You awaken to the sensation of something damp and viscous covering your face and body. Your first reflex is to wrench two, thin tubes from your nose and open your mouth to extract a small pipe which apparently kept you from drowning in the thick gel now draining through the bottom of an enclosed cylinder supporting your upright body. A harsh light shines from above as you wipe more of this unknown substance from your face and eyes, and your muscles feel weak and uncertain as you push open a transparent window-like door to release you into the room beyond.
Nine similar cylinders greet your eyes, all arranged along the room’s four, stone walls, forming an irregular octagon. Each one appears constructed of a thick, durable, organic material except for the transparent doors which swing open from the front. Fibrous roots snake down from the 15-foot ceiling overhead, attaching to the top of these cylinders, and a metal plate bolted above them illuminates the room. To the north stands a door bereft of hinges or handles, while a green, three-inch circle slowly blinks on the wall next to it.
From these containers, beings emerge in a similar state of confusion and uncertainty, each similarly awakened from whatever condition the containers placed them in. Five of them are humanoid canines, whole the other four bear their own unique shapes.....
Fraejia awoke to the feeling of moisture, something unusual for her as most liquids froze on contact if she wasn't consciously stopping it. Her next sensation was the feel of tubes down her throat and nose, tubes she frantically ripped out of herself. As she pushed on the door she found that it was harder to move than it should be, likely because of her time in this tube. As she staggered out of the tube she looked around, her attention drawn to the other cylinders and, then, the other beings emerging from them.
Almost as if in reflex the pale blue skinned woman focused a moment and moisture flowed from the tube she'd been in forming itself to her body in an armor like fashion. Seemingly relieved by the reassurance of it's presence she started to examine each other individual warily. The five who looked canoid were her most immediate concern, in her limited experience canoids were either very loyal or very aggressive, sometimes both. When in strange settings it was almost always aggressive, especially when there were more than one of them present. She made sure the was definite space between them and her, just in case.
Since someone needed to break the ice as it were, Fraejia's body began to emit a low glow that enrapted her form and hummed quietly. Her mouth opened to speak but what came out was more like music than words. The main thread sounding like some kind of stringed instrument while the humming noise modulated and combined with it to create something quite spectacular to listen to.
Atirian woke to the sensation of the thick gel smouldering him. He quickly ripped the tubes from his throat and nose. After he released himself into the room beyond, he lay down on the floor to catch his breath.
Artirian quickly looks around his surroundings. "Where the hell am I? Did Lord Blighton's goons catch up with me and put me here?" He says frantically as he can't remember how he got here.
He hears Fraejia humming, and staggers to her on wobbly legs. "Who are you, and do you have any idea how we ended up here? I'm Artirian, by the way. I'd offer you my hand to shake..but it's a little slimy at the moment."
He looks at his gel coated form with disgust. "Urgh, this is going to take a while to clean up." He waves his fingers, chants a few arcane sounding words as the gel seems to flow off his body on its own accord. "Do you need any help with yours?" He offers.
Aurexil coughed, reflexively, after she removed the tube from her throat, even though there was no real need to do so. She ignored the gel still clinging to her, desperate to be free of the confined space she finds herself in.
She stumbles out of the tube, mentally cursing the weakness she feels. Aurexil flexes her wings slightly, glad to feel that they still work, though this room hardly seems like the space for flight. She considers the others warily. One she recognizes as mostly human, but all of the others... well, the strange way in which the one woman(?) starts singing just adds to the unfamiliarity.
When the more human-looking man (perhaps with some elf blood?) speaks, a suspicion forms in her mind, and she speaks up.
"If you don't know how you got here, and I don't know how I got here, I'm guessing the rest of this group don't know, either. Which probably means we were captured somehow, which means..."
She looks around, warily, wishing she had a dragon's claws or at least a wyvern's fangs to defend herself now. "...I don't know what it means, beyond nothing good."
"Oh wow." He gawks at Aurexil. "I've seen your kind in a book before, but I never imagined that I'd ever get to see a Wyvaran before!" His mouth forms a silent "o" shape. "Damn, I wish I had my notebook. I always wanted to talk to a Wyvaran. You're you know, dragon-kin? And what beautiful wings you have! Could you tell me a bit about yourself? I'll write it down when I find my book, I promise!" He babbles excitedly as he sets about polishing Aurexil magically so that her scales glimmer.
"I..." Aurexil was caught off-guard by Artirian's sudden questions. She'd never gotten such a... positive reaction from a human (half-elf? She was never sure about such things) before.
A slow grin crept across her snout in spite of herself. "Not really dragon-kin... well, distant cousins to distant cousins, you might say..."
She shakes her head slightly. "I'd love to talk later, but for now, we're all standing here--wherever here is--with no equipment after being captured by who-knows-what for who-knows-what. I think some other questions are more important right now... like, can we get out of here?"
Aurexil hesitates a moment, recognizing that this could be a tense moment. "If no one has any objections," she said, addressing the whole room, though she had no idea if they could understand her, "I'm going to try the door."
"Oh oh..yes. Our predicament. Ah I almost forgot about it, you know, being so excited in seeing a friendly dragon in like just in front of me?" He shakes his head as if to clear his thoughts. "Don't go for the door yet. Let me call Jaxel first. He's pretty smart and helpful. He'll probably be happy to meet you too!"
Artirian begins to chant in arcane syllables while drawing intricate paterns on the floor with his fingers.
Neve coughs as she stumbles out of the tube and dry heaves a couple of times before struggling back to her feet. What is this place? Who are you people? I can't remember anything! the young woman frantically tries to get the gel off but as the disorientation wears off she waves her hand and Creates Water above her to wash it off faster.
The canine men and women bark and growl amongst themselves in confusion as well, although their language is not one any of you have heard before. The largest one keeps a wary eye on the lot of you, and the others seem to be looking around and discussing their surroundings.
Their tone seems angry... so why are they smiling?
Arririan tries to remember if he has read anything about these canine men and women before.
Aurexil eyed the canines warily, wishing more than ever that she had more than just her fists and tail to fight with.
The other human was talking, but not in anything she could understand. The wyvaran glanced over at her. "Couldn't understand a word you just said," she said, then realized that probably wouldn't help.
Taking a stab in the dark, she tried speaking Draconic. <"You wouldn't happen to speak the tongue of dragons?"> Figuring she'd exhaust all of the possibilities, she added in Auran, <"How about the tongue of air creatures?">
AefPakka awakens in the tube and thinking how peculiar this is. Certainly not comfortable, but definitely something extraordinary. As the tube drains, and the kasatha pulls the tubes out, he sees the others emerging as well.
Astounded he asks, "ඔබ කව්ද?"
Hearing the others speak in strange languages, and all with strange two-armed forms (including one with wings!), AefPakka smiles broadly and proclaims to himself, "මෙය ඇත්තෙන්ම විස්මයජනක ය! අපි තෝරා ගෙන ඇත. අද මහිමාන්විත දවසක්."
He raises his four arms up and dances in a circle, very elated and very oblivious to the angry canines.
When Atirian spoke in the strange language of his Fraejia was at a loss. She had seen him use magic and knew that she should be wary of him. She wasn't sure what he was offering her and shook her head and stepped back from him. She spoke again in a new tongue, "არა, მე ვფიქრობ არა."
Fraejia focused for just a moment after seeing him slough off the gunk from himself with a spell and the slimy gel sloughed off of her as well. She noticed the human woman stumble from her tube while the man she couldn't understand spoke to a draconic creature. She almost thought the dragonlike woman was one of her people but quickly realized that, if such were the case, she would have understood the earlier words. When Neve spoke though Fraejia realized she shared a language with at least someone. She turned to face Neve and said, "თქვენ გამოიყურება უცნაური ნაცნობი, არ შევხვდით ადრე? ვარ Fraejia, არ გჭირდებათ რაიმე დახმარება?"
Artirian speaks in another tongue,"Já ég skil draconic fullkomlega í lagi, en ekki önnur efni en aðrir eru jabbering . Höfum við sameiginlegt tungumál meðal okkur? Sem talar hvað?"
Shrugging off the water that finally cleaned off the gunk Neve responds to the blue lady with the freaky eyes.
She shifts to another language entirely
Artirian has never seen or heard of creatures like these particular ones before. However, from personal experience with canine creatures of the four legged variety, he realizes they are not smiling so much as bearing their teeth.
Artirian shifts around nervously, then hides behind his friendly dragon.He saya something in unknown tongue. "Uh krakkar ... ég held ekki að þeir meina okkur góðar fyrirætlanir . Og ég er ekki mikið fyrir bardagamaður , ef þú færð svíf ég ."
Uh guys... I don't think the canine dudes mean us good intentions. And I'm not much of a fighter, if you get my drift.
Fraejia simply shrugged then and eyed the seemingly aggressive dogmen warily. "მე უნდა ცდება შემდეგ."
She noticed about then that Artirian had begun a ritual, she wasn't sure what it was but she felt a certain disgust at what seemed to be a ritual of summoning. Despite this fact she pushed down her revulsion at the act as she knew that she might need him later if she was to get out of here. It was then she decided to try other languages to see if someone recognized one of them.
Her first language was slow and deep, the sounds of the earth, "যে কেউ এই ভাষা বোঝে?"
Her second language sounded bubbly and flowing, "
ആരെങ്കിലും ഈ ഭാഷ മനസ്സിലാക്കാൻ നൽകുന്നത്?"
Her third language was gusty and breezy sounding, "કોઈને પણ આ ભાષા સમજી?"
The fourth one sound crackling, and snapping, like a fire, "
آیا څوک پوه دې ژبې؟"
Artirian shifts around nervously, then hides behind his friendly dragon.He saya something in unknown tongue. "Uh krakkar ... ég held ekki að þeir meina okkur góðar fyrirætlanir . Og ég er ekki mikið fyrir bardagamaður , ef þú færð svíf ég ."
** spoiler omitted **
The kasatha suddenly stops and stares at the others. "Þú bæði tala drekinn tungumál! Ég skil það."
AefPakka then starts to take in the room and realizes the mood of it is far different from what he first thought. Looking at the canine creatures, he gives a small bow and stretches his arms out, hands open and palms up, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible.
"Ég get talað við þá og sjá hvort ég get róa þá niður. Þeir eru sennilega hræddir."
Aurexil perks up when Fraejia speaks Auran. "زه د هوا په ژبه خبرې! نه تاسو زما نه وړاندې واوري؟"
Then she hears AefPakka. "Það virðist þrír af okkur tala drekinn tungu, að minnsta kosti. Svo flest okkar geta tjáð. Ég er kvíðin um vígtennur líka. Ég vona að við getum forðast að berjast þá."
Aurexil spreads her arms wide, looking at the leader of the canines. "Look, we don't want to fight. We don't know what happened any more than you. But I think we can all get out together. See the door?" She points at the door, hoping that, even if they didn't understand her words, they'd catch on to the calming tones and non-aggressive demeanor she and the four-armed being were using.
Artirian tries in all his various languages if he can make himself understood to the cannies.
"Við þýða þér mein og eru eins clueless og þú ert á hvernig við öll enduðum hér. Kannski við getum fundið leið til að komast héðan saman ? Hurðin þar lítur út eins og líklegt hætta."
We mean you no harm and are as clueless as you are on how we all ended up here. Maybe we can find a way to get out of here together? The door there looks like a likely exit.
"Watashitachi wa anata no gai o imi shinaito anata wa watashitachi subete ga koko de owatta ka ni aru yō ni muchidesu. Tabun watashitachi wa koko ni issho ni deru hōhō o mitsukeru koto ga dekimasu ka? Doa ga ari-sōna deguchi no yō ni miemasu."
We mean you no harm and are as clueless as you are on how we all ended up here. Maybe we can find a way to get out of here together? The door there looks like a likely exit.
"Sicut dicimus, et non affligam vos quam ut vos omnes denique hic inops . Ita ut hinc forte invenire pariter Ostium autem fere similis exitus."
We mean you no harm and are as clueless as you are on how we all ended up here. Maybe we can find a way to get out of here together? The door there looks like a likely exit.
"Nous vous voulons pas de mal et sont aussi désemparés que vous êtes sur la façon dont nous avons tous fini ici . Peut-être que nous pouvons trouver un moyen de sortir d'ici ensemble? La porte , il ressemble à une sortie probable."
We mean you no harm and are as clueless as you are on how we all ended up here. Maybe we can find a way to get out of here together? The door there looks like a likely exit.
He smiles at them, not showing his teeth, hoping that they can understand one of the languages he speaks.
Fraejia caught the draconid lady's words as she responded in auran and said, "ના, હું ભયભીત કે હું નથી કર્યું છું. હું ખૂબ વ્યસ્ત હોવા જ જોઈએ સ્ત્રી ત્યાં મારી સાથે જે એક સામાન્ય જીભ મિત્રો સાથે બોલતા."
She glanced at Artirian warily and then back to Aurexil before asking, "હું તે લેવા તમે તેને સમજી? શું, બરાબર, તેમણે તેમના ધાર્મિક સાથે છે?"
Really, it is a mixture of the two, with their worry feeding their aggression. As people begin moving about, casting spells, and speaking out in a variety of strange languages, the smaller ones seem to channel their worry towards pushing the largest one towards a decision.... very potentially a violent decision.
As AefPakka, Aurexil,, and Artirian attempt to indicate their peaceful intentions and Aurexil points at the door, a decision coalesces in their leader's mind.
Aefpakka Diplomacy (aided, hindered by language and circumstances)
Initiative
Aefpakka
Artirian
Aurexil
Fraejia
Neve
The Bahgra
The canine people leap forward as a pack to try and savage the strangers.
#1 Vs Aurelix Bite Misses his target
#2 Vs Aurelix Bite Misses her target
#3 Vs Aefpakka Bite {(Confirm) for A savage tear at the exposed throat of the four-armed alien.
#4 Vs Aefpakka Bite Misses his target
#5 Vs Fraejia Bite Misses her target
This sudden, but not wholly unexpected attack leaves the strangers pitted against the alien Bahgra. Can they coalesce into a group or will the be torn to pieces by the enraged alien dog-men?
Neve moves and casts Color Spray in a 15 foot cone. Trying to get as many of the dog people while not affecting the others.
Fraejia glared at the b~$%@ in front of her and said angrily, "თქვენ არ უნდა გაკეთდეს, რომ!" She stepped back to clear a bit of space and then sent a burst of frigid cold at the stupid mutt.
[spiiler=Gal Com]You shouldn't have done that![/spoiler]
Artirian abandons the ritual. Jaxel would have been a fine help, but it was too late for that now. He chants another set of words and a celestial eagle appears between AefPakka and Aurexil, viciously raking at the Bahgra.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/eagle/summoned-cr eature-eagle
Augment summoning applies.
The Celestial Eagle screeches a battlecry as it tries to rend the Bahgra in front of it.
Bahgra #3 Will
Bahgra #4 Will
Bahgra #5 Will
AefPakka puts one of his hands to his throat, to cover the wound. With a saddened sigh, he states in his native tongue, "මම අපේ හමුව මෙම එන්න ඇති බව දුක්."
Then he lashes out, trying to punch the bahgra that struck him.
Aurexil nimbly dodges the canine creature's attack.
"Really wish I had my glaive..." she mutters to herself as she strikes at the one to her right with a fist.
Then he lashes out, trying to punch the bahgra that struck him.
As the Guru strikes out, the Bahgra turns to avoid his fist and attempts to clamp down on the Kasatha's forearm as it passes.
AoO Bite But the fist flies too quickly.
nine-section whip, nunchaku, rope dart, scimitar,
starknife, shuriken, and whip.
Aurexil nimbly dodges the canine creature's attack.
"Really wish I had my glaive..." she mutters to herself as she strikes at the one to her right with a fist.
The wyvaran's opponent also elects to try to bit the attacking dragonoid as he swings his fist.
AoO Bite and also misses.
The largest Bahgra still remaining standing barks out an order to the other, who then attempts to wake her nearest unconscious friend to no avail.
The large one doesn't wait to see his order fail to help, instead he moves forward, unconcerned about the "harmless" Wyvaran and Kasatha to attack Neve, who, with a few words, knocked out three of his soldiers.
Of course, he doesn't know about the Wyvaran's tail (AoO).
Bite vs Neve his jaws clamp down on Neve's left shoulder for damage.
Status update:
Bahgra #1 unharmed
Bahgra #2 7/13 HP
Bahgra #3 & 4 Unconscious from Color Spray
Bahgra #5 9/13 HP and Unconscious from Color Spray
The celestial eagle continues trying to tear the Bahgra into shreds.
Then it shifts to face the remaining standing Bahgra with Artirian's pointing, standing over the unconscious Bahgra.
Besides directing the eagle, Artirian tries to get as far away from the melee mess as possible.
Then he tries his luck flinging acid darts.
"Krakkar, ég sagði þér að ég er ekki baráttumaður!Ég get í raun ekki hjálpað!"
Aurexil suddenly lashes out with her tail as the Bahgra moves away from her.
Unfortunately, she's too used to the counterweight of a weapon, and her tail whips past without even getting close to the creature. She steps slightly around the other one, trying to get behind it without giving it an opportunity to attack.
"Ég held að þú ert að gera betur en þeir sem okkur án vopna okkar!"[spoiler=Draconic]"I think you're doing better than those of us without our weapons!" She shouts back to Artirian, annoyed, as she tries a kick at the Bahgra next to her.
Seeing that she's somewhat hemmed in by the leader of the pack who came after Neve, the frigid woman steps quickly to the side so that the threat of the four armed being will help distract it from what she did next. In position now Fraejia's fingers become encased in icy claws and she lashes out at the dogman before her.
AefPakka works with the icy woman to attack the canine from both sides and working with the other strange two-armed woman, bring this one down with numbers.
if the dog person that took a bite of her is still standing Neve will five foot step back to try and get away from it. If not she'll stay where she is. Either way she'll try and heal herself.
HP 17/20
1st Level spells 3/5
The eagle manages to tear down one of the remaining Bahgra before she can counterattack the Wyvaran.
Meanwhile the Esper manages to create some lethal weapons the leader of the dog-men should be wary of, but does not manage to connect with them.
The Kasatha provokes again with an unarmed stroke.
Bite but the leader is distrcted and the Kasatha manages to land a blow. The Bahgra Leader, seeing that he now faces all these strange creatures by himself, retreats to the corner, making sumbmissive noises and gestures (the second square he moves from provokes an AoO from Fraejia if she wants it.)
"Þú veist, ég held að við höfum sannað að við erum alfa hér . Við skulum samþykkja uppgjöf þeirra og byrja vangaveltur leið út af hér. Það er engin þörf fyrir frekari blóðsúthellingar." Artirian says. He dismisses his eagle and starts trying to summon Jaxel.
Aurexil relaxes fractionally, but is still wary. "Já, ég myndi heldur ekki berjast ... en við betra að hafa auga á þeim. Nú, áður en við reynum hurðina, ég vil finna eitthvað sem ég gæti notað sem vopn."
She looks around, considering the root-things and the doors to the little cells dubiously, hoping to see anything that might be better than her fists, even if she has to wrench it off first.
Fraejia glared at the dogman as he backed away in submission, this whole debacle had been unnescessary as they had a common cause. Despite her aggravation she didn't attack him even though he left himself in danger of it, the fact that he was now being submissive was enough to stay her hand. After taking a deep breath and allowing her frigid claws to dissipate the Esper nodded in acceptance of the creature's surrender. she looked at Neve and asked, "არსებობს არაფერი შეგიძლიათ გააკეთოთ, რათა დაეხმაროს მათ მოვუგეთ? ჩვენ კი, ალბათ გვჭირდება ყველა დახმარებით ჩვენ შეგვიძლია მივიღოთ მიღების თავისუფალი ამ ადგილს და არ დავტოვებდი, ჩემი ყველაზე ცუდი მტერი წყალობაც ამ ... რამ, რაც ჩატარების აქ." She turned then to Aurekil and spoke once again, "ત્યાં તમે કંઈપણ તે અમે હરાવ્યો મદદ કરી શકે છે? અમે તમામ મદદ અમે આ સ્થળ મફત મેળવવામાં મેળવી શકો છો જરૂર છે તેવી શક્યતા છે અને હું આ ... વસ્તુઓ છે કે જે અમને અહીં હોલ્ડિંગ છે દયાળુ હોવાથી મારા ખરાબ દુશ્મન ન છોડી હોત."
AefPakka takes a step back away from the remaining Bahgra and then slumps to the ground. Taking a deep breath, he crosses his legs, closes his eyes and appears to meditate - two arms on his lap, the other two moving in slow circles.
Motes of blue energy emerge from the gaping wound on his neck, closing it up slightly. As the kasatha comes out of his trance, unfortunately, the wound only looks marginally better and still rather severe.
"Telur þú að við höfum tíma til að hvíla í stuttan tíma? Ég gæti betur að undirbúa mig fyrir öðrum hugsanlegum ógnum. Ef þú og aðrir held að við ættum að fá að færa strax, ég get stjórnað."
He then looks around at the others and listens for a moment, "Einnig erum við öll fær um að hafa samskipti við hvert annað? Það virðist sem við höfum 3 kannski 4 tungumál? Ég get tekið upp nokkur orð hvers, en mun taka nokkurn tíma til að raunverulega vera fær til að tala beint." Then adding while nodding towards the remaining bahgra, "Eru einhver ykkar fær um að tala við hann? Ég get ekki."
Also, are we all able to communicate with each other? It seems we have 3 perhaps 4 languages? I can pick up a few words of each, but will take some time to actually be able to talk directly.
Are any of you able to talk to him? I cannot.
HP 17/20
Level 1 2/5
"હું એક યોદ્ધા અને શિકારી નથી, રાખતો છું,"
She keeps looking for something weaponizable between the little cell-things as AefPakka speaks. "Ég vil helst ekki vera hér lengi. Einhver tekin oss, og ég vil frekar að þeir hafi ekki fundið okkur öllum enn sitja hér. Enn, betra að hlaða út óundirbúinn. Hversu lengi þú þarft? Bara nokkrar mínútur?"