The Land of Chaos (IC)

[NineThePuma]

You were going about your business.

Really, that's all. No matter where in the cosmos you were, no matter what it was you were doing, you weren't doing anything unusual.

Then reality snapped.

What followed was six seconds of hellish disorientation as the threads of time and space seem to warp, tie itself into knots, and tangle in the process.

For a moment it seems like you're standing in the Throne Room of the Nine Hells, the next, you stand aside the Golden Gates of Heaven, then amidst the chaos of Limbo.

With each new flash of location, all the creatures you see, even (for one brief moment) something that can only be an Ancient Dragon, are moving in fear, and you yourself stumble in disorientation, before things straighten out. The threads of reality pushed back into the right locations. Unfortunately, you've all stumbled from one thread to another with each movement, and when reality fixes it self you find yourself in a nondescript room, reminiscent of a (modern) morgue, and standing across from you is a creature you don't recognize.

[Malimar]

One moment, Mal was in his supervisor's office (well, it probably wouldn't be recognized as an "office" by mortals, and probably the title is somewhat less simple than "supervisor", but close enough) enthusiastically discussing his radical plans to purge the Material Realm of undead and other things that muddle up the bookkeeping.

The next moment, hurtling through tangled dimensions, landing in an unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar creatures.

"Well, that was disorientating. Oh, hey!" The glowing sphere's voice sounds distinctly like the tinkling of many small bells. "Guess I got approved! ...Wait, hey, I wasn't done going through the proper channels. That won't help unmuddle the bookkeeping at all! ...anyway, hello, people! Who are you and where are we?"

[brujon]

Ling Ling was about to do battle with another opponent, increasing his honor. Surrounded by unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar location, he guards himself. Mumbling to himself in Beguiler (Which sounds suspiciously like japanese).

Ling Ling was about to do battle with opponent! This is no honor! Could've waited until battle finished, no? Readying his claws, Ling Ling assumes battle position, but his small stature and comic appearance doesn't seem at all intimidating. "Come forth to your deaths, if you are ignorant fools! I am Ling Ling, the ferocious! The bringer of death! Challenge me and you will know true fear!"

(The previous statements were all made in Beguiler language, so if no one has it, they'll just understand "Ling Ling", "Honor", and "Battle")

[Strawberries]

A vaguely feminine form can be seen mid-air, flying around the room a couple of times in a mad swirl of black hair and fluttering gray cloth. When it finally stops, you can see that it is actually a woman, with unnaturally long arms, dressed in a gray shroud.

Teamair remembers killing her last victim, the young noble unrelated to the family she haunted, remembers the sense of burning satisfaction that always follows a kill, this time enhanced, as for the fist time in maybe centuries she has killed someone that deserved it, and then...then reality shifted. She had thought fleetingly, in the broken way that is typical of most of her thoughts That's what happens when the debt is paid and then she found herself in this room, with a small...thing shouting things she doesn't understand, and a ball of light talking nonsense, and she really doesn't think that's what is supposed to happen when a debt has been paid.

"What-" she starts. Her voice is a really acute and unpleasant whisper amd she has to make a conscious effort to remember how the words go together in common. She doesn't talk so much anymore, not since three or four centuries "What happened?"

[Elasair]

Near the corner of the room, Devorantem, the quite young, but quite violent fang dragon kneels. He looks as if he is feeding for a moment, but a realization seems to wash over him. The movements slow as he searches the area around him for his recent kill. Obviously unable to find his food through the senses allotted to him, he rears back on two legs and roars.

"Damned elven trickery! He was DEAD!"

Devorantem calms after a moment and turns to face the room. His previous rage is overcome by sudden confusion and anxiety. His gaze darts between the ethereal woman and small, angry creature. He is unable to find words to relieve his confusion as he walks towards them slowly, keeping hold of his tower shield with one hand. As he comes closer, the glowing orb grabs his attention, and Devorantem's expression quickly returns to rage. Snarling and showing his wicked fangs, he points with a claw on his free hand.

"You must be the cause of this trickery, spawn of elven treachery! Return my kill or count yourself as its replacement!"

[brujon]

"What's this? A Dragon? And a Spirit?! And... A glowing thing? This cannot be! I cannot be fooled by illusions! But my eyes say something that can't be lightly believed... (Those who cannot understand Beguiler grasp only "Dragon" "Spirit" "Thing" "Illusions".)

Ling Ling approaches the Dragon, which he thinks is the strongest being there (after him, of course).

"What is going on? You were fighting? You must have honor, like Ling Ling. You come to do battle with Ling Ling? Ling Ling always accept challenge!" (Those who cannot understand Beguiler can grasp only "fighting" ; "honor" ; "battle" ; "challenge" and Ling Ling)

Ling Ling readies himself, making his soulmelds appear more brighter and evident. You see him covered in ethereal blink dog fur, with blood-talon claws sprouting from his feet and hands. His tail wielding a strange chain-and-ball weapon.

[Malimar]

Mal has Tongues, and can understand all languages, though he only speaks one at a time. Unless otherwise specified, he's cool with making himself understood to everybody, and speaks Common.

The ball of light is now confused! By a dragon creature and a gray lady and a something and, most of all, the dragon creature. Which seems to be addressing him directly. "Your... kill? Oh, hey, things that are dead, that's my specialty! I mean... sort of." Not entirely clear what the dragon means! But he can make an effort to puzzle it out.

So, helpfully, not entirely clear what the dragon means by being a replacement kill but not entirely keen to find out, "But if he was dead, he must have gone on to one of the afterlives! I might be able to help you figure out where he's gone, if you tell me what kind of person he was. But I'm afraid I can't help you get him back if you find him. He really should stay wherever he's been put." Mal does not, of course, realize that the dragon is talking about the fleshy body. After all, why would anybody care about a fleshy body's location? It's just a temporary housing for the bit that really matters.

[brujon]

Ling Ling closes in to the corpse, carefully approaching it, seeing if there is no danger. (I make a search check, +1, untrained). I also use Detect Magic on the corpse and surrounding regions. I also ready a standard action to dimension door away if there is danger in approaching or after approaching.

If i detect there is no danger in approaching, i jump on the table and make Knowledge: Arcana and Knowledge: Nature checks. (+7 and +7). I try to identify what kind of creature it is/was. My true seeing let's me see if there is anything invisible or illusional on the corpse or the surroundings.



Search (1d20+1)[17]

Knowledge Arcana [roll]1d20+7][/roll]

Knowledge Nature (1d20+7)[22]

[brujon]

I must have messed up the tags on the knowledge arcana roll...

(1d20+7)[14]

this should work.

[NineThePuma]

The only corpse visible in the room is already reduced to bones on what could only be an operating table where the dead were examined.

Other than that, a set of drawers makes up the north wall. The west wall has a door on it, but just a momentary look shows that the whole thing is sealed with a dozen wards.

You're all STILL stuck in a room with each other.

[brujon]

OOC: Detect Magic didn't pick up anything from the bones? Also, knowledge arcana & nature couldn't identify even basically what kind of creature it was?

[NineThePuma]

(Detect Magic picks up nothing from the bones.

You know the bones aren't Dragon, Fey, Animal, Magical Beast, or Construct bones... There are probably one or two creature times I missed, but neither of those skills would identify the corpse.)

[brujon]

OOC: Interesting... Very interesting.

Ling Ling is very puzzled looking at the dust and bones, puzzled as to why he couldn't identify what kind of creature it was. He's very interested in knowing what kind of creature it is, so he'll experiment with it a bit.

He tries to pick up the bones, smell it, see it closely, break one to look inside of it, and stores one of them inside his backpack, wrapped nicely in cloth. He also tries to look through the remains to see if there is anything not organic in nature, clothing, weaponry, rings, anything that can identify the creature. He looks for inscriptions, symbols, etc... Even though he can't read, he worked a long time as a bookbinder for a wizard, and he knows of the importance of those things.

He'll also take a look at those drawers, scanning them with detect magic and true seeing, and searching for traps, locks, and generally anything out of the ordinary.

Search Check: (1d20+1)[21]
Int Check(If Applicable): (1d20+1)[5]

Meanwhile he mumbles out loud to himself. "Ling Ling has seen many things, yet Ling Ling cannot identify what creature is this. Strange things are going on here, very strange things. Ling Ling must look closely, maybe who killed this thing is worthy adversary."

[NineThePuma]

((Anyone else going to do something?))

Spoiler

Show

It's a human skeleton. Since those fall under Know (Local), you couldn't identify it.

[Malimar]

Mal concerns himself not with corpses! As long as they're not moving. He does, however, concern himself with the curious case of having been shunted here in a manner not congruent with any sort of schedule or plan. Several other creatures of various sorts and with no apparent relation to one another (though he could be entirely mistaken about that! Everybody that isn't a glowing ball of light kind of looks the same to him) seem to have been dumped here, so he tries to think of what kind of phenomenon might have caused this.

Knowledge (The Planes): (1d20+3)[11]

[brujon]

((Anyone else going to do something?))

Spoiler

Show

It's a human skeleton. Since those fall under Know (Local), you couldn't identify it.

Spoiler

Show

OOC: Hum... I was under the assumption that Humanoids fell under Knowledge: Nature. Doesn't really make sense that nearly all "humanoids" are under knowledge nature but elfs, humans, orcs etc.. go to knowledge local... It's like they're not part of nature lol. But really, going by RAW really doesn't make sense, Ling Ling's already third level, he probably saw dozens of human skeletons, lol, anyone would at least identify that it's "humanoid" (IE: Either Elf, Orc, or Human, maybe Dwarf or Halfling), but not able to pinpoint which race, gender, or age.

Ling Ling will just generally continue scanning inch by inch of the room for magic, symbols, glyphs, etc... while continually mantaining his soulmelds more apparent to appear more dangerous, suspiciously looking to the party members, with a readied action to dimension door away if they try to attack or do something fishy...

*I'll wait for everyone else to post their actions before i elaborate further*

PS: PM me the results of the searches if i find anything meaningful. I'm taking 20 this time around.

[Strawberries]

"What. Happened." Teamair states again. The sentence lacks the proper intonation, but is still very clearly a question. "I was. Not here. Before." The spirit emits a low, keening sound of distress. She doesn't seem to be aware she is doing it, as she flies around, circling the walls, nearing the drawers to examine them, then the door, before coming to stop again at the center of the room.

OOC ((I would open the drawers, but I'm kinda incorporeal. Anyway, just because, search - (1d20+3)[14]))

[brujon]

Ling Ling figures that he has searched enough, and that fighting now would be pointless, so he just takes a sit on a corner, and starts to weave a cloth hat for himself.

Ling Ling is tired of thinking. All this thinking is better left for others, Ling Ling will just relax now..."

[Elasair]

Devorantem paces for a moment, straining to think of some reason in all of this chaos. He glances around at the others, and then the warded door. Although his impatience usually gets the better of him, Devorantem knows better than to attack the situation head on. Keeping his eyes on the door, he walks over to the skeleton and grabs one of the larger bones.

"I tire of this room."

Devorantem hurls the bone at the door, indending to set of some of the wards by the contact.

Spoiler

Show

Ranged touch vs. door (1d20+4)[13] vs. dc 3(assuming door is medium sized and has normal ac.)

[NineThePuma]

The bone crashes into he door, making a very loud noise, not that you can here the crash, because one of the door wards was apparently an Alarm spell that causes horrible high pitched noises and otherwise annoying high volume sounds to go off.

The alarm spell also apparently alerts something HEAVY, since there is a rather obvious shaking of the room that causes dust to waft down from the ceiling.

[brujon]

Ling Ling makes a spot & listen check to see if he can hear or see what's going on!

[Malimar]

Mal concurs with this course of action! The throwing things at the door. And he would participate in trying to get the door open, but hey, alarm!

"Hey, something's coming! Maybe it'll open the door for us!" Optimism!

[Strawberries]

Teamair stands hovering near the door, looking alternatively at it and the other living creatures in the room. It's almost impossible to read any kind of expression on her face (or what's left of it), but the low, distressed sound continues.

[brujon]

Ling Ling is looking at the door. Just expecting something to come. Just... Waiting. He is just ready for it.

(Ling Ling readies an attack. Anything hostile, is going to get shredded.)

[NineThePuma]

Apparently, whatever is making the effort to silence the alarms isn't too concerned with structural integrity, as a loud crash sounds and the door shudders. But the worst part is that a section of the ceiling near the door has a brick fall from it.

Even with the structural damage though, the door is standing. But a moment later, the alarms are suddenly silenced.

[hr] Knowledge architecture checks please!

DC 15:

Spoiler

Show

The door is reinforced, with both magical and mundane methods. If it manages to smash through the door, it's probably going to rip the whole wall down.

[Strawberries]

OOC

Spoiler

Show

Well, then knowledge architecture - (1d20+3)[12]. EDIT:

Teamair flies up, where the brick fell from. She realizes someone is likely to enter anytime soon, and wants to be ready for it

((Doing the same thing as brujon, here))

[Malimar]

Mal has no knowledge of architecture or engineering!

But the others seem to have the right idea! Or at least an idea. Mal isn't entirely clear on what's going on, but the golden ball obligingly floats up near Teamair and prepares to hit anything hostile-looking that comes through the door with a light ray.

[brujon]

Ling Ling has already braced himself to fight whatever may come through that damned door.

"Ling Ling fights for honor, Ling Ling fights to Death! Ling Ling into battle go!"