Marcus and Dove went down the left tunnel (leaving for their own thread), causing Gabriel and Digorye to turn around and walk the other way (would have had their own thread if there had been a PC among them). And leaving Julian and Gina alone.

"So you think I'm good looking," Gina asked.

[Assuming an affirmative response.]

"Better looking than that half elf you have waiting for you in your bed?"

Julian assessed Gina honestly.

"Well, she is a professional gymnast.  Hell, that's even assuming she's still there waiting for me... honestly, I didn't think I was that great in bed with her to warrant her hanging around.  Everybody has an off-night, you know?  Anyway - if you want I can talk about how good-looking you are at length.  Gods know I've thought about it often enough.  So, to answer your question, yes, you are more attractive than... uh... Blythe."

He looked into the darkness.

"What do you think the odds are that we're going to get lost and attacked by something before we find the elves?  Also, want to go up to the surface and just say we tried really hard to find the place but couldn't?  I know a few bars we can go to."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:52, Wed 06 Aug 2008.

"We could do that," Gina said and smiled, her eyes sparkling in the light of Julian's torch. "But the others would be so upset. And what if they did find them and left without us? Besides, I'm certain my grandfather gave Marcus strict directives to keep an eye on me. It was very clever of you to get us alone like this."

"And if these walkways hadn't been so narrow, I would have enjoyed taking your arm, strolling along, and listening to you extolling my virtues. As it is, I think we are forced to make due with what we have."

"A torch-lit stroll through a sewer isn't the best place for romance, is it?"  He kicked a rat aside to emphasize his point.

"So, how do you like Pashan?  Just ignore that we're standing in its digested food from the last week."  He held his nose at the assault of some smell he lacked the words to describe, even if he had wanted, and continued to trudge onward, hoping to find some sort of clue as to the elves whereabouts.

"You think we got sent down here on a wild goosechase?"

“You’re probably right,” Gina said and giggled alluringly.

“I received most of my training in a temple in a small town like this, but Dragonword Keep in the heart of Kalaman is so much better. No matter what those Palanthians say, I still think it is the heart of civilization.”

“And no, I don’t think there are any wild geese down here.”

Having walked some distance on the flagstone floor, next to the hewn sandstone wall, Gina only a few steps behind Julian, they came to another intersection. This time the new tunnel headed to the right, which would require another jump, unless they continued forward.

Julian was tired of jumping and kept moving forward.

"If we get lost let's remember to come back here."

Continuing onward for some time, you came to another intersection. Again it turned to the right while the tunnel continued onward. But this time the tunnel onward was covered by an iron grate.

Julian picked up a stick and started walking...

Just going to follow the right-hand wall until something interesting happens.  If he ends up back where he started, he'll take the first branch he hasn't been down and do the same, repeating until he's found someone trying to kill him or the elves.  Or both.

[OOC: How are you going to deal with the crossing of gullies? And how would you know if you've been somewhere before? I don't want to cause any infinite loops.]

Well, by generally kicking around the sludge and dragging stuff he should be able to mark his passage - maybe dragging a sitck behind him while waggling it back and forth.  The method is pretty easy though:

1) draw a line behind him to mark the path
2) at a dead end turn around and go back the way you came
3) at a junction he hasn't visited before, pick a new passage at random
4) when encountering a junction that's been visited before, treat it like a dead end and go back the way he came
5) when walking down a passage visited before (ie, marked) take any new junction passage if one is available, otherwise take an old passage


Alternatively, cast a spell that determines 'south' and head that way.

[OOC: Julian could easily device a spell to find south. A spell that constantly lets him know what direction south is and lasts for six hours seems like a level 0 spell to me.

I still need to know how you intend to cross the gullies. Magic or mundane?]

Mundane if it looks easy, magic if not.  He's not interested in getting filthy but knows he can clean himself up with some minor magic if need be.

Julian suddenly realized that he could cast a spell to figure out where he was supposed to go and cast a spell to let him know where south was. And of course it was in the opposite direction they’d traveled in so far.

So Julian and Gina went back. He using his magic to cross and Gina relying on her skill. And they bypassed two chambers, turned left into a third and right to continue south, until he entered the fourth chamber, in which there was no further passage south.

[OOC: This required four spell assisted jumps and to get to the south wall in this chamber you need to jump another gully.]

Julian gave out a shout.

"Any luck?  I figured out which way is south!"

He made a running leap and hoped for the best.

Julian and Gina jumped the gully, but no one returned his shout. And as they looked at the southern wall, Julian and Gina found the sign the elf had told them to look for.

"Well, lets see, I think we were supposed to... just keep walking here.  Great!  I hope the others catch up.  If only there was some kind of symbol to mark our path..."

Whistling, he started poking around the symbol, looking for a secret door, a trap door, or even a regular door.


11:39, Today: Julian Uth Argus rolled 19 using 1d20+5. Perception.

If that doesn't turn anything up, he'll take 20.

Julian spent a few minutes looking and poking around the symbol and found that the symbol indeed was placed on a secret door.

"Ah!  See that, Gina?  Here's some advice: if you ever build a stronghold or something similar, I implore you to not mark your secret doors with glyphs.  It's hardly sporting."

He bowed to his traveling companion.

"I'd offer, 'ladies first', but considering that there might be some sort of poisoned spear waiting to stab us unawares I think the chivalrous thing to do is go first.  Or, find Marcus and get him to go first... but he's not around here.  So."

Julian put away his weapons and started moving cautiously through the revealed passageway.

[OOC: Perhaps I wasn't clear. You've found the secret door, but you haven't opened it.]

Being poking at it and trying to get it to open?

Julian poked at the secret door for almost a minute before he was finally able to get it open. And with a silent whisper, it swung away from him, and revealed a long narrow passageway.

[OOC: I did a few Subterfuge rolls. Do you want to go forward, wait for the others, or try to find them?]

With a sigh, Julian couldn't help but wonder where everyone was.  He had taken his time (or so he'd thought) getting here, but the others still hadn't shown up.

"Hey, Gina.  You think we ought to wait or go look for them?  I hate to leave them dead in a gutter when I could be rifling their pockets at a minimum."  He paused.  "Of course the main intent would be to get to them before then and escort them here."

He pulled out his signal whistle and put it away quickly with a smile.

"We'll go somewhere where it won't give the whole game away and give this thing a blast and see what happens.  If no one comes we can make out for a bit or just go through this door here," he said with a wink.

He suppressed the urge to scrawl on the wall: SECRET DOOR TO ELVES.  PLEASE WAIT HERE, BE BACK SOON.

"I would prefer that they were alive and well also," Gina said and smiled. "And I think you said this wasn't the best place for romance."

"But as long as we can find our way back here, either could work. Though only one of them would let us come to their aid if they needed it."