# [Eberron] The Forgotten Forge



## Citizen Mane (Sep 10, 2004)

This is the IC thread for my Eberron PbP.  

The OOC thread can be found here.
The RG thread can be found here.

The current roster of players is:
1. Rawhide, Male Shifter Barbarian 1 (Ashy)
2. Khashana, Female Kalashtar Psion/Telepath 1 (IdentityCrisis)
3. Flawed, Warforged Transmuter 1 (Knight Otu)
4. Gannon Relstorf, Human Clr1 of the Traveler (MadMaxim)
5. Plonk, Gnome Art1 (Krug)

Best,
Nick


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 10, 2004)

*Part One: Death in the Upper City*

*Wir, 13th Sypheros 998 YK*
*Ext. Sharn's Upper City -- Night*

A hard rain falls from the sky, broken only occasionally by a crash of thunder and some lightning.  At your feet, small pools of water gather on the wood and stone of the walkways of Sharn's upper city.  These paths dart and wind around the city's towers, creating an intricate web.  Water slides off the towers and down to the lower city in sheets, nearly flooding the city below and making it all but impossible to see more than a few feet in front of you.   A few everbright lanterns, nearly useless in the fog and rain, cast shadowy webs across the walkways.

[Spot checks]

*Gannon, Flawed*: 



Spoiler



Ahead of you, on the bridge between the Kelsa Spire and Dalannan Tower, you see a cloaked figure hugging the shadows between the dim pools of light cast by the everbright lanterns.  There's a flash of lightning, and you can make out a second figure, slumped on the ground.  In the dim light, you watch as the cloaked figure slips over the railing of the skybridge and into the wet darkness.



*OOC*: _Your business in the upper city is completely up to you -- whatever you choose will be worked into the story.  If you would like to know any of the other characters, you may, otherwise I will assume that you are total strangers that happen, by chance, to be in the wrong right same place at the same time.  Whatever the case, please indicate your business in the upper city in your first post.  Possible reasons for being there could include visits to the marketplaces,  Morgrave University, the University of Wynarn, just poking around, and even being just plain lost._


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## Krug (Sep 10, 2004)

Plonk covered his head with his hands. His cap was soggy and hunk limp like a dead mushroom. _That darn watch merchant Nagbul has probably gone off and got himself drunk again!_, he thought. He wishes for a dry spot to warm his toes by a warm fire, smoking a pipe filled with nice, thick weed. He pressed on, hoping the metal bits he had on him would not rust.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 10, 2004)

As Gannon walked across the many walkways of Sharn's upper city, he wondered what information he might be able to gather at the Morgrave University. They had to have something on the many ruins of Xen'drik and the powerful artifacts that lay buried in the continent's soil. As he crossed another walkway, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A person actually jumped off the nearby walkway! Did he or she just commit suicide!? Lightning struck and in the small amount of time that everything was bathed in light, Gannon saw a man falling to the ground. He drew his morningstar from his belt and hurried over to investigate the matter. _What do you have in store for me this time, Traveler?_ he wondered...


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## Ashy (Sep 10, 2004)

Grambo, goblin trashcatcher of the highest order, cursed and spat at the merciless deluge.  He hated rain almost as much as he hated his job and he hated his job quite a bit indeed.  One would think that a goblin so small could not generate such heated venom within his miniscule frame, and yet he did...

Still, he had many little mouthes to feed, and so he plodded on and on, night after night driving his garbage wagon.  He started early in the afternoon, whipping his beasts to a frenzied pace, driving them ever up the soaring towers of Sharn...

...collecting the trash of those affluent beings that resided there...

Once his load was full, he would go down, down, down into the bowels of the city; dump his load and then begin anew.  Day after day the same mindless, endless, boring, smelly and terribly awful job.

How he hated it...
How he hated the rain...
Grambo drove onward, heading down, down, down...

The goblin cursed as his wagon hit something in the road, an upturned paver most likely, sloshing some of the trash out of his wagon onto the street.  Goblin curses filled the rainy night as the wagon contined to roll away.

Apparently, Grambo hated bumps in the road as well.

Something stirred in a large pile of the garabage on the side of the road.  Then, something groaned a deep, growling groan.  Then, the something crawled out of the pile of trash.  In a way, it looked human - barely.  In a way, it looked like something more bestial and feral; something that belonged in a place utterly unlike Sharn.  The thing coughed - a guttural, rough sound - and spat out the remains of what it had been eating.

Apparently, it was full, or at least the fall from the wagon had disturbed its dining.

The creature blinked, wiping away some soiled piece of something or another that was stuck in the corner of its eye, and looked around, taking in its surroundings...


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## Knight Otu (Sep 10, 2004)

_Failed. Again._ Flawed walked along the upper city after another unsuccessful - and expensive - _training session_, another failed attempt to unleash the potential Jhaeren had seen in it.

_Does it even exist?_ Flawed though. Inevitably, its memory turned to the first day of its existance - bashing away at the sword after finding out _where _its _flaw _lied. A strange sensation - anguish, Jhaeren had called it - ran through its body, even where no connections existed. How that could be, Flawed had never understood, and Jhaeren's explanations did not help.

 Then, Flawed noticed a strange scene through the rain - illuminated by a lightning - a person, lying on the bridge, and another one, apparently climbing over the rail. Curiousity arose in Flawed, and it moved closer.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 11, 2004)

*Rawhide*: The goblin sighs when he sees you and starts to pick up the garbage around you.  He seems wary, but generally nonplussed.

*Rawhide, Plonk, Khashana*: As you move through the rain, you notice a small commotion -- a warforged and a human have both rushed over to one side of the bridge connecting Dalannan Tower and the Kelsa Spire.  The human has a morningstar in his hand, and they seem to be inspecting something.

*Flawed, Gannon*: Rain and blood pool around the body of an old man, his chest riddled with stab wounds.  The corpse clutches a leather satchel in his left hand -- the satchel slowly begins to soak up blood and water off the stone...


[Listen checks]

*Rawhide, Khashana*: 



Spoiler



You hear the sound of a climber coming from the side of the bridge just to the north of the small commotion.



*Gannon*: 



Spoiler



You hear the sound of a climber coming from the other side of the bridge, behind you and slightly below you.


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## Krug (Sep 11, 2004)

Plonk rushes over to see what's up. He shoves the people around him to get some space. "Get away! What-the.." says Plonk. When he sees the old man, his eyes widen. Plonk looks at the satchel and at the others. He casts a cursory glance at the Warforged, just to inspect the hardware...


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## Ashy (Sep 11, 2004)

The garbage-heaped creature (which turns out to be a terribly dirty shifter) twitches its ears and growls low in its throat.  It crouches low to the ground, sniffing the air and then bounds over to the bridge, but heads north of the others.  Once it arrives, the shifter looks over the railing of the bridge, trying to determine the source of the noise that caught its attention.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 11, 2004)

Gannon looks around and sees that the incident has drawn others to the scene. A gnome has just run past him to inspect the corpse of the man and has now taken a keen interest in the warforged standing next to him. _He must be a tinker of some sort, but we don't have time for this now_, Gannon thinks. He hears something beneath the bridge and suddenly the jump makes sense. _The person is hiding under the bridge! It's going to ambush us!_, he thinks. "Be careful, people, the murderer is still around! Brace yourselves!" he yells as he fastens his shield to his left arm.


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## Knight Otu (Sep 11, 2004)

Startled by the call of the human, Flawed reaches for its axe, but realizes its mistake and readies the crossbow instead. "*Where? And what about the person that jumped off the bridge?*" Not noticing the glance of the gnome, it slowly moves to the part of the bridge where it saw the other person vanish, hoping to notice anything through the heavy rain, but cautious for any sign of the murderer the human had mentioned. _Though I am not seeing where it might be..._


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 12, 2004)

*Gannon, Flawed, Rawhide, Khashana*: You turn to see a wooden hand with metal joints and reinforcements grab the opposite ledge.  There's a strange, almost mechanical grunt and you see a female warforged climb up onto the ledge.  She wears a cloak and basic clothing, a battle axe hangs at her side.  Snarling, she unslings the axe...

*Plonk*: The warforged next to you starts to grab his axe, only to ready his crossbow -- the hardware's nice and well made, but it's slightly aggressive apparently.  Then you hear the snarl coming from directly behind you...

*OOC*: _Surprise round.  Plonk is caught off guard and is flat-footed.  The rest of you get to act during the round.  If you could all post three full rounds of actions, *not* including the surprise round, that'd help me resolve the combat quickly -- maybe even in the next post.  Initiative is listed below.  The white "C" is the female warforged.  She will act first, but I'm leaving it out to keep things clean; I'd like to handle all combat actions at once._

*Initiative and Conditions*
Female Warforged 20
Gannon 19 (roll of 19 on d20, +0 Init)
Flawed 15 (roll of 14 on d20, +1 Init)
Khashana 10 (roll of 10 on d20, +0 Init)
Rawhide 7 (roll of 5 on d20, +2 Init)
Plonk 5 (roll of 4 on d20, +1 Init) [flat-footed]


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## Krug (Sep 12, 2004)

Plonk gasps. "What this be..." he says. When he can act he takes out his crossbow and fires at the hostile Warforged. If he does not have a clear shot and the warforged is busy, he will try to flank the warforged with the others and cast a _inflict light damage_ and make a touch attack on the warforged.


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## Ashy (Sep 12, 2004)

Rawhide drops down to all fours, hunched down more like a beast than a man.  Never having seen a creature such as this before, the shifter waits to see what it will or can do.  He keeps one hand on the haft of his throwing axe just in case it came his way, however.

_OOC:
Round 1: Delay until threatened, then attack with ranged weapon (throwing axe) or melee (greataxe) as appropriate.
Round 2: Shift and Rage, wade into combat with greataxe
Round 3: Rinse, and Repeat.  _


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## MadMaxim (Sep 12, 2004)

When Gannon sees the warforged, he fastens the morningstar in his belt again and starts to make strange gestures and speaks in a strange tongue. He then points at the warforged. After that he draws his morningstar once again and attacks the presumed murderer.

OOC:
Round 1: Sheathes the morningstar and casts _doom_ on the warforged. He does so defensively, if the warforged ever threatens him. The Will save DC for _doom_ is 13.
Round 2: Draws morningstar once again and tries to get within threat range, preferably flanking the warforged together with one of the others. If the warforged is already within his threat range, Gannon attacks it.
Round 3: Keep hitting the warforged until it doesn't move any longer.


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## Knight Otu (Sep 12, 2004)

Just as it realizes that the person that "jumped" off the bridge and the murderer might be the same person, Flawed catches the sight of warforged climbing up on the other side of the bridge. As Flawed shoots a bolt at it, it wonders about the significance of the clothes the other warforged wears...

 (Round 1: Shoot a crossbow bolt at the warforged. [attack +1;damage 1d10; critical 20/x3]
 Round 2: If the warforged is not in melee with one of the others, shoot another bolt. Otherwise, enter melee as well [slam attack +1; damage 1d4+1]
 Round 3: Repeat as appropriate.)


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 13, 2004)

*Surprise Round*

The female warforged hops off the ledge and charges at Flawed.  "Flesh-loving traitor!"  However, her small jump from the ledge onto the bridge causes her to lose her balance, and Flawed easily dodges.

Gannon sheathes his morningstar [No AoO, as Gannon's at a safe distance from the enemy warforged]. 

Reflexively, Flawed drops his crossbow and throws a massive fist at his attacker [Melee attack, roll of 11 on d20, +1 slam, total 12, miss], which she blocks with her forearm, causing a dull, metallic thud.

Khashana does nothing.  Cries of "Murder!" and "Call the Watch!" echo from nearby towers.

After careful observation, Rawhide draws his greataxe, continuing to observe [Ready until the second round, count 9].

*Round 1*

"How dare you live among humans?  After all they've done to us and ours?"  The warforged swings her axe at Flawed, but her grip is too loose and the axe flies out of her hands and off the bridge, falling into the city below.  

Gannon takes advantage of her momentary confusion to cast _doom_, which appears to succeed, and then redraws his morningstar [Duration of _doom_: 10 rounds remaining].

Winding up, Flawed throws another punch, catching his adversary in the chin [Melee attack, roll of 17 on d20, +1 slam, total 18, hit; Damage, roll of 2 on 1d4+1, 2 damage].  Although she seems like she ought to be a capable combatant, she's certainly not the most practiced.

Khashana, still unsure of what to do, recalls her experiences at the hands of the quori and lashes out.  A low hum is quickly followed by a loud snapping sound, and the female warforged cries out [_Mind thrust_; Damage, roll of 9 on 1d10, 9 damage].  She then ducks away from the combat, towards the bushes [3 pp remaining].

Snarling, Rawhide rages and, hefting his greataxe, wades into combat and brings the axe down at the warforged in a heavy, overhand arc [Melee attack, roll of 8 on d20, +5 greataxe, total 13, miss].  The axe hits the stonework of the bridge, tiny sparks flying off of it upon impact.

Plonk, after gathering himself, moves quickly to an advantageous position, opposite to Flawed.  As he moves there, he finds himself the focus of a large, round fist, which he ducks under carefully.  He then casts _inflict light damage_ and waits...

*Round 2*

The female warforged screams (a tinny, grating scream) and launches herself at Flawed, fists out.  She connects with a sharp left hook, nearly dropping him [7 damage, Flawed is disabled].

Gannon rushes forward, morningstar out, attempting to reach a spot somewhere on the far side of the raging warforged.  Ducking a fist, he slides past Pronk and Rawhide into a space next to the gnome.  He then swings his morningstar, bringing its weight into the warforged's side [Melee attack, roll of 15 on d20, +2 morningstar, total 17, hit; Damage, roll of 1 on 1d8+1, total 2].  You can see wood and mental splinter and dent.

Flawed starts to cast a _repair light damage_ spell on himself, but catches a one of her feet in his midsection [2 damage, Flawed is at -2 and inert].  He falls to the ground.  "Traitor!," she screams, "You get what you deserve!"

Khashana, seeing Flawed fall, tries another mental attack, but she can't breach the warforged's defenses.

Rawhide swings his axe again, missing wildly [Melee attack, roll of 2 on d20, +5 greataxe, total 7, miss].

Seeing the opportunity present itself, Plonk reaches forward and grabs ahold of the warforged [Melee touch attack, roll of 13 on d20, -1 touch, total 12, hit; Damage roll of 3 on 1d8+1, 3 damage].

[Duration of _doom_: 9 rounds remaining.]

*Round 3*

Staggered, but still conscious, the warforged reaches behind her head and brings her open hand towards Plonk, swinging wildly.  The gnome dodges easily.

Gannon attacks with his morningstar again, missing almost as wildly as she had missed Plonk [Melee attack, roll of 1 on d20, automatic failure; Possible fumble, DC 10 Ref save, roll of 1 on d20, +0 Ref, total 1, failure].  He slips on some blood, falling prone next to the corpse of the old man.

Khashana moves forward, hopeful that she might be able to help someone, or at least move them out of harm's way -- Flawed proves too far, however, and she's forced to wait a bit longer.

Frustrated, Rawhide slashes at the warforged with his axe, cutting open her chest and exposing some the gears inside [Melee attack, roll of 15 on d20, +5 greataxe, total 20, hit; Damage, roll of 15 on 1d12+4, 15 damage].  She falls to the ground, face down, inert...

Cries ring out from some of the nearby towers, "Murder!  They've murderered that person!"  The shrill whistles of the City Watch can be heard from beyond Delannan Tower.  From the sounds of it, they're not far away.

*OOC*: _Here's the situation: Flawed is inert [-2 hp], there's a dead body on the ground next to Gannon, and the City Watch is a short walk away, more than likely.  If you have comments or questions about how I've handled combat, we can chat in the OOC thread._


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## Krug (Sep 13, 2004)

Plonk looks at the others. "This does not look good. Are women of any type always this temperemental?" Plonk grabs at the satchel that the corpse had. "Herein may lie a clue to our predicament. And I think we better be off swiftly," he says to the rest. The gnome waits for the shifter's rage to pass. _Never was a race one would want to be around. Particularly bad after losing at card games._ he thinks to himself.

_If the party dallies longer he will inspect the fallen warforged._


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## MadMaxim (Sep 13, 2004)

Gannon looks around at the assembled people and says: "Nice work, people. We have obviously just killed this man's murderer, but this warforged looks rather smashed up, so I'll try and tend to him, if you don't mind?" Gannon walks over to the inert warforged, mumbling a few words and making more strange gestures he touches the warforged whose dented metallic hide starts to repair itself.

OOC: Gannon converts his _divine favor_ spell into a _cure light wounds_ spell and casts it on Flawed.


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## Ashy (Sep 13, 2004)

Rawhide, his rage made all the worse because of his misses, continues to wail on the fallen body of the warforged, hammering it again and again with his greataxe.  The shifter is foaming at the mouth and snarling incoherently.

"Raaaaggghhh...aaaaaAAAarr....ggggooobbb....RAAAWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGG!"

OOC - *KL:*


Spoiler



Just FYI, if anyone approaches Rawhide, he WILL attack them while he is in this state.  He knows none of these people any better than the warforged he just ripped up, and he is in no mental state to deduce otherwise at this point...


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## Knight Otu (Sep 13, 2004)

_Surprise. Confusion. How could it be a traitor? The nation it was supposed to be loyal to no longer existed, or so it had been told.

 Concern. The other warforged had singled me out. _Only slowly did it dawn to Flawed that the other warforged saw other aspects as its treachery. _Flesh-loving. Living among humans. Did that mean...?_

 And then it fell.

 (OOC: Int check (or maybe Know-Arcane?) to see if Flawed knows about the LoB, once it regains conciousness )


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 14, 2004)

*Plonk*: The satchel feels slightly heavy, almost like a student's satchel -- you can feel paper rustling in it as you pick it up.

*Gannon*: You cast _cure light wounds_ on the "smashed up" warforged (although they're both pretty smashed up, particularly the one Rawhide's working on).  It takes, but you're pretty sure that it works better when you cast it on people [_Cure light wounds_, roll of 4 on 1d8+1, halved for warforged, heals 2 hp, raising Flawed to 0 hp].

*Flawed*:  You regain "consciousness," but feel a little sluggish.  You see the man carrying the morningstar, standing over you.  A gnome and what looks like a human woman are a little farther away, and a feral shifter with a greataxe is currently going to town on the mangled corpse of the warforged that assaulted you.  [Intelligence check, roll of 16 on d20, +2 Int, total 18]  She said a lot about you being a "flesh-loving traitor," which jogs your memory a bit.  You'd heard rumours of a Lord of Blades in the Mournland, some sort of warforged prophet or psychopath gathering your kind to him, but you weren't sure he existed.

*Rawhide*: After about 18 seconds, you finally calm down.  You feel okay, if a wee bit tired.  The warforged you were hacking at is pretty damn far from okay.

*Plonk*: Now that the shifter's calmed down, you take a look at the mangled warforged in front of him [Search check, roll of 13 on d20, +3 skilled, total 16].  You find a strange mark on her forehead, [Intelligence check, roll of 3 on d20, +2 Int, total 5] but don't know what it means or represents.

*Everyone*: At this point, three people -- two men and a woman -- dressed in the green and black studded leather jerkins of the City Watch arrive, their armor and cloaks drenched.  One of the men, a stocky dwarf with a trim beard steps forward.  He points his crossbow at you.  The others, both human, stand behind him their halberds at the ready.

He sees the corpse and sighs.  "Olladra's bloody nose."  He looks at the group of you, sizing you up.  "I think you'd best be explaining what's gone on here, or we'll be having a much more private conversation.  And don't bother lying.  You won't get it past me. I'm a pretty good liar myself."  He grins, a wolf in dwarf's clothing.


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## Ashy (Sep 14, 2004)

As the dwarf appears and begins speaking, Rawhide sags to his knees and then slowly sits atop the mangled mass that was once a warforged.  Heedless of anything that is said (at least for the moment), the shifter begins picking through the remenants of the body, sniffing and tasteing various parts that catch his eye.

OOC: Rawhide will want to take a bit of his enemy with him, if possible, as a trophy.  He won't cause a stir or a fight over it, however, but if he can pick something up and take it along, he will do so.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 14, 2004)

Gannon looks at the beastman, as he picks his way through the remnants of the dead warforged. He then turns to face the newly arrived city guard and quickly puts his morningstar away. He's not looking for trouble with authorities. He may be a bit of rebel, but he's not stupid. "Good evening, my good dwarf. I'm glad someone alerted the city watch, because this could possibly have turned a lot more ugly than just this. On my way to Morgrave University, I saw this person (points to the dead man) slump to the ground while this warforged (points to the heap of broken metal that was once the warforged) was escaping from the scene of the crime that it obviously comitted. I came to investigate and then more people started showing up and helping me with fighting off the murderer. That is really all there is to it."


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## Krug (Sep 14, 2004)

"Stonebrother," says Plonk. "It is as the good cleric said."
Plonk makes a mental note of the mark of the fallen Warforged. Plonk is eager to find out what's on that piece of paper in the satchel. Perhaps it is the clue to unravelling this strange case...


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## Knight Otu (Sep 14, 2004)

(OOC - I believe I lost my casting of Repair Light Damage, right?)
 As Flawed stands up, with the unusual sensation that the healing spell has left, it thanks the man with the morning star, as it seems that it has been him who "repaired" some of the damage Flawed had suffered.
 Seeing the shifter picking and sniffing through the remains of the other warforged, Flawed wonders if he is looking for food, and considers telling the shifter that he won't find anything edible in the heap, but decides that speaking with the city watch is more important. Still not back from "unconciousness", it speaks only in short sentences.

 "*As the man said, sir. I saw the scene after my training session. Some person on the ground - this one. Another seemingly jumping off the bridge - actually the other warforged climbed off. We investigated the scene - and then it attacked us.*"


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## Ashy (Sep 15, 2004)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> Gannon looks at the beastman, as he picks his way through the remnants of the dead warforged.




Rawhide growls slightly at Gannon around a half-chewed fragment of warforged forearm, but otherwise makes no move...


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 15, 2004)

*Rawhide*: You find a couple of gears inside the warforged's chest that could make a nice trophy.  They're a darkish metal and give off a nice shine when they catch the light from the nearby _everbright lanterns_.

*Everyone*: As you stand there, a small crowd begins to gather around, attracted by the Watch's whistles and the end of the previous combat.  One of them, a middle-aged human woman with a child hugging her legs steps forward, "I live over there," she points at the window up a story or two on Delannan Tower, "and I saw this beastly warforged," she points to Rawhide's improvised seat, "attack that one.  I can't speak for the rest of their story, but they were attacked."

The dwarf thanks her and pauses to think, or at least to look thoughtful [Diplomacy check, +4 circumstance bonus].  He sighs.  "Fair enough.  I've heard weirder stories, and yours has at least the ring of truth to it.  Or you're excellent liars."  He looks at you skeptically for a second.  "In any case, you need to be leaving this sort of stuff to the Watch.  Now, if you'll go about your business, we're going to need to take these bodies with us."  The dwarf looks at Rawhide.  "If you'll excuse us, we need to take a look at that."  He looks wary of asking the shifter too much or asking it too curtly.

*OOC* for *Knight Otu*: _Nope.  Spellcasters retain any spells that they had prepared before falling unconscious ("Disabled," PHB 145)._


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## Krug (Sep 15, 2004)

"We do not lie as good as you would stonebrother," says Plonk without thinking. "I mean, we really aren't good liars. Besides the warforged are not built to lie."

Plonk waits to see what Rawhide to do. He notes the expression on the dwarf's face. _Like asking a bulldog to return a bone, or at least a nice cut of meat._


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## Ashy (Sep 15, 2004)

Rawhide reaches into the bowels of the warforged and rips out a long piece of wire, slipping the cogs on it, he quickly loops it around his wrist.  He then springs off of the pile of hacked metal and lands nearby, watching those around him with intense, wild eyes...


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## MadMaxim (Sep 16, 2004)

Gannon is rather insulted by the dwarf's remark about leaving these things for the city watch and not even get a thank you for stopping the murderer. "Considering that the city watch obviously cannot be everywhere at once, upstanding citizens have to help each other out once in a while, wouldn't you agree?" he says to the dwarf.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 17, 2004)

The dwarf looks at Plonk.  "I'll take that as the compliment it might have been intended as, I think."  He then turns to Gannon, frowning.  "Considering that upstanding citizens aren't paid to keep the peace and trained in the investigation of crimes and their prosecution under Brelish law, wouldn't you agree that the Watch should probably handle most criminal matters?  You're on fairly thin ice.  I'm letting you go because I like your friends, especially the gnome, and I think I like you well enough.  I don't _trust_ any of you, but I trust her," he points to the woman that spoke on your behalf, "and that's good enough for me to let you all walk.  I've heard too many tall tales and plain out lies to believe a group of misfits standing around a corpse and a decimated warforged without having a decent gut feeling about them.  I feel good enough about the lot of you to let you go.  Be happy about that, and remember my advice."

The crowd backs off a bit as Rawhide jumps off the warforged (sometime during the dwarf's monologue).  When the dwarf finishes, he smiles at the shifter.  "Thanks, lad."  Then, to his compatriots, "All right you two, let's get some back up and pack these bodies up."  The woman blows a couple of short shrill blasts on the whistle, summoning a few extra members of the Watch to help with the heavy warforged.


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## Krug (Sep 17, 2004)

"Well, the Watch will do its job now laddies," says Plonk. He's *DYING* to read what's on the note. "And I think we should gather for a drink since we managed to avoid being put in a jailcell today yess?"

_Plonk will try to find an excuse to read the note, perhaps going to the little gnome's room._


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## MadMaxim (Sep 17, 2004)

_I may not be a part of the city watch around these parts, but if it weren't for us that killer machine would still be roaming Sharn. Stubborn dwarf... Well, it probably won't do me any good to object any longer, so I'll just keep cool and see what this murder was all about. The city watch is probably not going to do a thing about it, because people get murdered everyday in the city for as little as a couple of silver pieces..._ He turns to face the gnome, bows and introduces himself: "Gannon Relstorf, traveling cleric. And that is the best proposal I've heard all day, my good gnome. I would be happy to join you for a drink."


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## Knight Otu (Sep 17, 2004)

As the city watch leaves, and people start introducing each other, Flawed turns towards them. It does not quite understand the need to celebrate, but it hopes that it can talk about the assault if it accompanies the others.

 "*I am Flawed. While I have no need of drink, it does not harm me. I would like to come with you. But if you excuse me first, I need to take care of my repairs.*"

 (OOC: Use my scroll of repair light damage, even if I retained my casting)


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## Ashy (Sep 18, 2004)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> The crowd backs off a bit as Rawhide jumps off the warforged (sometime during the dwarf's monologue).  When the dwarf finishes, he smiles at the shifter.  "Thanks, lad."




Rawhide gives the dwarf a turt nod followed by a deep-throated, short, snorting sound.  He then plucks a half-eaten piece of fruit out of his matted mass of hair and armor and begins absent-mindedly gnawing on it...

When the gnome mentions a drink, Rawhide stops as if frozen on the spot.  Looking directly at the gnome with wide, wide eyes he nods and speaks slowly, "D-r-i-n-k."

He grins knowingly...


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 18, 2004)

*Flawed*: You tend to your injuries [_Repair light damage_, roll of 5 on 1d8+1, 5 hp repaired, scroll expended].

*Everyone*: The closest tavern nearby is a semi-respectable hovel called the Breland Night Owl in Delannan Tower.  Its sign depicts a midnight blue owl with stars for eyes stretching its wings out as if taking off.  You can see cobwebs in the crook where the sign's support beam meets the building.

When you enter, you see that the clientele are semi-respectable citizens engaged in their usual (and, likely, semi-respectable) business.  What food they serve smells good, and the house ale is a rich copper with a slight scent of nutmeg and cranberry.  A table sits empty in the corner, half engulfed in shadow, half out, an _everbright lantern_ bathing it in a weak golden light.

The bartender calls over to you from behind the bar.  "Sit whereever ye like, fellahs.  Someone'll be over to tend to ye in short order."

*Plonk*: The satchel is a little heavy for just a piece of paper.  You feel some quills in there, as well as what feels like a book.

*OOC* for *Knight Otu*: _Since I already ruled on it, you keep the spell, but in the future, we'll follow the rulebook.  Thanks for the heads up._


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## Ashy (Sep 18, 2004)

Rawhide lopes over to the table, and springs into one of the shadowed chairs.  He starts banging on the table, chanting, "Drink!--Drink!--Drink!--".  His words are rough sounding, almost like the bark of a large dog.


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## Krug (Sep 18, 2004)

Plonk can't stand it anymore, and opens the satchel in front of everyone. "From our victim, laddies. Let's see what he's got. This is all in an archaelogical curiosity sense, and not a tomb looter kind of way, just in case you're wondering, I'm a gnome, not a (coughs) halfling," says Plonk. "By the way, name is Plonk. Clock repairer by trade, adventurer by divine design." Plonk continues to examine the Warforged. _By gosh. Look at those... those gears!_ He turns away if Flawed finds him staring.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 18, 2004)

Gannon nods to the bartender, walks over to the table and sits down on one of the chairs. He puts his shield next to the chair and looks at the shifter. _What could possibly be going on in that creature's head? I always thought shifters were more intelligent and had better manners, but I guess I've come across one of the really feral ones. I never really understood why the Church of the Silver Flame hunted them down. They may have lycanthrope blood running in their veins, but still..._ Gannon snaps out of his philosophical thinking when the gnome who goes by the name of Plonk opens the satchel. _I wonder what man was killed for. It has to be in there..._


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## Ashy (Sep 18, 2004)

Rawhide is still chanting when Gannon's eyes fall upon him.  The shifter, still wild eyed, returns the look, still chanting for a drink, but increases the volume and juts out his lower jaw.  This, in effect, makes him look terribly frightening and increasingly odd.

"*D-R-I-N-K!
 D-R-I-N-K!
D-R-I-N-K!*"

The shifter widens his eyes dramatically as he returns Gannon's stare, locking eyes with the cleric...


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## MadMaxim (Sep 18, 2004)

_He's completely out of control. I'd better order him something, before he causes more trouble._ While he keeps staring at the shifter, Gannon puts up his hand and waves for a bar maid to come and take their order. _Now you better stay put, shifter. I'll get you some strong ale and hope it'll keep you quiet._


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 19, 2004)

Plonk empties the satchel -- which, when looked at in the light, is obviously well made and stylish -- out onto the table.  Inside are some assorted quills and inks, six blank sheets of fine Karrnathi paper (one of them rather wrinkled), an apple wrapped in waxed paper, and a small book.

The book is small, about 3 inches by 6 inches, and roughly 1 inch thick.  Its cover is dark brown leather with a mithral design weaved into it.  There is no title.

Shortly after Plonk opens the satchel but before anyone can look at the book, a young woman comes over, responding to Gannon's gesture.  She looks rather bored and seems to have been stifling a yawn as she crossed the room.  "Nice book."  You're not sure she's even given the book the slightest of glances.  "So, what can I get you folks?  We can offer two ales -- Breland Amber, which is the house brew, and Galifar Honey Brown.  5 cp for a pint."


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## Krug (Sep 19, 2004)

"Amber please," says Plonk, waiting to hear if anyone will volunteer to pick up the tab. _I not be parting with my gold!_ he thinks to himself. 

Plonk snaps his hand forward and grasps the book. He will start flipping it to see what's in it.
He will also examine the paper to see if there is anything written on them.


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## Ashy (Sep 19, 2004)

Rawhide snatches the apple and begins devouring it voraciously, spewing chunks of fruit, fruit juice and saliva over any who might be nearby.  While smacking on a mouthful of half-chewed apple, the shifter replies to the barmaid, dribbling the contents of his mouth all over himself.  "Bring brown!  Lotsa brown!"  Rawhide smiles (again, open mouthed) as if he is tremendously proud of himself.

OOC: MadMaxim, I am assuming that Gannon is still thinking, right?  I cannot tell if the last two sentances were spoken out loud or not....


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## MadMaxim (Sep 19, 2004)

Gannon turns his head towards the young lady and asks for some Breland Amber, before he looks back at the contents of satchel.

OOC: Yeah, Ashy, everything written in itallics are thoughts.


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## Knight Otu (Sep 20, 2004)

> He turns away if Flawed finds him staring.



 (Flawed wouldn't notice Plonk staring at him even if he stared directly into its eyes. )

 "*I take a Brown.*

*The man was not our victim - he was the victim of the warforged assassin. I thought that it killed him because it served the Lord of Blades. Do you think there is another reason?*"


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 20, 2004)

The serving girl raises her eyebrows at Rawhide.  "Um, how about I start you with two, and we run from there?"  She looks slightly overwhelmed.  To the rest of you, she says, "I'll be right back."

*Plonk*: All the sheets of paper are blank.  The pages inside the book are also devoid of any writing, but aren't made of paper or leather, but something else entirely.

*Everyone*: The door to the Breland Night Owl opens, and a figure wearing a dark cloak enters.  Spotting your table, he comes over quickly, his dripping cloak drawn about him tightly.  His right hand holds it shut, and you can see a House Cannith signet ring on it (a stylized hammer and anvil done in platinum).  

In a low voice, he says, "I saw you on the bridge.  If you want to know the truth about Bonal Geldem's murder, go to the Broken Anvil Tavern in the Mason's Tower at dawn."  He turns and heads back towards the door, with the serving girl quickly replacing him.  She distributes your drinks, making a point of giving Rawhide his two first.  "If you need more, let me know."  She heads back to tend to the other customers.


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## Ashy (Sep 20, 2004)

Rawhide quickly stuffs the rest of the apple in his mouth and begins gulping down the ale.  "Good Brown Lady!", he bellows between chew-gulps.  Finishing his drinks-and-apple combination well before the barmaid returns, the shifter looks towards Gannon, widens his eyes, and sticks out his lower jaw again.  Then, with his face frozen like that, Rawhide moves only his lower jaw and says, "Hey!  Bug-eyed man!  Wha' you fink 'dat drippy-dark man want?  Why him not jus' tell us-is now?"

Rawhide does not move thereafter, but maintains his unusual face - eyes locked on Gannon, as if waiting a response...


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## MadMaxim (Sep 21, 2004)

"He obviously has some interest in what we have found," Gannon replies. "It must be rather important since they sent a representative from House Cannith. But who would be interested in empty sheets of paper and an empty book? There must be more to it than meets the eye. I don't know about you, but I want to find out why this man was murdered." He drinks some of the ale and stares back at Rawhide. "Why are you making such a strange face?"


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## Ashy (Sep 21, 2004)

"Bah!", Rawhide says, still maintaining his strange face.  "Kilt is kilt.  Drippy-dark-man wants us-is to kilt some ofver folks!  We-is good at basin' and smashin'!"  At Gannon's last question, Rawhide, with his face still frozen, cocks a bushy black eyebrow.  "Wha' funny face?  Dis is da face you make at me at first...  You makes dis face at Rawhide and Rawhide makes it back, right?"


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## MadMaxim (Sep 21, 2004)

"It's just that I haven't really met many of your kind, Rawhide. Your habits and behavior are pretty alien to me, so you could say that I'm studying you to better get to know you and your kind. And what makes you think that we're going to be hired to kill someone? We may have killed a warforged, but that doesn't make us good at killing. It was a desperate situation and we had to defend ourselves." Then Gannon looks at Plonk. "Could I please have a look at the book and the sheets. Maybe there is information hidden from the naked eye that can be found through magical means?" He reaches across the table and waits for Plonk to hand him the book.


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## Ashy (Sep 21, 2004)

The shifter scrunches up his face with a look of confusion.  "'Den why you maken funny faces at me?"  Rawhide shrugs, sending up a waft of horrid stench - it is very easy to tell that the shifter was recently lying in a wagon full of garbage.  "We-is kilt dat metal man, ya?  Drippy-dark-man said him saw us-is kilt it.  Him MUST want us-is to kilt somefin else!  'Dats easy!  Rawhide wrong; I thinks you smart, but meybe not!"

The shifter waits for a moment, and then bursts out in laughter...  "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!  More Brown!  More Brown!"


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## MadMaxim (Sep 21, 2004)

_Traveler, what have you got into now...?_


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## Krug (Sep 21, 2004)

"Hmm," thinks Plonk. He examines the apple, cuts a bit of it and dabs some of the juice onto the pages of the book and the loose sheets, seeing if there are any effects. "So what tricks do you have Bonal Gadem?"


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## Ashy (Sep 21, 2004)

OOC: Er - Rawhide already ate the apple.


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## Krug (Sep 21, 2004)

Irritated, Plonk hands the book over to Gannon. He asks the waitress for another apple. "And you're payiing for it!" he says.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 21, 2004)

Gannon mutters a few words and makes some gestures. Then he examines the book for any traces of magic.

OOC: Gannon casts _detect magic_ and carefully examines the book.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 22, 2004)

*Everyone*: The waitress brings more "brown" for Rawhide and takes any other drink orders at that time (she's unsure if they have an apple, but will check; if not, "would a potato do?").  When she brings the drinks and apple back, she also brings a scented candle to the table, surreptitiously placing it somewhat off center, a little closer to Rawhide than to the rest of you.  She heads off to tend to other customers.

*Gannon*: 



Spoiler



The book does indeed detect as magic, and it radiates a strong aura of universal magic [Spellcraft check, roll of 10 on d20, +6 Unskilled, total 16, success].



*Plonk*: The book's pages are resistant to being soiled by apple juice.


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## Krug (Sep 22, 2004)

Plonk is irritated that the apple juice ploy didn't work. He throws the apple to Rawhide. "Now you have it!" The gnome downs his drink.


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## Ashy (Sep 22, 2004)

"'Danks!" the shifter almost barks.  Rawhide smashes this apple against the table, chuckles to himself, and then begins lapping the pulp and juices up from the table, washing it down with the ale.


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## Knight Otu (Sep 22, 2004)

Mightily confused about their behaviours, Flawed looks from Plonk to Rawhide, and back again. _It must be some kind of ritual_, it thinks._ What did Jhaeren call them? Mating rituals?_

 "*Did you find out anything, Gannon?*"


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## MadMaxim (Sep 23, 2004)

Turning to Flawed: "Indeed, I did Flawed. This book has a strong magical aura about it, so whatever information this book might contain, it is hidden from us through magical means. So, if we are to bring its secrets into the light of day, I think we will have to follow the caped fellow's advice and visit the Broken Anvil tomorrow." He quickly drinks the ale, whistles for the bar maid and picks up a gold piece from the purse that is hangning from his belt. "I don't know about you people, but I'm most certainly interested in getting to the bottom of this murder, because there is obviously more to it than meets the eye. Has anyone any idea about where we can find a place to stay? I'm not from these parts."


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## Ashy (Sep 23, 2004)

"'Deres some niiice garbage heaps down da rode a bit...  Lots'ta eat, plenty'a room ta spread out..."  Rawhide spreads his clawed and filthly hands and beams, as if he were speaking of a palacial mansion.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 23, 2004)

The barmaid thanks Gannon for the gold piece.  "Are you covering the entire tab, sir, or would you be needing me to break this?"

She turns to Rawhide.  "Oh, and I've been asked to ask you not to lick the table.  Perhaps you would like something to eat?"

*OOC*: _I'll let you all continue to talk about a place to stay and that sort of thing.  When it looks like you're done and have chosen what to do, I'll move the story along._


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## Knight Otu (Sep 23, 2004)

Flawed looks at Gannon as if it had not considered the reality that the others would need a place to stay - which would not be far from the truth.

 "*I am interested in solving the mystery as well, but I cannot help you with a place to stay, Gannon. I rarely need such a place.*"


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## Ashy (Sep 23, 2004)

Rawhide speaks quickly, grinning, "Ya, ya - him said him payin'!".  The shifter points to Gannon with both hands emphatically - that is, until the waitress focuses her attention upon _him_...  The shifter then takes on the look of a punished puppy, his head drooping and his lower lip pouched.  "Sorry Brown Lady...  Rawhide is hungry.  You gots stew?"  With the last sentence, the shifter brightens a bit, but not overly...


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## MadMaxim (Sep 24, 2004)

"Yes, I'll be covering the entire tab. Keep the change," Gannon smiles at the barmaid. "By the way, can you recommend any particular inn here in Sharn that doesn't charge too much?"


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 25, 2004)

*Rawhide*: She smiles gently.  "Stew?  Yes.  Would you prefer Brelish lamb stew or the fish stew?"

*Gannon*: "You might try the Victory -- it's not far from here."  She gives you directions from the Breland Night Owl (where you are).  It's in the same tower, only down a level or two from where you are now.


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## Krug (Sep 25, 2004)

Plonk taps his toes. "Yes, let's be there. I too am interested in this!" He says, feeling up the warforged's legs.


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## Ashy (Sep 26, 2004)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> *Rawhide*: She smiles gently.  "Stew?  Yes.  Would you prefer Brelish lamb stew or the fish stew?"




The shifter grins, showing his filthy teeth.  "BOTH!", he crows, quickly adding, "three o' each!"


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## Knight Otu (Sep 26, 2004)

"*Rawhide, do you consider coming with us tomorrow? I might have missed it, but I think you have not clearly said yes or no.*" Suddenly, Flawed looks around, looking as confused as it could with its limited mimics.
 "*It seems there are some small animals running around in here, but I cannot see any. But there must be some - one just brushed against my legs...*"


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## MadMaxim (Sep 27, 2004)

"Well, I don't see any, but it's possible. There are all sorts of vermin in the big cities." Gannon rises, straps his shield to his back. "If you don't mind, I think I'll go to the Victory and get a room for the night. It's getting late, and if I don't get some sleep, I will not be worth much in the morning. So you'll be picking up the rest of the tab, Rawhide," he smiles at Rawhide before continuing. "You know where to find me, but otherwise I'll be meeting you guys at the tavern tomorrow. Good night." He turns around on his heel and walks towards the door.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 27, 2004)

*Gannon*: You find a room at the Victory for 5 sp/night.  The Victory's not the nicest place you've ever stayed, but it's fairly clean, pretty warm, and dry.

*Rawhide*: She brings you two bowls of stew, one of each.  "Well, here you are, 'both.'  If you'll be wanting more I can bring it to you then, but the owner's a bit wary of me giving one customers six bowls of stew.  We can't make it fast enough to serve you like that."

*OOC*: _I'd like to move this along, as would MadMaxim it seems , so please wrap up any business you have in the Night Owl in your next post..._


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## Krug (Sep 27, 2004)

Plonk goes to the Victory and muttering, parts with 5 sp for a room. He awaits the morning, saying that most adventurers started this way.


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## Ashy (Sep 27, 2004)

Rawhide looks to Flawed, "If 'dere be kiltin' to do, Rawhide'll be 'dere!"  Seeing everyone leaving, the shifter frowns a bit, "Jus' when t'ings wuz gettin' fun..." he grumbles.  The shifter devours the stew before him messily and then orders a few more bowls, until he has eaten his fill.  Then, he wanders down to the Victory; finds a nice soft pile of garbage around back to sleep in, and does so.


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## Knight Otu (Sep 27, 2004)

Flawed also goes to the Victory, having learned that a room, while not really necessary for him, is a better place to make repairs, even with some improvised tools and its meager skills.

 If Flawed can find a few improvised tools, or the  Victory can provide them, it will try to repair the dents that remained from the earlier fight. (+2 Int, +2 Craft ranks, -2 improvised tools)


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 28, 2004)

*Rawhide*: A couple gold (literally) are enough to settle your tab.  You don't manage to find any garbage behind the Victory, but, fortunately enough, there happens to be a sack of what appears to be sheets out for laundering near the backdoor.  They look very comfortable.

*Flawed*: The Victory has some tools, general handyman stuff, which would probably serve you fine for the evening, despite the fact they weren't really designed for this sort of use [Craft check, roll of 15 on d20, +4 skilled, -2 improvised tools, total 17, 2 hp repaired].

*OOC*: _Next section will start in the next post...also, check the OOC thread for XP totals from Chapter 1 after the next post has been put up._


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 28, 2004)

*Interlude: The Broken Anvil*

*Zorr, 14th Sypheros 998 YK
Int. The Victory Inn - Morning*

You awaken in the morning, ready to head out to the Broken Anvil.  It's a wet morning, overcast, but not rainy.  The Anvil itself is a small tavern, located in the Mason's Tower, and it bears the symbol of House Ghallanda.  The interior is clean and warm, a step up from the Night Owl, a fact reinforced by the appearance of its customers.

An elderly Ghallanda halfling rises at your entrance and beckons you to follow her, leading you to a small, secluded table in the back corner, just barely within the range of the everbright lanterns that line the walls.  A woman, in a dark blue cloak with delicate features and almost violet eyes, sits at the table, which has three pitchers on it and enough glasses for four.  The halfling leans in towards her, saying, "My Lady, your guests have arrived."

The woman turns her attention to you, her sleek black hair bound in turquiose and silver ornaments.  She has a House Cannith signet ring on her finger and speaks in a clear, but soft voice.  "Thank you for coming.  We have important business to discuss.  It's about the unfortunate death of Bonal Geldem.  Please sit down and help yourself."  She gestures to the pitchers -- the first is a deep red wine; the second, a deep chocolate porter; the third, water.  There are exactly enough chairs around the table for the four of you.


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## Ashy (Sep 28, 2004)

Rawhide hops up into one of the chairs - literally - and then sits on his haunches in the seat of the chair.  He grabs the pitcher of porter and flashes the woman a smile full of black and yellow teeth.  "'Dank'ee.  Ya might want'ta git some mor' fer 'dem, 'dough."  He then begins guzzling down the contents of the pitcher...


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## Knight Otu (Sep 28, 2004)

Flawed silently sits down, with mixed feelings of curiosity and anxiety. _House Cannith_, it registers. While its rational mind tells Flawed that the woman can not be here for some sort of punishment for its failure, it remains uneasy, its feelings not calmed by rational thought. _If she was here because Cannith decided on my fate, she would have come earlier... or wouldn't she? No, it must be the murder, as she says._

 Even though it sits down, Flawed makes no move to get any of the pitchers or a glass.


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## Krug (Sep 29, 2004)

"Don't mind if I do," says Plonk, reaching out for the red wine. After repeated grabs at empty air, one of the others at the table passes it to him. "Alcohol in the morning... makes you ready for work, that's what my uncle Strek used to say... before a ladder carrying three cans of paint toppled and killed him that is."


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 29, 2004)

She smirks at Rawhide's antics, as if to say that she's seen worse, and says, "I'm glad our table affords us some semblance of privacy.  I'm sure your companions can keep you in line if you all accept my offer."  In response to Plonk, she grins.  "An, um, interesting story.  We all have some black sheep in our family."

Clearing her throat, she begins.  "My name is Lady Elaydren d'Vown of House Cannith.  I have...had," she corrects herself, "been working with Provost Geldem to recover a family heirloom.  We were to meet last night, but you understand what happened to those plans, I'm sure.  A man in my employ talked to the Watch captain that spoke with you and was able to gain enough information to track you down.

"This heirloom, according to family legends, was locked away in a foundry that dates to pre-Galifar Sharn.  Poor Bonal believed he had located the foundry or its supposed site based on his readings in an ancient House Cannith journal.  I was going to fund an expedition to go to the site, but without Bonal, I...

"If you were willing to recover the heirloom for me, I'd be most grateful, and you would be generously rewarded."  Her eyes flash for a second.  "Of course, you have the book with you, don't you?  The Watch said nothing about the Provost having a satchel with him.  I assume that means that the four of you took it..."  She raises an eyebrow, partially to indicate that she's impressed, partially to show that she's aware of the potential ramifications of such an action if reported to the authorities.


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## Krug (Sep 29, 2004)

"We might have it, or it could have been washed into the river with the rain," says Plonk. "So what's so valuable about the book?"

"And how generously is generous? Purely a subjective term that, with wildly different interpretations, particularly when divided by 4, generosity becomes qutie meagre," says Plonk, arcing his eyebrows.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 29, 2004)

Gannon fills a glass with water and looks at Rawhide: _How can a man possibly be so uneducated and without manners? Incredible..._ he wonders. Then he turns his attention to Lady Elaydren. "While my friend here asks some very good questions, I have one concerning the book. Through extensive study, I've been able to find out that there is something magical about it. Can you tell me in what way? I assume it would be some sort of protective or invisibility spell that has been cast on the writing, but I cannot say for sure." Gannon looks at Plonk knowing that he has blown his little "maybe-we-have-maybe-we-don't" speech.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 30, 2004)

Lady Elaydren turns to Plonk.  "I can assure you that the money I will offer you is well worth your time.  One thousand gold, one hundred of it up front.  I doubt you'll find a better offer for the journal.  To most people, it's simply a book full of blank pages that can't be written on.

"If you're willing to let me have it for a second," she turns to Gannon, "I can show you something you'll likely find very interesting."


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## Krug (Sep 30, 2004)

"Ah yes, that IS generous," says Plonk. "I like up front payments. They reflect trust," says the gnome, rubbing his hands. _No more watch repairing and arguing with balding dolts about the cost of gears!_ he thinks to himself.

"Gannon hand the good woman the book," he says.


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## Ashy (Sep 30, 2004)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> Gannon fills a glass with water and looks at Rawhide: _How can a man possibly be so uneducated and without manners? Incredible..._ he wonders. Then he turns his attention to Lady Elaydren. "While my friend here asks some very good questions, I have one concerning the book. Through extensive study, I've been able to find out that there is something magical about it. Can you tell me in what way? I assume it would be some sort of protective or invisibility spell that has been cast on the writing, but I cannot say for sure." Gannon looks at Plonk knowing that he has blown his little "maybe-we-have-maybe-we-don't" speech.




Rawhide, still guzzling the porter, catches Gannon's look out of the corner of his eye.  The shifter stops drinking, his chin still dripping liquor, and makes his "Gannon-face" to the cleric in return.  After a moment or two of this, he pauses, takes another long swig, and then belches loudly.

The shifter then looks to Lady Elaydren.  "You-is adds some breakfast to 'dat deal, Dark-drippy-lady, and Rawhide's yer man!"


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## MadMaxim (Sep 30, 2004)

Gannon hands Lady Elaydren the book.


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## Citizen Mane (Sep 30, 2004)

Lady Elaydren raises her eyebrows in response to the shifter.  "I suppose I could manage to add breakfast to the deal."  She summons the elderly halfling that brought you in and asks for a serving of steak and eggs.  "You can order what you like."  The halfling waits for your orders politely, although she looks thoroughly disgusted by Rawhide's antics.

After the halfling has gone to put your orders in with the kitchen, Lady Elaydren takes the journal from Gannon.  As she does, her signet ring and the weblike mithral design on the cover start to glow softly.  She opens the book, and you can see the pages are covered with a delicate script, accompanied by some line drawings.  Her brow furrowed, she turns the pages quickly, eventually stopping to read one.  Smiling, Lady Elaydren pulls a folded map from inside her cloak.

"The lost foundry is deep within Dorasharn Tower, some fifty-seven levels below the current sewers.  I can assure you that House Cannith will be most grateful to you for your help.  I've already told you how grateful I will be."


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## Knight Otu (Sep 30, 2004)

"*What exactly is it? How do we recognize it?*" Flawed asks, after keeping silent for most of the conversation. It seems to shrink a bit, realizing that it just has drawn attention to itself again.
 "*And... it the heirloom was why the man was killed - what makes it important to the Lord of Blades?*"


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## Ashy (Sep 30, 2004)

Rawhide happily calls for six orders of steak and eggs, a helping of gruel, and plain toast (a whole loaf's worth) while making the "Gannon-face" towards the halfling.  He then waits contentedly and quietly while waiting for the food, paying no attention whatsoever to the silly conversation about levels, rings, and dark lords...


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## Krug (Oct 1, 2004)

Plonk orders bacon and eggs and beans, and a hot cup of tea with a dash of vodka. "Hold the tea," he tells the waitress. "Not much of a read is it?" asks Plonk. When Elaydren talks about the forge, Plonk is aghast at the depth. "Fifty-seven levels down? That's... a bit of a walk. Especially when we return up!"


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## MadMaxim (Oct 1, 2004)

"I must agree with Plonk. It's a rather long way to walk. And I didn't even know that Sharn had that low levels," Gannon says. "But I'm up for the challenge, if you're sincere about the reward."


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 2, 2004)

She nods in response to Flawed's question.  "It's an adamantine plate in the shape of a seven-pointed star, roughly the size of his hand."  She points to Gannon.  "It has no special power by itself, but is an ancient schema, part of a pattern used by Cannith artificiers to craft unusual items.  It dates back to well before the war.  As to why the Lord of Blades wants it, I'm not privy to his plans, but I do suspect that his intentions aren't good."

As she finishes speaking, your breakfast arrives.  The halfling matron, accompanied by a much younger halfling male who carries Rawhide's food, lays it out for you.  Lady Elaydren hands the halfling a bank note and continues to address your questions.

"It is a bit of a walk, yes, but I'm sure the reward I'm offering should cover the costs of healing any injuries you might suffer during the transit.  House Jorasco has quite the salve for blisters."  She grins.  "This map," she slides it across the table to Plonk, "should show you the quickest way to get to the sewers of Dorasharn Tower.  Once there, you'll find the door somewhere beyond the E-213 Valve Cluster -- now that I think of it, you might require a quide to get to the cluster, so plan accordingly.  The door will be sealed with a mark similar to the mark on the cover of the journal.  Open the door, and you'll gain access to the levels below, including the one with the foundry."

She pauses to let this sink in and to have a little bit of her breakfast.  After a few mouthfuls, she asks, "Do you have any other questions or shall I be off after my breakfast?"


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## Krug (Oct 2, 2004)

Plonk receives the map and thanks the lady. "Well we have agreed to be of service. Yes, and a guide might help," says Plonk. "How will we find you after? And what else might be down there?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 3, 2004)

"When you've acquired the schema, leave a message for me at the House Sivis message station in Barmin Tower.  You should then wait for me here."  She pauses to think.  "If I remember correctly, Bonal said he'd want to bring fire for this expedition, although I can't imagine what he meant.  Other than that, there could be anything down there, but I doubt it's anything the four of you can't handle."


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## Ashy (Oct 3, 2004)

Rawhide excitedly dives into his food, smacking and slurping loudly.  When Lady Elaydren mentions the door, the shifter looks up, slackjawed.  Swallowing a mouthful of greasy eggs, he asks simply, "How open door?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 3, 2004)

She shakes her head.  "Well, it'll either be through the usual means -- unlocking it or battering it down -- or it won't.  My guess would be that it won't.  House Cannith (and all the houses for that matter) typically seal important doors magically.  In any case, Bonal didn't seem to think it would be a problem, as he never asked me about it."


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## Krug (Oct 4, 2004)

Plonk looks at Rawhide and wonders _Of all the companions in the world, I had to find one with the worst table manners._


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## Ashy (Oct 4, 2004)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> She shakes her head.  "Well, it'll either be through the usual means -- unlocking it or battering it down -- or it won't.  My guess would be that it won't.  House Cannith (and all the houses for that matter) typically seal important doors magically.  In any case, Bonal didn't seem to think it would be a problem, as he never asked me about it."




"So you no gotta key?"


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## Knight Otu (Oct 4, 2004)

"*Maybe Bonal had a key, or whatever would be necessary to open the door. But I don't think it was in the satchel, then. I think it was only the book, some writing utensils, and an apple. If you do not know more...?*", Flawed looks at Lady Elaydren.


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## Ashy (Oct 5, 2004)

Rawhide frowns a bit, bushy brows knitted together, but he soon goes back to eating...


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 5, 2004)

She shakes her head.  "I don't know anything other than what I've told you.  Anything else?"


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## Krug (Oct 5, 2004)

"Nothing else. We will be on our way after our meal, milady," says Plonk.


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## MadMaxim (Oct 6, 2004)

"Thank you for the information, Lady Elaydren. We will be on our way as soon as we have finished this meal. We will not let you down. Oh, and could we have the gold you promised us in advance?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 6, 2004)

"Of course."  She pulls a pouch from her belt and places it on the table.  "One hundred gold pieces.  I appreciate your helping House Cannith in this matter."  Lady Elaydren rises from the table and smiles.  "I'll see you when you have the schema."  She leaves.

*OOC*: _I'll need to know a few things before we continue -- how do you intend to go about finding a guide and what equipment are you planning on picking up before you go?  Let me know, and we'll continue._


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## Ashy (Oct 6, 2004)

OOC: This is one of those points when it would be good to talk about actually forming an adventuring company, with a leader and everything, ya?


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## Krug (Oct 7, 2004)

"Well we'll need rope, and maybe that money can be used for purposes to help us. Looks like we're thrown into this together lads. Shall we elect a leader?" says Plonk.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 7, 2004)

"*According to Lady Elaydren, we will also need fire for some tasks. Torches, and something to light them. ... I thought leaders were appointed, not elected? But I agree that we might need a leader. And a guide to reach our destination.*"


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## Knight Otu (Oct 9, 2004)

"*Who of us would be available as a leader, if we vote for one?*"


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## Krug (Oct 10, 2004)

"You'll do fine," replies Plonk. "I'm not one for leading... just... blowing up things."


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## Knight Otu (Oct 10, 2004)

Flawed looks at Plonk for a bit before replying "*I am a warforged, not a leader.*"

 (OOC - Well, that leaves Rawhide and Gannon. )


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## MadMaxim (Oct 10, 2004)

"Well, I guess that leaves me to lead our little group of explorers. I'm not much for telling people what to do, but I guess I can make an exception." Gannon says. "As Flawed proposed, we had better get some torches and something to light them with. I only have one sunrod. Afterwards, I say we find someone who can tell us how to get into the sewers. How does that sound?"


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## Krug (Oct 11, 2004)

"Sounds good," says Plonk. _This thing called democracy is easy_, thinks Plonk to himself.


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## Ashy (Oct 11, 2004)

Rawide makes a "Gannon-face", quickly followed by a frown.  "Hey!  Why not make Rawhide ledder?  Rawhide makes things dedder bedder, so I should be da ledder!"

OOC: Sorry, I could not resist...


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## MadMaxim (Oct 12, 2004)

"Well, you do a very good job at killing people, Rawhide, so let's just leave it at that. I think we should go down to the lowest possible level and find a guide who can help us in our search for a suitable entrance into the sewers."

OOC: Yeah, it was almost too good to pass up


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 12, 2004)

*OOC*: _Okay, my assumptions are as follows: (1) the party will spend a small portion of the money available on torches and tindertwigs, and (2) the party will descend into the lowest reaches of the towers to look for a guide that can help them find a suitable entrance into the sewers.  The party can buy as many torches and tindertwigs (or even lanterns, oil, or sunrods) as they can carry at the rates listed in the PHB.  Just tell me how much money you want to spend.  As for number 2..._

*Everyone*: Lady Elaydren's map leads you through a tangle of streets and stairs deep into the bowels of Dorasharn Tower.  Little light from above enters into the tunnels and corridors in these levels, and their cobblestone streets and passageways are damp with runoff from the previous night's rainstorms.  Occasional windows give views of other towers, other corridors, other places, while rotten wooden torches splutter and gasp.  A thick smoke hangs over your heads.

The poor and downtrodden crowd around at corners.  Urchins in ragged clothes peer at you from sooty pools of light.  Shady looking men and women leer at you, with more than one offering their "services" for "not more than a silver."  The scents of sewage, sweat, and alcohol combine into an unholy mix, assaulting your nostrils at every turn.  Grease and oils cover the walls, turning the stone unhealthy shades of yellow and grey.

Finally, one tunnel opens into a large chamber.  A mangy, flea-ridden hunting dog growls at you warily as you enter, a thick, wrought iron chain keeping him at a safe distance.  A throng of shifters, humans, and various goblinoids congregate at the center of the chamber.  In front of them, various pieces of junk and garbage are displayed on rotting, maggot-infested blankets.  A small goblin held aloft in a chair calls out to the crowd.  "No pushing!  No pushing!  There's always plenty of room for everyone in Smallweed's Market!"


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## Ashy (Oct 12, 2004)

As they walk along Rawhide seems perfectly at ease.  In fact, he often "ooohhs" and "aaahhhss" at some of the scenery, as if he was impressed with the splendor.  As they enter Smallweed's Market, he remarks offhandedly, "Ooooohh.  'Dis is a niiice place.  Rawhide likes..."  He then starts perusing the wares offered.


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## Krug (Oct 12, 2004)

"Plenty of ripoffs as well," mutters Plonk. The gnome looks around for bargains.


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## MadMaxim (Oct 13, 2004)

Gannon looks around with a sad expression on his face: _These living conditions are certainly far from ideal... All the lost destinies that are gathered in this place..._ He looks at Rawhide who's seemingly impressed by the place. _He is obviously used to such poor living standards..._ Gannon starts to ask around if there's someone who can guide them to an entrance into the sewers.

OOC: We'll buy 5 torches (one for each party member) and 5 tinder twigs.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 14, 2004)

Flawed looks around, even though it has no real idea what it has to look for. It more or less looks if there is anyone who looks like "sewer" as well as "guide," and thinking how lost it would be here without its new companions.


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 14, 2004)

Most of the items in Smallweed's Market are complete and utter junk.  Broken cartwheels, rusty piping, broken swords, old chair legs, and the like litter the blankets.  Rawhide and Plonk find nothing of interest among the trash.

Gannon manages, after some careful questioning, to find out that one of the merchants working for Smallweed, a slightly chubby goblin named Jobling, could probably give you the information you need.  At the moment, Jobling is talking to a greasy, jaundiced shifter woman.  "Of course you need sealing wax -- this stick, only partly used, for instance, would be perfect for your needs.  Say, 60 copper?"  The shifter woman pauses to think, running her hands through her oily hair.

*OOC*: _All right.  Deduct 10.05 gp from the advance Lady Elaydren gave you._


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## Krug (Oct 14, 2004)

"More worthless than an Orc's outhouse," says Plonk. "Not that they use outhouses." He, too, helps to look for a guide.


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## Ashy (Oct 14, 2004)

Rawhide picks up a thick, sturdy looking chair leg and begins chewing on it, for no apparent reason whatsoever.  He looks to Gannon, "So - wha' we dooin' now, boss?"


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## MadMaxim (Oct 15, 2004)

Disregarding Rawhide's interest in the chair leg, Gannon walks over to Jobling. Standing next to the female shifter, he looks at the goblin and the sealing wax. "I'll give you 5 silver pieces for that, but then I want some information as well."


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## Ashy (Oct 15, 2004)

Rawhide looks around the area...he's keeping an eye open for someone who looks like they might "know the area"...


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 15, 2004)

*Plonk, Rawhide*: By looking at them, you'd imagine all of them knew their way around the area fairly well, maybe even into the sewers, but from there, it'd be anyone's guess as to how much help they'd be.  That said, you both notice a short, stocky man in a grey travelling cloak perusing the wares.  He's slightly better dressed than most of them and seems to be keeping himself a little bit away from them, certainly avoiding contact.

*Rawhide*: A wiry goblin looks at you, bug-eyed.  "Hey, you! That's a good chair leg -- can't find them like that here just any day.  Two silver!"  He sticks out his palm.

*Gannon*: He shakes his head.  "Sixty copper.  Or maybe I could interest you in these trousers with just a hint of mildew?  Thirty-nine, and they're yours.  A skewer of boiled rat meat?  For you, only five silver.  Information, though, that's different.  One hundred silver."  Jobling looks at you, an eyebrow raised.  The shifter woman stands there, slack-jawed, eyeing your clothing and weapons (you can almost see the gold pieces in her eyes).


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## Ashy (Oct 15, 2004)

Rawhide growls a deep, rumbling growl at the goblin and lunges at the goblin threatening to smack him with the chair leg.  He then, just as quickly, stands down from his threatening pose and begins chewing on the chair leg again.  He keeps an eye on the man in grey, however.


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## MadMaxim (Oct 20, 2004)

Gannon looks at Jobling in disbelief: "100 silver pieces! What in the world makes you think that I would pay you that amount for some information? It's rather specific information I need, but with the price you're charging for it, I might as well try finding what I'm looking for on my own... Have a nice day, Sir!" He turns around on his heel and starts walking away resolutely.

OOC: Gannon is trying to make him cut the price by looking like he doesn't need Jobling's help, if he's charging that amount of silver pieces. If he doesn't stop him, he still walks out of the alley and tries to come up with another approach, because he's not willing to part with 10 gold pieces.


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## Krug (Oct 20, 2004)

Plonk approaches the grey cloaked man and sees what he's perusing. "So what brings a gentleman like yar here?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 20, 2004)

*Rawhide*: The goblin ducks away as you lunge at him, cursing you under his breath.  As you continue to chew the leg, you can feel his small, beady eyes staring daggers at you.

*Gannon*: Jobling shrugs.  "You're welcome to try and find it yourself.  I can do just fine here, and that's without your money."  He turns back to the shifter woman.  "Now, the sealing wax..."

*Plonk*: The man's looking carefully and intently at a pile of junk.  When he notices you approaching, he grins.  As you speak to him, he removes a pipe from a belt pouch and slowly packs it with tobacco, lighting it just before he begins to speak.  "I'm not sure that I'm a gentleman, but I can certainly tell you why I'm here.  Occasionally, you can find unusual and useful items floating through Smallweed's.  Particularly if you're intending on spending time down in this neck of the woods.  And you?"  A tangle of tobacco smoke wraps around his head.


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## Ashy (Oct 20, 2004)

Rawhide quickly grows bored of the chair leg, as well as the general location.  He drops the chewed chair leg where he stands and begins sniffing around the area.  He is not really looking for anything in particular, but moreso just looking for anything that strikes his ever-fleeting fancy.  "WHAT NOW, BOSS?", the shifter yells...


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## Knight Otu (Oct 22, 2004)

Flawed remains silent during most of the events on the market, but when Gannon is rejected, it asks
 "*So that man does not want easily earned money?*"
 Flawed certainly is no expert in markets, and the concept of haggling is not one it encountered often. And goblins, shouldn't they be quite interested in easy money? At least, that is how Flawed understands the things.


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## Krug (Oct 22, 2004)

Plonk whispers in a conspirational tone, "Well we're looking for a guide. Know where we could find one?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 22, 2004)

*Plonk*: "Where are you headed?  I know some people that are familiar with these tunnels and warrens."

*Rawhide*: The wares you see are, for the most part, junk, although if someone would call it junk, you could surely find it here.


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## Krug (Oct 22, 2004)

"It's deep beneath Dorasharn Tower, know ye anyone? Cheap but good and reliable, and preferably with no gob blood," says Plonk.


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 25, 2004)

*Plonk*: "Deep below Dorasharn?  Actually, I think I'd be able to get you where you're going -- I'm pretty familiar with those tunnels.  60 silver plus a share of anything that we might find along the way, and I'm your man."  He pauses, then grins.  "And no goblin blood to speak of here."


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## Krug (Oct 25, 2004)

"60 silver..." Plonk says. "50 and you've got a deal. What do we look like? Aristocracy? The warforged hardly has enough to replace his rusting parts! By the way, name's Plonk. Clo... I mean, adventurer by trade."


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## Ashy (Oct 25, 2004)

Rawhide sighs and plops down on the ground, tracing circles in the dirt and muck with a clawed finger...


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 25, 2004)

*Rawhide*: While you're tracing circles in the dirt and muck, the small goblin pounces on the chairleg, bringing it back to his pile of junk.  He holds it protectively, looking warily at you over his shoulder.


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## Ashy (Oct 25, 2004)

Rawhide sighs, ignoring the goblin, but bellows, to no one in particular, "Boss's SLOW!  We's needs a new boss!"


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## Knight Otu (Oct 27, 2004)

Somehow, Flawed lost sight of Gannon, and walks over to Plonk.


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## MadMaxim (Oct 28, 2004)

Seeíng that the goblin wasn't exactly outright eager to help him and his little walk-away stunt didn't turn out the way he thought it would, Gannon returns to the goblin. He takes 5 gold pieces from his purse and puts them on the table. "5 gold pieces for the information we need, nothing more, nothing less, okay?" Gannon says in a rather angry tone. "I'm usually a rather reasonable man, but if you don't give us the information we need for that amount of gold, I'll have my trusty companion (points towards Rawhide) tear your head off, and believe me, he's extremely good at it..."


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 28, 2004)

*Gannon, Rawhide*: [Intimidate check, +2 circumstance bonus (Rawhide)]  Jobling frowns, snatching the money.  "Fine.  I'll help you.  What do you need to know?"  He's clearly not happy about this arrangement, but, like the other goblin, very much afraid of the shifter.

*Plonk, Flawed*: [Diplomacy check]  The man nods.  "That'll work for me -- it's fifty more silver than I had a moment ago."  He grins.  "The name's Vincennes.  Where's the rest of your group, and when do we start?"


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## Ashy (Oct 28, 2004)

Rawhide yawns dramatically as Gannon points at him....


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## MadMaxim (Oct 29, 2004)

"I need directions for the deepest parts of Dorasharn Tower, some fifty-seven levels below the current sewers. Can you guide us there?" Gannon asks. _Nice move, Rawhide. I think you really scared him._


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## Krug (Oct 29, 2004)

"We can start now, if you have your materials ready," says Plonk. "I'm Plonk, as I have said. Well met, Vincennes." Plonk lets the others introduce themselves. He rubs Flawed's armor almost reflexively.


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 29, 2004)

*Gannon, Rawhide*: Jobling nods, sighing.  "Yeah, I can do that, although it's not safe.  The lot of you would be lucky to survive it."  He sneers and starts bundling up his wares, shooing humans, goblins, and poor shifters away.

*Plonk, Flawed*: Vincennes introduces himself to Flawed and then says, "I can leave right away.  I carry everything I need on my back."  He looks over towards Gannon and Rawhide.  "I'm guessing by their cleanliness," he pauses as he looks at Rawhide again, "or approximate cleanliness, that they're the other half of your group.  It seems they've struck up a deal with Jobling, too."


----------



## Krug (Oct 29, 2004)

"Never trust a goblin," says Plonk, agitated. "Lets round up the other two after they've found out what they need and be on our way."


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## MadMaxim (Oct 29, 2004)

Gannon walks back to Plonk and Flawed with a smile on his face. "Well, the goblin needed to be convinced with a bit of gold, but we now have a guide for our little trip into the sewers." He looks at the stranger they're talking to. "Who's this person?" he asks.


----------



## Ashy (Oct 29, 2004)

Rawhide looks up from where he sits in the muck and the dirt.  He makes the "Gannon-face" and speaks through his distended jaw.  "Yous reeedy ta go now, boss?"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 30, 2004)

Vincennes offers his hand to Rawhide and Gannon.  "I'm Vincennes.  Plonk has asked me to bring you down beneath Dorasharn and through the sewers."  He looks to Jobling and grins widely.  "Well, hello, Jobling.  Coming with us?"

Jobling scowls, but holds his tongue.


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## Krug (Oct 30, 2004)

Plonk looks at the others with a _My guide is better than your guide_ expression. "You hired a goblin? Did you give him a poisoned dagger as well so he can stick us when we sleep?"


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## Ashy (Oct 31, 2004)

Rawhide, his face still frozen in the "Gannon-face" nods to Vincennes, but he bursts out laughing at Plonk's statement.

"BWAAAHAHAHAHAAHA!!"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 31, 2004)

Jobling turns to Plonk, furious.  "If I wanted to kill you, I'd kill you now."  He starts towards you, but freezes and shrinks back towards Gannon when Rawhide starts laughing.


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## Krug (Oct 31, 2004)

"All right gob, go back to your sewer hole. We have a guide already. I'm sure he'll be a far better guide and we might actually not be led to the maw of some dark horror," says Plonk. "If you paid him anything, get it back," continues the gnome.


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 31, 2004)

Jobling laughs mirthlessly at Plonk.  "You didn't hire me.  He did," he points at Gannon.  "You've got a pretty good opinion of yourself for a gnome."

*Plonk*: 



Spoiler



Vincennes, who has been listening to the conversation with interest, quietly says the following to Plonk while Jobling speaks.  "We could always use another person down there.  It's far from safe.  A _trapspringer_ could be useful."  There's no mistaking what he means by "trapspringer."



*Everyone*: Vincennes smiles when the goblin finishes speaking.  "We've worked together before, haven't we, Jobling?  I think the sewers are big enough for all of us.  Safety in numbers, right?"


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## Krug (Oct 31, 2004)

Plonk grinds his teeth. "Yes, safety in numbers indeed. Well lets be off! And you, greenskin, stay in front!" He looks at the others to see if they've finished their junk shopping.


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## MadMaxim (Oct 31, 2004)

"Well, let's get going people," Gannon says to the rest of the group.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 31, 2004)

"*I am ready.*"


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## Citizen Mane (Oct 31, 2004)

The trip deeper into the sewers is largely uneventful.  Jobling and Vincennes seem to agree on how to get to the cluster you're looking for, although the goblin sulks most of the trip down and Vincennes's forced comradery from before has given way to a thinly veiled contempt for Jobling.  The man frequently hangs back, chatting with the party, while Jobling leads you through the tangle of sewers under Dorasharn.

*Plonk*: 



Spoiler



Much to your consternation, Jobling seems to be rather nimble and manages to avoid falling into at least six or seven different steam vents, valves, pipes, and similar hazards.  He's at least as competent as Vincennes.



*Everyone*: It's hard to tell how far down you've been and how far you've gone when, at an intersection, Jobling starts to turn left, down a rickety side tunnel.  Vincennes shouts after him, "Hey, Jobling!  Where're you going there?  The cluster's over this way."  He points straight ahead.  The man looks angry.

The goblin shakes his head.  "Not true.  This way's quicker.  Easier."

Vincennes advances on Jobling, grabbing him by the cloak and pulling him up off the ground.  "You _know_ there's trouble down that hall.  You were going to lead us right into the maw of some dark horror.  Plonk's right about you.  I thought you had turned it around since the last time we worked together."  He drops the goblin.  "You're lucky that I'm not running the show this time."  Vincennes looks back at the party to see which way you want to head.


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## Krug (Oct 31, 2004)

Plonk thumbs his chin. "I would say straight ahead. What do you others think?" _Anyway, we'll keep BOTH of them in front,_ he thinks to himself.


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## Ashy (Nov 1, 2004)

Rawhide eyes both Jobling and Vinecennes very carefully, watching their reactions and interactions, trying to determine who is telling the truth and who is not.  When Vinecennes picks Jobling up off the ground, however, something snaps within the shifter, and he remembers all the times that he has seen -or experienced- actions just like that before.  He rushes up upon Vinecennes and slamms him up against the wall, snarling, frothing at the mouth.

*"NO MORE ARGU'N!  NO MORE!  D'YA HEAR!  ACTS NICE OR I EATS YOU BOTH!!!"*

There is no doubt that there is madness and murder in Rawhide's eyes...


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## MadMaxim (Nov 2, 2004)

Gannon rushes up to Rawhide and Vinecennes and tries to seperate the two. He gives Rawhide a determined look and talks to him in a slow and calm voice. "Easy does it, Rawhide. Let go of the man. You're not a part of their little argument. Let go of him. Get a hold of yourself. If you don't, I'll be forced to leave you behind, and I wouldn't want to do that. You accepted me as the leader of this group, now accept my decision and let go."


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## Ashy (Nov 2, 2004)

Rawhide looks to Gannon briefly, but that single look would be enough to send shivers down most men's spines...  His words come haltingly, as if he has to force his mind to override his anger to even speak, "Me...not...let...go...'til...dey...say...dey...stop.......Me...not...lik'...'dis...bickerin'...stuff..."


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 2, 2004)

*Rawhide*: [Sense Motive check] You can't tell who's telling the truth.

*Everyone*: Vincennes shrugs at Rawhide's demand.  "It's over."  The man seems nonplussed by the shifter and his demands.  Jobling, adjusting his cloak and dusting himself off, doesn't add anything, although the hatred he holds for Vincennes is obvious based on the look in his eyes.


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## Krug (Nov 2, 2004)

Plonk sighs and wonders how he got together with this group. "Well, so where are we headed esteemed leader? You should make the choice."


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## Knight Otu (Nov 2, 2004)

Flawed is quite surprised by Rawhide lashing out against Vincennes, and once the group moves along again, it moves closer to the shifter and asks silently "*Why did you react so strongly to the two guides arguing?*"
 The reaction piqued Flawed's interest, seeing that it has a similar problem with swords ever since it came out of the forge.


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## Ashy (Nov 3, 2004)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> Vincennes shrugs at Rawhide's demand.  "It's over."  The man seems nonplussed by the shifter and his demands.  Jobling, adjusting his cloak and dusting himself off, doesn't add anything, although the hatred he holds for Vincennes is obvious based on the look in his eyes.




Rawhide drops the man where he stands, but keeps his murderous eyes on him a moment longer.  He expells air loudly through his nose, as would an animal trying to ward off a foul scent.  He then moves away without another word to anyone.

Later, at the warforged's question, the shifter responds.  "Me seen 'nuff o' dat kinda stuff ta last ferever.  Makes me mad..."  There is a distinct undertone of sadness in Rawhide's voice.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 4, 2004)

"*Events that shape one. Their memories can be strong. Overpowering.*"


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## Ashy (Nov 5, 2004)

Rawhide nods, his wild eyes meeting Flawed's for a moment.  "Aye", he says simply and then falls back into silence.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 5, 2004)

Before anyone can decide which way to go, an odd clickety-clacking type sound reverberates down the corridor to your right.  It sounds as if a small group of creatures wearing metal shoes is running directly at you.  A low, harsh voice, akin, almost, to a stage whisper, says, "More food.  Excellent."  Whatever it is is out of the range of your torchlight, but is certainly close.

Before anyone can react, two projectiles, vaguely reminiscent of chitinous darts, land in Jobling's chest, making a sickly squishing noise.  The goblin is jerked off his feet, flying into the darkness.  A second later, you can hear Jobling scream. 

*Initiative*
_Creature 24
Flawed 21 (+1 Init)
Plonk 17 (+1 Init)
Rawhide 7 (+2 Init)
Gannon 5 (+0 Init)
Jobling 5 (+2 Init)
Vincennes 4_


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## Knight Otu (Nov 5, 2004)

(ooc - the attack came from the right side, I assume?)

 Flawed moves in the direction of the attack, by about 30 feet (though it'll stop if it sees something earlier).
 Depending on what it sees, it'll either shoot a crossbow bolt, or cast burning hands if it can do so without hurting Jobling, and hurt more than one opponent in the process.


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## MadMaxim (Nov 5, 2004)

Gannon draws the morningstar hanging from his belt and follows Flawed into the tunnel from which the darts came. "Who's there!? Show yourself!" he yells, obviously not comfortable about the situation.


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## Ashy (Nov 5, 2004)

Rawhide roars and dives into the darkness, following Jobling, greataxe swinging...

OOC: In which direction was Jobling yanked???


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 5, 2004)

*OOC*: _Yes, it came from the right (er, sorry if that sounds a wee bit like a horror movie title -- such as It Came from the Black Lagoon!)._


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## Ashy (Nov 5, 2004)

OOC: And Jobling was pulled into the darkness on the right, correct?


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## Krug (Nov 5, 2004)

Plonk draws his light crossbow and looks around, trying to spot whatever beastie threw the  darts. "Keep close!" he shouts. _Well at least it was the goblin that got hit,_ he thinks to himself.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 6, 2004)

*OOC*: _Yep.  He's been dragged out of the light and into the darkness to your right.  Oh -- after this round, if people could post their actions three rounds at a time I'd appreciate it mightily._

*Assumption*: _Flawed had the light source, but dropped it at the entry to the tunnel so he could get ready to use his crossbow._

*Round 1*
Flawed moves down the right corridor about twenty-five feet when he sees a large, spiny arachnid, bright orange in color (image[/url).  Jobling, or what's left of him, is impaled on spikes just to the left of its head.  Its eight eyes, disturbingly human, stare down at you.  You fire a bolt at it, almost instinctively.  Jobling's far too close to you for comfort, and a _burning hands_ spell would just as likely kill the goblin as it would harm the beast.  The bolt bounces off its spiny armor, clattering as it hits the sewer floor [roll of 11 on d20, +1 heavy crossbow, total 12, miss].

Plonk, you advance slightly (to a point behind Flawed).  After your eyes adjust to being out of direct light, you can see the huge spider monster in front of Flawed.

"Show myself?", it hisses at Gannon, "Are you truly sure that's what you want?"  Gannon can see some odd orange shapes in occasional flickering lights.

Finally, Rawhide rushes the creature, swinging his great axe [roll of 15 on d20, +3 BAB melee, +2 Charge, total, 20 success].  The axe cracks the creatures shell, and a foul ichor pours out onto the floor [damage, roll of 6 on d10, +2 Str, total 8].  Its head turns towards Rawhide, and it grins foully.

*OOC*: _I can't attach a map for some reason, so we'll have to run it a little bit looser.  You're all within one move action of the creature and all of you can see it now, with the exception of Gannon, who doesn't have lowlight vision._


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## Knight Otu (Nov 6, 2004)

_That was not a bad shot. Yet I did not penetrate the hide of the opponent._

 Flawed drops its crossbow and casts a ray of frost at the beast.
 For the next rounds, it will attempt to get into attack range after casting true strike, and attack with its battleaxe.


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## Krug (Nov 6, 2004)

Plonk casts personal Weapon Enhacement to give his crossbow the quality of _flaming_. He then fires his crossbow at the creature, cursing at Rawhide for getting in the way.


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## MadMaxim (Nov 6, 2004)

*Turn 1:* Gannon puts his morningstar back in his belt and casts _divine favor_ (+1 luck bonus on attack and damage rolls for 1 minute).
*Turn 2:* Gannon takes the sunrod out of his backpack and strikes against the sewer floor to light it.
*Turn 3:* Picks up his morningstar again and starts to search for the strange creature lurking in the right sewer tunnel.
*Turn 4:* Cast _doom_ on whatever is attacking and start to smash it with his morningstar.


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## Ashy (Nov 8, 2004)

Turns 1-infinity: Rawhide will continue attacking with his greataxe, unless he is wounded.  Once he is wounded, he shifts AND rages, at which point, he continues attacking with his greataxe with much increased ferocity.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 8, 2004)

*Round 2*
The spider clacks its mandibles and fires two fangs at Rawhide, catching the shifter in the chest with both [7 damage].  A thick glue-like substance starts to spread over Rawhide's chest, and he feels the creature pulling on him, but manages to hold his ground [Strength check, opposed, roll of 19 on d20, +2 Str, total 21, success], while Flawed's _ray of frost_ shoots over his shoulder and sinks into the spider [arcane spell failure check, roll of 34 on d%; touch attack, roll of 18 on d20, +1 Dex, total 19, success; damage, roll of 3 on 1d3].

In the back, Plonk begins to infuse his crossbow with fire [Note: I'm assuming Plonk spends 1 AP to reduce the casting time to 1 round from 1 minute], cursing the shifter for getting in the way.  Rawhide, howling, rages and shifts, bringing his greataxe high above his head and down into the spider [roll of 13 on d20, +5 melee, total 18, hit; roll of 4 on d10, +6 Str (two-handed), total 10 damage].  Unfortunately, his close proximity to the spider brings the shifter perilously close to the spines that cover its body.  He twists his body, but he fails to avoid the spines and cuts his shoulder [Ref save, roll of 10 on d20, +2 Ref, failure; 3 damage].  Around this time, the two fangs release, freeing Rawhide.

Meanwhile, Gannon stows his morningstar and casts _divine favor_.

*OOC*: _Rawhide currently has 7/17 hp.  The creature is moderately injured._

*Round 3*
"Hmm.  Stubborn little shifter.  We'll try again, yes?"  Another spike shoots out towards Rawhide, sinking into his stomach [3 damage].  Again, however, the shifter holds its ground as the spider attempts to drag him in [Strength check, opposed, roll of 18 on d20, +4 Str, total 22, success], and the spike releases.  A second fang shoots out at Flawed, hitting the warforged in the side [5 damage].  The spider quickly drags the warforged to the ground [Str check, opposed, roll of 6 on d20, +1 Str, total 7, failure], reeling him in towards its mandibles, which snap down on Flawed's leg, but fail to penetrate his armor.  The warforged stands, jerking itself free from the harpoon, and draws its battleaxe [stand up from prone, move action; draw battleaxe, standard action].

Plonk, his infusion finished, fires a bolt into the melee, hoping for the best, but firing high and wide left [ranged attack, roll of 8 on d20, -4 firing into melee, +1 ranged, total 5, failure].

Furious, Rawhide swings his axe again, cutting one of the fangs off at its base [melee attack, roll of 13 on d20, +5 melee, total 18. hit; roll of 6 on 1d10, +6 Str (two-handed), total 12 damage].  A sticky glue spouts out of the empty slot.  The shifter quickly ducks out of the way of the spider's right foreleg, avoiding the sharp spines [Reflex save, roll of 18 on d20, +2 Dex, total 20, success].

Gannon pulls out a sunrod and strikes it on the sewer floor, revealing a spider-like creature the size of a large horse (and then some, likely).  It has ten legs, is covered in sharp spines, and eight human eyes dot its face.

*OOC*: _Rawhide has 4/17 hp, and Flawed has 2/7 hp.  The creature is seriously injured._

*Round 4*
The spider, furious at Rawhide, shoots the two fangs at him, but the shifter whirls out of the way, and the spines retract, harmlessly, into their sheathes.  Flawed steps back [5 foot adjustment], casts _true strike_ [arcane spell failure, roll of 35 on d%], and gets ready to attack next round.

Plonk looses another bolt, but misses again, this time not so wildly [ranged attack, roll of 13 on d20, -4 firing into a melee, +1 ranged, total 10, miss].  The bolt shoots past Rawhide, who slashes at the creature with his greataxe [melee attack, roll of 14 on d20, +5 melee, total 19, hit; roll of 5 on d10, +6 Str (two-handed), total 11], opening up a huge gash across the spider's face.

With the spider revealed to him, Gannon casts _doom_, but the spell fails to have any effect on the monster.

*OOC*: _Rawhide has 4/17 hp, and Flawed has 2/7 hp.  The creature is critically injured._

*Round 5*
The spider fires its remaining spine at Plonk, who ducks out of the way with ease.  Flawed, seeing a opening in the line, steps forward and slams the creature with its battleaxe, splitting its head wide open [melee attack, natural 20 on d20; confirm critical, natural 20 on d20, instant kill].  The spider slumps to the ground, a tangle of legs and spines.  Jobling, your goblin guide, is beyond any help you can offer, and there's no sign of Vincennes anywhere.

*OOC*: _Rawhide has 4/17 hp, and Flawed has 2/7 hp.  The creature is dead._


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## Krug (Nov 8, 2004)

"Well that was a close battle," says Plonk, cursing. "Well the goblin did serve a purpose of alerting it to the spider's presence. Big ugly thing ain't it? That's some nasty wounds on you all..."

Plonk sees if he can do something for Flawed.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 8, 2004)

Flawed stands still after the fight for a moment, looking at the dead creature, lost in thought.

_Maybe, _it thinks, _maybe the potential that Jhaeren had talked about really is within me. Maybe I can train away the flaw in my construction. After all this training that was in vain, should I be able to unleash the potential?_

 Absent-mindedly, Flawed nods to Plonk as the artificer looks over its wounds.


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## Ashy (Nov 8, 2004)

Rawhide, still enraged, looks around for his next target...


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## Krug (Nov 8, 2004)

_Do Artificers get to spontaneously cast *Repair Light Damage*? Thought I read it in the Eberron book but can't find that rule anymore. Or was I just deluded?  _


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## Knight Otu (Nov 8, 2004)

(An artificer gets to cast [imbue] any infusion on his list, and Repair Damage is on the list. He doesn't need to prepare infusions ahead of time [pg 31, second paragraph of Infusions].)


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## Krug (Nov 8, 2004)

Plonk casts _Repair Light Damage_ to Flawed to heal the Warforged. "That should make you feel better!" says the Artificer, copping a feel as he lays his hands on Flawed.


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## MadMaxim (Nov 9, 2004)

Gannon puts his morningstar back in his belt and looks rather annoyed by the fact that his spells didn't have any effect on the fight. _I guess I'll have to pray a little harder to be able to make an impact on anything._ He sees that Rawhide is still worked up about the combat and seriously injured. He walks over to him while making some gestures and muttering a small prayer to The Traveler (he converts his _read magic_ into a _cure minor wounds_). He then pads Rawhide on the shoulder (casting the spell on Rawhide). "Nice work there, Rawhide. It certainly will not harm anyone any longer. Now take it easy, because you obvoiously took some rather serious hits, and I cannot really treat them at the moment. Channeling these spells is rather hard, so I hope you can do with this minor healing."


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 9, 2004)

*OOC*: _Gannon's spell heals 1 hp, leaving Rawhide with 5/17 hp.  Plonk's infusion repairs 4 hp, leaving Flawed with 6/7 hp -- almost good as new.  As for the rest, the subtext between Plonk and Flawed, between how the gnome acts and the warforged's almost complete lack of awareness of it, is cracking me up.  Anyhow, the situation remains the same as before the fight -- the party is at an intersection -- the 



Spoiler



harpoon


 spider is to the right, Jobling wanted to go left, and Vincennes wanted to go straight.  Jobling's dead, and Vincennes is MIA._


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## Krug (Nov 9, 2004)

"There... good as new," says Plonk, giving another friendly pat. The gnome scratches his head. "I say we go straight," he continues, but he makes a search of the Spider's area to see if there is anything to loot, as well as the goblin's body. "At least we can get our money back. After all, Jobling didna do his job!"


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## Knight Otu (Nov 9, 2004)

> "There... good as new,"



 "*Yes, thank you.*" The warforged puts its axe away, still in thought, and looks for the crossbow it dropped.

 "*So, you said we should go straight ahead, Vinc... Where is he?*"


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## Ashy (Nov 10, 2004)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> Gannon puts his morningstar back in his belt and looks rather annoyed by the fact that his spells didn't have any effect on the fight. _I guess I'll have to pray a little harder to be able to make an impact on anything._ He sees that Rawhide is still worked up about the combat and seriously injured. He walks over to him while making some gestures and muttering a small prayer to The Traveler (he converts his _read magic_ into a _cure minor wounds_). He then pads Rawhide on the shoulder (casting the spell on Rawhide). "Nice work there, Rawhide. It certainly will not harm anyone any longer. Now take it easy, because you obvoiously took some rather serious hits, and I cannot really treat them at the moment. Channeling these spells is rather hard, so I hope you can do with this minor healing."




As soon as Gannon moves into melee range, Rawhide, his vision still clouded by rage, attacks him...

OOC: Sorry - nothing personal!


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## Krug (Nov 10, 2004)

"What the...?" says Plonk, as he sees the Shifter attack the Priest.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 10, 2004)

_Whatever THAT is about, it can't be good._

  "*RAWHIDE! STOP THAT! He is no enemy! HE IS NOT ARGUING!*"

 Flawed shouts loudly, and angrily steps forwards (not that it matters, but Intimidate +0) adding the last sentence due to Rawhide's reaction to the argument between the two guides.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 10, 2004)

Gannon manages to get in melee range and get his spell off just before Rawhide puts his axe into the cleric's side [melee attack, roll of 17 on d20, +5 melee, total 22, hit; roll of 1 on 1d10, +6 Str (two-handed), total 7 damage].  As this happens, Flawed can see Plonk poking around the corridor, examing the walls and so on.

*Plonk*: 



Spoiler



Jobling's body reveals the original money given to him (50 silver) along with 13 copper from various times and places. A short way down the hall [Search check, roll of 16 on d20, +3 skilled, total 19], past the spider, you find a few decomposing corpses.  A search of these bodies reveals little, except on the body of a man in a dark blue cloak with grey skin and white eyes, where you find the following: a 140 gp letter of credit written to the name Caius Ruz on the authority of the Main Bank of House Kundarak in Metrol (the former capital of Cyre), a rather nice black pearl (which you value, on a spot check at about 700 gp [Appraise check]), and a silver pearl (which you value, on a spot check at about 125 gp [Appraise check]).



*OOC*: _Do be careful with this type of thing.  I personally don't want to have to adjudicate large amounts of PC combat.  I've allowed it to happen because of this warning and the party's inexperience working together; in the future, I'll assume that most of you will take this as an object lesson.  Gannon now has 2/9 hp, and Rawhide will be shifting/raging for another 3 rounds (18 seconds)._


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 10, 2004)

Although not in time to stop the first attack, Flawed's words are rather commanding [Intimidate, roll of 17 on d20, no modifiers, total 17].

*OOC*: _I was in the process of writing the above when y'all posted.  I posted the roll's results to let Ashy know how Flawed's Intimidate check turned out.  It's still largely up to him how Rawhide responds._


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## Ashy (Nov 10, 2004)

Rawhide draws back mindlessly to strike again, but Flawed's words cause him to pause...

...the shifter's rage-clouded mind grinds and he manages to discern that the warforged that just yelled at him is far larger and louder than the smaller human...

...thus, concluding that the warforged is now the greater threat, he attacks the warforged, frothing with zeal and bloodlust.

OOC: I am in no way trying to be a pain for the party, but I am just trying to play my character.  I am cool if the party wants to come up with neat ideas to "fool" the raged Rawhide, but I do want to play my character as is...


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## Knight Otu (Nov 10, 2004)

Flawed, now being at the attention of the shifter, is reminded of how Jhaeren described rabid animals, and that they are usually killed.
_Is that the madness Jhaeren talked about?_
 Unwilling to use lethal force just yet, he enters full defense (AC 20), and continues talking.
 "*You said you have seen too much conflict!So why do you add to it now?*"


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## Knight Otu (Nov 10, 2004)

Ashy said:
			
		

> I am cool if the party wants to come up with neat ideas to "fool" the raged Rawhide,



 (Maybe someone should remind him that there is a big spiny, spidery heap of potential trophies? A smaller heap was attractive enough after the first fight.)


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## Krug (Nov 10, 2004)

_Quite a good haul_, thinks Plonk to himself, wondering if he should share with the party and glad that the goblin had some money to spare. Plonk waits to see if the shifter calms down. _No way I'm getting close to that crazed animal's axe!_


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## MadMaxim (Nov 11, 2004)

Gannon falls to the sewer floor while pressing both hands against the wound in his side. _Argh, the pain! How could I possibly have trusted a wild animal like Rawhide...? What insane mind is behind his actions...? I was only trying to help him and calm him down._ He can faintly hear Flawed's voice through the intense pain and sees Rawhide throw himself against the warforged. _No, stop it Rawhide!_ Gannon thinks, but his mouth is unable to form his thoughts into words. He tries to get up but keeps slipping on the wet sewer floor and only ends up with his face in the floor. _You had better have an extremely good explanation when I get up, shifter, or I swear I'll make sure you don't get another chance to hurt anyone..._


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 11, 2004)

Flawed, paying careful attention to the shifter's movements, easily dodges the incoming axe [Rawhide's melee attack, roll of 5 on d20, +5 melee, total 10, miss].

*OOC*: _Gannon remains at 2/9 hp, and Rawhide has two rounds left on his shift/rage._


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## Ashy (Nov 11, 2004)

Knight Otu said:
			
		

> (Maybe someone should remind him that there is a big spiny, spidery heap of potential trophies? A smaller heap was attractive enough after the first fight.)




OOC: Possibly, or I was thinking an illusion to make him think that the spider is still alive, or an illusionary second target... Remember - he ain't very bright...


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## Ashy (Nov 11, 2004)

Rawhide, frothing at the mouth in his rage responds only with a growling howl and another attack at the warforged...


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## Knight Otu (Nov 11, 2004)

Ashy said:
			
		

> OOC: Possibly, or I was thinking an illusion to make him think that the spider is still alive, or an illusionary second target... Remember - he ain't very bright...



 (Well, that's a great plan, with all the illusions we have not prepared...)

 Flawed remains on total defense, trying again to access the mind of the shifter.

 "*You know you can calm down! Remember the bridge! Remember searching the opponent for food!*"

 With the last sentence, it points towards the dead spider beast.
 (The last sentence of course assumes that no one told Flawed about the meaning of trophies.)


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 11, 2004)

Rawhide swings his axe again, but Flawed is able to duck out of the way [melee attack, roll of 12 on d20, +5 melee, total 17, miss].

*OOC*: _Gannon remains at 2/9 hp, and Rawhide has 1 round left on his snit fit. _


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## Krug (Nov 11, 2004)

Plonk shakes his head, tapping his feet. _Are they done yet? He better not scratch Flawed... else... _ The gnome festers in rage, picking up a stone, ready to throw at the Shifter.


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## Ashy (Nov 12, 2004)

Rawhide catches Plonk's movement out of the corner of his eye, and sensing a threat, instinctively hurls his great-axe in the gnome's direction.  He immediately drops to all fours and begins growling dangerously...


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## Knight Otu (Nov 12, 2004)

Flawed senses that there is nothing that can snap the shifter out of his murderous state, and decides to fight back.

 (AoO on the ranged attack, and normal attack, both with the warforged slam attack.)


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## Krug (Nov 12, 2004)

Plonk will try to dodge the oncoming axe.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 12, 2004)

Rawhide's greataxe flies through the air at Plonk [roll of 17 on d20, +5 melee attack, -4 circumstance (improvised weapon/not meant to be thrown), total 18, hit; roll of 8 on 1d10, +4 Str, total 12 damage], and lands in the gnome's chest.  Plonk falls to the ground, bleeding heavily.

Flawed misses with his first attack (at the launching of the axe), but connects with his second, driving his fist into the shifter's skull [1st attack: AoO, roll of 5 on d20, +1 slam, total 6, miss; second attack: normal, roll of 15 on d20, +1 slam, total 16, hit; roll of 1 on 1d4, +1 Str, total 2 damage].

*OOC*: _I assumed that Plonk went total defense on that, giving him an AC of 18 (+4 to AC 14).  Anyhow, here're the stats again: Plonk has -6/6 hp, Gannon 2/9 hp, Rawhide 3/14 hp as he downshifts out of his shift/rage._


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## Knight Otu (Nov 12, 2004)

"*Gannon! Look for Plonk!*"
 Assuming Rawhide does nothing to convince Flawed that he calmed down, he'll continue to attack now.


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## Krug (Nov 13, 2004)

Plonk feels the massive hit and feels the call of the Master of Artificers... He is surronded by cogs, gearwheels, levers...


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## MadMaxim (Nov 13, 2004)

Gannon gets up slowly, rips a sleeve off his shirt and puts it under his armor to stop the bleeding. Staggering towards Plonk he starts mumbling the very same words that caused Rawhide's wounds to heal (converting _detect magic_ into _cure minor wounds_), falls to his knees beside the unconscious gnome and touches his face. Positive energy flows through the artificer's body and stops the bleeding. Gannon sits up against the wall of the sewer tunnel and looks at Plonk. _That was a close one, Plonk... Don't try to pull anymore of those stunts, because I might not be there to save you._ Then he looks at Rawhide with an expression that can only be described as hatred. "I may still not think like the puritans of the Order of the Silver Flame, but with your every action, Rawhide, you're making it so much easier for me to see just a little bit of truth in their words. Look what you've done! Look! You gave me wound which will take weeks to heal and you almost killed Plonk! Give me one good reason not to hand you over to the city watch so they can lock you up for good. You're a menace! Get a hold of yourself! I really gave you the benefit of the doubt, but even my patience has its limits."


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## Ashy (Nov 15, 2004)

Rawhide's form visibly changes, growing smaller and less hairy; his teeth and claws growing smaller and less imposing.  Froth and blood falls from his mouth and his eyes seem to spin in their sockets.  The shifter rubs the side of his head and he looks around, blinking rapidly, as if he had just awoken from a long and deep sleep.

He vaguely hears Gannon's words, and their meaning (at least for now) are completely lost upon him.  He sees his wounded companions and then his eyes fall upon the dead spider and he smiles, child-like, at Gannon.

"Me done good, boss?  Me kilt da bug?"


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## Knight Otu (Nov 15, 2004)

Taken aback by the transformation, and still on guard if the shifter tries anything funny, Flawed growls
 "*GOOD? You almost killed Gannon and Plonk!*"


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## Ashy (Nov 15, 2004)

Rawhide looks at Flawed as if he had grown an extra head.  "Hurh?"


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## Knight Otu (Nov 15, 2004)

"*Right after we killed the spider, you attacked Gannon when he wanted to heal you, then attacked m, and finally threw you axe at Plonk!*"

 Then Flawed looked around. Somehow, it felt different then before the fight.
 "*I think we need to go up again, so you all can find a place to rest and recover from your wounds.*"

_Flesh folk._ Flawed froze at that thought, and banished it from its head.


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## Ashy (Nov 15, 2004)

Rawhide looks to Gannon, to Flawed and then to Plonk.  A horribly sorrowfull look rolls over his features like water over a waterfall.  "Oh no.  Me hurt yous?  Me not know.  Rawhide's sorry!  When Rawhide gets angry....him not knows whos is whos and whats is whats!"

You think that the shifter is about to cry...


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## MadMaxim (Nov 16, 2004)

Gannon gets up, picks up the unconcious gnome and puts him over the shoulder like a bag of potatoes. "Whether you're sorry or not, Rawhide, we need to get out of here now. We cannot possibly complete our mission with our souls so close to leaving our bodies. We need to get Plonk to a healer of some sort, of course, I can't remember which of the Houses does this, but we'll hopefully find out when we get up. Are you with me?" Gannon walks back through the tunnels carrying his sunrod in his right hand and Plonk hangning over his left shoulder. He has seemingly forgot the seriousness of his wounds, his determination to save the gnome has given him new strength to keep going.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 16, 2004)

"*Gannon, you are too wounded to carry Plonk. I will do that.*"
 Whether Gannon agrees or not, Flawed will take the gnome and carry him.


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## Ashy (Nov 16, 2004)

Rawhide gets up and falls into step beside Gannon.  He gently (or as gentle as you have ever seen him) offers to carry the gnome.  "Let Rawhide do it, boss.  Me done him bads, now let me do him some goods..."  There is truly something that has changed about the wild shifter, but you are not sure what, exactly...


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## Krug (Nov 17, 2004)

Plonk feels like he is being pulled in different directions as he floats around the Master Artificer's chambers...


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 17, 2004)

Somehow, after three hours of wandering, you manage to find your way back to Smallweed's Market (no one seems bothered by the absences of Jobling or Vincennes, and they don't really seem to be paying attention to you, either) and, from there, back up through the mazes of the lower level of Dorasharn Tower into the light.  

A Healer's Guild is easy enough to find in Sharn — they have a number of small operations in just about every tower, and House Jorasco does not hide them.  You manage to find one only a couple levels below the Brelish Night Owl, an easy walk from the rooms you procured the other night in the Victory.

*OOC*: _My assumptions are that you'll (1) have a cure serious wounds spell cast on Plonk (125 gp) and (2) rent some rooms at the Victory again (I have to go back and check the price again, I'll post it here after I do).  If you have any other plans or things you like to do while you're back in the upper levels of Sharn, let me know._


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## Krug (Nov 17, 2004)

When Plonk awakens he looks around. He hugs Flawed. "I thought I'd never see you again!" He doesn't want to speak to Rawhide. He shows the party the wealth obtained from the Spider to split amongst them. "Lucky for the lot of you I got our money back from that Gob!"


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## Ashy (Nov 17, 2004)

When it comes time to pay the healer, Rawhide digs around in his rag-like clothing, finally scraping up the sum total of 52 gold.  This is places in the healer's hands, saying.  "Me know this ain't a'nuff, but its all mes gots.  Rawhide did dis and Rawhide's gotta fix dis."

His sorrowful face speaks volumes.

Back at the Victory, the shifter secludes himself to the trash pile in the back and sits alone for a long time.  Finally, he begins rooting around in the garbage pile in a rush as if looking for something specific.  Finally, it seems that the shifter finds what he is looking for and then spends the next several hours hunkered over the objects, hard at work.

When he is done, he enters the inn and finds Plonk, approaching him with his head down and nearly prostrate, as would a chastised dog.  Whether or not the gnome pays him any heed, the shifter slips his crafted prize gently onto the table and then runs away as quickly as he can.  He returns to his garbage pile and remains there for the night.

In his wake, upon the table are the two darkmetal gears that Rawhide took from the slain warforged.  They have been fitted together and stuck there by some dark, sticky concoction that smells vaguely of grease and glue.  Festooned all along the edges of the gears, in a surprisingly beautiful pattern, is a mosaic of smooth pebbles of various hues, multicolored glass, bone bits (that appear to have had all the sharp bits gnawed down), and pieces of scavenged metal.  A piece of ragged and frayed string winds through the holes in both cogs and is tied, as if to make the whole ensemble a necklace.  Upon each cog a single word has been scratched, over and over again and the words, which reveal the shiny metal beneath, gleam even in the dim light of the inn.  They read:

"Me Sorree"


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## Knight Otu (Nov 17, 2004)

Krug said:
			
		

> When Plonk awakens he looks around. He hugs Flawed. "I thought I'd never see you again!"



 "*I heard it was close. I sometimes think I will never understand the world of flesh.*"


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## Krug (Nov 18, 2004)

Plonk refuses to acknowledge the shifter when he comes in. When the shifter presents him with the badly-made prize, the GNOME (not dwarf) says, "All right. But never, ever, try to do any craftwork again. And we'll keep away from you when you're in your frothing moods."

"We need to descend again, with guide or no," Plonk says. "How are the others?" Plonk is happy to be around Flawed.


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## Ashy (Nov 18, 2004)

Rawhide, not there to hear the gnome's words, sits alone in the garbage pile behind the Victory.

OOC: I edited my post above (sorry about the mixup, but I thought we had a dwarf in the party).


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 18, 2004)

*OOC*: _The healing from House Jorasco has brought you back to full.  Payment has been made by Rawhide in part and the party somehow covers the rest (I'm assuming that it's coming out of Lady Elaydren's advance — is someone doing book keeping on that?).  The rest of you will each gain 1 hp/night you spend resting at the Victory, unless you either purchase healing or Gannon heals you.  Let me know._


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## Krug (Nov 18, 2004)

_If Flawed is hurt, Plonk uses his spells to heal it._


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## Knight Otu (Nov 18, 2004)

(Flawed will try to work out that last dent/point of damage in the night.)


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## Ashy (Nov 18, 2004)

*Rawhide 4/14 hp...  *

Rawhide spends the night licking (literally) those wounds which he can reach, but unbeknownst to him, licking an open wound and then lying in a pile of garbage tends to be a little counterproductive.  If he can find a source of fire, he will try and cauterize his wounds carefully, biting back the pain as he does so.



			
				Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> *OOC*: _The healing from House Jorasco has brought you back to full.  Payment has been made by Rawhide in part and the party somehow covers the rest (I'm assuming that it's coming out of Lady Elaydren's advance — is someone doing book keeping on that?).  The rest of you will each gain 1 hp/night you spend resting at the Victory, unless you either purchase healing or Gannon heals you.  Let me know._




OOC: Just FYI - I am not keeping up with this and do not know who is...


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## MadMaxim (Nov 20, 2004)

Gannon pays for the rest of the healing (how much is going to be?).

OOC: I'm keeping the score on our advance.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 21, 2004)

*OOC*: _Two spells to heal Rawhide completely and one for Gannon.  Plonk and Flawed are at full, so after the 52 gp payment by the shifter, total healing comes to 448 gp.  And, thanks for keeping track of that, MadMaxim._


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## Krug (Nov 21, 2004)

"Well are we ready to travel down again? I don't suppose we really want another guide." asks Plonk.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 21, 2004)

"*Maybe we can find Vincennes down there, though?*"


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## Ashy (Nov 22, 2004)

The shifter joins the group in the morning, looking dejected and miserable...


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## MadMaxim (Nov 23, 2004)

*OOC:* Okay... We don't have enough money for that. I got 168 gp (that's with the advance, I have deducted the gold for our torches and all the other stuff) and I don't think we can make it, even if we put all the rest of our resources together... How else can we pay for it?


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## Ashy (Nov 23, 2004)

OOC: Erp!      Ya might want to talk to Rawhide about it...


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 23, 2004)

Krug said:
			
		

> When Plonk awakens he looks around. He hugs Flawed. "I thought I'd never see you again!" He doesn't want to speak to Rawhide. He shows the party the wealth obtained from the Spider to split amongst them. "Lucky for the lot of you I got our money back from that Gob!"




*OOC*: _I feel like a comic book editor posting this here, but perhaps this quote will jog your memory, righteous role-players!  Excelsior!  *cough*  Er, hope this helps.  _


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## Krug (Nov 23, 2004)

"Well we'll do without a guide. Fat lot of good they did, though the gob did us a service by ending up as the first victim for that rather nasty spider," says Plonk.


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## Ashy (Nov 23, 2004)

Rawhide perks up enough to reply, "But dat man - him lied to us."  His words fall flat, as if the shifter knows that it is so obvious that no one in the world would argue with the statement...


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 25, 2004)

*OOC*: _Assumption #1 — you've all decided to go back down into the sewers and on through to roughly the place where you fought the spiders (assuming you can get there, which'll be determined by a series of Survival checks).  Assumption #2 — the party sells the black pearl at a House Kundurak bank, netting 625 gp, from which they can easily pay the cost of the healing._

You descend back into the depths of the city through the same network of tunnels and warrens you travelled through before, far below the mazes of streets and skyways that cut through the upper levels of Sharn [Survival check].  From there, you weave your way towards Smallweed's Market and then into the sewers [Survival check].  Damp and dark, the sewers are as forboding as they were before, yet having your blood spilled there makes them more familiar, disturbingly intimate in a way [Survival check].  Somehow, the party navigates the maze-like sewers to bring themselves back to the junction where they struggled with the spider.  A day later, the tunnel smells unbelievably foul, the air thick with the scent of death and the coppery odor of blood.

*OOC*: _Happy Thanksgiving, all.  Even if you don't celebrate, I hope that you have a fulfilling, safe, and enjoyable weekend.  I know I will.  _


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## Krug (Nov 25, 2004)

_Happy Thanksgiving to all, even the barbaric shifter.  _

Plonk turns to the party. "See... we got here didn't we? Now where do we go? And oh the smell..."


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## Knight Otu (Nov 25, 2004)

"*Vincennes wanted to go straight ahead, Jobling to the left, the spider came from the right. According to what Lady Elaydren has said, I would expect our goal to be in an area not commonly traveled, but I don't know if that helps us here in any way.*"


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## MadMaxim (Nov 26, 2004)

Gannon looks at Flawed. "Well, even though I hired the goblin, I don't have to agree with his choice of route. He just seemed like the only one willing to lead us down here. I say we go straight ahead."


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 26, 2004)

*OOC*: _Before I post the next move, which I will either tonight or tomorrow, I need to know what your marching order is and who's carrying the light source._


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## Krug (Nov 26, 2004)

Plonk will most definitely stay behind.


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## Knight Otu (Nov 26, 2004)

Flawed will take the position in front of Plonk.


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## MadMaxim (Nov 27, 2004)

Gannon walks in front of Flawed, with his shield in his left hand and his heavy mace in his right hand.


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## Citizen Mane (Nov 28, 2004)

*OOC*: _Rawhide's carrying the light source, then?     Before I post, I'll wait until Ashy does (likely he's still off for Thanksgiving), as I don't want to drop Rawhide into a position that doesn't gibe with what Ashy wants._


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## Knight Otu (Nov 28, 2004)

Flawed can easily take the light source.


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## Ashy (Nov 29, 2004)

OOC: I think that Rawhide will be out in front (and hopefully that will keep him from killing any more comrads...    No promises, tho...)    Rawhide will gladly let the warforged hold the light.  In fact, Rawhide will slip ahead of the party's light source, using his low-light vision to keep a wary eye ahead...

IC:
Rawhide pilfers the body of the spider as they pass, taking a trophy that he deems suitable and rolling in the oozing gore a bit as well.  Rising up from the dripping muck and blood, the shifter smells worse (if that is even possible) but you have little doubt that it will aid him in close combat, as the smell is well beyond retch-worthy...

He looks to Gannon and says, "Yous tells Rawhide were ta go, boss, and me's goes."  He smiles like a child and then hefts his greataxe, which is larger than most children, and scampers forward into the darkness.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 1, 2004)

*Rawhide*: You remove what appears to be a sac of some kind of adhesive out from underneath the spider's jaw.  Slight sticky and very smelly, it looks like a sharp puncture or impact with a hard surface would cause the pouch to burst.  As you scamper down the tunnel ahead of the party, you come to a narrow passage with what appears to be a staircase ahead of you, although it's hard to see in the dim light.  The smell of mold and sewage is even stronger here, and you can hear the sound of splashing from somewhere ahead of you.

*OOC*: _As the party follows Rawhide, you see and hear the same things, particularly as Flawed brings the light source closer as he moves closer._

*Everyone*: The staircase is only about five-feet wide, forcing the party into actual single file [Spot Checks].

*Rawhide, Gannon, Flawed*: 



Spoiler



Poorly hidden at the foot of the stairs is a rather sinister looking warforged holding a rapier.  He hasn't noticed any of you.


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## Ashy (Dec 1, 2004)

Rawhide glances back to Gannon, his hackles rising.  He whispers, just loud enough for his companions to hear, "Some metal baddie over 'dere, boss.  Yous wants Rawhide to kilt him?"

OOC: Do I need to make another spot check?  A bit unclear from above...  Also, character sheet has been updated...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 1, 2004)

*OOC*: _Why would you need another Spot check?_


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## Ashy (Dec 1, 2004)

OOC: To see something else???  I don't know - that's why I was asking...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 1, 2004)

(I think KL simply told us where he made the Spot check for us. )


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 1, 2004)

*OOC*: _Knight Otu's got the right of it.  I can make as many Spot checks as you like, though, Ashy.    Is there anything you're looking for?_


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## Ashy (Dec 1, 2004)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> *OOC*: _Knight Otu's got the right of it.  I can make as many Spot checks as you like, though, Ashy.    Is there anything you're looking for?_




OOC: Nawp - just wantin' to make sure.  I'll be quiet now...  (sheepish grin)


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## Krug (Dec 1, 2004)

Plonk squints. "Metal baddie? Where? Where?" he whispers. He crouches behind Flawed for protection. _Too much staring at tiny gears,_ he thinks to himself.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 1, 2004)

"*A warforged, at the foot of the stairs. Armed with a rapier.*" Flawed whispers to the gnome hiding behind it.
 "*Maybe I should go to it first?*" it mutters to no one in particular, remembering the assault of the warforged on the bridge when it was in the presence of the others.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 3, 2004)

"Even though I'm not much for fighting in these conditions, I believe your request is sensible. It doesn't look like a very friendly person and what would a warforged do down here if it isn't here to hurt someone? Let's take him by surprise." Gannon gets behind Rawhide, ready to charge the warforged together with the shifter. "Go get them, Rawhide. I'll be right behind you" he whispers to Rawhide.


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## Krug (Dec 3, 2004)

Plonk raises his crossbow. "Try not to hurt it too bad," says the gnome. However, with the Shifter, that seems optimistic.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 3, 2004)

"*It likely is an agent of the Lord of Blades. I don't see why we shouldn't hurt it.*" Flawed whispers back at the gnome

  Flawed takes aim and lets a crossbow bolt fly at the other warforged.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 3, 2004)

*Assumptions*: _Rawhide, having received Gannon's permission, charges the warforged along with the human cleric.  Plonk keeps his crossbow trained on it, and Flawed shoots a bolt.  I'm assuming that Plonk and Flawed will not shoot until after the two others have charged.  Initiative (rolled for the beginning of the first round) at the end of the post._

*Surprise Round*

The barbarian and cleric go barrelling down the stairs, making a huge racket, but (fortunately) one that their victim only notices too late [Attacks: Rawhide with great axe, roll of 4 on d20, +3 melee, +2 charge, +2 circumstance (higher ground), total 11, miss; Gannon with morningstar, roll of 12 on d20, +2 melee, +2 charge, +2 circumstance, total 18, hit; 4 damage on 1d8+1].  The shifter charges with too much zeal and swings far too late to do much, if any damage, his axe glancing off the wall behind the warforged and glancing off its metal body, with the force of the swing bouncing rawhide down the stairs one step further.  Gannon is far more successful, catching the warforged square in the shoulder with a satisfying _thonk_.

Flawed's bolt sprays high, going over the warforged's head [Ranged attack, roll of 13 on d20, +1 ranged, -4 shooting into melee, total 10, miss].  Plonk holds fire until he has a better view of the situation.

*Round 1 Initiative Order*
Warforged 21
Plonk 19 (roll of 18, +1 Init, Dex 13)
Flawed 19 (roll of 18, +1 Init, Dex 12)
Rawhide 14 (roll of 12, +2 Init)
Gannon 9 (roll of 9, +0 Init)

*Round 1*

You can all hear a sudden, brief rush of water.

The warforged, although somewhat surprised by the charge, reacts quickly, catching Rawhide in the side [2 damage] with its rapier.  "It's not how things were supposed to happen, but there's more of us than just me here.  You have the provost's journal.  Hand it over."


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## Krug (Dec 3, 2004)

Plonk, seeing the warforged, can't quite bear to do damage to it. "Why? What do you need with it? Where are the others?" He seems actually eager to see more Warforged.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 4, 2004)

"You could have started by not trying to ambush us and ask us nicely instead, but you obviously want it the hard way" Gannon says while trying to get into position to hit the warforged again.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 4, 2004)

"*If you give up now and tell us what you know, you might continue your existance... Malfunctioned entity.*" Flawed directs towards the other warforged (Intimidate +0).


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## Ashy (Dec 5, 2004)

Rawhide gasps as he feels the steel bite into his side. but then he loses himself in the red haze of anger that constantly simmers just beneath his psyche.  The shifter howls, his mouth foaming, his eyes rolling back in his head - his form changes, becoming fuller and more muscular.  His claws and teeth lengthen and all over his body he sprouts more thick, coal black hair.

The greataxe, which seems to better suit this new form somehow, whirls in his hands and Rawhide wades into the warforged, heedless of the words being bantered back and forth.  There is no doubt to his companions that the shifter is now in that dangerous place wherein he is lost to all reason and words...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 5, 2004)

The warforged smirks at Plonk's excited questioning and ignores Flawed's threat [Intimidate, roll of 10 on d20, +0 unskilled, total 10, failure] as it squares itself to receive the blows from Rawhide and Gannon.  The cleric swings his morningstar again [roll of 16 on d20, +2 melee, +2 circumstance (higher ground), total 20, hit; roll of 7 damage on 1d8+1] and smashes the construct's head in.  It collapses to the ground, lifeless.  Rawhide, in his usual frenzy, starts to dig in, hacking at the metal and wood of the erstwhile warforged until it is only so many individual parts.

*Plonk*: 



Spoiler



Above the din, you think you hear the sound of multiple creatures — the other warforged? — running away.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 5, 2004)

OOC: Kajamba Lion, doesn't a greataxe do 1d12 points of damage? Just wondering, because Rawhide has been dealing damage with 1d8 in all our encounters. And now back to the game...

"That ought to teach him not to mess with us!" Gannon is still pretty worked up over the combat, but his rage doesn't quite reach the levels of the shifter's.


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## Krug (Dec 6, 2004)

Plonk tells the others "Sounds like the other warforged are running away," says Plonk. Plonk wants to help the defeated warforged but isn't going *ANYWHERE* near the shifter's axe. "It didn't put up much of a fight," continues the Gnome.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 6, 2004)

If it were capable of mimicking, Flawed would frown. "*Stay away from the shifter for a while.*" It states the obvious first.
 "*The other warforged ran away? Why would they do that?*"


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 6, 2004)

*OOC*: _Yeah, I knew that, but I misread Ashy's character sheet and didn't even think about it — he has a heavy mace listed first, which does 1d8 damage.    Thanks for the heads up (it may have been better that he was doing 1d8 when he was attacking the party, though...).  As for it not putting up much of a fight, it didn't have an action in the surprise round (it was surprised), and y'all killed it before round 2.  _


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## Ashy (Dec 6, 2004)

OOC: That was waaaaay to easy, IMHO, gang....  Oh well, please let me know when Rawhide's rage wears off, until then he will wail away at the warforged until *something else approaches him*...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 6, 2004)

*OOC*: _I'm assuming that his rage wears off shortly (whenever you want to say it does), as you're not in combat anymore...  As for being way too easy, sometimes you'll get lucky and have an easy time; other times, not so much (see Spider, Harpoon).  _


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## Ashy (Dec 6, 2004)

Soon, that which was once a warforged has been reduced to so much scrap metal and Rawhide droops, letting his waraxe fall to the ground with a clang.  His form quickly diminishes into that which you are more accustomed to seeing and weakly he looks up to Gannon.  "Mes did goods dis time, boss?", he croaks, his voice dry and cracking...


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## Krug (Dec 6, 2004)

"Um... okay," says Plonk, looking to see if there's anything to salvage from the Warforged's remains or if it carried any treasure.


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## Krug (Dec 6, 2004)

_double post_


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## MadMaxim (Dec 7, 2004)

"You did well, Rawhide. I was just a bit luckier in catching him off guard. I'm in no way as competent a warrior as you" Gannon says to comfort the shifter. He then turns his attention to the gnome who's going through the remains of the warforged. "Finding anything useful, Plonk?" he asks.


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## Ashy (Dec 7, 2004)

Rawhide grins like a child.  "Okee - danks, boss!"  He then gleefully begins digging through the remains of the warforged as well, seeking a trophy...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 8, 2004)

While Plonk and Rawhide are busy taking the other warforged apart - _is Plonk also hungry? He should know better than Rawhide that warforged are inedible for their kind..._ - Flawed steps into the tunnel at the end of the staircase and looks around.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 9, 2004)

*Plonk*: You find nothing of immense value on the warforged, just standard adventuring equipment (rapier, light crossbow, 10 bolts, a traveling cloak, some thieves' tools, and a backpack).

*Rawhide*: You find an odd plate in the center of the warforged's chest.  Slightly larger than your head, it has a semi-spherical indent in its center, smooth to the touch and slightly grooved.

*Flawed*: The stairs empty out into a larger tunnel, roughly twenty feet wide, with a ten-foot wide trench cut through the middle of it to carry sewer water from the upper levels of the city through to the deeper parts of the sewers.  On either side of the trench, a five-foot wide walkway is dotted with iris-shaped valves, which open at regular intervals, spouting jets of sewer water into the center trench and onto the walkways.  A grate designed to look like a spider's web blocks the tunnel to the right of the bottom of the stairs.


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## Krug (Dec 9, 2004)

Plonk takes the thieves' tools, and the bolts. Maybe they'll come in handy later. His hands go over the damaged body of the warforged. _May you be treated better by the Mechaniks in the next life_, thinks the gnome quietly to himself.


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## Ashy (Dec 9, 2004)

Rawhide's eyes light up at the new find and he plops the plate on his head and turns to Plonk, "Look!  Mes gots a new hat!"


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## MadMaxim (Dec 10, 2004)

Gannon walks down to Flawed. "Found anything, Flawed? I suppose his companions fled the scene while they had the chance" he says to the scouting warforged. "But why is everyone out to get this stupid thing? That man must really have investigating something very important. I just hope we find out what it is before our enemies do."


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## Ashy (Dec 10, 2004)

Rawhide looks to Gannon, smiling and proudly showing off his new "hat".  "Heya boss!  Yous like?", he asks tipping his head jauntily.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 10, 2004)

"*I have not found anything yet, Gannon.*" It answers the cleric's question. "*As for why everyone wants that object - it is a Cannith heirloom, and may contain secrets of that house. Secrets potentially interesting to the Lord of Blades.*"


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## Krug (Dec 10, 2004)

Plonk is rather unamused. The warforged deserved more dignity than ending up as haberdashery.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 12, 2004)

Rawhide's antics and the conversation between Flawed and Gannon are periodically interrupted by the sound of water crashing onto water and stone (a sound which Flawed recognizes as the various valves releasing their contents into the main gulley in the next chamber).


[Listen checks] Then, your group hears an odd splish-splopping through the water and snippets of conversation — all interrupted by the crashing water.  The voices speak a weak, mongrel Common in a bizarre stage whisper, as if they were play-acting at being stealthy, but were too stupid to realize the problem with their behavior.

"Are dey gone from dere?"
"(*CRASH*)—no.  What 'bout Slicer?"
"He stones dead, I thinks."  (*CRASH*)
"Oh noes.  Whats abouts our crunchings?"
"What about—(*CRASH*)—sense?  We's as good as stones dead, too!"
"What you think?"
"Me hungry.  No food down in dis hole."
(*CRASH*) "And no ways out an' back to sunny!"
"No sunny?"
"(*CRASH*)—oo's fault.  Me always folloes you.  'Cause you's always been—(*CRASH*)—everer.  Not nows.  Big troubles nows."
"Me's fault?  I'll show yous me's fault."  (*CRASH*)

At this point the conversation breaks off, and you can hear, intermittently, louder splashes and insensible growling and snarling.


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## Krug (Dec 12, 2004)

"You there! Stop! Lets... talk about it! We don't wanna fight! We show you way back to sunny!" yells Plonk.


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## Ashy (Dec 12, 2004)

Rawhide cocks a black, bushy brow, but otherwise says nothing.  His hackles are rising slightly, but he is still more interested than concerned at this point...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 13, 2004)

"*Do you think it is a good idea to draw attention to us, Plonk? Remember that spider.*" Flawed whispers.


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## Ashy (Dec 13, 2004)

Rawhide picks a bit of the spider carcass from his fur and holds it up for all to see.  "Dis is him - dis is dee spider...".  The shifter grins, his new 'hat' cocked a at jaunty angle.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 13, 2004)

The fighting stops at Plonk's yell.  All is still, except for the occasional sound of the crashing water.  [Listen checks]

*Gannon*: 



Spoiler



You can hear low and wide plopping noises, almost as if a few people were trying to be extremely stealthy while wading through a pool of shallow water.


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## Krug (Dec 14, 2004)

Plonk readies his crossbow, just in case. "I know you're down there! We'll... we'll be nice!"


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## MadMaxim (Dec 14, 2004)

"They're coming closer. Ready yourselves. I believe our attacker brought some friends along." Gannon readies his morningstar and shield for another round of combat. "Drop your weapons, come out with your hands above your head, and we will not harm you!" Gannon says while he looks at Rawhide. "Please don't attack them before they've had a chance to surrender, Rawhide..."


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## Ashy (Dec 14, 2004)

Rawhide looks like a child who just had his favorite new toy taken away.  He frowns comically, "Awwwww, com'ON, boss!  Dat's no fun...."  He shuffle-kicks a the stone floor....


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 14, 2004)

You wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Nothing comes.  No sounds can be heard, save for the water crashing on the stone.

*Gannon*: 



Spoiler



You can't even hear the plop-plopping of their footsteps.


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## Krug (Dec 14, 2004)

"Do we follow?" says Plonk. "Perhaps if we shone some light down there... We know you're there! We can see you. All of you! We...we have cannons! BIG CANNONS!"


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## Ashy (Dec 15, 2004)

Rawhide looks around with a puzzled look on his face.  "Mes don't sees none, boss...", he whispers to Gannon...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 15, 2004)

"*We have cannons? Don't you mean Gannon?*"


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## MadMaxim (Dec 15, 2004)

Gannon turns toward Flawed staring at him angrily. "Well, I see you haven't heard about the concept of bluffing, Flawed, and unfortunately I don't have time to explain it to you right now. We'll take the issue up later, because you have something to learn about the world, I believe. No offense, of course." Then he turns toward Rawhide. "Let me just get a chance to pinpoint their position, before you go in, Rawhide." Gannon picks up a stone from the floor, makes a couple of gestures and speaks a little prayer to The Traveler (he casts _light_ on the stone) and throws it down the tunnel past the valves in the direction from which the voices came. He then readies his morningstar and shield.


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## Ashy (Dec 15, 2004)

"Otay, boss...", the shifter shrugs...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 15, 2004)

*Plonk*: No response.  At least not that you can hear.

*Gannon*: You hurl the stone down the corridor, past the valves.  It hits a wall with a loud thump, followed by a sploosh as the stone falls into the water.  Fortunately, it still casts off a light strong enough to illuminate the area somewhat.  Still no response.  Any ripples that might have been caused by the movement of the two people have been disturbed by the stone's fall.

*OOC*: _Bright light for 10 ft., dim light for another 10 ft. from that point (the light just doesn't cut through the water all that well)._


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## MadMaxim (Dec 15, 2004)

Gannon looks at Rawhide, obviously irritated that he couldn't catch a glimpse of the other creatures down there. "Okay, Rawhide. We're going in... You first." Gannon gets ready to follow Rawhide down the corridor.


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## Krug (Dec 15, 2004)

Plonk follows behind, crossbow at the ready. "Please. You don't want to end up as scrap metal! There are better fates!"


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## Ashy (Dec 15, 2004)

Rawhide nods and moves in, keeping his eyes peeled and his axe at the ready...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 15, 2004)

The dull glow of the stone covering the far wall, you head past the valves towards the "T" intersection.  In the room with the valves, there're platforms for the group to walk on, but, as you get closer to the back wall, the platforms end.  You'll have to go either left or right here, and, either way, you'll get wet.

There is no sign of the creatures anywhere here.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 15, 2004)

Flawed follows, puzzling over Plonk's remark. _They_ could not end up as scrap metal, while it could, but only partially. The creatures that argued - they did not know anything about them, apart from them having voices. Who did the gnome mean?


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## Krug (Dec 15, 2004)

Plonk scans the area. "Should we go left?" says the Gnome.


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## Ashy (Dec 16, 2004)

Rawhide picks up the stone and looks to Gannon, "Which way, boss?"


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## MadMaxim (Dec 17, 2004)

"Let's go right" Gannon says and starts walking down the tunnel.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 17, 2004)

You turn right, wading through the murky water in the dim light.  Thick, slimy cobwebs, dripping with condensation, hang in the corners of the ceiling. [Listen checks]  You still cannot hear the two creatures.  

About thirty feet down the corridor, you notice a circular metal hatch set into the wall and engraved with arcane runes.  In the middle of the hatch, a softly glowing circle of mithral depicts the same icon as Bonal's journal.  The pre-Galifar seal of House Cannith — a stylized anvil and hammer.


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## Krug (Dec 17, 2004)

"Oooh yes,"  says Plonk. He sees if he can open it with his Open Lock skill, if necessary.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 17, 2004)

Flawed looks around until they reach the door, and is especially on the outlook behind them. The one disaster with the spider was enough, and the still did not know what became of Vincennes. As they come to the door, and Flawed sees Plonk already going to the door, it says "*Wait, Plonk. Let Gannon and me check for the presence of magic first. Not just on the door. Maybe the two creatures followed us under a spell.*"

 If Gannon agrees, Flawed will cast its detect magic spell, checking which auras are around the door or behind the group. (15% spell failure)


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 17, 2004)

*Flawed*: 



Spoiler



[Arcane Spell Failure, roll of 43 on d%, success]  You detect two auras on the door, one strong and one rather weak, [Spellcraft checks: roll of 7 on d20, +6 skilled, total 13, failure, roll of 17 on d20, +6 skilled, total 23, success] and identify the weaker of the two auras as some kind of conjuration magic.  The stronger aura, for some reason (likely the complexity of the spell and skill of the caster) defies identification.  You detect no other auras in the surrounding area.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 17, 2004)

"*I can sense two auras on the door, a weak aura of conjuration, and a strong aura... but I cannot place what the strong aura is. There are no other auras that I can sense.*"


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## MadMaxim (Dec 17, 2004)

Gannon takes Bonal's journal from his backpack and starts to flip through its pages, looking for any entries that might have anything to do with this door. "Let's see if the late professor wrote anything about this."


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## Krug (Dec 17, 2004)

"Oh Flawed you're so wise... what would we do without you?" says Plonk, who lays a hand on the Warforged's waist, since he can't reach the creature's shoulder.


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## Knight Otu (Dec 17, 2004)

(That comment is downright ironic considering that Flawed competes with Rawhide for the least Wisdom. )

 "*It is a Cannith seal. It was bound to have some kind protection.*" Flawed answers, oblivious to Plonk's touch, and eager to hear if Gannon finds something in the journal.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 18, 2004)

*Gannon*: As you look at the journal, you find all the pages to be blank.  



Spoiler



[Intelligence check]  After a moment, however, you remember that you didn't see any text in the journal until after Lady Elaydren took it from you.


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## Ashy (Dec 18, 2004)

Rawhide stands in the muck, picking his nose, and grumbles.  "Talk talk talk - all deys does in talk talk talk..."  He flicks an unusually spectacular specimen into the sealed door and chuckles to himself...


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## Krug (Dec 21, 2004)

Plonk waits for Flawed or Gannon to make a decision. He didn't like it that he was lumped with the... beastie in terms of leadership. He tapped his feet and waited...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 21, 2004)

Flawed, seeing that Gannon seems unable to find anything, holds out its hand, asking "May I have a look?"


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 21, 2004)

Gannon hands over the journal.

As the warforged looks at the journal, it finds all the pages to be blank....

*Flawed*: 



Spoiler



[Intelligence check] After a moment, however, you remember that you didn't see any text in the journal until after Lady Elaydren took it from you.



*OOC*: _In interest of rolling things along, I've autopiloted Gannon for this post.  He's a pretty amenable fellow (both the PC and MadMaxim), so I don't think this'll cause any waves._


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## Ashy (Dec 21, 2004)

Rawhide scratches behind his ear and looks to the warforged.  "Whys yous guys keep lookin' at dat book?  Any sod-head kin see dat dere ain't nuffin' in it!  Open da door already!"


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## Knight Otu (Dec 21, 2004)

"*Lady Elaydren's signet ring... I think it may have allowed her to read the book... Both her ring and the mithral web in the book's cover glowed when she touched it.*" Flawed says as it remembers the meeting.

 "*It may be a risk, but maybe touching the seal on the hatch with the cover of the book....*" It continues, but first looks at the seal on the cover in more detail. If no one objects, it'll go ahead.


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## Ashy (Dec 21, 2004)

"Den do it!" Rawhide barks....


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## Krug (Dec 21, 2004)

"Do it before roots grow on me and I rot!" says Plonk. He looks around, his crossbow ready, trying to hide his shivering.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 22, 2004)

"Maybe you're right, Flawed. There has to be some connection between the two and maybe the book is the key..." Gannon readies his morningstar for possible combat.

*OOC:* Sorry about that, guys. I'll try to post more frequently, but my new girlfriend makes it hard for me to concentrate on anything


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## Knight Otu (Dec 22, 2004)

Flawed, reassured by Gannon's words, and understanding the impatience of Plonk and Rawhide, says "Just be ready if this turns out to be a bad decision." before it touches the cover on the seal.

_Jhaeren would propably make a remark... or joke? about holding his breath now._


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## Ashy (Dec 22, 2004)

Rawhide hefts his greataxe, "Eyes been readys...."  He flashes the warforged a wild grin...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2004)

The two seals glow softly as you move them closer together.  When they finally touch, you hear a click, and the hatch slides into the wall, revealing a vertical shaft five feet wide and pitch black.  Wind rushes from the depths up through the shaft to somewhere far above you, demonstrating that fresh air circulates even here, down in the Depths.

*OOC* for *MadMaxim*: _No worries.  New girlfriends are like that.  _


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## Krug (Dec 22, 2004)

"Well... nothing exploded yar?" says Plonk. "Rawhide you go down first. We'll... cover you." The gnome aims his crossbow down the shaft while the Shifter descends.


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## Ashy (Dec 22, 2004)

"Otay".  Rawhide jumps in the shaft.  "Weeeeeee!!!!"


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## Knight Otu (Dec 22, 2004)

"*So easily excited...*", Flawed remarks as Rawhide descends through the shaft. It waits for a few seconds before following the shifter.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 22, 2004)

*OOC*: _I'll post a move tonight, but in the meantime: it's a *vertical* shaft with no visible bottom — does Rawhide really want to jump down it?  I only ask because it could easily end up in the shifter's death from massive damage._


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## MadMaxim (Dec 23, 2004)

Gannon grabs Rawhide's shoulder right before he jumps into the shaft. "With all due respect, Rawhide, I don't believe that jumping down this shaft will be the wisest course of action. I don't think you'll get a whole lot older, if you jump. I understand if you're excited about the prospect of getting into another fight but don't do something this foolish, okay?" He looks sincerely concerned about Rawhide's health. "Does anyone have some rope?" He looks at the others...


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## Krug (Dec 23, 2004)

_Gah... why didn't he just let the Shifter jump down.. Pah!_ thinks Plonk. "Uh.. no rope  here," mutters the gnome.


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 23, 2004)

*OOC*: _Just checking in.  Until y'all decide how you'll descend through the shaft, I'm going to hold off on the next move._


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## Ashy (Dec 23, 2004)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> Gannon grabs Rawhide's shoulder right before he jumps into the shaft. "With all due respect, Rawhide, I don't believe that jumping down this shaft will be the wisest course of action. I don't think you'll get a whole lot older, if you jump. I understand if you're excited about the prospect of getting into another fight but don't do something this foolish, okay?" He looks sincerely concerned about Rawhide's health. "Does anyone have some rope?" He looks at the others...




Rawhide looks severely disappointed but heeds Gannon's words.  "Awww, boss!  Dat would'a been one funs ride!"  He looks down the shaft woefully...  "Me got no rope, but me's got dis sticky spider sack!"  He holds his trophy from the giant spiky spider aloft, proudly...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 23, 2004)

"*I have no rope as well. Do we have a torch or other light source we can spare? If we throw one down, we might be able to determine how deep the shaft is.*"


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## Ashy (Dec 24, 2004)

"Eyes gots dis shiny rock dat boss made..."  Rawhide holds up the enspelled rock that he plucked up earlier.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 26, 2004)

"Excellent idea, Rawhide. Throw it down the shaft and let's see how deep this thing is..."


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 26, 2004)

You throw the rock down into the shaft and wait.  You hear it skipping off walls as it drops off into the darkness, but cannot get a definite sense of how deep the tunnel is.  After a short while, you hear a couple short bounces followed by a scratching/sliding sound — clearly stone against stone — but cannot see the rock.


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## Ashy (Dec 26, 2004)

Rawhide lets out a long, low whistle.  "Purdy deep...", he says simply.


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## Krug (Dec 26, 2004)

"We could just try climbing down...without a rope...Rawhide can still go first," Plonk says, trying not to snort.


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## MadMaxim (Dec 26, 2004)

"Why didn't anyone bring rope...?" Gannon looks around at the party, looking rather puzzled. "Shall I go get some rope while you wait here? I'm fairly certain we're going to need it, if we're going down that shaft and we want to get to the bottom of it in one piece."


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## Ashy (Dec 26, 2004)

Rawhide looks back to Gannon, "Why yous not bring it - yous da boss..."


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## Knight Otu (Dec 26, 2004)

"*You should not go alone, Gannon. Either Plonk or me should accompany you. Remember that we still do not know what those voices were.*"


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## Krug (Dec 26, 2004)

"Lets stick together," says Plonk. "Remember that spider thing we fought? Who knows what beasts there are here."

Plonk searches for something they can use to descend the shaft.

_Can he improvise something from his bedroll and backpack?and the spider sac? He's ok with losing these items._


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## Knight Otu (Dec 26, 2004)

"*Unless we can close that door again, some of us should stay here. We should not let the door open for our enemies, who might be able to handle that shaft better.*"


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## Ashy (Dec 27, 2004)

Rawhide begins rummaging around - he's survived his whole life by making due with what was at hand and could be scavanged - so his natural instinct was to do so again.  The shifter looks around for anything that could be fashioned to help get them down the shaft: bits of chain, rope, roots - anything...


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 27, 2004)

*Plonk*: The sticky goo inside the spider-sac would be good enough for a while, but you're not sure how much there is or if there's enough for the entire group.  Your bedroll and blanket could be cut up and used, which would give you anywhere between 50 and 150 ft. of line (depending on the strength you desired — naturally, the more you cut them up, the less weight the line would support).

*Rawhide*: [Search check, roll of 13 on d20, +0 Int, total 13] You find nothing of use in the surrounding area.


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## Krug (Dec 27, 2004)

Plonk improvises with his equipment to make about 50' of line. "We probably have to descend one at a time.There goes my blanket and bedroll. Flawed, I'll have to share yours... blanket I mean." The gnome's tongue curls out as he slices and cuts up the gear.


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## Ashy (Dec 28, 2004)

"Bah!  Don't need blankets - a nice warm pile o' trash works jus' as good!"  The shifter smiles - his joke is genuine, or at least he thinks it is...


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## MadMaxim (Dec 28, 2004)

"Excellent job, Plonk." Gannon pads the gnome on the shoulder. When he's finished making the rope, Gannon takes it, ties it to something that can hold even the weight of the warforged and throws the other end of the improvised rope down the shaft. He then starts his descent into the depths below them. "I'll take the lead. I'll let you know when I get to the bottom of the shaft." _And hopefully I'll make it down in one piece..._ He thinks while climbing down.

*OOC:* I'm sorry if I'm rushing this a bit, but I've lagging behind lately, so I thought it was about time I stepped up the pace of the exploration a bit. I hope you don't mind


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## Ashy (Dec 28, 2004)

Rawhide looks down the shaft.  "Who comes next, boss?"

OOC: Fine by me - the faster the better!


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 28, 2004)

*Plonk*: [Use Rope check, -2 circumstance for improvised materials, +1 Dex]  You make about 50 ft. of rope out of your bedroll and blanket.  It's fairly thick and feels reasonably sturdy to you.

*Gannon*: [Use Rope check, -2 circumstance for improvised materials, +0 Dex]  You tie the rope off to an old valve (it's sealed in place by an accumulation of minerals and debris) and begin the descent into the shaft.  [Climb check, roll of 19 on d20, +1 Str, total 20]  For the first thirty or so feet, you make decent time and the climbing is easy.  That's when the improvised rope snaps, and you start to fall.  [Reflex save, roll of 16 on d20, +0 Ref, total 16]  After falling about 20 ft., you catch yourself and manage to brace yourself in the tunnel [2 damage, 3 non-lethal damage].  Climbing will be slower from here on out, but the shaft's a bit smaller and you're pretty sure you can handle it [Climb check, roll of 12 on d20, +2 circumstance for smaller tunnel, +1 Str, total 15].  You can feel the tunnel start to angle a bit as you climb, but it's still more or less a straight shot, up and down, with no sight of the bottom.  

*OOC* for *MadMaxim*: _You can continue climbing down, or you can go back up.  Let me know and I'll continue._


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## Knight Otu (Dec 28, 2004)

Krug said:
			
		

> Flawed, I'll have to share yours... blanket I mean." The gnome's tongue curls out as he slices and cuts up the gear.



 Flawed looks at Plonk a few seconds, then it replies "*What makes you think I have a blanket?... What was that sound? Gannon, are you alright?*"

 (I'm assuming Flawed heard something, despite its low Wis)


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## Citizen Mane (Dec 29, 2004)

*OOC*: _Sure, that's a fair assumption._


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## MadMaxim (Dec 29, 2004)

"By The Traveler's boots, that was close! I'm okay, Flawed, just a few bruises. The shaft is at least 50 feet deep and I still can't see the bottom from here." Gannon continues to climb down. "I'll continue down and hope I make it to the bottom in one piece, but you had better get a couple of ropes, because one rope will not do the trick. Trust me!" As he continues his descent into the shaft he wonders. _What have I got myself into this time, Traveler...? You're not making this easy for me..._


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## Krug (Dec 29, 2004)

"More ropes? Where from?" He looks at the others, waiting for them to donate their backpack and bedrolls to the cause...


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## Ashy (Dec 29, 2004)

Krug said:
			
		

> "More ropes? Where from?" He looks at the others, waiting for them to donate their backpack and bedrolls to the cause...




"Mes gots no blanket, Plonk...", the shifter says sadly.  He then begins looking about again, going a bit further away this time, looking for chains, bits of leather straps, anything that can be used to fashion additional ropes...


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## Knight Otu (Dec 29, 2004)

Flawed considers sacrificing its own backpack, wondering if it could keep ahold of its contents while climbing down - the spellbook being most important.
 While considering its options, it also helps looking for anything else that may act as a rope.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 1, 2005)

*Rawhide*: [Search check, roll of 20 on d20, automatic success]  You move back into the room with the valves and its murky water, where you spot, against the grating on the far wall, a length of rope and chain.  It seems to be connected to something, but you could probably free it pretty easily.

*Flawed*: As you start to search, you notice that Rawhide seems to have found something potentially useful.

*Gannon*: Travel is slow, but (during the time that's elapsed as Rawhide searches) you manage to travel down another 30 feet.  The shaft is definitely starting to angle.

*OOC*: _Hey, folks.  Happy New Year!  (Still a couple hours away, but I'm here now, so....)  I should be out gallavanting, but my brother and I decided to stay in and hang with my father and watch some football, which has been a fine time for all involved.  _


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## Krug (Jan 1, 2005)

Plonk wonders if Gannon is safe... tapping his foot. When Rawhide comes back with the rope and chain, the gnome is rather annoyed but keeps quiet.


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## Ashy (Jan 1, 2005)

Rawhide gathers the rope and chain and brings it back to Plonk.  "Here!  Mes founds some ropes!  Give dis to da boss!"


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## Krug (Jan 1, 2005)

Plonk ties one end of the rope to something strong and drops the rope down. *"Gannon... for ya!"* the gnome shouts.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 1, 2005)

*Rawhide*: As you pull up the rope and chain, you feel the grate nearby it pull free with a satisfying snap.  A little extra water comes rushing through, but nothing else happens as far as you can tell.

*Plonk*: You tie the line off onto the same stanchion you had tied the improvised line onto.  Aside from being sopping wet, it's fairly sturdy, and, as luck would have it, quite long, some 100 feet or so.


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## MadMaxim (Jan 2, 2005)

As the rope drops down, Gannon tries to get a hold of it, assuming that the rope isn't too short.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 5, 2005)

*OOC*: _I'm going to push this along — climbing's fun, but the fun, I think, won't last forever.  Plus, death by falling is not very pulpy or hard-boiled.  Unless you jump..._

Gannon grabs the rope and is able to climb down the rest of the way.  The rest of you manage to follow with little to no problems.

The tunnel eventually slopes enough so it can be walked in (which is good, considering there wasn't an inexhaustible supply of rope).  The shaft itself is a crumbling mix of ancient stone and earth, and as you climb deeper (and reach the light source you had thrown down), you begin to notice centipedes and other insects covering the walls.

After long descent, the shaft opens up into a vast chamber, some six feet above the chamber's floor.  The ruins of nearby walls and buildings appear as a network of deep shadows, and you can't quite gauge the actual size of the cavern.  A change in air pressure and air currents, however, indicates that the space is as vast as it feels from the tunnel entrance.


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## Krug (Jan 5, 2005)

Plonk whacks at the centipedes. *"EvIL CRAWLY THINGS!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!!"*

Plonk is grateful to finish the climb, staying near to Flawed. *"Well.. where to next?"*


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## Ashy (Jan 5, 2005)

Rawhide snatches several of the centipedes and gobbles them up, rubbing his furry belly and making contented sounds.  "Erm!  Big'uns!  Theys juicy!"  He eats several and then looks to Gannon, one of the many-legged critters still dangling out of the corner of his mouth, "Yea - wheres to now, boss?"


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## Knight Otu (Jan 5, 2005)

"*I think we should explore a bit. Our goal should be here somewhere.*" Flawed says as it lets itself drop into the chamber from the tunnel.

_Bigger than I thought it would be... Where could we find that thing...?_


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## MadMaxim (Jan 6, 2005)

Gannon wipes dust and pebbles off his armor while looking at Rawhide. He looks just as puzzled as the shifter, slightly disgusted by his lack of manners. "Well, Rawhide. If you would please stop speaking while you're eating... I really have no idea where to go now. Perhaps what we're looking for is hidden in the rubble or it perhaps it's kept safe somewhere. I don't know. I'd say we start looking for buildings that haven't turned into a pile of rubble." Then he looks around supiciously. "And we'll have to watch our backs and make sure that the ones who got away haven't laid an ambush somewhere around here. There could be other entrances than the one we came through." Gannon picks up his morningstar and shield and starts to look around.


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## Ashy (Jan 6, 2005)

Rawhide looks at Gannon, "Wha?  Why me nos talk wit food in mouth?  Is theys gettin' aways or something?"  The shifter looks down and around as if to see hundreds of creepy-crawlies scuttling away.  He shrugs his hairy shoulders and then begins rooting around, looking for clues as to where to go and what to do next...

OOC: Search & Spot, Search & Spot, A Search & Spot we go! (sung to the tune of "Jingle Bells"...)


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 6, 2005)

As you drop down into the chamber to get a better look at the surroundings, you hear a odd humming rise from the walls and ruins around you.  It takes a moment to recognize, but eventually the sounds of chittering and buzzing can be picked out from the hum.  It's not unlike the sound of the insects in the King's Forest, except the chamber seems to amplify and echo the noise in disturbing ways.

[Spot checks] 

*Gannon, Plonk, Flawed*: 



Spoiler



The noise grows louder, and you all can see what looks like a dark carpet start to form and slide towards you.  As the swarming mass of squirming, clicking, shiny black beetles crawls toward you, the noise becomes almost deafening.



*Rawhide*: 



Spoiler



You don't seem to be able to spot the location of the noise.



*Initiative*
Gannon 17, roll of 17 on d20, +0 Init
Flawed 16, roll of 15 on d20, +1 Init
Creatures 15a
Plonk 15b, roll of 14 on d20, +1 Init
(Rawhide 5, roll of 3 on d20, +2 Init)

*OOC*: _I'll try and get a map up later this afternoon._


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## Krug (Jan 6, 2005)

*"G-G-g-BUGGSSSS!!!"* shouts the gnome, struggling to find a direction he can run off to.


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## Ashy (Jan 6, 2005)

Rawhide looks at Plonk like he has three heads.  "Yea, dey bugs and deys good!"  He holds up one of the squirming critters and then pops it into his mouth, grinning...


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## Knight Otu (Jan 6, 2005)

"*Careful everyone! We're being swarmed by some kind of beetles!*" Flawed calls out as it gets ready to cast burning hands at the creatures.


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## Ashy (Jan 6, 2005)

Knight Otu said:
			
		

> "*Careful everyone! We're being swarmed by some kind of beetles!*" Flawed calls out as it gets ready to cast burning hands at the creatures.




Rawhide looks to Flawed and arches a thick brow, "Hurh???"  He begins looking around in the area targeted by the warforged, a centipede still dangling from his mouth...


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## MadMaxim (Jan 6, 2005)

Gannon prepares himself for combat and to strike at the first opportunity that presents itself...

*OOC:* Gannon readies an action to strike at the swarm with his morningstar when it gets close enough.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 8, 2005)

*Surprise Round*
Gannon swings his morninstar at the swarm [morningstar, roll of 17 on d20, +2 melee, total 19, hit], and he can feel a satisfying splatter as it connects with the shiny black insects.  Still, it seems not to affect them at all [0 hp damage].  Meanwhile, Flawed moves around the swarm's right flank in order to get a better position from which to cast _burning hands_ [30 ft. from h8 to i4].  

The beetles then swarm Rawhide, biting him painfully all over his body, even as he pops one in his mouth (tasty, if a bit feisty) [4 hp damage] and offers his comments to the fleeing gnome [Plonk moves 30 ft. from k8 to i9].

*OOC*: _Assume that the swarm has adjusted itself to fill g6 and h5-7, which includes Rawhide.  Attacks targeting the swarm will likely target the shifter as well._


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## Knight Otu (Jan 9, 2005)

"*Rawhide, trx to get out of there!*"


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## Krug (Jan 9, 2005)

Plonk heads over to J8 in order to avoid contact with the swarm. *"Get them away from me!"*


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## Ashy (Jan 10, 2005)

As the insects begin to painfully bite the shifter, his eyes roll back in his head and his mouth begins to froth.  A long, low howl escapes his lips as he shifts and begins to pound the bugs all around him with his mace...

OOC: Shift, and attack (with heavy mace)


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 13, 2005)

*OOC*: _I'm going to need a different move from Rawhide (he's used his rage for the day) and a move from Gannon before I continue.  If I don't get one, I'll push this along tomorrow morning with the most conservative actions available (that is, Rawhide tries to escape and Gannon attacks again with his morningstar)._


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## Ashy (Jan 14, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> *OOC*: _I'm going to need a different move from Rawhide (he's used his rage for the day) and a move from Gannon before I continue.  If I don't get one, I'll push this along tomorrow morning with the most conservative actions available (that is, Rawhide tries to escape and Gannon attacks again with his morningstar)._




OOC: Erp!  Sorry - post above has been edited!


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## MadMaxim (Jan 14, 2005)

And Gannon keeps attacking the swarm with his morningstar until one of the others is reduced to negative hit points in which case he'll quickly come to cast a _cure light wounds_ (or rather convert one of his 1st-level spells into one).


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 15, 2005)

*Round 1*

Gannon attacks the swarm again, hitting [roll of 17 on d20, +1 morningstar, total 18, success], yet having no obvious success [0 hp damage].  Flawed yells for Rawhide to get out of the swarm, which continues to feast on the shifter [4 hp damage, leaving him with 7/15 hp].  Plonk flees from the bugs again, as Rawhide swings his heavy mace at them [roll of 18 on d20, +3 heavy mace, total 21, success] to little avail [0 hp damage].

*OOC*: _Map tomorrow.  I wanted to get this up before Michael shuts down the boards to check some issues out._


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## Krug (Jan 15, 2005)

*"We can't beat them! Get out of their way!"* Plonk will look for ways to get out. Perhaps a handhold above, or slipping out of their direction to C8.


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## Ashy (Jan 15, 2005)

In his more feral mode, something inside Rawhide's head snaps and the animal that is deep within him takes over.  Howling like a hornet-stung wolf, the shifter drops down to all fours and runs as fast as he can away from the bugs.  Driven by a singular survival instinct, Rawhide looks for water and if he finds it, he dives in.


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## Knight Otu (Jan 15, 2005)

(Slightly confused now - have I cast my Burning Hands spell yet or not?)


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 15, 2005)

*OOC*: _I assumed that you wouldn't want to catch Rawhide in the spell.  I'll append a map, but with a 15-foot range and a cone-shaped burst, you'd catch Rawhide in the burst without question._


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 15, 2005)

*OOC*: _Oops.  I've moved Plonk to C8, which hasn't happened yet, but there it is._

*OOC* for *Knight Otu*: _Do you still want to cast it?  Let me know and I'll push this along._


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## Knight Otu (Jan 15, 2005)

(I'll wait until I don't endanger Rawhide.)


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## Krug (Jan 15, 2005)

Plonk presses himself against the wall and heads for C4.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 16, 2005)

*OOC* for *Krug*: _As I noted in my last post, I'm a move ahead for Plonk, so he'll move to C4 next round._

*Round 2*

Gannon attacks again, the arc of his morningstar scattering beetles everywhere [roll of 19 on d20, +1 morningstar, total 20, success], but doing no visible damage to the swarm, which seems to reform comfortably around where the bludgeon landed [0 hp damage].  Flawed delays his action until Rawhide's been freed from the swarm, which continues to munch on the shifter [2 hp damage, 5/15 hp].  Plonk makes a beeline for the opposite wall [move to C8], and Rawhide (finally) frees himself from the swarm, darting into the cavern [move to the area of C2, and beyond potentially in his search for water, but see below], and, at that moment, Flawed unleashes his _burning hands_ spell [4 damage, Ref save against DC 13, swarm succeeds, 2 hp damage to the swarm].

*Rawhide*: In front of you is a wall of a ruined building.  A tunnel darts off into darkness to your left and an old building is in front of you on the other side of the wall.

*OOC*: _I've adjusted Flawed's initiative to 4, just after Rawhide._


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## Krug (Jan 16, 2005)

*"Flawed, get away from there! You're not edible anyway!"* shouts Plonk. _Well Rawhide certainly is.. but too bad he's away from 'em now..._

Nonetheless, he runs behind Rawhide. _They won't come for me... not much meat on me. Couldn't even feed two of 'em..._


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## Ashy (Jan 16, 2005)

Reacting instinctively, Rawhide jags to the left and streaks off down the tunnel, still looking for water.  His animal-mind still has not registered the fact that he is no longer being bitten...


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## Knight Otu (Jan 17, 2005)

Flawed tries to assess their options. How else could the affect these beetles?

 (Int check for Swarm weaknesses, if appropriate)


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 18, 2005)

*Plonk, Rawhide*: The tunnel you dart down is a straight shot, and you spend this entire round running down it.  You've yet to find water or any other branches.

*Flawed*: [Intelligence check, natural 1, automatic failure]  You can't seem to recall anything in particular that'd be helpful here.

*OOC*: _Knight Otu, the Int check is a free action, so when you decide what to do, I'll resolve it..._


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## Krug (Jan 18, 2005)

Plonk looks back, worried about the others. *"Lets not go too far. Flaw... The other two might be in trouble!"*


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## Knight Otu (Jan 18, 2005)

"*Gannon! Do you have any idea?*"
 Having seen the other attacks being ineffective, and knowing no other way to hurt these beetles, the warforged slowly backs away.

_Flawed... should I not know how to handle any threat? I was created  for combat, yet such small creatures force me to retreat..._


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## Ashy (Jan 19, 2005)

OOC: Are there still bugs on Rawhide?


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 19, 2005)

*Gannon, Flawed*: As Flawed backs away, Gannon shrugs.  "I'm not sure," he says, "but my morningstar isn't doing any damage here."  He begins to back away as well.  As you back away, you find that the swarm begins to disperse, scattering into various crevices and corners.  The threat, for now, has passed.  Plonk and Rawhide are nowhere to be seen.

*OOC* for *Ashy*: _A handful, but you've seemed to run most of them off.  They're irritating, but no longer damaging._

*Plonk, Rawhide*: The tunnel starts to bend around, and you can hear a strange squiggling sound coming from the area ahead of you.  It is extremely dark in the tunnel, and there's not enough light in here for either of you to really make out your surroundings well.


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## Ashy (Jan 20, 2005)

As long as he can feel the bugs squirming around on his body, the shifter continues running, his mind still gripped in the iron grasp of flight...


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## Knight Otu (Jan 20, 2005)

"*Well, ... they have vanished... Where are Rawhide and Plonk?*" the warforged says, only now realizing that the two are out of sight.


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## MadMaxim (Jan 21, 2005)

"Well, I hope they know how to find their way back to us" Gannon says.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 24, 2005)

*Rawhide*: You can feel bugs on you still, and you continue to run.  As you run, the squishing sound gets louder and sloppier until the very floor beneath your feet feels as though it were made of mud.

*Rawhide* and *Plonk*: In your heads, you can hear a young voice of indiscriminate gender in a lot of pain.  _I'm glad you've come this way, as I thought that no one would ever find me down here.  I would, however, appreciate it if you got off of me._

*Plonk*: Although you hear the voice, the stone beneath your feet feels like, well, stone and nothing else.


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## Knight Otu (Jan 24, 2005)

"*Do you think we should look for Rawhide and Plonk? If there are more of these beetles, they may get into trouble.*


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## Krug (Jan 24, 2005)

"G-G-g... pardon me!" says Plonk. He looks at his feet. "What am I stepping on? Where are you? Could you help us?"


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## Ashy (Jan 24, 2005)

Rawhide begins rolling about in the mud at his feet, trying to rid himself of the bugs...


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 24, 2005)

*Plonk* and *Rawhide*: _I'm probably far beyond a position where I can be of much help, but I'll try if you'd just—*urk*!_  At this point, Rawhide drops to the ground and starts to roll around.

*Rawhide*:  



Spoiler



What had felt like mud to you before feels vaguely organic, almost like some kind of vegetable matter.  A vague pulse moves through it.  The "urk" you heard, coincided with your dropping to the ground.  After a few seconds of rolling, you feel something gripping you [Str check, Rawhide: roll of 1 on d20, automatic failure].  Something round and a bit slimy.  The floor no longer feels like mud.



*Plonk* and *Rawhide*: _Are you ready to listen to me now?  I'm still willing to help if I can, despite being treated like so much dough.  You'll have to agree to help me, too, though..._

*Gannon* and *Flawed*: You don't know exactly where Rawhide and Plonk went, although you do remember them moving off towards the left of the beetle swarm during the combat.  Perhaps they went down a tunnel or into some of the ruins on that side of the complex.

*OOC* for *Gannon* and *Flawed*: _Who has a light source and what is it?_


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## Krug (Jan 24, 2005)

"Yes yes, we'll help! Tell us .. what you want!" says Plonk, wondering why he's in the same room as the shifter. A speaking floor hardly presented as much threat as the crazed creature.


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## Knight Otu (Jan 24, 2005)

(I believe I volunteered to carry the light source, but I'm drawing a blank on what it is at the moment. Let me check...)

(edit - I believe it must be a torch.)


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## MadMaxim (Jan 24, 2005)

Gannon looks around to see where Plonk and Rawhide went. As he doesn't catch sight of any of them, he starts yelling: "Rawhide and Plonk get back here immediately! The insects are gone for now! Flawed has the torch, so if you can see any light out there, go towards it! We're not coming out to get you! We just risk losing each other! He then looks around for any reaction...


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## Ashy (Jan 25, 2005)

It is only when the thing beneath his feet grabs him that Rawhide's mind snaps back into his "natural" place.  While it could be said that there was not much difference between the shifter and an animal to begin with, there were, however, some silght differences - and those subtle changes were all that was needed to make all the difference in the world.

"Errrggkkk!  Plonk!  Dis floor's got me!  Run!  DON'T COME IN!"


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 25, 2005)

*Gannon, Flawed*: As you head towards the tunnel off the left hand side of the room, you can hear some struggling and something that sounds like the shifter yelling orders to Plonk.  They're at least a hundred feat away from the entrance, maybe more.

*Plonk, Rawhide*: _Xen'drik...the last of my people are being hunted and killed.  I came over here looking for help, but I had to escape a mob.  I slipped into a drain pipe, which led to another drain pipe, and then another...I found one of those strange metal people and thought it'd lead me back to civilization and light.  It attacked me.  I shifted into this form and slid over here.  Without sunlight, I'm sure to die in a short while, probably sooner rather than later.  When I die, I'll revert into my main form.  On my left hip is a scroll case containing a map towards the village of my people and a letter of introduction in our tongue.  Please go to Xen'drik and save them._  He stops speaking and releases the shifter.  You can both hear a ragged squishing, which sounds strangely like breathing.


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## Krug (Jan 25, 2005)

"Don't die! Not yet! We'll find your Xendrik and save your people! But they need you!" Plonk says to the creature. _Damn why did he have to release Rawhide... he could have crushed him to a pulp!_


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 25, 2005)

*Plonk, Rawhide*: _I've been out of sunlight too long for my wounds to heal.  If I had been more cautious in my retreat, I wouldn't have gotten lost.  No matter now.  If you save my people, you'll have done me a good service.  Far better than healing me._  The squishy rattle gets a bit more ragged, but you think the creature can hold on for a little while longer.


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## Ashy (Jan 25, 2005)

The shifter, completely confused now, looks to Plonk.  "How did dis floor fall threw a pipe?!?!?!?  How did dis floor have a hip?!?!?!?", he asks incrediously.  "Whats dis floor talkin' 'bout, Plonk?"

OOC: I assume that Rawhide can see nothing....


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## Krug (Jan 25, 2005)

*"It's more than just a floor Rawhide!It.. it..."* Plonk tries to find the words, realising it's like explaining the working of the tachimatic gyroscope to a mongrel.


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## Ashy (Jan 26, 2005)

"*I know!*", Rawhide says with child-like wonder, "It's'a *talkin', grabbin'* floor!"


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 26, 2005)

*OOC*: _You assume correctly.  I've assumed that at this point, Gannon and Flawed have followed the tunnel up and that they've brought the light source._

*Rawhide*: You feel the tentacles relax and let go.

*Rawhide, Plonk*: You hear a last rattle and a bit of squishing.  

*Everyone*: You arrive to find Rawhide partially on top of a slender green-black elf in simple travelling clothes.  The elf has a number of lacerations on his upper body and across his face, which turns his white shirt into a webby lattice-work of material.  In the shadowy light cast from the torch, you'd almost swear that his blood was a touch green.  A scroll case hangs off the side of his belt (inspection reveals that it does, in fact, contain a map of what you assume to be Xen'drik as well as a letter written in an odd tongue).  The floor around him pools with his thick blood and there's a slight scent of the forest here.


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## Krug (Jan 26, 2005)

Plonk retrieves the scroll."He..wanted us to save his people..."


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## Ashy (Jan 26, 2005)

Rawhide looks down incrediously, "HEY!  Him no floor!  Him just a funny-lookin' elf!"


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## MadMaxim (Jan 27, 2005)

"Oh, there you are, my friends! Gannon says as the two come within the light of the torch. He then looks down at the corpse and is close to vomiting across the floor. He obviously feels uncomfortable around the corpse. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, looks away and asks Plonk "What happened here, Plonk, and who's the dead person on the floor?"


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## Krug (Jan 27, 2005)

Plonk explains, "He.. used to be part of the floor... and then he died. He said somethiing about his people... He escaped here but can't survive without sunlight. It's not easy when you're a sewer floor! He said something about... a scroll case containing a map towards the village of h-his people and a letter of introduction in his.. tongue, and to please go to Xen'drik and save them!" He opens the scroll case and attempts to read it.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 27, 2005)

*Plonk*: The tongue is like nothing you've ever seen before; its roots and structure are completely alien, and it seems to have something of a hieroglyphic shorthand mixed in with it.  [Intelligence check, roll of 5 on d20, +2 Int, total 7, failure]


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## Krug (Jan 27, 2005)

Plonk hands the scroll over to the others. "I can't deciper it..."


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## Ashy (Jan 27, 2005)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> "Oh, there you are, my friends! Gannon says as the two come within the light of the torch. He then looks down at the corpse and is close to vomiting across the floor. He obviously feels uncomfortable around the corpse. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, looks away and asks Plonk "What happened here, Plonk, and who's the dead person on the floor?"




Rawhide looks to Gannon, holding his hands up, as if to shield himself.  "I did't do it, boss!  Honest!  Floor-elf grabbed me!"


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## Knight Otu (Jan 27, 2005)

Flawed looks at the other three, and at the dead body, unsure what to say or think. What was going on here? _I guess I will never understand these flesh folks..._


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## MadMaxim (Jan 28, 2005)

"Well, I am most likely unable to decipher it as well, but tomorrow, I believe I'll be able to do it with a little help from great Traveler. So you keep the scroll, Plonk, and I'll take a look at it in the morning." Gannon says to the gnome. "We have another mystery to solve down here, my friends. Let's go back to the large cave and try to avoid the wrath of the inhabitants, however tasty they may be, Rawhide. And I know you didn't do this, because if you had, I don't think there would have been a whole lot of him left to identify." He smiles down at the shifter and reaches out to pull him up.

*OOC:* Gannon will prepare a _comprehend languages_ spell for tomorrow in order to decipher the text written on the scroll.


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## Ashy (Jan 28, 2005)

Rawhide grins and as Gannon helps him up, he says, "Uhh...hey, boss.  Dem bugs...well, dey kinda hurt Rawhide.  Yous gots someting for dat?"


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## MadMaxim (Jan 29, 2005)

"Of course, Rawhide." Gannon mutters a few words and a little prayer to the Traveler while making a couple of gestures. His hand starts to glow with positive energy and he touches the shifter's shoulder, instantly healing the wounds he had suffered.

*OOC:* Gannon converts his _divine favor_ into a _cure light wounds_ and heals Rawhide.


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## Krug (Jan 29, 2005)

Plonk is eager to get on with the journey. "All right.. tomorrow we shall know!" The gnome was all excited about the knowledge soon to come.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 29, 2005)

*OOC*: _New move up tomorrow night after I get back from the Boston EN World Game Day.  I need to get up early tomorrow to get up there (and am running on 3 hours of sleep right now), so I'll be crashing fairly soon._


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## Knight Otu (Jan 29, 2005)

"*Yes, let's go back and see if we can find that heirloom.*" The warforged gave the dead elf another look, and it wondered if they were close to starting a corpse collection at this point.


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## Ashy (Jan 29, 2005)

"Danks, boss.", the shifter says simply, flicking the last beetle from his hairy hide...


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## MadMaxim (Jan 31, 2005)

"You just have a thing with bugs don't you, Rawhide?" Gannon says. "Now let's see if we can find that darn Cannith-thing and get out of here, before the bugs get hungry once again." He starts walking back to the large cave and search through it hoping to find some somewhat intact ruins.


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## Citizen Mane (Jan 31, 2005)

*OOC*: _Thanks for the patience, folks.  The boards were down when I came back from Newton last night, and I had work and my (new) RL game today (Midnight — playing an elfling rogue...should be good fun, if anyone's wondering).  Anyhow, continuing along..._

Returning to the main chamber from the side tunnel, you get a better glimpse of how large the chamber actually is.  Immediately in front of you, you can see the almost completely leveled ruins of an old building, amounting to little more than its walls (roughly five feet in height at their highest and averaging two feet, no roof, rubble at the base of the walls), with more ruined walls directly behind that area.  To your left, there's an almost entirely entact building designed in such a way that it may have been a temple.  Beyond that, the cavern is shrouded in darkness.

*Gannon*: Inspection of the building reveals to you that it was, in fact, a temple, but you don't recognize the ancient symbols that you see carved into the stonework [Knowledge/Religion check, roll of 2 on d20, unskilled, +2 Int, total 4, failure].

*OOC*: _Technically, Gannon shouldn't be able to even make that check unskilled, but, since he's a cleric and I'd consider the check to represent fairly common knowledge, I've let him, although he needs to hit a higher DC to recall that information.  He missed that DC rather handily._


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## Krug (Jan 31, 2005)

"Is this what we're looking for?" whispers Plonk to the others.


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## Ashy (Jan 31, 2005)

"It looks broked." the shifter says simply.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 1, 2005)

"*Why would the heirloom be in a temple? Isn't it supposed to be in a foundry? That is a temple, isn't it?*" Flawed asks, trying to remember the conversation with Lady Elaydren.


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## Ashy (Feb 1, 2005)

Rawhide looks to the warforged, "Wha are we lookin' for again?"  His eyes scan the area around the shattered temple walls.


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## Krug (Feb 2, 2005)

Plonk searches for anything, traps etc, scanning the area. "Well let's... go in," he gulps.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 2, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Search check] You find no traps.

*Everyone*: The inside of the temple, a chamber roughly thirty feet square, is a mess of rubble and broken wood.  [Spot checks]  In the northwest corner of the temple, Gannon spots something sparkling.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 3, 2005)

Gannon looks over in the corner and points towards it. "There's something over in the corner. I'll check it out. Keep me covered." Gannon is wielding his morningstar and shield and walks over to the corner while looking around for any obvious threats and he pays extra attention to the state of the building, in case it suddenly starts to collapse.


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## Ashy (Feb 3, 2005)

Rawhide squints his eyes, trying to see whatever it is that Gannon is talking about.  Not seeing it, he quickly gets bored and begins picking up small rocks and throwing them in random directions...


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 3, 2005)

*Gannon*: It's a font with some water in it.  It must have caught some of the light from the party's torch.


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## Krug (Feb 3, 2005)

Plonk stands ready with his crossbow. He is hit by one of Rawhide's stones which bounces off and hits him. "Will you watch it??"


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## Ashy (Feb 3, 2005)

Rawhide covers his hand like a child caught doing a "no-no".  "Opps.  Mes sorry.", he says and begins picking his nose....


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## Knight Otu (Feb 3, 2005)

"*What did you see, Gannon?*" Flawed asks, looking around. It is not convinced that the temple is where they need to be.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 4, 2005)

Walking back to the party, Gannon shrugs. "It was just water..." He walks out of the temple and starts to look for other intact buildings.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 4, 2005)

*Gannon* [and anyone that follows him]: Directly to the left of the old temple is a gigantic column of stone; presumably it holds up the roof of the cavern to some degree or had at one point.  Ahead of that and to your left (at a heading of about 45-degrees left from where you are standing right now) is a mostly intact building.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 4, 2005)

Gannon walks over to the other building.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 4, 2005)

The building is solid and, as far as you can tell, completely intact.  A set of double doors, made of adamantine and bearing the same spiderwebbed seal that adorns the cover of Geldem's journal, dominate the building's front.


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## Krug (Feb 4, 2005)

Plonk follows behind Gannon, constnatly scanning the area and looking out for possible ambushes or traps...


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## Knight Otu (Feb 4, 2005)

Flawed checks if the symbol also contains those mithral veins as the journal and the seal. If so, it pushes the journal against the seal here as well, emboldened by the success at the first seal.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 5, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Search check] You find no traps.

*Flawed*: You press the journal against the doors, but they do not budge.  You'll have to find another way in.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 5, 2005)

"*Well, it was worth a try.*" Flawed says as it looks around for any openings.


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## Krug (Feb 5, 2005)

"Now what do we have here," says Plonk, as he examines the seal. He will try to use his open lock skill, if possible.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 5, 2005)

"Hmm... Strange..." Gannon says while he scratches the back of his head. "The book only gave us access to this ruined town. What could then be the key to opening this door?" He asks the others.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 6, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Open Lock, roll of 12 on d20, +3, total 15, failure]  You cannot open the lock using mundane means.  It seems to be, in your opinion, magically sealed.

*Flawed*: You see no other entrances in the walls of the building.


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## Krug (Feb 6, 2005)

_Can I do a knowledge (Arcane) check to see if I know anything about the lock or door?_


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 6, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Knowledge/Arcane check, roll of 18 on d20, +4, total 22] The door is magically sealed; you're sure of it.


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## Krug (Feb 6, 2005)

"I think this door is magically sealed," says Plonk, trying not to sound too obvious. He looks around for possible other points of entry.


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## Ashy (Feb 6, 2005)

Rawhide looks around, and begins picking his teeth...he yawns a bit as well...

OOC: I, as a player, am not borded, but Rawhide is.  Just FYI!


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## Knight Otu (Feb 6, 2005)

"*It seems the doors are the only entrance.*" Flawed says. It examines the seal on the door in more detail, to see if they missed something on why the book did not work.

"*If there is no other way, maybe we need to break open the doors.*"


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 7, 2005)

*Flawed*: [Int check, roll of 19 on d20, +2, total 21] You can't figure out any specific reason why the book wouldn't work on these doors.  They just seem to open a different way.


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## Ashy (Feb 7, 2005)

Knight Otu said:
			
		

> "*It seems the doors are the only entrance.*" Flawed says. It examines the seal on the door in more detail, to see if they missed something on why the book did not work.
> 
> "*If there is no other way, maybe we need to break open the doors.*"




Rawhide instantly brightens, and raises his hand quickly (accidentally flinging a booger onto the warforged in the process).  "Ooohh!  Mes can break dem doors!  Pick mes!  Pick mes!"


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## Krug (Feb 7, 2005)

"I would doubt it," says Plonk, continuing to see if there are other ways to get in.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 7, 2005)

"*Gannon, do you by chance still have a spell to detect magical auras? That may give us a few hints what the key... Wait, didn't Lady Elaydren say something about bringing fire? Maybe the fire is the key**.*" Flawed touches the torch against the seal.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 8, 2005)

*Flawed*: Nothing happens.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 8, 2005)

Gannon shrugs. "I can try, but I doubt it will bring much understanding as for how to open the door." He says to the warforged. He mutters a few words under his breath and makes a couple of little gestures. He then looks straight at the door as if trying to discern something from it that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

*OOC:* Gannon casts _detect magic_ and tries to discern possible magical auras originating from the door.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 8, 2005)

*Gannon*: [Spellcraft check, roll of 20 on d20, automatic success] The door radiates  an aura of strong abjuration.

*Everyone*: You feel a slight rumbling beneath your feet, almost as if the earth had shuddered.  Rocks fall off the roof of the building, chattering against the cavern floor.


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## Ashy (Feb 8, 2005)

Rawhide drops to all fours and growls....


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## Knight Otu (Feb 8, 2005)

Unsure if this tremor is a belated reaction to the torch, Flawed remains in front of the door.


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## Krug (Feb 9, 2005)

Plonk finds a safe place to get some shelter away fromthe rocks.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 9, 2005)

The tremor has passed and there's still no sign of a way into the building.  Pebbles continue to slide down from the roof at irregular intervals.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 10, 2005)

Gannon looks too concentrated to really notice the tremor. "This door has been enchanted with powerful protective spells. For some strange reason, I believe we will find what we're looking for in there. Care to try to break it down, Rawhide?" He looks at the shifter, steps aside and points towards the door. "Give it your best shot, Rawhide." Gannon smiles.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 11, 2005)

"*I am out of other ideas. I agree that we should try to break it open.*"


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## Krug (Feb 11, 2005)

"Yes, lets do that," says Plonk.


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## Ashy (Feb 11, 2005)

Rawhide grins and pulls out his heavy mace.  He spits on his palms and begins wailing away on the door.  It seems that the shifter is thoroughly enjoying himself...


----------



## Citizen Mane (Feb 11, 2005)

Rawhide brings his mace back and slams it into the door.  And again.  And once more.  And a fourth time.  And a fifth time.  Each time it hits the doors, there's a huge, loud, metallic thud, almost as if a giant gong had been struck and immediately muted.  What's worse, Rawhide seems to be doing little to no damage to the door.  After the fifth stroke, there's little more than a scratch in the door.  A tile slides off the roof and clatters to the cavern floor.

*Plonk, Flawed*: 



Spoiler



You hear a slight chittering noise from behind you in-between Rawhide's fourth and fifth strokes.  Some sort of scavenger has apparently been attracted by the din.  Please post actions for the surprise round.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 11, 2005)

"*Something is coming here!*" Flawed calls out as it gets its crossbow ready.


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## Ashy (Feb 11, 2005)

Rawhide calls out, still hammering the door, "Wha?  Mes can't hears ya!"


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## MadMaxim (Feb 11, 2005)

Gannon picks up his morningstar and turns around. "What's coming, Flawed?" He looks around to see if he can pinpoint the "thing" coming against him.


----------



## Krug (Feb 12, 2005)

Plonk turns around with his crossbow armed and will try to fire at the creature. He moves rightnext to the other members of the party so there isn't any gaps.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 12, 2005)

"*I don't know what it is.*" the warforged answers Gannon, unaware of the question Rawhide asked along with his hammering. "*It sounds like something is... chittering...*"


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 12, 2005)

*Surprise Round*
_Initiative: (Rawhide 14), Rats 11, (Gannon 11), Plonk 5, Flawed 2_

Before Plonk or Flawed can react, the two creatures are upon them; they look like rats, but they have strange bony plates on their bodies and their fangs drip with an odd, brackish saliva.  Flawed feels one of them clamp down on his leg with a vicious bite [3 hp damage, 3 hp acid damage] and can hear the saliva sizzling as it makes contact with his leg.

Plonk fires at the one in front of him, missing wildly [ranged attack, roll of 3 on d20, +1 ranged, total 4, miss] as the warforged retreats back towards the shifter and cleric.

*Conditions*
Flawed 1/7 hp

[sblock]*OOC*: _The creatures are standing next to Plonk, who is fairly exposed.  I overrode Flawed's posted action, as I couldn't see him taking the chance of staying there and getting killed.  There's a lot of room to maneuver in here, so don't worry too much about maps and AoOs (as a matter of fact, although I'm going to continue using AoOs, I'm not going to use maps — too much time for too little reward — this means that AoOs will be fairly loose, and, unless you do something like casting a spell in melee or running through a cluster of orcs, I'm going to be pretty forgiving of that...I'd like the game to pick up speed and style, and I think that the maps have been slowing that down a bit).  

Please post actions for the next three rounds.  Everyone can now act in the initiative order I've posted above._[/sblock]


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## Krug (Feb 13, 2005)

Screaming, Plonk drops his crossbow, takes out his dagger and tries to stab at the creatues. He will try to flank them if possible.


----------



## MadMaxim (Feb 13, 2005)

Gannon strikes at the rats with his morningstar.

*OOC:* What else is there really to do...?


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## Knight Otu (Feb 13, 2005)

1st - Flawed limps away from the battle (withdraw action to avoid AoOs).
2nd - Cast _Repair Light Damage._
3rd - Attack with crossbow.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 14, 2005)

*Round 1*
_Initiative: Rawhide 14, Rats 11, Gannon 11, Plonk 5, Flawed 2_

As Rawhide continues to hammer on the doors, the rats converge on Plonk, clamping their jaws down on and through the legs of the gnome [8 hp damage, 7 hp acid damage].  He falls to the ground in a heap.  Gannon quickly moves forward and, dodging the snapping jaws of the rats, binds the gnome's wounds as best he can [Heal check, DC 15, roll of 18 on d20, +2 unskilled, total 20, success]; Plonk's in extremely bad shape, but he's alive.

Flawed, having withdrawn the round before, casts _repair light damage_ on itself, healing itself slightly [4 hp repaired].

*Conditions*
Flawed 5/7 hp
Plonk -9/7 hp, stable and unconscious

*Round 2*
_Initiative: Rawhide 14, Rats 11, Gannon 11, Flawed 2_

Rawhide, unsure of what's going on, as he can't hear over the unholy din he's making, continues to hammer at the doors.  One of the rats bites at Gannon's arm; the saliva burns as it makes contact with the cleric's skin, leaving a trail of burns wherever it touches [2 hp damage, 6 hp acid damage].  The cleric, heavily wounded, strikes feebly at the nearest rat with his morningstar [roll of 15 on d20, +1 melee, total 16, miss].

Flawed, meanwhile, loads and fires his crossbow at the rat that bit Gannon's arm, the bolt sinking deep into the rat's side [roll of 19 on d20, +1 ranged, total 20, hit; 10 damage].  The bizarre rodent twitches and then falls to the ground, still.

*Conditions*
Flawed 5/7 hp
Gannon 1/9 hp
Plonk -9/7 hp, stable and unconscious
1 dead rat, 1 uninjured rat

[sblock]*OOC*: _Assumptions: Rawhide does not know what's going on, as he can't hear the others, nor can the others hear him over the hammering.  Gannon, assuming that he wouldn't be bitten, bound Plonk's wounds with the intention of then hammering away at the rats.  I rolled two crits (confirming both) during the two rounds, and that's what's led to the grim state of the party.  Please post actions for the following rounds..._[/sblock]


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## MadMaxim (Feb 14, 2005)

Gannon steps back and converts his _doom_ spell to a _cure light wounds_ and touches the gnome's arm to heal him. Afterwards, he goes after the other rat and tries to smash it with his morningstar. "By the Traveler, I'll make you filthy vermin pay!"

*OOC:* Good call, Kajamba Lion. Of course, Gannon will do what he can to help those that go down in combat. I just didn't mention it in my previous posts, but I think it goes without saying.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 14, 2005)

Flawed continues to fire his crossbow at the rat thing.


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## Ashy (Feb 14, 2005)

OOC: Sorry for my absence, I've been sick...

Rawhide finally catches a glimpse of the combat out of the corner of his eye and whirls to see the strange rats attacking his party.  Growling, the shifter quickly shifts and then leaps into combat, swinging at the nearest rat with his heavy mace.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 14, 2005)

*OOC*: _No worries, man.  Hope you're feeling better._

*Round 3*
_Initiative: Rawhide 14, Rats 11, Gannon 11, Flawed 2_

Rawhide ceases his hammering and closes on the remaining rat, attacking with his mace and missing as the rat skitters out of the way [roll of 9 on d20, +3 melee, total 12, miss].  Seeing a new target, the rat lunges, but the shifter slides out of the way.

Gannon steps back and casts _cure light wounds_ on Plonk, returning some of the color to the gnome's face.

Flawed fires again, missing this time [roll of 6 on d20, +1 ranged, -4 firing into melee, total 3, miss].

*Conditions*
Flawed 5/7 hp
Gannon 1/9 hp
Plonk -2/7 hp, stable and unconscious
1 dead rat, 1 uninjured rat

*Round 4*
_Initiative: Rawhide 14, Rats 11, Gannon 11, Flawed 2_

Rawhide swings again, missing [roll of 7, +3 melee, total 10] as the rat lurches back onto its hind legs.  It leaps at the shifter, biting into his side [6 hp damage, 5 hp acid damage] and tearing a good chunk of his flesh away from the oblique.

Gannon advances, flanking the creature, and brings his morningstar down in a huge overhand arc [roll of 19 on d20, +1 melee, total 20, hit; 8 damage], crushing the rat's skull into a bloody, pulpy web of brains and bone.

*Conditions*
Rawhide 3/14 hp
Flawed 5/7 hp
Gannon 1/9 hp
Plonk -2/7 hp, stable and unconscious
2 dead rats


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## Ashy (Feb 14, 2005)

OOC: If possible, Rawhide begins raging and then continues attacking.  I am not sure how long it has been since his last rage....    Basically, Rawhide continues trying to pound rats to muck...


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## MadMaxim (Feb 15, 2005)

"That ought to teach them..." Gannon mutters under his breath. He's clearly exhausted by the combat. _This certainly isn't easy... I didn't even know that such creatures could be found in the depths of Sharn._

He staggers over to Plonk and spends a few seconds casting a couple of spells to heal the gnome. "Okay, I don't know about you, but I don't think we can go on like this. I feel exhausted and my deity isn't exactly granting me a whole lot more healing magic today. I think we need to set up camp somewhere down here, because I seriously can't go on like this. I need rest. We'll examine the building more closely when we wake up." He looks at the others.

*OOC:* Gannon converts his _read magic_ and _light_ spells into _cure minor wounds_ spells and heals Plonk to disabled status.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 15, 2005)

*OOC*: _As Gannon's suggestion is extremely appropriate, I'm running with it..._

*Rawhide*: You just don't feel up to shifting/raging.

*OOC* for *Ashy*: _IIRC, Rawhide raged in the fight against the warforged the second time into the complex, and, as the party's not rested since before then, he still needs to rest._

*Plonk*: You awaken from your rat-induced stupor, feeling weak, but very much alive.

*Everyone*: The "night" passes uneventfully, and you all heal 1 hp.

*Conditions*
Flawed 5/7 hp — *OOC*: _Did you spend anytime repairing yourself?_
Gannon 2/9 hp
Plonk 1/7 hp
Rawhide 4/13 hp


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## Krug (Feb 15, 2005)

"Thank you Gannon," says Plonk, realising this is almost the second time he's died. He casts a spell to help Flawed heal (sorry don't have the book with me now). "Yes, there must be another way... but I'm stumped!"


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## Knight Otu (Feb 15, 2005)

Kajamba Lion said:
			
		

> Flawed 5/7 hp — *OOC*: _Did you spend anytime repairing yourself?_



(Nope, Flawed does not have the appropriate tools, unless it can find something to improvise.)

"*Thank you, Plonk. These creatures always seem to go for my leg.*"
Flawed checks the seal and the book again, comparing them for any differences, as well as looking for possible hidden parts.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 15, 2005)

Gannon heals Rawhide, Plonk and himself before he starts examining the entire building while Flawed tries to work something out with the book.

*OOC:* Gannon converts his two 1st-level spells into _cure light wounds_ spells to heal Rawhide and Plonk (with one spell each). He then converts his three 0-level spells into _cure minor wounds_ spells and heals himself.


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## Ashy (Feb 16, 2005)

"Hey!!  Danks, Boss!", Rawhide says, looking at his recently healed wounds.  "I wonder where dem rats went...", he says offhandedly, looking around...


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 16, 2005)

*OOC*: _Cure light wounds on Rawhide heals 9 hp, on Plonk, 5 hp.  Gannon regains 3 hp; Flawed, 2 hp._

*Flawed*: [Search check, Spot check] The doors are sturdy — Rawhide's mace did little to no damage — and the book tells you nothing new.

*Gannon*: [Search check, Spot check] The exterior walls of the building seem to be in good shape, and there are no other doors that you can see.  That said, you do notice a good sized pile of rubble — tiles and the like, not all of it recent — off to one side.  They look like they've fallen off the roof, which has a gentle slope.

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp
Gannon 5/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp
Rawhide 13/13 hp


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## MadMaxim (Feb 16, 2005)

Gannon tries to get up on the roof and look for possible entry ways.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 16, 2005)

*Gannon*: [Climb check, roll of 10 on d20, +1 Str, -2 chain shirt, total 9]  You start to climb the wall, but slip back down to the ground before you're five feet up — it's not going to be a hard climb (only 20 ft.), but it will take a bit of luck as long as you have your armor on.  Trying again, you manage to climb up just under half-way [Climb check, roll of 14 on d20, +1 Str, -2 chain shirt, total 13], but fall back down to the ground [Climb check, roll of 5 on d20, +1 Str, -2 chain shirt, total 4; 3 hp non-lethal damage].

[sblock]*OOC*: _As you might gather, the climb DC here is 10.  It's an easy climb, but Gannon can't take 10 on it without taking off his armor or using a rope.  I'm making Climb checks for each increment without the rope, but if y'all add a rope, it'll be one Climb check. I had Gannon try again to hopefully move things along, but I don't want to push it and run the risk of him taking more non-lethal damage than he has now.  I'd imagine he'd start looking for a rope or something._[/sblock]


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## MadMaxim (Feb 16, 2005)

Gannon starts to look around for a rope...


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## Ashy (Feb 17, 2005)

Rawhide stands, snickering, as he sees Gannon, in armor, trying to scale the roof.  After Gannon picks himself up the *second* time, the shifter asks from around a grin.  "Uhhh, boss?  Yous wants mes to try?"

OOC: Climb +8


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 17, 2005)

*Rawhide*: You scurry up the wall [Climb checks; rolls of 14, 6, 7; +8 Climb, -4 scalemail; totals 18, 10, 11; success] and on to the roof.  And, on the top of the building, you find a way in — a gaping hole, some 15 feet long and 7 feet wide.

*Gannon*: [Search check] You find no rope, and the party's rope is currently hanging down that shaft, tied onto a long section of chain...


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## Krug (Feb 17, 2005)

Plonk tries to scale the walls as well.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 17, 2005)

"Have you found anything up there, Rawhide!?"


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## Ashy (Feb 17, 2005)

"Big hole, boss!"  Rawhide calls.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 17, 2005)

(Uhm, which rope did Rawhide use, if there is none? )

Flawed watches silently until the shifter. "*Shall we climb up, then? Maybe we can help each other?*"


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 17, 2005)

*OOC*: _Oops.  Fixed it.  Thanks!    Move up later tonight..._


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## Ashy (Feb 18, 2005)

Knight Otu said:
			
		

> (Uhm, which rope did Rawhide use, if there is none? )
> 
> Flawed watches silently until the shifter. "*Shall we climb up, then? Maybe we can help each other?*"




"Or meybe Mes goes in and opens dee door from dee inside?" the shifter offers...


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 18, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Climb checks; rolls of 18, 14, 19; -1 Str; totals 17, 13, 18; success]  You climb up the wall easily, finding that the gaps in the masonry make for good handholds.


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## MadMaxim (Feb 18, 2005)

_Well, I've never seen myself as a great explorerer anyway..._ Gannon grumbles to himself as he sees Rawhide and Plonk climb the wall with little difficulty. He walks back to the door to see if Flawed has come up with a solution for opening the door. As he walks round the corner of the building, he calls out to Rawhide and Plonk. "You two just get inside and see if you can find a way to open the door from the inside!"


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## Krug (Feb 18, 2005)

Plonk looks down the hole. He'll throw a torch down and go down CAREFULLY. Actually he'll let Rawhide go down first...


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## Ashy (Feb 18, 2005)

Rawhide jumps in...


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 19, 2005)

*Plonk, Rawhide*: Plonk drops a torch into the room.  It lands on a stone floor in the midst of a pile of rubble — the debris is a mix of stone and wood, with what appears to be a metal shape pinned underneath it.  You can make out some dusty shelves on the southern wall and what appears to be some sort of forge/furnace combination in the east.  Otherwise, the room is dark.

*Rawhide*: When you jump in [Tumble check, roll of 18 on d20, +6 skilled, total 24, success, allows Rawhide to ignore first 10 feet of falling, converts other 10 feet to nonlethal damage; 4 hp nonlethal damage], you see a pair of metal eyes moving towards you from the darkness.

*Plonk*: You don't land gracefully, but you don't hurt yourself badly either [Jump check, roll of 14, -1 Str, total 13, +3 action point, total 16; 3 nonlethal damage].  A pair of metal eyes moves towards you from the darkness.

*Initiative*
_Plonk 20, Rawhide 8a, Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron dogs 3_

*OOC*: _Actions from everyone for the next three rounds..._

[sblock]*OOC*: _Hey, folks.  Y'all have action points, you know — 5 of them, to be precise, which you can use to add 1d6 to any roll of a d20.  I'm also going to use a variant rule from Bad Axe Game's Grim Tales — these are exploding action dice — if you roll a 6, you keep on rolling, adding the total to your d20 roll...  At 2nd level, you'll get 6 AP, but you'll lose all of your 1st level APs.  Anyhow, I added one to Plonk's Jump check as I didn't really feel like knocking him out of his gourd again right yet.  So, I guess what I'm saying, is feel free to use them.  There are three other ways to use them, which I'll list here:
2 AP get you an extra use of an ability such as rage, turn undead, smite evil, and so on.
1 AP allows an artificier to hasten an infusion (cast it in one round).
1 AP allows a character to stabilize.
Anyhow, that should help things get a little bit more of that swashbuckling vibe.  And, if MadMaxim likes, possibly allow Gannon to climb the wall (although he'll have to roll and can only use 1 AP per roll). _[/sblock]


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## Knight Otu (Feb 20, 2005)

[sblock]Yeah, I kind of forgot them, but I did plan to use one before reading your sblock [/sblock]
Unaware that a fight will start soon, Flawed will wait for the door to open first. Once it becomes aware that a combat is happening, Flawed will climb up as well, using an action point.
If it can see from and keep at the hole, it will cast true strike and fire its crossbow from above. Otherwise, it jumps down as well.


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## Ashy (Feb 21, 2005)

Until attacked, Rawhide will grab the torch and move to the door.  He will also yell out, "Hey Boss! Der's some eyeballs down here!"

Once attacked, he will do the shifter shuffle (shift, rage, attack - cha-cha-cha!), if able, using his battleaxe.  Whatever is going on, he will keep on yelling out details.  I.e., "Ouch!  Mes stumped mes toe on this pile o' shiny rocks, Boss!", or "Hey!  Look, a big black lizard wit its mouth on fire!", etc, etc...


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## MadMaxim (Feb 21, 2005)

Unaware of the combat, Gannon waits for the door to be opened. If he hears Rawhide, he'll try to get up the wall once again (using action points, though seriously hate to spend them on skill checks that I'm almost certainly going to fail...  ). If he gets in, he will start attacking whatever threatens the party with his morningstar (he has no combat spells left, after all...).


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## Krug (Feb 22, 2005)

Plonk takes out his crossbow and shoots at the dogs, trying to stay as close to Rawhide as possible. He tries to act brave, but that's not quite his priority as much as staying alive.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 22, 2005)

*Round 1*
Initiative: _Plonk 20, Rawhide 8a, Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron dogs 3_

Plonk draws his crossbow and pulls the trigger, but the mechanism has jammed.  The gnome spends the rest of the round trying to unstick the trigger [ranged attack, natural 1 on d20, automatic failure].  Meanwhile, Rawhide yells out to Gannon, "Hey Boss! Der's some eyeballs down here!" as he grabs the torch and heads towards the door.

Gannon and Flawed wait outside for the door to be opened.

The two iron dogs attack the shifter, both hitting, one grazing Rawhide's left arm, the other rends open his stomach [16 hp damage].  He yells in pain and falls to the ground, unconscious and bleeding heavily.

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp
Gannon 5/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp
*Rawhide -3/13 hp* (Unconscious)

[sblock]*OOC*: _And we pause as the situation changes dramatically.  I'd like to find out what Plonk will do before I move along._[/sblock]


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## Krug (Feb 22, 2005)

Dumping his crossbow, Plonk runs over and tries to open the door. He's shaking like a leaf, and thinks that repairing watches doesn't sound so bad now... _He'll use an action point to dodge past the dogs and another one to open the door, if necessary._


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## Ashy (Feb 22, 2005)

OOC: Rawhide uses an action point to nuke the metal dogs and miraciously heal himself....


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 22, 2005)

*Round 2*
Initiative: _Plonk 20, (Rawhide 8a), Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron dogs 3_

Plonk cleverly rolls past the iron dogs and towards the door [Dexterity check, roll of 5 on d20, +1 Dex, +6 on action die, +6 on 2nd die, +6 on 3rd die, +2 on 4th die, total 26, success].  You look at the door.  It's locked here, too, so you start to see if you can't work the lock a bit [Open Lock check, roll of 20 on d20, automatic success].  You're not sure if it's luck or chance, but you roll one of the tumblers over just a bit, adjust another, and jam the third, and the sucker pops open.  So much for magic locks.

*Gannon, Flawed*: The doors snap open to reveal Plonk and two iron dogs inside an old forge.  Rawhide lies on the ground, bleeding and unconscious, just beyond the dogs.

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp
Gannon 5/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp, 3/5 AP
Rawhide -3/13 hp (unconscious)

[sblock]*OOC*: _And that's what we call an exploding action die — at the Boston Game Day, CarlZog rolled something like five 6s followed by a 5 for healing (in GT, you can use them for healing).  And, apparently, my dice don't only roll natural 20s for me (that DC was sick high, but a 20's a 20 and y'all are heroes, so...).  Good times.  And we pause again in the middle of round 2 to allow Knight Otu and MadMaxim a chance to change previously stated actions..._

*OOC* for *Ashy*: _Did you want to use an AP to stabilize Rawhide if he doesn't get healed?_[/sblock]


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## Ashy (Feb 22, 2005)

OOC: Sure!


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## Knight Otu (Feb 22, 2005)

Flawed shoots with his crossbow at the closest dog (using an action point).


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## MadMaxim (Feb 22, 2005)

"Oh no!" Gannon cries out, as he sees the shifter lying on the floor, bleeding. He tries to get a hold of himself and remain calm, remembering that he's the leader of the party and if anyone should remain calm it should be him. He looks at the frightened gnome. "Thank you, Plonk. Stay back. I'm going in. Back me up in whatever ways you can." Then he looks at the metal dogs. "You shall taste my wrath you soulless abominations..." And he walks into the room, his morningstar held firmly in his right hand, ready to smash the iron dogs.

*OOC:* Gannon walks into the room and attacks the nearest iron dog. He will keep on attacking it till it's dead and then he'll continue with the other one. He'll use action points on every attack to make them count.


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## Krug (Feb 23, 2005)

Since he's been near death twice, Plonk hides and fires bolts at the dogs, not wanting to risk his skin in combat against the beasts.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 24, 2005)

*Round 2, Pt. II*
Initiative: _[Plonk 20, (Rawhide 8a),] Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron dogs 3_

Flawed fires a crossbow bolt at one of the two dogs (Plonk recognizes them now as a stylized version of an iron defender, a standard homunculus designed by artificers), hitting it squarely [roll of 18 on d20, +1 crossbow, total 19, hit; 4 hp of damage].  Bursting past Plonk, Gannon attacks the same dog, clubbing it in the jaw with his morningstar [roll of 18 on d20, +1 morningstar, total 19, hit; 9 hp damage].  A handful of metal teeth go skittering across the floor.

Gannon sidesteps the other dog as it leaps past him, stepping right into the bite of the one he had hit with his morningstar [3 hp damage].

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp
Gannon 2/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp, 4/5 AP
Rawhide -3/13 hp (unconscious, stable), 4/5 AP

*Round 3*
Initiative: _Plonk 20, (Rawhide 8a), Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron defenders 3_

Plonk, from his vantage point behind the melee, launches a crossbow at the uninjured defender [roll of 16 on d20, +1 crossbow, total 17, hit; 2 hp damage], hitting it in its side.  Flawed reloads and fires, hitting the other metal dog [roll of 13 on d20, +1 crossbow, +3 on action die, total 17, hit; 5 hp damage].  The dog teeters and falls to the ground, disabled.

Gannon turns to the other dog, smashing it in the side with his morningstar [roll of 17 on d20, +1 morningstar, total 18, hit; 8 hp damage].  The dog snaps back at the cleric, missing.

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp, 4/5 AP
Gannon 2/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp, 4/5 AP
Rawhide -3/13 hp (unconscious, stable); 4/5 AP

*Round 4*
Initiative: _Plonk 20, (Rawhide 8a), Flawed 8b, Gannon 7, iron defenders 3_

The gnome-warforged artillery unit fires again, hitting the beast once [Plonk: roll of 17 on d20, +1 crossbow, total 18, hit; Flawed: roll of 14 on d20, +1 crossbow, +1 on action die, total 16, miss; 4 hp damage].  Gannon then knocks it straight into the middle of next week [roll of 19 on d20, +1 morningstar, total 20, hit; 8 hp damage].  As the creature falls to the ground, a triangular rod slides out of its forehead.  An inspection of the other dog reveals a rectangular rod on the ground next to its head.

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp, 3/5 AP
Gannon 2/9 hp
Plonk 6/7 hp, 3/5 AP
Rawhide -3/13 hp (unconscious, stable); 4/5 AP


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## Krug (Feb 24, 2005)

"We did it!" cheers Plonk, glad to have survived a combat for once. Plonk takes up the rods, examining them. "Oh I suppose we SHOULD revive the shifter." 

He inspects the dogs, marveling at their design. "They're known as iron defenders, a sort of homunculus designed by artificers. Somebody wants to protect something."


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## MadMaxim (Feb 24, 2005)

Gannon falls to his knees supporting himself with the handle of his morningstar, exhausted by the combat. "Well, you sure construct some good guard dogs..." he says to Plonk. "And unfortunately, I cannot revive Rawhide. I've already used all the healing magic granted to me today. I'll have to rest before I can heal anyone's wounds." Gannon looks at the rods that fell from the dogs' foreheads and asks the artificer. "Could you try looking at those rods, Plonk? They may be clues to the location of the artifact we're seeking." He points towards the rectangular rods.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 25, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Knowledge/Architecture and Engineering, roll of 17 on d20, +2 Int, total 19] You seem to think that these two rods are keys of some sort.  Inspection of the iron defenders' heads reveals that they were held in place by a rather clever clockwork mechanism.

*Everyone*: The night passes uneventfully. 

*Sar, 16th Sypheros 998 YK*
*Int. House Cannith Foundry, Time Unknown*

*OOC*: _Please see this post for a description of the room's contents.  Basically, there's a forge and furnace on the east wall, shelves along the south wall, doors in the west, and a giant pile of rubble in the middle of the floor.  Also, I've healed each character 1 hp for the eight hours of rest._

*Conditions*
Flawed 7/7 hp, 3/5 AP
Gannon 3/9 hp
Plonk 7/7 hp, 3/5 AP
Rawhide -2/13 hp (unconscious, stable); 4/5 AP


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## Krug (Feb 25, 2005)

Plonk examines the forge/furnance, the shelves and the rubble cautiously, checking for traps.


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 25, 2005)

*Plonk*: You find a slew of equipment on the shelves, most of it wrapped in ancient oilcloth [See list below].  As for the forge and furnace, the floor around it is covered in metal plates.  Careful inspection of the forge reveals three slots, evenly spaced above the mouth of the forge — a pentagon, triangle, and a rectangle.     

*OOC*: _Everyone, please take a moment to visit the OOC thread._

*List for Plonk*
One suit of scale mail, one small and finely-made chain shirt, three small steel shields bearing the Cannith seal, a heavy mace, a longsword, a rapier with an onyx hilt and gold inlay on the blade, another heavy mace of superior balance, and a pair of sunrods.


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## Knight Otu (Feb 27, 2005)

Flawed cautiously enters the foundry. It had not been quite sure what to expect - certainly no creation forge like the one it came from, but somehow, the foundry still looked eerily alien to the warforged wizard. The night - or was it night? - spent in the foundry for the fleshfolk to heal did nothing to reduce the alien-ness Flawed felt. Yet, this was a Cannith foundry - should it not feel some familiarity? Or was it too afraid of punishment by House Cannith for its flaw?


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## Krug (Feb 28, 2005)

"Wooohoo! We hit the motherlode!" says Plonk. He displays the various items. "Perhaps some of them might be magical!" He makes an Artificer check on the mace and rapier. 

He wonders about the forge and how to activate it... He looks at the rods the Iron Dogs dropped. "So there must be a third rod somewhere?"


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 28, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Artificer checks, rolls of 17 and 12 on d20, +3 Artificer knowledge, totals 20 and 15, two successes]  Neither item is magical.

*OOC*: _The heavy mace is masterwork (balanced), granting a +1 quality bonus to initiative.  The rapier is masterwork (decorative), granting a +1 quality bonus to Diplomacy checks when the character has the weapon in view.  [Both qualities are taken directly from Green Ronin's *Black Company Campaign Setting* and only grant the bonuses listed above — neither one grants a bonus to hit.]_


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## Krug (Feb 28, 2005)

Plonk starts to examine the rubble...


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## Citizen Mane (Feb 28, 2005)

*Plonk*: Sure enough, half in and half out of the rubble are the remains of another iron defender.  Unfortunately, the wrong half (the back half) is sticking out from underneath the rubble.  You'll have to move the pile to get at the head and, presumably, the third rod.


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## Krug (Feb 28, 2005)

Plonk calls to the others. "I could use a hand..or two..or three!" 

He also informs the rest about the abilities of the weapons as they try to extract the rod. "Should do you more good than me."


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## Knight Otu (Feb 28, 2005)

Flawed silently helps Plonk clearing the rubble, showing no interest in the other items.


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## MadMaxim (Mar 1, 2005)

Gannons gets up and walks over to the shelves and picks up the high-quality heavy mace and the two sunrods. _These should prove useful..._ He then walks over to Plonk and Flawed to help move the rubble.

*OOC:* I've noted the new equipment on my character sheet.


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 1, 2005)

*OOC*: _Just as an FYI, Rawhide is still unconscious, and I'm assuming, based on MadMaxim's post before y'all rested that he would have healed the shifter at some point.  MadMaxim can decide what slot he uses to cast the cure light wounds spell._

*Rawhide*: [_cure light wounds_, roll of 7 on 1d8+1, 8 hp healing]

*Everyone*: You move the rubble, revealing the body of the crushed defender.  A pentagonal rod lies next to the gears and plates that composed his head.  It matches the third slot perfectly.

*OOC*: _I'm assuming that you place the rods in the slots.  In what order do you insert them?_


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## Krug (Mar 1, 2005)

"Maybe we should try inserting them at the same time," says Plonk to the others.  "We would take up position and then push them in.. Three of us.. and maybe the fleabag. What d'ya think?" He gulps, slightly nervous.


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## Ashy (Mar 1, 2005)

Rawhide rises and shakes his head slowly.  "Woo wee.  Mes been sleepin's a bunch!  Wot happened to Rawhide?"


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## MadMaxim (Mar 2, 2005)

"The metal dogs took you down, Rawhide. Fortunately, Plonk was quick enough to open the door from the inside making Flawed and I able to join your little fight. I must admit they're pretty good shots, considering armed combat isn't their main focus. I went head to head with both of the dogs and managed to smash them apart with my trusty morningstar. You don't anger a holy man and get away with it..." Gannon says to Rawhide while smiling. He knows that he was extremely lucky, but he also knows that in order to earn the shifter's trust he will most likely have to prove himself as a warrior.

Gannon gets to his feet and walks over to Plonk, grabs one of the rods and stands next to the matching hole. "Ready when you are, artificer..."

*OOC:* Gannon converted his _divine favor_ into a _cure light wounds_ spell.


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## Ashy (Mar 2, 2005)

Rawhide returns Gannon's smile and nods, although you get the idea that the shifter really did not quite get all of the message - very likely too many words in a single message.  Nevertheless, he looks to the cleric and replies, "Otay - tell me what to do now, Boss!", and grins...


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 2, 2005)

*OOC*: _Who has the third rod?_


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## Knight Otu (Mar 2, 2005)

Flawed takes the third rod, and simply says "*I am ready.*"


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## Krug (Mar 2, 2005)

"Lets do it!" says Plonk, waiting unti his companions are ready and then inserting the rods at the same time. His heart beat with excitement, eager to see the effects. _I just hope this doesn't result in a repeat of the explosion of '92..._ he thought to himself.


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 3, 2005)

*Flawed, Plonk, Gannon*: As you insert the rods, an arc of electricity jumps from the forge and into the three of you [2 hp electrical damage for Plonk and Flawed, 1 hp electrical damage for Gannon].  Apparently, they need to be inserted in a specific way.


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## Krug (Mar 3, 2005)

"OUCH!" yells Plonk. "Does the book tell us anything?"


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## Knight Otu (Mar 3, 2005)

"*I don't think the book will help us anymore. I suggest trying out the rods in increasing number of faces. First the triangular one.*" Flawed immediately does so. If it suffers no electric jolt, it then inserts the other rods.


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 4, 2005)

*Flawed*: Your intuition has served you well, and you find that the rods click into place as you insert them.  The forge opens up, not unlike the jaws of a great beast, and a sliding panel in the back rolls to the side, revealing a small vault.

*Assumption*: _Plonk checks for traps, and [Search check] finds none._

*Everyone*: Inside the vault, you find two sacks filled with old coins (one of silver, one of gold), 4 ancient gold ingots, four stoppered vials, a scroll case, and an adamantine plate shaped into a seven-pointed star, roughly six inches wide from point to point.  This last item must be the schema.


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## Krug (Mar 4, 2005)

Plonk takes out the booty,his eyes glistening. He looks at the schema, fascinated by it. "Now... to get outta here!"


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## Ashy (Mar 4, 2005)

Rawhide looks confused.  "Wot?  Dat plate is gonna git us outta here, Plonk?  Can it make up some food?  Mes hungry..."  The shifter's stomach rumbles, as if on que...


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## Krug (Mar 4, 2005)

Plonk will try to appraise the various materials. _Can't remember if his ability extends to potions..._


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## Knight Otu (Mar 4, 2005)

"*It is what we came here for. We should take it and leave. We can still identify the other objects once we are back in the city itself.*"


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## MadMaxim (Mar 5, 2005)

Gannon examines the four vials before Plonk puts them away. Then he turns to face Rawhide in attempt to explain the situation. "No, Rawhide. The plate cannot get us out of here or make food for you. It is the object that the pretty lady in the city hired us to find. When we bring it to her she will give us gold and then you can buy a lot of food. But we first have to get out of here." He looks straight at the shifter, hoping that he explained it plainly enough for him to understand. "Lead the way, Rawhide. I'll be right behind you."

*OOC:* Gannon takes 4 minutes to identify the potions using his Spellcraft skill (if they are potions, of course).


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 5, 2005)

*Plonk*: [Appraise check on the ingots] You think they're all worth around 50 gp.  [Artificer Knowledge check, roll of 3 on d20, +3 skilled, total 6] You cannot find any discernable aura on the potions.

*MadMaxim*: [Spellcraft against DC 25, rolls of 15, 12, 4, 11 on d20, +6 skilled, totals 21, 18, 10, 17, failure] You cannot identify any of the potions in this way.

*Everyone*: Having achieved your goal, you start to head back up to the city.  The journey back is far more straightforward than the journey down was, although you do find something interesting back at the junction where you had the battle with the giant spider — a disabled warforged, its body covered with dents and missing its head, lies in the center of the floor.  In its left hand is a sword and its right a scroll-case.  To either side of the body lie the corspes of two shifters, both of them smelling of sewer water and stripped of anything valuable.

*Plonk*: Inspection of the sword reveals that it is, in fact, magical [Artificer knowledge, roll of 18 on d20, +3 skilled, total 21].

*Everyone*: The scroll case yields a tightly wound piece of brown paper, sealed with a drop of wax.

*Whoever Reads the Scroll*: [sblock]I see you've found the schema.  For a group of bumbling whelps, you actually do rather well in a fight when you get your bearings — I was a little concerned that the gnome wouldn't make it for a while.  I'm still surprised that you managed that encounter with the harpoon spider, although I suppose that trouble had more to do with the fact that your shifter friend's a complete loose cannon than with the difficulty of the ambush we had planned.  Well, in any case, watch out for agents of the Lord of Blades.  They're everywhere and they're rather agressive.  I'm sure you don't want him to get the schema.  We don't want you to have the schema, but we'd rather it was in your hands than his.  For now, at least.  — V —[/sblock]

*OOC*: _If there's anything you want to do here, you can mention it.  I've assumed the most logical things (searching and such) in my descriptions above.  If there's anything else I haven't covered, let me know, and we'll plug it in.  Otherwise, read on for the second meeting with Lady Elaydren..._

*Everyone*: When you emerge from the depths of the city, you find that it's day.  A bright, sunny day in Sharn, for once, although a bit cool.  The light is nearly blinding after so much time spent delving through the sewers and old city by torchlight, but it's also a bit comforting.  You return to the Broken Anvil, slightly worse for the wear, but on the whole quite healthy and, thankfully, possessing the schema.  The barkeep mentions that Lady Elaydren's staying in some private rooms off the main hall and dispatches one of his staff to fetch her.  After a short wait, she comes arrives, dressed in a radiant blue glamerweave gown and flanked by a powerfully-built man — her bodyguard, most likely.

When you explain the situation, she smiles.  "You have my thanks, and the thanks of my House.  If you periodically check in with the House Sivis message station in Barmin Tower, you might find that my House and I often have need for contract employees.  Now, I believe I owe you 900 gold," she pulls out a purse, "and you owe me the schema."

*OOC*: _You can wrap this up any way you like, although, naturally, you'll have to give the schema to her if you want this money from her.   Whatever way you resolve this, you'll find that this is the end of the first section of the campaign and will likely want to check the OOC thread for some important information..._


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## Krug (Mar 5, 2005)

Plonk hands over the schema, grabbing the gold as she hands it over and trying to ensure that it is 900 gold in there. "Here you go my lady. It was an... interesting quest."

Plonk will seek to identify the sword and see if it's of any use to the companions. As for the rest of the haul, those stuff that the party does not want he'll sell off.


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## MadMaxim (Mar 6, 2005)

"As Plonk just mentioned, it was an extremely interesting journey through the city's sewers. I hope you find some use for the schema, because I can honestly not see what it's good for... I suppose you contact us again if you ever need some artifact-gathering done?"


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## Knight Otu (Mar 6, 2005)

In the talks with Lady Elaidren, Flawed once again tries to keep a low profile. While it _knows_ by now that she is not here to punish it, it cannot shake the nagging doubts that have risen the first time.


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## Citizen Mane (Mar 7, 2005)

She laughs at the description of the adventure as "interesting."  She pauses for a second after and then addresses Gannon.  "Yes, we'll certainly consider you for anything of the sort.  Check the message station in Barmin Tower every so often.  If that'll be all, then I'll be leaving.  All my best, gentlemen."  She stands and leaves the table.

*OOC*: _Remember, I need to know what the party plans on doing from here.  There are a couple of different plot hooks floating out there (some more obscure than others — the two obvious choices are going to Xen'drik to help the dark-skinned elves or waiting in Sharn until you hear from Lady Elaydren — I'll leave the others to you to decide on...).  Once I have an idea of what's going on, I'll post the new thread._


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## MadMaxim (Mar 8, 2005)

Once Lady Elaydren leaves, Gannon turns to face the group: "Well, people..." He looks very thoughtful as he continues. "We've come this far together. I believe we can accomplish a lot more than just running around fetching minor artifacts for nobles. We have some obvious choices here: Go to Xen'drik or stay here and wait for Lady Elaydren to come up with some new deal for us. I don't feel like doing the lady any more favors at the moment, to be honest." He pauses for a little while and drinks some ale. Wiping his mouth with left hand, he continues.

"I've always been interested in seeing what's fascinating about Xen'drik. On the other hand, we obviously have some competition regarding artifact-gathering. The letter we found on the destroyed warforged gives me the impression that someone doesn't like what we're doing, so we could try to look into that even though we don't have much to go on. Honestly, I think we should go to Xen'drik, but we need to stay alert because we must be dealing with some pretty good scouts and spies. What do you think?"


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## Krug (Mar 8, 2005)

"I don't mind Xen'drik either," says Plonk. "But yes, we must prepare!"


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## Ashy (Mar 8, 2005)

Rawhide looks thoughtful for a moment - an odd look on the shifter's face, to be sure - and finally replies.  "Is these Xendrics good ta eat?  If so mes in!"  He grins proudly...


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## Knight Otu (Mar 8, 2005)

"*Xen'drik? Certainly, why not?*"


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