The Darker Knights

[0SpinBoson]

And so, you've valiantly cleared another room of goblins. Somehow they had heard you coming and had time to prepare, which meant they had all kinds of beneficial spells going. It was a hard fight, and you're exhausted. There's goblin blood everywhere on the floors, the walls, the now-worthless tapestries, and on the strange glowing altar that you now have time to notice in the corner. You're pretty much tapped for the day, and have decided to rest. You take a few breaths, and make sure the next door is closed. Then it hits you... what did that cleric mean, "Galbrok will destroy you all!"?


Well, you're there. You're on an actual adventure! Now, how did you guys meet again? You've got some time to reminisce now that you're resting.

[Tyrael]

A scrawny little Kobold shoves a pair of oversized spectacles up on his snout to keep them from slipping down again, and hurries over to the altar, the mop tightly clutched in one claw leaving a wet trail over the bodies."Clean clean clean, so much blood, we'll never walk around with this mess..." the Kobold's high-pitched voice mutters to himself. He makes a dunking motion in midair, and the end of the mop is suddenly wet. The little janitor begins mopping the blood off of the altar, half an ear cocked to listen in on the rest of the party. He glances over his shoulder towards Gronk. "Remind me to never come along pub-crashing with you after the third keg of the night, Gronk," he adds. "Do you even remember how you got down here?"

[Duke of URL]

Gronk, Half-Orc Sorcerer

Gronk looks around the mess as Teevo starts cleaning up. "Huh?" he says to the question directed at him. "No, actually, not really. Am I injured or is the pounding in my head just a bad hangover?"

As the room gets a bit cleaner, he starts looking for a place to set up to rest, while pulling a cigar out of his knapsack. "I had to use too many spells... I can't muster the energy to set up that alehouse to... um... rest in. But at least I can light up a stogie." He touches his fingertip to the end of the cigar and grunts contentedly as it starts smoldering.

[Obscurity]

Fumbles, Gnome Barbarian

Fumbles, meanwhile, stands at the center of the bodies, his arms shaking from the dramatic pose he has adopted - an overlarge chain shirt drapes off of his scrawny form, and the axe wobbles in the air even though he's using both hands and has it braced against him. He grunts, grits his teeth, and then drops the weapon with a loud clang and an obscene (not to mention very descriptive) gnomish curse, though it's broken up by panting.

"Hey, talljobs," he asks at length. "I gotta know. Was your whole 'topple the gods' spiel actually serious, or have I fallen in with another crowd of failures?" He bends down, grabbing the axe by the handle. "I even did research," he continues, muttering halfheartedly. "You hang out in taverns. Some guy in a hood comes in. You go up to him, and he's the King of Where-ever, or he's a god in disguise, but either way, he puts you on a quest, you do it, and then... gnome ladies, riches, and fame galore." He groans and then levers the axe upright, managing with some effort to swing the overlarge weapon onto his back. He smiles - and then falls over backwards with a cry of alarm.

"Ouch!" yells Fumbles. "So if any of you are more than what you seem," he cries indignantly, "Now'd be a good time to tell me. Or I'm going to be very choked up. Honestly. There could be tears. And you wouldn't like me when I'm crying. Things get mildly injured when I'm crying." He hesitates, and amends, feebly: "Grr."

[King_of_GRiffins]

Daichi Earth-Breaker, Half-giant Ninja

With a slow, practiced move, the almost eight foot tall giant whips out a cloth from the pouch on his hip, and wipes it across his own over-sized weapon with grace. In two fluid and careful looking motions, the blood is wiped from both sides of his field sword. "I have no idea what you're talking about gnome," says the giant airily, continuing after a long pause, "Clearly, you must have been tricked into this if fame was promised, or even women. Fortune too, depending on your standards."

The giant conceals a slight grin as he pockets the bloody cloth. He was always more one for seeing through deception that creating them, but it's always surprising how far a cloak and great promises can go towards recruiting others. For instance; It is surprising I could recruit such a clumsy figure....

Fitting the 12 foot sword into the clasp strapped across his back, the giant takes his time with each step up to the alter, and moves his eyes and head slowly as he examines it.

Spot - (1d20+10)[28]

[The_Shaman]

Shizzles, Cat Telepath

A backpack rustles ever so slightly, and two amber-green eyes look out in the darkness, giving off an air of alert concentration. They are soon followed by the rest of a small head, featuring a delicate nose, well-formed mouth, and magnificent whiskers. Their owner, truly a magnificent creature even in such a haphazard state, quickly looks over the now-chaotic room, smells the air and tilts his head. Blood, I presume, you think you hear. Not yours, at least not mostly; that is good, hmmm. The bumps must have been a fight. "Yawn" What are we doing here and is there a particular reason you hmmmr, killed those goblins?

[Tyrael]

"Knowing you, probably the latter," the Kobold janitor remarks toward Gronk with a sniff. "The man who invents Cure Critical Hangovers would be rich for the rest of his life, mark my words..." As the half-giant's pounding footsteps approach the altar he's scrubbing, Teevo squeaks in fear and scuttles out of the way. He then creeps up and pokes his little draconic snout over the edge of the altar, scrutinizing it carefully and trying to remember anything particularly useful about altars in the middle of dungeons...he had a vague memory of Evil Overlord Timmy ordering him to clean the spike trap around the altar on Sublevel 3, but you never knew. Maybe Evil Overlord Galbrok did things differently in this dungeon.

Spoiler

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Search - (1d20+15)[24]
Knowledge: Architecture/Engineering - (1d20+13)[24]
Knowledge: Dungeoneering - (1d20+13)[17]

[DJDeMiko]

The Scribe

The orangutan looks at the bodies in sadness.

"Ook," he says and shakes his head. "Ook, eek."

He puts on a grim face and watches the others, listening to their conversation.

"Ook," he explains and points at a small pocket watch that he pulls from a small bag of holding at his side. He puts the watch away and grabs a banana from the bag and begins to munch on it while he waits for the others.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Daichi

The giant lifts his head up from the alter in what must be nothing less than god-like effort, and blinks in slow motion at the strange orange furred monkey. "I expect to hear an interesting story for you ended up here.", he says with an air of humor before returning his attention to the alter.

He scans across the alter once more, barely noticing the kobold at the edge of his vision, and barely able to keep up with his skittish movements either. "It might be beneficial if I were to break this alter in half, if for nothing more than a symbolic gesture to anyone else stumbling across this mess. Nothing says 'Your dark gods have failed' as much as a trashed sacrificial post."

[Obscurity]

Fumbles, Gnome Of Destiny

"Depends on the god, though," Fumbles chimes in. "Because sometimes, you smash the thing in half, and it's like a big 'squeef* you'!" The gnome dances about, his armor jingling and clanging as he executes an unskilled jig. "And some gods, you try the 'squeef you', and you get squeefed yourself. Hard. In very uncomfortable places. Like, I heard about a plague of dung beetles once, sent by Olidammara after He had a hangover, right? So the dung beetles are so ravenous that they don't wait around for the dung. They go where the dung comes from. Think about that. Eugh." The gnome follows with an obligatory shudder.

Then, brightening, Fumbles unslings his axe, wavers, and then dances clumsily up to the altar. "But if we're going to smash things, lemme help you. This thing can't get much blunter and I have more badly-restrained aggression and general psychological disturbances than have already been hinted at. I am in fact made of aggression and psychological disturbances. I am a small ball of fury." The gnome hesitates: "Grr."

*: Squeef; "Sk-weaf"; Gnomish swear word with implications relating to various body functions - untranslatable as it would have to be censored anyway.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Daichi

Daichi ponders the gnomes words, more or less understanding the implications of what he says. Without a single emotion, he states. "Sure. If we decide to break the alter, you're free to give it the first try."

Better someone else get cursed by Dark Gods than me....

[dariathalon]

Scrappelligus Fandango Glutterfeld Wimplewicket Orclip *deep breath* Vwinto Gollgosh

"HOLY NUGGETS!" CLANG!!!

Looking to the source of the noise, there is a small gnome in half-plate who has just slipped in a pool of blood...again. Apparently he isn't too disturbed by this because as the reverberations of the metallic clang die away there is a small giggling noise coming from the armor. It begins to rock back and forth, like a turtle on its back, and eventually manages to right itself.

The small gnome in big halfplate armor looks like a miniature machine of war. His armor is coated in a thick layer of blood. He wears a greatsword and a handful of javelins strapped across his back over his backpack. When he removes his helmet, it reveals a short mess of light brown hair on top of a thin face. He also has a beard, similar in color to his hair, but significantly more well kept.

He walks over to where the other gnome and the giant were discussing the alter. He claps the giant on the back, or at least as close to his back as he can reach, which happens to be the back of the giant's leg. "Oh yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. We'll show the little creeps who is boss around here," he says apparently completely missing the irony that better than half of the "little creeps" were taller than he was.

He has a disgusted look on his face when Fumbles mentions squeefing. It is hard to tell which disturbs him more, the use of the word, or what it represents. "Don't worry too much. As if an evil deity would have anything on us. I'm sure we'll get all the fame, fortune and pretty lasses you want when we get through with this. That's not why we do it, of course, but it does come with the territory of being renowned adventurers." He smiles widely, showing more teeth than any gnome has a right too.

[Duke of URL]

Gronk

"So, what in the nine hells is a Galbrok? Let me see if that rings a bell..." He mutters and waves his hands, trying to see if he can force his foggy brain into recall.

Spoiler

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Casting cram session, giving a +20 competence bonus to a single Knowledge check; or +10 bonus and allowing an untrained check for an untrained Knowledge skill. I'll let you choose the right category, Gronk has +2 for Arcana, +1 each for Architecture, Dungeoneering, nature, Religion, and The Planes, and +0 (untrained) for everything else...

Knowledge - (1d20)[7] + appropriate bonus

[DJDeMiko]

The Scribe


"OOk," The Scribe says considering Gronk's question and thinks for a moment if he's heard of this Galbrok before the adventuring party had taken the quest.

Spoiler

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Knowledge local perhaps? +8
(1d20+8)[16]

[0SpinBoson]

A DC 10 on a Knowledge: Local check will tell you that a 'Galbrok' is a local Goblin word referring to Leader, Boss, or King (the local Goblin dialect is a bit sparse).

A DC 15 will tell you that the local Goblin king is named Kohan, and that he's been seen summoning creatures, specifically "modified" animals.

[Obscurity]

Fumbles

"Grr," Fumbles says halfheartedly, managing after a sad-looking struggle to remove his axe from his back - this takes a full minute, the getting up included, and with a snort he makes his way back to his heavily-armored and quite tired-looking donkey. He swings onto it; the weight of his axe drags him back off again, and he hits the floor with a grunt.

"Squeef," he swears miserably, and then is back up on the donkey again, swinging his axe in a clumsy circle. He's tired, but all he has to do is imagine the faces of the bloated talljobs before him - red, puffy, drunk on whiskey, oh yes, whiskey, and those boys that chewed gum, and how about the little girls that pulled your hair, oh, yes, and popcorn down your trousers HERE WE GO--

"RAAAAGH!"

The gnome, mounted on donkeyback, drops into a rage and charges the altar with a fierce warcry, followed immediately by a nonstop stream of swear words far, far worse than 'squeef'. He and the donkey are at points lifted from the ground by the counterweight afforded by the axehead, but at length they reach the altar, using his uncanny talent for general breakage to aid him in the endeavor of smashing the thing to bits.

Spoiler

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Breakage Check - (1d20+7)[21]Also, entered a rage, which will last for 7 rounds. Statistics have been altered appropriately.

[Tyrael]

Teevo screws up his face in thought, but before he can remember, Fumbles charges forward. The little janitor squeaks and dives for cover from the rampaging Gnome.

[The_Shaman]

Shizzles

Mr. Shizzles looks as if ready to jump out of the backpack, but hearing the signs (and effects) of Fumbles' rage seems to dissuade him. He does look around a bit more, though, as if trying to make something out of the chaos. That's an altar, hmm, so this might've been a chapel. Does anything here look vaguely... religious to you? he calls to no one in particular.

Spoiler

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(1d20+3)[6] Spot check, to check for anything important; if it's within forty feet my psycristal is entitled to a (1d20+6)[10] roll to spot it

(ah, I have missed the quiet, gentle snarling of the virtual dice in my direction)

[0SpinBoson]

Imaging the head of a carnival patron lying on the top of the stone altar, Fumbles mightily-ish slams his axe into it, and manages to cleave it to about the middle. His axe, however, is now stuck.

Shizzles and his psicrystal notice, under some goblin blood on the wall, some religious symbols of unknown origin. Furthermore, in the corner there is a weapon rack with some ceremonial-looking daggers.

If you have any knowledge (religion), you can easily make the connection between the daggers and the altar. This was a sacrifice chamber!

[DJDeMiko]

The Scribe

The orangutan covers his ears and winces as Fumbles slams his axe into the altar.

"OOk!" he says with annoyance and then waves towards the next door and then brings a finger to his lips to indicate quiet.

[Duke of URL]

Gronk

The half-orc's eyes roll in his head a bit. "Oh, please," he says to the monkey ape. "Like anyone within earshot didn't already hear the battle we just fought here."

Spoiler

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Gronk by dallas-dakota

[King_of_GRiffins]

Daichi

Daichi raises his finger to his mouth as well in gesture for silence, and then slruks towards the door, putting his ear to it to listen for noises on the other side.

Spoiler

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Move Silently - (1d20+8)[20]

Moving to investigate where the door the Scribe pointed

listen - (1d20+10)[19]

[dariathalon]

Scrappy

Scrappy's face contorts into an expression of sure disgust at the stream of obscenities spewing from Fumble's mouth. "For the love of Garl, is all that really necessary? Now we've talked about this before, real heroes don't need to use language like that." He takes on the posture of a disapproving mother.

[Tyrael]

Teevo reflexively scuttles into the corner as the axe slams into the stone. He then huddles quietly, trying to look small and harmless, his imagination already conjuring up hordes of goblins pouring into the room from hearing all the racket.

Spoiler

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Hide: (1d20+18)[37]

[0SpinBoson]

At the door you hear absolute silence.

Tovag, not hearing anything and not seeing a reaction out of the half-orc, says

I don't know how much longer I can go on healing us today.. I've nearly exhausted my good spells, and I can just close your minor wounds. Perhaps we should rest for the night?

[DJDeMiko]

The Scribe

The Scribe Perks his ears and nods in agreement. "Ookk," he says and looks over at Pip.

Pip speaks up "I . . . I think that's a good idea Master, if . . . if you are out spells then maybe we should sleep."

The Scribe nods and waves at the door and says "Ook ook, eek."

"Your right," Pip says, "there's clearly no one coming so this would be the perfect place to sleep."

[Duke of URL]

Gronk

After watching the display at the altar, Gronk just smiles and shakes his head. "Well, anyway... 'Galbrok' is some kind of word meaning "leader" or something -- the local 'Galbrok' is a guy named Kohan. Let's just hope he is as easy as 'Timmy' was."

Finishing up his cigar, he grinds the stub into the floor. "Now, if you can ever get your ax free from the altar, do stand watch while us casters get a little shut-eye, ok?" Not waiting for an answer, he takes out his bedroll and finds a spot conveniently recently cleaned by Teevo.

[Fermi-Flavor Pi]

You're right mate, sleep does sound good. I'm sure those goblins would have been easier to manage if Talso would have given us his blessing, but oh well, fresh water never hurt anyone. Unless anyone wants me to heal any of their wounds before bed time? I don't have much more from Salto to offer, but a few healing spells should be possible if I concentrate hard enough. Tovag, disturbed by the sacrificial alter, seeks refuge with his blanket on the opposite side of the room from the altar and the daggers. He can be heard to be mumbling some prayers of thanks to Talos that it was someone else that was sacrificed here and not him.

[Tyrael]

Teevo, discovering that the corner he's hiding in is rather comfortable, takes a moment to clean off the area, then pulls out his notebook and jots a few notes in his journal/textbook by the light of his Darkvision. He then wedges his tiny body inside a crevice and begins dozing, his cold blood cooled by the surrounding dungeon.

[0SpinBoson]

A few hours into the night, a loud explosion can be heard through from the adjacent room; it's even felt reverberating through the floor.

If you are awake 5 hours after you went to sleep you hear it. If you are asleep, it's a listen check DC 11 (no penalties).