Exploring the Hase-Suna Complex (Manzanita judging) [Concluded]

[orsal]

[sblock=Zurd]The orclings slam the second secret door (d) shut behind them; you then open it. You find yourself in another room, about 25' by 40'. It holds a bed (b) in the far corner, three chairs (c), a table (t) and a stool (s) to the side, and several paintings and tapestries along the walls. The only one door (D) you can see is on the wall to the left, actually on a protrusion into the room. You see no sign of an exit. The orc children are heading to that wall, but don't seem to be heading for the door.

-------
|b    |
|    c|
|-  ct|
 D   c|
|-   s|
|     |
|oo   |
| o Z |
---d---

[/sblock]

The rest of you are still back in the room. Lokin has lit a torch. Any of you who wish may follow Zurd and the orc-children, but right now you can't see where they've gone.

 

[Lot]

Lokin slides his shield onto his back and secures it. Satisfied, he moves the torch to his off-hand and looks for the door.

"I'm going to go follow Zurd before he gets in trouble he can't handle or does something he may regret."

Lokin re-draws his bastard sword and follows the half-orc.

 

[hero4hire]

Lokin slides his shield onto his back and secures it. Satisfied, he moves the torch to his off-hand and looks for the door.

"I'm going to go follow Zurd before he gets in trouble he can't handle or does something he may regret."

Lokin re-draws his bastard sword and follows the half-orc.

"Didn't I just get chastised for chasing our foes? Ironic..." Kol says shaking his head in mild disbelief.

"Either he wishes to claim the remnants of the tribe as his own...The women and children. Or he wishes to finish them. Either scenario I find somewhat distasteful. But we should stick together."

 

[orsal]

If Lokin and Kol go chasing Zurd chasing the orc children, Kongu and Kyle will go with them, although sharing Kol's lack of enthusiasm.

You go through the secret door that the orcs inadvertently showed you. On the other side is a corridor that runs for 30-40', then dead ends. You don't see any visible egress. But neither Zurd nor the orcs is in view, so somebody evidently found a way out.

 

[TwistedMindInc]

Really not wanting to start a war amongst the group, Payne falls in behind the tromping fighters. Her thoughts are running viciously, plotting different ways of how she is going to kill Zurd if he so much lays a finger on one of the children. Where is this line that one must draw? Had Zurd gone completely mad? Were Kol and Lokin going to stand back and watch as the half-breed slaughters innocent orclings? Keeping a white knuckled grip on her daggers as she too files into the hall ways. Wha--? ``I'm going to check outside for Zurd.`` It was not hard to decipher her true intentions, though the rogue wasn't about to take the powerful fighter/mage on by herself unless there was a need to. Hopefully - that reason wasn't behind door number one.

 

[Lot]

Lokin lmoves the torch around, looking for the door. Though his eyes scan the walls intently, he speaks to the group.

"Say what you will about the orcs, I pity those young ones's position. I hope Zurd can find some pity in his heart, but his actions often make little sense to me. I never can tell what's going to do next."

Lokin looks up at the party, his face showing a touch of sadness.

"Someone has to watch out for him, though. He's my friend, for what it's worth."

 

[DerHauptman]

Zurd will continue to chase the orclings until he loses them

He yells after them again...

"Stop running you little brats, or I really willl kill you! You need my help and you know it! "

 

[TwistedMindInc]

Payne stares long and hard at Lokin, before shrugging and making way out into the fresh air. Her daggers have been drawn just in case she walks into the middle of something, those predatory pools searching her surroundings for any signs of Zurd or the orclings -- if they even came out this way.

 

[orsal]

[sblock=Zurd]
As the young orcs make their way toward another stone wall, you notice wooden paneling on it. In fact, there are sections of wooden paneling on much of the wall in this room. While chasing them, and gaining on them (the advantage of full-grown legs), you are surprised by a small flying critter coming at you from the other end of the room. You see a couple more -- hard to say how many, as even with darkvision they're hard to see -- flying toward the orcs.

Initiatives
Orcs 10
Stirges 9
Zurd 5

The orc in the lead reaches behind a wooden panel and slides it over. It turns out to be -- yet another secret door. The two smaller orcs follow him through.

The stirges all attach themselves to orcish creatures, one latching onto Zurd's leg (touch attack: 19), the others flying at the orcs. Zurd now has a proboscis in his leg, ready to such his blood. What does he do?
[/sblock]

[sblock=Everyone else]I'm not sure what you mean, TwistedMindInc, by "fresh air". The corridor you're in is as musky and dirty as any other dungeon passage.

You're in a sealed off hallway, to the best anyone can see. You know there's a door that you came in by; you might not have noticed it if you didn't know it was there. Since you saw Zurd and the orcs pass through and not return, you can guess that there's probably another secret door. If you're going to search for it, describe a strategy. Who is going to search where, and for how long before moving on? Then I can figure out if you find anything, and if so how long it takes you. If anyone wants to suggest a strategy for the whole group, I'll assume others follow the plan unless their players tell me otherwise. (Kongu will definitely follow, as will Kyle if D20Dazza doesn't return.)

I'll label the 5' sections of the walls:

  abcdefg
  -------
p|       |h
  -------
  onmlkji

You came in at p.[/sblock]

 

[hero4hire]

OOC: I say the highest Search skill searches while the rest try aid another rolls.
Starting at the end of the hall (h).