Through the power of friendship combined effort, you have slain the beast and rescued Rorgar from its clutches. A bubbly rattle accompanies the death throes its body makes as the light leaves from its eyes. It is dead.
You each gain 150 XP!
What do you do?
I have no idea what this thing is, but it looked like it wanted me as a chew toy.
With that, Rorgar casts a spell upon himself.
"You okay?" Evelina asks Rorgar, scratching her head a little. "You sure seem to be unlucky today...did you forget to pray or something?"
Turning to face everybody else, she continues, "Does anyone need a break or are we still good to keep moving?"
With a grin.
No Evelina, I just think it is Torag's method of testing and strengthening me. But I will live.
Sticking his blade into the ground, Uruk turns and helps Rorgar to his feet. Smiling in a kindly fashion, the gentle giant adds "Desna help me, the gods do like to throw us a challenge don't they? I'm sure this won't be our last difficulty out here either."
Grabbing his blade, Uruk uses a piece of cloth to clean the blood from the surface before inspecting the corpse "What was this thing anyway?"
"Well, I suppose that's one to look at it. Hardship and sorrow build character...or so I've been told." Evelina replies, looking uncharacteristically melancholy and thoughtful for a flickering moment, before letting out a laugh. "Personally I'm a much bigger fan of happiness and good fortune."
Replying to Uruk directly she says, "I have absolutely no idea what that thing was...other than probably hungry..."
Chuckling while taking the proffered hand to gain his feet. I wish that Torag would test me with happiness and good fortune, but alas, he figures we should work for those.
Taking a more serious note, As I had stated, I have no idea, but it hasn't learned that dwarves are to stringy and tough to make a good chew toy
However, my thanks for the save Uruk.
Now that you've killed the monster, what do you wish to do? It is still relatively mid-afternoon, so you can either continue with your trekking, or make camp and rest.
"Well, I'm willing to press on if the rest of you are..." Evelina says, "Although, if you are worried about your injuries I understand."
I think we should push on for a bit more, at least until near dark
"I would really prefer not to spend the night here if we can avoid it. Let's try to catch up to the ones that abducted the noblewoman so we can get the hell out of here."
You continue along your way, tracking the footprints that have yet to be filled in by the falling snow. But you round the next turn, you see something unusual. Feathered bundles and strange fetishes hang from the lowest branches of the trees in this part of the forest, swaying and shifting in the wind. All are stuck through with small pins holding pieces of leather bound around them.
What are these things?
Having learned his lesson from the flying log, Rorgar is hesitant about closing with the fetishes.
Evelina examines the area to see if this is more trickery from their foes.
She also tries to remember if she has learned anything about these kind of fetishes anywhere on her travels.
Ok, I've gotta make sure I'm careful to...Oh! Look! A butterfly!
Rorgar takes the time to look around, to see if he can figure out what put these in the trees
Ember also looks around carefully after the last trap, and then tries to analyze the bundles and fetishes from 10' away without approaching to touch range.
Rorgar screws up his head while he tries to remember his stories that the church gave him about things.
Hesitant like Rorgar appears, Uruk skulks around slowly trying to make heads or tails of what is going on, being careful to not touch the strange fetishes.
None of you are able to see anything through the falling snow. But all of you are able to discern what the fetishes are. They are the corpses of dead crows, and it appears that they were killed by very small arrows.
Local hearsay says that the dancing lights in the forest are responsible for this. However, it is unknown as to what those dancing lights are, or what causes them.
There is nothing in the temple stories that relates to your current situation. At least the stories that you've been told, any way.
The faint aura of cold magic emits from the ice that wraps around the crow.
Well, I got nothing, can we continue on, or are we going to stand here and freeze.
Evelina shrugs, "Yeah...I mean, I've heard rumors about dancing lights do stuff like this in the forest...but if it doesn't relate to our mission, we should probably keep moving."
Keeping her rapier in her hand she remarks, "We should stay on guard though. These things are kind of creepy and I'm not sure I want to meet whatever made them. Lets walk around them if we can."
Ember's frown deepens at the crow corpses, and she continues to look very apprehensive about this whole endeavor. She continues to trudge along with the rest of the group.
As you move away, you can hear a whistling noise come out of the treeline.
Two arrows strike Ember, and one misses Evelina. While she doesn't take any damage, Ember must make a DC 11 Fortitude save or be Staggered for one round.
Evelina quickly moves to put herself between Ember and the ambushers. Pulling out her crossbow, she attempts to return fire.
Sniping: If you've already successfully used Stealth at least 10 feet from your target, you can make one ranged attack and then immediately use Stealth again. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check to maintain your obscured location.
Source
If either one of her attackers fails their Stealth check, please describe their appearance, and Ember will also use her Fire Jet ability.
fire damage
fire damage
Nonlethal damage represents harm to a character that is not life-threatening. Unlike normal damage, nonlethal damage is healed quickly with rest.Dealing Nonlethal Damage: Certain attacks deal nonlethal damage. Other effects, such as heat or being exhausted, also deal nonlethal damage. When you take nonlethal damage, keep a running total of how much you've accumulated. Do not deduct the nonlethal damage number from your current hit points. It is not “real” damage. Instead, when your nonlethal damage equals your current hit points, you're staggered (see below), and when it exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious.
Nonlethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Lethal Damage: You can use a melee weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage instead, but you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll.
Lethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Nonlethal Damage: You can use a weapon that deals nonlethal damage, including an unarmed strike, to deal lethal damage instead, but you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll.
Staggered and Unconscious: When your nonlethal damage equals your current hit points, you're staggered. You can only take a standard action or a move action in each round (in addition to free, immediate, and swift actions). You cease being staggered when your current hit points once again exceed your nonlethal damage.
When your nonlethal damage exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious. While unconscious, you are helpless.
Spellcasters who fall unconscious retain any spellcasting ability they had before going unconscious.
If a creature's nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage. This does not apply to creatures with regeneration. Such creatures simply accrue additional nonlethal damage, increasing the amount of time they remain unconscious.
Healing Nonlethal Damage: You heal nonlethal damage at the rate of 1 hit point per hour per character level. When a spell or ability cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.
Rorgar hearing Evelina's slight sound of surprise from the hits, he turns rapidly, looking to see where the shots came from, as he starts to load the crossbow that he found.
You can't see anything.
Two more attacks come out of the treeline.
Two hit Evelina and deal 1 damage and one hits Rorgar. Each of you need to make Fortitude Saves DC 11 to avoid being staggered for the next round according to the number of arrows that hit you.
feeling the little arrows strike him, Rorgar, looks hard into the trees.
"Urgh.." Evelina groans as the arrow staggers her backwards. Turning to the group, she points towards the trees in the opposite direction and shouts, "We need to get behind cover! Now! Until we can figure out where these things are..." She quickly adds, "Ember? Do you think they are using some kind of magic to hide from us?"
Evelina makes no motion to move unless Ember does, still trying to provide her cover from their ambushers. .
Rorgar grimaces and then looks annoyed at the small arrow that just hit him.
Agreed Evelina, Rorgar waits until the others move back before falling back to cover.
Realizing the precariousness of their position, Uruk moves in forward cover the others as the retreat "We definitely need to move from this position, fall back!
@Evelina: You took 2 Damage in total from two different attacks.
@Ember: Yes.
Uruk, it's your turn.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Seeing ember move back, Rorgar moves back under cover and in a spot where he can try to observe where the shots are coming from.
Evelina also makes a dash for the treeline, trying to find a thick trunk to hide behind.
Once Uruk sees that everyone is making their way to the treeline, he moves backwards in the same direction, moving defensively.
You all move back into the treeline, and place yourselves behind oak tress thick enough to shield you from any more fire. Catching your breath, you begin to plot how to draw out your hidden adversaries.
What say you? How do you plan?
"Ugh...I can't tell if they are following us..." Evelina groans, as she winces and pull out two little arrows.
Turning to Ember and Rorgar, she whispers, "Any ideas how they are doing this...or any magics to fight it with? Because I am kind of at a loss...I can't fight what I can't see...and I doubt Uruk can either..."
Catching her breath, she continues, "If they don't follow us, maybe we can get away, using the tree lines for cover. If they do follow...well, I'm probably the fastest, plus I've been wanting to put this fancy new armor to the test..." Evelina says, weakly trying to make a joke, "Maybe if I go out there again you can all watch to see where they fire from...or at least you'll all have more time to run..."
Hopefully it does not come to that. As for magic to counter what ever they got on the go, I am at a loss and out of spell power
So pulling back while using the trees as cover sounds good for me
"Let's try to circle around them, using the terrain as a shield between us and them", Ember says, taking a stick and drawing a simple diagram in the snow, indicating the enemy with a dot in the middle, and then drawing up a semicircle around the dot to show the group going around them. "If we always just keep something between us and them, like trees, ridgelines or whatever, then they will be forced to come to us."
Evelina nods and replies, "Shall we start moving slowly then, while watching our backs?"
Aye, lets get going.