Voyage of the Golden Dragon (Eberron, 3.5 D&D)

[Phantom.exe]

sorry for not posting earlier - **** hapepns - will realyl, realy post tomorrow
sporry

[Phantom.exe]

People Topside:

You get a very, very bad feeling. Captain d'Lyrandar is sprinting away from the main observation top deck, and appears to be heading to the staterooms. Mazzia is in tow.

A few of the sycophants and petitioners stare, but most of them are too busy having a good time (or pretending to have a good time) to notice.

Ra is suddenly tapped on the waist by a gentle finger. Whirling around, he notices the two officers sprinting away - as well as a young girl standing near him.
In a somewhat awkward and untimely manner, she stares up at Ra. Her face is slightly flushed - or perhaps sunburnt - and the rest of her skin is pale. A red hood and purple robe cover most of her skin, save her forearms and face.
She appears no older than twenty, and is at first glance human. She looks up at Ra with a little bewilderment.

(Blah- I don't like that description. Roll Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) or Knowledge (History). If you have neither, a particularly pop-culture inundated Maug might also be able to make a Knowledge (Local) check. If all else fails, an intelligence check will suffice. )
"Excuse me, but - who are you?" says the girl in a soft voice.

People belowdecks-

Despite being the 'cargo hold', the lower decks of the Dragon are immaculate and still extraodrinarily clean. Porcelain and ivory candlesticks, filled with Dancing Lights give off a soft white glow, while the occasional porthole allows a view of a gorgeous Sharn cityscape combined with a glowing sky. A trio of moons lights the night.

(Unrelated note - In my mind, magic doesn't have a lot of carbon emissions, so the skies are pretty visible at night. Except for the bright light from Sharn that is... you know what? Just go with it, and pretend it's pretty. XP)

The cargo bay is at the very bottom of the spiral staircase. A corridor splits off into two directions - right and left. To one direction you feel a slight draft, to the other you smell - well, you can't quite tell, but you want to say it's cooking oil.


((Sorry for the awkward post. Homework. Writing. Things to do. People to see. Sleep deprived. Abraham Linconln. Please stay with this game. I'm - I'm liking it, really. Sure, the inital excitement might be gone, but that hopefully doesn't diminish it too much.))

[Stycotl]

(int check: (1d20+3)[22] watch me roll a 2...)

Ra spins arouns and finds the young woman staring up at him. The analytical maug immediately notices that her physiology seems to be somewhat abnormal for a human, as if agitated or frightened.

"Yes?" His deep, gravelly voice grates as he tries to place the face and the garb within his extensive memory. "I am Raaexkhet, but people normally refer to me as Ra. Who are you?"

Even as he answers the girl, his eyes follow the fleeing officers, noting their seemingly undisciplined actions with concern and disdain.

(ooc-Int check or sense motive check to see if i can figure out their direction or goal:
Int-(1d20+3)[5]
sense motive: (1d20+3)[14])

[The Bushranger]

Marle

As she and Nico head belowdecks, Marle pauses at the bottom of the staircase and sniffs, then looks to the right.
I smell something, seems to be coming from this way. I think we should check it out.
She starts in that direction, looking to see if Nico follows.

((No need to worry about me vanishing, I love this game too much. ^_^ ))

[Phantom.exe]

Spoiler

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Ra has no idea who this girl is.

"Thank you, Ra." You are beginning to notice she has an aristocratic air about her - one which she seems to be downplaying.

"I... was... honestly very curious as to what you were. I am afraid that I have... um... never seen anything like you before. Are you a Warforged?"

Ra is unable to ascertain what the officers are doing, exactly... but he can certainly tell that they are heading a little north, fore of the ship, and specifically towards one of the locked doors you saw earlier.

The right path leads down a short, dark hallway before turning left at a 90-degree angle and leading you back in your original direction. The occasional hanging bag or locked ventilation shaft dots the hallway.
This keeps you uneasy for what lies at the end of the hallway.

About 20 feed down, you are emptied out into the cargo bay. This room is approximately 60 feet long, and each long end is dotted by large Soarwood skiffs - each seemingly placed in a 'launch bay', ready to exit.
There is also something like a large outline in the soarwood floor, probably used to open up and allow more room to enter.

At the very back of the room is one massive crate. A pair of House Medani sentries are cautiously approaching it. This crate truly is large - at least 10 feet by 10 feet.
You're getting a really, really bad feeling about this. Bad enough to enter initiative if you so choose.

[Hecore]

Entering the room behind Marle, Nico eyes the crate - and reaches towards his sword.

Spoiler

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Not going for initiative just yet - I'll see what happens in the next post. Also, I *think* Mindlink would work as Ra has an intelligence score and the power doesn't ~say~ it can't effect constructs... but it's your call. If the power works then I'm telling Ra about a really bad vibe I'm getting about the crate, as well as Marle and my general location.

[The Bushranger]

Marle

I've got a bad feeling about this.
Marle slowly draws her rapier, and carefully moves so as to get a better look and open up Nico's 'line of fire', as it were.

Spoiler

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Move Silently: (1d20+2)[4]
Spot: (1d20+1)[8]
Listen: (1d20+1)[6]

Initative: (1d20+2)[5]

[Phantom.exe]

Marle tries her best to approach sneakily, but the floor is creaky - and she just seems to keep touching the creakiest of the soarwood boards.

Nico is able to link with Ra. Although it is normally difficult, his experience with Maug brains allows him to reach the delicate magical conduits that touch his vocoder and sensory enchantments.

The two House Medani sentries are in their late 30s - they look like seasoned veterans. (For NPCs, oi.) Both of them have dirty blonde hair, and are dressed in what <i>could be</i> banded mail. One has a spear, while the other has a longsword carried in two hands.

"Good to see you. This crate - we're fairly sure it's not on the shippin' manifest, right?"
"Hold up, Scrakes. They're-"
"They're clearly adventurers. They're the ones the captain was talkin' to earlier. That's all."
"Okay. Well, regardless."
"Regardless what?"
"I dunno. I just - you know, it's like when someone says 'but still' and doesn't have anything else to say."
"I understand. But anyway, you're - you adventurers are - what - invited? I'm just curious. Hey, go and poke-"

The sentry never has time to finish his sentence. The pair of them are caught flat-footed as the box explodes open. Debris flies through the air, and you are noticeably startled.
Something grabs the interrupted sentry, and, before your eyes can adjust, sends him flying into a Soarwood skiff. Wood shatters - as do his bones.

Standing in front of you is a positively terrifying Warforged. Dust and soot cover him. His jaw is smoothed and prominent (I guess you could imagine the the Warforged from that one picture in the ECS that says, "a group of adventurers planning an expedition" early on.), and his optics glow orange.

Rivets and spikes cover his upper body, and his knees look like sharpened armor. What most strikes you is his left hand - which seems covered by an armblade. Except it's not an armblade. It's a massive claw, five feet in length, serrated and padded and rusty.

"SNAP BONES!"

[The Bushranger]

Marle

Marle jumps back as the Warforged does his jack-in-the-box act, shaking her head as the living construct tosses aside the sentry and bellows.
Really. They all act the same. And they all suffer the same fate.

Opening up with her biggest gun, she levels her free hand at their opponent and casts Phantasmal Assilants.

[Hecore]

As the warforged bursts from the crate, Nico draws his blade - I think you've done all your bone snapping for today, friend.

Ra, we've got trouble. Get down here as soon as you can!

Spoiler

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Initiative: (1d20+2)[16]
Free Action: Nico activates both Chain of Personal Superiority and Chain of Defensive Posture.
Standard Action: Nico invokes Force Screen.
Move Action: Nico draws his sword.

[Stycotl]

The maug leans forward as the running officers disappear from his view, trying to catch one last glance at what they are doing, while still talking to the woman.

"Well, not a warforged per se..." His rumbles, his voice like a rusty steel trap. "But, essentially I serve the same design specifications. I just like to think of myself as more advanced..."

Then, as he looks back to her, realizing that he will not be able to see from here what the humans are doing, Nico's voice is in his artificial mind, calling quite urgently for aid.

Ra starts, still unaccustomed to having someone else capable of contacting his mind, and then looks down at the woman. "I am being summoned."

He then takes just a second to read her demeanor, and that of those around him, now wondering if she were merely a distraction of some sort, though he is still moving to intercept his companions before they find themselves too caught up in battle.

(ooc-sense motive (1d20+3)[15])

[Phantom.exe]

I totally want to post.
But I'm totally too tired.

[Phantom.exe]

((I totally feel bad about not posting.))

Ra feels that the girl is genuinely confused. That gives him a sense of superiority, perhaps, solid in his knowledge that humans find him a curioisty, an unknown variable, a stone giant without apparent weaknesses.

However, this sense of superiority does not last long. As he reaches the main deck and the stairs down, a loud 'bang' alerts him to a small-ish goblin and a pack of minotaurs (the four from before, in fact) obliterating the door to the ship's bridge.

The goblin begins yelling in an oily, squeaky voice - perfectly appropriate, judgjing by his demeanor. Not one, but two eyepatches adorn his face, inexplicably leaving him blind. He actually has a modicum of a beard, with a few scraggly strands of ruff on his face and chin. Entwined in them are sticks - big, round, and red sticks that you could metagame look like flares, but in Eberron, you are not totally sure what they are.

Nico and Marle find themselves under seige by the Warforged.
"Kray snaps bones!" Despite this metal monstrosity's charming demeanor, he is not in the mood to do much talking. He grabs the other House Medani grunt with one arm, and begins forcefully beating him with the other.

"G-get- acchh - tell the captain -"
With that, the warforged slams the man into the floorboards, chipping them and smashing a few.

We're "sort of" acting in initiative order.

[The Bushranger]

Seeing that her spell had seemingly no effect, Marle growls under her breath, bringing her rapier around and slashing at the rogue warforged's arm.

Spoiler

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Attack: (1d20+10)[18]
Damage: (1d6+3)[4]

Sorry for not doing more, I've been under the weather the last few days. <_<

[Stycotl]

Ra draws up short upon seeing the goblin and minotaur, and booms, "What is going on?"

Meanwhile, he *thinks* to Nico, wondering if his ally can still hear his thoughts from this far away.

There are minotaur and a goblin trying to break down the door to the bridge. Do you know what is going on? Do you need me to help them, or to stop them, or to keep going and find you?

(remember, ra has no clue as to what has been going on beside the short dialogue with hecore)

He brandishes his two-bladed sword in both massive hands, and takes a wide stance at the top of the stairs, ready to intercept an assault if need be.

[Hecore]

Switching stances, Nico sends a brief thought to Ra Some Warforged busted out of a crate and is tearing the place up. Marle and I can probably handle it, seeing as you have your own problems.

Sensing an opening, Nico lunges forward and brings his glowing blade down in a wide arc, directly towards the Warforged's shoulder.

Spoiler

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Power attacking for 4, and the blade was enchanted with Ray of Enfeeblement via Combat Casting.
Attack Roll (1d20+8)[25]
Damage Roll:(2d4+17)[22] (2 from falchion, 7 from strength, 8 from Power Attack.
Strength Damage:(1d6+2)[6] for 5 minutes.
Also, Mindlink works over any distance, so we can still talk for the remainder of the spell (should be at least 15 minutes left).

[Stycotl]

Ra takes that to mean that the goblin/minotaur team are hostiles, despite whatever dislike he--and seemingly the rest of the team--might have of the crew. His stance wide, he stomps hard on the deck planks, sending convulsions through the structure, and follows with a loud challenge, "Who do you think you are?"

His micro ballista turret swivels around and sights in on the goblin (or on the closest minotaur if there are any that are giving cover to the goblin). He takes a shot, and then charges down the stairs toward the bridge, weapon high.

Spoiler

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attack+move action
to hit: (1d20+2)[16]
if it hits the goblin, it does (2d8)[11] piercing damage.

is this area large enough for him to move about comfortably (large size)? what about if he were to grow to huge size? he would be taking into account the hallways that he might have to be racing down within a few moments to meet up with his friends. wis check if you need it (1d20+3)[22]

[Stycotl]

Spoiler

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i forgot to mention, my move action takes me to within 10 feet of the closest foe, but stops there. that way, i can either attack with reach next round, or charge, as i see fit--assuming that none of them close in.

[Stycotl]

bump. we still alive?

[Stycotl]

bump, and merry christmas/happy hanukkah/happy kwanza/etc, etc!

[Stycotl]

well, it was fun while it lasted. see you guys around.

[Phantom.exe]

>.>

Sorry. I'm a bad GM. I guess I just sort of lost interest once I started college.