[ We find Our Heroes just entering the workshop of the Drow wizard/mechanist who's been dead a long time! The room is lined almost entirely by tables, save for the spot where what looks like an iron golem stands without head or arms. These tables are cluttered with mechanical items and magical perephernelia. ] [ Session Start! But more desc is on the way. ] ... and I do believe we've found Ariake's personal heaven. * Ariake is looking around, as if this is indeed the case. Sey, check for traps? You got it! * Seylin starts searching for traps. * Istvan glances at Ariake. "Heel, girl." * HKenji quirks an eyebrow at Istvan. "...heel?" What ya say ta a dog ta make 'em trail behind ya. * Seylin finishes up her search. "No traps here!" Telling her to stay put until Sey finishes checking for traps. Because she looked like she was about to dive in and roll around in the spare parts... * Istvan grins. "Okay. Ariake, FOWARD!" * Ariake is still looking around, not paying much attention to anything except the "No traps here!" At that, she dives towards the first table. * Seylin giggles. I see. I wasn't aware you had taken my advice with regards to Ariake, Istvan. * Alcinoe coughs into her hand. Maybe to keep from laughing. * Patrick laughs, walking forward and idly checking on some of the desks. "Com'on Sey, you're not gonna let Ariake have all the fun looking for things, are ya?" ~_^ * Istvan is too busy chuckling to notice Kenji's comment! But she'll have more fun than anybody! [ Ariake finds a table loaded with various dodads. They look like they were upgrades for the spherebots, mostly. ] So? ^_^ * Ariake pockets (or haversacks) a few of them, and continues! * Wills grins as he takes a seat on the floor. Been walking all day afterall. Okay! * Seylin heads over to one of the tables with Patrick. [ Patrick homes in on a table with arrows on it. There's a bundle of twenty with odd, blood-red tips. Under them is a manual in Undercommon, which seems to be talking about the arrows and their manufacture. ] * Istvan sits down with Will. "Nice to take a load off, hmm?" * Patrick whistles and takes up the arrows, as well as the manual. * Patrick starts reading over the manual and has a seet near the rest of the group. What kind of arrows are those? * Wills nods. "Yup yup. Haven't had much chance to rest with all those bots rolling around." Trying to find out. ^_^ * Alcinoe stands by the sitting Will and glances down, but she doesn't have a seat herself. * Seylin peers at another table. [ The arrows, Patrick reads, are enchanted to punch through armor, as well as to home in on the blood of the target - they will actually turn unerringly towards the target, no matter how fast it moves. ] Y'should really think about doing some physical trainin' to improve your endurance'n strength. Would really help ya carry that armor. [ And all it takes to make more of these is the blood of the innocent! What a deal. ] * Wills cranks his neck upwards. "Have a seat, Alci!" * Ariake is ignoring the tables for the moment and running over the rest of the room, looking for typical technomancer hiding places. [ Ariake finds that most stuff in this room is hidden on tables. ] * Alcinoe blinks down at the sitting Will. "Someone should be standin' in case somethin' attacks." * Ariake just looks at another table, then. ^_^ * Patrick whistles. "I'd call'em 'seeker' arrows." He checks to see how much blood *is* required, out of morbid curiosity. * Istvan mutters, and pushes himself up to his feet. "You're right. No rest for the well-armored." [ The book calls them 'Blood Arrows', and talks about their 'Blood Magic'. As for how much, each arrow requires enough blood to be fully immersed in. ] * Patrick throws the manual in his haversack and whispers to Seylin. * Wills nods agreement to Alci, then turns to face Istvan. "Yeah, maybe once school starts agai.. Aww, you too?" * Wills stands up reluctantly. Siddown, Will. You can take a load off. * Seylin looks rather horrified at something. What's wrong, Seylin? Yeah, don't need ta- * Istvan leans against the doorway, glancing back and forth between the room and the stairs. * Alcinoe stops herself and looks over at Sey. * Seylin shakes her head. "Nothing. I think. I hope." * Wills shakes his head and leans against the wall. "Nah, I'll just lean here. Alci's right. We are in a dungeon after all." * Seylin gives Patrick a Look. * Patrick thinks for a second... * Seylin gives him an oddly cold look. "Do it now." She walks over to the other side of the room. [ Ariake sees a table lined with swords and hand crossbows. Ten of each. They seem to be enchanted. ] * Alcinoe furrows her brow as she watches the exchange between Seylin and Patrick. * Ariake looks at them. "Hmm, I wonder what this enchantment is..." * Patrick raises an eyebrow, then takes the quiver of arrows and smirks at Alcinoe. "You feel like breaking some arrows?" And the book. s'wrong with the arrows? * Seylin is almost glaring at him. They're wrong. Evil. Just break'em. ... evil arrows? What's an evil arrow do? * Patrick takes out the manuscript, throws it up, and shoots three alchemist's arrows through it, causing it to burn to ashes before touching the ground. * Alcinoe eyes the arrows, then the book, then just nods. "Yeah." * Seylin looks greatly relieved. * Alcinoe walks over. "Hold that quiver for me, Patrick." What, was the wood cured in the blood of the innocent or something? *chuckles* [ Patrick looks totally badass disposing ob the evil book. ] * Patrick takes a hold of the arrows and grins at Istvan. * Seylin looks startled. ... oh. They *were* cursed in the blood of the innocent. ... yeah, that's bad. * Seylin nodnods. Blood magic? * HKenji gets a glint in his eye formerly only seen when undead are mentioned. ... I assume this 'blood magic' is frowned upon where you come from, Kenji? * Wills walks closer to take a look at the arrows. [ Also on the table where the evil arrows were is a bottle of something that's dark like blood, but full of swirls like it's in motion. Now that the book's gone, tho, there's no telling what it is. ] Knowing it is a death sentence. Actually using it gets you worse. ... well, that answers what was gonna be my next question. * Seylin is still on the other side of the room, even though the book has been destroyed. * Patrick is holding the quiver by the ends. "Break'em already." Was gonna ask whether the evil wasn't just in makin' 'em, not using 'em. Figured an 'evil' arrow used for good... but like I said. That question's answered. * HKenji draws his sword and cuts straight through the entire quiver in one stroke. There. And as for using evil for good... no good can come of evil means. * Alcinoe makes sure Pat's hands aren't in the way, and she draws her sword. The ebony goes through the quiver and arrows without any apparent effort on her part. * Ariake casts a couple of spells, one on a sword and one on a crossbow. * Seylin nods. "I agree with Kenji." * Istvan shrugs. "Point. But ain't stabbin' and slashin' people generally considered evil, too?" And plenty'a good seems to come from that. No. * Patrick shrugs. "Just lettin' ya know, if we ever run up against someone using those, you're screwed." * Ariake holds up the sword and crossbow. "These are well enchanted in general, with extra spells against drow and aberrations. Pretty nice!" Not bad... can hold onto a few, sell the extras. No. No? [ A note on the table with the swords says that these were to go to the guards that used to live here - presumably before he had scads of constructs. There are also two rings on the note. ] No. If anybody would like one, take one. The rest can be saved for loyal... captains? Lieutenants? What is the word? Commanders? * Patrick nods. "We're gonna be wasting Drow. It'd be good to put them to use." People manning the fort, ya mean? Yes. Precisely. * Ariake nods. A lord must make certain his samurai are well equipped, or they will not be able to defend him when he needs it most. * Patrick takes up the bottle, looking at it and trying to figure out WTF itis. [ The bottle is warm to the touch. ] * Patrick peers into it. Well... I ain't gonna use a longsword, and I almost never use my bow. And Alci's got a freakin' ebony sword, so I don't think she needs one? *looks over at Alci* * Alcinoe shakes her head. * Ariake hmms, and is looking at the rings. Right. So... mmm. Maybe we should take a coupla the crossbows, just in case, and save the rest for the people at the fort? [ Patrick sees nothing swiming around in the bottle. ] I will take the rest and place them in safekeeping until they are needed. * Ariake casts another spell! * Seylin eyes the bottle suspiciously. * HKenji begins tucking away sword after sword after crossbow after crossbow. * Patrick hmmms and whispers to Seylin. * Patrick walks over to Seylin before doing that. ^^; I mean, if we ever find ourselves running up against mind- flayers or beholders or drow, might be nice to have our rearguard pumping arrows at them specifically designed to hurt 'em. Precisely. * Ariake holds up the rings. "It looks like these will prevent wearers from being seen by underdark races. I'd kind of like one...what do you all think?" * Seylin looks at Patrick. "Still evil. Get rid of it." * Patrick nods and thinks. "How?" Might be nice to have you not be seen. Might be nice for Seylin, too. I don't know, but if you can't think of a way, just leave it here. I dunno. * Seylin still sounds fairly cold. * Istvan takes the potion from Patrick and slings it into a far wall. * Seylin eeps slightly and jumps back. * HKenji hits the deck. * Ariake ducks and covers! [ Istvan throws the bottle! But Patrick never lets go of it. They both go sailing about ten feet, but Patrick manages to keep hold of it and cushion its fall. ] Istvan, are you INSANE? ... the heck? * HKenji jumps to his feet. * Patrick thuds against the wall. "DUMBASS!" You could have killed us ALL. What? Break the bottle, potion leaks out onto the floor, problem over. * Patrick gets up. "This is airborne." And what happens if it was full of deadly poisonous gas? Or a fireball in a bottle? Or worse, some sort of evil demon? ... an excellent point. Yeah. *Don't* do that with mysterious bottles, Istvan. * Patrick gets up. "And further more, it'll make your blood combust. Not a very pleasent feeling, I'm sure." He thinks... "There's gotta be a way to get rid of this properly..." combust? What does that word mean? Explode. * Seylin shudders. Light on fire. ... * Alcinoe grimaces. * Istvan looks rather abashed. "Sorry. Used to potions being, y'know, POTIONS... liquid, pour on the ground, it's a puddle." * Wills shudders. Really bad idea. * Patrick smirks. "It's... complex shit. Very similar to the alchemist's fire I put in my arrows, only a *lot* more potent." My stuff also doesn't light blood on fire. Just air. Okay. Note to self. Magic scary. Stick to swords. * Patrick puts the bottle on the table as he walks past. "This isn't magic. It's poison." It's *wrong*. Same difference. * Wills nods at Istvan's comments. "Well said." Patrick put it away somewhere... safe. Well, I sure as hell ain't leaving it here for someone else to pick up. ... okay, now that I've almost combusted all our of blood... anything else interesting in here? *looks around* * Patrick takes the bottle and places it in his haversack. "I'll find a way to neutralize it later." I don't know, you tell me. * Istvan wanders to areas of the room yet to be searched. "Knew there was a reason I decided to stick to just hitting stuff with a pick..." * Patrick chuckles and continues exploring the desks as well. * Ariake looks at more tables! [ There's one more table. It's got more parts on it, as well as a rod made of what looks like green stone embossed with copper in odd, zig-zag patterns. ] * Ariake heads over and looks at it. "Hmm..." Okay. I've learned my lesson. No touchy for big guy. * Ariake picks it up and prods at it. * Istvan heads back for the doorway. [ An illusion is projected from the tip of the rod! It's a three dimensional grid. Above it are the words, in Undercommon, for 'Design Interface'. ] * Patrick walks over to Seylin, again whispering to her. * Wills blinks at the illusion. "What does it say, Ari?" * Istvan walks back towards the other armored folks. "I like weapons and armor. They never almost set my blood on fire." * Ariake looks at it. "Uh, I don't know. Anyone?" Says 'Design Interface'. Dunno what that means. * Ariake blinks, and then smiles widely. * Ariake stows the rod in her haversack. "Thanks!" ... so what does it mean? * Seylin looks at Patrick and speaks softly to him. She still seems fairly upset. Is something wrong, Seylin? * Seylin looks over at Kenji. "I'm taking care of it." * Patrick glances over at Kenji, then back to Seylin. * Seylin shakes her head at Patrick, eyes wide. "No! No it wouldn't!" Then she realizes that she actually spoke louder than she intended and blushes slightly. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it has tools for making up a design to build things with. Which is extremely, extremely useful. Ah. When you say 'things', you mean your kinda things, and not, say, weapons and armor, right? * Ariake nods. "I think it would be most useful for things with many parts." * Patrick pats Seylin on the back and smiles, whispering again. * Alcinoe twitches her ears. "What are ya... Never mind." Gotcha. *pauses* Not sure what use it'd be for weapons'n armor anyway. * Seylin nods at Patrick and then looks at the others. "We'll be back in a few minutes." Okay. Don't get eaten. * Alcinoe rolls her eyes. * Seylin half-smiles. "We won't." * Patrick walks after Seylin after giving a quick grin to the rest of the group. If you do, I'm not sorting through the monster poop to get together enough of you for Will to raise from the dead. Eww, Istvan. We'll be careful, honest! * Istvan chortles. * Patrick chuckles. "That ain't happening." Enough, people. * Seylin heads outside. [ There is nothing waiting for you outside the workshop. This sitting room is as you left it. ] * Istvan stays where he is. "I think Sey's a bit freaked out that Patrick wanted to keep the arrows." * Ariake nods. "I can understand that..." * HKenji shrugs. "That is for them to work out. We have more exploring to do. Come. * HKenji walks out after Seylin. I see where she's comin' from... but that's Patrick. * Wills nods. * Ariake has finished stuffing more tasty parts into her haversack. L3wt! * Istvan shrugs, and follows. "We should prolly wait for our scout, though." Seylin? * HKenji walks out looking for the scout. [ Seylin and Patrick are not in evidence! ] Guess they wanted some privacy. ... Wait a few for 'em. (Male bonding time for you two. :P) A few minutes now heads off some major unrest later. * Wills takes a drink from his waterskin. ...we don't have time for this. 'course we don't. But we gotta make time. Or else they'll be too busy moping and shooting each other sad looks to actually do anything useful. * HKenji looks vaguely angry now. Last thing we need is our trap-finder distracted, right? So let 'em vent at each other for a bit, and then we'll go double-time or somethin'. * Wills looks at Alci, "Want to take a drink, Alci?" * Alcinoe sighs and takes the skin. "Ah s'pose." ... * Alcinoe has that sip and hands it back to Will. She looks at Kenji. "They need time like we needed time to talk ta you. Give 'em five minutes." After that, we march in there and drag 'em along, even if we have to put their clothes back on ourselves. * Ariake grins. * Wills takes the skin back and stuffs it into his haversack. If they would leave themselves so vulnerable in enemy territory, I would consider killing them myself. -_- Was joking, Kenji. ... I think. * Alcinoe nods and tries to relax. ... well, if they come back and Patrick's grinning like an idiot, we'll know they were doi- oh, wait. * Istvan frowns. "Nevermind." * Alcinoe snickers. * Ariake laughs. Foolishness. * Wills grins. Relax, Kenji. They're people. People are flawed, people are unreliable, people have issues. You're telling ME this? ... yet another excellent point. Patrick is the most consistently unreliable person I have ever known. Except perhaps for Kohaku. He ain't that bad. He shoots what needs to be shot'n all. He's just... Patrick. I never said I had a problem with him. 'kay. I like Patrick just the way he is, in fact. * Alcinoe raises an eyebrow. "Ya do?" ... I kinda wish he'd stop grinning. It's creepy. [ It is. ] Yes. I wouldn't have Patrick any other way. Just don't tell him I said that. * Wills nods. "Yeah. That grin is very unnerving." (I heard that!) * Alcinoe smirks. "Ah won't." The more ya let him know how much ya hate the grin, the more he's gonna do it. (Also true.) ... I think it's been five minutes. * Istvan pokes his head out into the hallway. Get yer clothes back on and get back here! * Seylin yells back. "What?!" * Istvan shakes his head and walks back to the others. * Patrick shouts out. "Okay, who wants their asses kicked today?!" Istvan, they didn't...? * HKenji looks horrified. * Ariake starts snickering. 'course not. Just thought they'd hurry up if they were outraged. * Istvan GRINS. And well done! * Alcinoe chuckles. * Seylin walks back in. She looks somewhere between amused and annoyed. * HKenji shakes his head sadly. * Istvan bows. "Several years of living with dwarves have given me a keen sense of social grace and tact." Are the two of you quite finished? We're done, I think. * Patrick just smirks. "We're done." Good. [ The hallway beckons! As does the room with the big ziggurat, which is just down the hallway. ] Which way now? Seylin, the stairs down into the room you were so eager to explore earlier? We still got one end of the hallway unexplored, plus that room with the big pyramid-thingee. Okay! * Seylin starts looking for traps down that way. * Ariake nods, and gets into position in the group. [ Seylin finds them! Three of them, on the stairs. ] * Seylin holds up her hand. "Three traps on the stairs. Let me work on them." * Seylin pulls out her tools and gets to work. * Alcinoe nods and stays back. STAYS BACK! Ahem. * Ariake does likewise! * HKenji frowns. "Alcinoe, be ready." * Wills stays behind Alci. Traps are bad juju. * Istvan stays back, at the head of the group. * Alcinoe nods once. Her hand's on her sword. [ The room ahead has a large ziggurat, as mentioned, with a large, broken case on it. It also has eight pillars arrayed in front of the ziggurat. ] ... odd thing to have laying around your home. * Seylin finishes up and puts her tools away. Perhaps it was necessary for... rituals? All clear, trap-wise. And we got rid of the constructs that were guarding it earlier. ... ugh. * Ariake nods. * Istvan heads a bit into the room, just down the stairs, taking point and looking around. Very well. Proceed. * Seylin proceeds. Carefully. * Istvan pauses halfway down the stairs, and draws his pick before continuing. * Patrick smirks and follows Seylin. He pulls out his bow of force, stringing one arrow along it. * Alcinoe stays along with Istvan, drawing her sword as she goes. [ Who's in front? ] * Patrick glances around. Assuming they're moving in formation, he gets properly situated. * Wills draws out his sword and falls to the back of the group. [ As Istvan enters the room, he is assaulted by a hail of crossbow quarrels! Five of them manage to get between the joints of his armor, two of them digging deep! ] AH! GODDAMN IT! * Istvan is pretty damn well shot up. He's also FSCKING MAD, and charges at where the arrows came from. [ There are four of the constructs on either side of the room. ] * Alcinoe grimaces, then runs after. Because she's insane, apparently. [ As Alcinoe runs into the room, another eight constructs duck out from behind the pillars in the room and open fire on her! ] Good lord! [ Three of the quarrels fired at her make their way under her armor! ] Ariake, open fire! * Ariake runs forward and casts a Torrential Fireball! * Alcinoe winces as those bolts dig in, but she doesn't look like she's going to stop. [ Everyone, roll initiative. ] [ The bots keep shooting! Four each fire on Istvan and Alci, twice each, and a total of three hits get past their armor! ] [ The other eight bots fire at those of you still on the stairs! ] * HKenji pays no attention to the bots, per se. Seeing that they're going to fire again, he steps directly in front of Ariake, spreads his arms, and waits. [ Three quarrels hit Kenji, three hit Patrick, and three his Seylin. ] [ Seylin, go! ] * Ariake erps. "Thank you, Kenji..." Ow! * HKenji doesn't even so much as grunt as he takes the projectiles. * Patrick grins as the quarrels make solid hits. "Fun fun fun." Destroy them, Ariake. * Ariake nods. "I plan to." * Seylin chants something in a very lyrical voice, although most of you probably can't understand the words. A blinding sphere of light erupts in the middle of the constructs. [ Istvan, go! ] * Istvan pulls a potion from his pack, chugs it, then charges into the first rank of 'bots, shouting in dwarven to bathe his war pick in flames as he drives it into a bot. [ Istvan does some badness to a 'bot! ] [ Alci, go! ] * Istvan is completely healed now, by the way. All eight arrows just popped outta him. [ They did. It'd actually be funny to watch if you weren't fighting for your lives. ] * Alcinoe stays as a wide-open target. She reaches into her haversack and pulls out a pinch of dust, throwing it up and over herself with a quick prayer. Her skin seems to harden, and she takes a few steps forward. [ Kenji, go! ] * HKenji lowers his arms and steps just barely to one side to let Ariake cast freely. [ Patrick, go! ] * Patrick draws his arrows and lets them fly at the targets who have shown themselves, each one going to a different one so Ariake gets the most bang for her buck. [ Ariake, go! ] * Patrick impacts three out of the four, the arrows igniting on impact. The fourth one gets deflect off of the construct's armor. * Ariake makes a sweeping motion with her arm, and casts a huge spell! [ Ariake blows up the bots! All of them, since they were weakened just enough by Seylin's holy smiting. ] * Ariake cracks her knuckles. [ Combat... end. ] ... okay, that hurt a lot. ... Yeah. * Istvan sits down. Whew! Thank you, everyone. * Patrick smirks at Ariake. "Impressive." * Ariake grins. "I aim to please." * Istvan looks back. "I was actually referring to the eight arrows that were lodged in me, but yeah, thank Ariake." * Seylin sits down. "You aimed well." * Wills takes of his helmet and wipes some sweat off his forehead. "Yeah. That was awesome Ariake." * HKenji frowns and jerks the arrows free of his flesh. * Ariake leans back against the wall. "Thanks. Is everyone...more or less okay?" * HKenji shrugs. I"ll be fine. * Seylin starts tending to her wounds. "I think so?" * Wills pulls a wand out of his haversack. "Who's wounds should I take care of first?" * Patrick sits down next to Seylin, taking the arrows out of himself. "That could have ended a lot worse..." I'm fine now. Chugged that really powerful healing potion we found way back when. ... but, again, I'm reminded why I really, REALLY hate this job. * Alcinoe pulls bolts out of herself and tosses them on the ground. * Wills nods to Istvan and walks over to Alci. The wand starts glowing as it gets to work. [ And so then they healed up and went on to more adventure! Session end. ]