KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

To casual observation, Tilagos Island is nothing to look at—it’s little more than an inhospitable rock jutting from a tortured sea. The constant winds and driving rain have long since scoured anything resembling vegetation or even soil from the rocks, leaving nothing but jagged spires of twisted wet stone.

The island itself is roughly oval-shaped, about a mile long and a half-mile wide. Its highest point is a jagged pinnacle 500 feet above sea level. Most of its coastline consists of intimidating 100-foot-high cliffs, with a single rocky beach on the eastern face.

The beachhead is littered with driftwood and the splintered ruin of well over a hundred ships. These skeletal wrecks crowd the rocky shoreline, a veritable city of barnacle-claimed vessels peopled with dead sailors. Broken skeletons wrapped in threadbare rags hang out of yawning breaches in the ships’ hulls, and tattered sails whip in the fierce winds sweeping the shoreline.

As the group draws nearer, they can see through the fog a dozen or so humanoid shapes moving on the beach, scuttling about one ship that stands out from these weathered hulks—a recent victim of the wind and rocks, although a victim nonetheless. It is unmistakably the same ship seen in Lashonna's scrying pool. This gigantic sailing cog lies broken in two against a jagged rock on the eastern edge of the beach. Beyond the shore, the rocky beach angles up slightly to an ancient maze of ruined walls and standing stones.

How do you approach the island, and the people you can dimly see on it?

Probably going to be hard to sneak by them. Maybe we should just approach directly, ready for a fight?

Farrukh whispers to the others.

"I think we should at least TRY to sneak around them, not that I think it will work."

Everyone riding feels Frozamele speaking directly into their brains, Eben wishes me to let you know that he is unable to blanket us with invisibility spells, right now. And that yelling back and forth to each other would be a bad idea if we don't want to attract attention, so please feel free to think back to me and I'll pass the message along. Mind you, all of the above is directly what he said to say, I didn't volunteer for that last part, acting as a telepathic relay operator sounds annoying and will likely give me a headache very quickly, but I suppose it's better than bellowing above the winds and having a very much alive mind flayer and high priest of Vecna noticing us. Oh, side note: never trust a hurricane.

Maybe we should just try to sneak close enough to see better first. If we know what we're dealing with, we can decide better, right? Cuetzpalli thinks at the bow.

Good idea, Tanith thinks really hard when the suggestions gets relayed to him. How do you think they managed to trick loud and stormy out there into believing they were dead? They mentioned being very thorough.

Eben's brow knits as he 'thinks' through Forzamele. His lips still subconsciously move, though, which provides a bizarre effect since the relaying isn't instantaneous.
Maybe we can slip past them if we fly high and fast enough, land on the other side of the island, and then sneak back to deal with this? We're not exactly at our best fight-ready prep stage.

Well... Carina thinks. ...that's a good idea. And if it somehow doesn't work out, I've still got a full complement of bombs and extracts--if a fight does break out, I think we can manage.

Sounds fine to me.

Okay, sure. But how do we fly that high and that fast?

KC, about how high can we fly without winding up back in the hurricane?

Maybe 50 feet, tops, but only in a certain area even on the island itself. The hurricane is actually basically everywhere—in fact, the only part of the island not storm-torn is this beach and the menhir maze beyond. For now, here's a basic map to give you an idea. 1 square = 20 feet.

Taking in the more salient details, Farrukh reassesses.

Maybe it IS best if we just hit them hard and fast, since it's looking difficult to get around. They're probably not in great shape either; worse than us, probably.

Astraden finally stifles her choking and realizes she can breathe water just fine. They could have actually died and been reanimated since. Perhaps our invisible efreet is a necromancer? But yeah, fighting sounds good. Farrah, can you get us up to something we can grab onto in the water? Then we can cast spells under the water surface. Unless one of them is also underwater, they shouldn't hear us.

Eben's relayed thoughts have, if possible, a note of resignation: Yeah, I guess that's the best bet, then. Hope mind flayers aren't squidlike enough to be able to breathe underwater.

Stealth aid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

Astraden nods. It's still a fair distance from the wrecks to the shore. So we might be safe anyways? I guess we'll find out.

Thanks a bunch, bow guy, by the way.

Forzamele. Carina interjects.

I'll try to get the map up later today, so you can choose your movements a bit more explicitly.

"Carina says Forzamele?" What do you mean, Forzamele? Astraden says, thoughtfully.

Forzamele, can you please reroute Astraden's and Carina's conversation to a sidebar? Clunk asks. It is cluttering up the main channel.

...that's his name. Carina replies.

I thought Forzamele was a 'her'? Farrukh adds, helpfully.

Did I mention that relaying thoughts among seven individuals is annoying, tedious, and giving me the equivalent of a headache? Forzamele's telepathic 'voice' cuts in waspishly. I am henceforth censoring out anything not related to strategy. And YES, that is my NAME, and YES, the pronoun is he, as I said when I first met the lot of you.

Clunk gestures and appears to be thinking something either sarcastic or otherwise unhelpful. Forzamele does not bother translating it.

Map updated! Your location and the position of the ship/figures are both indicated.

I take up a flanking position on the giant top hat!

Eben angles his phantom steed as straight down as it will go and zips right into the water, keeping a rocky shoal between his point of entry and the shipwreck crew further down the beach. The horse, while not being intended for aquatic use, does its best to 'hover' a few feet below the surface.

Farrukh floats his horse up to the shoreline, out of sight behind some rocks, and then hops off; he hasn't got much sneaking practice in recently, but he's still pretty sure he's stealthier than a horse.

Cuetzpalli flies along with Eben, getting ready for things to pop off.

Astraden also angles her shadow horse-thing underwater, following Eben. She begins casting spells.

Death ward on Tanith and Astraden lasts 146 and 147 rounds, respectively. (We will see if it is necessary??)
Magic circle against evil on Carina lasts 1498 rounds.
Bear's endurance on Cuetzpalli lasts 149 rounds.
Shield of faith on Eben lasts 150 rounds.

I'll cast a shield on myself too. If combat breaks out, I'll track my modified stats in my combat posts, because when I change my stat line I always forget to change it back and then I audit it at some point and find it all messed up.

Tanith will hit himself with greater magic weapon, resist energy (electricity), bear's endurance, and ironskin. Carina gets her usual shield other. He'll hit the party with hunter's blessing. Any suggestions on creature/terrain?

Popping DEX/CON Mutagen, False Life, Shield, and will drink a Displacement extract once everything starts going down.

False Life HP: 1d10 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20 Yeah!

"Ohhh, being underwater much better. Talking through Forzamele while we're all in the same room . . . it feels kind of antisocial, Eben," Astraden says, breathing out another flurry of silvery bubbles into the stormy water.

"Oh, hey, Clunk, I almost forgot about you." Astraden casts an additional spell, swimming over and tapping Clunk's chest plate. "Now you should be invisible to undead, if there are any, until you attack them, which you should. Use this power judiciously."

Channel casting hide from undead on Clunk.[6/7].

Eben casts arcane concordance upon himself, using his Extend rod. Then, using the spell's magic aura to enhance his own spellcasting without further need of the rod, he begins casting.

-good hope lasts 28 minutes on the entire group,
-moment of greatness lasts 28 minutes on the entire group,

-greater magic weapon lasts 28 hours on Eben
-mirror image (1d4 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8 images) lasts 28 minutes on Eben,
-cat's grace lasts 28 minutes on Eben,
-shield lasts 28 minutes on Eben,
-gravity bow lasts 28 minutes on Eben

-haste lasts 27 rounds on the entire group

He then concludes by clanking his bracers together, which produces a muffled dinky sound underwater but still achieves the desired effect.

-falcon's aim lasts 10 rounds on Eben

-arcane concordance (extend) has 19 rounds remaining.

Can anyone who's advancing roll me Stealth checks?

Does Eben wait until Farrukh gets back with Astraden's plank of wood or whatever?

Did you have any thoughts targets for Hunter's Blessing Rynjin?

Underground is always a safe bet for Favored Terrain (since it counts indoors in most places too), and Undead is a safe one for Favored Enemy. Aberrations might be solid too, since I think Illithid are Aberrations.

Alright. We'll do undead and underground.

Does Eben wait until Farrukh gets back with Astraden's plank of wood or whatever?

Sorry, not sure what you mean. I'd certainly wait until Farrukh is in range before casting my group buffs.

I think Astraden asked Farrukh to find "something you all could grab onto", like, a big rock or something to anchor yourselves, but I'm not sure.

I may be being thick here—exactly what's the plan and who's advancing?

I dunno how much of a plan there was. I say we follow the red line I drew now that we're all buffed up, and try to attack them where we have the ruins to take cover in.

I think Astraden asked Farrukh to find "something you all could grab onto", like, a big rock or something to anchor yourselves, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, sorry for not being clearer. Astraden just meant something big enough to hide behind. Farrukh didn't need to grab and bring something, though I think Astraden's request was unclear enough for him to interpret it that way.

Also, if Farrukh wants hide from undead, he's welcome to it. Got no idea if it's going to be useful here.

Cuetzpalli's plan sounds good to me. Looks like it will take about 5 rounds to get there while stealthing (or less if haste applies to phantom steeds).

Astraden wrangles her disconcerting shadow mount up out of the water again, and it blips across the stormy lake until the two reach the rocky beach.

Haste covers 1 creature/level, which equals all of us plus all our steeds, yes. I don't think we can realistically expect them to make successful Stealth checks, though. (Or most of our party, for that matter.)

I dunno how much of a plan there was. I say we follow the red line I drew now that we're all buffed up, and try to attack them where we have the ruins to take cover in.

I like circling around from where Farrukh is on the map (so the bad guys have their backs to the sea), but this is fine too.

Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

...Sad.

Alright, I'll get a post up in a couple days!

Haste covers 1 creature/level, which equals all of us plus all our steeds, yes. I don't think we can realistically expect them to make successful Stealth checks, though. (Or most of our party, for that matter.)

Well, we could argue some sort of circumstantial bonus for them being made of creepy shadow-stuff. I do agree that certain onomotopoeically named members of our party will have trouble even when taking 10, though. I think the checks would just be to see how close we get before they notice us.

Actually, I need a couple more says. Getting set for NaNoWriMo and life's dragging me a little right now.

As the group draws nearer, they can see through the fog a dozen or so humanoid shapes moving on the beach, scuttling about one ship that stands out from these weathered hulks—a recent victim of the wind and rocks, although a victim nonetheless. It is unmistakably the same ship seen in Lashonna's scrying pool. This gigantic sailing cog lies broken in two against a jagged rock on the eastern edge of the beach. Beyond the shore, the rocky beach angles up slightly to an ancient maze of ruined walls and standing stones.

No sooner has Farrukh started out towards the island that one of the figures turns, sees him, and yells out something in Orcish. All the figures go still, then, as one, draw greataxes and javelins.

Farrukh can make it to his current position on the map, but Eben isn't able to make it to the end of the red line just yet. Let me know if I've confused anything here!