Beginning to look like it, unfortunately. :P
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Only just--that's why I was bumping "quietly." Not that that makes a real difference. :P
Just quietly bumping this thread to see if people are still around, and if there's any chance of this game getting going again. :)
I'm ok as well--would definitely rather wait a bit than abandon thread! Glad you're doing ok, Dolarre.
Graxzos darts backward and hops over the pressure plate, taking up a position right in the doorway behind it. "Aye," he says with a grin, "let the little buggers suffer like we did!" He also stows his shield and prepares to strike out with his ax at any that make it up to him.
Send those scorpions on down to me! I can take 'em! :P ...out of curiosity, I assume that the darts fire rapidly enough that I would still risk getting hit if I set off the trap by running over the plate and through the doors? Usually that's how this kind of thing works.
"Grah, that's what I get for charging down here!" Graxzos yells, then starts to head back down the dart hallway. "There's a passel of nasty-lookin' scorpions headed our way, folks!" As he retreats down the hall, he takes a potshot at the scorpion by the door into the shaft chamber, but only succeeds in blowing a chunk of stone out of the wall. He flips his shield off his back with one hand.
Leveling his pistol down the hallway, Graxzos sweeps the area, and, seeing no enemy, curses quietly as he realizes that the machine, Satinder, and Rasim are in the way of any potential shot. "Dagnabit, humans," he concurs with Byron--then he hustles down the hallway, pistol still out, yanking his shield off his back. He flings himself through the far doors just as events proceed...
"Byron!"Graxzos calls hoarsely down the passage, not shifting his eyes off the end of the hallway, "Yer machine is doin'...somethin'...to the...thing...we found in here! Either tell it to quit, or you lot need to get back here sharpish! راسم، والخروج من القاعة!" Osiriani:
"Rasim, get out of the hall!"
I'm with Zanac--we all could use to calm down just a little bit. There's no reason to jump at each others' throats, and Byron learning to control 0042b could be a great character hook going into the future. It makes sense that a rigidly lawful creature would stick to a plan, regardless of possible bad outcomes. That said, there are some problems with setting off this trap intentionally as far as a plan goes--specifically, we're going to break our party in half (and possibly damage some people). To whit, see the Gameplay! :)
Graxzos takes up position just inside the door (NOT in the dart hallway, he reminds himself firmly), and watches the torch sail down the hallway. "Put yer light out, princess," he growls softly back at Orcen. "Don't want us all to be sitting ducks."
Graxzos cocks his head. "They ain't climbin' with metal...that's the sound of summat fleshy. Bare-hand climber...or somethin' nasty." He glances at the others. "If it's some kind o' critter, it's like to try to gut us. Whatcha think? Call out to see if we get a friendly response, with weapons ready?"
Graxzos charges full-speed ahead (what, he's impulsive), his short legs pumping as he slides his goggles down over his eyes and cocks his pistol.
Graxzos draws his pistol and heads for the entrance as quickly as he can. "Don't get yerself killed, Byron!" he bellows. "Don't engage anything ya can't see!"
"Hmmmmm. Who gives a shake of Shelyn's fanny why?" Graxzos grumbles. "If there's no traps on the doors, let's press onward, shall we?" He doesn't put his hand on the doors, though, eyeing them warily.
Graxzos pokes his head in, as well, and sniffs at the air. "Bloody stone smells funny," he mutters to himself.
Hrm. Didn't think we'd be able to aid another on Perception. :P All in favor of kicking Sebti into the room to see what happens, say aye! Joking, only joking... :P
Graxzos peers into the room, though without actually crossing the threshold. "I don't see nothin' that looks too bad...what about you guys?"
Sorry for my absence--real life caught up with me in a big way these past three days. I'm back now, though!
Graxzos winces as he pulls the dart from the hallway out of his arm, and peers into the next room between Tinder and Rasim. "Eh, let em be useful, I say...seems a mite pointless to kill summat just to have it stand in a tomb no one will see...." He shrugs.
"Mmmmmmm." Graxzos proceeds down the hallway with the others, lips pursed, nodding sagely. "Feller on those doors is older--mayhap we're movin' toward his death, eh? Let's hope so...looks like they were a warlike bunch, these ancient Osiriani."
Graxzos snorts in disgust over his findings. "You want these, princess? You can have 'em. See if you can figure out what the hells they are." He passes the jars to Orcen, pockets the two pitons he found, and tosses the hammer from hand to hand. "Anyone need a decent hammer? I found one here. Poor bastard's gear rotted away, the rest of it--must've been here a long time. I still think 'e was probably buggered by his acquaintances." Watching Zanac and Rasim push open the double doors, Graxzos takes a few steps forward and squints into the darkness, one hand on his pistol.
Graxzos eyes the moldy skeleton as his ax draws it in reach, then he stows the ax on his belt. "What d'you suppose happened to this'n, making him fall like that? Seems like he might'a run afoul of some of his companions..." The dwarf stares at the corpse for a moment, lost in reverie, then shrugs and begins investigating the desiccated corpse for anything useful or valuable.
All sounds good to me re: the ax. I honestly don't think it's going to come into play ALL that much (the fact that reach weapons can't be used at close range puts a pretty big damper on it), but it will be a lot of fun when it does.
Sounds fair to me! Out of curiosity, do you think Quick Draw affects the readying at all, or is it separate actions to draw and ready? Either's fine, just figure we should set it since it's a homebrewed thing.
Haha no, it's the dwarven longaxe. The telescoping part is just for flavor, it doesn't affect his stats at all--I couldn't figure out how a dwarf would carry a reach weapon without tripping over it, though the rules have nothing to say about it. We can cut/retcon that out if you'd rather. :P Sorry about the checks thing--it's just habit with me, so it might take me a bit to remember to ask you to roll. Just keep reminding me if I slip up!
Graxzos gives Orcen a look. "Och, ya need bitty knots, do ya? Very well..." He hauls the rope up and ties a series of knots in it, grumbling to himself as he does so, then tosses it back down. "There. Don't say I never did nothin' for ya, princess." Graxzos then puts his torch out and stows it (given the multiple magical lights), and descends the rope himself, dropping the last foot to land on the floor with a solid thud. He looks around the new chamber with interest, scooting his goggles up onto his head. "Not a pretty sight, eh? Wager this'd be some other would-be liberator with less skill than us." He examines the stain on the floor, trying to figure out what happened here. "Maybe he fell down this shaft and dragged himself over there?"
As Graxzos follows the trail along the floor to the body, he stops short five feet away from it. He eyes the corpse appraisingly. "We honor your sacrifice, sir! And we wonder if you've got any useful trinkets..." Pulling what appears to be a hand ax off his belt, he gives the handle a shake and extends a telescoping shaft that reaches ten feet. Assuming he hasn't seen anything that looks dangerous, he uses the ax to drag the corpse towards the center of the room.
Graxzos snorts. "Amateurs." He slings a massive coil if rope off a hook on his pack and begins tying it to the piton, measuring out several wingspans first. He tosses the coil into the hole and, a moment later, the thud of it hitting the floor echoes up. "Hunnerd feet o' rope right there. Let's get this party started, shall we?" He gives the piton another good whack with his hammer to ensure it isn't going anywhere.
Graxzos yanks his four pitons out of the stone wheel, and, crawling into the room, peers down into the hole. "Aye, we'd best not trust that rope. Nor anyone down there for that matter..." He glances back at the wheel uneasily. "I hafta say, I'm not thrilled that someone went in but all the doors were shut...we're like to find somethin' pretty nasty down there, one way or the other." He pounds another piton into the ground and ties his rope off to it, dropping it into the hole and then looking to see where the light coin has landed.
"Hold hard, you lot," Graxzos grunts. "Think I might have summat here that'll help us out a little..." He steps over to Sebti and puts a hand on her back (as close to her shoulder as he can reach). "Ya may wanna cover your eyes for a bit, priestess," he says, mockingly gentle. "'Cause I'm about to betray yer friggin' principles all over the place." Striding back to the wheel, he pulls a set of pitons and a hammer out of a side pouch. He places the point of a piton on the edge of the wheel, oriented so that someone standing in front of the wheel could grab it to apply leverage. He looks back at Sebti. Very deliberately, he taps--once--on the piton, driving it slightly into the stone. He waggles his eyebrows at her. Then he continues to pound that one in, leaving enough room for someone to grab, and continues with the other three. Then he steps back. "That should give us some more leverage, eh?" he says. "Main question is, which way we plannin' to move it?"
Graxzos glances back at the gnome, slightly irate. "Door's still open, innit? I reckon some circulation'll be goin' on now. Though that's a neat trick you got there, could come in handy in a cave-in." The grin he gives is not at all reassuring.
Graxzos peers into the dusty interior of the tomb. "Looks like that wheel there should be able to come towards us, yes?" he asks, pointing to the tracks. "Gotta get it to slide out somehow..." He watches Rasim move about the room for a moment and then, assuming nothing stabs/shoots/crushes the human, he heads over to the wheel and begins examining it, touching as little as possible and lighting one of his own torches.
Once the sand has been cleared away, Graxzos kneels at the door and runs his finger along the jamb and the outside seams. "Hmmmmm. Cracked mortar here--someone didn't want his tomb opened. Well, time's helped us out there. The doors're probably on concealed hinges, looks like they swing this way." He stands and frowns thoughtfully at the doors. "Maybe if we can get a lever of some kind in there...blowing 'em open's against the rules, right?" he asks Sebti glumly.
Graxzos snorts at Orcen's suggestions. "Well, my body bein' raised as a ghoulie would be a damn shame for whoever got in its way, and I don't hold with the undead. But I don't plan on leavin' any valuables fer later folks to steal. I make it to old age, I plan on liquidatin' me assets in huge vats of wine and the company of beautiful, willing courtesans." He grins at the thought. "Ah, but looks like we're here. Lessee..." He stares at the tomb, eyes narrowed. "I suppose we will have to shift the damn sand," he mutters, scowling. "Let's set in, then."
Graxzos stumps along at the head of the party, pack hunched up on his back, keeping his eyes half-shut to avoid the glare of the Osirian sun. "So ye've not actually been in one o' these crypts before either?" he asks Sebti. "Pharasma's icy womb, woman, how are you supposed to help us?" He squints sideways at her. "And how is it you lot 'correct' those who break your precious laws, anyway, eh?"
Graxzos can definitely take point; he's a bit tougher to hurt than Satinder is. So if no one wants to object to that, it seems like we have an order emerging that's something like: Graxzos
Obviously, I'm just cobbling that together from people's suggestions. As far as names go, I don't really have any to add at the moment; in character, Grax is still attached to his ludicrously long name. But I like Clockwork Chaos.
Graxzos would also likely be near the front. He's an eager beaver and, demo with the rats aside, fairly competent in combat.
Graxzos wakes up that morning with a pounding headache, and meets his team at the gates of the necropolis a very sour, hungover dwarf. His tinted goggles help...but not much. Some of this lot look like pros, he thinks bitterly, Shame I ended up with this ragtag bunch. As Sebti goes over the rules of the necropolis, he snorts derisively. "Listen, yer worshipfulness," he says gruffly, "I'm gonna play by yer rules as much as possible, but don't expect me to be bowing and scraping to the deadbeats in these tombs. Well enough to let the dead rest in peace, but these particular dead's got shit with 'em the livin' could use, and I intend to grab some of it." Loosening his pistol, he strides into the necropolis. "C'mon--let's start the liberatin'."
Graxzos watches the others disappear silently. Well, they're a funny-lookin' group, that's fer sure. Ah well... With a mental shrug, he turns resolutely toward the stairs leading up to his room at the Blue Macaw. He starts for bed. He pauses. He looks at the bar. Some time later, after several pints and having led the whole common room through renditions (only a few well-received) of such dwarven and adventuring classics as "Bridge over the Maw of the Beast," "The Paladin," "The Only Livin' Gnome in Absalom," "The Sounds of Silver," and "We Love to Mine and Dig and Haul Rocks and Break Stone and Trade With You Using Fairly Established Weights and Measures" ("That one loses a li'l somethin' in translation from the Dwarven, but it's a great one!"), Graxzos stumbles upstairs to bed. He's somewhat surprised to find not just one but multiple people in his bed. Their argument that this is, in fact, their room, and that they have no idea who he is, he waves aside. "Now, I--I didn't ask fer this...but if'n *hic* y'all are down, who am I to judge?" Fortunately he gets dragged out of the room before he makes it too far into the bed, and once the owner of the establishment has secured the dwarf in his own chambers, he falls quickly into a completely contented sleep.
"The more fool you, then," Graxzos responds to Tinder with a snort. Turning to Rasim, he adds, "أنا لست كثير من المعلمين، ولكن أنا ربما يمكن أن تظهر لك ما يكفي لإبقاء لكم من اطلاق النار الحمقاء العين الخاصة بك ما إذا كنت في نهاية المطاف اطلاق هذا الشيء. دعني أرى لعبتك في وقت ما، وأنا سوف تعطيه أكثر من مرة واحدة." Osiriani: "I'm not much of a teacher, but I can probably show you enough to keep you from shooting your foolish eye out if you end up firing that thing. Let me see your toy sometime, and I'll give it a once-over."
Whoops, sorry! Will get a post up later today in response! :P
"Oy, princess--don't pet the kitty. I can't imagine 'e likes it very much," Graxzos calls over to Orcen, before turning back to the others. "You could say that friends are the family you choose," he says to Byron, measuring his words carefully, "but ain't nothin' lasts forever, and best not to pin yer hopes on people what can fail ya. Love's great, aye, love can be nice, but I've seen love rip people aparts, too." He grins at Satinder. "Y'know what's truly able to take off the edge o' your feelings like that? Ale. Creates a powerful bond atween people, too!"
Grax was boisterous and loud, but compared to the others, probably the most reliable here. Oh boy, are WE in for a good time. XP
Graxzos watches the automaton disassemble the crossbow with wide eyes. "Eh, gnome. You'd best not be letting it try that with my gun, or you and it are both likely to lose a digit. I've got some pretty fast hands, meself." He turns to Zanac. "Speaking of--if it's our combat skills you're interested in, I'm one o' the fastest hands north of Alkenstar with me pistol, and it's one o' the finest weapons in the world--blow an enemy away at twenty feet! But I'm no slouch with me trusty axes either. I'm versatile, like."
Are you looking for us to take drawbacks? I skimmed them but didn't see anything that seemed like it quite fit.
"لا تقلق، صبي، وأنا أفهم منك. وعلى الرغم من Taldane توفير الوقت في القبور، إذا كنت تستطيع التعامل معه." Graxzos says in response to Rasim's Osiriani. Turning to the rest of the group, he adds, "He's a local, name of Rasim--from a place they call Barge Town, here. Undestands Taldane but don't speak it truly well. He suggested 'the Sand Mites' for our name." The dwarf snorts. "I see what you say 'bout people underestimating us--" this to Rasim--"but I'd rather not be called any kinda bug, if it's all right by you." The dwarf's eyebrows raise when Tinder explains about his voice, and his face goes very, very serious. "Boy, you'd best not mess with the things that lurk in some of these tombs. There are beings down there that you do not want to disturb. I won't stop you putting yer damn fool head on the block, but I will warn you--I been in plenty o' tombs, and not a one had summat friendly at the bottom." Osiriani: "Don't worry, boy, I understand you. Though Taldane will save time in the tombs, if you can manage it."
Graxzos eyes Orcen slantwise when the wizard dismisses his name. "You be careful, princess. Ya keep runnin' yer mouth and droppin' places on the list, mouth's liable to run off on ya." Completely oblivious to Zanac's prevarication, he turns to the group at large. "Name's Graxzos Khar-Bulkhet, of the Bulkhet Pahmet dwarves a ways south o' here. Been tumblin' round the deserts of Garund fer a while now...findin' a way to make ends meet. Pretty handy in a tomb, a crypt, a cave, a mausoleum, what-have-you. Not always as legal as might be liked by those what run the legalities, but I get by. You're free to keep as much of the past as ya like, Zanac--provided we get to haul some of the shiny stuff away fer ourselves. And hoooooo boy, 'f you think people is gonna pay you fer knowledge, you got some more thoughts comin'."
Graxzos slaps Orcen on the back. "Yeah! You and me, princess! And these other weirdos, I guess." He runs an appraising eye over the rest of the team, then turns to Salomae. "Sorry it didn't work out this time, girlie. Best of luck with the next lottery." He grins wolfishly. "And hey--if I survive this, mayhap I'll bring ya a little somethin' from the tombs! To remember our time together and whatnot." Turning back to the group, he catches the end of the group name discussion. "A name, eh? Hey, I think I got a good one!" His eyes are shining slightly, either from inspiration or, perhaps, from ale. "We can be the...uh...the Brave Long Vultures as Whispered to by Things from Beyond!" He looks around, grinning proudly. "Think that gives us an air of class and mystique, eh?"
Character should be complete, though let me know if I missed anything! Good luck all!
Graxzos, seeing that Salomae's attention has become engaged elsewhere, grins, winks at her, and heads up to the bar. "ANOTHER!" he roars. He takes the offered tankard and greedily slurps, foam frosting his beard. He looks around the bar for any likely looking musicians and, when he spots them , he demands, "You lot know 'The Romancin' Rhyme of Cayden Cailean?'" Regardless of whether or not the song is familiar to anyone, and whether or not anyone plays or sings along, Graxzos hauls himself onto the seat of his bar stool and declaims, "A TOAST! For some of us go into the graves soon. And don't we all, soon, too soon, aye, don't we all go down into the graves. But while we're here there's sun and music and laughter and the warm arms of women and men what be pleasin' to the eye! So a toast, I say, and on with the song of the greatest of men!" He chugs the rest of the tankard, hums the opening bars of the song, and begins to sing in something that (on a good day) could be called a melody. "Ooooooooooohhhhhhh a hero there was once, so lovely and lean,
Alas that this hero should pass from this world!
He woke the next morning upon a far shore,
Our hero climbed upright, though not as he should:
The song goes on (if no one stops him) an impressively long 17 further verses, detailing the Accidental God's mostly accidental romantic liaisons with the rest of the major pantheon, and some of the minor, during the three days in which Cailean was completing his apotheosis. Naturally Shelyn is the next verse, and from there the verses get more and more comical; it's amazing what a seemingly focused goddess like Iomedae gets up to on the weekends. From the stricter good gods the song moves into the creepier (but no less appealing to the still-drunk Cayden) gods: Nethys, the song claims, can be quite a lover, but only if you get him on a good day. The song concludes with a broadly comic rendition of Cayden's time spent (mostly in anatomical puzzlement) with Achaekek. When his song is finished, the dwarf collapses against the bar stool, spent, with a happy grin on his face.
Graxzos eyes the Dancing Lights Salomae has summoned. "Oooohh, very pretty. I don't go in for magic much meself; prefer to rely on the trusty steel and powder, I do." He pats his pistol possessively and grins. "I can see yer a pragmatic one. I tell ya what, if'n we both get picked to go delvin' inta these tombs, what say we join up? Bring the princess--" he jerks his head at Orcen--"along if you like. With yer blade, his magic, and my powder (and expertise, heh), we should be a formidable team."
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