Nervously clutching the rope (actually, a small length of cotton held by Severad), you are lowered into the darkness of the drain and its familiar vile smell greets you. The pipe is made from baked clay and appears very rough, it reverberates with the sound of gurgling water and you wish you were back home safe in your cellar. Before long a pool appears beneath you, its feeble glow illuminating the rough surrounding walls.
Before proceeding the group should choose marching orders (by roleplaying or OOC debate) and set them up here:viewtopic.php?f=54&t=843
Soon you are standing on the sloping walls of the drain. Ahead of you a GIGANTIC pair of rusted and bent tweezers spans the glowing blue pool. On the other side the pipe slopes upwards out of the liquid. It is clear that the pool is not composed of normal water or any liquid you are familiar with. With some care to maintain balance, the tweezers appear to be a good way to cross the pool as an improvised bridge.
What is the next course of actions of the brothers?
The drain pipe is wide enough for two characters to move comfortably and fight side-by-side. The 10’ wide corridor/passage Marching Order is being used. Walking on the tweezers is only possible in single file.
Alright brothers... I aint liking this any mor'n the rest of ya. Lets get this done fast like. Aint no living to be made as small as we are, you know?
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Ull shakes his head at Theket...There's a reason the old guy sent you to fighting skool. Your head aint good for nothing but stopping blades with. Here's what you use to light a torch.
He takes his tinderbox out, and proceeds to light Theket's torch.
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Pol shakes his head at the banter of his brothers. If they only accepted their true lord's direction things would be much simpler for them, he thinks to himself.
Ull lights Theket's torch with his tinderbox. The fiery light illuminates the surroundings allowing for much better perception than with the orcish infravision that was being spoiled by the glowing pool.
Taking a closer look at the pool Theket can see the liquid is some sort of very oily water. He can discern no movement beneath its surface, but with the opaqueness of the liquid and the soft blue glow emanating from it any disturbance under the surface would be next to impossible to note. The bottom of the pool cannot be seen so its depth is hard to gauge.
The opposite margin of the pool stands a little over 30ft away, a non-negligible distance to climb sideways. The walls of the pipe are fairly dry and rough enough to provide hand-holds. However the outward-bound curvature of the pipe wall would make grasping it harder than a normal vertical wall.
In AD&D terms climbing the pipe would be the equivalent of climbing a very rough, non-slippery wall surface with a negative modifier for its curvature.
NJWilliam wrote:Theket nods to brother Ull, and looks at the walls of the pipe in the torchlight to see whether it could be climbed.
Swim, tweezers, or climb?, he thinks.
Climb with a rope tied to youse, Lipput says after straining while thinking, unless we throw stuff in the water you know, to see if anythings swimmin' at this Lipput chuckles quietly, in a joke only funny to himself.
This is a game about killing things and taking their stuff so you can become more powerful in order to kill bigger things and take even better stuff.
Alethan: I'm good with NOT pressing our luck this time. mjulius: That's how I know I'm home. Pulpatoon: The whole point of PbP is to take the scheduling pressure off the game. We're just chatty because we're so eager! Scott308: ...everyone should be reminded of just how wonderful the people they play games with here can be in real life. Leitz: Quality and quantity wise, I think US is the best I've seen. Paladin: I can promise terror, glory, and riches...or a quick and brutal death. Inferno: Come on! That's was Vicar's Head, a completely different doomed village! Rex: I can move to the wait list to let someone else into the game.
Pol gives Lipput the dirty eye in a way only siblings are capable of. "I's not usin' any of my stuff. If'n youse wants to youse go right ahead. I's thinkin' it be better to climb."
Lipput glares right back at his brother Pol before snorthing and saying; "Wuss"; and then pulling one of his normal Crossbow bolts from his bolt-case and tossing it in the water; to see if anything happens....
Theket sees plenty of spots on both sides of the pipe where a piton could be driven in on this side of the glowing pond. His empirical experience in such matters tells him the clay "walls" would present no opposition to a piton driven in by the force of hammer blows.
While his brother occupies himself with pragmatic architectural concerns, Lipput tosses on of his bolts into the pond, after certifying in triplicate that it is indeed of mundane variety and not one of his precious magical ones.
The bolt leaves Lipput's hand, does a low parabolic trajectory and falls into the glowing liquid. Wood being less dense than water and most liquids, no one is surprised when it rebounds to land anew on the liquid surface a few inches after the first point of impact. What happens next however leaves the brothers stupefied!
Instead of diving on the liquid again, bobbing and remaining more or less still floating on the blue-glow surface, the second landing of the bolt upon the pond is followed by a straight skid across the surface in the direction it was tossed at. The bolt, without loosing any momentum to any noticeable attrition goes on, and on, and on until it hits the clay grounds of the other margin and clattering noisily. Not even a smooth, tilted icy surface would have permited a bolt dropped onto it to have traverse it in such a smooth and unerring manner.
The bolt's disturbance of the liquid surface creates small waves that run in every direction. Those smashing against the walls rebound, flow in direction they came from, collide with each other, go back towards the walls and rebound anew. To and and fro, to and fro and to and fro they go; taking an uncommonly long time until the pond's surface begins to quiet again.
Was this agitation caused solely by the bolt's action? Or was something hiding and stirring underneath the pond? None can tell with certainty.
"Wuss, huh?" Pol snears. "I's knew sometin' not right wit da water." He folds his arms over his chest in a smug manner. "I'm tinkin' we need to wait for Theket to get over to da utter side."
Theket puts his torch down, takes out a piton and his hammer, and pounds the piton into what he determines is the best spot for the rope to be secured.
"Theket is strongest, he will stay here to hold this end of rope fer his brothers. Clay may not hold piton an' I will need grab it."
With that he turns to face the pool, opens his breeches, and pees into the pool (for distance, not accuracy).
Ull will wait for Theket to finish his businesses, and tie the rope to the piton. (assuming of course that the pee doesnt do cause a tpk...
After that, he will remove his leather and hand it over to a brother with spare wt to carry and commence to climb the wall toward the other side.
That should give him a 99% chance, minus the moderation for the curvature (if that is a percentage moderation, or just less distance covered each round? ...
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
With the dexterous acumen rivaling that of a monkey Ull climbs up the curving wall and then starts making his way sideways. In little time he makes it halfway across without a glitch.
Then, a great disturbance ripples through the corner of the pond near where he lies. A massive tubular frame begins risings through the surface, dripping gobs bluish blowing liquid. As the oily waters fall from it a worm-like thing is revealed, mottled green with a dark slimy brown underbelly and a big toothless mouth taking most of what passes for its face.
The giant worm rears back the almost 10ft of its length that now stands above the pool's surface, preparing to attack Ull who is still grabbing on to the wall, his back exposed to the monstrosity.
We are now in round-by-round combat. Declare your actions (and make rolls) for Round 1. The GM will roll Initiative and describe the results.
Vargr1105 wrote: The giant worm rears back the almost 10ft of its length that now stands above the pool's surface, preparing to attack Ull who is still grabbing on to the wall, his back exposed to the monstrosity.
So... How much damage would doing the Nestea Plunge do ?
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
?