Tablark Hammergrind

Big Mug the Bannerman's page

55 posts. Alias of Chainmail.


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Thalas Lebarath wrote:
Chainmail wrote:
Bless will stack with all banner effects no matter what
So, everyone gets +2 morale bonus to attacks - correct?

With your bless and the banners--everyone gets +2 morale bonus to attacks and +2 bonus to saves for any fear effects.


The dwarvish bannerman walks two steps toward the elvish banner. The elvish bannermaid instinctively closes the distance.

"At one time, these banners marched together. Shall I confer the benefits on the elves too?"

The dwarvish bannerman looks squarely at Kiptera and fixes her gaze.


A barrel chested dwarf in full plate holds a banner. Strapped to his ample waist is an assortment of drinking cups from large to largest.

He holds a banner of a hammer on an anvil.

init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4


The banner belatedly triggers an echo of Nar's healing.

5 more HP, Hon is at +5 and can act now.


The Bannerman advances. He holds the banner high (blessed).


As the party prepares to move on and the hammering on the outside doors continues to reverberate up the hall, Boog-Boog looks longingly at the two inch crack of light between the doors. He shows no inclination to move on.

The bannerman says unsympathetically in dwarven: "Does the gnoll need some encouragement to move on?"


That makes it easier.

The multiracial charades become easier once Gallak casts his magic.

The gnolls', speech is now understood by the dwarf:
"You are on our land crossing into our territory under your banner. We require payment."

The bannerman looks sheepishly at his banner when the words are explained to him. "Should I roll up and stow the standard?" The dwarf looks like he would be lost without the banner in his hand.


Joan and Kib have yet to agree to come along--so they haven't been counted yet :-)


INT: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

After wiping off his beard of suds and foreign objects the bannerman belches loudly and interjects:
"I am definitely in. I was there the whole time. What did I miss with this agent thing? Or was my vision clouded by the human a$$ I had to carry the whole time with his three bandoliers of axes and hammers."
He looks at Magnum with a mock serious look.

"Well we have six if you count humans as a full dwarf."


"I'm unarmed and have a hurt human. Don't hit me--I'm coming up."


Kib is 115' exactly south of Khazad and Big Mug, who are both carrying/dragging someone and 450-115=335' north of the handholds out of the air shaft.

Big Mug stepped five feet into the west hall to grab Magnum and collect the dropped hammer. He has Magnum in an improvised carry now.

"Let's get ready to run past those buggers together, they can only get so many of us. I'll go first."

The bannerman is preparing for a dash past the two dark dwarves threatening the intersection, one with an axe, the other with a spear.


Big Mug steps back and slings the human ranger over his shoulder after making sure he is stable.
Heal 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13


"I got your flank Khazad." Noticing barbarian's step and that the elemental is chasing Kib grant the bannerman an opportunity. Big Mug holds the banner and rushes to block the side passage.

"You shall not pass." The portly dwarf goes into a formidable defensive stance. "Finish this."


I have the darkness on the map. The duergar barbarian has a twenty foot radius darkness centered on his body. One of the other dark dwarves has darkness. That leaves a five foot by ten foot section of dim light between the two groups. Magnum is standing in one patch of dim light, the other patch is empty.

"See if you can hit me. Sod you you sodding sods."
Big Mug races up to engage the elemental.


"I can hold the line for a while."
Big Mug prepares to move forward if no one engages the elemental and barbarian team blocking the exit.


Excerpts from Big Mugs journal------
Have not used this literary device enough (I am mostly back from carporal tunnel surgery).

The battle in the tunnels grew desperate as we were beset from two sides and cut off from the surface. The dark dwarves used a devastating tactic of elementals to move through dirt and walls and polearms backed up by a solid defender or expendable elemental. We were promised to be ransomed if we surrender, but you never know with deep dwarves. The barbarian duergar was a skilled warrior capable of vicious two handed blows while enraged.

Order of Action
Magnum 13
Duergar 13
Earth Elementals 6
Big Mug 5
Joan 18 <---
Hon 17 <---
Kib 17 <---
Khazad 16 <---
Gallak 16 <---
Nar 14<---
The dark dwarf adds, "This smacks of a human plot to get the mines to themselves."


Big Mug is fighting defensively with his banner.


Hon:
My dad came to me after the first mission. He aske me to write and gave me a single magic feather to communicate with him. I am sure he talked to Durnak now, although I asked him not to.

The stoice bannerman addresses Brask and Nar. "Ready to go. The banner is even stronger."
Level 3 banner: Banner can double one channel positive energy if it is in the 30' radius per day now as well as provide the effects of a bless (note to Nar: these effects can stack with another bless.


On the trip home Big Mug cries to Hon, "I didn't know that Durnak was using me as a spy. When Brask tells Rock, he'll pick another bannerman." Hon and Magnum try to make the stocky dwarf fell better, to no avail. The stoic bannerman is unconsoleable and refuses to enter the warehouse, pacing outside most of the night.


A large burly dwarf enters the office carrying the dwarven banner of the hammer and anvil. He looks at Durnak and tosses a silver medalion on the floor that depicts an old dwarf on a throne and a single inscription underneath in dwarven that translates: Dwarf and pure or dwarf and dead.

"I am no longer in your club; I stand with Brask. I am going to drink with the humans if they will have me."

He turns around and leaves.


After going outside to get a breath of fresh air, Big Mug the bannerman sees a huge black bird racing for the caravan ahead of the coming storm. The bird easily catches up to the burly dwarf as he rushes back to the caravan. All the flustered dwarf seem to get out is 'Bird, bird, bird' as he rushes back. You see a quick glimpse of majestic black bird as he alights on the ground and quickly changes into a portly dwarf with some flecks of white in his beard and hair.

Strolling into the camp, the dwarf looks around and his face lights up when he sees the cider. He pulls a battered mug from his pouch and looks serious.
"Business first. Rock is fit to be tied and had me get you a message in weather I can't trust my apprentices to fly in. Unfortunately for me, the message is hours late and gold pieces short as my da used to say."

"Better word for word an no laughing at what you already know. Brask, there are dwarves out to meddle in your business as much I have tried to keep you sheltered from the squabblings in the dwarven council. These dwarves are defying my authority and are acting outside the clan. They are solely responsible for their actions."

"These dwarves belong to the Traditional Old Hall, a faction of dwarves that do not like what they call progressive dwarves. Progressive dwarves are any dwarves that try anything new. The Traditional Old Hall dwarves had a majority in the council and the ruling king was of this faction for years. This stopped when a certain king ran afoul of the Dark Owl and since that day no king was has come from the Traditional Old Hall faction."

The portly dwarf hands some dispatches to Thograt and Ninni, and as they read them they prepare to depart quickly. Thograt leaves to change into plain robes and warm clothes and returns with his gear for Brask to give to his replacement. The dwarf druid points to the hasty actions of Ninni and Thograt.

"They are ordered to rush back to Hon's ancestral home and stop the human barbarians from trying to burn it down. It seems these Traditional Old Hall dwarves paid the human barbarians to burn the Dark Owl stronghold to the ground. Obviously it is not easy to burn down, but the humans are still trying to do it."


"This is nice. The rest of the place is a dump compared to this."
Big Mug opens a new ink vial and signs in. Magrim signs in after Big Mug. Big Mug looks startled as he realizes he jumped protocol. "I didn't mean to sign in first." he stammers.

Magrim looks at him and smiles. "Why not, you got to do the book first? This looks like the afterlife to me, how about you boys?"


FORT save Big Mug 1d20 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 6 = 17
FORT save Magnum 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
Kragg, Big Mug and Magnum are fine this round. In melee roll d100 and for concealment check in cloud--skeletons must do the same. 1-20 = miss.
Polearm jabs from 10' miss on 1-50.


Kragg notes that the urgosh formerly known as the mwork urgosh is enchanted after extended fighting with it--the weapon is a +1 urgosh with a market value of 4000gp.
Quite a score, by the way.

"That skelly got a lucky hit. Just help me out on the line."

The larger skeletons are not burning.


I tend to surprise the party with the power of the banner as it levels up. One ability is a double strength channeling of positive energy once per day. I think you need this to manifest, so I am having the power chose to manifest itself based on need rather than wait.

The unholy flame is countered by positive energy--I think this needed to happen too.


Big Mug screams as he dodges the two explosions of burning skeletons near him, but still stays on his feet despite massive wounds. Hon takes incredible heat damage from being next to the two skeletons near him and starts to dodge the two exploding skeletons near him.

Thograt feels the banner has increased in power and the next channeling of positive energy will be extra powerful. As he begins to channel the power of goodness the resulting divine energy snuffs out the unholy bonfire and the flame on the remaining two skeletons that were previously aflame.

Thograt can choose 2d6 of healing or 2d6 of undead damage. I would not suppose to roll for this. Note: Hon is probably collapsing without healing and Ninni is hurt and unconscious.


Khazad's attack shatters the skeleton, but the in the fire he sees it begin to knit together again.

Brask finished off the ghoul with another well-placed shot.

Kragg hits and injures a skeleton, but the piercing weapon seems marginally effective.

Big Mug advances to protect Khazad. "Glad those blades didn't get us."


Big Mug took the new feat Chatty Dwarf allowing him a 40 word limit in battle. It is for those that like that extra bit of roleplaying. :-)


Kragg notices no problems with the trap. His movement stepping on the stones doesn't trip anything. Kragg strikes the flatfooted skeleton which explodes into pieces for 1d6 ⇒ 6 fire damage REF save DC 11 for half rounded down. Kragg manages to remain in a defensive stance to meet the onslaught.

Brask shoots through a bonfire, through a ghoul covering behind a skeleton, and squarely hits the ghoul with a now burning arrow. It is an uncommonly good shot. The arrow does both piercing and fire damage and the ghoul's eyes lack the spark they had before.

"Kragg is in trouble, I can't watch him get overrun by skeletons. We can't disarm these squares one at at time. Thograt, what do we do? He must not have heard Brask or he's got that good ole dwarven battle lust."


"We have time to clean this armor and wear it. The half plate is too constricting--I would prefer the masterwork breastplate. Some of you should wear this half plate, it is good protection."


Big Mug starts to strip the mwork breastplate off the undead Bannerman. He also looks on his person and finds a journal similar to the one he has been keeping.

He reads, "We go to find out what has been troubling these people in these ruins. I do not trust these humans who have been so polite to us or their promises."

"An earlier entry reads--our stealth mission to the human depot allowed us to boost some real good equipment. We can take from one group and sell to another. The thieves guild contact has helped us with some of our more high profile goods. There is a map and a mark on this Big Swallow Inn. This human capital city is huge."


I fell prone, so Magnum still had a somewhat clear shot. It is hard to be acrobatic in chain mail.


Big Mug keeps his balance and moves out of the grease to keep the undead from shifting into the corner to bring more numbers to bear and moves to the corner himself.

Hon's crossbow bolt does absolutely no damage to the skeletal wizard. The sneak attack appeared ineffective and the skeleton seems highly resistant to piercing damage.


REF 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Kragg manages to slip a hefty blow through the undead dwarf and his defenses. To his surprise, the skeleton underneath shrugs off more than half of the cutting damage.


Ninni's blows cannot penetrate the master work half plate and tower shield the two fighters are wearing.
"Hey, they're wearing some good armor."
Big Mug sings.. "Six skeletons clanking around, if one of those skeletons should happen to fall...well I'm hoping for some half plate."


Big Mug advances and Thograt heals Brask.
"Let's give em more of the same."


Brask FORT saves 1d20 ⇒ 11d20 ⇒ 16
Brask is paralyzed and prone.
Big Mug yells "Kragg, drag em back, by their beards if you have to."


Round 4
20 Ninni <---
18 Khazad
17 Neji
13 Brask
13 g4
12 Hon
9 Big Mug
7 Magnum
6 Severely injured ghoul
5 Kragg
1 Thograt

secret DM rolls:
INIT for bad dwarves 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

"I guess I'll pull Khaz back until he comes out of it.


Round 3
20 Ninni
18 Khazad
17 Neji
13 Brask
13 Undead right
12 Hon <---
9 Big Mug
7 Magnum
6 Undead left
5 Kragg
1 Thograt

Hon to go with clear shot to an injured ghoul out of melee
Magnum is stepping up and ready to unlease a barrage at the ghouls facing Ninni.

"You can knock some of us down, but we have hard heads and always come back for more."


"I'll keep them from rushing Brask." Big Mug moves behind Brask and gets ready to brace him.

Two tiny horrors rush Brask and he swings in defense 1d20 ⇒ 161d10 ⇒ 6 splatting his third little one.
Kragg unleashes his prepared attack too batting it back in the room it came from to land with a sickening thud. 120 = 120

All eight of the tiny, smelly monsters lay mangled on the ground.

The big ones don't even think of rushing a dwarf and escape out the southern door in a flurry of scratching noises of claws on stone.
Kragg's initiative jumps to just ahead of these undead.

Round 1
20 Ninni
18 Khazad
17 Neji
13 Brask
13 Undead right
12 Hon
9 Big Mug
7 Magnum
7 Kragg
6 Undead left
1 Thograt <---


During the delay to remove snowsuits, Neji casts mage armor on herself and Ninni. I do not know if the entire scout team is concerned with color coordination, but Hon is going back to earth tones. Magnum and Big Mug decide to dump their snow suits too.

"I don't know if the undead respect the banner."

Big Mug pokes Ninni with the banner to test the mage armor--are you there Ninni?


"I don't like skulking around either."

I assume Big Mug is along too.


"Actually, had we arrived on time, I bet they would have been in place. After we arrived early, Brask caught them sneaking out.

Everyone is healed during the week of debriefing. Time is spent improving skills and abilities. Thograt is also scheduled to address the troops.

Please update the character sheets. Everyone will increase hp at HD/2+1 to ensure no drastic variations.


Journal of Big Mug:

We marched back having given the humans the fight of their life. Outnumbered three to one and we fought them to a draw. Liri and Thograt took 24 hours of healing to get on their feet, but they were fine. Liri decided that the rigors of the mission were too much, and asked if Thograt could find a replacement for her. She could continue, but not with a full heart.

The supplies were quickly distributed to the community. A whole year of necessities were what the people really needed. Another keg of GT was unrolled and we reveled well into the night. With trepidation we went to see Rock for the debrief.


"Neji can't pick up armored dwarf, kill the snake's head (Big Mugs 20 words or less)"


Winks at Neji
Bull rush to move one thug engaging Neji
AoO; Damage; Bull rush 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 81d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 21d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Big Mug stops fighting defensively and moves one thug next to Neji away
Provokes another AoO 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 121d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4


Big Mug's journal:
The fight was desparate as Brask put down two of the six crossbowmen. Thograt was wounded as one of three crossbowman hit him. Ninni took a hit from one of four attacking thugs. Liri fell after shielding Thograt by rushing to the front after Thograt was hit, when she took two hits from hand axes leaving her down and out. Luckily the large brutish leader missed both Liri and Thograt with a sweep of his greatsword.


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From Big Mug's journal (hopefully not found in the frozen ground covered with blood outside the human settlement):

"We approached the human encampment early to trade for the five crates of equipment our community needs. Negotiations broke down, so Thograt and I appealed to the honor of the humans. Little did we know the humans had prepared two fortified ambush points. We came early, so the humans actually had to sneak out to their ambush points while we negotiated in good faith because they were too lazy to wait in the cold. The insults our leader withstood were a tribute to his patience. When Brask noticed the humans trying to flank us on two sides and catch us in a crossfire, he opened fire. It was six of us against 18 humans; although it seemed unfair, we were not about to let them have any reinforcements to make it more fair.."


Khazad and Neji are together where they like. Big Mug is left of Liriana. Init All Thugs/Cbow1-3/Cbow4-6/leader 1d20 ⇒ 161d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 211d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 81d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
INIT Big Mug 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
Still need a dramatic recap. Map didn't completely port from excel, but it will do. White writing on gate disappeared--gates are 15' wide and latch in middle.


After listening to this (*&^ I can't stand it. Don't seem like negotiations are going well.

Big Mug steps out of the shadows and the hammer and anvil seem to have an unearthly glow in the firelight. The humans react as undead to a holy symbol for a few seconds and take an involuntary step back.

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