[3.5] The Destruction of Empires - Chaos

[Xanyo]

The halfling that had entered earlier(about 5 minutes ago) shows up at the door again.
"'scuse me, but the fella that was pokin' around the entrance seems to have vanished. Laella's lookin' for 'im, and she told me to tell you. 'n when I say vanished, I mean vanished. Laella was stalkin' behind him, she blinked, and 'e was gone, just like that."
Kemaya speaks up.
"Are you sure it wasn't just an illusion?"
"No, sir, but it did move a few things around." she responded.
"Could be telekinesis, or... a very quickly cast teleportation spell, such as Dimension Door." Kansaw croaked. He then paused a moment, his eyes unfocused. "...no. He did not teleport. So either illusions were involved, or we've got an incredibly slippery opponent on our hands."

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen snarls, "Invisibility? Do you have guard animals that detect by scent here? Anyone able to detect via other obscure senses?"

[Xanyo]

Morlo responds to your questions.
"We've got a few Skull Watch spells set up in the interior, and this entire meeting house is shielded from divinations. And I've got a wand of See Invisibility."
"And I can Dispel if we find him." Kemaya pipes in.
Kansaw slowly stands.
"If I go to where he was..., I may be able to get a sense of what occurred."
"Oh, no you don't," the half-orc interrupted, "For all we know he's still waiting up there, hoping to draw us out of our hole. You are too important to risk. I'll go up through the secondary exit and take a look around. You stay here."

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen starts getting out his infusion equipment, and then focuses on changing his shapesand into, variously, after activating two spells from his torc, a pair of Razor Sharp Bluewood Claw Extenders of Renown, and a Bluewood Chain Shirt of Renown, which he hastily dons both, taking about a combined time of two minutes to do so, "What species is this fella? Was there anything obvious about how they were equipped, the way they held themselves, anything? And if it comes down to a fight, what role is the group lacking?"

Spoiler: DC 16 Spellcraft

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Crafter's Fortune and Magecraft, both keyed to woodworking

[Xanyo]

"He looked to be human, sir. 'n he held himself high, confident. I dinnae see any weapons, but 'e could 'ave something concealed." The halfling spoke quickly, sensing your urgency.
Kansaw sighs.
"In a fight, we lack a healer or similar support role. I can provide a small amount of support, but it seems my venturing outside has been vetoed."
Grarrick barks an odd word and a suit of mithril full plate flashes into existence on him. Another word put a heavy steel shield on his arm.
"That's right, you're staying right here. And so is Morlo."
Morlo nods.
"Of course. I have little to offer in combat, and if we must flee, I can help Kansaw lay low. Though, you may want to have the wand."
He pulls a slender, transparent crystal wand and hands it to Valen.
"It has thirty-eight charges left. Try not to blow it up."
Kemaya rises and begins sorting through a spell component pouch, making sure he had everything that may be needed.
Mister Redgoldberd watches you all prepare.
"I'll just, ah, assist Morlo with keeping Kansaw safe, shall I? Yes, yes, I think I'll do that."
Grarrick draws his sword, a finely crafted bastard sword with silver on the crossguard.
"Everybody ready? I'll go first."
He opens the door and goes to the exit.

[Gavinfoxx]

Upon hearing the word human, Valen touches another part of his necklace, and with a flash of magic and a warping of his form, he is a creature that looks like a cross between a troglodyte and a lizardfolk, still wearing his fancy clothes. Suddenly the claw-extenders seem to fit much better, though the armor is still shoddily put on. As the halfling is speaking and the rest of the events happen, he spends a minute infusing the claw extenders to be Human-Bane, which he does as he accepts the wand, nodding in acknowledgement as he finishes the infusion.

He speaks with a slightly warped voice, seemingly unused to the reptilian mouth shape. "Wass never good at healing. Let'ss go!"

Spoiler: DC 17 Spellcraft

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Alter Self

Spoiler: DC 14 Knowledge Local

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Tren, a humanoid that is basically a cross between a troglodyte and a lizardfolk, with a bit of hybrid vigor. Thankfully, Valen doesn't smell..

[Xanyo]

Grarrick opens the door, leans out, and looks around.
"Don't see anyone. Be ready with that wand."
He steps out, then waves for you to follow. You all exit into the alleyway, which looks to be empty.

Spoiler: Valen

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You hear shallow breathing that's not coming from anyone in your group.

Grarrick looks about cautiously, shield up and sword ready. Kemaya keeps one hand up, ready to cast. The halfling pulls a dagger and stays in a crouch.

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen blinks, and remembers to activate the wand of See Invisibility on himself.

Spoiler: Rolls

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UMD DC 20
(1d20+18)[24]

[Xanyo]

Nothing new shows to your eyes as you look around. If this unseen opponent is invisible, he's not out in the open. You spread out a little, Kemaya on the right, Grarrick on the left. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice a flash of silver. Kemaya cries out, a dart in his neck. He stumbles for a moment, then collapses.
"Kaj'zen nocht!" Grarrick swore, moving over to cover the mage's fallen body. "He's here somewhere! I think the dart came from near the mouth of the alleyway!"
Kemaya groans, attempting to turn his head towards the area Grarrick indicated. He struggles to speak.
"Poishun. 'ut I shtill haf shum fire'ower I ca' ushe."
His eyes show a reflection of a fire for a moment, then a burst of flame ignites in the area that the opponent seems to be in.

[remetagross]

Arielle rushes behind Valen, just in time to see the wizard collapse and Valen use his wand. What the...

Then she hears the mumbling of Kemaya. Arielle starts to compute, fast.

...ok, we're attacked at a distance. The ennemy has disabled our ranged combatant first, meaning he wants us to come to him, in the open. But seeing that our wizard is not completely knocked out, it will probably aim at him again...unless he deems his poison powerful enough to finish him off in a minute. If I don't see Kemaya targeted in the next few seconds, I'll need to worry about him. And where is Laella ? We need to call her back.

Settled on a course of action, she fluidly grabs her bow, knocks a signal arrow, and lets it loose high in the air. Arielle makes sure to stand between Kemaya and the exit of the house, the lying wizard at her feet. A bird's shrill flutters in the air.

Spoiler: OOC

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With the least crystal of return on her bow, she can draw it as a free action, and uses her standard action to draw a Signal arrow and fire it.

[Xanyo]

Another flash of silver, and Grarrick reacts quickly, raising his shield, but not quickly enough. A dart takes him in the shoulder. He snarls, and pulls the dart out. He looks where the dart had come from, and snarls.
"There you are, you Ja'kneshlar!"
Following his eyes, you see a shadowy figure perched atop a(relatively) nearby roof, the building being about 55' away and 10' tall. Grarrick growls, then dashes to the foot of the building. As he does that, Kemaya focuses his eyes and a burst of flame erupts at the location of the figure, who tumbles aside, completely avoiding getting burned. The halfling steps forward holding a large crossbow which she fires at your foe, striking him in the shoulder. The figure stumbles, then grabs the bolt and pulls it out, tossing it aside.

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen snarls, and hustles over to the roof, then with a quick command word to his cloak, he teleports up to the roof and to the human, who he now threatens.

Spoiler: DM eyes

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Double-move, downgrading my standard action to a move, then use my immediate action to activate my Shadow Cloak (which he keeps on him, it's appropriate for formal wear; he's simply not armed and armored when he came to the meeting), to teleport 10' to any square he can see. Also, is this person obviously human at a quick glance?

[Xanyo]

You've got a fairly good look at him now. He's wearing all black, including a mask, but you can make out that he certainly is human, his eyes are blue, and he's a little under 6' tall. He seems to be a little blurred to your eyes, as if he was leaking shadow. He looks up in surprise as Valen materializes next to him, then swears in a low silky voice and lets himself fall off the roof of the building. Just before he hits the ground, he makes and arcane gesture accompanied by a short word, and vanishes. Grarrick yells as he swings just a little too late, his blade clashing against the cobblestones where your foe should have been.
"Drax'shnail! He's gone!"

Spoiler: Spellcraft DC: 19

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He casts Dimension Door.

[Gavinfoxx]

(He didn't tumble, and he did leave a square Valen threatens. So, attack of opportunity, and attempts to initiate a grapple as the attack of opportunity, grabbing with the hand that has the human-bane, super-masterwork claws. If the enhancement bonus does not help with this, remove 2 from the to-hit. He provokes as well, though that is unlikely to matter. He makes a melee touch attack to attempt to grab the target.)

(1d20+7)[18]

[Xanyo]

Valen grabs onto the stranger as he falls, only to hit the ground with empty hands. You see Laella running towards you, a little out of breath. She sees Kemaya on the ground and goes to check on him.
"By the gods! What happened?"

[Gavinfoxx]

He careens snout-first into the ground, with a "Dammit!"

"Assassin! Poisson usser. Dimenssion Doored away. Human, male, wearing all black and a massk, blue eyess, five-foot-eleven. Probably under a Blur effect. He'ss probably sstill under a thousand feet away right now. Are there any alliess here that can track him? Contain him?"

He bares his pointed teeth. "If there's no tracker, I need to get my gear. Keep the dartss, I think there might be some of hizz torn clothess here, get them. Also, they need medical attention, quickly! Delay Poisson, Neutralize Poisson, Lesser Resstoration! Can we get that?"

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen goes over to the falling. Is anyone bleeding out, and in need of immediate wound-healing? Who needs a Lesser Restoration first? He uses the last of his skill enhancements today on his mundane skill in Heal, in order to triage the situation, and then gets out some small rocks and begins infusing them with the most appropriate spell to save the fallen's lives, probably a Lesser Restoration, as there is no way he'd manage a Neutralize Poison quickly enough.

(Take 10 for 17 Heal, to triage/stabilize. All of this will happen over minutes, so the poison will likely run it's course.)

[Xanyo]

Examining Kemaya and Grarrick, you determine from the symptoms that the poison was likely Dragon Bile, a contact poison good at quickly weakening an opponent, but having no secondary effects. Kemaya can hardly move even his mouth, but his injury is minute.
"Kansaw could trace the teleportation, but that would require possibly exposing him to danger from the assassin - after all, he may still be very nearby, and a single dose of Black Adder Venom could kill him." Laella retrieved a small vial of a dark red brew. "A dose of Jhulid will get him standing for one to three hours, though he'll be a little confused and easily frightened, as well as still being very weak.

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen quickly decides that, if no one needs a Restoration, he's not going to use his lifeforce when these powerful people likely have access to dedicated casters.

"I think we need to get these people to safety. I doubt the attacker heard much of the private discussions, probably just that the group was gathering, and tried to take them out. Thankfully, truly immediately lethal poisons are rare. When everyone is safe, I can await a decision on the topic, then take any appropriate oaths, and then go along with any decided things. But I need to get my gear and armor up--I feel naked without it. Is there anyone I should bodyguard? I can only presume the group is going to split up?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Not doing the esses, though you can assume he has a bit of a lisp in this form.

[remetagross]

Arielle asks for the darts that hit Kemaya and Grarrick. She is relieved that the poison wasn't lethal, but she feels a little ahamed for her uselessness, and wants to make up for this.


"I wil try to track him down by smell. That's not the kind of tracking I'm most expert about, but well. If he didn't come all the way here through teleport, there should be a sniffable track Do we have anything else that he touched or carried? Valen, a piece of cloth you could have torn away?."

The Ranger reaches in her spell component pouch for grains of mustard and pepper, and inhales them while incanting. She sniffs at the darts, concentrating to locate the smell of a human person on it. Once she has memorised the scent, she asks the halfling sentinel where the human was snooping around and tries to find the smell.

Spoiler: OOC

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Survival check to follow the track: (1d20+3)[18]
Spellcraft check to identify what happened on the roof: (1d20+6)[21]

[Gavinfoxx]

He rubs his snout, for some reason it hurts, "Save one for me, I have a divination to use on them."

[Xanyo]

Strangely, you don't find any scent whatsoever on either dart, or in the area he was snooping around in.
"Once one of you is done with a dart, bring it to Kansaw. He might be able to extract some information from it." Vaella tells you.
After receiving the drug from Vaella, Kemaya stumbles back into the meetinghouse, supported by Grarrick.

[remetagross]

"I can't smell anything on those, that is strange. Valen, can you try to scan the area or the dart for traces of Transmutation magic? That might indicate a Pass Without Trace spell. If there isn't , well it means our opponent has naturally no smell...I'll wait for you before getting back inside."

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen nods, "Probably using the same power I was going to. Well, the psionic version of it. Object Reading? I have an item of an arcane version of that; if that is all he would do, there's no reason to delay for me to get my item. Though I can bodyguard for a bit longer like this, before I go get my gear."

[remetagross]

"With Laella being back, and everyone back inside with the one person to bodyguard, there is no reason for us to remain outside too, there is the sentinel for that. I suggest we went inside and resumed the meeting, we are uselessly exposed here."

Arielle keeps looking around her while she speaks, she does not feel secure in the open after an attack like this one.

[Xanyo]

You return indoors, where Kansaw examines one of the darts.
"I... can't discern anything about the immediate previous owner, though I did learn a bit about the one who had it before him. A seventy-five year old male dwarf with no strong moral or ethical inclinations. Probably a weapons merchant."

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen considers, "How many weapon merchants in the region are there which meet that description? Presumably, you all are getting extort-- ah, protection money from a good number of them, aren't you? Think you all have the resources to lean on one such as that? And... what do you say about my ideas? Am I in the Guild? Will you support me? Is there an oath or anything I should do now?"

[Xanyo]

Kansaw smiles.
"Yes, you're in. We don't have any oaths or initiations really, just Thieves' Honor."
As for your question about the merchant, Mister Redgoldberd stops cowering in a corner and speaks.
"I'll search through our records and see if I can identify our merchant. If he's in another guild's territory, we'll have to hope Morlo and his men can hear something useful."
"Right!" Veil claps his hands together and stands a little straighter. "Now that little bit of business is done, may I recommend that we start getting our important people, particularly Kansaw, and now, Valen, to safety? Until we can set up Valen's workshop, I suggest he stay with Kansaw - his home is very well protected against divinations and intruders."
Kansaw nods in agreement. "Yes... that would be wise." He extends a hand. "Everyone going to my place, take my hand, and I will transport us to the secure entrance."

[remetagross]

Arielle almost offers to set off for the hunt of the weapons merchant at once, but she refrains herself. He is not going to disappear within the next few hours, and I would better position myself closer to Kansaw. Getting into his house is not an insignificant priviledge...

She stretches her arm and takes her patron's hand.

[Gavinfoxx]

Valen frowns, "I'm sorry, I have to get my equipment; I wore formal clothes to this meeting, not my armor. They are in a secure place. I will be back as soon as possible, unless there is another place to meet."

He quickly gets an acknowledgment of where they want him to meet, either here or elsewhere, and provided they don't object too strongly, rushes off to collect his equipment and go back to where they tell him to go, at a run.