Daedalus' First Labrynth- Crypt of the Everflame (Inactive)

Game Master Daedalus the Dungeon Builder

At the sound Mira sits bolt upright and peers into the darkness, clutching her crossbow.

"More tricks?" She whispers. "Trying to rob us of sleep? I don't understand this, and I'm not enjoying it."

His ears stiffen up and point eastward, gazing into some seemingly random shadow, hand at his weapon. "Pack hunters..."

Phineas scrambles to his feet, reaching for his longbow has he rises. "The Parables of Erastil teach that the flock can only prosper when the pack is driven to ground. I shall protect my flock!" It is probably the most firm words you have heard him say the whole day.

His eyes can the darkness for any sign of the wolves or whatever else is making that racket.

Round the Campfire

"Remember my friends, this is a test. There had to be some trials else why send out able bodied folk like ourselves?

I agree we should take watches but two at once just in case. We should take rolling watches so we all get some sleep".

Nearly an hour has passed since the howling went away, and the four of you are sitting around the campfire, the first of you about to go to bed.

Surprise round! Cira and Blacklock can each act, Phineas and Athromar are still blissfully unaware of anything remiss. Map updated (But still no grid, unfortunately. Next combat, totally.), and added a 'soundrack' link for mood setting.

Knowledge (nature): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9 Hahahaha!

I don't know if I'm on guard at the moment or not, or if I can be considered to have my bombs ready. Cira will hold on to a bomb and ready and action to toss one as soon as a wolf is in range.

"Wolves!" Cira raised the alarm."There's three of them!"

Bomb: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14I don't know if there are cover or low light modifiers to apply

k(Nature): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6 untrained

Nearly toppling over the fire, Blacklock throws himself in front of Cira and swings his iron bar around wide, trying to fend off the predators.

Melee: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
dmg: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

The snarling figures advance into the firelight, and now all of you can see the gaunt predators. (You can all read the spoiler above). Already on guard, Cira throws a small vial that detonated against the lead wolf's hide. Blacklock overenthusiatically swings his club at shadows before the wolves come close, and successfully kills a tuft of long grass.

Surprise round over, round one up! Cira, could you roll damage for your bomb?

Round 1

Scrambling to his feet as the wolves heard earlier finally make an appearance, Phineas draws his bow, knocking an arrow to string, he eyes straining against the shadows created by the firelight. He makes a quick study of the wolf invaders, and realizes something about them. "The wolves are starving!" he says, trying to rally the attention of his traveling companions. "If we give them some food, they may leave us alone without a fight."

Know Nature: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Not sure if you meant for us to read the spoiler within the spoiler, but i can retcon if you didn't want Phin to make the check.

oops
damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7 splash damage is 5 to anyone within 5 ft.

Round 1

Athromar stands grabbing at his crossbow and fires at one of the Wolves.

Crossbow Attack 1d20 ⇒ 14
Crossbow Damage 1d10 ⇒ 6

Yeah, I meant that everyone could now read the spoilers, and attempt the K (nature) check to figure out the wolves just want food. Is Phineas going to take any actions this round?

Athromar'c crossbow bolt sinks deep into the hide of the same wolf Cira's bomb hit, and the lead wolf goes down, bleeding. The wolf next to it continues forward, flames from Cira's bomb cascading off its fur.

Just waiting on Blacklock.

Not missing a beat, he carries the rusty starmetal upward overhead before bringing it down hard on the wolf's head...

Melee: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

...unfortunately the wolf evades.

Blacklock's club thuds into the ground, and quickly finds himself set upon by two voracious wolves, dragged to the ground by a swift bite to the leg. 'Fortunately' for him, the other wolf was lunging for his throat and its jaws closed on air as the rogue goes down. If these are illusions, they're quite realistic and painful.

Ouch! Blacklock takes 5 damage and is knocked prone. Round 2, party go!

Round 2

Athromar seeing Blacklock in trouble comes to his aid with a healing hand!

Cure Light Wounds 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Phineas' Round 1 actions were standing and readying his bow. You mentioned everyone was sitting by the campfire. And he wouldn't have had his weapon at the ready after the initial scare. He didn't really see the wolves until after he had done those things.

Round 2

Dropping his bow, and rummaging in his pack, Phineas comes up with some rations that might distract the hungry beasts. He then moves forward and drops the foodstuffs at his feet, hoping the beasts will leave off Blacklock and come investigate the easier to get meal.

Move Action to rummage in bag, another Move action to step forward. Free action to drop the rations.

How much food are you throwing to the wolves?

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

"Lookout Blacklock!"

Certain these wolves are all to real. Cira picks up her crossbow and fires at the injured wolf. Unused to combat her nerves cause her shot to go wildly awry.

"Relax relax relax relax relax relax..."

Curling into a bloody bundle on the ground, Blacklock concentrates on evading the wolfs attacks as he slowly stands...

Total defense as standard action, move action to stand

While one of the wolves tears into the meat thrown by Phineas, the other nimbly dodges Cira's shot, lunging at Blacklock as he slowly stands. However, the nimble rogue easily avoids it, and the follow-up attack once he stands.

So, the wolf missed. Party go, round three!

Glancing at his miraculously healed wounds in disbelief, he wastes no time coming around again...

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15 yay?
1d10 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Blacklock's backhanded swing connects solidly with the last wolf, and his club connects with a solid whack as it's sent into wolfy dreams, bleeding out on the ground.

Congrats! That's the last one! Combat over.

Athromar watches the last wolf warily and nods to Phineas, "Shall I heal the one we injured? If they are just hungry do we have a right to kill them if they have been pacified by other means?"

There are currently two wolves dying on the ground, FYI.

"Life feeds on life, doesn't it? ...What was that Athromar, I could swear his tooth scraped my bone..." inspecting the healed bite.

There are currently two wolves dying on the ground, FYI.

Ah, I thought we had slain one outright.

Athromar kneels to tend to the two wounded creatures not feeling right about slaying a hungry creature, even a wolf, for doing what simply comes to it naturally.

"They are animals, not inherently evil so I don't think in good conscience I can let them die".

First he will pull rations enough for the two wolves as Phineas wisely did and then he will aid them.

Channel Energy 1d6 ⇒ 3

Cira watches Athromar with confusion.

"These are dangerous animals, helping them does us no good. Even if we feed them now they will be hungry again soon. They could easily start hunting in the vicinity of the village. They would be a serious threat to a lone woodsman or traveler."

She makes no move to interfere, however.

Nah, it was close, but assuming you didn't take too long, they would both still be alive, but barely.
The wolves wounds close partially, and their breathing grows steadier. They do not wake, however. Over time, you all head to bed and spend an uneasy night, aware of every creak and crack in the trees. However, your sentries have no issues, and it's a relatively uneventful night. By the time you wake up in the morning, the wolves are gone.

*Considers making the wolves come back at a later date, eager for more food....*
Keep an eye out!
Also, as a note, I will be keeping track of food consumption (it's a part of the adventure), so be sure to take away consumed trail rations.

After a cold, frosty morning, you set off, easily following the map to the shores of the Gray Lake, where you can take a short rest and refill your waterskins. As you approach, the trees begin to thin, revealing a field of short, green grass that leads to the shores of a wide, calm lake reflecting the overcast sky above. A dense fog hangs over the center of the lake, obscuring the far side. Near the shore of the lake, a dark form lies next to the water. It may simply be a trick of the light, but it seems to move, twitching in your direction.

"What is that?" Cira's nerves are a little raw now. She seems indecisive and nervous. I'm just going to start throwing bombs at everything soon. "I think we should hold our position." She raises her crossbow hoping that whatever she sees goes away soon.

Athromar nods at the wolves having left.

As he sees the form he shrugs and draws his crossbow, "Blacklock if yo check it out we will cover you..."

He snickers and starts whistling, merrily trotting towards the shore. "..is that? What is that, a fish?"

As Blacklock approaches the dark figure, he notices that any potential movement had to have been nothing more than a trick of the light- it's a corpse, and a very rotted one at that.

He pokes it in the cheek and forehead a few times with his rusty iron bar, verifying the hunch of corpse-hood. "...not fish. A dead person...barely anything left, rotted all." he calls back.

As Blacklock moves forward Cira cringes a little "Blacklock be carefull!" She admonishes him, disturbed by his seemingly carefree demeanor.

When he reports what he found she gives a start and hurries forward. "A dead person?" Covering her mouth and nose but not the least bit squeamish she leans forward to investigate the corpse.

Nodding consolingly to Cira, he searches the body, trying to get an idea of what's up...

Take 10 for 17

The top half of the corpse is covered in massive bite marks, made by incredibly large fangs. While most of the body's gear has rotted to uselessness, you find a finely-crafted short sword buried in the sand a few feet away, and, in a hollow heel of his boot, a coin pouch. Opening it up, you see 87 gp, each embossed with the likeness of Forest Marshal Gavirk, nominal leader of Nirmathas.

Athromar approaches.

Heal 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

"This body has been dead for months I am surprised there is anything left. Large tooth marks, not sure what killed him but those marks were certainly a contributing factor... "

Chinking the change "Nirmathan coin...but no one in Kassen dresses like that. That's the metropolitan style...the hell kind of tooth marks is that..." he eyes out to the mist warily.

Cira gather's up the man's shortsword and coins. "These do no good here." She shrugs.

"It's a strange set of circumstances. I have no theory for it."

If you want, you can try and make an intelligence check for hints at what might have happened. Also, once you're done with the body, how do you wish to proceed? Still by the lake, or returning to the woods? The map allows for variation here, as does the adventure.

Putting it all Together Int Check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Are we where red line meets lake on map? I'd vote stick to the clearing surrounding it on the way to gorge.

Added the Map to the 'map,' and put a little red circle roughly where you are. So far, one vote for staying by the lake?

Intelligence: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

I don't see a particular reason to return to the woods. The map makes it look like we can just head south through the clearing here.

Intelligence 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

"I would give the body last rites before we move on, a proper burial is likely out of the question..."

Phineas nods his agreement with Athromar and goes through the simple work of burying (if possible) the remains of the corpse after saying last rites and praying for the departed man.

I assume someone is keeping the shortsword? Is it masterwork?

The short sword is indeed masterwork.

Athromar suspects that whatever killed the man had a venomous bite, thus leaving the body unsuitable for scavengers.

You set along the lakeside, continuing along the path set out. About a half a mile later, you come along an abondoned campsite.

It's now midday, and the sky is full of ominous gray rain clouds.

Survival: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Cira surveys the empty campsite.

"This has been abandoned for months. Maybe it belonged to the dead man we found."

She looks at the rain clouds and frowns.

"It would be unfortunate if we were delayed by rain. Let's move on quickly."

Smirking at Cira's strange, practical way of speaking, as they move he throws out "Cira, when are you going to open a shop of your own in Kassen? Surely old man Holgast has ran out of things to teach you these days?"