Alazandaru enters the darkened room, making hardly a sound. Stopping to listen, his own silence is echoed by silence from within. Without noise, he continues into the room, exploring as able. Suddenly, more than a few feet into the room, coming from within a horrible shried suddenly erupts causing a moment of pain in the ears. The shriek echoes off the walls, throughout the dungeon, and possibly even to the top floors of the mansion.
"Hush!" Tatya urges Morthos. "It's trying to get him to expose himself ... I hope. No matter what, no lights." She peers anxiously into the dark room. At least if Alazandaru is suddenly cut down like Beatrix was, she won't have such a good view of it....
Continuing forward, Alazandaru suddenly notices the stone takes on an earthy feel, providing less resistance as his foot steps down. While the noise reverberates throughout the room, he can feel the source coming from directly ahead of him. Though he cannot see it, he can almost feel the noise ahead.
Bostarg:
It's hard to hear through the noise, but it sounds as though wood splintered to the west. The sound is familiar as when the coffins broke earlier.
The young warrior froze at Bostarg's words but realised that to turn back now would likely mean getting attacked in the dark. As quietly as he was able, he lit his hooded lantern upon the floor to gain a light source all around him. As his flint and steel struck the oil and lit the lantern he shouted-
As Alazandaru's lantern flares to life, revealed in front of him is the largest mushroom any of you have ever seen. From the way the edges seem to shimmer, it appears to be shaking at a very high speed. It also appears to be the source of the loud whine. It sits in the center of a pool of dirt in the floor itself.
Aedorn cautiously explores the rooms in this dungeon, trying to make as little noise as possible until suddenly the entire place erupts with a loud piercing noise. Figuring that must be where the trouble is, he makes his way towards where the sound seems to be coming from.
Anyone else in the group:
perception DC 31:
stealth:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31
You see an adult halfling man dressed in finery slinking in the shadows down the hall towards you. He carries a bow at his side, eyes darting this way and that, as if he's very nervous about something.
Can we attack it? Or do we need to roll initiative or what? Morthos would've attacked it initially, I just wasn't sure if I would be jumping the gun by doing so.
The mushroom is unmoving besides the shaking. Destroying it will require little effort.
Morthos destroys the mushroom with a single strike from his blade, silencing it. With the noise gone, the sounds of the undead further over can be better heard. It seems they have begun to assault a doorway out by the beatings that can be heard, though it may take time to get through.
Tatya chuckles bitterly, giving the gnome a sidelong glance. "Apparently, the way we went before we slept was the easy way." Summoning her dancing lights, she spreads them throughout the mushroom's chamber. "Quickly, take a look for the pendant, and then we will retreat and shut the door behind us. If they all break through the side door, we may be able to slip through the door we used yesterday and search the remains of their caskets for our prize."
Perception to look for the silver pendant in the room 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Recoils bodily from the meeting of boot and face.
Technically Bostarg was waiting for the resolution of the Perception checks.
Having not yet followed the others into the room, Bostarg waits outside in the corridor nervously. The twin concerns of the shrieking mushroom and potential approach of the living dead weighing upon him.
The mushroom destroyed, the room is searched. Alas, even with light, nothing is revealed during the search aside from a large area of dirt from which the mushroom rooted itself.
The sound of the undead can be heard coming from the west, beyond a doorway leading out of this room. Several loud thuds resound, the sounds of wood splintering as a heavy weight descends upon it, thwack, thwack, thwack. For how long, it remains to be seen.
"Get out; shut the door," Tatya urges, following her own advice as she joins Bostarg in the corridor. "When we hear them break through here, we dash to the other room to see if the pendant is visible. If not, we can at least hope to retrieve Beatrix's belongings; she had potions, did she not?"
"Let me know when you hear them break through. I will look for the pendant as quickly as I can. And as you mentioned, fair Tatya, if nothing else, I shall grab Beatrix and pull her out." Morthos immediately heads toward the other door, awaiting the signal.
They're coming back this way! Deciding it'd be a better idea to let his presence be known rather than be discovered and thought an enemy, Aedorn steps out from around the corner. He is an adult halfling man dressed in finery and carries a bow at his side as he waves to get your attention. "Hello! I say, uh...the lord of the manor sent me to aid you. Aedorn, at your service," he says with a bow and a flourish.
As Morthos pauses to take in the newcomer, "Quiet down, they'll hear you," he commands without the slightest expression as he immediately resumes his way toward the opposite door.
Thoroughly taken by surprise by the halfling's appearance, Tatya jumps as he speaks, and her hand fumbles for her dagger before his words register in her mind. "If you wish to stay alive," she hisses angrily, "do not creep up behind armed people fighting the undead." As she thinks about his words and the timing of his appearance, she frowns. "The Cardinal knows she is dead," she says half to herself. "He knows we are failing! Quickly," she tells the newcomer, "are your eyes as deft as your toes? We must find a silver-and-sapphire pendant before the draugr cut us down. Follow Morthos."
The arrival of a new member makes Bostarg wary... and the concern is not allayed by his mention of the Cardinal. He bids the halfling to stride before him and after Morthos before following - with his eyes fixed upon the newcomer's back.
As the halfling follows in step, "Listen and listen well, I'm only going to say this once. Once Tatya gives word that the undead have managed through to the room she is watching, we will be going in this room." He motions the room with a nod. "You are to look for a pendant that is silver and sapphire colored. That will be your only objective. I would suggest you find it, and find it quickly, just in cast there are more of these creatures within that have yet to exit their sarcophagi. If there are more that happen to arise, I suggest you leave. Immediately. Any attempt to take them on will result in your demise. But the choice is ultimately yours. I will be busy grabbing Beatrix and getting what's left of her out of there. Understood? Good." He says, uncaring of whether or not he does. He then turns his attention to Tatya, awaiting her signal.
Assuming Alazandaru agrees to vacate the shrieker room ahead of the undead, Tatya pushes the door almost to and peers nervously through the gap, keeping her dancing lights active in the room as she watches for the connecting door to splinter. She stands ready to scream a confirmation down the hall to others and to slam the door.
Do I need a Perception check? Ought to be fairly obvious. She'll take 10 for an 11. :P
As Tatya awaits the undead, the door beyond can be heard to splinter apart. The sound of the undead moving forward, can be heard, followed by their axes hammering upon the next door.
Awaiting Alazandaru's consent to the plan before moving on.
As Tatya watches, the door takes blow after blow from the undead. The door holds fast at first, but alas the axes take their toll, the door collapsing. At the signal the room beyond is searched, four coffins have been splintered open, no signs of the a pendant beyond. Four other coffins remain intact. Upon opening, they do indeed hold bodies, but not ones that rise. The pendant is still not to be found.
Alazandaru was clearly not happy with the sneaking around and yearned to take his fury out on the remaining undead. He looked even less pleased at the arrival of the newcomer and appeared to be scowling frequently.
Tatya backs quickly away from the door after she slams it shut and retreats a little way down the north passageway, hoping that the draugr aren't intelligent enough to go looking for what they can't see. If she doesn't hear them coming out after her, she'll quickly follow to see what the other have found in the room with the standing caskets. Frustrated that they still have not found their prize, she nods to the eastern door. "It's the only way we haven't searched, but we will have to fight our way back through the undead if there is no egress back to the main floor on the other side."
Did we retrieve Beatrix and her stuff? Mostly, her stuff? :)
"There is no pendant... and only one passage left to explore" pointing to the West while within the chamber where the dead rose. "But first I fear we need destroy the walking dead... as I would not wager it wise to leave them with the potential to come upon us while we were not prepared..."
"But first I fear we need destroy the walking dead... as I would not wager it wise to leave them with the potential to come upon us while we were not prepared..."
"And how do you suggest 'we' do that," Tatya asks testily, "considering that the last time we tried it ended with one of our warriors dead and the other insensate? Or have you some great personal physical prowess you have chosen not yet to reveal?"
Aedorn's face looses even more of its color as his eyes dart nervously between Beatrix's body and the direction the axe sounds are coming from. "Uh...dead? Who died, and what exactly are we facing down here?"
Rebutting with equal snide "It's either that or return to the Cardinal above and say we could not complete the task... I would fear his anger more than the cold touch of the draugr. Though if you feel he would be kinder" beckoning that she is free to try out Thorn's beneficence. Bostarg just draws his thin rapier and checks the buckler on his off hand. Purposefully placing himself closer to the danger than Tatya... but trying all the same to leave either Morthos or Alazandaru as the first to feel the draugr's fury if they were to come.
Bostarg is right. Halfling, we lost one of our number fighting the Draugr. Now we shall avenge her, for what good it will do her... he declared, producing a potion and quaffing it.
Potion of Shield of Faith, +2AC/CMD.
Alazandaru will take the front, quarterstaff in hand. Assuming he gets time after his potion.
"Draugr," Tatya explains off the halfling's blank look. "The animated remains of sailors drowned at sea that His Eminence has dredged up from somewhere for our betterment. Very hard to stop, as we have learned. Merely piercing their flesh avails little; you must slice them into pieces, as they did Beatrix, or crush them with blunt force. They killed her with axes, but they will strike even weaponless and their rancid touch can make one sick and helpless before them." As she speaks, she rifles through the dead woman's blood-soaked pack, looking for the potion vials she had placed there.
Beatrix should have had a potion of cmw and an oil of magic weapon, both of which might come in handy this fight.
After pulling Beatrix out of the room, Morthos listens to the conversation between the others. Realizing they've little choice, he re-arms himself with his sword and shield. "One way or another, this will end."
We are all like all over the place. Where are we suppose to be? Inside the room where Beatrix's token is? Or outside the room where Morthos is? I was under the impression that I removed Beatrix's body out of the room and into the hall where I'm standing. But if we can actually be in the room where Tatya is now, then that's fine. I just didn't want to get jumped again by some more of those dang undead.
Either option is fine at this point. I just moved the Draugr, which are currently beating on the door they are at. The Draugr are making a significant amount of noise, so as long as no significantly noisy action is taken (like combat), they won't be heard during the smashing. Effectively, you can choose how to meet them, though without much time for prep (as long as it takes to smash a door down).
I believe we're waiting on a) Mark to get back from vacation, and b) the DM to decide whether he's going to have surgery and, if he does, whether to start now or wait until after his surgery. And possibly, if he's even sure he's up for restarting it at all.
Why don't you go post in Mummy's Mask or Sargava in the meantime? ;)
Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
King Markadian V:I've actually been considering restarting the two games if people are still interested. Work has slowed down enough where I can devote time to posting again.
The big reason I haven't is the possibility of surgery. For a few months now I've been going to the doctor and it started off with a lot of doom and gloom because of my weight (I'm more than a little heavy). Also I had to see the cardiologist and go through a bunch of tests for both of them. At this point I'm not entirely certain how much of my fears were just me, but after all the tests I'm actually fairly healthy besides my weight. One issue is though that my BP raises too high with little exertion, so I need to focus more on my diet than exercise (not that I shouldn't exercise, but nothing strenuous). It was also recommended that I look into one of the weight loss surgeries.
Which is where I'm at right now. In fact, today I'm spending time filling out a pretty long packet of information about myself for the surgery which I need done before my first appointment. Next week I have an appointment with a nutritionist to begin a diet program as well.
So my concern has been if I start it up, then have this surgery shortly thereafter, it may end up putting another pause in the game while I recover. Plus I know in May I'll have a week I won't be able to post for my annual leadership conference. I at least want to get my first appointment with the surgeon before I commit to anything. But just to keep you all updated (since I haven't been as well as I should have).
AK! Dude! Okay, now answer honestly: Did you actually read this post by the DM on the previous page? Now I'll know if you're lying so go ahead and fess up if you haven't. :)
I do plan to continue. And as Joana said, I'll be waiting for Mark to return before restarting things up. In AK's defense I haven't posted a followup post yet either.
Tomorrow's my nutritionist appointment though, and the surgeon wants me to go see them first. As soon as I get at least some kind of date or timeframe I'll see about setting up a restart date.
AK! Dude! Okay, now answer honestly: Did you actually read this post by the DM on the previous page? Now I'll know if you're lying so go ahead and fess up if you haven't. :)
Yup, I read it. With everyone's interest declared I was kind of hoping for a LETS DO THIS, CHUMS. LEEEEROOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS post.
My impatience is mostly as a result of the fact i've stopped posting in my other WotW game and am seeking confirmation that I should jump ship on it to return to this one.
Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Alazandaru Viorec wrote:
Yup, I read it. With everyone's interest declared I was kind of hoping for a LETS DO THIS, CHUMS. LEEEEROOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS post.
Okay, I had to totally look that up. I had no idea who Leroy Jenkins was.
Obviously you play(or did play) Warcraft. Those games were a blast back in the day. Of course, I only played them when they were single player campaigns. I don't like MMO games so I've never played it since they quit making them single player.
I'm the opposite. I never played the Warcraft games but played a ton of World of Warcraft (did a lot of Starcraft though). Can't really play any MMO's anymore though, too time intensive for me now.
So I've got the dates for my appointments now, but only the pre stuff. It looks like it's going to take a while so I figured I'd set a date to restart things. I do know next month I'll have to be gone for a week (May 12th to 16th) and won't be able to post then at all, but have the weekend off afterwards.
So I'll leave it up to you guys. We can start up again after Mark is back and everyone's caught up or we can start after my week in May. Any opinions? Either way I've started catching up on the campaign thread to remember where things are at.
Mark is due back tomorrow-ish or thereabouts. I'd prefer going ahead and getting some stuff done before you have to take time off to waiting another month. But I'm good with whatever.
Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Alright, folks, I'm curious about something.
Okay, I was thinking about applying to this Righteous campaign. So, I got curious as to who it was they were replacing and why. Anyway, when I found out why, I decided not to. Because I think this dude got shafted. Basically my opinion of the DM is not a very good one due to his reasoning behind which he removed the player. Serious false pretenses I feel.
Now, my question is this: Is it actually possible to adjust the coding of this game to cheat on die rolls?
I gotta say, I've never seen someone get kicked out of a game because the DM thinks he's able to alter the die rolls. Don't you have to like, hack Paizo's system or something?
It seems to me that most of you folks are computer supers, so, I figured y'all might know something about this. I don't know jack about computers so that's why I'm asking.
It's possible to manipulate the dice roller. In fact when I recruited for these games I chose not to select one person because I caught them doing just that. It's not hacking the coding or anything, but I'd rather not go into details on how. It's not something that would be easily fixed, and the more who know how to do it the more of a problem it can become.
Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
Really?! I totally understand not going into details about it, but I gotta say that just boggles my mind. There's no way I can see how that's possible. Again, I'm a computer idiot.
But as per the ejected player, he wrote this: "...accused of intentionally doing things to adjust the coding in the game to affect the dice rolls in a recent post."
Would you feel this is possible? Do any of you feel this is possible? Not interested in knowing how - because I wouldn't understand it anyway - but I'm just curious if it is.
I have indeed returned! - so please feel free to get things rolling when you're able. I'm wading through some jet lag, and work lag, but nothing I can't handle ;)
Yup, I read it. With everyone's interest declared I was kind of hoping for a LETS DO THIS, CHUMS. LEEEEROOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS post.
Okay, I had to totally look that up. I had no idea who Leroy Jenkins was.
Obviously you play(or did play) Warcraft. Those games were a blast back in the day. Of course, I only played them when they were single player campaigns. I don't like MMO games so I've never played it since they quit making them single player.
I never played MMO's but I had enough friends that did/general geeky culture surrounding me that I was made to watch the video :).
Just giving you all a heads up this morning my computer screwed up on me. I'm not sure if it's something simple or not (I think it may just be the video card, but it did force the entire computer to suddenly shut down on me). Hopefully I'll have it back up tonight but wanted to make sure to let you know in case I can't tonight.
Male Humanly Awesome 'n Totally Rockin' Paladin of Greatness
It's easier just to find the date on the last post and look for it that way. I had to look up a game that was way buried and found that to be the simplest.
Per Mummy's Mask:
I know this ain't none of my business(but I sure like expressing my opinion whether it's welcomed or not) :), but, you all should've just stayed with the 5 you had in that game. That was an absolute perfect group you had until JaceDK joined. That dude's abrasive, likes to order people around(because that's what type of player he is) and a bit rude. I was in a game with him that was just recently ended by the DM and I held my tongue on a couple of issues because I was just a replacement player, and we were close to coming to the end.
I saw that he joined but haven't checked back since. If he holds true to form - and knowing Mark and Joana as well as one can - I can't see them putting up with his crap. If it would've been a new game that I was picked in with him, we would've had issues. BIG TIME. But that's just my personal experience on it.
He rubbed me the wrong way pretty much first thing, that's for sure. But the real issue isn't his character but mine. That whole "I will put you through a series of tests" thing just reminded me why I never play fighters. If they're any good at fighting, they're utterly irrelevant any time the game's not in combat rounds. I mean, skill monkeys and casters still get to contribute when the party's in combat, albeit at a less effective level than the pure combat build, but in tests of "wits and skill at spells," the fighter's dead weight; she's just standing around waiting for the next thing she can bludgeon into oblivion. In a PbP game, that's a lot of not participating.
That's where her talking back to the echoing soul or whatever it was came from. In character, Pherenike wouldn't have said a thing; she would have left it to Aristedes to react and then taken her cue from him. But that's SO BORING. I'm just not sure I can get enthused for level after level of doing nothing but rolling dice.
And I should be saying all this in the Mummy's Mask discussion thread, but then JaceDK will come in and give me some helpful advice about how much fun it is, when you have nothing to contribute, to makes posts like "Pherenike looks to the more intelligent members of the party to tell her what to smash" or "Pherenike waits patiently for everyone else to solve the riddle," and I'll want to stab him with a pencil. :P
Nuveril was certifiable and had no issue with saying whatever was on her mind, no matter whom it might offend, so that made her fun to play; even when she had no relevant knowledge or skills, she always felt like her opinion was relevant and deserved to be spoken. Playing Pherenike just makes me realize how much I miss Nuveril.
Looking back my last post here was in April. I do want to continue, but at this time I don't think it's possible for me. In fact when I saw your post on Saturday my intention was to try and get a post up. But the efforts over the weekend really reinforced it for me that I just can't do it right now. I apologize for getting everyone's hopes up and for stringing you all along for so long. My intentions were not malicious, but even so I'm afraid I have not done you all right. Once again, I'm sorry. I'll make the game inactive so it disappears from everyone's campaign tabs.
