Motteditor's Strange Aeons PBP

Game Master motteditor

Heinrich is keeping the rage powder, having pocketed it after examination.

"Well..." Kyffin begins slowly, "I have a dim memory of bundling this stuff up, but I don't know why. I don't know how to use any of this stuff, so maybe I killed the guy who did, and needed to hide his stuff? I dunno, seems a reach, but I got nothing else."

"Dude, that wand has your initials on it. 'K' and 'R'...for Kyffin and Rhees. That's your wand," Tristain says in disbelief. The Kyffin he knows would never have things like that. Never. What a strange reality we have been placed into. I wonder what secrets I have?

Tristain is fine with putting the things back. They seem dark and wrong to exist at this point.

"Now what? Back to town? This lead we have with Kyffin is our best option of learning who and what we used to be. We should try to go back from here, I think."

Tenebrynn sweeps one hand down her opposite arm, her face twisted in a rictus of disgust as she sloughs a disturbing amount of mucus and goop off of herself. It splashes into the water with an odd clap as she turns her attention back to the group.

"Ugh. Gross." She shakes her head, shooting an irritated look skyward at the clouds and the pouring rain, then tries to focus on the current topic of conversation, "I like the back to town suggestion if it's to a dry, indoor place with a fire. I don't think I'd be any more wet than if I climbed out of the lake right now. Would also be good if there weren't any more of those things we just fought wherever we go next." She shrugs, her tone starting to turn bubbly and bright once more, "Would not mind exploring Toli's cave now though either. Doubt many people would bother being on the water in the rain like this, so if it is a trap, the trapper wouldn't expect us!"

"I don't think it's my wand. I don't have any memory of using these things, just wrapping them up."

"I thought we were headed to the cave, get that foolishness out of the way. Besides, where do we go from here to learn more about me? No, let's check the cave and be done with it. Then a few drinks at a new pub - see if we learn more about ourselves with fresh faces."

"Dang it all, the package under the pier just created more questions and didn't answer a thing. Seems our best path forward is getting friendly with the townsfolk. They've been the best source of clues to our past, maybe if we do something for them, then they'll show us a kindness in return. We might as well go check out the cave, maybe settling that fear for these folks is just the thing they need."

Going to assume you're going to check the cave. Sorry, I know some of you were less interested in that, but does seem like the group's consensus.

Following Toli's directions, you make your way out of Thrushmoor, the rain at least trailing off from a steady downpour to a dismal dripping, enough to keep you wet and uncomfortable, but not enough to make it significantly more difficult to see 20 feet ahead of you.

Eventually, you find a a small strip of muddy sand choked with reeds sits at the entrance of a low cave just at the lip of the bay. Scraggly vines drape over the top of the cave and hang like tangled hair over its mouth.

Climbing down the damp limestone face of the shore to the cave mouth requires a successful DC 20 Climb check to avoid falling. A pair of large rocks offers an easier path for more nimble characters: you can step or hop from rock to rock and end up safely in front of the cave with a DC 10 Acrobatics check.

Tenebrynn hops straight down, her fall slowed as she musters little blasts of wind as she nears the ground. The slight gnome stands in front of the vine choked cave, looking like someone about to be swallowed up.

She looks up at the others as they begin their respective descents, "Ohhhh. This cave looks creepy!" She smiles brightly then shields her eyes from the rain to try and peer into the gloom. A moment later she shakes her head and hops backward up onto a rock to wait for the others to get down beside her.

feather fall is fun!

As Tenebrynn softly lands, she looks up -- just in time to see one of the hanging vines twitch! Tenebrynn is up for Round 1 (map coming in a few minutes) Then it'll go (remember, it's a move action to get down).

1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

"Whoa! These vines are grabby!" Tenebrynn leaps back into the water, the cold lake raking across the back of her calves and feet. As she lands, she shoots a blast of water-flecked, stony debris up into the wiggling mass.

Air Blast: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17for: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (1, 6) + 9 = 16

Move 2 squares back into the water; it hasn't acted yet, so it should be flat-footed and not get an AoO; will move back that far regardless though!

Dude, I was in the map while you were resizing the vine. Looked like it was undulating and swallowing me up and everything. Incredible timing! lol

Kyffin moves from rock to rock, taking care with his footing.

Acrobatics, take10: 10 + 1 = 11

Once he reaches the cave entrance, he'll cast Light on his headscarf for the others, and begin to enter the cave - looking around carefully as he does so.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 Heinrich mumbles something about flighty gnomes and tries to goat his way down! He fails...

Tenebrynn blasts the vine as she retreats, only to see it follow her, one tendril snaking out to grab her! It slams heavily into her 15 hp! and wraps around, immediately starting to constrict tightly, crushing the gnome's ribcage. 11 more hp, plus grappled.

Party (including Tenebrynn) is up for full Round 1; I'm assuming Kyffin may have been ninja'd before his last post -- I'll tweak it if he doesn't post in the meantime.

Tenebrynn gasps as the vine nearly knocks her unconscious. Her vision blurs and the world spins for a few moments before she tries to center herself with a shake of her head. A strangled, pained cry squeaks free from her lips as she struggles against the vine's grip, but it holds her fast.
Escape Artist: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

With another pain-stricken whimper, she goes limp in the vine's grasp.

Playing possum in the hopes it will not choke me to death! Plus, I spent the only action I had trying to escape the grapple =\

Round 1, Init 5

Seeing what happens to Heinrich, Tristain moves to where he can see things on the safe path.

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19 Acrobatics

When he sees the plant, he casts Magic Missile at it from a safe distance.

3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 4, 4) + 3 = 13 damage

Round 1, Initiative: 3

Oh! Sorry, yeah, I was ninjaed. Please use my perception then as my acrobatics (as I can't take 10) and he'll draw his scimitar on the descent.

If he gets an attack, he'll use it.

Scimitar: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18 damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Acrobatics, DC 10: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Albert leaps from rock to rock, nimbly, perhaps far too nimbly for an old man, and jumps to Tenny's rescue. "Unhand my gnome, you overgrown salad!"

Red Destiny: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Heinrich manages to cartwheel down the slope, but fortunately, he manages to hit mostly mud, coating himself in cold, wet dirt following by a layer of dark beach sand. 1 hp, and prone

The others descend more quickly, attacking the vine furiously even as it looks like it may be too late, Tenebrynn going limp!

Kyffin's blade severs the vine, however, and the gnome pops back up, her ruse having worked long enough for her purposes.

More vines block your view of cave's interior, but happily none of them seem to move.

Dang; didn't total up your damage at first and rolled out the vine's full attack (and wrote up the post). Er, let's just say you guys are lucky you did enough damage.

With a Blessing, Kyffin converts a Bull’s Strength to a cure moderate wounds to help Tenebrynn heal.
Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (3, 5) + 4 = 12 (+50% =18 total healing)

Concerned that she's still quite wounded, he sighs, and converts a command spell to a cure light, though he doesn't bless it.
Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

"OK then. Let's hope these others don't come to life as well." he hacks a few of the stands ostensibly to get them out of his way, but also in anger. When everyone has climbed down and is ready, he'll proceed into the cave scimitar out and ready.

"Gravity is a harsh mistress." Heinrich wheezes from the ground before staggering to his feet and brushing himself off.

Tenebrynn gives Kyffin a warm hug in the wake of his healing magics and smiles brightly up at him, "Thanks!" She looks then at everyone else and adds, "Those vines were strong! I didn't know vines could do that, just suddenly start moving and grabbing people."

Despite the brightness in her voice, the little gnome still moves a little bit gingerly, her clothes likely covering up a considerable amount of bruising. "Let's see what's inside!" She turns to the cave, ready to head inside and find a witch.

As Kyffin moves forward, Tenebrynn at his side, he trips over a wire and a blade slices out, cutting the two of them. 3 hp each

The cave opens up as you move past the vegetation. It branches off to the left, but ahead of you a wooden barricade made of small tree trunks lashed together with thick twine seals the way forward.

"Ow!"

Tristain takes his time climbing down, in no rush to fall onto some rocks. As such, his descent is undignified and inelegant. His ass is a bit rawer for the scrapping and sliding down. But at least he was safe...and so was Tenebrynn.

He waits for Tenebrynn to be healed and winces as she is hit again with a trap.

"Wow...did that plant set that trap *or* are we facing some very smart plants?" Tristain asks worriedly. "But at least it seems that there is something here that is causing the lights."

Tristain looks for more traps, waving people on if the way is clear.

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12 Perception

Tristain doesn't spot any traps.

"This place is deadly." Heinrich notes, and keeps his eyes peeled for traps as well. Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Nor does Heinrich.

Kyffin takes the hit, and shrugs out of annoyance. Muttering under his breath he intones, "It's going to be one of those days is it..."

He refreshes the Light spell on his head-scarf and begins to head further inside.

Tenebrynn grabs Kyffin's belt as he focuses on renewing his spell and nearly strides face first into the barricade blocking the whole of the passage. "Do we just break it down? Should we try knocking?" She's looking at Kyffin as she speaks, but her tone makes it's clear she's asking the group as a whole.

Map looked like we could go left - the barricade was directly ahead. So Kyffin was going to go left, probably foolishly.

He waits as Tenebrynn investigates the barrier. "Sure, we could knock if you wanted."

"Careful", Albert cautions the party, "Those bedtime stories of witches ain't ever include them setting blade traps. We're dealing with some roguish scamps that want folks to believe that witch story to keep them away from here." Al proceeds to the left with Kyffin, slowly, as he watches for pit traps and falling hazards.

Perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (15) - 1 = 14

The opening to the chamber to the west is only 5 feet around, forcing almost all of you to duck in order to enter.

The dark limestone chamber smells like wet mulch and is bare aside from a scattering of animal bones. The muddy floor is covered with various tracks.

As you look around, however, Kyffin suddenly feels an incredible pain across his back! The rest of you see momentarily a three-stalked fungoid monster bite into the half-orc with a large maw that seems to stretch across its entire front. It appears briefly semi-transparently and then disappears again from sight.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
2d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 3) + 3 = 12

Party is up. (Sorry, I initially included just the first part of this post, but I figured it was pretty likely you would look around so figured I'd get to the inevitable conclusion.) The phantom icon on the map is where you last saw it, but it's invisible so you'll have a miss chance to hit it.

Survival: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
Knowledge Nature, DC 15: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18
Knowledge Nature, DC 13: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

"There are humanoid bones here... PHANTOM FUNGUS!" Special attacks, special defenses, weakest save, please.

Heinrich grips his club with both hands and swings at the spot where the thing used to be! Clubbin' with flankin': 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 5 + 2 = 16 for 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8 damage! Miss change, low misses: 1d100 ⇒ 55

Round 4, Initiative: 12

Taking a deep hit, Kyffin whirls around on the beast only to see it disappear! He tries slashing it where he saw it last as it can’t have gone far, he still feels the bite acutely!

Scimitar: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15 damage: 1d6 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 2 = 14 (flank?) Miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 70 (high is good for me)

Oops! I added +2 to damage from flank instead of on the attack roll. Should be 17 to hit, 12 damage. Sorry!

Round 1, Init 7

Tristain looks on with horror as something attacks Kyffin.

"Phantom Fungus? What is that?! That can't be real....can it?" Tristain asks himself, thinking.

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13 Know (Nature)

He offers a Magic Missile next time it appears again.

3d4 + 3 ⇒ (1, 4, 1) + 3 = 9 damage

"Whoa! Where did it go?! How did it do that?!" Tenebrynn's voice is a mix of alarm and amazed interest as the toothy fungus vanishes from view.

Wind begins to whistle into the chamber, drawn in seemingly from the outside, as it begins to swirl and spiral around the slight gnome, her hair lashing and dancing wildly. Tenebrynn's eyes stay wide as she scans the room, waiting for the creature to reappear.

Readied Action
Air Blast: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16for: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (5, 4) + 9 = 18

Move action: gather power (and hopefully it's attention/interest)
Standard action: ready an airblast for the moment it reappears!

Heal check, DC 15: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

Al slashes at the space where the fungus disappeared.

Red Destiny: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
miss chance, high is good: 1d100 ⇒ 18

Kyffin spins, sword ripping into the creature much as it ripped into him, while Heinrich and Al converge on it too. The former clubs the creature, but it disappears a moment too soon for Al, who slashes nothing but empty air.

It appears a second later, closer to Tenebrynn who blasts it -- as does Tristain -- just as it bites her. Its jaws close on her arm just as her blast goes off, ripping it off her arm and splattering chunks of fungus across Heinrich and Al. 11 hp to Tenebrynn; order of events: It went to bite, triggering the two readied actions. Those were enough to kill it, but Tenebrynn's ranged attack from melee also triggered an AoO from it, which is what hurt her.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 6) + 3 = 11

As you look around, Kyffin and Tenebrynn feel a strange stiffness in their joints.

Both need to make a DC 16 Fort save or take 1d2 ⇒ 2 points of Dex damage

Fort: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

"That was nasty. I dunno about a witch, but there's certainly something down here that doesn't like company!"

He converts a Burst of Radiance to a Cure Moderate for Himself. He boosts it with a blessing to try and heal himself fully. "We should have taken that wand from the church..." he mumbles as he spends all his flexibility on healing.

Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (5, 1) + 4 = 10 (+50% = 15 total healing)

To help Tenebrynn, he converts a Divine Favor to a Cure Light Wounds, and bumps it with a Blessing as well.
Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 (+50% = 13 total healing)

He'll then use his Pearl of Power to gain the Divine Favor back.

Tenebrynn groans and shakes the pain out of her arm. "Are all the plants here murderous monsters? This is a horrible cave!" Her movements stiffen slightly as she gives Kyffin another grateful hug. "Thanks."

Fort Save (DC 16): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Damage to 2 out of 6 abilities... I could start working on collecting the whole set!

Heinrich looks at the gnome carefully. "You seem ill, Tenebrynn."

Heal: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 Treat poison or disease - adds +4 to Tenebrynn's next check if I exceed the DC.

"Ill? I mean, I guess my arm feels a little stiff still, but it did nearly just get bitten off by some kind of enormous predatory fungus." She rolls her shoulder, trying to work out the stiffness but shrugs as it remains. "Maybe you're right though." The little gnomes then pokes around the room a bit, the wind still visibly whipping around her and making her clothes and hair shift and dance.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Tristain tries to keep his distance from any plants in the cave. It's clear that the vegetation here is wild and untamed and unfriendly.

"It's clear that there is no witch down here, but an evil plant-cult! Normal vegetation doesn't attack like this! Mind the grass! Mind the vines! Mind the bushes! Trust nothing that is green," Tristain warns as Tenebrynn and Kyffin get the care they need.

He will keep a look out for trouble, then be ready to move on. His longspear is poised at every plant they pass.

Al has 2 daily channel heals at 2d6 and 5 lay on hands at 3d6 each and can share healing duties

"This cave muck is perfect for those wounds." Albert points out to Tenny, "It's extra dirty and will make you feel better right quick." Al smears a handful of the gunk across the gnome's shoulder before she can protest.

Lesser Restoration: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Tenebrynn's eyes light up after a brief pause, "Hey! Wow! You're right!" She rolls her shoulder again, this time with no stiffness whatsoever. "Thanks!" She gives the former janitor a hug as well, then returns to poking about the chamber.

Now that everyone is feeling better from Albert's old man rubs, Tristain looks to move north, further into the cave.

He waits for BK Supreme or Kyffin to lead the way.

BK's not here, man.

Heinrich shrugs at the obviously unsanitary mud treatment which inexplicably works, and hefts his cudgel, moving forward deeper into the cave!

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22 vs traps!

Heinrich thinks it was some sort of poison, but more likely on the blade that cut the pair earlier than related to the fungus. Tenebrynn must succeed at another DC 16 Fort save (at +4 from the Heal check) or take 1d2 ⇒ 2 points of Dex damage

A wooden barricade made of small tree trunks lashed together with thick twine seals the entrance to the northern chamber. Loops of rope that serve as handles are tied into the barricade on each end, but the door is wedged in the passage in such a way that it doesn't look like it could be pushed over.

It does look like you can look through the gaps between the rough logs to view the room beyond.

Tenebrynn peers through the gaps in the timbers and coos softly, "Oooo! I think someone's living here! Maybe there is a witch after all: a witch who makes plants bite and strangle people!"

Heinrich looks through the gap as well. "Looks like a living area, indeed."