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Karrak fires at a bad angle and his bolt glances off the battlements. The lone bowman takes a parting shot, hitting Tararr before he retreats into the armory and out of sight.
Tararr's sling bullet takes the head right off another archer. Lockjaw's throwing axe falls far short bouncing off the wall below before clattering into the jagged metal shards in the pit. The wooden platform that the two dwarves are standing on creaks as the fire continues to burn through the far end. It also spreads up the doors consuming the old dry wood.
Tararr continues to smolder in spots as he loads up his sling. Lockjaw switches weapons while a cloud of stream rises after Karrak's deluge washes over him. The dwarf priest retreats beyond Chitleen who drops to the ground to avoid any further arrows shot fired his way. The pitch painfully burns out on Tararr. The filthy men in the shooting gallery continue firing. One launches an arrows off into space high over the low profile elf. The others shoot at Tararr, but miss by a wide margin.
Karrak follows the others in retreat while summoning water to extinguish the burning pitch that threatens his beard. The three remaining archers focus on the elf. Chitleen is struck again by a near range shot.
Lockjaw and Tararr continue to burn from the smoldering pitch that has splattered over them.
Chitleen's bomb flies true leaving the victim screaming and clawing at his face as he topples over the wall to his death. His neighbor manages to duck the worst of the spray with minor burns.
Burning pitch clings to Tararr and Lockjaw igniting their ragged clothes and threatening their beards! Tararr becomes enraged and tosses a shield sized boulder at the offending humans thirty feet away. The boulder falls short but smashes into the wall with a frightening crash. Lockjaw mends some of his burns with divine aid and scans the gallery for evil. Although likely to be tainted by their unnatural disease, the men are not powerful enough to detect as evil.
Without a second thought, the adventurers race back from the door as the gritted stone teeth of graven dwarf above the door grind down and a torrent of burning tar inundates the bridge below. Chitleen easily outdistances the dwarves as Tararr lingers to pull Lockjaw along as he seeks to shield their retreat. The gooey tar splatters over the bridge and the retreating dwarves. A quartet of shabby human archers pop up in the galley above the bridge to fire at the lead member of the party. A hail of arrows fly around Chitleen, most miss widely, but one strikes the elf alchemist.
Initiative rolls:
Chitleen Karrak Lockjaw Tararr ManBats
Chitleen looks at the expanse of the wood portal not seeing any means of unlocking it, but noting that the wood appears to have suffered from dry rot over the centuries. His inspection is rudely interrupted however by the scent of burning pitch detected by his acute sense of smell. Tararr glances around as he smells it as well.
The dwarves lead the way over the old dry wood of the planked bridges. Once the second bridge is safely crossed, Chitleen steps forward to inspect the great door.
At the top of the stairs, the stone becomes wood as a bridge leads twenty feet to the top of a stone column and another twenty foot bridge turns at a right angle to the heavy wooden door beneath a huge stone sculpture of a glowering dwarf's face. Stepping off either bridge would lead to a plummet thirty feet to the ground below. Additionally, razor sharp pieces of scrap metal have been tossed into the pit beneath the second bridge. Karrak catches no movement from the galleries on either side.
Chitleen delicately sniffs at the fallen rocks that now litter the stairs and detects the lingering scent of human and bat. Lockjaw thinks the climb to the opening is possible with Karrak's rope and grappling hook though if there are unseen guards above, climbing might be dangerous. The stairs continue upward before leveling off and turning into the wall and gatehouse.
Lockjaw hits the wall hard and most of the debris strikes Tararr instead. The battlement opening from which everything fell is about a twenty feet up a sheer stone wall.
Lockjaw and Tararr lead the group up the stairs which pass under ominous rows of dark windows. Suddenly there is a grinding sound a pile of rubble and bricks tumble from an open window above.
The stairs ascend about thirty feet along the wall before turning toward the fortifications and a battered gate. Rows of dark holes line the wall occasionally holding some armaments. Perception DC 15:
You spot a head duck back into a hole near the gate as you approach the foot of the stairs.
Using Karrak's grappling hook, the adventurers manage to get over the wall with a little extra assistance for Lockjaw. The other side is shadowy and dark. Large dim forms of public building loom ahead along with a wide stairway nearby that climbs to fortifications above.
Favoring a less direct approach that might avoid trouble, the adventurers follow the wall eastward back behind the warehouses. It is a wide alley as there is a twenty foot buffer cleared around the wall.
Lockjaw's darkvision reveals a sad huddle of dismembered bodies against the wall. Something moves underneath the rotting limbs.
Somewhat put off by the ominous pile of corpses, the adventures look for an alternative route. The ten foot wall continues across the wide cavern however, the stairs leading to an upper level where the werebats are likely to dwell is seen to the east above the tall fortification.
Chitleen steps forward through the gate and is immediately struck by the sickly sweet stink of rotting carrion. There is a dark mound behind the wall near the gate of what by the smell can only be rotting corpses forcing him to step away covering his face.
With a nod to the god Angradd, the party moves to strike down the lycanthropes before they can recover. The caravan is secured with a pair of women and the younger children to mind things and the adventurers make their way deeper into the Grand Transept past low dark storehouses now yawning and empty. You reenter the wide procession passing between a pair of heroic dwarf statues, bronze faces disfigured and marble bases covered in graffiti. All is quiet except the sound of the dwarves' tread and occasional clank of their arms as the tall granite wall partitioning off the rear of the transept is reached. A broad iron gate stands slightly ajar at the end of the procession. It is noticeably darker beyond the rusted bars as the ceiling begins to slope gradually downward toward the domed roofs of the public buildings beyond. Large white letters written in running paint next to the gate spell out the warning, "Shoosuva".
OK, to review ranged attack options and hopefully push this forward a bit: Karrak now has a light crossbow and score of silver bolts. Chitleen has a shortbow and Aktosh has crafted a score of silvered short bow arrows. Also he has a tanglefoot bag left I believe. As for Tararr and Lockjaw throwing things, a pair of silvered throwing axes for Lockjaw and there are several light hammers which can be silvered and thrown. Silver sling bullets are likely a decent option as well.
The adventurers inventory the selection of silvered weapons bearing in mind that ranged weapons will be far more effective against their flying foes. The gnolls had already stockpiled an assortment of silver arrows and bolts and Aktosh has plated a few hurled weapons with silver. A silver bar or rock for Tararr could be created, but that doesn't seem the best use of the valuable material.
The compound is secured long before dark and watch set with Aktosh taking Daeron's place in the order. He finds an alarm bell to ring should he see anything. Fortunately, neither bats nor other threats are seen through the night and the next morning the humans head out to the replant the gardens. Aktosh, whose mind seems to have healed through work at the forge has become a reliable member of the group and goes along as a guard.
Aktosh soon returns with the humans. He takes chalk and slate to report that the manbats have raided the farm. He notes that this isn't the first time, but it will take time and effort to re-establish it. It appears that food will be short for the time being, but it is fortunate that you are soon expecting the arrival of the bosses and hopefully more supplies.
The wise priest comes up with an innovative way to dispose of the bodies and a work detail of some of the women is quickly established to transport the dead to the water works where the enemy remains are disposed except for several heads that are posted around the compound walls. It is decided by the human that their dead will be buried outside near the gardens and at first light, the weary women and children with Aktosh once more head outside to take care of their own.
Man, this thread is a player mill. Perhaps Zolurket is not willing to give up its mysteries!! Hide yo kids, hide yo husbands! They eatin' everybody up in here!
yeah, the chems are Chitleen's tools of the trade. Just trying to add a gritty dwindling resources flavor. T&T will be along eventually to replenish supplies somewhat.
Have we lost Karrak? I don't think he's posted in a while... On body disposal- chems could be used to create Alch fire for the job, say 2 vials, but seems that could be better used for combat. You could haul more wood up from the haunted woods below or just throw bodies off a cliff.
Tararr seems only too happy to take up Chitleen's recommendations for decor and soon a pile of heads are ready for posting around the compound. Where the bodies are to be burned and with what as most of the scrap wood was used in shoring up defenses become the next questions.
The former slaves gather around their fallen making harsh muted sounds as they mourn their loss. After Tararr finishes his bloody business, Aktosh looks to the others for what to do with the corpses.
In seconds, the other slaver falls bleeding out beneath the pale silver moonglow of Tararr's enhanced urgrosh. Above, Abid shrieks in frustration as his best warriors have been lost. The clapping wings above retreat deeper into the Grand Transept leaving the dwarves and remaining elf to deal with the dead. Tamerk peers out from slave pens where the women and children have holed up and after checking the air space above, he begins separating the human forms as the dead werebats have resumed their natural shape. All in all, two dead dire bats and five lycanthropes are piled together against three dead former slaves and the defection of Daeron.
Flanking with Tararr, Chitleen gives the grievously wounded werebat slaver a final deathblow.
Lockjaw belatedly notes that his strength has returned as he drives his axe into the injured bat. The resulting wound is deep even against the supernaturally resistant foe.
The werebats dive in quickly avoiding axe and talwar as they flank Tararr. The berserker barely gets his urgrosh in hand to block one slash of a scimitar before the next strikes him in the back.
Though weakened, Tararr manages to wiggle his way out through the hole cut by Chitleen. Left holding a severed rope, the werebats drop on Tararr.
Lockjaw cleaves through the tether with a powerful chop and Chitleen gets to work on the net while the others struggle in their respective nets.
The manbats give each other a nod and leap from the roof hovering overhead. The net falls upon Tararr snaring him as the two werebats pull up on the line.
The werebats shriek at Chitleen's taunt, but do not fly down for another attack yet. One pulls a healing vial to repair some of the injury meted out by Tararr's deadly urgrosh. The other readies his net.
Unable to reach his foes, Tararr uses the shining urgrosh to carefully cut at the net to help free Karrak. Lockjaw stands guard wary of another assault from the gargoyle like lycanthropes above.
Lockjaw steps up to hack at one of the lycanthropes, but his axe fails to break through the chainmail links. Chitleen slips around the melee to engage the creature with his talwar providing a threat of harm if not any real harm. Tararr shifts to take advantage of Chitleen's position and lays into the bat slaver with the glowing urgrosh leaving the were-creature gravely wounded. From the net, Karrak summons a burst of healing energy from Torag. Less injured than it was before, the bat withdraws with its companion to the roof and out of range of Tararr's lethal urgrosh.
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