Calla, spending a half-second too long looking for the cyphermages and their attackers, doesn't realize the tower is about to roll in time to do anything about it. Looking for a place to hold on, she's swept off her feet, tumbling painfully as she simply tries to hold on to her bow.
"Blast it to all the hells!" she screams, before muttering a quick prayer. A white light suddenly seems to suffuse the pale half-elf, and her bruises begin knitting closed.
Kel attempts to brace herself in the rolling tower.
...but fails and tumbles about with the debris instead.
Lefrik's eyes widen as the wild ride continues, he can only hope the tower is crushing some of the creatures trying to get in. The barbarian attempts to brace himself with both hands and calls out to Anklebiter "I'm sorry my friend, I can't get to you!"
Unfortunately, Lefrik's grip hits a bit of less than solid stone, and he goes flying along with others roughly
"Hang on, Anklebiter, I'm coming!", the dwarf shouts, and begins rushing towards the little wizard. As the tower begins rolling down the hill, he leaps over a window that threatened to trip him up, dove over the broken remnants of a table, and leapt over Lefrik's own tumbling form. After a few moments, he had maneuvered over to Anklebiter.
You try and brace yourself against the rolling structure, but the stairwell really had no good purchase for someone your size. Your face slammed into the side wall and you heard a roaring in your ears. The roaring wasn't just the throbbing of your head. As the tower fell, a huge fissure opened in a nearby wall.
You somehow manage to leave the room everyone else was in and make it into the stairwell leading to the "top" level of the tower. You see Anklebiter flung against one of the walls, and the a large fissure opened beside the goblin. You reached out your hand to snag the goblin, trying hard to not fall through the crack.
You slip on your first attempt to brace yourself, and slide as the room tilts around you. Fortunately, your foot caught on a bench that had been molded from the stone of the tower - likely with a stone shape spell - and you manage to catch yourself. You see Bruendor go skipping by you into the stairs to go help Anklebiter, and the dwarf disappears from sight as others of the party fly past.
You got knocked off your feet by a chair that was tumbling past, but managed to brace yourself on a wall-mounted bookshelf as you started to slide. Fortunately for you, the shelves here have nothing on them.
You leap for the stairwell where Anklebiter was, only to have your feet knocked out from under you by Kelendra. You hit the ground hard, your jaw cracking on the stone wall underneath you. Blood fills your mouth from where you bit your tongue, and at least one tooth is chipped from the fall. You feel something scrap at your left arm and you look over to see it dangling out a large crack in the wall. The crack gets even bigger as you watch, threatening to swallow you in it!
Reeling from the blow, Anklebiter reaches weakly towards Bruendor with one hand, while the other gently holds Minky.
"Rise or fall," he croaks as his green digits reach for the Dwarf, "short or tall... together..."
The Goblin weakly shakes his head, blood trickling from a cut in his scalp running into his eye, reaches for Bruendor... and falls through the fissure.
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"NO!", Bruendor shouts as he leans into the room to grab at Anklebiter, his hand making brief contact with the goblin's ankle, appropriately enough.
Unaware of what's transpiring, Lefrik continues to try to ride the crazy tower out.
Kel wills into being a moonlight bridge that bisects the tower lengthwise. In her confined space she attempts to brace again, but fails, while watching for a way to leap free of the tower.
Lefrik rolled to the side as the fissure opened beneath him. He watched as the crumbling crack rolled upwards, and he himself continued to bounce his way along the ever-changing floor. One of the blue-skinned tentacle lions things flew overhead, smashing into the rent in the wall and disappearing into the night.
Anklebiter's hold slipped and his legs hung out into empty space as the tower continued to roll. The ground was coming up fast beneath him. Even if he slid all the way out of the rift, he would almost certainly be crushed by the rolling tower. Then, a strong hand grasped his. Bruendor, a strange look on his beardess face, gripped the goblin's wrist tightly and yanked. Anklebiter flew up out of the crack in the wall just as it encountered the ground. The two shared a brief moment of exultation before the rolling tower sent them tumbling away again.
Whew!
Everybody post which of the following actions your character is intending to take this round:
Brace: As a move-equivalent action, a creature can attempt to brace itself in a stairwell, doorway, crack in a wall, or support timber by making a DC 15 Climb check. Succeeding at the Climb check by 5 or more allows the creature to brace itself with one hand free. A braced creature takes no damage from the rolling of the tower. A creature that braced itself during a previous round gains a +4 circumstance bonus on this Climb check.
Ride: A creature can attempt to ride along with the tower, moving and jumping along with the rolling motion to prevent itself from being battered. Riding the tower requires a move action and either a DC 15 Balance check (if the creature isn’t trying to move to a particular area) or a DC 15 Tumble check (if the creature is attempting to end up next to a specific target).
Escape: A creature can attempt to escape the tower entirely if it’s adjacent to an open window, door, or hole in a wall by making a DC 15 Jump check as a move action. Success indicates that it leaps free of the tower, but unless it can fly, it is immediately swept up by the surrounding landslide. With a DC 15 Reflex save, the escaping creature grabs a dangling root or a solid ledge of rock and halts its fall, but otherwise it is carried down to the bottom of the slope by the landslide.
Everyone post your character's actions, and I'll resolve Round 2.
"Thank you," Anklebiter says, clutching at Bruendors hand. "Thank you, friend Bruendor. Thank you."
The tower's continued grinding and shifting forces the Goblin to start hopping and tumbling to avoid being clobbered and tossed out the tower again. "We have to get out of here, all of us!" he says, an urgent tone in his voice.
Relief crossed Bruendor's features as he pulls Anklebiter back into the tower. "I know!", Bruendor replied, just as urgently. "I'm working on it!" He snapped his heels together, and the slippers they found on the drow began to glow with a soft violet light. He rushed towards Kel, who was tumbling helplessly in the tower.
Activating my slippers of spider climb to give me a climb speed, which should make it unnecessary to make Climb checks for the next minute or so. Trying to get over to Kel to help her get her feet.
, +2 if Anklebiter's aid is allowed.
Not that it mattered...
Calla again tries to brace herself, again failing, curses falling freely from her mouth as she tumbles through the spinning tower.
"Calistria's curses on whoever -- ooof! -- designed this damnable place. I will kill -- argh! -- every damn last one of those blue -- ugh! -- things and then hunt down those damnable dark elves that got us into this!"
Lefrik attempts to move to one of his tumbling compatriots and grab them with a free hand while bracing with another. Having bit his tongue once already, he doesn't talk this time.
The stone bench you are holding on to is as good a place as any to ride out the fall, though your head spins as the tower continues to tumble over and over.
You take damage
Wow, almost no damage that round.
Everyone post your Round 3 actions.
Bruendor curses as the tower spins end over end, and an unhealthy sense of vertigo washes over him as he crouches down to avoid the splintered furniture, the magic in his boots taking him all the way around a rotation. There's some advantage to this, though, as he begins to look for a way to get to Kel - the poor girl was already in a bad way when they got to the tower, and this hasn't helped any. Like every plan, he was breaking it down into components. Get Kel some help first. Lefrik's on that, good man. Now how do we get out of here...
Calla continues to try to brace herself, teeth rattling as she continues to curse, the volume growing louder with every bounce.
Lefrik keeps his grip firm on Kel if he can, and tries to hold them both steady as the tower tumbles and tumbles
"Have wizards of the southlands ever heard of Longhouses? They're nice and low to the ground..."
Kel clutches at Lefrik's arm, trying to brace herself against the Ulfen.
"We need to get free of this tower before it crashes below!"
Anklebiter pulls a scroll from its hiding place and scampers over to the nearest sure-footed person in range.
"I can -- yipe! -- can summon a really big spider! We can -- stupid chair! -- ride it out of here, with luck! But I need -- I need time to cast! Let me ride on your shoulders!"
Bruendor shrugs. "That's a better plan than anything I've got at the moment. Alley oop, AB!" Bruendor stoops to let the goblin climb onto his back.
Anklebiter grabs onto Bruendor's back with his legs, holds the scroll up in front of his red eyes and starts droning out the summoning chant.
Bruendor can feel the magic unfold in the air like a flower as its roots seek water -- or perhaps it is more like a fungus' mushroom cap, even as its rootlets go questing out through the dark, dark earth in search of nourishment.
"Ni yi yin yi yin no yi yin yi yin na yi yin yin yi nu yi yi yin ni yi..."
"We need to get free of this tower before it crashes below!"
"I'm not going to die in a rolling tower over a cliff...my ancestors would snicker when I arrived in their great hall for centuries!"
"I can -- yipe! -- can summon a really big spider! We can -- stupid chair! -- ride it out of here, with luck! But I need -- I need time to cast! Let me ride on your shoulders!"
"Desna bless your casting then!"
Calla tries to grab for whichever one is closest.
Calla was bracing when she saw one of the cyphermages falling past. She reached a hand out and grabbed his robes. She was nearly pulled from her spot as the man's weight pulled on her. The cloth tore and the man tumbled on past, as Calla grabbed at her handhold once more.
Anklebiter had just finished reading his scroll when the tower struck a ledge and leaped out away from the cliff side. You feel your stomach leap upwards to the relative safety of your throat as the tower went from rolling down a hill to rolling in freefall. Then gravity remembered you were there and the tower plunged heavily into the sea.
The sudden jolt shook everyone free from their handholds and flung them to the stone floor. A floor that rapidly became a flooded room as water poured into the tower from the open ends and through a dozen or more large rents in the stone. The original builders had done their job well, and the overall structure of the tower was intact, despite the water pouring into it.
Around you, a hissing sound filled the air as the ten or so dark creatures in sight began thrashing in the cold sea water. The sound came not from the throats of the creatures, but from the water around them. The creatures appeared to be dissolving in the salt water, much like a slug does when you pour salt on it.
Nearby, Samaritha was crying, clutching at the limp form of the man Calla had tried to save. His neck was obviously broken, his head falling limply at an unnatural angle. Samaritha herself appeared to be fairly okay, having ridden through the bouncing roll down the cliff side with a featherfall spell. As for the other cyphermages, there are none currently in sight.
In only moments, surely no more than a half minute, the tower was two-thirds filled with cold seawater, and it was all you could do to stay afloat.
You survived! 600 XP to everyone.
Anklebiter surfaces from the water, gasping. The last fragments of the scroll are evaporating in the water, as are the dark creatures.
'I needed to do something... Something... I was... summoning...?'
"Batrachos," Anklebiter whispers, making the final gesture of summoning. The air close to the Goblin turns in on itself and darkens. There is a drawn-out note, as of a harpstring being struck with impossible slowness, and a large shape appears, splashing into the water.
The nicest thing that can probably be said for the summoned creature is that it is not a giant spider. The sad truth of the matter, however, is that it is a giant frog.
"No fighting!" Anklebiter yelps as he crosses over to the frog, waving his arms and interposing himself between it and the others. "Need you for something else. Stay... stay...!"
The Goblin weakly tries to get up onto the frog's back.
"I'm going to try to get him to swim outside!" Anklebiter calls to the others. "Maybe I can make him tow the rest of us... Anybody good with animals? Got some rope I can use?"
Kel struggles to escape the rapidly filling tower.
"Frogs aren't big in the cold north but I'll see what I can do," Lefrik will try to calm the frog and set up some sort of rope situation so they can get the aforementioned tow.
"Less crying, woman. It won't help him and could kill you," Calla snaps.
Muttering a prayer to Calistria, she begins pulling herself through the water toward a window.
The moment freefall hits, Bruendor closes his eyes in disappointment. I've failed them, he thinks. And now we're all going to die.
And he's never happier to have been wrong.
When the tower doesn't immediately sink beneath the waves, he realizes there's still a chance, and he's even more pleased when he sees the octolions thrashing in pain in the briny water. He ended up on the ceiling thanks to his slippers, so he clicks his heels together again and dives into the water, surfacing near the frog. "That frog will work perfectly, Anklebiter, let's get a tether around him and-", he stops, looking again at the frog's coloration. "Scratch that. Around her. Anyway, get a rope around her, and we'll pull as many as we can to safety."
"I have a rope," Anklebiter says, "but I'm not much good with the knots... We need to hurry! Ms. Frog is only here for one hundred and eighty heartbeats, and counting!"
"Oh sure. My lover and my mentor are both dead, and I nearly followed. I'll just sit here and sing a merry tune, shall I?" Samaritha scowled at Calla, but seemed to realize that the woman was right about the need to collect herself. She kissed the man on the forehead and let him slip beneath the water's surface. Then, she turned and followed Kelendra and Calla out of the tower, all three of them slipping through one of the large cracks in the walls.
With the frog's help, Lefrik, Bruendor, and Anklebiter easily make their way through what was once the ground floor of the tower. You look around to see that the tower is lying on its side in about 25 feet of water. The water was obviously shallow enough that the tower wasn't completely submerged when it landed, some fifty feet from shore. In the water around you, some of the creatures still hiss away, dissolving in the salt water, and more line the cliffs high above.
Looking up, you are amazed that you survived the fall and the roll down the cliff side. Two hundred feet of a nearly sheer drop looks extremely imposing from directly below. The real question is what to do now? The shoreline is mostly cliffs in either direction, with no more than a ten foot span of rocky beach in places. The cliffs are tall and, with the creatures there, not exactly hospitable.
No other survivors are about. If the other cyphermages survived the fall, they weren't making it out of the tower. The darkness of night has finally fallen, but the light from the moon and stars is enough to enable you to see fairly well.
Decisions, decisions. Camp? Swim? Climb? You guys have all sorts of options :)
"Here," Anklebiter says as he hurriedly uncoils his fifty feet of silk rope, and tosses the end to Bruendor.
Lefrik eyes the creatures lining the cliffs, "I'm seeing why the dwarves wanted off this rock. I don't suppose anyone has a bucket we can use to carry sea water around with us?"
He looks back to the tower, "Should I go back in to check for survivors?"
"Maybe yes," Anklebiter says, eyeing the notlions from atop his frog mount. "Maybe look for waterskins, also. Bowls, bottles, anything that can carry sea water."
The Goblin shudders as he sees so very clearly how close they all came to death, but then shakes himself. "Need to get out of the water soon and build a fire," he says. "We can't stay in here, or we'll sicken and weaken. Swim around, maybe?"
"A moment..." Lefrik takes a deep breath and submerges again.
"You're still alive," Bruendor says to Samaritha. "If they were alive right now, they'd want you to get to safety. There will be time to mourn once we've pulled our fat out of the fryer." The concern is evident in his voice, but he's also shaken by the near death experience they all shared.
"I'll come with you, Lefrik," Bruendor said. "A second pair of eyes couldn't hurt, especially when they don't need light to see."