Gashelle Smith's page

Wellard, are we assigned horses as part of our duties? If not, Gashelle would like to buy a light warhorse before leaving town.

“Lotesse i’ anar direshen no’ ilya losan abrae agar en i’ Edhel.”

Gashelle nods and replies, "Gilenainath i' gwilith n- na' nethsael, abra h- hen..um..."

..."M- man."

Gashelle makes her Sense Motive check. She nods, feeling the same way.

"Are you the fellow guards for this trip, then? I am Holgur."

Gashelle bows a little. She gestures: "Eltariel, Avinar, and I'm G- Gashelle. It's g- good to have your c- company."

"Lakshmi was one of my f- father's gods. She is the p- patroness of effort bent to p- purpose, of achievement, and of its just r- rewards. When I pray to her, I h- honor my father's p- people.

"Athena is better-known here. She guides the arm of the w- warior and the heart of the wise. When I pay homage to her, I show r- respect for my mother's teachings and her sacrifice."

Speaking of which, during whatever downtime we have on this trip, Gashelle will spend with her silver and bronze tool kit, making an ornamental owl to donate to the temple of Athena when the team arrives.

'Greetings , I'm Aude COOPER , initiate of Pharasma, goddess of life and death. I'm new in these benighted lands so bear with me if I sometimes seem to be clueless. For example , I don't want to offend but I don't know the term 'duskblade'.

Gashelle smiles warmly, and shrugs. She closes her eyes briefly, and when she opens them, she says, "An elvish m- martial discipline. And I've never heard of Pharasma. We'll have th- things to d- discuss."

"A m- magic glaive? They make magic glaives?"

The magical treasure is worth 45,343(excluding the chain shirt and the hooked hammer) thats 9068 each. That means the magical weapons are worth virtually a full share each (I always hated this insistence that treasure be shared equally..my view is you take what you can use..the rest gets sold and divided between you).

Gashelle looks at the amount of loot we've garnered,. "Well, there are no laws about how we d- divide these funds.

"My inclination is to s- start by apportioning the magic items to whichever of us c- can best use them. Among the five of us:

• Avinar--ring of protection +2,
  
• Eltariel--wand of burning hands, +1 keen sickle
  
• myself--scarab of flesh golem bane, Quaal's feather token, whip
  
• Sasha--scroll w/ ray of enfeeblement and slow
  
• Tristan--25 +1 arrows, probably the amulet of thoughts, probably the potion of cat's grace

"Among the remaining items:

• the large masterwork chainshirt -- if Eltariel resizes it, I could use it; it would help my Acrobatics a little
  
• the silver Cursed Ring of Clumsiness(Feather Fall) -- we should sell this; while feather fall is useful, we just can't keep casting remove curse
  
• the other +1 keen sickle and
  
• the+1 footman's mace of frost -- these would be great, if anybody were working towards using them. Avinar, do you want to use the mace? Otherwise, sure, sell them and pick up a single enhancement-plus-property weapon that someone would like to wield.
  
• the wand of Monster summoning II 12 charges -- I think we should keep this. Eltariel, is this something that you'd use? Sasha are you interested?
  
• the Ring of Climbing -- a nice thing to either sell, or save as a bribe?

"And then use the money to make things even. People who d- didn't get a lot of magical items this time, would be c- compensated with a larger batch of gold and silver.

"And we're th- three days into our first week. If we k- keep this up, we'll have earned 5 gold each!"

I'll assume that you retreat to the upper level with your new found treasures and take the heavy trapped box along with you.

Gashelle would also like to

• take a look around down here: how far off do the three tunnels lead? and
• examine the area at the bottom of the waterfall gorge on the way back out.

What language is the book written in? Undercommon?

We still don't know

• What caused the explosion yesterday
  
• What that word was that was called out when we arrived on the lower level
  
• Who set all the traps in the gnome area. The Derro?
  
• Why, over the decades, the slime didn't grow past the barracks area
  

So, if we left town the morning of Day One, we walk back during the morning / afternoon of Day Three?

Gashelle had taken (6+3+3+2 = 14) hp damage. I think that resting overnight, along with Etariel's spell, will bring Gashelle to full health.

Wellard, i don't mind you rolling for me.

Gashelle tries again. AC22, another 13 points of damage. That's 51 points of damage, total, from Gashelle in four rounds!

Ah! It's closing on me and I can't back up! "Avinar, move!" How about getting behind it?

Gashelle trusts that her companions can take care of the zombies, and does her job, hitting AC 19 for another 12 points of damage.

Does knowledge (arcana or dungeoneering) tell me anything useful about this creature?

If it's still up for Gashelle to attack,

"Sure but, Tristan, if you w- want to take b- back point with Sasha, that might not be a b- bad idea."

Gashelle looks skeptical. "I c- can disrupt undead until my heart g- gives out, and I can stil d- detect m- magic for a while, but I've exhausted all m- my major spells up here, f- fighting the dwarf g- golem.

"Other than the little pack of m- mushrooms growing in my l- lungs, I'm uninjured, and I c- can fight as well as I ever c- could. I'll p- press ahead if everybody else is up f- for it, but I w- wanted you to know my m- magic's pretty much used up, too"

Gashelle looks around at all the moss and fungus growing throughout the room, and thinks about what must be growing in Tristan's lungs. And her own, for that matter.

"We've g- got to get you out of th- this place, m- my friend."

She turns to Etariel. "Do we s- see what's down there, or h- head back to t- town now? If Tristan g- gets much worse, I'm not sure h- he'll stand up to another c- cold drenching at the waterf- fall."

It's easy for an observer to grow blase' about a spell like Disrupt Undead. Each time it's invoked, Gashelle uses the same gesture with her left hand (thumb and little finger touching, drawing away from her heart, and then a swivel of the wrist, pointing the three extended fingers at the undead target) and the same arcane word.

But each time, it's an emotional experience. Gashelle opens a passage to the place the elves describe as the Oliph d'Danas, the "Kingdom of Stillness", using her own lifeforce as a tether (on this side) and a lure (from the other).

Sacha hits the undead with healing powers from the Positive Plane. Gashelle, on the other hand, tries to put a kink in the connection between the creatures and their source of power. Each time she invokes the spell, her heart literally skips a beat.

Two more points to the stubby thing.

The lead zombie is within ranger of Gashelle's magic. She hits for 6 points of damage.

Gashelle casts Disrupt Undead at the figure she can see (she hopes that the spell won't trigger a spore eruption because she's not delivering physical damage) and retreats.

Her bolt would hit touch AC 13 for 3 points of disruption.

Did Sasha's maneuver push Gashelle back so that she can't whack the zombies?

Let's toss a light down and follow it. Standard order: Tristan, Avinar, Gashelle, Elatriel, Sasha.

666 - number of the beast
668 - neighbor of the beast
0.666 - a millibeast

Gashelle thanks Etariel politely, but begs off the cudgel. Disrupt Undead has as much an effect, at range, and with better accuracy.

But, let's try something obvious. While we're standing at the top of the stairs, Gashelle casts Disrupt Undead at one of the sets of bones set into the wall. "If they're simply p- properly interred, no harm. If they're d- dormant undead..."

"T- toss a light stone d- down?"

Does the door open towards us (hinges showing) or away from us?

"Of all the d- doors we've found, th- this is the one most likely to be t- trapped."

Then, yes, let's leave the box here. If someone tries to come by and steal it, we'll walk after them and kill them.

Actually, Wellard, would you please describe the box?

How big is the box? I was imagining something about the size of the "heart box" from Snow White. But if it's a lot larger and heavier, then, yes, we should leave it here and come back for it.

I'm not sure I can disable this safely with this blasted ring on..do you wish me to try?

Gashelle remembers a time that Yarliss, one of her fellow students, tried to pry around in the footlocker that her old coach, Armsman Drolan, kept at his bed. The acid trap there didn't explode outwards, but it destroyed some valuable codebooks and maps that Drolan was keeping.

"Well, we n- need to get that ring removed anyway. I p- propose we hold off trying to open the b- box till we get back to t- town. We'll have one of the priests help us suspend the ring's p- powers, and you can open the box afterward."

"It l- looks like there was enough s- space here for, oh, 30 worshippers. And there was space in the k- kitchen for perhaps the same number of diners.

"But nowhere to g- go? This complex has a dining hall, b- but no larder. A chapel, but no sleeping chambers. (Unless you c- count the little room with three beds.) Not m- made by dwarven engineers, but manned by dwarven undead s- servants and guardian constructs."

Gashelle hits for 10 more points.

After Tristan fires his arrow, Gashelle

Wellard, Gashelle knows how far down the corridor the chapel, and the golem, are. If the golem is within 35' of the corner we're hiding behind, she will cast True Strikeduring Round 1, and then turn the corner, advance and strike during Round 2.

If it's farther away than 35', she'll charge, attempting the DC 15 Acrobatics check.

If she survives the golem's first attack, she'll try to maneuver around it so that Avinar or Tristam can flank it with her. She'll try to place herself so that the pews allow her to attack the golem with her glaive, but its passage to her is stymied.

Gashelle turns back to Etariel and says, in Elvish,

In common, "It's a t- temple down there, still moss-covered, with a statue of a human-shaped g- goddess with spikes on her. There's a temple g-g- guardian of sorts, dwarf-shaped, naked except f- for a loin cloth, the dwarf was once t-taken ap- part and s- stitched back together.

"My f- father used to tell stories of s- s- such a thing, a golem. It could withstand the attacks of t- twenty men, and a single b- blow killed a strong horse."

She fingers the golembane scarab. "I think s-somebody knew what was d- down here, and had p- plans to destroy it."

Gashelle turns to Avinar. "Without this b- brooch, you w- won't be able to d-d- damage the golem very easily. But if you go entirely on the d- defensive, it won't be able to a- t- ttack you very w- well, either, and you can d- distract it that is, flank in some s- safety.

"Or, if you like, you can take the scarab and fight it."

Gashelle looks around the corner.

"Why are we whispering?" whispers Gashelle with a half-grin. "If it c- can see light, it knows w- we're here."

"Shall we t- take our standard formation: w- watchful Tristan, heroic Avinar, m- myself, Etariel, and Sasha?"

Then look to the north.

"Well, somebody d- decided it would be fun to k- kill some of them and reanimate their c- corpses. So, who, traditionally, really d- doesn't like the Derro?" Gashelle asks, searching further around the room.

Gashelle uses her glaive to poke at the same one she just blasted.

At the bottom of the initiative order, Gashelle will ...

Gashelle tries to say something to Tristan, but can't get the words out.

She turns her glaive around and offers the haft for Etariel to grab.
Aid Another (climb) result of 13.

Gashelle is convinced that this is the place for a transparent carnivorous jelly back here, but the creature is apparently out on a morning break.

Is this place also covered in mushrooms and fungus?

Gashelle can hammer in a piton as well as anybody else.

All right. "Tristan, Avinar; who's c- coming?"

Gashelle take the rope in one hand and crosses.

Take 10 + 7 = 17

"All right. But we send t- two people over, one to hammer, and the other to stand g- guard."

Wellard, can we Take 10 on the acrobatics check?

Gashelle keeps looking across the chasm, at the hallway illuminated behind the waterfall. She's imagining one person, alone, wet, and off-balance, trying to gain his footing over there, attacked by some large, transparent, carnivorous jelly.

"Is there a w- way to secure the p- piton into the wall over there w- without risking anyone? You c- can levitate your sickle, ma'am. C- could you send over a piton and hammer?"

"Wh- what hold the d- draw rope in p- place?"

At the gorge's narrowest, how far a leap is Avinar going to need to make?

By the size of the piece you'd say they were made for the ogres. the workmanship is very good though not ogre work at all..perhaps the dwarves were slaves forced to work for the ogres.

"Or the dwarves bought the ogres' services." Gashelle is confused by the tunnel system. "Has anyone kept track: from our initial cave entrance yesterday, what direction have we been traveling? Are we intruding into the dwarven lands?"

I see where I made my arithmetic mistake. Thanks for double-checking.

The screen is iron rusted now with the damp..but simply made with no distinctive pattern or decoration on it.

Opening the second Sarcophogus reveals more oil and a second piece of copper jewellry. Both pieces are qite intricately worked and will fetch up to 60 Gp on the open market. The oil should be worth something to a priest or embalmer possibly as much as 100Gp for each bottle.

Gashelle is really baffled by this section of the underground complex. Can she identify any of the jewelry as being made by or for a particular race?

It's sublime, and we're the only p- people who have seen it in who-knows-how-many years. Maybe we're th- the only people who have ever seen it at all

...she said that in Elven.

Gashelle takes a look at the decorative screen between the sarcophagi, and the crypts themselves. Are they illustrated in any way? Is there any indication as to what the purpose of this place was, or why it has burning-head ogre skeletons in it now?

Wellard, if I calculate correctly, we each have a total of 2051 exp. pts, save for Tristan, who has 2151. We'll make level at 3300. Does that square with your records?

Well, that's that then. I still have enough pitons and we have enough rope left to cross that river relatively safely, what say you all?

Gashelle turns to look back out into the hallway where Eltariel is standing, and moves slowly through the mushrooms and moss to stand beside her.

She takes in the luminescent curtain of water. "It's sublime, and we're the only p- people who have seen it in who-knows-how-many years. Maybe we're th- the only people who have ever seen it at all."

Then, it's down to business. The walking dead, flesh-eating fungus, deranged water spirits, automatons; they can all function perfectly well in running water without needing to breathe air. "First step: c- cast a light enchantment on an arrow and shoot it through the c- cascade?" she proposes.

Gashelle makes sure the fire is out on both Avinar and herself, and makes ready for another great skeleton to rise from the othr sarcophogas.

"Again, with the flare. Some s- sort of signal, d- do you think?"