Rev's Rune Stones

Game Master Rev Rosey

Whiteclaw's not by any means happy to be exploring the old barrows - she sees no reason to bother the dead, but, once the dead attack, she has to defend her companions. So with a growl she leaps forward, flail leading the way once more.

Charge! Direct to H6, then smack him down!

Are you going to use Tide of Iron or Ferocious Charge. Just out of interest?

Despite her reservations, Whiteclaw is not one to hold back when her companions are in trouble. With the now familiar sound of her flail wailing through the air, she launches herself at the nearest ghoul. The weapon lashes downwards, making the creature hiss.

"Nasty, nasty furry thing. Juicy sweet meat with teeth."

Home rolled (IC is down). 1d20+5 (16+5=21) doing 1d10+5 (9+5=14) 14 damage.

The ghoul stretches its claws towards Whiteclaw and misses.

Anarak

Anarak moves into a flanking position at J6. He can do this without provoking an attack by moving H4-I4-J4-K5-J6.

He lashes out at the ghoul with a Reaping Strike, and marks the creature.

Reaping Strike (with flanking): 1d20+9 = 22 vs AC. Damage: 1d12+4 = 16 (Miss: 4 damage).

As before, the combination of Anarak and Whiteclaw proves most effective. The dragonborn's flanking movement confuses the ghoul and allows Anarak to place telling blow.

Anarak to J6
Ghoul 1 is bloodied and marked by Anarak.

The creature drools lasciviously. "Meat, meat ... so long, so hungry..." taking no notice of the wounds it has received.

Vel
Arianwyn
Ghoul 2
Gobi

Are you going to use Tide of Iron or Ferocious Charge. Just out of interest?

Ferocious Charge of course. Tide's not a good lead attack, IMO, it's better to wait with it until you can see where the foe shift would help your side more. It is cool, though, to have a shield bash type attack,

This is entirely my fault for not reading my own map and I have bogged up the ghouls. It is, of course Ghoul 2 who has been marked by Anarak and bloodied. It has yet to act.

Ghoul 1 is cackling at the back and should have moved and acted. My error that it has not done so. Regard it narratively as the ghoul being so overjoyed at the prospect of dinner that it forgot to do anything constructive. Sigh.

Anyway. To clarify:
Ghoul 2 is marked by Anarak and bloodied and at I6.
Ghoul 1 did nothing but slaver this round and is at Q5.

Vel concentrates on the nearest ghoul (2), to no obvious effect.

Illusory ambush vs G2 (will) (1d20 4=7, 1d6 4=7) No move

Curse Ghoul 2. Eldritch Blast vs Ref (1d20+3=22) Damage (1d10+1d6+3=18) If that takes him to 0 or below, teleport to I7. Do we have another action point after the last 2 encounters?

Arianwyn cries, "Cease thy sussurations, abomination!" and a bolt of white flame strikes the corpse-feeder.

Arianwyn wrote:

Are you going to use Tide of Iron or Ferocious Charge. Just out of interest?

Ferocious Charge of course. Tide's not a good lead attack, IMO, it's better to wait with it until you can see where the foe shift would help your side more. It is cool, though, to have a shield bash type attack,

Can you charge through a square occupied by an ally? I don't have my books handy to check. I don't think it would matter in this case, since you could just move sideways and then charge, but I'm curious if anyone knows...

Arianwyn's blast outlines the ghoul in eldritch force wounding it horribly, but it somehow stays on its feet.

Ghoul 2 lashes out at Whiteclaw in a hideous mixture of desperation and hunger, but snags its nails in her fur and fails to break her skin.

You're right. She would need line of sight to charge, which this case Whiteclaw did not have, since she had two rows of allies in front of her. As it happens, the hit was good enough anyway, but as always, I shall try to remember.

Gobi

Gobi decides it best to stay with his group and he moves in on the ghoul that everyone has so much attention on.

G5-G4-H4-I5

He gets in close with the group, boxing in the ghoul and takes a strike with his warhammer.

Bolstering Strike

Cha. Vs AC (1d20 7=13)

Gobi's attack is brave, but fruitless. The ghouls continue their horrible whispering chant about fresh meat. The place is a charnel house, but one dried up by time.

End of Round 1

ROUND 2 POSITIONS

Only three of you moved. For reference (map will follow) this is where you all are:

Kia - F6
Whiteclaw - H6
Ghoul 1 - Q5
Anarak - J6
Vel - E5
Arianwyn - F5
Ghoul 2 - I6 (bloodied and marked by Anarak)
Gobi - I5

Kia is up

Kia sees that the ghoul is well covered by the best combatants and uses her commander's strike ability to give Anarak a basic attack.

"Anarak, see if you can finish it off, won't you?"

Comanderly striking with Anarak (1d20 9=27, 1d12 7=14)

"That looked good! I think it will think twice before attacking us again."

With a final wail, the ghoul collapses in a heap under Anarak's onslaught.

Ghoul 2 is dead (again).

EDITED - to add a ghoul 2 free MAP here.

Whiteclaw is up.

So I misread arianwyn's turn as a move to I6 so there is a minus 2 on my attack anyhow even though it was a miss my mistake. But also gobi should be on I5, on the map there he is at I7.

Amendment made. It's not as pretty, but it's clear where you are.

Whiteclaw moves deeper into the barrow, blocking off one of the ways the ghoul can move.

Can't quite get to it, even with my 7 move, so I move to O4 to seal that side of the barrow. Playing guard, so to speak.

Ghoul 2 lashes out at Whiteclaw in a hideous mixture of desperation and hunger, but snags its nails in her fur and fails to break her skin.

Anarak had marked Ghoul 2, and he takes an immediate opportunity attack which interrupts the attack on Whiteclaw.

Opportunity Attack (with flanking): 1d20+10 = 23 vs AC. Damage: 1d12+7 = 12.

If this would kill the ghoul, Gobi and Kia will probably want to take different actions. Sorry to steal your thunder, Kia!

I'm sorry that my mark ability keeps forcing retroactive actions. I'm not sure how it can be handled better, but if there's anything I can do, please let me know. I don't really want to skip my opportunity attacks since they are one of my best abilities...

It seems like the best option for those sorts of marking damages is to just have Rev roll for us in the event of them. /shrug

This is one of the scenarios where we probably have to take it on a one by one basis. In this case, your OA would have taken ghoul 2 to 1hp, so Kia's action would remain unchanged. Thanks for pointing it out - I'm always grateful! I'll happily deal with OAs if you like and indeed it probably makes sense.

Ghoul 1 launches itself at Anarak (moves to K7). Eyes gleaming with lustful hunger, the nails reach out for him and skid off the dragonborn's scales.

Anarak is up
Vel
Arianwyn
Gobi

I teleport to I6, as the ghoul has copped it.

Vel finds the ghouls stubbornly resistant to her illusions.

Illusory ambush vs G1 (will) (1d20 4=8, 1d6 4=10)

Gobi moves forward grumbling slightly, "fish people, ugly dwarf impostors, lizard men, and now hungry.. not dead dead things."

He tries to summon avandra to help him shield his allies in his next attack but feels nothing within his being.

Move to K6 and use shielding smite on g1

Shielding Smite (1d20 5=10)

I'm fine with the DM rolling OAs though it might be a little tricky to keep track of Anarak's modifiers. They are all summarized on my character sheet.

I wonder what happens when electricity courses through undead bones, Anarak muses as he unleashes a wave of power from his mouth.

Breath Weapon: 1d20+9 = 29 vs Reflex. Crit Damage: 9 (elec).

He then shifts to J7 and initiates a Reaping Strike.

Reaping Strike: 1d20+7 = 13 vs AC. Damage: 1d12+4 = 11 (Miss = 4 damage).

The only attack to make any impact on the slavering monster is Anarak's electrical blast. The cackling energy lashes around the ghoul, but its eyes still flare with uncontrollable hunger. You circle it uneasily, looking for openings.

The ghoul seems almost bewildered at so much choice.

"Foood. It has been so long ..." The claws rake the air as it looks from one to the other of you, as if unable to decide who to attack first. There is something almost pathetic about the craving need that drives the creature. The bones on every surface tell you how dangerous such soft heartedness might be. Driven by a hellish lust, the ghoul is entirely evil.

Round 3 MAP

Kia is up
Whiteclaw
Ghoul
Anarak
Vel
Arianwyn
Gobi

"I'm tired of this fighting. Come on guys, let's take this thing down."

Kia goes up to the ghoul (J6) and smashes it with a furious blow...

Leading the attack on the smelly ghoul (1d20 6=12, 3d8 5=17)

...and misses.

But at least everyone now get a +1 bonus to all attacks against the ghoul to the end of the encounter. (Everyone is within 5 squares of Kia).

Please add +1 to all attacks you make on the ghoul this round. This doesn't stack you if you activate an attack of your own which gives you a larger power bonus, you use that one.

Whiteclaw is up
Ghoul
Anarak
Vel
Arianwyn
Gobi

The only attack to make any impact on the slavering monster is Anarak's electrical blast.

He should also have taken 4 from my Reaping Strike. It does damage even when I miss.

Rev DM wrote:

The only attack to make any impact on the slavering monster is Anarak's electrical blast.

He should also have taken 4 from my Reaping Strike. It does damage even when I miss.

The phrasing was misleading. I meant that the only one of you to do damage to the ghoul was Anarak - never fear, he took the 4hp from Reaping Strike as well. Board has been up and down all day and very chancy, I meant to edit it at the time and couldn't. And have only just been able to get back on.

I know everyone will have been scuppered by the site being up and down, but even so, my apologies for the delay.

Muzzle held high, Whiteclaw roars and charges around the sarcophagus to flank the ghoul. Her flail lashes downwards, damaging the creature.

Whiteclaw - Ferocious Charge (inc flanking bonus and Kia bonus) at Ghoul: (1d20 10=18, 1d10 3=7). That is one of Whiteclaw's encounter powers which she did not in fact use in the first round.

Whiteclaw to L7

In response the ghoul claws helplessly at Anarak, filthy nails skittering over the dragonborn's scales, but failing to penetrate.

Anarak is up
Vel
Arianwyn
Gobi

Vel gestures angrily at the ghoul and speaks an imprecation, then curses loudly as her illusions continue to fail to affect it.

Illusory Ambush (v Will) (1d20 4=9, 1d6 4=8)

Spurred on by Whiteclaw's successful attack, Anarak takes advantage of the flank she offers and takes another swipe. The thing flinches back from the onslaught. Vel's illusions are simply not firing, much to the mage's frustration.

Anarak's Reaping Strike on ghoul (4hp on miss): (1d20 9=27, 1d12 4=9)

Ghoul 1 is bloodied.

Arianwyn
Gobi

Move to L5, gain concealment. Curse the ghoul. Eldritch Blast vs Ref. (1d20+3=20)Damage (1d10+1d6+3=18)

Gritting his teeth and dodging behind Gobi in a shadowy haze, Arianwyn cries "Back to the soil with thee, hateful thing!"

Arianwyn's blast drives the ghoul to its knees, but doesn't kill it. Still the snaking tongue and filthy nails reach out for fresh prey.

Gobi

Not sure why you rolled for me, since I was just waiting for the ghoul's action before making my attack. And it had only been 10 hours or so. You chose well though, so no biggie...and nice roll too!

It should have been +10 though, with flanking and Kia's bonus.

Not sure why you rolled for me, since I was just waiting for the ghoul's action before making my attack. And it had only been 10 hours or so. You chose well though, so no biggie...and nice roll too!

No offence meant or taken I hope! It's just that the board has been so dodgy lately, I lost track a bit of who had posted when. Anarak did mighty well with that one :D

Gobi swings his warhammer at the ghoul once more and feels invigorated by the strike

Bolstering Strike

1d20 8=27

1d10 5=9

Gobi gains 3 temp hp, also my computer has a virus so It might be a day or two before ai can post.

With a resounding thud, Gobi's hammer ends the unlife of the ghoul.

OUT OF COMBAT

You are now level 2. Please level up and post changes and whatnot in your profiles. Discussion and suchlike on the discussion thread. Technically you need another 40XP each, but I'm bending that due to earlier miscalculations on my part.

On a side note, may I point out that those blasted ghouls managed not a single hit between them ...

Gobi - sorry to hear about computer problems. I'd imagine we'll be a couple of days with the leveling up process and deciding what to do next, so don't worry overmuch.

Sorry for lack of chat the last few days, been crazy busy! Will level Whiteclaw and update the profile ASAP.

sort of considering the multiclass path with cleric, just to kind of test it out and how effective it can be. thoughts? I think it could definitely do some good in bringing gobi into more of the healer role that Ive been trying to make him. Ill update soon.

sort of considering the multiclass path with cleric, just to kind of test it out and how effective it can be. thoughts? I think it could definitely do some good in bringing gobi into more of the healer role that Ive been trying to make him. Ill update soon.

I play a cleric in one of our home games and she's fun (the other one is a star pact warlock - also fun but for very different reasons). Try it. Gobi is already equipped as a front line fighter, and adding Healing Word would make sense, since this is not a party able to stay out of trouble for long. My only other suggestion would be that you get yourself some kind of ranged weapon - obviously you're not likely to find one just sitting there, but when you get back to civilisation, you might consider it.

While you're leveling up, could you also decide in character what your next moves are going to be.

To briefly re-cap.

Anarak has resigned himself to exploring the barrows. So, despite his reservations, he'll lead the way into whichever barrow the group identifies as the next to investigate.

Vel is of like mind to Anarak.

Except for the leading the way part

Are you planning to take a rest and if so, of what type?

Are you planning to take a rest and if so, of what type?

Vel leaves that up to the warlord, but would strongly prefer some type.

So... the bones are in the oldest barrow. Which is what I thought. But THIS is the oldest barrow, isn't it? That's what I thought, which is why I was keen on exploring this one. We need to look around in here, if this is the case, and return the bones to the grove. No need to explore more barrows. Then take a rest.

Gobi whispers to his comrades. "This is not where we want to be. We might find some treasure or.. perhaps another fight."

He gestures to the door he is nearby before continuing

"If we're looking for the oldest barrow, this is not it. I Know which one it is, it's not where those beetles came from and it's not the other close by either, that one was raised probably about a thousand years in the past. Come, I'll lead the way. Before we get into more trouble. The oldest barrow here is likely dated to something like fifteen hundred years ago and the runes we've seen are probably about two thousand."

Gobi then moves on to quietly grumbles something about rock lessons and his father being correct on their usefulness.

Edited to answer kia!

May I refer the honourable eladrin gentleman to his dwarf comrade's earlier discussion of the relative ages of the barrows.

You are outside Barrow C (which contained ghouls and bones and desecration and horror). You decided to empty it before moving on to the oldest of the barrows, which is Barrow B.

Oh. I got completely the wrong end of the stick. There is no way I would have bothered with this one if I had known that. I thought we had moved onto the oldest one. Sorry, guys, I'm not for resting yet until we get those bones.