You get out on the courtyard. To your left is a pair of double doors leading to a tower that overlooks the valley below. To your right is another entryway through which are stairs heading back down.
"Stone the bleedin' crows!" shouts Alora (sounding strangely Australian for a moment). Despite her antipodean cry she doesn't use her sling, instead she attacks the nearest crow with her short sword.
Excellent idea Lady Aerie. You are as wise as you are beautiful.
Aerie flushed and looked away. Not really flustered, like she usually was, but just sad. She knew Anomen was just trying to flatter her, but his words may as well have punched her in the gut.
I'm not beautiful, she thought. Perhaps I was once, but not anymore. One look at my stumps, and he'd cringe at the sight of me.
Anomen chucks a rock at the furthest crow. It hits, and kills the bird with one strike. Alora turns to ask Anomen a question, turns her ankle and falls flat on her face. Minsc turns and strikes one of the crows with his sword, cleaving it into bits. Arkanis hits and kills a third. Jaheira misses. Ajantis strikes at one bird, but it is too swift and agile to fall victim to his blade.
Neera's wild flailing nearly hits Anomen in the head, but she *does* manage to hit one of the birds square on. It drops dead with a squawk and in an explosion of feathers.
Aerie fires off a stone at one of the birds. It hits and kills the crow, dropping it with a squawk. The crows strike at the party, but both miss. One of them, swerving to miss Neera's stick, hits the floor and snaps its own neck with a crack.
The single remaining bird turns around and flies off, back to the battlements of the tower. It, and the other crows there disappear from the battlements.
"I think those nasty crows must be owned by someone in that tower. So he's probably nasty too. And us paladins have a duty to root out nastiness wherever we find it."
Alora strikes an heroic pose: "Let us to the tower to root out nastiness and take its treasure!"
"Okay, we'll do it your way. We'll knock." says Alora.
"But before we knock I'll try to pick the lock, that way we won't disturb anyone if we don't have to. And when we knock, if no one answers we will try to break the door down because there may be someone trapped inside who needs our help. And if we can't break the door down we will look for another way in and check for secret doors. And if we still can't get in we will leave the residence alone."
"Before we enter I shall use my paladin powers to detect evil," Alora announces to Anomen. "I know you can't do this so I don't mind doing it for you."
She looks at the squat black tower, hewn from the stark rock. She listens to the sinister crows cawing in the battlements.
"Yes, I'm definitely sensing evil."
Alora heads into the tower, checking for traps as she goes.
Roused by the draft from the open door, the dust of ages billows out from the darkness. It makes you cough, then your eyes tear.
When it finally clears, you can see several boa-like shapes on the floor of the room beyond, their outlines softened by a thick layer of dust. No-one but yourselves have come this way for many years and, to judge by the skeleton slumped against one of the boxes, the last to do so met with a particularly untimely end.
The dust lies over an inch thick on every surface, and from here, you can see that the skeleton looks thicker and smaller than that of a human.
"A skellington! It looks like a dwarf. Maybe it's the skellington of the Dwarf Ghost? Or of the Ghost Dwarf?"
Alora would go and investigate but she is a bit worried by the snake-like shapes under the dust. She doesn't like the idea of being attacked by a ghost snake (or even a snake ghost).
She goes into the room very slowly and pokes the end of the nearest boa-like shape with her short sword to see if anything happens.
Dust billows up in Alora's wake and around her as she walks over to the skeleton. On the wall near the skeleton is a crack outlined on the wall. It looks like some kind of opening.
Alora will search the skeleton and then check the crack in the wall. Is it big enough for her to get through? And are there any other doors in the room?
Comments
I'm not beautiful, she thought. Perhaps I was once, but not anymore. One look at my stumps, and he'd cringe at the sight of me.
*Anomen casts magic stone and hurls it at the bird that is the furthest away.*
Anyone else?
She attempts to hit one with her staff.
I am starting to despise anything with wings.
*attacks one of the 3 remaining birds with his spear*
Aerie eyed the birds cautiously as she loaded a stone into her sling.
The single remaining bird turns around and flies off, back to the battlements of the tower. It, and the other crows there disappear from the battlements.
Alora strikes an heroic pose: "Let us to the tower to root out nastiness and take its treasure!"
The polite thing to do is knock. The politer thing to do is leave the residence alone. We can find our own way back to the village.
"But before we knock I'll try to pick the lock, that way we won't disturb anyone if we don't have to. And when we knock, if no one answers we will try to break the door down because there may be someone trapped inside who needs our help. And if we can't break the door down we will look for another way in and check for secret doors. And if we still can't get in we will leave the residence alone."
Alora tries to pick the lock.
She looks at the squat black tower, hewn from the stark rock. She listens to the sinister crows cawing in the battlements.
"Yes, I'm definitely sensing evil."
Alora heads into the tower, checking for traps as she goes.
Roused by the draft from the open door, the dust of ages billows out from the darkness. It makes you cough, then your eyes tear.
When it finally clears, you can see several boa-like shapes on the floor of the room beyond, their outlines softened by a thick layer of dust. No-one but yourselves have come this way for many years and, to judge by the skeleton slumped against one of the boxes, the last to do so met with a particularly untimely end.
The dust lies over an inch thick on every surface, and from here, you can see that the skeleton looks thicker and smaller than that of a human.
Alora would go and investigate but she is a bit worried by the snake-like shapes under the dust. She doesn't like the idea of being attacked by a ghost snake (or even a snake ghost).
She goes into the room very slowly and pokes the end of the nearest boa-like shape with her short sword to see if anything happens.
"Did anyone bring a broom?"