Tora no Senaka - The Back of the Tiger
Game Master Dreaming Warforged

Finally able to step in, Izumi takes a massive swing. "Ameiko is no traitor!" The word 'traitor' was ringing in his ear.

Mwk Katana /w Power Attack: 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (19) + 7 - 1 = 25 (1d8 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 3 = 11)[/ooc]
CONFIRM!: 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (10) + 7 - 1 = 16 (1d8 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 3 = 11)

Blur... : 1d100 ⇒ 59

My bad, was in a rush to post.

Round 9 - Ameiko’s Foolish Friends
Gritting his teeth, Pavel swings a heavy downward blow at Kikonu, trying to shear through his defenses with brute force. Whispering Shrike bites deep in the oni’s neck. Kikonu puts a hand to his neck, visibly shaken.

Garand calls forth more healing energy from the wand, seeing the tree it once represented grow ever more withered, as it's life-energies are drawn forth, it's potential cut short. (+4 hp to Pavel)

Moving forward to put his back to a wall, bear-spirit continues his attack on the man before him. His first attack hits nothing but air, but it follows with a viscious slash at Kikonu’s leg.

Raith stumbles down the hall to the square behind Izumi. He watches Kikonu closely ready to dodge.

Sorin quickly establishes a second protective ward, the runes glowing in a circle around him. He moves forward around the corner to try and get as many of his allies within the boundaries of the circle as he can.

Finally able to step in, Izumi takes a massive swing. "Ameiko is no traitor!" The word 'traitor' was ringing in his ear.

The ancestral sword cuts through the shoulder and sinks in deep in the oni's ribcage. Kikonu falters and drops to his knees. He tries to mumble something back to Izumi, but only blood fills its mouth, then collapses.

The room gets quiet all of a sudden. It seems as though air is getting sucked in the room, as though the whole castle is taking a deep breath after many years, its numerous tormented souls finally released by their tormentor's death.

"Yeah! Ain't so cluh'clever now you son of a buh'buh'buh....", Pavel starts to bellow before coughing and spitting something on the ground. "Aughh. Huh'hope that wasn't impuh'puh'portant.... Luh'let's turn 'im out and see what he's guh'got for us."

Sorin walks past the heavily breathing Izumi, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder, then nudges the corpse with his boot.

"Poor fool." he says sadly. "Well, let's be about our business then." he says, then kneels down to rifle through Kikonu's posessions.

"I am looking to see if he has keys or a spellbook on his person. I believe that the sword is magical, but it will have to await inspection."

Searching Kikonu, then detect magic on him and his posessions.

Raith slides to the floor. He bows his head and closes his eyes, relief washing over him.

Izumi takes a few deep breaths, centreing himself. Seeing Sorin... "handling" Kikonu's corpse, he remembers the prisoner. Izumi returns to the room in which they found the ogre and Kikonu. "Are you alright?" Izumi says to the prisoner, a little wary. But the enemy of my enemy...

"Excellent." Sorin says, standing up. "Keys." He says and tosses them to Pavel.

"Pavel, you have a few more minutes on your spell. Perhaps you should give Izumi backup with whoever was locked in the other room?"

"As for the rest of this, the blade is non-magical, just finely wrought, his leather armor bears a simple protection charm, and he had these onyx combs for his hair, this emerald pendant and these fine opal and silver rings. None of which had any enchantment." Sorin finishes disappointed.

"I was hoping to discover that he was another student of the Art. But he was nothing but another natural spellweaver, without any true knowledge, despite how he spoke."

I put it all in the unclaimed loot for now. Let me know.

Izumi sheaths the sword in his hand, making a half-bow to the woman. He wished he had something to offer so that she could be decent. "Do you speak Taldan?" Izumi asks. "Sao poate Varisian?" "Minkaigo mo?"

Izumi speaks all the languages he knows, while maintain a posture of peace to show that no harm is meant.

Is the woman wounded?

Pavel catches the keys, shrugs and lumbers after Izumi, taking a second to kick Slugwort in the ribs and see if the ogre had anything worth taking.

Izumi sheaths the sword in his hand, making a half-bow to the woman. He wished he had something to offer so that she could be decent. "Do you speak Taldan?" Izumi asks. "Sao poate Varisian?" "Minkaigo mo?"

Izumi speaks all the languages he knows, while maintain a posture of peace to show that no harm is meant.

Is the woman wounded?

She looks weak and malnourished, but not wounded.

The woman blurts out in response: "Hvis du kommer i nærheden af ​​mig, jeg sværger jeg vil have dine kugler som vedhæng!"

Raith follows Pavel. "Never been hurt like that in my life. Sorry for not being more of a help." The fear that rose in Raith is starting to be replaced by shame. He knows he froze in battle, shied away from death. Kikonu frightened him, never having fought a creature that could wield fire in such a fashion. Such creatures existed only in stories for Raith. "What in the nine hells was that?"

Sorin walks by Raith, dusting off his hands, but raises an eyebrow at his comment.

"It was a spell Raith, nothing more. Any trained individual can wield such abilites. And as for being hurt, I am certain that if I had caught the brunt of the spell, I would not have fared as well as you did. I think that I would have looked more like a ill-roasted hog...nevermind. In any regard I have been working on spells to defend against the elements...that should provide some measure of assistance in the future."

He pauses and cocks his head. "Was that Ulfen?" Sorin turns and walks away from Raith, heading into the next room.

"Jag förstår inte Ulfen, talar du eller förstår skald?"

Back up! I keep mixing up languages... Is there a difference between Ulfen and Skald? Is Skald the language in Ulfen? If so, forget I wrote Ulfen and instead think of it as Skald. Sorry, it's a classic for me...

Yes, Skald is the Ulfen language.

Giant Pavel holds up the small keyring from behind Izumi.
"Duh'Det høres ut som det ville gå galt. Hvorfor ikke fuh'fortelle oss navnet ditt, vuh'vil vi fortelle deg våre, og vi vil åpne celle?"
I used Norwegian, not sure if it's the same as everyone else.

Skald:

"One who uses spells can speak of them as nothing more than a swing of the sword, but to one who has seen little sorcery they're more dangerous it seems to me. I prefer foes that use weapons I know something about."

"Yuh'yeah, I dunno. Getting my fuh'face busted by a club wuh'wasn't really fun either. Think I prefer foes with buh'butter knives...", Pavel muses.

Garand shakes the much abused healing wand, and draws upon it again, once for Raith and once for Pavel, all too aware that a strong wind could cut their numbers in half, at this point.

healing for Pavel 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
healing for Raith 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

next time I try to play a druid in a party with no cleric, just shoot me!

"Now that stick is the type of magic I like. Thank you, Garand."

"It is times like these that I wish I knew the healing arts...hmmm, you know, a miniture gate opened to the realm of positive energy might work...no, no that would just burn a hole through a person rather than healing them. Divine magic has the benefit of being channeled through an indirect source such that the normal energies utilitzed during magical healing do not cause the harm that an unrefined source would."

Seeing that Pavel is more than willing to talk to the imprisioned woman, Sorin wanders off, looking in the other cells and searching the room for anything of interest. On the way by he checks to see if the door to the north is locked.

Perception 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

"Thuh'thanks, Garand."

Pavel digs in his backpack and pulls out some rations and his waterskin. He takes a quick sip from the skin and a small bit of his rations to eat. Then he pushes both through the bars.
"Yuh'Jeg er Pavel, for startere. Vi er ikke her for å skuh'skade deg. Vuh'Visste du seile i på det skuh'skipet i havnen? Du ser suh'sulten-ta noe av dette."

Skald:

Diplomacy: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9
Oy.

Let's go with Norwegian.

The eyes of the prisonner widen at the sight of Pavel. She quickly reevaluate the situation and seems to calm down, eventually shivering as the tension leaves her body.

Translated for convenience, though she'll eventually be calm enough to switch to common.
"I'm Kelda Oxgutter. My shield-brothers have all perished in the village, but I pushed on, after killing the sea drak, but that fiend captured me!"

Pavel translates as needed for the rest of the party.
"Wuh'well met, Kelda. Suh'sorry to hear about your shield-brothers, but wuh'we gave ol' Kikonu a little taste of his own muh'medicine. We're here suh'searchin' for our friend's birthright or somethin'... t'be uh'honest, the other guys pruh'probably know more'n I do about that... I just kuh'kick doors down an' scale wuh'walls and kuh'kill ogres and stuff..."

The giant ranger seems to remember the keyring in his hands.
"OH, right. Luh'lemme open this- as long as ye won't cuh'cut our balls off, right? And we'll fuh'find you some cluh'clothes and yer stuh'stuff, then we can guh'get back to our caravan."

As soon as she's freed, Kelda gives a warm embrace to both Pavel and Izumi, then bolts to the pile of horsemeat. Just behind it, she unearths her clothes, armor and axe. As she dons her attire, she is filled gradually back with a sense of inner confidence. She finishes with her shield, and she clanks the steel of her axe against it, smiling feebly.

"If you'd accompany me to Kalsgar, my clan will honor your deed! In the meantime, I can only offer this. It belonged to our skald and was our shield's most precious possession..." The smile vanishes for a moment as the memory of her friends washes once more over her. Her back straightens quickly and her eyes focus on Sorin as she hands him a wand: "I don't know how to use it. It heals. Perhaps if I had known, my friends would be alive..."

"Where to now? Is the curse broken? We should go and check on Ameiko."

The dungeon has a few doors left. Also, there was a staircase you couldn't reach because of the haunt. Going back to check on Ameiko is another good option.

"We're pruh'pretty spent. Let's get back to the cuh'caravan with our prisoner and get some ruh'rest. Wanna juh'join us, Kelda?"

After doing a thorough search, we decide to head back to the caravan to rest and look in on Ameiko.

I take the +1 chicken saber to practice with.

Sorin shrugs.
"I would like to check out the next room before we depart, but I understand the reluctance as we now have the lady to return to the caravan, as well as our current depleted state."

Check the next room first. Let's do it. Check the door: Perception:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22

Izumi is a little stunned by the sudden embrace. The woman had sounded pretty stand-offish when she was in the cage. Izumi could feel the strong muscles of a warrior in the embrace. "You cannot blame yourself for the death of your shield-brothers. They died honourably in battle. There is no greater death." Izumi responds to Kelda, then proceeds to introduce himself and the rest of the group. "I don't know if we will be able to return you to Kalsgard ourselves, but perhaps after we have finished exploring the castle, we should be able to get you to Magnimar at least, and you might find a ship from there."

Knowledge: Geography 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

"Izumi, Magnimar is nearly a thousand miles south of here. Kalsgard is north of us."

"But once we return to Sandpoint, it should be one or two days to Magnimar from there, no?"

Seeing that it might be better to give up than continuing to correct, Sorin relents, "Yes, Izumi, of course."

"Does the woman want to return to Sandpoint? Maybe ask her what she wants. Sandru should be able to tell her how to get home. We don't have to decide now. Now let's check the room Sorin wants to check then head back."

The group pushes its exploration of Castle Brinewall's dungeon by opening the door Kikonu was hoping to reach. An intricate iron screen blocks further progress into a large chamber, although a wooden door painted with the image of a tall, beautiful blue-skinned woman sitting on a throne stands in the middle of the screen.

Beyond, the room stretches dozens of feet to the east, supported by stone pillars and with deep funerary alcoves to the north and south. The far end of the room seems to have partially collapsed into a large cavern in which faintly glowing motes of light swirl and dance in the air. This peaceful crypt dedicated to Pharasma must have been in use before the castle got invaded. The niches now only bear empty, despoiled sarcophagi, no doubt the work of Kikonu and his corbies and trogs.

Beyond the crypt, a network of tunnels lead to a long passage probably leading outside. Kelda indicates it was the way she came in. On the opposite end, you find a vast cavern, whose floor descends in two twenty-foot drops into a large, eerie grotto. The walls drip with moisture and bear strange and disturbing cave paintings of towering four-winged humanoid shapes. A crude statue of a four-winged bird, the foul Pazuzu, stands in its middle. At the demon's feet are offerings. Sorin quickly identifies the parts infused with magic or of value.

You find there:
+1 light fortification light steel shield bearing the image of Castle Brinewall
+1 returning warhammer
a pearl of power (1st level)
a ring of the ram (10 charges)
a wayfinder
1,320 gp
800 gp in jewelry and gems

Updated Map

You make your way back to the caravan. As you approach, you can hear a cheeky fiddle filling the air with tones and hues reminding you of home. They seem to play and tease as they dance through the air. For a moment, you think it's Ameiko playing, but as you get in sight, you realize Sandru is playing at Ameiko's feet. She lays immobile, as you last saw her. Koya sits at her side, holding her hand, a forced smile on her lips. Her head moves in your direction and she simply nods to indicate there's been no real development...

Later, Sandru will mention: "She's had moments where she would start talking, visibly agitated, sayong things like: “One treasure beyond two seals in the third vault...” or “Beware the birds who wish to f ly but cannot...”. But besides these, just silence..."

Shalelu will ask you for details of your trip, while Koya will offer healing, focusing on Kelda.

"We felt a dark presence leave the place when it's despoiler left this life, and had hoped that would be sufficient to cure her spiritual affliction, as well." Garand says quietly, as if not wishing to awaken the sleeping Ameiko. "Flightless bird-men we saw aplenty, but little else that seemed to represent a remedy for what ails her."

Garand thinks back over the items seen and retrieved, if any resembled unidentified elixirs or poultices, or charms or talismans, perhaps of Tien make and found upon the Tien-speaking sorcerer, that might have some special meaning to her people.

I'm assuming we brought the quickling with us?
"Sounds like Ameiko's truh'tryin' teh give us directions... er somethin'. We fuh'fought a bunch o' bird-men what couldn't fluh'fly... so there's them. And we tracked this other bird guy- Kikonu by name- and Suh'Sorin said he was an "oni" or somethin'."
Pavel shrugs.
"Either way, he'd pop up and guh'give us grief and then pop up somewhere else. After wuh'we got through this ogrekin and the fuh'fey over there...", he says, jerking a thumb at Buttersnips,"we fought the cuh'captain o' Brinewall or what was luh'left of him in a haunted room. Cornered Kikonu later with his uh'ogre... they were tough, but we dealt with 'em and that's when we met Kuh'Kelda."

"And that's how we wuh'wound up back here. No clue about suh'seals and vaults and such..."

"Perhaps within a sealed vault we did not locate, is some Tien talisman that may serve to awaken her?" Garand thinks aloud. "Her mutterings make it seem less like something is trying to harm her, and more like something, perhaps the spirit of one of her ancestors or kinsmen, is trying to warn her..."

"There were haunted presences in the castle, perhaps a similar thing affects her now, an echo of some long-dead soul, which is attempting to ward off its descendents or countrymen, unaware that it is instead causing them harm with its portents."

Or maybe I'm making all that up and we're gonna be carting around a comatose Ameiko for the next few days before she dies of dehydration. :)

Sorin listens intently to Sandru's recounting.

"Seals? Interesting. I will ensure that I study spells to open magical seals before we reenter the fortress."

"I think you are on to something Garand. There are several places that we have yet to search. Remember that the haunting guards a certain stairwell from the ground floor. Perhaps that goes to one of the vaults that we are supposed to find...or she could be simply mad and raving with fever dreams. I suppose that is a possibility as well." Sorin adds, unhelpfully.

What is the wayfinder?

An intricate iron screen blocks further progress into a large chamber, although a wooden door painted with the image of a tall, beautiful blue-skinned woman sitting on a throne stands in the middle of the screen.

Did we open this door?

Raith caresses Ameiko's forehead. "More work to do. We need to get our strength back and head back in on the morrow." Raith looks to Kelda, "Sandru knows these lands. He will know best how to get you home."

Koya proffers healing to all of you, but frowns when she sees the quickling: "Dear, this is no infatuated fangirl of Shelyn! Quicklings are sophisticated murderers! They prey on the slow and disappear, leaving blood and immense grief in their wake. What were your plans for it?"

An intricate iron screen blocks further progress into a large chamber, although a wooden door painted with the image of a tall, beautiful blue-skinned woman sitting on a throne stands in the middle of the screen.

Did we open this door?

You did, as you saw through the screen beyond it. I wanted to move the story forward, so I had you go through the tunnels until you met resistance, which you didn't. Dungeons can be a killer for PbP, going from door to door. Let me know if you want me to do it differently.

** spoiler omitted **

Koya proffers healing to all of you, but frowns when she sees the quickling: "Dear, this is no infatuated fangirl of Shelyn! Quicklings are sophisticated murderers! They prey on the slow and disappear, leaving blood and immense grief in their wake. What were your plans for it?"

"None of us were wuh'willing to execute him after he surrendered... Izumi insists he stuh'stand trial someplace."

Raith Shadar wrote:

An intricate iron screen blocks further progress into a large chamber, although a wooden door painted with the image of a tall, beautiful blue-skinned woman sitting on a throne stands in the middle of the screen.

Did we open this door?

You did, as you saw through the screen beyond it. I wanted to move the story forward, so I had you go through the tunnels until you met resistance, which you didn't. Dungeons can be a killer for PbP, going from door to door. Let me know if you want me to do it differently.

No. That is fine. Raith is perceptive and keeps his eyes out while we're looking about. Let me know if you need Perception rolls when we're searching so we don't miss secret doors and the like.

"These are Ameiko's ancestral lands. Therefore she should make the decisons as to his disposition. If for some reason she does not survive, well in that case I suggest that practicality take precedence. For now, we keep him bound and under Sandru and Shaelu's watchful eyes."