DM Carbide's Through a Cracked Mirror: A Short Watch (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

sense motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

use as you see fit.

Conner emerges from the trees, and approaches the group on the path. He stops shorts with an arrow notched to his bow.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

Be careful, she may not be as she seems. Woman, can you tell me why your tracks changed from clawed-foot to those of an old woman with a cane back in the woods? See, I was on your trail for awhile. Are you some sort of changeling, old woman?

Dashel, there's something disquieting about her tone of voice and bearing--maybe a little too confident for someone who looks so frail. Further north you and Grungar catch a glimpse of Conner moving down the path. She looks back up at the slayer and smiles, saying something else. Besmarial translates, "She says 'Oh, something else for me. I'll be right back. Don't try to run, now.'" The angel focuses his attention on her. "She's evil, but not strongly so. Not as though she were an undead creature, or not native to this plane."

Map is HERE.

Round 1:

Initiative order:

Drovic
Dashel
Conner
Grungar
Besmarial
Old woman

What will set this off for most of you is when she turns and begins to move towards Conner, faster than any of you are able. Drovic is still hurrying towards the rest of the party. The green is all Difficult terrain.

Conner, she's coming towards you and looks hostile (albeit slightly baffled at your use of a language she doesn't understand).

Double move to Y32. Is Drovic aware of what's going on?

Drovic can hear voices, but can't pick out anything specific.

ETA: After the double move, Drovic can see Dashel and Grungar, and can also see the old woman.

Round 1

Conner will move to T15 and study the old woman, making her a favored target.

Dashel will cast bless.

Dashel, you won't catch Conner in the area of effect right away.

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order:

Drovic-moved closer
Dashel-cast bless
Conner-activated favored target
Grungar
Besmarial
Old woman

Grungar is up!

Grungar will withdraw his falchion and move as close to the woman as he can, doubling moving if needed.

A double move will get Grungar up to standing next to the old woman. Her eyes widen at the sight of the dwarf, though she doesn't seem too impressed with his falchion.

Besmarial goes for height to keep an eye out for anything else coming. Moving with extreme alacrity, the woman moves away from the dwarf who can take an AoO at this point.

If she survives, she ends up ten feet away from Conner. She exhales with great force, an enormous cloud of fog coming into existence around her.

Round 2:

Initiative order:

Drovic
Dashel
Conner
Grungar
Besmarial
Old woman

Double move to Y21. I'm getting there guys lol.

Round 2, Bronze Dagger of Erastil

Conner slides 5 feet into cover at U14 and calls upon the power of Erastil for an Insightful attack on his next shot.

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 13 + 2 = 25

As the old women moves, Grungar uses all his might to take a swing at the old women.

ATK: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26
DAM: 2d4 + 11 ⇒ (4, 1) + 11 = 16

Grungar hits and draws blood; the woman's skin seems tougher than you would have expected, though. She hisses as she rushes off, and the dwarf notices that her blood is black.

Damage taken: 11 HP

Slight edit to post.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order:

Drovic-moved closer
Dashel-?
Conner-hid and activated dagger
Grungar-?
Besmarial
Old woman

Dashel and Grungar have actions yet to resolve this round.

RD 2

Dashel moves forward towards Conner to get him in his 50 ft radius of bless. He use his wand to cast shield of faith and looks up toward Besmarial to see if anything else is coming. Letting the others handle the battle. he is staying out the 20 ft fog cloud.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

RD2, I will move towards the women and attack again if possible.

ATK: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28
DAM: 2d4 + 11 ⇒ (3, 3) + 11 = 17

dang missed the crit by one

Grungar, a double move will get you next to where you saw her last before she conjured the fog, but you won't be able to attack at that point.

okay, sounds good.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order:

Drovic-moved closer
Dashel-moved closer; cast shield of faith
Conner-hid and activated dagger
Grungar-closed
Besmarial-moved closer
Old woman-attacked Grungar

From the midst of the cloud comes a high-pitched cackle, followed by a grunt of pain from the dwarf.

Damage taken: 11 HP

Round 3:

Initiative order:

Drovic
Dashel
Conner
Grungar
Besmarial
Old woman

Everyone is up!

ETA: Updated map is HERE.

Note to self, purchase dispel magic scrolls.

Gust of wind would do the trick here, too.

Rub it in now will you. Another useful scroll to have crafted.

Next time. Which reminds me...I have a Clr8 in an Age of Worms game with Scribe Scroll; need to make a gust of wind scroll or two once we get some downtime.

Next level I'll have access to 3rd level spells, I can pick up dispel magic if it seems like the party needs it.

Drovic dips his blade into a green vial at his waist, then wades into the fog.

Move action to apply poison, move action to move to V16. I'm just having him cut through the middle in hopes of running into an enemy.

Drovic, you won't get quite that far before a shape looms up in the fog ahead of you. It's about seven feet tall despite a pronounced stoop. She looks like THIS. Blood drips from one claw and from her mouth.

Oh lawdy.

Well I spent a move to apply poison and a move to move, so my turn will end adjacent to her.

Round 3, Bronze Dagger of Erastil

Conner fires at the hag from the cover of the trees with an insightful attack.

LB Att: 1d20 + 12 + 20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 12 + 20 + 2 = 40
LB Dam: 1d8 + 4 + 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 4 + (6, 1) + 2 = 20

Conner again hides his position for his next attack.

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 13 + 2 = 22

Round 3 (ongoing):

Initiative order:

Drovic-poisoned weapon and closed
Dashel-closed
Conner-attacked
Grungar-attacked
Besmarial
Old woman-fled

As far as Conner is concerned, he fired blind into the fog, although the hag's shriek certainly suggests that she was hit. Drovic and Grungar see her recoil in pain. The dwarf follows up with another chop to her. Dashel moves up to the edge of the fog.

Reeling from her wounds, the hag withdraws.

Using Grungar's roll from last round.

As of the top of the next round, the situation is as shown HERE. Keep in mind that Dashel and Besmarial are the only ones who can see her at the moment, and neither of them can see her very clearly through the forest.

Round 4:

Initiative order:

Drovic-
Dashel-
Conner-
Grungar-
Besmarial
Old woman-

Drovic has no intention of being led on a goose chase in unfamiliar territory, so he exits the fog and stays alert to any other threats.

Dashel notices the hag and chants a few words of prayerful power and a dancing longsword appears in front of the creature.

spiritual weapon: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9;damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

SR, if necessary: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Dashel moves closer towards the opponent keeping her in view. "Surrender and live."

Conner will look for his target or tracks as to its location.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 + 2 = 18

Dashel, the spiritual weapon misses her. Her actions are not materially changed by your offer to accept her surrender.

Conner, it's fairly obvious which way she's going from the sound. She is not at the moment even trying to be stealthy.

I've assumed that Conner and Grungar will both attempt to pursue, and changed the map accordingly.

She continues to flee. At the end of the round Dashel can no longer see her, she's at the edge of Grungar's vision, and Conner can still see her although she has some cover from him.

Party is up!

Round 5:

Initiative order:

Drovic-
Dashel-
Conner-
Grungar-
Besmarial
Old woman-

In case I miss my turn and nothing changes, Grungar will continue to pursue, unless one of the party members yells for him to stop, in which case he will.

Blasted finger wagger, come back here and fight like dwarf!!

Yeah, that's gonna happen. Drovic sits down, waiting for the party members inevitable return.

RD 5:

Dashel continues to direct the weapon,

spiritual weapon: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18;damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

"Surrender!

Round 4, Rapid Shot

Conner fires three arrows in rapid succession at the departing enemy.

LB Att 1: 1d20 + 11 - 2 ⇒ (3) + 11 - 2 = 12
LB Att 2: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (5) + 6 - 2 = 9
LB Att 3: 1d20 + 11 - 2 ⇒ (10) + 11 - 2 = 19

LB Dam 1: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
LB Dam 2: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
LB Dam 3: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

Dashel, as I read spiritual weapon you have to be able to see the target for the spell to be effective, and she's passed out of your sight. (Medium-density forest line of sight is 2d8 x 10 feet, and you can see what I rolled above.)

Conner, is this attack in Round 4 (i.e., immediately after she withdrew) or Round 5?

Sorry, Round 5...I tracked her in 4. That is why it is a full round action.

That's what I thought.

Conner, your first two shafts don't come close to her. The third one is on target, but glances off of her tough hide. AC 20, since she's double-moving and not running.

If it means anything. I was following her in my earlier post in RD 4, he would have continued following into the trees to maintain a LOS

I may have been tracking your movement incorrectly, Dashel. It's 30'?

Might be best just to pull out of this one. It's a dense forest that we're unfamiliar with, we could easily be led on a merry chase for hours.

Drovic, you haven't had a chance to tell them what might be coming, have you?

Have not mentioned it yet, although if they continue to chase after the old people I'll probably shout out something like "we have bigger problems on our hands" to them.