Curse of the Crimson Throne / Edge of Anarchy (Aardvark DM) (Inactive)

Game Master Troy Malovich

Round 16, 17 HP, AC 17

Fort save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

"Is Felgar frozen again? Or is he stuck?" *sniff, sniff* "Ah, frozen."

Not sure of all the rules on squeezing, and I'm fuzzy on the grappling. Specifically, I know a character can move through spaces occupied by allies, but I don't know if they can try to grapple from a square occupied by an ally? If they succeed, do they end up sharing the square with the enemy? If they fail, do they stay in the square with the ally, squeezing them as well?

Not that it matters, since squeezing makes each square count double, and Rutter doesn't have that kind of movement. Oh well, don't hold up the game on my account. You can just assume Rutter is just hanging back until the derro drops or runs off. I'll check in some time next week to see if this encounter's over yet.

At this point the derro acts out in hope, desperation, and a little bit of frustration. He draws the dagger at his waist, and taking advantage of Neva's hindered condition, tries to stab at her maliciously. He cuts a nice solid gash in her thigh.

Draw dagger
Attack Neva, 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26, crit confirm 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16, damage 2d3 + 1d6 ⇒ (3, 1) + (4) = 8, plus Neva needs to make a DC 14 Fort save or take 1 Con damage

Sorry Prav, he has almost no way of doing 12 damage. It fizzled with his failed casting of Vamp touch. If he crit and applied his sneak attack, and rolled max damage, he could just do 12. That elemental has him mostly pinned down.

Round 17

At least we have that glimmer of hope. And now my usual dice show up.

slam 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
damage 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Round 18, just to get it out of the way
slam 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8
damage 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Round 19
slam 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
damage 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Fort save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20...no Con damage
Status: Round 17, 12/20HP, sickened

Neva felt the dagger slash across her leg and she yelled out in pain. She could hear the others talking back and forth over the curses of the derro and the pounding fists of the elemental.

Am I the only one who can't see? she thought, a bit of panic rising in her.

She swung again in desperation, trying to fend off the pain in the total darkness.

With Neva and Felgar providing obstacles and left highly ineffective, the derro decides to try and use what he has left in his dagger on the Elemental, and swings at it weakly here and there. The elemental finally manages to club the caster one last time, dropping him to the ground.

Sorry, it dragged on so long, but he was pretty effective at shutting you guys down, and there was some bad rolling all around. I'm calling the fight, since he has no options left, so it's a futile back and forth between he and the elemental at that point.

I kind of figured we were at that point. Casters generally don't choose to fight with their daggers by choice. That's why I simply went ahead and rolled several rounds.

Pravlox has wandered into the other room using the stubborn, unnatural hand for target practice for his acid darts when he finally gets the mental message from the elemental that job has been completed, at which he smiles quietly and goes to inform the others who are on this side of the large, stinky dwarf. "The Bastard has company in hell, may they despise each other for eternity. Has our dwarf recovered from his latest stint as a stinking statue yet?" Even though he's clearly not a street rat any more, it's clear that he will never truly outgrow his roots in some ways.

With the fight winding down, it occurs to Copper that something might be wrong with Neva, as she keeps flailing about and talking about it being dark.

Copper moves over, careful to avoid her dagger swings, and guides her over to the bed. " Can you see anything?"

Neva fought off the truth as long as she could. But Copper's question was the end. "No. I'm blind" she said with a slight crack in her voice.

She immediately composed herself, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She did this a second time.

Then she stood up as resolutely as she could and said "Let's finish this and get out of this Lady-forsaken hole. We'll worry about my sight later."

Looking around to the others, Copper asks, "What do you think we should do with the arm? Is it still moving? "

"He down, finally?"

Rutter squeezes past the paralyzed Felgar, and Copper offering aid to Neva. He shakes his head at Neva's confidence. "This guy kicked our butts."

He starts going through the derro's pockets looking for anything of value. "Hope this jerk was worth it. He's not the nekkermancer, is he? I thought he'd be human."

Take 20 to search the derro, and the rooms. I figure there's time while Felgar recovers and we figure out what to do.

"How many more pieces of the Shoanti do we need?"

Looking over the derro's gear, all that can be found of value is the wand he used twice to incapacitate Felgar, a nice ring, a vial of blue liquid, and a well-wrought dagger. In the back where he was found are a few books, one obviously his spellbook, and the torso and arm of the shoanti. It looks as if you are only missing the left arm.

Once the dwarf moves, Pravlox will confirm that the derro is dead, give it one last poke to make sure, and pat the elemental on what seems to be the shoulders before dismissing it. He will then do a quick sweep of anything they find with Detect Magic before settling down to resummon Rex.

Spellcraft #1 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
Spellcraft #2 (if needed) 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Spellcraft #3 (if needed) 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Only the wand and the ring radiate magic, and by Pravlox's estimate, the wand is of the spell Ghoul Touch. It looks like it has enough energy left in it to be used about forty-two more times. The ring though, he can't get a good read on it.

Just took the rolls in the order the items were listed.

"The wand is ghoul touch, which we should all know quite well at this point, thanks to the multiple demonstrations by our good fighter. The ring is magic, can't tell more than that. Don't know a dang thing about the rest." Pravlox will hang onto the spellbook to examine further after Rex has been summoned. A minute later, the annoyed eidolon returns, and after getting an update of the situation, proceeds to make sure that the derro is dead, and is going to stay dead before taking up watch while the others take care of any necessary business still remaining.

What's everyone doing?

Am I still paralyzed?

"I will need someone to lead me through, but I think it important that we complete our task. I don't want to return to this place!"

"Well, if Neva wants to go on, let's finish it. Did anyone grab the arm from the other room?"

I guess we'll back track to someplace we haven't been. I couldn't find a map I recognized.

As the others investigate the area, both of Felgar's effects wear off, the paralyzation and the enlarge. Pravlox checks the derro's stuff and notices the spellbook is more than half-filled.

MAP Update
D7 is where you pushed the table to block the south door.
D10 is the library
D11 is where the head was found
D13 is where the torso and arm was found
There is a door south from the room you're in, and a tunnel east from D7

Sorry t' all! I was no help in the battle...well done!

Seeing Pravlox have some trouble in [i]identify[/]ing one of the items, Copper quickly casts a spell to aid him in his examination and asks for it to be handed over.

Spellcraft + Identify 1d20 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 8 + 10 = 21 on whatever it was Pravlox couldnt Identify.

He responds to Felgar, "I don't know that I would say we did very well at all in that battle. This creature was strong in ways we couldn't effectively combat, and it played against our weaknesses. We were lucky. Nothing more."

"Yeah. I know a guy who sells some 'tricks'. I never thought I'd do any jobs big enough to need any of them, but I'll pay him a visit when we get out of here."

"Let's grab these body parts and keep checking."

A thunderstick or a tanglefoot bag might've helped us out, but Rutter's lack of preparation for this was in character. I don't know what we need to do to incapacitate the animated arm - hit it with a chair leg? - but I think we should collect it and then try the closest unexplored path (the southern door in D11).

Of course, Felgar is right behind Rutter in his advancement.

"Lucky is an understatement. Still, he allowed himself to get caught between a rock, quite literally, and a hard place, which a squeezed, paralyzed large dwarf most certainly is, so he clearly wasn't prepared for every possibility. He certainly did much better when he had freedom of movement. Let's just hope we don't have any more difficulties like that the rest of the day. I'm effectively tapped out aside from my spear and Rex, and our cleric is going to require a guide to be able to do anything." Pravlox speaks as he finishes resummoning his eidolon. After bringing Rex up to speed, he hops on the serpent creature's back, and they follow Felgar.

Copper reloads his crossbow, slinging it over his shoulder, draws his wand of Magic Missile just in case, takes Neva's hand to guide her along, and follows the rest of the group.

"Let's just be quick about this, please. I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible. I think I'm starting to feel a little claustrophobic."

Sorry for the delay, I had a bit of forum-induced wife aggro, so I had to lay off them for a few days.

The twitching arm turns out to be not much more than a nuisance. One that should probably be bound for now, and then investigated to stop the twitching before it's handed over to the emmissary. After being wrapped up and tossed into a bag, it causes little in the way of problems.

As the group treks out, they open the southern door into a more natural cavern looking tunnel. It winds south a short distance, before it splits three ways. One leads west to the alchemy lab with the overturned table, the two others end up merely circling a large column and meeting again on the other side. Where they meet they continue south for only a few more feet before opening into a larger foul-smelling chamber. Within, Rutter can hear crude common being spoken, "When him return I'm will be good boy and him is gon be proud of me." To which the only response is muffled whimpers.

Your standard practice was having Rutter sneaking a little ahead correct?

Yes, that is our SOP.

MAP update for reference

You guys are in the lower right. I put Rutter a little in the lead with limited vision into the room (due to his lack of low-light, as he scouts in the shadow of Felgar's light source).

Looks good - let's push on.

Felgar strains to peer ahead into the room, past Rutter's position.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

I wonder if 'him' is that effing derro. I should've cut his head off and brought it with us. Why didn't I cut off his head and bring it with us?! Rutter shakes his head, wondering what kind of reaction this idiot would have to his master's head rolling through the room.

Instead he resigns himself to sneaking forward and trying to get a better look at what's ahead. He whispers back to Copper through his message spell, "Hear something ahead. Checking it out. Be ready."

Stealth 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30; Perception 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Copper relays Rutter's message to both Pravlox and Felgar vis Message before turning to Neva to whisper to her what has been found.

He hands her a dagger and says "Rutter may have found something. Hold onto the back of my shirt so you dont get lost." He unslings his crossbow, holding it in one hand and his wand in the other, waiting for something, anything to happen.

On the assumption that we see more combat while down here and Neva is holding onto me, how do you want us to handle her blindness as far as movement goes? Normally, a blind person has to make an Acrobatics check if they are going to move faster than half speed. Will holding onto my hand/shirt do anything to aid that? I'm fine with moving half-speed if need be. Just figured this is something to address before we get into the middle of it.

Getting a closer look into the cavern, Rutter can tell that the chamber is a dead end, bordered on three sides by pits. From the pits, the rancid smell of excrement and decay fills the air. Between the two western pits, a large, lumpy-headed, blubbery ogrekin sits. He is talking down into the northernmost pit, where the whimpers are coming from.

MAP

For Neva, with the room so close, and her out of options she would be fine staying where she is at. Otherwise, moving around the caves you move slow as Rutter sneaks anyways.

Sweeeeet...something without tricks...a good old fashioned slugfest - finally!

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Felgar advances towards Rutter's position.

"It's some big guy. Give me half a minute. Or come when you hear shouting."

Still mad that he couldn't hit the derro wizard, Rutter decides to take it out on this ogre. Drawing both kukri, he sneaks forward and slashes at the unaware monster.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24
Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9; damage 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Sneak attack: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Nice. Effing useless. I'll just walk over to that narrow hallway and wait for Felgar to kill this one, too, then.

"Wassat? Hey! What you do here? Cabbagehead put you inna hole, and make Rolth happy when 'im get back." The fat ogrekin reacts, confused by Rutter's presence.

I had thought it was a type of ogre, but I did not realize ogrekin were only medium sized. So, he shrunk.

MAP

Round 1, AC: (16 Charging), HP: 33/33, Charge, Furious Focus, Power ATT, Overhand Chop

I am going now, assuming that Neva will have little or no action based upon her condition.

Felgar charges to K-15 and attacks.

Waraxe ATT: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 8 + 2 = 13
Waraxe DAM: 1d10 + 4 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 4 + 3 = 13

Despite Felgar's eagerness to rush in to fight the ugly ogrekin, his swing easily misses.

MAP

Just a head's up, for the next week I will be on leave. I may be able to update here and there, but I won't be able to map or put together any long posts.

Round 1, Rex

While not wanting to reveal his weakened state unless he has to, Rex does what he can to try to help coming up behind the dwarf and attempting to scare the ogrekin into believing that he is more dangerous than he really is.

Move to J-15, Intimidate check
Intimidate 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Neva thought she knew fear from the other exploits with her friends: Verik's butcher shop, the tilted roof-tops of the Shingles; the flying necromantic derro.

But this was much worse. To be shuffled along, blind and helpless, in the cloying reek of this place was almost too much. She wanted to curl up on the floor and cry.

But the shouts of Felgar, Rex and Rutter kept her focused, as did Copper's surprisingly firm grip.

She started breathing heavily, in and out, purposefully, and with conviction. Each large lungful was expunged along with affirmations of the Grey Lady's wisdom and grace. A birthing prayer, it was designed to make listeners remember that pain could be endured...that life is renewed by an emergence from darkness.

Rex moves up and adopts the method of flaring up to create a more imposing visage. He stands taller, flaring his wings, snaking his neck and hissing at the ogrekin. The fat thing visibly cowers away fron the eidolon, and shudders. He decides he will try to remove the pesky little bug that is Rutter instead. His swing is weak, and looks more like he is actually just trying to swat at an insect. "You go 'way, leave Cabbage'ead 'lone!"

(Improved) Unarmed Strike on Rutter 1d20 + 9 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 9 - 2 = 9

No map updates until late Sun - early Mon. Neva, I kept you with a delay in case you still wanted to do anything. Your post read like you weren't expecting to.

Round 1, Pravlox

Not overly eager to kill this dimwit of a servant, having seen too many examples of it during his time on the street, Pravlox moves up, and tries to trip the creature up with his longspear.

move to J-16
trip attempt 1d20 ⇒ 7

blind, no spells...no action this round. Hoping this is something Felgar's axe can fix. :-)

Copper decides the best action for him to take at the moment is to stay where he is, ensuring that Neva is protected. He keeps an eye out for a particularly open shot for his crossbow bolt, but otherwise does not fire.

I'll fire if no one is adjacent. Til then, delay.

Awaiting Rutter, right?

Prav moves up and half-heartedly prods at the brute's legs with the butt of his spear to cause him to stumble, to no avail.

MAP

Round 1, AC 17, 17 HP

Still frustrated at not drawing blood, Rutter continues to lay into the poor, dumb humanoid. "GRRRR!"

Attack 1 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15; damage 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Attack 2 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13; damage 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Round 1, AC: 18, HP: 33/33, Furious Focus, Power ATT, Overhand Chop

Felgar slides to K-14 and brings his axe to bear on the brute.

Waraxe ATT: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Waraxe DAM: 1d10 + 4 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 4 + 3 = 14

Rutter's swings fall short of their goal, more than likely only adding to the halfling's aggravation. Felgar, however, sidles over and makes a long cut across the fat folds of the guy, causing him to bellow in pain.

Rex

Round 2, Rex

Rex moves in where the dwarf had been standing and tries to trip the ogrekin himself as he speaks with a deep snake like voice, "Sssurrender now, and you may be allowed to live. Your masster wass not wisse enough to take the offer and ssuffered a painful, humiliating death becausse of it.

trip 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Cabbagehead looks confused at the eidolon's words, "Rolth not here! Why you say him dead, where you seed him?" Angrily he tries to push Felgar backward into one of the nearby pits, but his concern about Rolth takes his full attention.

Bull rush on Felgar 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11, Felgar gets an AoO on him.