Corinna Valdemar's page

"All the more reason to consult with an expert rather than hope to blunder into a solution blindly. Just because an effect is localized and targeted, Mr. Sunseeker, doesn't mean that an off-switch exists in the same place, or at all. Magic is not a wind-up toy. And Mr. Vhiski," she goes on cuttingly, "I'm immensely flattered to know that if it were I who were ill, you'd still be taking the heroic measures of sitting out here in your wagon and sending other people into mortal danger. I'm truly overwhelmed by your gallantry."

"And the Valdemar name means nothing, I suppose!" Corinna bristles. "I tried to help Ameiko when I told her that coming here was a very bad idea that could put her in grave danger, and she stamped her little foot and said 'I don't care; I want it, I want it, I want it!' Well, I'm sorry, but she got what she wanted. If we had found a single clue in that village that pertained to her family, that indicated we might not be on a fools' quest, going back in might be worth the risk, but all we found was death and the promise of more. I searched every crate and barrel in those storerooms, hoping for some sort of sign we were on the right track, a name or a seal or a scrap of parchment: anything! I won't throw my life away because we hope that maybe there might be some sort of cure in there somewhere. I should think all of you would be happier to have a competent cleric or expert arcanist sent to your aid than to entrust her well-being to a group of amateurs stumbling blindly through unfamiliar territory looking for a needle in a haystack that might not be there in the first place."

Corinna shrugs a little helplessly. "It's the nearest place I know how to get to. My goal is Kalsgard, but I thought I'd be better off trying to get back somewhere I've been and find a new form of transport north than blazing a trail through the unknown."

She smiles a little bitterly. "Yes, I'm ... aware of the priorities of everyone here. I just don't happen to agree that my life is inherently of less value than hers. If I make it back to Riddleport safely, I'll send help. Or if I meet anyone along the way, obviously."

"Melon died on a fool's errand," Corinna says grimly, "and it would be even more foolish to throw anyone else's life away in the same manner. We found nothing in there -- nothing at all! -- that had anything to do with Ameiko's family, not even a hint of a connection. I'm sorry, but I'm leaving."

There is a long silence, and then Corinna appears in the door of the covered wagon. "You're right," she replies. "I don't want soup." But she stands aside to let the elf climb in.

"Another death for Ameiko's tally," Corinna answers bitterly. "But who's keeping track?" She shoves past the elf and heads for the wagons.

Having no interest in explaining herself or exposing the group's failings to a stranger, Corinna takes off as quickly as possible toward the road before it gets dark.

Corinna's trepidation is overcome by her curiosity when the man speaks. "You came from the road?" she asks eagerly. "Is your caravan still there?"

We sent the pixie-thing back to the caravan to check on Ameiko, though. Not sure how long it's been since then, but I'm not sure she's in the cemetery. Corinna would rather go back to the caravan anyway. What time is it, Navior? We said we'd be back before dark.

Waiting nervously in the clear air of the main hall, Corinna steps slightly away from Tevyn and toward the door and prepares to cast an Acid Dart at any undead thing that emerges from the mist.

Back to Gilfroy, right? Because the wight took its readied action when Malan moved through and its init moved to before his?

Panic rises in Corinna as she is surrounded by mist and can no longer see the hallway that is the battleground. Trying not to think about the possibility of a wight in the cloud that she wouldn't be able to see until she blundered into it, she tries to find her way back to the main hall. The yawning chasm of the stairway to her right robs her of a nice safe wall to edge along, and she screams in terror as a form fills the hallway in front of her before she recognizes the elf. "Oh, Mr. Malan," she shudders. "I thought you might be ... someone else." Taking advantage of the chivalrous elf's stepping aside to let her pass ahead of him, she stumbles through the passage with both hands on opposite walls and suddenly finds herself out of the cloud and in the open hall, where she moves past Tevyn toward the front door.

If I'm counting diagonals correctly, I think she can make it to U 41 or thereabouts.

You rolled a 25 here.

Darn intelligent non-mindless undead. :P

"What's going on up there?" Corinna calls, on the verge on panic, her obstructed-view vantage point preventing her from following the battle blow by blow. "What happened to Melon? Where's the wight? Where's Mr. Malan?"

Ready an Acid Dart for when she has a target in line of sight. Afraid it might be the NPC Formerly Known As Melon. :P

Unless it has less than 6 hp left and she would have killed it before it killed her. Forgot about the negative levels = hit dice thing. Not sure I've ever fought a level-draining foe at 2nd level before, anyway. For future reference, you might want to draw the thing out in the open next time so the people with ranged weapons have a chance to help out. Corinna hasn't even seen the thing yet, not that she would have been likely to hit it. :P

Corinna continues to delay.

Delay. (Sorry; could have sworn I posted this yesterday.)

"Shall we consider leaving this place after this fight?" There's a hint of terror in Melon's voice.

She's remarkably sanguine about being ambulatory after this fight. ;)

"Perhaps the wight is why the corbies haven't been back here in so long," Corinna suggests.

Knowledge (religion) 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

"What's a wight? Where?" Corinna asks, unable to see anything from around the corner. She moves out of the way, not wanting to clog up the hallway and keep Tevyn from getting a clear shot.

Move to M 47; ready an Acid Dart in the unlikely event she gets line of sight and no one's in her way

West looks like just a small closet or maybe a staircase; let's try that one first.

If we're sticking to our plan of just clearing this level, we're taking the south passage.

"Oh, this is the kind of thing we've been looking for," Corinna says encouragingly. "Whatever's here that's tied to Ameiko's family has been here a long time, before the corbies ever arrived. Only," she amends worriedly, "I wonder why they never came back here. Or perhaps they did at first and found a good reason not to return?"

"Listen at the door first," Corinna reminds those up front nervously.

"No," Corinna says firmly. "We told them back at the caravan that we'd return by nightfall. If we stay here, they'll worry ... and probably feel they have to come in and rescue us. Besides, they're not any safer out there than we are in here; we're all better off if we all camp together, rather than as two small groups."

"Besides, we haven't learned anything yet. Melon's right; if there were anything -- well, anything sentient," she qualifies with a glance at the door with the lizard behind it, "hostile toward us within earshot, it would have come out and attacked us by now. There's no good reason not to check the rest of the rooms on this level, always assuming we're wise enough to listen at the door first, as Mr. Malan did with the lizard room."

Stairs up, stairs down, big lizard room, or one of the other doors off the main hall?

Corinna wrinkles her nose and shudders. "Perhaps a costume of some sort? The oni seems to be fond of ... amateur theatrics. Suppose a troglodyte or a corby was unlucky enough to get cast as 'female romantic lead?'"

*sigh* That should be 'wouldn't think anyone sleeps in here now.' Of course, I notice the mistake 6 minutes past the edit window. :P

"I wouldn't anyone sleeps in here now," Corinna points out, "as the beds are broken and the mattresses in a big moldy pile. Unless they roost?" She looks questioningly to Tevyn.

So ... door?

Corinna shows no great disappointment at not immediately descending into the darkness. "Let's shut the door at least, so nothing comes up after us," she shudders. "Maybe push the table in front of it?"

Stairs up, stairs down, one door with a lizard behind it, and one more to try?

Corinna shudders. "No, no reason to open that door," she avers, "unless we end up having to. Another door, or the stairs?"

"No," Corinna agrees with a shudder. "Why would they keep an animal inside when they had a perfectly good stable outside? Can you imagine the mess in there? At least we can hope it can't open the door."

Suppose Tevyn can identify it from its call with a good Knowledge (nature) roll?

"Well, they have to have heard all the shouting and scuffling," Corinna points out practically, "and know we're out here. Tell them to open the door and surrender."

Corinna hangs back near the doorway, still keeping an eye on the grand hallway in case the oni reappears. "Any ideas which way to go next?" she asks.

"Good job," Corinna calls with relief, still not entering the smelly room. "Anything interesting in there?"

Two doors and a staircase, right? Anything on the trogs?

Everyone seems to be doing fine without her.

Continue to delay.

Corinna hasn't the slightest interest in going into the smelly room or getting anywhere near the lizard things; she leaves the doorway open for Malan to have a clear shot and nervously watches the rest of the grand hallway, still waiting for the oni to turn up unexpectedly.

Delay. Tevyn's the only one with Knowledge (nature), iirc; don't know if you want to roll for him or wait for him to turn up and make the roll himself. I see Wander's luck with the dice has meandered over from Serpent's Skull. ;)

You know, in the game I have a character with Door Sight in, we've run into ONE! door in five levels. :P

Re: stairs leading up, could we tell if the roof the corbies were catapulting us from was above one story or two? I've been assuming one, since they jumped down and could avoid damage with an Acrobatics roll. How many stories would we estimate are above ground in this castle from the outside? Is this middle part higher and the wings single-story?

EDIT: Ah! Here's the description from back in August:

The castle is a squat structure (only two storeys tall, with the exception of one tower that's about three storeys), but wide and intimidating. It is built of grey stone.

Where's the tall tower in relation to the main hall?

After scanning the stables and assuming she finds nothing untoward...

"The main entrance," Corinna says firmly. "It's already open, and anything hostile in there would have come out to fight us with the other corbies. We start opening closed doors and we're likely to let out things that might not know we're here yet."

Corinna trails behind the others and traces her fingers in front of her eyes to activate detect magio, on the lookout for any arcane auras in the area. Not only are the messy stables a likely place for something of value to have gotten lost, but she's still leery of the oni lingering under cover of invisibility.

"Ameiko's life is at stake - but she wouldn't want to carry the burden of living at the cost of somebody else's."

"Again, you mean?" Corinna mutters under her breath.

Isn't that the whole premise of this AP? Dulce et decorum est pro Ameiko mori? :P

"Mr. Malan is quite injured," Corinna points out again. "I can't contribute anything else, but there's no key to the front gate and no way to ensure they don't lock us out again if we leave and come back -- and this time, we won't catch the guards nodding. The more time we take, the more time we give the oni to prepare for us; he knows we'll be back. We ought at least to search the outbuildings for any clues or useful items," she concludes, referring to the stable from which the spider emerged and the unexamined tower. "If there were more hostile creatures in them, they would have come out to join the fray. The same for any open areas inside the castle."

Not before we coup de grace! We won't be fighting these exact same corbies again when we come back, anyway.

Corinna is loath to leave the relative safety of the gatehouse, especially as she's not sure the oni isn't able to pop up behind her and cut off their escape, but she sees an opening to hit the acid-burned corby once more. Creeping along with her back to the wall, she finds an open crease where she can fling another acid dart at the corby without any of her own allies getting in the way of it. Just as she is about to fling the summoned acid, however, she thinks she sees movement inside the gatehouse and jumps, startled. By the time she realizes it was just a gossamer strand of the squashed spider's web floating on the breeze, her attack has gone awry.

Move to AK 34; Acid Dart on corby 7: ranged touch attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Melon stepped back to AH 33, so fortunately you won't need that Concentration check. You can heal her from AI 32.

As Melon steps back, Corinna sees an opening to take a clear shot at one of the corbies. Moving back outside the inner gate, she summons sizzling acid to fling at the one in the doorway.

Move to AL 32; Acid Dart on corby #7: ranged touch 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 3 + 1 = 22 damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

"Wait until the oni turns up," Corinna advises, peering around the corner of the doorway nervously, "or until we have to make a run for it. It ought to block line of sight quite nicely. Mr. Malan! Do you happen to know if these things can turn invisible? Or teleport?"

Delay.