3 - 060: The Third Piece

[K Man]

Krysta, Caelith, Hero, Garor, Newt, Girud, Galdren and Callian - [Newt is in the process of obtaining, or at least entertaining, regaining internet access. However, for the time being, consider him inert.]

Satisified you have determined a marching order that will ensure survival in this place, you head out to the central hallway and further into the depths of this bizarre vessel.

The stone hallways are dark, the only sources of light are the ones you have brought with you, barely shedding light in the DemonWing's belly. Pressing forward, the cramped tunnel gives way and expands to a larger cavern.

Straight ahead of you, a mammoth statue of a frog-like demon is fixed to a wall. It is 20 feet tall and intricately carved with scales like a lizards and wickededly sharp teeth and talons like a dragon's. Slime mold and mildew cover the statue, dripping into the equally putrid water beneath it.

The entire Fore-side of this room is filled with water. It gently laps, only inches below the twenty foot wide ledge you now stand on. The ceiling is over thirty feet high and your light sources barely penetrate its depths. Nearby, a waterfall gently pours out of a thirty foot hole in the port (left) side, refilling the watery section constantly...

Ahead, through the darkness, you spot three tunnels. One heading straight, another to port and one to starboard.

[You're at section 5 on the map.]

_____ |    | ____     
     ||    ||    
|    ||    ||     |                 
|                 |             
|                 | 
|                 |
|                 |
"                 |
"                 |
"                 |
|                 |
|                 |
|.................|
|     HA ~§~DR    |
|_______  MN______|
        |K |
        |GC| 

[/pre]

Legend:
~§~ = Frog-Demon Statue
... = Start of water
" = Waterfall from wall
C = Caelith
K = Krysta
D = Galdren
R = Girud
H = Hero
A = Callian
G = Garor
M = Mordrock
N = Newt
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuri and Romar - Romar presses his mount forward, stopping just shy of the giant and unleashing her gas. [Fort. Save, Giant = Nat. 1 (Figures, rolls a 20 on Will, but fails Fort. which is a +12 :] The giants coughs a bit, his muscles shriveling from the attack. [Damage = 2 CON]

Romar also unleashes his attack. [Romar, you moved and attacked. (You mounts movement counts as yours, so you only get one attack at highest bonus.) Attack Roll = 21] With the majority of his bulk behind the boulder, the arrow sails past harmlessly.

Yuri focuses and manfiest his mental powers in the form of a blast of energy. [I'm confused Yuri, are you targeting the boulder, or the giant? Do you get two? I'll do results both ways. Giant Ref. Save = 12] The bolt sails into his shoulder, catching him off-guard. [Damage Roll = 30]

Giant is wounded. (Down 30)

(If can target boulder as well. Nil Ref Save, Damage = 32) The boulder seems unaffected, probably by its girth.

The giant acts next, more concerned about the one that actually hit them than the gas-spraying rider next to him. [Attack Roll = Nat. 20, Crit Confirm, Fail.] He hurls the boulder with deadly accuracy, but fails to deliver lethal force behind it. [Damage Roll = 14 to Yuri] He chuckles to himself and takes a step out from behind the boulder and draws his club, staring down Romar.

GG
GG
   BB
...........
.......R...
...........
...........
     Y

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[Japic]

Staring at the surrounding cavern for a moment, Girud wonder about this water. To teh rest of th group he speaks.

"Is this water safe? I mean, is it plain water, or water from outside the ship..? From the river....."

"I don't suppose any of you have a way to know?"

He is hesitant about going into this water using the aforementioned rowboats. Not life boats afterall, but a means of passage to the depths of this unholy place.

[TheUdjat]

Caelith looks with great interest at the water. He tries to determine whether it is coming from the river Styx, or whether the water has another source. ((Uh, Knowledge: Architecture? +7, if so. Or any other Knowledge, except Arcane at +15)) He will report his findings to the others. Either way, he addresses them.

"How badly do we want to investigate the labyrinthian depth of this ship? I, for one, would like to explore - Even if it means using the ships from the previous room. If this is their purpose, I do not see that they would be meant to fail. Still, caution is not a bad thing." He frowns, looking at the tunnels. "If we do elect to proceed, do we still want to stick together, or split up to cover more ground? Either way, we will need multiple boats."

[VemuKhaham]

[Romar, you moved and attacked. (You mounts movement counts as yours, so you only get one attack at highest bonus.)

From the SRD3.5: (check the fat lines)

MOUNTED COMBAT
Horses in Combat: Warhorses and warponies can serve readily as combat steeds. Light horses, ponies, and heavy horses, however, are frightened by combat. If you don’t dismount, you must make a DC 20 Ride check each round as a move action to control such a horse. If you succeed, you can perform a standard action after the move action. If you fail, the move action becomes a full round action and you can’t do anything else until your next turn.
Your mount acts on your initiative count as you direct it. You move at its speed, but the mount uses its action to move.
A horse (not a pony) is a Large creature and thus takes up a space 10 feet (2 squares) across. For simplicity, assume that you share your mount’s space during combat.
Combat while Mounted: With a DC 5 Ride check, you can guide your mount with your knees so as to use both hands to attack or defend yourself. This is a free action.
When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground. If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack. Essentially, you have to wait until the mount gets to your enemy before attacking, so you can’t make a full attack. Even at your mount’s full speed, you don’t take any penalty on melee attacks while mounted.
If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge. When charging on horseback, you deal double damage with a lance (see Charge).
You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a –4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed), at a –8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally.

If I understand this correctly, in this situation I can make my full ranged attack without penalties. It is the melee full attack that is impossible. Sorry if I misunderstood something.

---

Romar moves his horse another fifteen feet to the north, until the giant has no cover anymore from his arrows. He shoots again, twice if possible, and then he steers his horse quickly to the southeast, trying to regain distance between him and the giant and his massive club. He tries to mock the giant some more by yelling words at him, seeing if he can bring him to give persuit after him.

"You shall let us pass or you will soon turn into a pin-cushion!"

---

This'll be my route:

GG
GG.....2....
   BB.......
............
.......1...3
............
............
     Y

1: starting position
2: Position when attacking: MW Longbow, composite (+3str) (+8/+3, 1d8+3, x3, 110ft., P) (-2 penalty for shooting during double move already included)
3. ending position
(I love hit-and-run tactics )

[Wizard]

Callian extends his senses, searching for the stench of evil. In Hell, it is indeed overpowering...but after fifteen seconds or so, he should be able to get a fix on whether the water itself is tainted or not.

[GeneralMHB]

(OOC: Energy Missile can target up to five different creatures or objects. Think of Magic Missile on crack with a reflex save. I can't target all the missiles on one target. Also: Did the damage roll include the damage reduction? And you can't critical undead.)

Yuri reels back with the force of the blow, but quickly shrugs it off thanks in part to his powers of the night. He shouts in Giant:

You will pay for your ignorance!

He unleashes another devestating blow to the giant and any weapons he has with the same fiery missiles.

(OOC: Yet another Energy Missile. 7D6+7 damage, reflex save 20. 8 Power Points left )

[Jevva]

"I'm all for continuing on. There's no reason to go back up and just sit around when we can continue exploring. As for splitting up...is that such a good idea when we are surrounded by such evil in the depths of Hell?" He glances around at the others. "I personally think we should stick together. For all we know, it could take days to get to our destination, so I think we should take safety over speed."

[Fangor the Fierce]

Krysta eyes the newfound room closely. "Mordrock, your eyes are adept to the darkness. Waht do you see that we can not?" (Little guy has Darkvision)

Seeing that there are possibly three exits to this room, with two boats. "If we were to continue, we could split up easily. But there are safety in numbers. Obviously, with the evidence of that creature shouting to something else possibly in this place, we should stick to safety. It looks like we should split in two groups now, for the two boats. Each pair should split, allowing two groups with equal abilities. As for which direction to follow, Caelith might have a better chance on that decision."

OOC - Group breakdown would be something like:

Boat 1 - Galdren, Callian, Newt, Caelith

Boat 2 - Krysta, Mordrock, Girud, Garor, Hero

Unless anyone else has a different split, this should cover most things.

[Hero]

"Splitting your forces is usually ill-advised. Still, we seem to do it quite often anyway."

[BluSpecs]

Why not take two boat but stick togather? i don't like the idea of splitting up in this place either.