Dungeon Master Forum

Ian, I'm pitching Haynuus's throw just before Brighteyes temporarily dispelled the RA door, and everyone else's just after.

The Falchion was not the most aerodynamic item in that orientiation, but it did the job well. It hit the fading in-and-out door and was held suspended for a second. The lightning did not dispell, nor did it channel down the blade. The energy of the door instead seemed to be attracted to the sword, swirling around it in translucent coils. The sword then fell to the other side, although the brevity of its passage indicated it had lost significant momentum after hitting the door.

"So beautiful!" said Brighteyes, "it's no wonder swords are always created for magical items more than anything else!"

The gnome poked at the Falchion on the other side, a small noise as it apparently burned his finger. "You see, no harm!" he said to Aurek as the paladin stood close, perhaps guarding against the gnome moving to switch something on at the other side. "Magical electricity - like its natural counterpart - loves metal. There's just more of an attraction, is all. I can't imagine any harm would befall anyone as long as ....oh!"

Westian's breastplate sailed through the gap without anything jumping out at it, clattering loudly on the floor further away than Haynuus's Falchion.

Sir Farel looked to Westian, then the door, and then Aurek beyond it before drawing himself up. He placed his helm on his head. "I shall not be removing the armour of my ancestors. If I should die from some trap, let it be with the full pride of my station!"

With quick steps the knight moved across the doorframe, leaving Westian and Haynuus on the other side. There was a sudden flick of electrical discharge between the posts, then nothing again.


Falkor is in a state of quantum flux for now, I'll let money retroactively choose his side

Haynuus, satisfied with the safety of the door, moved somewhat quickly and nervously through the door with more than just a little skip.

He picks up the sword on the other side and gives the gnome a wide grin. "I... Like... Fireworks and Flashes!" He thought for a little more.

"So... Where is Master Theron now?" He ran his fingers through his hair thinking for a moment. He wondered if this would be the best place to start, instead of heading straight for their objective. He doubted that the Grey Lord's apprentice was distorted by chaos from the way the gnome was talking, and he would make an A+ ally by the half-orc's book.

Seeing Farel get through the doorway unscathed improved Westian’s confidence, and he dashed through as fast as possible. On getting to the other side he cautiously examined his breastplate, and after making sure that it was not hot he strapped it on again. Once they had all crossed to the other side he turned to the gnome. “All right Brighteyes, lead on!”

OOC I assumed everyone got through ok, if not I can edit the post later!

As a birthday treat I won't kill money with a door, so let's assume you guys all are through, shall we I'll move the narrative along a bit, next update won't be expected until tomorrow evening to catch everyone

Brighteyes gave another grin to the half-orc, nodding enthusiastically at the sentiment. "Indeed, the best part of magic is all the pretty colours and lights! And the sounds. I must admit, I tend to keep in earplugs when I suspect magic. Got to watch my hearing, you know! Needs to last a lifetime!"

Sir Farel removed his helmet on the other side, still looking with suspicion at the doorway they had now past. He nopdded to Westian as the cleric safely made it through without any effect.

After a moment, while Farel was helping the cleric back into his breastplate (with no ill effects) did the paortal splutter into life again feebly, then semi-shut off again.

"A shame, a shame, but interesting magical devices are so tedious when they block ones way, are they not? Om my yes. Onwards, onwards, ever onwards!" said the gnome brightly, beckoning the party to carry on. "It's where Theron is just now, I believe. Onwards. Though mostly downwards. He could probably say 'hello' to Mart'a quite easily!"

The corridor twisted once, but was other wise a dull, monotonous trudge (no map on me, it might be a little twistier guys).

The stonework has an odd twinkle to it, as if particles on a mineral were buried into it. It was also very neat, certainly a contrast to the more ruined samples higher in the dungeon.

The ceiling and floor were in the main part still grey stone, but the cut was elegant in its fit. More importantly, the slightly darker, or slightly redder, or slightly yellower stones sudden;y took on shapes. Very subtly woken into the pattern of the surroundinds were a simple mosaic pattern. The mind put the shakes of serpent's coils to the design. What the meanng of it was - if any - was a mystery to the casual glance.

What was not so subtle as wthey walked along were the floor-toceiling recesses set occasionally at alternate sides of the wall. Walking passed the first without care, Brighteyes at first didn't comment on the fact that each large (easy 10 foot wide and deep) recess held a crude human figure, with stone skin.

"Ah, the golems of the Grey Lord. Odd he put no artistry into them, they look liek a child's limpy rendision of their parents! Still, I presume if they were roused in anger, one wouldn't quibble about the fine details!"

Each stood nine feet tall, almost toughing the ceiling, and filled out well the alcove they were set into. Their faces seemed sad, if any expression could be definied on them, and their bright white eyes bored into the wall across from them. If they huge precense and expression were not intimidating enough, they fact each possessed a huge stone club resting on a shoulder would cause alarm.

"Onwards, onwards, ever onwards!" said Brighteyes without giving them another thoughts.

Hehe, map will be up tonight. Are you guys happy to walk passed potential death. D&D and DM are pretty much in sync here - stone golems, at your level, are pretty nasty

Haynuus took an interest in the golems as he passed them. As they continued he happened upon a stone on the floor, although it was more of a pebble really. He flicked it with his foot just infront of one of the golems. XP-hoooooare! He could hear his old shaman shouting at him... Yes, the half-orc chuckled to himself at the thought that if he some how tripped up one of these titans he'd unknowingly become quite a 'warrior'.

Aurek was intrigued by the solid stone figures as he passed them. He even briefly stopped to have quick closer look at one (perception 1d20 = 19)
One of those stone clubs would squish us all in a second he thought to himself... would be good to get hold of one though, might be good to do my own squishing with... hehehe chuckling to himself at the last thought.

"Thanks for the help" Westian began as Farel helped him with the breastplate. "A precaution, but clearly an unnecessary one."

As they continued to walk, and the gnome continued to ramble, Westian focused on something he said. "Theron is in this direction too? Does he reside near to Seeroc? And are they on friendly terms?"

Further down this apparently never-ending corridor they began to passed the golems. Judging by how little attention Brighteyes paid to them Westian assumed that they must be harmless - if they were going to attack they would surely attack without discrimination. Although that reasoning assumed that the gnome had some sense of self-preservation...

OOC: Very nice of you to give money a pass for his birthday! I hope you don't kill me with a door on my birthday too!

OOC: Give me a check roll money if you want to try and analyse it (Glove) on the move. Falkor: Rolled 1d20 and got 13

Falkor was fascinated, he was seeing so much for the first time and yet there was little time to stop and examine fully. Looking at the large stone structures Falkor felt like they were watching him. He moved along with the others, listening to the various conversations between his colleagues and Brighteyes!

"Theron must be a true master in the arts of magic." Haynuus said to himself after hearing Westian's comment.

Next he directed his comment directly at the gnome "How did Gholst persuade Theron to work for him, and you indicated that this worked has stopped now?"

OOC - Could you tell me if the face is painted on any more parts of Haynuus's armour such as the knee plates? Maybe I'm getting paranoid but...

Sir Farel gave a shrug. "If one could tell ahead of time the unnecassary actions from the necessary, I suspect a knight such as myself would not need such strict moral codes. And the professional and the amateur would not be so easy to spot. It is wise to be caustious, and just as wise to always stick to one's principles. We can never truly know when our actions will have consequences. I would not call any action unnecessary until one is sure all possible consequences have passed one by."

Whatever strange tangent of thought Westian had interrupted by his comments, Sir Farel was apparently embarrassed to have hijacked the conversation, and simply gave a small bow when the breastplate was done up, moving forward to the front of the party.

Meanwhile Falkor checked out the glove further. Sadly, it was not a style he was familiar with, nor could he immediately get it to 'work'. One thing was certain, it was not one of a pair. There was a custom among mages to create shaped gloves with an asymetrical pattern to designate left and right gloves. This glove was flat and had a symetrical, simple set of embroidered white lines going from wrist to middle finger. The pattern was on both sides, and so the glove was reversible to fit either (human sized) hand. Still, it stayed on well enough.

Falkor knew that gloves could, like many items, have command words, command gestures, activate when touching something appropriate or simply be activated by thought. Given the pattern on the glove, Falkor suspected that the glove was designed to unleash a magical effect. If so, then it was possible either a simple word of command was needed, or even just hinking upon the correct effect. One last piece of arcane knowledge gave Falkor pause - usually those activated by thouhgt required the user to be able to already create the effect at the correct power .Those gloves simply drew mana from the surroundings instead of from the caster.

While Haynuus had spotted nothing untoward, Aurek watched with a tightness in his throat as the golem slowly reacted to the small rock that struck it The thing's head tilted silently and slowly down for a moment to regard the half-orc's back, and then with no more than a small amount of stone dust, the head righted itself again.

However, Aurek could spot that while the golem's glowing white eyes were apparently looking ahead, behind the glow the eyes actually seemed to have the normal parts - a central iris and pupil of white surrounded by the glowing white orb of the rest of its eye. And while the golem's gaze looked fixed across the corridor, the subtle and real eye was actually cast downwards. However, it was not following Haynuus's path. It appeared to skip betwwen Aurek himself and Westian. Also, was it Aurek's imagination, or did the golem's fist tighten a little on its club?

Aurek found the golem's eyes mesmerising, and he had to look away sharply.


Teehee. Perhaps it spotted Aurek looking longingly at it. Perhaps its all in Aurek's imagination.


Without spotting this, Haynuus was already engaging Brighteyes in conversation, along with Westian.

"All roads lead to Home!" said the gnome with a chuckle to himself in reply to Westian's comment on the whereabouts of Theron. "The dungeon is so large that Theron and the Grey Lord use the Stairs of the Dead to move between the important parts. Chaos turned so much into ...well, into chaos... that it is best to not go the long way! So yes, in a way this is the route to Theron aswell. He's in the Grey Lord's main laboritories. And the priest aswell. He and Gholst's second in command have stationed themselves, along with most the soldiers, in the Armoured Halls above there. Seeroc of course wanted to be closer to the Grey LOrd's private studies up here in the Tomb, but found some facinatingly useful rooms to call his own for both his work and his crafting projcts. Oh yes! They are ony a staircase or two downwards. Not too far, except for little legs like mine and the halfling's!" Brighteyes turned around and gave a semi-wave to Falkor, and then was forced to stop for a moment when two scrolls fell off.

"Theron is indeed powerful," nodded Brighteyes, "the man is an archmaster of all the arts! And yet he had never lifted a blade in his life, nor followed any High Lord save the Grey Lord. I wonder how he did it?" Brighteyes was broken from his train of thought by the further questioning. "Oh, Theron's work has not stopped - just we are not, sadly, working together. I would so love to pick his brain about all manner of things, especially now my time is freer! Alas, such is the way the world of humanoids works, so much backed into so little time, they never seem to have the time for the little things."

Brighteyes then started to giggle. "As to how Gholst persuaded Theron, I think a better question is how did Theron persuade Gholst to work with him!" Brighteyes then sniggered again. He actually put all his possessions down for a moment, and looked up at Westian and Haynuus. Then promptly fell over. "Blast!" He righted himself, and continued to talk in their general direction instead. "Balance you see, all balanced. You can see the logic!" Brighteyes put his hands out at either side. Then slowly, slowly he tilted over to one side. "Little by little, sliding down!" The gnome laughed again, then shook his head. He picked up his items and ignored the bewlidered looks he was surely getting. "Onwards, onwards, ever onwards! So far for little feet!"



There we go. More information, though how much that helps you is anyone's guess Feel bad I forgot the map, sorry! I'll post that tonight. I think unless anything odd happens, we'll be all set up for something interesting come the next week.

Oh, and to answer your question, Ian, the faces aren't painted on - they are embossed into the armour, upraised. And the faces are everywhere

No need to be alarmed though.

*teehee*

Upon seeing the golem move, Aurek had a brief moment of concern. However, after watching it right itself, and then simply watch the group, Aurek figured that the golem had no immediate hostile intentions. He decided to give the golem a brief bow of his head, out of respect, for it not killing him where he stood.

Then he continued along with the others. Having a quick chuckle to himself over Brighteyes toppling over.

The more the half-orc came into contact with the gnome the more he disliked him. He usually hid his feelings, but so much sniggering and innuendo used as a thin veneer to the gnome's evil mind was starting to unhinge the warrior. "Let me help you with these scrolls" he growled. He picked up a few, didn't even bother trying to read the content of them, and handed them back to the gnome... "Why did you bring them with you?, I ask myself."

He righted himself and stood back to his full height, and decided to observe not the gnome if he responded, but to his own armour (1d20+2=20) - the face that perhaps the gnome would talk to. He was getting just a little paranoid with queasy gnomes and humongous golems around.

Westian could not blame the half-orc for his apparent dislike for Brighteyes. The gnome clearly was disturbed; if they did not need him then they would have left him in his laboratory. Maybe this hint that the group could turn nasty was a good thing; it would help focus the gnomes mind on the task ahead and might keep him honest. That is if he cared about such mundane matters as his physical well-being.

Westian continued walking as such musing went through his head. After a while more of walking Westian responded to a comment made earlier by Brighteyes. “I would love to meet Theron too…I did speak to him once, though only briefly. I would like to know what is going on here. After we find Deephold and the squire of course.”

Falkor was still looking at the stone monsters, with half an ear open on the conversation going on and his mind still focused on the glove. As he walked Falkor put on the glove and started to mumble the spells that he knew... starting with a magic candle, moving onto magic fireballs.. perhaps something would trigger this glove to react.

Aurek did not get anything more than a half-look from the golem for his actions, which of course with a two thousand pound construct was not necessarily a bad thing.

Falkor did not notice as much with the golems, instead focused on discovering the secrets of the glove. The more he played with it, the more he felt it didn't need anything like a command word. It really felt as if he should know how to activate this...

For some reason, the candle light imagery struckin his head...

I can retcon your dice rolls or post you a PM money!


Brighteyes was apparently surprised that Haynuus offered to help - surprised, and something else. Still ,the gnome recovered well, giving a bright grin. More importantly, he did not seem to mind Haynuus handling the scrolls nor taking a more aggressive tone of voice.

"My thanks, my thanks!" he said, and whether Haynuus meant to say the next words aloud or to himself, they came out of his mouth and the gnome happily answered. "Facts, figures, they float about so fast in my head, it's so hard to concentrate sometimes! So hard to keep them all in the correct order and in the front of my mind. I do love scrolls and parchments, every last word staked down and squirming with life but unable to scramble away into the corners of my brain. 'Pinned as a raven's wing', so they say. Hmm, I think they say that - don't they?"

Haynuus was too busy to answer the gnome, even if the inclination was upon him. For the faces in his legs were concerning him. If he stared at them too long, he would swore they moved, even though they obviously weren't. He could also swear he heard voices - there was no real words, it was just like something he recognised. Perhaps back in his old mining days, after the goblins had been worked hard and briefly allowed to their 'rest' areas. Then, they had sort of sung some tuneless mournful dirge. The voices seemed to be doing that sort of sad utterance, except more...human-like.

Perhaps he was going slightly mad from staring at his legs and listening to the incessant gnome, while being loomed over by golems. Or perhaps he should have talked to Falkor about what the halfling had seen when the mage had looked at Captain Drommal's armour for too long. Certainly, Falkor could not help but spot Haynuus's odd behaviour. Sir Farel slows down, asking the half-orc if he is alright.


Nice roll there Ian! Now roll me a will save as a reward! ;p


Meanwhile, Brighteyes was being entertained apparently by Westian's admission of meeting Theron. "You did?" asked Brighteyes with wonder. "You certainly are a facinating young man. Well, young by the standards of gnomes, of course. As much as I register time. Perhaps you are older. I mean no offense, and really cannot tell if I give it I'm afraid! I am not sure if Theron really knows what Gholst wants, truth be told. Perhaps if he did, he might not have made the offer he made. Still, then again do I really know what Gholst is doing? Probably not. Ah, the facinating world of screts and lies. They are just so very entertaining, are they not? Oh my my yes!" The gnome perhaps looks to Westian for confirmation, but is distracted by the fact the tunnel has taken a deliberate turn. Certainly, he moves quickly on before anyone can ask him to clarify what Theron's offer might have been.

"Here we are, here we are, almost on the path to the stairs! Come come, another door and we are there!"

Brighteyes is gesturing for the party to enter a large 30 foot wide and 20 foot high hall. The floor is tiled alternatvely with greystones and white marble stones, while the walls seem to have some form of interesting stone and clay carvings on them. They are a little grotesue, half-bandaged faces and arms coming out of the walls as if beckoning. The hall goes on as far as the party can see, for it is easily longer than the reach of their torchlight - and even Haynuus and Westian's good eyesight.

In the distance is the occasional glow and crackle of another RA door, once again the mechanism obviously ruined, causing the door to flicker on and off at random intervals. The door could easily be up to 100 feet distant, perhaps less, and its glow does not seem to reveal anything significantly different.

To the eyes of Haynuus and Westian, they can spot that at about 50 feet - surely the centre of the hall - are a pair of opposed alcoved, 10 foot wide and 10 foot high. Once again, a stone golem seems to have taken up silent residence in them, in this case each staring at the other.

"Come along, come along!" gestures Brighteyes, moving ahead. In this environment, and with Brighteyes taking more of a lead, it is now easy to spot that Brighteyes seems to possess illumination himself - his body seems to be the centre of a light that slowly travels ahead of the party's own torches.

"A facinating room, truly facinating, but no time for sight seeing now, oh my no! Onwards and downwards I am afraid! I can tell you about these poor wretches as we....oh."

Brighteyes pauses, and looks back to the group as he apparently hears something. "My my my, restless today, aren't they. How very interesting. Oh well, perhaps I shall come back later, perhaps." He shrugs and moves on, though by this time the party can hear what Brighteyes has heard. A very low moan, as if coming from all around. The harmonics make it sound as if the moan has many parts to it, as if from many voices. The moaning slowly gets louder, and Brighteyes stops again. "Truly facinating," he says, looking around. "Anyway, come along, come along! Perhaps best not to stop, just incase!" He giggles at this, as if the thought of it were ludicruous.


And there I shall leave it for the weekend. Hmm, doesn't seem much of a cliffhanger though. Roll initiative people!

No, I actually mean it, roll initiative. You don't have to observe the six second round for your next 'getting up to speed' posts (as a few of you will be lagging I think), but try to keep your actions in roughtly six second increments from then on

Not that anything other than noise appears to be happening, of course.

I'll go ahead and put the map up of the room, without any illumination marking, along with where I imagine you guys are.

Have a good weekend!

And....MAP!:

Haynuus stared with fascination at the face on his armour. It was sucking him in, he was losing himself to perhaps a truly evil artefact. He had to snap himself out of it! (1d20=10)

If anything it was the ominous noise that the golems were emitting that would change the half-orc's concentration. Ruuuun! his survival instincts shouted to him.

OOC - Roll for initiative (1d20=1) Looks like he'd rather stare at his armour instead!
Don't forget peeps. The Monsters can only get one free swing at you per turn if you rush past them so feel free to delay your actions until after Haynuus has had a go and they can swing at him first! If someone meaty could stand in front of the doorway to help the rest of us get out, thanks.

Haynuus didn't feel threatened, so much as ...sad. Some form of great sadness was washing over him. Again he remembered the poor goblins he'd 'administered' over in the past, and also the various encounters and associations he'd had in his young life that had not ended well for the other party.

Some small voice inside was trying to convince him that this was alright, that there was nothing wrong with this. However, the overwhelming sense was just of loss, overpowering his natural instincts. Haynuus could swear the human chorus was actually turning subtly into the goblin chorus he'd first remembered. HE was also very aware he couldn't move his legs. It was all terribly confusing.

Sir Farel noticed with growing alarm the innaction of his comrade, and tried to shake the half-orc out of it.


Heh, thank goodness you only have the leg plate, and more importantly thank Westian for an innucuos at the time general prayer to the death when you were beside the corpses. This could be so much worse.

Updating Ian again just because this will probably affect everyone's actions.

As it is, you won't be able to move this next 'round' Ian. And yeah, the low initiative is definitely from all this. Anyway, I'll need another will save for the next round - hopefully you'll be able to break free of this and act.

As you may be able to guess, everyone's actions can help you with the next will save. And more importantly, anyone focused on you isn't focused on anything happening in the hall. Not that anything is happening in the hall.

*shakes head*

“Yes, definitely it is best not to stop” Westian whispered to himself in response to the gnomes comment. Then, with almost comic timing, Haynuus proceeded to stop dead in his tracks. Westian did not know what was going on – was this related to moaning noise? Had some spell been cast? He held his blade tightly and infront of his body in an active posture as he spun around, looking in every direction. “Haynuus, something wrong?” he he whispered over his shoulder in the direction of the half-orc.

OOC: Sorry for the delay, usual excuse (work!). My initiative roll is 12

Aurek froze for a moment when he heard the ominous moaning. It was then that he noticed the Haynuss had also frozen. However, when he moved, Haynuus did not. "What's wrong Haynuus?" questioned the paladin. I wonder if this has anything to do with those golems... or this strange little gnome he thought to himself.

Drawing his sword, he prepared for any potential threats that may be sneaking around in the shadows.

"Uggh" said the half orc who was caught between worlds. "Can't.... Move." Need to move, shouted his mind.

Haynuus always lived between worlds. Whether it was because of his racial trait - an outcast from the humans or never fully accepted by the orcs. Then it was his partial retardedness that had mis-fitted him in a world that ran on a different plane to his own. He always took the simplest approach, therefore, and treated gold for food and shelter not for palaces or fine clothes with survival and clean living as his goal. Need to fewking move.

His eyes in his skull were focussed elsewhere yet for the first time in a long time it was his mouth that would get him out of trouble "Spell... Kick me... Anything." He hissed, then opened his arms for assistance.

Falkor moved closer to the Gnome, he semed to be dropping things all over the place and it would be easier for him to help pickup items than Haynuus, he also considered the strength and size of Haynuus and figured it wouldn't be long before something broke. As he moved towards the Gnome he noticed Haynuus had stopped moving, it was strange, he didn't look right and the others had noticed too...

Falkor turned to the Gnome and spoke quietly, "What is wrong with him?"

OOC: Falkor: Rolled 4d20 and got knowledge (6) Will save (16) Initiatiuve (14) and Sense motive (11) - Can I do all of those?

Falkor couldn't work out which effect it was - certainly he was certain that his current level of casting, reduced as he felt it was, would not let him unlock the effect. It was irritating. Perhaps the candlelight was in reference to the light generated by the rune of air, not the fire rune of FUL, certainly many of the offensive effects he had learned were twists on invoking air...somehow...

Suddenly Falkor felt dizzy, and he had a mental image of himself, a flash of what felt like memory. Oddly, he was wearing the glove and using it. He could feel the mental wish required to unlock it. Irritatingly, he could not recall the effect generated, but he felt more certain the effect was almost within his grasp. More worryingly, as almost all of his memories had returned, where was this memory of using the glove coming from?

So there you go - certainy when you hit level 5, feel free to point the glove at someone/something as a standard action and se what effect gets generated For now, you won't be able to generate it...

Brighteyes smiled in confusion as Falkor walked across to him. "I am really not sure!" he said, and Falkor thought the gnome was telling the truth, but certainly could not tell for sure. "It's highly entertaining and unusual, but not something I have seen before." Brighteyes took a moment from looking around at the grotesue walls to look back towards the half-orc, and the others. "Hmm, the orc cannot move his legs, and is the only one wearing the embossed armour. Yes, why, perhaps that is why the walls call to him. The trapped spirits in the wall are calling out to the spirits bound to the armour. Facinating! I assume your half-orc is feeling the call of the Souls, oh my. My my my." Brighteyes continues speaking to himself quietly as if trying to work out something, looking ot the wall and towards Haynuus again.

While Falkor was perhaps wrapped up with the gnome, Aurek was alert and looking towards any dangers. Nothing hidden looked to be waiting to jump from the shadows. Nor did the golems - for the moment - appear to be moving. However, what was happening was the moan was getting louder and louder. And worse yet, the grotesue bumps of hands and faces in the walls seemed to shift. Was it just the light, or was the wall coming to life? And what did that mean? Nothing good, Aurek was sure.


Haynuus was meanwhile still feeling the sadness in his head. The subtle voice under that was being more insistant, telling him to not mind it, and to just accept how good and simple it felt when he simply did what he wanted. Did he not like those times passed when he had just travelled with his friends and raided dungeons, taking the trinkets he wanted? It was quite simple, and he had probably caused less harm than in recent times.

Sir Farel looked confused as Haynuus spoke of acting violence against himself. As a concerned Westian came forward, Haynuus felt a moment of pain at the prescence of the cleric. However, then he felt a small oasis of calm somewhere - after all, hadn't his short time working for the cleric - while filled with lots of violence and oddness itself - at least been for a good purpose?

Oddly that, rather than all the thoughts of simple actions, seemed to allow him to wiggle his big toe. It was not much, but it was a start.

So let's see, walls starting to move? Check. Haynuus faced with some odd form of choice, perhaps? Check. Party in more and more mortal danger without truly realsing it yet? Check.

If you guys manage to respond by the end of the day, I'll sneak in another update late tonght or first thing tomorrow. Hopefully I can catch OB's lunch wit hthis post... Will also create a 5 square map for...no reason. None at all.

Aurek could sense the war going on inside Haynuus. He decided that there was only one course of action: bowl him over.
Aurek charged full-force at the half-orc (1d20 = 12) attempting to knock him off his feet, allowing the other members of the group to remove the now obviously cursed armor.

Haynuus mentally wooted at the success of scraping his toe nail in his boot. He then mentally cursed at being bowled over by the plate metal wearing paladin. He was still not with it though and didn't know what was going on. His options was to strip or flee.

"Thanks! Either take the trancey armour with the faces off me or pick up a leg each and drag me out of here!"

"Sorry Haynuss" apologised Aurek to the bowled-over half-orc. "I figured that the best option was to knock you over, so we could remove that 'evil' armor. Sorry if it hurt." And once the plate was removed, Aurek helped Haynuus back to his feet.

OOC: Damn! I forgot to let out a blood-curdling warcry as I mowed him down, that would've been the icing on the cake

Seeing that for now no danger was present Westian lowered his guard and moved over to Haynuus. Westian was no physician, although he had seen them in action before. Not sure what to do with the unresponsive half-orc he decided to test his reflexes. The half-orc could not move voluntarily, but was his involuntary movement still functioning? He readied his index finger to start prodding, but before he had made his first test Aurek began a far more spectacular test of his own and knocked Haynuus off his feet. Seeing this dramatic action spurred Westian into something more active than his initial plan. He saw the face-covered armour and quickly went about trying to remove it from Haynuus’s legs.