Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Xenfal used two of them on Vanish

I will take the Headband of Cha - is it +2?

How is that possible?

I went through all the posts during the holidays to check my resources.

You used it once, that I saw, and Cуровую had the Rod.

I see Xen using the Extend rod here and here.

Judge, yes, it's +2.

yep used it to do our original sneak past the courtyard and again to go up to the tower to launch the firework

I missed the use during the rocket launch.

Sigh.

The Rod was with Cуровую while she and Grumblejack were fighting the pain in the Monk.

But. Fair two uses then.

Even then Extend Fly with normal Invisibility would work.

You are welcome to use the fly and invisibility. Just remember that you are without spells, will not have the wand, and will have no muscle when you are caught.

If you want to create chaos, I can fly and start to summon fire elementals in town and in the stables/other flammable parts of the fort. This will require a lot of manpower to put out reducing their ability to defend the walls.

Even then Extend Fly with normal Invisibility would work.

It does appear that you're the only one who wants to Do Stuff before the cutscenes start. In principle, I have no objection to that -- but in this case, it would mean the other players will be waiting for a day or two while we resolve your solo side trek.

Given that we're getting close to the end of the whole thing, I'd prefer not to do that now.

I think Jax was willing to go, Grumblejack would go as well and I want Edmin to read my perspective.

I am not going for loot alone, I have other thoughts.

If you DM don't want me to do that then I will drop it too.

But there are two areas, possibly three I wanted to check.

Looking forward to the write-up on the carnage.
With one fly and one inviso how precisely are you going to get three people sneeking around, one being a non-stealthy Ogre...lol. Time to let it go. We can look over any papers we find once the defenders are killed.

whatever it is it won't be as much carnage as Bref and Xen's ghost flat

I think Jax was willing to go, Grumblejack would go as well and I want Edmin to read my perspective.

Grumblejack is at half hits and Fatigued for the rest of the day from the monk's low blow. He's not going anywhere.

If you DM don't want me to do that then I will drop it too.

I don't think the timing is good just now.

Speaking of which: with Grumblejack Fatigued, it's going to be harder to get that drawbridge down. Does anyone have Bull's Strength or anything else that might help?

It could be as simple as this,

Using Fly, Invisibility cast from memory, bonded oject and from Scrolls, Cуровую and Jax enter through the magister's open window, they make for the conference room using Stealth, area 46, and the go to the bedroom in area 47 and go through those, then they return to the gate house the way they came.

It could be as simple as this,

Using Fly, Invisibility cast from memory, bonded oject and from Scrolls, Cуровую and Jax enter through the magister's open window, they make for the conference room using Stealth, area 46, and the go to the bedroom in area 47 and go through those, then they return to the gate house the way they came.

...okay, I will hold the game until we hear from Jax whether he wants to go along.

Jax? Over to you.

Speaking of which: with Grumblejack Fatigued, it's going to be harder to get that drawbridge down. Does anyone have Bull's Strength or anything else that might help?

Nope, Haste was my last spell. Although Edmin and Morsum are enlarged for 5 minutes. So, it depends on how long after the commander falls that the army begins to arrive. Personally, I would want to hold the drawbridge until the bugbears are here and we have either taken the fort wall, or have the gate open. Opening it earlier serves no purpose other than placing bugbears on a narrow bridge where then can be shot.

Jax is fine turtling while bugbears go in and start fighting soldiers. His plan was go after treasure after the bugbears have started engaging troops and everything is well underway. Of course, the only treasure he plans to get/wants to get is that damn box in the top of the tower we left behind! So if that can be taken with a simple fly spell (we blocked off the lower entrance to that room!) then he has no other desire to hunt down people.

Edmin moves back into the mechanical room and looks down at Xen as Dren talks of the bards healing. "Yes. He. Did. Strange for a slaver to act like a soldier at the last."

The Champion looks over the others as he begins to unbuckle his plate armor dropping the pieces to the floor. "We do not have time for plunder as of yet. We still have a keep to take. The Judge is correct. Tactically we hold the mechanical room and an entrance to the keep. Once the horde has taken the catwalk, we will lower the draw bridge allowing the main force inside to destroy the defenders. Until that time we must hold this position."

Edmin continues to remove his armor as he speaks. "We must direct the horde as we can, keeping them in the lower areas to destroy any defense being mustered before sending them into the town. I am sure their general has a plan for them, so we must redirect as needed until our goals are met."

Finally out of his old armor, the knight begins to strip the commander of his. "Dren get the ogre up, we will need him for what is to come. Jax, insure the mechanisim is ready to lower the bridge when we are ready. Judge, create enough havoc on the catwalk to insure the initial assaults success, but do not expend all of you abilities. Let the monsters do the heavy lifting on this. My Lady, we need your knowledge here with us, not behind enemy lines where we can not protect you."

Edmin begins to replace his armor with the newly enchanted plate. "We will drive the twice cursed forces of Mitra from this place and turn it into the symbol of a new Talengaurd. One that strikes fear into the soft leaders of this kingdom."

The Champion of the Dark prince stands, his body covered in the protection of his lord and slowly places the black and red horned helmet onto his head. "Hell. Has. Come.

Edmin - you want me to fly over the fort and town to light things up? I would love to do it. I figure two castings of Summon Monster III should be enough to have a set of fire elementals light the stables ablaze as well as a second casting in the town near some stables there (by the inn for instance) to make another fine blaze. The elementals will last 5 minutes, so plenty of time to really stir up trouble since half the competent people in town are probably going to be running toward the keep.

I will still have 2 Summon Monster III left which is enough to send a crocodile in front of the shock troops and right behind Cy's fireball.

I think we shouldn't worry to much about the town. The buggery bears are going to ransack it.
I don't want to take away anyone's fun for what they want their character to do but I vote for my in character post above, hold the room we are in until the attack is going more for our side. Then swing over to the main keep and plunder. If we make do a DMDM flash dance I am fine with that to.

Ok, sounds good. Lets move onto the goblins and bugbears torching the place.

'I congratulate you on your first great victory champion ... Our first great victory.'

Cуровую is sincere.

'I ask only your leave for a few minutes, there may yet be useful information and knowledge to be gleamed. As you have said, I care not for 'looting', yet what we find may prove invaluable.'

'The fort is in chaos, the commander and his chief advisors lay at our feet, what little resistance they may be able to gather from those they can field surely will take a time to gather and prepare.'

'I but ask for leave few minutes, while none in the fort has the wherewithal nor ability to launch another strike against us.'

'If there is even a hint of resistance I will return, I give you my word ... I truly believe this is worth the gamble.'

Of course, the only treasure he plans to get/wants to get is that damn box in the top of the tower we left behind! So if that can be taken with a simple fly spell (we blocked off the lower entrance to that room!) then he has no other desire to hunt down people.

If you read my suggestion then you will realize you and I are planning to go to the very same area.

It could be as simple as this,

Using Fly, Invisibility cast from memory, bonded oject and from Scrolls, Cуровую and Jax enter through the magister's open window, they make for the conference room using Stealth, area 46, and the go to the bedroom in area 47 and go through those, then they return to the gate house the way they came.

Edmin moves back into the mechanical room and looks down at Xen as Dren talks of the bards healing. "Yes. He. Did. Strange for a slaver to act like a soldier at the last."

I know!

Finally out of his old armor, the knight begins to strip the commander of his. "Dren get the ogre up, we will need him for what is to come. Jax, insure the mechanisim is ready to lower the bridge when we are ready. Judge, create enough havoc on the catwalk to insure the initial assaults success, but do not expend all of you abilities. Let the monsters do the heavy lifting on this. My Lady, we need your knowledge here with us, not behind enemy lines where we can not protect you."

Okay -- I will assume this means you start lifting the drawbridge once the attackers are showing up in force, but you'll concentrate your own efforts on helping to clear the upper catwalk.

The Champion of the Dark prince stands, his body covered in the protection of his lord and slowly places the black and red horned helmet onto his head. "Hell. Has. Come.

I love it!

will realize you and I are planning to go to the very same area.

Yes, but he wants to go there later -- after the battle is over:

Jax is fine turtling while bugbears go in and start fighting soldiers. His plan was go after treasure after the bugbears have started engaging troops and everything is well underway.

That runs the risk of someone else getting to the loot first, but OTOH it avoids splitting the party at a time when you're all low on resources.

I think it's pretty clear at this point that nobody else wants to do this. So let's say it's not going to happen and move along.

Rounds 1-3 of battle: goblins swarming to the front of the Gatehouse. Three checks to lower the drawbridge -- Grumblejack, groaning and cursing, takes the lead. (Whatever the monk did to him, it's clearly still hurting.) With everyone aiding, an 18 is needed.

1d20 ⇒ 8
1d20 ⇒ 16
1d20 ⇒ 12

Rounds 3-6: Goblins are swarming up the ladders to the roof of the Gatehouse. You can hear them up there, giggling and screeching. A lot of them seem to be distracted by the fire.

Down below, goblins have rushed in through the portcullis and are banging on the raised drawbridge, which blocks their access to the lower bridge. Inside the gatehouse, you curse and shove at the stubborn machinery.

1d20 ⇒ 18
1d20 ⇒ 5
1d20 ⇒ 9

The drawbridge falls down -- creeeeeeak crakcrakcrakcrak boom!

The goblins rush out onto the lower bridge, shrieking with delight! They charge towards the door at the bridge's end, which seals the entrance to the lower levels.

Rounds 7-8

The top of the walls come alive with archers. Arrows fly in a deadly rain. Goblins plummet screaming off the bridge, pincushioned with lethal shafts. Within seconds a dozen goblins are dead. A couple of survivors turn and run wailing back into the passageway.

Up above, on the roof of the Gatehouse, one goblin pokes his head cautiously over the trap door entrance. "Yoooo hoo!" he calls down the stairs.

"Anything goblin can eat down there?"

In Goblin

Goblin Diplomacy 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

The goblin wrinkles his nose and then chatters in Goblin.

In Goblin

Cуровую motions to Ragnar

Goblin Intimidate 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

Ready an action if the Goblin dos not move in 10 seconds, a good chance that there may be a Force Missile to his face.

Clearly she is in a foul mood for being held back.

The goblin scrunches up its little face, but turns and lopes away.

Other goblins poke their heads over the top of the ladder. "What down there?" "Food?" "Burn, fun?""Food?""Food?"

Cуровую has a thought

In Goblin

Ha.

But these are hungry goblins. They swarm down the ladder and rush to the dead bodies. "Food! "Goblin eat!" "Food! "Foodfood! More goblins poke their heads over the top of the ladder. "Food? "Food?

They are brandishing crude knives made of sharpened stone. (Clearly Sakkarot wasn't wasting any of his precious steel weapons on these guys.) Their obvious intent is to cut up, butcher and eat the three dead bodies (the monk, the Commander and Xen) on the spot. Waiting to cook the food will only result in the other goblins eating it all first, so unless you do something to stop them it's sashimi time.

In Giant to Grumblejack

'Edmin, perhaps Ragnar could give a stern demonstration to our guests'

Cуровую could have used Fly and have been on her way back buy now!

edit - Cуровую will not allow Xen's body to be molested in any way. She also has plans of Animating the Monks dead body later on.

Grumblejack swats the first goblin down the ladder. This is an unarmed strike, but for real damage. Normally this would provoke an AoO but the goblins have learned that you don't cut the monster ten times your size.1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 damage on the goblin.

Grumblejack clearly is also in a bad mood. "No food for you here, you rats! Get the hell over there --" he gestures at the door to the catwalk -- "and fight! Food when you're finished! Now go!"

Dren using the hat transforms into sarrakot and then walks over to the goblins GET YOUR ASSESS ON THAT CATWALK NOW AND ATTACK THAT CASTLE. THE LAST ONE THERE GETS FLAYED ALIVE FOR THREE WEEKS!
Any other orders for them Edwin?

On phone +22 to disguise +12 to intimidate plus guidance.

Dren's Intimidate check 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28

The goblins cringe, rush over to the door, and begin pulling apart the barricade you erected in front of it.

I thought the plan was to not open the drawbridge until the goblins had gone across the catwalk. I assume there are enough of them that it does not matter.

As the goblins are preparing to charge out the catwalk door (having swept aside the caltrops and other fun things), the Judge looks to Morsum:

I will need you again soon my friend.

With that, the Judge moves over so that he can look out one of the arrow slits. There he calls upon his magical powers and a moment later four black birds with wicked barbed talons and dimly glowing eyes appear. All four immediately charge forth toward the archers on the walls.

Use Summon Monster III - this will dismiss Morsum.

Summon 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 Eagles

The eagles appear about 35' from the wall and immediately charge toward the archers on the walls, preferably those farther from the catwalk.

Cy, get ready to drop a fireball by the entrance the second these goblins begin their charge.

The plan here is to have a lot of goblins, and hopefully a few bugbears, in the upper level and prepared to charge across the catwalk. The second they start, I use Summon Monster III to call 4 eagles which will attack the more outlying archers/crossbowmen. The eagles will fly between archers so as to get AoO on as many as possible. They will also attack. This should cause the crossbowmen to have to move, reducing their ability to fire over the wall.

The goblins will then charge and when they are about 1/2 way - to a point where an archer right by the end of the catwalk could see them at 60' in the darkness, then Cy uses the wand to create a nice little BOOM at the point where the catwalk meets the fort. This should create a nice hole allowing the first shock troops to get in.

We have flown around enough, including Cy going to the tower, that we should know if there is anything blocking this entrance which we have not seen or heard of up until this point.
-------

The Judge points across the catwalk. Food, lots of bloody food over there. And lots of fire.

Rounds 9-12

Down below, a mass of chattering goblins is building up in the passageway. Other goblins swarm up the ladders to join the crowd on the gatehouse roof.

In the machinery room, the goblins finish clearing the door. They pause for a moment... then rush out onto the catwalk screaming high-pitched war cries.

Almost immediately, a couple of goblins slip and fall on the oil that is spread there. One plummets screaming into the ravine, while the other manages to grab the side of the catwalk and cling frantically. This earns him several more seconds of life, until an arrow from the walls pierces his throat. Two more goblins suddenly start leaping up and down, cursing; they have stepped on caltrops.

Concentrated arrow fire mows all the goblins down before they get more than 20 feet out onto the catwalk. As they are breaking and falling back, another stone flies through the air from somewhere inside the walls.

1d20 ⇒ 20

Judge, cross-posted with you. Okay, let's see here... [roll roll roll]

Your eagles have some effect on suppressing fire; instead of just 20', the goblins get past the halfway point. However, there are still too many archers, and their fire is too accurate.

The eagles swoop down to attack, then rise again with bloody talons. One archer dies on that first pass,and two more are injured. When the eagles swoop again, this time there are soldiers standing by with spears. Two eagles die, but they kill another archer and injure two more.

When the goblin charge breaks, for a moment you can hear a faint voice in the distance, orating above the din of battle. The Bard has come and is on the walls, inspiring the men of Balentyne to the defense of the kingdom.

If Cy has a Protection from Arrows spell/scroll/potion, we can cast it on Morsum and he will go out to clear the caltrops and oil.

We know that it is there, I posted that we would clear this up before the horde charged forth. We know how it was put down, and should be able to clear it fairly easily. We will put cloth, perhaps some of the crates or sacks that the food below was stored in, to cover the oil.

Meanwhile, that big rock came right in through the door! 20% chance it hit one of you: 1d100 ⇒ 2

If Cy has a Protection from Arrows spell/scroll/potion, we can cast it on Morsum and he will go out to clear the caltrops and oil.

Okay. That's reasonable. I'll say he did that before the goblins charged. The arrows bounce off him, much to the consternation of the archers. Zimu, mark off the potion, please.

That gets the goblins another 10' on their charge. They still don't reach the walls, though. But the oil and caltrops are cleared for future charges.

What ever happened with the ballista on the roof. If they are launching arrows and rocks at us, we will be doing the same. Edmin spend some time looking at it when we first took the gatehouse.