The Ball bounced happily along the ground ahead of the two following it.

It did an odd little dance, bouncing high in to the air, looping around, then falling back down. It alternated whether it looped left or right, and it also seemed to alternate whether it made a noise when it landed or not - an odd occurrence not seen before. Every right handed bounce seemed to find a stone or other piece of loose dirt and made a small 'snick' sound. The day was quiet enough for now it was usually audible. The Ball itself took on the browns and greens of the surroundings, as if a mottled mirror. The light of the day was high and bright, making it hard to tell if The Ball had a glow or not today.

The road itself was a reasonably straight dirt track - used but not well traveled - leading along the edge of a local woods. The woods finally thickened to the edge of a forest, but the road - for now - happily skirted around it. As did The Ball.

This road apparently went to a small village called Stonebridge. The rare traveler on the road could attest to that. Though they also warned that the 'stone bridge' of the name didn't exist anymore. Seemingly it was destroyed in the 'shy orc war' a generation ago. This dirt road led to that destroyed bridge, though at this time of year the river should have a ford closeby to pass and allow access the village itself. Others advised cutting through the forest when it thinned back out to woods and finding the proper road around the other side of New Stonebridge, rather than follow this one to the ruins of what used to be.

The forest was a lush green, and seemed quite inviting. However, it had to be noted that the quiet of the day should have yielded far more birdsong, and perhaps even the rustle of creatures from the undergrowth at least once or twice. Instead there was nothing. Not even the trees seemed inclined to move despite the occasional breeze, resolutely dense and becalmed.

The taller trees soon wilted once more from proud, tall and thick trunks to the thinner woods once more. Although the lush green did not leave these younger trees, even as the dirt of the road seemed to permeate the floor of the wood, making it look dull underfoot. Indeed, the road occasionally skirted in and out of the perimeter of the wood. Or perhaps the wood had simply slowly encroached on the road over the years.


The ball bounced a couple of times up and down as if excited, and then thumped with quiet finality on to the track. It rolled forwards then back tentatively in the direction of the road's continuance, then stopped.

Whatever was going on, clearly their guide was awaiting for those behind it to do....something?


Welcome to the game!


So, I've set you up on a path, but you have a few choices here.

1) You can now narratively rewind if you like to see how you got here. Or at least you can have your characters dwell on the time that has passed and discuss it between them.

2) You can retcon a few rolls or interactions along the way to get more information about where you are headed to.

3) Carry on from here right away, and decide what you want to do. You can head towards the river this road apparently leads to, or you can cut through the woods looking for the better road.

Or something else, of course :)


Obviously you can do some of 1) and 2) with some OOC questions first in the OOC before posting if you like.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:01, Tue 02 June 2015.

Meri had already decided several times so far that this was one of her least favourite days ever.
In fact, it was probably her second-least favourite day...  No, make that her third.
Lot of competition for that position, she reflected, her gaze hardening slightly, the only outward sign of her innermost thoughts.

Nym's insistence that the strange ball was trying to tell them something, wanting them to follow it to who-knows-where, had finally dragged her away from her work and made her decide to go along with the hare-brained scheme of following it to see where they'd end up.
Also, she'd decided that if she did go along with the thing's wishes, maybe then it would leave her in peace.
She certainly couldn't do much about it, seeing as the damned thing was apparently indestructable!

Although she hadn't admitted it, she realised she was curious.  She had never seen anything like this before, in all the time she'd been studying her art.
Maybe her old mentor would have known what it was.  She hadn't seen him in years though, didn't even know if he was still alive, or if he had blown himself up with one of his random alchemical experiments...

But deep down, a part of her did want to know what this thing was, where it was taking them, and why...

That was the real reason she had allowed herself to be persuaded to close her workshop and embark on this insane journey.
She only hoped she wouldn't have cause to regret this.  She had more than enough regrets for one lifetime already...

She adjusted the weight of the backpack on her shoulders, hearing the soft clicking of Timur's joints as he gripped onto the pack tighter to avoid falling off.  She shifted her staff to her other hand, two of the small crystals set into it around the centre grip still shimmering with a soft blue glow as they had been since she had set out.

The landscape they had travelled across so far wasn't unfamiliar to her.  Back when she had first arrived in the village they had just left and taken up residence in the old workshop, a former smithy long abandoned by its previous owner, she had taken the time to explore some of the local area.
She hadn't travelled this far along this path though, and she was certainly unfamiliar with this village of Stonebridge, as others on the road had named it.
Was the ball leading them towards this village for some reason?  Or somewhere beyond it?

Her thoughts were interrupted as their bizarre guide seemed to stop suddenly.
She stopped and stared at it, glancing up ahead and then from side to side before looking back at the ball with an irritated frown.
"What?  Is this where you wanted us to go?" she asked, not too kindly, clearly wondering again if this had been a waste of her time after all...


OOC: Wall of Text Powers GO! :D
Tried to include a little bit of "flashing back" slightly to how we ended up here.
Also, more in-depth description of Meri is on her profile if you haven't seen it yet, and need it to determine how NPCs see her :)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:27, Tue 02 June 2015.

Nym wanders along the path, keeping vaguely close to Meri and the Ball as she follows along. Her multi-coloured robes swish softly as she walks in her soft footwear which is covered in leaf-like patterns. She holds in one hand a staff almost as tall as she is, twisted in design as though someone started making it to one pattern but then changed their mind multiple times along the way and partly made it into several others as a result. The area close to her hand seems to change colour at random intervals. Slung across her back is a pack containing the rest of her possessions, such as they are.

Nym herself is currently in the guise of a half-elf with shimmering silvery-blonde hair and pale yellow eyes which seem almost to glow as they catch the light. She walks along with her free hand held out before her, palm up, and is watching, fascinated, as tiny, multi-coloured sparks dance around in the air just above it.

When the Ball and Meri both stop walking, Nym does too, though she's paying more attention to the sparks in her hand than to anything else that might be going on around her.

The Ball moved forwards and back once, twice, then three times with insistent urgency. It even seemed to take on the odd surface appearance of Timur, if one were to look closely.

However, having apparently exhausted its communications, it then started to drift lightly on the air, as if picked up by a rogue air current. No more solid seeming than a bubble, it drifted over to Nym's hand and started twisting around in small spirals as if to see the sparks clearly. It even took on some of the brighter flashes, though always on the opposite side of itself, as if the magic of them had travelled through the sphere and out the other side.


Lol, so basically its no help. Or wants you to go on first. Or this was all a long running joke. who knows with The Ball!

Either talk amongst yourselves, or decide OOC which way you want to go. The two leading options are through the woods to find a road to 'New Stonebridge', or onwards to the actual ruins of a stonebridge, and presumeable 'Old Stonebridge' too.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Wed 03 June 2015.

"Oh, you like the sparks, Ball?" asks Nym with a bright smile, making a few more sparks and tiny lights in different colours before looking around as though having realised the group, such as it is, has stopped.

"Which way is it?" she asks of no-one in particular, then frowns slightly. "Where are we going, again? Ooh, the trees are pretty!"

She looks around admiringly at the scenery as though having only just noticed it.

Meri stared at Nym for a moment then shook her head and looked in the direction they had been heading.
"Well, I don't know about you, but unless that bit of scrap had a good reason for bringing us here, I'm going home again" she muttered.

She sighed and began to walk towards the ruined bridge.
"May as well look around the place, might be something worth scavenging" she said.

"Might even check out the new village too.  Maybe someone there wants to buy a doorstop!" she added with a glare towards the ball.


OOC: Hehe, checking out Old Stonebridge in case there's anything there :)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 17:50, Wed 03 June 2015.

Nym glances from Meri to the Ball, and back again.

"Um...balls can't stop doors." she says. "They're round. I thought you knew stuff?"

There is barely a pause before Nym practically skips along the path after Meri.

"Let's see what's over there, then!" she says cheerfully.

"They can if you bash one side flat" retorted Meri without looking back.

From her backpack, Timur glanced back at the others, twitching his shoulders slightly as if shrugging apologetically at them.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Wed 03 June 2015.

"Aaww, that's not very nice." says Nym. "Wouldn't be a ball then, would it? It'd be...a...er...lump...thing? Anyway, I don't think this one'd let you..."

She looks around and gestures to the Ball.

"C'mon, Ball." she says. "Looks like we're going this way."

Lol, I'm going to take Nym's rampant attention deficit disorder as a 'yes' to Meri's indicated direction :D

Edit: Oops, I forgot who I was DMing, and so I missed a whole lot of character interaction. Think it all still works. You lot really are the odd couple. We're in for some fun :)


As Nym flashed more sparks in her hand, The Ball started to bounce up in the air higher and higher around her hand, as if each flash were some effect of it hitting a trampoline. The Ball went crazily high with giddy joy...and then suddenly stopped in mid air. However, then it suddenly rocketed downwards with lethal speed to stop dead on the ground, without one sound of air or impact being made.

The Ball then, worryingly, rolled from just behind Nym's left foot where it had landed, all the way around to the front edge of her right foot. Where it appeared to quiver, just a little.

At Meri's words... and more importantly the implied if not completely serious threat... The Ball reacted. Instead of moving away from Meri though, it instead rolled quickly to the same position on the right hand edge of her boot.

If the positions of the ball could be triangulated, it seemed in each case to be putting itself perfectly at the opposite side of each person compared to where the edge of the forest had been, back along the road.

Since nothing was visible, and nothing could come at them through the thinner wood it seemed, there was not a lot more to be done than move onwards. It was still odd though.

Meri was hindered a little by The Ball managing to perfectly roll along with her footsteps, as if encouraged by Nym's words, but it kept butting in to Meri's foot the moment the artificer set her foot down, no matter where she tried to land her footstep. More worryingly, The Ball had taken on the deep green hue and oddly leafy pattern of the thick trees they had left behind. Somehow, the tightly coiled ball of leaves seemed even more ominous than the unmoving trees they had left behind.

Still, the day was pleasant, the air heating up not uncomfortably, and the woods were thinning leaving the path alone to meander up a slow incline. The land gave one final attempt to raise up with a steeper uphill before giving up to simply coast down towards a wide river.

The gentle slope down to the river actually had the beginnings of white and yellow flowers scatter as the slope closed in on the bank, and in general the ground had a light carpet of grass oddly missing in the woods further back. The woods that seemed to follow them at a very respectful distance though, flanking them in the distance on the left. The Ball let up, growing green like the grass and having the same blade like texture. It even moved a small way from Meri's foot, though made no move to go ahead of her.

The river itself moved across the view from right to left until it disappeared behind the woods once more, though there was some sparkle in the distance to the left that spoke of either a lake or a turning of the river somewhere. To the right the river meandered itself up new slopes and found some green in the far distance.

The splash and play of the river could be heard, but more importantly the 'stone bridge' across it could be seen. Or rather, the two or three sad lumps or solid, square stone that had once spanned the wide water. Each easily as big as the body of either traveler, even now when the stones were worn by the elements, and they retained their artificial shape unmistakeably.

However, only three stones were present on this side of the river, clinging to the bank, one placed far enough from the other two to show how wide the bridge had been in its day. The width could have allowed a large goods wagon, or two horses traveling in opposite directions - to pass each other with ease.

There were a similar collection of stones on the other side, and one large stone in the centre of the river, breaking the waters around it defiantly.

To the left a few hundred yard from the bridge the bank appeared to be eroded equally on the near and the far sides. This must have been the ford, and the impression of a bump of some kind under the water there reinforced this. Oddly only the far side looked worn, as if it were used more by people coming to access the river than to cross it.

What was beyond the river was harder to tell. There were certainly stone shapes littered around, like the outlines of houses - or at least what might have been houses, and were now just short walls. Not everywhere though. There seemed to be some shapes larger and more complete than others. Perhaps a few intact houses in the hazy distance. And two larger blocks near the river. One was at least two storeys tall, a thick black block against the bright day. And a smaller, squatter black shape closest to the opposite bank.

Those two buildings had one thing in common - the tiny yet unmistakeable wafts of smoke that spoke of a controlled fire inside the building coming from a chimney. They were occupied, it seemed.


Welcome to Stonebridge! At least maybe the original entrance? Look around or move forwards, feel free to use any skills you like in any way you like. While fourth edition does delineate combat and non combta powers quite well, never hesitate to suggest a non-combat use for a power if you thin it might do something. I'll try not to spring a battle on you if you use an encounter power this way, or I'll have warned you anyway if it feels like you are in combat style timing :)

Anyway, who's mentioning combat and combat rounds and combat powers? Not me, I'm just letting you see a cool place :p
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Wed 03 June 2015.

Nym surveys theview, then points across at the dark shapes.

"Houses!" she says. "Maybe there's people."

She looks at the ford.

"I hope that's a ford. What if it's a big hungry monster hiding under the water? That'd be a good idea, wouldn't it? If you were a big hungry monster, I mean - sit in the middle of where a ford's supposed to be and then eat anyone who tries to walk on you. I suppose you'd need to hold your breath for a long time..."

Meri continued along the path, pausing only to stomp her boot down hard on the ground near the ball in an attempt to discourage it from nudging at her foot.

Pausing at the edge of the river, she looked over at the houses with smoke coming from them and then towards the remains of the bridge.
She didn't reply to Nym's comment, although her attention did move towards the ford.
A noticeable frown appeared on her face as she peered at it.

"Don't try to cross it anyway" she remarked quietly, looking back at the houses and narrowing her eyes, raising a hand to shade her eyes from the sun as she squinted at them, trying to make out all visible details of the scene.
There was a hint of wariness about her that hadn't been there before...


OOC: Hmmm...

[Private to The Altweaver: Do I need separate Perception rolls to check out the ford and the houses?
Rolled 26 for one, let me know if I need another one :)

Looking for any hints of a trap on the ford (the fact that it only shows activity from one side is suspicious).
And any hints of who or what might be occupying those houses.]

Nym shrugs and returns her attention to the distant houses.

"Wonder who lives there, anyway." she says. "Maybe we can find out! Can you see anything?"

[Private to GM: Perception for noticing...anything much...holy shit I critted :O.]

The Ball ignored the general wariness / inquisitiveness of the group, and suddenly made a dash for the river. Not the ford, nor the area the bridge had been, but somewhere in between.

It leapt at the last minute, spinning around as it dropped deep in to the water with a 'plop'. It popped up and bobbed along happily after a moment, looking like a solid iron ball. Disconcertingly it bobbed happily exactly against the current. It then would plop under the water as it got near the bridge, to reappear downstream near the ford.

It did not seem to be conveying any message, as there was no real pattern to its ducking and diving and bobbing. It just seemed to be happy to play for a few moments.


The houses and rest of the surroundings - for the moment - blissfully remained the same. Getting a little closer and at a better angle from the sun, the two storey building appeared to have many large windows. Intact windows. [Private to Nym: It felt very much like a travel inn, or other dwelling place for for some reason. Perhaps the shape was similar no matter where one walked, or perhaps it was just like another Nym had encountered once.]

The squatter building in front seemed solid and solidly build, but very plain. The brick seemed solid and deliberate and there appeared to be a distinct lack of wood it could be noticed. In some ways it reminded both of the watchers of Meri's own smithy workshop. [Private to Meri:  As the wind caught the air gentle, blowing in her face once or twice, Meri would swear she heard the very distinct sound that a smith hammer made on the anvil. The heavy 'ting' of heavy work, rather than the delicate and insistent chatter that came with shaping, styling or finishing.]


The river itself looked to be quite shallow at the ford, but it could be noticed that the bump under the river seemed quite substantial. It made the water flow much faster across it, speaking of a much deeper river either side. [Private to Meri: The bump looked earthen, but very flat as if artificial. Perhaps the ford had been created, but especially fighting the fast river that spoke of a ford being well maintained by someone skilled. It certainly seemed like a good spot to ambush people, though there wasn't really any vegetation around to hide behind anywhere. The bank itself did not seem to have the scuffing that might have spoken of any pitched battles or attacks. There was some wear on this side, just far far more wear on the other. Given the small amount of travelers they had met on the road, it was not completely unusual. But again, it would therefore speak of this area being well used.][Private to Nym: The ford itself seemed ok, nothing moved that shouldn't. The fast water was interesting though. In nature, where fire or water or air or earth was more malleable or more intense than normal, it sometimes became easier for a wild mage to make strange and exciting things happen. It was as if the world was pleading for the change to be less ordinary.]



Lol, nothing scary to see. No need to feel alarmed. Oh, not that anyone is rolling perception checks, but can you list both the natural roll and your bonus just to save me looking around for them :)
This message was last updated by the player at 21:30, Wed 03 June 2015.

Unless we crit or botch, I suppose ;).

"Looks like an inn or something..." says Nym, looking at the buildings. Then she turns her attention to the ford. "Ooooh..." she mutters.

She walks toward the water, stopping a couple of metres away and crouching down. She stretches out a hand and shoots out a small fountain of coloured sparks, which arcs upward a short distance before falling toward the water.

Prestidigitation has a two-square range so I'm about that far away using it (any minor effects such as these sparks are Prestidigitation - if I use one of my actual proper Sorc powers, you'll know about it ;)).

Meri glanced briefly at the ball with a puzzled look before returning her attention to one of the buildings.
"Sounds like someone is working there.  A blacksmith perhaps."

Moving towards the ford, she reached out with her staff to poke at the lump in the water...


OOC: *poke poke* :)

No crits / botches on skill checks unless I am feeling nice/evil, plus just because you got a natural 20 doesn't mean I'm going to let you succeed on a DC 40 success unless you have +18 or +20 say :p


The lump of earth - or whatever densely packed material it is - does not react to the staff poke nor the minor displays of magical skill presented. The Ball reacts instead, dancing around in the water close to both of them, jumping up higher and diving down happily. The iron of the ball becomes a vibrant violet colour at odds with the blue/green/brown of the river itself, although the surface of The Ball matches the water well.

To Meri's eyes, the lump does seem like an earthen bank created fully by some skill rather than a natural formation that has been added to. Skilled, given it seems quite flat and solid to her pokes, despite the aggressive water. Unless there is something loose further along, they should be reasonably sure footed if they were to walk along. And Meri had her staff, after all, to keep poking aggressively and suspiciously with. They would probably soaked to their knees, but that may be the worst of it.

Meri stopped poking at the object in the water, raising up her staff and examining the end she had been using with a critical eye before looking back at Nym.
"May as well check it out while we're here at least" she remarked before stepping forward cautiously testing each step in front with her staff before trusting her weight to it...


OOC: Okies, heading across :)

Nym watches Meri, then moves forward to the water's edge and sticks her hand in.

On the safe side of the river...

The water was very cold to the touch, perhaps ultimately having come from the freezing hills and mountains of the north west, where dwarves and others dug deep in the hills for treasure and livelihood. The river moved her hand easily if she let it, speaking of strong eddies and currents caused by the dirt bank.

The Ball had taken to bobbing near to her hand, apparently happy to relax and defy the laws of physics by staying in place against the strong current.



On the other side of the river... which was also safe...

Meri's footsteps were occasionally hindered by a protruding stone or packed dirt that had started to come loose. The constant chilly water splashing up at her didn't help.

Still, with nothing more than soaked legs and one heart stopping wobble half way across, she had forded the ford perfectly well.

One the other side, it appeared that the dirt track continued onwards south, seemingly twisting west to snake between the two larger buildings they had seen. The sounds that had identified the smithy to Meri were far clearly now, this side of the river.

There also seemed to be an almost abandoned dirt track that followed the river to where the bridge had been.  An old wooden sign, once broken yet repaired and reinforced, seemed to have been placed closeby on the bank.

'Welcome to Stonebridge' it declared, the faded black writing touched up lovingly and solidly painted in a bold hand. It seemed that on one edge some less loving writing had been added. The shape of it might have been 'Old' making 'Welcome to Old Stonebridge' but it was hard to tell. As well placed blow from something rounded had smashed a giant hole in to that part of the sign.



Lol, see, both sides of the river are safe, honest! :) But I'm glad you all were cautious.  And hey, if you identify all the scary points for an ambush now, who knows if you'll get to use them against someone later...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:30, Wed 03 June 2015.

After feeling the play of the water on her hand for a few moments, Nym gets to her feet and follows Meri across the river, hoisting her robes up a bit so they don't get all soggy at the bottom.

"Wonder who lives there." she says as she catches up with the dark-haired half-elf. "Let's go and say hello!"

"No guarantee whoever that is will be friendly though" muttered Meri with a suspicious look towards the building the sounds were coming from.

Adjusting her grip on the staff to be ready to raise it in a defensive position if needed, she called out towards the building.
"Hello?  Anyone there?"


OOC: May as well see how they're going to react to us while we're still far enough away from them :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Wed 03 June 2015.

Nym stands back a bit to see what will happen, but looks eagerly in the direction of the building to see if anyone will come out.

Ooh, 100 posts! As a reward, Nym won't get shot at first. Ok, I should stop joking about that...to make you worried about why I've stopped joking about it...


The light sound of a ringing anvil - well, comparitively light - was now clearly audible to Nym aswell. At Meri's shout, the 'tink' stopped for one beat....and then resumed once more.

However, there was some other sign that the call had been heard. From high up - a little too high up - at the corner of the smaller smithy building, a shaggy, wide head appeared, peering around.

The head possessed a great shock of white and grey hair so dense it resembled a fur explosion. The knobbly shapes of the head resolved themselves to a vaguely familiar shape at the same time as a pair of squat horns - one snapped close to the head and the other simple tapering quickly to a point - became obvious.

The head seemed to belong to a minotaur, standing around the corner of the building and shooting what was most likely an unfriendly gaze with red eyes towards the two friends.

The minotaur kept staring for a moment. It started for a moment longer. It shifted as if it had turned its body to go away, but then the head twisted to give one last look at the two. The head then disappeared.

The tinking carried on for a moment. Then a moment longer. Then a moment longer still. Whoever was in the smithy did not seem inclined to stop and come out either.


Friendly bunch around here, aren't they? Not immediately violent, though. So, you know, there's that...

"Ooh, fluffy!" says Nym to herself as she sees the minotaur. She looks at Meri. "Let's go and say hello!"

"He probably doesn't want anyone pestering him while he's working" remarked Meri.
"I'm sure our friend back there knows all about that" she added with a sour look back in the direction of the ball.

Turning her attention to the other building, she began to move towards it, watching it warily for any signs of life, hostile or otherwise.


OOC: Figures Meri would understand not hassling someone while they're busy crafting stuff ;)  hehe.
Checking out the other building for now.  Is there only the two of them here?

The other building started to loom over the presumed smithy as they got closer, even though in appearance there was nothing objectionable to it. It had large, inviting winodws, especially on the top floor, though no door was visible intruding on this side of the building.

The road curved around to wind in between the two buildings, following parallel to the river behind them. The brick of the smithy opened up quite quickly with a large roofed open area. There appeared to be a proper building joined on afterwards, with a more reasonable and closed door at the other end of the building. There seemed to be movement in the shadows of the open area, but the fierce glow of a forge fire and the brightness of the day conspired to - for the moment - affect the eyes of those looking inside. It was easy to imagine the large and shaggy form of a minotaur in there somewhere.

Facing across from the smaller door of the smithy was the door of what was clearly an inn. A weathered but well tended sign swung from a wooden hanger above the door, declaring the inn to be 'The Copper Penny Inn'. A round shape under the name might have once been an artistic representation of that penny, but time has worn the details and colour close to the signs own well varnished appearance. Only the red flowing lettering stood out.

The two buildings seemed to be on the edge of a makesift crossroads, though the roads beyond the crossroads still appeared to be more dirt than well tended road.

At various places leading up to the buildings, and visible beyond, were further squares of what had once been buildings. Some of the squares were overgrown, and the brick of the buildings clearly broken and twisted. Other squares seemed to have been whole once, just every brick other than the foundation stones buried in the earth had been taken. There was evidence of complete houses dotted here and there, and the occasional ruined but tall wall, but these were few and far between. Mostly what was here was open space.

Indeed, there didn't seem to be any indication of unpleasantness, except for one curious detail. All the windows of the top floor of the inn appeared to have heavy curtains still drawn despite the relative earliness of the morning. And some of the windows on the ground floor leading up to the small door of the inn showed evidence of wooden boards temporarily filling the gaps of broken windows.

The 'ting' of the blacksmith kept going, and now there was somethng new - underneath the strong smell of a burning forge, was the more appetising smell of cooking food.


Now that the two had travelled a little distance though, what was noticeable was that a small hill was on the left hand side of this area, a reasonable distance away as if very disdainful of what it could overlook. As well as this impressive  three storey brick building across there was evidence of other buidlings behind it, presumeably stretching out back down the hill towards the woods. And presumeably, the village of New Stonebridge?

One last thing to be noted was that the river snaked around behind the ground, flowing towards the hill and around it, continuing onwards it seemed after its detour.


There we go. Currently there's only two buildings beside you, though there are some in this area beyond, and there appears to be a whole village based around the higher ground to the left as you approached this area.

I will try and make a map in the next few days. I warn you though, it will be so realistic that you may think I am just lifting this from real life. Prepare yourself for its artistry!

So it totally won't be a bunch of multi-coloured lines drawn in Paintbrush, then? ;)
A map would be helpful as I'm having trouble picturing where all this stuff is in relation to...erm...stuff.

"Okay, if he's too grumpy for talking, let's go and see what's in there." says Nym, pointing at the inn. "It's an inn. People in inns are normally friendly, right? Otherwise no-one'd want to stay there, would they? I wonder if they built these places out of what's left of that old village over there..."

She looks briefly toward the ruins of Old Stonebridge, then goes on.

"I wonder if that minotaur helpe. He's probably really strong. I wonder if he's friends with the owner of the inn, otherwise why would they live next door to each other like that? I wonder what kind of stuff he makes in there. Maybe I'll ask him at some point, if he's not too grumpy. Maybe he makes all the knives and forks for people to eat their dinner with in the inn...except surely they wouldn't need that many of them. Maybe it's horseshoes, except there's no horses. Maybe it's weapons, except there's no soldiers or anything. Hmm...maybe he just likes to make metal statues or something. You know, decorations or toys or something..."

Meri looked up at the windows, pausing in her stride.
She continued to look the building over, not responding to Nym's chatter.
Although at the mention of metal statues, Timur looked around at her, cocking his head to one side and blinking at her (at least the blue glow in his crystalline eyes blinked off and back on again).

Finally, Meri looked towards the hill in the distance.
She seemed uncertain of what to do next, frowning slightly.
"Something seems wrong" she murmured quietly, under her breath.


OOC: Paranoid Mode: On! :)

[Private to The Altweaver: Perception Check for trying to spot anything "off" about the inn, apart from the obvious thing about the windows: 19 (Perception skill 9 + Die roll of 10)

Getting a definite "Village of the Damned" feel about this place!  Hehe]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Thu 04 June 2015.

"Does it?" asks Nym. "But we've never been here before...or at least I haven't. How do you know what's [i]right[i/]?"
This message was last updated by the player at 18:58, Thu 04 June 2015.

The inn stood resolute unphased by Meri's more intense scrutiny. [Private to Meri: Meri noticed that not all the top windows had the thick curtains. There seemed to be a set of windows on both the left and right hand corners of the top floor of the inn that had no thick curtains. Or if they had such curtains, they were not drawn. Also, Meri spotted the faint trails of smoke again, the chimney seemed to be on the left side. Tying that up to the food smell, she noted that the left hand bottom windows seemed to be quite smeared with internal dirt and moisture. Perhaps some form of kitchen? What the inn did not yield was any obvious signs of wrongness, nor actual life though.

OOC: Hehe, I wonder why you're so paranoid! Who can say...]

As if summoned by Nym's positivity regarding the place and what might be around, The Ball came along the road, taking the corner at speed and happily spinning to be near Nym's feet. The Ball was back to looking like an iron sphere...well, probably. It had not shaken off the water from the river, and so had instead acquired generous lumps of dust and earth all over it. For the moment, this didn't seem to bother it and it sat still and expectantly.

It might have been a coincidence, but the arrival of The Ball led to a small rumbling growl from inside the smithy. The tinking stopped and there was a low mummer as if another voice, then it got a little louder as if in consternation at something.

"Ser? You've dropped your...cannon ball?...on the ground." The voice drifted out form the forge. It seemed gruff but not completely unfriendly. Certainly human, a deep rumble accented with the same common as the humans in the area.

The thump of hammering carried on again. "Bloody stupid idea to walk around with a cannon ball in yer pack, bloody trinket hunters," then came the less friendly muttering that was perhaps louder and more carrying than the owner of the previous voice had meant it to be.

The was another low growling from the dark.

"Yes, 'moving ball', I get it, it fell out. I told them. Y' can speak more 'n two words y' know. And yer can speak to 'em yerself. No one's impressed, y' dour bugger."

The speaker hadn't stopped hammering but the 'tink' took on a more aggressive tone, apparently directed at the growler.


See, totally friendly people around. Helpful and everything :D

Meri peered up at the building some more then shook her head slightly.
"I don't know" she replied to Nym's question, her voice still quiet.  "Just used to bad places I suppose..."

She broke off at the sound of the ball arriving and the voices from the smithy.
"Thanks" she called back.  "It's not a cannon ball though, more of a curse!"

Turning in the direction of the smithy, she moved closer, trying to see into the building.
"It does move.  In fact it's what led us here.  Any of you seen anything like it before?"


OOC: Who knows, maybe they have weird floaty bouncy ball things leading travellers through their village all the time?  They're probably fed up with it in fact, would explain why they're not too friendly! :)

At the voices from the smithy, Nym practically skips over.

"Hi there!" she says, brightly. "We didn't drop Ball - he's magic, he follows us around. Well, we're following him, really. If he counts as a him. But if I call him an it, it sounds kind of rude."

She edges in closer, peering in to try and see the minotaur or whatever's inside, and what they mighe be doing.

"What're you making? Can I see? I was wondering what you might be making because I don't think horseshoes or weapons would be much use here. I suppose you could be making those things just because you like making them, or maybe you're making something else..."

She stops suddenly, remembering something.

"Oh! By the way, I'm Nym. Short for Nymmerannemallar. Who're you?"

With proximity and interest in Nym's case, and low-light vision in Meri's case, it became easy to see inside the dim interior of the smithy. In many ways there was a commonality to the workshops of those who worked the more resistive metals in to some form of useful shape. A forge in the far right corner cast what light it could, both illuminating and throwing in to shadow the figures inside. [Private to Nym: You think you can see something, or some collection of things, up on one of the higher shelves along the right wall. They seem to sparkle and you feel as if they may be magical in nature.]

Working on an anvil near the right centre of the space was a hunched shape dressed in various leathers. The hair visible was expansive and expansive, and dark streaked with grey. A large beard was in evidence, but wisely tucked in to some sort of high leather strapping around the smithy's neck. The figure was about about six foot or less, it was hard to tell as he hunched over. He seemed very solid and wide, the hammer in his hand practical, solid and stained with black - the perfect fit to the owner. The hammer appeared to be thumping some flat and wide piece of iron, its function and form unclear for the moment.

Sort of imagine Hagrid but human sized and squatter for this guy. And clearly a different temperament :)

On the back wall seemed to be a set of shelves and workbenches with various tools, and maybe some twisted creations also. Moving on to the left, there seemed to be a further set of small benches, with some odd glows and vials visible. [Private to Meri: Which feels oddly similar to your own workshop.] There also appear to be some larger tools and even a small water trough to perhaps quickly quench items.

However, the left side is harder to look around not only because the forge glow does not travel fully across. Also occupying that space is the minotaur form earlier. Whilst perhaps not the tallest minotaur ever, and with a body smaller than many of its kind, that still makes it larger for a humanoid. Its fur is a mix of greys and whites, and its eyes are definitely a deep red. The gaze seems unfriendly, but that could just be a function of the bovine face. The minotair's long hairs seem oddly inadvisable for hanging around in a forge. Indeed, it can't be imagination that much of the minotaurs chest and leg hairs seem shorter and far blacker than the rest of it.

Whilst the minotaur does not advance, simply watches, the blacksmith at the anvil finally stops what he is doing. He gives a speculative look across to the two travellers, revealing a fat, reddened face with thick bushy eyebrows, black eyes, and a full mouth that is twitching as if the owner were sucking their teeth.

He turns to the two, then looks down at his apron and carefully pats it down as if to be more presentable, or just as likely looking out for rogue sparks and shavings.

He then looks back up and slowly walks forwards, his gaze going between Meri and Nym. He settled on Nym, but it is clear a lot of his comments are directed to Meri, perhaps recognising a fellow curmudgeon.

"My name's Tym, and its short for the sake of my patience, and the desperate attempt to hold onter 'em," says the rumbling voice. His gaze briefly goes to Meri before coming back to Nym. "And if yer talk is gunna end with the phrase 'and yer can buy this ball for the small price o' five gold because we're poor honest travellers' then I've got an anvil and a hammer and if yer lucky its just gunna that ball that'll be between 'em."

There was a growling mutter from the minotaur, who seemed to be looking Meri up and down, only occasionally looking at the ball near Nym's feet. It might have been the proximity or having listened to Tym, but the growling was audible common speech. The minotaur had just said something like 'told you the ball moved'.

Tym turned around briefly. "Well yes you did, and thanks for picking now to interact with the people and using more than two words." Tym turned back to the two companions. "Well my talkative friend Holder here is the one to ask about magic, apparently, though Holder should be busy helping me figure out how to make this blasted shield. The reason I'm having problems being quite ironic, really."

The was a strange coughing grunt from the minotaur - apparently called Holder - that seemed to be laughter. Tym turned quickly to the minotaur, "What's so funny about....no you idiot, I'm not making a pun on iron. I mean it's actually ironic that the person should be showing me how to do this is the person I'm making it for. You pick the darnedest time to a have a sense of... wait..."

Tym then turned around and addressed Meri then Nym, looking confused. "What do you mean the ball guided you here? What in blazes could possibly be around here?"


And on that long post, I'll leave you to react and ask questions, answer questions, roll dice if you like, and generally try to work out what on earth is going on. For the moment The Ball seems happy to just sit on the gorund letting you guys speak, and Holder seems happy to glare at The Ball :)

Meri grinned at the man, or at least the corners of her mouth kind of twitched in what appeared to be a slight upwards direction.  As Nym had probably learned, that was the closest Meri ever came to a smile.
She shifted the staff to one hand, balancing it on her shoulder and almost clonking Timur on the head with it.
"Well, I'd happily let you have it for free, if I had much of a choice in the matter" she replied.  "Trouble is, it seems to have become attached to us for some reason and I can't get rid of it.  Try as I might."
She aimed a rather nasty glare at the ball as she said the last part, before turning her attention back to Tym.

"I don't know that it wanted to guide us here specifically.  But it stopped on the other side of the river as we were following it, so, who knows?"
She glanced at the minotaur and then towards the anvil where Tym had been working.
"What sort of trouble you having with that?" she asked, gesturing with her free hand in the direction of the shield.


OOC: Talking about crafting problems is probably the best way to actually catch Meri's interest ;)

Also, I really like these two! :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Thu 04 June 2015.

On hearing Tym's name, Nym giggles slightly.

"Tym? We rhyme!" she says happily. "And Meri's little friend she's carrying around is called Timur, but sometimes I call him Timmy. Because why not?"

As Meri starts to speak, Nym's gaze wanders around the room. She goes over to a set of shelves on the right-hand wall and looks up at the topmost one.

"Oooh, sparkly..." she mutters, and starts to reach toward them. "Oh, wait..."

She pauses in her action and looks around at the others in the room.

"Suppose it... does?" says Tym of the name rhyming despite himself, and even gives the start of a confused wave to Timur before stopping himself.

Distracted by Meri's speech, he of course missed Nym's inquisitive beeline for the high shelf - and the dimly sparkling items.

'Careful' came a grunt, and the shaggy minotaur strode across the room. However, the giant simply lifted a hand gently to one of the items and picked it up between a thumb and forefinger with an oddly dainty manner. He set the item on his other arm near the wrist, and moved the arm downwards for Nym to see.

The item on his arm, still obvious despite the bottom of it getting lost in grey fur, was a twisted brass scultpure. About the size of Nym's fist, it was a delicate butterfly. The wings were outstretched, and where the actual material of the wings should be there was no brass. Instead the brass only outlined the wing. The glow came from a gosimere thin lair of what seemed to be glowing water lapping back and forth in the frame of the wings. The minotaur grunted something softly, and the wings of the butterfly flaps slowly once, twice, three times then stopped. The high shelf seemed to have three of four such scuptures, each with their own element bound - a sheet of fire glowing the brightest of them all. There also seemed to be a more solidly build statue of a dog or similar animal, sitting on its hind legs and looking off in to the distance.

"Careful," said Tym aswell, though in a far more nervoud tone of voice than the minotaur, giving a tug on his neck that pulled off the small scarf holding his beard back. He then tugged on his beard in a fidget. Meri could perhaps sympathise with the reactions of a craftsman in their workshop when confronted by Nym's curiosity.

Tym turned back to Meri, apparently fighting the urge to yell and deciding to instead concentrate on the question.

Fisher, growled Holder across to the blacksmith. Tym temporarily looked around, confused. He looked to the staff in Meri's hand as if wondering why the minotaur would think it a fishing rod.

"Ooh, artificer?" said Tym with realisation dawning, looking to the minotaur. The minotaur was concentrating on Nym and the butterfly, but still seemed to sense the look and nodded.

Tym turned back to Meri once more, as if having no idea how the minotaur made the guess. "Well, Holder should know I guess, weird bugger," he muttered then addressed Meri directly with a slightly more friendly tone. "Eh, trouble is your friend is right. Don't get much call for weapons around here. Or I never did." A little hint of wounded pride came in to his voice. "I can repair them mind, better than new I say, but..yeah, make one from nothin'? Eh, that was never me. My apprentice, now she's the one that can work metal like that, like she sees it all there as soon as she picks up the first lump of metal. Learned the fundamentals from me she did, but weaponsmithing from Holder I reckon. Anyway, give me something functional any day. I can see that, you just bash it and twist it and get it lookin' right for what yer gunna do with it. It's just there in yer mind, isn't it? Then yer go do some more stuff ter strengthen it 'cause we all know what all them buggers out there do with your beautiful new creation when they gets their hands on it. But...eh, weapons I don't want to think about what they do, thank you. And armour and shields? I mean, their function is to be smacked by dunderheads to protect the dunderheads inside. How are yer supposed to figure that one out?"

Tym gestured helplessly at the lump of flat metal. "So yeah, that's how it's goin' right now," he said sourly, throwing a look to the minotaur equal to the one Meri had thrown at The Ball.

The Ball, for its part, seemed to happily roll back and forth on Meri's leg as if her words and tone had been the kindest displays of affection. And of course, that meant the mud and dirt on The Ball was currently transferring on to her soaked boots.

Meri nodded, giving another faint hint of her ghost of a smile.
"I find it the same way myself.  Ordinary weapons and armour don't have the same...  Appeal to them" she replied, looking around at the shelf of items Nym was reaching for.

"Now those on the other hand.  That is true art" she remarked, indicating them.


OOC: ooo, definitely found one of Meri's weak points! :)  hehe.
Also, does Meri know anything about making shields that could help him?  Or do Artificers specialise more in things that make other things go Boom?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Fri 05 June 2015.

I think the thing of an Artificer is that they see patterns in magic and can manipulate it and stuff and imbue items with it (you'll be able to enchant at level four, remember), rather than necessarily making the items themselves. I suppose there are plenty of Artificers who do make their own items, though, if they happen to also take up blacksmithing or carpentry or whatever :).

"Ooooh, that's pretty!" says Nym in a hushed voice, fascinated by the movements of the butterfly. "I can make that, too..."

She holds out a hand, palm up, and a copy of the butterfly appears.

"Yours is better, though." she says. "You actually made that. I mean, properly."

Nym then gives a slight flick of her fingers and the copy disappears.

"Nice that you make pretty things like that." she says, mainly addressing Holder even though the sculptures are presumably the work of Tym. "I don't like all those big swords and things that some people use. All hitty and stuff. Why use them when you have magic in your blood waiting to be called up?"

She holds out her hand again and a small flame dances up from it, then turns purple and forms itself into a twisting pattern, like a burning snake weaving through the air and around her fingers before suddenly disappearing.

"Do you have magic?" she asks Holder.

I'll have to double check, but my memory of the crafting of non-magical items was that basically its more up t othe player/DM, but that it happens during down time and your material and other costs are, who would have thought it, exactly the same as if you bought the thing in the first place :D

So unless we need to start determining a timing of how long an item would take to craft, I'm happy for you to say what items you think you could craft/not craft, have that skill, and just be aware that unless you have a feat or ritual that lets you do it you'll not likely be macguivering up anything you couldn't just buy over the same time period :D

So if you think you have bashed metal enough to have worked some shields, then you can go ahead and perhaps roll Intelligence or Wisdom to help, if you think you would have steered clear still roll, but you'll be more learning I guess :D


Tym gave a nod to Meri at the shared sentiment, then looked to the butterflies that seemed to have survived Nym's initial curiosity. "Ah, that was my apprentice what made them," said Tym, he seemed a little embarrassed as he carried on. "Linnetta. I likes butterflies, see, the ones around the area, so she occasionally makes me one. Doens't seem right having the skills to do that in the same hands that can turn a twenty pounds of scrap in to a noble's coward coat, but there you go." He said it with apparent fondness rather than bitterness, then pointed to Holder. "The ...funny stuff, the enchantment on 'em, that's all Holder though. Talented bugger when he puts his mind to it. Wish he's put his talents to help my shield bashing here!"

Holder gave a reluctant nod at both Nym's own display and Tym's more complimentary comments, and seemed to decide not to hear the others. There even seemed to be be few turned up muscles at Nym's butterfly. However, when Nym made her comment regarding weapons, Holder's shoulders seemed to droop. He put the butterfly back on the shelf, and stalked back over to the shadows of the left hand area.

Tym made a face, it almost looked like concern. "Ah, see, that's Holder's speciality is weapons. Well, magic too, and doing funny stuff, but sort of making them. I guess using them to, though that was a long time ago."

Tym seemed uncomfortable at having brought up that second part. Holder was luckily distracted from Tym's comment by Nym's question. Though still perhaps a little hurt, he shrugged regarding magic. "A little," the minotaur grunted. Holder snorted violently in the air, as if sneezing, however the air condensed and crackled with ice and there was a cold feel in the otherwise warm forge.

The Ball had spun in to the room quietly as always. Apparently intrigued by the butterflies Holder and Nym had demonstrated, it leap in the air and started spinning upon its access. All the dirt from its surface had long since gone on to Meri's clothes, and it made itself translucent, with some explosions of fire under the surface. As it spun, a rotoscope effect created an odd sense of a butterfly's wings flapping as it drifted across to Holder.

When The Ball hit the cold air, it suddenly froze, with ice on the surface, and plummeted like a large, round stone to the floor. Holder's red eyes had been following it, and with the sudden drop the minotaur acually took a step back in surprise.

The Ball then burst in to flames and flew upwards again, bobbing left and right as if amused at playing a prank. It moved brifly towards Nym then jerked back towards Holder, as if to encourage Nym to come play. The Ball hovered right beside Holder, gently bobbing left and right, still spinning like a now blue emerald butterfly.

Holder very slowly held out his hands and took The Ball between a thumb and finger, just as he'd handled the buttefly before. "Moving ball?" he grumbled to Nym, as if a question.

Tym looked to Meri. "Huh. Well, if that is a trick its a good one, I'll give yer that." He raised an eyebrow. "So how did y' come by it? You mentioned a curse? Where exactly is it leading you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Fri 05 June 2015.

"No idea!" says Nym brightly before Meri can answer. "Ball just showed up one day and...well, does stuff. Plays around, like just then, you saw? And then one day seemed to decide we should follow him, so we did. And here we are, so far."

She turns back to face Holder and goes over to put her hand into the area of cold air made by his sneeze.

"Hey, you made magic. You sneezed cold. That must be funny. Can you do it without sneezing, though? Magic, I mean? Otherwise it must be really inconvenient for you to have to sneeze every time you want to do something...and can you only do cold stuff? What about fire, or acid, or...well, anything else? Does it feel good, when you do it? Mine does. Magic, I mean. Do you feel it in your blood? Meri doesn't seem to, at least not like I do. I like it."

She holds her hands at about shoulder width apart, palms up, and suddenly a rainbow appears, erupting from her right hand and flowing over into her left in a perfect arc. It starts to shimmer, all the colous changing into every other colour imaginable, before Nym throws her hands up and the rainbow erupts into a fountain of bright, multi-coloured sparks which shower down harmlessly onto the floor.

Nym giggles slightly and rubs her hands and forearms.

"See? I feel it and it's fun. I can do lots more stuff than that...but...well, Meri doesn't really like it. Some of her stuff got broken once, when I was showing her what I can do. That was a bit of an accident, so I'll be careful not to do that again."

She grins up at the minotaur.

Meri peered at the butterfly with a curious look.
"Hope I get to meet her some time" she remarked quietly.  "My old mentor just taught me the basics, and how to accidentally blow things up.  The rest I had to learn for myself.  Still learning too really, experimental crafting mostly, when I'm not tripping over that thing!"
She gestured towards the ball, watching with a puzzled look as it played around for Nym and Holder.

"Found it in my workshop one day.  Far as I know it used to be just a metal ball.  I forget what I wanted to use it for, seems like it got enchanted with something though.  I don't understand what it is, or what it wants from us.  It seems to be 'alive', in some way, yet it can change shape and colour, resist damage that would destroy anything else...  It seemed to want us to follow it somewhere, and we decided to go along with it just to see where we'd end up.  It stopped on the other side of the river, so we came here to see if it was something here it wanted to show us."

She shrugged lightly, her eyes following the strange object.
"Unless it wanted us to see your butterflies, I can't think why it came here.  Maybe something in there?"
She indicated the inn with her free hand as she spoke, then looked around to where the newer buildings beyond the hill were.
"Or maybe over there...?"


OOC: The fact Meri is still learning refers to the missing rituals :)
I hadn't planned on her mentor showing up in the adventure, but let me know if you want the details.  I actually just made him up on the spot while typing my first post, hehe.

"Make moving things solid, that's all. Like air and water to ice. Do it whenever," mumbled the minotaur in to his chest. He reached behind him to some of the larger assortment of gear and tools haphazardly stacked beside the smaller benches, and came back with something that looked too plain and abused to be thought of as a weapon, yet a little too pointed and hefty to be merely a forge hammer.

Holder then started gesturing slowly to a piece of metal propped up on a bench - it was oddly shaped, and perhaps had been one of the less successful attempts at a shield by Tym.

Slowly the minotaur concentrated on the head of the hammer, looking to it but making small circles with it at the shield. The room felt colder again, and slowly but surely ice crystals formed on the shield. The ice crystals sagged almost immediately despite being solid, and it was only after the effect spread over the whole of the shield in a circle pattern that it could be seen it was deliberate. It seemed like the fur on Holder's body, and the minotaur gave off an expectant air as if pleased with himself. There was a hesitation when the minotaur seemed to realise something was amiss, and he set the hammer down to go get the lump of shield-ish metal. He lifted it up and held it aloft, stepping forwards and twisting it this way and that. The Ball leapt to the air, igniting itself in royal blue flames and seeming like a burning sapphire. So doing, the full effect could be seen - Holder had formed his own face in the ice. There seemed to be a little bit more of a smile on the sculpted face than the minotaur's own shaggy and dour face, perhaps answering Nym's question about the fun of using magic.

"Bet Holder's master never taught 'im ter to that in an armoury," said Tym to Meri. "I've been bashing metal and other stuff in to less objectionable metal and stuff fer prolly fourty or more years, and I'm still learnin'. Yer get the basics down, they'll never let yer down, then yer just keep on learnin'." Tym gestured vaguely in the direction of the hill. "If yer ever get the time, yer should look up Linetta. She's got a workshop up in the Newbridge-"

"My workshop," muttered Holder interrupting.

"- great workshop that some idiot lost to her playin' cards. Dunno what the idiot was thinkin', but there y' go!" said Tym without breaking his flow.

As Meri gestured to the hill and the inn - or perhaps because Tym had mentioned the village on the hill - The Ball started waving around. However, after a few goes the deliberate motion could be seem in between the happy playful dancing. It kept jerking itself in a direction diogonally away from the smithy, passed the inn and beyond the crossroads.

Tym seemed to notice it, and muttered something to himself. He shook his head apparently to clear the thought. A different one quickly arrived.

"Umm, don't think there's any guests at the inn right now, but I do know what there is." Tym looked back over to Holder. "Holder, rather than showin' off ter yer new best friend, how's about y' go get Jorri and get us some drink out here. Maybe some food too, didn't get breakfast this mornin' cause I thought we were gunna be gettin' somewhere with all this."

Tym didn't seem too put out despite his words though. Holder stood up, putting the shield down after a moment admiring it. Despite how carefully he placed the item down, the frost broke apart and cascaded down to nothing on the ground.

"What want?" he asked, looking around.

"The usual fer me," said Tym, gesturing for the minotaur to leave with a dismissive hand.

Once the minotaur had left though, Tym's face took on a thoughtful expression and he hunched down with some effort on to the ground. "Just wanted that lump away to check summat," he said to the others at large. "Well, and drink and Jorri, but, well, just wanted to see summat..."

Tym started patting his knees, and beckoning The Ball. "Umm..come 'ere..umm..boy? Ball?" Tym seemed to become very awkward. The Ball took it in stride though, dancing in the air for a few moments then wafting across. It looking like a cannon ball once more but drifting around so easily seemed to disconcert Tym a little.

"Hmm, well its not just attracted ter magic. As Holder can tell yer, I've not got a magical bone in me body."

Tym looked up to Meri. "And as fer stuff just becomin' magic? Take it with as much saft as yer want from me, but that doens't sound usual. Not one bit, in all my years have I heard o' that. I mean Holder's no expert in things, but I've ne'er seem that happen around here, not once in his old place nor mine. The trick with magickin' stuff's always seemed to be getting the magic in, that's always seemed to be the bugger when I've been watching it. It suddenly happinin' seems...hmm. Not sure what to tell you."

However, despite that Tym's gaze seemed to go back speculatively to the middle distance where The Ball had gestured before.


I swear these updates will get shorter :D

Also, I probably won't prod you too much about making skill checks, and usually use passive insight/perception and your class to feed you info, never be afraid to make skill checks if there's something more you want to figure out or check up on.

So far it hasn't really occurred to Nym to specifically wonder about stuff like that. Maybe she will later, but for now she's alL "Attention Deficit...Ooh, Shiny!" and generally enjoying being nosy :D.

Nym stares with rapt attention and fasciantion at the ice-picture made by Holder on the shield, then looks around as Tym starts talking to him. She looks at the image as it disintegrates and briefly starts to conjure a much smaller duplicate in the air in front of her but is distracted when Tym starts talking to the Ball.

"Maybe he was just...asleep, or something." she suggests as she comes over to rejoin the others. "You know, didn't look like magic until he woke up and then he did."

She shrugs and looks around.

"So what's that shield thing you're trying to make, again? I wasn't really listening - those pretty thingys on the shelf were much more interesting at the time. I like Holder's magic. I've not really met that many minotaurs. I wonder what it's like to be one, clomping around with those big hooves everywhere. Well, maybe I'll try it later. So what's this shield thing about, again?"

True but as a player sometimes you're rolling to nudge the story how you want. So Nym might not be looking around, but you're welcome to roll perception because it would be fun if Nym stood in just the right place accidentally to spot the really cool stuff on a high shelf :D

That is true...but I'm also RPing a character who isn't really paying too much attention to stuff so I don't really think to look for it myself. Meri can do that while I piss about conjuring pretty lights and talking high-speed randomness at whomever will listen :D.

OOC: oh, so I'm doing all the work, eh?  Ok.  You can nuke any enemies we encounter while I sit back and break out the popcorn! ;)  lol.


"Do you think Linetta would know anything about this ball?" asked Meri.  "Much as I hate to admit it, it's beyond anything I know of."
She looked down at the Ball, at that point noticing the mess it made on her clothing and shooting a rather dangerous glare at it.

Shaking her head she looked in the direction the Ball had moved in.
"Well, I know enough about magic to know that it doesn't just appear.  I had thought that maybe it was her who messed around with it in some way, what with both of them always changing."
She tilted her head towards Nym to indicate who she meant.

"Well, if it wants to go somewhere, we may as well keep following it and see where we end up.  Hopefully it's not leading us to our doom for some reason known only to it, or whatever is making it bounce around like a crazed rabbit."
She glanced at Tym and then again in the direction the Ball had seemed to indicate.
"Do you know anything about what lies in that direction?" she asked.

You both can retcon if you wanted Holder to bring you any food / drink by the way. Otherwise you'll have to accept what he arrives with :)

Tym gestures to the shield while answering Nym's question. "Linetta is finally marrying Jorri's boy in a couple o' months, and she was lookin' fer a new sign for the smithy, so I figured a fancy shield might be nice an' eyecatchin'. Jorri's good with the paintin', so he can do some design or other on it once I gte it finished. Damn stupid metal."

Tym glared at the shield as if it was all its fault then lifted himself with a grunt back to a standing position. He regarded The Ball again as the sphere danced around in Holder's corner, stopping at each vial in turn. Tym winced each time as if waiting for the smash of something being knocked over. "Not sure Linetta could tell you much more'n me, its Holder that's the one who can poke and prod in to magic things. Might get more'n two words outta him about it once he's had a think, but to be honest even he jus' dabbles too. Not sure if he can help more'n anything you'd have figured out bein' around it all the time. Pity the mothers have gone now, they were always the ones that seemed to know about stuff like that. How long ago did it happen?"

I figure maybe The Ball's been around for a little over two weeks. You guys probably left home three days ago - that being leaving during the first day, traveling all of yesterday, and then having finished the walk to Stonebridge this morning.

Tym seemed distracted so both Nym's comments and Meri's over Nym's shifting nature seemed to have gone over his head. He looked once more in the direction The Ball indicated, but seemed to have an odd reluctance to comment on it. "Umm, I mean that way...well...I mean there's stuff there but...hmm, maybe better wait fer Jorri. Maybe he's heard summat from a traveller, or maybe someone's stayin' with him at the moment."

It seemed that his mind, looking for any distraction, then recalled the previous comments. "Wait, what do you mean 'with both of them always changin'?" he said with a raised eyebrow and incredulous voice.


I wonder what the grumpy smith is worried about in terms of that direction...

"About two weeks ago, give or take a day or two" Meri replied, leaning in her staff and watching the Ball with a rather nervous look, as if also waiting for it to break something.

She looked back at Tym as he spoke up.
"Well the ball keeps changing colour, like you saw it do.  And so does Nym, though not as often.  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one stuck in the same body."

"Not that I like this body much" she added in a quieter tone.


OOC: eep!  Hope grumpy smith doesn't have a phobia of Changelings or something...

"Yep, that's right." says Nym, happily. "I can change any way I want and I can do it all the time - see?"

So saying, her body immediately swells and grows, increasing in height and in width so that it loses the more slender proportions of a half-elf and instead sprouts fur and horns. Her robes don't seem to change, and yet somehow they seem no worse a fit than they were moments ago, when she was a half-elf. For now she has become a minotaur, with slightly shaggy fur the same colour her haalf-elven hair was, a set of horns and hooves, and a slightly less bulky appearance than Holder given that she's remained a female.

"See?" says Nym again, her voice much deeper now that she's taken a larger form with a differently-shaped throat, a transformation which took a matter of seconds. "Now I'm fluffy too! And I've got horns and everything!"

She reaches up to pull at one of her horns and the movement causes her head to jerk sideways somewhat.

"Oh yeah, that'll happen." she mutters to herself.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:58, Sat 06 June 2015.

Lol, cue Nym leading herself around by her own horns for the next ten minutes for fun.

I hadn't meant to gender the minotaur, but haven't policed myself well. If you ask Tym he wouldn't even know himself :D

Tym suddenly seemed to choke on his own beard for a moment having sucked in his breath so fast at the transforming. "Whoosit...whass.." he finally said composing himself. "Moren' changing colour," he said with a glare to Meri, but perhaps Nym's general chattiness had stopped the smith being too suspicious at the queer nature of her abilities. Or perhaps owning a floating ball had prepared the smith for stranger things. "Eh, most o' us are stuck in the one body, not so good when it goes and ages on yer in th' blink o' an eye. You enjoy yer youth and don't worry about the rest o' it.," he said to Meri not unkindly. He grappled for something to say to Nym. "And I guess you enjoy...umm..changing?"

There was an odd pause as Tym clearly tried to collect his thoughts.

"Hello! Hello! Hello!" came a new voice suddenly. The voice belonged to a round man with a red round face and rounder body hidden behind a lesser apron than Tym's, stained with food and grease rather than the soot of the forge. The man's hair seemed to have departed long ago from his head, and his face and body seemed to trigger thoughts of halfling and dwarf respectively rather than the human he clearly was.

"Ah, Holder never said there was another minotaur, or I'd have brought more food, have no doubt," said the voice cheerfully, giving the impression it tended to remain cheerful and upbeat no matter what might occur.

The Ball came out from the corner, dancing around to see who the new person was - or perhaps jus tto say hello to the shining silver tray the figure carried. Who really knew with The Ball.

"Ah, and this will be the reason why," said the figure - most likely Jorri - managing to retain his compsure in the face of a floating orb of silver liquid, ripping and drifting. "Holder wasn't joking about a floating ball, then?"

"Also rolls," came the rumbling voice of Holder from outside. The minotaur was clutching four drinks precariously in his large hands, made all the more precarious by him turning around on the spot as if looking for the half-elf from before, and occasionally darting suspicious glances at the new minotaur.

"I wouldn't expect any less of it if it floats!" said Jorri good naturedly, smiling at Nym and Meri and offering around the platter that seemed to contain a variety of bread rolls with meats and spreads stuffed inside, and some fruit lining the outside perimeter in an asthetically pleasing manner. "Anyway, my name is Jorri Durrmot, owner of The Copper Penny, and I'm pleased to welcome you to Stonebridge. And offer you some complimentary food from the Copper Penny, even if it is being served in less usual surroundings." Jorri grinned.

"Complimentary? Don't you dare! This is my food I'm sharin' with my guests what you owe me for one o' yer ruffians almost burning down my forge last week. Throwing that bollte o' spirits through the window and landing in here. You curry favour with yer own food 'n' drink."

Jorri didn't lose his smile, but his voice seemed to shift to some other accustomed gear of accusation. "'My ruffian' wouldn't have been drunk nor had a bottle to throw if you hadn't given him the bottle in the first place."

"Well I was doin' you a favour tryin' to cheer him up cause he was pissin' 'n' moanin' about yer lack of water in 'is room."

"His room didn't have water because you took the pipe for it!"

"I didn't take the pipe, you gave it ter me 'cause you owed me fer fixin' yer-"

"DRINK!" yelled the minotaur, almost pushing one of the mugs in to Tym's face. Clearly Holder had seen this display many times before. The second mug Holder delivered with more care to Meri, but that didn't stop some of the contents ending up on her boots to join the mud.

Holder then walked over to the other minotaur speculatively, seeming to weigh it up Nym. Holder looked to the final two mugs, one in each hand, and while giving Nym the evil eye, transferred the contents between the two mugs until they were perfectly level with each other. Only then did the minotaur offer one, pull it back, compare the two again, then offer the other mug.

"Who this?" Holder grumbled. "Where half elf?"

"Yup, certainly do." says Nym in response to Tym's question, but has no time to say anything more before the cheerful Jorri arrives. She watches the interactions between the threesome, then looks around at Holder's query about a half-elf.

"Oh, I'm not a half-elf." she says cheerfully as she takes the proffered mug. "See? Now I'm a minotaur. I'll be something else later, when I feel like it."

She looks at the liquid inside the mug.

"So what's this?" she asks.

Hopefully if it's alcohol we can find out before Nym drinks it and we find out what could potentially happen to someone with leaky magic when they start getting drunk (or rather, what could happen to their surroundings) :D.

Meri frowned at the additional mess on her boots and accepted the mug.  Sniffing at the contents, she wrinkled her nose slightly and simply stood there holding it, as if not wanting to drink it.

At Tym's comment to her, she frowned again and sighed, looking away towards the forest.
"Enjoy...  Right!" she muttered in a low voice.
Looking back at the mug, she raised it and downed half of it, coughing slightly as if unused to drinking.


OOC: Lost in her own world, all while her player is hoping Nym isn't about to get drunk and explode half the place.  Just when we were making some new friends and all too...  :)

"Better rat's piss than yer'll find in all the area, including anywhere in Newbridge," said Tym, saluting Jorri with the mug happily, apparently the previous discussion instantly erased. He drank a generous measure.

"Ale. Brown ale," muttered Holder, though the tone and expression appeared friendly enough once he realised what had happened and who Nym was. Half the contents of the minotaur's mug was poured back in to Nym's mug to fill it to the top, and the rest of the mug was downed by the minotaur in one long messy gulp. The minotaur waved the mug around vaguely and then threw it to the floor. He looked to Meri's mug greedily when she hesitated about drinking it, but once she put it to her lips the minotaur turned and walked out of the smithy towards the inn again.

"Too sober for this," he muttered as he left.

Jorri turned around, still the smile. "I didn't notice you taking any coins with you to leave on my counter?" he called across.

"Saved village. Owe me drink," came the reply drifting back on the wind.

"I wish he wouldn't always hold that over us," said Jorri with mock resignation.

"To be fair he did," said Tym with a shrug. "And it's not like he uses it on us more than a few times a year." Tym then looked at the rapidly emptying mug speculatively. "Now, me, on the other hand, you do still owe some more-"

"Or you can finish that mug then get back on with the shield," suggested Jorri pleasantly. "I want to paint it while I'm quiet." Jorri then looked to Meri and Nym. "Unless you both would be wanting accommodation or a proper meal, in which case you have my undivided attention and the pick of my rooms!" He practically beamed.

"Oh," said Tym, "no wizards or anything passin' through? That's a shame. Anyway, they were just passin' through themsleves it seems. This is Niminasomething that sounds like my name, and this is Happy...no, I mean Merry. They had a few questions regarding their funny ball thing, and I hoped you might know someone who could help. Or might have heard something youself."

Jorri turned and gave a small bow, finding a spot to put the plate down on so he could clasp his hands together. "A pleasure to meet you. And I am just as happy to listen to your tales as I am to share the tales of anyone else if it will help?"

Don't get too worried about falling over drunk just yet. Though if you end up imbibing too much I'll start throwing some Endurance rolls at you and yes, wild magic rolls too. 5th edition has some fun tables I'd love the excuse to try out if 4th edition doesn't have them buried somewhere :D

Nym tastes a bit of the drink but then wrinkles her nose and sticks out her large bovine tongue.

"Plerrgh, doesn't taste very nice, does it?" she says. "Oh well, free food!"

She sets the mug down nearby and instead starts helping herself to some of the fruit on the tray.

"Free food, the best kind of food." she mumbles around a mouthful of something juicy, then looks across at Jorri.

"Oh by the way, hello - I'm Nym, short for Nymnairahellian."

Introductions apparently over, she turns her attention to stuffing her face.

Meri finished her drink and turned around quickly as Jorri spoke to them, almost causing Timur to overbalance and fall out of her backpack as she did.

For a moment, she eyed the mug Nym had abandoned, then closed her eyes and shook her head slightly, before fixing an intense gaze squarely on Jorri as if deliberately ignoring the mug.

"Found that thing two weeks ago in my workshop.  It was there before that, but not...  alive, like it is now.  Anyway, it seems to be wanting to lead us somewhere, so we thought maybe we'd follow it.  Or at least Nym did."

She frowned at Nym, as if only just noticing her shape change and rolled her eyes slightly.
"If it turns out that thing has been wasting my time, you're always welcome to bash it flat and use it as a shield" she added.


OOC: Yep, Meri seems to have relapsed back into Little Miss Grumpy again...  :)

What do you mean, "relapsed"? ;)

Nym simply shrugs.

"Well, you decided to come along as well." she says with a grin. "I could've gone by myself, and I didn't make you come."

Lol, it's great how the fast talker of the group is also the most distracted of the group so won't actually talk to people about what the group needs need half the time, so the dour non-people person becomes the face man :)

Meri shall definitely enjoy her popcorn during the battle in the next few days. Did I say days, I meant...no combat could possibly happen at any point in time.


Tym looked to the full mug with glee but Jorri was far faster. The inn owner took the mug in to his hands to drink from it instead, beaming at the minotaur changling and repeating the name under his breath a few times as if committing it to memory.

Jorri listed to the comment regarding the ball, thinking for a moment before something seemed to click in his mind. "Wait, a few weeks ago?" Jorri put the mug down to count on his fingers, his face screwing up and his tongue sticking out briefly from the side of his mouth as he tried to work something out. "Maybe...two weeks two days ago? First thing in the morning?"

Tym set his own mug down in surprise. "What do you know?"

Jorri looked askance at Tym. "That wizard from a few weeks back, remember? Had a familiar that was a cat, was sitting in the tap room having breakfast and suddenly 'poof', the cat became a dog that spoke nothing but dragon. Apparently dragon anyway. Remember?"

Tym shook his head.

"Yes you do, I told you!" said Jorri.

Tym shook his head.

"Yes I did, I came out here later on and asked if anything strange had happened."

Tym nodded his head. "Yes you did. Those exact words. Nothin' about wizards and familiars and things goin' 'poof'."

"Oh," said Jorri, for once his expression deflating. He took a drink from his mug and his smile was back by the time the mug left his lips. "Still, I mean together with what happened with the butterflies..."

"What happened with the butterflies?" asked Tym, his voice growing high in pitch.

Jorri blinked. "Holder told me a couple of days later. Said one of his vials blew up in a cone of frost and all your butterflies flew about for a few moments and then their wings extinguished and they fell down. I mean I know he was worried you'd think it was him and hadn't said anything, but I told him to tell you, I mean surely he....told you...?"

Holder at that moment had come back with a fresh mug of ale that he was drinking. His frozen expression and mug still to his face showed he'd caught the tail end of the conversation. "Need to clean mugs," the minotaur grumbled, spilling the rest of the ale on to the floor with botched nonchalance, and picking up his original mug. He also quickly grabbed Meri's empy mug and even Jorri's still mostly full one, then turned and sped off back to the inn.

"Come back you idiot, even if it yer had done somethin' I wouldn't have cared!" yelled Tym to the retreating figure. Tym signed in exasperation. "No, didn't know that one either. Guess the furry lump re-enchanted all m'butterflies before I got up then."

Jorri whistled for a few moments to himself. "Anyway," he said at large, with a surely plastered on grin by now, "at the time I didn't think anything of it, I didn't know if the two were the the same time or if Holder had gotten confused. But with this third thing...well, seems too much of a co-incidence, especially if that ball took you to our doorstep."

"Where did the wizard go?" asked Tym.

"Oh, not sure. I know he was wondering what had happened, but with nothing to go on I just don't know. He was traveling north originally, but I'm not sure if he stuck to that plan afterwards. He might have checked in on the hill first?"

Tym grumbled in to his beard for a moment. "Their ball wasn't...isn't...leading them to here, exactly." Tym looked a little reluctant to ask the next question. "What's that way?" He pointed to where the ball had indicated earlier. "I mean, I know the Falls are that way," and he tilted his hands to the right a little, "but what's that way." He tilted his hand left again.

"No, that's the direction of the falls," said Jorri, pointing to the first place Tym had indicated.

"No, I mean, the falls are further west, right?" said Tym, almost pleading.

"No," corrected Jorri, pointing exactly where the ball had pointed, "falls are right that way. The river curves back on itself a little. I should know, been up there enough. Well, not that much now I suppose, and not recently, I mean...it's the falls. Scares the willies out of me that place now." Jorri gave a half hearted smile and laugh, clearly affected by it. "Why?" he asked.

Tym sighed, but The Ball removed the need for an explanation. It rolled to the front of the smith, and started doing its jerking motions in the same direction once more. Then it flew straight up in the air outside, as if to try and get a better view from higher up.

"Oh," said Jorri, his smile replaced with a worried frown.

"Oh," agreed Tym, his face about the same dire expression as it always was, but his eyes looking far more lost than angry.


Nothing ominous to read here :D Just happy adventuring times ahead!
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Sat 06 June 2015.

Oops, didn't mean to get in the way of team morale, carry on your conversation first if you want before reacting to the completely not ominous reactions of the NPCs :D

"Two weeks ago, yeah it would have been about that" said Meri, suddenly paying more attention to the talk about a mysterious wizard.

At the mention of the falls and the reaction of the others she glanced in that direction and up at the Ball, then sighed with an air of resignation.
"I'm guessing this isn't a good place to go to then?" she asked in an even more deadpan than usual sort of voice, casting a glance towards where the ale mugs had been taken away.


OOC: Well, that doesn't sound good...  (O.o)

Nym plonks herself down onto the nearest thing resembling a chair and leans back casually, putting her hands behind her head after a couple of failed attempts in which she accidentally knocks either or both of her arms against her horns. Her staff she has leant nearby, within reach.

"Scary waterfalls?" she asks. "What's so scary about a waterfall? And how could it make Ball come to life, and turn a cat into a dragon-speaking dog...wow, I wish I could've seen that...imagine if it turned into an actual dragon..."

"I'm glad it didn't, this one here does my roofing!" said Jorri to Nym regarding the cat turning in to a dragon, pointing to Tym regarding the roof repair. Nym's antics in getting used to her new body seemed to earn some amused or bemused looks, though sadly The Ball was still outside rather than able to see for itself.

Tym was the first one to answer, or at least try to answer, the question regarding the falls. "Well, I mean, they're not scary...as such...I guess. Well, I mean, they are, but not...you see..." Tym stroked his beard a few times, tugging it once or twice, and looked helplessly to Jorri.

Jorri waved his hands as if to leave Tym in the lurch, but then apparently couldn't help himself and slapped his hands on his knees with a chuckle to ward off the previous atmosphere. He leant against a wall and strated to speak. "Well, you see, the thing of them is that they aren't altogether natural. However you slice it. The river splits up by them, or I guess converges is the better way to say that. The Smallwater winds its way from the south, and the Hillwater comes down from the foothills up west. And before the war, it used to take the long way around to do it. For whatever reason it was round there that Lord Fetre caught the orc warband and beat them in their last stand. The orcs had their last stand, I mean, not Lord Fetre."

"Well, I mean not all the orcs were routed there," said Tym helpfully.

"The weird ones that carried on though," said Jorri.

"Oh yeah, definitely the wrongest feeling went on and fell there."

Jorri nodded, rolled his eyes a little, and got back in to his story. "So I mean by all accounts it was a bit of a battle. Certainly those of us here could see the colours and hear the explosions of the battle from all the way up on the hill as we were. The battle blew that area clear apart, and the area was broken enough that the Hillwater no longer had to take the long way around and the falls were formed."

Tym nodded, finishing the last of his ale - the only one of them still with a mug - and set it down as he suddenly seemed eager to continue the story. "Yeah, so yer see it's just always felt a bit off anyway. Lots of men and orcs fell there, and the land didn't take kindly I don't reckon to bein' split up. Things don't grow as right as they should. Smells funny, feels funny, but that's only natural for a battle and stuff. But...well..." Tym seemed unsure how to continue.

"Well," said Jorri with more authority, "when I said it was unnatural however you slice it, I didn't just mean because it was formed by a battle. See, what it also does is weird."

Jorry took one of this hands, and made an odd drooping hand motion. "That's the rocks around there, it was a pretty clean set of breaks, quite a sheer drop." Jorri then put his other hand over the top. "Now, you'd expect the water to fall like this." He put his other hand out a tiny way, but still followed the first hand. "Instead though..." Jorri then pushed his 'river' hand out to a forty five degreee angle.


Tym nodded. "See. A little weird. I mean, I'm sure harmless, I'm sure. You would know better than us that magics weird and so this is probably just a result of it being used in the battle But, you know....it's liek the river is avoiding something buried behind the fall."

Tym gave Jorri a look and they both shuddered. Tym went to drink the remainder of his mug as quickly as possible, and Jorri plastered on a faint smile and toyed with a roll without eating it.


So there we go, see, not really so scary, just odd. Right? Right?

Oh, you are well within your rights to of course have no idea what the 'war' is, who the orcs are, who the Lord is, etc. They are clearly assuming you know more about the local history than you do, given they've obviously lived here all their lives and this is old and important history to them :D
This message was last edited by the player at 20:03, Sat 06 June 2015.

"I don't really know about the war" replied Meri, looking in the direction of the falls.  "Guessing it happened before I came here."

She shrugged and gestured towards Nym.
"I'm used to weird magical effects though.  When you hang around with her, you start to lose your perception of what is weird and what isn't.  Probably why I'm not as impressed with a floating living shapeshifting ball as much as I maybe should be..."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:21, Sat 06 June 2015.

"Magic's only weird to those who don't know much about it." says Nym. "It all makes sense, when you think about it. Not that I ever do. It's just...here."

She puts a hand to her chest, then reaches up to scratch behind one of her bovine ears.

"So, some Lord and some orcs had a big fight and the land broke up and now there's a waterfall but it's falling in a strange way and you think there might be something hidden behind it?"

There is the briefest of pauses before she goes on.

"Can we see it? It sounds interesting!"

Jorri and Tym seem shocked at their history being so casually summarised. There is an awkward pause, and then Jorri bursts out laughing. [Private to Nym: You notice that Tym relaxes as well, as if his tension in that moment was more to do with Jorri than your summary.]

"That's effectively the way of it," says the innkeeper. nodding.

"Guess the war's been a long time passed," says Tym, more to Meri's comment than anything else. "What, twenty five years now?"

"Closer to thirty my friend," says Jorri, taking a bite of the roll he'd been toying with earlier. "Time's effects can be stranger than anything magic can do, I think." Jorri then brushes the crumbs from his apron, then is forced to wipe the grease on his fingers from that on to his trousers.

Spotting that his trousers and now fingers have picked up soot from leaning against the wall, Jorri gives it all up and addresses the two again. "The Fall is easy enough to find. Just follow the river! Anyone that's been interested usually follows the river from the other side, but that's because they usually want to look to the battlesite itself or want to look down from the top of the fall. If you want to see the Fall from the ground, then just follow out of Stonebridge. I'm not sure if there is as clear a walking path, but I presume you should get to it alright."

Tym is just about to add some comment except his words are interrupted by The Ball. Still outside, The Ball suddenly drops down from the sky on to the ground soundlessly outside the smithy. Just as it did when the friends were walking along the road earlier in the day, The Ball sits on the ground, quivering, looking to all the world like a giant droplet of scared water.


I wonder what's got in to The Ball? Who knows. Probably bets to ignore it and figure out which side of the river you want to follow the river, right? :D
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Sat 06 June 2015.

Meri poked her staff at the Ball, looking puzzled by its antics.
"Well, probably best to see it from the ground.  Not as far to fall that way" she remarked.

"Looks like we'd be best to track down that wizard though.  It sounds as if he's the one responsible for this."
She poked again at the Ball as she spoke.


OOC: Something behind the fall that even the water avoids?  That definitely sounds ominous...

Nym gives a shrug.

"Maybe." she says. "Seems a bit weird him deciding to animate some random ball really far away..."

She pauses as a thought occurs.

"Ooh! Maybe there's loads of other stuff that got animated too! Not just balls, but...you know, other things. And maybe they're all coming here! Let's go and find out!"

She practically springs to her feet, her cloven hooves clomping onto the ground as she reaches for her staff.

"Waterfalls are pretty anyway." she adds. "All...fally and...sparkly, like when you get those little rainbows that appear..."

She holds out her free hand and a small rainbow of light tinkles down like water droplets, dissolving into the air near her feet.

"The wizard seemed surprised that it happened same as you I would guess," said Jorri perhaps not convinced by Meri's words, even as the group watched Nym's rainbow waterfall. "He wasn't doing anything more complcated than reading a book that morning. Not even a spell book, I don't think." Jorri shruged and smiled accomodatingly. "Still, I'll keep an eye out for him and an ear out for tales of him and make sure you always have a mug of ale ready when you come back. Do you want him to know you're looking for him?"

"Nym might be right," said Tym, "maybe yer just one of a few we should expect to traipse by." He smiled an evil smile in Meri's direction as the artificer prodded The Ball. "Maybe you just got lucky."

Aww, he must like you if he's being sacrastic at you! Grumpy smiths unite! Anyway, sounds like Team Waterfall has a plan. Time for Team Evil Bastard DM to temporarily halt that plan...

The Ball meanwhile simply skirted around Meri's staff blow, actually rolling to deflect it as if saying 'not now, stop playing'. The Ball then rolled jerkily in the direction the two had walked from, over to the corner of the smithy outside.

"People aren't always the way they appear" remarked Meri.  "Until I know better, I'm going to assume he did this for a reason, and not necessarily a good one either.  I'd rather he didn't know we were looking for him just yet.  Unless he knows already of course..."

She glared at the Ball and then looked towards Jorri and Tym.
"Thanks for the help.  If I figure out what's going on with the falls and live to tell of it, I'll let you know."
With that, she turned in the direction they had indicated as leading to the base of the falls.


OOC: Not sure which way that is actually.  Does it lead through New Stonebridge?  Might look around to see if anyone there has had problems with our mystery wiz too...

[Private to The Altweaver: Meri usually tends to think the worst of people.  Especially when they've dumped a weird sentient shapechanging floaty Ball on her that interrupts her work and makes her follow it around!  ;)]

Nym looks at Meri with a slightly confused expression.

"Hey, um, Meri, why do you think that wizard had anything to do with it? His cat just turned into a dog, that was all. And some butterflies in here came to life...wow, I wush I could've seen that...and we got a magic ball that's trying to lead us somewhere. I bet there was a whole bunch of other stuff that happened as well, in other places nearby, or maybe even further away. Maybe this waterfall's at the centre of it, or maybe it's something else but there's something magic about the water - I felt it when we got to the ford."

She pauses, then looks excited.

"Maybe it's got magic like mine! Maybe the water's like my blood, with the magic just inside it and it has to let it out in some ways or it feels like it might explode!"

With this last word, she throws her hands high and a fountain of multi-coloured sparks shoots forth, showering down around her.

"Oooh," she says, lowering her hands, "I really want to see it now. Come on, let's go!"

She turns to go toward the door, moving rather quickly in her excitement but managing not to knock anything over.

Both Jorri and Tym started to say their goodbyes, however it seemed The Ball had other ideas.

Never before had it actually impeded anyone - much as Meri might complain of the fact. It danced, it spun, it got underfoot, but for the first time ever The Ball actually moved to be directly at chest height so that Meri walked right into it.

The Ball was as unmoveable as a brick wall and Meri was painfully brought up short.

The Ball then did the same to Nym, an even more impressive feat given the size of the changeling minotaur.

It then fell to the ground, rolled a little ways back the way the two had come, and again jerked towards the corner of the smithy.

"Bloody idiotic thing, if yer don't mind me sayin'" said Tym. "Can't seem to make up its mind. You two get goin', I'll sent it on if it keeps playin' silly buggers. Presume a few gentle taps wi' a hammer won't hurt it none?"


The Ball won't block you again if you want to carry on to the falls.

"Oh...what's the matter, Ball?" asks Nym when the Ball tries to block her path. "You want us to look at something?"

She looks in the direction the Ball had been indicating and starts to go over there.

Meri gasped as she ran into the ball, muttering something in a language probably unknown to the others, but something that clearly didn't mean anything pleasant!

Immediately she brought up her staff, one hand rapping sharply on one of its smaller crystals which ignited with a pale yellow inner fire as she pointed the staff at the Ball.

It was probably only the Ball's close proximity to Nym at the time that made her hesitate from blasting it, reluctantly lowering the staff and tapping the crystal again to harmlessly discharge whatever power she had infused it with.  A crackling shower of sparks emitted from the end of the staff, dissipating harmlessly in the wind around her as she glared angrily at the Ball.

"If it does that again, you're more than welcome to use it for materials" she replied to Tym, clearly trying to rein in her temper.
She continued to aim a particularly nasty death glare at the Ball as Nym followed it...


OOC: ooo, that was close! :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Assuming neither of the others know Goblin.  I don't have an equivalent of what she said in my Goblin language list, but let's just say it probably wasn't very complimentary to the Ball ;)  Hehe.]

[Private to Meri:
Lol, aww, poor Ball. So close to harm all the time and all it wants is love. Or someone follow it. Or to lead you all in to a trap. You know, something anyway :D]

Can I get a perception roll from the both of you, please? :)

"What do you think yer playin 'at, weird thing," Meri can hear Tym mutter to The Ball's general direction as she heads out of the smithy.

The Ball drifts around happily when Nym then Meri go that way, but seems to stay behind for the moment bobbing around Tym, much to Jorri's amusement and Tym's consternation.

As Nym and Meri get to the edge of the smithy, there is an odd sound. It takes a moment to realise that it is a knock on one of the windows of the inn from inside. Holder appears to be in the common room downstairs, giving a very gentile tap on the window closest to the corner on this side of the smithy, and gesturing furiously. He seems to be pointing beyond the smithy back down the road, but then shoves his hand as if brushing both of them alongside the wall. He does this once or twice then disappears from view. [Private to Nym: Again I'll give this to you because of your passive insight, Nym would perhaps realise that Holder is saying there is something aroudn the corner, but to look from behind the wall. After all, it was what he did earlier, though he was by no means subtle about it. A fact maybe Nym might think about given her larger form, horns, etc?

Anyway, if you want to sneak a look around the corner you can make a second perception check if your first was quite low. If Nym stays in her current form, there will be a -2 penalty owing to it being an ungainly form she's only just adopted. Horns and all that she seems to be forgetting about! :p Up to you if you think she'd realise that and change first :)]

You all can look around the corner, walk around the corner, or do something else if you like. The corner seems important, who knows why?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Sun 07 June 2015.

Perception = 7 (4+3) :P.

Nym stares at Holder, then glances toward the corner the minotaur had looked around earlier. She starts to step toward it, then reaches up to fiddle with one of her horns, shrugs, and shrinks down into the form of an elf. Then she continues on to peek around the corner.

[Private to GM: Second Perception check in the hopes I score better than the first one (may have to take Skill Training in it at some point :P)...okay, 14 (11+3), well, that's an improvement, at least...]

OOC: Perception 17 (Skill 9 + Roll 8) :)
Spookily enough, it's exactly the same as I just got for a Perception roll for Kaelynn, except the values of the skill and the roll are reversed this time.
Sometimes these little coincidences creep me out!  (O.o)


[Private to The Altweaver: Well it just seems to keep finding ways to poke repeatedly at Meri's berserk buttons ;)  hehe]

Lol, so what you're saying is that whatever happens to us in Ameena's game I'll do to Ameena in this game, and poor you gets caught in the crossfire by having both characters come a cropper? :D


[Private to Meri: Are you sure Meri isn't just one big berzerk button? :D]

Even as Nym carried on the the corner with curiosity - but at least cautious curiosity - Meri caught the sound of something. It sounds like a voice drifting on the wind. No, two voices. Not calling 'hellos' nor speaking. It sounded like a quick call and a return, perhaps yelled louder than was meant. [Private to Meri: For some reason it put her in mind of the elves when they hunted, although the voices sounded human.]

Meanwhile when Nym looked around she saw quite quickly a sight that was odd. There seemed to be some people coming down the hill towards the ford - at least five, but something about how they were spread out and looking around hinted at more. Which seemed strange, if thye were just travellers walking to cross the river. It was a little hard to make them out at this distance, which was odd in and of itself. It was like they had patches of green on them that broke up the shape of them and made them harder to see.

Also, each one seemed to be carrying something in their hand - too short to be a walking staff or bow, but felt like a weapon.


You can try to look more and get more details or comfirm the above 'assumptions' , but you will risk being spotted and I'll ask for a stealth roll. Or you can figure out another way to observe them of course.

One thing to say is that you know you weren't followed closely - or at least that you know of to the limits of your passive perception anyway :) The woods you were walking passed just before here were thin enough you should have spotted anyone right behind you. So while these people might have been following you in general, unless they have means of tracking you, they shouldn't know where you have gone. So you could just stick to your original plan, maybe sneak out towards the fall directly through the village ruins rather than follow the river, and play it by ear on who those people are.

Heck, you could just go say hello. I mean, can't be anything wrong here, right? Just friendly people you can be friendly at?

Well my Perception is crap so I wouldn't be surprised if I failed to notice anything ;).

Having caught a glimpse of what's coming, Nym retreats and returns to the entrance of the smithy.

"Hey, there's some people out there." she says, but not too loudly. "They're wearing green, I think, and it looks like there's about five of them and they're all holding something...weapons, maybe. That seems a bit weird. I mean, what do they think is going to happen? Someone going to leap out and try to hurt them?"

As I've caught at least a glimpse, I'll roll Nature to see if anything about them brings memories of anything similar I might've seen in the past (and presuming that they are natural from this brief look, of course)...22 (14+8).

"I heard something too, like a voice calling and someone calling back" said Meri, her expression suddenly wary.  "Like the elves do when they hunt."
She held her staff tightly in a one-handed grip, the other hand straying close to the crystal she had generated the sparks from earlier...


OOC: Uh oh...

Uh-oh indeed! :D

Jorri and Tym shared a worried look. Tym spoke first, looking back to Nym. "Yeah, folks don't usually go drawin' weapons around here, nothing in the woods back there to be hunteed, no bandits around here. Well, I mean..."

"Clearly, there are now," said Jorri suddenly grim.

"It can't be though! They're in the forest, like, way back up the new road. Like, way way back up. They wouldn't come down here. Why would they?"

"It happened in the past," said Jorri.

"No, you had that one idiot that came here to threaten us cause they probably wanted to spy on New Bridge and I reckon that one still won't be walkin' right. And yeah, then them other two came by. Idiots didn't really know what to do sittin' in yer taproom wi' all the adventurers and off duty guards that would happily turn in the bounty fer 'em. And that was, what, two year ago now?"

Jorri looked across to The Ball then Meri and Nym speculatively. "Seems an odd coincidence otherwise, people showing up just when you all came from that way. Green splotches you say? Maybe weapons? Hunting calls? Sounds like the bandits from the guard tales." Jorri shrugged but seemed convinced.

Suddenly Holder came out of the inn, moving in an odd lopping gait that was perhaps supposed to he stealthy. Luckily the smithy would have hidden his movements.

"Men! You see men?" Holder barked with a worried growl to the others, and nodding encouraging at Meri and Nym to confirm if they'd seen them too.

"Yes, we saw them," said Tym with rolling eyes.

"Many! Bad! See them from upstairs!" grunted the minotaur, agitation apparently removing his vocabulary a little.

"Yes, we get it," said Tym.

"Also, sorry Jorri, broke down your room door." said Holder off-handedly.

Jorri took a moment to understand what was said, but before he could comment Tym instead said, "What are you doing now?."

Holder was looking down at his fingers, flicking them as if juggling. He then held up all his fingers. "Many! I forget numbers!" he said, giving some odd guttural growls that might have been the number in his native tongue.

"Ten?" said Tym, looking to the back of the smith as if through the wall. "So what, five near the ford, and like five more somewhere behind us?"

Holder then excitedly held up another eight fingers. Then his expression fell as he looked around the room and apparently realised that thirteen bandits outnumbered the five people in the smithy quite definitively. Holder grunted something else that might have been a word. [Private to Meri: You don't recognise the language, but you recognise the tone of a satisfying crude swear word :D]

[Private to Nym: With all this talk of hunting and forests, its like the animals in the wood, and the behavior of even humanoid hunting packs you've observed over the years. Especially ones that might camouflage themselves, if you get them out of their element where the camouflage doesn't work they tend to be skittish. If the bandits are disguised for the forest and usually don't come down this way, you might be able to break them with a decent show of force.]

I'll see you uh-oh and raise you a hoo-boy! :p

Then again, you guys were on the other wisde of this not long ago, walking along checking out all the cary places where an ambush could happen, and finding blind spots and spots to hesitate at. Isn't it nice to be on the other side of it now? Might even be useful :D

Hide? Leave? Fight? Something else? I'm excited to find out what you both are going to do :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:48, Sun 07 June 2015.

Nym laughs a little.

"So they want to come and act all scary? Well why are they wearing colours to hide when they're coming over here where there's nothing for them to hide in? And this is your place, isn't it?"

She gestures to indicate the smithy and the inn.

"You know what's what here. They dn't - they're from up there..."

She points vaguely in the direction of the forest.

"So what's the problem?"

I suppose we can try to scare them off but I can't really pretend that I don't want to try out some of Nym's powers in combat... >:)

"Are they after anything in particular, or do they just not like you lot for some reason?" asked Meri.
"I'd suggest heading upstairs in the inn anyway.  We can use the windows to attack them from a higher position, and the doorways are hopefully small enough to restrict their movements."


OOC: Not too sure what I need to roll to set traps in the doorways...

Jorri suddenly seemed to be afflicted by some emotion - more sadness than fear. Tym gripped his arm briefly but addressed the group.

"Half elf's .. I mean full elf now? ... is right, bugger's don't know what's what around here. Even without any guests at the inn, we've got Pete, we've got Rhoda and Rhala, heck Talia's on shift today? Seen her stand toe to toe with drunken guards at shut in. We just buy us some time leading these idiots a merry chase, and I reckon they'll turn tale with nine on ten. Ten on ten if that ball o' yours would stop driftin' around my shelves and act scary like."

The Ball was apparently taking the situation very seriously, and was happily exploring the top shelves and thebutterflies it hadn't had the chance to see before.

Holder meanwhile tried to helpfully hold up three more fingers to Tym, but Tym ignored him.

Jorri looked less convinced. "Pete's not here anymore. Went off to the far south."

"I saw 'im hunting in the Far Woods last week!"

"well yes, he'll still come visit and hunt in the south, but he's not staying here anymore. Seems he made an honest woman of that Mabel he kept visiting in Longbottom. Or she made an honest man out of him, it being Pete. And Rhoda, he went to Fivespears to guard for the new Lord there."

"Rhala's still around though, right? She was always the better shot anyway."

"Rhala was around, but around as in guiding some of joruneymen that came a few days ago. Don't reckon we'll see her for another fortnight, or more if she can snag some guard work on the road back."

"Talia?" Tym then looked around suspiciously. "Actually, she should be around by now. Where is she?"

Jorri looked very embarrassed. "She...she's working most of her hours with The Blowhard now up on the hill. Said she can do some evenings if I'm busy, but otherwise she needs the money and he pays really well for staf that know what they're doing around an Inn. Next year she wants to have enough savings to try and earn a living on the road adventurering." Jorri shrugged and gave a pale smile. "What can you do?"

Men. Many men, reminded Holder to the two older men.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," said Tym with more annoyance than fear. He then pinched the minotair hard out of nowhere. "Good, least yer still around, dour bugger," he muttered. He shook himself out of it. "Right, well, there's still more 'n' enough o' us here to make 'em regret comin' here. You two seems in good spirits to take 'em on, and though the three o' us haven't lifted anything in anger fer nigh twenty five years..."

"More like thirty, Tym,"

"...we've stayed when most other buggers left, apparently, and these buildin's have stood when others were caving in. Evne the foundations o' some wouldn't give up the ghost and come free! Last ones what came out of the dark forest thinkin' they could walk rough through this place drowned in the Hardwater or took a long fall off the Hill."

Tym bangs his hands together and rubbed them as Jorri had done before. "Right, so where we all hidin' then?"

Jorri meanwhile took the opoportunity of Tym's words speak to Meri. "They can't be here because of us," he said not unkindly. "We have nothing of value and we're too dangerous to bother. Not because of who'se around, but just... if they do anythign to us, then they worry the wagons coming through New Stonebridge and the people there. Enough to have some proper muscle hunting them down. I think thirteen might be the bulk of the bandits, to be honest, from what I've heard. They hit small, easy targets fast and hard and leave. They've relied on being annoying flies taking less than it costs to pay a bounty for so long, I can't see why they'd suddenly turn in to loud wasps now. Makes no sense."

"Makes none," agreed Tym. "Only thing I can think is they maybe think they won't have to bandit again if they succeed at whatever they're here to do. Would have to be something special, though." Tym looked to The Ball as if to figure it out.

"Or something make them afraid they may not bandit again if fail," muttered Holder. Jorri and Tym just gave him a look.

"Anyway," said Jorri, "I guess my inn has seen worse that some armed men thumping around in its day. Heck, when you have drunk guards off duty from wagon work too. I like the plan. Turn the tables, make them walk around exposed, and then scare them with an attack out of nowhere. No one likes a taste of their own medicine!"


Sorry, that detoured more than I meant it to :p Ayway, the NPCs will follow your lead.

Meri, for traps, I'll just say you can set them in the doorways or elsewhere easily if you have some time - like even half a minute or so. I'll even say others can do that too if you quickly instruct them. I'll only need you to roll if you are trying to set up a trap in a hurry or steathily - say in the middle of the encounter when we're tracking combat rounds of time. Then it will still be a theivery roll, DC set depending on the situation.

So figure out what flavours of trap you want, and if there's nothing exotic give me a Thievry roll. Also let me know if you want some help, since that will decide how many more things you can do in parallel.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:05, Mon 08 June 2015.

"Ooh, are you going to go and talk to the men and see what they want?" asks Nym inquisitively. "I want to watch - maybe I can go and look out of one of the windows up there..."

She points toward the upper floor of the inn.

"Then I can see what's going on. Is it going to be exciting? You're talking like it's going to be exciting. Maybe they won't even want to talk. Maybe they'll just want to wave their pointy things around and...ooh, maybe then I can show them some of my magic! This could be fun...ooh, I'd better go upstairs and get a good view!"

She heads toward the door of the inn with the intent of finding a decent spot overlooking the ford.

If none of the NPCs offer to guide me I'll just go in and try to find my way into a room with a window that overlooks the ford where the guys are coming from - hopefully the windows open wide enough for me to be able to lean out of them and cast spells, but I won't try to open anything just yet because then they'll know I'm there - for now I'll just watch all sutble-like from behind the curtain :).

"Well if it's that ball they want, they can have it" muttered Meri.  "But if they came here to kill, then I say we respond in kind!"

She moved towards the inn, unslinging her backpack as she went.
"If we work quickly, we can set a few traps in the doorways.  I don't know the layout of the inn, but I'm guessing the doorways are only wide enough for one, two at the most, to come through at a time.  In a confined space, larger numbers become more of a hindrance than an advantage.  Nym can hit them from the window as they approach, soften them up.  When they come through the door, hopefully a tripwire or something will catch them and slow them down, letting us hit them hard and fast then retreat to the next door before they can recover and counter attack.  When we get to the room where Nym is, they'll hopefully be weakened.  Then we finish them off."

She paused a moment, then looked back at the others with a grim expression.
"Try to keep one of them alive.  If they did come here for us, I want to know why, and who sent them..."


OOC: Okies, so not too sure of the layout of the inn yet, but assuming there are at least two or three, maybe more, doorways in between the entrance and that upstairs room where Nym is.  Also hoping those doorways are only wide enough for one or two to pass through at a time (not too sure of the mechanics relating to enemies being able to move through occupied squares or not!)

Planning to let Nym show them her magic from that window as they approach! ;)

Also to rig the doorways with tripwires or caltrops or something that'll either slow down the survivors or knock them prone as well as temporarily blocking the doorways, letting Meri blast them or douse them in acid and then retreat to the next doorway and repeat for each doorway until we reach the room where Nym is where we both proceed to nuke the survivors!

All except for one of them.  Meri plans on keeping that one for herself and hopefully getting some answers out of him before she loses her temper and gets carried away! ;)

Not too sure what skills the NPCs have.  But we all know NPCs are pretty much cannon fodder, so I'd rather not rely on them too much!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:06, Mon 08 June 2015.

Can I advise someone at least tries to talk to them first - Nym will watch from the window but we're hardly heroes if we just start kicking the shit out of anyone who thinks they can look threatening, eh? ;) If we can scare these guys off, fine. If not, then we can have some playtime instead ;).

OOC: We're supposed to be heroes?!!  Damn!  (O.o)

The chatty shapeshifter who could have looked fierce or timid and also not like anyone the bandits would recognise  says someone else should go do the talking? Preferably an NPC? :p

This is why all the people heroes befriend come to sticky ends!


"Who'd be stupid enough ter do that?" said Tym incredulously regarding speaking to the bandits.

"Well, it might be a good idea for someone to go take a closer look at what we're dealing with. Also delay them a little bit."

"But I don't wanner!" said Tym vigourously.

"I...wasn't suggesting you," said Jorri with a shake of the head and rolling eyes. He reached down to the corner of the smithy and picked up an empty wooden bucket. "Just an innkeeper going for some water at the ford, nothing odd."

"I'd prefer odd, keep them on their toes!" said Tym.

However, it seemed Jorri had decided, and gave a reassuring smile to the rest. "Nymnairahellian, wasn't it? If you go up the stairs, and walk all the way to the end of the hall, there's a door directly in front of you. That's the good bedroom. You should get the best view of the ford from up there. "

Holder nods in agreement, perhaps hinting at where he had gone earlier.

Jorri continued, "Anyway, get going. I'll try not to accidentally kill any of them," he said ironically. If he was worried, he didn't show it. He moved off a little ways, but held off going around the corner for the moment, letting at least Nym get in to position to watch out for him.

Tym looked to Meri even as Nym excitedly rushed in to the inn. "Well, lead on," said Tym, "you seem to know what yer about." Tym kept darting worried looks to Jorri, but kept quiet otherwise.

Holder meanwhile turned around and went deeper in to the smithy. "Whatm leave the damn ball, you heard..." started Tym, but it was then obvious Holder was sorting through some of his things on the smaller workbenches.

"Ah, leave 'im, he'll be up in a minute," said Tym, gesturing to the entrance to the inn.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the inn, the initial room appears very large. The entrance appears to open immediately in to the main tap room and dining area. On the far wall nearest the door is a set of stairs leading upwards, and along the back wall is a long bar.

A heavy leather curtain seems bunched up beside the stairs, and a runner on the roof suggests that this can be used to section the taproom from the doorway to create an ad-hoc hall. Perhaps to allow guests to go upstairs and downstairs in peace if the taproom is in use late in to the night, or if the taproom itself is used as a makeshift sleeping area for large numbers of travellers.

Up the stairs, the natural light of the large windows downstairs fades quickly. The stairs open up in to a long narrow hall with candles on tiny high shelves ever so often.

What fills the hall mostly is doors. Many solid wooden doors. The gloom breaks at the very end of the hall, where light easily spills out - this has to have been the deluxe room that Holder occupied earlier, the door left ajar and the natural morning light pouring in to windows and out of the door.


Ok, so hopefully the narrative and map combined give you an idea of the layout of the place.

Currently Jorri is at the edge of the forge ready to go around the corner when he thinks Nym should be watching, Tym is helping you, Meri (so by default you can try for 10 very simple traps, or guide Tym to make 5 and you make a complex one yourself). Holder will do...something....unless you want to ask for his help or suggest another course of action.

Nym, give me a stealth roll for settling down in to the room - that will be used as the passive perception DC if the bandits get close enough to your position. Also  another perception check please. Note the ford is a distance away from the inn. I'll try to figure out how far 30 meters/100 feet is tomorrow, as that's the range of your longest spell. I'd like to say its the distance from the window to the near edge of the ford, but that might be too short. Will let you know!


Meri, give me a thievery check for the trap making. And now you know the inn layout, let me know what type of traps you want where.


And of course feel free to ask for more stuff, ask about more stuff, change your actions, or roll skill checks.


Good luck!

Do I get some kind of bonus to Stealth because I'm on the inside of a window in an area that's darker than the area containing the people who might see me (especially with the curtains pushed over a bit), as well as being out of their immediate line of sight unless they happen to look up? I'll do that "stand sideways to the window and look along the curtain" thing that people do when they're trying to be nosy at what's going on outside without anyone outside seeing them :D. The thought has also occurred that if this goes to combat I should have at least Partial Concealment, which will be nice too :).

On the matter of me being the one to try Diplomacy...I didn't really consider it, actually - I figured that as a caster I'm both squishy and should be somewhere with a decent vantage point I can shoot from ;).

Anyway, Stealth = 17 (13+4), Perception = 6 (3+3). Yaaay :P. I must consider taking the Skill Training Feat for that at some point...it's the one skill I will always take Training in if I can, but unfortunately it wasn't on offer for this particular class at creation :(.

Meri cursed quietly to herself as Jorri left.  This one had a more elven sound to it than the previous swear word though...

"I hope he knows what he's doing" she muttered.  "Likely to get himself killed out there if they really have come to attack this place!"
Pulling some tools and scraps of material from her backpack, she set about rigging up a few tripwires across the doorways and up the stairwell.

This done, she pulled her pack back on and approached the main door of the inn, hiding in the shadows behind it and peering out in the direction of the ford, watching and waiting...


OOC: Let the massacre diplomacy commence! :D


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Rolled 17 for Thievery (Skill 6 + Roll 11).

Not too sure exactly what options are available to me in terms of time and materials to work with.  So figuring just a few simple tripwires across each of the doors they'll have to pass through to reach the deluxe bedroom (which I plan on being the "last stand" room!)

Maybe one across the stairs too.  At the top of the stairs, is it possible to have something on the top step that's either slippery or will cause someone to fall back down the stairs (hopefully hitting the guys behind him too).

If we have anything metallic and spiky (maybe some metal scraps from the smithy or forks from the bar or something), could perhaps use them as makeshift caltrops, or rig them to fall from the upper floor onto people climbing the stairs (perhaps along with one of Meri's acid vials too!)

Basically, anything that'll injure them or hinder them long enough for Meri to zap them and quickly retreat to the next trap before they can recover enough to close to melee range of her.
Definitely putting out all the lights, and close all the curtains to make it as dark as possible inside.  Meri has low-light vision, and I'm hoping they don't! ;)

Also, is there a source of water in the inn?  (Just as an emergency backup plan in case they decide to just burn down the building with us inside!)

And in case Jorri has to escape back to the inn in a hurry, did Meri have a chance to tell him where she was setting the traps?]

Up in the safe sniper's nest...

The deluxe room seemed plain but pleasant, a large bed, large wardrobe, large drawersm and large chest all of plain but undeniable workmanship spread aroudn to take full advantage of the room and make it still seem spacious. Two large windows did not hurt.

evidence of Holder being here was plain to see - his dirty feet has stained the bed and a small rug near the north facing window, and of course the door's lock was no longer working. That second one might be a concern - the door might drift open while Nym was otherwise engaged.

Up to you lot how you want to block the door - lie a pack on it, a chair, jam a wooden wedge in it, or leave it free. Blocking it makes it more difficult for the others to retreat back, leaving it free means it might open ahead of time. Your call!

By the occasionl item of clothing and belongs scattered aroubnd, this seemed to be the room Jorri must occupy. Oddly there did not seem to be much evidence of him living here though. He either kept himself very busy, or perhaps he simply made sure departing this room for a paying guest was a quick, painless affair.

The heavy curtains in here - very thick, double lined, and sure to keep out sun and noise - were both wide open, but it seemed no risk to draw them and for Nym to use them to hide her face.

Whilst it was true that especially with the dark inside and light outside, and the angle to look at the window, she should be well hidden, it was also true thatth curtains were far too good at blocking sight in either direction. The thick folds were hard to see passed. Nym could make out all the way down to the ford, though the sun was just hidding the river enough to create odd reflections. Also, it didn't help that the bandits or whoever they were appeared to have clustered around it seemed. However Holder had seen thirteen people, now Num could only see four of five figures. They seemed to be crossing the ford slowly.

Still, when Jorri moved off towards the figures, Nym could easily see the shapes of them all at least.


Down in the dangerous bit by the door...

"Jorri'll be fine," said Tym without any conviction, looking off after his friend, but when Merri set about making the traps Tym was by her side. While he wasn't able to offer any hints of any skills in the direction of traps, he seemed able to take her lead and also managed to scrounge a few worthwhile items whenever Merri lamented on missing something.

Caltrops were as easy as some bent nails combined with a quick acting gum in Meri's trap kit. Not the best caltops, but then you got what you paid for. One could only hope that the bandits had seen better days and that their boots were poor.

Once more the gum combined with all the run off beads of molten metal long since cooled made a deadly little trick awaiting at the top of the stairs. They shouldn't roll anywhere until someone put their foot down, in which case the shear force should dislodge them. Some left over gum might even stick them to their boots still, just adding to the off balance. Just to make sure Tym also has a small flask of oil and poured a thin lair over the rest of the top steps.

Meri and Tym also managed to rig up a gentle trip wire threaded through some hoops. Not only would someone perhaps make a fall, but more importantly the wire wound its way upo the wall, to pull on a barely held acid vial on the roof.

"You're evil you are!" said Tym, but that didn't stop him rubbing his hands together to set it up.

Holder occasionally moved back and forth to give some more items [Private to Meri: you can give yourself one more use of your healing infusion for this whole encounter] but otherwise he appeared to be determined to take his forge warhammer and stand at the corner of the smithy, apparently ready to rush out if Jorri got in trouble.

Jorri himself stood back long enough for the initial traps to be readied and find out where they were. To the question of water, Jorri pointed in the vague direction of the deluxe room. "There's a giant copper drum of water in the bathroom at the back, and there should be a barrel of fresh water in the kitchen at the front here. And don't forget Tym's always got a trough of something that's usually water too."

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Finally, Jorri set off. Meri settled in her position at the inn's door. Tym moved the heavy leather curtain to block off the taproom, making the hall and stairs dark. "Hope I remember where those traps are," he muttered to himself. He was holding a rusted and pitted sword, which looked like it had done nothing more than poke at the forge for twenty years. Still, the man held it well enough.

Unless you suggest otherwise, Tym will position himself on the other side of the leather curtain to catch someone at the door when they come in.

Nym could see Jorri's wide body slowly waltzing towards the ford, bucket swinging as if without a care in the world. Both Meri and Nym from their point of view could see Holder with his back to the smith wall at the corner, shuffling unhappily that he could not afford to look around and see what was going on.

There were a few sounds now, they seemed like yells. It seemed like there was no going back now...


Ok, so a couple of final set up answers I need from you, and unless you have any final questions then let's see what will happen!


Meri, you should have 10 traps in total, and enoguh time to place them. The level of trap you've suggested seems simple enough there should be no problems.

I've just realised I did not mark a stairwell on the stairs, I forget why I rubbed it out (I think I though that I'd made a mistake and thoguht the stairwell a room and gotten rid of it, oops)

So you can have one tripwire on the deluxe door, one on the top stairwell door, and one on the main inn door. No other doors otherwise.

You can have caltrops on the stairs, and one special slippery surprise right at the top. Combined with a door that needs opened the slippery trap will most likely auto-succeed somehow!

You can have an acid bottle on a trip wire that falls from the ceiling too if you want.


So, let me know what the split of traps you want are, and roughly where they are. The stairs can just be one area for the purposes of things.


So you have 10
 - one trip and one slip on the top of the stairs
 - one trip on the inn door
 - one trip on the deluxe door

The trips can either knock someone prone (so you should really be there to capitalise and hit them), tangle up aroudn their feet and slow them (save ends) or be used to pull an acid down on their heads (can't be made non-lethal)

Caltrops will do 1hp damage, but should be a disable on a minion rather than a kill and take them out of the fight but be alive.

So you have six more traps to place, let me know the type and where. Some mix of caltrops and acid on the stairs would seem to be an idea, combined with some in the hall.

To answer a previous question, allies can usually pass through ally squares.


Anyway, get set up and then good luck!

I don't think Nym will want to keep out any potential playmates, plus if anyone gets all the way to where I am it means they got past everyone else in the narrow corridors and stuff, in which case I don't know if a simple door will stop them and anyway, they might've taken a beating on the way up. Anyway, if they do get in and it looks like I'm in trouble, I'm wearing a pair of Feyleaf Sandals - I can just jump out the window :).

OOC: Also Meri's plan is to hit and run every time they get slowed by a trap, so she'll probably be joining you in that room eventually for the final showdown against whoever survives her little makeshift fun house! :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Hmm, maybe a slowing tangling tripwire immediately after a tripping one, so if one trips, the one behind might think he's safe because his unlucky friend showed him where the tripwire was, so he jumps over him and keeps coming, only to get tangled in the one after it.  Then the ones behind them come forward, at which time Meri lets loose with Lightning Sphere while they're all bunched up ;)  hehe.

Anyways, definitely two rigged up like that leading up to the stairs, and one tangling tripwire across the doorway to the deluxe bedroom, since that'll slow down at least one of the survivors who reach it.  An acid fall just before that, and the remaining two just normal knock-prone tripwires spread out along the corridor leading up to the deluxe bedroom.  :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:43, Tue 09 June 2015.

Perhaps it's worth reminding you at this point that my best (in fact, only) close range AE targets everyone ;).

Lol, maybe before she made plans to share a room with you as a last stand might have been better!

[Private to Meri: So all tripwires and tanglewires and acid, no non-lethal caltrops? Interesting.... :D]

OOC: Well...  Does it hit the entire room?  Maybe I can get out of the way :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Ah ok, I thought they were included in the ones already set...
Ok, one caltrop trap replacing the second of the two tripwires in the corridor leading up to the bedroom.  Only need to keep one of them alive after all! ;)]

Only Nym could see what was going on, and even that in broad strokes.

Jorri had paused near the ford to speak to the figures. The were more back and forth indications of speech, with what could have been a shrug at one point from Jorri, and at another getsure where he seemed to point back to the in with a wave of his hand.

Suddenly Jorri jerked sideways and fell to the floor as if he'd dived that way. There was a quick commotion and the group on the ford ran forwards.

However, everyone - Nym in the room and Meri by the inn door out of sight - could hear a yell, as if surprise or pain. And certainly a bark of some angry shouting.

Jorri seemed to try to get up, but one of the group stopped and swung something at Jorri's head, knocking Jorri sideways to the ground. He did not move again for the moment.


Holder at the side of the smithy reacted the moment there was a yell. He ran around the corner to see what was happening - by the Jorri had already been knocked back down.

The minotaur bellowed, yet as soon as the group started running forwards, Holder ran right back around the corner. However, the minotaur instantly got in to a hitting stance, apparently ready to connet his warhammer with the first face that appeared.

Nym could see a group of about five bandits taking the lead, but there seemed to be that all the bandits were crossing the ford now as quickly as possibly in two more groups. It was hard to make out exactly who or what they were other than rushing figures for the moment. Roll attacks in groups of five to be safe.



Ok, so Meri aside from actually seeing Jorri fall and seeing the composition of the groups coming, you can probably intuite exactly what's happening and you can see what Holder is doing.


It's not worth rolling initiative, as you all are 'delaying' and so get to be first to react decide to ready hold until you say you're going to take an action.


Nym, 20 squares would let you blast the chaos bolt at anyone just coming from the ford.

10 squares (the rest of your powers I think) can hit the back end of outside of the smithy. The road is about four squares wide so if you have any burst five powers they will hit to the around the bear edge smithy.


Meri, you can also react the moment you hear the scream and see Holder move. I don't believe his actions nor yours would narratively get in the way of each other in the confusion of battle. Don't worry about speed to much for the first few rounds, just say where in visible range you want to go, if anywhere.


Good luck!

It's Acid Orb that's 20 squares - all my other attack powers are 10 except for one, which is Close Burst 2.

Nym observes what's happening, then leans out of the window, sticking her staff through, and calls out to the approaching group.

"Hellooooo! Hey, look what I can do!"

So saying, she channels a surge of energy down one arm and along her staff, causing it to burst forth in the form of a large glob of acid, which hurtles toward the nearest of the attackers. No sooner has it left then Nym ducks back behind the curtain again, just in case anyone should decide to send any projectiles her way.

So as the bad guys area bit far away for now I'll just settle for lobbing an Acid Orb at the nearest one. Maybe that'll cause them to slow down a bit, at least, when they realise there's at least one magic user about (even if I don't hit). Attack roll = 14 vs Ref...hmm, that's one of those awkward numbers that isn't clearly a hit or a miss (if I'd got, say, 11, I'd be pretty sure of a miss while something like 17 or more would probably be a hit). Well, I shall risk it and roll damage anyway...wow I hope that is a hit because I just rolled max...18 acid damage in total to that guy's face if he can't dodge in time >:).
Also, Init roll = 23 when it's needed.

I'm going to cheekily move us on even though Nym hasn't said about any possible minor actions, and technically Meri ha a turn, however I think the reaction of the bandits will have an effect on your next set of actions. Plus I will post a vague map just so you don't get too confused about what is where. No grids yet though :)


Nym's acidic orb flew through the air and smacked the lead runner of the group - sadly not the one who had struck Jorri whislt the innkeeper was on the ground, thoguh.

Someone from the back yelled a warning to the eager front runner, and he almost twisted away in time. However, instead of jeering defiance there was a sickening scream that shattered the air as the figure collapsed, dropping his weapon and clutching his face. His body still moved, however it was a strange spamming that spoke of the man most likely never getting up on his own again - or even at all.

The other behind stopped their charge, almost colliding into each other. None seemed as big and eager as the one who had just fallen.

There was a screaming from behind them - more the angry scream of orders - and the group as one moved sideways off the road and towards the back of the smithy. The second group - apparently only three people - also made that move with some degree of smoothness.

The third group was hard to see due to the distance, though there did seem to be the occasional glint of metal - especially from the furthest figure. However, even they disappeared from sight. Although one raised their hand at one point as they disappeared from view, and something struck the wall of the inn.

It appeared the bandits had sought the refuge of the rear smithy walls, temporarily hidden form sight. However, it was clear that meant all twelve of them must be bunched and stretched in to a relatively small area now.

While Holder stood at the near corner of the smithy looking confused as to the lack of foes, both Meri and Nym from their complimentary vantage points could see that both approaches from the back of the smithy were temporarily clear. However, both could occasionally see a foot or elbow that spoke of their foes being almost in sight.

Meanwhile, The Ball still seemed to be happily moving around the smith, allowed to explore, and completely oblivious to the battle that hard started - most likely caused by it!


Ok, so first blood to Nym there! You've scared them, perhaps a little too well, but never mind :)

So, the bandits will basically spend the rest of their actions this turn crapping themselves behind a building trying to get organised.

That means Nym you have a minor action left, and also your full compliment of actions for next turn, and Meri, you have two rounds' worth of actions.

Nym, if you want to spend an action point, I will let you fire a second Acid Orb at the second group of people during your first round (we'll say you can ready it, because you totally could)- one will surely get a little too close before approchaing the rear wall.

Oh, and the fact that one of the group yelled a warning and the bandit almost resisted your orb might be a hint to a power some of these guys have :D There's reasons to group them together, but there might be a downside too!


Otherwise, Meri, you can choose whether you take advantage of this to move to where Holder is and perhaps risk a plan to check on Jorri - not Nym could give you some covering fire or just intimidating fire to let you do that. Or you can ready an action for if / when the group emerge. Or you know, just fire furiously at their general position so they don't know which corridor of death will be the worst to approach :D

Anyway, so I'll go make a quick map just to get you a sense of thigns too.

Edit: Oops, missed out a ranged shot related action.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:07, Wed 10 June 2015.

Are the slightly-sticking-out-behind-the-wall bandits within ten squares of me? >:)

I'm just letting you know they are there, they effectively have total concealment right now and you can't target them. But yes, the idiots are lining up nicely at 10 squares away so you could ready a phantom auto win if you like the moment one pokes their head out! :D

Up to you if you want to fire at them the moment when they have partial concealment, or wait until one actually comes fully and so has no wall defense :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:38, Wed 10 June 2015.

Probably best to wait till one emerges fully so I get the best shot I can. Then I'll lob off a Chaos Bolt and hope for many even numbers and high attack rolls (can't make another attack if the previous one didn't hit, even if it is an even number) :D.

OOC: Well if they have the range to hit the inn from where they are, I think I'll just hold position right now and try to give them another nasty scare when they summon up the courage to creep out of hiding again >:)


[Private to The Altweaver: By the way, the ones who shot at the inn, when you said they disappeared from sight, did they move anywhere I could see?  (Assuming they're a different group from the ones hiding behind the smithy!)]

Just to make it clear, all the bandits are now behind the smithy. One set were in front (around five of them) and hit Jorri, then got attacked by Nym as they came closer. So the four left alive after some yells made a bee line for the back/ The second group, around three of them, were just stragglers. The third group managed to fire something physical towards the general direction of Nym, but a lack of knowledge of where she was and lack of range meant the bolt didn't really do much as the made their way to the smithy.

Also, as far as I'm aware Meri you are standing in the doorway? So they will see you as they emerge unless you are hiding in the doorway relying on dark/light levels. Is that what you want? Do you want to ready an action to attack or move back, or are you relying on the distance so that even if the bandit get a round's worth of action they still won't close the distance to you?

Anyway, if you are trying to hide give me a stealth roll and let me know exactly how you are hiding. If not, let me know either a readied action, or simply tell me you are delaying and you can get your full comliment of actions once you know what they are doing.

Nym, for your action, can I get five attack rolls, please?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:06, Wed 10 June 2015.

Five attacks as in Five Chaos Bolt rolls? Is that five separate attacks with possible extra attacks off each one, or one attack and then up to four rebounds? I can keep it going indefinitely as long as I keep getting even numbers, roll high enough to hit the next target in line, and still have targets who haven't been hit yet.

One main chaos bolt attack, then four valid targets providing you hit and get an even roll each time. You can only go infinite if there are an infinite amount of people standing in a 5ft 'chain' after all :p

Wait, presumably the valid target are based on line of effect not line of sight? Hmm, will allow for line of effect based on the previous target for now, maybe they all have to be visible to you...

OOC: Mostly hiding behind the door frame/surrounding wall and peeking around the edge.
When the bandits pop out, I'll fire something at them and then retreat back towards the bottom of the stairs.
What I fire at them depends on the situation, if they're just charging at the door in a bunch, I'll try and hit the middle of the group with a Lightning Sphere to do most damage.
If they attack Holder, I'll try and hit one with Life Tapping Darts and give him a little Temp HP.
Otherwise, just hit the nearest one with Static Shock :)

Sounds good Meri, I'll count that as a delay, but that does give you lots of options once you know what's happening. Gimme a stealth roll. And an attack roll. I can do the rest :D

You might suspect by my lack of hp concern that it may just be minions that are going to be the cannon fodder to start with :)

I would guess that I probably need to have Line of Sight to the next target in line but if I aim at the first guy to pop into view and hit him and roll an even, can I just have the Chaos Bolt go blindly around the corner and hopefully hit someone? I mean, it can stop there - if I can't see through walls then I can't se which squares I would need to target after the first one, after all ;).
Okay so here is an attack roll for Chaos Bolt anyway...cool, 21 vs Will and the initial die roll was a 16 so that's even, so I'll roll to make the psychic pinball go blindly around the corner alongside the wall and hopefully clonk someone else in the face...13 vs Will and that was another even number (8) but I suppose as I can't see then I have to stop there (though if that second attack didn't hit then I'd have to stop anyway) :(.

Oh, and it might help if I write out some fluff as well...

Nym laughs and moves back to the window, sticking her staff out once more and loosing a small, multi-coloured bolt which crackles with energy and whose appearance keep changing and shifting in all sorts of bizarre patterns which would be somewhat disconcerting to look at if the thing actually stayed still for a few moments. But it doesn't - it pings straight down from the building toward the first unlucky bandit to emerge, smacking into him with an odd buzzing noise before whizzing off around the corner.

Giggling like a child, Nym retreats again.

Feel free to describe any kind of weird noises or patterns being made by the Chaos Bolt - it's chaotic, after all ;). You'd think it'd be Force damage or something, rather than Psychic, but there you go.


Edit - Hey, this post brings this game up to exactly half the number of posts of my own game. Wow, we're quick :D.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 10 June 2015.

For the sake of the rule of cool, I'm going to assume that after the first hit the bolt can 'leap' to a new valid target, because it's just chaotic magic at that point not you really controlling it. I'll check out the forums later and give you a proper ruling for future reference. I suspect you are controlling it and need to see all the targets.

So I meant 'it can keep going'. The second to fifth target are equally hidden form you, so when I allowed the second tagret I was allowing for all five. Roll me three more attacks!
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:06, Wed 10 June 2015.

I forget to say, a very fun but terrifying decscription of the giggling wild mage there.

I'm pretty sure I do need to be able to see the target squares as I need to specify which targets I'm trying to hit (and to stop if the only remaining targets are allies, for example). But if I get some free attacks this time that's cool ;). I do need to hit the target as well as getting the even number in order to bounce off and hit another one, so I may not be able to roll three more, but at least that previous one was even so I know I can go from there (as long as it hit), so the next one is...bleh only 10, which is most likely a miss, and the die roll was a 5 so even if they somehow have unbelievably shit Will scores I can't keep going :(.

OOC: Well, can't have us getting over-run and killed off in the first battle, right?
Also loving Nym letting loose there :D

Lol and she's only plinking At-Wills out of a window for now - she's not even really got going ;).

OOC: Probably a good thing poor old Jorri is too busy being dead to see what state his inn is about to get reduced to...

We don't know that he's dead, he might just be unconscious. Probably a good thing he's been left all the way over there, really, considering out likely combat tactics ;)

Aww :( Ah well, still a hit and a free hit! Wish you had gotten a couple more because I had a fun thingie to go with it if you managed to wipe out so many in one go. I think in future I will say that it is only taregts you can see, but I'll check out the collective internet decision first.


At Nym's side of the building, a head popped around the corner scanning. It didn't seem to see anything, but a crossbow emerged anyway and a bolt was fired directly through the kitchen window well below and to the side of Nym's position. A window was smashed, but it seemed to confirm they had no idea where she was - yet.

The hint of a figure disappeared, then suddenly a full person appeared. It didn't appear to be voluntarily - a foot propelled the bandit around the corner. The bandit looked quite young, and his dress was tattered leather that must be some form of armour, some sorry looking colleciton of branches arranged on his person, and the weapon in his hand looked like a very robust tree limb. However, there was a reddish tinge to the top of the makeshift club that probably marked this bandit as the one that had struck Jorri.

The crossbow reappeared at the corner, waving around behind a very unforgiving face. [Private to Nym: There was a vague hint of 'this can cover you or shoot at you' implied by the movements]

The visible bandit put his club over his head, ducked, and made as if to run, however Nym's magic was already flying forwards. The chaotic swirl of it lifted him off the ground and his scream was oddly pitched and cut short as he slammed down on the ground.

The magic wasn;t finished though, and the crossbow weilder was almost torn from his position and the bolt zagged and struck him sideways. He toppled over, his crossbow falling uselessly sideways and discharging its last bolt off in to nothing.

Two more bandits down :D


Meanwhile on Meri's side, the lack of constant attacking seemed to make her pair of bandits far more brave. Again a face looked around the corner, and Meri had the thrill of seeing the eyes look right through her and around her then away in other directions.

The crossbow wielder appeared in full - this one with a more weathered face, and female perhaps, and more respectable though no less dishevelled leather, better fastened greenery for camouflage, and a sturdy looking spear at his back. The woman held a crossbow in one hand, then yanked at something at the corner to bring forth another dishevelled looking bandit. Not as young in face, but made up for it by seeming as miserable as a schoolboy dragged to school. Or schoolgirl, it seemed, and there was something to the features that spoke of the two being distantly related.

The crossbow wielder pushed the first infront of her, gesturing to aroudn the corner and pointing to her eyes. The crossbow wielder herself then walked forwards carefully with her crossbow point dipping this way and that. Whilst she kept looking to the open door of the inn, it seemed she was more concerned wit hthe windows above and the crossroads visible.

Meri's lightning sphere launched perfectly. The front bandit saw it and dived for cover, for all the good it might do. Certainly the crossbow bandit was taken by surprise, looking elsewhere, and engulfed by the destructive magic with no hope of escape nor survival.

A blacked crossbow fell to the ground.

Sorry Meri, had a brain freeze. You usually roll attacks in a blast separately, but roll one damage. My brain was thinking it the other way around so I didn't ask you for a second lighting sphere roll. Good luck! To make your next decisions easier, if you roll a 14 or more total then the crossbow wielder is toast. If not, then, umm, you have a person with a crossbow who knows where you are next turn!

Edit: You need to roll a 15 to succeed against the lesser bandit. Odd, I know, there are reasons :D


Back on Nym's side of the building, her success seemed to have provoked a desperate reaction. Running from aroudn the corner in a flat run was another man with a crossbow. There was something of the snake about the man, as if there was an odd heritage buried deep. His leathers and greenery seemed perfectly matched, as if one was threaded through the other. Cunningly woven in to them were a set of daggers, not even glinting in the light. A dirty mace hung at his side, rocking as the man ran.

He managed to reach the corner, but seemed clever enough to not get too close to the corner. However, he was making a determined dash towards the kitchen window with his crossbow outstretched, so did not notice Holder until the last moment.

Holder's warhammer sadly did not make contact, but it was enough to stop the momentum of the snake-faced bandit as he realised he might have trapped himself between two foes.



And there we have it. So Meri, you have a foe to roll against to resolve last rounds actions. If you miss, then falling back seems a cool option. If you hit, it's up to you if you hold the corner against the next charge, or have fun playing 'shoot the bandit with no friends' near Nym.

Nym, you have yourself a brave playmate - see if you can remind him why bravery is a bad thing :D

Edited for more suitable enemy.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Wed 10 June 2015.

Yup, poor Jorri, sent out all alone to speak to enemies while the PCs hid. *Sniff*. Yeah, you don't know he's dead, and that would seem a little evil so soon in to the game. For the moment actions have consequences, but the consequences aren't supposed to be punishing, just...consequences. Who knows, something good might have come of Jorri speaking to the bandits and then being shot and blugeoned. The ale might be free for a start, you adventurers with absolutely no money!

Edit: Also yes, having the NPCs as far away from you guys and your powers is a good thing. It's Tym I feel sorriest for!
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:46, Wed 10 June 2015.

Nym peeks out of the window again, and channels another rough sphere of acid at the man currently being menaced by Holder before retreating once again in a manner similar to a child playing Hide-and-Seek or Peek-a-Boo.

So we'll chuck some acid at that guy's head then, since the others are still around the corner so Chaos Bolt probably won't do very much extra. That said they both actually do the same damage (though if it's Minions it doesn't matter), but there's nowhere else for the Chaos Bolt to go currently unless I choose to hit Holder so I'll use Acid Orb for now and hope the snake-like guy isn't quite as snake-like as he seems and actually doesn't have very good Reflexes...or that I just roll really well...let's see then. Attack roll iiiis...bleh, 11 in total (versus Ref) :P. Well, maybe he'll see it plummet down next to him and remember how it looked when his mate got hit less than a minute ago ;).

The snake-faced man all but hissed as the acidic bolt of Nym's flew sadly passed his head, impacting on to the smithy wall. Holder tried to take advantage of the issue by swinging his hammer, but it seemed neither of the combatants had their footing well, and that ended up benefitting the bandit.

"I recognise that one," whispered Tym across the hall through a gap in the leather curtain, apparently having looked out of the taproom window. "Real smug idiot, one of the two that came a few year ago. He's as buggered now as he was then!" Tym chuckled nastily, unsurprising given then uncertain fate of Jorri.

The banditr indeed seemesd to strut a little as if to take advantage of Holder's miss, however he had not of course seem Meri's last attacks. Meri's lightning had indeed blasted forwards enough to catch the other bandit in the sphere, and the young woman writhed to a standstill.

And so, Meri was able to send a shower of small darts towards the snake-faced bandit. His desire to attack turned to a mad scramble backwards as some of them managed to pierce his skin, turning it pale. Holder bellowed and stood taller than before, invigorated by his enemy's retreat.

Holder then staggered backwards as a dagger was flicked from the bandit's chest belt in to Holder's shoulder. Holder did not seem too hurt, but it did not stop the minotaur from scrambling in to the shelter of the smithy. The fact the bandit was still holding a crossbow perhaps explained this. The reason the bandit did not fire the crossbow was explained by his throwing it to the ground, no bolts in it. Clearly the man had had the misfortune to pick up a discarded and unloaded bow without realising.

"Banlee! Get yer arse and out here and help me, fer pity's sake! I'm surrounded!" A pause with no visible answer. "Banlee?" came the plaintive call, far less arrogant. However, the man has lucked in to something. By diving under Nym's window, where the acid orb had clearly come from, he had managed to position himself where she couldn't immediately see her - neither could Meri without Meri poking her head from the inn door.

However, then an answer came. Nym could see it best first, but Meri could see them too soon enough. Three bandits were climbing on to the smithy roof, instantly diving on to their bellies and crawling on the roof to keep low.

The one furthest from Nym seemed to have a crossbow, and be some thin, canny sniper placing themselves at the corner apparently to shoot around. The other two, spread out to the centre and close to Nym, seemed to be dishevelled and scared, clearly in fear of their lives and hoping to escape doom by climbing on the the roof. They might drop down, or they might stay there happily out of the battle.

Meanwhile, on the group Nym suddenly saw another bulky, eager bandit - like the first one that she had shot down at the start of the battle, perhaps they were twins - running towards her position as her, club held high. "I help! Morgar the Terrible help!" he yelled in challenge, though his voice was high and breaking, at odds with his powerful form.

On the other side of the smithy, a tall figure appeared at the corner, striding out arrogantly. There was just some part of the man's features that screamed 'half elf' and they seemed to be missing an eye, a deep jagged scar on their left side. The man seemed to be wearing tight lairs of green leaves, but the rare glint showed there was metal under there. The man was well armoured, and his longspear at his shoulder and crossbow in his hand was better than a common bandit's ought to be. If anyone screamed 'leader' it was this man. He was staring down the road as if looking for what had killed the last two that had made for Meri. Fortunely, for the moment he could see nothing. His crossbow was held ready though.

Meanwhile, with a gesture the man - most likely Banlee - sent a final two bandits skirting down the side of the smithy. They seemed to ahve the way of the sneak theif about them more than bandit, and they kept a wide gap the first and the second. They seemed to only have clubs, luckily, but they could easily make a break for the inn if she didn't stop the two now now.

The battle had begun in earnest.


Ok, so to recap - between the two of you you can now account for all the bandits, unless I've lied to you :p (DM's honour, this battle I haven't)

So, on Meri's side (only visible to her):

 - One half-elf bandit leader called Banlee at the very back of the smithy in chainmail, aiming a crossbow around.
 - two sneaky bandits with clubs coming up the side of the smithy, spread out by 2 squares, one at the closest edge of the smithy now.


On the smithy roof (visible to Nym, having partial cover against Meri for -2 to you attack rolls Meri):
 - one bandit with a crossbow nearest Meri, still setting up.
 - two normal crappy bandits, with clubs, one in the centre, one at the edge close to Nym.

All of these bandits are also lying prone, which automatically grants them +2 to their defenses against all your ranged attacks.

On the Nym side of the building (only visible to Nym):
 - one beef looking bandit running up towards Nym's position. Club in hand. Called Morgar the Terrible :)

Currently under Nym's window:
 - one snake-face bandit armed with daggers and a mace. Stealth roll of 17 vs Nym's perception for Nym to know which of two squares he's hiding in.


Nym, in order for you to actually hit the bandit, you can do two things. You can fire blindly out of the window (slightly less blindly if you beat his stealth). I imagine you can just wave your hand/staff out of the window. He will count as having partial cover if you beat his stealth roll (-2 to hit) and full cover (-5 to hit) if you don't. Also, you need to know where he is if you are using a spell that targets an enemy not a square, of course :)

Now, alternatively, the windows are large enough that you can acrobatics out of the window, see him, and blast him. Beat a DC 15 acrobatics check and you can een spend a minor action to get back inside afterwards. Only beat a DC10 check, or don't go back inside, and you will be left hanging out of the window duirng the bandit's turn. And if you fail to even get DC 10, you will make a successful attack from your position, then fall out of the window :D Only a 10ft drop, but you will land prone beisde the snake-faced dude!


Meri, you are currently hidden but you might suspect the bandit leader is ready to shoot at anything if he spots it. So you can either fall back to lure the bandits inside the inn, fire from where you are, or even lean out of the building to take a perfect shot at the hiding snake faced dude. Leaning costs you nothing :)


I will update the map, though multiple levels will make everything confusing I am sure.

All your stuff except Nym's 2 square attack should bein range, and Nym, that bandit below you is 2 squares away :D


Good luck!
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Thu 11 June 2015.

Hmm, right then, let's see...
What type of action is it to make a Perception to see the snakey bloke?

How far apart are all these guys from each other (as in, all the ones I can see)?

If I fall/jump out of the window, I can activate my Feyleaf Sandals to avoid any damage as they can teleport me to the nearest surface that will supoprt my weight and I land on my feet. Now, with that in mind, if I were to jump, would that be a Move action and could I teleport to the smithy roof as that will technically be nearer than the ground as I'm on my way down?

If I can jump out and teleport to the smithy roof, who will I have in my line of sight and how many squares away will they be?

Just to double-check, do Close attacks get the same benefit as melée attacks against Prone targets? I think they do (as it's not considered a "ranged" attack like those of the Ranged or Area types) but I'm not sure.

I think you can see where I'm going with this ;).

Incidentally, Jorri is labelled as being near Meri inside the inn - I think that's supposed to be Tym ;).

I think that's all I can think to ask about for now - I'll formulate an action based on the answers, or maybe ask more questions. It depends on what the answers are, I suppose ;).

Will PM you answers to keep thigns cleaner :)

If Meri has any interest in the mechanical stuff, ask away! Otherwise I'll post a summary in the OOC of the deciisons!

Ooooh, are you ready for this, Swifty? All rolls in the following post have been made and their results determined in a PM with Wuffy where I was sorting out what I was gonna do. So now I'm putting it into fluff-speak and I think you're gonna like it >:).

As the various bandits make their moves, Nym suddenly shoves the window open, climbs up onto the sill, and launches herself out of it, laughing happily and leaping toward the roof of the smithy, a jump that seems destined to result in her simply plummeting to the ground a floor below her.

But as she moves through the air she spreads her arms wide, a sudden burst of crackling energy forming on her and exploding outward in a violent eruption of crackling lightning and swirling snow. A split second after the explosion begins, Nym's leaf-like footwear starts to glow and she suddenly blinks out of existence and reappears a short distance ahead of where she had been, now no longer falling but standing unharmed on the smithy roof.

The crackling explosion, meanwhile, hits those who were standing nearby when it went off - the snake-like man who was standing below and is struck hard and knocked off his feet, the big man nearby (the one apparently called Morgar the Terrible) who topples beneath the freezing blast and crackling lightning and then lies motionless on the ground, and one of the men on the roof who'd been nearest to Nym when she jumped (and who suffers a similar fate to Morgar).

As the elemental storm fades, Nym's power suddenly surges and she looks brifly surprised for half a moment, then laughs aloud as a second blast erupts outward from her, knocking back those nearby and causing the corpse of the man on the roof to be thrown off it, landing on the ground below with a rather unpleasant crunching sound.

Nym, meanwhile, stands there, leaning on her staff and giggling like a maniac as she stares around with wide, overly excited eyes. Now there only remain two men on the roof, meanwhile the snake-faced man below is lying on the ground and definitely looking the worse for wear, but also definitely still alive.

Yeah...in the words of Ross Hornby of Hat Films (part of the Yogscast), "Eat shit!" :D.

Meri pulled back into the shadows behind the door, her hand reaching for one of the crystals on her staff which was pulsing with a pale white glow.
She stopped however as a sudden sound from outside caught her attention and her eyes widened in surprise as Nym landed on the smithy roof.

Muttering something under her breath in the Goblin tongue (most likely relating to Nym being a little mentally unstable), she shifted her staff to her left hand and tugged one of the green vials from the bandolier around her chest.
Waiting for the bandit leader to look away from the door, she stepped out into the doorway and quickly threw it at him before retreating...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Ok, Nym just changed the game plan a bit!  So much for all my carefully set traps :(  *sniffle*
Probably not the first time she's thrown a spanner in the works of one of Meri's plans.  (Well, not so much throwing a spanner in the works and dumping the entire toolkit in...  After setting it on fire and rigging it to explode!)
So, now just going to lob an acid vial at Banlee.  I think you said 10 squares away?  Makes it a long range attack (which Ameena just informed me is a -2 to attack roll...)
Attack: 14 (12+4-2) vs Reflex.
Damage: 9 acid damage + Ongoing 5 damage acid on a hit.  (Just does half damage on a miss)

Will retreat back a couple of squares after the attack, rather than going right back to the stairs.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:54, Thu 11 June 2015.

Lol, who knew the grumpy artificer would hate a cackling exploding wild mage :D

[Private to Meri: To be fair, what Nym's done is vacated the deluxe room to make sure she won't go BOOM in it during you last stand.

And I think she's just given everyone on your side of the battlefield a compelling reason to actually think the unknown house of complete innocents no traps here is a better bet.

So if you want to fall back and see if that lures the three on your side in to the inn, I think you will find they will gratefull and eagerly try it!

Up to you...there might be another thing about to happen that mnakes.


So do you want your retreat to be an actual retreat to the stairwell, or just inside the door again?]

The insane explosion and display of the wild mage seemed to shock everyone around, whether they could see the results or just hear them.

Holder saw the corpose fall gracelessly from the roof, and actually poked his head out and around to see what an earth was happening. He gave an inscruitable look to the wild mage barely visible on the roof, then ducked his head back in. He had a dagger imbedded in his arm, and the explosion only had him forget that fact for a moment before he had to go back to pulling it out.

The snake-like bandit scrambled up to his feet. Whatever leering or bullying ways were about him had long since fled. He instead simply turned and smashed the window of the kitchen, jumping head first through the jagged glass and away from the battle.

One bandit has signed up for Meri's House of Innocent Fun And Not At All Booby Traps And Painful Death.

Currently he's prone in the kitchen and so under total cover. If you were feeling spiteful you could ready an action for when he stands, Nym. But only if you stay where you currently are. Move on the roof and you'd lose sight of him due to angles and such.

The two on the roof reacted in some ways similarly, in other ways at complete odds. The prone bandit in the middle of the roof just glared at Nym, then started yelling "No! No! No! No!" In an odd panic, the bandit just scrambled towards waving its club wildly as if to try and knock Nym off the roof - or perhaps bat her aside so he could jump off away from the madness.

Crawl action, attack, free action muttering wildly, minor action probably crapping himself. Attack roll was a 12 vs AC including -2 from being prone, so most likely not a hit.

You now have a terrified aggressive insane bandit lying prone beside you :D

The bandit with the crossbow showed slightly more composure. They stood up, let loose a crossbow bolt in Nym's direction with a snarl, then yelled, "catch me y' bastards," and toppled gracefully from the roof. Nym didn't see if the bandits had such camaradre that they complied.

Move to stand, attack to fire crossbow for 18 vs AC, 6 damage if you're hit Nym, free action to yell to friends, minor action to fall prone in to empty square behind them and thus drop 10 feet. Friends might turn that in to a damageless fall.

On Meri's side of the building, Tym pushed his head through the curtain wide eyed. "What the bloody hells was that? Was that NymenahIcan't remember her name? Yer friend? Wait..."

Tym suddenly looked behind him. "Bugger, I think I hear one o' em in the kitchen. Was the door locked? I think it's locked... Jorri'd lock it again, right?" Tym's head disappeared and there was the sound of him runnign across the tap room.

I'm afraid you've lost your fellow attacker at the door for the moment - maybe just as well, we shall see.

Meri's attention was obviously diverted from this by throwing the acid. She used the turn of the lead bandit's head towards the explosion and commotion on the roof to throw the bomb directly at the leader. If he could be killed...

Unfortunately the temporary distraction was not enough. The half-elf bandit's attention snapped back instantly and he seemed to have enough courage to let loose a crossbow bolt with unnering accuracy along the tragectory. And the leader had enough skill or luck to be able to then duck out of the way of the bottle. It caught his elbow, slashing some acid on his arm and he yelled out in pain. But the bottle itself carried on to smash behind him on the ground.

The crossbow bolt sunk itself with terrifying power in to the door by Meri's head. It did not look like it would come out from there again in a hurry.

Sorry, a close miss. Sometimes the range penalties make all the difference, but you still got first blood on him and made him mad :D

His readied attack from last round went off when you attacked. That attack roll was 16, which I believe misses, hope it does because otherwise you'll take 13hp damage. This guy isn't messing around!

"Move you wastrels!" yelled Banlee to the two against the smithy. The acid throw had seemed to rob them of their courage, unsurprisingly. Apparently a mad dash in to acid didn't suit their sneaky nature.

"MOVE!"

However, the acid had not improved their leader's mood, and it was likely a retreat was not considered due to Nym's violent ranged abilities.

The first bandit at the corner of the smithy looked directly towards Meri.... and ten disappeared in a confusion of body parts.

The bandit from the roof had managed to at least break his fall, but by knocking his own fellow to the ground.

Heh, crossbow bandit rolled some acrobatics to mitigate the fall, crossbow bandit rolled a 1. Just an outright death seemed boring, so I won't say just yet whether he's alive or not, but one way or another his 'cushion' just lost their move action to having to stand up from prone :D

"GAH! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!" bellowed Banlee, the circus before him and the pain in his arm clearly tipping him over the edge. With no real thought or tactics he simply ran towards the inn door. He practically picked up the first bandit he came to, pushing them ahead of him like a meat shiled, and kicked at the other prone bandit to get up as he flew passed. The crossbow wielder was pushed aside by the 'cushion', the roof diver's condition unknown for the moment.

Banlee all but threw one of the two bandits through the doorway, and when his fellow bandit staggered sideways dizzy, Banlee finished his run ahead. The other stunned bandit barely managed to stagger inside the inn's door behind the other two.

Up close, Banlee's half-elven features could be seen for what they were. For all the meticulousness of his green armour, chainmail beneath, and rich looking spear and crossbow, his face was a mess. His more human looking features appeared to be formed from scars and cuts, maybe self inflicted maybe not, scattered around his eyes and nose and cheekbones. Even his ears, less pronounced than elvish ears, were the product of them being hacked at the tip. The face beneath the scar tissue was elvish at best, eladrin at worst. And the scars had not removed one trace of the cruelty and hauter of the fey from him.

"You!" he hissed with menace, and then spat a different word in a differnt language. [Private to Meri: Something very nasty in elvish Meri herself might have used once or twice :).] He moved with a purposeful stride towards Meri, whilst reaching for his longspear.

Ok, so since his readied attack was part of the last set of turns, he got a full set of actions this turn. Basically he spent both move and standard action to run, pulling the unprone sneaky theif in to a run too. The prone theif used his move action to get up and his standard to run aswell. I'll say cajolling people is a minor action, so the bandit leader won't actually draw his spear until next turn as a minor action.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, so Nym is on edge of the roof on the smithy side. She has a prone bandit beside her, and cannot see the snake-faced bandit inside the kitchen unless she waits to see him move.

She can just see the slower sneak thief inside the door of the inn door, but he has half-cover.

The crossbow bandit that fell from the roof is currently hidden.

Don't forget you could also decide Meri has this and make for Jorri and see how he is :p



Meri, you are at the stairwell. The lead bandit is two squares away, with a bandit diagonally behind him, and a bandit a square away by the doot.

Like this:

Meri
I
I
Leader
-------Sneak 1
Sneak 2
Door



Let me know again how you wanted the traps laid out, and use all your powers and skill rolls to figure out how to get them to follow you and fall for the traps.

Bluff is a good one to roll, use it if you are trying to make them go one way or another, or pretend to disable a trap on one side when in relaity the trap is on the other side and you bypassed it easily.

You could even try to use attacks with push/shift effects to move them in to traps too.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Thu 11 June 2015.

Meri looked back at the bandit leader.  Her expression was difficult to read, although if anything, the faint blue light in her eyes seemed even colder than usual.
"Thought you'd be running scared about now" she replied.  "About standard for your kind when things don't go as planned, isn't it?"
She followed that up with something spoken in a language that was clearly elven.
[Private to The Altweaver: (Most likely something about how his mother likes to do naughty things with orcs!  She has quite a few creative elven insults!  hehe)]

She remained in place, holding her staff diagonally across her body in both hands, as if preparing to parry his attack with it...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Hoping to get him too angry to think about looking for traps :)
Hoping he'll trip over the first wire in the doorway, which will hopefully let me blast the guy standing behind him with Static Shock (hence why I want to stay within 5 square range of him).
Want to pick off or scare off his helpers as soon as possible so I only have him to deal with and don't waste the traps on them :)

Looking back, the setup (in order of reaching them) was:

Knock-prone tripwire across the inn doorway.

Another knock-prone tripwire halfway down the path leading to the stairs, with a tangling one positioned immediately after it to catch anyone who gets lucky enough to miss the knock-prone one, or jump over anyone caught by the knock-prone one.

Another tripwire and slippery stuff on the top step, hopefully designed to make someone fall back down the stairs.

Another knock-prone tripwire a short way down the hall leading to the bedroom Nym just vacated.

Some bent nail caltrops after that.

A tripwire rigged up to drop an acid vial on someone's head after that.

And a tangling wire across the door of the bedroom :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 00:44, Fri 12 June 2015.

Heh, I'm a caster - if I was a tank I'd probably have 18 AC but as it is even my highest defence (Will) isn't quite that high, so I took a plink. Oh well. Let's see what Nym does about it...

"Ouch!" Nym yelps in surprise as a crossbow bolt goes through her arm, passing through and fortunately leaving more of a severe cut in the side on the way through than actually embedding itself and staying there.

Rather startled by this, she takes an almost involuntary step back as the club-wielding bandit crawls toward her, and instinctively holds up her staff, releasing another large glob of acid toward the man in front of her.

[Private to The Altweaver: Shifting backward or sideward or wherever I can safely go to get a square away from the guy without falling off the roof, then lobbing Acid Orb at his face - including the -2 for ranged attack versus a Prone target, my roll total iiiis...bleh, only 11 vs Reflex.

Also, I just realised I've been missing something this whole time - Chaos Burst (one of my class features). If my first attack roll in a turn is even I gain +1 AC till the start of my next turn. If it's odd, I get to make a Saving Throw. The die roll for the above was an 8 so I have a total of 16 AC till the start of my next turn :).]

Luckily the bandit is a little bit meh in both will and reflexes, to put it mildly :D Also, you don't take -2 to your attacks, he takes -2 to his attacks. He gains +2 to his defenses. In the end, same thing of course!

The bandit was madly scrambling to hit Nym out of the way, and in the way the acid bolt bolt give him his wish. He writhed off the roof surrounded by magical acid, and collapsed with a wet thud on the ground, never to move again.

Holder looked at the fallen figure with pure fear, whereas The Ball took a moment from bobbing around to dance around the figure and poke it one. The Ball because a replica of an acid orb them started spinning figure of eights around Holder's legs, blocking the minotaur from moving forwards to help.


You have the roof, Nym! Victory!


Meanwhile inside the inn, Banlee snarled as he worked out what was said to him. Then a look came over his face, and he started at Meri more. "Half-elf," he spat with contemp. "You hide your shame, I see, but the wrong way." Banlee spat on the ground, patted off some acid-splattered leaves, and pulled the vicious looking longspear from his back, holding it oddly at the end of the haft.

"Oh, we'll make you pay," he said, stepping forwards with menace, "we-EEARGH!"

Not one but both trip wires managed to snag the bandit leader, too intent on stalking Meri to notice.

Banlee collapsed painfully on the ground, the wires tangled around his feet. However, he had not lost the odd grip on his spear. Despite the distance between Meri and himself, the spear swept close to her in a dangerous manoeuver.

Luckily a relatively low roll and him being prone means that's only a 14 vs AC, which I believe is too low.

The two sneaky thieves took a step back in worry. Meanwhile, across at the smithy the crossbow wielder managed to stagger upright. Seeing the rest gathered in the inn, the man darted across the road eager, and was rewarded by catching a tripwire on the door. He fell spreadeagled inside one more.


Ok Meri, so I'm going to assume your static shock is a readied action, so you can fire it off the moment the leader falls. Gimme a roll! The two sneak thieves might be minions, so no damage roll needed.

You will then have a full compliment of actions. Banlee on the ground gains a +2 bonus against ranged attacks, but you gain a +2 bonus to melee attacks, and I think you have a couple or melee attacks with a range increment, so all good.

You can then decide if you run or not, Banlee should only be able to move 2 squares until he untangles himself. That's a basic saving throw with a 50/50 change of the effect ending each turn.

He has a crossbow and seems to be able to use his spear at longer range than normal, so watch yourself!


Nym, all your playmates seem to be gone for the moment. Everyone is now inside the inn, though you won't be able to see clearly who is where inside.

As I mentioned last round, Jorri is behind you, and the snake-faced man is currently moving around doing goodness knows what because none of you can see him right now.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:40, Fri 12 June 2015.

Meri's impassive looking expression showed a brief flare of anger at Banlee's words, although it swiftly changed to a satisfied sneer as he tripped over the wires.

"Shame?  Me?" she snapped back.  "Why should I be ashamed?  I'm nothing like you.  Pathetic..."
She followed the last word with another obvious insult in elven, the word almost physically spat across the space between them.
"I'll show you what I can do!"

With that, she tapped on two of the smaller crystals on her staff, like the ones she had almost used on the Ball earlier.
A crackling blue fire ignited inside the crystal spike on one end of the staff, releasing a blast of energy along the corridor towards one of the bandits standing there.
More energy began to coil along the staff towards the opposite end, and in a blindingly fast movement, she flipped the staff around and aimed the other end at the other bandit, just as another lightning blast discharged from it.

Without waiting to see the results of her double attack, she turned and ran up the stairs, leaving only the sound of her mocking laughter hanging in the air behind her...


OOC: MwaHaHaHaHaHaaaa! >:)


[Private to The Altweaver: Okies, so casting Static Shock twice at the two minions who followed Banlee in.
Using the Readied Action and a Standard Action.
Attack for that says: "Attack: (Staff of Iron Infusion +1) +5 vs. Ref, 1d8+4 (Intelligence vs. Ref)"
Does that mean I roll a d10 and add 5 to it?  (Still figuring this out!  Yep, I know.  I'm thick!)

First roll was 5.  Second was 2 (Yuck!  If I still have my Minor Action, can I use Knack for Success to boost that by 2?)
Used d10 for them, not added anything yet.

Using my Move to escape up the stairs as far as I can go.
Assuming the door at the top is already open, I'll go through it and wait there.  Not closing the door yet.  Want to get another shot at them before I do :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 19:52, Fri 12 June 2015.

With her immediate area apparently devoid of combatants, Nym looks around whilst still giggling to herself and with faint sparks of lightning seming to crackle all over her. She goe to the edge of the roof and lowers herself down, then approaches the window where the snake-ilke man disappeared. She changes form again as she does so.

Now in the form of a pale-blue-scaled dragonborn, Nym swishes her tail and peeks into the window, grinning as she does so and displaying a fine array of sharp teeth.

"Coooo-eeeee!" she calls loudly into the kitchen as she looks around.

[Private to The Altweaver: Perception if needed to spot Snake-Face...urgh, 5 lol.]

Holder rushes over to the window to join Nym, eyes growing no less wide when she changes her form again to the dragonborn. He pauses politely for a moment, then tries to look inside aswell. Both are obsctructed by The Ball, not wishing to be left out, bobbing and weaving around their heads. Its surface alternates between looking like the minotaur's and the shapeshifter's eye, swishing around left and right.

The kitchen inside seemed a clutter of food half prepared, something on the stove slow cooking, and a long trough raised from the ground near the window where dishes could clearly be washed.

There was of course an awful lot of glass around - it seemed Nym's previous explosion had shattered most of the glass on this side, allowing the snake-faced bandit to gain easy entry. Not too easy, there was some blood on a jagged shard.

What there wasn't was a visible sign on the bandit themselves. To the right there was a solid door out of the kitchen that lead to the tap room, one that still seemed solidly closed.

To the back of the kitchen though was another door, half ajar.

"Did I leave it open?" mused Holder, his warhammer poised in case they were suddenly attacked.

"Numithingia...umm...wait, like Tym...Nym? Is that you? I heard the bugger movin' around in there? Where is he?" From the right hand door, Tum's muffled voice came. Clearly the snake-faced bandit hadn't gone that way, he was either still i nthe kitchen or had moved next door.

"Oh bugger, where'd this other idiot come from!" came Tym's voice sudden and loudly. There was a sound of scuffling and shifting furniture. Tym didn't say anythign further.


Ok, so for that perception check you can either assume you can't see that well in to the room with The Ball waving around, or you can assume that Nym assumes the room is PERFECTLY CLEAR! Up to you how you want to interpret the low roll, but as a player know that you don't knwo if you're going in to an abmush or if the guy scrambled across to the other door last turn and is now in the other room.


Entering the room via the window counts the window as difficult terrain, but otherwise its going to be ok to scramble through. Large window, work surfaces on the other side, dragonborn form, all good :)

Alternatively you can move sideways and look in to the tap room to help Tym with his problem - presumeably it will be obvious, and you can try to do stuff through the windows. They aren't as good for climbing through though, being still in tact and all :p


At the same time, in the inn hallway, the sneaky bandits were in for a bad time. The moment their leader fell Meri sent a wave of electric energy at one of them that rattled their body, and they fell heavily and only occasionally spasming to it.

The second sneaky bandit foolishly made a move to help their comrade rather than diving out of the way, and a second shock caught them square on the chest. The crossbow bandit simply dropped their crossbow and covered their hand as the body flew out the door in a spinning dance.

Holder had looked around at the commotion as he had walked across to the window - just before Nym then transformed in front of him. As Holder has mentioned earlier in the day, he was probably far too sober for this sort iof a day.

Banlee yelled a trail of ugly curses to the the 'human lover', probably also showing the esteem he held his bandits under. He scrambled to his feet, though was still hampered by the wire wrapped around his foot. He was forced to hobble against the railings, barely making any progress. Thoguh sadly his longspear was in superior condition and the tanglewires had, by necessity, been hastily constructed. The line was shorn from his boots with quick ease, and he looked upwards with a feral expression.

Lol, sorry, bad news I rolled a 19 for his save at the end of turn. So the slow effect only lasted for this turn. Still, it let you run away Meri!
Also, for no reason I'm goign to tell you that I rolled a '3' on a d6, and this is a good thing :)

Anyway, the bandit leader is at the bend in the stairwell. What this means is that if you want to Meri, you could lean from where you are in the door and try a shot against him if you liked. He's definitely under partial cover due to the angles, so -2 to any attacks, but its there if you wanted it. And he can't even ready an attack with a crossbow or anything for poking your head out, because he needed to use an action to stand first before hobbling up the stairs. Dual traps rule!

Alternatively you can fall back and ready an attack if he misses your traps at the door and come through the stairwell doorway.

The crossbow bandit, finally alone for the moment, took one look behind him out the door, another up the stairwell, then decided that neither following nor running seemed the best option. Scrambling to his feet unobserved by anyone, he made a move through the leather xcurtain to the taproom.


And now we know who Tym just saw!


Ok, things are going well. Leader is rushing to his slow but certain doom following Meri alone, and you seem to have the snake-faced bandit on the run and hiding in the shadows somewhere, all bloodied and alone too.

Tym might be in a small amount of danger from the crossbow bandit though, who knows. Still, that bandit was trying to hide himself so we'll see how that confrontation goes.

Meri reached the door at the top of the stairs, stepping carefully over the tripwire and the slip trap there and turning to look back down the stairs, a hint of a grin flickering across her lips at the stumbling sounds and the stream of curses coming from below.

"What's wrong?" she called down.  "Afraid to come up here without any of your little HUMAN helpers, hmm?"
She laughed again before slamming the door shut and padding quickly down the corridor, taking care to avoid the tripwires she had set there earlier.

As she reached the end, she turned and readied her staff again, tapping on one of the small glowing blue crystals as she did.  The light in it faded, releasing a shimmering pattern of pale-blue mist that flowed over Meri's body, forming a faintly glowing aura around her.


OOC: Come and get it...!  >:)


[Private to The Altweaver: Closed the door and retreated as far down the trapped corridor leading to the deluxe bedroom as I can go
Also used one of my Healing Infusions to cast Resistive Formula to give myself +1 AC till the end of the encounter (assuming this whole little cat + mouse game with Banlee counts as an encounter!)

Also, just checking, if I use the push effect of Thundering Armour, can that knock him down the stairs, or can I only push him towards the other end of the hall from here?]

Nym shakes our her arms and looks down at her robes, which immediately start to glow a myriad of rainbow colours which seem to constantly shift and change, brightly illuminating her surroundings. She climbs in through the window and looks around.

I think I should take whichever Familiar it is that boosts Perception when I level up, lol...I think that was the Raven anyway but I'll probably have another look through them all anyway at that point, in case I want to change my mind. I seem to keep needing to use skills that I'm not trained in...the downside of playing a caster, lol.

Nym bravely (foolishly?) enters the kitchen, to find...nothing. Unless the bandit can make himself invisible, he isn't in here. And if he could make himself invisible, he'd probably be a better bandit and not need to hang around with the people he hangs around with.

The door at the back of the room furthest from the window does seem to be ajar, but only a crack. Not enough to see anything, and indeed probably enough that Nym may well have been heard by the man next door.


Funny, you are lamenting not having good skills, but you do have a stealth modifier of +4 yet seem determined not to use it when trying to enter and area an enemy might be. I mean, sure, yelling in the room probably meant he knew you were around and might come in, so maybe that ship had sailed anyway, but, it's the principle of the thing :D

Also, you have insight locked down, and Meri has perception locked down, I guess that's how it works.


So, you would have enough movement left to make it to the door if you wanted to. You've already used your minor but you could have your remaining action be a second minor to open the door. I mean, you put yourself in the line of fire if he's not too busy, but at least you know what he's doing. Plus you might just make him bolt since you've done some scary shit!


Banlee snarled as he made his way up the stairs, though his demeanour regained some of its arrogance due to freeing himself so quickly.

"Think you're clever?" he bellowed. "Perhaps if your traps were better bui-" His voice cut off, but there was not the sound of a fall as Meri hoped. Sadly, Banlee's elvish eyesight meant the gloom did not hide the trap well enough. He caught sight of the unusual bumps on the floor as he drew level with them. "Oh, I see, you really do think you're clever," he yelled out again, mockingly. He braced himself against the side walls when he got to the top, and booted the door open dismissively.

He barked a laugh. "Pathetic," he sneered in an obvious imitation of Meri's voice. He leapt over the slipper floor easily in to the hall. "You-" However, his foot perfectly caught the trip wire and he planted his face directly in to the hall floor. With a mad rage he fumbled for the crossbow at his side and fired off a shot - a lucky or skillful shot, it seemed, which caught Meri a glancing bow across the cheek and made her skull ring. Another few inches and Meri might not have been so lucky.

Sorry, he rolled 23 vs AC even after being prone, and I don't believe you can block that. If I'm wrong, I can retcon the shot. Otherwise, take 13hp damage :(


Typical, isn't it. He spots the good trap rather than the crappy trap :( Ah well, at least he only rolled well once, and so you got to have the last laugh trip trap wise! He rolled his acrobatics to not fall the wrong way because of the tripwire though (since he was jumping forwards it didn't seem as likely he'd fall back, but I decided to let the dice decide with an acrobatics check anyway.

Speaking of rolling, technically his passive perception was enough to beat the traps - just. I've allowed the -2 conditional modifier for when you were actively baiting him and in sight to knock him to 14 passive perception. However, it seemed unfair to just let him see the traps now you were gone, so I rolled perception for each one since he would be looking for them.

Providing you can keep him focused on you and disguise your intent, I'll keep him only using his passive perception, and good strategies to disguise the trap further or distract him will give you the bonus needed for him to not spot them and stay on 14 passive perception.

Otherwise, if he suspects something I'll roll perception. Still might not help him though, as Nym's proven the dice can be fickle when it comes to perception rolls even with a +6 bonus!


As mentioned with Nym's post, closing the door is a minor action. However, I'll say that as you didn't use a minor last turn and didn't fire at him this turn then the free action mockery and door closing can be the end of your last turn. So no worries for now, but be aware of it as you negotiate opening and closing doors for the rest of the fight.

[Private to Meri: The whole fight with the bandits from start to finish is an encounter. You will have your +1AC until your next short rest, or until 5 minutes have elapsed.


Unfortunately pushes need to be directly away, so you would only push him in to the cupboard. If you have an ability that lets you slide someone then you could move him sideways.

Hmm. a push has to place the target further away from you, and technically in 4th edition D&D the diagonal square is the same distance. So my DM instinct is to say you can't. But that seems boring and I can't back it up right now so lets just say yes, you can push him sideways down the stairs, serves him right for tripping up and stopping his movement there. And normally pushing someone where they might fall still gets an acrobatics skill check to see if they fall or manage to simply drop prone at the edge. However, because you've slicked the top of the stairs, I'll say if you can successfully push him on to that square. he will automatically fall.
]
This message was last edited by the player at 16:42, Sat 13 June 2015.

The light on Nym's robes fades as she looks around the room.

"Cooo-eee..." she says again, softly and in a sing-song voice. "Where aaaare youuuuu?"

She then moves with exaggeratedly sneaky body language over to one side of the slightly-open door, as though she might see through the crack from a few steps away.

You know in cartoons when someone is sneaking and they raise their leags really high and step really far on tip-toes? Nym's doing that :D.

Meri flinched back at the hit, shaking her head and looking back at her target as the shimmering blue aura around her re-formed around the area that had been parted by the bolt.

"Not a bad shot for your kind.  You sure you're not a human with those ears?"
A hint of a smirk crossed her face at that.

"Let's see if you're as weak as an elf!"
With that, she jabbed at several of the crystals on her staff in a rapid sequence.
A sparkling field of electrical energy formed around it and began to coil around Meri's body before exploding outwards with a loud crashing BOOM like thunder, rushing in a crackling wave down the corridor, as Meri moved back further into the bedroom behind her...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Going for a non-lethal takedown from now on.

Using Thundering Armour, targeting herself and then him.  Aiming to just blast him backwards into the cupboard.  With the OOC discussion, it feels a little too like cheating to knock him down the stairs with it.
Attack roll: 19 (14 + 5 vs Fort.)
Damage roll: 9 (5 + 4)
(Not sure if I get a -2 because of him being knocked down or if he just got back up...)

Moving back as far as I can into the bedroom after that, but still keeping him in line of sight.]

Nym's theatrical attempts at to get in to a hiding position did not seem to make her any less scary to Holder. Perhaps it was something to do with the glee in which she tried to get the snake faced bandit to come out and play.

Nym's seemingly uncharacteristic attempt to stay still and focused did not bear fruit unfortunately - the snake-faced bandit seemed disinclined to go back in to a room with someone who could blow themselves up seemingly at will and emerged unharmed.

Instead of a sudden attack, there was a sudden thump at the other door. Something heavy had struck that door soundly from the taproom side. The door moved but remained resolutely closed, highlighting the fact it was currently locked.

Holder had disappeared from the kitchen window meanwhile, and a moment later there was the smashing of glass and an indistinct bellowing.


Sorry, he was indeed doing something else, but it was always going to be the gamble. At least you got to do something comic relief-y to distract from the bloodthirsty murder for a round. :p


Meri's strike smashed the bandit leader from half way along the corridor, smashing him in to the cupboard door with a solid thump. The bandit coughed from the power of the blow, or perhaps from the twisting of his previously wounded arm.

Still, the bandit leader was far from out of the fight, not apparently deterred from his aggressive moves by the constant traps and humiliations. Indeed, the constant aggression seemed to be fueling him beyond normal reason. Certainly, it appeared to be Meri's taunts that were drawing the most blood.

"You love humans so much I can do this just as easily to you," he spat with some burning resentment. [Private to Meri: And the 'just as easily' seems to confirm he did it to himself for some weird reason.] He darted to his feet, but only cradled the crossbow to his hand rather than fire it. instead he was rushing down the corridor after the retreating half-elf...

...and once more found a trip wire half way along the hall, slamming down in to the hall. His elvish screams were as clearly foul as his rage was impotent.


Heh, poor guy can't catch a break! Anyway, Meri, you'll be about half way along the wall perpendicular to the door. There's a variety of furniture in the room, but I'll map that out in a grid form if you actually get in to a close melee battle with the bandit leader.

So, we didn't agree exactly where the traps in the hall were, there are 10 squares between the stairs and the deluxe room door, and so I'm going to assume the trp wire is about 3 squares down, caltrops on the fourth square, the acid trap on the seventh square, then you have the tangle wire on the door (square ten)

If so, that means Banlee has been tripped once more about three squares along. The caltrops will only do 1hp to him (really they were an anti-minion option), but I figure they will count as difficult terrain whether he spots them or not so even if he runs he can only get to the square before the door. You know, passing through the acid trap.

Of course, he's now tripped over so many times that especially if he spots the caltrops, he will most likely be cautious. So some good ideas to get him too angry to think (shouldn't be too hard, it's getting ridiculous how many times his fallen over by now! :D  ), or make him think that somehow he's got the better of you now, may be good. Or something else, of course. But the power of an awesome acid trap is riding on this one! Don't let it down :D

Luckily for you, for no reason, I've kept rolling 3 on a d6 for two more turns. Stupid d6 :( Maybe it's a d6 with 3 written all over it.


Also, for no reason you can see, I managed to roll a 20 on a d20 for something that didn't need that level of coolness. I almost thought it was a '1' because I'm using an MtG spindown counter and it has a weird symbol on the 20 rather than the 1.


Anyway, all that to say - new round! Good luck!
This message was last edited by the player at 22:17, Sat 13 June 2015.

Meri, Ive also realised that if you wanted to ready your push attack for when Banlee has stepped one step beyond the trap, then even if he sees it and misses it, you could push him back in to it - I'd let that move one auto-trigger it :D

OOC: Oki doki :)
By the way, can I tell when he's reloading his crossbow, or is it one of those ones that has a kind of reload mechanism, like the repeating crossbow?


Meri stepped back further into the room, glancing back briefly to make sure there was no furniture in her way before looking back at Banlee.
"You certainly seem as clumsy as a human.  Maybe that's why you seem to enjoy looking like one?  Only one trap left, and it's not a tripwire.  Can you spot it?  Or do you have weak eyes like a human too?"

She ended that with a mocking laugh, twirling her staff around to point the opposite end at him and tapping the small crystals in what looked like the reverse of the previous sequence.
This time, she held her hand over the last one.  The crackling pattern of energy flickered from the staff to her body, but remained there, flickering over her and occasionally sparking against nearby metallic objects, held in check for now...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Readying Thundering Armour attack.  Also moving as far into the room as I can go while still keeping him in line of sight within 10 square range, and without bumping into anything behind me.
Hoping the caltrops will be the most easily spotted trap, so he might get overconfident if he spots them and avoids stepping on them :)]

Reloading a crossbow or repeating crossbow is a Minor action, I think (it's a Free action on a hand crossbow), so it'll take a couple of seconds and I'd've thought it'd be noticeable.

Crossbow relaoding is a minor action that needs two hands, so sadly he's able to do it if he's not swapping weapons quite easily. You can assume some easy ratchet mechanism or quick winch to pull back the string them drop the quarrel in. Think cinematic loading times, really!

Edit: I see Nym managed to answer ahead of me :)


Down on the ground Nym moved with speed to burst through the door in to the other room. If she expacted an attack she was to be delightfully disappointed - the room was empty. ish.

It was clearly a store room, with generous amounts of beer barrels, a small wooden crate with delicate bottles packed with straw, and a few sacks of various vegetables by the sight of the occasionally loosely opened one.

There appeared to be a wood burner in the far left corner of the room with a healthy supply of logs and even coal stacked beside it.

What there wasn't was a convincing place to hide, and with a simple spin Nym could see the four corners.

There was only one exit from the place, a door in the right hand far wall - again leading out to the taproom. This door looked almost closed, though a hairline gap spoke of the door having been shut but not fully closed - as if to be quiet. Had her prey escaped, or was he really, really sneaky?

There is a window out of here, the man could have stood on some sacks, however you'd think there would be mess if he did. The door is most likely the best bet for him leaving.

Of course, this could all be a trick and he's hiding under soek sacks - if you are really paranoid you can auto-search the whole place... Remember that you ran in here, so you do have a standard action to either use on some final checks, or to get to the door. You won't be able to open it with this turn's actions, but you can listen at the far door if you like instead of checking out this room.

Obviously, you are welcome to also start using next turn's actions too - so if you want to just run to the door and throw it open, I'll let you know what you see before you make your next move/standard action.

Depends upon the RP, is Nym still stealthy, paranoid, or just out to start giving chase? :D

Up above Nym, Meri was settling in to the room. Banlee got back to his feet with aggression, then looked around. "You're pathetic and predictable. Trap on the top and bottom of the stairs, trap in the middle. Trap at the end and middle of the hall - trap in the room. Not gunna fall for it. Sorry you don't have the eyes to see how obvious your floor traps are. Caltrop and ball bearings on a floor? Don't make me laugh. Trip me up all you like with your fishwife wires, it ain't gunna stop me from taking those eyes one by one at the point of my spear and sticking them-"

Banlee has been slowly stalking across the corridor, carefully, and almost deliberately either flicking the caltrops out of the way or standing on them as the mood took them. He was also slowly, methodically reloading his crossbow and raised it menacingly.

However, he was clearly not paying enough attention, and tripped the acid wire trap. The vial easily popped free of the small blob of glue that was holding it against gravity, and it fell. Once more the man seemed to spot the thing coming the moment it happened, however unlike last time when he could dodge and watch the acid sail out of the way with only a minor spash, the thing smashed on his elbow and then the contents had nowhere to go but down, splashing his legs and stomach and making him roar in pain.

Unfortunately, as he had proven before, his aim was good. Eevn as he bucked and screamed more hideous words on Meri's gender, profession, race and physical appearance, the crossbow bolt soared from his crossbow right at Meri.

The roll was 21, and damage is 11hp. I'll let you decide how it affects Meri. The trick with 4th edition is that it's even more 'these are just scratched like in films'. Bloodied is more like bruce lee wiping the blood from his mouth and going 'game on' or maybe a minor wound. Even if you go to 0hp, if you have many healing surges left its best to assume its a wound that can be easily treated. Think Mal in Serenity, the sort of 'yeah, I got impaled but I'll be fine and joking and hobbling soon enough'

So don't feel Meri has to lose and eye or anything, even if this brings her to bloodied :D

Anyway, gimme a readied action attack roll! I rolled good on the acid attack too, so he'll be taking ongoing damage. Let's hit him and make him as scared as Snake-man is being downstairs!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:09, Mon 15 June 2015.

Yeah, health in 4th Edition encompasses stuff like morale as well as physical state - that's why a class like the Warlord, who's all about being inspiring and commanding, is a healing class. I think their automatic twice-per-round healing power is even called Inspiring Word. It also explains how Minions go down so easily - they might be physically strong and stuff but at the first sign of trouble they give up or get knocked out or whatever :D.

Anyway...do any of the crates or sacks look big enough to conceal a fully-grown human, at a glance? Or does it look like there could be space for someone to hide behind any of this stuff (say, between a stack of crates and the wall, or something)? A wood burner isn't big, is it? He couldn't have somehow jumped inside there?

Thinking of it as a mix of stamina and morale is a good thing. I like the running for a bus analogy. Each encounter is like running for a bus - you might run out of energy and burn out. However, after catching your breathe, you could run for a bus later in ther day - perhaps several. So it's not so much wounds as your stamina for that fight.

But it's also supposed to be cinemaitc, so some of the powers are supposed to represent that moment when the hero can shrug off a wound because he's just dug deep. The second wind, which also gives you temp defenses, is totally liek the action clich of the hero being on death's door seemingly but then just goes 'no!' and gets back up then lays the smach down on the baddies :)


And nah, the room looks pretty empty. The stacks of food and even the burner log pile are too neat. I mean, I did say the dude rolled a 20 on a thing that didn't really matter, so who knows... But you'd need to be thinking of Nym as pretty paranoid if she thought there could be something in this room.


Oh, the wood burner is on by the way, and not big enough to have a person inside :D

Okay, just checking - lol if it was really big and turned off and he'd hidden inside it, because at that point he'd've discovered that Prestidigitation lets you ignite burny stuff like candles and campfires >:).
Anyway, despite the fact this guy is either waiting for me around a corner somewhere or has buggered off as far as he can get into a corner in some other room, Nym is getting bored...

Nym enters the room and spins on the spot, looking around with disappointment on her face. She sees the slightly-open door nearby and goes over to it, throwing it wide.

"Boo!" she calls excitedly, faint wisps of lightning still running over her sky-blue scales.

Just in case he's waiting for me :D.

Lol, fair enough :)


Also, I will resolve this minor action of the new round so you can figure out your other actions.


The door opened easily. The tap room seemed a nice enough place, een when seen from just the end of the bar. There were various tables, out front, and though the room looked sooty around the edges, the sun from outsides showed that some small care had gone to keeping it looking respectable. Occasional cracked widnow not withstanding.

"Nym?" came an oddly muffled voice from her right. Someone was speaking from by the other door, clearly on the ground. There was a load of 'arghs' and 'bollockses' and 'eeeshks' and Tym slide up in to view. He was very sweaty, and moving himself awkwardly, probably because of the crossbow bolt sticking out of his upper arm. "BaARGH BUGGERIT!" he said as he tried to gesture in a direction with his impaled arm. He swapped to his good arm with a small sob. "Snakey-faced bugger and the bastard what shot me both legged it that way," he gestured to the leather curtain, currently obscuring the view to the hall and the inn doorway.


It's a double move to the leather curtain due to the bar being difficult terrain. It's up to you if you use your last movement to push through the curtain to the hallway beyond and whoever is there, or stop at the curtain and listen for sneaky buggers.

I don't mean to deliberately make it like this, it just seems to happen :P

You can also use a move and standard to go across to Tym and see if he's ok.

Or you can do whatever else you like with your funky powers :D


Edit: Oh, I think I forgot to mention Banlee took 6hp damage last turn and will take 5 ongoing damage from the acid this turn. also, I rolled a 1, which is different but not better compared to a 3 :D I'll explain the d6 roll if Nym can't guess the meaning of it beforehand. Well, either of you, but Nym has Dm'd a game so might know better.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Mon 15 June 2015.

I'd already figured (from your first mention of it) that the d6 roll was for an Encounter power refresh but had neglected to say anything thus far ;).

Nym claps her hands together in delight.

"Oooh, good! They haven't seen all I can do yet!" she says happily, and more or less skips over to the curtain, her clawed feet making little clicking noises on the ground - her footwear seems to have reshaped itself slightly so that her toes are able to stick out without the material being damaged.

How many squares away from the curtain would I be with one move? More than two? I'm just wondering how much the curtain weighs - I can move up to one pound of material (however much that is) with Prestidigitation so wondered if I could use it to shove the curtain open slightly if I can get within range. That'd use up my Standard but I'd be a couple of squares back and with a full st of moves available for next time. If I can't get close enough (range is two squares) to do that or the curtain is too heavy then I'll move twice and make a Perception roll instead.

One move wouldn't get you to a close enough position, sorry. I think moving the curtain aside brifly at the edge would be a little over one pound (about the weight of stick of butter or shoe I believe), but if you could have gotten close enough I would have allowed it. Hadn't appreciated prestidigitation was a standard. Must be mage hand and ghost sound that're the minors?

Just checked - Light and Mage Hand are the Minor ones - the other two are Standard. Okay then, Perception check to listen if they're there (and if they're not they've either gone to join Banlee or made the smart move and buggered off out the front door and legged it as fast as they can from this place of pain >:))...and hopefully I can make double figures this time :P. Woot! 22 :D. One point off a crit!

Meri stifled a cry of pain as the bolt ripped through her left arm, leaving it hanging limply, though not before she had jabbed at the last crystal, causing the coiling sparking energy around her to form back into a powerful wave which rushed down the corridor at Banlee.

Manipulating the staff rather awkwardly one-handed, Meri quickly jabbed at the second blue crystal on it, releasing a shimmering light which caused her body to glow brightly, causing the wound to close up slightly and apparently restoring at least partial use of her arm.

"Not a bad shot for a weak HUMAN" she scoffed.  "Ok then, come on into the room and see if you can blunder into the last trap I've set in here.  It's very amusing watching you fall over!"
She laughed and quickly darted sideways out of his view.


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Okies, using my readied attack from the last round to cast Thundering Armour.
Attack roll: 17 (Roll of 12 + 5)
Damage roll: 12 (Roll of 8 + 4)

Using my Standard action to trigger a healing surge with Second Wind, giving me 9 HP back.  And using my Minor to activate my last Healing Infusion and using Curative Admixture, giving me 9 + 3 HP back, so healing 21 HP in total.
Let me know if I can't do both of them at the same time.
Also moving away from line of sight and trying to get as close as I can to the wall beside the door, ideally within 5 squares of the door so he'll come right into range of a Static Shock attack as he enters the room.
Not too sure how many squares that is though...]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Mon 15 June 2015.

[Private to GM:
Actually Holder 'gave' you a third use of infusion for this fight from his bench, but I don't think you'll need it. Keep it in mind, of course...]


Ok Nym, you rolled really well, so I guess combined with your passive insight, you might be able to piece together large chunks of stuff you can't quite see.

Nym had moved over to the leather curtain. To heavy to lift easily, that was also a blessing too. It seemed Tym hadn't quite managed to pull if securely across in his haste, or perhaps the bandits had disturbed it. Either way, she could hear the commotion from beyond it perfectly. Assuming it muffled sounds at the best of times?

There was a bellowing and thumping at the door to the inn, it was no hard guess to realise that the bandits had managed to lock the door quickly enough against Holder, and that Holder was not best pleased with this. The thumps that could be his shoulder became thumps that were  most likely his hammer.

Meanwhile, there were frantic footfalls that sounded as if they were coming form above Nym. The bandits were on the stairs. And then there were different wooden sounds, more numerous and frantic and that came with extra cries and yells and grunts and curses. And then there was only a solitary voice sobbing and gurgling, perhaps as if someone had slipped and fallen from all the way up the top of the stairs on one of Meri's traps and had landed with little finesse at the very bottom.

Sadly, it only sounded like one 'object' had fallen downstairs, not two. The vague creak above Nym's head said one person had made it above her to the top of the stairs. And the gurgling had a familiar enough tone to it that she could be sure when she moved the curtain aside she would see her snake-faced prey finally at her mercy.


Heh, who would have though it, the crossbow minion had far better perception than the hardier bandit. Poor snake faced coward is currently lying prone at the bottom of the stairs Nym, and it seems that both main villains are rolling well in the worst ways this round. He's taken 10hp falling damage and is on 1hp. Basically no better than a minion. Still might be dangerous, but you can happily move the curtain aside with a minor action and decide on how best to finish him off Nym :D

So, how is our bandit leading friend rolling badly? Let's see...


Banlee was blasted back by the onslaught from Meri, howling as the magic for a moment made him forget the acid. Adrenaline and fury made him shake off the attack for a moment, but then the pain of the acid came back to him as it kept eating at his lower armour.

Meri's final glimpse of the man showed he was in white faced terror of the woman who was standing tall and looking dangerous, goading him to enter a room he knew must be deadly.

"Blow all this, if It wants you, It can come take you Itself," he screamed.

From inside the room Meri couldn't tell at first what was going on. There was a solid thump of wood as if Banlee had kicked something, and solid running steps. There was then a very fragile noise of glass smashing, and out of the corner of her eye Meri saw a shape fly out of one of the front windows to heedlessly descend to the ground.

Down on the ground Holder saw the shape fly down and land with a particularly painful 'thump'. The minotaur temporarily stopped his assault on the inn door to watch the frantic spasming of the figure on the ground. While writhing on the dirt road was certain a good way to get rid of the acid, splashed about it, it was hard to tell if the spasming was intentional or not...

Yep, so minor action kicking the nearest door open in panic, standard/move is to bullrush the window to slam it open, rolled a 1 to technically amiss but since it's a minor to open it and a free action to fall then worked out the same, rolled an acrobatics then recalled he isn't trained, so no fall damage reduction which is a shame because he rolled a 9hp! Combined with the max roll 12hp from Meri's thunder amrour, and the 5hp ongoing acid, our bandit friend went from the right side of bloodied to 1hp aswell! Yes, I already allied the 1hp caltrop damage I'm afraid. These guys sure do hang on! Sadly he saved against acid, so won't auto-unconscious next turn. But he's prone and right beside a healthy NPC, so, you know, I don't think he's going anywhere...

Oh, Nym was right about a recharging ability. He rolled a 4 this time. Still not good enough :p

The final bandit had just seen Old Pouncer falldown the stairs as if pushed as he came to the top of the stairs. He just spotted and no more the slippery top step, and leapt over it, his crosssbow held high and wavering.

He turned around to look down the hall, seeing Banlee standing there. And then Banlee kicking a door down. And then Banlee running heedlessly in to a room, followed by the unmistakeable smash of glass as if someone jumping out of a window in a giant hurry.

"Oh, poo," said the bandit quietly to himself. Whether it was the situation or something he felt in his britches was yet to be known, for the moment he saw nothing around to have made his leader act in such terror, except an innocent looking open door at the end of the hall, sunlight warm and inviting spilling from it.

[Private to Meri:
All that healing is fine - standard and minor. Assuming Nym doesn't botch on her snake-felling duties, and assuming Holder lives up to his name, you really only have one minion bandit to deal with :) ]


Lol, so funnily all the bandits around have ended up with 1hp...one starting with that too :p In the snake faced bandit's case that was bad luck rolling max damage, in Banlee's case with all the damage flying around that's just weird. Not sure if I should have applied damage for the window or not...as I said, technically he could leave without window harm, so I decided the high fall damage was partially glass from smashing in to the window because funny.

Anyway, it's not like it will do him much good, I don't think! :D

Probably the last round of combat, maybe another round after this. I think statistically if I beat you two right now, I should probably use this good fortune to find aliens or win the lottery of a small African tribe that doesn't know the concept of lotteries nor money. It's those sorts of odds.

So not really a case of good luck, more like 'have fun mopping up'!

Nym pushes open the curtain and peeks through at the snake-faced man on the floor.

"Oh, there you are!" she exclaims excitedly, grinning and baring all her pointed draconian teeth. "Look! Do you want to see what I can do?"

Unless Holder or Tym say otherwise, I'm about to roll another Acid Orb, just so you know ;).

Incidentally, Snake-Face doesn't literally have a reptilian face, does he? Is he just a human with a sort of angled face that brings a snake to mind?

Meri frowned as her target apparently decided he had had enough.
Muttering something under her breath that was apparently rather unpleasant, she spat off to one side and lowered her staff, moving towards the door.

She paused there, hearing the various bangs and thuds as someone else appeared to discover her slip trap, then she narrowed her eyes and raised her staff to point towards the door.


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Ok, moving to the wall just beside the door.  Unless they're Nym and Tym (sounds like a kids' TV show!) or Holder or even a miraculously resurrected Jorri, then the next person to stick their head through that door will get a (non-lethal) Static Shock to the face! ;)]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:57, Mon 15 June 2015.

@Nym:
Holder is still at the other side of a closed door and Tym is still feeling sorry for himself over by the kitchen door. You are free to do whatever you want - are you aiming to kill or disable with the acid orb?

And now you are close enough to the man, you can see the snake like face is sort of composed from two things. One he has lots of scabby scars around his face that look scale like from far away. And two, he has a few unhuman features hinted at on his face - perhaps more orcish than snake like. But like Banlee above (not that you would know) apparently his face is scarred directly around his more orcish features to seemingly disguise them. However, his more snoutish nose and inhuman yellower eyes are harder to disguise, so he his face looks a little snake-ish.

[Private to Meri: Just to confirm, you aren't looking out in to the hall, you are hiding by the door and will zap someone walking in to the dexlue room?

Static shock is a counted as a melee attack, btw, so rather than someone lying prone getting a bonus to their defenses against it, you will actually get +2 to your attack roll. And if you have any ability that cares about combat advantage, it will kick in too. Just thought I'd mention it :)]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:00, Mon 15 June 2015.

Ah okay, maybe a half-orc trying to hide that fact then, just as Banlee seems to be an elf or half-elf trying to pass himself off as human/fully human.

Giggling like a small child, Nym raises her staff and once again channels the energy along it, casting forth another rough sphere of acid which she tosses in the direction of her prone foe. Her gloves seem to glow as well, as though sharing her eagerness to demonstrate her powers.

Hmm, practically helpless target who didn't actually manage to hit me with anything (I think it was our lucky Mr Crossbow Guy who did that)...I'll be nice and aim to not kill. I'm not really sure how a large glob of acid can be non-lethal but as it no longer seems such an urgent situation Nym will try to keep him around for more playtime later, or something ;). Not sure if I have to modify my rolls in any way so I'll just roll normally. Well, I suppose I don't need to roll damage as he only has 1hp left...let's see what the attack roll does anyway...okay, 19 vs Ref (I suppose technically 17 as he's Prone and gets to reduce it by two). I'm gonna roll damage anyway and then if I roll high it can explode right next to him or something and he can pass out from the shock rather than directly taking damage :D. Mind you, it'll be difficult not to roll high considering his current hp and the fact that the damage roll will be at least eleven (the bonus is +10 rather than +8 thanks to my gloves and his low hp ;)). Right...damage roll now...13. And he can be not dead but just unconscious and someone else can deal with him since he won't be playing any more now he's passed out :D.

Edit - What moves do I have left once I zap Snake-Face? Is it possible to go far enough upstairs to see Crossbow Guy?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Mon 15 June 2015.

You need to stop removing -2 from your rolls for prone targets - they get +2 to defense. :p  It's cover that is -2. Not an issue now because you're mentioning it, and it should be all the same, but the danger is that if you ever just state your roll and auto take off the -2 then you'll find I've compared that to a +2 defense and you might diddle yourself out of a hit. Wait, why is that a bad thing for me... carry on! :D


You'll have enough move to get around the bend of the stairs, and see the crossbow guy at the top of the stairs move off down the upstairs hall, unless you have a minor power you can try to use first, or you just yell out to him because Nym seems to be like that!

Assuming you don't, the way things are playing out, then you can give me a second set of actions too.

It's up to you if you announce yourself during this round, or try to be stealthy to sneak up on him, or be paranoid and assume he's setting himself up to shoot you when you appear and do something about that...

Edit: Oops, I'm an idiot, you don't have a minor action cause you opened the curtain with it! So I guess it's either free action yell, or sneaky sneaky tell me what you next round actions will be when the bandit disappears from view.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:52, Mon 15 June 2015.

Okay, I won't even mention the Prone thingy in future, I'll just give you the roll result without the -2 and you can take it off at your end ;).
Now then, a giggling dragonborn in rainbow robes with a big grin that shows off all her teeth and who exploded a lot earlier in front of the guy who's practically the only one left...I think I know what I'm gonna try... >:).

Nym scuttles over on her clawed feet toward the bottom of the stairs. Looking up, she sees the crossbow-wielding bandit at the top about to move off.

"Hellooooo!" she calls with a cheery wave. "Hey, didn't you shoot me earlier? That wasn't very nice! Hey, your friends all seem to have gone. I don't think you should be playing around any more - all my friends are still here!"

So I don't know if I can do this due to lack of actions but the idea is that while Nym herself isn't actively trying to do so, what I intend mechanically is for the above speech to be an Intimidate check to try and get the guy to stand down and give up - neither he nor Nym know what's happened to Banlee, after all, but based on the fact that the guy seems to have stopped yelling and stomping around she can probably guess that Meri has dealt with him, otherwise he'd surely be on his way down to have a go at the rest of us. So if possible, Intimidate is...wow I hope I can do this because I just critted :O.

The bandit spun around and noticed Nym coming up the stairwell. He immediately moved out of her line of sight, continuing down the corridor.

To Meri, she heard the sound of footsteps further down the hall after also hearing Nym's familiar voice calling out. After that though, there was silence.



Nym, the crossbow wielder knows roughly what happened to Banlee, so intimidate might work very well! Otherwise you usually need to have them bloodied to try to get them to surrender. Certainly not going to discourage you from finding ways to no push to the bitter end of a fight, especially on PbP.

So it's a standard action that would happen this next turn, and you'll need to come upstairs and try to establish line of sight. At the very least be threatening in your tenacity :)

It's your intimidate check vs their will +10, so won't be easy, but what is?


If you want to stay hidden, then I'll let you try intimidate from where you are but you can only force him to temporarily lower his weapon so he won't get hurt. If that works, then up to you if you come up and see him. And also if that succeeds then you can try either a diplomacy or intimidate next turn at a slighly lower DC (I'll count him as temporarily unfriendly that wound for Will +5)


Meri, the crossbow guy won't appear this turn thanks to Nym's disruption, and she's loud enough to hear, so it's up to you how you want to move or emerge out of the room, if at all.


Clearly you guys don't know what the bandit is doing yet, so you can split your move/action between checking up on him and ten acting on that information. Or stay paranoid and defensive if you like.

Also, can I get an initiative check from you both? I might need to know which of you moves first, unless one of you intends to delay until the other does something :D
This message was last edited by the player at 17:46, Tue 16 June 2015.

Well, I was sort of hoping maybe I'd get a bonus or something (or he'd get a penalty) given that he knows his boss is gone, his last companion just fell down the stairs and got zapped by acid and is either unconscious or dead, he previously escaped off a roof from the crazy person who leapt in his direction and exploded lightning and icy stuff everywhere (and took out one or two of his fellows in the process), and now he's sandwiched between that scary window-jumping person (who's now in the form of a scaly thing taller than he is and grinning manically) and the one who laid all the traps and just took out the boss (well okay, technically the boss took himself out, but she softened him up). He may not know specifically that Meri is there but I'm sure he doesn't think Banlee just freaked out and legged it for no reason :D. I don't know how he's expecting to get out of this but if that was me I'd probably realise I'd had it by this point :D.

Well, I suppose I can follow him on up or something. Maybe I'll see if Meri yells anything herself. Incidentally, I did roll Init back at the start of the combat, just in case you needed it. I think I got 23.

And normally you'd be 100% right, with all those RP things happening around usually you'd either get a large bonus or more likely I just wouldn't be bothering to roll, and play it out all fully in RP. So maybe this intimidate check isn't so much to see if he'll surrender, but to see if his surrender goes your way or mine :D

So are you waiting to see if Meri yells, or walking up the stairs?
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:54, Tue 16 June 2015.

Hmm, can I go up the stairs but then just peek around the corner rather than actually stepping fully into sight if he's waiting there with a shot lined up?

You can, though you'll finish your move action there and any readied action might still go off, albeit at a -2 penalty to his rolls for your cover.

You can stealth check as part of the move to try to be hidden looking around the corner, since everywhere should be in dim light right now. That will go against his passive perception if he's not paying attention, or a perception roll if he's actually trained his sights in your direction. I'll apply the -2 cover bonus to his perception checks too, btw

Okay sure, might as well...Stealth roll coming up...hmm 14 - average for me :P/

OOC: Can I tell if those footsteps were moving towards Meri or away from her?


[Private to The Altweaver: Initiative: 13 (Roll 12 + 1) :)]

Lol Nym, plus cover means means their passive perception needs to be 14 or greater to notice something moving, or they need to roll perception -2 if they're looking at you.

Meri, the footsteps came towards you, but then stopped about half the hall away.

Okay, well hopefully their Passive Perception is shit then ;). I suppose now we'll see if that guy is in view around the corner, and what he's doing if anything. Maybe he managed to sneak into one of the rooms so now we just have a whole bunch of random closed doors to worry about :P.

Meri gripped her staff tighter at the sound of the footsteps outside.
Inching closer to the doorway, she moved one hand up the staff and pressed her fingers against one of the crystals, preparing to dart out of hiding and blast anything in sight in the corridor...


OOC: Going to be fun if that guy isn't there and me and Nym proceed to nuke each other, hehe...


[Private to The Altweaver: When my turn comes up I'll move into the doorway and launch a Static Shock at crossbow guy if he's still in sight.  Non-lethal attack if possible.  Unless Nym has already floored him by then.

Ewww, Attack roll: 8 (Roll 3 + 5), so will probably just wreck half the corridor instead!  Oh well, hopefully almost getting zapped might intimidate him into giving up!  hehe.]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Tue 16 June 2015.

Nym, someone just shot at you... nah, just kidding :D

Ok, Nym goes first unless she readies her standard action after seeing what's going on. I already have Meri's actions, which will happen second or in between.

It was actually quite close, if Meri had initiative order of if you'd gone second, Nym, I think the combined -2 cover and +2 circumstantial bonus for Meri's actions would have seen you hidden. As it was, there's a reason this guy avoided all the traps. Well, other than the tripwire at the inn door downstairs, but there were Nym and running related circumstances to that :D

Nym tired stealthily looking down the hallway. It was dim but there was enough light from the doorway at the end of and sun streaming from the gaps in the doors to her left to see the bandit well enough.

The man was cradling his crossbow in his arms, standing with his back to one of the wall and hunched miserably. Either by bad luck or something he heard - the man seemed highly strung - he turned towards where Nym was.

"Don't come any closer!" he wailed pathetically, his crossbow hovering menacingly. It was not pointed in Nym's direction though, the man had it pointed directly under his own neck. His legs were shaking and tears were streaming down from his eyes. It was a wonder he'd even managed to say words. Clearly his world was an overwhelmingly terrifying place.


As I said, maybe there are just a little too many things acting to intimidate this 'poor' fellow. Roll a good intimidate and he'll just drop his bow and surrender. Fail and ... well, who knows how he might react! Diplomacy, intimidation, acid bolt to the head, ready an action - your call Nym :D
[Private to Meri:
Heh, yeah, I think a static shock passed his face might be very effective!

Feel free to change your action after Nym goes, depending upon what that action is. You do get your full actions after hers in the turn order, and since she didn't delay and let's you original ones go off!]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:35, Tue 16 June 2015.

Wow, maybe he did actually shit himself :D.

Nym stares at the man for a few moments, the smile never leaving her face. She holds a hand over her snout as though to stop more giggles from coming out, then takes it away so she can speak.

"Ooh look, that's silly." she says. "Those things are silly anyway, I mean, but pointing it at anyone is really silly, especially yourself. Anyway, it was that silly man with the spear who was telling you what to do, wasn't it? Look, he's gone now, so you can do something else. I dunno where he went, but...anyway, if you don't even know how to use that silly shooty-thing he wants you to use then you probably shouldn't be here anyway. Maybe you'd be happier growing turnips, or something. Hee hee hee..."

The giggles seem unconnected to anything she's just been saying and she holds her snout shut for a few moments more to try and keep them in.

Diplomacy for "Stop that, it's silly...and your boss ain't here to know if you're dead or if we let you go to never come back again, hint hint", hopefully I can get a good result here...hmm 12...could be better...

Too dark to see if he wet himself, maybe Meri can spot it :D  I have her actions, but I'll give her the chance to change them since they were sort of an intimidation aid :p In a way...

OOC: Hmm, not too sure...  :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Is Meri close enough to move into melee range and try to hit him with her staff?
Also, is it possible to disarm someone in this system, knocking the crossbow out of his hands before he can fire?
If not, I'll just hold position for now.  She can probably hear Nym messing with this guy's head and will be content to just leave her to it for now...]

The bandit just collapsed, confused and crying, the crossbow tumbling from his hands. He didn't seem so much convinced by Nym's words and so bewildered by them coming from the destroyer of his band that his mind had temporarily decided to shut down. He might have been crying with relief or fear, it was hard to tell. [Private to Nym: Most likely both, he does seem to be in general terrified, you might suspect not purely because of you lot. Though, you know, you are probably the large part of it.]


Victory! Take 296XP each for all the poor bandit people you thumped, and another 100XP bonus for various crazy ideas / RP stuff.

Meri, you are almost in melee range, so if you want to come out and knock him unconscious or grab his crossbow away, he won't resist.

You guys are out of combat time now. Encounter powers will fade when you want them too, and once you start narratively patching yourself up you can refresh any encounter powers and spend any healing surges.

I think the only resources you have truly lost are one acid, life draining darts, and the daily of the fey sandals. And Meri can refresh the sandals if she's feeling so inclined wiht one of her artificer powers, I believe?

Meri frowned at the noises outside and stepped into the doorway, looking out into the corridor.
She would probably have looked intimidating too, with blood streaked down her left arm, a cut across the side of her face and a cloudy blue aura whirling around her that was now gradually dissipating into the surrounding air.

She only spared the fallen bandit and Nym a glance before reaching down and detaching a thin wire stretched across the doorway, then hurrying over to the door Banlee had escaped through and peering out of the window to see if the bandit leader had survived his drastic escape attempt...


OOC: Two acid vials.  Threw one before and used one in the trap.
Speaking of which, was the Trap-Making Kit used up?

Checking to see if Banlee is still here, or if Holder decided to just put him out of his misery.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:44, Wed 17 June 2015.

Oh are we actually tracking exp? I don't think I included that on my sheet - I'll go and edit it in.

Other resources used were either or both of Meri's infusions (the twice-per-Encounter healing power that Artificers get), which unlike the healing powers of other Leader classes don't automatically refresh but require the Artificer or an ally to give up a Healing Surge (one per infusion) in order to recharge them during a short or extended rest. My Elemental Shift was a Daily so that's gone for now as well.

Nym puts her head to one side at the man's reaction, then goes over and picks up the fallen crossbow, looking at it with vague curiosity before pulling out the bolt and tossing both to the ground in the direction of the stairs. She looks around to see that things seem to be winding down now, and leans on her staff, giggling slightly.

"Wheeeee....that's always fun." she says to no-one in particular as she calms down somewhat. The faint wisps of lightning fade from her scales, which shift to a more silvery sort of colour. Then she flinches slightly.

"Ow..."

She looks at her slightly bloodied arm where the bolt had hit her previously, and pulls up her sleeve to inspect the wound.

2250 for 3rd level, +396 each = 2646XP. Just 1104XP to go :p

And ah yes, that rings a bell with the healing infusions. Remember Holder gave you an additional one, so have it be that one 'used up' first.

Meri checked outside of the window. The minotaur seemed to missing, though his warhammer was in the possession of Tym, who was staggering unsteadily beside the body of Banlee.

The Ball was excitedly jumping on the man's head then jumping back, playing some form of game of concusion since the ball looked decidedly like a moss-rovered rock right now. Banlee's leg twitched with each blow as if to show there was still some life in the bandit yet.

Tym handled the warhammer as if to smash it down hard on the bandit leader's head, but then with a sigh - or a wince at his shoulder wound - swapped the grip to a lighter side swing, cuffing the man across the temple. Hopefully knocking him out a little longer rather than killing him.

Tym dumped the warhammer unceremoniously on the ground, then looked up and saw Meri.

"Everyone alright?" he called out weakly. "There's still one bandit on the loose. Bugger shot me. Be careful. Nym went upstairs."


Meanwhile, inside the bandit gives a tearstreaked look to Nym and then simply curled up in to a fetal ball. Although he'd given a look of a careful sniper earlier, he looked far younger and less certain of himself now, and his dry sobs still wracked his body.

Misremembered something in my last OOC note - Artificer infusios can be recharged during a short rest by spending healing surges, but during an extended rest the Artificer makes two new ones for free.

Nym crouches down and looks at the man for a few moments.

"Aaww, don't worry." she says. "We're in an inn, right? Maybe we can get you a drink or something."

She goes to the top of the stairs.

"Hey! Helloooo?" she calls down. "Anyone about? I think this guy might want a drink or something. Err...that's what some people do when they're upset, right?"

"You alright?" bellowed the voice of Holder up the stairwell. "Not...dead or anything?"

"No, still alive, as far as I can tell." calls back Nym. "I suppose I wouldn't be able to talk if I was dead, would I? Or are there dead people who can do that? My arm hurts a bit...I don't suppose you can get hurt when you're dead either. Is thre any food or drink or something down there? This human seems a bit upset or something..."

OOC: Oh, so I have one infusion left?  I thought I noticed something about that, but couldn't find it again...

"If you mean this one with the crossbow, he doesn't look in much condition to cause trouble any more.  If he does try anything sneaky, he won't survive the attempt" called Meri, raising her voice with the last part so that the bandit would hear her.

She indicated Banlee.
"I think that one was the leader.  He probably knows who sent them here, so try not to kill him.  Not yet anyway!"

Yep, naturally you only have two, but I let Holder give you an additional one because fellow artificer.

Tym grunted and winced and meanwhile the bandit wimpered at Meri's words. "Can't promise anything," Tym yelled up, "but bugger is alive fer now." He turned around to passed his smithy, and started walking off to where his friend had fallen.


Over by the stairwell there was a pause. "Ale and food in stores," Holder yelled up. "Help self. Want to pile bodies in piles outside before Jorri get back so he not get angry." There was then a surprised yelp. "Ow! Why this body hurt me?  And why is it a body? I'm going to need to make two piles now."

"Wait here." says Nym to the cowering bandit. She turns and with a swish of her tail heads down the stairs and goes back to the room she passed through before, the one containing the supplies. She grabs a few random pieces of food and a bottle of something-or-other and heads back for the stairs.

Nym isn't looking at what she's specifically grabbed, just some stuff that looks edible and a random bottle. I'm guessing the bloke is still where she left him?

Meri sighed and drew back from the window.
For a moment, some unidentifiable emotion clouded her face, but then she shook it off and turned to leave the room and head back downstairs.
Heading straight for the door, she left the inn and paused to look down at Banlee before shaking her head slowly and walking off towards the ford...


OOC: Going to see if Jorri is saveable...

As Nym rushed down the stairs Holder could be seen moving back and forth, taking a body and throwing them outside in to a slowly growing pile. It seemed that the bandit Meri had blasted right out the door was the start of it.

Nym carried on the the stores, and her random choice of items were... not something being audited by anyone with more awareness.


When Meri carried on downstairs, Holder had managed to clear the hall. He was currently just on the outside, indecisive. He would put the snake-faced man on the top of the pile, then poked the man, then knocked him off to the side. Then Holder narrowed his eyes as if the body was trying to fool him, kicked it, then tentatively dumped the body back on the pile again. The snake-faced man's face was now partially scarred by the acid of Nym's spells. Still, to Meri's trained eye the man might be deeply unconscious from his painful wounds but there was life in there.

Holder moved out of the way when he realised Meri was behind him, and gave a grin and a nod to still being alive. Despite taking a dagger to the chest from the snake-faced man, Holder seemed in good spirits. Perhaps due to Meri's earlier aid.

Outside, Meri was greeted by The Ball bobbing and weaving happily. The Ball has made itself look like the odd leaf and chain of Banlee's camouflaged armour. The Ball started doing a jerking motion as it had before, as if now happy to go onwards to the fall now the excitement was over.

As Meri carried on to catch up with Tym, The Ball happily skipped towards Holder once more. Banlee was left to quietly think about what he'd done, and how Meri had beaten him, in whatever unconscious funk Tym had knocked him in to.


Meri had barely rounded the corner of the smithy when Tym gave a shout.

"Someone! Come quick! He's alive! Hah! Old goat is still alive! Help!"


Meri, you can tend to Jorri there or pull him back to the inn (or go get more help first, of course). He's currently unconscious, and Tym still has a crossbow bolt stuck in his arm, and is maybe looking a little pale. You can roll Heal checks to assess wounds or even try some first aid. And hey, while you are down by the ford, if you decide to stay there for treatment, you could always put traps on the ford or have a quick check. Whatever you wanna do, really :D


By the time Nym came back with her items of food, Holder had finished clearing up the hallway and seemed to have started moving around outside to add more bodies to his piles.

The hall was, in fact, suspiciously clear. There should have been some blood and acid splats from the battle on the stairs, however it seemed that while the wood was chipped or burned in some places all the mess itself was gone.

The Ball seemed to be bouncing around exactly where such marks had been, perhaps revealing itself rather than Holder as the source of the fast cleanliness. Who knew with The Ball.

As Nym moved up the stairs, The Ball danced and span happily and followed her, buzzing around the food and taking on the appearance of each in turn - though mixing the colour and textures of two each time as if to amuse itself.

Back by the bandit, whose attempts to movement were to be curled up but at least sat up , watching Nym suspiciously but with only watery eyes as she came up the stairs. The findings could be presented - they were a raw potato, a carrot, and a leak that all hadn't yet turned to soup. The bottle was some form of thick creamy sauce for meats.

Up to you if Nym actually would find them inadvisable to give to the bandit :D I'm going to assume not!

At the sound of the shout, Meri sped up, sprinting down towards the ford, almost dislodging Timur who had only just decided to poke his head back out of her backpack, now that the trouble was over for the time being...


OOC: Only got one infusion left, so have to save it for whoever is in the worst shape.
Trying Heal checks on both Tym and Jorri to see who needs healing most.

Heal check on Tym: 23 (Roll 14 + Skill 9)
Heal check on Jorri: 27 (Roll 18 + Skill 9)

Blowing all my good rolls early on...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Wed 17 June 2015.

Nym goes over to the bandit and dumps the food on the floor in front of him, placing the bottle down a little more gently afterwards.

"Here you go." she says. "Food makes people feel better, right?"

So saying, she picks the carrot back up and takes a bite out of it, her sharp reptilian teeth easily shearing through the vegetable. She chews a moment, then blinks, looks at it with a slightly wrinkled nose, and stares intently at it for a couple of seconds, moving her clawed fingers over the surface, which quickly takes on a much less raw-looking appearance. She takes another bite.

"Mm, there we go." she says with a grin. "Tastes like juicy beef now. What do you want yours to taste like?"

Naturally Nym doesn't care what she eats when she can change its flavour at will as well as heat it up (the wonderfully useful Prestidigitation again :D). And I didn't actually remember I could do that till I started typing this post and thought "Hmm, there's not much there that Nym might like to eat in dragonborn form...oh but wait, she can make it taste like whatever she wants..." :D.

I actually do know first aid, but you will not know it from this post because 'eh' it's early and we're on film first aid not real first aid :D

Meri reaches where Jorri had collapsed, and Tym is currently on his knees wincing and looking to his own friend.

Gently turning the man over, Meri can see hear he is indeed at least making noises and half coming around. The innkeeper has collapses on a bolt at his shoulder, but the bleeding is surprisingly light - it appears as if Jorri's leather apron and oddly padded jerkin underneath managed to take the main impact, and Jorri even managed to fall to cushion himself rather than make the wound worse.

"Why were you playi' dead?" said Tym, now looking pale and shaken now the adreniline of the situation was wearoing off. "They could have finished the job!"

Meri ensures Jorri does not answer nor move around too much, as the head wound looks for more vicious. Jorri' reactions seem fine, but it is best if Jorri does not stress himself nor move too much in case of concussion, though Meri is sure this is not the case. Some small cleaning up shows that the force of the blow was more blunt that sharp and the wound has already matted.

"I'll...be fine.." says Jorri weakly. "Seen worse ... at the inn. These...these bandits were drunk. Don't know why the woman shot at me. All jittery and impatient anyway."

"Why were they here, hey, stop poking at me, I'm fine!" says Tym as Meri has to concentrate on him, given he is less fine. The bolt stuck in him at least has gone through the fleshy part of his arm. However, it is bleeding freely and Meri has to get him to stay still, stop squirming, and hold his arm up with as much packed ripped strips of clean cloth as possible. Thoguh they really need to get the bolt out and the cloth away from the wound. For the moment though, pressure and stopping the bleeding is the way to go.

Jorri confirms there is some thin clean special thread and needle back at the inn, for exactly these sort of wounds.

"Kept saying 'it'", says Jorri, musing weakly as he himself gets up under Meri's care. "I guess I made the mistake when they asked after travellers of saying there was no one at the inn right now. 'Just like It said, no one here, how did It know'" said one of the bandits, maybe a leader, and then I got shot. Don't actually think I was supposed to be shot. To be honest it sounded like having this large a group wasn't how it was supposed to be. Or no one was happy to be here. Then someone hit me I guess, didn't hear much more."

Good rolls means you can be sure of getting the two back and patched up well, which is cool. No infusions needed, they can healing surge on their own under Meri's care. At least Jorri is conscious and can answer some questions if you want, he could have been unconscious or worse tomorrow. Tym can also get attended to at the inn.


The bandit gave an incredulous look at the presented food stuffs, like this is one big joke against him or trick before some twisted torture. He reaches for a carrot too. "Like back at farm I guess," he muttered so himself and crunches in to it. When Nym makes her offer, his eyes are wide and he really seems scared to answer. "Like..beef?" he says weakly.

This is definitely the way to get someone to open up. Good cop bad cop is underrated. Scary cop confusing but friendly cop is the way to go, being the same person doens't hurt :D

Nym gives a shrug and gestures at the carrot.

"Okay, sure." she says. "Here you go."

She munches on her carrot a bit more.

"Farm, eh?" she says at last. "Did you grow stuff like this, then? How come you're out getting shouted at to shoot people instead of still doing that? Did you get bored?"

He didn't ask to have it warmed up so Nym hasn't done that, just so you know ;).

OOC: Well, Meri would have quite readily tried to beat the answers out of him.  So she's definitely Bad Cop.  Or maybe Worse Cop! ;)
Do I need to roll again for Heal, or are you using the rolls I already made?


"Yeah, their leader spoke of an "It" as well.  Did they say anything else?  Seems like they were definitely sent after us for some reason.  They likely won't be bothering you again though.  Two of them are beaten senseless and one of them is so scared he'll likely flee as far away from here as possible at the first opportunity and never return."

No, the rolls will carry. I'm using the Heal skill slightly outside the normal 'stabalising the dying' but its effect is the same. So you've made the check to stabalise them and know what's going on, you can now narratively administer first aid, and they can go be healed up.

I can explain in what ways I'm twisting things and how the Heal skill is usually used later on in the OOC thread :)


Jorri shrugged, managing to hide his wince betyter than Tym who seemed miserable and fidgety now. The innkeeper even managed a resigned smile. "Not too much more. Sorry, trying to remember, it all seems a stupid dream now. I don't know what I was thinking speaking to them all. Hmm, I called out to them, and offered them rooms or food if they wanted, any coin was good. I think the one Tym, and I saw before snorted at that, but luckily no one paid him much attention..oh, I say, I think he was the one who hit me. Not the woman with the crossbow, I mean when I was down the one who hit me with a club. Anyway, so one of the first says had I seen anyone strange. Like, stranger than usual. To be fair they could barely discribe either of you, didn't seem as concerned about illucidating. It was just a case of 'they'll seem odd."

Jorri shrugged then gave a wide smile to hide the painful spasm. Tym moaned on his behalf anyway, then moaned at hurting himself moaning. Jorri continued, "They looked back at someone with a crossbow - he seemed miserable, and I felt it when I realised they had crossbows, of course...a ford protects you in no way against that - and then the leader asked if no one had come this way. That's when I mae the mistake of saying no one was around, and I guess the impatient other crossbow wielder shot me, berating her boss. The boss seemed to think you lot has bypassed the village then, and I think was about to split everyone up between the village and here. did you get them too?"

Jorri then shifted around. "Oh, their boss seemed to be one of the two from the inn that time. You, know, with the..." Jorri made a circle around his face with his good hand.

Tym nodded then winced, though only after a moment, having forgotten too apparently with speaking. "Yeah, saw the other one too. Bunch of cut up idiots like it would fool anyone. The boss's one o' the beaten up buggers, almost took his head clean off, cause, you know...well...I mean...we all thoughts...I mean...ah buggerit. And ow. Anyway, yeah, we got the bandits. Like...all the bandits. And when I say we I mean Meri and Nym. And when I say bandits I mean half yer inn's prolly on fire by now."

Tym gave Meri a wink and then winced, despite not moving his arm.

You might need to speak to the others, but hopefully Jorri's given you some good points. They aren't necessarily looking for you, perhaps you acting weird - ie having the ball - was enough to trigger something. And an 'It' rather than a person sent them after you, in some way.

Alo if you're curious about the scars, seems like at least Tym and Jorri spotted it too, so you can either ask them about it or wake up one of the bandits. Your call :)

Let me know if you want to pull everyone back to the inn or not. You probably need the healing kit Jorri has to narratively finish patching people back up. Plus Tym might whine less when the bolt comes out if he has some ale in him :D


Meanwhile, the bandit Nym was speaking to had an odd expression on his face, as he bit in to the crunchy carrot and clearly had the strange expression of eating watery jerky. "is this a trick?" he asked quietly, clearly having no idea what was going on. "Is...is this what you did to Banlee?"

The Ball meanwhile had caught up with Nym, and was buzzing around her admiring her new form. The Ball matched her colouring, and occasional lightning flashed off its surface in silent waves, perfectly immitating her explosion earlier.

The Ball then went down to the bottle, and as if it was the best trick in the world it balanced and stayed still on top of the bottle. Being able to float took some of the skill out of the trick, as did being so exciteable as to start jittering and causing the bottle to wobblle. Several times the ball had to wuickly move sideways to catch the bottle before it fell, and then struggle to zip left and right to accomplish the tricky task of using its spherical form to push on the rounded edges ofther bottle to put it back upright. Whenever it managed it, it went back to trying to balance once more.

The bandit gave all this the look it deserved, looking back and forth between Nym and The Ball's forms. "I was right..." he whispered, but then was brought back to the coversation by Nym's question. He looked almost guilty, then an odd defiance flashed on his face. "Yeah, it was boring," he said, though he seemed to look whistfully at the carrots. "Towns are boring too though, everyone full of themsevles, don't like people like me just cause I have no money. Didn't like the food I took with me, so I had to sleep on the street and then had to run away from people anyway. Lived outside of the town, then, and then met up with Banlee and his band. At least they gave me a chance to prove I could do something. It mattered I didn't have money, and they said I could have a share if I could do things. I can cook, and I can shoot, and I can look, and I saw you lot which is more than the rest did..."

The bandit seemed to be annoyed enough at life, justifying himself, that he realised what he'd said and then clammed up. Perhaps hoping Nym was as distractable as she seemed, he jammed the whole carrot in to his mouth and looked off to the side. His legs started quivering again in fear.


Lol, Nym with the slow torture of giving people cold meats...evil!

Nym watches the Ball's antics for a few moments, but being used to them doesn't really offer much of a reaction beyond an amused smile. She looks back at the bandit, offering a casual shrug to his story.

"I haven't got any money right now either." she says. "You don't need it all the time if you can...do stuff."

She holds out a clawed hand in front of her, palm up, and causes a small coloured sphere to appear, which shifts quickly between every colour imaginable before dissolving into a cloud of colour which almost immediately dissipates.

"See? Pretty colours! And you can cook, so I bet you could go and make food for people, and tell them how to grow it and stuff. That's what people do on farms, right? Grow food and then sell some of it to people and keep the rest to eat themselves?"

She reaches out and picks up the potato, then blinks and looks back at the bandit.

"Oh! I'm Nym, by the way. Short for Nymmishkashearillai. How about you? Mmm...bananas..."

There is a soft sort of crunching sound as she bites into the potato.

OOC: Hmm, well I have no idea at all of how to do all that first-aidy stuff, especially how it was done in times like this before advanced medical tech...  That's why I don't usually play healers! :)


"I think their leader was an elf, but cut up to resemble a human.  Seemed to hate humans though, so guessing it wasn't him that done it.  He's still alive anyway, can always ask him about it later.  I'll definitely be asking him about who, or what, sent him."

She shrugged and looked over the other two's wounds.
"Anyway, let's get you both back to the inn and patched up before we worry about that."


OOC: Getting everyone back to the inn for now :)

Luckily we're on film/novel first aid, so basically you look cross, rip up some piece of clothing, tie a knot then at worst sew something together. You know, the stuff that gets film healers praised for being so skilled and would actually kill anyone in the real world through infections and bleeding out :D If only we could just crush up a weed and feed it to everyone people could pronounce you a queen!

"Oh, I can explain that one," says Tym. "Prolly was 'im what done it, same with the other weird faced bugger. Prolly an orc or half-orc of goblin or sommmat that one. See, during the war the orcs crashed right through elf villages in the forest while makin' their bee line to the lands beyond. That's what the new road is, it was created thanks to the orcs basicly slashin' and burnin' their way through. So once the war was done, Lord Fetre gets work underwway to at least turn that tragedy in to n opportunity, establishes the road, makes sure we got some communication and commerce goin' to keep the solders and guards in work and have defense incase it e'r happened again. Course, then the survivors o' the ol' elf villages come back lookin' to get their land again, and find humans and human allies makin' roads are aren't too happy. Course, the elf elders east have already made some pacts to get in on the trade, what with the dwarfs round Shai way now tradin' goods down t' the south, and the elves can get some stuff like that without grovlin' to the dwarves for it. So the village elves are basically told 'eh, go east and forget it. And some did grumblin', but others didn't, and t' make sure the pacts stays good for trade, the elf elders basically made it punishable by death for any elf found banditing or otherwise tryin' it on in the forests. So most got the message, but you got some w' nothin' else, or outlaws, goin' makin' their bones attacking human wagons anyway. But y' better believe they go in' remove their elvish features best they can. They igure humans 'r too dumb t' spot it and jail them as humans, whereas if they're found t' be evles its a quick wagon ride t' the elvish borders followed by a quicker trip t' whatever fey think of as heaven."

Jorri looked a little more uncomfortable. "The orc probably did it himself too, but more because humans around here have long memories and short amounts of empathy. Goes to the same place, better to look like an ugly human than and get imprisoned than look like your race and get hung for it." Jorri looked sad at that.

Tym gave a more dismissive shrug. "Anyway, so while that leadin' bugger might be a human hatin' high falutin' too good fer us all elf, and think he's above us, when it comes right down ter it he'd rather look like a human and be humiliated that way and even with prison than die. And unless you are stronger 'n yer look, he also'd rather jumped out a window 'n die too. So I reckon the bugger might talk big, but yer'll find when push comes to shove he'd rather talk than die too. Sommat ter consider."

Jorri gratefully accepted any aid in walking back to the inn, whilst Tym apparently would love all the aid he could get, but was too proud to come out and ask for it. Or too grumpy.

Still, the three of them made their way back to the inn. "What have you done to my-" started Jorri, and Tym quickly pretended to fall over and moaned on the ground.

"-windows," said Jorri defeated, then gave a half smile and helped Tym up. Nym had indeed done a number on the windows - her explosion had blown out a few, and of course the snake-faced man's quick entrance to the kitchen and the bandit leader's quick exit of the upstairs had added two more casualties.

Holder had been busy it seemed, the dead bandits were in one pile, their possession in another, and the last two still alive and scar faced bandits were in a third pile outside on the crossroads, cvurrently under a smug looking minotaur, taking a load off of his feet.

I'll let you react if you like, Meri, otherwise you can go inside the tap room or search for Nym :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bandit seemed relieved in a way, perhaps because he had said a few things that had gone over the changeling's head for now. So once more it took a moment to comprehend Nym's words.

"Who'd want me to cook?" he said quietly but a tiny flame of deviant anger again before he remembered he was speaking to the person who could throw lighting and fire and acid at will. "You need money before people let you have money. No one would let me cook. And you farm and its not yours, all the food is for the farm and it doens't matter if your hungry or someone keeps stealing your food its all for the farm. Not like I own a farm or land to farm."

He said this last one really quietly and chewed on his food.


Lol, it's not like he's rejecting the idea, he's just all 'poor me towns don't let you do that and farms don't let you do that and it's not like there's some half way compromise where there's free land but also people who would need a cook anywhere around here.

who knows where that could be, who knows.... who knows...

Nym laughs.

"You never heard of an inn? It's like, a building where people go to stay over while they're travelling somewhere, and they can eat food and stuff, and...oh yeah..."

She trails off for a moment and gestures generally to the area around them.

"This place." she says. "This is an inn. And I think people who work here get money. I mean, someone owns the place but they can't do all the work themselves, so they get people to cook and dish out food and drinks to the customers, clean up the place, stuff like that, and then when the customers hand over coins to pay for their rooms and eaties, the owner gives some of that to the people who helped make it happen. I bet there's plenty of places out there who haven't got enough people to help out, might give a chance to someone with nothing to do. You go in, ask if they'll let you cook something, and if it turns out okay they maybe they'll let you stick around and give you some money. Maybe even a free room if you got nowhere else to go, eh?"

She takes another bite of the potato.

"Sounds typical of elves" muttered Meri with a noticeable vehemence in her tone.
She looked over the piles of bandits with a curious eye, but then headed inside the inn, pausing to glance back at Holder.
"Keep an eye on those two, if they wake up, they might decide they've got nothing left to lose by taking any of us down with them."


OOC: Heading inside to get healing kit and booze (not necessarily in that order!) :)

Holder gives a sloppy salute and a wide grin, especially seeing Tym's odd hand placement.

"Ale!" he calls out as the group enter the inn. The general mess has already been cleared out, and only a couple of new burn patches on the floor hint at another battle.

"Usually keep it in the taproom," Jorri says regretfully, "don't think anyone would notice the marks there anymore."

Tym and Jorri take turns trying to pull the leather curtain back to allow sun to once more flood in to the hall to make it less oppressively dim. "I should probably clean that step upstairs before we all forget," says Jorri. "Hope I don't get customers today," he further muses. "Not sure two piles of bodies and smashed windows is a good advert for anything."

"Damn good advert if yer ask me," replies Tym. "Safest place in the area, no on'll mess we; yer, we're not stuck up like the Ol' Blowhard."

Inside the tap room Meri can see there are two doors, one solidly locked that is at the end of the taproom, and one open behind the bar. The bar itself has a few odds and ends and flagons but this early no ale here. However, there is a shabby backpack with a cleaner backpack inside with some general healing supplies.

Meanwhile, inside the storeroom some bottles of ale, and a few barrels are visible to take refreshment from.

Also, from the open door to the kitchen the gentle smell of something still cooking wafts on the breeze from the smashed window to outside.


And no surprise bandit hiding behind a sack of potatoes, funny as that would be.


The bandit seems intimidated enough not to argue, but doens't look convinced. Perhaps he had tried that before in the bigger towns, or more likely he hadn't thought of things that way but was unwilling to give up his grudge in the face of some hope.

Instead he very tentatively reached for the bottle that The Ball had grown bored of, and pulled it towards him. And then looked incredulously at the sloppy contents.

The Ball meanwhile simply played in the rafters of the hall, occasionally blasting out small amounts of light. Finally bored, The Ball went back down to Nym's level and started making jerking motions towards the direction of the falls again.

"Alright Ball, we'll go in a bit." says Nym, glancing at the Ball. She turns back to the bandit. "So what was your name? You didn't mention it. And I gave you mine..."

Meri quickly found the healing pack, but ignored it at first to grab a bottle of ale and down a large gulp of it.
Then picking up the pack, she returned to the others, carrying the bottle in her other hand.
Placing the bottle down beside Tym, she began picking some supplies from the healing kit.

"Starting to wish I'd never decided to follow that thing" she muttered, "had a feeling it would cause nothing but trouble.  I didn't think someone or something was prepared to kill for it though."
She sighed and examined Tym's wound, reaching for the bolt embedded in his arm, but then hesitating and turning to indicate the bottle.
"You might want to be blind drunk before I try to pull that out" she remarked.

She began mixing together some herbs and a bandage from the kit.
"I'm not so good at healing people, better at repairing things that aren't alive."


OOC: Just tinkering around while Nym makes a new friend :)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:50, Fri 19 June 2015.

Tym grabbed the bottle with relish and stuck his tongue out at Jorri. "Healer, she said it, you heard it. Gotta drink mah medicine." He took a large pull, then looked sideways at Meri. "You...you know what yer doin', right?  You...you're just jokin' about the bein' not so good, right?"

Jorri walked over, tapped Tym almost reassuringly on his good shoulder, and fished out a small hip flash from beneath his apron. Jorri took a small pull from it to ward off his own aches, his own wounds having been easily dressed. The crossbow bolt shot has barely broken the skin, in the end. Jorri then poured pretty much the rest of it in to Tym's bottle then sat down. The innkeeper had a giant grin on his face, probably looking forwards to his friend's discomfort.

Tym, meanwhile, started looking more and more nervous. Realising he was about to let a stranger pull a bolt from him, realising he was about to have a bolt pulled from him full stop, and seeing the unexpected generocity of his friend seemed to malke him jittery.

"Good wound. Lucky," said Jorri, looking at it closely from a few angles.

"Shut up you. Right through my damn arm!"

"Yes. Right through the fleshiest parts. You could have had far worse. Lost the use of your arm, it hit you in the chest or head instead. Very, very lucky..." said Jorri musing.

"Yeah, well, obviously a bad shot," said Tym, taking another pull from the bottle and coughing at the potent mix inside.

"Taht's one way of looking at it..." said Jorri musing, then turned to Meri. "Yes, the whole bandit troop coming out. That...that was frightening, if I may be honest. They didn't even dare all come at us before. If they hadn't died in the battle, I'm sure they would have been hutned down for being so bold. They couldn't have hidden an attack. And yet they couldn't really have snuc karound us, all those people. What were they thinking?"

Jorri looked around as if to look at The Ball again, the seemed to realise it was nowhere around.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upstairs, Nym's new 'friend' looked positively miserable. "Crass," he answered. Whether an unfortunate nick name or an unfortunate given name - first or second - he didn't comment on. Instead, after checking out the bottle and deciding against checking out the contents, be put the bottle gingerly down - away from him incase The Ball came close - and looked between both Nym and The Ball.

He seemed to hesitate, clearly something important on his mind. "Are you...are you going to kill me?" he asked in a very quiet, resigned voice.


It was probably unfortunate timing that at that moment Tym let loose an alarmly loud, alarmingly pain scream.


I'm goign to assume Meri did something to cause it, if not I'm sure something else did :p

Nym looks surprised at Crass's question and opens her mouth to reply, but glances around at the sound of the scream.

"Oh dear." she says. "It sounds like someone's not very happy. Come on, let's go and see what's up."

She rises to her feet and goes toward the stairs, then pauses and glances back.

"And of course I'm not going to kill you, silly! Why would I do that?"

She givs a small shake of her head and continues, giving the abandoned crossbow a kick further away as she does, but pauses again as she nears the stairs.

"Come on then." she says. "Maybe something interesting is happening!"

Less than a minute earlier, Meri had just finished preparing a makeshift poultice from a bandage and some healing herbs in the kit and looked up at Tym.

"Well, after the losses they suffered today, if there are any of those bandits left, they'll probably think twice before attacking this place again.  And...  Oh hey, what's that?"
She pointed behind him towards the inn entrance, arranging her features into a surprised expression.
As Tym turned to look, she stepped forward, and in a quick smooth motion, drew out the bolt.

As the resulting scream echoed around the inn, she quickly wrapped the bandage around his arm, pressing on it to stop the bleeding and allow the healing herbs to work.
"Sorry about that" she said with a wry smirk.


OOC: Ouch!

If Crass had any ideas about not following, the fact The Ball started bouncing around in the other side of him from Nym, as if excited for him to see whatever had caused the noise, seemed to decide that matter. The bandit still seemed shaky in his legs, and his eyes occasionally watered as if still not fully able to work out what was going on.

The fact the crossbow was kicked across the ground was noted, and Crass still gave Nym a wary look clearly understanding that as scatterminded as she presented herself, she was no fool.

Going downstairs of course the hall is now completely different, the leather curtain's removal allowing the hall to seem far lighter. And the airy large area is also disorienting.


In the tap room, Tym lets loose a colourful stream of swearing and muttering that had Holder rush in to the inn's entrance to see what was going on - further terrifying the bandit that had barely walked down the stairs. The bandit had almost tripped over the slippery step he had spotted not a few minutes beforehand.

"Dammit buggerit frakit frickit stupid godsdamned gribbling gruntling sugerbundling goat getters!" muttered Tym, or at least something like that, as the man rocked backwards and forwards on the chair. Jorri went and got the ale bottle again, and Tym drank down a good part of it, tears streaming form his face and sweat pouring form his brow.

"Thank you, on behalf of my rude friend," said Jorri with a smile to Meri.

"GAH!" finished Tym, both drinking and screaming, apparently. He was just about to say something to Meri - whether complimentery or angry was debateable - when his attention was pulled to the bandit on the stairs. "What's he doin' here? That's the bugger that shot me!" Tym yelled, seemingly genuinely angry.

Nym practically skips down the stairs ahead of Crass, her tail swishing about (having apparently created a hole for itself in the back of her robes when she took her current form) and her silvery scales glinting slightly as they reflect the light. She waves cheerily at Jorri.

"Ooh, you managed to stand up okay, then." she says. "And someone just made a lot of noise. Well, that was what it sounded like."

She glances around the room, her eyes momentarily falling on Tym and showing no reaction to his outburst.

"Was it you? Oh well, never mind. Hey, you have blood on your arm too! Mine hurts a bit."

She gestures to the bandit standing behind her.

"Oh, by the way, this is Crass and he wants to be a cook. It's better than being shouted at by a...shouty...person...right? What happened to him, anyway?"

She glances around as though expecting to see Banlee sitting at a table or leaning against a wall.

Meri frowned, looking over at Crass, her hand going for the staff she had placed on the table nearby, but not lifting it yet.
She simply watched the bandit warily for now.

"He's outside" she replied in a guarded tone.  "Probably not up to talking right now though, being injured and unconscious and all."

Holder nodded from the door, "I need to get back to sitting!" he growled and rushed off.

"Eat some beans first or summat," yelled Tym after him, but his expression was less jovial when he looked back to Crass. "And cool? Well he can cook up a key fer the cell door when-"

"Oops, sorry, I appear to have accidentally hit you on the back of the head," said Jorri as he stood up and clipped his friend on the back of the ear. Tym's look, however, was not friendly and he did not look to be in the mood for games.

Jorri, for the moment oblivious, said, "Cook? Might need one."

Crass was also blustering on the stairs, once more caught in the headlights of a shifting situation.  The Ball's hovering and Nym's cheerful exuberance and the unfriendly loos from Tym and Meri's shifting were all mixed messages. "What? Cook? I never said..."

"You shot my friend here, that's true," continued Jorri, "but who hasn't thought about doing that once in a while. Still, you did shoot him. It was luck you didn't split his skull. He's a blacksmith too, very, very lucky your shot hit where it did. Anywhere else he might have lost some use of it, even the arm itself. So, I have to ask, did you mean to shoot him?"

Jorri looked to the bandit on the stairwell, who looked confused and angry and frightened in equal measure. "Yes," he said sullenly and defiantly.

"I bet you did. And I bet you shot where you meant to too, didn't you?" said Jorri with an eyebrow raised. He'd smiled for some reason at the first answer, and his grin was wider when the bandit suddenly looked aghast. "I..I don't know what you mean..."

"Yes you do, and the fact you are more trying to lie about not maiming or killing my friend, rather than take the obvious 'it was an accident' rout pretty mcuh says all we need to know about your time with the bandits. I guess they thought you were the worst shot in the world, didn't they? At least under pressure."

Crass again started to babble against this, temporarily losing his fear of anything else, almost as if by rote he'd had to defend not having killed someone before.

"Across a taproom too in the heat of battle, not too shabby," said Jorri nodding. "Anyway, if you can cook I need a cook, otherwise this place needs cleaned and repaired. You can stay here for basic food and roof in lieu of most of the wages. If you've never been spotted by guards and soldiers then you should be fine, though if we need someone to speak out about what happend here I expect you to give yourself up. Otherwise, there's plenty of ruins a determined man can use to build a new house, plenty of land to pick from, the real village is nearby to trade with but you shouldn't have too many locals snooping around if you want to keep your head down."

Jorri looked around to Tym, smiling. "Place could use an upwards tci in the popu-"

"No. he stays, population stays the same. I'm gone."

There was something in the tone that clearly Jorri hadn't expected. "No, but I mean..come on. WE're not going to-"

"No." There wasn't the caracteristic gruffness from Tym that the two friends had seem since meeting the man. There was an iron in him to match anythign the smith would forge.


Anyway, so it looks like Nym had a possibly cool idea and Jorri agreed with it because maybe your captive isn't a complete monster. Maybe. Who knows? However Tym looks like he's not going to be budged, and I'm not sure how Meri feels about forgiving and forgetting and so forth.

So feel free to speak up or speak against Crass. Obviously the bandit hasn't really said anything about the bandits' purpose yet, so you could hold that over him.

Clearly diplomacy and intimidation are good skills here depending upon what you want to do. And clearly now the battle is done you need to decide what information and from whom you want before continuing.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Sun 21 June 2015.

Well, I'm just gonna do what I've been doing so far which is to start Nym off talking and see where she ends up, because I never quite know for sure until I've typed it ;).

At Jorri's enthusiasm, Nyn looks around at Crass.

"See?" she says happily. "It's not difficult to find people who want someone to put food together."

She turns back, however, at Tym's refusal and watches the exchange between him and Jorri.

"Well, that's not very nice!" she says to Tym, and would have raised her eyebrows if dragonborn had any. "He only shot you by accident. Or something. So he probably shot me by accident as well. Anyway, if you ended up with a bunch of shouty-people who wanted you to not be very nice and you didn't have anywhere else to go and didn't think anyone wanted you, what would you do? Oh wait, that's just happened again, hasn't it?"

She glances around at Crass.

"Now the shouty-people are gone, maybe you can hide when they wake up and then they won't make you go back with them, and then you can be a cook here and do nice things for people instead of chasing them around and falling over in corridors."

She looks back at Tym and points a clawed finger at him.

"And you should give reasons for why you're not being very nice all of a sudden. Oh, yes..."

Thinking of something, she turns back to Crass.

"And maybe you can tell us what you know about Mr Shouty out there looking for us, or the Ball, or whatever it was he was after. I mean, you recognised the Ball, didn't you? Or something? So maybe you can be helpful rather than him, because I don't know if he will be. And that will maybe make up for helping him. And then you can be a cook!"

Diplomacy roll for erm...whatever Nym was just talking about. I suppose trying to get Tym to explain why he's being such an arse about Crass (seems like more than just the arm unless he's just being stubborn or something), and getting Crass to explain what his group was up to as maybe some kind of way of redeeming himself and proving he's not gonna go back to them again and could be useful around the inn...even though he himself doesn't seem quite on board with it yet, but considering he was curled into a ball and crying his eyes out about five minutes ago I think he's doing pretty well ;). Anyway, let's see what I get...20 :).

Meri frowned and stepped back to the table with the healing kit, keeping her staff close at hand.
Taking off her own backpack she dumped the contents, including Timur, onto the table top and busied herself checking each item over before packing it back in.

It was difficult to tell if she was simply examining her possessions for any sign of damage taken in the battle, or if she was deliberately avoiding being drawn into the disagreement now taking place...


OOC: Probably not too hard to guess which though! ;)


[Private to The Altweaver: By the way, is the trap making kit only a one-use item?  Meaning did I just use it up creating my little obstacle course for the bandits?]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:01, Sat 20 June 2015.

[Private to Meri:
The trap making kit is a tool. Narratively you might want to refresh parts. Maybe once in a while I'll have some major trap part need to be refreshed if a trap is quite powerful. I'll still need to look in to it more. Definitely I want you to have the ability to make more lasting and complex traps. Apparently there are already some cool things in Alchemy that are trap like, so check out some of those products too and let me know if any catch your eye. ]

"He didn't shoot me by accident," said Tym, pointing "He said it was deliberate." He tried to ignore Nym's other point, but his face had twitched with some guilt regarding rejecting Crass.

"Yes," said Jorri upset, "deliberately stopped you skillfully. As someone who got shot by a less skillful person that seemed to want me dead, how about we don't ...can we just...can this just be over? There's been enough...everything. Can we just stop." Jorri seemed quite shaken and upset by his friend's sudden unbending attitude.

"See, I don't have to justify it. Just why should he get to settle here after what he did. Just...let's clear all this up and have no more said. But if he stays, I go. That's all there is too it." Tym's fist on his other hand was opening and closing, and he was clearly getting very agitated, reddening in his face.

[Private to Nym: Passive insight twinge - you notice that Tym's expression flicked or hardened when Jorri started talking about his own injury. It feels like whatever Tym's sudden anger is, it's not actually about his own injury, it's more about what happened to Jorri. Whether Tym is worried still for Jorri, or is simply dis-assiciating that worry and yelling at Crass... who knows. Not you relying on passive insight alone. Feel free to try and roll a DC25 check for more info, or poke at Tym more first. The getting him to explain himself was a good first step, as you can he's just sort of doubling down without really having a reason he can articulate. Which means pushing him on that, building on the reasonable argument, and guilt might do something...

Oh, so you know the basic check was DC25 against him. 20 is good, and I like the arguments, so I figured you have a very good base to chip away with RP now. Jsut find a weak spot and exploit it, or find a compromise he can't logically argue against, and you may well break down his resolve to get a grudging agreement :)]

Crass seemed to be trying to blend in with the wall, perhaps taking a page out of Meri's book on not getting involved. However, Nym firmly brought the attention back to the bandit again. He looked nervous once more.

"I...we weren't looking for you," he said. "Not specifically. The...ok, it's my fault." Crass's eyes watered a little again and he coulnd't look to Nym nor Meri.

"The others were looking to the main road in the forest. I just happened to take a look out at the back road. Wanted to be on my own, realised they missed it but I didn't think there would be anything there. I... we were just told to look for odd stuff. I mean what does it mean? It was Banlee. All Banlee. Something got to Banlee. Something scared him. He wouldn't directly say what it was, though we'd catch him saying 'it'. Well, one time Fell said she heard Banlee and Gorth talking in secret, but even then 'it' was just 'it'..no, wait, it was also 'The Voice' she said. Anyway, we all just said 'it' behind his back, and thought better than to mention it otherwise. He told us we were to look out for anything strange. Like, magically strange. Banlee beat up some warlock travelling o nthe road, but it seemed that wasn't what was being meant and he seemed so scared then. So scared."

Crass's legs were shaking. Clearly whatever could scare Banlee scared Crass. Indeed, perhaps that was why the poor bandit had been so terrified in the hall upstairs. He was faced with a mission from something that could scare the leader versus something that could apparently make Banlee forget that fear and jump from a window.

Crass continued, voice shaking. "We were told to look for things on the road, going towards or passed New Stonebridge. Said we'd know it when we would see it. And not just the first mage to pass by. I mean, your...your thing in the sky was weird. Really weird. It was changing colour and reflecting oddly and wasn't just floating or anything. It went up so high, then disappeared. I... I thought I'd imagined it but someone else has seen something, that's what got the group to come to where I was. And that was it. Banlee was going to go investigate it, only...well...last time he left the group alone half the group took all of his his stuff and ours too and left. That were a few years ago now, but he's never forgotten it. Trusts none of us. He weren't going to have that again, so he yelled at all of us to go. Silch mouthed off about it being his problem not ours, nothing had given us orders, and...well...Silch never came with us, on account of the fact his though tubes weren't connected to the head bits no more when Banlee sliced him open."

Crass's hand unconsciously went to his neck, and he sat on the steps pale and faint. Crass finally looked to Nym and Meri. "You scared Banlee though, right? And you said you weren't going to kill me, right?" Crass then murmered to himself. "But what if it gets me..."


The Ball had already taken off away fro Crass by this point, and while the story was being told, it went to Meri and started bumping in to her. It made the excited 'lets go to the falls' gesture once more, bobbing around happily and then rolled through all of Meri's things, trying to say hello to Temor now the homonculus was let out to play from Meri's backpack.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:27, Sat 20 June 2015.

"Aaww, well," says Nym, patting Crass on the head, "whatever the It is, it's not here right now, and if ol' shouty Banlee wakes up thinking you're dead then no-one's gonna be looking for you, are they? So you won't get in trouble."

She turns her attention back to Tym.

"And what's up with you, suddenly being so mean to someone who didn't have much of a choice? Hey, I just thought of something. What if you didn't live here, right? What if you were in some place where no-one liked you and you didn't have any money and evntually you fond a bunch of not-very-nice people who said hey you, you can make weapons and stuff, so how about you make weapons for us so we can all use them on people and if you don't we'll kick you out and then you'll be all lonely again? And then you went somewhere with them and then you got split up from them all and they didn't know what happened to you and you ended up with some people who thought you were not very nice just because you'd been with the not-very-nice people, even though you just want to make stuff and never really wanted to be with the not-very-nice people in the first place but you didn't really have anywhere else you could go?"

She pauses.

"Anyway, it's not up to you if Crass stays here, is it? I mean, you don't own the inn, do you? And you don't have to come in here if he's making yummy food and you don't want any just because he fired a crossbow at a couple of people. You can just pretend he's not here. Or you could find your own group of shouty-people to live with instead and then you can carry on being mean and maybe no-one would notice because they were all mean as well?"

[Private to The Altweaver: So let's try an Insight check to figure out what Tym's being such an arse about...bah, 9 lol.]

Meri didn't seem to be reacting to the conversation in the room at first, although a particularly observant person might have noticed that she was stuffing objects into the pack with greater force than before.

Eventually, whatever emotion was rising within her, combined with the bumping from the Ball seemed to cause something in her to snap.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she shouted, grabbing up her staff in a rapid movement and unleashing the same surge of energy she had used to slam Banlee into the upstairs cupboard earlier, this time targeted at the Ball.
The table she had been standing next to shuddered and scraped along the floor a short distance as the blast wave dissipated into it.

She looked up at Crass with a fire in her eyes that probably made him realise exactly what had terrified Banlee enough to jump out of an upstairs window earlier.
"I don't know what in the Nine Hells "It" is, or what's so important about this piece of cursed scrap metal that people are prepared to kill over it.  If I could destroy it, I would, since it would probably be saving other lives that might die for this thing some day.  Ironic enough, seeing as I'd readily have handed it over to that elven fool if he'd just asked instead of trying to kill me.  Now, I intend to find out what he knows.  If he doesn't tell me...  Well, let's just say you won't have to worry about him any more!"

Snatching up the backpack, she stormed towards the door leading back outside, leaving Timur behind.  The metallic construct stared after her then sat down on the table top to wait for her to come back.
Although he had no visible way of displaying any kind of expression, there was a certain "sadness" about him...


OOC: Yep, something just wound Meri up beyond her breaking point.  She's heading outside for now.  If it's possible to wake Banlee up, she'll likely set about questioning him in a not-too-gentle manner.
Unless someone or something stops her leaving that is.
(Treating Timur as "Active" while he's lingering inside the inn and not in Meri's space).

Ooh, it's all kicking off!


The Ball simply kept bobbing, moving as if on the previous wafts of air rather than the blast that could shift a table and end conversationd around Meri. The only sign that Meri's staff blast was not an illusion - other than the table moving - was that The Ball temporarily had the crack of energy from the staff playing around its surface. However, the enrgy then changed to the lightning crackle more in meeping with Nym's current character, with the same surface blue colouring, though the texture became Timur's. The Ball moved back to the table once more to play with Timur, though in deference to Meri bobbed around in a wide semi circle to get there out of her immediate way.

There was a silence that followed Meri's exit. Tym was the one that broke it. "Well, the currently dragon has the way of it. Fine, I'm not going to leave. Doens't mean I have to come in here. That's fine. Keep the waifs and strays that tried to kill us. Fine. Let's just lie to the authorities such as they are about who's still alive. Great. Don't expect me to come runni' over here to say how good his blasted stews are or whatever. Don't expect any help when some blasted guard recognises the boy and tries to stick a sword in him, even if it's through you. In fact don't expect me to set foot in this damn inn again."

Tym strode off to the door just as Meri had, not wincing despite the sweat on his brow that showed how painful the movement must be right now.


Presuming Nym isn't going to stop Meri (since she had half a day to post an intervention if she was going to, I can easily retract this if that isn't the case...)


Meri meanwhile went outside to find Holder back in his previous position on top of the two unconscious bandits. Something in Meri's demeanour made Holder jump off, dust the bandits off, and take a very respectful few steps backwards out of her way.

As Meri was moving towards the bandits, Tym came out too. He did not seem inclined to stop Meri doing anything. "Thank's again for patchin' me up," he said, and if it was brusque it seemed that it was more him shaking off his mood from indoors rather than direction the emoiton at Meri. "Try not to get too much blood on the roads," he said darkly then strode off for the door directly opposite the inn, presumeably his own small home.

"Holder, if there's anythin' left o' those two bastards after she's finished, I want them chained up in the smithy. Not the inn. The smithy. Then go see the Ol' Blowhard or whomever else would care and tell them about...well, about all this." Tym nashed his teeth together. "Don't mention that stupid bandit boy that's alive," he said almost painfully. "And keep a damned eye on him. And Jorri. I'm done."

So saying Tym opened the door to his house, walked through it, and without looking to anyone outside slammed the door closed with all the force he could muster. Holder looked quite puit out about chaining the two bandits up in the smithy, and had given Tym an igoored raised eyebow. Whether it was the logic of chaining up people in the easiest place to escape from, the fact Holder might not want two bandits in his own working area, or simply the impertenance of ordering around Holder, the minotaur did not illucidate. As for the rest of Tym's speech, Holder just looked sad and dejected.


Meri can do whatever you like to wake either of them up, and of course demand Holder's help if you want to do anything first such as secure them or get anything sharp and pointy :p

Feel free to start interrogating in however you want once you wake whomever up :D


Back in the inn, Jorri sat down. "Don't know what's got in to him," he said bewildered. "What about...your friend?" Jorri then asked, looking forst at The Ball, then towards Nym and Crass. The look towards them all looked far less certain about them all than before.

However, despite all the yelling from Meri, and even Jorri's looks, it was Nym that Crass was looking towards. He looked confused and concerned. "She's wrong," he said, "Banlee didn't want anyone killed at first. He got mad when Fell shot the keeper. Well, up until you started killing people, but then it was all chaos and panic and he was just mad and scared we'd bolt or something. But...it's you, isn't it?" he whispered. "You're the starnge one that does things with magic like its nothing and changes all the time. It's your sphere, it likes you, you magic it too, I bet, don't you?. It's...it's you Banlee wanted, I bet. It's you the voice wants..."


Dun dun dun! Or is it? After all, the bandit knows nothing for sure. Is he right? Is he wrong? Is Meri right? Who knows??? Well, me, obviously. I swear I will clear some things up for at least you players even if the characters are stilla little confused soon, but in the meantime...who knows (other than me...)

Nym doesn't have the lightning wisps on her any more - that was just while she was Lightning-souled after using her Elemental Shift, which wore off after the fight finished. She's back to Radiant now, hence why I've had her scales change colour too (from sky blue to a silvery colour) ;).

Also, I may technically have had "half a day" to post something, but this is the first time I've been online today and I've been on for maybe fifteen minutes or so, this being the first time I've been on since about 11pm last night ;). But no, I wouldn't have stopped Meri - she can go and be grumpy all by herself and we'll see how far she gets if Timur suddenly disappears from our sight when he auto-teleports if Meri gets more than ten squares away :D.

After Tym and Meri have both stormed out, Nym simply shrugs and goes over to plonk herself down in the nearest chair, almost knocking it over with her tail in the process but managing not to. She inspects her arm again, wincing slightly, then looks up at Crass's words. She glances toward the Ball and back to him, then shrugs.

"Nah, that wasn't me." she says. "Ball just sort of...came to life one day. I didn't do anything to him. Meri gets grumpy with him and keeps telling him to go away. I don't really mind so I suppose that's why he follows me. And he seems to like changing, same as me. No-one wants me, though. I mean, no-one even knows me, really. Except Meri and Timmy over there."

She gestures toward the currently abandoned homunculus.

"And Ball, I suppose."

She grins.

"But now you know me too." She looks at Jorri. "And you. Lots of new friends!"

She claps her hands together, then winces again and looks at her arm.

OOC: Ah ok, I thought it was 20 squares.  Must have been thinking of that familiar with the extended range...
So how far out is 10 squares?  To the smithy?  Think I was shooting a 10-square ranged attack from the inn entrance out to there earlier.


Meri stared after where Tym had disappeared to and sighed, looking down at the road.
She turned and moved over to where Banlee lay unconscious, staring at him with an unreadable expression.  Though she seemed a little more subdued than she had a moment ago in the inn.

"Can you get something to tie him up with?" she asked Holder, gesturing towards Banlee.
Then she looked up at the minotaur, speaking again in a much quieter voice.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have come here, bringing that cursed thing down on you all."

* * *

Inside the inn, Timur looked towards the Ball as it played around near him.
Some inner mechanism emitted a whirring and clicking as the small construct stood up and tentatively reached out to touch the Ball, drawing back its hand and studying it with an almost curious air.

Although he seemed unable to speak, it looked as though Timur was trying to say something as he gestured in the direction Meri had gone and shook his head, tapping on his chest with a metallic sound.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:20, Sun 21 June 2015.

I'm pretty sure it's ten because I recall the falcon being twenty (you can always double-check anyway :)). The gap between the smithy and the inn was five squares from what I remember, because that's how far it was when I jumped across.

@Nym: Yeah, sorry, as I said in my OOC post I didn't check your last log in until after, as I hadn't realised you hadn't seen it yet! To be fair a lot of the time you seem to be the one to post first :D  Also I forgot that the daily reset at the resistance reset at the end of the encounter. Still, The Ball is mysterious and maybe was just indicating it liked your old look and resistances better :p


The familair range is certainly 20 squares by the newest glossary, with the Falcon having a range of 40. 10 squares might have been erratta'd to double the distance? Or are you thinking of something different (though I think even the spirits of the shaman are 20 squares or are summoned up to 20 away?)

The road was four squares wide, so adding the square to smithy roof it was indeed five. 10 squares takes you from the door to the back corner of the smithy. I should probably post the battle map for fun, but not sure. I hate how narrative measurements and measurements for decent combat grids never make sense in D&D. Stuff either has to be terrible to navigate during battle or weirdly palatial!


Crass looked less than convinced that Nym was not the target, though something occurred to him. "When did...when did your ball thing come to life?" he asked, almost shy. Or scared. Nym's happy tone was still a little at odds with her raw power, and Meri had demonstrated how quickly a magic user's temper could flare to violence.

"Timmy?" said Jorri, suddenly confused. He looked around and then saw the tiny homunculus playing with The Ball. Jorri's sad look at least turned back to the ghost of a smile. "Well, now that's a thing."

He claps his hands a tiny amount, wincing a little himself. "Well, Crass was it, Nymmishkashearillai is right. I guess we're friends now. In a way. So why don't you go in to the kitchen, where I believe something is cooking, and do something with it. Not ruin it and serve it when it's ready will be more than some helpers have managed. I mean, the kitchen window is smashed out, so if you want to just run before the authorities get here, then we won't notice, though perhaps our friends outside might. Still, you can take your chances with that, or you can take your chances on the kitchen and on Tym not grinding out his axe and telling on you when the guards come at some point for the rest of your group."

Jorri then realised he needed to point the direction of the kitchen, when Crass's hesitation became clearly not just about not knowing what to do. Crass gave some suspicious looks to the taproom, then moved off through the door.

"And Nym," said Jorri looking to the changling, "can I look at your wound? I presume the healing box was left...somewhere..."


On the table, The Ball seemed eager to dance backwards and forwards, as if studying Timur intensely. The Ball's whole colouring became like Timur's, though its surface was fine and black like Meri's hair, occasional runes washing past like the marks on some of her creations.

After Timur's gesture, The Ball moved forwards, as if to knock Timur over. It was only after a few aborted movements that it seemed that The Ball was trying to get under Timur's feet.

Because really, who doesn't want to see a scared Homunulous riding a dancing sphere oput of the door, even if that's not what Timur is trying to indicate :D


Meanwhile outside, shrugged at Meri's comment. "Not your fault," he rumbled. "Bandits might come anyway. To many weird things. Cat become dog. Butterflies fly. Weird things happening. At least no one here died." Holder looked sadly to the pile of bodies. "Maybe others who should be alive died, but... that not new. Orc war have a habit of not being done."

Holder sadly walked off to the smithy and came back with some pliant metallic wires. They were thin enough that, with some grunting, Holder bound the arms and legs of the bandit leader with a series of greatly twisted loops.


There we go, all trussed up with nowhere to go :D
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Sun 21 June 2015.

"Well, hopefully they won't be back after this" replied Meri.  "Not sure what to do with these two.  Could let them go so they tell of how badly they were beaten here, and maybe discourage more attacks.  Although that could spur some to come back for revenge.  Hard to tell."

Her look hardened as she stared down at Banlee.
"Either way, I want to know who or what sent them here, and why."

With that, she reached down and slapped Banlee lightly across the face.
"Hey!  Wake up!"

* * *

Timur wobbled backwards, almost falling over.
He backed away from the Ball, shaking his head again.  He glanced towards the door Meri had left through and seemed to look almost thoughtful, but then shrugged, as if not knowing a way to indicate what he was trying to say...


OOC: Left the healing kit on the table...

I am usually on often to post, this is true, however yesterday was our monthly trip to London to play Sentinels of the Multiverse with fellow forum members so I was out for most of the day ;).

On the point of Familiar rangs, I just checked and it turns out I misremembered -  It is twenty with the exception of the falcon (forty) and the cat (unlimited). Maybe I should take one of those when I get round to taking that Feat...I'm not entirely sure though I know I said I was probably gonna take a raven previously. But I might change my mind...there are several Familiar types which could be useful, I think. Whichever one I go with, though, it's likely to only be that type in terms of mechanics - physically it could end up looking like anything :D

"Yeah, go and make something yummy and we can all enjoy it." says Nym happily as Crass moves toward the kitchen. "Well, all except Tym...and Timur, I suppose, since he doesn't exactly need to eat. Both of the Tims...Tyms...Tims..."

She looks up at Jorri's question.

"What? Oh, yes. Here. But it hurts, so it'd be good if you didn't sort of...you know, poke it and stuff."

She still has her sleeve rolled up and sticks her arm out, resting it on the table while she scoots her chair a bit closer.

For the familiar, having it change skin while being mechanically the same will not be a problem. If you really want we could also find some way to make it mechanically change too, either through use of a daily utility power perhaps (like your reistance shifting) or simply the familiar randomly has the mechanics of one familiar type pulled from a pool of maybe 10 familiars. We can see when we get there!

Jorri nods his head, and does his best to check out the wound without actually poking at it. He has a small magnifying glass buried away - "You won't believe the pslinters you get in an old place like this" - and he checks to make sure the skin looks heathy and is not becoming infected.

"Soo...where did you meet Meri, anyway? Is she ususally so...Tym like? I guiess? Perhaps there's something that happens to metal bashers..."

Jorri goes and fetches some ale from a semi-hidden reserve, and settles back down. He offers the other bottle to Nym. "Well, he's to you and your friend. I guess if the bandits were getting bolder, I'm glad you were around to help. I shudder to think how it might have gone down if we were on our own." Jorri sighed for a moment. "To many people moving on to other places or even just getting so old they move on to other...umm...planes, I guess is the polite way of saying it. Might be good to have some fresh blood. Maybe less bandits will mean more travellers too, who knows? Hmm, that would be good if they offset the guards now I think about it, a better class of customer. But...maybe I should play down the lack of bandits to the guard captains for now... "

Jorri then thought of something. "So...you and...magic. How good are you at, oh, I don't know, repairing windows?"


Heh, two quests asked which I have no clue about. For the first you and Meri have clearly talked enough you can spill part of that story or start fleshing it out. For the second about repairing things, not sure if that's buried in one of your powers like prestidigitation or in a ritual or if that's left purely to narrative fun. I'll let you do the first checking on that, seeing as how you were the one that blew his poor windows out :p


The bandit leader openes his eyes oepn with a start, anger flaring up. There was a look of fear when he saw Meri standing over him, but he masked it with arrogant disdain. "Why I'll-" he started then stopped, another quick spasm of fear rippled through him as he felt the strong bonds bit in to his arms and legs, stopping him from moving. He masked it quickly again, this time with waivering bravado. "Well, if I knew this was what you were in to, I'd have-"

The Ball rocketed out of inn doorway, and smashed the bandit leader on the head, knocking him unconscious before anyone was aware of the magical sphere. It then went and bashed him a couple of times on the chest. Happily bobbing for a second in front of Meri, it rocketed back in to the inn where it had left Timur.

Once in front of Timur again, The Ball danced around as if pleased with itself for having worked out its friend's gestures.


Lol, sorry, couldn't resist. The Ball is many things, but gifted with high Insight is not one of them :D Anyway, feel free to wake the bandit leader again. He will be a little more concussed and out of it, but at least that means he won't be saving anything mean or pretending not to be afraid. I believe he will be afraid enough to let you ask whatever questions you want to lead with :D

Fixing windows isn't really a Sorc thing, I'm afraid. Fixing anything isn't really a Sorc thing ;). Prestidigitation is for minor little tricks of the kind that a street magician might do (only this is actually magic). Also, Sorcs don't start with Ritual Caster like some other Arcane classes - too chaotic I suppose :D.

Also, on examining Nym's "skin"...bear in mind she currently has scales ;).

"Windows? Nah, can't really fix anything." says Nym with a shrug. "Maybe you should ask Meri about that. She's more interested in...you know, making stuff.  I'd much rather...play around."

She holds out a hand and a tiny purple cloud appears above it, which momentarily takes the shape of a banana before dissipating with a faint smell of...strawberries.

Meri frowned and was about to spit a retort back at Banlee when the Ball suddenly appeared and knocked him out cold again.

She stared after the object as it shot back into the inn, a look of surprise and minor annoyance on her face.
"Have you got a big hammer in the smithy?" she asked, glancing back at Holder.  "If that thing comes out here again, see if you can hit it all the way over to the falls!"

Sighing, she turned back to Banlee and poked at him with the crystalline tip of her staff.
"Ok, let's try this again!" she said.

* * *

Inside the inn, Timur watched as the Ball rocketed outside and then returned a moment later.
Although he was incapable of expressions, anyone looking at him would probably guess he looked puzzled.
Shrugging again, he moved over to the edge of the table and sat down there, listening to the conversation between Nym and Jorri...


OOC: Hey!  Beating the prisoners unconscious is MY job!

Holder probably had the sense to smile at the 'joke', perhaps realising it was most likely serious. Instead, Holder started looking around the smithy, apparently clearing a space around the forge for the prisoners, whilst reluctantly putting some items near his own bench. To make sure the minotaur did not get the rough end of the bargain, he would have to make some sacrifices in terms of space anyway...

Meanwhile, Meri got Banlee back to the world of consciousness. He was confused and in pain and this time could not hide his fear. His anger was far more bitter, mixed wit hthe fear rather than masking it. "What do you want, you hlf cast..." his tongue decided against any epithet. He almost spoke an elvish one again before his brain realised the stupidity of it... mage," he said weakly. Up close it was possible to see that the one wounded eye was actually still in tact. His eyelid could open to a slit, and a small black pupil was visible. It looked at Meri with cold contempt, but his other eye could not stop quivering. His scared face had not cut enough of his facial muscles that his mouth did not twitch in suppressed fear either.

You have his undivided attention without any of the attitude :D


Back in the taproom, Jorri gave up trying to assess the flesh barely visible beneath scales, and shrugged. "Well, I'm sure everything will be...fine..." he said, putting the healing kit back together again and perching it on the end of the table.

Jorri sat drinking the ale in silence for a moment, if Nym's reluctance to talk about Meri offended him, he didn't show it, but neither did he pry anymore.

Obviously if you're just consulting with Meri, then you can slot in anything while you eat :)

Then then heard something from the door behind. "Ah, that's good," he said, as Crass appeared delicately balancing some plates on his arms.

"Let me help," said Jorri. Crassseemed defensive, trying to shrug off the help even though it almost tossed most of the food on the floor. Still, in the end the curved plates ended up on the tables with no disaster, followed by two spoons.

"So, did you do anything with the soup?" asked Jorri, tucking in without any hesitation. His eyes widened, but given the fact he immediately swallowed and dove for a second scoop the soup was good. "This is not what I left to simmer. What did you do?"

Crass seemed almost to smile, or at least the corner of his mouth twitched. "Quick boiled nettles!" said Crass.

Jorri's third mouthful dribbled back in to the bowl. "What?" said Crass, defensively, "they have a sweet taste when you do that! I only strained the jouce of it in."

Jorri looked down a moment at the soup, then shrugged. "Ok, you must keep cooking here, just as long as you promise never to tell me nor anyone else what you put in things."

After Jorri is done looking at her arm, Nym flicks the robe back over it and gestures at it briefly, which causes the bloodstain to disappear. Then Crass comes in with the soup and she watches the exchange between the two, looking at Jorri with a slightly mystified expression as he expresses some kind of distaste at the mention of nettles.

"What?" she asks. "Nettles are just a plant. What's wrong with eating plants? You had potatoes and all sorts in there."

She gestures in the general direction of the store room to indicate where she means, then looks at Crass.

"See? Someone likes your food, so I'm sure you can stay here and make more of it, and more people will come, because this is an inn so people will turn up to stay here and eat food. And you can make really good food and more people will want to stay here. And you can stay here and eat the food you made as well. And you'll probably make lots of friends and you won't need money because everything you want will be here, right? You can maybe plant some food outside, you know, a little garden or something so it's like a tiny farm just for you, and you can use the food from that in your food. Right?"

Meri's face remained expressionless, apart from the tiniest faint hint of a smirk, barely visible for a second.
"I'm just curious about why you and your suicidal friends attacked this place" she replied.  "I can guess what you do for a living, such as it is, but I didn't think this place would have much worth stealing."

A momentary spark of anger appeared in her eyes as she continued.
"And by what my new friend in there said about you asking after visitors...  You know, the unarmed one your "brave" group tried to murder at the ford?  I'm guessing you came here specifically for us.  Or else for that cursed piece of flying scrap metal that seems to have decided to pester me for the rest of my life for some reason."

She smirked at him again.
"Of course, given how much of an annoyance that thing is, I'd probably have agreed to hand it over if you'd just asked instead of trying to kill everyone.  But, I'm never that lucky anyway!  So...  Who or what sent you here, and why?"


OOC: Bad Cop goes to work...  :)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 14:46, Tue 23 June 2015.

Hehe I'm sure that will be fun :D. Scary-freaky-wtf cop is just inside the inn if you decide the guy needs a little more persuasion. It'll probably turn out like that bit in that episode of Black Books where Manny gets mistaken for a policeman and we'll get all the info we need :D.

OOC: So Meri leaves Nym to talk to him and she suddenly goes: "I'm not a policeman!  They think I'm a policeman, I'm not!  I've just had too much coffee!!"  hehe :)

Yeah, and then he gets all freaked out and as soon as you come back he promises he'll tell you anything you want to know as long as you keep me away from him :D.

Poor guy, what's he ever done to you :p

"Attack?" Banlee spat blood in contempt, seemingly surprised. He seemed to notice that there was a minotaur close by. "Oh, I see how it is. Sure, of course we attacked. Yes, doesn't matter you snuck down the side to this place not used the main road, doens't matter you pulled us in to this place you trapped and sat hiding while you got others to do your talking, no, that's right, we attacked this place. Suree let's keep up your lies in front of your new found suckers. Your 'unarmed' man, the one who caved in Stem's ribs, sure, Fell shot him. I yelled at her for that, didn;'t want any deaths but I should have commended her on her foresight. Guess I should have yelled about the no deaths louder for you to hear. Yeah, sure, you would have spoken with us only you were too busy lying in wait ready to kill us the moment you drew us in to your trap. Sure, you would have spoken to us except you'd already pushed your first sucker in to harm's way as bait, then you were too busy getting on with the killing to remember your manners. Yeah, good thing we weren't total suckers ourselves. Sure, walk away with your 'flying scrap' and then I get my head torn off and called a fool by your friend that wants you. \it's you he wants. I see that now. "

Banlee turned his head and yelled out behind him. "What did she offer you, minotaur? Tell you you'd be a big hero if you killed us all? Did she tell you she was just some innocent traveller?" he looked back to Meri but still yelled over his shoulder. "You know she was a half-caste or did she lie about that too?"

Banlee spat again, but perhaps that was because his mouth was filling with blood, the blow from The Ball might have made him bite his tongue. "Sure, we're the murderers, told nothing about you by the thing you know all about about. Given intructions just vague enough to fall in to your meat grinder, probably just so he could figure out where you were. Hah, probably just meant me to die, good thing I don't trust my group, at least they died ahead of me. Not done me much go though, has it? Hah, 'no one here' said your 'unarmed' chump. Just before you started wiping us out. I suppose your friend who wants you didn't lie. Not too much. Sure there were no soldiers nor guards here. Just you. Just you and your other mage friend, ready to kill us all and damn the people here. Don't blame you in that."

Banlee spat one last time, looking to his side. "So, Goth there didn't give you what you wanted, even though you tortured him with acid, heh? Fine, let's end the charade. You pretend to want to know what's hunting you, and why? How about you reach in to my pocket. Hah, got a stone of my own, see. Not as fancy as yours, but then I'm just a pawn, right? Why don't you go pull it out and we call your lying little bluff. Why don't you speak to your friendly hunter in front of that minotaur. You beat me fair and square, killed my group, fine. Don't pull me in to your charade. You want to send a message to your hunter, do it yourself."


Well that's a whole mess of words that might not make sense :D


Meanwhile inside the inn, Jorri was nodding along to Nym's words. "Yeah, whole lot of good nothing around here," he said sadly. "After the war some people were gone and others were homeless and it made sense for them to move south or at least rebuild on the hill. Some that stayed have since died or moved on. Many that moved to the hill took their house bricks with them and build a new home stone by stone on the hill. But there's still some good strong foundations and some good houses around. Repair one you like or make one yourself with honest labour, stone by stone. The ground here is good, not like you'd can't line out a plot for yourself. Sur,e you might not need much money here, but I would pay an honest wage. Minus board and food if you want to live here or need to to start with. But still, I'm hoping some folks will come for the tales of what happened today, and some will come because you lot are done in the forest. Sorry on both counts, but I hope I didn't read it wrong that it wasn't the life for you you. So yeah, keep your head down and you can lead an honest quiet life here. Not too quiet, there new road is right on our doorstep, Newbridge has some things, but, you know, we're definitely quiet adjacent."

Crass stood hovering completely uncertain. He didn't seem too bothered about mention of the death of the other bandits, he more seemed to simply have the air of someone who wasn't believing what was offered. "Your friend doens't want me here," he muttered.

"Bugger him, I was here first, rather my mother was, whilst his father was kicked out of the towns north and south until he found the smithy here. Bah, Tym gives you too much grief, you ask him about how his father ended up working here." Jorri smiled nastily, then sighed. "Actually, best not. Just remind me to use that one on him if Tym keeps being so..so. I don't know what he's being. Not like him. Well, not completely."

Jorri grabbed some more soup then drank some more ale. "Here's to getting back to normal!" He then looked to Nym. "And to your journey, if you are still thinking about making for the falls?"

Lol, if Banlee had any sense he's since lost it...

"Yeah, probably." she replies. "I suppose. Maybe. I don't actually know. I think Ball wants us to go there. We can go and have a look, I suppose. Maybe it'll be interesting."

She grins, then looks up at Crass.

"So you got yourself a new home out of this. That's good, right? And this place..."

She gestures to the room they're in.

"...belongs to this guy..."

She gestures to Jorri.

"Not that guy out there."

She indicates the door.

"And if people who do bad things and then try to make up for it only ever get shouted at and told to go away, then I'm sure they'll keep doing bad things, because they don't have any reason to do otherwise. So never mind him, I reckon. Stay with the people who like your food, and then you'll feel happy because...well, because they like it. Because they like what you did, and you did it and no-one else did, so it was all you that made those people happy!"

Meri sighed and shook her head slowly.
"Oh shut up!" she muttered contemptuously, jabbing her staff into Banlee's chest, aiming for the bruises where the Ball hit him earlier.

"If I knew who sent you, I wouldn't have needed to ask you.  Typical elf, everything is all about you" she spat.

She looked towards the pocket he had indicated.
"Still, I think I will talk to this mysterious hunter, even if it's just to tell him to take his stupid ball if he wants it and leave us alone or get HIS head ripped off!"
With that, she reached towards the pocket...


OOC: See how he reacts to her calling his bluff then :)
Hoping this isn't a trap and he doesn't have a poisonous finger biter in his pocket!

Banlee grunted in pain and writhed around a little to the blow. However, despite the look of hatred he allowed Meri to retrieve what was in the bandit's pocket. Luckily it was obvious and close to the top of his pocket.

"Tell It I'm dead or you'll wish you were..." hissed Banlee quickly with some form of false bravado, his eyes showing true terror.

It seemed like some form of joke, or a sign the bandit leader was truly insane. The item in Meri's hand was a rock. About a finger length and thumb width in size. Greyish brown and the same as many others on the ground here. Banlee was probably grinding a few in to his arms and back as he squirmed to get as much distance between himself and Meri as possible.


Yay, you acquired a rock! I mean Rock (Backpack). Mark it on your Action Chart under the 'Pointless Items Showing Villain Insanity' section :D


Back in the taproom, Crass seemed nervous and unsure of himself.

"Oh for goodness sake," said Jorri, standing up and practically pulling the bandit down on to the seat. "Eat, drink, and think." Crass seemed surprised, but clearly some real ale rather than strange sauce, and an item of food that tasted like it should was enough to lower the younger man's defenses for a while. He ate, giving suspicious looks over his eyebrows as he shoved and swallowed.

"Right, so perhaps some bread," mused Jorri. "And Nym, can I get you anything else? Or any food or drink for the journey then? I am sure the falls will be interesting. I mean usually I'd worry they were dangerous, but...I have a feeling that's not an issue for yourself and Meri."

The Ball seemed excited when the Falls were mentioned, and bumped it to Timur's shoulder as if going 'see, see, we're going'. The Ball looped around Jorri's head for a moment then bobbed happily at Nym's shoulder.

Jorri quickly bundled the healing kit back together whilst awaiting Nym's answer.

Crass looked quickly at Jorri's back, and suspiciously at The Ball. He then leaned closer to Nym, whispering in the most conspiratorial manner. "Can...can you make the carrots in this taste like beef again?" he asked, almost shyly.


Aww. Maybe bandit friend will stay after all.


Back outside, Banlee still looked terrified. "What does it say?" he hissed, quietly and shaking.

The answer, of course, being-
This message was last edited by the player at 22:21, Tue 23 June 2015.