Mercutio examines the door, and finds nothing out of the ordinary. Taerel find nothing unusual either. Although Mercutio feels confident he could pick this lock if he needed to, Taerel's key is the simpler solution.
From here on out, I'll assume a standard "open door" protocol that includes Perception and possible Disable Device rolls, as well as Detect Magic, if that's okay with y'all.
The door opens to a small room, which looks as though it were recently cleaned. Piles of broken furniture lay against the east wall and a single, nondescript desk sits in the middle of the room facing the door in the south wall. Another door, just as thick and sturdy, is opposite the main door on the north wall.
Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the room, however, is the large troll looking quite cramped in its seat behind the human-sized desk. It stands as you open the door, clearly not pleased to see someone he doesn't recognize.
Male Dwarf Core Cleric/1 | HP: 11/11 | Init 6 | Fort/Ref/Will: +5/+0/+5 | Perception: +3 | AC: 16/10/16 | CMD: 12 (16 against trip and bull rush)
Taklinn uses Strength Surge on Renedar (+1 to melee attacks, combat maneuver checks that rely on Strength, Strength-based skills, and Strength checks).
Taerel steps in under the troll's guard, protected from the troll's bite by his mage armor, and swings his longsword. It nearly bounces off of the troll's thick hide, but Taerel is able to take advantage of the creature's blindness and the blade strikes home.
Renedar Tries the same, and lands a strike against an exposed pressure point.
Taklin calls upon the strength of the gods to aid his allies.
The troll, frustrated at being struck, swings at the first person to damage him. Hampered by blindness, the troll misses with a bite and a claw. Taerel easily dodges the trolls third attack.
—COMBAT—
Mercutio
Doodle Varian
Taerel
Taklinn
Renedar
*troll (blind, -16)
Those in bold may act!
Sorry about being slow on this one. Unexpectedly traveling yesterday and today.
Taerel hits solidly, doing another solid attack on the troll. Taklin steps in as well, but his blow turned aside by the thick hide of the troll.
The troll is still hurting from Varian's acid. The beast wipes it clean and continues its attack on Taerel. Taerel finds himself in no danger this round, as the blinded troll swings wildly and is easily dodged. Its eye are getting clearer, however, so the danger is increasing. The troll is hurt, but not severely, and you're sure you've heard something about their regeneration.
"Come on, gentlemen! The bigger they are, the harder they fall; mind you, when this one falls, I half expect a small earthquake..."
Yeah, trolls have a fair chunk of hit points :-/
He then, reluctantly, moves into the room, climbing up onto the crate in the one spot he figures that the troll can't reach (since it is the only square in the room that is 15' away), and which coincidentally provides him an unobstructed shot at the troll, and tosses yet another glob of acid at it.
Mercutio manages to poke fun at Taklinn and stab the toll at the same time.
Dodle slashes with her claws, but can't penetrate the troll's hide.
Varian seems to know something the others have only heard hinted in old wive's tales (or from the Trolls Entrails auguries in Kaer Maga), and lobs more acid at the troll.
Taerel imbues his sword with magic, but it's not enough to hit the troll.
The toll is hurting, and you've yet to see evidence of the race's vaunted regeneration ability.
The troll bites and slashes at Taerel, connecting with is teeth and one of the swipes with its claws. (-11-9 = -20 ) Taerel collapses from the impact of the strikes.
The trolls eyes clear, and its grin turns even more evil, if that's even possible.
—COMBAT—
Mercutio
Doodle
Varian
Taerel (stabilize check!; -20)
Taklinn
Renedar
*troll (-38-9-4=-51)
Those in bold may act!
Damn. Renedar missed? I was kind of hoping that 21/22 to hit would be enough :-/
Quite worried, Varian keeps pumping acid into the creature.
Heh. Not as such - it's just that Acid Dart is the granted power of the Conjuration school, and does more damage than Acid Splash or Ray of Frost - so it is my 'stand-by' attack when nothing better presents itself.
Damn. Renedar missed? I was kind of hoping that 21/22 to hit would be enough :-/
Thanks for watching my back. Don't know how I missed Renedar.
As if displaced by time—perhaps through some ancient monk tradition—Renedar strikes just as Taerel is about to be hit. The troll falls, mid swing, hurting.
Taerel takes no damage, and is not bleeding out.
Varian Jeggare wrote:
Heh. Not as such - it's just that Acid Dart is the granted power of the Conjuration school, ...
No worries. It was more a commentary on its effectiveness than anything.
The troll falls ... its wounds begin to knit together until Doodle slashes it again and Varian releases another Acid Dart. The troll's prone body relaxes, lifeless.
A quick search of the room reveals nothing of much interest.
"Nice job blinding that troll. If it could have seen us properly, we'd have all been goners," Doodle whispers, surprised all of them still drew breath.
With a careful search and a brief application of detect magic, the door is declared safe and the party moves onward.
This long hallway stretches 110 feet from east to west and is periodically broken up by thick, iron portcullises. Several sets of doors can be seen at even intervals along the north and south walls, and at the far east end the hallway appears to terminate in a room filled with large cages. The floor of the hallway was recently swept, but spiderwebs the ceilings.
The hallway is blocked by two portcullises (portcullisi?), although doors to the north and south are closer than the portcullis.
The way east is blocked by the portcullis, and Taerel can hear no sound through either the north or south doors, especially with Taklinn breathing so loudly.
Doodle finds no various, but does find many sundries. Especially after Varian opens the south door.
The room was formerly an armory. It's slightly unkempt, with shafts of broken crossbow bolts on the floor, and an old, unusable bowstring in the corner. Broken pieces of armor sit high on a far shelf.
Judging by the uneven layers of dust, the weapon racks nearest the door were emptied within the last few days.
You have other options, which is why I've held off pushing you down a railroad.
You execute your standard door protocol flawlessly ... and find no traps or odd noises on the other side of the door. You open it carefully ...
What was once an exercise yard for inmates is now a choked yard filled with dead grass, animal nests, and trash. The yard is open to the sky and at the north end the ruins of a gallows can be seen. In the northwest corner of the yard a small, rickety wooden platform leads up to a single, heavy door. A set of thick double doors can been seen in the east wall.
The features of the room—including the handful of goblin corpses around the edges in various states of bloody mess—fade into the background as your attention is drawn to the giant black scorpion bearing down on you.
Male Dwarf Core Cleric/1 | HP: 11/11 | Init 6 | Fort/Ref/Will: +5/+0/+5 | Perception: +3 | AC: 16/10/16 | CMD: 12 (16 against trip and bull rush)
Taklinn moves into better charging position, and casts Surge of Strength on Renedar (+1 to melee attacks, combat maneuver checks that rely on Strength, Strength-based skills, and Strength checks for one round)
Half Orc Male Half-Orc Monk 3 HP 23/23; AC 15; TCH 15; FF 12; F +4; R +5; W +5; CMB+7; CMD 21 (22 vs. grapple); Speed 40FT; Init +2; Perception +6;
I'm GMing at a german PFS convention from Friday to Saturday evening (24h PFS Fight Night) so updates will be very sporadic. Sorry for any inconvenience!
BTW: I skipped an optional encounter where the bard sent goblins after you in town. It was an opportunity to gather a bit more info, but I'll make sure you get the same intel at the conclusion of this fight.
"Sleeping on the job, that one." The gnome makes 'air quotes' with his tiny hands. "And not the kind of 'sleeping' that is a good deal of fun, if you know what I mean."
"That useless lout is so awful he makes experienced bards flee from his storytelling and chroniclers despair that history will ever be properly recorded."
A small monkey familiar joins Scalawag, chittering excitedly. The gnome continues, "I was playing with my monkey, and it just came to me. I know where to find them!"
"You should go here," (at this, the gnome points to a cloud in the sky), "and I'll tell you how I'm feeling."
I am going to be scarce for the next 3 days. I might check in from mobile, but my posts will be few and far between until Monday. Thank you for your patience!
(I'll try to get personalized chronicles out after I get moved in to my new place in a couple of weeks. Please let me know if I can help with anything in the meantime.)
After running it, I largely sympathize with the reviews that it's a railroad/dungeon crawl. Even though the faction missions are wonky, perhaps I'll require those next time (even though the factions are wrong now too) to give a bit more flavor.
We're mid-move now. Things are packed up from one place, and we're traveling across the country to the other today/tomorrow. Thank goodness for good friends with good wifi.
