[IC] Chapter 2-5: You're whirling 'round...

[DM Surranó]

As the two warriors courageously move towards what must be the centre of the rings Lugar stops short, motioning Giant to a halt as well.
"There,"
he whispers, pointing to west-northwest. Apparently he can see something with his extreme darkvision that's beyond Giant's range of perception.
Straining her eyes, Shanna from the very back can spot a streak of deep reddish light but it's very weak and in a second it dissolves to nothingness.

"Come on, whoever there is, must know we are coming even if only us surface dwellers are illuminated." she offers and strolls forward to the edge of the range of the party's light source.

(assuming the party proceeds...)

Those moving forward with darkvision can see a figure standing next to a small heap of stones and pebbles, looking intently at the party's direction. It seems that the figure, just about the size and posture of an average human, wears some simple clothing, covered by a cloak, with the cape covering the head and a cloth mask covering the face. The cloak is fastened by some kind of brooch, hard to tell in colour-washed darkvision. A leader belt holds a scabbard on his hips, the thin bladed longsword belonging there is held in the right hand. There's an unusual cold glint around the eyes. Mineral? Metal? Hard to tell.

A moment later, the figure calls forth a strange intonation in a deep, gravelly voice. Those closest can't make heads or tails of the words but the end of the sentence sounds like:
"-- chikara to nare."

The figure raises his bandage-covered left hand towards the ceiling of nothingness, a sparkle of light growing slowly in his palm...

Private to Merri and Shanna--

Although the words don't resemble to any magic known by the wizards both of them recognise the effect: this is a variation of some evocation of light, but whether it's an ordinary Light cantrip or something else is hard to tell. Unfortunately, neither is close enough to tell whether the spell had a somatic or material component.

[Silent Giant]

OOC - Giant lets diplomats to act first

He continues blinking and asks Lugar and the others:
What is he doing? Do you want me to cut him?

If answer is no he readies his longbow.

[Merrinna Starsong]

"Who are you?" Without knowing for sure if he is hostile or not, Merri is unwilling to initiate an attack. She holds her sword out and ready in case he is.

[Silent Giant]

OOC1 - Oh no, Dragon Slave!!!
OOC2 - We assume somebody controls the green dragon. Has he some unusual item? An orb? Or he is the green dragon in human form

[DM Surranó]

OOC1 - Close enough, but no sugar... punk.
OOC2 - Orb? What orb?
OOC3 - not waiting for further posts but you may still act retroactively unless it disrupts the flow of events...

Lacking any opposition the man finishes the incantation with a single but powerful world,
"Hikari."

The tiny bead of light in his palm begins to grow until it reaches the size of a pineapple. The slightly pulsating light emits a placid humming noise and slowly rises to the air, stopping just between Giant and himself, illuminating an are that encompasses the half-orc, the duergar, and the stranger.
OOC - with a 30' radius it's an equivalent of a hooded lantern in brightness and has the flickering pulsation like open flame.

Now the party (even those standing further away in the darkness) can have a better picture of the figure in question. He (well, based on the gravelly voice the stranger must be masculine) wears sand-coloured clothes, plain pants, a robe, and a cloak. The cloak is fastened by brooch inlaid with a lens-shaped red stone (possibly ruby), about three inches diameter and a thick brown lace loop. His thick bluish hair protrudes from under his hood and the little surface that his mask allows to be seen suggests some kind of dry skin-- or is it skin at all?
(OOC - everyone may make an attempt to spot (DC 15 Spot check) and identify (DC15 Knowledge (dungeoneering; engineering; planes) or simply Int check). Dwarves and doodids can try untrained and dwarves add +2 to this check )
Both of his hands are wrapped in some dirty rags one could call bandage, and he holds a slender longsword (maybe even a bastard sword) in his right, pointing towards the floor. It has a menacing looking yellow hilt and a red stone (ruby?) pommel.

EDIT: will try to fix the image later. Until then, feel free to click on the unwelcome photobucket message...

The guy says something again but only one of the many is able to decipher the words. (OOC - Toot? Boo? Whoever wears the helmet now)

"No need to play hide and seek."

Shanna walks forward to the edge of the light, beckoning the others to tag along so that everyone is illuminated.
"Fascinating," she says, "Casting a light spell on nothingness! And his sword emitted a deep red light just a minute ago. I mean the blade not the pommel."
Lugar stashes his pick and draws an undersized crossbow.
"One bad move and you are spiked," he growls.

The stranger narrows his eyes upon the sight of a second ranged weapon but doesn't react anything else.

[Toot]

[OoC: Someone might want to move Torin's mule.  It seems to be trotting away northward with Toot's light enchanted dagger.  If for some odd reason that is what Torin wanted, Toot would have taken back the dagger.]

Toot does not take Shanana's advice to be illuminated by the light.  Instead he creeps over to a large green mushroom and hides behind it so he can peek out (so he has as much cover as possible) and watch what is going on.  At any point that Toot hears a strange language being spoken, he whispers an apology to Boo and switches the Helm of Comprehend Languages to his own head. 

[OoC2:  Toot will make himself appear to be 1' shorter with his hat of disguise which makes him 9".  So he either has a Hide +11 (normal size)or Hide +15 (Diminutive size) plus modifiers for cover.]

Pointing out some specifics about Cover that might help Toot...  

Cover and Hide Checks

You can use cover to make a Hide check. Without cover, you usually need concealment (see below) to make a Hide check.

Cover and Reflex Saves

Cover grants you a +2 bonus on Reflex saves against attacks that originate or burst out from a point on the other side of the cover from you. Note that spread effects can extend around corners and thus negate this cover bonus.

Varying Degrees of Cover

In some cases, cover may provide a greater bonus to AC and Reflex saves. In such situations the normal cover bonuses to AC and Reflex saves can be doubled (to +8 and +4, respectively). A creature with this improved cover effectively gains improved evasion against any attack to which the Reflex save bonus applies. Furthermore, improved cover provides a +10 bonus on Hide checks.

[DM Surranó]

OOC - Yes I realised that the pony had the party's only active light source so implicitly I assume it trotted along with Torin *or* the dagger was handed back to Toot, fastened to Boo. I let you two decide. First to decide takes precedence if you can't agree
OOC2 - Time needed for helm swap, see OOC thread. Let's assume Toot did it while the guy was chanting the spell and he could understand the sentence.

It is hard to read the expression in the cold, glaring eyes with most of the face hidden, but it seems to Toot that the figure concentrates on the front men and as such bear and doodid don't really have difficulty to hide behind the huge mushrooms. Luckily for them, no menacing pincers are visible on the nearby mushrooms.

OOC3 - the things you wrote about hiding-- did Toot dismount in favour of getting a +scwillion bonus to Hide? If not, then use Boo's Hide check Now that you mention improved cover; I think it's proportional to your size but these mushrooms are, like, huuuge and most have massive trunks so you may as well have total cover behind them... (even medium creatures if they are taller than long... and black bears are excellent climbers, means they can stand erect leaning against a trunk... )

[Toot]

[OoC1:  I assumed the mule was with us too but I figured I'd mention it in case someone forgot the mule is still out there.]

[OoC2:  I replied to the Time needed to swap post]

[OoC3: Well since there might be a fight, Toot would likely dismount so Boo could fight freely and Toot can hopefully stay out of weapon strike of the Boo's foe.

The reason why I mentioned cover was because I read somewhere that you can add the same cover bonuses to hide.  So if for example a dragon is underwater and just pokes its eyes out to look around it should get the benefit of added cover bonuses to hide.  

BUT I thought there were rules for 3/4 cover in 3.5e.  Is that only in 3.0e? I can't seem to find them.  If not then in 3.5e cover seems to only give +4 bonus regardless of how much of your body is exposed.  Which doesn't make much sense if all you have exposed is the top of your head.  I will keep looking...]

[Edit: I had to dig out my old 3.0 PHB (which is in amazing condition) but yes they have changed the cover rules during the change between 3.0 to 3.5.  They must have done it to simplify the rules but to me it makes less sense.  See upload.]

[Silent Giant]

Giant's second and third "round": he moves out from the light but within longbow's range and looks around (40ft+ready,40ft+ready)

[Merrinna Starsong]

Merri wants to know what she is dealing with before she does anything.
[1d20+14] = 13+14 = 27