Caspian decides that now a gentle melody might keep the vampire spawn from waking and entertain the ghostly girl as well....
Perform
....
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
I pray the lord my soul to take
Hush little dracy, don't even stir
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the Kelgan reloading,
soon be dead
In your casket, in your head
Exit, light
Enter, night
Grain of sand
Exit, light
Enter, night
Take my hand
We're off to never-never land
"One down, two to go."
Kelgan methodically pries open the second coffin, loads, aims and fires.
Once, they are impaled on the bolt, Wyvurn will drag them coffin and all so the light coming in from the manhole is shining on them
"Let's make sure."
Capian continues his undead lullaby...
Cricket makes a strange sign with his left hand (\oo/) and helps the rest of the party arrange the draculas for stabbing.
The little girl seems pleased after all three of the former sewer workers have been dispensed with. However, what to do with her corpse/ghost remains to be determined.
Also, there's a potential problem. As Wyvurn is arranging the skeletons of the former vampire-spawn under the manhole to make sure they get a full blast of daylight, he happens to look up and out... and notices that the manhole is ringed with scarred hill dwarven faces -- probably ten of them, with their owners all pointing crossbows.
Cricket also happens to glance up.
Um, Kelgan? Jaegr? Friends of yours?
"Uh Jaegr, Kelgan you guys got a flask of Burl's left over? Because it looks like a whole pack of booze hounds just found us."
"Those Hill dwarves are no friends of mine. Let them stay up there for now and finish these things off first. Then deal with them. Maybe you can buy some time by distracting them Caspian. "
"Well if they are as hard headed as...."
Caspian plays his bag-pipes again this time adding
"It was a hill dwarf who crafted these fine pipes, I'd hate to see a hill dwarf ruin them!"
Caspian plays his pipes and attempts to hypnotize the hilldwarves above...
"Come an listen to my story about a hill dwarf named Jed, a poor hillfolk fella who barely kept his family fed....then one day he was hunting for food when....instead he found a Rube...Ruby that is...Shiny like and Red."
"Why hello gents. We...uhh ...were not expecting anyone to help out. I think we have this one under control..uhh..if you could just stand aside and let these fellas get some sun as it appears they have been down here too long.... We'll be up shortly to discuss any further business"
One of the dwarves grunts, "The only 'business' we have, melanzanas*, is the Egg. If you've got it down there, toss it up and you can bask in the sun all day if you want. You don't got it, then we have to collapse the pit you're in. You might suffocate, but we need to prove we already searched here."
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Cricket points to the ghost.
She ate it!
[Cricket's player, being half Italian, bristles at the racist insult.]
The little girl's ghost returns to her body and is no longer visible as a separate manifestation. Cricket hears a whisper, "Shhh! I'm hiding, stupid. Don't tell them I'm here."
[Cricket's player, being half Italian, bristles at the racist insult.]
Caspian continues to try and musically Hypnotize those pesky hill dwarves...with his song about Jed....
"Well the first thing you know ol' Jed's put on airs, His kinfolk said, 'Jed, move away from here!' They said, 'Californy is the place you oughtta be.' So, they loaded up the wagon and moved to tha Hills of Beberly."
Caspian hypnotism HD affected:
Saving throws (DC 14):
Four of the ten hill dwarves are staring, slack-jawed, at Caspian; their crossbows are sort of vaguely pointed in no particular direction. The others seem alert.
Kelgan, having finished with the last vampire, moves back to the entrance and stares up at the other hill dwarves. He glances from face to face, trying to identify the one in charge, most likely the one that spoke up.
"Ye sad fecks Obmi's dogs, then? Or do ye work for that blackguard An'sovin? No matter, ye're messin' with me now, and I'll have me answers."
Kelgan swings his crossbow up and fires directly at the skull of the dwarf he thinks is leading this sorry band.
Kelgan Bluff to avoid telegraphing intent:
Dwarves Bluff to sense motive:
Kelgan's move catches the bandits completely unprepared; his shot strikes the spokesdwarf dead-on, apparently incapacitating him. The bandits struggle to react to this unexpected turn of events:
Initiative
"I wish I was in the middle of them. I fight better close up."
Initiative
"If you didnot like the song Kelgan you could have just said so!"
"Your song was fine, Cas. A bit cheerful for a dirge, though. These thugs came down here looking to die, and I aim to see they get their wish."
"Which one of you coglione has the stones to try to steal from me?"
Since it is only 20' up, Wyvurn will use accelerated movement to scramble up the rungs and leap in the middle of the hill dwarves hoping to catch them off guard before they can react. He will then slip behind one of them and put it in a chokehold making sure the dwarf's body is between him and the rest of the crossbows.
"I don't appreciate being insulted by the hired help. And while you all may take me in a rush, this sorry stump dies first."
Wyvurn's grapple is a success, and his hapless victim, not having acted yet, is caught flat-footed and unable to make an attack of opportunity.
Jaegr obviously has something in mind, but unfortunately the bandits reacted to Kelgan's gambit sooner, and will be able to act first.
Miralda Initiative:
Initiative Order:
Caspian changes his song to one of inspiration to help his compainions hit harder and do more damage...
He blows the first note and goes into the old standby knock knock goes the rock....
The bandit that Kelgan shot weakly tries to shoot back:
The others all fire as well, except of course the ones staring at Caspian, and the one grappled by Wyvurn:
The one that Wyvurn has a hold of tries to break free in the commotion:
After that flurry of motion, the end result is that five crossbow bolts clatter harmlessly off of Kelgan's shield, and Wyvirn tightens his grip enough to discourage his squirming captive from escaping.
Kelgan tries to use his knowledge of the macho bandit culture to rile them up.
"Those shots were quite pitiful! I've had stronger sneezes. You must come from families that dally with the raccoons, to produce such black-eyed blusterers."
Kelgan reloads and shoots again at the leader.
Kelgan, about to fire, realizes that the spokesdwarf has succombed to his wound and selects a different target, waiting until Cricket and Jaegr have acted.
Jaegr will climb up and get in the middle of the fray.
Jaegr, squinting up at the bandits, begins to climb.
Weather:
Unfortunately for Jaegr, he's squinting up into a clear sky; he'll suffer a 20% miss chance in a fight due to his light sensitivity.
Cricket -- you're up!
Cricket hopes that the others will have properly distracted the hill dwarf bandits and climbs out of the hole using a double move.
When he gets to the top, he yells for Wolvie.
Two of the dwarves, shocked to see people straight climbing up past them, club at Cricket furiously with the butts of their crossbows :
The Tuelvi, wise in the ways of the forest, always knows when a thorn tree branch is going to snap back in his face; similarly, he is able to anticipate the arc of a crossbow butt and pull his head back to avoid being struck.
Seeing what looks like you playing with the newcomers, Wolvie trots up and wags his tail expectantly.
Jaegr nears the top as well, and there are only 3 hill dwarves able to contest his arrival. Feeling uncertain about his ceramic armor, they try to push him back down the hole:
Aid another:
14 + 2 + 2 = 18 -- the bandits barely succeed!
Jaegr tumbles backward into the hole, causing his companions below to scramble out of the way to avoid being crushed. He lands with a tremendous splash; luckily, the water converts 1d6 of the falling damage to nonlethal damage:
Nonlethal:
Lethal:
Jaegr's amazingly resilient ceramic armor completely absorbs the lethal damage and reduces the nonlethal damage to 3 points.
At this point, Kelgan gets his crossbow reloaded and discharges it again. Being forced to reselect a target, and scrambling back to avoid his companion's falling bulk, his shot goes wide.
Miralda finally breaks free of her grief. Incanting and waving her hands, she attempts to put the bandits to sleep:
vs. DC 13
One of the ruffians slumps to the ground, snoring. That leaves 4 active bandits, one of whom is being restrained by Wyvurn -- and it's Wyvurn's turn again.
Good dog!
Caspian lets the hypnotism duration continue as he himself works at inspirings his companions....
All the while he stands in the water un-concerned about the fray happening above....
A new song begins forming in his mind...
....Dunk dunk dunk the dwarf......In a pond a stream or off a warf....Dunk dunk dunk the dwarf.....
But he actually continues the normal inspirational song.....
"Damnation!"
Kelgan thrusts a hand down into the murky water and helps haul the dverge to his feet.
Wvurn will apply some pressure and attempt to choke out the dwarf.
Wyvurn's victim stuggles in his grasp; another six seconds or so of that kind of pressure will certainly make him pass out.
Caspian, you can maintain your inspiration and still cast a spell, if you want.
Jaegr will pick himself back up and trudge up again.