Corum sees the disturbed man casting, and watches his movements.
Unable to figure it out, the wizard gestures and a pea-sized ball flies out and detonates with the disturbed man IN THE VERY CENTER OF THE BLAST!! But instead of a cloud of fire, it detonates in a cloud of acid. Holding his rod of cancellation, if the spell is not disrupted outright by the fireball, a lingering antimagic field sticks around sapping spell energy.
"Disturbed man meet acidball!!"
Arcthyl waits for the acidball to finish asploding before moving forward and activating totem transformation giving himself natural weapons. (moving to J7)
On the wooden man, new growths appear... pale splinters of wood emerge from his charred torso. He arches his back, and fires them off in all directions.
The wooden man straightens, and swings its fists at Norde... one body blow connects solidly.
After Corum's boom, the disturbed man shrieks and howls as he and the area around him sizzles. The great cat carving becomes still... a lifeless piece of wood again. Arcthyl and Sunny move in on the disturbed man.
Corum dodges the worst of the fiery explosion, and mutters.
"Elf, meet fire."
[dice=reflex save]1d20+3[dice]
Tumbling through the worst of the flying shrapnel, Sunny pops up besides the stranger fellow and
Becomes a twirling dervish of arms and legs, feet and fists.
I am raging, power attacking, and reckless abandon against the wood creature.
Fail
Rage adds +2/+3, 10HP, -2AC
Power Attack adds -2/+6
Reckless Abandon adds +2/+0, -2AC
My AC is at 15
I'm at 22/65 HPs with DR 2/-
Anumil charges up to the disturbed man, dropping his crossbow and drawing his sword along the way.
"No need to bother the rest of your minions. We can settle our dispute right here!"
for a possible piercing, cold iron, magic and precision damage.
After Sunny's impressive, aggressive battle dance, Anumil's charging stab to the disturbed man's gut manages to mortally wound the foe.
As Norde pulls his axe free, the wooden man cracks trying to rear back a fist. It snaps at the hacked "wound", and falls broken and twisted.
Epner breathes a sigh of relief. "I had little hope we would survive this."
Fight over?
yes.
Norde comes down off of his battle high, and is clearly rather exhausted.
Arcthyl sighs... and looks around him to make sure all the 'summoned' creatures are immobile or destroyed before letting his totem transformation drop. He walks over to the body of the deranged man and checks for a pulse.
If the man is dead, he casts detect magic to see what if any the man has about him in the way of active spells or magic items.
If the man isn't dead, he asks the party if they want to save him, or let him expire...
Sunny moves away from he fallen, strange, fellow and begins looking around at and into things.
"Um... not rilly wantin' tha' strangeness ta' be gettin' back up." (>_>)
"Here? He in't... y'know..... catchin', right?"
Anumil looked down at the madman, flicked his sword clean and sheathed it again.
"And now I regret not taking him alive. He could have told us more than we know now."
Don't look at me, I had my hands full with the walking tree."
Corum joins the search for magic baubles.
"Epner, where is his good stuff??"
His pulse is fading. He will likely die soon without stabilization.
The man has little gear on him. His leather apron is unnaturally light for how thick it is, and his hatchet is well made - the head is flawless gleaming steel. He also carries a couple potion vials, and a wand.
The door into the shack is open. You see a low fire in the center of the room with a chair pulled next to it. You see no other furniture - though having not yet entered, you can only see the center of the shack.
Sunny.. shies away from the strange fallen man. Cautiously she peers around the edge of the door and into the darkness of the shack.
Not getting a distinct answer one way another, Arcthyl casts Stabilize on the man, then gags him and binds his hands and removes all his weapon-like belongings, the wand and vials.... He pats him down to make sure he's gotten everything.
Heavy shelving (like bookshelves made of butcherblock) line the walls, and in fact look to be supporting the walls. The shelves are half-full of identical iron-reinforced and padlocked wooden chests.
The chair is skirted with woodchips, and a small toolbox with several carving knives inside sits next to it.
Against the west wall is a workbench with a stack of wood slats and crates of iron straps, locks, and rivets tucked underneath.
Sunny enters the room and pads slowly around the walls looking at all the boxes, careful to not get bits of wood in her bare feet.
Upon noticing something 'In' the floor she looks around for a brush or broom to clear away the shavings around the chair.
"Here.. wus this...?"
In brushing aside the wood chips, and shavings on the floor, Sunny reveals a trap door underneath the chair. Though the latch is sturdy, the lock is slim - compared to the locks on the dozens of chests on the shelves.
Sunny hunkers down and, making use of some of the tools lying about, has a go at opening the lid.
"Whut d'ye s'pose be down here, then?" She asks conversationally.
Arcthyl searches the body of the deranged man for keys.
Anumil walked back over to his crossbow, flipped it up into his hands with his booted foot and reloaded it.
After that, he strode through the room, curious about what was in the chests.
Norde will stand watch outside waiting for enemies volunteering to slake the thirst of his blade.
"Is anyone else thirsty?"
Outside on the porch, Epner yawns and slumps to sitting. He replies to Norde, "I could use a drink myself."
Arcthyl eventually finds one slim key on the man's pocketed bandolier.
Sunny pops the lock on the hatch - negating the usefulness of Arcthyl's discovery, and opens it. Underneath, there is a ladder down to a chamber with flickering light. A young woman timidly peers up. She is on the pretty side of plain with dark hair and pale skin, a boyish haircut, and mannish clothing.
"Hello?" She curtsies awkwardly still looking up at you. "Good day or good even-ing."
You find one chest slightly askew, upon closer inspection you notice that the padlock on this chest is not fully snapped into locked position.
Arcthyl walks in with the key, proudly and then his face falls into a slight pout when he sees the trapdoor is already open,.. but there are locked chests too, right? For now he hangs onto the key and peers down into the lit chamber below.
"I guess the girl is coming with us. No need leaving her for the end of the world boys down the street. Wouldn't you agree Epner??"
Curious, Anumil pulled the askew chest out, set it on a handy table, and opened the not quite locked lock. Standing to one side, he opened the lid.
Sunny smiles down at the lass,
"Hey-YA there!" (^_^) Before either helping her up and out or scampering down the ladder and having a look about.
She climbs up enough for her eyes to clear the hatch opening. "With you? No thank you sir. When you're stuck on patch of dirt drifting through limbo, here is as good as anywhere. I could have gotten away if I had really needed." She looks toward the angry man's body on the porch. "Caught me young. Couldn't bear to kill me so he kept me."
"That might take you a while... each one has a key. Each key only opens one box. Couldn't tell you which one has the valuables. Could shake 'em. The other trappings he's stowed away down here." She starts heading down the ladder again.
You also notice the woman has a fox-like tail, which she is going a bit out of her way to hide from view.
Norde looks to Epner, "well, what do the people drink around here? And if the answer is 'fey blood' or some such thing, I'd rather not hear it."
Sunny smiles at the lass, even as she puts a friendly arm about her shoulders.
"Well... we in't from round here neither an' t'is home we's hopin' ta' be goin' back to. P'raps if ye stick with us? Ye might be finidn' a way off this rock?"
"As fer them lil' boxes? Why, t'will be given' me some't ta' be doin' later when we's restin'." Suny offers, even as she begins to try and think of how big a sack they are going to need to carry them all in.
Though, something that the girl has said has Suny puzzled a little.
Arcthyl compares the key to the locked chests, wondering if it fits any of them...
Those descending the ladder find a 20' by 40' suite one-third filled with furs and hide bedding. There is a small table and chair, food prep area, and a bureau with a lightweight lock.
"You will find better company in the people outside Jorunea's domain... she was never more than a child... cruel thing. Although her faithful literally eat my kind, I find I favor the climate... to each their own."
"My name is Dorlynae. You are welcome to stay here tonight, or above if you wish... I can spare a few furs. If any of you are injured please... stay until you are better." She lifts a barrel lid, and starts ladling water into mugs.
The slim key Arcthyl has found seems too small for the padlocked chests... it is of a size more fitting for a lightweight lock.
Anumil does find a larger key inside the chest... if what the young feyish woman has said is true, it may only fit one of the chests (with another key inside). Considering you are not terribly pressed for time at the moment, opening all the chests should prove to only be slightly tedious.
"Look, a key!" He said, puzzling over its size and shape.
He looked around at the other shelves, with their locked boxes.
"I wonder if it will fit one of these other locks..." He wondered idly.
Starting at a convenient shelf, he wills start trying the locks with that key, trying to find one that will fit.
Arcthyl, with his useless key (lol) watches Anumil with curiosity. "Do you think it will fit one of those?... mine won't"
"Perhaps mine is the proper size," states Norde as he brandishes his Greataxe.
Corum watches with amusement and says with a straight face:
"It's not the size of your key, it is how you use it."
Having looked around poor Dorlynae's nook (Though finding it passingly comfy) Sunny bounces back up the ladder. At every one's words of interest Sunny takes down one of the chests at random and begins working at the lock with any bits of wire/metal that she can twist into lock-picks.
"Aye, locks be fiddly things awe right." She folds her legs up on her seat and hunches over.
"Din't rilly knows a lot about 'em afore I come out ta' see tha world....." She pauses and looks about the place, "Though... we's not in'a world we wus a'fore, is we...?" She asks, then turns back to her task at hand.
"Do you think it will fit one of those?... mine won't"
"No idea." Anumil replied, still trying keys. "Won't know until we try them all".
"Perhaps mine is the proper size," states Norde as he brandishes his Greataxe.
Anumil grinned.
"Well, let's call that plan B. Some sorcerers have traps for those who open their stuff like that. Nasty evil curses; blindness, loss of strength, withering of manhood..."
Sunny blinks as she finally catches up with the conversation. Looking to Norde she shrugs.
"I be thinkin' ye axe gon'a be smashin' more'n just tha' boxes, like. If there be any stuffs inside what be all dilly-kate, ye be smuchin' it along with tha' boxes...." She points out, even as she finishes up with her first box opening.
(^_^)
"How about then I sit in the corner over here sipping some of the lady's purest water, until you guys find problems more solvable by my axe then?"
Dorlynae seems to be only half-listening - refilling mugs, and straightening the chamber, but comments on Norde's suggestion.
"Only once you are well rested, sir, should we allow you to run off hacking the locals to bits, sir...."
Sunny and Anumil work on opening the chests, until they finally find something other than another key.
Inside is a slim spellbook - the inner cover and first pages contain drawings and schematics of a strange structure, a pouch with two smoky white gems the size of chicken eggs, and a note.
"Have the strength to do what I could not...
Take my eyes and end the dreamers."
"Henry"
The most intricate spell is a form of ritual magic which transports one's physical form into the dream of another.
There is also a series of incantations to link several minds - like a sleeping coven.
Lastly a modified permanency spell.
Anumil raised an eyebrow at the sight of the old spellbook.
"Anyone know anything about magic?"
"Not me, at least not book magics, sorry... but Corum seems to be well versed in such things."
Sunny looks on eagerly at the new discovery. "Whut d'ye s'pose tha writin' an' such all means?" She asks.