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

[pallandrome]

Wyleck rolls his eyes at the grinning dog, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Yssal, we're in serious trouble here!" Wyleck hops up from his spot and runs to the stairs leading down, looking to see if anyone is trying to take advantage of their momentary immobility.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Rowan spends a few seconds more gazing down into the worship chamber. Just as he is about to give up on spotting the summoner, the dim flicker of candlelight inside the lobster statue's glowing red eyes captures his attention. A few moments later, the candle is extinguished, leaving only thin billows of sensuous incense-imbued smoke to waft from the statue's eyesockets. A quiet click down on the platform near the base of the statue later, and Rowan spies a ninth kuo-toan in red robes emerge from inside the statue. The priest gestures to the monks kneeling on the platform and the five of them confer near the stairs then start to make for one of the two stone doors, the one on the left.

Several minutes after being paralyzed, Phud regains movement. At the precise moment when he finds his limbs losing their rigidity, a loud crack in the doorway announces a tangential event. The wand in Arden's possession grows hot, burning a hole in the bottom of her backpack and falling to the floor with a clatter. A ray of black energy shoots from the wand's tip, hitting an unsuspecting Rhys squarely in the jaw. The young human cleric is instantly vaporized, and in his place a shining white light beams down from the broken lintel. In the space where Rhys stood but half a second ago, a male dwarf garbed in splint mail with a well-fashioned-looking warhammer hanging from his belt and a tower shield in both hands stands, blinking.

At the loud crack from the armory doorway, the kuo-toas down below look up at the balcony. While none of the kuo-toas appear to have spied out Rowan just yet, the halfling is certain that if he dares move, he'll be seen. At a hissing croak from the red-cloaked priest on the platform, the four kuo-toas in mail move to exit the chamber from a door directly underneath Rowan's balcony. The priests remain fixed in place, peering intently about the room.

[sblock=Wyleck]The dwarf sports a silver holy symbol of Drendd about his person.[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

Standing still for a few seconds, blinking and just plain stupefied, the dwarf slaps himself once, taking his right hand off the grip of his tower shield. Glancing warily about, his face screws up with an incredulous or seriously confused look. Right hand reaching towards the warhammer on his shoulder, he mutters in accented Common "Whuh...whot's this then? 'oo are ye?"


This dwarven man stands just over 4 feet tall, appearing a little portly and muscular, garbed in well-polished splint mail armor. Gauntlets protect his hands, and sturdy leather boots cover his feet, chainmail covering the joints of his armor. No helm obscures his long, wide-braided, scarlet locks of hair, which extend down his back and over the chest in a beard nearly 2 feet long, all fairly well-groomed. Overall, this dwarf looks quite loaded down with gear for combat and travel.

Small black ties secure his bearded locks, and an intricate silver emblem hangs over the front of his beard, held by a loose black cord around the dwarf's neck. This emblem appears to be a symmetrical pattern of braided silver knots, depicting an upward-pointed triangle within a circle, and a kite shield within the triangle. The dwarf has a broad face, not particularly handsome nor ugly, with a strong brow and wide, flat nose. Bushy red eyebrows rest over dark, slate-grey eyes, and this dwarf lacks a mustache though his beard reaches high upon his cheeks. His skin is a dark shade of tan, not quite brown, and unblemished except by a few small scars.

The dwarf carries a stout, oaken tower shield in his hands, plain and unadorned except for the few pieces of reinforcing steel. A shiny, greyish-white ring of platinum adorns his right forefinger, and a leather pouch hangs from either side of his wide, brown leather belt. Another, different pouch hangs near the rear-left side, and a reddish clay jug hands from the rear-right of his belt. What few pockets of the dwarf's clothing that aren't covered by splint mail, buttoned shut, look to be packed with small items.

A stuffed, dun-colored backpack hangs from his shoulders, with a bedroll secured to the left side of that pack. A well-made hammer, broad and made for combat, is secured in a black leather case of sorts on the dwarf's right shoulder, and the hammer bears symmetrical patterns of knot-work engravings on each side of its head. A long case for maps or scrolls is tied to the underside of his backpack. The dwarf also has a sheathed dagger tied to his lower right arm, just over the splint mail vambrace, and some kind of leather cord or thong is wrapped about his left vambrace.

 

[Rhun]

Rowan remains silent and still from his hiding spot on the balcony above the kuo-toan temple. He waits anxiously for the preist's attention to be turned away from his position, and then he scrambles back toward his friends as quickly and quietly as possible.

 

[Guest 11456]

Phud : Male Half-Orc Sorcerer 1 / Barbarian 2

Thankful that he can fianlly move again, Phud sighs with relief. But then as the odd thing happens to Rhys and is replaced by the newcomer, Phud moves over to the dwarf. "Hey! Whud you do wid Rhys?"

 

[Brain]

Arden stands there blinking for a few seconds, and then checks her backpack, putting some sort thing that will cover or block the hole in her pack so that she won't lose more stuff. Then she picks up the wand, staring at it with a funny look on her face.

In a low voice, she calmly says, "We've been discovered, we better get moving. Stick with us, Dwarf, and know that those slimy frog things are our enemy."

 

[Arkhandus]

Same look still on his face, the dwarf responds "Rhys wot? Frogs? Wot's 'at surpose'd ta mean, eh?" He struggles with the Common tongue a bit.

 

[pallandrome]

Wyleck scrapes his jaw off the floor, where it had been relaxing after the transposition of his compatriot and this stranger. "Uhhh, indeed. Pleasure to meet you, welcome to the evil frog-person temple. We'll likely be meeting the temple guards shortly, so unless we want that to conclude our tour, we'd probably better move right along before we get down to full and proper introductions. Down the stairs people!"

Wyleck follows his own advice, and moves quickly to the room below, not bothering with stealth that he doesn't much posses, and urging Yssal to trot happily along behind.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

From up on the balcony, Rowan spies the red-cloaked priest extract a 5-inch bit of heartwood, a wand perhaps, from a gold chain hung about his neck. The priest lifts the wand erect in the air and, with but a word, the air about the tip electrifies in a pale blue aura. "Coelum." On the priest's lips, the Latin word is distinct and decidedly un-kuo-toan. The four monks remain on the platform, but Redcloak exits through the stone door to left, wand in hand.

As Rowan moves off the balcony back into the armory, two of the monks point at his retreating back and exclaim in their native croaking tongue.

 

[Rhun]

"We're about to have company," cries the halfling, running to join his companions. Seeing the dwarf, Rowan skids to a stop, arms flailing wildly about as he fights to keep himself from falling over. "What the who?" he asks, and then shakes his head vigoursly and holds up a hand. "Doesn't matter. You can, ah, explaing later, yes. Right now, we've got, well, we've got trouble!"