The Ranger in the bubble continues to struggle helplessly against the bubble (9rounds to go now).
Curses are muffled, but you know they are not for little ears from the bubble.
Save for Brask hammer
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The human dwarf hybrid laughs. "I think I can avoid that--I'm taking one for the team." First he throws the hammer at the creature, and it hits the black creature with a dull thud sending a shock through her body. The dragon roars in pain.
Then he steps forward. The marble flies at him.
Sadly even the grace of the cat potion moving inside of him is not enough to avoid the bead or the bubble's attempt to grab him. Durgen, Magnum, and Kiptera take The hammer desperately seeks a dwarf willing to hold up a free hand as it finds the standard wielder encased in a bubble of force.
The human dwarf hybrid speaks up, his hammer out. "You pitched the idea to harvest the forest to your father, didn't you Brask!! No wonder there is an evil altar back here!!!"
An interesting man-dwarf hybrid is holding two bandoliers stuffed with hand axes and throwing axes and a well worn chain shirt. He seems too hunched to be a man, but too tall and scraggly to be dwarf. He wears a ranger cloak that is tattered. In his hands is a hammer made out of what looks to be a cross between fine silver and gold that glows with a bright light. Like all the dwarves, he is also wearing a cloak with an the symbol of a silver owl. It is considered holy by the dwarven diety responsible for the dead and the underworld, Magrim.
"This is A Rovagug shrine!"
What looks to be birds in the distance begin to resolve into strange, winged horses. The formation of four horses are pulling what looks to be a gilded carriage. Magnum points in the distance and quips. "Is that who you signaled. The old human god Nicolas with his bevy of toys for us? I have not been very good this year."
Magnum looks around. "We waiting for more elves to come? How will that end for us?"
With a scowl: "I guess those are cheaper than bird feather tokens."
Magnum pulls back his hand with the hammer, intent on throwing it.
Per "Those sneaky elves." Magnum's warning avoids ALL surprise.
The ranger speaks his mind. It is apparent his features make him look more like a dwarf than a human. His beard is quite impressive, even by dwarven standards. "I'm in--being abrasive and undiplomatic is no crime. If it was, almost all dwarves would be in prison. Let's pass on this mine for now." He adds:"I owe a wizard a favor. I always say, try to stay out of a wizard's debt. This may be my chance." The gnome quickly confers with the gnolls. It appears they hold his opinion in high regard. They begin to quickly pack.
Magnum looks at the elf, and it appears that he seems to slowly understand something while studying him carefully. It is a if a lightbulb goes off in his head. Magnum points out: "Some elves have silver hair and blue eyes. You have gold hair and red eyes, your might say eyes of fire. And you have a gold cloak and a cross of gold around your neck. A magic-using friend of mine mentioned sharing mulled wine and learning the art of golem creation from a wizard resembling your description. He actually wrote a song about it. You are an artificer and love mulled wine." Magnum removes his mandolin and plays: Magnum's song about a wizard resembling this elf Magnum adds: "Influencing kings and governments is kind of thing you Coalition guys like to do. So if Chris wrote this song, he probably buys what you are selling. It would explain why he quickly switched to work with dwarves that really like you guys." Magic and Climbing:
Climbing DC=20+wind=28 Spellcasting is quite obvious unless the correct feats are included. The elf wizard looks somewhat startled under Magnum's cross examination. He stammers: "I can see how you would make those conclusions........"
The wind is currently
"Would a dwarf really want a cat familiar. Do cats like to live underground?" The monks get excited as the duergar engage a group to attempt a visit to the magical painting. Near the bridge, a large painting is produced with five houses and the duergar touch the painting and venture in as they disappear and can be seen to appear in the painting. The monks cover up the painting. "It would be unfair to reveal where they went." the elder monk comments.
"This is a puzzler. I'd rather do the acrobatic challenge."
Magnum hides the hammer,
The dwarvish looking ranger says "I survived on the streets. I am sitting down."
Nothing happens. After he rises and hears the history. "I am not pushing my luck."
Barely conscious and nursing his wounds, the half human and half dwarf ranger stumbles in at the end of the confrontation. He can only say:
Magnum heaves the might hammer at the giant. His throw hits the giant with a thunderclap, but the hardy giant resists being stunned. The hammer returns to the ranger's hand.
attack:
giant fort:
"In for a penny...."
"You cannot beat all of us."
Magnum closes and unleashes the singing hammer with the window clear.
His throw misses wildly, and Magnum narrowly misses grabbing it on the return. He retreats a few paces to pick it up from the ground.
The human ranger watches the hammer return to his throwing hand: "Khazad's big a$$ is blocking my shot with the hammer. What do we do?"
Magnum throws the hammer at the giant. The hammer hums as it moves toward the giant singing in dwarvish "Death to giants".
Unfortunately the hammer glances off the giant's helmet narrowly missing penetrating his natural hide. Although the giant does not understand dwarvish, he turns his attention to the human ranger recognizing the hammer as a threat.
Magnum went for giant only.
Magnum throw his hammer at the door.
The hammer makes a huge thunderclap and rattles the door, but the giant just bellows louder.
"Do I try to stun him and the gnolls with the hammer, or wait for more?"
"Do we get him?"
The somewhat shorter human ranger takes his hammer out of a finely make wooden box. It gleams with a bright light, and he manages to keep it at his side. "The hammer wants to smash giants. Unlike the axe, it seems a little more capable of backing down from a fight."
The group moves out leaving the small gnoll to try to pull up the spikes with his hands. It is clear it will take him quite a while. Magnum pulls out his hammer and it begins to glow. Four words in dwarven escape from the hammer in a clear, deep tone. Dwarven:
"GIANTS! They are here." Khazad speaks, "We will be tested today." in a voice not quite his own. He then confesses to remnants of a vision after consuming the potent beverage known as Giant's Tears. The shrinking ranger speaks: "I hope it is the giants who will cry today." The well worn path will support up to eight wide.
Magnum reluctantly returns the crossbow to the sobbing gnoll.
Magnum takes the crossbow from the distraught gnoll. "I assume he doesn't get this if he stays behind."
"Looks like we can try to fix this, or just push on. The gnolls got very lucky caving in the doors. I did not think they would be able to push them that hard."
Boog-Boog motions to the crossbow. It appears he will be the only gnoll coming. The others do not appear to be anxious to follow at the moment. The human ranger seems to be putting on a bit of belly and clearly seems to be three inches shorter than when you first met him. He mentions "It will nice to be in a solid tunnel again. I do not know if we want the gnoll shooting the crossbow."
The talking group (Kib and co) begins to approach the 11 gnolls as they trudge along. The gnolls stop and make a loose semicircle open to your approach.
Magnum speaks to Joan, but in a loud enough voice for all that remain to hear:
It turns out Joan did know.
The talking group (Kib and co) begins to approach the 11 gnolls as they trudge along. The gnolls stop and make a loose semicircle open to your approach.
Magnum speaks to Joan, but in a loud enough voice for all that remain to hear:
As Magnum has the group quickly backtrack after lunch to the tracks of the your shadows, he attempts to identify them. Survival DC20 OR Survival DC15 AND Know:Local 12:
The tracks are gnoll tracks given the toes and distance between steps. Given the depth of the steps and the length of their gait, these gnolls are somewhat packing some weight. They are big, armored, well-armed, or a combination of all three. Magnum rolls:
Magnum says, "Looks like these are some badass gnolls, probably well equipped."
The figures point back the way you came and nod their head. They then point pack the way you are headed and shake their head vigorously. As you head back to your friends and begin to continue, you notice the fur clad group follows behind at approximately a half mile distance. You also notice they are talking amongst themselves. Joan and Magnum point out the group now numbers one less than it did previously. --------------------------------------------------------------------- As you are marching along, Magnum explains he wrote a song for someone a long time ago. He plays a ballad on his mandolin. The tune is quite haunting, has a great beat for marching, and seems somehow appropriate given the snow banks and the light fog beginning to form as you march toward the sea. There is a martial part that must be dwarven with lyrics that include:
modified lyrics:
Priests clutched onto words
Hollowed out to fit their swords And a cross held aloft Bury me in armour When I'm dead and hit the ground A love back home, it unfolds And if you love me, won't you let me know? I don't want to be a soldier
He shows Gallak how to beat the main rhythm part on a drum he pulls from his pack. Magnum manages to keep part of the rhythm with his thumb hitting the wood on the mandolin. After an awkward glance at Joan, it becomes obvious who the song was originally written for.
"Count me in."
Magnum handles the questions of why he planned to go straight to town.
The mage looks at Magnum and burst out laughing: "You brought dwarves to the largest human city on this side of the world, and the only prerequisite to success was having them keep a low profile? The lower level Society guys pulled a minor revenue scheme, and I mean like under 200 gold pieces, and they were threatened by armed dwarves. Word got to the top quickly." Thumper chimes in. "Anyone coming into our compound is watched. If they are not known as part of our clan or wearing our colors, there would have been problems. I need to hear this story about piking out on a low level revenue scheme. You can also tell me why we had to pull the emergency golem ritual. Rock's agent was supposed to arrange an honorable duel to make those duergar back down and let you out. Talk that puffed up dark dwarf to fight it out one on one. He said reports showed you had two artifacts with you, with either one he thought the fight would have been one you could have won."
Hon's shot at point blank range fails to penetrate the dark dwarf's half plate armor. He looks over his shoulder at Hon.
Undercommon:
"You little sneak. You'll pay." Magnum exclaims, "I almost tossed my hammer where Hon is." Kib does make Khazad invisible, but Khazad can dispel it at any time. The axe likes being invisible, "Let's bushwack the silly bugger. The gnome has the right of it." the axe exclaims. If Khazad doesn't want to attack while invisible, he needs to make a Will save.
"Well, I will not go down without creating a massive underground quake. Anybody got a better idea?"
Nar moves 40' towards the elementals and duergar blocking the way out.
Ddwarfx2 vs Magnum:
Dark dwarf attack war axe
Dark dwarf attack spear A vicious slice from a spear cuts him again--he has two gashes in his armore. He dodges a hit from a war axe. "I am pulling out of the line now."
As the hammer returns to his hand passing over Nar's and Khazad's head with a whoosh: "Negotiating with that one won't happen."
Readying THE HAMMER, Magnum waits for a target. "What are these things?"
"Well, what is the plan? I can see bugging out before they swarm us and taking Kragg's body with us. I can't carry it, but maybe Khazad or Nar can."
As the adrenaline of the combat wears off, confusion and uncertainty abound as questions are asked, and people are unsure of what to do.
"Well, while I'm waiting for orders, I'm a pounding the dwarf in the web."
For the third time in a row, the artifact hammer misses its intended target, but returns unerringly to Magnum's hand.
"I still have this sunrod." Magnum still carries the burning sunrod in his left hand.
Magnum rushes by and up the north hallway taking . He barely notice the deep cut of the waraxe in his side as he pursues his barbarian quarry. He tosses the artifact hammer down the hall after the fleeing barbarian missing badly. The hammer returns gracefully to his hand.
"I am rushing past that dwarf no matter what. If someone wants to wait, I'll take his best shot. I am sick of being stuck in these stairs."
"I can't see crap with a sunrod burning a foot from my face. And I hear dwarves running back to and fro. I am just trying to stay out of the way. Let me know when there is light and room for me to move to."
There is a single dwarf with a tower shield that opened the door. There are is another dwarf behind him using the shield as cover. The light spell has stopped working for now in the 30' of corridor/spiral staircase leading up to the door. The first six in the marching order are in darkness. The first three have line of sight to door, the others are packed in the spiral staircase going up getting whispered update from the front. Not one to wait, Magnum strike his sunrod, but after sparking, the rod is completely dark. "I think these be dark dwarves if this is any indication. Numbers will not tell in these confines."
In the hallway with sight of the door is from the door back: Hon (prone), then Kib, then Khazad.
Magnum speaks up, "Can't you tell the White Wizard that getting us to the mines is the right thing to do. Charging us for doing good deeds seems to be contrary to this whole Light Coalition act for the greater good credo. If word gets around about charging for good deeds, and you were a part of it, I would think that would be bad."
Knowledge Local DC 15: The light coalition is an organization of Lawful Good bent. The light refers to both good alignment and the light refers to the educated and enlightened. The group tends to draw from the nobility, upper classes, scholars, and both divine and arcane users of magic.
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