I had to actually call the player running Lannis when I rolled the wandering monster again - and got the Owlbear. So a patrol of Hobgoblins walking behind him and Hoots ahead of him - he had to figure out a way to thread the needle and get the hell out of dodge.
Follows:
TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY ONE
(I/C)
Picking up one of the healing potions and the potion of invisibility, Brendon made sure the group was ok with his choices before putting them in his pouch. “Wyn,” he asked, “If the orcs could detect our heat signature on the floor could you or Lil man do the same for the coward?”
Wyn shrugged, taking the three arrows and getting a nod from the Scout. “Monsieur du Lac, by dis time, after all de searchin, Offop's trail might have literally gone cold.”
“Damn. Alright, we should still go and see where he ran off to and why. I’m sure his excuse will be something like it’s our fault or his nipples were in danger.”
Kovid chuckled, rubbing his arms for warmth. “Well, if infravision is out, and I agree, Wyn, how about you and Brendon, do you think you can track Lannis? We need to get the party back together and then find someplace to warm up.”
Lyra picked up one of the potions and handed it to the dwarf. “Should give one of those potions to Kovid - he gave his to me.”
“Thanks lass.”
“Any time,” she frowned. “It’s been at least 10 minutes since anyone made a wise crack horse comment or the like.” She took a wavering breath and shuddered. “I know my proposition of resting was denied earlier? How about now? After we find that little snob, of course.”
Abraxas picked up a potion for himself and then a second one, holding it up for the party. "Amigos, gracias por pass out the potions, pero save uno por Señor Lankiss. No sabemos que made him run as he did. Maybe something mucho peligroso chased him. Perhaps he kept Hoots from attacking us from behind. Tenemos a assume he did it con intent bueno. So I say, save him a potion.”
There was some nods and grumbling as the group was about ready to go. Abraxas smile dropped to a more sinister grin as he added, “And if he proves to just be a coward who willingly abandoned us, we can make him choke on it.” He reached down for the silver holy symbol. “I can carry the little dragon, if weight is an issue. Are we all splitting the coins now or when we find Señor Lansteis?”
Wyn gestured to the fighter. “Monsieur Salazar, I agree dat we should save a potion fer de Mouth. But Priestess, Yerself en du Lac look like ye got between a gator wit a toothache en a rabid polecat... mayhaps Priestess cen cast Aine's blessin' upon some of ye en odders should use a potion? Don't wanna run inta Hoots or any odder Hobs in yer shape.”
“As soon as we figure out what and where we are going, I’ll help take care of the healing,” Lyra assured the party.
“Muchos gracias, Lady Lyuria, por your healing touch, I'd be grateful.”
Wyn quickly doled out the silver and copper coins (everyone add 12 silver and 6 copper except Brendon who takes 5 copper. There is 11 silver and 5 copper for Lannis if/when we find him) “Also, we cen split the coin we found now. I'll hold onto Offop's share till we find em.”
The group back together and ready to move on, Abraxas spun his scythe once and then pointed to the passage out of here. “Vamonos amigos, let's find that Usaro de Majik!"
The party headed off through the silent zone once again until they left the Aquifer and at the stairs were able to hear once more. Brendon led the party up the steps and down the long corridor, the party had their eyes wide and senses sharp. At the second larger set of steps they took them slowly and with care, stopping near the top to see Lannis’ conical wizard’s hat discarded on the floor. Hand up, Brendon stopped to listen (>Hear Noise +15 bonus, Red 79) but shook his head after a moment. “Nothing nearby.” He poked the hat with his sword and then picked it up, looking both north and east from the corner but seeing no other signs or clues.
“Alright. That’s a bit disturbing,” Lyra noted.
“Yeah,” the dwarf grunted, “And when it’s not on his head, makes you wonder how he can get his big brain in such a small hat.”
Wyn frowned, “I don't tink he'd have left his hat if he had his wits about him. He loves that hat almost as much as his mom."
“Whoa,” Brendon held up one hand. “Let’s not make crazy comments like that.”
“I’m sure the gulf between his hat and is mom is a bit larger than you are giving him credit for,” the Cleric chuckled.
The elf was thinking. “Dere were trois adepts, oui?”
“Yep.”
He pointed to the Scout, “We know one tried to blind ye with light and dere is de silence spell, which means de odder salamander probably cast sometin too... now Offop is a frightful little ting, but usually it has to involve himself getting stabbed.”
“What you thinking, Wyn?”
The elf tapped his chin twice and then shrugged with a smile. “Never mind. I got nothing.”
Abraxas sighed. “When I was blinded, I heard the grande pollo, Corfard in my capeza talking. Mayhap that’s what happened to Senor Longitude, make him run and go loco.” He looked around, “Señor Wyngus, which way, you think?
Wyn held up 4 fingers. "Ok, so we got 4 choices for a place he would tink is "safe". Two on where we stayed holed up in de past... De butcher room, de barracks... en two places dat his irrational love for books would make him run to... de hidden room where we found de dwarf's hammer en de scriptorium.”
“Makes sense to me,” the dwarf nodded. “Butcher, Barracks, Grotto, Scriptorium.” He arched one eyebrow. “What’s your gut tell you?”
(Random d4: Orange 2 – Barracks!) “I would say de Barracks would be de most likely place ta go.”
“Why?”
(<Cha check, “making the case”, Orange 3! Boo yah) “It’s not part of the main circle o’ de castle lower floor. We ‘ave de long corridor an de north south run. You can make a case dat dey know about de Butcher an most likely found out we was dere recently so dat would be no go. We ‘eard de explosion o de oil room so dat don’t seem like a good choice ta go at least nearly at first. An de grotto is a good choice to go an look at but we know dat de hobs don’t like dat room an avoid it. But if dey were to go trew dere, dere is no place for Lannis to hide as it’s a big chamber.”
The party mulled it over but decided the Barracks was a good first choice. So they headed east, Brendon asking in a whisper, “What about Hoots? Didn’t he go this way?”
From the back of the party the Fighter nodded, “Si. But that was at lease 20 minute, 30 minutes ago.”
“Should be ok,” Kovid offered. As they came upon the entrance room with the sofa, the dwarf was giving the floor a serious once over (>Half Wisdom, stone tracking issue?, Yellow 19 – no) before announcing, “No signs of scuffing or marks. We should be good to go.”
The party moved on to the north and east passage and took it to the long end where they looked north (WMC: Red/Black 3) and were relieved to see no lights, candles, patrols, or anything else. They walked with care to the mid point of the long hall and gave the western door a once over, before opening it and heading down the short flight to the lower door. After another tense listening they opened it up, saw the corridor was clear north and south, and headed to the Lower Barracks. From somewhere else in the Castle far to the west, they could hear the furious angry bellow of the Owlbear “Hrrroooohaaaa!” which made the group shudder. “Thank Aine we decided to go this way. Not ready to face the Owlbear.” The party nodded in agreement and then moved to the Barracks and looked around.
The room had been ransacked earlier and the elven bodies disturbed. But it didn’t seem like anything else had gone on since. Once inside, Abraxas shut the door behind the party as they crossed the room and the Scout led them up the short stairs there and to the closed door at the Upper Barracks. He opened it and peered within, seeing nothing yet.
The group entered and looked around, seeing no sign of their erstwhile wizard or that he might have been here recently. “Zoot alors!” Wyn pouted.
Meanwhile Lannis opened the door and slipped through, shutting it 95% of the way closed behind him and then took out a torch. “Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap,” he thought as he concentrated on one of his cantrips and a Spark blossomed out, igniting the brand in his hand. Able to see finally, he shivered from the cold and turned to the stairs, climbing up them swiftly, head feeling strange without his hat. He glanced to his left at the former kobold warren chamber.
The bottom of the door had been scarred and eaten by the green slime and hung poorly. “If I hide here, no where to run to not a good choice. Move on Lannis,” he admonished himself and stepped into Grilljax’ chamber, faintly hearing the sound of marching feet somewhere far behind him. A look around the ransacked chamber let him know this was not going to work so he went on to the Statue Room with the 2 doors on the eastern wall.
(WMC: White 1 – I fucking laughed at this. What? Red/Black 3 – OWLBEAR! Literally could not stop laughing. Called Dean and discussed what was about to happen – so here we go! Distance: 2d6x10’ = 1+3=40’ away.)
And Lannis could hear “Wrrrhooooo….haaa” coming from what sounded like just on the other side of the northern door. “No, no, no, no, fucking hell what did I ever do to deserve this NO!” he thought with barely controlled panic. He went to turn around to maybe run off to the warren chamber after all when he heard the door at the bottom of the stairs open and goblinoid voices in the distance chatting.
Turning back to the 2 doors, he cracked his knuckles, readied his torch, and opened…the Northernmost door with the Owlbear behind it.
For half a second the two figures stared at each other, the 1,500 lb ursine monstrosity ambling down the hall its fur and feathers covered in gore and blood, and the 150 lb wounded weary and harried mulleted magic user with a single lone torch in his hand. (Owlbear Reaction roll (-2 penalty): 1+2 -2 = 1 Hatred and attack!
“HRROOOOO-HAAAAA!” Hoots roared in anger and CHARGED at Lannis who ran to the south door, tore it open and ran through, turning around and walking backwards as he chanted (BX Baby, backwards walking rapid casting of spell -2, Pink 6 – yeah!) as fast as he could, “IN ARACHNE REIF!!” and the corridor was filled with scores of criss crossing strands of thick sticky webbing.
He had barely three heartbeats to admire his results before the door was torn open and the horror of the rampaging Owlbear shrieked in fury as it tried to force itself through the webs by sheer grit, will, and power. Hearing another scream and then realizing it was coming from himself, Lannis turned and ran into the darkness, his torch trailing sparks behind him as Hoots tried to get through the web and slaughter the fleeing mage.
Lannis couldn’t see it, but the Hobgoblin and Goblin patrol tore up the stairs at the scream of the Owlbear and on seeing the beast ripping and tearing the hell out of the southern corridor for some reason (Reaction check: 6+6 = fuck no!) all stopped, backed up slowly, and shut the door, heading back the way they came, the lead hobgoblin muttering, “I’d say it’s safe to assume the infidels were not in this direction.” The goblins all agreed with him and the group of 13 headed back to the kobold warrens to wait the situation out.
The Magic User had run to the end of the hall and then turned north, seeing the door to the classroom ahead of him. After making sure the hall was clear, he entered the chamber and shut the door behind him. The room was destroyed. Every desk had been consumed by flames, the blackboard was gone, the door on the opposite of the room and this one, the back sides were black and charred. The room smelled horribly of burnt oil. Looking through the pit area, he could see the scriptorium as the bottom 4’ of the opposite room had been blown open, the long dormant and unfired trap had been sprung finally.
Looking into the pit he saw nothing, it was pitch black. Not trusting what time he had left, Lannis flipped open his spellbook and cast a spell from the pages within. The book shuddered and the paper turned to fire and burned away but when it was done, Lannis was floating half an inch from the ground the levitation spell took immediate effect. “Gotta go,” he muttered, hearing Hoots still roaring in the hall. “At least I know they are looking for me,” he sighed, extinguishing his torch and plunging the room to darkness again.
He then pulled himself through the hole and let himself sink down to the floor where the ground was sooty and cruddy. He took some of the soot and did his best to obscure the lighter patches of his clothing and skin until there was no chance anyone even trying to look would see him hovering a foot off the ground and 10’ below them in the foul smelling dark.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “No one is going to believe the day I’ve been having.” He sighed. “Hope they come soon. I think…I think I don’t want to be alone for too long.”
Time now is Day 7, 4:17 PM
(OOC)
Lannis Add 75 xp
Ok! Everyone is at the same time stamp. What now? Lannis – 100 minutes to go on levitate.
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