Definitely a penalty, but that's still enough to identify ghouls.
"Ghouls?" Garim's eyes go wide in horror, his face going pale. "They feast on fresh flesh, and their touch causes paralysis. Best hit them fast and hard... and from range if we can."
"Vellica, which direction to get the best angle to strike from a distance?"
Unfortunately, they are pretty well centred behind the east wall.
"Quarters are too tight for that really. I will try to trip them with a grease spell. Those of you more heavily armored should go first though."
"Let's slip around real quietly then if we can. South side?"
"Genisen put an arrow in one of them, Ofelio and I can wait till they charge at us then attack them."
Vellica nods and follows quietly, ready to cast grease in front of the line formed by Garim and Ofelio.
"Good plan." Ofelio rumbles in agreement, trying Sir Rollynd's advice with one final thrust before battle approaches.
Let me know if these are good spots.
Initiative:
Genisen:
Laya:
Ofelio:
Timbur:
Garim:
Vellica:
Ghouls:
Initiative order: Ofelio, Garim, Timbur, Laya, Genisen, Ghouls, Vellica
Ghoul 1
HP: 13
AC: 14 (touch 12, ff 12); CMD: 14
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
Ghoul 2
HP: 13
AC: 14 (touch 12, ff 12); CMD: 14
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
G1P:
G2P:
G1S:
G2S:
Perception:
Genisen:
Laya:
Ofelio:
Timbur:
Garim:
Vellica:
Sir Rollynd:
As you approach the corner you peer around and see Scar Blade standing as described, missing an arm. Looking more closely, you can see that somebody has severely chewed it and stuffed it into the front of his shirt!
Begin Round 1!
"Behind us."
Garim whirls around and pushes through his allies.
Ofelio sniffs monstrously and hustles to D-49.
Ofelio and Garim hear sounds behind them and turn to investigate. They round the corner seeing the two ghouls standing there, having just cut off your only means of retreat.
Ofelio only moved 20', so he can still take his standard action. Garim is also free to move closer and attack.
Initiative: Ofelio's attack, Garim's attack, Timbur, Laya, Genisen, Ghouls, Vellica
"Timbur, Laya, circle around behind them." calls out Garim.
True to form his attack is clumsy. Maybe I should get some lessons from Sir Rollynd as well.
Timbur and Laya head around to flank the ghouls. Hearing the instruction, the ghouls turn back to back to prepare.
Initiative: Ofelio's attack, Garim, Timbur, Laya, Genisen, Ghouls, Vellica
"Don't forget about the orc either if he isn't dead. Even one-armed I don't trust him."
Genisen steps to E/-49 and fires at the closest ghoul
HP: 7
AC: 14 (touch 12, ff 12); CMD: 14
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
Ghoul 2
HP: 13
AC: 14 (touch 12, ff 12); CMD: 14
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
Ghoul 1 on Ofelio:
; Plus Fort save DC 13
Ghoul 2 on Timbur: (subject to Ofelio not killing it before it can act)
; Plus Fort save DC 13
Timbur Fort save:
Ofelio's attack in round 1 and Vellica are up.
Fair enough. I can do that.
Ofelio seems to have benefitted from the pint-sized paladin's advice. He strikes with his glaive at the ghoul in B-48 and brings him down.
The bite from one of the ghouls sinks through a chink in his armor, but aside from the pain, there isn't much to talk about.
The link's in my last post.
Vellica moves forward to the corner and peaking around the edge, fires a glob of magical acid at the Ghoul. It misses.
Ofelio and Garim are up. Round 2!
Ofelio makes his uneven clomp of a move over to C-51, leaving himself momentarily open to attack so that he can make an assault in kind.
But old habits die hard and it pulls to the left.
To timid to really get in range of the ghouls paralytic touch Garim has no better luck than any of his allies.
Ghoul's AoO: The claw clanks harmlessly off his armour.
Timbur takes a big swipe at the ghoul between Garim and himself.
Laya comes around the corner and sighs in relief as the party seems to have the ghouls all but handled. She then glances back to her left at a sound she hears, then says, "Uh oh. I don't think Scarblade is doing very well."
Initiative: Ofelio, Garim, Timbur, Laya, Genisen, Ghoul, Vellica
Ghoul 1
HP: 4
AC: 14 (touch 12, ff 12); CMD: 14
F/R/W: +2/+2/+5
"We have this thing in our sights now! Surround it and kill it!"
The ghoul looks down at it's fallen comrade, then the door like it's regretting its decision to close it on you. It settles it's glare on Ofelio who killed his friend, screams in rage, steps up and attacks.
The ghoul's attacks are too wild and crazed to connect effectively.
Vellica and the top of the round!
Vellica flings another glob of acid at the ghoul.
Vellica expertly threads the needle of her allies and splats the ghoul full in the face with a glob of acid. It's vocal cords finally ruined, it screams soudlessly.
Never mind! Genisen's freebooter's bane should add the extra point of damage needed.
As Vellica's acid burns through the creature, its own corruption catches up with it, and the former undead literally melts into a pool of rotten goo at your feet.
Combat over.
Seeing that things have died down, Laya dashes back towards the half-orc. By the time you reach her, she has pronounced him dead.
Searching Scarblade's body, you find several items of potential value. His greataxe is of especially fine workmanship, as is his studded leather armour and composite longbow. It takes a bit of strength to properly draw this bow (Strength rating +2). He also carries two thunderstones, two smokesticks, and two potions.
Garim puts on hand to his stomach at the sight of Scar Blade, one arm missing. He probably deserved it... the once blacksmith thinks darkly.
Garim looks about the room where the ghouls dwelt before taking a moment to study the potions.
He also takes a moment to look over the other items Scar Blade had on him, looking for other signs of magic.
"Ghouls are most unpleasant creatures," Vellica comments as she surveys the dead half-orc. The others seem to have the gear collection well in hand, so she waits for them to finish. In the meantime she keeps an eye on the stairway to make sure nothing else comes down. "I wonder if this whole place is infested with undead?"
Garim ticks off on his fingers, "Skeletons, hommonc... what were those Laya? A magic snake, more skeletons, and ghouls. So only, uh, half right. The other half being filled with the experiments of crazy wizards."
"Hommunculi. This tower has been sealed for hundreds of years, so it only makes sense that, if it's inhabited, we would find things that can't die naturally, like undead and magical constructs. Maybe some devils, with the Cheliax connection. Something bad seems to have gone down here." Laya frowns at the future prospects.
Only the potions (of which there six, not two...sorry) are magical. However, as Garim concentrates on the potions, suddenly four powerful magical auras flare out from four silver harnesses embedded in each of the four walks of this basement. It lasts only a round before dissipating. As he concentrates further, the auras reappear a few rounds later, then fade, never staying long enough to read their school. Other than the harnesses and thousands of hash marks scratched into the walls, the room is featureless.
Genisen looks over the items, "I want to feel sorry for how he died, but it just seems that a fitting end. That bow looks nice, I'll have to bulk up a bit to be able to use it however."
With the discussion of the bow, Timbur raises a hand towards it, says, "Well, I could..." then he cuts off. "Sorry. Never mind."
"Well if you can use it, I suppose you proved your worth by jumping into the middle of the fight. If the others don't mind, then I would be ok with you using it."
If nobody else objects...
Timbur takes the fancy new bow from his former boss and hands Genisen his old bow. From the shape of it, it's a wonder the thing could even fire an arrow at all, let alone hit anything. In fact, it looks less like a bow and more like a long stick that somebody bent and tied down with a bow string.
"Have at it." Garim offers.
He moves over to one of the harnesses. "These" he gestures at it, "keep fluctuating with magic. I can't tell what it is though, it fades to fast."
"Unless anyone has any ideas though, the only place left to go is up."
That was good enough for the first potion. Shield of faith.
Subsequent potions...
shield of faith
cure light wounds
??
??
??
Laya tries the last three...
cure light wounds
cure light wounds
true resurrection... just kidding...cure light wounds
Laya spellcraft to examine harnesses:
"No clue."
So unless you want to spend some time digging silver harnesses of unknown use out of the wall (you estimate that each harness would probably fetch about 200gp of raw silver metal alone), you gather as a group and head upstairs, leaving the half-orc bandit to rot with his undead friends.
Map Arriving back on the second floor, there are three doors unopened, as well as stairs that continue up.
Garim pushes open the north door.
This room was clearly a barracks of some sort, with cots in neat rows, and strong boxes underneath four of them. Several human skeletons (six total) lie on some of the cots.
Not liking seeing more skeletons, though these ones seem peaceful enough at present, Garim keeps his weapon and shield ready and moves into the room allowing those following inside as well.
He moves to the side of one of the cots and nudges the strong box out from underneath with his foot.
As Garim enters the room and starts poking around with the strong box, he notices the skeletal hand next to him shift. At first, he hopes he just bumped the cot, but then the skeleton sits up and turns its head to face him. Three other skeletons sit up as well.
Initiative:
Genisen:
Laya:
Ofelio:
Timbur:
Garim:
Vellica:
Skeletons:
Initiative Order: Timbur, Ofelio, Laya, Genisen, Garim, Skeletons, Vellica
Seeing Garim in trouble, Timbur rushes in, drawing his sword. He double moves and can't attack.
Genisen puts his bow away and draws his shield out,
"Great more of these things..."
Ofelio draws his heavy mace that he had scavenged from the room with the cupboards and runs to A-43, thumping on his chest with his free hand.
"Aauuugh." Garim brings his morning star crashing down on the undead abomination next to him, breaking out several ribs.