A Fool's Errand

[an kobold]

Kat

Eh, I'll try the wall. Somebody better be ready to catch me if gives way though. Bob, hold off a bit on trying to open the hatch while I do this.

Kat moves directly on to the invisible patch of wall. Taking a moment to try and wipe her hands and the stone dry, she begins to feel around the perceived void for any breaks in the surface.

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It never hurts to be certain .
Searching Invisible Wall - (d20+17)[37]

[Lazlow]

With the practiced precision of a purloining professional, Kat begins to feel around on the invisible wall, looking much like a floating mime running through a glass box routine.

Kat:

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This happens the exact same time as what your companions see below: Towards the top of the entryway landing (which is only about 8 or 9 feet high) you feel a thin space, or separation, in the wall, running vertically. Following it up, overhead (as you're facing the wall) for a few feet and back down again, you're positive that there is, indeed, an invisible door set into this invisible wall.

As you sit perched on your hands and knees at the top of this invisible door, facing downward (back toward the passageway you just ascended) and feeling the outline of the door, your hand brushes against what you feel to be a hinge - or at least you think it was - but the split second your hand meets the small protrusion on the door/wall, you feel yourself flung inward, toward the short passageway on the other side of the invisible wall. Thanks to your Cloak of Spider Climb you stick tenaciously (albeit a bit comically, as well) to the surface of the invisible door and are thankfully not thrown onto your back on the hard stone surface of the passageway floor. You hear the invisible door fall into place with a loud, solid CLUNK.

You quickly deduce the situation: The door apparently pivoted on an horizontal axis set in the middle of the doorway. Rather than swing all the way around again, it latched into place after half a rotation. You are inside the passageway, but there is still an invisible wall (and invisible door) between you and your companions.

Exactly one second after the door latches into place (with you still stuck on the bottom of it, looking up toward the ceiling), you hear a distant "sssshhhhhhhunk!", followed by a closer "shink!", which just so happens to coincide with a number of smallish holes opening up in the ceiling above you, from which water begins to steadily stream forth.

The water streaming out is rather loud, although not quite deafening. You are unable to hear your companions on the other side of the wall while you're in here, and they cannot hear you, so please put any in-character dialogue in spoilers for me only. Obviously they can still see you through the invisible wall/door, so feel free to describe your actions and any other sort of non-verbal communication you want to convey to them.

As your cat-burgling comrade* feels her way around the invisible wall, seemingly perched in mid-air on her hands and knees facing back down toward you all, you suddenly see her "fall" inward and downward. In the space of a second she swings backward and downward, until she comes to an abrupt stop toward the bottom of the landing, yet facing upward and apparently on the other side of the invisible wall - or rather, the invisible door she just found, which latches back into place with a loud CLUNK and her on the other side. Exactly one second after the "CLUNK" you hear a very distant "sssshhhhhhhunk!"

Bob, Oli:

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You notice water pouring in small but steady streams through the ceiling in the short passageway in which your burgling buddy now finds herself.

*Gimme a break, alliteration ain't always, er, amenable...

[oliana0]

Oli

"Well, there's a door! Of course, it appears to also be a trap. So, uh, likely we either get wet or Kat drowns. I guess we get wet. Anyone have anything sturdy we can jam into that hatch to hold it open?"

If anyone does, Oli will grab it from them, and if not he will just sigh.

"Those of you still on the stairs, brace yourself for water." Oli grabs the reins of Fsu and flicks them hard, against nothing, actually. The reins glow for a moment, Fsu wines a little and the two float off the ground for a moment before Oli guides Fsu up as if on an invisible spiral staircase. At the top, Oli reaches into his pack and pulls out a crowbar, handing it to Bob. "Here, you get that hatch open, I'll try to get Kat out."

Oli turns to the invisible wall and sighs. He moves Fsu above the area where he thinks the door was and pulls out an arrow. He uses the arrow to feel around for any pressure plate or trigger that Kat may have set off.

"Oh, Kat, Kat, Kat. What have you gotten yourself into? This is a horrible way to die! If you can hear me, please stay attached to that wall, I want this door to open and fling you out, not open and then you still be stuck in there. Genericus please help us out. These are all good people, I think and they deserve to complete this mission and live another day to serve you."

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Using Reins of Ascension to fly at normal speed for 5 rounds. Oli will keep up there as long as he can; a fall from this height is less dangerous to him than Kat's situation. If Bob still can't get the hatch open, Oli will cast Bull's Strength on him before the reins give out.

Please note, he's trying to stay out of the way he thinks the door moved.

[Hank Pym]

Ric

Ric moves up the tight passage past Dan, to take a look at what's going on. He goes white when he sees Bob with a crowbar.

"Please, wait! Don't open that yet!"

He sees Oli jabbing at thin air with an arrow and Kat caught by some unseen trap. This causes him to pause, then pull out a scroll, which he casts a spell off of.

"Here, Oli, I'll be able to help you with that once I get up there! If we get Kat, then we can let the water drain through from behind the hatch into the chamber where she is. Then we can go through the hatch without any harm."

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Ric moves up to where he can see Oli and (at least part of) Kat. He throws See Invisibility from a scroll, takes a moment to examine the wall and door. If he doesn't see any immediate threat to Oli poking about with an arrow, he climbs up to help.

Climb check: (1d20+4)[7]

[Lazlow]

Oli floats up on Fsu and hands Bob a crowbar, then pulls out an arrow and starts prodding the door.

Oli:

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You poke a bit at the invisible wall but other than reaffirming that it is indeed made of thick, heavy metal, you can't determine much else.

Ric pushes past Dan, calls to Oli and Bob, and casts a spell from a scroll. He then tries to climb up to the landing but slips a bit, not making much progress.

Ric:

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You can see, quite clearly now, an iron wall with an iron door set in the middle. The wall fills the entire opening of the landing (about 10 feet wide (or 15, can't remember but I mentioned it in an earlier post) and maybe 8 or 9 feet tall). Oli is poking around towards the middle of the door, but as he moves his hand you think you can make out some sort of inset panel or depression or something, where a doorknob or keyhole would normally be (on the right side of the door).

[Hank Pym]

Ric

Ric's eyes glow a pale purple with divination magic as he scans the unseen wall and door and starts to climb.

"To your right, Oli! There's a latch of some sort, but be careful that the door doesn't flip and knock you in, too -- OW!"

He's interupted as his feet slip and he falls ungracefully back to where he started. "mutter, grumble, grumble . . . "

He tries again.

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Crumbs. Ric tries to climb up again. I don't know how quickly the water is flooding Kat's chamber, so I'm not sure how time-sensitive this is, but he's trying to get up and help as quick as he can . . . so he's just going to try again.

Lazlow, if this has to take place on the next "round" then I understand (and if he fails again, I'll probably just try again on the following round).

Climb check: (1d20+4)[12] (come on! come on!)

[oliana0]

Oli

"Oh, can you see it then? Excellent. Guide my, well, I'm going to use the bow; that way I can do it from a distance. Yes, yes, guide my bow, please! Oh, and please be ready to move out of the way, these reins don't work forever."

Oli nudges Fsu away from the wall and pokes at the door with guidance of Ric.

[an kobold]

Kat

Knowing that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to keep calm, Kat takes a thorough glance around the room she's found herself in before taking another "look" at the door. Remaining stuck to it as she was, she begins to search for the hinge she touched before while addressing the others across the wall.

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Um. . .how quickly is the water coming in ?

Spot for the room - (d20+13)[16]
Searching the door - (d20+17)[35]

Well, that just revolutionized my whole view, though it looks like we might have a solution. Hopefully when I get out of here, the water will keep draining, letting Bob open the hatch without drenching those below. Look in the center of the invisible panel on your side, there might be something there as well. Just as long as I wind up over there and no one else over here, mind you.

[Lazlow]

Those close to the landing (Bob and Oli) and those looking up can see Kat talking, but cannot hear anything (so kindly ignore anything said in kobold's spoiler, if you peeked, and kobold, please address any other spoilers like that specifically to me, thanks!).

Also, those close to the landing (or actually on the landing and stuck behind the invisible wall) see that the water is pouring in just a bit quicker now. There is a little less than a foot of water in that short passageway now, maybe 10" or so.

Ric tries once again to climb the slippery incline but, alas, doesn't quite make it (again).

Kat:

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Remaining calm, you feel the surface of the door and easily find what you believe to be the trigger that sprung the trapped door. However, it doesn't seem to be able to trigger again - you can move the mechanism back and forth but it doesn't seem to connect to anything at the moment.

All:

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Everyone roll initiative, please!

[Hank Pym]

Ric

Slipping and cussing once again back down to the base of the nearly vertical stairs, Ric takes a second to roll his neck, shake his hands, and touch his toes.

"Forgot to stretch out," he tells Dan whose body stands nearby, but whose mind is in its own world.

He takes an exagerated deep breath and then starts up again.

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This is just embarrassing.

Once more (perhaps?) into the breach! Climb: (1d20+4)[12]

And initiative (initative?! ): (1d20+3)[20]

Oh, for CRYING OUT LOUD! So, with my high initiative, perhaps I can cause our opponent to bust out laughing through the first round at my futile attempts to climb.

[an kobold]

Kat

A more and more perturbed looking Kat appears to press at something towards the center of the patch of air she's being suspended from before dropping down feet first into the rising water. She then begins investigating the walls immediately next to the solid "opening" while mouthing something in a purposeful manner.

For the DM's eyes only (cue Bond music)

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Sorry about that the first time . I knew I was forgetting something. . .but midterms are over, so I should be less flaky in the future.

Well, that's a little bit of frustrating. Keep working on finding a switch over there, it shouldn't be that hard to find. I'll check to see if there are any mechanisms off to the side of the door on this side.

Initiative - (d20+9)[24]
Search - (d20+17)[36]

[oliana0]

Oli

Oli continues to try to set off the switch without getting caught in the box himself.

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Init - (1d20+4)[22]

[Lazlow]

OOC:

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To keep things rolling along...

Initiative
Bob - (1d20+1)[19]
Dan - (1d20+4)[13]

Alrighty, actions please!

Initiative order (for the party):
Kat
Oli
Ric
Bob
Dan

[an kobold]

Kat

Standing in a foot of rising water, Kat quickly feels along the solid, visible wall just next to the "window" keeping the water in with her.

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Search - (d20+17)[35]

[Hank Pym]

Ric

Fed up with the slick steps, Ric stops trying to climb and concentrates on watching the tip of Oli's bow and walking him through how to open the latch.

"A little over to the right. Yes, that's it. Now, a bit dow--OH! No, over the other way. The OTHER way. Yes, yes, there you go!"

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Hopefully, with my help Oli can get that door open.

[Diarmuid]

Bob

Not really knowing what else to do, but not wanting to cause the grate to drop any more water, the cleric calls out to the gnome on his mount,

"Oli, stand aside. Genericus will assist me in bypassing this obstacle and freeing our floundering friend."

Having said that, he grasps his hammer in two hands and waits for the gnome to move.

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If Oli moves, Bob will mutter a prayer to Genericus to guide his throw true. (No actual spell is being cast, think more like Indigo asking his dead father to guide his sword)

With his faith in place, the dwarf begins to spin in the air, twirling the hammer over his head and after a few revolutions he unleashes his hammer in a twirling maelstrom at the invisible barrier between him and Kat.

Attack - (1d20+12)[29]
Damage - (2d8+5)[12]

[oliana0]

Oli

Oli continues to prod at the latch until asked to step aside. With worry in his face, he guides Fsu away from the wall.

[Lazlow]

Kat remains calm as the water steadily rises just over her knees. She searches the invisible wall...

Kat only:

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...and find what you unmistakably feel is a keyhole. But the hole for the key is in a strange depression, the shape of which seems familiar... What could that be...? AH! Yes, it's the same shape as the amulets found on the now-dead flesh golems!

Oli, fretting about his trapped friend, pokes and prods with Ric's help for a few moments, but reluctantly moves aside as Bob rears back with his hammer...

Ric, able to see the door and wall, guides Oli for a bit before the gnome moves away from the landing...

And Bob, hammer spinning overhead in a Mighty Marvel-ous way, releases his weapon as soon as Oli is clear. The hammer quickly flies the short distance to the invisible wall and with a resounding CLANG-NG-NG-NG!! bounces off the wall harmlessly.

...Or does it? A split second after the hammer bounces off, a loud ratcheting sound reverberates throughout the passageway, which apparently is connected somewhere to the hatch over our heroes' heads, as it suddenly opens and releases a torrent-u-lous deluge of water (albeit very slightly less torrentulous since a small amount of the water seems to have been funneled elsewhere for the moment) upon those unfortunate enough to be on this side of the wall.

Dan, having only a split second with which to act anyway, can only watch in... Well, whatever emotion he usually experiences when about to be swept down a staircase by a tidal wave.

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All but Kat: Roll strength checks, please!

[Hank Pym]

Ric

. . .

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Str check: (1d20+6)[11]

[Diarmuid]

Bob

Bob the dwarf let out a mighty roar of his god's name while unleashing the hammer that he had crafted in the perfect image of Genericus's weapon of choice (as he saw it).

The smile beaming from the dwarf at the resounding sounds was one of pride one might see on a father as his son throws his first perfect spiral of a football (whatever the heck one of those might be). He held his hands outstretched before him as if welcoming a loved one into his arms as the hammer twirled its way back to his loving grip.

So focused on his hammer is he, that he barely registered noise from above and looked up just in time to see the torrent barreling down at him and his companions. Thrusting his mighty weapon above him, as if the downpour would be split asunder and rain down to either side of him (though no such thing actually occurs), he is jarred by the weight of the water and tries to maintain his altitude through his spell of flight.

Strength Check - (1d20+2)[21]

[an kobold]

Kat

The rogue takes out one of the golem stones from where she was keeping it and holds it up to the part of the wall that is both very solid yet very invisible.

To DM:

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Sorry it's been so long since posting, my subscription updater goes a little screwy when the site goes down and a try to check.

What did I say? You just have to keep your wits about.
And well, Kat's putting the stone in the keyhole

[Lazlow]

Kat, standing in water above her knees now, grabs one of the amulets and feels around on the door where she just found the keyhole (OOC: Note, the wall is still very INvisible). She finds the depression and with a bit of twisting and turning, manages to set the amulet into its receptacle with a satisfying K-chink! - and immediately upon doing so, two things happen simultaneously: The water stops pouring into the landing passageway, and the trap door above the rest of the party in the main passageway closes back up, stopping the flow of water (for now).

Oli would have been swept away like a cork if it weren't for both his superior riding skill and his able-bodied mount, Fsu, who is able to twist and turn with the water, grabbing hold of the staircase with his claws. The gnome and his weasel cling tenaciously to the slippery stone of the passageway.

Ric, alas, is less lucky, and the water sweeps him off his feet and back down the passageway!

Miraculously, Bob is able to avoid being swept away by the deluge, but the water is bearing down hard on him. He manages to stay "afloat", or at least as "afloat" as he can be flying in the middle of the downpour.

Dan, nearly oblivious still, is swept up with Ric!

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Here's how this'll work: Those of you in the water will need to make a Str check (DC 15) each round to avoid being swept away, and if you make that, I'll let you make a Dex check (DC 10) to try and grab onto something. If you manage to grab onto something, then each round thereafter you'll only need to make a DC 10 Str check until the water stops flowing (which won't be long since Kat managed to disable the trap).

If you miss the initial DC 15 Str check, then you've still got one more chance to make a DC 15 Dex check to grab hold of something as you're being swept away, followed by a DC 10 Str check to keep hold of it.

So: Oli and Fsu need to make DC 10 Str checks to stay hanging onto the stairs. Bob needs to make a DC 10 Dex check to grab hold of something (unless he wants to make another DC 15 Str check next round). Ric and Dan can attempt DC 15 Dex checks to grab hold of something as they are swept away, as well as DC 10 Str checks to keep holding on if they make the Str checks.

Lots of checks, I know, but I just want to give you guys a fighting chance!

[an kobold]

Kat

Kat begins to beam for a moment as the water stops before the expression on her face turns sour, and she rushes to search another part of the invisible wall. Her mouth is clearly moving, as if she is saying something, and occasionally she looks down to where Ric was washed away.

To DM:

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I'm not really sure if the keyhole was in the center of the wall or a little bit to the side. If it was off to the side, Kat's trying to search the opposite end of the wall (ie, if it was off to the right, she's checking the left). If it was in the center, she's moving up and down along the access she found it on.

Search - (d20+17)[35]

Look on that side for a place the other amulet fits, Ric. You still have it, don't you?

[Hank Pym]

Ric

Ric tries to keep from being swept away by the deluge.

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Str Check: (1d20+6)[26]
Dex Check: (1d20+3)[5]

[oliana0]

Oli

Oli grips tight to Fsu and Fsu grips tightly to the stairs.

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OliStrength - (1d20)[7]
FsuStrength - (1d20+3)[10]

[Bitzeralisis]

Ugh, sorry about my lack of posting — this game just goes a bit slow for me. Is all you've done in my absence flooded the place?

Strength - (1d20)[1]
Dexterity - (1d20+4)[6]

[Lazlow]

Ugh, sorry about my lack of posting — this game just goes a bit slow for me. Is all you've done in my absence flooded the place?

[roll0]
[roll1]

It probably wouldn't go so "slow" if I didn't have to wait on your posts. Perhaps you'd be happier sticking with faster-moving games?

[Lazlow]

Kat feels around on the invisible door, looking for something, but as she searches, she feels the door swing open once again, although it doesn't flip all the way around like last time (she knows this as it doesn't whack her on the head). As it opens, the water in which she stands starts to rush out, attempting to drag her out with it. She remains firm, though, and manages to hang on to the invisible wall and keep from being swept out and down on top of her companions.

Oli, still clings tenaciously to Fsu, who in turn clings tenaciously to the staircase. Fsu actually seems to be enjoying this little bath.

Ric also stands firm against the onrushing torrent and manages to hold his ground, but cannot find anything nearby to hold on to for the moment.

Bob, hearing the trap door above him closing, thinks the worst is about over and manages to stay aloft (afloat?). However, in the instant afterwards (strangely enough the same instant that Kat manages to get the door open), the trap door opens once again. But it's not the force of another rush of water that knocks Bob down, no: It's something else, something very solid and, well, person-like. The once-flying Dwarf and whatever knocked into him hurtles down the staircase...

...and lands with a bone-crunching THUD on poor, hapless Dan, who seems to have remained oblivious right up to the end.

The remainder of the water rushes past and peters out in a second or two. Above you all there's a great gurgling noise, as of a giant toilet flushing.

After this great wet ordeal, you all remain pretty much where you were, with the notable exception of Bob, who finds himself sandwiched between a flattened wizard and what looks (to Ric, anyway, who's closest) to be a gray-furred person in semi-fancy robes.

The gray-furred person coughs and sputters, and slowly starts to stir...

Ric:

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Your keen Bardish eye notices that the robes this gray-furred person is wearing are of no recent design... In fact, you suspect that they are very old. Very, VERY old. Ancient, in fact, yet they seem to be in good repair (besides being soaked).

[oliana0]

Oli

Oli looks around at everyone. "Is everyone okay? Oh! What fun, falling hairy robed guys! Slightly more damaging than your average waterfall, but if you were stuck swimming around in that water, I suspect that you are happy to be free from it, no? Oh, dear, what has happened to Dan. Poor Dan. We barely knew ye', but that's because you never really spoke or did anything."

Oli aims Fsu down toward Dan and pokes him with the end of his bow. "Dead? Is he?"

[kentma57]

The creature jumps to it's feet, hissing and spitting it looks around "Ulraig!!!" clearly not happy it begins yelling, in a language you don't understand and glaring at these new people...

DM only

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Speaking in Old/Ancient Common, general cursing/swearing and questioning what is happening.