Repeatedly.
You proceed cautiously but swiftly into the unnatural winter. There is no incident until you come to the crossing where you fought the elementals. As you are bracing yourselves to cross, testing the ice carefully, Tacey suddenly grips Dom's arm and points to what to him appears to be just a half-frozen puddle of water. The very water seems to be moving.
You may roll for initiative but the ooze goes on 2, so you can probably just go ahead and attack. Dom is 10 feet away when it first stirs, revealing itself.
Damiano will take advantage no one is in contact yet to use his hand of the apprentice on the ooze
Erland zaps the moving water puddle with a beam of icy cold.
to hit touch, for cold damage
Dom waits for the ranged attackers to launch their vollies, especially Ingrit.
Immediately after, he draws his cold-iron falcata. "The ice, it attacks us again!" He swings wildly with his sword.
;
Ingrit fires a shot at the weird, semi-frozen puddle.
The ooze seems impervious to cold but other than that all your attacks strike home. The ooze seems resilient enough to take a lot of punishment though.
Dom needs to make a DC 20 Reflex save or his poor falcata takes 4 points of acid damage from the ooze juice.
Tacey and Eianar still to go, then the ooze.
Since 'Hand of the apprentice' is an attack made with my dagger, I will also roll , just in case
Tacey runs forward, drawing both of her short swords and lashes out at it with one.
I don't like the idea of puddles attacking us when there's all this snow about.
Eianar sends a stone towards the ooze, "Les, jus keep movin, aye dinah reckon a puddle can move tha fast! Keep it ah range!" he suggests
Damiano's dagger takes 5 points of damage and Tacey's sword 2 points. The ooze tries to envelope Domitian in its cold grasp, but he just barely evades it.
It is starting to look a bit ragged around the edges but it still fights on.
You are all up again.
Ingrit rapidly draws and fires another arrow.
Eianar sends a stone towards the ooze, "Get outta tha way, wees get it from range!" Eianar says loudly at Tacey and Dom ...
As the stone flies wide of the mark, Eianar making sure he doesn't hit either of his allies in combat with the icey puddle, he shouts in frustration, "Ayes told yous t' get aways. Sees I can't 'it it wit yous thar." Eianar moves away from the ooze, into a position to get it from distance again.
Eland frowns, frustrated that his cold spell had no discernible effect.
"Should have guessed a half-frozen living puddle wouldn't care about a little frost."
He draws his crossbow and readies to shoot if the melee folks disengage.
to hit (if clean shot presents itself), for piercing damage.
Tacey likes Eianar's idea.
Dom barely avoids the acid eating away at his falcata. "Okay, let's back up!" he agrees. He quickly withdraws with Tacey.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Damiano moves away from the beastie while loading his crossbow
As you move away you notice that Eianar was right. The monster is too slow to pursue you effectively, so you can easily finish it off.
After that, you are able to reach the lodge without further incident. How do you want to approach the bridge?
After the fight , Damiano looks at the stub which is all that survives of his dagger and looks around
Sorry, Guys , I did not think I would need a back up dagger. Anyone have a simple weapon I could borrow ?
Ingrit removes a dagger strapped to her ankle and hands it to Damiano."So how do we want to tackle this? Scout the area, stalk the creature or try to draw it out?"
"I don't really know anything specific about trolls." Ingrit says studying the area as she speaks.
Thanks Ingrit
Ingrit sees no signs of trouble. No footsteps other than your own lead up to the lodge.
Well, we got a bunch of people and a whole bunch of fire, right? Wanna play rabbit in the bush? Someone goes and pokes it then runs back out and it comes along with? Ev'ryone else waits elsewhere an' burns it to a crisp.
"Works for me. Any volunteers to be rabbit?" I.ngrit asks
Anyone got a spell to run faster?
Sorry , I did not have the time or the money to learn it
"I'll do it. I'm best able to parry its blows should it get close enough to strike. Let's quickly warm up in the Lodge and survey the scene."
"Sounds like a plan. We all have ranged weapons, and if we cover you from a distance, that should help."
"Ayes be wit yous on tha plan." says Eianar, "But I dinah have magiks like tha." He gets his flasks ready.
The bridge is in full view from the lodge; in fact it is just west of the stables. It is about 30 feet long and narrow enough that you will need to cross it in single file. You can't see any troll or other guardians.
Ok, I'm gonna take a look at the other side. If they're close then I'll pull them back here. If they're not, we can set up on both sides, I can lead them onto the bridge and we could try burning it with them all on it.
"Ah dinah tink burning bridges is a good idea, Tacey, wees may wanna use it after." says the druid. "Does it loook safe ta ya?" he asks, "afore anyones goes across. Happens ya might wanna rope tied to ya?" he asks unsure about the bridge. "Bess wees ready ta take tha troll on if wees ave ta."
You should take care. Trolls are not reputed to be stealthy apart from a subspecies who has actually the capacity to seem like a mossy tree. Some scholars posit that's where the story of trolls living under bridges comes from. When they do not actually live under it , it allows them to stay hidden until they spring an ambush.
"Tacey, wait." Dom's chivalrous instincts leave him unable to accept her plan. "We agreed that I would be the 'rabbit' to lure out the troll. As Damiano says, trolls are most fearsome when able to launch an ambush from a bridge. I'll not allow a lady to take on that risk."
Dom quickly hands Tacey 2 of his Alchemist's Fire. "I suspect you'll be better at hurling these anyway. Be ready." Dom then proceeds across the bridge, not willing to take no for an answer. He looks for signs of danger.
As Dom moves forward to scout for the troll, Ingrit takes the time to light a batch of her incendiary arrows should the monster appear.
As Dom ventures onto the bridge all is silent until he reaches the middle of the bridge, when suddenly something high up in a tree casts a spell. The bridge is instantly covered in slippery ice. He must make a Reflex 13 save or slip and fall.
Then let's roll for initiative. Map is coming.
What do you mean you can't let a- oh damn it all!
Tacey pulls out a rope and tosses it out to Dom.
I swear I'm going to kill him if we make it through this.
Grab the rope and get back over here!
Eianar grumbles to himself about how he warned against crossing without being roped up for safety. "Sees yous says take it, does theys noes. Theys will never learn, theys townies tink theys knows it all."
initiative.
"Trolls climb trees now?"
"Woah!" . Dom, looking out for a suddenly-appearing troll, is surprised by the sudden appearance of ice under him! He just barely manages to keep his footing. Sword at hand, he readies to confront . . . something.
We even know it's a troll? Could just be more fairies, hey?
Tacey is up, then the monster. You glimpse something blue high up in the tree where the spell came from.
Tacey tosses a rope to Dom, while the thing in the tree casts another spell, forcing Ingrit, Eianar and Tacey need to make a Will 14 save. Meanwhile Dom needs to make a Will 12 save against another unseen foe or be dazed for one round.
Then all of you are up. Even if you fail the save you can still act (excepting Dom).
perception
Erland stays where he is, with Fiske curled around his shoulders. Holding his crossbow at the ready, he looks all around for the creatures attacking them.
Ready Action to fire crossbow at enemy if they appear.
"There's two of these creatures trying to hex me! Shaking off the effect of further magics, Dom stows his falcata, draws his longbow, and takes a step forward, looking for something to shoot at."