You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Recent posts by Sibelius Eos Owm
Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: �Will the real Walthus please stop bleeding?�
The real Walthus (presumed) emerged from the room at the end of the hall. Sera peeped into Nona's ear, "Nine Hells, he looks like he's just seen a�"
"A faceless rubbery monster that attempted to assume his countenance and dispense with him by draining his blood through a prehensile tongue?" Nona kept her voice low for communicating with her familiar while Alexis questioned the weakened swamp warden.
Nona returned downstairs, pausing before the corpse, still laying in the door to the dining room. She poked her head into the room over its body. "It appears we have located the real Walthus. The warden has chosen to extend his hospitality. Short of this being a far too clever ruse or an especially enthusiastic dogpile of multiple elaborate gambits, I suspect we can trust his offer is sincere."
Behind her Alexis and Walthus were supporting each other down the stairs. "Additionally, we may soon require volunteers to help remove the imposter's body from the premises before Alexis begins to dismember it."
"I hope you two like swamp rat.."
(After supper, presuming we take up the offer)
Nona pushed her bowl back. Swamp rat was surprisingly palatable after a long day trekking through the soggy marsh. She didn't even have to mask the flavour with magic.
"So, Walthus," she said. "There has to be a story here�how does a man of your stature come to own a house of this... magnitude?"
Posted on 2014-09-03 at 19:52:05.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Like, seriously, he had 1 hit point left.
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie came up behind Miguel, but in the Stag Lord's small, makeshift antechamber there was barely enough room for Jargon alone, much less Frodrick, Miguel, and the Stag Lord. At the very least, she covered all the combatants nearest to her with her bastion. She watched the Stag Lord, ready to run into the room to cover as many as possible should he think to break out from the middle of them again.
Zeran beside her, with the cover of the doorframe, pointed his loaded pistol into the room. In the middle of that crowded room, he could hit anyone. He watched for a moment, then shot, right as Miguel moved right.
The Stag Lord gasped (-6dmg Stag Lord). He clutched at his chest where the ball struck, leaving a small bleeding circle. With his bloody hand he reached for something under his belt, looked around the room, then let his left arm go slack, dropping the bow (Staggered, Near Death).
The bandit lord's hand went instead to the hilt of his sword. With a bellow, he drew the sword in an instant and gripped it with two hands. The Stag Lord shook his thick, messy black hair out of his eyes, then swung at Miguel.
The bard would have to remember to thank Kyrie for keeping up behind him. Her aura took half the force from the attack, allowing him to deflect the blow from his sword without suffering for it (-5dmg Miguel).
Miguel turned aside the Stag Lord's sword and replied in kind. The man hardly moved to try to dodge or block, simply taking the cut across his thick chest (-7dmg Stag Lord).
Frodrick raised his axe, getting Jargon to raise up with him. The Stag Lord avoided her hooves, but there was not enough room in the chamber to get away from Frodrick's axe. Another blade sunk into his flesh (-6dmg Stag Lord).
By now the Stag Lord was covered in so much of his own blood that his chest was almost entirely red. He swayed now more from blood loss and the blackening edges of his vision than the drink. He turned to Giles as the soldier raised his sword.
Giles shifted his resolve again from regenerating his body to instead bringing destruction to his foes. He plunged his blade into the Stag Lord's belly deep enough that Miguel noticed the bandit lord's cloak move with the tip of the blade (-14dmg Stag Lord).
The Stag Lord simply choked, then released a last breath. When Giles pulled his sword out, the Stag Lord's body fell to the ground, collapsing in a heap in the antechamber. He was completely, and undeniably dead, having fought off unconsciousness for long enough to take his death on his feet (Overkill).
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage, Squeezing
Jargon 15/19 – Courage, Squeezing
Giles 2/29 – Disguise Self, Destruction (+2dmg), Divine Favour (10/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 20/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 12/25 – Message, Inspire Courage (9/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 4/27 – Courage, -4G, 27 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (8/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (10/30)
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (10/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (10/30)
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Dovan: Unconscious
Stag Lord: Overkilled
Posted on 2014-08-31 at 20:04:18.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: The tides begin to turn
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie, Zeran, and freshly turned ally Akiros flooded into the Stag Lord's chambers, surrounding him on almost all sides. The Stag Lord dodged their attacks with almost incredible grace and fluidity (and a certain swagger likely related to his level of intoxication), but not even he could avoid every attack aimed at him so easily.
Kyrie tried to hook him with her sickle, and Zeran made to club him with his pistol, but it was the Akiros' battle-fury fueled sword that caused him to stumble to avoid the blade plunging through his protections and into his back (-7dmg Stag Lord).
The man quickly came to the realization that his room was no longer the defensible position that it was when he'd fell back. With liquid speed, he jumped at Miguel, pouring around the bard between him and Zeran, then out into the small antechamber at the door. There he saw Giles coming up to join the fight.
The Stag Lord raised his bow. Giles saw, or at least would swear he did, a pair of pinpoint red lights flicker in the large hollow sockets of the stag skull that the bandit lord wore as a helmet.
When he released his shot, Giles could not possibly dodge fast enough. It was as if the Stag Lord had seen exactly where he was going to be and had aimed accordingly. The arrow took Giles in the lower ribs. His mail did much to catch the arrow, but it still punched through to the tender flesh below (-20dmg Giles 0/29). The soldier was winded by the arrow, though it did not feel like it had penetrated deep enough to puncture his lung.
“Huh?” The Stag Lord slurred. “Yer not human.” It was almost as much a blunt statement of fact as it was a question.
Miguel spun around to follow the man out. He swung his charged blade, launching at the same time into the chorus of his song, and drew the first serious slash across the Stag Lord's side as the man turned too slow to avoid him (-10dmg Stag Lord). The bandit lord was beginning to weary (Bloodied).
Once again Frodrick ducked low and prepared to guide Jargon into the narrow space of the antechamber, this time staying in the narrow half of the room's width, not even enough to turn Jargon all the way around in. He commanded her to attack, but she was not able to manoeuvre well enough to catch the Stag Lord, though his axe found its way into his thick arm (-8dmg Stag Lord, Badly Wounded).
As badly as he hurt, Giles stepped up to close the distance between him and the Stag Lord. With a thought he willed the force maintaining the protective aura around his body to fill his body, stitching muscle back together slowly and numbing the pain (+2hp Giles 2/29). The soldier bore down on the Stag Lord, returning fire with a piece of his mind, proving that the bandit lord wasn't the only one here who could land blows with a deadly precision. His blade struck the man just off from his gut, slicing open a bloody wound to add to the others building up on his body (-13dmg Stag Lord).
(Stefan)
Stefan waited a long moment, then heard the sound of footsteps running along below him.
“Hold there!” The footsteps stopped abruptly. “Show yourselves, hands up. I'll shoot if either of you try anything funny!”
The two bandits from the other watch tower emerged from under the post. They had been making their escape, but now the jig was up.
“Remove your weapons and throw them aside. I'm taking you prisoner in the name of my master, Frodrick of the clan Redbrew. If you cooperate, he may choose to spare your miserable lives like he did mine.”
The two bandits looked at each other, then threw down their bows and undid their sword belts. An exchange of lords wasn't so terrible a prospect as an arrow in the back trying to flee.
“Hey, you, is your name Falgrim Sneeg?” Stefan asked after a moment.
The slightly older Varisian man growled. “Yeah, who wants to know?”
Stefan almost laughed. “Ye gods, you know Kesten still never shuts up about you?”
The bandit's sneer disappeared. He glanced to the door, still guarded by Uriel.
“Oh relax, you're supposed to be brought in alive.”
Falgrim did not seem especially relieved by that, but didn't like his chances of escape either way.
“Now both of you, get up here.”
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage, Challenge, Squeezing
Jargon 15/19 – Courage, Ward, Squeezing
Giles 2/29 – Disguise Self, Healing (Fast Healing 2), Divine Favour (9/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 20/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 17/25 – Message, Inspire Courage (8/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 4/27 – Courage, -4G, 28 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (7/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (9/30)
Jeb: DEAD
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (9/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (9/30)
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Dovan: Unconscious
Stag Lord: Badly Wounded, Bloodied, Drunk, Target—Bastion of Good, Challenge
(Okay, so OoC y'all should know that normally a sneak attack is not possible in that kind of a context, but he totally did it somehow. I ain't tellin'.)
EDIT: Nyrodine noticed that I had somehow lost track of 9 points of damage that Giles took from Auchs, which would have reduced Giles to 0hp. Given that his first action was to activate Fast Healing, giving him 2hp, he does not have to edit his action, but he has a lot less hp than I previously thought.
Posted on 2014-08-30 at 20:32:51.
Edited on 2014-08-31 at 04:54:28 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Isn't it a pain when you wake up and the next thing you know there's a horse on your bed?
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie spotted the Stag Lord backing up to take another shot. She absolutely was not going to allow that to happen—if he wasn't going to come out peacefully, she was going to have to go in. Forcefully.
She stepped back into the doorway. She locked her sights onto the Stag Lord and filled herself with the righteous energy to protect her allies from the his cruelty. She ran at him, ramming him with her shield. Even drunk the big man was a tough opponent—true to their prisoners' prediction—but Kyrie ploughed into him like a runaway horse. She shoved him back into his room a step and moved in to fill his field of vision.
Kyrie was almost inside his room proper. She didn't have time to notice fine details, but the reek of stale alcohol struck her in the face. The walls were covered in an insulating layer of thick hides, and a bed sat in one corner, with chests in the other corner stacked with empty bottles of booze.
Miguel hesitated. He hoped to hit the Stag Lord with a grease spell to hamper his mobility, but in such tight quarters, if he hit Kyrie, too, it could spell her death from an untimely fall. Zeran had no such issues. He knew that it wouldn't matter much in the end if the Stag Lord wanted to shoot at him again, but he also knew that his chances were much better under Kyrie's protection than anywhere else. He ran up behind the paladin, letting her do her human shield act that she was so good at as he reloaded his boomstick.
Akiros appeared in the doorway from the common room, still in the throes of a battlefury, with probably more than a little battle-frustration thrown in, spending the last few moments on a rabbit hunt all around the fort. “Stag Lord!” he shouted at the Zeran's back, too far away to even see his former liege. “I would like to report an attack on the fort!” After a moment, he added, “Also if this is not a bad time right now, I would like to announce my resignation!”
“Akiros, you wretch!” the stag-helmed man bellowed over Kyrie's head, stepping back into his room. “I'll have your useless guts for garters. Where do you think you'll go? You were nothing when I found you! Nothing!” He shot at Kyrie, which she dodged, deflecting the arrow off her shield.
He growled, forgetting his traitorous lieutenant for a moment, trying to make a shot stick to the girl in front of him. He pulled another shot, aimed up, and released. Kyrie could only react so fast. She pulled up her shield, flinching as the force of the arrow buried it into the wood between it and her neck (-11dmg Kyrie).
Miguel saw his opening and took it. He ran past Zeran and Kyrie into the spot the Stag Lord had just vacated. He kept up his song, as he charged his sword with arcane energy and swung. The Stag Lord dodged the strike leaning back, almost swaying as if he hadn't meant to do that.
Frodrick sucked in his gut and leaned into Jargon's mane. This door was a fair bit narrower and shorter than the last had been. He squeezed Jargon's sides and coaxed her through the narrow passage, pushing his way past Zeran and Kyrie to get into the Stag Lord's room proper. He crammed Jargon's bulk in between Miguel and the Stag Lord's fur-mounted bed.
Inside the room he looked down at the Stag Lord from his perch. “You and yer lot are done here.” He raised up as Jargon kicked at the bandit lord, which he dodged, then came down with a dwarven fury. The Stag Lord turned to avoid the blow, but couldn't get out from under the axe fast enough to do more than soften the impact. Frodrick caught him across the bare chest, turning the Stag Lord half of the way around just from the force of impact (-20dmg Stag Lord Injured).
When the Stag Lord whirled back, Frodrick noticed his injury was much less severe than one would expect for a strike on unarmoured flesh. The masked man's chest turned an angry red from the impact, and there was a bloody cut, but some force (other than the thickness of the scar tissue that covered the man's chest) had mitigated the blow, too.
Giles abandoned his plan to snipe at the Stag Lord through the door. The battle was moving too quickly and unpredictably for a reliable shot anywhere in there. He put his crossbow away and moved into the storage room tied to the Stag Lords' chambers, coming up next to Akiros with his sword redrawn.
The footsteps across the wooden roof that served as the south walkway disappeared, descending the stairs on the east side of the storage building.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage, Challenge
Jargon 15/19 – Courage, Ward
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (8/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 20/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 17/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (7/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 4/27 – Courage, -3G, 28 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (6/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (8/30)
Jeb: Unconscious, Dying
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (8/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (8/30)
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Dovan: Unconsicous
Stag Lord: Injured, Drunk, Target—Bastion of Good, Challenge
(Stefan does not appear to have an action because he's literally just waiting for the other two watch bandits to show up somewhere, and they didn't have enough movement speed this round to show up, so he's doing almost nothing.
Posted on 2014-08-29 at 19:24:37.
Edited on 2014-08-30 at 06:35:31 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: This post has had a lot of character.
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie kept up the pace into the next room, the one Akiros had emerged from. She came into a fairly large room filled mostly with various crates, bags, and salvaged lumber. The room looked to be made more or less entirely of wood—likely the construction of the bandits added onto the stone ruin, much like the watchtowers.
It looked like a storage room in every detail except the small cot, presumably for the Stag Lord's second-in-command to keep an eye on the supplies. Immediately to her right was a second, wooden door. No Stag Lord here, try the next room. She pushed the door open.
There was a small thump as the door hit something while swinging that didn't stop it from coming all the way open.
Standing directly on the other side of the door, his hand slightly outstretched as if reaching for the knob, was the Stag Lord. Despite being almost face-to-face, Kyrie couldn't see his expression, but the hazy, somewhat confused look in his eyes (and the smell of the breath he let out) told her he was deep in the bottles Zeran and Giles had brought. He clutched a longbow almost absently with his other hand.
“Guys! I found the guy!” Kyrie called back. She promptly stepped into the corner beside the door, hoping to draw him out where they could surround him.
“WHAT. THE FUCK. IS GOING ON OUT HERE?” the Stag Lord bellowed in a drunken rage.
Miguel stepped into the room a second later. His eyes widened as he saw the impressive (if inebriated) bare-barrel-chested figure of the Stag Lord. He dodged left of the door, keeping himself on the defensive.
Zeran followed him into the storage room, but he knew exactly what he was doing. He stood tall in the middle of the room, his pistol arm fully extended at the Stag Lord, and pulled the trigger on the bullet he'd just loaded.
The Stag Lord ducked reflexively, covering his head with one arm (-8dmg Stag Lord). The broad man with the unusual helmet rumbled his displeasure in a low growl and brought his bow up. He snapped off a pair of shots with deadly aim—even drunk. Zeran took one of the arrows in his right shoulder—if he hadn't dodged as fast as he did, it probably would have been worse (-12dmg Zeran 4/25 Bloodied). The other ended up in the wood directly where Miguel had been standing when the shot was fired. He'd only avoided the shot because he'd been waiting for it.
The Stag Lord pushed the door to his private quarters shut with a loud slam.
Frodrick spurred his Jargon into the room. He had to duck coming through the stone portal, but the room itself was more accomodating to his stature. He positioned Jargon comfortably between Zeran and the door and turned to face away from the door. “Jargon, kick rear.”
The stout mare lifted her hindquarters with a half-jump and kicked the door open again. The Stag Lord was still there still facing the door, standing just a little further back from the door than he was earlier.
Giles disregarded Akiros coming up again behind him. He still didn't trust the raging warrior's convenient double-cross, but there were other things to take care of, and unless he happened to choose exactly this moment to double-double-cross to impress his master or something, he would have to be a known, tolerated nuissance rather than an active danger.
The soldier put his sword back and picked up his crossbow as he moved up to the entrance to the next room, looking for a place to keep cover from the door but also have a good line of sight to return fire.
Overhead the party heard footsteps on the wooden roof—this building would logically fall directly under the south walkway, so that was probably the sound of a pair of archers making their hasty escape.
Outside, after Akiros left him, Stefan continued his plan, moving into the tower. He kicked away Ayles' weapons and made the man sit still in one corner of the post. Despite his deafness, the man had proven very willing to save his own skin after coming in such close proximity with Akiros—perhaps he feared that if he didn't obey the boy's pantomimed commands, the lieutenant would come back to make sure he did.
Stefan peered across the yard to the opposite post on the northwest corner of the camp. It was empty now. No doubt the two he saw there were thinking to make their escape before the party inside realized they were missing. Stefan simply waited, keeping one eye on the only gate in or out of the post, and one eye on his captive.
An idea came to him as he watched. “Uriel,” he called. The horse nickered from somewhere below the post, where the other horses were tied up. Zeran had freed the black charger with the white blaze, but in the confusion of the fight he prefered to stay put.
Stefan leaned out over the edge of the post. “There.” He pointed to the gate, still closed, where Jeb was bleeding out. “Stay.”
The horse seemed to consider Stefan's command for a moment, but evidently decided to obey.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 15/19 – Courage
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (7/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 17/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (6/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 4/27 – Courage, -3G, 28 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (5/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (7/30)
Jeb: Unconscious, Dying
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (7/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (7/30)
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Dovan: Unconsicous
Stag Lord: Barely Injured, Drunk
Posted on 2014-08-28 at 01:51:26.
Edited on 2014-08-30 at 06:36:57 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Glory and gore go hand in hand
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie held her sickle. Two down, one big one to go. “You might want to keep your head down and maybe be over there where you're less likely to be hit by people trying to attack us,” she told Auchs. The big man stopped whimpering and nodded, wide-eyed.
There was one direction left. Akiros came from the door at the back of the room. The fort was hardly big enough to support many other hidey holes. Kyrie walked around the owlbear's dying body, preparing to be the first to meet the Stag Lord face-to-face in combat.
Miguel followed right behind her, blending a lyrical spell into the song he was still singing (+7hp Miguel -3spells). Zeran turned to follow, reloading his pistol. He called to Auchs, “take a few breaths big guy I'll be back soon buddy.” Auchs sat back against the wooden wall and nodded.
Before he went to follow the others, he spoke to Giles under his breath, “Leave Dovan for me, if you can. The idiot won't be waking up anytime soon, and I'd personally like the privellage of finishing him off. Besides we're going to need your help with the Stag Lord.”
Giles didn't like the idea of leaving Dovan, but he had to admit that Zeran was right. Frodrick rode past him (seated with comfortable distance to the ceiling) to get into the centre of the room, getting ready to act if things got hairy fast.
The soldier glanced down at the owlbear—it was still breathing, if very shallowly. He inverted his sword, and thrust it as deep as he could into the centre of mass. On one hand, the monstrosity was not likely to be much danger to them in the immediate future, but on the other, he was not about to give it the chance to prove otherwise (-17dmg *coup de grace* Beaky Dead).
Still out in the yard Stefan ran into the other room of the stone ruin, the one containing the steep stairs up to the walkways. He wouldn't have much to add in a crowded environment, but he could at least do his best to handle the remaining guards. His head poked just over the top of the stairs.
“Stand down!” he told the bandit in what he hoped was a commanding voice. The archer did a double take at him, and turned to see him. It didn't look like he had heard anything. Stefan remembered the thunderstone. The guy was probably deaf.
Stefan pantomimed a command for the bandit to throw down his weapon and come quietly. The bandit merely sneered—maybe he wasn't keeping up with the events on the ground so well without his hearing.
The bandit lieutenant Akiros stampeded back down the walkway. He closed on the bandit in a heartbeat.
The watchman's tone changed drastically. “I give, I give!”
Akiros snarled, “You always were gutless unless your enemy was strapped down, Ayles.” He turned to leave, rounding his eyes on Stefan.
Stefan realized he was wearing the armour taken directly from the bandit woman the day before. He raised his hands. “I'm with Frodrick! I'm not a bandit.”
Akiros grunted and ran down the stairs, ignoring both of them.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 15/19 – Courage
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (6/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 17/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (5/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 16/27 – Courage, -2G, 28 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (4/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), Surrendered, 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Missing, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Missing, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (6/30)
Jeb: Unconscious, Dying
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (6/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (6/30)
Beaky: Dead as All Get Out
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied, Surrendered
Dovan: Unconsicous
Stag Lord: ???
(These posts are getting easier to make with less than ten people all reacting and interacting in scattered order. In other news, I swear I'm going to stop quoting lyrics for the titles of these posts. Besides, I've basically run out, I've just gone back to the chorus/pre-chorus again)
Posted on 2014-08-26 at 21:33:04.
Edited on 2014-08-26 at 21:39:13 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Let me in the ring, I'll show you what that big word means
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Kyrie was getting frustrated. She had not expected the oversized dope to pose such a threat. She channeled the last of her healing energy into her bruises (+20hp Kyrie 31/34). The 'Auchs' was practically inhumanly strong, but he was also rather slow and poorly armoured. She struck with her sickle and he had to fall back to the wall to avoid taking an injury like the zombies from before (-6dmg Auchs).
With Zeran safely behind him, Miguel went on the offensive as well, pressing the advantage Kyrie was already beating out of Auchs. The bard didn't like it—the brute seemed like he was fighting out of animal instinct rather than making an informed decision—but he had priorities, and Auchs was too much of a threat to his team while he was still fighting.
Auchs tried to roll away as Miguel struck, but his blade sunk into something. The bard's sword was already so covered in the owlbear's blood it was hard to tell at first if he'd gotten through, but a red stain quickly started to form on his side (-10dmg Auchs Bloodied). This only seemed to make the giant angrier.
Zeran stepped back to get a better shot at Dovan. “Hey, leave Auchs alone you cretin, that boy is a lot smarter and braver then you'll ever be.” He looked down where Auchs was on the verge of throwing a tantrum. “Come on Auchs, can't you see he is using you? Being mean to you? Help us Auchs and you'll be a hero! You'll be a brave knight and help people smaller then you, be a good guy Auchs!”
Zeran took aim and fired. Dovan's smug sneer vanished. He whirled, ducking away from the shot that came too fast for him to avoid it entirely. When Dovan looked back, there was a line of blood running down from his forehead, and he was scowling (-8dmg Dovan Injured).
Zeran grinned back. “Hey you, with the face!”
Before he could come up with a retort, the sound of pounding boots came from the left. Akiros stamped up the stairs and charged toward Dovan.
Out in the yard, Stefan realized he could use another advantage before he got shot again. He got to his feet and stepped out from the cover of the watchpost above him. He released another arrow up at the man there (-4dmg AM). He decided he would fancy a sniping spot himself.
Frodrick didn't let up on Auchs, urging Jargon forward to rear up and attack. Jargon kicked, one hoof flying out, but the other connected with Auchs' shoulder, then she chomped down on his wrist (-3dmg, -6dmg Auchs). The giant man-child's angry tantrum turned to a keening whine, blithering about bad horses. He looked up, fearfully, toward the walkway overhead, but didn't back down.
Dovan glanced at Akiros. “Yeah, no.” He sidestepped neatly right off the platform, dropping down to right between Zeran and Miguel. Despite the distance, he landed almost gracefully (-4sub Dovan).
“Be with you in a moment,” he told Zeran. Miguel turned to defend himself against Dovan, but couldn't keep his attention on both sides at once. He parried the rapier aimed for his back with only an inch to spare (-14dmg Miguel 10/25). Dovan was clearly skilled at backstabbing unwary foes.
“My, you're much prettier than your friend,” the bandit lieutenant taunted.
Giles turned back from Jeb's bleeding form. Forget Akiros. He ran back into the stone common room with the chipped plaster. As he passed, Auchs took a swing at him that he had to deflect and duck under (-9dmg Giles 20/29). He had no idea if the big man had actually seen through the illusion or if he was just lashing out at anything that passed.
Giles stopped in front of the big corpse of the owlbear. He knew Dovan would be seeing through the illusion to the real him, so he spared the lieutenant a grim scowl and across the his gut with his sword. Dovan moved to dodge and parry with his rapier, but wasn't fast enough for the magically empowered soldier (-7dmg Dovan).
Dovan cluched his gut in pain. “Oh my,” he said. His hand came away with blood. “Shit.” He collapsed to the ground (Dovan Bloodied, Unconscious).
Almost as soon as Dovan went down, Auchs dropped his club, tears forming in his eyes. “Stop hurting me!” He fell to his knees and covered his head with his hands.
The archers released another volley, Frodrick knocking an arrow meant for Jargon out of the air with his shield. From the looks on the archers' faces, he could see they'd realized their mistake, and the change in the hostilities on the ground.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 15/19 – Courage
Giles 20/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (5/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/34 – Courage, -4LoH
Miguel 10/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (4/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 16/27 – Courage, -2G, 28 bullets, +1dagger
Stefan 5/11 – Courage, 16 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (3/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Injured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (5/30)
Jeb: Unconscious, Dying
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (5/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (5/30)
Beaky: Unconscious
Auchs: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Dovan: Unconsicous
Stag Lord: ???
(Oh yeah, I almost forgot. That crit hit-miss (nat 20, nat 1 on confirm) was actually Dovan's attack—Miguel could have had it a lot worse, but he probably would have still survived since sneak attack damage doesn't get multiplied—it would have been only an average 5.5 extra points of damage)
Posted on 2014-08-25 at 21:49:39.
Edited on 2014-08-25 at 21:51:27 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: We like archaic kinds of fun
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
With no time to spare, Kyrie allowed her body to flow with vital energy as she stepped up to interfere with Auchs (+16hp Kyrie 24/34). She swung her sickle, forcing the mountainous man onto the defensive to avoid her blows (-4dmg Auchs).
Miguel came over to Zeran's aid, conjuring a healing spell with his magic. He touched Zeran's shoulder, pouring life and energy back into his body (+8hp Zeran 16/27) (-2spells). Miguel primed his sword with energy as he turned back to Akiros. Things were falling apart quickly. “To what do we owe this pleasure, then?” he called lightly to the lieutenant as Zeran dodged out of Auchs' impressive grasp, retreating so he could reload in peace.
Akiros sword clutched in hand, strode around the corpse of the owlbear straight for Miguel. “I am sick of working with these gutless bandits.” He jerked his head aside. “Move.” Miguel let him pass.
The man was in a battle fury, but he paused long enough to look back at Miguel. “I would start again, if I can.” He turned back to Auchs, shouting, “Auchs! Stand aside!” He strode clear past the bigger man, too, unmolested. Auchs, for his part, did not seem to be aware of the current team composition. Akiros cast a glance up at the walkway, where Dovan stood, and disappeared into the other room of the fort.
Stefan in the yard took a moment to rub his eyes free of grit. He considered taking petty revenge, but there were more important things to aim at—he was the only one equiped with the range to deal with the towers. He fired on the older varisian man in the northwest post who had not thought to duck yet like his friend. He struck (-5dmg), giving the man something to think about (FS Bloodied).
Frodrick saw Jargon, struck by one arrow, rounding on Auchs. Fighting space was at a premium in the yard, today, so he ran to her side (ducking a poor swing from Auchs as he passed), and in an impressive display of horsemanship, considering the sheer weight of armour he packed on, he got one foot in the stirrup and all but leapt into the saddle. From his newfound elevation, he directed Jargon to attack, distracting Auchs with swipes from his axe. Jargon chomped at Auchs, but the big man must have been bitten by more than one horse, because he immediately jumped away from her bright teeth. “Bad horsey!”
“Hey, prettyboy, did I miss you?” Zeran looked up to see Dovan drawing another dagger from his other boot. He flicked it down, end over end, into Zeran's gut. Zeran twisted suddenly, managing to avoid having the dagger stuck, instead taking most of the impact against his armour as the knife fell back out onto the ground (-3dmg). “Nope!”
“Why is it always daggers? Why me?” moaned Zeran.
Giles chased after Akiros, trying to keep him in his sights. He didn't trust the man's sudden turn, and wanted to make sure he didn't try something funny. As he stepped around Auchs into the yard, he saw someone else, though.
Jeb was grabbing at the door bar. Akiros hadn't gotten so far that he couldn't detour just slightly. He came up behind Jeb. The man turned. “Hey, girlie, you commin' with ol' Jeb? Wouldn't be wise to stick around 'ere much longer, hey?”
The man shoved the crossbar up, exposing his back to Giles very unwisely. He cut him down on the spot (-11dmg Jeb Dying). A moment later Giles found an arrow land directly beside him. He seemed to have attracted the attention of the soft-spoken bandit watch. The other post to the west both ducked after each shot.
“Auchs, you blithering idiot, how many times do I have to tell you to cover your back?” Dovan shouted down from his perch. Auchs looked up, stupidly for a half second, then stepped into the room, keeping his back against the wooden wall and away from Frodrick. After, he wheeled on Kyrie, swinging his club around like a bat (-13dmg Kyrie 11/34).
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 15/19 – Courage
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (4/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 11/34 – Courage, -3LoH
Miguel 24/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (3/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 16/27 – (loaded) Courage, -2G, 29 bullets, +2daggers
Stefan 5/11 – Courage, Crouching, 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (2/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Uninjured, Deafened (1h), 16 arrows
FS: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 16 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 17 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (4/30)
Jeb: Dying
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (4/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (4/30)
Beaky: Dying
Auchs: Uninjured
Dovan: Uninjured
Stag Lord: ???
Posted on 2014-08-24 at 22:09:51.
Edited on 2014-08-26 at 21:39:57 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: You could try and take us, but victory's contagious
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
The heavy grey clouds burst. Wet, hot raindrops fell like fat droplets of blood. The first few seconds already speckled the dusty ground dark and light with summer rain.
Kyrie held her ground against the owlbear. With a thought, the divine energy of life and creation flowed through her body, revitalizing her and mending scrapes and bruises (+16hp Kyrie). With this influx of energy, she pressed back against the monster, trying unsuccessfully to take control.
Miguel followed into the common room beside Frodrick, song still on his lips, and slashed the owlbear with a two-handed swipe of his sword. Reinforced by music and magic, he drew a hooting roar out of the monster (-11 Beaky, Bloodied).
One room over, Zeran was already beginning to feel like he'd bitten off more than he could chew. “Hey, big guy, uh, remember me?” He barely finished that sentence when his flight instinct kicked in and told him to get moving. His mouth ran the whole while he slipped out the door into the yard. “Do you want to be the hero, Auchs? Do you want to be the knight?”
He came up behind Kyrie, calling back as he went. “Come, Auchs, come save the lady!” He crossed his fingers behind his back, hoping he hadn't just given his friends one more hazard to deal with.
In the yard, Stefan dropped to a crouch, making him a smaller target for the next arrow that came his way. He shot for the two in the northwest bandit post again, but this arrow lodged itself in the small wooden wall around the fence, rather than in bandit flesh. “Lay down your weapons and my master will spare your lives as he has done for me!”
Frodrick himself was doing his level best to distract the owlbear enough to give Kyrie a chance to avoid its onslaught, while on the other side of the room, behind Giles, a figure appeared in the door.
Akiros said nothing, his words dead in his throat before he could utter them. He saw the scene before him and made a snap decision. With a ferocious bellow, he drew his longsword in a swift motion and charged into combat next to Giles. He swung his sword overhead, launching himself into the owlbear's flank wit ha savage fury, practically ramming it on top of his shield (-10dmg Owlbear, Badly Wounded).
Giles would have taken a shot at the bandit lieutenant, but he saw the man's eyes focused on the owlbear. At the very least he could better afford to have help taking down the beast before he probed this newfound ally.
A voice from the wooden walkway directly overhead, “Hey, you with the loud weapon! Stand still!” Dovan pitched a dagger down at Zeran from overhead. The pirate did not intend to do as suggested, but he barely started to move when the large knife struck into his back at an oblique angle, striking with enough force to cut into his armour, jab him in the back, and stay there (-6dmg Zeran).
(Dovan roll 23, check Gunslinger's dodge; regardless of position, attack connects as he's trying to dodge)
Meanwhile, even with Frodrick's help, Kyrie was having a tough time avoiding the owlbear's vicious claws. It let go of her only just long enough to swipe with both claws. A timely jab from the haft of Frodrick's axe forced the owlbear to miss with one claw as it tried to stabilize its balance, but it hammered Kyrie hard with its right, almost forcing her to her knees as she held back against the tremendous weight (-17dmg *crit* Kyrie 8/34). With her stuck again in its claws (Grappled) it hooted and pecked at her face, but Kyrie ducked the vicious owl-like beak.
Giles refused to let his guard down even though Akiros had evidently thrown in with the party's lot, though then he didn't really let his guard down around many in the first place. Despite this, he pressed the advantage of the two-pronged attack. The owlbear was a physically larger menace, but against a well-coordinated group of smaller creatures, it was surrounded. Giles slashed two-handed into the owlbear's bloody feathers (-14dmg Beaky).
The ferocious chimerical monster staggered under the bloodloss. Its feathery fur was matted with its own blood. Its gaze intensified on Kyrie for a moment, then went dull. The rest of the creature followed after, collapsing to the ground inside the bandits' common room (Dying).
The bandits in the watchtowers continued to pepper the yard with their arrows. Jargon let out a pained whinny when an arrow struck her in the flank (-4dmg Jargon)), but most of the arrows fell to the ground around Zeran and Stefan. The bandit named Jex from the south tower called out as he loosed his arrow at Stefan. “The Stag Lord will hear about your desertion if you don't kill the intruders!” As soon as he saw his arrow miss, he quickly ducked his head back under the level of the wooden cover rail.
Auchs sped into the room hot on Zeran's trail. He did not appear to have even heard the pirate's protests. He stopped at Zeran, towering over him. For half a second it seemed like he might be trying to work out a sentence, but then he simply bellowed incoherently, gripping the table-leg club in a meaty hand. Zeran threw up his arms as all he could do to deflect the blows away from his face (-9dmg Zeran 8/27)
Out in the yard, Jeb picked this moment to make his move. He stood up suddenly. Before Stefan could react, the foul-smelling man threw a handful of still relatively dry dust into his face (Stefan Blinded), then turned to the gates, fumbling with the crossbar.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 15/19 – Courage
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (3/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 8/34 – Courage, -2LoH
Miguel 24/25 – Message, Inpire Courage (2/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 8/27 – Courage, -2G, 29 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Courage, Kneeling, Blinded (1 round), 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Akiros: Uninjured, Raging (1/??) (+4Str, +4Con, +2Will, -2AC)
AM: Uninjured, Deafened (1h), 17 arrows
FS: Uninjured, 17 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 18 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (3/30)
Jeb: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (3/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (3/30)
Beaky: Dying
Auchs: Barely Injured
Dovan: Uninjured
Stag Lord: ???
Posted on 2014-08-24 at 05:34:17.
Edited on 2014-08-26 at 21:40:51 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Glory and gore go hand in hand
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Without needing further direction, Kyrie charged to where she heard the feral screeching sound. Sure enough, she found both Giles and Beaky, preparing to face off. She threw herself into the spot Giles had stepped back from, forcing the owlbear to pay attention to her.
Miguel followed her closely, stepping over the bodies of all the people he'd put to sleep, so as not to kick one awake. He came up on the other side of Giles, drawing his focus within himself for a moment, then launching into a war chant.
It was Zeran, unsurprisingly, who was the first to deviate from the pre-stated plan. He had business to take care of. “If you want to continue living, keep yourself down and find a corner to hide in. If we see you moving to run you'll probably be picked off.”
He left the man laying in the dirt and chased Dovan into the other side of the stone ruin, putting his back against the crumbling stonework just inside the door to keep cover from the archers. Dovan was just ahead of him, going for the stairs. Zeran shot his arm up, tightened his focus, and fired. The shot flew past Dovan just barely, hissing past his right ear.
Stefan came up in the rear. He was the only one equipped for long-range, so he took his hand at providing cover fire. He nocked an arrow and let it fly at the northwest tower. The shot was good. One of the bandits buckled, clutching the arrow in his side. It wasn't fatal, but it would give him something to think about (-6dmg Jex Bloodied).
Frodrick moved into the building, commanding Jargon behind him to follow. There was no room for her in the door, yet, but she waited patiently for her chance to take a bite out of this bear.
Dovan turned to Zeran for the barest of instants and curled his nose in a condescending sneer, before running up the steps, drawing a dagger in his free hand. On the other side of the wooden wall, not visible to either of them, but very audible, the owlbear tore into Kyrie with a furious passion, for blocking its prey.
The towering owlbear male descended with both claws, battering the paladin around in her armoured shell. It swiped with its left, long hook-like talon claws locking around her right shoulder (-9dmg Kyrie Grappled), then with its right, which she caught on her shield, pinning it to her body (-8dmg Kyrie 9/34). It screeched loudly into her face, red-rimmed eyes hanging just above her own as she tried to push back against it.
While the savage monstrosity was busy with Kyrie, Giles slipped past it without disturbance, ending up behind it, across from Frodrick. He took advantage of its distraction to draw his blade up and thrust it deep into the monster's flank (-17dmg *crit* Beaky Injured).
The archers loosed another volley (one, named Jex, ducking under cover after firing) at the yard. An arrow landed next to Stefan and Jargon was startled by a shaft near her. Zeran flinched back as one arrow clipped his upper arm (-4dmg Zeran), a lucky shot.
He didn't have time to pay attention to such needle stings, though. Roaring down the stairs with his incredible bulk came Auchs. When he got to the bottom he turned and wordlessly bellowed at Zeran, closing the distance between them entirely too quickly. The pirate had his back to the wall.
Frodrick 34/34 – Courage
Jargon 19/19 – Courage
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection, Divine Favour (2/10), Courage, 20 bolts
Kyrie 9/34 – Courage, Grappled
Miguel 24/25 – Message, Inspire Courage (1/11), 19 arrows
Zeran 23/27 – Courage, -2G, 29 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Courage, 18 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
AM: Uninjured, Deafened (1h), 18 arrows
FS: Uninjured, 18 arrows,
Jex: Injured, Bloodied, Crouching, 19 arrows
Craggar: Uninjured, Sleep (2/30)
Jeb: Badly Wounded, Bloodied, Prone
Norry: Uninjured, Sleep (2/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Sleep (2/30)
Beaky: Injured, Grappling
Akiros: ???
Auchs: Uninjured
Dovan: Uninjured
Stag Lord: ???
(It always comes down to whether the gerbil is hostile or not)
Posted on 2014-08-22 at 05:55:15.
Edited on 2014-08-23 at 21:23:44 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: Horror Movie Cabin Cliche Averted.
“Perfect.” Nona growled.
“Just great. I've always wanted to die in some gods-forsaken cottage in the middle of the swamp, murdered by some crazed hermit-alien monster!” She kicked over a chair for good measure as she navigated her way through the dining room.
What she really wanted to do was try out the pattern spell itching at the tip of her tongue, but no matter how she threw it, she couldn't sling a decent cone without hitting a dead cat in here. She drew her knife—stupidly, she'd left her walking stick at the door. It was time to, as they say, stab a female hound.
“Sera! Distract it!” Her familiar zipped from her shoulder and started fluttering about the small alien monster's head. Nona thrust her dagger at it, but this kind of combat was out of her comfort zone. All the same, Zwei and Fox tagged teamed to bring it down.
Nona looked over the corpse after she was sure it was not about to pull some kind of death ploy. “I've been studying and listening to monster stories for most of my adult life, so when I say I have no idea what that is...” She pushed its rubbery head to one side with her boot. “It could be some kind of alien abomination. My study into the shapes of madness has been somewhat deficient.”
Alexis returned from liberating the contents of her stomach. "Well aren't you glad I'm here now? That thing could have killed one of you with how hard it hit me."
Nona let Alexis have a wry smile. “Indeed. Excellent work. You are simply by far the most superb meat shield on this side of the Great Beyond.” Nona snarked idly, but her heart was still pumping too fast.
A small, feeble voice called from somewhere upstairs. Nona thought she remembered seeing a staircase back in the main room. She followed Alexis in going to investigate.
Posted on 2014-08-20 at 22:31:56.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: You could try and take us, but we're the gladiators
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
(~15 min)
Zeran casually passed under the watchtower on his way back, his belt done up but not completely tucked away. He stopped for just a moment, as if to tend to his saddlebags, and undid the knots that held Jargon and Uriel.
After that, he glanced around. The man with the beard in the northwest watch post wasn't paying attention to him. He grinned and slowly pulled the thunderstone from his pouch.
“Alright, we're all out.” Miguel's voice popped in his ear. He glanced back around the corner, spotting Miguel doing the same from the back corner.
“Let's get dangerous.” Zeran pitched the stone almost straight up, into the watch post above him. There was a half second pause, a confused “Uh?”, and finally an ear-shattering rumble from the watch post.
(Giles 'Alex')
Giles heard Miguel's signal. He mentally prepared to leap up with the rest of the bandits, maintaining the charade until the right moment. In the meantime, he moved once again to discretely avoid being touched by 'Dirty' Jeb. The man was growing overly fond with his persona, making obvious attempts to take hold of her arm. If he made solid contact with something that didn't feel like it looked, he would see the grim reality.
In the meantime, Topper was celebrating her latest hand by singing a poem quietly as she shuffled the deck.
“On yonder strand / In bridled land / A motley band / With vigour fanned / Across hill, lowland / With selfrighteous brand / Seeking brigand contra—”
KRAK-A-THOOM.
“—band.*”
Both tables leaped to their feet.
“Go see what the hell that was.” Dovan commanded.
The four bandits and Giles drew their swords and moved out. Giles let the others out ahead of him, quietly allowing himself to become the last in order.
(Zeran)
“What the hell was that?” the greasy bandit, Jeb, demanded of Zeran.
Zeran did his best to look confused and startled, the piss pot handing loose from one of his hands. “It came from up above.”
The four bandits looked up to where their watch man was clutching his ears and shouting curses. Miguel popped out of hiding. He sung a string of spell words. When the bandits looked back down, Zeran pulled out his pistol.
The bandits hesitated for a moment. The look on their faces was priceless. “The fort's under attack!”
Miguel finished his spell. From where he was, Giles recognised the faint pressure of a sleep enchantment wash over the four bandits in front of him, three of which immediately collapsed. Only 'Dirty' Jeb remained, standing in the front.
Zeran took a single up to him, oblivious to his lack of a team, and clubbed him with the butt of his gun (-7dmg Jeb Bloodied), knocking the greasy man over with the sudden force (Prone).
Giles turned to Dovan. The lean man had gotten up from his chair. He was observing the fight. “Well, that could be a problem.” Dovan turned to the rope tied to the peg next to his chair and gave it a sharp tug.
This was the rope that attached to and held up the large iron grate serving as the door to the owlbear's makeshift lair. With a metallic groan it fell away, coming to the ground with a tremendous clatter.
“If I were you, I wouldn't care to stay much longer.” He slipped past Giles so quickly the soldier barely had a chance to swing his veiled sword in his direction. Outside Zeran only saw Dovan appear for a moment before he turned into the other room and headed for the stairs upto the walk way. “Shoot the intruders, you idiots!” he told the bandits in the towers. It didn't seem to matter to him that one couldn't even hear the order.
Meanwhile Giles saw the massive owlbear lumber out of its cage, look around, and screech a terrible roar that sounded like nails being dragged across a chalkboard. It lumbered toward Giles before he could react and rose to its hind legs, standing over him.
The man grunted in frustration. He had hoped to prevent the lieutenant from any kind of shenanigans like that. He stepped back, willing the force of his judgement into a protective aura around him as he intoned a spell to enhance grant him success in combat.
Arrows rained down around the others outside as the bandits in the watch posts started firing. One appeared next to Zeran, poking out of the ground, while another glanced off the bottom corner of Frodrick's shield. The third watch-man also showed up in the northwest post to see what was going on.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, Protection (+1AC), Divine Favour (1/10) (+2attk/dmg), 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 24/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – (loaded), -1G, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
AM: Uninjured, Deafened (1 hour)
FS: Uninjured
Jex: Uninjured
Craggar: Uninjured, Asleep (1/30)
Jeb: Badly Wounded, Bloodied, Prone
Norry: Uninjured, Asleep (1/30)
Topper: Uninjured, Asleep (1/30)
Beaky: Uninjured
Akiros: ???
Auchs: Uninjured
Dovan: Uninjured
Stag Lord: ???
(Anyone whose action I didn't explicitely state is probably shuffling around a bit to move into position, and catching up. The exception is Giles (if you are reading this before I doublechecked Giles' action), whose choice of action comes almost last in the round and so won't affect too much that happens after he acts, so once I get wind of that I'll add it.)
(Way to take the bandits by storm. This is far from over, but that basically half-eliminated the mook-level bandits in one round. Sure if this takes long enough they'll wake up again and still be at full health, but they're basically done until then and at that point they may actually prefer to surrender or run instead of fight)
(*except from poem by Stephen Parker)
Posted on 2014-08-19 at 08:51:05.
Edited on 2014-08-20 at 07:17:27 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: And the cry goes out
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
Zeran decided to start his search by poking around to check on Giles. He went into the large common room, spotting Giles' illusion playing cards among a few others at the back. He was planning just to idle around the area and take a quick peek, but something else interrupted him.
“Why the hell is this here?”
“What is it?” Miguel's voice in micro in his ear.
Zeran adapted on the fly. “What's an owlbear doing locked up in here?”
“An owlbear?” Miguel asked, “But they're supposed to be untameable. They're too aggressive. Some say their twisted existence drives them insane.”
Zeran was not listening to the voice in his ear, though.
“Oh, that's Beaky.” The fat bandit stopped tearing into his roast bird long enough to swallow and speak. “We took it down a couple weeks ago, but the Stag Lord had us haul it back here instead.f
Zeran was bewildered. “Why?”
The red-head next to Giles looked up from her cards. “He seems to have taken a liking to the beast. Maybe it's just the poetic spirit in 'im.You know, the whole man and beast thing, one-ness with the wilderness.”
“Yeah,” Dirty Jeb added, “or maybe he's jsut happy to 've found a beast that has a stranger head than he does!” The others laughed even as the shushed him.
“More to the point,” said Topper, “the Stag Lord said so, so we did so.”
Zeran scratched his chin. “You know I didn't expect such a poetic mind to be comin' from a bandit. For my part, I haven't met many smart enough to put together such a thought.”
“Ol' Topper here was a street poet back in Pitax,” Jeb offered. “A piss-poor one, too, I'll bet, or else how'd she end up here with us?”
The red-head gave Jeb a nasty look. “I'll have you know that verse has nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with having the right poetic spirit.” She ended looking at Zeran.
The pirate didn't spot any trapdoors in the hard packed earth of the common room. “Either way, if you coulld point me the way, where do you lot keep the outhouse around here? I gotta go drain the lizard.”
“There's your piss pot, there.” Jeb pointed out a chamberpot in the corner. “Just a s long as you don't do it in here, no one cares where ya go.”
Zeran nodded at the greasy looking man. “Thanks.” He glanced at Topper, tipping an invisible hat to her, his own distinctive hat left behind at the cart. “Well, pleasure to meet you, miss. Hopefully we can talk a little more in a bit.”
“Unless that 'lizard' of yours is just a metaphor, I might not want to count on it if I were you.” She shot a speculative glance up and down.his body.
Zeran grabbed the chamberpot with a grin and popped out the door. With the pot in hand nobody so much as glanced at him to keep tabs on what he was up to. He freely wandered around the inner perimeter of the palisade, taking the east side of the stone ruin around to second set of stairs leading up to the other walkway.
Between the stone ruin and the wooden structure under the south walkway, this was probably the best spot in the fort not to be seen by any of the watchtowers. Zeran poked his head around for a couple moments, but didn't see anything like the description of the trapdoor Miguel had given him.
After that, he set the chamberpot on the ground. He wasn't just using it as a cover. He had real business to attend to.
As he was finishing up, Zeran noticed a faint crease in the ground, next to his left foot. Once he redid his belt, Zeran took a closer inspection—there was a square in the dirt, virtually indistinguishable from the hard packed earth but this was merely a dusty cover over top of a stone slab.
It lay directly under the stairs at the back of the fort. It was easy to see how it might have been missed all this time, especially if the outside door was covered over.
“Hey, Miguel, I think I've found you. It's in a good position, if you're quiet, no one should see you come up. There are four bandits plus Dovan in the common room. The Stag Lord's chambers should be back that way, too. I'm going to head back.”
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 24/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
(12 minutes since beginning Miguel's message spell)
(By the way, for those curious, Pitax is the capital city of a Kingdom of the same name. It is one of the myriad River Kingdoms, and actually shares a border with the Stolen Lands. It does not border the Greenbelt (i.e. -your- chartered section of the Stolen Lands) but it's pretty local.)
Bandit Tracker
AM: NE Watchtower
FS: NW Watchtower
Jex the Snitch: SW Watchtower
Craggar Kench: Common Room
Fat Norry: Common Room
Topper Red: Common Room
Dirty Jeb: Common Room
Auchs: Roof/2F
Dovan: Common Room
Akiros: ???
Stag Lord: ???
Posted on 2014-08-15 at 08:18:52.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Dropping glasses just to hear them break...
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
After the two infiltrators were left standing in the small yard alone, Giles doubled back to the shelter under which the horses were tied, below the northeast guard post. He leaned casually against the post, whispering quietly to himself as if talking to his horse.
Miguel did not respond right away. There was a moment, then suddenly Miguel's voice manifested in the air next to his ear. Zeran, who was keeping a lookout, listened in through his own connection. The bard was out of breath.
“We ran into a minor setback, but we have made it to the eergh, the trapdoor. Frodrick and Stefan have just about got it uncovered. It'll be another few minutes before we're in.” (+11hp Miguel 24/25)
“Got it. We are inside. We'll keep our heads down until you get here.” Giles responded. To Zeran he said, “I'm going in. You coming?”
“Naw, I figure I'll pop upstairs and see if our bored friend knows anything at all.” Zeran winked and thumbed up the tower.
(Zeran)
The pirate gunslinger took the steep stairs up to the walkways. They creaked under his boots like an old, worn bed. It was a good thing he wasn't trying to sneak up them, he figured. He arrived on a platform just behind the guardpost. The man glanced at him. Zeran took a casual sweep of the upper levels. Across a catwalk he spied the massive brute of a lieutenant, 'Auchs', sitting on the edge of the crumbled stone roof.
“Hey, how's the watch?” He stretched out as if he had just come in from a long ride, walking up beside the guard. “Get much traffic around here?”
The bandit chuckled softly. “Traffic? The hell would you want to know that for?”
Without missing a beat, Zeran replied. “To know what kind of marks I have a choice of. Help supplment the income an' all that, you know? Just takes a few carefully placed traps and you can spook most folk into giving you what you want.”
“Mm, I know. Either way there in't nobody who knows the region who's stupid enough to cross the Stag Lord's domain. Now as for yourself, I would give you a little advice. Don't go thinking that just because the Stag Lord is happy with your offering it means you get to join us in the fort. Are you new or something?” The watchman smiled, but his eyes swept over Zeran coldly.
Danger. “No, which is why I was asking. I'm only here for the night gotta go start somewhere after all, man needs money for whores and booze after all.”
“Well, you're not gonna find much for pickings around here, anyway.” The man eased up the intensity of his stare, returning his attention to the empty hills outside of the fort. “Did you have a point comin' up here? I'm on watch—not that I mind a little distraction.”
“You looked bored, and frankly I'm not one for settling down for the night right now anyways. Take it you don't see a lot of action around here. What do you usually see though when you're up here?” Zeran tried once more to cajole a slip of information out of him.
When the man smiled, cold and condescending, he knew he'd slipped up. “Well, I figure that's none of your damn business. If you're looking for something to do why don't you go bother someone else with your nosey questions.” Through the whole conversation the bandit's voice never raised above a soft-spoken level, but his body language communicated he clearly wasn't going to be cooperative.
Zeran wanted to give this too-calm watch something to shake him up, rattle his cage a little, but he relented. It would do no good for his mission if he started giving the mooks a reason to hate him.
He left the bandit's post, his eyes tracking back automatically to Auchs. The big man seemed to be playing with two wooden figurines. What the hell, he decided. Let's say 'hi'. He set off across the walkway to the stone roof.
(Giles)
Giles Alexandria Nox found himself in a rather drafty room that took up half the size of the large stone ruin. Judging by the crates and barrels crammed into the corners, the hammocks strung from wooden posts for sleeping provisions, and the dirty bowls and utensils set out across the rickety, makeshift furniture that this was the Stag bandits' common room.
The walls were covered in badly chipping ancient plaster that showed more of the stonework construction than its original design, which seemed to be some kind of obscure, erratic scribbles and pictographs. Almost definitely not made by the bandits themselves.
Three bandits, including the one who had opened the gate for he and Zeran, and two others, a greasy-looking man and a red-haired woman sat at one table, cards laid out in front of them, arguing in hushed voices. Not far from them at another table was the fat man who took the horses. He tore eagerly into what looked like the better part of an entire roast turkey. Finally, easy to miss at first, the bandit lieutenant Dovan sat on a chair in the corner just to his right, quitely sharpening a collection of knives.
He didn't see either Akiros or the Stag Lord himself, but the far end of the room led out to another, wood-walled room. To his right on the west wall was another opening, this one covered by a wide iron grate held up by a rope. As Giles cross the room to the card-playing bandits he glanced inside.
Inside a fair sized room of roughly piled stonework was a large owlbear, resting with half-lidded eyes. The unusual beast followed him lazily with its eyes as he passed. That could be bad news later.
“Mind if I join you lot for cards?”
Somewhere, likely crawling down a narrow shaft into the earth, Miguel was hearing an unfamiliar voice magically transported to his ear. It was husky and almost feminine, but had the same sort of drawl as Giles. He realized after a second what he was listening to.
The red-haired woman spoke for the group. “Sure, just as long as you don't try to twist the rules like Jeb here. Pull up a chair and keep your voice down.”
Giles fetched 'herself' a chair. The woman pointed to the men across the table, the dullard who looked like he had half his sense literally beaten out of him, and the greasy man who was taking a very keen eyefull of Giles' illusory features as he sat down. “Craggar, Jeb,” she said, “and Topper,” she pointed to herself.
“Alex,” Giles responded.
After a few hands Giles had a fair grasp of the somewhat complex rules, as well as on his gaming companions. Craggar, true to his appearance, played with little or no strategy, while Jeb (or 'Dirty Jeb' as the greasy man confided, explaining that the moniker came from his of fighting with clever but dirty little tricks—though judging by the way Topper rolled her eyes, combined with the peculiar odour coming off the man, Giles suspected there was another reason) was constantly attempting to finagle the rules according to his needs.
Topper, meanwhile, was a margin more sensible than either of her companions. By the time Miguel's voice came to his ear, explaining that they were now under a second stone trapdoor, probably somewhere inside the fort, she was responding favourably to 'Alex's advances. At first she was surprised and confused, but seemed to take a liking to the attention it warranted her.
(Zeran)
In the corner of the roof, where the old walls of the second floor still stood there was a pile of hay with a bedroll on it, surrounded by more wooden figures. As soon as Zeran stepped onto the crumbling, but sturdy, stone overhand, he felt Auchs' eyes on him. The big man was watching him from the far edge out of the corner of his eye, pretending as if he hadn't noticed, but doing a patently terrible job of subtlety.
“Hello, there.” Zeran called from a safe distance. From here he could see the figures around the impromptu bed were miniature knights and dragons made of wood. The tremendous man held one of each with him.
“Hello.” Auchs said. “What you want?”
“You looked like you were a bit lonely over here, big guy. Mind if I just talk with you for a bit?”
Auchs regarded Zeran with a long suspicious 'Mmmmmmmm,' then said, “okay.” He then returned to playing with his toys. The knight figurine was smashing the dragon, which squealed pitious protests and whimpers, all supplied by the man himself.
“Nice knight and dragon you got there. My name is Zeran. May I have yours?”
Auchs disregarded the last comment. “Knights and Dragons is the best. The knights is all killing the dragons and the dragons is all killing the knights, and they don't like to get hurt, but when they hurt the others and make them pay afterward and that's good,” he rambled off in one breath.
He turned to Zeran, “I'm Ox. It's because I'm big and strong like oxes. My friend Dovan showed me how to spell it, too. It's A, U... uh.... C..... H....... uh—S! Auchs.”
Auchs returned to to focus his attention on his toys.
“So tell me, Auchs, who winds in the end? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.?”
“Well, sometimes the dragons win, and then they're the good guys, and then sometimes the knights win, and they're the good guys. Then next time they change.” Auchs explained.
“I see.” Zeran paused for a moment. Miguel's voice started up in his ear. He worried for a moment that Auchs might hear, but the big man didn't seem to notice the lapse in conversation at all. The others were under the fort.
“You seem like a nice enough fellow, Auchs. Who helped you find the Stag Lord?”
“My friend, Dovan. Dovan is my friend. He knows how to make the bad guys scream real loud. He showed me, but I'm not as good as him yet. He showed me how to spell my name.”
(Excavation Crew)
(~7min)
Once the trapdoor was fully uncovered, it creaked open on ancient hinges. Working carefully and slowly they managed to avoid attracting any more attention to themselves as they slipped into the narrow shaft (after Kyrie had surprised Miguel with a touch of her healing powers).
Once the door was closed behind them and they were sealed in the cramped, pitch black tunnel, Miguel called forth a glimmer of light into Kyrie's acorn. The tunnel under the fort was barely 5' wide, supported by ancient timbers. It led several yards to another steep shaft ending in a second stone door, identical to the first.
Here the crew paused, reporting in their status to Giles and Zeran.
(Zeran)
"Dovan, eh? Nice name."
Zeran took a moment to ask one more question of the lieutenant before he responded to Miguel.
"Auchs, on my way here with my own friend we came across the remains of one of those lizard folks, a kobold I think. It looked like it had been hurt really really bad before it died. Do you happen to know who did that? I only ask because I figure those cowards at the big fort thing wouldn't do something like that."
"Eeeeuuuhhhhh...." Auchs looked deep in concentration, trying as hard as he could to remember. "I dunno," he admitted at last.
"Okay, then, I'll just be on my way."
Auchs didn't respond, returning the entirety of his attention to voice acting the brave knight who was punishing the bad dragon.
Zeran didn't bother to glance back at the guard he questioned earlier as he went down the steep wooden stairs. At the bottom he ducked into the corner, out of sight.
"Miguel, it's Zeran. You guys just about ready? What's the plan?"
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 24/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Map of the Common Room and Owlbear Pen: ~here~
Bandit Tracker:
Bandit AM: NE Watchtower
Bandit FS: NW Watchtower
Bandit JS: SW Watchtower
Craggar: Common Room
Fat Bandit: Common Room
Topper: Common Room
Dirty Jeb: Common Room
Dovan: Common Room
Auchs: 2F/Roof
Akiros: ???
Stag Lord: ???
Posted on 2014-08-13 at 07:04:50.
Edited on 2014-08-14 at 05:12:00 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: 'Cause in all chaos there is calculation
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
As stubborn as she was, Kyrie knew when it was time to regroup. “Wow, I'm popular. Sorry, gotta go.” She turned and fled before she had a chance to get completely surrounded. She covered about half of the distance between her and the trap door as the zombies came shuffling after her.
Miguel looked up as he heard Kyrie's voice in his ear. There were a lot more zombies out there than the last time he looked. He took up his sword and ran out to meet her, taking up position behind her to the side. He charged his sword with energy and waited for the opportunity to strike.
Encumbered by her armour, Kyrie only barely outdistanced most of the pack. The closest raised it's arms over its head as it stumbled the last few steps, swinging to hit her. The farm paladin dodged the blow entirely as she turned back to it.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 18/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
....
Kyr-Zombie: Near Death, Bloodied
Zombie' A: Uninjured, Charge (-2AC)
Zombie' B: Uninjured
Zombie' C: Injured, Bloodied
Zombie' D: Uninjured
(It only looks like Miguel spontaneously gained a higher initiative than the zombies because the only zombie from the first group only walked forward, and didn't do anything significant, while the new four zombies got a much lower initiative and so didn't act until after him.)
Kyrie took another step back. Now that she was this close to the door, there were better uses for her shovel. With a heave she pitched her weapon two-handed toward Frodrick. It landed with a clatter immediately next to him, more or less exactly where she aimed.
Meanwhile the rest of the zombies continued to close in. The one, badly wounded zombie that had been chasing her from the beginning lifted its arms and charged in to meet her, but immediately found it cut down by Miguel's sword (-11dmg Kyr-Z Destroyed).
The mindless dead shuffled after Kyrie. The one that had charged at her last time staggered two steps in and clubbed at her, which she ducked easier than last time. Another walked passed her, looking for its own space to fight. She curled a mailed fist and punched it once, for good measure, but it didn't react to the negligible damage (-0dmg Zombie' B)
Miguel was caught off-guard as another came stumbling after him, throwing a punch that almost knocked him over to dodge it (-5dmg Miguel, 13/25).
Stefan turned back and picked up the shovel. He stopped, looking at the layer of zombie ichor that coated the blade, then shrugged and drove it into the ground. A hard 'thunk' reported to him that something large and solid blocked the blade only a few inches under the surface.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 13/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
...
Kyr-Zombie: Destroyed
Zombie' A: Uninjured,
Zombie' B: Uninjured
Zombie' C: Injured, Bloodied
Zombie' D: Uninjured, Charge
With the combined efforts of the shovel in Stefan's hands and Frodrick's dwarven insight, the two caught sight of the thick stone lid of the ancient trap door.
Kyrie and Miguel meanwhile continued to hold off any would-be distractions. Kyrie drew her sickle side-arm and plunged it ferociously into the chest of one of the zombies, tearing a chunk of rotting ribcage out as she pulled down and out (-8dmg *crit* Zombie'C Destroyed). It collapsed backwards as Miguel adopted his defensive stance.
Miguel's blade hacked deep into the zombie's unarmoured body next to him (-11dmg Zombie'D Near Death), almost finishing it off. The three remaining zombies continued to beat down on their targets with unimaginative persistence. Kyrie's armour took the force out of one attack while she turned to avoid another, and Miguel was keeping on his toes.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 13/25 – Message, Combat Expertise, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
..
Zombie' A: Uninjured,
Zombie' B: Uninjured
Zombie' C: Destroyed
Zombie' D: Near Death, Bloodied
If the bandit 'Jex' had turned back to watch, he would see Kyrie and Miguel holding their own, slowly cutting down the zombies as they retreated, step by step, toward the wall, where he could not see Frodrick and Stefan steadily uncovering the trapdoor.
Kyrie bloodied another farm implement on the ichor of the living dead (-5dmg Zombie'B Bloodied) as Miguel finished off another (-10dmg Zombie'D Destroyed). With nothing else immediately in his field of view, Miguel took advantage of the moment to get around to Kyrie's other side as the two zombies left staggered after her, hammering against the shield she readied.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 13/25 – Message, Combat Expertise, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
.
Zombie' A: Uninjured,
Zombie' B: Injured, Bloodied
Zombie' D: Destroyed
Mindful of what happened the last time she thought she was done with the undead assailants, Kyrie was doubly motivated to finish them quickly and get to cover. With her shield she was fully prepared to last out this fight as long as necessary, but she would need to be mindful of her escape avenue for when the passage was clear.
Though Miguel's spell could transfer their words across great distances to each other, Kyrie and Miguel acted together as if on unspoken signal. Miguel had her zombie under control, so she switched targets, ripping her sickle into the side of its neck, all but decapitating it as she cut open the vulnerable flesh (-12dmg *crit* Zombie'A Destroyed).
Miguel spun his sword in his hands, keeping up the energy flowing through it and keeping himself moving. On his openning he struck for its mid section, hoping to sever enough abdominal muscle for it to lose its mobility, but instead he nearly separated its torso in two down the middle, leaving the carcass wide open as it fell (-15dmg *crit* Zombie'B Destroyed).
Following Kyrie's suit, he stepped back and waited for further zombies to erupt from the ground around them. After a moment they allowed themselves to relax. Whatever force had caused the zombies to erupt from the hillside to chase them, and then summoned more around Kyrie as the others hid, did not make a repeat attempt at either her or them.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 13/25 – Message, Combat Expertise, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
.
Zombie' A: Destroyed
Zombie' B: Destroyed
(~2.5 minutes since beginning Miguel's message spell)
Posted on 2014-08-10 at 22:02:39.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: And we're slipping off the course we prepared,
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
(Excavators)
Frodrick knew that they didn't have time for this. If they didn't get to the door and uncover it, they would be climbing the walls instead, and Frodrick had no love for the sport. He ducked his head and hustled out of there before the zombie had a chance to keep up with him.
Kyrie, rather than follow him immediately, paused. If she could distract the zombies, the others would have plenty of time to get moving. She turned to the zombie standing in front of Stefan. Instead of winding back her shovel like she had so many times, she drew it back as if to drive it into the ground, but then drove it into the zombie's torso, blade-first (-7dmg Ste-Zombie Bloodied). Dark red blood oozed from the wide abdominal wound.
Without missing a beat, Kyrie pulled her shovel back and struck again a different zombie turned its back to her to chase Frodrick (-7dmg Fro-Zombie Bloodied). It shuffled at a steady walk, seemingly oblivious to the bloody gash on its back.
The first zombie she wounded paid her no attention either, raising its stiff arms to club Stefan. The boy was too slow to react. He pulled away at only the last minute, taking a heavy glancing blow backed by the inhuman strength of the undead (-6dmg Stefan 5/11).
The only zombie that gave Kyrie any of its attention was the one that popped up directly next to her. In turn, she barely acknowledged it's clumsy attempt to strike her. Miguel, though, was having a harder time. He barely avoided the brunt of a powerful punch to his gut, losing some of the wind in his lungs (-7dmg Miguel).
Miguel had every intention of following Frodrick's lead, but first he thought maybe he could do something to clear his way. Charging his sword with arcane energy, Miguel spun his sword around and swung at the zombie that had punched him. The mindless shambling corpse did not register the arc of Miguel's blade quickly enough to know to duck. With a single chop, Miguel severed its head clean off from its neck, dissipating the necromancy keeping it moving (-16dmg *crit* Mig-Zombie Destroyed).
Miguel turned as the corpse fell to its knees, mindful of the goal. He ran out from the other side of the boulder, chasing after Frodrick and the trapdoor. Stefan's zombie diverted its attention long enough to take a swing at him, but Miguel was on his toes now.
Seeing Miguel run and not one eager to stay in the presence of the dead much longer than he had to, Stefan beat a hasty retreat after the bard, easily catching up as he devoted his attention to putting one leg in front of the other.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 18/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 20 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
...
Fro-Zombie: Injured, Bloodied
Kyr-Zombie: Uninjured
Mig-Zombie: Destroyed
Ste-Zombie: Injured, Bloodied
Frodrick's stubby legs pumped almost 200lbs of dwarf and steel toward the depression. From here he could clearly see that the site of the trapdoor was conveniently shielded from all three guardposts by its proximity to the pallisade. If they could make it that far without attracting any notice, they would have at least that much going for them.
Kyrie glanced at the two zombies left behind with her. Stefan was much too far away to be in any real immediate danger from the one. Besides, she wasn't finished with something.
The paladin extracted herself from the two, following after the zombie that she smote in the back. As she passed she grabbed its attention, leaving herself wide open, to attack, but rolling off it's expected swing all the same.
The zombie attacking her, still neglected and ignored, started to shuffle slowly after her while she concentrated on the forward troops. The zombie chasing Frodrick quickly went back to ignoring her in its slow but steady pursuit of the dwarf, provoking a jab from her shovel as it passed, which it narrowly dodged. It even walked passed Stefan, who lacked any means to take advantage of the moment. The last zombie, still behind the rock, took the long way around the boulder as it tried to follow Stefan's trail from where it had last seen him.
Miguel saw the zombie come up behind him and prepared to avoid its attack, but it walked blindly past him as if he wasn't there. Happily taking the opportunity, Miguel struck it down, too, thrusting his blade into rotting gut (-8dmg Ste-Z Destroyed).
With nothing else blocking his way, Miguel sprinted for the trapdoor. Unencumbered by heavy armour, he covered enough ground to catch up to Frodrick in a few moments, passing him and coming close to the target patch of ground.
“Hey! Guys! Some idiots got caught by the zombies!”
At least it was better than 'hey, look, it's those people the Stag Lord wants to kill, raise the alarm'.
The guard at the southwest tower laughed and lifted his bow. “You wanna bet I can hit one from here?” He loosed the arrow before anyone could answer. The arrow fell several feet wide of Frodrick, but the bandit on watch didn't seem to be worried about this. “Hah!”
Stefan drew an arrow. He strafed around the zombie chasing Frodrick, getting in front of it. He intended to finish it off before it ever had a chance to get close enough. He positioned himself directly between Frodrick and it, then loosed the arrow. At this close range it was a barrel shoot, and the arrow buried deep into the zombie's chest, probably puncturing a decayed lower lung.
The zombie didn't even seem to notice the arrow at all (-1dmg Fro-Z).
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 18/25 – Message, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
..
Fro-Zombie: Badly Wounded, Bloodied
Kyr-Zombie: Uninjured
Ste-Zombie: Destroyed
Frodrick hustled to the spot. He took his axe and started to hack into the dirt, loosening it up to clear faster. Now would be a really bad time to be wrong.
“Hey, where'd he go?” The bandit jeered.
“Bah, nevermind him, Jex you idiot. Didn't you see what those two brought? Do you want to end up like Cragger when your foolin' around gets the Stag Lord on our asses?” the bandit from the northwest watchtower attached via walkway to 'Jex's own tower called back.
“Let the zombies take care of 'em and then loot the bodies after.”
Kyrie chased after the zombie while her own dedicated attacker struggled to keep up. She rammed her shovel into its back. It was only a superficial cut compared to the first, but all the same the dark forces animating it fled the broken corpse (-4dmg Fro-Z Destroyed).
Behind her she found that 'her' zombie had finally caught up with her, but its reactions were so slow it merely stood there, not attacking as it processed the fact of its target coming within reach.
Stefan drew another arrow from his quiver and took aim. There was no clean shot with it standing beside Kyrie, though, and besides, he had seen already how effective his arrows were against it. He debated for a second switching to his axe and running in, but he remembered that his efforts would be better served getting them underground.
Miguel caught up with Frodrick, setting down his sword to start pulling away the dirt Frodrick was already beginning to loosen. Stefan was hardly a moment behind him, now within a handful of yards of the two.
The bandit, 'Jex' was put out. He took a last look at the group, then averted his eyes. Killing was less fun if you couldn't brag about your lucky shots.
Frodrick 34/34 – I am a dwarf and I'm diggin a hole.
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 18/25 – Message, Diggy-diggy Hole, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
.
Fro-Zombie: Destroyed
Kyr-Zombie: Uninjured
Kyrie turned to face the last zombie. “You wanted me? Here!” She rammed the point of her shovel into its gut, slicing through soft belly flesh. Miguel heard her words faintly by his ear as his spell picked up her voice.
If it wasn't a mindless corpse reanimated by dark forces, Kyrie would swear the thing was disappointed that it had chased her all that way only to have its intestines perforated (-11dmg Kyr-Z Near Death, Bloodied). Thick, dead blood oozed down its legs as it raised its arms, but Kyrie was already turning to hustle to the diggers.
Kyrie knew she was taking a risk by turning to run, but she also knew she could more than handle it. It swung its stiff-club like arms down, glancing off the spot between her shoulders as she fled. It hurt, but it would have hurt a lot more if it had connected directly (-8dmg Kyrie).
The zombie reverted to chase mode automatically, slowly walking up behind her again, but once again failing to react quickly enough to strike once it caught up.
Stefan joined the others, using his axe to loosen more dirt and push it away.
Kyrie turned to finish off the last zombie and join the rest, hoping the guards didn't notice that their confidence in the undead was misplaced. What she saw instead was four more mounds, this time all forming directly around her. The ground erupted with four more (relatively) fresh zombies, bursting from the hillside and crawling to their feet.
Kyrie reacted without pausing to think and stuck her blade into one as it crawled out (-7dmg Zombie'C Bloodied).
Frodrick 34/34 – Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self, 20 bolts
Kyrie 26/34 –
Miguel 18/25 – Message, Diggin' a Hole, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 5/11 – Diggy-Diggy-Hole, 19 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Kyr-Zombie: Near Death, Bloodied
Zombie' A: Uninjured
Zombie' B: Uninjured
Zombie' C: Injured, Bloodied
Zombie' D: Uninjured
(Phew, that was quite some fun, then wasn't it? I hope I don't step on toes with Frodrick's actions, but it seemed like he was determined and committed, which makes sense since he has a goal to reach and he knows his team is more than enough to keep up with him. Now that there are more zombies I wanted to pause to see who would take a gander.)
(By the way, as a quirk of how the zombies appear, despite their now being 5 and more than enough to flank twice over, only two zombies emerged in such a way as to be in a flanking position, and there is actually a perfectly clear avenue of escape if Kyrie withdraws.)
(Bonus points btw to anyone who recognizes the song lyrics in the title of the last two posts. Bonus bonus points for anyone spotting my handy zombie emergence timer in the post body.)
Posted on 2014-08-09 at 08:09:21.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: There's a hummin' in the restless summer air...
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
“One.” Miguel pointed at Kyrie.
“Two.” He pointed at Giles.
“Three.” He pointed at Zeran.
Each of the designated targets heard Miguel's voice twice as he pointed to them, ematating from the air just behind their left ear.
“The spell will pick up again once we get back in range.” Miguel said. Giles nodded, turning his mount, Jargon (stripped of her barding to avoid rousing suspicion), to the north. Zeran, riding Uriel, did the same. There were no more words to be had, no more time to waste. It was time to go.
Zeran and Giles rode away at a good clip, swinging wide around to the meet with the front path a little further down the hill. The rest, moving with their heads low, began trekking up the hill toward the fort's south side, where Frodrick's trapdoor lay.
(~1 min)
It was slow work for the trapdoor crew. They kept one eye always on the three watchtowers as they moved from monolithic kame to kame, using the boulders to cover their approach across the otherwise open hillside.
Zeran and Giles paused as they intersected the end of the path that wound up to the fort. Giles whispered a chanting spell to himself, and before Zeran's eyes his form blurred and shrunk until he was covered by the visage of the bandit woman whose cloak he wore. His sword and chain shirt now appeared to be a short sword and leather armour, and on the whole he was almost a foot shorter.
Meanwhile, Zeran tucked his pistol in under his cloak, carefully concealed and out of the way of any casual observers. With the final touches on their disguises finished, they spurred their mounts on toward the entrance of the Stag Lord's fort.
(~1.5min)
“Look alive, boys, we have visitors.”
Miguel froze on the spot, halfway between two boulders, completely out in the open. The guards on the top of the tower stood up straight and grabbed their longbows—all facing the front of the fort. Giles and Zeran were still too far away to be picked up by his spell, but he could assume from here that they had reached the front already.
The two 'bandits' rode up to the gate. The guard in the foremost tower called out to them in a soft-spoken voice. “Hullo, who might I ask goes there?”
Zeran sat up straight on his faded black gelding, making sure the silver stag amulet that was part of his disguise was clearly visible. “By the bloody bones of St. Gilmorg, who wants to know?”
“Ah, well, well, that's an old password, now isn't it? What, may I ask, is your business in the Stag Lord's fort today?” The guard smiled passively. He seemed calm to the point of boredom.
Zeran reached into his saddlebag and drew the re-polished wooden case of herbal liquor part ways out. “We've brought some booze for the Stag Lord.”
Bluff: 7 + 11 = 18
The bandit raised an eyebrow. “Well, that is good news. The Stag Lord was ever so put out when his last shipment never came in. We've had to make do with the cheap stuff for a while now.” He turned to the fort below him, “Open the door, boys, these folk have liquor for the Stag Lord.”
As the large wooden gates were opening for the two disguised 'bandits', the trapdoor party were a little over halfway up the hill. The other two bandits on watch seemed to lose interest shortly after the talking began and went back to their usual patterns.
“Did you say something, Frodrick?” Stefan turned back to the dwarf. The four of them were ducking behind a kame, Frodrick watching for the next opportunity to move. The old dwarf turned back to his squire. He heard it too. It was like a grunt or a grumble, or...
The sound came again, echoed from all around them, quietly.
The ground between Frodrick and Stefan erupted. The torso of a half-rotted ancient pale corpse emerged from the spot, caked with dirt, crawling out of the ground. Around them three more zombies did the same, each emerging next to someone.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – Disguise Self (~0.5min/30), 20 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 25/25 – Message (~1.5min/30), 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – Disguised, Pistol Concealed, 30 bullets
Stefan 11/11 – 20 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
....
Zombies: Unquiet Dead x4
(Excavation Crew)
(A fight with the zombies now from this close will almost surely attract the attention of one of the guards. Zombies are notoriously slow-moving, so running toward the fort would quickly out-distance them, but could make the problem worse if they catch up before you uncover the trapdoor. Attacking while running seems to cover the best and worst of both options, but is a valid third option in its own.)
(Infiltration Crew)
(0.5-2min)
As the gates opened, a pair of bandits emerged to take their horses. Jargon and Uriel joined the two other horses already stationed at the fort in a small area under the watchtower above the gate.
The Stag Lord's fort looked like two different structures smashed together into one area. In the centre was a large, squarish ruin made of thick stone walls. It looked like it might have once had at least two floors, but now almost all of the second floor was reduced to a low wall in one corner, while the platform that made up the former floor remained to serve as a roof for only half of the first floor.
Around the central stone ruin were the wooden structures of the three guardtowers, as well as wooden walkways up to the second floor that connected between the towers, hanging 20' off the ground. The yard and palisade itself ran around the large stone ruin, with a 10-15' space between the structure and the walls.
The entrance to the stone ruin was little more than a wide space where presumably a proper door once existed, but had since disappeared. Just inside the entrance a wooden wall separated the left side from the right, with the half remaining roof provided by the second floor covering the right, while the left led to a steep set of wooden stairs up to the walkway behind the northeast guardtower.
It was from the right-hand, covered portion of the stone ruin that Akiros emerged, followed immediately by a massive barrel of a man wearing somekind of leather hood over most of his face, with a grim helmet made of bone, resembling the skull of a stag with impressive antlers and—strangely—long tusks.
With the confident swagger of one who is already on the first step to drunk, the Stag Lord smiled through his thick beard, stepped forward, and took the case of liquor for Zeran. Save for a cloak, the Stag Lord's chest was bare, showing off an impressive array of disfiguring scars.
He turned to his lieutenant and second-in-command. “Akiros, pay these fine soldiers a bonus. Twenty crowns should be reward enough.”
“Yes, my liege.” Akiros bowed just slightly, but could not keep the faint disdain entirely from his face as he caught an involuntary waft of his master's breath. If the Stag Lord noticed, he said nothing, merely laughing. “Hah, 'liege'. That's why I like you, Akiros.” He swaggered away back into the stone ruin.
Akiros paid Zeran and Giles their ten gold each, his mind clearly occupied with his own thoughts. “You may stay the night in the fort if you wish. You'll have to bring your own bedroll, of course.”
Akrios and the two bandits also disappeared back under the covered half of the stone ruin.
(You now have more or less free access to the fort, though I will give you a heads up if you're beginning to stray into suspicious activity. The whole scene between successfully bluffing the guard and the Stag Lord's departure happens more or less fluidly, so I wasn't worried about stopping to get reactions. All the same, if there was something you wanted to say/do during that time, you can still act if you wish, though whatever you do it may be wise to keep up with the 'flow'.)
(Just to cover those areas once again, as you will see on the map below, from where you are in the Yard inside the palisade you can immediately see the NE Watch Tower, the Central Ruin (covered room) where all currently seen bandits except those on watch have returned to, the Walkway that goes between the NE Watchtower and the Central Ruin (2F), and the Central Ruin (uncovered) that contains stairs up to the walkway. You know there are two more watchtowers, but from here you don't see any way up to them (though the map here clearly shows that there is another staircase around back))
Stag Lord's Fort Map (specifically detailing the upper levels, thus the towers and walkways are plainly visible, as well as the second floor of the stone ruin which makes the 'roof' of the ground floor, but none of the inner rooms): ~here~
(Bandit Tracker - there are at least 5 rank-and-file bandits in the fort that you know of, not counting the lieutenants and their lord)
Bandit AM: NE Watchtower
Bandit FS: NW Watchtower
Bandit JS: SW Watchtower
Bandit CK: Opened gate, returned to central ruin
Bandit FN: Tied horses, returned to central ruin
Akiros: Paid loot, returned to central ruin
Dovan: ?
Auchs: ?
Stag Lord: Took booze, returned to central ruin
Posted on 2014-08-07 at 20:27:36.
Edited on 2014-08-09 at 08:09:58 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Book 1 Climax Approaching!
Traveling F5-G5
11 Erastus
The Thorn River grew wide and shallow as it ran into the Shrike. True to Giles' information, just north from where the two rivers met, the river was shallow enough to make a crossing.
From there it was mostly a straight shot south, following the Shrike River to the lake marked on the map as the Tuskwater, the larger of two lakes in the Greenbelt region. The trip across the ford took only most of the day, drastically cutting down on the time it would have taken to backtrack north to a different river crossing.
11 Erastus
Stag Lord's Fort; Hex G5
Tuskwater
There it was at last. The stronghold of the bandit calling himself the Stag Lord. It was nestled within sight of the northern short of the great Tuskwater, exactly where the wisp let slip. The Stag Lord's Fort was surrounded on three sides by the naturally hilly terrain, with the fourth dominated by a narrow footpath of hard-packed earth providing no cover up to the fort's front gate.
The area around the fort was practically devoid of shrubbery for almost 300' in every direction, save for the sparsest of vines, but the large boulders that gave the Kamelands their name dotted the hills on all sides but the front path, large enough to provide cover from the fort.
The palisade surrounding the fort stood 15' high, consisting of logs spaced no further than 6 inches apart. An experienced climber could probably make it over the wall without much difficulty, though the top was furnished with sharpened branches to discourage such tactics that would have to be avoided.
The Greenbelt Charter party positioned their wagon in the hills away from the fort further up the Shrike river and approached. It was already getting late in the day, but they could clearly see from their vantage point in the more densely vegetated hills away from the fort.
Miguel was the one to spot that the bandit lookouts manning the three 20' tall watchtowers didn't keep a very good watch, hardly bothering to stray their gaze from the main path to the north. As he was pointing this out, Frodrick's keen sense for earthwork noticed something else very interesting.
To the southeast of the fort there was a sunken patch of ground. Unless his years of dwarven expertise living around subterranean dwellings mislead him, this sunken section of earth was an old, forgotten trapdoor, now covered by a layer of dirt that couldn't completely obscure the area's former purpose.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 29/29 – 20 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 25/25 – 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – 30 bullets
Stefan 11/11 – 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 –
Posted on 2014-08-03 at 19:00:51.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Dealing with the uncooperative.
10 Erastus
River Fork; Hex F5
Thorn River
The bandit woman, seemingly more out of offense than being cowed, shut her mouth. She glared at Zeran balefully for a moment while Frodrick dealt with the wisp. Kyrie came over, but the paladin only earned a share of the glare reserved for Zeran for her efforts.
The moment she had the full party for her audience again, she began to shout unimaginative curses at her captors. “I am nobody's prisoner. You have no right to hold me! Untie me now, you ugly trollop! There'll be hell to pay if you don't!”
Frodrick did not pause to respond to her invectives. He found Jargon's saddle and made quick work strapping it on. “I'm goin' after the runaway. I'll need a torch for Jargon to see. We'll be gone a few hours at least.”
“I have another idea, actually,” Miguel said. He took Frodrick's compass and sang a spell to make it glow like a torch. “I'll have to recast that in half an hour, so I'm coming with you.”
“Let's get going then,” said Giles. “I can help you track if the trail goes cold.”
The three left, two on foot and Frodrick on his horse. The bandit woman was just about speechless at being ignored to bluntly. “You flea-bitten oafs deaf as well as ugly? I said let me go! These are the Stag Lord's lands! His word is law around here! I hope he kills every one of you and sticks your heads up on—”
Kyrie knelt beside the woman and smiled. "Good evening. Or maybe it's morning. Hard to tell when the sun isn't around." She said, completely nonchalant about her outburst.
"Now I get that you just woke up and are grumpy, but I think you might want to calm down a bit." Kyrie suggested, before she looked thoughtful, "I'm personally not about to follow through with what Zeran suggested, but if the others put it to a vote, I can and will use my shovel to knock you out, again."
“You might as well kill me if you're not going to let me go.”
Kyrie smiled. “I'm Kyrie, by the way.”
The wind went out of the bandit woman's sails. She allowed herself to be lead back to the camp where the fire was still out. Stefan set about starting up a new one while Zeran went back out to the riverside in the darkness to make one last plea with the wisp and to thank it for its warning.
(The Hunt)
The tracks led north along the river bank for some time. The blind bandit in the dark did little to throw any pursuers off his tracks. After several minutes Frodrick spotted evidence of where the man had lit a torch to see by.
The man's tracks picked up speed after that, but he would have to rest soon, like anyone else. The group pressed on for more than an hour, forcing themselves to continue despite the growing fatigue (-6sub Miguel, -5sub Giles, -3dmg Jargon Fatigued). Miguel quickly cast the spell he'd been saving for after the fatigue set in (+9hp, +6sub Miguel, 25/25).
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 16/19 – Mount, Fatigued
Giles 29(5)/29 – Fatigued, 19 bolts
Miguel 25/25 – Light (30min/cast), 19 arrows
After another ten or fifteen minutes following the trail, an arrow sprouted from Frodrick's shoulder, just above his heart. The enchanted mail stopped all but the very tip of the very lucky shot (-1dmg Frodrick), but caught him by surprise well enough.
In the meagre starlight the party could barely make out the outline of the tree along the bank where the arrow had seemingly come from. It made sense—a good defensive position from which to see pursuers for a good distance. Because of their light, they were brightly lit up targets, where they couldn't yet see their attacker.
Giles didn't bother to wait. He advanced until the tree was close enough that he could clearly see it despite the darkness, their quarry dangling from a branch mid way up the tree. The soldier returned fire (-4dmg Bandit).
At once Miguel threw his illumination spell up, causing four stars of light to appear with the bandit in the tree, revealing him to all. Miguel and Frodrick moved in. The man saw the predicament he was in, loosing one more shot (-2dmg Giles) before he gave up his position and started to flee.
He had barely started to descend when Giles' next shot took him in the arm (-6dmg Bandit). He lost his grip and fell backwards out of the tree without a cry, punctuated only with the heavy 'thump' as he hit the ground (-3dmg Bandit Prone).
When they arrived at the body he was already dead, the fall finishing off what little remained.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 16/19 – Mount, Fatigued
Giles 27(5)/29 – Fatigued, 17 bolts
Miguel 25/25 – Light (30min/cast), 19 arrows
Bandit: Dead
The walk back was no jaunt in the park, and by the time they returned, the lot were thoroughly worn from travel (-1sub Giles, -6sub Miguel, -5dmg Jargon).
Miguel readily used the rest of his magic for the day to heal Jargon, who had taken the worst of the strain (+6hp, +2hp Jargon), restoring her to vigour.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 –
Giles 27(6)/29 – Fatigued, 17 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 25(6)/25 – Fatigued, 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – 28 bullets, -2G
Stefan 11/11 – 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 – Neigh
Bandit Captive: Not sleepy
(Hehe, when it came to rolling to endure the forced march the rolls were around 5, highest roll was a 7, but in the combat that followed only one roll landed below 16, not counting the confirm on the crit threat that Frodrick took)
Posted on 2014-07-30 at 00:55:55.
|
Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: Ruin of a Great House
Nona kept an almost paranoid watch on the foggy stretches of trackless swamp on either side of them after the first sighting of a stalker. If she caught sight of it again, she would be using her crossbow first, asking questions later. Perhaps Fox's story about the Soggy River Monster had filled her imagination with all sorts of possibilities.
When the majestic wreck of the two-story shack came into view Nona breathed a small sigh of relief. The warden's shack was much bigger than she expected of the name, but its state of ruin and decay more matched her presumptions about the hermit's lifestyle.
She leaned over to Fox. “Comfortable, three bedroom, two bath affair and a view overlooking the bay. Surrounded by natural scenery, close to the best fishing in Sandpoint. Buy now and it comes with all the furniture thrown in for free.”
Alexis knocked on the door. There was a short pause before finally a scruffy halfling appeared. He was barely as tall as the the doorknob he was holding. Nona blinked. Had anyone mentioned that the warden was a halfling? She supposed there was no reason to assume he wasn't.
His gaze drifted up to Alexis’. “Oh, hullo. How can I help you? I’m afraid I can’t accept visitors today. My house is a bit of a mess, and so in no shape to entertain.”
Nona wasn't sure any amount of cleaning up would make the house seem presentable for entertaining but she resisted saying so in the warden's company. She stepped passed Alexis, who seemed to be tongue-tied for the moment.
“We only need a moment of your time, Mr. Proudstump.” She elbowed Fox discretely, silently requesting back-up from the socialite. “We're here about the goblin bounty, and common knowledge has it you are the best source for information concerning Brinestump. Besides,” Nona cast a speculative glance over Walthus' head into his house, “it can't be any messier than most wizards I've studied with.” The sad part was, even out here in the swamp, she meant it.
Posted on 2014-07-28 at 20:11:29.
|
Topic: Integrating Improvised Weapons into DnD
Subject: Actually
I was trying to figure out what seemed strange about this but then I remembered that the feat I was thinking about was introduced in Pathfinder.
I don't know about finesse-able improv weapons, but if you're looking for some inspiration to base your improv proficiency feat on, you could do worse than look up Catch Off-Guard (Combat)
(If that flat-footed bit seems overpowered, which it did to me, reread until you catch the 'unarmed opponents' which I missed the first three times)
Also, I know in 3.5 you don't often hear of 'traits', but the paladin in my Kingmaker game, Kyrie, has the 'Rough and Ready' trait which allows her to be proficient in any improv weapon that could be considered a part of her profession/craft skill. She has ranks in Profession (farmer) and let me tell you how many times she has beaten down an enemy with her shovel (only 1d8 damage based on the improv weapon guidelines, but flavourful as hell and pretty awesome anyway)
Posted on 2014-07-25 at 02:52:54.
Edited on 2014-07-25 at 03:03:08 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: A win and a loss.
10 Erastus
River Fork; Hex F5
Thorn River
Frodrick threw his shield arm over the drifting corpse. He dragged the horse monster to shore and part way up the bank while Kyrie and Miguel worked together to tie up the new hostage. Kyrie laid hands on the woman's temple, where the worst of the damage was concentrated.
“Honestly, I wouldn't do that if I were you,” the wisp warned. “It's much quieter like this.” The glowing purple orb seemed nonchalant about the theft of its previous meal, evidently satisfied with the new meal presented to it.
True to the wisp's estimate, the moment the healing touch had worked its magic (+13hp Bandit) and the bandit's eyes slowly opened, her mouth also opened. “Let me go you blasted poxy scuts!”
She wrenched away from her captors, but quickly found herself hardly able to move under Kyire's diligent ropework. “Untie me or I'll take my knife and shove it so far up your arse you'll piss blood! I will not be taken prisoner!”
Frodrick took a couple steps away from the anrgy captive. He would deal with her later, for now he had more pressing matters. “Wisp of the wood. I have a bargain for ye, and I think it is one of mutual benefit. I assume ye can hear me out since yer meal is here.”
“We will be heading out to the bandit camp in the next little while, and we could use a way in and/or a distraction while in the midst of combat. I don't know what in the nine hells it is you eat, but considering you like your meals dying, I figured this would be an offer of mutual benefit. You survey their hideout and get us in, and we do the killin'.”
“Mmm, a bandit camp you say?”
Frodrick nodded.
“Near here, presumably headed by a humanling that wears antlers like a stag?”
Frodrick agreed it was so.
“A humanling who hides out in its adorable little fort? Procclaims dominion over this land with an army of thieves and cutthroats scooting about all higgledy-piggledy?”
Frodrick kept nodding. There was no need to tell the wisp that they only knew half of those things before this conversation.
“Never heard of it. Never have, never will.” The wisp's tone suddenly turned aloof, raising half a foot in a gesture that held the distinct impression of turning its nose up at the dwarf.
Frodrick glanced to Giles, silently asking if his crass nature had offended in some way he wasn't aware.
“What do you take me for?” the wisp asked, “I'm weird, not a bloody pervert!”
Frodrick could not understand where he had gone wrong, but Giles was beginning to get an idea what was happening. He knew that sometimes wisps would show up in cities and hang around gallows or other places they could feast of the fear of the dying, but scholars debated why the majority preferred to stick to remote swampy locales.
“Good day to you, sirs.” The wisp's light blinked out. It was impossible for either soldier to discern its transparent globe-like body in the receding twilight, but after a moment (between the bandit woman's protests), the dwarf could still hear a faint, distinctly pleased humming noise of the wisp still 'feeding' off the river monster.
Frodrick 34/34 –
Jargon 19/19 – Defend: Miguel
Giles 29/29 – Divine Favour (6-9/10), 19 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 –
Miguel 16/25 – Dancing Lights (6-9/10), Grease (3-6/30), 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – 28 bullets, -2G
Stefan 11/11 – 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 – Neigh
Water-Horse-Monster-Thing: Dying on Shore
Bandit: Battered, Conscious, 19 arrows
Will-o-Wisp: Uninjured
(You may by all means continue to attempt to speak with the wisp, either last minute protests before it disappears or later when you realise it's actually still in the area, but short of something dramatic, it is unlikely to respond, much less reappear. Nevertheless, you now know with a reasonable degree of certainty the manner (fort) and the location (lake) of the Stag Lord's base of operations.)
(In other news, I am someday going to need a name for the wisp just in case, and frankly this thing is out of my control by now. I recruit any and all suggestions for the name, even if you only have a vague idea, like 'it should be named something ridiculously British sounding', like Bob Poppelwell, or something nigh unpronouncable by human tongues with too many 'x's and phonetically approximates to something crude sounding.)
Posted on 2014-07-22 at 21:36:09.
|
Topic: 3.5 rules question
Subject: Aha!
Found my Monster Manual. In the glossary under 'Natural Weapons' (p312 in my copy) it lists the damage type of every natural weapon. Bite is B/P/S
Posted on 2014-07-16 at 22:33:48.
|
Topic: 3.5 rules question
Subject: I don't remember where
I remember being under the impression that somewhere I read once it did Bludgeoning AND Piercing AND Slashing all at once. I can't cite that for you, but it seems to make enough sense to me (crush bone, pierce and rend flesh) in at least most situations.
Posted on 2014-07-16 at 22:28:04.
|
Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Like a greased fish is a phrase I never though I'd get to apply to a PC
10 Erastus
River Fork; Hex F5
Thorn River
Giles waded into the water right along side Kyrie. He'd prefer a bit of room but there was none to be had. The soldier refilled with energy spurring on his every strike and with dispassionate precision he thrust his sword into the unidentified monster's flank. He used the cold iron sword on the chance that this was some kind of demon or fey, but it didn't seem any more vulnerable to his sword than any other when he pulled the bloody tip free (-6dmg WHMT).
Frodrick splashed into the river after him. What was only knee-deep water for the rest came clear to the dwarf's belt, but he waded level to the monster, still trying to help Miguel escape its grasp. Jargon kept up trying to bite, but the monster was more wary of the fellow horse.
Miguel squirmed and thrashed in the water over his head. The slippery layer on his armour made him extraordinarily hard to keep a hold on, and with Frodrick's help, he easily slipped away like a greased fish. Once free, he made a breaststroke for the shallow water. The monster slammed him in the back as he retreated, most of the force diverted by Kyrie's aura (-3dmg Miguel 16/25). The bard crawled out of the river onto land, soaked head to toe.
Recognising its own imminent mortality and the loss of its meal, the monster did the only sensible thing. It dove into the deeper water, retreating to wherever it had stashed the first bandit it had drowned.
In the last second before the river monster escaped his grasp entirely, Frodrick swung his axe. To his satisfaction, his waraxe struck hard against the fleeing creature's back (-12dmg WHMT). The pale body spasmed and went slack, already beginning to float downstream slowly, unresisted (Dying).
Frodrick 34/34 – Challenge [End]
Jargon 19/19 – Defend: Miguel
Giles 29/29 – Divine Favour (6/10), Justice Resumed and Ended, 19 bolts
Kyrie 34/34 – Bastion End
Miguel 16/25 – Dancing Lights (6/10), Grease (2/30), 19 arrows
Zeran 27/27 – 29 bullets+, -2G
Stefan 11/11 – Challenge [End], 17 arrows
Uriel 13/13 – Mount
Water-Horse-Monster-Thing: Dying, Unconscious, Driftwooding
Bandit: Dying, Unconscious, 19 arrows
Will-o-Wisp: Uninjured
(The horse appears to be dying and will probably float away if uncontested (it's a simple matter to just grab and tow it to shore). The unconscious bandit has been laying dying for the better part of I think 4 rounds, bleeding out.)
Posted on 2014-07-16 at 22:24:26.
Edited on 2014-07-16 at 22:26:01 by Sibelius Eos Owm
|
| |
View/Edit Your Profile | Staff List | Contact Us
Use of the RDINN forums or chatrooms constitutes agreement with our Terms of Service.You must enable cookies and javascript to use all features of this site.
|
|
What game do you own the 
Return to Charadun - Q&A
The Morphing Game
Return to Charadun - Recr
