as ruby digests the elven bread she also digests syrathics words. she always had her family, even when she didn;t want them. this was hard for her to imagine.

when finished eating she stands up and brushes herself off. ruby walks to the opening and finds she has no desire to go in. she begins to hum, this time only for herself. her courage rises and she mounts wyrd, prepared, now to enter, but still knowing she can never be prepared for what lies within.

[ 11-14-2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: RevRuby ]

The lamassu addresses Dantes with almost a salute and the then takes off into the air. Wheeling back towards its mountain home.
Dantes turns and adresses the group, "Those of you with mounts will probably want to leave them here. Some of the caverns are very narrow, and I doubt a horse would be able to make the journey. It could take us days to reach the other side of these tunnels, and make it to where Dankorona was attacked bby it. Hopefully we will be able to find some clues as to how to stop this thing."
Dantes walks over to Clonnin and unceremoniously pushes Dankorona off the animal's back. The gnome falls with a loud thud waking him up mid-snore.
**********************
Dankorona was having a wonderful dream of having a pipe by a fire with a full belly. He wasn't cut out for adventuring and he would be the first to admit it, and he wasn't used to this rough travelling. But he knew the importance of this mission and he still the felt deep the stabbing pain that was the loss of his gnomish brothers. This pain was suddenly overtaken by a sharp pain in the back of his head. Dankorona opens his eyes. He was lying flat on his back looking up at a group of shifting shadows, presumably Dantes, and a horse. Also he noticed that he was no longer tangled in the tent, in fact the tent was nowhere to be found, and neither were his pants. Dankorona turned a deep shade of red, when he realized that the entire camp was ready to go and he had slept through the whole thing. A frown found his face as well when he felt his empty belly grumble and he realized that he had slept through breakfast. Dankorona picked himself up with as much dignity as a depantsed gnome could muster and set about to find his knickers.

OOC: I hope this meets everyone's approval?

<font color=thistle>The cleft in the stones opens into the semblance of a passageway. Jumbles of rough and broken rocks upon the sloping floor of this stone corridor, however, promise to make movement difficult. The passage slopes downward rather steeply for some distance and looks to be wide enough to allow two human-sized figures just enough room to move side by side. The air in the passage is still and has a slightly stagnant quality about it and sound seems to travel well between the hard stone walls of the seam in the earth. </font>

<font color="99ff00"> Morguerat gives Dankorona some smoked sausage he had prepared for breakfast, but found himself too lacking in appetite to eat more than a few bites. he thought momentarily and recalled the incantation to make Clonin invisible cast the spell and told him to run free and return to their homeland until he was called upon again. As the sound of the mighty warhorse thundering away faded Morguerat drew the glowing coin and stepped into the cleft in the rock face to see what was in the immediate area.</font>

[ 11-14-2002, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

Dantes accepted his coin gratiously from the priest. He produced a small rectangular piece of bark from his spell components. He then fashion the piece of bark into a hollow cylinder slightly smaller on one end. He tied the cylinder into a place with a bit of twine and slipped the coin within. He then stoppered one end with a bit of cork. The device projected a beam of light forward from the open end of it.

OOC: bascially I fashioned a crude flashlight, I remember Cadderly made one in the clerical quintet, with basically the same idea. I figured Dantes would be smart enough to come up with something like that. If there are any objections I can remove the post. Lord Starshadow where is your character so I can RP Dankorona getting his clothes back? also are any of his items visible?

<font color=lightgreen>Syrathic stood just outside the cave, leaning against the mountainside. The gnome's things sat in a pile at his feet, except for the knife and money pouch. He didn't need the money, but he did wonder how long it would take him to notice that those two things were missing. "Hey gnome!" he called. "Why is your stuff sitting near the entrance to the cave? Are you that eager to head back in?" He looked at Dankorona and shook his head, chuckling softly at his prank. The gnome seemed to be trying to ignore his current knicker-less situation. "And put some pants on, please!"

From his position near the opening, he had a good view of everyone. The elf appeared relaxed, as if he were waiting for a friend to meet him. However, he was keeping a close eye on Rhianneth, his eyes following her moves from under the hood of his cloak. He still had no idea of her intent, and as he had said previously, his eyes would be on her. He fingered the gnome's knife underneath his cloak. It wasn't balanced for throwing, so he was still without a missile weapon. If Rhianneth tried anything, he would be at a severe disadvantage if he were any distance away. "There's got to be some throwing knives around here somewhere. Maybe we'll come across some while traveling in the cave." He still shuddered at the thought.

As Morguerat walked by, the elf stopped him. "I'm glad that you don't trust our newcomer either," he said softly. "One of us will keep an eye on her at all times. The others may not like it, however, so we will have to be conspicuous."

To everyone else, he said, "Where would I be positioned as we travel? I prefer to do advance scouting or keep watch in the rear to make sure nothing follows. But I will defer to our leader's decision, of course." </font>

<font color=indianred>Brendon Grey

Brendon took his place in the slow-moving group. He had his bow out and was nervously plucking at the bowstring as the caverns became darker. He mainly kept his eyesight on the ground, watching his footsteps with care. He didn't like walking on stony, unsure footings, but at least his skill in ranger-stealth helped a little. His vision for a human was very good...It had to be for an archer...but in this darkness all he had to depend on was the little specks of light that his companions were creating with their coins and things. At least he knew where they were...so that fighting in this darkness would be less hazardous. Still, the limited light only produced a short-distance vision to the ranger, and he was most unhappy with that. He would have to depend on his hearing instead of his eyesight to land an arrow at an enemy, if they encountered one. The elves could see better in the darkness, so he hoped that one of them would see danger coming soon enough to alert Brendon to send a few missles of death at any would-be attacker. This seemed like it was not going to be a good day. Or night. Or...whatever...</font>

ruby decides to ride wyrd as far as possible, but she could never leave him behind. he could not hunt on his own in this land, and she could do little to help without him. wyrd sniffs Dankorona as he rambles through his things, but leaves him in one peice. ruby looks to syrathic, "it's so small in there. i don;t care where you are but, and please don;t take offense, don;t walk too close to me. i can't stand tight places!"

[ 11-15-2002, 11:22 AM: Message edited by: RevRuby ]

<font color=silver>ooc: <font color=turquoise>A quick note on missile weapons:</font> - The use of archery in the tunnels will be difficult as it will be nearly impossible to ‘arch’ an arrow’s flight. Thus the range of bows, especially longbows, will be greatly decreased while the group is underground. <font color=indianred>Brendon</font> - Your bow will allow you to fire at targets a bit more distant than a typical bow would, but it will still suffer a dramatic decrease in range. Crossbows will suffer no real penalties.</font>

[ 11-15-2002, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

<font color=silver>ooc: OK it's late, but what the hell it needs to be said:

<font color=skyblue, size=+3>HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LARRY!!!!!</font>

Afterall I'm only 2 days late and any opportunity to embarass the man behind the Modding Mage of IW is worth taking [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img]

Seriously, though -- here's wishing you all the best over the coming year.</font>

[ 11-15-2002, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]