Kevin's Watch

Led pokes around the crank a bit, and then begins to turn it. From the ceiling of the tower, a long chain starts to descend, with knots in it periodically for climbing. Led turns for quite some time, until the chain reaches all the way to the floor of the tower.

"One of you winged people swing this over so the others can climb on. I'm going to go up and scout the landing, to make sure it's clear."

With that, Led launches himself away from the crank and into the air, reaching for the chain. He nearly misses, and ends up falling a few more feet before he grabs onto the chain. But, he is able to maintain his grip. With that, he starts to scale the chain towards the ceiling of the tower.

[Seven says I got a minimum level of success on my jump.]

Since Sorchat is exploring and she cannot see Vynarkus anywhere, Kali takes the cue. Briefly unfurling shadows from her back she hops out to the chain and swings it back to where everyone is standing.

I guess I climb up when I can. I hope Marrik can lift me up again.

Step out of Sigrid's shadow as she gets near the chain, and climb up behind her.

Fly ahead, until I've caught up with Sorchat. Use Detect Magic once there to complement her Find Traps ability.

No traps are found....the entry to above is simply another tunnel...it goes straight for some 200', before becoming a spiraling staircase downwards, into a large, open hall-type area. Smoke becomes noticeable in the air as you draw near the staircase.

Led waits by the hole in the floor until someone else has made it up, guarding the person's entry. [I'm not sure what the climbing order is, so I can't use a more specific pronoun.] Then he follows the hallway the 200' and waits. [Search checks, please.] Once everybody is in the hall, he'll proceed downwards to the smokey area.

Kali sneaks up with Led.

SKyseeker indicates she will bring up the rear....Marrik suggests, "Next up should be Annelysei....then Kalindriel, Sigrid, myself, Laurel, Katrine, Vynarkus"

Our intrepid scout approaches the end of the 200' hallway. There's a stairway going down, with some amount of smoke floating upwards. Looking down the steps, but managing to maintain his stealth, Led sees 5 large dogs. They're black, with glowing red eyes. There are little bursts of flame coming out of their nostrils. There is a sixth beast, of similar shape but the size of a draft horse. This one has chainmail armor, in addition to being much bigger. Led looks around for any other enemies, then prepares to back up so he can report to the party.

Foreign thoughts in Led's head wrote:Five hounds and one Nessian. See anything else?

The words intruded upon his mind, without notice. Led cries out in surprise, and a little bit in fear, while looking around for the source of the invasion. Sadly for our hero, he does not cry our or look around with any thought for preserving his stealth. The six flaming dog things all raise their heads at his sound, looking up the stairway towards him.

When he hears the animals starting to move towards him, Led stops worrying about the source of the voice, and just turns and sprints back towards the party. "Guys, dogs. Big dogs. Big burning dogs, with evil red glowing eyes. Guys?" He tries to aim his path so that he can avoid crashing into someone, and then rebound off the wall to make a charge back towards the dogs once they've engaged the rest of the party.

I wait until the Nessian Warhound is within 190', and then cast Magic Missile on it.

• 25hp (max)
  Three minutes since casting:
  See Invisible on Sorchat (90min).
  See Invisible on me (90min).
  Protection from Evil on Kalindriel (9min).
  Bull's Strength on Kalindriel (9min).
  Protection from Evil on Sorchat (9min).
  Shield on Sorchat (9min).
  Find Traps on Sorchat (4min).
  Shield on me (9min).
  Bull's Strength on Annalysei (9min).

I'm useless against Hellhounds. They're immune to fire, and I'm not immune to teeth. I'll stay near Sigrid, so she gets Alertness.

Fade into shadows since the dogs aren't up here, and move to be near the stairway. Flanking position without being seen.

Anna scrambles up, then checks and makes sure her boots are activated, and asks "Does anyone know if ice hurts them?"

Staying near the ceiling, and away from the walls to avoid traps, Vynarkus blasts the Nessian with an Eldritch Spear. [ooc]not a Brimstone Spear, that does fire damage...[/ooc]

Annalysei wrote:"Does anyone know if ice hurts them?"

The bard nods in reply, "Yes, they are susceptible to cold, at least. So ice should be useful."

As she answers the duskblade's question, the bard takes out one of her remaining fiend bane arrows and knocks it to her longbow.

[Stay hidden. Let the hounds pass me to hit them from behind when they're closer to the party.]

Anna murmurs the incantation to give her Animalistic Power, and when the Nessian gets close enough, she casts Ray of Enfeeblement.

Drawing the string back on her Sonic Weapon-enhanced longbow, the bard takes aim at the leading hellhound and fires. Quickly nocking a second fiend bane arrow to string, she then aims at the next closest hellhound behind the leader of the pack and again lets fly, nocking the second to last of these special arrows to her bow as she watches the second arrow's trajectory.

[ooc]+2 to hit from amulet of fortune
sonic damage if hit from Sonic Weapon
competency penalty overcome by bracers of archery, lesser
+4 longbow[/ooc]

The barking, snarling, slavering, flaming canines are running down the hall at distinctly less than the full-on mad dash Led made.

Vynarkus' blast obliterates one of the fell beasts!

Laurel's enchanted arrows strike deep and true, each one destroying a hellhound!

Sigrid's spell barely dings the massive caninoid! ( 15 points)

DM Edit----there's another round of run-up, then the hounds will be in melee range.