Is there any airflow in this tunnel?
Round 5__________________
LizArdoc_______________
Liz is going to get up on the table and move to B-2 for potential off the top-turnbuckle action.
Zephram Taranis____________
He carefully steps forward toward the last place he saw the mage, stepping around the grease and ready to drive his rapier forward into the elf the moment he sees him..
Nakoda__________________
Nakoda moved to the wall opposite the entryway, and followed it to the corner, staying a step out of it so if anything passed near her, she would know.
grumbles something about wizards and their wiggly fingers :p
Zane Argentus____________
Cast Alter winds from scroll (CL 6: lasts 6 hrs) Raises wind level from light to Moderate (disperses the fog in 4 rounds.)
Rezol Born-in-Steel______________
Rezol takes a 5 ft. step to D:2, pulls a vial of alchemist's fire from his belt (move action) and tosses it at B:1 (standard action).
Miss. It lands on square (B,2). (And Liz) for fire damage. Zephram and the Elf take 1 splash damage.
Liz drives her short-sword at the elf
Zephram tries to push past the elf, hoping that the fact that he doesn't notice a weapon in its hand means that he won't face a wicked attack as he lunges forward to push himself into the shutters, trying to block the purple-skinned figure's escape route. "This exit is out of service."
Rezol winds up and hurls a bullet at the elf as hard as he can.
Effects: Divine Favor (6/10 rounds)
Bullets: 19/20
0- [DC12] (4) create water (1), detect magic (1), light (1), read magic (1)
1- [DC13] (5/day) divine favor (1/4)
2- [DC14] (3/day) restoration, lesser (0/1), spiritual weapon (1/1)
Round 5 complete.
Liz missed her attack.
Zephram slammed against the shutters, closing them.
The black elf, prevented from escaping, waived his hand and a red hot beam 3 feet long appeared to his hand and attacked Zephram.
Hit! for fire damage.
Round 6__________________
The flow of air pushed the fog cloud back down the tunnel.
Area visibility is 5', except the first two rows next to the southern wall, which is only in Darkness (20% miss chance).
Liz stabs at the elf
Zane focuses, dispelling the grease to allow Rezol the opportunity to engage.
And with Liz's strike through heart and spine, the black elf collapsed; he is thoroughly dead.
The Flame Blade fizzles, the Obscuring Cloud disappears, the Grease evaporates and the Darkness winks out.
*Phew! How is everyone? Liz will get to the serious buisness of stripping the elf of loot.
Rezol grumbles, stuffing the sling and bullet back into their usual places. "Damned elves. Can't ever pin th' bastards down an' they never want t' fight straight-up," Rezol complains, but he seems to get over it soon enough. He heads over to prod the fallen lizard with his boot, making sure it, too, is dead.
The black elf had on him:
*a wand of produce flame (23 charges)
*masterwork leather armor,
*+1 spear,
*masterwork dagger,
*two silver bracelets worth 50 gp each,
*silver ring worth 100 gp
The containers and cases contain various pieces of Akata suspended in a preservative fluid. The air smells of chemicals and death.
I'd like the masterwork dagger so I have an extra one in case I toss em.
Zephram studies the set-up with a sigh, .. vivisection is not really my forte.. . He then shrugs and asks the whole group, "What do you think? Studying the strange creatures to figure out what makes them so odd? Harvesting bits to use as reagents? Maybe dine sorry of spell component? I can't think of any potion formulae that would need Akata organs, but some people do like to experiment with the recipes.. "
Liz just shakes her head and shrugs.
Rezol sighs, shrugging. "Not a clue, mate."
SO which way can we be going?
Northern passage then. Let us go there.
Liz bullies everyone to the northern passage.
Rezol cocks an eyebrow at Nakoda (though the woman can't see it through his helmet) and makes a curious-sounding noise. "Whatcha on 'bout?" he queries her.
"Ah..yes....Back in Riddleport we had an encounter with a Crimelord, one with whom we were once partnered in a gambling hall, that ended in a run in with dark elves. Now we encounter them again, after investigating another Riddleport crimelord. All logic points to a conspiracy." Zane says nodding at Nakoda's revelation.
Zephram cocks his head at the outburst and then the explanation, then nods, "It does seem unlikely that this would be coincidental.. Especially when we know that Clegg seems to be under the elves' power, based on his nightly visit."
He nods again, then looks to the others, "I would suggest that the ideal approach would be to finish exploring and learn all the secrets we can from these tunnels and the elves that inhabit them... The more we know, the better the grounding when we try to deduce - or induct - what all of this is about."
With that, he follows Liz back to the party not taken then smiles, " Once more, sneakily, into the breech? "
Works for me.
Going back into the chamber of the Shadow Demon (still weirdly darker than it should be), you take the northern passageway.
After covering some fifty yards of passageway with some odd turns, you encounter an opening with a thick leather curtain across it.
Leaking out from under the fringe are glints of that otherworldly violet light you saw in the other rooms that had black elves.
At this point Liz accidentally kicked over something metallic, which clattered loudly as it skittered into a corner.
From behind the curtain A voice called out; "Xas?" in a strange, foreign accent.
Liz looks worried and points at the curtain while drawing a finger across her throat.
"Yes" Zane mutters in elvish, mimicking the accent.
Zephram freezes, It's unfortunate that I didn't learn the formula for alter self. Becoming one of them would, I suspect, at least give them pause and possibly allow me to bluff my way in... Assuming I could figure out the language, of course.
He nods at Liz, Of course, they're looking over here now, so sneaking in would be high impossible... They'd see the curtain move, even if they were looking at the wrong part... Still, maybe a touch of swiftness would help.
His mind made up, he looks for some stone to his behind while drawing his rapier and drinking his extract of expeditious retreat .
Best to be ready when they see through Zane's bluff... One of us really must study their language...
Rezol grits his teeth, eyes glancing from the curtain to the greatsword resting on his shoulder, and back again. He readies himself to act, but tries to stay quiet.
Liz will moves aside for Rezol to go charging in if he wants to.
Liz behind Rezol
The curtain is swept aside by another dark elf male guard, holding a mug and looking impatient. He looks shocked at the appearance of Rezol and drops the mug, going for his foreign looking rapier.
Beyond you can get a glimpse of a table, chairs and hammocks in that weird purple-green light.
Round-Surprise
Liz waits for Rezol to act, she can't quite roll past everyone.
Rezol grins through his helmet at the surprised elf and attempts to skewer him with his greatsword.
Zephram uses his boosted speed to rush past his companions, diving and rolling past the elf to pop up behind him, rapier in hand.