Gravewalker Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Slaughtersea

Chapter I: The Slaughter of Belisaire

The evening music and sounds of merrymaking carry on into the Belisairean night over the town of Nalvallen. As the sun sets bright into the distant Steinhoch Mountains, the brilliant moon rises high into the sky. Stars shine brightly, the constellation known as the Lion's Shield prominent in the sky that night.

Please perform the following actions:

Dot. I've got some extra stuff in there, mostly so I can remember my abilities and such. I imagine Victor will be hanging out in one of Nalvallen's inns, drinking.

Perfect! Welcome to the killing floor Victor Von Ulmen!

Ewen will have rented a room in an inn in Nalvallen. He's sitting downstairs with a mug of ale and a meal. His backpack is in his room. He wears his belt pouches which contain a total of 10 catalysts and carries his dagger in his belt.

Varus is several miles outside of Nalvallen, probably an ?hours? walk
Varus stops and sees Nalvallen up ahead on the road.
Should have just made camp hours ago...
He makes a note to find a decent inn at least.
Taking a drink from the water pouch hanging around his neck, he sighs.
"Where are you..." he whispers before continuing to the town.

Robes swishing slightly, Rumha watches the stars come out as he maintains an easy walking gait along the rutted farm track. He breathes in the night air, enjoying the cool of the evening as he heads for the nearby lights of Nalvallan. His brown hand pats one of the leather pockets on his traveler's sash - it is heavy with coin. The cleric smiles to himself.

It's a hot meal, good drinks, and a soft bed tonight! And, if I'm lucky, perhaps a little company. There must be some fallen dove that wouldn't mind exchanging her sins for a little inspiration and the hope of redemption.

Considering the wonderful possibilities of the night, Rumha, quickens his pace a bit. He can just begin to make out the sounds of merriment in the town.

Rumha has all his gear on him as this is his first (and possibly last) visit to Nalvallan.

So sad to see people come in for a warm bed so soon to be met with a cold grave... ah life.

To quote a poem I rather like:

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Victor smiles and continues singing as he rocks on his barstool. With one hand clutching the handle of a stein of mead, and the other desperately holding on to the countertop to keep him from tumbling to the floor, the man alternates between belting out an upbeat drinking song and laughing.

All around him, men drink and laugh and dance, and even though the two fellows fighting in the corner are causing a ruckus, everyone's having a great time. Victor leads the other men in singing, a deep and boisterous voice coming from deep inside his massive form.

"Belisairans, that's what we are!
Belisairans, yes that's what we are!
Belisairans, that's what we are!
Belisairans, that's what we are!
Belisairans, that's what we are!
Belisaire and the Belisairan beer!
Belisaire and the Purity Law!
That's our liquid bread!"

And we now have an official Belisairan tavern drinking song! Huzzah!

We now wait for the rest of the group to post, clean up the no-shows then we'll delve right into hell. Cheers all around!

Googling "German drinking songs" and then finding a translation of one is super easy. I take no credit except for the minor changes I made.

While most are still having fun out on the streets, Cedric is already sleeping. He has been out in the wilds for nearly two weeks, long days and short nights. He had sold his wares, eaten with his family and then collapsed on his bed and he didn't plan to wake before noon the next day.

I'll get the stats up there when I have a little more time, which should be in a few hours. I know I'm a tad late, but due to different timezones your 8 am would have been 6 am here and I was sleeping for both that time and your announcement.

Jethro smiled at the raucous singing that reverberated throughout the tavern. After so long on the road, he came to enjoy these social situations although he never drank to excess. Rather, he was nursing his second mug of cider whilst watching the happenings of the room in relative silence.

He was a travelling arcanist, a man who applied his arcane skills to solve small problems for rural locales such as this. They sometimes had their own wizards but those men tended to have arrived in rural areas for the peace and quiet required for their research and rarely deigned to get involved in local matters. Jethro was the opposite. He revelled in dealing with people as it gave him a chance to study them. For now, he was happy to just sit and watch.

Jethro's belongings, aside from his money pouch, spellbook and bound dagger, will be in his room sequestered beneath his bed.

Bernd is camped out within a few minutes walk of town. He's huddled in his bedroll next to a small fire, the large handmade sledge of chopped wood and boards that he'd carried the whole previous day provided a decent windbreak against the chill night breeze. He's drifting off to sleep, thoughts of the next day filling his brain.

Hope that I have a good day at the market tomorrow. If I sell everything I should have enough for a night in the inn. Would sure be better than this lumpy ground. At least the fire's warm...

Hey all! Not a no-show, just was traveling all day without Internet

Kobayashi is cleaning up the kitchen of his food stand, waiting for the final customers of the night to finish up. Once they're finished he can finally go home to his little shack down the road. It's not much, but it's warm and cozy, and as of last Thursday it no longer has termites!

Koba's things are all in his backpack which he takes with him everywhere. He's always prepared to run should be be discovered for the spy he is.

We are now Wednesday morning at 10:16 my time, so it will be time for us to start. I will unfortunately have to remove the two noshows as I cannot wait more.

At the Dazed Bugbear Tavern
Victor, Ewen, Cedric and Jethro

Victor finishes his song as do the rest of the boisterous taverners and all raise a mug of ale to the skies, cheering another fine day. The moment is lost when a distant rumbling is heard, followed by tremors which shake the tavern. Drunken men fall off the barstools, the barmaid collapses on Victor and the glass in the windows shatter. Anyone glancing out the broken windows sees a blazing column of smoke rising in the distance, to the east of Nalvallen.

In the Streets
Kobayashi

The distant sound of screams begins to resonate through the streets as you pick yourself up from the ground. As you stumble up, another impact shakes the earth and almost sends you spinning. A fiery crater now replaces most of the street in front of you. Dark shadowy forms can be seen crawling their way out of it.

Outside of Town
Rumha, Bernd, Varus

As you settle in for the night, you spy a flaming projectile-like object comes falling from the sky, impacting directly into eastern Nalvallen. Moments later, a second one smashes into its center. As the town becomes illuminated in dark red light, you see more and more flames descending from the sky, impacting both within and outside of the town, some in front but some behind. Screams quickly begin to fill the air, replacing the serenity which reigned but moments ago. Not only the town, but it would seem the entire countryside has become a burning hellscape.

What is your first reaction? Where do you go? This impacts the encounters. If you group up, I will add you to the encounter group. The three groups are Tavern, Street and Outside for now. Remember though, none of you know what's going on, or who the others are. However, if one stands and fights, other heroes will notice you.

Rumha stops short, eyes wide as the first fireballs slam into the town. He turns the other way, considering a quick retreat away from the inferno. Then the country-side blazes with more balls of flame. Everywhere he looks, there is only fire, smoke, and the black night. He's in a ring of fire and, at any moment, another ball of fire might slam into the spot on which he stands.

Trapped.

The cleric debates briefly, and then heads towards the town at a jog, dark eyes on the sky, ready to attempt to dodge any inbound fireballs.

Maybe there is shelter, and there have to be survivors. Better to stand together than try to go it alone.

Figures, so much for that good day tomorrow...wonder why they're still screaming. Are all those people burning to death?

Bernd rises from the ground and straps on his armor. He picks up his gear, leaving the sled of wood behind. Drawing his greataxe, he heads for the nearest impact site to investigate.

I'll sync you two together with Kobayashi

As Rumha approaches the entrance to the town he crosses another figure also ambling towards the inferno blazing in the street.

Directly in front of them burns a deep crater, dark forms rising from it into the night sky and shambling across the street. On the other side of the crater you see a man pulling what looks like a wooden cart out of the way of the flames.

Roll a Stealth check.
For some rolls, usually Search, I will secretly make the rolls.

So, since Victor is off duty, he's got his dagger and spell component pouch on him, but little else. All the rest of his things would be in his room. Are the army barracks nearby?

Torn between worry at the commotion outside and the urge to spend a little quality time with the woman lying on top of him, Victor quickly decides for the former. Grabbing the barmaid by the waist, von Ulmen lifts her up, seating her carefully on the ground next to him. "Sorry, love, but whatever that was, it's got me curious," he says to her, winking once.

Standing himself, Victor decides to go gather his equipment, weapons and armor. It would not do to be caught unprepared for a fight, after all!

Victor would go retrieve his things, and after armoring-up, he'd return to the main room of the tavern to see if the others intend to go check it out.

Stealth 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18

Rumha pulls his mace free at the sight of the shadow creatures, surprise making him stumble.

Stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6 lol! great start

Varus sees the first fireball fall and crouches down as if to hide.
Then he sees more of them falling all over the countryside and near the town.
Meteors? Is this a judgement from the gods?
Frozen and unsure what to do he stands there for a minute before noticing quite a few are falling in the town. Torn between the instinct that tells him people need help and the one that doesn't want to have a fireball land on his head he stalls several more moments.
Finally and probably against his better judgement me heads towards town slowly and then picking up speed.
Erastil protect me...

Varus is moving as fast as possible towards the town to try to help

Ewen steadies himself by hastily grabbing the edges of the table, knocking over his ale in the process.

I won't do what follows now often, since it's thoughts.
I just want to use this opportunity to show a bit more how Ewen "works" when he is not focused on a task at hand.
His mind begins to race as he analyzes the scenario:
"Earthquake? I read about some spell that can do that, someone must be angry to cast it in town... my ale is spilt! What a mess, I need the barmaid to clean this. Where is she? Aha, over at the bar but why is she lying on that big oaf? That really is a huge one! Funny, people have fallen down all over the place. Oh look, the window is gone too. Woah! That's a big column of smoke, what might have caused that? Wait, the window is gone, what if the walls go next? Everything would fall down I guess... and it would fall on..."

Suddenly Ewen screams: "My research!"

He pushes himself from the table and darts off towards his room to make sure his alchemical equipment survived the tremors.

Ewen's intention is to gather his equipment and then leave the building.

Jethro tumbles off his chair at the first explosion. He moves his arm up to block the incoming glass and shakes it off as he stands to his feet.

"What in blazes was that?" he bellows, half annoyed at being knocked from his chair and half curious as to what could make that kind of explosion. He moves to the window and sees the dark plume of smoke to the east.

"People of Nalvallen, to me! We must investigate what has happened! Are there any alchemists or wizards of note in the area?" Jethro strides towards the door while he speaks and throws it open, his form a silhouette against the blazing column of smoke rising into the night's sky. Jethro waits for a moment to see if anyone follows him and then regardless of the actions of others, strides off into the night with his dagger drawn.

Part Gandalf, part Rincewind! Let's see how heroic I can make his death!

Hearing the robed man loudly inquire about alchemists, Ewen shouts while he continues to run towards his room:
"That wasn't me! I was just eating!"

Added a last moment handaxe as I had completely forgotten about the butcher's cleaver (refluffed handaxe) from his description.

The sharp light of a blaze through his small window woke Cedric up. His feet had barely touched the ground when the first rumble was heard and the earth shook. In a hurry he put on his hunting gear and grabbed his cleaver and stumbled out his own door, on his way downstairs to grab his real hunting blade, when his brother in law came out of the other room, Cedric's sister behind him, What in the seven Hells is this? Are we being attacked?"

Cedric turned to him, "I'm not quite sure, but I intend to figure it. Get dressed and get a cleaver. Mom and dad live in a better defensible part of town, see if you can make your way there." He then rushed downstairs while his brother in law rushed back into his own room to get dressed.

Downstairs Cedric grabbed his blade, a weird sword gifted to him by a wealthy client, and when he turned to leave his sister stood there waiting for him. Before he could answer she walked up to him and kissed him on the forehead, "Be save little brother," she whispered and turned and went upstairs to get dressed.

Cedric stepped out of the butchershop, blade in hand and trying to figure out what to do. He ran towards the closest pillar of smoke.

I guess that would be near the inn.

Is Kobayashi the man with the cart? If so, he does the following after moving it out of the way.

Kobayashi does his best to remain unseen. He carefully draws his wakizashi from his pack, unsheathing the honed blade that he had sharpened days before. He peeks around what cover he can find to see what the hell is emerging from that crater...

Koba uses a standard action to get his wakizashi that has had a whetstone used on it since it was last used, giving it a +1 to its first damage roll. He then stealthy and perceives:

Perception 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9
Stealth 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

So much for being the skill monkey.

Hey you still got me beat on that Stealth roll. :)
BTW, you've got your modifiers mixed up I think. I imagine your Stealth is +7

Are the army barracks nearby?

Within a couple minutes quick walk.

===

Both Ewen and Victor reach their rooms and their equipment (all of it unharmed) and can be back down before Jethro exits the inn. His rallying cry stirs some of the men and a small rabble of six men follow him out.

I just want to know in what general direction you want to head to.

===
Varus Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Varus, you catch up with Rumha who you see stumbles slightly as two of the ambling grotesques crawl out of the crater and shamble towards him, with a third one shambling towards Kobayashi, the man with the cart.

The creatures themselves resemble blistering corpses crawling on all fours, mouths agape with smoke bellowing out from them. The ground they stand on glows red hot as they tread towards you.

Combat: Nalvallen Streets
Monster Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Monster Initiatives: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9 (3 creatures)
Party Initiative: 1d20 ⇒ 17

Kobayashi: 21
Bernd: 20
Varus: 19
Rumha: 18
Monsters (3): 9

Special: Bernd is hidden.
Revised Battle Map
Red C = Creatures, you are your first letter of your name.

===

Cedric races out of the house to the nearest column of fire, which is indeed close to the inn. Depending on where Jethro, Victor and Ewen go, chances are you will meet up with them. This will then split our party into 2. One group at a crater near the Dazed Bugbear, and another at the Northern Entrance.

===

Quick combat-related question... do you want us to wait until our turn in the order so there is no need to retcon any anomalies or should we just post and you'll sort it out?

Post as soon as you can. If your strategy depends on something, write what you would do if you can't. If not, I'll make a strategically safe action.

Be back in a bit.

Ewen will follow the robed man outside and try to get an overview of the situation at hand.

Might as well stay in sight and close to people for now, not that anyone starts blaming him for real in the end.

Rumha's glance shifts between the molten corpses and his mace which - in comparison - is rapidly becoming more of a useless gesture than a viable weapon. For the first time in his life, he wishes he had spent more time studying the undead, elementals, and extra-planar creatures... because then he'd at least have a small chance of knowing what to do here.

Outrun them? Can I sprint faster than a four-legged hell-beast that emerged from a ball of fire? Doubt it. Which leaves what options exactly?

The cleric intones a spell to strengthen every non-fire-breathing hell-beast on the street. Rumha tacks on a quick, silent, prayer that he lives long enough to see if the spell helps anyone. Then he holds his ground - ridiculously inadequate mace in hand.

~ Round 1 ~
FREE: Panic :)
STAND: Cast Bless

All allies and locals within 50' burst gain morale +1 to HIT and +1 vs Fear.

Herald, if Rumha gets attacked and the beast misses (hollow laugh), he'll use Sudden Shift to get out of being flanked or attacked by another baddie and/or use it to set up a flank for Varus.

Koba moves adjacent to the creature closest to him, slashing it as best he can with his wakizashi.

Wakizashi: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12 to attack, 1d6 + 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + 1 + (5) = 12 damage if it hits.

Victor will definitely follow Jethro if it looks he's heading out to investigate.

Upon perceiving the creatures only feet away Varus dispenses with his earlier plan, knowing this was a much more serious threat.
Varus draws his great sword and charges past standing between the man to his right who seemed to be praying.
"Stay behind me!" he says to him.
He then proceeds to slash at the creature with all his might.
"Die beast from hell! "

Round 1: Varus's turn
Quickdraw draws my greatsword as a free action while moving between the creature and Rumha. Moved myself to C9 on your map.
To hit: 1d20 + 6 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (5) + 6 + 1 - 1 = 11 if I don't get bless yet then it's 1 less than that.
To damage: 2d6 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 5) + 6 + 2 = 14

Jethro stops in his tracks as a young man emerges quickly from a nearby building.

"You!" Jethro bellows, pointing at him. "You're with us, let us see what all this commotion is about!" And with that, Jethro continued to stride on towards the plume of smoke.

Looks like I got a quick break between my second and final classes, so I'll be able to give Victor some actual facetime.

Victor's attention is grabbed when an older, bearded man points him out. The mountain of a man smirks widely, thwapping the haft of his morningstar into his open left hand. "Aye, perfect. Just what I was thinking! Lead the way." Victor quickens his pace to join up with the group, the content smile on his face a little off-putting in this situation. "I hope whatever is going on," von Ulmen begins, chuckling, "There's enough of it for us all. Ain't fun at all when there's nothin' to fight!" The grinning hulk is practically radiating enthusiasm, not looking even the slightest bit worried or afraid.

Bernd seeing the other men being attacked by some sort of monsters emerges from his hiding place to help them. He hustles the short distance across the street and brings his greataxe down on one of the creatures. "Martyr preserve me!"

Move to D8.
Attack the creature in C8 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13 Maybe that will actually hit since their flat footed. Kinda doubt it but whatever.
Damage 1d12 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

YES, I'm finally no longer traveling and therefore no longer posting from my phone. Here's some flavor for Kobayashi.

Seeing the horrors emerging from the crater, and noting that he had hidden himself poorly, Kobayashi was left with one option: ATTACK!

"OHGODSIHOPETHISWORKS," he exclaims as he jumps toward the creature facing him.

Combat: Nalvallen Streets

With powerful strikes, two of damned creatures are slain before being able to move. The last one also misses Varus, as it stumbles upon the cracked and smoldering dirt road.

===

Meanwhile, Jethro, Victor and Ewen arrive at another smoldering crater, this one simply a bellowing hole into the ground. Besides them, Cedric appears out of breath. Six commoners have followed you from the inn and are looking rather frightened.

All around you, the sound of screaming, violence and bloodshed rings, but the heavy smoke blocks your vision.

If you gaze into the hole, it appears to descend roughly 15 ft. down, a mass of boiling water at its bottom.

Kobayashi's blade cuts through the creature's flesh like butter, having caught a weak spot in it's ribs perfectly. It falls like a creepy ton of bricks.
That worked?! That worked! I killed it! Now for the rest... he thinks with a devious smile on his face.

Seeing the remaining creature across the pit, Kobayashi moves around the crater and attempts to plunge the point of his weapon into it's flesh.

Wakizashi attack1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24, 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 damage if it hits.

AH! CRIT THREAT! ROLL TO CONFIRM: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11, 8 damage if confirms.

Ewen kicks a pebble into the crater, "Why is there a hole in the middle of the street?"

He looks around for anything that could have caused this.

The ones who were inside did not yet see any "meteors", right?

@Ewen: Just a flash of crimson light and the rumbling.

Disappointed that he missed, Varus prepares to strike again.
hold yourself together. FOCUS!
if it isn't dead by my turn I attempt to run it through being more careful this time, so no power attack [ooc]
Varus strikes to stab it through.
To hit 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 6 + 1 = 27
Confirm crit 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 1 = 13Aw yea!
To damage 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (2, 6) + 6 = 14
Crit damage 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (5, 5) + 6 = 16
[ooc] if it's already dead I skip the attack and go straight to here
Looking around at these other brave and well armed men he nods to them.
"If you're willing to work together we may have a chance against any more of these that might show up. If they came with the fireballs then there will be a lot of them."
Varus sheath his sword and draws his bow readying an arrow while looking around for any more strange creatures.
how often can I do perception?

Did you roll to confirm your critical chance there? As well, you can do Perception to detect different things but no retries unless there's a change.

Victor looks down into the smoking crater, whistling. "Wonder what happened here? he ponders out loud, still gripping his weapon tightly.

Fairly certain this last baddie will be long dead before my turn so...

Pleasantly surprised that no one was hurt, Rumha scans the adjoining streets and buildings while listening for sounds of fighting nearby. "There may be more of these... things. We should probably stick together for the moment."

Bernd turns to the other fiend, trying to slay it as well. "Hello, thanks for the help!" He says to the other men.

5' step to flank with Kobayashi.
Attack on the creature in D7 (flanking, bless, power attack) 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Damage 1d12 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11