DM Carbide's Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

I guess I'll keep plinking away.

The Fitcher looses another arrow.

shortbow 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
damage 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Round 4 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Vasily-acted
Fitcher-acted
Bea-holding
Katya-
Shambling Mound-

The Fitcher's arrow skitters off the side of the pit. Katya is up! Bea, when it comes time to fight the mound don't forget that you're fatigued.

Growling in frustration, Katya points her staff towards the other side of the pit, beginning a long incantation, syllables rolling off her tongue in Draconic as she prepares her next spell.

Gonna begin casting Summon Monster II, the Create Pit spell will wear off at the end of my next turn.

The shambling mound makes it about five feet up from the ground again.

Round 5:

Initiative order
Vasily-
Fitcher-
Bea-
Katya-
Shambling Mound-

Party is up! Bea, go ahead and roll your attack--when the pit spell runs out at Katya's action, the shambling mound will be forced back to ground level and you can step up & take a shot.

Shambling mound: AC 19/T9/FF19; -51 HP

As the creature continues to climb out of the pit, Vasily continues to shoot at it.

Longbow 1: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Arrow 1: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Longbow 2: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Arrow 2: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Animal actions. When the pit disappears, Strelka will move to flank with Bea and attack. If the mound begins to move in his direction, Sev will take a move action away from the mound.

Both arrows glance off of its dense branches without effect.

power attack (fatigued): 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (14) + 7 - 1 = 20
damage: 2d6 + 11 - 1 ⇒ (5, 4) + 11 - 1 = 19

OK, let's cut to the chase.

Bea shakes her head to clear it after her sleepless night, set and ready to strike. Katya's spell ends. The pit vanishes, pushing the shambling mound back up to where it had been. It's about to advance when Bea lunges forward and chops into it, severing some vital nexus and bringing it down.

Out of combat!

Bea lets out a long breath, realizing she was holding it, waiting for the thing to move again. Looking around at her companions, she gives a weak smile. "Thanks. Couldn't'a done that alone, for certain not today. It won't be giving no one else trouble now, either." After an aborted attempt, she manages to remount her horse. "Let's move on, I can't wait to make camp somewhere less odorous."

The Fitcher makes a disgruntled noise, frowning at his bow as he stows it, then mounting up. He nods in agreement with Bea's sentiment, looking around to ensure that no one is injured.

He will follow Bea's lead, staying toward the rear of the group.

Vasily nods at Bea and looks over at Katya. "That pit was a lifesaver. Just the thing for man-eating plants." As they move off, he trots up into his usual place in front, with Strelka out scouting.

Katya nods towards Vasily as she stows her staff back into its loop on the saddlebags of her horse. Moving back into position among the group, Katya breathes a little heavy for a bit. "I'm glad to know my hole digging skills are appreciated." Katya's tone is more sarcastic than her usual acerbic tones, a wry smile on her face.

Vasily, Katya, and The Fitcher realize that part of the mound is made up of something that certainly looks like darkwood...probably about 250 gp worth.

As you continue upstream, the smell gets stronger, and every now and then you can hear a rumbling or bubbling from somewhere ahead.

Do you want to continue upstream, or do something else?

Does the rumbling-bubbling sound natural or man-made? Or is that a Perception or Knowledge check I should roll? I'll go ahead and roll, just in case.

V Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28 +2 if it's human-made, +2 if we're in Forest terrain
Know:Nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Vasily notes the location of the small fortune in darkwood on his map for later retrieval.

You can spend a bit of time to cut the darkwood out of the plant creature's body and carry it with you.

Vasily, you're not sure whether it's natural or artificial.

I'm good with continuing forward toward the source of the sound/smell. Cursed fatigue and all.

Yes, let's keep on going. Though V keeps a couple hundred yards ahead of the party as a scout, so he'll probably stop if he encounters anything.

The Fitcher assists with harvesting the darkwood, humming a monotonous working tune as he uses his sickle to carve out any likely looking branches. He puts together some bundles, and packs one (or more) on his horse. He takes rear guard.

retcon aid Vasily on his know check? 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

What it sounds like to you is a hot spring coming up through mud, which would also explain the smell.

The land is getting hillier here, the reeking rivulet wending its way through the low points between hillocks. You crest a hill to see, in a narrow defile, a twenty-foot wide pool of bubbling mud. The smell is extremely strong this close to the pool.

DC 15 Fort save or nauseated for 8 rounds. Make the saves for your animals, as well.

Large mounds of fungus and strange multicolored mushrooms carpet the banks of the mud bowl.

Katya Fort Save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Horse Fort Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Katya's face turns pale and then splotches for a moment before she begins coughing, bringing her sleeve up to her mouth as she tries to guide her horse away from the bubbling muck of the defile, her single hand on the reins shaking as her eyes start to water, "AAugughh!! That is cough absolutely cough foul!"

Sev (horse) Fort save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Strelka (cat) Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
V Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Vasily's horse shakes and shudders and he slides down off Strelka to check on his horse. Seeing how bad off the horse is, he starts leading it away from the pool. "Let's back off and come around from another direction." He whistles loudly to call Strelka to him, as well.

Knowledge checks to identify the fungus and mushrooms?
Knowledge: Nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14 Or are mushrooms/fungus a Dungeoneering check?
Know: Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
horse: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Seeing her companions react so strongly to the smell, Beatrix rolls her eyes slightly and shakes her head. "Go on, I'll be right back." Jumping off her horse, she trots down close to the banks to scrape a bit of the fungus and toss a couple mushrooms in her pack before returning to her companions.

perception to check for danger: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

fort 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
horse fort 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

Bea, as you dismount a particularly large heap of fungus on the other side of the mud pool begins to move, rising up and beginning to head in your direction.

ETA: Map link is updated.

As soon as she sees movement in the mud pool, Bea skids to a halt. "Woah, shroom." Running back to her sickened companions, she starts waving wildly. "Yep, back up, back up!" Seeing the decidedly green tint in Katya face, she adds, "We've gotta circle around upwind. Gonna be a fight, and she can't fight like that."

One other thing--before the fungus heap started to move, Vasily, you recognized some of the mushrooms around it as black rattlecaps, a variety known to have pharmaceutical uses.

Since most of you are on horseback, and the creature won't pursue outside of the immediate confines of the mud bowl, you can get away and recover from nausea. What's your plan now?

Vasily will volunteer to scout for a less smelly approach to the mudbowl. He should be able to stay out of trouble circling the pool on horseback, and he has a signal horn if something jumps him and he can't get away. If this is the source of the river pollution, we need to do something about it, otherwise I'd just say we should leave it alone.

I approve of your scouting initiative.

As Vasily rides away, Beatrix stays close to Katya, holding her water-skin to her lips.

"You allright now? That's a powerful odor."

The Fitcher will aid Vasily again on the know: nature 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

That gets us the first spoiler, right?

The Fitcher sits his horse patiently, nose wrinkled and clearly deep in thought. He unlimbers his bow and grunts, We must destroy this stinky plant-creature.

Katya takes a few short gulps of water as her lungs begin to recover, wiping the dripping water from her lips as she regains her breath, "Thank you... I'm fine now, that monster should be destroyed just for being so offensive to my nose."

Vasily and The Fitcher, you're pretty sure that the hot spring is the source of the smell and the mud, and that it's beyond your capability to stop (unless you have an [i]earthquake[i] spell on tap...). In addition, after a bit of whispered discussion between the two of you, you're able to recall something about the creature.

Approaching the area from upwind will ameliorate the smell somewhat, but you figure that if you get close enough to the mud pool it'll still be strong enough to potentially incapacitate.

The tendriculos is not very smart. It can be lured away from the stink-mud, maybe. Vasily, we can use your kitty-cat as bait.

Vasily frowns. "Do we need to kill it? It doesn't look like that thing is dangerous to anyone who doesn't approach the spring. Now we know what's causing the river to stink, but we can't do anything to stop the spring from flowing into the river. Let's just mark this down on our maps and tell people not to come this way."

All reasonable thoughts; what do you want to do?

The Fitcher shrugs. Kill it now, kill it later, after it eats whole family of homesteaders. It won't eat me - I'm not going in stinky-mud.

Have we explored the whole hex? If not, I propose we finish it off. If not, which should we do next? It looks like we can follow this river all the way to Frog Pond?

It'll take the rest of the day to finish exploring the hex.

I'm for exploring the rest of the hex. I'll go along if everybody else wants to kill the tendriculos, though.

Vasily frowns. "It doesn't look like it wants to bother anything away from its little pool here. And who knows what kind of vermin it's eating that might be more trouble if they start breeding? We'll just tell people not to come this way; it's not like farmers are going to try to use this pond to irrigate their crops."

Beatrix looks between each of her companions and considers. "You may be right. Smell such as this won't be sneaking up on folk, that's certain. I'll trust your call here - let's be on our way."

Ah, but when Adam B. decides to open the posh hot springs resort here, the tendriculos might be a problem.

You finish your exploration unmolested.

Where to now? You've explored the two hexes south of the Tuskwater; you can go on to Candlemere, start checking one or the other river, or head back towards town.

On to Candlemere! (Wherever that is. I just like the name.)

I too like the name of Candlemere... maybe once we clear it out (what? its a place with a name, full LOTR dark mystery mode in effect here!), we can build a big wizard's tower here. :D

I've got on preference, so Candlemere is fine with me. We'll need a boat to get there, though.

Any chance that could be a Geography check, too, DM?

Sure.

kn local 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

I hear tell it's a haunted isle, with eldritch lights and whatnot.

Beatrix raises her eyebrow. "Haunted? Well then, I don't see how we can miss out on that. Let's check it out."

And here's where I wish I had my undead-slaying inquisitor from Carrion Crown to bring along. She's a riot.

The ride to Candlemere is uneventful; the weather is pleasant, and you encounter nothing hostile. A rocky beach is lapped by weak waves, and across the black water you can see an island crowned by a low hill. There appears to be a ruined tower atop the hill. Somehow, when you look at the tower ruin, the sun seems to darken as though covered by a high cloud.