Adrie answers, "Normally, you are given facts from eyewitness accounts. These are prophecies from people who were warned about a people who may not have even been born back when the prophecy was given. So no. The information given is all we have about them. We know there is a whole world of them. We know their whole world's worth of people are coming here. We know they will attack us with intent to destroy all we know. We know nothing more. We do not even know what they will look like or how they will arrive."

Hazel glances at Nathaniel. "Oh? Like Rahagar over there asked; why are you the wrong guy for the job?"

Gnara giggles and grins. "Well everyone has to put someone down; either someone else or themselves. It's a law of this world! Tearing down is just too much fun for anyone, from humble to proud, to resist! So the humble tear themselves down while the proud tear down everyone else."

"I'm guessing the idea is to get the other crystals before the invasion anyway."

More drinking.

"Well the reason I'm not in the astral sea is because I was kicked out.  Flunked out of angel school you could say."

  "Perhaps that was an incentive for them to choose you instead.  Though you must not have disappointed that much, considering where we got Devils from."  Okay, so at the table picked for special finding stuff job you got a Draconian, a Gnoll, a flunked Angel and...  Seemingly average Longtooth.

  "I do not suppose you have had some philosophical disagreements when seeking artifacts in the past, Hazel?"

  At Gnaras latest social commentary, he asks "Does this leave room for those who put down both?"

Gnara answers, "Absolutely!" with such excitement, it was as though Rhagar was asking if he could play in her reindeer games and she wanted to be the first to welcome him.

Hazel answers, "Oh definitely have had philosophical disagreements. What I do is taboo to most religions. I collect the words of creation, which gives me the power of the gods directly... without the gods granting it. And that usually sparks everything from "nuh-uh! The gods grant you those finds!" to "Blasphemy! How dare you treat sacred words like common house tools" to "Arrogant muppet! You really think the gods would be so sloppy as to leave their power around for the likes of you to pick up and use? When were you born? Yesterday?" and other kinds of arguments against what I do."

Gnara says, "An angel flunky is still better than most mortals, you know. I'll bet you could equal or better most of the people in this room.... why did you flunk, anyway?"

"Yeah, 'failure' is somewhat less of a sin than 'traitor.'  Hence my still being alive."

You try and turn devilish in angel school where the vice principal is 15 levels higher than you.

Wine sip.  Shrug.  "Well now you have the dubious distinction of not being condemned by a failed angel for your chosen profession."

To Gnara's question he sighs.  "Slacked off.  Disobeyed orders.  Teacher wound up dead pulling my sorry butt out of the mess I made.  Anything else you want to know?"

  Yup, they were team affront to gods and dragons.  Hmm, maybe Rhagar would ask Hazel his thoughts on Mithral dragons later, They get so worked up about teleport 2.  "That happens more often than such sorts like to admit, it seems. Not just for the divine sort."

  Off in benched characters land, Blake closes his book of stolen dark secrets for dummies and puts on his red Kyle wig.  His player has typed the wrong name for the wrong person often enough when talking about them at the same time, after all.

  "I shall leave further prying to others Nathaniel.  Outside of really, where do angels go when they die if not right back where they started?"
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Wed 08 Apr 2015.

Gnara giggles. "There goes that word "Somewhat" being thrown around where "a lot" should be used again. Lemme try! Gnolls have a somewhat worse reputation than dwarves. Heehee..."

She then looks at Nathaniel and says, "Well it's like you said: Running means you die alone. And if we don't try, we're all dead. So no amount of screwing up will make matters worse, you know. Orrr... it is because you know lack of discipline gets people killed that the crystal chose you. But what's "somewhat" more funny is that you don't question the crystal choosing a gnoll. Guess hating yourself makes you refuse to believe there is anything worse, heehee."

Hazel says, "We all likely have a different perspective on life that most don't. My perspective likely has me less hesitant to dive into the sacred. Nathaniel's has him less likely to let someone down again. Gnara clearly has a... dark... perspective, from what I'm gathering. And Rhagar, I dunno yet."

Nathan is stumped by Rhagar's question.  "I'm not sure in my case.  But for a normal angel, they usually go to oblivion."

He chooses not to comment on Gnara's exposition and focuses on his drink.

  "Hopefully you do not have a chance to discover one way or the other soon, Nathaniel." My Rhagar, how encouraging.

  Rhagar was successfully vague and mysterious, whoo.  Or perhaps just vague, which many try to pass off as mysterious.

  He looks to Hazel in mild confusion at his comments regarding Gnara.  "She does?  I hadn't noticed.  I thought Gnara just liked stating the obvious."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:04, Wed 08 Apr 2015.

Hazel says, "Well for one, I disagree with her that everyone has to put someone down. There are people who try to lift everyone up including themselves. And there are people who don't mind anyone, good or evil, and find all ideals equally intriguing."

May interjects, "Well guys! Since you all are "chosen" and so am I, I guess I'll see you guys some day when me and my group have found a crystal or two! Good luck!"

Gnara says, "You were chosen too?"

May hops off her chair. "Yup! See ya!" and trots off.

Gnara blinks. Then grins. "So we WILL have competition after all... heeee... heee..."

"Thanks Rhagar.  I can't think of anything else to say to that.

"You'd think coordination between the groups would be more efficient.  But where's the fun in that?"

Glug.

  "Goodbye then." Quite a heavily armed Kobold, she couldn't possible use all those weapons with only two arms right?

  He looks to Gnara and Nathaniel, "I think our groups we will be sent to look for separate artifacts, so unless the pay changes based on who finds what first, not much in the way of competition or cooperation."

Hazel looks over to Nathaniel and says, "By the way; sorry about your teacher." he decides not to get Nathaniel's hopes up, but he secretly figures maybe there is a way to resurrect even angels... using the words of creation.

Gnara says, "Well we've been chosen. Let's not let that go to waste."

And with that, Gnara gets to her feet.

Apparently, most of the people present have asked what they are going to ask and have been trickling out of the palace to go find the crystals. M.R.A. time!

Nathan just nodded in reply to Hazel and finished his zillionth glass.  If he weren't tipsy, he might have asked if anyone has any clue where to begin looking.  But he's too fuzzy headed to think of anything useful.  So he just peels himself out of his chair and follows Gnara's lead.

  Rhagar thinks they may be going with the 'stumble upon it' method of plot progression.

  He does not comment on the Angel's inability to hold his booze considering his own existence as a class with neither a reason to boost CON or ability to train Endurance.  Drunk is not a status effect that prevents flanking either, so they should still be useful.

  "I do hope this does not simply end with the enemy using the crystals themselves to transport directly past all defenses."

  OOC: If you have your heart set on Deva Chris, can just bolt on Draconian style "Must land by end of your turn or not allowed to fly in first place" wings in exchange for a useful Deva trait (like the radiant/necro resist).  Since Sandbox is there to test builds for people who want to test builds, I'm not gonna go 100% ZE RULES if you are just along for the ride with us mechanics testers.

  Mostly I just want to avoid "Gimme BETTER flight than is actually available because I want full flight. suck it, people testing their rules following characters".  Pixie style wings are super limited too, particularly for a melee dude unless you are using one handers.  Altitude limit 1 (crash if you are higher than 1 tile up at end of your turn) on a small creature.

Either way, Draconian and Pixie style flight can be a real letdown if you are expecting anything like proper flight.  Neither is capable of hovering past melee range due to fine print. Pixies are small which sucks for melee types beyond 1 hand weapons.  Draconians are not allowed to fly unless they land by end of their turn (Draconian rules are an eyecrossing set of paradoxes).

  Where the real benefit is to Pixie/Draconian flight, is that you can still ignore difficult terrain forever, and you can shift via flight. Possessing a Fly speed of 6 means you can absorb up to 6 tiles of fall distance. So it's still super useful.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:54, Thu 09 Apr 2015.

  Yup, that was a magical crystal all right.  While he expected more hidden nearby, even accounting for that this is less potential enemies than he thought would be involved.  He readies his sling, but hesitates.  While he was pretty sure none he was traveling with would care if he killed them in such an event, there was the slight chance the Orcs were not activly hostile.  So perhaps the moral thing would be to-

  Oh dear, Rhagar's musings and aim are interrupted by an axe to the chest.  "Trying to posses a conscience can be a cause of some difficulty, as usual."

"Well apparently they have none, and I'm going to make sure to be of great difficulty to them for it!"

Zoom up the stairs with powerful flap of the wings and STAB!  Nathan wounds the nearest Raider.

"Take a look at our team, fool!  You're no match!  SURRENDER!"

Seriously.  It's like a bad monster flick.  Wolfman meets wolfgirl, dragon man, and angel boy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:32, Thu 09 Apr 2015.

Nathan sees a stone go flying past him as an orc seems to appear from behind one of the ruin walls.

Hazel rushes over and even as he does, his armor unsheathes some spikes before he grabs at it and the spikes are revealed to be a spiked chain that unwraps from his armor! He swings it and rips some flesh off of the enemy orc from the bottom of the stairs!

The orc responds with "RAAAAWR!" and hacks a huge gash in Nathan with his greataxe, knocking him down and out!

The gnoll hurries forward, giggling and hurls her hand forward, a rope made completely of shadows going towards the orc. But the bloodraged orc dodges it seemingly with ease.

A couple more orcs appear at the tops of the other walls, having just climbed them.

  "Well, that is concerning." One less person not him to be attacked, and Nathaniel had the better AC and HP numbers as well.

  Still, as big and scary as the level 3 Raiders are to level 1 PCs, Rhagar accepts the reality of being the only one capable of reasonably attacking the nearby Drudges.   He manages a more successful shot with his sling this time, punching through their eye and being freed from the Drudge's skull as it splits open from crashing to the ground below.

One of the orcs jumps on Hazel, hacking him good with his axe!

Hazel growls, his fur standing on end. He puts a finger on his chest to turn the runic circle counter-clockwise and a "clink" along with some feint choir-sound can be heard before Nathan's wounds seem to close enough to no longer be bleeding and he wakes up!

Hazel then swings his chain and rips some more flesh off the orc that is in front of Nathan!

One of the drudges sneaks around and whacks Gnara in the shoulder with a rock! THUNK! Gnara yelps like a kicked puppy!

Then the near-dead orc rushes around Nathan and hacks Hazel into unconscious land.

Another rock, another ouch to Gnara!

But Gnara comes up and flanks the orc with Nathan and stabs him through the heart with her sword! "Heeehee"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:05, Thu 09 Apr 2015.

  Okay, make that very concerning.  One raider down, while both of the tough guys of their little team were down.  On the bright side, Rhagar is not yet the one getting rocks (successfully) thrown at him.  We're sure this has noooothing to do with the fact Gnara was between himself and said rocks.

  The draconian circles behind the still standing raider, slicing open an arm from wrist to shoulder with his rapier.  It's no fatal impalement, but it certainly beat his first turn.  Or getting taken out in one axe swing himself, that would have sucked.

  No pressure in finishing the job before the Raider's next turn, still standing guys. Really.

---

Move: duh.
Standard: Sly flourish. hits exactly thanks to CA. 28 total DMG.

Raider HP: 46-28= 18

Nathan hops up and glides down into position behind the orc.  SLASH!  A grave wound is delivered!  He reaches down and heals Hazel.

"You see?!  We're indestructible!"

Hazel hops to his feet, whips the orc with the spiked chain and rips more flesh off, causing the orc enough pain to finally go down. Hazel's flesh appears to be mending itself, true to the legends of werewolves... or the descendants of werewolves.

Hazel grins at Nathan and twirls the same rune circle clockwise. Nathaniel not only starts healing some more, but gains some blue shield around him.

One of the orcs on the walls throws another rock, but it bounces off Nathan's armor while missing Hazel by only 2 feet.

Gnara says, "I got this one, heehee..." and rushes over to the wall-orc to the north.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:19, Fri 10 Apr 2015.

  "I much prefer you two like this than bleeding to death." Rhagar comments, as he picks up one of the stones that has previously bounces off Gnara's skull, flaps up onto the platform, and violently returns it to sender.

"Likewise, Rhagar.  Guess today's not the day I find out what happens to me after I die."

He flies around and up the stairs to the west to the top and throws a javelin at the last orc.

"So why exactly are you people attacking us to the bitter end?  Spite?  No sense of self-worth?"