"So, what was the riddle, again?"
The ranger moves outside of the freezing cold terrain and jumps, swinging twice his already soaked blades, finding very little resistance from the beast.
Shift to S-8
Twin strike, with no crit but one hit for 26 and the other for 16.
http://orokos.com/roll/198348

Sureiya rises from the lingering cold and stabs the chimera once, then twice, directly in both of the ram's eyes. The lion head roars, the dragon head wilts, the beast staggers, and it falls over, very much dead. At the same moment, the icy ground turns to steam, and the cacophonies dissipate completely.

Sureiya's twin strike hits twice and kills the dhorme chimera.

Surges Spent in Combat
Torinn: 1
Sureiya: 1
Sid uses both healing infusions.

Players and Allies
Myn Nthelsyr (George): (V-21) 46/65, darkspiral aura 2, shadow walk, +5 power to damage rolls, electrostatic mark, granting CA and -5 to attacks, slowed (save ends)
Book Imp (Myn): (In Myn's Space) Passive Mode
Torinn Tormine (Astaroth): (Mounted) 33/76 HP (Bloodied) + 24 THP, +5 power to damage rolls
Rutger (Astaroth's Mount): (Q/R-33/34) 13/38 HP (Bloodied) + 10 THP, resist 5 all when mounted, +5 power to damage rolls, slowed (save ends)
Sureiya (Anonkun): (R-28) 37/70 HP, +5 power to damage rolls, cannot take opportunity actions (save ends), slowed (save ends)
"Bernkastel" (Voyager): (M-28) 13/63 HP (Bloodied) + 10 THP, resist 2 thunder/fire/cold
Sid Silversprocket (NPC Ally): (L-37) 62/71 HP + 4 THP, resist 5 lightning, +5 power to damage rolls, electrostatic mark
Spirit Companion (Voyager): (Not Present)
Elemental Spirit (Voyager): (Not Present)

Enemies
Dhorme Chimera (Enemy): (R/U-29/32) -518 HP (Bloodied), Sureiya's quarry, -2 to attacks and all defenses, targeting crossbow effect DEAD

Torinn takes time to survey the damages and comes to a conclusion : "That went rather well, all things considered."

Seeing everyone assumed his clever question was rhetoric, the ranger adds.
"Well, the shaman and your tiger are quite wounded. It seems our opponents have gone easy on Sid for now, that's nice of them."

The shaman places the battle standard, and Sid wanders over, muttering to himself, "Well, that could have gone better."

spend one surge

>>75121
Taking a full ten minutes, roughly the party takes a breather and the shaman dishes out some healing. Meanwhile, Sid tinkers with his infusions, calling on the warlock to donate some of his energy reserves as well as his own, and muttering some arcane words, life-force transfers from the two to the two canisters the artificer holds. Tucking them away, he tinkers briefly with his magic crossbow, then requests the paladin's holy symbol. Placing the symbol in the palm of one hand, the gnome holds his other hand over it, chanting until an arcane sigil appears over the holy symbol of Bahamut. The gnome then uses his hand to physically manipulate the sigil, turning it this way and that, and matching up the pattern until power returns to it. He then returns it to Torinn and asks, "All done! Where to now?"

Everyone is at full except Rutger, who is at 25/38. Torinn could restore to full via resummoning. Sid will donate at least one surge for an infusion, need to know if Myn will also.

Torinn thanks Sid for his help, and the shaman for keeping him alive in the last fight. With the only clear path being forward, Torinn lights up his blade and leads the group on ahead.

maximum light on sunblade
go through passage chimera came out of

"Lets inspect the tunnel where this beast appeared" the ranger suggest.

>>75119
"Mr. Sid, I'll need some time to prepare better healing. Do you have any quick rituals to help with recovery?"

Sid nods and replies enthusiastically, "Of course! But I need conduits for performing the ritual--it will be a bit draining, though I can reinvigorate anyone you wish!" With that, the gnome kneels to the ground and begins drawing a ritual circle in chalk.

Players and Allies
Myn Nthelsyr (George): 65/65, darkspiral aura 1
Book Imp (Myn): (In Myn's Space) Passive Mode
Torinn Tormine (Astaroth): (Mounted) 76/76 HP
Rutger (Astaroth's Mount): 31/38 HP, resist 5 all when mounted
Sureiya (Anonkun): 70/70 HP
"Bernkastel" (Voyager): 63/63 HP, resist 2 thunder/fire/cold
Sid Silversprocket (NPC Ally): 71/71 HP

Surges Spent (Encounter and Short Rest)
Torinn: 4
Myn: 1
Sid: 3 (+1 more if using Comrade's Succor)
Sureiya: 5
Bernkastel: 2

Myn volunteers his surges, for his shields require meat.

Once Sid completes the ritual, the party has a more even distribution of remaining vitality.

Surges Remaining

Torinn: 7
Sureiya: 6
Bernkastel: 5
Sid: 5
Myn: 4

Players and Allies
Myn Nthelsyr (George): 65/65, darkspiral aura 1
Book Imp (Myn): (In Myn's Space) Passive Mode
Torinn Tormine (Astaroth): (Mounted) 76/76 HP
Rutger (Astaroth's Mount): 31/38 HP, resist 5 all when mounted
Sureiya (Anonkun): 70/70 HP
"Bernkastel" (Voyager): 63/63 HP, resist 2 thunder/fire/cold
Sid Silversprocket (NPC Ally): 71/71 HP

To the west, the tunnel the chimera came from appears to fork. The southern fork, however appears to be a dead end. There is a much larger passage leading downwards into darkness ahead of you--the sunrod only reveals a tunnel-like passage that remains about twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter that gradually slopes down.

"Ah, that's much better. Now let's keep going, we're making our host wait."
Feeling full of energy once again, Sureiya motions the party to continue, and walks to explore the path from where the Chimera appeared a while ago.

Sureiya leads the group down the tunnel. It's not even an hour of walking before you come to something interesting--an opening into what seems to be a much larger cavern. Even as you exit the tunnel and enter into the cavern proper, you cannot light all of it--you cannot even see the ceiling above you. The rock here is hard and mostly dry, and about the only noticeable feature of the room are rocky pillars that jut up from the ground here and there, in apparently random formations. They do nevertheless appear to be natural formations of stone, as the "pillars" may actually be over-sized stalagmites. As you progress further forward into the cavern, heading east and staying near the eastern cavern wall (from which you cannot see a western wall), you begin to see what appears to be cave spiders and webs hanging between the stalagmites.

Finally, you encounter something that gives you pause--in the distance, it would appear there is some sort of man-made structure that fills the cavern. All you can see at this distance is what looks to be a platform of worked stone that fills the entire eastern wall of this cavern, which has since narrowed to be about fifty feet across, though you still can't see a ceiling. Beyond the platform is what appears to be the outer wall of a tower-like structure that has been constructed here in the Underdark. This stone, unlike the grayish natural stone, is a deep violet with painted green rims, and in the approximate center of the wall is what appears to be the remains of a heavy wood gate that was apparently smashed through. In fact, it would appear that this entire structure has seen better days, as you draw closer you can see cracks in the structure's exterior, and there is what seems to have been a silvery shield-like decoration with a white spider motif on it that has been split in two hanging above the gate.

Sid looks very nervous as you examine this, standing about fifty feet out from the structure itself. There don't appear to be any exterior windows, at least not that you can see at this height.

"Rather morbid, isn't it?"

"Hey, isn't that suspicious?"
The ranger moves close enough to the shield-like decoration so he can inspect it a little more closely.
Dungeoneering: (27) GGBU6A

Sureiya: (Dungeoneering) This ornament is definitely drow in origin.

"This symbol is most likely drow, but I have no idea why I'm so sure about it."
Sureiya investigates around and looks for any endangering or interesting feature of the cave. In the meanwhile, he also address the artificer.
"You aren't looking very good. Did the ritual left you tired?"
Perception (crit: 34) http://orokos.com/roll/200218

Last edited at 14/06/10(Tue)17:36:59

"Well, it's just... you know, drow typically aren't very friendly," Sid comments, trying to gesture casually and failing.

Sureiya (Perception): Examining the scene for details reveals no evidence of traps, though there is plenty evidence of battle. You see scoring on the stone and ground, and the door was clearly broken through deliberately--it didn't just collapse due to neglect. The battle doesn't appear terribly recent, and if you had to place a guess, you'd say the battle happened more than a month ago.

>>75139
"We've met some in the fire leyline mission, and they weren't completely unreasonable." The shaman takes out some of her notes. "The priestess was called Pellanistra."

Spirit of Vigor temporary HP (4) for anyone without THP, except me.

Last edited at 14/06/10(Tue)18:49:09

"Ah, I remember now. They weren't bad with us, but honestly I was a little afraid we would be betrayed at the last minute. I guess not all of them are like they paint em'.

Anyway, about this place. A fight was most likely the reason of the mess around here. From the looks I would say it was at least 3 weeks ago."

>>75141
"We didn't give them the time to betray us," points out the shaman.

"Still, should we look inside?"

Myn has mixed feelings about the drow.

"While they clearly have better taste in residence, they remain filthy elves."

Myn lobs his imp at the structure as he calls out a few instructions.

"I would imagine little worse to be found in there than what we have already passed, Mister Sid. In any case, I will investigate the interior."


Move up next to wall.
Have imp invisibly search the building until range limit is reached.

The imp, somewhat used to being thrown around by now, catches itself in mid-air and flies in a crack in the rubble--which will need to be cleared if the adventurers intend to enter the tower. Scouting around for a few moments, it returns and reports to Myn that there's not much inside on the ground level other than rubble and corpses, but there appear to be stairs leading both downwards and upwards. "Looks like a drow corpse and two goblin corpses, boss. Pretty far decayed though."

Sureiya approaches Myn, and looks at him, expecting to hear about the scout.

>>75144
>>75145

"Perhaps I should start launching him with a crossbow."

"There appears to be nothing on the ground floor, aside from the corpses of a drow and some goblins. The rate of decay implies that they've been here for some time, so I doubt there's much chance of danger."

Myn gestures towards the entrance, entrusting the clearing task to the party's manual labor division.

"I guess you aren't fit for this kind of stuff" the ranger adds, as he works on the rubble moving.
Move things. Take ten.

It takes a bit of effort, but Sureiya is able to clear the gate wreckage from the entrance to the tower. It's dark inside, but Sureiya's sunrod-tipped helmet reveals an approximately fifty foot square room littered with debris, which appears to be the remnants of furniture. It would appear to be sparsely decorated, perhaps a dining area or meeting area. Slumped in one of the room's corners is a goblin corpse filled with arrows, and another lies face-down on the floor. The flesh of the corpses are rotting, and it doesn't smell terribly good. There's also a drow corpse that appears a bit fesher halfway down the stairwell that occupies the opposite end. You can't tell the cause of death from here, but it's clearly dead, as the corpse does show some signs of decay.

The ranger gives a fast inspection to the place and continues moving forward.
Perception (17) http://orokos.com/roll/200711

As Sureiya approaches the stairs, all he can tell is that the corpse near the stairs has battle wounds. Probably some sort of weapon attack, not projectile-based.

"Could somebody examine those corpses? I cannot tell if they're dead, or merely pretending to be dead."

"...they look pretty dead to me, but let me check."
The ranger gets close to one of the corpses and attempts to check its pulse, among other heal-related things.
Heal check (18) http://orokos.com/roll/200899

Sureiya can tell they are very clearly dead. However, at Sureiya's guess, the goblins died a long time before the drow, and it's probable they were actually undead before being killed.

"I think the goblins were zombies already. And they aren't moving anymore."

>>75159
Torinn finishes murmuring a prayer for the deceased and speaks up, "Then we should keep moving. No reason to linger here any longer."

>>75160
"Down the stairs? Is this the way to the leyline?"

Perception (20) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4535831/

Bernkastel searches the room and turns it upside down, but aside from the corpses can't find much. It does look like the corpses haven't been disturbed much recently.

At the shaman's question, Sid checks the leyline finding device and reports, "Well... we need to go further down."

"Let's keep moving."
Sureiya leads the party into the room after the stairs.

With their business in that room concluded, the party descend the stairs. Sid looks quite nervous by now. Rutger is having a bit of difficulty with the stairs, but manages to squeeze through all right, and once you reach the next level the room beyond is more spacious and inviting.

Here, you see two alcoves carved into walls flanking what appears to be a somewhat damaged set of heavy, reinforced wooden double-doors. The alcoves are filled, one with the statue of a female drow, and the other with the statue of some sort of spider-like part-humanoid monstrosity. There is no furniture in this room to speak of, though there is a large circle etched on the ground and accented with red spatters here.

>>75165

It's magicist to assume that all circles must have arcane significance. The sinister Myn therefore does so.

Arcana check: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4536211/

Strangely, Myn finds no arcane significance to this magic circle. However, he believes that it may have a similar, religious significance.

Why are we down here?

Religion (25) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4536777/
Perception (33) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4536781/
Dungeoneering (23) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4536783/

"That's rather creepy..."
Dungeoneering: (20) http://orokos.com/roll/201243

Sureiya doesn't notice anything in particular except that drow do commonly associate with spiders, so a statue of a vaguely spider-like creature enshrined in a drow fortification would not be particularly unusual. Bernkastel recognizes this as a shrine to Lolth, the drow goddess, and was probably used for ritual sacrifice.

The doors are quite thick, but Bernkastel though she heard some faint, muffled sounds on the other side.

"There's a faint sound coming from the other side of the door. I think the next challenge's is right there" says the ranger, before placing his magic spyglass inside his bag.
Perception: (29) I asked rin and I heard it too. Did it to speed up things a little. http://orokos.com/roll/201249

Torinn doesn't know much about Lloth.

history check to identify/learn more about relics : http://orokos.com/roll/201363 (14)

Torinn doesn't really know the drow goddess very well.

Silently, the ranger opens the door, expecting another fight on the other room.

Sure enough, it looks like the party is about to be thrown into battle once more!
>>75180