R U I N S O F P A T H F I N D E R
Book I: Shards of Sin
Part 3: In the Crow's Nest
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After having spent a day resting, recuperating, resupplying, and planning their assault, the group is finally ready to make their move on the Crow. Taros directs them to a contact of his in the Dockway that provides the group with a trio of rowboats to make the journey. Although the group attempts to row as silently as possible, this proves to be more difficult than anticipated due to the lack of anyone’s real knowledge on how to row a boat properly, and between a few loud swears, collisions between each other’s vessels (Which caused more swears) and attempts at communication between the boats(To ensure fewer collisions), it’s a wonder they made it to the Crow piling period, let alone stealthily. When they finally reach it and begin to row their boats one at a time into the alcove, they find two rowboats already there, each leashed to an iron piton in the wall. The alcove already being occupied makes docking a deal bit more complicated, and more swearing occurs as each of the ship’s pilots incidentally ram their own boats into the others, forming a jangled mess of wood, oars, and cold, wet, and annoyed adventurers.
Finally on solid ground in the alcove, the group looks around at the area arrayed out before them, as far as they can see within the Everburning Torch that Renfeld currently carries. The main entrance leads through a ten-foot wide by ten-foot tall opening into a thirty-by-twenty foot room filled with excavated rubble. Three corridors lead from the room - one with shallow stairs leading upwards to the north, one leading to a small room to the west with evidence of campfires, and a third to the south, which leads to another room from which the smell of feces emanates. Above them, the alcove they’re currently in extends well beyond the light granted to them by the torch, even to those with low-light vision.
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Radyx unrolls the makeshift map they have and gives it a look over. "Looks like a dead end this way, but best clear it to be sure we ain't got anything at our backs."
He then pulls out the syringe of Zerk and looks back at Ferit. "Party time!" he says with a smirk and jams the needle into his thigh and depresses the plunger. The sensation that he experiences is indeed a novel one. The feeling of his veins burning and and the adrenaline pumping is quite exhilarating.
As he steps forward, he realizes that Renfeld does not keep pace. He turns back with a glare, his pupils fully dilated from the Zerk. "Give me that ya damn coward! If you can't keep up, you don't get to hold the light!" he says as he snatches the torch out of Renfeld's hand and moves on. "Stay close ya worthless skinbag. If I run into trouble, I'm tossing this thing back at ya!"
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Charbonardent pulls out his new large silversheen greatsword from its shoulder sheath. Reflections of the everburning torch dance across the room from its blade. He leads the way to the bottom of the stairs giving everyone room to enter and search the first area. He attempts to survey the room but focuses solely on moving the reflections around the walls and ceiling.
As Radyx moves south, he catches a strong whiff of feces coming from the room he inspects. Inside he finds suspicious stains on the floor and what appears to be a dead dog in the corner.
Char, meanwhile, moving north, stops at the base of the stairs leading up and east - although the stairs themselves are relatively shallow, and appear to lead into a small room, though Char can’t see further without the torch’s light.
Ferit moves to the base of the stairs and whispers, "Want I should sneak up and 'ave a look fer us?"
"Nothin' over here," Radyx says as he heads back towards the stairs, pausing just long enough to scan over the western alcove first.
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Tarranna moves in spear in hand towards the middle of the first room letting the "bruisers" go forth to get bruised. No point to push herself forward yet. The air was wet and alive more like the dampness of a coastal cave than some forgotten ruin.
Her companion a lizard like chicken thing roughly the size of a housecat pokes it's head from its traditional place in her backpack giving a complaining chirp. Realizing he's just weighing her down here she takes him out and places him down next to her where he waits patiently warily watching the dark corners of the room.
Valko gives the entryway a quick once-over, knowing full and well this level has been picked clean. The lack of sentries, however, gnaws at his paranoia. "Natalya's ex-accomplices have likely seen to the ruin's ancient deterrents, but there's no telling what surprises they have added to the place. Perhaps, rather than subject the muscle to said surprises, Ferit and I should advance quietly to ascertain what dangers lie ahead."
Alexin bounces about the room, humming a merry tune to himself, looking for magical auras (casting Detect Magic), writings in strange languages, or anything shiny (like tinsel or a child's toy, but also including more boring things like gold and loot) that might catch his attention.
"Let's do it, F~##o," Ferit says, motioning the elf to come join him. He then pads quietly up the steps, looking for traps or hidden enemies.
Radyx sees nothing but evidence of recent habitation in the western room - an obvious campfire, burnt out days ago, some old bits of ruined cloth and a few broken picks. Nothing of interest as he moves up to the stairs next to Charbonardent.
As Ferit and Valko creep forward stealthily to the top of the stairs, they can see more clearly into the next room; A second curved stairwell leading upwards lies to the northeast, while three ancient stone chests lay open on the eastern wall. Surrounding the chests is a sort of fine yellow powder.
Ferit carefully examines the room for traps before creeping across it to peek into the chests, and then up the stairs.
The chests themselves have been thoroughly looted, while there does not appear to be any sort of traps, despite thorough searching on your part. The next set of stairs leads curvingly upwards, much as Natalya's map states.
Not hearing Elfie or Snotsickle burst out in screams of agony, Radyx strides up the stairs confidently, his muscles quivering from the adrenaline coursing through them.
"All clear? Then let's keep movin'!"
He turns and notes that Renfeld is not behind him. "Renfeld! Get yer ass up here now! You either stay at my hip, or at Elfie's!"
The moment Renfeld catches up, he turns and thrusts the torch back into his hand. "You get to hold this, so long as you stay f%~@in' close. I want you to be so close that I'll be able to smell if you shit your pants, got it? If you so much as get more than ten feet away from me, I'll give Elfie a reason to need to find a replacement, you got that!?"
He then draws his axe with his left hand, sliding his shield onto his right arm, and proceeds about his business.
Valko continues ahead of the main bulk of the group, glad to have Ferit nearby in case something manages to get the drop on the scrawny Ustlavian. He curses mentally when he hears Radyx making a racket behind, hoping the lout doesn't draw the ire of whatever manner of sentry has been posted to watch for intrusion.
As the pair of skulkers approach another stair, this one curving upwards out of sight, Valko nods ready to Ferit and pads noiselessly ahead, eyes drinking in every minute detail of the surroundings.
As Ferit and Valko climb quietly up the stairs, they near the room Natalya had mentioned with the numerous pillars. Valko suddenly stops the duo, as he spots something.
Valko signals a full stop to Ferit while he creeps quietly forward to deal with the tripwire. . .
Hoosible is quiet at first. In the light of the shifting reflections of the torchlight, he gazes once again in admiration at Strawflower's gaunt form. "Kneel," he says, and then climbs onto Strawflower's back as the others start to explore.
As the massive (and surprisingly fast) undead tiger rises and starts to carry him upstairs, he feels a quiver of excitement. With a broad, goofy smile he pats Strawflower on the back. "Ready to have some fun, kitty?"
While Valko cannot see up ahead, he notes that Ferit's orcish eyes are not so limited. The half-elf presses his back to a nearby wall and waves Ferit over. The Ustlavian points to his eyes and shakes his head before indicating the pillared hall beyond.
Ferit advances, giving Valko a gentle slap on the rear before grinning at him and moving forward to peer into the next room.
"There's a big rat up ahead. Might be one o' them girls," Ferit whispers in Valko's ear. The scent of garlic, onions and peppers mixed with the bits of rotting meat stuck in Ferit's tusks nearly overwhelms the poor Investigator as it wafts past his face.
After giving Snots and Elfie plenty of time (at least in his mind), Radyx makes his way up the stairs, making sure Renfeld follows along.
Ferit whirls as the light begins coming up the steps. He rushes (quietly) over to the top of the steps and mimes for Radyx to stop. Then he holds up a finger to his mouth for silence, before pointing towards the rat. Then the orc screws up his visage into a rodent like shape, exposing his top teeth and begins pawing at his face making rat like motions.
Radyx stops at the sight of Ferit, and does his best to hold back a belly laugh at his impersonation. He halts and waits for the Orc to do whatever it was he wanted to do up there, but is antsy with the surging adrenaline in his body.
Despite Ferit's best attempts to stop Radyx, the damage is done; With Renfeld loyally obeying Radyx and following him, the light from the Everburning Torch lights up the interior of the stairwell. The dire rat, over on the other side of the room, perks up as it spots the light bouncing off the stone walls. Squeaking loudly enough for just about the entire party to hear, it flees up the stairwell opposite the group, moving as fast as its little legs can carry it up the steep stairs.
In the darkness, Ferit can tell the little mongrel left a few small brown presents along its path as it fled in terror.
Fighting back a bout of nausea, Valko is overcome with agitation when the light of the everburning torch begins to approach from the level below. A colorful diatribe begins to materialize for Renfeld's misstep, when the half-elf sees that it is the ex-gladiator ascending, rather than the sickly lab assistant he expects. The red that had begun choking Valko's features manages to deepen.
After a few muttered vulgarities, he finally manages to say, "Well done! The entire compound is no doubt on full alert now, as I see you have lost the struggle with piecing together what such a complicated phrase as 'advance quietly' means."
Valko stomps past Radyx and angrily swipes the everburning torch out of Renfeld's hands. Then turning, he gestures up the stairs exasperatedly and whines, "Hop to it, then! Go show the Tower Girls how 'they do it in the arena'."
Ferit takes off after the rat as fast as he can after it squeals, full out running ahead with his silver mace in hand.
At the sound of the argument, Alexin hurries around the corner. Once he has Valko in sight he begins giggling, and can't tear his eyes away for the duration of the altercation.
Hearing the rat scuttling upstairs, something feline that remains within Strawflower awakens. Feeling her cold muscles stiffen beneath him, the scrawny gnome's goofy grin widens. He pats her on the back and says, "Chase!"
The undead tiger lopes up the stairs with a gurgling, rumbling growl as it knocks past the cyphermages and races up the stairs. "Hurrrhghggrrrllll."
A few dried flowers brush off onto the startled cyphermages as they pass.
Seeing that Elfie was losing his cool, Radyx merely grinned and bumps him with his shield on the chest, "That's the spirit, Elfie! Let's party!" and he takes off across the room as well.
"Keep the light close! This is gonna be fun!"
As Radyx bounds away, Alexin breaks from his somewhat maniacal reverie, and trots along after, still giggling.
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Continuing to squeak and leave droppings behind itself, the dire rat flees up the stairs, running as fast as its little paws will take it as its chased by a veritable horde of people wishing pain upon it - not to mention one of its pursuers being a large tiger covered in flowers with a grinning gnome sitting upon it.
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Party’s Average Initiative: 14
Dire Rat’s: 27
Ferit continues after the rat at full speed. If he catches up to it, he tries to smash it with his mace.
Radyx continues to move forward, and says over his shoulder, "Keep up with the light Elfie, your almost as bad at torch bearing as your sack of shit flunky!"
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"You're!" Valko corrects with a smirk, though the half-elf is thoroughly confused by the slow moving human's criticism of his own pace.
Bubbling with excitement, Alexin chases after whatever it is his 'comrades' are chasing after.
Continuing to squeak and leave droppings behind itself, the dire rat flees up the stairs, running as fast as its little paws will take it as its chased by a veritable horde of people wishing pain upon it - not to mention one of its pursuers being a large tiger covered in flowers with a grinning gnome sitting upon it.
Ferit continues after the rat at full speed, keeping on its heels but unable to quite catch up with it; A good thing for the rat, considering Ferit is branding his silvered mace, eager to smash something with it.
Radyx continues to move forward, and says over his shoulder, "Keep up with the light Elfie, your almost as bad at torch bearing as your sack of s$!! flunky!"
"You're!" Valko corrects with a smirk, though the half-elf is thoroughly confused by the slow moving human's criticism of his own pace, and can easily keep up.
Bubbling with excitement, Alexin chases after whatever it is his 'comrades' are chasing after.
Remiandiv pauses for a moment and the situation devolves from a concerted search to a chaotic sprint. Not at all what he is used to, and certainly a far cry from the coordinated military maneuver he is used to from his time as a xulen vra vanguard.
With the rest of the group charging ahead the drow ironically takes the position of rear guard, watching behind as he chases after the rest.
Hoosible mentally commands Strawflower to chase the rat as he sees it sprint off up the stairs. With a sudden lurch and a ”Puuuuuuuuurrrrghhhh”, the tiger leaps into action, following the rat and heading up the stairs, its long strides meaning it will quickly catch up to the fleeing rat.
Charbonardent and Tarrana, both encumbered by their heavier armor, find themselves falling behind as they run after the rest of the group. Only Tarrana’s compy, the little lizard put on the ground moments before, can easily keep up - though it chooses to remain by its master’s side.
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The rat continues to flee, squeaking loudly as if to try and alert someone - or possibly just out of stark terror, considering the zombie tiger close on its heels.
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