The Sea of Starry Night [closed]

[Phasm]

Lissa

"NOOOOOOO!!" This time, Lissa lets herself scream as another ally- and maybe even friend- dies in a burst of eldritch blue light. The high-pitched wail echoes through the cavern. "Damn you back to the Pits you came from, undead bitch! May your treacherous goddess turn upon you and eat you like a fly!" All Lissa can really do is swear at her enemy... her gnome-sized crossbow, along with all her other equipment, fell off the bridge with Lumpy. Blue light... that awful blue light... wait! The light got stronger when she attacked! Maybe the amulet's giving her strength!

"Aim for the amulet! Everybody, try and smash that accursed magic amulet!", Lissa yells. She looks around, rapier ready for any spider or drider that might try another attack.


(OOC: Ready action to attack if a hostile creature other than the undead drow comes within range. If that drow gets near Lissa, she's beating feet- there's no way she can hit it with a -4 Str penalty and a nonmagical weapon.)

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby, flushed with his temporary victory over the Drider spins to see how many small pieces his comrades have broken the priestess into. A flicker of his attention notices that Lumpy is no longer standing on the bridge, but most of his consciousness watches as Thokk is throttled by the abomination, ecen as his sword sticks out of her shattered ribcage.

Whoa. is all he thinks. Not particularly attached to Thokk, he is more awed by the display of force.
his mind flashes to his scroll cases, which always used to hold spells for dire situations such as this... but Achkby has never tried to work as a group before; all of his spells enable escape, and that will not save anyone right now, even himself.
Knowin it to be mostly ineffective, he nonetheless activates his wand once again.

"Nothing I can do!" he cries, releasing two balls of force.

[OOC]Wow. Uh... 3 & 2 damage. I got nothing.[/OOC]

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz, Elf Fighter/Rogue

"DAMMIT!!!"

Knowing there is no chance at all that he could possibly beat this thing on his own, he begins to move away. Hearing Lissa's comment, he smashes his mace at the amulet and begins to fly away as fast as he can.

JOIN YOUR SPIDER BITCH IN THE ABYSS!

[OOC: 15+6=21, Damage 9, Retreat action]

[sacreddeamon]

OOC: Balls

Well, It was fun while it lasted. REVENGE ME

Another One bites the dust...

[runehawk]

OOC: Taking 2 rounds worth of actions. Paralyzed the first round

Lizardkin Druid
With a deep breath and a final grunt of effort, the lizardman mentally throws off the overbearing weight. He collapses to his hands and knees, panting noisily to get back his breath. His head comes up, his eyes narrowed into twin slits of fury locked onto the drider before him. The panting slows as he pushes himself up.

He casts Magic Fang reflexively onto his claws and doesn't wait to see them take on a faint green hue as he charges. Midway thru his charge the drider escapes and he is forced to see the sight of his packamte, the valiant warrior du-arf fall before the horror he had cowered from. A red haze comes over his vision and he charges snarling at the creature intent to ripping it to shreds.

OOC: 1st(last) round RP Current round cast magic fang and move to drider/darius/achkby/Lissa position nect round charge and leap onto drow priestess. Hopefully knocking her down and then rip and bite. I will rip the necklace off but i will focus on her. The rest of you better 'magic' her. I can't damage her much.DR: when Thokk inflicted 11 damage shouldn't the cumulative be 50+ 11 = 61?

[Dr._Bob]

Aeroz raises Sedryn's mace, and smashes the indigo amulet into tiny shards. For his efforts, he is rewarded with a backhanded blow that knocks him off his feet. He slides to a halt 10 ft away from the drow priestess. Aeroz coughs up some blood as he looks up in time to see the priestess struck by Achkby's magic missiles and Darius' flaming arrows.

The drow priestess' body explodes, showering Trinark and Aeroz with fragments of bone.

Silence descends on the cavern as dust fills the air ...

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz, Elf Fighter/Rogue

"My gods" Aeroz says panting. He turns to look at his dead dwarven companion and he realizes "Lumpy!'

Aeroz reaches into his pack and pulls out a coil of rope and flies to where he remembers Lumpy landing. When he finds the half orc he will tie the rope around him and finds a simple fulcrum for him to use to lift the half orc up.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Hahaha! Perfect!" Darius cries as the priestess explodes.

I told you so... Haha, maybe I should listen to you more often... Might be a good idea. But not now, I have stuff to deal with.

"Someone get out a potion, Lumpy's going to need it the second they reach us... unless he's already dead."

[Elmorwen]

Sheyra

"Damn it!" Sheyra yells, seeing Thokk die right in front of her. Coming out of her combat-induced fury after the priestess explodes, she tilts her head towards the cavern's ceiling. "How many more of us have to die?!" She sinks to her knees and puts her head in her hands. "All we needed was to get out of here alive..." she sobs, "Is that really so much to ask?"

All the things that have happened, all the people that she's lost... the memories rush upon Sheyra like water from a broken dam. She slumps over with her face hidden and, for what is perhaps the first time in her life, cries as hard as she can.

[Phasm]

Lissa

"WOOOOOOO!!" Lissa lets out a loud, shrill whoop of victory on seeing the undead drow explode. Thrusting her rapier into the air in a gesture of victory, she begins making her way towards the throne and Thokk's body. "Is... is Thokk really dead? And where did Lumpy go? I think I saw him go off the bridge... but didn't he have Aeroz's levitating bracelet?" She looks around at her comrades, anxious. Habit kicks in, and Lissa pulls out a rag to begin cleaning spider guts off of her raper. A sheen of sweat is on her face despite the underground chill, and the gnome's hands are trembling.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn just stands still, a look of utter shock on his face as the drow priestess is destroyed. After she explodes, he runs over to Thokk. "Thokk? You can't really be dead! You're one of the best warriors I knew... If this can happen to you in combat, what will happen to me? I know we had our differences and didn't always agree, but.." Sadly looking at Thokk's corpse, he trails off. I can't believe he's dead... I've traveled with him since practically the beginning of my career. I guess he'll join Moradin wherever dwarves go when they die. Best not to dwell in the past. I hope Lumpy's okay. We'll need him now more than ever. Looking extremely sad, Fizahn heads over to check on Lumpy.

OOC: And we bid farewell to Thokk, leaving Fizahn as the only original Sarloc's Heir character who's been there through the entire game... :'(

[Yoric_Steele]

Trinark, Drow Companion

Seeing the skeleton explode, he breathes a sigh of relief. He quickly takes in his surroundings, making sure none of the other group members are still under attack.

Trinark moves over to Thokk's body and quickly examines it. Given the extent of the injury, he knows there is no way he personally can do much.

He begins to look at the area around the throne, searching for any items that might be magical that the group could use to help Thokk.

[OOC: DR, was the amulet completely destroyed? Or did the gem in the center survive intact?]

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"DAMMIT! No! No! They are not gone! They are not!"
He pauses for a moment as the implications continue to crash down on him, his eyes bulging, staring wildly around the room.
"But do not let your guard down!! There are still spiders here! If nothing more, we have the duty to Lumpy to kill that spiderbeast! They are abvoe us still! They are even below us. Stay focused!"
He whirls about, pointing his wand wildly at the targets as he lists them.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Observing Achkby's actions Darius suddenly remembers. "Aeroz!" he cries down, "The drider I was attacking has disappeared under the bridge! Be careful on your way up."


If the spider's attack he will fire upon them, but for now he looks down for a glimpse of Aeroz or the driders...

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa looks down at her half-cleaned rapier and sighs. "Should've waited to clean my blade. Druid? Please, can you look at Thokk? He... he can't really be dead, I'm sure he's just unconscious..." She looks up at Ssathiyaa with a painful hope in her dark eyes. Then the gnome peers into the darkness all around, watching for any sign of surviving enemies.


OOC: Spot check for enemies: 20 = roll 12 + skill 8. Dunno what the lighting modifier is, subtract as necessary.

[runehawk]

Lizardkin Druid
The lizardkin had skidded to a halt as the priestess exploded. Still aware the driders lurked closeby, he craned his neck in search of them.

Hearing a plea from the gnome they had rescued, he turns to look at Thokk. But a look is all he needs to know that Thokk is beyond them. The warrior who had rescued the wizard barely moments ago and had attacked the creatures full of life and courage lay drained of his vitality. His neck twisted fatally.
The sorrow in the others only deepened the grief he felt. Thokk had shown him that in pinkskins lay the spirit of the greatest of lizardkin warriors. His loyalty always to defend his pack had finally dispelled any notions of inferiority Ssathiyaa had over pinkskins.

My weakness has cost a true warrior his life

Forcing aside his grief,shame and guilt, he fueled his rage
The cold fury strengthening his resolve to hunt and kill the spider-aberrations. There was a blood-debt to be settled.


"sSCALE AND CLAW, I sSHALL BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD"
"sSemuanya guide me to my prey"


OOC: sorry a honorarium to Thokk and the impact he had in Ssathiya. Ssathiya's focused on killing The driders but can't fly. Can someone drive them where we can kill them. let's finish this. We walked into a trap they set. we lost one of us...but they aren't walking away from this.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Fizahn seems surprised as the lizardman's shout rattles him back into reality. He looks the druid over for a second before his sadness becomes rage, anger, and hate. "Well put, druid! Thokk will be avenged if I have to hunt those driders for the rest of my life!" Fizahn grabs his crossbow and begins looking for a drider that he can shoot.

[HempRope]

Achlby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby calms some, but he is still breathing hard.
"One of those abominations went under the bridge! The other one, with the claws, it should be behind the throne. Fizahn, lizardkin, come with me, we'll look for that one..."

He starts walking across the bridge toward the throne.

[Dr._Bob]

Scraping and clicking above remind everyone that there are still dozens of monstrous spiders lurking in the darkness.

With haste, Aeroz and Fizahn peer over the edge of the bridge, looking for some sign of the half-orc's fate.

Sheyra kneels by Thokk's body, tears streaking her face. Trinark searches in vain for fragments of the priestess' amulet.

The others form a loose circle, scanning the cavern for the driders. They look above and below, aware that their enemies might appear from any direction ...

[hr]
"There and there!" cries Lissa. She points to the bridges to the left and right of the throne.

The skull drider clambers up from under the left bridge. Rolling onto its back, it wriggles in agony as its carapace fractures. Thin beams of blue-purple light radiate outward through the enlarging cracks as the drider's body seems to break apart.

To the right of the throne, the claw drider appears, writhing in much the same manner as the skull drider. The shiny black shell of the drider's body falls apart as indigo light bursts outward from within. The claw drider's eyes are open, staring upward into the dark shaft above. Lissa notes that the chaos diamond has been placed back into the drider's left eye socket.

Without warning, there is a silent explosion of purple light that momentarily blinds the party. As the afterimage of the explosion fades, the survivors of the battle see two naked human bodies lying unconscious where the driders had been a moment ago ...

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Someone should fly down there and collect his body, we shouldn't just let him lie there in the cold until he rots..." Darius says as he scans the area for the driders...

"What is Tyr's name is this?" Darius says as the beasts' transformations occur.

Keep your head on your shoulders!

Darius grabs each of them by the scruffs of their necks and drags them both to the throne. He takes his rope and winds it around them, tying a knot in the back. Then he slides his bow onto his back and draws his sword, holding it across both of their necks.

((Not exactly a one round action but the battle's mostly over, so what the heck? If not he'll just take a few rounds doing this, unless something of interest happens.))

[Phasm]

Lissa

A startled shriek joins the light of the explosion as Lissa covers her watering eyes. Once the light has faded, she uncovers them and stares incredulously at the driders-that-were. "What in the name of all the Golden Lords...?" Seeing Darius get out his rope, she walks over and assists him in tying the two humans up. Tears keep coming as she works, despite the fact that the blinding light is long gone. I can't believe he's really dead...

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"HA!" cries Achkby, jumping forward as the Driders first emerge. As they writhe, though he stops himself, and waits with the rest stunned.
What in the world? Even in the Underdark... in Brandobaris's name!!

He shields his eyes as the explode, and blinks a moment, kneeling down so he doesn't unwittingly stagger off into the abyss. As he blinks away the afterimages, he climbs slowly to his feet, stowing the wand, and glances up to check that the spiders are still keeping their distance.
"How?" he quietly asks the world. "Are those... are those human?"

He moves closer, examining them, being sure to note which one was which Drider.
All the humans look so similar... big round noses and eyes...

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

"Well, this is an intresting turn of events. I wonder.... Driders are cursed drow, correct? Abandoned by their god after failing her, so it would stand to reason that if there was such an event to change them to a normal humanoid from, then the one who cursed them would not want them to return as drow. I wouldn't suppose evil dieties would want those they hate to have the pleasure of returning to normal, hmm?"
*Pauses in thought*
"But then what changed them back?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Naked Human

The dirty man with brown hair and black eyes groaned softly, hardly even twitching as the arrow man propped him up against the throne and tied him there. In his mind too many images where flashing by at a very fast rate of what had happened. Terriable images that didn't make any sense went by at blinding speed too fast for him too catch. The only thing that stood out was a bright light and hearing him call out for him to run...
Groggily he opened his eyes to see sword blade at his throat. Naturally his first reaction was to scream.

"OH GODS! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

[Muzzleflash]

Naked Human

The pale man with dark brown hair stirs, muttering under his breath. The words come out in a low slur of common.

"Fruth.. muthakken dark.. all to'etha.. fire.. don'.. don' let it.."

His head lolls to the side, twisting away from the pressure of the sword-edge, and his speech becomes more tortured. "Go.. ca' make ihhh.. I'll.. slow her down.." Breathing faster, sweat breaking out on his forehead and teeth baring, he gasps out a final word of terror: "Run."

His jaw sets against whatever phantasms of the mind are attacking him, a grim look of finality crossing his face. And then, it passes. Like a man waking from a bad dream, his eyes flutter open and just as quickly slam shut.

He takes a deep breath and opens them again, looking around the chamber, at the sword to his neck, at the straggling band of people in front of him, and the debris from the battle.

"Am I, ahh, interrupting something?"

Almost at the same moment, he hears the screaming next to him, turns his head, and looks at the source, then down at his own body. His rather dirty and unmistakeably human body.

He begins to chuckle, starting out as a snicker and rolling out to a manically triumphant laugh.

"We're alive and we're US! Ahahahahha! I'M ALIVE! Yessss!"

Trying to address the man holding the sword, he speaks lower: "I'd be giving ya some clever line right now.. but I'm very very interested in living. You don't look like a bad sort, and the only reason you'd be here in tha' armpit of the underworld is to get out of it. That makes two of us. And now, I'm going to talk with the dolphins- wiki wiki woooo..

He passes out.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"For Pete's sake... you're not dying... yet. It seems your buddy their has passed out, so it looks like it's up to you to give me a good reason to not cut your throats out right now."

Wait, who the hell is Pete?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Naked Human

Dirty naked man number one seemed to get over being naked and held at sword point rather quickly and began to nudge the other there after he passed out.
"What do you mean where us again? The last thing I remember is the drow..." He stopped and looked at the people around him,

"er...woman holding up an amulet. Slit our throats?! Why would you want to do that? I have a good reason though I'm not sure my friend does. I promised my ma that I would die with diginity and being naked, tied to a chair doesn't count. You don't want to make my sweet ol' Ma with a heart condition cry do you?"

The man looked a little sheepish and squirmed in his bonds even as he kept nudging the other as if to rouse him.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Well, if that drow was alive back then, I'm thinkin' your Ma ain't a factor anymore sonny.... You from around here?" Darius says with a chuckle.

Stooping down he whispers a quick line in the man's ear. "Just answer my questions, cracking jokes won't help you down here. In fact it just might do the opposite." Darius pushes the blade up against his throat a little harder, but not enough to draw blood.

((Good cop, bad cop.))

[Callos_DeTerran]

Naked Human

The man went ridged and nodded with a smile on his face as the blade pressed harder against his throat before he spoke slowly, mostly to make sure the blade didn't cut him.

"Eh he he. I was kinda being serious. Who wants to die naked, strapped to a chair, and in this Mystra forsaken pit called the Underdark? I sure don't. And I'm pretty sure that my pal doesn't either." He nods with his head to his passed out companion and kicks his feet some.

[Phasm]

Lissa

The expression on Lissa's tear-smudged face has been getting more and more irritated as Darius questions the prisoners. Finally she blows her nose on a rag with a resounding hooooonk, puts the rag away and walks over with hands on hips.

"Oh, Baravar give me strength! Darius, put the sword away. They're tied up, for the gods' sake! What are they going to do, spit at us?" The gnome rolls her eyes. "I swear, you're as bad as Thokk..." Abruptly Lissa chokes up, and tears spring up again. Rubbing them away roughly, she clears her throat and continues. "Anyway, there's been enough killing here today. You don't need to add to it. They turned into humans when that undead thing was killed. Spells are often broken with the caster's death. So to me, that says she turned these two into driders for her own twisted amusement." Lissa shivers violently. "Oh dear gods, that could have been me... have I thanked you yet for rescuing me? If not, thank you more than Common can express. I owe all of you my life, and possibly more than that."