Kel starts poking and prodding at the stonework in an attempt to activate the portal.
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Kel can't wait to leave the filthy city and it's dirty inhabitants. She waits by the door as the last questions are answered.
Kel follows the lead set by Magpie and AB, grateful for the skills of the constructionist. "Bless that contraption, it's saved our lives a few times by my count."
"Crowds can hide people following us as well, we need to also include a lonely place to weed out any agents tracking us. I can create a few minor images to help, but they may be useless against their keen senses."
"I've a few protections." Kel offers as she prays and grants fire resistance to her companions.
"Let us ride a bridge to our gear and then escape", Kel suggests, "It will be the clearest path."
Kel burns with the poison as her strength diminishes. Unable to support her own weight, she calls on Desna to heal her weakness as the others struggle with the safe.
Her strength returned, Kel offers to heal the wounds of her companions as they prepare their escape.
Too weak to battle, Kel continues to heal her wounds and hopes her companions can slay the drider before the poison takes her life.
Kel falls back against the wall and prays for healing again as the strength rushes from her.
Kel sags under the onslaught as her wounds multiply. Backed into the corner she carefully weaves her healing magic and hopes for her companion's success.
Desperation setting in along with the poison, Kel launches a shooting star at the flank of the drider and sets the office on fire.
Spray of Shooting Stars: (60 feet, 5' burst, 8d4 fire dmg, 2/day, DC 19 reflex for half)(Su): As a standard action, you can unleash a ball of energy that explodes in a 5-foot-radius burst dealing 1d4 points of fire damage per level. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. This attack has a range of 60 feet. You can fire one explosive ball per day, plus one additional ball per day at 5th level and for every 5 levels thereafter. You can fire more than one ball at a time, but creatures caught inside more than one simultaneous explosions only take damage once.
Kel carefully weaves her magic as she targets Orvignato with a blast of divine light.
Unfortunately, the press of enemies in the cramped room throws off her concentration and the magic fizzles away. Her spell lost, Kel shifts out of the poor tactical position and further into the corner.
Kel backs away from her assailant and calls upon the power of Desna to aid her companions.
blessing of fervor: With this blessing, you call your allies to move forth and empower them to conquer and become victorious. Each round for the duration of this spell, each of your allies can choose one of the following bonuses for that round at the beginning of its turn (their choice). Increase its speed by 30 feet.
Suddenly realizing she isn't standing next to most of her companions, Kel abandons her plans to invoke protection and instead cloaks Orvignato in the coldness of deep space.
As the deception drops, Kel prays and touches each of her companions.
Kel prepares to mask the sounds of a fight the moment things go worse than they are already.
Kel makes a note of the guard's leering demeanor. He'll be the first to burn with star fire
"Let's keep an exit plan in mind, we still need to leave afterwards."
Kel curses inwardly. I knew it! Desna bless us, may we ever see the stars again
Kel stays alert for pickpockets as they wait.
"Don't drink it!" Kel hisses
Kel shares a suspicious look with her companions as they are kept waiting.
Kel puts her morningstar in the rack as requested and then looks around the establishment.
"Forgive my overly excited companions, they get this way when near your building. Please, we would like to discuss business with the owner of this establishment."
The merchant idea is a good one, but let's be sure we pick a commodity that doesn't carry additional problems. If drow society treats drug runners with the death penalty and bootleggers with a lesser charge, then let's opt for the lesser charge. Otherwise the plan to gain an audience through a sampling of our product seems like a good approach.
"Fighting Orvignato will be a challenge, but surely he has offended more than one house with the Venom's Kiss. If it was easy to approach him, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, in a drow society he would be dealt with already. Our challenge will be finding the right approach that doesn't put us at a severe disadvantage when we confront Orvignato."
"Orvignato is a bloated fekbeast, but once he was one of the best fighters in all of Zirnakaynan. I would expect that he also has plenty of muscle to his call." "It can't be easy to get at him, and won't get easier once we do. How are we to approach the Venom's Kiss?"
"Hummph!" Kel pouts as Calla points to the lack of cohesion in former plans. "Yes, I still have my stupid succubus outfit from the Gold Goblin and NO, that's not a good idea for entering a den of debauchery and then not following the plan."
"Let us make haste, as she suggested, any extra time spent in these caverns will just increase our risk." and I want to see the Stars in the night sky again
The Q&A is fine, designed to work at the table, slow in PbP, but I don't mind and it is a tense part of the story
"Our disguises work by using the appearance of a drow that has been closely observed and studied. They can be undone, but we do not plan to undo them during this task. Will you help us leave the city after the task is complete?"
"Agreed, First Daughter, I will start with a truth. We are tired of making bread and cleaning dishes, we are ready for action." This time Kel meets her eyes and does not look away.
"First daughter, the humble path that brought us here will matter little to you. We are here now and, as you say, we can run side by side for the nonce. It is enough that we share the same enemy, how should we proceed against our common foe?"
"First Daughter, surely we do reek of the surface as you have noted, we spent long days there on our scouting mission and the taint must take longer to wear away from the detection of your keen senses. We are invaders, intruders, parasites, and spies, that was our duty and those were our occupations on the mission to the surface, and now we are at your disposal." Kel lowers her eyes from the haughty drow and bows before her.
I think PbP format changes the way people react as opposed to the table. With my west coast time zone and work schedule I'm usually that last person to get in a post to the day's events, whereas at the table everyone would look to the person with the bluff skill to speak first. Really, that is meta-gaming, so in some ways the PbP format does open the door for role playing vs. roll playing. Based on the way we play our PCs, I would expect AB to stick his foot in his mouth, Brue and Lef to start planning for the fallout of ABs mouth foot, Calla to double down by putting her foot into someone's mouth by way of swift kick, and Kel to be afraid of the impending response to foot actions.
Kel closes the door as requested while the rest of group fawns and postures. When the chairs and foodstuffs appears she hesitates, then takes a seat as seems to be expected. "It is an honor to be in your presence First Daughter. What would you have us discuss?"
Kel keeps her head bowed and her eyes forward as she enters the room at the top of the tower. She quickly scans their new surroundings while attempting to hide her efforts.
Kel fixes a concerned look on her companions, "Certainly every word and action is being monitored by magic." Nervously, she waits for the return of the servant.
Kel will only bring along her headband and cloak, the rest of her gear will stay in the room.
The longer they stay in the city, the more ashamed Kel feels for her distant relatives. Even half blooded, and that of the surface elves, her ancestry shares a common core to this abusive culture. "Let's hope opportunity shows itself at the meeting, and let's seek it out if it remains hidden."
Kel provides healing to her companions after the allotted time of suffering has passed.
Kel tends to the party's wounds with a healer's touch, never calling upon magic as decreed.
"We need a course of action, the longer we delay the more trouble will come our way."
One thing dominates Kel's thoughts as she endures the pain. Vegan Necromancers? This entire race is insane!
Kel concedes to the guards, hoping the party survives the lashings.
"...punishable by death. Death by torture. I suggest you submit, take your punishment as drow, and live to plan your resistance at a later time." I say we take the guard's advice, see if we learn anything about the BBDrow, then plan our revolt with full health and resources.
sounds like we're about to dramatically increase the number of lessons we're taught today, but sure, let's have at it, Kel will start with Rainbow Pattern
"They will be able to discern who causes his demise, but maybe we play that to our advantage. Certainly no others will be so bold if they know there are consequences for questioning our credentials." Kel feels a strange connection to her early days in getting work at the Golden Goblin, a weird parallel between cultures of less than stellar morales.
Kel narrows her eyes to slits and focuses on the arrogant soldier, with undead driders, a crazy goblin/drow, and a terrified scout as her backdrop, and acidly questions him in a Calla-ous manner. "Did you just insult my older sister, when she offered you a chance to recant?"
"Let's be careful we don't assume we know what's really being tested, our skill or our loyalty." Kel looks sadly upon the creatures. "Let's return quickly, it will give them less to question and more to admire."
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