The Fatal Syzygy - Saints

[KingRexII]

Amil watches in disappointment that his spell doesn't work while Bala moves towards the Gray Cloak. Her cautious and non-threatening stance is interpreted correctly. The northernmost guard says, "Why doncha jus' answer da bosses question?"

Sigurd bounds toward the light creature, but his hammer misses its mark. Jaxon's dagger, on the other hand, does not. His graceful tumbling is topped only by Armina's theatrics who dodges on big swipe, walks along the thick columns and then falls deftly onto her prey. The fall damages both her and the Gray Cloak, and they both end up splayed on the ground¹. Mary also falls, but it is because of the ground shaking underneath her feet. Her pleas are answered, not by Amil, but by the previously aloof Gray Cloak. Like the sound of an unpracticed choir, it says, "It begins."

Amil's eyes light up brightly, a slight look of surprise on his face. "Well, Mary -- you have your wish. I have what I need." He carefully withdraws from Sigurd and Jaxon, limping out of combat toward the guards who are still reeling from Armina's moves. With a couple of spells, the three guards, Amil and the Gray Cloak disappear from sight.

During all this, the fat elf tries and fails to get up. He crawls quickly through the hallway on the right. The lizardfolk lowers his weapons and calls out to him, "No, don't go out there!"

The cavern continues to shake, but now the ceilings and columns begin to rain down chunks of earth².

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End of combat unless someone's planning on putting the smack down on the lizardfolk.

¹Armina takes 8 nonlethal damage and is prone. Also, any temporary penalties and benefits due to the Surge ends immediately.
²Roll a Reflex save, DC 12, or take 5 blunt damage.

For Toliudar:

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A singular voice whispers into Bala's mind before disappearing: "Find Orin's artifacts. They will guide you."

No map any more; the most important part is that the fat elf has left the main room through the doors on the right.

[Toliudar]

Bala

Bala shakes her head. Experimentally, she glances at Jaxon and thinks really hard.

Dariathlon:

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"So, can you still hear me?"

She turns to the others with a grimace.

"Right-o. Whatever Cloaky did, has bound us together. For our own safety, might be best to stick together. After the elf, shall we?

She lopes off towards the exit that the elf has taken.

[Dreamshifter]

Armina

With a deft back flip, Armina regains her feet, only to be knocked back down when a chunk of the pillar next to her crashes down on her. She rubs her now sore shoulder. "Ouch, traitorous pillar! Still, at least it lasted that long." Getting up again, somewhat less gracefully this time, she watches Bala run off, then turns to the lizard.

"I suppose getting out of the collapsing building would be a good thing. You have a better path for us, by any chance? And will we need to fetch or save the elf?"

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She will run off after him, if the lizard thinks it necessary, and if everyone takes off after the elf, will follow that path regardless.

[Paramour Pink]

Mary

Mary had looked more surprised than the warmongering angel had when he said she had her wish. She watched with an anxious smile as the being and his fellows finally left, but didn't sigh in relieve, so much as yelp in pain as a piece of falling debris struck her. A groan came as she grasped her head with her hands and rose to her feet. She squinted at seeing the arcane-taught woman following after the portly, pointy-eared man.

“The elf got here by accident,” Mary called out to Bala, the healer still holding her head as a spell to stem minor wounds was cast. “The lizardfolk worked his way here. He must know more about this place.”

With the pain in her head receding, but the fear of getting squished rising, Mary stumbled uneasily towards the warrior that had held the elf prisoner little less than ten minutes ago.

“Which way is safest?”

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I want to know what I roll without having to split it into two posts so...I'll get my reflex save here and then edit this post.

Using Cure Minor Wounds. So that's 1 healing from the spell +5 from my charisma modifier. So that should take care of all the blunt damage.

Reflex save (1d20+1)[8]

[Toliudar]

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Ah, right, the reflex save: (1d20+4)[21]

[KingRexII]

Your questionable ally says, "I think it might be too late for him. There's a squatting warband of kobolds out there that'll probably kill anything that comes out of this cave that isn't me. They're waiting for me to bring them the crown."

"Help me find the crown or find a different exit." he requests urgently. "It's our only way out of this death trap." He disappears into the leftmost room as the rumbling continues at a steady pace.

For dariathalon and Toliudar:

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Nope -- no more telepathic connection.

[dariathalon]

Jaxon

Jaxon attempts to send an experimental thought, "Bala?" After waiting for only a moment for a response, he shrugs and calls after her verbally, "Did you hear what that lizard said? Don't know if he's lying, but if we continue this way, I'd say there's at least a reasonable chance of having to face a whole lot of kobolds. I don't know about you, but I don't want to do that without a bow in my hands. Might be best to go the other way for now."

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Shoot, and I was looking forward to sending Bala back a sarcastic "No, can't hear you at all."

Reflex Save (1d20+10)[18]

[Toliudar]

Bala

Bala nods grimly at Jaxon's assessment. Checking her movement, Bala seems to weigh options only for a second.

"Right. Off we go, then."

She changes course to follow the lizard creature.

[Proven_Paradox]

"Hmph. Kobolds. Of all the damned luck, it had to be gods-damned kobolds. Hate those little sh*ts..." He follows the lizard man, mumbling curses the whole way.

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Out of combat now, I assume? In which case I lose all crusader maneuvers granted.

If Mary shows concern for the elf, Sigurd will grab her and drag her along behind him, shouting something about it being too late for the cowardly elf.


Do we get XP for the fight?

[Dreamshifter]

Armina

"Well, that's good enough for me." She also follows the lizard, silently pondering about the events of the day.

[Paramour Pink]

Mary

The frowning Mary felt like an errant child. There were few other ways to feel when being dragged along behind a towering man by her hand while he chided those she tried to acquaint herself with. Mary went with the group through the leftmost exit.

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Sigurd is great at guessing.

[KingRexII]

Going through this left side leads to a short, but wide hallway. This looks like a small vestibule to wherever the next set of double doors lead to. There are painting lining the walls, just as in the great hall. These are worn, but not destroyed. They look like portraits of royalty, under which there are small plaques. There are also some comfortable and intricately patterns couches along the walls. They look old, but are intact. The double door, again, look old, but quite grand. There seems to be lots of very worn runes carves into it, but most of them are indistinguishable at a glance. There is a symbol spanning the both doors, though, whose simple geometric pattern is still recognizable. It is a circle enclosed in a square enclosed in a triangle enclosed in a large circle. The lizardfolk yells at you, "The crown is probably in here." Trying the door, he finds it immovable.

Whatever battle had raged on in the great hall had only trickled into here. While there are countless, dispersed remains out there, there are three whole remains here. There is no longer any flesh, but much of their items have not succumbed to time. The cavern stops shaking, but not before a large chunk from the ceiling begins to plummet onto one of the remains.

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Yes! XP is most important --
Bala: +1000 XP
Jaxon: +1000 XP
Mary: +1000 XP +100 XP (for dealing with the guards singlehandedly and exceptional RP)
Armina: +1000 XP +50 XP (for landing on the Gray Cloak)
Sigurd: +1060 XP +50 XP (for being a bastard)

[Toliudar]

Bala

Loping forward after the lizard, Bala gazes around the room.

Check the names on the portraits! See if any of them are named Orin.

Seeing the rubble heading towards one of the remains, Bala puts on a burst of speed, her arm flaps billowing, and she drags the desiccated form clear of the dropping stone.

[Paramour Pink]

Mary

Even when in the safety of the leftmost, wide hallway, Mary stayed quiet, even unconsciously holding her breathe. Only when she was sure the shaking had left did she breath out in relieve, as though playing an impromptu game of hide and seek with the quaking cavern.

In the calm of the hallway, all the questions she had about the explosions and clockwork cockroaches and aggressive angels and all the ceaseless, senseless fighting strode throughout her mind. But when she surveyed the other five, Mary saw only other prisoners probably as confused as her, and one other person that might have understood these circumstances.

But he's so preoccupied with finding Amara's crown...

Mary walked towards the three deceased bodies. At a glance it was impossible to tell what had killed them or why, yet she tried anyway. Carefully she took off each article and item she guessed the others might want. She had no immediate want for any of the objects. Instead, there was only a hope not to disgrace the immense respect Bala had just shown for the deceased by saving one of their remains. Taking the items off delicately was the only way she could think to avoid a reminder of Sigurd's earlier bone-snapping and body stripping. It occurred to the brunette while doing this that there was a certain pointlessness, a trait that bordered even on the puerile, in personally having more materials than one would ever need. Looking up from the bones, she regarded the lizardfolk intently.

“Sir, why is this crown so important to you and those koblods?”

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It would be a bad idea for me to search the walls/paintings. I don't have any ranks in search.

“Take 10” on searching the bodies. If that's allowed it would result in 13.
“Take 10” also on Heal, trying to determine the cause of death to get a result of 22.
“Take 10” again on a Gather Information check to see why our lizardy friend is so eager for this crown. Result of 15.
And, yet again, “Take 10” on Sense Motive (for a result of 20).

...

Is there a limit to Take 10s?



Count of Spells Used, Reminder to Myself:

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Because I'm never going to remember off the top of my head, these are the spells I've used so far for today in-game.

One Cure Light Wounds 1st level spell from healing the burnt prison man, possible named Argos.
One Sanctuary 1st level spell when first meeting the lizardfolk holding the hostage elf.
One Sanctuary 1st level spell to help Armina against Amil.
One Cure Minor Wounds 0 level spell from the falling piece of rock.

I have to check everything for sure, but I think that means I have four 0 level spells, two 1st level spells, and five 2nd level spells remaining. If this is all true then I haven't used as many as I thought I have.

[Dreamshifter]

Armina

Having entered the hallway last, Armina watches the others saving the old corpses, and striping their things without comment. Better that we use them, then they sit here, I suppose. After a moment of contemplation of her new friends, she starts to look around for some means of opening the door. Mostly, she looks for any sign of similar geometric shapes, like the ones over the doors.

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Search: (1d20+1)[10], likely useless.

[dariathalon]

Jaxon

Seeing the others are already looking over the bodies, Jaxon searches the rest of the hallway to see if there is anything useful that turns up. As he checks out each of the portraits, he does as Bala suggested, looking at the name plates. After finishing his examination of the pictures, he continues on to the rest of the area and says, "So, who is this Orin and why did you think he might be in one of these pictures?"

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Just to confirm my suspicion, the portraits show humans, correct? Here are search checks a-plenty. Use as many as you need.

(1d20+9)[21]
(1d20+9)[10]
(1d20+9)[18]
(1d20+9)[11]
(1d20+9)[13]
(1d20+9)[13]
(1d20+9)[13]
(1d20+9)[29]

[KingRexII]

Bala's efforts aren't quite fast enough¹ as she doesn't get to the corpse in time. The rock crunches the bones and then breaks apart on top of it. The remaining pile will probably take a little bit of time to clear up. Later, she and Jaxon examine the portraits to find that the dusty and faded paintings are of shorter folk -- gnomes. The plaque underneath each one holds the subject's name. Each one is actually a series of plaques tacked onto the end of the last one, resulting it extremely long names. None of them have the name 'Orin', though. None of the paintings have anything extraordinary about them.

Even before she gets a chance to look at the bones proper, Mary notices that these people have been dead for much too long for her to determine a specific cause of death. She, Armina and Jaxon find a plethora of items².

The lizardfolk turns from his work at the doors when Mary uses the word 'sir'. With a harrumph, he says, "I don't care about the crown -- my people have no use for it, but the kobolds outside do. I hate helping those sniveling turds, but they stole something of ours. We need the crown to trade for it back." He takes a shoulder to the door one more time to try to break it down, but his attempts fails. He looks at the half-giant, "Hey, you look like you could get through this door. Mind helping me?"

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¹Rolled some rolls for Ms. Bala
²Once again, those touching the items somehow know their magical properties.
One body is large -- covered under its cloak are:
Large Guisarme +1 (Sigurd)
Heavy Plate +1 w? MWK Spikes (Sigurd)
Cloak of Protection +1 (Sigurd) (this is what covered the other things)
Handy Haversack containing the items dariathalon requested be in the HHH (Jaxon) -- the bag is initialed with 'JW', and the items inside are 'medium' sized
Wand of CLW (40 charges) (Jaxon)
Headband of Intellect +2 (Bala)
A medium sized, brown book that somehow survived however long these corpses had been here

One body is medium sized -- covered mostly with rocks:
Handy Haversack containing the items Toliudar requested be in the HHH (Bala)
Wand of Protection from Evil (45 charges) (Bala)
MWK Might (+2 STR bonus) Composite Longbow (Jaxon)
Ehlonna's Quiver w/ 50 arrows, 18 javelins, 4 spears (Jaxon)
Deep Crystal scimitar (Armina)
Someone else's psicrystal, inert, but still exuding a faint psionic pulse

[Proven_Paradox]

As the lizard looks to Sigurd for help, the half-giant snorts and says, "Innaminute." He looks over the items retrieved and claims those he likes--he's especially interested in finding any heavy armor either sized to fit him, or magically enchanted to adjust to the wearer.

Once that's done, he strides over to the lizardman. "The hell're you takin' orders from little craps like kobolds for? How many 're out there anyway? An' it's awfully trusting of ya to just assume we'll help you out without even askin' or givin' names..."

In spite of his voiced objections, the half giant seems up to helping the man open the door, lending his strength as best as he can.

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I'm guessing a strength check on the doors? I'll take 10, then 20 if needed on it.

Also, the XP is enough to get Siggy to level 5. How do you want me to handle leveling up? Immediate, or wait until we get a break? Also, I forget; are we rolling HP?

[Toliudar]

Bala

Having narrowly avoided squishing herself when she grabbed for the remains, Bala is content to join the brigade searching amongst, and looting through, the remains. She pokes her head up, though, at the mention of the door.

Let me know if you two big strong men can't handle the door.

[Paramour Pink]

Mary

When the reptilian warrior stopped speaking, Mary stayed quiet, and was almost comforted by the fact that Sigurd had responded instead. She wasn't immediately sure what to say. Theft was only remotely justified when done out of desperate need but was distasteful to her. But the fact the kobolds and lizardfolk were attempting to settle the dispute by trading items instead of blows showed that there was still space for civility.

Mary folded the arms of the skeletons over their bodies, still thinking how best to resolve the situation, feeling that leaving the issue to be resolved as it was would likely be leaving them to inevitable hostility. To suggest another answer would require more information. Only the comment Bala made roused Mary from her thoughts. At first, she arched a brow in confusion, wondering on what the lady-creature had said. Then her confused eased and the follower of Estanna realized with a suppressed giggle that the two burly men were going to attempt to budge the door open.

Bala knows how to open the door! Or that it can't be opened that way.

Mary tsked softly to the arcane-taught ape-woman, but the healer failed to hide her smile, whispering. “Don't be mean. At least give them a hint.”

Despite her words, she looked expectantly to them, not in any particular hurry to dissuade them.

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I could have suggested that the names on the plaques might be one long arcane incantation to open the door. I could have used this post to ask more questions or try and persuade the lizardfolk to help us out more in exchange for a better deal. I could even have done a Knowledge: Religion attempt in an unlikely hope to help the situation. But instead I added nothing but childishness. I blame it on the fact its 3am.

[dariathalon]

Jaxon

Jaxon, having picked through the belongings of the corpses laying on the ground, stands in respectful silence watching as Mary crosses the arms of the bodies. When she is done with that, he moves up behind Sigurd and the lizardman. He has one hand on his weapon, and watches to see what might be behind the doors.

[KingRexII]

The lizard-man and the giant-man pound against the doors in tandem. In between hits, the lizard answers Sigurd's questions. "The shaman says that it's the only way we can safely get back all of our Scrolls back intact. We do anything to upset them, and those runts light them up like swamp gas. The shaman tells me to get their stupid crown, so I go get them their crown." His words are exaggerated every so often as he smashes into half of the odd symbol. "As for names, I was bit too busy fighting to give you a proper bow and curtsy --" He is interrupted by the sound of cracking and the doors giving way.

A dank, stale smell seeps from the wide opening before them. The sides of the smaller room are also lined with similar portraits, though some of the canvases look a little warped. Near the back of the room, there is a raise platform on which there are two golden, sumptuously designed chairs. They are clearly thrones. On the right one (from your perspective), there is a smallish skeleton balled up on its seat. Its feet rest on the degrading cushion, and its arms hug its raised legs. On its skull, which is laying on its knees, is a bejeweled crown, and around what used to be its neck is an amulet on a gold chain. There is no sign of life other than the moss growing along one of the walls.

[Toliudar]

Bala

Bala is relieved to discover gear that either was her's, or is indistinguishable from it, and does her best to see that the salvage is meted out to those who might make best use of it.

Recognizing that the brown-covered book might be significant, Bala quickly glances inside. She glances up when she hears the door give way.

"Good work, boys. What's inside?"

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I'm suggesting for the sake of expediency that we all just assume that the designated items find their way to their owners through a few seconds of judicious comparing and trading. Sound okay?

[Dreamshifter]

Armina

Watching the two big bruisers break down the door was amusing, Armina waited ready for combat, half expecting something to charge out of the broken doorway. When nothing did, she still refused to relax. "Somehow I expect that skeleton to animate when someone takes the crown. Quick, someone smash it to dust. Hmm, pretty necklace. Wonder what it does?" She moves into the room, graceful as ever.

[Proven_Paradox]

"Baah!" Sigurd waves his hand in front of his face as the smell hits him. "Just an empty room an' a skeleton, but it smells of ass... Let's get done here."

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Reiterating my question from before you left; the XP from the last fight was enough for Sigurd to level; shall I do that now or wait until we get a chance to rest?

Also, welcome back.

[dariathalon]

Jaxon

After picking out of the stack several things that were of use to him, Jaxon looks them over. "Heh. This haversack has my initials on it and everything," he chuckles at the coincidence. "Hey, Sigurd, this here guisarme looks like it might be more your style than the warhammer. Mind trading?"

Once all that is taken care of he moves closer to the doors. "Perhaps I ought to go in first. Something about this whole situation seems a little odd. Might be traps." His eyes meet's Sigurd's look of impatience; he flinches almost impreceptibly. "Won't take long, promise." He moves in carefully, checking the floors, walls, and ceiling between the doors and the throne for anything out of the ordinary. If he finds nothing on his way up to the thrones, he will examine them as well.

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Here's a whole mess of Search checks. Beginning looking for traps, but also other things like secret doors or other hidden or obscured objects. Don't know how many you want, so just start at the top of the list and take as many as you need.
(1d20+9)[28]
(1d20+9)[16]
(1d20+9)[24]
(1d20+9)[26]
(1d20+9)[23]
(1d20+9)[14]
(1d20+9)[13]
(1d20+9)[11]

[KingRexII]

Bala's quick look at the book shows that it's written in a language she's never seen before. The characters look familiar, though -- very much like the elven characters she's seen in Elven and Aquan.

In the meanwhile, Jaxon scopes out the room and finds a few traps, or what is left of their trigger mechanisms. All of them have been sprung, and he finds none that could currently harm them, even around the skeleton and the crown. Behind the thrones, he does find a secret door, though. The humidity that fills the room seems to emanate from behind it.

[dariathalon]

Jaxon

"Huh? Well that's odd... Somebody's already sprung all of these traps, but they left the crown and necklace where they were. You'd think that any thieves that mighta come through would have seen them and grabbed them up. Mebbe they know somethin' we don't. 'less there's something else springing all of these." His eyes dart to the darker corners of the room, scanning them for anything that might still be hidden there. Once he's satisfied himself that they are alone, he says, "Hey...uh you," he says looking at the lizardman, "You seem to know more 'bout this crown than the rest of us. Any insights?" He walks over to the wall behind the throne, while waiting for an answer. "On the plus side, I did find another exit, if we need it." He indicates the section of wall where the door is located.

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I'm assuming that Jaxon had checked over the door for traps as well, if not he'd obviously do that before considering opening the door.

[Toliudar]

Bala

Bala takes a moment to affectionately hug the spellbook that she found in one of the knapsacks, then slipped it back in the pack, and the pack onto her shoulders.

Hey, any of you know anything about brain magic? I've only heard about this kind of stuff. And anybody here good with languages - we got a book here I can't read.

She holds up the crystal scimitar and vaguely-alive rock.

[Dreamshifter]

Armina

At the sight of the scimitar, Armina hurries over. "I can't help with the book much, but I recognize the scimitar. Deep Crystal, I had one like it briefly. Hmm, the other looks like a Psi-Crystal. Doubt it'd be much good to anyone but it's owner, but I'd like to take a look at it anyway. Never know when it might prove useful."

She does a couple simple flourishes with it to familiarize herself with the new weapon.

Armina glances at the room. "Perhaps it was the kobold that triggered the traps, and one of them locked the door on him? Would explain why we couldn't get it open. And it'd be hard to tell now, since the big boys broke the door. I like my theory, if only because it means we can grab the stuff and git. Though, I wonder where the passage leads. Perhaps our friendly lizard-y type person can take the crown he needs, and we explore the secret passage? No offense to you," she looks squarely at the lizardman, "but I don't trust kobolds as far as I can throw them. Which, while it isn't as far as friend Sigurd can throw them, is still a fair distance. Heck, I'd not trust them as far as Mary could throw them, if she could be talked into actually throwing one."

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This incredibly long speech comes whipping out at high speed, and is nearly as much as she's said the whole time she has been here. It doesn't take a Sense Motive check to figure out that she's excited about the scimitar. Oh, and a (1d20-1)[16] diplomacy check to avoid insulting said unnamed lizardman.