DM Talomyr's Kingmaker

Game Master Talomyr

Daaaammmnn!!! She ain't pretty no more!

you guys go! Just know kalaman is here for yall, in spirit,

Seeing Azen strike so fiercely at their foe, Tove decides to switch up and deliver some of Erastil’s grace rather than his justice, sending healing energy flowing out to her teammates who need it.

Channel Energy: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 5) = 13

Azen continues to land thunderous blow after thunderous blow on the bark-skinned creature, while Garethane continues to slice up the Dancing Lady.

Tove refocuses on mending the wounds suffered by her companions, while Rhiannon and Kalaman continue to standby dumbfounded and Celebeth finally manages to shake her stupor.

The desperate bark-skinned creature claws at Azen while the dancing lady bites and claws at Garethane, but in their combined desperation fail to land any meaningful blows.

Party is up. Azen, Garethane, Celebeth, Tove can post their actions, Rhiannon can attempt yet another save, and Kalaman has 30-someodd rounds to go...

Azen swings again at the bark-skinned creature. She was hoping they had hurt it significantly enough in the previous fight that it would go down after a blow like that, but the thing was still standing... and wait, was that Celebeth out of her trance?

Attack (Cold Iron Morningstar): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Damage (cold iron, piercing, and bludgeoning): 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Unfortunately her anxiety got in the way of her next blow, and she told herself to calm down and take care of business.

Satisfied with her healing work, Tove draws her staff and raises it high, bringing it to bear against the dancing lady.

Attack (+1 Quarterstaff): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Celebeth manages to shake off her enchanted fascination and races in a curve (SE, E, NE) outside the reach of the bark-skinned creature, coming around behind it so that she's flanking it with Garethane. She lashes out with her mithral blade.

I don't remember if we have bard song or any other bonuses, so please just um... add those if appropriate. :)

Mithral elven thornblade attack, flanking: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 2 = 19
Mithral elven thornblade damage, sneak attack: 1d6 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 2 + (5) = 10

The hunter cries out "Well struck, Celebeth!" before trying to land a blow of his own.

MW Longsword (Cold Iron), FF:STR : 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 8 + 2 = 161d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 1 = 5

Darn. Azen has been so focused on killing that thing she didn't think to sing. Should have done that this round.

Tove lands a blow against the dancing lady, but seemingly the fey creature ignores the strike. She agilely dodges Garethane's stike.

Azen continues her fight with the bark-skinned creature, missing her intended target. Celebeths's stab plunges through the bark-skinned creature. Much to Celebeth's chagrin, it does not seem as if her mithral blade does as much harm as she would have thought for the quality of the strike, but fortunately it is still enough to drop the creature to the ground.

Enraged, the Dancing Lady continues to claw and bite at Garethane, landing the bite and draining more vital blood from the hunter.

Garethane takes 9 bite damage, 1 STR damage, and 3 CON damage.

The party is up. Azen, Garethane, Celebeth, Tove can post their actions, Rhiannon can attempt yet another save, and Kalaman has 30-someodd rounds to go...

Celebeth reverses her grip and drives her blade into the bark-skinned creature.

Coup de grace.

Mithral thornblade damage, sneak attack: 1d6 + 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + 1 + (6) = 13
Mithral thornblade crit damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

That oughta do the trick.

Azen, seeing the bark-skinned creature dead, by her sister's hand even, is relieved, and after taking a short step away from the the dancing lady, starts singing a song to bolster everyone's spirits.

Inspire Courage at +2 for everyone. (12/16 rounds of bardic performance.)

Starting to feel woozy from blood loss, Garethane continues to fight on.

MW Longsword (Cold Iron), FF:STR, Drained, Inspired: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 1 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 1 - 1 + 2 = 281d8 + 3 + 1 - 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 - 1 + 2 = 11

With her quarterstaff seemingly ineffective and Garethane once again wounded by the woman, Tove raises her holy symbol once more and channels Erastil’s healing grace.

Channel Energy: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 1) = 5

Oh come on…

Rhiannon Will Save DC 19: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 4 + 2 = 15 (insprire courage - charm effect)

Despite Azen's song, Rhiannon is still enraptured by the dance. Tove does her best to keep everyone on their feet, while Garethane lands another blow on his assailant.

Meanwhile, Celebeth drives her blade into the skull of the bark-skinned creature, forever ending its threat.

The Dancing Lady seems to be growing desperate and lashes out at Garethane again, and again sinks her teeth into the hunter.

Garethane takes 5 bite damage, 4 STR damage, and 2 CON damage.

The party is up.

if the inspire courage is still going by the time it's 10 rounds after I posted my whole thing, I should break out of the enchantment, if battle is still going on then as well, idk how many rounds from now that is, I haven't been keeping track of Round numbers,

6 more rounds to get there, Kalaman. Baring the dicebot completely forsaking the party, I'll be surprised if this goes 2 more.

Still singing, and without provoking the dancing creature (see my path on the map), Azen moves in to attack opposite Garethane, worried about him now that her sister was okay and avenged and she had room in her brain for other things.

Attack (Cold Iron Morningstar): 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 2 = 12 (inspire courage)
Damage (cold iron, piercing, and bludgeoning): 1d8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 2 = 9 (inspire courage)

She is off balance from moving in though, and whiffs.

(11/16 rounds of bardic performance)

Feeling weaker and weaker, Garethane begins to focus on the defensive. Feral Focus on Dexterity. Fighting defensively with Dex +2 yields an AC of 24.

MW Longsword (Cold Iron), Drained, Inspired, Flank, Defensive: 1d20 + 8 - 3 + 2 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (3) + 8 - 3 + 2 + 2 - 4 = 81d8 + 3 - 3 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 3 - 3 + 2 = 8

”Thanks for keeping me in one piece, sis!” says Celebeth as she steps up to keep the dancer surrounded.

On mobile, can’t move on map. 5’ step north.

She flourishes her blade and moves up to engage the dancer.

Mithral elven thornblade attack, flanking, inspire courage, Dex damage: 1d20 + 6 + 2 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 2 + 2 - 2 = 14

Probably a miss.

Tove tried again to ease Garethane, and the party’s, pain.

Channel Energy: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 2) = 8

What were you saying about the dicebot abandoning us?

Will: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 4 + 2 = 22

With chaos and violence erupting all around her, somewhere deep down, between the sound of Azen's singing and the feel of Tove's healing magic washing over them, Rhiannon finally manages to break through the besotted haze of the woman's dancing.

Shaking off her confusion, she steps into a flanking position, determined to drop the enemy before she could ensnare her mind again.

Cold Iron Warhammer/Flank (if possible): 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 7 + 2 = 17
1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Rhiannon finally manages to shake free of the Dancing Lady's influence. Unfortunately for the party, she still seems to be nimble enough to evade all of the party's attacks.

Continuing her assault on Garethane, the Dancing Lady continues to claw and bite, both claws find their mark, but fortunately for the hunter, the bite does not.

Garethane takes 15 claw damage.

Party is up.

Celebeth easily twists and switches targets to the dancing lady, whom she flanks with Tove.

Mithral thornblade attack, flanking, inspire courage, Dex damage: 1d20 + 6 + 2 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 2 + 2 - 2 = 14

Still singing, Azen attacks again.

Attack (Cold Iron Morningstar): 1d20 + 6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 6 + 2 + 2 = 22 (inspire courage, flank)
Damage (cold iron, piercing, and bludgeoning): 1d8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 2 = 10 (inspire courage)

(10/16 rounds of bardic performance)

Rhiannon's swing also fails to find purchase on the dancing lady's nubile form.

Cold Iron Warhammer/Inspired: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 2 = 11
1d8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 2 = 10

Azen connects with another thunderous blow of her morningstar, dropping the dancing lady to the ground.

Combat over. And with that combat complete, welcome to Level 6.

Yay! Garethane was down to 1 HP, so uh, good timing all!

Azen stops singing, but doesn't stop attacking right away, just hammering the woman into the ground until her arm gets tired, trying to make sure she is well beyond saving by any means.

Then she looks over at Garethane, making sure he is still alive, and looks somewhat relieved.

Loot?

Celebeth ditches her thornblade and moves to help keep Garethane standing.

"Aren't we a pair? Both barely on our feet," she quips. "Tove! Garethane's lost a lot of blood."

Rhiannon looks on as Azen mercilessly pounds the dangling far into the ground, well beyond any possibility of recovery. Looking at her companions, Garethane, barely able to stand, exchanging glances with the others until eventually coming to meet Tove's gaze.

"I...I'm sorry. she says quietly, reeling from her utter uselessness during the battle

Looking around the Dancing Lady's lair, beyond the two fey corpses, you find a life-sized alabaster statue of a nude, dancing elven woman (worth 900 gp, but weighing almost 500 pounds), a masterwork harp, a small, carved jade statuette of a coiling snake (worth 75 gp), and an ancient filigreed elven water clock (worth 1,000 gp, but weighing 200 pounds).

The Lady’s bed is covered with a snow-white bearskin coverlet (worth 50 gp). A finely carved, wooden wardrobe beside the bed holds two royal outfits (worth 200 gp each), three courtier’s outfits (worth 30 gp each), and several other tasteful, once-expensive articles of clothing - heavily stained with blood and now worthless.

A small wooden coffer atop a rosewood table contains 3 vials of exotic perfume (worth 100 gp each), a gem-studded tiara (worth 350 gp), and an elixir of love. A nearby chest holds 431 sp and 370 gp in leather sacks.

Celebeth says, "Wow... this place was literally the boudoir of an elven woman of quality long ago, who's been stuck here ever since as undead? Yikes."

She sizes up the statue and says, "I dunno who keeps making these lewd statues and statuettes. Not exactly the sort of thing you'd display in the town square, eh?"

Pacing the room, she adds, "Still... this place was probably beautiful, once. Could be again, if we were to invest in rebuilding it..."

"... once we finish off that wild-running super-fast faerie skinner!"

Can we use Prestidigitation and/or Mending to clean the blood off most things? Not the clothes she is wearing, perhaps, since I did a number on those, but the other ones?

Azen searches the bodies to see if there was anything on them.

Can we use Prestidigitation and/or Mending to clean the blood off most things? Not the clothes she is wearing, perhaps, since I did a number on those, but the other ones?

Azen searches the bodies to see if there was anything on them.

The two royal outfits (worth 200 gp each), three courtier’s outfits (worth 30 gp each) are salvagable, the other clothing...not so much. There is nothing of note on the remains of the Dancing Lady nor the Grimstalker.

what happened? kalaman says as he snaps out of his entrancement as the lady stops dancing, lying dead on the floor

"She." Rhiannon says with a hint of bitterness in her tone, "Bewitched our minds, leaving us as fawning idiots. The stronger willed of us apparently shook it early on, and likely saved all of our lives...while taking hers."

Azen cleaned off her weapon and started packing up all the loot they could easily carry.

Probably have to come back with a cart if we want all of this.

She gestured to the water clock and the wooden wardrobe, pointedly not indicating the alabaster statue.

Then, still picking around, she picked up a ruined cloak... amazingly beautiful in black and green with silver trim, but with a very large, prominent bloodstain across the back that she was unable to clean off. She shrugged and put it on.

It seemed appropriate somehow.

"I will say this, she definitely had incredible taste...in both art and clothing." Rhiannon mutters, looking around at everything.

“I’m on it!” Tove moves quickly to assist her wounded comrade,
drawing up some extra positive energy to heal his dire wounds.

Cure Serious Wounds: 3d8 + 6 ⇒ (3, 4, 1) + 6 = 14

With the immediate threat gone, you go back to the vine covered tower you originally found the grimstalker in. After a brief search you find a finely crafted chest.

Inside the chest, you find: a fine red velvet cloak cloak (worth 10 gp), a gold necklace (worth 100 gp), a silver ring set with an emerald (worth 300 gp), a bejeweled masterwork short sword (worth 510 gp), a moonstone (worth 50 gp), 76 sp, and 31 gp.

What would you like to do now? You have not explored the northeast tower as of yet. As you get closer to it you hear a lot of squeaking.

Err, do you guys think that is ... uh, mice?

"Or rats." Rhiannon says with an expression of distaste. "Either way it sounds like this towner might also need an application of fire."

She looks over the tower trying to determine it's likely original purpose and any hint as to the source of the squeaking.

Knowledge Engineering: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Getting closer to the northeastern tower, the squeeks become louder and at smell of rot clings heavy in the air.

Two things were certain, the fey had been using this tower as a dump - for gods know what, and that it was positively crawling with rats.

So, what do you guys think... set the whole place on fire, or kill them individually so we don't ruin any potentially flammable valuables?

Kalaman will rack every iota of his knowledge and try to identify the rats, if they are something they need to be worried about, or if they are tiny little mice that can be delt with easily,

knowledge arcana: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20
knowledge dungeoneering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
knowledge local: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
knowledge nature: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
knowledge planes: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

And hopefully someone can supplement the nature check to give us a great picture on exactly what kind of rats these are and if we can go stomp on them or open the door remotely (mage hand, etc) to deal with them better.

"As loud as they are I'd bet on there being a lot of them, and I can't imagine ever wanting to face hundreds if rats one at a time." Rhiannon says with a shudder.

Okay, well, the tower is stone, but if there are openings, we can get fire inside... the problem is that the rats are going to run out once they encounter the fire. They are small enough that the door is probably not the only way out for them. If we really want to cook them all, we need to build up a fire all the way around the tower before we start something inside. Let's clear all of this horrible underbrush and pile it around, and then we'll start lobbing fire inside?

If I actually had the spell Fireball, maybe we could cook them all at once, but I don't get level 3 spells until 7th level, so it is going to be harder. I can Spark anything flammable, and I can stand at the door and do burning hands at the ones who try to come out, but I can't insta-burn them all at the same time.