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Bingo steps out of the darkness quickly and takes a jab at the guard!
"GURK" lets out the man, before dropping down from Bingo's precisely aimed strike. Bingo winks back at the globe, hoping Dris sees him. He says into the message "I got this feller. But nowhere else to go this way. Except down."
Guard's perception vs Bingo stealth
Oblivious, the guard stares out into the distance. Slowly, Dris moves close enough so the darkness almost envelops the guard. Bingo, sneaking inside, finally gets to the corner, where he can see out of the dark. The guard is now 5' from him. Norn reaches down and stretches his hand to Kaeso. "Kaeso, grab the cat and come up," he says.
Round 5
Back to bingo!
Although Purrcy misses, Kaeso is able to deliver the last hit to vanish that zombie. Ionnia makes it up! Round 5
Still in initiative, but almost everyone is in the second map!
Peeking over the cobblestone wall, Mornaura sees three other guards, all asleep in their bedrolls. They sleep with leather armor on, and weapons on their side. There is no roof on this second story, and the floor of the second story in the building inside is partially collapsed, although Mornaura's field of vision into the room is not great, and it is very dark in there. Only the moonlight illuminates it. One of them is snoring quite loudly, and looks quite large. He has a greatclub with him, and he must be at least 7 feet tall. Human, but quite burly and built. The last zombie left 5' close to Norn and takes a swipe!
But the zombie is almost swinging blindly at this point. "Purrcy, finish up this guy and let's get into the fort." says Norn. Round 5
Bingo sneaks up and readies behind the end of the walkway. Round 4
Dris floats up to the top of the palisade, and looks down the catwalk. A few feet down, she sees yet another guard tower, which seems to house a guard with a torch out. There is a bow next to him.
Morn and Bingo have jumped the palisade, and are currently on a 2nd story caltwalk. Bingo can see the first floor below, and morn can see into the neighboring guard tower, which currently seems empty. The catwalk seems to circle the center structure, an old stone building.
Purrcy and Kaeso dispatch of the zombies easily, leaving a lone corpse facing Norn. Round 4
Mornaura runs to the palisade and climbs up. The zombies, having flesh to devour, begin attacking the party! Zombie 1 on norn
Zombie 2 on kaeso
Round 4
Purrcy next, who will attack the nearest zombie. Kaeso to follow.
Bingo turns around and tries to sling the zombie below, but no success. Round 3
With holy wrath Norn chops the zombie's leg off and finishes it with a strong blow to the chest. He moves back to intercept the zombie next to Ionnia. Round 3
Bingo, vanish is done from the CDG! Morn up next.
Ionnia once again calls the power of Shelyn to banish the undead. She presents her holy symbol and streams of positive energy emanate out to cover the field! Zombie will saves!
The zombies all WRITHE in pain, and three explode in a small burst of ash and bone... With the zombie next to her disintegrated, Dris is able to quickly cast levitate and her over to the wall.
1. purrcy moved. 2. "yes"3. SLAs do provoke. You may also cast them defensively.
One of the zombies takes a swipe at Kaeso as he goes by!
"UUUUUURRRRR, Braaaains" Round 3
Zombies are slowly being chopped to pieces, when finally something happens up at the catwalk. One of the bandits finally makes it over and starts to look over the palisade. "Well, would ye look at dat! Look's ta me like we got us some dem intruders in here. Hee, hee, woke up dem zombies. Well suits y'all good for thinking you would get in ta da fortress." He takes out a bow. Tired of him talking, Mornaura lets her hex fly.
Ionnia's face shows a bit of fear when once again more hands break the surface of the earth. Zombies continue to crawl out of the ground around the group. The existing ones approach the nearest people, while the one in front of Norn takes a swing.
Purrcy up! Round 3
Zombie saves (DC 13):
The zombies all sear with pain! One of them especially, more than the rest. Round 2
Just an update, I am currently out and my computer dine on the trip. Won't have a chance to update until Sunday night or Monday :(
Whap, whap, whap. The zombie is on the ground and no more! Round 2
Bingo, valiantly jumping over the palisade, stands now on top of the wall. He can see the walkway, currently noone to be seen. He hears footsteps though, coming closer and looks like whoever it is, is bringing a torch with him. The flicker of the light and the light smoke can be seen coming near from the first floor. The zombie next to Norn attempts to strike him!
But it's not enough to land a blow on him. The other zombie slowly approaches Purrcy. The voices of the evil creatures are joined by others. Once again hands and limbs bust through the surface of the earth! Another 4 bodies of poor adventurers, bandits or trappers join the land of the living in undeath. They slowly climb out, and pull themselves up! Round 2
In a quick few seconds, the battlefield changes to what seems to be the best! Purrcy, not flinching from the undead abominations rising up from their graves, tears into the flesh and bone of the one closest to him! The Zombie falls, eviscerated by a flurr of claws and bites! Immediately after, Kaeso takes a bow shot at the closest zombie to him, and lands an arrow straight onto the zombie's forehead. The zombie falls to it's knees and faceplants unto the floor. Even so, Kaeso thinks such a well placed shot, should have done more damage than it did... Ionnia, easily recognizing these monsters, says to her companions "Guys, these look like human zombies. Not much of a threat is such small numbers, but I suggest slashing weapons when possible. Their fleshy exterior is not affected as much by bludgeoning and piercing weapons!." Right afterwards she also realizes that her attempt to get the attention of the undead is futile! These mindless creatures want one thing only. Revenge on the living and feasting on the closest living creature it can perceive. Drispera manages to barely land her shot into the flesh of the zombie, followed shortly after a slice from Norn. Norn feels the flesh of the zombie being cut easily by his sword, and nods in relief. However, the abomination still stirs and gets ready to attack! Round 1
Well, yesterday was the 1st anniversary if you start counting from the beginning of the recruitment. I'll celebrate the 9th of May instead, when the actual gameplay thread was opened. ;) Now may 9th so congratulations all! Thanks all for putting up with me and keeping this going. My in-person Kingmaker group sorta fell apart (we meet MAYBE once every 3 months) so great to be able to GM in some capacity.
Bingo, under the cover of darkness, begins his approach towards the palisade. With an easy perception check (even in low-light), he is able to time it correctly so that he approaches when the lone guard moves along. Purrcy, who can still smell Bingo follows closely behind. After they get a few yards in, the ground under Bingo begins to tremble! With a quick jump, Bingo gets out of the way, ending close to the palisade. Purrcy looks very unhappy to be where he is right now, Drispeera feeling a sense of dread from her animal companion. Whatever is coming, it's not natural. A few seconds later, hands erupt from the ground! Humans, but made of rotting flesh and exposed bone begin to dig themselves out of the ground. One. Two. Three. FOUR creatures emerge from the earth, and all turn their gaze to the only living thing they can lay their eyes on. "KITTY BRAAAAAAAAAINS" Their surprise action is to get out of the ground Round 1
ok, map is setup. initiatives:
Kaeso: Drispeera: Mornaura: Bingo: Norn: Ionnia:
Round 1
If erratic post times were a clue, I'm in London until the end of next week, so look for updates at odder times :)
Bingo adds "Aye, I only saw humans. No pointy ears or half-men among them. There was one large one, but just looked like a big oaf of a human."
The party, getting a bit restless, starts prepping a new plan, when out of the bushes Bingo pops out with a hop. Holding a piece of parchment with some scribbles on it, he starts detailing his sketch on the map to everyone. From a tree, he was able to look inside. Originally, there seemed to be one central stone structure, a ruin of some sort. To the central building, the bandits added two separate wooden watchtowers and gangplanks. There is only one gate, at the front, but as suspected the back is built against a hill and the palisade is only 4' tall in the back. Bandits patrol the watchtowers regularly. The two at the front seem to have 2 humans each at almost all times. Surprisingly, the rear watchtower seems to only have one guard patrolling it, but he comes and goes pretty irregularly. From a rough count, Bingo estimates there are around a dozen people in there. One particular bandit wore heavier armor than everyone else, while a second one was easily 2 feet taller than the rest of the bandits. A pair of bandits came to the gate while Bingo was scouting. It was hard to tell what they were bringing, but it looked like mostly kegs of wine or ale. All the barrels had been recently stamped with the stag lord's skull insignia. There also was a decent supply of what looked like raw meat in the cart. Map updated in the stream. Purrcy jumps out of the bushes, with a squirrel in its mouth.
I believe Bingo has already left on his scouting trip. Bingo and Purrcy go do a perimeter check of the fort. They go pretty far off the palisade, to attract the least attention possible. The trees and shrubbery provide excellent cover to get around the area. The air is tense while waiting for the gang. 30 minutes pass and no sight of Bingo yet. 35 minutes. Nothing.
From a fairly easy knowledge arcana check you can surmise the "not decomposing" bit is not related to the blighted area, but an innate power of the unicorn itself. You are fairly certain it would not decompose any faster or slower based on location. But Norn would have no problem leaving it where it was if thats what yall want.
I guess this is actually up to the party. It will take longer than the time traveled down here to go back up and snag the unicorn with a cart. Ever tried to pull a wagon through a forest? It would basically make you use the 20ft travel speed in the table. The statue of Erastil would be considerably closer. Regarding Purrcy's tricks, how much time to train has she had? So far she's trained Attack and Track. Is there time to train Attack Anything? (1 trick a week, right?)Do I need to roll for it? I think with my handle animal, and Kaeso's Aid, and taking 10 it should come out to 20 pretty consistently. So, I have done a bit more research on the AC rules recently, since they released the Animal Archive book. Bonus for you, druid animal companions (which yours is for these purposes) come fully trained (bonus tricks + 6 more from having 2 int). I will leave it up to you if you'd like to keep him as he is, as it makes more sense RP wise, since you found him. What we can do is you can have his 8 total tricks be whatever you want, and although we won't handwave the time to train it, we can handwave the handle animal DC. In-game, since the animal is slowly bonding to you it learns more tricks. And... does Attack include Flanking? Or can I direct him where to attack? I'd like to train him to Flank with Bingo as often as possible. (I know Rogues love them some flanking.) If its not already included in things Purrcy can do, then I'd like to make Flank (Bingo) his third trick. Flank is now it's own trick. Since you have +9 in handle animal, you can command your AC to do any trick it already knows in combat as a free action with no rolling required. When you use the flank trick, you designate at that time who its going to go flank with. There is an updated list of tricks here. I would say it has indeed been a week since last time, so you may teach it another trick (It's 1 trick/week for each RANK in handle animal you have)
Daww, thanks Kaeso. It did the same for me when I was writing it (that mikmek scene was a GM Nel original, book actually does a poor job to bring on the confrontation with the stag lord). Glad it had the intended effect!
The group decides on a west-ward approach, coming down the forest and finally into the open. Galloping over the rolling fields, everyone sees a small hill with some shrubbery and trees at the top, a very good vantage point. From the top, the party can confirm what Faron saw earlier: there seems to be a fort in the distance, lit by torchlight. There is an 8' wooden palisade all around the main structure, with a single entrance gate on the front. The fort itself is actually barely that. It seems to have been an OLD shrine or temple, just 2 stories high. From here, it looks like there is barely any of the second story left at all, with a wall crumbled off. they are hard to make out, but it does seem there are a few wooden gangplanks going around and above the palisade (for archers, presumably). All in all, it looks like the entire complex is 100 x 100 feet or so. Figures are hard to spot from this distance, but there is some movement. Obviously a bit more presence in the front by the gates, but hard to see what is going on in the back. The hill faron mentioned is visible from here. Looks like the fort was built against it, so the palisade is much shorter in the back, maybe 3-4' high.
With haste, the party decided to send Mikmek north to alert Johd, and ride back to Oleg's to provide support and inform them that there will e an attempt to assault the Stag Lord's fort. Through the forest, the party rides as fast as possible, getting to the edge of the forest. Not a lot can be seen into the plans of the Narlmarches, but Faron is able to see and report back that there is indeed a small fort with a wooden palisade built against a hill at the edge of the lake. Very recent marks of riders are apparent in the plains, but the forest seems clear. Faron reports he cannot see patrols of bandits over the plains to the east. To the south, the forest seems quiet. From Morn's earlier knowledge of geography, the forest stretches right into the Skunk river, and follows east into the Tuskwater.
Mikmek, who doesn't look to injured, says "Uhm, I don't know. Bandits were screaming that they were falling back to their fort. They very angrey that you destroyed their other camp, with the hatchet lady leader. They loose territory. They say, they make example by feeding Svetlana to their pet soon! Angry people, they all are."
Faron flies up and goes take a look, circling in the air. 30 seconds go by, and Mornaura hears a loud hunting call from the distance. No other calls are made. Finally, something comprehensible is heard by Dris and Mornaura: "MORNIE'S CROW!!!! MASTEEEERS!!! NOOOOOORNNN!!!! DRIIIIIS!!! Mikmek's voice becomes more distinct as he gets closer. Eventually, you can see his figure, riding a medium dog. He finally sees you near the blight and starts waving and jumping almost out of his seat. The riding dog stops flat at the top of the blighted vegetation, refusing to go into the unnatural energies. Mikmek jumps off and starts running towards you. "HEEELP!!! Help!! Guys, come on. You need to get back... The OUTPOST! We were attacked! They took the nice lady that cook's Mikmek's food! The Stag Lord himself came. Giant man, big horns. Heavy bow. He shot Kresten, his men... He take the lady with him and his gang. He the try to torch place down, but Mikmek and Oleg finally stop him. But he then shoot Oleg. Oleg tell Mikmek to find you guys. Tell you that they are looking for you." "Tell you, you are being hunted..."
"OOOOOONNNNNN!!! KEEEEOOOOO!!! MAAAAAASRSSSS!!! UUUUU EEEEEREEEEE?!?!?!" "IIIIS MIIIIIMEEEEEE!!!"
As the party continues to ponder what to do, a voice is heard in the distance. "MASRS!!! MASRS!!! KSOOO! MARAAAA!!" Everyone is a bit startled and on alert. Whoever it is, he is obviously shouting his lungs out, but he is so far away that his words are almost incomprehensible. "IPEAAAAAA!! IIOOOOO!!! MAAASRS!!! ELOOOO!!" The voice is definitely getting closer and closer every second. Sense Motive 17:
The voice seems somewhere between agitated or scared, but definitely under stress.
At the surface of the water, dead fish and moss cover the surface. Not even the water prevented the necrotic magic from killing everything in it. The water is perfectly still, and the only ripples in it are the ones made by the blowing wind. The water is obviously stagnant, and reeks of rotting fish and other organic matter decomposing in it. Granted, the stench is not unbearable, giving Kaeso the impression that this defoulment did not happen that long ago. A few days max, or the smell would be intolerable.
Mornaura looks around, and can wholly detect a strong necromancy aura everywhere there is no vegetation. The aura does not cover the Unicorn, but all the innate magic of the beast is gone. No specific auras can be identified as a spell. Thinking about what a unicorn horn could be used for, nothing specific comes to mind. It is rarely used as an alchemical component, and you think you recall some spells using it as a spell component, but it must be some ancient, old magic. Nothing recent has used it. As for tracks, the valley is eerily devoid of them. You are able to find the Unicorn's own tracks, seemingly coming here from deep in the forest, only to end by the waterside where the body currently lies...
To Dris's surprise, no vines or plants come to her call. It seem whatever foul magics have infected the area around the beast are preventing the growth of new life...
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