House Min'Doan

[Grodech]

"Can you make sure their house rings survive?" Lomni asks the Shade as he waits for his brothers to join him in the corner and perform the teleportation.

[Gryndel]

Xyz replied to Lomni telepathically, "I will, certainly."

Carrying the corpses of their quarry, the brothers vanished from the inn using the magic of a teleport spell, reappearing in the cavern they were using as a base. Kirzen was there with Frixal, along with the drow warriors and the undead, which now included a zombie hill giant. Both females were staring into a crystal ball held by Frixal.

When the males appeared Kirzen looked over at them and smiled slightly, a rare sight indeed, but only for a few seconds. After commanding the male warriors and undead to go through the portal she said, "Excellent job, brothers, at least our part of the attack went exactly as planned! It seems our enemies were at least partially aware of our plans and timing. They apparently made arrangements with other lower houses to assist them, promising to support them to rise in ranks. The outcome of this little war is still undecided, though we retain the upper hand for now. The battle rages on, some of it inside our own compound, and we've been commanded to return home as soon as possible. I'm quite certain that Xyz can find his way there without our help, if he so desires. So into the portal you go, we'll be right behind you."

The portal showed the spell chamber in the upper level of the High Wizard's tower, the place they had prearranged as the point of return for the portal. It was dark, as usual, and apparently empty, unusual in that there were almost always a couple of guards there. The male drow warriors led the way, followed by the undead, with the two sisters lined up right behind their brothers. Everyone had weapons in hand and were ready for immediate battle if necessary.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

So you have about three rounds to wait before the others in front of you move through the portal, if you want to cast any defensive spells or anything else.

[J-H]

Kirzt
Still under the effects of his earlier Cat's Grace spell, Kirzt uses what time he has to prepare for war. Frixal's skin grows hard enough to slow a blade, while his eyes take on a faint sheen, and a faint magical aura surrounds him.

Spoiler

Show

I'm assuming that Haste is gone...11 rounds duration, and we used time talking.

Stoneskin on Frixal, duration 110 minutes, DR 10/ adamantine up to 110 points of damage
See Invisibility, self, duration 110 minutes
Shield, self, duration 11 minutes.

[Grodech]

Lomni drops the corpse he was carrying onto the ground and continues his searching of the body for anything valuable. "What do you want us to do with these two?" he says. "Maybe they can provide additional information to aid in our attack..." he leaves the though hang with the tithe taker.

[WeaselGuy]

In the time before heading through the portal, Zif casts Greater Invisibility on himself, and states the following,

"Well, now that I am prepared, would anybody like to become a Hydra, or some other such creature?"

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk joins his brothers and waits silent watching people discuss and prepare his own preparations simply being preparing to hide

[Gryndel]

Nobody seemed interested in Zif's offer, at least for the moment.

Kirzen commanded, “Search them well Lomni. Take all their magic items and store them. Have your brothers help you carry them if needed, we’ll sort through them later. Frixal, cast your floating disc to transport them, then cast speak with dead on the fighter to find out all you can about secret passages and portals in their compound.”

Frixal giggled and obeyed immediately.

Once through the portal, they found themselves in the casting room of Elyndor. The only being within was a huge earth elemental, which seemed to ignore the members of the House and their allies. It stood in front of the sealed door leading up, apparently instructed to keep everyone out as it failed to obey Kirzen’s command to move.

The tithe taker shrugged, “No matter, I suspect Elyndor is busy at the moment anyway. Finish your interrogation of the dead, Frixal, then come to the main temple with both bodies. Stay with her Lomni. The rest of you come with me now.”

Kirzen led the way down the spiral steps of the tower to the second level below ground where she opened a secret door and entered a small tunnel. At a hand signal from her, two of the drow warriors went first, the others following her obediently, all ready for battle. The zombies stayed with Frixal, since she had created them and they obeyed only her.

Within minutes of Kirzen leaving, Frixal finished questioning the dead enemy fighter. She motioned for Lomni to precede her, with the zombie bugbear just ahead of him and the zombie giant behind the disc. She took a slightly different route, which began through a secret door in the floor of the ground level in the tower. This led to a slightly larger tunnel allowing the undead to come along easily.

As each group descended the steps and reached the ground floor they could hear fighting just outside the main door. It was presumed that the guards normally assigned here, which included a few of the elite female fighters and a couple of low level clerics, were out there defending the tower.

When Kirzen, Zif, Mirtuk, and Kirzt arrived in the temple, she told the males to wait in the antechamber as she entered the inner sactuary. By the time Frixal and Lomni joined them, Kirzen had returned with a couple of temple guards. She motioned them to take the bodies of the dead enemy into the temple and told her assembled siblings, "There is a special mission we need you to accomplish. It involves infiltrating the enemy compound. Tell me anything useful you learned, Frixal."

Frixal shrugged, "There are several ways into their compound, most of which we knew about already. I did learn of one other, which could be an excellent choice to use now. It is usually only lightly guarded, but heavily warded with magic. We can find an entrance in the market, which we should be able to reach with little trouble."

Kirzen smiled at her younger sister, "Very well. You are to take this," she produced a flask made of dark glass and handed it to Frixal, "and splash the contents on their main altar. Doubtless it will be a heavily guarded area, but you have some of our best stealthy siblings with you to help. It can be launched from a distance, but the entire contents must splash on the altar. I would therefore suggest a minimum distance, or better yet standing right in front of it."

Frixal nodded and grinned viciously, "Understood! I'm sure my brothers and I can get this done." She commanded the zombies to stay here and defend the temple, to follow any specific orders from any priestess of House Min'Doan.

Kirzen barely waited to acknowledge this before turning back to the temple. Frixal opened a secret door that led to a tunnel that angled down slightly and motioned her brothers to precede her, "This will lead us to the place in the market we have reserved for our House. I suspect with all the commotion nobody will be there, but be ready for enemy presence."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Marching Order??? (Post in spoiler if anyone wants to change this)
Lomni
Mirtuk
Kirzt
Zif
Frixal

[J-H]

Spoiler

Show

Someone should shield our sister from backstabs

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk would prefer to move forward, not trusting Lomni to detect any possible traps, but at the same time is content not to be the one to catch the blame or possible side effect of a trap going off, so is willing to stay where he was placed, keeping a respectful distance between himself and his brother

[Grodech]

Lomni does as he's told and finishes searching the bodies using detect magic. He examines the contents of the silk black bag as Frixal is examining/questioning the dead brothers to see what was inside. He puts it back away before she is finished.

Lomni motions for Mirtuk to take the lead into the tunnel and then followed behind, staying about 15 feet behind his younger brother. He draws his courtblade for the moment, preferring to keep the greatsword in the scabbard until they reached the enemy compound.

Spoiler: Marching order - revised

Show

Mirtuk
Lomni
Kirzt
Zif
Frixal

[Gryndel]

Taking the secret tunnel from their temple to the marketplace, the group found the area relatively quiet. Not that there weren’t any vendors and shoppers, after all this market was always open and there was always some business happening here. But the commerce was typically diminished when there was widespread activity elsewhere in the city of Rilandyr.

More than the two houses were battling, as evidenced by distant sounds and flashes of magic, but the vast majority of noble houses were locked down and staying out of the deadly fray.

Making their way to the area where the enemy house usually conducted their business the group found only half a dozen poorly armed goblins guarding the area. As the noble drow approached these goblins scattered and fled the scene in fear. Searching for the secret door that accessed the tunnel they sought took a few minutes, and the search for traps took a little longer. Nobody in the immediate vicinity seemed to pay much attention to this, though there were certainly observers within sight range.

Frixal cast a spell to help search for traps.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Two Search checks for each rogue type please
Frixal (from dice thread) 27, 27

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk studies the area carefully, not keen on setting off any traps that may kill or harm him

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Search 1:(1d20+20)[39]
Search 2:(1d20+20)[38]

[Grodech]

Lomni joins in the search.

Search: (1d20+13)[19]
Search: (1d20+13)[22]

[Gryndel]

Frixal and Mirtuk found a physical trap, a touch poison on the locking mechanism. Only Mirtuk found a magical trap. Though he wasn’t sure what specific magic it was, he knew it was a touch trigger on the locking mechanism.

Frixal laughed cynically, “So how about a simple knock spell? Wouldn’t that just bypass these traps and open the door?"

In a more serious tone she added, "If you need to disable it, I can cast a couple of spells that will increase your chances slightly. I might also be able to determine exactly what poison it is.”

Mirtuk believes knock would likely bypass the poison trap but would also very likely set off the magic trap.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

The spells she means are Fox's Cunning (+4 Int) and Guidance, gives you +1 on any attack roll, save or skill check. Not much, but might make the difference, just ask those who repeatedly got 25 to hit AC 26 in Ryclend Deephold (Grodech is one of them)!
Craft Alchemy to know poison (DC 20) (1d20+16)[35]
If that doesn't work, and nobody else can determine the poison type, she casts Detect Poison for wisdom check (DC 20) (1d20+7)[20]

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk gives a slight bow to his sister. Any help would of course be appreciated.

Spoiler: OOC: Rolls

Show

Disable Device: [roll0]

If his sister allows he to would like to investigate the poison, mostly to satisfy his own self knowledge
Craft Poison: [roll1]

[Gryndel]

Frixal cast Fox's Cunning and Guidance on Mirtuk, also granting him permission to check the poison for himself. She waited until he announced what he thought it was before telling him her result. She backed off a little distance from the trap door and told her other brothers to keep a close watch on anybody else in the area.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Fox's Cunning (+4 Int, 11 minutes)
Guidance (+1 on any one attack roll, save or skill check, so decide which one skill check you want to add it to)

Also, the rolls in your last post didn't show up for me. If they did for you just paste the results in your next post. If not, roll again. You can include the Int bonus (+2) from the spell and let me know which roll you're adding Guidance to.

[Dreadlord]

Thank you for your assistance Mirtuk quickly moved to do his job, not wanting to keep anyone waiting

Spoiler: OOC: Rolls

Show

Yeah no idea why they didn't, weird guidance on the disable device

Disable Device: (1d20+23)[25]

Craft Poison: (1d20+20)[27]

Edit: Wow that was not good, bet my first roll would have been :P

[Gryndel]

Thank you for your assistance Mirtuk quickly moved to do his job, not wanting to keep anyone waiting

Spoiler: OOC: Rolls

Show

Yeah no idea why they didn't, weird guidance on the disable device

Disable Device: [roll0]

Craft Poison: [roll1]

Edit: Wow that was not good, bet my first roll would have been :P

Which trap is that disable device check for, the poison or magic one?

He identifies the poison type as Dragon Bile, very nasty indeed!

[Gryndel]

With the help of Frixal's spells, Mirtuk managed to disable both traps. While neither was actually removed, he expertly bypassed them. The door was also locked, but within moments he had gained access.

As he worked on the lock Frixal cast a spell and announced "We face substantial danger ahead. There may be more traps ahead, though I suspect we are more likely to face enemy guardians next. While we don't really have time to search every step of the way, be alert and ready to deal with whatever we encounter and proceed with caution and stealth."

Though it was completely dark, the entrance was 70' deep, only 5' wide, circular, and vertical with no hand holds. Each sibling activated their innate levitate and slowly descended. This led to a 10' wide horizontal tunnel.

Frixal organized her brothers with two in front and two behind her, signalling them to move on.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Hide & Move Silent checks for everyone
Frixal
Hide (1d20+13)[16]
Move Silent (1d20+13)[29]

Marching Order
Mirtuk Lomni
Frixal
Kirzt Zif

[J-H]

Spoiler

Show

Hide (1d20+14)[15]
Move Silently (1d20+14)[24]

[Grodech]

Lomni:
Hide: (1d20+25)[37]
Move Silent: (1d20+24)[36]

Just in case:
Spot: (1d20+13)[15]
Listen: (1d20+14)[24]

[Gryndel]

Oh yeah, listen & spot checks too, good idea!

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk quickly joins the shadows feeling more at home in their embrace than anywhere else keeping a watchful eye out

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Hide: (1d20+37)[57]
Move Silently: (1d20+37)[51]
Spot: (1d20+17)[26]
Listen: (1d20+17)[31]

[WeaselGuy]

Hide: (1d20+11)[22]
Move Silently: (1d20+11)[30]
Listen: (1d20+2)[17]
Spot: (1d20+2)[7]

[Gryndel]

As they proceeded cautiously down the hall, those in front stepped lightly, ready to jump aside in an effort to avoid any other traps they might trigger. While common in these types of tunnels, they encountered none, whether by lick or by virtue of none being present.

A couple of minute passed in this fashion, with the small group of infiltrators making progress toward their goal. The tunnel had remained exactly the same until they saw ahead that a space opened to either side. Creeping forward from that point, safe in the assumption that their darkvision far exceeded that of most other creatures, they determined that there was a chamber to either side (20’x?). The tunnel continued on (another 5’) then widened again. Standing at that point was a giant wearing a chain shirt and holding a greataxe in one hand and a boulder in the other. Just behind this giant was a low wall about 3’ feet high, and the chamber continued back from there. Behind this wall some of them spotted a couple of armed and armored goblins sitting on crouched worgs. It was safe to assume there were more such humanoid troops out of sight.

Given the range of their superior sight and quiet approach, they managed to see all this before entering the range of darkvision normally possessed by such creatures. It was presumed that there would also be some drow enemies present as well in such a defensive position. While they detected none, it was very likely that if there were any, they had been spotted or heard by these foes.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Since the giant heard something coming he's not surprised, but the goblins you can see are surprised. So we need initiatives all around, and those not surprised can take a standard (which can be a move action instead) and a free action in order of initiative before round 1 officially starts. They cannot see any of you yet.

Initiative
Giant 18
Goblins/Worgs 18
Others 12
Frixal 7

[Grodech]

A giant, and me holding the wrong sword... Lomni thinks to himself. It looked like he'd have time to remedy that. He sheaths his courtblade [move action] and draws his greatsword [part of move action].

Initiative: (1d20+3)[21]

[J-H]

Kirzst

"For our house, and for the Spider Queen!" Kirzst's determined voice rings down the passage as spiderwebs appear around the defenders out of thin air; the world seems to slow around his siblings as their bodies speed up.

Spoiler

Show

Swift action, Haste on all of us. +1 ac, +1 reflex, +1 to-hit, +1 attack on full attacks. Duration 11 rounds.
Web on the defenders, hitting N2 or thereabouts (with the giant just covered in the front bottom left side). 20 radius, Reflex DC 18.

Status:
Haste, 0/11 rounds
Shield (assuming it's still up - 11 minute duration, cast at teleport portal)
HP 82
AC: 28, Touch 22, flat-footed 21
Saves: Fort 11, Reflex 19, Evasion, Will 13

[Dreadlord]

Mirtuk forms a frown, perhaps he should leave the large giant to his brothers and take out any of the drow likely to be commanding this force, and so he stays in his shadows, silent and unseen moving closer to try and locate these hidden leaders

Spoiler: Initiative

Show

(1d20+9)[11]

[WeaselGuy]

Zif also hangs back, his magic more suitable to dealing with the minds of singular opponents than groups of peons.

Initiative (1d20+1)[9]

[Gryndel]

Surprise…

Lomni changed weapons and prepared to fight.

Kirzt enacted a Haste on his siblings, then cast a Web spell that clogged the entry to the main chamber and encompassed the giant and any others in the area.

The Giant twisted and crouched violently trying to free itself from the entangling webs. It managed to free itself enough to hurl a rock down the corridor. Due to the entangling webs it failed to strike, but passed right over the head of Lomni.

Mirtuk moved closer, trying to remain undetected in his approach. His thoughts more on any enemy drow leaders than the troops in the area. Due to the haste spell he made it to the corner of the first chamber. From there he could see most of the opposing chamber to the right and a bit of the chamber to the left. Within each side he could see a troll and several more goblins mounted on worgs, one just around the corner where he hid.

Zif remained where he was, preserving his magic while waiting to see if any drow leaders or other major threats showed themselves.

Frixal nearly sent a fireball hurtling down the corridor, but decided it was best to let the enemy struggle with the webs instead of burning them. Instead she cast Spiritual Weapon, summoning a whip made of force, which struck right through the web and hit (4 dmg) the giant.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Initiative
Lomni 21
Kirzt 20
Giant 18
Goblins/Worgs 18
Mirtuk 11
Zif 9
Frixal 7

Wounds
Giant 4

Spells
Kirzt: Haste (1/11 rds), Web Rd1 of 1/11 minutes)
Frixal: Spiritual Weapon (1/11 rds), Fox's Cunning (on Mirtuk, 3/11 minutes)