The elf-eared woman raises her spear again. "Careful!" she cries, seeing the damage the other two are taking from the creatures. Swinging in a powerful arc, she slashes with the blade and tries to bring the wounded one down.
Dernaras's Deadly Assault makes the difference as the ice elemental shatters.
The Faerie shrikes as one of its pets drops and flies straight at Dernaras.
Missing with its spear, but connecting with its tail for 4 damage.
Initiative:
Dante
Arayas
Ice Elemental 0
End of Round
Dernaras
Icy Faerie - 9
Dante and Arayas are up!
PD 15
MD 11
PD 13
MD 9
Arayas aims at the Faerie as it swings at Dernaras, aiming as carefully as she can... taking deep breaths trying to keep her bow trained on the enemy...
She lets the arrow loose:
Letting out a gasp as the arrow flies near her ally, Arayas pulls another arrow out, vowing that this one will find it's mark.
Arayas connects with her second arrow while Dante does manage to clip the remaining elemental with a rock.
The icy faerie screeches something unintelligible and the Ice Elemental tries to break free from Dernaras and Dante.
Dernaras manages to trip it with the base of her spear as it tries to escape.
The Ice Elemental appears to melt for a second before reforming on its feet and slamming Dernaras,
ineffectually.
Initiative:
Dernaras
Icy Faerie - 17
Dante
Arayas
Ice Elemental 5
End of Round
Dernaras is up.
PD 15
MD 11
PD 13
MD 9
Dernaras shifts her grip and stabs with her spear at the ice creature, trying to bring it down and ignoring the faerie for now.
Dernaras stabs deeply into the creature, staggering it and sending ice shards everywhere.
Another flurry of attacks from the faerie on Dernaras.
Both missing.
Initiative:
Dante
Arayas
Ice Elemental 12
End of Round
Dernaras
Icy Faerie - 17
Dante and Arayas are up.
PD 15
MD 11
PD 13
MD 9
Arayas pulls back another arrow, again taking careful aim to avoid her ally. Smiling as she lets the arrow fly at the ice elemental. You're mine... she thinks to herself, trying to finish off the enemy engaged with Dernaras.
Arayas's arrow finishes off the ice elemental!
|
Dante leaps onto the ice elemental's crumbling body to lunge at the faerie from an angle it is unlikely to be used to...
for
The faerie slips out of Dante's reach, evading a further assault. Dante responds my stepping towards her, by placing his foot on the only thing available: Dernaras's shoulder. Catching the faerie by surprise, he presses his attack from his precarious position...
for
...after which he drops from his position and lands on the snow beneath the faerie, rolling underneath her reach.
- Dante takes 1 cold, and then it wears off.
Dante strikes the faerie once, and then again from the shoulder of his companion, staggering the faerie!
Initiative:
Dernaras
Icy Faerie - 37 (Staggered)
Dante
Arayas
End of Round
Dernaras is up
PD 15
MD 11
With a momentary pause in appreciation of the two strikes, the elf-blooded woman once again takes aim and stabs with her runed spear.
Dernaras, finding an opening after Dante cuts the vile faerie down.
End of Combat.
With combat over, you have some time to catch your breath etc.
When you take a quick rest, you can use as many recoveries as you want to heal yourself (or all the recoveries you’ve got if you don’t have enough left to heal to maximum hp!).
You might have access to healing potions or spells that will give you more healing per recovery, or maybe you’ll be stuck with the flat rolls.
Required healing: If you are staggered when you take a quick rest, you must try to heal yourself, either using a recovery or getting the benefits of a spell that provides some true healing. If you’re damaged but not yet staggered, it’s up to you whether you choose to heal yourself.
Also, if anybody had used a power with a Recharge...
After ~4 combat encounters you earn a full rest. If I'm on the ball as a GM that'll also line up with getting to a nice safe place to rest etc.
If you want/need a full rest before then, you are welcome to but will suffer a campaign loss.
Also if you find yourself overwhelmed in battle, on any PCs turn the party may choose to flee. Everybody (who's not DEAD dead) escapes and the party suffers a campaign loss as above.
Dernaras rubs her hands together and stretches out her shoulders to get feeling back into them after the fight. "We ought to continue," she declares after a minute or two of rest.
Arayas sits down in the snow exhausted as she takes a bandage out of her bag to cover up a cut on her arm. She looks up at Dernaras, "Yeah... is everyone alright?" she asks getting up slowly.
"But what is happening here? Snowmen? Undead? Faeries?" She asks, not expecting an answer as she looks around the battlefield, retrieving her arrows.
"Perhaps we'll find out more when we arrive in town," replies Dernaras grimly. "Until then, I doubt we will get any answers."
After climbing at least a hundred feet into the hills, the snowy trail finally levels off. In a clearing among the trees, a large wooden lodge overlooks a ravine spanned by a long rope bridge. Smoke rises from the lodge’s two snow-covered chimneys, and large woodpile is stacked against the outer wall.
A small outbuilding stands east of the lodge, and a stone well nearly blanketed by snow is barely recognizable to the north. Several tracks lead southwest toward a detached stable.
It's no town, but it does appear to be a lodge of some sort.
Dernaras nods. "It would be good to warn them, at the least, and request direction to the nearest town."
Arayas starts heading to the lodge, "At the very least, maybe we can get some answers as to what's actually happening... She looks to her two companions, "But it's best to be ready for anything. So far today has been full of... surprises."
Heading up to the lodge, you don't immediately see any signs of life, although judging by the supplies a fairly large number of humanoids are staying here, or have stayed here recently.
Although there are no responses to initial knocks, you do hear what sounds to be singing coming from the kitchen.
After knocking on the front door once more, Dernaras pushes it open and pokes her head inside. "Hello?" she calls, hoping not to have to trespass further.
Inside you see a rather large overweight Orcish woman slaving over half a dozen pots over a wood stove.
You're not sure if it smells delicious or disgusting. She appears to be singing some sort of song to herself but the lyrics don't quite make sense.
Eventually she notices you, although is rather startled and manages to knock a jar of spices onto the floor, fortunately it does not shatter.
"Who in the blazes are you?"
She looks confused.
The common origin story for half-orcs is that they are a supernatural response to the existence of orcs. Orc breakouts appear as magically generated infections. Half-orc births are a slower response, apparently encouraged by the High Druid in the wildlands to strengthen human tribes.
It may not be true that the High Druid is responsible for half-orc origins, but half-orcs are welcome in most all groups that recognize the High Druid’s leadership.
Half-orcs are most common outside the Empire in the barbaric wildlands. Until the last century or so, half-orcs were rare inside the Empire except on the frontier. But that has changed. One of the more warlike Dragon Emperors formed a unit of halforc warriors and magicians as his personal bodyguard.
In the process, he gave half-orcs official citizenship in the Empire, and they’re now nearly as common as the other non-human races. Many half-orcs don’t take to urban life, but feel easily at home in Axis (the imperial city of war and gladiatorial games) and Drakkenhall (the Blue Dragon’s half-ruined city of monsters).
Dernaras pauses, momentarily taken aback by the orc-blooded woman. Regaining her composure, she tilts her head in greeting. "Our apologies for the intrusion. We were on our way to Dakimarru when we were set upon by the cold and foul undead. We would warn you to take care, and ask you to direct us to Dakimarru."
She pauses for a moment,
"You're not with them are you?" She says in shock.
"The undead? Never!" replies Dernaras, trying to gauge the orcish woman's surprise.
The character probably still fails to achieve the desired goal, but that’s because something happens on the way to the goal rather than because nothing happens.
Suppose a player makes a Charisma check to have his or her rogue rustle up some clues as to where a certain monk of the black dragon might be hiding. The player fails the check. Traditionally, the GM would rule that the character had failed to find any information.
With 13th Age, we encourage you to rule that the character does indeed find clues as to the monk’s location, but with unexpectedly bad results. Most likely, word has gotten to the monk that the rogue is looking for him, and he either escapes before his lair is found, or prepares for the group, either setting up an ambush or leaving a trap. The failure means that interesting things happen.
"The Black riders" She responds, very happy to see that you aren't with the 'bad guys.' "Yesterday, there was an icy explosion and two dozen raiders wearing crests with black birds on them kidnapped myself and my mistress, and this portal opened up and brought us nearby. I don't know how to get home. The raiders said they wouldn't be home till nightfall so you might as well enjoy some stew."
Of course, in her excitement she's forgotten about her attempts to poison the raiders.... I need a normal save (11+) from everybody, or you lose a recovery.