Tevyn's arrow lodges in the shoulder of goblin #8, but the goblin keeps moving on, unperturbed.
Ameiko looks up and immediately begins to sing an inspiring song. She jumps off the back of the wagon and moves to the edge of the road, pulling out her rapier as she moves. Inspire courage (1/12 rounds bardic performance used), move to I38, drawing weapon as part of move.
ROUND 2
CURRENT EFFECTS:
Inspire courage (whole party) -- +1 competence to hit and damage rolls, +1 morale to Will saves against charm and fear
Shield (Malan)
Crane style (Melon)
Sandru shortbow at #2: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12 -- miss
Sandru moves forward a bit (to N 30) and fires an arrow over at the oncoming goblins, but unfortunately, it flies too high and goes over the goblins as well. "Protect the horses! he calls.
Corinna's bolt zips across the rocky landscape and hits the goblin in the chest, causing the goblin to stumble slightly as it runs.
Melon moves forward while Gilfroy tries unsuccessfully to control Umbral's movement. Despite his best efforts to get the donkey to turn, Umbral simply stops moving. Meanwhile, Malan casts a defensive spell.
The goblins continue down the hill in a wild mob, running as fast as they can towards the caravan, even the injured one managing to keep up (run full-round actions for all goblins).
Hearing the ruckus outside, Koya moves to the door of her wagon and looks out (move action to J 52; move action to open door) just as the wagon drivers bring their vehicles to a stop. For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming all the drivers are successful with their rolls to control the horses.
A cold wind is blowing from the south today, probably coming up off the Varisian Gulf, the shore of which can just be seen at the edge of your vision. The landscape here is rocky and mostly barren, with occasional patches of scrubby grasses. To the north, the Curchain Hills rise up, eventually becoming the Stony Mountains. Despite the sparseness of vegetation, there's a definite beauty to the landscape. Sunlight glints off the far-off mountains, at times creating a sparkling display.
You stop for lunch around midday as usual, then continue on, the landscape having changed little over the course of the day. Indeed, as pretty as it can be, it's consistency gives the annoying illusion that you're not getting anywhere at all.
A couple of hours after lunch (according to Sandru, you should only be a couple more hours away from Riddleport), Malan, scouting a short distance in front of the caravan spots Shalelu further down the road, at the edge of sight. She's waving, signalling danger. At that moment, numerous small figures appear at a hilltop to the northwest and begin swarming down. Goblins!
Corinna Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21 Gilfroy Initiative: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15 Malan Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14 Melon Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16 Tevyn Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8 Ameiko Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 Koya Initiative: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (10) + 0 = 10 Sandru Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21 Other Caravaners Initiative: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (10) + 0 = 10 Goblins Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Order: Sandru, Corinna, Melon, Gilfroy, Malan, Goblins, Koya, Other Caravaners, Tevyn, Ameiko
Shalelu is not included in the initiative as she will be having a separate battle with another group of goblins.
ROUND 1
CURRENT EFFECTS:
None
At the sight of the goblins, Sandru immediately yells out, "Halt! Take cover!" Bevelek hasn't even had a chance to stop the wagon as Sandru hops out of his seat onto the ground. He pulls out his bow and reaches for an arrow.
Map: Goblin Attack! Map Notes: Corinna may appear to be falling off the edge of the wagon, but she's actually on the seat beside Bevelek (she counts as in square K 32 though).
I'm assuming Tevyn is riding his horse.
Koya is not actually on top of her wagon. She's inside it. It was just easier to make her visible. Same goes for Ameiko. :)
Is drawing a profession or a performance? 1d20 +2 if Wis, +3 if Cha
Good question. A Craft, maybe? Whatever the case, you've got either a 17 or an 18, both of which I would consider good enough to convey the message.
Sasha places the salt and orb shard under the picture, as directed by Douena. Then she takes a good look at the picture. "I think that should work," she says.
Shokambe nods. "It's meaning is clear. We should get moving." He returns into the mine.
Alton is perched nearby and Sasha calls him over. When she starts to walk into the mine, he flies back to his perch. It takes a bit of goading from Sasha to get him to enter, but he eventually does.
You return to the iron doors and proceed down the tunnel. It is quite lengthy and takes close to an hour to reach the far end. During this time, you pass several other short tunnels, all of which appear abandoned and empty apart from an occasional discarded mining tool.
At last, you step out of the mine in a small abandoned camp similar to the one on the other side, though in a greater state of decay. From here you can see the road passing by heading northeast and southwest. To the east stretches a vast plain of tall grasses as far as the eye can see.
"The M'neri Plains," Shokambe announces. "This is where we want to leave the road and head due east. We wouldn't have reached here until tomorrow morning at the earliest if we had gone around."
Having had a successful time trading, Sandru is in a cheerful mood when he rejoins Corinna and Malan. During the walk back to the caravan, he enquires whether Corinna found the information she was looking for.
Back at the caravan, Ameiko presents Sandru, Corinna, and Malan with a small basket of freshly baked bread. "Help yourself," she says.
The caravan workers have already set about readying for departure and by noon, everything is set to go. At Sandru's orders, the caravan starts moving again and soon, Roderic's Cove is vanishing into the distance. "We should reach Riddleport tomorrow evening," Sandru says.
The remainder of the day's journey is quiet and uneventful. In the evening, you camp alongside the road just outside a small hamlet.
I'm going to need time to prep this encounter. In the meantime, feel free to roleplay the evening and morning. The encounter will happen sometime during the day while the caravan is travelling.
Ameiko: "So I'm planning to leave Sandpoint to go on a mission of some uncertainty, you see I've this mysterious note that hints to a great but dire past in my family history and am planning to investigate this - in spite of warnings of great peril and an overpowering evil that all but wiped out my clan; it is very well possible, some say likely, that this malignant evil still clings to the last remnants of my family that it knows about - waiting... waiting... for one of us to return. Then to strike! And kill again! This is so much a fool's errant, but one I must do. I must know! Will you..."
NE Goblin PC: [Stab! Stab!] Loot her corpse! Then we go steal her family's treasure! [Stab! Stab!]
Seriously, I suspect the AP would need to be altered to remove Ameiko (and probably the other caravan NPCs as well). It could be done. The AP does make allowances for the death of Ameiko and the other NPCs. Nonetheless, a bunch of goblins carrying out the main quest could cause for some unusual and complicated situations.
Douena finds no sign of traps on the doors, and they seem to be unlocked, albeit heavy and difficult to move. Pezock helps to push them open. Beyond, a passage stretches forward, very slightly inclined upwards.
Sasha takes the key back with a shrug. "There's always Kalabuto," she says. Your route does include a stop in Kalabuto, so there's a chance to spend the money there, and 15 pounds is easily spread out amongst the whole group.
Moving forward in the mine, you pass another bridge and then come to a chamber that is free of water (although it is still damp). The cavern is filled with immense piles of rock salt chunks. Shovels, picks, and other mining tools lie scattered about the chamber. At the opposite end of the shaft, a neatly excavated wall supports a pair of double iron doors.
Lorenz looks confused. "Um, sorry. I meant that the tunnels should be safe now that the orb is destroyed. Safe enough to look things over more closely, at least. Though it'd be a good idea to check out the remains too."
Sasha blushes slightly. "Oh, right, sorry. That makes sense too. Let's search the rest of the place first, and then come back to the orb." She grabs Lorenz's hand and starts pulling him back down the passage. At Urza's words, she says, "Don't worry, we'll be quick! Shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes, and the more who help out, the faster we'll be!"
Ishirou nods and follows as well, then Jask. Pezock looks bored by the idea, but agrees to help out too.
I'll assume everyone helps out to some extent to help speed up the process...
You find nothing of note among the remains of the orb or by the excavating machine, but there is an old iron strongbox in the small, abandoned camp near the entrance. The strongbox is locked, so Sasha brings it directly to Douena to try the key. The key fits, although the locked is rather rusted, so it takes a bit of fiddling to get the key to turn. Inside the box, you find a bag of 750 gp and a bone scroll case containing the deed to the mine. The mine's owner is listed as Feran Crinhouse.
The most expensive item is an old silver ring for 5 gp. It looks like it might have once been a nice ring, but it's now quite tarnished and scratched in places. Vinzi takes Corinna's money with an expression that vaguely resembles a smile, but somehow seems mixed with a scowl as well.
"There was a caravaner named Pitivo who used to come through here years back. He had a regular route similar to what Sandru runs now. But there was some sort of scandal. Stories say he took up with a Chelaxian woman. Or a Taldan. Or an Ulfen. Some even say an elf. You know how stories are. They change with the telling. But the one constant was, it was never a Varisian. Some of the stories say he married her and had a child. Some don't mention the marriage and just say he had a child. Some don't even mention the child. Heard one person say he strangled his wife and newborn child in their sleep. Heh. Don't give much stock to that one, personally. Whatever happened though, he ended up on the run. From her family? From the law? Who knows? Started altering his route after that. Took on a more northerly route, so I heard, but he kept coming back to Riddleport for quite some time. Haven't heard about him in years though. Still he fits your story."
The old woman sits back and eyes Corinna carefully. "So, is your mother the woman? Are you his child?"
Read through the Goblins game and found it to be hilarious. Too bad you didn't continue witht he goblins through Jade Regent, I seem to recall a post on the boards here where the goblins were kept going through the JR AP. :)
Glad you enjoyed it! We certainly had a lot of fun with the goblins.
However, I don't think continuing with them through Jade Regent would have worked in our case. The characters would have ended up killing each other eventually (or at the very least, beating each other senseless). I did make a point of including cameo appearances by the goblin characters (well, most of them) in our Jade Regent game just to add a little fun. I'm intrigued by a goblin group that managed enough cohesiveness to carry on beyond the single adventure. If it's a pbp group on these boards and I manage to find the time (doubtful, to be honest), I may seek them out and have a read.
Navior, since my posting will be more sparse, you may want to stop using the caravan rules. As I recall, I was the only one that really wanted to use them anyway. It wouldn't be fair to you to continue with the extra work and I not be able to carry my share of the burden.
I've updated the caravan infromation to the 4th of Rova.
Sure thing, Dax. I'll take full control of the caravan and make the mechanics a little more abstract.
The old woman chuckles. "Twenty-eight years ago? You think I keep messages that long? Well, I don't. I can barely remember what I did yesterday, never mind twenty-eight years ago. However, that name is familiar. It might be a different Pitivo that I'm thinking of, but the time frame is about right. Buy something and I'll consider telling you what I know."
Vinzi's wares are fairly simple. She has some cloth of decent quality (though not spectacular) that she's selling for 1 sp per yard, some Varisian dolls for 5 sp each, and a selection of gaudy jewellery (necklaces made from simple beads, plain rings, etc.) ranging in price from 1 sp to 5 gp).
The evening passes calmly. Ameiko provides some music as usual, but finds her performance hampered slightly by Gilfroy's attempted augmentations.
24 ROVA, 4711 (9th day of journey)
Sandru is up early the next morning to head into town at daybreak. He shows Corinna (and anybody else who wants to go along) to the marketplace, which is already busy despite the early hour. It's not a big place, but there is a wide variety of wares (if anyone would like to buy anything, let me know; you can get any standard, non-magical items). After taking Corinna to do her business, Sandru does some trading for the caravan.
Caravan Resolve: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27 Sandru uses up one trade good and makes 27 gp.
Corinna:
Sandru shows Corinna to the stall of an elderly Varisian woman selling cloth and trinkets. "This is Vinzi," he tells Corinna quietly as they approach. "She acts cold and sometimes rude, but she's actually a good person and has done me many favours in the past. Most importantly, she can be trusted."
"Back again, I see," the old woman says to Sandru in Varisian. "And here I thought it was going to be a good day."
"Vinzi," Sandru replies. "This young woman is Corinna Valdemar. She'd like to leave a message for someone."
The old woman peers closely at Corinna. "Would she now? Well, I hope she can understand us because I refuse to speak that horrid language the Taldans like to pretend is common to everyone. So girl, what do you want?"
Laya would definitely remember the meeting, so I'll have her mention it. She'd be willing to go along to it if that's what the party wants, but she's also willing to miss it if necessary in order to stay and aid the rest of the party.
Despite the threatening clouds, the rain holds off and you're blessed with good weather over the next two days (perhaps Koya has more control over the weather than she's willing to admit). Conditions on the road are good too, so you're able to cover a lot of ground.
Late in the day on the 22nd, you take a branch in the road to the northwest and head towards the Churlwood, a tangled forest choked by vines. You camp just outside it. Sandru warns everyone to be on their guard as the wood is known as a haven for bandits, thieves, and goblins. You pass the night undisturbed, however, and encounter no difficulties crossing through the woods the next day.
23 ROVA, 4711 (8th day of journey)
On the evening of the 23rd, you exit the Churlwood and reach Roderic's Cove, which sits at the mouth of the Chavali River where it empties into the Varisian Gulf. Roderic's Cove is the largest town you've reached so far, considerably bigger than Sandpoint (although still a far-cry from Magnimar or Riddleport). It's a rather dirty place. The streets are muddy and that mud seems to cling to all the buildings and people in the town as well. There is a sizable harbour, which seems to be home to mostly old fishing vessels and a few decrepit larger ships.
"This place can be a bit rough," Sandru warns. "It's technically a holding of Riddleport and it takes after its parent city in many ways. We'll camp outside it, do a bit of business in the morning and be back on the road by noon."
Knowledge (history) DC 14:
Roderic's Cove only became a holding of Riddleport a little over ten years ago. It was besieged by bandits and goblins on one side and pirates on the other, so turned to Riddleport for aid and agreed to the larger city's "protection". After this, the pirates unexpectedly spared Roderic's Cove, employing it as a shipping and trading port for merchants without the stomach to enter Riddleport.
Knowledge (local) DC 20:
Captain Jess Gildersleeve, the governor of Roderic's Cove is known to be in the pay of the gangs of Riddleport.
No need for dice rolls as you'll get through eventually. The hardness is 8, which means only a few of your flail strikes will actually damage it, but at least you're not wasting arrows on it. Makoa, Ishirou, and Pezock will come help as well, so between the four of you, you'll smash it in a minute or two.
Lorenz sets to work smashing the orb. Pezock pushes through the water to help him, eager to get a chance to actually smash something. Ishirou and Makoa (I'm making an assumption here on Makoa's part, but it's something that he would characteristically do, so I feel safe in that assumption) come to help as well. Despite the cracks in it, the orb is still quite structurally sound, so it takes a couple minutes of hard work, but finally the cracks start to spread further out and then very suddenly, the whole thing shatters. Its blue glow fades and vanishes.
Nova Scotia is a beautiful place (as Nazard, who lives there, will be more than willing to tell you all about). Whereabouts in Nova Scotia will you be?
Corinna is shown where she can post her letter. In her enquiries, she finds a couple people who claim to remember a Varisian caravaner of that name who used to come through here, "but that was years ago," they say. He hasn't passed through Galduria in at least 5 years.
No worries, Dax. My best wishes to you and your family.
My apologies to everyone for the dead weekend. My weekends just seem to end more and more full all the time. Things will likely be a bit slow for the next few weeks. Exam time is rapidly approaching and my students are booking extra lessons.
I generally allow Weapon Finesse to apply to combat manoeuvres that you could use a weapon with (even if you're not using one), so trip and disarm primarily (and sunder, too, I suppose, although I don't think it's ever come up as sunder is so rarely used by anyone), but not bull rush, grapple, overrun, and others which don't use weapons. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to have to go back and double-check Mahjik's posts to see if I didn't accidentally allow him to use it with a grapple by not checking his bonuses carefully enough. :)
Back to chases, it's always a good idea to allow for a variety of tactics to help get everyone involved to some extent. A variety of obstacle styles and the checks needed to get past them is good, too. In the chase I mentioned above, I included a couple of Handle Animals checks for the party druid, and even Knowledge (engineering) for the dwarf fighter (to notice which parts of a rickety balcony were safe to cross).
Wight #13 AoO against Mahjik: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 -- miss
As Mahjik goes for the wight's weapon, it attempts to go beneath his grab and strike him; however, Mahjik is able to pull back and avoid the blow. The dodge means his first attempt to grab the pick is unsuccessful, but on his second attempt, he manages to knock the weapon from the wight's hands. He may keep hold of the pick if he wants or drop it. Let me know.
Shokambe continues to delay while Lorenz moves round to get a better angle.
Ishirou takes advantage of the wight's momentary shock at losing its weapon. He raises his katana and swings quickly down at the wight's neck, cutting deep. The wight makes one last move, reaching out in the direction of the orb, then topples over face-first into the water.
She glances up at the sky. "I don't suppose you know..," she asks. "Tonight isn't a full moon, is it?"
As it happens... The last full moon was a little over a week ago. It's now just past the last quarter. :)
The evening is a quiet one. Ameiko plays some light music, but keeps it soft and subdued. Most of the caravan crew retire early, perhaps from fear of the rumours or perhaps just because they were up too late last night and are now overtired.
You do hear the sounds of wolves howling during the night. The howls come from the west, but seem to be quite far away. Nothing comes near the camp during the night.
22 ROVA, 4711 (7th day of journey)
The sky has become cloudy overnight, and by morning, rain threatens. The caravan workers cheerfully set about preparing for departure, looking much more animated than they did last night.
After breakfast, you load up onto the wagons (or horses or walk or whatever) and the caravan sets back out onto the road.
In a real-life game, where the players who fail are sitting around as nonparticipants for 10 or 15 minutes, it has the potential to be exciting to a spectator; in a PbP where you end up doing nothing for 2 weeks real time, it's a lot more tedious. Caulder is built to work with a group, not every man for himself. Coming on the heels of knivesies, which was another encounter that was necessarily solo, it's been at least six months since the whole party has gotten to work together on something.
Yeah, I agree with you here. You can't spend too long focusing on just one or two characters in PbP. It leaves the players of the other characters waiting for way too long.
Joana wrote:
And, honestly, the fact that you need to point out the "deficiencies" in Pagrip's build, like the lack of Weapon Finesse, only emphasizes the fact that the chase rules are set up for specific types of characters to "win" and others to "lose," or, if they're smart, not even attempt in the first place.
To go on a slight tangent, I disagree with Lorekeeper that Pagrip's lack of Weapon Finesse is a "deficiency". He's not built as a melee fighter so the situations in which he could benefit from it are just too few to be worth it. Not only that, I can't see how it would help him at the moment. I don't think Weapon Finesse is applicable to grapple checks, is it? Disarm and trip, I can see, but not other combat manoeuvres. Otherwise it makes the Agile Manoeuvres feat worthless. Of course, you could consider the lack of Agile Manoeuvres a deficiency, but only for this chase. :)
I actually really like the chase rules, but I understand what Joana's getting at. As I mentioned previously, as much as I like they rules, they have one major flaw, and that's that they need to be prepped heavily in advance. Because of this, there's definitely the temptation for GMs to optimize the NPCs for the chase, which is clearly what this adventure has done with Trinia. Sure, she only has some of her high scores because of spell effects, but those effects were clearly chosen to give her those high scores.
Of course, it makes sense to do that sometimes. Not everything can be a cakewalk for the PCs. But GMs definitely need to avoid the temptation to do it all the time. I don't have a problem with chases often becoming a solo challenge for just one of the PCs (and not because Pagrip is doing well in this one). I think it's a good thing to have encounters once in a while in which one or two PCs shine, just so long as all the PCs eventually get their turn to do the shining.
I ran a chase recently with my tabletop group. The party (all 3rd level) was chasing two NPCs. One was a bugbear warrior, whom I specifically designed to be completely NOT suited to running through the streets of Kaer Maga. He was meant to be easy to catch, having only a good Climb skill and nothing else. My idea was that he would be easily caught by the PCs who weren't well-suited for chasing. The other NPC was a human rogue much more suited for the chase. Although not nearly as optimized as Trinia (no convenient potions of jump and other spells), he was meant to be the challenge for the party's monk who should have been easily able to swoop through the chase without much difficulty.
Of course, the dice gods intervened. The party monk had the most spectacularly bad luck with a string of natural 1s and 2s. Meanwhile, the pathetic bugbear rolled nothing lower than 17. So yep, the monk couldn't even catch the bugbear and both NPCs got away. (The party later tracked them down and cornered them at their hideout.) Despite their bad luck, all the player's had a blast and that chase became the topic of discussion for the next week or so.
Saying a quick prayer to Nethys, Jask pulls out his dagger. He then opens his hand as if to drop the weapon, but instead the dagger flies from his hand towards the wight.
Jask hand of the acolyte at #13: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 5 - 4 = 16 -- miss
The wight ducks aside, and the dagger flies back to Jask's open hand.
ROUND 4
ACTIVE EFFECTS: Mage armour (Urza and Mahjik)
Urza fires off two bolts of energy, which zip between Sasha and Ishirou. The wight tries to dodge aside, but the bolts change direction suddenly to hit the wight straight in the chest. The wight hisses with rage.
Sasha takes advantage of the wight's confusion over being hit by the magic missiles and lunges with her rapier, piercing it just below the neck. Then she spins round with her kukri, slicing the wight's arm.
Pezock sawtooth sabre at #13: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13 -- miss
Pezock also presses his attack, but the wight recovers enough to dodge out of the way.
Next Up: Mahjik, Shokambe, Lorenz, Ishirou, Orb, Makoa, Wight, Douena (subject to delayed action), Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock.
"Of course," Corinna smiles stiffly, mentally filing this fellow with Gilfroy under the category 'self-taught.' No credentials ... honestly! Then again, beggars can't be choosers. What self-respecting conjuror would accept a post at a backwater school if he were at all qualified to work in Korvosa?"Tell me, what do you summon?"
"I personally tend to focus more on the creation aspects of conjuration magic," he replies. "From the simple obscuring mist spell to more complicated options. I'm rather fond of the web spell personally, although I seldom get a chance to use it for any practical purposes. However, I have summoned the occasional celestial animal from time to time."
To Gilfroy's comment about illusions, he says, "I'm afraid illusion is my weak area. Perhaps you should speak..."
Ishirou swings at the wight, catching its upper arm, but only doing a small amount of damage.
The orb has nothing to affect.
Seeing that his companions are not handling the wight as quickly and easily as he first thought they would, Makoa decides to move in closer. He pushes through the water, making his way around behind Pezock (double move to Z 60).
The wight looks around at the rapidly diminishing space surrounding it, and then at the out-of-reach orb. It's clear it wants to move, but doesn't want to open itself to attack. With a hiss, it launches another attack at Mahjik.
Wight #13 heavy pick at Mahjik: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20 -- miss
It comes close to hitting the monk again, but at the last moment, the tip of its pick rebounds off the magical armour protecting him.
Next Up: Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Mahjik, Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Lorenz, Ishirou, Orb, Makoa, Wight.
I think you missed the nasty 10 points of damage and 1 negative level the wight inflicted on you. That means an additional -1 penalty to your attack rolls (and a loss of 5 more hp).
Mahjik strikes at the wight, but the weakening he's suffered from the wight causes him to misjudge his strikes. The first is just short of being able to catch the wight; the second goes far wide.
Shokambe continues to delay.
Next Up: Lorenz, Ishirou, Orb, Makoa (subject to delayed action), Wight, Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Mahjik, Shokambe (subject to delayed action).
Douena hurries onto the bridge. Jask follows behind her (double move to Z 63).
ROUND 3
ACTIVE EFFECTS: Mage armour (Urza and Mahjik)
Urza shoots another beam of undead disrupting energy. Unfortunately, the wight moves at just the right time and he ends up hitting Mahjik instead. Fortunately, the spell has no effect on the living.
Wight heavy pick at Mahjik: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26 -- hit Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 and 1 negative level
The wight, seeing that it is becoming surrounded turns on Mahjik and drives its pick deep into his shoulder. In addition to the pain of the wound, Mahjik feels something cold reaching deep within him and sapping away his energy. As he weakens, he sees the wight's wounds close over. The wight looks more vibrant and oddly more alive. It smiles.
Next Up: Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Mahjik, Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Lorenz, Ishirou, Orb, Makoa (subject to delayed action), Wight.
I was referring to the same thing, and the mentioning that the water is relatively shallow - so I assumed there was some or other special reason why an acrobatics check was called for in the past and guessed it was to not lose your balance in the shallow mucky muck.
Yeah, that was just in the one section. It was because the shoreline was very thin, so you could either splash in a bit of muddy water and go half speed, or use Acrobatics to move full speed on the thin bit of dry land. It was only meant for the squares highlighted in green (which are now off the left side of the map). For the rest of the mine, if there's more than a sliver of shoreline in the square, you can move at full speed. If the square is all water (or virtually all water), you move at 1/4 speed.
Lorenz moves into the water and fires off an arrow at the wight, but it unfortunately goes quite wide of its mark.
With a bit more space now available, Ishirou moves up and around the corner, then partway into the water and up beside the wight (double move to Y 59, one of those annoying moves that is only a double by 5 ft).
The orb has nothing to affect this round.
Next Up: Makoa, Wight #13, Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Mahjik, Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Lorenz, Ishirou).
"Alizandru Briandu, my father," Master Briandu replies, taking her hand. "He was a wizard of some great renown in northern Varisia." (If he was, Corinna's certainly never heard of him.) He turns to Gilfroy and offers his hand to him. "And you, sir gnome, what brings you to our fine college?"
------
Day 6 Random Encounter 10%: 1d100 ⇒ 82 -- no encounter Day 7 Random Encounter 10%: 1d100 ⇒ 57 -- no encounter Day 8 Random Encounter 10%: 1d100 ⇒ 63 -- no encounter Day 9 Random Encounter 10%: 1d100 ⇒ 97 -- no encounter
21 ROVA, 4711 (6th day of journey)
After the night of festivities, the caravan crew is up bright and early, many of them yawning as they go about their work of getting the caravan ready for departure. A hearty breakfast is served and then the horses hitched to the wagons. After that, you set out on your way again.
It's a day of easy journey. The weather is pleasant and the road clear of obstructions. You pass through a couple of tiny hamlets during the day, one in the late morning and one in mid-afternoon before reaching the village of Wolf's Ear in the early evening. It's here that Sandru decides to stop for the night.
Knowledge (geography) DC 10:
Wolf's Ear is a small Magnimarian holding that is rumoured to have gained its name from being a home to lycanthropes in the past.
Knowledge (history) DC 16:
At one time, Wolf's Ear was the lycanthrope version of a leper colony, where werewolves and other persecuted humanoids could live together in relative safety and comfort. When the town was annexed by Magnimar, however, the Lord-Mayor decided that such things were indecent and bankrolled a pogrom by the Church of Erastil designed to "cleanse" the town. In the ensuing bloody fracas, the lycanthropes were wiped out. However, there have been many rumours over the years that the lycanthropes were not truly wiped out and were only driven underground, where the Magnimarian leaders, unprepared for such passionate resistance, were content to let them stay. The official Magnimarian position is that any rumours of lycanthropy are just that.
Wow. I've heard some pretty crazy anti-gay remarks before, but that woman wins the prize for the craziest. I need to tell my wife (who's bi) that she's doomed to go insane. We all knew she was nuts anyway (she married me, didn't she?). :)
No, I was just referring to whether the shore was slippery like it was around the first corner where we needed Acrobatics checks to make any headway or had to go half-speed. Acrobatics shouldn't apply in water. Wading through deep water is a question of pushing through with Strength, not being nimble enough to dodge the water molecules. :)
Ah, good. Then I'm not losing my mind. Only Lorekeeper is. ;)
Maybe it isn't possible, but the acrobatics was to move at full speed in the water - and at 40ft Mahjik's speed is high enough to walk around the wight without provoking an AOO.
I'm not aware that Acrobatics can let you do that. There's no mention of it in the Acrobatics skill description or the section on difficult terrain (and remember, each full square of water counts as x4 movement). However, I realize now that Douena was referencing a similar ability up above (but just didn't need to use it). Is there an aspect of the Acrobatics skill that I'm missing somewhere?
The wight is momentarily startled as Mahjik leaps from the water, past Sasha along the shoreline and back into the water on the other side of the wight. Using Acrobatics to avoid an AoO requires you move at half speed unless you increase the DC by 10 (in which case Mahjik would fail the DC), so he doesn't get to attack. But seeing as he missed anyway, it doesn't really make a difference. :)
Shokambe delays.
Next Up: Lorenz, Ishirou, Orb, Makoa, Wight #13, Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Mahjik, Shokambe (subject to delayed action).
ACTIVE EFFECTS: Mage armour (Urza and Mahjik)
Bit of luck (Pezock)
Urza moves forward and shoots off a beam of energy at #12. It catches the wight directly in the face. With a screech, the wight topples over. This is followed by another screech from Pezock at the loss of his kill.
Sasha gulps slightly at Douena's words, but presses her attack nonetheless. The wight deftly avoids her rapier thrust, but moves into line with her kukri. At the last moment, the wight spins to the side, turning a potentially heavy blow into a light scratch.
Still grumbling, Pezock wades into the water and starts crossing (double move to Z 60).
Next Up: Mahjik, Shokambe, Lorenz, Ishirou (subject to delayed action), Orb, Makoa, Wight #13, Douena, Jask, Urza, Sasha, Pezock.
I'm going to move things forward, but those of you at the magic school can continue to fill in your actions retroactively.
While Sandru spends much of the day conducting trade, the rest of the caravan settles in for a rest. Koya remains in her wagon most of the time, offering fortunes to anyone who comes to her. Ameiko spends most of the time lightly playing her samisen or gazing out thoughtfully into the distance. Shalelu stands quietly and watchful most of the time.
In the evening, there's more music and dancing, and lots to eat. Some people from the town come out to join the "festivities" and bring additional food with them. Soon, there's a small crowd of thirty or so people singing, dancing, and laughing.
"Yes, of course," Dortlin replies to Corinna. "That would Zumic Briandu. I believe he's finishing up with some students at the moment, but he should be free soon. I'll go check on him and come back and get you. Shouldn't be more than half an hour."
Dortlin hurries off and returns about twenty minutes later. He leads Corinna and Gilfroy through the building to an office where a tall, dark-haired Varisian man stands by a bookshelf, leafing through a book. He snaps the book shut as you enter, and places it on the shelf. "Ah, you must be Miss Valdemar, yes?" he says.
------
The young man with Melon shakes his head. "I've heard the name, but I can't say I know anything about the place. Geography classes here tend to focus on Avistan. Varisia in particular. Sorry."
Okay, so soon my posting schedule is going to take a large dip. :( Probably no more than once or twice a week. Just thought I'd warn you before it happened.
Thanks for letting us know! When it happens, I'll bot Makoa during combats to help keep things moving.
The slowing effect of the water means you can't actually get to Y56 in a single move. However, if you move onto the land through Shokambe and Lorenz, then back into the water, you can reach Y 57, so I've put you there instead.
Makoa's javelin arcs across the water and slices across the head of the wight, taking the wight's ear and a chunk of skull with it.
With an angry yell, the other wight exits the orb. It ignores the bridge and wades through the water to the north side of the chamber, then moves up towards Sasha. This wight's body is not Mwangi like the other wights, and it carries a nasty-looking heavy pick. Double move to X 60.
Now that it's out of the orb and can be seen more clearly, Wight #13 is clearly different than the others. It's not just that the original body is not Mwangi like the others, but this one's skin is also not as dry and desiccated as the others. It's also unusual for a wight to use a weapon, suggesting that this one is actually a cairn wight, a wight capable of channelling its energy drain attack through its weapon.
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