Breebles and I are working on collab posts via PM.  She tells me that she is REALLY loving Davena as a character. 

That makes me happy! 

Make a hole?

Ch'au is very strong and can move faster than zombies.  You could probably run in among them, push back, etc.  Doing so does opn you up to a coupleof extra attacks.

Lemme see what I can do.

|                   |
|p                 |
|                   |
|         z   z   |
| z   z    z   z  |
|      z    z  z   |
---------  z  ----
          | C  |
          |   G|   
          |  g  |
          |   c|
          | M  |
          |   A |
          |      |


Ugle ASCII map, away!

p = priest
z = zombie
C = Ch'Dau
G = Gib
g = Garn
c = Cedric
M = Midge
A = Aranwen

You may, of course, try anything you like.  Gib is currently right behind/beside Ch'dau, so he's threatened by melee.  Also, you have a relatively narrow door with zombies trying to crowd through.  Odds are that you just hit one of them, but you are welcome to give it a shot, so to speak.

Garn snarls in barely contained rage, but swallows his retort and falls into line, weapon gripped with white knuckled intensity.

A rope is produced and carefully tied around the door's handle with great care.  At one point, Ch'dau is certain that his fur, at least, brushed the door's surface, but nothing happens. 

Cedric lays his hands upon each of you, sprinkling a small amount of holy water as he calls for Solanis' blessing.  When he is done, you can swear that you feel a little more certain of yourselves and your chances, no matter the evils you may face.

At a coordinated moment, Ch'dau jerks on the rope, ripping the door open.  There is a dull THUD noise, and flames explode from the door casing in a sphere.  Both Ch'dau and Gib are close enough to receive minor burns, which while unpleasant, at least gives the satisfaction of knowing that anything on the other side of the door received the same treatment. 

And indeed, the chamber on the other side of the door is packed full of zombies - a good ten or so shamble immediately into the doorway at the bidding of a black robed man near the back of the room. 

It is clear that the party has the advantage here, as the zombies appear willing to force themselves through the door one at a time, giving the group ample chance to deal with them in a controlled manner. 

We already have one Ch'dau post this round, so I'm tinking I can go ahead and advance the story a bit.  Eol, if I'm stepping on your toes, feel free to smack me.

I pop in to read every one of thesre right away.  And I have yet to be let down!

I expect a lot of the problems are still due to hacker efforts.  I am utterly stopped one big type of attack, but others are happening.  The site can be up and down in terms of speed. 

I am working on the issues.

Raven - so glad to have you back!

That said, great post, Raven.  Bless before a fight is always smart - I have no idea why more parties don't make this a more common tactic.

Yes, yes.  The undead army.  Keep worrying about that. 

Silly girl.  Kith isn't the anchor,  she just makes it possible.  You'd know this if you'd just let the evil lady monologue.  Cheese.

And to be fair, they probably won't kill Kith.  Shatter her mind utterly in route to inflicting unimaginable horror on her?  Yeah, okay.  

I'd say that rendering her unplayable due to a broken psyche still warrants an epitaph. 

In case you folks haven't connected it yet, Davena is in fact the Mistress from the silver screens.  

Good luck with your plans to be a PITA.  Hope you have a nice epitaph for Kith...

Subscribed! 

Awwww, yisssss! 

I've had hundreds and hundreds of reports today of hack attempts blocked.  I did some server work, and now, these type of attempts result in an instant firewall level block.  Woooooooot!

There you go, breebles.  One more shot at the easy way.  Then, the hard way really begins...

I chose wisely, enlisting your help. 

Davena's face settles into a tight lipped smile as she dabs once at her bloodied lip.  The two dark-robed men look entirely uneasy with the situation. 

"Mistress, shall we..." Hagan begins, but Davena cuts him off mid sentence.

"Silence," she hisses, and he instantly complies.  The blonde woman takes a deep breath.  "Brother Charl," she requests in a tone like one would use to ask for more wine, "please fetch one of the ghouls for me."

He bobs his head.  "Of course, Mistress," he replies, rapidly exiting the room. 

Meanwhile, Davena - much stronger than she appears - effortlessly maneuvers Kithran back onto the bed, taking a moment to smooth out the gown as she arranges the garment around the rogue's prone form.  The silence of the room is broken by quiet giggling as Charl returns, leading a large ghoul with a particulalry savage - and insane - expression.

Davena looks down at Kithran.  "Understand, I could continue to channel D'hurgen's power to hold you still, or we could bind you.   But I will not waste my Dark Lord's blessings on such trifles, and I see no need for the crudeness of ropes." 

She glances at the ghoul, then back at the rogue.  "If you resist again, I will have my companion here bite you.  I can instruct him to do so shallowly - but it will be enough to fix you motionless.  We can do it every time that you so much as flinch; he does not grow weary.  And of course, there are plenty more of his brethren where he came from."

"Each bite will hurt, of course," she states lightly, as if discussing seating arrangements at a dinner party, "but I would be amenable to the acolytes practicing their use of the Dark Lord's gifts of restoration upon you.  We can keep you like this... indefinitely, really.  That is, of course, assuming that we wish to minimize your discomfort."

Her expression grows very cold.  "I would prefer to minimize your discomfort.  I would prefer that the events to come are a positive experience for all involved, I truly would.  But if you refuse to accept our Lord's blessings willingly, if you insist on making a nuisance of yourself... I can ensure your compliance with a depth of agony that you cannot begin to imagine.  Great and powerful men have begged for me to end their suffering, have lost their minds to the agony, have lacked the ability to reason, to speak, to do little but soil their own breeches and wait for death.  All that makes you... YOU, will be long gone.  Is that truly what you want?"

For a moment, a crack shows in the facade - Davena looks ever so slightly weary.  But the crack soon closes, and her expression warms as she takes the rogue's hand in her own.  "Kithran," she speaks, "I understand that right now, you wish me dead.  You hope and pray for your friends to arrive and save you - but that will not happen.  If you ever see your companions again, it will be their reanimated corpses in one form or another; your time with them as you know them now is done."

She stares wistfully into the distance for a moment.  "You have been brought here to receive a great gift, Kithran.  I would choose for you to enjoy all that it entails, for you to receive the honor and power that comes with it.  You do not yet understand, but you will.  In time, you will."

She releases the rogue's hand, places it carefully at Kith's side as she stands.  "You will receive this gift, whether you wish to do so or not.  I have communed with the gods, have spoken with an Oracle of the Sands - you WILL be the one to bring the anchor into the world, regardless of your feelings on the matter. Exactly how that happens is largely up to you, child."

She steps back, and at a gesture, the ghoul steps forward.  A droplet of ichor falls from its fangs to the floor.  Davena speaks again.

"I will release you from the hold now, "she states.  "Once more, I will offer to answer any questions that you may have."  She pauses, her expression grows hard and cold again.  "I would advise you to stay where you are, however.  If you move, the ghoul will bite you - and you will receive your first punishment after.  If you were not aware, you will be unable to move or resist, but you will feel absolutely everything.  Do you understand?"

With an uttered syllable, the paralysis is gone from Kithran's body.  Davena's beautiful, scarred face wears an open, almost hopefuly expression.

...it won't help Kith. 

You give 'em the easy way or the hard way.  Why do they ALWAYS pick the hard way?

I can't wait!

Oh, I bet at some point, numbers count for something. 

...you say that like it's a bad thing!

I don't really have a draft, per se.  What I have is an idea that Yanamari and I collaborated on some years ago. 

If you turn your attention to the map of Antaron, up in the top right, you'll see the Hidden Isles of Cal'ele'miur.  How can islands be hidden?

The idea is that in Audalis, there is an entire other world, another dimension if you will, right beneath our noses.  This is the fae world, populated by a huge assortment of beings.  Some of these exist in the normal world, most do not.  These islands exist in both worlds, and in neither, in a state of flux, and those that find them could potentially travel back and forth between the worlds.  Otherwise, you have more standard trops like fairy rings that can mark where portals have temporarily existed. 

While Audalis itself is considered to be a low magic gaming world, more "realistic" tha, say, Grayhawk or Faerun, the fae realm itself is very magical in nature.  By and large, life from the two worlds is incompatible with the other; short visits are one thing, but long excursions are almost always fatal. 

I'm sure that I have other notes, but this is the main gist, the idea I'd like to see expanded on, brought to life.  What do you think?

She is not tied down.  There are the three in the room, yes. 

You know for a fact that Davena is a spellcaster with some power.  The other two are apparently priests; whether they also have spells is not clear.  Remember that in Audalis, you'll have many clergy that cannot cast spells, that act as priests or reverends or pastors in the real world - they teach, they pray, etc, but they cannot perform "miracles" like clerics can. 

Of course, they absolutely could be clerics, as well; the odds of overpowering or rushing past three spellcasters are... not great.

I think that Reralae was referring to seeing Kith's private story as a silver screen, since nobody else is privvy to that.

I mean, sure, you knew... but did you?  I considered making Davena another victim, just to twist it more.  But, whatevs. 

I have obviously decided to post both threads here so that you can all read along. 

I trust that with the caliber of players we have, metagaming won't be an issue?  Ghoul + scream + furious Garn has to mean you guys operate under the assumption that both were taken (which is how everyone initially reacted).