Jammin's Takeover Way of the Wicked

Game Master YanJieming

Using the trees to the north and south of the dwarves as anchors, Goodie attempts to bind them in magic webs so that they can be picked off one by one. The spell is centered on the square one up and two over to the left of Barnabus and covers a twenty foot radius from that point. The DC is a 19 Reflex save, if they fail they are grappled. The entire effect counts as difficult terrain.

AC: 17

Blessed

Kharn will walk up to Barnabus and attempt to slice him open with his greataxe.

Free action Rage. Move action get to Barnabus and pull out weapon along the way. Standard attack Barnabus. Also Power attacking and using Reckless Abandon.

Attack w/PA w/RA: 1d20 + 11 - 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 11 - 2 + 2 + 1 = 20
Damage: 1d12 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27

AC 15 for this round; Blessed; 13/14 rounds of rage left after round 1; 73/73 HP

Before Kharn reaches Barnabus Vlad smites him as a swift action and fires his heavy crossbow.. Afterwards he'll drop the crossbow and move from the bushes, drawing his falchion along the way..

Heavy Crossbow: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 +4 if he's good
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 8 +4 if he's good, double if he's a cleric or a paladin

AC 20/24 vs Barn?, Bless 13/14, Smite Good?

Argan moves while drawing both his sabres and strikes at Toramin 1.
Sabre: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13! Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11! Sneak Attack: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 6) = 7
What a pity...

Is bless and shield of faith still active?

Argan tries to put his blade into one of the dwarven workers, but his armor allows no purchase. Goodie manages to catch up both of the other dwarfs in the spell, but Barnabus twists away from the webs. Vlad makes his bolt light with unholy fire...but it goes out upon striking Barnabus, clearly revealing him to not be a good target for the smite. The bolt bounces off. Kharn finally manages to slip through a chink in the dwarf's defense, leaving a deep gash across his chest.

One dwarf continues to stay stuck in the webs, but the other rips himself free of the strands. Barnabus's face gets flushed, and he swings at the barbarian who managed to actually harm him. He leaves his own, albeit smaller, cut on Kharn.

Yes, your buffs are still active. Kharn takes 9 damage (not account for DR). Party is up!

Init Order
Argan
Goodie
Vlad
Eryan
Kharn
Enemy

Map

Argan uses Kharn's distractive attacks and delivers two swings at Barnabus.
Sabre 1: 1d20 + 10 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 10 - 2 + 1 = 11! Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Sabre 2: 1d20 + 10 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 10 - 2 + 1 = 25! Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Flank, flank, flank the target dwarf!

Kharn continues to attack Barnabus hoping to kill the dwarf before he realizes what he's up against.

Attack: 1d20 + 11 - 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 11 - 2 + 2 + 1 = 29
Damage: 1d12 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22

AC 15 for this round; Blessed; 12/14 rounds of rage left after round 2; 65/73 HP

Goodie targets Barnabus with her evil eye, giving him -2 to his saves, she also begins to cackle to continue this curse, if he makes his 19 will save. (Saving decreases the time to one round, cackle continues it for an extra round.)

Eryan chants a strange phrase causing him and his allies to feel momentarily, 'more' than what they were.

Casts Moment of Greatness. If you are affected by a morale bonus, it is doubled for 1 roll. All first level spell slots used.

Vlad will double move and flank with Argan..

Argan gets suddenly very very very happy. Unless Barnabus have died already, then he will be sad.

Argan leaves a hole in Barnabus's armor, then Kharn wheels around and decapitates him. One dwarf throws down his weapon and begs for mercy, while the other tries but is a little stuck in the web right now.

Combat over. Let's see what kind of "mercy" you have planned for the other two dwarves.

Argan kicks the dwarves weapons away, then cleans his own sabre with a piece of clean cloth from the dwarf. He addresses the dwarves without putting much of an effort to it, maintaining the path open to any idea the others might have. "Mercy is good, it sounds good, since we only had business with Barnabus. Anyway, what would you do if we just let you go?"

"Kill them and be done with it. Needless cruelty does not flatter you, my lad."

The old granny will detect magic on the dwarves.

Kharn begins pawing through the late Barnabus's items picking up anything that seems useful.

"I don't know about mercy. They did try to attack us after all, maybe if they had something to offer?"

Scratches his forehead for a couple seconds, then approaches Goodie and, putting two fingers together, speaks something barely audible to her, and something a little higher so everyone can hear it. "I don't want to kill them, lady. There may be other options. Let's hear them first. As the elf said, they may have something else to offer."

Vlad moves back and picks up his Heavy Crossbow.. "How many other dwarfs are there in town and do you think they will be able to continue the repairs without Barnabus? If you provide me with meaningful information i might be able to keep my more bloodthirsty companions from killing you.."

Bluff: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

Eryan floats himself and Goodie back to solid ground. He walks over and picks up the bodyless head and stares into it's eyes. "Which one of you will tell me the details of your work here in Balentyne? What are you repairing? If you cooperate, I will only kill one of you. You know the cruelty of my people. If neither of you talks, perhaps you would like to test the limits of how much pain you can take?" Eryan suddenly shifts into Barnabus and walks over to the other dwarves with Barnabus' weapon in hand. "It's not that hard son. Tell me what I want to know and I will not need to harm you."
Intimidate: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Goodie shakes her head sadly at the fate of these poor souls. Better them than any of my poor lambs though . . .

They throw all their belongings to the ground in front of you. "Mostly th-the gatehouse. Also the tre-trebuchet on the roof. Been needin' ta be repaired fer weeks. Besides us there's eight others back in town, but we'll convince 'em all to leave we will! We'll get right outta town and you won't have ta worry 'bout us no more!"

Spellcraft w/guidance: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Vlad looks at them.. "Are the other dwarfs able to complete the repairs without Barnabus?"

Spellcraft Assist: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21 Guess this is going to Goodie

Goodie will take 10 for a 24 on Spell Craft, because she is the craftiest.

They look at each other, thinking for a moment. The other one speaks up. "Probably, but progress would go much slower. We would need to reexamine everything from ground up, double check what was already done, redo the calculations on the sheering strength of the stone..." And just like that they go off, immersing themselves in conversation that drifts into dwarven that nobody can follow.

Appraise: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
K.Religion: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

Argan organizes the loot and makes a couple notes about what they should not sell in the city. He looks displeased by his fellow's comments, but proceeds.
"HEY!" The rogue shouts. "Speak another freaking word in dwarven again and you are done! Now, what's wrong with the gatehouse?"

Kharn picks up the greatsword.

"Nice."

Placing the greatsword to the side for a bit Kharn examines the amulet in greater detail.

Appraise: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

So even Kharn can't follow what they are saying in dwarven?

It is a +1 cloak of resistance. The silver holy symbol is worth 25 gp.

Everybody click preview before they post. It helps with the game of ninja.

Kharn you can hear the words that are coming out of their mouth, but as far as your character is concerned they're talking about quantum physics.

They abruptly stop, sorry looks on their faces. "Sorry, ol' habits." He shrugs. "Nothin' in particular, just gettin' ol' is all. More upkeep than anything, but the materials and how to put in makes the process take quite a few years."

Goodie brushes the leaves off the cloak and sets in on Kharn's shoulders. "This will keep you safe, my boy."

"Ok, ok, you're doing good so far. What's the outside depth of Balentyne walls? And how much would your group receive for that job?"

"I want you to write a letter in Barnabus's words to the other dwarfs.. Explain to them that you have all been commanded to return wherever it is that you came from.."

"Thank-you Goodie....."

Kharn seems extremely uncomfortable that someone is touching him with a magical item. Kharn then goes back to paying attention to the dwarfs.

"So if you don't mind me asking what is the problem with the gatehouse and trebuchet? They looked perfectly fine to me, but then again I'm no expert in that field."

"Uhh, deep? To deep to tunnel, if that's what yer after."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 201d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Realization dawns on one of them. "Yer...yer trying to siege the castle!" He looks to scared to continue talking.

"Very astute my son. Now if one wanted to put the trebuchet out of commission permanently, what would he have to do?"

Can someone tie them up? Or are they already?

The dwarf's face bunches up in rage. "He'd have to go burn in hell!" He stands, spitting at the drow's face.

Pointless. NOW they know too much for us to even blackmail one of them. So it's certain death, and they don't stand a chance against us, even if they manage to pass the web spell.

"Ohh, they are angry!!!" The rogue is finding this pretty funny. He is picturing the dwarves trying to run from them, but what if they had any means to teleport or go invisible? He decides to follow the Oracle's hint and tie them up.

Yeah, that's why none of them bothered running. Short legs.

"Well, it seems you don't want to talk with us anymore, so I'll propose you a last deal. I'll give you the chance to save your companions. You tell me which one is your quarters and you will write the note my friend here requested. I'm gonna go there stealthily, leave the note in one of the other beds, grab all your stuff as if you had gone away from town, and that's it. Be convincing and put up a good story in your letter, making the remaining dwarven flee the city, so we don't need to kill them. Tell me if you need help, I'll aid you in coming up with a good story." He doesn't approach too much so the enraged pet would not spit on him. "Do we have a deal?"

They glance at each other. "Can't just leave the place to be attacked."

"Can't do much 'bout it as is. Way I see it we can save our own skin and six of our brothers."

"...Yeah."

They look up. "I'll write yer damnable letter. I'm no forger though."

Unfortunately these engineers are not trained to do this, so they'll be making a raw INT check. You could aid them with a linguistics check, adding +2 for every check of at least 10.

Mercy. Thorn would be ashamed.

Who said anything about mercy? I said a chance to save their companions... The easiest bluff I ever made, it seems...

Argan catches a glimpse of a lie, and scans the dwarves for anything that would give it away, since dwarves are terrible liars. "Are you lying to me?" His eyes shine with anger for the mere possibility of being fooled by them. "How many did you say your companions were again?"
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23 Or was it a gm error?

The rogue also explains he don't want them to forge a letter, he wants them to write one with their own words, but come up with a decently acceptable story to make the dwarves leave town. Even better, he commands him to write that Barnabus was killed by Donnagin since the dwarf found out prof about the Hoax number #3. He will write that there was nothing the Toramins could do about it, since he had more guards with him, and that they would best leave town through separate paths and at different times, so at least some of them would survive if they were chased. He asks if the others will recognize his letter, and if not asks to write his signature or something like that, and it's done.

Saving 6 dwarves? Yeah I would definitely put that into mercy.

Crap, my bad, GM error. However from that sense motive you can tell that they really do just want to save their brothers.

Ok, letter will be same deal, but they'll make a bluff check which you all can aid.

The test beneath his keep said to use cruelty only when we gained something from it. Having the dwarves flee on their own actually does good work for us. Because it doesn't make it look like one force is doing all the bad.

And because eventually my rumor will spread faster ^_^
Goodie memory Goodie!
We would not have any place to hide the bodies, anyway...

"As my associate said.. Make the note believable and your mates can walk free.."

Btw we should deff try to intercept the 8 dwarfs leaving if possible.. Dont need any suspicions being arised elsewhere..

Bluff: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

He begins writing the note, but his hand is shaky and several times he crosses out words and puts other ones. You can practically look at the writing and tell whoever was writing it was being threatened. It's not for lack of trying, the dwarf just has no experience being dishonest.

With enough aid checks that could be a more respectable score.

Vlad places a hand on the dwarfs shoulder.. "Calm down.. Stop and take a breath.. You making this note a good one will save lives.. Now tear that sheet up and start over.. This go around take your time, we're in no hurry here.."

If you give him a little time he can take 10, if you're willing to stay for several hours and lose out on some sleep than he can take 20.

Bluff Aid: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Argan takes the note in his hands and examines it, impressive how bad people can be at such an easy task.
"Ok, you know the text, then just do that again with less mistakes. We're not in hurry, but the sooner the better. Don't worry about doing a poor job, cause they will actually think you're traumatized by what you witnessed. We don't actually want it to be perfect."

Let the poor man take 10 then. With aid that may come up to 19. Or at least 15 considering the good bluffers...

By what he said, is it hard to grab their equipment from the rooms?I'll also ask who else knows they came here, to make sure no one knew what happened.

In an effort to speed things along...

Goodie Bluff: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16
Kharn Bluff: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0 Kharn suggests telling them about Thorn.

Eryan and Vlad auto-succeed.

After some help the letter looks marginally better. The dwarf hands it back to you. "Are we free to go now?"

Argan laughs aloud, again, inexplicably:
"MUA HA HA HA HA HA! The two thousand is also MINE!!!"