GM SpiderBeard's Curse of the Crimson Throne (Inactive)

Game Master Barvo Delancy

Can we then reset to the prior condition: If D finds the elf in the room, he will shoot her with poisoned bolts.

Donnell does a double-take as he realizes she's hiding around the corner of the door and he steps into the doorway, firing around the corner with his crossbow bolt. However, she is magically shielded, and his bolt bounces off of her.

Sevenspawn prays to his Goddess, and a blast of holy energy sizzles three of the zombies, although does not manage to destroy any of them.

Raven Six and Thod are up! Understanding Raven Six may be holding her action.

"I am in a quandary," Raven Six proclaims out loud as she takes a dainty step back from the zombies. "I do not appear to have appropriate melee weaponry to deal with these creatures. I cannot hurl my bombs about willy-nilly. I might affect one of you."

"Huh? Thought you smart types were always supposed to be prepared! Well, whatever, more for me! Now let's get this party started. Real DEAD in here, eh? Eh?"

Thod starts swinging more wildly, laughing at his own bad joke.

Thod enters a rage. His first action is another swing at the zombie in front of him. +1 from Bless, +2 from Rage

Attack: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19 Damage: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

I am assuming that is more than enough to take out the zombie. If not, disregard my next action, and I take a second swing at +8 to attack

"You two can take care of those two, right? Hold on, Donnell! I'm comin'!"

Thod immediately stomps over to where he sees Donnell being swarmed by zombies.

Yes, I know Donnell is invisible to zombies, but I'm thinking Thod doesn't, as Donnell didn't quite make it clear what he was doing, and Thod probably didn't understand anyways. Either way, Thod moves up to Donnell's position. No reach weapon, so I can't attack the zombies.

Actually, just like regular invisibility, Hide from Undead disappeared as soon as I attacked - so, thanks!

"Well, in that case," Raven Six says -- and she lobs a bomb at the two zombies closest to Sevenspawn and herself.

Ranged touch attack 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 for 3d6 + 4 ⇒ (5, 1, 1) + 4 = 11 damage.

Thod sends a zombie head flying and heads over to help Donnell while the bomb goes off.

KABLAM!

It's hard to see for a moment but as the smoke clears, it becomes very apparent that the two zombies have been obliterated, thanks to the combination of the bomb and Sevenspawn's holy wrath.

The deranged elf in the northern room looks around wildly and lets out an eep! as Thod thunks over to her. "Make them pay my cutesy-wootsies!" One zombie swings uselessly at Donnell while the other just takes the long way around.

She peers at Thod's bulky form and mutters a spell. A thin yellow ray fires from her finger and slams right into Thod's forehead! He suddenly feels his muscles turn to jelly.

Thod is critted by a ray of enfeeblement for 13 strength damage! That's a -6 to attack and damage! Everyone is up

"OOOOOOoffffffuuuuggghhh...."

Thod takes the bolt, expecting a blast of pain or burning energy. Indeed, he's somewhat surprised at first that it didn't really seem to hurt... Until he took a step forward, and nearly buckled under the weight of his gear. He props himself up on his halberd, breathing heavily.

"Ugg... Not out... yet... Donnell, wanna move a bit... buddy?"

If I'm allowed to presume some actions, if Donnell steps out of the way, Thod will take a 5 foot step forward and full attack the zombie.

Attack: 1d20 + 12 + 1 - 6 ⇒ (17) + 12 + 1 - 6 = 24 Damage: 1d10 + 7 - 6 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 6 = 8
Attack: 1d20 + 7 + 1 - 6 ⇒ (9) + 7 + 1 - 6 = 11 Damage: 1d10 + 7 - 6 ⇒ (3) + 7 - 6 = 4

Obliging Thod, Donnell moves into the room, calling over his shoulder: "Sevenspawn! Thod will need you to restore him."

Grabbing a vial from his bandolier, Donnell hesitates, grimaces, then tips what appears to be clear tapioca balls into his mouth. Then, heaving, Donnell belches. Hands on his stomach, he bends slightly and starts to belch again. Halfway through, his stomach begins to empty itself. Hundreds of tiny spiders rain down on the floor and, as one, move toward the elf.

Wiping spittle and wriggling arachnids from his lips, Donnell groans: "Oh gods, that was awful."

Vomit Swarm

I don't know if this is like Summon Monster, where the swarm can attack immediately upon summoning. Am I correct in reading that swarms auto-hit? If so,
Swarm damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Poison: Fort DC 11 (1/round for 2 rounds) Effect: 1d2 ⇒ 1 STR damage
Distraction: Fort DC 11 or become nauseated

Swarm auto-hits, starts adjacent to you and has move of 20 ft., IIRC. It'll attack anything in its square.

Obliging Thod, Donnell moves into the room, calling over his shoulder: "Sevenspawn! Thod will need you to restore him."

"Apologies," he says to Raven Six as he turns. The street cleric races up the east hall, stopping behind Thod and checking the situation.

Heal (Diagnosis): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

"Enfeeblement!" Sevenspawn shouts aloud behind him as the dwarf attacks the zombie. "I need a few moments to dispel it!"

Despite the long seconds it will take, the priest begins casting Lesser Restoration.

Oh wow, I didn't realize it had such a long casting time. We'll have to look into getting those in potion form!

Raven Six follows after Sevenspawn and stops behind Thod.
"If all involved would clear the area, I should very much like to throw another explosive at the shambler ahead," she says.

His armour rattling noisily as Thod tries to stay upright, he moves in and swings at a Zombie, still managing a huge cut. Weakened Thod is still pretty damn strong.

Donnell then... well, barfs a bunch of spiders on his opponents and everyone is really uncomfortable with that. The elven woman lets out a ghastly scream and seems unable to do much but keep screaming as spiders crawl into her everything.

Raven Six has an action. Sevenspawn you realize from your heal check that Thod's strength damage should wear off in around twenty seconds or so (a few rounds).

Sevenspawn ceases the spell, letting the power drift out of him and back to his mistress.

"Step back, Thod," he calls from behind, giving Raven Six room. "You will be better in a moment - let Raven Six come through and mop up."

"Ahh, I... *wheeze*... got this one! Just a few more... *gasp* No stupid little ray.... is gonna slow me.... *pant* down."

Thod ignores the tactical advice and continues swinging his halberd clumsily. His strength sapped, he throws more of his body mass into each swing, almost spinning around out of control.

Attack 1: 1d20 + 12 + 1 - 6 ⇒ (18) + 12 + 1 - 6 = 25 Damage: 1d10 + 7 - 6 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 6 = 8
Attack 2: 1d20 + 7 + 1 - 6 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 1 - 6 = 8 Damage: 1d10 + 7 - 6 ⇒ (10) + 7 - 6 = 11

Can Raven Six see into the next room from where she is?

From the map, I'd say Raven Six would be able to see into the room if she moves up behind Thod, but the elf would still have partial concealment. The angle doesn't look right from her current position.

What Donnell said. holding onto Thod's action until next round since he's already acted.

Raven Six steps up behind Thod and -- tosses a bomb over Donnell!
"Yield or die," she says.

Good enough for me. Ranged touch 1d30 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15 for 3d6 + 4 ⇒ (3, 1, 6) + 4 = 14 damage.

Back in business!

Jolistina screams at the top of her lungs as she is covered in spiders - only to have the spiders blasted off as a bomb hits her!

KABLAM!

She stands there, covered in soot and blinking stupidly before she fumbles at her side, grabs a potion and downs it - vanishing. Thod then swings out at a zombie, wounding it but not splattering it as he would normally do. Donnell ducks as a zombie fist slams into a door frame.

The bad lady vanished after drinking ap otion. Everyone but Thod is up since thod front-loaded his action! He can take a move if he wants though.

Hearing Raven Six's shout, Donnell cries out: "No - don'!! ... ah, bugger."

Narrowing his eyes at Jolistina as she drinks her potion, Donnell updates the group: "She's gone invisible, gang."

Attempting to track the elf's movements,
Perception: 1d20 + 12 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + 12 + 2 + (4) = 24

Donnell quaffs an extract True Strike,

and readies his crossbow.

Sevenspawn attacks the zombie coming from the south.

Warhammer: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

BACK!

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When last we left our heroes...
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A vanishing virtuoso has lead you to the house of the hedonistic patrons of the arts, the Carowyns. Nobody had heard from the house for days. Upon entering the house, you discovered not only had the entire party been slaughtered, several had been raised as zombies! Worse yet, the zombies had all been 'trained' to mimic the behaviour of party-goers in some sort of bizarre game. A giggling, deranged elven woman seems to be at the centre of all of this.

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Round Five
====================

Donnell downs his potion of true strike, and gets an approximate idea of where the elven woman is standing. Sevenspawn whips around, slamming his warhammer into the zombie to the south with a satisfying thwack.

Raven Six is up!

"Thod," Raven Six says as she draws a vial from her belt, "at earliest opportunity, kindly imbibe this."

As soon as Thod is free to receive, the Alchemist hands him a vial containing an extract of Lesser restoration.
Next, she addresses the invisible Elf: "Yield. Your disgusting puppets have been annihilated. The exit from this chamber is blocked and you are outnumbered. Launch one attack, and you give away your position. And there is worse."

Raven Six holds up a bomb vial and jabs her thumb down, stabbing the tip of the zinc activator rod into the bilious chemical content -- which starts to seethe and bubble.

"This does not care how invisible you are. I can set the whole room on fire with explosions. You can surrender, or you can die scrabbling around like a cockroach, waiting for the foot to come down, while I apply the process of simple elimination to find you. Choose."

This extract should make all Thod's Strength-problems go away in one quick gulp!

There is a long, pregnant pause.

"Oh all right!" you hear a voice call. "Sweeties! Petses! Stand down. Mommy needs to talk with this band of maniacs."

The zombie engage with Sevenspawn stares at him and steps back. It raises its hands as if embracing an imaginary waltz partner and starts dancing.

END OF COMBAT

"End your invisibility," Raven Six says without lowering the bomb vial. "Kneel on the floor. Place your hands behind your head. Order the zombie to turn its face to the wall and hold position, facing away from us."

The Alchemist's orders come in rapid succession, her tone clipped and precise.

"No way! I'm invisible and frankly, it's more fun than not being invisible. But fine. Oh precious-pot! Stop the little dance and go stare at that wall."

The zombie moans and stalks over to stare at a wall.

Keeping his crossbow levelled at her location or where he thinks she is - should I keep rolling Perception checks?

"Invisibility spells don't last forever...
Tell us - what has happened here? Did all these people die of the plague before you decided to have your fun? And what of the ocarinist, Mirukova?"

Sevenspawn remains where he is, watching the zombie cut a rug.

Thod breaths, struggling to stay upright.

He takes the vial Raven gave him. Not knowing what exactly it's for, he chugs it down in confusion. He breathes deeply, as the strength suppression is lifted from him.

With that done, he stands back, weapon at the ready.

Ready an action to charge and hack at the nearest zombie if negotiations break down. Currently at -2 due to fatigue from being out of rage.

These are not negotiations. These are terms.

She's speaking - you're pointing a crossbow at her. You have her roughly spotted.

A dramatic sigh sounds in the air. "Ugh. Okay fine. So. Well. Like. There's this dreamy necromancer named Rolth. I mean, he wanted to turn me into a half-zombie or something! It was the best. He's the smartest, best guy I know and just makes every-- hey do you guys have any pesh?"

She doesn't wait for an answer. "Anyways, Rolth gave me a job. Me! I'm so proud. The job was to kill every single person here and then use a little sculpty-wand to make it look like the blood-plague did it. So I picked off the party-goers one by one until I had enough to make some zombies, and then finished it off that way. Decided to spend a few days here, wait out the plague, eat the nice food. But got bored, so decided to have a little party for my zombie pals! A girl gets lonely, you know?"

As the lunatic speaks, Raven Six's expression grows steadily more masklike, emotion draining out of it like water out of a broken jar. Her pupils widen and contract, widen and contract... and the hand holding the bomb goes white-knuckled from her effort not to throw it at that hateful voice or crush it.

Down the hall, the cleric closes his eyes and grits his teeth as the woman reveals her ghastly story. He has murdered once today, Sevenspawn has, and like Raven Six, he barely resists the urge to do so again.

The tip of Donnell's crossbow dips an inch as he whisper: "oh sweetie..."

Refocusing as the small wave of pity passes, Donnell clears his throat: "Sorry, love, fresh out of pesh. But... hey! Rolth sounds like a stand-up guy! Maybe you could introduce us? That plan ... *whew* ... make the dead Carowyn's look like plague victims?! That sounds like a complicated plan - why did he want to do that?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 11 + 1d6 ⇒ (12) + 11 + (5) = 28

I'm pretty sure we've already killed Rolth, but Donnell wants to make nice and hopefully find out what was going on here

It's been like a year and a half or something in real time but a few weeks in game. Rolth is the name of the necromancer who was body-snatching in the Pharasman catacombs. You cleaned out the place, but you only killed his derro minions and apprentice Vreeg. Rolth is still at large as an unresolved Bad Guy.

Btw, I may have given you bad information. Ruan is NOT anywhere among the corpses. The Varisian you're looking for is not here.

She smiles at Donnell is nice to her. Despite probably being well over 150 years old as an elf, she's behaving like she's a teenager and not a particularly sane one.

"Oh one of my darling Rolth's brilliant ideas - if blood plague kills them who is gonna suspect little old me? Dunno where he is though. He has this new employer who keeps him in some laboratory or something. He showed up yesterday to take that musician away, with a couple of those bird-masked doctors. Wanted me to stay right here, and I will do whatever his silken tongue tells me. Oh Rolth!" She swoons.

does she literally swoon, as in faint? If so, she's going to wake up with Donnell cradling her head and waving smelling salts under her nose...

"There, there, child. I don't suppose you know anything about this employer, or where they were taking the musician and why. For that matter, why did he want these people dead?"

Nawh, metaphorical swoon. She probably actually just said 'swoon'.

"Nope! Doesn't pay to ask questions, does it? I just know this new employer is a super good one because Rolth was really excited. Just those weird masks those guys had who grabbed the Varisian, but that's all I really know."

"Of course, of course - that's perfectly reasonable. But, what else can you tell me about Rolth - how did you meet him? Do you think he'd like to hire us too?"

At this point, Donnell's just trying to keep her talking until her invisibility wears off. When it does, or if she just stops talking, then he'll insist she comes with us. She can be tied up willingly, or be poisoned first (which might mean continuing combat). When she's secured or unconscious (preferably both), Donnell will turn to the group:
"Well, it sounds like Rolth is working for the Queen. Possibly indirectly, but I suspect she is wrapped up in this somehow. With the fall of Carowyn house and the attempted discrediting of Arkona (in which we were used as pawns), I begin to wonder if there's a move being made against all of the more powerful noble houses. Who is next, I wonder?"

Who are some of the other major houses? Do we know if Arkona and Carowyn had anything in common, and does any other house meet those criteria?
Knowledge (Nobility): 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 ⇒ (13) + 7 + (4) = 24

"And the elf? Any objections to turning her over to the Field Marshall? I'm sure she feels caught in the middle of all of this, but I don't know anyone else we can trust."

Thod keeps his halberd at the ready, but looks back and fourth between Donnell and... wherever the sound of the crazy necromancer is coming from.

Some may suspect Thod's brow furrows at anger at the atrocities committed here today. Others may instead figure this is Thod trying to follow the line of conversation.

Still readying an action to attack zombies if a fight breaks out.

"No objection," Sevenspawn calls over his shoulder as he keeps eyes on his zombie. "Let me know when you have her secured."

He readies his holy symbol, gearing up to blast the remaining zombies soon after the elf is tied up.

"Thod," Raven Six says, "drink the extract. Heal."

Extract of lesser restoration; drink up! ^_^

"Huh? Drink what?"

I already drank the extract once combat died down. Wouldn't normally have bothered, as by this point the spell effect would have worn off, but Thod was just told to 'drink this' so he did.

Donnell tries to think about the Carowyns - they largely have a reputation as partiers and patrons of the arts rather than political heavyweights. However, he is aware that they were never supporters of the King's marriage to the much younger Queen and vocally so. No major ties to Arkona of note, though.

"Oh I was laughing too loud and he threatened to turn me into a zombie! Just at a bar. It was true love ever since - or well, when I could talk to him, ya know?"

Is there anything else you want to do with the hosue or any further examinations?

Is there anything else you want to do with the hosue or any further examinations?

Sevenspawn suggests that once she's secured the party check the remaining levels - I don't think there's another floor, but maybe there's a basement, and I see something blacked out on the exterior.

Yeah, absolutely! Once we've secured the elf (conscious or otherwise), Donnell will want to examine (loot) the rest of the house, and then check out the garden and... is it a shed or a greenhouse in the back?

Perception: 1d20 + 12 + 1d6 ⇒ (8) + 12 + (2) = 22

"Did you deposit any other undead surprises elsewhere in this abode?" Raven Six asks in a cool tone of voice.

Jolistinia slowly fades into view, where she's nabbed without complaint. She knows when she's lost. You bind her. "Nope! You got rid of all of 'em except for Stewart over there. OI! STEWART! DANCE FOR MOMMY!"

The zombie starts awkwardly shuffling as you inspect the remainder of the house. Aside from the usual stuff you'd find around the nobles' house, you do find a cellar. However, as you go for the cellar door it is solidly locked, apparently from the inside.

Jolistinia smiles. "That was locked so I got bored and killed everyone up here."

Perception 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16.
Disable device 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18.

Raven Six gives Jolistina a chilly look, but refrains from commenting. Instead, she tries to open the lock.

Donnell places a hand on Raven Six's shoulder - not to stop her from picking the lock, just to caution her to do it quietly, whispering: "I think there's someone in there." He will also hand her his MW thieves' tools +2 to your disable device roll.

More loudly, he calls out: "The necromancer is incapacitated. We are friends of the Watch, of Field Marshall Croft, and of Ruan. We will not harm you. Please, do come out and tell us what's happened here."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 11 + 1d6 ⇒ (13) + 11 + (6) = 30