* Du-du-DuHn! * Yes, the rusty gates actually make that noise, as they creak open, sounding like they badly need to be oiled. * Beyond the gates is the yard, whihc looks rather unnassuming and empty, and beyond the yard, the tower. * The tower is big and dark and looming, and every other clique thing a wizards tower would be. * Start! * Tzezhin glances around cautiously, and self-consciously draws his coat closer about him. He tosses a small rock through the opening of the gates and waits to see if anything happens to it. * The air seems to trail behind the rock, similar to the effect of a lightning bug flying around really fast and leaving little trails of light in the air. Except these are blue sparkles. * The effect fades when the rock lands, and stops moving. Hn. * The gates are big metal gates. They're badly rusted, and are nice and tall. They're unadorned, being straight vertical bars along them. * They're currently open, having opened by themselves as you approached. * A mouse scurries off with the thrown stone. Little sparkly blue aftertrails follow it and the rock, as they are in motion. o/~ * Tzezhin mutters to himself. "Motion-detector?" * And your forehead feels really cold. * Tzezhin almost touches the large brand on his head. "Benign, eh? Hn." * Tzezhin cautiously and sneaky-sneakily edges through the opening in the gates, holding his breath as he does so. Hey, you never know. * Mice and insects and other wild-animally things watch Tze as he goes by, scurrying away if he gets too close. The sparkly blue thingies are trailing behind him, and you get the odd impression that they're passing throuogh you. * Tzezhin makes his way to the tower and looks around for a door. * There's a door! A big oaken door, with big brass handles. It's got shiny iron banding on it, in a crosshatch pattern to the wood. * There's a sigil carved into the wall above it, the symbol of the mage whom this tower belongs to. * Tzezhin takes out The Sword and pokes the sigil cautiously. * It gets poked! And dosen't do anything much different. It's a bit dimmer where it got poked at, though. * Tzezhin pokes the iron bands on the door, as well as the handle. * And they all get poked, too! And don't do much different, either. Hn. * Tzezhin looks the tower up and down and shrugs. * Tzezhin ....TESTS the DOOR handle. * The door opens smoothly, like a well oiled and maintained door! * Inwards, that is. Inside, is a big room. There's a door visible on the opposite end of it, and the floor is checkerboarded. * Tzezhin slips inside, closes it behind him, and eyes the floor warily. (o/~ Warily we roll along...o/~) * There's 4 doors. One is the one you just came in, and theres the one you saw, and one to either direction. * The tiles are rather big, too. (....crap. It might be raining.) * Tzezhin toes one of the squares. * You're on a black one. As you toe the one in front of you..... Body roll! (Damn!) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 8. (Hey, Dice...IN YOUR FACE!) * ... a shock forms form the outer edges of the panel, almost hitting your foot. You manage to pull it just before it connects, though. Damn! Damn mage-- * Tzezhin stops, looks around as if someone is watching him, then presses his lips together tightly. (are the squares all around? No empty space?) * The entire floor is checkerboarded, black and white squares. (what color did I step on?) ( You're on a black square. The one that almost shocked you was the one in front of you. ) * Tzezhin tries another black square, then. * Nothing! * Tzezhin tries the next black one over, attempting to zig-zag to the opposite-facing door. * Zig-zag, zig-zag. After the 2nd black tile from the one you stepped on, though.... Body roll! w/Acrobatics! * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 7. (2nd one from beginning, or 2nd one after I just decided to zig-zag?) ( 2nd after you decided to zig-zag. ) * You are fleet of foot enough to get off the tile before the shocklines running from the edge converge on your feet! You're on a white tile now. ...interesting. (how far am I from the other door? 20 feet? ;P) * 4 tiles. * Which would be about... 20 feet. =p (:P) * Tzezhin tests the white tile diagonal, then. * It's fine. No shocky thing. * Tzezhin goes on to the next white tile from there, then tests a black tile. * The white tile is fine! And so is the black one after that. * Tzezhin goes for the black diagonal... * Black is good, too. (what's the color of the tile the door is in front of?) ( White. ) * Tzezhin steps onto the white tile in front of the door. ( Ooh. You got it figgered out, then? =p ) (I is smart!) (But hey, GMs can be bastards. No offense. ^^) * The door is black, with red bandings. There isn't any kind of handle, but there's a depression where a handle would go, with a hand-shaped depression in it. ( Hee. ) * Tzezhin tests the depression with The Sword.... (What is with that sword? :P) (I ran out of rocks, okay? ^^) ( *thinks it's anti-magical and stuff* ) * Nothing happens. But ow! Forehead hot and burning owwie and stuff! (I wish I'd been smart enough to get that. :P) * Tzezhin jerks the sword away and glares at the door. * Tzezhin tests the wall around the door. ( -You're- the one who said you had a contract on a 'powerful mage.' =p ) (Well, how else would I get to a portal?) * The wall... is wall. Black gloomy brick and mortar, same as the outside. * Tzezhin tests the door itself for malign magic. * The door... is poked. Whoo! And nothing much happens. (what's it made of?) ( some kind of black wood. Looks foreign. ) (that durn far'n stuff again!) (which way does it open?) ( Outside, away from you. ) * Tzezhin experiments with brute force and shoves against it. * Body roll, +4! * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6+4) and gets 11. * The door.... does not budge. * Tzezhin gives the door one more chance to go down relatively peacefully, and tries again. * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6+4) and gets 10. * Nope! Still not budging. Pah! * Tzezhin just tries to slice through it with The Sword. * The Door is Scratched. The Sword seems to work pretty good against it! (Do I detect a hint of sarcasm here? :P) ( no You Do not detect Sarcasm. =p ) (:P) * Tzezhin does more slicey-slicey-dicey. ( *as the GM waves his hand, Jedi-like* ) (Hmmm... What do we burn besides wiches?!) (Ducks.) (Crispy crispy ducks. Mmmm.) (Duck is very yummy. ^_^) (oh yes. Oh...yes. XD) * Shink-shink-slice-dice-shink-snicker-snticth. Door goes down, foo! ( That's a VORPAL sword?! ) (She's cutting wood. What do you think?) (wouldn't that be k-schnick k-schnick?) (And it's nothing that a good force field can't stop. ;p) * The hand-panel thing is not getting cut up very well, though, and is still intact. * Beyond the door, are stairs! ( But it went snicker! That's half a snicker-snack! ) (So maybe it's only half-Vorpal.) * They go up, and curve with the circuler design of the tower. There's also no light. (Read: Armor piercing lvl 1.) (<.<) ( It's the Sword. Not just any ole sword. ) (Don't you mean The Sword?) (Yep, The Sword. This ain't no steeenkin' Naginata. ;P) ( As long as 'tisn't 'Teh Saw0rd' ) (Naginata!) ( .... Idea. >:) ) (Me'n'my biiiiiig mouth....) * The checkered floor ends beyond the door, too. * Tzezhin tries stepping onto a...a white tile on the other side, as the target of his edging. * The checkered floor isn't checkered beyond the door. It's a plain ole brown wood deal. * Tzezhin checks the floor anyway. * Floor is checked! And is found to not be really there! It's all an illusion, a lie, and you go hurtling to your doom! Err.... That is, it's just a floor. Nothing special. o/~ (...) * Tzezhin steps onto the floor and makes his way towards the stairs, eyeing them critically. (Don't you just love sarcastic GM's? Ard's the same way. ^_^) (Oh, goody.) ( o/~ ) (In fact, in a lot of ways, she's worse.) (I'm waiting to see if you kill me between the door and the stairs. ;P) * The stairs go up! And they're unlit, too. * Tzezhin looks around for a lantern, candle, flint and tinder, firestarter. * About 1/2 of the way up, there's two lit torches, glowing with blue edlritch magical flame. Their light makes the other, empty torch holder things visible, too. They're the only ones with torches in them. * Tzezhin sneaks sneakily up the stairs. * It gets dark again, once you get out of range of the torches. * And then it starts to lighten up again, as you near the next floors exit. (wait, if the torches are halfway up and illuminate all the empty sconces, shouldn't I be able to see at least a little bit the entire way through?) ( Nope. All curvy and stuff. ) * Tzezhin slows as he nears the landing, and sticks close-but-not-touching to the wall, stepping carefully up and across. * Tzezhin sheathes The Sword and pulls out his light pistol, as well. * The last 5 steps look different, like they would shift if they were stepped on. ...hn. * Tzezhin looks down at his pistol, sighs, puts it back and draws....The Sword. (aka The Pokey Thing) (Oh dear. That's your running gag, isn't it?) (maybe I should have picked up a bag of rocks while I was outside.) * Tzezhin tests each step gingerly. You know the drill. * Oh dear. That dosen't seem to have been a good thing. Because the steps all slide flat, and turn into a big slide! (Wheeee!) ( Ducky go down the hoooolllle. ) * Oh, and it gets better! As you slide down, 2 giant glowy naginatas drop down from the cieling, and overtake you. They beat you to the bottom, and arrange themselves to shiskabob the poor Merc. Body roll! (sigh.) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 6. * As you slide down, you land right between them. They shift positions, in their floaty way, and level their business ends at you. o/~ ( Which would be the cue for init. ) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (d6+8) and gets 14. * Tze! * Tzezhin levels The Sword at them, as it's already out, and takes out his pistol with his right. * Tzezhin essays a tap at the naginata on the left. ( Actually, in my world they don't even have naginata...) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 7. * Thwick. The nagainata makes a wet sound, as the sword thwacks it. (...in that case, Fanfan's more powerful than I thought she was. ^^) (Heh.) (where's my god-damn activation warning, buddy? -_^) (not that much more. But more. ^^) * The one you didn't hit tries to gut ye. * ... and whiffs. * So does the other one! * And it's the next round! Tze! * Tzezhin aims the pistol at one and shoots it, aiming for the blade. * The other floating naginata gets a chunk of wood blown out of it. You think it's wood, anyways. * It strikes back! Melee def roll! * Oh, and here it was about to hit. You had to be mean and get out of the way. =p ( ..... and the other one just critfailed. ) * And the other one misses. Really bad. In fact, it hits the other one. (CRITFAIL) (Oh wait. You said that. ^^) * Niether floating naginata thing looks so hot now. Next round! * Tze! * Tzezhin attempts a slicey-dicey to the left! * It shatters into a buncha little flakes of wood, and the magical glow about it fades. (how little flakes are we talking here?) * The remaining one tries to hit again, and whiffs. * Tze! * Tzezhin sliceys at the other one now! ( Small. None bigger than your finger. ^_^; ) ( and i get a crtisucc. o/~ ) * The naginata does a fancy spinning thing, where it looks like you hit, but just hit an afterimage. And it's still spinning, when it tries to hit you! * ... which dosen't coun't for a lot. It whiffs again. (Myeh.) * Tze. =p * Tzezhin ...sliceys at it again. What the heck. * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-2) and gets 0, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "That was close. One cycle later and you'd have fit nicely into a sandwich." (...this calls for a victory dance.) * Sploot. The other naginata shatters with more force that you'd expect, the various chips richoeting off the walls and each other. The blade part of it falls through the air, spinning slowly, and lands perfectly straight up in the ground. (...sploot??) * Oh, and the slide turns back into stairs. (Nice.) * Tzezhin inspects the blade. * It's still glowing, but fading quickly. * Tzezhin picks up several of the wooden shards while waiting for the glow to go bye-bye. (no more Mr. Pokey for The Sword! Yay!) (is it gone yet?) ( A-yup. ) * Tzezhin picks up the blade, examining it. * It's a pretty normal blade for a naginata, if not for the fact that it was just recently glowing, and seems to be sharper than a normal blade. * Tzezhin keeps that too. Who knows, it might come in handy. ( And here's the packrat. =p ) (>.> <.<) (I gotta have *some* kinda gimmick ta compete with all'a these heah youngstahs, dawn't I?) * Tzezhin *then* finishes going up the stairs. (Good thing Elo's not a packrat. Imagine how much crap he'd have by now.) ( I am NOT a youngster! *kiddie pout* ) * Same ole drill. Blue edlritch toraches partway up, and trapped last 5 steps. (so wait, I'm at the 6th to last step, or has it done the slide thinga gain?) ( Well, you could jump over them. ) (Oh, I plan on trying that. I was just wondering if I could, or if you'd taken the "finishes going up" to mean "already stepped on and slid down.") (No take-backs!) * Tzezhin shakes his head and backs up a few, then runs and attempts to leap and land quietly on the landing.) * You jump it easy. Hah. Puny steps. They never stood a chance. Not after they got that cheap shot on you the first time, anyways. =p ( HA HA HA HA ) (...I'm going to die, aren't I? ;-;) * There's a door! It's pretty normal looking, and there's a window, too. * The window leads outside, and it's pretty high up, too. (AHA! A sekrit window!) (How is it a secret? I know about it.) (Ah, but there weren't any windows from the outside of the tower, remember? ^_-) ( Not at that angle, no. =p ) (Oh, well if you wanna go by *angle*...:P) (is this the top floor?) ( Nope! ) (...I hate you. ;-;) * Tzezhin checks for any special features. * Door has a handle. It's a nice, shiny brass handle, and it's got iron supports on it. Window is one of those archer slit things. (Or spike pits. Or polymorph other traps...) (floor is normal?) * Floor is pretty normal, too. (walls?) * Walls are brick and mortar. Quite sturdy looking. * Tzezhin ...walks over to the door, and drops one of the wood shavings he picked up onto the handle. * It slides off most unspectacularly. (Gee. Paranoid, ain'tcha.) ( Sure is. ) (I play Zodiak.) ( ... that would explain it. ) (I don't. ^_^) (Yeah. Have you heard tell of the trap-warehouse session?) ( Nope! ^_^; ) (It was horror.) (aaanyways.) ( You haven't heard of the session where I had a GIANT FRICKIN NUCLEAR WARHEAD as the trap, either. =p ) (Oh, my.) (which way does the door open?) ( Outside. ) * Tzezhin presses his back against the wall to the side of the door, then draws The Sword and his pistol. With the arm nearest to the handle, he pushes down the handle, while he holds the pistol at the ready. ( And opens it too, I'm guessing? ) (first push, then wait to see if anything happens, then push outwards) * Nope. Nothing happens when you push. Except the door eagerly opening, that is. (Let's see... What other things could he throw at you. Stasis traps are fun. ^_^) (...how eagerly are we talking here?) (It opens. Now go thru the door.) (Like, obligingly, or like forcedly eagerly, or...) ( well oiled eagerly. Like it's natural weight would open it iof not securely shut. ) (Hmmm...smells of...TRAP ROOM!) * Tzezhin sheathes The Sword, but keeps the gun out. He walks in. * Inside, a musty animal smell fills the air. There's animal cages leaned against the wall, and they're making various animal sounds. * There's sigils of obviously magical nature floating in the air, and the floor is glowing. There's a raised board, and chains run along to the other side of the room, over the glowy floor, to another raised board. (wait, the cages are making animal sounds?) ( Err, the animals in them are. ) (what animals?) ( Native animals, and the occasional magical mutated freak of nature. ) (We all love those mutie frekas. (yeah, but what kinds?) ) (dogs and cats kinds, mice and hamsters kinds, elephant and tiger kinds...) ( Birds, squirrels, household pets, baby pigs, even a baby chocobo! ) (Awww, isn't it cute?) (oh, dear.) (Do something. ^_^;) * About 8 inches, yeah. The chains run from it, to the other side, and kinda sag in the middle. They're bolted in with big looking bolts. * About 8 inches off the ground, that is, * Tzezhin pokes at the chains with another wood shaving. * The chain ... is poked. * Tzezhin shrugs, and runruns across to the other board. * Runrunrun. Da-duhn! Now wasn't that easy? =p (TOO EASY. *paranoia*) (... You never let up, do you?) * There's a doorframe next, but no door. It leads into a hallway that turns to the left almost immediately. (Zeg: Only when I'm in a group. ^^) * Tzezhin sneaks around the corner, gun still ready. * This big rectangular room has a Big Pit in the middle of it. (Son of...no, I won't say it.) * There's chains waving from the ceiling, all across to the other side. o/~ (anything special about any other part of the room? Where's the door?) (...and are there any pendulums?) ( Ooh! Pendulum! Dankies. n.n ) * And there's pendulums swing back and forth, too, about 5 of them, spaced at even intervals. (My BIG DAMN MOUTH and me. >_< >_<) (Hehe. He doesn't have to make up traps. You just give them to him. :P) * There's a door on the other side, too. o/~ (I'm waiting for the 'invisible bridge' trap.) (Actually, I thought the chains were supporting invisible pendulums. ^^) (Can I ask for a description of the movement of the chains vs. movement of pendulums?) (Also descrip of pendulums and cords upon which they swing? ^^) * The chains are idly swinging. They hang really low, almost touching where the ground would be. The Pendulums are evenly spaced, in a more fixed swinging patterns, scritcly left to right. There's five of them, one at each pit edge, one in the middle, and one in between each of those. * They actually cut into where the ground would be. (Get ready to roll acrobatics. :P) (these aren't round pendulums, then?) ( Slicy dicey battleaxe-head type. ) (Was afraid of that. Spacing 'twixt 'em?) ( 10 feet each, 'bout. ) (okay, okay...I think I can work with that.) * The chains start immediately after the first pendulum. ( Acro/Body rolls, 5 of them. =p ) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (5 2d6-1) and gets 4 9 8 9 11. (Ya failed the last one.) (True.) (Actually, that last one was a crit-fail.) (/me swings from chain to chain to chain to chain and...NOOOOOOOOOOO~~~!) (Zeg: Toldja.) (Heh. Well, there's your portal. :P) * The first section goes by pretty well! Got a nice high start. You barely catch yourself on the next one, though. Swing, swing. You get by the next one, scraping by, and barely catch yourself again. * And then the chain your on breaks on you. Falllllllingg..... thunk. And you're at the bottom of a 20 foot pit. (Am I conscious?) (Am I injured?) (Will I ever be able to walk AGAIN?!) (Let's see... 20 ft, right?) * Acro roll! * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 6. (Actually, that would be spec: Tumbling.) (Halve the damage... that's 10, right?) ( Now, half damage for falling would be.... yeah. ) (^_^_v) * You land on your feet! Barely. And then the chain falls after you, and lands heavily on and arond you. (on my head or just on me?) ( Both. Long chain. ) (I guess I would have to be conscious, wouldn't I? Eventually. ^^) (how's this pit look? ) (You're conscious. It'd take at least 40 damage to knock you unconcious. More if you have more HP. :P) (Oh, right.) ....ow. * Tzezhin struggles to free himself from the chains. ( Round. With flat sections of wall where there' actually ground where it's supposed to be. The walls are made of the foreign looking black wood. ) (Smooth?) ( Yup. ) (...wow. Tze's useless.) (wait, no.) ( He's good at hittin' stuff. ) (Don't tell me you didn't give him wall-climbing.) (<.<) (o/~ doesn't do whatever a spider can...o/~) (how heavy is the chain? Could I pick it up and swing it?) ( .... Yes! ) * Tzezhin picks up the chain and starts swinging it, eyeballing the distance to the pendulum nearest the other side of the room. ( Attack roll, thrown weapons! ) ( You're gonna try and hook it on the last pendulum? ) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-1) and gets 6. * The chain wraps around the pendulum just above the head. Test tugs seems to indicate that it's holding pretty well. * Tzezhin starts climbing up slowly, bracing his feet against the walls when/if possible. * If somewhat wavy by being attached to the wavy pendulum. (it's like a carnival ride!) * Tzezhin climby-wavy-climbs. * ... all the way to the top! The pendulum you hooked is practically right next to the far edge, and you make it off to it easily. (Whee!) (anything special about the door?) * The door has a hand panel in it. And it's made of that black wood. * Tzezhin forgoes pokage and just starts hacking at the door. GRR DOOR. * You occasionally get a feeling like a sharp slap to your forehead as you're hacking at it. o/~ Damn! * Tzezhin stops. Stupid magic-protected... (how're the walls?) * Brick'n mortar. * Tzezhin tests the panel anyway with another wood thingy. Why the hell not. * The slappy feeling is triggered again. But nothing happens. * Tzezhin steps back and considers. * Tzezhin shrugs and puts his hand to the panel. (yes, I'm schtupid.) * There's a grinding sound, and the pendulums stop! And then there's more grinding sounds, then large amounts of sand flowing into the pit, at a slow rate. * Tzezhin takes his hand away, looks at the sand, and sighs. "Ysrdahl, you crazy son of a..." (That's the mage's name.) * Tzezhin shoves the door. * The door opens! * Somewhat erraticlly, being partially hacked and all. * Tzezhin shovy-shovies and stumbles through, pulling out his pistol. (Yes, gun and sword combo. In this game, I'm actually Tairan in disguise!) (*sigh*) * More circular stairs. They go up, and it's well lit this time! * Tzezhin takes the steps carefully, testing each one before he goes up. * The steps don't do anything shifty like turn into a slide, or collapse under you. In fact, they stay put and don't do anything like good little steps. (all the way up it's like that?) * And the top of the stairs levels off into a nice carpetted thing. * There's an expensive looking lavishly framed door, with a golden knob. (everything else looks normal?) ( Yep. ) Hn. Must be Ysrdahl's bedroom. *Finally*. * Tzezhin draws his sword, and turns the knob. (Are we having fun yet? :P) * Ranged def roll! (Aww yeah.) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tzezhin (2d6-2) and gets 9. * The doorframe spits out a burst of mana bolts, that curve and each slam into Tze from different angles. Ouchies. Damn! (now what?) * The door is now partially open. * Tzezhin peeks through. * 'Oh, damn. He's here already?' * You see a lavishly furnished room. Ego-boosting self portraits, expensive china, fancy furniture, etc. (Who said that?) * Someone who isn't visible from your angle. (Hmm) * Tzezhin takes out his gun as well, and slides through... * "Grr.... Come out, assassin! You may have gotten past my defenses, but you still have me to deal with!" ( ... the door? ) (the opening) * There's an intense pressure on your forehead as you start to do so. * Tzezhin pauses for a split second, then decides that if he can get off a shot quickly enough, it soon won't matter what the mage is casting. * And the door opens the rest of the way, magically pulled open by Ysrdahl! * Tzezhin leaps through, firing as he does so. * There's a glowy barrier surrounding him.... But he kinda vanishes as you step through the door, as your entire world suddently shifts to something else. What th-- * Laughing reaches your ears, 'You fool! You just stepped throuuuggghhh aaaa ooooonnnnnne waaaaaaayyyyyy pooooooorrrrrrrrrrttttttttt-', then streches out, and cuts off. (FREEEEEEDOM)