"Alright. I knew I shouldn't have opened my big mouth." Alex muttered.

"HOLD ON PEOPLE! I'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE IN A JIFFY! The girl called, and jumped towards the trapped woman. She landed with ease, and started tearing at the wood.

[OOC: 21:11, Today: Alex rolled 24 using 1d20+10. Acrobatic Jumping.

21:15, Today: Alex rolled 28 using 1d20+12. Unarmed attack. ]

These vines and branches are made of tough stuff. They resist Alex's attempts to break them.

The woman looks at Alex with wide eyes.

[OOC: 21:22, Today: Gamemaster rolled 23 using 1d20+6. Toughness Save. ]

Alex grits her teeth, and takes a firm grasp on the cage. Balanced precariously on the platform, she tears at the vines.

[OOC: Full round action to break the cage. Using the breaking objects rules. With my Super Strength, that gives my an effective Damage bonus of +7]

The vines bite into Alex's skin as she pulls the cage apart. The woman falls forward into Alex's arms, gasping for breath.

She sees that they had been constricting the woman, threatening to crush her. From the sounds the man is making, the same thing is happening over there.

Even as the salamander-like creature retreats into the magma, Jiro is in motion once again. "Stay still, little one, Janet-san. I must reach the last captive." He quickly leaps to the island with the last crate, ki shifting as he takes aim at a seam.

[OOC:Array is in ki focus - ki striking the box. 15:16, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 13 using 1d20+12. breakin box # 3.]

Jiro misjudges his strike. He manages to take the corner off the edge of the box, but he also knocks it off balance. It slides and rolls down towards the lava, threatening to fall in, hole first. To avoid falling into the lava himself, Jiro is force to hop down onto the surface of the island.

The screaming as the hole nears the lava is very, very loud. He's going to need to act fast if he is going to prevent the person inside from getting turned to ash.

[OOC: Round 8]

Swearing, Jiro eschewed carefully aiming for a weld in favor of simply brute-forcing the box open, bringing one hand down in a hammerblow, with the intent of reaching quickly into a hopefully sundered box to yank out the occupant.

[OOC: 19:34, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 23 using 1d20+12. break attempt, AoA 5, Power Attack 5. If that pops the box, I'll grab the occupant ASAP and heal them from any 'splash' damage or flying splinters or whatnot as soon as I can.]

Jiro smashes the box into splinters, and the man inside scrambles out, just seconds away from falling in. Even so, he is feet and legs are burned.

The cooling Ki causes those wounds to fade.

"Woah, man. That was awesome. Where the hell are we?"

[OOC: Round 9 and Round 10
At the end of your next action, make a Fort Save. I'll tell you the effects after.]

"We are in a place of testing. I do not know why the three of you were brougth here, but I swear on my honor that I will get you out." He grimaced at the heat. For him, thus far, it was little more than draining. For the others, perhaps especially the child, it would likely be far worse.

He quickly surveyed the three captives, then his eyes turned again to search the magma, looking for any further signs of the creature that had attacked earlier.

[OOC: 19:38, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 26 using 1d20+9. Fortitude save.

Doing my notice thing on the lava, looking for the salamander. Also taking 10 on sense motive on the captives, trying to get a feel for them and how much danger they're in.]

"What the hell man? Testing? You mean some wackjob sent me to hell to TEST me... wait a second... You're the dude taking this test aren't you! You prick. Why can't you supers leave people alone!" the man says, sounding rather angry.

All three captives seem scared out of their wits.

A minute passes and Jiro spots some movement in the lava, but nothing attacks. At least not yet.

[OOC: Another Fort Save]

"I had no wish to get others involved in this. Believe me, I will be having words with the one who brought you here." A pause as he bounded towards one of the walls, finding a spot where he could reach the wall while still on an island.

Taking a breath he tried to spot anything that might mark a seam or weak point, then drew back his fist. "FIST OF THE ONI!"


[OOC: first up, the fort vrs hear: 22:06, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 23 using 1d20+9. Fort save.

Next, trying to punch a hole through the wall. Power attacking for 5, array is in Fist of the Oni. 22:10, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 15 using 1d20+5. FotO, power attack for 5, DC 30.

The power of Jiro's blow is undeniable, and the walls crack slightly. To Jiro's dismay, they swiftly repair themselves. An eyeblink after the blow is struck, the walls are as they were before.

The boy has curled up on the ground and is crying. The man is standing on his island, looking at the lava, jumping at every slight pop or burble. The woman is still on her knees begging for forgiveness.

"Kuso."

Lip twisted into a snarl, Jiro shook his head and nimbly made his way to the platform nearest the center of the room. He wracked his brains - there had to be some way out of this - but until he could figure out what that way was, he'd have to wait. He'd fall back on watching for that salamander.

[OOC: Array is in blast, watching for the salamander. I'll blast it the second it pops up; hopefully before it can take a shot at one of the people.]

Alex pulls the woman the rest of the way out of the cage, then jumps over to one of the more stable looking bridges with her. "Wait here. I need to get the other guy out."

[OOC: 20:34, Today: Alex rolled 27 using 1d20+10. Acrobatic Jumping.
Jumping to F9
20:37, Today: Alex rolled 29 using 1d20+10. Jumping to the man.
Next round a full round action to tear him out of there.]

Jiro waits until he spots signs of a monster breaking the surface of the lava, and unleashes a perfect shot. His Ki strikes true, and the beast's broken body sinks below the surface.

His triumph is short lived, as three more of the snake like things surface. Two of them cast bronze tridents at him, which he avoids easily. The other trident is thrown at the man, and it strikes in full in the chest. He falls to the ground, blood flowing freely.

[OOC: Round 30
20:40, Today: Gamemaster, on behalf of Jiro Koji, rolled 25 using 1d20+8. Attack roll.
20:41, Today: Gamemaster rolled 20 using 1d20+8. Toughness Save.
20:42, Today: Gamemaster rolled 26 using 1d20+8. Attacking Man.
20:42, Today: Gamemaster rolled 15 using 1d20+8. Attacking Jiro.
20:42, Today: Gamemaster rolled 9 using 1d20+8. Attacking Jiro.
20:44, Today: Gamemaster rolled 7 using 1d20+2. Toughness Save.

The three visible monsters are minions, and you can take ten on them.
Make a third fort Save.
]

Still gasping for breath, the woman only nods to Alex.

With exceptional grace, Alex leaps from bridge to bridge. She lands and rips the vines apart. The man falls into her arms, blood seeping from where the vines had been the tightest.

She hears a faint buzzing sound coming from somewhere below.

Swearing viciously, Jiro's mind races. I swear, I think they're laughing at me. "You will not win so easily!"

For a split second, he gathered his ki, eyes closed, fixing the position of all three salamanders, and the three innocents, with his acute hearing. Those who watch see an aura of brilliant blue light gather around him.

Then power blasts forth in a wave, flowing around the innocents and spreading towards the monsters. "WRATHFUL KAMI'S ROARING SHOUT!"

[OOC:First, getting the bookkeeping out of the way. 18:01, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 20 using 1d20+9. Fort save again vrs heat.

Now the attack. Power Stunting off of Blast. Taking off Affects Insubstantial, reducing range to touch, adding Time so it's a full round action rather than a standard action, adding Blast and Selective so it avoids the wounded.

DC 20 reflex save; DC 25/20 toughness check based on if they save or not.

Jiro is now fatigued.]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:23, Sun 20 Feb 2011.

"Oh drek... I don't like the sound of that." Alex muttered. She took a deep breath and tried to carry the man over to where she first entered. The added weight of the man threw off her balance and the graceful attempt suddenly looked less so.
[OOC: 21:12, Today: Alex rolled 13 using 1d20+10. Acrobatic Jumping.
I really don't like the looks of that...]

In an astounding display of Ki mastery, Jiro creates an explosion that crashes over the Salamanders like a tsunami. One starts to dodge below the lava, but to no avail.

Jiro watches all three torn apart by his power. This mean he wasn't look at the exact moment the other man stopped breathing entirely.

[[Round 31
OOC: 21:27, Today: Gamemaster rolled 15,25,14 using 1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7. Reflex Save.
21:28, Today: Gamemaster rolled 12,14,17 using 1d20+8,1d20+8,1d20+8. Toughness Save.

21:30, Today: Gamemaster rolled 7 using 1d20+2. Fort Save. ]]

Jiro looked, saw the injured man still, and swore. Damned fool! You should have known something like this would happen. Moving quickly he jumped to the man's island and checked for a pulse.

[OOC: 18:42, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 16 using 1d20+6. Medicine check - pulse or other vitals. If he's not already dead, hopefully keep him alive long enough to throw ki healing at him next round. Array is in healing, but sadly that's a full round action.].

The man is just holding onto the faintest glimmers of life. Only seconds until he passes from this world into the next.

"Merciful Spirit's Grasp!"

[OOC: Healing the guy. If needed, I'll repeat next round as well. Once that's done, I'll get back to looking for a way out.]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Sun 20 Feb 2011.

Jiro's focused ki channels the very stuff of life into the man's body. Wounds slowly close, and he resumes breathing. The man is still in bad shape, but should survive.

Assuming nothing else tries to kill him, or a heat stroke takes him.

The monsters stay out of sight for some time, as the heat continues to drain the energy from Jiro's body. The others are on the verge of passing out.

Once or twice one of the snake monsters emerge from the lava to attack, but Jiro swiftly dispatches them. Finally, something large stirs in depths. The only question is, was Jiro looking in the right direction at the time?

[Round 50 Two more Fort saves, then a notice check, and an init roll]

Jiro wracked his brains to try and figure out a way out of this damned cauldron. Preferably before the heat, or monsters, killed him or the innocents. It was certainly sucking the strength out of him.

[OOC: 21:00, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 13 using 1d20+9. Fort save 2. 21:00, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 23 using 1d20+9. fort save 1
21:04, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 14 using 1d20+12. Notice check
21:05, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 17 using 1d20+6. Initiative

The dice bot doesn't much like me tonight.]