Ironworks Gaming Forum - Part 7>>>The Shadow of Love (an LoF adventure)

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- - Part 7>>>The Shadow of Love (an LoF adventure) (http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61881)

Nanashi xx/xx

Just as Andrion had heard it from his own room, so too was Nanashi alerted to the intruders. Knowing how Echo worked, she knew that he must have become bored with an intruder and decided it was time to call out for help. She heard the voices of at least three men, and maybe more. The Tower was being beseiged and the Master was not home!

Nanashi was in charge, and so took control of the situation. That meant to her that she would prove to her Master that she was worthy of his blessings by taking the entire team on alone instead of calling for backup. She would single-handedly kill them all, and then she'd earn a great reward!

Hungry for the prowl, she began her search. Where would Echo lead her?

Morguerat

Nodding at Larry he hefted the unconscious woman, "Shadow, please lead us to the guardians of the tower, and let us face what you have in store, unless you're afraid your masters guardians can't handle us." He winked at larry, hoping that the shadow's mischievous nature would cause it to lead them in circles lengthening the chase of any guardian, or trying to scare them with misleading statements and directions. If it amused the shadow more to lead them in circles than to summon guardians the chances were about even that it would do so, taking delight in their confusion... That or it would lead them directly to their deaths, but for a creature that seemed so capricious and flakey he determined the risk of direct peril to be minimal, and worth a shot, unless someone else had a better idea.

================================================== =============================
Yevaud

The bladesinger cursed softly and circled away from the beast again. The time for decisive action was now he decided, and rolled to a position directly opposite Ana, where he began casting (Larry, check PM’s)

[ 07-30-2006, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Echo
The echo's laughter danced around the room, sounding like a chorus of deviants.

"My friends! You are guests in this house...guests in this house...this house"

"Just take a seat, and someone will be along in a moment to assist you...in a moment to assist you...assist you"

To emphisize the joke, the shadows melded about the room to form three chairs and a soft-looking bed, complete with a pillow. They looked nearly as tangeable as real furniture. 

[ 11-04-2005, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Kynnen ??/85

The door opened to reveal a rather comical and most rare sight. A Drow, his dark skin clad in armor of an even darker visage, stood and looked at the sun. The Great Darkness was safe in it's Cage, but his bag and a few other meaningless fabrics have been torn. Which leads us to why the sight is comical. Having no serviceable container to carry his larger items, he had to use his hands. In his left hand, he held the head of the dead mage by it's hair. In his right hand, he held the skull of a dead warrior. One that talked from time to tme. And did so now. "Ah... the sun!" the skull let out in an empty skeletal wisp that somehow still conveyed the emotions of rapture. "Agh... the sun." the Drow let out in a disgusted drow tone that flawlessly conveyed the emotions of hatred.
At first, the idea to bring a skull along out seemed preposterous to him. The fool willingly risked it's life... unlife for the life of another, and deserved no more that to be taken advantage of. And so, Kynnen laughed in his face, and proceeded to walk out, back towards the wretched light of day. And then, for no apparent reason other than the twisted sense of honour the drow possesed, he came back, picked up the skull, careful not to expose himself to any bites of opportunity, and continued out. After all, what is a harmless talking skull of a warrior compared to the talking head of a powerful wizard. Thankfully, the head of Andrion has been silent so far.


[ 11-05-2005, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Joseph

There he goes again! Run, run, run. Always in a hurry. Don’t seem this kid does anything without being in panic mode. He sighs audibly. “Slow down, kid, the big guy’ll need a minute to pick up the dame and running around upset ain’t no sensible way to get anything done.” He stands and with a sweep of his arm resumes speaking, “Hell, take our buddy Echo here. You don’t see him getting all worked up. But then, again, it ain’t his job to get all worked up. Ain’t that right, pal? You see it seems to me that we got us a bit a of confusion here about your status. Larry here thinks he made you and you seem to have this killer rep as some kinda representative of this shadow guy what built this joint.” He stops a moment for effect and then continues.

“Now, I admit I ain’t the sharpest guy in the world, but I just don’t see it that way. You see fellas, what we got here ain’t no powerful spirit. What we got here is a security system.” He now speaks with a confident fluidity about his words that allows for no interruption. “A state of the art security device, to be sure, and a guy like me knows a thing or two about security systems let me tell ya, but a security device all the same. You see mages are funny folks but they tend to realize that stuff like exploding runes and dangerous enchanted monsters ain’t much good for killing guys like us who just happen to wander through their towers if there ain’t no way to activate the runes or to let the monsters know that lunch is being catered. That’s where our buddy Echo comes in, right, pal? Sometimes a guy can break into a joint like this and what he runs into are things called shriekers, those guys go all the way back to the old 1e Monster Manual, which are like great big mushrooms. But these things react to light and sound and motion and start making with ear-splitting screams when something bothers them. Of course, shriekers are strictly amateur stuff. Other guys what want to fine tune the alarm system a bit use a special version of the old spell Magic Mouth – you know that one where a mouth suddenly appears on a door or a wall or an autographed picture of some extra-planar celebrity and makes with a bit of speakin’ or a bit of yellin’. Hell, I even seen one of those mouths spit fire on ‘ol Jimmy Lightfingers during a job a while back. Sad what happened to Jimmy..... but hey, life’s full of tough breaks, right?”

“Echo here,” he says with a flourish of his arm, “is a lot like the old Magic Mouth spell. Fancier maybe, but not all that different.” From his pockets he pulls out a slender metal rod, hooked at the end, which resembles a lockpick. He tosses it into the air, withdraws what seems to be a skeleton key and tosses that upward also. He then produces three balls which he likewise tosses upward and with a graceful series of movements begins to juggle the items. “In my line of work you learn a thing or two about alarm systems. Sometimes you try and disarm ‘em. Sometimes you just let them go off, kinda like we done here with our buddy Echo. And that’s because why the guy using the alarm thinks it works in his favor, sometimes a decent alarm system is a thief’s best friend.” His arms and hands move with a grace that even the most nimble of elves would be hard put to duplicate and he begins to bounce the balls one by one while still juggling the other items. “Things like these take a minute to warm up and, call me strange, but I like to juggle a bit while I wait. As the balls bounce a few times mouths begin to form on them. “There! Ain’t these things great! Cost me a fortune they did, but they do come in handy when a guy’s in a fix like this.” Pocketing the key and the pick, he resumes juggling the balls which begin to form sounds. “Of course, the down side to being an echo is that echoes ain’t able to think all that much for themselves, hell they can only speak what the one they’re echoing says for them. Stop acting according to the plan, and well you got a bit of confusion. And," he addresses Echo, "guys like Larry and the big guy here, well they ain’t nothing if not masters of what the smart folks call improvisation. I bet you even believed the kid really was worried there.” With a series of swift movements he tosses the balls which begin bouncing wildly about the room and out into the corridors reproducing snatches of Larry’s and Echo’s conversation. With each bounce, the sounds multiply.

Turning to Larry he says, “Well what are we waiting for?”

[ 11-07-2005, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

Echo

The Echo was confused. First, it sounded like the strange man was complementing It, but then he wsa reduced to nothing more than a security system that had no self-awareness. Suddenly, Echo was feeling very much like an object and less like the entity that It thought It had become. Was this true, what Joe said? Echo watched as the man named Joe performed a trick of agility and patience right in front of It. 

Larry stopped, turned and watched with strange fascination at what Joe was saying and doing. He was mesmorized by what he saw and heard.

Morgeruat, who held the lean elf-lady within his strong hold, also turned and watched on as this Joe fella was pulling some kind of trick, to be sure. He smiled, wondering at what the guy was up to.


Suddenly, there were voices bouncing about the room in every direction. Echo tried to capture them and use them as he had been to direct Nanashi and Andrion to the main floor, but he could not gain full control over the situation at-hand. There were too many voices bouncing about the walls and they were echoing themselves over and over. Echo could not contain them all, and stop broadcasting his flow of directed echo to the safe-keepers of the tower in order to find a hold on this new situation. 

"Oh! I see...so you had to get rid of our little spy-friend there before we could move on. Nice move, Mr. Joseph! Let's go!"

Morgeruat too was impressed by the thoughtfulness of Joseph. In a way, it reminded him of another character from before that knew that sometimes it was not brute strength that could tear down a wall, rather just a little ingenuity and a fair bit of cleverness.

OOC>>>
Joseph has successfully contained the "alarm" so that there is no direct messaging to any enemies of the tower. This buys the team a few posts worth of time from being attacked.

OOC>>>Let's just move things along out of this area.

Larry Silverfall 23/23

Larry remembered a little about the tower's layout and was able to make it through the first floor's defences easily enough with just a minor setback here or there. There had been no encounters on the first floor which was totally against the original design of the Tower's defences and Larry actually felt a bit of frustration at this, though he was greatful for it at the same time. If they could sneak through this tower with no encounters at all, that would not bother him one bit.

They came finally to the staircase that led to the second floor, and Larry realized that their luck may very well diminish with each floor they ascend. However, he wasted no time at all, and lead his two companions (along with a fainted Senora) up to the second floor.

That is when they ran into their first fight.
Nanashi was at the top of the stairs.

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

For Kynnen:

The sunlight indeed was a heavy burdon on you, especially after emerging from the undground cavern of the catacombs of this forgotten town.

The skull that was Lord Snowdale then says,

"You may set me down now, drow. Right here at the base of the tombs of my people.
I can think of no other place to be."

OOC>>>Kynnen is free to go wherever he wishes to go at this point. Should he return to the castle or go home to his lord, the Reaper, or to another destination...that is his choice.

PS...Your decision will affect your game play. Choose well your fate.

For Vincent and his team:

The half-elf thrusts with the long-sword, followed by the dagger that had both belonged to Silt, the elf who had fallen in the last battle.

The long-sword indeed bit into the thick hide of the creature, which produced a horrible roar of pain and anger from the beast. There, it became lodged and was unable to be retrieved from the daedroth's back as it wheeled around and struck the now visible Vincent with its right-hand claw. The dagger had done nothing to the beast and had remained in Vincent's hand as he was knocked backwards several feet and onto his back. The daedroth charged Vincent intent on making him its first meal, the long-sword still wedged in its back. 

That is when Anarrima finally came through for the team. She had been praying for a special power from her Goddess and as Vincent was struck backwards, her powers were ready. As the daedroth charged at the half-elf, Anarrima spoke aloud her command as she called forth the holy fire from her goddess to cleanse this evil from the castle. A column of fire burst through the ceiling of the castle that was under the swamps and struck the very surprised daedroth, which now screamed and convulged under the massive pillar of burning hell. It faltered in its stand, and fell to its knees and hands. The fire subsided as though it were never there, leaving the daedroth on the floor and trying to regain its strength. 

OOC>>>Vincent has taken a cut of 8 hp damage from the claw strike and the knock-down cost another 1 hp for a total of 9 hp loss.

The attacks produced by Anarrima and Vincent have weakened the creature noticeably. It will now be Yevaud's move.

[ 06-23-2006, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Vincent Pathfinder 89/98

Recovering from the momentary black out from the blow of the creature, he cleared his mind and prepared for the coming charge. He was going to evade back into the shadow's if possible just a searing column of fire came scorching dwon upon the monster. He took this moment to hopefully get of sight and prepare another attack.

Yevaud 32/45

The bladesinger had been hit hard with a poison cloud that left a toxic residue on his skin and clothes. He did not have time, however to worry about such things. In an impressive turn of events, Vincent and Anarrima had been able to weaken the daedroth down considerably, and now it was time for him to do something of worth.

The daedroth had been brought low, but it was speedily recovering. While the opportunity was ripe, Yevaud ran toward the beast and when he came within a close range of it, leaped into the air with a most impressive summersault, his blades swirling about him like a wheel of steel. As the daedroth was sitting up, Yevaud leaped over it, cutting with the precision that only a bladesiger could perform into the head, neck and back of the beast before landing again on the ground, and kicking backwards into the daedroth's chest to knock it backwards and give him some distance. The creature unwantingly obliged with stumbling backwards a few steps while grabbing at the cuts on its head and neck, totally overwhelmed by the last attack after not fully recovering from the previous two.

These three adventurous elves were lethal when they worked together!!

OOC>>>Weee!

Yevaud made a successive attack on the daedroth.
Yevaud now loses 8 hp for the poison. (24/45)
Anarrima and Vincent can take the next move, but be wary.

Anarrima 67/67

Anarrima started working on her next prayer, preparing for another release of divine magical intervention. 

The daedroth meanwhile reached back behind itself and grabbed the blade that had been left in its back, stuck so that the half-elf could not retrieve it. The daedroth tugged at it and managed to free it from its own flesh and fling it across the room, away from the elf that needed it back. 

OOC>>>I was hoping it would not come to this just yet.

Nanashi xx/xx

The were-tiger, being in her hybrid form, was standing at the top of the stairs, testing the wind for intruders just as they came into view on their own. She snarled their way, no reason behind trying to be stealthy since they had seen her at the same time. There were three humans and one female...elf. None mattered but for one. Larry Silverfall. He was here and this was her chance to redeem herself by killing Larry once and for all.

In the second it took for realization to set in, the huntress was in attack mode. Taking one tremendous leap from the top of the stairs, she drew all eyes to her dive as though its act was such a mesmorizing feat as to demand an audience.

How it had come to be, it cannot be written...but within that one quick awe-inspiring leap, Larry was suddenly in her grasp and feeling her teeth rip away the flesh from his neck. 

~~Gasp!!~~...Gurgle...~~Urghph...~~

OOC>>>Larry has lost 19 hp.

4/23

For Marcos:

The green aura over you began to fade away, and you could feel yourself becoming whole once again. The feeling of weightlessness dissapated with the arrival of words from your captors.

"We cannot lose this one yet...his friends are just beyond that door and they are faring better than we expected against the daedroth."

"Impossible! That creature is our finest guardian! What will we do if it falls?"

"That's why we need this one alive, fool. Don't look so worried. I have everything under control."

"Should I send some help to the beast?"

"Let's not insult it with predetermination of its loss just yet. Let's just wait and see if they can stay in the ring another round or two."

The three voices laugh at their own evil designs.

Castle Team:

The daedroth had recovered from the fast-acting triple-attack from these adventurers. It was wounded, but not out of this fight. The woman enchantress was mumbling several feet away. The elf that jumped him with precision was glaring at him only a short distance from where it stood...and the sneaky one that had backstabbed him with that accursed blade was nowhere to be seen again...

The daedroth considered which of the three would be most dangerous, and decided that each had their ability. It did not matter which of the three was to be attacked first, but since the chanting female would take a moment, and the invisible one was nearby from the smell of him, but still out of sight, the only choice right now was to take on the strong, agile one and then head toward the female.

The daedroth reared back and cast out another cloud of crackling plumes from its mouth as it charged straight at Yevaud. The mass of strange substance flew fast and exploded ahead of the daedroth that had spat it, causing lightning to spread within its projected area of effect. 

OOC>>>Roll for Yevaud proves that he was watching and ready with a fast getaway at the sight of the lightning cloud's initial casting. Yevaud lunged to the right side, luring the daedroth's attention away from Anarrima, and tries to keep that attention off of her.

The daedroth continued its run, turning left with the bladesinger and coming close to attacking distance.

Anarrima 67/67

Anarrima was working on the spell she was preparing when a jolt of hot energy shocked her awake from her prayers. She screamed in surprise, since she had not seen the attack coming. Apparently, she was in the area of effect of the plume of lightning that now crackled about wildly in the air.

She also lost her spell.



OOC>>>Anarrima lost her spell.
Anarrima took 13 hp lightning damage, and will continue to suffer damage in # consecutive rounds.

[ 06-23-2006, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Morguerat

The former knight witnessed the tigress strike, Larry was down, bleeding out, quickly he let Senora slide to the ground while he brought the staff up, and then down with all the force he could muster, on the end of the kitty’s tail, the pain would not be overly injurious, but it would definitely remove her attention from bringing Larry past the point of rescue.

As she turned he brought the staff around to fend off her coming counter-attack.

ooc: The action in this post initiates roughly simultaneously with Morguerat’s use of his staff.

Joseph? Larry? Echo? The Modding Mage?

No! Not him, you fool! ….. You fool! ….. Fool!

That’s not the one we seek! ….. One we seek! ….. We seek!

That’s an imposter! ….. An imposter! ….. Imposter!

Echo’s voice calls out even as the strangled cry of pain from the were-tigress’ victim fades. The cry, however, is not the only thing that fades for the shape of the young man grows suddenly malleable and even his scent disperses as if it had not been there at all. The warmth of blood, even its taste, these too dissipate, and the solidity of flesh, of bone to be broken and sinew to be torn, gives way to something other. Something familiar. Something dark……

--- Morguerat’s attack takes place here. ---

…… Shadows - cold, silent and insubstantial, a sharp contrast to the all too palpable sensation of sturdy wood swung with no small force impacting upon the lycanthrope’s body. There is a familiar feel about these shadows, a feel of barely restrained power not unlike that which lies about other things within this tower, a feel not unlike the touch of Master of this place. A feel so close as to be that of a brother ……

“Shut up, Echo!” The tone of command is unmistakable – spontaneous and powerful and moving immediately from order into threat. “I made you and I damn sure can unmake you! Now leave us alone!” The threat is not so firm, nor so cold as the Master’s, but there is something of the Master within it ……

Be that as it may, there is a tentative “But …. but ….. but….” And then Echo falls silent.

The tone of threat changes with a natural, even spontaneous, abruptness to a more familiar voice even as the movement of shadows reveals the presence of Larry standing some distance away. “You were right, Morg! It is coming back – it just takes practice!”

He looks at the puzzled were-tigress whose nostrils flare in recognition of familiar scent about him. “And you…..” His voice is nervous, but firm after the manner of those who seek not to show their fear. Frustration then shows on his face as he cries out, “Ah! Damn it, Morg! You used the wrong end of the staff!” Indeed, plain wood struck the creature, when the other end of the staff bears a sturdy silver cap. As he says this larry glances out of the corner of his eye to the left of the lycanthrope.

There is a movement within the shadows, faint, but real and a scent that moves as well, the scent of one she does not know. And there is sound as of venom being smeared on a blade…..

Fear, valor and nervousness, all of these things show in Larry’s face. But his fists are clenched. And shadows begin to gather about his closed fists.