Lucienne's page

This is my third attempt at this. If it doesn't work, I'll try again Monday.

Lucienne's eyes look impossibly tired, her hair is matted in a mess; she is wearing a simple, dirty shift, unbelted, and a single shoe.

"My friends, we have to get away, immediately" she says, her voice hoarse. She looks around and setttles on Kegi, "Back...back where we first met the knaves. Is that safe?"

(A reminder: unconscious characters can spend an Action Point to stabilize.)

Everyone Please Take, 11 Bludgeoning Damage and 9 Cold Damage no Save.

((Can I get a roll call with Hp Totals, kthx REMINDER don't include level up hp))

Lucienne has Resistance to Cold 5, but that doesn't help when she has 1 hp remaining. (She never healed from the mob attack.) She's dead. Good bye.

The Dandy sneers at you as he struggles to stand, "Heal me again or we will all be sleeping with the dead kings and queens tonight, I'll be damned if I let some outsiders ruin all my planning."

Lucienne sighs, stands, and takes a step away from him, putting away the wand of healing.

"That won't do, I'm afraid. Even if your ice storms are real, you can't make us do anything. You can only kill us if we don't. And it appears now that your threats will go on and on, for as long as we let them.

"If you want our cooperation, you'll need to pay for it. And the coin is information.

"Or you could run straight to the hobgoblins if you like. See how well they take to your threats."

The dying man grasps "The Hells I will... you monsters... would as soon stick... an arrow in... or out hahaha. ... of me as look at me... Heal me I walk away... Dont try nuttin...its fragile..."

Lucienne looks at her companions, and then at the dying Dandy. No one's told him 'no'. Neither will she.

"Why, sirrah, do you call us 'monsters'? We have dealt with you, with all of you, with fair intent and, if not complete honesty", she ponders, fingering her mask, "then, at the least without deception. And, in this, with greater kindness than you merit.

"As Twilight dims her heav'nly dome, the stars come out to wink.
A tiny light against the night. And such the draught you drink."

Little bursts of light dance over his wounds. That Cure Minor Wounds. He's stablized.

She looks up. "The test is done. Show yourself, o king."

The Dandy smiles, blood running down onto his chest.

Lucienne kneels down next to the Dandy. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry it came to this. I warned you in the bar that your stubbornness would lead to pain and injury, and I wish things could have resolved more to everyone's benefit.

"I would heal you, if you wished it. But why would that bring doom upon me?"

The Dandy looks at you , lucienne and says "I wouldn't do that again if you want to live" Cough Cough Splurt

Lucienne turns to the Dandy. "Why not, m'lord?"

Not so much with the spot check.

Lucienne turns to Romulus with the Cure Light Wounds wand. "Fli'et." 1d8 + 1 = 2. "Fli'et." 1d8 + 1 = 7.

I think I'm lost in the battle, WHat are we waiting for to finish this round? Who's left to post their action, Lucienne?

Nope. I hit the Fat Man with my mace. Once Aerienna takes her action, it's their turn.

Lucienne attacks the Fat Man.

Attack Roll: 1d20 + 3+ 1d6 = 25
Roll to Confirm Critical: 1d20 + 3 = 17 (I assume that the Action Point doesn't apply to the Conf. Roll)
Damage = 14

Apparently, she attacks him hard.

Thanks, Logos. I completely forgot about Action Points. Let's spend one and see what we get:

Fortitude Save = 1d20 + 1d6 + 4 = 27 OMGFTWBBQ!

So Lucienne is not, in fact, shaken. Would the two points of AC have made a difference in the attack that got through? I wouldn't expect her recent attack roll of 10 (rather than 8) to hit anything.

Lucienne looked back and forth between her assailants, uneasy.

Then the man to her left got hit by a riot of hues. Stikk sparkling reds and yellows, he slumped to his knees. She never took her eyes off her remaining foe, bus she smiled and called out "My thanks, Darkling. Once he recoveresand realizes that I didn't have to kill him, he'll thank you, too."

Lucienne's main intention is to close to within striking distance of the Fat Man. If she can move straight away from her remaining attacker and get to the Fat Man this round, she will; but she doesn't want to allow an Attack of Opportunity.

If there's no clear way to disengage, she'll attack the remaining opponent.

Attack Roll = 1d20 + 3 - 2 = 8

"My friends, this may not be (whoop) the best time to notice such (yikes) things, but the natives' habits since we arrived (whoulf) seem orchestrated. The barkeep first gave us a price in coppers, then switched (yow) to lead. He was cooperative (*clang*) and is now trying to kill us. The Fat Man may be (uhhn) the 'boss' here, but some intelligence (eek) is pulling everybody's strings."

Lucienne turns to the bandaged man and manages a grim smile. "Rom, I don't think they're going to accept our surrender. As soon as it's convenient, would you kindly enfeeble someone?"

To Akallabeth: "If we get out of this alive, remind me never to let him live this down."

Lucienne only has a +4 on Will saves, and cannot succeed at a DC 25 saving throw.

A shaken character takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

"Let's take as many with us as we can."

Logos, I asked before, and now I guess we really need to know: many of our characters were still injured from the fight earlier in Sharn. Did getting eaten alive and regurgitated by the Cheshire Beasts heal anybody?

Initiative = 19

Lucienne turns towards the fat man, and she looks angrier than she has ever looked before. It's a cold, hard stare, that none of you want to be looking down.

Nine thousand years, the daelkyr writhe, imprisoned in their wrath,
Bewailing fate and choked by hate, and you now walk their path.
Now toss aside all hope, denied forever by your gods.
Make ready for your doom, devoid of fortune's sweet facade.

That would be Doom, directed at the fat man who's directing everyone else at us.

The Lad shakes himself and his head again

"All right, and thank you. You can go now."

Lucienne straightens up. "Well, my friends, which is it to be? The nearest exit, or His Majesty's court in the sky?"

The Lad who seems a little dumb seems to be catching on, " Hello and er ah money"

Lucienne nods and grins. "Good. That's fantastic. Rolando, one last question: do you know anyone who has seen the king?"

"Rolando, my friends and I think that we might visit the king, but we're strangers here, and we don't know your customs, or how we're supposed to behave.

"We might accidentally give the King a present, and it might be something that we like a lot, but that everybody in this kingdom thinks is bad and stinky.

"We might decide to bow deeply when we meet him, or we might decide to dance a tango with him. We don't know what's polite here.

"Have you ever met the King?"

Aerianna steps back and leans against the wall, watching the boy appraisingly. She mutters "Let them do the talking. For now." to no one in particular.

Lucienne glances back at Aerianna and nods.

Lucienne gets down on one knee. "Son, we mean you no harm. My name's Lucienne, Can you tell me yours?"

"Hmmmm,... I guess we're going to go visit the knights after all."

What was that Ronald said,... something about a shrubbery?"

Lucienne replies, "Yes. We'll need to make sure we have shrubberies to see the knights."

"But, I don't think we have to see them. They gave us a choice of knights or knaves, and we chose knaves.

"My question now is: do we want out, that way, or do we want to see the king of this place and petition for hlp against the Hollow Man, up there?"

The Piggy man starts to make a sound, until kegi puts a hand on his sword, and mentions it slicing abilities. Making a sound not unlike a snort, the piggy man backs off and says " Yes the exit its over on the other side, and the king he's up above as you should already know i imagine, was that the chef, well lovely meeting you but i really must be going."

The king is up above? As in, back with Ronald and Pundit Bob?

Lucienne uses Kegi's opening to the party's advantage. She'll be "good cop" to the shifter's "bad cop".

"Indeed, we've only interrupted your work because we have come lost. Good gentlemen, we ask your favor. If you could provide us directions out of the Castle, or, if that is beyond your knowledge, then mayhap to the Lord of this Realm; then we would be on our way, leaving you to your work."

If anybody wants to throw an Intimidate or Diplomacy "aid another" action here, that'd be swell. Then Lucienne's Diplomacy is +8, and I'll spend another Action Point on that.

Is he armed? Are there any scars or calluses on his hands that would indicate his profession? Is there some animal crawling around inside the pouch?

"I consider myself an honest man, but I have to admit I'm tempted. No conflict, no confrontation. Just pay up, get our info, and go. No physical harm done to anyone, everyone goes on their way,..."

Lucienne whispers back to Akallabeth, Listen Check DC 10 for anyone else to hear:

Lucienne hands the bell to Akallabeth. "The choice is yours."

She bows in silent greeting to Romulus, and puts a finger to her lips, looking first at Romulus and then at the "sleeping" man.

Are you touching the fat man, Lucienne? Otherwise make a spot check in its place if you please.

Nope, not touching. Bad touching. Touching bad!!

Spot check = 1d20 + 1 = 21. Woo hoo!

Lucienne bends oveer and looks at the man carefully for a moment.

Search 1d20 + 7 = 16

She then picks up the bell. "Shall we see who's working?"

"...other than that, not much. None of my studies described anything like this."

Lucienne looks carefully at Akallabeth. "We're all going to make it out of here, darkling. We're going to do it together. And when we do, we're going to find the man who sent us here, and ... register our complaints ... and then do something fun. and low-stress. Perhaps involving daelkyr or savage were-dragons."

"I can't tell much about where we are. I know we're not in a dream, per se, but ..."

Knowledge (the planes) roll, spending an action point: 1d20 + 1d6 + 10 = 28 tells Lucienne what?

"So?" I asked, much more calmly now that I had vented, "Shall we see a man about a 'magic item tax'??"

Lucienne shakes her head. "I vote 'no.' He's done us nothing wrong, as far as we know, he's doing his lawful job, and frankly, I don't think that attacking him will get us any closer to getting home.

"I wouldn't mind asking him for directions, though."

Sigh. Well, neither of her best-in-a-straight-up-fight friends seems keen on the idea, so Lucienne shrugs, and waits for someone to come up with something better.

"Delicate ways of the body? What exactly are you implying? Besides, she breaks things, she doesn't tickle."

"Well, then, get him in the places that break most easily."

"So, are you volunteering to tickle him then?"

Lucienne grins and replies arily, "I was thinking of someone with more skill in hand-to-hand, ah, combat, who was learned in the ways of a body's more, um, delicate, er, soft, um, vulnerable spots."

Lucienne looks at Aerianna, then at Kegi, then back. "I'll help."

Lucienne looks at all her companions and shrugs. "Curse our lack of foresight to neglect lead pieces in our gear.

She is trying to get her head into the bizarre logic here. It's not a dream, but the rules seem vaguely dream-like. "Maybe he can take us in a fair fight," she mutters softly, "but he's unarmored. Perhaps he's ... I hesitate to even suggest it ... ticklish."

Lucienne sticks two fingers in her mouth and whistles loudly enough for her allies outside to hear.

Slidding you a quartet of unsavory looking drinks, and then says "How much for him, cause he ain't leaving til I want him to."

"Him? Oh, it depends on how keen a study he is. He's made some poor choices recently, and he's gotten some of his friends killed. If he decides to be cooperative, he'll enjoy a long life as one of your regulars. Or, if he stays all sulky and pouty when our friends get here, well, then, we'll be seeing sides of him he's normally shy about showin' folk.

"Did we understand he's run up a tab?"

All right. So, this guy runs into the bar, and seconds later, a sorcerer and a armored woman follow. Everybody in the place knows exactly what we want to know.

Lucienne laughs warmly and says, "Two drinks? I'll do better than that. A drink on the house for anybody and everybody who points out the man we're after. Offer expires in five seconds."

Luciennen and Akallabeth enter the free house, the scuffy interior obviously suffering from dryrot. The Barkeep eyeing you as you walk in says in loud loutish voice pointing to a sign, "Two Drink Minimum"

Lucienne nods in acknowlegement and looks around. Where's our quarry?

"Wait. There are six of us so two go to the back, two stay at the front and two go in and flush him out."

Lucienne nods, gives Akallabeth a shrug, and takes the lead.

Are we still injured from the press of the crowd in Sharn?

Lucienne looks around to make sure there's noone in the distance, running away, and says to Akallabeth, "Well, 'Fireball', shall we see what we can flush out? Aerianna, would you join us?" (That leaves Romulus, Kegi, and Maddock outside as the 'catchers'.)

The foppish man sighs and gestures for you to give one of the underlings something, sighing again at your not understanding and saying "The Cash The Cash! Cash now, we talk then take the girl,"

Lucienne tosses her 'bag from Santa' to the most distant thug.

She triggers her "Haunted Armor" to make the sound of human male speech, coming from that hindmost knave, announcing, "It's solid gold, and it's all mine. I'm rich!"

Now would be a good time, my friends.

the Knaves pull back a little at a contemptous flick of the wrist from the leader, "Pay for info you say, I'll take that 100gp and" pointing impishly he points at the one with the truncheon "Her, I like her, She's sell well"

Sttill trying to sense motive and determine any background knowledge...

Lucienne looks at Aerienna ( What is it with her luck? Was she born during an eclipse or something? ), turns to the largest of the knaves (not the leader, the largest thug), and shrugs. "I'd sell for more, and I'd probably be less trouble, but suit yourself.

"We...well, at least those of us who'll be departing...must need find our way out from Castle Stratos and back to our foeman, one of the fair folk with a fondness for the Cheshire beasts. We've been warned to avoid the hobgoblins and the Things Below.

"Surely such worldly men as yourselves would know something about all that. Tell us what we needs must know, and we will spread wide the tale of your counsel. Become ye known as men of knowledge, who give good advice and keep to their word, and sure your lives will be easy and rich."

Sense Motive: d20+7 = 15; Initiative: d20+3 = 8.

Lucienne tries to discern what kind of creature this is, and (Dark knowledge) whether it has any weaknesses we can exploit.

If combat hasn't immediately broken out,and if Lucienne senses that this guy is simply looking for money: "Although we would be willing to pay for information."

"Hmmm. 'Ronald Eon' is 'An Older No.'

"Before we go and face...who knows what... is there anything we can do for you gentlemen?"

"These vaguely feline shadows with the mouths...those are the 'Cheshire Cats?' We were attacked by them, but the Herald was not. As if he commanded them."

The Pundit with a sly grin points out each, and then a little further down the commons, a large direction sign that says Knights and Knaves and their respective directions can be seen.

Looking each of you up and down the pundit says "You guys will probably want the knaves from the looks of you, unless you happen to have a shrubbery"

Lucienne laughs and points at Maddock. "Didn't we tell you that his code name is 'Shrubbery'?"

She looks at the clown. "No offence intended, Ronald. We've been fighting against someone who means us ill, and we're just...cautious." She takes off her mask. "I'm placing some trust in you in this, as you have in us. Call me Lu.

"But, really, how did we get here?"

"Ah! A pleasure to meet you sir!" I greeted the clown gregariously, while deliberately adjusting my mask with the hand nearest Luc to remind her not to use real names. "They call me 'Fireball', This fine gentleman is 'Rags'", I said, indicating the nearby Romulus, "And these two lovely ladies are,..."

Lucienne almost laughs at that. Growing up, she had a cat named 'Fireball'. Well, it'll be easy to remember.

Bowing, "'Muffit', good sirs, and," indicating Aerienne, 'Chafsiya'."

For those who speak Draconic:

For those who speak Elfen:

"We apologize for any inconvenience our intrusion might have caused you. Which of you could better explain this place, or how we come to find ourselves here?"

Lucienne smiles, thinking fast. "Good gentles, I beg forgiveness for our oafish behavior. We are the Order of the Oak, champions of life and virtue. How may we rightly address you?"

Let's avoid actually giving them our Names unless it's necessary.

Lucienne looks at clown and the pipe-smoking man with concern in her eyes. She speaks quickly.

"Forgive us, goodman clown, my lord, but my companions and I find ourselves at disadvantage. We have never been to Castle Stratos before, and we're not sure how --or even when-- we arrived.

"Knights and knaves? Hobgoblins and things below? All these things are strange to us.

"But you have answered my friend's question, and for your kindness you have our gratitude."

As she's eaten alive, Lucienne's panic is mixed with a grim satisfaction. "I thought today was going too well."

Waking up, Lucienne the Oneiromancer tries to unobtrusively test whether she can influence the reality in this place.

Just as the party debarks the cab, Lucienne uses her Pearl of Power to recall protection from evil, which she casts on Kegi.

"Maddock, you've got the wand for those. Don't hesitate to use it on anyone who looks like they're coming under the Hollow Man's influence.

"Grassy, it was an honor knowing you."