We began our newest PF AP Adventure this past Sunday, namely The Bastards of Erebus, Council of Thieves Pt. 1

Personae Dramatis:

Jackson Friendly, Wiscrani Human Male Bard. He of the high initiative and little action-taking.
Evan Fuzzyfeet, Wandering Halfling Male Cleric of Sarenrae. He of rock-throwing and healing-power wielding.
Nuella Fitzwizzlesprocle,Wiscrani Gnome Female Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline). She of the ever-changing hair color and seemingly limitless Color Sprays
Job, Wiscrani (nee Crusading) Human Male Paladin of Iomedae. He of the sad-faced power attack and Holy Smiting with a rifle.
]Dr. Master Veatrix Magnus Dumptruck Ellypen Rae Chief, Esq. Homeless Bleachling Gnome Female Evoker. She of the ridiculous and the resident Doctor of Confabulation. Doesn't believe in the bleaching, despite looking like an albino WoW addict.

Act the First, Where Random Adventurers form a Party:

The party receives their invitation to dinner via various and sundry means. Job receives a sealed invitation from a young member of the Iomedaen community center, Jackson is approached openly on the street while en route to his next public speaking appointment. Dr. Veatrix received an early morning visit in her alleyway crash spot; the offer of free dinner and possibly a place to sleep were all it took.

Evan and Nuella seemed very afraid of the tall, confident Janiven, and almost fled her approach. Again, the offer of food, drink, and possibly a crash spot appealed to the small folk greatly.

Once there, some good Sense Motive checks told Job and Nuella that Janiven was worried while she went on with her speech/sales-pitch. After her impassioned plea for rebellion, the night quickly fell apart, especially for Jackson and his nice clothes. The Hellknights approaching and their new "friend" seemingly ready to flee, the party accompanies Janiven and Morosino through the secret passage and on into the sewers. (Happily, the Gnomes, Halfling, and Paladin seem quite eager to make snap decisions and follow through on them. This is a welcome change from our usual "hem and haw about everything" method of play.)

Now in the architecturally impressive Wiscrani Sewer System, Janiven quickly doles out potions, instructions, and advice. She then requests leave from the party, believing that her stealth and speed will be better suited to getting Morosino out alive than to hanging around the party (thanks go out to Thom for biting at the relatively easy dangling "lose the NPC" hook :) ). The party sets out and quickly comes across an abandoned storage room with a few pieces of door still blocking the entrance.

The door taken care of readily, Job is now staring at 8 little jelly-bean shaped bugs the size of his hand. Scenting fresh meat, they swarm him. Of course, the Bard rolls 1st in the order, electing to do nothing as he is around the corner and unable to see anything. The Torbles soon fall to longsword/dagger/evoker's missile attacks, but not before scoring a Nat-20/Nat-20 critical on poor Job for a whopping 4 damage!

Having taken stock of the situation, the party progresses through the twists and turns of the sewers before hearing the footsteps of armored men coming round the corner. This is the start of something silly, as the Sorcerer with Max'd out Perception (Draconic Bloodline, remember) not only hears them coming, but has the movement to get into a corner and await the hapless armigers. Once initiative starts, the torchbearing armigers walk directly into an ambush, with Nuella stepping out from cover and hosing them down with a Color Spray. (Gnome, SF: Illusion, decent Cha means DC 18, maybe 17. Armigers have will saves of -1.) There is some stabbing of unconsious dudes before the Paladin move-action Detect Evil's, noting they are NOT, in fact, evil. After that, almost all armigers were simply rendered unconscious and nude, being left in closets, doorways, and the like.

Highlights of the rest of the mighty Sewer Dungeon Crawl include:

-The goblin rogue manages to surprise Jackson, getting a Nat-20 on the poor bard. Of course, I then roll less than 5 to confirm the critical. Damage was 1d4-1+1d6 Sneak Attack. I rolled 2 1's, yielding in a small scratch instead of a gushing neck wound. Said goblin took a Smite Evil rifle round in the back as he fled, becoming so much more flotsam in the sewer channels.

-Another set of armigers, this group attempting to flank the party with a goblin patrol, takes a color spray to the face, making the 3 foot tall giggling Gnome the current holder of "most kills". That goblin patrol, meanwhile, managed to do some small damage on the paladin before it was healed. They then took many longsword wounds, with 1 managing to flee beyond Job's bullseye lantern's radius.

-In a small office, the party found a group of Skeletons, armed with mining picks and wearing hard hats. Dr. Veatrix quickly claimed one as her own (the hardhat) and has been stuffing things underneath to provide for a proper fit. In the same room, the desk turned out to be trapped with a Burning Hands spell, charring the good Dr.'s hands (again) and destroying the bits of paper-based treasure inside.

-Towards the end of the dungeon, in the multi-channel room with 4 exits, the party sees a strangely glowing rectangular archway. Oddly shaped for the area, it radiated Evocation and Transmutaion magic to the Detect Magic wielders, while producing a transparent, smooth, hard to the touch barrier across the doorway. Beyond the portal, all they could tell was that there was a faint shimmering in the halls and a decided lack of organic material. An educated guess put the spell effect as a Wall of Force, and while a brief discussion of "Can we mine through the surrounding walls?" came up, the threat of Hellknight reprisal was considered too great.

-As a final encounter before exiting the sewers, the party came across 3 brain-eating zombies, intent on devouring the newcomers despite having just finished off 3 Hellknight armigers. With a few Channel Energies and some fancy longsword work (seriously, +6 to hit at level 1, with 1d8+6 damage per swing is nothing to sneeze at) they went down without incident. The victorious heroes managed to escape the dungeon and the Hellknight patrols, making it to the abandoned temple of Aroden in the northern Spera.

I was playing pretty fast and loose with the encounters, adding bits here and there, setting up various maps as I went. Having the maps pre-generated on 1” grid paper helped a LOT, especially as I colored the sewer channels green. Overall impression of this adventure: Lots of fun, and a fast-pace to begin!

On to the talky bits!

Act the Second, Where an Adventuring Party becomes a Political Movement:

The party, now safely ensconced with their erstwhile friend Janiven, begins to introduce and be introduced to the growing group of dissidents. Evan and Nuella take quite well to Yakupulio, the meth-smoking, fast-talking, atheist barkeep/pimp. I expect much trouble to come from them later.

Fiosa and Sclavo gravitate towards Job, but his grumpy demeanor and Eeyore voice may well drive them from him. At least, may drive Fiosa away. Sclavo and Job seem well suited for one another, and I forsee much “Second Fiddling” from the wannabe Paladin.

Tarvi tried to talk with the good Dr. Veatrix, but she really is in a world of her own. Smart beyond compare (at least amongst this group) but hopelessly out of her mind, Doc is not the kind to really know she has friends for a while. I look forward to this relationship playing out.

Jackson spent his time chatting politely and trying to determine just what he had gotten into, finally grabbing a bottle of wine and sulking in a corner. Unfortunately, the Gnomes did not help his mood with their cartwheels, giggles, and all around rambunctiousness.

During the evening, the party shot down pretty much any and all suggestions for names, finally settling on “Heroes Against Lawful Opression” or HALO, for short. I think they need to play some new videogames, honetly, but the name is kind of catchy. Also, this was one of the best inter-party RP sessions I have seen in a LONG time. Most of the time, I have to spur this kind of thing on, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and let them do their own thing. As it unfolded, I was rewarded with one of the funniest things I have seen in a decade and a half of RP'ing.

While discussing the new “uniform” of HALO, the subject of masks came up. Now, Dr. V is being played by a rather animated person, one who consistently RP's quite well. Dr. V is taking notes all the while, trying to get everyone to call themselves some form of equation or other, or adding Force to all the suggestions thrown out already. When someone mentions wearing a mask to disguise their identity, Christa (Dr. V's player) calmly rips a sheet out of the notebook she is scribbling in (while her PC does the same) and stabs 2 holes through the paper. She grabs an elastic headband from somewhere and presto, has a serviceable mask with which to disguise herself. I couldn't stop laughing, mostly because of the visceral RP'ing, but also because she kept the mask on. For the rest of the night. When someone made disparaging comments about Gnomes, she pulled it off, drew a frown on it, and threw it right back on. The two Gnomes kept changing the expression in game with obvious Prestidigitation illusions, and the mask IRL, eventually gained eyebrows, a teardrop, and some other cosmetic additions.

Seriously, the match up of PC and Player action was so perfect I gave her bonus XP. And the fact that she kept it on despite eating, drinking, and the like for the night was awesome!

The new members of HALO finally settle in, get places for themselves in the temple, and sack out.

I awarded them some 2100 XP's for everything so far, and the next day dawned on shiny new Level 2 PC's

Act the Third, Where the Authority is Shown the True Power of Color:

Armed with the knowledge of Arael's (known as the “Mermaid”) transportation, the party sets up an ambush, borrowing horses from uncle Gorvio and following the adventure's plan with a slight discrepancy: Job plans on hiding himself in a small copse some 200' south of the bridge and will charge down the rear of the carriage guards with a lance.
Everything proceeds flawlessly, save that Job didn't count on being quite so effective with his new mounted lance charge attack. He skewered the poor guard with something like 32 damage, well more than the 21 necessary to kill him outright. Shanwen tried his best, rolling a 4 to hit the deadly Job, and then Nuella got to go.

Readers of this journal should know what happens now: 15 foot cones of colors flash out, bad guys fall over (yes, even the cleric) fight is over. With the key from Shanwen and all the weapons and potions they can carry, the party frees Arael, who bluffs the party into believing they have the wrong guy. They grab him anyways, with the rule of “no witnesses” and ride off into the dust, leaving just the 1 dead armiger. They also left all the armor, the wagon and horseteam, believing the remaining 4 armigers would be able to mount a signinficant threat.

This is a distinct differnence from our usual style of play, which involves things like crowbars, extradimensional spaces, and extra-large mounts, just to make sure we can carry ALL the loot. A difference, but a pleasing one for me

On the retun of the horses, Team HALO runs into Thesing Umbero Ulvauno, the pompous local singing celebrity. With truly horrible Knowledge: Local rolls, no-one has heard of him; his strident tone and self-important attitude do not endear him to the group, to say the least. In the middle of a tirade, Evan casts Create Water, soaking the blowhard with a couple gallons of water. Just as he's getting geared up to deliver an ear-splitting and thesauraus-referring retort, the giggling cute little Nuella steps up and ...you gussed it...Color Spray. Down goes the nuisance, down goes the party's chance of a peaceful interaction with him, and off goes the party. Exeunt, and curtain.

Act the Fourth, Where Bastards receive their Comeuppance:

Having successfully reunited the pair of Janiven and Arael, HALO is ready to make strides towards the big-time. Given some time to lay low, research, craft, and train, the party really settles into the Freedom Fighter routine. Job has the NPC's training and working, Dr. V spends her time being a mad scientist and scribing scrolls. Jackson, Evan, and Nuella spend more than a little time with Yakupulio at the Bruised Eel, sharing stories, enjoying libations, and making new “friends” with the employees therein.

Once the dust has settled from the daring prison break, Arael and Janiven approach the party with a new target: The Bastards of Erebus. After some discussion as to whether it'd be better to leave them in place and use their actions to rally the people, it's decided to remove the threat. It's also decided that, since they're tieflings, no quarter should be shown or expected.

Attacking at night, the first place the party finds is the Woodcarver's House, from which issue sounds of rather vigourous lovemaking. They elect not to break in (the door is locked, and with no rogue that will become an issue rather quickly) and move towards the old Church of Erastil. Before they get too far, though, they target the Belltower Sentry with crossbow, sling, and magic missile fire, dropping him without incident. At the front door, Job “knocks” with his boot, failing to kick in the door and alerting the residents inside to their presence. Another good kicking drives the door in, revealing....darkness.

Thus begins an epic, 10-round long battle of cat-and-mouse. Dr. V. moves into the room, for some reason, and takes 3 crossbow quarrels before she can get back out. The dog himself charged the paladin, missed, and was quickly subdued for his troubles. While Jackson inspired his party, Nuella eventually broke one of the windows and Sprayed the curious tieflings who investigated. 2 succumbed to the knockout spray, but the remaining 2 put crossbow bolts through the poor Gnome, one critically. With only a few HP remaining, Nuella wisely chose to withdraw, but managed to attract enough attention in doing so to let Dr. V and Job approach the back of the room, despite the darkness. A lucky burning hands later (doing all of 1 hp to the fire resistant tieflings) and the room is lit again. 1 thug did manage to flee, however, warning the “Mummy” loudly of the intruders. The players were taken aback for a while, scared of the thought that they'd be fighting mummies at 2nd level, but taunting the thug that he'd need his Mum to assist in his fight.

Down below, the fight went similarily, damaging Job, Evan, and Dr. V rather seriously before they could get the magical artillery in the proper spot. The battle went back and forth, mostly because one thug would open the door, his allies would get a readied crossbow shot, and Evan would get his readied action to slam the door shut again. That went on for at least 3 or so rounds before they tried to grapple him (failing) and left all the thugs in a nice cone-pattern in front of the door. 2 Color Sprays later (Nuella's last for the day) and only the “Mummy” Ostengo is left facing an angry Job. He springs across the unconscious bodies of 5 thugs and delivers an 18 point longsword power attack, seperating the Mummy from his head.

After looting for a bit, Job opens the next door, is attacked by the Wolf Skeletons (who can't hit the broad side of a Paladin) and puts them down with some assitance from Evan (Magic Weapon on the Longsword followed by Aid Another actions to assist with Job's attacks).

Jackson calls to borrow Job's rifle, which he provides without question, and heads up to the belltower to loot and stand guard.

We ended the evening there, with everyone out of most of their resources (Nuella is empty and running on Cantrips, Evan has a scroll or 2 left, Job used his smite for the day, and Dr. V. has a few spells remaing. I think Jackson has about 5 or 6 rounds of inspire left and a couple of spells remaining) and in the middle of the dungeon.

They got enough XP to put them to 3800, and have the last few rooms left to deal with. They also have more crossbow bolts and studded leather armors than they could possibly need, and a bunch of dead tieflings. The plan, last I heard, was to stash the bodies in the wolf-skeleton room, and press on.

We will see in a couple of Sundays!

The quote of the game, brought to us by the irrepressible Dr. Veatrix:

With regards to the tiefling's potential treasure: “I got dibs on anything with hinges or springs!” Delivered from beneath her new bright yellow hardhat with its paper “sad face” mask.

-t

Awesome. :)

I'm sorry but the Dr is now known as Dr. Dumptruck or Dumpy.

In Addendum

...while traveling through the sewers, the party came across a blockage, just past a doorway. the paladin, on point as always, nimbly climbs to the top of the pile and escape artist's through the narrow passageway i described.

the 2 gnomes and the halfling zip through, equally nimbly.

If I recall correctly, the lowest number rolled for the escape artist check was 16. We play with action points, as well, so everyone easily succeeded.

Jackson the bard steps up, braces himself, and launches his not inconsiderable person through the 18" wide space, half filled with loose scree and rubble. He got stuck, much like a familiar bear, and was unable to loosen himself.

The sorcereress tosses off another Grease, and on his next pull slips through like a watermelon seed. Much was made of the condition of his clothes, as well as more griping about the sewers in general.

Come to think of it, Jackson's primary complaint seemed to hinge on their flight into the sewers in the first place. He took offense with the whole "rebel" thing, too. I'm not sure if he'll work out, but I bet someone will get to frag the bard.

-t

This Sunday, we resumed our heroic activities with the conclusion of The Bastards of Erebus.

Once again, the Cast:

Jackson Friendly, Wiscrani Human Male Bard. Unwilling rebel and averse to dangerm, he recently acquired a tower shield, for the cover
Evan Fuzzyfeet, Wandering Halfling Male Cleric of Sarenrae.
The party's healer and resident "voice of reason" with "reason" being a debatable term.
Nuella Fitzwizzlesprocle,Wiscrani Gnome Female Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline). Blaster of color sprays and arrow-magnet par excellence
Job, Wiscrani (nee Crusading) Human Male Paladin of Iomedae. Emo paladin and resident damage dealer. Equally deadly with sword, dagger, or club.
Dr. Master Veatrix Magnus Dumptruck Ellypen Rae Neil Patrick Harris Chief, Esq. Bleachling Gnome Female Evoker. Collecting names like a bum gets sores, currently going by the name of Dr. Dumptruck or just Doc.

...Our Story Continues...

Having dispatched a good portion of the Bastards, as well as their undead allies, the party takes a moment to regroup, loot, and divide the spoils out. Job takes the lonely walk to the tower to reclaim Jackson (and his rifle) before the group decides to continue.

On through the next door, HALO manages to readily defeat the red-furred and bad-tempered wolves, generally by letting them chew on, trip, and chew some more on Job. Finally, the paladin regains his footing and manages to slay the remaining beasts. Scratched a bit, they use some potions and Lay on Hands to heal up, and move on.

Finding a boarded up door around the corner, out come the crowbars, with Job ripping boards off as fast as he can and Dr. D yanking nails with her much smaller prybar. They rapidly reveal the door and move on into the woodcarver's home. Jackson decides to keep the battered and used tower shield being used as a trapdoor, slinging the small table across his back.

The whole party moves upstairs, with greater or lesser levels of enthusiasm, finding a corpse left on a bed and a small hole in the ceiling. Noone found the giant rot grub before his ambush, and with the good Dr. searching the corpse, his first target was assured.

A good bite and grapple later, and Doc is sweating, especially as everyone's first swings go wide I forgot how bad a few crappy rolls can be at this level and the bug holds on. Nuella quickly Greases the poor bleachling and she is able to squirm out next turn. The bug is not so lucky, however, falling to combined strikes from Jackson, Job, and Evan in a shower of goo and ichor.

Heading back downstairs, the group continues along the hall, turning again to go upstairs. This time, the pair of "distracted" tieflings is not quite as inattentive; one rolled quite well on his perception to hear Mr. Clanky Shoes coming through the floorboards, and prepare to ambush the 1st opponent up the stairs. Still without my Bestiary, I made up some Rogue 2 NPC's to use as bandits later. They fit in here very nicely, with minor changes to account for their tiefling nature

Job, once again, charges up the stairs enthusiastically, eating 2 Sneak Attack alchemist fire bottles in the process. The rogues get initiative on the hapless Paladin, dimming the lights but failing to stab him again. A frantic, groping hunt for the "darkness coin" ensues, with Evan spending the next 4 rounds looking for the source of the darkness while Job tries his best to drop his foes. Everyone pitched in as they could, and once Evan grabbed the "Bastard Pog" the battle was well in hand. 2 dead tieflings later and HALO is ready to move on.

Down below, the party prepares to head into the last side chamber when the 2nd Sorcerer (Vethammer? Ostengo? I forgot his proper name) and his group spring their ambush. Darkness falls, again, and crossbow bolts wing Nuella. A lone magic missile also strikes, leading to the quote:

"This is Soviet Russia. Here, the Darkness Magic Missile's you!"

Again, Evan the Cleric grabs the darkness object and the thugs are readily dispatched with sword and knife. At one point, Job fumbles and drops his sword; not missing a beat, he whips out a club (as he called it, "My baseball bat") and proceeds to go all Joe Pesci on these thugs. Heads burst like grapefruit while the sorcerer continually backs off and zaps the Paladin repeatedly. Nuella handed off her wand of grease, letting Dr. D do something more than wing off ineffectual Ray of Frost cantrips. The entire tunnel became greased, eventually, resulting in slow going and plenty of pratfalls.

Ostengo (or whatever his name was) managed to get just past the threshold of Dravano's room and hiss out "We've got company!" when Jackson's arrows finally found him and put him down.

In the next installment: How to Kill a Tiefling, even if he has claws!

We managed to finish the entire adventure, including 2 of the additional plot hooks. More details, and the Stat Blocks for my Rogues and Warriors soon to come.

-t

The Saga of H.A.L.O. continues...

The heroes, low on resources and feeling the bite of a certain crossbow wielding Tiefling gang, nevertheless push on. Having dispatched the Thugs and Sorcerer in the ambush corridor, Dravano and his 3 Rogue 2 buddies come floating around the edge of the darkness.

Hoping to catch the party unawares (a nearly impossible task with Job and Dr. D packing maxed perception scores) the foursome drifts into the corridor and challenges our intrepid heroes. This was probably NOT in their best interest. A few arrows from Jackson, a couple of grease spells off a wand, and the Tieflings (Die, devil-scum!) go down quite handily.

Dravano, with his better AC and decent offensive capability, lasted another couple of rounds, despite being flanked and focus-fired. He put some hurt on everyone, but soon fell to a wicked clubbing from Job.

I almost think he should use the bat rather than his sword...he rolled max damage 3 or 4 times in this fight. Two-handed power attack is MEAN now!

After some regrouping and the expenditure of the last healing spells/channels, HALO prepares to take on the big boss man. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a let down for me. I think the boss monsters are simply cursed.

Knowing they were coming, Palaveen turned invisible and commanded his skeletal doggies to Defend. This drew the party in (again, they almost spotted him with their stupid-high perception checks) and focused on the doggies. A few cantrips thrown their way miss, leading everyone to believe they are "inactive" or somesuch. When Nuella finally lands an Acid Splash, its on!

The doggies, on their chains, charge. Palaveen, in a stroke of uncharacteristic luck, goes first and casts Spiritual Weapon. The rest of the fight was back and forth until Job steps up and puts another ridiculous damage longsword attack on the poor evil cleric. After that, he tries to heal and survive long enough to flee, but is unable to withstand the combined attacks from everyone. The Bastards finally fall, and the party loots like madmen.

Job got almost all the cool treasure from this adventure. The 1 magic weapon, the 1 magic armor, as well as his normal share of the treasure. At one point, he asked the group if anyone needed any money for items. Hearing no "Ayes" he got a Cloak of Resistance with his earnings. Crazy arrmored paladin of smitey doom, here we come!

Now for something completely different

Having vanquished the Bastards and receiving a bunch of coin, HALO spent some down-time buying, selling, and crafting. Soon enough, Janiven approaches them with a suggestion that some bandits need to be taken down. Before they can get there, though, Job insists on carrying out a mission to eliminate or capture some of the shadow beasts. It helped that he ran into a certain cerulean garbed individual, who offered an unspecified sum for delivery of said objects.

As you can read in the Obituaries page the plan did not go quite as they hoped. Job perished at the jaws of a shadowy, flying dog-beasty, with Nuella, Evan, and Dr. D almost suffering a similar fate. Only the timely application of tanglefoot bags from Evan and Jackson prevented the fiends from absconding with both Job and Dr. D. As it is, one of the critters managed to escape, leaving the group with 2 bodies.

1 went to the aformentioned blue-cloaked contact, with the remaining critter going home to be dissected and {hopefully} better understood. Job himself was able to be Reincarnated through the Wizard's scribing and Spellcraft shenanigans; the group's "reward" for their slain shadow beast? A scroll of Restoration showed up, just in time for newly Troglodyte Job to regain his lost level.

1st death of the game, and its the Paladin, as it should be!

The rewards of a life of crime include horrible sword wounds and blood

Finally ready to tackle the highwaymen problem plaguing the countryside, HALO sets out on foot with a rented cart and donkey.

What I don't understand is why Dr. D was covered in meat, or the huge amount of meat attached to the cart. I suppose the group thought highwaymen would waylay them, thinking they got an easy score (2 humans, 2 gnomes, and a halfling, with a single donkey-pulled wagon?), but why meat? I think the question will remain forever unanswered.

Luckily, they DID just upgrade the paladin to a Troglodyte, generating a hefty bubble of “normal animals want to stay away” around the party. Otherwise, many pouncings and ambushes loomed in the future, what with the pounds of meat hanging out everywhere.

Our heroes managed to travel uneventfully for a while, making small talk and just hanging out, until they stumbled (completely unintentionally, I am sure) into a bandit ambush. Four large trees on the edge of the path concealed deadfall traps and groups of rogues. Once the group made it into the trap, I called for Perception checks. Once again, Dr. D managed to pinpoint the danger quite readily, gaining a small surprise. Unfortunately, she simply zapped one of the rogues in the tree, starting combat up.

For a Gnome Evoker Bleachling who wears a mask all the time, she sure sees everything that is worth seeing. I blame her D20, it hates me.

The 8 rogues open up on the group, sending 2 volleys of (hopefully) sneak attack shortbow arrows into Job and Dr. D. Job, with his newfound natural armor and stink manages to dodge each and every one. The good doctor takes some damage, but nothing enough to put her down. Plus, she's standing directly next to Evan, the healer.

During the fight, several rogues get dropped from trees with Magic Missiles, Grease, and finally a Burning Hands that caught 1 directly and torched the tree another 2 were hanging out in.

Job, Evan, and Nuella had their own problems, though, as another 5 toughs step from the undergrowth and demand surrender. These bunch are much better armored and wielding flails.

I can't help but design NPC's around minis we have, and we just so happen to have 5 Emerald Claw Soldiers, all color coded and everything. Shield and Flail it was!

A brief but bloody skirmish ensued, showcasing the strength of Swift Action Lay on Hands, Channel Positive Energy, and good teamwork. Nuella hopped around, trying to avoid AoO's and put bunches of them down with Color Spray, almost getting perforated for her trouble. Dr. D somehow ended up prone at the feet of a Warrior, and took 2 rounds of getting beaten while whacking him in the shins with a quarterstaff. When he was disarmed of that, he tried to finish her off with his shield, but with Evan's timely intervention she popped right back into the fight.

After several rounds of combat, HALO managed to gain the upper hand, largely thanks to Job's wicked high AC.

Not that that protected him from the pair of Warriors rolling Nat-20's to hit him. Unfortunately I was unable to confirm the crits, but at least I got a couple of good swings in!

With the 13 bandits slain and their gear safely looted, the party headed back to town to report their success and gain some serious coinage.

At this point, they've accumulated 4 Fame Points (1 for Arael's rescue, 1 for the defeat of the Bastards, 1 for slaying the shadow beast, and 1 for defeating the band of highwaymen.) and are solidly into 3rd level. As far as the city is concerned, HALO is simply an eccentric adventuring group operating out of the Buttery Spigot tavern (where Yakipulio and Nuella work) and doing “good deeds for hire.”

Sunday the 29th will see our return to this adventure, and the beginning of The Sixfold Trial. Everyone's been issued a copy of the libretto, and we'll see just how dramatic and crazy we can all get.

Bonus points go out to Christa for wearing her Dr. Dumptruck mask through the entire game, and keeping a sketch/note book going for IC use. (I am ok with you using that for art class, too, if you want, not that you really need permission, but hey...)

-t

As promised, stat blocks for the Rogue 2 and Warrior 3 NPC's I used for Highwaymen and Bastard reinforcement.

Bandit
CE Male Human Rogue 2 CR 1
Init +3
Senses: Perception +6
Defense:
AC 16 (+3 Armor, +3 Dex)
Touch 13
Flat Footed 13
Saves: Fort +2, Reflex +6, Will +1 (Evasion)
Offense:
Ranged Composite Shortbow (+2) +4 1d6+3/x3 (within 30')
Ammo: 20 Normal, 3 Silver Arrows
Melee Dagger +4 1d4+2/19-20 x2
BAB 1, CMB 3, CMD 16
Special Attacks: Sneak Attack +1d6
Special Qualities: Evasion, Trapfinding, Finesse Rogue
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Skills: Acrobatics +7, Bluff +3, Climb +6, Disable Device +8, Escape Artist +7, Intimidate +3, Perception +6, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +7
Feats: Point Blank Shot(B), Precise Shot, Weapon Finesse(RT)
Gear:Comp Shortbow(+2 str), Dagger, 20 Arrows, 3 Silver arrows, Studded Leather Armor, Alchemist Fire, 8gp

Thug
CE Male Human Warrior 3 CR 1
Init +1
Senses: Perception +1
Defense:
AC 19 (+4 Armor, +3 Shield, +1 Dex, +1 Dodge)
Touch 12
Flat Footed 17
Saves: Fort +5, Reflex +2, Will +2
Offense:
Melee: Mwk Flail +6 1d8+5 19-20/x2 (Power Attack -1/+2)
Ranged: Longbow +4 1d8/x3
Ammo: 10 Normal Arrows
BAB +3, CMB +6, CMD 17
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +8, Handle Animal +5, Intimidate +5
Feats: Shield Focus(B), Power Attack, Dodge
Gear:Mwk Chain Shirt, Mwk Flail, Heavy Steel Shield, Longbow w/ 10 arrows, Tanglefoot bag

I like to use the Heroic array for my combat NPC's (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8). Otherwise my PC's will simply mop the floor with any humanoid they come across.

-t