Neya barked once as she dashed off after the running lizard things, what was almost a grin on her face. Shirok almost never let her chase things that talked. So it was with real enjoyment that she bounded after the things, her jaws lashing out to catch the slowest.

Chasing after and attacking the slowest. (Movement speed 50ft)
23:02, Today: Neya rolled 17,10 using 1d20+10,1d8+9. Atk, Dmg.

Neya releases the kobold she had just bit to chase another.  As she does, Ilsa focuses on the wounded one as it attempts to retrieve its club.  With one skillful thrust, the half-orc destroys one more of the tiny lizards.

Back in the thick of it, Neya quickly cuts one of the slower ones off, and snaps her razor sharp jaws down on the poor creature’s leg.  It begins to scream in protest, but Neya remains.

Ilsa turns back to the brave (or stupid) kobold squaring off with her, laughing at the tiny creature’s meager club.  She executes a powerful swing, in line with the kobold’s shoulders, and thus removing it as a threat—and it’s head.

With two dead and one held by the wolf, the remaining kobolds resort to guerilla tactics, running around the small chamber, and stopping only to quickly shoot a stone at their antagonists.  Neya proves to be the easier target, being so much larger; but she also possesses considerable staying power.

"You are no longer brave. You beg for death," Ilsa said to the two still throwing stones. Why they didn't run, she didn't know. Or care. She just advanced on the closest one and introduced her sword to it. In some ways, it was too easy, not worth the effort, but she appreciated the light workout, given her condition.

20:18, Today: Ilsa Redeye rolled 20,13 using 1d20+8,2d6+6. Attack, Damage.

Neya growled as she viciously ripped at the squirming thing in her jaws. Those rocks were starting to hurt, and she was already feeling bad enough without getting things thrown at her.

23:29, Today: Neya rolled 28,13 using 1d20+10,1d8+9. Atk, Dmg.

Neya releases her prey, but quickly snaps and catches it again.  With a sharp scream, the poor kobold dies.

Ilsa takes a few quick strides and catches up to one of the feeing kobolds.  She violently lashes out, effortlessly killing another one.

+80 XP

The last one stands on a barrel and frantically attempts to reload his sling.  As he does, he shifts his weight too much and tips the barrel over!  To your surprise, a strange creature leaps from the broken barrel.  It is big, the size of a dog, and covered in matted hair.  A foul odor wafts about the room suddenly (apart from the odor from the kitchen beyond), as if permeating form the rabid animal.
The kobold hits the floor with a dampening thud, and the creature in on him!  After a few seconds of screaming, the kobold lays torn to shreds, and the bloodied creature issues a low warning growl.  The only problem is this: you can’t leave the room without passing too close to the creature.

Ilsa recoiled slightly from the creature. Her constitution was already weakened from the sickness and this thing made her want to retch. "Be careful Neya. Don't catch what it has," she told her companion. Remembering the encounter in the woods, she decided that she needed to dispatch this thing quickly, before it could spread its foulness.

10:20, Today: Ilsa Redeye rolled 15 using 1d20+5. Power attack, -3 to hit.
10:22, Today: Ilsa Redeye rolled 20 using 2d6+12. Damage (+6 from Power Attack).

Neya growled harshly as the creature came out of the barrel, her nose twitching as she tried to sort out its scent from the stench of blood and lizard filling the air. At Ilsa's words she hesitated slightly, but when Ilsa charged in Neya was right behind her, darting around her legs to catch the creature at its flank.


16:30, Today: Neya rolled 14 using 1d20+5. Neya tries to identify the thing by scent.
16:33, Today: Neya rolled 18,13 using 1d20+10,1d8+9. Atk, Dmg.

The strange beast snarls and leaps at Ilsa as she charges forth.  The dire weasel, for that is what it is, bites a terrible chunk of the half-orc’s flesh away.  Initially, the bite itself doesn’t hurt very bad; but the amount of blood Ilsa begins to loose is tremendous!  The wound is more then enough to kill a normal man on the spot.

Ilsa remains and extracts her own bittersweet revenge.  She delivers a powerful blow to the creature as it is attached to her side, smashing the pommel of her greatsword into its skull.  With a satisfying crack, the weasel releases its vicious bite.

But Neya is there in a second and snaps the weasel up.  In a grizzly display of furry, which can only be appreciated by Ilsa, Neya tears the mortally wounded weasel apart.

+30 XP

When the proverbial cat is away—or in this case skull bashed and torn apart—the rats will play.  With the last screeches of the dying dire weasel, several rats begin to appear from under flour sacks and rotten barrels, eager at the chance for some serious pillaging.
The crazed rodents circle around Ilsa and Neya, unafraid of them.  In fact, many snap at them, preferring their meat alive.

"Rats worse than rat-eaters," Ilsa spit. Glancing around the room, she saw no exits and no reason to stick around and be swarmed by vermin. "Need to punch Roth in mouth," she grumbled. "Come. We leave now." She did her best to make her way back to the door without giving the rats an opportunity to bite her.

OOC:
Move action: Move to the door
Standard action: Total defense
The goal is not to get any AOOs and to improve her AC should a rat attack.
Once she and Neya are out of the room, she'll close the door. Then she'll realize that she broke the door. :)

Neya growled a little, but slowly backed away from the rats as she followed Ilsa, occasionally snapping at those who came too close.

Same as Ilsa, heading for the exit and trying not to get bit.

Taking cues from Ilsa, Neya charges from the room, leaping over the surrounding rats and drawing much of their attention and wrath.  The wolf suffers a small bite; however she successfully paves the way for Ilsa’s escape.  The half-orc stumbles out of the ruined larder and attempts to bar the way; and not before realizing the door had been broken moments earlier during their entrance.
Stopping only to curse their bad luck, the pair continues their flight out of the abandoned mess hall and this time successfully sealing the door leading to where the overturned carts are.  Powerful sounds of fleshy creatures slamming themselves against the door can be heard; but the door holds.

"That was a waste of time," Ilsa said, disappointed and frustrated. She looked at her wounded arm and sighed. "Come, we might as well find the fat one and his healing wand." She followed the path of the rest of the group.

Together, Ilsa and Neya make their way down the eastern tunnel leading deeper into the mine, looking for the others.  As they near the end of the tunnel, Neya simply disappears; but only for a moment.  Her sharp whine tells Ilsa that she must have fallen down a concealed pit along the way.  The half-orc stops to help her; but the large wolf leaps from the pit and seems to only have suffered light damage--all the more reason to find Porto and his magic wand.
Turning to the cavern beyond the tunnel, you see that this enormous cavern extends upward for at least 100 feet, climbing high into the bowels of the mountain.  Glowing blue-green lichens creep across the rough walls and man-sized stalagmites protruding from the ground in this area, their faint light growing and then diminishing again every few seconds.  The illumination occasionally highlights small flecks of silver, which glitter in the face of the great western wall of the cave.  Several cables hang down from the edge of a wide hollow within that wall.  The hollow penetrates deep into the west face of the cavern and begins about 20 feet above where you stand.  The air here feels cool and damp.

Seeing no signs of immediate danger, Ilsa walked across the cavern, mindful of more kobold traps. She knew her stride was longer than Porto's, so she felt no need to rush--they would catch up with them eventually--but they didn't have time to dawdle and be ambushed again. "Can you smell them?" she asked her canine companion.

Neya wuffed slightly as she sniffed the air, searching for the other people they were with. Her gait seemed to have taken on a slight limp as they advanced through the cave; the sickness and the wounds were making her feel pretty bad. When was Shirok going to come back?

12:23, Today: Neya rolled 19 using 1d20+5. Scent.

PM

Neya sniffed around for a few more moments before heading towards the northeast, seeming to nod slightly towards Ilsa. The rest of the people had definitely gone off that way, and were hopefully still there.

Ilsa nodded to Neya. She looked terrible--probably as bad as Ilsa did herself--but there was nothing she could do for the wolf at this point. She only hoped to end this plague as quickly as possible and rejoin Shirok. "Won't they be glad to see us," she lied. It brought a smile to her face. Then she coughed up some phlegm which she promptly spit out.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:58, Wed 17 Mar 2010.

As you make your way through the cavern, following the other party members’ scent, you can’t help but notice the gradual rise in temperature.  The heat continues to rise with every step until it nearly becomes unbearable at the mouth of another tunnel.  Stopping here, you hear the sounds of a fierce battle further down the passageway.  Your respite is momentary, long enough to check your weapons and armor before sprinting headlong down the dank corridor.
Soon a strange scene comes into view.  A small band of kobolds seem to be locked in mortal combat with each other.  Closer inspection reveals there to be two distinct groups here: a sorcerer and three tough-looking spearmen pitted against three sickly, unarmed kobolds.  Despite being sickly and unarmed, the lesser three fight feverously, biting and clawing.  Their hides must be thick, as they seem to simply ignore the deadly tips of their aggressors’ spears.
Neither side as seemed to take note of your presence.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:02, Wed 24 Mar 2010.

Neya whined slightly in question, glancing at Ilsa. Probably one of the two groups of lizard things was friendlier then the other, but which one? She sniffed the air cautiously, hoping to get some sign of the others' scents among one of the kobold groups or further down the path.

13:24, Today: Neya rolled 24 using 1d20+5. Scent.

"Ignore them. Bite any that get in your way," Ilsa said to Neya. Her companions were not involved so as much as she'd like to battle both groups of kobolds, they had to press on. "Maybe later we kill the victor of this battle. Right now, we need to find the plump one."

The small bowl-shaped cavern made it difficult for Neya to pick out individual scents.  There was simply too much going on here, olfactory-wise.  Given the sting the stench carried, and remembering that she’d experienced it before outside in the town, she was fairly curtain this was the origins of the disease.
As the pair attempts to pass through the small cavern, they near the battling groups enough to further identify the lesser group as undead!  Zombified kobolds!
"You friends of halfling?" the sorcerer shouts over the din of combat as Ilsa passes by.

Neya started growling as soon as she worked out the smell, the growl intensifying when she neared the lizard things, the stench of death pouring out from them. By the time one of the other lizard things had started talking, Neya was already moving, the massive wolf striking out to rip apart the tiny abominations.

Attacking the nearest zombold. Natural 20 atk (Crit confirm 16), dmg 14 (no crit), Trip 24.
14:03, Today: Neya rolled 16 using 1d20+10. Confirm crit.
14:03, Today: Neya rolled 30,14,24 using 1d20+10,1d8+9,1d20+10. Atk, Dmg, Trip.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:04, Wed 24 Mar 2010.

"Ha!" Ilsa snorted at the question. "Allies, yes. Friends, no. What do you want?" She took the opportunity to smash one of the undead, helping Neya.

ooc:
Attacking the zombie kobold Neya attacked, if it is still moving. Otherwise, attacking something else. And cleave as appropriate.
11:12, Today: Ilsa Redeye rolled 22,12 using d20+10,2d6+7. Attack, Damage.
11:13, Today: Ilsa Redeye rolled 28,14 using d20+10,2d6+7. Attack, Damage (Cleave).

In a masterful display of tooth and flash of heavy steel, Ilsa and Neya destroy the zombie kobolds!  The spearmen and sorcerer keep a respectful distance and regard the half-orc and monstrous wolf accordingly.
“They help kill demon,” the sorcerer replies.  “And elf scout ahead.  You come with,” he says as he leads the spear toting kobolds through the maze of death and decay.

Continue in the thread, A Seemingly Simple Task (group 1)