A Thorn In The Hand IC

[Machuchang]

Eleanora followed closely behind Verossa, trying to appear as relaxed as possible for the speakers on the other side. But as she walked, she kept her wits about her, quietly examining the party's surroundings.

Spoiler

Show

Listen: (1d20)[18]
Spot: (1d20)[10]

[Arranis Thelmos]

Halabur shivers and looks about.

Spoiler

Show

Listen: (1d20+3)[6]
Spot (1d20+1)[17]

[Malak'ai]

As you all make your way towards, what you believe is, the center of the room, the light of the torch starts sweeping the shadows away.
The tings and tangs of metal are still sounding, broken by the occasional grunt or curse.

Halabur and Raif:

Spoiler

Show

You both can start making out what you think might be movement, but the darkness is still too deep to be sure.

Elesnora:

Spoiler

Show

You hear the rhythmic pounding of steel upon steel, seeming to come at a relatively even pace. You can easily make out the curses the voice is saying, some of them making your cheeks grow bright red and your ears burn with embarrassment as you visualize the things being described.

[Machuchang]

Eleanora shook her head briskly, trying to mask the blush creeping across her face.

"I fear that these folk are rather uncouth," She muttered.

[Marlowe]

"Tell you what Drayner, you want to be mister Clever, try attaching a rope to the torch and cast it before us as we go. No reason why we should be the ones all exposed and plain before them. Ser Dame? I missed something"

[Class in twenty seconds!]

[D_Man_7733]

"right, got it" Drayner then proceeds to tie the rope around the everburning torch and throws it a little down the hallway to give off some light ahead of them, while still keeping themselves inside the light.

[Malak'ai]

When the torch gets about 20' a head of you, you all see the outline of what looks like a tall, shirtless man with a greatsword that looks as long as he is tall fighting a 12' tall metal giant.
Although the metal creature is landing a blow every now and again, it doesn't seem to faze the man at all.

**Listen Checks please everyone.**

[D_Man_7733]

Listen check in here:

Spoiler

Show

Listen: (1d20+1)[7]

[Arranis Thelmos]

Spoiler

Show

knowledge Arcana (1d20+10)[15]
Spot (1d20+1)[14][
Search (1d20+4)[10]
Listen (1d20+3)[11]

[Marlowe]

[What, we didn't accidently hit someone on the head with the torch?]

Spoiler

Show

Listen:1d20-1

Verossa will keep her mouth shut under the circumstances. There are cleverer people around than her. Reputedly. But she does incline her glaive toward the metal figure and grits her teeth.

[Readied standard action]

[Malak'ai]

**No idea what's happened, but Marlowe, your Listen Check isn't coming up with an actual roll. It has Listen: 1d20-1 but nothing else, so could you re-roll it please?
Arranis, I can understand the Spot Check thrown in, but what are the others for?**

[Marlowe]

(because I forgor to insert the [roll] tags. That's why. I was very pleased to be able to access the playground again in the first place)

Spoiler

Show

Listen:(1d20-1)[18]

[Malak'ai]

**Fair enough, was thinking it was screwing up from my end . G says hello BTW. Had to talk to him on the weekend .**

[Marlowe]

(Tell him the weather's lovely here. Any gaming projects afoot? D trying to entice everyone into an all-blackguard all half-fiend campaign with starting gold of 100 gp each?)

[Malak'ai]

(I'm not actually speaking to G at the moment... Haven't been since New Years. Don't appreciate friends calling me a "F...ing Idiot" when I say I disagree with him. As for gaming projects... Nope. This never got off the ground here because D and S were always working, but I do have some ideas for when/if you get back and we can get the group together.**
**Anyway... Waiting for Mach and Wordplay.**

[Arranis Thelmos]

**No idea what's happened, but Marlowe, your Listen Check isn't coming up with an actual roll. It has Listen: 1d20-1 but nothing else, so could you re-roll it please?
Arranis, I can understand the Spot Check thrown in, but what are the others for?**

Search, because I always roll it with spot. Listen because it's still very dark, right? Trying to keep an ear out for scuffles in the dark. Arcana to see if I can recognize anything about the nature of the tall metal giant--more specifically to see if it's some type of golem.

[Machuchang]

(I'm not actually speaking to G at the moment... Haven't been since New Years. Don't appreciate friends calling me a "F...ing Idiot" when I say I disagree with him. As for gaming projects... Nope. This never got off the ground here because D and S were always working, but I do have some ideas for when/if you get back and we can get the group together.**
**Anyway... Waiting for Mach and Wordplay.**

(Whoops, sorry! )

Spoiler

Show

Listen: (1d20)[12]

[Wordplay]

Listen (1d20+4)[19]

'Greetings. Would you care for some assistance'?

[Malak'ai]

Halabur:

Spoiler

Show

You've heard of these metal giants before. Iron Golems. Constructs of living metal created by Wizards to be soldiers, guards or pets.

As Raif finishes his question the man fighting the metal giant spins, his large blade striking the things "head" from it's shoulders.
He squints, trying to see past the torch at you all, "And what kind o' assistance do ya think ya'd be able to give? What with my friend standing right behind ya's?"

As he says that, Halabur is lifted off the ground, a long ebony bladed knife being held casually across his chest.
"I wouldn't struggle if I were you sweetling, I don't want to hurt you, but this knife is sharp... Very sharp." a soft, sweet sounding voice whispers in the Gnomes ear.

[Arranis Thelmos]

"Now we see the violence inherent in e system!" Halabur cries. "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"

[Malak'ai]

Halabur hears a small laugh and feels a pair of soft, silky lips on his cheek before the voice he just heard whisper again, "Better me repressing you than some others out there Sweetling."

[Arranis Thelmos]

Halabur shivers... Whether from repulsion or budding attraction he can't tell.

[Machuchang]

Eleanora turned quickly, her sword gripped tightly in her hand.

"Release the gnome!" She said. "I know not what your quarrel with us be, but I would rather if we could settle this matter without bloodshed. If you set your weapons aside, we shall do the same, and perhaps we can discuss this without further incident."

[Malak'ai]

The tall man who had been fighting the metal giant drapes his sword over his shoulders, resting one of his wrists on the hilt, the other on the flat of the blade and starts walks towards you.
"Now why would we want bloodshed? It'd just be something else I'd be left to clean up. But tell you what Girlie... You manage to touch her with that blade of yours when she doesn't want you to, I'll give you 100 platinum pieces right now."
The woman holding Halabur off the floor laughs again, "Comsaro, you always complain about having to clean yet you normally make the most mess... Remember that time with the Black Pudding? It took poor Nialise a week to get it out of Krag's fur. And this waif couldn't touch me even if i stood on my hands while blindfolded!"
"Oh come on Lumara, you know that wasn't my fault. Ventera's the one who killed it... Speaking of which... Where did she go? TERA! WHERE IN THE NAME OF KORDS LOINCLOTH DID YOU GET TO THIS TIME?" the man says as he reaches a point between 15' and 20' in front of the group.

[Marlowe]

Verossa sighs, and grounds the butt of her glaive. "Please leave off the expository banter what is calculated to inform us that there's more of you around than we can see. And please put down Captain Underpants. If you were as tough as you claim you probably wouldn't have gone for the smallest one of the group".

"Now, we don't need an explanation for why we're here. We saw a hole and we went for it. That's the kind of people we are. We're moderately curious who you are and why you're here, but not curious enough that we want to waste a lot of time unravelling the mystery."

She takes a single step torward the man and gives a lazy salute. "Verossa Carmine--don't laugh--Agent of Fortune. I'll let my companions make their own introductions. Who might you be, and where did you find the training dummy?" She flicks her hair toward the metallic figure.

[Malak'ai]

The man bursts out laughing, a deep, rich, booming sound. "Well, seems you have a bit of spirit girl. Good to see." unshouldering his sword, resting the point on the ground he continues, "I'm Comsaro Omseias, former High Priest of Kord in Saltmist. As for why Lumara is currently groping your Gnomish friend there, well... She likes small things she can put in her pocket."
You hear a grunt come from the woman and a squeak as Halabur drops to the floor.
"Frankly girl. I don't care why you're here. All I care about is do you know a way out? We were abandoned down here almost a week ago by a pointy-eared snob who we thought was on our side. It's been hell... Nothing Lumara or I have tried has broken through this damn spell barrier. Not to mention Ventara finding these damn Iron Golems somewhere and bringing them back to "play" with."

Just as Comsaro finishes speaking you hear a loud crash, quickly followed by another one, this time sounding like metal falling heavily on metal.

"KORDS BEARD WOMAN! WOULD YOU QUIT IT WITH THE GOLEMS ALREADY!" he bellows over his shoulder.

[Marlowe]

Verossa leans on the glaive. "We came down in an infernal screeching gnomish machine after the smart guys solved a little mechanical puzzle to find the entrance in the first place. We left a rope to get back up; I've no reason to believe we can't get out by means of a simple process of inverting our manner of entrance. But I could be wrong".

"So, the Elves have a traitor? Ser Dame, I think it just became very important to get these people to the Blossemwood as fast as we can."

[Machuchang]

"As you say," Eleanora said with a nod. "If you would be so kind as to follow us," She said, switching her attention to Comsaro and Lumara. "We can escort you out of the caves quite quickly. It did not take us long to travel here at all."

[Wordplay]

Raif gulps, his words caught in his throat at the implied threat to Halabur. Fortunately Verossa seems to take charge.

Then something catches his attention.

Nialise? Now from where do I remember that name?

A certain suspicion takes root in Raif's mind.

Oh fie, I hope they do not mean...

Raif tries to catch Drayner's eye.

Raif speaks 'Verossa, not all elves come from the Blossemwood...'.

'M'Lady Lumara, M'Lord Omseias...what would be the name of the one who abandoned you?'

[Malak'ai]

The woman, taller than everyone in the group except Verossa slips between you, making not a sound until she's standing beside her companion. She is lithe and striking with golden blonde hair down to her waist.
"Sounds like Tera's back." she says to the tall, red haired man.
"Hopefully she only brought the two this time..." he says, looking over his shoulder as the sounds of clanging starts up again, far louder than before. "We'll leave her to it."

Turning his head back to Raif, he squints, taking a step forwards, "And who would you be? You seem to a familiar feel about you. As for the bastard that left us here, that would be Lian'Talhruamy. We've traveled with him for years and this is how he treats us!"

**Could I get some Int Checks please. 1d20+Int mod.**