"If that is a scarecrow, I'm going to be very upset." Mawj nocks another arrow, the lethal variety, and fires.
Attack
Damage
"I feel like running the hell out of here"
Mawj's arrow again flew true, striking the creature solidly through the part concealed by its hood. A strange sound echoed back from the cave, like the crack of metal on stone. The arrow fell limply, snagged briefly in the folds of the cloak, before its weight dragged the garment down a little. Still the thing didn't move.
Lev and Mawj
The smell of rotting became stronger, drifting through the canyon despite the wind blowing the other direction.
Perception DC 17
Perception check:
Arianna watches intently as Mawj's arrow strikes the creature. As the robe falls away she asks, quietly, "What the hell is that thing?"
Watching as Mawj's second arrow strikes the form inside the cave, Lev shakes his head with disgust. "It's a decoy!
He turned to look around behind him, trying to figure out where that stench was coming from and seeing nothing.
"I think we've been drawn into a trap. Elsbeth! You might want to move in closer!"
"Now that you tell...."
Elsbeth closes with Lev, nodding toward him in a thanking gesture
Perception
"Something moved from around the bend in the valley. The stones were disturbed there briefly, and crunched under the weight of some object. For the briefest moment a shadow rippled across the stones before disapearing again as the object causing it changed position."
Mawj takes a few breaths, focused intently on the shadow. She whispers fiercely, "Tactical retreat, now." The elven ranger keeps her bow trained on the shadow she glimpsed, but starts wheeling backward as fast as possible.
"I saw it too! You think its a trap?"
Alandra hears Mawj's call to retreat and moves back into the cave.
Anya reacted without question as she heard Mawj's call. She moved back, raised her blades guardedly and tried to spot the assailant the sharp-eyed elf had spied.
Not seeing it herself made her effort somewhat less effective than it would otherwise have been, true, but drill and training made her give it her best without even that information.
Elsbeth will stay near Lev, since she has yet to understand which way the attack'll come from, ready to put him between herself and the attacker
As the two women react to the shadowy movement, the others in the party barely have time to turn before a huge creature stands up from behind the rubble and scree at the bend in the valley. Hunched and deformed, its twisted body rippling with pustules and scarred flesh, the creature is hideous to behold. In its great clawed hands it hefts a large stone, which it hurls innefectually at teh party. The stone shatters on impaact with the ground, such is the force at which it is thrown, but the thing obviously lacks skill in this area. The claws on its hands are the length of short sowrds, and they could easily evicerate a person if they landed a blow.
Knowledge nature or dngeoneering DC 13
Kn. Nature or Dungeoneering DC18
Edit Map for round 1
"Elbeth, you and Arianna be careful" Anya whispered as she stepped up her pace, hoping to leave the more vulnerable members of the party some respectable distance away. "Lev, let's move"
And move she did, swiftly and a little bit lowered as to decrease the chance of a head injury. She darted past one of the rubble fields and tried to get a clear shot of view at their primary enemy.
Alandra raises up her holy symbol.
"Evil creature, feel the dread of Pharasma!" she shrieks.
I`m stuck from going back home because of the f*****g snow,at home of relative now, but can barely post, and dunno when i'll be at my PC again. You should use Elsbeth as NPC until i'm done
Initiative:
Arianna will move diagonally 30' to square P-18 and snap off a quick shot woth her bow.
Attack roll:
Damage:
Lev nods to Anya and follows after her, sword at the ready to defend against an attack.
"Be careful, Anya." he mutters.
The group begin reacting to the threat by advancing and summoning magics. Alandra summons forth the doom of her goddess and the creature shudders at the magic washes over it. Elsbeth follows her lead, unleashing a bolt of force from her oustretched hand to strike unnerringly into the things hide .
Arianna also unleashes a ranged attack on the huge thing even as she darts to join her friends. The bow shot is quite skillfull, just making it past the tumble of boulders and scree protecting the thing and sinking into its flesh. While injured, the thing still looks very dangerous.
"I am" Anya replied, when she crossed the corner. Hopefully they could disatch this ambush quickly and efficiently.
Will save:
Mawj takes careful aim with a new broad headed arrow nocked. The elf stilled her breathing and released, watching in satisfaction as the arrow flew into the creatures chest, thunking home with a meaty sound.
Realising the ambush had failed miserably, the huge creature moves through the rock and scree towards Anya, huge claws scything through the air. Even with the rocks providing her some cover, the creatures initial attack and reach caught the young fighter of guard and the dagger long nails of its hand almost evicerated her
It looks hurt now, and mightily angered, though it is difficult to tell through all the fouled skin and pus of its head. What everyone realises now though, if both of its claws manage to hit a target, that person is unlikely to ever get up again.
edit- Map update round 2
Arianna moves up behind Anya and next to Lev and fire her bow once more.
Attack roll:
Her shot sailing wide of the big target she drops her bow and pulls her short swords.
Lev complexion takes on a green tinge and he feels his stomach roil as the creature approaches.
When it slashes out at Anya, however, he leaps forward despite his sudden intestinal discomfort and swings his great blade furiously up at the creature.
Lev leaps forwards and slashes the huge weapon at the creature, as he moves it swings one of its clawed hands at the big hunter, gashing his chest even as the mighty sword slices up and through its neck. Dark blood gushes from the savage wound and the creatures eyes bulge as the preassure in its brain drops completely. For a moment only it stands staggered, then falls sideways with a large thump, ending its threat permanently.
The canyon echoes for a brief moment with the remnants of the battle and the gasps of pain from the injured. It appears as if the huge thing was acting alone though, and now the mine was truly there for the claiming.
Anya gasped in agony, and very nearly fainted as the claws pierced her below the ribs. She kept on her feet for some reason, maybe the knowledge that the next blow would be even worse. Still, it slowed her down sufficiently for Lev to land the final blow.
Unlike some of her more competitive brothers, she did not mind the slightest bit. "Great one Lev... ughh... what the blazes was that. Oh, and make sure it is good and dead."
Having destroyed the creature and cleared the front of the cave, the exploration team quickly establish the cave as being free of other inhabitants. The inside of teh cavern seems much more stable than the outer shell, almost like the seam of precious metal is imbedded within a harder substrate.
The dummy that had originally gotten the group drawn in turned out to be no more than a group of piled rocks and mud, draped with the creatures own clothes. These were a patched mash of various other items of clothing sewn together to make something large enough to fit the malformed creature. Most of the patches were worn and rank with sweat and other stains. One part however, was practically pristine. This appeared to have been a full cloak of green, patterned with the tied knot designs of the barbrian tribes that inhabit the area. Clearly, this material holds more than just dye to keep it so pristine.
Alandra approaches Anya. "He got you pretty good.''
She takes a the petal of a black rose out of her pouch and touches it to Anya's wound.
Lev lightly touches the ragged wounds on his chest for a moment, probing to ensure nothing vital had been damaged before he turns back to see how Anya was doing. When Alandra heals his sister, he nods appreciation to the cleric and turns back to the beast he'd just slain.
Looking it over, he shook his head, still sickened by the abhorrent appearance of the beast. "What is this thing? I've never seen the like."
The corpse looks vaguely ogre like, though far more grotesque. Rumours of creatures like this inhabiting this region had filtered up through Restov but nothing overly concrete about them. Apparently they're known as Thawns.
Having checked the mine and finding it now free of living threats, the party marks it on their maps and continues exploring. The cavern itself would take some signifcant work before it would become a viable mine, but when people settled the region, then a profitable mine it would be.
The remainder of the day is without incident, as the explorers continue mapping this region of the land. Night time comes later, each day now, and the weather is warmer, again hinting at the summer to come and possible storms soon. For once, the cmap is not visited by the fey pranksters, hover a distant light is observed during the night, moving sedately across the plains some distance from theeir sheltered campsight. Something or someone else was moving through this area as well, but they were pressing on at night rather than resting it would seem.
An early rise and some good weather sees the group back to the sight of their battle with the bandits in the forests. Afte exploring the area in more detail, they find that their is also a good ford in this area. The river becomes shallow enough to cross as it reaches a age glade, the land below obviously harder than teh surrounding forested floor, so it has not eroded as deeply. Again this is something that would be important for later colinisation as it meant travel through this region would be easier with wagons and other supplies.
When they cautiously check back on the bandits camp, they find the graves have been dug up and the bodies treated quite poorly, with even their bloodied clothes removed from them by someone. The tracks are very difficult to read as they are a few days old now. Not so bad though that both Lev and Mawj canot tell that they are humanoid foot prints. Lev's warning sign about the banditry has been viciously hacked apart and alternate words created below "These are the Stag Lords lands. Vengence is coming"
The nights camp in the forest sees a return of the little fey. No pranks are played, but nearly everyone who takes a watch reports hearing the little giggles and furtive movements in the trees canopy that tells them the creatures are around.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Ride
Ride
Survival
Survival
Anya breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Alandra worked her healing magic, and the deep gash disappeared and was replaced by healthy new skin. "I always get hurt as badly as possible, I think. Even as a kid, i never skinned my knee - i twisted it at the very least.
When tasked with deciding the direction of their further exploration, Anya led the group due east."
Lev surveys the desecrated bodies and the threatening sign with a tight expression.
"Not particularly subtle, are they?" He lifted the stag amulet he carried and looked at it for a moment before returning it to his pouch. "Their time of lawlessness is near to an end, now."
Lev's face is a rigid mask of anger as he stands watch, listening to the fey's antics. One hand grips the hilt of his sword so tightly that his knuckles turn white. He is in a particularly foul mood the following morning, remaining silent and watchful.
[ooc
"No sense in dwelling on it. Let's keep moving and see what we can find."
Knowledge (nature)
Knowledge (geography)
Perception
Survival
Heading into the rising sun, the troop quickly travereses back through the land they marked out for the mine. Following the trails through the the hilly region, it is Alandra who first spots the lone tree some few miles from the crest of teh hill they are on. The lightining blasted thing looks like nothing more than a huge burnt claw reaching up to the sky in some twisted plea for mercy.
Lev
As the party moves through the hills and valleys, Mawj holds her hand up to pause their advance. The tall elf sniffs the air momentarily and then bends to check the ground. She stands, holding up a small boot nail in her hand and smiles mirthlessly.
"It would seem that our dwarven friend and his human allies have been though here recently. I can smell a camp fire as well, so my guess is they may be close"
Anya considered the options that presented themselves for a moment. They were in much better shape than last time, and these bandits sneaked around much too close to their new "home" for comfort. On the other hand picking a fight wasn't something she did lightly.
"We should scout out their camp. If we ambush them, we have a much better shot at this - and the dug up bodies at the last camp made clear they're not interested in letting it rest."
Perception
Survival
Mawj rubs the edge of an arrowhead to test its edge. "Let's repay the kindness, shall we?" The elven hunter makes her way forward, following the signs and clues left by the bandits.
"It'll be a pleasure. I have to let them know that i'm NOT really a prostitute"
"Hell yes, let's get 'em!"
"I had told them the next time we met things were not going to be so pleasant"
Stealth check:
Lev thought back to the paper he'd found and decided to discuss that later. The bandits needed to be dealt with first.
"Let's see if we can surprise them. If we move quickly we can turn the tables on them."
Lev follows slightly behind Mawj, keeping several feet (15) to her side (left or right depending on terrain), his bow drawn and an arrow loosely nocked.