Robert yields his rapier, visibly annoyed. Pointing it at the noblewoman,
"Lady Secunda, I presume you have a very good explanation for what you did, and that you are going to give me whatever you took from him. I am also certain I am very correct in my presumption."
He is deliberately threatening.
"Explanation?" Secunda repeats. "You demand explanations from me, you...?"
The lady's expression slips into a terrible, insane grin by stages. It really is quite horrible to see.
"Alright," she says, swaying as if drunk. "Alright, yes. I'll give you an explanation. And I'll give you what I took from that dreg, too."
Pain abruptly blossoms in Robert's left bicep and when he looks down, he sees the hilt of the dagger he gave to Horsehaw -- protruding from his arm!
"None of you can be allowed to leave here alive," Secunda whispers, the smile slipping to an expression of what can only be called madness. "None of you! None can be allowed to report to Queen Abrogail that I ran! "
Already, the noblewoman has another dagger in her hands...!
Should we not wait on Robert before we proceed?
"Well, well, the Lady can fight... despite her dishonour, that is" Robert scowls clutching at his wound.
He charges Secunda, and tries to bring her to the ground, avoiding her dangerous dagger.
OOC: well, what I want to do here is avoid to kill her. The idea is to charge and throw her to the ground, grappling. I'd like to deal enough non-lethal damage to make her unconscious (damage option under grappling rules), then worry about tying her up.
Arma removes her hand from Kyrax's shoulder and nods as she lowers her visor. "I am glad your well then... My friend."
She turns her head to acknowledge the group. Listening as they discuss how to advance or if to wait she speaks up shortly after.
"I say, lets do both but safely. We do need to move faster and we are capable but we would still be best together. Xhu and Mirandix and any of you that feel you can help scout ahead should go and search."
She moves to look back toward the path behind them as if examining it.
"I will wait for Robert and the Lady Secunda to return. Any who don't go ahead to scout can stay with me. We will catch up as soon as they do.If any of you run into trouble though don't take it on alone if you think it is too risky. If we hear trouble we will come but I would rather we start the fight together. I don't plan on losing any friends and I know none of us plan to fail."
Kyrax nods and pads forward silently to listen and at all the doors.
Walking up the hallway and listening at the doors, Kyrax hears... nothing. The only sounds are coming from the door at the end of the corridor; the sounds of merry-making and cookery.
OOC:
I don't know the rules for Pathfinder.
what should I roll, DM? Armed or Unarmed attack? or any more strange combination?
"I have reconsidered my earlier thought. Much of what we have seen so far has been deception or at least tactics to delay us," says Zhu. "Instead of making the obvious choice and going toward the noise," he continues, "we should open one of these other doors first."
He steps up to the third door on the right and tries to open it.
Kyrax, listening at the end door looks shocked that Zhu opens the door before he can get back and get into position. He shoots the man daggers from his eyes as he moves quietly back towards the door being opened. You have people skilled in finding and disabling traps with you. You should take advantage of them. And if you intend to leave me in a dangerous position again I shall not scout for you in the future.
The door Zhu tries opens without any trouble -- and small wonder. Behind the door is what might generously be called a bachelor's room. There is a narrow bed which has obviously not been cleaned for some time. There is a bedpan, full to the brim with substances best not discussed. Unwashed plates and goblets are piled in the corners, crawling with flies, maggots and beetles, all of which buzz about when you open the door. Clothes litter the floor, and there is a rather garish painting on one of the walls, which features a pair of Half-Orcish women in what might delicately be called 'spirited congress'.
"My apologies, Kyrax. I ... am not always as patient as I should be," Zhu says, looking embarrassed. "A flaw of my spirit, I fear. As you can see, my rashness has been properly rewarded with THIS vile sight," he continues, indicating the room's interior. "I respect your skills and promise to take advantage of them." He offers a slight bow, as would be customary to a peer in his land.
"Which door do you suggest next? The one with the noise?"
"A moment...there may be more here than meets the eye." Pontia casts a quick cantrip and senses for magical auras.
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They seem to be busy in the door at the end of the hall. Let us secure these other 6 doors if we can, before we invade their party there.
Pontia casts her spell. Magic ripples out into the room and reveals... nothing. Unfortunately, this room is exactly what it looks like...!
The wizard shakes her head. "There appears to be nothing of magical interest in there, and I am not willing to search the room for mundane items. Unless any of you would care to, I suggest that we continue."
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Arma leaves the others to their efforts as she keeps watch on the door behind for Sir Robert and the Lady Secunda. She moves to the other side of the doorway to wait for any sign of their return.
"Where are they? They know we need to hurry?"
She waits there trying to listen to those ahead while looking behind to where two of her allies are behind them. What could be happening that is holding them up?
She tenses herself and thinks long and hard about what to do. There were far too many dangers ahead for them to keep looking back. If they did not return soon she had to head back.
She was not leaving anyone in this blasphemous place... No one...
After being wounded in the arm, Robert reconsiders his options.
"You are lucky, my lady, that you are a woman and a, ahem, noble one at that. It is against my interest to fight you. But if you insist..."
His first instinct had been to charge the murderous woman, but his wound seemed to create a new tactical situation. He lets his chakhram slide to his arm and quickly twirls it and throws in the direction of Secunda.
Edit: Changed "the woman" to "Secunda"
OOC: (I am assuming she is within 30 ft)
I don't know where I got the extra point from.
The wizard shakes her head. "There appears to be nothing of magical interest in there, and I am not willing to search the room for mundane items. Unless any of you would care to, I suggest that we continue."
Zhu takes another glance at the room. "Noooo, I think no further examination of the vile room is needed," he says.
"Kyrax, I agree -- which door do we secure next?"
"Though some fire would be a welcome addition to the decor. The next door in line?"
As you go through the rooms that don't have 'funny' noises coming from them, you find no resistance to your attempts to gain entry; none of the rooms are locked.
Unfortunately, none of the rooms are locked. They're each and every one a squalid mess. The room with the most luxurious accommodations - which is to say, a kingsize bed - is easily the worst. You find yourselves throwing the door shut almost as quickly as you open it because of the fleas visibly jumping around the bed start to make a beeline towards you!
In one of the smaller rooms, Pontia does find an object of magic: it's a potion, bottled like the ones you found in the kytons' room, and according to Pontia's scan it contains a potion of Cure light wounds! Another of the lesser rooms yields a razor, placed in front of a miraculously unbroken mirror. It seems one of the occupants is more concerned with his personal grooming than he was with general cleanliness.
"Bastard! By-blow!" Secunda screams when the chakram hits her. Bloody froth on her lips, the Lady Secunda lowers her dagger and charges you!
Mirandix makes his way slowly to the room at the end, ever more curious about the apparent feasting inside. He stops by the door and listens closely trying to identify by sound what the activities inside might be.
"Very well," says Zhu. "No visible foes to the sides. Forward then." He readies himself, an incantation on his lips, as Mirandix listens at the final door.
"Bastard! By-blow!" Secunda screams when the chakram hits her. Bloody froth on her lips, the Lady Secunda lowers her dagger and charges you!
Given that Robert's AC is 16, I am not going to count that attack.
Robert avoids his opponent's blow and strikes again, this time with his rapier.
OOC: Secunda is at -2 AC.
Secunda dodges Robert's stab and laughs at him, madness in her eyes and her own blood on her lips.
"It's just never the same, is it?" she taunts you while tossing her dagger from one hand to the other, then stabbing at you again. "By-blows just never seem to get the same training as a child who is actually wanted!"
As Mirandix listens at the door at the end of the corridor, he can hear... a deep, bass voice bellowing orders between verses of coarse song.
Apart from the bellowing, you hear the crackling of a fire, the scuffling of boots hurrying left and right, and voices grumbling.
"When we get to eat?" one of these lesser voices complains. "You been eating and eating, when's our turn? ... Sarge."
You hear a high-pitched shriek of pain, a thump and a muffled groan - respectively when the loud voice mentions 'these Goblins' and 'tha human'.
Mirandix steps away from the door a short ways and speaks in a low voice, "There is a human inside, and it seems that they are being prepared to be food. It may be the princess. The time for stealth has passed." He returns to the door and beckons for Kyrax to come to the door. Assuming that Kyrax comes to the door, Mirandix speaks very softly, "Is this door trapped or locked?"
At Mirandix's words, Zhu tenses up and prepares to cast a spell at the first visible target.
Kyrax moves to the door. His feet begin to move in a graceful pattern as he quickly but quietly tries to open it. If time for stealth is passed, time for caution is also gone. he thinks to himself.
"Warn me just before you open the door. I have a rather long spell to cast."
With some advance warning, Pontia will cast summon monster I, conjuring forth a fiendish dire rat at her action during the round that the door is opened.
"You waste your time taunting me, wench! I know fully well what I am, and I don't care what you have to say. You're clearly mad and a coward. I don't want your blood so come to your senses and tell me why you were fleeing."
He may be talking but he still does not let his guard down. He tries to trip her with the rapier.
Arma moves down the hall from the doorway at a steady pace looking for any sign of her returning allies but as the sound from those still searching ahead gets quieter she wonders if she should perhaps move faster so as to return all the sooner.
Kyrax is unable to tell whether there are any traps on the door, but a careful jiggling of the doorknob shows that it is not locked...
"Don't call ME a COWARD!" Secunda howls as she slashes at you again. "I am NOT a coward! You have NO IDEA what the Queen would do to me if she heard that little b#@*! was killed on MY WATCH!"
Noticing that Secunda is perhaps coming to reason, Robert presses on with his questions.
"Who was killed on your watch, Lady Secunda? Perhaps you are exaggerating your misfortunes? I sense you want to talk but haven't yet found the right ears. Perhaps I could oblige?"
He does not attack her lethally this time. Again, he tries to trip her instead.
Arma hearing little to nothing, decides to move a bit faster, trying to get back to find them and reunite the group. Caution would only serve to slow her down and they were losing too much time as it was.
Zhu is only a step behind Kyrax once he opens the door.
Mirandix nods to Kyrax to open the door, and as soon as it is open he leads the way through it, eyes searching to asses the situation in the room and identify the threats.
Kyrax will begin a rhythmic shuffle of his feat as he pushes the door open.
As stated above, Pontia will time her conjuration to complete at her action after the door is opened.
The scene before you could be a very common one. Because what you see is... a kitchen. Here are a big table, chairs, bowls and mugs, cabinets with more crockery, a crackling hearth. The smell of roasting meat hits your nostrils. That is where the normalcy ends.
Roasting over the flames is what appears to be a whole Goblin. A second Goblin, a female one, hangs from the ceiling by a rope around her ankles, strung up like a chicken among the bundles of herbs. Huddling in a corner is a human man who you do not recognize, his hands and feet trussed with rope, a blindfold tied snugly around his upper face.
Two Orcs were tending to the roasting Goblin, but now stare at you with surprise and disbelief. Two others were in the process of hammering a spigot into a small keg of ale, but they now also turn their attention to you.
And sitting at the table, a foul smile on its face, is a large, hairy Ogre.
" it bellows as it casually reaches down and picks up a warhammer. "
One of the Orcs by the keg snarls and hefts the hammer. The others are reaching for weapons of their own!
Pontia's spell is completed; with a sudden flash of crimson light, a rat the size of a small dog appears out of brimstone-scented smoke. The rat screeches --
Despite this, Robert's attack does manage to knock the Chelish noblewoman down to the ground. The way she curses while going down is anything other than ladylike.
The Lady Secunda tries to roll away from you and make distance so she can get up without being stabbed, but a clear lack of training is showing as she lurches back to her feet well within your range.
"Who else, you dullard!" she screeches. "Lackwit! Buffoon! That little twit Valeria! She's dead! Of course she's dead! The Queen can't know I ran and let her die! You can't tell her!"
As you jog down the stairwells, past the locked doors and down the stairwell after that, you start to hear sounds - the sounds of The pumps hidden inside your body start to move more quickly, causing your hydraulic liquids and nanites to surge more strongly as you experience your version of excitement...!
Distantly, you hear Robert trying to talk to the Lady Secunda, but the lady is screaming like a madwoman, like a blood-lusting harpy! As you burst out of the cave, you see your companion, his body tattered and his blood splattered all around. He is indeed facing off against Secunda, who looks only a little less the worse for wear. If anything, you would assume she is having the better of Robert, despite being armed only with a dagger...!