--Update: the assault on the crimson pagoda: in which everyone rolls terribly well, random.org loves you. Special thanks to Radio Controlled for the magical statuette--
At the crimson pagodaReflect on information.
"Right, you people check if the front doors are unlocked. I shall try the less obvious route!"
See if I can't actually do the silly acrobatics ascent described previously, if in an oblique fashion!
You reflect briefly on this information. Clearly, there is no conventional way of going up on the outside of the pagoda. Clearly, however, you are no conventional dwarf. You [3+1] get one of the watchmen to give you a boost and grab hold of the edge of the first roof. You flip up and land with your arms outstreched. [5+1] You then proceed to run along the edge, jumping up and grabbing a beam of the roof above you, making a half circle and landing on the second floor roof. You do the same thing there and land on the third floor roof. [5+1] You look above you to see a rather large hole, someone should probably patch that at some point. You jump upwards and pull yourself through. you then repeat your running manoevre from before and land on the 5th floor roof. You can feel the adrenaline coursing through you, and make ready for the final ascension. [4+1] You run along the outer edge of the roof and grab one of the beams, then the one after that, building momentum. You swing into the air, do a little roll and land perfectly on the top roof.
You creep towards the center of the roof. A tile is missing, allowing you to peer into the room below. You can see a man in blood red armour pacing nervously around the room.
"Fine. I'll try something else. You might want to back up."
Try to turn myself into lightning and fly to the top of the pagoda knocking out any guards by the window before turning back.
The watchmen all take a ware step back as you look upwards and concetrate. [6+1->3] With a clap and lots of sparks, you feel your body shifting. Two watchmen are zapped into unconsciousness as you transform into a pure bolt of lightning and go soaring into the sky. You do not have any control over your actions, nature merely taking its course. You watch in slow motion as the world goes by, when you feel your course changing. You are being pulled to the right, away from the top of the tower. You hit a metal pipe jutting out of the pagoda's fourth floor in the back and feel yourself coursing through the metalwork. As you come out on the other side you feel your body changing back into it's original shape and you go sliding over the floor, thudding against the wall opposite.
As you're still sitting on the ground a bit dazed, you hear a soft jingling. Looking behind you, you see a robed figure sitting by the metal stove, a staff adorned with many little bells in his hands. He stands up, and you can see his skin is green with the occasional red patches.
"Ah, it would seem an outsider has entered my room. Through the stove, no less! An assassin? Or a very bad spy? No matter, I shall deal with you swiftly."He says as he stands up, using the staff for support.
Keep a look out for guards.
((You know, just put me on auto-pilot-assist for a little while until we get to battle.))
You stand there, with your hands in your pockets as you watch Nosegay flipping and jumping up along the roofs. Moments later, Angus transforms into a bolt of lightning, zapping the two nearest watchmen. You sigh. Being a shapeshifting samurai kitsune with about a dozen watchmen as backup is so boring, there's just nothing to do but stand guard.
In a dark cell Drop the dwarf, and ask him how I can fix the golem
You drop the dwarf to the floor. He lands with a thud and immediatly scuttles towards the wall.
"The runeslate, there's a slit at the back of his head"Along the road to adventure"Why indeed." Natasha turns to paddy briefly, whispering, "Watch my back, these magic folk are tricky."
She approaches, browsing. "I'd like to know about the white fluid, black spheres and the statute please."
Paddy nods and you approach the merchant, asking about some of his wares.
"Aha, interesting items those. The potion is magical in nature, crafted by a bunch of alchemists from the green tower. I...have rather forgotten what it does, exactly, but rest assured that it will be rather wonderful.
The black spheres are the making of a brilliant red mage. When thrown hard enough, the fire magics inside will be unleashed with terrible force, destroying the sphere in the process. The ensuing blast is enough to take down some walls, even! They're the last of their kind, unfortunately. The man was trying to mass produce them, but he tripped and fell down the stairs holding an entire crate of the things.
And the statuette, ah, it is every budding artists dream item. Observe." He turns over the statue. It turns out that the yellowing isn't from age at all, but rather applied deliberately. It depicts a woman. You can't quite put your finger on why, but you feel confident that this is the ugliest statuette that you've ever seen.
"Subtle, isn't it? The magics inside of this statue make anyone think of it as the ugliest thing they ever saw. Put it next to any other work of art and it will look like a masterpiece in comparison." The man points to the shriviled claw on the carpet and smiles.
"I don't suppose I could interest you in this here wishing paw? It has still got three wishes left in it! I'll give you a 95% discount, even!" In an elven city, at the slave marketMoskar bit back his anger, forcing a developing scowl from his face and giving a small nod to the slavekeeper.
It was entirely reasonable after all, he could hardly argue. He had just hoped for Elven magic-lust to skew the deal in his favour. After a moment's consideration, glancing between the two slaves with no real idea which would be more knowledgable, he reaches a clawed, scaly hand into his coinpurse.
Pulling forth one copper piece, he explains in elvish with a shrug, "<I simply cannot decide.>"
Then, silently, he thinks: 'I am not about to give the elf both stones for his used goods. Heads, the orc; tails, the human?'
The old coin toss was a handy method for both decision making and gambling, a favourite pastime of soldiers, one he'd picked up over the years and found quite useful from time to time. It would serve now; let the gods decide which of these two slaves would benefit him more.
Unless Mister Voice objects, flip a coin to decide which slave to take! Heads, orc; tails, human.
Then proceed as described before: find a cheap inn or lodging house, preferably on the edge of the city.
Watch for anyone who may be following us.
Finding it very hard to decide which girl to pick, you decide to use the age old tradition of flipping a coin. You grab one of your imperial coins and flip it through the air, catching it with your metal hand. AS the coin goes plink, you see that it landed crest of solaris side up. ((This would be heads, I'd post the image from random.org but my internet is being extremely spotty at the moment.))
You tell him that you'll take the half-orc girl. The man bows and heads back behind the stage, taking the human girl with him. He returns shortly, handing you the sort of padlock thing you saw earlier. He directs you on how to attach it and you can see a faint flash of enchantments as it locks in place on her collar. The man takes you runestone, tells you her name is Lea and then bids you farewell.
You then take Lea and go to find some cheap housing. You arrive at a sort of hotel at the edge of the town. Youre fairly sure that nobody has seen you. To your surprise, the manager speaks common, albeit a bit broken. He says that he accepts imperial coin and will put you up for the day for a mere 25 coins.