Tavien (4e) IC: Knowledge is Power

[Sierim]

Seeing their companions fall seems to drive the trolls into a rage! They lash out mercilessly at those around them, clearing seeking repayment in kind!

Once again, however, Helios proves too swift, dodging their first blow. The second troll takes advantages of these movements, however, and finds his mark, his claws tearing at the mul's armor.

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Troll 2 vs Helios
Attack: (1d20+14)[5](19) vs AC
Damage: (3d6+7)[3][4][1](15)

Troll 3 vs Helios
Attack: (1d20+14)[18](32) vs AC
Damage: (3d6+7)[6][5][4](22) -5 on account of Tenebrous Blessing (as noted by Surrealistik)

If Helios is bloodied by the attack:
Attack: (1d20+14)[10](24) vs AC
Damage: (3d6+7)[2][6][6](21)

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

Seeing his newly found comrade slashed at by the ugly, disgusting trolls, Vardin calls on the one in front him, "Look at me you motherless piece of bog wash, by the love of the forest YOU WILL DIE!!!!" He then hacks at the troll with his axe, and when he does, some energy seems to flow over to Helios, healing his wounds and giving him new life.

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Actions
Standard - Healing Strike vs AC on Troll 3 (1d20+16)[20](36) (+2 from CA and +2 from Helios)
Damage - (2d12+7)[5][6](18) radiant dmg + (1d8)[6] Quarry, Helios gets to take a healing surge, and Troll 3 is marked by me

[Ridai]

Right before Mila, the troll is set alight by Anara's deadly arrow, bringing an excited grin to her face. "Great one, Anara!" she calls over to her, but also regards Erano warmly. Seeing another opportunity, Mila darts across the room as fast as lightning just as Vardin starts his vicious assault. Just as he steps back, he feels an arm holding a rapier wrapping around his waist, Mila's form against his back and sees another arm extending past him, letting a dagger fly towards the troll and stab right into it's heart, the acid putting it down for good.

As swiftly as she came, the redhead regards the elf with a mischievous smile. "Quite the tiger, aren't you?" she whispers to him, casually catching her dagger and releasing him again, ready to finish the fight.

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Move to L15

Standard Sly Flourish vs. Troll 3
Dagger: (1d20+17)[29] vs. AC
Hit: (1d4+15)[18] damage (1 of that acid) and (2d8)[8] sneak attack damage

[Great Dane]

Pleased at his allies' ability to immediately gel together into a fierce combat unit in the span of less than thirty seconds, he regards the final troll before him as utterly finished -- the poor creature never stood a chance. Vaulting over the cloven monster in front, he accurately strikes at the final beast.

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Minor: Oath Troll 2
Move: I19
Standard: Bond of Retribution
(1d20+16)[32] or (1d20+16)[22] (+2 for CA) for (1d12+9)[10] untyped damage. If maxed, add 4 more.

[Paperscrap]

Description pending!

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Minor: Setting #2 as quarry
Standard: Twin Strike on #2
(1d20+17)[25] for (1d12+5)[8] untyped damage.
(1d20+17)[20] for (1d12+5)[6] untyped damage.
Successful hit deals (1d6)[3] additional untyped quarry damage.

[Surrealistik]

Helios' grimaces as the blows continue to rain down upon his now very battleworn armour, leaving further deep indentations and scuffing, parrying one blow with his shield only to suffer the force of another. More blood leaps from the templar's mouth with the powerful stroke, dribbling from lacerations of flesh and golden scale. Inching back over a fallen fey in hopes of arranging a flank, the mul proves stoic in the face of such abuse, hand once more invested with the same scornful light as before, thrust forward at his foe. At its touch, the nerve endings of the troll surge with familiar agony, coordination and strength suffering for their excruciation.

Bracing for retaliation, Helios draws back into a defensive stance, choking out some unintelligible prayer from bloodsoaked lips. Instantly, Mila feels invested with strange power, a cacophony of whispers echoing through her mind, not one of them capable of being discerned. Her hand seems to drift and move about on its own accord, as though guided by some divine force.

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Move: Shift to K16. Move Spirit to I16 (Troll 2 grants CA due to being adjacent to the spirit).

Standard: Tenebrous Blessing
Attack: (1d20+12)[23] vs Troll 3 Will (CA due to Spirit adjacency; forgot to add +2 from Death Surge, though it's inconsequential.)
Damage: (1d8+6)[14] psychic damage.
Effect: Troll 3 takes a -5 penalty to damage rolls until the end of Helios' next turn.

Minor Action: Favour of the Gods on Mila
Effect: The next time Mila misses with an attack roll before the end of my next turn, she can reroll that attack roll. She must use the new result, even if it is lower.

Opportunity Action: Spirit's Shield if Troll 2 moves without shifting while adjacent to Argus (includes forced movement).

[Sierim]

With his allies slain, the troll panics and rushes for the door, desperately trying to escape. As he does so, Helios finds his mark across the creature's side, though the troll catches sight of Vardin's blade and knocks it aside. The troll's attention ahead of him, Erano sinks his fullblade into the beast's back. It stumbles and roars with pain, giving Mila a chance to slice it with her dagger. Grasping its wounds, the troll crashes through the door and squeezes into the next room.

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Helios' Spirit's Shield
(1d20+13)[6](19)
Hit: 5 damage, and an ally regains 5 hit points.

Vardin
(1d20+14)[2](16)
(1d12+7)[2](9)

Erano
(1d20+16)[20](36)
(1d12+9)[6](15) Critical! 21 damage

If the troll gets as far as the door...
Mila
(1d20+17)[15](32)
(1d4+9)[1](10) (1 point acid damage)

Combat's over at this point. You can slay the troll however you like. No rolls required. We'll move on with the dungeon from here.

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

After hacking off an arm of the troll, he sees a rapier shoot out of the left side of his body, with a dagger close behind on his right. Mila whispers in his ear and Vardin just smiles. As the troll lumbers past everyone, trying to escape, he lunges at it, but is knocked away. He keeps up with it in fast pursuit, gliding past Mila and whispering as he passes, "A tiger I may be, but a panther you are...", giving her a flash of a look, and a twisted smile as he goes to finish off the horrible beast. He starts to jog to it, but slows his momentum down as the troll has slumped over in the other room. He eyes it with contempt, as it gasps for air, giving it a cold stare no one wishes to have from him. Vardin raises his axes and plants them both firmly in the troll's head, knowing that Mila's acid tipped weapons would end its regeneration, and therefore its wretched life. As he takes his axe out of its head, wiping off its gore from his axe on its own tunic, Vardin looks around the room to see what he can see.

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Actions
Move - next to Troll 2
Minor - Quarry Troll 2
Standard - Twin Strike on Troll 2 vs AC
(1d20+12)[18](30) (1d12+3)[4](7)
(1d20+12)[2](14) (1d12+3)[11](14)
Quarry Damage - (1d8)[6]
I kill it?

[Ridai]

Vardin only

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Passing by Mila... was that a... purr?

Mila is quick to follow, stabbing the troll's heart with the remainder of the acid on her rapier and doing so mercifully quickly. "I wasn't aware I am in the company of true artists," Mila glowingly praises the others, cleaning her weapons with quick flourishes. With but a few steps, she is standing beside Anara, embracing her. "You were great! Your curve shot is so amazing!" The redhead makes no attempt to hide that she probably is her best friend's biggest fan, though she doesn't raise her voice too much. No need to shout in here. And yes, she never stops being amazed by Anara's specialties.

Soon after, she searches the trolls, mess hall and larder for anything useful or valuable.

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Perception if needed (1d20+10)[18]

[Paperscrap]

Seeing the immediate threat mostly dealt with, Anara slung her bow over her back once more before frowning slightly. Apparently her own impressions of that fight weren't quite as upbeat as the others - especially Mila who was embracing her like a disgruntled child; her remark causing the shifter to wince slightly. "That shot was... ahm... a mistake. I do not know how that even happened. Sloppy. Very sloppy. I will try the ever hardest to be not next time."

No less than a second had passed before the shifter... well, shifted, to get a better look at Mila. "You are okay, yes? Unhurt? You were moving so fast and the trolls so large I had a hard time being sure. There was the sound of a large crash... well many of such sounds."

[Sierim]

As one would expect of trolls, the larder and mess hall are ravaged. Broken furniture lies about, with food stuffs open and strewn carelessly across the floor. In the corner are several books, discarded and ignored by the trolls. While the contents are unremarkable (tallies, prices, etc.), one of the books seems strangely compact, having more pages than it should. You also find a leather backpack with many pockets that seems none the worse for wear.

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Book is a Blessed Book. 1000 pages in the space of 200. Excellent for large collections of documents.

[Ridai]

Mila chuckles and smiles as she hears Anara's review of her own performance. "Don't be so hard on yourself, love. When other people are sloppy, they miss outright." Her voice is gentle, momentarily carrying shades of another person the shifter is very familiar with.

"One caught me by surprise at the start, but Helios made it all better. Other than that, the trolls were just a little to slow to catch me or were taken care of before they could hurt me." The obvious example of the latter being the troll in front of her bursting into flames. Though it is hard, Mila wants Anara to feel proud of what she did, at least for protecting her friend from harm in the time of need.

Later on, curious about the backpack, Mila begins to examine it and search it's contents.

[Sierim]

Search as you might through the bag's many pockets, you don't find anything inside. From what you can tell, it is completely empty.

[Ridai]

"Well lookie here," Mila mutters as she finds that one particular book, returning to the others, absentmindedly dragging a perfectly fine backpack behind her with her other hand. She waggles the book with her hand a bit to present it to the others. "Handy little thing. Want a new prayer book, Helios? Got enough pages to also start a diary in the back and a cookbook in the middle," she says, handing the blessed book to the cleric, and begins to search the backpack only to find nothing, even after turning upside-down and giving it a quick shake in the end.

"Aww... Ah well." The backpack swiftly gets put onto the ground once more, unless someone wants it.

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

Vardin's axes seem to morph back together into one, but he doesn't hook it back on his belt. He starts to leave the room, then turns back around, spitting on the troll, Disgusting creatues... he thinks to himself, and then walks into the other room just in time to hear the girls' conversation. He smiles at Anara's modesty, he walks next to her and puts his arm around her in a hug, "You did wonderfully, m'dear. Always nice to have back-up and arrow flying over my head.....something comforting about it," he ends with a wink, releasing her from his embrace that was obviously making her uncomfortable (which he wasn't entirely sorry for), and goes to inspect the book and bag Mila was holding. "Hmm, a book that is too small for its weight, and a bag with nothing in it. Interesting find wildcat," giving Mila a wink with her reference. He went and picked up the bag from where she tossed it and gave it a closer look.

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Perception for Bag.....just for S&G's (1d20+16)[16](32)

[Great Dane]

Well done, friends. I can tell I'm accompanied by strong individuals. Erano says little else -- Nightslayer chewed through bone and flesh, and the result of that was a few nicks and dings in the blade. He pulled a whetstone out of his pack and begin to gently massage the steel back to its original state.

At the mention of the book, Erano speaks up -- I'll take it.

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Feel free to make insight checks. As for the whetstone, this is merely flavor text to indicate I'll enter the next combat with a whetstone in hand, and use a minor on my first turn to activate it.

[Surrealistik]

Between his injuries and personal exertion, Helios ambles backward to collapse against the nearest wall in a slump, notably fatigued from combat as the adrenaline fades from his body. At the passage of some chanted prayer, his body coruscates with golden light. The templar's exhaustion thus proves shortlived; about instantly, he is returned to former vigour, bleeding wounds staunched and closed within moments, effacing his once sagging posture. Even his armour is mended by Pelor's auspices, dents and scratches vanquished with his injury.

When most of the others revel in their success, Helios does not seem especially glad for the triumph, though their happiness spreads like contagion to curl his lips upward. The cleric's interest is piqued upon Mila's discovery of the peculiar tome... and Erano's abrupt desire for it.

"I should value a look at the item Mila; thank you for offering."

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Insight vs Erano?: (1d20+14)[22]
Healing Word + Banner: (formality) (2d6+8)[15] extra hp restored.

[Paperscrap]

Anara's eyes flitted from the floor as Mila said her piece - seemingly coming to the decision that this was the sort of thing to simply accept with a nod and move on from. Something more important, it seemed, was checking to make sure that her friend and companions were alright. Her expression became noticeably more relieved when Mila mentioned that she was still in good shape. "Oh, I am very glad for that! Thank you, Helios, for making sure that Mila is safe. All of you are very strong. It is perhaps that the sounds of this fighting have been heard, however - we should move carefully. I do not think a troll is very good at sneaking, though..."

It was not exactly hard to see that Vardin's hug afterwards set the archer stiff and on guard. It wasn't until after he'd moved on that she sought to respond - seemingly now amused. "I am glad you feel so. If in your shoes, I would not. It is this girl who just shot a creature by mistake, afterall."

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Insight for Erano (1d20+8)[12]

[Ridai]

"No problem!" Mila cheerfully answers Helios. "Come on, got an ambush to ambush!"

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

Vardin smiles at Mila's last comment. He tosses his axe up in the air, and when it comes down again, he catches two of them in a hand each, "Well then let us be on our way....my bloodlust for slaying these horrible beasts is not yet sated. Should there be more, they will surely fall. The tiger is not yet done hunting"

[Ridai]

Light on her feet as always, Mila heads into the room the last troll fled into before it's demise. Looking at the two doors left to explore in it, she puts one hand on her waist and rubbing her chin with the other in thought. "Hmm..." Retrieving a coin from her bag, she flips it into the air, catches it and puts it back into the bag after seeing the result, though not before letting it wander across the back of her fingers and tossing it into the open bag in a big arc.

Moving up to the right door, Mila listens for any noises on the other side.

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Perception (1d20+10)[13]

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

Vardin follows Mila into the other room and watches her. She stand for a moment, thinks, and then goes to the door on the right to listen. He smiles and laughs quietly. He whispers, "Too subtle" in Mila's direction, but loud enough so that she can hear. Vardin then walks to the other door, on the left, gives Mila a wink, and kicks it in, axes ready for whatever happens to be behind the door.

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Str check to kick open the door if needed - (1d20+7)[12](19)

[Ridai]

Mila watches, shrugs and heads to the southern door with a spring in her step.

[Great Dane]

Erano had been leaning against a wall, intently looking at the blank pages found within the enchanted book, when he heard a loud CRACK -- the sound of Vardin's boot against the wooden door nearby. Slamming the book shut and slipping it into his pack, he drew a whetstone and readied it while charging toward the ruckus.

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Will move my token near Mila and Vardin

[Sierim]

Like the hallway you were in earlier, the room appears oddly free of trollish filth. The beds are unmade, of course, and a few mundane weapons and pieces armor are strew across the floor, but otherwise there is no sign of struggle which would have naturally occurred were the occupants assaulted by trolls.

[Great Dane]

Erano investigates the hallway leading off of the barracks. Seeing another uninvestigated hallway leading off the mess hall, he tries to perceive any traps before venturing inward.

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Investigating short hallway between K6 and O3, then back into the mess hall, checking the door at I14 for traps:

Perception: (1d20+16)[29]
Thievery if there is one: (1d20+10)[11], especially if I'm the only one there. That way if I blow it, I'm the only one harmed.

If the door isn't trapped, I"ll continue in, work my way west, then north, then east, then south and come to the crossroads.

[Ridai]

"Trolls moved in when nobody was home or the Consortium aren't their enemies, without our sweet friend knowing. I wonder, I wonder." Mila muses as she leaves the newly breached room. With Erano investigating, Mila heads back into the mess hall and the open corridor in it's northeastern corner. True, she maybe should be a little more careful, but with the trolls being so large, they'd have to squeeze through it, making it easy for the redhead to simply retreat with ease. Armed with such certainty, she simply keeps going down the winding corridor, giggling once when she thinks about the intentions of whoever planned this complex and it's weird design.

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Investigating the "stairs down" area.

[Surrealistik]

Helios offers Anara a terse nod; the reaction of a man accepting gratitude for something unremarkable done as a matter of course. When Erano swipes the book off of Mila, he cannot disguise a sudden flash of perturbation at the former's acquisitiveness. The templar does not deign to pursue the matter however, evidently trusting in his comrade, his immediate response seemingly more vexed by the crude spontaneity of the action than soured with suspicion.

When the party has stacked up at the barracks door, Helios calls upon Argus to take point. His battle standard is deftly planted as before, standing implausibly upright and firm without notable support as it broadcasts the resplendent image of Pelor's healing sun. Prior to bracing for battle however, he does carefully examine the room, eyes wary for clues and anomalies to be glimpsed given the apparent absence of troll habitation.

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Perception: (1d20+14)[31]
Insight: (1d20+14)[20]

[Paperscrap]

"I am surprised at how 'at-home' they were looking. They must have felt this place to already be a new den." Anara quipped before following her friend down the hallway in order to ensure she wasn't going alone - making sure (with eye contact, at least) that the others knew they were splitting momentarily before doing so. Apparently, her thoughts on the corridor proved to be quite the same as her companion - only she was a little bit more vocal about it. "Have we just taken four right turns, Laine? What could be at the end of this, do you think? It is as if the trolls were the architects!"

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Perception: (1d20+13)[31]

[Irish Musician]

Vardin Wildlore, Ranger & Cleric of Ioun

Vardin bursts through the door, eyes flicking from one side of the room to the other, hoping that a troll will be in there wating for slaughter......but alas, no. The room actually looks.....clean....ish. Much cleaner than it should for trolls having lived in it, for any amount of time. Vardin finds himself confused. "I don't get it," he says to Erano as he walks into the other room with him, "if the trolls had fought their way in here, then there would be more than a struggle. This makes no sense." Vardin thinks for a few minutes and then his face becomes grave. He runs down the hallway the girls went down and calls to them, "Wait! Come back with the rest of us. None of this adds up to me, and we shouldn't split up." After he sees the girls coming back to the main room, he gathers Helios and Erano as well. "Something about this isn't right, and I am thinking we should stick together. Erano seems to be on the right track, and if I remember correctly, those stairs just lead to storage. I just....." Vardin stops, seeming to stare around the room...."I just don't trust this place."