Atapax's Kingmaker Campaign

Game Master Aluvian

Cal moves farther to the side and readies another arrow to fire if the spider emerges from its lair again.

The chances of me hitting with a total of -5 to hit are basically nil, so Cal will ready an action to fire if it moves out from cover.
Readied attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Readied damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

I'm gonna pre-empt Kyrie a bit. If she does post, I'll slip hers in before mine.

Sia's acid misses the mark only slightly but with two arrows already sunk into it's body, and it's lair surrounded by warriors pounding away with weapons, the spider seems to think that the chances of getting a meal out of this group is unlikely. With a few final flashes of fangs it sinks down into it's pit, letting the door close above it.

Gorax, tired of trying to fight through the small hole and wanting to finish the fight. He drops his long sword and with his arms muscles rippling uses his hands trying to rip open the trap door. "Come spider, prepare for Gorax's and Estruven's ire, prepare to meet your dead brothers and sisters."

Strength check 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

Kyrie dismounts and discards her bow to draw her blade, and then moves to the opposite side of the trapdoor from Gorax, hoping to surround and flank the spider should it come out again.

Readying attack, will try for a flanking strike if it emerges

Sia pauses for a moment, another flash of green light at her fingertips, before she frowns. "It's not coming back out, I don't think, but do we want to go in after it? Whoever opens that door is going to be a sitting duck."

"Whoever opens that door is going to be a sitting duck."

"That's true, but we are here to clear out this territory and make it safe for settling. Plus, I've challenged this thing and I aim to see it dead!" Estruven walks to the other side of the door and assists Gorax the next time he tries to pull the door open.

Strength: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Wow, that was lame!

Ok, I'm seeing Estruven and Gorax opening the door, with Kyrie, Cal, and Sia having readied actions to attack it if they see it. So this is based off of that info.

With Estruven's help, or perhaps all by himself it's impossible to tell, Gorax heaves up the trapdoor. He isn't able to fling it permanently open, but certainly enough to remove it as cover for the beast. All three of those directly at the door can see down into the pit lined with webbing that the spider has staked out as its home. Apparently, prey opening its front door is not something the spider is expecting as they see it pause for just a second as if trying to decide what to do. Then, with the same frightening speed, it lunges up at Gorax intent on defending its lair. The only difference being, this time its foes are waiting for it.

Its fangs slide harmlessly over the soldier's armor, while three readied attacks meet it before it can dive back into its hole again.

Kyrie, Sia, and Cal get their readied attacks. Sia and Cal, you only have -4 for firing into melee. Kyrie, yours is not a sneak attack as neither Gorax nor Estruven are threatening the spider (both holding open the door) however you have no negative to the attack roll. Estruven, Gorax can keep the door open by himself, so next round you can let go and attack, getting flanking with Kyrie.

Another ball of acid flies from Sia's fingertips, aiming at the creature's face. Is that its' face?

Acid Splash Touch Attack! 1d20 ⇒ 19
Damage: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Cal already has a readied action attack and damage roll posted, however I doubt a (modified) 11 will hit.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
... Bouncing buddhas on a pogo stick, the RNG seems to be making up for lost time. Confirming crit: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12 .. Probably not. Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Kyrie moves with equal speed, slashing across the spider's back as it leaps out and tearing a gash through its exoskeleton.

Gorax, his biceps bursting, continues to hold the door open, allowing his comrades the opportunity to force forward their attacks. "Go Estruven and make good your challenge, I'll hold this trapdoor open to let you demolish this arachnid."

Having suffered a severe gash across its body and acid in its face for the trouble of trying to dispatch this pest, the spider sees no real option for safety other than to retreat even further into its hole.

It stops at what must be the bottom, about 25 feet down the five foot diameter pit. The walls of the pit are lined with webbing and look as though they could be climbed down without too much trouble, but fighting from within might be difficult.

Poor spider. It just wanted some food and now its food wont leave it alone. :)

Sia frowns. "Wait!" She pulls out her lantern and starts fussing with it. "Stupid light spell, never could figure it out back at school. We'll have to do this the non-magical way." A few moments later, the lantern is lit. "Okay. Does someone who isn't likely to fall into the spider's jaws want to hold this?"

Is it visible from the top of the trap door? If so, Cal can just shoot it. It's even still in point blank shot range.

Is it visible from the top of the trap door? If so, Cal can just shoot it. It's even still in point blank shot range.

I'd say that it would have concealment without some kind of more direct light source. But you could definitely shoot it. Too bad we don't have a druid. Charming it would be an interesting alternative.

Vermin are mindless and immune to charming, aside from corner cases like the vermin-centric druid archetype.

"Jus' shine a light down th' hole an' I kin fill it fulla arrows. It's easier t' hit when I don't hafta worry 'bout hittin' you lot." Putting actions to words, Cal steps up to the edge of the hole and fires an arrow straight down the tunnel to embed itself in the arachnid's chitinous body.

Attack roll: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Miss chance from concealment: 1d100 ⇒ 25
Damage roll: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

EDIT: Heh, forgot Cal speaks with a hick accent.

Gorax holding the trapdoor suggests, "Just drop the lantern on top of the spider, the oil'll burn it, save some of Cal's arrows"

Sia frowns at that. "I would rather not damage the lantern. How much oil do we have?" She heads over to the horses, apparently deciding that actually finishing the spider can wait for at least a few seconds.

Kyrie sheathes her sword and retrieves her bow, then returns to the edge of the pit. "It's a pity someone smashed all that liquor back at the inn, that stuff would have burned nicely," she remarks to no one in particular as she aims into the hole.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Miss chance (assuming that Kyrie's low-light vision doesn't take care of that problem):1d100 ⇒ 89
... Argh, typed 1d00 rather than 1d100. Doesn't matter, though, that's a miss anyway.

Gorax eyes the elf with the bow, as sweat trickles down his cheek from the exertion of keeping the trap door open. "Grr, come on we haven't got all day, kindly be quick and dispatch the thing."

Well I'm gonna call that akin to a round. I know Estruven hasn't gone but there's little she can do aside from climb down.

Cal's arrow flies true, straight into the back of the cowering beast and through to burry itself fletching and all into it. The spider shudders once, twitches, and then curls into a motionless ball, quite dead.

Standing over the pit as they are, Gorax, Cal, and Kyrie can all spot what look like more carcasses littering the bottom of the lair, mostly consumed but some much newer.

Estruven must have a bad angle. :)

Everyone take 100xp

"Is it dead yet, you gonna go down and check? I'll hold the door up here so you don't have to worry about getting out. Just hurry up about it."

Kyrie nods. "It's stopped moving, at least. I've a rope in my saddlebags; let me get it out and we'll see what's down there... And I think we can probably brace that door so it'll stay open without your help."

Sorry, busy weekend. I didn't even get to slash at that thing, but you guys took care of it!

Estruven sheaths her sword and helps Gorax hold up the door while Kyrie investigates.

Strength:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

As Estruven takes over holding the door, Gorax uses his shield to take the strain and brace door to stop it from shutting. Having surveyed the area to find somewhere to anchor the rope and not finding one Gorax says to the elf, "Alright little lady, get ready to go down, I'll take the strain up here and lower you down, just shout if you wanna be pulled up quick." He watches as the elf gets ready to be lowered down. To Estruven he says, "Come here and help take the strain, two hands are better than one, this one might be quite light, but you never can be too careful."

Strength Check 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

From the description of the area, I took it that there wasn't anywhere to use to steady the rope. Anyone else can also brace the door if they have anything to do it with.

I would have been fine with you making up something to tie the rope to, but this works too.

With the help of the rope, and the webbing on the naturally rough stone, Kyrie is easily able to clamber down into the pit. As she goes, a closer inspection shows the spider to indeed be quite dead and motionless.

Alighting on the ground, a quick survey of the bottom reveals a few bodies but one instantly draws her attention. A dead man, still dressed in leather armor and holding a short sword. This must be the spider's most recent meal as the equipment, aside from some slight damage to the armor, is still in good repair and the man's innards have not been completely sucked dry.

Obviously only she can see this, but it's easier to tell everyone than have her act as a relay of a spoiler.

Kyrie relays her findings upwards, then examines the still-intact corpse more closely for anything that might help in identifying who the man might have been.

Sia shakes her head. "Okay. Bring the stuff up, I guess." She sounds a bit disgusted by the enterprise. "We can probably barter it back at Oleg's. Better than nothing, anyway."

I'm going to be on the road the next three days so my posts will be a bit erratic during that time, and possibly till next week as I get settled back in at home.

Thanks for the heads up Atapax, hope the travelling goes well.

Gorax calls down "Poor bloke, I wonder who he was and what he was doing alone out here? Never mind, you're doing good down there, pack up the stuff and bring it up. I'll pull you up when you say."

Gorax will pull Kyrie up when she calls to him to do it.

"Hard to say offhand," Kyrie replies, trying not to grimace at the smell while she strips the corpse of . "Could be an explorer, could be a bandit who got terribly unlucky... Either way, I'd rather not spend any longer in this hole as necessary.

With the elf back with the group, Gorax asks "So did you find anything interesting or useful on the man, or what?"

Estruven's strength check to help Gorax:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

I'll let you guys know what I've found once Ata gets back and lets me know as well.

I'm assuming that you take 20 on searching his body, and applying your perc roll to the rest of the pit.

Kyrie doesn't manage to find that much, but she did pull off the man's leather armor and grab his short sword and a pouch of 10 gp. In addition, she found a silver Stag medallion, identical to the one you found on the bandits, around his neck. Of at least equal interest is the scrap of paper she found tucked in his boot. It bears a simple drawing of a claw shaped dead tree on an otherwise barren hill with an 'X' in blood scrawled by the tree's roots.

Nothing else of any interest could be found in the spider's lair.

"Well, he was wearing this around his neck,[b]" Kyrie replies, holding up the silver stag medallion. "[b]I think you mentioned someone calling himself the 'Stag Lord' earlier..."

She holds up the scrap of paper next. "This, on the other hand, looks like something to keep an eye out for. Who's good at digging?"

"Nice job Kyrie!" Estruven exclaims. "I don't feel so bad for that poor fellow now, he must have been a follower of the Stag Lord. Looks like we need to find us a tree."

"Aye, once we're done here and got those radishes, we can look for that tree and whatever lies there. X marks the spot." Gorax looks around at the break landscape, "The faster we can get on and away from here the better I would like it. Where there's one of these beasts, there maybe a mate, so I say we get on as soon as we can."

"Aye Gorax. Sounds good." Estruven says mockingly as she winks at Gorax.

Sia sets herself about looking over the stuff Kyrie managed to find. "You remember that correctly," she explains to Kyrie as she works. "The Stag Lord is a rather pretentious name for a man who's setting about building up a bandit force in the area. Might fancy himself a king, might just want to go on a big pillaging spree of Brevoy. Or maybe he just likes being pretentious, haven't heard enough about him to be sure."

Using Detect Magic on the gear brought up by Kyrie

"Actually," Cal responds to Gorax's fears of a mate to the slain giant spider, "Spiders don' really live in groups, usually. I' fact, the females tend t' eat their mates... Still, I'm as eager t' get away from 'ere as you are."

"We should at least bury the corpse," Kyrie suggests.

Gorax speaks out plainly, still uncomfortable staying in the area, despite Cal's learned words, "He's already buried lying at the bottom of the spider's nest. Once we close the trapdoor, he's got his own cosy grave, to share with the spider. Cal, can you say a few words to the gods over his stinking body. Then let's get outta this place."

No magic auras on any of the gear. Everything looks normal.

The sun is already low on the horizon when you get back on your way, but no one wants to camp within the ring of skeletons encircling the lair. It takes another hour to get to a decent campsite and by then the stars are out and camp is a hasty thing in preparation for as good a night's sleep as can be managed.

The night passes without incident, and as the sun rises it reveals the eastern edge of Narlmarches to the west and the beginnings of the Kamelands close to the south. If the Fey are correct about the location of the radishes, they should be somewhere just inside the woods to the west.

Sia, please mark the hex south-west of the hermit hut as explored and label the spider lair if you want. Everyone gets 20 xp.

Sia looks remarkably cheerful this morning as she gets up a bit ahead of the group, perhaps unwisely. She starts taking literal notes about everything the group comes across, and it's no different on reaching the edge of the woods. "Okay, time to gather those radishes. We have bags to put them in, right?"

Might need a day or two on the map updates, but if they're not done by Saturday morning I'm sure Kyrie will remind. This will likely involve mallets.

With a furrowed brow Gorax answers Sia, "Bags, what bags, I got me backpack, should do to keep 'em safe." He looks questioningly around seeing what response is given from the rest of the party.

Kyrie stares for a moment at Gorax before responding. "And by the time we get back to Oleg's, we might even manage to dig four or five of them out from the rest of the junk in your backpack that aren't squished beyond recognition. I've a few pockets in this outfit that should keep them safe as long as nothing tries to stab me, but those aren't really an optimal solution either. Sia, do you have any empty pouches we could use?"

"We kin empty out one o' Donkey's saddlebags an' put 'em in there, push comes t' shove." Cal supplies.

Gorax looks at Kyrie, feeling a bit like a boy scolded at school, his face reddens slightly, but he continues on anyway and lets out a little sigh of relief at Cal's suggestion. "Right, time to be cracking on and pick some radishes then. Let's get goin' they won't pick themselves.let's go look in them woods then.

We can tie the animals up somewhere safe and take a short trip into the woods."

Gorax notes a tree a safe distance from the woods, and ties his horse there, before striding towards the forest. He is wary of the dangers that lurk behind the trees in the forest, but needs must and towards the forest he marches. "common on, keep up, lets go"

Perception 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

"You all can search for the radishes, I'll keep a look out for any critters the fey said frequent this area."

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Or not...