GM Tarondor's Kingmaker Campaign

Game Master Tarondor

"Step close, everyone." Alister approaches the egg carefully, then when everyone is in position, he casts Invisibility Sphere, trying to cover the entirely of the group and the egg while they secure it.

Kern Not Frizz... pockets the ceramic jar and mores close to help with the egg.

"I found a jar. It's full of air." Kern says, matter of factly.

Piotr steps close to the others, so that he would also be covered by the invisibility spell.

"I was planning on flying back down the mountain. Should I go ahead and secure a campsite to be ready when you finishing climbing?"

"I am not sure you wish to be in the air alone if the mother comes back and finds its egg missing." Mikhail says as he moves to join the invisibility circle and then secure the egg.

"Let's at least head back through the stairs. It can't attack us from the air that way. Then maybe we'll be far enough away that it will have a hard time finding us."

Aristu moves close enough to his brother to become invisible and volunteers to take one end of the egg satchel. "We'll want to take turns, and we probably want to avoid having two warriors encumbered by egg."

So who besides Aristu is carrying the egg?

"I'll carry the egg down the stairs with you for now. I'm not very effective if I've got not room to move anyway."
Kern says, taking up the other part of the egg harness.

Mikhail will lead the way down the stairs.

Is the stairwell large enough for a giant bird to come down it?

Not if it's as big as you've heard, no. You could get a horse down these stairs, but not, say, something large enough to hold an elephant in its talons.

The work is difficult, the stairs old and worn. It is hours of sweating, bruising, swearing and flirting with disaster. But at last you maneuver the giant egg back to where you fought the yetis.

Now what?

"Carrying this down the side of the mountain is a recipe for disaster. Can we cast enough Fly spells to all go down carrying it at once? Possibly invisible to avoid any Rocs that might be sweeping the area? Even if we need to wait until tomorrow to make our way down, I think we are more likely to succeed if we do not have to carry this egg down the icy, uneven slopes of this mountain." Mikhail says.

"I would need to rest and prepare different spells, to be able to provide it to all of you," says Piotr.

"The other option is to summon some large creature capable of carrying the egg while flying."

Aristu absentmindedly rubs his sore shoulders. "I can give flight to four people, but the spell only lasts a few minutes."

"I can add my spells too. I think we ought to do it." He motions to the harness. "I'll take over and cast Invisibility Sphere again. Even if the rest of you aren't in it, at least the egg will be hidden."

So Alister and Aristu cast Fly on everyone. Then Alister casts Invisibility Sphere, so he and whoever else is carrying it, plus the egg are hidden. Fly only lasts 5 minutes, but hopefully we can get far enough away.

"I do not know that we are in a rush. It has taken us several weeks to get this far. If we can add another round of flies tomorrow it might be worth it. If we can fly for twice as long going down we might come close to the bottom before we are forced to land. But if the consensus is to go now I am ready." Mikhail says.

"Perhaps a couple of us should scout the way now. They can see how far 5 minutes of flight will take us, and maybe find a good landing spot within range. Then in the morning we can all head out with the egg."

"I can scout as a bird and report back. I can only hold the shape so long and would need to rest briefly before I can shift again."

10min Pest form as a small bird. Then 10min to refocus.

Alister nods. "Good idea. The rest of us can wait here and catch our breath."

While our characters might be tired from carrying the eggs down the stairs, we haven't really used many resources after resting in the yeti cave. I don't see a huge reason to stay another night.

I'm not sure if you're discussing actions or taking them. Let me know!

Kern scouts ahead as a bird while the team flies behind slowly and invisibly.

A storm blows down from the north, almost as if the mountain itself is furious at your theft. Winds begin to stir and fat, wet flakes begin to fall. It will soon be dangerous to fly. What do you do?

"I can create another shelter, unless you want to push through the storm," declare Piotr.

If no one objects, Piotr casts Cosy Cabin again.

"It would be fool hardy to push through a storm like this, but let's not get buried alive in your cabin as well."

I'm uncertain what do do here. I sorta want to try and fly as far as possible before we have to hunker down in the cabin. Some of you seem to want to try and wait it out closer. I realize Fly only gives us 5 minutes of flight, but that's that much farther away we get from the Roc. And the weather should inhibit it as much as us.

"I fear we will drop the egg in this storm. If that happens this whole thing will be a failure." Mikhail says.

I think the safety of the egg is paramount here. Going now puts it at risk. If we are going to see the Roc then we are going to see the Roc. But with fly and invisibility after the storm we might not run into it in the mountains.

"I agree. The egg's safety is paramount here. I'm sure we could withstand a storm but the egg..." Kern comments.

So...?

So far I think that everyone but Alister was up for waiting till the morning. But if Alister really wants to go for it then we can. I am just not sure what the hurry would be when we have taken this long already.

Alister nods. "We do need to keep the egg safe. Ok, let's use the cabin and try to wait out the weather."

Within minutes you're glad you made the decision to get inside. The temperature drops and the winds howl. The storm is powerful. It rattles the windows and shakes the walls until even Piotr isn't sure that it will stand. Shrieking and crying, the wind claws at the roof, the door, the walls for hours and hours.

Finally, all is still. A look outside the windows shows that snow has piled up against the cabin in immense drifts as tall as a man.

You are just sighing in relief when you hear the piercing cry of a great bird far above.

What do you do?

How much time is left on the Cosy Cabin?

Piotr recalls what he can about rocs, particularly whether they agressively protect their nests and eggs.

Recall Knowledge (Nature): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20

About 3 hours left on the spell. Piotr doesn't know much about rocs.

"Unless we have some way to clear all this snow, we may have to face this thing. If the snow were any deeper, we could tunnel through, but the I'm not confident the egg will fit."

Would it fit?

"And with the snow, invisibility won't help us walking. Flying, perhaps. But we won't all be able to fly in the sphere. We'll just keep running into each other. And the spell only lasts a short time."

I'm up for trying the invisible flying egg, but the roc might just attack those it can see.

Piotr rubs his chin, which obviously requires a shave after all this time roughing it in the wilderness.

"That is actually an idea, Alister," says the wizard.

"Can one of you cast an illusion? Big enough to resemble an egg, so that someone fast can run off with the egg and lure the roc away while the rest of us go the other way. Do you think that would work?"

Aristu takes a good look at the egg. He runs his hand over it and inhales deeply to get it's scent. Turning to Piotr, he says, "I believe I could, but what happens to the person luring the roc away? I doubt any of us can outrun a roc through waist high snow. This egg isn't worth anyone's life."

"This house lasts several more hours. I think we should leave the egg here and deal with the Roc. If we can scare it off, great. If we cannot then that is what the Gods will. But our attempts at stealth have failed and we will need to meet this threat bravely. Once we have finished we can return for the egg and figure out how to get it off this mountain safely." Mikhail says.

"We could do that, too, Mikhail," replies Piotr.

Suddenly the sounds of that bird's cry is much closer. What do you do?

Alister nods. "I think it's going to find us quickly. But maybe if it sees we don't have the egg, it will move on." He grabs his armor and weapons to face off against the roc, leaving the egg inside.

Alister will cast Fly on himself and Mikhail, then Blur on Mikhail before they exit the cabin.

"Let me set a surprise for anything trying to enter this house."

Kern snares the entrance to hut as everyone is leaving and incants from a wand.

Kern cast Longstrider from his wand and snares the hut with an Alarm Snare

I thought Piotr was able to only let us in?

Mikhail draws his crossbow and loads the weapon before he strides out of the door to see how large this bird might be.

important note - if Piotr leaves the cabin, the spell ends.

Piotr will stay inside the hut, then. Ready to defend the egg with his life ...

Oy. How to even start this? 3-D fights are notoriously chaotic. And no map is large enough. I'm thinking that we should try a theater-of-the-mind approach for this.

I'm going to get back to this on Monday...

"Piotr, if you're staying here, can you give me the ability to fly? I don't think myself as a sparrow will do us any good against a roc."

Okay, I think I'm overthinking it at this point! Let's get to it!

Here are some rules we'll be using:

THE FLY ACTION

Fly Single Action

Move
Source Core Rulebook pg. 472 2.0
Requirements You have a fly Speed.You move through the air up to your fly Speed. Moving upward (straight up or diagonally) uses the rules for moving through difficult terrain. You can move straight down 10 feet for every 5 feet of movement you spend. If you Fly to the ground, you don’t take falling damage. You can use an action to Fly 0 feet to hover in place. If you’re airborne at the end of your turn and didn’t use a Fly action this round, you fall.

MANEUVER IN FLIGHT

Maneuver in Flight Single Action

Move
Source Core Rulebook pg. 240 2.0
Requirements You have a fly Speed.You try a difficult maneuver while flying. Attempt an Acrobatics check. The GM determines what maneuvers are possible, but they rarely allow you to move farther than your fly Speed.

Success You succeed at the maneuver.
Failure Your maneuver fails. The GM chooses if you simply can’t move or if some other detrimental effect happens. The outcome should be appropriate for the maneuver you attempted (for instance, being blown off course if you were trying to fly against a strong wind).
Critical Failure As failure, but the consequence is more dire.
-----------------------------------------------
Sample Maneuver in Flight Tasks
Trained steep ascent or descent
Expert fly against the wind, hover midair
Master reverse direction
Legendary fly through gale force winds

The way we're going to handle this is that if you have the appropriate level of training in Acrobatics and are in the High Air, you don't need to make a roll. But if you attempt something more difficult than your proficiency in Acrobatics allows, you must make the roll.

There will be three encounter areas: 1) Near the cabin; 2) Near the mountain (but not the cabin); 3) The high air (everything 50' and more above the other two areas. Maneuvering (anything other than a straight line or a turn of less than 45 degrees) will require an Acrobatics roll to avoid trees, rock outcroppings, each other, etc.

If you do not spend at least 1 action per turn flying, you fall.

Alister gets off the two fly spells before it begins, but then runs out of time. Everyone else has two turns of preparation or maneuver. Go!

Kern looks to Piotr anxiously as he prepares a snare in front of the hut.

Using round 1 to place a Hampering Snare near the hut.

After finishing up the snare, he pulls out the bottom labeled "air" in old Elvish and hands it to Piotr.

"This says 'air' in an old Elven tongue. I'm not sure what it does but your knowledge of the arcane is deeper than mine. It could be worth chceking out."

Kern then pulls his Inistent Door Knocker from his bag and drops it in the cabin.

"You can use this in a pinch to exit the hut from other than the front. Or maybe open a door in the ceiling to give yourself a view of the skies." says Kern.

Welp! This should be fun! Second round I give/leave Piotr stuff from my bag. Maybe we can trap the big ol' bird in my snare!

Aristu casts Fly on himself and Kern, then draws out a Wand of Manifold Missiles.