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Westian was pleased to see that the mention of the High Lords could indeed disperse the walking dead, but less pleased to see the golems were now in full action. At least they seemed to be focused on the undead for now.

He turned to the group and shouted "Everyone, quickly, run for the door while the golems are distracted." Westian did not need to tell himself twice and joined Haynuus in a dash towards the flickering RA door.

OOC: Westian will run in the most direct way possible to the door. So if the golems move to attack the remaining critters that should leave a gap between them and the wall and Westian (lower initiative) will dash through. If not, then just whatever way is most direct after the golems movement.

As Aurek rebuked the undead before him, one seemed to stand tall and take it... he seemed to recognise some facial features of this undead before him, was it his brother? However, before he could examine the undead corpse further, Haynuus cleaved its head right off, and reduced it to dust.

Rest in peace, my brother thought the paladin... then the boiling rage came, "Someone's gonna pay for this!" screamed the paladin, in a blind rage. Then he charged full-force after the now two undead that remained. "I'm gonna send you all back to the hell you came from!" he screamed at them, before lowering his sword into the abominations chest (attack 1d20 = 8, damage 1d8 = 7).

OOC: I figure that if I think that it was my brother (as discussed in PM), then I have a reason to simply go berserk. hehehe

Haynuus was quick off he mark to take advantage of the shifting fortunes of the group - and perhaps scare the bejesus out of the less tall members aswell. He tore infront of the golems without care, knowing they were slower in reaction than a half-orc with a purpose.

Haynuus's choice of words and attempt to grab the gnome were meet with bemused stares, but Haynuus was already flyng towards the exit before he realisd that while he'd put hands to the gnome, he hadn't remembered to close his hands in time. To much to remember at once, he supposed!

Still, Brighteyes shrugged, looked around to his halfling companion, realised his companion had moved out of the way of the advancing golem, shrugged again, and then gestured to Falkor on his other side t lead on - inviting him to go first towards the RA door, and hopefully freedom.

Aurek, meanwhile, was not focused upon the actions of his companions anymore, nor even the golem. He simply charged at the creature that had fled him a moment before and his sword smashed hard through it.

"Control yourself, man! And watch out for the golem!" yelled Sir Farel in warning, lookng with concern to the paladin. Both noted that the dust that the creature collapsd into started to waft towards the closest wall, and then was violetly sucked back in the direction Aurek had just came from.

There was a grinding, booming noise, and the stone golem closest to the two moved forward eager to finish off the last of the wretches. Unsurprisingly, the slowed motion of the cadaver combined with the powerful blow of the golem's club meant the creature was dust in the blink of an eye. Once more, the dust was pulled back, whipping around Westian's feet as the cleric ran.

Both golems turned around as one, checking the wall Westian had been beside. Westian had, hoever, taken advantage of the gap created when the first golem had moved, and was tearing off in the direction of the door that Haynus had kindly illuminated. The half orc was certainy blazing the trail, yet Westian managed to beat the half-orc, whose detour had cost him time.

The golems did not heed this. Instead, both of them - and by the sounds of it the ones in the corridor aswell - opened their formless mouths and bellowed. It was a deep rumbling sound, like that of a fog horn such as some of he entrprising old worlders used to warn of the rocks close to shore. The resonant pitch of it, shaking everyne's chest, semed to take forever to fade, causing the ears of everyone to be numbed.

Meanwhle Farel stood infront of the paladin, to shield his from the golems. However, Farel's upraised weapon was not needed. The knight looked long and hard at the stone creatures and at the wall his torch was barely illuminating.

"They're waiting for something....this isn't over!" said Farel at lenth, much louder than he meant to since his ears were still ringing. As each person's hearng recovered, they then perhaps heard it - the low moan of the undead again, building as before. well, except the voices seemed more focused in their expression. The group by the door had better ilumination to spot that the walls were crumbling yet again, arms pushng forward again.

WHile Haynuus might have had the idea to go to the door first, his yelling had apparenty had an effect for both the gnome and halfling. They charged passed him on one side, even as Westian charged passd him on the other. The two diminuative members of the pary reached the door first.

The gnome actually touched the door, the squeaked in alarm as the door remained a solid, impenetrable barrier. He looked to he ruined RA lock close to Falkor, and looked back to westian, and beyond Westian to the golems and crumbling swaying walls.

"This," said the gnome, his bright eyes shining, "this...could become very intereting indeed!"


Wow, that was painful to type. Map here: http://www.dmjump.net/golemhallfight6.jpg

You haven't much time - you're going to need some tactical defensive positioning, and some ideas on how to bypass the door.

Good thing an evil DM didn't send one of you off in a tailspin over his brother. Whew, that would be baaaaaaad.

Update tomorrow! Hopeflly with 100% more keyboard access!

Aurek watched the creature turn to dust before him. Then he noticed Farel, and his extreme haste to make a move. "Sorry" the paladin said to Farel, "I just had to smite the evil thing down... it looks like the others could use some help too."

Then the paladin lept into action, and attempted to duck passed the nearest golem to make it to the door.

Haynuus was but precious feet from escaping via the door but they may as well be the feet attached to an angry frost giant as the gnome flustered over the tightly sealed door blocking their escape. The continually shifting walls were getting angrier and the more zealous of the party still hadn't worked out that death was a kind of 'on-going' thing that never stopped. Action was required, although truth be told that he was not the guy to sort this mess out.

He could try to attack the door with his sword, in an attempt to draw it's power away down the sword assuming that it was reduced in strength like the previous one that they passed. Of course the side effect of channelling the energy then down his arms, body and legs may have consequences but there were some fervent healers around.

Perhaps then, a more tricksy approach was required. Maybe Falkor could fix the switch, although it was a shame no rogue was present. First though some verbal abuse - "Get it open, Brightideas!", purely to make him feel better. Next he launched himself at the wall by the door OOC - V2 and started searching for buttons, switches and knobs. (1d20+2=21) Golems, undead hordes, and sociopathic short people all in a confined space obviously help to concentrate the mind.

This didn't look nor sound good, Falkor could see movement on all sides and he even picked up a certain concern from the usually calm Gnome - this WAS going to get interesting and Falkor, still concerned that the odd flame or two would do little again the golems and perhaps other creatures accepted that the best way out of this mess would be to get through this door. Falkor still had the RA Key, he scrambled in his backpack for it, he didn't want to use it earlier, and had there not been stone golems and... well, whatever it was on it's way, he would have tried to find a button or switch, but now was not the time to hold back.

Looking at the broken lock he tried all he could to engage the key, twisting/turning it in all directions..

OOC: Falkor tries everything he can to use the RA key with the broken lock Falkor: Rolled 1d20 and got 12

OH SH*T! thought Aurek as he noticed that the other members of the group hadn't opened that energy door. "Falkor!" he yelled, trying to get the halfling's attention, "If all else fails, try throwing a fireball at it!" bellowed the paladin, "You others might want to move back if he does!" he yelled to the other members of the group.

Somewhat out-of-breath Westian reached the far wall. But apparently his hurry had been pointless; the strange energy seemed to present a physical barrier to anyone wanting to pass through. Normally he would have found such displays of magic impressive, but now his heart was beating fast and he wanted to escape from the golems as soon as possible. “What do you mean, gnome? Are you saying you cannot open it? Why not, you have opened similar doors before. What is different now?” As he spoke Westian was desperately searching the wall near the door for anything that could help. Anything that looked out of the ordinary or anything that could be manipulated. His ran his hands over the surface in a frantic effort to find some mechanism.

OOC: Perception roll was 20 + 4 = 24.

Haynuus leapt to the task of searching switches in the wall with enthusiasm. What he found, categorically, was a complete lack of switches. However, he was quite certain that he had fundamentally proven there were no switches on this wall of a type that he could possibly hope to find. He might further conjecture that there were no levers, buttons nor plads either.

What he could see (a little better than the rest since he had used his free time so efficicently in not finding anything useful) was that the undead creatures had emerged again. Whilst this fact was probably noted by the rest - it was hard to miss - he noted that they did move quite as they had before.

For a start, the undead creatures seemed more clustered. One could even go so far as to say...conjoined. It appeared that each creature was mishapen in some way - some with two heads and others with multiple limbs. Occasionally, these would be roughly where one would expect additional appendages and heads to be. They also looked bulker and more solid.

This was obvious to all - what Haynuus noted was that they did not move quite as mindlessly as the had previously, actually regarding the entire hall and those around before focusing their hate on the two champions of Larethian in the room. These creature might not be as easy to mow down with impunity...

Aurek was already trying to manoeuver around the golem in his way, and make it towards the door. He called across to Falkor, even as the undead horde was beginning to emerge from the wall.

Sorry LB, the golem in the way mean you couldn't run, just double move

The golem Aurek skirted was already beginning to move, and Aurek got out of the way just in the nick of time. Determined, it turned its gaze onto the two closest creatures emerging into the light. Two of the conjoined horrors started moving with strange, stilted movements as if illusioned summoned by the old wizard Ray H. Howzen.

The golem took careful aim and smashed one into the ground. The parts crawled for a moment before being consigned to dust, and with great reluctance and stinging whips of motion they were finally drawn back into the wall again.

The other golem who had stood beside the wall seemed to be unable to see its foes before they emerged around his feet. However, its club was already in motion, and its initial blow destroyed one, and the deliberate downswing ended another even as a chip was knocked from its own foot.

Farel moved quickly to keep up with his paladin friend, startled by the new undead emerging and by the sheer power of the golems that loomed over everyone else.

"Move, I'll keep the rabble from you!" yelled Farel to Aurek, flanking the paladin and putting himself in harms way of the undead horrors. They regarded Farel briefly, but their gazes seemed to eagerly shift to the holy warrior behind.

LB, you can also 'call the shots' on where Farel should concentrate his efforts next round, since Aurek is beside the man and the knight will want to make a co-ordinated effort against these foes.

Westian's questions seemed to startle the gnome out of his facination with the grotesque creatures emerging. He happily addressed Westian's questions, apparently oblivious to Haynuus's previous statement.

"Ah, to put it politely, the difference is...well, the difference is you are still alive, you see?" The gnome gave what could be an apologetic shrug. "The magic of the door gets re-invigorated by the magic binding these undead. The lock was broken by Seeroc, but when the undead wake, the magic is renewed for as long as they are awake to ensure they do not escape. And...well, since you are trapped in here, and still alive, then they will remain awake!"

The gnome looked almost embarrassed on behalf of the Grey Lord for such sloppy thinking. "I mean, really the door will go back to its broken state once the golems return to their stations...and the golems will only return when the undead sleep once more...and the undead will only sleep once anything with the taint of the High Lords had gone." The gnome looked around. "I suppose you could kill yourself!" The gnome then looked embarrassed on his own behalf. "Well, we could always go into the alcoves instead of the golems and trip the switches ouselves. My yes, that might work!" He looked around enthusiastically and then fell over. "So, which one of you weights a thousand pounds? Sorry, I am not good with weights either, I hope that is not a personal question."

Given the luke-warm reception to this idea, the gnome shrugged. "Well, perhaps someone can summon another plasma to burn the lock again? The champions of the Grey Lord would have the right key to escape with, you see..." the gnome then trailed off as he saw Falkor brandish the RA key. "Yes, something like that!"

However even as Falkor took the key, and saw the basic locking mechanism was intact, his heart fell using it. Firstly, he could feel the key jam in place - it was certainly not going to be recoverable. Secondly, and more importantly, it wasn't quite able to turn. The damage to the lock was too severe.

Falkor realised that he could probably think of some clever way - mechanically or magically - to complete the turning of the key, and open the door. The real question was - did they have enough time?

After all, an undead abomination was already standing close to him - although, for now, it appeared the head of its shoulders and the head in its chest were both facing towards Westian.

The cleric hammered on the door but simply felt a wall of force, and the umpleasant feeling of electrical discharge. He did spot that althoguh he tocuhed it with gauntletted hands, the discharge actually registered where his body then wasn't covered by armour. More importantly, he thought he saw something else through the RA door.

However, time had run out - with a combined howl across the hall, all the badly reassembled creatures began to move as one...


Sorry for the long update! Join me in the OOC for comments on how Falkor can attempt to open the door for you.

Oh, map is here: http://www.dmjump.net/golemhallfight7.jpg
Make what you will of the fact that the undead are now numbered. and rejoice that the golems have killed three already

"Farel, we need to keep the others safe from these undead! Follow my lead!" then Aurek ran over next to Falkor (O4 to U4, then U5), and dropped his sword into the undead in the corner (attack 1d20 = 14, damage 1d8 = 8!).

"Haynuss, Westian... we need to keep these undead back. But we can't kill them all, until we're sure we should. Westian, can you channel your faith energy again? Or do you need time to recharge?"

OOC: "Can you roll me eight rolls?" WTF?! 8d20 = 18, 3, 3, 16, 12, 20!, 4, 6
Decent spread... I hope those low ones don't get me killed.

Haynuus listened to the Gnome and... Applied his half-orcish logic to the problem.

The door is sealed due to the undead's presence.
The undead's presence are due to the holy (Westian and Aurek) men's presence.
The door can be opened by pressure plates at the back of the two alcoves, possibly by two meaty people.
If Haynuus and Farel got on each pressure plate, enabling Westian and Aurek to escape, at the right time when there weren't many undead mawing around, the undead won't reappear for yet another wave.
With the undead gone or eventually being splatted by golems, the door would 'open' anyway without the need of any pressure-plate-pleasure.
Haynuus and Farel would then escape, they'd all escape indeed. There would be red carpet, flower petals strewn on the floor and people chanting along the way out. It would be great.

There was one problem however. The cleric and the paladin actually liked smiting the unholy and persuading them to leave their sworn foe would be a little tricky. Their next 'positioning' was going to be critical to enable any plan that they were going to execute. Haynuus breathed in and...

Westian nodded at Aurek's request. Holding up his sword he shouted at the monstrosities "Turn back, Lord Larethian commands you."

OOC: Turn undead 11 + 5 = 16.

...while holding his breath charged into the grotesque creature standing in front of Farel (1d20+8=16, 2d4+4=7, 1d20+8=9, 2d4+4=7). OOC - Did I get the math right?

Haynuus at the same time, with the exhale of breath, explained the situation to the knight (in 6 seconds, right?).

That the presence of the holy men were causing the undead to spawn that the door was closed because of the presence of the undead, that there are two pressure plates in the alcoves in order to open the door, that Haynuus and Farel could each move on to each of the pressure plates in the alcoves to get Aurek and Westian out, and therefore stop the wall from spawning more undead!

This was assuming that the gnome wasn't having a laugh of course.

Falkor turned to Brighteyes, "oh - you have seen one of these before then", pointing towards the RA key that was now firmly stuck in the lock. "It requires a good hand and a lot of skill to open the door, seperates the men from the boys if you know what i mean". With this Falkor handed the Glove to Bright Eyes... "Fancy a turn, It's a very interesting and fulfilling thing when you get it right" He smiled, gave Brighteyes a knod and handed him the glove....

OOC: Using Diplomacy on Brighteyes (1d20 => 10)

Haynuus's brain was rarely employed to help with tasks, and so he found it easy to multitask. While his body was left alone with the important business of killing undead, Haynuus spilled out the complex nature of the situation and the possible solutions to the knight. Haynuus's mind managed to break down the matter quite easily, although his thick tongue did not help.

Meanwhile, Haynuus's sword in Haynuus's hand encountered a problem. These creatures, having died once, were apparently less inclined to collapse into the dust. The multiple limbs made it hard to get a clean chop through aswell. Certainly, Haynuus's sword only hacked off two arms and a head, and it still had one arm and one head left that seemed to keep it upright and together.

Lol, funnily the natural 1 that's an automatic miss isn't the thing that stopped your cleave! The undead you struck just got lucky with its health - and that's despite me adding the extra +2 you get to damage due to your two-haned use of the falchion. Don't worry, the thing (number 7 that made it to Westian) now looks like a stiff wind could blow it down. Oh, Haynuus couldn't quite make it to Farel's side without charging, so I did which I did for you - hope that's ok!

"What? We need to put what, where?" asked Farel as he crossed paths with Haynuus, following the paladin Aurek. Farel did get the general gist of what Haynuus meant, but would need Haynuus's guidance to enact it. There seemed a confusion of information.

Heh, for the fun of it I rolled Farel a perception roll, and he rolled so low I decided to let him play dumb for a round. Since Farel will be acting after Hyanuus in initiative anyway, this has no mechanical effect on the game but gives a good reason why he follows Aurek for now!

Aurek charged directly at the horde by the rest of his party. The creature he targetted was a mess of body parts, almost as if one creature were falling through another and had got stuck half way. There was great resistance to his blade, but Aurek's blow was true and severed the thing in two. There was the odour of long undisturbed tombs as the thing split apart, and then a howl from each side as the two parts scrambled on the ground, clinging to life and hatred. A lopsides face on one shoulder, and a distortorted face on the knee of the thing's opposite side collapsed into themselves, and reluctantly the limbs crumbled to dust and whipped around, finally drawn to the wall.

The penalty for such good armour is you can't move as far as you stated in the way you said LB! Only four squares. Just like Haynuus, I let Aurek charge instead, since you are only inflicting a basic attack. There's an AC penalty, but that's not really relevant when creatures are making their grab attacks at you way below or way above your touch AC.

The creatures flowed fast around the room. Haynuus's body flicked out his blade while his brain was otherwise engaged to try and catch one of them, but sadly apparently his brain was needed this time. Had to use your natural 1 for the AoO Farel was distracted listening to the half-orc's running commentery and following Aurel, and only managed to wound the creature that ran passed him and towards Westian. Its multiple arms were flailing, though dust and earth were now pouring from a wound in its side. And that's number 8 not looking too good either.

Meanwhile, Aurek managed to cleanly take the head of a creaure that was focused more upon Westian than the paladin. Amazingly, it had no other head and its expressive hands soon were reduced to moving dust. If Aurek were given a chance to think, he might be unnerved that the creatures that a moment ago had been so mindless and swarming, now apparently could mindfully choose a target.

Sadly, there were still enough creatures around. The golems were outflanked, only managing to kill the slowest moving undead. The other two made for the sources of goodness in the room with impunity, their sights set on Westian.

Another creature swept through the ashes where Aurek had slain its kin, and launched itself at Westian. Westian's sword glistened in the light and cleaved neatly into the thing. Its parts were at war with each other to destroy the cleric, and it managed to rip itself apart about the wound, finally whirling away back to the wall with a howl.

A 10 taken from your rolls for the AoO hits the creature, and its hit points were low - so Westian lives another day!

Meanwhile, Aurek fared less well. The reward for aiding his fellows was to have three creatures set upon him with impunity. He dodged one, but the wild limbs were too much and the others easily grabbed hold of him. The paladin felt them crush his arms and throat. There were echoing screams of dark joy, sounding oddly childlike from the hollow eyed creatures as they inflicted their pain on the thing they hated the most.

Aurek takes 7 non-lethal damage I'm afraid, and is in a grapple! This means your actions are all limited in the following exciting ways. As a standard action, you can try to break free of both creatures next round by rolling a single check roll with the same bonuses as your normal attack roll, and trying to beat - luckily for you - a 10. This is not an attack, this just gets you free of the grapple. You could then try to move as normal around them, or do some other move-equivalent action. You can instead try to move the creatures with you as one, but you only move half your speed, and still need to roll a 10. And you will still be in a grapple. You can directly attack one of them even while grappled, but only with your fist, and with a -4 penalty to the attack roll. You can try to draw a dagger if you have one first. To do this - you guessed it - you roll a check roll above 10. If you succeed, you could attack with the dagger for better lethal damage, but still at a -4 penalty to the attack.

Farel tried to attack one of the horrors holding Aurek, but the creature jostled around to much, and the distraction of the battle meant the knight's sword could not find it's mark. The knight cursed an oath a lyrical language and then petitioned to Oak and the Rose for aid to his sword arm.

Damn! Farel missed by one. And his damage would have killed the thing too Oh well... you're on your own next round LB!

The golems were striding after the undead as fast as they could. The second golem moved with purpose after the ones that had got away, but the golem closer to Haynuus decided to go directly for the creatures assaulting Aurek. That golem seemed to have done the mental calculations that Haynuus was in his way, and seemed quite content to stride forward and push the half-orc forward with it.

Haynuus's body, still not under the control of Haynuus's brain, didn't like that one bit and pushed the golem back - successfully as it turned out. Perhaps the 2000 pound creature of stone had not thought anything would be foolish enough to resist and had given the ground in surprise. This could not end well. Especially not when the golem opened its maw and gave a low resonant moan, eyes turned in Haynuus's direction for once.

Holy crap! I rolled the opposed roll on Haynuus's behalf Ian, and beat the golem's strength check in a bull rush attempt! I really wish you'd been the one to have rolled the die now! 21 to 21 incase you were wondering, so it was darn close. I won't tell you the initial scores of the golem's roll. More importantly, can I suggest not being in its way in future. Would Haynuus resist any further attempts to get passed, out of interest?

Westian, riding high on the death of the creature that had been before him and also hearing Aurek's advice, gestured with authority and commanded the undead that still tried to oppose him to fall back. Perhaps sensing Westian's own hate, or perhaps sensing the death of their fellow, the two creatures that had run with purpose towards the cleric stopped mere inches away, and started backpeddling, tripping over themselves to escape. It did not hurt that they were the shambling creatures alreayd torn apart by Farel and Haynuus. Certainly, these creatures seemed to have a temporary desire to save their skins as opposed to enacting their hatreds. This was not a conforting thought.

Since they've made their full movement this turn, they will use up one move action to move away from Westian next round, and cannot directly come back at him next round. Because this happens next round, note that this means you get an attack of opportunity against one of them, and of course anyone they run passed will get one aswell

During all the excitement, Falkor had tried to concentrate on the important task at hand - getting the gnome to take all the risks. Brighteyes gave Falkor an odd look, although there was also a hunger too. Slowly the words penetrated the gnome's psyche, and he eagerly took up the challenge of the key - although he graciously declined the glove. "You never know what magics are wrapped up in such unusual items. Probably spun by the Grey Lord's own hand, you know!" Sorry money, 10 buys you Brighteyes trying the key, not risking the glove aswell!

Brighteyes kept having to jump up to get level with the RA key hole, and muttered at the increasingly complicated attempts to get to the key in while being jossled by undead, and then the muttered further when the key was firmly in his hands and he was dangling from it. At least the undead, by now, were no problem thanks to Westian. "Almost there!" he happily said about a second before he was blown backwards by a sparking from the key.

For a moment the gnome's expression was one of genuine anger, a black and terrible thing that made anyone able to see it shudder. However, the moment passed at the gnome laughed and his face was round and happy again. "Well, it started turning, I think it's almost there! See, we just need to overload the door!"

The key was crackling with energy, twisted at a strange angle. Instead of looking less solid, the door was now glowing brighter still, its shifting patterns moving faster.

So, is this a better or worse state for the door to be in? Who knows - do things to the door, or to the lock, or leave it alone...the choice is yours money:D



And WHEW! Sorry for the long update people, but so much seems to have happened! And so - the map:
http://www.dmjump.net/golemhallfight8.jpg

Perhaps a good idea to summarise where you guys are:

Haynuus - is in the golem's way. He can skirt around it / run away and hope it doesn't make an AoO, or he can simply let it passed and hope it cares more about the undead than it does about being blocked by half-orcs. Thank goodness this isn't the one he pinged a pebble at!

Aurek - is being grappled. Basically needs to roll above a 10 do to anything (including escape from the grapple) or take a -4 penalty to attacks, but can only attack with his fists or a small weapon (not his sword)

Westian - the two undead infront of him are about to run six squares away, so he'll get an attack of opportunity. He will also have the area infront of him clear-ish, aside from the two other undead making a beeline to him.

Falkor - has an angry lock and door to deal with! Will he deal with them by carry on tyrying top overload the door somehow, by trying to rectify the key's position, or by some other means?


That seems to be it for the moment! Boy this was alot of work. Who decided to have so many things wandering around? Oh yes, me. Darn...

(break grapple 1d20 = 20! ROFL! I only needed a 10, and a rolled a damn crit... now I won't get one when I need one)
Aurek wrestled with the undead that had grabbed hold of him, and managed to break thier grasp. "DIE YOU FOUL ABOMINATIONS!" bellowed the furious paladin "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME?!" and swung his sword, at the closest undead's hands, attempting to reduce them to nothing but stumps (attack 1d20 = 10, damage 5... NOW I get the 10.)

"I need a hand over here! We need to keep these things at arms reach, don't let them grab hold of you!" yelled Aurek to the others, and moved a few steps away from the undead.

An orc has an enlarged thick skull with a smaller brain and bright shiney eyes with which to send information to be processed. The problem was with this set-up was prioritising the signals being sent. Firstly the lack of falling-apart of this new set of monstrosity was a little perturbing. Next was all of this forceful shoving that upon turning around Haynuus realised was from one of the enormous statues. Back with the guys there was the paladin being swamped by limbs then finally the door seemed to increase intensity as if the gnome was actually feeding it via a small hole.

He explained the possible plan to Farel once more, there are pressure plates in the alcoves to open the doors - we can step on them! And to aid his communication he decided to stay near the knight (OOC - move to R4), rather than help Aurek this time. Ignoring any side effects of hustling with a golem previously he moved and attacked one of the closest undead (nº 2). They may still really want to try the pressure plate idea if the door strength is directly affected with all of those undead moving next to it and we don't get it open soon.

OOC - Two attacks with damage plus a couple of d20's for good measure! (1d20+8=24, 2d4+6=10, 1d20+8=18, 2d4+6=11, 1d20=2, 1d20=11)

As the undead turned to flee Westian lashed out with his sword, but otherwise paid them little attention. Observing the frantic efforts of Brighteyes and Aurek he was torn. His intellect told him to help the gnome finish the job he had started - in Westian's mind that was their only chance to escape, since Haynuus's cunning plan had passed him by. But seeing the paladin surrounded by three of these monsters on his own his emotions took over. He stepped forward and shouted "Begone you monsters. Lord Larethian smithes thee down. Run into the arms of the golems, they are waiting for you".

OOC Move to V3. Turn undead was 11 + 5 = 16. AoO was....omg...1d20 = 1, 2d4 = 1 + 1 = 2!

Haynuus quickly moved out of the way of the golem and into reach of both Farel and the undead that were after Westian. He gave a powerful swing to compensate for the of downing these oddly composed things. The falchion swung perfectly through the head and chest (which were almost the same thing) of the first creature he picked on, and smashed the chest to pieces of the second.

The first creature blinked with its other sets of eyes on its head on its shoulders, and for a moment stood fully formed, earth pouring from its wound. It finally seemed to realise it was dead, and fell down in a swirling pattern of dirt and dust like its fellows. Reluctantly, with much stinging movements of air, the dirt was pulled back to the wall. Unfortunately, it looked as if already the wall was heavy with the eager undead, looking to find release once more.

Aurek's rage meanwhile allowed him to break free of the perverse creatures that dared to touch him all too easily - after all, the High Lords surely blessed their favoured champions. He swiftly pivoted into the corner, safe in the knowledge that his skills should be a match for being trapped - for now channeling his enemies into where he could see the best idea.

One of the moaning things tried to lay three hands on him at once - the one that distracted him before. That one was righteously smote, an arm sliced into two flailing useless limbs that made it think better of the assault.

You got to use your attack as an AoO on number 13. It's not down, but it ain't looking too sharp either.

The creatures that a moment before had been threatening unpleasant pain and death to Westian now turned tail and fled from his wrath. Sadly, it took too long for him to recover his composure enough to then think to strike out at one of them - the moment passed and they were gone.

Haynuus was still trying to attract the attention of Sir Farel to expound upon his plan, and so was not aggressive enough in his own instinctive attack upon the undead dashing passed.

It did not matter though, for even as the two undead split up like a mini wave around the golem in their way, the golem very calmly brought down the club it had raised in challenge. It ended the life of one of the barely held together creatures easily, and then swung the club in a low arc that tripped and crushed the other as it tried to retreat from the stone giant.

As the undead that were after Aurek tried to swarm him in his better vantage point, Sir Farel took the opportunity of swiftly slicing the weaker one whilst it was still in sword range.

However, what should have been a victory suddenly seemed hollow. With a scream the creature Farel felled turned into a maelstrim of severed parts borne on angry dirt and dust. The components would not be dragged back to the walls. Instead the dirt screamed back around Farel's face, and then whipped around the golem behind him. Like some strange wave, the clawing limbs of the walls followed it, in a grotesque rippling effect. For now, the walls by the party were worryingly empty.

On the edge of sight for some - although Haynuus saw it perfectly - the maestrom managed to pull some more parts of the wall to itself, and even a limb or two. In the centre of the hall, near the back, a new horror formed - now four of the original creatures stood meshed together. While the joining was far from pleasant and harmonious - there were gaps in the thing, and small trails of earth could be seen falling from it - it did seem to be far more attuned into a humaoid shape.

Four heads were all in reasonable position close to where a head should be, limbs all sprouted from the same rough areas, and legs seemed to twist together as one. The thing was a twisted horror, and worse yet seemed patiently aware of its surroundings. There was another scream, and all too easily more of the things pulled themselves from the wall - another five of the same sort of horrors came forth. OR at leats, that was the total as Haynuus reckoned it.

For now, the things seemed content to stand in the end of the hall and look upon themselves and each other.

Hey kids! It's six pissed off undead amalgamations! I wonder if they'll be friends with you? So single creatures become double creatures, become quadrupal creatures. I won't be making you fight exponentially worse enemies, would I? Nah, that would mean after a few iterations you'd be...ummm... nevermind...

From the distance a baleful horn sound erupted - it was surely the golem in the corridor, warning its brothers of the danger. One of the golems turned to face the newly formed horror goading it, and moved towards the back of the hall. Menawhile, the other golem that had first tried to stride through Haynuus now tried to stride through Sir Farel.

The knight was less able, and yet perhaps the golem was following some defined programming of the Grey Lord's. Farel tried to push himself away from the leg, and yet instead of squashing the knight, the golem stopped and took a step backwards.

Madness! This golem has to have some odd programming, since it rolled so terribly, terribly poorly!

Farel quickly averted his gaze from the golem's glowing eyes, perhaps instinctively feeling the odd effect of them. The flailing undead Aurek had wounded was half turned and could not avoid being mesmerised, its movements becoming sluggish.

The other undead, however, was focused on Aurek. Too many limbs moved in a co-ordinated effort to grasp the paladin. A fingertip caught him on the neck guard, and before he knew it the thing had him crushed in a tight embrace.

Sorry, rolled the opposed roll for you and you got caught in another grapple! It just rolled well more than me rolling badly on your behalf. Aurek takes another 5 non-lethal damage!

Westian strode forward to aid his comrade, but the creature was too locked in on ending the life of one of its hated foes, and this time the name of Larethian fell upon deaf ears.

OB, I moved Westian to U4 so he could still attempt some ass kickery....irritatingly, this one undead wants to roll well, and got an 18 even before adding bonuses!

Sir Farel took advantage of the stopped golem, realising the plight of Aurek. With a decisive move forwards and similarly decisive blow, Sir Farel chopped downwards. Aurek was treated to the sight of a blade point appearing at the shoulder of the creature close to the paladin's own face, and then the point traced an ugly path down the screaming chest of his foe.

The thing shrieked loudly in Aurek's ear, and the parts that fell whipped around the legs of its fellow, as if begging the creature to join with it.

Meamwhile, despite the dark Haynuus could see that the reformed horror in the middle of the hall had managed to lure the other golem to the other side. The horror's visible limbs appeared sluggish, as if the horror was affected by the golem's eyes, but that was little comfort when the other horrors who had ripped themselves from the wall were now behind the golem's gaze and happily free to move towards their true foes.


Sorry, couldn't see a logical way to split the post this time. Alot of dead critter means the next posts should be less filled. Join me in the OOC for a few quick comments.

Map here: http://www.dmjump.net/golemhallfight9.jpg

What a revolting sight. That was all that came to Westian's mind. Did the Grey Lord really allow these aberrations to exist? Westian resolved to quiz him on the subject if they ever met. Playing with life like this was wrong, even if you are a High Lord.

Anger at the creatures, their creator and the situation was seething in his chest. "Come on Brighteyes, get this door open or we will never see anything more exciting than a broken RA lock. Get up there." Westian wrapped one arm around his waist and hoisted him up closer to the hole. Getting impatient he grabbed the key himself and turned as hard as he could.

OOC: Roll for that action (whatever it was ) is 13.

Aurek can see the golem bearing down on them, obviously intent on destroying the now sluggish undead infront of him. It will probably turn and kill whatever just made that unholy sound thought the paladin to himself (he can't see the undead horrors, so thought I'd through that one in ) as he sliced at the shambling undead a few feet away (attack 1d20 = 7, damage 1d8 = 8! SEE I told you so! I WANT to roll 20 now, and I roll a 7 Still might be enough to kill it, I did roll max damage at the same time).

After watching the creature fall to dust before him, Aurek thought for a moment, I have those potions I picked up earlier... now would make a good time to test them out. he pondered. It sounded like a good plan, so that was exactly what he did.

Haynuus skipped five feet (to Q3) to near the golem and readied himself for any undead that come within his reach (OOC - I can't see a 'Ready an Attack' action in the d20srd org rules. Does it exist? Only Total Defence.)

"I can see.... They're reforming! Bigger this time on the other side of the room. Get that door open!" He saw the unholy creatures come into view by the wall and it was difficult to be able to discern their original humanoid shape. They just kept coming, and kept getting bigger. More limbs and more body mass, but less numerous. It was then he realised that they were getting more dangerous each cycle. They weren't actually destroying them, they were merely changing their entropy* - the lower the entropy, the lower the disorder of the system.

* Surprisingly the word 'Entropy' is commonplace amongst orc's mainly because one of your objective's in life is to break your enemy into smaller bits - thereby increasing their entropic state.

Haynuus is Ready* to swing at an undead if it get's close enough. (1d20+8=26, 2d4+6=12)
OOC - *See Ready an action

The sight of Bright Eyes being thrown to the floor was a relief, Falkor realised that it could have been him - but still, time was of the essence, these critters were coming from all directions and the rest of the team, although doing a great job, could not keep this up for long. Falkor put on the glove, took a deep breath and grabbed the key.

OOC: Quick knowledge (arcana) check 1d20 => 20

With confidence he continued to turn the key the same way Bright Eyes had, he was planning on opening this door and at the same time absorbing any shocks into the magical glove. They key moved slightly, was it enough???

Falkor had figured out roughly what the glove did. More importantly, he conjectured how to reverse the effects of what the glove did. If he remembered how it felt to invoke the power, could he use the alternative mental state to pull this similar power into the glove, rendering the lock and door safer?

Falkor's knowledge of the magical arts - in this respect at least - came into crystal clear focus. There was no crack nor bang, simply a warm feeling for Falkor as the glove absorbed the energy better than he hoped - he could feel the magical item crackling with benign power, awaiting his ability to unlock it properly.

More importantly, the RA door was now fluctuating as the previous door they encountered had, occasionally flickering open.

Nice roll. Not only do you defuse the lock with no damage to yourself, you've ensured the glove has double the charge it used to!

Brighteyes seemed to have shaken off his own shock, and bounced around happily trying to give further instructions to Falkor on the best way to get the mechanism fully unlocked with the key. Westian came across and Brighteyes did not seem to mind having a helper to prop him up higher. With detailed instructions, Brighteyes told Falkor exactly how to twist and turn the key.

It did not hurt that the gnome was also a good light source. With a satisfying 'click' the lock seemed to finally disengage as it was meant to, and the lightning of the door completely faded - the portal to escape through was completely empty!

There we go OB, because of how right everything else was going, you only needed to make a DC10 dex check to let Brighteyes see as much as possible. He rolled really well just like money, so you are home free. Except for all the undead!


Meanwhile, Haynuus's realisation seemed to have an effect on Sir Farel, who heard him clearly. "Lords be spared!" he cried out, "the more we destroy these things, the more power they possess!"

The calls of both Farel and Haynuus were to late to stop Aurek from handily dispatching the last of the undead that had threatened them. However, the thing barely had a chance to fall. It's sideways decent towards the wall was stopped by flailing limbs and even an arm or two from the wall. Without much pause, a final conjoined horror stood tall, screaming at the ceiling - two heads on its shoulders with two more heads buried inside its mouths.

The 7 made it - just - though as you can see, that might have been a bad thing! Luckily, the newly formed critter rolled poorly for it's health...

The thing was only half-formed before the golem strode forward and hefted its club.

"NO!" screamed Farel, but it was too late, and the undead horror was smashed into parts. However, those parts already span and twisted aroudn the hall in a strange dance, and there was a mocking laugh in the wind. There was an echo of that sound across the hall. ONly Haynuus could see that the other golem had succeeded in smashing its own foe. And only Haynuus could properly make out that an equally mocking wind was coming back along the hall. Haynuus already knew what would be formed when those two winds met up.

However, Haynuus had his own problems. Apparently, these new horrors were not completely blinded by their hate. The ones formed in the middle of the hall were moving in a circumspect manner to catch their prey - and one directly targetted the half-orc in their way to ensure he was not a problem.

Farel was already at the half-orc's side trying to distract the thing, although noticeable not trying to kill it.

Haynuus's blow swung true, cleaving a third of the thing apart. However, the sad mess that was left still had enough ressolve the rack its claws across Haynuus's face despite Farel's best efforts, adding what could possibly be a new and interesting set of scars if the cleric didn't look at him soon.

However, although the blow was a mere distraction to Haynuus, and the blood wasn't even getting in his eyes, there was suddenly a worrying burning sensation coming from the wounds. Where had those claws been?

Nice attack Ian, but unfortunately even Farel doing an aid another to give you +2AC didn't save you from the blow. Take 8 hit points damage, and for no reason whatsoever make me a fortitude save, and try to roll an 18 or above!


Brighteyes looked backwards, perhaps hearing the new howls of the undead yet to be formed, and the baying screams of those already made hideous 'flesh'. "Perhaps...shall we go?" he enquired hopefully to the the halfling, cleric and paladin.


And indeed, the question is will you lot now run away, trying ot outrun undead and hoping Haynuus and Farel are ok with only glems for company?

To answer that question, I guess you just need to take a good, long look inside yourselves. That, and you need a map:
http://www.dmjump.net/golemhallfight10.jpg

"WESTIAN! LOOK!" yelled the paladin, pointing to Haynuus as he clutched his face. "We have no idea what affect these things will have if they draw blood. We need to help them, and they need to escape. I think that we should try to summon more holy energy to assist the battle with these foes." then he ran over to Farel's side (diagonal move to R2) "You guys need the help by the look of it." and prepared to throw everything he has at the undead that were closing in (ready action, turn undead if undead come within range).

OOC: Thanx for reminding me about the "ready action" side of things, Ian. I'd forgotten all about it.

Haynuus whipped his unprotected head back from the attack, forcing himself to shift his balance. The close-up of the boney hands that had raked his face was closely followed by a foul rotting smell. At first he thought the side of his face went numb, then it started to almost tickle. But the senses didn't stop there. It soon escalated to a burning sensation. As if someone had lit a raging fire across his cheek.

"I'm buuuurrrniiiiing!" he screamed in pain. It hurt even more as he realised that moving his jaw would then cause his skin to stretch and squeeze the poison into yet more parts of his face.

His actions would become a little less well thought out. But with the dimming of yellow light from behind him and a lack of crackling coming from where the door would be, he had assumed that the clever little people had gotten the door open! This phase of the battle at least, was over. It was time to get out.

Five undead amalgamations of body parts were moving his way, yet he was confident that all except him and Farel could get out of the room immediately. It was then the paladin came breezing in behind him. His backup with 'zeal' was most welcoming, but Haynuus had a problem. They all three needed to move together, leaving noone behind. He took the decision, not obvious if you possess orc blood, to try to club the undead closest to them with the blunt side of the sword and then take a step back to line up next to Aurek (R3). The thing had about three heads, one of which was already severed and hanging by mere flesh. He swung his sword over his head and attempted to deal a stunning blow (-4, non leathal damage) to one of the remaining skulls (1d20+4=18, 2d4+4=8, 1d20+4=13, 2d4+4=9), hopefully crushing a few vertebrae on the way down as well... How do you deal non leathal damage to something that's dead though? A questions for one of the more philosophical races to answer.

"We've got-to get out. Now!"