"Trap or not, they will bleed, if I get my hands on them. Follow as fast as you can - I will try and leave some for you."
Sooron misses you all very much, and wishes you were here.
Sooron misses you all very much, and wishes you were here.
"Trap or not, they will bleed, if I get my hands on them. Follow as fast as you can - I will try and leave some for you."
-
Hurgah changes course yet again and races back the way he came, racing over several smaller dunes in the direction of where he last saw an attack come from.
I think Karek's been eating Admiral Ackbar cereal again.
Karek follows Hurgah at his top speed , encouraging Moonpate to keep pace with him.
Things are pretty comfy in the ol' inter-dimensional nap time.
A forked bolt of lightning silently flashes from the north, instantly zeroing in on Hurgah as he dashes over the dunelands. The bolt rips into his body and grounds itself into the sand, using the half-orc’s burning flesh as an unwilling conduit. The bolt is immediately followed by an ear-splitting boom.
Moonpate cries out in shock and dismay at seeing his friend savaged by such a powerful spell. Not stopping his ungainly run, yelling, hoping he is heard, "Stop Hurgah! We must take cover!"
Even though he is thundering through the sand, Hurgah evades the incoming bolt faster than a striking serpent. Ignoring Moonpate completely, he pushes on, his eyes filling with red.
He has only one thought. "A lightning bolt travel in a straight line - and at the other end..."
Go Hurgah! Woot!
Uh, oh Mr. Monotony just endorsed Hurgah's plan of action. . .
Jace, despite the flavor text, Hurgah still takes 12 points of damage right? He doesn't have evasion or some other ability I am overlooking? (Though Hurgah's hit points will increase from the rage.)
Does this mean Karek and Moonpate are advancing as well? 60 feet? or are they taking cover? Ducking behind an obstructing dune for full cover?
Karek follows grimly, still advancing after Hurgah as fast as he can.
Hurgah finishes his run action, still racing north. When he reaches 340 his dark vision picks up what he’s looking for. A humanoid figure, possibly a human, is peeking over a dune, wielding some kind of staff or maybe even one of those “guns” Hurgah has heard about. It’s pointed straight at Hurgah.
The wielder has cover. The wielder’s form is an outline of heat signatures and it’s not a form the Reaver recognizes in the moonlight. Hurgah then finishes his run at 360 feet from ground zero – 40 feet from his target.
Karek (and Moonpate as well, I believe) are also dashing forward, ending the round at 160 feet from ground zero, a full 180 feet behind Hurgah. They do not see the assailant, though they may suspect Hurgah has.
That ends round 9. Sceptre is up first. . .
-----
The assailant’s eyes widen as the half-orc shrugs off his attack and just keeps on barrelling across the desert towards him in the moonlight, swallowing distance at an amazing rate. He ducks down below the dune, out of Hurgah’s line-of-sight, taking his strange staff-like weapon with him.
- Round 10 -
Our initative kinda devolved, but it now looks something like this:
Hurgah is up!
The Reaver leaps over the dune into the sand trench below, waving his axe as he lands, knees bent.
There is though, no one else there. . .
What trickery is this? Was the attack an illusion?
Hurgah scans the sand for signs of the attacker. Footprints, a sound, anything that might reveal the presence of an enemy. At the same time, his rage-fueled reflexes are ready to react to a new attack.
Hurgah readies his standard action.
With your post, I am curious as to what you thought the enemy would do - or what is it that you think just happened?
If there are tracks to follow, and I am not saying there are, the DC would be higher than 10 and, unfortunately, could not be followed untrained (Hurgah does not have Survival or Perception as class skills).
I have indeed rolled for Perception off-screen (free action), but it did not yield any information for Hurgah.
Moonpate and Karek hustle towards Hurgah - the big man himself appears very frustrated, peering side to side ready to strike, but clearly out of combat.
-
Round 11 ends. Hurgah has 1 round of fatigue to go. Moonpate knows that if his elemental is still alive its duration has expired.Moonpate and Karek close to 320 ground zero - 80 feet from Hurgah.
At Round 12 Hurgah's fatigue ends. Moonpate and Karek are 380 feet, 20 feet from Hurgah. Unless anyone has anything in particular on their mind, we can drop out of combat and go with normal posting.
Upon his arrival, Karek will immediately attempt to track the mysterious assailant.
Karek studies the the sand in the moonlight, taking a moment to re-affix his spectacles.
There is a depression or two which might. . . yes, a single figure turned east heading over the dune, possibly a human or a well-built half-elf.
Unfortunately, the tracks soon lead to a dead-end thereafter. Hold it! Perhaps not. There is some disturbed sand to the side, a partially collapsed trench. Perhaps the quarry has lengthened his stride and curled towards the south. Even in the loose sand the tracks are hard to spot and Karek isn't entirely certain he's not just chasing random naturally-occurring depressions or figments of his imagination in the darkness. Kogan's darkvision though hints at an almost imperceptible heat trail which makes him think this could be the real deal.
Might as well keep it going. Not much else to do out here.
"Keep searching, Karek - the hunter has become the hunted. He will have to either flee or face us. But we had better spread out, so he can't hit more than one of us if he shoots off another bolt of lightning."
Karek slowly follows the trail, moving from from sign to sign. Eventually he determines that his quarry has double-backed south towards their campsite. In fact, the quarry appears to go almost within 100 feet of it, just off to the east.
Shortly thereafter, Karek determines that his quarry has linked up with someone else. It is hard to be certain how many - at least one other, maybe even two. Fortunately, with at least double the prints, the group becomes much easier to follow. Karek is somewhat concerned though that they are pulling away. From the space they leave between their individual tracks, they are not running, but they are likely moving faster than the three of you.
A half hour later, the tracks suddenly diverge. One tears away east, one set cuts in the opposite direction, headed west. Karek is uncertain, but his best guess is that the original quarry went east.
With every trudging step through the sand and darkness Moonpate mutters tenfold curses under his breath at their unknown assailants.
-
Hurgah is getting a bit turned around by all of this, but his sense is that he should be 1-2 hours northwest of the dig site. Following the tracks has lead the trio back towards the dig site, but now that the tracks have split east and west, if there was an attempt to lure you there, it seems to have ended.
"What do you think - do we keep up the chase? I'd like nothing better than to rip the arms off the craven who fired off that lightning bolt, but even if we find him, we may not be able to stop him from escaping again. Perhaps we should see if we can get Moonpate enough rest for him to recover his magic? Karek and I will keep watch, and be ready to stike, if we are attacked again."
How about a Survival check from Karek then - we'll see what he can come up with for shelter. There doesn't seem to be much but wave-like dunes.
With every trudging step through the sand and darkness Moonpate mutters tenfold curses under his breath at their unknown assailants.
-
Indeed, this is proving to be a miserable night for Moonpate. He is injured, low on magic and, above all, very tired.
Survival: !
C'mon, big money!
Karek finds his outcropping. After a half-hour of searching he locates a ridge of petrified sand dunes. Three of the dunes form a layered rock wall which provides the wall of cover he is searching for.
The three of them hole up. Karek carves out a shallow trench for Monpate to lie in, just a few inches deep, affording him with a modicum of protection. Moonpate then lies down inside, hoping that there is still enough time left for him to still get sufficient rest to replenish his magical powers. With the shock of adrenaline racing through his veins, he knows finding rest will not come easy. However, as a seasoned conjurer he knows he has the will and the training to force his body to obey.
In the meantime, Hurgah and Karek nurse their compiling injuries while they stand watch, staring out into the moonlight scrutinizing every shadow with suspicion.
While circling, so as to make it hard to hit both Karek and Hurgah with further lightning bolts, Karek generously offers Hurgah his Troll Styptic.
Be carevul wid'ad. I'dings.
Hurgah accepts the foul-smelling concoction from Karek as the two of them circle on their long watch. He then move back a few paces, making sure not to give a hidden sniper a shot at both of them at once.
"Thanks. It can't sting worse than taking a bolt of lightning to the chest. he grins, as he smears the substance on his wounds. If he feels any discomfort from it, it does not show.
Karek finds his outcropping. After a half-hour of searching he locates a ridge of petrified sand dunes. Three of the dunes form a layered rock wall which provides the wall of cover he is searching for.
The three of them hole up. Karek carves out a shallow trench for Monpate to lie in, just a few inches deep, affording him with a modicum of protection. Moonpate then lies down inside, hoping that there is still enough time left for him to still get sufficient rest to replenish his magical powers. With the shock of adrenaline racing through his veins, he knows finding rest will not come easy. However, as a seasoned conjurer he knows he has the will and the training to force his body to obey.
In the meantime, Hurgah and Karek nurse their compiling injuries while they stand watch, staring out into the moonlight scrutinizing every shadow with suspicion.
The 'Pate is down with the plan...especially since he can't really do much else.
-
It's definitely possible. The ground is relatively loose sand for the first couple of feet. Karek lacks a shovel, but he's got an axe and (possibly) plenty of time. He can't maintain full attention as a guard at the same time though. On the other hand, a little labor won't render him oblivious. The real downside is he won't be able to escape the sinking sensation that he's truly 'digging himself a hole'. [insert symbol crash]
If Karek wants to start digging, just let me know.
A burning orange sun rises over the desert, chasing away the shivering chill of the preceding night. It won’t be long though before the heat rises to a sweltering level though and then it will become far less welcome.
The Mithral Scarab gently awakens Hal, Breach and Gandel, alerting them that her para-dimensional hiding place is going to collapse yet a second time. The trio quickly files out of the Scrab’s magic bubble and climbs down the knotted rope out into the inside of the Scarab’s slave tent. There they find the Scarab has a breakfast of warm gruel waiting. Outside the tent is a cooking fire, one of many that dot the area as the many slaves from other tents nearby rise to greet the day. The trio’s surroundings don’t look like much but compared to their compatriots, they are in the lap of luxury. . . .
Moonpate awakens from a fitful sleep. He feels terrible, but he knows his objective was achieved: he has obtained enough rest that if he studies his spellbook he can prepare a much needed re-supply of spells.
Hurgah and Karek have had a long night jumping at shadows. If the assassins are still out there, they didn’t attack during the night. Perhaps Hurgah scared them off after all.
And as for Donkor Sooron. . . whatever happened to Donkor?
-----
Moonpate heals 7 hit points from his rest. He may feel like crap from sleeping on the sandy ground, but it will have no game effect (at least this night, hopefully he is not forced to repeat it.)
Hal, Breach and Gandel also get the healing benefits of an overnight rest, but I believe they are at full. If I am wrong, take your seven. Can you believe they got to sleep inside Khymrasa’s slave camp without so much as an encounter?
Karek and Moonpate know that they won’t have much time before temperature starts to become a factor. Their prior endure elements has worn off and Belleson’s wand (now with Gandel) is nowhere to be found. Without it, as tough as he is, Karek won’t be able to march too far in full plate in the desert.
Unless you tell me otherwise, I will assume Gandel expends three charges from Belleson’s wand to protect Hal, Breach and himself with endure elements.
Spellcasters: if you haven’t prepped your spell lists, now is the time to do so. Unless you want to leave some slots open in anticipation of the Dune Squad’s rendezvous, but if you do please note that on your sheet.
Hal hungrily consumes the breakfast served ignoring his mothers voice in the back of his mind regarding table manners. Too long without a good meal thinks Hal.
After checking his beard to ensure there is no food left uneaten Hal turns to Lydia. "Lydia. I need to contact our allies to arrange a rendezvous with our allies. Will we be undisturbed here for the next half hour? Of course before I reach out to them we must consider where can we meet and when should we meet with them? My thought is to sneak behind one of the outer patrols subdue them and bring the rest of our friends into the camp. We spent a great deal of time following their patterns so I think this idea has merit. Then together we can consider our best course of action for infiltrating the pyramid".
After checking his beard to ensure there is no food left uneaten Hal turns to Lydia. "Lydia. I need to contact our allies to arrange a rendezvous with our allies. Will we be undisturbed here for the next half hour?
-
"That I can't promise you," she answers. "I can though offer to stand guard outside the tent and warn you if anyone comes." She also motions to a pile of neatly-folded white cloth frocks and leather sandals, the uniform of the Osiriani slave. "If anyone were to peek inside, you would do well if you had stashed your armor and larger equipment and donned those instead."Hal continues, speaking to Gandel and Breach:
"Of course before I reach out to them we must consider where can we meet and when should we meet with them? My thought is to sneak behind one of the outer patrols subdue them and bring the rest of our friends into the camp. We spent a great deal of time following their patterns so I think this idea has merit. Then together we can consider our best course of action for infiltrating the pyramid".