The Most Merciful Thing (Game Thread)

[knewsom]

Remus

As Jonathan was pontificating, Remus turned and left the room, heading towards where Nis had been shouting before.

Seeing the trap door and slain child, he sighed and waited for the others to join him.

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fistal

Nis'Amain quietly follows Remus to the other room, wincing as she sees the slain boy again.

[Ascension]

Grug follows, axe at the ready.

[TheBlackDog]

Lily

Lily follows Nis closely into the room that contains the trapdoor.

[Shhhh!]

Jonathan Crowley
Jonathan follows the others to the door, mentally readying himself for the exhaustive combat that will surely come, sooner rather than later. Only starting slightly as he realizes the presence of a small girl. He opens his mouth as if to speak, only deciding against it and muttering to himself instead
What...Oh, nevermind
He then holds high his silver platter, providing a stronger light source for the others in the room.

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I hate to be the one to point it out, but races that suffer a penalty in sunlight, or bright light, suffer it while in a 60 Ft. Radius of the Daylight emitting object

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fistal

"Good call..." Nis mutters, not taking her eyes off the trapdoor.

[Terraspaz]

Without further delay, Remus lifts open the trapdoor, sliding the child to the side in the process. A small ladder descends down 10 feet, into a dark room, luminated only by the light of the silver plate.

MAP:

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http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pY6Vh261I5eUV9Pv1cjsHTg&hl=en#

[Shhhh!]

Jonathan Crowley
Jonathan peers quietly into the trapdoor. He then takes a quick look at his plate.
He almost sighs...It should last... before dropping the plate into the trapdoor.

[Ascension]

"I'll go first," Grug volunteers, "You could have kept your light. I don't need it."

Barring any unforeseen complications, Grug climbs down the ladder, moves about ten feet down the tunnel, and peers into the darkness.

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I messed up the tags for my rolls, check the OOC thread.

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fisthal

Nis'Amain motions for Remus or Jon to follow, saying,
"I'll bring up the rear... make sure no one's following us."

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Spot check to see if anyone is around. (1d20+5)[18]

[knewsom]

Remus approached the trapdoor and squeezed himself through the opening, hopping to the landing below as soon as his massive shoulders had passed through.

At the bottom he gave Grug an odd look.

"How can you see with those things on?"

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spot(1d20+6)[26]
listen (1d20+6)[23]

[Shhhh!]

Jonathan Crowley
Jonathan waits a moment, to see if someone is laying in wait at the bottom. If, after about 30 seconds, nothing happens, he efficiently climbs down the ladder, picking up his silver platter, and using it to gaze about the room.

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Just in case of a natural 20, or some such foolishness, (1D20+3)[8](11)

[Ascension]

"These things," Grug replies, "are all that's protecting me from that man's accursed light. I don't like it any more than you do, but they're a necessity for me. My race has sensitive eyes."

[RebelRogue]

Will Pickman

As you begin exploring the lower church level you hear a horrified, though not loud scream, apperantly coming from the room in which you found the dead Pelorian cleric and acolytes. Davin! It is a male voice, but highpitched like that of a child or a small creature. Those of you with keener senses notice this sudden outburst followed by the quiet sounds of sobbing.

[TheBlackDog]

Lily

Lily climbs down the ladder after Jonathan, and surveys her surroundings. Then she motions for Nis to follow.

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Spot and Listen, just in case.
Spot: (1d20+2)[20]
Listen: (1d20+2)[8]

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fistal

Nis'Amain follows very closely behind Lily, not needing the provocation to follow. As she here's the voice, she considers running back to see who it is, but decides that, if it was one of the city officials, she would look suspicious being there. Nis'Amain shivers involuntarily as the darkness washes over her, and makes sure not to let Lily out of her sight.

[RebelRogue]

Will Pickman

Struck by sadness over the brutal murder of his own mentor, Will gathers his strength and wipes away the tears. Why Davin? Why, why, why? This must be dangerous, indeed!, he thinks to himself as he realises he's just given away his position with his loud outburst. The thought of creatures capable and willing to do such acts of carnage potentially knowing where he is fills Will with dread! A drop of cold sweat drops to the floor as he shakes for a moment. No, I have to find out more. I owe it to Davin! And I'll be safer near the others... With this assuring thought he wraps his cloak around him and sneaks towards the room where the party currently recedes.

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Hide (1d20+21)[32]
Move Silently (1d20+14)[15]

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fistal

Curious of the noise, Nis'Amain sticks her head out of the hole and looks around. When she is unable to see anything, she calls out, slightly nerviously,
"Who's there?"

[Terraspaz]

The five of you slip down into the darkness, newly pierced with the shining glow of John's Plate. As you land on the stone ground below, you take several breaths, noting the stale and dusty air that surrounds you all. With little doubt, you realize you are below ground level.

After settling into this subterrainian room, you take a moment to note your surroundings. Several assorted chests and boxes are scattered amongst this room, nearly all of which have their contents sloppily spilled onto the floor. Nis, Lily, and Remus particularly note that the exception to this are several mounds of books. While they certainly appear out of place, they're not as haphazardly scattered over the floor, instead appearing in piles.

To your left, you notice three rooms, none of which possess doors. Given the size and angle of the rooms, you can't see all the way into any of them, but the limited view of bookcases and rusted trinkets suggest that these rooms too, are used for storage.

Remus

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With a keen glance, you notice that the dusty air leading toward the rightmost room of those three is thicker, and in greater motion, as if it were more recently disturbed.

As you begin to wonder what this might all mean, you hear a concerned voice from upstairs cry out Davin! Nis looks out the trapdoor, but sees no one that made such a sound.

[Ascension]

*That voice was far too girly for a man... but too masculine for a woman... Oh Gruumsh above, it's probably an elf. An elf is the last thing I want to deal with at the moment...* Grug thinks.

"If he's that distressed about Davin's death, the 'fellow' above us isn't a suspect. Ignore him," Grug suggests.

[knewsom]

Remus

Obviously, the little voice from above was of little concern to Remus, and he grunts in agreement with Grug. Carefully surveying their musty surroundings, suddenly his eyes widen. He bolts for the corner of the room, swinging his massive blade!

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well, if there's a door there or the like, he'll head through it, otherwise, if there's some invisible creature stalking, he'll kill it!

attack (1d20+12)[31]

[Ascension]

"Gru!" Grug exclaims as Remus charges, "What is it? Where is it? I can't see anything with these bloody goggles on and bookworm over there shining his light all over everything!"

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That would be "Gru!" as in "Gruumsh!"... sort of like exclaiming "Gee!" instead of "God!"...

[RebelRogue]

Will Pickmann

Damn!, Will curses to himself as he accidently kicks some ornamental metal cup on the floor he did not notice. As he sees the pretty young woman stick out her head from the trapdoor he notices her holy symbol. A cleric of Pelor? I guess she must know Davin, then. Anyway, what have I got to lose now? The halfling unwraps himself from the cloak and steps forward to reveal himself. I... I'm a friend of Davin's, ma'm! he stutters nervously.

[Terraspaz]

Remus' furious charge cleaves through the air, unfortunately hitting only that. As his prized sword chops harmlessly forward, you hear a voice boom from deep inside the room next to him.

"That's enough, warrior!" the voice says. "If you want this poor cleric to ever draw breath again, you and your friends will lay down your swords, and you will stand against that far wall!" The light from John's plate only illuminates part of the room, from where he's standing, and you can't see your verbal assailant.

EDIT:

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Roll for initiative. Note: We may not be entering init just yet, but let's get 'em out of the way, just in case.

[Ascension]

"Now we sing the song of war!" Grug shouts, "The time for negotiation is over! You have claimed the lives of a score of clerics already, sparing one will not save you from our wrath!"

He begins to sing again. His voice is harsher this time, with a current of hate running through it. In fact, the song itself is harsher, more of a chant.

Again, a very loose verse translation from the orcish:

Hurt, Maim, Crush, Kill
Death, Vict'ry, Honor, Thrill
Blood, Blood, Blood, SPILL!

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Standard action to start the song (Insp. Courage), move action to go towards the voice.

[knewsom]

Remus

A growl emanated from the chest of the massive warrior.

"What Cleric? Show yourself, coward!"

He stepped forward into the next room.

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init. (1d20+3)[20]

[RebelRogue]

Will Pickman

The fiendish voice terrifies Will and reactively makes him wrap up the cloak again. Hearing and understanding the harsh orcish verse doesn't exactly counter this feeling, yet it gives him a certain warmth inside. Now is not the time to wimp out, Will! he assures himself. Silently drawing and loading his sling, he carefully moves closer to the trapdoor to get a peek down.

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Initiative (1d20+8)[25]
If appropriate:
Move Silently (1d20+14)[16]
Hide (1d20+21)[26]
Spot (1d20+10)[22]

[TheBlackDog]

Lily

As Grug begins to sing his song of war, Lily bares her teeth. Well, since they haven't complied with that command, I guess the only option is to move quickly and stop whoever that is from doing anything. Besides, I can't imagine he'll find me threatening.

Lily follows Remus into the next room, hands at the ready.

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Does Lily see anything? She currently has darkvision 60.
Initiative: (1d20+3)[6]

[AetherFox]

Nis'Amain Fistal

Nis moves twards the door where the others stand, and tries to see who spoke. HWne she stops, she shouts out, mostly to the other members of the party,
"Wait! Stop! Don't attack!"

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Almost forgot! Initiative (1d20+3)[21]

[Terraspaz]

Lily
Walking up to the doorway, you see the gray images within. On the left stands a warrior in black studded leather, sword drawn. A similar warrior stands on the right, as well. However, this swordsman's blade is held in front of a man dressed in a dingy Pelorian robe, who stands directly in front of the warrior. At the rear of the room, barely percievable stands a man in dark black robes, who appears to be the one speaking. "That's odd," he says, "surely, beast, you'd wish to repay some of these kind folks generosity for harboring a foul creature like yourself even for a moment. So quick to cast them aside... you should be ashamed of yourself. You should listen to the girl... she seems to be the only sensible one among you."
Lily, you see a smirk of confidence grow on his face.