[5e] Master of the Fallen Fortress [Completed!] (Inactive)

Game Master mishima

There's quite a few texts rolled up on the old parchments, but a few stand out with an obvious draconic script.

magic scroll unidentified 1, magic scroll unidentified 2

Additionally as the bones settle and the fires are extinguished, you notice the fumes take a strange course through the southeastern wall...hinting at a secret door there. With a little more inspection you find the catch mechanism and could probably swing the old stones open with a good shove.

Exits from here are further up the spiral staircase, or through the secret door...which I'll mark on the map.

Not really caring about scrolls and such, Gloriana walks over to the newly found "secret" door, sets her shoulder to it, and gives it a shove.

Open Door: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Gloriana, to your horror, a living, moving fabric seems to cover the ceiling of this half-collapsed chamber, which stretches northwest into darkness. The pungent smell of ammonia rises from the droppings that litter the floor. Bats. Guano. The slightest misstep on your part right now could cause lord knows what to happen...

Seeing the dire situation that could possibly occur, Gloriana looks for a way to quietly close the door.
If she finds none, she steps back into the room where her companions are and waves at them and hisses to get their attention.

That room...is full of bats! If we make any noise, we might spook 'em!

Are there any valuables in there? Odan enquires.

Gloriana rolls her eyes. Odan...I didn't take time to look. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of bats in there! I could care less about valuables. I don't want to disturb them.

Fine, fine. Have it your way. Let's go check the room with the trap.

Man, I'm torn between that and going with dwarven stubbornness; "I'll just have to look for myself, then!"

"But we'll come back, right? Secret passages lead to good stuff, that's the rule, right?," Sohar asks, mostly joking.

So, after reading some stuff about identifying magic items in general, and scrolls in particular...

Seth, you recognize the two magic scrolls as Shatter and Shield, again a play on Nethys' dual nature.

Activating Shield would be as simple as saying you do so, but Shatter would require a DC 12 int check for success.

The bats seem content to roost, it is after all mid-afternoon.

I guess we could wait 'em out until it gets dark. Pretty sure they would leave then to hunt and feed. Ain't that what bats do?

I guess we could wait 'em out until it gets dark. Pretty sure they would leave then to hunt and feed. Ain't that what bats do?

"That could be quite a while from now. Hmm... think you can swing that door shut pretty fast? The bats obviously don't use it, so they must have another way out. What if we riled them up or tossed something smoking and burning in, then pulled the door shut and waited for it to quite down." Pindleton shrugs. "Seems like flushing them out might work faster than sitting around until it gets dark... all while hoping nothing worse also comes around at night."

I have another torch. We...I could light it and toss it inside...and then, maybe with Odan's help, shut the door really fast.
Gloriana looks over at Odan for confirmation.
Sohar, you know about bats, right? Would this work?

Seth takes the scrolls if nobody else mind.
I like the fire idea, but I think there is no hurry. Let's explore the rest of the tower first.

Sounds good to me, Odan says, and he heads downstairs to start dismantling the trap.

Sounds good to me, Odan says, and he heads downstairs to start dismantling the trap.

Pindleton goes with Odan to assist with the trap disarming, attempting a more nuanced tactic before the barbarian way.

Thieves tools: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

From this side, the trap disarmament is fairly trivial. Despite the troglodytes brutish appearance, there is still a bit of sophistication in the trigger mechanism: a razor thin line of piano wire with a backup failsafe of a simple pan and spring. From the other side it would have been much more challenging, likely requiring some kind of periscope (if not guiding by 'touch') along with a pair of telescoping snips. Simply removing the spiked log from its chain before tripping the wire activates everything harmlessly.

Inside, its another octagonal room like the others, only this one looks as though some precious metal has been stripped from a wall mural stretching across the eastern walls. The mural (a chiseled engraving colored by some pigments) depicts a walled city under siege by a massive humanoid army, with many towers resembling this one's quatrefoil design skirting the no man's land. All the furnishings have been piled up near the trapped door in a barricade.

There is otherwise nothing much of interest. The trap mechanism might be worth something or be reusable though. Odan might recognize it as duergar craftsmanship.

I bet there's something vicious down there. Who wants to find out?

I bet there's something vicious down there. Who wants to find out?

"Considering that the trap was on this side of the door, I agree that there's nothing friendly down in there. Should we gather up the rest of the group before we risk it?"

Have to admit, I'm sort of confused here. Are you guys talking about excavating the stairwell on ground floor and going underground? Just for clarity, the trap was pointing from the troglodyte room towards room 5, which connects to outside. The other entrance to troglodyte room (room 3) had the shocker lizard. Upstairs on floor 3 were the altars and dead troglodytes behind a locked door, and the bats. The stairs continue upwards past the locked door. 2 more floors above that (5 total). Whatever you do is ok, just wanted to make sure I didn't say something confusing.

I saw this: "All the furnishings have been piled up near the trapped door in a barricade." And thought you mean trapdoor - as in a little square door that leads downwards. Reading it again, and it's supposed to reference the door which was trapped. Seeing how there's nothing in the room, it's really confusing why that door was trapped at all.

Gotcha, sorry. The trap's business end pointed into the empty room. The troglodytes put the trap there so that things trying to enter coming from room 5 would trigger the trap. To get to trog room 4 from ledge outside, you guys had a 50/50 chance earlier to either try opening the trapped door or come through the shocker lizard room. By chance you got the lizard, and came upon the trap from its ass-end. Maps so far are in slide 2, current map slide 1.

For some reason, I didn't realize we had covered two floors, almost three of the tower already. smh

Gloriana joins the others to explore the other levels of the tower.

Whoops! I totally followed Odan's response with reading it as "trapdoor" as well. Sorry about that! Gotta run, but tonight I'll take another look at the maps and previous posts to see if I have a preference for where to go next or if he'd like to deal with the bats.

I'm little lost, for now it's better if the others decide where to go

Wow, apologies for the miscommunication. We came back down to clear one room on level 2 and are now ready to proceed to level 4. There are 2 ways to reach it, climbing up the outside like before (past bats) or taking the stairs.

"Stairs, or bats?"

Stairs.

Making your way up the stairs, you hear an odd girly-man kind of whimpering coming from somewhere nearby. Reaching the 4th floor, the door is partially open revealing a barracks of crude bunks, and again the stench of troglodytes is overbearing. You can spy at least 3 napping it up dreamily on the western wall.

Map updated

If we could kill them in their sleep... Gloriana muses.
What say the rest of you?

Not a bad idea,- Seth whisper, ...Though, can we do it without alarming whoever is in the other rooms?

Yup. Odan says confidently.

Then he heads into the room with the intention of killing them in their sleep.

Yup. Odan says confidently.

Then he heads into the room with the intention of killing them in their sleep.

Killing them in their sleep does seem more efficient and humane, so Pindleton follows to assist.

Those taking part in the slaughter roll stealth please. You can also roll attacks and damage, you have advantage and its an auto crit if you connect (ie they have unconscious condition as long as stealth checks play out). The gamble is that its enough to do them in.

Stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

Shortsword: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Shortsword Advantage: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Damage with critical and sneak attack: 4d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 2, 1, 2) + 3 = 14

Just eldritch blast from afar

Blast: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 241d10 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Crit?1: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Attack, Adv: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 221d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Damage Crit: 2d12 + 4 ⇒ (12, 8) + 4 = 24

Pindleton and Odan quickly dispatch 2 of the 3 slumbering beastmen.

Seth you get advantage, but the auto crit only happens if within 5 ft. You may as well roll advantage for the chance of critting anyways.
Or its ok if you want to take it back if you didn't know about the 5 ft thing.

Then I better roll for stealth
stealth: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Fair enough, well done

Seth steps up and silently blows the final one's brains out onto the soft down pillows with an energy thrust.

Pocket Change: 6d10 ⇒ (2, 6, 2, 5, 5, 10) = 30 silver

Having missed out on the slaughter, Gloriana shrugs her shoulders and moves into the room, and to the door on her left. She listens for noises behind it and then opens it.

Gloriana, the whimpering is stronger in that direction and you also hear the sound of a crackling fire. Opening, you see its source is a large brazier of coals in the center of what looks to be a make-shift torture chamber, complete with all the poking/slashing/crushing implements lying atop a rusty iron box.

A troglodyte oddly wearing fine golden glasses turns to you and hisses. He grabs a flask and looks like he is about to throw it at you...

Initiative, sec

Odan: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Sohar: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Pindleton: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Gloriana: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Seth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Tulok: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

Gloriana sees it coming however, and has a chance to act.

Round One:::::
Gloriana <-- UP
Tulok
All other PCs

Map updated

Thinking fast, Gloriana calls out a warning to her companions while hurling a javelin at the trog.
Javelin attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 131d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Gloriana's artful throw is enough to tear a new hole in the troglodyte's chain shirt, and the enraged monster from the Darklands fires back with its own projectile...

Alchemist's Fire: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
Fire Dmg: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Gloriana is covered with a sticky substance that quickly ignites, engulfing her in flames.

Glor, you take 1d4 at beginning of each turn until you put out the fire by succeeded at DC 10 dex check, which uses an action

Round One:::::
Gloriana
Tulok
All other PCs <-- UP

Seth moves to answer the fire
Eldritch blast: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 261d10 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

"Hard to misinterpret that," Sohar comments while moving into the room and striking at the troglodyte.

Scimitar(S): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

DEX Check: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Gloriana stops drops and rolls and overall seems to be getting the fire under control. It will use your action from next turn

Seth manipulates the fabric of spacetime carefully separating our realm from that of the fey once more, creating a vortex inversion spiraling into the life essence of the troglodyte.

Sohar takes the opportunity to charge with a sword in hand, but the troglodyte parries his swing with a swipe of his bony claws.

Round One:::::
Gloriana
Tulok
Seth, Sohar, Pindleton, Odan <-- UP

Oh good, more things to test my mettle.

Odan runs up with his Battleaxe, attacking recklessly.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Adv: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Damage: 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Heh, well I tried to make that one harder...failed completely it seems.

The troglodyte's glassed face barely changes expression as it leaves its body behind, flapping onto the floor after a ball of dwarven fury offers it 10,000 surgical axe slices.

Combat Over

The door to the north west rattles and a nobleman's voice is clear "Tulok? Tulok, are you there? Good lord, what was all that clanging and flapping?"