Missing Caravan

[GM Marvel]

Everyone rides the current on or attached to Unreth leaking corpse (There is something really wrong with this picture).  You reach the threshold of the glowing walk and hit the strange barrier slowly growing out of the water to block the portal.  Upon closer inspection the water is literally stiffening into a wall.  It wasn't ice.  In fact it wasn't any colder than the surrounding water.  Forge and Tomeal give Unreth's body a push from behind.  The corpse slowly slides over what at this point amounted to a speed bump and then slips through the wall of light...

First there was a blinding light and then a flash of icy cold that numbed your flesh.  Suddenly darkness and the stench of rot, shit and piss all combined into one horrid overwhelming smell.  Your eyes adjust, some quicker than others, to the dim light of your new surroundings.  The drip drip of water leaking close by pierces the silence.  

"Woat use doing err," you hear close by.  Blinking to get the ghosts of blinding light from your eyes you see the frog shaped humanoid.  His green hands are pointing at the portal while he's slowly rolling them back and forth in rhythmic motions.

[Betimi]

Betimi smiles at the creature and attempts to  ease it's mind.

"We mean no harm, we seek safe refuge from the caverns we were in collapsing."

[OoC as much a sa pale skinned, pockmarked and diseased looking woman can, no matter how much of a charismatic presence she is.]

[Diplomacy [1d20+4] = 5+4 = 9]

[GM Marvel]

"YOIS!  Staway foom meh.  Uses luke plaged," the frogman says almost angrily while taking a few steps back from Betimi.  While watching you all very carefully, the creature squats down near a puddle and scoops up some of the water into the palm of one of his hands then pours it from his hand onto a dry patch of skin on one of his shoulders.  

"Uses speck difent.  Wares uses com froom?"

[OoC: There's a pic of what he basically looks like in the attachments.]

[Selina Parcellus]

OoC3: I'll consider Selina's attack on the bastard a coup de grace!     

OoC4:  It was amazing how quickly you all took Unreth out without his defensive spells. You all had knocked him down to about half hit points before Piper got lucky with his Dispel Magic.  Then you ripped him a new one in two rounds!  Not bad for a group of 1st and 2nd level characters.  I think it's because everyone's stats are so huge.  Which I'm happy about because it means I can put you up against more powerful creatures so your level advancements are quicker than in most other PbP games.  Advancement can be so slow --Too Slow-- in PbP.  

Being the Professional Acquisitioner that he is, Jonath will remind the group, between gurgles, to quickly search Unreth's body.  Unreth was cowardly and probably greedy.  He likely carried much of his treasure with him to keep the Kobolds from stumbling upon his stash.  

When Eek and Meek gingerly climbed onto Unreth's body/raft and then heard Jonath's suggestion, they begin to quickly rummage around Unreth's body for anything their little claws could snatch.  The shadow dragon tells them to give whatever they find to the group.  If it weren't for the Company of Stalwart Adventurers, Unreth would still be alive and Eek and Meek could have
been snacks.  The Kobold's nod and then continue their search albeit with a little less enthusiasm.

[OOC3: Exxxcellent.  Now there is no doubt that it is dead.  My plan worked to perfection.]
[OOC4: If Unreth had stayed on the ground where Selina could actually reach him, it would have been over far sooner.  Yeah yeah, I know even he's not that stupid.]

Selina makes no effort to stop Eek and Meek from rummaging through the personal effects of the smashed spider™.  When Powwaw-dragon speaks up, she holds a hand up and says "Peace, friend.  There is plenty to go around as soon as we find our way out of here.  Besides, you and these two acquitted themselves quite admirably."

Everyone rides the current on or attached to Unreth leaking corpse (There is something really wrong with this picture).  You reach the threshold of the glowing walk and hit the strange barrier slowly growing out of the water to block the portal.  Upon closer inspection the water is literally stiffening into a wall.  It wasn't ice.  In fact it wasn't any colder than the surrounding water.  Forge and Tomeal give Unreth's body a push from behind.  The corpse slowly slides over what at this point amounted to a speed bump and then slips through the wall of light...

First there was a blinding light and then a flash of icy cold that numbed your flesh.  Suddenly darkness and the stench of rot, shit and piss all combined into one horrid overwhelming smell.  Your eyes adjust, some quicker than others, to the dim light of your new surroundings.  The drip drip of water leaking close by pierces the silence.  

"Woat use doing err," you hear close by.  Blinking to get the ghosts of blinding light from your eyes you see the frog shaped humanoid.  His green hands are pointing at the portal while he's slowly rolling them back and forth in rhythmic motions.

Selina shivers as she passes through the wall, not entirely sure if she actually did or not.  When she can move once again, her nose immediately puckers and she sighs, cupping her hand to her nose.  Wonderful.  A sewer.  Just what we needed.

Betimi smiles at the creature and attempts to  ease it's mind.

"We mean no harm, we seek safe refuge from the caverns we were in collapsing."

[OoC as much a sa pale skinned, pockmarked and diseased looking woman can, no matter how much of a charismatic presence she is.]

[Diplomacy [1d20+4] = 5+4 = 9]

Selina's eyes snap wide open and she shakes her head, turning to Betimi.  "No offense intended, my friend, but may I be of some assistance in this matter?"

"YOIS!  Staway foom meh.  Uses luke plaged," the frogman says almost angrily while taking a few steps back from Betimi.  While watching you all very carefully, the creature squats down near a puddle and scoops up some of the water into the palm of one of his hands then pours it from his hand onto a dry patch of skin on one of his shoulders.  

"Uses speck difent.  Wares uses com froom?"

[OoC: There's a pic of what he basically looks like in the attachments.]

Selina holds her hands out.  She had stored her shield and morningstar to give herself the best chance of maintaining balance.

"Your pardon, sir.  We came from the other side of that wall.  It was a portal to a system of caves we were just in fighting a horrible creature who enslaved these kobolds' tribe and abducted a number of people from our city.  Perhaps you could tell us where we are?"

Diplomacy-Away!: [1d20+5] = 9+5 = 14

[Gilley]

((OOC: *tries to imagine a War-Forged 'mouthing' any words intelligibly and just can't...*))

Gilley pauses just long enough to dig for his dropped longsword, then helps push the giant corpse through the portal without hesitation regarding the lack of knowledge of where it might go. His nose immediately wrinkles on the other side as the stench reaches him. Surely, he has had experience with decay, but that was always in open air. This is just putrid.

He lets the ladies converse with the frog, while he sheathes his longsword.

Knowledge: Dungeoneering [1d20+2] = 19+2 = 21
((Or Nature, or Geography (!?), since the modifiers are the same))
What is it?

[GM Marvel]

Selina holds her hands out.  She had stored her shield and morningstar to give herself the best chance of maintaining balance.

"Your pardon, sir.  We came from the other side of that wall.  It was a portal to a system of caves we were just in fighting a horrible creature who enslaved these kobolds' tribe and abducted a number of people from our city.  Perhaps you could tell us where we are?"

Diplomacy-Away!: [1d20+5] = 9+5 = 14

While the Frogman watches and listens to Selina carefully, it slowly dribbles handfuls of brownish water onto his skin as casually as one might be sipping a cup of tea.  When she too is flubbing up her attempt at some kind of diplomacy, the creature suddenly holds up his other webbed-fingered hand for her to stop speaking.

"Uses meek noyse bu mez noot kno haf wat uses sayes," he says in frustration.  The frogman slouches then sudden points at himself and says, "Mez, Agloval!" Then points to Selina and Betimi, saying,  "Uses?"

[Forge]

OoC - Forge is also a practiced ventriloquist. See, he just takes his three fingered hand and shoves them up...

Forge lent his one hand in the pushing of the spider-corpse-raft along with Tomeal and Gilley. The odors did change, he noticed, but there was no reaction from him other than him watching the others briefly gag. Upon hearing the new voice, he stepped away from the dead shell and raised the torch to get a better look at the person. It looked like a kobold to Forge, so until proven otherwise he would protect the creature. (How big is the frog man?)

[GM Marvel]

OoC - Forge is also a practiced ventriloquist. See, he just takes his three fingered hand and shoves them up...  

(How big is the frog man?)

[OoC: Nice Ventriloquism.  You will have to find out what that means in his culture.     Here's a hint, I hope you're not married!   

The Frogman is around three and a half feet tall.

And I'm not sure if you saw that I posted just before you did.  ]

[Betimi]

The odors, while overpowering, remind Betimi of the sweaty-death-urine-blood smells of the slave pens where she was raised. At least how they smelled when they were full of life and other beings, before the overlords ordered a cleansing.

"I am called Betimi, my friend. My friend here is Selina. My friends like clouds and stars overhead, do you know a way to the surface?"

Then she abruptly remembers something that the creature just said. "Diseased? Oh..."

Abruptly the pock marks and sores vanish, leaving behind her completely smooth alabaster skin, and perfect, though completely alien form, with the large black, pupilless eyes.

She looks askance at Selina.

"If the sign of my bond makes light-dwellers uncomfortable, why did no one mention anything before this?"

Suppress Sign (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, when you make a good pact, you can choose not to exhibit the physical sign that normally accompanies a pact with a vestige. You can suppress or reveal the sign at will as a swift action. With a poor pact, you gain the powers of the vestige, but you cannot suppress its sign. You show it for the duration of the pact and are infl uenced by it as normal.

[GM Marvel]

The odors, while overpowering, remind Betimi of the sweaty-death-urine-blood smells of the slave pens where she was raised. At least how they smelled when they were full of life and other beings, before the overlords ordered a cleansing.

"I am called Betimi, my friend. My friend here is Selina. My friends like clouds and stars overhead, do you know a way to the surface?"

Then she abruptly remembers something that the creature just said. "Diseased? Oh..."

Abruptly the pock marks and sores vanish, leaving behind her completely smooth alabaster skin, and perfect, though completely alien form, with the large black, pupilless eyes.

She looks askance at Selina.

"If the sign of my bond makes light-dwellers uncomfortable, why did no one mention anything before this?"

The frogman repeats both of your names under his breath, to himself and after a few tries he manages to produce a reasonably sounding imitation.  "Beetimi and Seleena"  He then points at himself again, repeating, "Mez, Agloval..." And then with an open webbed hand he motions towards the others in the group, repeating, "Uses?"

Once everyone is introduced, Agloval stands up and with a stooped posture he moves closer to shine a light on Unreth.  Agloval jumps back and points, "Daz Weever?  DAZ WEEVER!?"  He pauses a moment and then suddenly kicks some wet poo at Unreth which splatters across his body with a sickening squish.  When the Spider doesn't move Agloval whispers with surprise and awe, "Uses scrogged a Weever?  Isat a Weever?"  He winces his eyes at Unreth like he's trying to remember something then adds, "Weevers havs nos ooperboddy like hooman.  Sos nots Weever...  Whasit?"