Dark Hope - Chapter 1 - Pan Town

[Thonunian]

If you wish, Thonunian, be at Atrus' side when he looks in to the western door

If you want to make yourself useful, pure-blood, come over here and get ready to do something once the door opens.

Not sure who really needs him more Thonunian shrugs at Tänya, then heads over to a point halfway between the two other doors, ready to help whoever looks like he needs it.

[ooc]Why didn't you respond when Tänya called you Half-blood, Ahkash?[/ooc]

[Ahkash]

[ooc] She never called me it. Only thought it or used it in describing me. I've been waiting for someone to use it aloud.

And btw everybody, there's a whole thread for ooc comments remember? [/ooc]

[Tänya]

Seeing no further information on the Dark Flame room was forthcoming, and watching Thonunian take a stance between the west and north doors, Tänya moves next to Atrus so she can see into the room that was chained as he opens the door.

[if White Blossom has anything to say regarding Tänya entering that room, now would be the time, DM. If she can make anything out through peeking in, Spot and Listen checks as much as possible please.]

[Mephiston]

The eastern room is completely covered by chains it is difficult to move inside the room (i did balance checks for tanya and atrus). Apart from the chains, the room seems empty.

The norther room is quite big. You can see at the end of the room a throne, it seems made by wood and rocks.
Dark wooden columns carry the weight of the ceiling.
You can see 3 exits, one to the left and two to the right.

Scattered on the ground there are many stones and pieces of wood, like a part of a hill was crumbled... but the ceiling is solid.

In the middle of the chamber, you can see some stones and pieces of wood that rise in the air and then they crumble to the ground. It seems like if magnet was placed in the ceiling and the pieces of stones and wood were iron.
This movement doesn't seem to end.

[Ahkash]

The half-elf moved warily into the chamber, looking around carefully. Stooping, he picks up a small stone and throws it across the room, through the cloud of rising and falling stones, poised to leap backward out of the room at need.

[Mephiston]

Just as clarification,
on the map there are 2 kind of columns, white and brown... the are the same.

I'm updating the map putting Renard outside the throne room.

Ahkash throws a stone in the middle of the room, it lands noisly near the rising and falling stones... then it starts to rise and fall itself with the other stones.

[Tänya]

Keeping an eye on Atrus, to see if he saw the same things in this room as she did, Tänya moved about the room of chains as best as she was able, handling the chains and searching to see if anything was hidden behind or beneath them.

[ooc]Spot and Search checks in more detail if possible, DM. "Seems empty" sounds...suspicious. Once satisfied chains are all that is there, if that is the case, Appraise check the metal of the chains. Just to see if any are worth having Solana transport for trade or any other potential value to the party.[/ooc]

[Renard]

Watching Ahkash's techniques in checking a room, Renard smiles at the hands-on approach he takes.
"Looks suspicious, doesn't it?" He offers unnecessarily.
Then a little more constructively, "Do the broken pieces of wood look like the same type as the columns and throne to you, Ahkash?"

<Renard will then try to see if there is indeed a similarity in wood type, colour, etc ... without wandering in to the room as yet...>

After making is own feeble attemps to deduce this. he will call out to Tänya, "Arwenamin, when you have a moment, would you be so kind as to come and determine wood types for us?"

[Ahkash]

"Don't know," he answered the bard. "But I do know I'm not walking through that in a hurry."

He grinned. "Perhaps the elves, with their superior arcane knowledge, should examine it."

In the meantime, he sidled around the room, keeping the wall at his back, and examined the three exits carefully.

[Mephiston]

Tanya searches carefully the room, but she has to move slowly.
The room is empty.

Ahkash moves silently near the first right exit and he looks inside... he spot 6 skeletons each with rusty armors and blades!
Before you can do anything one of them one of them disappear!

(Map updated)

[Renard]

[ooc] the map has regressed ... can't see the room anymore... [/ooc]

[Tänya]

[ooc]...try again...I see the change...[/ooc]

[Mephiston]

[ooc] the picture is fine in my browser...[/ooc]

[Renard]

[ooc] darn, all i see is the first version of the map. Darn company server...[/ooc]

[Ahkash]

[ooc]Again...ctrl+F5 to refresh your cache.[/ooc]

Ahkash leaps back as far as he can, shouting to the rest of the party, "'Ware the skeletons!"

Realising that his rapier would be useless against fleshless bone, and his dagger little better, he quickly draws his crowbar from his pack, to use as an improvised club, and prepares to defend himself.

[Atrus]

Hearing Akhash's cry, Atrus looks longingly at the chains, but yells to Tanya "Looks like they could use a hand! Ready for some fun?" His smile is filled with blood and rage as he darts out the door to join the fight, drawing his new greatsword and screaming obscenities.

[Ahkash]

Suddenly, as through struck by some strange impulse, the half-elf dropped the crowbar to the floor, and drew a sleek and viciously cold-looking dagger from his belt instead.

He dropped into a knife-fighters crouch, and waited.

[Tänya]

Seeing only rusting metal, and nothing behind or underneath the chains, Tänya takes a firm grip upon White Blossom, and runs out of the room, hoping to be able to be appraised of the situation by the bard before any course of action is taken.

[Thonunian]

Thonunian draws his sword and runs towards the room, pausing 15 feet behind Ahkash. On his next turn, he casts Disrupt Undead...

..unless something makes it seem he shouldn't, like with the chain beast...

[ooc]Listen, Search, and Spot checks to see if he notices anything unusual, besides the skeletons.[/ooc]

[Renard]

Although his first impulse is to draw his rapier, Renard observes Ahkash's reaction to the skeletons --("Skeletons! Gods, what path has this merchant's son found himself on!" -- and keeping his rapier sheathed in the hard casing of the walking stick, makes use of this improvised club and comes to Ahkash's side (if possible) to hold back the flood of skeletons in the doorway...

And in a brief moment of song:

Hear the sound of swords fulfill the night
Feel the winds of undead on your skin
See these blades fly, streaking in the sky
Hear the silent screams of skeletons, as they die --- again.

...for song is the only way Renard has to disassociate himself with the horror of the moment...