The Grinder Group 2

[TheMeanDM]

"Hold your story for a bit, Memphis." Gregor says, c-ocking his ear upward.

He places a hand upon the stone wall momentarily.

"There is a Furnace Wind coming." he says calmly. "We are protected, but I don't know if our new friend is." he looks at the undead rat.

"Are you protected from fire?"
rolling for survival check

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(1d20+15)[20]

I hate this roller, I really do. But at least I made the check...

We're Immune to Fire, as we have Energy Immunity: Fire going on us right now.

He tears a strip of cloth from his cloak, and ties it around Artan's nose.

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check for applying cloth to prevent choking of Artan
DC 15 (I think)
[roll]1d20+15[/roll]
ok..not sure why that didn't work..but here's an IC roll:
1d20+15=22

"If any of you have trouble breathing, I will aid you in making a mask."

[Kat Steel]

Martina

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

The she elf pulls a bit of cloth from her HHH and ties it around her nose and mouth trying to keep the dust and sand from her airways. Being innune to the Fire damage the winds usually brings with them, she puts everything away in her HHH, making sure only her quiver and bow are out, just in case of trouble.

"I would suggest we all try to cover nose and mouth with cloth to avoid eating a lot of sand".

[Toliudar]

Ex Machina

The solar's voice is surprisingly soft, if a bit tense.

Ah, Gregor? I'm not sure that Mr. Stabby needs to worry about, ah, choking. Thoughtful though it is of you to think of it.

Both Ex Machina and Fiona do what they can to cover their own mouths and noses.

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"Unfortunately I have no resistance against any element. If one of you have a bag of holding or a handy haversack I can ride out this storm in there. No portable holes though, if you please, I've had quite enough of those types of mishaps to last two lifetimes."

As he finishes his statement he puts his kettle and teacup away.

[Seribro]

Memphis jumps down the hole and glides down over the purple worms back.
Weasel, remember the blob from the fungus caves in the Wyrm Backs? Get above me and plug the hole will you.
Weasel crawls back up and his shape begins to chance once more. Within a few seconds the long purple body becomes an unidentifiable blue-green goo known as the gelatine cube. This body neatly fills in with the rough edges and covers it perfectly. It leaves for a small opening down at one side however, just in case anyone else wishes to climb down.

[Sxoa]

To the dismay of all who are tying cloth over their noses and mouthes, the grit seems to be fine enough that it can path though fabric without hindrance. The cloying dust continues to encroach on your airways.

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Knowledge Nature checks

[TheMeanDM]

(you aren't making this easy, are you? :)

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(1d20+22)[42]

[Kat Steel]

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nope not easy at all

nature - (1d20+14)[1](15)

what the .....

[Seribro]

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are Memphis and Intelect safe in the hole, plugged by gelatinie-weasel? knowledge nature:
(1d20+20)[28]

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

"For those of you who can, I suggest taking the form of something that doesn't breath, undead and such. For those who can't I'd recommend conjuring up Desmodu Breath Masks. If you can't do either I hope someone can resurrect others among you or you may meet a terrible fate."

That said he scrambles up Martina and slips into her Handy Haversack.

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Sorry for the scramble but I don't want Mr. Stabby to burn and she's the only one who's character sheet I could read.

Climb (1d20+20)[36]

Ultimately, Mr. Stabby is a coward, and the only way he sees to make it through this is to hide out. If Martina dies I assume her equipment will burn to kindling making the worst case scenario that Mr. Stabby will be ejected onto the Astral Plane, never to return (unless he has someone who will eventually scry for him, which I'd like to think he does). Either way he will 'survive'.

[Sxoa]

Gregor remembers more of his conversation with the old bhuka druid.
More dangers eh? Well this one you will not find in my waste, but in the ancient libraries of the dead city of Ahnk'Motept I read of a terrible substance their sages named moondust. It is like sand and dust of our world but so fine that it flows like water through even the most tightly woven cloth. Only magics and solid barriers could stop it from choking the life out of a living being.

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of course I'm not making it easy! It's the grinder after all. It wouldn't be all that satisfying an accomplishment if all you had to do was kill a goblin with a rusty knife.

As long as Weasel is blocking the entire hole no moondust permeates him, but if he's leaving a gap, some will get down.

[Seribro]

((Okay, either jump down the rabithole or counter up another stoneshape/wall of stone to seal the bunker, cause I am not going to keep the jelly open for longer then two rounds.))

[Kat Steel]

Martina

As Mr Stabby clambers up the young she elf, she shreeks at being touched by the undead creature, usually something she kills not sociallizes with. She hears Gregor speaking about the Moondust but is almost too busy trying to catch Mr Stabby as he disappears into her HHH.

As Gregor's words sink in Martins grabs her kit and dash to where Menhis is, if Weasel in cube form can cover the whole properly then they might all survice.

[Toliudar]

Ex Machina

Ex Machina turns to Sympathy and mentally inquires: I'll be casting a spell in a moment. I hope you won't mind lengthening it - in case we need to return to this surface hide-away abruptly? The solar takes the measure of their strange shelter, and gestures around the exposed rim of it as the angel intones a brief spell.

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Casting a [Eidolon-extended] version of Wind Wall.

Edited because of Toliudar's ongoing lessons in metamagic.

[Douglas]

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Wind Wall isn't fixed range, so it can't be persisted.

[Sxoa]

The wall of swirling air seems to be blocking most of the dust but small amounts still appear to be getting through.

[Toliudar]

Fiona

Once again able to breath, if a little raspily, Fiona sends her thoughts to the others.

Well, charming though this little cubby-hole is - shall we get digging?

[Paladin Latham]

Mr. Stabby

Mr. Stabby peeks out from Martina's haversack.

"Righto! Let me know when you need my help."

Then he goes back to hiding.

[TheMeanDM]

posting for MIA Memphis to move things along:

Memphis looks at Weasel and says "Back to the grind...err..Grinder, I suppose." and then winks, a smile on his face.

He transforms himself back into the crustacean-like Rust Monster, with Weasel following suit.

The flying rust monster floats five feet into the air and touches his antenna to the tower. The rusting touch dissolves away a ten-foot cube of the tower, creating a ten-foot tall opening that is level with the ground, extending ten-feet into the tower.

The shapechanged mage descends, then shambles six feet into the newly created opening, and touches his antenna to the floor. Another ten-foot cube of metal is dissolved instantaneously, leaving a one-foot thick wall on the "ground" side to prevent a cave-in, and a four-foot thick wall on the "tower" side.

"Follow my lead, Weasel." the mage says to his companion.

The two flying rust mosters begin the descent downward, dissolving the tower and leaving the remaining support walls.

The pair continue to "dig" until they either encounter an end to the tower, open space, or some other "challenge" that the group needs to know about.

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Here is how it would look, drawn out. The dashed line is the 10' chunk that they take out to create the opening.

[Sxoa]

The steel corrodes away before the two creatures readily, with only the occasional second touch being required. Descending perhaps another 60 feet downward the metal corrodes out into a patch of sand. The wall appears to be slanting down and towards the center line of the tower.

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| |
| |______ Ground level
? |
? / <--- You are here abouts
????

Something like that if that makes any sense, I'll make a better picture if required. ? are places you haven't been so you don't know.

[TheMeanDM]

"Well folks, looks like we've struck...sand." the mage jokes mentally.

"Gregor, can you come here a moment?" Memphis telepathically thinks.

The druid descends down the hole.

"What do you think?" Memphis asks.

"Well, if it's filled with water, and we open a hole here, this shaft will fill with water...then we're back where we started." the druid ponders a moment.

"I've an idea. Head back up the hole a bit."

Memphis and weasel flight up the hole about ten feet and hover in mid air.

Gregor shapechanges into the form of a medium-sized earth elemental.

He then sinks down into the sand, and begins to follow the the tube, attempting to move "upwards" at various points along the way to see if the tube is still above him.

He follows the tube as far as fifty feet will take him, and then returns to report his findings.

ooc: what'd I find?

[Sxoa]

Gregor "swims" through the packed sand touching the metal following the slope until it ends and begins back up again.

Forming a mental image of the tower, Gregor pictures that it in shape the tower is a simple fusion of two geometric shapes; a cylinder sitting on top of a cone embedded in the surface of the desert.

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How long does the windwall last?

[TheMeanDM]

Can you draw a picture of that?

windwall lasts 40 rounds

Each round represents 6 seconds in the game world

so...4 minutes...

[Seribro]

Ah, yes! I got it. What he means is, it looks like this:
. . ____ . .
. . || || . .
. . || || . .
.__|| ||__
: ::|| ||:::
: ::|| ||:::
::::\\ //::::
:::::\./::::
::::::::::::

and we just reached the tip

Which is odd cause it means there is no reservoire. Is it just a portal to the plane of water after all? If that be the case, we should probably try to seal it.

Or it could be a portal to the "next level"
Perhaps we should try and corrode/break the tip of and see if we can create a "back entrance".

[TheMeanDM]

If this is indeed what we're finding, then my thought is to:

1) get as close to the tip as we can...or maybe even just where the "x" marks the spot
2) use Sand to Stone again to dig a shaft of stone down into the sand (the "o" on the drawing)
3) tunnel through the shaft
4) then, after the shaft is cleared out, "punch" a hole into the metal of the tower, allowing the water to drain out (which should be fairly quick, eh?)
5) enter

. . ____ . .
. . || || . .
. . || || . .
.__|| ||__
: ::|| ||:::
: ::|| ||:::
::::\\ //::::
:::::\./x:::
::::::::o:::
::::::::o:::
::::::::o:::
::::::::o:::

[TheMeanDM]

"Let's keep following this, Memphis." Gregor says, pointing at the metal wall of the what he now thinks of as a 'spike'.

"Dig us the same king of shaft, if you and weasel would, please. We can follow it to the end, or thereabouts, and punch through...possibly surprising whatever might be in there."

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ooc: by same kind of shaft, I mean one that keeps metal in between us and the sand.

[Seribro]

You... want to go down diagonally? Well... It's possible... I think... But we need to be careful and you will need give us some guiding to see if we have the angle more or less right.

With the utmost care, the two rustmonsters begin tunnelling a diagonal path through the cones shell, just a little steeper on the vertical axe to be on the safe side. A few times a small patch of sand is shown when they go a bit to steep, but with minor corrections they manage to keep pretty much on track, although the tunnel is far from as smooth as the vertical used to be.

Are we almost there yet? It would be a shame if we ended up next to the tip rather then in it.

Intelligence check to see if his calculations are correct (1d20+13)[30]

[Sxoa]

Memphis and Weasel manage to tunnel out a cozy little pocket in the tip of the cone.

[Toliudar]

Fiona

Mentally calling forward to Memphis, Fiona says: So, no break yet? Might as well turn upwards and tunnel up.

[Seribro]

A little worried about what this might cause, Memphis tries dissolving the bottom first and checking for any particular magical aura's other then those they create them selves and the hue that the metal tube itself seems to radiate. If that comes up with nothing, they dissolve the metal overhead and thereby open the tunnel towards the inside of the spike.