Through the Portal

[J-H]

Graaf-Niig
"I have lightning, that's it. And we've seen so far that it may not work that well. Diplomacy may be a good choice. I can cast Mage Armor on whoever's going to go in to protect them a bit better."

[JettWilderbeast]

Alanor
Well perhaps if I go in, if these things are humanoid I can become one of them, and I do happen to have rather good... people skills.

[Psionic Dog]

Outside the ruins:
The group is currently standing about 70 ft away from the ruins. Barag and Alanor have approached to within 30 ft of the ruins before returning in their attempts to detect something of the inhabitance within. If anyone saw them, it hasn't noticeably responded.

Alanor

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There are thinking minds within, but the stone walls are thick enough to prevent you from pinpointing any mind except for one sleepy, timid, and dull mind (int 1) on the roof.

Amilia:

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You catch glimpses of a crystalline object/creature that's moving/being carried inside with Oggy's assistance to point it out. Nothing else of interest can be seen.

Wound Total:
Oggy: -0hp
Alanor: -6hp
Barag: -6hp
Amilia: -0hp
Graaf-Niig: -0hp
Orian: -12hp

[Agthorr]

Amilia

"That sounds like a good plan, Alanor. Just be careful. Watch out for traps and try to stay hidden. Go the diplomatic route if it seems like they might be amenable, but don't take too many unnecessary risks, you know? Yell if you get into trouble." She smiles affectionately.

Amilia flitters to standing next to the open doorway, so that anything inside cannot see, or target, her. Then she turns invisible again for good measure.

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How far inside the structure does the crystalline creature/object appear to be?

[Psionic Dog]

The Ruin from ground view. Vegetation is thicker than it appears.

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Amilia

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It's moving, but only 5 -10 ft away from the near wall when you glimpsed the sparkling reflections from the thin rays of sun-like light filtering through small holes in the roof. The ruin interior is just dim enough to make it hard for someone standing outside in full daylight to see in.

Nothing jumps out and tries to eat or talk to Amilia.

In the distance frogs start a singing belching contest as the wildlife starts to resume normal activity following the excitement of the lizard-plant fight.

[J-H]

Graaf-Niig
"I have nothing but lightning, and best not to use that until we know what we may face.

Alanor..." Graaf-Niig touches the doppelganger on the shoulder, and the air shifts subtly around him before the effect vanishes from sight.

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Mage Armor, +4 to Armor AC. I don't believe it stacks with any existing magical Armor AC bonus. Duration 8 hours.
used Lv0-1, Lv1-3, Lv2-2, Lv4-1

[Legoshrimp]

Orian
"Should i cast detect magic so that we can see if the nature of what ever is in there is magical?"

[MorkaisChosen]

"It would be wise, Orian- I think they are unliving, I can smell only plants. We should still try to speak- they may have no reason, for those without life have no need for prey."

[JettWilderbeast]

Alanor
Alanor looks at those round him and says; I'll do my best to find some more out. If anything goes wrong, I'll uhh shout and get out.
Alanor moves into the doorway of the house looking for traps and anything else of interest while trying to remain incredibly stealthy.
If Alanor sees anything he will stop and study it.

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Search;(1d20+4)[20]
Spot; (1d20+3)[23]
Listen; (1d20+4)[17]
Move Silently; (1d20+2)[18]
Hide; (1d20+2)[10]

Also Alanor has darkvision to 60ft.

[Legoshrimp]

Orian
"Okay, but I will have to move closer for it to have any effect" Orian moves forty feet closer to the ruins then casts detect magic.

[Admiral Squish]

Oggy draws back his bow and waits for the ruin-dwellers to do anything hostile before firing.

[Psionic Dog]

Ye'ol DM dice curtain...

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Rolls for creatures that might not exist and that you have no reason to suspect as hostile even if they did exist.
Hypothetical Hide1 - (1d20)[13] Spot - (1d20)[19] Listen - (1d20)[20] Move Silently - (1d20)[6]
Hypothetical Hide2 - (1d20)[4] Hypothetical Hide1 - (1d20)[12] Spot - (1d20)[2] Listen - (1d20)[15] Move Silently - (1d20)[13]
Hypothetical Hide3 - (1d20)[10] Hypothetical Hide1 - (1d20)[18] Spot - (1d20)[13] Listen - (1d20)[16] Move Silently - (1d20)[8]
Hypothetical Hide4 - (1d20)[17] Hypothetical Hide1 - (1d20)[11] Spot - (1d20)[9] Listen - (1d20)[16] Move Silently - (1d20)[10]

The Battle Grid treasure map.

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White Boxes with black outlines are closed doors. White spaces with no outline are either open doors, or doorways with missing doors.

Soon after Alanor slips in the open door a booming voice calls out... something. None of you understand it. Any inhabitance appear to have moved deeper into the ruin. Nothing attacks.

Orain

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Round 1 & 2: Through the open doorway you detect 2 auras: the strongest is faint. If you keep concentration you will learn their locations, and if you roll two spellcraft checks you might learn something about the aura type.

[J-H]

Graaf-Niig
Graaf-Niig sidesteps to have as clear a view as possible past Orian (straight line into the doorway, between Amilia and Alanor).

He thinks for a second, and then casts a cantrip affecting the entire party. "I've cast Message so we can talk without drawing more attention to ourselves as we go inside. Alanor, whisper and I can hear you and relay it to everyone else. Try to stay out of line with the doorways--you will be less likely to silhouette yourself, and if you run into enemies I will still have a chance to blast them. If there are several, I am willing to risk a lightning bolt, and you don't want to be in its straight line."

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used: Lv0-2, Lv1-3, Lv2-2, Lv4-1

[Legoshrimp]

Orian
Checks

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spellcraft number 1 (1d20+8)[18] spellcraft number 2 (1d20+8)[26]

Then Orian moves out of Graaf-Niig line of sight to the doorway.

[MorkaisChosen]

Barag

Barag tells the others, "A simple beast should seem innocuous enough..." before shifting to full Wolf form and running towards the ruins.

[Psionic Dog]

From inside the ruin you can hear Alanor making an appeal: Please kind sir, do not hurt me, I am but lonely traveler looking for somewhere to rest my weary bones, tell me, who are you? which is repeated in a second language (but different from the one the voice is speaking in). The voice gives a reply, still in a language none of you understand.

Barag meanwhile shifts forms and advances to just outside the door across from Amilia. (Make a scent/spot/listen check if you enter the ruin)

Apart from the voice the ruins are quiet and still.

[Legoshrimp]

Orian
"There were two magic auras in the building. One is in 15 feet inside the building. The other I can not since any more. I do not recgnize either of the magics." said Orian as he walks back to the rest of the group.

[MorkaisChosen]

Barag lopes quietly into the ruins.

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Hide: (1d20+19)[32]
MS: (1d20+19)[36]
Scent: (1d20+15)[25]
Spot: (1d20+3)[4]
Listen: (1d20+3)[21]

[Psionic Dog]

Battle Map updated.
EDIT: And reposted.

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Inside the ruin Alanor continues to speak, and something he does causes the Voice to laugh, before shouting again as Barag suddenly steps through the door into the ruin.

Except for a pile of windblown debris that has collected in one corner, there is nothing for the wolf to hide behind except Alanor, who is the center of attention. Other than the loud voice two things happen: First, a dire rat runs up a wall, squeezes through a crack in the boarded window, and continues to scamper up the outside wall to the roof in frantic haste to escape the wolf. (the rat is now on the roof above M12)

Secondly, the half rotten door lying on the ground jerks up right with a creak, and wobbles through the doorway to try and tries to drive the 'wolf' back out of the ruin. Barag easily avoids the door. (The Door is now in J13)

[JettWilderbeast]

Alanor
Alanor stands from his kneeling posistion, the door is a strange event.... Alanor whispers very quietly so everyone hears with message; From what I can sense in here it isn't very clever... I think we should try and investigate without force but I'm beggining to think that we wouldn't lose to much information with force, still I'll check it out more...

Alanor moves through the doorway where the door came from.

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Knowledge (the planes); (1d20+1)[4]

OOC; might as well try to recognise it!

[MorkaisChosen]

Barag

Returning to his half-elf form, Barag says, "I smell death. Death and decay- and it moves..."

He seems to be disgusted by the smell of something so unnatural.

[J-H]

Graaf-Niig
Graaf advances to stand at Orian's side.

[Agthorr]

Amilia

Amilia continues to hold her position, arrow readied to fire on anything hostile that comes out of the door.

[Psionic Dog]

I guess by now everyone who has acted will act.

So, Graaf-Naag takes a step forward. Alanor... advances toward the door the voice and door came from. ((I original intended this to be the big heavy entrance door, but having it be a smaller interior door animated at N16 and moving to L13 to attack actually makes better sense, so I'll go with this)).

Anyway, Alanor never makes it through the doorway. As soon as he reaches L16 a pitch black silhouette of a humanoid creature rises up through the floor at L17 and attacks him. It's touch chills Alanor to the bone as he takes 3 points of strength damage.

Everyone, roll for initiative.

Edit: Rolling Spot and Listen couldn't hurt either.

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Attack - (1d20+3)[23] damage - (1d6)[3]
Ia - (1d20+2)[8]
Ib - (1d20+1)[20]
Ic - (1d20+1)[6]

[Agthorr]

Amilia

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Initiative: (1d20+6)[25]
Spot: (1d20+7)[21]
Listen: (1d20+7)[13]

[MorkaisChosen]

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(1d20+5)[21] for initiative.
Spot: (1d20+2)[21]
Listen: (1d20+2)[17]

[Legoshrimp]

Orian

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Initiative: (1d20-1)[3]
Spot: (1d20+5)[25]
Listen: (1d20+5)[17]

[Admiral Squish]

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Initiative: (1d20+4)[19](23)
Spot: (1d20+22)[6](28)
(1d20+17)[14](31)

[J-H]

Graaf-Niig

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Initiative - (d20+4)[12]
Spot - (1d20+1)[3]
Listen - (d20+1)[15]

[Psionic Dog]

Just to keep things moving I'll roll for Alanor and we can be on.

Alanor

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init - (1d20+2)[13]
spot - (1d20+3)[23]

Great spot checks everyone! (err, sorry Graaf-Niig.)

The group spots a black humanoid-shaped mass rise silently up through the floor and attack Alanor, and at the same time you manage to get a good look for the first time at Mr Crystal, a wolf-sized creature made of crystal and gemstones hiding behind the door frame in I-18. It has a compact oblong body and several spindly crystalline legs that give it a vaguely arachnid-like appearance. The hobgoblin, unfortunately, fails to see anything inside the shadowy ruins, but he does see everyone else start to act.

Oggy

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Somehow in the brief still silence following the surprise attack you hear the scrape of claw or bone against stone accompanied by a slight in-draw of breath from inside the ruin, and it isn't from Barag who has changed to humanoid form. No, whatever you heard is close to the wall to the map's left out of your line of sight.

Initiative Order:

[Oggy, Amilia, Barag] <— Now Up
[Possibly monsters]
[Alanor, Graaf-Niig, Orian]
[Possibly more monsters]