GM Fanguar's Savage Tide (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

Knowledge(arcana or planes): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Hopefully that will let me know it has DR.

How far off the ground is it? 20 ft? 10 ft?

@Justified: I think it is just a small ledge. The adventure really doesn't clarify. Let's just say that whatever it is, it doesn't hinder movement or what not.
@Bron and Graythan: It is planes. Varrangoin's are denizens of the lower planes, also known as Abyssal Bats. DR 10/cold iron.
@Graythan: at that distance, that distance it's going to be -4 to hit.
@Bron: The room doesn't allow for it to be more than 10 feet off the ground.

Krila's bolt sinks in, but doesn't seem to faze the creature, while Graythan's bag of goo flies wide.

OK, that tells me what I need to know then.

Bron casts a spell to lengthen the reach of his arms, and enhances his scarf with his arcane potency. Casting Long Arm, and using arcane pool to boost scarf to +3, which bypasses Cold Iron and Silver DR.

Moving forward, he swirls into a dance with his scarf, calling out, "We need to use cold iron, it's from the Abyss! Hey there, ugly, this one's you and me!"

Hoping the creature will attack and provoke as it moves through Bron's reach, which is 10ft due to the spell.

Pulling his cold iron flail Justified moves and readies, standing next to Bron.

Readied Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 191d8 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

Note he has his glaive-guisarme in his off hand at the moment.

The creature hisses and opens it's mouth unleashing billowing waves of flame that wash over Justified and Bron, and then swoops to the far end of the room.

Fire: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 3) = 10 DC13 ref for 1/2

everyone is up

Reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Bron ducks and avoids the worst of the blast, then narrows his eyes at the creature.

"Let's cool this bastard down, what do you say, Jus?"

Casting Shocking Grasp -- I know it has resistance, but I can probably do enough to break through it.

Bron casts a spell that makes his scarf's blades crackle with energy, and then dashes across the room to attack.

attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20
damage: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12 + electricity: 5d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 3, 6, 6) = 26 = 28 damage total after resistance. DR is bypassed because my scarf has a +3 enhancement bonus.

Reflex: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Dropping both weapons as he advances Justified pulls out his Cold Iron Glaive-guisarme and attacks the thing. Did not see I had this initially.

Cold Iron glaive-guisarme: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 1710 + 15 = 25

Frowning as the creature moves further away and spoiling any other shot he might have had with a tanglefoot bag, Graythan readies his crossbow as he calls upon Tyr's power.

cast divine favor

Krila steps again "Third time's the charm?." She reloads and triggers the cross-bow.

X-Bow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Moira sees that her arrow did no harm to the creature. She listens to the advice about using cold iron weapons. She pull out her cold-iron dagger. "Hmmmm....I guess I'll be using this after all."

Can Moira move into flanking position? Posting from work; no access to map.

Well Bron does a million damage...

Moira throws her dagger at the flying creature, but misses.
Throw: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

The bat creature looses another blast of fire at Bronwenir and Justified Fire: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 1) = 6 DC13 ref for half

and tries to swoop away, AoO: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22
but Justified catches it with his polearm and lands a fatal blow. When the creature falls to the ground it explodes into another ball of fire. Catching those near at hand. Fire: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 5) = 12 DC13 ref for half

Combat over.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (8) + 14 = 22

"Hmm, the pyramid looks... unstable..."

reflexivity: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 141d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

"Whoof! That stings. Madam Krila, would you be able to spare a little healing energy?"

Bron is down by 20 HP.

Graythan watches as the creature erupts in one final spiteful gout with his characteristic stoicism. After Bron asks for aid, he offers, "I have a wand that might help mend your wounds, Bron. If Krila would prefer to preserve her magics?"

Graythan's got an as yet untouched wand of cure light wounds if you'd rather lean on that than your spells slots or channels, Krila!

Moira goes to retrieve her cold-iron dagger. "Boy.... that thing was nasty. Even when you win you can also lose."

I think you need two reflex saves Bron, one for the attack and a second for the death blast.

Reflex 1: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Reflex 2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

The bat breaths fire on Justified and the fighter, focused on his attack fails to dodge and takes the full breath damage. But his focus paid off as he is able to take the thing down before it got away. And this time he is more ready and jumps aside as the thing bursts into flames in death.

Justified takes 12 more fire damage and is down a total 26

Krila taps Bronwenir on the shoulder as she steps past. "Save the wand... it's not needed yet..."

Healing Hex: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (2, 4) + 5 = 11

She looks at the wound. "Crybaby, it's barely a scratch..." She comments, then looks around. "Any other scratches that need to be taken care of?"

Seeing Justified is also injured, she tch'tch's. "My my, you lot sure don't take good care of yourselves do you..."

She draws a finger across Justified's brow...

Healing Hex: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (8, 4) + 5 = 17

If you want the other 9, just pipe up... Hate to use a resource until the use would not be wasting healing.

I too could use some healing. says the fighter who is obviously badly burned.

I'd did do two reflex saves.

Bron rubs his sore muscles and thanks Krila. "I think I still need at least one more bit of healing. Do we have a wand?"

-Posted with Wayfinder

Graythan frowns at Bron's question, "Did that thing ruin those pointy ears of yours too?" He then produces the wand he'd just finished speaking of and brings some of its magics out for the elf.

cure light wounds: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

Justified, if you still need some healing after Krila's hex, feel free to roll it yourself and I'll track the charges.

In case it wasn't clear from Krila's comment, the top of the miniature pyramid in the center of the room is removable. You can open it or move on to the next room.

Moira inspects the mini pyramid in the center of the room for any traps.
"Hmmmm....let's see what we have here."
Trapfinding: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

@Moira: Yup it's trapped

Can Moira examine it for difficulty without setting the trap off? What kind of trap? If it's too difficult then she will just leave it alone.

"Looks like the pyramid is trapped. Hold on a sec." Using her toolkit, the rogue uses her nimble fingers to determine the severity of the trap.

Justified steps back far enough to let Moira work without her worrying that she might catch him in whatever the trap might do.

You wanna maybe roll a disable device check, Moira?

Graythan watches the spry elf work the top of the strange pyramid-like structure over and offers an approving nod as she announces the presence of a trap. "Good work, Moira. Can you disarm it?"

Disable Device, Skill, MW Kit: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 12 + 2 = 33
"Can I do it?" Moira looks at the device and begins to work on it then her head turns to Graythan. "Do elves have pointy ears?" Her head nods down as she stares at the device her eyes focusing on the device. Her dexterous fingers, along with her rogue tools, begins to make short work out of the device. Click, click, click. "Ahhhh. I love the sound of those clicks. Way better than "BOOM"... dontcha say?"

You never get to know the trap DC before you roll and you can't take 10/20. Also, DM is supposed to roll DD checks as your aren't supposed to know if you succeed, but anywho,

Moira disables the trap and you remove the lid to the miniature pyramid. Inside, you find a mummified Olman priest, bound in a fetal position by lengths of brittle leather cords. A ceremonial golden necklace carved to resemble a string of bat and lizard heads still hangs from the dead priest's neck.

In the next room, a huge circular disk of stone dominates the floor, its face carved with dozens of concentric rings of hieroglyphs and shapes. A filthy nest of bones and rubble sits atop it. Twin statues of men dressed in strange, ancient armor and wearing towering headdresses made of coiled snakes and bat wings stand at either side of an arched doorway that exits the room. Beyond the archway beckons a circular room , its walls adorned with dozens of niches in which rest the desiccated bodies of long-dead men and women.

The yawning shaft descends into gloom here. The walls of the shaft: are fitted with hun- dreds of niches, upon which lie the dusty bones of heroes, priests, kings, queens, and warriors of a bygone age. Resting upon the topmost niche, cradled in the arms of a skeleton, is a glittering golden statuette of a bat.

Krila looks at the necklace with an interested look...

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

She carefully removes the beads from the corpse. "While I am not fond of desecrating graves, I believe we will have more use for this..." She tucks the beads into her waist, and then casts create water and dumps a couple of gallons of water on the floor. Her eyes light up. "Ah, so that's how that works..." She says inegmatically.

Krila studies the bat, and the niches, while using detect magic. A faint purple sheen covers her eyes.

Suspicious that the unquiet dead might not appreciate Krila appropriating their baubles, Graythan hitches his crossbow up, ready for trouble. "Careful there. No telling just how possessive those interred here might still be."

@Krila: The bat statue is magical, but it doesn't have any inabilities. The best guess you can make is that it might be a key of sorts.

"The bat statue is magical. However, it doesn't appear to have any special abilities. It's likely a key of some kind... unless someone just liked bats and wanted to make sure their statue didn't deteriorate from age." She nods at the bat statue.

Take it with us?

Moira begins to inspect the twin statues.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Nothing else in the room appears magical and while the statues appear fierce, Moira doesn't notice anything unusual about them.

You guys going to retrieve the statue?

Krila shrugs. "Should we take the statue? If so, our trap experts should retrieve it I think, just in case." She nods at Moira. "Or I can, if you prefer..."

If Moira doesn't want to touch it, Krila will carefully retrieve it.

We are likely to need it. Just get it and lets move on.

Moira motions to all. "Everyone....stand back."

The young rogue begins her search for traps and tries to remove the statues. Trapfinding: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

His warnings unheeded, Graythan watches Moira work with narrowed eyes, his crossbow held at the ready for the trouble he's expecting.

Moira nimbly retrieves the statue from the burial nook and climbs back to the rest of the party. Up close you see that the golden bat idol is a fantastic work of art, with rubies for eyes and tiny slivers of pearl for fangs and claws.

The dungeon explored, Urol spends the rest of the day making detailed sketches of the ruins. Eventually it is time to return to the ship and the party, along with the newly de-petrified NPC, return to the ships. (I'm going to keep the remaining NPC as generic blanks incase we need to replace someone, or we have a PC death)

Back on board, Urol shows off his sketches and rubbings to any who wander too close and the ship makes preparations to put out with the dawn.

Four days out from Tamoachan, the Blue Nixie pulls alongside. Lavinia, hair blowing in the wind, leans out with some shouted instructions, "The next several miles will be among the most dangerous of the whole journey. We have to thread the needle between the Tamoachan peninsula and the South Olman Isle, and sail through a Scarlet Brotherhood blockade. We'll head through first, give us an hour and follow in our wake. We'll meet up again on the southern side."

The Blue Nixie pulls away and soon it disappears over the horizon. Soon, you follow along behind them, keeping a keen eye out for trouble. Unfortunately, it finds you and the sillouette of another ship comes into view. It doesn't take long to see that its course is set to cut you off and as it nears, you can see the bright colours of the Scarlet Brotherhood fly from its mast.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Graythan shrugs as the idol comes free without any traps or screaming, vengeful spirits, pleased that his fears proved unfounded.

Later, as the other ship approaches from the distance, Graythan turns to one of the others and deadpans, "I'm guessing the Scarlet Brotherhood are what, pirates?"

Know (Religion): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Something about the necklace seems familiar but Justified can't quite place it.

He spends his free time on the ship drilling and getting to know the people that were returned to flesh. He is friendly and hopes to learn both their abilities and their plans now that so much time has passed. I hope we can count on you if there is trouble. he says.

Later as he spots the approaching ship he calls out to captain or first mate Do you know their tactics? Are they likely to have siege weapons?

Know (Local, Scarlet Brotherhood): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

What would we know about the Scarlet Brotherhood in general. OOC I know quite a bit about them.

Krila looks at the ship. "I assume they are not wanting to ask us to borrow a sack of rice and a barrel of lard?" She asks, as everyone seems to be getting ready for a fight.

Krila looks at the sky... Stormy? clouds at least?

"Perhaps they might be warned off with a few judicious lightning strikes?"

Scarlet Brotherhood is an organization of pirates, smugglers, etc. Definitelty not nice people. If you recall the 2nd adventure when you chased Vanthus to that pirate cove, those were members of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Also, you technically stole your ship from them. I mean they were dead, but still.
@Krila: Let's say there are some clouds in the sky, but not stormy.

"If you can arrange such, that would be most impressive."

How long do we have before we meet them? Sea battles are often a lot of waiting while a ship with a 2 knot speed advantage over the other creeps up on it.

They are also known slavers. From my memory that is what they are primarily known for. And iirc they are much more organized than a simple group of pirates and smugglers. They govern an entire nation and have expansionist plans, meddling in politics of other nations. But that is from the old Living Greyhawk world.

"Certainly..."

Krila looks at the ship, guaging it's distance. When she's sure it's in range, she looks to the sky.

"Thundering Spirits, slumbering in the clouds... Awaken and display thy wrath!"

She reaches her hand to the sky, and with a flickering flash, a bolt of energy strikes down at the closing ship!

Aiming for the sails and masts and spars, 5 minutes worth of lightning strikes, 3d6 each, let me know how many to roll prior to them closing.

Hmm. If this is Call Lightning you only get one bolt per level, so 5 total bolts. And the range is medium so 150 feet.

Yep, that's it, but the spell lasts for 5 minutes, or until I run out of bolts. Given it's only 150 ft, I doubt I'll use all of them before they close. I had thought it was a long range spell, but it isn't. Just not sure how many I'll get off before they close...

I hope to shoot a lot of arrows before they close to 150 feet. And when your bolts start ripping through HH their rigging maybe they mever close...