Anauroch - The Great Desert

[Brainpiercing]

Devanar shrugged.
'True, if they did teleport, then our efforts will be in vain. But then why go to all this effort? They were trying to throw us off their trail, and that means that they can't completely hide it indefinitely. Unless their minds are more twisted, and they are thinking more steps ahead than me.
Honoured Maglu'glath, how about we just try to find the trail again, for instance by looking in widening semi or maybe three-quarter-circles? I think we can rule out south from here, because we came from there....'
He swept his arm around the northern semicircle.

'Of course.... they could have also gone directly to the oasis. They were going pretty straight northward up to here, and that could lead them to it.'

[Omen of Peace]

"Then let's head for the oasis" Mael concludes after it becomes clear no one has a better idea.

Ugh, they're following humans. Guess I'll have to split away at some point to try and find me a demon.

[Brainpiercing]

Agnak who had been impatiently swinging his glaive about jumped at the suggestion.
'Yes, let's go straight there, and then see. They aren't demons, anyway.'

Devanar frowned.
'Yes, but they might know something we don't.'

'Or they might just try to kill us', Agnak countered.

Devanar sighed.
'That would be your field of expertise, then. Alright, let's just go, standing around won't make anything better, and they are probably getting further and further away, whoever they are.'

LATER.....

From the distance, the oasis revealed itself as a few palm trees. Then with what looked like ruins (and proved to be upon closer inspection). The ruins were old. The only building with fresh signs of use was a clay hut near the well, and some hoofprints in the mud around the watering hole.

Agnak began poking around the ruins. And then suddenly he was gone, and just a cloud of dust where he had been. After a few moments his voice came wafting up from the ground. 'I'm alright. I guess I've found a tunnel or something, I'm going to take a look.'

[Omen of Peace]

Mael has been wandering round the buildings, checking for magical auras or signs of recent occupation and finding nothing too suspicious.

When he hears Agnak call out he walks over to the rim of the hole and peers downwards. Noting its depth, he says:
"Help me get down"
then a rather belated
"...please"

[Surreal]

"oh for &*#& sake..." muttered Maglu'glath with his hand over his face. Stepping up behind the halfling who was leaning precariously over the hole, he shouted: "Agnak! Catch!" 

*punt*

[Omen of Peace]

[OOC]
I'm not sure how serious you are, but I assume you mean it.
In this case Mag should make a DC 22 Will save - I assume he'll make it and the consequences are pretty unimportant either way, but it has to be done.

[Surreal]

ooc

Mag has been in the sun all day (which as a subterranean creature makes him unhappy), has had to deal with a snarky cat/lunch, and still has a snout full of stinky human mating-ritual musk. To say that he is irritable at this moment is an understatement
will save: 13 + 12 = 24

[Brainpiercing]

Unfortunately Agnak had already marched off down the tunnel he had discovered - which meant Mael was in for a rough landing, unless he had the means of slowing himself down somehow. The tube Mael was falling through was smooth and narrow, too narrow for Agnak's Draconic wings. Just when the ground came precariously close it tapered out into the ceiling of a large hallway - approximately 40ft wide and 30ft high. The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust - enough to at least slightly cushion a fall, but not nearly enough for a soft landing.
The total falling distance had to have been around 100ft.

[ooc]

You have enough time for UP TO a standard action. I don't think falling takes time in D&D, normally, but let's just say it does right now.

If you can't slow your fall you take the appropriate falling damage, i.e. 10d6, modified by appropriate skill rolls. If you make either the DC15 jump or tumble check you can convert 2d6 of that into non-lethal damage, if you don't make the check, only the first 1d6 is non-lethal damage from the slightly softened fall.

[Omen of Peace]

[OOC]

Er... ok.
The transition from descriptive to mechanical was a bit abrupt here - if I thought there would be consequences I might have asked for Initiative and the whole shebang.

Since I don't want to slow things down and you're being generous giving me a standard action, I'll have Mael cast to save his skin (the fall could kill him! he's not made for physical endeavours).

I don't know what Mag sees given that there's likely a lot of dust in the air.

Mael suffers from an instant of incredulity
"Wha-"
before the reality of the gravity pulling him downward asserts itself as he pitches forward. And he can't see the bottom.
Crap-

But something cold rises up inside of him and his lips begins to move even as his fingers fight the air to form the right sequence.

His shape blurs and lengthens and wings sprout from his shoulders, unfurling to take in as much air as possible. The avariel manages to slow his descent just in time: he lands a bit hard but without causing any pain.

Mael stands at the bottom, legs trembling, as his brain replays the events.

Looking up, he mutters to himself:
"You will pay for this, goblin"

[Brainpiercing]

[ooc]

NORMALLY, YES, there should have been consequences, and rolling of initiative, etc. The trouble was, here, that you seemed to accept that Mag pushed Mael, so I thought that this was going down. I'm sorry if I messed that up. I would have had Mag roll a grapple check to push you (which, arguably, he would have won, BUT you never know, with dice). I would have made sure you don't die, at least, because that would have been stupid.

Again, I'm sorry that I neglected Mag's roll. The thing is, I'm here going with the rule "say yes, or roll", which means that unless you say NO, there are no rolls. You did ask him to make the will save, but... ok, I should have done that differently. I apologise for that.

Well, apart from bad blood, no real harm was done, I hope. I'll just have to let Devanar try to make peace.

[Omen of Peace]

[OOC]

It's fine. I swear Mael won't inflict any lasting harm on Mag if he does do something. But I'm sure you have something nasty planned that will make them all forget about this.

I also suspect Surreal didn't imagine, any more than I did, that the hole was this deep. I had figured 30ft or so.

Oh, and the spell was obviously Alter Self - forgot to mention it.

[Surreal]

OOC

Whoa, I'm with Omen here, I wasn't expecting things to develop into a mechanical situation so abruptly. I figured we'd have a post or two of scuffling topside, descriptive text and whatnot, something like him hanging onto the edge and cursing at Mag being crazy, and Mag teasing him for being a wuss, that sort of thing. Just trying to inject some conversation and humour here.

[Sohala]

[OOC]

Mechanics are never turned off!

   

[Brainpiercing]

[OOC]

Mechanics are never turned off!

   

Yes, ok... I get it.

But let me translate things to at least save parts of my skin:
Mael has a grapple mod of -6, Mag of +2. That's a difference of 8, which is a very likely victory for Mag. The opposed Str. checks look pretty much the same, minus the size mods - which are identical. Mael was surprised, well, his initiative isn't that much lower than Mag's. I did look at Mael's HP and I thought the chances of him dying are at least not high - and we have a healbot present.
So... while there should have been rolling, the outcome is at least possible. Mechanics were bypassed, but not ignored.

So... still a bad decision on my part. We can redo if you guys like.

[Omen of Peace]

Once composed, Mael launches himself back up in the air, shouting "coming up!" in case the goblin has more brilliant ideas like jumping down or tossing fat Devanar. He lands away from Mag, comments flatly
"That wasn't very nice. You could have killed me."

Then he picks up Don, his riding dog, by the scruff of his neck and starts to fly back down. The added weight unbalances him but he still manages.

He starts down the tunnel.
Better stick close to Agnak.

[OOC]

Easier to roll with it.

Note: I don't intend to use Alter Self with overpowered options - I took it to make good disguises - but it was life-or-death here.

[Brainpiercing]

[ooc]

I specifically allow and encourage the use of alter self and polymorph, with the changes I've implemented to the spells.

Now do note that you can't actually fly up that tube with wings as a medium sized creature, which was the whole point of having a narrow tube. Wings need space (even though I can't find a rule quote for that right now). Also, your max load is 45lbs, you can stagger with 90. A riding dog weighs at least 90lbs. You'll fall like a rock while carrying the riding dog.

If this makes things really hard for you, we can still revert. Rolling with it, however, probably means you're stuck down there without the dog.

Agnak was nowhere to be seen, but his footsteps were easily visible (with darkvision or a light source). The tunnel ran straight for a few hundred feet before taking a sharp right turn. Occasionally there was rubble around the walls, as a well as some bones, and what looked like parts of destroyed war machines.

[Omen of Peace]

[OOC]

If her can't fly up, he can't break his fall with his wings while falling either. Ok, I give up, let's revert.
Here's a first try below.

@Surreal: Mag will have succeeded in making Mael afraid (then perhaps angry later). Like I said above, he's not very solid.
As a player, I of course think you were totally justified.

@BP: I'm continuing in non-mechanical mode.

[IC - reverting]
Mael suffers from an instant of incredulity
"Wha-"
before the reality of the gravity pulling him downward asserts itself as he pitches forward. Thankfully he manages to catch himself on a solidly-anchored rock.

"Very funny" Mael asserts, managing to hide his shock and fear. [ooc Bluff: very high]
"Now if you don't mind HELPING me back up."
He raises his voice in the middle of the sentence, trying to catch someone else's attention in case the goblin has nefarious intentions.

[Brainpiercing]

[ooc]

I had thought about catching yourselves: remember I said the tunnel down there is 30ft high - enough to slow down or change direction.

But ok, let's revert.

Devanar rushed to the scene.
'Honoured Maglu'glath, please restrain yourself. We must control our moods...'
He bent down to help Mael, but it wasn't actually so easy - his own girth and his weakness added up to a very ineffective combination.
'We need a rope', he said, matter of factly. 'Both to get him up again, and to possibly get down to help Agnak.'

[Brainpiercing]

As an afterthought he adressed Maglu'glath again:
'Honoured Maglu'glath, are you not by any chance capable of teleporting us down to Agnak? Once we have caught up with with that hothead he can teleport us back out again.'

Meanwhile Cat had approached the hole, too.
If the big guy can teleport us out... we should make sure not to lose him. And hey, it's a hole leading into a mysterious ruin..., he said in everyone's head. Then he gave Mag a feline scowl, and jumped into the hole. He landed on his feet, but HARD, in spite of catching his fall. Luckily, his body was capable of rearranging itself rather quickly. However, it was only when he was down that he noticed that now everybody at the top was out of range of his telepathy. An angry catlike snarl could he heard from the bottom, but no more snide mental remarks.

[ooc]

Surreal: I don't think Devanar really knows any of your abilities except the restoration. He's actually guessing.

[Surreal]

"Pfft, he would have been fine..." and in an uncharacteristic dramatic fashion, Maglu'glath raised his one arm and gently lifted off the ground. Extending his hand to the others: "well then, shall we go?"

OOC

Mag can cast levitate on everybody. I would have simply lifted everyone off the ground for dramatic prose and proceeded downwards, but for the sake of mechanics I need you to all be willing targets.