Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

If you pull hard on the rope, you'll snap the light cord that holds it in place. It will then be free to swing towards the wall.

Let me make a more general suggestion. You have two rounds to move six people, an ogre and a dog across 20' of water and then up a 20' high wall. Instead of people just grabbing ropes, dashing forward into the water, or whatever, it might be worthwhile to pause a moment and discuss how best you all might accomplish this as a group.

Well, my thought was to have the two slowest, and thus the worse jumpers, myself and Edmin grab the ropes, swing across than then immediately climb. The faster people should be able to get across or jump across within a round. Then the two with the lowest climb use the ropes left by the two swingers. Bref should be able to easily climb, same with Grumblejack. That leaves the puppy and one other. If Grumblejack can toss the dog up - it should only be about 5 feet with his long arms - this leaves one other person having to climb the wall.

Okay then, I think everyone has acted this round...

Sorry I do not think I have acted this round and I don't think my questions were answered. I was waiting for an answer. Sorry. I really want to take an action this past round. I was checking until I went to bed my time at 6 am.

Also the horse can't jump the water? I can't figure out the visual, I thought I had it then now I am not sure. One last thing, are there enough of the undead left to still slow down the boulder?

Maybe Grumblejack and Sir Edmin could climb to the top and pull those of us up that don't climb so well...
Although the DC to climb a wall will a rope braced is a DC 5 correct? Dren has a -1 climb...

Hmm, thought I had added this to the previous post.

If 2 or more people can grab the rope, then more of us can swing across leaving only Grumblejack and the dog to move across the water. Not sure how many could swing across the rope.

I have a -3 Climb, which is why I figured I would climb the rope from the get go.

I don't think any of us climb that well other than Bref. How about Judge and Edmin swing over and drop the ropes. Edmin, do you have a rope in your bag? You can throw it down. Dren, Cimu and I can clamber up the ropes you two leave behind along with the one you drop. Grumbles can toss your pooch up to the top then clamber up behind Bref.

Jax has a +2 climb check. Too bad you can't use acrobatics to climb..
If we do decide to go with that plan, next round Jax fords the pool (40' of movement, I think?) and then attempts to climb with the 20' he has left. 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Sorry I do not think I have acted this round and I don't think my questions were answered. I was waiting for an answer. Sorry.

Okay. What questions are you waiting on? You asked "what does it take to climb the rope this round"; I thought that was answered (the rope is not for climbing, it's for swinging to the wall). If you want your last-round action to be "I jump on the rope and swing", sure, you can try that.

Also the horse can't jump the water? I can't figure out the visual, I thought I had it then now I am not sure. One last thing, are there enough of the undead left to still slow down the boulder?

The horse can jump 20' easily enough, which will land it at the base of the wall. It's 20' of water followed by a 20' high vertical wall.

The two undead corpses that you just killed will slow the boulder another 10', but it won't make any difference. It will almost reach you this round, and then it will roll into the water and hit the wall next round.

All this way just to die..s##+. There's no way Jax is going to make it up that wall.

Well, strictly speaking the rope will swing you to the wall and /then/ you could try climbing with it. Also, Aid Another is a thing.

Also-also: there are some fairly simple hacks you could try to give you a circumstance bonus -- from standing on someone's shoulders to hammering in a piton or two (if you have any).

Time allowing, of course.

This is essentially what I was trying to do. Have the slow people who will take a full round to cross the water - Edmin and me - swing across so that the ropes are against the wall. We then use a second move action to climb the ropes. We would thus have a lower DC5 from the rope since I have no strength and Edmin has armor.

Then the rest move across the water with Grumblejack carrying the puppy. Grumbles should be able to get across in a single move (Movement 40') unless the puppy is so heavy that it encumbers an ogre. His second move action/standard action will be to toss/lift the hellhound up to the top. Once the others are across, they climb. Once the dog is up, Grumblejack also climbs. Since the ropes should still be in place, at least two more people should be able to use them to climb at a DC5.

Doing this should leave only two having to climb without ropes, less if Edmin and/or I can drop a rope from the top. Grumblejack should will have to climb, but with his height and strength, I would think that it would be less than a DC15 for him.

I have posted essentially this several times. If someone has a better idea that does not involve Bref taking off and ditching everyone else, let us know. So far, I have not heard any other plans to get everyone across the water.

The other idea was that multiple people could swing on a single rope, thus getting more people across the water with only a single move action. I have not heard whether this is an option.

We don't need to climb to the ledge, just above the height of the boulder so when it impacts it doesn't squish us. Braced against the wall is a DC5.
Edmin has Strength, he should be able to climb it pretty easily...there are two ropes remember. You should be able to grab hold, swing over and start climbing in one round...as long as you are standing next to it.

Judge, grab the rope with me and we will swing over together.

Then the rest move across the water with Grumblejack carrying the puppy. Grumbles should be able to get across in a single move (Movement 40') unless the puppy is so heavy that it encumbers an ogre.

The dog won't encumber Grumblejack.

The other idea was that multiple people could swing on a single rope, thus getting more people across the water with only a single move action. I have not heard whether this is an option.

The ropes do not have signs on them saying "capacity 400 lbs". It looks like you could get two people on a rope, but no promises.

The Judge has put forward a fairly complete plan. Comments?

sure. Bref is kind of on his own, cause he is too small to carry people. he might be able to get up top first and help brace a rope but that is it.

Edmin will drop off of his horse and take hold of the remaining rope waiting on Cy.

Send the horse back to chat with the boulder. It is large, might slow the rock by 20'. Plus I am sure your horse wants to go and frolic with my ponies.

I don't think I understand why we can't use the horse to jump the water, or even stand atop it to grab the rope, but I must not be able to wrap my head around the dimensions of this area. I guess I will follow Edmin or the group's lead. DM or Edmin please run Cуровую intelligently through this part of the obstacle.

I think in character I would dismiss the horse, if he is of no more use, to either carry us across or use as leverage to get up the wall, and if that's possible please do so. Yes, to dismiss the horse is not a practical game use for it but style before strategy. If it were a generic horse I would have but I just put a backstory to the steed.

Dismissing the horse would be a standard action, if you want to use a standard action that way, that is your choice. If you can use the horse to help you up the first 5 feet of the wall, ie - to give you a decrease in the Climb DC, post that. My plan is to give as many of us the lowest possible DCs on their climb. I am trying to do this by making ropes available to as many as possible. If the horse will get you and Bref and anyone else to the wall faster, then use it as such. If it will reduce the DC below 5, definitely do it.

We have 2 rounds to get everyone across the water and up the wall. If you have an idea for this post it. Getting Edmin and you across on the horse is a great modification of my plan. Then Dren, Bref, myself and Jax can probably swing on the ropes as we are all lighter with less armor.

the water is 20 feet right? i dont remember. If so I figure I can leap it and scamper up and someone can throw me a rope.

My goal is to avoid it taking more than a move action for anyone to get across the water - jump, swing on rope, ride horse, ogre toss, it does not matter. That way we all have a standard action this round and a FRA next round to get up the wall.

Horse jump: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Didn't think about piling multiple people onto the ropes. Jax will swing across with Dren. Ogre tosses are best reserved for Edmin's hound.

If Jax grabs the rope Dren will swing over the pool with him and try to climb up...braced against the wall of possible...
climb 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (8) - 1 = 7

Sounds good, Dren.

If we weren't running from a giant boulder, I'd come up with some witty, swashbuckling pirate pun right about now. Jax swings over to the wall. It'll come to me later..

Jax holds onto the rope, under Dren, and starts to scale upward as well.
Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Goblin not patient! Bref dances faster!

Dance 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (2) - 3 = -1

!!!!!

Bref's dance becomes a strange mix of the electric slide, the hokey pokey and the macarena. Fort save 1,000 to avoid vomiting. Also that must be a sign of good things to come.

Okay, reviewing everyone's statements and will start processing your actions shortly...

Let's start with Bref -- that's easy enough. A nat 1? Oh dear. Really, oh dear.

Bref takes a running start and leaps across the water! As he reaches the top of his arc, he turns to thumb his nose -- perhaps at the rest of the party, perhaps at the oncoming boulder, perhaps just to show he can. Whatever the reason, he hits the wall with a solid, painful-sounding thud, and slides down it into the water.

Unlike the other pools -- which were just a bit over knee-deep -- this one seems to be deeper, at least at the far end. The dark waters close over Bref's head.

Jax and Dren: swinging over on the rope is easy enough and consumes a move action.

Jax and Dren, moving as one, grab one of the ropes. The cord holding the rope snaps under their weight and the rope swings free. They sail across the water to the wall!

Moving with surprising grace, Jax scrambles up the wall to safety. Dren, however, is unable to make progress; he is still trying to climb up the rope.

The rope gives a +5 circumstance bonus to Climb checks, but 7+5 doesn't make the DC 15. On the plus side, you get two tries next round -- each attempt is a move action -- and you won't fall into the water on anything but a nat 1. On the minus side, the rope is now stuck on this side. (If you both had climbed it, you could have tried throwing it back next round.)

1d20 ⇒ 15

Grumblejack grabs Ragnar the dog and flings him to the top of the wall.

1d20 ⇒ 18

As the ogre winds up for the throw, Ragnar sinks his fangs into Grumblejack's hand.

1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

"ARGH! You little son of a b@*~$! I'll kill you!" Grumblejack sucks on his torn wrist as Ragnar snarls defiance from the top of the wall.

Having thrown the dog, Grumblejack wades forward into the water. It is only knee deep at first, but gets rapidly deeper as he wades forward. By the time he reaches the wall, it is up to his shoulders.

Edmin spurs the horse to jump the water. It does so -- and lands by the wall with a tremendous splash, and promptly sinks up to its withers. Edmin and Zimu are now sitting up to their hips in the dark water next to the wall.

Edmin, you still have a move action. Zimu, you have a FRA. Either of you can attempt to climb the rope -- Edmin can roll once, or Zimu twice. (Zimu, you could also burn a standard action to do something else if you wanted to.) You'll have to climb over Dren, so your circumstance bonus will only be +3 instead of plus 2. Don't roll a nat 1.

Swimmies! 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19 and other roll 1d20 ⇒ 13

All done for this round, don't act any further: Dren, Jax, Bref, Grumblejack.

Still have a whole or partial action: Edmin, Zimu, Judge. Judge, you're alone on the far bank. You can grab the second rope, or wade into the water, or do something else.

1d20 ⇒ 1

Dammit! You're one lucky goblin, man.

The draugr at the bottom of the pool rises up out of the water, mud streaming from its empty eyesockets, bony hands clutching at Bref. However, it slips in the mud and falls back into the water.

Yeah, Sherkov put one last draugr in the pool, because Sherkov is an a@~%!~%. Its instructions are to grapple anyone in the water and hold them until the boulder arrives. Unfortunately, it rolled a nat 1, so now it's prone. (Which is to say, it's lying on the bottom of the pool again.) So you have a chance to escape it next round without provoking an AoO.

Goblin Invincible! Bref shouts as he takes in a mouthfull of nasty water.

Sorry, darn work got in the way of posting.

I posted my action a few days ago.

See post 4050 - I swung across and rolled a 15 to climb the rope.

Actually, I just said I climbed the rope, but it seems that swinging on the rope is inherent in the climb.

Bref's dance becomes a strange mix of the electric slide, the hokey pokey and the macarena.

I don't have enough intelligence to combine these in my mind, it just looks like a Japanese horror flick.

'Bref use Snowmantle as leverage to get your goblin behind up here!'

Attempt to climb move action 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (8) + 3 - 1 = 10

Attempt to climb standard action 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (18) + 3 - 1 = 20

Perception to see if undead was noticed in pool 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

edit that's probably only the second good perception roll I have made this whole game.

So this next round Cуровую, Jax and possibly the Judge (?) can use aid other actions to help the group climb the rope?

Climb"1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Zimu scrambles over Dren, placing a foot firmly in his face, and pulls herself up the rope.

Sir Edmin doesn't need the rope; he pulls himself up the slope on handholds, without it.

Edmin, you forgot your armor check penalty. You made it anyway, though.

The Judge swings across and is able to climb the wall without much difficulty.

Okay, so: four party members (Jax, Zimu, Sir Edmin, the Judge) and Ragnar the dog are safe atop the wall. Dren is at the bottom of the wall, neck deep in water. Bref is treading water and may be attacked by the draugr. Grumblejack is at the base of the wall.

The boulder was at 820, moving at 60'. It picks up 10' of speed, but then loses 10' when it hits the two draugr. So it moves 60', bringing it to 880. That's right at the edge of the pool!

We now begin Round 13.

Big roll coming up: the draugr rolls initiative.

1d20 ⇒ 18

Woo close. But Bref has +6 (!) initiative, and he rolled a 13, so he wins. The draugr won't get an AoO on him this round (though it may still get a normal attack, if he doesn't get out of the water).

So this next round Cуровую, Jax and possibly the Judge (?) can use aid other actions to help the group climb the rope?

This new round, yes, you can attempt to aid the three who are still stuck in the pool below.

Perception to see if undead was noticed in pool d20 +7

edit that's probably only the second good perception roll I have made this whole game.

You noticed the draugr, but not in time to warn Bref. (Who, let's face it, probably would have gone ahead anyhow.)

Climb1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19 Swim1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

Goblin Swim!
Goblin Climb!
Goblin Win!
Goblin Dine!