OOC: Thanks.


Heads up guys - I'm going home for the weekend, so I won't be able to post much. At least this will give everyone a chance to catch up and decide their next course of action...

I hope you're all enjoying this, but I'm having fun.

Jo'Shari yelled as the scamp set the rat ablaze. Jo'Shari yelled, "Stupid scamp! I was helping you, you damn overgrown, flame-throwing rat!" Jo'Shari swung the rat like a flail at the head of the scamp, letting go as soon as he swung. Jo'Shari then backed away, charging lightning if the scamp were to retaliate.

OOC: Rat flailed a scamp. Awesome...

Perenne looked upset that she had gotten a lecture from a man that had later gone on to grab a rat that had been set on fire, but she said nothing to the man. How can you run out of magicka? If worst went to worst, all you have to do is stop for five minutes and take a breather so that you can get your energy back up, they weren't about to go running through the cavern in underneath an hour! She knew what she was doing, she had been an adventurer for some time now. The thought that he would try and tell her better made her seethe inside.

She folded her arms poutingly over her chest, beginning to turn to start going deeper into the cavern, eager to push onward, when Karst set her hand on her shoulder, giving her a soft chiding for running off like that. Unlike the man before her, Karst actually had a point in her words, and Perenne tilted her head down, scratching her arms idly, which were still crawling. "I know. But I didn't run that far ahead, you could still see me... Besides, there were nothing but rats here, the true dangers must be deeper in the cave. Provided the skeletons aren't from bandits occupying this place or something." She excused quietly, turning her gaze to the last remaining rat, which was the one pinned against the wall.

"That's just cruel... Kill the thing, already..." She said, ignoring the other as he decided to get in a fight with a friendly, summoned scamp. Though the scene DID make her feel a bit better. Obviously, he was a bit on the slow side when it came to combat and alliance judging, so his words earlier were much harder to actually take seriously. "We need to get deeper into the cave anyway."

"Believe me lady , I would like to!" Festus spat before diverting his attention to the rat who was still tussling and trying to break free .

It wasn't long before the rat saw the helplessness of its situation , and stopped lunging for Festus' neck . It now simply wanted to get away so it could lick its wounds and heal . Festus saw the pain in its eyes , and for a moment, his normal cynicism was replaced with that of a touched soul . "Aww....Jeeze" He mumbled before prying the sword out of the rat .

There was a sharp squeal from the creature and it fell to the ground on its back . It managed to right itself however and limped off into the surrounding darkness to nurse its injuries .

"I hope these sort of encounters are consistant throughout this whole damn cave" The grey-haired nihilist excalimed . "I can only be sympathetic in short burst's , yknow"

The statement came off as a weak joke...although Festus had intended it to sound rough and grizzled .

"Whats next?"

The still flaming rat hit the already annoyed scamp, simply enraging it further. It formed another fireball in it's hand, but Alister quickly moved over to it to stop the fight he knew would occur. "Bad scamp! Bad! You know you shouldn't be attacking allies, even if they are a bit foolish. Here, let me heal your wound and then you can go back to Oblivion," Alister said, taking the scamp's injured hand. He concentrated on it for a few moments and a faint blue glow began to emenate from his hand. He maintained this glow for a few seconds before letting it fade.

He inspected his work. There was a small, almost unnoticeable scar, but Alister was confident that the pain was entirely gone. He smiled at the scamp, and he was certain that it smiled back at him before fading back into dust. He knew that wounds didn't truly bother Daedra, as they would simply be reborn, but still, it was as act of kindness that Alister felt was necessary. After all, the scamp had put itself in danger for him, so it was only fair that he repay the favor.

He rose with an almost weary look in his eyes, but he still had a wide smile. "Perhaps it would be best if you don't attack your allies. It's really no way to make friends you know. Besides, you can't blame the scamp, you're the one who grabbed the rat in the first place, WHILE it was on fire. Just remember, I'm the healer here, and there's a general rule that you never make enemies with the healer," Alister said in a joking tone to the obviously angry Khajit.

Dedaves watched the battle with disintrest as he had noticed some dried blood on the tip of his arrow. Usually he would have new arrows but recently work had been scarse and money tight so he was not beyond scavenging arrows from the dead and cutting them out of his foes. With some spit and a peice of cloth it came off nicely and the arrow shone.
"Any more" he tried to yell above the crowd, as he replaced his bow on his back and grabbed his spear gave it a quick spin and put it in the crook of his arm ready to fight.

Kurrian watched the weaker conjurer heal his scamp before sending the beast off to Oblivion once again, and frowned. While it had been unnecessary, the act of kindness would gain him some minor reputation with the Daedra, likely making a future summoning marginally easier to accomplish. It was something Kurrian could never do, however, so he could never reap the benefits of that act; that's what annoyed him. He couldn't even heal his own minions.

Stepping into the chamber proper now, Kurrian looked around worriedly, before walking up to the rest of the group. "Should I summon a Daedra to lead along with Perenne, then? And has anyone actually seen an exit to this massive room?"

"Jo'Shari will look for an exit because Jo'Shari is sympathetic with those whose eyes are inferior to Khajiit." Jo'Shari grinned and began looking around for any tunnel, trapdoor, or door he could find. While he was at it, he kept looking above and around himself. The others looked startled after seeing the dead bodies, and Jo'Shari did not want to end up like them. It might impair his judgment when he needed it most.

OOC: Anyone else notice the Fallout Fan Fiction board that just opened? Judging from the quality of the early RPs there, they need someone like Illusionary Nothing to show them how the hell to RP. By the way, anyone interested in Fallout? I love Fallout.

OOC yeah I noticed - have a look at mine for Triffids
yeah i know plugging...

IC
Reem looked at the Khajjit, Cocky idiot, he has been making a fool of himself and he still manages to act like he's more competant

"Well I guess those of us that don't have night sight will have to use natural light, the ball of light I sent off went quite a way in before it hit something, I'm going to go have a look over there, an one who wants to come, stay behind me, this time we're gonna try to do things carefully"

Reem set off, moving slowly and jabbing the ground infront of him with a javelin, it was habitual, he'd always worked as the trap sweeper of a party, going ahead to make sure the real fighters survived long enough to be of use. He gripped the javelin, better to lose one of these than a foot...

ooc: Treid hostingan rp there, i had people quit to stick it to the man WTF!!! if some one normal wants to join???

edit: IC coming soon.

IC:
Dedaves walked forward to where the Reem fellow was poking the ground with a javelin.
"Not to be rude sir, however has this occurred to you" he proceeded to pick up a handful of rocks from the ground and threw them along the ground waiting to see if they would land on a false floor or hit a trip wire, or in some horrible way cause bad things to happen. He then joined the javelin weilding man in poking the ground with his spear, better safe than sorry.

So the rat that is starving to death and just got stabinnated wants to simply walk away? Okaaaay... That's going to come back to haunt you, you know.

Seriously. I will find a way to make it come back to haunt you.


Okay, let me clarify something.

You guys control your characters. You say what they do, decide their actions, et cetera. However, I decide if their actions succeed. If you shoot an arrow, I decide if it misses or hits, and how much effect it has. If you drink a potion, I decide if it fixes that broken rib, or makes you throw up because it was spoiled.

Also, NPCs = me

You guys control:
Your characters

And nothing else.

I control:
Monsters
NPCs
Summoned Creatures

The only person who can control their summoned things is FC4, and only because its ALL he can do, ergo he's got to be good at it.

I'm not getting mad or anything, and if you find flaws in this, by all means, voice your opinion. I just want you guys to understand exactly how this works...

Any questions?


----


The rats are all either dead or gone. Now the group is simply standing in the darkness, with a damp tunnel stretching on for what seems like forever into the darkness.

Nothing explodes or anything after the rocks are thrown and javelins are poked. This part of the Cave seems to be all clear...

OOC : Im really keen to get in some fallout RP.....I even made my own . But it's showing lack of interest . I think when the game comes out it will become more popular . Oh and okay Lycan I just figure if a rat was in blindingly excrutiating pain and saw itself at mercy , it would be intelligent enough to weigh up its chances and would rather starve a little more then lose its life .

But clearly they were the more "ravenous brain-rotted monster" types , which is my mistake . I look forward to seeing his decision comes back to bite Festus in the ass though

IC :

"Trap searching with a Javelin eh...thats certainly innovative" Festus thought in his head , imagining the man becoming hopelessly impaled on some mishapen construct . He smiled diabolically and straightened his cravat , also enjoying a long steady puff of his pipe .

"I have a better idea" He exclaimed to the man up front .

"We get daedra boy here to conjure up something expendable , and get it to walk in front . Less risk , and twice as funny" He chuckled , pointing to Kurrian . "Heck , the place seems pretty empty anyway"

Alister watched the adventurer in the front using the javalin to look for traps. He quickly fell in behind him just in time to hear the comment about Daedra. "That's a horrible idea! Daedra are living things too. They feel pain. No living thing is expendable. What kind of person thinks that watching an innocent creature get killed is funny? I think that's barbaric. The cave seems to be clear, lets just move on," Alister said, appaled at the man's words.

He simply hated it when people take life for granted, whether it be their own, another's or the life of an animal or Daedra. In his view, all life was equal, from a cave rat to a human, and he couldn't fathom how anyone could think that watching death was funny. On the outside though, he was simply frowning at the man, not letting any of his anger surface. He had learned to control such emotions long ago, only letting what he thought of as "good" emotions show.

Reem smiled and turned to Dedaves, making sure he stayed behind the line he'd cleared, " It hadn't, the javelin works well though, I can put enough weight on it to set off most pressure traps and, though the rocks will get some stuff, I find my way to be a good precaution anyway"

"We get daedra boy here to conjure up something expendable , and get it to walk in front . Less risk , and twice as funny" He chuckled , pointing to Kurrian . "Heck , the place seems pretty empty anyway"

Reem scowled at the cruelty, "Pretty nasty that, I for one don't want to get covered in blood and guts every time a trap gets set off."

"I'll go first" Dedave offered, he was light on his feet and could poke a head with his spear. He took the point and started tapping his way through the cavern like a blind man with a cane, "Walk where I do" he called back to others and continued across the cave, he jumped every time the stick hit the ground afraid something would trigger. He muttered prayers to every tribunal saint he could remember as he walked ready at anytime to jump for his life.

OOC: Thanks, but I am not opposed to having you control them at times either. I just want control of whether or not his summoning spells succeed. If you ever want to annihilate my summons, do so within reason.

IC: Kurrian rose one eyebrow at the healer who proclaimed humanity towards the Daedra they summon, and flicked his wrist, cracking it. "Last I checked, Daedra failed to perceive mortals in a similar manner. They don't give a rat's ass if we are in pain, unless they are under our control at the time. And they don't bleed, you stupid git. Their wounds will appear to bleed, but when they are destroyed the body, blood and all, returns to the original materials that fabricated it. They turn to dust and disappear back into the void."

As he was speaking, a golden light had brightened around his hand, and he flicked his wrist again, cracking it once more as he gathered his magicka and reigned in the soul he sought. Kneeling, the Conjurer placed the flat of his palm on the ground, and then lifted it. As he did so, the ground rose, always remaining beneath his palm, until he brought his hand to eye level and slapped it on the top of the stone column.

The stone cracked and shattered, and from the rumble a figure emerged, stepping forward. The figure was female, and sported skin as golden as Kurrian's, but she was clad in armor and held a shield before her. The Golden Saint drew her sword and looked over her shoulder to Kurrian. The entire summon had taken less than half a minute. "You'll be able to resist magical and physical traps better than some scamp, and you give off light. Accompany Perenne." Kurrian instructed, and the Saint nodded, before her radiant form moved towards the mage she was meant to escort, and stopped, before heading forward past the girl.

Festus scowled . His suggestion hadn't gone down too well with the group , but Kurrian seemed to of taken heed to his words . He was captivated by both the beauty of the saint as it smoothly moved to the front of the group , and the amazing skill Kurrian showed as he summoned it .

"Thats truly is amazing" He humbly said , his pipe loosly hanging out of his mouth as his jaw sat slightly dropped . "Now , Im just a simple sword for hire...but I would give all the rat jerky in the world to be able to do that..."

His mind quickly snapped back and he found himself walking halfway between the front and the middle of the group . His sword firmly sheathed , but his hand on the hilt 'lest anything bad happen . His pipe billowed smoke that wafted behind him , through the group .

The tobacco smelt without doubt sickly sweet , but it was an aquired taste , and it wasn't cheap either . High-rock import of the highest calibre .

OOC: Actually, though rats are learning, and cunning animals, I doubt they can understand mercy at all. It's an entirely foreign concept to something that bases it's life around surviving, eating, and mating. If it were starving, it would let go of it's inhibitions, and attack anything that might be a meal. After being crippled, it wouldn't just give up and saunter off.

IC: Mick started saying that he should go first, after one of the others started poking down the hallway with a javelin, but was interrupted by another throwing rocks down the hall. He started again, but then shrugged, and let them move ahead. If they weren't gonna bother to use the skills the brought him on for, it was their loss.

It was also pretty fun to watch everybody else try to one up each other, though. They were probably all just insecure about themselves, so they had to prove their 'superiority' to them and everyone around them every few minutes. Mick was just fine with that - he was good at what he could do, and he'd do it once they got themselves smeared on the wall trying to show how good they are.

Until then... "So... anyone read any good books lately?"

Dedave laughed and said to the javelin weilding man proping the ground with him, "See the advanatge of going first is we see the treasure first" he said as he did a spontanious carwheel and landed gracefully, as he landed he realized what he might of done and braced himself for a spontaneous death by falling rocks or random darts. His go lucky attitude had a tendacy to get him in trouble however it was also what set him appart from others. "Are you coming" he shouted to the group".

Perenne had already been walking up in front of the group, her gaze locked on the stone between her feet, and her face scrunched up in thought. It was odd, that despite her connection with this group, and their innate desire to actually go hunting this treasure together, she still didn't really know anything about them. It wasn't like they were a group of friends traveling together, but more like people that had just been smashed together dashing off to try and make themselves rich. It was actually sad once she got to thinking about it, just how little she knew. Even if the Khajiit woman was really the only one that seemed to be worth knowing at the moment, and possibly that other Breton. Everyone else seemed either arrogant, cowardly, or just generally unapproachable.

She was startled out of her thoughts when she heard her name being uttered from the cowardly Altmer's lips, looking around confusedly. "What? Accompany me? What?" She asked, turning to try and look back. She hadn't even noticed the golden wash of light gradually revealing the stone beneath her feet, she had been so deep in thought. When she turned, however, she certainly noticed the light that was emanating from the creature that the Altmer had summoned, letting out a small squeal of surprise. She hadn't expected a glowing, brilliantly armored and armed woman standing behind her, much less to actually be accompanied by it. So, she instinctively took a step back, away from the Golden Saint, fear quickly rising in her heart from the sight of the unfamiliar creature.

When she realized that it was a summon, however, fear bled into relief. Waving a hand side to side as though she were dismissing it, she shook her head slowly from side to side. "I would think that I would be more than capable of handling traps by myself. So, I don't really need a Saint coming running up here. Or..." She said, turning her gaze to the fools that had run ahead of her, trying to prove themselves worthy scouts. "... People trying to take my place in the MARCHING ORDER, which no one here seems to remember." She said chastisingly, raising one eyebrow at them. Seriously, they were all a bunch of amateurs... "And, in case you didn't notice, the cavern exit is right there. Stop plodding around searching for traps that aren't existant, why would someone lay traps in a cavern randomly, if the people that came before were apparently killed by combat, not traps?"

Shaking her head, she was the first to actually exit the main hall of the caverns, pushing herself ahead of the group once more, as she was supposed to be. It was dark, of course, so the first thing that Perenne did was raise her hand, ignoring the rather weak golden glow of the Saint, and cast another Light spell, to cast a sphere of light around her, and the path ahead. Cave, cave, cave... She certainly hoped that all the rumors weren't simply hot air.

OOC : Alright , Animal genius . Even if it fails to understand the concept mercy , rats understand the concept of pain . If a rat is attacking someone and that someone manages to inflict serious harm to the rat , then its brain will register that what it is doing ( attacking the person ) is , as a consuquence , causing it pain ( as the human is defending itself ) , and would cease attacking if the pain being caused was immense enough .

IC :

The heat of the battle with the rat's had completely diminished , and the slow march deeper into the gut of the cave was once more underway . The once panic-stricken Festus now found himself at ease , and , rather bored .

"So... anyone read any good books lately?"

The lusty argonian maid popped into the adventurer's mind . He had paid an arm and a leg for the uncensored version , but it was worth every septim . He decided not to chip into the conversation however as his reading tastes were "questionable" to most .

Suddenly a thought occured . The cave was without doubt proving to be very large , and no one was recording it . Festus opened up his belt-pockets and produced a quill and parchment . He unscrewed the lid on his pot of ink and let it sit in one of the pouches , and began scribbling down the caverns layout .

He also looked up at Perenne . Fancy lady , he smirked in his mind . A bit psycho , but fancy . He chuckled to himself in a childish and somewhat perverse way , quickly scribbling a little picture of her in the upper corner of the paper . He liked to think himself a womaniser .

ooc: I'm.. admittedly a little uneasy with someone else controlling whether Karst can heal herself or not, but.. *shrugs*

Relatedly, is it okay if I RP my own Sanity Effects, Lycan? I mean, obviously in relation to her level of sanity, but.. I'd have more fun inflicting lunacy on my own.

And I can do all sorts of crazy. Just ask FC. I'm looking forward to hallucinations, personally. ^_^

ic: When Kurrian summoned the Saint, Karst could only stare in awe as the female Daedra rose from the earth. She wanted to approach her, touch her, talk to her, but.. she knew that was not her purpose, sadly. She'd always wanted to be good at Conjuration as she'd had a love-affair with Daedric studies and creatures from a very young age, but every attempt she'd made ended in failure. Then again, she'd probably bore the things to death if she could summon them anyway. Karst'd be more likely to use them as interview fodder or someone to play chess with her than send them into battle. Looking up, she saw the others running off and shook her head. I do not look forward to wading through their guts when they step on a trap and get splattered..

With a languid, semi-depressed sigh, the small feline returned her attention the the speaking of the others just in time to hear a rather random inquiry about books they might've read lately, and she voiced what Festus had suppressed.

"I've always been a fan of The Lusty Argonian Maid." she admitted in an attempt to annoy the person who'd asked, then smiled and chuckled, "But in all seriousness, I've been writing and drawing more than reading lately. I'm doing a book on my experiences in Mehrunes' Deadlands during the Crisis, both writing and illustrating." Karst went on, a hint of pride in her voice. On her way to move on with the rest of the group, she set a leather-palmed hand on Kurrian's robes and looked up at him. "And if you could ever teach me how to summon Daedra, I might rethink hating you." she added teasingly, then trotted off behind the others.

"Oh [censored] watchit!"

Dedaves had jumped out infront. When nothing seemed to happen Reem laughed nervously,

"Nice cartwheel but try a somersault next time, its more impressive"

It was a bad joke but it relieved some of Reem's tension. He resheathed his javelin as Perenne stepped out infront, closely followed by a daedra, these mages didn't have much respect for mundane methods it seemed. He sighed, really dreading now any traps they did find. Death wasn't that bad and this was probably sensible but, Reem really didn't relish the idea of an allied creature being gruesomely slain every time they came across a trap. He dropped back muttering as he did,

"oh! of course, how could we forget the marching order"

OOC: Aulak, if you're just healing a broken rib or something, thats find. But if you're leg is dangling by a muscle, I'll have to give the okay for you to be able to fix it.

Also, in regards to Sanity Effects, I can tell you what sort effects they will be, but after that, you get to RP them. Webster did pretty good with the creepy-crawly feeling after seeing the bugs. So yes, if I say "You hallucinate," and I don't give you anything specific, you can RP what you see.

Now then, lets get down to the plot!

----

The team of adventurers begins their journey deeper into the Cave. Perenne and the Golden Saint lead the way, illuminating the path in front of them. Everyone else follows behind in a jumbled order. This section of the Cave continues on for quite some time. However, after several hundred feet of going straight, the cave suddenly bends in a 180 degree downward turn. The sloped path is about feet 50 feet... and there is a wooden wall with a scratch-covered door at the base of it.


(Basically, the cave suddenly goes down after awhile, and there's a wooden wall built at the bottom of the slope. There's a wooden door in the center of the wall, and it is covered in scratches and gouge-marks.)

The Golden Saint had not responded to the sorceress' ramblings, and instead continued forward. She was relieved, however, to see the woman provide her with more light. Her radiance only went so far.

Kurrian remained well in the back, and in the dim light jumped when Karst touched his robe, but relaxed slightly when he saw it was her. "Well, um... right here is hardly a place for it... and I've never been a very good teacher, honestly." He hesitantly told her, before stopping and frowning. He could feel the Saint's cautiousness as she had begun the decent down the sloped path. Someone inquired as to the book-reading of the group.

"Well... I was reading the notes of Master Zenas on the transfer of material and spiritual through the Liminal Barrier. Rather thorough, and helpful to me anyways." He remarked sheepishly, knowing his choice of book was about as unusual as his skin color in this group.

He felt the anxiousness of the Golden Saint as it approached the gouged door, and tensed as well as the group came closer. Mentally he ordered her to check for and neutralize any traps, so the Golden Saint stepped forward, and placed her hand upon the door, magicka flowing out of her in an intricate Dispel, which would likely eliminate anything magical upon the door that a mortal could have placed.