Children of the Void (Inactive)

Game Master therealthom

Kuva:

Outside: Lothan emerges from the tent in time to see two of the tentacled cats bound off the top of Zincher's tent and dash straight toward Kuva's companion guards. There's no sign of the halfling. A third creature appears briefly on the roof of Zincher's tent, then falls inside.

Surprise round: Lothan and Kuva only may act. If you beat the creature's initiative, post your surprise round actions.

Creature Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Guards: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Intiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Dang.

Can't beat that initiative...
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
So I go before Lothan, but after the beasties.

Tyrrol is still asleep :-P

Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6, or 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3. I will take the 6...

Initiative, for if Mordecai wakes up. 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Initiative: Surprise round,Creatures, Kuva, Lothan, Clegg and guards only

Creatures: 24
Kuva 16

Clegg Initiaitve: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Akron Initiaitive : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Samaritha Initiative; 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Guards, 11

Lothan 9
Mordecai 9
Tyrrol 6

In CLegg's tent Kuva:

Out in the yard:

The guards have time to shout before the bubble of silence that surrounds the creatures cuts off their yells. Lothan watches the two creatures bound around the fire and leap for the two guards seated at the table in the center of the camp.

Bite 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5 ... damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (9) - 3 = 6 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 3
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (15) - 3 = 12 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 1

Bite 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20 ... damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (1) - 3 = -2 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 1
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (9) - 3 = 6 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 1
Crit confirm 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15 ... damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

One man goes down beneath rending fangs. The other manages to beat away the creature. His axe rises and falls, settling the the creatures flank.

ax 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21 ...damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Lothan and Kuva. Then I'll take us to the top of round 1 with the creatures. It's a move action just to get out of the tents, weapon in hand.

"Oh crap. FELLAS! WE GOT COMPANY!" Lothan yells just inside the tent as he draws back his bow an fires.

Mwk. Longbow, Comp (Str +1) w/DA: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Damage w/DA: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

Gah, got me flat-footed!
Dex damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Con damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Kuva gives a soundless yell, giving the creature a crack with his sling-staff. He waves at Clegg to go raise an alarm, but in the swirl of noiseless melee, the message is indistinct.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Confirm: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Crit Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
So 4 damage, maybe 7 if that crit hits...

Forgotten Fort Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18 Whoo! So ix-nay on that ability damage. Kuva's at 29/38 hp.

Gah, got me flat-footed!

Dex damage: 1d3
Con damage: 1d3

Kuva gives a soundless yell, giving the creature a crack with his sling-staff.

Attack: 1d20+7
Damage: 1d4+2
Confirm: 1d20+7
Crit Damage: 1d4+2

You do get a save against the ability damage Fort DC 12.

Lecian wakes and springs up at Lothan's screaming. "What is it?"

Initiative: [dice]1d20+4[/dic]

Can't edit the above post.

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Do we get a Perception check to awaken at Lothan's shout, or is it automatic, or does the silence effect extend over us?

Technically, it is DC 0 to hear combat / shouting, but if you are asleep, you take a -10 penalty to that, so it is effectively a DC 10 Perception check - of course, if someone kicks you, that wakes you up, too :-P

Perception to wake up, if applicable. 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

If Mordecai awakens, he grabs his morning star while rising to his feet.

The silence of the akatas is a pretty short range effect, so the party is outside it. All the combat is taking place inside it however so Lothan's shouting is what you've got. (And maybe a well placed kick or two.) I'll say he wakes you up.

Lothan's shot buries itself in one of the creatures neck as it turns from the dead guard to the last one.

Round 1:

The creature in the tent bleeds all over Clegg's rug.

The creature's near the campfire both savage the remaining guard.

Bite 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18 ... damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (1) - 3 = -2 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 1
Tendril 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (13) - 3 = 10 ... damage 1d3 ⇒ 1

Save 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

The man falls back a step, swinging wildly at the creatures.

ax 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21 ...damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Around the camp tent flaps open and men start to crawl out.

Kuva still has to make his Fort save from last round. Lecian is up next at init 11. Then the rest of the party.

Lecian grabs and loads his weapon, then runs out of the tent.

Round 1:

Tyrrol rolls out of bed, grabs his flail, and moves to the entrance of the tent...

Per my previous post getting up and out of the tent with weapon readied was a move action. You may take another move action or a standard action. And I forgot Kuva has an action coming to him on initiative 16 in Round 1.

Stepping out of the tent, Mordecai side-steps to get out of the way of anyone else exiting the tent and targets the first tentacle-hound he sees within ten paces with his morningstar, and allows it to shudder into unholy life, born by spirits of death to the attack.

Hand of the Acolyte powered morningstar attack on the nearest beastie. 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
B/P damage 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

The same unseen spectral forces carry the weapon back to him a moment later, freshly anointed with the blood of his target.

Or not. If he missed. It's dark and confusing. He'll make it sound more effective later with some creative editing...

Lecian finds the akatas attacking the lone guard , aims at one of them, and lets the bolt fly.

Attack: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 5 - 4 = 20
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 2
Crit: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (8) + 5 - 4 = 9
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

In that case, Tyrrol will move in the direction of one of the Akatas...

Lecian's out of the tent first. His bolt grazes the creatures shoulder.

Mordecai's mace flies out to the limit of its range and finishes the job.

A wizard using a crossbow. I like that, brings me back to the old days when players knew the wizard didn't have to use magic all the time.

Men continue to pile out of the tents. Akron Erix strides toward the tentacle-mane's corpses and crushes their skulls with his massive hammer to make sure they're dead. He looks pityingly at the dead man, and at the injured one.

In Clegg's tent Zincher motions for Kuva to follow him outside. A few steps take you clear of the silence of these odd creatures.

As Kuva follows Zincher and his hearing is restored, he looks about the clearing, looking for an available target. "You need better guards," he says conversationally to Zincher. "If they noticed more, perhaps your rug would not have been ruined by the blood of the fallen upon it." He fires a quick shot at the nearest akata.

Attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Mordecai turns, looking for his next target, and steps as necessary to bring himself within ten paces of it as he sends his morningstar on spectral wings to seek out another tentacle-maned skull to crush.

Hand of the Acolyte powered morningstar attack on the nearest beastie still standing. 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18
B/P damage 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Are there more akatas left?

Oops. Mordecai's mace "finishing the job" signaled the end of that encounter less robustly than I imagined. Akron was just making sure the dead Akatas couldn't even twitch.

Near Clegg's tent:

Clegg looks down at Kuva and smiles. "Your wit's as pointed as your blade and as quick. You're one of the Akron's new recruits?" Apparently Zincher assumes that he needs no introduction himself.

Middle of camp:

Akron looks around for Mordecai. "You, Mordecai. You said you had some power or skill in healing? Can you do anything for Mickle?"

'Mickle' is obviously the surviving mauled guard.

Akron assigns five men to patrol around the camp. Grumbling, they equip themselves with torches and begin their circuit.

Samaritha slips an arm around one of Lothan's. "Are you OK?"

Tyrrol shrugs, seeing that there are no more skulls to crush (or at least, none he really should crush at present), and returns to his tent to go back to sleep...

;-)

Mordecai allows his morningstar to hang loosely at his side as he moves to the fallen guard, first attempting to flush out any sign of infection, if the man was bitten, and then sealing the wound with magic.

Heal check to detect / fight off infection 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
cure light wounds 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Samaritha slips an arm around one of Lothan's. "Are you OK?"

Lothan smiles, "Yeah, I'm good." He places his hand on hers and pats it gently. "I'm just glad there was only a couple of them. That's a bit easier to deal with than what we had to deal with at the tower, that's for sure. They didn't have a chance to get to you ladies, did they? Are you alright?" He immediately looks to see if she has has been hurt.

Clegg looks down at Kuva and smiles. "Your wit's as pointed as your blade and as quick. You're one of the Akron's new recruits?" Apparently Zincher assumes that he needs no introduction himself.

Kuva nods at the much larger man. "Recruited earlier today," the halfling states. "Seeking the skymetal, same as yourselves - my allies decided that having your men as partners in the battledance would be wiser given the cat creatures' presence here."

The halfling doesn't offer his name either, presumably as he feels he needs no introduction either.

Tyrrol -- preeminently practical.

Samaritha murmurs that she's OK.

The wounded guard thanks Mordecai. He flexes his arms and rubs the fresh skin. nice healing, Set.

Clegg says to Kuva, "Smart of you to join us. There's not as much skymetal as we thought there'd be. Of course we could still find a big node. We're still searching. Looks like Akron made a good choice bringing you onboard. "

He looks up at the group gathered around the wounded in the middle of the camp. He shouts, "Akron, how are they?"

Erix replies one dead, one wounded and healed. Clegg's about to reply again when the terrible squawking comes from behind his tent. "My axebeaks!" Clegg spins to run behind the tent. His pick raised.

Mordecai inspects the fallen man, to see if he will rise again as one of the wormtongue zombies.

Take 10 on heal check for a 16, if possible, otherwise... 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Regardless of the results, he advises whomever has not run off to save fearless leader's dire chickens, "The body should be burned, so that it does not rise again. You may wish to salvage anything usable, first..."

If Mordecai happens to see anything obviously valuable and easy to palm on the dead man, such as a coin-purse or item of jewelry, he'll see if anyone is looking, and, if not, pocket that item.

Lecian half-follows Clegg, moving cautiously towards the tent.

Lothan sighs, "Excuse me, Samaritha, let me go see if there's anything I can do to help," he says reluctantly. Lothan pats her on the hand and immediately heads toward the axebeaks while drawing his bow.

Samaritha draws a wand and follows.

Behind Clegg's tent lies an array of empty wooden cages. Near the edges of a clearing in the middle of them stand three axebeaks. A fourth lies on the ground next to one of the tentacle manes. Clegg rushes forward and deals the bluish creature a heavy blow with his pick to make sure it's dead.

He bends down to examine the fallen axebeak. "Thistle. What happened to you? Come on. Come on."

Akron Erix rounds the tent just behind the party. "Stay back!" he warns the others. "Those axebeaks will rip you up if they don't know you."

Clegg drops to both knees beside the dead axebeak. He lifts its head, a wing, and lets them drop. His head bows down.

Then he straightens up. "Put Thistle in a cage."

He whistles to the axebeaks and they move toward him as he leads them to one edge of the clearing. Now you can see the heavy ropes tied to their left leg and to lare spikes driven into the ground.

***
Mordecai, Mickle's ,the live guard's, friends crowd around him. A smaller group gather around you and the dead man. Their eyes ask the inevitable question.

Mordecai looks up at the crowd that's gathered, and shelves any attempt to loot the man while no one's looking. Mustering up his funerary skills, he puts on an expression of sympathy before rising.

"He's dead, I'm afraid, and his spirit is too far gone for me to retrieve. I cannot tell if he's been infected and will rise again as a wormtongue. Do you have some sort of procedure for dealing with the fallen? Should his items be salvaged for distribution to his family, back in Riddleport?"

Wormtongue. The term seems to please the gathered men. "Clegg makes us chain 'em down in the hosp'tal tent. He wants to bring some of the wormtongues home for his arena. There's not so much sky metal and he needs to make a profit some way."

Mordecai has to stifle a smile at the cold mercenary logic. "That's monstrous, of course." he says, with not a shred of conviction.

A man in the crowd replies to Mordecai. "Aye, it is, but it's not the worst." Your interlocutor lowers his voice. "Clegg had another idea this morning. Mickle and Pyle will both be strapped down in the tent to see if they turn wormtongue. They'll go into the cages if they do.

"Clegg's always been a hard man. Got to be in Riddleport. But this trip he's gone a step beyond."

Action over. We can talk as long as your PCs like or they can follow Tyrrol to bed.

"Alright, I'm turnin' in. We all need to get whatever rest we can muster for the rest of this night, or morning, or whatever." He turns to Samaritha, "I'll be seein' you in a couple o' hours, or so." He smiles at her as he turns and heads to bed.

Lecian says nothing as he heads back to the tent.

Kuva observes the interaction between Clegg and the axebeaks with a detached interest, cleaning his blade as he watches. Afterwards, he walks past the crowd surrounding Mordecai and goes to bed, uninterested in the plight of the wounded.

Akron whistles Kuva down. "You've still got watch til dawn. Stim and Del will stand it with you."

****

Morning. Casters choose your spells. At breakfast Akron says that Clegg wants to see you. He'll probably wake up about noon. If you want, you can try sweeping the beach north of the crater for skymetal. "Stim can show you where they left off yesterday."

Tyrrol shrugs.

"I could tolerate a morning of exploration. Hopefully, something will attack us..."

Lothan claps his hands together, "Let's do it! Gives me something a little more interesting to do than to just be waitin' around here."

Lothan then moves to retrieve his gear. And as he finishes, "Alright! Let's roll!"

At the possibility of a dangerous exploration, Mordecai smiles,
"Excellent, after digging holes in the ground yesterday, I long to plant something in one."

"Finally, we can start doing what we came here to do."

"Be back by noon. Clegg doesn't mind keeping us waiting, but he hates to be kept waiting himself," Akron warns.

Stim meets you at the edge of camp. He's dressed in light clothes, but has so many weapons, daggers, small knives, a heavy flail, a crossbow, a broad-bladed tulwar, and a short spear slung on a thong over his shoulder, that he appears well-enough armored by the sheer volume of hardware he carries. He also has a variety of shovels and rakes.

"Everyone grab one of these and follow me." He spins and leads the way north. After a short slog along a game trail requiring much stooping under branches and stepping over fallen boughs, he stops for a quick rest and drink of water at the edge of the impact crater.

It's a huge hole blasted into the side of the hill. From the boat two days ago it looked big enough, but you had no idea how deep it was. Looking down the scarred rock face from the top your first impression seems impossibly deep, but a longer look shows the rubble littered bottom must be only thirty or forty feet below grade.

Mordecai admires the destructive force of the skymetal's impact, pondering what sort of devastation one could unleash with such power. A deadly force that digs a great grave for those it eradicates. Marvelous!

While Mordecai has no concept of such things, this is the part where Set begins to wonder if lesser restoration can treat radiation sickness...

Mordecai plucks a pebble from the ground and causes it to glow with unnatural light, before chucking it into the hole before them, "Perhaps the main body of the projectile burst apart under the force of impact, like an arrow shivered to pieces upon striking a shield." he muses aloud, as he seeks to see signs in the sides of the pit of where splintered fragments might have been thrown aside and lodged themselves.

light cantrip on a rock, tossed into the pit

Perception check for signs that might conceal skymetal fragments 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

You're near the top of the hill whose side was pulverized by the meteorite. That's why the impact crater seems especially deep from here. The crater is quite broad, nearly half a mile at its widest. The sun is a couple of hands high so the light is pretty good, but the crater is on the west side of the hill so much of it is still shadowed.

Dumb luck 3 1d100 ⇒ 78 ... 1d30 ⇒ 7

Stim shakes his head. "The hole was the first place we checked. Someone, maybe Slyeg's men, were down there first. There's no sky metal we could find, but there was signs of digging. We've done better searching the surrounding area looking for smaller bits that were thrown clear when it hit. But it's still been precious little." He spits. "Let's get moving again. We won't have long on the beach if you're supposed to see Clegg at noon."

He leads you along the top of the ridge forming the eastern rim of the crater. Pretty soon you're moving down a steep slope toward the water. "Keep a weather eye out. We haven't searched this strip yet. Clegg thought we ought to try the beach first, before any bits that fell there washed away or got buried in the sand. Clues are scorch marks on the plants or little holes in the ground."