[5e AL] Boltsmelter's Book [Completed!] (Inactive)

Game Master mishima

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Shaldinari tries to pull the book away from Furgis, but this time she just doesn't have the will or strength left to do so and the dwarf is able to easily snatch it from her hands.

Abrel swings again!

longsword 2h at hook horror: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
damage: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Abrel slashes through the enraged horror, tearing off bloody chunks of poultry but the aberration's physiology keeps it alive...

Round 3:
Xorn
Elandil, Cole
Stone Genasi, Hook Horrors
Abrel, Davin, Shal <--UP
Forgeknights
Bhoors

Potion of Healing: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (3, 3) + 2 = 8

Cornered between the Xorn and Genasi, Shaldarni downs a potion while spending all of her effort to step away from her assailants.

Disengage and drink potion.
HP:14/15

Shal, if you want to get further away you can squeeze through the incomplete square near El for double cost.

Great, I'll do that if I have the action available.

Davin rapidly fires an arrow into the hulking hook horror.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Shal, you will have to choose either to disengage or drink potion, unless you have some ability I'm not seeing.

Sorry, thought I could do both. I'll disengage this round, then drink the potion next. So my HP is still 5/15 for now.

As Davin's arrow takes hold in the tenacious creature, the remaining forgeknights struggle against the swarming genasi, felling a few more but looking in dire straights.

Round 3:
Xorn
Elandil, Cole
Stone Genasi, Hook Horrors
Abrel, Davin, Shal
Forgeknights
Bhoors <--UP

Bhoors stabs the genasi closest and sings a familiar song.

Rapier Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Healing Word Shal: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Xorn Grapple: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Boltsmelter Contested: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

The 3 legged 3 armed mouth snatches the codex with its claws, but Furgis stubbornly holds on "Now wait a minute ye sandy c@@%, ye cannae jus-waaaaarrhhrg!" but he is quickly toppled over as the creature begins to phase into the earth, tunnelling away quickly with both the codex and Furgis...his hand reaches out to you but is soon swallowed by the wall.

Earth glide, doesn't disturb material as it burrows...like Shadowcat from X-men.

Round 4:
Xorn
Elandil, Cole <--UP
Stone Genasi, Hook Horrors
Abrel, Davin, Shal
Forgeknights
Bhoors

Hook horror is badly wounded, only conscious genasi are on the Forgeknights.

So, no AoO as it retreats from threatened squares?

Elandil curses as Boltsmelter is grabbed. Unfortunately he can't get away from the hook horror to give chase. Attemting to end that threat, he carefully approaches the beast and swings his sword again.

attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
damage: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 4) + 3 = 13

Kill steal crit?

Cole, no one was threatening it. Shal moved away.

Elandil steps up into the melee and thrashes at the horrors kneecap, spilling some kind of clear knee juice all over and hobbling the beast...but it still stands *cacaw*ing away like a big dumb chicken.

It brings its two massive hooks up in the air before slasing down on El and Abrel...

Attack Abrel: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Dmg to Abrel: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (2, 1) + 4 = 7
Attack El, Multi: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

...Abrel gets clips hard and pulled slightly forward by razor sharp claw, but the other feather light death instrument crashes into the dirt near El harmlessly.

The genasi engaging the dwarfs route to the south, and the dwarves pant and catch their breath a moment, trying to build their mettle to join the fray on your side.

Round 4:
Elandil, Cole
Hook Horrors
Abrel, Davin, Shal <--UP
Forgeknights
Bhoors

I moved in and attacked it. I believe I was threatening, even though I missed.

Crap...now I see my post was eaten...but I guess it went before me in initiative, anyways...np.

Cole, apologies you are right you get a reaction attack there. I didnt notice because the token wasn't moved on map.

AoO, Sneak Attack

Cole attacks as the beast retreats.

LS Att: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
LS Dam: 1d8 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + (4) = 9

Abrel again, soaking the hit! Growling, he swings again, double-handed, at the hook horror, hoping to finish it!

longsword: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

I don't think that hit. Did we just fail?

Nope, not a module fail XD , just a scripted thing that happens and monsters rolled well.

Cole and Abrel's strikes find nothing but air as the fight lingers on, weakening their spirits.

Round 4:
Elandil, Cole
Hook Horror
Abrel, Davin, Shal <--UP
Forgeknights
Bhoors

Huh. I thought that the whole adventure was about protecting the book... No kidding, weakening our spirits... We need a win, gaddammit!
XD

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 10

Invigorated by the healing energy from Bhoors, Shaldinari saves her healing potion and then sends a furious blast of Eldritch power sailing into the remaining hook horror.

HP: 11/15

Shal, nat 20! Roll damage again

Crit Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 8

As Shal concentrates on the aberration she feels within herself the presence of her patron boiling to the surface. Her nose, in particular, seems to be pulled up and up in a courtly indignation at the disgusting affront to nature before them. With a surge of power surprising even to its wielder, the fey energies streak across the cavern and vaporize the head of the horror, beak first.

Combat over. If that had been 1 point less, it would still be standing. You hit its 75 hp exactly!

You seem to have 3 sleeping genasi prisoners, and a few of the forgeknights yet stand as well.

Abdel looks around at his companions, and the forgeknights, Everyone alright?

Then looking at Boltsmelter, Where's your thrice-damned book?

Abrel, Boltsmelter is no where to be found. Those nearer the fray saw him get phased into the earth along with the book.

Abrel curses, Blazes! Where is Boltsmelter?

Looking at the dwarven paladin he asks, You found the book before, can you find it again?

Turning to the paladin, you notice she is quite dead, the 2 remaining dwarves whispering prayers over her body. Another 3 of the dwarves were likewise slain. One of the survivors turns and fishes the lodestone out of his pocket, his face about to explode from holding back dwarf tears "Kalda would want us to carry on. Aye...we can find it again, its our duty. But I fear we'll need some help ta fight...the Forgeknights are broken. I don't know what deal you had with that scum, and I don't care. We can offer ye 125 gold if ye follow through, get the book back in the right hands. Ye'd have the respect of our clan the rest of yer days."

As he holds up the lodestone it swings to and fro before quickly aligning in a certain direction, the dwarves nodding in satisfaction.

Shaldinari slumps against the cavern wall after the horror finally falls. Still feeling the fury and power of her patron flowing directly through her body, she tries to suppress a fit of the shakes while she looks around at her battered companions and the even worse off Forgeknights. Grabbing a cloth from her pack she uses it to cover a slowly bleeding wound in her shoulder before walking over to where Abrel and the two paladins talk.

"I'll help you get your book back if it will help us get out of these caverns and back under the open sky sooner." She says, still breathing heavily from the fight. "But before we go rushing headlong into the Underdark, is there a place we can rest and recover for at least a few minutes?"

Abrel nods at Shaldinari's suggestion, obviously trying to hide how hurt he is... A rest would be nice.

"Always a risk letting yer guard down in the Underdark, but aye...seems necessary. More of them hook beasts hunt in these grounds..." They start loading their fallen comrades onto a small supply pushcart "We could make the Kazamura Steppes in an hour, plenty o' cave pockets to dip in and get a wink."

Abrel nods, Let us hope that we can get there quickly, and without event.

GM: 1d20 ⇒ 16

The dwarves silently march back to their suggested camp site, they are no where as hardened as Kalda and the others, but their professionalism in navigating the Underdark is apparent. In a short time you find a large cup shaped cavity in the cavern wall, perhaps formed of volcanic activity.

Alright, if no objections we'll do a short rest then. Roll those HD.

Shrugging her pack off of her shoulders, Shaldinari drops to the floor with a heavy sigh and slight groan. Within a few seconds her eyes are closed and her breathing takes on the slow even pace of a deep meditation.

HD: 1d8 ⇒ 6

Back up to full HP

Abrel sits, back up to the wall, and begins checking each wound. Hee shakes his head and gives a weary grin, uncorks his wineskin and takes a swing, passing it on to the next person, Here, it'll take the edge off...

1d10 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Brings me up to 25.

healing: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (4, 1) + 4 = 9

At the battle site

Elandil cleans his sword off on a fallen genasi before starting to rifle through pockets trying to find anything useful. Any notes or indication of how they knew where to look, maybe a few coins...

Resting

heal: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Short Rest: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

El, among their arms and armor you find what looks like a holy book written in a strange language. Snooping around, it seems they had been using the ledges in the room to host an ambush for some time...you find their little hidden camp concealed in the high stones. There is nothing much of interest beyond the typical gear, and you start to reluctantly think about questioning the prisoners.

Ill assume you guys tied up the sleeping ones and took them with you

One of them, a female, defiantly stares you down as you rifle her pockets. She growls "You surfacers have already lost...the Underdark will swallow you whole."

Apparently we are hesitant to interrogate prisoners.

El casts a small spell before addressing the prisoner. "Seems we did a good job of beating you. Now why don't you tell us how you knew to look for us and where that crater took our dwarf friend before we return you to the earth you seem to love so much."

intimidate: 1d20 + 1 + 1d4 ⇒ (6) + 1 + (1) = 8

cast guidance. That could have been better.

Here's your chance at better.

Deception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Bhoors lurches toward Elandil stepping between the elf and the prisoner. His face locked eyes with the druid inviting to play along. He shakes Elandil, "Don't do it not again. NOT AGAIN" Elandil feels a dagger handle dressed in his hand. Bhoors lifts but appears to be fighting the crazed elf back. "The paladins won't stand for it." Bhoors steps back giving the elf space. "It's not on me that wood elf juju stuff you do."

Bhoors turns to the genasi. "You done tripped the light fandango now. Tell him what he wants. Your the first. Your blood is the ink for the motivating epic poem you friends will hear when he asks them the same questions. Save me the nightmares."

Bhoors turns back to Elandil, "I ain't gonna watch again you sick butcher." Bhoors continues his performance stomping off.

That's help with the Intimidation for advantage for Elandil and 1d6 bardic inspiration to push it up a notch.

The genasi seem to be dropping a lodestone in their pants...

El, go ahead and roll again with 1d6 inspiration. Also Bhoors take inspiration.

Beautiful!

Abrel looks at El and back at Bhoors, then back, completely shocked and a little unnerved. He looks at Shal and whispers in horror, What happened last time?

Loving it!

Cole tries to stifle a laugh as he watches the shenanigans.

advantage: 1d20 + 1 + 1d4 + 1d6 ⇒ (4) + 1 + (1) + (1) = 7

Elandil tries to play along and lick the blade but cuts his tongue in the process.

Apparently it wasn't meant to be.

While the others shudder, their leader seems brave. She speaks with a strange accent "You do not zcare me, zurfacer. Ogremoch guidez us, not you. You can lick that blade all day."

Davin stays out of the way. He knows very little about interrogation and does not wish to get in the way of others who seem to know what they are doing.

Sorry guys, but with a 0 intimidate he would most likely make a fool out of himself and not help at all!

Just like me! Twice in fact...

Her eyes flick back and forth between Elandil and Bhoors as the two start their interrogation of the prisoners. Seeing the trick start to work, she barely keeps from wincing when the druid manages to bloody his own tongue.

"Never send a man, to do a woman's job." Shaldinari says in a quiet but firm voice as she stands up and walks over to the prisoners. With a sigh, she pulls her carving knife from its small sheath and begins to sharpen the curved tool with a bit of oil and small grinding stone.

"Elandil is a good man." She says casually to the genasi. "Kind hearted, in tune with nature, decent. Someone your god might actually protect you simple cave dwellers from." The sound of the blade continues to grind against the stone for a few seconds. The metal grating against stone echoing through the chamber. "But me, well I'm a whole different story. The streets of the Sword Coast are hard and teach hard lessons. I'm not as.....morally shackled...and I don't care a bit about knights and their codes, so your god might actually get a bit of fun seeing how long you last." Flicking her eyes toward Bhoors, she waves the carving blade in the air making sure it catches the lantern light. "You see that bard and I have a bit of history. It wasn't really the druid he was worried about. We had a deal that if they could get what we needed out of you, then I would let you be. If not....well, then I get a chance."

With a low chuckle, she shakes her head and her voice takes on the cadence of memory. "I once made him run screaming from a temple filled with beautiful serving girls just waiting to make him feel good in so many ways. All just so I could get a little peace and quiet after a long day. I've never seen such horror on a man's face at what he saw that afternoon."

"Now...today. Today has been a very...very bad day. I don't really give a rats backside about your paltry book." With a snarl she lets her fae power begin to flow as she kneels down next to one of the male captives. As the purple aura dances in her eyes and along her fingertips and down onto the blade she leans in close to the man and runs the knife lightly down his cheek. "But that dwarf owes me big. I want him alive. I've got my own powers to please and I'm going to ask nice just....this....once....Where did your dirt diving monster take the dwarf?"

Intimidation: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

If I'm lucky, I may get some swag! XD I made friends with someone from the art team! Not going to expect anything though... That way I am not disappointed! ;)

Having a blast with the game. Although that last hit on Shal was no fun. ;)
Enjoy the tour Abrel and Happy 4th everyone.

Shal thank you for batting clean up on the social skills.

GM if I ever go nova again trying to buff someone in that type of situation and it warrants inspiration feel free to spend it right then on another shot at success.

For those that want in on the interplay between Shal and Bhoors and an answer to "what happened."

Shal put Bhoors in his place in this previous adventure:

http://paizo.com/campaigns/5eALACityOnTheEdgeCompleted

Search for Tortle and you will see that incident Shal referred. All good fun.

Yep...Cole is no real help in the social arena, but With Shal, who else needs to be?

Sorry for delay, fell into an MMO blackhole yesterday.

lol

So I am pondering Bhoors' predicament. Looking over things. I had a really hard time not saying, "Think of the kids these drugs aren't going to run themselves."

@GM Infinity: I just realized that sneak attack damage only works with finesse weapons. So, for the sake of being consistent with the rules, I have changed my Longsword to a Rapier. The bonuses and damages are consistent. I assume that this is ok, GM Infinity?

Bhoors, lol. Yeah that would be hilarious if party ignored everything making the drug run #1 priority.

Cole, yep thats ok, sorry I didnt even realize you were using a longsword. Same d8 I suppose. Later, if you stay with AL and they switch to the treasure point system, you might get a Sun Blade.

Thanks!

El, sorry for nasty luck there. That was a 1/8th CR cultist that got you.

Oh the joys of being lvl 1...

I feel for ya, buddy! I think my paladin in another campaign is about to age about 20 or 30 years because of the luck of the dice... ;p

I will be spotty on posting through Thursday. I am at the beach on family vacation. Please BOT me, if necessary.

Nice, envious.

Bhoors, bull rush in 5e (called Shove) is an athletics check in place of an attack to shove 5ft. You just killed him, so it would be a bit sadistic. XD

With the words of encouragement stirring healing magics in the air, Bhoors quickly defends the fallen with a masterful thrust of his rapier. The genasi shrieks in pain, his kidney pierced, and topples down the little hill over and over...tumbling 360 what seems like an un-ordinary amount of times.

Yeah I know about shove. I figured stabbing worked better for Bhoors' -1 str. If the genasi survived I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Gratefully I still have the insp.

If you want to do it in the future, Ill allow. Seems a fine tradeoff.

I made a thing! ^_^

I tried using Google Docs to make a character sheet in the same template as the pregens from Wizards!

Nice

Counterspell is one of the things I don't like about 5th actually. It is really good but it's almost without extra cost. I get that it uses your reaction and a spell slot but with multiple PC (or npc) casters you can almost shut down an encounter. Take this with a grain of salt though as this is the first time I'm seeing it in play. I normally gm pathfinder.

At higher levels its a bit more of a gamble. And here, 2 casters vs one counterspell...the shatter still got through. There's also cantrips for example that can remove a caster's ability to even use their reaction. Just imo.

I didn't think of counterspelling a weaker spell. I guess the isn't really an official mechanic to ID a spell being cast. And removing a caster's ability to react makes things more strategic... good points. I retract my previous "don't like" and instead submit a "worth watching". Thanks!

Actually, Xanathar's Guide introduced a mechanic for IDing a spell, but it is optional as is... ;)

Even with inspiration I missed.

Bhoors is so awesome in his own mind. LOL in reality . . . meh.

I know the feeling, buddy. This is that last round that we just crap the bed, so that the baddies can feel better about themselves... :p

When you guys decide what to do with Boltsmelter, the Codex, the dwarves, and the drow, the module will conclude and I can tally rewards. :) They depend on your choices.

So before Shal totally acts rashly, her plan is to slip behind the cover of the small mound and quickly cut several pages out of the most powerful sections of the codex. To her the book seems like one of those really annoying potentially world devastating items that shouldn't have been created in the first place. By rendering the most powerful spells either missing or useless, she's hoping to not give a drow that kind of power. And technically she'd be maintaining her bargain by returning "whatever was left of the book" to the drow. If there are strong objections from the group, I'll hold off and just hand the book over. Otherwise I'll make another sleight of hand roll to slice several pages while the final conversation is going on.

This is assuming of course that the pages can be cut and the book doesn't just explode in her face or something like that. :)