[Vile] Puppy-Kicking PCs at Work, part 2

[Fangor the Fierce]

Meanwhile, Aligor calls out to Boone in front of his antique’s shop. The human comes out with a dirty rag in his hand, apparently from cleaning something, and says “What are you doing here? You couldn’t have gotten in trouble that quickly!” Suddenly, something hits Aligor from behind, something that bursts open, covering the dwarf in a yellow goo. Even as the dwarf turns around to see who did this, the goo begins to harden, particularly around his feet, making walking, let alone running, impossible until the hardened gunk is scraped off. Boone says, “Aw, damn. Guess you could have at that.”

[Aligor failed a Spot check to see his attacker. Was hit. Aligor rolled Reflex save 9+2=11, failed, to see if the goo stuck him to the ground.]

The person responsible steps out from behind a cart fifty feet away where he had been hiding. He’s a tall man, with long black braided hair, wearing dark, loose fitting clothes with a number of odd symbols emblazoned on it. He says “Did you think you could betray Hex and get away with it? He knows you didn’t do the job he hired you for. He knows you set the authorities on him. And he knows you killed three of his men. Have anything to say before I collect the bounty on your head?” Not particularly waiting for a response, he holds his hands out, in a manner Aligor has seen often enough… the beginnings of someone casting a spell.

[Characters by Initiative:
Aligor, unhurt
Boone, unhurt
Bane, HPs:5/6
Wizard, unhurt

Aligor feeling the goo harden and hold him in place while he turns, narrow shis eyes, and sees the man walk from behind the cart.

Hmm, seems as though this one needs a little lesson!

"Considerin its not even time ta go to the place to find the guy, I haven't broke any deal yet. But I guess you changed that! Bane, what the hell you waitin fer? Git em!"

Bane, being the guard dog that Aligor raised, barks wildly at the man threatening his master. Intent on making sure that his master sticks around to feed him, Bane will do what he must. (Guard dog would defend his master against threats. Aligor will command him to charge the wizard. +3 Handle Animal)

As he commands his dog to try and throw the wizards spell off, Aligor reactively grabs his waraxe when hit by the object, and when finding himself glued to the floor, yells to Boone, "Distract that guy or help me outta this crap! But make it fast!" (Ask Boone to distract the guy or try to help him get out of the goo)

While speaking, he will swing down at the stuff holding him with a great warcry, hoping to break free of it soon enough to deal with the man responsible. (1d10+4 dmg)

OOC - Hopefully Bane will get a successful attack, distracting the man. if charging, Bite +4, 1d4+1 dmg. Boone will either try to help Aligor, throw something at the man across the street, or walk away.

 

[Telsar]

[OOC Darn, I was hoping I'd get this map posted before Fangor posted. Oh well. This is a dual map, showing the area Aligor is in and the area T'aria is in. 1 square=5 feet. Hopefully all the red letters indicating characters are obvious who they mean. Will respond to this IC thread within an hour or two]

 

[Telsar]

Accalon drifts off to sleep with Loni pleasantly singing a a very sappy lullaby about animals gaining magical powers from a child’s love and dreams. Throughout the day, periods of sleep are interrupted by periods of gentle love-making, particularly on Loni’s part, since she doesn’t wish to agitate Accalon’s injuries. At one point, during mid-afternoon, Accalon awakens to find Loni missing, but before he can investigate, she quietly comes in the room, whispering “That lieutenant guy is downstairs again, talking with Brie.”

[The DM isn’t sure what the plan is on Accalon meeting with the others. What I have heard is that they’ll send someone, disguised, to talk with Brie, and come back to talk with Aligor about the plans to go to the ruins, but that’s all supposed to be on the next day.]


At the antique shop, Aligor yells his commands at Bane, but the dog seems very curious about the gunk covering Aligor, first sniffing it, then licking it and getting his tongue stuck for a moment before he can pull it free. The dwarf hacks at the hardened stuff at his feet, almost freeing himself, when Boone rushes over and says “Dwarf, why are you getting me in this?!? If he hits me with a spell, that urgrosh is going to cost you double!” He pulls out a dagger, however, and does scrape enough of the goo that Aligor can wrench his feet free from the ground. However, this gunk is still all over him, hindering his movement. Aligor realizes that this gunk is continuing to harden, and eventually should become so brittle that it just falls off.

[Aligor rolled Handle Animal 4+3=7, failed. Aligor rolled damage 10+4=14, Boone finishes off what’s needed to free him. Aligor is still effectively entangled (-2 to attacks, -4 to Dex), but can move at half-speed (15 feet per Move). Aligor rolled Int roll 20 to realize the gunk has a limited duration.]

The wizard finishes casting his spell, and three bolts of magical energy spring from his hands, zooming towards Aligor, striking him unerringly. The wizard says “Hex said you were supposed to meet up with some halfling at high sun. That was hours ago. Too bad you didn’t go, though… he had a lot more than just me waiting to deal with you. But now I get all the glory… and the bounty!”

[Aligor takes 12 points of damage from the magic missiles. Note- I think I said, at the time, high sun would be in 3-4 hours from when you were talking with Hex. All the stuff at Brie’s took awhile, so with the rest, there’s no way you could have made the meeting when he wanted you to. Lucky for you, probably.

Characters by Initiative:
Aligor, HPs: 25/37
Boone, unhurt
Bane, HPs: 5/6
Wizard, unhurt]


Outside Taeirn, in the forest, Alicia looks around cautiously. She thinks she sees some trees or bushes, far in the distance, at least 100 feet, moving oddly. Perhaps caused by some creature moving around out there. It doesn’t seem to be moving closer, but whatever it is, it is definitely moving.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Accalon Darcanda: Human/Male (Unholy Warrior)

Accalon wakes up far quicker than he planed as he frowns and sits up; it still takes sometime as he wipes his eyes while he thinks upon the situation, “Do either of them know I’m still here? What are they discussing?”

Tossing the covers aside, he rubs his eyes again, before he starts to dress, “My beloved, I think we should have slept more.”

OOC: I figured Loni could help dress him… As for the plan that sounds like what I know… It was glossed over in high PbP style. Aka it would have taken an extra day or two to get everyone online with it.

 

[Serpenteye]

Outside Taeirn, in the forest, Alicia looks around cautiously. She thinks she sees some trees or bushes, far in the distance, at least 100 feet, moving oddly. Perhaps caused by some creature moving around out there. It doesn’t seem to be moving closer, but whatever it is, it is definitely moving.

Alicia gets up on her feet and starts walking towards the movement in the bushes. In a quiet but playful voice she speaks to herself, "Come out little manimal, I'm feeling hungry."

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

T'aria casually takes a very small step back to put the wall of the stall in-between herself and the crossbow. Damn... I don't have time for this! She looks at the boy and sighs.

"This horse is my friend's, I've come to pick it up for her. Look, it's name is Shadow, and my friend's name is Taryn," T'aria says, giving the name she signed into the Inn with. She continues to watch the place where the crossbowman is hidden out of the corner of her eyes, waiting for him to move, and obviously far more preoccupied with that then the boy.

[OOC: Bluff, of course... she's a bit distracted (by the threat of the crossbow and the fact that she is still hurt), so thus the not very good bluff. Also, she'll bribe the boy if she thinks it'll work.]

 

[Telsar]

Upstairs at Madame Brie’s, Loni helps Accalon don his armor as she says “I didn’t stay long to listen to what they were talking about. I wanted to tell you before you came downstairs. I did hear him ask if any of the adventuring party was here, and she said no. I’m not sure if that meant she was lying, or she doesn’t realize you stayed here today. He doesn’t have any other guards with him. He’s by himself. I don’t really understand all this though. You guys killed something kidnapping and casting spells on girls. He should be thanking you for doing his job.” She gives Accalon a concerned look, clearly wanting to help any way possible.


In the forest, Alicia moves towards her prey. Unfortunately, the rest of the party continue to sleep soundly, failing to hear her move off. After about half a minute, Alicia makes it up to where she saw the movement, rather quietly given her bulk. At first she doesn’t see anything moving, but does notice a large bush, some twelve feet high, that looks rather unusual as most of it is vibrant and green but one large section appears to be nothing but hundreds of dead branches. And then the oddest sight of all, as the dead branches seem to separate from the bush. As the dead branches move, Alicia can see they are held together by dead vines, and the total thing is in a vaguely humanoid shape, standing as tall as the bush it’s leaving. Whatever the collection of branches is, it doesn’t seem to be aware of the half-ogre, as it moves towards Alicia’s left and at a slight angle away from her.

[Everyone rolled less than a 10 on Listen checks to wake up. Alicia rolled Move Silently 15+1-2=14 to sneak up on the thing.]


And at the stables, T’aria does her best to convince the boy of her good intentions, and it seems to work. He says “Taryn? Yeah, that name sounds familiar-like. Is that horse really named Shadow? I got me a girl friend named Shadow too. She likes to hide a lot, and she’s real good at it. No one believes in her though. Says I made her up in my head. Dad says I’m touched. In the head, that is.” As T’aria takes cover behind the stable wall, she notices the crossbow, and presumably whoever’s holding it, slink back farther into the darkness between the buildings and out of sight.

[T’aria rolled 16+6-2(for distraction)=20 on Bluff.]

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Accalon Darcanda: Human/Male (Unholy Warrior)

Accalon gives Loni a small reassuring smile, “I’m a cautious fellow, and my actions have more to do with this than anything else… We know my “friends” are not the nicest people, and I’ve been seen with them so I think Modrin has a dislike for me…”

He gives the door a small frown as his thoughts race, would it be better to wait, or to confront, and how is Modrin going to react to Loni…

Glancing back towards Loni he ask quickly, “Where is your room? Do you room with any of the girls that went missing? Do you trust your roommates?”

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

T'aria curses mentally as the crossbow fades out of sight deeper into the alley. Damnit, I was hoping he didn't notice me. Now, how do I get rid of this kid?

She smiles at the boy, keeping up the image. "Yes, his name's Shadow. Really? No one else can see her? That's odd." She glances down the stable row the other way, hoping there was another exit she could take. Maybe I can use him.... "I wish I could meet this Shadow of yours," she says. "I could use some of her experience right now. My friend Taryn's in trouble."

[OOC: Is there an exit out the opposite side of the table? Looks like it on the map, but I wasn't sure if that was where the map ended or not. ]

 

[Serpenteye]

In the forest, Alicia moves towards her prey. Unfortunately, the rest of the party continue to sleep soundly, failing to hear her move off. After about half a minute, Alicia makes it up to where she saw the movement, rather quietly given her bulk. At first she doesn’t see anything moving, but does notice a large bush, some twelve feet high, that looks rather unusual as most of it is vibrant and green but one large section appears to be nothing but hundreds of dead branches. And then the oddest sight of all, as the dead branches seem to separate from the bush. As the dead branches move, Alicia can see they are held together by dead vines, and the total thing is in a vaguely humanoid shape, standing as tall as the bush it’s leaving. Whatever the collection of branches is, it doesn’t seem to be aware of the half-ogre, as it moves towards Alicia’s left and at a slight angle away from her.

Alicia stares at the strange thing for a moment, not believing her own eyes. "Stupid stick puppet, you can't fool me." She says quietly to herself, confused. "Stupid puppet-man, I kill you and burn your ugly toy!", she snarls and charges the Bush-creature, thinking that the puppeteer will be discovered when she attacks the creature.