Jaegr quickly becomes annoyed with the tunnel. The footing is so soupy that he makes progress at about half his normal (slow) speed, so 10 feet is all he can manage as a move action. If it came to combat, a quick 5-foot step would probably be out of the question without a lot of effort .
"Who would choose domicile is such a forlorn place??
Just in case we come to something..
Perception
Spell craft
So, moving right along, I'm assuming everyone is following Jaegr and Caspian up the tunnel.
The latter's keyed-up nerves prove to be useful -- Caspian can't see a thing in the darkness of the tunnel, but he hears a faint swish up ahead, like very stealthy footsteps in the water.
"Jager you see anything? I hear some very faint footsteps in the water ahead."
Whispers the halfling into Jager's ear....
"I can send dancing lights ahead of us."
Jaegr readies his weapon and looks around hoping his eyes pick something out. If not he nods to Caspian to send the lights out ahead.
You are indeed underground.
Caspian sends the lights drifting ahead, past the range of the dwarves' darkvision, and even Wyvurn's. About a hundred feet away is a gaunt, prancing figure that appears to be dressed in fool's motley, except it's all gray instead of colorful. Four other humanoid shapes stand behind it.
"I'm minded to shoot first and ask questions later. Not likely anything we run into down here is lost or innocent. Any objections?"
Kelgan loads his arbalest and aims at the motley fool.
The motley fool is caught with his pants down, as it were, insofar as he's in the light and you're in darkness beyond the range of darkvision. Still, he reacts to the lights very quickly:
Initiative
Slowed by the muck, Jaegr waits to see what comes to him.
Caspian, already anxious to see what the lights revealed, acts first -- unless Kelgan or Wyvurn is even faster.
Caspian seeing the distance curses and not for the first time wishes dancing lights were a flame source for his pyrotechnics spell..
Kirth
Instead he activates the shield spell hoping that keeps the party (and Jaegr who seems nearly immobile in the sludge) from being torn up by ranged attacks....
Instead he activates the shield spell hoping that keeps the party (and Jaegr who seems nearly immobile in the sludge) from being torn up by ranged attacks....
Do you mean sanctuary? That affects only one person unless you use it as an inspiration -- and if you do that, be aware that it will use up 5 rounds' worth of inspiration per round it's in effect, if you want to cover yourself, Jaegr, Kelgan, Wyvurn, and Jed. Also, the effect will be broken if any of you attack.
Kelgan looses his bolt as soon as the opportunity presents itself, but it ends up being more of a warning shot than a killing shot.
Imbued items (needlework magic added by Caspian)
On his belt ...Ant haul 1/day
On his cloak .....CLW 1/day
On his sleeve....shield 1/day
On his shirt .....protection from evil 2/day
With the great distance and our pointman being mired in the muck I was going to use the imbued item to use the shield spell 1/day, hopefully protecting us from missile weapons......
Nice!
The clown gestures sharply, and the four hunched-over shapes begin loping quickly in your direction; the marshy "floor" doesn't seem to impede them, somehow. The jester follows quickly behind them. The four ghouls manage to get to within 10 ft. of you and fill the corridor, two abreast and two deep, with the jester some 15 ft. behind them, putting him 40 ft. from your front line.
"Hold behind Jaegr."
Knowledge (lore)
Yep. Unfortunately you can't take a 5-ft. step into difficult terrain, but you can still wade forward and swing.
Kelgan's shot didn't take into account the sudden movement forward, and his bolt goes winging off ahead.
Jaegr grumbling under his breath slogs through the mush and takes it out on the nearest ghoul.
One ghoul goes down under Jaegr's pick.
Round 1:
19 Caspian casts shield on Jaegr
16 Ghouls move
11 Kelgan fires bolt
6 Jaegr destroys ghoul
1 Someone roll for Wyvurn please!
Wyvurn takes a running leap (using Acrobatics to ignore the terrain) in an attempt to clear the first rank of ghouls and attack the second rank, channeling ki.
His starting run is good, but apparently the marshy floor is too squishy for jumping; he just ends up bouncing off Kelgan's armor.
Wyvurn growls, "You must have grown, dwarf!
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"Bah! It's bad enough I have to go slogging around us this slop. Getting teabagged by a goblin acrobat is just this shlit frosting on this muck cake."
Kelgan shakes his first in mock fury, but his armor quivers and a few deep chuckles escape his bearded lips.
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Caspian starts a new song....
"What do you call a naked hobgoblins ball sack upon a bald dwarfs head? Just the thing to make him mad! A two headed monster of furious face? Run run, away from this place!"
He gives up on a new composition and switches to moves like Jager...
Even aiding each other, the ghouls' claws and fangs are unable to penetrate Jaegr's ceramic armor.
The clown gestures and makes rasping sounds, and a cloud of shining mica flakes falls over the party.
Will save
***blinded...
"Moves like Jaegr, moves like Jaegr, Moooovees like Jager!"
Jaegr will use a grit point as a hero point to re-roll the save
At first Jaegr's sight clouds over but his stubbornness won't let him succumb to the spell. He growls back at the clown, "You need to do better than that if you want to stop me. I'm from the darkness and it won't affect me."
He moves onto the remaining undead creatures in front of him.
Two more ghouls go down under the metronomic swinging of Jaegr's pick. One left, plus the clown.
Kelgan, then Wyvurn.
Kelgan swears as the shiny gold flakes ruin his darkvision. With the swirling motes filling his vision, he cranks his crossbow and prepares to fire if any of the ghouls close and strike him.
Wyvurn slips through the swirling motes unimpaired growling curses at the clown.
Caspian improvises him song to keep inspiring and let them know he has been blinded....
"I wish I could see those moves like Jaegr...."
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After Wyvurn's almost contemptuous swings, the ghouls are all slaughtered.
Caspian continues to inspire and sing moves like Jaegr, as he is blinded he can not really target anyone or cast very much....
Kelgan is in the same situation as Caspian. Unless the blindness wears off, he will stay alert and retaliate with a point-blank shot against anything that attacks him.
The jester, cackling now, makes a bunch of gestures (those who can see him) and blows a raspberry. A pea-sized ember streaks from his hand down the hall, then explodes in a burst of fire that envelopes the party!
Reflex save
"That's my gig, if only I could see."
Caspian gets an idea, perhaps this man is suggestible when the ghouls were not. He gets ready to leave the inspiration hanging in the air and will attempt a suggestion on the clown.....
The knee deep water slows down Jaegr enough for him not to evade the spell. He knows normally it would not have been an issue. The ceramic armor that once was linked to the elemental plane of fire absorbs some of the heat in an attempt to reestablish the link it once had.
Jaegr sloshes forward towards the jester, tiring of the game.
HP 44/52
Ignore 2 Points of opponent's Armor+Shield Bonus and 1/2 Damage if miss and within Armor+Shield Bonus