PBEM - Episode 396. Search, Chest, and Rest.

Pretty sure I mentioned it earlier, but given the nature of the game, I am being a stickler on encumbrance as well as a hard limit on the number of lines of stuff they can carry - 30 standard items not counting food drink or coin, and 8 magic items. This applies to LINES of items - 6 arrows is 1 line. 2 healing potions is 1 line. 1 potion of healing and a potion of flight is 2 lines. 6 arrows and 1 crossbow bolt is 2 lines.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED NINETY SIX

(I/C)

Bending down, Lannis picked up Mirabellis’ wizard’s hat (Add to Inventory [1]), admiring it as he turned it back and forth. "Dibs on her hat," he said, placing it on his head. He then placed his larger pink hat over it and pulled it down in place.

“De hat be all yers, Offop,” Wyn said with a smile. “Like de nice little flower on de front.”

“I’ll take that control undead, thanks,” Lyra said snatching it from the pile, “As for the healing potions, I’d like one of those too…but I seem to be full up for now so let’s wait till we get someplace where we can go through our stuff and move things around.” (Add Control Undead [5] potion to Magic inventory – full 8 lines). “Maybe we should hold onto those extra healing potions? Might come in handy if we find ourselves toe to toe with a dragon.” 

"I don't need anything right now,” Lannis said, looking over the pile. “I say take something if you need, then we jam the whole mess and the chests into Abraxas's sack with everything else. Then we go drop it off in our spot, which has the added benefit of letting Motaro's spell work its magic.”

Brendon nodded, taking the Gaseous Form and Healing Potions (Add to Inventory, each [5]), “It’d be very unwise if we were to continue in our present condition.”

Taking one of the Healing potions and cracking the seal, Wyn gestured, “Iffin mes amis do it mind, I drink one of deze healing potions right now. Salazar, feel free to drink one of dem greater healings now.” (Heal Potion 1d6: Orange 6 – Heal 6!)

Taking one of the Extra Heal potions, Abraxas did the same (Extra Healing Potions 2d6: Blue 4, 4 = Heal 8!). "Señora L'okra, creo tu should bebes una potion ahora, si? Tu look similar a muerte. Una stone could drop from el ceiling y tu will be gone. Finito.” He snapped his fingers and nodded earnestly.

“Priestess, s'il vous plaît, drink dat potion you picked up now, en take another fer yer self later. You were unconscious 6 minutes ago en we do not want to repeat dat.”

Lyra waved her hand and motioned for the group to relax. “Aine is still doing the works, so I need a little bit to get the most out of the spell. We have some walking to do, if I need it, I’ll take it.”

Kovid picked up the Growth potion (Add to Magic Inventory) and looked around. “Anyone want to check the stairs and reset the traps to hinder those on the 1st floor? Or, we could deal with the shriekers in the garden and remove the bricks from the grate. I’d like to keep our way to the first floor open.”

The Cleric nodded, “Maybe we start working on the bricks in the garden? It would be a nice break from getting our asses kicked.” 

Abraxas shook his head no, taking out his Bag of Holding and moving to one of the larger chests. “Dijo we should ir a el Vault, amigos. El Jardin no es safe. Decatipus, Los Guardianos, Smoplex - any uno de them could hear us and attack us, and we have no way out - backs to the wall. We should probably take a breather and heal a little - let Señora Lyrtira's majik finish. Take uno memento.”

Looking over the potions one last time, Wyn took the Fly potion (add to inventory) and then closed the lid of the chest. “I also take de fly potion fer de time bein'. May be handy in de dragon fight later,” he shrugged. “I be good wit tryin' to take care of doze harpies, Dwarfriend... but we need to prep a bit as Monsieur Offop said. I tink we should hide our new stuff back in de vault first en let us do some magic readin'.”

The Magic User held Mirabellis’ spellbook up before tossing it into the second chest again. “Wyn and I can go over Miradeadass's book, giving us a web scroll to use on the harpies if we want to clear the stairs. After that I don't know, siesta? Also, for no particular reason, do you think that other chest has enough room in it for a particularly gross dead skank?"

“Not unless you quarter her up,” Brendon said absently, looking the wizardress over.

“How the hell would you know that?”

Brendon just gave Lannis a long absent stare, before turning away and heading north to listen to the door out of the chamber.

The Magic User shook his head and said, “Pirates, Scouts, and Thieves. All in one.”

The group chuckled, Wyn gestured to Kovid who lifted one of the chests and allowed the elf and fighter to slither the bag under it. “Most importantly? Wyn be pretty hungry. Based on de light from de Duchess' old space, I'd say it be after noon by now. Food be good now, oui?” He nodded to himself and watched at Kovid lowered the chest SOO much deeper into the bag than it appeared from the outside. “Let us load deze chests into de bags, en get de Hel outta of dis place. Du Lac, is dere any reason we can't mark de outside of the chests? Like de traps wont go off?”

From the doorway, Brendon replied, “No. They’re not locked and I have the keys. Trap will only reengage if they are relocked.”

“Need me to mark de keys to show which goes wit which chest?”

“Nope. I’ve got it.”

Wyn shrugged, “Hokay.” The last chest was loaded and once done, the group gathered by the door to the north in leading to the hall. Lyra shuddered (Continuous Heal – 3rd surge. 1d4+1, White4+1=5. Heal 5 Damage!) as more of her wounds closed up. Once we were in position, Wyn used the powers of the guard uniform to unlock the door, whispering, “Allons-y.”

(WMC: Red/Black 3)

Brendon and Kovid started to lead the group away when Wyn indicated for them to wait. He then shut the door and wrote on it in chalk in Common, Orcish, and Goblin – to “leave her alone.” He grinned at the group, pointing to the goblin one where he indicated it actually read, “leave her the fuck alone.”. “Dat should buy us a little time I hope.”

We made our way slowly to the corner, turned to the north, and hearing nothing still, continued on our way towards the short hall outside the Summoning Circle. “Hss,” Wyn hissed again, and then when the group waited, he stepped forward and pirouetted about with his sword and shield, slashing and stabbing randomly up and down and around the hall as they made their way to the door. “You nevah know,” he whispered.

Once inside the short hall, we made our way north to the Summoning room where Wyn did his slashing jump and dancing thing, hoping to encounter any invisible beings. He didn’t.

Brendon handed Lyra his light coin, “Here Lass, drop your vial and let us in, he said.”

She nodded her thanks, let the vial go, and disappeared from sight. Lyra appeared inside the secret hall where with the yarn and the light, quickly went to the south wall and pressed the foot release, opening the secret door. The party all filed in and the door was shut again. Wyn opened the door to the Vault and the party all sighed with relief, shrugging off backpacks and taking a breather. Lyra shuddered again as her spell fired off a fourth time (Continuous Heal, 4th surge – Heal 1d4+1. Gold 3+1=4. Heal 4 Damage!). “One more coming,” she said.

As Abraxas lowered the bag of holding to the ground and fished out the two chests, he slid them over with his feet and then took out his rations to eat. “Maybe despues de we go to Jardin, maramos por Los Ghoulishes y usamos que Potion de Control Undead. Pero, we no can stay aqui, y tienemos dolor mucho. Necessitamos mas Health antes de luchamos las Harpiedas o Los Ghoulishes. Estamos en no condition para fight anyone right ahora."

“I’ll second that,” Lannis said with a smile. He tapped Lyra and handed him the artificer made doll of himself and said, “Here, do what you want to do.”

Lyra looked at the miniature version of Lannis and smiled broadly.

Time now is Day 9, 12:35 PM

(OOC)

Ok – Rest time.

If you have a box – it can hold 25 C/W of items about 15” square per item (jewelry, scrolls, potions, etc). It allows you to exceed your 30 lines on your Regular Inventory list OR your 8 lines on the Magic item list. Right now you have a High Class problem – most of you are full of Magic at this time. So I will give you your list, and you can decide what you want to keep, leave in the vault, or whatever.

Lannis: (8) – Ishtari Rod, 4 Elven Rations, Crystal Ball, Ishtari Crate, Manacrystal, Scroll Read Lang, Scroll Det Invis, Invisible Box (holding Protection from Dragon Scroll)

Lyra:  (8) – 3 Sclepian Bandages, Elven Chain +1, Lolthian Flail, Potion Invulnerability, Potion Control Undead, Scroll Bless, Scroll Silence 15’ radius, 2 Scrolls Raise Dead

Wyn: (8) – Alha Short Sword +1, Heartswood Short Bow, Ispan Guard Uniform, Potion Recall, Potion Fly, 4 Tainted Invisibility Potions, Arrow Doubleshot, Arrow Dragon Slaying

Abraxas: (7) – Morrigaan Scythe, Skull of Protection +1, Corfard Statue, Bag of Holding, Potion Healing, Potion Haste, 4 Elven Rations

Brendon: (7) – Ring Protection +1, Lesser Elven Cloak, Alha Short Sword +1, Continual Light Coin, Potion Invisible, Potion Gaseous Form, Potion Healing

Kovid: (7) – Theystra Warhammer, 6 Elven Rations, Corfard Statue, Corfard’s Antiward Crystal, Platemail +1, Potion Growth, Potion Regeneration

Things brought back and unclaimed and unexamined (for magic?) still:

Mirabellis’ elbow length gloves, 3 Mirabellis silver rings one with an elven design to it, 4 scrolls (read magic, sleep, detect magic, mirror image), Mirabellis Spell book (unreadable right now), Silver Mirror with 5 gemstones around the edge, 4 Healing potions, 3 Extra Healing potions, , 3 Recall potions, 1 Climb Potion, 1 Giant Strength Potion, 1 Haste Potion.

Also – Lyra, right now you cannot keep the Lannis Artificer doll on you as it is a magical item and you are full – but you CAN certainly fuck with it during lunch if you want.

PBEM - Episode 395. Search, Chest, and Rest.

THREE HUNDRED NINETY FIVE

(I/C)

Holding up his head to get everyone to chill, Brendon placed the Healing potion in Abraxas’ hand (Add Healing Potion [5] to Magic Inventory) with a quick, “Here, Doc. Give it to her if she gets worse, otherwise, it’s yours,” and then jogged over to the northern doors through Duchess’ room. “Before we start searching, let me check out the outer rim to see if we’ve attracted anything.”

“Did you find a key on Mira?” Wyn asked, “Cen you check de chest to make sure dats de key we need? I would do it, but I don’t want ta risk settin de trap off.”

“Yeah. And it’s TWO chests. One thing at a time. Someone police that south door please?”

Abraxas closed the portal and then took out one of his many iron spikes. Crouching low, he proceeded to drive it home (Set spike, <Blue 5), saying, “Let’s trying a block as many puertos as possible. We should usamos tiempo mucho a mirar el room para de bajo y arriba.”

Once satisfied the north doors had no surprises waiting for them behind it, Brendon walked back in and looked around head nodding slowly. “What’s the game plan?”

De chests are important,” Wyn said.

Brendon held up the silver key and tossed it softly, catching it quick. “I’m on it.” As he stalked past the room, he gave Mirabellis’ leg a short kick, growling at her corpse, “Bitch you better have left something great in here or so help me I’ll wear your head on my belt.” He reached into his pack and tossed his Prybar to Abraxas, “For the north door, Doc.”

“Gracias.”

“Be careful, dere may be more potions in dere dat we need... en we need to get movin as soon as we can.” Wyn moved to the dead panther and crouched low, “We also need to check Mira, de cat en de skeletons for stuff... en keep en ear out so we don’t get surprised. Let’s get to it.”

Kovid went to the chest of drawers, Abraxas was making his way to the north doors, spike in hands, Brendon was already at the chests, which left Lannis to head over to Mirabellis. He stopped and crouched low by Lyra, moving her hair out of her face and gave a troubled sigh. "Well one of the women trying to ruin my life is dead, and the other is dying, you think I would be happier about that but no, I find myself realizing I would be quite upset if something irreversibly bad happened to Lyra.”

“Vera touching, Monsieur Offop.”

“Yeah,” he stood up and dusted his hands clean before heading over to Mirabellis, a stern expression on his face. “I don’t look forward to explaining it to her jockey either. That said I don't feel that way about this dumb bench."

“Bench?” Brendon asked

"Yeah. Rigid, inflexible and unbelievably annoying should it be found outside of its place in the world"

"Miramos amigos por todos cosas useful, si?” Abraxas was grunting as he worked on lifting the door in its portal, shoving the spikes underneath in an effort to slow down its potential opening (remove a second spike – down to 8). “Estoy Do not miss anything! Estamos listo? Hacemos ese, amigos!"

Wyn checked Piddles over with care, noting that the feline did have a collar on. He felt around, finding the release and pulled it off. It was a well made wide leather collar with a dangling brass fob with the name “Piddles” carved in the middle on both sides. The collar had some low quality blue sapphires running through the surface, reflecting some of the light in the room. “Monsieur Du Lac? Any idea?” he asked, holding it up.

Brendon gave it a quick look over and nodded (Thief, Int>12, no roll). “Not the best but there’s a bunch of them in the collar. Probably get 150 crowns back in Specularum.”

“Great,” Wyn replied, adding it to his bag for now (Add Leather/Sapphire collar [2] 150 crowns to inventory).

Kovid was going through the chest of drawers one at a time, the dwarf finding a variety of clothes, mostly blues and similar colors. But he also discovers a disturbing amount of lacy types of undergarments. Way too many unmentionables, things with straps and snaps, sheer nightgowns, items that appears to be too small, and others with silk ties and bows and whatnot. It was the last drawer that was just string type underwear and a few that appeared to have the crotch cut out that had the dwarf wiping his hands on his ass and shaking his fingers as if they were dirty. “Yeah. Nothing here. At least nothing any of us want to consider to be treasure.”

Lannis was looking over the wizardress’ corpse. He picked up the small 9” doll and looked it over. “I thought the head had come off?” he asked, seeing that wasn’t the case now. The doll did indeed bear a more than passing resemblance to the wizard in a crude fashion. He was a bit weirded out and when no one seemed to be looking, he pinched the doll’s arm and steeled himself to feel the same pinch – but nothing happened. “Well, that’s a relief.”

He gave the doll a closer look, studying the face for a bit, before he reached up and flicked the nose. The doll’s head snapped back and “blood” stained under his nose. “Ah!” he cried out, holding it away from himself and feeling his own nose. Nothing was there. He looked closer at the doll and saw the face was slowly fixing until the “blood” disappeared.

He looked down at Mirabellis and frowned. “You are a twisted bit of shit, huh?” He began going through her stuff without worrying about decorum, courtesy, or respect for the dead. Lannis uncovered three rings, all silver, and one of them had an elven design to it. Her quarterstaff was well used and had been polished and treated in the past. She was wearing a set of sleek snake skin elbow gloves with a pale blue lining that he stripped off of her and put aside. “Where’s your damned spell book?” he mumbled, looking her over. She had a purse sewn inside her robe just under her right breast. Blushing slightly, he manhandled her a bit and drew out a folded piece of vellum.

“What did you find, Big Brain?” Kovid asked.

“She’s not wearing a bra right now,” Lannis said, “and um…don’t worry. But I found this.” He held up the paper. “It’s like a little poem thingie...hmm.”

“Three Fives of Guardians

Two Soul Shard Effigies

One Anti Crystal

All Draw Strength from the Blessed Corfard

Twice Born of Tiamat, Child of Haven”

“Ahh. Whatever the fuck that means,” Kovid shrugged.

“Aine Damn it!” Lyra coughed, sitting up (Healing Surge 2/5: 1d4+1: White 1+1 = Heal 2 hp!!). She rubbed her face and winced at the touch.  “I fucking hate caaaaaaats. Why did it even attack me?”

“Welcome back, Priestesse,” Wyn smiled at her. “Glad to see you up again.”

She pushed herself up and held on to the desk for support. “Ugh. Feel like flattened harpy shit.”

“Rather specific,” Lannis chuckled.

Seeing the Magic User had piled up some of her stuff, she asked, “That bitch drop anything good?”

“A few things. We’ll go over it all in a minute I suspect. No spell book. I would guess it’s in one of the chests.”

“Works for me,” Lyra groaned. Looking at Piddles she grunted, “Let’s skin the cat.” 

Meanwhile Brendon was convinced he was ready and able. He picked one of the chests (>Open locks, notice anything? Red 45), turned it to the wall, placed the key in and turned it slowly (right box/wrong box: 1-3 right, 4-6 wrong: Red 2 – lucky shot!). The key rattled in the lock and then…it opened! “Gotcha,” Brendon smiled, lifting the lid and then peered around.

The chest had partitions on the bottom of it for 30 potion vials, each one lined and padded. As of now, only 20 of them were filled, 10 slots were empty. There was a fancy silver mirror in here as well, on which were set five gems around the frame: a jet, opal, emerald, ruby, and sapphire. Giving the mirror a once over (Thief, Int>12, no roll) and held it up. “Worth 300 crowns back home.”

“Anything else in there?” Lannis asked. “Like a fucking spellbook?”

“What’s the potions?” Lyra asked, coming over to help. She pointed to the lid. “What’s that?”

Pinned to the inside of the lid, was another silver key. Brendon frowned and took it, looking it over. “It’s a duplicate key?” He compared it to the first one and holding them up, he could see that the second key was NOT exactly the same. “Ahh! Wait – this key has a small stud here at the end. Meaning the lock is very similar, but not 100% exactly the same.”

“So…it’s for the other chest?” Lannis asked.

“Yep.”

“Then how did you know that THIS key was for this chest? Didn’t you say that the wrong key would set off the trap?”

Brendon frowned. “Um…yeah. I did.”

The Magic User frowned. “You are a lucky assed and shitty thief, aren’t you? Scout, Scout, I mean, scout.” He shook his head. “If you were a thief, you might have caught that little fun fact.”

“You wouldn’t have caught it, Big Brain,” Brendon retorted.

“Damn straight. Not my job. I stay in my lane.” He gestured to Lyra. “Hey! Gwyneth! Potions. What’s in the box?”

Lyra went through them one at a time, calling out what she found. “Healing potions…SIX of them. Extra Healing potions…FOUR of them.”

“Dats nice.”

“Recall…Three. Potion of Fly. Potion of Gaseous Form. Potion of Climbing. Potion of Giant Strength. Potion of Growth. Potion of Haste. Aaaaannnnnd…Potion of Undead Control.”

Abraxas clapped his hands together from the archway, “Winner, winner, Cena de Pollo!!”

The group all gathered around as Brendon readied to open the last chest. He put the next key in, turned it, and opened it away from him facing the wall…no problem! “Alright,” he muttered, “let’s see what we’ve got?” Turning the chest back around we could see the bottom was filled with gold and silver coins (1000 silver, 200 gold), there was a midnight blue leather bound spellbook strapped closed. And there were also 4 scrolls loosely placed on top. He handed them over to Wyn who looked through them while Lannis gave the book a quick once over.

“It’s done,” Lannis sighed, “Crazy broad wrote it all fucked up looking so someone else can’t read her work. Need a read magic scroll or spell to do it.”

“Well, I’ve got you ‘ere,” Wyn said, waving the 4 scrolls. “One of dem is Read Magic, One of dem is Sleep, One of dem is Mirror Image, and de last one is Detect Magic.”

The party all felt pretty good about everything found and there was already some thoughts on what to take and what to do next. Kovid hitched up his pants and asked, “What’s next? We need to regroup and heal a bit?”

Time now is Day 9, 12:20 PM

(OOC)

Alright? Seriously –Discord it please and let me know who is taking what. Remember there is a HARD limit of 8 magic items per person – UNLESS you have a box, then you may carry more up to the weight limit (25 CW). Figure it out. Also, potions, reminder – you cannot combine the effects – except for recall and healing.

Treasure XP: 150 crowns (collar), 300 Crowns (mirror), 1000 silver, and 200 gold.

125 xp each!!

PBEM - Episode 394. Search, Chest, and Rest.

The group had earned some down time and it was time to look for what we could and then find our way back to rest and heal up.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED NINETY FOUR

(I/C)

Abraxas snatched his Scythe back off the wall and shouldered his way past Lannis, charging back into the room. “Amigos, mueremos Poddles y ayudamos Señora Laybor."

“Merde! Time to put eet down,” Wyn spun his sword in the air, caught it reverse handed, and then made to lunge for Piddles’ face. “Sure ‘ope Aine’s blessin’ be comin’ to de priestess soon!” (<Dex, BX Baby feint to face get in front of Piddles and it off Lyra -2, Dex 5) He slashed and jumped, spitting and hissing, forced the cat back a step, and the elf snuck just ahead of it as it stepped off the dying cleric. “Back! Back! You ain’t long fer dis world chat noir.” (<+6 to hit, Orange 8) He chopped and cut, but Piddles batted at the sword and prevented Wyn from making contact.

 "When you do it like that you take all the fun out of seeing her get hurt,” Lannis said somberly, drawing his Ishtari Rod and looking down at Lyra’s bleeding crumpled form. He felt a tightness in his chest, and his vision was beginning to swim. “This is getting silly, can we kill this cat? Please!?"

Brendon struck out, teeth gritted, “It’s all or nothin boys!”

Kovid swung his hammer up high, grabbing it with two hands. “You’ll regret that, Whiskers!”And brought it crashing down the panther’s flank (>+6 to hit, Yellow 11), snapping Piddles’ pelvic bone and ripping through part of its spine. (1d8+3 damage, Yellow 6+3=9 Damage and Killed!) It yowled in terrible pain and it fell, tried to get up, but received a second hammer blow that finished it off for good. “And STAY down!”

Brendon glanced over at Mirabellis and said, “Hang on Lyra!”, running to the dead wizardress and fumbling at her waist. He knocked her staff aside, felt at her belt, and managed to pull out a stout leather pouch. He ripped the laces open and reached inside, pulling out two potion vials and a silver key. He held the potions up, one was empty and was marked as “recall”, and the other…

Was a Healing potion.

“Dibs!”

The group looked over at Lannis and frowned. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

Time now is Day 9, 12:10 PM

(OOC)

Monster XP: 6 skeletons @ 65 each divided

Piddles @ 350 xp divided

Mirabellis @ 600 xp Divided

Brendon add 224 xp

Wyn add 248 xp

Abraxas and Kovid add 263 xp

Lannis add 274 xp

Lyra add 318 xp

There was no real search on anyone yet, just a snag of the purse and potion. What do you guys want to do? Lyra’s next heal surge from the Cont Heal will be in 5 minutes for 1d4+1 – then there will be 3 more of them every 10 minutes after that. GREAT job taking out Mirabellis! Corfard is down to just Smallpox and his Junior as Arcane spellcasters – and you’ve taken out his Clerical staff.

Lyra, don’t skip your turn – unless someone really fucks up, you’ll be conscious again worst case scenario in 5 minutes (half  a turn).

PBEM - Episode 393. Mirabellis and Panther.

BX is so unforgiving regarding hit points! As they've been carving up stronger and stronger foes, they've had a wobbling hit point issue. And Lyra went down this round.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED NINETY THREE

(I/C)

"Woo, go team!” Lannis cheered, all three of the wizard’s glancing back at the wounded Fighter with a smile. “Fuck that cat up, I'll be back here protecting Abraxas."

"Watch out amigos,” Abraxas advised, drawing his stone dagger and checking its weight. “El gato es muy peligroso. No me gusta todos ese beasts."

Clanging his sword on his shield, Wyn got ready to attack, “Dwarfriend, you gonna do de most damage, so you hit dis ting first to try and get de most benefit from de Pause spell. Based on de odds, we probably gonna have two rounds of fighting dis ting... unless de odds be in our favor en we really damage it... so be ready fer some damage.”

“Great!” Kovid laughed. “I am SO ready!”

“Du Lac, I’ll go last. De cat be more likely to hit de first guy or de last guy. Offop, fire dat spell off after de dwarf goes.”

“Wow!” Lannis muttered from the door, already working his Dart spell up, “Will you let us know when we can stop and use the potty too? Sheesh!”

“Just tryin to make sure we are all dewin de best we can,” Wyn replied with a frown. “Bein’ prepared.” He snapped his fingers and drew out the ball of yarn. “One more ting…” he waved it at the still paused panther and then tossed it away from the party. “Worth a shot, Oui?”

“Ah yes,” Lyra nodded with some sarcasm, “surely a ball of yarn will quell the beast after we beat the shit out of it and killed its mother.”

“Ok du Lac. Do yer count.”

The Scout nodded, sword back, staring at the dwarf, “On the count of three, let’s put the sick pet down. Uno, dos, three!”

Kovid cracked his hammer against the ground, wound up, all the while saying, “Bad Piddles. Mommy is ashamed of you. Also she’s dead as a door nail. I cracked her ribs like I’m going to crack your face.” And then he swung (>+6 to hit,+4 paused, Yellow 13), the Theystran Hammer leaving a streak behind as it arced over and SLAMMED into the panther’s head (1d8+3 Damage, Yellow 4+3=7 Damage!), causing it to drop back a step, yowl in pain, and the fog that was obscuring its attention…disappeared like ice in a fire.

“Hey, Kitkat! Take a break! IN BET GRAV!” Lannis fired off a scintillating pink dart (1d4 Damage, Pink 3), slamming it into the panther’s flank, making it snarl at the wizard and his images. “That didn’t come from me! It was the dwarf!!”

Lyra was already beating at the panther, her flail smacking and slamming out, chain rattling (>+4 to hit, White 9), giving Piddles a few glancing hits, but nothing solid. “Stand still!”

Brendon was thrusting from his side of the panther and Wyn took that as the opportunity to hit – both the elf and Scout applying their strikes hard and around the same time. Meanwhile Abraxas was in the hall, calling out advice like, “No! To the side! No other side! Move the cat! I need to hit…Come on! No, your left!”

Wyn’s enchanted short sword struck (>+6 to hit, Orange 13) deep, scoring a blow down to the muscle (1d6+2 damage, Orange 4+4=6 Damage!). Meanwhile Brendon’s attack was not as effective (<+4 to hit, Red 7), scoring a few slashes through the fur, but the panther shrugged them off. It was bleeding pretty good by this time, but there was still plenty of fight left in it.

Finally able to get a shot at it, Abraxas held his stone dagger by the point and HURLED it with a grunt (<+4 to hit, Blue 1 – Fumble! 1-2 hit friend, 3-4 stun, 5-6 hit self..Blue 1 – Hit Friend!. 1-2 Lannis, 3-4 Lyra, 5- Brendon, 6-Wyn. Blue 2 – Lannis. 1d4 Damage Blue 2 (not important – Mirror image popped). And it hit one of the wizard’s images in the back of the head. Briefly we could see the image stagger forward, eyes bugging out and in pain as the stone dagger lodged itself in its skull before it winked out of existence. “Damn. My bad!”

“Your bad!?!” Lannis shrieked. “That could have been ME!”

“Lo Siento.”

“Sorry? Ram that sorry right up your ass! I’ll BET you did that on purpose!”

“One of your images stepped in front of the dagger. It could have happened to anyone.”

“But it was ME!!” Lannis placed one hand on his chest, expression one of hurt. “Can you imagine how that would make me feel!!?”

(Attack: 1-3 Kovid, 4, Wyn, 5, Lyra, 6 Brendon: Red/Black 4 – Wyn)

Already being struck a few times, Piddles was sweeping out its claws, roaring at the group as it whirled around and around. But when the time came, it hit the elf with a sudden barrage of attacks. Its claws came about (>+5 to hit, White 20 –Critical – Max Damage, Take 4 Damage!) as it jumped up and HIT the elf right in the face. It was only luck that had his close his eyes and duck otherwise it could have been much worse. “Ahh!” Already hit, he was unable to get his shield up in time for the next claw strikes (>+5 to hit, White 16) and took a buffeting along his flank (1d4 Damage, Blue 2). “Ahhh! Sacre blu!” Suspecting a final assault was coming he did get his shield up and danced back, swinging his blade (<+5 to hit, White 9), and kept the worst bites from connecting. “Damned Piddles!”

(Initiative, Party Steel 4 vs Red/Black 5)

(1-2 Stay on Wyn, 3-4 Kovid, 5, Lyra, 6- Brendon. Blue 5 – Lyra)

As his defense was stiffening up, the panther pivoted and leapt forward, bringing its anger and fury to the Cleric next. “No! No! Not me! She hated Lannis! You should attack him! Abraxas did, be like Abraxas! OUCH!” The cat’s claws tore into the cleric’s midsection, hitting chain and ripping down, drawing some blood through the armor (=+5 to hit, Green 12). She gasped on being struck (1d4 Damage, Red/Balc 1 – Take 1 Damage!), whimpering ,”Give me a break! I have 4 damned hit points left!” It’s next strikes also hit but she was able to blunt most of them (<+5 to hit, Teal 3), turning the worst of them away.

“You’ve got this, Lass!” Kovid cheered, hammer up and ready to strike hard to put the beast down.

At that point Piddles did launch its final attack, and did so by leaping up and opening its mouth wide, clearing Lyra’s shield and striking the Cleric in the neck (>+5 to hit, Green 14). She yelled loudly and then it was cut off as the panther BIT down hard (1d8 Damage, Red/Black 4), crushing her windpipe and puncturing the soft skin of her neck – dropping the cleric to the ground where she fell eyes staring up, gagging softly as she slowly died at Piddles’ feet (Cleric at ZERO – will be dead in 10 minutes without healing (she has a COT – goes off in 6 minutes) or if she hits Negative 5).

It placed its front paw on her chest, Lyra’s blood coating its face and muzzle, and snarled at the party, roaring in victory.

“Fuck.”

Time now is Day 9, 12:09 PM

(OOC)

Bottom of the round. Looking bleak here. Piddles is STILL up and standing (although an experienced guess, its’ rocking under 1/3rd hit points left).

PBEM - Episode 392. Mirabellis and Panther.

Party made a good choice on mopping up while pausing the panther. Aspects of the fight were getting a bit out of the way.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED NINETY TWO

(I/C)

“This is fuckin gaxx,” Brendon scowled, stabbing out at the goblin undead before dancing back. “Skeletons remaining animated after the creator is dead.”

Smashing the other one on the skull, Wyn made sure to line up for his next attack, “Ok... we do betta dis round, oui?”

 Ducking back from a wicked swing to her face, Lyra answered, “I guess “better” is an okay word for it. Pretty sure I almost died. Again.”

Fingers laced in front of him, Lannis prepared another spell, announcing, "You guys focus on bigger, more cat shaped threats, this wounded Skellington is more my speed anyway. IN BET GRAV!" A pink tinged dart ripped from the air and spiraled through the doorway hitting the wounded skeleton (1d4 Damage, Pink 2) and blasting off a half dozen loose and cracked bones. It staggered but stayed upright.

“Thanks for the set up, Lannis,” Lyra arced her Flail almost all the way back to the floor and then stomped forward, swinging with all her might. The silver headed weapon ripped across the air (>+4 to hit, White 20 – Critical, Max damage – 8 Damage and killed!) before impacting with a jarring crack, bursting bones and sending the undead beast slamming to the floor broken and in a thousand pieces.

“You’re welcome,” Lannis smiled. “Couldn’t have done that if I didn’t soften it up for you.”

With one skeleton left, Abraxas had his weapon also arced behind his head, "Adios Skele-gobs!” He grunted with effort as he swung the Scythe, (>+8 to hit, Blue 20 – Critical! Max Damage 12 Damage and killed!), tearing the goblin to bits and hurling bone shards at least fifteen feet away.

“So you helped on that one too, Big Brain?” Kovid chuckled, bringing his hammer down.

“Perhaps amigos, despues ese battle, tomamos el chest y check Mirrorbell's por mas potions y items de majik."

“Oui. But first de cat,” Wyn pointed to the hall. “Say, Salazar, nice swing of de scythe wit de witch bitch an de skelliejack... but maybe ye want to get out of sight of de cat while it be paused, oui?”

“Si,” Abraxas skipped past the party, hitting the hallway with Lannis, wiping the blood out of his eyes and holding his side where his ribs had been cracked.

“Psss psss psss psss kitty wanna play?” Brendon stood behind Piddles, sword at the ready.

Meanwhile Kovid was doing the same, positioning himself at the panther’s front. “Hold on folks we got this. Just a bit more. Here kitty kitty, come fight someone your own size.”

Wyn and Lyra wrapped it up, everyone getting into place while Piddles looked around at all of them, a confused expression on its face as it tried to make a decision…but couldn’t. “So what’s the plan?” Lyra chuckled, “We running or taking the cat down? Would be tragic to leave this room behind with all her goodies.” 

Everyone was at the ready as the cat’s eyes seemed to clear, its brows lowered, and a growl emerged from its throat.

(Initiative: Party Steel 4 vs Piddles Red/Black 1)

“Go time,” Brendon smiled.

Time now is Day 9, 12:08 PM

(OOC)

You guys got the initiative. 4 around the cat, two in the hall. Take them down.

PBEM - Episode 391. Mirabellis and Panther.

THREE HUNDRED NINETY ONE

(I/C)

“Hazzah!” Wyn cheered, ducking a blow from the goblin skeleton. “Nice swingin’ on dat crazy witch, mes amis!”

“Gracias,” Abraxas replied, ducking back from a wild swing from the panther. Seeing Lannis in the hall, waving his hands and building another spell up in place, he called out, "Señor Lummis, I hope tu spell works!”

"Yeah, no pressure, thanks Abraxas.” Lannis could see how beat up and bloody both Abraxas and Lyra were at this point, meanwhile the panther and the skeletons were pretty much unscathed. “You're uh...looking what we in the business call 'beat the fuck up' so please be careful?" Finishing up his enchantment, he called out, “"Hey Pillows, relax, don't you want to bat her about and carry her around in your teeth for a while? PAUSE!” A blast of spiraling pink energy slapped into the great cat (<Save vs Spells, Teal 11) once again, and like before, Piddles seems to slow down in its assault as was staring with great concern at Abraxas and Kovid. “Gotcha!”

Sidling past the introspective feline, Abraxas pointed at the 3 skeletons assaulting the rest of the part and nudged Kovid, saying, “Señor Kolva, let’s not smash ese gato! El bruja esta muerto!"

"Uh, yeah what you said, Abraxas.” The dwarf looked around and spun his hammer once, “Let's clean this mess up!"

Wyn was laying down a series of cuts and smashes at the undead goblin he was facing, bone chips flying with each impact (<+6 to hit, Orange 5) but the bony cretin was able to deflect most of the good hits. “Ugh... damn deze skeleton Jack-offs. Priestess, how you feeling? Tink you cen swing dat flail at one of dem?”

Brendon caught a glimpse of Lyra stepping forward back out of the hall and sidled to the left to make room. “Ok. Enough,” he muttered and twisted the Alha blade through the undead’s ribcage, tearing up as he did so (<+4 to hit, Red 5) but the goblinoid was made of tougher stuff and returned the favor with a backhand to the thief, driving him off.

Lyra finally made it back into the fight, looking slightly better now that her Continuous Heal was working. “Yep, working on it!” She hit the front line lard, her Lolthian Flail spinning with a silver whizzing noise. She struck the far goblin a few glancing shots but she was also stymied by their stoic defenses (<+4 to hit, White 3).

“I didn’t tink a gob could get any more useless,” Wyn frowned, still looking for an opening, “At least dey smell better dough.”

Abraxas had finally joined the battle, hitting the back line of the goblin undead with a crash of his Scythe. The skellie staggered from the hit, tried to right itself, and then received a pair of strikes (=+8 to hit, -4 Dam Defl, Blue 9) that had it busting apart (1d8+4 damage, Blue 4+4=8 and killed!!), raining bones and shards across the battle line. “Booyah!”

Kovid was half a step behind, hammer cracking like snapping iron as it whacked loose bones off the staggering skeleton he was facing (>+6 to hit, Yellow 12). It tried to roll with the hits but the dwarf was too unrelenting and the undead suffered greatly for it (1d8+3 damage, Yellow 2+3=5 Damage) but still remained upright.

(WMC: Red/Black 5)

(Initiative, Party Steel 5 vs Enemy Red/Black 3)

Time now is Day 9, 12:07 PM

(OOC)

Piddles paused until after its next action. 1 skel down, 1 wounded, 1 good. You guys go!

PBEM - Episode 390. Mirabellis and Panther.

And damn it, no matter how bad ass the wizard might be, it's still a wizard - and two concentrated fighters within melee distance pretty much decides how that fight will end.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED NINETY

(I/C)

“WOW,” Lyra exclaimed, shaking her head in pain, blood droplets splattering about. “What happened to just attacking Lannis?!” 

Stepping past the door frame, Wyn shoved his way in front of the panther, swapping to his shield and sword quickly (Dex >12, no penalty). “Merde merde merde! Priestess get behind me!”

“Trying!”

Meanwhile, also pushing his way past the Cleric, Brendon said softly, “Excuse me Lass, I need to help turn Puddles in Puddles.”

“Piddles,” Lannis offered from the hall, working his own spell closer to completion.

“Wow thank you for correcting me Lannis,” he scowled. Swapping to his own enchanted short blade, Brendon called to the wizardress, “Hey! Mirabellis!”

“Yeah, thief?” she called back, stepping slowly back and readying another spell.

“What are you offering us to hand over Pinky Not the Brain?”

“Stab him and we can talk coppers and golds after the fact!”

“Hmmm. Tempting. But nope!” He stood lockstep with Wyn, the both of them plying their blades against the panther. “Hey Mirabellis don’t get it all twisted, I stole your magic arrow and the Duchess’s life!”

Seeing her growl something under her breath, Lannis was able to tell she was preparing another spell to slow the group down. Glancing at the Fighter and Dwarf struggling to get out of the web, he sighed and called out, “Hey lady, stop casting my spells! It’s like, why am I even trying to kill you? BET FLAM!” And a stream of hot sparks blew out from his fingers and shot clear across the room, shredding into the thick webbing around his companions. “I am SO sorry guys!”

“Ah….Damn it!” Kovid swore as he watched the webs smolder, and then catch fire! The flames raced up the webs and ran over the two fighters trapped beneath, both of them cursing as they suffered first and second degree burns.

“STOP that!” Mirabellis shouted. “Lannis! You are a giant Artemis damned PRICK!”

“She just can’t stop hating me!” he moaned as he watched the fire run over his two friends (1d6 Damage, Pink 4 – Kovid and Abraxas each take 4 Damage!). “ I dunno, Lady. I feel like I got all dressed up for a party and no one's there. Am I doing something wrong? I swear this has never happened before!"

Meanwhile from the hallway, Lyra felt the ruined mess of her face and prepared one of her last spells. “Sorry Abraxas! Don’t get hit too hard!”

“I’m on fire, Senora!” came the cry from under the burning webs.

“Aine! Heal me for as long as you can!” (Continuous Heal: 5 turns heal 1d4+1/turn: White 2+1=Heal 3!) Lyra shuddered as the white healing energy flowed into her, the bleeding around her face, head and cheeks trickling and then ending as the wounds scabbed over.

“Bad kitty!” Wyn growled out, stabbing at the Piddles a few times before ramming his shield (<Str check, -2 BX baby, smash in face, Orange 5) right into the panther’s nose. It rocked back, eyes watering from the impact (<+4 to hit, +2 BX baby, Orange 9) and he drove it back a step or two, but it slashed forward again and growled and yowled as it assaulted the elf.

“I call dibs on the cat’s canines.” Brendon also struck at Piddles, his short blade ripping and tearing at the feline (=+4 to hit, Red 12). It hissed as it was struck, blood covering the first two inches of the Scout’s blade (1d6+1 damage, Red 3+1=4 Damage!).

As the last of the fire finished up the web, Abraxas was able to bring his Scythe to bear once more, and stepped menacingly towards the retreating wizardress. "Señor Kokomo, flank Mirrorballs' y let's keep ella occupado. Mueremos ella mas rapido. Despues ella esta dead, es adios Gato!"

“Stop! Stop!” she cried out, trying to make room and fend off the wild Scythe swipes. “I don’t want to fight you! Just the pink bastard!”

"Kokomo!?” Kovid chuckled, has own hammer coming at Mirabellis from the other front. He sung as he swung, “We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow. That's where we want to go, way down in Koko... ahh Thor's Balls! Just hit the bitch!"

Abraxas was there, his Scythe hooking around the wizardress’ side, preventing her from making the dash through the door. He pulled it back, ripping her sleeve open and drawing blood, and then had the weapon dancing in and out in long deadly sweeps (>+8 to hit, Blue 15). She gasped in pain, her robes quickly becoming stained in crimson as the blood flowed (1d8+4 damage, Blue 7+4=11 Damage! (down to 2 hp!!!) ).

Kovid was working the other side, striking her with quick slapping blows as she sought to make any space between her and the attacks coming her way. “Artemis Damn you!” she cried. “I hope my children EAT your fucking livers!” It was the last thing she said as the dwarf gave an upward swing, striking her full on in the chest (>+6 to hit, Yellow 9), snapping at least three of her lower ribs and driving the ragged ends up into her lungs and heart (1d8+3 Damage, Yellow 7+3=10 Damage and killed!), before pitching her off her feet to collapse to the ground mouth open, downing in her own blood.

(Morale check Piddles: 1+1=2 – FURIOUS and fighting!)

The panther seemed to shake and spasm at Mirabellis’ death, its head whipping back around to see both Fighters standing over her dead body. It’s eyes grew bloodshot and a menacing growl from deep within rumbled out.

“They did it!” Lannis pointed ath Kovid and Abraxas. “She might have hated me, but THEY killed her!”

(Initiative, Party Steel 3 vs Enemy Red/Black 4)

Piddles turned in a single fluid motion and LEAPT towards the two men. Brendon tried to get a swipe in at the great cat as it jumped away (<+4 to hit, White 8) but his sword only cut air a few moments before the three last skeletons fell upon him and Wyn, the goblin undead chopping and hitting the two of them. As for the panther, it aimed its leap at (1-3 Abraxas, 4-6 Kovid: Red 2 – Abraxas) the Fighter and hit the ground with an easy landing, its claws already swinging at him. He had his Scythe up, blunting the strikes where he could (>+5 to hit, +2 Fury, Green 15) but the first onslaught of claws hit him with a series of squeals on his breastplate (1d4 Damage, Blue 3). The next sweeping slashing attacks did the same (<+5 to hit, +2 fury, Green 8) but he was able to weather the attack without issue. The savage biting though caught him in the hand and wrist (=+5 to hit, +2 fury, Green 11) clamping on tight and threatening to rip tendons free (1d8 Damage: Red/Black 7. Damage Deflection <Str Blue 8, Half Damage Take 4 and -4 on next to hit) but Abraxas elbowed Piddles across the side of the head, breaking the bite before it could do more than draw some blood and bruise the muscles below the gauntlet.

The three skeletons were attacking the elf and scout, the blows coming with regular unrelenting timing. Wyn found himself the greater target of the undead (<+2 to hit, Black 2..>+2 to hit, White 19), many of them being caught by his shield or blunted by his banded leather, but enough got through to give the elf some wounds that stuck (1d6 Damage, Yellow 4, Take 4 Damage!). Brendon was faring about the same, the Scout fighting the last skeleton (>+2 to hit, White 14) and getting hit on the arm, chest, and even guts for his efforts (1d6 Damage, Red/Black 3, Take 3 Damage!).

Time now is Day 9, 12:06 PM

(OOC)

Mirabellis is Dead! Like damn, she is seriously dead. Good job. Was hoping that Piddles might have run, but the dice said hell no. Piddles down to 21 hp and on Abraxas for now, and three skellies on Wyn and Brendon. You guys go!

PBEM - Episode 389. Mirabellis and Panther.

As attrition has taken its hold on the denizens of the Ispan's Castle, there has been the problem of less than optimal fights OR too difficult fights. Mirabellis one of them. Normally she has a contingent of goblins and skeletons at her fingertips, with the occasional ghoul in place if need be. However I am a fan and always have been of monsters having their own plans, needs, and wants - and based upon the Scrying, this was actually a good time to try and take the wizardress down.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY NINE

(I/C)

“Mirabellis time right?” Kovid asked, giving his hammer a short swing, “It’s gonna be a bitch in more ways than one.”

“Mirabellis sounds right to me,” Lyra agreed with a heavy sigh. “Honestly, if we were under different circumstances, I feel like me and Mira would get along.” She gave Lannis a side eye. “Things we dislike align at least.”

“She has severed hands under her bed she uses for solo sexy fun and staples dead bodies to the wall to turn them into ghouls,” the Magic User pointed out.

“I didn’t say I’d want to move in with her and split the rent, damn it,” the Cleric retorted. “Just…nevermind.” She glanced down at the manastone and handed it to him. “Also you hold this, Lannis. It’s yours, isn’t it?”

“It’s not exactly in the condition I gave it to you, is it? But thanks at least for returning things that I had provided.” He studied its surface critically and then shoved it into his bag with a grunt (Add to Magic Inventory: manacrystal [2]). “And I want to point out, Kovid and Abraxas, I still never got my leaves back from the hall. Just saying.”

Abraxas jerked his thumb over to the alchemy table. "Should someone toma uno potion asi we can saber que it haces? Si o No? Que else is there we can usar en aqui?”

Raising her hands up and shaking her head, the Cleric said, “I’m good on the tainted potions. If someone else wants to mess with them be my guest.”

“I’ll take dem for now,” Wyn replied (add 4 invisibility potions (tainted) [20] to Magic Inventory). “Mebbe we kin find a verteskinned one and cut open its belly an pour it in to see what it does.”

“Gross,” Lyra said with a frown.

“Offop, you got yer mana crystal? Will dat work now? Or do ye need to wait?”

“Won’t kick in until I’m full up and have the crystal on me at that time. A good call is at the start of the day. Long and short of it, I need to have full Magic Juices.”

“And you don’t have now?” Brendon asked.

“I’ve been spreading my juices all over the castle today.”

“Gross,” Lyra said again.

Cursing, Wyn shook his head, “Merde... Well, we don't have much choice. I don't want to fight de big abomination Offop saw, so we need to bring de fight to Mira.”

“Before she gets the beast with two backs pumped up and moving,” the Magic User offered.

“Really? It’s like you’re seven,” the Cleric responded. “And an ill behaved perverted seven year old.”

“And you know what that’s like how?”

“Please, enuff,” Wyn held out his hand to Kovid, “Dwarfriend, cen I see dat wonderful map of yours?” Once it was laid out for the group to refer to, Wyn continued. “Merci. H'okay... we gonna head to Mirabellis through de southern door by de Sanctuary.”

“Skeletons according to Big Brain at both entrances to her room,” Kovid reminded the group.

“Oui, as de Dwarfriend said. Priestess, I tink dat be yer job.”

“Lady Lyra,” Kovid clapped her on the shoulder, “Prepare to call on Aine to turn her undead greenies. Anything left will get a taste of my hammer.”

“If any of de door across de hall from us have locks on them, I will lock dem. If dey do not have locks, den we leave dem as dey are.”

Brendon shook his head. “No locks, Wyn.”

“Aight. When we get to de hallway door dat goes to de nord of her room, Wyn will place a lock in that. Block de bitch's escape.”

“Good thinking,” Brendon said.

“I know. Anudder plan, huh?” He gave a short laugh. “Den we get to de hallway between Mira's room en de Sanctuary, wait fer Offop to cast wot he needs, en du Lac to check fer traps en listening, den fling it open en Priestess ready to turn de skeleton Jacks.”

“Abraxas,” Lyra offerd, “once we’re definitely going into the fight I’ll heal you. I’d rather you have everything the spell has to offer during a fight.”

“Gracias, Senora Lysol. But I’m bueno for now. Later in the fight if need be.”

“We will need to QUICKLY bust through dat south door to still get a quick dash to Mira. I will take de shot at de cat when we get in dere.”

“Wait till I pause the big pussy,” Lannis suggested.

“Seriously. Gross.”

“I’ve got one magic arrow left, I think using it on her is well worth it,” Brendon said.

“Vamonos a Mirrorbells, amigos,” Abraxas looked excited. “Let's explode some skellingtons de Gobs, Paddle una Poddle, y Mash Mirrorbells y tomamos todos de los potions!"

Giving the Fighter a raised eyebrow, Wyn took his bow off his back and got it ready. “Weird... let's go mes amis.”

As the group got ready to leave, Abraxas laid a hand on the iron statue and leaned in, muttering, “Gracias,” giving it a final pat in appreciation. At the south door, Brendon verified the hall was clear before he unlocked the door and the party left the lab again. The dwarf and scout headed the party down the hall, moving with slow care along the hall to the “T” intersection.

After a quick listen in both directions (no roll needed yet), Brendon brought the group south, taking them some distance to the closest corner. The passage turned to the east here, and a short listen and peer around showed a short hall with a door at the end and then another turn back to the south. “Dat’s de door,” Wyn pointed out with a silent whisper. “Let me lock it, si vous plait.” The elf placed his hand on the door, smiling to see a key hole appear beneath the handle. “Dat’s trios today,” he muttered.

“Andele,” Abraxas motioned the group to continue on.

We turned south, Kovid excited as we were in uncharted territory for the dwarf. There was a single door on the western side of the corridor and then some 20 paces or so later, a double door on the same wall. The doors were in terrible shape, the hinges were melted, the wood scored, and the stones around the base of the door looked like they had cracks running through them and appeared to be softened at some point in the past. “Those doors,” Kovid noted, “Aren’t going to open any time soon.”

“Dragon?” Brendon asked.

“Maybe. Hard to tell. But I’ll say this. He likes his privacy and doesn’t want those doors to be used.”

“Move people,” Abraxas goaded. “One problemo at a time.”

We continued on till we arrived finally at a single door on the eastern wall. Beyond it a short distance away was the double doors that would lead to the Sanctuary. Also still closed. “Come one,” Brendon hissed, after checking the door quickly, he opened it to reveal the long hall that ran to the north of the Sanctuary…and the south of Mirabellis’ chamber.

“IN SANCT EGO,” Lannis intoned, his entire form shimmering as a shield spell snapped into place around him. “Getting ready. One more just outside the door.”

The party went down the hall slowly and with care. We could faintly hear something through the north door once we got closer to it, woman’s voice but mumbling very softly, nothing could be made out. Lyra readied her holy symbol, Brendon announced the door was clear and ready to open the Scout drawing his magic arrow and making room. Wyn did the same with his own arrow and Lannis cast again, “KAL MULTOS EGO” (Pink 2) and 2 version of him appeared practically next to him.

“So many Lannis’s,” Lyra shook her head.

“But only one original, thank you very much,” he readied another spell to cast in the room, and Kovid and Abraxas took the front weapons up.

“Mirabellis?” Kovid asked.

“Si. Majorballbust,” Abraxas agreed.

Grabbing the handle, the Dwarf silently counted to three and then SHOVED The door open hard as Lannis said in a loud grating voice, “And then I said if she doesn't start cleaning those fingers better she's going to get a UTI. Oh Mirabellis, I was just talking about you!"

(Surprise Check: Blue 6 – no)

(Initiative: Party Steel 4 vs Enemy Red/Black 5)

Just at the inside of the door were 3 goblin skeletons grouped in a thin line. Mirabellis was hunched over two salamander cadavers, working a needle through their flesh when she snapped to her feet, and looked back across the chamber to the north side where 3 more skeletons were positioned. “HOLD!” she shouted to them, shoving her blue wizard’s hat tight on her head and brandishing her staff. From in front of the fireplace, a black panther raised its head and Mirabellis pointed to Abraxas, calling out, “Piddles! Bring Mommy his face!”

Lyra was working her turning ability as fast as she could but the skeletons right at the door were a stitch faster. They as one slammed into the dwarf, their crude weapons clanging and slamming into Kovid’s platemail as they sought to take the dwarf down first. (+2 to hit, >White 19..<White 15..<White 7) Although he was hit swiftly and all across his front and right side, the dwarf only took one sudden hit unprotected (1d6 Damage, Green 5 – Take 5 Damage!), making him grunt but little more. “Ha!” he grinned. “I remember when something like that would have hurt more!” He spun his hammer around, forcing the skeletons back enough to keep him from being overrun.

Piddles gave a low growl and LEAPT almost 20’ across the chamber, paddling right in front of the Fighter and blocked him from advancing to the wizardress. “Move Prattles!” Abraxas thrust with his Scythe, but the panther refused to be cowed. It slashed at him, it’s heavy claws (=+5 to hit, Green 14) hitting the fighter (1d4 Damage, Blue 1 – Take 1 Damage!) but it was more of a buffeting and bruising than a serious blow. A second set of claw swipes (<+5 to hit, Green 3) were more ineffective. But it did manage to snag a bit of the fighter’s thigh in its jaw briefly (>+5 to hit, Green 19) before Abraxas could pull his leg free (1d8 Damage, Red/Black 2, take 2 Damage!). “You bite me?! I’ll bite you!”

As for Mirabellis she had been working her own spell, backing up half a step, slamming her hands down and smacking the staff into the ground. “KAL MULTOS EGO!” (Red/Black 3) and three exact duplicates of her appeared around her, hiding her true position.

“That is SUCH bullshit!” Lannis called out.

“You should have run, Lannis!” She cried back. “Because I KNOW you took my stuff! Now I’m going to have to KILL YOU LIKE I DID THE OTHER PRICK WHO TOUCHED MY STUFF!!!” She raised her foot up and stomped it down HARD on the small doll near her feet, smashing its body in and sending its head with the pink wizards hat flying across the room where it hit the wall with a faint ‘click’.

“She likes you,” Brendon said. “Tell her about how you live with your mom. That’ll impress her.”

“AINE! I implore you, TURN these skeletons!” Lyra had her holy symbol up and a bright cone of white light blew out, ran through the door, and sieved around Kovid to hit the skeletons in a rippling wiggling shaking pulsating wave (2d6 hd: White 2+4=6 HD). All three of them ceased their assault on the dwarf, turned to face the Cleric, and tried to block the tearing streams of light with their forearms. But the divine energy rolled through them and with the sound like crushing ice, their bones were shot through with thousands of small cracks…and they EXPLODED.

Skeletal dust blew across the room and settled down just beyond Mirabellis’ position as Lyra lowered her arm, visibly weary from the effort. The god given ray wasn’t long enough to hit the second batch that he wizardress had ordered to remain back, but it was enough to clear the way for Kovid to run towards Mirabellis and her images, unimpeded. “Thanks for the plow, Lass!” he laughed, charging up, weapon raised.

Not to be outdone, Lannis called out to Abraxas, “I’ve got you too, bud. Hey Pussbag! PAUSE!” A pink ray slapped at the panther (<Save vs spells, Black 12) and it ceased in its attack on the Fighter, thinking about its actions, a worried expression on its feline face.

“Piddles? Mommy said to bring me the bad man’s face! PIDDLES!”

Mirabellis’ voice grew shrill as Abraxas charged past the confused panther, joining the dwarf wo was also running up to hit the magic user. The four copies all tried to block the Fighter’s Scythe with her staff (>+8 to hit, Blue 8) but his first sweeping slash ripped through one of the images with little problem, popping it out of existence. “Uno down!” he cried out, stepping over and leaping up, spinning as he brought the Morrigaan weapon around for ANOTHER slamming assault (>+8 to hit, Blue 8), sending another of Mirabellis’ images to collapse and then pop like a soap bubble. “Dos!”

From the other side, with two version of the magic user to hit still to go, Kovid drew the Theystran Hammer out to the right and cracked it over at one of the images before him (>+6 to hit, Yellow 15), blasting her in the face and removing the last mirror image from view.

“Poop,” Mirabellis frowned.

And it was then that Brendon drew back his enchanted arrow, the golden and silver runes flaring to life and running down the shaft of the missile. He released the string and it streaked across the chamber to hit (>+6 to hit, +2 magic, Red 19) her in the upper stomach (1d6+2 Damage, Red 4: 6 Damage!). “Present for you,” the Scout called out.

And lastly, Wyn who had the panther in his sight, drew on the paused great cat and shot it through the door frame (>+8 to hit, +4 paused, Orange 1 – Fumble, Heartswood Bow reroll. Orange 14). The arrow wobbled through the air and then hit the panther with a scoring blow along it’s flank (1d6 Damage, Orange 1), making it snarl in fury.

(Initiative, Party Steel 1 vs Enemy Red/Black 2)

“You two are not earning any points right now,” Mirabellis frowned at the fighter and dwarf. Spinning her staff from the middle in a pair of flinging shots, she backed up a step, curled her hands in a quick spell, and tore the air in front of her, pulling down, chanting, “IN ARACHNE REIF!” And a mass of sticky webbings shot out and encased the fighter and dwarf right where they were. She wiped her forehead and scowled at her handiwork. “Honestly. It’s not like you even like the spindly geek.” Raising her voice she called, “Piddles! Attack the homely woman at the door for Mommy!” and then she pointed at Lyra and added, “You three,” addressing the skeletons still at the north doorway, “Attack her too.” The goblin skeletons moved quickly across the chamber as the panther launched its assault on the Cleric.

“No hard feelings, sweety,” Mirabellis said with a frown. “I think if things were different, you and I would be friends. But right now I can’t have you healing the sundry morons so I have to retire you.”

The panther hit the Cleric hard with its first blast of claws (>+5 to hit, Steel 17), drawing blood under Lyra’s armor where the claws found weak spots through the chainmail (1d4 Damage, Blue 4 – Take 4 Damage!). “Damn it!” she cried out, shield blocking the next set of claws (<+5 to hit, Steel 3), raising scratches on the shield’s surface. But Piddles then lurched up, dropped both claws on her shield and pulled it down as it lunged forward and bit (>+5 to hit, Yellow 20 – Critical – Max damage – Take 8 Damage!) Lyra right on the face.

“Good Piddles! Rip her face off for Mommy!”

Lyra screamed inside the panther’s mouth, blood running down her face, neck, and scalp. She managed to work the handle of the flail in its mouth long enough to make it gag and release her, but the damage was done and she was pretty hurt, her skin mottling black and blue and numerous puncture marks in her skin and soft tissue (Lyra down to 2 hp, 24 pts of damage).

And then the skeletons hit. They all arrived but only one had been close enough at the start of it all to actually land a telling blow on the staggered cleric (<+2 to hit, Red/Black 14 – holy shit, missed by 1, a roll of 15 from the skellie would have hit you), rebounding off her chest and threatening to crush her ribs there. It was only the fact that she rolled back from the impact that kept her still standing but given the state of things, without something to change, who knew how much longer.

“Thief! Elf! Stab the mouthy prick and I’ll give both a reward!!”

Time now is Day 9, 12:05 PM

(OOC)

Bottom of round 2. Kovid – you can work yourself out in 2 turns (20 rounds), Abraxas 2d4 rounds. It can be burned out, but no one has a torch lit right now and Continual light is not a fire. Burning will do 1d6 damage to both of them. There is a fire in the fireplace right now, and a candle in a holder not too far from Mirabellis. Lyra you are facing Piddles and 3 Skeletons right now. Mirabellis has no more images, Lannis has 2 still. You guys go!

PBEM - Episode 388. Scry, Splits, and Lab (again)

THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT

(I/C)

Abraxas shut the South door and joined the rest of the party all arranged behind the Cleric, and her facing off at 12 feet from the Iron Statue whose helm was glowing a soft purple. Nudging her from behind, Wyn pointed at the Manacrystal in the center of the golem and said, “Priestess... you want to try to remove de stone?” Pointing beyond it to the opposite door, he added, “I’ll go over dere an lissen. If anyone comes, We will not be surprised.”

Looking at the statue up and down, Lyra nodded slowly, wide eyed, “Yeaaaaaaaaaaa sure. I can try?” 

Digging in his bag, Brendon produced the key. “Hang on a sec,” he turned and locked the south door and the handed it to the elf, “Wyn save your magic lock, I have the key to this room.”

“Merci, Du Lac.”

“No problem,” Brendon took out his prybar and held it low and non threatening at his side. “Lass, maybe you can quiet its.... whatever and I can find the best location to pop the stone out.”

Meanwhile looking beyond the statue at the alchemy lab set up, Lannis nodded his head slowly and stuck his hand out to Lyra, “Hey Merrylegs, give me your glass, I've got a smart people plan. Go do your BFI thing, that's more your speed."

Making a slashing movement with her hand, Lyra hissed. “Slow down. Everyone. Alright? We’re not just going to start whacking things with the heavy ancient elven iron statue that could become a murder bot at the slightest provocation, ok? Lannis, what in Aine’s name are you talking about? What glass?”

“Two Eyed Willie over here gave you a vial a few days ago with crushed glass in it to sling but ever since you beefed up a bit and started whacking things with the flail, you haven’t slung a damned thing. I’d like that all important vial from you so I can crush it up and make sure that if anyone was to use that alchemy set up again in the near future, the potions will be ruined and will buy us another day or two.”

“Whadda think about removing all the empty flasks,” Brendon shrugged. He mimed hitting things and added, “Also can’t make potions without a receptacle and broken glass on the floor might hinder the cat.”

“Wow! Just destroy? That’s your default? That is a WONDERFUL set up and I’d be more apt to piss on a Di Vinci that let you knock over one burner, alembic, or glass tubing from there.”

“Fine, here, take it,” Lyra said, handing over the vial (Remove from inventory).

“Thanks!” Both Lannis and Wyn gave the statue a WIDE berth, and circled around the room, the elf heading to the north door to listen and Lannis sliding the mortar and pestle over and stated working on it.

Shaking his head, Kovid stood next to Lyra and offered her a bearded smile. “Magic Man and your hocus pocus... Let’s not spend all day in here. Lady Lyra I’ll assist any way I can, if you intend prying that crystal out of iron fist here.”

"Don’t vex me step ladder, I don't question your hammering."

Abraxas was posted by the south door, listening to it for any sounds beyond. He was looking across the room, Lyra along with Brendon and Kovid at the statue, Wyn at the north door, and Lannis working at the table. "Amigos, que sabemos ese potions? Que ahora? Mirrorbells? Harpsicords?"

“We should take deze potions when we be done,” Wyn suggested. “We cen test what dey do later to see what kind of effect Priestess had on dem.”

“Don’t even think about drinking them,” Lannis replied, checking the ground glass quality and feeling satisfied. He then proceeded to find the intake valves along the midsection of the set up and feed a thin layer of the ground glass to the system (Wiz, Int>12, no roll needed), spinning the tubes slowly to make sure that it didn’t gather, coated evenly the interior, and wasn’t noticeable.

Meanwhile, Brendon pushed the prybar to Lyra’s hand, the Cleric looking at it before checking out the iron statue again. “Heeeeeeeeeey buddy,” she said in a sing song friendly sounding voice.

The statue stood up a bit straighter, focusing on the Cleric.

She hid the bar behind her back and stepped a bit closer, her hand upraised toward the glowing Manastone in the shield, “Think I can just borrow that crystal for just a minute? I’ll give it right back.”

The statue looked the cleric in the face, its helm still with the purple glow, and then raised its shield, presenting the face and the stone to her.

“Holy shit,” Lannis muttered.

“Um…thanks!” Lyra said. Tentatively she reached out and placed her hand on the stone. She felt around until she could get a grip on the thin edge of the stone and did her best to grip it tight. Then, she released a deep breath…and pulled. (<Str, White 2). The stone made a series of electrical discharges and Lyra could feel a sort of outrushing in the back of her head. But as she pulled, the stone had a plasma wave of energy running across it, coating the shield and her hand in the arcanic glow. But then, with a pop, it disengaged from the iron statue and the purple light faded as well as connection to it (>Save vs. Petrification, White 14), making a loud buzz that could be felt all around the chamber as well as what felt like a brief release of energy. To Lyra, it felt to her like the dying moments of a close friend and well loved pet. And as the stone settled in her hand, she could feel herself crying, emotional from the effort and the feeling of the statue’s death and deactivation.

(WMC, Magic blast, Red/Black 4 – no)

“Why you crying, Lass?” Kovid asked.

“I don’t know,” Lyra wiped her eyes. “I just…it feels like it died.” She tapped her head. “And I can feel it up here.”

“You should be used to ripping the hearts out of people who depend on you,” the Magic User offered.

“Well, we have the stone,” Kovid pointed out, “And some potions which I feel are never to be drunk. Ever. If we want them. Who’s taking what and where are we going to try next?”

Time now is Day 9, 11:43 AM

(OOC)

Let me know who takes what and where are we going?

PBEM - Episode 387. Scry, Splits, and Lab (again)

THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY SEVEN

(I/C)

“So…it was a doll,” Brendon frowned. “So what?”

“You don’t get it,” Lannis said, eyes wide. “It’s what she was doing to it.”

“You described the “fun hands” under the bed, I don’t think doll play is that odd.”

“She was very angry at that doll,” he shuddered. “I can’t explain how that just makes me uncomfortable for some reason.”

“Aine’s Very Impatient Feelings…” Lyra swore slowly, “The doll was YOU. Get it? She hates you. And wants to do terrible evil most likely illegal things to you that would most likely spell your death and then undeath.”

“But I don’t wear a dress.”

Running his temples slowly, Wyn tried to grab the reins of the narrative and coax it back on track. Sighing he said, “Not many good options ta choose from, eh?”

“Can say that again, Elffriend,” Kovid muttered.

“So dis be a matter of resources. We know dis by now. Right now our magical resources be at a low point, which puts us at de disadvantage in any odder fights. ‘Owever, we slowly takin out some of de enemies, en stopped more from comin' into de castle en masse.”

“My idea, just want to remind everyone,” Lannis preened.

“Was it? I’m not so sure,” Lyra frowned.

“Would I lie?”

“Yes,” the entire party answered in unison.

“How DARE you…”

Wyn quickly continued, cutting off Lannis’ impending tirade, “However, iffin we wait too long, dat crazy necrowitch Mira ees going to literally make more tings fer us to fight. En dey will make fightin her MUCH more difficult.”

Abraxas chuckled, “She’ll end up using all the muerte things we have made.”

“We’ve made a lot of them,” Brendon agreed.

“I say,” the elf resumed, “we try to retrieve de mana stone form de golem en give it to Offop. His web spell will prob be de only one dat can effectively "paralyze" her cause of dat spell rebound ting she's got. She's only got Piddles wit her, so if we make dis quick, we cen get de jump on her.”

“Don’t forget the skeletons,” the wizard added.

“Leave them to me,” Lyra assured the group.

“Kind of wish I had a detect invisible spell available, but my spells be tapped out, too.” Wyn frowned in thought, “We just need to hope dat when we go over to de golem, de invisible potions not be effective due to Priestess' brilliant meddling. So…It's eidder we go fer de golem, or we go after de harpies.”

“Both are good and suck at the same time,” Brendon noted.

“We don't really have de "firepower" to go against anytin else right now... until we go for de mana stone en den get de scrolls en magics dat Mira has. I tink de golem is de better of the situations.”

Lyra tapped her chin in thought. “MAYBE I can take out the crystal since I put it in. Maybe. That golem seems to be on his own agenda. I have a feeling messing with the crystal might make him a bit testy. “

Lannis gave a big thumbs up, "Noted. When it comes to magical items and the knowledge of them, I’ll try not to rely on your opinion. Let's check out the golem situation, then depending on how poorly that goes we can jump into the next disaster or hide again."

Brendon nodded, giving Lannis the side eye, “Better the devil we know than the devil we don’t know.”

"I am not a distraction, thank you very much," he snapped at the Scout.

“I didn’t SAY anything.”

“No? But you were THINKING it!”

“Enough!” Kovisd scolded them.

“Merci. So, we exit south, go east listen around de corner.If we don't hear anyting en of Priestess feels de presence of de golem, we go south den east to go into de southern door of de golem's room. In best case scenario, Du Lac cen listen to de room en try to figure out iffin anytin else be dere. If not, den remember to enter the room with weapons down. If we hear de gobs or anyting else comin towards us or blocking our way when we at de corner... we stop en talk about what to do next. What do ye tink?”

Kovid spun his Theystran warhammer around with a smile, pointing it to the east. “Sure we can check on the golem and go from there.”

Not to be outdone, Abraxas let his Morrigaan Scythe spin in a lazy circle, agreeing with the elf and dwarf, "El Golem would be mas useful en una fight em oppuesto de Mirrorbells. We should see if it still works."

“OK Ramblers,” Brendon said, moving to the south end of the secret hall, “Let’s get rambling.”

“Coming, Dad!” Lannis replied. Wyn relocked the Vault, and then the party lined up behind Kovid and Brendon as they checked the next room before ushering the rest of the group in. We closed the secret door and made our way through the Summoning Room to the short hall, and stopped there, listening to the main hall again for any wanderers (WMC: Red/Black 5 – no). After a minute the Scout gave the all clear and Kovid eased the door open, lantern light shining into the hall beyond.

With no one in the hall, we entered the main corridor and made our way east, Abraxas closing the door in our wake behind us. We moved east, ears peeled, party listening for any sounds of nearby goblins or the like (>Hear Noise, +25% quiet, Red 99), but nothing stood out. At the corner we looked both north and south, seeing nothing in either direction. Lyra held her head a moment and then smiled, “The statue, it’s still working. I can feel it.”

“Great! Now mentally abuse it and make it feel inadequate like you do to all your other relationships,” Lannis advised her.

We crossed the hall and made our way south to the long passage that had the fire in it originally. The three doors on the south wall were all still closed and as we made our way through, the door on the north side at the end of the hall that led to the alchemy lab was also closed. Kovid put his hammer away and the rest of the party did the same with their own weapons. Once ready, the Dwarf turned the knob and the party entered the alchemy lab.

It appeared pretty much the same as it had the last few times we had been in here, except the iron statue was not in the corner and was not crafting any potions, it was instead just standing near the alembic table and as the party drew closer, it looked over at them, the light in the helm flashing white…until it spied Lyra and then the light switched over the purple.

(2d6: 6+4=10) On the table near it near the finished end of the alchemy layout, were 4 potion vials all lined up neatly. Each one was a translucent sky blue in color and the marking on the vial indicated they were Invisibility potions.

Time now is Day 9, 11:33 AM

(OOC)

Ok – Back in the Lab. What is the plan?

PBEM - Episode 386. Scry, Splits, and Lab (again)

THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX

(I/C)

Seeing no one was answering him, Lannis shrugged and rubbed the top of the Crystal ball again. "Well, you guys figure it out. I'll get working in this, see what that wily wizard girl is up to.” He frowned, sucking in his bottom lip. “Wait...did I say wily?” he chuckled a bit creepily, “I meant slutty."

Meanwhile Abraxas was scooping out the coins from the bag of holding, stacking them crudely in the corner of the vault. "Donde to ahora, amigos? Quien are we getting after next? Que are our plans? Anyone want a put something en el Bag de Helding por mi a carry? Es mucho light y empty mucho. Anything extra we should carry? Armor extra? Weapons? Que else? Soy listo cuando vosotros estais listo."

“Hey, Hilo, I need a bit of quiet here, ok? Doing magic magic stuff.”

Abraxas arched an eye brow at the Wizard and then went back to loudly jingling the coins and allowing them to spill about. “Oops! Clumsy me!”

Giving a soft chuckle, Wyn addressed the rest of the group. “H'okay. We need two groups. Both quite perilous. Group 1 goes to check de chimney in de garden to see iffin we cen unclog it, or if we need to fight anyting to do so. Group 2 needs to stay here to babysit Offop while he scrys.”

Brendon stood up and dusted off his ass. “I’d be happy to do something then to sit around,” he offered.

“If no one else wants to stay wit Offop, Wyn will stay.” The elf shrugged, “Moi patience is probably de best at dis point.” He looked around and added, “I cen also go help wit de chimney scoutin'. Full health en all dat. Whatever dat be.”

Abraxas was still emptying the bag and Lannis was hunched over the Crystal ball, muttering, “seabiscuit, seabiscuit,” and giggling to himself. Wyn looked over the party and added, “I have some toughts dat de dwarf en du Lac be de best for going to de garden. Dwarf be good at unclogging a stony shaft. Du Lac needed for 'is 'earing en trap checkin. All odders are back up.

 “I, for one, am feeling great,” Kovid thumped his chest. “Like healthier and stronger than ever. Point me in a direction and I’ll take anyone one. Mirabellis? She has it coming right?!”

“We only need one odder to stay with Offop. Dough two could stay if we want to keep de garden group quieter. What do y'all want to do?”

“You stay, Wyn,” Lyra said, cinching her shield tighter. “In case things go wrong, I’ll go with the group to the chimney. I’m not in the best of shape but someone needs to be around if someone needs an emergency heal or ghouls happen.”

"Señor Linbus can wait aqui alone, no?” Abraxas asked, “El es mas safe aqui. Muy safe. Aqui es el place safe mejor en el Bastille. No where else is safer. Por que do necessitamos mas de uno person aqui?”

“You just don’t want to stay with me,” Lannis muttered, still concentrating. “And here I thought we were friends.”

“Si, we are amigos.”

“Then as a good friend, stay here with Stabbity McBoogieelf and keep me company while the Hat Trick goes and make believe they’re the useful part of this party.”

“If it wasn’t going to screw up your scrying,” Lyra said, “I’d give you such a shot.”

“Great, Princess! Have fun on your field trip. Wyn, could you let the garbage out, the flies are getting noxious and I don’t have a tail to swish them away.” Lannis reconcentrated on the Crystal ball (<Int check, Pink 4) and waited, watching the colors shift within.

Wyn went to the secret door and once sure it was still quiet, opened it up and let Brendon, Kovid, and Lyra out. “Knock trios times when you want to come back,” he said.

As they crossed the summoning room, relying on Brendon’s continual light coin for illumination, the elf reshut the secret door and went back to the secret room where Kovid’s battered lantern still was. “Dey be gone. It’s better dis way.”

Abraxas shook his head. “I don’t agree with this. Tambien, si we didn’t leave 10 mins ago, ahora doesnt matter in stopping Smullpacks swelling ranks. We needed todos el tiempo to make it work. We could potentially go after Mirrorballs, ella seems like she may be alone, o at very least con menos amigos que CreamTruth, o Smellpesh, o Optimus Furry, o Raging Zeppelin. Even los Harpies y Poddles have amigos. Mirrorballs may be our best option to attack next. Then we should have the Lab to ourselves."

“Let’s ‘ope dat Monsieur Offop can let us know.”

“I’ll stand by the door to let them in when they come back,” Abraxas took his Scythe and moved south, Wyn placed the lantern in the hall to illuminate both areas, and stood there watching over the magic user as he did his thing.

Brendon let the smaller group to the opposite door and then through that one to the short hall. Once there he listened (<Hear Noise, +20% quiet, Red 39) and strained (WMC: Red/Black 6 – no), but heard nothing. “Clear,” he whispered, and Kovid nodded, opening the door quietly, the dwarf looking both ways. The hall was empty, and we could hear nothing anymore coming down the east hall.

“Goblins moved on?” he guessed.

“Quiet,” Lyra pointed to the other door to the Garden. “Who knows for how long.”

We crossed the hall and Brendon listened again, hearing still nothing. With exaggerated care he opened the door and shone his light in to look around. It still looked the same as before, dirt, wild plants, over grown, 4’ tall thorny bushes, obscured pathways under the foliage, and plants and vines growing everywhere including up to parts of the ceiling. The Cleric motioned the group to go ahead, Her Lolthian Flail out, closing the door most of the way but keeping it open a crack. “I’ll listen here. Check out the fireplace and chimney and then get the fuck back here.”

“This place gives me the creeps,” Kovid noted, the dwarf and Scout stuck to the north side of the room, staying off the dirt. They made their way to the corner and turned south, Lyra being left in gloomy darkness at this point, watching and waiting.

It was shy of the fireplace that they stopped, the smell of wet earth and mud getting stronger. There were about a half dozen immature and spindly looking 8” tall mushrooms here, and two others, much larger and more mature, obvious Shriekers. Those had been placed in clay pots and had been put just outside the Fireplace on the flagstones.

“Look,” Kovid frowned. The fireplace was filled with at least 3 courses of cobbled stones, each one set with thick mud acting like a mortar. It was crude work, but the goblins and hobgoblins had bricked up the Chimney and flue going down by three layers of heavy block. “That’s…pretty fucking smart,” he groused. “It’ll take us at least an hour to clear it. And will make some noise.”

“To say nothing of the Shriekers.”

“Two grown ones, and 6 immature ones for now,” Kovid laid his hand on Brendon Shoulder and pulled him back. “We saw what we need to see. Let’s go back, this was just to get information.”

Meanwhile, Lyra (<Wis Check, -4 penalty, White 10), was quiet, watching the shadowy garden and its thick plant life. Her eyes were hyper focused and the taller thick bushes seemed to sway now and again. It was after a few minutes that the sight of it and why it bugged her for some reason came to her mind.

They were swaying in unison.

The dwarf and scout rejoined her and the three of them left the Garden, making sure the door was closed tight, and then crossed the hall and shit all the doors behind them until they were once again back in the Summoning Room and Brendon raised his hand to knock on the wall three times…

Meanwhile, after about 10 minutes, Lannis muttered, “Oooo, yeah. We’re getting something.”

“What you see?” Wyn asked.

“Ok. Mirabellis. And…I got her. She is in her room, the one that was half nice, half abattoir? I can see her. She’s on the floor not too far from her bad. Has a book or two open, and she’s sewing.”

“Sewing?” Abraxas asked. “Like a dress?”

“Let me check, spread the image out a bit…and we just crossed over to creepity shit. She’s sewing bodies together. Like dead salamanders. She has cut them, stripped off some flesh, and is SEWING the bodies together. Like side to side and back to back.”

“Dat don’t sound good.”

“Is she alone?”

“Pulling back a bit. I can see the big assed panther with her.”

“Piddles.”

“Christmasbells an o Poodles isn’t too hard,” Abraxas noted.

“And we would want to stop her afore she makes de dead beast wit 2 backs.” Wyn looked up, “Anyting else?”

“Yeah. Her hat is real nice. I like the style of it. I’m more of a broad brim sort of guy, but she really is working that blue and the longer conical shape.”

“Focus, Offop!”

“Sorry. Ok, there are 3…and 3…goblins. Sort of. Guarding the room for her.”

“What you mean? Sort of guarding?”

“No, sort of Goblins. Three at the north area that lead to the Dead Duchess and 3 at the door that lead to heal outside the Sanctuary. I mean sort of goblins, as in, they have no flesh on them. Just goblin skeletons.”

“Shit.”

“Dat sounds not good.”

“No. And she is yelling at something right now.”

“Can you hear who it is?”

“Is it Paddles?”

“No. It’s small and at her side.”

“Like an imp?”

Lannis squinted. “No…It’s small, like a doll. She is yelling at it and pointing at her bed. She seems real…mad. Like frothing at the mouth mad. Like she is hitting it with the book mad. Like she just picked up a knife and is stabbing it mad.”

“What is it?”

“She’s really beating it up now, smacking it against the ground, picture is all blurry here she’s pretty frantic. Ok, she just threw it to the floor and picked her needle again to sew so I can see what it was…Ugh! Ugh!!”

“Wot! Wot is it!?"

“It’s…it’s…it’s a small doll! Dressed in pink! And it has a pink hat! And she is REAL mad at it!”

“Pink, huh?” Wyn smirked. “Like a robe?”

“I can’t tell! It’s could be a dress. It’s not pants and a shirt, that’s for sure!” The image went dark and he looked up. “I can’t imagine who it is supposed to be, but she was definitely not happy with whoever that figure was a representation of, I can tell you!”

At that point we heard a knocking at the secret wall, three times. Abraxas opened it and let the 3 party members back in. Once the door was shut again, we all gathered around and shared what we had learned so far.

Time now is Day 9, 11:20 AM

(OOC)

Ok! Crystal ball is done until tomorrow. Some info learned. What would the group like to do.