Hells Chubbels (Inactive)

Game Master chubbs

The White crocodile shutters once then goes limp as Laraunt plunges his short sword into the meaty flank of the beast killing it.

Well, that renders it all delightfully academic! :-)

"I don't mean to be ungrateful, but these accommodations are sorely lacking."

He looks down at his blood-soaked pants, render to shreds, and sighs. "I suppose I'm lucky to be alive, though. Thank you all. Particularly you, Rex... You're the second person today I don't mind saying I've misjudged."

"Yes, we wouldn't want another body down here," Carawyn says, noting the first one. "Though I suppose we have one all the same, even if it is a crocodile. We wonder if the other body was Nam. And if so, what was happening with all the supplies Laria was giving to him?"

She moves toward the body to see if it has any indication of who it is.

Perception (low-light vision): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Berenice gives Aldren a strong hug.

"Don't you EVER scare me like that again!" she cries. After letting him go, she gives Rex the same kind of hug.

"Aldy doesn't give genuine compliments lightly. You've impressed him."

Calming down a bit, she glowers and begins storming towards the stairs.

"I'm going to have a word with Laria."

Aldren grunts in some pain as Berenice hugs him, but he still smiles and pats her arm to return the gesture. "Ah, and once again Lirana, you've saved my bacon. I'd surely be in that croc's gullet without your healing..."

As Berenice gets ready to head back up, he interjects, "As much as I'd love to join you, recall she is trying to deal with those militia-type thugs. It may be best to let it be until morning."

He listens to Carawyn and something dawns on him, "I'd wager you're right, that is Nam, or was... Didn't Laria say he had some cargo or something here? Let's pull both the bodies up onto solid ground; we can figure out what to do with them in the morning. I don't know about all of you, but I need to rest. As it seems we've no beds or pallets, that other room will just have to make due."

Rex says "I'm just glad I could help. you see that is the only offensive spell I know. I'm not as much help as a warrior could be."

Beppe adds "I'm sure Laria knew nothing about this, she would have warned us."

As the party gets ready to head to the other room. a cry goes up as a creature leaps out and attacks the nearest person out of the darkness.

Discription- This creature looks like a humanoid crow with oily black feathers, glittering eyes, and a sharp beak. In the place of wings, it instead has two muscular arms, ending in sharp claws as hard as rocks.

acrobatics to Pounce: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14
charge attack on carwyn: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 181d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2<--- hit carawyn

heroes turns

"Ow!" Carawyn cries out, the claws ripping her nearly in half. "We don't want any!"

Her clothes lash out, slamming into the creature with surprising force. A moment later, the strange gnome disappears from sight!

Activating dancing strings hex, then her ghostwalk ability to vanish and move 5 ft. away from the creature
Clothing attack (10 ft. reach): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
1d2 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

[So, from the picture and description, I know what that is. Are they suffficiently rare enough in Kintargo that it's not obvious? I don't have the relevant skill.

"Godsdammit!" Berenice curses as battle is joined once more.

"Aldy, stay back! You're not dying today if I can help it! And you too, Cary!"

She snaps off a shot with her bow at the big crow-man.

Shortbow Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11; Shortbow Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4

@snow- I don't know, it seem they are not that rare. I could assume that you think it looks like a Tengu which are common but that the features are not right. For RP purposes make your own decision if you think you would have seen one before.

The half-elf is barely keeping it together, between the day's exhaustion, his rolling from the crocodile and the blood loss. Only the miracles of Lirana's goddess had kept him alive. Now, here was another thing trying to kill them. With methodical precision, he forces himself to stand up, then pulls out his crossbow, preparing to load and fire it.

Cool. If the features aren't quite right, I'm just going to have Aldren skip efforts to communicate. Dim light and a rough day.

Laurent? Lirana?

i'll RP them if they don't post tonight.

"Oh what the hells now?"

Lirana is clearly showing the stress of the day by actually cursing.

Taking her morning star in her hand, she swings it at the bird headed person attacking Carawyn.

melee attack: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3

"Pick on someone your own size!"

Beppe and Laraunt take one look at each other and both spread out taking double move actions to get flanking on the creature next round,
Rex sees this , and with a feral yell "AAAGGGHHHHH" after he sees the fair maiden in trouble charges the Crowlike creature he attacks with his sword cane.

Rexus charge attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 181d6 ⇒ 4

the Crowcreature snarls at Rex as he hits it with his sword. Attacking him with its two powerful claws in retaliation.

Claw: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 91d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Claw: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 71d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

heroes go!

Lirana tries to swing her weapon at the thing again, hoping for better luck.

melee attack: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10
damage: 1d8 ⇒ 2

Seeming to regain her composure, Carawyn stands still for a moment before her clothes start trying to wrap the creature up.

"We should not kill it because then it can't tell us what is happening down here," the gnome observes as she reappears five feet from where she had been standing.

I'm not sure if this works, but I'd assume I can use my dancing strings ability to grapple the creature. It would technically provoke, but it's also got 10 feet of reach, so I don't think it should be able to hit me.
Grapple: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

"Don't kill it!? It just..." Aldren bites off his words with a growl, casts Copycat on himself, then moves towards the crow-creature and the combat.

In one hand I'm carrying the crossbow; in the other is my holy symbol. If it (and Aldren) is still up next round, I'll try to cast Daze on it.

"I don't know Carawyn. I think I'll go with Aldren's response this time...."

@carawyn- you Don't use your Int mod on grapple checks with the prehensile hair. there is a FAQ on it. you can choose something different action if you wish before I post. I think we lost Laurant though.

Really? That seems odd, since the hex means she can manipulate her clothes as if they were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. What else would it be? Can you show me the FAQ, just because I'm curious. As for actions, I'll keep it the same nonetheless.

Also, bummer if we lost Laurent.

@carawyn- well that's what I get for going down the rabbit hole.

you can use the hair as a grapple using your Int instead of your strength. however while looking up all the faq's I discovered that you are using the the hair wrong. you should be taking a -5 on every attack you make with it, because it is considered a secondary nateraul attack which always take the -5 penalty. but this does mean you can use you hair with a combo because it secondary. lol.

Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (1d2 for a Small witch). Her hair can manipulate objects (but not weapons) as dexterously as a human hand.

Combat section: Attacks with secondary natural attacks are made using your base attack bonus minus 5.

My understanding is I only suffer the -5 if I use it as a secondary attack (i.e. if I used a dagger or something too). Used as my primary attack, it shouldn't suffer that penalty.

Now you got me curious enough to read up on this.

Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (1d2 for a Small witch).

That does make it seem to read that the hair is always considered a secondary attack, but they could improve the wording a bit to make it more clear either way.

Rex, laurant and Beppe all attack the creature.

rex attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 81d6 ⇒ 2

beppe: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 251d3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Laurent: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 111d6 ⇒ 3

with a vicious strike Beppe kills the creature gutting it across the middle while Laurant distracts it.

The crow-like creature gives a shriek as it dies.

I have wasted soo much time now on the natural attack thing, I'm ok that if you use the one attack it is primary, but then you the option to combo it with spells or something just take the -5 because your build is not focused around this its not a game breaking decision. lol. I do have a much better idea now about how to use natural attacks better. you didn't hit it anyways.

"If it wanted to talk it would have just walked up and said something, Cary! You know "Hi, I'm a giant raven man and I just heard fighting and screaming out here, what's goin' on?" that kind of thing?!" Berenice grouses.

Are we on a new turn yet? The rule discussion has me slightly confused...

As the crow-man dies, Aldren sighs, turns to his duplicate (who mirrors him precisely, and says, "You look like s&*&. Yeah, you don't look too hot yourself." They shrug, echo one another with, "Fair point. See you around," and shake hands before the duplicate disappears. He looks at the others. "Alive, dead, I really couldn't care less. I need to rest." Crossbow half-dragging at his side, he stumbles back towards the room beneath the coffee house and mutters beneath his breath, "I'm sorry, mistress. I'll mind your statute in the morning."

Lirani follows Aldren back towards the room. "Given that it doesn't seem all that safe down here, shall we keep watch for the night? I'll take first and I think Aldren should take last since he definitely needs some rest first."

I don't think there's any way I could combo it with spells (unless I took a level or two in magus), but I get your point. :)

"We wonder if it's scared. We didn't try to talk to the alligator nam, but we didn't want to kill it before then, did we?" Carawyn replies to Berenice.

As Aldren talks to himself, she observes closely.
"No one says anything when the elf half talks to the human half, but they always look at us strangely. We wonder what the difference is? Perhaps if we were half gnome and half human? Or elf? We think they shouldn't judge on what we are, because we can't decide that, can we?"

Following the others back up, she looks around the area with the two recent battles.

"We didn't want to sleep on the floor, so now we go back upstairs so we don't end up sleeping forever on the floor? Maybe the roaster of beans can tell us what is happening down here? She only mentioned nam, not the alligator nam and crow man nam."

Lirana shakes her head at Carawyn. "Perhaps if we were half-gnome we would understand you better...."

"Only if it were the top half. The bottom half has no brains, at least for most people," Carawyn says with a wide smile.

Yup, happy to take the last watch. I think we're definitely sleeping in that first storeroom/basement. Going back upstairs just risks a fight with the militia. Is there anything with which we can barricade the secret door we passed through? (Or is closing it enough?)

Aldren drops his gear in a corner then begins extracting himself from his armor with an occasional wince or gasp of pain. That done, he lowers himself to the ground in a corner of the room and smiles wanly at Carawyn, "You're a special case, Miss Carawyn. People rarely mind what I say as my thoughts tend towards the carnal and violent, neither polite topics, whereas you are ever so much more interesting. Please take no offense. We like you quite a..." He can't help the yawn that escapes him. "A lot."

He looks one last time at his pants, shakes his head in disappointment, then does the best to make a pillow of his vest and other clothes and closes his eyes. His dreams flicker between the twins in the coffee house and stabbing his dagger into the crocodile's head... both sequences eliciting a smile.

Beppe says "I don't know about you but I think we should go into that smaller room towards the top and have two people on guard. after these attacks I'm unsure this place is secure."

My understanding is Aldren wanted to head back upstairs, to the room where Laria left us.

Berenice strokes her chin for a moment, then goes "of course!"

As they return to the back room, she rummages around for an apron and some other items to assemble a barista disguise.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14; Disguise: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

LOL. I'm easy. I was just thinking the first room we entered upon descending from the coffee shop, which is assumed was C1.

Sorry, C1 makes sense. We can seal ourselves in there behind the secret door and get some rest. I think everyone but Berenice are spellcasters, so we'll have to modify our watches somewhat for that (I guess we have Beppe too. And actually, if Laurent and Septimus have gnoe AWOL, perhaps we have them stand watch and then leave in the morning. Honestly, unless we're going to be interrupted it's easier in PBP to just kind of handwave these details (IMO).

Rex says "That sounds good to me. As a matter of fact we should be safe for a little while. I can set a Alarm spell on the secret door. I for one need a rest."

Beppe agrees. "I like that idea in the basement."

Beppe and Rex get the room ready as best they can while the others try to get comfortable on crates and barrels.

So, morning then?

I'm good with moving on to morning if there are no further events...

Any word on Berenice's barista disguise? She wants to step out into the main area and get Laria's attention so she can ask about what the heck just happened down there.

Do you have a green apron and visor? If so, +5 to the check.. ;-)

I dunno, our GM hasn't informed me of the results of my check to get materials for the disguise. :P

I'm finding a lot all of my games have stalled this weekend, more than usual. I suspect it's a combination of people traveling for the eclipse, gencon, and end of summer vacations.

I am cheering for the beginning of school.