Session Start: Wed Jan 16 18:00:30 2008 Session Ident: #Aeoth 03[18:00:30] * Now talking in #Aeoth 03[18:01:32] * Schneeble (chatzilla@c-71-199-176-204.hsd1.ga.comcast.net) has joined #Aeoth [18:01:40] Oh shit, people. [18:01:47] ND, start up gametable could you? 03[18:01:58] * NinjaDebugger is now known as Clarissa [18:11:26] [Our heroes are currently in the midst of some ancient ruins, on February 7th, 1222. Clarissa has just scrambled up into what seems to be a window of one of the larger pillars, to be greeted with the sounds of something hollow banging in the wind and an everburning torch on the floor, in front of a narrow staircase leading downwards.] 03[18:11:34] * Demota is now known as Lucy 03[18:12:19] * Schneeble is now known as Malcolm [18:12:24] [Malcolm and Lucy are still outside, and Lucy's horse is still in his trailer firing waterboys for giving him tap water. It's freakin' cold, so you guys had better get moving.] [18:12:27] [Session start!] [18:12:58] Hey, there's light up here, and stairs. You guys better come up. 06[18:13:13] * Lucy starts trying to get over there. 06[18:13:29] * Lucy uses rope! 06[18:13:38] * Clarissa starts looking for someplace to tie a rope. 06[18:13:51] * Malcolm waits for the whole rope thing to get sorted out. [18:13:59] You got a grappling hook, Lucy? 01[18:14:19] Afraid not. 01[18:14:29] I've got a scythe. [18:14:31] [There isn't much in the way of places to tie a rope. There are a couple empty wall sconces, although who knows how sturdy those are at this point. A grappeling hook can be used to work into the stonework easy enough, however.] 01[18:14:40] Probably too big, though. [18:15:23] Grappling...? [18:15:25] Oh! 01[18:15:45] Mal, you got one? 06[18:16:03] * Malcolm unslings his pack and rummages around in it for a while. Finally he holds aloft a grappling hook. "Sure do!" 06[18:16:23] * Lucy nods approvingly. [18:17:09] Okay, toss it up here. I'll hook it on these stairs, or something. 06[18:18:07] * Malcolm hands the hook to Lucy. 06[18:18:40] * Malcolm proceeds to put his rucksack back on his ruck. 06[18:18:41] * Lucy tosses the hook up to Clarissa 06[18:19:11] * Clarissa hooks the hook on the stairs, or something like that. 06[18:19:16] * Clarissa is a genius, she'll figure something out. [18:19:42] [Clarissa hooks it into something all right. That something is plenty sturdy.] [18:20:24] [The room is fairly barren, although there are carvings on the walls and a couple scattered bones of an undetermined species.] 06[18:20:46] * Clarissa picks up the everburning torch and holds it high. 06[18:21:08] * Lucy grabs the rope and climbs her way up. [18:21:19] A torch is really a terrible object to put a light enchantment on. 06[18:21:21] * Malcolm waits for Lucy to climb up before climbing the rope after her--and with somewhat more effort. [18:21:36] [The carvings are artistic renditions of any number of species] [18:21:41] Why's that? [18:21:49] because you have to keep holding it up. [18:22:07] [They're fairly worn though, so it's hard to tell exactly WHAT species beyond 'Four-legged' and 'Big with wings' and 'OMG IT'S A DRAGON'.] [18:22:07] It's much more efficient to put it on a wristband, or even on an animal collar. 06[18:23:10] * Clarissa reaches down, pulls up the rope and her staff, and heads over to look down the stairs. [18:23:28] Oh. Makes sense. [18:23:39] Lucy, looks like you're going first. Malcom, would you hold this torch? [18:24:31] Certainly. 06[18:24:36] * Malcolm takes the torch as requested. 03[18:27:33] * Malcolm_ (chatzilla@c-71-199-176-204.hsd1.ga.comcast.net) has joined #Aeoth [18:29:36] Whenever you're ready, Lucy. 02[18:29:38] * Malcolm (chatzilla@c-71-199-176-204.hsd1.ga.comcast.net) Quit (Ping timeout) 03[18:29:52] * Malcolm_ is now known as Malcolm 06[18:30:31] * Lucy advances! 06[18:33:01] * Malcolm stays behind Lucy, holding the torch aloft with his shield hand. [18:33:41] [Down the stairs Lucy goes! Presumably Malcolm and Clarissa follow down the narrow staircase. It twirls in upon itself until you reach what could be called a floor below. The decor is much like above, although the metal bands of the remains of a chest of some kind can be seen as you exit. There is a frozen pool of water that goes deeper than you care to guess, as well as a snow-bank in the corner. The room branches off to the left.] [18:34:26] Second pickings. I hope there's some decent treasure left. 01[18:34:36] I wonder if there's anything frozen in the ice. [18:34:46] Lucy, check that corridor. 06[18:34:54] * Lucy marches that way. 06[18:34:58] * Clarissa steps forward and gives the remains of the chest a quick search. 06[18:35:00] * Lucy takes a careful look [18:35:25] [The corridor continues and curves to the left. Likely to stay in the confines of the column.] 01[18:36:48] Hm. 01[18:36:55] Looks like it's all one big column here. [18:37:16] Yeah, just like a really big tower. [18:37:38] Go ahead, Lucy. [18:37:41] We'll be right behind you. 06[18:38:09] * Lucy moves up a bit further 06[18:39:31] * Malcolm stays behind Lucy, taking care to keep the torch up where it's useful. [18:39:51] [The tower has kept its shape remarkably well for an ancient building, despite the structural failures it's still standing and doesn't seem like it's going to fall any time soon. The corridor continues and expands into a room in a matter of footsteps.] [18:42:14] [Into the next room, you can see a larger snowdrift to the left, as well as another shattered chest to the right and another pool of frozen water that is just that unless inspected.] [18:42:35] [There's also what appears to be a pit of some kind, where the floor gave way.] [18:42:43] Lucy, see where that snow came in. [18:42:51] Snow shouldn't be in the center like that. 06[18:43:08] * Clarissa heads over again to sift through the remains of that chest. 06[18:43:31] * Lucy approaches carefully and looks around [18:44:05] Lucy, be careful with that snowbank. [18:44:07] [A surprising amount of debris is *above* the collapsed floor, but not falling down.] [18:44:12] Something's not right. 06[18:44:36] * Lucy stops. 01[18:44:39] Anything in particular? 06[18:45:58] * Malcolm keeps the torch aloft, though his free hand strays to a bit of chain around his neck, under all the wintry clothes and armor. [18:46:14] [Suddenly the snowbank animates into seemingly living snow as it slams into Lucy, trying to engulf her.] [18:46:25] Uh, yeah. [18:46:27] That. 01[18:46:30] Hey! [18:48:54] Use edged weapons! 06[18:51:50] * Lucy breaks away from the snow thing. [18:53:10] [The snow thing rather likes latching onto Lucy and tries to hug her again! But this time it misses to the side. Notable, the air around it is MUCH colder than even the normal air here.] 06[18:55:40] * Clarissa sketches a summoning circle on the floor with her staff, then slams it into the ground. A tiny bat-winged creature pops out of nowhere, sees a bloody huge abominable snowman, and throws some fire at it. [18:56:18] [The ooze gets hit in the side with the ray, which makes a notable mark in the ooze before the space gets re-filled by more snow] 06[18:58:02] * Lucy swings her axe at the ooze in two great hacking swings. 06[18:58:09] * Malcolm says a quick prayer and reaches out to thump Lucy's shoulder with his fist. "Don't let the cold slow you down." 06[19:01:49] * Lucy HITS IT. And HITS IT AGAIN. [19:02:26] [The ooze is slashed at again and again by Lucy's axe. Unlike most oozes, though, it reforms where Lucy's axe went through, instead of splitting into more oozes.] [19:04:08] Flambe! Fire breath! 06[19:04:25] * Clarissa points dramatically as the mephit spits a cone of flame right into the ooze. [19:04:50] [The ooze actually avoids most of the fire, but what contacts melts part of it away. The ooze is still alive, however.] 06[19:06:40] * Malcolm says another prayer and reaches out to Lucy. Pale energy flows into the warrior, restoring her. 01[19:06:54] Thanks! 06[19:10:07] * Lucy takes another couple of swings at it [19:11:45] [The two swings are more than enough for the ooze, as once she's done swinging away there are snowy oozy bits splattered on the walls, in her hair, and on her armor.] 01[19:12:05] I wonder if it tastes like snow. [19:12:32] I... don't think we should find out. [19:12:34] I don't advise finding out. 06[19:12:48] * Lucy brushes it off and waves to the little mephit thing. 06[19:12:54] * Malcolm smiles briefly at Clarissa. 01[19:12:59] Thanks buddy! [19:13:00] * The mephit waves back and vanishes. 06[19:13:09] * Clarissa nods slightly at Malcom. [19:15:18] Lucy, would you search through that snow, please? See if it had anything over there. 06[19:15:25] * Clarissa sets about searching the remains of that chest. 01[19:15:26] hey, Sure 06[19:15:29] * Lucy checks [19:16:37] More money. And more ruined papers. 06[19:18:17] * Clarissa steps over to the wall near the snowbank and starts carefully tapping the wall with her staff, listening for a hollow sound. 01[19:18:33] Nothing too interesting here. Unless you recognize any of this stuff [19:18:47] Seems strange, doesn't it? A bunch of paper in a big hollowed out column? [19:19:02] Probably records of some sort. Too bad I didn't pack an Amanuensis. 01[19:19:11] What's that? [19:19:20] A spell that copies books. [19:19:34] Malcom, remind me to make a few scrolls of that when we get back to civilization. [19:20:11] [Clarissa finds that underneath the snowbank, there's a section where the snow is, indeed, coming from.] [19:20:20] [Too bad it's mostly frozen solid.] 06[19:20:45] * Malcolm nods. "Will do." 01[19:21:07] Onward? [19:21:36] Yeah. Malcom, would you take a look down that hole as we go past? [19:23:41] [Around the corner is the last section that could possibly be on this floor of the pillar. There are stairs leading up at the end of the section, with a giant snowbank taking up much of the room, from north to south. It's so large, in fact, that it covers the northern side from floor to ceiling.] 06[19:23:51] * Malcolm nods, and dips the torch into the hole to see if he can spot anything but empty space in there. [19:24:32] [When Malcolm puts the torch over the hole, he feels the torch pull UP, rather than down, with the same force as gravity.] 06[19:25:07] * Malcolm pulls back quickly. [19:25:10] Uh. [19:25:27] What's wrong? 06[19:25:31] * Malcolm looks around for a pebble or other small piece of debris. [19:25:36] [In the southern end of the snowbank there's a chest of some kind. Unlike the others, this one has not degraded over time and is completely intact.] 01[19:25:46] Ooh. 06[19:26:44] * Malcolm checks the space above the hole to make sure his demonstration won't set off some obvious trap or monster attack. [19:27:19] [It sets off nothing of the sort. Although moving his hand there causes a few pebbles from the ceiling to move and then fall on his head.] [19:27:29] Ow. [19:28:05] Look up there. Rubble's been falling up at the ceiling in this shaft. 01[19:28:22] It's not stable? [19:28:58] No, not falling FROM the ceiling. Falling AT the ceiling. Backwards. [19:29:10] ...interesting. 01[19:29:33] Huh 01[19:29:47] So if we jump in the shaft.. [19:30:07] don't do that. 06[19:30:12] * Malcolm pushes the torch down into the shaft again to see if he can learn anything about it. [19:30:50] [The shaft doesn't seem too special beyond its gravataic properties. It's even undecorated.] [19:31:17] [However, it goes deeper than your torch light goes.] [19:32:10] Okay, first things first. 06[19:32:13] * Malcolm pulls back from the shaft. "Can't see anything else down there." [19:32:14] Lucy, what's in that room up ahead? 01[19:32:31] Lemme see. 06[19:32:32] * Lucy walks [19:37:02] Lucy, see about chopping the lock off that chest. 01[19:37:24] Sure 06[19:37:33] * Lucy moves up to the chest and tries to break the lock. Carefully. 06[19:38:27] * Lucy halts. "SNOW BEAST." 06[19:38:33] * Lucy takes up her axe. [19:40:23] [Another of the oozes almost *leaps* out of the snow at Lucy.] 06[19:44:11] * Malcolm drops the torch and draws his longspear. When his first lunge misses, he takes a step back and prepares for the worst. [19:44:32] [The lunge would have hit, but something about the ooze just wasn't where it should have been.] 06[19:44:52] * Lucy swings her axe down in the ooze's path 06[19:50:11] * Lucy follows the ooze and follows up with another two swings. [19:50:26] [The ooze charges at Malcolm, who attacked it, and lands a *solid* blow against the cleric. Lucy and Malcolm, seeing his charge, however, attack into it and knock quite a bit into its stability.] 06[19:52:56] * Lucy chops the ooze almost completely in half with her first blow. Her second swing finishes the job. She lifts up the axe for a third swing, and stops when she ralizes that half the ooze is still stuck to her axe. 06[19:53:07] * Lucy shakes her axe a bit to shake off the ooze-half. [19:53:13] [The ooze drips off and melts into watery-goop.] 06[19:53:22] * Clarissa goes all starry eyed. [19:53:30] That was amazing. 01[19:54:16] Thanks. 01[19:54:26] Why's this place lousy with these things? [19:54:31] Because it's cold. [19:54:34] And there's lots of magic. [19:54:40] Oh. Um. Malcom? [19:54:51] [On that note, if you DID cast detect magic, you'd see ambient auras all over the place.] 01[19:54:53] So they just sorta... roll into existence? 06[19:54:58] * Malcolm shivers a bit. "Yes?" 01[19:55:02] You alright? 06[19:55:07] * Clarissa pulls a small orb of fire wrapped in a fine mesh net off her belt. [19:55:18] If you're going to provoke those things, you might want to use this. 06[19:55:34] * Malcolm peers at the orb. "What is it?" [19:55:38] Hang it from your belt, when you need it, just reach down, touch it, and will it to wrap you in fire. [19:56:00] Handy. And yeah, I should be okay Lucy. Thanks for asking. 06[19:56:17] * Lucy nods 06[19:56:25] * Malcolm takes the orb and hangs it from his belt as instructed. A moment later and says a small healing prayer for himself. 06[19:57:09] * Clarissa sighs. [19:57:17] Lucy... go ahead and open up that chest, will you? 01[19:57:22] Sure. 06[19:57:30] * Lucy goes up to the chest and gets ready to hack off the lock 01[19:59:04] ... hey, there's no lock after all. 06[19:59:06] * Lucy opens the chest! [19:59:47] [The box is an even 70 degrees to touch, unlike everything else here. On opening a *huge* plume of smoke comes from the box, but only for a few moments.] 06[20:00:00] * Clarissa dives for cover. [20:00:19] [After the smoke 'clears', nothing else happens.] 06[20:00:40] * Clarissa pushes herself back to her feet as she notes no explosion. [20:00:48] Uh... anything in there, Lucy? 01[20:00:54] Smoke. 01[20:00:58] And... lemme see. 06[20:00:59] * Lucy looks [20:01:36] [Inside of the chest is ash. LOTS of ash. And on the bottom is a sheet of melted gold and silver.] [20:01:48] [(And other impurities)] 01[20:02:19] ... wow. Clarissa, you may wnna look at this. 06[20:03:13] * Clarissa walks over to the chest and looks inside. [20:03:45] [Clarissa sees the same!] [20:03:51] That's quite strange. 06[20:04:03] * Malcolm leans on his spear after retrieving the torch. "What is?" [20:04:10] Lucy, see if you can drag the chest out into the last room. [20:04:17] Away from all this snow. 01[20:04:26] Sure thing. 06[20:04:30] * Lucy drags it there [20:04:53] [After a little dragging, it's apparent that the chest isn't actually *that* heavy. Maybe a good 10 pounds at most, despite what's inside.] [20:05:18] [The chest looks to be made out of cold iron, but doesn't weigh nearly enough to warrent it.] [20:05:40] [It's about 3x2x2 feet in its dimensions.] [20:07:14] [On the outside of the chest there seems to be a button of some kind on the front, along with ancient writing.] [20:07:51] [The language is unknown to any of you, as it doesn't even use any of the alphabets you know of.] 06[20:08:26] * Lucy frowns. 01[20:08:38] Can any of you read that? 06[20:08:46] * Malcolm shakes his head. [20:10:35] I've got nothing, for now. We can attempt magic later. 01[20:10:55] Alright. 06[20:11:03] * Lucy picks up the chest. [20:11:45] [The chest is safely stowed away in Lucy's haversack.] [20:13:02] [On the side of the chest next to the button was a series of pictograms. On the right was a snowflake, on the left were some wavy lines. Both were white.] [20:18:32] Lucy, Malcom... I think we're going to have to try going through that hole. 06[20:18:53] * Lucy looks at the hole [20:21:33] How? 01[20:22:02] It's kinda tiny [20:22:08] [The hole, on further inspection, really isn't big enough to fit one person. Not even Clarissa. Unless one of you has a +80 escape artist item or something.] [20:22:25] [Sending a Mephit or something down might be the best trick.] [20:25:38] I clearly didn't think my clever plan all the way through. [20:25:52] [Session End!] 03[20:25:58] * Malcolm is now known as Schneeble 02[20:26:23] * Schneeble (chatzilla@c-71-199-176-204.hsd1.ga.comcast.net) Quit (Quit: Schleeeeeeeep) 03[20:27:52] * Clarissa is now known as NinjaDebugger 03[20:30:16] * NinjaDebugger is now known as SleepDebugger 03[20:31:38] * Lucy is now known as Demota Session Close: Wed Jan 16 20:39:10 2008