DM Carbide's From Shore to Sea (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Oh good grief. The two high Will saves just broke and ran...Bogenschützen and Quiven, it's all on you now.

Will: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
Will: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Ha! I ain't afraid of no... umm, whatever they are.

Quiven draws his bow and fires at the closest enemy! As I'm assuming I can't reach them.

Bow: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25 for Arrow: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Quiven easily hits the wounded cloaker, but doesn't quite put it down

Will Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Will Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Oh, my...

Freaked out by the awful thing's moaning, the archer flees...

One of the two cloakers begins to emit a continuous hum that discomfits Quiven (-2 on all attack and damage rolls). The other makes a deep rumbling noise that affects the halfling's inner ears, making the world seem to swim around him. DC 15 Fort save or fall prone and become nauseated for 3 rounds.

Round 3:

Initiative order
Rah-fleeing
Quiven-
Bogenschützen-fleeing
Maddie-fleeing
Creatures-

Quiven, over to you.

Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 If its a fear effect, I make it, if not I'm on the ground.

Unfortunately, it isn't.

The two airborne cloakers do not press their advantage, but hover in case Quiven gets up and attacks or the others return while the third one continues to bite at the woman.

After two rounds of fleeing, Maddie, Bogen, and Rah can start to return. Quiven, you can take a move action to stand and two more move actions before the nausea wears off.

Once the fear effect wears off...

With a look of determination, the cleric casts Spiritual Weapon and directs her force dagger to attack the wounded cloaker. She then advances 20' towards the fight.

Spiritual Weapon: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

A recap:

Round 1: Quiven vomits, Bogen nearly kills a cloaker, Maddie buffs, cloaker bites woman.
Round 2: Bogen, Maddie, and Rah flee (first round of panic); Quiven wounds a cloaker; cloaker bites woman.
Round 3: Quiven falls (first round of nausea); Bogen, Maddie, and Rah flee (last round of panic); cloaker bites woman.

At the end of the third round, Bogen is about 100 feet off the top edge of the map, and Maddie & Rah are about 60 feet off the top of the map.

Round 4:

Initiative order
Rah-
Quiven-nauseated; second round of 3
Bogenschützen-
Maddie-acted
Creatures-

Maddie calls on her patron to strike at the wounded cloaker, injuring it further but not quite putting it down. (It's in pretty bad shape, though, so one arrow from Bogen should finish it off.)

Maddie is now about 40 feet off the top of the map. Rah and Bogenschützen, over to you!

Cloaker #3: -49 HP

Not that you were up for paying attention at the time, but the trio who fled were escorted by a swarm of will-o'-wisps, battening on your fear. Once the moan effect wore off, though, most of them vanished.

Quiven will stand and back away while he is out of the fight.

"Try to get to the woman!"

Rah dimension slides closer and casts a haste spell on the group.

Trying to get between Bogen and Maddie to effect both of them.

You can affect both Bogenschützen and Maddie if you delay until after Bogenschützen acts (and assuming he moves 30' back towards the fight, though he may just take a full attack action from range), but Quiven is too far away.

That's fine. I was assuming Quiven was out of range.

Bogenschützen? Over to you.

Sorry about the delay.

I'll move up 30' and shoot once at the most injured one:

Longbow: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

The archer easily drops the wounded cloaker.

-Posted with Wayfinder

The remaining airborne cloaker tries to stay between the party and the one on the ground. The one on the ground stays on the woman, continuing to bite at her.

Round 5:

Initiative order
Rah-
Quiven-nauseated; final round of 3
Bogenschützen-
Maddie-
Creatures-

Party up!

Getting online may be spotty for me for the next day or two--due to weather here. If it's OK, I'll post my next attack, of needed. I presume that I'm in range, but outside of point blank.

Starting with any injured enemies:

Manyshot Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21, Manyshot: 2d8 + 20 ⇒ (6, 8) + 20 = 34
Rapid Shot Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Iterative Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Then 5-foot-step forward, if applicable.

Not that it matters in this case, but you're hasted as well. And thanks for the heads-up--good luck dealing with the weather.

Round 5 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Rah-
Quiven-nauseated; final round of 3
Bogenschützen-acted
Maddie-
Creatures-

Bogenschützen easily puts four arrows into the remaining airborne cloaker, knocking it out of the sky.

Maddie redirects her force dagger to attack the remaining cloaker, while she moves closer to the battlefield.

Move action to direct the spiritual dagger, another move action to move 40' with Haste.

Spiritual Weapon: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Round 5 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Rah-
Quiven-nauseated; final round of 3
Bogenschützen-acted
Maddie-acted
Creature-

Maddie's force dagger hits the remaining cloaker, stabbing into it and into the woman it holds.

Rah is up!

"Maddie, can you heal the woman!? Our Attacks will kill both if we aren't careful!"

Aided by her haste spell Rah dashes closer, then draws on her arcane knowledge to cast a spell to bolster the health of the woman being chewed upon.

Should be able to move 60' then use arcane reach to cast false life at 40' range.
False Life: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Rah's spell preserves the woman's life for the moment, despite the cloaker continuing to bite her.

Round 6:

Initiative order
Rah (on map)-
Quiven (20' off top of map)-
Bogenschützen (10' off top of map)-
Maddie (on map)-
Creature-

The woman seems to have recovered from the creature's sonic attack, but cannot break free of its grasp.

Party up! And I think I see where this is going....

Cloaker: -3 HP

Quiven will move closer to the woman, looking to assist her with getting away from the cloaker if she can break free. Double move toward her.

Seeing that the woman yet lives and is struggling to escape, Rah casts a liberating command to aid her.

+14 bonus to escape grapple

Maddie will wait to act until Rah's Liberating Command spell is cast.

Maddie moves forward swiftly thanks to Rah's Haste spell to arrive within 20' of the woman and the cloaker trying to eat her. Pulling out her sacred symbol of Pharasma, the cleric pulls forth a river of positive energy to infuse the area around her, excluding the dying and wounded cloakers.

Meanwhile, she allows her spiritual weapon to continue its attack, hopeful that either the woman can get free or that at least her healing will overcome the harm to the woman from the attack.

Channel Positive to heal (6/8 remaining): 4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 1, 6) = 13
Spiritual Weapon: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Round 6 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Rah (on map)-acted
Quiven (on map)-acted
Bogenschützen (5' off top of map)-
Maddie (on map)-acted
Creature-

With the aid of Rah's magic, the woman easily wriggles free of the cloaker's grasp. The creature avoids Maddie's spiritual dagger, though.

Botting Bogenschützen, since I'm pretty sure what he's going to do...although he probably would have rolled better.

With eye-blurring speed, the archer sends five arrows flying towards the cloaker; in his efforts to avoid the woman, though, only two of them hit. The cloaker rises into the air and emits an all-too-familiar moaning sound. Everyone but Rah and Bogenschützen, DC 15 Will save or panicked for two rounds. The woman manages to maintain her composure in the face of the sonic attack.

Cloaker: -34 HP

Rah casts a spell, opens her mouth wide, and sends forth an ear-piercing scream at the cloaker.

DC 16 Fort for 1/2 Damage and negate Dazed effect: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 4) = 8

Round 7 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Rah-acted
Quiven-
Bogenschützen (5' off top of map)-
Maddie (on map)-
Creature-

The cloaker manages to avoid the worst of Rah's spell effect.

DC 16 Fort save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Cloaker: -38 HP

Will: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 6 + 1 = 21

Quiven will grab the woman and try to escort her toward the safety of the party. Come with me! We'll save you!

Will Save: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

After withstanding another aural barrage from the remaining cloaker, Maddie channels again, but this time she switches streams to pull up destructive negative energy that leaves out the woman, Quiven, and Rah, while her spiritual weapon continues to slash at it.

Channel Negative Energy - DC 17 Will Save for half (5/8 Remaining): 3d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 5) = 10

Spiritual Weapon: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Only if needed:

5-foot-step forward, and:

Manyshot Attack+Haste: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21, Manyshot: 2d8 + 20 ⇒ (8, 8) + 20 = 36
Rapid Shot Attack+Haste: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17
Iterative Attack+Haste: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Hasted Attack: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24, Damage: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Even if the cloaker saves, it'll still only have 8 HP left when Bogenschützen unloads on it.

The archer's first two arrows put it down. Out of combat!

Glancing over the bodies, Quiven's keen eyes pick out a couple of metallic glints not attributable to Bogenschützen's arrows. A bit of digging reveals that one had a ring on its tail, and another had a plaque at its neck. The plaque seems similar to the lesser crown of blasting you found in the archive. Between Rah and Maddie, you determine that the ring is a ring of swimming, and the plaque is actually an amulet of natural armor +1--when held, it breaks into pieces that crawl up the holder's arms and embed themselves into his or her upper torso. Thus, it still takes up the neck slot.

The woman introduces herself as Sara Vanderholt (a name that may sound familiar). "Thank you, thank you! Those things would have killed me if you hadn't come along! They couldn't let anyone who knew the truth leave this place alive...."

Vanderholt? Are you related to Adler?

Here's a PICTURE of Sara.

She starts. "You've seen him? Is he all right? I was so afraid when the ulat-kini--the skum--took me away from him at the Wedding Rock that they had killed him."

Very nice.

"Yes, when we last saw him he safe and healthy. I'm sure he'll be quite relieved and happy to be reunited with you. You see, when we met him, he was under attack by some aggressive sea creatures and we were able to save him. Afterwards, he asked us to help find and rescue you. Once we get you somewhere safe, we'd like to get to the bottom of what's been going on. Might you be able to tell us what you know about this place?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Don't worry about the roll; under the circumstances she's inclined to be friendly and forthcoming, and telling her about Adler is just icing on the cake.

"The Wedding Rock...." She shakes her head. "It was a lie, a monstrous lie that let those things breed with us and our forebears over the years. Gerlach--the gillman sorcerer--found out, and at first he wanted to reverse what centuries of breeding had done to us--to take the taint away. I think he found the way, but something else happened to him here. He's more fish than man now.

"A lot of 'Covers have been brought here to work. We tried to fight back, and then Gerlach did something up there." She points at the Observatory. "After that, all they--my cousins, my father, my friends--all they did was work. Digging a trench to the sea, I don't know why. And I don't know why I'm not down there with them. All I can think about is poor Adler, though, and I am beyond furious that they took me away from him." She looks away from you for a moment, webbed fingers clenching into fists.

"The skum led away the weakest villagers a few days ago...I don't know what happened to them, but afterwards I saw those skum with Gerlach, listening to a silver man back that way." She points in the direction of the Philosopher's Graveyard. "There was another skum with them, wearing a strange necklace--that one went away to the east, and I haven't seen him since. The rest of them went to that place, I think." She points at a shell-like domed ruin. The ruin is marked as B5 on the island map.

We have ta do somethin' 'bout that!

Shall we head to B5? Or would you guys prefer to explore elsewhere?

I think we should stop at the Observatory first, then explore B5.

"We will investigate those locations, thank you so much for the helpful information, Sara. Is there some location you can safely stay until we can get you off the island?"

She pushes back the hair from her neck to show her gill slits. "I can make my own way off the island, now. I'm going to go back to Blackcove to warn the rest of my family, and then I'm going after Adler. Wish me luck--and thank you all again!"

Umm.. Ain't there all kinda nasties in the water betwixt hither and yon?

Quiven listens intently and offers the use of his healing wand to those that need it.

"The best thing you can do for me is keep up what you're doing here. There were a few skum looking for me after I got away, but it wasn't until this morning that things really got tight for me. If you draw Gerlach's attention, I should be able to slip through and get back to Blackcove."

What can you tell us about Gerlach? We were told a little about him. But, I wouldn't want to be caught unaware--'specially in a place like this...

"He's a pretty good sorcerer, and the skum seem to obey him."

Hm. Do ye know how he gits them ta obey? Do ye have an idea of how many skum there are on this island?

"No, they just follow him, all except for the one with the necklace. That one--it seemed like it was closer to being his equal, if that makes sense? It's not like the villagers. I've seen--" She pauses to think, counting on her hands and mumbling under her breath. "--at least twenty that I could tell apart."

Bogenschützen looks at his fellow Pathfinders: That's a lot of skum. Plus a sorcerer. And one skum who's about equal to a "pretty good" sorcerer.

The archer pauses for a moment. Then he holds out a wand to Rah. When it all goes FUBAR, could ye please tap me with this wand of Gravity Bow?

But as long as they don't all get together and gang up on you, you should be OK, right?