Dungeon Master Drax's page

I must really hate that tree.

BTW, never mind the short sword now. That -2 to attack is going to make it nigh-impossible to succeed, whereas if I just use the scimitar, there's a slight chance I might wound him slightly before he kills me.

So, do you want to drop your short sword as a free action and then use your scimitar two-handed in the future? I will allow you to drop the weapon on your previous turn if you like.

Good thing it isn't awakened.

Do I have any idea why I hit him with the scimitar before, but hit a tree this time? Alexei obviously wouldn't know that both attack rolls were 20, but he'd know they were roughly as good, and that one hit solidly and the other hit... a tree. Did I see him ready a shield or something? Or can I assume some kind of magic is at work? [/ooc]

Your enemy did indeed ready a shield as a move action (no attack of opportunity). Between the tree and the shield, you were unable to land a blow that you are confident would have been successful if either factor was not present.

I do realize now that you would have had an attack of opportunity when it fired the bow at Ergrin, so you may make that attack roll now.

All characters except Mijanor:

A new creature enters the fray. Striding forward with purpose from around the bend in the road ahead is another humanoid. This one is very differently equipped than the others - studded leather armor, with two short swords with wicked curved blades drawn. Emblazoned on the chestpiece of his armor is a crimson red five-fingered hand. He takes up position in N16 between the two humanoids with longswords.

"Come on, journeymen. Offer your throats and we'll be done here."

Characters with darkvision see only a gray hand.

The Gray Hand of Doom!

I'm confused... I've got low-light vision and +2 to spot on top of my Perception skill; certianly my eyesight isn't "inferior"! Do I have any idea if I just straight-up missed him, or missed due to some kind of illusion?

For some reason I was thinking Alexei was human when I was getting descriptive. You did straight-out miss him and ended up hitting the tree instead.

Noted, I was making an error with the initiative order.

Thanks to Kin Lur's superior training, he is able to tiptoe around the thick branches and leaves of the forest, moving 20 feet north into the forest.

Dorak:

I thought that Augrok and Ur had moved into the trees - the map shows them in the middle of the road yet if I'm reading it correctly.

They wanted to move into the trees, but were not afforded the chance due to the steepness of the embankment. They may have wanted to climb, I should have warned him first. I will be nice and assume they both climbed and will update the map accordingly.

Kin Lur, you may attempt to sneak north. However, your speed is reduced by half when stealthing, and a further half when in the forest, meaning 10 feet total movement, in addition to a small penalty because of terrain. Knowing this, do you still want to stealth?

Alexei, the forest is dense with undergrowth right to the edge of the embankment, which means you cannot 5-foot step. That leaves two options from your original plan: stand in place and attack with both weapons, or move action to the side and attack with both but draw an AoO.

For now I am going to assume you simply stand in place and attack, your training realizes the futility of maneuvering in the underbrush.

Alexei draws his smaller dagger, and in a beautiful display of swordsmanship the blades flash in the edging darkness. Unfortunately with his weaker eyesight he appears to mistake a tree branch for the creature and the dull thunk of steel on wood confirms this. With his scimitar caught in the branch, his shortsword thrust is off target.

The creature cackles. To those who speak Goblin:

Alexei, if you would like to accept the attack of opportunity to move I will roll it later, but it won't change what happened here.

Suddenly four more humanoids appear at the edges of the forest above the embankments, two on each side of the road. On each side one of these new combatants slides down the ledge onto the road, wielding longswords. The other four fire longbows at Ergrin.

Ergrin is fortunate this time, as only one arrow appears to strike true - deflected at the last moment by a meaty dwarven palm.

Ergrin's death appears to be averted for now, but it is then a new opponent comes into view. Two hounds, jaws wreathed in flames, move up the road and stand at the feet of the two sword-wielding humanoids.

The opponents on the road do not take any actions.

EDIT: Map is now updated to reflect changes up to this point. Remember the order of events when looking at your possibly exposed positions.

Updated map is available here.

The steep embankment means you can attempt to hide from enemies on your side of the road (and gain total cover), but you now know that enemies on both sides have seen you and fired on you.

Assuming you still attempt to Stealth up to the enemy on your side, you are now 10 feet away from it.

Ergrin crouches low, moving as gracefully as a dwarf can along the steep embankment. He stops 10 feet from the closest archer on the right side of the road, pressing his back to wall to conceal his presence.

Remember, for this game you only need to roll initiative once - at the start of combat.

Augrok:

Vykos:

Okay, new round begins with Augrok, then Ergrin.

Okay, the enemy has taken their turn (unbenownst to the party).

Vykos is up next.

Alexei decides to show up his ranger companion, charging forward in a fury, precariously rising in his saddle only to leap at the last moment up to the embankment. His powerful legs clear the top, and with scimitar in hand he carries the momentum of his rush as he attacks the human-sized opponent.

Alexei, I took the liberty of rolling damage for you to speed things up.

Alexei deals 8 damage.

I'll try to keep to the init order to avoid future confusion. No promises, though. ;-)

Well, everyone has different schedules, so I don't want a hard-and-fast rule for posting order. I'm going to rule for now that if you make it clear by bolding at the top "On my turn I will do the following" then you can post out of order.

Right, sorry Kin. This is my first time doing PbP, I'm still (obviously) working out the kinks. It's hard to keep up with people posting out of order, but I do note that I said I would keep your actions into account.

Kin Lur maneuvers his faithful dog Fourthea over to the embankment, and in an impressive feat of athleticism, jumps from his mounts back up to the embankment. Grasping at some exposed tree roots, he pulls himself up onto the embankment and is now behind a tree.

That leaves Alexei, the enemy, then Vykos.

Sorry, I was asking for the next initiative order to post, not for new initiative rolls. I will be using the same initiative results for the entire combat. Ergrin may repost on his next turn, I will disregard his extra action.

Mijanor raises the silver Hammer of Torag before him and calls down a blessing of life upon his allies. A flash of silvery light and the faint clang of a hammer ringing in the air, and the burden of a long, hot day is lifted from his companions.

All characters, companions, and mounts have been completely relieved of nonlethal damage. Vykos, as he has an endure elements has no nonlethal. The party is no longer fatigued.

Alexei, Kin Lur, Mijanor (turn taken), Enemy, and Vykos remain this round.

The two humanoids engage in open hostility, loosing their arrows at the lead party member, Ergrin. Ergin's senses and reflexes, highly tuned from years of training in the Stonefist Hold, react with the quickness of a scurrying dungeon beetle. With one rough hand, he knocks an arrow out of the way, sending it skipping harmlessly into the dirt. The second arrow finds home, striking Ergrin hard in the shoulder.

Ergrin takes 6 damage.

Ergin:

Next initiatives.

Very well, if I read Augrok correctly, he is without dice for a time. Augrok has rolled a 19 for initiative.

A few rules for initiative:

For initiative I will just post the initiative order, including the enemy, as you will figure it out eventually anyway. In all cases, wait at the end of the round before starting the next round so I can factor in other effects. If you cast a spell with a duration in rounds, on your turn make sure to include the rounds remaining in your spell

Initiative for this combat:

Augrok: 19
Ergrin: 18
Enemy: 15
Alexei: 12
Kin Lur: 14
Mijanor: 11
Enemy: 8
Vykos: 6

The enemy is currently 60ft away. Ergrin is about 40ft from the enemy.

You are right about the tactical encounters. I was going to try and do everything by description, but this is teaching me otherwise. I will henceforth post some accurate maps here (linked) .

EDIT: Posted the map.

Okay, almost ready. Just nead Vykos and Augrok to roll. For those keeping score, Ergrin is going first - this might become a theme.
Be sure to keep using the same character profile on Invisible Castle.

Thanks, Kin.

I'll take your actions into account once initiative starts.

Regarding animal companions, I usually have them go on their master's turn. Everyone cool with that?

I don't know if we will see humor in the same things you do Acererak...

Aww, come on, that gem laying in the middle of the floor was priceless! Bwahahahaha!

See, I can derail my own threads! I would like to see some more initiative checks...let's try and keep things on track. ;)

Dungeon Master Drax wrote:

Blah. My mistake. I've been confusing dwarves.

UberLogicTroll wrote:

That's because you're totally made of fail because this playtest isn't mathematically perfect in terms of the Pepperoni Fallacy, and you obviously spew nothing but stupidity on other threads when you should be optimizing here. If that insults you then you're a crybaby. So there!

Just kidding!

The Flaming Skull will report you for this cruel jest!

Thanks, though. This place needs more humour lately.

Heh, lots to catch up on. I don't know how I got near the signpost, I thought that was Ergrin who was messing around putting gold on it.

Blah. My mistake. I've been confusing dwarves. So Mijanor is by Alexei, Ergrin has moved past the sign-post.

Keep those initiative rolls coming.

Alexei:

Alexei:

Apologies for the occasional mix-up. I'm still getting the whole PbP thing down.

Vykos has received an endure elements spell early in the day and has not taken any nonlethal damage. Remember, everybody is currently fatigued, which will be removed once any healing negates the nonlethal damage from heat.

In the fading light, Alexei begins looking for things to cover Mijanor's armor, if he permits The holy dwarf procedes to do an odd ritual over the road marker.

(Spot checks made) Augrok, Ergrin, Kin Lur (and Fourthea), and Vykos suddenly spot movement in the treeline up ahead. With the golden sun dipping below the trees, they notice two humanoid figures, one on each side of the road. The figures do not appear to have seen you.

At this point in the road, the treeline is up on a 5 foot embankment on both sides, continuing around a bend in the road ahead. The figures are crouched behind trees, and appear to be wielding longbows.

Augrok:

Should we assume that traffic on this road is unusual or not?

Out of habit from riding alone, Kin Lur will ride a short ways apart from the rest of the group to allow him to a better vantage point for watching for anything (or anyone) out of the ordinary. In front or following the group, either one. That is, unless someone tries to engage him in conversation -- he is not trying to be rude, just vigilant.

Let me know which you will be doing presently. Force of habit with Spot/Search - it should have been Perception. I will be rolling Stealth checks as well.

The road has been particularly quiet recently. Yesterday a merchant and her guards passed you heading towards Drellin's Ferry, but you have seen no other travellers in the last two days.

Thanks for pointing that out, Kirth. Here are the adjusted nonlethal totals, including one channel energy from Mojanir during midday:

Alexei: 4 nonlethal. Light warhorse: 12 nonlethal.
Augrok: 8 nonlethal. Black bear: 4 nonlethal.
Ergrin: 5 nonlethal.
Kin Lur: 2 nonlethal. Fourthea: 4 nonlethal.
Vykos: 13 nonlethal.

Alexei:

I will be rolling Fort saves for everyone to determine nonlethal damage.

Alexei: 17 nonlethal. (7 to horse)
Augrok: 24 nonlethal. (13 to black bear)
Ergrin: 12 nonlethal.
Mijanor: 15 nonlethal (from hustle).
Kin Lur: 13 nonlethal. (16 to Fourthea)
Vykos: 15 nonlethal.

Vykos would require healing during the day. This also means that everyone is currently fatigued from heat stroke, as are your mounts.

Mijanor:

You may roll any skill checks any time you want (on your turn if in combat). The following checks will be rolled by the DM upon request.

Disable Device
Search
Spot

Keep in mind if you are taking 10 or 20 you can simply provide the result, even on the above checks.

The Elsir Vale rests in the cradle of the Five Kings Mountains within the small mercantile nation of Druma. Many environments pepper this ordinarily active area. The Elsir River runs from West to East through the Vale, around ancient Dwarven and Human ruins alike. To the west of Highhelm is the largest city in the Vale, a collection of merchant routes known as Brindol. Further to the west lies Macridi, known in the common tongue as Drellin's Ferry. Numerous other small settlements dot the landscape between these two human populations.

Renowned for its prosperous mining and farming communities, the Vale has fallen on hard times recently. The last two summers have been unusually hot, and local grain and water reserves are running thin. This year the weather has been worse than ever, and without constant water supply, many of the mines in the area have been forced to shut down. Farms have been abandoned, and it seems lately only the Elsir River is keeping the land alive.

To the south-west, a massive patch of dry land known as the Thornwaste has been spreading, encroaching even upon the Stonefist Clanhold. In the north, the Blackfens marsh has become infested with vermin thriving in the oppressive heat, driving the normally peaceful elves to desperation. But something worse is fermenting in the Vale.

Your group has been contacted through a messenger by an anonymous representative of Brindol, no doubt a prophet, who has instructed you to investigate the possibility of a goblinoid surge in the Western Vale. Your destination is Macridi, where you will receive initial payment and a description of your duties.

Travelling west from Highhelm along the Dawn Way and its byways you circumvented Brindol, a massive walled city on the banks of the Elsir, approximately three days ago. With your supplies running low, and the sweltering heat wearing upon your brows, the cooler night air is thankfully falling. Ahead a road marker reads "DF 5 mi".

Describe your activities, talk amongst yourselves.

I will be playing the part of Dungeon Master.
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The Characters:
Augrok Manyteeth played by Me'Mori
Ergrin Stonefist played by Tarren Dei
Mijanor Firehammer played by Dark Arioch
Alexei Pushkin played by Kirth Gersen
Kin Lur played by AinVarG
Vykos the Deathless played by flash_cxxi