DM Immortal's Reign of Winter

Game Master imimrtl

"I think she indicated there was one more upstairs..." Venja says quietly. "Probably guarding their hostage."

Gabryjel nods quietly at Venja and gives her the "Thumbs Up" sign but says nothing.

Trusting that the others are alright, he quickly swings himself out from his position at the base of the stairs and moves and begins to head up the stairs with his weapon out and ready...

When he is able to see the top landing, he'll pause and look around.

To Gabe, Aneira whispers, "Be careful, Gabe. They may have set some trap to contain whomever is upstairs. Bring Xan with you."

Gently whispering across to Tacey, "Is the captured lady still alive? Is Rohkar upstairs with her, or is it another bandit?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

Aneira is trying to help keep Tacey on side and calm as Venja asks her question and Aneira follows it up. Tag team ladies.

To Gabe, Aneira whispers, "Be careful, Gabe. They may have set some trap to contain whomever is upstairs. Bring Xan with you."

At Aneira's suggestion, Gabryjel will pause on the stairs and point to Xanxan, then the stairs; then upstairs.

He motions quickly, his bow out and ready and aimed toward the area above and waits for Xanxan to move forward.

He gives Xanxan a quick signal and nods.

Xanxan, if you move to take point I'll be right behind you. This gives me a 5 foot distance to shoot at an enemy who tries to advance without suffering an AoO; RE: The "Signal" - if he sees anyone who isn't the woman they're here to save, he'll shoot without asking questions.

Looking to make sure that Aneira is ok, Variel responds, You ok dear? if so I will accompany Gabe as who knows what we may find up there.

Tacey nods her head and whispers as you told her to be quiet. Yes, Rohkar is up there and I would assume the noble lady that you speak of as well. I have not seen anyone like that since I arrived here though the others made mention of a kidnapping and bringing a lady here.

Map with landing visible

Gabe and Variel are actually adjacent so you all know.

Xanxan is already on his way up after Gabe. Moving quietly as he does so.

Stealth 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17 +1 to find any traps

You do not see any traps on the landing or on the door Xanxan. Your pretty sure no one notices you moving up the stairs either.

If Xanxan does not wish to advance to point, I will move forward on my own.

At this point I'm using a "readied action" to attack the first enemy I see up here. As the half-orc has stated there is only 1 enemy up here, if it's not the hostage, I'm just going to use my readied action to shoot it - whatever it is.

Readied action to shoot (not sure if PbS will be applicable her, or even if there are enemies around but I don't know if the GM will post soon, so I'll toss up the action now just in case).

Readied action to shoot bandit (if I see one) - please add +1 if Bandit is less than 30 feet when/if I see one.
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

If it hits (please add +1 if a bandit is under 30 feet and if there is actually a bandit up here)
1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

EDIT: Ahhh! Ninja'd by everyone! Sorry for the delay, I was looking up how "readied action" works in case I had to crash before the GM posted.

I'll wait for Xanxan to try to open the door. If there's a chance to use the readied action, I'd love it, as it was a natural 20; but that's up to the GM I guess.

Looking to make sure that Aneira is ok, Variel responds, You ok dear? if so I will accompany Gabe as who knows what we may find up there.

"I am alright", she answers softly. Aneira scans her eyes over Variel to ensure he has not been wounded. Her eyes add my love to the end of the sentence as she does not want to give away their relationship to Tacey or any other who may overhear.

Aneira adds quietly, "I will remain down here and keep watch by the door in case other bandits return from their hunt. Be careful."

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Gabe we are not in combat so you can't ready an action.

Variel sees the eyes and knows the sentiment behind them. He also understands why she is not saying more. He nods to her and remembers not to use terms of endearment under such conditions in the future. He nods his head to her though and wishes her safety as he proceeds up behind Gabe and Xanxan.

Gabe we are not in combat so you can't ready an action.

Readying an action - You can ready a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, anytime before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character's activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action.

In this case my "specified action" was to shoot the first person I saw who wasn't the hostage.

If that's not how it works, I'm sorry.

Read the next couple of lines Gabe on Readying an Action. It adjusts your initiative which by default is only in combat. Thus no readying outside of combat. GM fiat allows such things as box text for story purposes but not for combat actions.

Xanxan takes point, and tries to open the door QUIETLY...

If it is locked, he'll try to pick it... QUIETLY... drawing his lockpicks slowly from..well, it's hard to be sure where he kept them.

:)

Another Stealth, if needed. 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14
Disable Device if needed: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Garyjel will pause by the door, looking at Xanxan and watches him carefully.

He'll move right behind him P:26.

As soon as Xanxan opens the door - he'll take action...

Just need to get details on the room and if anything is in there.

Giving Beck, Venja a chance to chime in but Xanxan the door is not locked will open before you...

Gabryjel will look at Xanxan and gives him a nod, holding his bow ready waiting for the gnome to open the door.

I thought the guys were downstairs searching or interrogating the half-orc prisoner or something. Didn't Aneira say she was watching to see when more bandits came home? I just assumed she was below preparing a "warm reception" via an ambush for them and the others were policing the bodies or something in case they had healing potions or something.

Xanxan nods, planning to slip in and free the hostage while the fight goes on if he can. When folks seem to be ready, he opens the door.
Make of that as suits the story best, DM :)

Xanxan nods, planning to slip in and free the hostage while the fight goes on if he can. When folks seem to be ready, he opens the door.

Make of that as suits the story best, DM :)

Gabryjel's eyes narrow as Xanxan's hand is on the door, ready to move.

He doesn't know what's beyond; he might find only the woman safe on a comfortable bed.

Or he may find the rest of the bandits hiding in that room ready to slaughter anyone who comes inside because the half-orc was secretly lying all along.

He feels the wound on his chest acutely at this point and a thought of what may be in there flickers through his mind.

Than he thinks of the girl who may be inside, possibly beaten or near dying or worse.

Ah, hell, it's a good day to die...

That said, he's ready.

Venja moves up the stairs behind the three men, staying well behind them, by 5-10 feet, but close enough so that she can calm the lady if necessary while the armed folk deal with the last remaining bandit who is supposedly also their leader.

Indeed Gabe they could be doing those things or a host of others. Aniera did say she was asking about upstairs but Beck has not posted yet. That is why I am waiting.

Sorry for the delay... had to crash early, big interview today.

Beck takes position right behind Xanxan as to prevent Gabe from getting caught in Melee He also sheathes his Scimitar and draws his club, not casting his spell yet, but will shortly.

Sheelah is waiting behind Variel.

Beck, Gabe indicated a couple of times he wanted to be next to the door to shoot. If you want to be in the other side of Xanxan I will let you as it is a half square and I allow those to be entered with these maps. This is what I am going with unless you tell me otherwise. Update coming shortly.

Sounds good to me. Gabe, you gonna take a step bacvk from the door after you take a shot if there's hostiles so Var can get in there and you out harm's way?

Well, it all depends Beck. Right now there's almost no room in the hallway to plan much action, and we don't know formally what the next room looks like in terms of where I can step.

My initial plan was to have Xanxan open the door on his "action" and my "action" would be to just shoot anything in there that wasn't our hostage as the half-orc indicated there was only 1 bandit left and he was upstairs; so I was hoping to shoot on the surprise round - if it was a surprise round, that is.

The main issue is that I don't know what's going on via the update yet; so it's hard to plan. I'm also having a real hard time getting the nuances of how a "surprise round" works via ambush, so I don't know if I will be able to shoot or not; but I don't think I'll be able to take a step away from the doorway after I shoot because a surprise round won't let you attack and move, so it's tricky (this assumes there is something I can see to shoot) - I only know if I'm not at least partially in the doorway, I won't be able to see to shoot anything as the wall is in my way so I at least have to be partially in the doorway.

On the other hand, if there are hostiles I know that my allies can move "through my space" in a combat action, provided that they end up standing on my space at the end of the action, so once the door is opened and I shoot, you guys should be able to move right "over" me into the room (if necessary).

Tactically on this "round" we have surprise unless the bandit knows we're outside the door, but he still won't know when we open the door, an opening the door is our "surprise move". Actually, it's Xanxan's surprise move. Mine would be to shoot - and your surprise move (and Variel's - theoretically) would be to charge into the room and move to flank the enemy to get him next round.

Meantime it's kind of a weird scene for me in general in terms of what's going on.

The bandits are pretty easy to deal with, but we're all moving upstairs. I would have thought people would have been searching the fallen for possible healing potions on the corpses, or having using Sheelah's ability to track with "Scent" to make sure there's not any other hidden surprises in the woods outside sneaking up on the house or something (not sure of the range for scent at this point; but I'm pretty sure it's "always on" so she doesn't have to declare using it. so if that Fey Xanxan saw in the trees earlier tries to sneak in, she should be able to smell it coming without having to roll if it tries to ambush us; but I may be wrong about how scent works, if I am, please correct me).

Gabe's wounded, but at this point his 'character' would have him be somewhat headstrong, military tactics - like a marine moving to sweep the rooms one at a time to make sure they're "clear" before policing the bodies, so he's not playing this as tactically as possible, or we'd have Variel first as he does the most damage and is the healthiest in our crew right now (I think) - also, there is a lady inside, and Gabe is generally more courteous with ladies than not, so he's kind of trying to help and it's not really the safest plan.

Okay, I'm hoping to get an action up before I go to work; that all depends on updates.

Quick Edit: Most of what I tossed up earlier on assumptions on what the group is doing is based on guesses I have about our tactics. I know that those discussions in the middle of combat/action isn't the best move generally, but I'm thinking that as things progress we might be able to toss up ideas on the Discussion Thread in general about how tactics can work for the future on a general rule. Right now I'm literally borrowing tactics from military movies and TV shows, some of it's okay strategy, some of it isn't - but I think something should be developed in general so if a player ends up being AFK we can still figure out what happens when they're not here to post.

Okay, sorry - I'm kind of hyped up now. Haven't eaten anything today, but I did just drink a lot of coffee so I'm awake and perky :)

I'll toss something on the discussion thread in a bit if I have time before I go to work. See you guys soon!

Guys, I’m late for work – here’s my plan:

If there is only one bandit in here I’ll have Gabe stand in the doorway and shoot him so the rest of us can go downstairs and deal with what’s there (despite our rolls earlier, I’m still suspicious of the half-orc, I don’t know why, I just keep wondering why she’s being so docile, so I’m thinking she may secretely be the boss (probably a caster, but I’m not sure about that one) in disguise. I don’t know why, but this fight seemed pretty easy, and with all our heavy guys upstairs I think she may do trouble downstairs if we don’t deal with her soon – anyway, that’s my hunch on her, but I just wanted to toss that out there; just in case – and one of the reasons I was hoping the others on the ground would be acting careful with her).

I don’t know when Variel will update the map, but as usual, I’m running a bit late, so I’m going to put my action up now before work so you guys can act as soon as he does.

GM – I will shoot the bandit in the room (assuming that it’s not a bluff and it’s not just the hostage, but I think we’d recognize her) as soon as xanxan opens the door. Given the space of the room I should have Point-Blank-Shot to fire with. That said – here’s my attack roll on the bandit as soon as Xanxan opens the door. Please just roll it into ret-con as soon as you can as I won't be home until like 7 PM tonight at least. Thanks, and I’ll see you guys when I get back.

Attack on bandit in room –
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

If it hits
1d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

EDIT: I think that may hit, but I don't know if it will be enough to drop him (assuming that it isn't the hostage) so I'll leave that up to you all. But I got to go, I'm really late - see you guys tonight!

Xanxan quietly opens the door before him letting himself, Gabe, and Beck see the inside of the upstairs room. An L-shaped table with many chairs takes up most of the floor space in this loft. A second smaller table sits near the entrance and several windows look over the snowy grounds of the lodge. In the southwest corner, a large map hangs on the wall opposite another door in the northeast wall.

At first glance no bandits are in the room, but a second look shows the skeletal remains of three figures along the south wall. When the door opens, the skeletons animate to unlife and approach the doorway arms flailing at Xanxan Only one of the skeletons manages to make it to the doorway, the large table hindering the other 2. Gabe, Xanxan and Beck take 4 cold damage prior to resistances .

Distracted by the presence of the skeletons Gabe and Xanxan do not notice anything unusual. However Variel feels a slight contact rubbing against his arm. At the same time Sheelah lets out a low growl in warning.

new map

Hearing Sheelah growl, beck shouts an Attack command, realizing that there is likely something that she can smell She knows attack and track tricks and has scent so she can pinpoint the square of an invisible enemy

If the enemy is within 5ft, Sheelah will full attack, if not she will move toward the scent and grapple
miss chance due to invisibility?: 1d100 ⇒ 66 [ooc]Los is a miss, high is a hit per my usual
grapple/bite attack roll: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

"Xan, Gaby, yea can back off, I'll hold the line, Sheela's buggin out down there and he ain't here." Beck says, entirely unfazed by the cold.
Concentration DC 17: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
cast Shillelagh on club defensively, and 5' step to where Xanxan is to block the doorway.
[ooc]If Gabe moves and Xan takes a stab at the Skelly, then withdraws or acrobatics away, Beck can wack them. I got Cold Resist, so this aura's not as bad for me)

Beck, no enemy is within 15ft of Sheelah. Tracking takes double your move. She will be able to track the enemy down and pinpoint the location though if it is within 30ft for others.

New map to show the pinpointed enemy but still invisible.

Gabryjel quickly reassess the situation. After all, with his health as bad off as it is; he knows he needs to get going quickly.

No! That's not what you should do; you need to stand your ground - be honorable to your ally, stay and fight, back him up - he needs all the help he can get!

With that in mind Gabryel is perfectly willing to stand his ground and aid Beck in this epic moment of certain despair.

"Fly, you fools!" Beck suddenly says with a fierce voice, throwing the others an icy glare even as his cloak billows up in a chill blast of air.

Gabryjel's eyes widen in surprise.

Hmm... Well, you don't say something like that unless you really mean it...

So, feeling disgust at the fact that he has to leave Beck behind, Gabryjel turns and rushes down the stairs to H:18 to get as close as possible to the half-orc. He's certain she's responsible for the ambush and deceiving them into this mess - and likely she's a follower of some evil Orc god of death and battle and must perish.

Still, don't shoot her until the others tell you it's okay - they don't like killing for no reason...

"A bloody trap; now what?" he says to Aneira, his bow out, ready to shoot if the half-orc so much as twitches; waiting to see what his orders are.

Current HP: 3/11
Note to Beck: Sorry Beck, I couldn't resist writing up that quote. Seeing you stand there like Gandalf to face down his foe gave me goosebumps :)

"Oye, think Sheelah's found sommat down there. See what she's onto, eh?" Beck calls back.

Gabryjel's eyes narrow and he swings his bow from the trembling form of the half-orc and moves it to Sheelah, trying to figure out what Beck was talking about...

Xanxan backpeddles as ordered.... and draws his light crossbow once he's out of the range of the cold

Xanxan backpeddles as ordered.... and draws his light crossbow once he's out of the range of the cold

Xanxan, just curious, but where are you moving to on the map currently in terms of coordinates? Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out where you are is all for if these things get into the main room - or are you still upstairs?

Venja back away, hefting an alchemists fire in case one of the cold skeletons makes it out of the room.

sorry for not posting earlier but the thread wasn't updating for me

Gabe I show you at 1 hp. You had 5 and got hit by the cold for 4. Where are the other 2 coming from?

Will get an update once I see Aneira's action for the round.

Venja, backing up to G:16 okay?

Xanxan Gimblewabe wrote:

Xanxan backpeddles as ordered.... and draws his light crossbow once he's out of the range of the cold

Xanxan, just curious, but where are you moving to on the map currently in terms of coordinates? Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out where you are is all for if these things get into the main room - or are you still upstairs?

I opened the door that the zombies came out of I thought, so I assumed they were upstairs and so was I????

You are correct that you are upstairs. However I think Gabe was wondering downstairs where you wanted to move to.

Hearing a commotion upstairs, Aneira closes the door behind her and moves to G:22, hoping to give any returning bandits the impression nothing was wrong (or out of the ordinary) inside the lodge. If need be, she would keep an eye out, hidden from sight, through the window, crossbow ready.

To Gabe, she uttered softly, "Lower your weapon from Tacey, please. She is not attacking us. What is going on upstairs?"

Aneira turned directly to Tacey and asked her, "Mistress Tacy, do you have healing potions in this lodge? Do the bandits carry them on their person or are they kept some place else?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

DM, did Anee's previous perception check reveal anything?

I guess Xanxan will move to the base of the stairs then, sorry I can't give exact coordinates. I often have troubles with maps

As he comes down, crossbow in hand, Xanxan warns those below, "White Walkers or something kin to them, so cold they hurt me getting close."

Gabe I show you at 1 hp. You had 5 and got hit by the cold for 4. Where are the other 2 coming from?

Campaign Trait: Northern Ancestry:

You rarely feel the cold, and you’ve always had a restless longing to travel north.

You gain a +1 trait bonus on Fortitude saves, as well as cold resistance 2; this resistance does not stack with cold resistance gained from any other source.

Right, so the thing is; they did 4 damage via Cold Attacks; and since I have a DR of 2 against Cold Attacks, I kind of subtracted that from the 4 damage and only took 2 damage.

If that's not correct, please let me know and I'll adjust it; but I thought my math was correct on that point.

Aneira turned directly to Tacey and asked her, "Lower your weapon from Tacey, please. She is not attacking us."

Garbryjel feels the pain in his body and the chill on his skin and watches Aneira speak gently to the half-orc.

"Ah hell no," he says his temper strained at nearly dying.

"She said one guy upstairs - well I went upstairs, and there weren't one, there were four - and they were walking corpses to boot. She didn't say nothing about undead!"

"Corpses don't walk without magic, so who did the casting, eh? She didn't say nothing about a caster," he growls.

"Meantime we got at least one healing potion, and I said I'd wait to use healing 'till I need it bad. Well I need it bad now," he says with a ragged voice to Aneira.

If Aneira can give me the potion, I can use my standard action that I didn't use to drink it.

Also, Gabryjel is somewhat stressed, but Aneira is still his good friend; he's just a little crabby because of the attack ;)

Venja has the potion and she'd gladly give it to you if you say something to HER (please don't make it a long post tho so I can read it all), but she's still halfway up the stairs, ready to throw an alchemists fire if any of the undead shamble out of that room

Your right. I missed the 2 cold resistance. Thanks for clarifying that. Also you can't separate actions unless it is a readied action. Are you readying an action should Venja give one to you?

Aneira mustering patience and a quiet tone so as not to be overheard, answered Gabe, "I would gladly give you a potion, if I had one on me. Please ask Venja. Right now, I am enquiring if Tacey knows of any healing potions in this place." Aneira's light blues eyes return to the female half-orc, hoping Tacey will give a favourable answer to her questions.

Variel hears Beck's call and steps up to help the beleaguered Druid. Swinging his sword variel hopes to connect and do some damage to the skeleton so Beck can finish it off next round.

attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 +4AC for cover
damage 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Variel's sword hits the doorframe and fails to make contact with the skeleton though.

GM - Is that a house rule that we can't separate actions? I'm only asking because I can't find anything in the rules that state that I have to use my move action followed right away by standard action. It's kind of implied as far as I can see, but not specifically stated. Plus, splitting the move action and standard action is much more useful in tactics. For example, if I moved up to a position to offer a flanking bonus but didn't attack and my friend did and finished the guy off, why couldn't I cast a spell after my friend attacked? There are tons of uses for splitting actions - especially in a PbP game when half the group isn't on board at the same time to post what they are doing (in this case me moving closer to Aneira to get healing when I forgot that Venja had the potion still; which might mean my action would have to be ret-conned or something).

I mean, if it's a rule, that's cool - but I'm just trying to find out more about it because I don't see anything that says you can't take a move action; wait until a comrade moves and than take your standard action afterwards. If it's in there, I'm down for learning more, though.

Venja has the potion and she'd gladly give it to you if you say something to HER (please don't make it a long post tho so I can read it all), but she's still halfway up the stairs, ready to throw an alchemists fire if any of the undead shamble out of that room

"Oye, Miss Venja - I got to get that potion fast before those things hit."

In this case I guess if it has to be a "readied action' I'll just wait to drink the potion as my action. I can't afford another hit.

Tacey looks at Aneira, If there are any I would suspect they would be upstairs with Rohkar. They don't tell me these things. I just fell in with them and cook now.

Aneira you do not see any signs of returning bandits in the quickly fading light. More than likely any bandits that are out will be camping for the night as to not make the travel in the dark in the snow with horses.