Clutches of Evil - IC: Chapter Two

[jkason]

Byntrou, roguishly sorcerous barbarian

As Byntrou grasps the token, his fingers slide forward across its smooth surface uncharacteristically easily. Looking down, Byntrou is able to see that his fingers have been coated with some sort of slick oil. As he recognizes the substance his fingers begin to grow numb as if the nerves themselves are under attack.

"Or it could just be a double trap..." Byn mutters as he closes his eyes and tries to focus on fighting the poison. When it seems he's done so, he turns back to Keryth. "I think that, certainly, someone in the mining community is not our friend..."

[sblock]Wow, I had no idea what a slacker I'd been. I went to update XP, and discovered I never updated my sheet after the crash forever ago. Yeesh. It should be updated now, and my apologies for being such a schmuck on that score.

Question: Does the rage constitution boost help with a secondary poison fort save? I'm not sure if it's totally feasible to time it correctly (then again, the "one minute later" secondary save is kind of arbitrary, too, so I suppose it's not entirely unbalancing to, say, ready rage vs. a second wave of feeling the poison). Just a thought.[/sblock]

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Destiny notices the glow of the token. "Either way, I think whoever is not our friend knows we are ready to meet them."

Bahruul approaches Byntrou and slaps him on the shoulder. "Are you alright, petik? It is mighty brave of you to take the effects that were meant for all of us. Will you manage?"

[Sblock=OOC]If you desire to expend your use of rage in that manner, I'll arbitrarily allow it in this circumstance with regard to this specific type of poison. Given the nature of this poison Byntrou should feel the secondary effect coming around again and be able to rage if he desires it. I've no clue if that's according to the rules or not. But I know personally there have been times when I've had the flu that I've had to muster up the strength to not do what the flu wanted me to. If I can do that, it makes logical sense for Byntrou to be able to use his rage to combat secondary effects.

Additionally, I have Byntrou's 4th level Excel sheet and have already updated his XP on it. If you don't have the Excel sheet I posted for you a while back, let me know and I'll repost it. That should make updating your online sheet easier.[/Sblock]

 

[jkason]

Byntrou, roguishly sorcerous barbarian

Bahruul approaches Byntrou and slaps him on the shoulder. "Are you alright, petik? It is mighty brave of you to take the effects that were meant for all of us. Will you manage?"

[Sblock=OOC]If you desire to expend your use of rage in that manner, I'll arbitrarily allow it in this circumstance with regard to this specific type of poison. Given the nature of this poison Byntrou should feel the secondary effect coming around again and be able to rage if he desires it. I've no clue if that's according to the rules or not. But I know personally there have been times when I've had the flu that I've had to muster up the strength to not do what the flu wanted me to. If I can do that, it makes logical sense for Byntrou to be able to use his rage to combat secondary effects.

Additionally, I have Byntrou's 4th level Excel sheet and have already updated his XP on it. If you don't have the Excel sheet I posted for you a while back, let me know and I'll repost it. That should make updating your online sheet easier.[/Sblock]

Byntrou smiles dryly as he drops the token into one of the pockets of his cloak. "I've certainly been better, petik. I think, for right this second, I need to sit down."

This he does. The smaller bous' breathing evens out, though his eyes begin to look slightly bloodshot as he stares at nothing, a cold hatred building in him.

[sblock=OOC]I think we'll try the "rage against the poison" strategy, what the heck. This'll learn him to wear his gloves when handling unfamiliar objects.

And I found the spot in the OOC thread where you had previously posted the level 4 xls, so I used that to update the RG. I think the only thing that looked off was that I remembered getting Byn MW thieves' tools, so I subtracted the gold and added the item, but otherwise I think I match up now. Let me know if that's not the case.[/sblock]

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Bahruul shuffles over the the force shield preventing him from going any further up the mines. "So, do you think the miners will greet us friendly because there is a seperate malevelant force down here ... or are we calling a force down upon us that wants to harm us? You don't think that those shapechanging things trapped the token to try and get rid of us so they could have our forms all to themselves..." He stops, thinking it better to consider his words before speaking any more.

Destiny sits beside Byntrou. "I can't help you much, but I am sorry for what happened. At least you don't seem too bad off right now."

[Sblock=OOC]Couple of things:

jkason, that was a pre-MW Thieves tools posting, so you are correct by adding them and subtracting the gold.

Also, anyone want to do anything between now and when the promised force of miners returns? Of course we've got Byntrou's second poison check to go through. But anything else or shall we fast forward?[/Sblock]

 

[unleashed]

Keryth, Male Drakontos Cleric

“I guess we’ll find out the answer to most of those questions, Bahruul, once we see what the miners send down,” Keryth remarks, wondering much the same thing himself.

[SBLOCK=OOC]Nothing for Keryth if he can’t do anything to help Byntrou (if he fails the second save), so I think we can fast forward to when we find out what the miners send down.[/SBLOCK]

 

[jkason]

Byntrou, roguishly sorcerous barbarian

“I guess we’ll find out the answer to most of those questions, Bahruul, once we see what the miners send down,” Keryth remarks, wondering much the same thing himself.

[SBLOCK=OOC]Nothing for Keryth if he can’t do anything to help Byntrou (if he fails the second save), so I think we can fast forward to when we find out what the miners send down.[/SBLOCK]

"I suppose the only question is: do we meet them with force, or feign ignorance of the traps and see who balks to see us alive?"

[sblock=OOC]Other than the poison, Byn's going to cast Mage Armor on himself as soon as he can hear the miners coming. Whether we're playing dumb or not, he figures it can't hurt to have a little more passive protection in place. [/sblock]

 

[unleashed]

Keryth, Male Drakontos Cleric

“Feign ignorance, I guess, as we can do little if they fail to drop the force shield because we look hostile,” Keryth replies, walking up beside Bahruul and testing the force shield himself.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

[Sblock=Byntrou]Unfortunately, Byntrou rolled porly on his secondary save and is affected even taking into account the rage. Fortunately, he rolled well on the following CON damage. He only takes 1 point of CON damage[/Sblock]

Byntrou looks visibly sick a short time thereafter and doesn't appear to recover so easily. He does not look to be in serious jeopardy, but he does look a bit more ill than before.

[Sblock=OOC]Feel free to conversae about this point if you would like. I'll post the coming of the miners so that when you are ready you can begin the interaction with them as well.[/Sblock]

In about the same amount of time that the party initially took coming from the surface to this tunnel entrance they can hear what seems to be a heavily armored party approaching. Coming into view on the other side of the force screen is the cloaked man who lead the party here. He is surrounded by three men in varying types of armor. Two are wearing breastplate and one is wearing full plate. The man with full plate armor has a greatsword drawn and held menacingly toward the party.

The cloaked man replies in a very unfriendly tone, "Well, I cannot imagine that you dealt with the inhabitants of the underground caverns that quickly." He pauses for dramatic effect and replies angrily, "If you haven't you will be dealt with yourselves."

[Sblock=OOC]The party can have up to two rounds of actions before the encounter actually begins - if they decide to do any spellcasting, etc. Just mention it. Also remember that they can hear the heavily armed party approaching, but not see them until the encounter begins.[/Sblock]

 

[unleashed]

Keryth, Male Drakontos Cleric

[SBLOCK=OOC]I’m just going to get on with speaking for the encounter, as Keryth has nothing to do in preparation of their arrival. Don’t let that stop anyone from posting something which would precede it though.[/SBLOCK]“What are you talking about man! We didn’t come down here to deal with the inhabitants of the underground caverns... we came down to find the priests, and we’re happy that the priests left some time ago after speaking with the people here... though no one seems to know where they’ve gone. So why don’t you just lead us back to the surface, so we can continue our investigation there... friend?” Keryth remarks, a pleasant smile on his face.

 

[jkason]

Byntrou, roguishly sorcerous barbarian

“Feign ignorance, I guess, as we can do little if they fail to drop the force shield because we look hostile,” Keryth replies, walking up beside Bahruul and testing the force shield himself.

"You make a good point, though I think I'll take a page from your book and cast my own protective spell before they get here. They'll not be able to see it, but it might come in handy should something happen just as the force effect falls."

For the moment, however, Byntrou doesn't look capable of casting much of anything. He begins to shake, his muscles bulging, veins becoming visible near his horns as he snorts heatedly, nearly growling. And then, winded, he grows quiet, leaning his head back against the wall.

[Sblock=Byntrou]Unfortunately, Byntrou rolled porly on his secondary save and is affected even taking into account the rage. Fortunately, he rolled well on the following CON damage. He only takes 1 point of CON damage[/Sblock]

Byntrou looks visibly sick a short time thereafter and doesn't appear to recover so easily. He does not look to be in serious jeopardy, but he does look a bit more ill than before.[/sblock]

"That poison has a more lasting bite than I'd hoped. I think my battle-fire helped, but I still feel ... drained, even moreso than I normally am when the fire ebbs."

[sblock=OOC]Just want to verify I did this right: I lose 1 con, so my con bonus falls by 1, which means I also lose 4 HP until I regain the con point (which is tomorrow), is that right?[/sblock]

In about the same amount of time that the party initially took coming from the surface to this tunnel entrance they can hear what seems to be a heavily armored party approaching.

Byntrou pulls a small piece of leather from his spell component pouch, and turns to Keryth.

"Keryth, since a magical scroll looks like little more than parchment, perhaps we could ready one of those without--ahem--undermining our ruse? There was one meant to cower our foes, wasn't there?"

Without waiting for an answer, Byntrou's eyes focus on the leather, and he incants softly. As his hands move above him, the air seems to shimmer, then he returns the leather to his pouch.

[sblock=OOC]Cast Mage Armor (doesn't stack with the bracers, so it's only a +2 net boost, but what the hay). Byn's referring to the scroll of Cause Fear, BTW.

Also, Nonlethal, does fighting the poison constitute a separate "encounter" from this one coming up? I'm just trying to figure out if Byn's suffering from post-rage fatigue or not. I would think there'd be time to recover, but I'll leave it in your court.[/sblock]