The skeletal champion levels his eyes at Aldelenna. "Foolish one. Do you think that I arose to great might in life by heedlessly falling for the wicked words of the weak."
Current turn: Group 2.
The remaining skeleton before Cole continues its assault with an rusty short sword.
But the sword harmlessly strikes his armor.
The skeleton attacking Finlogan also strikes out, still madly leaping at Finlogan, its hands a flailing mass of sharpened claws, striking at Fin's exposed face.
Fin has to wonder if this one lost its sword because it was never that much of a warrior.
In the meantime, the skeletal champion has reached reached Cole, and it wields its sword in a relentless dance of death. Cole manages to bash some of the strikes away, but they are many.
While Cole's axework and defenses are good, his massive strike against the creature has put him off balance. It sweeps its sword low, cutting deep into Cole's leg just under the line of his armor, then as Cole stumbles forward it slashes long against his side.
Cole's face goes white. Blood falls upon the floor. With a brutal kick, the creatures pushes Cole back.
"This is what they send me for heroes? These children? Kassen's brood will fall."
---
Initiative
Group 1: Aldelenna, Cole
Group 2: Asar (currently grants advantage, faerie fire), skeletons
Group 3: Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Current group: Group 3
Waiting on: Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Finlogan turns on the useless skeleton and bashes it with his quarterstaff.
Rankev's face grows pale at the sight of so much blood. With a sharp burning glare in his eyes he points a steady finger at the skeleton assaulting Finlogan.
"Begone with all your foulness," he cries, "My friend is much needed elsewhere!"
The skeleton crumbles.
"My friends!" Rankev's voice shakes. "The way is open. We cannot let that pile of wretched bone..." There might be a catch to his voice. Just maybe. "Just get down there!"
---
It is still Round 2
Current turn: Group 3.
Waiting on Venssa
Venssa cries out "Cole!", as the skeletal warrior slashes the ranger with its sword. She rushes forward and quickly asks the god of nature to heal her friend. She then slams her magical staff into the undead horror before them.
Bonus ActionHealing Word:
Attack:
Adv. Attack:
Damage:
Cole, bleeding from multiple wounds, swings his axe at the marked prey.
Venssa's staff hits the creature and it turns and glares at her, even as Cole, his wounds still bleeding, takes another chunk out of bone.
---
Group 1: Aldelenna, Cole
Group 2: Asar (currently grants advantage, faerie fire), skeletons
Group 3: Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Current group: Group 1
Waiting on: Aldelenna
Aldelenna races to support Cole and Venssa as they take on this dungeon usurper. She casts cure wounds and touches Cole to make sure he can keep fighting until the bastard dies, again.
It is ROUND 3.
Current group: Group 2
The remaining skeleton continues its attack on Cole.
The battered Cole is unable to get his defenses up in time.
The skeletal champion turns on Venssa. "You witch! You are not worth even adding to my army!"
Asar's longsword cuts viciously into the tiny gnome, tearing through her.
---
Initiative
Group 1: Aldelenna, Cole
Group 2: Asar (currently grants advantage, faerie fire), skeletons
Group 3: Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Current group: Group 3
Waiting on: Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Rankev drinks down the contents of a glass bottle as he rushes down the steps of the stair case, then his face takes on a sort of mad rage, and you realize you've never noticed that his skin is covered in the finest of scales, and just now the hint of red is quite pronounced.
He exhales in a rush and fire streams forth in a great conflagration at the skeletal champion, who is enveloped in it, and screams.
Rankev chokes. "By Propoket, that stuff is vile." He chokes again. "Now, stay away from my friends, lest I test my breath upon you again!"
Current group: Group 3
Waiting on Venssa, Finlogan
Just a quick question that I cannot seem to find anywhere. When you shape-change, can you also attack that round as the animal you just changed into? I guess it would make the shapechanging a bonus action...but I cannot find anything about it.
The answer to this is that it depends. At its default, wild shape takes an action (your full normal action).
BUT at second level you select your druid circle. You can select EITHER Circle of the Land, where you pick a particular terrain with which you have affinity: this provides certain spells you always have access to without counting against your prepared spells, the ability to recover some spell slots during a short rest, and a bonus cantrip. OR Circle of the Moon, which focuses largely on shape changing and grants you more speedy access to wild shape features. Most notably, for Circle of the Moon Wild shape is a bonus action.
So it really depends. You don't note anywhere which circle you chose. There are also several additional circles in Xanathars guide, and I haven't reviewed those, but I don't believe they impact wild shape in this way.
I hope that helps!
Some more info, since I think I figured out what circle you chose
Looking at your sheet again, I think you must have chosen Circle of the Land... my guess is you chose Forest (and I didn't catch that because you're a Forest Gnome, which is your character racial type), is that right? I'm basing that on the third cantrip, which normally you wouldn't have access to yet.
So, it looks like for you, Wild Shape would be your normal full action.
You are correct...now I am thinking I should have gone the Moon route, but that is fine. Thanks for finding that for me.
Circle of the Moon is crazy powerful at level 2 and level 20. But it becomes very samey samey the rest of the time. Based on your character background, circle of land forest probably makes more sense, and will do better for you in the later adventures. It's just that right now you're at 2nd level when basically nothing is as powerful as a circle of the moon druid.
This is a PbP game. The goal isn't really the most powerful character. Obviously your character is vulnerable, but you have options. You might want to consider, you can Wild Shape into something insignificant and hope it confuses him, you can entangle - though he seems to hit hard, so a strength save may not be your best bet. You could also just Dodge, which would force his attacks against you to have disadvantage, making you harder to hit, or disengage allowing you to retreat and possibly use a potion or a cure spell on yourself next turn.
Finlogan strides into the tomb and down the stairs to get into the skull of the skeleton champion. "You'll have to go through me!"
He swings his quarterstaff to bash the skeleton hoping the champion is equally vulnerable to bashing. Then, he follows up with another quick attack
Finlogan seems like a man possessed as his quarterstaff pummels the skeletal champion. Over and over he strikes the creature until with a final massive strike he knocks the champion's head clean off its body.
The strange bluish light in the creature's eyes fades slowly as its body crumples in place to the ground.
Current group: Group 3.
Waiting on Venssa
Cole moves his mark to the nearest remaining enemy and lays into it, as his bood sprays on both enemy and companion alike.
Grunting in pain from the undead's attack, the small gnome removes her sling and, saying a swift prayer, enchants a number of stones.
It is currently round 4.
Waiting on Aldelenna.
There is one skeleton (skeleton marked red) remaining. It appears to have some ribs broken away from the force of Cole's attack, but he is horribly injured. Aldelenna is just certain the skeleton is about to attack!
"Ha! Pathetic bag of rotten bones! Your undead master is gone back to the abyss, you'll soon join him. Give up, and return to the peace of the grave."
The soulless eyes of the skeleton turn toward Aldelenna, but it cannot meet her gaze.
Stumbling backward, the skeleton reels from the psychic assault, yet another pain it had not yet let go of in undeath...
Current turn: Group 2.
The skeleton makes a final strike with its short sword at Cole. With his master dead, he has no purpose, but also no will with which to resist the might of his master's final commands. Perhaps he seeks with his last bit of unlife to spread his misery.
Just when you're sure the strike is true, Cole bats it aside with his axe. Perhaps Cole is just too tough an opponent, or perhaps the words of the bard stung the undead creature too much. Regardless, Cole lives, despite the pooling blood beneath him.
The skeleton stumbles backward.
---
Current group: Group 3.
Waiting on Venssa, Rankev, Finlogan
Finlogan steps over the skeleton champion and around his ranger companion to fight shoulder to shoulder with Cole again. He swings his quarterstaff to bash the skeleton.
Swinging her sling, Venssa takes one of her magic stones and fires it at the skeleton.
Attack:
Damage:
Fin slams his quarterstaff into the sternum of the skeleton, and the entire ribcage shatters. The skeleton falls to the ground, and lays still.
As the final skeleton falls, there's a sudden silence, broken only by the dripping of blood from Cole's wounds to the floor, and the restless breathing of the unconscious woman by the sarcophagus—it can only by Roldare's missing sister Dimira.
Venssa rushes to Cole and, with a quick prayer to the gods of nature, heals the rangers wounds.
Cure Wound:
With Venssa helping Cole, Finlogan slings his quarterstaff and goes to check on the sister Dimira. "You're alright now. We're here to rescue you. You're brother is worried." He says to her, like in all good heroic stories.
Adrenaline still surges through his body, so he cannot concentrate on anything complex other than fight or flight.
Cole watches as the spell knits his wounds closed so that the bleeding stops, but the pain still persists.
Thank you, Venssa.
Preoccupied by the battle, surging adrenaline making him ready for anything, and suspicious, for a tomb should not smell so of rotting flesh, Finlogan still manages to offer comfort to Dimira—comfort she cannot respond to. Fin is experienced enough in the rangers to have seen this. The girl is stable, but unconscious.
"Hey Venssa, can you check out Dimira here. She's unconscious, but I don't know much beyond that."
Medical: and Goodberry
"Here you go you poor dear. Easy now we are here to help take you back to your father. All will be ok now..."
Venssa will continue to speak softly and calmly, much as she would to calm a wild animal, hoping it will work for the young lady as well.
The stench of rotting meat is overwhelming. Do you all smell that? Almost like something has been left to rot in here for only a month, or so.
Cole moves closer to the woman to investigate her to see if she is the source of the stench.
"Hmmm, now that you mention it, something definitely smells rotten in here. Fin, can you find it?" Aldelenna says, and then begins sniffing the air, seeing if she can locate the source of the rot.
Nature:
The room opens on each side to a crypt. Though the crypt on the eastern side remains dark and seems undisturbed, the stench of putrid flesh infects the crypt on the western side. On the western side, the central sarcophagus, like that of Kassen in the main chamber, has been disturbed, the lid lying broke on the ground. Next to it is corpse in gray robes and an iron mask. The smell is strongest here. This body was never part of the tomb, and is not any villager you know. His flesh has succumbed to rot, and fills the chamber with a horrid stench.
Meanwhile, by Kassen's tomb...
Cole, while you can't identify the stench that Aldelenna is searching out, you can be sure it is not Dimira. She is clearly, by luck or the blessing of the gods, alive.
Dimira swallows the goodberry Venssa offers her reflexively, as though her body is somehow aware that it will help her. She starts to cough, and sits up upon her elbows. Her eyelids flutter.
"Desna preserve me," she mumbles. "Let it be a dream."
Listening to Aldenlenna, Finlogan first retrieves his sword and then wanders toward the putrid scent with the blade ready for the masked body to attack.
Ugh. It's a gross dead body. And it's wearing an iron mask. How weird is that? There's some bruising around the dead man's neck and it looks like he fell on top of some parchment. Maybe he was holding something?
His robes are deeply pocketed, and the cloth falls in a way that make you think maybe there's something there... if you're willing to search the grossness of a vile putrid corpse.
Religion:
History:
Avoid touching the corpse by rolling the body away from the parchment and anything that it might be holding using sword, foot and shield. Without touching the diseased looking body, examine the iron mask. Is it locked on like a punishment or worn by choice?
Cole stands adjacent to those investigating the putrid corpse, axe at the ready.
Watching Fin carefully roll the body over, Aldelenna thinks about her own lessons in Golarion's history and religions.
While thinking, she goes over to Dimira and, if she is accepting, attempts to give her a warm and reassuring hug. "There there lass, it's over now. It was no dream, a living nightmare, more like, but my valiant friends have destroyed all the evil in this place. You're safe now, and your brother Roldare is upstairs waiting to see you. Can ye walk?" Then in an aside whispered to Venssa, she says, "Ven, if you don't mind, tell Fin to strip that skeleton of his armor and weapon. Likewise, tell him to grab the mask and parchment from the rotting corpse. I want to bring them all back to town and see if anybody recognizes them, or can tell us more about them."
"Will do. Be careful as you go back up! Maybe take Cole with you...just in case."
She relays Aldelenna's requests to Fin once the group has left.
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The stench is worse as Finlogan rolls the man's body. The mask, no longer tightly secured, falls away, revealing the slow rot of a human face. There is the subtle and unmistakable clink of coinage in the pockets as the body rolls, but perhaps most interesting is the fallen map to the crypt. In the corner in a tight and elegantly written style are words that are, no doubt, what he had pulled the map out of his pockets to check. The notation reads "The amulets are entombed with Kassen and Asar." There is no signature.
Dimira sits up. She clasps Aldelenna's arm. "The undead swarmed upon us in the night. The scary one questioned me. He wanted to know of Kassen, about our town, like it was a blight upon the earth in need of being s-sundered." She bursts out in tears, shakes, and pulls herself together.
"When I saw them go for the horses, I knew running out was no good, and I know the tomb better than most. I quested for the Everflame myself. So I ran inward only to stumble upon the worst of the evil."
Dimira shudders and hugs her shoulders. "He called himself Asar. He was furious that I did not know the name."
Rankev looks upon the corpses. "Fin, you say the note says something about amulets. Look. This one had a chain on its neck, like something was torn from it." Rankev whispers a word illuminating the headless body of the skeletal champion. Dimira screams and clings to Aldelenna. But Rankev is right, there's a chain around the neck of the creature, and where there might have once been a charm or amulet, there are only broken links.
"Let's look around for the amulet that I might have knocked off with the head. The note says the second amulet is in Kassen's tomb. Whatever it is that's so special. Dimira, was this masked guy healthy when you first saw him?"
Fin pushes the mask away from the body and tries to cut away the robe with his sword to get at the coinage.
"There must be a story between Kassen and Asar. Maybe Kassen took the credit for something Asar did." Finlogan offers.
Intrigued by the possibilities that the parchment indicates, Aldelenna stops moving towards the exit with Dimira. She gently grabs her face at the jawbone and says, "Dimira, do you mind waiting just a bit longer? There might be some important clues down here that explain why all this happened, and I think the people of Kassen would want us to find them all before we leave." She waits to see if Dimira is willing to sit tight while Aldelenna helps with the investigation. If she is not, however, Aldelenna will happily leave the searching to her friends, and take Dimira upstairs to Roldare.