Aubrey's Other Eberron Campaign - The Unbinding (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

You were going to get one no matter what happened.

Well happy to see that my mind hasn't totally gone.

Ride Skelly: 1d20 + 1 - 3 ⇒ (16) + 1 - 3 = 14
Ride Wultram: 1d20 + 1 - 3 ⇒ (6) + 1 - 3 = 4 Surge: 1d6 ⇒ 4

The skeleton doesn't seem to have too much trouble staying on their mount. Wultram on the other hand nearly fell off when the hit came, just barely managing to retake his hold in time.

Rex HP: 87/102

OK, going with the flow or trying to get to the wet area?

Damn it.

Wultramn passes on Rehils instructions to their mount, hoping to at least solve one of the issues they are having.

The Depths

Vaard stands on shaky legs, "Well, these things do happen. What were those creatures? In the meantime, can I heal anyone? Besides myself I mean."

Vaard looks the worse for wear to be sure.

Convert Shield Other to a CMW for myself. 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (1, 2) + 3 = 6

...

Tal gets jarred by the hit to the skeleton and hangs on for dear life. "Why is this worse than riding a dragon?!"

"Dragons have flesh to cushion the ride."

depths

"I've got a lot of bite marks."

The Depths

OK, so what is your next move?

The Plains

OK, similar challenge to the above - consider how your characters are going to help make the move across the herd to get to the wetland area.

Wultram tightens his grip pushing his thighs as hard as he can against the undead beast and readies to unleash his supernatural fear once more.

The skeleton on the other hand tries to keep a lookout to find the best route.

If it ain't broken don't try to fix it.

Trying to see more, Rehil straightens a little more until only the fingers of one hand brush the highest spur of bone on the local vertebra; he keeps his knees bent to absorb shock. HE cranes his neck while scanning the stampede on the right side of Rexy from dead ahead to dead behind, and back again.

Perception. Where we are going and what's going to be in our way.: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

To Teprin, Nalverren says, "It appears we are but threads in the magical weave of fate. One thread becomes tied to another when it ends, but you must be careful not to become a frayed end yourself."

He walks over to Vaard and presents his injuries, saying, "Speaking of damaged tapestry...""

Previous plan failed, new plan is to hang on and still have resources left when we (hopefully) get to the wet area.

Tal looks around trying to judge when another collision is about to happen so he has a better chance of hanging on.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

The Depths

Vaard nods at Nalverren, "The Silver Flame heal you".

He casts CMW spontaneously - 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (7, 3) + 3 = 13

"Teprin, we all still live, let us get out before they or something worse find us..."

could use another of those if you have one to spare but if not no biggie

Vaard calls down the power of the Silver Flame once more.

Use Divine Surge 2x and cast CMW once more upon himself and Nalverren - Self 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (6, 8) + 5 = 19 - N 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (8, 7) + 5 = 20

feelin' good after that

The Plains

Possible number of bumps crossing the flow 2d4 ⇒ (1, 1) = 2
Number affected by Wultram's channeling 1d8 ⇒ 1
Will saves 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Less one for Rehil's Perception check = 0

Somehow, the group navigate through the bellowing herd without taking another scratch. The tyrannosaur skeleton runs into the swamp, bony claws squelching in the mud, but it has to slow down given the unsure footing (difficult terrain). A few of the other dinosaurs follow but the main body of the stampede rumbles past heedlessly in a pall of dust and smoke, flames leaping behind them. Sanctuary from the fire lies further in, amid the moss-heavy swamp cypress.

I.e. to avoid damage you need to move away from the edge of the swamp.

The Depths

Terpin nods. "Agreed. We need to move out."

The group begin to retrace their steps. After a few minutes they begin to hear noises echoing through the caverns - tapping on the stone walls, and weird hooting cries.

The Depths

Vaard keeps quiet but hopes that the group is moving along the right path, he's no desire to face more of those creatures or anything worse down here.

DEPTHS

"Teprin, what might that be?" Nalverren asks in a whisper.

De Plane, de plane!

"Reminds me of the jungle," Rehil muses. "I never thought it was safe when we were there."

"Hopefully the wet will keep the fire at bay and the soggy ground will deter the stampede. I think we can deal with whatever might want to eat us in there."

Wultram directs the skeleton deeper into the swamp. "You are seriously tempting fate with those kind of statements."

Or the DM.

Rehil nods and let's himself slide over the T-rex's ribcage. He lowers himself down the ribs hand under hand to land softly on a grassy tuft and looks around.

When you say swampy are we talking wading waist deep swampy or muddy shoes swampy?

perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

The Plains

Kind-of knee-deep swampy. A medium sized creature can walk through it slowly with maybe a few deeper bits to trap the unwary.

Their skeletal steed treads carefully through the mud. The area is quite thickly wooded and soon the plain beyond disappears. Rehil slides off the back of the tyrannosaur and splashes down, his boots filling with muddy water for his pains. A bird with bright red plumage, a bare scaly head and claws halfway up its wings cackles at the sight before clambering away through the mossy branches.

The swamp seems to mainly consist of standing muddy water threaded with wooded islets. The water is choked with rotting tree trunks and other debris and everything is festooned with moss. Frogs call to one another in the green murk, the sun largely blotted out by the dense canopy above.

Rehil notes nothing in particular.

The Depths

"Dolgrims," murmurs Teprin, "A horde, massing below. They call to one another when they want to converge all together on a target - us, I presume. We need to make haste back to the city. With luck, we may outpace them."

Wultram starts scanning for the tallest tree in the vicinity. Once finding a suitable one he guides their mount next to the trunk. "Remove armor and climb above the canopy and see how far this swamp reaches." Comes the command to the skeleton.

Turning to his companions the mage explains. "I would like to have some idea how long it will take to travel through this place. One thing I am sure of that if I ever return home, I promise to never again complain about cold winters."

Rehil decides against joining the skeleton on its climb. Instead, he looks for stick, or branch, or sapling that could be cut to make a staff to probe ahead in the swamp.

"Well, let's get to it. Lead the way."

The Plains

The group ooze forwards though the swamp towards a decent-sized tree.

Perception, DC 20:

The Depths

The group hurry onwards through the caverns. The calls and taps continue to echo about, but do not seem to be getting any closer for the moment. Eventually they leave the narrow confines of the tunnels as they find themselves on the long stair that clings to the cavern wall beneath the city, far above.

Looking down, the chamber descends into a pitch black chasm which the light from their sunrods cannot penetrate. But against the rocky walls there is a flicker of movement, as if the stone is somehow undulating. But it quickly becomes clear that the cavern isn't moving. Instead, a horde of small creatures is clambering up the walls en masse like an army of spiders, chittering to each other as they go. Grey-skinned, roughly humanoid and dressed either in rags or nothing at all, they have a disturbing surfeit of four arms each. Even as they climb they brandish dull-looking blades and crude hammers.

"Dolgrims," says Teprin, "Quickly, run!"

The Plains

The group ooze forwards though the swamp towards a decent-sized tree.

Perception, DC 20:

** spoiler omitted **

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21

Rehil throws his walking stick at something and starts to scramble for higher ground.

"There's something in the water! Snakes or something."

Initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

know nature: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

"I see it! Watch yourself down there. I'll be down to help in a sec." Tal starts climbing down to dino so Rehil doesn't face the creature alone.

init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

So for whatever reason the preview does not work so I will have to post this and edit as I go along.

Wultram Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Masters Champion Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Wultram init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
Masters Champion Init: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
T-rex init: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26 Without standing orders, I would assume it delays to Wultrams initiative. So only relevant for being flatfooted and stuff like that.

"I see it." The mage shouts out.

Knowledge check: 1d20 ⇒ 18 If it falls under knowledge religion or arcana Wultrams modifier is +10, otherwise +1(and untrained so if higher than DC 10 can't make it)

The Depths

Vaard needs no prompting, while the last battle was difficult, this seems one which they would be hard pressed to last for more than a few moments in. He runs!

Nalverren runs, sure that very little that he could do in the way of preparation could see them through a fight with that horde.

THE DEPTHS

Cole — his eyes never fully leaving the wave of dolgrims clambering up towards them — falls to the rear of the group, his massive warmaul gripped tight as he KA-THUDS after his team on their way upwards.

Okay, so. I took a long lunch to get caught up in this and one other game. It sounds like Cole used a few Mythic Power and a few round of rage in that last Cloaker fight. Was it 2 each? Or more?

I think it was one use of mythic and a couple of rounds of rage.

Know local, dungeons, or nature: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

The Plains

Rehil can see what looks like a rotten log with tentacles, jaws and one arm. What manner of creature it might be, he has no idea. Tal recognises it as a fungal beast colloquially known as a bog creeper, an ambush predator.

Rotten Log's initiative 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Initiative
Rehil 19
Wultram and Sexy Rexy 16
Skellie 14 (surprised)
Bog Creeper 13
Tal 11

Map updated.

Rehil.

Do I understand correctly from this, that this is a surprise round?

Correct.

What do the terrain colors mean?

"Swing wide." Rehil reaches back for his elven curve blade while he tries to circle past the odd log. The long sword whispers faintly from its sheath.

Surprise round. Move to Q5 or S6 depending on the difficulty of the terrain.

Brown is sloshy, muddy water - difficult terrain. The dark green is an island, a bit former and normal terrain. The lighter green are trees.

Got it. Thanks.

The Depths

Map.

OK, the light grey is the path/stair which the PCs are climbing, the darker grey is cliff-face and can be climbed (DC 10 or so). The black is over the edge into the gulf - you can climb down it if you really want to, although you would meet the dolgrims on the way up.

The PCs start in the bottom left-hand corner on the path (E-H/27-29 or so) and follow the path upward through the map. The path does a dog-leg on the way up. The relative elevation of the path is noted as it goes up - the PCs start at 0 feet, the dolgrims are climbing the walls at -20 feet (i.e. 20 feet below the current level of the PCs). The dolgrims are represented as four 'troops' (from Bestiary 6, a bit like a swarm for medium-sized creatures) and as such look like gargantuan beasts on the map. However, they are actually clinging to the walls and not sticking out into the abyss like that, that's just for my convenience.

Please roll initiative and place yourselves on the map.

Troop 1 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Troop 2 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Troop 3 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9
Troop 4 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21 <— Who needs Improved Initiative? :D

I had narrated Cole to be towards the back of the group, but he also would have wanted to try to act as a shield for the group if at all possible — meaning he’d want to be on the outward edge of the walkway. Place Cole at H.29.

"Kill." Comes the simple command from Wultram before he starts casting his spell, trying to curse the creature. The mage directs the beast to impose itself between the threath and Rehil, so that it can't reach the elf safely. The skeleton is still trying to get itself oriented into the situation.

SR Check if needed: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Accursed glare
Will save DC 21 negates. Failed and roll twice take lowest on attack and saving throws.
Rex moves so that corners are T-7 and V-9