Tyrant's Grasp: The Dead Roads [IC]

[lostsole31]

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Character [Player]	Speech Color	AL	Race [Ethnicity] (Gender ID)	Side #1	Side #2	Faith	Campaign Trait
Reserved [NPC]	Dark Orange						The Artisan
Reserved [NPC]	Saddle Brown						The Outsider
Grum Kangredden [DrK]	Green	N	Dwarf (m)	Kheshig 3	Warpriest 3 [Warpath Follower]	Gorum	The Lawgiver
Reserved [NPC]	Golden Rod						The Optimist
Helena Varvatos [DrK]	Blue	LG	Human [Taldan] (f)	Arcanist 3 [White Mage]	Warder 3 [Hawkguard]	Iomedae	The Word
Reserved [NPC]	Gray						The Snoop

[lostsole31]

Helena (only, at this time) ... All is darkness and cold stone. Although you dimly recall going to sleep last night in the small community of Roslar’s Coffer, you awaken in a dark, stone box only a few inches larger than you in each direction. The cool scent of earth surrounds you.

What do you do?

[DrK]

Helena

Helena opens her eyes, the cold stone and darkness sending a jolt of fear rushing through her. She reached out hands scrabbling and pushing to see how much space was around her and what she had ta her waist or clothes. Breathing she remembered her training, a quiet... "Helen, come on now, you are a Varvatos.. hat would your cousin do." The sound of her own voice helping her slightly. Then she moved her hands checking to see if her spell pouch was at her waist and looking for that small bit of dead firefly she always kept in there


Finding it she crushes the dead firefly and touches the pouch itself and the soft cool light spreads out to illuminate wherever she was....

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Search the area with hands
Then cast light on her belt pouch

[lostsole31]

Not counting the hard stone below her, she feels in all directions, bumping her elbow and fingers clumsily at times. She finds that the areas above her and to her right are a hard stone, but her bow and quiver and set beside her, as are some things down by her feet that she doesn't really have room to check.

She intones her light spell, which is not a quiet act, made all the more noisy with the stone barrier echoing and reverberating sound all about her, but a soft white radiance surrounds her and her fears are realized ... she seems to have been buried alive!

[DrK]

Helena

Helena looks around the stone coffin and screams! ”Help, help, anyone there!!” she cries out loudly before bracing her feet and hands against the top and pushing hard

Spoiler: Str check

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If needed a Str check to break free
-(1d20+1)[13]

[lostsole31]

Meanwhile, Grum ..... All is darkness and cold stone. Although you dimly recall going to sleep last night in the small community of Roslar’s Coffer, you awaken in a dark, stone box only a few inches larger than you in each direction. The cool scent of earth surrounds you. Your eyes quickly adjust to the darkness and within seconds you realize you've been buried in a stone sarcophagus, and some of your equipment lies about you, though your pack is very light and deflated, though likely would not have fit in here with you had it been full.

What do you do?

[DrK]

Grum

Grum looks about himself, rattling off the sides of the Earthen coffin. He snarls, "Gah, get me out o'here. Who did trap me in here." he bellows the last and throws himself against the lid above him smashing it repeatedly.

Spoiler: Str checks if needed

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(1d20+4)[19]
(1d20+4)[5]
(1d20+4)[15]

if nothing happens he'll pause and look around the stony walls more carefully to see if he can see what may have been the source of these things

Spoiler: Stonmeasonary

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Craft (stonemasonary) if applicable (1d20+6)[22]

[lostsole31]

Since he went RIGHT to lifting the lid, he did a find job. He doesn't throw it off ... it is much to heavy for that, but he does a good job of finding the proper angle and leverage and sliding the lid well to the side. He lifts his head above the level of the lid to look around the room. It is a dark room which dismays him little. There are five other sarcophagi in this room. Other than them, the only furnishing is a dusty old crate - likely a remainder from this place's construction. Various relief carvings on the north wall display several heroic figures. In Taldane, the words “Red Shrikes–Noble Companions in the War against Evil. Rest Well, My Friends” are inscribed above the carvings. There is a single stone door to one direction.

There is rustling around in several of the other sarcophagi.

Grum, what do you do?

[DrK]

Grum

Grum leaps out, dropping heavily to the ground and trying to draw forth his essentia to cloak himself in steel and plate (and summon a massive blade taller than he). As he seeks his essentia he'll scan the room carefully, and look at the nearest Sarcophagi a grunted "Anyone be in there? Where is this place"

Spoiler: Spoiler

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If he can he will manifest all his currently selected Veils and place 1E in each of the major veils

[lostsole31]

He finds that he slept too long and too well, and his veils have unshaped.

About the time that he calls out, four others of the sarcophagi lids move to the side, including after hearing what might have been voices shouting from inside. There is a human woman, and three human men. The human woman has a spell on something (what does Helena have light cast upon?), and two of the three men have these very small, thin cards or boxes that shed a small square of light in a specific direction. There is only one sarcophagus unopened.

The cones of light look at each other and around the room, briefly look at the woman, and then settle on the dwarf standing in the middle of the room.

One of the men with the light boxes says, "Buddy, you better have a really good reason why a damn midget roofied all of us. Should've tied us up. Even the girl moved her lid."

Grum, you get the distinct feeling he is talking to you.

Helena, you are active now, too.

[DrK]

Grum hisses a curse under his breath at the lack of veils feeling almost naked without them. He grabs the warhammer from his waist loop instead and looks at the men, "You'll be in bother laddies for drugging me and dumping me in a damned stone coffin." Looking around he eyes the woman and the men warily. "Where do we be? How did you get me in the stone box..."

——-

Helena crawls out as the edge of the stone lid shifts and she can squeeze out. Looking around at the strangers, some men and a short squat dwarf in the light shining from her waist pouch she freezes and crouches atop the lid of the coffin. She looks about at the paintings and the words. "I do not now where we are , but I suspect that we have all fallen victim to the same issue. Have any of you ever heard of the shrikes?" she asks, racking her brains to see if it was familiar.

Her other hand stays below the level of the rim clutching her bow, just in case there was a need for it as she was aware she was in a dark room in a strange place full of strange men.

[lostsole31]

Her voice is completely run over as the three men jump to their feet (in the sarcophagus).

The short-haired one that spoke quickly pulls some type of oddly-shaped metal from behind his back. Come to think of it, his clothes are really odd. He points the device at Grum, and Grum notes that while not a particularly large object, there is some type of tube that is at the "business end." It doesn't at all look like a proper Alkenstar weapon, but it might be.

The other two men are shouting things like "Whoa!" "Hey!" "Calm down, both of you!" as they're trying to defuse the situation.

That first man shouts, with a gruff, 'tough guy voice,' "I ain't buying it pal! You're out there with the hammer, you second-rate circus midget!"

"'Little person,'" says the one to the far east, one who is least 'partially' dressed in familiar. He wears a properly styled, perhaps too-fancy coat, though underneath a shirt of strange fashion. He has a softer voice, though he is actually taller with broad shoulders (6'4"), and a shaggy head of dark brown hair.

That seems to confuse and derail the somewhat shorter (6'1") man whose aim goes off and he says, "What!?"

"'Little person' .... 'midget' is like a slur, sort of the small person's 'N-word.' The politically correct term is 'little person' now."

Then, doing just as well to continue to separate angry words with time, the third man who hasn't spoken and has been ignoring the ruckus speaks. He is smaller than the others, but still about average to slightly taller for man (5' 11"), but with everyone else except Grum he seems small. He wears truly odd clothing ... a strange coat that simply hangs limply down. Stranger clothes underneath, and a blue cravat of some type that has little skill in keeping the neck warm as it is tied to a small knot in front an hangs down in a skinny strip of cloth. His hair is very mussed, and his voice only seems deeper than the others, but he has a sort of laconic quality about it, almost completely skimming along vocal fry. He looks at the wall behind him (to the north) and says as he steps down, "Uh, guys? Take a look at everyone here, and take a look at the plaques above each sarcophagus that had you in it."

Helena was ignored and run over verbally in the beginning.
Grum, do you allow the natural flow of events to abate hostility with "shiny objects?"

[DrK]

Helena sits on the edge of the coffin now, her thin and pretty features in an amused smile at the men arguing. She nods at smallest of the men and points at the murals. ”More of interest perhaps? Do you know anything of where we are.”

Even as she is speaking Grum eyes the man with the metal stick and clutches his hammer. ”One more small joke I break your knees…” Then stopping as if hearing Helena for the first time he looks around again. “None of you know this place? Weee were you last you knew.”

As he speaks Helena looks at the unopened coffin. ”Shall we have a look in that one? I am Helena by the way. Apprentice cadre mage to the Knights of Ozem.” She pauses expectantly for the others to speak

[lostsole31]

The men seem transfixed on the plaques at each of their sarcophagi as they step out of them.

"Drake, that's .... that's you! I mean not you, but a close likeness."

Starting from east to west...

• The easternmost is that of a shaggy-haired elven mage casting spells, but wearing garb holy to Sarenrae, and looking not terribly unlike the shaggy-haired man here.
• The next is the one that Helena came from, and is a bas relief of an Iomedaean archer elf. It's not an exact likeness, but she sees the connection.
• Then the one Grum came out of, and that is of a half-orc ... but one whose bald head, beard, Gorumite trappings ...if ever human dared give breath to likeness, would see a distant one with Grum.
• The man in the long beige coat's sarcophagus is a halfling on a mastiff with lance and shield, and somehow ... one can almost see his likeness in the halfling's face.
• The second-to-last where the mouthy guy's sarcophagus is has a plaque overlooking that shows a man with two short swords, no religious trappings, but a similarly heroic face.
• Then, there's the sixth sarcophagus ... that is still closed. The relief above appears to be some type of druid with features obscured, but a small creature ... possibly a gnome?

The NPCs seem to have a hard time understanding Grum. Shaggy Hair simply says, "I think he's still feeling the effects of whatever drug dropped him. He may be, um ... vertically challenged ... but that's a lot of muscle mass. Probably overdid it."

The short-haired man says, pointedly to Helena and ignoring Grum, "I'm Drake Windchaser, and this my brother, Sal," he says, gesturing to the shaggy-haired man in the almost-fine coat, as if it looks like it was meant to be nice but is made of cheap materials. "And that there is our friend...." and here for some reason Drake pauses waiting for the third to name himself, even though their interaction says they know each other.

"Joey. Joey Novicki," and while he has the personality of twice-vegemited burnt toast, there is a calmness about him that somehow makes him the most ... well, not personable ... but at least ... you don't know ... but something more effective than the other two in his simple presence.

One thing Helena notices about the brothers ... is that they are hot. They may not be charismatic, per se, but they are hot. Even the little guy (3" shorter than you, and that's not counting your heels) is cute.

There is a frantic, light pounding from the sixth sarcophagus.

All eyes slowly turn towards it.

[DrK]

Grum scowls at the brothers then adds in ”I be Grum, or Constable Kangredden if ye be from Roslar’s Coffer.” Glancing at the reliefs he rather tellingly avoids looking at the orc and heads to the sixth coffin. “Give me a hand.” he barks at Drake and Sal.

Grabbing the edge of the last one he gives it a heft to try and open it.

Spoiler: Str check

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(1d20+4)[21]

As he is doing that Helena hops off the coffin and strides across to the box. A quiet ”Is there some clues in here I wonder.”

[lostsole31]

Sal lets Drake do the heavy lifting. Both Grum and Drake have to thong/holster their weapons to get a good purchase on the final sarcophagus lid but Grum's prodigious strength. Grum can tell, though that while not a physically "stacked," Drake possesses a powerfully muscled body on a lean frame himself.

The lid is moved aside fully and out pops a strange, small figure that startles both Grum and Drake. If it were on the ground it would be only a few inches shorter than Grum (4' 2") but with far less mass (not quite 50 lbs., considered Small). The little creature is covered head to toe in slats of wood and leaves and vines. It seems to have some type of leafy clothes covering another layer of vegetative clothing underneath the outer layer, and definitely some type of mask made of an oversized nut of some sort, and only glowing green eyes are visible to the face. It is definitely NOT a gnome, or if so, is some strange variant Grum has never seen before.

On the other hand, Helena DOES recognize what this creatures is, and that those are not tangled wooden sticks but actually ... once it would unfurl itself .. a type of fey creature known as a gathlain.

Spoiler: gathlain

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1) Fey creature ... which means that they tend to be a little easier to take down (if you get past any resistance to mortal weapons it may have, usually as overcome by cold iron), and tends to have strong, alien mind and quick reflexes but bodies with exploitable weaknesses.

2) Despite their size, gathlain are as quick on the ground as a human, much faster than other Small creatures (similar to a goblin). But they can also fly a little faster than that, like an very athletic human, but the wood-and-vine nature of their wings make them clumsy flyers.

3) They often have powers related to nature. The most common ability is to make local vegetation to come alive and entrap, ensnare, and hinder pursuers on the ground.

Drake instantly pulls out his sidearm, but Sal says, "Drake, wait!"

"For what? We're monster hunters. This thing's a frickin' monster. We put monsters down. What is there to discuss?"

[DrK]

Helen stops investigating the box and turns, ”Do not hurt it. It’s no monster, it is a Gathlian, a fey, a thing of nature not a monster. Do not scare it.” she demands in a stern voice. The approaching she kneels down beside the fey. “I am Helena. Like you I suspect we all are surprised at being here. What do you remember before you awoke here?”

Grum on the other hand joins Drake in pulling free his hammer, a nod to the man as they both react in tye same way before he holds at Sal and Helena’s words. You better no give any trouble.” a warning to the strange fey as he waits for it to speak (assuming it can)

[lostsole31]

The creature speaks, which is unsettling since you don't see the mouth move, but with its hardened, oversized walnut-like shell "mask" there's only the slightest jaw movement. The voice of the creature is higher pitched, but the timbre doesn't lead one to believe necessarily male for female. The manner of their speech is definitely some type of rustic dialect. At the same time, once it seems that the initial fear is passed courtesy of the yellow-haired lady, the almost moss-like monobrow betrays a bit of expression, as if the gathlain is brightening. Sometimes it is a bit too thick to understand, with "th"'s sound like "t"'s, and the "d" sound proper or even some "t" sounds at the beginning or end of a word almost makes them sound drunk, as there is a slight "wetness" to it ... drifting to a nearly "J" sound.

"M'name's Gwennid. Was planted a year or so near a little town that had nice farms abut it. We're dead, aren't we? Moi moind's still out whether dis is good or not. I feel foin, but there's all dis stone about. So I don't know if dis is meant to be moi type of 'bad place' or no. I'd'a hoped for more green tings. But we're all whole, aren't we? So it's toim fer us to be movin' to our next place, yeah?"

Drake blinks, trying to slowly process what Leafy Green said.

"Hey, you said something about a Razor's Coffin?" asks Sal.

[DrK]

Helen smiles at the accent an words of the small green creature. "Why would you think we are dead? I am here, i feel solid. I think it seems like someone has kidnapped us. Though to wat purpose I cannot say." She glances at Sal, "Roslar's Coffer. In Western Lastwall. Its a lovely town." she adds happily smiling at Grum, "We may have to explore. But I need some time prepare myself if that is okay" she asks looking around.

Glancing at the box she nods, "Shall we search the room and see what else may be here? I need to read my books though if that is okay?". If everyone agrees she'll settled down and flick through her spell book to prime her spells for the day. Once done (assuming she is undistrubed for it) she'll rub a piece of lucky leather in her spell component pouch and a faint nimbus of force looking slightly a shimmering breastplate appears around her. A grin to the others "Can't be too careful" as she checks her arrows and the draw on the bow.

Spoiler: OOC

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If she can prepare her spells she'll use an Arcane point to boost CL by +2 and cast Mage armour to last for 5 hours

Grum nods to the small fey. "Grum. Be good to meet you. You planted yourself aye? Strange you did end up here?" He looks about and looks at his armour. "Give me some time, I need to gather my thoughts, it'll be a while he says" before sitting atop his coffin and meditating. Concentrating on deep breaths and the comforting feel of the stone. If folk leave him he be to gather his thoughts he'll shape his veils.

Spoiler: Veils

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Just as per the ones on his sheet

Once shaped he'll take a deep breath and summon the mountain plate and then with a hand outstretched the hefty juggernaught blade. "Old friend, aye, its been a while" he adds as he looks to the others, now clad in steel and hefting the massive flint looking blade. "Now I do be ready and the Iron Lord's wrath on the scum that put me here."

[lostsole31]

For their part, when it seems that everyone is taking some time to themselves, the others do as well.

Joey Novicki meditates for half and hour, and then seems to pray. He holds a piece of wood in his hand, and it is a cruciform object that looks suspiciously like an Iomedean holy symbol.

Drake takes off his outer jacket and shirts until he has a short, black tunic that is somewhat form-fitting and only goes to the waist, where he has his strange blue-fabric pants, and engages in a good physical workout. After that, he takes out that device that he seems to favor as a weapon, and begins to break it down - disassembling it expertly. He has a pack, and part of that pack is a bag with strange little brushes and the like that he uses to clean out every component and spring that makes up this curious piece of engineering that seems to be even more precision-made than Grum - when he looks over - had ever thought possible with engineering.

Sal seems to look at some type of weird scrying device that is rectangular and from which there is a faint, strange sussurant mechanical noise. After awhile the scrying device - which seems to have its own light source - goes dark. Disappointed, muttering about "finding some place to plug in and maybe find a signal," he puts the weird box-like object back in his pack and just sits and goes through some breathing exercises.

Little Gwennid meditates for the hour, but on and off during that time seems to be quietly chanting and muttering and making various noises that sound like its attempting to pray or at least propitiate with some power or spirit.

As Drake finishes reassembling his item and everyone else seems to come to an organic end to their activities, the brothers take out chain shirts and put them on under their clothing. It's not mithral, and seem as cumbersome as any normal hauberk, though there is something ... not quite right ... about the strange manufacture. Drake straps on a leg holster to his left, where is affixed a machete in a sheath. Sal seems to have a bow, a quiver, and a knife. Other than their strange leaf-outfit - which you've come to find out is a broader leaf outfit over much finer, leaf-and-grass-like skin - Gwennid seems ready. You can't read a facial expression, but if there is anyone who seems ready to tackle whatever comes your way and meet things with a hidden smile ... it seems like it would be Gwennid.

Obviously, Helena will have to utilize her light spell several times, even during quiet time (casting a cantrip that you intend to continue using doesn't foul preparations). As it was, within only a couple minutes of meeting everyone and being upset about having "no bars on my cell, either", the Windchasers had put away their little light boxes to "conserve battery."

Now at the end, Helena casts her spell, and it brings big eyes from everyone, with different expressions from each person.

"You never said you were a witch," Drake says with equal parts admiration and ... worry?

Looking around the area, nobody is able to seem to make any inroads in memory to either "Red Shrikes" ... the strangely similar plaques ... or the construction here.

It takes some doing since the crate was nailed shut and nobody has the proper tools, but finally the crate is opened. The crate contains a variety of dried out and useless paints, a crowbar, flint and steel, three common lamps, two hammers, one hooded lantern, eight pints of oil, and a dented pewter mug.

Sal and Gwennid both sniff and look at the oil. Sal remarks, "Wow. I'd say this stuff has been here for a very long time, but the oil hasn't degraded at all. It's fresh, not rancid. But the dust of centuries seems to be about this place. Not even synthetic oils are that good."

Gwennid speaks up, "Tat's because where we are, tings no longer die."

All eyes slowly scan to them at this dire pronouncement.

"No, I sense it, too," says Joey. "When we were studying the planar rift that Lucy opened, it flashed, and that's what we last remembered. But to go to that other plane required a sacrifice or ritual we were still researching. My guess is that the thinness in the planes connected with other thin spots in dimensions .... something happened ... somewhere ... and it seems to flash through the multiple thing spots.

"Drake, Sal, you have to see it in this witch's magic and this dwarf's armor and magically-created weapon and so forth. It would take Earth casters far too much power to make that happen. And your electronic devices were fully powered when you prepped your go-bags for the expected ritual crossing. But already you're worried about dead battery and no real time passed since you last charged things and then used them now. And me? I feel it in my bones. I don't know where we are," he says, looking at Gwennid before looking back, "but I know where we aren't."

Sal nods solemnly. "That means we're not in Kansas anymore."

There's quiet, and Drake says, "Wait, nobody is gonna' comment on the fact that Ca-, Joe called him a dwarf, and he didn't even get mad?"

[DrK]

Helena snapped her head around at the word "witch" with a frown. "I am no witch. I am a student of the War College in Vigil with training from the finest battle mages." As she looks at them she looks more closely at the equipment and strange clothes and asks with a hint of trepidation. "You spoke of a rift. Where are you from? You do not dress like those of Taldor or Cheliax? And you do not appear like one from Osirani. WHere are you from?"

--

Grum happy now as he stamps his feet a little hears the talk of lights and motions with a hand as 2 motes of light, one blue and green float free from his hand slowly hover by Sal and Drake. "If ye be needing light, here. Have a couple of these." THen at the mutterings about the use of dwarf, he nods. "Aye, I be of the Five Kingdoms clans, what of it." His eyes also narrow and he nods to Helena as she starts to question where they are from. Grum nods and points to the strange mechanical thing Drake had been playing with. "What does that be? I never seen its like before."

--

As the men talk of guns Helena looks at Gwennid. "What do you mean? It just seems to be a tomb? One that I am anxious to leave""

[lostsole31]

At Helena's self-defense. Sal intervenes, "Listen, what Joey said. It's obvious we're from somewhere not from where you come from. And given what the other two said, not where we come from, either. My brother can be a bonehead..."

"Hey!"

"... but he wasn't trying to be reductionist. We're just ignorant. Joey said that magic is different where we come from. Practitioners of magic as a rule are called witches, but then individual traditions might be shamans, priests, enchanters, and the like. We've had a bad history, as pretty much anyone who's a witch invariably does bad things with their magic because it is so rare and the temptation so great, that we get called in. A witch in our home .... world? ... at the point that they are hurting people, even if they are human, are then categorized as 'monsters' ... and we hunt them. As long as you aren't trying to hurt people with your witchcra-, er, magic, then it's all good."

Spoiler: OOC

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If you RP any level of influence from another's Diplomacy, he just rocked a modified 26 on his Diplomacy.

"Listen, lady," says Drake as he is already putting a flask of oil into a lantern. "None of those places mean anything to me. Which means if I tell you anything about where I'm from, none of that will mean anything to you. Let's just focus on figuring out how to get out of where we are so we can get home."

Grum's dancing lightsseem to be playfully tickling at Drake's almost-cultivated handsome stubble. He blinks and blows at the lights and tries to wave them away. "Stop. Stop it. Stop that! You're dazzling my eyes and I can't see what I'm doing. I'll end up setting myself on fire.

"Crap," he says, having taken out folded square of parchment colored black with the silhouette of a very well-endowed woman on the cover, which he then blithely discards on the ground. "Out of matches. This fire starter kit we found will have to do." As he uses the flint & steel to light the wick, providing a little more of a sense of 'warmth' with the glow of the oil lamp - even though it is psychological - it still affects everyone on a primal level with a bit of comfort that magical, twinkling lights and weird lights from little boxes don't do.

"This here is a Colt M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol. It was my dad's gun. Taught us all we know about hunting. We were following a lead on finding him, and through a series of drunken misadventures and silly accidents ... everything led up to us staring at a rift in space, a portal to a sort of monochromatic hell dimension for our next clue. And now we're here."

Sal says comfortingly. "I think you may need to lead with your machete, and let me cover with the bow. I have a feeling we're not going to find a Guns 'R Us top top off ammo."

Drake shakes his head. "You and Fred went LARPing in that ridiculous coat with those silly pants and boots with that Wal-Mart 'Junior Hunter's Archery Kit' ... and now you're the one who almost looks like he makes sense here, and that cheap bow is now our main defense while I conserve bullets? Damn. And here I swore I had extra ammo in my pack."

"Yeah, well, I notice a lot of stuff isn't in my pack that was there before, too."

Finally, with Grum's question to Gwennid, they say, "I can touch ta world, or more like, the world's can touch me. Each day as I meditate and give my thoughts to Ng, I can reach across the vastnesses to let those places act through me. I didn't have to reach far for the Underworld, for its power is all about us."

[DrK]

Helena looks at Sal,”I fear you are a long way from home. Once we get out of here if we go to Vigil some of the masters there may be able to help you find your way home. But maybe don’t call the Master of the War College a witch.” She adds the last with a wry smile, clearly making a joke. At Drake’s harsher language she looks sadly at him, “It’s okay to be nervous, magic can be scary but I swear by the Inheiritor I will not harm you here as long as you prove good and trustworthy.”

She is interrupted by Grum who looks at the torch flaring to life as he nods to the crate. ”eh longshanks. Me and Helena can make our own lights, you’d beat bring your the lamps and oil.”

He stomps towards the door out of the room. “no more answers here so let’s be off and see where we be.” He walks to the door, still eyeing the Colt and with massive blade in hand opens the door.

Spoiler: Essentia

Show

Grum will move essentia before opening the door
1E Juggernaught Blade
1E Plate of the mountain
1E Lions Heart
1E Stone Giants Girdle

1E Chakra power feat

[lostsole31]

Drake holds the lit hooded lantern in one hand, and then ends up giving it to Joey to hold. He and Sal divvied the tools. Gwennid took the dented pewter mug. Joey didn't take anything. Two of the common lamps are being left behind.

As Grum puts energy into each veil, they all become visible, and now everyone clearly sees not only the armor and sword (assuming he made them visible before), but also a thick belt of stone and a lion-hide mantle of some sort.

Begin Round One ...

R1T32: Grum barely opened the door and already Sal is already moving, getting right next to Helena while drawing what is nothing more than a simple shortbow and shoots. With the narrow angle and doorway and people in the way, it is an expected miss, especially as he drew a little deeper, likely hoping for a more powerful connecting shot. While it is obvious to Helena that he doesn't nearly have the same level of archery training, she can respect from his stance and training that he knows how to handle himself in a CQB firefight.

Spoiler: OOC

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His combat instincts aren't as developed as hers (BAB), but his training shows (Precise Shot).

He calls out, "The skeleton's just a vehicle, not an undead. It's a chariot for an ostovite, but you have to beat down the skeleton first, preferably with something designed to break bones."

R1T22: It seems nearly an eternity passes before something glows and appears around Gwennid. A perfectly-fitted suit of chainmail with leaf-motif (not leitmotif, mind you, even though the leaf motif is a leitmotif) forms around her even as a glowing shortspear made of green light appears in her hand. There's even a jeweled crown that fits around the leafy helmet she seems to wear. She zooms right out the door and then throws her spear. But the spear isn't "thrown so much as it turns into green light and a ray of green light shoots forward from her hand to go through the thing and strike the wall behind. The thing takes 10 light damage.

R1T20: That got its attention. The skeleton claws at Gwennid - completely missing the first time, and then bony nails barely scraping along the strange, magical chain she wears on the second.

R1T19: Helena, what do you do?

[DrK]

Helena spies the beast and instinctively brings up the bow. Silvery fire bursts from her hands and the bow as she takes aim before she steps back for a better angle and let’s fly…

Spoiler: OOC

Show

5ft step NE to get a better angle
Swift:enter stance of piercing rays
Standard: Fire at the ostovite (using risky attack)
(1d20+7)[20] dam (1d8+5)[6] + (1d6)[2] fire

[lostsole31]

R1T19: Helena spies the beast and instinctively brings up the bow. Silvery fire bursts from her hands and the bow as she takes aim before she steps back for a better angle and let’s fly. She knows better than to aim for center of mass, but instead aims for a lower arm where the two bones meet to create a "larger target" for herself. Her pinpoint accuracy just manages to hit the two bones as they meet the elbow. The arrow doesn't hurt it, but it does slam long enough against it before breaking away that the skeleton takes 2 fire.

R1T8: Drake darts through and across, and a claw scrapes hard along the chain under his coat. He elbows it in the head as hard as he can for 10, caving in the head but it just keeps coming. "Damn, that thing is sturdier than a normal skeleton!"

R1T7: Grum, what do you do?

Joey on deck, Sal in the hole ...

[DrK]

Pushing forward Grum drops south to be beside the skeletal thing. ”Aye, I’ve not time fer you today..” he grunts as wielding the massive blade defensively he lashes out and readies to party.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Step SW 5ft
Swift: Shift into Warding blade form
Attack: (risky attack on) (1d20+8)[26] dam (2d6+9)[14]
(Not included +1 damage from Chakra Power)

If it attacks Grum counter attack with warding blade form (as shield end)
(1d20+7)[27] dam (2d6+9)[17]

Attack roll 1 lower due to not benefiting from furious focus and 1 damage from Chakra power not included and 1 damage from 1E invested into Juggernaught blade warding blade form
If hit with AoO gain damage as THP up to max 15

[lostsole31]

R1T7: Pushing forward Grum drops south to be beside the skeletal thing. ”Aye, I’ve not time fer you today..” he grunts as wielding the massive blade defensively he lashes out and readies to party. His akashic blade destroys the skeleton, and left behind in the rubble is a Tiny creature that is very strange and bug-like.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Hard corner. He had to take a move action to get to that point. I am sneaky; I already updated chakra power's damage into your weapons chart.

R1T5: Joey leaves that initial room, taking the lantern with him, leaving only Helena's magical light to help the two humans remaining in the first room.

End Round One, Begin Round 2 ...

R2T32: "There it is! The ostovite! It's a magical creature, not an actual bug of any kind," calls out Sal. He doesn't even bother trying to waste an arrow shooting at so small a creature in that scrum, but doesn't get in Helena's way, either.

R2T22: Gwennid, her light-spear now gone, reaches out her hand and fires a dart of magic at it to strike the ostovite for 3.

R2T20: Not knowing what's in store for it, it moves into Grum's space, but the dwarf drops his blade on it for 22 with a grievous strike, and the thing stops moving after giving a hideous little shriek.

Combat Ends...

Drake will stamp on it several times for good measure.

"Yeah, no," says Sal as he comes in to collect his errant arrow, "it's not like I didn't want to study it to maybe find out more about the dangers it represents if there are more of them."

[DrK]

Grum looks down at the ostovite that had been crushed flat then grins as drake stamps up and down upon it. "Nasty wee beastie. But one that is gone now. Strange beast controlling the bones". Helena looks down at it, "I wonder where this came from? And who's bones that it stole."

She looks around, a query, "Is everyone okay?" but not seeing much in the way of injuries smiles happily. Grum nods to Drake "Nice punch there. Maybe try that machete though, nasty beasts may bite back if ye slap them.". Seeing the doorway ahead Grum motions and sends the two motes of light ahead of him int the next chamber as he advance towards the south east

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Grum moves his lights ~25ft down the SE passage and follows them.

As Grum starts walking down the passage Helena pauses in the room to look at the Ostovite corpse and quickly looks through the room for anything of value in either of the two small rooms as she trails behind the dwarf stomping implacably forward

[lostsole31]

"I'm not going to waste time hacking at bone, and I sure am not going to ding up my blade attacking the floor, which is what it amounts to when striking at something so small," says Drake. "My gun care kit was still in my pack, but not my whetstone, oil, and cloth for the blade."

Grum passes right by an alcove and heads into a much larger room to the southeast.

Back where everyone else is, however, this room contains several low shelves covered with rags and loose bones. A hallway extends to the southeast (where Grum went), while a stone door to the east is carved with the image of several heroic figures standing solemnly together. The eastern door (the one you came out of) is carved with images of the Red Shrikes - the ones whose plaques were above the sarcophagi you awoke in.

Helena, do you want to lead the others in a search in here? If so, quick or deep search?

Grum, you hadn't even noticed the alcove you blew right past. Now, though, the marble walls of this large hall are carved with several images of battle, each featuring a knight astride a lean horse. The knight wears no helmet and has long hair and a wide mustache. In each of the images, the knight is charging at undead horrors with a rapier in hand.

Two halls lead out of the western portion of this room, one to the north and one to the south. Three large archways lead out of the room to the east. The archway to the northeast is carved with the words “At My Right Hand, Peace for Years of Righteous Labors”; the archway to the east is carved with the words, “Roslar: Hero and Paladin at His Well-Earned Rest;” and the archway to the southeast reads, “Loyal Abdell, Support Thy Master Always.”

Grum, do you let yourself succumb to the allure of what's-around-the-river-bend-itis?