The Grinder Group 2

[Toliudar]

Ex Machina

Confirming that the pillar seems to terminate at the top, roughly where the tentacle creature would have been floating, Ex Machina turns its attention back downwards, towards the water spewing from the tube. The solar flies around the tube, turning its attention turns back down and trying to see if the second evil emanation from the tube has emerged in the crush of water.

[Sxoa]

While the mist obscures sight, it does not obscure the spell. A evil aura is down there somewhere.

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Remember to make spot and survival checks! Everyone should make a survival check.
If you are on, or go to the south side of the tower you need to make a spot check. I also made a slight miscalculation, the tower should extend another 15 feet up since the cylinder wall is that think on top as well. It doesn't make a big difference for you folks but for the sake of accuracy and all that...

[Toliudar]

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Fiona Spot check: (1d20+21)[34]
Fiona survival check: (1d20+15)[22]

Ex Machina Spot check: (1d20+35)[38]
Ex Machina survival check: (1d20+10)[27]

[Sxoa]

A fell wind blows. I recognize it from a campaign against the Yugoloths on Minethys. A flaywind sandstorm approaches. We have perhaps a minute or two before it is upon us my friends. Ex Machina's words ring out in your minds. St. Fiona similarly recognizes the signs of the approaching flesh rending storm. Sure enough, the breeze is already starting to pick up.

[Kat Steel]

Martina

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survival - (1d20+17)[9](26)

"Maybe we should seek shelter is there is any to be found around here? We may have to go back in there."

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

Mr. Stabby emerges from the mist of the ink water with a kettle and tea cup in his hands. After pooring himself a cup and sipping from it he says
"Well, I imagine you chaps aren't the ones I entered this place with. How do you do?

*continues sipping tea*

"Storm...?

*squints*

[TheMeanDM]

We can burrow down into the sand and wait the storm out, or we can re-enter the tower. If we reenter the tower, we have no idea where we will end up.

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already did spot

survival
(1d20+15)[22]

knowledge, nature re: flaywind storms:
(1d20+21)[32]

Gregor lands upon the ground, and beckons Artan to come down with him. He shapeshifts into a strange creature that looks heavily armored.

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"Well now, you might think I'm tasty, but I assure you that the twenty or so years I spent swimming in the Styx left me very unpalatable.

He puts away his kettle and tea cup once again.

[Sxoa]

Gregor remembers sitting at the desert campfire with the old bhuka druid back on his home world. The wiseman picks up a hand full of sand and lets it dribble out into the wind as he begins speaking.
The wind can carry the sands as you know. Truly that is how all these dunes form. Most of the time the waste is content to do this slowly, carrying each grain on a light breeze. But sometimes it becomes inpatient or angry, and then the winds blow hard and fast. They drive the sand before them and it stings the eyes and chokes the mouth and nose. It can even tear away the skin if it is blowing fast enough. Rarely, there comes a even more potent danger though. The Ghak'ti, the flaywind in your tongue. It is not a natural wind that drives the sand in the flaywind but angry spirits of the desert. They drive the sand with such speed that it will strip the flesh from the bone in minutes. There is no way to guard against the wind save complete shelter. A building or the like, but take care that you are not trapped therein by the enveloping sand, lest your shelter become your tomb! A storm normally lasts several hours but I have heard tales of storms lasting for days at a time.

[TheMeanDM]

Resuming ape form, Gregor yells (and thinks) "We need to get back inside! We need shelter, NOW!!" as loudly as he can.

"Memphis!" he cries out, running after the rust monster. "I need you, now!"

"I remember you said you're a transmuter by trade. Can you transform the sand in this area into rock?"

He spreads out his hands to indicate about a 50 foot area in front of the "door" that they created.

[Kat Steel]

Martina

** oh bugger, back in the water ** she thinks to her self

The elven woman begins picking up her arrows again in puts them in her quiver, and put the rest of her equipment away, making sure once again everything is in its rightfull place and within easy reach.

She walks over to the other side of the Grinder where it seems most of the party has converged, she looks around at the strange array of creatures, she recognizes soem by their voices but the "rat" seems to puzzle her.

"I don't remember seeing you earlier? Did you walk into this place with us? I'm Martina, you are?"

Before Mr Stabby stands a petty she elf, HHH on her back, quiver strapped to her leg and a Comp longbow in hand. She has green eyes and coppery colored hair, she isn't particullar attractive, specially when you see the scar running down the right hand side of her face.

[GryffonDurime]

Teliron

Teliron lands swiftly as he hears his companion's cries, and gestures to the two Eidolons on his back.

"Prepare yourselves. You know how to best enhance our spellcraft." They nod, and he looks up to his friends again. "My eidolons can double any spell you cast. More protection is always advisable, yes?"

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Telrion's Eidolons are set to Twin so we can have more control over the size/stability of the structure. If Persist works on Wall of Force through Metamagic effect, he can also contribute some additional walls to the project.

[Seribro]

The sand to stone spell. I heard of it but never mastered it. Give me a moment to tap into the pool.
The rustmonster begins to return to his natural Memphis form and concentrates real hard on his ring to establish a conduct to the spellpool of the order.

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free action shift shape, full round action call spell level 5
From "Sandstorm"

TRANSMUTE SAND TO STONE
Transmutation [Earth]
Level: Druid 5, sorcerer/wizard 5
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: Up to two 10-ft. cubes/level (S)
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: No

This spell transforms a mass of sand of any depth into solid stone permanently.

Any creature in the sand is allowed a Reflex save to escape before the area is hardened to stone.
If the creature fails its save, it is entangled and can’t move. It is not considered helpless, however, and
it can break out by damaging the stone. Stone has hardness 8 and 15 hit points per inch of thickness. The creature can also make a Strength check to break free. The break DC is 20, +2 per inch of thickness of the stone.

Once the spell fills up the empty void in his mind, Mempish begins his chanting, warning everybody at forehand to move back and Intellect to widen the spell for maximum potential. When the spell begins to take shape on the eastside of the tower, its area becomes quite large. The top layer transmuted is a square of 100 feet by 100 feet, 20 ft deep. At the centre a column of 20x20 ft stretches 320 feet straight down. ((40 cubes of 20 ft each))
Weasel, purple worm shape, tunnel those rocks.
The second rustmonster comes hurrying up while exchanging his small limbs for large plates of bone. When at the centre of the stone field, he begins to dig down into the column.

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Memphis second round: Cast spell, move onto it.
Weasel: move to centre of the stonefield, free action shape change purple worm, standard action dig into stone

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"A pleasure to meet you all, I look forward to introductions and news of my lost companions, however. It is time to hide."

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Mr. Stabby activates his ring of invisibility and swiftly moves into the tunnel made by the worm.

[TheMeanDM]

"Thank you Memphis!" Gregor says, floating down to the stone slab.

"Everyone, converge on me!" he yells physically (and mentally).

"I need a Twinned, Empowered Spell!!" he speaks to the closest Eidolons.

He begins chanting, and upon ending the spell, a massive stone slab appears, which then bends downward, anchoring itself to the newly created stone slab. Then, it wraps upward and around the group and extends at an angle up toward the metal pillar. A second slab appears, and connects to the first, continuing toward the metal tower.

The slab gets to within about one foot of the cylinder and then stops, allowing everyone to still see out into the surrounding landscape, but still offering more than ample protection from the flaywind.

You'd estimate it to be about 25 feet tall at it's highest point, and fifteen feet tall at it's lowest.

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Casting Wall of Stone.

I can create a wall that is normally 4.5" thick, with 18 five-foot squares.

Reduce the thickness by 1/2 to 2.25" for 36 five-foot squares.
Twin the spell, and I can create another 36 squares for a total of 72 squares. Both empowered for +50% would be a total of 108 squares.

If I were to build a "full" box, without the sloped roof, and make it 25h x 15w x 60l that would require a total of...um... 60 squares per side and 15 squares for the "front" wall..so a total of 135.

Now, by sloping the roof, that would cut some squares off (and make the sand slide off--which would reduce the weight on the roof).

So having this spell Twinned & Empowered would enable me to generate enough squares, right?

Here is a side view of the structure and how it will be shaped vertically. There is also a picture of how close it gets to the tower, and how it's shaped (which you can do as you cast the spell):

[img]
http://www.geocities.com/jason_milte...ildingplan.jpg
[/img]

[TheMeanDM]

strange, it shows my msg, but not on the main page as being the latest....

[TheMeanDM]

"Fiona, can you aid me with a final wall?" Gregor requests of the Saint.

[Toliudar]

Fiona

Drifting into the construction site, Fiona sends a soft mental response.

Of course. Joy, if you could be ready to twin this for me.

Fiona adds her own construction, following Gregor's mental image of what he is trying to construct, Fiona waits for the others to gather inside the brand new structure, and casts Wall of Stone.

[GryffonDurime]

Teliron

Teliron shifts again, assuming the form of an intangible sphere of light, and enters the structure happily...at least, as happily as an intangible sphere of light can appear to be.

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Ghaele form! Not that I don't trust you all, but I figure I'll hedge my bets with intangability.

[Douglas]

Ranvor

Ranvor settles into the structure being assembled and watches. His specialty is fighting more concrete opponents than the environment, and he has very little to contribute against a sandstorm.

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Amusing rules-lawyery reasoning: A flaywind does a mere 1d4 (1d3 if you're wearing heavy clothing or any armor) damage per round. We have fast healing 3. It would be very painful and get rid of our temp hp, but we can actually out-heal the storm's damage without doing anything, so we're not in any actual danger if this storm follows the book rules. Not that I object to seeking shelter, especially not IC, I'm just amused by how that works out.

[Kat Steel]

Martina

Joins the group in the shelter

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

Mr. Stabby is in the shelter as though he was there the whole time.

[Toliudar]

Fiona

As the group settles in and the structure completed, Fiona turns to the little rat who has inobtrusively joined them. Her voice is firm, but not unkind.

Well, perhaps it is time for introductions. I am Fiona, and this is Joy -

She gestures briefly to the tiny man on her shoulder.

May I ask who you are, and what you are doing here?

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"Of course my dear" He takes off his top hat in a courteous bow before putting it back on "My name is Mr. Stabby, I am pleased to make your aquaintance, and to answer your question I was doing quite the same thing as you. Surviving. A trick it seems I accomplished far better than my previous companions, judging by the scent of fairy and minotaur blood on my clothes." His empty sockets open wide as he quickly continues "Not that I had anything to do their sad fate. In fact I have no idea what happened to them after I started to search for an exit from that teapot we jumped into... I will miss them though... they made these old bones laugh" a single tear of green necromantic fluid seeps from his empty eye sockets.

He then produces a kettle and teacup perfectly sized for a rat and pours himself some tea, making a silent toast to their memory.

[Toliudar]

Fiona

Trying very hard not to think about what the world would be like if this strange creature were to receive the powers of a god, Fiona decides to return courtesy with courtesy, and bows as best she can in the constrained conditions they find themselves in. She speaks a bit more loudly to go over the wind rising outside.

Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, er, Mister Stabby. I'm sure that our acquaintance will be - educational.

[Toliudar]

Are we missing Sxoa? What's up?

[Kat Steel]

Martina

The young elf, sits down and looks at the fletching of her arrows making sure they haven't been ruined.

She sits quietly her eyes watching the group, in particular the newest member, her mimble finger smooth the fletchings.

[Seribro]

when Weasel is getting up to steam, the shasm deepens and more rocks, sand, mud and dirt get excreted into the shelter. Memphis takes on the shape of a girallon and begins throwing and shuffling the purple worms 'faeces' out of the shelter.
Welcome on board Stabby. Anyone who can survive long enough to find us, is good enough be part of the team. Condolences with your former partners though. May their souls rest in pieces. I mean peace! May their soul rest in peace! I'm sorry, it's the expedition thing. It tends to make me a bit cold and sarcastic. It's how I learned to deal with the high mortality rate of this kind of undertakings. Hell, if it weren't for these guys here, I too would have kicked the proverbial bucket. That reminds me of the time...
With a heavy boulder under each of his four arms the girralon walks outside to drop the stuff of. Weasel had to drasticly slow down his digging or else to much debris would pile up behind him. And since he is tunnelling straight down... The girralon wobbles back inside and begins collecting another four armloads
... that I was just a rookie among the archaeologists. I wasn't exactly new to the whole cavity thing or spellcasting. After all, I am a deep Imaskarian who travelled the underdark from the middle layers all the way up to the surface. But I was new to the whole lost-tombs-expedition kind of thing. If there is one thing I do know now...
The ape dissapears back outside again. When he comes back, sand is everywhere in his fur and he leaves a light trail of it as he walks back to the excavation site.
... then it is that when a tomb goes lost, there probably is a good reason for it. Shall I tell the entire story, or would that just annoy you youngsters? If it does, don't be afraid of my feelings. Hell, I remember all to well what I was like, impatient and allways more interested in action then words.
Memphis began rolling out a chunk that was just to large to carry while lifting two smaller pieces on his shoulders

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"Actually I would quite like to hear your story sir, if you don't mind. Travel the planes long enough and you find that stories and experiences are worth more than any physical wealth."

He continues to sip tea as he pays rapt attention.

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Any of you that have played Planescape: Torment would probably agree with Mr. Stabby. I went around talking to EVERYONE in that game, it was so well written. On a sidenote I'm trying to recall the buffs that my last group left on Mr. Stabby. If you notice a hole in his defensive web (for those with Arcane Sight and such) feel free to put any spell on him.

Edit: Apparently I have Shield of Faith +5 (I think I only have a few hours left), Magic Vestment +5 (same), Ebon Eyes (same), Heroes Feast, and an extended Stone Bones spell. I also have conviction up but undead don't benefit from morale bonuses so its a moot spell (cast on the whole group 3)

Edit2: Prestidigitation to remove the ink, blood, and sand would be appreciated too.

[Sxoa]

The wind begins to howl louder and louder outside until it is a mighty roar. The small amounts of natural light coming into your shelter seem to fade away rapidly as you imagine everything outside is consumed by an all encompassing brown out. Sand blasts against the outside of your shelter with enough force that you can hear an odd sound akin to rain on the inside. The sand also blasts against the side of the tower of iron, and while most of it gets picked up again by the wind before dropping down, the sand near your shelter's gap drops down inside. A small drift of sand is beginning to form. Additionally a large volume of dust does not appear to be settling readily, and the thin gritty cloud rapidly blows over you and down into the tube. Those of you who breathe begin to cough as it encroaches into your airways. Despite all this, some of the more naturally aware among you notice a slight elevation in temperature.

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I was gone, but now I'm back!

Everyone make survival checks. Since at least one of you is bound to make it, you detect an incoming furnace wind (pg 22 Sandstorm), supernatural winds that do fire damage. You figure you've got about a minute before it hits.

Since its once again important (for a number of reasons) we're once again on a round by round count. You guys can act in any order you want but there is a limited amount you can accomplish in one round.