Arberie slides around the corner and makes two quick strikes at the ghoul.
Search Posts
Upon spotting the ghoul, Arberie takes a careful look down the hallway on the other side of the alcove where it's digging. She then hand signals to the others that she will cross to the other side and wait and if one or more of them would be kind enough to draw its attention, she will jump it from behind. Then, she slips across and presses herself against the wall to wait.
Arberie hands the crossbow back to Tassa and collects her kunai as she goes to have a look at the new, probably crappy, vista they've conquered. With a shrug and a sigh, she suggests "take them in order closest to farthest?"
"Yeah, might as well finish so we're sure there's no future problems." Arberie reloads and shoots again.
Arberie smirks back at Tassa when she mentions returning the crossbow. She quickly loads it, aims, and takes her shot.
Oof! So sorry! It's been a wicked rough couple of weeks for all sorts of surprising reasons. I'll be in the clear to get a gameplay post in on Saturday.
Arberie is disappointed in her results. But, given how slowly the things move, she figures they have the time to plink at the blobs without anything going badly sideways. She is running low on things to throw though. An idea comes to Arberie then and she slips back behind and around Tassa to ask "you gonna be using that crossbow of yours?"
Given what Baldrek says about the two things in the room, Arberie is confident she can play keep away with them. They could probably be left behind easily enough, but Arberie isn't opposed to a little public service in this case, especially with some magic to speed her up. She pops the kunai in her spring loaded sheath into her hand while stepping up to get her range, then throws it at the slightly closer of the two monstrosities. As soon as the first kunai has left her hand, Arberie pulls the second one from her other wrist sheath and sends it flying right after the first.
Arberie is trembling, both from fright and frustration at the mulishness of some of the people with her. "F@!#! What does it take? Didn't exactly what I said would happen just happen? It's a goddam open sky! Yes, there are more! I'm going back in. We've barely looked around in there. Why do you insist on f++&ing around out here instead?" Unwilling to debate the subject, Arberie immediately goes back inside.
Arberie tries stabbing the thing again.
Arberie quickly circles around behind Baldrek, drawing her rapier. She looks for a promising portion of the creature's back and tries to drive her blade into it.
Arberie isn't startled by the swooping horror. It's pretty much how she expected things to go. But some people just have to learn the hard way she tells herself. While she's doing the private mental 'I told you so' in her head, Arberie pops the kunai in her spring loaded sheath into her hand, flips it around to grasp it by the blade, and throws it at the winged attacker.
Arberie quietly acquiesces to everyone else's desire to go out. She slinks along in the back, doing her best to go unnoticed. She's heard flapping and has already been snatched up and dropped once. At least the first time there was a ceiling to how far up she could be carried. Out where they're going there's no ceiling at all, literally.
Sorry, the holiday and a trip to the coast to get out of the pollen cloud of Portland kept me away for a while. I'll get a post in.
Arberie rolls her eyes at Baldrek's... whatever he's trying to get across with his supercilious little speech, and goes along to another door with the rest.
When she drops, Arberie is able to manage a decent landing rather than dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes. She is confused though. "What was all that about?"
Ghost birds are not even on the long list of bad things Arberie can imagine might be around. She's so surprised by being mobbed she does little more than wiggle a little as she's lifted. "WHOA!"
Arberie is quite confused about the sudden noise. She's seen nothing. She takes a defensive stance and looks around again.
Arberie grabs the sap and tucks it away on herself, because you never know. Arberie casn only guess in generalities. "Must have been something quite big and strong I'd say... Unless it flies. But even then, still fairly big and strong." She looks about for other entrances to the room, hiding places, things that aren't moving now but might start, or holes in the ceiling, windows, or walls large enough for something to come in and out of the room.
Arberie shrugs at Mya's probably rhetorical question. "I guess so, surely we'll find one of them that works out for us."
Sorry to go missing for a few days. Last week was busy with the end of the school year, and my allergies wrecked me. The pollen count here is off the charts. It's kind of like having a bad cold while being functionally half-blind from eye irritation and watering.
Throwing wads of paper is a bit hostile, but it's not dangerous of course. The mostly rat and a little human creatures are a creepier than not, but maybe they're not so bad. With this evaluation guiding her, Arberie decides to try placating them along with some apologetic friendliness. Putting on a smile while her head retreats down between her slumped shoulders, she raises her hands, palms outward to mime her embarrassed sorriness to them. "Oh! Very sorry to disturb you! We're just having a look around. We'll leave you to your... paper eating! Nice to meet you though!" Maybe they won't understand her words, but it can't hurt to try. She slowly backs up away from the dorrway.
Arberie peeks in to take a look around the room.
"More doors on the far wall" she remarks. But, she isn't yet convinced to go that way. "I suppose we can open everything we can for a look and then decide."
Arberie feels she should stress the part that really matters. "The fog isn't the main problem here. Do you not hear that? That is not a small creature sound. There is something out there, and not just one. We can pretty much see them to know that." "If you must test the situation be my guest. I'm not going out there with you. I know all I need to already and the answer is yes, it IS more awful out there than it is in here. Maybe those things will move on and things will change tomorrow or the next day, but right now it's not even a contest."
Arberie isn't so sure the mist isn't poisonous. But, it's the sounds coming from out in it that really disturb her. "I think we should stay inside."
While Arberie waits for an answer, she lands on thinking there's really no way to explain to it what it is, even in the most basic of ways. Never mind the metaphysics of it. From there, she realizes that since it can't move (a significant amount she thinks and hopes),it's pretty close to flat, and it has an eye, it can't look at itself. "Maybe its question is really, really literal" she mutters. Arberie digs through her stuff a pulls out her mirror. She centers herself in front of the thing and holds the mirror up. "This is what you are" she tells it. "Is this what you want to know?"
"Holy shit!" Arberie startles and and steps back when the... animate wall attachment... tries to bite. When nothing else and worse happens, Arberie regains her composure and reiterates Tassa's question. "Yeah, who do you remember being before?"
Arberie figures she could probably give the thing a poke, but everything she has for poking is quite rudely sharp. "Any sticks or similar around? Don't necessarily want to hurt it, if it can be hurt that is."
The thing is much bigger than Arberie had imagined it would be, and partially for that reason way creepier. Also, from the description Winter had give, she was expecting something more like a painting, or art at least. Granted Winter had mentioned it screaming when touched, but the thing is animate all the time. The only thing to say that comes to Arberie's mind is "Whoa. That is weird... I don't like it." After a few more moments though, Arberie has to ask it "can you see us?"
Arberie awakens feeling far better than she did the "evening" before. She's hungry, not even sure when she last ate, and so Arberie gravitates toward the area where some cooking is going on. She run into Mya and Baldrek, who are already there. Baldrek soon leaves them to go talk to the woman who seems to run the place, which is fine with Sidonie. There's something about Baldrek that Arberie finds hard, or maybe mean. She's not sure exactly how to describe it since it's a vibe, but he intimidates her a little. With him gone, Arberie feels she can talk more freely so she tries to get Mya's mind onto something more cheerful. "Hey, want to go check out that eye-thing on the door that Winter mentioned after we eat? It sounds really freaky." Arberie says this to Mya in way that hints at conspiratorial fun, almost a dare, like a kid would talk about the house down the block that everyone says is haunted.
Cool, thanks! I'll make that change. One question I forgot about: Graceful Athlete
For this feat does the Dex bonus need to be a fixed one like for Elf, or does using the Human floating bonus for Dex count as well?
Before settling in for the night, Arberie fixes up that nasty cut of hers as well as she can.
Okay, I'd forgotten about the HD mechanic thing. Arberie is at about half her HP presently, so she'll be using that. I'll leave the healing stuff alone for the present. I don't need to make any decisions there right away so we can see how things go. I'm also going to switch Playing Dirty from Scoundrel to Feinting Focus from Fencer. I should probably make sure one sphere is on a solid footing before trying to branch out too early, and I need some options for regaining martial focus. Also, while looking through Scoundrel again, Steal seems maybe a bit better supported than Dirty Trick. I need to think on that side of things longer. I'll need to reallocate one of my skill points from 1st level because I doubled up on deception. As a tangent off of skill points, I'm finding I have so many of them I'm not sure where to put them all. With the +1 for Deception and Sleight of Hand figured in, I have 12 per level through 5th level. I also hadn't digested the change to feinting being based off PSD so skill points don't boost it like Bluff does in Pathfinder. Would the GM or anyone else mind if I dropped Aberie's 12 INT to 10 and boosted her CHA from 12 to 14? I actually need the boost to feinting way more than I need more proficiency with skills.
I haven't yet updated my character sheet since I sought out some advice and reevaluated based on it. In looking through things I've also found a couple of questions. The questions first. 1. It was pointed out to me that I haven't used the +5 (1/level) skill ranks in Deception and Sleight of Hand I receive from Fencing and Scoundrel. There are 2 ways to think about this so I want to know which is right. Are those ranks substitutes for ranks that receive per level, or are they bonus ranks to be used along with my ranks per level? In other words, if I'm getting a rank per level in say Sleight of Hand, can I also use a rank per level for +2 ranks in the skill per level, or do I need to put the rank elsewhere to avoid having more ranks than levels in the skill? 2. Does the party really have absolutely no healing capabilities at all? If not, is that going to change in the future? This seems like a real problem, especially since we have no way to buy anything. Just expecting we'll find wands or whatever to cover this seems like a bad bet. If nothing else, Arberie can do some healing eventually at 5th level when she starts getting skill unlocks. If I take the Survivalist rogue talent and the Incredible Healer feat by then she can do some non-magical healing. I don't think it's as good as what PF 1st ed. offers, there seems to be no Healer's Hands feat available, but at least it's something. Do I need to plan on doing this?
Yeah, I actually sort of know them from playing together in a couple of other games. I really need to remember to get in touch and ask for advice. I've just been really pressed for time lately, aside from being forgetful.
@Mya: Oh, well recovered for a while now thanks. It was pretty minor, if inconvenient for moving about for a little while. Okay, this is a tentative go at level 2. I think I got it mostly right, but I was adrift trying to do it for a while. Rogue 2 +1 BAB
Background Feat: Nimble Moves
Skills: +1 Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Influence, K Civilization, Stealth, Sleight of Hand, UMD How are we doing HP again?
Arberie isn't going to waste a lot of time quizzing anyone right away. She's in pain from the cut on her side and she's tired, not to mention frustrated with her present situation. She gets some sleep as soon as that is possible.
Falling on the pragmatic side of things, Arberie's first question to herself after learning the encampment consists of 22 people is whether they are provisioned for their numbers, or just sitting around together starving. She looks about for any indication they have something to live on.
Arborie shrugs at the random turnaround from the barricade crew. There're a confusing lot, but the change is welcome. "Nope, haven't seen a bed anywhere in this place yet that didn't come with manacles and a tray of surgical instruments." She pulls Mr. Words-Fail back up to his feet by his hands. "Nevermind, we'll be going on in now" she tells him. With our luck so far they probably eat people.
A little earlier Arberie had decided to go the sour grapes route as far as the barricade people were concerned. After all, anybody can throw up a barricade. It doesn't mean there's anything worthwhile on the other side of it. She's not quite yet ready to abandon that perspective and be very grateful for suddenly being allowed in. Although she will go in. "Name's Arberie" she tells the woman. "Yeah, so you want that shapeshifter body from the room down the hall or what? We were told to bring some."
Arberie, who had been thinking the man might be to lead them to some different group of people, is disappointed when they end up in front of the same set of morons behind the same barricade. Her next reaction after that is concern the man may do something to get himself shot. After her questions to him earlier, she knows he understands what's happening around him, but since he can't explain himself things could go sideways with the barricade morons fairly easily. She takes the man by the hand and leads him over to the side wall, where she tries to explain what he should do. "They're not letting people in right now, so you will have to be patient. Sit here against the wall and wait for us to come back. We have a couple of chores to do before they let anyone in. When we're done and get back here, we can all go inside. So, just lean back against this wall and relax for a little while, maybe take a nap. I'll bet your feet are really tired from having stand for so long in those manacles right?"
When/if the man settles, Arberie turns around to answer the woman. "There was one other, also chained up in manacles. She was already dead though, half eaten by the ghoul chained beside her."
Sorry my posting has been so slow lately. I should have mentioned before that I had surgery last week and have been convalescing the past few days. I expected the extra time laying around recovering would give me plenty of time to post. But, I'd never had an operation before and my assumption about the period afterward was rosier than the reality.
Arberie doubts the man is any real danger to them. He seems more or less aware of his surroundings, mentally stable enough considering the circumstances of everyone in the place, and reasonably willing to cooperate. That leaves his inability to speak freely aside from his couple of rote lines as the only impediment to trusting him, at least some. On the other hand, she thinks he could be an obstacle to moving about discreetly and not drawing attention, which could be a problem for them. She tries something a little different, since ideally they could leave him somewhere safe and be free from the burden he might impose on them. "I have a couple of questions," she tells the man. "No need to speak, just shake your head 'yes' or 'no' to answer them." "I think you were brought here, or came here from another place in this building. Is that right?"
"Were there other people at the place you were before?"
"Is the place you came here from safe?"
"Can you guide us back to the place you came from?"
Arberie's eyes flick straight over at the shackled man to see how he reacts to hearing his words repeated by another.
Ugh, sorry for the long delay posting. Work has been real bad the last couple of weeks.
With the fight over, Arberie leaves the looting to the others. She leans against the table and pops her shirt open to take a look at her wound. She's no doctor, but her best estimate is it won't kill her outright, but it sure ain't f#!+ing great. She does her best to get it covered tightly with some cloth so the bleeding will stop while thinking thanks for the concern a&$%~&~s and deciding she should dial back the degree of risk she should take on behalf of the people she's found herself stuck with. As they move on to the next room of horrors, Arberia occupies herself with some concerns. We need shapeshifter bodies, so maybe we should hide the one we have so nobody steals it while it's left unattended? Too bad that's a ghoul chained up instead of another shapeshifter. I wonder if the goons at the barricade would accept a ghoul in place of a shapeshifter? Why would anyone chain up a ghoul?
Sounds fine to me. I'm terrible at tracking loot so I'm just grateful someone else is handling it.
Oh! Wasn't expecting that! Arberie has now joined the curb stomping.
|