'Well I hope it's a cute fluffy bunny! she thinks whilst pulling upon the door.
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Since Silva appears to have been able to collect all the interesting items, Davben decides it is not necessary to go into the room, and sets about untying the rope. He looks towards Damieka when she leans against him and raises his eyebrows at Nicea's gestures. The monk would normally let them know that this was probably not the best time for this sort of talk, but it at least gave him time to untie the rope; besides, knowing what type Nicea went for was somewhere pretty high on his priority list. Unfortunately he still didn't find out.
With a light pat on Damieka's arm he moves forward with the others as they approach the door and comes to stand next to Nicea as is the norm. He lets out a soft sigh as his focus seems somewhat scattered at the moment. 'This is why this isn't the best time to talk about these things... I should just ask her, then she'll turn me down and I can concentrate on not letting the next multiple armed monstrosity hurt her.'
He clears his throat softly to get the nerves to go away, then talks quietly to the tall woman next to him, trying to keep at least some focus on whatever might come through the door. "So... Nicea, I'm curious. What type do you go for?"
Damieka rolls her eyes as she stands in the back leaning against the wall and finally gives up any pretense, walks to the front, takes Nicea by the arm and gently suggests they go to the side where others can't hear them well.
She looks at Davben then back to Nicea, whispering.
The huntress leans against the wall again and shrugs, a smirk on her face as she is amused with the situation.
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Nicea squints at Damieka and wrinkles her nose. "HUH?" she exclaims loudly. "I don't get it. I mean, if you and he..." She points between Davben and Damieka... "Then whaddya need me for? I mean, it seems like we're a sausage short of a dinner here. Somebody ain't getting the meat course, if you know what I mean." She looks in puzzlement between the two, shaking her head in confusion.
"Speaking of sausage, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast."
Zara is still shocked by Nicea's early explanation, she blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. Confused by the food talk; "You usually have the fish course, before the meat course." She remembers from the formal dinner she had at her coming of age party.
"So, Nicea likes Seamen and Silva wants sausage. Tonight should be interesting then." The dancer wonders, her hand upon the door-frame thinking.
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"Feel free to jump into the dinner party, blondie, but like I told you, it ain't what I like. Besides, there's more to life than a roll in the hay. I like to have fun, too, more than just in the bunk. And you guys are great to fight with and all, and it's been mildly profitable so far, but, you know, 'dripping with fun' is not how I'd describe you. No offense." Nicea lays it on the table without a trace of embarrassment.
"Not at the same time!" She yelps then notices the others giving them strange looks, "By the gods woman you don't know how to whisper do ya?"
Damieka laughs while putting her back against the wall so she could put her hands on her tummy and laugh harder when Silva mentions food and then Zara responds about what course comes before the other. She slides down the wall into a sitting position while cracking up. Now she is feeling like Davben would be mad at her for saying anything so the laughter turns into a bit of a sad chuckle as she puts her forehead to her knees and tries not to cry due to messing everything up. She holds her legs and stops the laughing and sighs roughly.
"Damn but I've messed up."
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Nicea cocks her head curiously at the half-elf ranger and offers her a hand up. "You didn't mess up. Not at all. You said what was on your mind. That's good! Now everybody knows where they stand, right? And Davben has you, right? That should be good enough for any guy. He shouldn't be greedy. So stand up and get ready to face whatever's behind this door, because you want to be healthy for tonight. Sounds like you and Dav there have a date!"
The crumbling remnants of several chairs and a long table clutter the floor of this room. To the south stand three stone doors, each bearing a strange symbol that resembles a seven-pointed star.
A search of the rubble uncovers the fragments of countless books and scrolls with bits of spiky writing in a strange language all over them.
The three solid doors to the south were once prison cells. Within each is a single skeleton of a badly deformed humanoid; one has three brittle arms, another has an enormous misshapen skull, and the third has a rib cage that goes all the way down to its pelvis - a pelvis with stunted leg bones strewn below its strangely flat girth.
While looking at the torn-up pages, the party finds a scroll of Flaming Sphere (CL 5th) under a broken chair.
Zara wanders into the room still in a daze; "Didn't know there was a party?" her cheeks slightly flushed in excitement about Damieka's rendezvous.
She walks into the cell block, eyes fixed on the the strange symbols. 'Like the one on the statue? What is this? An ancient jail for the deformed, or a laboratory to cause deformation.' she shudders. Then runs her fingers over the symbol trying to discern more about it.
Zara's knowledge checks come to no conclusions.
Damieka gets up with the help from Nicea and smiles a bit, "I just hope ... " She looks at Davben and blushes, "I didn't mean for it to come out like this."
"This place could be a damn tourist attraction," Silva says, looking through the bars with disgust. Once the scroll is recovered, he looks to the others. "So, where to next?"
"Well there was that door down the central passage, or the lower cave?" Zara remembers softly, wishing she could give Damieka a comforting hug. However she realises this isn't an appropriate time, maybe love will blossom between the half-elf and the monk. Her heart beating hard against her chest, she motions to Silva; "Seen these crests on cells before? Ancient Thassilonian, maybe? Do they have any writing carved in them."
"That symbol was on the statue too, wasn't it?" Silva remarks, "Once we're finished here, we should probably find someone who could tell us more about it."
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Davben furrows his brow looking towards Nicea as Damieka whispers to her, and judging by Nicea's reaction he gets at least some idea of what she said.
He doesn't say anything at first letting the two talk, but looks confused when Nicea talks of rolls in the hay. "I think something has been misunderstood, I have no intention rolls in the hay, or fun in the bunk with you. I am fond of you, and of Damieka, and since you balance each other quite well, so when Damieka suggested a bigamous relationship that seemed ideal as it is practically impossible to have perfect balance in a monogamous relationship."
Dav peers past into the room as Zara opens the door and continues not seeing an immediate threat there "Of course I realise chances you would understand are very slim, you can think me greedy if that is how you choose to see it. As you said what is important is that we know where we stand, I am now clear that you have no interest in me; I am no sailor. It is a disappointment, but not a surprise, though I did not suspect you thought us all dullards."
The monk looks towards Zara and nods "We should have a party, we haven't had much opportunity to do much other than assault goblins, and sin-beasts." Moving over to Damieka after Nicea has helped her up he puts a hand on the half-elf's shoulder. "Do not worry Dam, you've done nothing wrong, it's better to be out sooner than later. Speaking of which we should hurry to be out of this hole."
"It means you think we are dull. No challenge. Not very spirited or capable in making things interesting and are not interesting."
Damieka puts her cheek on Davben's hand that he's put on her shoulder and sighs, "Ok where next?"
'Yet!' Zara thinks. 'Glad she doesn't know my past.' Although inside she cringes at the comments between her friends, staring really hard at the cells.
Damieka's brow rises at what Nicea found to be "fun" and shakes her head. Davben hit the nail on the head with that reference. The ranger shrugs calmly, "No we just had a blood bath in the middle of town with goblins and were too tired afterwards to rip up the bar." She chuckles.
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"A dullard is someone who evokes boredom, as you said again we are not fun, we must be boring, and thus dullards." Davben clarifies from Damieka's explanation, apparently dullard was all she got from what he had said.
He smiles towards Damieka when she talks of being too tired to rip up the bar "Well, we did stay up with Samara for some drinks, but left the bar standing."
"Come on, let's just get to that door. We can destroy the bar after we get out of here." With that said, Silva rushes off to the other door at a brisk pace.
Damieka follows but not quickly, "True. We should have asked Samara to show us some acrobatics using the chandelier."
The ranger chuckles again then points a finger at Silva, "Hey! Wouldn't your girlfriend be upset at you for destroying the bar or does she understand you have a wild heart?"
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"Is Davben mad at me?" Nicea whispers to Zara, "My mind kinda wandered in the middle of everything he said."
She hurries to follow Silva, leaving enough room for Samara to get in and check the door to be sure it won't cast magic fire on them or something. Because that's happened before. It wasn't fun.
"Girlfriend? Who, Ameiko?" Silva says with a nervous laugh, his tone perhaps a little too incredulous. "No, no. I mean, I love her and all, but she's like a... sister to me! Yeah, sister! That's it! Really!"
Damieka smirks.
Sense Motive
"Yes. She is like a sister to you." She winks as she thinks, "Just not YOUR sister." and the knowledge and amusement shows in her eyes.
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Samara looks at all of the other members of her party, eyes slightly wide. These people are insane. They are all insane. "What are you all even on about? I do not know what this thing that you are on about is." She shakes her head and opens the door in front of herself, taking a mental memo to open doors.
Towards Silva, Samara just clicks her tongue in dismay, shakes her head, and moves in if there are no immediate dangers.
Everybody roll Initiative!
Initiative Roll
As the conversation gets increasingly awkward, Silva takes the opportunity presented to toss out a finger, pointing at the thing past the door.
"What the heck is that!?"
Caught with ambivalent feelings; Zara still flushed from the earlier conversations. Looking down at her new leather boots, she responds to Nicea with a whisper; "Men don't like it when you say so bluntly. He does have an agile tongue." she adds. 'Whilst some of us know we are as dull you think.'
~~~As talk turns to Bars~~~
"There's always other bars in town; the White Deer is nice and rustic. Or Cracked Tooth's Tavern." she slightly spits out the words, not liking the rough and tumble shoreside establishment. "And I'm sure Pixies' Kitten has a bar." Her mind drifts
Zara decides that she's sick of being useless and trapped and moves forward, taking one hand from the thick shaft she summons the strength of her Goddess.
Zara
Davben
Nicea
Samara
Vargouille
Damieka
- Silva:
- Zara moves to N-20 and casts Guidance on Samara.
- Davben Holds Action.
- Nicea moves, swings, and misses .
- Samara moves into Flanking position with Nicea and successfully connects blows with the strange creature.
- The creature opens its mouth and lets out a shriek.
- Damieka holds action.
- Samara deals 12 damage to the Vargouille
Next round begins now!
"I remember now!" Silva says as he plugs his ears, wincing at the terrible sound, "It's a vargouille! The secret to killing it is to keep stabbing it!"
"Oh, and don't let it kiss you!"
Cringing against the cacophony, Zara has heard many songs to go with her dancing. However none as horrible, it bypasses her artistic sensibilities and straight to her nervous system. 'Prey for the Hunter that's what I am.'
Silva's shout, brings a terror to her mind. Visualising the hideous floating head, its sharp fangs tearing at her throat and rending the soft flesh. She quails in terror, her back against the corner of the room.