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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
On a Spider's Advice...
- Thread starter Kelleris
- Start date
Kelleris
Explorer
{OOC: I just realized that every blasted one of my players has a high Bluff check. I'm mortified. Really.}
The guards' eyes show a flicker of suspicion, but they have evidently decided it isn't enough to worry about, as they let you bustle through the yawning gate into the Order's tower without comment. The walking dust cloud follows close behind, leaving chalk-white footprints on the immaculate marble floor. It speaks:
"Wha? Artask? That hack! His astral shadow project will never come through, and I should know, I'm the best diviner around here. Why in the city would we want to talk to that bumbler? Oh, just a moment..." The cloud waves it's hands, the swirling fluff preventing your from seeing exactly what magic it is weaving. Suddenly, with a subdued *whompf* the dust stops moving, and settles to the ground in gales, revealing a robed dwarf, somewhat portly, and white as a sheet from the aftereffects of his bizarre spell. He looks up at you, and his eyes widen with surprise.
A coughing fit ensues, and the dwarf speaks in between hacks. "I *cough* have never *hack, cough* seen you *hrmph* before, what's *ah-choo!* going on *cough* here, I should *kaff* call the *hork, hrmph* guards!" The dwarf looks a bit panicked, unsure what to do. The placid secretary behind the desk at the far end of the hall looks up sharply from her work, a first bite of the more threatening kinds of attention.
The guards' eyes show a flicker of suspicion, but they have evidently decided it isn't enough to worry about, as they let you bustle through the yawning gate into the Order's tower without comment. The walking dust cloud follows close behind, leaving chalk-white footprints on the immaculate marble floor. It speaks:
"Wha? Artask? That hack! His astral shadow project will never come through, and I should know, I'm the best diviner around here. Why in the city would we want to talk to that bumbler? Oh, just a moment..." The cloud waves it's hands, the swirling fluff preventing your from seeing exactly what magic it is weaving. Suddenly, with a subdued *whompf* the dust stops moving, and settles to the ground in gales, revealing a robed dwarf, somewhat portly, and white as a sheet from the aftereffects of his bizarre spell. He looks up at you, and his eyes widen with surprise.
A coughing fit ensues, and the dwarf speaks in between hacks. "I *cough* have never *hack, cough* seen you *hrmph* before, what's *ah-choo!* going on *cough* here, I should *kaff* call the *hork, hrmph* guards!" The dwarf looks a bit panicked, unsure what to do. The placid secretary behind the desk at the far end of the hall looks up sharply from her work, a first bite of the more threatening kinds of attention.
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Ashy
First Post
Skaith bends down and looks at the dwarf in the eyes, trying to get his full attention, if that is even possible. The pale man whispers quickly and harshly to the dwarf, so that only he can hear. "Listen, diviner. Do you know that big Orrery in the center of Dromus? Some creature is trying to sabatoge it and only we-" Skaith waves his hands towards Keys and Tyndra, "-can see it. We need to let somebody who runs the thing know and we'll be gone. We don't want any trouble, see?"
Kelleris
Explorer
The dusty dwarf looks up at Skaith in astonishment, but doesn't appear to be cowed in the slightest. The thought that he might be threatened in this, of all places, doesn't seem to register at all. Gruffly, he wags his finger in your face and says, "listen up, sonny, you shouldn't be spreading wild rumors like that. You have any idea of the kind of alarm bells that would go off if someone so much as approached the Orrery? Impossible! Now, you'd best get out of here before someone decides they don' take a liking to ya!" By the end of his minor tirade, the dwarf's voice has raised to an alrming pitch, drawing the attention of the secretary, who is now approaching you with a grim look on her face. Seeing this, the dwarf gives Skaith a patronizing look and announces that he'll be "allowing the authorities to handle the situation" before starting to stomp off down the foyer, leaving chalky white footprints on the floor as he goes. The strange segmented, golden-yellow scrying sensor continues to follow him, humming in a manner that draws the attention of Keys and Tyndra, who had previously not noticed it. With a shock you realize that the disk also brought a friend, who is now hovering a slight distance away from your group. Neither the dwarf nor the approaching secretary seem to have noticed the unusual phenomenon.
Anybody with Knowledge (local) or (arcane) might take a shot at it now.
And Keys:
[sblock]You look the dwarf over, but see nothing more unusual than a stout dwarf covered in white dust. He's obviously a wizard, judging from the bookbag he carries. Oh, and he has a ring on his right hand that looks to be worth 200-500 gold, depending on the gemstones.[/sblock]
{OOC: Thanks for throwing out whatever skill checks you thought might be applicable, Ferrix. Saves me some time.
}
Anybody with Knowledge (local) or (arcane) might take a shot at it now.
And Keys:
[sblock]You look the dwarf over, but see nothing more unusual than a stout dwarf covered in white dust. He's obviously a wizard, judging from the bookbag he carries. Oh, and he has a ring on his right hand that looks to be worth 200-500 gold, depending on the gemstones.[/sblock]
{OOC: Thanks for throwing out whatever skill checks you thought might be applicable, Ferrix. Saves me some time.
}
Kelleris
Explorer
Keys:
[sblock]You don't recognize the secretary, but you know why she's here - the Order has a reputation for being run like a large business concern crossed with an eccentric pack of oddballs. It's a chaotic environment with all the trappings of law and order. The approaching woman is not someone you are familiar with, but your sharp eyes pick out an inconspicuous pouch as she approaches that may be a spell component pouch - in any case, it does not seem to match closely the rest of her neat and businesslike attire.[/sblock]
The room you stand in is approximately 60 feet in diameter, and is the ground floor of a single enormous cylinder. Above you, a confusing network of wooden, stone, and metal staircases crosses and crisscrosses, connecting an indefinite number of offices, rooms, and unexplained doors. The whole arrangement vaguely reminds you of a precise filing system organized scrupulously by some very strange principle of the filer's own devising. Men and women of all manner of races stride along the stairways, seemingly oblivious to the action below.
The ground floor itself is unremarkable, a lobby and foyer area decorated with various kinds of plants magically altered to grow well inside, with stone statues of prominent Guildmasters and Guildmistresses at even intervals - there are a dozen in total. A long, royal blue carpet is the central focus for a fractal arrangement of tables, sofas, and chairs that takes up much of the center of the room, like a strange indoor garden. This in turn leads to a mahogany desk at the far end, where the secretary was sitting before getting up to deal with your party. A wooden partition prevents you from getting a clear look at what she was working on before she arose. The escaping dwarf seems to be headed for one of two great spiral staircases that flank the secretarial desk and lead upwards for a fair bit before splitting off into the main stairs-and-rooms system.
[sblock]You don't recognize the secretary, but you know why she's here - the Order has a reputation for being run like a large business concern crossed with an eccentric pack of oddballs. It's a chaotic environment with all the trappings of law and order. The approaching woman is not someone you are familiar with, but your sharp eyes pick out an inconspicuous pouch as she approaches that may be a spell component pouch - in any case, it does not seem to match closely the rest of her neat and businesslike attire.[/sblock]
The room you stand in is approximately 60 feet in diameter, and is the ground floor of a single enormous cylinder. Above you, a confusing network of wooden, stone, and metal staircases crosses and crisscrosses, connecting an indefinite number of offices, rooms, and unexplained doors. The whole arrangement vaguely reminds you of a precise filing system organized scrupulously by some very strange principle of the filer's own devising. Men and women of all manner of races stride along the stairways, seemingly oblivious to the action below.
The ground floor itself is unremarkable, a lobby and foyer area decorated with various kinds of plants magically altered to grow well inside, with stone statues of prominent Guildmasters and Guildmistresses at even intervals - there are a dozen in total. A long, royal blue carpet is the central focus for a fractal arrangement of tables, sofas, and chairs that takes up much of the center of the room, like a strange indoor garden. This in turn leads to a mahogany desk at the far end, where the secretary was sitting before getting up to deal with your party. A wooden partition prevents you from getting a clear look at what she was working on before she arose. The escaping dwarf seems to be headed for one of two great spiral staircases that flank the secretarial desk and lead upwards for a fair bit before splitting off into the main stairs-and-rooms system.
Uwohali
First Post
"We should follow," Tyndra whispers to her sole remaining companion. "She does not look pleased..." She indicates the approaching secretary. Quickly, Tyndra makes for the door as quickly as she can go without drawing too much attention. Once outside, she looks for the tall, pale man and bustles over to him.
"You can't tell me you'll just walk away from this! Do you realize that if something messes with the wrong piece of the Orrery, this entire plane could collapse?!"
[Bluff check vs Skaith's Sense Motive: 14 (Damn my 1's *crosses fingers* Please fail the Sense Motive...) DM, any chance I could get a circumstantial modifier for the truth?]
"You can't tell me you'll just walk away from this! Do you realize that if something messes with the wrong piece of the Orrery, this entire plane could collapse?!"
[Bluff check vs Skaith's Sense Motive: 14 (Damn my 1's *crosses fingers* Please fail the Sense Motive...) DM, any chance I could get a circumstantial modifier for the truth?]
