GM SpiderBeard's Carrion Crown (Inactive)

Game Master motteditor

cool

Wren is already leading the party (from behind) to the spot where she saw the dragon. If she needs to send more eyes from there, but she will.

C’mon people, push and post.

"If'n we be headin' in t' be dealin' wit' th' dragon then we best be off. Tha' thing hit like a ton o' bricks fallin' down a mountainside. Stay in formation, bu' be spread out enough tha' i' cannae be catchin' us all in one go. Looks like i' be absorbin' th' lives o' those in th' cages, so's we best be preventin' tha' if possible. Move together, an' be smart."

Whiskeyjack leads the others into the fight.

Let's go toward the dragon. I could not leave villagers to such a death!

CHARGE!!!!

Bronin joins Whiskey as they head towards the dragon. Flying all the way.

Yeh.
With somewhat less enthusiasm, Lena follows. This was going to be unpleasant.

Grabbing ahold of Potpie Elena tosses the battle chicken into her satchel for safe-keeping. "Hide out for now, it isn't safe."

As you try to track the dragon, Wren "sees" it kill several more cages' worth of villagers around Gallowspire before retreating to a ruined building to your northeast. The once-noble estate has all but collapsed in on itself. The ruins form a tunnel yawning with darkness, from which the stench of foul necromancy issues forth like rancid breath.

Wren continues to lead her peeps (heh.), from behind, towards where the dragon might be. She won't enter the ruins just yet, but will look and see what she can see when she gets there.

"We can't very well have this dragon coming up behind us all willy-nilly," Wren notes.

Does the tunnel look like it can be collapsed or otherwise blocked? And are the necrotic issues damaging?

"It seems to just be circling around, eating the people to heal itself. How can we catch it before it leads us into a trap?"

Teleport?
Lena looks at Wren, wondering if she can do that

"Teleport? I can do that, but not sure we need to," Wren says, looking around. "Seems like an awfully risky thing to do and try to use here...we might end up 100s of miles off course since I don't know the location well," Wren answers more fully, as she *is* the smart one.

Waiting to hear back about the location so we might plan better.

I was thinking about dimension door, Wren. Not a hundred mile jump.

"Jest be flyin' straigh' fer i'? Satyin' in formation like?"

Wren definitely thinks the buildings in the area -- like everywhere else -- could be collapsed pretty easily, and most likely right onto the lair.

I will take point! Let me smash that dragon!

He flies forward and looks to confront the dragon. It was killing innocents and he needed to stop it.

"Can anyone here smash some buildings down?" Wren asks, eying the nearby structures. "There might be some magics that might work, but I have few at my disposal."

I'm not much of the building smasher type. I'm the aged fine wine style of fighter.

Sure you haven't gone to vinegar?

Adder looks at his sword in doubt. "I could cut down, would take a long time."

It’s good that y’all are answering Wren’s question, but what is missing is what else? What’s the next push? Where should we go or do next IF we don’t have that solution? We need to generate more leads and more options, not just reply to Wren’s.

Wren ponders what to do next.

Where were we headed for our original purpose? What building? If we can catch the dragon then I will make a post to suggest heading there.

At the moment the push is CHARGE!!! We will see what happens when we get closer.

At the moment the push is CHARGE!!! We will see what happens when we get closer.

This is very unspecific. Charge where? Are you going first? Pointing others in a direction?

C'mon peeps. We can finish this. Push. Post.

"These look near to collapsing. Maybe if we all push post at once we can knock this wall in and collapse it on the lair." Elena puts all 90 pounds of effort into the push as she grunts and strains.

Vladlena wrote:

At the moment the push is CHARGE!!! We will see what happens when we get closer.

This is very unspecific. Charge where? Are you going first? Pointing others in a direction?

C'mon peeps. We can finish this. Push. Post.

Towards the dragon, of course. With the fighters leading. Where else did you want to go?

This is the summation of character posts

"If'n we be headin' in t' be dealin' wit' th' dragon then we best be off. Tha' thing hit like a ton o' bricks fallin' down a mountainside. Stay in formation, bu' be spread out enough tha' i' cannae be catchin' us all in one go. Looks like i' be absorbin' th' lives o' those in th' cages, so's we best be preventin' tha' if possible. Move together, an' be smart."

Whiskeyjack leads the others into the fight.

Let's go toward the dragon. I could not leave villagers to such a death!

[ooc]CHARGE!!!!

Bronin joins Whiskey as they head towards the dragon. Flying all the way.

Yeh. Says Lena
With somewhat less enthusiasm, Lena follows. This was going to be unpleasant.

So in summary, towards the dragon, fighters leading, mages trailing, spread out to avoid breath weapon, best speed. Best speed is as fast as the slowest character.

The last time you saw the dragon, you think it was heading into the tunnel -- perhaps its lair? -- but you're not sure.

Looking at the buildings, you actually think you could take them down pretty easily. The problem with doing that with swords or other weapons is they'd likely collapse on you. The crumbling stonework has only hardness 5 and 10 hit points, so you can take them down pretty easily. A fireball would do it. As noted, you can do it with weapons, but will need a Reflex save (or some other plan) to avoid the collapse.

Seeing that the others don't have much of a way t bring the buildings down, Elena looks for a corner where she can catch as many of the walls as possible. Clasping her hands together she draws in the shadows around the area as black tentacles reach up and grasp at the walls, slowly breaking them apart on top of the lair.

Cast Black Tentacles.

Nice spell Elena Nethermore. @ Gm Is the star on the map the tunnel the dragon went into? If so, Bronin goes there. If not, please mark on the map where the dragon entering tunnel is, and Bronin and company will go there.

Landing on the ground at the entrance to the Tunnel, Bronin has both weapons out and fortifies himself with a prayer to Desna. Bolstering his altready tough and lithe body. cast bears endurance. 194/194 hp

Mentally, he instructs his horse, Patience to stay well away from this place (like 2 miles) and to hunker down under cover - there's a dragon arund. To the others,
We are now on it's turf, we caught it by surprise. It now knows our abilities, so it'll have protected itself against fire .. of course, there's not a way to protect itself against disintegration. Right? Or is there a way?
Bronin will advance, but only after looking for confirmation from Wren and Fierylena about how spells work. He took some classes in Kragis Aire, but
he'd daydream a lot and miss tons, or he'd ogggle at Windii Peffercorn two rows in front of him.
He flunked all those Magic Classes.

Yes, the lair is where the star is.

The black tentacles manage to tear down several buildings around the lair, frighteningly effective as the demolition work as you're grateful they're not collapsing on your head. Every so cautiously, you make your way into the tunnel, waiting for an attack at every moment, but none comes. Instead you find the undead dragon's hoard waiting for you: a belt of physical perfection +2, a pair of boots of striding and springing, a periapt of wound closure, a ring of delayed doom with 3 garnets remaining, 1,200 pp, 14,650 gp, and 18,607 sp. In addition, a huge iron key weighing 3 pounds hides among the loot.

Wren flies in behind the party, keeping watch as she moves in.

Do we find the remains of the dragon? It's still out there?

When it is proven safe, Wren will identify the magics, and pass them around as needed.

Wren will circle around, looking for other exits and something that the party might have missed.

1d20 + 17 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 17 + 2 = 26 Peception

Yes, the dragon is still out there as far as you know.

There don't appear to be any other exits other than the way you came in.

C’mon people, push and post. Let’s do this.

Wren waits to see what people are going to do. There is a huge loot pile and the others seem too stunned to react to it, Wren notes.

Elena looks uninterested over the pile of dragon loot as she squirms with each sound, thinking that it will be coming back for revenge at any moment. "This is a big place. Where do we even start looking?"

While the others scout the loot Elena tries to scout for a nearby entrance further below these ruins that might lead into Gallowspire.

Perception: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (8) + 17 = 25

"Gallowspire is there at the center. We are nearly halfway there, let's keep moving."

Lena takes the ring and the periapt. She turns to Whiskeyjack

You want this? she holds out the periapt

Take the items. The rest can wait. We have a dragon to kill

Elena can't find any other way out of the dragon's lair.

"Aye lass, tha' one'd come in useful methinks. Now, le's either take ou' this dragon or ge' t' where we be headin' t' start wit'. All this fumblin' abou's like t' ge' us ambushed as no'!"

Whiskeyjack took point in the formation as they headed towards the center, their dimensional bags nearly overflowing with loot.

Wren seems to readily accept W'Jack's direction, flying towards the center but behind the rest. Her eyes are on the lookout for the dragon and anything else nasty and silly.

Bronin agrees with Whiskeyjack.
You are right and tactically correct. I will take the lead towards the center of this cursed land. Some of my protections have already started to wear off - I bet the dragon is just waiting for situations like that.

Even though Bronin talked about some of his extra abilities wearing off, his movement to the center is faster than normal (longstrider) and he makes great time, even when moving stealthily.
stealth: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (10) + 21 = 31

perception: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (1) + 19 = 20

Moving to the center and looking around.

You emerge from the tunnel, and are immediately grateful you took down the buildings as you see the undead dragon getting ready to race toward you again. You have a certain feeling that if you hadn't, it would have tried to collapse the structures on your heads!

However, you were more than ready for the eventual attack, and react with preternatural speed. It's 200 feet away.

Good thing people in this party are smart and out-thinked the dragon! Those buildings sure would have been a game changer if they landed on our heads.
Bronin casts a spell to bolster his constitution. bears endurance

Elena grabs Potpie as she runs over for a bit of cover off to the side behind a bit of crumbled building. She waits for the dragon to draw a bit closer as none of her spells can reach out past 30-ish feet.

Run, duck and hide. :)

Wren casts Greater Invisibility and flies away from the party to get ready for round 2 with the draggin’ dragon.

Mass Fly is still very active for all y’all.

Adder flys 120' to the side, ready for the dragon to do something and preparing himself to attack.

Bronin is ready to fly in at the dragon, seeing himself on the opposite side of Adder. He'll come in at one angle, with Adder probably coming in at another.
Whispering to himself We got this. We just need to be smart, and more agile than it is. if I can take the brunt of it's attention -Adder has the skills to put it down.

Whiskeyjack holds his ground, but casts resist energy on himself and raises his shield. With a thought, his hammer glowed with the light of goodly beings.

I think the dragon did half negative half fire? So resist fire. Also, swift to add Holy to my sacred weapon.

Lena Casts vanish (5 rounds of invisibility) on herself and keeps about thirty feet behind and to the side of Whiskeyjack.

Bronin looks around to ask one of his comrades a question. One that's itching in his brain. But he doesn't see anyone close enough.
Wren- probably invisible.
Fiery Vladlena - probably invisible.
Adder- visible, but on the other side of the pincer strategy.
VestalLena - hopefully found safety and is hunkered down.
Oh, he see's Whiskeyjack. He can ask Whiskeyjack his nagging question......
...... Nah, he'd never really understand Whiskey's reply in the middle of combat. Plus the reply would probably be an insult against Bronin. It takes Bronin a good 30 seconds to translate his Dwarven accent even in the most optimum of situations.- and a third of what Whiskey says centers around how small a brain Bronin has, or the mistakes he makes.

The question that goes unasked? I wonder what's going to make a bigger mess of the buildings? VestalLena's grabby, grabby tentacles or this dragon's body when we smite it and force it crashing to the ground?

Oh, he thinks of another question that might get an answer from Whiskey that might not involve an insult.
He speaks up and actually verbalizes this question to the nearby Whiskeyjack.
Hey Whiskey, don't you have an artifact? You don't talk about the artifact all that much. If I were sitting around a counsel meeting, I'd sure bring up the fact of how I got the artifact and how awesome it is.
Sheesh, at a Syradel Counsel meeting, I'd make certain my 8 advisors knew my story two, three times over.

You spread out and make your preparations, and then suddenly the dragon is on you. And as it surges toward you -- even though you sent it running in seconds the last time you faced it -- you feel a surge of fear. You know that this time it's aware of what you can do and likely furious and the GM isn't forgetting it this time! Everyone must make a DC 24 Will save against fear or be cowering for 1 round and shaken for 11 more rounds.

It gets about 45 feet from Adder and breathes out a cone of black flame again. 87 fire damage, plus 2 negative levels; DC 24 Reflex for half

Theater of the mind again; I trust you to decide how far you are from it based on your efforts to spread out to avoid its breath weapon. I figured it could see Adder, Bronin and Whiskey easily, so determined randomly which it attacked. Also damn, that was a vicious breath weapon -- only four dice weren't more than half, and two of those were exactly half.