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... a massive hammer made of ice appeared and began hammering relentlessly at the door. Cold air, snow, and frost enveloped the area, obscuring the door and the ice-hammer from view. The ring said: "Estimated time until door gives way: Ten minutes."
The hammering went on for about five minutes, during which time Maxwell found his way to where Eruantian was. He came up to the group and said: "OK, I'll bite: What's with the noisy cloud of ice?"

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Meanwhile, in Ye Olde Umber-Hole, Taryn made her way carefully through the abyssal darkness to find Horin. Just because she glowed didn't mean she had super-duper night vision. Once the spectre had located the dwarf, she informed him that her quest for splint wood had been successful.

Acedia was awake again and she'd started making some kind of noise again, though this time she appeared to be talking to herself, as she'd cackle shrilly every few minutes.

{ NOTE OF PARTIAL IMPORTANCE: I was tempted to add an example of what Acedia was saying, and it would've gone a bit like this. (Just the song, not the video.)

But I decided to stay canon. ^_^ }

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get LOST

< Hey, The Zephyr Song was paying attention! Since Micheal is focusing on his Flaming Finger spell, he can't sustain the light-show spell anymore, so it's back to the darkness for you guys. However, the flaming-finger and Taryn's perpetual glow do give enough light that it's not pitch-black, anyways.>

Micheal said: "Ok, it's boiling, Horin. Pop the tea infuser in."

<GM's Note: Tea infusers are metal containers with tiny little holes in them that are used to hold loose tea so you don't have to strain out much loose stuff later. They don't work as well as tea bags, but tea bags are unknown in this era (in the real world, it wasn't until around around 1904 that tea bags were invented). Horin has a simple brass Tea Infuser in his kit of the 'acorn' style. The basic design looks something like this:

but I'm sure you can imagine what that would look like if it was Medieval Fantasy World Brass instead of Modern Stainless Steel. The Elves of Suldeneselar and the Gnomish traders also make some other, more advanced, types of Tea Infusers. The Elves seem to value elegance and simplicity of design in their tea paraphernalia, with the high-society varieties usually made of silver or gold. The Gnomes, on the other hand, seem obsessed with making ever-more-complicated tea making machines, usually made of brass, bronze, or cast iron. In the rural areas of Human and Dwarven society, simple loose tea brewing is still the most common method of brewing tea, but in the cities the use of a brass or copper tea infuser has become fashionable of late.

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Coren crept over to a dead elf body.
"Easy does it, you don't need this anymore..." said Coren as he pulled a shield off the arm of an elf.
[OOC]What does it look like?[/OOC]

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Eruantian stared in aw as the hammer appeared and began to bash away at the door. This was partially due to Murdoch telling him earlier that he wasn't allowed to use any power that was lethal. He must have meant that Eruantian would not be allowed to use the ring as lethal force against a living being; after all, you can't kill a door.

The aw was soon replaced with discomfort. It wasn't the cold or the covered vision that bothered Eruantian, but the sound. The loud and repetitive banging of the hammer was too much for Eruantian's ears to handle in the echoing confines of cavern walls. Because of the banging and the fact that Eruantian covered his ears with his hands he did not hear Maxwell calling, though he did see him.

<OOC>As I said earlier, Eruantian was not phased by the cold or the obscured vision.
Immunity to Cold: The ring makes Eruantian immune to the effects of extremely cold temperatures. Might have a few adverse effects in hot temperatures, but that's up to Sarge.
Blizzard Vision: This power helps Eruantian see through harsh Blizzards. Objects that are normally obscured by snow and ice in the air are perceived as dark silhouettes and light sources are more clearly visible than usual. Range limit and effectiveness are up to Sarge. </OOC>

<Like a light Round Sheild... a slightly convex metal disk about 20 inches in diameter and about a half an inch thick, with a half-inch-thick wooden bracing frame that completely encircles the inside edge of the back of the buckler and cross-braces the buckler with a pair of slats that dove-tail in the center. It is padded on the inside with a round, quilted piece of soft tanned leather. The buckler has a lacquered wooden handle bolted to back, mounted in the dead-center. A set of cotton-wrapped rawhide arm-straps are affixed closer to one edge. It is meant to be strapped to the forearm and then gripped with the off-hand while your dominant hand holds your weapon. Thus, if you're right-handed, the shield goes on your left arm and your sword goes in your right hand.

The face of the shield looks like this:



The Elven Swordsmen (including Captain Sealem) all carried longswords, bucklers, and throwing knives. They wear elven chainmail under elven cloaks, and have backpacks on their backs that have an assortment of camping, survival, and military gear.
There were three Elven Swordsmen (not including Captain Sealem) left in Captain Sealem's command before the fall into the pit, but only one survived so that means there's two bodies for you to pilfer from.>

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Eruantian approached the figure he could see through the cloud of ice. As he got closer the dark silhouette faded into a clear image.

"Oh *bang* " Eruantian said as the ice hammered away at the door "*bang* It's you,*bang* Maxwell. *bang* Chezzo and I *bang* ran into a *bang* locked door. *bang* I'll have it *bang* down in a few min-*bang*. BANE'S BLOOD! *bang* The noise had *bang* better be worth *bang* it!"

<Sounds good to me. I'll say that the ring lets you see through all the different sorts of cold-weather phenomenon as if they were not there. That means that snow, ice, ice-fog, frost, and sleet do not reduce visibility for you. The ring protects you from any cold weather phneominon as well as from any artificially cold temperatures or magical cold-based attacks. While it doesn't give you automatic protection from the effects of hot weather or magical magical fire or from fire-based attacks, it can act like a personal portable air conditioner if you order it to cool you down.>

Maxwell walked up to Eruantian and pointed at the big giant ice hammer and made a face.

<And then some sort of road-running animal made a "beep-beep" noise and was mediately chased by a Coyote. >

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<OOC> Fantastic. I might make a homebrew dnd spell later based on my Blizzard Vision.</OOC>

"Yeah. *bang* " Eruantian acknowledged "I thought *bang* the same thing. *bang*"

Maxwell said: "Well, ::bang:: we think ::bang:: there may ::bang:: be a ::bang:: similar ::bang:: door ....

::CRASH!::

.... um, on the ledge below... hey, did you break the door already?"

Eruantian's ring then said: "Unexpected event: Task completed ahead of previously estimated time of completion. Cause: This unit did not have accurate information regarding the state of disrepair of the other side of the door frame when calculating time required to break target door. Result: Frame gave way before the door itself collapsed. Speculation: Other side of the door frame may have been rusty. Standing by for further instructions."

Maxwell said: "Hey, cool. I didn't know your ring could talk. Let's see what's on the other side of the door... er.. once it heats up a bit more in here. Brrr..."

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"Aw-e-some!" said Coren as he stood in Elven gear. He had his sword in his right hand and the buckler on his left. The cloak was kind of long and he had transferred his things from his small pack to the backpack. He had to take things from both elves, the cloak on one was ripped. After that he walked up to Sealem.
"Uhh, Cap'n, how do we honorably put these elves to rest?"

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"Yessir!"

Marcus descended into The Darkness just as the cold air and whatnot swept in above. His night vision took over in the dim, faint light.

Jumping onto the wall, Marcus began climbing around in search of any doors. Then he spotted the other half of the party. In a flourish of teeth, scales, and the red wool of his kilt, Marcus landed right in the middle of the huddle.

"Well, hello there! Didn't think I'd see all you again! Wanna help me look for a door?"

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Captain Sealem said: "The elves here remaining shall make graves for them and honor them for ancient gods in the time-honored fashion. You do their memory service by carrying on in their stead, brave Coren, but I do not expect you to join us in this. I do not know what gods you believe in, but mine proscribe very specific burial rites for the honored dead, and I don't have time to teach them to you. It would be sacrilege me to ask a non-believer to bury the honored dead when there are three here who could do the task. I am not a very religious man but it is my duty to see that my men get the sort of funeral they deserve, and I do not wish to offend their spirits. It is not wise to offend the dead, you know.

In any case, you should know that the engraving on the face of that shield you now bear honors the great hero of my people, Lerarad Elnakrea. He is a near-mythical hero who freed the world from the ancient Dragon-Tyrants in the time before the Great Cataclyism, before Suldeneselar had started to build an empire, before the Drow split off from the common ancestors and turned to darkness. We Elves honor Lerarad Elnakrea because it was he who gave us the chance to become what we are today. If not for him, the Dragon-Tyrants might still rule this world and all the name-giver races would be but slaves in their empire. All I ask is that you remember this when you fight evil, and take heart from the memory.
But now, I have solemn tasks to perform this day. I must seem my fallen comrades to their reward in the Elysian Fields."

Captain Sealem rose to his feet and walked over to Maria, and the two of them began conversing softly in Speretheil (the Elven language). Drek got up and joined them, apparently understanding what they were doing. Then, the three of them briefly chanted something in Speretheil and then they took the bodies of the dead Elves and placed them side by side, in a neat row. Since the floor of this place was too hard to dig in (under all the dust and sand, it's solid granite down there) they started piling big rocks around on on top of the two dead men until they were totally covered. Then Maria lead the group in some sort of Elven burial ritual that involved a lot of silence and motionlessness, with Maria periodically standing up or kneeling and the others following her lead.

Horin recognized some of what they were doing: It looked like part of the rituals that those who honor Tyr do when burying their dead. Since the cult of Tyr is the dominant religion is Elven society, he supposed that it made sense from a cultural point of view that Drek and Captain Sealem were adherents of these rituals.

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"Is it cold" Eruantian asked Maxwell "I hadn't noticed."

<OOC> Did Coren completely remove both of the Elves' gear or are they about to be buried while still partially equipped? </OOC>

<GM's Ruling: Yes and no: He rilfles both bodies and striped them of their gear, but he didn't take it all. What's left is:
1 Elven Buckler
1 Elven Longsword
1 set of Elven throwing knives
1 Suldeneselarian first aid kit (As previously described, but the Healing Potion flasks are broken)
1 backpack
1 bedroll
1 suit of Elven chain
1 Elven cloak (slighly torn)

There were two of each item as listed above, but Coren took one of each (I assume).>

Micheal waited patiently for Horin to say or do something. He wondered, idly, if there was such a spell as "Poke With Stick."

Maxwell said to Eruantian: "Well, let's see what's on the other side." He drew his sword and poked his head through the door. "It's pitch black in here. I can't see a thing. I better go back and get a torch or something."
Just then, something burning and fast zoomed past Maxwell's head and he jumped back. "Yipes! What the heck was that?"

Eruantian could hear the skittering of thousands of tiny feet on stone, as if a jar of insects had just spilled all over the floor. His ring powered up a bit and glowed a bit brighter hue of blue, but otherwise it didn't do anything.

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"Woah..."
Coren just stood in solemn awe as he watched them bury the elves. He had been to a few funerals when he was a kitten. They would take the dead and bury them in sand or another loose type of ground (gravel, etc) with some fish and rodents. His mind drifted away to the food...
Mmmm... Rats, mice, and I do like moles...
He snapped back into focus and remembered what was happening. A sad day indeed those guys had to die, but they did give something to him, some spiffy clothes and a beautiful shield.

[OOC] And just so you know, Coren already has a sword. The Sword of Felix that I described in one of the posts I introduced myself in.[/OOC]

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Eruantian instinctively reacted to the sudden appearance of bug-like creatures by casting Eye Lighter and Arctic Blast while simultaneously letting out a prepubescent shriek.

<I'll let you describe what happens, SOMM>

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<OOC> I was hoping you would tell me the result.</OOC>
Eruantian accidentally caught someone in the blast of cold air. Everything happened so fast that he wasn't sure what had happened. Ten different thoughts rushed through his head at once and three of them became actions: one as a reaction to darkness and two as a reaction to being startled. When Eruantian's senses slowed back down, Maxwell seemed rather displeased.

Maxwell was caught in the blast and fell over. Now suddenly frosted in a thin layer of snow, he said "Gahh! Freeze the bugs, not me! The room he had just been peeking into was filled with ice and snow.

Chezzo chuckled and said: "Look on the bright side. At least now we can freeze left-over meat any time we want to..." but Maxwell did not look amused, so Chezzo shut up.

Maxwell said: "I think those were fire-beetles. Only saw a bunch of those one other time, back in Glenarbor. Old man Cheeziwik's celler had an infestation of those once, and he had to call in the Fire Brigade AND the Town Watch to get rid of them. Nasty things. They can chew through rock, and they spit fire. Only ever saw a dead one, but it was about three feet long and maybe a foot and a half wide with a big red shell all around except at the front. It had a couple of pincer-mandibles at one end, but I couldn't tell if that was the front or the back: It didn't have any eyes and no tail or anything like that."

Eruantian's rung said: "Alert: Dangerous hostile creatures detected. Type previously encounterd by this ring. Alerting current user as per previous user's instructions:
Diplaying file:"

A holographic representation of a scroll with words on it appeared. The ring highlighted each word as it read them off:

"Known facts: Category: Insectoid. Scientific Designation: Zopheridae Fieria Majoum. Common Name: Fire Beetle. Alignment: Chaotic Evil. Organizational type: Hive-mind intelligence. Highly insulated; Completely immune to electrical attacks, highly resistant to fire-based attacks, can adapt to cold environments given time. Spits fire, chews rock, digs tunnels. Will attack if it detects motion. Eggs are poisonous, do not consume. Major known weakness: Cannot swim, lacks eyes, navigate by echo-location and by sense of feel only. Suggested course of action: Drown them in deep water or burn them with acid.
End of file."

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"You keep confusing me just enough to stay interesting" Eruantian said to the ring "Where are we going to get acid around here?... Or we could try melting the ice somehow; that might be easier."

<OOC: Did the party hear the ring's message or just Eruantian, also I might add, does any one find it wierd races that have little use for it in everyday life have nightvision (though if everything made sense in fiction, the 3 stooges would be in jail for manslaughter).>

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Click this link unless you hate Homestar Runner & Strong Bad. You like Homestar & Strong Bad, don't you?

<What do you mean? Dwarves live below ground, and lizards are somewhat nocturnal.
BTW, Eruantian needs to see if he can get the internet with that thing.>

Prosper was sitting on the stone and sand floor, prefering not to move lest he take a tumble down into the abyss. He was contemplating how he wished Micheal would start up that lighting spell, and listening to the low mantra of Elven voices, when suddenly something landed by him with a thump, calling out a cheerful greeting as it did.
Prosper yelled, breaking the silence in the cave, and jumped up what he thought was at least 4 feet.
"Marcus?" he said, realizing who the voice came from. "Marcus is that you? Don't do that!!!" He put out his arms, trying to find the lizard man.

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(THE ABOVE USER HAS BEEN BANNED)

<ONly Eruantian, Maxwell and Chezzo heard it. The rest are too far away to have heard it.
Catmen have excellent low-light vision, and have cat-eyes instead of conventional eyes (Average cats have a visual field of view estimated at 200°, versus 180° in humans. Also, unlike humans, cats to not need to blink their eyes on a regular basis to keep their eyes lubricated.)

Lizzardmen also have low-light vision, but not nearly as good as that of Catmen.

Elves and Dwarves have Infravison, while Drow and Duregar have what is called "Darkvison" (They can see perfectly while in the Underdark, or via Infravision or normal vision while elsewhere). Half-elves may also have Infravision, but some of them are unable to use this ability.

Gnomes and Humans only have normal vision.

Ogres, Orcs, Bugbears, Trolls, Half-Orcs, Half-Ogres and Goblins all have a some form of Infravsion. High-flayers and Mind-flayers see light normally.

Kuo-Toa and Mermen have a natural low-light vision that is adapted to underwater environments.

Umber-Hulks see normaly as well as by echo-location.
Pixies, Fairies, Brownies, Specters, Leprechauns, and other magic-based creatures can see with conventional vision, although their magical nature sometimes allows them some modification of this.

Goldwing, being a Golden Eagle, has extremely acute normal-light vision with a very mild form of low-light vision that can see in the dark just a bit better than the average human can.

Dragons have excellent low-light vision as well as good Infravision, but this varies somewhat between the various subtypes of Dragon that exist.

Demons, Devils and other extra-planar creatures (Aasimon, Archons Archangels, Seraphim, Chayot, Ophanim, Arelim, Devas, Solars, Planetars, Eladrin, Guardinals, Modrons, Rilmani, Slaadi, and Uagi) have an otherworldly vision that allows them to see well in most conditions, although it seems to vary from individual to individual.

Skeletons, Zombies and Ghouls have no working eyeballs, but they can see normally via necromantic magic. Wraiths, Litches and Demi-Litches can see normaly. Vampires can see in the dark perfectly in any of their various forms. (However, they are effectively blind in moderate-to-bright lighted conditions.)

Lycanthropes have a form of infravsion while in their feral form, and normal vision while in their humanoid form

Centaurs can see with conventional vision, but they have better long-range acuity than humans do.

Aquatic Elves have the typical Elven vision that their land-based cousins have, but they have developed a thrid eyelid that helps to protect their eyes while swiming underwater.

The nearly-extinct Aeveri (winged) Elves have what they call "Brightvision" that allows them to see well even in extremely bright conditions and well as being able to see through mist, fog, and clouds. They also have the conventional Elven visons that normal Elves have.>

Micheal poked Horin with a stick: "Hello? Making tea here. Wake up, bud."

Maxwell said to Eruantian: "Well, Micheal can make fire and water on demand. What say we get him up here and melt that ice and then drown the little buggers?"

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{ because Sarge didn't say anything on the subject specifically: Spectres can see things dimly outlined in low-light conditions, usually with the help of the light from their own luminescent skin. Because Taryn chooses not to walk around naked, her low-light vision is slightly hampered, as her dress blocks most of the light from all but her face and arms, and diffuses the light from her legs off to either side. }

Taryn was getting antsy waiting for Horin to reappear from the depths and go fix Acedia, and so she scaled the wall of the pit again, deciding to go see if anything else interesting was occuring. Shortly she found her way to Maxwell, Eruantian and Chezzo, noting the residual cold in the air but not really being bothered by it. "Find something interesting?" she asked, as a way to make her presence known. She's unaware of the impending fire-beetle-related doom but may have access to some kind of acid.

Acedia was starting to cramp, wanting very much to sit up at least, if not walk around. Either one would disturb her fractures further.

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get LOST

<Gamemaster invokes the "Your character is needed but you seem to be asleep" rule an temporally makes Horin an NPC again.>

Horin pushed Micheal's poking stick away, saying: "Aye, aye, keep your breeches on. I've got the Tea fixings right here. Just took a while to grind them up is all. Now, let that steep in the pot until the water is a deep green color and then serve it to Drek with some of the Honey I have in this jar. I'm gonna go check on Auriel. You might as well start up that light show of your again, my good Mage."

Micheal said: "Alright. Water's boiling anyways." He put his Flaming Finger out with a puff of his breath and then re-cast Fool's Glow. Again, the cavern lit up with multicolored lights.

Meanwhile, back at the impending beetle-fest, Maxwell said: "Oh, hey Taryn. You're good with fire, right? Could you melt this ice Erunatian made? We wanna drown the Fire-Beetles on the other side of this door before they chew through the wall and attack us."

Oddly enough, a muffled chewing sound could be heard as he said this, though it was not coming from Maxwell.

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"Hmm, fire beetles, eh? Alright. I needed something to do anyway." The tall woman shrugged and approached the ice, pursing her lips in thought for a moment. "We seem to have encountered a problem," she said after a short silence, laying a hand on the ice just to get it started, at least. It began to melt almost immediately. "In order to keep the melted ice in a liquid state, it must be melted slowly, but that gives the little beasties plenty of time to get to us. I can have this ice melted in a matter of about a minute or so - the problem is, to do that, I have to vaporize it, and I can't manipulate water to make it condense again into a tide of death just as quickly. And no one's ever drowned in steam, after all." She turned and addressed Eruantian. "If I flash this ice to steam, can your ring condense it into water without re-freezing it?"

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get LOST

<OOC> Evidently, you aren't using the d20 system for any of this. In the d20 system Gnomes, Elves and Half Elves have low-light vision, Dwarves, Orcs and Half Orcs have Darkvision, and there is no mention of Infravision. </OOC>

"Don't ask me, ask him" Eruantian replied pointing at his ring.

<Nope, I'm basing everything in this world off whatever my brain decides sound good. It's more fun this way.>
The ring said: "Query recognized. Answer: This ring is capable of condensing steam or fog into liquid water by lowering the surrounding ambient temperature."

Maxwell said: "Aright then, lets drown those little buggers. Taryn you do your stuff, and then Eruntian will use his ring to make the steam into water. Hopefully, it will flood the room. Get ready to run, though, just in case it doesn't work."

Chezzo said: "Wait, how do we know we won't flood this room? If that other room's floor is higher than the floor we're standing on, won't the water will flow into here and leave that room just a little wet?"

Maxwell paused, and then said: "Hrm, I didn't think of that. But hey, we can ask the ring, right? It should know."

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There were a few moments of awkward silence. "... Oh, right. The questioning" Eruantian responded turning his attention to the ring "Will there be any problems with our plan?"