"Thankyou Father.  Any who follow, be wary, and stay behind me." states the knight, as he, with torch in hand, steps into the inner sanctum of the Wizard's tower.

  Holding the torch high, Sir Pedivere enters into the wizard's cavernous tower.  The torch light is sufficient is sufficent to touch the opposite wall, albeit in a shadowy manner.  Before him to his left he can see a fireplace matching the one from the entry room.  Before the fireplace is a thick rug, resting atop it is a long table with benches set on either side.  There is an unlit candleabra on the table, a clay jug rests on its side next to it.  Simple tapestries hang from the walls, ostensibly to give some colour to the drab gray walls and keep the drafts that whip between the tower's stone work in winter, to a minimum.

   There is some debris on the floor.  To the knight's right, and built into the wall, is a set of stairs leading upward.

any chance of a map?

Colm, searching the grounds with the Fool, suddenly starts at the sound of a door being bashed and shattering.  He looks up from the strange tracks he found and, bolts toward the tower.  He expects the worst but figures no worse happened than an impatent knight's idea of subtilty.  Damm fool knights are about a subtile as a harse wreck. he thinks to himself, scowling.

He makes it to the room, shortly after the door shatters and splinters of bench and door are being searched for a suitable torch.  He shakes his head slowly, as he looks at the ground.  Mi lard, give me a shake eh?  I have a lannern that may serve better than a few hastily bundled twigs.  He leaves the room and returns moments laters with a hooded lantern, a couple of flasks of oil and his tinder box.  He casually sets the lantern down on a table and beings to prepare it for service (pouring in the oil and lighting it and the like.)  As he works he talks.  As wer'a in haste I dunna suppose yer intrested in the strange knife stabs inna earth the fool and I foun' in round about the tower eh?  He pauses.  Assuming this piques the partys interst, he continues speaking as he strikes his tinder box against the flint to light the wick of his lantern.  Annaway, it looks strange.  Na' a drop o' blood, but knife wounds nearly a forarm deep in the groun'.  Regualr pattern too.  Like a large wheel set with long knives was rolled accross the earth toward' the tower.  I'd be wary that the tower was beseiged by war weapons, bu' there is no sign of pitch, stone ner arrow.  Lessn' someone used a seige tower to scale the tower and aviod' the traps we'r doubtless to fin' in a wizards tower.  I wonner...... He stops speaking, deep in thought and not wanting to speculate further.  Only a fool speaks of that wich he knows kno' about, gram used to say.  I'll leave tha' to the fool.  he thinks to himself.

The lantern now lit, he looks at the group.  Well, sir, lead on  The lantern he hands to the fool, as he thinks, likely as not, his arm'll be needed for figthing.

"Well so much for waiting, er?" Calis said with a shrug before laughing in amusement. "Well lead on my friend and let's see what is inside," he finished while gripping his weapons again but he didn't draw them yet. "I think we made enough noise to wake anything within..."

Aye, within' and witho' and the next kingdm' over Colm quipped with a smirk, chuckling to himself

Aeron takes up the latern and swings its' tallow colored beam around the room and as if to check that its lit, looks directly in the lens.

Wow, that's brighter than it looks he exclaims.  He shakes his head to clear his eyes.  He pulls his jester scepter from his pouch and holds it out as if to use its' eye to see.  He peers about the room and up the stairs.

Is that big chunk of wood by the used to be door a bar?  I must say if this was barred from the inside, we are either gonna have a grateful wizard as we are rescueing him, or a cross one because he is napping or some such.  Then again maybe he is a she... An enchantress....  Hmm ok valient knight.  Take us crusading through the tower, maybe we will find the girl of my dreams within!

"Could the knife blows to the ground be the talons of a beast?" the knight mentions, his voice soft and hushed.  The magical torch of the priest held before him in his left hand, his right hand currently free and empty.

Colm looks thoughtfully at the knight  mayhaps good sir, mayhaps.  But, the marks were regular, an' either thoughtful plann' by a beas' or the working of a machine, so regular the marks were.  Ifn' it is a beas', though, its' talons are the size o' me forarm.  God save us.  He says, blessing himself.

  As the group steps further into the tower's interior the light reveals more of its space.  The knight holds the torch high and Colm adds to the light with his lantern, handing it off to Aeron as he explains his findings out of doors.
   Calis steps around the others and his eyes pick up symetrical cuts in the floor, and a metal ring attached to the floor - a trapdoor.

     "Zounds!"the fool cries out, recoiling backwards as he examines the top of the stairs and sees first more of the webs and then the hideous form of a giant spider skittering down the steps, its chitinous legs clattering on the stone.   The eight red eyes that covered its face glowered with hunger.  Reflexively the group glanced upward.  More spiders lowered themselves to the floor with blinding speed.  Screeches of aggression and hunger reverberated off the tower's walls.  Hands instinctively gripped or strayed to weapons...



  OODM The big black dots are spiders.  :) Roll for initiative and we'll get the party started.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:16, Tue 16 Nov 2004.

Pedivere recoils in shock at the appearance of the predators, but quickly repels his revulsion.  "Behind Me!"

 Initiative = 16

         AC = 20
       flat = 19
      touch = 11

         FX = DR 2/-

Chrissa remains where she is, holding her own everburning torch in one hand and her staff in the other...

OOC: Initiative Roll = 3! :/

Init = 11
AC 19
HP 36
Ranged +9
Melee +3

Colm already has bow at hand, but I'll wait for specific actions when I know our order


BIC:  The sudden clicking and chittering of the spiders makes Colm's skin crawl and his heart rate quickens.  Despite the sudden rush of adrenaline, his hands are perfectly steady as he draws his bow.....

"There's a trapdoor over there," Calis started to say and point before the clicking could be heard. With his other hand still on the sickle, he started to remove it from his belt.

Ini: 12.

21:04, Today: Father Rys rolled 10 using 1d20. initiative.

OODM Initiative:

Spiders 19
Aeron 18
Sir Pedivere 16
Calis 12
Colm 11
Father Rys 10
Chrissa 3

IDM:

   The spiders skitter at the 4 men in the doorway, surrounding them with their enormous, black, bulbous bodies.  Venom dripped from their sharp, black, mandibles.  They were intent upon their prey and attacked immediately.  Calis' leather jerkin turns aside an attempt to bite him, leaving the trail of a scrape and a venom.
  The brave knight Sir Pedivere orders his compatriots behind him, wielding only a torch to protect himself.  He bats aside the first spider that attacks him from the front but as he turns he leaves his side open and he feels the sharp pain and woozy feeling as the spider's mandible slips under his arm and above his armour, finding flesh.  He groaned in pain feeling poison injected into his blood stream.  The spider's strike was substantial and the knight's knees felt as if they would buckle.  The last of the spiders skurries from side to side behind the other monsters, eager to find a meal.

Pedivere gimaces in pain as the fangs of the abominable beast pierce his armour and sink into his flesh.  Again, he repeats his request "Behind me!" as he draws his blade attempting to hew at the legs of the monster infront of him.

 Initiative = 16

         AC = 22
       flat = 19
      touch = 13

        MEA = Draw Weapon (does not provoke AoO)
    Partial = Attack defensively (-4/+2)
              Attack hits AC 8 for 8 damage
              Attack hits AC 17 for 8 damage

         FX = DR 2/-
              9 damage suffered - is this b4 or after DR
              -5 Strength

OODM:  I modified your post because other forces are at play here, so Pedivere had 2 attacks.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:40, Wed 17 Nov 2004.

Aeron screeches like a little girl, cowering behin the knight but at the same time he begins to caper about this way and that.  His feet a blur of motion and he begins to chatter and speak.  His feet seem to urge the whole party to motion and perhaps baffle the spiders as they seem almost slowed by the fool.

Colm, trapped behind his team mates, steps to one side of the tall knight to get a clear shot at the spider approaching the fool.  His bow string twangs, once, then twice, than once again and 2 of his arrows hit true


(OCC:  Do I roll Damage or do you?), thunking squarely into the bulbous body of the brutish spider (OCC:  Assuming a 24 hits, else or we are seriously in trouble).

OCC:  I plan on attacking the spider in front of the fool as, although the knight is in trouble, he's more able to survive a bite than the fool.  Plus, I think, based on the battle map, that I couldnt hit the spider in front of him due to his body being in the way.

OODM:  I modified your post because other forces are at play here, so Colm had 3 attacks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:56, Wed 17 Nov 2004.

Calis took stepped back as the spider tried to dig into his armor and then moved a behind his friend. After doing so he set his spear in hand and waited to see how he could help with his longer weapon that hopefully would keep them away from him.

Fr. Rys will put the book he was looking at back and draw his mace.

As the spiders appear, Chrissa takes a deep breath and prays briefly, gathering her strength.  She then speaks forth with words of power.

"'Away from mee, yee wicked: for I will keepe the commandements of my God.'"

Suddenly looking fatigued, Chrissa moves forward to stand behind Sir Pedivere.

"Draw near to me, brethren, and the Lord shall hinder these foes..."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 20:04, Wed 17 Nov 2004.

     Aeron began to dance madly in the midst of the group, his tapping and hopping, increased in speed as the spiders began to slow before the party's very eyes.  An incoherent and jabbered song sprang forth from him as he moved.
   Despite his wounds, Sir Pedivere remained stalwart in the face of the vermin that attacked the group.  His sword swipes were determined and vicious.  His first blow thudding off the hard outer shell of his quarry but the second cut through a leg, elicited a screech of pain from the black-bodied fiend.
   The Yeoman Colm saw the frightened fool threatened by the spider from the stair case.  He reached over his shoulder to his quiver launching arrows to stop it in its tracks.  The first arrow struck and glanced, barely harming the thing, the second buried itself in its huge bulbous body, the third, because of the spider's startled movement, missed.
   Calis retreated from the threat before him, holding his spear out in defence, pointing it at the sharp mandibles that flexed and snapped in front of him.
   The padre Father Rys held his ground, gripping his stout-headed weapon in reflexive defence.
   Chrissa began to pray, advancing into the doorway, resolute in her faith.  The spiders recoiled as if she was on fire.  Screeching and retreating, they malingered beyond the reach of the knight's blade as Aeron continued to dance and the Yeoman began to knock another arrow.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:00, Thu 18 Nov 2004.

Chrissa regards the retreating foes with a weary yet resolute expression.

"The Lord hinders these foes from approaching me.  I suggest that you all remain as near to me as possible, using ranged attacks to dispatch them.  The fewer of us exposed to their foul poison, the better..."

Hearing that Chrissa has stalled the spiders' advance, Fr. Rys stows his mace and pulls out his light crossbow.