some wound around his body, and clearly the man had tried to crawl away for a few moments.

Deephold looked up at Petal though spoke to the group. "This man's name is not Falkor. At least, I do not think it is - perhaps he lied to me. His name was Fex, and he was the mage who led my group into this place. Our order said he knew much about this place, which was true, and also he seemed harmless, which is also literally true. He was good at seeming harmless. He however, was not." Deephold looked at the man grimly. "I believe he betrayed my paladin and myself to the soldiers here. What you have said, and what I see, confirms it. Lord Larethian's teachings ensure I do not feel happy for any man's death, but I can at least know that this man will stand before a higher power to answer for his actons in this life. And that Umgold can stand at the other side, telling the tale of this man's worth." Deephold looked saddened. "I know the name Falkor because this man said it. He was the halfling mage Fex hoped would accompany us, but had apparently declined."

Deephold looked to the rest of the group. "I assume this is the same Falkor, and I assume Fex used his name to our pixie friend here out of guilty conscience or fear his name might be known for ill." Deephold sighed again. "If the gnome called your friend evil, and the halfling knew Fex, perhaps it is so." Then Deephold shrugged. "Of course, the gnome mage is not one I would trust, and your friend refused to aid Fex and aided Westian. Unless they were competing for the same prize?"

Deephold stands up. "We can do nothing more, here. This is not your friend. Where do we go now?"

Haynuus, meanwhile, had been destracted this entire time. He would swear he could hear an echo of the armour he was fiddling with as he moved. It took a while for Haynuus to convince himself it wasn't him, and it wasn't Deephold. There was asound following them, And not just blindly, like an animated armour. Someone was intelligently following them. Someone armour clad. Oh dear.


Ok, there we go. So the mystery of 'Falkor' is revealed. I don't think Petal mentiond it, but Fex actually introduced himself as 'Falkor Helm' to her Anyway, of course the party might now worry over Fakor's real motived. Because that sort of thing is fun.

Anyway, nothing to stop you guys from heading off now and relaxing. Well, except for the evil soldier following you, the potential murafu freak-out over blood and violence, and the questions over what's going on, potentially!

The half-orc unconsciously pulled a face when he heard that her name was 'Petal'. He couldn't help it as it was instinct. Where he was from there was a strange cultural tradition where any orc that called themselves 'Mountain Dew' or 'Cherry Blossom' were to be greatly feared. You see the normal reaction to other orcs upon hearing the name was raucous laughter and taunts would follow. However... Any orc giving themself a name that a fairy or elf would choose were likely to have something wrong with them... They liked to fight. And by that we mean REALLY like to fight. And were good at it too. He knew one orc that called himself 'Rosemary' who was simply a wizard with a spear in one hand and a pair of tweezers in the other. The veterans of many a war would flee before him rather than apologise and say that they didn't realise that the name Rosemary was actually attached to a psychopath.

"I have not seen Growlgra-bika, no." he finally replied to her question, almost remorseful about thinking this pixie was somehow anything to do with those horrible orcs. If she had been looking for and fighting chaos, she could well be insane though. From a closer look over her it was obvious that she did not work for the sides of darkness and madness. She was actually quite pretty and pleasing to the eye but alas, most fragile.

The corpse, he had seen so many, was this 'Fex' then. He listened to Deephold's suggestions and grunted in agreement.

It was then he heard a noise. A metallic noise that would almost imitate the group's movement. "I think I'll be needing a speical potion again" he said in a low voice "someone his coming from behind us and they're wearing armour." He silently moved to the back of the group with his magic sword ready once more to pounce on a potential pouncee (1d20+12=22, 2d6+4=11).

OOC - Ah okay, I recalled there was some bonus associated with Westy's potions for somereason but didn't know what it was. That was Deephold's potion she used - she hasn't used her own one yet (the 3d6 one she got from Westy before they split).

BIC - Ameena stops in surprise and looks up at Petal.
"I'm not a dwarf!" she says in bemusement, before realising she'd better keep moving in order to keep up with the long-legged strides of Haynuus and Deephold. "Deephold's a dwarf - they're not related to rats...at least, not as far as I know. I'm a murafu. What's a moon-rat? What's a pet? I think I've heard that word before, but..."
With some effort, she then stops herself from bursting into another flood of questions.
"Umm...sorry." she says contritely. "We like to talk a lot. Murafu, I mean. And...well, it's been rather a long time since I last met one. But hopefully I will, one day, and..."
She pauses, sniffing the air and fully focusing her gaze on the ground in front of her. What's that smell? It seems horribly familiar. She checks it again to be sure - after all, it smells like blood, and she has so much of that on her that shemight jut be getting confused.
But no, she's right - this is different blood. And she can smell a lingering smell of human. And...
She stops completely as the source of these smells comes into view. It is a human, and there is blood. Lots of it.
Turning her back on the scene, Ameena sits back on her haunches and bows her head. More death. More blood. Why so much of it here? Of course, creatures die all the time - otherwise every predator would starve to death. But the deaths they cause aren't like this. They kill because they have to. It's in their nature, and it means, she supposes, that the world doesn't simply become utterly crowded with the creatures who feed on other things, like plants.
She is only half-listening to Deephold's words - she does recall someone mentioning a mage called Fex, but doesn't particularly care to remember all the details at this time - anyway, she feels as though her head still isn't quite right from having the Darkstone in her side.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Haynuus walking past her, Air-blade in hand, and saying that they're being followed. Now why didn't she notice that? She supposes it's probably Garax, and wonders whether he's managed to let...the other person...out of the cell.
So, she supposes, now there'll be [i[]more[/i] fighting, and most likely another corpse to rest beside this other one. And then both of them will probably get up and try to kill them all again as soon as someone like Soorec or the elf comes along and finds them. And then there'll be more fighting. She wonders whether it will ever end.
"You don't have to kill these people, you know." she mutters quietly to Haynuus from her hunched-over position on the floor. "There's already...too much blood everywhere, and things..."
She looks down at herself, trying to see whether she can actually see any of her fur beneath the blood coating her - a few tufts are sticking out here and there, and her tail is mostly clean, but other than that she seems coated in the life-water of not just herself, but almost everyone they've met since leaving the waterfall-cave, a place she'd dearly love to return to right now.

As they walk, Petal looks at Deephold, then at Ameena. She seems slightly disappointed by something. "Oh, muraffeu, you. Alright."
She thinks on the murafu's question, trying to form the words of the unfamiliar language.
"Moon-rat is rat type of home forest. In full moon, glow they white. Pet...is animal friend. Take care of, it you do. You like it, like you it. Not smart, pixie or human-like. Friend still, though."

Petal looks at the body of the mage when it is discovered. "Yes. This mage, call himself Falkor. Not call himself 'Fex'. To me at least. Why, know I not. Dead, glad I am he is. Soul of him, not of RA." She doesnt seemed to be at all disturbed by the blood, instead checking the corpse for anything useful. Perception (burn 0 lev spell affect to add mana-sense) (1d20+4=14) "When first I see him, glowing thing he carried. Stone, or the like, it seemed to be Petal describes the glowing stone she saw when she first met the mage after waking up . Sensed I in it, great power."

Turning back to Ameena to speak to her she sees the murafu's discomfort at the blood. "No worry, you muraffeu. If die good things than is bad, but sometimes, die must bad things. Not good ever, death is. But nessisary when death evil being would cause if not stopped. Always to get used to, is hard. Pixie is race of peaceful. But when I village and family lost, must fight. Must kill. Must fight so others must not. Muraffeu you, fight. Then other meraffeu not have to. Be alright, it will. Help you, I will." And so saying, she gently places her hand on the murafu's head and scratches her fur, trying to gently remove some of the dried blood.

Haynuus glances briefly at Ameena. "When I get out of this place the only thing I want to be slaughtering will be screamers. Until then I follow both Westian's orders and those of survival."

She was right though. The solution to these bad people doesn't have to be resolved with their death. He had absolutely no problem defeating these constructs of magic, death and hate yet there are real beings that have been hurting each other as well. Haynuus was ready to leave. Adventuring for him was nearing an end.

"Light," whispered the circlet on Haynuus's head.

Deephold eyes Petal as she speaks of a glowing stone, and quickly moves back to the body despite the danger. "Larethian's name be praised!" he says, pulling out the object cramed into the mage's robe upon noticing the bulge. Though something about it concerns him. "This is part of the soulstone gifted to the Grey Lord!" he said to the group quickly and quietly. "The fact it is shattered perhaps explains something. Why, and how it was allowed is another matter."

Deephold then realises the danger, and comes back to the group to see what is decided.

And if Petal had said nothing, I would have happily let you guys leave it behind

"Eeek" whispers Haynuus to no-one but himself.

Haynuus lights a partially used torch from his backpack and immediately lets it drop to the floor, reclutching his sword as if he were a scared child.

"Perrr... Perrr... Potion? Or Run? Run is nice? Do you guys hear something?"

Petal is interested in what the short human...dwarf...seems to be saying. Something about a soul stone of the Grey Lord. But where was the Grey Lord? She is about ready to ask him when the ugly human asks if anyone hears something. She listens to the surrounding area for any signs that they are being followed.
Percept (1d20+4=10)