The Necromancer's Pact VII: Lake of Tears II

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel barely has time to congratulate herself for a job well done before the crazy wizard makes his little speech and then jumps into the hole, dragging the unconscious murderer with him. Without a second thought, Tiriel reaches out, catching his hand as he starts to fall.

"That was really stupid." Tiriel says as she hauls him and Elthan out of the hole. "Why are all the mages going crazy today? I don't even like you, but the last thing we need is more rash actions and sacrifices!"

[ooc: sorry callos, I ruined your suicidal post.]

[Spaz]

Yix

Yix tries his best to scurry into the hole before it becomes crowded by people climbing down on the rope. He flaps his wings to being a slow descent to the bottom, and begins focusing all his senses on the dark in front of him, trying to figure out what, if anything, is ahead.


((Yay blindsense!)

[Koji]

Khazrael

((OOC: Initiative: 1d20+1=8))

Khazrael is startled, but not overly intimidated by the presence of the duo atop the roof. His eyes immediately dart around, looking for an area of the roof that the flames have weakened.

((OOC: If any part of the roof is weakened due to the flames, Khazrael will dive straight through it, otherwise he'll be taking a double move to get back inside through the window.))

[runehawk]

'Raskoruran' , Lizardman Druid

Once Callos was secure in the hands of others. He leaves him to be admonished by his packleader and trudges off to the cart.

Picking up his huge sack of food, he slings it over his back and returns to await beside the hole. Yix had dived in already. Trinark had told him how they had used Yix as a scout to rescue him from the drow back in Teflamn.

At Tiriel's prompting he transfers the rations to another bag. Seeing that it is strangely devoid of weight, he deduces it is magical and looks nonplussed.He accepts his sling & bulletpouch from whoever picked it up and waits patiently for Yix...

... until he looks up to see Adalmar coming down alone.

"Where's Feathers ?", he asks aloud, snapping his head in both directions.


OOC:
Transfer 100lbs to Tiriel's Bag of holding.
lemme know when you note in yr sheet.

[kuja.girl]

{ooc: Shove everything in Tiriel's bag of holding - it's nearby on the ground and Ss' can assume she'd indicate it to him if he doesn't know to use it already. It can carry about 210 more pounds of material :) which should be enough.}

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"I'm not going crazy," coughs Achkby suddenly from someone's elbow, "Just because -- wait, Yix! Damn."

As his curses trail off into another fit of coughing, the halfling turns his watery eyes to work scouring the building for an alternative to diving into a jagged, pitch-black hole.

"Lissa, if you have anything left in that wand..." he suggests.

[OOC]Mostly just checking in, I'm not doing anything until I hear from the others. I figure one or two rounds of movement, then nothing much.[/OOC]

[Phasm]

Lissa

Giving Thokk another zap from the wand for good measure- it takes a lot of damage before Thokk will actually admit to being hurt- Lissa works her way over to the Hole, coughing on smoke. "Ack, stupid smoke! I'm on it, Achkby. If anyone needs rope or a grappling hook, let me know, I've got some in my pack." She touches the wand to Achkby's shoulder, calling forth its energy yet again. "Damned if I know how we're going to get the horses out of here. Anybody got a spell to, I dunno, shrink them or something?"

OOC: OK, here we have last round and this round.
CLW on Thokk, again - (1d8+1)[7]
CLW on Achkby - (1d8+1)[6]

[blackfox]

Katrin

"Fizahn--I could probably tie these two ropes together securely, but I don't know any specific knots that would work. Do you know any secure knots for tying two ropes together?"

((OOC: Katrin doesn't have any ranks in Use Rope, although she does have a +3 Dex bonus and a +2 circumstance bonus because her rope is silk. I'm pretty sure the DC for splicing two ropes together is 15.))

[Dr._Bob]

Tiriel grabs Callos and Elthan, one in each hand, not even bothering to disguise her incredible strength. Shaking her head, she places each gently back down on the flagstones.

With a nod of his head, Yix dives down into the blackness, his wings spread wide as he spirals downward. The others gather around the 5 ft x 5 ft opening, watching as he disappears into the blackness.

Adalmar is especially surprised to see the secret shaft below the flagstone. Having grown up in this village, he had probably walked over this very spot dozens of times, never suspecting there was anything beneath.

Lissa stuffs a tenday's worth of rations into her haversack, while Katrin pulls out some rope and starts trying to splice the ends together.

Everyone's eyes are watering and their throats burning. The lizardman's nictitating membrane reflexively slide over his eyes. The druid peers up towards the second level, looking for the newcomer with the feathers in his hair. Everyone else is down by the shaft. Where is the mysterious sorceror?

A startlingly loud CRASH! causes everyone's gaze to shoot upward. As if in slow motion, you see Khazrael's body plunge through the roof though an area weakened by the rising flames.

The feather-headed sorceror tumbles toward the flagstones below, surrounded by a nimbus of shattered slate, splintered wood, and a shower of sparks ...

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Tiriel had been in the process of putting away her hammer when a loud noise startled her into dropping it, barely missing her foot. She looks up in time to see "feathers" come crashing through the roof.

For a moment she just watches indifferently as Khazrael's body tumbles through the air, sparks, smoke, and slate hanging like a nimbus around him...
But the moment passes and instincts take over.
With an explosion of movement Tiriel leaps towards the falling man, her wings unfolding as she shatters the palling that had been them.

double move action, 120' (fly) in an attempt to catch Khaz before he hits the ground.

[Spaz]

Yix


Yix manages to come out of the hole in the floor, pausing a moment to catch before communicating what he had found. "It is a very very long way down, somewhere around 100 or so feet, and at the bottom is water. I don't know how deep the water is though..."



((im guessing this will take a round or 2))

[runehawk]

'Raskoruran', Lizardkin Druid

WINGS!!..We were never told pinkskins had WINGS!

His discussions with Linda and one of the Elthans had never indicated there should be either. The alarm was replaced by awe as Ssathiya beheld the radiance of Tiriel's true form.

This female has been my packmate for over a season.

Her scent is like the others. Not the musk of the scarred slayer or the smell of Trinark and his kin.... I never knew

But all thoughts vanished as she turned back to them and he saw the grace of her form in the air. She was like something beyond the Green yet shaped with great care by it.

The emotions she evoked reminded him of his youth, ...of days, when his surroundings filled him with wonder. Lazily floating on the river, the sounds of crickets on the banks welcoming the coming night as the golden red colours of the sunset dimmed, dulling the glitter of the river surface. The clear skies promising a good night of hunting. And the river lapping gently against his sides. Days like that were gifts from Semuanya. Days in which there would be bounty of moments in which there would be no doubt that a vast, intricate Balance existed and a place in that Balance existed in turn for Semuanya's children.

Ssathiya remembered his delight as he had swung his neck backward submerging beneath the surface drowning out all noise of the crickets and swimming for the sheer delight of it. He had chased the light in the water as if he could catch the gold and the red rays before they fled the river and the coming night.

He shakes his head returning to the present.

WHAT?!?

He mentally exclaimed as he examined his thoughts. He had grown fond of his companions. Yet while he could appreciate their form and skill and admire their substance, he had never found any of them awe-inspiringly beautiful.

He was puzzled and confused and this only meant that he was no longer looking directly at Tiriel and frowning to himself.

Turning to listen to Yix, he catches sight of Trinark also watching Tiriel with an expression of mild pleasant surprise. His eyes dart to look at Ssathiya and eyebrow arches up as if to say 'Well, how about that?' and he takes on a bemused expression at Ssathiya's frustration.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"If you don't like me then DON'T SAVE ME!" He snarled back vehemently as he spun around. It certainly hadn't felt like a rescue to him and it most certainly hadn't been wanted. Leaving Elthan on the ground beside him, he hardly batted an eye lash as she went full on celestial brillance even as she went diving towards the falling man. Why would it startle him? He had already seen it after all. Multiple times in some occasions.

But the revelation of water being at the bottom of the shaft was what made him angry. WHY WOULD SOMEONE HIDE A WELL?! Instead he turned coldly towards Lissa and Trinark.

"If your able to then put a light spell unto a rock and throw it into the hole. YIX, MOVE TO THE SIDE AND WATCH FOR A GLOWING ROCK! IF ONE COMES DOWN THEN TRY TO ESTIMATE HOW DEEP THE WATER IS, ALRIGHT?"

[Dr._Bob]

Callos seems irritated more than surprised when Tiriel launches herself into the air, unfurling a pair of radiantly white wings. Most everyone else, however, watches mouth agape as she streaks upward, catching Khazrael in midair.

Holding the sorceror in her arms, Tiriel slowly returns back to the floor, her wings flapping majestically as she does so. She sets the man on the ground, then folds her wings behind her back, the illusion that had disguised them broken for the time being.

Khazrael appears even more ashen than usual. A pair of punctures across his jugular vein show where the vampire spawn on the roof tried to drain his blood. He is conscious but sluggish.

The meeting house continues to fill with smoke. With a groan, the second level above the doorway begins to sag as its supporting timbers start to give way. If you are going to make a break for it out the main entrance with the horses, you will have to act quickly.

When Yix re-appears and delivers his report, he offers a possible alternative means of escape ... or is it a dead end?


OOC: Khazrael takes 1d4 CON damage ... go ahead and roll for it.

[Koji]

Khazrael

The moment Tiriel catches him, he weakly flails against her, perhaps thinking himself to be caught once again in the vampires' grip. As she sets him down, he stumbles away, muttering some particularly vile curses in Abyssal.

He casts off his scarf and short jacket, as both items are soaked with blood and badly burned. His hand clutches his bleeding throat and he staggers toward the horses, eying the yawning pit warily.

"It's time to go. Get your things and get to the hole. I'll cast my climbing spell on those of us strong enough to carry others."

What the hell is she?

((Round 1: Approach my horse and toss its saddlebags down the pit.
Round 2: Cast spider climb on Tiriel
Round 3: Cast spider climb on Lumpy

Of course if someone protests, I'll stop what I'm doing. If the horse won't let me get my stuff, I'll leave it behind. I guess Tiriel or Lumpy can carry Elthan, I can carry Fizahn or Lissa. Anyone else able to cast this spell or carry someone if I cast it on them?

Con Drain: 1d4=4 oh damn it.

New max HP: 11))

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"Thanks!" rasps Achkby to Lissa. Though some of his cuts still drip blood, most have scarred over, and he seems content to endure the small pains that accompany them.

"Was the water moving, Yix?" Achkby asks urgently as his small friend returns. "This is important! Was the water moving?"

His interest in the answer, however, does not match the intensity of the question. When the roof appears to begin its collapse, Achkby dives to the ground, covering his head with both hands, and doesn't look up until he distinguishes Tiriel's soft glow from the light of the cascading fire. He watches from his knees, slack-jawed in amazement, as the angelic woman soars to catch the falling sorcerer.

What the ----?

Callos' shout brings Achkby back to his senses, and the small sorcerer scrabbles about on the ground until he seizes a piece of shattered flagstone. He hisses and spits a glowing glob of saliva onto the shale, which spreads to cover the entire rock with a warm light.

"Here," he says tersely, forcing the fragment into Yix's small foreclaws, ''Go, quickly! But don't drop this."

Standing and moving closer to the edge of the tunnel, Achkby repeats the hiss, but instead of spitting, claps his hands, and four spheres of pure light spring into existence before them. They hover for a moment, and then plunge down the corridor.

[OOC]Light and Dancing Lights. With the latter, I'm hoping he'll see anything interesting on the way down, and also be able to see a ways into the water. It should extend 160 ft. down. This takes two rounds, I guess? Whatever.[/OOC]

[Spaz]

Yix


Yix quickly takes the stone/fragement from Achkby, and once again dissapears down the hole, using the light to help in his observations.

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Not even cynical Lumpy can disguise his incredulity as his suspicions about Tiriel are confirmed. But as always, he quickly suppresses the reaction, pushing onwards towards the matter at hand,

"Wait, so who decided jumping into the mysterious hole was a good idea? We got all our horses and most'a our supplies up here, a handful of skeletons and corpsemen and maybe an injured demon horse or two blocking our escape. Don't make sense ta jump down what could be a damned wellshaft when we're on the home stretch."

He shifts a little ducking his head further against the propogating smoke,

"I ain't about ta leave the animals ta die niether. This ain't their fault, and that ain't right."

[Koji]

Khazrael

He turns his now sunken eyes to Lumpy and spits, "If you care about the stupid beasts, cut 'em loose! We don't have long before we're smoked out, and I for one don't want to fight three vampires in this sort of shape!"

His words are like smoking acid, and a terrible anger and shame lurks behind his eyes. He stops for a moment before looking back at the screaming pack animals, and a shaking hand gingerly slips a dagger from his belt.

He stumbles, and his tone becomes far weaker. "Just...just help me. Please, there isn't time to argue."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

Noticing the stares of her traveling companions, Tiriel just gives a little shrug and says, "Later." Then she turns back to Khazrael, who she notices, is visibly rattled and wounded.

"Three Vampires - so that's where the two riders went... that's not good odds."
She looks at the hole she'd opened up earlier with distaste, "We don't have much time, we need to decide whether we leave on horseback or if we take our chances in the dark. The horses can be cut loose if needed. I can also try to distract the vampires when we decide to leave, whichever way that may be." She falls silent for a moment and when she next speaks it's in a far more serious tone.
"We need to do what we can to make sure that a message gets to the Iron Lord. I, I didn't want to do this earlier, but there's a good chance that I can out pace them in the air. I can take one other person with me, but that's all. I'm sorry."

[ooc: time to make a vote in the ooc thread. If you can't manage an IC post, then just tell us what your character wants, or if they don't care, tell us that.]

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Hmph, this isn't as much of a problem as one may think. We need to decide whos going were and how, right? This is easy, those most able to survive an underwater journey can descend down the shaft, I'll travel with Tiriel if she decides to take flight since I may be able to pull off one more trick on the blood suckers, and...well I can hide seven of you for six hours in an undetectable space. Just pick a spot were you think you can come down from without being seen and I'll set it up." Callos volunteered as he brushed the dirt off of his robes and stretched slowly. Pulling a length of rope out from his back and holding his spellbook in his other hand. Part of him exclaimed that he should probably join the other people in the extradimensional space but he knew better. Even with the six hours he wouldn't be back up to full fighting capacity by the time the space collasped. Probably wouldn't even be able to contribute much more and any idea of swimming was quite easily suicidal to him. He would have to leave behind his pack and everything to lighten the load as much as possible but that wasn't as much of a problem anyway.

At least they'd be able to find the paper he had written and understand some things about him if he did die that way. And if not then it certainly wouldn't be bad to leave his gear with people who could possibly return it to him if they met again. In any case his only other option was to simply stay in the building which was not going to happen.

[Dr._Bob]

Adalmar slings his bow over one shoulder and tightens the straps on his backpack.

"If we split up, we will need a place to rendezvous. Twenty miles north of here lie the ruins of a great city. The elders say that it was once Shandaular, capital of the Nar realm of Ashanath.

"The ruins lie on the shores of Lake Ashane, and there are many places within the ruins to hide.

"If we could meet up there, perhaps we could find a way to cross the Lake to warn the Iron Lord in Immilmar ..."

...

Achkby's lights illuminate the vertical, rough hewn stone shaft. Toward the bottom, the shaft appears to open up into a large chamber. The floor of the chamber is covered in water. You can see yourselves looking down from above in the light's reflection off of the water's surface.

A subtle rippling in the reflection reveals that the water does appear to be moving gently toward the east.

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby's lights plunge down into the water as he tries to help Yix gauge its depths.

Over his shoulder, he snaps, "Dammit, Callos, stop with this scholarly verbal prancing and give us the details. What the hell is this "one more trick?" It'd better be some pretty good stuff to make me believe it'd be more useful to her than Lumpy's strength or all the spells I've got left."

[kuja.girl]

Tiriel

"Actually, I don't think I could carry Lumpy very far. Probably not Thokk either. Not unless you guys want to leave your armor..."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy's tone is more even more brusque than usual,

"I'd rather walk."

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa looks down into the hole rather dubiously, then up at Tiriel. "Well, which of us so-called 'short folk' would you like to take with you, Tiriel? I'm game to try flying." She eyes Tiriel's magnificent, very large white wings. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I've shot really huge flying critters before, and one shot through the wing can make even a hippogriff crash-land. If I ride along, I might be able to heal any vampire arrows before that happens." The gnome hefts her crossbow, silver-inlaid runes glinting in the firelight. "And if they think to chase us on nightmare-back, I'll be more than happy to shoot 'em!"

[namo]

Adalmar

[summing up the post that did not go through]

He had had to retreat from the now uncontrollable brazier, his hair and eyebrows singed.
At the lizardman's question, he shrugged. He had lost sight of the sorcerer, who was scuttling all over the walls.

...

Joining the group, he considered incredulously the dark shaft. Now what is that ?

A crash above, the sound of wings unfolding and suddenly a heavenly vision. Mouth open, he fell to one knee, supporting himself with his bow. A messenger of the gods...
His eyes shone with veneration.

...

"This shaft... I remember, from when I was little, stories of grandiose cities that used to span this land and of the treasures they still held. I wish this would be the entrance to one of those secret places... but there is no chance of that happening here in Kront."

No chance ? And angels don't exist, right ?

"I agree with..." He gestures vaguely in Lumpy's direction, too tired to remember his name. "Though I can't say I am optimistic, given what they can do." It is obvious he is referring to Khazrael.

He looks dejected for a moment, then he remembers himself, and tries to show resolve on his face instead.

He has trouble looking Tiriel in the eye - that is, even more so than before.
"Are you sure you can outpace those monsters ? They were incredibly fast !"

"And hiding will only work if most of us create a diversion..."

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"I don't know about you people, but I think the shaft works out a lot better and besides, we do happen to be in a BURNING BUILDING! We need to get out of here quickly or enjoy being roasted."

Aeroz grabs his backpack and slings it over his shoulder. He pulls off one of Prozen's signet rings and gives it to Tiriel.

"Tiriel, if you are planning on fighting your way out of here, take this. The guy who blackmailed me into tracking you down gave it to me. If there are any associates of his in the area, this should allow you to access them. Don't lose it."

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

Ach, I dont know about the rest of yers, but Im perfectly game for venturing into the tunnel. Im fine goin first, tis but darkness after all, nothing that goes bump in the night, they are out there. And if they do go bump... At this the dwarf smiles and raises his sword Then we sure as hell will bump back...

[Dr._Bob]

The dancing lights plunge under the surface of the water, creating interesting refractions that dance along the cistern's floor. Although the parallax makes it difficult to judge exactly, the water seems to be maybe three or four feet deep at the most. The lights also illuminate a number of white fish that swim lazily about, ignoring the glowing spheres.

Above, the air is getting increasingly difficult to breathe and to see through. All of you are crouching now, trying to find the relatively clearer air at floor level.