Clebsch's Reign of Winter

Game Master Clebsch RoW

All windows that can be seen on the south side of the building have been boarded over.

Ingrit tries to get Wapito to charge the door, but the majestiv elk's prior experiences with things like buildings make him simply dig in his heels, clearly communicating a reluctance to the ranger.

Handle Animal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 I guess that's a hell no.

"Anything I can see from here looks boarded up, but I'll make a quick circuit around the building to see if there's an unblocked window." she replies to Damiano. "Wapiti, stay and protect Erland!" she tells her companion as she goes in search of another entry point.

Rurik casts divine favor and moves up to help Domitian.

I will follow Ingrit

Nadya advances on the door, drawing her light pick as she moves, aims her handaxe at a spot she thinks is vulnerable, and swings. The handaxe bites into the plank far enough to weaken the door some more. It appears it will require just one more strike destroy the door enough to allow entry. Door is an AC 5, 1 hp monster now. This will open up a five foot wide hole, so Wapiti will have to squeeze through unless someone gets the other door open.

Dom finishes off this door.

Falcata: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14; Damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 Critical miss!

Or rather he tries to and stumbles. "Gods damn it!"

Given Dom's bonuses to hit and damage, that's the one and only way he could fail to break the door. Fate is a fickle thing.

Domitian's weapon hits a nail and gets turned in his hand, doing no damage to the door.

Nadya hacks away at the loose section, but she is not strong enough to inflict damage either. The door still stands.

Wapiti seems to pick up Domitian and Nadya are trying to do and stamps a hoof to get their attention, lowers his enormous rack of antlers and starts to run at the door, giving Nadya and Erland just enough warning that they get out of the way as his antlers crash into the double doors. The antlers are not ideally constructed to do damage to such a construct, but the sheer force of the blow breaks apart the last board holding the left side door together and an opening is created.

No sooner has the elk opened up the entrance than a weapon with a curved hook blade, like the one used by the Fishcamps' guards slices into the majestic animals chest. 10 damage to Wapiti.

Through the door, those near the opening can see into the house, which is lit by lamps. Two large humanoids stand ready to attack anyone entering or just outside the door, each wielding a similar sized ogre hook weapon. Just to the east of these lugs is a humanoid of medium size with a rapier in one hand and a bottle of brandy in the other. Perception checks and knowledge checks to be rolled and results posted separately.

Ingrit curses in skald as she hears Wapiti's bellow of pain. Dashing back to the front of the building with her bow at the ready she angrily seeks a target.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

"Ogres! Horrible, nasty, evil brutes. They respect nothing but strength greater than their own, and commit the worst of crimes to sate their vicious wants."

Damiano seeing that the windows are all boarded up will move so as to see an ogre and the cast Ray of Enfeeblement while the ogres are still not in combat
Touch Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 strength damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Dom calls into the room as the door breaks open. "You're outnumbered two to one. Surrender!"

Dom enters a defensive stance, and then charges into the room. He tries to loop around and engage the ogre and man from behind.

AC 25. I am triggering an AOO from literally everyone, I believe, though I'm not 100% sure about Ogre 2 due to his buddy possibly providing cover.

Ingrit can see one of the ogres and gets off a shot, but has to aim around Wapiti and the arrow sticks into the wood wall inside the room.

Damiano's ray attack goes between the two ogres and does nothing to either.

Erland and Rurik are up. Domitian's action will have to wait for a moment. Anadrien can act as well; please continue to spoiler posts until everyone is aware of everyone else.

Hm, I thought I had a prior post where I advanced to the door (before it was smashed open) to support Damianio, but it looks like it didn't post? Or at least I can't find it.

Since he already has shield and rose in hand, Rurik moves in after Damianio, swinging the spiked morning star side-to-side to try to smash one of the ogres.

Assuming the ogres don't have Combat Reflexes, and they use their AoOs on Damiano, that should give me a chance to get into melee range without sucking up an attack.

Everbloom's rose attack, bless, divine favor: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 1 + 1 = 11

... to no avail, of course.

+1 to that Save DC, BTW. Forgot about my level 4 Int increase and hadn't updated sheet correctly.

Domitian acted early and so he is not yet in the house. Anadrien has an action that is at the very bottom of initiative, so I've advised her to wait until the PC group completes its actions. Also note that ogres have a 10' reach so they'll get attacks of opportunity against the first person to move through. I moved Domitian back.

Erland: where is the center of the glitterdust 10 foot spread? It has to be a place he can see, so from his current position, that would be along a line that runs diagonally from Erland's SW corner NW through the door and somewhere in the square occupied by Ogre 1. Note that Rurik is not yet in the building. This will have to be taken care for before Rurik's turn is processed, since the effect the the glitterdust could affect the ability of the ogres to make AOOs and other factors not obvious at the moment. If Erland moves to a point more to the south and west, he can have more options on where the place the effect.

I moved Rurik back to roughly where he was. This is a situation where posting in melee order is better since what the person earlier in melee does may affect what later PCs can or might want to do.

I 5' stepped South, should give LoS to hit the intersection between the NE and NW corners of the ogres. I'll try to mark on the map from phone but no guarantees.

The battle for the guardhouse takes an auspicious turn, as Erland sends a mote of golden light into the space between the two ogres. Both ogres follow the light with their eyes and so are looking right at it when it explodes into a burst of glowing dust, blinding them.

Assuming Rurik will do as posted earlier:

Rurik advances into the room and swings at the big guys with his morningstar, but as he swings the weapon back, it bumps into the wall behind him, throwing off his aim and his weapon merely bounces off the ogre's tough hide.

Anadrien is up. No one post until she has acted and the GM has posted a response to the outcomes. Note, only the left side of the double door is broken. Note the broken board icon marking the opening.

Going to dispense with spoilers now.

Crouching beside the door, Andarien watches with growing elation as first the door is battered apart and then scintillating motes of golden wonder fill the air and obviously blind the ogres, who bellow and clutch at their faces. Finally, as if wonders never cease, an Irreseni man charges fearlessly into the hut, swinging his spiked morning star at the ogres.

Now. The time for caution is clearly over. Time for boldness.

As Ingrit's arrow whistles into the room, she calls out to the archer, voice charged with emotion and encouragement: "Excelsior!"

Using Gallant Inspiration to add 2d4 to Ingrit's missed attack as an immediate action.

Gallant Inspiration: 2d4 ⇒ (3, 1) = 4

With that done, she scoots back into the far corner of the room, taking what blows may come, and once there, digs out a pad of butter from a pouch by her side, and staring at the ground beneath the ogre and Marcian, whispers her incantation as quickly as she can, causing a carpet of glistening grease to spread rapidly underfoot.

Moving into bottom left corner, then casting Grease under half of Ogre 1 and Marcian.

Ret-Con: As Ingrit's arrow is whizzing past the ogre, a feminine voice starts to call out but is cut off and a cry of pain punctuates the attempt at communication. "Excel... Ah!"

Need a reply from Anadrien before giving the green light to a new round.

So I have to go back and review and possibly ret-con the ret-con, but that'll have to wait a bit as I have some chores to do. One of the problems with the way Paizo spreads out its rules, if you don't look in all relevant places, you miss something. It would be nice if they'd at least provide an SRD that indulged in some redundancy to make it easier to research rules issues.

This page of SRD has AoO chart. Worth bookmarking

This page of SRD has AoO chart. Worth bookmarking

Thanks. Even that chart, the reference is under "casting a quickened spell" which then has the text about any spell cast as a free or immediate action not provoking. They also have a listing for casting feather fall where they could put "casting any spell as an immediate action." Frustrating.

Ret-Con: I was going to post the ret-con, but it's complicated and I'm out of time, so I'll get a post up concluding round 2 this afternoon. Sorry for the delays.

This page of SRD has AoO chart. Worth bookmarking

Thanks. Even that chart, the reference is under "casting a quickened spell" which then has to be accessed to read the text about any spell cast as a free or immediate action not provoking. They also have a listing for casting feather fall where they could put "casting any spell as an immediate action." Frustrating.

Ret-Con: To speed things up, I'm going to dispense with the normal narration and just list the actions and outcomes of Round 2.

Round 2: At the start of round 2, the door has not yet been broken.
Domitian fails to damage door.
Ingrit and Damiano delay to allow others to break open door.
Nadya hits door but does not damage.
Wapiti charges the door and manages to do a little more damage and opens one side of the pair of double doors.
Ingrit moves back and fires an arrow, which prompts Anadrien to cast a spell as an immediate action to help and the arrow hits Ogre 2 for 8 damage.
Damiano moves and casts a ray but misses his touch attack.
Erland casts glitterdust, which blinds both ogres.
Rurik moves and attacks Ogre 2, but misses.
At this point, Andadrien is in an altercation with the occupants of the room and has managed to turn herself invisible, but the man in the place splashed alcohol on her which has rendered her semi-visible (effectively having concealment, 20% miss chance). So no one can get a clear idea of who she is or what is happening with her. In fact, Rurik is the only one who has even caught a glimpse of her, although everyone heard her exclamation when she cast her spell.
Anadrien moves, provoking an attack of opportunity from the man taking 3 damage. Then she cast grease and the man falls while ogre 1 keeps his feet.
Ogre 1 swings his ogre hook into the area he struck Wapiti before, but he hits nothing and remains blinded.
The man stands and moves at Anadrien but has not yet attacked her.

Round 3
Domitian
Nadya
Zeph
Wapiti (mage armor, 10 lethal)
Ingrit
Ogre 2 (blind, 8 lethal)
Damiano
Fisk
Rurik (divine favor)
Anadrien (3 lethal)
Ogre 1 (blind)
Marcian

To keep things simple, Domition post first and then Ingrit/Wapiti. I'll post Nadya after Domitian but Ingrit needn't wait for that unless she wants to see what Nadya might do. After all that I'll post for Ogre 2 and the PCs can continue in initiative order.

I believe I go after Zeph?

With the enemy ogres blinded, Domitian enters and focuses his attacks on the ogre Ingrit already wounded, leaving space for Wapiti to also enter the fray!
Move and attack.

Falcata, Bless: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 13 + 1 = 17 vs blinded ogre (flat-footed and -2AC); Damage: 1d8 + 6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 5 = 12

"Payback is coming for you today, ogre!"
If he hits, swift action intimidate.
Intimidate: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12 vs 10+HD+Wis mod or shaken.

"Wapiti attack!" Ingrit calls out, the mighty elk surging forward squeezing through the space and bringing his antlers to bear on ogre that struck him.

Wapiti (squeezing) vs Ogre 1: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 7 - 4 = 22
1d8 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Taking a couple of steps, Ingrit fires again at her prior target. Ogre 2
+1 Composite Longbow/FE (giant)/PBS: 1d20 + 13 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 13 + 2 = 35
1d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 2 = 7

+1 Composite Longbow/FE (giant)/PBS: 1d20 + 13 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 13 + 2 = 22
2d8 + 6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 3) + 6 + 4 = 14

I believe I go after Zeph?

Sorry. Erland is just before Fisk and just after Damiano.

Domitian inflicts a serious wound on the ogre, but his attempt at intimidation falls flat when the ogre, whose command of common is none to great, thinks Payback is a person who will arrive later to take him someplace. 12 to Ogre 2.

Ingrit's animal companion gets its head into the door opening and gores the ogre to the east. 7 to Ogre 1. Ingrit sends in an arrow that nearly pierces the ogre's black heart, but the wounds have not yet mortally wounded him.21 to Ogre 1.

Nadya slips into the house and swings her handaxe at Marcian's back, but he notices her and deftly dodges her somewhat wild swing. "Where's my uncle, you bastard?"

Zeph trots in after her and tries to bite the man who just dodged Nadya's attack. He draws blood from the man's leg. 3 damage to Marcian.

The ogre wounded by Domitian swings his ogre hook at him and comes very close to catching him in the neck, but the hook is deflected off Domitian's armor.

Damiano moves up to the edge of the broken door, peers in, and casts a spell, pulling a bit of wool from his cloak, speaking an arcane word, and blowing air at the wool, sending a mote of magic light at the man in the guardhouse. The magic seems to fade as it gets close to him. The target has too many hit dice to be affected.

Up next are Erland, Rurik, Anadrien, in that order.

Erland raises his hands and wind seems to swirl and blow beneath him. With a guest that sends his clothing flapping, he takes to the air and flies quickly around the blinded ogres and into the room.

"You are outmatched, and we have no real desire to slay you all. Yield now, or face your death."

Use flight hex, gain Fly 60' (good). Move into building with Raven's Head drawn. Fiske remains where he is.

Rurik swings again at one of the blinded ogres, hoping to put some hurt on it so that maybe one of the real fighters can take it down quickly.

Everbloom's rose attack, bless, divine favor: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 7 + 1 + 1 = 23
Everbloom's rose damage, divine favor: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 2 + 1 = 10

Swinging on ogre #2. I didn't include any bonuses for the fact that it's blinded, as I believe that is actually calculated into its AC? Regardless, that swing probably hits unless it has some serious armor and magical defenses going on.

Erland flies into the room and Rurik drives his weapon into the thick hide of the ogre. 10 points.

The ogre is reeling. He is disabled, at 0 hit points.

Anadrien is up.

As the strangers pile into the shack and quickly make their lethality known, Anadrien rises from her corner, her translucence made obvious by the gloss of brandy across her torso, and backs away across the room, drawing her great bow as she goes. The thrill of danger and adventure suffuses her, and were she visible the gleam of elation in her eye would be evident to all.

Activating Archaeologist's Luck as a Swift Action.

"You erred greatly in betraying me, Marcian." Her voice rings out with disdain and barely controlled anger. "But then again, more fool me for expecting better from such filth."

When her back hits the rear wall, she raises her nocked arrow, sights at the man's lower back, and looses, ending her invisibility the moment she does so.

Point Blank/Precise Shot/Archaeologist's Luck Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
Confirm?: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28

Damage: 3d8 + 9 ⇒ (7, 2, 4) + 9 = 22

Rurik makes a double-take at the appearance of the elf, but quickly resumes his scrambling defense against the ogres. No time for gawking now.

I forgot to check if Ogre 2 recovers his sight at the end of his last turn. He does recover his sight, so Ogre 2 is no longer blind.

As the translucent figure retreats from the man with the rapier, he stabs her again, but only gets the point of his rapier into her side. 2 damage.

The half-seen person draws an arrow to her powerful bow and the elf comes into full view, speaking dark words with eloquence and grace. She punctuates her threat with an arrow that drives deep into the man's torso, just missing his heart. 22 damage.

The ogre in the middle of the room swings his ogre hook blindly and misses Wapiti. He continues to blunder about without seeing, afraid to move lest he slip on the grease below him.

The man glares at Anadrien but then starts to stab at Zeph. Nadya gasps and tries to block his rapier, but he expertly redirects it beneath her guard and drives it deep into the ranger's stomach. He then retreats a little to the corner, so no one can flank him.15 damage to Nadya.

The man in the corner shouts above the din of battle, "Whatever someone's paying you, I'll double it!"

Round 4
Domitian (bless)
Nadya (bless, 15 lethal)
Zeph (bless)
Wapiti (mage armor, bless, 10 lethal)
Ingrit (bless)
Ogre 2 (30 lethal, disabled)
Damiano (bless)
Erland (bless, flight)
Fisk (bless)
Rurik (bless, divine favor)
Anadrien (5 lethal)
Ogre 1 (blind, 28 lethal)
Marcian (25 lethal)

Next (and probably last) round. Bold are up, but if Ogre 2 takes any damage, he'll be down and everyone below him can also act. I will execute the actions in melee order, so don't post early unless you will be unable to post later.

"Fool! You are outmatched, and your monstrous guards will fall soon. Cease this fight, and drop your weapons, and you may yet live through this."

Dom prepares to finish off the ogre in front of him. Targeting Ogre 2.

Falcata, Bless: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 13 + 1 = 34; Damage: 1d8 + 6 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 5 = 17
Crit?: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 13 + 1 = 30; Damage: 2d8 + 12 ⇒ (3, 8) + 12 = 23

And demonstrates how serious he is by beheading the monster. He then moves behind the remaining ogre, while speaking to the man. "The only payment we seek is justice! Where's Ringeirr?"

Domitian cuts down the ogre to the west side of the room and springs past the still blinded one. He gets no immediate response from the man, as he is busy fending off attacks from Nayda and Zeph. 30 damage to Ogre 2, he's dead (duh).

Nadya's light pick adds another small bloom of red blood on the man's fancy clothes, while Zeph draws rather more blood by biting him on the leg. 4 total to the man.

Wapiti (mage armor, bless, 10 lethal)
Ingrit (bless)
Ogre 2 (60 lethal, dead)
Damiano (bless)
Erland (bless, flight)
Fisk (bless)
Rurik (bless, divine favor)
Anadrien (5 lethal)
Ogre 1 (blind, 28 lethal)
Marcian (29 lethal)

Round 5
Domitian (bless)
Nadya (bless, 15 lethal)
Zeph (bless)

FYI: The remaining Ogre is AC 15 and has 2 hp left.

"Boy am I glad that swordsman is on our side. It sure would be a bad day for someone if he were to kick in the door and show up with a whole team of people. I would probably surrender immediately, and answer any questions they'd have right away."

Erland looks at the enemy Marcian, leveling RavenBeak and scowling.

Needing Marcian alive as much as the others seem to do, Anadrien turns her aim to the towering ogre, eyes narrowing as she looses two arrows in quick succession at its broad back.

Rapid Shot/Point Blank/Precise Shot/Archaeologist's Luck Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Rapid Shot/Point Blank/Precise Shot/Archaeologist's Luck Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

When the ogre crashes to the ground, she rises to her feet, face cruel with her disdain.

"It's over, Marcian."

Head lowered, Wapiti drives his antlers into the ogre's chest, backing out of the door as the monster falls to the ground, responding to Ingrit's light touch on his flank.

Wapiti/ squeezing: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 7 - 4 = 21
1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

As her stalwart companion makes room, Ingrit stalks into the room cutting off any possible avenue of escape. "Drop your weapon or die." she says, watching the man for the slightest sign of treachery.

Sense motive (human): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

The man whom Anadrien identified as Marcian stands defiant, rapier at the ready, assessing is options.

Damiano and Rurik can still act this turn, so either post an action or indicate if you are delaying or readying an action. Then I'll indicate the man's response.

Delaying

Rurik looks at the imperious elf, then over at the rapier-wielding man, then he cocks his head and raises his eyebrows confidently as if to say "We all know how this would go."

"You maybe want to talk this one through?" he says.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19 (Though technically a Diplomacy check takes a full minute of talking so this really only matters if he decides not to fight)

By the time Anadrien's turn comes up, the ogre is already down, but if she wishes, she can fire her shots at Marcian or ready her shots in case he keeps fighting.

Marcian ignores the threats with a laugh, and starts to bolt for the door at the west side of the room.

Ingrit can take her ready action. If Anadrien uses her attacks made earlier on Marcian, one will hit for 4 points damage. The man has AC 19 + 4 for cover from other people in the way. If he's hit and takes more than 15, he'll go down. Otherwise, see the spoiler below.

As the bastard bolts for the door Ingrit drills him in the back with an arrow. "You made your choice."

+1 Composite Longbow/PBS/FE: 1d20 + 13 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 13 + 4 = 34
1d8 + 3 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 3 + 1 + 4 = 15

Ingrit's arrow forces the man to abandon his plan to run to relative safety and instead surrender.

He is disabled and at 0 hp. If he tries to do anything other than talk or move, he'll pass out.

Since I'm going to be unable to post very much, we can cut through some of the RP. Marcian will reveal that Nadya's uncle is tied up in the other room. You mainly need to decide what to do with Marcian. He has a locked chest under his bed with valuables from his connection to the slave trade and other bribes he receives from the locals for 'protection.' He has a key he'll give to you, which disables a trap that would otherwise send a poison dart if the chest is opened.

In the meantime, I recommend Anadrien and the other PCs introduce themselves, learn each other's stories, and work out the basis for her being added to the group. I'll keep an eye on that and post anything if it seems information is needed. I hope next weekend can begin the process of infiltrating the city walls. You should be able to move about the Fishcamps without fear of discovery, as everyone will be grateful for the elimination of Marcian and his henchmen, at least until someone from the city notices he is missing and sends a replacement. What guards remain will quietly get out to look for other jobs.

Ringeirr Malenkov is tied up, gagged, and somewhat battered and bruised in a small bedroom next to Marcian’s room. Nadya and Ringeirr are delighted to see each other. After a quick embrace, she introduces Ringeirr to the PCs, and he thanks them for the timely rescue and invites them to his hut to share their story.

This will lead to discussion of getting into the Howlings, which is a place where people with appropriate credentials can get in and avoid troubles with the main gate and getting searched and questioned.