GM Tarondor's Ptolus Campaign

Game Master Tarondor

Tilver: Understood.

Silas slashes open the guts of one little ratling, which falls to the floor, coughing and squeaking.

Dain, Velika, go!

ok, based on the above, I am assuming that Tilver should actually be 10' from the ratlings, so I am going to shift his token 5' to where I suspect he actually is, then go

Dain moves into the room, scattering rats and stabbing his spear at the ratling that is still standing.

Move: NW,W; attack upright ratling with spear

attack with spear + Inspire Courage: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 5 + 1 = 20
spear damage + Inspire Courage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 2 + 1 = 11

Current AC = 20 from Shield of Faith

Velika stays out of the way and focuses on her song, which is just getting to the part about roasting some rats in the oven.

Continue Inspire Courage (round 4)

Inspire Courage: +1 competence bonus attack & weapon damage; +1 morale bonus save vs. charm & fear

Prescient, Velika! ;)

Back up. Silas still owes me that DC 12 Fort save.

Fortitude Save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Dain kills the last ratman with a swift stroke of his spear.

The horde of rats swarms over Dain and Silas, biting and gnawing mercilessly.

rat swarm v. Silas: 1d6 ⇒ 6
rat swarm v. Dain: 1d6 ⇒ 3

INITIATIVE ORDER
Velika
Silas (12 damage)
Rat Swarm
Holys
Tilver
Dain (3 damage)

PYTHONESS HOUSE

Anyone, go!

Silas steps back and begins swinging and tearing into the small creatures that are crawling all over him.

Falchion with Power Attack and Bard Song: 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 8 - 2 + 1 = 11 Falchion damage with Power Attack and Bard Song: 2d4 + 4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 2) + 4 + 6 + 1 = 16

Secondary Bite Attack with Power Attack and Bard Song: 1d20 + 8 - 5 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 8 - 5 - 2 + 1 = 17 Secondary Bite damage with Power Attack and Bard Song: 1d6 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 4 + 1 = 13

Current Buffs- Sheild Spell.

5 ft step NW to get out of the swarm and then attack.

I love the image of Silas biting the rats off his own body.

Silas swings his big blade, killing only a few rats. But he absolutely savages a horde of rats with his bloody jaws.

INITIATIVE ORDER
Velika
Silas (12 damage)
Rat Swarm (6 damage)
Holys
Tilver
Dain (3 damage)

PYTHONESS HOUSE

Rain, Tilver, Velika and Holys, go!

With his metamagic rod in hand, a fan of flame roils forward from Holy's fingers to engulf the rat swam.

Cast Burning Hands into the room, using Selective Metamagic rod to exclude allies (can exclude up to 4 which is fine):

Burning Hands damage: 4d4 + 4 ⇒ (1, 4, 2, 1) + 4 = 12 (4d4 base, +4 from Gold Draconic bloodline' DC 17 Reflex save for half.)

Lesser Selective Metamagic Rod uses remaining/total: 2/3
Spells remaining/total:
2nd (4/4)—scorching ray
1st (5/7)—burning hands (DC 17), mage armor , protection from evil, ray of enfeeblement (DC 15), vanish
0th (at will) —acid splash, arcane mark , detect magic , flare (DC 16), light, open/close (DC 14), prestidigitation, read magic, resistance

Tilver steps aside to allow Holys to take care of their rat infestation.

"Burn 'em all!"
Tiler doesn't have any anti-swarm ability.

Velika will wait to see what happens with Holys' spell. She doesn't really have much for anti-swarm either.

Dain looks back over his shoulder just in time to to see Holys pointing his rod into the room. Knowing what's coming, he still can't help cringing as flames wash over and around him. He takes a quick look to see what remains of the rat swarm. If any of the rats still live, and don't appear to be scattering, he steps back and attempts to skewer them.

5' step: S; attack any remaining rats with spear

attack with spear + inspire courage: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 5 + 1 = 26
spear damage + inspire courage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 1 = 8

Current AC=20 from Shield of Faith

Rat Swarm Reflex save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

The rats swarm out of the way of Holys's fiery holocaust, but many burn anyway. Dain spears several more and the rest run away!

COMBAT OVER!

"Well, it doesn't look like they were able to get word out of our approach. Should we start downstairs to prevent being surrounded or continue up here?" Silas rolls his shoulder and scratches at some of the stinging bites that found holes in his armor.

Dain smiles at the sight of the fleeing rats, then looks about the room. He pokes through the nest with his spear, looking for the All-Key, or anything else interesting.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

Poking around through the rubble on the floor, Dain answers Silas,"Magill will let me know if anything dangerous shows up downstairs. So let's see what's on the the other side of the bridge."

The room is in utter disarray, a literal rat's nest of foodstuffs and trash as well as the plates, pots, cutlery, and towels that originally came from the kitchen. But no All-Key.

"Well, it doesn't surprise me that ratfolk took up residence here, but I seriously doubt they put up that wall of force. We should probably go back to the first floor and explore some of those rooms."

"Well, that leaves us with one vote for up and one vote for down. If there are more rats about I am betting they have another way out and so if Magill is watching the front door he may miss them heading for the back exit. At this point, anything in this house probably knows we are here so we should clear the rooms quickly lest we lose the key. I think continuing up here is easier so we should do it quickly and then we can take time to search after we finish."

"Lead on, Silas."

Silas crosses the bridge and looks at the door to see if any surprises were left behind.

Perception for Traps: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Holys might notice that Silas is down about a quarter of his HPs.

Dain looks around before picking up a plump (and not too charred) rat from the carnage on the floor. "Magill will warn us if anything tries to come up behind us. I don't much care if some of the rats run out the back door." Here Dain uses the dead rat to illustrate a rat running away, "We're here to find the trail of this key, not kill ratlings." The rat puppet shudders and flops over on it's back, apparently dead. "Ummm...assuming they don't attack us first, of course, like these did."

Turning to TIlver, he says, "We might as well search this area while we are up here. We can search that room downstairs when we go to see what's behind all those doors down there."

Dain heads out of the room and onto the bridge. He waves to get Magill's attention, and tosses the rat down to her.

Velika smiles and quietly applauds Dain's performance. Then she pulls out her wand of Cure Light and flourish's it in Silas' direction.

Use Wand of Cure Light on Silas
Wand of Cure Light: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Tilver nods. "Okay, okay. Let's see what's up here." He moves over to the next door across the bridge. He takes a look at the door, trying to look for anything out of the ordinary.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

There being nothing fishy about the door, Silas opens it. Beyond is a turret room. A ladder runs through a hole in the floor up to a wooden trapdoor in the ceiling and down to the lower level as well. The floor and ceiling are made of wood. There is little here but cobwebs and some old leaves blown in through the windows. A pair of old leather boots lies amid the refuse.

Silas nods thanks to Velika and then moves to stand under the trap door leading up and says, "Would you care to take a look Tilver?"

Dain pokes his head into the room after Silas enters. "Ooooo! Uppity-up! Let's see what spirits dance on the roof!" His eyes dart around to take in the rest of the barren room. "Boots?"

"Right. Someone check those boots." Tilver checks both traps doors for...well, traps.

Perception (vs. traps): 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 8 + 1 = 10

"Velika the cobbler, at your service." Velika bends over to examine the boots, "Hmmmm. In surprisingly good condition for their age. Well stitched and I imagine they were once quite the fashion." She will also cast detect magic.

Velika looks at the boots for any mundane oddities and then casts Detect Magic.
I guess it might matter so: Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

The trap doors are, well, untrapped. The boots are non-magical.

"I can go through first or if you want to feel free since you are already up there Tilver and I will follow you.

Are the boots sized for a ratman or a medium-sized creature? Are they nice-looking, or is there nothing particularly noteworthy about them?

Appraise: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 Holys being something of a connoisseur of fancy-pants stuff

They are old and dusty, but sized for a small human, or perhaps an elf. They are worth perhaps 2 copper pieces.

"Up or down, fellas?" Tilver looks between the two trap doors. "At least opening up the one to below would give us another way down."

"There is probably not much above. I say we clear it and then head down.

"There might be more up there than you think. From the outside it looked like there may be a bridge across to the second tower and more of the upper level from there. But really, aren't towers built to secure the most valuable things? I'd love to see what's up there."

So? Up the ladder? Down the ladder? Back down the stairs?

We go up the ladder.

The floor of this chamber is made of wood, but the ceiling is stone. There is no way to progress up farther from here. This level of the tower contains a table and three chairs, all wooden and rickety but usable. Three objects sit on the table, covered in cobwebs: a glass jar; a short, fat candle on a copper plate; and a book

Velika blows cobwebs off the book and picks it up to look through it.

Velika is trained in Linguistics and +7 if it becomes relevant

Tilver looks over Velika's shoulder, an easy feat with the gnome's height. "What exactly do we have here?"

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

"Seems like the only people here recently have been spiders."

Holys casts Detect Magic and sweeps his gaze over the room, including the items which have been indicated in the description of the room.

Does this room have any exits other than the ladder? Are there any windows?

Silas looks down at the boots below and the items in the room. "It seems like these items were left here for some reason. Perhaps something pointing to the key since no one found it before. Do you think we should collect them?"

Its more of a Deadlands: Wasted West thing then a D&D thing, but it may be worth collecting all of the random items we find as we go. It may be important at the end.

"Hey, that looks like a bottle of pi--" Tilver breaks off as he sees Velika staring intently at the book.

"Vellika? Are you alright?" He shakes her shoulder, trying to break her focus on the book.

Does this room have any exits other than the ladder? Are there any windows?

No and yes, respectively. See the map.