Ryder double-moves: one move action to reload his crossbow, and the 2nd move action to step a tish closer to Loris.
Ryder yells out, "Gaedren! You're already dead! you just don't know it yet!" These were the words Gaedren spoke to Ryder not so long ago, just before his thugs drug him out to an alley in old Korvosa and beat him to death - or so they thought. Ryder survived, and has been waiting for this day to come...
Loris moves to area Ryder just vacated. The only spot which provides total cover from his enemies so his burst doesn't heal them as well.
Ryder, Loris (and the Crocodile since I can't avoid it) Get 6 points back.
Ralof stands his ground and swings at Gaedren again.
Yargin aims the wand towards Ralof once more...
Yargin finally is able to hit his target with a wand of acid splash.
Ralof takes 1 point of acid damage.
Round 6 Summary:
Gaedren takes a shot at Ralof, but misses his target.
Ryder reloads and moves to a better position.
Loris Moves to a tactical location and Channels Energy healing those in 30' that have direct line of effect to him.
Ralof tries to hit Gaedren again but misses his target.
Yargin Finally gets his wand to activate and hits his target, Ralof, for a point of acid damage.
Round 7 Begins:
Gaedren Reloads his crossbow and fires again through the gaps in the table at Ralof.
The Bolt embeds into the table in front of him. You hear him mutter a few obscenities as he fumbles around for another bolt.
ralof is starting to get mad at missing so he takes one more try at Gaedren.
and then backs up to here MAP
Loris takes a free action to tells Ralof to take a step to his right (up on the map) He will then HOLD his action until after Ralof Moves and attacks (You can still attack gaedren from this position)
If he does, the map looks like this: MAP (I'm still in the corner from my last move)
Then on his turn....
Loris drops his spear and runs up the the now vacated area, uses his swift action Enlarge Person and attempts to lift the table out from in front of gaedren.
This consumes two movements and his turn is over with him now holding the table.. Size Large
The Map Looks like this: MAP
Gaedren does not have his cover bonus anymore.
He does the same as if Gaedren was still alive, but with the table in front of Yargin instead.
Ralof moves to Loris's right then and attacks Gaedren from there
Yargin is a bit freaked out by massive Cleric that just appeared in front of him.. He tries to hit him with the wand.
The wand fails to activate and Yargin can be seen trying to hunker in closer to the cover of the table in front of him.
Round 7 Summary:
Gaedren fires a bolt at Ralof and misses. Ryder moves up and fires his crossbow back, also missing.
Loris Barks out an order for Ralof to move then holds his action.
Ralof moves and attacks Gaedren but misses by an inch.
Loris then moves in and with tremendous strength rips the table out from in front of Gaedren.
Yargin fails to activate a wand.
------
I thought it might be helpful to see exactly how they are getting the cover they are enjoying right now. I placed blue bars on the map indicating the tables that are providing the cover. Loris ripped out the one table. So the current map looks like this: MAP
Round 8 Begins
Gaedren pulls out a small dagger and moves to the cover of the other table and assumes a Total Defense posture (+4AC). He was enjoying using the cover and makeshift arrow slits for protection, but he feels that ship has sailed. He eagerly awaits anyone whom might try to attack.
*Side note. As long as you have line of effect to a corner of his square, his cover is reduced. Of course Loris's huge body may add to the difficulty in hitting him with a ranged weapon. If you decide to move to the location Gaedren just left, he will have no cover bonus as you will be behind the tables.
Ryder uses a move action to reload his crossbow.
Ray of Frost:
Ralof gets a bit more mad at garden for being so hard to hit, so he swings at yargin.
Loris free action drops the table behind him, which falls into the pit below. He then uses a swift action to maintain his Enlarged status.
He uses a move action to attempt to lift the table in front of Gaedren..
With his Standard action he swings the table itself at Gaedren.
Gaedren now has no table in front of him.. I have no way of editing the table out of the map since it is part of the background image, but there is no table there. The table that is left is represented by the blue bar.
Yargin nervously says, "Boss, you said they couldn't get us here!"
He Attempts another shot of the wand at the menacing Cleric.
Yargin hits Loris for a point of acid damage.
Round 8 Summary.
Gaedren seeing his cover disappear moves to a more defensive posture behind another table.
Ryder connects with a ray of frost for a point of damage. Gaedren does not look like a pillar of health.
Ralof just misses hitting Gaedren with a powerful Greatsword attack.
Loris, picks up the other table in front of Gaedren and attempts to decapitate him with it, but the table proves too unwieldy for an accurate shot.
Yargin in singes Loris with a point of acid damage.
Round 9 Begins. (It has been 10 rounds since we entered the building. Loris had cast a spell just before hand that lasted 1 minute. Each round of combat lasts 6 seconds. So... he no longer is under the effects of Shield of Faith)
Gaedren is left with few options.. He is no match in melee against he hero's and he wont last long in a fight.. He attempts to flee using the path without clutter.
He provokes an attack from Loris as he moves through his square.
He moves as far as he can get as a double move. He tries to move as much as he can, but Old age has left him with a pronounced limp.
Ryder moves part way through the clutter to head Gaedren off at the door, and then fires his crossbow at him. "There's no escape Gaedren!"
Ralof runs after Gaedren shouting "you will not get away!!"
Ralof moves here: MAP
Ralof strikes with his great sword
The Crossbow bolt from Ryder embeds into the chest of Gaedren... He looks at all of you with a look of confusion as he wonders how it has come to this. He always took care of his problems before hand, and now his mistakes have come back to haunt him.
He slumps over and falls into the pit.
*Ralof can ret-con his action if you wish.. As Gaedren is dead in the pit.
Other than that he's his right hand man, and oversees the day to day operations of the operation... No. Your main beef was with gaedren. It's up to you how you would proceed.
Ralof runs up to yargin yelling "No man left alive!!"
And takes a swing at him
Once we're off initiative, Ryder goes over to the pit to see Gaedren's body - he wants to be sure Gaedren's dead. Then Ryder rolls Yargin's body looking for magical goodies.
Finally, Ryder would like to recover any bolts that he can for his crossbow.
So a quick cinematic post since you already know the results...
With his rage towards Gaedren still fresh in his head, Ralof takes a step around the cover of the table and meets his sword to Yargins head. His lifeless body now lies hunched over one of the table legs that he was so desperately using to hide.
With that, your enemies have been vanquished.
Ryder moves over to verify Gaedren is dead
As he does so, the crocodile comes out of the effects of the spell Loris had cast. Sensing fresh blood in the water, he moves in. The sight is gruesome as he is devoured by his own crocodile.
Ryder will take 20 to search this room and the corner 'bedroom'. As he begins the first search on this room, he says to the others, "I'll search this level - perhaps you two should go upstairs and search more thoroughly."
Take 20 Search on the large room, with Ryder's daily Harrow-draw wisdom bonus applied: 20 + 2 = 22
2nd search on the bedroom: 20 + 0 = 20
First thing is Crossbow bolts.. 3 recoverable from your misses.. I'm going with 3misses from gaedren (don't really want to go back and count.. hehe) I go with high is always good for players in percentiles..
You recover three crossbow bolts. Ralof go ahead and roll xd100 depending on your missed arrows to see how many are recoverable 51+ on the die roll is recovered.
For the rest of the items, I will be making a spreadsheet detailing what was found. However there is one particular thing that I will detail in a separate post.
Ryder opens the door to what can only be assumed was Gaedrens sleeping chamber...
This foul-smelling room seems to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall, while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox, a slighty rusted lock securing its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner—what appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser.
Upon opening the hatbox, Ryder is greeted by something shocking..... Zellara’s severed head, poorly preserved and decorated with unsightly makeup in a crude attempt to give her sagging flesh the semblance of life. When shown to Loris, he will immediately recognize that she has been in fact dead for weeks.
Tucked beneath her severed head is a small wooden box. Inside that box is Zellara's own harrow deck. When Ryder goes to look for the card she gave him earlier that day, he cannot find it. It is sitting on top of the deck, as if it had been there all along.
The strongbox is locked, and the key must have been on Gaedren. none of you have disable device, but you will manage to break it open with enough time. Inside you find what looks like Gaedrens personal stash of valuables.. Some Gems, some vials of oil, a wand and a particularly valuable looking brooch.
You did not search the ship, but if you want to we'll have to run it like normal instead of quick search. I'll also calculate up XP for you as well.
Ryder will collect the Harrow deck and other valuables and make his way out to the catwalk where they first came down to check out the ship from this level.
Ralof says to Loris and Ryder, "Are we about done or are we going to the ship? I wouldn't mind just taking a look."
There is a small skiff at the end of the lower dock that Gaedren uses to get to the underside of the fishery. (you can see it in the lower picture next to the bigger boat)
Ryder says, "That ship is a death trap - it doesn't look like anyone has been on it in years - the walkway to get to it almost killed us. I say leave it be."
Ryder gets onto the skiff, and invites Ralof aboard if he's still on the lower level.
We all meet up outside where we first entered the fishery. Ryder asks, "I'd sure like to burn this place down..."
Ryder then says, "Let's go back to Zellara's and see if we can figure out what the hell is going on. We'll divvy up our loot there."
Ralof says "Could be a bad idea, Guards could come by and be mad. Lets go back to Zellara's.
Ralof starts the walk back.
Loris says, "I understand the sentiment Ryder, but under the circumstances I'd rather we just get out of here."
"I agree with Ralof. Let's head on back to Zellara's It couldn't be her.. it has to be someone else... Right?"
He then heads for the door.
As the hero’s exit the Old Fishery, they are greeted by sheer chaos… Korvosa is in flames. Smoke rises on the horizon. The frantic clang of alarm bells sing out in harmony with a multifarious cacophony of screams, the clash of steel on steel, moans, and even the periodic detonation of arcane power. A wing of Sable Company griffon riders swoops overhead, angling toward Castle Korvosa at a breakneck pace. In an eerily similar situation to what Zellara and Ryder saw in their Harrowing, one of the badly wounded mounts rains blood down on the street around the hero’s before it succumbs and crashes headlong into a statue, taking its rider and itself to a bone-crunching demise. The others in the flight do not pause to check on their fallen ally. Amid the chaos, the voice of a Korvosan herald cuts through the din: “The king is dead! Long live the queen!” only to be shouted down by ragged cries of “Hang the queen!” and “The usurper whore must die!” Through an alleyway, the party even spots a contingent of hellknights clad in dark iron armor and horned helms pursuing a small gang of what appear to be looters. The city has gone mad during your battle with Gaedren in his lair.
As you make your way towards Zellara’s house the chaos only gets worse.. Looters take advantage of the chaos to take what they can. People loyal to the King Eodred II seem to have lost their minds, attacking anyone whom show allegiance to the Queen Ileosa.
It takes you several minutes to find your way to Zellara’s home.
You open the door to Zellara’s home, as you enter, Things do not quite look the same as they did just earlier that day. The building looks as if it has been abandoned for weeks.. There is no sign of food, wall hangings, rugs, or Zellara herself. The furniture is scattered in pieces throughout the room.
As you approach the table, an image manifests before you. It is of that of Zellara. The look of total desperation has left her face. She smiles at the hero’s.
”Thank you, my friends. I’m sure you have many questions. I’m sorry to have deceived you. I did not want to deceive you, but would you… Could, you have helped me, knowing that I… She chokes up as the reality of her death rings true.
She composes herself and continues”Yes, I am dead. When Gaedren murdered me, my soul was transferred into my Harrow deck. It’s my Harrow Deck that allows me to be here before you, it allows me to create the image of myself.... Of my home…. She looks around the room and everything transforms to look the way it did before you had left.
”I come to you now, not only to thank you for freeing me, She points to her harrow deck. ”from that vicious Gaedren, but also to warn you, these are dangerous times. Korvosa’s fate depends on you. Without you all, the city will surely burn.
She looks at Ryder, ”You have the power of the Harrow, I can help you to hone your skills. Please, take me with you She again, points to her Harrow Deck.
”I can help guide you all to discover your destinies. I believe it was my destiny to meet the fate I met, so as to help guide you to discover yours. Now go, meet your destiny.
With that, Zellara disappears perhaps leaving more questions than answers.
It's quite open to what you want to do right now. It's a few hours after sundown, and while the chaos out in the streets is likely to run throughout the night, it is likely to die down some by morning as the sudden outburst of anger over of the death of the king has time to subside.
Ralof looks at the rest of the crew and says "I say stay here for the night and figure out what we want to do in the morning. In the mean time we can divvy up the loot and decide who gets what."
"I agree. There's no sense getting ourselves caught up in that madness."
Ryder looks to Loris for confirmation, and barring any objections, sets to work securing the building - locking & barricading whatever he can.
"Perhaps we can use this place as a base of operations for the meantime? I wonder if there is a key here?
A quick look around the room reveals no keys. He thinks about it a little bit. Did we find any keys at the Fishery?
Loris helps Ryder Barricade the door after finding Zellaras key on Yargins key-ring and locking the door.
He then turns his attention to the loot collected...
"Lets identify these items
You need to identify Objects #18,19,20,22
#19 and #22 can only be done by Spellcraft while #18 and #20 can be identified via spellcraft or a perception check.
Afterward, I need an appraise check on 29 items.. Just roll 29d20 and i'll apply the modifiers.
Loris tries to identify #18 and #20
Then turns to attempt to assist the person with the highest appraise check (Probably "New" Ralof)
All at a -2 for intelligence :)
Loris Identifies the oils with ease.
#18 is a dose of Oil of Keen Edge
#20 is a dose of Silversheen.
Ralof says with confusion, " How are we going to sell all this? The city is in a madness!"
With Ralofs roll and Loris assist, you feel you accurately appraised 2 of the items so far. (If more people assist, that number could change to as many as 9)
"I guess we'll have to wait out the storm. My gut tells me that once this all blows over, things will calm down a little.
Loris then goes off to find himself a place to lay down for the night, doing his best to drown out the sounds of rioting in the streets.
There is a bed available, but he's spent so much of his life sleeping in the trees and wilderness that he prefers not to use them.
Ralof agrees with loris and says " I'll keep guard just in case someone gets in. You rest Ryder."