[LANAI] The Rod of Seven Parts: Into the Crucible

"Eh? A'right, let's git movin' then. I dinnae 'oo ye are, or wot jes' 'appened, but that kin wait." the dwarf says, turning about and trying to follow those who're beginning to make their escape. His heavy armor and other gear make quite some noise though as he tries to hustle.

(ooc: can't run in heavy armor, so double move at 20' base speed)

The halfling runs a hand through his curly chestnut hair and looks up at the stout dwarf. "I hope that you can, er, handled yourself in a fight."

Wyleck virtually leaps down the stairs, an impressive feat for one with legs so short, as he mutters and gesticulates in bizarre and arcane lingo. His hand gets warmer and warmer until it burts to flames in a flash of heat and light. The flames around his hand are hot, but they do not burn, and they provide Wyleck with much needed light for his flight into the room below...

Wyleck leaps down the stairs, a hound in barding hot on his tail. The halfling and his dog companion stop at the bottom of the stone stair in the guardian room. Phud lumbers after the pair, the newcomer dwarf behind him. Arden carefully wraps and restows the wand, leaving Rowan to linger at the top of the stairs leading down into the guardian chamber below.

Despite there being no visible foes in the guardian chamber, the loud grinding of stone on stone announces that doors are opening somewhere in the main antechamber to the right. To Gerak's dwarven eye, this latest chamber is a rectangle some 20 feet wide and roughly 30 or 40 feet in length. A middenheap sits in the center of the northern area of the room, away from the stairs he only lately existed. The walls have primitive stick-figure carvings of bipeds carrying spears, kuo-toa soldiers worshipping the lobster deity Blipdoolpoolp. An unlit stone brazier near the center of the chamber seems to be dislodged slightly, for the corner of a black pit beneath it is visible to Gerak's keen eyes. Other than the light shed by his new companions, the chamber is dark. Four shallow water-filled indentations, kuo-toan water beds, flank the middenheap along both the west and east walls of the chamber. All four water beds are empty, and patches of dried blood turned black smatter the floor in the chamber; a battle has taken place here within the last day, perhaps two days. A tapestry lies in tatters inside a short hall leading due west.

The hurried sounds of metal armor clanking and padded feet slogging through water clearly echo from somewhere close at hand to the north.

The map below has an alpha-numeric grid on it. If you're feeling particular about where your PC is placed on the map, please be sure to reference the map and supply a gridsquare for where you want your PC to be.

Gerak, the dwarf

"Ey lads, 'ave ye been this way a'fore? There's a passage t' the roit, trash ahaid, an' wot looks like a pit 'neath 'at brazzer in the middle! An' sounds like comp'nay oun the way! Wot now?" the dwarf asks quietly, though aware that his clanking armor kind of makes quiet speech a moot point.

After asking this, the dwarf realizes it may get dangerous real soon, so he chants a short phrase in a grinding, guttural sort of tongue, then draws his warhammer.

[sblock=ooc]Gerak's chant is a short prayer in Terran for safety against evil forces. A Spellcraft check would reveal it to be a divine casting of Protection from Evil, cast upon himself.[/sblock]

Rowan moves down the stairway and into a position to give him a view of the corridor leading into this room. As he does, he intones the words of a protective spell under his breath, knowing that battle will be shortly joined.


Move to E15, cast mage armor for AC 18 (duration 3 hours).

[sblock=Memorized Spells]
Level 0 – 4+1 Mage Hand, Detect Magic x2, Daze + Acid Splash
Level 1 – 2+1+1 Sleep, Summon Monster I, Mage Armor + Grease
Level 2 - 1+1+1 Summon Swarm x2 + Glitterdust
[/sblock]

Phud : Male Half-Orc Sorcerer 1 / Barbarian 2

Phud moves foward and peers around both corners. Phud has his shield and scimitar held at the ready. Phud is ready to strike any enemies should any present themselves. Meanwhile, Bird flies over to the brazier and perches their watching his large companion from a safe distance.

OOC: Moving to J-15 and looking to the left and right.

Arden makes sure her crossbow is loaded and ready to fire. She also keeps her mind on the wand in her pack and makes a mental note to check on it often so that it doesn't fall out and get lost. Everything in its proper place, she thinks to herself.

Wyleck stomps forward on his tiny hobbit feet, obviously agitated at the continual chaos of the groups situation, as well as his own lack of understanding. People teleporting too and fro? Giant evil statues beneath his fair city? Ferrymen that don't take proper payment? It just weren't natural! He shouts into the dark room beyond, venting at the oncoming foe, "C'mon ya lilly livered, yellow bellied, lobster shelled Varmint-lickers! Yer mammas were Mollusks!"

Double-checking that everything has a place and that each piece of essential gear is properly stowed within said place, Arden at the last draws and fits a bolt to her crossbow. Remaining ensconced on the stone stairs, the small brown-skinned gnome readies her bow, the crosshairs of the weapon triggered to the room below.

The stairs' sidewall is too high for Arden to see or fire over; if she wants to get off a shot, she'll need to go all the way down to the bottom of the stairs so that she can at least peer around the corner.

With Bird perched back in the guardian room atop the low stone brazier, Phud stalks down the short corridor and has a look into the main chamber. The temple doors leading to the water and the ferryman outside are thrown open, but the portcullis opposite his position has been relowered. The kuo-toa bodies slain but yesterday have been drug away, through the now-closed portcullis and down the darkened hall. Phud's orcish blood does not fail him; despite the dark room, his eyes make out clean detail. The double stone doors marked with lightening bolts chiseled into the stonework along the north wall are, like their southern brethren, thrown open inward. Phud makes out four kuo-toan soldiers barreling their way down the now-open hall from the north. Differently garbed and armed from the monk-like sylphs the companions bested yesterday, these four frogmen sport banded mail. The front two wield longswords and shields, while the rear pair of the foursome are armed not with shields but with longspears. Spying Phud standing in the hallway, the front kuo-toa rasps out a singular but violent croak and points.

"C'mon ya lilly livered, yellow bellied, lobster shelled Varmint-lickers! Yer mammas were Mollusks!" From back in the guardian room, Wyleck shouts out a taunting welcome to the approaching kuo-toas. Though it does not sear his flesh, the flame flickering in the halfling's bare hand dances in merry anticipation of a fight to come.

Moving down the stairway into the guardian room to stand behind the hulking half-orc bouncer moments before Phud heads out of the room into the hallway, Rowan quickly weaves a protective ward about himself. Noting that the dwarf is busy doing similar while also drawing a heartily crafted warhammer, Rowan peers down the hall but sees nothing other than Wyleck hunkered by the doorway and Phud standing at the end of the short hall.


Initiative:
Arden 15
Phud 15
Kuo-toan guards 14
Wyleck 8
Rowan 7
Gerak 3