From about the same place that the woman in black disappeared from you see two other guardwomen emerge. One stands out compared to just about any other of the guards you have seen so far. Slightly stooping to get through the opening, the amazon stands several inches taller than even Viktor when she straightens out. Brandishing a wicked looking whip, she has the authority of a drill sergeant on day one of cadet training. Ushering the other guard forward she uses the coiled whip to wave Berta and the two others on the stairs to hurry. Strapped to her back is a hammer as great as the Axe that Viktor himself wields, It is evident that you have found the dreaded Yara.

The two guards stationed in the portico quickly bypass Berta down the stairs as they hop to Yara's motions. Joining the newly arrived guard, they together vanish through the doorway into the dark under level of the compound. Eclair is able to bypass Rael at that moment and join Berta at the top of the stairwell. "You two!" Yara uses the coiled whip as one would use a finger. "Step lively or I'm promoting you to slab duty!" Her voice caries such an authority that you find yourself absentmindedly taking a step forward.

There is obviously a combat going on downstairs. To help keep things timed, please roll initiative if you are looking at even going down the stairs. See the "Example of Combat" thread for examples of what I want/need for rolls. Suddenly realized that I forgot to set permissions to "B". That has been fixed
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:37, Wed 27 May 2015.

Holding his coated knife in his hand he tries to sneak near Yara, his goal is to nick her with the knife get the drug into her system. In anyway he would wait till Berta and Eclair are in position to switch the tide of the combat before he would make his move.

In the future he might wonder what have driven him to such a bout of insanity... for now Rael just acts.

While guards are distracted by the action below, Lars calls on some aid from the Chaos Lords, infusing his armour with unnatural toughness.  He feels the slight euphoria as the magic is channeled through him.

10:07, Today: Lars K'Rusome rolled 16 using 1d6+10. Initiative.
Casts Hells Armour, 4MP
23:42, Yesterday: Lars K'Rusome rolled 57 using 1d100. Dodge.

When Berta and Eclair have descended, Lars will follow behind Rael and position himself behind Yara.

Edit: added dodge roll
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Fri 29 May 2015.

Berta was more than halfway down the stairs after the other two guards, ready to seize what advantage she might, but the sudden appearance of Yara gives her pause.

"Lady !" she retains enough presence of mind to address the woman with respect, hurrying to be seen to comply, daring only a quick look about her to be sure Eclair is close by, eyes widening as she notes Rael shadowing her and all but stumbling as she tries to angle her descent to conceal the pale man as best she can. "I've rounded up all the swords I could find above," she assures the amazon as she reaches the bottom of the stairs, hoping to steal her attention a moment longer ... before pushing the door aside and trusting to the gods to sort it all out !

[Private to GM: aim was to circle around to the guardroom, but assuming she sees and recognises Viktor/Angrboda she'll come to their assistance.  If she can punch with Cestus (left = off hand ) and use sword at the same time, then she'll do that, else just a Cestus as best skill.  Also threw in 3 x Dodge and a Luck roll (since Victor did one).  I'm sure I'll get the hang of this ... <grins>

21:17, Today: Berta rolled 22 using 1d6+17. Initiative.
21:29, Today: Berta rolled 66 using 1d100. Cestus. (vs 140) - Hit, no crit
21:29, Today: Berta rolled 19 using 1d100. Longsword ? (vs 105 ?) - Hit, Crit if primary action, No crit if Secondary (Skill for "off-hand" 1/2 skill)
21:32, Today: Berta rolled 28 using 1d100. Dodge. (vs 104) - Dodge #1 Pass
21:33, Today: Berta rolled 71 using 1d100. Dodge. (vs 74) - Dodge #2 Pass (you already adjusted)
21:33, Today: Berta rolled 5 using 1d100. Dodge.  (vs 44) - Dodge #3 Crit (you already Adjusted)
21:35, Today: Berta rolled 14 using 1d100. Luck. (vs 80) - Not Needed, Things like this I tend to roll when I'm writing narrative of combat round. Viktor is overzealous

If I'm reading those numbers right, the dice roller decided to go easy on the new bunny !  Just hope Viktor doesn't kill the new guard arriving on the scene !<grins>

*** GM - Adding results in so you can get the hang of it. Hope it helps]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:18, Fri 29 May 2015.

Eclair had just managed to get a coat of the poison on her dagger, not her sword, when all hell proceeded to break loose. She did her best to follow Berta's lead as that veteran woman was both competent and experienced within this order. If they had been back in the [Language unknown: tisaeliv] at home, then she'd take the lead. Even in another aline environment, she might take the lead, but here it was Berta's show. She kept the weighty fighting knife on her belt in mind as her hand hovered near her sword. She tried to, however, glance a few times nervously down the stairs toward the fight to make that the obvious reason she was fingering her...

She chided herself and moved the hand to her longsword hoping the cloak would hide the movement. The guards here would favor the longer weapons as theirs were surely not enchanted.

She eyed the chancy game Rael was playing and grit her teeth, preparing to have to fight this giantess.

[Private to GM: 01:19, Today: Eclair rolled 18 using 1d6+15. Init.]

The large amazon obviously lets her displeasure at the intrusion to the compound reflect in her actions. Using the coiled whip as a paddle, she backhand swats at Eclair and Berta as a farmer would at cattle they are attempting to move. "I said get a move on dammit!" [Private to Berta: The whip makes a brief contact with you as you are "urged" past. You get a small shock, much like the shock one gets from excessive static.] With a thick gauntlet covered hand he points to Rael. "You, sickly one, take the prisoners in behind your mistress." Yara steps to the side allowing easy access to the passage that the woman dressed in black disappeared into.

Thanks to the darkness, the impromptu disguise, and the already pilfered Syferan clothes, it is plain that Yara see's Rael as one of the slavers with her captures still in tow. Before Rael can get within striking distance, Yara moves through the thick, iron bound, door to the dungeon. "And lock it behind me slaver!" she growls over her shoulder as she disappears into the darkness.

Berta and Eclair I'm moving over to the Assaination Squad thread to continue the fight.

What done was done and Yara was far from him what he had was a chance to use the distraction to get to the dungeon. He turn his head nodding to Lars and Khazim "You two after me..." he said motioning in with his hand.

He made a gamble that the disturbance was Viktor and Angroboda, with the surprise element of Eclair and Berta he was sure they were fine. At least that was what he told himself as he lead the two others away from the battle and deeper into the dungeon seeking their target.

Lars is torn between the objective of finding the prisoner and helping his friends out in what looked to be a rather dangerous fight, especially with the woman-mountain wading in.  However he agrees with Rael, and nods to him slightly before following him through the door.

Allowing himself to relax a little, Khazim will quickly palm one of his arrows as the group once again splinters. A low sigh emanates from his cowled face. "It seems the winds have tossed us to the four corners. Let us hope that ours is not as perilous as the others."

Either by the blessings of the higher lords, or their curse, you find yourself splitting once again from the rest of the party. You slide through the secret passage and into a "cozy" little bedroom. The large cluttered chamber is filled with ugly and brutal looking weaponry, many of which stained with dried blood. There is a rough pallet along the west wall and a small table in a niche on the east wall. Hanging around the room to give it a much more homey feel are tapestries depicting various scenes of warfare. The fresh scent of dungeon mixes freely with the old bear den smell that occupies this room. Opposite the short passage you just went through there is a door in the north east corner still slightly open, as if someone went through in a hurry.

Quickly examining the area, there are few places for the woman in black to have hidden. Cautiously you peer through the crack in the door to see a small room containing only a small table and 4 stools. The table is littered with foodstuffs and other such things that often accompany a gathering point for jailors and other such "off duty" guards. From where you can peer in, you can see the doorway on the other side of the small guard room is also slightly ajar.

I'm not going to call initiatives for this group anymore. If/when combat does happen I'll just do first round on the fly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:49, Tue 02 June 2015.

"Keep the charade as long as you can..." Rael whispers as he slowly enter the room, he has his knife held in his hand hidden slightly in his sleeve and kept behind his back just in case.

Once he is sure the room is empty he motions to the others to enter and continue to the door ahead, again he peek before opening it and following the woman in black.

Lars enters the room and grunts.  "Hmph. Nice quarters, if you're a psycho," he whispers.  He scans the room for anything of of use, and will pick up a dagger and tuck it into his belt if there is one lying around.  He will also take this opportunity to load the odd looking bow he is carrying, ready to be loosed at a moment's notice.
[Private to The Grey Lords: OOC: Does Lars see anything with his witch sight?]

He then follows Rael through the next door.

This small sitting chamber looks to be departed in haste. Chairs have been knocked over and askew. A card game was being played and is left on the table the cards tossed down with little care. Against the wall to your left you can see a weapons rack, empty except for a few of the funny looking arrows that the guards use in the crossbow (As Valmir called it). Both of the opposite doors have been left partially askew as if the last person through either door did not care to fully close it behind them.

Taking a bit of time and deduction you can easily guess, by the layout of the chairs and other tossed items, that the guards all went out the door to your right. Testing the noise levels echoing down the corridor you seemed to have guessed right. Sounds of screaming and the clang of metal drifts from that direction. That would leave the path of the woman in black going through the other door.

Creeping near the doorway you are greeted with an odd metallic smell permeating the air. Not in the same fashion as a forge, but more akin to the smell of a desert lightning storm. *Tszt* an odd sharp noise crackles from the room for a brief second. Beyond the odd crackle, you hear little else.

Rael glance at his companions "This does not looks good... the stanch of dark sorcery is about... " he mumbles as he followed the path the woman in black presumably took. All his senses and common sense were telling him to run back, how at this point he envied the like of Viktor who seemed ignorant of the word fear but at this point Rael felt his knees weak and he needed so sorely to take a piss.

Ignoring it all and cursing himself for being a fool he tightened his grip on his knife, gripping it so hard his knuckles turn white and he moved onward as silent as he could.

"By the sounds of the battle, I would guess that our companions are to the south. You two head into the other room. I will watch the south approach."
Watching as the other two proceed through the door. Khazim moves towards the door heading south. He moves a chair near the doorway and sets the few arrows that were coated propped up against them. Sliding the door shut just enough to give a view out the door. Settling down, he listens intently to both his companions, and to the battles that rage elsewhere.

Lars frowns at the doorway.  "Aye, there's the stench of Chaos, that's for sure."  He nods to Khazim as he prepares his arrows.  Lars then follows Rael into the room with the strange noises.  He whispers out of the corner of his mouth to Rael.  "Don't worry, you'll have steel in yer bones if we survive this!" Trying to move quietly, he peers around the doorway into the room, pointing the 'crossbow' ahead of him, finger on the trigger...

Leaving Khazim to guard your backs you slowly enter the room. One of the first things you notice is that the ambient light of the room is not radiating from the dark sconces but from the large contraption in the middle of the room. The chamber is devoid of all furnishings save for three smoldering silver censers hanging from the ceiling, as well as, three large silver braziers set on tripods. These objects are arranged in a double triangular pattern around a suspended, slowly revolving sphere, six or seven feet in diameter. Inside the glowing misty blue sphere a humanoid form can be vaguely seen, partially obscured by the swirling vapors inside the globe. The censers and braziers each glow with a sputtering pale blue illumination radiating from intricately carved fretwork that decorates the objects.

The smell of ozone pierces your sense of smell. Through the pale illumination you can see a corridor heading to the south. There is no sign of the woman in black. The door at the end of the corridor to the south appears to not have been disturbed. Moving about the room you do notice a few things out of place. While it looks as if much has not been disturbed, you each feel a faint breeze of "fresh" air coming from somewhere down near the door leading out of the room to the south. [Private to Rael Gol: You are betting your last bronze that this is the prison of the Tenatir.]

As before Green on the map is some sort of false panel or door
*edit update*
The Braziers are the outer most points, while the censers are the points "in the middle"
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:45, Thu 11 June 2015.

Rael walks around the sphere weapon at hand, he motions to Lars at the other door "Guard the door... I think this is our target, Tenatir... whatever it is."

This was not what he had expected and he could feel the cold sweet on his spine... the chills telling him that something bad was brewing. Oh how he wanted to piss... suppressing a shiver he step closer to the strange apparatus and the braziers examine them all and trying to figure what the thing was and how to open it.

"Angrboda would really have been useful right now..." he mutters to himself under his breath as he cautiously move toward the thing.

Lars follows Rael into the room, eyes wide.  "By Pyaray's beard, what kind of cage is that?"  He crouches down and watches the sphere as it rotates, trying to see what sort of mechanism is controlling it.

"You think this is our target?  Well let's get him out then!"  He leans his crossbow against the wall and takes his axe off his back.  "Stand clear!"  Lars will wait for Rael to back off.

Khazim watches and listens intently at the door. After a few moments he is satisfied that nothing is heading their way. Taking one of the chairs balances it against the door. His intention is such that when the door were to open further the door would crash to the floor alerting those in the next room.

Satisfied with his impromptu trap he leaves his post and heads into the room behind the other two. Seeing the implied intention of Lars, and his axe, Khazim hastily calls out. "Wait! No such sorcerous cage would be without some defenses? Knowing that those who abducted our quarry are powerful enough to resist our employer, I would guess that such defenses might be lethal." Entering a bit further into the room Khazim takes note of the glyphs and fretwork on the braziers. "Can either of you read the sorcerers tongue? Do these scratchings mean anything?"

20:12, Today: Khazim rolled 20 using 1d100. Trap. - pass

Rael eyes widen when Lars heft his axe, he joins Khazim plea "Aye, I agree with Khazim... wait this is a matter of sorcery and even the less foul of these working should be handle with delicate care not brute force."

Rael trembles at the thought of what could happen "We may still need the axe but we need to be sure to know where to strike..." closing his eyes and rubbing his temples he tries to recall lost lessons from his childhood any shred of lore about the enchantment that bind the prison.

"Khazim, please secure the other door... I am still wary of the woman in black where did she disappear?"

Lars lowers his axe.  "Hmph.  Fine then."  He glares at Rael and Khazim with his one good eye as he puts the axe back in the harness on his back.  He strides over and picks up his crossbow.

"Well there is only one other way she could have gone."  Lars walks towards the corridor to the south, trying to find the source of the breeze he can feel.

17:02, Today: Lars K'Rusome rolled 11 using 1d100. listen tn 29.
17:02, Today: Lars K'Rusome rolled 89 using 1d100. search tn 56.   

Both Khazim and Rael study the braziers and censers as Lars heads towards the scent of fresh breeze. Lars first walks to apparently secured door on the far side of the room. The stout door is a familiar sight to anyone who has spent time in any sort of holding cell. Thick iron bars are set into a small window about head height. Looking through the bars you can see several cells that have obviously been hastily cleared, though not recently. The long vacancy has done nothing to prevent the smell wafting through the small window. From what can be seen, there is little evidence that the woman in black passed into the cell block.

Rael paces about the room inspecting the intricate work adorning both the censers and the braziers. None of the inscriptions, patterns, or apparent glyphs seem to mean a thing. The only obvious clue to their purpose was not noticed through sight. Rather the moment that Rael approached a bit closer to get a nice intense look at the braziers he felt tiny pin pricks along his arm, as if ants were crawling up and down it. The tiny hairs about his body prick up the closer he gets to the "prison".

Knowing absolutely nothing about the arcane arts, Khazim decides upon a plan that better suits his sort of investigation. Quickly he nocks an arrow and draws back. Aiming for the space between the Sphere, braziers, and censers he lets loose an arrow.
Trusting in his ancestors, he prays that his aim is true.

22:20, Today: Khazim rolled 100 using 1d100. bow. -fumble
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:21, Sat 13 June 2015.

Rael shakes his head "Where did that woman go? she did not leave by the door... she is not here... could she be there?" he points at the glowing sphere.

The hair pricking is the only lead he has thus Rael slowly circle the confined region trying to see if there is a path into it.

... and then Khazim shoot an arrow...