Palace of the Vampire Queen (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Melodak will replace her armor, once more stripping shamelessly

Hal nodded to the princess and shrugged out of his armor. "Thank ye."

I'll just take the hit until Mending can be cast. AC 16 right now with no armor.

Windel will get everyone in near that needs healing then offer up a prayer,

channel healing: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 1) = 2

"May these warriors arms be strong, let their courage guide them, let their wounds knit to further ye cause."

Of course!

The dwarf raises an eye towards Hal.

Windel will get everyone in near that needs healing then offer up a prayer,

[dice=channel healing]2d6

"May these warriors arms be strong, let their courage guide them, let their wounds knit to further ye cause."

Of course!

The dwarf raises an eye towards Hal.

"Mmmm... Thank you" Melodak says gratefully, running a hand down Windel's beard, before going to the door where the next room lie

Day 7, Late Morning, 6/59 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

As the group carefully retraces their steps back to the large room where they encountered the Goblins, Atharessa tells Moralane

”Mazrim has decided to return to our home. He is going to confront Sir Guise. I should have gone with him.”

Moralane turns her eyes away from Melodak, as the goblin woman strips naked and dons another new set of half-chain armor, and then after hearing Atharessa’s concerns, she takes the large dwarven woman by the arm and says,

“Not a chance I’m not letting you out of my sight. We have an agreement. Now, I don’t like bringing up these kinds of things, but damn it, Atha, I’ve gone out on a limb for you and we are going to see this through. We’ve got to trust the others, Hallister, and Rownig, that they know what we are looking for and when we find it we’ll get out of here, all of us, in one piece. I need you.”

Day 7, Late Morning, 7/60 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

Melodak finishes changing and Windel gathers everyone around him asking for a blessing, which rejuvenates everyone, if only slightly.

Then forming a line, and with grim determination, the party sets off again toward the narrow Hallway beyond the broken secret door.

I need a marching order here, so I’ll suggest it is Rownig, Melodak, Hallister, Miagnik, Moralane, Atharessa, Stephanie, and Windel, unless there is a preference for some other order

The passageway goes north a short distance and then turns east. After about thirty five feet, it turns south again for twenty feet and then turns east once more.

Rownig stays a few steps ahead of the others. When the party is going east the second time, he can see that this narrow passageway ends in a dead end just ahead of him.

It's getting more and more difficult for Stephanie to contain the emotions welling inside of her. "To the south!" She whispers, far too loudly than might be considered prudent. "There's something more to the right, I can feel it. This isn't the dead end that it seems."

She tries feeling the wall to her right, in the direction that she can sense the connection. She tries knocking on the stone... is it as thick as it seems?

Marching order seems fine to me.

Miagnik walked in the middle of the group. It was nothing new for him now. The thought of letting others lead was grinding but the dangers they had to pass through first was less appealing to him. So he turned the thought around and considered them his body guards.

When Stephanie began losing her composure and began knocking on the stone, he spoke attempting to calm her down. He wasn't sure what was driving her to such behavior but he did not approve.

"Of course it's not what it seems. It's a connection of hidden passageways. The other side is bound to look like a wall."

The order works for me.

Rownig searches the south wall first at Princess Stephanie's insistence. perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10+1 if trapped. He is not getting much of read on the wall though.

"Well said, lass." Hal nods to Moralane.

Order sounds fine to me too.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

Rownig does not find a secret door, but after Stephanie protest that one must be here somewhere, everyone fans out along the south wall until it is found.

It takes some time, but eventually, Moralane discovers a section of wall that is subtly not like the rest of the wall. With more searching, Miagnik discovers the stone that when pressed will open the door.

The party is shown in the Marching Order described, without Rownig and Melodak ahead of the party, and with Rownig standing at the secret door. You can try to listen at the door, and rearrange your order, if you need to, before someone opens the door.

Miagnik would actually like to climb up and above the door but other than that, sounds good.

Rownig places a finger over his lips to indicate to be silent, then he listens.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

The clinking of the parties armor down the hall clangs in Rownig's ears. I know they think they're being quiet but lordy they be like a herd of cattle. He then signals to Melodak to move in once the door's opened.

Stephanie is great with this current marching order. She's excited to get into the room, but not foolhardy.

Rownig takes a deep breath and pry's the door open for Melodak.

Windel sways back a forth at the end of line wondering what is holding up the movement. "C'me on...ain't gitting younger and me belly needs some ale an' fuud soon."

Melodak charges in, mace in hand.

Hal shakes his head at the goblin's rash actions. "She's got guts, I'll give her that."

"Let's hope she doesn't bash that whiskey barrel" Rownig glances back a the Princess, "That'll be a bloody mess."

"What's h'ldin' up th'line?

Holidays can be slow but thought I'd bump the thread.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

After the door is opened, Melodak rushes in.

There are three fat, but short barrels in the southwest corner of the room, and on a small table in the southeast corner of the room there is a small, crude cage. An owl is in the cage and it begins to hoot noisily.

When the rest of the party begins to follow, there suddenly comes a sound from the east, through what appears to be a partially opened secret door. The sound is a sharp clang, like the clash of small blades, and then it is followed by another.

Miagnik climbed through the open doorway up and above the rest, before he stopped as he heard the clash of blades. "Hmm, fighting?"

He hopped down off the wall and quietly began making his way over to the concealed door.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

Rownig moves in behind Melodak, then glances towards the point where the sound emanated from. "Another door."

The Princess fails to hear the clashing of blades at all. Her focus is zeroed on the owl in the crude cage. "How barbaric!" she cries out. "We must get him out of that thing!". At that, Stephanie races to the corner of the room and flings open the small clasp on the crude cage door.

"Rownig check da'door." Windel approaches the partially opened secret door.

Hal moves up to guard Rownig, putting his back to the wall next to the door.

Rownig listens, then motions to Hal to move in once the door is fully open. He quickly pushes on the door.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Ready to move in on Rownig's signal.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

there is no need to roll initiative here

As Princess Stephanie rushes to free the owl from the cage, Melodak and Hallister make ready for battle, while Miagnik ducks across the room to hide among the short barrels.

Atharessa and Moralane follow into the room behind the others and Windel looks back through the door, left and right one last time before letting the door close behind him as he enters the room with the barrels.

The Owl in the cage seems to be very excited to see the Princess and hops out of the cage as soon as it is opened.

Princess Stephanie has been reunited with her familiar

When Rowning shoves on the door he catches sight of a dirty and bedraggled dwarf engaged in a knife fight with the Goblin that had escaped from the encounter earlier in the day. When the door is opened, the goblin glances in that direction, and then yelps and leaps backward, dropping its small knife.

The Dwarf lunges at the Goblin and takes the small creature by the shirt and lifts him off the ground and begins to shake him saying,

”How did you get here, where did you come from!”

But then the Dwarf notices that the Goblin is looking in your direction and is terrified. The Dwarf turns and flings the goblin toward you. His face beams and he says, ”Finally a friendly face in this place. I’ve been keeping watch here while my associates rest just in a room beyond you. I thought that this door was the only way in here,” and he points to the door in the north wall of the room, “clearly we were wrong. This one seems to know you, or at least he is afraid of you. What’s your story? My name is Dwaynor Polyinos, I am here with four friends from the village of Nirlo. It lies two days south of here. We’ve been on the trail of a dwarf from our village. The lad had an encounter with some kind of demonic spirit and went mad, murdered his family. At first we’d lost hope of ever finding him, then we got word that a caravan was attacked to the east of us, there were no survivors but we were able to pick up the trail of the attackers and it lead us here to this place. I never knew a place like this existed. We fought a few goblins, and then ran into a group of them too large to take on, and we ran for our lives. We were able to get into the chamber beyond that door, and wedged it shut behind us. We found some secret rooms here, but it looks like there are more secrets than we were able to discover.”

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Rownig moves putting himself between the two doors keeping an eye on both while twirling his hand axes. He listens but does not respond immediately, letting Hal answer the barrage of questions.

sense motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Windel remains in the rear guarding the back.

"Well met, Dwaynor." Hal said, moving forward, still eyeing the goblin in his grasp and ignoring the questions for now "That one got away from us earlier. He'd be better off if you put him out of our misery."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

"How long have you and yours been down here?"

Rownig will motion for some of the others to grab hold of the runaway goblin. As he listens to Hal converse with the dwarf.

"Hello, newcomer. Do you know where the large group of goblins is?" Melodak smiles....

"I wish to kill them.... my name is Melodak.

Miagnik said nothing. He did not know entirely what to make of the situation, so he stayed hidden, watching.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

Moralane and Atharessa respond to Rownig’s silent command and rush forward taking the small Goblin by each arm.

The Dwarf looks past Hallister at the Goblin girl who spoke and answers her with, “We think they gave up after they tried to break in to the next room, through the door we spiked. That was hours ago, and I haven’t seen anyone but you folk since then. This Goblin came running in here and came at me with a knife, I was having a tough time trying to put him down. If you hadn’t come along and took the fight out of him completely, well, I don’t know what might have happened. I didn’t dare yell out for my friends as I thought that there might be more of his kind coming from the same direction. He’s good with a blade, but he was out of breath, running for his life I suppose, but still determined to kill me.”

”That’s a lie!” The Goblin squeals. ”I offered that digger half the coins I had left if he’d let me escape, but he demanded all of it. When I refused he attacked me.”

The goblin had already tried to kill them once, so to Hal it was untrustworthy and dangerous, at best. He looked to Miagnik and Melodak. "Your people, your call."

To Dwaynor he said "We have an interest in stories like yours. Lets go see th' rest o' your group. We can arm them an' give them food an' water, an' you can tell us every last detail about th' possessed dwarf, an' what happened at your village."

Rownig will go over and examine the second door, he examine the spiking carefully. "Y'say yer friends are beyond the door?" Using a mallet and crowbar he pops the spike out. "Melodak git ready."

Windel remains ready protecting the rear.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)
Dwaynor moves past Hallister and Rownig, stops for a moment when he sees Melodak, Miagnik and Princess Stephanie, and a strange look crosses his face, before he proceeds across the room toward the west wall

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Stephanie is overjoyed to see that Whiskey is unharmed, as the owl bobs its head up and down in equally jubilant hoots. She seems oblivious to the others in the room, as well as the scuffle between the dwarf and the escaped goblin. When she does finally note their presence, she gawks at the goblin, curious as to why he's alive and amongst them...

"We let the others that surrendered leave under conditions I believe. Allowing quarter, in general, can be a good practice as it encourages less of a fight in those that are already predisposed. As long as it isn't mistaken for weakness, that is." She throws out her opinion as though everyone clearly had been waiting for it, satisfied now that the others must certainly be satisfied as well.

Day 7, Late Morning, 8/61 (Current Turn/Turn of the Clock)

Dwaynor moves past Hallister and Rownig, stops for a moment when he sees Melodak, Miagnik and Princess Stephanie, and a strange look crosses his face, before he proceeds across the room toward the west wall

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1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Melodak advances toward the place where the goblins were pointed out