Tesseryn nods to acknowledge Brindle's recommendation.  "Join us when you can."

Downstairs, she notes how the hidden catch was revealed by Halphed, but quietly swings the bookshelf-door closed again.  She puts a finger to her lips and quietly asks, "Halphed, point to where we can find Haffrung."

"Well, they look harmless enough," Aurion regards the Spare Bodies. "but suppose Haffrung were to possess one of them... perhaps we should prepare for that possibility?"

He beckons to Vova. "Vova, we could use your assistance. These three Spare Bodies need to be tied up so they can't use spells if Haffrung returns to occupy one. Can you please help us bind them?"

Aurion casts Mage Armour on himself then steps into the room to sample the comestibles.

Once he has seen the spare bodies and is confident that Haltashaar knows how to secure the doors, Brindle suggests that Cogwitz and Leisha should also help tie up the spares to speed up the process.

"I'm going to join our friends downstairs," he explains quietly.

Wrukaog just gets a quick look into the bedroom but is satisfied there is no work for his greataxe in there.

He waits silently for Halphed's response.

"No idea, sorry," Halphed tells Tesseryn.  "Afraid old Helleyes doesn't confide his movements to his guards unless he needs us with him."

"He's not upstairs, or in there, so he might be in his workroom," the obliging fellow points a finger at the other, more obvious door, "but failing that, he could be anywhere - up in the village, feeding his pet, wandering the halls ..."

Leaving Aurion to undertake the taste-testing duties and supervise Vova, Cogwitz and Leisha tying up the three spare bodies (spoiler alert: Vova is surprising, even disturbingly good at this task, while the spare bodies' compliance is equally surprising, even disturbing ... as is the rather unusual flavouring of the finger-food), and with Haltashaar on door duty, and the other ex-prisoners on guard, Brindle trots downstairs to join Tesseryn and Wrukaog, arriving at the tail end of Halphed's less than helpful run down of where Haffrung Helleyes probably is not.

OOC: Vova, who had a tab into this thread open way down the left of his window, was not getting updates. ^_^

 "Normal is rather unutterably tedious, I find." Vova replies as he sets to investigating the comfortable bed and ancillary objects, just in case there's anything fun in the bedside cabinet or the sheets are especially nice - which means that when talk of a return to his original location is offered up he's not tremendously excited at first, at least until the 'evil wizard' is mentioned, a situation which causes him to straighten up, brush his hands together, remark "Well, very nice to meet you all but I really should be going...", not even slightly dissuaded by talk of a lynch mob (well, it is Vova here we're talking about) but brought up short by a singularly malicious 'squonk' sound coming from the door leading upwards.

 It's one sound, and only one sound but it spins him around on the spot to clap his hands together with feigned enthusiasm and a faint beading of sweat on his forehead "Evil wizard you say? Sounds lovely. Count me in!"

 Thereafter he's of some, but limited assistance - he is, as noted distressingly adept at tying people up (even if he does insist on asking them about something called a 'safe word' first), but is largely free of anything resembling malice about his nominal captor, waving it off airily "Oh, nothing personal. Why, if I went around getting upset about everyone who tried to have me sacrificed, or arrested, or tortured, or poisoned, or thrown off quite a high cliff, or fed to a gulguthra I'd never have time for anything fun."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Mon 26 Feb.

"Gargk!" Aurion splutters, indelicately spitting into the dip. "Don't eat that, any of it! There's a reason these three are so mellow."

"Good work Vova. Now let's join the others downstairs. Last one out close the door so Haltashaar can secure it."

He heads downstairs.

17:19, Today: Aurion Moonbeak_ rolled 17 using 1d20+8.  Fort save DC17 for comestibles
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Fri 16 Feb.

OOC: nice to have you back Vova.

Tesseryn glances at Wrukaog, Brindle and Haplhed with a grimace. She shrugs and tries the door to the north.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:59, Fri 16 Feb.

Wrukaog grins and stands close beside Tesseryn, ready with his greataxe.

Brindle grimaces back at Tesseryn and hides behind the stairs, quickly casting a spell upon himself.  He holds his favourite wand (of magic missiles) ready for action if required.

Though the opportunity to join in the good fight against an evil wizard might not entice Vova, who seems to take his near brush with vivisection as something to be expected on the whole, if not relied upon, the disapprobation of (and threatening noises voiced by) his fated companion serves to convince him which path he should tread.  Surprise and disturbance give way to distress as he binds the three compliant figures upon the sofa while Aurion discovers bad things about the dainties on offer. 

Leaving Haltashaar to manage a few simple knots (to secure the rope betwixt the handles of the two doors on opposite sides of the passage), there is a general exodus as the large group make a beeline for the stairs to rejoin those below where Brindle takes up a position of concealment behind the stairs his trusty wand at the ready, Halphed standing at his side smiling and waving, and Wrukaog waiting with axe in hand as Tesseryn tries the door to the north ...

... which opens with suspicious ease to reveal a well lit (magically so, judging by the lack of any source) if narrow room, about fifty feet long and but fifteen wide.  The western fifteen feet or so are sealed off by metal bars which run from floor to ceiling, with a barred door allowing ingress and egress, currently closed, though the cell thus formed contains nothing but dung strewn straw on the ground.

A stone workbench, about twenty feet long is against the south wall, upon which sits a variety of jars, pestles and the like.  Twenty bottles filled with liquids of various hues sit on a shelf set above the workbench.  There is another door set in the eastern end of the northern wall, opposite the one through which you currently peer.

The room is entirely lacking in occupants.  No sign of Haffrung Helleyes here.

OOC: Map of the proceedings for Group 0 updated ...

 Vova gives a quick once-around the room that they're leaving, a process which results in their being significantly fewer comestibles around than when he began (what with Aurion having vouched for them) before scurrying out, hastily followed (or perhaps driven) by a furious-looking peacock - although the anger it's displaying seems almost pro forma at this point, since the hope that Vova won't at least investigate any mind-altering substance in his general vicinity died a lonely death some time ago.

 "So, uhm..." the sot asks as the door's being opened and much tactical-looking shenanigans are being deployed "...would this be a good time to ask what it is that folks do? In general, I mean? Other than chase after evil wizards in cramped towers?"

Wrukaog glares at Vova for a moment then shakes his greataxe threateningly.

"Wrukaog kill!" he snarls.

Then he steps into the room to open the door in the northern wall.

Brindle chuckles at Wrukaog's response to Vova.

He shakes his wand at Vova and does his best to imitate the brutal orc's tone as he says, "Brindle do magic!"

He moves out from behind the stairs so he can see into the room more easily between people's legs.

"One does what one can, you know..." Tesseryn replies distractedly, but managing another grimace for a smile.  "Free the captives, help the gnomes, thwart the evil machinations of Set.  Thatsort of thing. Taking the fight to Haffrung seems like the logical next step, but it's all rather confusing.  Do you have any ideas?"

She draws her greatswordand enters after Wrukaog.  "He's a Wizard, so best get him before he gets us."

"We're all here at the whim of our Gods." Aurion replies to Vova.

"After you died - you do know you're dead I hope, hate to be the one to break that to you - your gods saw fit to send you here to help out. As it was explained to us, there's a Dark Tower occupied by followers of Set, and a White Tower occupied by followers of Mitra (gnomes mostly), and the two towers are stuck in a centuries-long battle, well, stalemate actually, as neither side seems to be actively going at the other.".

He gives a long-suffering glare at Tesseryn's back. "Until our ex-paladin chose a side for us. There's no stopping him or her - we're literally unable to harm each other, but feel free to try it!"

OOC: out of time...will write more later to further confuse Vova :-)

"These four dervishes," he indicates the other quieter members of the party, "were also captives; like you they were freed by us, and they now share our path.  They seem to be sworn enemies of Set. The gnoll, Gratchscartch, we also met down here in these tunnels. If you want to speak with him I suggest you first make him a sandwich. Leisha, with the blue ribbon, was with us from the start and may discuss philosophy with you, or not.

And I prefer magic of all types, except the mind-bending type. Its hard enough making up my own mind without having to take on that burden for others." He favours Brindle with a smirk.

"Oh, and at least Tesseryn is genuine when she asks for your ideas - she'll change course as easily as a hover fly. If the apparently inevitable violent showdown with Haffrung Helleyes is not your thing then feel free to propose an alternative."

Taking note of Vova's scrupulous selection of everything he'd advised to avoid, Aurion asks "So, Vova, what did you do to get yourself noticed by your gods, and what do you suppose they'd hoped you might do here?"

A tiny viper whispering in his ear with a ticklish forked tongue reminds Aurion to ask, "Yes, ah ... what's with the peacock?"

The door to the north joins a depressingly long line of similar portals which have given you difficulty recently.  It stubbornly, willfully even, refuses to budge even a smidgeon as Wrukaog pulls (and pushes, just in case) on the handle, seemingly rather locked, though lacking such a thing as an actual keyhole. It's all terribly, terribly sad ...

... but as Tesseryn comes up behind the big Orc (something entirely not recommended), the door abruptly rethinks its position and gives way with some alacrity to reveal a slightly larger yet darkened room beyond, perhaps sixty feet long by twenty feet wide.

While the south wall where you stand is fashioned from dressed stonework, the western and northern walls are formed by solid and suitably craggy rock, damp and mossy as one might expect in the circumstances.  Narrow openings (barely five feet wide) at the eastern ends of the south and north walls lead south, north-west and west, while the east wall itself is the balefully familiar black marble that suggests you're in unwelcome proximity to the outer facade of the Black Tower of Set.

Speaking of being near to things that one might wish to be ... the room is entirely populated by one brownish reptile-like creature, that appears to have outgrown its dwelling, being perhaps twenty feet long and with rather an abundance of sinuous necks and heads, its tough hide scraping roughly against stone as it turns six pairs of amber eyes in your direction, staring balefully at Wrukaog.
OOC: Map of the proceedings for Group 0 updated ...

Brindle can see Wrukaog and sees the door open in front of him. He can't see what is in the room beyond Wrukaog but that scraping sound gave the impression of something big and Wrukaog's sudden tensing and raising his greataxe is an all-too-familiar sign of imminent violence. So Brindle casts a spell at the big orc and he suddenly doubles in size.

Only then does Brindle dash forward to enter the workshop.

OOC: Cast Enlarge Person on Wrukaog.

Wrukaog was already leaning forward and gathering himself to attack the hydra before he suddenly found himself growing larger, through the doorway and closer to the giant reptile. That just made him even more angry and fuelled the rage that was always bubbling just below the surface and uncontrollable rage suddenly engulfed his mind. He was now so big and so close to the hydra that he only needed to step forward a single pace to reach the hydra with his oversized greataxe.

He swung his greataxe wildly at the giant lizard and followed through with a second blow as well.

OOC: Power attack!

Wrukaog_ rolled 13,14 using d20+12,d20+7.  To hit hydra, raging, power attack 7. – 13,14
LOL - I think he missed!

Without so much as backward glance or battle cry, Tesseryn steps with measured stride in Wrukaog's wake, passing left of raging orc and quickly among the watching nest of sinuous necks with sword high to parry bites and pierce deeply the scaly body beyond.

21:52, Today: Tesseryn Brightsoul rolled 20 using 1d20+7.  attack hydra - combat expertise +5 AC
21:53, Today: Tesseryn Brightsoul rolled 11 using 2d6+7.  dmg hydra.

Being next in line, Aurion glides forward eagerly to take a peek at the object of the commotion up ahead that has the fighters rushing in and Brindle casting already. He stops to the right of the door and gapes. Looking back he reports to the gaggle behind "Its a hydra with four, five, no, six heads! Exactly what Wrukaog was hoping for."

Not to be outdone by the halfling he casts from the safety of the doorway, shooting a crackling ray of electricity that snakes past the oversized orc and on towards the hydra.

22:15, Today: Aurion Moonbeak_ rolled 9 using 1d20+4.  ranged touch - seeking ray
22:16, Today: Aurion Moonbeak_ rolled 13 using 4d6.  electrical damage.