GM Neirikr's "The Dragon's Demand" (Inactive)

Game Master Neirikr

He glances at Bernard and says, "I'm afraid I've exhausted my healing magic... if we carry on, I can't do much more than swing my hammer around wildly."

In case you missed it, Nighttail gave you her wand of cure light wounds before the last fight, currently holding 15 charges.

Should we return to the surface and heal up? We've only got tougher fights awaiting us below, and I think Bernard is now very convinced that he needs better AC.

It would be wise to rest up but leaving feels wrong.

Retreating to rest is a completely valid strategy if you feel like you've exhausted too much of your resources, but things will almost certainly not remain static while you're away. For one, there are a lot of currently unconscious kobolds lying about. The kobolds below will almost certainly do what they can to repopulate or trap the warrens while you're away, including resuscitating their fellows, if you don't kill them or take them with you.

Again, this is not to say you can't leave, just me reiterating how I tend to run dungeons.

Khardir Braktan wrote:

He glances at Bernard and says, "I'm afraid I've exhausted my healing magic... if we carry on, I can't do much more than swing my hammer around wildly."

In case you missed it, Nighttail gave you her wand of cure light wounds before the last fight, currently holding 15 charges.

I did miss this.

*nudge*

Decisions, people! Are going to rest or not, and if you are, where are you going?

With that wand I feel comfortable pressing on a little more. I vote we head on down the rope ladder and see what we find.

Onward! To glory and being maimed!

You would have had some time to ask Nighttail for details before going down, so let me know if you have any clarifying questions about the shrine, Churgri, or whatever else.

Also, an important correction: I might have previously referred to Churgri as a "he," but she's actually a lady kobold.

I decided to kick off the encounter now, so we're not stalling for too long. Syksy will join in when she is done with her character.

As always, feel free to shuffle your starting positions. I assumed someone would be going with Nighttail, so you're not all stuck in the same tunnel.

Can I even target Churgri from my square?

You can, but she definitely has cover.

Amidst various offerings left at the feet of the statue—mostly coins of various shapes and sizes—lies the restrained form of a young woman, clad in dark gambeson.

Am I conscious? If so is there anything I can do?

You are prone and tied up with hemp rope, but otherwise entirely free to act on your turn. That includes speaking—you aren't gagged or anything. It's a DC 19 Escape Artist check to slip free from the ropes, or a DC 23 Strength check to burst them. That, or someone can cut you free from your bindings.

Don't have ranks in EA and don't have the Strength to bust them :3

Escape Artist can be used untrained, so you do have a non-zero chance to get free. We can also assume you've been working for at least a minute to free yourself, which is the minimum time required to attempt the check. Or not, if you feel like Syksy has been content with her lot as a sacrificial victim. :P

Ah okay then :3

Can I spend my actin trying to cut some ropes?

Absolutely! You are going to have to roll for damage, though, since with your modifier you might not be able to deal the 2 damage required.

Woots! I did a thing!

Bravo!

Yay!

Bernard may want to look into Improved Bullrush to avoid getting killed in these continuous tunnel clogs.

He has the worse luck

The Dragon's Demand can't be continuous tunnel clogs forever, can it?!

And I swear, I'm beefing up my AC the moment I get to town even if I have to wear an iron kettle as a helmet and a boiler door as a breastplate ;)

The dragon demands more tightly congested hallways!

Seriously though, the rest of the dungeons won't consist mainly of five-foot tunnels, so it should ease out from here. This might also be the longest one.

Our most recent predicament is kind of what I meant when I was talking about the problems of group initiative earlier, as well: the skeletons rolled well, so all of them had an opportunity to rush the doorways before any of you could move into the room. I don't really remember this being a major issue in either of my previous playthroughs, where we didn't use group initiative. Those were played either live or through Roll20, however, so fights didn't take days to finish.

Pumping up your AC might not be a bad idea, in any case, if you're going to continue to fill the role of a tank. Currently, you seem to be taking at least one hit per round due to the sheer volume of attacks made against you—there's always that one lucky roll, even if the enemies generally have low attack bonuses.

My spellcheck keeps trying to correct Khardir to Chowder, and it cracks me up every time. I just wanted you all to know that. :D

"The finest in Dun Boston!"

DM: Can I move diagonally up and left, or is that a hard corner blocking me from going that way without passing through Bernard's square and triggering an AoO from the skeleton?

No, I don't think you can. The rules say that you can't move diagonally past a corner, and I usually rule it so that if an obstacle takes up more than half of the square, it's enough to block movement—if more than half of the square is clear, you can move through it or occupy it without being impeded.

All that might become a non-issue if you wait until after Bernard's turn, though. :P

Vibenia is a freaking beast with a mace!

Churgri had the following possessions on her person:

• Small chainmail
• Small masterwork quarterstaff
• 3 potions of cure light wounds
• fur-trimmed cloak with a hood (magical)*
• golden unholy symbol [shaped like a rearing griffon] (worth 100 gp)
• spell component pouch

The coins at the feet of the idol add up to a total of 1 pp, 7 gp, 12 sp, and 51 cp. Let me know if you want to pick them up. :)

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Unfortunately, you do need to cast detect magic or identify in order to identify magical items.

Thats fair. Sleepy me forgot.

Sorry about the slight delay! Lots of rolls to process...

Also, my continued apologies for the cramped hallways. This is almost certainly the last fight of the dungeon, so bear with me!

In case it isn't obvious: the chief's cavern is tall enough that there are no attack penalties for Medium creatures, but the tunnel is not. The squares with stairs are difficult terrain when moving up. Also, the hallway you're in is still doused in oil, so I'd be careful with fire while standing around in there.

Edit: As always, feel free to shuffle your starting positions!

@Vibenia: Having succeeded her initial save, Vibenia could use her action to attempt a new one and move. I think she should have the actions to do so, since stowing the crossbow takes one action, and drawing the axe could be done as a part of the movement.

I say we give all our stuff to Vibby, she's the only one rolling above a 10 :3

To be fair, the kobolds aren't doing much better. :P

They should give all their stuff to Vibby too.

Can I just have the last round that I was holding be aimed at the blue one?

I'm unsure as to what you mean. You set a trigger that was never set off, so the action is wasted.

Sorry it has been a bad week. Pulled a muscle in my back and could barely walk, had a box fall and hit me it the back of the head and on my shoulder, and also stabbed myself in the thigh. And my power has been going in and out all weekend. And apparently into today.

Wow you need to be bubble wrapped.

*nods*

*sends hugs*

I really do. People tell me that along with that I need to live in a bubble all the time. Murphy, from Murphy's Law, is my spirit animal.

Thank you forth hugs!

Solution!

I want one!

Not sure how to handle this - I've passed enough checks to escape and take two move actions, but am now trapped behind Nisany. Can I squeeze past her for my final move, or do I have to wait?

You used your standard action to break free, and your move action to move at half speed through the difficult terrain. As such, you wouldn't have the actions to take a second move, and since you can't willingly end your turn in another creature's space, you have to stay where you are now on the map. You can keep your second save to move on your next turn, if you want—I know this is all rather confusing.

Hey DM, what do you think of grouping all our initiatives together? Good guys go, then bad guys go, then good guys, etc? I feel like it'd streamline our combat process and make things move at a faster clip.

I approve of the bigger guns thing and also trying the initiative thing

And I am delaying until someone throws me. If Bernard does not want to then I will try moving out of the way but I kinda wanna be thrown

FASTBALL SPECIAL!

Ye!

As I said earlier, things will likely get less clunky once we're out of the warren. I'd personally prefer not to do full group initiative, but if you guys are okay with the chance of getting ganged on, I'm willing to try something a bit more drastic. Incidentally, I totally forgot to do the partial group initiative we agreed on for this encounter, though the kobold minions ended up going in groups of two anyway, so... vOv

As an aside, I appreciate the references, but please try to keep all the OOC chatter here in the discussion thread. That's my biggest PbP pet peeve.