Kalador drew his sword, following Elmo with more enthusiasm than he'd shown before now.  "Finally," he muttered.

"Your way in is that way" Rolf says, pointing at Elmo's back as he falls in behind the others,

Following Elmo's lead, the party race around to the front and through the entrance to the courtyard.

The place is almost deserted.  Almost, becuase there is a human in view on the other side of a barracade at the entrance to the keep. Very deliberately pulls down his trousers and bares his behind at you.

At the base of the stairs can be seen a large pit.

OOC: Apologies for teh poor resolution view... I'll get a close up for next post.

"What I wouldn't give for a longbow," the orc muttered through his clenched teeth.  "He's baiting us, no doubt with a plan to draw us out into the open.  We step into that without a distraction, we'll die."  He paused and rubbed his chin.

"Rolf?  Let's hear those tactics you like."

"Pretend to leave, wait until dark, go in quiet, cut their throats." Rolf says. "Except we are supposed to be some sort of diversion, so I say we split up and each approach from a different direction, give them more to worry about.

Kalador takes a more studied look at his environment, ignoring the human.

(OOC: is that a door I see behind me?  Investigate that thing!)

The party pause not taken in by the baiting of the human in the entrance, if thats what it is. They can see the layout a bit better and notice there are shuttered windows along the walls facing the courtyard.  The door behind opens into a ruined tower which it might be possible to enter without it collapsing.

The human, seeing his backside bearing drew no response, stands up again and shouts "Run along ye sniveling buch a fairies, afore Ah beat tha' livin' daylights out a ye!"

OOc: The maps the best I coudl do without totally redrawing it. That can wait until the fight scene(s).

Kalador took the door to the tower.  "'foot, follow me," he said as he passed the halfling.  He lead with his sword.

"Those windows would easily hide archers" Rolf says, looking about the courtyard before he follows Kalador to the doorway, but not beyond.

Shaddowfoot looks at the half-orc as he charges into the tower then shrugging his shoulders follows him. Elmo joins Rolf at the door way. Inside there is little light and what there is shows mostly rubble. Mostly as there is the unmistakable glint of coin amoungst it.

As the two let their eyes adjust a dark shaddow detatches itself from the ceiling and drops onto the halfling. With a muffled yell Shaddowfoot is pinned then stung buy the biggest spider Kalador has ever seen. The halfling convulses then twitches for a few seconds before going still.


This message was last edited by the player at 23:28, Tue 08 May 2007.

Kalador said something in Orc that spoke of pits and evil.  Shadowfoot's death did give him a chance to recover from the surprise, and Kalador used it in one of the most direct manners he could.

He attacked.

Adjusted initiative: 5
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Tue 03 July 2007.

Kaldors attack goes close to hitting the spider but not close enough.  It turns to face him and attacks.  He feels a stab of pain as the venomous stinger penetrates his armour, the poison pumping into his blood stream. Maybe it is reduced potency after it's first attack, maybe it is his strong constitution.  Which ever he manages to resist the poison's worst effects.

Behind him he hears an oath as Elmo charges into the room.  His longsword a blur as it is embeddeds itself in the centre of the spider's head between its eight eyes. The creature immediately drops and lies twiching impailed on the sword.

OOC: spider dead, Shaddowfoot dead, Elmo got a natural 20

[Private to Kalador: Ok mate roll for it, I think you're going to need it!! oh yeah and 2hp's worth of damage]

Kalador appears stunned after the spider assaulted him.

[Private to GM: Rolled a 2 to save vs. Poison]

Gradually the remnants of the poison subsided and Kalador could take stock of his position. Elmo withdrew his sword and wiped the gore off the blade.

[Private to Kalador: Arrgh! sorry that was a confusing post...

I rolled your save and got 18, the pm was regarding your exceptional strength...

sorry for the delay in resurecting him.]

The half-orc recovered and looked at those that had joined him.  "We now have a shield," he pointed to the body of their fallen comrade.  "And maybe a bridge," he added with a kick to the spider. "Let's look over the web... there may be more to use."

"Whew, that was a close call" Rolf says, entering the room and looking about for any more spiders. "Let me search this place, there might be a secret passage to the main keep."

Rolf, if he sees no more spiders, will start searching the tower.

Elmo shakes his head but does not stop the others from searching.

[Private to Rolf the Strong: You find several gold and silver coins.]

[Private to Kalador: You uncover the remains of a human, possibly magic user, from the webs...]

"A few silver coins, no sign of a doorway" Rolf says, pocketing some coins and offering a hand of silver to the others. "We should drag the spider out so that those in the keep can see we are powerful."

Kalador starts poking about in a thick bundle of webs he's found, mostly using his sword, but sometimes reaching down with his hand to clear away something.

"The spider's poison... does anyone have an empty flask?"

Elmo says "What ever you do be quick about it!" even as he says so the light suddenly dims as the door is slamed shut behind the three of you.  Gutteral laughter can be heard outsdie and the noise of rocks and other debris being piled quickly against it.

The half-orc raises his voice and spits out something in his vulgar native language.

[Private to DM: "Fools!  We are reinforcements!"]

The voices outside quieten down the someone says something inaudble and the all burst out laughing.

Seeing the response, Elmo thrusts his longsword through a gap in the frail door but does not connect. Instead there is a thunk and an arrow head appears stuck through the wood.

Kalador looks more closely at the tower, hoping that stairs upward are available.  "We must assess our situation," he says absent mindedly.  "I have a fine length of rope in my pack that might help us."

[Private to DM: Does the door swing inward?]

The tower looks ruined higher up and may be in danger of collapsing.

[Private to Kalador: The door opens outwards into the courtyard.]

The work continues outside, the sounds of goblinoids voices joining those speaking common.  Thier mood seems quite jolly.