Awgin and Calatin make their way down the Escarpment towards Rag's End. As they arrive at the dive bar Councillor Pellerin elected to meet them in, unbeknownst to them, their friends fight for their lives just two small blocks away. But blissfully ignorant, they enter probably the first eating establishment Calatin has ever seen where he thinks dieting might be preferrable to partaking.
Perception checks, please gentlemen.
Perception:
After stepping into the dive, Awgin slides to the side to minimize the amount of time he is silhouetted in the doorway as well as allowing his senses to better acclimate to the level of light inside. Awgin comes to the conclusion that he'd been in worse places, though none came immediately to mind.
Awgin notices, among the many patrons who glance at the pair of you and then look away, one dirty man at a table by himself watching you intently, while trying not to look like he's watching you intently. Awgin also notices that the man's beard is slightly crooked, and he suspects it's fake.
Awgin rolls his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh before walking to the table and taking a seat.
"Hey! Wh- what d-d-d-do you think you're d-d-doing? This s-s-s-s-s-s-seat's taken!" the man protests, a little louder than perhaps necessary.
Intimidate
Awgin responds with a hard stare.
Heward tightens his grip on Brienne and waits for the crowd of vargouille infected to make its move.
Five of the infected push towards Heward, while one climbs the stairs at Khismia, all of them swinging their improvised weapons with lethal intent, though no success.
Attack on Heward: ; damage:
Attack on Heward: ; damage:
Attack on Heward: ; damage:
Attack on Heward: ; damage:
Attack on Heward: ; damage:
Attack on Khismia: ; damage:
The other two, not able to reach this round, ready attacks against any of you who come near them.
Up next: Laya, Phillip, Mig
"Oh dear, oh dear," Laya mutters, moving up to the door. "I do so hate the violence." She raises a hand and more loudly says, "Heward's correct. We can heal you. You just have to remain calm and put away your weapons."
Expecting the be-tentacled unlikely to listen to reason, Phil moves forward to face the one that has gone after Khismia...
2H Cutlass (non-lethal): for
...the flat of his blade connecting with a solid thump - though not hard enough to drive the infected to the ground. He blurts to Khismia "Press on, I've got your back"
Heward continues to shout at the infected. "I'm with the Watch! Back off before you get hurt!"
A few of the infected glance at each other and up at Mig. Clearly, they are terrified, both of you and Mig. One good roar might send them scattering.
Mig, seeing that Phillip has reinforcements, shrieks once again. Heward, Laya, and Khismia need DC 12 Fortitude saves or be paralyzed with fear. Mig then flaps five feet to the north away from Khismia.
"Kill them all!" Mig shouts.
Up next: Khismia, Heward, Infected
Fort save
"Hargreaves, cover Khismia! I've got Laya." Heward shouts, even though the ex-pirate is already on his way.
He drops his halberd into a low guard position, "You lot! I told you to stand back!"
Intimidate
Heward jabs Brienne at his righthand attacker. .. damage
If you scream really loud, he might hear you...:)
Technically, using Intimidate like that is a standard action, and I assume you'd rather it's effect than taking down the infected civilian. The infected take a good look at Heward, brandishing his halberd. The threat from him being much more present than that of the vargouille, they scatter, three out the door, the rest into an office behind the south stairs. Heward and Phillip can make attacks of opportunity if they want. The one on the stairs between Phillip and Khismia tries to push past Phillip to get away. Phillip can choose to let him go, or force an overrun attempt from him.
Laya paralyzed: rounds
Khismia paralyzed: rounds
Up next: Laya, Phillip, Mig
Javelin scatter:
Up on 1:
The javelin is stuck in the wall behind where the vargouille was. I'll get the map updated tonight.
Laya stands frozen in terror.
"You three, stop!" Heward commands. When they don't stop, he tries to hook his halberd through one's legs.
Trip, the one closest to the door that I can still reach.
Phillip interposes between the door and the one before him that tries to flee...
AoO (non-lethal): for
Crit: for
...meaning only to brain the infected enough to put her down, but circumstances make his blow a little stronger than intended and the infected's neck snaps back with a sickening crunch as his basket hilt smacks into it's skull.
Phil then moves past the stricken Khismia to bring his cutlass to bear on what once was Mig...
Cutlass (2H lethal): for
...his hurried swipe missing the mark.
As Phillip is slashing forward at Mig, he has a fraction of a second to realize that the floor of the catwalk underneath him is less than stable before the rotted wood gives way.
Reflex save DC 13 to hop back safely to I12, otherwise he falls through to the ground floor, suffering points of damage and ending up prone. Either way, he hears villainous laughter from the vargouille.
Initiative Order: Mig, Khismia, Heward, Infected, Laya, Phillip
Laya: 3 rounds to free
Khismia: 5 rounds to free
Waiting to see if Phillip falls or not before deciding Mig's action.
(assuming Phillip passes his save)
blue circle is tripped; red circle is paralyzed
Reflex:
Phil catches himself and steps backwards as the staircase gives way.
Mig flaps forward to J12 and bites at Phillip.
Attack:
Damage: Phillip is flailing about too much in his recovery for the vargouille to successfully target.
Up next: Khismia, Heward, Laya, Phillip
Phil steadies himself before lashing out with another wild two-handed swing...
Cutlass (2H lethal): for
...missing by a mile as he takes a step back to be alongside Khismia's unmoving form.
Heward looks at the two running out the open door. Shelyn's globes, that's trouble.
"You! In the office with them!" He takes three steps to kick the outside door closed, leaving Laya outside. Then he spins and moves toward the center of the room drawing another javelin
as he goes. He sights and throws at MIg's head.
Javelin .... damage
That javelin ends up stuck in the railing of the catwalk to Mig's left.
Shriek (Su) Instead of biting, a vargouille can open its distended mouth to shriek. Those within 60 feet (except other vargouilles) who hear the shriek and can clearly see the creature must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 2d4 rounds or until the monster attacks them, goes out of range, or leaves their sight. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same vargouille's shriek for 24 hours. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Yes, that's a good point. Laya was affected, because Mig had moved far enough to the north to just catch Laya, but now that he's moved back to engage Phillip, that broke line of sight, so Laya can act this turn.
Up next: Laya, Phillip, Mig
Laya snaps out of the terror that had taken hold of her. "How embarrassing," she mutters, and reaches out for the nearest of the fleeing infected.
Laya is able to snag one of the fleeing infected in the alleyway, who is no staggered. The fight left him, he simply drops to the ground and huddles against the wall. The third runaway, a bald woman wearing the revealing clothes of a prostitute, pauses at the end of the alley to look back at Laya, then bolts into the street.
Up next: Phillip, Mig, Khismia, Heward
Khismia: 4 rounds till free
Mig cackles at Phillip's clumsy attempts to hit him, then bites at him again.
Attack:
Damage:
The creature grazes Phillip's cheek with his teeth in a parody of the dreaded vargouille kiss. Fort save, please.
Up next: Khismia (frozen), Heward, Laya, Phillip
Round 4:
Fort Save:
Phil feels the blood begin to seep from the cut to his cheek and lashes out with his cutlass wildly...
Cutlass (2H): for
...landing a glancing blow of his own on what was once Mig.
Heward draws his last javelin and hurls it at Mig. Then he dashes up the stairs.
Javelin ... Damage
Crit Confirm ... Damage
Heward's javelin pierces the creature, which screams in rage (not the magical kind).
Laya dashes to the corner, looking up and down the street...
Perception:
...but catches no sign of the fleeing infected woman. Looking about she does see several businesses open and operating, including two brothels and three pubs. The woman could have ducked into any of them, or any one of a number of alleyways.
Phillip slashes out as the vargouille is distracted by Heward's javelin, and adds a small wound of his own.
Khismia: 3 rounds till free
Mig hisses in anger and withdraws, flying backwards along the catwalk to L12 (J12 is the hole in the catwalk). It's hard to see on the map, so I'll remind you that there is a second stairway at M10 and M11 that leads up to the catwalk.
Up next: Khismia (paralyzed), Heward, Laya, Phillip
The man in the bad disguise nearly swallows his back teeth at Awgin's glare before remembering who he is and who they are. As Calatin sits down, he seems to have regained some of his composure. "N-N-Nothing, actually. Everything here c-c-c-comes with a side order of c-c-c-cockroach. Where are the r-r-rest of your g-g-group?"
Awgin orders drinks for the table. "If you don't drink, everyone will be able to tell you don't belong."
Heward says to Khismia, "I need this more than you do right now."
He grabs her crossbow, loads a quarrel and fires at Mig.
Crossbow .... damage
Crit confirm .... damage
Phil shakes his head before attempting to charge forward and vault the gap...
Acrobatics:
...drawing close enough to the once-was-Mig to unleash another cross-slash with his cutlass...
Cutlass (2H): for
...unbalanced by the jump and missing poorly.
Heward, those are terrible damage rolls. Of course, you should have rolled d8s, so here's a free do over.
The quarrel flies into the creature's open mouth...and halfway out the back. The vargouille drops to the floor.
Laya continues searching for the runaway.
Perception: but has no further luck.
Meanwhile, back inside, Khismia comes out of her frozen state.
Heward hands the crossbow back to Khismia, "Thanks. I should have brought one of those too." He turns to Phillip. "You ok, Hargreaves? Let's make sure the head is dead, then check those civilians and Laya."
[ooc]airport internet access rocks!
How do the infected look? How much time til sunset? Is it reasonable to think we could get the infected to the temple before dark? Walking? Carriage? If there's sunlight and they look OK, we want to get them outside. Can they ID the ones that ran outside?
We've got to back up Laya too.
*** Before leaving H will want to quickly retreive his javelins.
You only have minutes left before sunset, but the infected look like they'll last a few hours yet before turning.
Does Heward want to question the infected?
Phil nods assent to the question before making sure that Mig is fully dead. He then gives the warehouse a quick recon to ensure that there are no more vargouilles or infected hiding within...
Perception:
Searching the warehouse, Phillip finds no more infected or vargouilles. He does fin a headless corpse in the upstairs office. The corpse is wearing what looks like very fine studded leather armour.