GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Val looks at the cave a bit, but doesn't turn up anything useful on her own. "Someone working with the demons? A cultists of some kind maybe. Or possibly a spy. They're a potential problem, but I don't see anything helpful in identifying them."

"Could be Chaleb." offers Markus. "Wasn't he a cavalier?"

Curiously, he turns to Annabelle. "You ever meet Chaleb? Sazomal, I think?"

The group has found all they can here, and so they move on.

Another half hour passes as the group passes through the wasteland of the Wounded Lands. They are making excellent time, despite the slowness of tracking, as the prisoners appear to be bound and chain-ganged - they can't move very fast at all.

The trail goes down into a dry, narrow gulch following a dried-up creek bed that appears to have been the site of numerous battles. Rusted weapons, broken arrows, and the occasional skull are strewn about the landscape. Far ahead, downhill into the gulch perhaps a mile away, you can see a moving light.

in b4 Isilme lets me know you can totally see a candle flame on a pitch black night on a plane from much further than that. I know D:

The light moves forward for a moment... then stops and stands still.

Earlier:

"Oh, Chaleb? Don't get me started...." Annabelle winces. "But I suspect Ary has better stories about him, from what I remember you telling me.." She grins devilishly.

Earlier
Hinagiku gave a small smile to indicate that she was happy that her name was appreciated by the other.

Once they leave the site of the battle, she picks up the spear she had dropped and jumps back into the caravan.

As they inspect the cave, Hinagiku follows the others, inspecting the place too.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35

"One would only hide if one had something to hide. What could that person wanted to hide from the people at the fort?"

Now
Noticing a small change in the cadence of the horses, Hinagiku makes her way to the front of the caravan, and looks at the landscape over Markus' shoulder. Noticing the flame, she whispers to the others:
"Might that be the brimorak?"

Earlier:

Val chuckles at the mention of Chaleb. "Gods, I only met the moron once and I had enough of him. I can't imagine having to deal with him on a daily basis."

Now:

Val taps Callus's flanks with her heels again and get him moving forward. His movements still seem stiff and labored, and she paces him, not wanting to exhaust the poor beast. As the come to the ancient battleground, she looks over the scene. How many people gave their lives here trying to hold back the inevitable? She stops for a moment as the strange light moves ahead of them. "Everyone else sees the weird glow ahead of us, right?"

"Yeah." Ary says, but otherwise stays quiet. "Means they don't have nightsight, same as me. Not sure that's a good sign, though. That, or the Brimorak is glowing. Cause, you know. Fire burns."

I see what you did there. :P

"Vaerrov ag Doaekl," Ehren intones somberly, the name surfacing in his mind from other memory the moment they cross into the gulch, "The Valley of Death. A great many people died here. We should... tread lightly."

He peers at the light in the distance, frowning at Hinagiku's suggestion. They could only hope their quarry was so conspicuous. "Could they have noticed that they are being pursued? Or have they reached their destination?"

"Okay, so, what do we do, Captain? Are we pressing forwards? Sending a scout?" Annabelle asks, moving Blossom up to her.

Once three agree on a plan, we do it.

"Scouting is generally smart," Val points out as she brings her horse up to the front of the wagon. "And we're in enemy territory for all intents and purposes. Worst thing that happens is likely to be us turning and bolting back as fast as possible with something nasty on our tails."

I'm sure there's a Mythbusters devoted to figuring out how far a human can see a light unaided at night in the desert : )
I just assume visibility is what it is because Eeeeevil Abyssal terrain. After all, it was just raining teeth and demonic wasps erupted from pustules in the ground. I'm not certain a degree in physics would be so helpful at this point. I'd probably be like #3 on the list of people killed in this horror movie ;)

At the campsite
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

Isilme looks around the camp site and comes to the same conclusion as the others had. "Hmm... do you think this Chaleb would have been motivated enough to come out here?" she asks. She nudges Cyno forward again as they resume their course, wondering if they'd be forced to take refuge out here as well.

Now

"I see it too, Val. Perhaps it's the one who'd camped at the area before?" she wonders. "If so he's likely to have company, and they'll likely have seen us already"

"We can try scouting, but I honestly worry about splitting up in this terrain. If another group of wasps were to emerge while we were separated it could be catastrophic." Isilme responds to Annabelle's question. "Do you want to scout on foot, Val? Or perhaps Annabelle and someone can move up together to check it out? I'm not certain it would be safe to go forward on our horses otherwise."

"Val, if it becomes clear the demons are with whomever that is, get close to me so I can empower you with heroism"

I meant no offense - I'm geeky enough to think about dumb details like that, and I figured you would be too! ;)

"I move better on foot and it's definitely quieter than trying to use a horse. You might have a point on us getting ambushed, but it's not so far ahead that the rest of the group can't charge heroically to the rescue if something goes wrong. Still, I agree that caution is best. At least two, maybe three should scout if we send someone ahead so no one gets caught alone and we definitely don't get close enough to whatever it is for it to reach us."

She nods at Isilme's suggestion. "Right. I'll let you power me up if it turns into a fight."

"We do need to spread out." Ary says, "But moving in small groups is a great way to get killed all by itself. We can't really afford to split up here, like both of you've said."

Too vague. How far do you want to spread out?

If you don't give me a number I will have to decide for you. You probably don't want me to decide for you. ;)

Offense never taken! I totally would think about details like that, but I would open up like 4 pages and read up on the topic, and instead of doing that I'm running around unpacking lamps so we have light here in a couple hours : o

"I think going on foot is too dangerous. Annabelle and Blossom are best suited for this sort of scouting I think. She's our best rider, and Blossom won't be affected by the darkness, correct? Someone should ride with her so there'll be a second set of eyes along. Preferably Markus or myself so we can use this wand of haste on Blossom if something goes wrong. There will be little that can keep up with her speed then."

Scouting by Horse w/ Annabelle or party stays together is my vote. Markus can decide if he wants to ride shotgun, since she's his, and he can also heal all of them if something goes wrong.

"I don't think it's wise to risk Annabelle or her horses. Remember, these guys are ready to cut down horse and rider with relative ease. Don't forget why they have a dozen men, now. They sent cavalry in once. We shouldn't do that again. I vote we fan out to make us less obvious targets. If 'Belle really wants, she can stay on Blossom, but I don't think it's a good idea. We need Hina to be able to intercept the big guy as well. Ideally, if we can spot him, we'll put her between Ehren, Markus, and him. What's the range on your speed stick?" she asks, referring to the wand of haste.

"Ary, if the fight starts, I will need light to be effective. Being too far from you might be dangerous." she answers, unable to imagine a smart plan entirely on her own.

The horses being so very weak, it might be wiser to simply stay together. Or, could Ehren call an eagle and send it to scout?

"Not much, fifty or so feet I would guess," Isilme says, thinking about the wand. "And of course everyone needs to be closer together than that, so in practice the range is more like thirty feet," she concludes.

"Alright... so how's this. Hina and I both need light. No one else does. So, Hina and I will move forward with the wagon, using the light. That makes it pretty obvious where we are. We'll move a little slower than you guys so you can fan out. That'll also let you use the wand on each other. The demons will see the light while we're far away and try to set up an ambush, but you guys will be closer, moving in while they're still preparing. Ehren can do his dark eyes magic, and Hina and I will stick close together until the fighting starts. Move in pairs, but stay spread reasonably apart." she suggests. "If he goes for the wagon with his magic, he'll only hurt two of us. Likewise if he goes for you guys elsewhere. Ideally, we could just use the wagon by itself as a distraction, but... since the two of us can't reliably see... Any questions or suggestions?" Ary asks. That leaves Isilme to suggest leaving the coffin in a safe spot in case he -does- choose the wagon... plus any other clever plans! :)

"That sounds like a pretty good plan."

Isilme spends a few moments thinking about Ary's plan of action. "That's an excellent suggestion Ary, I think that it should work out quite well," she says. "If I might make a couple of suggestions, I believe Hinagiku should pose as the rider. She's agile enough to try to avoid the fireball I believe, and you can take cover within the wagon, using it to shield you from the blast if need be. Need only have a light inside the wagon to make it clear you're there as well." She pauses for a moment to let them think about it, then continues, "One more thing: We should leave Annabelle's coffin here lest it get destroyed with the wagon due to fireballs. That way we still have a means of protecting her from sunlight should day break before we can find a cave or another form of shelter."

"How do you feel about that, Hina?" Ary asks, looking towards the bloody horses.

It's a coffin, not a wardrobe ;)

Annabelle nods. "Okay. Sounds like a plan to me, Isilme. With all you magic-users about, I'd think one of you could figure out how to... conjure up a nice giant parasol that floats about and protects my delicate skin from the sun." She grins. "You guys really need to up your game."

Hinagiku nods when Isilme speaks about her agility.
"It seems like a smart plan. Still, I do not like the idea of you being in danger too." she says to Ary. " ... please, don't put yourself in danger out of heroism. If only we had a torch that we could light inside the wagon, you could hide somewhere safer."

Assuming the lights indicate a hostile target, how far away would Isilme use haste?

How fast will the wagon move?

"It is a sound plan. But assuming that the brimorak is just ahead, then someone should use this," Ehren suggests, partially sliding the scroll of resist energy out of his scroll case. "Some protection from fire, courtesy of Millorn.

"I would also grant darkvision to those of you that need it, but it does not last very long when not used on myself."

"How do we split up?" Ary asks. "And I'd say keep the horses to a walking pace after you guys get about sixty feet ahead? Human walking speed, that is. That'll help make us look like we're suspicious."

"It is a sound plan. But assuming that the brimorak is just ahead, then someone should use this," Ehren suggests, partially sliding the scroll of resist energy out of his scroll case. "Some protection from fire, courtesy of Millorn.

On who?

"Ary or Daisy might be best. They both are likely to be in close with the thing and I'm already resistant to fire, so I hardly need it."

She turns to Ary and nods slightly. "If it's the brimorak, it could very well attack no matter how suspicious we look."

"Ary or Daisy might be best."

Which?

That would be up to them.

"Mmm... It'll only be useful for me if I engage him directly, or he decides to make my life suck. It's best to give it to Daisy. If everything goes right, she'll be pinning him down for the most part."

Right. Need Isilme to clarify the haste thing, and then we can get this show on the road.

If any of you have additional input, now is the time.

The moment the lights are obviously a hostile target std action 1 is buff Valaria with mythic heroism, immediately after that I'll do haste if we're within 100' or so of the enemy.

If I messed up executing your plan you have one chance to let me know and make corrections :P

First, Ehren uses cavesight so that he can see in the dark – he can feel the magic from his original casting of the spell wearing off – so it makes sense to renew it. Meanwhile, Annabelle pulls her coffin out of the wagon and puts it on the ground, in case the wagon is destroyed and she is stranded in the open. Ehren then uses Millorn’s scroll of resistance, giving Hinagiku the ability to better resist flame. 10 Fire Resist, 30 minutes.

Rather than send out a scout, the heroes elect to instead move together. Because Ary and Hinagiku need light to see, they stay on the wagon, moving only as fast as one can walk, while the others move 60’ ahead in the darkness and spread out in range of Haste – within 30’ of each other.

Even though Hinagiku appears to be steering the cart, it is ultimately only Markus that directs the mindless skeleton horses where to go.

As the group approaches, it becomes more clear that the light is actually a couple of lights – one of which is being held by a mounted warrior, the other is the flickering flame of the weapon held by the creature beside of him. The mounted warrior stands in front of a small group of prisoners – a dozen in total – all unarmored and unarmed, and chained together with manacles. There are two schir wielding halberds on either side of the prisoners.

Isilme reacts accordingly, quickly casting mythic heroism on Valaria, but decides that they are too far away to also cast haste.

Once the heroes come within 600’, they can see that the mounted warrior is a humanoid in full plate with a glowing lance. The brimorak stands next to him, a tall, bestial humanoid who wears filthy, tattered robes and has blue-gray skin decorated with strange, coiling stripes. Dark fur grows on its head and arms, and its feet end in burning hooves. Its eyes glow as red as the flaming sword it wields in one hand, and its breath fills the surrounding air with noxious gray smoke.

The two schir look similar – covered in a mangy gray hide with an emaciated yet muscled frame.

The brimorak – Savash – wastes no time in pointing a finger at the oncoming caravan. A glowing, pea-sized bead of flame shoots out from it, and hurtles impossibly fast at the wagon… until it suddenly explodes into a giant ball of flame at the wagon itself…

Fireball damage!: 7d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 1, 5, 6, 1, 4) = 27
Save DC 18
Ary Reflex save (purity of faith, favored enemy, cover): 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 7 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 17
Hinagiku Reflex save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26
Bloody Skeleton Horse #1 (Restrained by wagon): 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (1) + 3 - 4 = 0
Bloody Skeleton Horse #2 (Restrained by wagon): 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 3 - 4 = 17

It blows a huge chunk out of the side of the wagon, and catches on fire. Ary is caught in the flames. 27 damage to Ary and she is grazed.

Hinagiku dives out of the way, and is able to avoid the explosion in its entirety. The skeleton horses in front of her, though, bear the brunt of it and are exploded into smithereens – so entirely – that they cannot even regenerate through it.

You are exactly 540' away, and Ary and Hinagiku are 600' away. When someone reaches 100' away, we will start conventional combat rounds. Until then, I want each of you to check in and let me know exactly what you are doing before you close ground. How fast you try to get there (are you going to run? are Valaria and Isilme riding on their horses?), and any other actions you take that would cause you to fall behind.

The enemies will be taking rounds also while you do this. So I will be tallying up exactly how fast you can get there.

I will be updating the battlemap momentarily so that you can better visualize the field. I have to make tokens, so :p

But for now - they are all huddled together.

Is it possible for Ary to have received cover from the wagon versus the fireball? That had been part of the plan, but it entirely depends on where the fireball exploded.

Reading through the rest in the meantime

Cure Moderate Potion: 2d8 + 6 ⇒ (1, 6) + 6 = 13

Ary pulls herself from the wreckage and drinks the cure moderate wounds potion she'd gotten from the grab bag earlier. Everything was going according to plan. Even if the plan did hurt like a B****.

While Ary drinks a potion, the demons don't do anything. At least they don't appear to.

The armored man - he is wearing a full helmet, and full, iron platemail - steps his steed forward and laughs. His horse is black, and clad in scale mail.

When the fireball races past the group and causes the wagon to explode, Ehren's heart starts to pound in his chest. On the way to the battlefield, he calls on the power of the ley and casts owl's wisdom on himself - his mind would have to be as sharp as possible for this battle.

Ehren is otherwise just double moving the entire time.

Ehren will take 12 6 rounds to get to 100' of the enemy.

Hinagiku rolls away from the wagon on the ground, and stands up in one swift motion.

"Ary?" she asks, her voice loud but still seemingly calm.

When she sees her pull herself from the caravan, she moves to help her up.
Once the ulfen woman is up, and has drunk her healing potion:
"Ary, would it be possible to be granted the power of the scale again?"she asks, almost demand since her voice does not have the usual interrogative inflection.

Once she ascertains that her commander is alright and receives and answer, Hinagiku launches herself in a run toward their foes. On the way, she draws the potion of barkskin with one hand, hanging on to her longspear with the other.

If anyone tells Hinagiku that she is too quick for the others, she will slow down.

First, the bloody skeletons exploded.

Assuming that Ary will bless Hinagiku's fists! And then if no one stops her from running, she consumes 6 3 rounds to get within 100'

"We're at a disadvantage at this range, we need to close quickly."
She digs out a wand and activates it, enchanting those who needed to be up front immediately with extra speed.

Burning a charge to haste Ehren, Val, Hina, Ary, Annabelle immediately after the mythic heroism lands. Second round will burn a charge to get Markus and Isilme. Can recalculate Ehren based on that. Will recast on Val, Hina, Ary, Annabelle, Isilme when within 100'. Third round Isilme will run to be within 30' of the others for the recast, otherwise double moves afterwards.

That will be 3 charges used total.

Val flinches, shielding her eyes from the flash of light as the fireball blasts the wagon and sets it ablaze. "Sh*t. Well, we found the brimorak. And he's got a friend that wants to play black knight. Fun." She charges forward as soon as Isilme finishes her spells, intent on getting as close as possible as fast as possible.

"I'll do you one better." Ary said, as she concentrated on the ring, placing her shield hand on Hinagiku's shoulder. "I will learn the weight of my sword." she intones, infusing Hinagiku with Bless Weapon from her ring, then pressing forward with her... but not quite with her, as she becomes a blur.

Isilme casts haste on Ehren, Valaria, Hinagiku, Ary, and Annabelle. She then sprints forwards with the rest of the group, while Valaria and Ary run forwards.

Isilme takes 4 rounds to get within 100'. Valaria takes 2 rounds to get within 100' Ary takes 5 rounds to get within 100'

Markus: It is up to you if Annabelle is mounted right now or not, since you weren't around to clarify for her.

Actually since Hina and Val are going all-out to get there, Isilme will run as needed to keep up with them if that's alright.

Isilme had expected the group to move relatively together to avoid becoming separated, so she's a bit surprised when Valaria and Hinagiku take off like a bolt. She thinks for a moment about keeping pace with Ary, but decides that supporting Val and Hina for now is most important.

I did have her run - you're spending 2 rounds casting haste (one once you are within range of Markus and also within 100' of the enemy) and 2 rounds running.