After 350 years of blizzards and crushing ice, there is a slight lull in winter's fury, as if Mulcarn is distracted by something. The Children of Kylorin the last great Archmage take up their swords and seek to bring about The Thaw and save mankind!
Winter has plagued both man and elf for the last three hundred and fifty years with no end in sight. Civilizations have fallen, and hope of summer has long since even been a dream. The Anahel, the elven people once proud and noble have suffered just as any others have since The Burning and then the start of the Eternal Winter of Mulcarn. Broken and sundered into three the Anahel have become no more and now live on as the Sylvanhel, the Nomanhel and the Valanhel. Only the Valanhel still fight the battles against Mulcarn's agents in the open, and their once great cities are ruins covered in ice and snow because of it. The chill has creped into the hearts of the Valanhel even as they struggle against the storms. Violent crimes of elf against elf are more and more common these days, once unheard of, they threaten to grow like an avalanche.
Lehros Frost-Moon, a half breed of the Valanhel, has joined the ranks of those of his kind outcast for such violent acts against the Valanhel. Branded and marked as a criminal of his people, he has wandered the frozen wastes for many months now, hoping to simply survive without the shelter of his elven kin.
Survival, that is the thought that haunts the half-elf now, for in his wanderings he has managed to run across a pack of hunting wolves. Wolves are dangerous enough in these frozen wastes, but Lehros' luck, all bad it seems, has seen to it that these are no normal wolves. The pack of predators are known as Worgs, intelligent wolves used often by the Frostling Tribes as mounts and hunting beasts. Knowing he stands no chance again a healthy pack of Worgs, Lehros Frost-Moon has turned to his trusted new tactic -- fleeing.
Racing through the frozen taiga forest, the Half Elf runs across frozen ground. Green fir trees, covered in a blanket of white stand like grave markers all around the half-elf. It is night, and the sky is covered in clouds, making it exceptionally dark out, but the keen eyes of Lehros allow him to keep moving.
The howl of the Worg Pack rings out in the forest behind him, they are gaining on him, little by little, but eventually they will catch the lone hunter. Up ahead the trees start to fall away, a stream cuts across the icy ground, a rocky rise climbs upwards just beyond it. Maybe just mabye those rocks will hold some hope of safety from the hunting Worg pack!
Welcome Sempai to the Age of Ice game, dive right in! This solo is for him and him only, please don't post here unless directed too.
Last edited by Vardaen on Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
'œLehros you fool!' He mutters just under his breath, he reaches into a pocket as he often does to rub his good luck charm A small piece of silk he keeps close to him. These beasts are tracking him well, he knows better than to travel up wind and this may be the last mistake he makes.
He feels the sweat start to form on his skin, a human trait, this is no good, it will create extra scent for these beasts to find me its dangerous to travel at such speeds for long in the cold, many creatures he has hunted for food, clothing and survival, he now is the one that is hunted for the same.
Lehros runs towards the clearing, pushing himself harder and harder he scans the horizon. If he could find something else to draw the animals off of him, anything'¦ He carries on forward to the clearing, Its not over yet. Keep moving
He pushes on'¦ again he finds his hand dip into his pocket, to touch the silk.
Frost-Moon mutters under his breath worried about his mistake this night in drawing the Worgs attention. He can feel the small piece of silky garment in his fingers, and it drives him forward faster. Breaking out of the tree line into the small clearing just before the stream the Half Elf can hear the Worgs howling behind, only seconds from catching him.
The clearing is little more than a small swash of frozen earth, but on the farside is the crystal stream running rappidly downhill out of the rocks, and across the ground. Hardly a dozen steps across the stream is only a a handspan deep by the looks of it, but icy cold. The rock rise up on the farside of the bank, a spire of stone that looks like a giant's hand sticking up from the earth, its pointer finger directing you to look straight up into the sky. Lehros can't help but look up the spire of rock, for there standing on the top of it is another humanoid figure, cloaked in the darkness, but the half elves keen eyes take in every detail almost instantly, including the ferral looking wolf pearched on the lowest chuck of rock.
Welcome Trogdor to the game! Please post your characters appearance and such!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
Standing on the rock is short figure, barely five feet tall, clothed in white and gray fur. From his stature, most would take him to be an older boy or a very young man, perhaps on a solitary quest to prove his manhood. But Frost-Moon has lived with the elves and can see the signs of their kind in his manner. His bearing is not that of a man, but of an elf. The furs he wears are arctic fox, sewn together into coat, leggings, and hat - smaller and more refined that the furs used by men, in a style favored by elves of old. One hand holds a bone longbow, made very much in the elvish style; the other gestures at the entrance of the clearing.
With the gesture, the wolf leaps forward towards the worgs. At the same time the elf calls out to Frost-Moon in the lyrical syllables of Anhel. "Hurry! We can make a stand here. In the rocks, the worgs will be at a disadvantage."
The stranger's eyes meet with Frost-Moon's. He identifies the white pupils and knows his Anhel heritage. Lehros's height and stature make it obvious that he is not of full blood.
The cold glare of Lehros looks as that of a trapped animal, yet somehow very calm and cunning.
As their eyes meet Lehros pauses '¦ He touches his left cheek with a trembling hand. His right hand reaches into a pocket within his clothes, He is frozen he cannot move he looks as if he has seen a ghost, the cold calculating glare turns to one of fear and horror. The half elf's emotions are easy to read, as if he were a child'¦
The howl of the Worgs shakes Lehros from his trance, The look of fear wanes to a burning glare returning with ferocity. You must make your decision now fool!
Lehros nervously lowers his head, but not his eyes, pulls down his white fur cloak down over his face, and pulls up his human made scarf. His right hand appears from his rough winter garb of mixed and matched furs and pelts and draws his Bone Bow from his shoulder.The pelts do not match, as if they were sloppily stitched together, various animals, various colors, yet somehow make the half elf difficult to see in the snow.
Perhaps the worgs will take him and I can escape.
Lehros jets towards the rocks at what seems impossible speed. The worgs wailing drives him to a new level of speed.
Lehros will attempt to climb up the rocks to his new found "friend"
The two figures spot one another, one and elf, the other half-elf. Both are foes of the Worgs that travel through the woods, but Lehros can not be sure if the new arrival is a friend or foe yet. With his own bow in hand Frost-Moon begins to dart across the clearing, at the same moment that the elf on the rock waves the fiendish looking wolf forward...
This being your first combat I'll walk through a few things how we do it here. First this is now combat round, and initiative, so you only will post when your initiative comes up. Sometimes you can shout replies, etc, but for now lets stick with just acting on your Initiative.
So I will list the init like so, and each time someone acts I will place their names in italics to show they have acted for the round. The next person in line without their name in italics should post next. You'll see initiative as 7.4 and 7.2 that means its a tie at rank 7, but the guy with the +4 bonus is going first.
You will be only posting your actions/attemps for the current round so dont' worry about posting your plan for next round etc.
In 3.5 you get 2 actions, a Move and a Standard. I'll be posting maps, each square is 5ft, so if you have 30 move, you can move 6 squares, unless of course you are climbing, etc, etc. Trogdor is acting first so you will see how we do it. Trog please include all the detail in your spoiler as we like. Thanks.
So the stream costs double move unless you jump it (Jump Check). The rock is split into three teirs marked for their height, 5, 10, 15ft. It costs you 5ft to climb up the height. Anyone in the trees gains Concealment 40% and Cover +4 AC.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
His bow clasped in one hand, the elf waves his free hand in a strange gesture and speaks some words that were ancient when Anhel was new. Immediately a stream of sparkling golden particles forms around his hand and shoots towards a large clump of the worgs where they approach in the forest.
When the spell is completed, he shouts across the water to the half-elf. <Anhel> "That may slow some of them down," he calls out. "The wolf should slow down some more. He won't harm you. Hurry, and we may have a chance!"
Standard Action: Cast Glitterdust to cover W3-W6. (center on the corner between W4 & W5.) Move Action: Can't really think of a move action I need to do.
Also, I forgot last time to write in the brackets showing the language I was using. Generally we do that whenever anything but common is spoken.
sempai:
Now I tend to be one of the more formal people on the site in writing out my actions. Many others are a little more casual. But I always specifically write out my move action and my standard action (or full action, or quick action, etc.) I also try and provide what information I think the GM will need or will make his life easier in processing my move.
And just to help avoid confusion, though we said that you should only post intent and not action, you can use some judgment in that. For example, right now I'm casting a Glitterdust spell. Technically I suppose I ought to only post that I'm casting it and let V-man do the rest. But in this situation there's no one nearby to interfere with the casting, and the effect is pretty simple. So I posted the casting and the obvious effect of the immediate casting on my part (i.e., twinkly golden particles flying towards the worgs). But it's up to V-man to say whether they have any effect on the worgs.
And were I actually in melee, where there I had to cast defensively, or there was a chance of someone readying to interrupt my spell, I'd likely have only posted the casting and left it at that.
Basically you want to consider the first point at which you'll need input form the GM and be careful not to post your action beyond that point.
As the elven mage casts his spell, the wolf below him, a glint of red in its eyes, leaps from the rock down to the grounds and dives into the water, quickly crossing to the other side and dashing across the plain. It comes up short at the trees, and stands waiting for a worg to show it's face, ready to tear into whichever one comes closest.
Move Action: E E E E E E (40 move, since two count double. Wolf has 50 move) Standard Action: Ready attack against the first worg to come in range.
Note that in this post, all the prose for the actions is in the main body of the post, while all of the nuts and bolts, as well as contingencies, comments, etc. are in the OOC portions.
For ease of posting, there are several shortcuts for OOC blocks. All are posted in brackets [ ] to be effective in standard html fashion.
act - /act Comes in under the title "Action" ooc - /ooc Comes in under the title "OOC" spoiler - /spoiler Comes in under the title "Spoiler" Spoiler="Description" - /spoiler Comes in under the title "Description"
Sweat stinging his eyes, Damn this human blood Lehros sees the flash of light, and hears the language of the anhel again, he is mentally stunned again by the sound of the Anhel tongue, he quickly snaps out of it. He has seen magic before, but It has been years.
Keeping the approaching wolf in his peripheral vision, ensuring that it does not change its angle towards him, Lehros decides to trust the strange Elf's words'¦ for now'¦ Maybe he is not after me, or doesn't recognize me. The half elf blasts across the plain, comes to the stream, and vaults into the air at a full run'¦
Move action:Lehros moves west 5 squares and will attempt to Jump the Stream at a full run, I would also like to use my "dumb luck" feat for this roll. If he makes it and it is allowed he will continue west 4 more squares (one of the rocks will cost him 5 ft) using his 50 move speed, Also If it is allowed and he makes the jump: Standard Action: He will fire one arrow at W3 (skirmish bonus apply?) Vardean/Trogdor: feel free to have me adjust/delete this post to get it right, or If i'm supposed to wait. I have the text saved.
Edit: took out rapid shot as it does not apply when moving, Also Trogdor explained movement might be Hindered by jumping, please adjust accordingly
This gets a bit messy, espscially with the Ready Action of the wolf. Also while I post alot of the mods that might be in effect, I don't post all of them. One convention I also use is for the dice roll if you see "20" or "19" that means it was a Natural 20 on the die, and so is a possible Critical Hit.
Saeldur, the Anahel atop the stone shouts out in his native language to the Half Elf in the clearing. With a shout of ancient words and a wave of his hand a burst of golden particles impacts the Worgs among the trees. Four of the six Worgs are coated in the glittering gold dust. Howling, the Worgs paw at their eyes, sparkling and twinkling in the darkness.
Saeldur: Glitterdust Will Save DC 17: #3 13 Fail, #4 11 Fail, #5 6 Fail, #6 12 Fail (All Blinded!)
The Worg cannot see. He takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class, loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), moves at half speed, and takes a -4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) to the blinded character. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.
The fiendish looking wolf them leaps from the rock and crosses the stream in one swift motion. The winter predator charges across the clearing but pulls up short at the edge of the trees.
Wolf: Move/Ready Attack Initiative Changes
Lehros has little choice but to trust the Elf on the rock, and since the wolf doesn't attack him, and the glittering dust targets the Worgs, its a good chance its the right choice. Racing across the clearing Frost-Moon is as fast as the Worgs and the Wolf, surprisingly fast. The hunted bowman charges toward the stream, changes his angle slightly and leaps the water in a single bound. Landing at the base of the rock he scampers up and moves to the far side just before spinning around. An iron tipped arrow on his bow, he fires into the trees, but the many branches and trunks of the tree swallows up the arrow before it reaches the Worgs.
You did a fine post Sempai.
Lehros: Move (Because you can't go into the space with the rock or easily make a 10ft climb, I adjusted your move: SW then West alot.)/Jump: Roll 19 vs DC 10 Success! 1 Dumb Luck Used Today.
Skirmish Shoot #3: Concealment: 11% vs 40% Failure (You want to roll higher than the Concealment number on d100). Worg has Concealment. Miss.
Then the Worgs continue their chase, that is a few of them do. Four of the Worgs skid to a halt, howling and scrapping at their eyes. One of them runs right into a tree stopping its forward progress. The blinded Worg are howling and shouting at one another. There are words among those howls, "<Frostling> Blind! I'm blind! Witchcraft! He has a witch with him!" The shouts among the Worgs continue on for many more moments.
#3 Blind, Full Defense
#4 Blind, Full Defense
#5 Blind, Full Defense
#6 Blind, Full Defense
Two of the Worgs however are not blinded, and they continue to charge forward, turning course just enough to target the Wolf of Saeldur. The first Worg leaps from the treeline, but the Wolf is ready. Snapping with its powerful jaws the animal grabs the beasts throat and pulls it to the ground, crimson staining the white fur and snow of all invloved. The Worg rolls to its feet, and the Wolf snaps out again, but this time missing the nimble enemy. First blood is drawn, and the Worgs are on the loosing end of that. The smell of blood causes howls to echo among all of the lupines.
Worg #2 Move - The Wolf's Ready Action kicks in.
Wolf Ready Action: Att #2: 23 Hit for 7 Dmg. Imp Trip: Wolf 19 vs Worg 7. Successful Trip '€" Worg Prone.
Now back to the Worg's second action.
Worg Stands from Prone: Attack of Opportunity from Wolf: 9 Miss.
The other unblinded Worg also charges through the trees and turns to the enemy Wolf. Perhaps there is a hatred there for the 'traitor' as they see him. Swooping around behind to harry the Wolf, the Worg flanks him, and snaps out low, grabbing the Wolf's leg and ripping him to the ground, blood pouring from the fang wound. Saeldur's Wolf laying prone on the ground, two Worgs standing over him as he bleeds.
#1 Move: Attack Wolf (Flanking +2): 18 Hit for 10 Dmg. Imp Trip: Worg 17 vs Wolf 15 Trip Successful. Wolf Prone.
The mysterious elf stands tall and calls out some words in the harsh language that Frostling creatures use.
"Yes, he has a witch. And you fight me at your peril. Flee now and we shall let you live."
sempai: This is just to show another way we sometimes handle other languages. If it's a long comment or one that ought to be kept hidden, we'll occasionally put it in it's own spoiler with the language as the title. That way only those who know the language can read it.
Then, raising his bow and taking aim, the elf sends an arrow flying towards the injured worg.
