Of Kings and Commoners - Kingmaker AP

Game Master RPGGGM

"Yeah I'll wait here vigilantly and totally awake..." She really hoped the druid was right when he declared that the spiders were taken care of.

If/when her companions were safely out of the well, she'd actually like to take a peek around. When she had backup!

"I'm not great at climbing, Illthir, and I can't cast Fly again until tomorrow.
If you are going up into the trees, I can give you a bit of magical aid."

Durgan can cast Bull's Strength and Guidance on Illthir if she wishes.

"But otherwise, I can only remain here on the ground to try to help with my crossbow, and heal you afterwards.
You are a very capable warrior, so if you wish to proceed on your own I would not call it foolish."

Might still be good to have someone as backup, but it probably can't be Durgan if it involves climbing. He has a +3, which becomes -2 with ACP.

It's a DC 15 to climb unaided, taking 10 (or unloading a heavy backpack, or two-handed weapon) might be an option for some. Fergus probably still has a minute or two of money fish left to him.

Illthir is at +7 normally - and a masterwork agile breastplate have no acp on climb (yay!). Fatigue is -2 so she should manage a take 10. Unless her stuff weights more then I think it does...

She could probably use the buffs - if she does find something being at str 20 might come in handy to get it down without falling :p

"A-ha yes. Not foolish. Yeah." Illthir took the compliment and stuffed it into her secret place. As soon as they got somewhere safe and warm, she'd use it to nourish her ego and justify tall tales.

Durgan casts Bull's Strength and Guidance on Illthir.

Was looking to hit that sweet spot between "You should go on your own" and "Don't go on your own." So it's "Go if you want to and I promise I won't say 'I told you so' if something bad happens."

Zokon climbs up and then aids in the lifting on things y'know chests, Dwarves etc, that need Hauling

"I'm up i'll help haul ya all up."

The chest ascends. Time passes.... ;)

Since Illthir doesn't want to go up alone, and no one else is interested I guess we are calling it there. At least you all got a nice heavy chest out of the deal, which by the way I should note Semistrea didn't seem to mind (hardly noticed really) you all taking from her home in the well.

I'll make it official tomorrow if no one responds back by then and Durgan can have his spells refunded, if they are not needed for the climb.

Aka any volunteers to join in operation climb tree? Or peer inside the small cairns? :p

;)

Apologies, I was waiting for everybody to ascend so the Chest could be lifted, but missed when that happened on monday. I'll gladly go check it out with you.

"Ready when you are, Illthir. Lets take a peek, at least - if we do run into trouble, we'll get back to the ground one way or another.", Alia smiles at the Half-Elf, then picks whatever tree Durgan recommends from his previous foray to the canopy.
Same as Illthir, +7 regular, -2 fatigue, should be fine with Take 10.

"Luck be with us ..." Illthir takes a deep breath and hopes there are no more spiders.

Climby climby time!

"Uhhh you guys are nuts." Zokon though will dutifully take his place below and keep watch for greeblies with his bow in hand

"Thank you Zokon. I feel much better about climbing this spider infested tree to look for a murderous werewolf now." The skald makes a grimace and sticks her tongue at the ranger. He probably wasn't wrong, but she just wanted to know that she had checked the things she could check so she could finally go to sleep.

Random Tree Decider (I'm guessing you both plan on climbing the same one): 1d3 ⇒ 2

The Random Tree Decider has decided! The boughs are 40' up and assuming no accelerated climbing shenanigans it takes the Alia 6 move actions (2 move actions per round)--18 seconds to gain purchase on the limbs above, and Illthir 8 move actions (again, 2 move actions per round)--24 seconds to do the same, moving at a measured pace. By the way, characters can climb along the mostly horizontal branches or attempt to balance upon them (the ones Illthir and Alia are on currently are fall into the 1'-3' wide range, there are some broader stretches--the really thick branches, and some that are narrower, requiring rolls to traverse standing. Regardless the "ground" up here is considered uneven.

Canopy Level

Ground Level

The trees up here seem dead as if perpetually held in the grasp of winter, but with the lack of cold and the green of spring upon all the surrounding forest makes the leafless space feel eerie and close like an old, unaired attic. Vast sheets of cobweb move like ghost tapestry in the early morning breeze from the nearby boughs. Amid them several large sacks of webbing hang like macabre Crystalhue ornaments. Many of the branches around show signs of recent lightning strikes. They creak and sway ominously under the women's weight.

Acrobatics is +5. ACP is -3, fatigue is -2. So should be good to deal with the 1-3 wide ones, until modifiers hit :p

Illthir frowns and wonders why she thought this was a good idea. Bleh. Bleh!! She swallowed. Surely elves were good with trees though? She glanced at Alia for reassurance. Yeah. Let's say so.

"There's some websacks here. Darned if I know if any are fresh ..." She calls out for the benefit of those on ground level. "Hand on let me tie my rope; it's awfully long down ..."

The skald ties the middle of her silk rope around her torso. It'd be mildly better then falling face-first into the ground ... Then one end as a loose loop around the branch she was on. She hoped to drag the rope with her as she slooowly and carefully shuffled forward, stopping occasionally to untie and retie it when branches stopped its progress. The other end she offered to Alia.

Once they were secured - and mentally bolstered - she suggested that they'll check out the closest sack. Unless it looked too dangerous ... "I'll see if I can cut it open with my dagger. Please hold on to the rope and don't let go ..."

Fatigued is just a -1, I believe; -2 Dex and Str means -1 to skills using those attributes.

Durgan is correct about being fatigued.

The skald ties the middle of her silk rope around her torso. It'd be mildly better then falling face-first into the ground ... Then one end as a loose loop around the branch she was on. She hoped to drag the rope with her as she slooowly and carefully shuffled forward, stopping occasionally to untie and retie it when branches stopped its progress. The other end she offered to Alia.

That's the typical 50' of silk rope right? XD

Once they were secured - and mentally bolstered - she suggested that they'll check out the closest sack. Unless it looked too dangerous ... "I'll see if I can cut it open with my dagger...."

You can! These strong webs have hardness 0, 5 hp; Break DC 19.

Illthir leans out over open space to maneuver the dangling sack of webbing closer.

**RIP RIP RIIIIIP!**

The desiccated remains of human-sized body tears free from the torn web and tumbles 40' to the ground in front of Fergus and Zokon.

**THUD!**

The stingy-haired, eyeless corpse stares slightness at the party its mouth open in a silent scream. The remains of its clothes, which look as though they been left outside for years are covered in cobweb.

It is the standard issue length yes :) Though not planning on falling the full 50' if it can be helped :p

"Eww." Illthir groaned. It also occurred to her that anyone still barely alive inside a bundle might not be so after getting splatted on the ground. "I *uh* will see if I can be more careful. I don't suppose you guys have a sheet or something to catch anything alive with? ...And let's hope they didn't try to eat a troll or something ..."

Unless it was obviously dangerous, to her untrained eyes, the skald will attempt to shuffle over to tree 1 and the closest sack there.

"Ummmm.. howabout if you find a live one, yell and we'll try our best.." he says looking at Fergus with a maybe sorta look.

Serena shrugs and makes ready to aid in catching any live beings that fall.

It is the standard issue length yes :) Though not planning on falling the full 50' if it can be helped :p

Don't worry. That would never happen. GM's honor. XD

"Eww." Illthir groaned. It also occurred to her that anyone still barely alive inside a bundle might not be so after getting splatted on the ground. "I *uh* will see if I can be more careful. I don't suppose you guys have a sheet or something to catch anything alive with? ...And let's hope they didn't try to eat a troll or something ..."

Basically lacking a large bit of wood beneath a web sack to catch falling means you need an extra set of hands to catch stuff from falling out. You can try and catch stuff as if it is falling out of a web sack yourself with an Acrobatics or Climb check (DC 25). Success indicates that you catch the falling object, but its total weight cannot exceed your heavy load limit or you automatically fall. If you fail your Acrobatics or Climb check by 4 or less, you fail to stop the contents from falling, but don’t lose your balance/grip on the wall. If you fail by 5 or more, you fail to stop the object’s fall and begin falling as well.

Unless it was obviously dangerous....

:)

Mm think Alia might get the honour of catching :p Or, since Illthir got the buff from Durgan, Alia gets to cut the web and Illthir gets the honour to hold onto things. Yay ...

Not super great nature skills on this one, so will go ahead unless it looks really dumb xd

EditThough assuming the rope is secured properly, Illthir shouldn't fall too far hopefully! Lets just hope none of these things are filled with small, live spiders ...

"How about we just cut them open a bit, see what's inside? I'd hate to fall down trying to catch a corpse. I heavily doubt it, but if we do find a web sack with someone alive inside, we could try and use the rope to secure it and lower it down after cutting it loose?", Alia suggests as the two make their way to the next web sack.

I Have +12 on the Acrobatics, DC25 is a bit too chancy to risk just to hug a mummified corpse on its way to the ground floor.

@Illthir: Aye, I don't know which prospect I like less - the idea one of those sacks is an Egg Sack filled with a Spider Swarm, or the possibility that we were fighting the 'babies' and mommy Ungolianth may come back from hunting a herd of Wooly Mammoths soon.

"If we can yeah. But this one ripped open like uh hmm..." a balloon? The sleepy skald struggles to think of a good example. She blinks. "Hopefully though we'll be securely roped in place, so we'd only fall a little..."

While the elves frolic in the trees above, as elves do, Durgan inspects the chest for any traps, as greedy capitalist dwarves do.

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

No visible traps, but it is locked. The lock itself is built into the chest, and seems pretty good.

I Have +12 on the Acrobatics, DC25 is a bit too chancy to risk just to hug a mummified corpse on its way to the ground floor.

That is if one person is both holding the sack steady, and cutting it open, AND trying to catch whatever might fall out while not falling out of the tree. If two people try, one person can just hold the web securely and the other can cut and reach in and pull stuff out.

Alia of the Blade wrote:

I Have +12 on the Acrobatics, DC25 is a bit too chancy to risk just to hug a mummified corpse on its way to the ground floor.

That is if one person is both holding the sack steady, and cutting it open, AND trying to catch whatever might fall out while not falling out of the tree. If two people try, one person can just hold the web securely and the other can cut and reach in and pull stuff out.

That sounds like a good idea, until it vomits spiders over the both of us. Let's do it!

With the excellent idea coming to mind to work together rather than trying to hold, cut AND catch simultaneously with only 2 hands, Alia frolics over to the next web sack, allowing Illthir to choose if she wants to be the one swarmed initially or watch for a moment before getting engulfed herself.

Illthir will graciously choose to be the one with the knife. That way, if things went poorly, she'd have a knife in her hands instead of a sack of spiders. And that, even to her sleepy mind, seemed like a much better scenario.

" Locked huh? Umm do you think we can whack it with something to break it?" he glances at the chest waiting.

"Brute force? Is our group that lacking in more subtle skills?
A well-made chest with a quality lock embedded in it is probably worth a fair amount in its own right.
Perhaps we can open it with magic. But do as you wish."

You can tell that Durgan is slightly bothered by the concept of destroying a well-made item, moreso than he is about the actual GP value of the chest.

Knock might be good, which I think Illthir can do with Spell Kenning.

Worry not my friend. If all else fails, I believe I have a spell that could fix the chest should we decide we need to break it. Make it good as new.

He pauses for a moment.

I also have a spell that might be able to open it, though it would still be rather tricky. Of course, both options would require me to prepare them tomorrow... Or today, I suppose all things considered.

I have both knock and make whole in Fergus's spell book.

Durgan looks much relieved.

The women above draw over and cut open the second sack to discover more recent prey. The air inside the sack is terrible. A mostly liquefied, and then re-hardened mass that was probably human, now vaguely shaped like a hunk of coal. The body's clothes mark it as hunter or woods-person at the least. Next?

Below, the other's ponder the fate of the chest. It's pretty heavy--about 60 lbs.

"Bleeeeeeeeeeh." Illthir groans.

Yes, next one. Woop woop

"What the - did they prey exclusively on stray humans? How many people get eaten in an area before the rest wisen up?", Alia comments on the severe lack of deer, boar, or other non-humanoid remains in the sacks found so far, as the two make their way towards the next sack.

"Bleeeeeeeeeeh." Illthir groans.

Yes, next one. Woop woop

Random web sack determinier: 1d4 ⇒ 4

For whatever reason (fatigue no doubt), the pair move far around the branch-tops to one of the more out-of-the-way web sacks and discover a desiccated ball of elk within. Map updated. Now where?

I've been moving our icons to what I thought were unchecked sacks. Perhaps mordred has been doing the same :p But to be clear, the greyed out ones are the checked ones right?

"Well, that's mildly less disturbing .." Illthir sighs and doubles back to another sack.

Aye, same, I tried to minimize the path time, and to stick to those closer to the well(around where the footsteps we tracked disappeared). But I guess as long as we are not on a timer, we can do them one by one...
"Slightly so. Must have been injured or already dead - or those things are significantly stronger than I expected them to be able to lift those..."
Not quite moose, but clocking in pretty close in average weight depending on subspecies...

"Well I don't think we can carry it with us and we don't really have the time to wait, so force maybe the way, we can wait til they get down first though, see if they can come up with something."

60 lbs does not seem that heavy for a moderate distance? thats about 30kgs, with one person on each end that shouldn't be a big problem - just saying. Because I believe after we are done with these trees(and the hunt), we may want to rest somewhere for a couple hours. (We do have Balzeros(+Eren if he found her) and Old Wigglin keeping our camp save, hopefully - not sure if we want to press on back towards there before resting a bit...if we do, I can try and take a look at the lock. Maybe I can craft a custom lockpick or something that would give a higher bonus than the anytool?

We also want to look inside the small crypts or whatever the black block buildings are on the map. Just saying (again :p)

I've been moving our icons to what I thought were unchecked sacks. Perhaps mordred has been doing the same :p But to be clear, the greyed out ones are the checked ones right?

Yes.

"Well, that's mildly less disturbing .." Illthir sighs and doubles back to another sack.

The ladies find the liquefied remains of a wolf.

We also want to look inside the small crypts or whatever the black block buildings are on the map. Just saying (again :p)

What are folks doing downstairs?

I concur, downstairs could check those buildings...

"A Wolf? But I think her natural shape was human - so not her, right?", Alia comments, renewing her Prestidigitation to cover her nose with flowery scents - not wanting to risk running out before they were done. After a moment, she offers to extend the benefit to Illthir:"That simple spell I have running on standby can help with the smell - if you want, I could probably cover you as well-"

"...That would have been clever ..." Illthir accepts the offer and tries to not think about that she knows a very similar spell she just hadn't considered. "Next?

Alia and Illthir slice open another web sack exposing some moderate-sized unidentifiable mammal.

Moving on to the next web sack above the wellhead the pair prepare to set to work when Alia notices a leaf waft down from above. She looks up to see a couple of other leaves fall from the canopy and huge spider with a web descending upon the unaware Illthir.

For her part Illthir is more interested in the movement from within the web sack.

Surprise Boss Round! (Boss Theme ♬)
The Bold May Act!
_________________
__ Illthir
__ Alia (surprise rd actions only)
__ Tougher-looking Giant Spider
__ Zokon
__ Fergus
__ Serena
__ Durgan

Map updated

Just for reference, it didn't act yet, so is flat-footed? And can't do attacks of opportunity?(assuming Mindless holds true, denying them Feats and Skills)
If so, I'd like to hit it with Frigid Touch - it is too close for comfort. I do assume I don't have my Estoc Drawn while handling the web sacks, so regular Touch Attack it is.
"Trouble up here. Shoot above me!", she yells out, while gathering raw arcane power in her hand, then intoning a spell as she smashes her icy fist upwards against the most ugly and fear-inducing spider she has ever seen.
Melee Touch: 1d20 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 3 = 11 - Too close for comfort but if she didn't act yet it should hit I think?
Lethal Cold: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 2, 5) = 15 +staggered, no save, only SR applies.

If my interpretation of the situation is wrong, I would instead Ready an action to push Illthir off the branch before she is attacked, then 5-foot step off the branch herself. With the rope securing us I'd assume we'll dangle about 15-20 feet below the branch, halfway between ground and tree, but it should ruin the spiders plan and allow the others vision if it comes below the canopy?