Dungeons & Dragons (TF to RPG Characters)
- Possible TF Types include: Chronological, Gender, Monster, Mythological, Super Powers

Description: Each of the characters is a player in a Dungeons and Dragons game. You may or may not have played in a RPG before and the reasons you are here are up to you.

(Remember that if you would like your characters to know each other in this Scenario, they do not have to in any other)

---

The game was to be held at Christopher Bishop's house, located in a smaller suburb on the edge of town. In truth, he shared the house with two room-mates, David Johnson and his girlfriend Emma. Surprisingly normal for being friends with Chris, they were out for the evening that the Dungeons and Dragons game was held.

Christopher, who was a slightly larger man in his very early twenties, had invited most of his friends into RPGs for a fun evening of role-playing and dragon-slaying. Whether the girlfriend (or boyfriend) with no interest in the game was dragged along, there is always that possibility.

Having either premade your own characters or asked Chris to make them for you, all you need to do was to turn up at 6:30 pm sharp with the appropriate snacks. Christopher had themed his living room for the night, with his fantasy models and shrouded windows. A large table was in the centre, filled with dice, maps and models. There was also the familiar Dungeon Master's Screen, and two strange looking novelty candles that resembled silver dragons that were breathing out the candle light.

(Feel free now to introduce your characters as they sit round the table or arrive. Your actual D&D Characters will be introduced later)

Sarah sits patiently at the table, her character sheet laid in front of her, and a small pile of dice next to it. She's reading a 2e handbook of some sort, probably the Thief's Handbook.

John sat there waiting for the game to start. He passed the time by randomly rolling the odd dice or stacking them in verious ways. John was known for playing odd characters and being slightly over the top in his mannerism. Of his previous characters the group would know of, his half-orc wizard in peticular was memorable, especially considering he too the half-orc's first level in barbarian so he would be illiterate, and thus have trouble reading his own spellbooks. The strange thing was that he had a weird ability to actually make these odd characters actually viable, though his ungodly good luck certainly helped. Hopefully, Christopher convinced him to play something halfway sane for once, but even if he didn't it would be interesting.

He had several books beside him, the arms and equipment guide was the one closest to hand but he always had that on him, the next few were supplements, all dealing with melee or at least non-magic classes. Though it didn't narrow it down much.

Dan was scribbling happily away on his paper. He was drawing the spooniest, greatest, largest-hat wearing idiot EVER!, in the portrait slot, after rubbing the last one out. Must've been the hat, it's important. Definitely the hat. You judge a man by the hat he is given, and his character's hat was the largest he'd ever drawn.

He was rather a newbie to D&D, but that wasn't going to stop him having fun with his hat, err, character. He'd looked through the classes and settled on bard because it seemed like the most useless and best to play as, as well as most absurd. Exactly what could a bard do? He was rearing to go and full of Monty Python jokes to make the night even cornier.

Walking through the door, a big guy with a green shoulder bag that seems fit to burst and two shopping bags comes to the table.  He's wearing a t-shirt with a stick figure halfling on it, holding a dagger in each hand and proclaiming himself to the a "Sexy, Bare-Footed, God of War!!!".     He seems to be holding the heavy bags without much apparent effort, but seems a bit winded by the walk up the long driveway.


Hi everybody!  (pause for them to say "Hi, Dr. Nick").  Sorry, obligatory Simpsons reference.  Had to be done.

I'm Greg.  I work at Boston Comics over on Allston St, and overheard Chris talking about a D&D game.  Well, my geek sense started tingling and we got to talking, and he said that there was an opening in his game tonight.  I hope you don't mind.  I've been playing D&D for years now and have played lots of kinds of characters, so whatever you're party needs, just let me know.
My favorite class is cleric, so if your party doesn't need anything inparticular, I'll be happy to be the party healer.

Oh, and I brought Mountain Dew, Orange Soda, Doritos, Cheetos, pretzels, and Chips Ahoy for snacks.   

(looks a little embarrassed)
Um, I may have gone a bit overboard with the snacks, but Chris joked that you guys had veto power over whether or not you had room for another player, so I thought some bribes were in order.  (grins)

How are you guys tonight?

He tried to play it cool, but inside Greg was almost vibrating with excitement.  He hadn't gotten to game in almost a year, ever since his friends Jeff and Pete had had the disagreement over a rule in Travelers:the Space Opera game and didn't speak for a month.  He was always tempted to try to get together to game again with them, but had to admit that gaming with people who took it THAT seriously was probably a bad idea.    Granted, he was probably not much better, sitting here like a heroin junkie at a methadone clinic.  He just loved gaming so much!  He was really looking forward to tonight.    The people here seemed pretty cool so far, as was Chris.  He had high hopes so far.

Especially the guy drawing the guy with the big hat.  Nice job.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:09, Tue 24 Mar 2009.

"I'm pumped!" Dan replies in a happy tone to the newcomer. "Hand me the cheetos so I am gain a few pounds!" He says, holding out his hand like he was in a play for a few seconds with the biggest smile on his face.

Greg laughs and hands over the bag of Cheetos to Dan, though he's a bit envious of anyone who "needs to gain a few pounds", being about 20  lbs overwieght, himself.

He arranges  the snacks on a nearby side table and takes a seat at the table, taking out several gaming books, a cloth bag containing 30 or 40 mismatched dice of all "denominations", and a couple of manila folders that seem to contain character sheets.

He nods around the room as he sets up.   As he moves books and papers around, Greg takes three 20 sided dice and beings rolling them around in one hand, much like the Captain in "Mutiny on the Bounty" did three metal balls in the movie (I apologize for any details I get wrong when I "quote" that movie).  It's unclear if the action is a nervous habit, a good luck ritual, or unconscious action.  He's very rolling the dice around without dropping them, implying that it's a long standing habit.

To Dan:


Cool drawing, by the way.

Dan looks very proud and smiles. "A man is judged by his hat, and this character's hat is the largest you will ever see. The mexicans ain't got nothin' on me!" He banged down on the tabled with his fist lightly and opened the bag of cheetos, eating them greedily with a satisfied expression.

He liked cheetos.

Greg chuckles, then says:
And everywhere you go, women are always saying: "Oh baby, your hat.... it's so.....BIG!"

Greg takes out some paper cups and pours some Dew, offering it (and the orange) around the table.

Sarah takes a Dew, smirking at the hat talk.

"Sure, you can think that..."

Cassander walks back into the room, snapping shut his cell phone.  He walks over and stands behind his seat, one hand on the back of the chair.  "Sorry about that guys.  I had to take that call.  Has Dan finished drawing his characters hat yet or has he finally run out of lead?" He chuckled as he leaned over the table to catch a look at Dan's drawing.  It was a good drawing, but Cassander never really understood Dan's obsession with big hats.

The larger collection of snacks and drinks on the table caught his eye, and Cassander looked at the table as though he were trying to divine some hidden truth.  "Did we get more food?  You'd almost think that we were afraid of starving." he asked, looking around the table and finally landing eyes on Greg.  "Oh, sorry.  You must be Greg.  I'm Cassander." he said with a friendly smile as held out his hand to Greg.

Greg chuckled at Sarah's remark.  He took on the air of a sleazy bar fly, one eyebrow cocked and asked:
Well, you know what they say about guys with big hats, don't you?

After a second or two pause for comedic effect, his face became very serious and grave.
They generally develop severe neck strain.   It's sad, really.

He grins.

Looking up, he takes Cassander's hand when he offers it, smiling at him.
Glad to meet you, Cassander.  I love your name, if you don't mind me saying.   Where's it from?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:42, Wed 25 Mar 2009.

About a minute after the group has gathered, you hear a flush from another part of the house.

Moments later, Chris bustles out into the living room.

"Hey guys!" he says, taking his seat behind the DM's screen, which he folds away for the moment "Glad you could all make it!"

"I see you've met Greg"

He then leans over to check on Dan's character's hat.

"Hey, I wouldnt miss this for the world!"

Sarah grins and puts the handbook under her seat.

Dan is rubbing it out and drawing a larger one, with a feather in the top. he looks focused and... rather stupid really. It's not that he wasn't a bit stupid but he had the habit of making whatever expression he happened to be drawing, and this seemed to show right now.

Thanks for inviting me, Chris.  I'm really looking forward to it.   What's the game, what do you need, what are the house rules?

Greg settles into a chair, looking around the room, basking in the glow of  the impending game.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:41, Wed 25 Mar 2009.

Cassander turns his chair around and sits down, leaning forward on the chair back.  "My first names Greek, even though I'm not.  Wierd parents.  I know it sounds like a girls name but it's really the guy version of Cassandra.  You can just call me Caz.  Glad you're joining us Greg.  Hey. We have Mountain Dew."  Cassander helped himself to a cup of the drink and took a sip.

Now that I think about it, Cassander, it makes perfect sense.   Still very cool, though.    My name is pretty mundane, by comparison.  It was kind of a hand-me-down from an aunt whose son Greg turned out to be born as her daughter Lisa. 
He grins.
My mother was stuck for a name for various reasons, and asked "Hey, JoAnne, if you're not using that name, can I grab it?"   The rest as they say, is history.

Also, I have to say that I'm gratified to see there are still fans of Mountain Dew, nectar of the gods, elixer of life (or at least gaming).  I've been drinking the stuff since I was six and haven't slowed down since.

"Cassander, that means 'brother of heroes' doesn't it? You planning to be that in the game?" Dan says, happily leaning back on his chair.

(laughs)
I hope that we don't have to play characters based on our names!   I'm not sure, but I think "Greg" either means "talkative" or "like a monk".   Both of which are true enough in real life, so I'd just as soon avoid them here.

Cassander gives Dan a feigned shocked expression.  "How can you game without the Dew?  It's like an unwritten law."  He raises one hand as if quoting a regulation.  "When thou has pen and paper upon which thy character resides and before thou dice rollest, thou will partake of the Dew lest thy dice roll poorly."

"Acutally, Greg means watchful and vigilant in Greek" he said, surprisingly knowledgeable about this. "As for dew, I really prefer water"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:06, Wed 25 Mar 2009.

Well, it's ALL Greek to me.   Perhaps I wasn't vigilant enough after all, I missed that meaning.

He grins.

And as far as water vs. Dew, I can only paraphrase the quote:
"You're offering my water?  I said I was thirsty, not dirty."

Dan gives a counter-grin. "For things other than water I can only quote Idiocracy:

Brawndo's got what plants crave!
What is that?
It's got electrolytes!
What are electrolytes?
I dunno... but they're what plants crave!"

John chuckled at the group, if they were this livly now he'd hate to see what happened when they were up on Mountain Dew "You all can have the Dew, I brought some Pepsi for myself."

He paused too look over at the hat in question "Dude... if you make any bigger you can use it for hide or disguies checks..." he said with a shake of his head and a look on his face that suggested he was barely holding back from laughing.

He looked in thought from that random piece. "Hmm, if I add more feathers to each side and make a pulley system, I can get the hat to fly!" He said, and promptly reached for the rubber.

John raised a hand to say something and opened his mouth to speak, closed his mouth again and shook his head. "Why do I get the feeling we have a Gnome machinist with us..."

"I'm a human bard, not a gnome" He said in an annoyed tone. He did so hate gnomes and dwarves. Maybe he'd get to kick a few when the game starts?

John nodded sagely "Hmm, human bard... maybe you could make a native american headdress, lots of feathers and it would be really big, especially if you threw some gryphon slash great eagle feathers on it too.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:11, Wed 25 Mar 2009.

"Didn't I just say that like a few seconds ago? Enough feathers for wings, like those norse helmet things. Except more like a pimp hat" Dan suddenly imagines a Norse Pimp and shudders.

John shudders as well at the thought, but continues on the hat "You were saying a lot of feathers on the hat. I was saying make a hat out of nothing but feathers."

"Make sure to include a strap if you do that, otherwise, it could end up flying away."

Sarah grabs a glass of Dew.

"That would be itchy and useless, as well as tacky" He replied, wiping off rubber giblets from the paper.

John actually burst out laughing at the comment that a headdress would be tacky while a viking helm with wings the size of an eagle would not. "Hoo, I needed that. Good luck with your hat man, I'd just suggest you make it small enough for it to fit through a door otherwise you'll have to take it off when preforming inside or going in a dungeon." He patted his character sheet which lay face down on the table "I've got mine drawn but I'd want to wait until we start to show it."

"Or we might have to start using it like a car rack, storing our travelling gear on top of it." Cassander added, with a grin.  "Or it could be used as the top of a crude shelter.  We could turn it over and use it as a boat if we need to cross water.  The possibilities are endless."

Hmmmm,  "A Bard Named Slickback".   Be sure to take Tower Shield proficiency, so you can get the best use of that hat. 

Greg smiles.

"Haha, nice. Maybe I could attach swords to the edges and attack by twirling?" He laughed at this, and thought about how it might be useful for surrounding attackers.

Yes, your hat would certainly be "brimming" with possibilities.

Greg nods, very deadpan.

He continues to get out gaming books and such.

As Christopher makes his final preparations and listens to the conversation, he adds "Do you guys like the candles? I noticed them at a old antiques place and thought they were pretty neat"

He gestures towards the two silver dragons who look like they are breathing out candle light.

"Yeah, they're cool. I like all those statues of dragons you see in the shop windows, got a few myself" He leant back a bit further.

Greg nods too.
Yeah, I'd love to get some stuff like that, either dragons or gargoyles, but I just don't have the room at my apartment.  Which antiques place?  I might stop by myself, sometime.  Heck, there might be something there to get for the comics store, not that we're getting into gaming stuff.

"Uhh, I don't know it's name. The one down at the mall with the big glass windows with all the wierd statues and crap. I go there semi-often being the nerd I am" He looks partially ashamed.

OOC: Do I detect the seeds for more stories in this line of reality?

"I've been in there a couple of times." Cassander added.  "I didn't see anything that really struck my fancy though.  Maybe if I needed a few miniature figures for a game, there might be something.  So you work at the comic store Greg?  I thought you looked familiar."

"They definately are impressive."

In reply to Cassander Miraz (msg #43):

Yes, I work down at Boston Comics, down on Allston Street.  They can only afford to hire me part time so far, but the owner is always scheming to come up with ways to improve business.
Greg grins.
We're expanding into gaming as well as comics, so any ideas that anyone has on what kind of games they'd like to see would be great.   I was actually thinking about opening up an area for nightly games as well, but the space is just too small.


I'll have to check out the place in the mall, though.

Finishing with his preperations and flipping his sinister 'critical die' onto its namesake 20, Christopher absentmindedly flips a coin before putting it down on the table.

He then clears his throat and waits for the table chatter to die down a little.

"Okay then," he says "Is everyone ready? We'll go round the table and everyone can everyone can introduce their characters"


OOC: I'll leave the table order up to you guys. It's probably easiest to just post when you have the chance and we'll assume you were next in line.

Greg gets out a character sheet.
This is a character that I've been working on all day.  Um, when I should have been working, unfortunately.  Still, I'm kinda digging the concept.  Her name is Aliana Farwalker, an elven cleric of Fharlanghn, the God of Travel.
Basically, she's a priestess that is practically a professional tourist.  Fharlanghn's main tenents are that travel broadens the mind and cleanses the soul, and she's the poster child for her faith.  She has severe wanderlust, and wants to see and do everything in the world.  She wants to map everything and perhaps write a travel guide so others can benefit from her travels without having to endure the dangers themselves.  To her, a comprehensive travel guide to the world would be like a bible.
 

He hands the character sheet over to Chris for approval.

I've taken the liberty of outfitting her and choosing her skills.  (ahem) Basically, I didn't get much work done at the store today, but when my gaming muse is on me, I usually can't think about much else.  He chuckles a bit.

She has a lot of outdoorsy skills, and she can track like a ranger.  She's not great at it, since clerics don't get a lot of skills, but she has good intelligence, so that gave me extra skill points so that I didn't have to take a level in ranger or bard just for the skills.  I actually rolled very well for her stats.  She's not as charismatic or as wise as a cleric probably should be, but I'm putting that down as part of the character.  She's not intending to be a cleric that proselytizes others.  To her, the guide book she plans to write will be her greatest sermon.  The rest of her stats were pretty good, she's pretty strong (kind of a wiry strength, being an elf maiden, and all), plus I maxed out on dexterity.  I also gave her starting fifth level money, and outfitted her with some magic stuff.  Nothing too exciting.  A fancy composite longbow, masterwork chainshirt and longsword, Healing belt, Haversack of holding, and two rings, Feather Falling and Sustenance.  I've got some cheap potions too, but nothing too exciting.

Greg speaks with great enthusiasm for the character.  His gamer geekiness is plainly obvious to the room.

One of her supeficial goals it to get something magical with which to fly.  I've always been a little obsessed with flight in all my characters, so I've given her the same longing to soar in the sky.   It's one of the great appeals of Fharlanghn; one of his Travel Domain spells is fly. 

He looks at Chris, almost like a kid trying out for the little league team.

So, will she work for your game?

Dan stood up first. God help us.

He struck his hand out and smirked in his face with a crazy expression. "My character... is the greatest musician in the world. His talents are knwn far and wide and he has an ego the size of a small continent. His very clothes suggest he should be pimpin' instead of adventuring, with his enormous purple hat with enormous twin feathers and cane-like walking stick that hides his weapons. He may not be the best fighter, but he's certainly not predictable. Ladies and Gentlemen, this man is Kenjinn J Rycov, and he HATES BABIES!!" He says in a very dramatic tone, almost yelling near the end.

Greg snorts with laughter, then adopts a serious, scandalized look.
How can you hate babies!?!?!?    They're so sweet.... and tasty.

Seriously, good character.  If that's a bard, they can be very useful and fun, although we're probably not going to be sneaking into any goblin camps any time soon, with that outfit.    He grins

"I'd just enrage a nearby town to take up arms against them. That's the beauty of the character!"

John laughed "Damn man. And I thought I went with a random character. I actually think this tops my old, illiterate, half-orc wizard." he said has he finally was able to catch his breath.

Greg grins.
Illiterate wizard?  What, does his spell book made of just pretty pictures?

And Dan is basically the Pied Piper of Hamlin, I guess.
He chuckles at the image.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Fri 27 Mar 2009.

"Except I have a pimp cane and a bigger hat" He smiled and leant back "An illiterate wizard's pretty funny though. Instead of chanting some mystical words, you mime the spell!"

John chuckled "He'd have to sound it out. He'd miscast so much he'd evenually get bored and start hitting the oppenent with his battleaxe/staff... he took his first level in barbarian... Well I didn't do something that bad this time, so who's next?" he asked.

Greg smiled.  The barbarian/wizard should be fun. I can see it now: "Well, wizard, I'm immune to all magic, so that means you're helpless before my....OW!!  OW!! Stop hitting me!!  OW!!  OK, ok, I give up!!!"

John grinned "Something like that, my old GM didn't even know how to counter that, so he'd just throw down like normal then I'd end up bashing a warrior's head in with a critical." he leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Good times." he said as he recalled his zany antics of years past.

Greg nodded, in full gamer nostalgia mode, now.
Yes, it didn't work too well for a friend of mine and me, though.  He had a Barbarian/Sorcerer and I had a Monk/wizard, with one or two levels in the warrior class and the rest in caster.  The problem was, we kept forgetting that we were primarily casters and would keep rushing into melee, but we weren't strong enough warriors to do it.  It ended up getting both of us killed.
He chuckled.
Still, you know the old sayings "That which kills you, makes you smarter, and that which does not kill you....missed.

Cassander laughed.  "I'm really curious to see how you play that character John.  An illiterate Wizard.  This I have to see."

John chuckled and shook his head "Nah, this time I decided to do something more sane this time around." He flips his character sheet over and spins it around so the others could see it.

The first thing they would probally notice was the nicely drawn picture of a Female elf in the portrait box
<OOC: will edit in a picture if my photobucket will stop screwing up, if it doesn't hopefully I can post it when we actually change. And no the picture I'm going to put up is not mine, but for the sake of his background, John can.>

The second thing was the stats and feats, of course he had high dex and wisdom, low strength and constitution, you know, normal ranger stats. But his feats were all melee based.

Greg chuckles a bit.
Heh.  I guess "elf maiden" is a popular choice this season.  My cleric and your ranger can tell dirty jokes in Elven.  She's kind of the opposite of your wizard character.  Aliana is a nerdy scholar and a serious language geek. 

Smiling and laughing along, Chris quickly glances over the characters before handing them back.

He gestures for Cassander and Sarah to introduce their own characters.

"I've got Silene, a human rogue/thief-acrobat."

Cassander laughed again.  "Oh this is too funny.  I brought out my Elven Sorceress, so we've got three elves in the party.  I figured that I needed a change from my Paladin and I've never really played a magic-user before so it'll be interesting.  Although now I'm starting to think that there was some sort of invisible peer pressure that I was succumbing to."

Greg laughs.
And here I thought that maybe everyone would discourage me from playing my elven priestess.  I didn't realize that it would be the average character race.

He shakes his head.
I'm glad that you guys are more open to unusual character concepts.  I had a DM once who refused to let anyone play a different gendered character.  He said that men are fundamentally incapable of playing female characters, so he disallowed it.   Granted, this is the same DM who claimed that the alignment Chaotic Neutral meant that the person was psychotic and couldn't control their actions, so I never really paid him a lot of attention.

Greg looks at Sarah.

The thief/acrobat sounds good too.  I've never had the talent to play rogues, it'll be interesting to see on in action.

"I played a chaotic neutral knight once! I ended up getting chased by a horde of zombies, lighting fire to a house I was supposed to evict someone from and getting tied up in the middle of town during an attack by both bandits and goblins because I got a bit carried away with my eariler killing spree. It was a fun game" He says nostalgically.

OOC: This is true

"I had a DM once who was such an alignment fanatic that he had my Paladin charging at everything evil.  We were facing down a horde of 40 hill giants, and rather than make a tactical withdrawal like any good soldier would know to do, I had no choice but to charge them because they were evil."  Cassander shrugged.  "There was nothing I could do.  I didn't even get a saving throw versus DM."

Greg shakes his head, chuckling in sympathy with the various DM mishaps.
What's your house rule, Chris?  How much latitude do we have with alignment and such?

"I'm not going to use alignments as any sort of straight jacket" Chris replies, jotting something down in his notes "Try to stick by your alignment, although I'm not going to force you to do anything"

"If everyone's ready then, shall we begin?"

"I was born ready! ... or at least Silene was."

Sarah grins and sits forwards, ready to game.

Sounds good, there's nothing else you need from us?

Greg arranges his dice and other gaming paraphenalia.  Grinning ear to ear.

Cassander picked up a D20 and started to roll it across the top of his fingers.  "Just need to warm up my dice." he said with a grin.

Grinning, Greg nods approval.  A man after my own heart.   It's important to get the dice in the mood to roll well. But, whatever you do, never treat inanimate objects like they have feelings.  They totally hate that.

"Okay then, we shall begin" Chris says.

---

"It was a dark day when the Elven Princess Alassë Calaelen disappeared while she was travelling to the capital of the Human Empire as a ambassador from the elves.

Of course, a kidnapping was the obvious theory. However, there was no note left and there was no sign of struggle. The Princess simply vanished despite being surrounded by a large party of trained warriors.

The Elven Commander Valandil Felagund immediately sent out several parties to find the Princess. One of those parties was our particular elven women"

He then gestures towards the players of the three female elves (Greg, John and Cassander).

"The Commander gave you supplies and enough gold for you to have access to the resources you need and to bribe a few people in necessary. Travelling east, you soon arrived at the closest town, a primarily human settlement known as Griffonford. There, you met the bard Kenjinn who told you to meet him in the tavern after his performance, and that he had some information about who you were searching for.

Christopher then passes two small pieces of paper to both Dan and Sarah.

"That night, you meet Kenjinn and his companion, a rogue named Silene at the tavern. It is well into the evening and many people have left the tavern for the night. Outside, rain lashes against the windows and thunder can be heard in the distance"

Christopher waits for you to mentally digest what he has to say, before gesturing for you to begin role-playing. You can hear it begin to faintly rain outside.

"it was a dark and stormy night...."  Sister Aliana mutters to herself as she sits at the table, setting her longbow to one side and arranging her longsword so as to not interfere with her sitting.   Taking out some parchment and a quill pen, the elven priestess began taking notes, writing down the bard's name.
Thank you so much for meeting with us, m'lord Bard.   I really enjoyed your performance.  When there's more time, I'd love to hear more.  Unfortunately, as you know, time is of the essence.  Could you please, if you still wish it, tell us what you can about the recent tragedy? 

Greg gets out his character sheet, double checking any useful skills or magic.

"Oh a tavern, how cliché"

Kenjinn sits at the table downing a mighty tankard of ale, declaring his maniless to all who challenge it. He wipes his face and smiles towards the elves "Thanks I was workin' on those songs for a while. Now, if information is what you seek, I have it. What is it you want to know of? Tragedies aren't all that rare y'know" He takes another drink.

Greg leans forward, grinning.  He was getting into the roleplaying, obviously amused by the bard's antics.

Aliana grins, obviously entertained by the bard's drinking, but she tries to keep her enthusiasm off her face, mostly succeeding.

We were led to believe, learned bard, that you might have information, or at least have heard rumors, pertaining to the recent dissappearance of Princess Alasse of the Elves.  Nothing is known, not yet anyway.  Anything you can tell us about what you know or even what you've heard in various taverns and gathering spots of humans.

Aliana fingers her holy symbol of Fharlanghn, God of Travel, as if for guidence and strength.  She looks into your eyes, as if willing you to have the answers that would save her beloved princess.

Kenjinn puts his chin on his hand squints his eyes, tapping his chin and pretending to think. "An elf princess... hmm, my memory's a little fuzzy, but I think I might know something about that" He smirks with a large grin.

Sister Aliana sits listening attentively to the bard.  After a few seconds of silence, she blinks a couple of times and then gets a look of realization on her face, like a little kid that figured out a puzzle.

Oh!!!!  Wait a minute!  Is this the part of the conversation where we give you a bribe?  Oh!  It is, isn't it?  I've read about this in books!     Her bouncy enthusiasm waivers for a minute with a look of concentration.

So, wait, what's the usual bribe amount?  I've got some money with me, just for bribes! 
She nods, in a way that she assumes makes her look knowledgable with such matters.

The bartender, apparently cleaning beer mugs, sniggers at the elf, before poorly concealing it with a cough.

Or rather, your DM sniggers.

John chuckled at the other's antics "I like this group."

"Excuse my friend here, sometimes she can't get her head out of her books. My name is Alyissia" The elven ranger said, you could see she had several weapons on her, a pair of short swords worn horizontally on the back of her belt with a hilt on each side, and quiver of arrows on her left side, her bow was unstrung at the moment and resting beside her at the table. Alyissia pulls out several silver coins and 2 gold ones, splits them into two piles,each with a gold in them, though one had more silver. She slides the smaller pile to the barkeeper "For the drinks." she said though it could easily be seen that she was asking him not to repeat this conversation. She slide the second, larger pile over to the bard. "If you would answer the question please." she said politly but firmly.

Cassander laughed, almost spilling the Mountain Dew he was drinking.  "Oh man.  So our priestess is chock full of book learning and little life experience?  Nice." he grinned.

Tizona, the sorceress of the group, is going to roll her eyes slightly at the priestesses enthusiasm.  She is content to merely sit at the table, her eyes roaming over the bar, while her companions to the talking.

Sarah chuckles at the enthusiasm.

"Silene groans slightly and shakes her head before leaning back. She eyes the coins that Alyissia slides to her partner, nodding slightly."

Aliana nods as she watches the exchange, writing notes on her parchment, obviously taking notes on "How to Bribe a Bard 101".
One tip of her tongue is touching her upper lip, an apparent "tell" that she thinking hard and trying to memorize the scene.
She looks up at the Bard again, eagerly, quill ready, seeming oblivious to the social faux paux, except perhaps thinking that she should have found out the Bardic Exchange Rate ahead of time.

Dan cacked himself laughing. "That was brilliant"

Kenjinn moved his hand up to his mouth, trying to conseal a smile. This girl seemed rather ditsy. Maybe I can get more out of this He thought, sealing away the grin. He looked back up "Hmm, that's quite an offer, my memory seems to be coming back. Yes, I do recall something, uhh, it's fuzzy" He said massagin hsi head and giving Silene a thumbs up.

Sister Aliana looks over at her ranger friend, raising her eyebrows and saying   "So, do we give him more, now?  Was the first gold only enough for him to recall "fuzzy memories"?  Should  we ask what the fuzzy ones are first, or give more money to de-fuzz them?   How does one "de-fuzz" a memory?

She begins writing furiously on a different parchment, drawing some kind of magic hairbrush and writing ideas to make a magic object to "de-fuzz" thoughts and memories.   She seems to have forgotten the conversation with the bard.

Greg looks over at John.

John, on a side note: Aliana has a tiny amount of ranger training, tracking and such, so she probably would have asked a lot of questions to learn from you about these things, as you are probably more knowledgable than anything she learned in the temple to the God of Travel.  Would that be alright?

"Bardic Exchange rate?" Cassander repeated smiling.  "How does a cleric for the God of Travel not know the Bardic exchange rate?"

Tizona sips at her drink, frowning.  She wasn't at all becoming impressed with Sister Aliana and is once again questioning their decision not to have her simply use her magic to charm the answers that they needed.  Also the human mead is of a terrible vintage, probably brewed in a rain barrel out back.  "and just what fuzzy memories do you have?"  she asks, trying to get the negotiations back onto track and making a mental note to have a talk with the Cleric later.

"I'm not all that sure, they're out of focus. Not layered enough to get a clear picture" He said, humming and squinting, drinking his drink. These other two elves weren't as stupid as the cleric and still did a pretty good job of not taking hints. He decided to tap on the table near the money to spell it out for them.

John snickered and answered Greg "That's fine. So long as you don't mind me saying Alyissia was assigned as a guide and guard for the two of you." he said to the other two elf players.

"Alyissia smirked, she had obviously been expecting this. She cut off what she was about to say when the others started talking. Once they finished she answered Aliana 'Hush. Watch now, questions later' she said, being nice about it to avoid embaressing the cleric. She hadn't taken her eyes off the bard or his companion 'You didn't think we'd fork over all our money without hearing the information now did you?' she pulls something out of her money pouch and stacks money in three small towers, each with the exact amount of coins as the first pile. 'That first amount was to get your attention, Master Bard. The second goes to you when we have the information. The other half, you get once we have confirmed the information's accuracy.' She smiled sweetly. 'Does that jog your memory?' it was obvious she had planed this all along.

This one's the brains He thought with a scheming mind. Which means that ditsy one must be the healing and the silent one should be the artillery. Nice group He picked up one of the gold coins and inspected it. He glaced back to his companion with a questioning look.

Sister Aliana nods to her friend, seemingly not at all insulted about being told to "stop talking now".  She looks back and forth at the sorceress and the bard, apparently genuinely entertained and feeling educated.

The customers of the bar have slowly begun to leave now, leaving a small group scattered around the bar.

As one man drunkly goes to leave he bumps into your table, causing the money to shake precariously and Kenjinn's drink is almost tipped over.

"Stoopid table" the man says and he stumbles out the door.

Sister Aliana leaps to her feet, getting in front of the man, an indignant look on her face. 
Now, that's not fair!   You apologize to this innocent table, at once!

The elf stands defiantly in front of the drunk man, preventing him from leaving.

The man looks confused at the elf, then mutters so only she can here "You know what? I was only told to slip poison in his drink. It'll be easier if I just kill you all now won't it, make it look like a accident"

He flashes the steel of a weapon.

While the other bar patrons do not hear him or what exactly Aliana said, they turn around to see what has happened. The bar keeper pauses cleaning that same filthy glass he has been the entire night.

Outside of Chris's house, rain begins to lash against the windows. You hear the faint roll of thunder in the distance. A gust of wind slips in through the window, causing the flames of the candles to flicker.


OOC: If we come to combat, we'll 'fast-forward' to the result and I'll just use the Dice Roller to see how well you fared.

Greg stares at Chris for a second, so lost in the roleplaying that he wasn't expecting combat yet.

Well, alright!  Sorry, I was just going to have Aliana accost the man, in case he stole something.  This is even better.

Aliana's face lights up with joy.  She swiftly draws her longsword with great enthusiasm.

Do we get to fight now?  How marvelous!  I was afraid I'd have to wait all week! 

Aliana is confident that her traveling companions will back her up.  She wouldn't have expected them to help her defend the table's honor, Fharlanghn knows, but since the "drunk" drew a live weapon, she figures that changes the equation.

Tizona, having missed what the man whispered to Aliana, rises to her feet, slowly so as to not appear provocative.  "There's no need for tempers to match the weather outside.  Sheathe your sword, Sir, before someone does something that they will regret." While she's sure that Aliana can handle herself, especially with Alyssia and her to back the Cleric up, causing a bar brawl is not going to get them the answers that they need.  Of course if she had to drink this places mead every night, she'd probably be irritable as well.

"Now, it gets interesting...

Silene carefully draws her dagger from its arm sheath, keeping it concealed for the right moment to strike."

Kenjinn notices everyone drawing metal and is a bit weary. He was a musician, and a fair bit of a coward. The last thing he wanted was a sword in his gut. He remained ademate but aware of the potential for combat.

John looked at the rest of the players. "Yaw'll aren't trying to start a fight early are you?" he said with a smile. "I thought the cleric and bard would at least try to stop the fight without resorting to violence."

"Alyissia didn't draw a weapon, though from the number she carried on her, she could probally draw one before most of the others could react anyway. 'Come now, we're not here to find a fight, especially one where you opponent can't stand straight. Let the man pass.' she said to her compainions, then she turned to the man 'Have a good night sir.' she said politely trying to keep the situation from becoming a brawl, but only someone with a trained eye would see that she was ready to move in the situation deteriorated any at all.

Sister Aliana grins at her companions as well as at the humans.

No, it's okay, everyone!  We're allowed to fight him.  He's been hired to kill us, he just  told me.   Oh, and good Bard, I'd avoid having any more of that drink if I were you.


She looks at her human opponent, holding her finely crafted elven longsword in both hands.

Now, good sir, are you going to tell us who hired you, or shall I talk to your corpse?  Both scenarios work for me, since your breath would reek equally bad either way!

The words should be a generic threat between opponents, but when delivered with Aliana's child-like enthusiasm and grinning face, it sounds especially chilling.

As violence becomes almost inevitable, the bar patrons get up and walk over to the scene carefully.

"Hey there, let's not start a unfair fight" one says.

"Yeah, let's start a fair one" another snarls, as they all draw their weapons.

"You should've kept your mouths shut" one says to the bard and rogue "Now you can die with these elves!"

John smiled this was going to be fun.

"Alyissia stood up holding her hands low and open like she was trying to not be threatening. 'Come now Gentlemen you don't want to start a fight..." she started to say before whipping out her shortswords into a lightning fast attack on the nearest enemy." he said before explaining his action.

"Gonna take a free action to draw my blades thanks to quick draw and make a surprise attack while they arn't ready."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Wed 01 Apr 2009.

Kenjinn secretly pocketed all the money on the table and stood up, tapping Silene on the shoulder and nodding towards the door subtelly. He  has his hand on his sword just in case a fight does start.

John chuckled "Sure you can pocket the money. Just remember that Alyissia will probally figure who took it. Though if you tell em what you know it was yours anyway." he said with a shrug.

Dan looked in thought. "I could take it, and say I didn't! That way you'd have to pay me more" He said to John with a smile.

John laughed "She'd either, A. say it was your fault for losing your money. Or B. turn on you for trying to swindle her. She doesn't take much."

"Damn!" Dan exclaims. "Hate ungullible characters like that"

Greg chuckles.

I hate to say it, but you're not even going to fool Aliana with that one.  If you tried to deny it, her face would light up like a little kid at Christmas and she'd probably just say:  Are you lying to me?  That's wonderful!  You're actually pretty good at it, though you should have picked a better subject.   Do it again, though!   I want to see it once more, in slow motion, if you can.  You know, if it's no bother.
Or something similar.

Ok, Chris, Aliana attacks the "drunk" with her longsword.  Making up a battlecry as she goes.

O Well-Traveled Fharlanghn!  Please guide my blade as it travels the scenic route down this poor man's gullet!  May it see many sights and procure many souveniers!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Thu 02 Apr 2009.

Cassander had his players book open and had busied himself flipping through pages.  "Go figure.  First fight of the game and I have no idea what spells to use.  Magic Missile, maybe?  I don't think that Tizona wants to kill anyone.  Something illusionary then?  Hmmm."

Tizona groans as blades are drawn.  This fight wasn't going to help them on their mission and the last thing that they needed was someone to get killed and the elves to be brought up in front of the local magistrate.  "Ladies, Gentlemen please!  There's no reason to shed any blood." she tries one last futile attempt at reasoning, while her player sorts through spells.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:17, Thu 02 Apr 2009.

"Silene nods and tries to extract herself from the situation."

Sarah chuckles.

"Nice battle cry."

Fast Forward >>

The combat ends with the triumph of good over evil. Or, the triumph of three elves and two dodgy characters over who maybe hired thugs.

The customary after battle search reveals a letter on the bodies of several attackers. It instructed them to kill you and bring your bodies to a abandoned building near the edge of town. It was signed with a foreboding symbol of a demonic skull.

The bar keeper, who fled during the fight, returned with the authorities. They did not take kindly to your story, nor did they believe it, so the confrontation ended with all five of you fleeing with them in pursuit.

After that, it seemed the entire town was looking for you. Some RP later, and the five of you decided to work together at least temporarily until you could figure out what was going on and clear your names...

Over a hour passes real time for you all to reach this point. Like in game, the house is being racked by fierce rain and the sounds of thunder. The power has gone out, leaving you to game by candlelight.

"Bloody power, can't they make stormproof cables?" Dan pouted, fairly annoyed.

Kenjinn was no better, he was fairly annoyed at the three elves who busted in and ruined his gig as the tavern's bard there. To say he was angry was a bit generous. Plus he was wet and tired, never a good combination.

Greg grins.  Thanks, wait til you hear Aliana swear.  He grins like a little kid.  It's obvious that Sister Aliana's childlike enthusiasm isn't a trait with which Greg is unfamiliar.

Once they've regrouped, Sister Aliana will heal any wounds, either with magic or good old-fashioned bandaging. 

When the power goes out, Greg will take out a mini flashlight in the shape of a blue lightsabre to help find candles.  He seems really bad at lighting them, so lets Chris and the others handle it.

When the game recommences:

Once they've gotten to a safe spot, Aliana will look over at the bard and say I'm sorry.  You were saying?
As if the interruption had been momentary instead of involving a deadly fight and flight from authorities.

Kenjinn looked over to Aliana with contempt. He had the urge to rend the elven head from her neck but then he'd probably get the same treatment from her mates. He held back his homicidal urges enough to answer her "I was saying that fighting would be a bad idea. Lovely to see we all pay attention rather than ignore me and get kicked out of the town" The sarcasm in his voice was thicker than the mud he was standing in, but he wondered if the priest still couldn't recognise it.

Dan laughed, he thought this terribly funny.

Sister Aliana shruggs.  Don't worry, noble bard, it wasn't much of a town anyway.  Now, if you please, go ahead and share your information, and them maybe we can sneak back into town and talk to the people who tried to kill us.  Well, their bodies, anyway.

Sister Aliana, despite seeming to have the life-experience of a newborn sea cucumber, seems non-chalant about being chased out of town with proverbial torches and pitchforks, as if it's something that is to be expected when one travels.   Like over-prices continental breakfasts and filthy roadside bathrooms.

Greg grins as he examines his spell list.

"Might I remind you, Bard, that the fight started because someone was trying to end your singing with a bit of poisoned Mead."  Tizona says, easily recognizing the sarcasm in his voice.  The whole scene in the bar had been a great annoyance and it was almost insulting the way that this human was racting.  "In effect, we saved your life."

"Of course, Sister Aliana was having a great deal of fun and that is so refreshing.  Maybe we should just follow you for a little while and see how many more towns we can be chased out of.  Doesn't that sound like fun Aliana?"

Cassander grinned as he rolled his dice in the palm of one hand.  The game had been entertaining so far and he just grinned at everyone around the table.

Greg smiles at Cassander, then nods modestly.
I'm glad you're entertained, sir.  I aim to please.

The cleric turns back to Tizona, her blue almond eyes blink a couple of times, then widen with scientific inspiration.

You know, that would be an interesting experiment, Tizona.  I'd be really interested to see the difference in various cities, by government types and perhaps even racial make up, how differently they would each drive out an unwanted element. 

Aliana takes out a sheet of parchment from her scroll case and starts making notes.

Dan was smiling away still.

"Well thanks for that. I appreciate things like that" Kenjinn turned his hat upsidedown and a huge torrent of water was released from the massive area his hat takes up. He shoed a couple frogs out of it as well before putting it back on. At least it acted as an umbrella. "So I'm thinkin' maybe we should find some shelter?"

Sister Aliana nods at the bard's suggestion, looking up from her writing.

Since you know the town, is there an abandoned structure nearby where we could continue out chat, or would you like  Alyissa and I to find or make shelter in the woods?

"Or, those of us who decided to bring tents can use them."

Aliana's eyes light up.

Oooh!  A tent!   That's very posh!   Let's set it up and settle in!

Aliana's experience with sleeping generally range from roughing it in the open under homemade shelters or sleeping indoors.  She's never been in a tent before.

Kenjinn thought of trying to pitch up a tent in this weather. "I'm pretty sure the only thing a tent would create is a giant water bucket. There was an old abandoned watchtower near here. There used to be a fierce gang of bandits, the Bloodgrem Bastard Clan, around here years ago and that tower was used as a defence installation. 'Course since bandits prefer stealth it wasn't much use" He says, thinking and draining water out of his hat. He points in a northeasterly direction. "It's over that way I think"

"Perhaps this bandit camp would be a better option than a tent." Tizona says.

Cassander lowers his players book for a moment.  "Hey.  If Elves are the outdoorsy type, wouldn't they be used to sleeping outside?  Would they use a tent or just sleep out in the open?  Heh heh, sorry, just thinking out loud."

John nodded "Maybe but they may like to have a roof over their heads too. And a bandit 'fortress' would be more easily defendable then a camp in the woods." he replied to the question.

"Alyissia came up from behind the group after hiding their tracks. 'The bandit tower sounds like a good idea.' she added in."

Greg nods to John.  I'm thinking that there's outdoorsy and then there's OUTDOORSY.   I think elves live more in harmony with nature, but that can mean simpler homes that blend in with the forest, more than sleeping in the bushes.   Aliana has a thing for sleeping outside, but that's probably more unusual, even for an elf.  She'd normally enjoy a night out in the open, but realizes that since the whole town seems to have gotten "really mean" towards them, that a more defensible position would be a good idea.

Maybe when we get there,She says We can try to figure out how much of the town in "in on" whatever just happened.

"That sounds reasonable.  I can't imagine elves wanting to sleep outside on a rainy night, maybe during a nice summer night."  Cassander nodded at the answer.

"A place that is easily defendable would be preferrable." Tizona says as she watches Alyissia go about her rangery stuff.  "I'm really curious why someone would be trying to kill our Bard friend.  Could it be that he knows more about what is going on than he's letting on or realizes?  I would suspect that there may be several more attempts on his life, and ours for that matter."

Dan's a little confused. "I did say it was a tower to defend people AGAINST bandits, but whatever. Y'know, it's fine" He did seema little peeved.

Kenjinn smiled and regained his confidence. "Then let's get going shall we?" He said, and started walking off.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:16, Sun 05 Apr 2009.

Greg looked at Dan and shrugged,  Any defense is better than none.  And just because it wasn't much good against stealthy bandits doesn't mean it won't be useful against maurading townsfolk.

Aliana walks with Kenjinn, providing protection at the front while the ranger walks rearguard, hiding the trail.

As the party makes their way through the storm to the Tower, they can see its shadow in the distance.

As you draw even closer, however, you can see that the same symbol from the notes - the skull - has been engraved into the stone door.

Strangely enough, you cannot hear sounds coming from the tower but the earth beneath you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:12, Sun 05 Apr 2009.

Aliana ducks her head down low to the ground, trying to listen.  With her ear close to the ground, she looks up at the bard.

Kenjinn, are their any dwarven mines near here?

Kenjinn looks at her with dubiousness. "...No?" He says in a tone to suggest as if she was being really stupid. 'Course there's no dwarven mines around here! None that he knows of anyway.

Sister Aliana cocks her head, her eyes narrowing in concentration.


Then what's making that noise?  It sounds like it's coming from underground.

The elven cleric moves towards the tower, weapon drawn, to investigate.

As you continue to play, you can hear odd sounds coming from somewhere outside in the storm.

At least that's where they have to be coming from. It's silly to think that these two are coming from beneath the ground.

"... You rig up a sound system or something?"

Sarah chuckles, listening to the noises.

"Probably just branches snapping off or something" Dan says, looking down on his chatacter sheet.

Kenjinn grips his Shikomizue cane and follows Aliana.

Greg looks out at the storm, a look of concern on his face.  After a moment's thought, he's satisfied that he remembered to roll the windows in his beat-up used car all the way up.  Turning to Chris, he says,
Chris, if you need help making sure all your windows are closed, let me know.  It'd be annoying for you to have rain get into the house.

He turns back to his sheet too.
Sister Aliana has a torch with a "Continual Light" spell cast on it.   She'll pull that out, holding it in her off hand, to better illuminate the tower enterence, especially for the weak eyed humans.
He looks as Dan and Sarah, feigning a look of condescending sympathy for their human "frailties".  Then grins and turns back to the DM.

She's got her sword in her main hand, ready to enter the tower, muttering a quick prayer to Fharlanghn as she enters, seeking his blessing.   

Greg looks to the "heavens".
Great Celestial Traveler, please guide us to safe haven from the storm, so that we may continue to wander the land to our heart's content.

Greg looks back at Chris.
This isn't an actual spell, mind you, just a prayer from a devoted follower.

"Sound system? Nah, probably some of those young'uns fooling around outside"

The door isn't locked at all. In fact, it is easily swings open when the party tries. Aliana's torch illuminates the inside of the tower, which seems to be empty. A winding stair case leads up to the top of the tower. A trap door leads down, and you can hear those same strange noises.

On the floor, however, strange runes have been engraved deep into the stone.

"Like the ones on this coin" Chris adds, showing it around before tossing it back onto the table.

"Ooh, convenient!" Dan says, sort of impressed and patronising at the same time.

Kenjinn moves over to see the two pathways. One up to the top and down to the bottom. "I say we take the staircase, the basements always have something horrifying and mind cracking"

Suddenly the tower shakes.

Suddenly the house shakes.

"What the-?" Chris exclaims, as the table nearly falls and dice slide off in every direction.

There is a flash of lightining, which illuminates the entire room and blinds you. When it settles, you are in the tower.

Another flash, and you are back in Chris's house.

Before you can even yell out "WTF?!", there is a third flash.

You are back in the tower, although this time a fourth flash does not come, leaving you here.


OOC: Que transformations @ your desired pace!

"GAH!" Dan cried out as the blinding lights... blinded him, for lack of better word. After their flashing had subsided he looked around. As his vision returned he noticed he was not in the room with a bunch of other peope anymore. Rather, he was in some sort of cold, circular stone room with a staircase and a trapdoor. He was befuddled at this recent acid trip as it seemed.

He wondered what was in that dragon candle wax as he ran his hands through his hair, but instead touched a hat. He wasn't wearing a hat, neither one this large. It looked very familiar, with two huge feathers coming out from both sides... like his drawing of Kenjinn. He suddenly felt hisclothing and realised he was in some sort of travelling clothing with a large cloak with a guitar, a bow and a quiver on his back.

"..." He was lost for words for the moment and probably temporarily passing out, though soon it would subside.

"... the fuck?!?"

Sarah jumps up and looks around confused.

"This... what the hell is going on here?"

She glances down, noticing that she's dressed in Silene's outfit.

"Gah!"

Greg looked around confusedly.    Not only was he standing now, but he was holding two heavy objects in his hands.  Looking at them quickly, he was amazed to see that one was a sword!   The other was a....BRIGHT LIGHT!!!

AAAHHHH!!!!    he yelled, having accidentally looked directly into the continual light torch.
He started to blink rapidly and shake his head to clear it, but froze, a bewildered look on his face.

Aaaaahhhhh.   Ah.  AHHH!  What the hell was wrong with his voice?  Of was it his ears.  Maybe his ears popped or something, because his voice sounded almost like the princess character in "Enchanted", the one Amy Adams played.  He looked around, his vision clearing, noticing the circular walls around them.

Guys, what the hell just ha.......  SON OF A.... !    His voice still sounded like some Disney princess.  He looked around for a place to set down the crap he was holding (being sure this time not to look at the light in his hand), when he noticed that his arms were covered in somekind of linen tunic shirt, with a chain mail shirt over them.  He followed the arm from the strangely slender hands down to his chest........

GUH????   His mouth hung open stupidly.   Was this chain mail thing really rumpled, or did he have.....

He brought his hands to his chest.  Since they were full, he turned them and pressed the underside of his wrists into the two lumps he saw before him..

squish, squish......squish, squish.

The sword and torch fell to the stone floor with a clatter, as the elf maiden's knees gave out and she sat heavily onto her slender backside, mouth still open widely, large almond shaped eyes focused on nothing.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:18, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

"GAH!" Dan, or rather Kenjinn now, yelped hearing some high pitched cry of a woman. He looked over and saw a girl in chainmail on her knees... fondling her chest. He blinked a few times.

Yep, she was fondling her chest.

Dan wondered if he'd fallen into some sort of heaven for a second but realised the woman looked like those pictures of elves from the D&D books, except like Greg's character. Plus she was holding Aliana's items; the sword and the glowing stick.

Wait... if he was dressed like Kenjinn and was standing in a circular, stone tower with... 4 other people, 3 of them female elves and another female human, then. "Fuck... no..." He said as everything suddenly fit into place.

OOC: Why am I the only one with a male character?
This message was last edited by the player at 12:59, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Looking around, Greg realized that a man in a freakishly large hat was watching her as she held her two "discoveries".
The elf immediately dropped her hands two her sides and her pale elven face glowed with a scarlet blush that was visible even in the gloom of the shadowy tower.
The woman tries to work her mouth into words several times, perhaps to apologize for her seemingly scandalous behavior, then stops, blue eyes focusing on the man's hat.

Wait.   You're ..... Kenjinn, right?  Or is it  Dan?   Please tell me it's Dan, and that I'm not the only  person who's having this hallucination right now.






OOC:  Well, gender TF was the main reason I came to this game, personally.   Granted, I was niavely assuming that Aliana would be one of the only race/gender changes.   Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what would have made me think that.   It's actually kind of amusing that we got THREE elven female characters.   If I hadn't been looking forward to playing Sister Aliana so much, I might have considered changing to something else, just for variety's sake.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:18, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

He was still rather at a loss for words and slightly hungry until Greg... or rather Aliana spoke up. Or is it Greliana now? He thought to himself, missing her blush. He turns bck to her from his musings and sheepishly replies "Yeah... it's Dan... or whoever the hell I am now" He says in a disheartened tone like he just ran a mile nonstop.

Sarah looks over at the two.

"Uhh... I'm Sarah..."

Greg looked away from Dan the bard and Sarah the rogue, feeling a little emotionally overloaded.  Her eyes fell onto her sword.   She picked it up, trying not to dwell on the slender, almost delicate looking hand holding it.  She also gritted her teeth when she noticed the long blonde hair that fell past her face as she picked it up.

The sword was breathtakingly beautiful.
Elven-made. She murmured.
It was so polished and shiny that........ she could see her reflection.

She brought her other hand to the alien looking face, the non-human face that she saw there.    Her eyes had an almost Asian look to them, but were larger than humanly possible.  Her face was so smooth.   Her cheeks and chin hadn't felt this hairless since she was a child.   She even looked at her hand, then back at the reflection, still not quite believing that she could actually be the image reflected in the shiny sword blade.

The elven woman laughs a little, the sound of it coming out as more of a hysterical giggle.
She looks at Dan, trying to control the manic laughter.


Can I safely assume that this doesn't happen every week, or that this isn't some REALLY elaborate prank the "haze" the new guy?

A tear forms in one of the big, blue eyes, giving the impression that "Aliana" desperately hopes that the answer to the second question is "yes".
This message was last edited by the player at 08:47, Mon 13 Apr 2009.

Cassander had remained quiet while the others talked.  At first he thought that maybe something had happened when the lights went out, he hit his head or maybe someone had spiked the Dew, but the physical sensations creeping through him dispelled those ideas.  He could feel the cool air around his legs, the feel of the silken material against his skin, the cold metal of rings and armlets and a body that felt odd.  Whatever happened was either real or a damn impressive fantasy.

He couldn't help but stare at the others in the beginning.  To suddenly find yourself surrounded by Elves, rather Elven women, was unsettling to say the least regardless of how attractive they were.  There was only one man in the group, and it sounded like they were their characters, and it occured to Cassander then that if everyone had turned into their characters then...

He slowly looked down at his own body, almost hesitant to see if the same thing had happened to him.  His appearance now could in now stretch of the imagination be called manly.  His arms were thinner, his hands more delicate looking than they had been before.

Unlike the cleric, Cassander wasn't wearing any armor over his chest, just a little bit of silken material which did nothing to conceal the two breasts that were proudly proclaiming his new gender.  It might have been a trick of the light but they sure felt real.  His hands flowed down from his chest feeling the contours that he did not have previously.  His bare midsection tapered in before expanding out into a pair of womanly hips that were hardly hidden beneath a long, low riding skirt that was slit up the sides, revealing two well toned legs.

Still not sure if he was holding his breath or not, Cassander reached up to feel a his ears had lengthened slightly and now ended in pointed tips.  They were even pierced.  His hair had grown out with a vengeance, easily spilling out over his shoulders and down his back.

"Whoa." It was all that he could say, as he pulled the travelling cloak tight around himself.  Maybe he should have drawn Tizona wearing a little more clothing.  "This is...er...different. Uhm...guys.  Any idea what's going on?"  Even his voice had changed, taking on a higher pitch.

Greg looked over at the exotically beautiful elven woman (well, she amended, the OTHER exotically beautiful elven....  she sighed inwardly.  Well shit, ONE of the other exotically.....aw forget it).
Um.... I take it from all of  your expressions that the answer is "no" then?
Alright, which of the "elves" is she?  No armor, so probably the sorceress, which means Cassander.
Wait!  Wouldn't it be cool if the "spell casters" of the group would actually do real magic?
She shook her head mentally.  Idiot!  Things are weird enough without making it weirder!

Looking around at everyone, something else occured to her.
Whoa.  I don't need my glasses anymore.   
Having 20/20 vision (possibly even better) for the first time in almost ten years was, in some ways, the strangest change yet.

Thinking furiously (though her panicked mind was in kind of a holding pattern), Greg asked:

Wait, is Chris here?    CHRIS!!!!!!  She yelled, trying not to wince at how the volume and acoustics made her voice sound even more "princessy".

Strangely enough, Chris is not here, but you can almost still here his last words.

The entire tower is shaking, and the storm outside seems to have reached a crescendo, perhaps even the strength of a hurricane. Luckily you took shelter inside the tower, although these shakes do not give much faith in its stability.

Dan was still a little gapperflasted, but more believing now. Thank god for my indication to play a male human. Too bad for the others, apart from the girls mostly He thought as he stood back up from his slumping. He took a deep breath and was weary of the tower shaking. "Ok, let's get this in prespective. We've all somehow just turned into our characters, correct? And Chris was the DM so he didn't have a character. He's probably some osrt of aloof sky god now, the prick... ahem, but yeah this is comepletely insane and crazy" He said quite calmly with a slightly worried expression.

"Are you suggesting that we pray to Chris?" Cassander asked a little incredulously.  "I'm not sure whether to laugh at that or..."

Thunder roared through the sky and the building shook as though it feared the noise.  "This never happened in any of our other games.  Of course it has to happen when I decide to play my elven sorceress."  Cassander pulled back the cloak enough to get a look at what it hid and sighed.  "I should've drawn her with more clothes." he muttered a little embarassed and pulled the cloak tight once more.  "At least I gave her a cloak."

"So what do we do now?  Sit around and wait for all of us to wake up?  What did everyone remember before we...er...became our characters?"  He thought for a moment, glancing at the swords and bardish instruments before continuing.  "I wonder how much of our characters we've inherited?  Do we have any of their skills I wonder?  Try playing something Dan."

"Huh? Oh yeah" he exclaimed and unbuttoned the guitar from it's strap. He held it aloft and thought of a song. He unthinkingly then began to play 'Tribute' by Tenacious D. "Kickass!" He exclaimed as he rocked out on the guitar. "Lets see if you can do some magic! That should be awesome!"

Greg nodded at Dan and Cassander's idea, being both reassured and depressed that the other players seemed as bewildered as she was....he was?     Crap on a Crap Cracker!   This was getting confusing already.

I was just wondering myself if we'd inherited more than our character's appearances.   
Greg sighed, then winced as how cute it sounded.
Damn it, I've been waiting to play this character for almost two years now, and now I wished I'd brought out my 6'6" halberd swinging fighter instead.
Greg leaped lightly to her feet.    She was about to say something else, then blinked in realization.  She jumped up and down a couple of times, then side to side, her dainty feet in their doeskin boots moving back and forth in what appeared to be some kind of agility test for athletes.  She then does some deep knee bends and raises up on one foot and balances effortlessly.

She stopped, then looked astonished and unbearably happy at the same time.
This is.... amazing.   I mean, I'm still completely weirded out, don't get me wrong, but I just might be in the best physical condition of my life!   I think that even when I was on the High School Cross Country team, that I wasn't in such good shape!  My stomach hasn't been this flat since high school either.
This last is said very self-depracatiingly, said with a somewhat depressed sigh as Greg remembersed the extra twenty pounds that he could never lose.   Greg feels his newly flattened stomach in amazement.   Unfortunately, he looks down at it without thinking, which only reminds him of his other changes, like his very un-flattened chest.

Greg quickly drops her hand in embarrassment, and speaks again, eager to change the subject.

Um....yeah, magic.  Ok, let's see.......
She grasps the wooden disk that she's wearing around her neck.    The disk is about two inches across and has a small, slender cresent, laying on its side, round side up, over a slightly curved line.
A holy symbol to Fharlanghn, the God of Travel.
She thinks about the spells that she wrote on her character sheet.  She gasps a bit as the knowledge of every spell she'd "memorized" instantly comes to her mind.   Usually Greg always forgot these things and had to constantly keep reviewing the character sheet.  Now, however, the knowledge of Sister Aliana's magic was almost burned indelibly into her mind's eye.

What spell should she cast?  Most of the spells seemed lame or useless right now.  Most were combat spells or spells to gain knowledge.    Nothing that would be visible without causing damage.

Wait!   Fharlanghn was the God of Travel, so his clerics had access to certain spells that were travel related but not normally obtained by clerics.    Like........ NO!   It wouldn't be possible.  Would it?
While prudence and common sense would seem to lend itself to trying a minor spell first, Greg searches his new memory for the correct words and gestures to cast one of his most powerful spells.
A spell normally only granted to wizard-types, like Cassander, but granted to Fharlanghn's faitful by their loving God.
Their God?  Wait..... Greg's god?

NO!!!   Don't think about that!   Just cast the spell.   It's magic, with magic words and gestures.
It was like eating a hot dog.  Don't think about the source.

Her large blue eyes seeming to focus on nothing for a few seconds, Greg spoke.
Great Wanderer, please grant your humble servant your permission to take her leave of the confines of the earthly path.

The  words seem to ring with power, and the plain, almost crude wooden disk seems to sparkle, for just a second.
Then taking a deep breath, the blonde elf maiden lifted her graceful hands to the heavens.......

...... and lifted off the ground.      Greg gasped in amazement as she drifted up towards the ceiling.  Her blonde head lightly bonked the ceiling before she shifted her attention from what she was doing to where she was going.
Her face takes on a rapturous look of ecstacy and tears of joy fill her eyes.  She looks down at the others and says, quite unneccessarily:

Guys..... I'm....I'm FLYING!

Cassander watched Greg float up off the ground, astonished.  "That's...that's amazing..." he said.  No matter what craziness had befallen them this day, seeing Greg floating in the air makes everything else unimportant.  Forget the storm raging around them, forget the fact that they were no longer in Chris' basement and forget about the clothing that was barely concealing Cassander's elven form.  Greg was flying, well floating but it was the same thing in that instant and he felt a little envious of what the Elven cleric was able to do.

Cassander dropped his gaze to his own hands.  Slender and delicate looking, with decided feminine colouring on the nails, but suddenly full of potential.  If Greg could float by invoking his god as a cleric, could Cassander use the inate magic that Sorcerers used?  The theory was sound.  Dan could sing and play, Greg could float.

"Yeah." he said softly as a smile spread across his face.  "Let's try some magic."

Cassander shook out his arms and tried to think of some spell to use.  He hadn't memorized any of the spells in the Players Book but there were a few that he remembered.  Most were combat spells but tossing around lightning or fireballs didn't seem like a good idea at the current moment.  "Maybe a spell of light..."

Now how does this all work? he thought.  According to the description of the class, magic was something innate to Sorcerers, not memorized like Wizards.  It was part of them.  Cassander closed his eyes and concentrated.  He could feel something, a thin line that felt ticklish with arcane power.  He thought about what he wanted to do, and reached out to let the power flow.

As the invisible power began to flow through him, Cassander grasped it and shaped it into what he desired.  It was a bit of a rush, and his smile grew more enjoyable.  He raised his hands out in front of him and energy sparkled between his fingers, leaping into the air between his hands.  The energy crackled and gathered into three small globes that lit up the  area around him.  Like a puppeteer, Cassander directed the globes, swirling them through the air and around hmself.

"Oh I could grow to like this."  His first time casting magic and he was loving it.

"Ah what a gip, you guys can fly and shoot fire, and all I can do is play the guitar" He said with a slightly down impression. "But then again, I'm a hell of a lot better with weapons than all of you" He laughed.

Then a thought struck him. This was inside the D&D game assumingly. So there would also be lots of things from D&D in it. Like killer mosnters and deadly traps! Crap! What happens with health in this world!? We could cast magic and use special skills, so maybe the health was the same as well. Even so, what happens if you die here? Do we get out? Or do we... die? For real die?

These thoughts sent a shiver up his spine, even more of a shiver than Cassander would get from her single cloth clothing protecting her/him from the cold. Then again, ressurection was possible in D&D wasn't it? Maybe it'd be alright, we better hope it does.

Dan turned back to the others. "So now that we've established we're either inside the D&D game or having a very real collective hallucination, what are we supposed to do? You guys have a spell that can send us back?" he asked the two estatic sorceresses.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:15, Fri 10 Apr 2009.

Sarah watches the demonstration of magical might with a slight bit of envy.

"Why did I come here with a rogue and not some sort of spellcaster... that looks so cool..."

"I'm sure that you've got some mad pick pocketing skills, Sarah.  I'd say you could try them out but I'm not even wearing enough cloth to have pockets." Cassander said to Sarah with a smirk.  He settled the glowing balls of light into the middle of their camp and stepped to the side.  He smoothed his travelling cloak beneath him as he found a rock to sit upon.

Cassander rested his chin in the palm of his hand as he thought for a moment.  "I think that there were some dimensional travel spells in the Players book, but I only glanced at them.  I don't know if I could cast something like that...safely.  And if I do manage to cast something that could get us home, how do we know if we'll end up back as our normal selves?  I suppose that I could try a polymorph spell but that's only temporary."

From near the ceiling, Greg is grinning from ear to ear.   Actual tears of joy run down the beautiful elven face.  She laughs giddily, joy seeming to shine from every pore in her body.
She looks down at them.

I don't know about you being better with weapons, Dan.   Sister Aliana is pretty good with the traditional elven longsword and longbow.   I even managed to roll some really good stats.   
Still smiling, as if unable to stop, she chuckles.

I'm 5'5" and weigh 110 lbs soaking wet, but I'm stronger, faster  and tougher than I've been in my entire life, except for maybe when I was on the high school wrestling team.   I could probably still give you a run for you money!  She giggles like a little kid at a Hanna Montana concert.
God!!!  I wish this spell would never end!   I've always dreamed about being able to fly, but it's even better than I possibly could have imagined.

The new elven cleric swings her arms and flies across the room, still in the standing position, looking more like a figure skater than anything else.

She sees Cassander's magic and applauds, her eyes seeming to light up with even more joy.
That's AWESOME!!!!    Well done, Cassander!   Sweet Mary, Mother of Herman Munster, this is SOOOOO  frakkin' cool!!!

Dan's other comment seems to filter into her overloaded brain, eventually.

Um.... dimensional travel spell?   It's been a while since I've read through the Player's Handbook, but I remember the Plane Shift spell.  It's a 5th level spell, though, so I'll need to be at least four levels higher to cast it.  That's a lot of monsters that I'd have to kill!
She laughs as she says it, but as soon as the phrase "have to kill" leaves her lips, the elf seems to lose all expression.

It's painfully obvious that despite the joy of flight, the reality of where they were had come crashing back.   With the same dazed but troubled expression on her face, Greg begins drifting back down to the floor.  Whether the descent is on purpose or not is unknown.   She sinks like a helium balloon with a slow leak, finally landing gently on the stone floor.

Oh god.   You're right.  Oh GOD!   
The fey features of her face become striken with panic.
SHIT!!!!!   What are we gonna do?!?!?   Um....
Greg seems like he's trying to think of something, her large eyes darting from side to side, looking at nothing in particular.  Her melodious voice sounds strained with fear.
Would ..... would a "Dispel Magic" spell work?   I just don't know.  I don't even have one memorized.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow at dawn and then I can pray for more.....
Greg's legs seem to give out again, and she sinks to her knees, with a jingle of metal from her chain shirt.
P-pray?
She says the word with great hesitation, as if she's forgotten what it means.

The elf maiden takes a series of deep, steadying breaths, stopping only when she seemed on the verge of hyperventilation.

What..... what do we do now?   D-do we "complete the quest"?  If we find the missing elf princess, or whatever, will that fix everything.  Is this some freaky "Dream Park" kinda thing?
Her voice, still sweet and melodious, trembled with barely controlled terror.

Leaping lightly to her feet.  She began pacing.
Crap.  crap. crap. crap. crap. CRAP!!!!!

The dainty looking cleric strode to the main door, throwing it open and looking out into the storm.  She looked defiantly into the night, as if the storm was a living entity.  And, someone who was working hard to piss EVERYONE off.

Dan stepped back a bit from Greg's paniced rampage of emotions and gave him a wide girth. He slowly turned back to the other members of the group. "...Right, inculding from Greg's... let's say 'input' we do have a few options before us"

Dan smiled. He often had good experience with getting perspective on things and setting out plans on whatever needed planning. "Far as I can tell none of us have any spells to return home, and even if we did we have no idea of how to return home anyway. I've seen more than enough movies about teleportation to know that screwing around with often leaves you sliced in half" He gulped at the thought.

"I don't know about you, but the quest seems pretty arbitrary now. Our main goal is to get back, not rescue some princess. First we'd need to find someone of great magical power or insight to help us. We can't go back to the previous town due to our 'hijinks' so we'll need to find another place to get information on where to find a smart sorcerer" He closed his eyes for this part and put his hand on his chin.

"For now we should wait 'til the rain dies down. Anyone else wanna throw something in while we wait?" He asked anyone and everyone.

John came in from the outside, dripping wet and covered in mud. It looked like she had fallen face first, though she had managed to clear most of it off and the rain had helped. She had already had to deal with the abrupt changes to herself and luckily unlike the other elves she had worn a decent amount of clothes though they still were rather form fitting, so her figure could still easily been seen even if her skin couldn't. "Alright... anyone want to explain to me what the hell is goin' on?" the elf asked, though her voice was slightly lower and more mature than the 'princessy' voices of the other two elves. Obviously she wasn't in the best of moods.

((OOC: Sorry guys I've been away and haven't been around the net enough to make a good post. Just assume John's been finishing covering their tracks, though you can ask if you want.))
This message was last edited by the player at 14:34, Mon 13 Apr 2009.

"We've all turned into our D&D characters, we are freaked out and exhalted by our newfound abilities and powers, all the men (apart from me) are now women, all the women are now larger chested (enevitable in D&D) and we are brainstorming ideas. That's pretty much it" He quickly relays to John, hoping he caught all that.

Dan really hated to repeat things.

Sarah raises an eyebrow at Dan.

"Speak for yourself."

She glances outside.

"No matter what we decide to do, I dont think its a good idea to head out into that. Let's rest for a while, maybe if we sleep, we'll find that this is just some freaky shared dream..."

John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, it was obvious she had a 'that wasn't what I meant' look on her face. She paused for a moment surprised that her glasses had disappeared then shook her head because that was also something she already knew so shouldn't be surprised. "Ooookay." she said trying not to snap at Dan, she was more shocked and pissed than she appeared though she hid it well, appearently those years in theater hadn't been for nothing "Care to tell me what any of those bright ideas are?"

"Shared dreams are highly unlikely, plus do you really want to sleep here? In the world of D&D? In the wild?" He asked her dubiously. "It's not too bright of an idea to me. We should sleep at an inn, where we'll be safer from the monsters of the wild"

"And, how far away is the nearest inn? And do we even know where it is?"

Cassander straightened up on his rock and crossed his legs at the knee.  He looked over at John, crossing his arms under his chest in a thoughtful manner.  "That's just what we're trying to figure out.  Magical means from Greg or myself are probably out.  There are just too many unknowns.  We'd probably end up stuck in some other dimension or plane of existence."

He was surprisingly calm, given what had happened.  It might just be that he was still on a bit of a magic high.  "Going outside in a storm doesn't make much sense.  I'm not too interested in finding out if Elves can catch cold.  Maybe in the morning we can figure something out.  Pray to the gods or try and divine our purpose, or find another town."

He, or rather she, there was no point denying it, looked around at her companions.  "Do you think that there might be some reason for this happening?  Maybe we are the only ones who can rescue the Princess.  I mean it could all be an accident too."

Dan looked a little sheepish. "Uh, err... That does pose the main problem with that course of action" He rubbed his head a little in shame. Sarah had a resounding point, and lumbering around in the rain... in the dark, was even less smart than sleeping in an old tower.

A thought struck him. "Hold on; I introduced this tower for the sake of plot..." He said, seemingly in thought about this.

"Hm."

Sarah glances around the room, judging it...

"Sounds like we're camping out here then.  Who wants first watch?"

"Unless of course Dan's Tower is more dangerous than it looks."

As Greg stared out into a storm, she gave a embarrassingly girlish squeak of alarm when the muddy, wet figure seemed to loom up out of the storm.  When she saw it was a beautiful elven woman, she almost laughed.
"Hmmmmm.... a hot elven chick.  The odds are good that she's with us".   She was, of course.
Greg stumbled back out of the new woman's way (hmmm...swords, bow, armor, must be a ranger, which means Alyissa. Or rather, John.
Or at least Greg would have stumbled if he had backed up that awkwardly yesterday.  Her elven reflexes made the most jerky movements seem almost like.....dancing.

Greg stayed by the door, trying to gather his thoughts, and calm a possible panic attack.
"Dammit, you spineless loser!  Calm the HELL down!   I know you're not the bravest person in the world, but you've never had an actual panic attack, and you're NOT going to start now.

The cleric walked back into the group, having gotten a hold of himself (herself?) enough to actually participate in the conversation.

She takes a deep, steadying breath, although the entire room can hear the quivering of the intake of air, and the still-present tremble of the newest player's voice as he speaks.

Um...uh...ok, well.   
Taking another breath, Greg tries again.
Leaving tonight to run around in the storm is a BAD idea.  We can all agree on that.  This place seems pretty water-tight, at least for one night, so I say we wait out the night, or at least the storm, here.   

The elven gave a laugh, seemed to wince at how pretty it was, then shook her head and plowed onward.
She took another deep breath and began talking quickly, as if she thought she'd lose her nerve if she slowed down.

Um...Cassander.  Cassander, right?   Crap, I was just learning everyone's names and now we all look different.
Anyway, does your sorceress have the spell "Prestidigitation" ?   That would be useful to help John clean up from the storm.   Trying to sleep in wet clothes is probably not going to be the  most restful sleep.  Although I think I've got spare clothes if you don't.
Greg almost laughed, thinking to himself "Criminy!  I've been a woman for less than ten minutes and I'm already sharing
clothes with my 'girlfriends'.   The stereotypical action would have been much funnier if this had still been the real game, instead of.... whatever this was.

Also, I can take first watch.  I'm too wired to sleep now, anyway, and besides, I've got this:
Greg held up a slender hand, showing off a slightly glowing ring on her left middle finger.  It was light green stone and seemed to pulse with a life of its own.

If other magic works, this should be a Ring of Sustenance.   It means that I don't really have to eat and I only need two hours of sleep a night.   I don't know if it will actually WORK, but it makes me a good voluteer for first watch.  Unless anyone wants to explore the tower, to make sure we are  truly alone here?  I would vote to hold off on that til morning, but knowing what to expect might not be a bad idea. 

Greg looked around at the group, sheepishly.
Guys, I'm sorry I freaked out.   I'm probably not done freaking out, granted, but I'm going to try to hold it together until we get out of here.  THEN I'm going to scream for about a week.
She attempted a weak smile.

Cassander stood up and walked over to Greg, giving the other elf a comforting embrace.  It just seemed like a good idea at the time.  "Don't worry too much about it Greg." she said soothingly.  "This is strange for all of us and I'm not that far behind you with the freaking out.  The important thing is that we keep our heads on straight."

Cassander gave Greg a reassuring smile as she continued. "And this feels really odd right now." she says referring to the hug that she was giving.  Cassander unwrapped his arms from around Greg and took a few steps back.  "Well, I'm all for checking out this tower.  There might be a better place for us to bed down.  Dan?  This is your creation.  Any thoughts?"

Greg grinned back, snickering a little.

Yeah, it felt weird to me too, but thanks just the same.  Weird or not, a hug from a friend was just what I needed.

Actually, the hug had felt very good, but not, well, good.  The embrace was very comforting and reassuring, but getting hugged by a stunning elven woman, even if he used to be a man, should have felt, well, better.
Instead, comforting or not, it felt more to Greg like she was getting hugged by her mother or a female cousin.  Kind of what she imagined getting hugged by a sister would feel like.  What did that mean?   No!  Don't think about that now.  Maybe they'll be out of here soon and you won't have to think about what it might mean.

Taking another deep breath, trying to ignore the effect it seemed to have on her new chest, Greg looked at Dan.

Um...ok, I've got more...well, magic spells and stuff that might help us.  Um, finding traps, silence, dispeling magic, that kind of thing.   

Suddenly, Greg stops talking, the blonde elf's eyes narrowing in concentration.
Actually, IS this tower your creation?  I mean, it kinda depends on how we got here, doesn't it.  If this is all some sort of creation made just for us, then the tower might be everything that Dan was thinking it might be when we were....moved.   
Greg's face screws up in anger, but she seems to force herself into calm and pushes on.
However, if, for example, we somehow "switched places" with real people in a real other world, then this tower could be, well, anything, and totally separate for Dan's "vision" of "an old tower we can hide in". 

As Greg looks around, it occurs that "over-thinking" might do more harm then good.  Greg smiles sheepishly.


Sorry, too many nights reading Chronicles of Amber and watching sci-fi shows.  Didn't mean to "muddy the waters" there, everyone.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:28, Tue 14 Apr 2009.

Dan sat down on the floor and thought about this, beinging his hands up to his head and putting his index fingers on either side of his temple. He sort of looked like what people do to make fun of 'psychic' powers.

"Only one way to find out!" He said and concentrated on the image of the tower containing a few chairs to see if reality would bend to the will of his player mind.

Greg almost laughed at Dan's attempt to "visualize" the tower.
She thought,  "Did he really think that it was possible to...."
Then she glanced down at her chest briefly and looked quickly back up, pressing her lips tightly together in frustration.
"Then again, it's not like stranger things haven't already happened". she mused.

Silently. Greg waited, realizing there was nothing to lose in trying.
After a second or two, Greg's gamer instincts kicked in and the elf began going around the room, looking for anything they'd missed in their first inspection.  They  had been a bit distracted, after all.

The tower suddenly shakes, causing you all to flinch.

When you look back, there are several poorly made chairs sitting in the centre of the room.

As Greg looks around the tower, he initially sees nothing new but the trapdoor and the stairs. Then, carved into the wall, are the words 'Save the Princess'.

"... Well, if that isnt a DM message, nothing is. Guess you were right, he IS a god now."

Sarah chuckles.

I don't understand.....do we.... sit down?   and what?  finish the game?

Greg was feeling even more overwhelmed by the strangeness.   So, it WAS about the game.  The DID have to "save the princess" to return home.  Hopefully.

After thinking he was done being an emotional wreck, Greg felt tears come to her large eyes.
At least you could have asked us first.  God Damn It!!!!
The elven cleric yells the last part.    She walks to a chair, but instead of sitting down, stares at it like it were a beartrap.

Dan stares at the chairs for a bit, wide-eyed and suprised at his newfound power to wish things into existance. He gets a great grin and laughs in happiness "HAHA! I don't believe it! Since this world was born from our collective imainations, we can reshape it using them" He suddenly realises how much that makes absolutely no sense but doesn't care, can shape existance and that is the best superpower in the history of superpowers.

He walks over to Greg and tells... her "Come on man, if we can shape the universe with our minds, we can save some princess. Then we can get back home"

Greg's beautiful elven eyes blink in confusion at Dan.

Wait!  ......YOU made the chairs?   But, ok, that's COOL, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make sense that we can control EVERYTHING.   I mean, if this is still the game, then that wouldn't be a very balanced game.....would it?

Greg shakes her head, he was so confused.  Granted, seeing long blonde hair moving past her shaking head didn't help.   The elf looks up.


So, now what?  Do we imagine that the princess is in this very tower and go beat up the skeleton guards, or something?   Do we "imagine" that the room upstairs is filled with powerful magic stuff to let us find her and rescue her?

John shook her head. "I doubt that was you doing anything Dan. Most likly the GM.. or god... was responding to you. Like when you don't see anything until you make a spot check." she began to look around "If we became our character then Chris would have become the god like figure that pulls our characters... and now our, strings." she said with her depressing thought.

Cassander strides over to the chairs, and runs a delicate hand along the back on one.  The chairs felt very real.  She knew that she should be feeling freaked out about all of this but it was all really fascinating when she thought about it.  "I have to tell you, Greg." she said looking over at the elven cleric.  "I'm feeling that sisterly urge to hug you again, even moreso when you look like you're on the verge of tears."

She cocked her attractive head to the side, as though she were studying her own reaction.  "It's kind of an interesting feeling.  I wonder if it's an elven thing.  We didn't establish anything between our characters, before the game started so I wonder just where this is coming from."

Cassander walks along behind another chair, once more running her fingers along its back.  Her thoughts weren't really on the chairs but on the situation that they found themselves in.

Greg winces at having her damp eyes noticed and hurriedly wipes them.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be....so....
She sniffs.
I was always kind of emotional, even as....(sigh) even as a man.  I used to cry a lot as a kid.  I was very immature for my age.  I THOUGHT I was over it by now. 

She looks at Cassander, almost shyly and shrugs.
I have to admit.  I wouldn't say no to another "sisterly hug".
She chuckles for a second.
I know we never bothered to do backstory, for I kind of had one, when I found out after making my character that you guys made elven women too.   Believe it or not, I was assuming that Tizona and especially Alyissa would kind of "take Sister Aliana" under thier wings, since she's been in the temple most of her life.

She gives an embarrassed laugh.
kind of stupid, huh?

Cassander smiled as her eyes met Gregs, before she dropped her gaze to the top of a chair.  She paused for a moment before gliding around the chairs to put a reassuring hand on Gregs shoulder.  "It's not that stupid.  Really.  I can see Tizona in that role.  Maybe that's why I'm feeling what I am."

Cassander pulled Greg to her, embracing the other girl in another sisterly hug.  "Come here.  I figure it's best to go with these feelings for now.  Who knows what going against character could do.  With all the strangeness going on around us, we need to rely on each other.  Besides, how often do you get to hug an elf?"  The close contact felt really good.  Cassander was not a hugger back in the real world but here it was different.

After a minute, she turned to John, stretching out a shapely arm to beckon the third elf in their party.  "John?"

Greg starts giggling uncontrollably, turning her face into Tizona's shoulder as if trying to hide it.

Oh my god!!!
She says between giggles.
We're the Elven Power Puff Girls, and I'M Bubbles!!!!!

She starts giggling louder, until she has to hold onto Tizona for support, tears streaming down her exotic face.

As much as this must be shocking and alarming for Greg... suck it up man! He thought, half groaning at this touchy-feely stuff. Apparantly he didn't make Kenjinn give a crap about a lot things like this. It scared him a bit that they seemed to be themselves but with elements of their character's personality fusing with them. He really didn't want to think about that in detail with the 'guys'

He tapped the hug-happy trio of girls on their shoulders. "As much as this helps, we should probably all get some rest so we can be refreshed in th' morning. I really don't want to be tired if something dangerous shows up" He says, walking over to the back of the tower and trying to wish a hammock into existance.

The impatient looking bard brought Greg back to seriousness,  mostly.  Her giggling slowed gradually to a halt, until she was only panting a little.  She brought a face cloth out of a satchel and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
She, reluctantly it seemed, parted from her elven "sisters" and nodded at Dan.


Sorry Dan, I've never been very good with stress and high pressure situations it seems.  I always look for the humor and joke about it.


She finally stops laughing, taking a couple of deep, cleansing breaths.

Ok, ok, ok,.....Sleep.   Um, I've got several bedrolls with me that I can share in my little "satchel of holding", and, like I mentioned before, I'm wearing a "Ring of Sustanance" which means I only need two hours of sleep a night.  That is, if THAT magic works as well.
So, I can take first watch.  In fact, I can take watch for the next six hours or so, probably.  (God knows I'm too wired to sleep, now. )  And everyone else can sleep for six and then I'll take my two.  Or some combonation thereof.

She reaches into a haversack she's wearing, which obviously is magical, since she puts her hand in a few inches and instantly begins pulling out several bedrolls and things for a fire and dinner.

"Bubbles." Cassander repeated with a smile and an amused shake of her head, as the three elven girls went their separate ways.  The analogy was pretty funny, but which one did that make him?  She had a good chuckle at Greg's laughing, damn but it was infectious.  Dan probably needed a hug as well, the guy was turning grumpy.  Not everyone was going to be completely composed under a situation like this.  Cassander was surprised that he...she wasn't more upset, but she decided that helping out Greg had also helped her own mood.

"I'm not all that tired right now so I'm going to take a quick look around." she said, calling her three glowing balls of light to her.  The baseball sized orbs floated around her, illuminating the room.  "Is there anything to this tower that we might need to know about, Dan?  A well or source of water?  Back doors?  Previous occupants?"  She guessed that there wouldn't be anything terribly dangerous lurking around, that wouldn't have made for a safe hideout.

Dan was inturrupted from his sub-space imaginings of a hammock by Cassander's questions. He mused to himself "No, I didn't imagine anything... oh wait, there's a trapdoor there right?" He pointed to the suspicious plank of wood in the ground.

He gulped. "Well I did say that all the worst things in the world are in the basements didn't I?" He asked nervously.

Greg also looked at the trapdoor, a shiver of fear going through her body.   Jesus Christ, she thought, what if there really WAS some monster down there?   What the hell would they do?   Sister Aliana would draw her elven composite longbow or her finely crafted longsword, but Greg hadn't even been in a fistfight since second grade.   Hell, he'd even lost that one because of his ineptness.
Greg picked up the sword in his deceptively delicate hands, hands that combined finely tapered and smoothed fingernails, and calluses from sword practice.     She couldn't imagine actually killing something with it, but perhaps she had no choice.  The world of "Dungeons & Dragons" despite what a certain cheezy cartoon would have one believe, was dangerous, brutal, and violent.
Greg took a deep, steadying breath.
She couldn't kill someone, could she?
She looked around the room.   These four strangers, met only.... God! what was it? a couple of hours ago?.... were now his whole world.  Literally.  Despite the possibly artificial feelings of affection she felt towards the other elves, Greg knew that he would do whatever it took to protect them.
Smiling shakily, though more confident.  Greg stepped forward.

We can check it out, if you guys want.   I'll even..... (deep breath) .... go first.
Greg bent to pick up the glowing torch in her other hand.
This time making sure not to look directly into it.

Cassander looked at the trapdoor and then back to Dan.  "You just saw that trapdoor now?  Huh." she said surprised.  Cassander had noticed it earlier, maybe there was something to the keener Elven senses.  "I'm thinking that I would sleep better knowing that there was nothing beneath our feet that had a taste for Elf or human."

She knelt down at the trapdoor and felt around the edges for something to lift the hatch up with.  Cassander found a good grip and started to pull.  The trapdoor groaned as though the hinges hadn't been loosened in some time, and still Cassander pulled at it.  "Oh. Come on." she said through clenched teeth.  Bracing herself in a most unladylike fashion, she strained harder at the door.  "Tizona might be a...sorceress but she can't...be this wea..."

The stiff hinges finally gave way.  The trap door sprung open, causing Cassander to lose her balance and stumble comically backwards into someone.

Somewhat instinctively, Greg came near Cassander to "back him up" in case anything was there.   She almost put her sword and torch down to help (she was actually quite strong, especially for an elven cleric) when the door came up and Cassander stumbled back.   A human would have immediately landed on their butt, Greg knew, but the new elf's enhanced reflexes meant more of a stumble back.  Still, Greg had to do something.....

Holding her sword back out of the way, Greg moved behind Cassander and let the woman stumble into her, wrapping her left arm, still holding the magically glowing torch, around her waist.  Greg was amazed how light she was.
Also, how uncomfortable it was to catch someone by letting them bounce of your bosum.

Wincing slightly, she pulled the sorceress to her feet, marveling at her light weight.

Are you ok?

"Uhm, yeah.  I'm...I'm fine.  Thanks." Cassander steadied herself on her own feet, thanks to Gregs help, and nonchalantly tugged at her clothes, straighening them up just a little.  Hopefully the light was dim enough that no one would notice the embarassed look on her face, from the stumble or the landing.  "You never really appreciate a low strength until you have to open up a trap door."

"Proper Dungeon Delving rules say that the thief...er...rogue should go first."  She looked back at Greg and smiled.  The girls nervousness was evident.  "I know you're more than willing to throw yourself in harms way but you're the groups healer.  You're too important to put in the front of the group.  You just hang back here, Bubbles."

Cassander drew her own sword.  She had liked the idea of a sorceress wearing a sword that she never used, and had even named it HardlySeen, but somehow the idea of going into the basement without something in her hands was unappealing. "I figure that it was my idea to go downstairs, I'll go first, if Sarah doesn't mind.  I don't want to take away any chance fro her to use her Roguish charms.  I'll follow second, if she does, then Dan and then Greg."

She chuckled, a soft musical chuckle.  "Party order.  Now it feels like a D&D game.  We just need the Mountain Dew."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:06, Sun 19 Apr 2009.

Greg makes a sound that almost sounds like a throaty growl of longing.

OH GOD!!!!  I could REALLY use a Mountain Dew!   I've been drinking it since I was six and have been hooked ever since.

"Caffeine is the One True God, and Mountain Dew is the Messiah!"
Greg quotes (seeming a bit cheered up by the familiar saying, in this strange environment)

But, you're right.  We have to be practical with party order.   But I dissagre with you going second, Cassander.  We need a better protected person going second.  I was thinking John or maybe Dan.  A ranger would be best in case something is...... down there....
The elven woman seems to shudder at the thought.
I might actually have the best "armor class" of the group, besides John, but if  you'd rather, I'll go last.  we need someone well armored to walk "rear guard" anyway.

Hmmmmm... How about this?
Sarah
John
you
Dan
then me?

Crap.  I feel really stupid to actually suggest I go last.  Kind of like I'm a coward, or something.  I could still go second, if everyone doesn't mind?

"Stop thinking that you're a coward, because you're not." Cassander said with a air of some authority.  An authority that he wasn't sure where it came from.  Must be some Elven thing again.  Whatever it was, the commanding tone was there when she spoke again.  "You're the healer.  You never put the healer in the front of the party.  If we had a second healer then sure go up front but as of right now you're job is to keep the rest of us alive, and that means keeping yourself alive first."

"You're right about John going second.  I'm the squishiest one here so I should be in the middle, protected by you big tough armor wearing types."  Cassander let her tone relax.  Wierd how that happened.  "I'm not sure how you're Bard is set for abilities, Dan, but I think that you should be in the middle of the party with me.  Unless you have a better idea."

"I could really go for a Dew right now, or even a slice of that pizza we were going to order." She looked down at the body she was now in and sighed.  No!  Don't do that.  No sense missing what's gone now.  you're just going to bring the rest of the group down and there's no time for that right now.  Right now you're an Elf sorceress so get over it.

When she spoke again, the commanding tone was back.  "Okay.  Are we all set then?  I can light the way with my Orbs of Light, and Greg has that staff."  She paused for a moment.  "I just thought of something.  Everyone get in close.  I have a spell that should toughen up our armor rating.  I doubt that we'll find anything nasty down there but why take the chance."

Cassander waited until the group had moved closer and then closed her eyes, concentrating on the spell that she wanted to cast.  The energy built up in her and the words of power came easily.  She directed both to everyone in the party, adding an invisible arcane armor to their physical one.  "There.  Anyone else have anything that they want to do?"

Greg nodded with a shy grin, accepting Cassander's declaration almost submissively.
"Where the HELL did that come from?"  She though with a jolt.
Greg had acted as party leader in several D&D games but was never a leader in real life.  Still, she had never felt this strange need to submit to authority that she did now.
"I put Aliana's alignment as neutral good" she thought "so there should be no particular need to bow to authority figures, so what did it mean?"
Perhaps Aliana's back story, written years ago, gave a hint.  The cloistered cleric, having no practical knowledge of the outside  world, would have looked to her party members for guidence.  She had confidence in her abilities, but held others who'd been "in the world" on a pedastal and with a kind of awe.
But....I don't feel that way, do I?


She spoke up, feeling that she wanted to do it as much to please the others, than because she wants to.

Most of my spells that would be useful only last about five minutes (Thank you 3rd edition), so I should probably wait until they're needed.

It's dark down the trapdoor.

There are wooden stairs that lead down that look sturdy enough. As you prepare to climb them, you see a torn piece of white cloth caught on the wood.

The elves can tell that their own kind made it.

Elven-made Greg murmurs, then stops, blinking.

Wait, how did I.....That was  really weird.  In the real world, I wouldn't know silk from polyester, but here...it's like the knowledge is just....poof!....suddenly there.  Like I'm suddenly remembering, quite vividly, some obscure day back in high school where we learned something very specific.   

She shakes her head, her large eyes troubled.
It's kind of like how I know what "spells" I've got "memorized" or obscure things about swordplay or archery that aren't on my character sheet. 

Greg starts to chuckle at her weird musings, but suddenly gets an inquisitive look on her face.
Alright, here's another strange, random thought.   If the "DM" usually runs all the NPCs, does that mean that if we eventually find this princess, that she'll be Chris?

She shrugs, as if to say "sure, it sounds stupid, but it's not as "out there" as everything else, so far.

"That would be very poetic, seeing as how half of us traded genders.  I wonder just how many of the NPC's that we'll meet would be Chris?  He can't possibly be everything in this world." Cassander says as she examines the scrap of cloth.  She was thinking the same as Greg, how they could suddenly tell that the cloth was elven made.  Yet another touch of strangeness to add to the list.

"Hmm.  The stairs look to be in okay condition.  Too bad they spiral downwards, or we could see the bottom, but it looks clear.  Alright let's take this slow and easy.  Keep an eye open for any traps or secret doors." The Elf says to her companions as they get ready to go down the stairs.  She makes a small gesture with her hand and one of her arcane globes floats down the stairs.

Cassander couldn't help a small smile.  This was turning out to be really interesting, awkward and rather fun.

Greg had to almost physically stiffle another onslaught of giggles.
"I wonder how many NPCs will be Chiris?"
Greg was reminded of the movie ""Being John Malcovich."  Where people could enter a doorway and "enter" the mind of the actor John Malcovich.   Then the real John Malcovich tried it and entered his own head.  He entered a world just like the real one, but EVERYONE, every man, woman, and child, had his face.  He left screaming, if Greg recalled correctly.
She pictured Chris as every NPC, from the old begger, the stuffy mayor, and the tavern wench, acting "in character" but as soon as the other NPCs left, he'd (in whatever form he was in) wink and say "You're doing great guys.  By they way, where do you guys want to get pizza from when I order it?", only to magically become the character again when someone else came into earshot.

It was a weird thought, but it kept Greg from shaking in terror at the prospect of what might be down in the dark basement.

Kenjinn notices Greg fly back from trying to open the trapdoor. "Well that was useless" He says and attempts to open it himself. Luckily, since Bards are basically downplayed Thieves, they have experience with opening all sorts of doors.

The trapdoor swings open but he doesn't go down as it is pitch-black. He turns back to the others. "Sure could use that celestial ball of light right about now"

Dan....
Greg tried to make the word sound like one dude telling another dude to calm the frick down, but her melodious elven voice made it sound more like a scolding mother.

This is hard on ALL of us, remember?
Especially those of us who got more changed than our "gee-tar" skills.   Hell, I've lost 6 inches of height and over half my weight,  not to mention a certain body part that I'm REALLY trying not to think about right now, that I was saving for marriage, or at least the next woman who offfered to share it with me.
I know I'm freaking out more then anyone, and I'm sorry.
I tend to freak out with little provocation.  I did it when the camping store I worked at closed down suddenly, throwing us all out into the street, so you KNOW I'm gonna do it now.
But, I think I'm better now.  We all are. 

She sighs.
I can't promise anything, but we'll get OUT of this.  I know we will. 
This message was last edited by the player at 08:11, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

John nods to the other elf "Damn right we will." he said, just to emphasize the point. He had been thinking about the NPCs that the other's mentioned "Honestly I don't think that he'd be the NPCs, if we became our characters how do we know that the NPCs didn't come to a life of our own. I still think that Chris is just the guy controling the envronment at this point. What I want to know is if he has total control, why can't he just 'make' us go back to normal. All I can figure is that there is something stopping him, maybe a rule that says we have to complete this adventer first..."

She looked down the dark tunnel and shook her head "As for the march order. I'm no rouge and I'm better outdoors than tunnels, but I'm a melee fighter, and we elves have low light vision. I should probally go first, with Sarah behind to look for traps. Dan should probally go last just in case something tries to ambush us from behind, then at least Greg and Cassander can keep casting." she looked around at the group, before crouching down near the entrance "Anyone have any objections? We shouldn't just keep jawing when we could get on with this..."

"Sounds good to me." Cassander replied.  She was a little anxious to get going but a proper party order had to be hashed out.  She chuckled once more at party order.  The Elf gestured to the trap door, bowing slightly with one hand out.  "Ladies first." she giggled.

"Lead the way."

Sarah steps behind John, ready to begin a trap sweep...

"Here's hoping that my Search ranks carry over..."

Greg shrugged her slim shoulders.   She prefered her version of the marching order, but decided not to waste time arguing.  It was one of the cardinal rules of D&D (and even real life, presumably), that any reasonable plan, even if not perfect, was generally better than sitting around arguing endlessly.

My "continual light torch" is probably one of the better light sources, so maybe it IS better if I go closer to the middle.  Ok, I'll go fourth, then.  That way I'll still be able to back up Dan should something sneak up on us.

She still shuddered at the thought of some monster lurking in the darkness.
"Knock it off and suck it up, you spineless jackass!!!!!"  she thought furiously at herself.   "Your friends need you.  You have to protect them."  The idea of being brave for the others bolstered Greg a bit.  Her mind went from frozen in a blinding panic to a jittery, adrenaline-fueled buzz, which was something she could work with.

And, Sarah, if you really need it, I do have a "find traps" cleric spell if you REALLY one, but it only lasts five minutes.

Greg tried not to be distracted by all the new information rattling around in her newly blonde head.  This was not the time, dammit!   Information about outdoor survival, religious rites, elven lore.....

Holy Shit!!!!   I can speak Elven now!  Can any of you....
It was an achingly exotic language, sounding a little like the stuff spoken by the "elves" in the Lord of the Rings movies, but sounded like if someone from France taught Tolkien Elven to a Norwegian.
She immediately shakes her head, perhaps a little harder than was needed.
Nope!  Sorry! Forget I said anything!  We can talk about that later.

For someone who took a total of five years of French classes, and to this day remembered about a dozen words, the idea of knowing a foreign language so well was ....  intoxicating.  Greg suddenly remembered that Sister Aliana was supposed to be a language geek, and he's put several extra skill points into more languages...  No!  Like she'd just said, time for that later.....

Cassander waited her turn as John and Sarah started down the stairs.  How cool is this?  I'm actually delving into a dungeon.  She was about to step third in the party but decided that it might be best to let Greg go next.  That way Cassander could keep an eye on the Cleric.

"Stay focussed now, Aliana.  We're all counting on you." she said softly in Elvish as the cleric passed her, using the character name rather than the player name.  There were equal parts concern and command in her voice.  Greg had seemed to get a little distracted from time to time but that might have been part of the Sister Aliana personality leaking through.

Greg felt something click at being called "Aliana" by Cassander.  It was oddly comforting.  Maybe Greg could think about all of this happening to "Sister Aliana" instead of "Greg Stone", which might dull the terror level just a smidge.
"Yes," Greg thought, "I'm Sister Aliana, priestess of Fharlanghn, envoy of the Elven Nation, here to save an Elven princess."   It felt good to kind of let go and ride with the flow.
Ok, Tizona, you can count on me, ma'am. Greg said with an almost shy grin, before turning to go third.
Greg still thought, as the second (or perhaps third) best armed and armored "character" that she should have  gone more to the rear to back up Dan, but 'descending into darkness' was NOT the time to argue.

She held her magic torch aloft with her left hand and her finely crafted sword in her right.  The sword felt like a part of her arm.  It was something else that was weird, but she was grateful of it now.

John nodded as everyone got ready. She was somewhat surprise that she understood everything they said in the elvish tongue but considing all the other skills they had it shouldn't have been that much a surprise. John was still surprising cool under the curcemstances but most of his time not working was spent in daydreams where he was in situations like this one. It helped that Alyissia had a similar attitude to hiself in these brief moments of fantasy, so he just acted like he would in on of those situations. The only real difference being that he was a chick, though if one of his daydreams was about one of his female characters sometime they would come into them. As such this was familiar enough(at least in his own head) to continue so they could get out of this nightmare.

Once everyone appeared ready, she dropped through the trapdoor to the stairs below, with as much grace as an olympic gymnast. As soon as she landed she drew her twin short swords and stepped in one smooth motion. She got out of way so Sarah could follow her down, now was the perfect time for an ambush by any maline creatures in the area, considering she was by herself for a moment all along. She scaned the near darkness, searching for signs of an attack while waiting for the others. She also looked around for any tracks that could lead them to the princess.

Perhaps not suprising to 'veteran' adventurer's such as yourselves, the trapdoor leads into a properly constructed tunnel. The walls are made from stone and at intervals there are burnt out torches along the walls.

The air is cold and dry down here, the only pathway being into the darkness.

Your light does not illuminate until the end of the passage, but far enough to see two shapes moving in the darkness. They stumble forth and it doesn't take any geeky knowledge to know that they are zombies.

Their body's are decaying, but their heads are nothing more than skulls with burning flames for eyes. That sinister insignia is burnt into the bone.

"Identify yourselves" says a voice. It comes from where the zombies are, but it is not from them.

When the creatures come into view, Greg's small mouth hangs open.
Zombies! Real live.....well, REAL walkin' around dead guys!
The sickly skin was glistening in the magical light.  The glowing eyes seemed to
cut into Greg's heart.

Greg's mind seemed to freeze for a moment, then split into the two parts; the intellectual and the emotional.

The intellectual was saying:
Zombies. Maybe I can turn them?  Those glowing eyes probably mean that they aren't normal zombies, so maybe not.  I should think of something "turny" to say.

The emotional was saying:
don't pee yourself.  don't pee yourself.  don't pee yourself.
oh, for the love of GOD!!!!!  do NOT pee yourself.

Cassander squints at the moving shapes, putting her hands on Gregs shoulders and lean close to her.  "What are thos...Are those...Zombies?!"  She says in amazement.

She steps around beside Greg.  "My name is Cass..." Oh right.  I should probably speak in character.  Let's hope these guys are friendly to Elves.  I wonder what Elves taste like?  "I am Tizona, from the Southern Elvish kingdom.  These are my companions.  Who are we addressing?"  Hopefully that sounds okay.

Sarah blinks as the voice echoes down the hallway.

"... magic mouth, maybe?"

Her hands lower to her daggers, gripping the hilts tightly.

Well, great. Greg thought.  The chick dressed like a belly dancer is braver than the one wearing 20 lbs of armor.
Sheathing her sword as subtly and quietly as she could, Greg reaches for her holy symbol of Fharlanghn.
"man!, I hope I can do this"  She thinks, trying to remember she's done in other games when she played clerics and had to....
No.  She wasn't remembering other games, she was remembering....clerical classes at the elven temple to Fharlanghn back in the capitol city.  It had been a small place, The Lord of the Horizon not being as popular among the Folk as with humans, but she'd learned much in the twenty years that she studied with....

Well.....shit..  Greg thought, with wonder.

She shook her head to clear it from memories that were hers and NOT hers, and focused on the situation in front of them.  She waited for "Tizona" to get an answer.
Who made her the spokesperson?
Oh, yeah.  By not saying anything, Greg supposed she did.

"You are addressing the Cult of the New World" the voice replies "With the goal to open a portal from this world to another, where we shall rule"

Then the voice sneers "But although who you seek is part of our plans, you are not. Prepare to die!"

The zombies stagger forward without another word.

Dan had been following quietly, keeping his voice down and doing what his class does best; look out for traps and the fastest way he could cheeze it. Most of the rest of his companions had taken it upon themselves to start talking some wierd language, probably elven or spanish. Then they came upon zombies. All in all a marvelous time.

Wait... zombies... Ah, suprisingly tame compared to the rest of the transformations, but still enough to make his legs shake. He tried to push all his pop culture knowledge of zombies to the back of his mind as he moved a bit closer towards the twin undead and heard the disembodied voice talking.

It said it wanted to kill them. Normally in this situation the heroes would carve down enough enemies to fill a small slaughterhouse quota, but then again thesen were not heroes, these were a couple of mates who got together to play a nerdy game and only have to worry about running out of fat snacks.

Immediately Dan did what he usually does; talk at length for no apparant reason. Luckily this was essential to Bards... usually. He perked up towards them "Wait! Wait! Wait!" He exclaimed, moving towards the voice, behind the elven swordslingers no less. "Let's not be too hasty! How would you know if we are not part of your plans? We might be an essential part that the dying would ruin" He attempted to reason, hoping his high charisma would somehow pay off. You probably shouldn't talk to ultimate evil but... how often do you get to talk with ultimate evil? How should you know what to do? Talk at length was Dan's answer, as it is for most things.

"Definately NOT a magic mouth."

Sarah draws her daggers with a flourish, throwing one at the nearest of the two zombies.

"Ultimate evil?  Oh that doesn't sound good." Cassander muttered, letting Dan take over.  Talking was what Bards did best so she'd gladly let him do the talking.

"Are you ready to do some turning, Aliana?" she said, giving Greg a pat on the shoulder as she stepped behind the other elf.  "Zombies should be right up your alley."  Cassander might sound calm, and in a way she was.  She was confident that the Cleric could turn the zombies and that they were not in any immediate danger, unless there were thousands of the undead down here.

"That voice mentioned a portal to another world.  You don't suppose that they might be trying to get to our world?  Naw that wouldn't make sense."

John shrug "About as much sense as us turning into our characters?" she pointed out retorically. She dropped to a low crouch, keeping on the balls of her toes, so others could see over her. Even if she had been a ranged ranger she would have drawn her blades for this, of course she wouldn't be in the front either. She held the swords in a ready stance in front of her and seemed to slip into the shadows by reflex, though it probally wouldn't have much effect on the undead, if anyone was with them it could be useful.

Greg nodded to Cassander, bringing out her holy symbol.  You read my mind, 'girlfriend', she thinks, the lame joke helping to somewhat stem the fear that was curdling her insides like milk in the hot sun.

Holding the 'sunrise over the open road' design on the oaken disk aloft, Greg opened her mouth to give the very melodramatic speech she'd been preparing (at least with the, small, unterrifed part of her brain) ever since seeing the walking dead things.   They used to do this back in the day, in the old gaming group, compete for who could give the more dramatic 'turning' speech.  He'd even used various IDs as his 'holy symbols'  when playing different clerics, like Red Cross card for the god of healing, a veteren's benefit card, sent to him accidentally when he was ten, for the god of war, and so on.   He.....she... used to be pretty good at it.
She froze.
What the HELL am I doing?   Jesus, I'm a...person who stopped going to church when I was eight!   And, NOW I"m going to channel...what?  A REAL god, untamed magic power, maybe even Chris?  It didn't make any sense, none of it did.

No!  They needed you, you spineless jackass!   You can do this!  But, was 'this' even possible?  Could Greg really be a 'conduit' for divine power?   The new elf tried desparately, her mind suddenly blank, to think of something, anything, to bolster his confidence.

Then, he remembered the flying spell.

Jesus Christ Jumping on a Pogo Stick!  That's right!  I....I can fly.
I can fly!
I can Honest to Christ, God-Damn, MOTHER-FUCKIN' FLY!!!!
I can do ANYTHING!!!!

The elven cleric strode forward, holding out her holy symbol, not noticing the faint shimmer of light coming from it.

BACK!!!!    REMOVE YOUR FOUL, PUTRID BODIES FROM THIS WORLD OF THE LIVING!!!!    CRAWL  BACK TO THE STINKING PITS, FROM WHENCE YOU WERE SPAWNED!!!!  BY THE POWER OF THE GREAT LORD OF ROADS, YOUR JOURNEY IS ENDED!!!!


of  course, she mused, this is where i usually roll a '1'

Fortunately, Greg didn't roll a 1.

Sarah's dagger stabs into the zombie, before it pulls itself out and returns to her hand. The zombie doesn't even flinch, but that's not exactly surprising.

The holy symbol begins to glow and give off a holy aura, pushing the undead back. They stagger back and away from the party, before turning tail and shuffling away into the darkness as fast as they can.

Cassander smiled.  "Nicely done, Gr...Aliana.  I was even feeling the urge to run away myself."  The Elf gestures, sweeping her arm in front of her in a graceful manner.  Her glowing orbs of light shot forward illuminating the tunnel ahead of the group.

"Shall we?" she asked the rest of the party.

holy fuck. it actually worked.
Greg seemed to realize what she'd said, almost amused at the random curse word so soon after a holy pronouncement.

Wow. That was pretty cool.  Remember everyone, zombies are immune to stabbing and bashing, so cutting weapons only.
She paused.
Heh. I can't believe I remembered that with dead guys staring at me.

Sarah deftly catches her dagger as it flies back, then resheathes it.

"Ahh... I forgot. At least now we know our equipment is as it was on our sheets..."

Greg, still a little buzzed with success, nods to Cassander.
Sure thing...Tizona.
She smiled, the new name was coming to mind more easily.  That actually might be a bad thing, but she'd worry about it later, when they weren't being killed by dead guys.

Greg draws his elven longbow and nocks an arrow with a fluid and practiced motion that makes her stop and stare in confusion at her hand for a moment.  Then, holding her magical torch awkwardly but securely in her left hand, she follows Sarah.

She figured her bow might be better from the back of the party,and she could just drop the torch, as it woudn't go out.

Sarah begins to move along the passage, carefully checking for signs of traps, tripwires, or movable tiles on the ground. She slowly moves her hands along the walls, feeling for oddities or imperfections...

Dan seems a bit peeved they just pissed off ultimate evil. Granted the evil didn't seem to respond to his plea so it probably would've ended the same either way. He sighed with slight annoyance and fear, hopefully zombies would be the extent of what they would face.

wow.  Greg thought.  wow.  I turned the zombies!   wow. wow. wow. WOW!

Greg felt really jazzed, almost as good as she'd felt when she was flying earlier.
Althought, she thought, I REALLY hope we don't need a fly spell later on, and everyone gets pissed because I wasted my only one today.
i turned the zombies!

Greg was having trouble hiding the grin on her elven face.  She knew that the situation was serious.  ("invading another world" , like maybe OUR world?  Are you KIDDING me?!?)  But she couldn't help feeling wonderful.

It was like that in many games, too, ironically.   Greg was a pretty good roleplayer, and gamer, but always felt outclassed by many of the obsessed rules-lawyers and others who seemed to have nothing else to do but pour over piles of rulebooks, creating optimized characters or planning out solutions to every possible scenario, like a real life general preparing for a real life war.    The more casual gamer, Greg always seemed to be on the proverbial sidelines, while "greater minds" came up with answers, or when Greg just rolled badly, which was often.

There were times, though, when he would shine.   A good idea, an inspired speech to an NPC, or, hell, even a critical hit, and he felt like a true gamer as good as any of them.

Granted, Greg kind of hoped that those obsessed players were here now, among this new group.  As much as she wanted to have a chance at the spotlight in a game, THIS was real life, and Greg didn't give a rat's ass WHO solved the puzzle of how to fix it, just so long as it got fixed.


She still couldn't believe she turned those zombies.  That was so cool!

As she basked again in her inner glow, however, the implications started nagging at the edges of her mind.
She turned the zombies, by channeling the power of a GOD.
Ok, she thought to herself, THAT was kind of a sobering thought.

What did it mean?   Was it more magical smoke and mirrors (relatively speaking, or course), or was Fharlanghn......Real?    For that matter, was God real?   Greg wasn't a true agnostic, but he certainly didn't take his native christianity very seriously.  Too many hypocrites on TV and in his own family.
But, then again, their current experience was pretty much proof in the existance of, at the very least, really weird shit.

Was that all there was?  Or was there more?

Greg shook her head to clear it, stlll trying to ignore the blond hair that fell to either side of her face.
Stop acting like a stoner with too much time on your hands, she berated herself, you friends need you.
She settled in to walk down the hallway, ready (in theory) for anything.

Holy crap, she  thought, I can't believe I actually turned a real zombie.

"Anyone else find it really odd that some mysterious voice controlling zombies has a clue to where our...the princess might be, just happens to be beneath the tower that we're taking shelter in?" Cassander asked as they walked along.  "It seems a little too convenient."

She had to resist the urge to tug at the top of her skirt as they walked.  It felt like it could slip down her hips at any moment.  Cassander had drawn Tizona's clothing according to the fantasy tradition, so it was more eye candy than anything else and very impractical to go traipsing through a dungeon in.  Thank you, Vallejo and Boris.  At least I didn't give her the classic chainmail bikini.  God how embarassing would that have been?

She was spending too much time worrying about what she was wearing than concentrating on the task at hand.  This was all only temporary so why worry about it?  Because it might not be temporary?

Cassander shook her head and turned her attention back to guiding her floating orbs of light through the dark passage.  "Was any of this in your plan for the tower, Dan?  Do you think that Chris just took your idea and ran with it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:35, Thu 23 Apr 2009.

Greg was jarred from her adrenaline induced daze by Cassander...that is, Tizona.

Glancing back, she shook her head, letting out a breath of frustration.
There's just so many possibilities, once you realize that you can't reject something because it's
"not possible".  I mean, assuming that this isn't just some shared hallucination, or just my own personal halluncination, than it could... almost be....ANYTHING.  There could be a world where magic exists that's like our D&D world, and some "cult of weirdos" used that magic to connect to our world because of that mental connection.  Chris could be part of it, or he could be a victim like us, just trapped somewhere because he doesn't have a 'character' and is trying to use his 'DM powers' to give us clues.  He could even be subtly influencing probability so that the 'princess' IS here, instead of a hundred miles away.

She gave a cynical chuckle, which quavered a little, betraying her frayed nerves.
Although, Tizona, it actually kinda makes sense for this kidnapped princess to be in this town, given the reaction we got and the fact that there seemed to be someone in town ready to 'silence' anyone who talked about her.  Those were always 'classic' clues that you were close to the answer.

Y'know, yesterday, if you'd have mentioned that something like this could happen, I would have directed you to the 'call-in' numbers for the "Coast to Coast" radio show and wished you the best.  Now, though.....(sigh) personally, my mind is getting a little over loaded with the 'possibilities'.   It's like something my friend used to say whenever we'd try to figure out a mystery in a D&D game.  "In a world where trees talk, NOTHING can be taken for granted".

The elven woman grinned, remembering simpler times, when you could play D&D without the chance of getting eaten by zombies.  Of course, that brought up the uncomfortable image of "Greg the Hot Elven Chick" returning to their world and walking into a gathering of her old gaming friends.
She pictured the conversation.
"Hi guys!  You wouldn't believe what happened to me over the weekend!"
"Yo Greg, what's up?  Something is different about you....Wait, don't tell me!  You got contact lenses, didn't you?  Yeah, that's it.  I'm not sure that it's a good look for you, man.  It makes your eyes look all big and 'almondy'.
Plus, and don't take this the wrong way, but a nice pair of glasses would go a long way towards distracting people from your new boobs."

The elven girl suppressed a laugh at the awkward situation.  Greg had always used humor as a defense against stress, but maybe she'd be better off thinking about the task ahead.  Besides, dwelling on the possibility (there was that word again) that they'd somehow get back to their own worlds, but still in these new bodies, was WAY too much to think about right now.

Dan thought. "No, I didn't really think past 'big scary tower in the rain'" He said simply. The fact that he made those chairs on the floor above had given him a multitude of questions that only the human brain could contain, or perhaps a very large computer.

Why did they appear? How did they appear? Was it my thoughts? Or Chris's? All these different thoughts swirled around in his head, giving him thoughts that might be a tad evil. He shook these off though. If he could control space, thank god Kenjinn wasn't evil. Mind powers on Neutral Dan are one thing, but evil Dan? best to run away very fast in that situation.

He noticed that everyone else didn't seem to be dwelling on his apparant mind powers very much. Nah, it wasn't that big of a deal was it? I mean, they could shoot fireballs and fly! I could only create anything with my mind. Dan guessed that the others were more concerned with their new bodies, expecially the guys, since they weren't that anymore.

The fact that these might linger over wasn't bothering Dan. Being musically gifted, having a huge hat and cosmic mind powers weren't that much of a hamper to him. He saw how the others might find it bad though, boobs as the number one issue. "If the evil does know about the princess we can assume Chris has no sense of originality and thank him for that, as it should be a straight-forward quest"

As you continue down the tunnel, you eventually run into the undead again. This time, however, your combined might reduces them to a fleshy pulp.

Half an hour later, maybe more or less, you see a glimpse of light and the sounds of many people moving about. The tunnel continues on, but there is a grate in the ceiling. Above you can make out a dimly lit room, with cloaked figures. It is much larger than what you can see, so you cannot see more than a fraction of the room.

If Sarah is still periodically checking the walls, she finds a unnatural protrusion on one of the walls near the grate.

Sarah whispers to the group, "Got something here."

She carefully feels the protrusion, judging what it does- probably opens the grate above.

After walking what seemed like a mile (and might have been), Greg was almost happy to see something dangerous.
Almost.

Greg spoke quietly, holding her bow at the ready, pointed at  the grate.
So, do we wait for them to leave, or burst through now?
"Cloaked figures did NOT sound good.  Were they waiting for them?  Or just having some kind of meeting up there?

True to form, Greg was kicking herself for 'wasting' the fly spell.
She keeps the others in mind, as well as her aiming technique.


OOC:  I'm not sure if Greg would have forgotten about the possibility that Dan "created" the chairs from upstairs.  It's been several days in real time, not game time, so the incident would be fresh in Greg's mind, but then again Greg's been really distracted.  I"m going to just say that it's slipped her mind, in lieu of stranger things.  If someone else mentions it, she'll certainly remember it.

Cassander spends a few minutes looking up through the grate.  "Heh.  'Whip the Thuggi guards'." she giggles softly (Giggles?) turning back to the rest of the party.  "Sorry.  Temple of Doom flashback."

"Let me think here." Cassander furls her brow in concentration, which, with her elven features, somehow looks cute.  "We still have the element of surprise so lets not waste that, although how much surprise we can still have after fighting zombies, who knows.  I should be able to cast invisibility on everyone but that will take up a spell slot that I'd rather save for something more powerful.  I know Tizona has a charm spell, but I've never used it so I don't know how effective it'll be, but I could combine that with Alter Self to appear as someone else, do the 'distracting servant while party sneaks up behind' trick.  There is the Knock cantrip, no it was Ghost Sound, which we could use to distract the guards, have them turn away while we climb out."

"I don't suppose you can tell if the grate is locked, Sarah?"

"Lemme see..."

She tries to scale the wall to check if the grate is movable as it is.

Greg's delicate elven brow furrows with thought.
Ok, my spells that might be useful here are Obscuring Mist, and Detect Thoughts.  (thank you Knowledge Domain).   I could try to read some minds to find out more about them, as long at the floor isn't a foot thick or more.

The protrusion turns, just like a door handle. It seems to open a secret door into the side of the tunnel.

The grate is heavy, but perhaps it could be moved.

(Detect Thoughts could be used)

Sarah pushes at the grate a bit, to see if it will shift.

Greg brings the spell to mind.
'wow', she thinks, 'first flying, and now reading minds!'  She feels a shiver of excitement.
'holy crap, it's like having superpowers or something'.
Greg will hold off on the spell until they explore the area more, though.

She hold her bow to cover Sarah.

The grate seems to resist Sarah's force, but suddenly it seems to become much lighter (or somehow Sarah stronger) and it slowly raises into the air. The cloaked figures, luckily, do not seem to notice. They just continue to shuffle about.

There is a very unnerving vibe that is coming from this situation, different to the one derived from you finding yourselves in the game.

What will happen next is one thing. Do you truly have to complete the quest to return home, or are you trapped here? If you do have to complete the quest, will you survive? Chris isn't a malicious, killer GM (Thank god!) but he isn't afraid to properly challenge you. All you need is a few Natural 1s, and it doesn't matter whether you're going back or not...

Then, of course, there is how you finish the quest. You know that you're trying to rescue a elven princess from some sort of evil cult, but is that all there is to it? And the cult's goal 'to open a portal to another world'. Did Chris invent this, or is this world... different.

On that note, what did happen to Chris?

He's off in Benny Hill land

Dan looks up over the figures shuffling around and looks back at the crew. He slides back down to them "Do we have a plan, or are we going to run in screaming?" He asks the others while he sits and plots himself.

"I hope that we're not all planning to go running in screaming." Cassander said, not entirely sure if Dan was joking or not. "We still have the element of surprise so let's use that.  Plus I don't want to use up unecessary spells if I don't have to.  Who knows whats lurking in this place."

"This is what I'm thinking.  Sarah?  Silene should be able to backstab one of them, but I can't remember if she was built that way or if you were going more towards the acrobat idea.  Alyissia and Aliana should be able to hit the other two with their bows.

Cassander frowned as she looked at the sword in her hand.  "I probably should have given Tizona a bow now that I think about it.  She has the proficiency, but I thought that it might be silly.  So much for that idea."

"That leaves Dan...excuse me Kenjinn and myself.  I suppose that we could act as backup, help deliver the coup de grace, so to speak.  I'd rather not waste any magic on a bunch of guards so that leaves me with the sword.  What can Kenjinn do that's relatively quiet?"  Cassander waited, the delicate features of her elven face looking at Dan expectedly.

Dan thinks for a moment. What could bards do that was quiet? Not much when you think about it. If they could, their main power would probably be to make the enemies die from blood loss from bleeding ears.

"Well, bards are most like theives so I suppose shooting some arrows or backstabbing would be in order. I made Kenjinn proficient in dual wielding so if we do end up actually fighting I'd be more useful than the average thief" He replied to Cassander, thinking and noticing how big elven ears actually were. Expecially Cassander/Tizona's. They weren't the only large things on her but they were what Dan was going to focus on.

Greg's delicate elven features seem to pinch in fear.
Do we....do we REALLY have to k-kill.....?
She shook her head, almost violently, to clear it.

No, no, no.  You're right.  Of course you're right.
These aren't a bunch of guys hanging out in front of the 7-11 or at some dinner party somewhere.  They've KIDNAPPED an innocent woman and are holding her against their will.

There is no FBI, no 911 to call.  There's only us, and it's us....or them.


Greg seems to still be a little shaky with the idea of actually, literally KILLING another human being (though the irony could be pointed out that she's not actually human, but not matter).  However, she seems to have steeled herself for the task ahead and to do what is needed to save the captive.

Taking a deep breath, she nods to Tizona.

I had my Detect Thoughts spell ready to gather intel, or the Obscuring Mist for cover, but you're right.  I shouldn't blow my proverbial wad so soon when we might have a long way to go.   Aliana is....that is, I'm pretty good with this bow.  It's a masterwork bow that packs a bit of extra punch from my strength, so I should be able to use it to good effectiveness against the kidnappering cult members.

The group notices Greg's obvious attempt to keep villifying their opponents, making it seem less objectionable to take human life, even in another's defense.

Sarah nods.

"I've got more rogue than acrobat as it is. Remember, its only a five-level PrC."

She peeks up above.

"Im just surprised how easy that was to lift."

"I wasn't too sure just how you built up Kenjinn.  If you can backstab as well then that's great.  So two opponents get ganked and the third stops a bunch of arrows."  Cassander was really getting into planning out the whole encounter and it showed in her movements, in addition to the look in her eye.  "That would put me in reserve, to help out where I can with my sword, unless someone wants to lend me their bow."

"Does this sound reasonable to everyone?" She asked, looking among the group, stopping at Aliana.  "I wouldn't worry too much about killing them.  It's not like their real, just NPC's brought to life.  It might be in character for Aliana to worry about something like that but remember that these are the evil cult that has kidnapped our princess.  We are the FBI, or the elven equivalent."

"Oh and save your spells if you can, Aliana.  As bizarre as it might sound, I really don't want to camp out in the evil cultists base just to get our spells back." She grinned as she flourished her sword, feeling the wieght of the blade and how natural it felt in her hands.

John thought for a moment before quietly taking off the quiver slung at her hip and handed both it and her bow to Cassander. "If that's the plan take my bow. I'm more set up for melee, besides I'm pretty good at the sneaky skills too." she said with a bit of a grin before her face turned serious again. "Besides, if something goes wrong they could get killed before you could get to them... though don't let that stop you from trying if they do attack us en mass you do have the heaviest armor here. she said adding only a minor alteration with the plan, finding the idea sound. It probally helped that she had taken a few ranks in 'knowledge: tactics'.

Greg nodded.  She was getting more and more used to being called Aliana by Ca....by Tizona.  Strangely, being called "Greg", while comforting to an extent, almost seemed a bit jarring now.
It's nothing to worry about, Greg thought.  In fact, it's probably more appropriate anyway since I look nothing like I....like Greg used to.   Yes, she decided inwardly, it just makes more sense.

She was still having trouble with the concept of killing people, and couldn't shake the idea that perhaps these weren't fake people that were created just for their benefit.   Still, Greg had a long history of buckling to peer pressure, going along with friends when they suggested doing stupid things.

She could picture Mom, looking maternal and wise.

"Oh really?  Well, then, if your friends all decided to go out and kill a bunch of evil cultists, would you?"

Greg's answer would probably be:
"ummmmmm, yes?"


Hiding her grin at Mom's probably response (and trying not to speculate on her reaction to her new "daughter"), Greg looked at the group.

I designed the character to be reasonably competent in both melee and missle combat, so that should certainly have "translated".  I can join Tizona in the "opening salvo" and then wade in with my sword if need be.  I didn't take "Precise Shot" with my bow, so I shouldn't be firing into a melee situation anyway.

She also tried not to laugh, given the seriousness of the situation, at Tizona's prohibition against "camping among the cultists to get spells back".  She still grinned a bit at the possible conversation.



"Um.....Time out!   Yeah, um, evil cultist guys?  It's like this, see.  We're out of spells, and uh...."
Greg pictured Aliana doing an impression of "Lunberg", Gary Cole's manager character from "Office Space".
"Yeeeeaaaahhhh........if you could all, you know, come back in about, say, eight hours or so, we kinda need to get some spells back?  And if you could bring some breakfast with you too.....Yeah, that'd be greeeeeaaaat......."

To distract herself from an inappropriate chuckle, she looks at Sarah.

I'm curious about the lightness too.  Everyone, let's be alert, in case this is a trap, or something.

Cassander takes the bow and quiver that John offered with a wry grin.  "Thanks, Aliyssia.  It sounds like everyone is pretty decent in melee except for me.  I'm just going on the basic racial weapon proficiencies here, I haven't added anything to my sword or bow.  I'll work with Aliana on her target, just in case I miss."

It was still a little wierd to be talking about Tizona as though she were just a piece of paper with some numbers on it, when all it took was one look in a mirror to see how real she was now.  The separation between Cassander and Tizona was getting less and less pronounced, Cassander had to work harder to make game references.  It hadn't been that long since their arrival but Cassander was becoming more comfortable being Tizona, even to the point of referring to herself with feminine pronouns.  The question was, what would happen when she became completely adjusted to the elven skin.

"Aliana and I should stick close to the grate in the beginning, to cover our retreat in case that it is a trap.  It sounds like we have a good plan then.  So if Kenjinn, Silene and Aliyssia are ready..." She gestured in the direction of the cultists.  Hopefuly they weren't walking into a trap.

Swallowing nervously and taking a breath that's only quavering a little, Greg nods to Tizona, bow at the ready.

Sarah gives a thumbs up, still in position. She grabs a grappling hook and rope from her pack and sets it for the others to climb up with.

Greg was kicking herself a bit for using up her "Fly" spell.  Granted, she couldn't imagine not using it when she did, however.
Seriously, she thought, who can find out that they could FLY, and NOT use it as soon as possible?  Seriously.

Sarah grasps the grate and pushes it open, a effort which requires all of her strength. She succeeds, however, and is able to climb up into the room.

As she does, she cannot help but feel the strangest sensation in her hands. She cannot tell what it is because of her gloves, but it is disconcerting none the less.

The room the grate leads into is large, and its purpose uncertain. There are two doors opposite each other on different ends of the room. In each corner of the room is a statue of a monstrous, female figure. Perhaps a Outsider, like a Demon or Devil. Strange symbols or runes are carved into the walls, and even now and again they pulse with a strange glow. Every time they do, your whole boy seems to  itch.

The figures are completely cloaked, with their hoods draw low over their faces to hide them. They simply walking randomly about, without stopping or speaking. There is a low, indistinguishable murmur that runs through the room. It is simply a noise at first, but the longer you hear it the harder it is to concentrate.

They do not seem to react to what is going on around them, including you.

Do....do we...do we just sneak by them?

Greg looked around, bewildered.  She was...well, almost dissappointed that they weren't instantly attacked.  She still shook a little from the adrenal letdown.

"Sister Aliana" was versed in many of the religions of Chris's game world.  She "remembered" hours of classes on dozens of various cults, religions, and belief systems.  "Greg" had always been a pretty good student, but Aliana had been, in terms of the "real world", a serious geek.  She'd reveled in history, which Greg had always been fond of, and languages, which he'd always been hopeless at.  Ironically, religion classes had been Aliana's weakest subject, though one she'd mastered.  Hopefully the same religions translated too, she thought, as she tried to figure out what sort of freakish cult they were dealing with.

Dan was an atheist so this big ol' demonic-chanting thing was a bit jarring to him. He blocked it out of his thoughts with various sciencey things and obsession over his reality bending (no, he's still not over that).

He turned to Greg and noticed Aliana's depressed expression. "Yes, we we sneak past them. I'd rather not having to kill people willy-nilly" He said to her and moved in closer. He wanted to see what these cultists were doing, and to possibly see if they did the same thing the monks did on Monty Python; bash their heads against bibles. He laughed softly at the thought and snuck in closer.

The elven woman was jarred by Dan's...Kenjinn's distainful words.
Willy-nilly?  S-screw you! she said in and intense, but quiet whisper designed to carry no farther than their group.
I just spent the last five minutes trying to psych myself up to kill a person, maybe several, for the first time in my life!.  So don't you DARE pretend that this is easy for me!  Tizona says that they're fake people that were "magicked" into existance just for us, but I'm not so sure.  There's no way to really know until this nightmare is over, is there?

Almost as if she's suddenly embarrassed at her quiet outburst, Greg drops her eyes from Kenjinn's intense look and turns away.  Tears are running down her face.
Christ, she thought, I'm surprised that I'm not frickin' dehydrated by now.

She moved back a bit until she was towards the rear of the party, both to put some distance between her and the bard, and because, despite her natural elven grace and finely made armor, she was still probably the least stealthy among them.

Sarah helps the party climb up. Once everyone's in the room, she quickly looks underneath one of her gloves, wondering what that odd feeling is.

Dan was a little pissed with Greg now. "Oi!" He whispered back, slightly louder. "You've been nothing but Ms Complainy McCries-a-lot since we turned into these people. I've put up with this because, yes it is a life-shattering event, but come on! I've seen disfortunate people with torn lives with less tears than this. And psyching yourself up to kill someone!? I find that hard to believe. You're just looking for another thing to cry about! So suck it up and shutup!" He looks really pissed now, apparantly he doesn't take well to Greg's mood swings.

Greg froze, livid with anger, especially that the excruciating ordeal of justifying murder was just dismissed as a 'hissy fit"

Let it go! she yelled at herself.  This isn't the time to fight with each other!  They were in enemy territory, for the love of....

She couldn't do it.  She couldn't leave it alone.  She was too angry.

Striding back to Dan, she got up to his face, her whisper still quiet and intense.

God Damn It, Dan!!!  What the hell is wrong with you?  I know I haven't been a pillar of frickin' strength so far, but you've been going out of your way to look down your nose at everyone since this whole thing began!  I'm sorry that this is apparently more fun for you than the rest of us, but keep your ignorant opinions to yourself until they actually mean something!
My "whining" hasn't done a damned thing to hurt you or the group, and you KNOW it.  Hell, if you want to be technical, I've actually been even more useful so far than you have!   So, if you want to refrain from 'holding my hand' then feel free, but get off my back!

"Holding your... look here!" He leered at her. "I may not be a sorcerer in this world but at least I know how to keep quiet and assess a situation. What have you done for the group other than flip between whining and joy like a lightswitch?! I'm sorry if I've been a little pretentious but at least I've been looking for ways to get home rather than wishing! This isn't fun for me either, I can't even stand a horror movie let alone evil cultist grounds and undead skeletons!" He was fuming now, and Dan never looses an argument. "Your whining may not hurt anything but it's not bloody productive so stop it!"

Greg didn't know why she even bothered.  The man was one of those arrogant jerks that knew what the facts were, so there was no reason to even entertain that others might have a point.   So be it.

Fine!  Let's make a truce then!  I'll stop whining around you if you stop bitching about me.  Deal?
She wasn't sure why she did it, but Greg stuck her hand out to Kenjinn.   It was something...well, manly, something that the demure Aliana wouldn't do, but Greg's anger seemed to cut through any inborn prohibitions.


OOC: and on that note, post 400!  Woot!

On that note, the murmuring stops. So do the cloaked figures.

They all turn on the spot to face the party.

"Poor you. Looks like you stumbled across the 'Conversion' Room"

The same sinister voice echoes through the room. The voice, like before, is distant and inhuman, impossible to determine the speaker.

---

As Sarah looks beneath her gloves, she sees... pads, like that of a animal, emerging on her hands. Her nails are also beginning to sharpen, forming claws.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:33, Tue 28 Apr 2009.

Dan seemed happy with this and shook the hand grudgingly, "Deal" He replied to her, his face loosing most of it's anger.

It was then that the band of unmerry monks turned to them. Kenjinn cursed their tv sitcom bickering and unshealthed his blades, trying to find the source of the voice.

Something told Greg that the cultists were merely waiting for them and would have done the same thing whether she and Kenjinn had argued or not, but she still couldn't help but feel guilty about her inability to let Dan's accusations go unanswered.
Drawing her longbow using as much instinct at skill, she took aim at the closest cloaked figure.

let's do some 'converting' of our own: freaky cultists into dead people in one easy step  She muttered, more to bolster her courage then because anyone was listening.  Greg looked at Tizona for confirmation before firing.

Her confrontation with the bard had left her feeling drained and stretched tighter than a drum, and now the effort of slipping instantly back into "kill or be killed" mode made the elf maid want  to scream in frustration.  She had to be strong though.  She had made a promise.  Granted, it was a promise to a guy who was kinda being a dick, but it was a promise nonetheless.

John's twin blades flew free from their upside-down scabards on her back. The twirled once and came to ready position in less than a second. Damnit. Always remember never to have drama before a fight, the GM will always throw a wrench in the works. the ranger though to herself.

She grined like a wolf. "Unlike those zombies. These guys bleed." she said quietly, but loud enough for the others. What she ment was, they could critical the monks, something her character build relied on.

For a moment, Sarah looks startled and scared, before just looking startled.

Shit, he DID accept that...

She then looks towards the robed figures, then sighs.

"Figures, a fight."

She quickly draws her daggers.

Cassander, Alyissia's bow nocked and at the ready, wanted to slap both Aliana and Kenjinn.  Slap them both really hard.  This was not the time for any drama, sneaking around the lair of evil cultists, but there was nothing that she could do about that now.  The element of surprise was gone.  At least the two had made up.

She looked around the room, her elven senses taking in all the details that she could.  The room made her feel uneasy.  They could feel the murmuring of the monks, so there was magic involved.  Of course being called a Conversion Room was also a big hint.  The question was convert what into what and what could they do about it.

Tizona stepped closer to Kenjinn, speaking softly.  "Do you want to do some talking and see what information we can get out of these guys before we dispatch them?" she asked him.

The robed figures growl softly, the first proper noise they have made. A piercing whistle echoes through the room, which causes the figures to begin to shake.

They begin to grow larger, their robes tearing to reveal thick dark fur. Bestial muzzles burst forth from beneath the hoods, filled with sharp teeth. Their hands twist into claws, as do their feet.

Soon, the room is filled with monstrous and deformed beastmen. Their eyes lack the spark of human life, filled only with a primitive hunger. Around each neck is a collar, with runes burned into it.

Well.........poop.
Greg was too stunned to scream out the profanities that came to mind.
Honestly, she was actually too scared to be....well, scared.

She drew back her arm, fulling pulling back the bowstring on the large elven longbow until her dainty but callused hand was resting on her cheek, as her arms instructor had taught her.

"i have a 'dispel magic' spell ready to cast" she thought.  "plus, 'magic weapon', if need be.  still, let's see if something pointy will work first"

She awaits only Tizona's order to begin firing.  Or, of course, for the creatures to charge.

Dan was pretty much crapping himself right now. Fighting zombies and monks were one thing, they were humanoid and easy enough to believe they could win. These things were like giant attack bears on steroids. Dan looked at his two blades and wished he had a shotgun instead. He hoped watching Legolas on the lord of the rings movies and his high agility would somehow give him a way of avoiding death in this fight.

Dan awaits for any sign of an attack before he goes in for one. Never attack first, he'd read in books about weapon combat in ages past, always let your opponent attack first so you can react and counter his moves.

"... Shit."

Sarah crouches down, ready to spring at any openings she sees. She has both daggers firmly in hand, ready to throw one if needed.

John blinks in surprise. "Oh hell..." she says looking around at the changing monks. "This could be bad."

Tizona cursed softly in Elvish.  The curse contrasted with the smile that was slowly spreading across her delicate features.  The original plan had been to sneak around but if the Big Bad knew that they were here now, there was no need to be quiet any longer.

Tizona had been standing towards the back of the party and she now creapt forward to speak softly with her companions.  "Aliana.  Do you have a dispel magic or protection from evil spell handy?  Kenjinn, Alyissia, what do you have spell-wise ready?  Sorry, I should have asked earlier."

Her Elven companions would recognize the destructive gleam in Tizonas eyes.  It wasn't often that she had a chance to cut loose with some of the more powerful spells at her disposal, and she'd had to restrain herself in the barfight earlier.  Here however, all bets were off.  "I'm thinking fireball myself, as a starter but I think that we can stack it with a couple of other spells and really do some damage.  A Dispel Magic to cancel out those collars they're wearing, and hopefully their transformation, and maybe a Grease spell to impeed their movement and catch on fire from my fireball.  We can take them out at range."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:08, Wed 29 Apr 2009.

Having had the spell in mind, Greg delved into Sister Aliana's memories for how to cast the divine "miracle".  Holding her bow aside, she grips her precious holy symbol and raises her voice gently to the heavens.
Great Fharlanghn, Lord of the Horizons, please aid yoiur humble servant.  Help her remove the foul magics that impede her life's journey!

Once again, Greg could feel the presense of the Divine.....Something.  The pseudo-agnostic was trying REALLY hard not to dwell on that, especially now.  Still, there was an undeniable presense that made itself felt, seeming to spread from the wooden disk around her neck, pulsing through her tense body to radiate outward.  She directed the holy energy towards their foes, hoping that this magic was something she had the power to undo.

Kenjinn suddenly remembers a spell he put on his sheet that would be VERY useful right here. "Cass! I just remembered I have a Sleep spell! Couldn't I use that to put down our fuzzy foes?" He told Cassander with a smile on his face, temporarily forgetting immenent death. Also, he used illiteration! Which is either a very good sign or a very bad sign.

Cassander, or it might have been Tizona, had her heart set on tossing a fireball into the furballs.  In the end it didn't matter how the fuzzies were put down.  Tizona shrugged, and looked disappointed, making a cute pouting face.  It was all in jest of course.

Maybe.

"Oh pooh.  All yours Kenjinn.  I suppose that I'll just have to save my fireballs."

The creatures growl loudly, bearing their teeth.

"Go on then you dogs. Tear them up. The weak ones will become just like you, while any that survive with make good pack leaders"

The indistinct laughter echoes through the room again.

Greg's 'Dispel Magic' is cast successfully, but it does nothing more than cause the creature's to twitch for a moment before lunging towards the party.

'plan "B" didn't work, so we're back to plan "A", by which I mean kill stuff'
The thought went through Greg's head, almost of its own accord.
Greg had the fine elven longsword that she was quite proficient with, but stuck with the bow for now, waiting until the nasty, slathering things got too close for bows.

Memories flooded into Greg's head, memories of someone else.  Aliana's arms instructor, Jenatti, had tried to coax the novice cleric away from the traditional sword and bow, so beloved by the elven people, to the quarterstaff that was said to have been favored by the God, Fharlanghn, himself.  Although consenting to training in the simple but elegant weapon, made from the wood that elves loved so much, young Sister Aliana never gave up her love of the sword.  It was a choice more common among elves than, say, human clerics of the Wandering God, but one that never seemed to stop annoying her sharp tongued weapons instructor.
Good times.

The memories were actually sort of comforting, as distracting and disconcertingly alien as they were, because they at least boosted Greg's confidence that she was good with her weapons.

Taking aim at the nearest beast, she fired at its chest, ready to change to her sword if need be.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:07, Sat 02 May 2009.

The arrow flies true and strikes the nearest creature. It howls in rage as thick, black blood drips from the wound.

The creature scampers back with its head low and another takes it's place, moving and snarling towards the party.

OOC: I'm assuming that others go before me, but just in case you need to move forward before I can log on again:

Greg follows the simple formula learned in both his mediocre archery instruction, and her extensive weapons training:
Draw arrow.
Nock arrow.
Draw bowstring.
Aim arrow.
Release bowstring.
Repeat as needed.

Greg is ready to modify this plan if the situation changes, and is working not to think about the fact that her arrows are sinking into the flesh of a fellow living being, albeit one that looks like it's trying to eat her.

Dan tries to summon up his magic spells, both through praying and trying his psychic abilities. He focuses on the words speel and the image of the cultist attack bears (quite possibly the most awesome thing on Rpol) as sleeping on the floor, drooling like idiots. He mutters to whatever gods of D&D he remembers to help him in this task, trying not to focus on the amazing strangeness of such a thing.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised."

Sarah begins to maneuver around as the creatures approach, throwing her daggers with pinpoint accuracy, catching them when they return, wash, rinse, repeat. As soon as she can get into position to sneak attack one or more of the creatures, she does so with gusto.

"Damn abominations." John snarled. Having given up her bow she was left only with her elvish short swords. She charged in, staying low to attack up and at her foe's throat. She didn't know how but she just 'knew' where she should place her attacks to take out her enemies quickest. Somewhere in the back of John's mind(because at the front was surviving) she knew that her knowledge on the subject was most likly because she had taken improved critical at one of her feats. Right now though it didn't matter, she had no intention on finding out what happened if they died in this 'dream'.

Cassander was waiting to follow up Dan's sleep spell with a fireball.  A small marble of flames danced on the tip of her finger, waiting for the command to be released upon their enemies.  Then John had leapt forward, charging into their opponents.

Cassander frowned.  She couldn't unleash her fireball for it would hit John.  If she had reacted just a little quicker she could have let it off before the Ranger ran into the fray.  It was too late now.

She thought quickly, her mind racing over her options.  Cassander wanted to help John but how?  Then it came to her.  The mystical energies that she had gathered together for the fireball she changed, molding them into a 5 foot sphere of fire.

"Someone watch my back please." she said as she gestured the rolling ball of flame forward with a graceful motion of her hand.  Starting at another end of the room, she guided the ball into her opponents, she could cover the flanks of John and anyone else that went forward.  The only problem was that she couldn't move while directing her fire ball.

The monstrous creatures howl as they are struck by Greg's arrows.

Dan's Sleep spell seems to work as several of the bears suddenly collapse on the spot. More leap over their fallen and injured comrades, however, meeting John and Sarah in a flash of claw, tooth and blade.

Cassander's fire ball erupts on contact with the creatures, burning fur and flesh.

Despite this, the creatures continue to close in and the melee fighters are cut off from the archer and mages. One of the creature's sinks its teeth into John's arm, causing it to go numb and his thoughts to become scrambled.

JOHN!!!!  NO!!!!
Greg's mind froze for a split second in panic.
No!  You have to concentrate, your friends need you.

Greg went through Sister Aliana's repertoire of spells, magic items, and even skills.  Nothing seemed up to the task.
She was about to drop her bow and wade in with her sword (which might just be like throwing a bucket of water at a forest fire) when she remembered Dan's trick with the chairs.

"i wonder" she urgently mused, "if I could do that too."

Thinking back, Greg wasn't even completely sure that Dan HAD summoned the chairs, but they were in a desparate situation, and desparate actions were called for.

She'd always been very good at visualizing things, at imagining things.  So that's what she did.

Greg remembered a cartoon that an older friend had said that she'd "had to watch" and that had been "so bad, that it was great".   It was the old "Dungeons and Dragons" cartoon put out years ago by a japanese animation company that had made the rounds on one of the Disney cable channels last year.   Greg's friend was right, it HAD been horrible.  Obviously made by someone who had no interest in the actual game.  Not surprising, given the difficulty of marketing such a thing to the mass market.

The show was about six kids that magically get transported to a D&D type world (not as far-fetched NOW, Greg had to admit, although the kids on the show got to stay as themselves, the lucky little bastards).   Once there, they were taken under the wing of a stereotypically enigmatic wizard with the cringeworthy name of "Dungeon Master".  To help them fight evil, he gave them each a magic item, which were each the equivalent of an artifact, in normal D&D terms.
While the show was seriously bad, there was one cool thing:  the magical longbow used by the "ranger".
It was a bow that shot mystical energy instead of arrows (can't have little kids see an orc get an arrow to the throat, after all!).   The energy arrows, however, were incredibly powerful, being able to do everything from bend into rope to tie up an opponent, to exploding on impact to knock a foe into next week.

Greg wanted that bow.

The cleric quickly pulled another arrow from her quiver, but committed her mind to fully visualizing the arrow becoming the glowing yellow energy arrows from the show.  Fully seeing them, in her mind's eye, smashing into each beast guy with the force of a speeding bus.

Gritting her perfect white teeth, she sent her arrows flying.

Dan saw the creature sink it's teeth into John and gasped of his own. His spell had taken down some of the creatures, but these ones had prevailed and were now attacking them! This time they were actually a threat.

Something took over Dan, whether it be Kenjinn, his own sense of rage or just adrenaline, something took over his common sense and made him move in to fight this monster himself. He drew his twin blades and leapt at the advancing monsters, climbing onto the back of one and sinking his blades into it's flesh. It looked just like a scene from a Lord of the Rings movie with Legolas kicking ass, except it was Dan and he wasn't an elf.

He was just a wierd guy who'de been turned into a fantasy bard. But right now he'd become an adrenaline-powered warrior, only slightly being directed by his common sense now. Leaping at giant bears was certainly evidence of that.

John snarled as the creature as it bit her. Almost immediantly her fighting style changed completely, she was no longer making well placed, graceful strikes, she begain fighting more on instinct. Her attacks begin to get closer throwing elbows, and knees. Though she wasn't thinking it, hopefully getting in close would keep the beasts from being able to use there claws well. Her swords were no longer slashing at the beasts but stabbing, it looked like she'd be better fighting with daggers than shortswords. It was clear she wasn't thinking clearly, hopefully she could keep this up and keep from getting herself killed.

"John!"  Cassander joined her companions in expressing her concern over the elf.  She did what she could to guide her rolling ball of flame towards the other elf, but it's movement was impeeded by other beastmen and when it finally got near to John, the ball fizzled out.

"We've got to get her." She said, watching the other beastmen close around John.  Cassander started to run through the spells that she knew.  Most of them were area effect spells or ones that couldn't get enough of the beastmen off of John.  She could also feel her arcane energies beginning to wane, obviously the Sorceress was running out of available spells that she could cast.

Cassander still had a number of lower level spells but nothing that she could think of that could be useful here.  She wanted to keep enough energy for a high level shield spell, that she was saving to protect the party if they started to be overwhelmed, except that the party was split up.

The Sorceress clutched the bow, reaching into the quiver for an arrow and loosed it at the beastmen surrounding John.

Sarah wordlessly begins to somersault and vault under, around, and over the beastmen, her daggers flashing here and there, into ones spine, through another's gut, across a third's eyes. She's leveraging her superior agility over the beastmen's sheer strength.

Dan's swift strikes bring him into melee combat with the creatures, dodging tooth and claw. Inevitably, a D&D Character rarely dodges every attack. For each of the beastmen he fights, Dan receives a fresh scratch or bruise. One manages to bull-rush him, knocking him to the ground and giving it the perfect chance to rip out his neck.

A finely crafted +1 Arrow flies overhead and finds its place deep in the creature's fur. Greg releases another, and it stumbles back roaring. Gathering his might, Dan's twin blades sever the creature's head from its shoulders.

Nearby, Cassander's arrows leap from her bow and into the beastmen surrounding John. But it does not seem to be those arrows that are doing the most damage. His blades flying left and right like a Barbarian's Rage, the beastmen are brutally butcher one by one. But this reckless fighting he adopted is not without its cost, and with his defences wide open the beastmen are beginning to wear on him.

Sarah's nimble blades and Cassander's arrows seem to preventing John's reckless demise, but even with their help his health is clearly beginning to drop. One beastman almost tears through John's back, but Sarah knocks it out of the way as she jumps past.

John, however, does not seem to be relenting in his fury. In fact, it seems to be getting worse.

As she "wished" for the brutally destructive cartoon arrows, Greg was half expecting nothing more than the magical equivalent of the "WHA-WHA-WHAAAAAHHHH" sound that is heard on game shows when a contestant loses big.
Still, he is actually disappointed when they don't appear.
On the other hand......Magic Arrows are definitely a step in the right direction.

The elven archer was about to keep going when she saw her friend John on her last legs ("Kind of a strange expression, really, since 'last legs' implies more than one, which for John would mean all of them, which....kinda means that he's actually fine, but whatever).

Tizona!!!!!   Think Magic Arrows!!!!   Use your imagination and visualize MAGIC ARROWS!!!!!

Having said that, Greg realized that she couldn't engage in combat any longer when healing was so desparately needed.  It was normal D&D ettiquitte to wait until  the combat was over before dishing out the "cure lights", but John needed her NOW, and Greg would never, ever forgive herself if anything happened to his ranger friend, especailly after she'd been such a good friend and teacher on the way here from the elven.....DAMMIT!  No!  That was Aliana's memories, not his!  Focus!

Stowing her bow and pulling her finely crafted elven sword, the cleric readied her holy symbol and tried to run to the ranger's side, prepared to fight her way there.   She was also trying to use the same trick that she'd used on the arrows on her sword.