[Game Thread] The Human Conflict

[cyranojoe]

Rinny shrugs. "Sure. I don't need to be invisible ta do that!" He takes off, skipping up the road to the doorway. For a moment, hand raised to knock on the door, the young halfling considers peeking in the windows to see who's at home. He glances over, then shrugs. He'll find out soon enough.

Knock, knock. Knock, knock.

Rinny scrambles to hide behind whatever's available.

[The Yellow Bin]

Originally Posted by cyranojoe

Rinny shrugs. "Sure. I don't need to be invisible ta do that!" He takes off, skipping up the road to the doorway. For a moment, hand raised to knock on the door, the young halfling considers peeking in the windows to see who's at home. He glances over, then shrugs. He'll find out soon enough.

Knock, knock. Knock, knock.

Rinny scrambles to hide behind whatever's available.

The echo went through the house and no one answered. After a little bit, Rinny can see that Vicki is waving her hand and bidding him to go on.

[cyranojoe]

Rinny takes a peek up at the windows. Firelight? Candlelight?

If there's no other sign of someone inside, he slips out the tools Vicki gave him, places the lock-oriented items one by one on the stoop of the house, and carefully picks three to begin using. He remembers that's what Big Al's guy had done -- three sticks, two for fiddling around with, a third one for, like, holding something in place.

OOC Oops, I just realized I hadn't given Rinny any training in Open Lock. I could take a point out of Balance or Sleight of Hand... or does this count as "training"?

[The Yellow Bin]

OOC Before he levels to second level, go ahead and change his skill points all you want. That's why the immersion play, I tend to allow all of the changes until the character levels to second level and beyond. This gives the players more control of their character and thus, like their characters more as the story progresses.

[cyranojoe]

"Ahhh... jeeze!" It had looked a lot easier than it was. Too many things to hold onto! Two of the little metal prods fall as Rinny fumbles around with the lock. They make a loud ting! noise as he crouches to grab them, and he freezes. Did anybody hear?

[The Yellow Bin]

Originally Posted by cyranojoe

"Ahhh... jeeze!" It had looked a lot easier than it was. Too many things to hold onto! Two of the little metal prods fall as Rinny fumbles around with the lock. They make a loud ting! noise as he crouches to grab them, and he freezes. Did anybody hear?

Actually, someone did. Soon, the door opens and a dwarf looked out, and saw no one outside. He scratches his head: Now, that is strange. Someone did knock on the door, and when I looked out from the window, no one was there. Now this ting noise, what is that??

He takes a few steps out of the door, passing Rinny to his left and looks around. By Saya, am I going crazy?? His back now turned towards Rinny and looking out beyond the hills.

[cyranojoe]

Rinny scrambles to snatch up the tools he'd left on the stair, and, almost falling over himself, he tip-toes quickly inside. He scrapes his heels a little more than he should, he knows, but maybe the dwarf is a little deaf??

Hey. Waitasec. What was he supposed to do if he got inside...?

Rinny turns around to look out the door, trying to spot Vicki...

[The Yellow Bin]

Originally Posted by cyranojoe

Rinny scrambles to snatch up the tools he'd left on the stair, and, almost falling over himself, he tip-toes quickly inside. He scrapes his heels a little more than he should, he knows, but maybe the dwarf is a little deaf??

Hey. Waitasec. What was he supposed to do if he got inside...?

Rinny turns around to look out the door, trying to spot Vicki...

The dwarf did turn back, but he scratches his head since he sees no one. Man, I am hearing things. I really need a long nap. This trip is just too draining.

He starts to head back to the cottage, and Rinny is about to panic as he closes the door behind him. Just then, a familiar hold encloses his own hand, it is Vicky. She holds his hand tight, signalling not to move or make a sound.

The dwarf closes the door, scratches his head once more and starts to head towards his bedroom, which is the only other room in this little cottage. He goes into the room, and no sooner he closes the door, snoring begins.

Vicki comes near Rinny and asks: Are you alright, Rinny? She speaks very softly, trying not to wake the sleeping dwarf.

[cyranojoe]

Rinny whispers back: "I got the door open!"

[The Yellow Bin]

Originally Posted by cyranojoe

Rinny whispers back: "I got the door open!"

Yeah, you did. The invisible female halfling replied back. Her voice hushed, but audible for Rinny to understand, though her hand still on his makes the experience less daunting for the rookie rogue.

The home, though modest, is home to many different kinds of tools. But the main kind of tools in this home is hammers. There are pieces of scrap metal here and there, making the whole house very cluttered and dusty. The fire didn't help either. From the outside, it looks like a regular chimney from a fireplace, but from the inside, the fireplace is actually reinforced with stone, not just wood. There is very little fire going on right now inside of the masonry, inklings of coal and charred wood can be seen, not much more. Rinny begins to understand why Vicki said that the fire is always on, and that even if the fire is on, there may be no one inside of the home.

On one side of the house, there are wooden dummies propped up, in different sizes. There is one size for the likes of Rinny and Vicki, a couple for a dwarf, and several sizes bigger than that. It's not difficult to figure out, perhaps if you're not Rinny, that this is an armorsmith's home.

Just as Rinny was taking all this in, a tug at his hand came from Vicki. Come on. This way.

She makes her way towards the corner of the home, and at first Rinny had not noticed anything, but then as he got closer, he saw that the wall had been jarred loose. It didn't look like a wall, instead, it looked like a wall coming out of a wall. Slowly, Vicki opened the door and inside, it revealed a massive collection of armor and other things... But to get there, they had to get by a locked gate...

[cyranojoe]

Rinny regards the mute effigies in silence. He considers the fire, the tools, the scraps, and then the dummies again, before Vicki yanks on his arm.

"Hey!" he hisses, then quiets down again, looking back at the faceless puppets. "D'ya think... d'ya think he's a wizard?" he whispers. The dummies loom. 'Bet 'e casts spells on 'em, an' makes 'em move around n' stuff...' He catches his breath. 'What if...'

Rinny whirls to face Vicki, but of course he can't see her. 'What if she's a puppet monster, too?!'

But his freezing paranoia thaws as the bizarre not-a-wall makes itself known, and Vicki pulls the "door" open. Curiosity takes the place of fear. Rinny reaches out and touches the gate. He sees the lock, and things click into place. A LOT of things click into place, in fact.

Rinny doesn't even whisper, "Hey, you want me to unlock this?" No, he actually knows. He likes it when he knows.

Something has changed in him: looking at the old lock attached to the gate, Rinny feels like he understands exactly what to do. With a twirl, he draws his tools again and swiftly decouples the lock from the gate.

"Easy peasy, for Rinny the Magnificent!" Rinny whispers, though not so quietly as perhaps he should have...

[The Yellow Bin]

Vicki's face has a look of amazement to rival a child given a free pass to an ice cream shop. She could hardly believe it. Unbelievable... Vicki says under her breath, only to be interrupted by the exclamation of Rinny's own celebration.

Shhhh!!!! Vicki says as she thrusts her hand directly to Rinny's mouth. The hand covers Rinny's mouth and the room turns silent. The snoring that was there disappears, murmur of something coming from the room is audible now to the both of them...

Shhhh... Vicki repeats herself as she leads Rinny inside of the gated room...

[cyranojoe]

"Mmmkhh," was Rinny's muffled response. He liberates his mouth from Vicki's clutches, and whispers, much more quietly, "So, where's tha magic thingie?" He glances around, trying to get a sense of what all is here and if anything looks particularly "neat" to him.

A thrill runs up his spine and across his shoulders, leaving hairs all tingly and standy-uppy. Rinny decides he likes this feeling...

[The Yellow Bin]

The room is basically a 10 feet cube. Suits of armors are on one side of the room, with each hanging from a wooden peg coming out of the wall, the other side are weapons, hung the same way. At the far side of the small room are a number of chests, with locks on them. These chests look like they are well-crafted, looking like force will not be the way that the two will be opening them. Rinny is beginning to see why he's here.

Come on. Vicki said, still invisible, as she leads Rinny towards the chests. However, as they got close, Rinny saw something weird, something... not terribly right. There are strings attached to the ground, small strings, in front of the chests, with pins sticking out of them to connect the strings together. It seems that there are no reason for them to be there, and as he follows the strings and up the wall, one of the wooden pegs that is holding up a huge ax is connected to the string. Any force to remove the peg would mean that the ax would fall upon anyone close to the chest if they trip over the string...

[cyranojoe]

Rinny yanks on Vicki's arm, hard! She stumbles toward him, and he grabs at her invisible body, pulling her away from the threatening axe.

"It's a trap!" he hisses hurriedly into her ear, or at least he thinks that's her ear. And he hopes his hand is on her... well, maybe... hmm...

Oh, right!

"It's a trap!" he repeats. "See the string... and the, uh, the axe?" He hopes she can still see him. Those goggle things she put on her head seemed to have let her see him earlier. Anyway. "We gotta get somethin' ta block it."

He pulls her over to the gate again, then looks out. If there's no one there, he'll get Vicki to help him move one of the bigger dummies, something that might be able to keep the axe from falling down on top of them, when they trip the wire.