Still here and waiting :)
Search Posts
Marz's year is eventful, but in a less dangerous yet exciting way. The rogue reports her weeks to her benefactor, and as the months pass her impostor's syndrome almost fades. She's happy with the friends she's making, but even happier that she may be finding a place were she's not seen as an errant thief. For times the Eldritch Scoundrel applies herself on the books, trying to focus her arts on the abjurations, illusions, and the defensive side of magic, besides that of crafting poison. Her adventure of saving Whisken surprised her; she never saw herself as a power with her bow, but the arrows flew to prove differently. More used to subtlety and the shadows than violence, she also prays that Desna would guide her to a path where things can be accomplished without resorting to bloodshed. Of course, a free heart is never truly caged, and some of the nights - instead of spent sleeping, or studying - are those of navigating the academy halls seeking forbidden knowledge and other interesting secrets. She manages to stay in one piece by the skin of her teeth, but her abilities stealthing, searching and dealing with traps prove to be unmatched by other first graders.
Marz crosses her arms behind the back, and nods peacefully. I believe we can talk them as such, or at least I hope. Considering what's going on, we don't even actually have to argue for it. The rogue looks tired, resources fully worn off, but somehow accomplished - she was considering a bonus if she even left the place breathing, as her main concern was rescuing Whisken.
Marz collects her weapons and organizes her gear again, silently looking at the ratfolk and analyzing what's going on. She isn't fully convinced of the purity of intentions...
Despite the inefficacy of her weapon, Marz doesn't have anything better to try - so she insists on attacking again.
This time, however, her rapier absolutely misses any spots.
Marz five-foot-steps towards north, then loops around and swings her rapier in a stabbing movement against the creature.
Her attack is beautifully precise, but yet the rogue isn't sure of how effective her weapon actually is.
Marz drops her bow, pulls her rapier, and advances to help deal with the last standing enemy.
Marz does a sidestep and tries to shoot again, focusing on the enemy not currently engaged in melee and without cover to her attacks.
Marz shoots the plant creature that is not engage in melee, considering her current difficulties to avoid hitting friendly targets in such situations.
She then moves ahead, closer to the enemies.
The Elf scratches her arm; she is still feeling the "impressions" the creatures left at her by this time. She feels she's in desperate need of a bath. Sylvan: You are right, we have no idea. And yes, this isn't the First World, and I don't even know how to get to such place. All I can guarantee is that we can *try* to get you out of this... Dungeon... You're in now. - she emphasizes the word "try", and thrives to be honest - Beyond that, however, we can't really give any other assurances. Of course, however, we won't leave this place without Whisken, and we're all exhausted of all the violence, right? So, at the end... Yes, I'm asking you to trust me. I will try what I can under our limited capabilities. Let's plan together... You may only need to hang around a little longer until we figure out the best and safest way to do it.
Marz turns back to the grimple and speaks. Sylvan: We can try to help you sneak out. The "big city" you refer to seems to be the school we attend. - she speaks, almost immediately following - As I said... I talked to my companions, and we're willing to help you escape from here. But first, you have to release Whisken - and then we can all plan together when's the right moment to get you all out of here. That's the best we can honestly offer.
Marz stops for a moment and translates everything being said to her companions that may not speak Sylvan.
The Elf looks confused, yet signs her companions to hold. She takes a deep breath and lower her aim out of the grimple, taking a single step forward in his direction. Sylvan: Wait... What do you mean, you're trapped here and can't go home? - she asks in sincere confusion - You kidnapped Whisken and brought her here. When I followed, I was threatened to be captured and taken to the "queen" as well, just because they saw I could do some cantrips. She still keeps her weapon low in a non-threatening way, although very much sheathed and fairly ready to pull up in case things go south. Your story doesn't seem to be adding up, yet I feel it's because I'm probably missing some elements. If I keep my colleagues at bay, would you explain? At the end of the day we just want to free our friend Whisken and get out of here, but I'd be willing to help you if you're sincere in your struggle.
Sylvan: The Elf speaks with a loud accent and doesn't lower her bow, keeping it pointed at the larger grimple. Release her immediately and we will let you go on your business. - brief pause - I really don't want to have to kill any more of you. We just want our friend back... And then you can all just leave this place in peace.
We did have a passage, all the way back from where we entered... It was covered by spiderwebs so we decided to not follow up, since that couldn't be the route used to kidnap Whisken... But thinking about it now, that might be an alternate route. - says the Elf.
Marz shoots again at any of the gremlins she can see, blowing the fire out of her shirt. This will leave another mark!
After that, she moves up towards the center of the room, looking around and getting ready to more of the enemies - as she's fairly sure at least one of them run for help.
Marz moves North, and as she stops she circles on her left foot and lets out another arrow from her bow.
Still clueless as to what these creatures are - she tried to re-identify them when they saw they flying - Marz does a diagonal step back away from the enemies, and tries to shoot against the furthest she can that is not engaged in melee right now, preferentially without cover either.
The Elf moves in with Mezdav, as as she stops she lets an arrow fly. Her intention is to hit the enemy which was sent to "warn the mother", but if she can't reach him she will settle for the farthest enemy she can hit.
Quickly, don't let that one escape! He is about to warn "mother", whoever she is, about us! - says Marz, arrow ready to fly on the warner - And the big one seems to be barking the orders here.
Ahead, always ahead... As fast as we can. Each minute down and Whisken is at a greater risk! - says Marz, immediately following Gennie and Mezdav.
Marz approaches slowly, still for times getting distracted scratching her arms. She very much welcomes Mezdav walking in front - as she really isn't cut to being too close to danger.
Yeah same for me… while I want to explore and press that button, searching for whisken looks more in character.
I can definitely look for traps... And even disarm the ones we find. But beyond that, I'd probably give up room on the front to our strongest folks. She stops for a moment. And I feel there are some interesting artifacts and findings to be seen down here, but I'm honestly more worried about pushing ahead to find Whisken!
Hi team - sorry, I’m a little under the weather today. I’ll be posting something useful tomorrow evening. Apologies again on the slowness today.
Marz tries to shoot the last enemy, already thinking on the fact that Whisken wasn't in this room. Are they taking too long? What would these things be doing with their friend?
Repeating her routing, Marz shoots her bow at the furthest enemy she can see and hit without cover.
Marz right now doesn't threat, as she's carrying a bow and doesn't have any feats or features to threat with it, neither has the unarmed strike of a monk to be able to kick them. All she does is some mean looks when they pass by :) @GM, not sure if I should take her action already, as you asked to resolve the AoOs before.
Marz tries to shoot another one - the furthest she can without cover - and then moves to a different position, spreading from her allies to avoid being in a cluster.
Still with her mage armor up, she can only hope she can escape the worse of their bites...
Marz does a sidestep and shoots against the further enemy she can see that has no cover.
We should try to avoid the clustering... These things can spit something strange. Plus, they're itchy! - she says, scratching, remembering she wasn't able to identify them when she first saw them.
The creatures are faster to act than Marz as well, which just seems to start to get ready with her bow in hands, freakish scratching, and a not so well hidden fear.
Marz shakes her head in agreement with the others - she's curious about the button, but that's likely something they can deal with later. Whisken is the priority! She moves to the other door, then checks if it's locked - and tries to, as silently as she can, unlock it. Once again, she will have hard explanations to do when and if they escape alive, but she can't let her companion in danger just because her past life may catch up with her...
Marz doesn't notice anything special, but becomes naturally uneasy with the coffin, and curious to what kind of companion the animal would have been to receive his own place like that - so she muttered a quick prayer for Desna.
The rogue does some quick check against the doors for traps, then bobbles her head if it's okay to proceed (otherwise she will stop to disarm traps).
I heard when Whisken left the room... Or, maybe, when she was taken for the room. I didn't see anything. - says Marz, frankly. She keeps her bow drawn, now, and the rapier sheathed; the Elf feels a little more on her skillset. As Jermaine shrugs, she replies. We follow ahead. Start crawling through the halls, trying to track where they could have taken her. I prevented them from alerting whatever else is down there, but they were trying to... So we should be ready for a lot more than just this itchy little guys. She scratches her shoulder, then takes a position more towards the middle to back of the marching order. While she could survive with her blade in hands, without her spells she felt she was definitely more useful with the bow in hands and out of the hair of the combat. I can help check the way for traps and other passages... - she completes, a little shy and trying to avoid too much details on how did she acquire such particular toolkit - Let's just be careful, nevertheless.
Scratching, Marz smiles at Mezdav. That's alright, my friend. Thanks for trying! Itching never killed... That I know of! So I should be good. - she says, trying to stay positive.
Oh, I'm so happy to see you all! - said Marz, struggling to carry the creatures - Please don't get too close! I'm so itchy! I believe we found the culprits for the lice... She didn't really know much at all, and was all sweaty and messy - even more of a "disaster" than her usual self. It's full of these things down there! - she finally completed - They took Whisken! They mentioned their queen being interested in magical users. She paused before continuing. We can't go there unprepared. We should hurry, but we can't go unprepared. I need to get my gear... My bow... I used all my spells, practically. Plus, I need to leave these creatures with the faculty so they can try to dig more on what's going on... - she stopped again to frantically scratch her leg.
Marz ran upstairs carrying the tied, gagged creatures as fast as she could - and scratching each part of her body! She wasn't curious to find out what else would be in that... Dungeon... But wanted to reach out and wake up the others to help her delve in search of Whisken. Plus, she wanted to leave the creatures with the professors, and wanted to get the rest of her gear.
GM: As the last one tried to run, Marz charged at him to attack. She was still scratching like hell, but knew that "getting serious help" was something that she herself had to do - however, she had to try to stop him from doing the same.
GM:
Still scratching - a lot harder now! - Marz tried to attack the enemy closer to her (if multiple enemies are closer and any of them were previously hit, she would focus on such enemy).
She then five-foot-stepped out to force the creatures to enter her square again, if they decided to attack her, and give her the opportunity of another attack.
I will wait for Gennie before posting my actions so we keep the rounds somewhat aligned. :) GM, I know I failed my knowledge nature check, and I don't want to do anything meta-gamey here; however, I wanted to ask some stuff that I may be a bit confused on. I'm seeing the pictures you're using to represent the creatures in Roll20 and I saw them speaking Sylvan, so I have an idea of what they would be, so just double checking... They vomit, they bite, I'm itching, we saw gremlin lice before... Wouldn't they be tiny, perhaps, and with a 0-ft reach? Because, if it's the case, they would only be able to attack me in melee (to bite me) if they actually enter my square (and provoke AoO to do so - at least one of them since I don't have Combat Reflexes or similar). Again, I may be out of line and maybe these creatures are just different than their standard one (or maybe they're just custom ones of your world, and again I'm perfectly fine with all of it!). I just thought about asking, "just in case"! Heh. Cheers
GM:
Marz attacked the same enemy as before, this time using her rapier instead.
After that, hitting or not, she tries to tumble her way around him, towards the hallway, trying to prevent attacks of opportunity from the two enemies by her, while scratching her arms like crazy with the butt of the weapon.
Come on, come on! Don't run, come to my blade! - she yelled after moving near the stairs, hoping to echo more. This time, however, she used Sylvan as the language.
Thanks Mezdav! You're right - the situation is fairly lethal right now. It's very possible Marz just dies or gets kidnapped forever on her very first fight, and that's basically how RPGs go. I had been doing it for almost four decades now (despite being so new in the forums!) so I guarantee you I'm aware of it :) Ok, I know on the past couple decades I had been mostly on the GM seat so maybe I got too used to disposable chum NPCs ;) heh! Anyway - despite being aware of the situation, I'd still rather act in character. If another PC was being kidnapped in this situation, I wouldn't leave them behind without trying something first. I know Whisken isn't a PC, but I can't use meta-gaming information to influence my decisions; Marz is a loyal person, seeing her friend in a bad situation, and is trying to help using whatever tools she has (her limited smarts, her even more limited magic, and her abysmally more limited martial prowess if needed be). I'm trying to get her ready to flee, but with fleets of stairs to climb, she wouldn't be able to go far or withdraw properly - so, creative solutions are needed (that's what we like about these games, am I right?) and I'm trying to seek them. Plus, honestly I was hoping these guys would have like 1 or 2 HD and some of them would go unconscious with the color spray, but such is life! If she gets out of this situation, it will be by the skin of her teeth (but I'd thank the GM anyways for the chance to play and the fun while it lasted!)
GM:
As Marz was bit, she let out a complain. Ouch! This will leave a mark! And I was hoping to swim with the hot half-Orc from the potions class this weekend! She was actually desperately afraid, but still holding herself to her fragile self-confidence. She did a quick sidestep towards a pillar, shot a spark of electricity against the enemy by her north, and then drew her rapier.
As more creatures seem to join the fight and Marz approaches the stairs, hoping to find an opening to flee, she lets out all the force of her lungs. With her jolt looking more like a special effect than anything truly menacing, she tries to spin the situation once again. Quick, guys, I already got two of them on the first spell! I will hold as many of them here as possible, so professor Spikyfingers can experiment on more specimens! Hahaha! - she was truly yelling at the top of her lungs, despite imagining that so many fleets of stairs below, it would be hard to be heard. One little Elf can only hope!
GM:
Oh, Whisken, you'll owe me big, girl! - said Marz, moving a little bit southwest to try to catch three of the enemies on the cone of her color spray. As she casted the spell, she was deliberately trying to be noisy. She was trying to call the attention of professors, other students, anyone that could help. It's obvious the Elf was scared, but she was winging the hell out of it.
Poor and scrawny... I gotta work on my clothes!
GM: Oh, by the Monarch's wings! - Marz cursed silently, immediately losing her concentration on the detect magic spell - What did you get us into, Whisken? She breathed deeply, then touching a piece of cured leather and pronouncing the vocal components as silently as she could, she felt Mage Armor surrounding her skin.
Well, I bet they heard that. I guess I will wake this entire castle if needed be. - she finally spoke, normal tone, moving towards where the voices were coming from. Surrender! - she finally yelled - Or I will burn you to crisp! I am Lady Morand Fayer, master of Evocation, and I shall reduce you all to ashes if you don't release her immediately and leave these premises!
|