The party finds that each of the mercenaries are wearing half plate and they have a potion of cure moderate wounds on them, and each of them have have a masterwork halberd, mw flail, 3 javelins and a longspear. Vincent recognizes the empty flask on each of them once contained a potion of barkskin.
On the captain, the party retrieves the tricone hat, and a +1 studded leather armor and a +2 scimitar. He also has 5,000 gp of flawless rubies on him and a Badge labelled "W". Taking the hat, the party wakes themselves up on the Sellen Starling… and it is still night, so they go to bed, except for Vincent, Howard, Leonard, and Monty.
Vincent, being bored, peeks out of the window and notices 3 giant with pale green, scaled skin and large, webbed hands and feet trying to creep up the boat.
"Eeeeekkkkk" Seamus screams stepping back, then gathering his wits begins to sing "One, two, one two, three, four..."and throws a snowball at the Merrow opening the door on the port side.
Claude manages to get a good midnight snack! 9 dmg to green
I wonder who are the snackers and who are the snackees...the back story behind this attack was that the merrows were looking for a midnight snack, then they saw the light, yes, pun intended.
Half-Elf Investigator (Bonded) 9 / Magus (VMC); HP 81/81, Init +1, Perception +18+1d8, +4 vs traps; Vorq Perception +15+1d8; AC 18/FF 16/T 12, +3 vs traps; Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +8, +3 vs traps; CMB +11, CMD 22; Inspiration (1d8+2) 8/8; Arcane Pool (+2) 8/8;
Vincent steps back and charges his spear, studying the merrow in front of him. should put me in range of green too in case for some reason this one goes down like a Crit
Vincent kills the first merrow with one stab of his spear, and as he tries to stab the second one, Claude bucks, and Vincent tries not to hit him, but also misses the merrow.
Leonard struggles to break free to no avail. The other merrow tries to maintain its hold on Leonard, but does not manage it, and tries to swim away into the water. (+8 ac cover from land)
maintain grapple:1d20 + 17 ⇒ (1) + 17 = 18 Claude AOO:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17 dmg:1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 Vincent AOO:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11 Leonard AOO:1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23 dmg:1d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Claude manages to nip its shin. 25 dmg done to green total.
The other merrow swims downwards 5ft (+8AC cover bonus from hitting from land because it's under water) and tries to grapple Leonard who is caught fast.
Vincent drinks his alchemical allocation extract, then drinks his potion of heroism and spits it back out. He also drinks his extract of heightened awareness.
The party sits in a circle as Vincent begins to chant the incantation with Howard, Leonard and Seamus supporting him.
"We, The Seekers, are bound by a common purpose - the thirst for knowledge."
Howard passes the miniature ivory and horn staircase to Leonard,who feels eager of its 70 steps. The miniature ivory and horn staircase is now heavier.
Vincent feels the staircase sap his life energy. The party sees the staircase sinks into the ship deck, expanding to the size of a normal staircase and leads downwards into darkness...
Vincent drinks his extract of barkskin before entering the staircase.
The party moves towards the staircase, and fall fast asleep the moment they touch it.
They find themselves falling through cold darkness, then they see a speck of light in front of them. Moving towards it, the party finds themselves arriving near tall buildings of a large city in around a wide square, drained from their ordeal.
The sky is low and leaden, and a feeling of oppression and abandonment hangs in the air along with a powerful, unpleasant odor of decay. A few scraggly plants formed from yellow ceramic stand in window boxes on teh buildings, and a few trees of the same ceramic composition cluster together in a nearby park. The buildings are all constructed of stone and the same yellowish ceramic material. 8 foul smelling humanoid creatures with long, sharp teeth, and its pallid flesh is stretched tightly over its starved frame stare at the party hungrily, then move to attack.
Arriving in the dream-world, the vile smell overpowering him Seamus starts to wrench, "Uuuggggghhhhhhhh, what is that terrible smell?" Standing upright, wiping the bile his mouth, he sees the cause of his sickening. Tapping Howard on the shoulder and pointing, he begins singing to attempt to inspire his friends. "When there's somethin' strange in the neighborhood, who you gonna call..." Realizing how close the things are, he draws his hand back and throws a snowball at one of the creatures. orange, since clause killed the one to the north
HP 63/63 {72/72} | AC 21{25}/T14/FF18{22} | F+10/R+7/W+8 {+2 from heroism}| CMB +6 | CMD 21 | init +4 | Perception +6 {+8} |
Active effects/Limited use abilities:
Active effects: Defending Bone 45/45, Heroism 90 minutes Arcane Pool 10/10 | Black Blade Pool 3/3 | Maximize Spell 1/1 | Empowered Spell 1/1 | Reach 1/1
Leonard's left hand glows a dull red, and he tosses out an insubstantial and wispy ball. It explodes before landing, sending a thick mass of sticky webs in all directions.
Casting web, area marked on map. DC 15 ref save or grappled, movement requires another successful save.
so if Seamus was sickened for seven minutes already, does the six more add to make it 13?
'Oh gods, I think I'm going to puke again.' His face turning green and his stomach rumbling, Seamus is able to continue his song, while he throws another snowball at the nearest undead thing. yellow
HP 63/63 {72/72} | AC 21{25}/T14/FF18{22} | F+10/R+7/W+8 {+2 from heroism}| CMB +6 | CMD 21 | init +4 | Perception +6 {+8} |
Active effects/Limited use abilities:
Active effects: Defending Bone 45/45, Heroism 90 minutes Arcane Pool 10/10 | Black Blade Pool 3/3 | Maximize Spell 1/1 | Empowered Spell 1/1 | Reach 1/1
Leonard, seeing that the ghouls are stuck for the time being, decides to wait for Vincent to finish them off. Waiting, he takes out his wand of shield and activates it.
Vincent manages to get one ahead of Claude and finishes off the last ghast.
As they do so and the webs clear, three ghasts come out of the alleyway, holding their claws in the air showing no weapons. "Really sorry about that...those hungry buggers give our entire race a bad name." One of them apologizes to the party. "I am Kharesto, and these are my fellow council members, Milahna and Utrek." It gestures at the other two. "We come in peace and have no intention of attacking you like those who have done so earlier."
The one named Utrek asks the party, "What brings strangers like you to our lands?"
Male Human Conjuror (Spirit Binder) / Summoner (Synthesist) 17 (HP 173+123.5/173+123.5) (AC 52/15/47) (CMD 39) (Fort +22, Ref +23, Will +24 (+32 Vs Enchantment; additional +3 Vs Mind-affecting) (Init +17) (Perception +42)
Howard nods.
"Not a problem. There are always trouble makers, wherever you go. As to why we are here, well, we are hunting for big game - specifically, a type of aberration called a wamp - strange things with red, webbed feet. Have you seen any?"
Milahna answers, "Yes, those Beasts have taken control of the cemetery where we store our corpses. That's why," The ghast looks sadly at the torn up ghast bodies, "Some of us have been driven mad by hunger."The ghast offers by way of explanation.
"We tried to drive them off, but individually they are more powerful then us, and it didn't end well." Utrek answers.
"If you will help us deal with these Beasts, we will offer you free passage throughout Averton as well as some treasures in our vaults."Khatero offers.
The ghasts direct the party in the direction of the cemetery.
Following the directions of the ghasts, the party heads towards the cemetery. Vincent takes his potion of heroism again and drinks his barkskin extract.
Oh dear. Web is 10 min/level which means like 80 min have passed. Howard, your monstrous physique has worn out. Vincent, your heroism and barkskin and heightened awareness have worn out. On the bright side,
the effects of the ghast stench have worn out too.
10 min later
The stinking, ceramic city opens up into an enormous cemetery dotted with mausoleums, monuments and headstones. The cemetery stretches for nearly a mile in every direction and is ringed by a tall iron fence. A section of the fence is knocked inwards, allowing access to the lumpy ground of the cemetery. Outside the fence, a wide ring of ceramic statues stands vigil, facing inwards towards the cemetery. The ceramic statues are all humanoids seemingly sculpted in activities such as walking, speaking or eating, as though petrified in the middle of ordinary daily activities.
As the party proceeds towards the gap in the iron fence, typically, the statues animate and attack the party
Howard and Vincent recognize the statues as terra-cotta soldiers. They have typical construct traits, are immune to fire, have DR 5/bludgeoning and have spell resistance.
The terra-cotta soldiers move up, slashing at Claude and Leonard with their longswords and shortswords.
None of the blades penetrate Claude's thick hide, but Leonard is less fortunate, and gets cut twice, one which his shark skull deflects. 2 points of dmg to Leonard, take 10 points off defending bone.
Seeing the terra-cotta warriors, Seamus begins to sing to inspire his friends. "Company, always on the run..." He then draws one of his blunt alchemical arrows and fires it at the warrior that hit Leonard.
Well if anything jumped you during web duration(say multiple waves of attackers), you'd say why I dismissed it, and the ghasts certainly wouldn't be showing themselves until you dismissed it. So meh I can't bot a player action to dismiss.
Leonard cuts down the Terra cotta soldier with two slices of his scimitar, then turns down to the second one, but doesn't manage cut through its clay exterior.
HP 63/63 {72/72} | AC 21{25}/T14/FF18{22} | F+10/R+7/W+8 {+2 from heroism}| CMB +6 | CMD 21 | init +4 | Perception +6 {+8} |
Active effects/Limited use abilities:
Active effects: Defending Bone 45/45, Heroism 90 minutes Arcane Pool 10/10 | Black Blade Pool 3/3 | Maximize Spell 1/1 | Empowered Spell 1/1 | Reach 1/1
Well, I cast web, we killed the ghasts, then some others came on. Then you wanted to push us, which is a good thing to want to do. But in order to push us, either you had to have us dismiss the spell or wait it out. Either way, you have to bot player actions in order to push us forward, either you bot us dismissing the spell, or you bot us waiting 80 minutes. In this case, you chose to bot us waiting 80 minutes, which is not what I would have done, and hence I informed you that I would have acted differently.
Sure. Once I have consent like this, I can bot you dismissing the spell for future events. It is afterall easy to say after the fact. I'm also waiting for Vincent's actions before I proceed with those terra cotta soldiers turn.
Vincent finishes off the last terra cotta soldier.
The party then enters the cemetery and hear hooting calls as they are spotted by crimson-footed, nine-legged monstrosity with an egg-shaped bodies covered in dirty white fur, with eyeless faces, piglike snouts, and toothy maws.
Many of the graves have been torn up, soil and smashed caskets strewn haphazardly about.
