"True on both counts. Speaking of epic stuff, where that damned gnome? I guess it would be too much to hope for that the medusa turned him into stone?"
"We'll discuss that once the City Watch picks up your new friend here." Janosz gives the minotaur a sceptical look. "In the meantime I could use a little repair."
Huzzah! Janosz is updated - I rolled 8 for hit points and took Improved Critical (comp longbow) as my new feat. Skill points were spent in the usual manner. Additionally, Gatekeeper rangers get Darkvision 60' on this level. We should have 10 action points on this level, right?
Janosz crawls out from underneath the lightning rail carriage. He's a right mess - his good clothes are ripped and covered in dust and grime, and his face and hands are covered with Seren warpaint and dried blood. "The minotaur surrendered to Lightbringer. They've got him on the far side of the train. The cloaked woman... I dunno. I can track her, but she can lose herself quickly once she's out of the railyard. She's most probably gone. I'll add her to my book of grudges."
He limps up to the dead wartoid lying in front of Rolund and Runzyl. "Nice slicing here. Besides missing his head, what the f!@% is wrong with this guy? Are those lumps from some sorta disease?"
Knowledge (dungeoneering - that's for underground creatures and weirdness, right?) 13+7=20 to ID Wartyman's ancestry.
The minotaur snuffles, seeking Janosz's scent. When it realises that he is gone, it thumps the side of the wagon cart angrily, making it shake. It then turns towards Lightbringer, its dazzled eyes blinking.
"Warforged, I can smell you but cannot see you. You have me at your mercy."
"Wipe him out while you have the advantage, Lightbringer!"
Meanwhile, the minotaur pursues Janosz along the line of coaches. "I can do this all night, little man," it growls.
"Good - that was actually my plan all along. Not much room for brains inside that big cow head of yours, is it?" Janosz dives underneath the train and rolls out on the other side of it.
Another full retreat. I'm using Acrobatics to tumble into the space under the train and avoid being AoO'd. Tumble check 11+14=25. My new location is X7, where I'm lying prone.
This scene, from when the skycoach was attacked, would make an excellent scene from a movie.
Absolutely - just like the wyvern fight, the showdown with the kobold monks, the journey with Choom, the... Well, just about everything we've done so far, actually. BTW, does anyone have a See invisible to spare? With that, I'll make short work of Cloak, wherever the hell she's hiding. Or maybe I can track her down once the fight is resolved.
"Son of a f$%%ing b&@@@..." Janosz narrowly dodges the rampaging minoraur before hightailing it away from the massive beast and its distressingly enormous axe.
I'm doing a full retreat. Double move to X3. Good thing I have Longstrider running!
The place I'd really want to be in is on top of the second train car, but that's probably impossible. Instead I'm shooting between the wagons. Put me in O2, giving me line of sight to Minotaur, Wartyman and the three westernmost gnolls.
"It is important that someone should survive to tell of what happened here."
"Well, it won't be you", Janosz mutters to himself before launching a flurry of arrows.
I make a couple of assumptions. The first is that we're still on our old initiatives and the second is that I get a surprise round - I'm too far away for the minotaur to smell me, and they clearly haven't seen me. So bombs away!
Surprise round, using Manyshot and Rapid Shot. AS I'm 100' away, I incur no range penalties: Attack 1: 13+15=AC 28, damage 2d8+6=17. Attack 2: 12+15=AC 27, damage 1d8+3=9. Attack 3:15+10=AC 25, damage 1d8+3=7.
Round 1@initiative 21, still using Manyshot and Rapid Shot: Attack 1: 11+15=AC 26, damage 2d8+6=14. Attack 2: 20!+15=AC 35, confirmation roll 12+15=AC 27, damage 1d8+3=10x3=30. Attack 3:9+10=AC 19, damage 1d8+3=6.
Finally, if the robed speaker is an aberration, like, say, a dolgrim or a medusa, each Manyshot hit does 8 points extra damage, and each regular shot does 4 more points of damage. If the robed speaker goes down before I'm done shooting, I switch to a gnoll after her.
And finally finally, can I make a new Stealth check to stay hidden after all this shooting? Stealth 13+16+5(warpaint)=34 minus appropriate penalties.
The first thing I did after hitting the ground was to cast Longstrider on myself. I then do a "40' move and CLW wand hit on myself per round" as I make my way across the trainyard. How many wand charges can I use before I see the two approaching skycoaches?
Once I spot the skycoaches I go into stealth mode, sneaking up on them while doing half moves. My first action once I see them is to apply my Seren warpaint. Stealth check 11+17+5(warpaint)=33, Perception to differentiate between the passengers once I get close enough 13+15=28. Once I get close I'll drink my potion of Shield of faith. After that, it's showtime.
Acrobatics 12+8=20, so I can take 10' off my falling distance.
Nope, you just get outside a rapidly moving skycoach. First, you need to spend an action point just to have a chance of surviving. And then you need to make another Acrobatics check to at least get into the semblence of a paratrooper's landing stance (or whatever it's called) and actually with your feet facing down - DC 25 (I'll let you spend another action point on that too if you desire). If you succeed you take 8d6 damage but may make a DC 25 Reflex save for half (if you didn't use the action point for the skill check, you can use it here instead). If you fail, you cannot attempt the save.
OK - here we go. First, my Acrobatics check is actually +14 (I have 8 ranks, so the result above is wrong). I ony have 1 action point left, so I spend that jumping out of the coach. Once in the air, here's the chack to get into a good position before smashing into the ground: Acrobatics 12+14=26. Then my Reflex save: 2+14=16. Crap! Damage as I plow into the ground: 12d6=47.
Jasnosz slowly gets up after his long fall, gingerly checking himself for broken bones. Finding none, he limps off after the out-of-control skycoach, drawing his bow as he goes.
So, if I remember this correctly:
Janosz 21
Gil 18+ - has Fly
Rolund 18
Runzyl 13+
Rodergo 13 - has Wind walk
Ezreal 12 - hangs on to Lightbringer
Shooter 5
Lightbringer 3 - has Fly
Banquat 0 - hangs on to Lightbringer
"See you on the other side!" Janosz kicks open the passenger-side door and leaps into the cool night air.
I'd like to hold my action until we are relatively close to the ground... Acrobatics 12+8=20, so I can take 10' off my falling distance.
"There!" Janosz poins to the rapidly approaching lightning rail marshalling yards. "There's a section of track currently unoccupied by coaches. Make a left... oh crap."
Janosz. Banquat handed you your quiver last round.
Janosz slip on his rig and pulls out his bow. "Thank you, Banquat. Now, could someone see if the driver has a featherfall token or something like that?"
Do I see anyone out front? New Perception check 14+15=29.
"Banquat, you f#&#ing wimp, man up, gnome up, whatever it is you do and do something useful. Get my mail shirt out of my quiver. It's lying over there next to Lightbringer." Janosz grabs the dead pilot's collar and yanks him out of his seat. "How do I fly this damned thing?"
As for accompanying Gil, I believe Janosz would be the best choice. The Cyrans will take less offense from a Shadow Marcher than they would with a Valenar, two Karrnaths, and two followers of the Silver Flame.
Janosz is happy to tag along with Gil on her errands.
"She was very curious about our next adventure. Heck, she as so friendly I started thinking she was a vampire. Of course, if she's some sort of Quori spirit-vessel, she's actually someting even worse..."
"She was prying a bit, but I didn't tell her nothing," Janosz mutters to Ezreal as they make their way to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "What was all that Path Of Light talk? It sounded like a bunch of hooey to me."
There's no way I'll be able to fool even a moderately perceptive person, but here we go... Bluff check 14-1=13. Not too bad - after all, Janosz does love booze and ink.
"Probably somewhere unpleasant. We'll decide once we've spent our gold, I guess. We don't plan too far into the future." He has another sip of his drink. "Say, Mi...uh, Helkashtai, who are these assembled worthies? I don't usually hang out in places like this, but I assume most of them are nobles?"
Her name sounds kinda kalashtar-ish to me - does she sound anything like our psionic benefactors? Also, as I'm wary of vampires after our previous run-in with the Vol crew, is there a mirror or other reflective surface anywhere in here?
"Y'know, I'm good at exactly two things. The first is breeding and raising frogs. You might not know it, but there's a science and an art to it. My dad did it, as did his dad and his old man. Of course, gramps and Old Man Frogs are both long dead, done in by malaria, river blindness and nasty parasites; that what the Marshes will do to you. My other folks were burnt by cultists. So nothing keeps me back home."
Janosz sips his drink. "My other talent is stalking and killing things. So that's what I do. It feels pretty good, making a decent living doing what one does well, and doing some good along the way. And, hey, who doesn't like the madcap stuff? It certainly beats wasting away from consumption in some dank mudhole."
Janosz shrugs. "Banquat apparently feels the need to exaggerate and stereotype in order to tell his stories more effectively. It doesn't particularly bother me if people I don't know and never will meet think I'm a chaw-spitting, slow-talking redneck whose only interests in life are drinking moonshine and betting on fighting fish or water-spider races." He shakes his head in disbelief. "I had no idea that the readers of the Inquisitive were actually taking the serials seriously. There is some truth to all the characters, I guess, but as you've already seen, it is Rod, Rolund and Lightbringer who get into trouble despite their positive write-ups. Nobody bothers the straw-sucking simpleton. The kobold and ogre story is mostly true. The other one less so."
A musical laugh catches disturbs his reverie and he finds he is being watched by a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Her almond eyes are violet and long thick tresses of hair, an equally exotic mauve, are piled artfully upon her head and held in place with a silver net studded with clear sparkling gems. Teardrops of the same colour dangle from her earlobes. Her flawless skin is the colour of fresh cream and her dress accentuates her figure and reveals sufficient flesh to be alluring while still looking sophisticated. She looks young, perhaps twenty, but carries herself with the poise and elegance of someone much older.
She smiles, revealing a very cute set of dimples, and walks confidently over to Janosz. "I see you got bored of the tired old Thrane versus Karrnath debate. I don't blame you. They do go on so, I find." Her voice holds faint traces of some sort of accent that Janosz can't quite place. She extends a hand, more to be gallantly kissed than shaken. "I'm Helkashtai, by the way. Are you... Janosz, is that right?"
Janosz takes the hint and gives the woman a deep bow before kissing her hand. "Ah, charmed, Miss. Yes, my name is Janosz, from the Marshes." Being painfully aware that beautiful, sophisticated women do not talk to him unless they really, really have to, he is somewhat reserved. "Discussions on theology or history strike me as mostly pointless - the gods are what they are, just as certain things happened and others did not, and nothing we say or do can change that. We might as well accept that and move on. Now, you have me at something of a disadvantage, Miss Helkashtai - you seem to know far more about me than I of you. Perhaps you could tell me a bit about yourself?"
Janosz helps himself to a drink and a couple of skewers of veggies. As the meetup with the church figures seem to turn sour, he quietly sneaks away. Instead, he opts to just wander around the resturant's interior admiring the crafty illusions and listening to snippets of other peoples' conversations.
Unlike Rolund, I can be unobtrusive if I want to. ;D Stealth 12+16=28, Perception 11+15=26.
Recent Posts 
