+2(if dwarven save bonus replies)
Before Roet could even make the chair he slumps to the floor, completely withdrawn into his mind. Oliver followed quickly after, slumping against the wall as he lost consciousness as well. Their bodies limp and completely vacant. Ciaran Bran would feel something tug at him, so will Augar though they resisted the pull, the sleepy, tired pull in their mind.
Suddenly Roet and Oliver bodies slowly rose back to a standing position but stood their, with their heads limp.
Ciaran crack his knuckles and drops his pack, and with a smile says "you know, I'm not the smartest man out there lads, but im certainly not daft enough to not realize that something just happened" he turns to his other companions "you boys better start talking to them and make sure their ok, from some of the tails I heard they probably aren't in control of themselves right now, and if their not in control of themselves there's a good chance that whatever is in control is not something friendly" he then pauses and a pounders look crosses over his features and he then says"I could be wrong though, I've heard of people who are able to sleep walk, they did seem quite tired when we got here so I guess they could be sleeping" after thinking about it some more he shrugs his shoulders and goes to a corner of the room and begins to inspect it to see if its comfortable to sleep on, and starts to get out some of his bedding "tell me if you figure out what's going on, or if you need my help lads. sprits aren't my profession, and neither are the sleep habits of man"
Adornis hears the strange voice and tries to understand what was said. If the voice speakes again, he will be prepared.
Seeing his friends acting weirdly, he says.
"Mr. Oliver, Mr. Roet, are you all right?"
Suspecting of something evil have befallen over his friends, he tries to send a secret message to his other friends.
Bluff (DC 15), Take 10 = 15
Secret Message:"Gentlemen... carefully... tie them."
Gentlemen... carefully... tie them
Ciaran stops setting up his bed and glances at Adornis and raise's an eyebrow and nods his head. he gets the rope from his pack, stretches, walks over to Roet, turns to Adornis and says "you realize its going to be a pain in the arse to restrain the monk, right?" and then attempts to grapple Roet
Oliver looks around, at the room, and at hazy images of his body and everyone else. "By the goddess... we may have a clue what happened to the previous crews." Oliver says, and moves to the desk drawer. "We can do nothing about what transpires. Either our companions will rescue us from their side or join us. We must assume they cannot rescue us, and can only..." He pauses as Adornis's thready speech, and nods. "Yes, they have realized, and seek to tie our bodies. We must try to figure out how to return. We also have a singular chance to investigate what may have happened when the curse started. Anything you can find, papers, items, anything, shove into your pockets or pack. Read what you can as fast as you can, in case it doesn't return with us. Look for a way to return."
Oliver begins to search the room, especially the desk the others found earlier with all the papers and such in it.
When Oliver searches the dresser drawer where the papers were before, he would find a complete binding of the diary that Adornis was parsing through, this time instead of pieces of paper it was the complete binding. Along with it were several scrolls, one if unfurled containing a map of the upper citadel and a rough map of the first lower section of the citadel itself.
As you begin to dig around the guard house there was a quick rap at the door. It seemed urgent.
Suddenly, his veins felt like ice. Rhoman was alert, looking around the room for the source of the voice, the hairs standing on the back of his neck. Gripping the hilt of his sword, he slowly relaxes. Receving Adornis' message, he turns to see Roet and Oliver standing, eerie and quiet.
Nodding to the small scholar, Rhoman moves forward to assist Ciaran. We should remove their weapons as well, he thinks. "The warrior from Redale, remove his firearm..." he murmured. Rhoman knew the danger of the weapons of Redale, and they had cost the plains many a good warrior.
Still, of the two, Roet would cause the most problems in these close quarters. Taking the rope, he begins to tie Roet's hands and feet together.
He heard the faint voice and shook it off before he sees the two arise. Not liking this he decided to screen the two men more thoroughly.
"Lets see if it really is our companions or the well spoken theory of our fighting friend here?" he says focusing his power on them, hoping some thing will ping on his aura read.
As he does that he begins to unfurl some rope for the others to restrain them.
This is all... So strange!
He says, looking around as instructed by his companions. It suddenly strikes to him.
If we didn't find before what was hidden on the closet... Maybe we can find now?
He starts searching around, especially at the closet, like the diary said.
"Ah, good idea..."
When the door knocking is heard, Oliver quickly does his best to memorize the map, if nothing else, and stuffs the map, the diary, and all the other papers into his backpack. "Roet, someone is here..."
He draws his pistol, and moves to the door. If there's a peephole, he'll use it. If not, he'll wait for Roet to get into whatever position he wants, and then open the door slightly. If there's a chair or something heavy, he'll move it over next to the door if possible, to prevent it from opening all the way. Either way, the pistol is on the inside of the door, pointing to fire through it at whatever is out there before he opens the door an inch or so to look.
It seemed the action against them suddenly triggered what ever was holding their bodies hostage to turn suddenly hostile. Roet would move to try and evade or counter the grappling of Ciaran, and Oliver suddenly drew his rifle and took a pot shot at Augar who peered at them.
Things just became much more complicated.
Unfortunately with Roets search on the room he couldn't find the secret passage that was mentioned in the diary at all. It must be somewhere else it seemed as there was simply nothing to be discovered.
There is no peephole, but a sliver of a crack wide enough to peer through to try and get a glimpse of whomever was at the door. Oliver also finds a suitable chair to prop against the door, making it very difficult for whatever was on the outside to get in.
As soon as Oliver speaks, Roet interrupts his search. He sees the gunslinger pointing to the door and getting ready, so he instinctively hides and waits. Whoever is there, he doesn't know if it's friend or foe; and, given the strangeness of everything, he has to be prepared. He whispers as he gets to a wall.
Do you see anything?
with the new turn of events Ciaran swears and says
"someone give me some good news right now! I'm about to loose my temper and knock out these fool headed boys!"
the air around Ciaran starts to cool and his eyes start to become reptilian. he grits his teeth in frustration no.. a small voice of reasoning still talking to him now isn't the time to let the blood-lust rule me he glares over to Adornis his eye's questioning if he should begin rageing. come on lad... he thinks to himself as he now struggles with roet tell me what i should do
Cursing at the gunshot, Rhoman stomps the ground, muttering a phrase in Huth'hanae, waving a hand towards Oliver.
Traitorous mongrels, he thinks. "If this is treachery from Lur'dalen and Redale, then we will have to destroy them." he says, grimly.
Adornis looks at his companions and, for an instant, freezes in place.
This was not supposed to happen... loose our lives to the enemies is one thing, but this?
Oliver’s shot at Augur quickly freed him of his torpor.
We need to stop them at all cost! They might be our friends, but now they are the enemy. Ciran, do whatever you can to stop Roet, just do not kill him! I can treat his wounds latter. Rhoman, we will stop Oliver... he can not shoot again, and this is no treachery… something is controlling them!
Saying this, Adornis bolts towards Oliver, in a flanking position with Rhoman while he prepares his tiny fists to punch his friend.
Both of the rifle rounds punch into Augur's gut, sending blood spraying from the dwarf.
"Get ready..." Oliver readies an attack with the pistol, should there be something hostile outside the door.
As soon as he sees the dopplegangers, his triggered action occurs.
The round tears through the fake Oliver's side...
Ciaran gives a wicked grin as he faces off with roet
"Adornis, you should consider becoming a bard, because what you just said is music to my ears!" with this Ciaran gives into his anger his hands growing into talons and his pupils become reptilian. his smile melts away and his face is now emotionless, except with his eyes that now shine with pure rage.
Str 22, Dex 13, Con 23, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 11
[/b]Offense:[/b]
CMB:+12
unarmed strike
attack: +12/+7
damage: 1d3+6
critical:*2
type: nonlethal, blunt
2claws
attack: +12/+7
Damage:1d6+6
critical:*2
type: slashing
Great sword
attack: +13/+8
damage:2d6+6
critical: 19-20/*2
type: slashing
Defense:
CMD: 23
hp:72
ac: 15
touch: 9
FF: 14
Ciaran looks at roet, "lets try this again green skin" he whispers harshly he then stops trying to grapple Roet, opens his claws, and slash's at his companoion
Ciaran slash's downward at the orc but only clips him
"Yes they are possessed. So do not kill them" he says ignoring the gun shot and moved forward. Not happy he walked towards the monk his shield up and his maul axe out.
"Nyr Doch!"
You will never escape! We will take your soul and the soul of your friends! A ghastly voice screamed as the wounded doppelganger of Oliver appeared again at the front of the door, raising its pistol and taking a shot at Roet.
The possessed Oliver seemed to be having difficulty in reloading the rifle. Though it was interrupted by Adornis's attacks as it doubled over, staggering back against the wall. Dropping it's rifle it pulled it's pistol, trying to take aim at Adornis.
The possessed Roet throws his body as Ciaran, attempting to grapple him and pin him to the floor.
When the creature provokes an AoO from Roet, he immediately tries to hit it as hard as he can.
He then gets ready for the creature; as soon as it attacks Roet, as an immediate action he puts a Stone Wall in front of him and let the creature attack it.
Finally, in his turn, Roet unleashes attacks against the creature. He enter the Jabbing style, and then he power attacks with his flurry.
Oliver calmly puts his revolver in his holster, and draws off his rifle (quick draw). "Get the hence, Evil Creature!"
If the revolver blew a hole in the doppleganger, the rifle shreds it, sending bits and pieces of it swirling away as a fist sized hole opens up completely through it.
"Have your women been shot by the beasts of Redale, your homes burned by the mages of Lur'dalen, learned ones?" Rhoman responds viciously. Drawing his sword, he lunges forward to strike Roet, lightning crackling along his blade.
Augar tries again to stop the monk.
An ear shattering scream rose up when the two doppelgangers were promptly dealt with. Their forms shivering as their heads rolled back. "This isn't over!" they screamed as they dispersed, their forms imploding in on themselves before dissipating.
The room began to shatter like glass, your conciousness being yanked back into the world as you now see yourselfs. Oliver looking down the barrel of your pistol in mid trigger pull at and Roet as you raised a fist to strike into Ciaran face.
Oliver flips the gun upwards, and then slides it into his holster. "Sorry about that, some wayward ghosts tried to take up inhabitance in our bodies. We had to kill them... again." He picks up his gun, brushes it off, and reloads the single round fired. "Apparently the ghosts were quite old, as they did not realize that the rifle had 5 more rounds in it. Early black powder no doubt." He looks around. "Anyone need healing?"
Oliver, while waiting, checks the backpack to see if the things he put in earlier are still there, or if they vanished.
Oliver takes a freshly bound diary out of his pack. "Adornis, this might be easier to decipher than the copy you currently have. I would not let them touch, that might be detrimental. In fact, I'd put the copy you currently have somewhere it can't touch this one." He holds the diary out for Adornis. "I also have a map of the area we found, and some miscellaneous papers."
Roet stops right before punching Ciaran.
Er... I'm sorry. - he says - As Oliver explained, we've been... Dealing with some strange versions of ourselves. I apologize for the confusion.
Adornis looks at them with a mix of relief and unbelief. After a couple of moments he takes the diary that Oliver is holding.
"This is incredible! What happened to you two? And how you managed to find this journal and... sorry for hitting you right there."
With the journal in his hands, Adornis loses no time and immediately starts the translation, fearing that the mysterious journal would disappear at any moment.
"Ah it is over" he says sliding the maul axe back into his belt and smiles.
'I think they were possessed?" he says to Adornis."I saw there auras' it was different, similar in style to the being we encountered at the entrance. I do not know they are one in the same. as for those papers, I assumne some sort of psychic activation is the clue. If time can be granted I might decipher the how and why of it? Not entirely sure though." he said eager to look over the parchments with Adornis.
Ciaran continues to stare down roet, rage running wild behind his reptilian eyes, his arm's loosely dangling by his side. he blinks once, his eyes become round again, but his face remains emotionless. he blinks again, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. his claws turn back into hands. he raises his right hand up to his head and starts to rub his forehead. he then turns around and goes and sits down by where he left his pack
"give me a minute lads" Ciaran says"head always hurts a little after doing that" he continues to rub his head. It's getting worse... he thinks to himself. after a while he looks about the room and notices the blood trickling from the scratch he made on roet's arm
"sorry about that monk" he says "hope there's no hard feelings"
The night began to settle once everything was said and done, the place would be convenient for a rest area before venturing forth into the citadel itself.
If anyone peers at the map that was recovered, it would show more or less a detailed layout of the citadel upper floor plans, though it is not the direction the group needed to go. On the backside of the map showed a more roughly drawn map of the lower levels, it seemed to be a bit more inaccurate and an in-progress. It seemed like the dive into the depths was done after the Queen had fallen ill.
"So should we camp recharge our energies and such. If not I would like to examine those logs. I might be able to read something from them. If not its fine."He says as he begins to look about the room trying to see if anything else seems different.
"So should we camp recharge our energies and such. If not I would like to examine those logs. I might be able to read something from them. If not its fine."
"If you want to take a look, Mr Augar, here it is."
Adornis hands the jornal to Augar, a bit tired.
"I think we were just lucky with the first scrolls we found... they had important information... this one is full of day to day notes. It is not difficult to translate, but does not have much information."
Adornis prepares himself to sleep, but not before checking his crossbow and leavinf it at his arms reach.
"I will obviously continue with the translation as we move."
Before sleeping, Adornis takes his own jornal and makes a few notes about the events so far... no one knowd when this will be useful.
"I think I'm going to sleep, gentlemen. Good night..."
"Day to day notes can be invaluable however, it is often the case, at least with old church records, that people don't write down the mundane things, because everyone knows them. Then they get forgotten, and nobody remembers that the center diamond is always the one you genuflect to first to avoid the goddesses wrath, or some such piece of everyday knowledge that becomes lost over time." Oliver says, looking at the map. "The question is, should we hit the upper floors first? I realize the source is below, however, they obviously did research, and that would have been stored in the upper levels of the citadel. So would supplies. And their queen's chambers might hold some clues, with her having been the first affected. There had to be some reason why the queen was the first victim."
When no one else accepts the healing he offered, Oliver uses it on himself.