Give Me That Horizon: Ch. I, The Calm Before the Storm

[mucat]

As the rats finally lose their nerve and bolt individually for cover, Bale tracks them with a nocked arrow until he is certain they've dispersed. He relaxes then, but only fractionally. He hadn't been particularly subtle about using his talents here -- the chittering swarm had spooked him, and he had been thinking perhaps too much of fending off the rats, too little about the aftermath. It was always unpredictable how people would react to witchcraft, or whatever the proper name was for the things he could do.

Fortunately, his companions today don't seem angry or paranoid about the display; with luck, they might even have been too busy fighting to notice anything unusual at all. While the two who were overrun and bitten head outside to wash out their wounds, Bale walks over to check on his mount. The pony is understandably skittish, but not panicked. He speaks a few reassuring words to the animal, and since no one is watching him at the moment, also takes the opportunity to close his eyes for a few moments' meditation.

Spoiler

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Attempting Concentration checks to restore psionic focus. He'll keep trying till he gets it, since there's no immediate rush, but here are a few rolls:
Concentration (+5 vs. DC 20):
(d20+5)[23]
(d20+5)[24]
(d20+5)[13]
(d20+5)[15]
(d20+5)[7]
EDIT: Cool; first try.

Bale's eyes snap open, he gives the horse a final reassuring pat, and he walks back to rejoin the human, Edward. To his surprise, Alex returns from outside almost immediately, and for some reason, now has a small white cat.

"Um. Hello, cat," the goblin says. "Welcome to the Storm Peace. Don't chase any rodents; they're bigger than you are."

The gnoll, Derrsharr or Darren, is still outside, so Bale turns his attention to the fallen doors. "All three doors came down at once," he remarks. "Hard to believe it was just the wind or thunder that did it."

He moves cautiously toward the nearest of the fallen doors, giving it a wide berth until he is certain that another carpet of rats doesn't lay in wait. It seems quiet enough, so he creeps closer, red eyes glinting sharply as he peers into the darkness beyond the opening.

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Bale's darkvision is 60', same as Derrsharr's, so I assume he sees the same view mentioned already in the OOC post.

[Xealot7]

"Very well, when you are ready, I'll do what I can for you." Edward looks at the wounds, reaches out and touches around the wound then says a few words in celestial.

The wounds close up and heal almost immediately.

"There, I hope that is better."

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I'll cast two Cure Minors for Alex and a Cure Light for Darren.

For Darren: (1d8+1)[3] healing.

[Scow2]

Derrsharr shrugs as Alex walked back in after picking up the cat. Either he'd get ill and possibly die or not, Derrsharr didn't care. He spends ten minutes ensuring the filth from the rats is completely removed from his body, armor(Doesn't help to take filth off if he's just going to put it on again), and weapon (He often eats the stuff he kills with that thing!).

When he returns the rat-wounds, still stinging stinging from the soap used, glisten red from oxidizing blood and white from unformed flesh under the missing chunks from his hide. Ignoring the pain of the wounds, he merely puts on his now-shining, rain-soaked, and hail-battered scaled armor. Unfortunately for the offendable, he takes his time to make sure he puts the armor on properly.

When the paladin comes over to heal the wounds, Derrsharr only grunts in casually surprised acknowledgement, not explicitly thanking nor rebuffing the offered aid.

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It takes a total of 15 minutes for Derrsharr to get ready to move on: 1 minute to take off hastily-donned armor, 10 for the heal check, and 4 more to put the armor back on properly.

[RelentlessImp]

Alex nods in Edward's general direction without looking at him, muttering "Thanks" and levering himself to his feet. The feline goes onto his shoulder, where it digs its claws into the fabric of his robes to keep itself there. Approaching the door Bale stands outside, he peers down the hall, though his vision isn't quite as good as the blue's.

A small thrill of fear - and excitement! - courses down his spine, making the young spellscale shiver slightly. "If it'd been just one, or even two of them, it might be believable, but all three? It's almost believable that there's something down one of these tunnels that wants us to go deeper in after all that."

[mucat]

Bale returns from his initial examination of the three receding tunnels, just in time to catch Alex's words. "Yep," he agrees. "Something brought down all those doors at once, and I'll wager it's not something friendly. If we've got an ounce of brains between us, we'll take our chances with the storm, run like hell, and never look back."

A wide yellow grin splits his face. "But anyone with brains wouldn't have been out in this storm to begin with, so who the hell cares what they would do? What do you say we start with the passage on the left?" he asks, his tone cheerful. "It doesn't smell as bad as the one the rats came from."

The goblin looks over his shoulder toward the southern exit, where grey light and the sound of rainfall filter in. "After the big guy gets back from outside, I mean," he amends hastily. "Even if I'm too dumb to run away, I still want someone braver than me to hide behind."

[RelentlessImp]

"I think that's twice in the last ten minutes someone's took a potshot at my intelligence," Alex says with a rueful smirk crossing his young face. "Next person to do it gets a face full of kitten." His head twitches slightly to one side to indicate the white fluff on his shoulder.

"I agree with you there. Better someone big goes in front - gives us smaller ones a chance. So, tell you what - you tell the large, naked fuzzball when he comes back that we're going down that hall," Alex says, pointing towards the western tunnel. "I'll be over there in case he disagrees with you."

[Scow2]

Once Derrsharr is back and dressed again, he searches the rat corpses for a body that lacks ruptured bowels to take as a snack on the go. He heads down the Eastern passage instead of the somewhat agreed-upon western door, pulling out the flayed rat's guts as he walks. Storm or not, this place was interesting, and he wanted to see what was going on here. The others could follow if they wanted, or they could go their own way without the Gnoll for backup.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Just as Alex and Bale are about to commence the exploration of the western passage, Derrsharr, fully clothed once more, decides to waltz down the eastern passage without a word of discussion, or even bothering to see if anyone else follows him. Truly, he is a gnoll not long for this world.

In the black-and-white hues of Derrsharr's darkvision, the hallway terminates after some 30 ft. into a large, square-shaped room, roughly 35 or 40 ft. long on a side. It is mostly empty, the floor coated in a fine dust, save for a squat stone chest in the middle of the room. A rather odd place for storage, to be sure; it would seem most of the space here is utterly put to waste. There are no other apparent exits to this room; the air is cold and dry, the sound of the rain echoing down the hall in the distance.

(Well, Derrsharr's off to the races. Everyone is free to go where they will; whether you follow the gnoll is up to you.)

[RelentlessImp]

Alex tilts his head slightly when Derrsharr returns and instead heads down the east passage. Giving Bale a quick look and a slight lifting of his shoulders in a shrug, he follows after the gnoll down the eastern passage, not willing to remain in the main chamber without the big, burly pack of muscle that, more than likely, was more competent at killing things quickly than he'd ever be - plus, he really wants the gnoll nearby in case the human tries something, Storm Peace or no.

Nervousness makes his steps shaky as they descend into the gloom of the tunnel, and he begins to sing softly to himself in an attempt to calm his shaking limbs.

[mucat]

Bale shrugs as Alex sets off for the Eastern passage in pursuit of Derrsharr. "That way actually looked just as good," he admits to Edward. "Symmetry and all that." Moving in that same direction, he calls after the gnoll, "Derrsharr, why don't you hold up a minute. Odds will be better with four of us."

Whether or not the gnoll agrees to that suggestion, Bale turns back to the others. "You two both need light to see, right?" He gives an uncertain look to Alex, apparently not sure how a dragonman's eyes work. "Once we regroup and get organized, any objection if I go a half minute or so ahead? That way if we meet anything else that doesn't like us, the light won't give us away too soon. If I see anything, I'll double back and let you know."

[Scow2]

Hearing but ignoring the others for now, Derrsharr glances into the room as he strips and gnaws on the raw muscle of the rat corpse. He enters cautiously, checking all four corners for threats. If he sees none, he paces around the stone chest in a radius of about five to ten feet, examining the chest from a distance as he finishes the rat.

[CockroachTeaParty]

The stone chest is seemingly built into the floor; unmovable. The metal hinges on the lid have seemingly rusted to the point of uselessness; once the lid is off, it stays off.

[Xealot7]

Edward gathers all of his gear, and while the gnoll is cleaning his wounds and donning his armor, searches for his torch. "Uh, kind of embarrassing but it seems I forgot to bring a torch or lantern. Anyone happen to have one?"

If someone has one, Edward will thank them, if not he will gather all of his gear and follow behind as best as possible.

(I forgot to buy a torch or lanter... doh.)

[mucat]

Bale looks at Edward in surprise, then shakes his head. "I didn't bring one either. Darkness never causes me any real trouble, though. Maybe Alex has a light?"

[RelentlessImp]

Alex blinks slowly in the darkness, shaking his head. Not even his night vision is good enough for this - and probably not good enough for wherever else they decide to wander in this tor.

He does, however, alter the song he's singing quietly to himself, bringing a few balls of light into existence from nothing to dance about the room, lighting it up gently.

"Best I can do, I'm afraid," Alex says. "It's not much, and won't last very long, so take advantage of it."

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Casting Dancing Lights and hoping we get our fiddling done in ten rounds :P

[mucat]

"That we'll move quick," answers Bale. "I'll still try to stay a little ahead of the light."

Before he has finished the sentence, Bale is jogging toward the east passage, the site of Derrsharr's recent vanishing. He slows down a little as he reaches the opening, but given Alex's warning that time is short, continues to move considerably faster than he would prefer to while scouting. At least the damned impetuous gnoll will flush out anything too aggressive that might be laying in wait...

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Bale will stay ahead of the lights and try to move stealthily, taking a -5 penalty on both hide and move silently due to moving at normal speed (unless Edward or Alex decide to run, in which case he will forget about stealth altogether and simply keep pace with them.) Once he spots Derrshar he will break cover and approach openly, rather than that risk the gnoll might reflexively attack anyone sneaking up on him.

Hide: (d20+5)[17]
Move Silently: (d20+5)[10]
(both including penalty for faster movement)

[Scow2]

Once Derrsharr finishes as much of the rat meat he can from the corpse in his hand, he casts it aside and opens the box lid. He doesn't suspect any reason for it to be trapped, and thus takes no precautions to ensure his safety.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Bale enters the room just in time to see Derrsharr kick open the lid of a stone chest in the middle of the otherwise empty room. As soon as the lid is opened, the hinges break, and the lid falls to the ground with a loud slam. At the same moment, a fusillade of darts explodes from a spring-loaded mechanism inside the chest. Several darts embed themselves in the meat of the gnoll's thigh, causing him no small amount of pain.
Derrsharr remains standing, however.
Peering inside the chest, you find a modest bounty of treasure. A small sack within jingles with the weight of gold: inside is around 100 gold coins, and two lovely pearls. Also inside the chest is a simple leather headband with small iron rivets. Aside from these small items, the chest is largely empty, save for a fine coating of dust.

There does not seem to be anything else of interest in this room; a strange place to store some petty baubles, to be sure.

(Derrsharr takes 4 damage, leaving him at 11/16 hp)

[Scow2]

Snarling from the unpleasant surprise, Derrsharr grabs the bag of coins and pearls, tying them to his belt. The others could take the headband if they really wanted it. The money was his. After securing the goods, he pulls the darts out of his armor and skin, "toughing out" the injuries.

[mucat]

"Dammit, Derrsharr," says Bale from the doorway, "are those darts poisoned? I could have disarmed 'em if you gave me a chance."

He takes a moment to examine the room, but it looks like a dead end. At least there's one more clean passage off the central chamber to try, before venturing into the foul-smelling one that disgorged the rat swarm.

"The others are on their way," he adds, as the flickering glow of Alex's spell marks their approach, casting distorted shadows over the wall. "I don't suppose you found any light source in here that they can use?" He moves toward the chest to see what else is inside, hands far from his weapons to make sure the gnoll does not take his approach as a challenge. For the moment, he doesn't seem concerned about the bag of money; if things continue at this rate, they can simply take it from Derrsharr's body once the gnoll gets himself killed.

[CockroachTeaParty]

After Alex and Edward see just how unremarkable the dead end truly is, everyone makes their way back to the main entrance chamber, to discover a newcomer, just shaking himself off after a hasty retreat from the storm.

Standing near the entrance is an older man with graying hair, clad in simple leather armor and a forest-green hooded traveling cloak. A quarterstaff lies on the floor at his feet; a quiver and bow can be seen slung over his shoulder, and a longsword is sheathed in a scabbard on his belt.

As he twists some more water out of his cloak and stands up from securing a buckle on his boots, the stranger notices the rest of the party. He smiles, the crow's feet near his eyes crinkling kindly. A neat beard of gray hair graces his jaw, and his eyes are a foggy grayish-silver color. He picks up his walking staff and approaches in a non-threatening manner. His voice is warm, perhaps even jolly.
"Storm peace? Hail, fellow travelers. I see you too have picked this spot for a moment's respite from the storm."
He offers a callused hand to everyone in turn, smiling if it is taken, or simply nodding if it is not.

[mucat]

After a brief exploration of the eastern side chamber, Bale returns along the unlit corridor to the central chamber, moving at an easy trot despite the darkness. In one hand he holds the odd headband that Derrsharr left behind in the stone box, examining it curiously as he re-enters the central chamber.

The sight of the newly arrived stranger catches the goblin by surprise, but only for a moment. "Welcome to the Rat Hole," he says, approaching the old human and shaking the proffered hand. "Name's Bale." He gives an uncertain look toward the sullen grey light filtering in through the southern door. "I'm starting to think we're all going to lose a whole day's travel before this storm lets up."

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During the (probably) ensuing conversation, Bale will examine the headband carefully, and also show it to Edward and Alex if they're interested. He doesn't try it on just yet.

[RelentlessImp]

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Prior to returning to the main room:

Alex stomps up to Derrsharr after he's been stuck by the fusillade, grabbing the Gnoll by the arm and turning him (or at least trying to turn him) to face him, varicolored eyes narrowed. "Are you an IDIOT?! You could have got yourself killed and us along with you with that stunt! Every fool with a quarter of a brain knows not to kick open undisturbed treasure chests - they're undisturbed for a reason. Whatever the hell else is in this tower, we're going to need you beating it to death, and you can't do that if you get yourself killed on a trap! Next time you do something so idiotic I'm putting you to sleep and getting a new dog! Ithquenti Xsiol!" Clear voice bordering almost on rage as he speaks, growing louder with each word until plateauing at a dominating, powerful voice several decibels above speaking level.

Tirade finished, Alex turns away from the gnoll, huffing, varicolored eyes flashing with irritation. Thoroughly annoyed, if not outright angry, having come to put at least a little trust in the gnoll after the encounter with the swarm of rats - and not appreciating the bolt of fear - for himself and his apparent allies - that'd gone through him when he'd heard the click of the trap. The nerve of the mutt! Bah!

Upon returning to the main room, Alex's eyes widen slightly at the sight of the man amongst the freaks, but the residual irritation with Derrsharr overrides his programmed shyness. Still possessed of the kind of emotions that'd let one stare down a gnoll and yell at it without fear of reprisal, the human's presence doesn't make him try to hide himself in the robes as he would normally do. Instead, he meets the human's eyes evenly, though he offers a brief nod instead of a handshake, tucking his arms about his waist.

"Alex. Where were you heading before the storm caught you?"

[mucat]

((Whoa! Backing up to the scene in the Eastern room, as described in RelentlessImp's spoiler above, before we encounter the newcomer))

As the once soft-spoken dragonman continues his diatribe, Bale's red eyes widen until they threaten to fall from their sockets. Granted, he too was annoyed by the gnoll's recklessness, but this is like watching a rabbit turn and launch itself at a desert wolf. For once, the sarcastic goblin is at a complete loss for words.

When Alex finishes his tirade and turns his back on the gnoll, though, Bale blinks off his surprise. "That's what I was trying to say," he states slowly and calmly from twenty feet to one side of the pair, perhaps as a reminder to them both that they are not alone in the room. "You said it louder," he adds as an afterthought.

The goblin stands stock still as he speaks, both hands still empty, his crossbow slung over his back. But he holds his right hand almost as if it did contain a weapon, and a faint hum, its source unclear, is audible from his direction.

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If either of them attacks the other, Bale will roll initiative as well and try to act first. What form this action will take, remains to be seen.

[Xealot7]

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Interesting... I miss alot when I am studying for an exam.

Walking back into the center room, Edward greets the man. "Storm Peace indeed. You are most welcome here." Edward takes the mans hand and shake it firmly, yet friendly. "The name is Edward, Edward Tarrant. It's a pleasure." Taking a moment to look around for his other "companions" Edward continues to speak without them present, having no idea the argument that is taking place further in the tor.

"So what brings you here traveler?"

[Scow2]

Derrsharr keeps walking, tossing the annoying lizard off his arm as he walks back down the hall, briefly considering seperating the lizard's head before deciding he wasn't hungry.

"And yet, I still demonstrate more sense of self-preservation than you..."

[CockroachTeaParty]

The echoes of shouting reverberate down from the eastern hallway as the rest of the party trickles back to the entryway. The older man eyes the motley crew with arched eyebrows.
"Well met... I am but a humble traveler. I was leaving Duvik's Pass, with no particular destination in mind. Perhaps I'll go to the sea... Be careful, a terrible plague has descended upon the town. I've half a mind to try and find medical supplies, but Duvik's Pass is so very out of the way... And they've never had quite as much coin since the silver mines started to dry up. Tragically, my services are far from free."

[RelentlessImp]

Alex's teeth bare in a snarl worthy of any dragon as Derrsharr shrugs him off, hands flexing in impotent rage as he briefly gives in to imagining the gnoll's throat in his hands, despite the fact that he probably couldn't wrap his hands around it if he tried.

"I'm sorry, what part of 'self-preservation' involves getting a face full of darts from being an idiot and opening an unchecked treasure chest, again? Because that's about as counter-intuitive to 'self-preservation' as anything I've ever seen. And yes, Edward's proven himself capable of healing wounds, but the magic he can wield isn't infinite, and we've already got a big enough strain on resources if this tower is full of rooms larger than this, yet you run off to tax them further!"

Alex growls, shaking his head, shaking softly in fury. Muttering draconic curses beneath his breath, following in the direction of the main chamber.

[Xealot7]

"Really? Can you tell me more of this plague." The concern is readily evident in Edwards voice as he speaks to the older gentleman.

"This is the first I've heard of a plague with in the area, much less in Duvik's Pass. Are you certain it's a plague and not something... less lethal?"

[Scow2]

Derrsharr doesn't care that he's in the main chamber anymore. Lashing out in anger, he attempts to grab the spellscale by the throat. "Listen up, stupid lizard," Derrsharr shouts at him. "I have no clue who the hell you think you are, or why you think I give a damn about any of you. I'm gonna level with you on this: The only reason I saved you from those rats is because I get jealous of competition for my potential meals. I'm only putting up with your insolence because I'd rather not risk being forced to kill the paladin and goblin as well." He continues to glare at the lizardman

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His rant isn't over, but I'm breaking it off to give people a chance to get a word in edgewise.

Rolling initiative to determine if anyone can get off a partial action before Derrsharr grabs at Alex:
Initiative: (1d20+3)[20]

And, the grapple check.
Touch Attack: (1d20+6)[21]
Opposed Grapple check: (1d20+5)[17]