CH. 8: Proving Worth

[djhyland]

Upon turning to include Yvette in her gesture, Arulia realizes that the woman must still be beyond the unnatural darkness that cloaks the entrance to the room. Trailing off awkwardly, she shrugs and follows Pen into the darkness, feeling her way through the door and hopefully out to the light on the other side.

(OOC: Yes, I meant Grubnick/Gobax. I guess I was typing faster than I was thinking. I've corrected the gesture in the previous post, and also removed Felran from the gesture due to his injuries.)

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (Deserted Building)
Haahqae determines that a spell of Light would counteract the spell of darkness. A Dispel Magic spell would also remove it. He cannot determine how long it lasts--that is dependent on the strength of the caster. But he realizes it isn't permanent. If they are patient, it will disperse on its own eventually.

Nevertheless, he and Arulia ignore Gobax's warning and both step into the darkness after Pen. Moving carefully forward, Haahqae suddenly bumps into someone--someone small, like him. "Ismene, is that you?" asks Pen, and Haahqae feels a hand grab at his face, taking hold of his nose.

It is at this point that the darkness dispels, causing all within to start blinking rapidly at the sudden change of lighting. Pen lets go of Haahqae's nose. When they can see clearly again, they easily spot a small trail of blood leading to the storage room. Xyleena and Yvette are nowhere to be seen.

Ismene steps out of the storage room, visible again, still grievously wounded from the recent attack from the histachii. "Is it over?" she asks weakly.

Before anyone can answer, there is a knock at the north door from the other side.

===========

Haahqae makes a spellcraft check [TN 12] (1d20): 6, pass.

Kendra Greylock (Old Fort)
Again, Mouna turns to the priestess for a reaction, and again the priestess continues to stare at Kendra but say nothing. Clearly getting frustrated, Mouna turns back to Kendra. "I'll be straight then. Are you now, or have you ever been, aligned with the elves against us?"

Tulbas Erogund (Cultist Lair, Barracks)
Tulbas searches the room thoroughly a third time, and for the third time in a row, finds nothing. He then returns to the door and puts his good ear up against it...but again, hears nothing. Finally, he tries knocking on the door.

============

Tulbas makes a Detect Noise check [TN 20%] (1d100): 47, fail.

(OOC: Tulbas never cast Grease, so he still has it, yes. He has his cantrips back, as well.)

Shima Longfoot (Steel Tankard Inn)
The pregnant woman tilts her head in confusion. "What did you say? I didn't understand," she says, puzzled.

[Chris1234]

Shima Longfoot (Steel Tankard Inn)
"A dwarven blessing for the unborn," answers the dwarf. "You remind me of someone from my childhood. Call me sentimetal if you like, but I have a room, if you want to sleep in the corner of it, you can. Touch my stuff and I'll beat you. Otherwise, you will be very safe. My tastes are strictly dwarven women."
After the woman replies, Shima falls silent, happy to have a listen.

[TristenC]

cursing quietly in Goblin, Any idea where the others went, Ismene? Grubnick starts at the knock and hurries to the storage room door after quietly closing the 'lab/sacrifice room' door. Motioning silently to the others he waves for them to join him. Whispering to Ismene, perhaps you'd best vanish.

[Ooc: are the others in the storage room?]

[Haahque]

Haahqae rushes over to Ismene, but when he gets near he slows and gently supports her. "Yes, it's over. We won again, but it appears that you're going to have to be more careful as we proceed. Gobax, can you heal Ismene please?"

[HorizonsDream]

"I don't think I have even seen an elf since before Haven was on lock down because of all the refugees," Kendra says thoughtfully. "No, wait, that isn't true," she quickly adds. "Before the dragon army showed up, I worked with an elf for a short time. His uncle owned the mage ware shop in town, but from what I have heard his uncle is dead. Someone named Magus runs the shop now, and from what I know that elf is working for Magus," she explained. "Tulbas is the only elf that I have closely worked with recently, and that was before I even knew the dragon army existed."

[BishGada]

'Well... I'm not going to wait here for them to torture me again. This time they will probably finish the job and kill me.' Tulbas thinks to himself. Determined he tries the candelabra and the bed weight to force the door open. Doing so he is tensed and prepares to run back and cast spells to defend himself should danger appear at the door.

[TristenC]

Didn't you hear the knock, Haahque? Grubnick whispers hoarsely. Something is coming. I'll patch her up in here but get out of sight!

[djhyland]

Seeing no sign of Yvette and Xyleena, Arulia scowls but bites back the curse on her lips at the sound of the knock. As silently as she can, she takes a position to the side of the door with her back to the wall and gestures for the others to do so as well, then raises her mace in preparation to strike whatever might come through the door.

(OOC: If the door opens into the room that the party is currently in, Arulia makes sure to choose the side opposite the hinges so that the open door won't block her attack.)

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (Deserted Building)
"Well," Ismene begins, "it was suddenly dark and I couldn't see anything. Then someone knocked me down. At first I thought it was the histachii, come to finish me off. But no attack came, so I eventually got back up and made my way here until the darkness left." Gobax closes the door to the lab then goes to look in the storage room, but sees nobody else there. Xyleena and Yvette are nowhere to be found.

Gregeddin, Felran and Ne-Chanz, who were left in the lab, reopen the door. "What's going on?" the bard asks.

Arulia moves into position by the door to strike. A moment later, the door bursts open loudly as if someone forced it. A bloodied figure in green robes is on the other side, holding a candelabra.

Deserted Building 40.jpg (107.89 KiB) Viewed 6912 times

Kendra Greylock (Old Fort)
Mouna turns back to the priestess. "Well?" she asks, growing impatient.

The woman stares at Kendra a few breaths more, then finally turns to Mouna. "Everything she says is completely true."

Mouna lets out a breath of relief. "Thank the goddess. I really don't have time for an execution right now." She stands up. "Well, sorry about the suspicion, Greylock, but it's standard policy. I'm sure you understand. If you had been lying, the truth spell she cast would have told her so. Go home and get some rest. If you don't think you'll recover enough by tomorrow to march, you can stay here if you want. I'll leave it up to you."

Tulbas Erogund (Cultist Lair, Barracks)
Throwing all of his weight into it, he manages to force the door open. He looks down the hall and sees Haahqae, Ismene and some kender--all grievously wounded.

=============

Tulbas makes an open doors check [TN 8] (1d20): 8, pass. He forces the door open.

Shima Longfoot (Steel Tankard Inn)
The woman's eyes widen at Shima's offer, especially the part when he mentions beating her. "Uh...n-no thank you, sir." It's clear the thought of sleeping in a strange man's room, completely at his mercy, terrifies her.

[Chris1234]

Shima Longfoot (Steel Tankard Inn)
Shima lets it pass, looks down into her glass, listening.

[TristenC]

Does the figure look agressive? Grubnick waits to see if he moves to attack

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra glances to the priest for a moment before she turns her attention back to Mouna. "What am I to do if I don't march tomorrow?" she asks. "It makes sense that some are staying here to keep the city in order."

[BishGada]

As soon as the door opens, Tulbas finds himself thrown out. He is actually surprised since he is not that strong, and he is also exhausted. But the adrenaline and the urge of emergency sharpens his senses and he quickly scans the room ready to cast his magic missile at any cultist that might threat his life.
With a momentary glace he notice the three kenders... "Haaque! Is that you? You look awful!" Hoping it is not another delusion as those he had about his family last night he takes a step towards him and say while looking around, "Where are the Belzorites? They are very dangerous." When seeing no immediate danger he relaxes a bit. Assuming the three are here alone he asks, "Haaque, Ismene what are you doing here? I see you brought a friend. Is he relative? Are you alone here? This is no place for you three to play around. Unless Gregeddin and Kendra are here too?" and he looks behind Haaque searching for his old companions.

=========================================================
(OOC: Does Tulbas recognizes the current room and the storage room?)

[Haahque]

Haahqae didn't get a great look at the elf who stumbled through the door, but his voice was a dead giveaway.

"Tulbas! We're here to rescue you. There's a lot of cultists in this hideout so we enlisted some more help. Useful friendly people like Ismene and Pen. This is Pen by the way, have you met him before? He's also a hero, although not as well known. He still fights for good and is good for fighting and all that. We also got some more help, but I think the greedy girls went and ran away with all our loot. I really wish they wouldn't do that, I need that money for stuff and things that I can't get done without it. But the main purpose of the mission was to rescue you after you foolishly went and got yourself captured by this cult, why did you go alone? Gregeddin is here with us but Kendra couldn't be here because she joined the army. I have no idea why she would do something like that, but I guess that's up to her to decide now isn't it? This goblin here doesn't seem as bad as most of his kind usually are and of course you know Ismene. How are you?"